Agility training

BostonBanker

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Also, I need to stop clapping my hands to get her attention. She doesn't react to it, and I look like a dancing monkey.
I am going to duct tape my hands together when I run. I *only* clap at trials. I don't ever notice I'm doing it. I watch the videos and want to drown myself.
 

CaliTerp07

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I am going to duct tape my hands together when I run. I *only* clap at trials. I don't ever notice I'm doing it. I watch the videos and want to drown myself.
I'm glad I'm not the only one. Watching all 9 runs in a row made me want to rip my hands off my wrists. STOP IT, KAREN. LUCY DOESN'T CARE.
 

yv0nne

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Penn sometimes has a miserable release from her stay. In that, I actually cannot get her to break it. I can't figure out how to fix it.

Aside from that, here's our almost starters jumpers run this evening in my parents backyard! Thanks, mom, for filming :)
[YOUTUBE]tm_ht0JLYbM[/YOUTUBE]
 

meepitsmeagan

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I have a new appreciation for all the foundation stuff you guys do. Holy crap is it going to be time consuming.

Lucy had her performance eval today... Trainer said she definitely has the intensity to do it, but needs work on confidence. Pretty much needs to be socialized as if she were a puppy. Which is awesome. Considering the fact that I'm working full time and going back to school. I've got all the time in the world. </sarcasm>

I'm going to really crack down on foundation work with her, training at least twice a day (shorter sessions). If in a month we aren't coming along pretty good and are ready for a second private, I'm going to take the sports prospect off of her listing.

Our list: exposure to equipment, mainly tunnels and jumps. 2o2o and lid work. building drive for a treat pouch. jump sends (working up to two jumps). jump work side to side. ladder work for rear end awareness. go all the places for confidence building and focus work. oh, and flatwork and front crosses.
 

SaraB

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Ok guys. Running or stopped?

Here is Zinga's natural striding on the a frame. She has a really nice stopped when I ask her to as well. I tried the Rachel Sander's method with the box and pretty much sucked at it, so that's a no go.

[YOUTUBE]NzMIVynBxU0[/YOUTUBE]
 

AdrianneIsabel

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Ok guys. Running or stopped?

Here is Zinga's natural striding on the a frame. She has a really nice stopped when I ask her to as well. I tried the Rachel Sander's method with the box and pretty much sucked at it, so that's a no go.

[YOUTUBE]NzMIVynBxU0[/YOUTUBE]
Have you thought about throwing the reward where you would like her to land, it will limit the push off and limit the chance of a higher stride hit above the contact, from what I understand.

As for running or stopped, I would go with what you have, it looks good.
 

Sekah

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As for running or stopped, I would go with what you have, it looks good.
You're almost definitely going to see her skipping the yellow as she gets higher/faster if you go this route. She's jumping off, instead of striding like you would want in a running contact.

I think you should really take a moment and decide what you want going forward. Make that decision now, and try your best to maintain your criteria. Being kind of iffy about it won't pay off in the long run with a dog like Zinga (or any dog, really). I think running contacts are awesome, if you have access to the requisite materials, etc. If you can, go for running, but train a stopped contact too for situations where you might need it. I'm not sure which you should train first though....
 

SaraB

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. If you can, go for running, but train a stopped contact too for situations where you might need it. I'm not sure which you should train first though....
That's what I'm thinking and what I have currently. I can call for a stopped or I can just not give that cue and she'll do the running.
 

BostonBanker

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Ok guys. Running or stopped?
The running looks great right now, but I will always do stopped contacts after watching a lot of people work running. I think the amount of reps it takes to get and maintain reliability negates the assumed lower impact. I think you will get bad calls sometimes even if you do it right, and I think with the crazy international type courses that are becoming the norm, a stopped contact is going to be useful. I personally prefer the stop; I can worry about making up the time in other places on course.

But I'm also a little type A and a bit of a control freak ;)
 

Shai

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Our list: exposure to equipment, mainly tunnels and jumps. 2o2o and lid work. building drive for a treat pouch. jump sends (working up to two jumps). jump work side to side. ladder work for rear end awareness. go all the places for confidence building and focus work. oh, and flatwork and front crosses.
Honestly if you're not keeping her and want her to go to a real agility home, I would be careful about which foundations you do.

Socialization and super duper focus and recall and toy drive, confidence going through things like tunnels (collapsed and open), wobble boards, ladders, go to place -- all that is great. I would be more careful about things like jump training, 2o2o, etc. on actual equipment though since if your way of doing it is different than someone else's, they may well think twice before taking her on since they they need to retrain as well as build foundations...a lot more work.

Just my two cents though so take it for what it's worth :)
 

meepitsmeagan

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Honestly if you're not keeping her and want her to go to a real agility home, I would be careful about which foundations you do.

