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. I want to ask if you think I am going at an appropriate pace with Da Vinci. The people I practice with start their dogs on equipment as soon as possible and don’t do much foundation work. This is how I started with Cash and Callie. Because I see the value in all the tricks and foundation exercises now, I have been resisting getting out there with Da Vinci. It’s hard when there is a 6 month old lab and 9 month old Aussie pup being introduced to the teeter and even weaves. I just want to be sure I’m doing things right (peer pressure is hard to deal with) and am not failing to give him the best start possible in agility. It’s an open gym setting so its friends who go to work on their own when it is their turn. I think I’m right to not be rushed into the big equipment like others are, but need to check with you. I’ve been good and only practice what you’ve given us and a table behavior when we go (and of course we are doing the RC class work at home), but it’s hard to stand your ground when you are the only person doing tricks and foundation work with your dog and others are asking me why I’m not doing jumps, etc. I’m sort of the odd ball so want to make sure I am in fact doing things right.
Thanks. Guess I just need a little encouragement since the mind set at our open gym is so different than what we are doing here in your classes. I’ve done a couple lessons with Daisy Peel and she also stresses the importance of foundation work/ tricks and NOT rushing into the equipment so I’m pretty sure I’m on the right track…but guess I need to hear it from time to time so I don’t give in to the methods my friends are using by starting early.
Hope that makes sense.
Kristin
Hi Kristin.
You are doing the right thing in standing your ground and not giving in to your friends pressure. I have made that mistake before and will never do it again. If you put in the time and get your foundation right the rest will be a piece of cake, nothing can take the place of great foundation for you and your dog.
You are definitely on the right track so put in your earplugs, ignore your friends and keep on working your foundation. Good for you…
Tricia
Thanks, Tricia. I appreciate the encouragement 😀
Kristin
Well, I always say that I don’t know not even one dog that didn’t learn the equipment as such… But I know many who never learned to do it fast, efficient, tight or safe, so that’s always my major focus. The rest just comes in somewhere on a way, without even noticing it… In a very short while, Da Vinci will know much more about agility as those puppies (if he doesn’t already!) and you won’t even know when he learned it 🙂 You’ll see, in next assignment, we’ll already run a little course with wings and tunnels -- it’s easy when they know cik&cap 🙂 Agility as such is easy, it’s the little details that are important.
Hi there, i train mostly by myself but i hear how wonderful some dogs are already and how they are doing all this stuff. Spy has just started with the jump this week and the tunnel, we have done some poles work but starting now with the entries as Silvia has explained. We support you, i think this is the way to go !
Thank you Silvia and classmates for all of your comments. It really helped me to hear everything you said. You are all right!!! My earplugs are in, my doubt has been extinguished and we will proudly be the oddballs who have WAY more fun 🙂
Thank you so much!
Kristin
Hi Kristin,
I have the same problem. At my training club they just show you how to do the obstacles and then throw you into sequences and things that are too difficult for me and my dog; just barely getting through a course. I found that this doesn’t work at all and just sets you up for mistakes and frustration.
Yeah for oddballs!!!
I agree, just trying to get through a course is never a good idea… There are many much more important things that that!
Hi Kristin,
Just stay your ground, yes! I’m teaching at a club and I always tell new people, if you come here to run a course in a month’s time please go to another club. There are a lot of clubs where they will be able to do that, learn dogs to “run a course ” and getting people out on that course for another 8 years of frustration! Just because the foundation is not there.
Invest in the future by taking the time to build a relationship with your dog by teaching him tricks, invest in a sound foundation. And not the least important give the dogs time to grow up, physically and mentally. We see quite a number of dogs that have to finish their careers at 4-5 years of age. Dogs that were “running a course” before the age of 12 months. It gives me the creeps!
In Belgium we can start competing agility at 15 months of age. I’m convinced that when investing in a good foundation with real foundation exercises you can wait till 12-13 months before introducing obstacles (at least full height obstacles, closed weaves) and still you can be on the course at 15 months, together with all the people that started so much earlier. And even if you need some more time and you can only start at 16-17 months. So what? Look what great fun this class is! Why hurry?
