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!
This class program is very extensive and after discussing it with 1st class students, I decided to give you some more time for last three lessons: first three you'll get every 2 weeks and last three every 3 weeks and we'll also make a 2-week break somewhere in between to let you catch up. As always, taking things slowly is always better and takes you to the goal faster as rushing things up, that's why I'm giving you more time for your homeworks.
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 stanchion now, but without the bar first: 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 stanchion, NOT in the middle of the bar! That's why I always do this side approach FIRST and do lots of it before trying any straight approaches. Check the angle again as it's not the best angle to see and many people do it coming to the jump facing it and then running parallel to it away and then the dogs are back-jumping the jump. You want to come to the jump from the side (nearing the stanchion/wing first) and then run away perpendicular to it.
- 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 (side approach again!) and the distance between them: you want BIG distance to get good speed - something like 10m/33'. Again, you want the jumps under this angle to make sure the dog is jumping close to the stanchion, 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 for you 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!
To make it even more challenging and train three things at the time 🙂 you can also add more tunnels and jumps around, like this:
Try to change it some every time, like bringing the other tunnel closer, or curving it sometimes, or using a jump instead, and also try running by it (to the other entry maybe) while calling to hand so that the dog needs to stay with you even when you’re actually moving towards the tunnel/jump and similar.
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 a 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. With puppies, you can start the channel work, but only play with it max. twice a week, to not progress too fast as you don't want to close it to the point that requires real weaving before the dog is fully grown. But you can do a lot of work on independence and entries without doing any real weaving.
Have fun!
I just joined so I am behind already :o) I have a question about the restrained send. My sheltie does not like ‘restrained’ I tried a harness and she just cringed. Even letting her wear it around the house all day, once I try restrained send she melts down. Switch to buckle collar (wear all day) -- a bit better but she cringes every time I take it. Same thing with martingale and if I miss and get hair it is game over. Are there any options for a ‘restrained send’ that doesn’t involve restrained?
Sure, you will find several discussions on this topic. You can still try if she would like when you push on her chest for example and/or try to shape restrain to see if you can get her like it. But meantime, do all the exercises without it of course, it’s definitely not the only way to start. You can try starting with a trick, like a bark or a spin and then send or you can try a stay with a short lead out. Hope she will like one of those ideas!
We tried another two sessions of restrained cik/cap, staying closer to the jump. There is also a session of weave poles in the video. I can see the rear crosses are more challenging for him, we’ll continue to work on some of those entries!
Looks nice and tight to the left, but a bit wider to the right… -- or is that just camera angle? Maybe you could try an angled bar, the close end on the ground and the far end on 10″ or something, might help him stay even closer to the wing. Great weaves already, but yes, a bit of confusion with rear crosses… Maybe do some easier ones first (coming with less angle) and then add angle. Try also a parallel tunnel for some interesting entries and you can do some proofing for staying it, turning towards the tunnel some already or looking at it and stuff -- and then reward after a tunnel. It makes it more real-life and is often harder as when they know you’re just joking around and the ball will come at the end anyway.
Here are Hannah and I on our second attempt at this. No restrained starts,just letting her go. Not much distance but she is starting to get the idea and having fun the whole time which for her is a big deal.
PS please excuse the typo in the title LOL … I didn’t notice it until it was too late!
Just wanted to tell you, Hannah looks great! What a beautiful color she is! She’s so happy, good job!
Yes, certainly great attitude and enthusiasm for the new game! She is still reading from your body language mostly, though, so I would take this cone inside and spend some of her dinners shaping circling the cone, as described in pre-homework on introduction page, to bring her attention to the cone even more.
With the tunnel exercise, slowly add distance to the sends and mostly do “go” after. She has no problems with shoulder pulls and front crosses as she is very handler focus, so she would actually benefit even more from tossing a ball and saying “go” to teach her to just run (when not called), without watching you so much.
Dang that makes me seriously regret the whole raw diet and make your own thing LOL … oh well time to suck it up and go for it :o) and today’s weather is all about indoor training so cone come in it is!
If you are making ground food, you can just pop it in the microwave and then crumble it up--that’s what I do. If you’re feeding whole parts, I can’t help you! 🙂
SO understand your problem. Sammy’s dinner is a mix of mince and blended veggies and I’m really limited with what exercises we can do to work for his dinner! I have on occasion resorted to putting on a surgical glove and feeding the mush with the gloved hand. 🙂
For those with soft/raw food issues………..I have a friend with a dog on a very limited diet due to irritable bowel syndrome. She feeds him a soft mash that would be very hard to use as training rewards, BUT…………she went to the camping/outdoor store and bought one of their food tubes. It’s just a plastic dispensing tube with a top that screws on. She then loads the mash and can squeeze out just a small amount as reward for training! It works great!!! He licks a little each time and that’s his reward.
