Time for a new lesson! And a "catch-up break" 🙂 With every class, we do a two weeks break for those who got somewhat behind to catch up and for those who are on schedule to give a dog a little break from plank running. I'll be answering your questions till Tuesday 4th October night and then again after 14 days, from 19th October morning again. Please don't post your videos during this time, I won't be reviewing old videos as things can change in 2 weeks.
If you're behind, make sure to complete lesson 1 before you start with lesson 2 and that you complete lesson 2 before starting with lesson 3 - you can't jump steps, there is a reason I'm giving you this assignments in the order that I do!
1. switch to a static toy, position it at the bar of a jump with a bar on the ground. The jump should be straight forward after the plank, about 7m away. The goal is the dog starts to look for a jump, knowing the toy is there. Occasionally, still throw a toy in advance, but mostly, have it there. When the dog already knows where it is, put a jump bar very low and a toy behind it (close after it, but far enough that the dog can land normally). Keep it there long enough that the dog is expecting it there. When you see the dog is pulling well towards the jump, knowing the toy is there, stop leaving the toy there and throw it after you click the contact, so that the dog gets it after the jump.
The goal is to switch from a static toy that is there as a target for the dog to focus him forward to a jump as a target to focus the dog forward and a toy as a reward we throw AFTER we see the contact is good. You need to be pretty quick as you don't want the dog to wait for the toy - so quick that I sometimes throw it before I realize the contact was actually not THAT good - but it gets easier 🙂 I guess this step will finally make everybody worried about rewarding leaps happy as now, you can withhold the toy for unsuccessful tries. HOWEVER, make sure the dog successful rate is high for this step as otherwise, you can loose the speed and get the dog checking back with you if you're throwing a toy or not. The same can be dangerous if you're late throwing a toy.
This is usually an easy step for BCs who will run full speed in anticipation of the toy, but can be a very hard one for some other dogs. For Le, that was the hardest step. She was running beautifully if the ball was still rolling when she saw it, but if I threw it that early that it was already static when she saw it (or when I positioned it there), then she didn't extend well enough. What finally worked was going few steps back with height, exciting her a lot with a toy, throwing it at the jump and sending her quickly to the dog-walk. That made her striding good enough to continue long enough to have her look for the jump and then I quickly switched to a toy, thrown after the contact is done, over the jump. That temporary caused some checking back with me, so I needed to go back to a stationary toy again, but then she finally got the idea to keep running full speed towards the jump/tunnel and trust the toy will appear then 🙂 and that again gave me the beautiful striding I had before trying to get rid of a toy, thrown in advance.
If the transition to a stationary toy is too hard, another way to try to avoid that phase is to pretend you are throwing a toy in advance, but then only throw it after. OR, using a tunnel as a way to focus the dog forward and throw it after the tunnel - works great with tunnel crazy dogs, didn't work with Le. Try and report back if you have problems.
2. keep adding height. If you have an option, it's also time to try the real thing. If you don't ahve a low DW you can use a normal dog-walk with additional plank at the end. Start with down ramp only and then slowly put the dog further&further back until you run the whole dog-walk.
When trying this or any other, new variable, don't vary other variables - make it as easy for the dog to succeed as possible. You can also lower a criteria somewhat. Normally, your criteria about hits by now should already be to be deeply in the contact - but temporary, you can click for good tries on a limit too, IF hind feet are well separated and the dog is not leaping.
3. new trick: have a dog back up on something very low and preferably soft first (folded blanket, low pillow) - then slowly add height, so that they need to pick up their hind legs higher&higher. At the same time, you can teach a "pee trick": click for lifting the leg, searching for an object, before they touch it. Make sure to try to get leg lifts on both sides - they usually prefer to go up with the same leg, so try to sometimes position them somewhat diagonally in front of an object so that their preferred leg is too far from it to start with that one. Also try climbing stairs backwards and cavaletti backwards.
Have fun! I'll be back to answering on 19th October and will publish new assignments on 7th November, so you'll again have 3 weeks to work on this assignment in class form - and 2 additional weeks to either catch up or take a break 🙂
Hi Silvia,
I guess the good news (and humour) and I find out of this is that she seems to hit the contact literally with her left toe every time LOL. I’m still not making much progress with the aframe though.
I would like to see her come a bit deeper over the apex as I think that would put her deeper but I cant seem to get her to.
