Agility training

[Aleron]

Originally Posted by AdrianneIsabel

I stay in shape just handling my 45-65 lb dogs but I am not so secretly jealous of little dogs you can easily swoop up and not strain your back.

Ahhh I do want an itty bitty someday...

Savvy is a pretty good size but he's rather violent when he tugs, so it's still not easy LOL

Originally Posted by SaraB

Oh Aleron, how easily do you forget. I had two Danes who would dual tug. Beat that.

:O

[Aleron]

Went out to the training club last night and Savvy got to do the full sized, long dogwalk for the first time ever. He did great, only one miss (although a pretty impressive one LOL). This video shows all tries:

http://youtu.be/koMLpO1CkAw

I am really thrilled with his progress on the dogwalk. I realize now that I probably could've moved quicker than I did but I think it was beneficial to not be in a hurry, especially since this was my first time teaching it. I really don't think I can ever go back to stopped contacts LOL

[Laurelin]

My dogs ****ing rock. That's all.

Sorry lol. I just have so much fun working with them in agility. Had some good progress today.

1. Mia worked for a bit very very nicely for her ball. It's a big step for her. She's either too distracted or too amped up by the ball. I was very happy.

2. Summer... is still hard to reel in a little. No matter the work I put in around here and at the park 'come' does not work very well for agility class. Other people still trump me.

3. Mia's left 'weave' (still a channel right now) entries are no bueno.

4. Summer is creative and always trying to find shortcuts to everything. Like jumping onto the tall end of the teeter to get to the cookies faster.

5. Summer crated herself in two other dogs' kennels today.

6. Summer jumped out of my arms at one point. I caught her. Thankfully. It didn't seem to phase her that she flailed and ended up upside down.

One question. My class is using channels just because they're easier for the class setting. I have 2x2s. Haven't started any work with them yet. Do you think this is a problem to do both?

[Flyinsbt]

My Pirate kicked butt in agility league last week. Well, in the game he did. In Standard, he was better than he's been. Only headed off to "Pirate's corner" once, and came back pretty quick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2p5EvudY3k

In the game (2nd run) he was super focused! I think I now have figured out why he only Q's in one class at a time. First he only Q'd in Standard, then we moved to Open Standard, and he only Q'd in JWW for a long time. Now he'll be in Exc JWW, I bet he starts Q'ing in Standard. I think he's only good in his 2nd run of the day.
Someday he'll have 2 good runs in him.

[JacksonsMom]

I guess I can join in on this thread now!

We're in our advanced/beginner class with Jackson, and I really love this trainer. The last class we went to was more just for fun, really, so it's nice to be working on things correctly. Jackson always amazes me ... it's ME who really needs work. I am SO bad at directing him the correct way, so we've been working at home on our front crosses. I never really learned all the terminology and the basics, so of course everything is my fault. Jackson is perfect when he has a handler who actually gets it right lol.

We worked on introducing him to the teeter yesterday, that was one piece of equipment we never worked on. I was a little worried he might be a bit noise sensitive to the banging of it, so we let him watch all the other dogs first and every time it banged, he got a treat. He flinched a bit the first two times and then went on to ignore the noise! So that was a plus. Then we slowly let him go on it, and he did great, he kept trying to go up higher though and do the whole thing LOL, I had to block him with my hand with a treat in it.

We worked on a jump sequence and he did great, I did bad *shakes head* ... I get too frazzled worrying about which direction am I going in, and I over-think it, so then he gets confused. But the last run we got it RIGHT and sure it was a bit messy, lol, but we did it.

I'm so in love with my dog. I appreciate him so much more even while in this class. A few of the other dogs just have SOOO much energy that they don't even know what to do with it, and I think it's great, but the lack of focus is something I'm not used to. Jackson is so incredibly focused on me and in such a 'training zone' when we're there, he's ready for anything and always watching out for me and what I'm doing next. He gets sooo excited when we're about to do something, but very controlled and he's focused on what we're going to do next.

Oh and stays. We worked a lot on stays last class because he had a tendency to come to do something before I released him. So I worked on having him stay behind the jump and then me walking back to him to reward him for staying. He got 90% better within that one class, so I think he realizes what I want now.

Overall I'm very proud of him. I'm still learning a whole lot, but I really want to continue on with it. I think he has a lot of potential and if I can fix myself, we will be great! lol

[AdrianneIsabel]

I'm having an awful time finding classes here that start and have space any time before next march. :|

I think this Sunday I'll pull my weaves out of the storage unit and start working on Sloans entrances, I have 4 jumps and a a set up weaves. I need to work with B, any suggestions where to find some exercises with this combination for a silly boy who needs a lot of collection, jumping style, and <insert here>.

[AdrianneIsabel]

Originally Posted by Aleron

Savvy is a pretty good size but he's rather violent when he tugs, so it's still not easy LOL



:O

Oh, the tugging isn't the killer for me as much as the picking the dogs up. Backup is a complimentary tugger, bounces and pulls for fun, lots of drive but not cruel like Sloan. That little wench is in it to win it or die trying, I hate tugging with her, she's so violent. LOL

[Panzerotti]

Originally Posted by JacksonsMom

Jackson always amazes me ... it's ME who really needs work. I am SO bad at directing him the correct way, so we've been working at home on our front crosses. I never really learned all the terminology and the basics, so of course everything is my fault. Jackson is perfect when he has a handler who actually gets it right lol.

It sounds like you've been practicing at home, which is great, but even practice crosses on your own, without Jackson. Learning the crosses is like learning any other skill (dance moves, etc) and practice will pay off!

I teach an intro to handling course and I see this all the time. Great teams, but the handler gets frazzled and things quickly fall apart. Don't be scared to break every sequence up into manageable pieces. We split things apart to make learning easier for our dogs, so do the same for you.

Also, we'd like to see video of the cute guy in action.

[Flyinsbt]

Originally Posted by AdrianneIsabel

Oh, the tugging isn't the killer for me as much as the picking the dogs up. Backup is a complimentary tugger, bounces and pulls for fun, lots of drive but not cruel like Sloan. That little wench is in it to win it or die trying, I hate tugging with her, she's so violent. LOL

My friend's BC is like that. You'd think I'd be used to hard tuggers, with the Staffords. They can tug hard, but they aren't as violent about it as the BC.

[Laurelin]

I'm going to bring a camera next week. We'll see how much I let you guys see. We're still doing baby stuffs mostly.