Agility training

Laurelin

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Laurelin, I would base it on your dog. Shamoo at 15 is far more spry than Arnold at 8. I would like to hope I can trial B at 9, hell we're hoping we might Q by then. :p

If Summer is healthy and happy keep running. Do you have any videos?
No real videos of agility. Here's one when we first were doing foundations. I'll have to try some of more complicated exercises next week. Filming is a hassle. Lol

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=duHy6XeESVYu


Here's us goofing around.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vmIfjtGIjus
 

Laurelin

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The trials I've been to have very few little dogs. Short jump heights are usually Cardis. But in my heights there's only one or two dogs running.
 

adojrts

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Small dogs in general are pretty rare here. I'm wondering if I just don't live in a very agility-happy area. Our trials are easy to register for last minute, they're not very crowded and there aren't many small dog competitors around.

Have two friends who run 10" dogs; one is a Havanese and the other is a Cavalier. They're often the only dogs competing in their height class (one is in Masters, the other Advanced). Plus, they're often the first dogs on the line since there's rarely any 6" regulars running. There's one lady with a fabulous little Pap who I see from time to time, but really that's it.

Heck, there's not even that many Jacks who I see competing. It's pretty much all herders and retrievers these days.
Low entries because there are often multiple trials each weekend in Ontario. Last weekend alone there were 3 east of Toronto, K-9 Klub, Spot On and AARF :) There has never been small dog numbers that equal or come close to the 22" or 26" divisions, at least not that I have saw.
 

Sekah

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Low entries because there are often multiple trials each weekend in Ontario. Last weekend alone there were 3 east of Toronto, K-9 Klub, Spot On and AARF :) There has never been small dog numbers that equal or come close to the 22" or 26" divisions, at least not that I have saw.
This is true. K9 Klub and DAO need to stop having trials on the same weekend. I'm debating going up to Innisfil the first weekend in July. I've not been before. Do they have a nice facility?
 

Beanie

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Do you retire dogs once they hit a certain age or do you keep going as long as the dog is having a blast and not having and physical issues?
Well, Auggie was six when I retired him, a month before he turned seven.
But his grandma was retired when she was 15.

I think there's too many variables involved to give some kind of definite answer about when. Auggie's retirement didn't really have anything to do with his age. I mean, to a point it did... but it was a financial decision more than anything. It was going to be a lot of throwing money down chasing after a PACH that we were unlikely to get and his age was a factor in that. If he were three years old I probably would have looked at it a bit differently, but being a seven year old dog, the picture looked a bit differently to me. OTOH if I were a richer person and had money I was comfortable basically throwing away, I might have kept playing with him.

There's a lot of questions about health of a dog, how prone they are to injury, and their general enjoyment level as well that come far before "well how old is the dog?"
 

Laurelin

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Honestly at this point I don't care about titles. I dont have any particular ones I want and even if I did its not like I need to prove these dogs as they're both spayed pets. I guess it kind of looks like throwing away money but I don't see me really campaigning either dog for anything big. Titles happen they happen but if they don't then I'm ok too. To me it's just a fun thing to do with my dogs. She is having a lot of fun.
 

Shai

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The trials I've been to have very few little dogs. Short jump heights are usually Cardis. But in my heights there's only one or two dogs running.
That's crazy. Our last one-ring trial had 20-25 dogs in 8" masters and that's a only one ring...

Novice and Open might only have a couple but with the big masters classes there are a lot of little dogs there. Well, there are a lot of dogs, period. Full trial syndrome :p I guess the 24" division (other end of the spectrum) always has quite a few more dogs than 8". 20" is usually the biggest class...very rarely under 50 dogs. For two-ring trials, flirting with triple digits is not unusual.
 

DenoLo

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We only had another dog to compete against once, in 8 inch novice and he was a Corgi. There are a few in some other classes, but not a whole lot.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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This is a pretty cool video. Sloan hadn't been on a full course since October in Las Vegas and Denis, although her owner and trainer in IPO & OB, has never handled in agility. They recently started some foundation classes to learn to work as a team and iron out some issues while getting hooked on another venue for some fun.

You can totally see Denis progress in this video, he was convinced he couldn't get those front crosses in a few places at the beginning (thus running her into dropping bars) but the next day he nails them. So many times he pushes her out too far, she's a bit disconnected and confused, but with time and practice they're going to be very smooth.

I can't wait to see what they can do with some practice and training.

[YOUTUBE]d49qzCwqRFo[/YOUTUBE]

I'm still debating posting my videos. LOL I might save those for a fun juxtaposition of when we actually can run a course at a trial. :p
 

CaliTerp07

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Tons of little dogs around here. Lots of paps, chis, shelties (teeny ones that jump 8 or 12), poms, mini poodles, and tiny mixes. NADAC is a big fan of low jump heights, but generally half the trial is 4, 8, 12 (the other half 16/20).

Also, I will not put a retirement age on Lucy. She will tell me when she's done. This weekend a 14 year old basset finished her elite standard title. With low jump heights and no teeter, she was capable of doing it all.
 

