We're starting with real sequences today, you'll get a new sequence every time and we'll always be running them in parts, starting with a small part and then adding more&more obstacles, just as you can see in the video - reward where I rewarded and then start from 1 again, meaning that you'll always be doing the whole sequence only on a 4th try or so. Whole sequences will be pretty long, to get the flow, but do NOT run a whole sequence again and again - you can run little parts several times, but the whole sequence only once or twice. Always run it without the dog first and only when you really know it, try with the dog. After every try, PLAY, give a dog a break to rehearse the next sequence on your own and only then try again.
Don't keep running the same sequence for 2 weeks!!! You can either think of another sequence on your own or keep working on multi-wraps and sends (from lesson 1 and 2). Also, don't forget to keep working on weaves and contacts, we'll get back to that later!
And Bi on the same sequence to show how things should look like on a low and then higher height:
1. introducing straight lines: after all the cik&cap work, it's time to introduce some straight lines and extension jumping too. Set a straight line of 2 or 3 jumps between two tunnels (or simply use one if you don't have two), start with some cik/cap to tunnel, cik/cap to tunnel, then straight over the first jump to cik/cap on a second jump back to tunnel, then two straight jumps to cik/cap on a third one, cik/cap again on a next jump etc. - just think of something, putting more and more straight jumps in between one and another cik/cap. See a video and again another example here:
2. sequencing: start with cik on 1, run in for a front cross between 2 and 3, ask for cap on 2 from the landing side, RUN for cik on 5 (extension jumping on 4), another cap on 6 and finishing with cik on 8, rewarding in the direction of 9.
3. bang the see-saw game: if you did the "closing drawers and doors" trick, then you're all ready for this new game. If you don't have a see-saw, you can use a small plank with something underneath so that it moves when the dog pushes it with front legs. If you have a see-saw, either lower it almost to the ground or support it so that one end is 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) off the ground and have them push it down with front feet - you can then raise it somewhat more off the ground. Do not promote 4 feet, 2 feet is better to teach them to push. Jackpot for most powerful pushes and eventually stop rewarding the gentle touches. Reward away from the see-saw, you want a push&go (I'm not doing very good job on that in the video, I forgot to bring better treats for that - a toy would actually be even better). ONLY work on this part (step 1 and 2) for next 2 weeks (no 4 feet yet!) - I included next steps in the video just to give you an idea what's the plan 🙂
I'll be answering your comments till Friday 29th. Then I'm leaving for EO and have the camp after that, so we'll be on break till 15th August so that everybody can catch up AND you can practice cik&cap some more. We're introducing straight lines too today, but if you only started with cik&cap when the class started, you still need to do quite some work on that anyway - especially exercises 1 of lesson 1 and 2! You can also keep adding height... So, plenty of work for everybody! The second week of this lesson will be from 15-21st August, with no video commenting in between. I like those breaks as they take some pressure off and I can always see a huge progress after the break!
Hi Silvia!
I just came back from agility field. Unfortunatly I haven’t got a camera 🙁
I noticed that Azja makes a lot of miskates with cik cap. Today she wrapped entire obstacles (without jumping). When I was practicing with her again exercies from lesson 1 she did sequence o.k later. I don’t know what to do. Maybe I should go few steps back?
When she does it, just call her back and redo the wrap so that she sees what you want. Some more sends to one jump and multi-wraps would help too -- it’s not really a step back, we need to keep working on those two exercises the whole process anyway.
Here is our homework from today. The last weeks we have worked a lot with running contacts and the dogwalk in sequences. It has given more drive foreward to Zushi 🙂
We have worked with the seesaw several times, and i did’nt read, that we only should train step 1 and 2 …
I have worked with small handling sequences and here is the full sequence for the second time.
