Here comes your second homework!
1. multi-wraps with handler in different positions: set a bar at your current cik&cap height and have a dog do multiple wraps around the wing. Change your position so that you're sometimes on take-off side, sometimes on landing side of the jump. Reward by reaching in with a toy to reward close to the wing. Multi-wraps should always be your first exercise when you put the bars on the next height and you should keep working on them on each height, it's great collection jumping exercise, I actually do some before every training, within our warm-up.
2. cik&cap sequencing: we'll mask this training for different handler positions and moves into a little sequence and include a tunnel for extra fun 🙂 Start with cap on one, try cik with handler on a landing side on 3, a shoulder pull from 4 to 5, cap with a front cross on 5, tunnel again and then push for another cik on 7. Reward in the direction of where I set number 8. Break it down in little parts first.
3. 2on2off vs. running: time to address contacts! Send a video of whatever you've got till now if you are already working on it. If you haven't done anything about it yet, those two videos show first step of 2on2off (at 3:13 of this video) - stopping in the position on a box/upside down drawer:
and running (at 1:30 of this video - I hope it's fine I used your video Gitte 🙂 ) - running over a long carpet:
If you haven't decided yet, you can work on both, using a box or up-side-down drawer for 2on2off and a carpet or a wide, thin plank for running contacts - and then see what you like better.
Hello Everyone,
This is our Lesson 2 video. It’s hot and humid in Bermuda this time of year so I try to keep our sessions very short. I’m not a morning person but I’m trying to get up and out as early as possible for a few minutes of training before it gets too hot and then sometimes a few more minutes in the evening.
This is our cik/cap and sequence attempts. I try to get the words out correctly and on time for cik/cap but sometimes they don’t come to me so, there are a few times I say nothing at all and other times that I get it wrong. I hope I get better with practice! Also I noticed my horrible habit of blocking the tunnel entrance! I guess I have a hard time knowing where I am in relation to the obstacles when I’m trying to remember the course, watch Leia, run and say my verbal cues in time 🙂 Any tips on that?
I try not to show it if I get lost or if I say the cue incorrectly. Do I hide it well enough?
Thanks,
Mara
Great video!! What is the big yellow thing? It looks like a melon 🙂
Thanks Jennifer. It’s a Jolly Egg. It’s one of Leia’s fav. toys, not easy to run with but a very exciting reward for her.
That ball sure gets her going! It does look hard to run with it, though, so you can try having it somewhere aside and then running to it after a click. Or maybe for jackpots to make it even more special? But yes, great job with the sequence: nice, fluent handling, mostly in time with your verbal cues and she is mostly tight and has great commitment. Your reactions to getting lost are great too, I couldn’t tell if it was in your plan or not 🙂 You don’t look lost at all, but yes, it’s hard to always know where the obstacles are. Try to check it after every front cross, when you see she is coming to the correct hand -- you have a moment then to check in which direction exactly is the next obstacle. But I couldn’t tell from your video it’s a problem anyway! The one thing that still needs work is speed, she is sometimes really fast and sometimes not really -- definitely another reason to keep it really short and intense and not drill it too much. Keep working on her play and exploring ways to get her excited and try to find a pattern in when she is the fastest.
This is what we’ve been doing on the channel since I turned 12 poles into stick in the ground poles on Tuesday. Obviously I’ve never trained using a channel before, since I didn’t even understand how its set up! I should have posted some of this sooner, hopefully I’m not making any major mistakes. Sorry it’s so long. I wanted to leave in some of the playing, position set up and ball exchanging. Thanks for all of the suggestions about how I could play with Leia differently, it seems to be having a big impact. Using three balls for the channel seems to be working well. Leia doesn’t always drop the ball she gets and sometimes doesn’t pick up the ball I throw as her reward but, I’m just ignoring it and continuing the game, she seems happy enough to play along.
Thanks for posting play! Looks like it’s going much better for you. We are still working on playing and fetching too, so this helps me a lot!
She sure seems to like the channel game! Great job making entries more difficult and no problems with staying in! Keep closing it and working on entries! Three balls seem to work really well, maybe you can try to reward the cik&caps the same way? I’m just still not sure if they’re set exactly the right way… Not sure because of a camera angle, but the two rows need to be set so that the second (right) row starts 24″ further as the left row -- meaning that once you bring one row completely in, the distance between the poles is equal (24″).
