So... Here is the plan. As agility is easier to show as to explain, you'll be getting your homeworks in video form. You'll always get some new assignments, but you need to keep practicing the old ones too - we'll be checking back on those here and there, so don't forget to keep working on those!
This class program is very extensive and after discussing it with 1st class students, I decided to give you some more time for last three lessons: first three you'll get every 2 weeks and last three every 3 weeks and we'll also make a 2-week break somewhere in between to let you catch up. As always, taking things slowly is always better and takes you to the goal faster as rushing things up, that's why I'm giving you more time for your homeworks.
1. restrained send to cik/cap - the purpose of this exercise is to play a nice chasing game, while teaching great sends, distance work and commitment - see how early I can start running in the other direction when sending Le to the jump.
Things to pay attention to:
- height: If you only did cik&cap on other objects so far, start with a jump stanchion now, but without the bar first: and then put the bar VERY low - max. 5cm (2 inches) for smaller dogs, 10cm (4 inches) for BC size and bigger. You can then add some height every 5 sessions: 3cm up for small dogs, 5cm for bigger dogs - SLOWER with young dogs! If you already did cik&cap with more height, do this exercise on your normal height, send a video and I will tell you if it's o.k. or you need to make it lower.
- distance: Start the dog very close to the jump first and then further&further every next try to slowly add distance. If the dog turns back to you (as Le does once in my video) or waits for you, start closer again and add distance more gradually.
- angle: Note from which angle I bring Le to the jump and in which direction I run away to reward. The purpose is to teach them to jump close to the stanchion, NOT in the middle of the bar! That's why I always do this side approach FIRST and do lots of it before trying any straight approaches. Check the angle again as it's not the best angle to see and many people do it coming to the jump facing it and then running parallel to it away and then the dogs are back-jumping the jump. You want to come to the jump from the side (nearing the stanchion/wing first) and then run away perpendicular to it.
- speed: You can't expect much speed with multi-warps, but you definitely want it now. Restrain the dog, wait for a good pull, let him go and run away for them to chase you&the toy. Make sure the dog is rewarded when still moving - don't stop and reward: run and reward! 🙂
2. If the first part goes well, you can also do some figure 8s + chase it game: it's the same game, only that you use two jumps now and run from one to another, sometimes still rewarding the first wrap, sometimes 4th, sometimes 2nd, sometimes 5th, sometimes 3rd... Note the angle of the jumps (side approach again!) and the distance between them: you want BIG distance to get good speed - something like 10m/33'. Again, you want the jumps under this angle to make sure the dog is jumping close to the stanchion, not in the middle of the bar. DON'T do figure 8s on one jump, it teaches the dog to jump in the middle!
3. restrained send to a tunnel (obstacle discrimination!) + come to hand vs. go game
Restrain the dog very close to the tunnel, as he is pulling towards it, say "tunnel, tunnel" to them: pulling in the direction of that thing is what you want when you say "tunnel" - and then let them go. Slowly add distance. Later on, you can add more obstacles (jumps&contact) close to the tunnel to make the discrimination harder: only say "tunnel" when the dog is pulling in the right direction, you can feel it if you hold him. You do the same with jumps: call cik&cap and release to the jump that is first the only thing around and then add tunnels closer&closer. The goal is teaching obstacle discrimination AND actively pulling towards obstacles you call (as opposed to hanging with you, waiting for you to take them all the way to each obstacle).
To train even more things at the time, when the dog is out of the tunnel, either call to hand and when he is at your side, either do a front cross or a shoulder pull (see the video) and reward for closeness - OR say your magic "run FAST" word and throw a toy ahead when the dog is catching up with you - meaning that you're moving in both situations, do NOT stand still when you send!
To make it even more challenging and train three things at the time 🙂 you can also add more tunnels and jumps around, like this:
Try to change it some every time, like bringing the other tunnel closer, or curving it sometimes, or using a jump instead, and also try running by it (to the other entry maybe) while calling to hand so that the dog needs to stay with you even when you’re actually moving towards the tunnel/jump and similar.
