Agility training

[SaraB]

Challenge #1: Proofing Startline Stays.

This is what Zuma and I are working on right now. We did an impulse control class (mostly crate games) that did this.. She is now able to hold her stay while another dog runs past, with me 20 feet in front slapping a toy on the ground. I can throw a toy next to her and she'll stay as well as me waving a toy as I run by her. She is also able to hold her start line stay while the crazy BC's run tunnels and slam teeters as well.

Challenge #2: Pause Table: (can also use a mat if you don't have a table handy).

She's fabulous on a mat, absolutely fabulous. Hits it, slams in to a down and holds it no matter what. We are working on her not sliding off of the table currently and hope to have that proofed before our first AKC trial at the end of March. Once she's on it, she's fabulous, just need her to not slide off of it.

Challenge #3: Distance Skills and Footwork for Distance.

Working on sending to random objects and wrapping them. The toughest for her is watching which side I'm sending her to whether I want her to wrap around the back or the front. She can send up to 20' for the random object. We are working on obdstacle discrimination but she will layer most obstacles now. Last exercise we did included sending to the teeter from the other side of a dog walk/tunnel. She nailed that.

 

[Panzerotti]

^^^ We need video! I'm saving and uploading mine now, stay tuned.

 

[Panzerotti]

I'll start with exercises that don't require any equipment and can be for any level of training/competing

Challenge accepted!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ioTqDFntxQ&feature=youtu.be

We went out and worked on the distance challenge and the stay challenge. We haven't worked on distance at all yet, but I figured I'd give it a go. Overall I think she did pretty good for a pup. We also squeezed some running contacts which went quite well, so next time I'll raise the board again.

 

[Shai]

We went swimming instead lol

I mean...it's swimming! In February! How could we pass that up!?

 

[adojrts]

Challenge #1: Proofing Startline Stays.

This is what Zuma and I are working on right now. We did an impulse control class (mostly crate games) that did this.. She is now able to hold her stay while another dog runs past, with me 20 feet in front slapping a toy on the ground. I can throw a toy next to her and she'll stay as well as me waving a toy as I run by her. She is also able to hold her start line stay while the crazy BC's run tunnels and slam teeters as well.

Challenge #2: Pause Table: (can also use a mat if you don't have a table handy).

She's fabulous on a mat, absolutely fabulous. Hits it, slams in to a down and holds it no matter what. We are working on her not sliding off of the table currently and hope to have that proofed before our first AKC trial at the end of March. Once she's on it, she's fabulous, just need her to not slide off of it.
Challenge #3: Distance Skills and Footwork for Distance.

Working on sending to random objects and wrapping them. The toughest for her is watching which side I'm sending her to whether I want her to wrap around the back or the front. She can send up to 20' for the random object. We are working on obdstacle discrimination but she will layer most obstacles now. Last exercise we did included sending to the teeter from the other side of a dog walk/tunnel. She nailed that.

One exercise that worked with Petie to help him control the 'hit the table at speed and not slide off', was to do recalls with me standing behind the table The bumped it by me sitting, that was much harder for him.

 

[BostonBanker]

Do you (generic y'all) teach your dogs to load straight on the table? Both Meg, and now Gusto, are trained to hit the table and spin to look at me. Both have pretty well established "turn in the air and land in a down" behavior. I love it because it is both fast and it helps eliminate the flying off the far side thing.

Except that one time Meg was way, way too pumped, took off for the table in a flying leap, and forced me to practically scream "LIE DOWN" at her. She went over the entire table without touching it, and landed in a down on the far side with her nubbin going 100 miles a minute. I wish I had it on video, but pretty much my entire group of friends was too busy laughing on the sidelines.

 

[Finkie_Mom]

Ohhhh I wanna play! I just don't have anywhere to go where someone can tape me, though... I will try and get some video working in the yard (so no REAL distance, unfortunately...), but a lot of this would be good for us to work on more anyway

 

[SaraB]

One exercise that worked with Petie to help him control the 'hit the table at speed and not slide off', was to do recalls with me standing behind the table The bumped it by me sitting, that was much harder for him.

