Jumping Lesson
Chauncey was the only one that went to class tonight. Jasmine is doing better, but still limping a little. Since PCA we are focusing on the open class exercises, retrieve over high jump, drop on recall, retrieve on flat, broad jump, and out of sight stays. We are not focusing so much on the heeling pattern right now as we have spent the last 6 months on her heeling. I am just working on it at home and keeping her fresh on it. After I arrived at Maggie's, I warmed Chauncey up with a few minutes of heeling and figure eight work. She was very focused and is doing much better on her set ups, getting into heel position. Maggie was very impressed with her progress and commented on how well she did tonight, we never had to correct a crooked sit nor did I have to re-position her.
Maggie set up the jumps for us while we were warming up. She set up the broad jump, were Chauncey is jumping two boards and the third board is standing up and there is an 18 inch bar jump placed over the broad jump to discourage walking over the boards. I set Chauncey up and called her over the jump to the plate with cheese on it and then, from the plate, around the swish pole to me. We did this several times before moving on to the high jump. I set Chauncey up for the high jump and sent her over the jump to the plate and then called her back over the jump to me. It caused Chauncey a little confusion at first, but after several repetitions between the jumps she started to understand what I was expecting.
We also did some plate work (this will later help our directed retrieve training) and found that Chauncey needs to learn to focus on the plate better, instead of my hand that I am directing her with. After the plate work, Maggie discussed the different parts that need to be trained for the drop on recall exercise. I then talked with Maggie about how slow Chauncey is to respond to the down command, a big part of this exercise. Maggie showed me a couple exercises to work on and get Chauncey's down response much faster. One of the exercises we did was to put Chauncey on a 30' lead and back up a short distance from her. I then call her and when she is about halfway to me, I give the down command, both the verbal and the hand signal. Once she is all the way down, I toss a cookie between her front legs. As this progressed, Chauncey was dropping faster and looking down almost as soon as I gave the command. I did notice that Chauncey responded faster to Maggie than me, so we will work on this over the next couple weeks.
The second exercise Maggie taught us, was just to sit on the couch while watching TV and give Chauncey the down commands, then reward. Trust me after a couple reps of this Chauncey was offering the down before we gave any commands in an effort to get her reward. No one can ever tell me that this dog is slow. Maggie also showed me another game to play while watching TV, it is amazing how much we can train while watching TV, to get the dog to watch your face for direction. I take a reward in each hand, Chauncey gets cheese, and hold one hand on each knee so she can't get the food out. Then I just wait until she looks me in the eye and reward her for looking at me. Maggie did this with Chauncey at first to show me how and then we started talking, well before we knew it, Chauncey was up in Maggie's face staring at her to get some food. You have to love these Poodles, never a dull moment around here.
So, we have a plateful to work on in the next couple weeks and will see how Chauncey does.
Maggie set up the jumps for us while we were warming up. She set up the broad jump, were Chauncey is jumping two boards and the third board is standing up and there is an 18 inch bar jump placed over the broad jump to discourage walking over the boards. I set Chauncey up and called her over the jump to the plate with cheese on it and then, from the plate, around the swish pole to me. We did this several times before moving on to the high jump. I set Chauncey up for the high jump and sent her over the jump to the plate and then called her back over the jump to me. It caused Chauncey a little confusion at first, but after several repetitions between the jumps she started to understand what I was expecting.
We also did some plate work (this will later help our directed retrieve training) and found that Chauncey needs to learn to focus on the plate better, instead of my hand that I am directing her with. After the plate work, Maggie discussed the different parts that need to be trained for the drop on recall exercise. I then talked with Maggie about how slow Chauncey is to respond to the down command, a big part of this exercise. Maggie showed me a couple exercises to work on and get Chauncey's down response much faster. One of the exercises we did was to put Chauncey on a 30' lead and back up a short distance from her. I then call her and when she is about halfway to me, I give the down command, both the verbal and the hand signal. Once she is all the way down, I toss a cookie between her front legs. As this progressed, Chauncey was dropping faster and looking down almost as soon as I gave the command. I did notice that Chauncey responded faster to Maggie than me, so we will work on this over the next couple weeks.
The second exercise Maggie taught us, was just to sit on the couch while watching TV and give Chauncey the down commands, then reward. Trust me after a couple reps of this Chauncey was offering the down before we gave any commands in an effort to get her reward. No one can ever tell me that this dog is slow. Maggie also showed me another game to play while watching TV, it is amazing how much we can train while watching TV, to get the dog to watch your face for direction. I take a reward in each hand, Chauncey gets cheese, and hold one hand on each knee so she can't get the food out. Then I just wait until she looks me in the eye and reward her for looking at me. Maggie did this with Chauncey at first to show me how and then we started talking, well before we knew it, Chauncey was up in Maggie's face staring at her to get some food. You have to love these Poodles, never a dull moment around here.
So, we have a plateful to work on in the next couple weeks and will see how Chauncey does.
posted by Kim at 3:56 PM
4 Comments:
Jumping sounds fun, I can't wait to start our classes!
Ian - Yes, Chauncey is smart, although she tries to play the dumb blonde routine:o) She catches on quick, which can be good or bad.
Jasmine is doing much better and is almost using her foot normally now. I did not notice any limping this morning.
Erin - It is fun and the girls find it so much more interesting than just plain old heel work.
My gosh, it's a LOT of work for you! Not just the grooming & caring, but also the teaching. You must be a very patient woman.
Thanks, Jane. I work on the patience and have learned to stop if I feel frustrated or angry. The dogs don't work well for me and we don't accomplish much. I also enjoy the chance to reach a goal, so the training is good for me to.
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