Agility training

[Finkie_Mom]

Originally Posted by Flyinsbt

You love rear crosses, I don't think Kimma does so much. You slow down to get behind her for the cross, so she slows down because you are, and so on. She starts to look a bit confused. She's definitely giving you a good effort!

In class she DEFINITELY doesn't slow down. The only time I noticed a huge slow down here was after her dog walk contact. And we are working on drive after the contacts, as she has none. We were doing running contacts until those went south.

Considering how she used to be in new environments, I'm VERY happy with her progress!

[paws24]

I want to start some agility training for my dog,
hope someone could give me tips
when starting agility training.

[Beanie]

I'm looking at the agility event listing.
Going "Oh, I like that judge... hmm..."

Seriously. I need to stop it. Or just enter knowing it will be a complete waste of my monies.

[Beanie]

Last night I grabbed a toybox, flipped it upside down, and started teaching P a 2o2o. He learned the position quite quickly, but after a few reps, he didn't want to stay still. He kept hopping onto the box, dropping his front feet down, then immediately popping his back legs off. Silly goosey. Staying still is boooooring. (I have video but the laptop isn't appropriate for editing so it will be a while to show it.)

We are also working more on his nose touch which has sort of gone by the wayside.

We also need to teach a restrain... I was thinking the easiest way to do this would be with his harness, but how many times am I going to actually have Payton in his harness? He only wears it when we go hiking, never for agility, and he will certainly never be wearing it in the ring. So maybe I should just try shoving on his chest instead. I'm worried he's going to be like "WTF are you pushing me for?" and just let himself be pushed back rather than responding with his oppositional reflex. This might be interesting.

[SaraB]

Originally Posted by Beanie

We also need to teach a restrain... I was thinking the easiest way to do this would be with his harness, but how many times am I going to actually have Payton in his harness? He only wears it when we go hiking, never for agility, and he will certainly never be wearing it in the ring. So maybe I should just try shoving on his chest instead. I'm worried he's going to be like "WTF are you pushing me for?" and just let himself be pushed back rather than responding with his oppositional reflex. This might be interesting.

I wouldn't start with just pushing him. Get him really amped up with a game of tug, throw that toy out there while you are holding his chest, amp him up more "Are you reeeaaady?!?" and then just let him go while racing him to the toy. Then just time your letting go when he is pushing into your hands more and more.

[Laurelin]

I can hold up Mia's new tug and rev her up then get her to race to it and tug like crazy. It's pretty big deal for her. She is crazy for this bunny fur tug.

[Beanie]

Originally Posted by SaraB

I wouldn't start with just pushing him. Get him really amped up with a game of tug, throw that toy out there while you are holding his chest, amp him up more "Are you reeeaaady?!?" and then just let him go while racing him to the toy. Then just time your letting go when he is pushing into your hands more and more.

That's a good idea. I'm worried he will be like "No way lady, that's a trick" because we've worked a lot on impulse control and NOT getting all tightly wound just because a toy is thrown or dancing around... but it probably won't take TOO much encouraging to get him to burst forward. =P



Worked more on rear crosses in class tonight. I love this baby dog. He is a straight up joy to work with. Everything he does, he is having fun. He makes it easy to have fun WITH him. I almost enjoy working with him as much as I enjoy working with Auggie. Our teamwork together is shaping up quite nicely.

I also took Pepper and, uh, well she is not a joy to work with LOL. I love her but oh my God. She is very... frenetic, and I don't mean that in a good way. I feel bad because I think the expectation is that I SHOULD be training her... but... well, I don't think she particularly enjoys it either honestly. She would rather just run around and derp derp derp than to actually do something. She (might) do it if I ask but isn't doing it because she really wants to.
I really had high hopes for her at one point but as time goes by I'm no longer finding those hopes very realistic - nor am I really that upset by putting them away. I'm really not sure what to do with her. I could possibly get novice titles on her with relative ease, probably open titles too, as long as I was very selective about which judge I showed under (only short women!) but I don't think she will ever be very competitive, nor do I think she will ever particularly love agility... I don't want to force her to be something she's not.

I almost took Auggie with me and Payton instead of Pepper. I love my little guy and I really wanted to take him and play with him. I really miss running with him. I've been thinking of maybe entering him here and there once Payton is competing... what's a JWW run going to hurt? If I pick the right trials it won't even cost me $20 to enter and play with him...
When we move into my house he will get to play in my backyard, but there's not enough room at my parent's house to really cut loose and just play together like I want. If I have time this weekend I might take just him to the training building and play, just the two of us, just for fun.
I don't regret retiring him but I sure do miss running with him.

[DJEtzel]

Found out about a 4 week handling class starting tomorrow night at the training facility north of here. So Recon and I entered and will be carpooling with a chatty acd mix Thursdays now. Pretty excited for a new class and new people; and a lot more challenges.

[AdrianneIsabel]

Backup and I had so much fun in class tonight. He's shaping better than ever, which still means its a struggle lol, and we saw more jump drive and worked on our sit stays which are problematic at the startline.

[Laurelin]

I kind of failed at nationals pics. I didn't bring my camera at all because I didn't want to lug it around and it was pretty dark inside some of the buildings. I also just got my iphone and apparently suck at taking photos. I did get one that was decent:


nationals3v2 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

Zoomed in:


nationalsv3 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

My video quality sucked once I got it on youtube. Don't know why, it looks fine on my phone/computer.