4. independent weaves
If you haven't started weaves yet, set 12 poles in two rows (left row must always be 60cm/24inches closer to you when you stand in front of the channel in order to teach them correct entries), at least 1m apart, restrain the dog at least 3m before the channel, throw the toy through and release. As the dog is running to his toy, sometimes just stand back, sometimes run after him, on both sides, sometimes far, sometimes close, sometimes run and stop, sometimes run and turn etc. The purpose is to teach the dog to ignore your body language when in the weaves and complete the task. Slowly switch to a static toy 4m after the channel, bringing the two rows closer&closer as you practise independent performance (I'm using bowls with treats with Le as she isn't too excited about dead toys... - but I quickly switched to a toy, thrown after she is out then to get more speed). See the video for some ideas on what to do when the dog is in a channel. If the dog already knows the weaves, send the video of how independent it is. If it's not, go back to the channel. With puppies, you can start the channel work, but only play with it max. twice a week, to not progress too fast as you don't want to close it to the point that requires real weaving before the dog is fully grown. But you can do a lot of work on independence and entries without doing any real weaving.
Have fun!
Silvia, Is there anything I can start adding to our training sessions to help my dog Lil learn how to jump well at maximum speed? Her ground speed has really increased recently and she has started to have difficulty managing widely-spaced straight jumps.
Well, you can try the figure 8 with very wide spread jumps! And if that goes well, add another straight jump in between, so that she is running from a wrap, over a straight jump to another wrap. That will sure make you run too! 🙂
Thanks Silvia, I can’t wait to try it…as soon as the new snow/slush mix melts.
Hi Silvia,
some questions about adding height. Kix (BC) is now 8 month old and still growing ( a little bit 😉 ). Until now, he knows bars on ground. He is really crazy about cik&cap and doing pretty well. Will post a movie next.
I am not sure when to add height. In our club, it is not common to let the dog jump before he is one year of age. I know you started earlier. You wrote above “slower for younger dogs” in our homework. But what is your plan for adding jumping height in detail?
thanks, Betty
For BC size puppies, I put bars on 5cm at about 6 months of age and then raise it so slowly that I’m at 55cm at 15 months and 65cm at 18 months.
Just to understand it right. Do you mean every month of age you raise the bar about 5 cm?
Not that systematically :), but yes, something like this.
I really like to participate in your experience. When do you add height, what are your basic criteria?
Hm, it’s mostly just the feeling… When I see the dog is coordinated, strong, confident, fast and tight enough, I raise it some.
Thanks 🙂
Re-posting, on account no-one could see my videos last time (thanks Diane)!
I am really looking forward to feedback on these videos. I don’t know how to edit so I am sorry but these aren’t as professional as most videos posted on here!
There are 3 of the cikcak exercises. I call it ‘dig’ for right and ‘check’ for left. We have done some of this before on low jumps, but not correctly (!)-I have been sending her from different angles and I should have been sending her from the side. I can see now how where you stand will affect the tightness of the turn.
Although she jumps on full height now, I haven’t done cikcak on full height (we started cikcak in January) but thought I would try it today so you could see how she did. I have noticed before that her digs (rights) are not as tight as her checks.
I just moved the camera so you could see the turns better for the full height
I have done cikcak on two jumps, but not in this sequence (from this angle).
Tunnel.
Tunnel cue is ‘through’. I thought this would be the easiest but I seem to get it all wrong! Practice needed…. And am I running too close with her to the tunnel? Second attempt shown too.
Weaves.
I taught her weaves on 2x2-and its very interesting that you say dogs taught this method bounce, because that’s what she does! Although the dvd does suggest making a slight channel to cure this and I have only done this on a few occasions. Today was a test for us-I can see I would benefit from channels (I can make my 2 x 2s into a channel). How far apart do you think the channel should be?
I have rear crossed before but never stopped completely, or turned round. She didn’t know what to make of me turning round! I wondered if me stopping confused her because of the deceleration work I have done (Greg Derrett foundation-when I stop she should stop), but then realised that when she goes wrong-I stop! So she probably thought she had gone wrong, and got confused. Poor dog!
Audra, can I ask how long it took you to upload all of that? I have pretty good internet but it takes all night to upload one three or four minute video in full quality, and half the time the upload is interrupted and I have to start over in the morning. I’m trying to figure out how to make it better.
It did seem to take ages! Not all night though. I did it while I was working and could carry on working while it uploaded.
