Musical Freestyle

Tulsa-Dan · #1 8th March 2004, 10:25 AM

I just enrolled Maggie and Susie in Musical Freestyle classes. They are yet to be scheduled, but will begin sometime early Summer. I can't wait. I think Susie will be a total natural at this and Maggie will enjoy it too, although I'm not sure whether she'll be as adept at it as I suspect Susie will be.

Has anyone else done Musical Freestyle with their boxers? It seems like so much fun and my girls LOVE to dance with daddy and wiggle around and carry on, just like they do in the freestyle demonstrations I have seen. Now daddy will just have to learn how to teach them the steps and what steps to learn, etc. and we'll be showing up on DANCE FEVER !

Love to hear anyone else's experiences with Freestyle.

Dan

Krikkit · #2 8th March 2004, 03:01 PM

Yes, it's great fun

If you want a good head start, then the Mary Ray videos are excellent http://www.dogsinaction.co.uk/maryray_site/store.html

The hardest thing I have found is actually choosing the music - not as easy as it seems (especially as I am naturally clumsy with two left feet

). I've pratted around for hours with the wrong music. Really wanted to do a routine with Ruben to the Monkey's 'Listen To the Band' as that is his registered name, but it just did not work no matter how hard I tried. Also tried S&G's 'The Boxer' with limited success. Am working now on 'Stuck in the Middle with You' with Layla, and 'Up there, Cazaly' with Ruben - it's an Aussie Rules song and Ruben is a might jumper so it seems to be coming together.

You might enjoy this article Dan - about getting a non-dog person to train and compete in freestyle for a TV show:
http://195.184.239.210/training/fakingit_daveray.html
I think he ended up doing the routine to a football song

Have a wonderful time!

Sharon

Tulsa-Dan · #3 8th March 2004, 03:29 PM

Thanks for the links. They were very interesting.

We'll be doing seminars as well as classes. The seminars are with Carolyn Scott, who is quite well known for her doggie dancing skills here in the U.S.

I'll let everyone know how it goes when we get started. I can't wait !!

VTbxrFan · #4 8th March 2004, 05:24 PM

I'm not familiar with that, but it sounds really cool! Have fun and let us know how it goes!

douma · #5 9th March 2004, 11:58 AM

Once i watched a woman with her Doberman on Animal planet,they were dancing very well.

Have fun!

Sophia and Avra

Tulsa-Dan · #6 9th March 2004, 01:30 PM

This LINK will take you to a site where you can watch a really, really cool video of Carolyn Scott and her dog Rookie doggie dancing.

Hope me and my gals can be this good some day!!

Enjoy

MyGirlHeidi · #7 9th March 2004, 01:34 PM

Wow, I love that reverse spin thru the legs....looks like so much fun! I'm sure your girls will love it and it looks like it's good exercise for the owner too.

**Jan** · #8 9th March 2004, 10:38 PM

Dan, I'm sure you will have fun. I have seem some great performaces.

Let us know how it goes.

Tulsa-Dan · #9 10th March 2004, 07:04 AM

Training:

Well, I got to searching around on the internet yesterday and found a document at http://www.musicaldogsport.org which gives you a list of freestyle skills from which to choose. There are so many!

I decided to start at home working on some of the core skills with the girls. We worked on heel and heel back yesterday. They were GREAT. One problem was getting them to heel on my left side since they are so accustomed to walking on my right. But we'll get there in time.

Maggie and I worked a heel spin, which is when the dog spins away from handler while in the heel position, ending the spin back in the heel position. Maggie did great. Susie is having a bit of difficulty with this one but we'll keep working on it.

This list was compiled by Andrea Sutherland from Australia. Any Ozzies out there who've heard of her?

Can't wait to teach them to moonwalk !!

VTbxrFan · #10 10th March 2004, 07:12 AM

That video clip is cool!!! That really looks like a lot of fun. Tulsa-Dan, I'm looking forward to a video of you and girls one day!

Krikkit · #11 10th March 2004, 02:59 PM

Quote:

This list was compiled by Andrea Sutherland from Australia. Any Ozzies out there who've heard of her?

Yep, one of the white hats

Lucy Ellem (Sydney) also does some amazing things with Freestyle. We have quite a few very talented people here and freestyle is getting some really nice publicity thanks to the trail blazers.

How are you teaching the spin? I've had far better success with a tuggy toy for my kids who finally have high toy motivation - the spin they do is tighter and faster. Layla is always more driven by food and her spin is very pretty and neat but has not got the instant 'wham' that the others have, but it is a bit more elegant.

Sharon

Tulsa-Dan · #12 10th March 2004, 05:25 PM

Funny you should mention that. Both girls seemed distracted by treats when we were working. I ended up using a tug toy with Maggie as well. It worked MUCH better and kept her attention longer than a treat. (Ok, my fault, I give them waaaay too many treats all the time as it is.)

Susie seems to do really well with just body language and hand movements. She's always responded much better to hand signals than voice commands. So, I am utilizing her "touch" skills and she seems to always follow my hand or my finger. So I just lead her around by my finger extended and she follows! She's so smart! And as is the case with Susie, she also loves kisses as a reward better than any treat. She's such a cheap date !

We worked the heel more today, but that was all as it was a bit cool and the girls were very distracted by everything today. And Susie had a head bobbing episode this morning, so I didn't want to get her too tired today; wanting her to rest some. The trigger seems to be over exertion with Susie. So, we're gonna take it easy.

Anyway, I can see I have a LOT of work ahead. There are so many moves and skills to learn and I'll need to learn how to train some of them. But for now, before classes officially start, we're going to work on core/basic skills a lot so that we'll be prepared.