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!
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 now, but without the bar for first 3 sessions: 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 wing, NOT in the middle of the bar! That's why I always do this approach FIRST and do lots of it before trying any straight approaches.
- 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 and the distance between them: you want BIG distance to get good speed - something like 10m. Again, you want the jumps under this angle to make sure the dog is jumping close to the wing, 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 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!
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 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.
Have fun!
Hi Silvia, Hi classmate,
Here is our introduction:
My name is Céline, I’m French and live in Spain.
I’ve got an old rescued dog, Brasil with who I started agility last december. But he doesn’t like it.
And I have Karmen, giant poodle who is just 6 months old. She is my 1st clicker training dog. We’ve done the puppy class with Silvia when she was only 10 weeks old!
Since we are both loving it, we registered for agility foundations.
Karmen doesn’t know many things in agility though.
I’ll probably be sending my video next week.
Céline
Well, based on a video, she knows enough! 🙂
Hi everyone! First of all I would like to say that we are right after puppy class and we are BEGINNERS! 🙂 Many of you are very very good at agility so we have to train a lot!!
Today I was training with Azja. I don’t have jumps which I can put without bars 🙁 I am going to have them the next week so I did cik&cap with low bars. I think it could be better. When I watch this movie I see that those jumps sometimes move when she jumps . Does she have problem with jumping style? I have to add that in one moment she ran behind my back (when a dog has interrupted her) Generally she never does that (when we practise around trees). I hadn’t noticed this and I rewarded her. I haven’t done that kind of tasks with her before but we have practised cik&cap with trees a lot. I think it was so helpfull! I would like to remind that Azja is 8 months old for now so we are going to practised jumping with low bars 🙂
We have a problem with tunnel exercise. She is so crazy. She has a problem with caming back to my hand when I call her to my right side. Because of that I started to do this with treats instead of a toy and it was better I think. She is too crazy with toy. After this day I think that I am horrible handler but I will do my best! 🙂
Ok, and now I see that I made big mistake with direction of my running with task 1. Because of that Azja jumped in the middle of the bar 🙁 Am I right?
Yes, you are running in wrong direction in exercise 1, so she is not collecting at all, meaning that those were not really cik, so I hope you didn’t do too many of those 🙂 She sure does it really well in figure 8 exercise, when you run in the right direction!!! I can’t see why the jumps are moving, maybe she is stepping on a “leg” of the jump? Watch it frame by frame to see when exactly they move. Her style seems o.k., but it’s actually hard to say at this height.
I think the tunnel exercise is going perfectly well even with a toy, but it was o.k. to do it first with food. Do go to a toy once you can predict her reactions to your movements better. It’s hard to learn it if you are a beginner handler with such a fast dog, but well -- at least it’s lots of fun! 🙂 With FC, try to turn even sharper, you want to change the direction for 180 degrees. The same with a shoulder pull: turn more, reward from a hand (don’t send in the other entry -- send in the same entry if you want to send again).
Also, yours “tu” and “tunel”, the way you pronounce it, starts exactly the same. Not too good. Try to change one of the words at least a little, for example pronounce tunnel as English speaking people do (different syllable), not as “our” tunel 🙂
And again, don’t worry. You’re very lucky to have such a fast and motivated dog who can handle many repetitions -- and with every next one, it will be easier for you, I promise 🙂 It’s a hard start, handling-wise, but it’s a very easy one, training-wise, so I’m sure you won’t have any trouble keeping up with the class!
Thank you for advices! 🙂 Today I will try to improve everything 🙂
Your puppy is so cute and fast! I think you did a great job! And you even have two dogs to train 🙂 LOL!! That was cute when the other dog wanted to play too
Thank you so much! I love watching your videos too!!! 🙂
Hi Silvia,
In your video when you are working with Le on the weaves in the winter (with no sound), are you saying anything to her at this stage like you do in the 2nd weave training clip? I’ve never trained weaves with Elsa so I’m not exactly how to proceed. 🙂 When I restrain her & throw the toy & then release, should I say anything at this stage? When do you begin to add a verbal cue? And how do you know when it’s time to start closing up the channels? And by how much each time?
