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Got it!
Here is my plan for this coming weekend. It will be Zing’s first indoor trial. I will be training in the ring the whole trial with her.
I will get there early, walk through the building, play the game outside in the grass. Then maybe again under the bleachers (not around dogs). I believe I can switch to engagement just with a toy after that.
Sounds good?Tracy
So, we have worked through a couple of steps of the game. One problem that I have is that Zing does not stare into my soul like Hoot and I find that I am trained that touching the soul means her eyes are on me LOL. So, I need to learn Zing’s eyes a bit better.
In this clip we worked entering the agility field. Typically she sits at the gate, I open it, release her and she does her huge outrun. Soooo, this training was huge. I cut the first couple of minutes, but she entered calmly and it took maybe 15 seconds to engage.
The other thought I had while watching the video is, should I train Zing to really fight for engagement. She does love engagement, but if it doesn’t involve direct play, she doesn’t actively seek just eye contact. Thoughts?
OK, another question. I am working my way through all the material.
I am in the process of deciding what Joe’s verbals will be and I think I also need to change one of Zing’s. I think it got poisoned some how.
“Tunnel Threadle Verbal (Kiss Kiss Kiss) This verbal tells the dog to take the ‘non-obvious’
tunnel entry that is not on his line (the one closer to you). It is used in tunnel
discriminations”When do you teach this? Also, what is the quick primer on how to teach this. Is it really always the end closest to you? I drew something that I think of as a bi-pass, but I can’t figure out how to attach an image. Is there a way?
Ops, one more question prefaced by I do love this game!
If you take this into the trial environment, how do you keep the dog free of other dogs? I am going to be the funnest game in town and probably have 20 other dogs playing along. This will make Zing very sad LOL.
This is a super engaging game and I would love a version I can play while waiting our turn to run. Throw a toy with food in it? Just really looking for ideas.
Tracy
OK, we are back in town for a bit. I worked step 1 & 2 with all three dogs (Hoot, Zing and Joe) this morning. Zing and Joe were the best LOL. I need another word other than “Get it” I think. I use that as permission to grab their toy. And “find it” for finding their toy. Can I use “find it”?
I am posting with Zing. She is fairly good at working through distractions at this level, but I want to find the point at which she breaks. Might only be with stimuli that is like a trial, we will see.
I worked a pacing game very much like this using cavaletti’s with Joe. I had in distractions making sure he can still place his feet well. Works other stuff as well.
Anyhow, let me know what you think. If the mechanics look good I will go on.
OK, questions of course 🙂
Yes, in the first two I had a target loaded with food. I try to be fairly religious with this since the teeter was such a project. After that, no food. So, when you are saying she didn’t know where the reinforcement was coming from, are you referring to the ball? Or that I was mixing food and ball and that made it unclear?
I don’t think I know about the rebound game so if you have a video that would be great. I do agree that when she knows where the ball is she is more intent to hold the teeter down. When it is in a sequence or even the few trial runs we have done she does hold it down. She has a strong preference of wanting to do a 4 on. My original intent was to teach that but when the chaos began plans changed. If I can come up with a plan of attack I might do that later.
On to sequences!
Perfect, thanks for the feedback on the weaves. I will open the poles slightly and follow your suggestions. Let’s see what we get!
Here is Zing’s teeter. This is the crown jewel of all of my training with her. When she began she went CRAZY on the teeter, biting, spinning, etc…So after coming back from my panic attack, I decided to train her teeter, not on a teeter. I will now use that with all my dogs I loved it so much. Zing did not get back on a teeter until she was 16 months old, still had to address the going crazy, but we had tools by then. This is what I have today. I am in the process of doing teeter tours. Also, she doesn’t bite the teeter in the ring–score! The last 2 clips are just cause it is HUGE for her to sit beside a teeter, watch the motion, listen to the sound and stay in a control position.
This dog is making me a better trainer. 🙂
Let me know where you think we go from here.
Mary
Great feedback. In general what I am noticing is that my timing sucks 🙂 I am about a year into learning my left and rights, turns out it is a harder skill than I thought. I do rehearse them but I need to work that process more.
“don’t give a forward cue until the head is turned to the line”. So I have lots of questions on this one. When entering a tunnel and I want an extension exit (straight), it is OK to give the cue because essentially she is pointing in the correct direction. Correct? On the RC, if I get the head turned and then say go (my brain processing slower than hers) and I setting her up for waiting for my commands (ie, slower)?
