Time for a new to-do list!
1. take your dog to a city center, a store that allows dogs (pet store?) and on a train station
2. position yourself next to a high target and now only click for circling all the way to your leg (don't click for steps in between) - name it with heel for one side and something else for the other and have a dog follow your leg when you move in a circle around the target away from the dog - then tell him to come to the other side and have him follow the other leg. Use different targets, try it on a very low one too.
3. build your own cavaletti and walk the dog over it - you can use the drawers or boxes of appropriate size and height, put them in a row and walk the dog through, just as you can see on this video
4. try the other version of 2on2off (some already did that, I see): instead of having them go on an object and off, stop in a position and wait, let's try stepping back into 2on2off this time. Position your dog close to a low object behind his back, cue him "back" and reward for stepping on an object or trying to. Slowly, you can have a dog step on higher&higher objects, this is beginning of a handstand, but with young puppies, don't overdo the height. Instead, you can have them back up stairs for example, to challenge them some more without making it too physically demanding. You need to build balance and straight slowly enough for the dog to never be sore after. You can also teach them a "pee" trick: click when they heave one leg, searching the object - before they find it and name it, it's a fun one.
5. put your paw target on a drawer or doors or simply shape the paw touch to a drawers/doors and then select for stronger&stronger touches/pushes. The goal is to have the dog slam the doors or drawer with power, to teach them that they control the movement under their feet and the sound and that it's FUN - my favourite trick for a great see-saw!
6. don't forget on recalls and playing!!! Also, slowly add duration to a sit up, teach crossing paws with the other paw and fade the target, check if the puppy will stay in 2on2off position until "go" even with distractions (toys and food flying around)
Have fun!
Playtime is much improved. I am trying to do it at different places too, instead of just at home. Tomorrow our animal skin toys should arrive, and I will use those outside.
Cool, that looks VERY cool already! On places where it’s hard for him to play, try to make it very short and very intense, try to be even more active, run with him, doing some of his favourite tricks in between is a good idea too!
Shoot, I thought I was running!!! 🙂 I was too warm in jeans, it’s 30 Celsius today!!! or getting old already…
Wow, 30 celsius… Where are you?
Florida
awwwwww can you send some of that nice weather over?? please ???
We have this game/location problem too. Stella will tug up a growly storm with a tug toy or frisbee when she is off-leash in the park, but I can’t get her interested when we’re in agility class… there she expects food rewards only and maybe she feels too vulnerable or excited around other dogs running a course to let herself really get into a tug game on the sidelines….
Same with the soccer ball and running contacts training… she looks at me like I’m crazy when I start kicking around the ball between runs on the board—but you’ve seen her enthusiasm playing with the soccer ball in a field…
Have I made agility seem too much like work and when she’s working she just wants to work? And how do I fix this? I want to reward her with playing in class, but if she doesn’t see it as a reward in that context what do I do?
It’s a common problem with dogs who were always rewarded by treats after clicks and don’t understand a toy is a reward too. I would start with a toys-only sessions in a park: don’t even bring food, start a play, ask for an easy trick that she loves, click it and play for a reward -- would that work? Then try some cik&caps around the trees, click and play for a reward. When that works, try the same in agility class: on next class, don’t even bring treats, only bring a toy, run and initiate a play (but try to stay away from other dogs if you think that might be an issue). If she doesn’t want to play, that’s o.k., put it away and try to play again after next turn. I think she will start to play as soon as she will realize treats are not coming today 🙂
Cavaletti with poles on the ground. (someone is practicing teeter in background)
Here’s my final video for Lesson 3. We’re making progress by leaps and bounds now with the help of watching everyone’s videos and seeing “lolabu’s” comments. I’m amazing at how well this process works.
We have struggled with the paw crosses and I used the crop with a plate attached for the first time and made nice progress in this video. All my dogs scratch me when doing paw games and they respond when I yelp. By getting the scratches out of the equation I felt more confident.
Nancy and Nero
Wow, you’re fast! That looks really great, some really nice paw crosses already! It reminds me, I used something similar with Bi, a cooking spoon or however one calls it in English. She is terrible with her paws, slamming everything around her, no fun to have hands anywhere close! VERY good coordination on that blanket too, he is really amazing with his hind legs! That helps with pivoting too, very nice position!
Nancy, that’s a nice little latter! What is it exactly? and where did you get it?