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Well, you need to start somewhere! Left toe is not too bad! 🙂 Seriously, I have this problem with every new dog: they are all on that limit when they start trialling… -- and then just start to get deeper&deeper with more experience and no specific training. By now, I don’t even watch Bu or Bi’s A-frames in training (or trials), they’re always in anyway. Le can sometimes still be too high as she is so small and doing the BC striding (and just started A-frames few months ago): what takes her deeper is if I saw my “go, go” word as she is almost at the top, so that’s another thing you can try. But I really wouldn’t worry about it: just run! Is DW good now?
Ha, at the trial today she got the same toe in. Her dw’s are pretty good at the stage we’re at (remember I had to go back and retrain the different approaches) so we’re going through lots of different set-up’s…. I havent done any DW’s in trials yet. Wish she would come deeper though on her Aframe!
Don’t worry -- she will 🙂
Look who did an entire session without the Manners Minder today!
I don’t thin HE can decide which he likes better…that squeaky ball or food. So, I just made sure I had both. 😀
I was really slippery and wet out today so I gave up on challenging his approaches. The tunnel before the DW was more like a water part slide and he was really really fighting to make some approaches…so I just started him from sit stays at the end. He took the tunnel every time after the DW today! Because of the surface, I didn’t use jumps at all today.
Will you tell me when I should move up to 4 ft.?
Sorry, I worded that last question poorly. Will you tell me when he looks ready for the 4 ft DW? I’ll stay at 3 ft until you think we should move up.
Great! I think that at this point, adding height won’t be an issue at all, so you can definitely go for it! Great job!
Thanks Silvia!!!! Do you think this misses were leaps or just wrong striding? Is it normal to be getting misses like this now and then? I think I’m worried about pushing him too hard, but each time I give him a new variable he seems to figure it out so maybe I shouldn’t even be concerned.
It’s just wrong striding. It takes some time for them to be able to hit every time, but it’s no need to stay on this height because of it, you can simply raise it and then work on giving him as many opportunities to practise his striding as possible: with different approaches, settings, on different DWs etc. so that he can learn how to get there in every situation. You might still get a miss here and there in trials for the first year of trialing… -- but it only gets better with more experience 🙂
Hello Silvia,
just a question this time 🙂 actually three 🙂
I go to our training center three times a week to do the low dogwalk as I have no possibility to have the DW in the garden. We are on the high of about 50cm. Every time I do two or three sessions of running contacts with 15-20repetitions. Between the sessions I give her some time to relax and calm down.
1/ What is the best number of repetition for one session? I realised that when I do more then 15, the success rate is worse (maybe she is tired?)
2/ Every time I do the first session few first repetitions are jumped -- so I backchain the DW (and she is succesfull). When I do this, then she runs well. The second session same day is okay from the beginning but when I arrive the next day she does the same and I need to backchain the DW over and over every new training day. Is it normal? Is it right to backchain the DW every training day? I do not add the height because our success rate is not up to 80 %…
3/ You says you don´t train the a-frame -- that it goes together with the RC on DW. If I want to try it by your way, when is the right time to do the a-frame? Is it when we will be on the normal height of DW?
Thanks for your answers,
Vendula and Kiwi
Yes, those are many DWs in one day -- how many is o.k. depends on a dog… You don’t want to do more than 15 if they get worse then no. It’s not usual you would need to backchain it first no. A video would help, but maybe she is extra excited at the beginning and is skipping one stride? If so, you could try raising the DW as higher DW will not make it so tempting to go for less strides and might even helps with successful rate. For A-frame, you don’t need to wait until the DW is on full height, but I would wait it’s somewhat higher. A-frame is part of lesson 4 so you can as well wait till then and focus on DW for now.
Thank you for the answer, I ´ll post the next video on Monday or Tuesday but I will see all my oldest videos to see the striding on the beginning. But thanks, it can be a good idea 🙂
With the a-frame I will wait, I didn´t do it at all yet, so I was a little curious 🙂
Hi Silvia,
I can hardly believe it, but I’ve actually raised the planks and she’s running nicely. Given Bree’s love of leaping I didn’t want to do anything that would require her to jump onto something so I went with the low A-frame effect up 4″ in the center. I know she’ll be leaping the apex if I move it any higher, but at this height it seems to be working well.
I experimented with varying the distance of both the tunnel and the jump. Sorry if all those changes drive you crazy. Just looking to see if one starting point was better than another.