Probably at least half an hour for all of them-maybe longer? I didn’t do anything special -I wouldn’t know how!
Half an hour! Something is definitely wrong then. Okay, thank you!
Oh, I replied there already, the videos were public by the time I reviewed them. Please see my reply there on cik&cap. The tunnel exercise is going GREAT, not sue why you think you’re doing it wrong? I loved the speed and tightness on coming to your hand! No problem you are running with her as long as she is driving well ahead! -- And she certainly is 🙂 Weaves look good, it could be she simply can’t reach enough to single step! Still, as you can still do some work on entries and independence (but introduce the challenges somewhat more gradually to not confuse her too much!), I would open a channel some also to make it easier on her body and avoid too many repetitions of real weaving -- open it to like 10cm/4″. Try turning/stopping more gently for now and then slowly add more challenges to make sure that when in weaves, she should actually ignore your body language and just focus on the task. Great job so far, she sure looks like a real fun dog!
Thanks-I just replied to the cik&cak further back. Apart from saying I wish I had known about your courses 2 years ago 🙂 I mainly just wondered whether I should train on low jumps for everything (sequences at club etc) or just when we do specific cik&cak work?
and if I compete before they are really tight I should just not use cik&cak?
It was more me getting it wrong than her with the tunnel. I was having trouble running on the surface too-although Cara wasn’t! She is a very enthusiastic girl-I think ‘Go’ has been the easiest thing of all to teach her!!
The weave distance has just increased here, and she was trained on closer ones-I will see if she single stepped then as I have got some videos. She is small, so it could be she just finds it easier to bounce I guess.
I will use channels as you suggest -I like the idea of being able to work on distractions without her having to bend her body as much. Thankyou 🙂
Mostly replied there already 🙂 I see and reply to posts on my “recent comments” list in the order they were posted. For the weaves, let her decide on what’s most comfortable for her. It’s only important she knows she has the single stepping option.
It’s the dead of winter here in Canada, and I only have access to an indoor training area once a week (sometimes two) so I had to work on everything at once. Tat is not quite 8 months old yet so we just worked on sends, to tunnel and cik&cap. Weaves will come later.
She’s not really pulling towards the obstacles; we need work on that. What can I do at home in confined spaces to help? She’s not really blasting through the tunnels either, but after I turned the video camera off, instead of using tug toys, I threw a tennis ball for her when she exited the tunnel and I got a lot more speed out of her this way. Whippets LOVE to run, so should I reward by throwing far so she can just RUN, instead of rewarding with tugging, or should I mix them both up? It isn’t always easy to throw far when we’re working indoors. She does like to tug but she goes into another drive when she gets to just run.
So here is our first training session:
Funny, I first watched the video and then read the comment and that was my though exactly: you need to run much further away with a toy OR throw it to give her more room to open up and really run -- she actually charges for a toy really well, so have her run longer distances to allow her to really open up. I think she is charging really well after cik&cap and a tunnel -- but yes, could drive more to it. I think it will come after she starts to expect a fun chase after the send! Keep working on a restrain/push back at home as that would help a lot with that too. Some racing her to things like a toy (first moving, then static -- I know, not so much fun) would help too. I sure see lots of potential for speed here! You don’t really need tugging for this no, chasing will do!
Hi Silvia and classmate !
I started work with restrained send to cik/cap but with problems : misunderstanding withGarlic, inhibition due to restrain, lost of motivation for playing with her prefered toys, no execution of verbal cues …
Finally, this evening I decide to switch to restrained send to a tunnel and with some solutions :
first, I replace harness by a collar and a gentle restrain and it’s OK !
second, I use a string with a polecat for chassing
third, I don’t click & reward with a toy because she doesn’t know it
2 or 3 tries are ok, chassing the toy, then she don’t want playing more
Half a hour later I decide to work with my other dog Attila, sending him to the tunnel. She likes this play folowing him in the tunnel !
Then back to restrained send to a tunnel with Garlic alone : 3 or 4 tries with nice motivation.
What I understand :
-- for the begining, I must do very short sessions ( she is 1 year old )
-- Garlic stop for a treat after a click and she don’t understand when I give her a toy and wait for food.
