Time for a new lesson! And a "catch-up break" 🙂 I'll be home one more week to review your videos of where you are at and answer questions on how to proceed if meeting difficulties with new assignments and then you'll have two weeks to work on it on your own, catching up if you got stuck behind a little - or giving your dog some plank break if you're as far as you wanted to be with it. 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!
I'll be back to answering on 24th June and will publish new assignments on 4th July.
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, get another toy and as soon as you click the contact, throw a second toy over the jump. Soon, you won't need a static toy at all anymore.
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 jumps 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 toward 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. You can either use a lowered dog-walk or a normal dog-walk with additional plank at the end as you can see in some videos. 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.
Have fun!
This is probably Furi’s last video on this course 🙂
His posterior cruciate ligament (i’m not sure is this the right english term) is broken and in addtiton to that he has Legg-Perthes disease on left hip 🙁
Oh no, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t watch the video as it says it’s private but I’ll be sending lots of positive thoughts for a good recovery for your Furi.
I could not watch the video either.
I’m sorry to hear about Furi. One of my shelties, Chinook had Leg Perthe’s Dx too. He was 10 months old when he was diagnosed and had his left femoral head and neck removed at 11 months. How old is Furi? Chinook is 3 now and he runs and plays just like any other dog. He does agility too 🙂 just not as much as Maia. He will do the A-frame and the DW, but he does not do the teeter (too much of a balance issue there for him).
I hope all goes well with Furi -- will he be undergoing surgery?
Shame very sorry to hear, hope for a good recovery.
Ohh no! I don’t know what that is, but it sounds serious. That so sad. Hopefully he will recover.
Just my good thoughts too for your little PyrShep -- I hope for you and for Furi that he will be fit in a few months again. Just for running and having fun or -- as Ania wrote -- for agility.
Thanks for every one. Furi will turn 12 months next Sunday (26th). I know that there are leeg-perthes dogs doing agility very well in top level. So there is hope 🙂 But we need probably two surgeries in short time. Not fair for young dog who just wants to have fun.
Do you see video now? It shouldn’t be private.
Hi Im so sry to hear what’s happening to Furi. Do you think that he can recover without doing any surgeries? such as switching a dog to a real diet-- raw food diet, then treat him homeopathically? I can check with my homeopath to see if she has any thoughts on this disease.
Angela
I’m so sorry to hear about Furi’s injury. Hoping for a good recovery. Will it require surgery? We have had very good outcomes with stem cell treatment for orthopedic injury and I hear it is also very beneficial post-surgical. Something to look into if you are interested.
Good thoughts,
Kristin
Oh, no! Sooo sorry to hear that Teija! I’m sure he will recover nicely, but yes, it’s definitely not what you would wish for to have to deal with at that age… Is a torn ligament in the same leg? Is that why he started to limp and you found about Legg-Perthes? Seems to be more present in the breed as one would wish for…
On a good note, he looks to start running really nicely and efficiently now, no air anymore. Send me a mail when he can run again and we’ll put you in the RC class going on then. I sure hope to see Furi back on track soon! When is his first operation?
Yes, the ligament and Legg-Perthes are in same leg. He was alredy on surgery table but I asked to take the x-ray and the Legg-Perthes was there 🙁 But he didn’t limp because of L-P. So, they didin’t do surgery yet. We have Carthrovet treatment for two weeks and after that is a control. Some times Carthrovet heels or at least stops the L-P and there is no need for surgery. After the control they will operate at least the ligament.
I didn’t find longer plank but I found a wider one and he started to run better. I think that he had balance issues caused by the L-P hip. E.g. he had problems stay on excercise ball and stay in sit-up position. Also the 4-in a small bowl was a problem.
What is Carthrovet? Google only gives two hits on it, both in Finish, so… I sure hope it can help to avoid surgery. I know they can do great even without a hip, but it’s even better if he can keep it! Keeping all my fingers crossed!
Hi there class mates. I have been working, 1stly, back on flat with 2 of the dog walk planks, then slowly raising it, one sand bag at a time and this has been our 1st session on the 3rd sand bag, uncut all tries. I have just tried to keep her getting good hits and building back confidence. I am very happy and hope you agree. please feel free to comment. cool, happy training.
That sure looks great to me! And what a fast progress!
I believe that you would get some nice back feet hits (if you still want those) if you start her a bit further back. The first hit on the down plank is rather deep, so the next striding is also a bit too deep for front feets to fit. But you probably already thought the same. But she sure has nice stridings now, I think!
