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!
Here is today. I brought out my drum which I use inside to shape ‘running in circles’ as I wanted to see if there was a difference when I used something different. She goes around ok but is right back to me for that reward. I went drum to cone to see if there was a difference (also off camera to the one leg of the jump). Got slight (very slight) distance near the end (1 m). She will follow my hand round and round that drum but if I try to get her to go round it more then once by command she stops or spins instead. She reads me so I have to step back and re direct her. I stuck that in at the end though it is pretty bad. Sorry about the strange growth -- her duck toy is in my jacket!
Later the same day. It was getting quite hot for this time of year and she was feeling it. I discovered if I clicked just before she could see me (rounding the cone) she speeds into the turn around and does better. The very last one she noted that I indicated the opposite direction to where she was going, fixed herself, and then rounded the drum tight enough to rock it. I did not try double round this time. Still not great distance but better.
Question on weaves -- Hannah learned on 2X2 and the channel just messes her head. BUT the 2X 2 gave her rabbit weaves (she is tiger anyway and bounces/ hops when she is happy and running -- I will try to tape her playing so you can see it). I tried weaves today (thanks to heat wave) but not much luck. Not sure if I should try straight and just deal with hops or go wide channel and just re work them.
Post what you have on weaves to decide what to do. You can try opening a channel just a bit at first (less than 5cm), might be easier for her to see it’s the same thing -- and you can then open it slowly to 15cm or so to work on her style.
Actually, what I meant by shaping the circling is to sit down close to an object with a clicker and treats in your hand, click for a head turn in the right direction, then stretching her neck in the right direction, then doing one step to it, two steps, getting close etc. -- like described in pre-homework. No hand signals, no help. Keep your hands behind your back, click for head turns and reward by always tossing a treat for her, to get rid of the bad habit of staring at your hands. Once she knows it’s about an objects and nears it on her own, you can help some by tossing the treat in the right direction to promote more&more steps around the object and then also the 2nd and 3rd circle etc. Make sure you click the moment her focus is on the object: in this video, you are clicking for returning to you while staring at you -- NOT what you want! You could click going away, focusing on an object, or being tight around the object, but clicking for staring at you doesn’t make any sense, knowing her problem.
ahh … okey dokey I will do that
thanks!
Good evening,
soooo here is our training of CIK/CAP and weaves. It is not taped very well…
CIK/CAP: It is unbelievable what difference is between the one and the another direction. Sends to our TAM is quite good -- 4meters and quite good obstacle focus but with SEM we must be about two meters closer to the stanchion and still it is not very good.
When I put the bar higher she started to knock it down. So I returned it lower. I want to teach her sends and focus at first and I don´t want to take care about bars… It can wait…:o)
TUNEL: I didn´t tape it but the problem is the same like with SEM/TAM. If I send her from left leg (left entrance of the tunel) she can be 4m far, right leg (right entrance) looks like completely different thing. Never mind, we will work on it.
Weaves: I tried to listen to your advices:o). So we had a helper and it worked really good. Thank you. But when helper helps, he cannot tape:o))) so SLALOM is not taped very good but Bubu was able to go into the channel with some small angle (one step to the both sides) and run through. I liked it very much:o).
What a great progress with Bubu! For weaves, start running with her so that eventually, you’ll be throwing a toy at the end (you can first still have a helper standing there to help her focus ahead, but I think you can soon start throwing a toy yourself. You can also narrow it some more and continue to move her left/right to practice entries. Try to introduce your movement also after you release her to cik/cap, to make sure she can still focus nicely ahead when you are moving with her. If she is fine with that, you can soon try figure 8s and then the sequence too. Just practice right side sends some more. Great job!
Okay so my weaves finally came and I got a new tunnel, so I can finally do everything!
Okay so the tunnel- I think it went well, the pulls are a little weird I think, but overall pretty good?
Weaves- First session, she hasn’t seen channels in a long time. I started with then 16″ apart, is this too big? I think she did good, I wanted to try a stationary reward tonight to compare, but she was too tired, but I can do that tomorrow if you like!
Cik/cap- this is actually kind of a mix of lesson 1&2 but I didn’t know if you wanted me to move to lesson 2 yet, so I left it like this. Let me know!
I think she did okay, she seems to be better at ‘cik’ than ‘cap’ and she also seems better on wrapping wings, oddly. But I think she’s getting faster, do you? A couple handling errors I know in there 🙂
RCs- Okay so I am in the RC class too, do you want me to post contact stuff here too? I didn’t know, so since we are break here is our latest session, I tried the up ramp! So yeah, let me know where to post contacts.
Thanks a bunch! Please excuse the trouble-making cats, every time I turned around they were in the tunnel or under the DW!