Also, in the tunnel exercise, is it important that the tunnel be “U” shaped? I only have a “Pac&Go” 10′ tunnel that doesn’t bend all that well because of the spiral wire. 🙁 I’m thinking I might need a real tunnel that bends for this class…yes?
Sorry for these very basic questions 🙂 We are definitely not quite up to speed with the rest of the class. 🙂
Thanks!
Happy to see so many of you in this new class: Kristin, Kathy, Ania, Agata, Inge, Mara, Catalina !
It will be so much fun.
Yes it’s great to see so many puppy class classmates, again. 😉 I hope I can follow you guys a bit closer during this class. To be honest I got a bit lost during the puppy class (and RC class).
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one. I had a hard time keeping track of everything! I’m going to try harder to keep up with everyone this time. Val
Don’t worry, I designed a less intense class this time as with agility, it’s extra important you keep sessions really short and fun and easy and all about the running.
Why is everybody thinking they’re not yet there as the rest of the class? The 4 exercises above, all of your dogs can do, if you practised cik&cap. The only reason why things sound difficult to those new to agility is because there are many fancy expressions (front and rear crosses etc.) and rules where the dog should enter weaves etc. that you can’t know about. I’m trying to explain those things, but I sometimes forget some important parts as it’s just so self-understandable after you’re in agility for 20 years 🙂 That’s why I decided for video form: so that you can see things I don’t see anymore 🙂
Yeah, I removed the sound as you can only hear the wind… But I started using my weave verbal already in 2nd session yes -- I start using it as soon as the dog is searching for the channel and staying in. I like to introduce verbals very early as it takes very long for them to learn them: much longer as a behaviour as such. You can first just use a “go” or something and then switch to “weave”. As soon as you see she is o.k. with those poles on each side, you can close it somewhat. At the beginning you can do it as much as 3 inches/8cm at the time, but once you reach a stage when the channel is not much wider as the dog, you need to go VERY slowly, I will often only move two poles in (I check the set up and move in those which are set the widest: if they’re equal, I move in those in the middle), for as little as I can (about 2cm -- less than an inch). -- But I will do it as often as two times per session. It’s better to do it more often in smaller steps as less often in bigger steps. In short: you need to progress slow enough that it doesn’t make the dog pop out of the channel too often (you should go for at least 80% successful rate) -- if it happens twice in a row on the same spot, move that pole out a little.
For the tunnel exercise, you can as well use a straight tunnel. Later on, it would be good if you could bend it at least some… You can always work around it too, but if you can somewhere get a real tunnel, that would be even better.
I should clarify. I wanted to watch everyone elses videos and have not been able to keep up with that. 🙂 Val
Thanks Silvia. This helps a lot! One more question about teaching weaves--do you start sending the dog from different points to find the entry as you are closing up the channel?
Yes. First session or two, I do with straight approaches and only work on independence -- and after that, entries become my major focus. See my reply to Jonina.
Here is Play doing wrap/turn. Also restrained sends with come to hand and front crosses. I included the good and bad as you will see. One thing he was doing was cutting behind me so i simlpy started over and treied to be better with my positions.
Looking forward to this class
Play and Val
GREAT! Those are REALLY tight and fast cik&caps! Make sure you are sending him in at enough angle, he is somewhat wider and too much in the middle at 0:35 try when you send him from too straight approach -- the others were beautiful. When he is cutting behind you, it’s always because of a toy in the other hand. You can make it easier and keep it in the right hand or in a pocket, to not confuse him. But sooner or later, he will need to learn to ignore the toy and come to the right hand that way or another.
Here is our second session on Lesson 1. So stinking fun! Our pulls were pretty wide, but he got better. And I was actually trying to reward him on that attempt where he re-focused on the tunnel and went right back in…that’s a good thing isn’t it (even though it wasn’t quite the plan)? Seems like he thought I was cuing him to do it again.
Wow, that’s GREAT! Fast and tight at the same time, really really cool! He sure seems to like this game and really seems into that toy now! Very nice! Try running away even sooner now, to work on his commitment. It was good to reward that tunnel yes, that was really good obstacle focus 🙂
That is great! You have helped me a lot! 🙂
hi
Here is my first part of lesson 1.
I just want to check if we are doing it right, before I go on whit the work.
