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Hi Louise,
That was ABSOLUTELY perfect!!! The only thing I want you to do is to do the same thing at the trial. GREAT JOB!!!
I am sad the course is coming to an end, but we are actually looking at teaching a part 2 to this course. I am so glad you have learned so much! Thank you for taking the course and I wish you and Piper all the best. Please keep me updated and I would love to hear how things go at the trial on dirt!In this case, I would lower the aframe and work speed and reinforcement from there. Kind of like we did with the dog walk.
Yes, the idea is to ALWAYS reward ahead of the dog. You can use whatever you want, but I would really try to keep from rewarding from your hand.
Hi Charmaine,
With regards to the aframe contact, the running is better for the shoulder, but you’re right, I think it would be hard to do without regular access to agility equipment. I personally like the method with the mat and I will use a stride regulator at times, but again, I would find it hard to do without the aframe.
The weaves look great! He’s fast and happy and offering them!!! Couple things I would ALWAYS do. One is, never reward the weaves from your hand. This is how we get dogs to pop out of the weaves at #10 or so. You can actually see Tails look at you right at 2:01 as he exits. Because on the agility course, I want the dog to drive forward out of the weaves and not necessarily come to me, I am going to reward forward. The other thing I would do is I would start to reward at the obstacle after the weaves. Like you did in the last one.
Questions?Basically because the further away I got from him the more nervous he got. He lacked confidence to run the course by himself. As I lead out further from him, he lost focus and worried more about his environment. Does that help?
Sure! You can reward and you can add other obstacles. At some point the dog will have a lot of value in obstacles and you will need to go back and build value for you. That is easily done. You can do this by standing near an obstacle and saying her name, if she looks at you reward. If you stand near the obstacle and say that name, she should take the obstacle. As she gets better with this game, you can add distance and also play around with speed (run up to the obstacle and say her name, or run to the obstacle and say the obstacle). BUT SHE HAS TO BE REALLY GOOD AT LBG before you start this. Make sense?
Hi Tatjana,
Very nice runs!!! I thought he looked good!
Regarding the FAST runs, the LBG will help significantly with you sends. With your handling plan, it sounds like with Gamblers, you can come up with good plans?Hi Karen,
If he is not a fan of opposition reflex, I would just work the forward focus part. One game I just thought of with teaching opposition reflex is (assuming he loves dinner time), is put him on a leash around dinner time, set his bowl down and allow him to pull you to his food dish. You might give it a try and see how it goes.
LBG and aggressive handling are two different things. LBG just simply builds value for obstacles. You lazily wander around the course and simply reward the dog for engaging in an obstacle. Aggressive handling is the handler driving to each obstacle with intention.
The two come together because if I build value for the obstacles and I drive to them, the dog will work harder TO each obstacle. Think of it like driving a race car and you can drive with your right hand on the wheel (let’s say this is obstacle value) and your left hand (we will say is hander intent), one or the other would work fine, but the two together is magical!!! You will get around the course with speed and desire. You do not train the two together. Does that make sense?Hi Tatjana,
Glad to hear!!!
OR and FF: this looks good, I would just like for you to look forward too. As soon as you do in the second attempt, he does too. Nice work!
Drills: you made these look easy!!! I will just say that you can use tunnels as a place to allow Max to catch up with you. Look back at 2:43 on the second drill. If you could go in deeper and pick him up, I believe he would enjoy the chase a little more.
What is it about FAST that has been a challenge? I assume it is the send?
Nice work on the standard course!!! Again, I would go a bit deeper into places to race Max out of there for more speed.
I think you sent a T2B course rather than the JWW course?Hi Fei,
It means that I will go closer to jumps (when I could use lateral distance) to set the line so that I am not so far ahead of the dog. Does that make sense?Hi Fei,
1. Because agility always paints a different picture, I want to present as many different pictures as possible. So yes, I want to change the angles of things and such. As long as it is not too technical and we are keeping that speed and motivation up. If you present something to your dog and it is too technical, and they have to think too hard, break it down and make it easier (shorten or backchain the sequence). If I am working on weave poles and the dog is not super fast and motivated, I will somehow make them easier. This depends on how they were trained. If you trained channel weaves the simple solution is to open up the channel. If you used guides wires, you can use those.
2. Yes!
3. That would be fine and great that you are putting safety first!!!Hi Karen,
I watched your video you sent via email and I assume you want feedback on the whole thing rather than just the weaves?
So the first thing I notice (and perhaps you have been working on this) is he is not really engaged with the course when you start. Do you see how he is looking off the the right? He runs with you, but my hope is that you have been working some opposition reflex and forward focus can use those tools at the startine?
On the jump after the dogwalk, you were pretty late in calling him. I would make sure he knows he’s turning before he takes the jump after the dw.
Weaves: I know you have questions here. Do you see how both times you are gravitating to the right? You are also pretty far ahead of him both times. I would tend to stay closer to my dog at a trial if the weaves can be a challenging obstacle.
There was not a whole lot of deceleration on your part (or handling to the obstacle) to the table. At 0:48 your hips are actually parallel to the table rather than pointing to the table. You do rotate shortly after that, but by then it is too late.
There are some places on the course where he has some nice speed. I also know from seeing you guys at local trials, he has sped up since I last saw him!!!
Regarding your questions from above:
Should I plan to treat all our runs as training/practice? Yes, I would for now. I think there is a lot more speed there and until you start seeing it at trials, I would work on speed circles for a bit. Is he different in class than at trials? Meaning, do you get more speed?Do I skip the weaves entirely or see if he will do them? I would adjust your line to support his weaves. Think of it like a line of jumps. If you were on a line of 3 jumps and pulled off at the second jump, where should your baby dog go? Until the dog understands commitment to the obstacle, I would stay with him and support the weaves. Does that make sense? Then you can do a set of weaves on the course here and there. We just don’t want the weaves to become an area of stress for the dog.
If he pops out, should I just keep going? I would say this depends on him. Does he seem stressed? I would give it 1-2 more tries and if he gets all 12 find a line out of the course and reward. If he gets all 12 the first time immediately go to the finish line and reward.
If he gets them right, do I praise and run out to reward? YES
Are 3 runs a day too many? I don’t think so with what you are trying to do. I will watch him at the next trial and give you some feedback there.
Hope that helps! Like I said, I see some good improvement in him!!! Let me know if you have more questions.