Yay, great contacts! She is sure running great on her DW! If you have an option of trying a low DW, she looks ready for it! The weaves look good too, you can narrow it to about her width and then practice all the possible entry options. Try to make it just as much fun as RC! To transfer the speed she has for RC to other areas too, try to always send her to either a tunnel or into a wrap before it. Or do a little sequence like you do at the end. And do lots of sends to tunnels/jumps for a ball too! She is sure fast for that ball! You can also try a sequence yes, but again do lots of ball throwing in between. Great job!
Thank you so much! Her contacts took a lot of work so far 🙂 Okay I will try and see if I can get some kind of low DW, is it okay to have like two tables to support the middle plank instead of an actual low DW?
Okay will reset the weaves, do you think I should try a stationary reward yet, or keep with the ball? I wondered because as you can see the ground isn’t flat so that sometimes leads to awkward throws 🙂
Now that I think about it, I sent her into the tunnel before every RC, so yes I will try having her do a tunnel before other things too, thanks!
Okay yeah that sequence was just for fun, just like a ‘okay we’re done Keira, come on and run one more time!’
Haha you wouldn’t believe her ball obsession, she chewed on it after (at home, I let her carry it home) for 2 1/2 hours! She stopped long enough to drop it, choke down dinner (in like 10 sec) pick it back up and run to the crate for 2 hours! Oh my goodness! 😀
So should I move onto lesson 2 then? Of course I will keep practicing this, but should I post there now?
Thanks so much!
Sure, you can use tables or any other objects to support the middle plank. If you can’t build it, you can keep this set up some longer though and just put something under the table to raise it some more. You can try both, static and thrown ball for weaves and see what works better. And sure, go for lesson 2 and just it post there! Ball obsession is a great thing to have when trying to speed up the dog!!!
Okay I will ask my dad about the DW, is it okay if the middle plank is carpet instead of sand/paint? The sand/paint was kind of hard to make (for us at least 🙂 ) so a carpet might just be easier? Any other suggestions appreciated!
Okay, I’ll do the weaves tomorrow, both ways and let you see. I found out that I had the open like 23in! I only meant for 16in! So they are now closed to about 10in or so, we have yet to try that.
Yay! Okay thanks!
Haha, well that’s good news, since Keira is so silly about balls!
Sure, you can use a carpet for a good grip instead!
Sayward, she looks FANTASTIC!!!! Just like Spur she is going to show how training a RDW makes dogs so happy and speeding in other areas!!!! GREAT job!
Thank you SO much Amy! Haha you are right, the RCs really helped us! Thanks!
Sayward, wow Keira`s RCs are so cool!! You both are doing a real great job !!
Thanks you Gabi! That means a lot!
Wow, Sayward, that dog loves her RCs!
LOL, thank you so much!
Here is my “J Morton” session with Hannah (J Morton was my clarinet professor in university-one of the legacy’s he taught me was the value of going back to the basics so every time I go to the basics I call it a J Morton session!). I had to hang her food bowl off the cone to get her to pay any attention at first so this is actually about 10 shaping sessions in! My other dogs were around and she is still going to the cone. The outside ones I had a bowl of cheerios on my lap and the other 2 dogs trying to get into them so she was challenged to do the cone. I kept moving the cone further away and trying to throw the cheerio in a different direction (food issues limits what I can use for reward). She appeared to grasp it so I was starting to ask more then just ‘go to cone’ at the end -- asking her to start to go around for the last couple (but not actually go all the way, just start to move in that direction -- she did go around twice though)
Yes, this was the idea! Always good to go back to basics! To get multiple circles around it, you can again stay closer to be able to toss treats in a good direction to promote full circle -- and then two or three in a row. Don’t forget to jackpot for significant steps forward, like the two times when she goes around the cone on her own!!! Mark it with extra excited voice and give some extra treats for that!
This is Zip’s first session with weave poles. He is just 9 months old so we have about 2-3 feet between the weaves. I don’t have real channel weaves so I have used two sets of regular weaves with every other pole set on each side. At this point I was just trying to get him to understand that he should run between the lines of poles. When we started this session I tried using food treats at either end of the poles but this wasn’t working well. He really isn’t very interested in the treats. He was much more interested in the game when we switched to throwing the ball.
Looks good! Try to start him a bit more off line for every next try, to slowly introduce angled entries.
It’s been really fun to watch Zip, he was my favorite of the litter, you know. 😉 Bright is very similar with food, you’d think that having to eat her dinner was torture the way she looks at me when I ask her to eat. She’s all about the action!
I never tought of that setup and could try cause we do not have channel weaves, but one question: isn’t the place where your supposed to put the pole (evevated metal thing) going to be in the way when you put the poles closer together? like right at the dogs path?
