Time flys when your having fun!

08:35 in

Well as per usual I have being completely useless with updating my blog!
Fling is now 19 weeks and a total Diva! It doesn’t seam like I have had her for 10 weeks. Its true what they say.. Time flies when you’re having fun!

id love to update this blog with videos but is just a few pictures and a video that i have already downloaded to my PC pervious to me finding my phone cable personally personalised by the madam herself this morning!… I will get to downloading more of her clips ‘in training’ as soon and the new wire come for my phone!

I would say note to self never leave anything on the floor.. But fling thinks she’s a Cat and she can get anywhere! She will sit and mentally draw up a plan. However she has being really good and not chewed much i.e. all table and doors are still intact: p she just loves the phone cable my IPad cable and my mobile cable... hummmm theme there! This week I have Kamals Boxer Puppy 'Punch' to stay with us as he is abroad teaching. Fling and Punch absolutely love each other. Punch is getting a fair bit bigger then fling now but he has being really good with her and rarely gets too much for her. This time they seam to both come to a mutual decision of 'Yep were shattered now. Sleep' where as on punches last stay it was battle of who can stay up longest the pile on the looser!...Its nice to have a different breed other then collies for Fling to play with. They are definitely best buddies! :-)

                            Fling @10 Weeks

Best Buddies!

 

Lucy Osborne

 

 

 

 

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Agility Voice Article - (wing wraps.)

05:37 in

Just a quick recap, last time we looked at the your straight, drive on command, (to most handlers its 'GO') and some simple ways in which we can proof that.

This time we are staying on a similar theme. Commands, what they mean and proofing exercises.

Wing Wrap

Ok so everyone seams to be raving about Wing wrap commands, why?

Having a well trained and proofed command means that hopefully your dog understands the command/job. When training the exercise you will have proofed it from lots of different angles and increased distances and speeds. So that when your lagging behind that all important command is understood by the dog. And you have an increased chance of completing the sequence. For my dogs the word 'Tip' means (take the jump my drive arm is pointing to, to wrap around the wing I'm pointing to, land and focus on me.) Not, jump off to another jump close by. I expect that sometimes my dogs and myself are going to make a mistake, but you have to remember us as handlers and our dogs aren't robots, mistakes can happen and it's not the end of the world!

New to wing wraps?

So you need to think of a command. Some people use two commands one for a left turning wing wrap and one for a right turning wing wrap. Personally I cant think that fast! It Took me long enough to learn Left and Right! :-P

As I command before the jump and before the dog takes off I use my normal Left and Right command followed by the wing wrap command of 'tip' (If I was to just say left or right they would turn in a 90degree turn, not wing wrap)

There needs to be a difference in the command To the left/right/90 degree box style turn and the Wing wrap. The dog will need to shorten stride more for a wing wrap to a normal left /right, box turn.

If you haven't trained a Wing wrap command and your dog is competing I would still go back to basics.

have 1 wing, no pole and teach them to go round the Wing, close to the wing. At first I will deliver the reward as close to the wing as possible. I want the value to be in the jump wing and staying as close as possible to it. If i always run off with the toy at first the dog will not shorten stride they will begin to extend more to catch up with you and get the toy, in turn you will loose the tight turn and shortern strides.

I would not command until I was
1) Consistently seeing them do it right and not pulling off.
2) Shortening stride to turn around the wing.

Then add in the other wing. Still NO pole and practice it on both sides. Also practice it as a rear cross.

Then when you think the dog is focusing on the wings, add in the pole on the floor first. If you dog starts jumping to the middle of the pole then I'd personally take the jump pole away again. I want my dog to hear the command and jump/wrap close to the wing not jumping to the center of the pole and then turning as this will loose you time. Take an extra few days of rewarding them for hearing the command and sticking turning close/towards the wing.

 If the rewards good enough they should soon pick it up as long as you don't reward the no so good turns. You need to paint a clear picture of what you want, by rewarding appropriately.

Once the dog is jumping towards/close to the wing and shortening stride when the pole is on the floor begin to increase the height. If the dog begins to lapse give them another chance maybe reduce eliments of movement or excitment, not totally just slightly. You want the dog to understand and to the command. if they know you have the toy and are running off this may be why the are not shortening stride and extending.. run off but chuck your toy back close to the wing or get a helper to throw in the toy for you.

