Agility training
- Thread starter Panzerotti
- Start date
I love reading all the success stories on this thread, especially the little ones. 
Had a Jackpot class yesterday (my club does a CPE games class). Mimi nailed the jackpot both times, which I'm thrilled about. It was a level 1 course, so the distance send wasn't huge, but we have a send!! Yay Whippet.
Also, Mimi weaves! Slowly.. But straight poles!
Question, since I'm kind of doing this weave training on my own. I've been having her weave 12 straight poles a couple times, then opening them up so she can speed through them. My thought was, she can practice the straight poles, but we can build her confidence by still leaving them open. Is there any negative to this? We've been working on weaves for maybe a month, once or twice a week. Should I back up and let her continue with them open? Going to bring out the 2x2s tomorrow to see if we can work on entries...
Had a Jackpot class yesterday (my club does a CPE games class). Mimi nailed the jackpot both times, which I'm thrilled about. It was a level 1 course, so the distance send wasn't huge, but we have a send!! Yay Whippet.
Also, Mimi weaves! Slowly.. But straight poles!
Question, since I'm kind of doing this weave training on my own. I've been having her weave 12 straight poles a couple times, then opening them up so she can speed through them. My thought was, she can practice the straight poles, but we can build her confidence by still leaving them open. Is there any negative to this? We've been working on weaves for maybe a month, once or twice a week. Should I back up and let her continue with them open? Going to bring out the 2x2s tomorrow to see if we can work on entries...
Yay for getting mini-jackpots
The one main negative I can see with you doing open weaves fast& closed weaves slow is that it doesn't really build speed or confidence in closed weaves, just open ones. I didn't close Penn's weaves until she was really driving through semi-open weaves ..then once they were closed, she slowed down the first handful of times& then remembered weaves mean GOFAST! I'd keep working on open weaves& building confidence while closing them slowly. It's painful& my suggestion may be way off-base. May want to wait for someone with more experience to pipe in!
The one main negative I can see with you doing open weaves fast& closed weaves slow is that it doesn't really build speed or confidence in closed weaves, just open ones. I didn't close Penn's weaves until she was really driving through semi-open weaves ..then once they were closed, she slowed down the first handful of times& then remembered weaves mean GOFAST! I'd keep working on open weaves& building confidence while closing them slowly. It's painful& my suggestion may be way off-base. May want to wait for someone with more experience to pipe in!
Agility class last night was a circus. We're starting to more things off leash and halfway through the class Watson took off to play with the standard poodle boy (they're the same age, and two peas in a pod). So they ran amok, wrestling for a few minutes until I could grab Watson. Then the poor poodle's owners spent 10min trying to get him back as he played the "avoid the collar grab" game. These teenage boys!
At the end of class, we did our first little sequence with a tunnel and a jump at the end. Go through tunnel, jump and wrap back around, go back through tunnel. I knew Watson wanted to head back to the poodle, but he actually nailed it! I was so proud. The second time through (with a jump on each end) he booked it through the tunnel and then took off to play with the poodle. Bad trainer on me, because I should have anticipated that and ran it on the side of the tunnel nearest to the poodle, so I could maybe catch his attention before he bolted.
So in some ways I'm please with his off leash ability and I think if we were alone in the ring he would be pretty good. In other ways, I just have to facepalm at his overwhelming desire to play with other dogs. He's been in obedience class with other dogs consistently for the past year, but he's still a total spazz around them. At least he's friendly! Mentally, he's such a puppy still and "OMG, dog! Want to play!" is such a high priority. I wish he was my second dog, because we could have practiced obedience around dogs at a young age daily, instead of just in classes (where we live and walk, we might see one dog a day, if we're lucky, and not off leash).
He's really impressing me with obstacles. Last night he flew over a lowered A-frame on the first try. I expected him to be more careful about things, and possibly spooky, since I saw that behavior occasionally when he was younger, but clearly his confidence is sky high and he's throwing himself at everything.