-- “ouiiiii” = yessss in french has the same effect than a click : she stops and wants her reward
P.S. : Silvia, you could be proud of her heeling that is better&better day after day and she is very very happy !
Oh, don’t insist on restraining if she doesn’t like it! You certainly don’t want her to stress over it! Just start with a bark or a spin or even a stay instead! Definitely keep sessions short and fun! Away from agility, teach her that click or yes can be followed by a toy. I think she is fine with that with RC, no?
Here are my training sessions with Frisco.
Weaves: I see I need more proofing for independent weaves. I tend to run them in a similar fashion so will have to make a concentrated effort to really differ my body position and movements.
Cik&Cap: He seems better turning right then left, and I thought he did better when I switched toys. He really likes the rubber milker I use.
Send to Tunnel: I’m not sure if I’m doing this correctly, and what needs changing. Will wait for your input. Thanks!
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Not sure why the 3rd video didn’t work. Trying again:
For everybody with dogs who can weave pretty good already: here are some suggestions on how to challenge them even more: for entries, try some speedy 90 degrees entries, maybe with a rear cross after, then coming from a chute set parallel to weaves so that they need to push out to find the first gap (the other side, where the dog has to go around the first pole, is easier, so I spend more time on a difficult side). You can also set some obstacle discrimination at the entry, like a tunnel or a jump really close. You can also set a straight tunnel perpendicular to the weaves at the end (or set it towards the wall instead) -- it often confuses them and makes them pop out if not used to. For the challenges on your movement when the dog is weaving -- they’re easier when done at the distance and earlier in the weaves. The most challenging is when you are close to the dog and running as normally and then right before the end, you start with brisk head movements as if checking where the next obstacle is or start a turn etc. So you can try those difficult stuff somewhere in the middle first, it’s easier for them to stay in, and then next towards the end. You can also actually set a tunnel or a jump really close to it and start turning to that, making sure he stays in despite you’re obviously already thinking about the next obstacle.
Just some things to keep Frisco challenged too as his weaves looks pretty good already! Cik&caps look good too, nice and tight! Slowly add more distance and leave even earlier to challenge his commitment. See some suggestions I gave to Melanie how to make the exercise more challenging too. For the tunnel, you are just doing a tunnel and rewarding it for now. Try to do something after a tunnel: either say go and throw a toy ahead or call and have him come to hand and stay there when you do either a post turn or a front cross. Stay in movement so that he learns to drive in when you move -- don’t stop and just handle him a toy. Have him do something and then chase it. Always run and reward, don’t stop and reward.
Great, that gives me some good ideas about the weaves. For Cik&Cap should I start raising the bar too? He jumps 20″ in competition but I never jump higher than 16″ on this floor as it is a bit slippery so am I better off keeping the bar low until we get outside?
I didn’t think I was doing much at the tunnel, lol. It’s probably a good idea for me to print your suggestions and bring that with me to the training hall :-). I watch the video and think I’ve got it but then when I’m actually training I forget what exactly I’m suppose to be doing 🙁
Thanks for the tips Silvia 🙂
Yes, you can certainly raise the bar some, we’ll be doing that so gradually anyway that by the time we get to any significant height, you will already be training outside!
Louise, WOW-Frisco is fantastic! What a cutie!
Thanks Kelly. He’s a really fun dog to work with.
Ok so here is our first session. We did the tunnel and cik&cap but no weaves. I haven’t found a place that would have channel weaves yet so maiby I will do it with stick in the ground poles ones the snow starts to melt…
So tunnel first, I went with the straight tunnel cause it could fit on the side of the course that the rest were doing 🙂 Next time I have to do more throwing the toy for speed out of the tunnel, but I think he really likes that one :).
Then cik&cap, this is the height we are currently on, so how is his technique? I do not think he was going total full speed now cause of 1. too long session (bad trainer!) 2. distance, I think he needs a bit more to get the speed up… 3. should had thrown the toy more… and 4. I tried restrains with the harnace now but I think it is actually better when I push him back from the chest, I didn’t get a lot of pulling or resistance
In the end we take out the tennis ball and I do think he got a bit more speed that way..
and btw, I saw him adding some strides (even trotting?) just before the jump. Is this good (as in he is shaping his line to stay tight) or bad (as in he is just not going full speed)?
