Agility training

BostonBanker

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What do you guys think of having different contact requirements for A-frame, dog walk & teeter?
I've seen people train them very clearly without any issues; I choose to use 2o2o for both the dog walk and a-frame, but do a 4-on for the teeter. I think if you are clear from the start in what you want, it is entirely reasonable to train different behaviors for each.

Also, when practicing -- what jump height do you use? Below, at or higher than they'd jump at trials?
Below or at, generally. I know so many people who are super paranoid and will never jump there dogs anything but their exact height (lots of fun when you have 20" AKC people and 22" USDAA people training together). I expect my dogs to pay attention to the jump and have no issue jumping them at different heights. Both my dogs trial at 16" in all venues; I usually will train at 16", but since I train with a lot of 12" dogs, I'm not above just leaving the jumps there if I'm the only bigger dog. By the same token, Gusto has jumped 18" a bit lately with people trying out the new USDAA heights (although I am planning to keep him in 16" performance).
 

PWCorgi

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I don't often post in this thread, mainly because we're doing all the baby stuff that I assume people here would be bored with hearing about, but I did have a little mini-brag tonight that I wanted to share.

Tonight was the first night that our instructor had Siri and I do actual handling sequences, previous to this we just did one cone working exercise at a time, stuff like that. Today we put some front-crosses together with some running around, all mini-course like :p

When she was setting it up my instructor told me we would take it slow, and that it would probably cause Siri's brain to fall out. Well...NOPE! She NAILED it! Didn't put a foot out of line, even once, and just full on SPEED! My instructor was really impressed at how hard she digs in around cones, even when we are doing many cones in between a reward. And the best part was that I felt so in sync with her. I feel like so much of our time is spent with choppy training and me working to keep her focus. Tonight it was flawless for this exercise, and it just felt so awesome. And my instructor called her a rockstar :D

I'm kind of on cloud 9 :banana:
 

Shai

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I don't often post in this thread, mainly because we're doing all the baby stuff that I assume people here would be bored with hearing about, but I did have a little mini-brag tonight that I wanted to share.

Tonight was the first night that our instructor had Siri and I do actual handling sequences, previous to this we just did one cone working exercise at a time, stuff like that. Today we put some front-crosses together with some running around, all mini-course like :p

When she was setting it up my instructor told me we would take it slow, and that it would probably cause Siri's brain to fall out. Well...NOPE! She NAILED it! Didn't put a foot out of line, even once, and just full on SPEED! My instructor was really impressed at how hard she digs in around cones, even when we are doing many cones in between a reward. And the best part was that I felt so in sync with her. I feel like so much of our time is spent with choppy training and me working to keep her focus. Tonight it was flawless for this exercise, and it just felt so awesome. And my instructor called her a rockstar :D

I'm kind of on cloud 9 :banana:
Wooo hoooo Siri!

And I for one love hearing about the "baby stuff"!
 

DenoLo

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Awesome job Siri!! I love hearing about that stuff too.

Lola and I had a pretty nice week. Our instructor thought it would be good for us to learn blind crosses-- Lola hesitated for just a moment and then it was just like she said "Oh OK you want me to go this way, weird but I got it". After a couple practice tries, we did two of them in a little mini sequence. (After we had already run it with front crosses). Cool to see how much it actually sped her up.
 

SpringerLover

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I don't often post in this thread, mainly because we're doing all the baby stuff that I assume people here would be bored with hearing about, but I did have a little mini-brag tonight that I wanted to share.

Tonight was the first night that our instructor had Siri and I do actual handling sequences, previous to this we just did one cone working exercise at a time, stuff like that. Today we put some front-crosses together with some running around, all mini-course like :p

When she was setting it up my instructor told me we would take it slow, and that it would probably cause Siri's brain to fall out. Well...NOPE! She NAILED it! Didn't put a foot out of line, even once, and just full on SPEED! My instructor was really impressed at how hard she digs in around cones, even when we are doing many cones in between a reward. And the best part was that I felt so in sync with her. I feel like so much of our time is spent with choppy training and me working to keep her focus. Tonight it was flawless for this exercise, and it just felt so awesome. And my instructor called her a rockstar :D

I'm kind of on cloud 9 :banana:
YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! Yay for braining Siri!
 

Elrohwen

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I don't often post in this thread, mainly because we're doing all the baby stuff that I assume people here would be bored with hearing about, but I did have a little mini-brag tonight that I wanted to share.

Tonight was the first night that our instructor had Siri and I do actual handling sequences, previous to this we just did one cone working exercise at a time, stuff like that. Today we put some front-crosses together with some running around, all mini-course like :p

When she was setting it up my instructor told me we would take it slow, and that it would probably cause Siri's brain to fall out. Well...NOPE! She NAILED it! Didn't put a foot out of line, even once, and just full on SPEED! My instructor was really impressed at how hard she digs in around cones, even when we are doing many cones in between a reward. And the best part was that I felt so in sync with her. I feel like so much of our time is spent with choppy training and me working to keep her focus. Tonight it was flawless for this exercise, and it just felt so awesome. And my instructor called her a rockstar :D

I'm kind of on cloud 9 :banana:
That's awesome! As someone also doing the baby stuff, I totally know how you feel. It's amazing when everything clicks.
 