I'll try that! My boss also suggested tugging on the table, reward placement and all. Silly me for not thinking of it sooner.

 

[SaraB]

Do you (generic y'all) teach your dogs to load straight on the table? Both Meg, and now Gusto, are trained to hit the table and spin to look at me. Both have pretty well established "turn in the air and land in a down" behavior. I love it because it is both fast and it helps eliminate the flying off the far side thing.

Zoom does the swivel/down in one motion as well... She however has yet to develop those brakes prior to the swivel. LOL

 

[Finkie_Mom]

Finally got around to uploading the Distance Challenge!

Kimma is still getting the hang of a "swivel down" on the table, and obviously here on the mat, she just sort of goes to it, and then goes in to the down. Which is what she currently does on the table most of the time. But she used to have an issue flying off of the table, so now that we've figured that out, I can work more with getting a faster down (it's already automatic).

I probably should have done more to distract her during the startline stay part (throwing treats, letting the other dogs out, etc.), but I wasn't really thinking about it at the time

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDi5kMvxcLQ

 

[Sekah]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to adapt the Bang Game into something I can do at home?

Cohen's teeter isn't nearly where I want it to be - unsurprisingly, since we just sort of threw her at it and hoped for the best. She's my first dog, so what did I know?

I'm currently taking classes with 2 instructors. Under the care of a new instructor I'm trying to re-teach the obstacle. The old instructor focuses more on handling maneuvers. The problem is that I don't have access to a teeter outside of classes, and don't really have the opportunity to do the bang game with my old instructor. So, basically my practice time is limited unless I get creative.

Edit: I should say, the two aspects I need to work on is getting to the 2o/2o position faster and being more comfortable with the tip. The noise doesn't bother her.

 

[Aleron]

If it's at all possible, it would be ideal for you to build a practice teeter (probably not as hard as it sounds ). This website has some pretty easy teeter plans, especially if you just use on length of board for the teeter instead of making it able to be broken down. Click on articles:
http://emrys-corgis.com/

If you can't do that, your home practice options are limited to motion/noise tricks which I'd suggest doing even if you do end up building the teeter. Teach Cohen to push a skateboard with her front feet, close cupboards/drawers/doors with her front feet, shaping 101 things to do with a wobble board (you can make one of these quickly out of a short board and a rolled up towel, the lid of a trash can, a piece of plywood sitting over anything that makes it wobble-y, etc) and anything else you can think of that will make her think making noise+motion=fun times!

At practice, is there is a reason that you can't go a bit early or stay a few minutes late and set up the bang game before/after old instructor's session? I definitely would avoid the teeter in class when not set up for the bang game. I wouldn't expect the old instructor to set up the bang game every time you run in a handling class but I don't understand if she's not open to letting you work on it between classes or during a break.

I retrained Whim's teeter recently - wish I had gotten video! She has always had a somewhat "iffy" teeter indoors. She was trained outside, confident outside but the teeter indoors sounds and feel different so she was never 100% on it. I would encourage her to go over it with speed for a toy and she got better at it but then developed an issue where she would run off before the board hit the ground. We got called in competition for unsafe teeter performance, which cost us our OA title and I decided it was time for a retraining. I did the retraining outside but used a full sized teeter and the bang game (she had learned on an adjustable teeter). For each stage of it, I first practiced with the teeter normally then I changed the way the teeter felt and sounded but putting cookie pans, empty plastic bottles and whatever else I could think of under the board. The retraining went really quickly and within a few weeks, she had a fast and confident teeter performance indoors or out. Now she didn't have a serious teeter issue, she would always willingly perform the teeter - just not always ideally or with the total confidence I'd like to see. If your dog has developed a more serious teeter issue such as avoiding the teeter, being extremely cautious going over it, getting "stuck" at the pivot point, reacting to the teeter even when other dogs perform it, etc I would go much slower with the bang game and add the noise/movement changes very slowly.

 

[Panzerotti]

So I don't know when I can get back to training outside.....we have deep dense snow now and I don't want Pan to injure a leg getting stuck while running.

