Agility training

Beanie

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Everyone looks great!

My trainer is talking about us maybe entering a trial in June or July.... Eek! I don't know if we're ready but I guess experience doesn't hurt either.
Sometimes you just have to trust your trainer! I didn't think Auggie was ready but she talked us into entering, and she was right - we were ready. If it were up to me I probably never would have entered, LOL.
 

Laurelin

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The plan right now is to enter some classes without weaves (still working on those). They're doing really really well lately in class. My handling... could be better- LOL! I guess we'll see when June and July come around. The plan has always been to wait till fall/winter. Is there anything to really worry about (other than losing some pride if it all goes to hell?)

Now that I am on my computer and not my phone- tonight went really nicely. Some bobbles here and there but we did some good long sequences with some more difficult handling. The girls stayed with me well and were engaged. I rewarded BOTH of them with a toy. That's pretty huge for us.

The one issue I noticed is driving forward... they stop if I stop. I think part of the problem is that I have a tendency to say 'gogogogo!' when I want them to pick up speed and it's subsequently poisoned the word 'GO!' for them to drive out. How would you fix that? Do you have a word to say to try to get the dog going a bit faster?
 

DJEtzel

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I'm still new to agility, but could you work on sending from one object to another with a clicker or shaping training? Do you throw a bag/toy/etc after successful runs to encourage the driving forward?

This is all stuff I did with Recon from the start and not Frag, and Frag will stop when I do, Recon will always drive forward to the next obstacle I call, regardless of my movement.


Sorry if those were dumb comments/ideas or I'm not understanding what you're asking/having problems with.
 

Laurelin

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Yes we throw toys and have done lots of restrained recalls/driving to a target. Maybe I just need to brush it up a bit since we've moved past that quite a bit. Summer is just now getting to where she follows the toy if I throw it. Toy drive with her is virtually nothing so it's a work in progress. Tonight was the first time I ever used a toy as a reward with her. (and it's always filled with food for her).

I can send them on a simple exercise easily. If I'm running though, they both want to stick.
 

Beanie

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Silvia Trkman in her Ready Steady Go video talks about getting your dog running flat out - I think she says it happens regularly when your dog is running with another dog, it's been a while since I watched the DVD - and to then name that so you can use it on the course. If "go" is truly poisoned you need another word. Hustle, hurry, zip zip, something like that. Auggie has a "hurry hurry!"

I would also work more on the restrains to targets. Distance skills are something that just came with time with Auggie, the more confident he got the more he was willing to go out. Payton's confidence explodes forth much faster than Auggie's but it was more or less the same thing... once he knew how to do the obstacle and what was expected, he was willing to charge forth and take it (even when not told to do so...) Georgie and Pepper are much more reserved about it and are less willing to go out and do something on their own too, I think it just takes time to build a dog's confidence to being able to go away from you and that yes, that IS what you want. Also make sure your body language is clear that it's okay to go away from you.
 

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Gusto had a really tough start to the weekend. I'm still trying to work out what he needs for a warm-up to get him ready to go in the ring, and he wound up stressing quite a bit in his first run. He got going a bit more for his second run Friday, but it wasn't until Saturday that I started to see the Gusto I know in the ring. He can't be left to "think" for even a second apparently or he stresses. We TugTugTug until we get to the gate, then throw the tug and I continue to try to keep him engaged until the timer actually tells us to go. The professional photos from the day show me on the start line doing everything short of rolling on the ground with him! He conveniently got it together for the last two runs of the weekend, which were really the only two we "needed" towards his PI, with a great clean run in Standard (other than having to go see if the piece of chalk on the floor by the scribe was perhaps edible, but he was still under time), and pulled off the gamble despite the fact that I was nowhere near where I wanted to be.
Meg was adorably happy in both those runs! I know what you mean about trying to figure out what a dog needs as warm-up. With Pirate, I eventually figured out that the best thing I could do was to crate him away from the action, and then it isn't that important what I do for warm-up, he just gets too wound up and/or stressed in the building with the trial. Good luck finding the magic recipe for Gusto!
 

Flyinsbt

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The one issue I noticed is driving forward... they stop if I stop. I think part of the problem is that I have a tendency to say 'gogogogo!' when I want them to pick up speed and it's subsequently poisoned the word 'GO!' for them to drive out. How would you fix that? Do you have a word to say to try to get the dog going a bit faster?
I don't have a cue for my dog to go faster, they're generally trying to move out. I don't expect mine to keep going if I stop (don't really do gamblers type stuff), so that isn't something I specifically work on, though I have done some training with Pirate on driving forward to the obstacle directly in front of him with the cue "go!", so that I can start movement in another direction. I did that by running him down a straight line of jumps, with his ball on the ground at the end of the jump chute. That's very much like how he learned his RC's, so it made sense to him, and he picked it up quickly. (the ball is his favorite reward, and the one he'll drive towards the fastest.)
 

Finkie_Mom

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You love rear crosses, I don't think Kimma does so much. You slow down to get behind her for the cross, so she slows down because you are, and so on. She starts to look a bit confused. She's definitely giving you a good effort!
In class she DEFINITELY doesn't slow down. The only time I noticed a huge slow down here was after her dog walk contact. And we are working on drive after the contacts, as she has none. We were doing running contacts until those went south.