Terra sure looks very enthusiastic about his tunnel! Make sure you call him when he is in when you want him to come back to hand -- you don’t want him to check back when not called, only when called. You can also add more distance to your send, with both tunnels and jumps. I think it will help with his drive to a wrap -- he does need to slow down before the turn some of course, but not really so much as he does now. But his style and tightness is sure good! Do try more throwing too yes! I was mostly rewarding Le from hand as she wouldn’t fetch the ball back, but once I included DW in sequences and started to work with a tennis ball because of RC. I really noticed a great increase in speed -- not that she was slow before, but she sure was even faster for a ball as for a tug toy!
We had a less then perfect session today… We tried a new place, an indoor dog training center. But it was just so warm inside! Terra got so hot in less than a minute that he just trotted around. He ran allright for the ball but we didn’t get at all speed for the wraps. I decided just to work on tunnels cause he has higher drive for that and it worked ok. We didn’t do much coming to hand but worked on driving straight out of the tunnel instead. And just to make sure, this is a dog who runs in deep snow for an hour happily, it was just too warm.. I’m guessing that eventually I will be able to work in any weather ones he has great drive for agility but for now I’m going to have to plan my sessions to get more speed and enthusiasm..
I think he had problems with the heat mostly because at this time, his body is still programmed for cold. My dogs are always very quickly hot when we first get warm temperatures in spring, but then get used to it and handle it pretty well during the summer. So I wouldn’t worry about it too much and in a situation like that just keep it really short and fun yes.
yeah, that makes a lot of sense 🙂 I’m hoping for this snow to melt away soon. Right now we have maybe half a meter of snow with an icy crust that wont hold a dogs weight… It is very incomfortable for them to walk on it so they don’t do a lot of running in the woods 🙁 We still go there but they tend to just walk behind me on the path… We try to do some playing to get him running but Terra is a worrier, he looks around for people or dogs and often doesn’t want to play. He does play in agilityclass where there are poeple and dogs very near but nowhere where he thinks there “shouldn’t be any people” (like in the woods). It is a shame thet I didn’t work on this when he was a pup, stupid me, how could I forget to play in the woods!
Yes, I hate that thin icy crust and am sure happy our snow is all gone by now! It’s great he plays nicely in class and doesn’t mind people&dogs there, I’m sure it will transfer great to trials too!
Hi Silvia
Just technical question. Is there anyway to post so we can view on iPads ???
Thanks
No, but you could try iSwifter. Copying Amy’s explanation on that app: It’s a gaming app, so you load it then put your lolabuland.com at the top and it will start using your site from that application. It’s a bit slow and the resolution not great, so I don’t use it much but it does work!!! They can try it before buying it for I think 5 minutes.
Hi Silvia,
First I have to say thank you for making agility training so much FUN!! We are all enjoying this sooo much 😀 Am posting 2 videos, I am with Rave, and my daughter Rachel is with Zeke. Neither Rave nor Zeke have had any experience with cik/cap, so we have been working around a pole at home. We got some nice fluent circling and have started using verbal cues. We set up a cone outside and played with sending around the cone. Please let us know how we are doing? When should we start with an actual wing/jump? We also included our tunnel restrain/sends.
Thanks again!!!
Rave & Laurie-Ann:
Zeke & Rachel:
They sure look to have lots of fun! 🙂 And definitely ready to try a wing and if that goes well, add a very low bar. I loved Zeke’s commitment, he really focuses on an object and wraps it even with Rachel running away already -- that was really cool to see! He is very tight coming out of the turn, but gets thrown out some coming in -- but could be because of the snow. Rachel could also try to let him get in front of her more, maybe that will help him to not push out first. Rave stays tight the whole time, but you’re still babysitting him a lot -- try to let him wrap more independently, send more and leave earlier.
Nice sends to tunnel, but keep practicing so that they start to understand the difference between go and come better, drive hard on go and come close and stay there on come -- for now they get thrown out of a turn some. Do both front crosses and post turns/shoulder pulls after.
