Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi! You and Caper looked great in class!
>>On the last exercise, where the wings were all lined up and we pushed and pulled the dogs through them from a distance, does it matter which arm you use to pull them? It seemed like in your video you used the near-side arm (the one close to the wings) but several of the students in the class used their offside arm. What are your thoughts on that?>>
The arm use doesn’t really matter, it was a get ‘er done situation 🙂 so we were doing whatever we needed to do to produce the desired lead changes.
>>I am so glad I asked about jumping Caper. I worried that she might be too young/immature but I have to say the driving force is not so much social media but weather. If we have another winter like this one it really shortens the time I have to train here and I was getting panicky about all that I would like her to be introduced to by the time she is two. Would you recommend waiting until she is 16 – 17 months for introducing her to any contacts or can that start earlier?>>
You can start the foundation work and the plank work for contacts around now, then finish them up when she is between 16 months and 2 years old.
T
Hi!
>> I was so concentrated on calling Wrap ( right shoulder), Tide ( Left Shoulder) that I forgot to call the Exit of a tunnel!
The wrap exit verbals were really strong! Yes, you can add the GO verbal to the tunnel now too. He is doing really well!!
>> I tried with tugging toy, then with ball – got no drive from Charlie. I put Charlie in crate, trained Archie and get the dog I need! >>
That is interesting and a definite puzzle to work out. Was Archie nearby when Charlie didn’t want to play? Or was Charlie alone? Also, was this the first session or had he already ‘worked’? It didn’t look too hot (in terms of the weather) on the first video, but maybe heat was an issue?
We want to teach him to engage and play without needing Archie there, with an eye on trials in the future when Archie can’t be in the ring LOL! But we have plenty of time to figure it out.
So for now, you can definitely alternate Archie then Charline on the games. Then switch it: Charlie then Archie so Charlie doesn’t rely on seeing Archie first.
Will he play with a ball or toys without any agility, and without Archie there? That would be the first step to getting the drive for the toy without Archie running first.
The other thing is you can use whatever he loves when it is just him training by himself (such as food) and then go to the toys when he is more ramped up when Archie is around.
We can balance these things and slowly work them all together so that you have the drive for the toy without needing to first run Archie.
>> This is hard t
game to work with puppies. It was much easier with older trained dog>>I totally agree, this is a HARD game with puppies because the pup is learning the verbals and the commitments, so we really have to be pretty perfect LOL! That is very hard 🙂
You had excellent hustle and did well on the game though!!! Excellent motion and verbals on the exits of the straight tunnels to get the wing! You don’t even need to point with your arm – you can just run like a sprinter and make good connection 🙂
He only had one question where he ended up no the other side of you after a front cross. Make clear connection on the exit of the wrap on the figure 8 wraps so he knows where to be – you don’t need to run quite as fast so you have time to show connection.The 2nd video looks good too! You can see him looking at you a little on the tunnel exit coming towards the camera – that is where you can run like a sprinter (pumping arms, not pointing) so that he can see more of your connection and won’t need to look at you at all. That will help to get him to commit to the wing all the way past the straight tunnel exit.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! The moving target game is going really well!
As we start to get more speed and adding bars –
Do you have bumps or maybe put a pool noodle over the bar so they won’t roll if he steps on them? I don’t want him to twist his wrist.Good job rewarding the stays when you were moving the toy! Yay! It is definitely hard to hold the stay while you lower the toy to the ground and lead out, and he is making HUGE improvements. Good boy!
Remember to do short lead outs – on this first video, you had a really big distance for a baby dog (his set up was far from the jump and the 2 jumps were far apart). So to set him up for success, you can lead out a little less so he doesn’t break the stay, then you can release and move for him to chase the toy.
On the videos, you got lots of good rewards in too! He was breaking the stay when you were trying to get closer to jump 2, so you can release him sooner – no need to do 2 jumps in this set up with this distance yet (more below on how to incorporate the 2 jumps) because the stay is most important and we wan tto set up success.
So to add this to the set point grid: the jumps should be about 6 feet apart with 2 bumps or pool noodle over the bars on the ground. Ask him to sit with his front feet about 6 inches from the first bar, and you lead out maybe 5 feet past bar 2 to start – then release and move the target like you did in the videos here. Ideally, we would like him to ‘bounce’ between the jumps: one hit of the front feet, one hit of the rear feet.
As he gets more experienced, you can lead out further so you are more like 10 feet past jump 2 when you release (and keep mixing in rewards thrown to him, like you did here, that ws great!). That will serve as our foundation setup for jumping games 🙂
Nice work!
TracyThis is the last Wind In Your Hair rep – fabulous! Since these are going so well, a couple of ideas for you:
– definitely add more distance between the wing and the jump, that will be easy for him.– you can change your position more too – you were starting close to the wing on these, so now you do two things slghtly differently:
a) you can start near the jump, send away to the wing, then run and get miles ahead to challenge him to still find the jump instead of chase you
b) you can start near the wing, and stay there til he is finished with the wrap (it will feel weird to stand still LOL!) When he finishes the wrap, then yu can run forward and he will drive way ahead of you.And, now that the skills are getting bigger and faster… try to get onto this turf as much as you can! He is doing really well on this surface, no slipping, so he can reallybuild even more speed and confidence now.
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyThis rep is on the pole side LOL and he was strong here too – this is the easier side because the line you run and the position of the wing makes it easier to see the jump.
This one was a little harder for him because you were running straight past the jump, and the wing was on a slightly different angle: he really had to work to go find the jump because it would have been easier to just run past it. SUPER GOOD BOY!!!
He had a little oopsie at the beginning of this, looked like he got interested in a distraction but then immediately caught himself and came back. SUPER!!! It sounds like it was a busy environment and he was a really good boy!
And then the rep of the game was great too. He is doing really well on all the games here!Wind in your hair – other side – also great even with you having to avoid running into the pole LOL! Great connection and verbals!
Different angle on the set point looking great, and it answers my question from above – you were walking. So as you release and drag the toy, you can try jogging 🙂
The other thing you can add here is to raise bar #2 up by 2 more inches (if it is 8″ here, go to 10″). And when you raise the bar, go back to walking with the toy dragging so we don’t have 2 new things happening at once.
One set point rep – super nice too! Were you walking or running with the toy? If you were walking, you can move up to jogging. If you were jogging, try running! That adds a little motion challenge.
This is a rep of the set point – super nice! To keep track, this is a 6 foot distance, I think, 2nd bar set at 8″? I see more set point reps below, so if they are all strong like this one, then we can raise the bar. See more below!
Hi! This is so cool that you were able to work him on turf, he moves really well on turf!
This is a rep of wind in your hair with the placed toy – perfect! The next step is to add even more distance between the wing and the jump so he can leave you in the dust more, but you might already have that in one of the next videos.
T