Hi there thank you. Well i have tried to read lots of all the previous comments and Silvia seems to say back and or front are good, so for now she seems to have changed to front, so i guess i will leave it as she is hitting nicely, i did try moving the cone a full metre back and she hit the same place and then i moved it 1/2 more and still the same and 1/2 more and still the same so maybe this is her striding for now. this is so hard to know if my understanding is good so i can only hope.
For your situation can you perhaps still use the carpet but double it, one on top of the other, put the kids thinker one under the one she is used too, keep it constant ie the same carpet always ontop, put something under it but dont change the top view or felling for now, how long is the piece you are using and how far do you start her before getting onto it, and lastly how far is she running? you will get this keep trying to find out what works.
Ok, so great front paw hit is the deal niw for you. I really thought it looked great, hope Silvia thinks the same.
I will use the carpet on top, probably I will have to use it in competitions too 🙂
I have the carpet three times folded, it is about 3 meters long. I start her between 2-6 meters away (depending on day condition). For only carpet, no plank, I start her around 3-4 meters away. After the carpet (or plank) she runs around 8 meters.
I hope I will get it, but some real progress would be nice. 🙂
hi me again, ok so from a very novice but a gut feeling, is there any way you can make the carpet longer in other words much longer than 3 m so it is even 6 m or more so she has a long time on the carpet, a few strides not just 1 or 2. i know this is not what she will have later but it means she gets on and has time to settle with a few strides and get into the running. it means it is not just on and then off. I have just done the same by changing Spy to running on the 2 flat planks, which i started back on the ground flat, the top of the dog walk plus the down ramp as when she crashed she lost all striding and all she seemed to want to do was get on and get off asap and that was just on the down plank and i then thought well what if i put 2 planks so she has to get on and run a few strides and well i think she is back too running, even though i have front feet i will leave that for now as they are low and Silvia as far i can read in all the previous comments says try keep back and front so i hope i am with it. does any of this make sense? i think a long long piece may just help cause once she is on i dont think she will hop hop bounce bounce, all the way, i really think she will settle. then only add a very thin plank under but still keep it very long, stabilise it well so no movement which can take a bit of all sorts to get right. happy training.
Hi Alicia, I’m really greatful for all the effort you put in helping me! That is so great!
I also think that Spy’s running looked normal again, so it seemed to have worked well for you with a longer plank. But I’m actually nor sure it will work for Tjejen.. mostly because she sometimes bounce and leap when just running on grass too.. I wonder if she is some genetically changed dog where her paws have built-in springs.. 🙂
It could work that she run better, but as I said, I think probably not.. I have to decide which thing I try (there are so many options 🙂 ). But I will definetily try a longer carpet if I don’t get good running on the 3 meter carpet the next 1- sessions. I have one more of the carpet, so I could make it 6 meter long.
The only situation where she would never leap/bounce is when chasing a clearly visible squirrel (preferable on pavement for perfect visibility).. but how do I convince a squirrel to participate in the training? 🙂
Hi i have been thinking further, please excuse me, but i have had to think out the box when it comes to my Cattle
Dogs as there are very few here and people dont get them! You say Tjejen is very bouncy on grass, is that the same for short, as in just mowed or long grass? as my ACD’s will also bounce if it is long grass and not run forward like on short grass. Yes maybe crazy thinking but worth a thought. The other thing i thought of, is will she allow you to restrain her and if so how is she with very short runs to the ball being thrown but low so it just ends up rolling basicly out in front of her? And lastly if you have something tied to a long line and she chases it does she bounce then when running? I am really not the expert but just some things to concider, if you haven’t already. Sorry if i am a pain please feel free to say.
Hi Alicia, you are NO pain! I’m very really happy for all the help!
On long grass she is always bouncing (for example if we walk over a field with high grass), but also on short gras she bounces. She can also do strange bouncing on pavement, but not as much as on grass, and only if she is in a play-mode.
I can restrain her and throw the ball low and close to her. That is what I did in the beginning of the class (I was then at a height of about 20 cm, since I had started the training before -but not knowing all the things I’ve learned in this class!). That worked well if the throw was good (which I thought was difficult, since she is soo sensitive to the throw, was it low enough, straight, far and did I release her at the right time..) which is was often not.
