Your last homework already! Two more weeks left to catch up and then with October 3rd, this class is finished. If you want to keep working on Foundation stuff in a class form, you can join October Foundation class (that is repeat of this class) for a reduced price. If you want to take things further, you're welcome to continue in Handling class that will start 31st of October, I'll open the registration soon. In Handling class, I'll be posting two different exercises for two different levels: the whole course for more experienced teams and shorter sections that will still be focusing on training to some degree for beginners.
1. sequence
Let's check your stays. I usually train them away from agility until they are 100% with toys flying, dogs running around, me moving etc. - and then just use them here and there also in agility: probably only for about 10% of sequences we run, to make sure I'm not given too many opportunities to ruin them 🙂 In this sequence, you need a stay. Position your dog at the good angle to be on a good line for 2nd jump, go to your position and start. Choose how you want to handle it.
2. front, rear and blind crosses: as there were some questions on the crosses, I included a video with different crosses on the same sequence. Normally, I first do front crosses only (as I only do collection sequences) + blind crosses on tunnels, then add rear crosses on flat and at tunnels, then blind crosses and then rear crosses on jumps. So try rear cross on a tunnel and on flat first and if that goes well, try it on a jump: see the video - just ignore the double tunnel, use a single tunnel of course, I just used whatever I already had in a set up. If you want (I'm not forcing anybody, I'm just including those as some participants were asking about them), you can try it with blind crosses too. Normally, I will choose the cross based on a situation: for collection, I will use a front cross OR, if I can't get there in time, rear cross at the jump. For extension, I will choose blind cross OR, if I can't get there, rear cross on flat. At trials, I do the most front crosses, then blinds and maybe one rear cross every 5 runs... Yeah, not big fan. But of course, it's important the dogs know rear cross too as sometimes it is the only option!
You could of course run those sequences with front crosses only, I showed it with rear and blind crosses only as by now, I think we mastered the front crosses already, so we can try some rears and blinds (if you want).
3. send in your contacts, see-saw, weaves and multi-wraps (on your current height) work again to check how it's going and to give you some suggestions on how to proceed after the class is finished.
Hope to see you in Handling Class!
Rear on the flat, blinds & wraps. Will we have time to learn rear crosses at the jumps before or during handling class?
Great understanding of the rear on flat, no problems with the blind. The thing that could be better on a second video though is your position on the lead out: standing so far and in the middle pulls him too far for that tunnel entry. Try to stand very close to the right wing (right from his perspective) to tell him he needs to jump tight and to the right -- not straight and far as he does now.
Wraps are going well too, the first one on the first video is too wide, but the others are o.k., just try not to reward the one he knocks a bar (I know -- not easy sometimes…).
Try the rear cross on a tunnel first and if that goes well, try the one on a jump-tunnel sequence that I showed. Just try, tape it and send and it will be easier to give you some directions on what to improve as to advise without a video. For me, rear crosses are so easy as that’s all we knew for our very first years in agility (back in early 90s 🙂 ) that I find it hard to teach them 🙂 -- cue the jump and cross behind is all the instruction I’m able to give without a video…
Hi Silvia,
Here is all we’ve done this week-end (complete sessions).
After this class is finished, I’ll keep on training the topics you gave us. To give me an idea, when a puppy should be doing a slalom closed?
Thank you,
Céline
Great job with serpentines, remember to run it as a straight line: you’re running somewhat in-out in a first session, probably to show her the jump better, but you want her to search for them on her own. The rear crosses on tunnels look good, so you can try them on flat too. Blinds are going well too, but again, you need to stop and redo, insisting she comes to the right hand, when she blind crosses you on her own, as at 0:46 -- that is a VERY bad thing to reward: she might take the right obstacle, but she also learned that your hands don’t mean anything and she can just ignore it… Definitely something you do want to stop her for, especially as she then does it a couple of more times! Also, her turns are falling apart as you’re not being consistent… You say droit at 1:10 (and 1:22 etc.) and gauche at 1:15 and those are both straight lines… That only trained her to stop listening and is indeed going really wide also when you do need a wrap (at 1:44). You can’t use collection words for both straight lines and collection… She had really nice wraps and I can’t see even a bit of collection on any of your droit/gauche in this video anymore… Go back to get some wraps again and then focus on extension vs. collection exercise. When running other sequences, always think twice if you want collection or extension and what you should say and do to cue it. I start closing the weaves when they’re close to a year (some less with smaller dogs, some more with bigger dogs).