Hi Silvia,
I am not sure if we may have a slight problem with the channel weaves -- trained today with the poles at abt 10cm apart (down from 20cm) & he just blast through them at a gallop without even a hint of the proper striding. Did I reduce the distance too much? We have the stick in the ground weave poles which are easy to push aside. I stop training then as I don’t want him to learn use his body/shoulders to push the poles aside. What should I do? To my knowledge, proper channel weaves are not available in Australia. I have 2 sets of 2 by 2 weaves which I may have to use to complete his weave training. What do you think?
You can make your 2x2’s into a channel. Just line them up correctly then slightly rotate each set and it makes a nice channel. Make sure you rotate based on the center of the 2x2’s, otherwise it messes up your spacing. If you have a problem, just write back and I can video it for you.
Thanks Laura for your suggestion & generous offer to video! I was really concerned with Harley’s performance as my other agility dog Camus, had learnt to push them out of the way with stick in the ground poles -- he push so hard that he would bent the metal bit in the ground and he would be sore after a few goes & would go slow then. It took some retraining to teach him a different style. I thought Harley being smaller & more agile would not have the same problem.
I have only 2 pairs of 2 by 2 was thinking of getting more pairs of 2 by 2 to make the channel you suggested but then realise that I might as well try to get a proper channel weave set made! Have organised one but it will be up to 4 weeks before they are made.
I am getting poorer by the week with all this equipment I have been ordering!! LOL -- at least it is for good use!!
Fancy! 🙂 I always worked with stick in the ground poles, but yes, it’s not ideal, especially not for bigger&stronger dogs…
I hope Laura’s suggestion helps! My channel poles are not ideal either, I use stick in the ground poles too, so they do some pushing with shoulders and are somewhat surprised on real weaves first… But they all learned… I just try to fix them in the ground as much as possible…
todays training.
First time on the little sequence.
Great job! Just one little suggestion: how about a ball instead of a tug toy? She is very fast when you’re moving, but from 4 to 5 for example, when you can’t move that much, she is slowing down significantly. I think rewarding by throwing a ball would make her less dependant on your speed. I noticed a big difference in Le’s speed when I stopped rewarding from my hand (I always did that at first as she wouldn’t fetch a ball back) and went to rewarding with a ball (as I started to include DW in sequences and needed to reward her away from me). She was never slow, but that sure gave her more power. I mostly recommend rewarding away with small dogs and rewarding from the hand with dogs who are naturally good at distance (BC, Kelpies).
Here is Bea’s lesson 2 video. Seems like she doesn’t see the point in running much in these tight little exercises. Don’t worry, I won’t usually post with music.
Hi Heidi,
I also have a giant poodle. It seems you know this breed really well and I have a question for you:
I am on vacations and something (?) occured the 1st day, since then karmen is lipping (front leg). the vet i found in the city told me it wasn t important and that she would stop right away thanks to the pils “anti inflammatoire” and told me after 1 week she could start her normal life again. but it is sunday and she is still lipping…
we haven t done any exercice since then. I m so stressed (and depressed).
do you think you could help me (or just reassure me) if i send you a video?
Silvia would you have something to ought me ?
someone else would be a specialist ?
Thank you everybody
Celine
If she was a BC, it would probably be OCD, it’s very common in some lines of BCs and usually shows in limping at about Karmen’s age. But I have no idea if it is present in giant poodles too? Another common thing in growing puppies is inflammation of the periosteum but if so anti inflammatoire pills would probably help… That way or another, she needs rest and then a visit to a specialist… I hope the rest itself will help! Sending good thoughts for Karmen!
thank you for your comment and your support silvia. it helps me to face it.
what is OCD?
the problem is that it happened suddendly on monday evening. so shouldn t it be kind of a shock?
even if the vet told me she could start efforts tomorrow, i will, at least, dobble her rest time until coming back to barcelona (30/07).
then would you know a specialist there? in summer time, it will be hard…
OCD is Osteochondritis dissecans. Of course, it can just be a minor injury, as Heidi wrote and if so, it will go away with rest. But yes, it should be a complete rest, no running in the yard. And sorry, but I don’t know any vet in Barcelona…
Hi Celine, We do love our poodles and hate to see them hurting. I am sorry about Karmen. When I have had dogs with injuries I have looked for a good rehabilitation vet. Usually a week or two of rest (never off leash and harness ). Usually done alternating ice and heat. Massage and a very gradual return to activity usually with an exercise schedule suggested by the vet. But I only know about the dogs I have had and their injuries. Best luck with that, Celine.
