The perfect work space

I work from home.

As I look around my work space, I notice that I have begun collecting things and piling. A few weeks ago when Kel was in China, I actually cleaned my desk. I could tell you what color my fake wood grain table top resembled. Today I find that I once again have stacked myself into a corner. I could build a castle with all the diet coke cans.

I have two work spaces next to each other. One is my home computer and one computer I borrow from my client so I can access their company applications. It is a super secret connection and no one is allowed to know my passwords or use this computer. My home computer is used a little less right now due to the fact that I'm on the work computer so much. But recently I took the job as the "SMART" club secretary for an upcoming agility trial, so I'm entering entries pretty much every day. I guess that is why I need two tea cups and about 537 empty cans of diet coke.While Kel was in China, we had two electrial outages, so you can forgive me for hoarding the flashlights in my office. Although, as I think of it, I'm usually in the office during the day and not in the office at night...when I might need those flashlights. Well at least I know where they are now.

All in all I feel pretty comfortable in my space. I do understand that others may feel a little crowded, but that is all good. I really don't want "others" in my office trying to file things and take my diet coke fortress away.

Fin Agility Training March 23

Today my husband was kind enough to help me take some video of Fins training. I'm going to try posting them here for posterity.

The first video is one jump work I'm doing to teach Fin tight turns. I work allot on this as Fin wants to jump long and hard. This is a girl I'm not going to have difficulty getting a gamble, but if I don't do enough tight work, I'll loose time with her going wide over the jumps.

This video is Fin going over jumps to my left. Just a nice video showing jumping style.

Here is Fin Bounce Jumping (YouTube). I'm teaching her to come to me here and take what is in front of her:

These next two videos are of Fin circle jumping:

Here is a YouTube video of the Bang Game discussed in an earlier blog:

We'll see how this video goes. I'll try to post more as I get more people to help me. One last one, I had to post "girls gone wild" taken by my husband after Fins training session:

A Busy Day

• 7:00am - at the park for an off leash walk. EVERYONE had fun. It was frosty to start, but melted by the time we were done. Four very dirty wet dogs with tongues hanging to the ground.
• 8:45am - quick breakfast
• 9:15am - head over to the Farmers market and Poppies seafood. Farmers market is not open today (weird) and Poppies doesn't open till 10am. Off to Safeway
• 10:30am - home, unpack groceries and put everything away
• 11:00am - a game of chuck-it
• 11:30am - Asian spring roll
• 11:45am - HP work
• 2:00pm - start work on veggie garden. Dogs helped dig. Got entire bed free of roots, new soil and fert. Six tomatoes planted with drip system. I am officially "sore."
• 4:30 - back to work on HP
• 6:30 - dinner - salmon/rice/asparagus
• 7:00 - SMART entries
• 9:00 - doing this blog - thinking about that fine soft bed with the warm comforter.

Tomorrow off to Pegs for Easter Sunday.

Fin

The definition for Fin in Wikipedia:

A fin is a surface used to produce lift and thrust or to steer while traveling in water, air, or other fluid media. The first use of the word was for the limbs of fish, but has been extended to include other animal limbs and man-made devices.
The foremost use of fins is to ensure the directional stability of an object moving through a fluid such as water or air and may be seen in the use of fletching on arrows and fins at the rear of some missiles, rockets, self-propelled torpedoes, and kinetic energy penetrators. They are typically "planar" (shaped like small wings), although grid fins are sometimes used in specialized cases.
Moving fins may be used to propel an object through lateral thrust (see mechanics).

To editorialize: Fin is used to produce lift and thrust, to steer while traveling through air. Fin has been extended to include other animals (my fin). The foremost use of Fin is to ensure the directional stability moving through air.

The Cupcakes Were Not the Only Thing I Forgot

My hypothesis could not be tested this weekend due to a critical error on my part. I forgot to bring the cupcakes.

I will say that Tazz was the better athlete this weekend, so cheese at the end worked for him. All I had was a spinach salad on Saturday and an old chinese chicken salad on Sunday (but I didn't eat the chicken as it looked bad -should be filed under vici's weird food phobias). So perhaps my motivation was a little lacking.

First run on sat was a gamble run. He was amazing. Fast, happy, sure of himself. But the gamble was really tough so I forgave him.

Second run was his standard run. He had a little "judge issue." In his opinion she was too close so went around the teeter. I brought him back and he did the teeter and so I ran out of the ring and gave him cheese.

His steeplechase was BEAUTIFUL! He never missed a beat. 44 seconds! that was super for Tazz. He was .5 seconds out of qualification because the other dogs were faster, but I didn't make a mistake, and he was a really good boy.

Sunday started with his standard run. He was zooming! Got his contacts, did the teeter, got right on the table and did a down! Then the third to the last obstacle he came into me instead of taking the jump (most likely my fault) and when I tried to bring him around to take the jump, he back jumped it. That Q was flushed. I must say there is a little bit of evil in Tazz.