Hi Silvia,
Our wing jumps are stuck in some ice, so had to use our small PVC practice jump. The bar you see here is actually the cross bar for the jump, so it is at the lowest I can have it. Is this okay? I am trying to do less babysitting 😉 I think Rave had some really nice wraps to his right. On the left he seems to come around a bit wide on many, is that my placement that is causing that? This is so much fun and so nice to see that all the dogs in the class are doing so well, cool!!
Thanks!
I think he started a bit wider on both sides, but then figured out how to adjust the take off and had some really perfect wraps to the right yes -- jackpot those! Lower bar might make it easier, but I think he will figure it out like that too. Time to set two jumps and try figure 8, rewarding the best wraps, keep going for o.k. wraps and redo for wide wraps. You’re babysitting less yes 🙂 It’s normal it sometimes makes him pull off, but that’s fine, that’s how he will learn.
Hi Silvia,
This is Rachel with Zeke. Worked my cik/caps yesterday, tried to let him get out ahead of me, but still seems to be a bit wide going into the turn… Should I maybe try sending him more? Working more distance? Given that this is the 1st time he has done cik/caps with a jump & bar, could he be seeing this as a jump to take rather than a pole to wrap? Thanks so much, I’m really having fun with this!! SO AWESOME 😀
Rachel
Cool, very independent wraps! And it certainly shows you’re both having fun! 🙂 I think he is actually tighter on the approach now and is focusing really nicely on that jump, driving straight to it and keeping the speed even with you further back. The wraps as such were a bit wider at first though, he seemed to just see it as a jump first and jump straight at first, but then had some really nice ones too, so I guess you can just continue like that and select for the best ones. But what would make it even easier though is to somehow make the bar lower… Maybe dropping it down on the closer side?
Hi Silvia,
Here is my first attempt at the figure 8 exercise, I think I need more practice, ha! Not as easy as it looks 🙂 I see he is going more to the middle of the jump, is that because I am coming in to close to the jump and pushing him too far? He really loves his ball, so when I switched to that he seemed to go somewhat faster. A question I had for you is do we keep working on the one jump exercise as well and can I start adding tunnel with it? Should I still work with the cone too? I am attaching also a weave video, he just recently started doing 12 poles. I used 2x2. The channel weaves available to me are only 21 inches instead of 24. We were working outside before the snow and he was driving well through his weaves. This surface that we train on indoors is somewhat slippy, and I find he is slipping a lot and not quite sure with his footwork yet. Anyways, this is where he is now, one of the main problems I am having is him staying in the weaves when I am moving in close to him or pushing him or encouraging him loudly. If I am out of the picture, he weaves nicely!
Thanks
O.k., we’re back from a trial, trying to catch up with all the comments 🙂
Rave’s one jump sends still look great -- really nice and tight there. You can keep working on those yes and also include tunnel. You don’t need to practice on cones anymore, our major ficus is to get him tight over jumps -- and he is doing great with one jump, but in figure 8, he looks as if he doesn’t recognize it’s the same exercise…
Did you do cik&cap in this place for the first time? And you started with figure 8s? That could explain it. Try starting with some one jump sends, then try a figure 8, but send him back in a multi-wrap if he is too wide. If he is still not as tight as he is on one jump sends, try a figure 8 with cones and then next without bars and then progress from there. You were maybe pushing him out some on some of the tries, but he is going too much to the middle of the jump in figure 8s even when he could do it nicely -- but he just doesn’t seem to understand it’s the same thing…
Weaves look good, try to introduce distractions he finds hard gradually, to help him be mostly successful, while getting used to all possible scenarios.
How did you do at your trial Silvia?
Great! 🙂 La and Bu were as good as always, Bi did pretty well for herself too 🙂 and puppy Le was a real star, winning agility run (before La) with the best time from all jump heights, out of 110 dogs, trying to qualify for WC (not our qualifications, but from a neighbour country).
Wow, go Baby Le!!! How old is she?
She will actually be 2 next month, but with her size and haircut, one just can’t take her seriously and call her a dog, so I guess she will always be my puppy for me 🙂
See, she is already a WC!! 😀 We want to see her trial run now!
I still call Spur “Baby Spur” and he’ll be five in August. He IS a baby compared to my old MinPins.
I rarely video their runs as I have so many dogs that it’s annoying to always find somebody to tape… But I’ve got some of the runs on tape and will try to put them together at one point 🙂