The Mia agility training thread

[Laurelin]

Yep, that's going to be my strategy. I'm not even going to bring a tug to class and just bring tennis balls. Then I will work on a few ideas to try to build tug drive at home. 1) flirt pole and see if I can get her tugging on that more. 2) Sock or something similar with a ball inside it. 3) The kong squeaky ball on a rope. 4) Shaping a tug.

Do you think it's too much to experiment with all those ideas a little bit? Or focus on just one?

I think I CAN build her tug drive eventually. It's not like she has no toy/prey drive and she will tug on occasion. I just need to work out how to utilize it/make it more rewarding.

 

[Laurelin]

Just a quick update. Mia is really progressing with her tug. It's not wonderful but she'll grab the toy and play with it some. So that's progress.

Yesterday we did the tunnel, which she was a pro at. But she's done the tunnel a zillion times before.

She is picking up speed on all the exercises left and right (ALL the dogs are).

Been doing a lot of 'follow me', keeping the dog with you, lots of shaping, going through jumps without the bar on, driving to targets, changing sides, etc. Mia is absolutely fabulous and wonderful. I'm a bit uncoordinated. Haha.

Her crate manners are a million times better than they were! That might be the biggest brag so far. She was so bad at crating and now load up and sit and wait in her crate patiently for her turn.

I really have loved this class, it's been a great drive building class. My trainer has been very complimentary about the group of dogs in my class and that they're really just fantastic. They're all well mannered and all have some drive to them. We've progressed a lot faster than usual, usually she has to spend much of the time on basics with dogs that know nothing at all.

 

[Laurelin]

Oh one thing I should mention about the crate is that she does a lot better right now waiting in it with the door open rather than closed. The door open and she will lie down or sit and wait comfortably, but with it closed she starts trying to open it and seems to get frustrated.

 

[crysania]

You may find that she gets more and more into tug as time goes on. When we started agility (almost two years ago now...wow!), my dog enjoyed tugging at home, but wouldn't in class. Then she started to grab the toy and tug in class at the beginning, but I couldn't get her hyped up enough to grab it later on in class. Recently it's been like a light went on and she's grabbing the toy and tugging whenever I get her out of the crate and present the toy.

And along with it, she's suddenly got even more drive an enthusiasm. I've spent a year and a half having to run and wait for my dog. And now I'm trying to keep up with her! So the tug drive and agility drive seemed to go hand in hand for her.

That being said, when it comes to rewards during runs in class, we predominantly use treats. We use the tug before runs to get her hyped up and ready to go, but use treats to reward things we do on the course. She's very food motivated and so that's just the easiest thing to use as a reward for us.

Sounds like things are going well with Mia! Agility classes are a blast!