#aaylastrainingjournal

[theadventurek9]

For the first time since my work opened back up, we got to work on some training. I was really happy with what she was offering today. She was happy and responsive.

We need some more gridwork to get her back into jumping shape but overall was very pleased.

The last clip was not intentional on my part. I was throwing her toy and she took the grid even though I had thrown the toy away from it. 😅

[adventurek9]

I've been bad and haven't done anything formal in a while. I even forgot to sign her up for the Rally event this weekend. I was hoping she could get her novice title and do some work in advanced. Forgetful me. I'm going to have to wait until May. She was sloppy but engaged, I was very very happy with her.

[theadventurek9]

A training group I’m in is doing little challenges. This week its positions, so I hopped on as I need to start working something. I think Aayla has missed our training sessions, she was a little over aroused and struggled a bit. She is probably rusty as well as its been a while. Though I have to say I’m enjoying the joy and engagement from her. We have some creeping, and some other reps she wasn’t sure what to do with my hand signals. So those all need refreshers. She also needs a lot of work with her kick back stand. Could be a strength thing, but she also tends to take her stay a little too literally and does’t like moving her back feet either and looks like she is pooping when she tries to stand. Also I clearly need to work her on the mat, it scares me when she slips on the tile like that.

[theadventurek9]

Proofing the dumbbell retrieve!

I would consider this behavior finished, but its been a long time since we’ve worked on it. So decided to get in some practice. After a few warm ups of her demonstrating she remembers the behavior, I added a bunch of other stuff to add as a distraction to her retrieve. She didn’t bat an eye at any of it! Still remembers her turn and scoop and everything!

Glad this behavior didn’t get rusty with time off.

[theadventurek9]

I was gifted “Weaves that WOW” by Dr. Amanda Shyne. Haven’t heard of her, but I like all her exercises, and it gives me more to go through.

Here is the first two I wanted o try, which require collection into the weaves. The first two have the jump 10’. Then the jump is 5’ away. She seemed a little hesitant with a few reps, but got it each time. I’m also using one of her least favorite toys and had no food rewards. So I only planned a few reps, with a lot of plain fetch in between. I wished she just liked this toy, it holds up the best in the sand.

Did I ever mention that I HATE sand? Did I mention that Aayla hates training in sand as well?

[theadventurek9]

Left turn entries!

Don’t really know what happened with that first rep. I might have thrown the toy too early, which caused the pop out. Then maybe too much speed for the entry? Oh well, luckily it was our only hiccup.

[theadventurek9]

So this was for a fun FB competition. Pretty much running through Novice obedience without people.

We still have so much to work on. I held the leash in the wrong hand (for what I personally want to do). She did trot for about half the heeling exercises but seemed to loose it about halfway through. We need more work with our about turns and halt to movement with trotting. She still is lacking some confidence/stamina as well and noticed some almost lagging with this.

Pretty much need to work on the figure 8 from the ground up. All pacing with lagging on the right turn and heavy crowding on the left.

Her kick back stand was a fail. She stood and stayed but that was not pretty. That makes sense with Petra Ford saying Aayla has a weak core in the workshop we did. So more core work outs.

[theadventurek9]

This might not look like a lot to everyone. yet I have to say how happy and amazed I am at Aayla’s transformation with this over one month and about 10 sessions. We haven’t been able to work on it much for the past two weeks but dang she is doing great.

I don’t have a trainer for any of this. So its been a lot of trial and error and research to try and figure out how to work towards my idea of a perfect heel. That idea is always changing as well, but regardless I am so happy of where we are going.

We have got our weight shift back onto our hind legs, and an understanding of what I want. (The trot) In the start she needed a few steps of pacing before she could break into the trot. Today she offered several reps with immediate trotting type steps from the sit position. That is new and wonderful. She also started to show signs of being able to slow down while maintaining her weight shift back, and keeping the trot. We even got some floating type steps which I thought was crazy to see because I thought that might be difficult because of her build. It’s not a part of my heeling image but I loved seeing it.

I’m still debating on head position. In the end I’m not going to expect her head cranked back vertical. The hand target right now was to help the weight shift to get the trot. I do want her ear at my pant seam. Which is hard because she wants to forge and wrap so bad. Dang herders. When we start to fade the hand lure we will see where she ends up more naturally.

Overall I’m over the moon with her. I think we may be fading the hand after this week? I think it will eventually do more harm than good.