Heidi
Thank you Heidi for your support and sharing your experience.
I am wondering if i should let her inside the house since she is playing in the little yard (her attitude is just normal and seems not to be suffering). but she will get mad and unbearable for my parents…
Cool! It’s just speed on that sequence that could be better yes… Did you try leaving the bars down and maybe spreading the jumps some more… -- that might be more fun for her then… Lots of exercise 1 of lesson 1: wrap and chase would be good too. That way or another, I would go back to no bar first and then start lower as that, to make it easier and more fun.
Very nice to hear Amy here in this context. Perhaps she should have known about the fun of working with dogs….
Emi & I practiced the sequence together at the park yesterday 🙂
This is the first session Grace & I have done since the last video i posted. I decided not to do any multiwraps and just run the sequence a few times and see how we go. She definitely enjoyed herself! I’ve never heard her bark so many times in her entire life (she is usually the quietest dog in the world)!
Very cool! Grace sure is amazingly fast and flexible, her turns are amazing! You’re still somewhat late with your verbals (you should be saying it as soon as she is coming out of tunnel), but no other problems this time! Time to raise the bars some!
Thanks Silvia! It is amazing how smart dogs are -- she suddenly just seemed to get that cik/cap is about tight turns and just did it! I hadn’t done any more training w her so it wasn’t anything i did -- she just suddenly understood (praps she wanted to be so tight so i wouldn’t make her do multiwraps!) & YES, she’s too rebellious to believe that “general truth” about agility 🙂 I’m pretty sure she thinks she’s a BC w a perm anyway
Think i’m still late w my verbals bc it takes me a few seconds to compute which word to say! Hopefully i’ll be able to train my brain to work a bit quicker 🙂
Yeap, especially with higher jumps, early cues get really important. But you’re sure doing GREAT, it’s hard to believe you didn’t do any agility before!!! And well, Grace is just as brilliant as always 🙂
Thanks Silvia!! We love your classes so much 🙂
Wow! What a cool dog, you two are very fun to watch:)
Thanks Dawn! I’ve never done agility bf so i have no idea what i’m doing but Grace seems to get it, so looks like she’s going to teach me 🙂
Wow outstanding! and you never did this before…cool!
Thanks Laura! That’s great encouragement. When i saw the video of the sequence 2 wks ago i thought there was no way I’d be able to do it 🙂
Hi Silvia and everyone.
We enjoyed practicing with Cam and Grace!
The last 2 session, I put a very short loop on his collar to practice restrain and he seems much more comfortable and getting used to being restrained.
I still need more excitement to make him run with me.
(I think I am a little late to tell cik/cap command to him as well..)
After we practice with 3 dogs,(including my husband and our BC Koto)
I have made sequence comparison video to see what part we need to practice. (I thought this video might helps everyone to see how important is cik/cap to earn time as Koto (on left) missed Cap!)
Niah(center) looks like he is slowing down during tunnel run..
He is still 10 month old puppy 🙂 hopefully he will speed up with more practice.
I still haven’t done independent weave practice at all but will post as soon as we made 12 poles..I will post 2o2o contact and figure 8 soon!