Great idea, Amy! I bought one of those for peanut butter and used it as a thrown target. The silicone tube is small and soft enough for little dogs to pick up, whereas any plastic food container is too large. And mine haven’t punctured it, although admittedly they are pretty gentle. It’s also great for trialing, you never have to worry about running out of treats or spilling them.
Hannah is very limited with food allergies so I bought a dehydrator and dehydrate natural raised bison for her. I may try the tube idea though. It would give me something to throw that she could see. If I throw bison pieces she doesn’t see them so it does not work. Thanks for the idea!
Did the ball but she lost her interest in the whole thing after 3 runs and totally shut down. She’s just not a ‘ball dog’
Food tube is a great idea, so you definitely want to use that! If she doesn’t like balls, but likes tug toys, did you try to throw a toy that you can also tug with (something like wubba, a ring, tug toy with a ball on it etc.), would she like that? If not, try top first use a tug toy, but with a long handle, so that you can mix in some chasing in between tugging. You can then switch to throw-able toy on a long string, again mostly tugging, but sometimes also “stealing” a toy and mixing in some chasing, but again immediately going back to tugging etc. until she realizes it’s actually the same game and starts to like the chasing part of it just as much -- helping them to discover the joys of chasing is really very very useful for agility!!! -- Definitely worth spending some time on it!
chase is Hannah’s favourite game in the whole world … chase Hannah that is. She will grab a toy and bounce around like Tiger in Winnie the pooh while you chase her. I swear she has springs for legs! thing is she does not like to chase me! It is all vice versa! So we chase!
Try to mix in some chasing you too: chase her some and then run away and hide and start chasing her once she finds you -- things like this. Try a thing on a string too, chasing you is really important part of agility.
Finally got to do the tunnel exercises, yay! I think she did okay. Again I was stupid and tried to work her when it was hot, I am going to start going in the morning or evening. (But don’t worry she had plenty water and a wet cooling coat on) but yeah, she seemed to be slow and not very playful. Next time I’ll try a more familiar place in the evening.
I have such a hard time motivating and getting her to run (or just faster) any suggestions?
Still waiting on the weaves, should be here soon!
Well, she was actually fast and happy to chase a ball, we just need to get the same speed when she is chasing you… A ball that you put on a long string and drag after you, letting it down sometimes soon and sometimes in the last moment, might help with that -- you want to be as interesting to chase as a ball 🙂 And yes, don’t forget to reward after every click! 🙂
Thank you! Okay, I’ll try that, sounds like a good idea for Keira. Would you like a video of that? I will definitely be trying that!
Sayward, do you have other dogs? Or, if not, could you borrow a friend’s dog sometimes? With my Spur who was very hard to motivate at the start I would work one of my other dogs in front of him. That made him INSANELY jealous and he would scream to play. Then I would quickly switch and work Spur for just a very short session, like maybe twice through the tunnel, then put him back in the x-pan and bring out my other dog. After some sessions like that I could do longer and longer sessions, but they always had to be pretty short.
It sure helped Spur’s motivation to watch me having fun with another dog. I still do that now, on occasion, to keep him wanting it really badly! And, always with Spur I have to keep sessions really short. He has TONS of stamina and could run all day and hikes mountains and can run for miles on the beach, but in order to keep him wanting MORE training I keep sessions really short.
I know how hard it is with a dog who isn’t motivated. I know you may not think Spur looks that way now, but when we first started he would not play with toys, he would barely do anything for me, I kind of begged him around the course with cookies, but even then he hardly seemed interested. He was really worried and I almost quit with him as it seemed like I would never get him happy or motivated. But, I hung in there and tried a lot of different things. It takes time to figure out what works best for your dog, so just keep trying different things with Keira! She sure looks happy and fast as Silvia said, for her ball!!!
And keep sessions really short and fun. I would sometimes do two minute sessions with Spur. Seriously, just two minutes and quit before he got slow and worried. It’s hard to do, but that really helped him and even now I still have to keep things short.