Wow, great, I’m very impressed by her collection&extension exercise! She is only wide on two or three times when you’re too late with your cik/cap, but is perfect every time you say it time! So now just say it in time every time 🙂 Her see-saw looks great too, I’m especially happy to see she understands 4on and doesn’t even try 2on2off, I had very hard time getting Le to accept 4on is better as 2on2off when you weight nothing 🙂
Hi Silvia, I have a question about 4 on vs. 2 on. With the puppy class tricks and the way we did them Nero loves 2 on 2 off. (Sounds like Le does also) It’s one of his default behaviors and he’s offering during the seesaw game. He certainly heavy enough to do this on the seesaw and he sure loves throwing it out on other random objects. Do you do a 2/2 with your bcs? Is hopping into that position part of the seesaw game?
Nancy
Yeap, he is heavy enough for 2on2off so you can use it with him, I use it with my BCs. Once he is banging the teeter really well, you can start with jumping into the position as showed in my video, step 3.
Hi everybody!
This is my video of Lesson 3.
Silivia what do you think about it?
To be honest, I didn’t do anything during this break. I enjoyed going to the lake with the dogs and we had walked a lot and we swam a lot.
So I think it’s why Dinamit was not perfect on those exercices. She always has more difficulties to turn right than left now. But we are improving that and I think they are going to be better.
Thanks in advance for your answer!
Yeap, the trend is definitely good. After that very wide turn on 2 the first time, she definitely got much tighter, the sequence sure went great, you’re also perfectly in time with your verbal cues and that’s really great as that is often a big problem. But she definitely needs some more work on collecting after extension: she is very tight with multi-wraps and in the beginning wrap, but when coming in a wrap with lots of speed, it’s somewhat wide… See my reply to Gaby, Bono has the same problem. Nut hey, great speed and obstacle focus and definitely great potential for wraps too, she is very flexible and can be very tight, she is just too much in a hurry sometimes 🙂 Happy training!
Thanks a lot!
I will do more 8 exercice work 😉
She is young and we have time to improve that but her “problem” is really that! Sometimes she is to hurry and (you know the mudi 😉 she barks a lot and it’s difficult for her to listen me. And when she is on thoses hurry time, she only look for my body language and don’t listen to me, so it’s difficult for me to know what I have to do. I don’t want to put her motivation down.
What you do with your dogs when they’re so hurry, that they don’t listen to you and they do what they want?
I redo. I don’t think it hurts their speed or motivation, most dogs who are used to shaping won’t see it as a failure/correction, but just as another try -- even Bu, my softie, is fine with that. I want to keep the rules clear, so when they don’t meet the criteria (wrong weave entry, missed contact, broken stay, bad turn), we simply try it again, maybe make it somewhat easier first to make them succeed and then add difficulties again. I think it’s fair to the dog to keep it black and white.
This is what I did until now.
But at the last training at the club, we had an exercice with tunnel-jump-weaves. First, the jump was positioned so difficult, and when I saw that, I had put it more easier, to help her.
But she was still too crazy. So I decided to do only the weaves, then, jump-weaves and then, tunnel-jump-weaves. In fact, if I ask her to do only the weaves, she was perfect every time, but when there were obstacles before the weaves, she does really what she wanted.
I tried again and again and again, but I could see she was just crazy, not listening and not focused. So I decided to stop for a while, and to put her to her varykennel for few minutes. Then I did 2-3 tricks with her, to have her a little bite more focused. And she did it very well.
Then I tryed again, but again she was not listening. It was the first time it happened to me with her. And I hope it will never happens again. But if it should happen again, how do you advise me to react??
Thank you very much for your advice!
Exactly, add more obstacles more gradually if that’s what she finds hard. Make it easy enough for her to succeed and then slowly add difficulties.
I just thought this was funny!
By the way, the kibble experiment is going well. She has a lot more food drive and just plain drive in general. It’s fun!
Silly Tibby!
I love it! So funny and CUTE!
Too funny! And hey, she got really confident about banging! Just few weeks ago, she didn’t like it at all!
I just love this dog! 😀
Hi Silvia and classmates,
We did take a break, just walking, running and playing more. All through August it’s been over 40 C and very humid.
