Agility training

Laurelin

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Well day 1 over. Mia got 1st and Q in gamblers and then the other runs (summer gamblers and jumpers and Mia jumpers) went horribly. In jumpers they were both lolly gagging and totally not into it. No idea what the deal was with them. Hopefully tomorrow goes better.

No idea at all.
 

DJEtzel

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Three first place Qs for my baby dog so far! Two clean, one bar knocked in wildcard. Hoping for a perfect day, but I'm very proud of my little red dog!!
 

yv0nne

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It won't let me edit my post ..so here's proof of my weaving Vizsla :D
I am SO proud. I was probably the worst at training weaves ever because I got bored halfway through& after 2x2 method for the first 6 poles, I said screw it& started adding them closed. Penn's smart. She caught on.

[YOUTUBE]v7ODf6zgVRQ[/YOUTUBE]
 

Laurelin

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Well today went to hell and a handbasket too. To be fair, Summer's gamblers run went well but we missed the gamble. It was really hard and a lot of very experienced teams missed it. I ended up crossing the line and she got it. She ran out of steam on jumpers which seems to be the case often when it comes to runs on day 2 in the afternoon. She was never running 100% this weekend to begin with and was kinda slow. It sucks though to see proof that yes, Summer is getting older though.

Mia has two meltdowns today. Outside of the ring? Happy happy and all excited about doing tricks then in the ring she shut down.

Ugh. Oh well I guess. I'm really bummed but trying not to be. They're dogs after all and just being dogs. Hopefully we can make agility fun for Mia again.

I really realize though that I want another dog and I can't get one until I move.
 

yv0nne

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I know your pain about shutting down in the ring/ on equipment. Penn does it in stressful situations :( It sucks! It's been a struggle but we're making huge strides with some simple tips& tricks if you want them?
 

Laurelin

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I know your pain about shutting down in the ring/ on equipment. Penn does it in stressful situations :( It sucks! It's been a struggle but we're making huge strides with some simple tips& tricks if you want them?
Of course! I'd love to hear tips!
 

yv0nne

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So, pretty much I started making agility FUN& took out my anxiety of needing perfection. Instead of focusing on handling/ complex courses, take your dogs favorite obstacles (Penn's are tunnels& A-frames) and build a course where they can zoom over/ through those frequently. So, I have access to 4 tunnels consistently so I've started building tunnel courses with just a few random jumps in them. I get her zooming through then toss a reward often. It looks crazy but her speed is really starting to pick up from it. It looks like tunnel, tunnel, jump, tunnel, reward. I vary my reward rate. Sometimes I ask for 1 obstacle then reward& sometimes 10.

Also, I've stopped making up an actual course& am just winging it because my issues were getting cranky when we went off-course. Not having a course means it's impossible to mess up the order!

Next, this helped THE MOST and you don't need equipment for it. I started building my motivators into things that could come into the ring with me. Penn is a funny dog ..she's easily motivated for 10 seconds then needs a new motivator. It became so that I was using 100 toys for one training session (okay ..a slight exaggeration but still) and that's insane. I had tugs, balls, stuffies, food (at least 3 kinds), frisbees, etc.

I ditched all that for building my own motivators. I made the ball a motivation by having her run after the ball to bring it back ..the faster she went to get it& brought it back, the higher value treat she got. She will now chase a ball like crazy because she knows she gets a good reward for bringing it back. This is huge if your dog isn't super toy driven. It works off the food drive but they learn to associate chasing& retrieving the ball with food!
We also built spinning in as a fun factor. If your dog has a trick they love, use it! Penn gets spun before AND after a reward so that the spinning can be used in place of a reward. So, we finish a sequence. I ask for a spin, reward& ask for another spin. Same with hand touches& weaving through my legs. We started with adding in absolutely no equipment, just building those us up high, high in value& then using them in conjunction with the equipment. She's learned equipment must fun ..you spin, take a piece of gear, spin again, get a reward& get more spinning! It's been a slow process but in the month since we've seen Jess Martin, we've improved about 70%.

Sorry for the novel ..hope some of it can apply to your situation. Shutting down around gear/ on course sucks. It's my biggest fear for Penn never making it to a trial. We're getting there but somedays I feel like just saying screw it& getting my herder NOW instead of in 2+ years. I just try to remember every mistake I make with Penn, I can prevent with my next dog. And every bit of training tips I learn now, I'll have for my next dog. Still ..some days.
 

Finkie_Mom

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That's Kimma issue, too. Shutting down. It stinks. It's the reason why we're taking a break. Those tips are great, yv0nne! I think I've gotten away from things like rewarding often enough during classes/training. Something I need to start doing before we try trialing again.

We are signed up for privates with a new instructor (I think we need a new set of eyes, plus my old instructor doesn't have time for new privates) this week. I'm going to split the hour between Kimma and Jari (YAY Jari will be in class!!!). Hoping it will work out for us. The instructor we are going to start with is at the place I teach (so it's familiar to Kimma) and she sort of "specializes" in helping with motivation/stress issues. I can't wait :)
 
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Newest Video of the girls! This was Abby's first "official" session since our 2-3 month break due to health issues and what can I say she was quite happy to do some training. We will hopefully be starting our classes up again as soon as soccer season ends(2 more weeks!) and we've got our next trial planned! Granted I can go the girls and I will be doing our first "road trip" and attending a new years USDAA trial. So excited, but staying in a hotel with these two nut bars will be rather interesting I'm sure

[YOUTUBE]yguaoInWHTE[/YOUTUBE]
 

PWCorgi

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The problem is all the obvious words are already being used for other stupid tricks. "Bottoms up" is handstand and "feet" is put your feet on my feet. I really like "Stick it" though! Thank you! Only concern is it might sound too much like sit?
 

Upendi&Mina

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The problem is all the obvious words are already being used for other stupid tricks. "Bottoms up" is handstand and "feet" is put your feet on my feet. I really like "Stick it" though! Thank you! Only concern is it might sound too much like sit?
I'll be watching this with interest because we're starting contacts and I'm
having the same dilemma. I have no idea what to name it.
 

Finkie_Mom

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The problem is all the obvious words are already being used for other stupid tricks. "Bottoms up" is handstand and "feet" is put your feet on my feet. I really like "Stick it" though! Thank you! Only concern is it might sound too much like sit?
I'm thinking that in context she will know what you mean.
 

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