Kristen,
I echo everyone else’s feeling about foundation work. We started agility classes with equipment 4 years ago and I so wish we had been taught foundation skills first. Now we have lots to re-learn.
Also, I find foundation exercises so much more fun because the sessions are short and focused! I am so thrilled to be taking this class with Silvia.
Stick with being the ‘oddball’. It will pay off in the long run.
Lois
hello Sylvia, voila ma séance de samedi avec fly. en fait c’est plusieurs séances sur le meme jour 🙂
Getting there! And wow, Bepop is brilliant on wings! Getting there with Fly too. Try to sometimes work on just a pole too, you can see better how tight or not she is there.
salut Georges! il est bien mignon ton nouveau chien! 🙂
Merci Valérie 🙂 c’est une petite femelle. 🙂
Here’s how we ended the first week of lesson 1. This was our second session at home…we did a little at a local club earlier this week too. I noticed that with the single jump restrained “zig” I’m running to the side a lot. Should I be going more in the direction as I do with the “zag” (perpendicular to the jump after the send)? Did I handle the missed “zig” in the figure 8? I think it was my fault with body language. Are the jumps far enough apart?
I included some play so you could see how he is doing with toys. I can’t get him to play like this away from home yet. I get little moments of interest in the toy away from home, but nothing like this.
Thanks! We are having so much fun!
Cool! You run o.k. for both cik&cap -- the important thing is he completes the circle. For now, you probably didn’t support his line with movement enough for that refusal, but once he understands the verbals well, he will know to take it even when not being 100% exact with body language. If you have place, you can spread them even some more.
Try to keep his favourite or new toys just for away from home work, to make it extra fun. And at least do some tricks for treats in as many different environments and as often as possible. With more confidence, he will start to play better away from home too.
Here’s where we are up to with our 2x2 weave training
Nothing very spectacular at the moment. At the moment we have 2 sets of 2 poles that are ‘open’ and she has to find the entry to run through them from lots of angles. I’m supposed to be throwing the toy along the reward line (in line w the tree) -- i’m not always a great throw! The idea is that i gradually close the angle of the poles so that they are in a straight line along the reward line. Then we’ll be weaving! We then add another set of 2 poles, open to begin with and then close the angle. Then add a second set of 6 poles a sml distance for the 1 st set, then bring them closer until they become the final product of 12 poles
In this clip I’m standing still bc i had got into the habit of luring her w my body movement. Next step is to start running around as she goes for the poles
PS The clip finishes at 2:50, I thought i’d edited out the end but seems not
Cool! Getting there!
Now I made a mistake and posted in the wrong place. So sorry. Here is our fifth session. I think she is getting better at driving to tunnel. She is a little wider on the cik/cap with the bar a little higher. I am not sure how tight it should look with a bar up. Do you think I should go lower again? I left this video unedited as you can see her confusion when I start to ask for multi-wraps. She’s doing great on her weave poles. They are about 4 inches apart now (about 10cm I think:-). Do you think I should challenge entries more at this width? Otherwise, I can probably get them closed pretty quickly and would want to work on tougher entries without the full weaving on her body. Dilemma is that I don’t want to stay on any one width too longer either. Suggestions please?
Thank you,
Marla
Cool! That was a good video to show how to work through confusion with multi wraps! Placement of the reward! Reward far enough along the circle that the second wrap makes more sense. You are getting some really tight wraps that way, but she is wider as wanted on figure 8s, especially to the left -- some very good wraps to the right, but left are all too wide even for a bar up, so I wouldn’t hurry with the height so much. Very nice weaves! You can put it somewhat closer -- but just a little bit, to gain time to work some more on entries without having her actually weave.
The next lesson is coming in a week, you get a new one every 2 weeks.
OK. Thanks. I thought she was wider to the left as well. I will lower the bar again and do more multi-wraps. Also, will work tougher and tougher entries as I slowly close weaves. Oh, I am happy we get to work on this another week without having to start something new:-)
Hi Silvia,
I have two questions I have been meaning to ask you that are in regard to cik/cap:
1. Do you use Ketschker turns? I imagine you don’t have to because you have cik/cap that keeps your wraps tight but just wondering…
2. Do you think the dog ever gets confused if a particular jump is a wrap on a rear cross since we end up running in the other directions (where we would be if we did a front cross)?