Here is our seesaw and A-frame. You know our dogwalk 😉
I havn’t started on the weaves yet. I think i will start when i am home from the World Championship.
Great! Very cool A-frame and great confidence on see-saw. I think that first set up was pretty scary (landing on a table), but she didn’t seem to mind! 🙂
I had some problems with the see-saw, when it was to high for her to jump on. Then i lifted her up and send her to the contactzone, but she was unsure. then i tried it the other way and send her to the table.
Here is our work on the sequence.
Great job with the sequence! She seems to drive to a curved tunnel really well now! For the threadle, don’t forget to call her too: so it’s first cap for collection and then come for coming to your hand: you start saying cap too late and then say it for too long and don’t call her at all. Also, do you still reward stays in a position? I would only reward releases now, to avoid not-starting problems and reinforce the release some more. Also, cik on 6 needs some rewarding to tighten it up, she is can be tighter as that, but as you can’t support it with a body language, she just ignores it, so you do want to remind her it’s still important.
Here is our tries on Rearcross and blindcross.
I am not using blindcross very much, as you can se 😉
I have not trained her on rearcrosses and i to have troble with learning it to my dogs, but i think that Zushi does them very well.
Yeap, good understanding of rear crosses! Those are not my favourite either, but it’s definitely important the dog can read them too. Blind crosses are useful too, but those two here were actually not the best examples, those two were pretty difficult and could be easily replaced with front cross -- but in some situations, blind is definitely easier. On a first sequence with blind, you need to call a lot to get their attention and the second situation you handled really well at first, cuing the jump with left hand and then picking her up with right hand after, but then you start cuing the first jump with right hand already and that’s when things don’t make sense to her anymore, so I think first tactic was actually better.
You are right about the lead out on the second video! I will do it again and compare the tapes. Here are some more rear crosses for your comments. I only have the last blind cross sequence to do! Its been so fun and gone so fast. Thank you so much.
But that went great! I though you are having problems with rear crosses and that’s why you wanted more help? I don’t see any problems on the two videos you posted, I think he reads rear crosses really well! Maybe he could be somewhat tighter on that first one, going into the tunnel, but you could simply tell him cap there… -- I think you didn’t? And the rest all looks nice and fluent to me!
He doesn’t always read my rear crosses and I get a lot of knocked bars. So I should start saying cik and cap? What I needed help is doing them on a jump. I can see by your video that you are doing your rear cross while he is in the air and he turns tighter, so I copied it.
Sure, use cik&cap on rear crosses too -- on the height where he can do them of course, but you can practise rear crosses on that height too. In that case, show the jump with the inside arm, but already push some on his line to precue the rear cross and then you cross the line as he takes off. To avoid knocked bars, it’s important he knows what’s your plan before he takes off so that he is taking off from the right lead leg. If he knows the direction on cik&cap well, that definitely helps and you could also use left/right if he knows that, when you don’t want so much collection.
I am obsessing on Contact Trianing. I did join RC class but here are some recent videos.
Tried channels to focus Arrow onto the plank but he ran around that. If I start him back more than 5 feet he gts higher in his hits on the end.
He may have been tired too; It was the end of a too long traing session and I was greedy.
Seems I mis handle him by the collar. I will remember his harness next time.
Should I take the plank down lower or go to carpet to get some distance to start him further or train to work from the tunnel? I also tried to send from the tunnel 2 times and the he really leaped off the plank!!!
