Motivating Lucky's Weave Performance

Lucky weaves at home, me with her Chuck-It in my hand.

Lucky's performance at the Port Allen Trial is perplexing.  Almost embarassing.  0 Q's, and all way over course time.  She was lethargic and would barely run all weekend. I couldn't get her attention in or out of the ring. She even ignored her favorite treats (shrimp and hot dogs). She wouldn't tug much. There were flies about, which she was focused on and snapped at.  She only had 1 clean run out of 6, but all of them were way over course time and once she missed so many obstacles I excused us from the ring. She knocked a bar, very rare for her. Tracey, who has run her successfully before, ran her Saturday afternoon as my hip was hurting, but Lucky would not focus. Kept looking for me. That was a disaster. Another run she saw Daddy videoing her from the sidelines and ran over to him. The rest of the weekend I got someone else to do Lucky's videos.

I was so miffed, I got home Sunday evening, took her in the back yard to see if maybe she was injured.  But no, she ran her weaves and sailed over jumps like a champion and didn't want to quit. Of course, I had her Chuck-It in my hand.  I am disappointed other competitors can't see her at her best, so full of enthusiasm and focus.

Next day, I videoed her doing her weaves the way she does them at home and in class, and post it here to PROVE that she can do them.  I want others to know I wouldn't DARE bring a dog into the competition ring that couldn't do all the obstacles, run and follow directions well, or didn't enjoy the activity.  She wouldn't have earned her AX and AXJ titles in a year if she was as incompetent as she was this weekend.



By comparison, here is the Port Allen Trial composite video below.



Very discouraging, but three different people came up and said they enjoyed watching her run and not to give up. I needed to hear that. I was most impressed at the applause Tracey got for not giving up on Lucky.  The big cheer was for her, not Lucky.  See, it's not just about the dog!

Lucky's speed is what concerns me. Yesterday I ran her at our training field through the same standard course that Tracey ran her at the trial, and she flew through it with only one mistake - knocked bars at the tripple.  SCT 64 seconds, she ran it in 53 seconds.  Plenty of time. 1st place winner ran it in 48.24, only 5 seconds faster!  And, since it wasn't a real trial run, I left her on the table an extra 6 seconds to catch my breath.  Subtracting that wasted time, her time would have been 47 seconds!  Here is that run:



I will continue to try to figure out how to motivate her in the ring.  SHE CAN DO THIS!

Upwards and onward!

Weave Pole Performance

Studying the still shots taken by professional photographer Michael Loftis from last weekend's trial in Kiln, MS, I've discovered that many dogs have inconsistent stride thru the weaves.  Since the poles are all spaced at 24", you would think over time an experienced dog would establish a stride and maintain it.  But the photos indicate otherwise. 

Here are a group of thumbnails of my own Lucky Lucy, posted with Michael's permission, to illustrate my points.  Lucky is a fairly green dog  who just earned her AX and AXJ titles from AKC in 7.5 months, who can two-step the weaves beautifully in practice but at trials generally slows down to a walk.  Below, she is running, doing a single pass with 3 different ways of maneuvering, all caught by Michael's camera:

Here's a few more dogs with inconsistent stride in a single pass:

Obviously, dogs that can't maintain a consistent stride are slowed down, must often get confused, give up trying to re-balance, pop out, etc.

Now here are 4 shots from a single pass thru those same weaves by my little Papillon, Maxie, who, when he runs instead of walks the weaves, has very consistent "two step" weave pole performance with a "single bounce" stride that is very fast.

On the last photo, it's clear that Maxie completes each pole in a single stride by extending his body.  With these photos confirming his consistency (same degree of lean, same head and tail position, same gaze forward, same shoulder distance from the poles, front feet landing right the same distance back from the pole, outside foot landing first), I now wonder if what makes him walk the weaves sometimes is when he doesn't hit the entry just right and can't hit a consistent stride, and if that's true, how do I train his entry to be at an exact spot?

Here are more examples of the "two-step" stride with different size dogs. Notice their back feet are close together and pushing off simultaneously.

Here are a some examples of dogs using their inside leg to lead in, pushing off with their outside leg, which sometimes (not always) resulting in the coveted behavior known as "one-stepping the weaves":

And shots of dogs using their outside leg to lead in, which has to slow them down and sometimes trip them up as they struggle to cross the new outside leg back in (last photo):

A few trials back, I attempted to video the back ends of a few dogs going thru the weaves, to find out how the back feet are moving.  Viewing each run in slo-mo (50%), turned out the back feet push off mostly simultaneously then hop into the space right behind where the front feet were, even while the front feet are varying as described above.  All the dogs take each pole in a single stride. The larger dogs have to "collect" and land their rear feet farther away from the line of poles, the smaller dogs have to "extend" and work closer to the line of poles to cover the distance. One dog, running with the lady in pink, was "one stepping" on one side of the weaves, and "two stepping" on the other side and mixing up leads, but the back feet were doing just about the same thing all the time.  Watch for that:

(Correction: dogs tend to take each weave in 1 stride, not 2 as stated in the video.)

As to training stride, my hunch now is this: I think we rush to closed weaves.  If we open the channels a bit then give our dogs a lot more time to figure out and develop the muscle memory of a consistent stride, they will eventually be able to do fast and reliable closed weaves.  Problem with that, our club has no 24" channel weaves.  I'll have to use my stick in the ground poles at home, but straight weaves at class.

