koalathebear

Maybe critique the last video (day 8)? I'd be grateful of any tips - it's just that that video represents the current situation and supersedes the previous ones Thanks!

Hi Nekhbet, thanks for that. By day 8 they're both retrieving and holding the dumbbell. For some training we crate one of them. For others, the competitiveness is better than food :p

Day 8 of Dumbbell Training with Hoover. Our new hardwood dumbbells arrived today which should be able to resist Hoover's teeth - although he has mostly stopped gnawing. He has finally figured out that he is supposed to retrieve the dumbbell.

Thanks for all the tips. Elbie will go into intense see saw training! :D Last night was a lot of fun but I spent so much time on the dratted see saw that I didn't get to do as much discrimination work as I hoped for! Next week - or we need to buy an agility set :p

We started on the see-saw for the first time tonight. Elbie hated it :p He was the only dog in the class who refused to go on it - all the other dogs were quite happily trotting along without hesitation. We tried practising at home with a plank balancing on top of a small pole on its side - my other dog Hoover who isn't doing agility yet because he just turned one ran up and down it happily, sat on it - didn't care about the noise and the motion. Elbie on the other hand remained very wary of it and wouldn't step on it. Did anyone else's dog start out not liking the see-saw but end up being ok at it? Any tips? He will walk halfway up the seesaw and drop but then he jumps right off of it :p He is fine on all of the other apparatus.

How funny, I met my first South African Boerboel on Sunday. A 'little' puppy starting beginners class at my dog club. She was soooooooooo cute.

This thread makes me sad because I have often thought back to my old family dog Kitt. He was old and one winter, got sick. I was working in Sydney at the time, when I heard he was sick, I flew back to Canberra the next day. I got back at 9.30am and my father met me at the airport and told me that I was too late, the vet had phoned and that Kitt had died just earlier that morning. I was so upset. I went to the vet's where Kitt's body was still lying there and he looked like he was asleep but he was cold to the touch. I felt so guilty/upset that he had died alone that when the vet asked if I wanted him to take care of things, I said yes - not really thinking things through. After that I regretted it - wished I had asked for Kitt to be cremated so that I could bury him. I was so sad to find out that what how the bodies are disposed of. I was even more upset when I got the bill and there was a 'euthanasia' charge on it, given that they had told me that Kit had died naturally. It was such a long time ago but I still cry when I think about the whole time, but as others have pointed out - the 'spirit' of the dog we loved is gone and the best 'memorials' are the happy memories we keep with us - right down the kooky flying nun ears, snoring and goofy ways.

Heh heh that is so funny you should say that! My two kind of boosted the value in the dumbbell up themselves in the sense that they suddenly decided that the dumbbell was the most awesome thing in the world when the other one had it. Both of them keep trying to nudge the other one out of the way to get it I know it's supposed to be put away when you're not using it but I had the dumbbell sitting on my desk and Hoover sat beside my desk staring up at it longingly as if he wanted to do some training. wuffles - of course I don't mind Any insights into the mysterious art of retrieving is most welcome. Hoover has JUST started doing some short-distance retrieve work with the dumbbell - inside only still. The problem is that when he returns to me, he returns crooked and doesn't sit directly in front of me :p I might have to go back to putting the dumbbell directly in front of me

I think so. We had a few bolts/distractions and as mentioned, one dog wandered off and wee'd under a tree and another one pooped after the first jump. To be fair, no one was outright rude. The people who threw their leashes had to do it because their dog was quite jittery and excited so I stood behind and let them toss the leash behind them. In terms of shouting out for the leash, it was only where the dog bolted/was distracted - if someone's dog was running naked, it was hard to grab onto the dog and remove it from the ring fast enough. The judge wanted things moving very fast so it was often faster for me to bring the leash to the dog being withdrawn. What was occasionally hard was that the judge had told me: "As soon as one dog crosses the finishing jump, I want the next competitor already at the start line - don't let them faff around outside. They'll try to tell you they want to wait outside, but I judge quickly so make sure they're at the start line." The thing was occasionally there were competitors who (understandably) didn't want to enter the ring until the second dog was well out of the ring. wuffles - I guess one week if the little fluffies aren't at practice we could put the jump heights up to 500.

You're right on both counts. The plastic one was a little thinner and Hoover definitely did seem to enjoy chomping away on the wooden one, too :p Thank you so much for your tips, they were really helpful, particularly the desensitising them to my hand coming forward. I am using the wooden dumbbell with Elbie since he doesn't mouth/chew and using the plastic one with Hoover. Elbie is five months older than Hoover but it's always odd to see how much quicker he picks things up than Hoover does. Still, Hoover is also smart - there are a bunch of tricks we never taught Hoover, he just picked up himself by watching Elbie - I guess he just has a different way of learning and understanding what his humans want!