Thanks much,
Marla
1. I didn’t for a long time exactly because the turns don’t get any tighter as with cik&cap anyway. BUT then I found something about it that I really like: you don’t need to circle your feet, so that makes YOU faster 🙂 For example, in situations like 0:30 of this video, when I use my front to cue the turn, I would then need to circle my body for 180 degrees -- while with a blind, I’m all set to go 🙂
2. I never had this confusion. I think dogs are very smart and can read us much better as some people think 🙂
Hi Marla, Silvia,
A Ketschker turn is new terminology for me. What kind of turn is that?
Silvia, now that you posted this video, for a long time I have a question about this course (it is one of these that stays in your head, even as a spectator since it was so exciting to watch, last year). It’s about the jump behind the dogwalk. I would know how to handle it with 2on2 off contacts. You can even handle it with running contacts. I personally am way to slow to ever do that. What is your advice for a slow handler in this case? Do you think the dogs will ever be that good in differentiating Cik & Cap so you could use it in that situation without any help from bodylanguage?
It’s the move you see at 0:30 -- the dog is on the right before and after the turn, but instead of circling with the dog, you turn the other way. If behind after DW, you would actually first need a VERY strong “out” for the dog to push to the other side of a jump -- cap would be easy then. But being there is definitely a safer option 🙂 It’s actually not as difficult if the dog has good commitment and you can send to DW. With La, I always had problems getting to places as I didn’t focus on commitment that much back then. Now that I really focus a lot on it, it’s much easier to get to places -- I can really always be in front, even with Bi who is MUCH faster as Bu. Not circling my feet helps too to make me look fast despite I don’t think I run any faster as you do, so yes, you can do it if you just trust the dog and RUN.
Ok, that makes sense and of course Keen will have good commitment! 😉
Inge, a Ketschker turn looks for me what we call “een rogerke” 🙂
Does anyone know what it is in German?
Ha-ha, that was in German, there is a German handler with this surname (or something similar, not sure about the spelling) after who the turn is named 🙂
🙂 ok, I’ll just google it 🙂
Found it. It’s Juergen Ketschker. For anyone interested, just type his name in the YouTube search and you can see his run, he does that turn a few times.
Is it a blind cross?
Well, with blind cross, the dog changes from one hand/side to another behind your back. In this turn, the dog comes into a turn on the same hand as he ends after… So it’s a kind of half front cross, half blind cross: you start FC and then finish it with BC, so it doesn’t give you a change in sides.
Yep, a “Rogerke”, I did spot it now. But Silvia does it more smoothly so it looks nicer. 😉
Tamara did a real nice one just the other week. To me it looks like it has some advantage in some circumstances for some handlers. My feet get tangled when I try it. 😉
Funny, I only use it to keep my feet from tangling 🙂 I use front to cue the turn, so my feet are already turned in the right direction and I can just take off vs. circling my feet for 360 degrees.
Ciao Silvia!
Hi everyone, I didn’t present myself yet, becouse I’m not so good writing english 🙁 . My name is Maša, I’m from Slovenia, I have training a lot with Silvia yet, but I always like to enjoing her classes and methods. My puppy is a croatian sheepdog, named Wey and she is 7 months.
Untill now We’re training running contacts (my older BC already had them) and some cik&cap, but have to fixed them more. Other for now in slovenian, hope that other posts will be in english.
Jaz se nisem še nic oglasila, ker mi je težko pisat v anglešcini 🙁 Upam, da se ostali tecajniki ne bodo užalili, òe ti pišem v slovenšcini…. Berem že ampak pisat na dolgo in široko…
Pošiljanje (restrain):če vržem žogo že vleče, ne vlece pa mi nič, ko ji rečem cik&cap, čeprav prej narediva par obratov da ve kaj se dela. Tako da gre počasi v obrat, potem pa teče hitro ker ji vržem žogo.