Murph is a very hard dog to motivated, Today as was one of those days,
He was not into his ball only want food. Iam trying to get him more on toys/ tugging, SO that is why I rewarding him whit a food bag to tug on.
Thanks sinead
Not too bad for a bad day! 🙂 But try it with the bars on the floor, that’s quite a height for those little legs. With extra small dogs, you need to add height extra slowly, as 5cm is already a big % of their final height. Also, if he is hard to motivate, I would focus on a first exercise instead: you can do more running there and he sure seems to like that, he seems really happy and fast when he is chasing you at the end. So do LOTS of that. Once he is completely into the game, he won’t be so easily distracted. It’s o.k. to reward him with food bag. Another thing that usually works great is to put a smoked pig ear or something similar on a string, have them chase it, catch it, chew on it and then chase it again.
thanks..
on are weaves we are in the middle of retaining them , Iam using the 2 by 2 method.
I do not want to confuse murph more by starting a new method.
here is some of them.
Sure, that’s o.k., just don’t forget to practise the most difficult entries too (sending in from left side)! Basically, after the first two or three sessions, I hardly ever do another easy, straight forward entry -- why practise things I know they can do already, right? 🙂
On another note, for others too: the interesting thing with weaves is that it doesn’t matter if you use different methods… As the behaviour is the same, they’re perfectly o.k. with switching from a channel to V and back, for example. Unlike as with contacts it doesn’t matter if you keep competing with poorly trained weaves and meantime do some more work with an open channel -- it transfers nicely to competitions once finished. And no, I’m not saying you should use another method, I just wanted to mention my observation as I found it interesting as it’s so different from retraining contacts.
O cool that is good to know about the weaves and retraining them.
Thanks sinead
Hi Silvia, here is where we are with the weaves and with cik&cap, With the 2 x 2 method the handler is not moving in the first sessions, a big problem because when I started to move Acqua miss the entry or comes out from theweave poles. Any sugestions?
Thank you
Sorry, I forgot the link 😉
That sure is a nice training place you have there!
Thank you, maybe is too far but you are welcome 🙂
For how long have you been working on cik&cap to be at this height already? That way or another, I think for an easy, straight approach, this is too wide. I would put a bar significantly lower and stop practising easy, straight approaches and instead focus on difficult ones, to make her work more -- see the video of Le and/or other participants -- Kristin for example.
And thanks for an explanation on 2x2, I guess I know now why I always have to yell at people to move when sending the dog into the weaves 🙂 The way I see it, it’s just another obstacle (the easiest one actually: takes some repetitions, but that’s all, no high science there) and I handle it just as another obstacle, I see no need to stop and wait there. Anyway, you can probably work through the problem by adding your movement slowly, but I would actually prefer to go few steps back and work on it without having a dog weave 12 closed poles… You still have plenty of work and as you can train entries without having her do tons of real weaves, I would go that way. It never hurts to go some steps back.
We had a big set back this morning.
I hauled 2 jumps and a tunnel to the park and was all excited about working on the new excercises. Buddy only did 2 cik/caps and went through the tunnel a few a times, but veeery slooowly.
None of the favourite treats or toys or chasing game worked. And then he took off all the way to the other side of the park, pretty far away. He didn’t come when called, he didn’t come with me running (fast) in the other direction across the lawn dragging and waving a sheepskin toy behind me. He finally came when he saw me packing up the car. I didn’t say anything, just opened the car door.
I am crushed and feel like giving up. Everything was going so well lately with our training, but all fell apart again.
Jennifer--Now that he’s rested it’s time to go back and try again with the pig’s ear idea or something else that’s new. Buck up and don’t compare Buddy to the carefully selected dogs like Nero. My two older dogs that I have now hated seminars and would just creep along not looking like themselves. The last one I went to was with my Pyr Shep Saales down in Colorado with Sylvia. She went, but not with her usual fire. I was mortified and jealous watching the dogs with high drive just go go go. I want to practice this AM, but Nero took off after my hubby on a mountain run yesterday and is totally done in after running with a national champion trail runner for more than an hour. I know that if we went out right now that we would have an awful session.