The other thing you can think about, Sayward, is try to reinforce her heavily for any burst of speed or moving with enthusiasm. It’s easy to get into a trap where we put on pressure to go faster. “Let’s go, let’s go”, “hurry, hurry”, which often makes dog shut down and slow down more. Kinda like if you were on a hike with a fast walker who kept yelling at you to move faster, you’d likely get fed up, lose energy, and probably quit trying to catch them. I know I’d be like, “You go on ahead, I’ll meet up with you”. But if that person didn’t push directly, and kept talking about how good it felt to be walking, complimenting your agility, etc, you’d have a different feeling. You’d even hustle and walk a bit faster to keep stride with them…so long as it wasn’t too fast for you.
Hopefully you’ll find your dog lights up and digs in at your praise/reinforcement, and you can build from there.
Cloudine, wow I never thought of it like that, but that is SO true, thanks so much! That seems exactly like what’s happening with her! What a good way to look at it, I will definitely keep that in mind and start rewarding for that thank you!
Thanks so much Amy! These sound like great ideas, I am really grateful!
No, I personally only ‘have’ Keira. My Mom and Sister have dogs, maybe I could use them, but they aren’t very good off leash 🙂 But I do hope to get a puppy someday, I’m sure that would make miss Keira jealous, now I just need to tell my parents I need a puppy for Keira, not just for me LOL
I think I can get my friend’s dog to help us, it’s one of the only dog Keira likes, so I’ll see about that.
Man, Spur is a lot like Keira I think! She could walk or hike for miles (much longer than our other dogs) but when it comes to training, she tires so easily. But yeah, her stamina amazes me!
Again, so like Keira! We’ve been working for a year or so just on teaching how to play, that playing is fun, and now I can finally use it as a reward, which is huge for us. I am so motivated that Spur was so much like Keira and you guys got through it 🙂
Haha yeah, Keira will do anything for a squeaky ball!
Okay I will try and shorten sessions, it’s so hard when you only have one dog! But I will work on it! Thanks so much for all your help! Keira thanks you too!
Sayward, I would not say we “got through it” because we sure still have moments of low motivation. In fact, I will be posting such a movie soon from some work this morning.
I think you could use any dog and keep it on leash. Just play some silly tricks with another dog right in front of her, so even if they can’t be off leash, just do some training with them in front of her. It doesn’t have to be agility stuff.
Also, the training sessions are hard to keep short, but what I will do is a few reps and quit and just hang out for a bit and take a break. I don’t really mean that all you have to do is a few reps and quit for the day. Just quit and take a break and maybe just give her a massage or do sometime really low stress, like Spur loves to heel. It’s one of his favorite things, he is very good at it, so doing some heeling in between some of the new things we are doing helps him because he is SO successful at heeling. Maybe something Keira really likes, that is low energy and easy. Or just go sit in the shade for a minute or two.
Ah, I see. OKay I will do that with my mom’s dog then, thanks!
Aww great that Spur can heel so well, we are working on it currently 🙂 You given me a lot of ideas so far, now I just have to remember them all! Thanks again!
Yes, the competition always helps! Another great thing about working with two or more dogs is that it makes it easier to keep sessions short and give the dog enough breaks in between. It’s impossible for any dog to work with full speed and intensity for 10min! And you actually don’t need it for agility anyway! You only need 30-40s of full speed, so that’s what you should be working towards! Working on their stamina is of course very important too, but I do that outside agility, on walks and hikes. When doing agility stuff, my major focus is too keep it short, fun and intense.
Haha this sounds great! Thanks for the suggestions!
Yes that makes sense now, okay I will work on short sessions 🙂
Thank you!
We are progressing and move to eights. I try not to bend down and put longer clip 🙂
Cool, nice speed and forward focus! Still bending and waiting a bit on that first wrap, but definitely lots of progress, great job! You can also try a sequence now, but keep rewarding a lot (every two or three obstacles). When she gets distracted, just run away and have her chase you. Lola looks great too, how old is she now?
Thanks, Silvia. We’ll keep running 🙂 Lola is 15 and 7 months. She still likes go for a walk and likes to eat, from time to time even plays with Demi a bit.
What a nice age, she sure looks great!
