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 Echo’s Cik Cap session from today. The ground was quite slippery so I’m not running off too soon or too fast (you can see her slip a couple of times). Nevertheless, she did some really tight turns on some of these reps. Yay! I look forward to your insights.
Jump height is 16 inches (we just recently increased from 12 inches).
Rachel, Echo´s cik&caps are really beautiful 🙂
Gabi -- thank you! That really made my day.
Oh my gosh Rachel!!! I LOVE the discrimination between the tunnel and the recall to your hand-I want to try that sometime with Pru! Know what I noticed….you didn’t seem worried a bit about your hands, even though everybody was really hustling…has Echo become a ton better in that regard?
She has. It’s all about keeping my hand low and mostly still so she can grab the tug easily without having to “chase” it with her head -- that’s when I always got grazed (or nailed!) by her teeth -- when I was trying to keep away. This was a Melanie epiphany -- she said that she wondered about my high hand outside hand (when I held the tug with two hands) being somewhat misleading for Echo. So I tried this and it worked like a charm from the start. It’s been wonderful.
I’m so glad!
That was sure a good idea to practice cik&cap with a tunnel around with Echo! 🙂 Many really good turns too and great use of your hands!!! Great job!
Pruli and I made an attempt at working on the 2 jump exercise and running perpendicular in the one jump exercise-the video starts out a with us a little out of sorts at first (LOOK AT MY ARMS!!!!). Ever since a recent comment from an instructor whose class I dropped in on that “my arms are all wrong” I’ve lost some confidence in what I was doing and I can really see it in the flapping at the start of the video. I think I rewarded some pretty yucky stuff in parts-I have a tough time thinking and running. Pruli was CRAZY for the snow!!!!
THANK YOU SILVIA.
Looks great! Still a wide turn here and there, so try to redo those (send her back into multi-warps), but most of the turns are great, so she certainly looks ready for some extra challenges that I mentioned in my reply to Melanie, if you saw that. Different systems use hands differently, so my hands might look all wrong to some too 🙂 -- but as long as my dogs understand them well, I guess they are not that wrong 🙂
I thought the same as you (about fixing what I didn’t think was broken), so we didn’t go back. I will try to remember to do the multi-wraps with the wide ones AND you made my DAY saying I could try the extra challenges! Thank you Silvia.
Okay, here are our session on lesson 1. Fi needs proofing on cik&cap and weaves for sure.
Tunnel:
weaves:
Zig&zag:
Fi looks great! No problems with tunnel sends, but yes, a bit wide on shoulder pulls, so practice those some more. The weaves, I would open some so that she doesn’t need to do too much of actual weaving and work some more on both entries and staying in -- see some suggestions I gave in a reply to Louise. Cik&cap looks good, but I would probably keep a bar even lower to give her time to learn how to jump that way and hopefully get less bars. You can work on everything (distance, commitment etc.) with lower bars already.
I must say Rogue is loving this chasing game!! I decided to try my cip&cap with a jump standard. It seemed to go well. He has some really nice turns.
He loves tunnels so the sending was tons of fun for him!!! Let me know what you think if I should add a low bar or continue with the jump standard.Thanks
Looks great! Fast and tight! Definitely ready to introduce a low bar! Keep adding distance and start leaving sooner&sooner. No problems with a tunnel send, make sure you give a distinct verbal cue for go vs. come to hand and have him stay really close to you the whole circle, he sometimes gets thrown out of the turn some, but well, he slides some on this floor, so that’s an extra challenge here.
Hi
Here is my session with Rogue from yesterday. I added a low bar (6″) as you suggested, He seems to be understanding the concept. YEAH! He seems to be not turning as tight, but maybe its the additon of the bar. He did knock the bar a couple of times but it may be because the turf is silppery. Should I continue with this to try and get him to turn tighter?