Emi & Niah
Great job! His wrap&go is perfect and sequence went great too, it’s only on 5 that he is somewhat wider as in a perfect world 🙂 -- you could maybe do some multi-wraps there or just practise this approach some more. But all in all, he looks ready for some more height! Great job! And how cool that you can train together, that makes things even more fun! That was a fun comparison to watch, Grace doesn’t seem to agree that BCs are unbeatable 🙂 Koto has GREAT ground speed, but yes, one wide turn can cost you A LOT. Niah has GREAT turns, but less drive for the tunnel, so he is loosing some there. But yes, I think it will come when he discovers the beauties of tunnels 🙂
Thank you Silvia!! We will keep practice then 🙂
I love the comparison video! so cool! you are all doing so great! I want to see another one with Grace vs Camilla 🙂
I’m so jealous that you two can practice together Amy and Camilla! That would be lots of fun! 😀 And wow I loved the comparison video! (How on earth did you make that!) Wow the bc with curls was really fast! 😉
Niah is getting bigger! Amazing how he can wrap that good! Again I really enjoyed watching your video’s!
I’m a little unsure what to do with RC.. Do we throw the ball as they are running along the carpet or only if they hit the ‘contact’ ie. Run to the end of the carpet. I assume we throw the ball at the beginning to encourage them to stride out but then I’m a bit confused how we subsequently mark and reward whether they do the correct running action or not. I’m getting my carpet tomorrow so just want to be clear bf i start
🙂
I was planning to get carpet 1m wide and about 12 foot long. Is that correct? Do i need to start with the carpet that long?
The ball is thrown in advance, as a lure, to encourage running. Click for running and reward by a play. For best hits, jackpot: mark it with a voice too and make big deal out of it. If jumping (highly unlikely to happen on the carpet on the floor, though), don’t click, take a ball and throw again. It’s really no big deal. Dogs are smart. And yes, that’s a good size and yes, you do want at least 12ft for a big dog.
Hi Silvia, here is our RC .
This is the hardest exercise for me!!
Don´t know wy he is jumping don´t know when he is not jumping.
I tried it with food in a bowl/ with a ball first throwen.
Cannot see when he is in the Contacts or react tooooo late!!
As I saw the video, I made out that he thinks that he has to push his front feet on the Contacts. Is that right??
Try to find the right moment when he is IN is very difficult for me!!
So I also decided for your RC class in August!
Thanks for any help,
Gabi
.
Bono sure is fast! 🙂 At first, it’s hard to see with this speed, but I think it’s actually pretty easy with him as he either runs really nicely or jumps really high 🙂 Maybe it’s hard because you’re so far back? What if you send him around the pole to start so that you can stand closer to the middle of the two planks. I think it would be easier to see from there. I think things are actually going well, you are getting either very obvious leaps or really nice running and a good variety of hits (hind feet and front feet) -- now the really important thing is that you see and mark it correctly and make a great deal out of the good ones!!!
I fixed your access to RC class, you should be able to access the classroom now -- let me know if there are problems!
Thanks sooo much!! Happy to hear that!!:)
Now I can see it clearly , it´s really easy to perceive it.
I ordered a real DW it´s the the same wich you can see on the video( the half of it ) than we can practise with the pole, hope it will come soon.
…..and yes, we are able to access the RC class! How cool is that:)
But you can practise with a pole already on this set up, your set up perfectly o.k. -- starting him with a send around the pole is just to put you somewhat closer to the contact, I can imagine seeing it from 8-10m from behind is hard… If you could be in the middle of the set-up, so 4m away from a contact, it might be easier…
Hi Silvia ,
this set up belongs to Werner( a friend of mine) and sometimes I´m allowed to train on them.
So I have to wait for the DW where I´m able to put these set up on the ground
At the moment I train still with the plank,
thanks, gabi
Ah, o.k., I thought it’s yours! Well, on a plank you should be able to see it better as you can be closer.
Hi Silvia.
Congratulations on both Bu and La making it to Worlds again!
I have a question on cik and cap. I know you want the dogs to go around multiple times on one cue, but is that necessary? I’m asking because I have an older dog that I’m training and she already knows how to spin (spin right) and turn (spin left). She makes one revolution when I give her the cue. I’m thinking that I can give her the cue, but have her do it around a pole and then transfer the cue to cik (or cap) and the continue to do different angles, distances, etc. like you do in the video. Do you see a problem with that?
Thanks for your help.
Robin
I never did it that way, but yes, I guess you can do it that way too. I want multiple wraps as it promotes tightness, they usually get sloppy and wide if only asked to do it once. Doing it multiple times also forces them to really learn how to collect and wrap the wing once the bar gets higher.