Agility Dogs

I had a similar problem with my girl. She decided her number 1 job was to gaurd a tree that I had chased a possum out of. We just couldn't train in the back yard because she was totally focussed on the bloody tree. No amount of correction would solve it so I had to think about the problem a bit deeper. (Who said, 'correction starts where understanding stops'?) In the end we used Vickie's suggestion - VERY simple tasks, inordinately big rewards (even just for sitting and staying) and then put a command on her going to the tree and even more big rewards when she did it. She still runs to the tree, but it doesn't have quite the same value on it and she will do anything I ask in the yard now. hope that helps. Cheers T

Also ADCQ (on the same ADAA website) x2

http://www.adaa.com.au/adaaclubs.htm#nthq Try this........

Jules, by the sound of it I think you need to do more work on her body awareness. Seems you have gone from 1/2 height to full height too quickly and she isn't controlling her body effectively (as you said.) Is it possible to go back to 1/2 height and then SLOWLY (like one link at a time) move to full height?

This has worked wonders in just 3 trials for us! The self rewarding stupidity has stopped and I now have a reliable stop on the contacts (until next time I don't! ). That's nearly exactly what I went through with Trim. For ages I took what she gave me in the ring, even though she had a perfect 2o2o in training. This year I decided zero tolerance. I don't train in the ring, but if she does not hold her position, I remove her & she doesn't get to continue. She has worked this out really fast. It only took a few times & she has been 100% reliable in trials for a few months now. The big bonus is that she no longer has confusion and her contacts are heaps faster than they have ever been. We still have some striding issue to work through but it was the best thing I ever did, for both of us. :D This has worked wonders in just 3 trials for us! The self rewarding stupidity has stopped and I now have a reliable stop on the contacts (until next time I don't! ).