That with a long line could be a really good thing! I have a small lamb fur that I think you would love to hunt! I think I will try that. How would you do it practically? Should I have her stay and then run of with the line (trying to look back at what she does), or should I put the line around a tree and run “towards her, passing her at the side” and try to see what she does when passing the carpet? Probably I just have to try it out. But I think that could result in so much hunting instinct that she doesn’t have time for bouncing! 🙂
Thanks!
Ops! I mean that SHE would love to chase the lamb fur, not you of course!
hee hee, got that,dont worry, is there any way someone can help you so you can restrain her and your helper can pull very fast. or even try in a circle round yourself and of course do both ways. all just ideas but maybe it could work. try just little bits 1st then increase. happy trying some crazy ideas! if you can get this 1st step right you will be a for away in no time.
This is looking so beautiful!
Thank you.
Looks great! You’re right, front feet are perfectly o.k. and look the most natural for her on this set up. I would, however, try to change the set up once you get some more height into something that looks more like a mini DW -- as the apex will be less pronounced then, she might be extending less over it and you might also get some hind feet then. Ideally, you have both: sometimes front, sometimes hind. t’s important the dog knows both are an option as the more options they have, the easier they meet the criteria in every situation.
Well, the set-up with plank followed by carpet gave me too many leaping/jumping things so I stoped that. I then tried to alternate between carpet and plank. That only led to leaping on carpet instead of running over plank. Soo.. I am now trying to just run on the plank (like Hannah reminded me of) without too much dramatic around it. Yesterday, the second session, gave me the first (and only) running on that set-up. The rest is clear leaping. Now I have new hope, but very little.
I start to feel a bit sad that I don’t manage to get running on the plank.. I have put so much effort in the training, and don’t get ANY progress.. I have never experienced anything like this before when training my dogs (not even when I trained a small poodle to a rescue dog which I found rather difficult). But I don’t want a 2o2o dog walk. So, I guess I just have manage this somehow.. but how?
I wonder if you could go back to the carpet until you’re getting good running again then add something really really thin under the carpet (something she wouldn’t even notice). You could then gradually continue increasing the thickness until you’re using a normal plank under the carpet. I don’t know if this would work but it might be worth a try??? I’m sure Silvia will have some ideas when she gets back. 🙂
Yes, that is probably the best way to go Hannah. I thought about it but wasn’t sure what I could use that was soo thin and still not adding instability (I believe that she doesn’t like when the plank moves). I could use some of the play carpets from the children, they could be suitable. They are harder than the carpet but much softer than the plank and when I double them they will be more stable. After that I could put the plank beneath the two layers and then remove one layer after the other..
I guess whichever way I take it will be long.. and I guess it is the best one. And perhaps, when she knows it is all about running, everything will be great, right? 🙂
Yes, I think that’s a good way to go. Not sure if we mean the same thing under “play carpets”, I would recommend you soft mats (it’s not like carpet, but like rubber) they sell for children to play on, often in colours and a puzzle form. It’s something between carpet and a plank and won’t bounce as a plank on the ground, so I would do all ground work on those mats, then add a plank under only when you add some height, you can fix it better then.
I also liked Alicia’s suggestion to make things longer, it often gives you more normal striding, but your right, in your specific case, our problem is she is bouncing even when running on the ground… We definitely need to put her in a chasing mode. I use toys on a string A LOT with puppies to promote chasing, but then switch to balls as it’s technically easier for RC: but with a helper, it should be possible to use it for RC too.
And yes, sometimes problems at the beginning are good as once you solve them all, the continuation is very easy 🙂 But this leaping thing is definitely very unusual, not sure where it originates from, but it’s definitely not your fault: it doesn’t look like a trained behaviour, it looks like it’s just the way she moves… -- from whichever reason. But if she can run normally after squirells, then she can run normally on the plank!
Hi Silvia,
So nice to have you back (and from the pictures you had a great time)!
That is exactly the play matts that I am using. I also think the are a good “in-between” thing. I am relieved that you believe that she is like that and it’s not trained. I was thinking that I clicked wrongly so often that I didn’t get any success. Almost happy that you think it is in her nature, even if this makes training her more difficult. I also feel that getting her in chasing mode is the best way to go. Hmm.. it’s tricky since I don’t have anyone to assist. I have yo try it out.
It’s harder when you’re on your own, but if she has good send to cik/cap, maybe you can still get ahead enough for a string thing… Did you try the play mats already?
Hi, everyone.