Socialization and super duper focus and recall and toy drive, confidence going through things like tunnels (collapsed and open), wobble boards, ladders, go to place -- all that is great. I would be more careful about things like jump training, 2o2o, etc. on actual equipment though since if your way of doing it is different than someone else's, they may well think twice before taking her on since they they need to retrain as well as build foundations...a lot more work.

Just my two cents though so take it for what it's worth :)
I appreciate it. I don't know if any of it will happen now, honestly. We just had a very serious call about her. Time will tell.

I definitely appreciate all the time each of you who have helped me put into your posts. Thank you.
 

adojrts

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Good luck, hopefully she finds an amazing forever home.

Adding to what Shai said, impulse control, IYC, crate games and building drive with toys and an off switch will benefit anyone that gets her and would be greatly appreciated :)
 

AdrianneIsabel

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You're almost definitely going to see her skipping the yellow as she gets higher/faster if you go this route. She's jumping off, instead of striding like you would want in a running contact.

....
When we taught RCs to our dogs we used stride bars(to encourage an apex clearing) as we did in flyball and we were extremely consistent about reward placement being at the ideal landing spot on the ground.

That being said we just used one RC method with four dogs (one, being B, struggled with striding for life so we switched to 2o2o) and Sloan took to them as if she was born for RCs, a different dog might have different results.
 

Dizzy

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Is it October yet???? Our class starts October, and it's too far away :(

Fred loves the tunnel (we bought a play tunnel, straight in it, no bother, then back in it once he'd gone through, then back again, great fun).

He likes clearing his little jump, although we haven't really done much of that at all, just one go really. He loved it though.

We bought weaves in anticipation, still in their packet as I didn't want to ruin them lol

But we have been working on his toy drive and it's been going GREAT! He's always loved tug, but now he's really getting interested in retrieving and going forward after a ball etc. Which has been a struggle, but it's like something has just clicked this week.

Can. Not. Wait.
 

Finkie_Mom

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Just had my the first private lesson for Jari this morning (I can't make any class times for the instructor I want around here). He did so well. Since I have a decent idea of what to do already, she showed me some more drive building exercises and we did more advanced work with jump standards. He's getting there and of course I'm in no hurry! I'm loving him so far, and my instructor is, too. She thinks he has a lot of potential to be competitive in his height even though he will for sure be jumping 20" (and I know she's not just saying that as she's always very candid with me about life). Now I've just gotta get Kimma back to being her confident, feisty self in all venues and we will be good to go in Finkieland! (I'm thinking and hoping that the heat could be one of the main culprits, though, as her slowness coincided with the temps going up)
 

AdrianneIsabel

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Just had my the first private lesson for Jari this morning (I can't make any class times for the instructor I want around here). He did so well. Since I have a decent idea of what to do already, she showed me some more drive building exercises and we did more advanced work with jump standards. He's getting there and of course I'm in no hurry! I'm loving him so far, and my instructor is, too. She thinks he has a lot of potential to be competitive in his height even though he will for sure be jumping 20" (and I know she's not just saying that as she's always very candid with me about life). Now I've just gotta get Kimma back to being her confident, feisty self in all venues and we will be good to go in Finkieland! (I'm thinking and hoping that the heat could be one of the main culprits, though, as her slowness coincided with the temps going up)
Awesome news!!
 

Finkie_Mom

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Thanks!! I'm just happy that my instructor is all about foundation work and agreed to help me out with my weird schedule. I do think that Kimma and I would have been better off if we had done more drive-building and body awareness work before introducing her to equipment (and also things like recall games BEFORE I had to pull her from everything off leash for 6 months), so it's great to be able to use what I've learned in a puppy. I also love that I know everything that he's been exposed to thus far. He's just such a confident and handler-focused dog and those aspects alone are huge in my book.
 

CaliTerp07

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Just wanted to share a brag video from this weekend :)

This is a "Chances" run (NADAC's distance challenge). This was a tough chances course--only 1 novice dog qualified out of 20-25 who ran it. Lucy was not that dog. :D

For some reason, she refused to take the a-frame at the beginning (I think I turned my shoulder too sharply and called her off), so we NQ'd right away. Maybe that took the pressure off both of us, because she NAILED the rest of the course. It was so cool to see my little doggy doing some serious distance work! 180s, rear crosses, and 20 foot tunnel sends, all behind the line!

[youtube]5NWOO4zJ7TQ[/youtube]

I don't think you can hear it in the video, but as we were running past the last hoop, I literally said, "Holy crap dog, how did you do that!?" The judge laughed at me, and I walked off the course full of smiles at how far my little mystery mutt has come.

The rest of the weekend was filled with some Q's, a lot of NQ's, and tons and tons of moments to be proud of. We got a ton of sets of weaves, some really challenging discriminations, and she had amazing focus the whole weekend. Oh, and once she peed on the course in her open level debut for jumpers. *sigh* Always keeps me on my toes :)

I love my little Lucyfur :)
 

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