Koridor: delala sem ga dvakrat tako da sem vrgla žogo že prej, ta teden pa sem bila pri Omarju in Denisu in ga nimajo…
Tekoče cone: sva že skoraj na 1 metru višine. Sem probala dodat sredinsko desko (od Denisa) in je odvisno kje jo postavim: če štarta na sredini naredi lepo cono, če pa je prevec odzadaj skoci. Ampak po moje enostavno ni na koraku. Se ne sekiram…
Nisem pa delala nič obratov, ker ne zna še tako dobro cik&cap, misliš da bi morala vseeno probat? Sem pripravila video in ga dala na youtube, ampak nekaj je šlo narobe in se ni uploadiral…
Sedaj sem se odločla da se bom osredotočila na to vlečenje (restrain -- na znam ga prevest točno), da izboljšam vlečenje proti oviri. Mislim, da sem ga razumela slabo, razumela sem da mora hitro štartat, ampak mislim, da bolj misliš ta italijanski »pronta pronta«?!
Lp, Maša
Yes, the point of a restrain is that she automatically starts to pull when you grab her harness and say something like “pronta pronta” -- the goal is to get the same speed into the turn as out of the turn. So she goes forward looking at the jump, but not with good speed? What if you run with her towards the wing for now? If she likes tunnel, you can first try to get it with a tunnel and then try again with wings.
With contacts, I would keep doing straight exits and only start with turns when she understands cik&cap better -- it’s no hurry.
So, we’re back to square one. Just basic cikcap outside, which is already a major distraction for him; and there was a fox here this morning. I am posting entire session so you can see what’s going on. But this time instead of trying to coax him back, I just stopped. No calling, no running, no treats. I turned off the camera and took half my jump back inside. He came in after me and looked pretty surprised and was waiting for the other half of his breakfast, the little gears in his head turning 🙂
Oh, and I am not angry 🙂 just squinting, because of the sun and no eye glasses
Well, maybe this will encourage some of our newbies to post whatever you got and don’t worry about the other people so much 🙂
Happy Independence Day!!!
hi Jenny,
wieso auch immer, aber ich kann dein Video leider nicht sehen. Bei mir stehr “dieses Video ist nicht verfügbar”
Susanne
Ja, es war ein Fehler im download. Ich versuche es gerade nochmal.
The download to Youtube didn’t work. I am trying again.
trouble with youtube…..
I hope this one works.
Your dog is so pretty! Beautiful coat! Compared to my dog he looks SUPER focused! 🙂 Very nice work 🙂
Catalina,
thanks, that gave me good laugh that my dog looks focused!! 🙂
Did you miss the end where he walks away?! 🙂
I think Tibby is a cute little muppet!! At least he wanted to play with you!
He knows the cikcap indoors very well, outside he pretends he forgot 🙂
Yeap, I think it was the right thing to do. His multi wraps are nice, he is bending nicely. You can try some sends too -- and if he leaves, just leave again.
here is our first homework
With weaves, make it easier, you have got too many mistakes (and you clicked two of them…). Maybe a bowl at the end to focus her forward no matter where you are at first? The two jumps, spread them further apart and angle them for 90 degrees differently -- see the videos of others. That way, she will need to jump more at one side of a bar, not in the middle and you want to spread them more so that you can do more running in between. The same with the tunnel, put it in the far corner of the garden, so that you can do more running after. Don’t wait for her showing her your front, that slows them down. Run away normally (not backwards), have her chase you (not the toy) and as she catches up, either send her forward or do a turn for 180 degrees, either front cross or a shoulder pull. It’s only at that moment that you let the toy to the ground and let her chase a toy for a reward, but again not while facing her, but holding a toy at one hand and running away with it for her to chase. It’s important she is always rewarded when moving, not when slowing down. But it’s sure nice to see her play!
Here’s our first video of cik & cap. Bree melts in the heat so I kept the session short. Hitting the stanchion with her tail, and sometimes her body when she wraps tighter, is a problem for us.
I think she won’t be hitting it anymore once it gets higher… To be honest, I never paid attention to that as our jumps are always wooden or metal and don’t move that easily, so it was never a problem for us… I will pay more attention now to see if they’re touching it, but I really don’t think they are, so I would keep working like this. Your multi wraps are very nice, time to go to sends and figure 8s.