Great, getting tighter on come to hand and doing really well on his cik&cap also with a bar! You can try a figure 8 next and select for the tightest ones: reward for the best, keep going for the o.k. ones and redo for the widest ones. Stop and redo for knocked bars too, they often don’t take the bars seriously when they’re so low.
Hi, here is Rogue’s session with the figure 8. It seemed to go well, he got tighter as we went. He only knocked the bar once and I stopped and made him redo and it didn’t happen again!! Let me know if I am doing it correctly or if there is something I should add.
Thanks
Great, this is sure getting really tight! And fast! You can next spread the jumps out even more, but I would keep this height for few more sessions. Yay for the bars too!
Here is Kinzi doing cik & cap with a low jump bar. She has done some cik & cap with only jump standard before. Do you think her turns are tight enough? Maybe the turns are less tight with speed and distance? And maybe her left turn is not as tight?
And here is a video of her tunnels. I like her speed, but I think she is not as fast going in as when she is running out of the tunnel?
I only have 6 weave poles, so I will make some more before we do weaves.
Great, she sure can dig in and accelerate when she sees you run! Maybe a bit slower going in yes, but I think it will come when she starts to anticipate the chase after. For now, you can race her to it maybe? Cik&cap could be a bit tighter yes, I think the jump is a bit too high to start with, considering her size and her final jump height. If you can’t make it lower, drop one end of a bar to the ground so that she is jumping less on that side.
Kinzi is a great little dog!!! Silvia, Because I also have a small dog, I was watching for how Kinzi dealt with the jump supports (on the ground). Kinzi appeared to be wrapping around the supports vs. striding over them to wrap just around the vertical pole.
My dog, Lil wraps much tighter around a cone (with a bar) than around a wing or jump due to the supports on the ground (I think). My question is: Should I expect Lil to be able to stride over the near support and wrap really tight or is it OK if she wraps wide enough to avoid having to stride over the support on the near side of the jump? She seems to manage striding over the support on the far side of the jump.
The problem will go away as the bars go up, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much and just try to give her an approach that doesn’t put the support in her way OR try to get one of the stick-in-the-ground jumps and use that for now.
Thank you for the comment. I also saw that Kinzi does not like to touch the jump supports. Maybe I will try to make a stick-in-the-ground jump like Silvia said and see if she is tighter.
Thank you, Silvia. I will race her to the tunnel and see if that gets her to go faster. Tunnels are so much fun 🙂 We will also try cik & cap with one end of bar on ground.
I took your advice and raced her to the tunnel, and I think she is getting faster with that. Here is a video:
I did cik & cap with only jump standard and then one side of pole on ground, and she was tighter. But it was raining and slippery outside yesterday so I did it inside.
Today we tried it outside again with speed and distance:
I also tried some figure 8 at the end, but I am not sure that I did that correctly.
Oh yes, definitely much tighter! Great progress! Stay with this height for a bit though to give her time to practice “tight”. She could also be tighter on that come to hand. But yes, better speed into the tunnel and great speed out the tunnel! Figure 8s look good too yes, great job!
Hi all ! Here are my first videos with Garlic !
This morning, a second session for “send to a tunnel” at home : Garlic has no more problem with ( gentle ) restrain with a colar.
And this afternoon, first session for “weaves” : I add retrain only for two last tries. Witdh is 1 meter then 80cm after 00:59
Nice Week End !
She sure looks perfectly fine with a restrain! Don’t forget to do something specific after a tunnel, either a go or come to hand + a front cross or a shoulder pull. Continue like that with the weaves, slowly putting them closer and introducing some gentle difficulties to her entries.
Pascal!!! Great job with the collar restrains!!! Garlic and Spur learned that one so fast!!! I admit I did some when Spur was younger, but he was so inhibited by it we stopped. Now he sure seems to like it just fine and Garlic looks that way, too!!! 😀
Happy to learn that Spur is ok with collar. I discovers that it is also easy to restrain gently just with one hand. Garlic is small compared to my other medium dog. I had also a 65 kg Bernese Mountain Dog and restraining such dog is not the same !!! I must adapt to my 5 kg girl !