One thing that’s really changed is Bree is in the game. Before I could only run the planks with her 2 of every 3 days and I needed to keep the reps to 10-12 a day or she’d shut down. Now she doesn’t want to quit and when I come in to watch and edit the video, she’s screaming at the door for more. 🙂
I want to continue this height for a couple of days but then what would you suggest as the next step? I can put my dog walk at any height and she’s done a lot of running over it before we started this class so I was thinking of going to a full DW at 4″ next. I don’t want to skip steps but I also don’t want to encourage any more leaping and I think putting a table between the planks is likely to result in her leaping over the table. Any thoughts?
Thanks, Carol
Cool, that sure looks great now! Still some misses of course -- but no leaps! That last set up seemed to give you the best hits, so you can keep it for a while to get many jackpots in. You can also get more selective now and stop clicking for the misses. And yes, sure, you can use the DW next! I was sure Bree will start to like this game at one point! 🙂
Hi Silvia,
Just a quick question. When running the DW in this class while also using a stopped contact in seminars/trials, when do I give the info to Bree regarding what behavior I want?
Thanks, Carol
I would have two different verbal cues for running vs. stopped DW and then also “remind” her of what you want as she is nearing the second apex.
So the two different cues means she knows on the approach to the DW which behavior I’m looking for and then I give a verbal reminder once she’s on the DW and approaching the second apex. Yes?
Yes, she needs to know on the approach already what you’re doing, running vs. 2on2off. I then repeat it again towards the end of a horizontal plank.
Hi Silvia,
We lost a bit of time waiting for some unexpected snow to melt, but have now gotten in a good number of sessions with lots of nice jackpots. I’ve also stopped clicking a missed contact even if she’s running nicely…..except, of course, when I goof. 🙂 Thankfully Bree seems to be making progress in spite of me.
Bree is wild to play this game as long as there are lots of jackpots but shuts down if she misses and gets no click 2-3 times in a row. Lots of grass eating when that happens. Hopefully this will translate into a passion to get into the contact when she figures out she’s in charge of that.
I think we’re ready to shift to the full DW, starting at the same low height as the current set up. Yes?
Smiles, Carol
Sure, you can definitely switch to a low DW and also raise it some if she is still running nicely. How and where are you rewarding now -- what happens after the planks? -- Just asking to see if there was something different in tries 10-12-16-17… She is shortening her last stride there and as a consequence has less hind feet separation. If you can see it in real speed, it would be better not to jackpot those tries.
So, you don’t want her making these adjustments at this stage? I almost thought it was good she was doing some adjusting, but yeah the adjustments don’t help her get in any better. She says at the very beginning of the video there is a jump 14′ out, maybe that’s too close?
Yeap, that’s a bit close… I normally set a jump at 20 feet or so. And yes, those hits would be better/deeper if she weren’t shortening her stride and to me, it doesn’t look like she is doing it in order to hit (what would of course be great -- but maybe somewhat too early in the process to expect that…) -- but in order to prepare for taking the jump/toy.
I did see her shortening her stride on the video but didn’t catch it in real time. There was a jump 14′ after the planks and the ball was thrown past the jump as she exited the tunnel before the planks. I think she was collecting to take the jump. Now that she’s happy with this game, she seems to be running faster.
I’ve switched to a full DW at the same height (4″) and put the jump after the DW a bit farther out than before. We had a few days of adjusting, with Bree determined to run off the side of the plank and then around the jump after the DW……hence the poles on either side of the DW, a row of cones blocking one side of the jump with a tree on the other side and I moved the jump in a bit closer. 🙂 She’s now running nicely and I don’t see any collection at the end of the DW. However, because she’s also running much faster than she was on the previous set up, I’m not up to speed with marking/rewarding so there are clearly too many goofs in this video. I will get better!
Should I wait to raise it some until I’m better marking the contacts, or can we go up now since she’s not doing any leaping?
Thanks! Carol
Great!!! Definitely time to add some height. Might give you even less misses as it will be less tempting to go for 3 strides and she is always in with 4! 🙂
Silvia, I know you’ve answered questions about how you count strides several times but I’ve never quite understood those answers. So sorry to ask you to explain yet again. I understand that you count 4 feet hitting as one stride. Perhaps my confusion lies in when to start counting. Do you always consider a stride as starting with the hind legs? So if they hit the DW first with their front feet that doesn’t count as part of a stride?
