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I like your week 4 lecture especially about trialing and training. I am a huge believer in lifelong training in the ring.
I noticed my other 2 young dogs really got more turned on to agility this past summer when we were a multiring agility camp. They seem to pick up on the energy and translate it to being more competitive themselves.
So I thought about that for Wifi and last weekend I entered her in a NADAC trial for 2 runs a day. I entered not because I think she is ready to Q because she is not. But I knew I could enter FEO in Intro Barrelers which has hoops, barrels and tunnels. She knows all those well. Also because we can do same short course 2 times.
I should have videoed it… Rd 1 I planned to reward each of the 3 tunnels because that is her hardest obstacle. She knew I had toy. She stayed well and did the hoop and barrel well and balked at the first tunnel. When she did it I played. Then she did 2 more hoops and 1 barrel well and balked at tunnel. When she did we played. Then she had to do one more tunnel and she did it right away and we played and left.
Rd 2 is same course. She did every tunnel on first try and we played after each tunnel. I was really happy with her progress and being able to do same course twice was so good for her.
She also was faster and more confident on rd 2 and she seemed really happy to be out there. I made it as positive an experience as I could.
I think it may have also contributed to her offering the jumps on her own. In our games she is showing more enthusiasm for agility and for obstacles. I am trying to be careful to not make it too hard too fast where she starts overthinking again.
Anyway wanted to share that as a way to make a training session out of a trial productive and positive and not a place where we turn into aliens and lose criteria 🙂
We have been quietly working on our games. Tonight after training in obedience in the agility room I let her have her toy and turned to talk to someone. Wifi sailed beautifully over 3 18 inch jumps with toy in her mouth and no info from me and she has never jumped that high!!! I feel this is a huge leap in her interest in agility!!
Here are my videos. I can try soft frisbee next time. I tend to do rollers which is harder with a soft one but not impossible.
I did two sessions with food – used cheese she could see easily and seemed to like. I put the disc session in between the two food session.
First video is the LBG game. I find I cannot be too excited when she is near me or she will just stay near me but I also realize I am not exciting enough when using food rewards…
This is video of the disc game. I started out with two and realized she does not need two to bring back one so went to one. It is hard to handle with it in my hand. Note that she took three jumps on her own after I threw it on the way to retrieve it. That is unusual for her. I think she also knows discs are always thrown ahead unlike other toys that are tugged or tossed (so she does not know the marker words for those two things either). So having something she knows is always tossed ahead seemed to help her focus ahead better.
This is second session with food and I tried to vary what I did with the rewards and did a couple of FF games and some running with her. Tried to be more interesting as part of the reward. It seems harder to rev her up for food compared to the toy. I tried some shadow handling stuff and multiple treats on the floor.
Ok we will video with the disc. Harder for me to manahe because it is clunky but she is much kore excited.
She will eat food and I keep trying different things but she does not light up for food like she doea for toys. Sometimes cheese or liver is good for one session if it is novel. But if I use it too much she drops in enthusiasm for it. In obed and nosework she works harder and faster if she knows toy is available than for food.
I just am finding maintaining that speed in agility is hard even for a toy but will show you with a disc. That is probably her most favorite toy.
She had been better with FF with toy but last 2 sessions she ran 1st one and trotted 2nd one. Now she did get chiro today and needed a bunch due to a fight with her sister so it maybe that but I see her run wild in yard.
She is only doing jumps and tunnels and low contacta. I wanted her to be more excited before adding more thinking like weaves or full contacts. Straight tunnels she ia doing better but she will not offer one.
Really thinking this is so much about her wanting to watch me a lot. So, tunnels take me out of view.
She loves a frisbee and we play Updog which has jumps and tunnels in their diac games and I have used thst to make those more fun. It is the only time ahe has been excited about it. But again she watches me. I have tried hard to teach verbal cue of when I will throw so she does not watch me. My BC and other Aussie look ahead waiting for cue but she does not. Yes she has been BAER tested 🙂
I do a lot of sends to targets and tubs to try to get her to look ahead with mixed results.
She likes carbs so I use King Hawaiin bread for hi value but they are messy. I use crunchy os and other carb treats. Her food repetoire is growing slowly.
Thanks for your help, I am stymied.
Yes I have been using toy with focus forward and doing it with and without jump.
I can do running rewards with her but wondering how much agility handling you think I should do if she is trotting through it?
I have done a few speed circles and toy toss with those. She still watches me a lot.
Really unsure how to get her running on obstacles consistently. She thinks so hard or watches me too carefully.
I will try to video tomorrow so let me know.
Question here… I have been working on the forward focus game and it was goingbwell so I added a jump. I really only do 2 to 3 reps and done. The first time I did it she was happy and fast. Then we did not do it one day and then did it and she trotted. So I stopped and went back to the flat and got her happy and running. Took a day off and played yesterday and she ran once and then trotted. I am trying not to do it daily and mixing in the other training she seems to enjoy.
I can video something tomorrow but not sure what direction to go in.
I saw all the start line stuff and she will run fast toward me on start lines but then the slowness comes when she catches up to me on a course. Anyway I feel like the start is not a big issue for me it is the running with me and building obstacle focus.
I haave done the “lazy bastard” game some with her in the past to try and build value for jumps and could do more of it.
Anyway let me know what direction to go in with all the new info and the loss of speed now on the sends.
Thanks.
Here is video of the Forward Focus with food and toy. It was easier for her to look forward with food than toy. Looking over your response I am wondering when I add in reving up words like the ready ready. She has been introduced to word “go” in other exercises.
First one is with food and second two with toy. I had trouble throwing toy overhand ha ha!
Quick question… does she need to start between my legs? I have been trying to build value of being there for obedience fronts but she will not choose it. So I worry it may cause her to be less focused if I do that.
Thanks.
Here is video of her with stationary toy. It went well until I was talking too loudly amd distracted her from it.
We have done a lot of work with toys and whether she will bring toy back is very emotionally dependent. If she is happy about the work she comes back quickly and if not she hoards it. She loves all toys and I can get her back with 2 toy game easily. What I see in agility that she will have mors reluctance to continue toy play than in obedience or nosework.
She will drive to stationary toy and working on working for it when it is that available.
Tricks
Nose touch to hands
Backing up
Chin
Working on bounce where she nose bumps my fist up high
Working on going between legs but she does not like that pressure.
She loves obedience things like heeling, pivots and sends.Spins are hard for her but working on those.
I am struggling to find tricks that raise energy without touching me. When working she does not want to be touched. When hanging out, she likes it.
Here is video with the calm vs excited food delivery. It is hard to get her excited about food. She prefers carbs over protein so King Hawaiian bread is a favorite but hard to toss because it crumbles.
Here is video of the jackpot. I did one with food and one with toy. I can get more speed with the toy.
Here is the game with the toy. This ia one of her favorite games and we play it often.
Here are 2 speed circle videos one each direction. I did it before your course map was posted. She ia not a huge fan of tunnels so I did it with a 10ft straight tunnel. The 20ft plus spacing is hard for us if I cannot get ahead enough. I understand the reasoning behind it. I have been doing closer spacing to help her look for the next jump and using targeting. She is very handler focused.
