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Hi Charmaine,
Here you go: https://youtu.be/-fDUzBnHmMsHi Charmaine,
🙂
Weaves look great! Just slowly start moving the two closer together. Great work! I am so glad you and Tails took this course! It has been really fun working with you both.Hi Fei,
Thank you for your kind words!!! I am so glad you and Zoe took this course too! It has been a pleasure watching you two do so well and work so hard! Keep up the great results, I know you and Zoe have some fun times ahead of you!!!
On the dogwalk, you can easily backchain yourself. Backchaining has more to do with your starting point. I was just having you use a helper so that she could get used to you being ahead of her. And if you think she is uncomfortable using the opposition reflex, you can just run with her. Video was good, but I think i prefer when you throw the lotus ball than when you are treating the end.
On the weaves, this looks good, but I am wondering why you are so far away from her? When I am working on dogs driving to the poles, I would run to the weaves like there is a $100 bill hanging on a string between the two poles and I want to get it!!! Does that make sense?Hi Kyle,
They were both VERY nice runs. Was your first jumpers run the first run of the day? The second or maybe last? Sometimes it’s just a matter of “fresh and bright” first thing in the morning vs they might be tired. I have also seen some dogs be “worse” on their first run and “more comfortable on the rest.
My thought (based on the video) is you were a little late on that blind cross and she didn’t like it much. I think I would have a plan “b” handy in the event that you can’t make a timely front or blind cross, so you head to plan b with the rear. I think you could have easily done a rear at the tunnel and still made the blind at the jump after the tunnel.
I would look at your daily activity and see how that parallels the activity that happens on a weekend. I have fitness plans for my dogs that involve cardio, balance and strength training. We really want to try to prevent our dogs and ourselves from being weekend warriors.
I think you guys have done a fantastic job in the class and I have seen some ideas work really well for you both!!! I wish you the best of luck and hope to hear from you in the future! Let me know if you have questions!Hi Karen,
Just a heads up, there is a chance I won’t be headed that direction this weekend (2 of my kids are pretty sick). If I am not there, you are welcome to email me your runs and if you can do it day by day, that would be great!Hi Tom,
Thank you for sharing and even more, thank you for taking the class!!! I think you have a great plan moving forward! I myself am going to trial this next weekend for the first time in 2020 and am so excited about FEO and fix and go!!! I am super excited AKC is going to allow competitors to do this!!! Thanks again for taking the class and all the best to you and Cody!Hi Charmaine,
Thank you so much for the feedback!!! I have really enjoyed working with you and tails and I sure hope to meet you both as well someday!
Your run was great!!! Congratulations! Remember, he is a baby dog and some of that stuff is going to happen. I wouldn’t read too much into it. What I am looking for is the recovery, which he recovered really well in both cases (YAY) and you did a great job talking to him and marking behaviors!!! The biggest thing is to roll with it. If my dog stresses and stresses again, I would then find a circle out and leave. I would see what my dog’s mood was on the second course. I could always tell with Jack at the startline what kind of mood he was in. Initially, I would treat each course as if it was the first run of the day. If you bring the previous run’s baggage to the next course, you dog is going to feel that.
You have worked hard and you are a good handler!!! Be patient and understanding of him! I have no doubt that you both will do great!!!Hi Karen,
I like the plan!!!
I think you should let him determine the length of the course. If you do 4 obstacles and they are really fast, then the next run try for 5 and so on. If 6 or 7 go well, try 9, but if he slows down at that point, then cut back. You should not get whistled off, but you will get an E (I believe). With Jack, we just got alphabet soup on our scribe sheet. If all goes well, you can include a contact or a set of weaves, but use the fix and go once and if he does them well (especially the weaves), be ready to run out and reward immediately. I usually give myself 10 dogs on a STD course and 12-14 on a jumpers (meaning at the expo, that’s when I will go get them). I have already done a big warm up and at that point I am doing a mini warm up. That’s a great idea to run him at a lower height! Great plan! Feel free to bounce more ideas off of me when we are there.Hi Fei,
HOLY COW!!!!! 0:44 to 1:00 on the first video was AMAZING!!! She was so fast and you handled that SO well!
To answer your question, YES, that is a great plan!!! And yes, I will mosey onto the forum for the next couple days.