So, Silvia, my starts today at the trail were “too” fast!!!Hahahaha, I was SO out of position because Spur came off his start with more speed than I was ready for!! I guess Roma and I are having the same problem, thanks to you!! ;D Tomorrow, I will be ready for it!!! 😀
Oh, isn’t it a cool problem to have!!! 🙂 Have fun tomorrow too!
Here is Desmond’s first video with cik/cap and tunnels. Until this week, we’d done our cik/cap work on trees, so doing this with a jump was new. It was also his first time working a tunnel, which Des thought was a LOT of fun! He’s not quite 7 months old. When we get a little more distance with him running to the jumps, should I add a very low bar?
That’s really impressive for one week of training only! He is driving really well to his tunnel and is sure having lots of fun! Great job with figure 8 too, you can next spread the jumps even more! For one jump sends, try running away perpendicular to the jump, to avoid that confusion with rear crosses that happens at one point. You could also try to throw a ball for him instead, maybe he will dig in after the turn more that way? You want the same speed as he has coming out of that tunnel -- will be easy with a tug toy once you add more distance and you can be further from the jump for him to chase you, but at this point, a ball might work better for this exercise. And yes, you can certainly set a low bar soon! Great job!
Great! We will work on those things, thanks for the most helpful suggestions!
Here’s a little fun we had with Cik Cap today in a new environment with some pretty serious distractions.
Aww Echo is so cute! That was funny when the ball came off! You guys are doing great -- what a distracting environment!
Cool, no problems with distractions or a tire! When she gets the toy, just try to be a part of the party. Run away, have her chase you and send to a tunnel and then reward with the other toy.
sending her to a tunnel is a great idea! thanks for that.
Here is a little fun that we had today at a local seminar. The 1st minute is my masters dog, Smitty. Grit’s part starts at 1:10.
Silvia, how much cik/cap work do you do with tires, spread jumps, broad jumps, etc? We played a bit with a tire today….
I love how she wraps the tire stand!! That was so cute! Funny that was Tibby first idea when she saw the tire too. It scared me though!
Catalina, I think Tibby and Grit are more alike than you realize…. 🙂
Smitty was a rock star I see! And wow, Grit’s cik&caps are getting really GREAT! Those were just perfect! Very cool!!! And hm, I don’t do any cik&caps on a tire because I never train it (after an initial session or two on it). We also often see tires with such huge legs that I will often opted for a wider turn as I’m afraid they land on it… I say cik&cap on double (spread?) jump, but only say left/right on long (broad?) jump. But I very rarely train it… And oh, did you have a question on Grit’s DW that I forgot to answer (and can’t find it anymore)? I remember the first question was if I saw both videos and I did, but I don’t remember the 2nd question?
Hmmm, ok. I will probably wait until Grit is doing a bit more height, and then make sure she’s cool with the idea of a spread jump. And since she avoided that strange tire a bit later, I will just do a bit more to make sure she likes them. 🙂
As for the dw, I didn’t ask a specific question, was just more pondering about how she never does “normal” FF hits…all are oddly reaching or just one FF, and was wondering if you had any thoughts on that. But I think for now focusing on RF is probably best, until I get in a better position to see (which my running with her will hopefully help). Here’s where the entry is if you wanted to see it/answer there: https://www.lolabuland.com/long-distance-classes/running-contacts-january/rc-january-2/comment-page-17/#comments
Yes, they usually need a session or two on a tire and I must admit that most of my dogs saw long, double and wall jumps in a trail for the first time… So I guess there is no hurry 🙂 I can’t answer on FF there (no reply button anymore), but yes, those FF are still better as leaping instead of using FF that she did before! 🙂 She does normal FF when they’re high on the contact, but not low, it is strange… JP if you see normal FF feet and R for overreachy FF.