One other question…….should I be concerned at all about the up contact at this point? I’m noticing that missing the up contact always leads to missing the down contact.
Thanks. Carol
No, I count all 4 feet hitting as one hit and one full step as one stride. Meaning that when they hit the DW first (front + then hind feet) that’s one hit and when they hit again (front+hind), that’s the second hit and a completed first stride 🙂 So yes, if she hits too high the first time, then she only does 3 full strides (4 hits), so hitting lower is better. You can see if different starting point gives you less up contact misses or you could also use a stride regulator.
Well, that sure seems easy to understand now. Many thanks.
I’ll experiment with Bree’s starting point and her speed before trying a stride regulator. Right now the tunnel exit is 20′ before the DW but it quickly gets pushed back and straighter as she runs through it. And I usually send her to the tunnel from mid way along the DW so I can get in a good position to throw the ball and see what’s happening. Needless to say she’s built up tons of speed by the time she reaches the DW, probably far more than she’ll ever have in a course. Perhaps we’ve gotten a bit too exuberant, though I do have a long, lovely send to the tunnel now. 🙂
Yippee! We’ve been lucky and the snow and ice have melted again. 🙂
Here’s video of what we’ve been working on. I took out some speed by using a cone instead of a tunnel before the DW and she’s nicely in the up contact again. In fact, because my tunnel was always moving or straightening, this is a more consistent starting point for her so she’s been very consistent with 4 strides and therefore almost always in.
I’m not sure what my next step should be. Clearly Bree was making no effort to adjust her stride when I was using the tunnel before the DW (which essentially was changing her starting point), though perhaps there was so much speed approaching the DW with that set up that it would have been unrealistic for a beginner dog. Or perhaps the changes were too big and erratic for her to learn from them?
I did try moving the cone closer to the DW in #10 on this video. I was having trouble sending her that far to a cone and wanted to make it easier. At the new distance she was lower in the up contact and therefore missed the down contact. I moved the cone back to where it had been for the next try, wanting to stick with consistency until I had your input.
Can you give me some guidance on whether to begin making changes in her starting point or just concentrate on gradually increasing the height of the DW for now? I’m assuming these are the two things to address since she doesn’t seem to change her stride based on my motion and she happily drives over the jump at the end whether I throw the ball early or late.
Many thanks, Carol
Great!!! I would go for more height next, but keep her good starting spot for now to hopefully put her into the habit of hitting the up contact and only later on try different approaches.
Hi Silvia,
here are my latest sessions. Last one was today, the one before that was on the 13 th of Octobre 🙁
Session of today I used a static toy, but not with a jump. I just placed the toy on a little box. Jedd jumps frequently in this case. The last 3 times I threw the toy again (also since the previous session was a couple of weeks ago) and it was better.
Any advice on the jumping with the static toy?
Session of the 13th.
Thank you and kind regards,
Stevy & Jedd
Try throwing sooner&sooner (even before as he hits the DW) so that he is eventually running to a technically static toy (that he saw you threw). Progress slowly enough that he is mostly successful. If you get stuck at one point, you can also try the other approach, using a tunnel after a DW and then pretending you threw but in fact just cue him the tunnel and throw so that he sees it as he is exiting it.
Hi Silvia,
here is today’s session.
In the beginning I started with throwing very soon, but I noticed that I inconscious throw harder.
Therefor I asked a 2nd person to throw the ball slowly, very soon.
Jedd is aware if I have a ball in my hand or not before doing the DW, so I tried to trick him by having a ball in my hand, but not throwing it.
You see the results in following video. Every feedback is welcome 🙂
Till now, I find this the hardest stage (moving target to static target), and thus also for me very hard to have much failures and to see not much proression.
Thx and kind regards,
Stevy and Jedd
Hi Silvia,
I’m posting the session of today. It was better then yesterday.
I must say that I split up this session in 2 parts (to check which method works the best):
-> in the first part I’m throwing the ball myself, but I try to throw the ball sooner and slower…to have the static effect after the DW.
-> in the second part (after a break of 10 minutes), I have a 2nd person standing after the DW (at approx 6m) and throwing the ball very slowly on the ground.
At the end of this part, the hits were much better. His speed is not max, but I think it is the phase of something new, and when he gets familiar with it, his speed wil increase again. I mean that he will run through.