We should also spend a lot more time doing "around the clock" weave pole entries.

Anyone with other weave stride training suggestions, ideas or comments, please feel free to share.

Upwards and onward!

#4 Practice with Sheryl/House Hunting/Joan Baez

We began promptly at 8.  I had gotten up at 6:15, poop scooped the yard, reviewed my notes and come up with suggestions for today's practice.  What we practiced I list down below.

By 10 the dogs were pooped and Sheryl seemed very much to want to show me a house she is thinking of buying nearby that has a nice back yard fully fenced and big enough for most of the agility equipment.  It would be real nice to have her nearby, so we took a ride into Broadmoor Subdivision, only 3 miles away.  The house is 1.5 blocks north of Goodwood, on Parkview near Cora, convenient to everything, yet a quiet street.

I'm guessing the house was built in the late 1950's, same era as my Windsor Cottage on Wallis Street.  Same oak parquet floors.  Same bathroom tiles.  Same carport structure, roof line, LR/DR/Kitchen wrap-around design, same aluminum windows.  Only bigger, about 1900 sq. ft., with a huge fireplace.  Nice neighborhood, nestled in old growth forrest. I liked it a lot.  The price seems right. But I don't want to influence her decision.  If the house doesn't grab her and hold on to her, it's probably not her house.  Old Hammond Hideaway was mine the minute I saw it.  I fell in love with Winsor Cottage right away.  They both were older homes and had a few problems, but like a lover, I either joyfully fixed them or easily overlooked them.

Then we came back and watched Joan Baez - How Sweet The Sound, a 2008 PBS special I was able to stream from Netflix.  We kept pressing the pause button and discussing various memories from our youth and college years -- the civil rights movement, the draft, Vietnam, Korean war, Cambodia, etc.  While Joan has lost her angelic voice this last decade or so (it's about an octave lower and kinda raspy), she still has her slim figure, same guitar picking skills, and same calm, centered demeanor.  At the end I burst into tears. It just hit me hard that if it hadn’t been for her gifted voice and fingers, Joan Baez would probably never have earned a place center stage in the civil rights or peace movements. She would have just been a regular person, like me, sympathetically watching from the sidelines, doing what little I could, mostly feeling impotent about and left outside of the great struggles of my era. She had appeared like an angel to cohere people together with her heart expanding, soul piercing soprano voice and melodic guitar picking, and now is quietly dissipating (a reminder that we are too), and no one has come along to take her place.  Certainly not Michael or Janet Jackson, Madonna, Lady GaGa or any of the other loud, outrageous musicians holding center stage right now. While Joan stands quiet and centered and sings Amazing Grace in the middle of a quiet stage, mesmerizing everyone, they scream, leap about, and gyrate defiance and amazing rage, and call it "love".  I can't figure out what my parents hated about Joan Baez.  Is it because she wore long flowing hair and went barefoot?  She never once revealed cleavage, butt crack, nor even her knees.  But she certainly threatened the establishment.  Got em good pointing out that the draft, i.e., conscription, is slavery, that war is a poor choice to peace and doesn't work, and that bombs tear people's limbs off and kill.

Just checked on the internet, and Joan has another American Masters PBS special called Sing Me Home.  I'll have to check that one out.

Sheryl ordered Joan Baez: And A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir out of the library.  She got put on a waiting list.  Must be a popular book.

Here's what we practiced:
Changing our line by changing an arm, using touch targets. It works.
Sending over a jump and to the tunnel from 10 feet back.
Same with sending over a jump then 10 feet out to 2 other jumps.
The chute, weaves, dogwalk/tunnel flip
Weave entries.

Max succeeded over and over being sent thru all 12 weaves, at speed, with me standing back, standing still, diverging away, even stepping backwards.  Will he do that at a trial?  I doubt I'll ever try it, but it's impressive and fun to practice.  I swear he looks proud of himself as he exits the last pole and runs full speed back to me, behind the first pole 22' away, for a treat!  Thrills me.

I got Lucky to drive thru the chute with her head down low, over and over, by throwing a toy on the ground at the opening before I sent her through.  Before, she was raising and shaking her head high the whole way through, tangling the chute and slowing her down.  Of course, Maxie is so small he never had that problem.
Sheryl and I both agree if we're just going to run courses at agility class, we need to work on specific skills on our own.  We both need more work with our touch targets. Charlie has trouble with reliable sit-stays, wandering off, and being hard to catch. Sheryl tried crating him for 5 minutes when he ran off, and that seemed to make an impression.  There has to be something irresistable that will keep him right with her and fully focused.

Are Max and I having class tonight?  Don't know.  It's raining here.  Called Loralie and she said it's raining at her house a bit south of me.  But is it raining at the field? She'll try calling Don's Seafood but they don't much appreciate being called about the weather situation.  We need to find someone who lives nearby that we can call, then put a notice on the forum if it's raining over there.  It's very inconvenient to drive out there and class is cancelled, or not go and find out later that class took place and you missed it.  Wonder if we could set up a seeing eye camera that feeds into somebody's computer, or a website where you can check current conditions anyplace on the map.  That would be cool!