Nancy
Jennifer,
Do not give up on him! I had and I still have fierce problems with her recall…
When you see her on the videos it looks like she is mad to be with us but believe me no a chance when a field or outside with me alone.
I remember my boyfriend and myself looking for her in the beach for more than 3 hours to come back to us…and when she was 9 months old I had to tied her up to a pole in the leash to step on the pole as soon as she was taking off…
Now it is a bit better…lots of recalls and treats in the flexi leash…but it still not perfect when birds or something interest her!
You wont believe me but she started to improve when I got the second dog…it is like she is trying to compete with him.
She comes when called in the beach if Darwin is beside me and trying to take my attention, you saw her in the Puppy class videos.
If she doesnt come inmediately I start playing with Darwin and she will be there at the minute!
But no hope with agility. I tried with her indoors and she is very good with directions and she loves the tunnel but once outdoors not hope..to boring for her liking…no birds involved!
I am still training her at the same time that Darwin and not giving up yet!!!
Eva.
I am reading my text and I realized I did lots of mistakes. Sorry I am at work and I am in a rush! I was talking about my Springer Spaniel Vesta.
Thanks Guys,
Can’t go back right now, there’s a big storm coming and am too hopping mad. Don’t worry, I won’t give up so easily. I wanted to quit many times before and didn’t, just hard sometimes when your dog gives you the middle finger. There weren’t even any squirrels there! stupid squirrels weren’t up yet.
I am going back and forth between getting a new puppy and making it work with the dog you have. Very interesting, Eva, that Vesta wants to be there when you pay attention to Darwin. Buddy gets jealous too. and I knew exactly what you were talking about 🙂
Don’t give up Jennifer! Just take a deep breath, look into Buddy’s sweet eyes and maybe take a break. I’m convinced that Buddy would do what you would like him to do if he fully understands it. I’ll tell you Keen’s story, maybe it supports you a bit. Nimble, our second youngest dog is one of these Border collies that opened her eyes and did not see anyhting else but “me”. Full of attention from the start. She was sooo easy to train. Now Keen came along, Nimbles half sister. She opened her eyes and saw so much more interesting things in the world!! Other dogs, other people… Since Keen is a half sister of Nimble the expectations were high… In 20 years of agility and dog fanatism I saw expectations really kill quite some human-dog relationships. So, I got rid of the expectations and comparison with Nimble. It took some time, I admit it. But finally I adapted to Keen. Things go slower but we get there! Same as you will get there! I also have been walking to the football field, carrying jump wings. Arriving there, Keen hearing a dog miles away and that’s it, session is over. No focus, no attention. Go home again and realise that she was not ready for exercising in a park. So, we started over again, in the bathroom! I did almost all the basic trick training in the bathroom. No distractions there. I also followed Silvia’s recommendation, especially when we practiced in the garden. I always train short sessions, even with focused dogs but with Keen they were even shorter, sometimes 1 or 2 repetitions. If she wandered of, I just left. Closed the gate and left her behind. When I returned at the gate she was waiting for me with this look “where did you go???”. Things like this are easier in smaller places. I would not practice in the park with Buddy, or maybe only things you know he really, really likes to do and fully knows. Things that are so much fun that they are more important than wandering around.
Keen is 8 months now and the wandering off, loosing focus is almost gone. She is almost as easy to train as Nimble now. It just took us some extra time. It is just so much fun to train her now and the fact that it did not start off that smoothly even gives some extra satisfaction!
I’m sure Silvia and our classmated will give you some valuable tips! Just hang in and do not be affraid to take some steps back. Maybe it’s a bit hard to put a tunnel in your bathroom but you can put some kind of pole for the cik and cap work in the bathroom. Well, I did! 😉
I think Inge made a very important point here: expectations kill!!! That’s actually why I love starting early with my dogs -- no pressure when things go wrong and not as fast as predicted -- I still have plenty of time.
Still, I remember how hard it was to not feel under pressure when I got my first BC, from fancy agility line of world champions… And she just would’t play, she wouldn’t even follow as a puppy, she would just wander off and act completely autistic… Every morning, I was hoping she will wake up and be a normal drivey BC… Didn’t do much good for our relationship. I decided, I need another BC as fast as possible, NOT to give up on Bu, but to take a pressure off, to focus on a new puppy and work with Bu when she feels like it and not when she doesn’t, without showing her any kind of disappointment.
