Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I know you’re offline today but I had a question I didn’t want to forget about. For your CAMP course, do you have to have all the obstacles? Once we have our teeter trained, my next obstacle up is to finish her dogwalk. We were about halfway through training it last year and I just wanted to take a break from it more for myself (because I’m lazy when it comes to contact training LOL). Then this year I didn’t want to do both dogwalk and teeter training at the same time and confuse her. I also don’t have an A frame yet either since I figure that should come pretty quick after the dogwalk anyway. She’s kind of in between on all the things. She doesn’t have contacts (except for almost the teeter) and has trialed about 2-3 times total. She has a lot of skills but she really lacks trial experience because we haven’t had the opportunities.
Lots of rain this week so really didn’t have much of an opportunity for training. Finally able to get a session in today. We added a tunnel for the elevator game.
On Thursday we had a lesson that we did a little more of the elevator game and just some more little drills but I was too lazy to get my camera set up. But she did really well at her lesson. Yesterday we took a break and today I did some warm up with the elevator game. Then added a couple reps from sitting position. And finally a few reps with a wing and speed. She’s definitely trying to figure out how to control herself coming up the board with added speed. She bailed a few times but really wasn’t scared I’d say. More just figuring out the added speed. I was happy with the session because she was building up her confidence. The last rep she jumped off the end of the board with the rebound so quit with that and ran to her toy instead since she’d been thinking so hard during the session.
Although I know you said 1-2 reps of the crazy elevator game, I did push it to three based off how she works. Since she always likes to feel out what the game is if it’s different, she became a little hesitant on the second rep. I did one extra one and ended on that. She seemed pretty confident on that last one.
We’ve actually done the slamming of the teeter (which is much louder than mine) and feeding at our lessons. I really think it’s the movement underneath that she’s not expecting that spooks her because separately, just the noise, doesn’t seem to affect her.
I’ll add some more tunnel bags and then try the crazy elevator game. I think I’m more nervous for the crazy elevator game than she is going to be – I’ll have to practice with my other dog first. If I drop him he won’t care LOL.Hi Tracy,
We’ve been on vacation for the past week in Utah to hike so obviously took a little break from training. Today was our first training day back so we just revisited the elevator game. I added some movement to the end position. She did get a bit spooked with the rebound again but came right back.
Rainy day all day yesterday so here is our session from today. I removed the milk crate and really focused on the mechanics. The treats while she was on the board really helped her forget the extra movement when I held the board. I was definitely missing that step. But I did cut out all the chaos of her trying to get on the board as I was setting myself up LOL. On our last rep which was also the highest, I realized that I had forgot to put tunnel bags on the teeter. There was definitely some whip to the board and I could see she was thinking about it but she really did well. I’ll have to make sure it’s bagged next time.
Here’s the mini elevator game. I wasn’t quite sure if I should actually count down or not so mostly I did not but I think during one rep I did.
Practiced getting onto an elevated board without movement. Then added a tiny bit of tip. It’s kind of a crappy cold day so just stick to rewarding with peanut butter and a ball. She was pretty happy with the ball. So I should just keep adding tip with the elevated board?
The four wheeler is an old thing we use to haul stuff around our yard (max speed probably like 2 mph ha) and she usually follows it around when we have it out. Nothing dangerous. I can try both methods but the logistics of two dogs out might be too much for me. (Station training and loose leash walking have never been high on my training priority list – I’m very impatient LOL).
I have practiced just getting onto the board with no movement but I could definitely revisit it. I used milk crates with no movement so she could at least learn how to hop up on an elevated board. Honestly, the most exciting thing for her is probably herding/chasing the 4-wheeler or herding her brother. She does love her MM too. Food is probably above toys but she will work for the toy. Most toys are pretty equal.
The past few days we just worked building back confidence. We only did the elevator game for one rep about twice a day. Then tonight we went to our lesson. The lesson really helped her build confidence again. We warmed up with a board on a peanut which she loves. Then we started very low on the bang game and gradually increased. Then we moved onto a uphill game with some modifications so we could get more reps without her thinking and LOTS of rewards. On the uphill, when she got to the tip point, the board was pushed down for her. Then we added the manners minder (again a big favorite) to the downhill portion of the teeter. She could get off the teeter whichever way she felt like it, but if she went down the board we rewarded her getting off the board with the MM. That was great because she was exiting the board exactly how she had when she got spooked and she wasn’t thinking about it cause she was so excited about the MM. Although we did work on a lot tonight, she really didn’t seemed worried and seemed very excited to do all the things.