Considering how she used to be in new environments, I'm VERY happy with her progress!
 

paws24

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I want to start some agility training for my dog,
hope someone could give me tips
when starting agility training.
 

Beanie

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I'm looking at the agility event listing.
Going "Oh, I like that judge... hmm..."

Seriously. I need to stop it. Or just enter knowing it will be a complete waste of my monies.
 

Beanie

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Last night I grabbed a toybox, flipped it upside down, and started teaching P a 2o2o. He learned the position quite quickly, but after a few reps, he didn't want to stay still. He kept hopping onto the box, dropping his front feet down, then immediately popping his back legs off. Silly goosey. Staying still is boooooring. (I have video but the laptop isn't appropriate for editing so it will be a while to show it.)

We are also working more on his nose touch which has sort of gone by the wayside.

We also need to teach a restrain... I was thinking the easiest way to do this would be with his harness, but how many times am I going to actually have Payton in his harness? He only wears it when we go hiking, never for agility, and he will certainly never be wearing it in the ring. So maybe I should just try shoving on his chest instead. I'm worried he's going to be like "WTF are you pushing me for?" and just let himself be pushed back rather than responding with his oppositional reflex. This might be interesting.
 

SaraB

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We also need to teach a restrain... I was thinking the easiest way to do this would be with his harness, but how many times am I going to actually have Payton in his harness? He only wears it when we go hiking, never for agility, and he will certainly never be wearing it in the ring. So maybe I should just try shoving on his chest instead. I'm worried he's going to be like "WTF are you pushing me for?" and just let himself be pushed back rather than responding with his oppositional reflex. This might be interesting.
I wouldn't start with just pushing him. Get him really amped up with a game of tug, throw that toy out there while you are holding his chest, amp him up more "Are you reeeaaady?!?" and then just let him go while racing him to the toy. Then just time your letting go when he is pushing into your hands more and more.
 

Laurelin

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I can hold up Mia's new tug and rev her up then get her to race to it and tug like crazy. It's pretty big deal for her. She is crazy for this bunny fur tug.
 

Beanie

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I wouldn't start with just pushing him. Get him really amped up with a game of tug, throw that toy out there while you are holding his chest, amp him up more "Are you reeeaaady?!?" and then just let him go while racing him to the toy. Then just time your letting go when he is pushing into your hands more and more.
That's a good idea. I'm worried he will be like "No way lady, that's a trick" because we've worked a lot on impulse control and NOT getting all tightly wound just because a toy is thrown or dancing around... but it probably won't take TOO much encouraging to get him to burst forward. =P



Worked more on rear crosses in class tonight. I love this baby dog. He is a straight up joy to work with. Everything he does, he is having fun. He makes it easy to have fun WITH him. I almost enjoy working with him as much as I enjoy working with Auggie. Our teamwork together is shaping up quite nicely.

I also took Pepper and, uh, well she is not a joy to work with LOL. I love her but oh my God. She is very... frenetic, and I don't mean that in a good way. I feel bad because I think the expectation is that I SHOULD be training her... but... well, I don't think she particularly enjoys it either honestly. She would rather just run around and derp derp derp than to actually do something. She (might) do it if I ask but isn't doing it because she really wants to.
I really had high hopes for her at one point but as time goes by I'm no longer finding those hopes very realistic - nor am I really that upset by putting them away. I'm really not sure what to do with her. I could possibly get novice titles on her with relative ease, probably open titles too, as long as I was very selective about which judge I showed under (only short women!) but I don't think she will ever be very competitive, nor do I think she will ever particularly love agility... I don't want to force her to be something she's not.

I almost took Auggie with me and Payton instead of Pepper. I love my little guy and I really wanted to take him and play with him. I really miss running with him. I've been thinking of maybe entering him here and there once Payton is competing... what's a JWW run going to hurt? If I pick the right trials it won't even cost me $20 to enter and play with him...
When we move into my house he will get to play in my backyard, but there's not enough room at my parent's house to really cut loose and just play together like I want. If I have time this weekend I might take just him to the training building and play, just the two of us, just for fun.
I don't regret retiring him but I sure do miss running with him.
 

DJEtzel

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Found out about a 4 week handling class starting tomorrow night at the training facility north of here. So Recon and I entered and will be carpooling with a chatty acd mix Thursdays now. Pretty excited for a new class and new people; and a lot more challenges.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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Backup and I had so much fun in class tonight. He's shaping better than ever, which still means its a struggle lol, and we saw more jump drive and worked on our sit stays which are problematic at the startline.
 

Laurelin

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I kind of failed at nationals pics. I didn't bring my camera at all because I didn't want to lug it around and it was pretty dark inside some of the buildings. I also just got my iphone and apparently suck at taking photos. I did get one that was decent:


nationals3v2 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

Zoomed in:


nationalsv3 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

My video quality sucked once I got it on youtube. Don't know why, it looks fine on my phone/computer.
 

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