I was very pleased. But I don’t understand why I fe jackpotted nbr 7, but did not jackpot tries like 14…
Another question Silvia: when you put an extra plank after the downcontact. What is the purpose for this?
Thx and kind regards, Stevy & Jedd
I don’t know why I fe jackpotted 7
Great! Those last tries were sure perfect! As the next step, have a 2nd person standing after a short straight tunnel, showing him a toy (maybe a bigger tug toy to make it easier to see it) -- you can show him the other person has a toy just before you send him on a DW. If that goes well, you can then try having a person there just to fake having a toy, but instead throwing a ball yourself so that he gets it after the tunnel: that would take you directly to a final goal already.
I use an extra, lower plank on a DW only if DW can’t be lowered to soften the angle. With low DW, there is no reason for it.
Hi Silvia,
here is our session of today, and we followed your advise.
At the end, it was going pretty good.
I have 1 remark though. I wasn’t able to give the command for the tunnel. Jedd just ran trough it. I wasn’t able since I didn’t want to give the command when he was still on the DW. Maybe I should have done it.
Like today, with no tunnel command, I do not want Jedd (in the future on courses) to cross to the tunnel.
That was my remark, but when writing about it now, maybe I should have given the command on the DW.
If I put a jump between the DW and tunnel, would that also be an option? (In this way, I can focus on the down contact of the DW and give the tunnel command before the jump).
Thanks and kind regards,
Stevy & Jedd
I think for now, I wouldn’t add a jump in between just yet to not make the reward too delayed. I think getting nice deep contacts back should be a priority. You can say tunnel when he is still on DW (before he reaches down plank, so that you can then focus on a contact). Do you have a helper at the end of a tunnel with a toy?
Yep,
there was a helper at the end of the tunnel.
I will try next time to give the command for the tunnel on the DW.
Thanks
You can also ask a helper to be more active, weave with the toy more or call him so that he runs more and does his contacts the same way as he did with a thrown toy, that would be perfect.
Hi Silvia,
here is today’s session.
I must say that it wasn’t good; not good at all and I’m a little embarassed to post this, but hey, learn from the mistakes, isn’t it.
To positive thing today is, that I didn’t use any wing on the up and downcontact. That’s it.
Concerning the running contact, it was bad.
There was a tunnel after the DW, and I gave the command ‘tunnel’ already on the down part.
I must admit though that I didn’t used a 2nd person to assist me (no one available), so I had to throw myself when he was in the tunnel.
Silvia, is this fallback due to the fact that I’m training less since the start of Octobre? Like I already said before, now with winter coming (dark at 5 o’clock and I’m only avaible from 5 o’clock), I’m training less, but is it advisable to continue training at this pace, or should I restart when I have again more time or when the days get longer again (in spring)?
I hope you understand my concerns, because I don’t feel comfortable with it, and don’t want to throw away all the effort we’ve already done.
Thanks Silvia for your feedback.
Hi Stevy,
I thought I would tell you my story with that training schedule………..I worked Spur almost daily, sometimes twice/day at the beginning and then winter arrived FAST and I had to stop and could only train once/week at an indoor facility I rented. I think that worked fine for Spur and we worked for about two months like that and progressed pretty quickly, quicker than I expected. The only thing different was I did find a spot in my yard where I could run him on a flat plank some, like a couple of time on rare occasions on weekends if the weather was good. It was sunnier there and more exposed so it didn’t get as much snow.
Anyway, it seemed to work for Spur, but as we see here in class each dog is so individual.
I think it’s really great to see Jed staying on the plank as that was such a hard thing for him. 😀
Amy and Little Spur
Hi Amy,
thanks for the feedback, it’s much appreciated.
I’ll keep it in mind and think it over how I can apply it to my situation.
Thanks again!
Kind regards,
Stevy & Jedd
Whenever things go bad and you get more as three bad tries in a row, you need to go back to the last successful set up. You actually shouldn’t be trying that anyway, because even with the second person behind the tunnel, his successful rate was not high enough and without a second person, you should of course go back to throwing it early, it was way too optimistic to think he can do that. So definitely go back to throwing for some sessions to get forward focus and contacts back. Meantime, you can work on his drive into a tunnel without a DW in a picture, but don’t do a tunnel after DW without another person just yet. Not training that often shouldn’t be a problem -- just train whenever you can. But make sure to help him have good enough successful rate.
