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!
I just saw that when I uploaded the video to this site both jumps are cut off. Geez, technical issues. OK. I will do better tomorrow. I think it took my wide screen HD video and shrink it down:-(
Here is my video of our first week of lesson 1. Sass had done some zig/zag, but only with trees. So this week was our first try on the jumps, so they are quite low. Next session I was planning to put the height up just a little. She is always very keen to play, and as you can see it is sometimes hard to hold her back, not a bad problem to have I guess.
I will video the weaves on the weekend so you can see where we are up to and advise whether I should go back a step or two. Her weaving is not bad but not fantastic either. Thanks for any comments of things I need to work on. This is also my first try editing videos so I hope it runs OK, thanks everyone for the suggestions on editing, appreciated.
Tricia
httpv://www.youtube.com/user/dunniesdogs#p/a/u/0/rkJW87emin0
Oops, I have just noticed your response to Tracy regarding how to attach the video. Here goes I will try again, fingers crossed.
Tricia
Hmmmmm, I thought I did it right, I guess not. Any more suggestions?
Tricia
Sorry, was in a hurry and didn’t copy it all, it’s actually httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v= and then the end letters (rkJW87emin0), so -- it’s important to not have “user” etc. in the link
Wow, great job! Great speed, very tight with FCs and shoulder pulls, very tight on some turns, but somewhat wider on some, so I think I would stay on this height for a couple of more sessions. I like to do some multi-wraps on each height too before progressing (that will again be in your next assignment), so you might want to throw in some of those too before going higher. But hey, definitely a really nice dog and a really nice handling!
Here is our 4th session. The poles are closed a little more and I think her independence is progressing very well. She likes to cut across me to take the right side of the tunnel, even when I am sending her to the left. I think I should move closer to the tunnel opening until she gets the idea to not run across me. Ideas/suggestions for this? How does her cik/cap look?
Thanks,
Marla
Cool! Now that is tight!!! Great independence in weaves and getting there with the entries too! For the tunnel, start closer or move more with her. As she is so tight on both FC and shoulder pulls now, I would do more “go” and throwing forward after the tunnel now -- that might improve her drive for the tunnel. At this point, I think she is faster running to a wrap as to the tunnel 🙂 so there is definitely still lots of room for improvement.
What am I doing wrong? why is my video not showing, I only see the url.
Help…….
Tricia
Hi Trish,
I have no idea why your upload isn’t working -- looks like you’re doing the right thing to me. I was able to copy the link into my url and watch the video from your channel. Thought i’d try to upload it for you..see if it happens to work. Sass looks like she’s having a great time 🙂
httpv://www.youtube.com/user/dunniesdogs#p/u/0/rkJW87emin0
I wish i could claim this homework as my own, but it belongs to my friends Trish & Sassy…
Hi Camilla,
I just watched your Puppy Class Graduation video. You & Grace are truly AWESOME!!! And what a beautiful video—the scenery is gorgeous & the training clips in the city are amazing & very inspirational! Can’t wait to see what you two do in this class. You are a GREAT team!
Kathy & Elsa
Oh Kathy, thank you so much!!! We had such a brilliant time in puppy class. That is a very big compliment -- I’ll let grace know (she is outside covered in horse poo at the moment) 🙂
I’ve been making my way through watching all the videos and i just watched your vid from the previous page. I was very inspired by your cik/cap. Elsa is gorgeous! When i read your intro i didn’t click that she is a cattle dog x. I had a cattle dog x BC for 16 yrs & watching you 2 made me miss my old boy.
You have obviously done an awesome job with Elsa 🙂
Here is our first video.
Cik/cap: I use the command “et” (meaning: turn toward me) and the command “back-back” (meaning: turn away from me). In this video we only work with the “et”-command corresponding to the lesson discription. The reason I use the commands like this, is that I’ve had a very hard time to distinguish between left and right when we are runníng, and therefore couldn’t expect Kaoz to know the difference when I couldn’t.
My observations:
Single wing: his favorite turn goes to the left, whereas the right turn is a big wider.
Figure-eight: he adapt to my positions when I send and receive his turn. If I stand behind the line of the two jumps when receiving him, he will widen the end of his turn. If I cross the line of the two jumps when I send him, he will widen the beginning of his turn -- wasn’t aware of this until I saw the videos.
Jump bars: even with a very low height his turns gets quite wide, maybe I should progress from no bar to a bar on the ground?
Unfortunately the camera-angel of the 2. session is quite bad -- sometimes I’m not even in the picture when I send him -- sorry.
Furthermore we are adressing one serious problem: stess. After very few repetions he starts hyperventilating, his eyes turns red in the white area, and he is foaming at the mouth. I also think this is the source of the bar-knocking problem I mentioned in our presentation-video. This is one of the reasons why I don’t restrain him -- he is already in highest gear. The BIG QUESTION is, wheter to use another aproach of training? An approach that adresses this problem???? Of course I don’t wanna lose his great speed and energy, but maybe some thoughtfulness would make it perfect.
Anyway we will take a break for the next two weeks at least: Kaoz was castrated yesterday because of cryptorchidism unfortunately. I hope he will remain his beloved energy, but who knows.