Is the snow melting yet in Bozeman? I go to Montana and Wyoming almost every summer. My In-Laws live in W.Yellowstone; my husband was born in Billings. I just love it out there.
Jen
Nancy, I love that you have him close everything all the way around in the kitchen! And that pivot—how did you get him to move like that with you and right against you? Stella holds her position and then catches up and stops again?
Hi Jen, We live up pretty high and the snow is not melting at my house or where my horse lives. Lower in the valley is starting to melt, but it’s been a pretty snowy year hear. You will have to let me know when you come this year and we can meet in person!
The ladder came from my daughter’s bunkbed when I took it apart earlier this year. Lot’s of it went to the dump, but I salvaged the ladder for agility.
Nancy
That wuold be nice to actually meet someone in person from the class!
I love this class, and I think it’s working very well. I do miss the human interaction a little bit though; and discussions and talks. In Agility class at my training club, we talk about every jump and tunnel! 🙂
By the way, your pup is wicked sharp! I nicknamed him Hero.
All the puppy videos give me puppycravings! I have been looking at breeders for a few months now, and I just don’t know how to tell, if they are good or not. I had 3 rescue dogs, so I don’t have any experience in how to pick a breeder or a puppy. I don’t care about AKC or conformation, but the breeders seem very obsessed with that aspect.
Jen
Oh, if they’re obsessed by conformation, you’re looking on wrong places for agility dog! 🙂 When I was researching BC kennels, if there was a black&white fluffy thing hanging on a show leash on a front page, I quickly pressed “back”. If there was a funny looking dog staring at you in crawling position on a front page, then I kept looking 🙂
Thanks, that’s good advice. I didn’t really like all those websites with cute pictures of fluffy dogs. I don’t care about showdogs and I don’t think that should be a number goal for breeders. I think it will be better to talk to people get recommendations or referals. Looks like Nancy did a good job in her selection, but that’s Montana, they have a lot of working dogs out west.
Here in the South, there’s different criteria….
Nancy, any advice?
I recycle my old furniture too 🙂 I just had somebody bring me her old drawers for my classes last night, that was too funny as I am known for using drawers for everything 🙂 Sounds like a really long winter, we have all in green and roses already!
Hi Dinah, We started the pivot work before I started this class so we had a little foundation. When we started doing the full circles on the pivot I really tried to click when he facing away from me instead of towards me based on some comments that Sylvia made to someone else. We didn’t start working against my leg until he was really solid on full circles. The first time I started him with me next to the pivot I clicked as soon as he hit my leg. I try to time all my clicks so that he is touching my leg. Because it was a physical bump he really understood it. At some point Sylvia watched one of my videos and said that I was helping too much so I really had to make sure he was doing the thinking. I’m the original lure and reward person so this was really hard for me.
Nancy
But you did it! He definitely looks really independent and thinking on his own now!
Yes, great job Nancy! I think I am going back to just circling a bit more too. Switching sides is not really that smooth for us yet.
Here is our cavalleti video for lesson 3.
Jennifer, My first dog was a rescue Border Collie/Lab that I got as a 2 year old. He was so trainable and easy, but never had the drive that I was seeing in purebred BCs. My 2nd dog was also a rescue BC. She is probably a purebred, but has zero herding ability. I tested her many times and never did proper instinct come out. She earned many many NADAC (an agility organization her that has fast fast courses with big spacing and an emphasis on distance) championships with ease, but at their championships struggled competing against dogs with more natural drive and speed. We eventually earned a 2nd overall placement based on consistency. Finally for my third dog I fell in love with Pyr Sheps after watching a video from the World Champs of a french dog and Lo. I imported my Pyr Shep from France without ever meeting one and she was amazing. She also earned a bunch of championships and over the years took a 2nd and a first at the NADAC Champs. I couldn’t compete in AKC with her till she was 3 so never really took that route. It was probably the better venue for her. My Pyr Shep has great herding instinct and we had a blast trying for a while, but she also had a major heart defect and with her try I worried that she might eventually have a heart attack on sheep. Later I learned that she was a better cow dog than sheep dog.