On the plus side, I was forced to train the (boring!) table. This video is our training today, after only one brief shaping session yesterday. Some of her downs were "creepy", I'm thinking that more speed will come with time and understanding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWvANjSmWQo&feature=youtu.be

We're starting a foundations class next Tuesday. I don't know what to expect. It's been a while since we've been in an indoor real training environment, and she can be reactive. I might have a fool on my hands at first, lol.

 

[SaraB]

If you can't do that, your home practice options are limited to motion/noise tricks which I'd suggest doing even if you do end up building the teeter. Teach Cohen to push a skateboard with her front feet, close cupboards/drawers/doors with her front feet, shaping 101 things to do with a wobble board (you can make one of these quickly out of a short board and a rolled up towel, the lid of a trash can, a piece of plywood sitting over anything that makes it wobble-y, etc) and anything else you can think of that will make her think making noise+motion=fun times!

This! Get him onto anything that moves. Build a wobble board (place a balled up towel under a square piece of wood, teach to push a skateboard around, that sort of thing. Also, if you can get him driving into the 2o2o position on a stationary 12" board, that is very helpful. So even if you can't build a full teeter, at least get a board and practice having him run to the end of it and hold the 2o2o. You can elevate one end higher and higher.

I also like the idea of staying late or coming early to class to work on the teeter alone.

 

[SaraB]

So I don't know when I can get back to training outside.....we have deep dense snow now and I don't want Pan to injure a leg getting stuck while running.

On the plus side, I was forced to train the (boring!) table. This video is our training today, after only one brief shaping session yesterday. Some of her downs were "creepy", I'm thinking that more speed will come with time and understanding.

Looks really good! One thing that has helped when Zuma gets into a vapor lock on the table is to think about reward placement. High dogs tend to go into vapor lock when they are anticipating the release. Try tugging with her on the table after she downs, that way it moves the pressure off of the release and it also moves the reward placement to the table which will add value to it.

 

[Panzerotti]

Looks really good! One thing that has helped when Zuma gets into a vapor lock on the table is to think about reward placement. High dogs tend to go into vapor lock when they are anticipating the release. Try tugging with her on the table after she downs, that way it moves the pressure off of the release and it also moves the reward placement to the table which will add value to it.

I was also considering just adding the down cue a few times since her response to that is usually snappy. Perhaps adding a verbal down and then tugging on the table would quicken it up?

 

[SaraB]

I was also considering just adding the down cue a few times since her response to that is usually snappy. Perhaps adding a verbal down and then tugging on the table would quicken it up?

That's up to you, I like to train the table with an automatic down as you are already doing (one behavior rather than two behaviors chained together). Mostly because I don't want my dog to have to rely on that verbal cue.

Another thing that will help is to play a lot of impulse control games. Basically revving her way up and then asking for a behavior, only rewarding the snappy responses. My fav is to swing a toy around really enticing like and then ask for a down/sit/touch/whatever. Dogs that are prone to vapor lock will hone in on the toy and then either freeze or slowly move in to position. When they do that, I just do a collar grab to reset them, lessing the toy's movement and ask for it again. Eventually building up the distraction until you are getting snappy responses no matter what. This also helps with dogs that tend to get spazzy with other dogs running (AHEM, Zuma).

 

[adojrts]

My wee one Who, I however am not so wee anymore, gotta love meds that pack the weight on!!!

love those weaves!!!

 

[Aleron]

Awww look at Who go!!!

So I don't know when I can get back to training outside.....we have deep dense snow now and I don't want Pan to injure a leg getting stuck while running.

That is for sure!

How are your running contacts going? Savvy is up to a plank on a cement block with two bricks on top of it. So far, so good I'm just working Whim casually on it right now. I'm trying to really tighten up her weaves before our national in April, so that is my big project with her right now.

Eventually I'll have video but we need another hard drive before I can upload any more - this ones all full up with dog videos and pictures!

 

[Panzerotti]

How are your running contacts going? Savvy is up to a plank on a cement block with two bricks on top of it. So far, so good

Cool, can't wait for new vids!

Contacts were going great and I was going to use a plastic milk crate for our next height before our massive blizzard followed by a melt. We're expecting warm weather this week though, so hopefully we can get back out!