We did get another Snooker Q, but didn't get the "super Q" we need, The last obstacle was an impossible weave entry and I forgot to front cross so we had a refusal. It was a fun course and I think I did a really good plan for Tazz so I consider it a success.

So, I had a last run of the trial. Master Jumpers. I had to wait until two classes were finished. Should I go or should I stay? I decided to stay. I worked, played with Fin, played with Tazz, ate my nasty chicken salad without the chicken, drank water, drank diet coke, wished I had my cupcakes, watched a bunch of agility. Then finally it was our turn.

I forgot the course.

Tazz was good. Zooming around the course and having a great time. I on the other hand really needed those cupcakes. I lost my concentration and sent him the wrong way. He didn't know it, nor did he care. He just wanted his cheese.

Essential Agility Food

I have to thank my agility buddy for introducing me to food that will make me fast. There are some rules that she recently communicated to me, too bad she didn't give me the rules in the beginning as now I may need an intervention and rehab.

1. Eat only ONE pack for a snack during a day. (well there are six packs in a box, who would have thought you should only eat one.)
2. Don't eat them everyday. (Ok so if you notice in the lower right corner, the packaging puts pressure on me to eat these quickly "eat by March 26." March 26 is right around the corner.)
3. Eat them slowly. Rather than poping them in your mouth like grapes, take 3-4 bites each. (Seriously!)

I must say these are tasty little snacks.

I'm packing for a weekend dog show. I have a spinage salad, a chicken and greens salad and "TWO" packages of cupcakes! Oh yeah, I also am bringing carrots, celery, and greenbeans. But the only thing I'm really excited about is the CUPCAKES!

When I run Tazzy, I have cheese that I leave at the end of the run. He always gets cheese (as long as he stays with me - he isn't allowed to "cut and run" during the course to get cheese). So I'm thinking I'm going to put one of these cupcakes at the end of the run for me! Why should he get all the treats. I'm doing more than half the work, I deserve something too.

I'll let you know on Monday if my runs were faster knowing that I got a cupcake at the end waiting for me :)

Fin Training

I realized that I haven't given an agility training update in a while. Sure I've talked about the perfect wife I am, I took some fab pictures of flowers, and did a little soul searching. But that's all procrastination for what this blog is really about.

AGILITY!

So today we talk about the teeter. Teaching the teeter must be broken up into basic steps. For Fin, she has trouble with the sound the teeter makes when it hits the ground AND she wants to do everything fast. If she is on a wobble board, she makes it bang but jumps off of it fast. She is a little fearful of what might happen when she stays on. So for Fin, I'm starting the teeter with a game I like to call "The Bang Game.'

Stuff you need:

Cheese: This is an important element. It really doesn't need to be cheese, but if you use cheese it must be "Precious" cheese. I've also used chicken, hotdogs, kibble...whatever rocks your dogs boat (or yours if you get hungry during the training session).

Teeter: I like to start with the teeter at the lowest setting, AND I prop up the end of the teeter so that it is only about 6-8" off the ground (this can be adjusted for the size of dog you have).

A dog: hopefully a dog that has already been clicker trained so they catch on with what you want quickly.
Optional Style points for creative clothing:

In setting up for this game, it is important to know where to place your reinforcement. Food placement is critical to proper training. Puppy should get fed with head down on the teeter so I actually place the food on the teeter and don't feed from my hand. The first couple of times you can actually "bait" the teeter with the food but then wait for the behavior before placing the reward on the teeter (otherwise you get into lure). I also will often ask for a friend to help. They can place the food faster than I. Placement of the reward both for the behavior AND the release is critical. Once you are getting the jumping up on the teeter behavior, you will only feed for "four feet on looking down and forward." Anything else gets a good dog and try again.

I start with a clicker and I click for close approximation to what my end goal is (dog with four feet on the teeter facing the end getting cookie from tip) - I'm not training a 2o2off teeter, I eventually will teach a run to the end as fast as you can, wait for me to say K, then run faster.

Once Fin had the general idea, I placed a bit of cheese at the end, held her by the collar, said my "ready steady" and wolaaaa! she jumped into position and got her cheese. The first time, I actually held the teeter so it was only 2 inches off the ground. I gradually raised to to 8" once she figured out what to do. The teeter went from 2" to 8"in a 60 second training session.


notice all four feet, she is looking down not at me.

I end with my release word and if she moves toss a cookie (or her toy) out in front. Look how she is focused down and ahead. It is the curse of death if your dog stares at you. You want for a focused forward looking dog, a dog looking to see what is next on the course, not a dog that is looking at you to see what you have.

Finny is gonna do the bang game every other day (or 3-4 times a week for one or two sessions each - not alot), During this time I'll gradually increase the height of the teeter so she has to leap up in the air to get on. When I finish, I hope she isn't afraid of the bang anymore.

Then I'll stop the bang game and start her running as fast as she can to the end and stopping (on a teeter that doesn't move. Then gradually increase movement until she is running as fast as she can, stopping till I say "K", then running fast again.