Can’t wait to hear from you…
Kaoz & Charlotte
Forgot the video:
httpv://www.youtube.com/user/njkcbc?feature=mhsn#p/a/u/0/VElRAZpMfXY
Hm, yes, he is too wide. Now that he can’t run for a week or two, it’s perfect timing to go back to basics and work tons of multi wraps around an object. Did you do any of that with him? We did it in puppy class and it was a first task for this class, you really can’t skip that step, especially not with the dog who already knows agility. Reward by throwing a toy or food at the base of a cone/pole/whatever you’ll be using and shape for tightness and little details like low head and a back bended around a pole. Next step would be exercise 1 of lesson 1 and only when this is perfect figure 8 again, but always doing some multi-wraps on one before sending to the next one, doing some multi wraps there before sending back to the first jump etc. When this is good, add a bar on the floor, do tons of multi wraps again and then go from there.
As I said, it takes longer with dogs who already know agility and think jumps are to throw yourself over. If he learned to jump in collection too, it would be easier for him to keep the bars up, so this would be a very important lesson for him. But it’s an extra hard one as he is on a wild side… Working on just one jump and many multi-wraps might put him more in a thinking mode vs. frantic mode and help him with his hyperventilating problem. You could also do some calm, thinking tricks with him before agility, that helps with my hyper ones a lot.
Watching thousands of dogs on hundreds of competitions taught me a very important lesson: frantic might look fast, but calm, controlled and tight is always faster 🙂 It doesn’t look that spectacular, but it’s always faster. When Bi is in her wildest frantic state of mind, my slow, calm, controlled, but always tight Bu will beat her easily (and she does the same with all frantic hyper BCs -- and she is a complete opposite of that 🙂 ). When Bi calms down, focuses and runs, Bu stands no chance.
Hi. Thanks for your answar. We have been doing multiwraps, but perhaps we’ve being doing to little of this. I will definitely do tons of multiwraps when we can start training again. I’ll start the exercise as if it was a just another trick, and definitely use more tricks when training agility in generel to cope with his stress.
Exactly, just do it a as a trick. I think you can start it now already as it doesn’t involve much speed, so it would be fun for him to do something while recovering.
Hi again.
I’m afraid I have to wait until after monday where he will get rid of the stupid plastic-thing surrounding his neck -- otherwise we can’t get anywhere near the pole because of the big plastic-thing, and think this might be a problem later on. Sadly I can’t remove the “thing” just while training, because he’s very unhappy with the situation, and will for sure start licking the wound if he can. But hopefully we’ll start tricks again on tuesday. Can’t wait.
Ah, that’s for sure, you can’t train with that on! 🙂 If my dogs need it, I put it on and off, no time to lick wounds when treats/toys are involved!
Here is Sid’s Lesson #1 tunnel & cik/cap
Very cool! No problems with the tunnel exercise, getting there with cik&caps. His left wraps are actually very good, but he is somewhat wider as wanted on right wraps, so try to practice those more, try to always throw in some multi wraps to the right too, when training.
Do I take the jump bar off for multi wraps?
If you never did those before, then yes, take it away until you get fluent circles. Once you have that, you can put a bar back, I do those on each height as I progress, including final height. It’s great lesson on collected jumping for them.
Hi!
I have attached our second video. I hope I ran in the right direction on cik&cap exercise 🙂 I think she is more predictable on tunnel exercise, she didn’t crash on me this time 🙂 Next time I will send channel exercises because I am going to have the channel tomorrow. And I have a question. How many times I can train these exercises with Azja? I live in apartment and I have to drive to the training place. This video shows how much time I spend with her on the training. She is 8 months old and I don’t want to make her injured. On the next week I plan to focus mainly on channel. She had 4 sessions on cik &cap and tunnel exercises.
Yeap, that’s a right direction! Very nice and tight!!! 🙂 I think it’s no problem if you do what you showed on video, it’s just running at this point, not any different from when you play with her without obstacles… Agility can cause problems if you do many repetitions of weaving and real, high jumps jumping, but if you so some running through tunnels and channel and some very low jumps, that’s only positive, you can definitely do it 4 times a week.
Thanks for answer! 🙂 But what about tunnel exercise? Should I change something? Are the front crosses and pull shoulder ok?
Yeap, looks great!
Hi Silvia, hi classmates here is our first homework! We had a lot of fun this week!
Bono& Gabi
Hi Gabi! It’s going great, keep making those entries harder&harder and a channel closer&closer, he seems to understand the channel work really well. Interestingly, cik&cap look great on figure 8 exercise, but not so good on one jump exercise… -- probably because he has more speed there… Try to make those from a little shorter distance for now and only reward the tight ones -- if he is wide, send him back for some multi-wraps to teach him it’s important to collect even when coming with lots of speed. No problems with the tunnel exercise!
Hi Silvia!
Yes, the speed is our major problem because when he is just running he is not thinking but when I´m rewarding with food ( even with the tricks) he understands it very quickly .
So, should I work the entries for the first time with food?
Thank you so much!
Gabi
Sure, you can start off with food and then switch to a toy, it’s true it’s better to have brains on when trying something new!