Thanks Silvia!
Hi Silvia, this film is my training the last 4 days. I raised the dw as you asked me to, but I can not say I have progressed, she is leaping most of the times she is doing the hole dw. Then I always go back to start her from the top as she is getting more hits then. I have alos been trying with a static toy but I can not see much different. Today when I trained my other dogs, she runned over the full hight dw when she was not supposed to do that. It looked very good that time, so I decided to get the camera and have a go. I hope you dont think that was stupid.
Hi Silvia, I sending video of yesterday’s practice. I decided to raise the height of the dogwalk. From the dw I have a jump approx 15′ away. It’s a low jump for Twitch with food on the ground and for Saga I look the bar away and I’m throwing her ball before she’s released. We have another dry day so I plan to practicewiththem again with this setup. -Sondra
Hm, yeah, she is somewhat leapy on this video… It’s often because of your late throw though, not sure why you throw so late when she runs the whole DW? On full DW, she definitely doesn’t look comfortable, does many more strides as she should eventually, so I’m not sure if that is taking her in the right direction… I would probably lower it again… If you had a hill that you could use, you could go the same path as Bill if you watched his videos. He had a similar problem: nice running on flat or slightly raised plank, but big problems with a real DW as his Sheltie was in-between 4 and 5 strides (in your case between 3 and 4). Using a hill and raising 2/3 of a DW help a lot and allows us getting nice hits while adding height.
I was not aware of that I through later on the whole dw. I will certainly try to be better there. And it is no problem lowering the dw again, I just had to train the others on full height. Unfortunatly I have no hills at home. But it might be possible to arrange at the club. And hopefully there will be snowfree a couple of weeks more :). I will also look for Bills videos.
Hi Silvia and classmates,
I’m sending video of Saga and Twitch. I’ve lost some speed with Saga. My set-up is a low dw, about 17″ heigh to a low jump about 15′ away. I’ve been putting a toy on the landing side of the jump and have begun throwing a toy as well to increase speed. You will see she’s playing with different striding. The attempts I like the best is when she 4 strides, in today’s training this resulted in her right hind foot getting into the contact zone. I think she’ll be deeper as her speed increases. I was thinking of adding a tunnel prior to the dw to increase her speed but I wanted to get feedback from you.
Twitch has the same set-up except I have food on the ground and this has motivated her more than just a toy…go figure, a lab that’s food motivated 🙂
Anyway, her 4 strides look good to me, occasionally she tries to 3 strides it but I am pleased with her speed and overall consistency. How should I progress her? Do you think I raise the dw?
Thanks for your input.
Sondra
I believe I’ve had a break through with Saga. Today I sent her around a cone so she had 12-15′ to run before the dw. She is running to her toy which she watched me place on the ground past the jump. I also removed the bar.
Sorry it’s not in slowmo but my husband is traveling with the computer that has my other editing program.
Only saw this video now and yes, it definitely looks much better when starting with a wrap!
Yes, you definitely want more speed. I would actually start both with either a wrap or a tunnel as that gives you more realistic speed as starting from a sit stay -- what will never happen in a trial 🙂 It also seems to help Saga when you run. You can also still sometimes throw a toy in advance, but actually, she might be ready for throwing a toy after a jump/tunnel: run with her and throw a toy as she is taking a jump (low bar) or a tunnel after. With Twitch, leave the food after the tunnel first and then also switch to not leaving it after the tunnel but rewarding from your hand after she takes the tunnel.
I would also try different approaches, see what gives you nicest deepest hits and spend some time selecting for those as deeper would definitely be better. But yes, they’re running nicely, no leaps, it’s just that deeper is safer 🙂 Definitely raise the DW if you’ll be getting too much for 3 strides, but if not, I would do some other challenges first before raising it again (different approaches, selecting for deepness).