We have hit a bit of a snag! Lost some motivation, I am afraid. Such is Spur! So, here are two sessions doing figure 8’s. We did a session earlier last week that I thought was pretty good and fast and happy, but no video. Then today I tried a couple sessions and he seems slow and unmotivated. He still isn’t sending to the jump well. So, I tried what you suggested doing them before doing his DW and that seemed a little better, but still not great. AND he missed his contact several times, LOL!!! Oops!! So, then he was maybe a little worried heading back to the wraps because he didn’t get rewarded. There wasn’t a clear obstacle after, so maybe it was a set up “into nothing” and next time I’ll be sure to put a jump or tunnel there, so the contact isn’t an issue. 😛
But, I am thinking I need to first get more drive to the jump? And work the single wraps some more? Without that drive to the jump I am losing momentum and he just seems to be going through the motions. And his restrains are degrading, I am afraid. 🙁
As with all things Spur he needs time to work through these things and maybe I went too fast and need to go back and make sure I get that drive to the jump going better. That’s always an issue, his starts. Maybe I should really break it down for him with restrain to the tunnel, then restrain to jump to tunnel straight on, then wrap jump to tunnel, slowly increasing the difficulty, ever so slowly? I am sort of at a loss as to how to get his starts and sends better. I am seeing the old pattern with the degrading of his restrain. Something new works for a while, then doesn’t work. He sends pretty well to a tunnel, but it’s a jump I need him to send well to, obvsiouly. I’m trialing tomorrow, so we’ll see how his starts go there.
So, our trial actually went pretty well!! His first run his start was really nice and fast. The other ones were too far away to see on video, but they were OK. Not as fast as the one in this movie, which is more like what I want, but they were all fine!
I am VERY proud to say we had a tough jumpers course with a long extention line to a back side of the second to last jump and Spur handled that perfectly!!! I know his wrap work exercises sure helped him perform this so nicely!! Very few dogs qualified on this course because there were some other really tough areas and Spur ran it clean!!! I put his wrap in the movie twice just cuz!!! 😀 Only two other dogs in his division of all heights ran it clean and Spur was fastest.
Yay Amy and Spur!! Was that at All Dogs Gym? It looks familiar 🙂
Yep, Louise, All Dogs. Not as much competition for us in USDAA as in AKC, but we sure enjoy it more because of more classes!
Again, it doesn’t look slow to me all! He actually has really nice sends and great commitment! He could still drive to the jumps more yes, so it’s definitely worth building it as you describe, using just the tunnel first and then adding a jump into the picture. I would also still do wraps to a DW -- this was what helped Le the most as she is not naturally driving to obstacles either. But use an easy setting to get the contacts too 🙂
Yay for the trial, looks great!
I knew you were going to say that. 😀 You are always so positive and encouraging! I am MUCH too critical of the poor little guy! 🙁
I went back and looked at some of our previous restrain work from before class started and made a short movie. It sure shows how unhappy he was with the restrains (THAT sure has improved, he is much happier now about me getting a hold of him or grabbing his harness!!!!), but he also took off to the straight tunnel pretty fast. 😀 I’ll go back and work some of those things with him both with the harness and without and with and without a jump.
Also, I noticed in the video with the wraps before the DW that he was a little surprised by my front crosses and got more comfortable with those later. 😀 I don’t do a lot of front crosses with him as he feels the pressure if I am not in perfect position with them (I RARELY do rears as I am fast and can get to places pretty well) and if at all possible I do blinds, so practicing these figure 8’s with the front crosses will really help him.
As always, your feedback is so appreciated!! Thanks for reminding me not to be so critical. 😀 He’s sure trying really hard for me and I love him SO much!!!
It says “this video is private”.
Thanks Louise. iMovie automatically does that and I was rushing and forgot to change it.
Oh yes, he sure takes off for that tunnel really fast, even after showing discomfort about the restrain… One just have to love those tunnels! Tunnels really helped me with Bu -- could never do it without tunnels. -- By the way, I have 10 jumps and 6 tunnels 🙂 and set them everywhere around to have a reward ready at all times 🙂 She also hated front crosses and it’s only with her that I started with blind crosses as she liked those much better. But front crosses to tunnels and DW sure helped to change her opinion on it and is now equally fast with both.
It was your DVD saying that about your tunnels that had me doing those restrains to tunnels and jumps to tunnels before this class even started. 😀 One of his most favorite things is straight tunnel to tossed ball, so after watching your DVD I decided to build drive to jumps by using the straight tunnel to ball reward. Obviously, it has done WONDERS for him and is helping our start line SO much. 😀 And it sure helped me to be ready for this class!!!