At the end of class, we did our first little sequence with a tunnel and a jump at the end. Go through tunnel, jump and wrap back around, go back through tunnel. I knew Watson wanted to head back to the poodle, but he actually nailed it! I was so proud. The second time through (with a jump on each end) he booked it through the tunnel and then took off to play with the poodle. Bad trainer on me, because I should have anticipated that and ran it on the side of the tunnel nearest to the poodle, so I could maybe catch his attention before he bolted.
So in some ways I'm please with his off leash ability and I think if we were alone in the ring he would be pretty good. In other ways, I just have to facepalm at his overwhelming desire to play with other dogs. He's been in obedience class with other dogs consistently for the past year, but he's still a total spazz around them. At least he's friendly! Mentally, he's such a puppy still and "OMG, dog! Want to play!" is such a high priority. I wish he was my second dog, because we could have practiced obedience around dogs at a young age daily, instead of just in classes (where we live and walk, we might see one dog a day, if we're lucky, and not off leash).
He's really impressing me with obstacles. Last night he flew over a lowered A-frame on the first try. I expected him to be more careful about things, and possibly spooky, since I saw that behavior occasionally when he was younger, but clearly his confidence is sky high and he's throwing himself at everything.
Since is is snowing lightly, iced over, and friggin cold out we had class in the small room and worked 2 jump exercises and weave entrances.
Let me just say that Summer is incredibly wild. Worse tonight because we were inside and inside = omg. My trainer even commented on how wound up she was. I don't think she stopped moving the entire hour and when we'd stop the exercises she was running around like a lunatic. And when I'd set her on the start line, she bounces up and down repeatedly and was spinning as fast as she could.
I feel like sometimes I should reign her in but I have a confession to make: I just am so glad she is physically capable of running around like that and having fun that I let her be wild. At 9 Nikki was so arthritic and had slowed down so much. I just feel really grateful that I'm even able to do agility at all with Summer, let alone that she is so fun.
But I probably should work some on focus with her, lol.
We also had Happy Mia again today. YAYYYYY.
Overall jump exercises went great but we need to work on getting them to drive in their weaves no matter what I do. they are great if I run along side them but if I stop or change sides they start looking for me.
Let me just say that Summer is incredibly wild. Worse tonight because we were inside and inside = omg. My trainer even commented on how wound up she was. I don't think she stopped moving the entire hour and when we'd stop the exercises she was running around like a lunatic. And when I'd set her on the start line, she bounces up and down repeatedly and was spinning as fast as she could.
I feel like sometimes I should reign her in but I have a confession to make: I just am so glad she is physically capable of running around like that and having fun that I let her be wild. At 9 Nikki was so arthritic and had slowed down so much. I just feel really grateful that I'm even able to do agility at all with Summer, let alone that she is so fun.
But I probably should work some on focus with her, lol.
We also had Happy Mia again today. YAYYYYY.
Overall jump exercises went great but we need to work on getting them to drive in their weaves no matter what I do. they are great if I run along side them but if I stop or change sides they start looking for me.
I think there's a rule that once you're 9 you get a free pass on everything.
For Summer it is 'go say hi to the photographer and totally jump in their lap and then run on top of all the tunnels instead of in them'.
Agility is easily Summer's favorite thing in the world and that just makes me smile. So glad I decided to try it with her at the tender young age of 8. That last fun run we did everyone was laughing hard at Summer. When we left some people said to us, 'Well SHE sure had fun!' Yep, she sure did.
For Summer it is 'go say hi to the photographer and totally jump in their lap and then run on top of all the tunnels instead of in them'.
Agility is easily Summer's favorite thing in the world and that just makes me smile. So glad I decided to try it with her at the tender young age of 8. That last fun run we did everyone was laughing hard at Summer. When we left some people said to us, 'Well SHE sure had fun!' Yep, she sure did.
