Well, insane trainer that I am, I went out the training facility last night, even knowing I was not well. Didn't feel too bad when I left, but once I starting working, I definitely knew I shouldn't have come. I kept getting a bad burning sensation in my throat and would have to run to the water fountain to wash it out. By the time I got home later, I was running a fever and suffering badly from chills and sweats. Still, we got some good work done, and I'd say about 90% of the program is fairly laid out. About the last 30 seconds is what really needs work still. I know the moves I want to do, just need to get them all put together right. I've taken today off from herding, so hopefully will be okay to go out tomorrow.
It didn't help any that Taz was still a bit unwilling to go back through my legs, but by today, he's doing much better. Lots and lots of praise can do wonders. The hardest thing will getting a program together is keeping him motivated. He enjoys doing moves with a clicker and treats, but a whole routine is another thing. Even when I am trying to do a whole run-through, I'll always stop at the drop of a hat if I see him getting flat, and will break off and play. If a certain move is falling apart, I'll just forget the routine, and concentrate on getting that move back and getting him happy and working again. It's not always easy, and it can be tough when you're working with the pressure of getting a routine together this quickly. It's the biggest reason I would recommend never doing this yourself!
That last 30 seconds is always the toughest for me...and IMO, the most important in a routine. It's the last impression you leave with the judges and audience and you want it to be a good one. I tend to move towards the harder elements as the routine progresses, but try to make the last few ones that will be favorites for Taz and will end the routine on a good note. I haven't quite yet hit on the right combination for this particular routine. The ending of the song has a phrase about a steamroller, so I'm going to have Taz do a roll, and then I need something else to do before the final bow. Normally I would do a couple spins, but in this routine, I already have a bit of spinning so wanted something else. Maybe a few bounces back on his hind legs? Not sure I can get him up to his feet and then ALL the way up but might be worth trying. Well, I'll keep working on it.
Well, not a whole lot today, since I spent most of yesterday in bed. Wish I could say I was much improved today, but alas, it's not so. However, I'm not willing to give up another day of practice and will still be driving out to train. Will also be swinging by the fabric store to see if I can find the materials for my costume...having that out of the way would be a great relief! Unfortunately, my hat is backordered for a week and I STILL cannot get the information on ordering the shirt. I have a sinking feeling they only sell in bulk, but can't seem to get an answer.
We did get those last bits of the routine worked out yesterday. I won't tell you the final decision (have to keep SOME things secret!) but I did decide against the hind leg work. This is one of those moves that is very frustrating when you are working on a freestyle routine. It's something I've had very little success teaching my shelties in the past, they just don't seem built well to do it. Taz is the first that has been able to stay up on his legs for any amount of time...but he isn't exactly steady up there. He generally bounces backwards in order to stay up, and isn't up for more than about 5 seconds. But I'm so proud of him for learning to do at least that! It's very tempting to want to put it in a freestyle routine...yet, he doesn't do it nearly as well as most dogs you would see do it. So, we run up against that question of how can the judges know how hard something is to teach. It may look as if he's just not performing it very well. This is also a move that is very hard on a dog and has a fairly high possibility of injury were they to take a bad step and twist on their hindquarters. So, I'm just as happy to leave it out. I substituted another move we do which is fairly unique and difficult and works well coming after the roll.
Thankfully his backing is back to about the speed I had before our little collision. But thinking about this move does bring up the thought of a similar move. When I first saw Carolyn and Rookie perform, I was impressed by the various backing skills being done. While it seemed the dog had a genuine preference for moving backwards, obviously a lot of training had to go into directing him exactly how and where to back to. As most of us know, dogs don't have a great sense of where their rear is and getting them to go backwards in a very specific direction is exceedingly hard.
So I was immediately challenged to see what I could get with my own dog. Taz can back pretty good from both in front of me, and in heel position, so I was willing to put some time into seeing what else we could accomplish. My first step was to have him stand in front of me and then teach him a hand and voice command that meant to turn 180 degrees and face away from me, with his rear centered between my legs. This was relatively easily accomplished by using some food and just moving it in a semicircle with his nose following. I used the command "away" to verbally cue him. By gently pushing the food into him once he was facing away, and using the back command that he already knew, I could get him to back through my legs.
Gradually I could move away from using the food to guide him and just use a hand swipe in front of his face. Once he got the idea, it became just sort of a hand flourish that blends in well with a program. By turning and facing him once he has backed through, it was easy to repeat the "away" and do several of these in combination.
It's important to insist on a complete 180 degrees. It's easy for the dog to come through your legs if they are a bit off, but once they get away with less of a turn, I found that it would become more and more over time. It's something I still struggle with Taz, and was the reason for our mishap the other night. However, that did seem to really teach him to importance of being straight, and he's more consistent now than before!
