Carlasl Posted July 6, 2011 Report Share Posted July 6, 2011 I entered Maya in her third trial last weekend, officially we bombed it! but we had fun and I know a few things to work on. We did our first Chances run, and that was fun and would have gone well, but I was totally in her way and she ran into me and it screwed everything up. We got all our discriminations which I was happy about. Looking forward to the next trial in August. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brndlbc Posted July 6, 2011 Report Share Posted July 6, 2011 When I first read your post I thought I was going to see a train wreck. Not at all. I thought you did a great job. Those are better runs than a lot of the novice teams I see put up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SecretBC Posted July 6, 2011 Report Share Posted July 6, 2011 I agree with the above -- You guys did great! Your NQ's were generally very minor errors. My cousin runs a dog very similar to Maya -- He's a fast, young, bouncy & excited border collie and she can't keep up with him. She has gotten very frustrated with his lack of Q's since they started in October -- And she got even more frustrated when my baby dog, Secret, started to run in February and quickly breezed through the Novice & Open levels. I've told her time and time again that as much as I love Secret, I'd give anything for a dog like Rascal. Secret Q's because she is precise, exact and doesn't like to make mistakes (ie: slow!). Frankly, I'd rather have a dog that is careening around the course having the time of his life -- because once you tap into that and harness it, those dogs become phenomenal teammates! It's a matter of figuring out your timing and cues -- because ultimately, a lot of the errors I saw in your video were handling errors. You guys will get there -- Maya looks like a great dog! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merritt S. Posted July 9, 2011 Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 She looked happy to run with you! That's all you can ask for. It really wasn't that bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted July 9, 2011 Report Share Posted July 9, 2011 My cousin runs a dog very similar to Maya -- He's a fast, young, bouncy & excited border collie and she can't keep up with him. She has gotten very frustrated with his lack of Q's since they started in October -- And she got even more frustrated when my baby dog, Secret, started to run in February and quickly breezed through the Novice & Open levels. I've told her time and time again that as much as I love Secret, I'd give anything for a dog like Rascal. Secret Q's because she is precise, exact and doesn't like to make mistakes (ie: slow!). Frankly, I'd rather have a dog that is careening around the course having the time of his life -- because once you tap into that and harness it, those dogs become phenomenal teammates! It's a matter of figuring out your timing and cues -- because ultimately, a lot of the errors I saw in your video were handling errors. You guys will get there -- Maya looks like a great dog! I agree. Maya is on her way to being a really fast agility dog. (I hope you like that.) I agree with SecretBC that fast dogs are awesome to run, but it may take longer to title them (particularly for a beginner handler like me.). My dog Torque looks (red tri BC), and runs, a lot like Maya. He is a blast to run, but we are still muddling around in Novice Standard - even though he is approaching 4 years old. (He has had a couple of injuries which stole almost a year from training, plus I am a beginner handler.) He stubbornly jumps most of his contacts, but I am living with his trial mistakes while I continue to train him on running contacts at home. He is in Open Jumpers, but should be in Excellent A jumpers except for one or two dropped bars. My attitude is that since he loves speed, we will build on that while trying to gradually get us together as a team. I make as many, if not more, mistakes than he does. Intermittant reinforcement works great- not only for dogs, but for us humans too. All those NQs don't seem so important (sometimes) when you have a beautiful flowing run that is a Q AND is so fast that it is half the standard course time. This may happen only once in 10 tries, but it is what keeps me coming back. Hopefully my success ratio will improve. Keep up the good work with Maya!! jovi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PSmitty Posted July 10, 2011 Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 When I first read your post I thought I was going to see a train wreck. Not at all. I thought you did a great job. Those are better runs than a lot of the novice teams I see put up. This is what I thought, too. Really, there was nothing bad about those runs at all for a baby dog. She's running fast and most importantly having fun. Lots of success ahead for you two as a team, I'm sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlasl Posted July 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2011 thanks everyone, she is running during trials at about 3/4 to 1/2 speed as she does during practice. The trainer we go to is a big NADAC guy and really pushes for training distance and speed, and I really like him, he wants us to focus on speed and worry about precision later, he said you can usually train precision but it is harder to get speed out of dog who has been trialing at a slower speed. We are having a blast no matter the results, I wish I could afford to go to more trials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted July 11, 2011 Report Share Posted July 11, 2011 thanks everyone, she is running during trials at about 3/4 to 1/2 speed as she does during practice. The trainer we go to is a big NADAC guy and really pushes for training distance and speed, and I really like him, he wants us to focus on speed and worry about precision later, he said you can usually train precision but it is harder to get speed out of dog who has been trialing at a slower speed. We are having a blast no matter the results, I wish I could afford to go to more trials. I agree with speed now and precision later. Not that I am an expert, but it is just more fun that way. I attended a couple of Sylvia Trkman workshops when she was here this past Feb/Mar, and she also trains her dogs at fast speeds for the same reason as above. I only do one NADAC trial a year (others are about 3 hours away) and I love to watch the top handlers that have trained their dogs for distance. Jovi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SecretBC Posted July 12, 2011 Report Share Posted July 12, 2011 Looking at your location, do you train with Matt & Martha? If so, you are lucky. They are awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordyn Posted August 29, 2011 Report Share Posted August 29, 2011 I thought it was a good debut! I haven't trained a dog in agility since my sheltie (who has since passed) retired over 10 years ago and I'm just getting back in the swing of things but I've seen a lot worse. Your dog has a lot of go and your both having fun, that's half the battle in my opinion. Keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlasl Posted August 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2011 Looking at your location, do you train with Matt & Martha? If so, you are lucky. They are awesome. Matt and Martha run the trials that I go to, we have a great time! I am not sure where they train, they may do their own stuff at home. I have been taking lessons from David Castle (if you know him). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SecretBC Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 Ah yes, I met him at Champs. I'm jealous, there are no good trainers in my immediate area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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