I have a general question for you. Did you have to adjust your dogs’ “good” starting positions with each new height?
I raised the plank for Da Vinci and his stride seemed to be affected by the new height he had to jump onto. I moved him back a bit and it was much better.
Next height, we will go to an up ramp so I’m guessing things will normalize a bit more then???? Since we are behind, I thought several of you may have already been through this.
Thanks,
Kristin
Hi Kristin,
Yes, with Emily her good starting point changed at first when I raised the board. But after a few sessions at each new height she got better at adjusting to different start points.
Dawn
Thanks, Dawn. I won’t worry about it. It makes sense that the sweet spot would change some when they have to jump onto a higher plank. I’ll just keep being flexible with his start position to make sure he gets good hits. Had one absolutely beautiful one last night!
Hi classmates, I have the same problem, I raised 10cm the plank and I don´t have too much to jackpot :(, I´m waiting for Silvia, I don´t know what to do, because I thought I could star with lesson 3 but not at this height, maybe I should go back a bit and start with lesson 3, I don´t really know. 🙁
Hi,
I’m not at lesson 3 either. I had to go back because things started to fall apart and I did not think that Maia really understood what was being asked of her. I am slowly working my way back to raising the plank to 30 cm. We are no where near using a stationary toy at a jump 🙁
How is it going this time around? I think with Maia, you will need another plan to skip the stationary toy: like pretending you threw, but then only throw after. The tunnel suggestion might work as well. Maybe combine the two, pretend you threw, but then throw after, so that she can chase a moving toy once she is out of a tunnel you set after a plank?
Did you try adjusting the “good” starting position just a bit. I think jumping up higher affects their fist stride and so on. I can’t remember if you are using an up ramp.
Yes, I´m using an up ramp
I usually try to change their start point to get better hits again. If you can’t get them, go back down, work some more on other things instead and then try going up again. Study the videos to see what changed: the number of strides, the lengths of strides? -- Knowing WHY things fell apart is the most important part of fixing them!
Hi there class mates. My set up is starting to look like a narrow, long, A frame, as i have the top of the dog walk and the down ramp, with sand bags raising the middle. Is this right or wrong, should i have the 1st plank flat and be starting her on it now and not going around the cone and then onto 1st plank then down ramp? Please help those that have already been here, thanks kindly. happy training.
Mine looks like this too so I’m interested in the responses you get here.
Kristin
Hi:
I just logged on and didn’t know people were leaving messages! I don’t know if this helps. I used the mini aframe set up as soon as I started adding height. My upramp was 2 feet wide and 8 feet long. When I raised it to 14 inches I didn’t like the way Bender was leaping over the apex and I was having difficulty stabilizing my upramp. So that point I switched to a mini-dogwalk set up (10 feet upramp, 10 feet top board and 12 feet teeter board as the down ramp). I also figured that Bender had to get used to the dog walk set up at some point anyway. Alicia your set up looks good and stable and you are getting some nice hits.
Shona and Bender
Thank you, Shona.
That helps a lot. We are still using the 2 ft. wide down ramp, but started using a single plank up ramp. I was wondering if there would be a point that we need to make it more like a mini-dogwalk. Thanks. I’ll go back and check out your video progression.
Kristin
As Shona wrote: mini A-frame is good to start with, but they tend to start to fly over the apex too much that way, so you need to switch to either a mini dog-walk or, if you only have two planks, making one horizontal and starting the dog at the very beginning of it to allow him to get good speed before the down ramp.
Hi, everyone! Just a friendly reminder…frequently check the stability of your setup. My upramp slipped yesterday and Callie crashed pretty hard. Luckily we had a chiropractic and acupuncture appointment that day so the vet could check her over. She is looking ok thankfully.
Silvia, when this happens, do you get the dog back on the equipment as soon as possible or leave it alone for awhile?
Bless her heart…after the shock wore off and we sat for about 5 minutes, she hopped right back up on that plank and looked at me like “can we work some more?”
Kristin
Oh my goodness! Poor Callie -- I hope she is ok. Good thing about getting her checked with a chiropractor though.
This past weekend I was at an agility fun match and Maia fell off the teeter. She used to be terrified of the teeter so I was scaired that she would again be fearful of it, but I made sure she was ok, and then had her go right back on it and rewarded her generously. I was told here to not let them leave on a ‘bad’ note, so to try and get them back on the piece of equipment, even a foot or two and reward them so they learn to ‘like’ it agian. But it sounds like Callie already did that on her own 🙂 What a good girl!