Yes, I think it only works until the channel is still pretty wide. Why don’t you go for stick in the ground poles? Those should be pretty easy to make them yourself. I even used them in snow.
I do have sticks in the ground and they worked okay in the snow but there is not enough snow to keep them up anymore so Terra just bolts through them. The ground is still in ice so we can’t work on it for a while… Also I cannot use sticks in the ground at the training hall (inside) or at our groups outside agilityplace (ground too hard) so I do not know how it will transfer to real equickment.. plus I definitely need to get new poles, these are too flexible so I thinnk he is learning the wrong technique (pushing on the poles sometimes).
Yes, that certainly makes a transition to normal poles harder -- but they do get it within few sessions -- I trained all my dogs on flexible stick in the ground poles…
ok, then I’ll probably keep these poles for now, I’ll just keep an eye on his technique, the bolting (through the poles, making them fall) might just be him trying to figure out his striding. He did it ALOT especially at the point when he couldn’t just run anymore but had to collect, he started skipping poles sometimes, dashing through them and If they were not perfectly vertical, just jumped over them. He also has a problem with taking failures, even with the tricks and shaping we do he sometimes seems depressed when he doesn’t get his ball after breaking out of the channel.. he gets abit slow and sticky and ends up making the same mistake many times in a row..
Now he is more contistant with his performance, he is at the point where he needs to collect and weave a bit and he is great at the entries, not as good with me moving funnily (should had proofed this before the entries). He is still trying to figure out the striding, sometimes doubble stepping and sometimes trying to singlestepp. I think he is eventuelly going to double step cause of his size though.
When I eventually move this to the agilityring, how should I go about that? Of course it might just happen that he does the poles like at home (wouldn’t be the first time he surprised me :)) but if he doesn’t see it as the same thing I do not know how to help him understand cause the poles can’t be made into a channel there…
When I present them with real weaves for the first time, I click&reward for any sign they recognized the obstacle -- so even for just going in&out, even if on a wrong spot. Of course, I then raise the criteria quickly and expect them to do them all in two or three sessions. On some weaves poles, you can pull the poles out some and put them into a metal holder under some angle, to create a bit of V weaves -- that might help him understand too as it looks a bit like channel.
trying for multiple circles with Hannah. She still looks to me for reward after each circle but is starting to go around more then once. I am trying to throw the reward to a different place each time and in a way that encourages her to move away from me (and in the circle) so she does not just stop and stare at me (and never reward from my hand). I have introduced a verbal command but no hand motions. I also move the cone all over (inside, outside), move myself into different positions in relation to the cone, and try her in both directions. this was her first time successfully going around more then once (I am working 2 on 2 off as well and the tunnel game, my weaves have not been working out well but I can not get my ‘real’ weaves out yet due to the early spring weather and the stick in the ground ones are not working out well for me).
Great progress! Another thing I would try is to sit on the floor to promote lower head and try to select for a lower head once she offers more circles. See also my conversation with Eli, she has a similar problem with her Sheltie. How good is she with sends to tunnel, does she focus well ahead for a tunnel?
I actually do most of my work sitting but will add in reward when the head is low to reinforce that too! I’ll try to tape the tunnel so you can see what she is up to -- suppose to rain all day today so may be a couple days before I can get the camera outside!
Most of this field is under water but we found a spot big enough to work! First here’s little Bun Bun. She’s in heat so you can see her sort of drifting off mentally, but I thought the thing to do might be to sandwich the new skills in between familiar things like running around a field with me (that’s her favorite thing in the world) and doing simple tricks, things that she feels confident about. You can see how much she lacks confidence--as soon as I say “yaaay!” she puts on a burst of speed because she knows she did it right. I hope if I take things really slowly with her, she’ll begin to feel good about all of it.
I can’t remember if I posted, but her multiwraps (with no bar) have been really super tight and she sends pretty well to wrap one pole without going off of my motion (UNLIKE BYRDIE . . . video to come), but she was unsure about wrapping today. I see I was late with both verbal cue and arm switch so I’m sure that didn’t help. It’s hard to get used to running with her after Byrdie, who’s so different--I’m either going too fast or too slow.
The weave poles, not much for you to say, I imagine--I got her going through the middle and not trying to weave one side, so that’s progress! And she looks happy running through them. 🙂
Bun Bun is sure having fun! She does like to run and that’s the most important part, so just make it all about the running. You could even let her chase Byrdie when you train him, she might like that -- no pressure, just run! She does look a bit confused about cik&cap, maybe always start with what she knows well, like some multi-wraps first, then some sends to one jump and then go for two. She seems to like her weaves too yes, slowly add more extreme entries.