I am afraid I am really quick to forget how things were just not very long ago and how much improved he already is!! Shame on me for that!!! LOL!! He is SO much fun and he really DOES love doing it, he LOVES to go to trials and pulls me into the buildings and he SURE loves to run his dogwalk. Video is so helpful to look back and see how he was and remind me how far he has come!!! And in a very short time, really. I thank YOU for that!!!! 😀
I have come to the conclusion that I am the world’s worst videographer. I managed to keep the camera from falling over today, but the jumps are SO far away!!! This session I almost decided to move the jump before the DW because he missed his contact the first three times and I had to do a GTCG to get a jackpot in. Then the next one he got beautifully and I quit.
But, he does have a bit more speed and drive I think. He doesn’t look as surprised by my front crosses and I decided to add a couple blinds and run on the other side. I’ll switch up the jumps the next time so the jump before the DW will be a left wrap.
I am simply horrible at setting up my camera!!! I promise to try to be better about that. It’s so much easier with help, but I don’t always have help. And he’s always so much happier with an audience -- he likes his groupies, LOL!! So, even without an audience he did pretty well today. Not as tight to the first jump, so I should lower that bar the next time. I don’t think it matters which way he is wrapping, it’s the first jump that is not as tight, but maybe it’s not that bad? I know, it’s hard to see, sorry!!!
I forgot his harness for this session, so I just did his push away starts.
Shoot, I meant to put this up under the other one. Oh well.
Cool, great commitment and accelerations out of that 2nd wrap 🙂 1st wrap is o.k. too, but 2nd is better, so do try to change it next time. He sure looks perfectly fine with front crosses too, great job!
I tape tunel exercise, but I am still at the part to motivate Demi for running througt it. As you see, we are facing “recall” problems, she likes to run away, chase Lola or animals in the woods and come back after. She likes to run a lot & fast in a woods, so I am trying to transfer this to agility. However I am not shoure should be I more “strict” to her or just build on speed & fun & chase at this stage?
Is Demi a Tibetan Terrier? Very cute 🙂
Ah ha! I went to your website -- Yay! Another TT in class! I understand 100% what you mean about recall problems. Tibby was the queen of zoomies for a loooong time.
We still have problems, but she is much better. I had to find rewards that were so amazing she couldn’t leave me alone -- she wanted them SO much. And also -- when she does zoomie (she tried once last week during a private lesson) -- I leave and she has a time out. I don’t say anything. But for that to work you would have to have control of the environment. We have lessons in a building and when she zoomied she had to stay all by herself in the building for a few mins. She didn’t zoomie again!
They are very smart dogs 🙂
Hi Catalina, I see your Tibby doing homework 2. Great that we are two of us. What are the ” In” rewards for her? Mine Demi likes coocked meat and now toys with plastic bottle inside, like fox used in a video. WHen exercising in a woods near our home, I can use fox and also during agility course, if I am far enough from other classmates. Othervise I do need to use food, the more “smeatly” the better 🙂
That sounds just like Tibby LOL!! Near dogs I have to use food, but at home I can use toys. She really LOLVEs wool, so her favorite toys are a wool ball and fluffy sheep tail tugs. She really likes the fluffy wool, because she can tug on it and get some wool to pull out of the tug.
That’s neat that Demi likes a water bottle -- Tibby doesn’t like toys that make noise -- except jingle bells. Awesome that you can use toys during agility courses! That’s great! We are working towards using toys around other dogs. Right now the dogs are too distracting for toys to be a good reward for Tibby 🙁
I use smelly treats too! Mostly human food -- hot dogs, cheese, meatballs, steak, ham, ect.
Can’t wait to see your progress in the class!! 😀
P.S. Tibby has a blog with all her adventures -- http://justatibetanpup.blogspot.com
Thx, great blog 🙂
Yes, I think speed and fun are the keys. When she starts zooming around, try to just resend to a tunnel or run away, don’t try to catch her. She seems to like tunnels, so that’s a great start! After the send, don’t face her and just wait for her with a toy, try to face the other direction and run away fast, dropping a toy down to the ground for her to chase it as you run away -- I know it’s hard to do it when you’re trying to stay within the reach of a camera 🙂 -- but do make it about “go&chase me” game. Allow her to tug and win a toy after she catches it, don’t take it away too fast for another send. You can throw in some shoulder pulls and front crosses, but still, always recall her to your side and then turn, don’t front her as she is coming out of the tunnel.