On the second video, I would have rewarded that second aframe because it was a BIG improvement from the first one (it was the best out of the three). I have to say that I really like the fact that you used the aframe in you speed circle. I think it was a really good choice for your dog! I would reinforce contacts every time they are fast!!!Hi Louise,
Thank you for the feedback!!! You guys have worked hard! Yes, of course I would be happy to review the videos. I will check the forum for the next couple days, but I am thinking the trial is next weekend? You can certainly send them to my email! As far as classes, I am a class junkie, so I would say ALL OF THEM, but that would be silly, so I would focus on timing and handling classes. These courses are great for all of us 🙂Hi Christy,
Reward stations were in lesson 2 or 3 I believe. They are great for the dog to see a consistent reinforcement.
Distance handling is great! But, when we want the dog to drive harder to obstacles, we have to drive harder (especially for the more thoughtful dogs). This was in lesson 4.
Running to each obstacle – As we continue to work towards building speed and fun on the course and less stress, I want you to remember to reinforce handling. In your courses, I prefer to see you break down and reward during the drill than try to make it 1-10 perfectly. These drills are relatively easy, so they are meant to build speed and excitement as well as give you the opportunity to handle, then reward, then more handling, then reward.
The next part of this segment requires aggressive handling. For thoughtful dogs, the more conservative we are the more conservative they are! Meaning the effort, you put into your run is going to relate to the effort they put in to the run. There is good dog training and there is good/aggressive handling. Even if you’re not a fast runner (me) you can still handle aggressively. When we were preparing for this year’s EOTT, I was working with an instructor online and in one of the segments, she pointed out that I was walking through the course. She said to me (and I think this will stick with me forever) that while I was demonstrating good dog training, I needed to be a better handler and go in there and show her the obstacles. The exercise she gave me was to go in and touch each of the obstacles. Of course, I couldn’t touch every jump, but I drove to every obstacle and in 4 obstacles, I saved 1.4 seconds!!! That is significant! That could potentially be 5-7 seconds on a course. What I want you to pay attention to is HOW I am moving to each obstacle. Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/nzPUsP3XzlM https://youtu.be/nzPUsP3XzlM
Hope that helps 🙂Hi Christy,
Thank you for submitting video!!!
I am a firm believer that the dog decides on what the reward will be!!!
So looking at your video, the first thing I would like for you to do is to handle more assertively and PLAN. What that means is I would like for you to try to refrain for stopping and sending him places and run with him! Do you see at 0:19 on your first send? He comes off the startline happy, then when you stop to send him he slows down (especially though the 180)? Even though you have a great stay, I would ask him to stay and take maybe one step, then run. I bet he will give you more speed. If he doesn’t, get him to chase you through that sequence. Tire, jump, jump, chase me for food!!!! You run and he chases you.
Then everything goes well until the jump after the tunnel. Here I would go all the way to the exit of the tunnel and then run with him from the exit to the jump. You both are stopping. If this happens, I would break it down and do tunnel, jump, again chase me straight out of it for food. Do this twice, then try the handling on the third time.
On the sequence where he misses the tunnel entrance, I actually think you were cueing the aframe. One handling option to speed him up through there and get the tunnel is to blind before the panel and again after the other panel. I think you have plenty of time and I think this would be a more obvious line for the dog. It is ALWAYS okay to reward an obstacle that you accidently cue (a frame to the 2o2o in this case). Can you see where you cue the a frame? It’s right at 0:45. You never rotated your upper body towards the tunnel to show him the opening. I think you were trying to get down the line, but you have time when he is in the tunnel. We often forget to address tunnel entries and if you treat them (with physical cues) like you would if that was a jump, you could get that tunnel entry. Then when you reset him, I would have done the blind to get him into the tunnel. He is a smart dog and knows the last time he took the a frame there were cookies there 🙂
You also could have blinded the a frame when you asked him to do it for real or did a front cross. He would be a dog that I would work really hard on getting him to chase you. Lots of blinds, but don’t get too far ahead of him. Go deeper into pockets on course so that you don’t find yourself standing still. Reward more often too. Have you worked on the reward stations? Does this make sense? Let me know if you have any questions.Sure! I would love to hear your plan.
So I would use this!!! With dogs that are over thoughtful, I want to use any type of tool that is going to get them a little “crazy”! You will have to play around with the amount and make sure you are rewarding him a lot! You could even take it to the extent of having his whole dinner as a reward for class. If this builds drive and motivation, use it!!! You could even work on this away from agility. Feed him half his dinner, then ask him to do stuff around the house for the other half. Any reinforcement from you is going to build a stronger working relationship and his desire to work for you.
