Sunday, August 21, 2011

DogSport Weekend - 20.08.2011!

‎200811 - Thank God for the great weather, be it in the morning or evening, the weather has been excellent for Agility Training. This week we focus on weave-poles, motions, flows and control, all students have performed maverlously. Open-stride, close-stride, turns, crosses, weaves, left & right handling, smooth transition into another obstacle ... keep up the good work PUPSters!

Interesting Quote!

Steal from Gary Decker : I once attended a agility seminar where one of the concepts was...see the course from your dog's view. Well, I take that approach on viewing a lot of things these days....and it so simplifies life. Eat, sleep, mark your territory, and play when you can.....that's why I have my "Life is short, Play with your dog" t-shirt on! Have a great weekend everyone!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Great DogSport Weekend @7 Aug 2011

Sunday started off with a heavy morning rain. For those who do not have outdoor activity were very please with the rain and all stayed indoor to catch up with their sleep and rest. But for those of us who have outdoor activity such as Agility, were praying for the rain to stop. The weather continue to rain until about 2.30pm, and the sun came out and bring us hope.

In the evening we have Sky, Toby and Gillian and Bailey, Ken and Cheryl. The first group started at 4pm, we were drilling on movement, flow and intends. With Gillian focusing more on her motion, flow and intends, Sky and Toby read her like a book, keeping all bars up and making an excellent flow and motion on course. Even the youngster Toby is running up to 6 obstacles and keeping all bars up.

The second group came at 5pm, Bailey and Ken need some warm-up exercise to get Bailey up to speed. Bailey were giving great attention after a good warm-up games of tugs, play and treats. Bailey and Ken have improved tremendously, the motion, flow and intends given helps Bailey to quickly understand Ken's motion, direction and intention. Bailey now can jumps up to 6 obstacles such as Open Tunnel, Jumps and Pause Table. Crosses such as front-cross, post-turn, tandem turn, push and pull strategy building up Bailey agility vocabulary.

Marvelous training, excellent execution, motion, direction, flow and intend build up the team confidence in handling agility obstacles. We all had fun and as we stay positive, our training will continue to improve.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Wet & Adventurous Walk!

This morning I took Ashley for long walk. Trying to build bond so I brought him to a wet and adventurous walk. We clocked 1 hour 26 minutes and 41 sec, all drenched and soaked through skin for both dog and man. Our adventure path brought us through Seletar Camp, Jalan Kayu to Seng Kang Riverside Park. After going through the crowded Jalan Kayu, the long stretch of road towards Seng Kang was a very scenic one. Lots of trees, wildlife, fresh air and loads of hills to bring us to the nature.

Along the walks, there were many opportunity to practice on-lead and off-lead exercises. Once we reaches the riverside park, we went to the other side of the park where there is a connector connecting park users to the wetlands. The beautifully constructed bridge suspending over the Punggol Reservoir. I saw a pair of about 1.5 Meter long Monitor Lizards swimming in the wetlands and look like they are on the hunt. What a rare sight to see Monitor Lizards? As we pushes on on the connector, we were confronted by a very brave small poodle barking and charging towards us. And poor Ashley fled for his life. But I managed to coax Ashley to follow me passes the poodle and we continue our wet walk.

On our returning journey, I did some steep hill climbing opportunity, Ashley and me passed the climb with flying colors! We took a different routes back and we were treated with another amazing scenic walk. A very enjoyable and satisfying walk and I would definitely do another similar walk in the near future.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Great DogSport Weekend@ 6 AUG 2011!

A much needed weekend break for me. I was down by a bad flu at the beginning of the week. Took 2 days MC to rest and very please to recover by Friday. Most of my colleagues were heading for a Super long weekend. But I can't as I have a lots of issue to be resolve on this coming Monday.

This morning, Saturday, 6 August, the weather was great. We have a new comer; Herbie and Edmund. Actually there are not NEW, but decided to comeback to Agility Training after a very long 2 years break. Not only Herbie, Edmund is also coming back with Sundae. (Herbie - BC and Sundae - Corgi) Herbie and Edmund had a go a number of jumping sequences, this week we are using the letter Y as a training alphabet drills. Herbie is quick on course but he has mature and no longer behaving as a youngster running aimlessly and tirelessly. We will be focusing back on basic jumping skill and getting Herbie to focus on jumping properly, a good taking off plane and a good landing plane. After a few simple jumping drills, you can see Herbie is back for business and he will only gets better by the day.

We also have Vidya & YuLin and Hope & Nicole in this morning training. Both teams had good tries on the letter Y jumping drill. YuLin is working on being consistent, while Nicole is working on getting Hope to speed up on course. Both teams exhibit good flow and handling skills, working on the strength of their dogs and gaining ground in their superior handling skills.

When I was clearing up my yard for this evening agility class, I do notice there were some dark clouds heading towards PUPS DEN, but thank God, the weather hold up and we were given great windy weather this evening. In the evening class, we were greeted by another NEW comer, Aloysius & Dawson. (Dawson - BC) Aloysius trains with us with blaze but due to some injury, he is letting blaze to rest and decided to start working with his youngster Dawson. Dawson's nose was so keen, he can detect one of my girl are on season and he goes for a hunt for her. After a thorough warming up exercises, Dawson finally decided to follow Aloysius in training. Dawson and Aloysius is coming along well, room to improve on their bonds and Aloysius need to bring along various treats to win the heart of dawson during trying times such as training. This team had a good runs, tunnels, jumps and handing on right and left sides, allow this team to flourishes.

Of course, we have Bernie and Yoyo and Ann with Blossom and Milo. Bernie and Yoyo is back after nursing her dislocated elbow during our 9th USDAA Trials 2 weeks ago. This team is back with a bang, sounding their great intend to all triallers! Bernie and Yoyo did very well, great handling and Yoyo's attention have been fixed in following Bernie. This team can a force to reckon with, if they continue to work like they did this evening. Ann had a few go with upsize Milo but he did well, not forgetting his training and definitely has made Ann very proud of her old boy. Ann and Blo also had a blast at the jumping drill exercises, we had a great discussion of their handling options, and with clarity and great intends, this team will be the team to look out for.

All-in- all a very good Saturday training, very productive training session, a few in-depth discussion on handling options, but all for the good of the team.

As always, happy training and stay positive!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Training Insights & Dilemma

Training by objective is the key of animal training. Do not attempt to train your animal on a complex behavior. If training is too difficult, your animal may end up giving up in training prematurely.

In training complex behavior, you need to break down into smaller bit and pieces. This is what you call back-chaining. Allowing your animal to understand the final behavior will increase your chances of achieving the final behavior. Always remember to work on positive reinforcement, your animal work better in reward-base training techniques.

On a different note, I am in a dilemma when it comes to trialing. My personal believe is to allow my students take on the Course Designs on their own interruption and understanding of their animal. What's best for them as a team? However, in recent time, I understood that some of my students are actually thinking that I should coach them during or after their walk-through. And guess what? We are seeing positive results.

I think it might not be a problem if I allow my students to understanding the course designs and then offer some practical insights on how I approach these course if I'm running their animals.

Anyway, I am always searching for the better approaches and if the new approach is effect, I shall use it to bring out what's best in the team!

Happy Training! Have Fun and Stay Positive!

Cheers

USDAAsg, Agility Dogs for Any Flavour!

USDAAsg, Agility Dogs for Any Flavour!
USDAA Singapore