We had a good practice on Thursday, and Buddy loved the straight running over 3 jumps. He likes the see-saw and Bang It is no problem. He likes all the contact obstacles. I don’t have video, because I turned on the camera too late, and I didn’t want to have him do it again; still keeping sessions 3 minutes. if I do more, he refuses to cooperate. I still have a very difficult time with him getting distracted outside, and even indoors he sometimes goes sniffing around for food on the ground. His toy drive has not improved much, he will play tug at home and it’s a little better at the training center, but not in our garden or the park. I run around with him and when I ask him to do a jump or tunnel he goes into slow motion.
I appreciate any comments and suggestions.
Thanks.
Jen and Princess Buttercup
I don’t know if this will be any help, but I can tell you what my instructor is having me do with Tibby to build drive. Each dog is so different -- it’s hard to know what will work! Also, I don’t know anything about training dogs, so it was all new information to me, but everyone else probably already knows all about it.
1- She said with a dog like Tibby I need to bring 120% energy, because Tibby is only going to give 80%. With a dog that has a lot of drive -- you can only give 80% and the dog will make up the rest. So I have to act crazy, happy voice, loud, waving arms, ‘dancing’ when she does something I really like. It is SUPER hard to do, but Tibby likes it. I’m not normally a loud, waving arms like of person.
2-Tibby doesn’t get anything for free. If she wants something, she has to do a trick or jump or something to get it.
3- When Tibby makes a mistake (like not taking a jump or stopping before the tunnel) during an agility excersise -- I’m supposed to just run away. The idea is that I could run away at any moment and so she should pay attention. This also gets her moving instead of shutting down.
4- She noticed that Tibby only gets the zoomies when she doesn’t find the reward exciting/rewarding enough. I was using a ball and Tibby zoomed. I switched to treats and Tibby stayed with me and worked hard.
5- She had me stop feeding Tibby treats. I can only feed her kibble and all the food has to come from my hand. Now that she is off her one day hunger strike, she has to also do a trick/hand touch/something for each piece of kibble.
This is what my instructor told me, “The reasons behind it are: –to build food drive. Right now Tibby is a kid in a candy store…she likes all the hotdogs/chicken/peanutbutter…but after this she is going to LOVE all that stuff….thus building food drive. –controlling her access to resources( like Susan Garrett’s Ruff Love)…if you are the source of all amazing things, YOU become amazing! —show Tibby she doesn’t always get her way and the way to get what she wants is to please you (aka do as you ask and she will get HUGE REWARDS!!)”
Hi Catalina, just for idea: it might be better to use the zoomies and her tempo there for training, instead of focussing Tibby on food and on you only. When Tibby gets her zoomies she seems to be full of energy and fun and that is what you want in training -- so let her zoom and try to put you and the obstacles into the picture. May be she likes the toys so much that she begins with her zoomies when there is a toy for reward. No one can say what a dog thinks or feels, it is always a suggestion only -- and it might be wrong or right. I am an absolute beginner in agility but what I learned since now is that working with a toy is much more easier and much more fun for the dog and his handler.
I hope this doesn`t sound too much like a “Klugscheißer” and I hope you understand my english.
Thanks guys,
He already has food drive, but I want more toy drive, because that will give him more speed and more fun and focus 🙂 so I am working on fetching the toy, then food, then tugging etc. the biggest problem is distraction outside. I am working on everything Silvia told me to do, but I think it’s just going to take a long time. longer than this class 😉
Birgit, translation for Klugscheisser: smart ass or know-it-all 😉 that made me laugh!! :0 zu lustig! Danke!