I will post a longer explanation on why I don’t agree with taking the dog right back OR having to end on a good note, but in short: when something scary happens, it doesn’t matter what I do for La, Bi or Le -- they will be perfectly happy to do it again. However, when dealing with fearful dogs, like Lo and Bu, I learned an important lesson: if they get scared, they get in an emotional state that doesn’t allow them to see “things are actually not scary” and asking them to immediately go back into situation that scared them was ALWAYS contra productive, despite I was always shaping it (clicking for approaching the object, rewarding away from it to let them “escape” from it), never pushing them into it in any way. The longer and more patiently I worked on it, the longer they were rehearsing what just happened -- and the longer it took they got over it. So I learned to not even check if the dog is o.k. right away: but immediately start a party, make the dog extra busy with her favourite tricks, do some tunnels with Bu and keep them as busy and as much in movement as possible. I then avoid the scary situation for a while and after a couple of weeks, try it again. After a couple of weeks, things don’t look as scary anymore AND as the dog never had the time to rethink what happened, they’re usually perfectly fine with it.
Hi Silvia, Classmates,
I hope you had a good holiday! Are you ready for your problem pupils? 😉 We did go on running during your holiday but Keen seems to have other ideas about running, it looks more like jumping!! Leaping just got more consistent. We added some height and tried the stationary toy. At first it was held by Rudy. We also put some rubber on the plank. Since the leaping got more and more consistent I decided to go back to the flat plank. The sessions of today (22nd)are on the flat plank again with a stationary toy between two wings. She is much slower but even then she puts in the jumps. I did notice I click some real bad one’s… It is just so hard to control that hand!! I noticed some improvement in the last session so I’m going to leave the setup as it is till you return and hopefully can help us!!
Hm, that’s really weird, not sure why we lost that nice hind feet separation that we originally had… In this video, hind feet are closer as I would wish for on almost all tries with an exception of 2:33 try -- that was a really nice one. Many up in the air movement in many of the tries… Somewhat better in the last session, but still not perfect… However, it was a good decision to go back down, I would probably also go back to a thrown toy and try to pay attention to keep her running normally this time… It would also be good to review the old videos and try to see when we lost hind feet separation and got the leaping and rethink what variable changed then and try to avoid the same thing happening again…
Hi Silvia,
Hope you enjoyed a great hiking trip.
We’re getting a lot more consistent.
The best is when I set her up 18 feet away, and either recall or send over. The worst is when I run right next to her and she goes slow looking at me, or other distances cause her to only take 1 stride, missing the contact alltogther.
Looking forweard to your ideas on what to try next.
Cheers,
Carla
Wow, that’s LOTS of progress! Now that things go well, I would keep her preferred set up for a while and slowly introduce you moving more&more with her, but trying to keep her forward focus with a toy. Does she look at you even when a toy is thrown in advance? Then SLOWLY add other challenges, vary where you start her and if that goes well, you can also add more height. A miss here&there is o.k., just make sure she sees the difference in your response to it and keep the % of successful tries high (ideally between 80 and 90%), that’s why add variables very slowly.
Hi Silvia,
Vite is distracted by my movement. So whether I throw the toy or place it, if my path converges on her she pushes out, and if I run less than 10 feet away she looks at me like heeling. Mostly I try to stay out of her space.
Today I gradually tried more walking beside her a bit and it worked.
Will keep doing as you suggested to gradually add my body motion.
Once she’s good at performing the dogwalk plank up on the highest table, how can I continue to increase height gradually? Or do I just go to backchaining on the competition dogwalk?
Thank you for all your help,
Carla
Well, you can see several options in videos of other participants… Low dog-walk, an additional low plank on a normal dog-walk, mini A-frame shape set up, horizontal plank leading to a down ramp, using different level floors etc. -- you want to check those videos out 🙂 But no, you definitely can’t go to full height dog-walk for a couple of months more 🙂
Hi Silvia,
Thank you for your help on how fast to progress.
I was confused by lesson 3 backchaining: “it’s also time to try the real thing”, but I guess the plan is to only raise a few inches every week. Will do that…
Carla
Yes, but it also says: “You can either use a lowered dog-walk or a normal dog-walk with additional plank at the end as you can see in some videos” 🙂 That’s what I meant with a real thing: more DW-like set-up vs. normal plank work -- NOT full-height! And, as just recently, you were still getting leaps on a flat plank, I would actually work on lesson 2 some more before lesson 3. You need MANY successful repetitions before you can add more challenges.
