Sam agility videos!

I know I haven't posted in a reallyyyy long time, but I figured I'd post some videos of Sam doing a course and part of a course just to show you guys. Sam's been doing agility for a year in April and we just starting doing two classes a week a instead of one last month. This is his "new" class. Sorry I don't know how to embed stuff so the links will have to do :/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LGEm3A6EHA&context=C3157cc3ADOEgsToPDskIxNbUAbFvUhlkSGhvBOarT
First one, this is just a part of the course, we need to work some more on sending out to the obstacle. And he has teeter issues, he got thrown off of it once and he's been scared since.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxfWcAZ7EjE&context=C3f12207ADOEgsToPDskKegAvif-zu9gpTWbIL2EYD
This was the same sequence. I think it's better except after the 2nd (3rd?) jump where he walked off, but he did come back!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUtChJmcK7s&context=C3b4c88eADOEgsToPDskKT0fyA7BfVPmFVukogYjSG
Full course. Pretty much everything he did wrong was due to my bad handling

That's it! If you guys have any suggestions for improvement or stuff you think we need to work on I'd love to hear

Oh and the way this class teaches weaves is with the weave-o-matics, I'm starting him with 2x2s next week since I don't have school. Is it okay to be teaching weaves in more than one way at a time? The other class does channel weaves and he hasn't had any confusion so far but 2x2s is pretty different from those two. He'll be on break from agility for a few weeks starting next sunday so I'm hoping that if I work with them enough he'll have them down by the time we start again.

My suggestion... Pin your bangs back so you aren't fussing with them! It's distracting to you and your dog. Lol.

I'll let others deal with the actual agility stuff.

Glad to see you found a place to go for classes (if i recall you were having some trouble finding a class right?)

Haha yep, that's what the instructor said too so I'll be doing that from now on. We have class again tonight so we'll see if that makes any difference!

Awww you guys are so cute!!

You're dropping your arm a little too quickly, and pulling him towards you and missing jumps. Have you tried the seesaw without the trainer? He looks a bit confused why this lady (I'm assuming the teacher) is leaning over him when he's going up the seesaw. Tsuki is afraid of our trainer, and would refuse to get on if he's near it. But with me I barely now have to lower it for her. I too suggest doing something about the hair. I too am always messing with my bangs, so I wear a hat when I'm doing agility.

That's just me 2 cents. LOL

Ahh okay, gotcha with the arm thing.

And no, I haven't tried it without the trainer so I'll try that. Sam loves everyone so didn't even think of that!

Another thing with the teeter I think is that, since I half expect him to refuse it he maybe somehow senses something is up and maybe that's putting him off? I was thinking of having my mom send him over it since he listens to her but doesn't run with her and see if he does it any differently. Would that be okay to try or would it just confuse him more?

What have you done with the teeter?

Happiest place?
Bang game?
Surfing?

How did you teach it in the first place and what have you done to help him since he was flung off it?

I haven't done too much with it, to be honest. What I've been doing more or less is treating him every time he goes a little bit further on it and just making it seem like more of a good thing and less scary. I've never really heard of any of those games, do you mind explaining them? I'd love to try those out!
I think initially we taught it on a tippy board, then moved to the teeter set at a few inches off the ground and moved up gradually from that, although I don't think it's at full height at all in this class. I also remember treating when the teeter hit the ground (just the bang, not with the dog on it) just to associate the noise with good things.

Happiest place is when you prop the tippy end of the teeter up and just have the dog run straight up it to the cookies at the top so they associate running up it as good times, then you lift them off it.

Bang game is propping the teeter up so that the down end is only up a little bit and you get the dog to hop up on it on his own to make the bang sound and treat.

Surfing you have someone hold the down end of the teeter and have the dog run up like in happiest place and then you move the end up and down slowly and lift dog off at first and increase motion gradually over time so that you can lower it with the dog on it to the ground.

Eventually all those components come together and you get a dog that likes the teeter.

Oh okay! Thanks I think I'll try some of those tonight in class if were not using the teeter for other stuff!

ZOMG you're alive!

I have nothing to contribute.

I would strongly suggest that you or that person beside the teeter not force him to do the teeter. Also wouldn't use treats to lure it, that is actually reinforcing his negative emotional state and fear of the teeter. Clicker training works well for this, no luring, just reward for happy, his choice to move forward.
Bang game, wobble boards, teach him to ride a skateboard, plank work with tiny movement and with sand bags (tunnel bags) or something else to cushion the bang. Start with it back on the ground and progress to a higher teeter (could take months). Teach him to drive towards the teeter and to turn around and come off if he isn't comfortable with it (safer than leaping of the side). Also it has been proven that if you turn them around, work your contact criteria, release and then send them back to the lowered teeter they will offer more.