Now that we have this skill fairly solid, I'm working on him doing one back, and then continue to circle backwards around my left leg and come through my legs on his own without me moving. He actually does this fairly well right now, but does require more hand guidance than most moves I do, and thus, I decided to leave it out of our routine. It's the difference between doing a difficult move, and doing a difficult move with inconspicuous hand signals.
To build this particular skill, I used the command that I taught Taz for laterals when he is on my right side. Imagine the dog on your right. If you move to your left, for the dog to move laterally, he needs to tuck his rear into you, towards the left. Now, put the dog in front of you. Do a lateral with him in front, with you moving to your right. Again the dog has to tuck his rear left. Finally, with the dog in front, have him swing into position on your right. Once again, his rear swings to his left. I use a command for all of these (since they are basically the same) of "tuck". So, to get Taz circling backwards around my leg, as he finishes backing through, I use the command "tuck" and my hand signal for it which is sort of a wave in the direction I am asking him to tuck his rear. In this case, I use my right hand across my body...as I said...not real inconspicuous. I just keep doing this as he backs completely around me and through my legs again. Simple, huh?!
So, we'll keep working on that one for our next competition. But hope it gives you some ideas on how to combine skills to build new ones.
Well, yesterday was quite a day, considering I was *trying* to take it easy. I was so wiped out, I slept until noon, and then of course, I had to respond to all the email about my little breed comment. Two hours later, I was finally on the road. First stop, the fabric store. As I said a few days ago, I am lucky to have this giant fabric store in my area (well, 45 minutes away, but still pretty close, and only 10 minutes from where I train). Every imaginable fabric, they've got. They have a whole entire wall of sequined and glittery fabrics that are great for costumes, whole rooms of wool blends and other fabrics for suits, another room of silks, another with prints for quilting, etc. Takes a good hour to really quickly browse through the store. I didn't anticipate a problem finding the black and white checkerboard print that I wanted...but I guess it's not as often used as I thought. It's definitely not something you'd make an entire piece of clothing of of, as it sort of burns the eyes. But it definitely makes a neat trim in certain instances.
I did actually find the checkboard...only the two choice were very, very small, and very, very big. The very big was definitely out. Each square was like 2 inches per side. So, I had to go with the very small. Hopefully, it's not so small that it will be indistinguishable from any distance.
I also found another fabric that I just HAD to get. I wanted to also use some yellow, and I found yellow fabric with black doggie bones and pawprints. I was tempted by another fabric that had musical staffs on it, until I realized it was pure silk, and $50 a yard. Same for the lovely yellow wool blend with a subtle checkboard look...also $50.
So, fabric in hand, I headed off to practice. Unfortunately, I get there to find the building being used for agility. Apparently the agility group had decided to hold indoor practices in bad weather again, and hadn't bothered to let the rest of the club know about it. "We've had the option since January" I was told, as if I should know, so I reached down and grabbed a copy of the latest club newsletter, and showed them the current schedule which said "No indoor agility until further notice". They said they would make sure it was in the next newsletter.
But there I still was...Sunday night, needing to get in some practice, and nowhere to do it. I was ticked. But not much I could do, so I headed home. Well, 15 minutes into the drive, I finally realized it was silly to go home. It was only 6:30, I might as well just go grab some dinner, and then come back and train when they were done. So, off I went to grab some dinner, got a roasted chicken at the local deli, some mac & cheese, and went back to wait them out.
So I finally got to practice about 8:30. After running through the routine once by myself, I was satisfied that I pretty much had the choreography where I wanted it (with the exception of one tiny section, where I'll probably be fine if I just throw in an extra spin). This certainly sets a new record for me in terms of getting an entire routine choreographed, did it in less than a month. So, the goal for tonight was to run through it a number of times and get an idea of where I need to crispen it up and to get Taz more confortable with which moves we are doing and the order they are in.
It's a fine line you ride in freestyle a lot of times. It can help greatly for the dog to be familiar enough with the music that he knows which moves to do and needs a minimal amount of guidance. Yet, at the same time, you have to avoid too much anticipation and the dog jumping the gun. I've definitely had this happen before, and with a high level of difficulty, the results can be disasterous.
I had the leftover chicken, and figured I might as well make good use of it. Taz is very food motivated, but not so much so that he isn't majorly turned on by some fresh roasted chicken versus regular treats. So, our entire practice last night, I worked on getting him really motivated and into the routine. We had a few problems with him gazing over at the carcass on some of his turns, but once I convinced him his best chance of getting anything was to get around my body as fast as he could, it went pretty well from there.
One thing that made me really excited, is that I finally found a way to deal with a particular move we had been working on. It's a move I've decided to include in this routine that is very difficult, and I don't know of any other dogs currently doing it. I have to work on it constantly to keep it perfect (or as close as I can ever get to it) and recently, he's not been doing it the way I wanted.