Here are some clips of tunnel / weave / outside cone. For tunnel she was having fun so you see her happy hop run. I have done workshops where they work with her to get a smooth driving run. The result is she totally bogs down and won’t work. Her ‘Tigger’ hop run is her happy run. It is not the speediest but it is ‘her’ and happy and in the end faster (at least so far) as when i work on smooth driving run she ends up going slow or refusing to work. For weaves the stick in the ground ones are tipping as the ground is still quite wet. The first run she was watching me so I put the toy / reward at the end and tried again. She does not quite get this and you see the slow work when she is not having fun. I hope to get our proper weaves out soon and you can see her faster / hoppy / happy weaves
Tried some cone outside to compare working to add in focus on low head. Added in eights at the end to see how it would go -- lovely camera angle (not!). At times I am late with the click or the food too! Poor dog has a coordination challenged handler!
Oh yes, definitely sending to a tunnel well! So I would use that and build it further, first adding more&more distance, then adding a jump and sending to a tunnel over the jump etc. Good tunnel drive is really cool to have! For the weaves, a static toy obviously won’t work no… Maybe a food bowl instead? -- Or maybe throw the toy in advance until she starts to expect it there? Getting there with the cones too, keep working like that!
I actually had her best food reward sticking out of the toy and showed it to her so she knew it was there (on the weaves). I’ve tried a bowl but got the same results. I’ll try tossing toys and if that doesn’t work maybe put an old sheet on the ground so I can toss food reward on it and she can see it (her food reward blends in to the ground so only works if she is right on top of it like the cone)
You can’t toss a treat from the beginning of the weaves and if you toss it later, she will again be looking at you. So just try an early toy and later on, when she starts to expect it tossed ahead, start tossing it later.
Figure 8s. From watching this I have noticed I seem to shape her takeoff by pushing her out before she jumps the jump. I didn’t even realise I was doing this! I read your reply to Rachel and Echo, where Echo goes wide before she takes the jump (although I think it is me pushing Cara more than her doing it?), but anyway maybe one jump and a tunnel would help us too?
I know I also give her the wrong verbal cues a couple of times. At least I have seen a few other videos where this happens -makes me feel a bit better!
Also, it looks like I should turn and run sooner and this would tighten her up. Am I right?
Yes, you are pushing her out some -- try to stay completely in line with the two jumps and let her figure out the most efficient way to take the jumps. Say your cues earlier so that she has more time to prepare -- just say it as soon she is landing over the jump before. Definitely try to turn and leave as soon as possible (and earlier&earlier) -- it’s a great practice for their commitment. You can also use jump to tunnel set up yes, my dogs love that one and always make an extra effort to get to that tunnel 🙂
will do, thankyou
Hi Silvia, tried to record lesson 2 Saturday, but it was a really bad day, so instead you get a video of my little dog’s bad behavior….
When we arrived to the AG center we let the dogs play on a large lawn and little Aidan ran and ran and ran and ran some more…
As we hadn’t trained tunnel for a long period and he is having a problem going into the right entry, I started doing a lot of that. That went pretty well in the beginning. I do no longer remember exactly how the huge problems started -- perhaps it was because his stress level raised to too high a level because of the running and all the tunnel work.. perhaps it was because Carina trained with Sookie at the other side of the center… I do not remember, but in the video you can see how stressed he is..
I thought perhaps it would help if I trained the multi-wraps.. but that was not a great success either….. (Carina told me afterwards, that I was standing in a bad/difficult position)
Not even the left entry of the tunnel I can get him into, so no recording of anything but problems…. Sorry…..
Well, the good thing is that he is really good with behaviours he knows well, like a ground target and coming to your side. Meaning that once he knows agility just as well as those behaviours, he will be happy and focused about that too! I would try to get that understanding by shaping things just like you shaped a paw target. So try to get a cone or a similar object and shape multi-wraps on it and put it on name so that he will recognize it better in a new environment too. You can even shape a tunnel by using a box open on both ends. Try to train when he is still fresh and focused, keep distractions to minimum and end the session or at least give him a time out when he gets into a frantic mode. Try to learn to predict it to be able to avoid it or stop it even before it happens. Let me know how it goes, we might need to adjust the plan some, based on what you get.
Hi again Silvia,
To be honest I haven’t yet started to seriously train what you recommended as I hoped to get a few shot’s showing what Aidan can do, when he is not frantic… Here is a first attempt now I have to make the video myself as Carina is leaving for your course 🙂
If this is a successful creation and upload more will follow very soon 🙂
Looks good! You can continue like that yes, do lots of stuff he knows well and mix in cik/cap in between, keeping it very simple, with lots of rewarding and high successful rate. Are you using a release word? I didn’t hear anything when you released on that last DW.