Elrohwen

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We had our second class last night and it was a mixed bag. When we arrived Watson saw two cats running around the property, and managed to flush one out from under a car (I didn't realize it was under there). His brain pretty much fell out of his ears and he was so wild after that. I don't think I've ever seen him so jacked up about small furry things and I think it was a combination of being excited about being at a class, and then seeing the cats, and he exploded.

The good news is that he was actually able to focus when I needed him to, though he spent the down time lunging around randomly looking for the cats :headdesk: I think being high as a kite has actually helped him be really confident about equipment, since I was expecting him to be slightly spooky about somethings. We restrained them and had them drive to the teeter and put both front feet on. If they were driving there, the instructor lifted it up about an inch so they would push it down. Watson was pulling so hard that I could barely hold him back with one hand, and was just slamming into the teeter with his feet. If I didn't keep holding him back he would've run up it. Definitely not something I thought he would be so confident about, so that was awesome.

Oh, and he tried to mark in the building more than 3 times, and even tried to poop once. He was so excited about the cats outside that he wouldn't go to the bathroom, but as soon as we went back inside he was like "Oh wait a sec, I really have to go now". He's so ridiculous.
 

SaraB

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YAY Siri!!! Baby-dog agility stuff is my FAVORITE to train. If I could just train foundation stuff over and over again, I'd be happy.

For the questions about different contact requirements, as long as you are crystal clear on your criteria, you will be fine! Also, I train at my dog's trial jump height mostly because we jump at 16" and that's easy for my dogs to do. If they were jumping at 20" in trials, I would probably lower it during drill work to make it easier so that we could get more reps in.
 

DJEtzel

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That's awesome progress for Siri! Congrats on having an awesome baby dog! :)

As for contact criteria, I agree with everyone else. Be consistent and differences shouldn't be a problem. I train 2o2o with Recon on the A Frame and DW, but a running contact on the Teeter because he's still shy around it and I don't think he will every power over it and run off the end. He gets to the end and waits very patiently on his own. XD Frag runs all of his contacts and I'm going to have Sir 2o2o everything

We jump anywhere from 12" to 20" during training, because sometimes I don't want to go set all the bars again and Recon has no care what they're at- he doesn't drop bars. We trialed at 16" but will be trialing at 20".

Frag has to jump at 20" or higher, or he will get compacent and start knocking bars when we get back to 20". Some dogs need the consistency or will regularly knock bars like him, and some don't!
 

PWCorgi

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Thanks for the comments everyone :D

And I don't dislike what we are doing now, but I feel like posting things like "we did a rear cross!" and "she nailed our 2o2o exercise!" can only be posted so many times :p

Maybe if I can ever get video it'll be more motivation to post, lol.
 

Elrohwen

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Thanks for the comments everyone :D

And I don't dislike what we are doing now, but I feel like posting things like "we did a rear cross!" and "she nailed our 2o2o exercise!" can only be posted so many times :p

Maybe if I can ever get video it'll be more motivation to post, lol.
Keep posting! I need someone to talk to about the baby stuff. I'm really curious to see how other instructors train the basics, since I only have experience with one facility and one trainer right now.
 

DenoLo

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I for one am super impressed with anybody that can do a rear cross LOL. I've pretty much given up on those.

We train at the same height we trial at, 8 inches. She can jump 12, but it doesn't look nearly as effortless as 8 so we do performance and train at 8.
 

DJEtzel

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I for one am super impressed with anybody that can do a rear cross LOL. I've pretty much given up on those.

We train at the same height we trial at, 8 inches. She can jump 12, but it doesn't look nearly as effortless as 8 so we do performance and train at 8.
LOL it's fronts for me. I don't know why I have so much trouble!

I could do rears all day, though. My co-workers have started setting up drills for me that ONLY require front crosses so that I'm forced to work on them. XD
 

Dizzy

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SUNDAY!!!!! Is our first lesson!! OMG been a long time coming.....

So excited. Hope we aren't too embarrassing :/
 

yv0nne

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Go Siri go :) And I post about all Penn's things ..most of which are 'hey, we sucked AGAIN!" ahahah

Speaking of ..tomorrow we pack up& head off to Seminar #2 with Jess Martin. Wish us luck. I hope all the hard work I've put in shows :/
 

Dizzy

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We just had our first lesson FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!! Loved it :D Fred was great. Was literally working on wait and GO! Can't wait for our next lesson!!!!!
 

krissy

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Don't often get agility videos since the only place we get to work with much equipment is at class. But here was class today. Sequence is: single jump into a pinwheel, blind cross to 2 angled jumps (without the blind cross this would have been a serpentine).

Super happy with the baby dog. Distraction is a major issue, but the Agility U course we are taking right now has been great. I think it's showing!

[YOUTUBE]eYx7GXWqROA[/YOUTUBE]
 

BostonBanker

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Super happy with the baby dog. Distraction is a major issue, but the Agility U course we are taking right now has been great. I think it's showing!
Yay! She is so cute - and huge! I always forget how tall greyhounds are.

Are you doing the "Building Focus" class? I almost signed up for it with Gusto, but had just finished the Agility Fix-It class, where Focus and Drive were our issues, so I figured I had most of the exercises already.
 

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