High arm and pointing, personally I wouldn't do it at all (dog should do the obstacle when presented with it unless told not too), distracting to the dog and although common a few years ago isn't now. Makes the dog look up and question the information. So you go back and retrain a solid jumping performance and using body language correctly etc.

Actually, I tried the teeter tonight without the trainer there to catch it and he wen't over it much more confidently and without him jumping off, he still slowed down where it tips but overall he did it much better.

I'll definitely keep working with him on it though and I'll try to do it the way you suggested, ado. I actually prefer not luring it too but I didn't really know how else I'd go about it.

As for the jumping, I don't really see an issue with the arm personally but I do see your point. He somewhat responds to my body language already so maybe I'll try to fade out the arm. How would you go about retraining jump performance though? I get using body language, just not sure what you meant by that part.

Thanks though, all of you

First, cute dog and thanks for sharing! Second, I agree with adojrts that you should go back to some basics.

I would go back to one jump work and playing with a wobble board to build drive and value for the obstacles and engagement with you. I wouldn't blame your handling for the course mistakes, it looks to me like Sam just doesn't have enough value for actually doing the jumps. I would just work one obstacle at a time for shorter sessions with great rewards before trying to do any more sequencing.

It's obvious that she wants to learn though, and she has potential to be an awesome little agility dog.

Susan Garrett has a great DVD called Success With One Jump. I'm not sure what handling system you are using, but this DVD teaches you how to build value for the jumps, and teach handling skills all with one jump.

Also, Susan Salo's DVDs are great for teaching proper jump form, and I've found that doing her jump grid work builds value for the jumps since the dog is driving forward to a reward in every grid.

Hi,
My big question is, is your goal to compete? If the answer to that is yes, then there would be a lot to look at and improve.
If you watch the videos very carefully you will see that when he misses a jump it is because you are starting to step and turn slightly away (pulling your shoulders away). Therefore he is right and coming with you, dogs should and will follow body language over a verbal 9 out of 10 times. Then you send him back with exaggerated hand/arm movement. When this happens alot, it makes the dog question us, 'are you sure?' this jump? now? etc. with head checks, hesitation and/or spins before or after an obstacle. Also we don't have the dog redo the obstacle, but stop, figure why they didn't read the information we gave and how it could be done better on our part. Then you break down the sequence/exercise and only do the obstacle before and the obstacle where the problem occurred.

Agree with Pan, all those dvd's are excellent. Also you can youtube some amazing handlers that are training, search for Mecklinburg, Garrett, Derrett, Salo, Trkman etc the list is endless of free and valuable information.

Alright so I've got a few updates.

Firstly, with what you guys said I've been thinking and I'm
1)completely going to reteach his teeter and dogwalk contacts to get him really going over the equipment and so that he performs them safely 100% of the time, since he has a habit of jumping off the side just before the contact zone on both. So were going back to basics with these at home. He did go over the teeter all on his own though today! I think it helped a lot that the instructor wasn't next to him with treats in his face.
2) I'm going to reteach his jumps and turn them into a really high value obstacle, rather than the just 'meh' he's at with them right now.

I'm going out tomorrow morning to get some PVC to start teaching 2x2's as well as a proper jump or two, and a wooden board to do some contact basics with. I have the week off of school so I'll have plenty of time to work with him

I do have a question about the 2x2's though. Sam isn't normally toy driven and when he does go after a toy he just gets the zoomies and it takes him forever to refocus. I know you can also throw food but I was wondering if it would work to send him to a target type thing?



We also went to a trial yesterday to get him used to the trial environment, and I entered him in a fun match just to see how he'd do. I have a video of it but it's on my mom's camera so I need to get it uploaded first, but I'll post it later on. The fun match was an AKC excellent jumpers course and I honestly went into the ring fully expecting him to not even stay and just take off running, but he actually did have a really good stay at the beginning and he did the first three or four jumps really well! After that he took off doing zoomies but I think he did good given he's never been in this kind of environment before!

Sooo, that's my long update for the day haha

Sounds like a good plan!

As for rewarding, I usually use toys and tugging, but I know that some people use a food-stuffed toy with success.....something like this http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=596&ParentCat=132

That way, you get the chasing action combined with food reward. And if you plan on training 2x2s, you'll need to throw the reward, not have a target put out already as a lure.

Well in that case would working like a baggie filled with some treats work (kind of like the link you gave just...home made sorta)?

Sure, I don't see why not! I believe that in the 2x2 DVD, Susan is actually just throwing treats for one of the dogs at first as well, but you need ground that the treat is easily visible on, and eventually you'll have to throw the reward farther with some accuracy, so some sort of food pouch would work better for sure.

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Hmm Best topic.