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I am happy to watch your dogs. Everyone else is not sending. Please send to my email
barb12011@comcast.netOne more thing… with my dogs I am adding distance all the time. I had Classy doing 20′ weaves early on in the process. I’ll see if I can find a video and send. Also, I am always looking for DASH, which I explained in the beginning. As the dog understands along you should see speed begin to develop on its own as a result of confidence. Pie, one of the dogs in the Facebook video I pasted, was getting speed with 4 poles. It should come naturally as the dog works through the worksheets. That is why it is so important to not skip steps.
BTW… your questions are great!!!!
I have lost the addendum I mentioned. I’m so sorry but I moved things around when I took away my office to use as my bedroom. I’m still unable to find certain thumb drives.
What I do to add obstacles is put them a distance from the poles so the dog is able to find a stride. For example, Rocket needed a stride and a half to enter the poles when we added a jump. Fly needed only one or a distance of about three feet. If however you are doing focus forward on the poles, you will put the jump at two for small dogs and 3-4 for the larger ones. It’s all related to independent obstacle performance and ability to focus with distractions. One of the other things I did with Fly was to put his favorite toys a foot from the poles and send him with my verbal. He loved the game because he always got a high value reinforcer at the end of each rep.
Also, most of my dogs learned that if there is no reinforcement, they will get an opportunity to repeat and get reinforced. For example, I have used a treat and train for Jack as I cannot run as I did 5 years ago. He has learned that if there is no beep he just tries again. He can handle several non-reinforced reps and work things out in his head. Rocket, one of the dogs in my agility showed us how this works when he “corrected” his non-reinforced reps in class. Lack of reinforcement is not a downer for most dogs in my classes in the later stages of training. It is, however, in the beginning when the dog doesn’t understand the game.
Does this help?
That is a great question and one of the keys to success with this program. Smaller approximations is exactly what I do. And I watch the dog carefully for signs he understands. I’m working with a student and I have her watching her dogs eyes for “focus forward” telling her the dog is actually looking for and at the entry. In fact we have one dog who sets up even looking around the first pole when it is appropriate. The behavior of looking for the entry is what sets you up for success and gives you independent obstacle performance. Does this make sense?
I’m glad you could appreciate the use of lines. My friend and I had two border collies from the same litter and she was my training partner through Masters. We never worried about weave entries, even in Novice. We just looked at where we were to point our feet. Additionally this program allowed us to send from almost anywhere on course. I encourage you to start sending with distance once your dog is clear.
That’s wonderful!!! Be sure to get all the mechanics first. This works really well with dogs that love to retrieve.
I’m sorry about typos. Reinforcement is thrown down the reinforcement line which is set up when the poles are rotated in developing direction of entry.
Hi
Tracy decided to do a “reboot” of this class due to my illness. I’m sorry it’s taking so long but she had me start all over with ONE. Hang in please.
BarbJoyce, as I watch you again I see something else. When you and the dog are moving from 6 to 7 to 8, the dog is on your right. When you are going from 6 to 5 to 4, the dog should be on your left. You are always putting him on your right no matter where you are. If you look at the sheet where you keep track of your correct and non-correct sends, you will see that it tells you where the dog is and where you are. Are you keeping track of those and if so can you send them to me by email. Just take screenshot and send to me.
The cone that I mention is always positioned 6 to 8 feet away from number 12. The dog is always headed in that direction. That is your direction of flow. I don’t see a cone or something that you throw towards.
I hope this is all helping. And I did see that the link to my Facebook page is available. If you have not done so please take a look at Jennifer and Jamie and how their mechanics and throws look
Hi Joyce,
The dog always enters the weaves with his left shoulder between the first and second pole.
Your poles are colored with the first pole being red. Your dog always enters with the red pole on his left.When you two are at 7 with the dog on your right he should go around the red pole and through the the poles that way with you reinforcing down the reinforcement line. I don’t see a cone positioned for you to throw toward. I would suggest that you put one out there. The dog should never go around the blue cone and come through that way. With you two standing at seven or eight or nine, without any movement from you with your body or arms, he should leave your side and go around the red pole and through the poles that way. So the red pole is on his left and the blue pole is on his right. I am seeing a lot of body and arm motion on your part. I know you are trying to help him but he has to learn to find the entry on his own. Also are your toes facing the red pole when you send him and not moving until he goes? It’s hard to see sometimes. That is an integral part of the program and you can see it on the video of my students. Particularly Jamie, I had her stand with her yellow lab and make sure she demonstrated where her toes were pointing. This is really important because it lines up your toes and your shoulders with the first pole.When the dog is at 5 or 4 or three and is on your left, he should still go through the two poles with the red pole on his left and the blue pole on his right and then head down toward the cone for reinforcement. In order for the program to succeed the dog has to find the entry without any assistance from you. That’s what developing the direction was all about.
Am I helping you with this?
Hi Joyce
I had an entire response for you and lost it. I have to go to work but will respond when i get home later today.Hi Joyce,
I was watching the video of both of your dogs. I have a couple of observations. In week one there is an article entitled determining the direction of entry. I didn’t see that video where you taught the dogs by rotating the poles. I did mention in either Sunday or yesterday’s comments that that’s the first thing you have to do. The dog should offer the behavior of entering the poles on his or her own. And then you begin to rotate the poles so that eventually the dog is going into the two poles correctly. The videos that I watched from most of the group did not have that there. Most people were starting with around-the-clock I believe. I don’t do that with my dogs until I have completed developing the entry. Also what I observed with your older dog was that he was not released to go into the poles but was taken by the collar and sent.In order for our dogs to learn to have fun with this they must offer the behavior. If they are pushed or sent they are often offended by this. If you go back to week one determining the direction of entry, that is where you must start. Also I don’t move on to the next behavior until the dog is clear about the previous one. Please note the pictures of my student Stephanie and her many Aussie. You can see she starts with the dog on her right and moves the poles as seen in the pictures. There are also some YouTube videos that should still be available.
I believe you started with around-the-clock before you completed the one I have been talking about
Does this help