Thanks for your feedback. I’m so happy she started running again. Saga always loved being sent around a cone so I tried it and it seemed to work:)
Hi Silvia. This is not a RC question but would like to know please when your new DVD is coming out, the one you said is on speed and i think you said motivation? I am quite sad today as i tried a show yesterday not with the intention of running a whole course and not contacts yet either, just to get her to a show and have her in that envioment which i have not done with her at all, except breed shows ( now a breed champion ) which is not the same at all! No more breed shows for me, hee hee. I did not do what i should have, i tried to run the whole 1st course instead of breaking it up and having fun, so my fault!!! 🙁 I then did, for the rest of the day, do little bits between with the ball and she was sure better. So can i ask would and should i still do this, going to shows but just go on with the ball from the start and have fun and do bits and build it up? She is quite sensitive it seems and drops 🙁 I did video it, the 1st course, but am quite embaressed to post it! I think too maybe when we are up to full height DW we can then start at shows with just that as practise and this my help her get over her shyness/sentive side as she just loves running RC and this i see really gets her going. Thanks for your help. Happy training to all.
Yeah, sorry the new DVD is taking so long, but with all the long-distance classes, it’s just impossible to finish it… The plan is to put most classes on break mid-November and finish it then. But yes, going in with the ball, having fun, playing tricks and ball ringside etc. -- that should all help. Also, try to establish a routine to make it easier for her to predict what is happening at trials: test if she likes to be crated ringside or in a more calm place, if she likes longer or shorter warm up etc. Including DW will definitely help, but you can do a lot already now, by going in to have fun and establishing some kind of fun routine. You can keep her favourite toy and treats just for trials to help her see it’s fun fun fun.
Thank you very much Silvia, I have been reading the articles and comments you have been putting up on home page and i need, as you say, to work out what works for her and as you said with your 1st ever dog it was just about teaching him to love running, well, Spy can do that, so i just have to get it in all places then! cant wait for the new DVD!!! 🙂
Hi all
So here is our update. Silvia had suggested that I try short runs to see if that helps her get the idea. From this experiement I noticed:
-- it is hard to see jumping when that close to the dog!
-- its easier to click at the right time for sure;
-- of course, now almost all of the runs are in. But there are some jumps (some of them related to when she slips at the start from trying to start so fast -- there isn’t enought plank left for her to correct the strides);
-- most contact touches are now in the middle of the contact, which is nice. This was true even when I tried the whole board after doing the shorter runs. This is different from her usual style.
I still don’t see her being aware of what she is doing and actively making adjustments, but we will keep at this work. Because of the weather we are not getting in many sessions per week at the moment.
Comments welcome!
Silvia -- I also included a weave update (following on from AF class). Do you think I make too much noise when training? Perhaps I should be more silent???
Yeap, both plank work and weaves look good, just keep working like that! It’s perfectly o.k. to talk to the dog as they run, it’s whatever the team prefers 🙂
Hello Silvia & Classmates,
We are picking up where we dropped out of the first running contacts class. At the time I was having trouble getting Leia to do the number of repetitions needed to train it but, we took a break from board running and focused on Agility Foundations over the summer. With Silvia’s help we learned new ways of playing together that have made all of our training more fun. I’m happy to report that Leia now thinks this game is fun AND I finally starting being able to see the difference between running and jumping. We may be at the very beginning of the process but, I’m thrilled it’s going much better than our previous attempts. I’m posting a video with a few recent sessions so you can see the trend and get a general idea of what we’ve been doing. I only put the most recent session in slow motion. I hope you mostly agree with how I mark, it’s not perfect but a big improvement for me. Looking forward to your feedback! Mara
Wow, that’s great! What a speed! Really nice speed and really nice hits, I would jackpot even some more 🙂 -- definitely 5 of the last session for example. You can also raise it some more, either by adding another brick or using a hill if you have one?
Yea! I’m so glad you see it as being good too! I will raise the boards some more. I don’t really have a good hill and I’m afraid to change anything too drastically. My dog walk should arrive by the end of November I’m hoping to transition to a low dogwalk when it arrives.
Thanks for your feedback!
She sure looks great! What is she running to? A ball thrown so early that we mostly don’t see you throw? I think you can raise it for two or three more bricks till your DW arrives.
Cool! Yes, I’m throwing a ball when she’s in the tunnel and she’s driving well to it. The love of the channel finally transfered to board running.
First trial for Leia this weekend, 2 jumpers runs on saturday and 2 on sunday. I’ll let you know how it goes. We can’t train in the ring so any suggestions you have to make it a fun experience for her would be great. It’s so hard to know what she will need to be ready to run, excited enough but also focused. Lots of things to try…
Wow, how exiting, Leia’s first trial! Try to just keep it fun, no stopping and redoing for possible refusals, just run and keep her focused and excited!
Great, thank you. I’ll remember those tips and do my best to keep her focused and excited.