Thanks Sivia.
Ok, will go back to lesson 2.
Carla
A little stuck at the moment…
I’ve been trying to teach Liryk turns (as you suggested) to try and get her to offer different foot placements in the contact zone, rather than what she currently only offers which is two hind feet.
For some reason it’s like there is some force field in the lower part of the contact where it doesn’t seem to matter what I try she won’t “offer” any front foot placement or even deeper hind feet. When we try turns it just results in very high 2 hind feet hits.
I’ve tried starting her low down on the down plank and backchaining, so she didn’t have an option BUT to hit low in the contact and this works up until she is positioned at the apex (where the across meets the down plank) where she reverts back to her original 2 hind feet high in the contact.
I can’t seem to think outside the square to work out how to get her to change her striding 🙁
She is currently on a full height dogwalk, do you think I should lower it back down and start again, this time with turns? Would this make it easier for her to understand and maybe offer different foot placements?
Hope you had a wonderful trip away!
Megan and Liryk 🙂
Well, if she is in regardless of an entry and exit, you can as well simply not worry about it… Maybe leave her dog-walk as it is for now and separately from that, work on turns on a lower plank (but not completely flat, it’s not so evident where to turn if the plank is on the ground) and then on a dog-walk, reaching the apex and going over it so slowly that you are still getting front feet. That might give you more variety of hits even in straight exits eventually. You could also try to go all the way down and play some more with straight exits, but if her % of hits is reasonably good, I would probably just let it be. How close to 100% is she?
Well before we started turns I would have said Liryk’s success rate was about 95% (for a straight exit, regardless of different approaches) but since I started turns that has dropped dramatically. I haven’t had jumping just extremely high hits that I don’t reward.
I guess my other concern for the last few weeks has been that I didn’t take into concideration our other agility organisation (which was rather foolish of me 🙁 ) Has it’s contact zone is lower. So with the way Liryk performs her contact now she is only actually getting one hind foot in “their” contact zone and I know you say that this is risky.
If you don’t think I’ll be confusing her by putting the dogwalk down and trying for different and deeper hits I might try this?
I hate to think that I’m giving mixed signals to my poor dog!
One high foot hits are not my favourite no… They usually start to get deeper with more confidence and speed -- Le used to be very high too, but is now really low on my dog-walk -- and still higher as I would eventually want on new dog-walks. So you could first try to get even more speed on a full dog-walk to get her in deeper… Or you could try some low plank running and see if you can get better variety of hits, I don’t think that will be confusing no, as long as you can get good enough successful rate.
Hi Silvia:
Welcome Back! I hope you had a great relaxing holiday!
Bender and I have been busy. Here is our Lesson #3 Video. We spent 2 weeks (10 sessions) on the 17 inch height on the mini DW set-up. I slowly increased the distance until I could send Bender around a jump wing 20 feet away from the upramp. I think he is getting a better understanding of what is being asked. He is offering different foot placements now in the contact as he tries to get 2 strides in at speed. I am still jackpotting the 2 rear foot hits even though they are a bit high. Those are the hits I like and I would like him to start to understand that if he hits the downramp first with the rear feet he can hit the contact with the rear feet! But I know that will take more experience…
I have not had any problems with sending on a “Go” to the jump placed 22 feet after the DW without using a static toy. I have also introduced withholding the ball if it was an unsuccessful attempt. That has been going well. I still vary throwing the ball for a non reward because I want him to anticipate the ball being thrown. Luckily on good sessions with lots of jackpots he gets the ball thrown alot!
This video is from June 21 and our 10th session at this height:
I did throw the ball on the two non-reward runs #1 and #9. Please let me know if a mix of different foot placement hits is what I am looking for -- like #4,#6, #10. And is it still OK to jackpot the high rear foot hits?
I have since built the set-up to 22 inches height. Again I will build the distance back up as Bender gets used to the height increase. The first session went very well. Tricks are also coming along.
Shona and Bender
Looks GREAT!!! At this point, I wouldn’t be throwing a ball for non-reward runs anymore -- I would still have him get that jump, then call and send on DW again. I would throw a ball for high hits, but only jackpot the best ones. But yes, it’s great he has different foot placements hits and it does looks like he is starting to understand this game. Great job!