Now, my choices were to make an issue of it, and try to retrain it yet again, or to just go with what he's giving me. It's still the same basic move I want, just angled differently than what I had planned for.
Well, it finally came to me last night, that I could not only accept what he was doing, but by changing the direction I am moving in, I created a different approach to the move altogether and one that works just as well as what I had before. It's one of the great things about freestyle...that you can build a move that is based on our dog's preference...but it is indeed so easy to get stuck in a rut thinking about what you had trained and what you wanted. For now, I'll go with what Taz wants.
Well, we made it home in one piece. I'm still pretty sick, but as least I'm not as bad as I was. No one can say that I'm not dedicated to this sport!
Not much to report today. I'm feeling less stressed now that the choreography is done, and I still have 3 weekends to practice. My goal at this point is to just keep things very low-key and fun with Taz, and focus on crispening up the routine.
When I choreograph, I often have chunks of music which almost scream for certain moves. Distance work is often one of these...whenever there's a bridge in the song, the distance work will often fit well there. In fact, I often look for a piece that has a section of music that goes really well with the distance stuff.
The weaving is another thing that often seems to need a very strong section of music. Taz zig-zags back and forth in a way that really can add emphasis to the beat of a section, so I like music with areas where I can use that. My last piece had some perfect areas for weaving...this current piece is not so strong in this area, I did find some places to put weaves, but they aren't places that really jumped out at me.
This sort of "mapping out" happens for me as I listen to the music. Once I start working with it, I put of the transitions in and start working with locations and directions. I don't get too caught up in having to have everything in one section done before moving on, as I work over and over with the piece, the gaps fill in.
Very little of this is done with the dog. I usually just have to pull Taz into it to make sure the timing of what I think I can do is right. I imagine with more time, I'll be able to use him even less. For now, I always seem to overestimate what I think he can do in a certain amount of time.
As I move along in the choreography, I add the dog more and more. A lot of times, the combinations of moves just don't work for him, he'll have a natural desire to turn a different way or head in a different direction. The more complicated the moves, the more I find this an issue.
Once the routine is done, you reach the point that I am at now, which is just practice, practice, practice! But the main thing you are doing here is not practicing the moves, the dog should already know them. And you should know what the routine is by now. The goal is to get proficient in where and when each footfall should be, on what beats of music you will do exactly what, and adding more of the little "extras" that add to the routine. The goal in mind should be a routine you don't even have to think about, but that flows from movement to movement, rather than jumping abruptly from movement to movement. You should be totally aware of those areas of the music where you have to stay tight and on the beat, and those areas where you might have more time to play with the move if your dog is moving more or less slowly than usual. You should also really be aware of the space needed for upcoming moves, and adjust your moves so that you don't find yourself without enough room.
So, that's what I need to do now. Can I get there in 3 short weeks? Only time will tell.
Well, here we are in March, under 8 inches of snow! Certainly the most snow I can ever remember this late in the year, and the most we've had in 2 years. I got totally taken by surprise yesterday, the weatherman said only a couple of inches in the evening, and instead, by the time I left work, there was about 6 inches. On the way home, I had to walk through a huge puddle of slush and water that soaked my feet, and when I got home, I got to walk through very deep snow just to get in the house. Just the thing when you're fighting the flu, and sure enough, today I am much worse. So, taking advantage of the unscheduled leave policy at work and stayed home.
Even though I'm in bed most of the time, I can't resist having some free time to do a little training. I rent the bottom half of the house where I live, and in addition to my small bedroom and my computer room, I have a nice little living room that serves as my dog training area. The usable space is not very big at all, about half the size of an obedience ring, but it's all I have. I gave up the idea of training in the backyard. Taz, like very other dog I've had, refuses to do anything like freestyle in the yard where he goes the bathroom. I can do basic obedience sort of stuff, and agility is fine no matter where we do it, but asking him to do things like backing is an exercise in futility. It certainly isn't going to make him more enthusiastic which is what I am working on.
So, inside is where we work. When I'm working on a routine, there's a fair amount I can in there. Basic moves for the most part can be worked on, with the one exception of real distance work, and we have found ways to "sort of" practice a full routine. I put on the music, and sort of step through the various moves, making the best use of the space that I can. For heeling, this means going back and forth instead of big circles and serpentines. We do lots of spins and twists and pivots with other moves to fill time and change directions.
While some people say you should not practice routines other than in the full size ring, I do find it helpful for getting both the dog and myself fairly comfortable with the music and the actual moves we are planning to do at each point. By being able to do some work at home, I am able to keep these little sessions short and happy, and also decrease the amount I need to do when I have a full ring. Perhaps if I could get to a full ring more easily and often, I would not feel the same way, but for now, this is what works for me.
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