Just answered in RC class 🙂
Hi all -- here is Sequence 6 from Paddy and me. Had a little trouble setting it up in my yard and had to work around a tree which doesn’t help handling. Again, I worked it in portions before putting it together. I am also attaching a video showing where we are with serpentines. Not quite a straight line yet but I am able to do three on a regular basis. Threadles and arounds are still a work in progress. Because I have to hold up to show Paddy what I want on the first one I just can’t keep up with him to show him what I want down the line.
and the serpentine:
Great job with the sequence again! Nice lines and great obstacle focus! The threadle in the end looked great too, so you can definitely go for two in a row now. You can tape and post what you are getting now, maybe we can help some. The same with the pushes: just tape and post whatever you have at the moment, if you master them all before posting, then I can’t give you much of an advice anymore! 🙂 The serpentine sure looks great, VERY slowly angle the jumps until completely straight.
Thanks, Silvia. I will tape our pushes and threadles to see if you can give me some advice. A big part of the problem is that I have only 2 67-year old legs and Paddy has 4 18-mos. old legs! Don’t think you can fix that but maybe you can help me with body position and timing which will have to be very consistent to help Paddy know what I want. He is so very willing if I can get my part right.
Things are definitely easier when one is fast, but it’s really not that much about being fast as about knowing where to go, trusting the dog and just going there. -- Not easy with a young dog, but it gets easier with more experience. And you really make a great team, so I’m sure things will just get easier&easier 🙂
Thanks Silvia
You asked about stays and weaves etc (seesaw you saw already where we are). Stays are weak because of lack of training! Weaves we are having a problem. She is fine how she drives down the channel, but the entries don’t seem to improve -- as soon as I move away from a straight line I get very high errors. At the moment I cut it down to 6 poles so that I can practice more entries per session. I suppose it just needs more practice but if you have any other suggestions?
For how long after 3.10 will se still be able to read the comments for this and PC3?
Yeah, you need to progress with entries pretty slowly… And I actually only make them really hard when the dog is already weaving some… -- just a little bit, but entries do make more sense then, when it’s not so wide open anymore. The classes will stay on for at least a couple of months.
Ok thanks. Yes she is weaving -- they are close but not closed. At her age (10 months) how much weave practice do you think is OK?
I think you can close it some more, but of course don’t do too many repetitions: two sessions per week should be o.k.
Hello, I can’t believe we are on Lesson 6 already! This class went much too quickly. We’ve learned so much and still have so many little details to work on from these great lessons! I set up the sequence over the weekend, this is video of pretty much all of my attempts with it. I’m still getting the problem of Leia taking the wrong end of the tunnel sometimes but, I know it’s my fault because I’m stopping too soon and pulling her off…I’ll try to work on that. Also, I see from the video I am very weak with my handling on threadles, cuing way too late…any tips would be appreciated. Our biggest problem continues to be motivation 🙁 Leia has loads of energy but, it’s so hard to get her to give her all when we’re training. I see I still need to be more disciplined about stopping as soon as she’s not putting in a genuine effort but, it’s difficult because I really want to practice and I want to progress with her training and it’s hard to progress when you can’t do much training. It’s very frustrating when I see how capable she is of doing everything but I can’t get her to do it. In any case Silvia, please tell us what you see and what changes I should make. On a positive note I’ve been able to bring tug toys back into training without getting nipped. I’ve worked on it a lot away from agility, I stop playing and cue “give” and reward with a treat when she releases and it seems to be working-no more fighting and confusion. Oh, one other thing I wanted to ask you about…stays. I have not been using a lot of stays in agility with Leia because of her lack of motivation…she understands “sit” and “drop” to mean hold the position until released and I’ve worked on them around different distractions…my question is: would you agree to mostly avoid using stays for now with a dog like Leia? Also, do you think we can go on to handling class even with the motivation issues?
Thanks for your advice!
Mara
PS. some of the video looks strange because I had to lighten it for you to see us…it’s getting dark a little earlier these days.