Yeap, motivational problems are the hardest and take the most time and patience. I think part of the problem is he already sees agility as “work” vs. playing/running. For now, I would try to start anything that he likes the most (like leaving for a bike ride) with a tunnel or a jump. Try to start any running/playing that way and later on, throw in some more tunnels/jumps in between. If he liked straight lines, maybe just do that for now -- keep running straight lines and changing them into a serpentine (see lesson 4), with just an occasional wrap, but mostly just straight if he prefers it that way.
ok, thanks, that makes sense. I think he doesn’t like multi wraps at all, it’s like he’s rolling his eyes at me 🙂 he is like a moody girlfriend. But I have to keep it fun and highly rewarding. He does nice turns/wrap if we are already running and I only ask for 1 or 2 wraps. I will put jumps at the front and back doors and the tunnel right after back door to go into the garden, my husband is gonna love it!! 😉
forgot to mention, he has more “drive” when there is more distance between obstacles, and he loves running over contact obstacles.
Yeap, use that: do many contact obstacles when you have an access to them and do straight lines with big distances between jumps! Make it as much about the running as possible!
Aye aye Sir!
🙂 🙂
Hi Catalina,
It’s good that you found an instructor who uses positive training methods, they are hard to come by.
I hand feed and have him working for food every day.
There are times when he gives 100%: when we are running together and when we go mountain biking. No food, no toys, just him and me, that’s the best!!
Here’s the final part of my lesson 3 homework. It’s the Cik/Cap sequence. It’s been pretty hot here. We’re in the shade, but you can see bright field in the background where the sun is still shining. Nero is a little off in this session. I found a toy that he hadn’t had for a while and became very toy focussed and is going for it a few times here. With that focus his sends to the jumps was pretty bad. At the end I go for a couple of tight/wraps from some distance and he’s just done. Summer is coming to an end here. The kids start school again soon, and we’ll be chasing them in sports for the weekends. During the weekdays I’ll have a lot of time to train. We’ve been herding once a week this summer and Nero is doing great. Not surprisingly he has night tight turns when he switches from one direction to another :).
Nancy and Nero
(and Saales supervising)
I forgot the “v”
Well, the wraps are definitely beautiful: very, very tight!!! But yes, the speed could be better. Try to do many big distance figure 8s and lots of exercise 1, lesson 4, to have him understand it’s about running. I would also for now reward with a ball that you can throw well so that he needs to run for his reward. Because of his age, don’t progress with height for a while now, that’s high enough for 9 months.
This is the re-do sequence with the landing side FC on 2 & 6.
Yeap, that was the idea -- other that you could pre-cue the FC even earlier (take your right hand out as he is approaching the jump, before he is already taking off) -- AND give you verbal cue even earlier (you’re definitely too late the second time and the first time, I don’t even hear if you said it). He can definitely be tighter as this with earlier info.
So the idea is to run past the plane of jump 2 (forward cue) but with the pre-cue arm (low?) and the verbal as he is approaching the jump (to tell him the turn us coming). This keeps him going forward but gives you a tighter turn. I will try it again. So glad to be getting all this detail. Thank you.
Yeap. Did you see Carol’s video, I think it shows pre-cuing really well? You want low and close hand yes, just enough to show some front and warn him about the FC. If you turn all the way (also with your feet), that would pull him off the jump and if you don’t turn at all, then he can’t know what’s going to happen next and can’t adjust his stride.
The other sequence with cik and cap.
Silvia… a friend of mine just signed in for the RC class but now he said he is signed in for RC 1 instead of RC 2…. what to do? His name: Luc Smeets
Can you please give me a quick answer? 🙁
He is signed up in the right class, it’s impossible to still sign in RC I 🙂
Hi Silvia,
I’m wondering if you use cik &cap in tunnels. In a course today there was a 20′ straight tunnel and we needed a tight turn back towards us on exiting the tunnel. Would it be appropriate to use cik/cap to cue collection in the tunnel and a tight turn out of the exit?
Many thanks,
Carol
Carol, Your dog looks familiar. Have you shown NADAC in Montana?
Nancy
Sorry Nancy. We live in MA and Bree’s not in the ring yet. A few issues with the AF and teeter to clean up. 🙂
Hi Carol,
I believe cik/cap is used only for jumps, and left/right would be used for tunnels and contacts.
Am I correct in my thinking Silvia?
Thanks,
Maureen
Yes, I use left&right for turns out of tunnels.