In the search for Nero I found all the sites with the fluffy BCs that you did. Because I like the AKC courses better than NADAC in terms of their complexity I was really hoping to get a dog that could be registered AKC and give me an eventual chance at a world team. At one of those sites I saw a bunch of dogs that looked just like my Kili and then I started to realize that if I wanted a dog that could herd and do agility I needed to look at strictly breeders that were selecting for herding. I talked to handlers of BCs at agility trials as well and learned that none of them were selecting their breeding dogs based on herding. In the Border Collie it only takes 3 generations of not selecting on herding instinct to lose it.
As part of my search and research I read a small book by Donald McCaig called something like “The war of the Bc and the AKC”. I’ve got the author name correct. I would definitely read that. In the end I got Nero from a border collie breeder in South Dakota who had the type I was looking for. She’s been consulting with me on the herding which has been great. Nero is not allowed to be registered with the AKC as she never wants her line selected on looks. Nero happens to be good looking, but when I got him I never asked about height, weight, or color. I just knew I wanted a male with herding instinct.
I’m so happy with his progress so far. He’s just a joy to work with and basically never quits trying. In the house he has an excellent “off” switch as well.
Nancy
nmcreel@bresnan.net
Wow, thanks, Nancy!! Lots of good info. Can I use your private email, if I have more questions? I don’t want to clog up the classroom.
Well, my dog training club is AKC affiliated, and they can be very snobbish when you show up with a rescue of unknown pedigree at the obedience classes. I am not a big fan of the AKC, and I already heard about that the herding people distance themselves from them, because they want a working dog, and don’t care what he looks like.
I think Silvia had a very good point too.
By the way, I saw your video of your nice clean fridge and Kleenex all over the livingroom! LOL!
Jen
Feel free--that’s why I attached it.
Nancy
Hi I am still away but please want to sign up for running contact course but can only get to pay Sunday 3rd April please can you keep a place for me and spy thanks kindly
Sure, no problem!
In this video we show you our heelposition and some 2 on 2off and release. And at last backing up in 2 on 2 off.
The cavaletti work is much better than our first video showed. We have also trained the one leg up on a big pillow. But most of work has been with the “plads” and “heel”
Great job with heeling! I see you’re working on your next homework already 🙂 2on2off is nice too, you just still need to proof that release word -- see the discussion we had with Dinah. For backing up, she still needs some practice on this height -- and then you can slowly make it higher.
Where is everybody else, this class have been really quiet lately?!?
we have been working on our homework.. kinda stuck with the circling somehow… being away and the litters do not help much 😉
but we are working -- video clips to be completed today..
Hi everyone
This is what Grace & I have worked on so far (we haven’t done the cavalettis yet)
Exciting -- we had a breakthough this week with the handstand! Grace has known how to back on to objects since she was a pup but has never realised she can push off a flat surface. When i was training her to slam the kitchen draw she randomly started offering her back legs against the kitchen cupboard. I used my yoga mat to give her a runway and some grip and she instantly understood what to do (i think the yoga mat made it harder though bc it kept moving!) I’ll post a vid of her handstand against the wall when i can. I’m wondering though -- she steps up (pushing against the wall & walking her legs up), she doesn’t jump her 2 back legs up like play and shape. Does this come w practice or will she need to change her technique to turn this into a freestanding handstand down the track? 🙂
Love the party pictures!
Thanks Nancy! Oh my goodness, she was so cute!! She just followed the kids around all day -- desperate to be part of their gang. She tried to play all of their games (we’ll have to work on skipping -- she wasn’t quite as good at that as she’d hoped!) but she did win the running races
🙂
Great!!! Loved the slamming and heeling is beautiful too. Also, very nice to see how good she is around kids, many dogs just don’t “get” kids. For the free handstand, she will need to push with both hind feet yes. You can let her climb a little longer, so that she gets more confident with what she is doing and try to reward as close to the wall as possible, that might get you a little push up that you can jackpot and then shape from there. In case she still won’t offer it, you can try with “an empty” object, meaning something like a chair or a table that allow her to put hind feet on, but not to climb, that usually does the trick.
Dinah and Gitte: at 2:46 of this video, you can see what I meant with separating the release word from the throw. Of course, you have to go slowly, first just put the treat on the floor and keep the hand close enough to cover it in case the dog wants to get it before the release -- then say “go” and let them have it. Then you start drooping it and throwing it, either treats or toys, having them wait until the release before they can go get it.