I personally want the dog to take the command and do the job then look at me not take the command see me taking off and go into a frenzy

''OHHH MY GOD SHES RUNNING AWAY!!! I need to keep up run faster = extend, forget about what i was asked to do my mums running away she always had the toy its pointless up here!!!''

 In order to get this I would reward close to the pole with me still at distance.

Remeber 5 minutes is long enough in the garden on your own with the dog. when training eliments of a new exercise.

So below is some exercises you can practise. The Line is where the I want the dog to turn. Remember you can repeat all exercises from an increased distance,on the opposite side and as a rear cross.

Have fun training.

Lucy Osborne

www.agilitybuds.com

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Agility Voice Article (September) - Learning with Lucy

05:32 in

Over the next few months I am going to be doing a series of garden exercises. Ways in which we can learn teach and proof our commands. I say learn, because as an instructor I have found it one of the most common issues in training. Handlers cross wiring commands, resulting in spins, early turns or ‘ignoring’ not understanding what you mean confusion when the handlers are getting frustrated the dog it getting even more wired up and then it some cases its followed up with a frustration nip off the dog.. I touched on this topic in the wait box of tricks article. How many people know what their command mean, just a short definition? Can you tell me what it means without having to pause and think about it for a second? If you can’t how is your dog meant to know it? After reading this now go find a pen and some paper, write down all the commands that you ‘think’ you dog should understand with a short clear definition. Re-read and do any commands and definitions sound exactly the same? Did you have to rethink what the command was?

Once you have set straight the definition and command write it down and copy it! Leave one in your car one near your training equipment at home and one in you hand and learn it.

So this month we are going to look at my word for

‘Straight line forward in the direction you’re (the dog) facing, when I say it’

That word for my dogs is ‘GO’

‘Go’ is a common word in agility for driving on and most (in the UK) use it, but do you have a definition of it and does you dog know it? Can your dog do it regardless of you being there and just on the verbal command?

I would say for my height and leg length I actually get a good way around the course, not being too far away from Ben however in the lower grades I could hardly ever get near him (depending on the course design) as most of the course was blasty. So my dogs need to understand verbal command. I need to know that they have a good understanding of the verbal command and that it’s rewarded appropriately so that they have a desire to perform the definition of the verbal on cue.

I don’t have a jump command if I say ‘GO’ it is to take whatever is in front of you and carry on in that direction, when I say GO. I shouldn’t have to keep recommending for every jump as they it doesn’t become a drive straight on definition  commanding 'Go' before/ after every jump makes 'GO' a jump que. If you feel you need to command you dog to jump then have a look at my May Blog which can be found on www.lucyosborne.blogspot.com ‘Its been a clicking success with stig.’ This will give you some help on taking away the jump command and teaching the dog that it’s rewarding to take the jump you tell them to. However far you are away because they will get rewarded for it.

In the picture below I have set Ben up he is looking forward (I’m stood behind him, taking the picture!) from my definition of the ‘GO’ command Ben should take the 2 black and red jumps not take the one off to the left. If he took the straight on jump and then the jump to the left this would NOT be a ‘GO’ because I haven’t asked him to turn off the straight line he set off on. If, Ben maintains the straight line to the second jump I will reward him ( throw a toy in) I don’t wait for him to come back to me as I want him to understand and want to drive FAST away from me because he can still get an amazing reward thrown over. If you’re slightly confused the picture below should help you.

 

Taking the same picture again. Now say ‘GO’ He should follow the Orange line and this is a straight line forward from where he is when I give him the verbal command of GO
Here are some simple exercises below for you to practice your ‘Go’ command.

 

Have Fun

 

Lucy Osborne

www.agilitybuds.com

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Introducing Fling...

04:20 in

Well everyone this is my new puppy Fling!

''Radajasa Risky Rendezvous.'' (Pending KC approval)

 She is a Klein Spitz, just over 8weeks and absolutely lovely. She is my first 'KC Pedigree' registered dog (dog with paperwork) As some of you may know I've being looking at Klein Spitz for a while and looked at lots of lines...and a fair few litters just nothing seemed to grab me, since choosing 'Fluff' for Becky Godridge.

