The Spotted Devil

A great weekend away - bombed out on Saturday in the first run (simply too hard) but had a great day placing blinds and on the thrower followed by some good training. Em was firing today - a few blips from both of us but she handled really well and finished her second AA trial. 12 dogs started (very small field plus several scratchings), 8 finished and Em placed 6th. More on the runs when I've unpacked and had a LONG shower :)

I couldn't agree more. I love that owners give their dogs plenty of physical exercise but this must be balanced with mental exercise. I also acknowledge that most of us are time poor so I suggest that owners train in the TV ad breaks and take 10 min at the start and end of the usual walk/run to do some training. You can also throw in some training on the walk itself. We don't have TV reception so, apart from all the agility/retrieving/obedience training I do most days I like to sit on the lounge with a clicker and some treats in one hand and a glass of wine in the other!

I'm at Croydon - but am rarely there on Sundays due to retrieving/agility trials. I take an intermittent Puppy Games class on Thurs nights and generally train Monday nights with the other instructors.

Well OF COURSE I've already told them that!!!!!!!!! That was Week 1 :p

And the son wants to do agility :D I'm hoping they will come to my club and do my Puppy Games course :D :D :D Velvety and dark she was. But more than that she was ALL LEGS AND ANGLES lol. I've never laughed so much at a puppy loose leash walking. She was like a bloody prancing pony!

Yep. Must. Have. Video. Adorable!!!! pie, I had a Manchester Terrier in my last puppy class. SWOOOOOOOON! She was SUCH a little devil to begin with but was my star by the end.

We are more likely to take ours to one of our local pubs for dinner.....often it's on the way home from retrieving training but we also go on camping trips that revolve around eating out at wineries/cafes/breweries etc. I never assume dogs are welcome, always ask first and make sure we camp during "off peak" periods. Sometimes it's freezing cold but we all rug up and enjoy the peace and quiet. Zig is a big sook and has to have a soft bed so that's always factored into the equation and we keep them as low profile as possible because we get a bit tired of people wanting to pat them whilst we are trying to enjoy our meal. Or telling us that their loose dog wandering around amongst the tables is friendly...

I prefer "Oi! Spaniel!" :p

Yes to all of that! Especially the difficult dogs....no one believes me when I tell them that Zig was an absolute @r$e for his first 2 years lol. But wow. What a fantastic teacher he has been and now I am reaping the rewards.

The other club sounds just the ticket! If you train at 2 different clubs just make sure you're consistent with your dog. At the less structured club don't get talked into doing too much too soon - don't make a big deal of it but just quietly do your thing. Sometimes the clash is too much and it's not worth persisting but see how you go.

Rory is a star! Tassie I'm wondering whether it's more that I didn't have a party with her - she is like a shark with food but certainly is a dog who loves praise. More powerful than I realised perhaps.

Ha! I'm making sure I balance contact training with other heavily rewarded stuff so fingers crosses! The thing that amazed me was that the NRM had an effect even though she got the treat.

Lots of single marks this week - I think Em's starting to get her groove back. Little rascal cheated some cover on the way back to me yesterday (very, very tempting) so I stopped and handled her back to where she picked it up (with the dummy in her mouth) and ensured she ran back the correct way...it was like a land version of a "swim by". Today I was short on time so took the dogs to the oval for training and a gallop. Left Em in the car and set up a 3 leg lining drill with 2 dummies each at the far end of the oval and either side. She was super excited and worked really, really well. I took my time lining her for each blind - she did anticipate once or twice - but taking my time is definitely improving her line and she picked up one from each pile without a command. Used the remaining dummies for some handling work and tossed a few distracting dummies around her - just set her up and sent left, right and back as necessary. I'm really trying to take my time before sending, extend the distance from me to her and use signals only for right/left and angle back (as the voice command tends to drive her back hard).

I just had a very enlightening little session....before I took Em retrieving training I spent 5-10 mins with both dogs on the weaves. I started with Em in a sit stay whilst Zig trained then vice versa. Zig is really good so I was just pushing and testing and trying to tempt him out but he only fell for my tricky ways once. Em's weaves are sensational if I am in front of her but, if I'm behind her, her head comes up for the last 2-3 weaves. So I set her up with the 4 end poles only.....started by throwing food but she was still looking up. I improvised and used Zig's jacket as a target mat and let Em see me drop a piece of cheese on it. She did the first pole, then raced flat out to get the food (way too quick for me if I'm behind her) - so of course she ate the food BUT I gave my NRM (in a bright, cheery voice) and repeated the exercise. Even though she had eaten the treat the verbal marker appeared to override it because this time she concentrated really hard and completed the 4 weaves. Once she'd eaten the treat I hand fed her a jackpot. I repeated this, adding 2 extra poles until she was doing 8 with her head down and driving hard all the way to the target mat/treat. If she "cheated" I only had to use my NRM for her to gather herself and fix it the next time around. I never stop learning.

I'd also think about an alternative behaviour not compatible with the barking - for instance lying down on a mat. That's also something you can practice under low distraction.

Try the tablet in a little margarine - slips down much more easily. Give the sausage afterwards as a treat.

He's not cheeky - he's a perfectly normal dog! If you waved the smell of cheese in my face but never gave me any I wouldn't be very impressed either! If your dog works, then he should get paid. It doesn't have to be food but it has to be something - tug, play, going outside etc. If he doesn't value praise and pats in such a distracting environment then you have to find something else. There is no way my Dalmatian would have worked for praise and pats when he was a youngster. He will now but I still use a lot of food because I am always teaching more and more advanced skills. Your class sounds a bit "old school" - do have any other options?