As the dog gets older and begins to read your mind can you ease up on this “rule”?
Another question came to mind. Is it better to go back and both of us get good at this course? Or should I keep setting up similar stuff and keep learning that way? Obviously, if something stands out as a deficit in a learned skill I need to simplify and teach it.
She will be 15 months.
HaHa, I haven’t seen her in too many trial environments either LOL. She is a Covid baby. But, when I was trialing in June in ID she was a hot mess watching other dogs on the course. Her bubble of calmness was probably 40 feet. But she has been to many agility fields to practice.
But, to her credit she has matured a lot in the last two months. Today she could actually sit on the field and watch while I ran Hoot on 9 obstacles (two tunnels included). She did great. Also, we have begun to see her head come together in a calmer fashion while herding. I have to constantly expose her to new things and then she is confident. If we take a break she will startle some.
But, was thinking, if she does well ring side and can still “work” only then would I take her to the startline to play. Or do you think this is too much?
Tracy, I worked the ending of this sequence today, I will post that.
Quick question, I am signed up for an outdoor AKC trail at the beginning of Oct. Do you think there is value in entering Zing in a couple of runs. It would be FEO since her contacts nor weave are even close to finished. So I would work startlines and perhaps a couple of jumps or tunnels.. Curious how you look at stuff like that.
Tracy
OK, the list is getting closer. In the meantime I decided to run today. ‘Cause you know, you have to do benchmarks to see if things are getting better LOL.
I broke down some of Novice 3 for Zing. I did the start several different ways. She is such a baby I wanted her to see it all. The other thing that I am realizing is that I need to adjust my “goals”. Hard for me to run Hoot with the goal of clean and then run Zing with the goal of teaching and feedback. I need to do a better job and take what ever she gives me as info. In a class like this I tend to want to do “all the things” and do them well.
Also, on the video you can tell that weaves are her favorite off course obstacle this week 🙂
Mary
HaHa, I was just getting ready to set that up and saw #11. I am thinking “well that is a good snooker skill for the dogs to have” LOL
I love it, let’s “Plan”!
I guess I was thinking about Novice skills vs International skills just to help me prioritize a bit. Probably teach all the stuff now, but sweat the super duper proofing later? For instance, does she need to have seen how to take the jump while I stay on the other side of the DW? Probably not.
Stay on your line, she is fairly good at, but that needs to be worked way more soon. Not sure she gets it like Hoot gets it!
2020, we will make it through and 2021 will be better!
1. I have considered putting up a pool. I know how much work they are (growing up in FL), but I will probably suck it up and get ‘er done.
2. Yes I know Leslie, she use to live here in CO. Interesting idea, is it $100 per dog? Zing is the one that I have my eye on right now. Her structure is a tad straight so I want to make sure we have her built to support all of that.Re: training. Walking is fine as long as I don’t over do it (like hiking with lots of up). I am still averaging about 12K steps per day so I have plenty of walking steps to work with for agility. Also, I am still training a RDW as well. Right now, over doing it is running a Tamas course twice. But I need to pay attention to this because once competition starts, doing a UKI 2 day trial might suck a bit. And my goal is still to go to Europe (not on a team) and run.
Love the idea of the skills list. This is gonna be SUPER hard for me the obsessor. Perhaps 2 lists, what I need to get out of novice/open and what I really love my dogs to have?
Tracy
I figured I would touch base to let you know what is going on. I got brave and went to the Dr about my foot. Diagnosis, severe degenerative arthritis in the MTP joint because the year 2020 was not challenging enough. So after I laughed at them when they said to stop agility forever or just walk fast with my dog around the course, we are figuring out how to make this work.
We are trying to put together a comprehensive program that keeps me and the dogs in shape
and let’s me run agility. Basically, general exercise for aerobic purposes will be on my bike (no swimming cause of Covid), I am still figuring out how to keep the dog’s generally fit. And so that I can run for agility, we are building up my feet, ankles, and hips to support the toe. Also, going to a sport podiatrist to get a gait analysis and special orthotics.All of this to say, I only have so many sprinting steps on my foot each week so I must use them wisely.
I will be back at the courses soon, but also have to be very judicious. Suggestions are most welcome.
Mary