Away from agility, practice recalls and grabbing her harness when she comes while eating treats -- don’t put her on leash, just grab her collar and let her go again, to make her see it doesn’t mean the end of fun. You can also try to do it with a harness and make big fun out of grabbing her harness as she doesn’t yet have a run-away reaction with harness. I don’t really understand what you mean by strict -- definitely try to be consistent, but of course don’t try to achieve anything with anger or corrections as it won’t get you anywhere. Just try to make chasing you the most fun fun fun thing ever.
Thanks, that is exactly what I need no read -- no leash!
I did not mean any anger or corrections, I was just thinking , if I should have her put on a leash and do more obedience tricks while she likes to run away and I hface more and more problemss with her recal. However I already use “more smeathly” food and hide to her during our walks. She likes that a lot. It is alo good when we go jogging in that case she always follows me.
If you need a leash or not depends on how bad or not it is… What I saw on a video were some zoomies and “keeping away” from being held. But if she actually takes off and disappears, then I would be afraid to walk her off leash and practice recalls on a long leash first. Hiding should help too + always walk her before meal time so that she is hungry and treats smell especially good.
Well she start dissapearing after first heat, when she spend on a leash 3 weeks. After she dissapeared for 5 minutes (real time) out of mine sight, I put her on flexi and things got only worse. A week ago I drop leash and use extra good tretas. Now it looks like we are progressing and recalls & tricks during walks are more fun as before.
Here is video of Whisper doing the Lesson 1 exercises: restrained cik/cap and Sends to Tunnels. It seems Whisper thinks cik/cap means spin wherever you are at not necessarily go find a jump or upright to turn around. Am waiting a bit before starting the weaves, although I did a little 2x2 the other day. She did pretty well, but I can see there is a little confusion between going through a set of 2x2s and the cik/cap work. So am going to borrow a friend’s channel weaves and work with the channels.
Always fun to watch Whisper! She is so fast and intense! I think she actually knows well what cik&cap mean, but is just too much in a hurry to take it, just as she does with the tunnel once -- but just keep working on her commitment, so that she sees there is no other way to that toy as actually taking the jump/tunnel 🙂 Try also even more side approaches to the jump and after the tunnel, try some recalls to hand (with a less obvious toy maybe to check if she is really following a hand or just a toy), keeping her close for 180 degrees turn before giving her a toy -- you might be doing it already, I can’t see it well in this video.
I also think 2x2 wouldn’t be too confusing for her as she is already doing a real jump and seems to understand it really well. But sure, you can also try channel instead.
The snow has finally melted!! And it was 24 degrees today so I put some of my agility equipment out. Here am I working on Tat’s tunnel sends again (not a good idea to do it in crocs on wet grass), and she’s still hot because we’re not use to it being this warm so early in the year.
I started off with food to get her to come to me but you’re right Silvia she drives in better for toys. I used a low value toy (tennis ball) for “go” and a high value toy to get her to come back to me. What you don’t see on the video is she runs to the tennis ball but drops it right away to come grab my toy. Should I make her bring back the ball before letting her have the other toy? or is it more important to just have her driving back to me at this point?
Oh yes, MUCH better with a toy! I also wouldn’t worry about actually bringing the ball back and would mostly focus on fun and speed. Do mostly “go”s, with just an occasional “come”.
Miss Hannah is really focusing in now on the toy or food or whatever and not on what she is doing. I tried a ball but she has no interest in it. Only way to get her interested is to let her ‘brother’ out to play then she will grab the ball and run away with it to play chase. I try to do this with her (to engage her in chase with me) but no go. So here is a clip of not so good work with 3 different toys -- tug, tug on a ball, and a ball on a rope (stuffed with fox fur to get her interest). Speed, motivation .. focus … all challenges with this little critter!
Hm, yes, she doesn’t really understand what is this all about. Did you try to shape circling a cone as a trick? How good is she at shaping, how much of it have you done? You could maybe consider auditing puppy class and try to shape some puppy tricks with her to teach her that in order to get a toy/food, she needs to think and try something on her own, rather as just try to follow a toy/food. She seems motivated and all to me, just unsure about what is expected from her. I would try to get that understanding first and not confuse her with jumps just yet, she jumps funny, too high and too late as she is so focused on you. Everything (handling, jumping, motivating…) will be easier once she understands going around a cone is what will get her a reward so I would focus on that first. Do NOT lure it all as that just makes her more confused: try shaping, tape it and post, so tat I can give some more suggestion on how to make it easier, after I see where you are at.