CaliTerp07

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Wish they had NADAC around here. That'd be a great place to start.
We actually really struggle with it. It's very little obstacle focus, and tons of subtle handling things. You won't see too many serpentines, but you'll see tons of discrimination challenges at a distance (I've never done a novice standard course without at least 1 tunnel/dog walk or tunnel/frame challenge--oftentimes multiple), and lots of sends. If you can't send, you're in trouble because with so much space the dog can always beat you to stuff. And if your dog is like mine, if you don't give them clear directions they quickly lose interest in the massive caverns between obstacles and go run around/visit people.

CPE was a much easier venue for my obstacle focused dog. There is a lot more going on to keep her brain engaged, less space between obstacles, and yet still super simple at levels 1-2-3 for handling challenges.

Both venues are great for new dogs because you get 5 or 6 runs a day. Lucy would wither and die if she had to be in a great for 12 hours to run twice like she would at an AKC trial around here.

Guess it just depends on the dog though.
 

Beanie

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I was sending an e-mail off to Payton's breeder, letting her know I got his OFA results, sent along a photo of him in his party hat for his birthday, and telling her we were doing to debut in agility soon.

In a month.

Holy ($*@ it's in a month.




I just wrote in on my calendar and realized I basically entered him in two trials back to back. I thought there were a couple weeks between them. NOPE. One is one weekend and the next is immediately following.

 

BostonBanker

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I really wouldn't let anyone other than Summer influence when you retire her. She looks incredibly fit, happy and spry in that video of spinning.

I go to every trial with Meg thinking "Maybe I should let her retire after this one". And she paws at her crate trying to get out and her eyes glow and she goes out and lays down a super course. She's nearly 9, and very grey, but as sound as a dollar and fit, so it is up to her. She's earned her retirement 100 times over, but as long as she wants to play she can. It doesn't break the bank for me to enter her in a class or two a day when Gusto goes to a trial, and it's only fair. I got a second dog promising that I wouldn't let it take away from her.

I'm excited for all these trial debuts coming up! I can't wait to hear how things go.

Honestly at this point I don't care about titles. I dont have any particular ones I want and even if I did its not like I need to prove these dogs as they're both spayed pets. I guess it kind of looks like throwing away money but I don't see me really campaigning either dog for anything big. Titles happen they happen but if they don't then I'm ok too.
Aww, it's so cute when new agility people are at this stage :p Soon enough you will be pouring over premiums and muttering "Double gamblers, double gamblers, why doesn't anyone do double snooker" and other such nonsense.
 

BostonBanker

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Videos!

Meg first, because she is perfect and I love her so much it hurts. This was her standard run Saturday. I went into the trial (as I always do these days) thinking "I'll let her decide, if she wants to be done she can be done". And as always, she made it very clear that retirement is not an option now. She had no start line because when you are Meg there are no rules. But I love how eager and happy she is. Note the frequent panicked "Meg! Meg!" shouts, as she was about 3x faster than I expected her to be. The microphone did not pick up my "Jesus Christ!" as she ran that line on the back end of the ring with the chute (which is an uphill run).
[YOUTUBE]Q5M3uvg9Wlc[/YOUTUBE]

Gusto's first run of the weekend. He was a bit stressed on the start line, so rather than make an issue, I didn't ask for his start line behavior. I think it wound up being the right answer, as he clearly shakes off the stress and runs. Look at those contacts! He hadn't been on contact equipment at all in about 8 weeks, since it was the last thing the vet wanted introduced after his injury, and practice was rained out that week. I'm also thrilled with his attempt to wrap the jump between a-frames. I really need to work on teaching him to run "tighter", as I haven't trained the skill at all yet. Obviously my opening was poorly timed since he is still slower than in practice while trialing (I thought we'd get most of the way across the dog walk coming back before the buzzer sounded), so he got a little lost on the long run to the gamble, but came right back and did his job. That is such hard thing for him and I'm so proud!
[YOUTUBE]0wz9IAVFFds[/YOUTUBE]

And his Jumpers run from Sunday. I stayed solely to see how he'd handle running in the rain, and he was super. Jumped right into his start line position and held it for the release, and handled me throwing a lot of late rear crosses at him (I'd walked the course with mostly fronts, but only walked twice because of the rain and got a bit lost!). A little nose-down, and one moment where he thought about leaving me, but again came back to keep working. I can't get over how hard he tried all weekend. It is so tempting for him to leave me and sniff in times of stress, and that point in the jumpers run was the most he did all weekend.
[YOUTUBE]RxZ4AUHDYeU[/YOUTUBE]

I'm still grinning because I'm so freaking lucky to have these dogs.
 

Beanie

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Why am I stressing myself and Payton out trying to work on insane weave pole entries? It's NOVICE. NOVICE. And for that matter MASTER AUGGIE never had these weave pole entries I've been setting up for Payton.

This is stupid.
 
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I think the primary training should start with home training sessions and followed by successive gradual ones. A good pet owner knows the best way to bring up his or her pets well.


_________________________________________________________________

Pets are missing puzzle pieces of life!
 

Flyinsbt

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Why am I stressing myself and Payton out trying to work on insane weave pole entries? It's NOVICE. NOVICE. And for that matter MASTER AUGGIE never had these weave pole entries I've been setting up for Payton.

This is stupid.
:lol-sign: If you're stressing it too much, you shouldn't do it. You and Payton probably won't learn if you're overstressed. But if you can take a more chill attitude, overtraining makes actual trialing a lot easier. ;)
 

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