Thanks Silvia! Great idea to use the empty object -- i wouldn’t have thought of that. I’ll try that once she gets a little more confident 🙂 When she 1st offered me her back legs against the kitchen cupboard i did see a tiny tiny little try at jumping both legs up, so praps there’s hope. It is bizare -- she is v bouncy in general but not w her back legs. She has never once bounced off all 4 feet when excited (i would love to shape that but have never ever seen it). When she jumps up it is as though she doesn’t realise she can also push off her back legs as well. For example, when she is catching a frisbee she stands on her back legs but doesn’t actually push off to jump in the air. Pretty funny for an otherwise v athletic dog 🙂 is there any way to teach this? A trampoline maybe???:-)
Yeah, she absolutely loves kids. Given the choice, I’m sure she would choose kids over adults any day -- i think she realises they are waaaay more fun 🙂 I always give the kids her treats and let them train her (esp all the city kids that are scared of her -- seems to give them much more confidence). She’ll do her tricks for their cute little hand signals. She can sometimes get a bit too happy and want to stick her tongue down their throat, which doesn’t always impress the parents! 🙂
To get hind feet off the ground, I would first teach her to jump over the leg: sit on a low chair or even on the ground at first, stretch your leg and lean it against the wall and have her hop over in one and another direction. Slowly, you sit higher and higher and your leg is less and less horizontal, not looking as a real jump anymore, but more as a cue what to do -- you can fade it completely then if you want her to jump up in the air just like that. Once she knows it, you can use it to get her feet off also when catching frisbees: send her around the tree to give her good starting speed, then stretch your leg out and hold a frisbee up in the air for her to jump and get it out of your hand. They love it and it usually transfers to jumping also when catching thrown frisbees. Any other jumping games would help too: jumping on chairs, in the lap, over the fences… I’m sure she’ll love it once she gets a taste of it! 🙂
From my dogs, only Le really loves children: her breeder has a small child and took them to school a couple of times, I guess that’s why. She doesn’t like adults too much, but would play with kids really nicely all day long. From adults, her favourite are women who have kids -- even when the kids are not around, she must smell it, it’s very funny how nice she will be to those mums and how barky she can be around some other strangers. She sure has very strong preferences!
Hi Silvia and Everyone.
Here is our video for lesson 3. We enjoyed lesson 3 very much 🙂
2o2o object looks too high on this video but we started with cushion → small dictionary and then this object. Its almost Pee trick rather 2o2o here 🙂 Cross paw, recall to play are missing but we are tugging & playing everyday and we are both improved so much. Niah is loving tossing or tugging as a reward after click now. I will post our play again.
Question of taking dog in the busy environment…At the city experience, he was very calm and I was happy, but he gets really scared of noisy Big Bus, Big Tracks, Tram, train. (I live in the busy street and must pass right next to bus, tracks every day) I have been practicing from very far distance to not let him go over threshold and doing “look at that” game and he is getting better but still once he gets too scared, he shut down for very short period of time and clicking for being calm does not work at all.
Do you have any advice of what I have been doing so far?
Great job, as always! One little detail on heeling maybe: try to reward with the head even more straight up. He tends to curl it in a little bit too much, especially on your right side, so pay attention you don’t get even more of it. For slamming the doors, you can already try without the target and shape it towards more of a real slam.
Many BCs are somewhat noise sensitive. Try keeping him at the distance he is comfortable with. If he gets too scared, try to back away from it and see if you can get him to play. You can teach “recovering” in other situations -- anytime he gets somewhat stressed about something (maybe clipping nails, taking a bath, picking him up in case he doesn’t like that… -- but he shouldn’t get too stressed for that “game”), try to initiate a wild game of tug immediately after the stressful activity is over. I did that with Lo, after every brushing as she had very sensitive skin and hated brushing. Having her attack the toy immediately after taught her to “stress up” instead of “stress down and shut down”, she learned to react to stress with adding activity and that helped her relieve that stress, bounce back immediately and forget about it. It is harder to achieve with dogs who naturally stress down, but it’s definitely worth trying.
This is not a part of homework and not me..but I and my partner do this play excursive (start line stay) at the park every single day!
I though it might be showing how we play with Niah at the park, and he recently started to choose us more than chasing his Big sister which he is obsessed with, and that is Big improvement 🙂
Emi & Niah
That will be your next homework 🙂 Looks great. I would try to have him charge even more after the release by immediately having a toy go down for him to chase and the handler running away even more so that Niah learns to really explode from a stay.