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Mimi scared the bejeezus out of me today. Did AWESOME practicing. The dog walk was set low for the beginner agility class but she actually ran it (instead of trotting). Ran straight weaves well, only popped a time or two and is definitely getting speedier (once was definitely not her fault, the pole was set up leaning slightly the opposite way. She tried to get it but just kind of awkwardly stutter stepped).
Our last run, the sequence was tunnel, tire, jump, table. She came out of the tunnel, I sent her to the tire jump and I'm not sure how she read it because she jumped and hit the side of the tire where it anchors to the side of the frame. The whole thing toppled and the framework ended up on top of her. She pulled herself out of the tire mess and came to me. I made it happy, she jumped into my arms and I had her spin/turn a few times. She was happy. My friend set the tire back up, I made sure she wasn't lame (thank gawd) and asked her to go through again. She happily jumped through. NO fear. I'm floored. We ran the course one more time to end on a good note and finished by nailing the weaves again. I'm interested to see if she's spooky with the tire next practice, but really... how many dogs have equipment 'attack' them and aren't afraid of it after? I'm really surprised my little skinny dog could take it out that easily...
Our last run, the sequence was tunnel, tire, jump, table. She came out of the tunnel, I sent her to the tire jump and I'm not sure how she read it because she jumped and hit the side of the tire where it anchors to the side of the frame. The whole thing toppled and the framework ended up on top of her. She pulled herself out of the tire mess and came to me. I made it happy, she jumped into my arms and I had her spin/turn a few times. She was happy. My friend set the tire back up, I made sure she wasn't lame (thank gawd) and asked her to go through again. She happily jumped through. NO fear. I'm floored. We ran the course one more time to end on a good note and finished by nailing the weaves again. I'm interested to see if she's spooky with the tire next practice, but really... how many dogs have equipment 'attack' them and aren't afraid of it after? I'm really surprised my little skinny dog could take it out that easily...
Spamming myself, but no tire fear for Mimi.
Oopsie. Got an e-mail that the Louisville Greater Agility trial opens next week. Erm... maybe I should get back to training my agility dogs. I took a break after our last trial and that was, uh, almost two months ago.
Whoops!!
This weekend I suppose I should outline my training plan again. Have some nice quality time watching Dave Munnings for a few hours and maybe Trkman's foundations DVD again too...
Whoops!!
This weekend I suppose I should outline my training plan again. Have some nice quality time watching Dave Munnings for a few hours and maybe Trkman's foundations DVD again too...
We had a really good class last night. Our instructor asked me to bring a spray bottle to work on Watson's tendency to run off and do zoomies or play with other dogs (he started doing it every single time he was off leash). I've used it successfully at home when he got over the top with the rabbits, so I was willing to try it in agility. Success! The first little sequence we did he rocketed out of the tunnel and ran around like a loon. The instructor walked towards him and sprayed the bottle a couple times (I don't think she was even close enough to get him wet), I called, and he zoomed back to me so fast he almost knocked me over. The whole rest of the class he was attentive, fairly calm, and focused on everything we did, but still fast and enthusiastic. No more running away during off leash activites!
I'm generally not one to jump to aversives, but I have to admit that the spray bottle is pretty magical for him. It just stops him in his tracks and makes him actually think through what he's doing, and choose something else. Once is enough.
Also, he cracks me up with jumps. He doesn't quite get the point, and actually went the entire way around a jump instead of just going over it. Weirdo. Still doing well with introducing the A frame and dog walk, and he's the only dog in the class without the tendency to try a flying leap from the top which is nice.
I'm generally not one to jump to aversives, but I have to admit that the spray bottle is pretty magical for him. It just stops him in his tracks and makes him actually think through what he's doing, and choose something else. Once is enough.
Also, he cracks me up with jumps. He doesn't quite get the point, and actually went the entire way around a jump instead of just going over it. Weirdo. Still doing well with introducing the A frame and dog walk, and he's the only dog in the class without the tendency to try a flying leap from the top which is nice.