Every morning now, when I wake up and first see Bu as she has a privilege of sleeping in our bedroom, I smile at her and thank her for being the way she is, the sweetest dog I ever met, the dog who still doesn’t really like toys or food (she will take both, but just to make me happy) but will run in any situation, because it’s just “our thing”, even in for her very scary situations like World Championships… She will never be like other BCs, but that only makes her more special and more precious.
I know it’s even harder when you have just that one dog and you drive somewhere just for that and then can’t do anything… Been there, done that too with my Samoyed… To make it even more frustrating, I was 11, spending all savings for the class, riding two buses and then walk for half of an hour to get there and then he took one jump and ran off hunting for mice, birds, or whatever… But oh well, the more problems you overcome, the more you learn, I guess 🙂
Never giving up, tons of patience and being able to see, mark and generously reward little things and forget about big things to take all the pressure off are the lessons my Samoyed tough me. Till this date, those are still most important things I’ve learned about dog training…
Thank you, Silvia.
Hi everyone, this is our first video for lesson 1.
She likes to play tug on her toy, but it does not seem to motivate her to do things for it. I am working on it. She much prefers to chase a ball and she is much faster then.
I have been working on cik/cap with Maia but only around a table leg, this is her first time around a wing. The first few times I use a toy, and then in the end I used a ball as a reward.
I am finding that she is a velcro dog -- and will not work away from me. I have a hard time sending her to obstacles, except the contacts, which she loves, loves, loves. When I run her in class or at the 3 trials I’ve been to, I have to babysit her and she will not run ahead of me. She is MUCH more motivated and faster when we are all out running, but if I stop her, she is very slow. I also find that she does not have the motivation right from the start -- she’s slow to start and then picks up speed as we go along. She knows what a ‘tunnel’ is because we’ve been working on obstacle discrimination for a while with her, but she just chooses not to take it :/
And here are her weaves. I just started all 12 not too long ago. She was taught with the 2x2 method. On the video you can see I tried a slow RC which worked, which we are working on, and I tried to stop and go the other way, but then she pulled out. She also pulls out if I throw the ball too soon. I have not been working on all these with her in the past so this is new to us.
I’m finding it hard to motivate her in the past few days. It could be that it is getting hotter and more humid here and she does not like that. I will try to get to my friend’s field earlier or later when it is cooler to see if that makes a difference.
Thank you.
O.k., I still don’t get 2x2… Shouldn’t you be practising difficult entries right from the start? Why are you doing only straight approaches then with 12 poles? What is different about the entry with 12 vs. 6?
And yes, the heat could be the reason… Another thing is, again, to check that you don’t do too much with her… I never do agility twice a day… Maybe it was just too much? She definitely doesn’t look like herself… Especially the tunnel exercise… She really didn’t like that one! Would she like it better with a shorter tunnel and a ball instead of a tug toy? Cik&cap sure goes much better with a ball, so keep working that way, just try to throw it somewhat sooner as she often looks at you when coming around the wing: she should already be speeding up after the ball at that point, to learn to speed up out of the turn. You can also move more if she likes that.
I think most Shelties, actually most small dogs, tend to be velcro dogs if you don’t do lots of focused work on sends and commitment -- and that’s what those two exercises are all about. While it came naturally with my BCs, I had to work A LOT on it with Le. She also didn’t like tunnels: no fun if she can’t see me run! But she learned that if she takes it, the fun game of chasing me starts again. By now, she has very good commitment for such a small dog and it helps me a lot to be able to get in front of her.
yes Silvia you start with entries from all possible angels right in the first or second session where you are working with 2 poles only. When you work through the DVD you always work the arc and it’s clearly documented. So far I did two poles only with Funky (the rest will be at 14 months) and she knows how to enter them from a range of angles.
I also had the issue of the reward line and I assume that’s what causes many handlers to add mistakes. In my case I marked the line, had it straight, but thew the toy too far away.
Anybody who is doing 2x2’s and is struggling -- Susan advices to take a break for a month and start over again paying very close attention to the DVD and transcript. Also check her blog.