Cool, looks great! A little late with that FC on 3 the first time, but then you do it really nicely. You also do that front-blind cross on 6 like a pro and Leia seems to like it, I think she really speeds up on that section every time. You are mostly in time with your verbals too, it’s just on that 11 that you keep saying it too late -- you need to handle 11 some more and 12 some less: you don’t really need a collection 12, 13 is pretty much straight considering where they land over 12. And yes, keep sessions really short and mostly start from a play, no stay. I only start from a stay here and there to test their stays, but mostly start from a play too, why not. And yes, of course you look ready for handling class! I think Leia will actually prefer to run more different sequences as the same one many times. How many jumps and tunnels do you have, handling class requires a little bit more equipment, but again, you can build it in little parts if necessary…
Thanks Silvia. It was cool that Leia seemed to like that front-blind cross and got faster there each time. I had never done a blind between jumps (only on tunnels) and was surprised how easy it was. Right now I have 6 jumps, a friend’s tunnel on loan and a light weight play tunnel. I actually just ordered a bunch of agility equipment (lots of jumps, 3 tunnels, a dogwalk, teeter, table, and a chute) and plan to set it up on a field that’s off of our driveway. I’m very excited about it! The new equipment won’t arrive until mid to late November…the contacts have to be made and then it’s coming by boat 🙂 I’ll make do until then. Looking forward to handling class!
Wow, very cool to get all those obstacles! Sounds like they will be in time, you can start the handling class with little sequences and then set the whole course later. And yes, blind crosses are actually the easiest 🙂 -- if you just trust the dog and do it 🙂
Hi everyone,
This is our first session running the sequence from Lesson 6. I see now that I am late with my cap on 11 so I will have to improve on that. She kept missing the ‘cik’ on 6 for some odd reason. She would turn into me. She really knows her ‘around’ cue however 🙂 and I was very happy to see that she avoided the wrong tunnel entrance between 3 and 4 so I think she is starting to pay more attention to me 🙂 On Wednesday, I will try the other two sequences, but I am not sure about the blinds as I’ve never done them with her until last week -- and that was when she was in a tunnel. But I will try…:)
For cik on 6, you’re too static. She takes it when at least you push the hand out some more, but I think you could easily do another step in that direction to support her line better: stopping always pulls them in. And yes, the threadle starts to look really good at the end, but you’re very late at the beginning. She also listens really well between 3 and 4, so that was a good practice for her, but I would definitely do a front cross on 3 to then push for 4 vs. pull for 4: it’s simply faster -- you can try, tape and time it, I did it all the time at the beginning with my dogs to be able to choose the best option.
Hi Silvia,
I trained some of foundation 6 today, only managed the first sequence. Had some poles down and if I ran the course correctly I only used ‘dig’ on number 11, would you have used cik/cap in other places (I don’t think you did on the video). Had quite a few poles down but I wonder if that was due to the small thin jumps?? I did struggle a little bit getting the wrong end of the tunnel but I can improve on that. All comments greatly appreciated as always and any help with the dropped poles would be greatly appreciated. I think I should maybe be using left and right more but I really struggle with her commitment pint and I end up either turning her in front of the jump or speaking to her as she is jumping!!!
Thanks
Louise and India
Yeap, those stick in the ground jumps fall down easily as any touching of the vertical pole ends with a bar down. I think she only dropped one bar of the real jump and that was on 12 that is really hard to clear as she again needs to jump from the side and from very close: I saw Bi had to put an extra effort into that one too. So I wouldn’t worry when she knocks a small jump, but would stop and redo for bars of normal jumps. In situations she keeps knocking the bars, you can also hang something on a bar, like a jacket or a bucket -- to get more attention on a bar.
Otherwise, the sequence went well, but try with an earlier front cross on 3 as then she will jump more to the right and as a consequence will be on a better line for the second tunnel entry. You want to change hands as soon as she is on the right side of 3, before she takes off, to give her a better line: now, she often lands somewhat behind your back, needs to go around your legs then and either only looses time or also sees the wrong tunnel. Then on 6, definitely use cik, she is really wide there and yes, I would use cik there with my dogs. On the line to the second tunnel, you end too much behind and that pulls her in and into wrong tunnel -- or you push on her line when she is jumping 9 and that makes her knock it. Try to send to 8 more and recall over 9 from infront to give her a nice, straight line for the tunnel. Then very nice wraps on 11 and some bars on 12, but that one is really hard to clear.