Yes! What pie and Kavik said....RSA we just don't want you making the same mistakes WE did lol

Can I suggest...place a treat in each hand, lure with one hand and reward with the other. After a couple of repetitions lose the treat from your lure hand but continue to lure as if you have the treat and reward from the other. Repeat this over a few training sessions until he is reliable, then add in your drop command, "lure" and reward from other. Soon he will drop on your verbal command and then you can mix up praise and food rewards. There is more to this in terms of timing but it's hard to describe on an iPhone! Feel free to put up some video if you're still having trouble :)

That's lovely AD! You have inspired me!!!

Kavik - re the book...it can be tempting not to do every step but I have thus far (except tugging for Em) and I really think that makes all the difference. DD - the exercises in the book switch between control (flat, board etc) and speed on the board (eg running dog along single board on the ground) and I imagine that is similar to the effects you've had from teaching running.

Zig does 2o/2o with nose touch but Em does drop 2o/2o - it suits her body shape and she offered that. With the book, you can use any type of stopped contact. I would like to teach running contacts but I don't have equipment at home - one day!

I'm following Amanda Shyne's book "Phenomenal Stopped Contacts". Downloaded as an e-book from Clean Run. Nearly 60 steps (!!!), some repeated of course, but I'm really enjoying splitting the behaviours and it's helping to identify weaknesses. I've had Em out of agility for a while now (she's running JDM) as contacts were causing sniffing and Zig is out until I finish retraining - plenty of Masters Jumping courses for them out there in the meantime. Zig didn't often miss his contacts but I hated that he started creeping and I felt I had to babysit.

Elise I feel your pain! Tonight it was Zeus's first night back to training for the year and as soon as he was off lead, he ran off to explore! We're only fairly new to agility training too, we started two months before the Christmas break last year, in which most of the classes were cancelled due to rain. Being part beagle, Zeus is not a tug motivated dog, unlike my terrier so I purchased some tug toys from Aussie Agility in VIC called the Ultimate Jackpot Tugs which have a velcro treat pouch attached to them. The idea is that they help motivate a food orientated dog into tugging -- mine arrived today in time for tonight's class, but I chose to use another type I'd ordered instead (it's made with pieces of rabbit fur). This one didn't work so well because Zeus was more interested in the food. I did find that once Zeus had run off during his first round of obstacles, he seemed to get it out of his system and behaved perfectly off lead from then on. It was like he did his victory lap before completing anything! :laugh: I'm unsure if Zeus behaves for me because he's focussed on me or whether he's just learnt that by doing what I ask gets him food. He does really seem to enjoy agility though in that it gets him into high drive mode and the hardest thing I find is trying to slow him down. The poor boy gets so excited to be jumping over things, running through tunnels and navigating the beam and A frame that he leaves his brain behind. He's just so go, go, go all the time, which is a good thing in the end since agility is also a timed event, but so not helpful when trying to teach him to think first! I do have a question regarding what sort of collars and things to use. Because we're still beginners, we lead our dogs on leash over the dog walk or A frame to encourage them to slow on descent and to not jump off the sides. What I'm finding frustrating is that after completing the walk/frame, we are asked to go over jumps and it's too time consuming to take Zeus off lead and continue to the jumps. I've looked on the Black Dog Gear website and was wondering what people's thoughts on a snub lead or agility/flyball collar are. The snub lead is just a very short lead with a knotted handle so it won't get in the way of jumps and the flyball/agility collar is a flat collar with a handle sewn onto it. I'm thinking by using one of these, I'd be able to steady Zeus on the walk/frame then let him go immediately to head to the jumps rather than futzing around with his lead. I really can't wait until next week because I think it's something Zeus looks forward to also -- he gets time away from Kirah and for the first time in 2 years, it's "all about him" again not "the Kirah show" with Zeus hovering around! RSA - I can't answer your question fully because I never train on leash but I suspect even tabs could get caught up in jumps. I don't think a harness is safe either. Are you teaching your dog an end contact behaviour? The way I prefer to train is NOT to slow your dog down over the contacts but to teach them to race as fast as possible to the end of the contact and wait for you there. It's a surprisingly complex behaviour to teach - you need good instruction - and the dog really needs to understand his job. I am retraining contacts at the moment and am loving the new found confidence and understanding my dogs are developing. It means much more fun for all of us and that is my ultimate aim! Sounds like you are doing a great job of maintaining focus - keep working on tug away from agility so as not to mix the two together until he is a confident tugger. It's a great skill to teach a dog and a wonderful challenge to train a non-tugging dog (my Dally was one!) I use a lot of food also - cheese cubes are sensational (broken in half or quarters) as you can throw them - easily seen on the grass and it gets the reward off your body. Or throw the food filled tug and race your dog to it, play like crazy woman and make him work to get the food out. Have fun!

Lovely to see the newbs in here! I had an awesome time with my 2 at training tonight. Mr TSD came down for half an hour to do restrained recalls through tunnels with Em. Success!!!! A new kind of feral lol. Did a bit with Zig just for the heck of it. Worked them through yet another step or 3 of Phenomenal Stopped Contacts and ran them on a very neat exercise based on box work and a tunnel. Front crosses, back of jumps and tunnel sends - both of them ran it superbly with a stack of speed. Very pleased.