 

I was 'up north' at Scottish Kennel Club' agility and breed show a few weeks ago. So, in my spare time I thought I'd pop over to the breed rings as there was a certain breed line I was going to look at, at that show. However as it happens I couldn't find them. I stumbled over Flings dads owners Dale and Gary and they introduced me to their dogs and told me about Flings dad who they co-owned with a woman called Jan, who together had imported this dog from Hungry 'ICE'..His discription was fantastic. So I went straight off and had a look on the I pad at their website and some videos and instantly knew I wanted to see pups off ICE. Gary then Introduced me to Jan Tullis, co owner of Ice, who had got 3 puppies. The sire was Ice..Dilemma!....Do I want one now?!? They were 4 weeks at this time.  I contacted Jan and she sent me some pictures and some videos.

  Wow, decision was made I had to go back up to Scotland to see them! Jan continued to send me videos and pictures of her, and I got increasingly inpatient, I knew if I liked her I'd want to bring her home so I managed to wait to go up and look untill she was 8 weeks. God only knows how I managed to wait! 

 I LOVE her attitude.

It's been a long 4 weeks and keeping it quite has been very hard! I didnt want to say I was going to see her and then she not have what I was looking for but shes got everything and more! So she came home!

I absolutely love her and I've only had her 2 days she's got so much character and full of beans! Shes gready and loves to play with anything. I'm extremely pleased with her.

 

 For now shes taken the last toy she was playing with for a snooze with her, just so the others cant steel it!

I'm sure that I will keep you all up to date with lots of pictures and videos.

I can't thank Jan, Dale and Gary enough for creating a super puppy. All three of you are extremely nice people too. Jan and Poppy (Flings mum) did a fantastic job raising 3 stunning and confident puppies.. Thanks again!

 

 

 

www.agilitybuds.com

 

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Catching up.

12:40 in

I’ve not updated in a while, and most of them have been my articles for the Agility Voice and even they have stopped for a month! I’ve got so behind with having my computer down! I’m finally catching up and pleased to say my articles should be back in the August Agility Voice and now focusing on a New Topic…Garden exercises and proofing.

Stig has being like a totally different dog the past 3 shows now. He has being a dream to run and train. Instead of being hard work, over sensitive and over trying, resulting in him knocking more poles. He seams to of mentally calmed down a bit more (Finally, touch wood!!!) Over the past couple of shows he has had some fantastic runs with just tapping (note tapping not demolishing!) one pole and with no surprise the fastest times… by more then just a few seconds. I’ve had his head and he has being focused he has done some fantastic work! I even had the courage to stick a sneaky blind turn in
his jumping run at Agility Club, with a jump that he could of jumped off to but if the stuck to criteria like he did it would work as the fastest line. I couldn’t believe how well he checked his stride as he was blasting towards me. If fact he checked his stride a few times! I’ve not being to bothered about turns and I wanted him to be happy and a better general jumper first. But tightening turns are listed in our winter training plan.

I’ve started to get some really nice comments of people now too! It’s surprising how people only notice the dog coming good not the potential at the beginning, im not complaining its nice to hear and was probally impossible at times to see potentiel other then speed in him. but its nice to hear especially after lots of hard work! I’m finally starting to see that glimmer of light! And the hard work is finally starting to show..Im so happy with him! Hes such a character and makes me smile every day!




So we are fair way through the agility season and I’ve been terribly slack with training Ben! Thinking that I may have lost him totally sent back this year and I’ve not really being goal focused. Very unlike me! But I’ve being really appreciating and enjoying every run I’ve had with him. I’m very happy with his performance, its being proving hard work to teach a 9 year old dog a running A-Frame after 7 ½ years of 2on2off! I just look at him and appreciate what we have done together and the amount that he has taught me. But I’m finally getting back, now I know he’s fine im starting to increase training amount instead of just 1 – 4 jumps! Which has show as my timing has being so out with him but now were back together and focused I can’t wait for next year. He’s such a joy to run, stepping back into comfy slippers, its always nice.

I'm Judging

Ok, I’m not going to lie I would much rather run my own dogs, however. I do feel that the sport has given me so much so I do judge, I just don’t offer :-p and will probably agree to if I was asked (depending how many appointments I have booked already) I have agreed to judge at Scunthorpe and will be judging on Sunday ;

Large Combined 6-7 Agility –PRO PLAN Q

Medium Combined 6-7 Agility –PRO PLAN Q

Small Combined 6-7 Agility –PRO PLAN Q

Large Combined Agility 3-5

Medium Agility Combined 1-5

Small Agility Combined 1-5

Large Agility Combined 1-2

So I have every Grade! I’m looking forward to seeing how people handle (especially the ProPlan) Just hope that every one is nice to their dogs and enjoys the courses! Now its just fingers crossed for brilliant weather! I will post the my courses for all of the classes next week. :-)

Lucy
www.agilitybuds.com

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K9 Fitness- Knowing your dog seminar

01:58 in

The Course..

I ran the ' Introduction to K9 Fitness- Knowing your dog' seminar on 1st July, with one of my students. Becky Godridge, who is a fully qualified Canine Masseur. 

This course covered a wide range of topics that are really important to ALL dog owners, not just dog owners that are involved in a working discipline. However all the people booked on this course were either Agility, Flyball or had dogs that already had problems.

Topics the course covered

 Gait Analysis & Confirmation – understanding and knowing your dogs limits.

 Basic Anatomy

 Weight & Nutrition

 Spotting when your dog isn’t 100% - recognizing issues before they become problems

 Massage and Stretching

 Warm up and Cool down – Fit for function

 Muscle Building - Core strength and conditioning for performance.

This was the first K9 Fitness course Becky and I have done together. We have received lots a great comments/feedback about the day and have had countless emails asking when the next one is going to be.

We are defiantly doing more! :-D

You will have to keep your eyes peeled as Becky and I are currently discussing future dates and Venues throughout the UK over rest of this and next year.

The courses will be advertised on Webpages & Facebook, on various pages (links to the pages are posted at the end of this blog.) If you want to be on the e-mail list to be the 1st for updates of new dates, venues, e-mail me to you name to ..

lucyosbornedogtraining@hotmail.co.uk  and will be one of the first to know future dates and venues. :-) 

Some pictures from a section of the day and feedback off the students.

Talking through and then doing warm up Exercises.

Mum/Dad Look at MEEE!!!

Lecture :-p & Pro Plan Treatbags and Clickers

(freebie we gave out) Thanks PRO PLAN!

Becky giving advice, finally managed to catch her on camera :-p

Some very tired dogs, and handlers You Guys took in alot of information today :-)

 Man Tyding up! :-o

 Whats in that bag??? 

Just some of the comments left in the feedback book, from some of people that attended the day. Names were not asked to be left as I didn’t want people to feel pressured into putting a good response.

Thanks for a very useful day, very thought provoking and lots of new ideas.

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Very informative and I learnt a lot, Thank-you.

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Really informative – Plenty to take away and think about before running my dog. Thank-you.

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I enjoyed the whole day especially the ‘hands on’ and muscle building in the afternoon.

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I learnt so much throughout the day. The gait analysis was well explained and there were different breeds to look at. Good/bad gaits were explained and gave me a much better understanding of what I should be looking for. The warm up, cool down, massage, stretching and muscle building were great. I have taken away so much and will be very useful to use on my injured/retired dogs too and well as my young and competing ones. Thankyou

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I have so much to think about, lots of good ideas. I need to create a routine warm up and cool down to ensure I do it! Thank you for making me more aware.

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Very informative day, has taught me many things and how much I can tell off my dogs gait. I need to make myself more familiar with it so that I can try my best to help prevent any problems, aswell as making sure I get used to how my dogs muscles and body feels. The story and info made me defiantly think. Thankyou.

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So informative, the course was delivered in an interactive and fun manor as sometimes they can get boring. This didnt you both kept us all awake thinking and on out toes. :-)

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The dates are not on theses sites yet but theses are the places you will find them advertised
FaceBook search
Becky Godridge
Lucy Kate Osborne

Agility Buds Dog Training - Lucy Osborne
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.392565950799516&type=1#!/groups/184306248292155/


Canine Performance Thearpy
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Canine-performance-therapy/230597623700684

Available Training Days
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.392565950799516&type=1#!/groups/193927057335010/

www.agilitynet.com
 on the events page.

Lucy Osborne

www.agilitybuds.com

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