True. Also if people pulled out halfway through and bellowed: "Leash!!!" I had to race over to the finish peg and retrieve their leash for them. One person's dog pooped at the first jump so I brought her leash all the way back to the start peg. It was entertaining. Don't worry about 'inconveniencing' people. We have a Japanese Spitz and a little Sheltie in our training class and we always keep the jumps on 300 because of them and I don't think anyone minds! To be honest, I'm not even sure what height my Elbie is supposed to be jumping because he's only ever jumped 300. The thing about the trial was that there were just so many height changes. We had quite a few 300s - just one 200 though - very cute. What's funnier is seeing the table go up and down.

that reminds me - on Saturday I couldn't help wishing everyone had a dog the same height. If I had to summarise my day it consisted of: - walking back and forth between two pegs; and - having leashes handed to/thrown at me; and - constantly running onto the field and lowering and raising heights :D

Thanks for all the tips. If I get too 'duh' or basic with my questions, please let me know and I'll take it off line and chat via PM. With our agility classes, we didn't do much foundation work - basically just got into it on day one and started out on the obstacles which for me is actually good in a way because 'going backwards', I am much better able to understand why certain foundation exercises are relevant/important whereas I might not have that understanding if we'd been taught it in the beginning. As mentioned, even if I don't want to compete, I still want to do things right and know why certain things are done a certain way. A friend is going to lend me a Susan Garrett agility DVD so hopefully that will explain a lot of the more basic stuff to me. The reason I asked about the pausing at the top of the A-frame is that I saw two dogs belonging to a senior agility instructor doing that so assumed it was something that some people elected to do rather than something you didn't want the dog to do. About the 'fast' discussion, I wanted to clarify that "my dog is too fast for me" - I know he's fast, but I doubt he's any faster than any other dog out there. I just have no lungs and have a lot of trouble keeping up with him if I am running alongside him :D The circle/shadow work sounds interesting and something that Elbie would enjoy so I'll try that with him. We already do rear-end awareness training where he does turns with me, left and right pivots but it will be interesting if I can get him to circle around me in both directions. Kavik - thanks for letting me know about the issues re slowing dogs down. It's definitely something for me to ponder. So that Elbie doesn't jump off the scramble or dog walk I have been pausing him and making him 'stand' at the end of the apparatus with two on and two off but I'll have a think about whether that's what I want him to do. As mentioned, I saw some people on Saturday make their dogs go into a drop-stay after the scramble and dog walk so had wondered if that was a good approach. Yes, we have done serpentines - four jumps side by side. Elbie jumps away, then towards, then away then towards. He seems to know what to do based on whether I punch my arm away from me or pull it towards me. Last training, I stood between the table and a jump and was practising sending Elbie away to me to one of the apparatus by just using its name. I have no idea how I will teach him to go in one end of a tunnel though as opposed to another if both tunnel entrances are facing him - on Saturday a lot of dogs faulted because that's what happened - it wasn't clear which end of the tunnel they were supposed to go through. It's interesting to get the views about 'speed'. As to slowing down a Kelpie, Elbie is so eager to please that while I can see he enjoys speed, I think he's equally happy successfully completing tasks regardless of speed. He will run his obstacles and then peek back as if to check that he did ok. Definitely!!! In class, because the obstacles are mostly (not always) laid out in straight lines, it really has been a case of running alongside the dog with some leadouts and some occasional crosses. It was only when I walked a full course that I started to think: "Urgh, if this was Elbie, I'd have to start from here, then I'd have to try to cut across here to try to beat him there to tell him to turn here not there". It was very illuminating - and scary :D Like I mentioned above, it was also interesting just to see the different ways that people 'started' their dogs - standing/sitting/dropping - close to jump #1, far away from jump #1. I also thought it was funny listening to the way people talked to the dogs: "Just shut up and weave damnit!" made me laugh.

Sorry for the confusion, I am definitely not intending to compete yet if at all. I am definitely only a newbie to this. Elbie only learned how to properly weave two weeks ago and we only practise agility once a week during class Right now the only reason we do agility is because Elbie really enjoys it - it's just that watching the trials on the weekend was quite interesting in terms of seeing how different handlers take different approaches to things so I was thinking about how to introduce that into our practice. For instance, some people pull their dogs out of a run after a single fault whereas most others would just let the dog finish even if disqualified. Disqualifications were the norm over a clear round, which was another very interesting thing to observe. At the end of the day, even though it's just for fun - I would like to make sure we do things properly: (1) just because we should; and (2) the option is still there to compete one day if we're ready.

Thanks for that. I guess I'm still not clear in my mind what is most important - speed or doing each apparatus correctly. I know that it needs to be both to be able to qualify but I guess part of me thought that it would be good to make sure to get a clear round in the first instance even if the dog is out of time and then after that teach the dog to speed up - if that makes sense.

Day 7, Hoover has learned to pick the dumbbell off the ground and hold it. Previously he assumed that this meant it was a toy to be gnawed on I won't try throwing it until he picks it up and holds it every time.

Even though I was only able to watch part of the trial yesterday, it was certainly very thought-provoking and OH and I have been discussing ways to handle Elbie during the course. OH was time-keeper so told me that many of the faults related to: - dogs missing a jump i.e. running right past it, especially if the jumps weren't aligned - dogs bypassing the last two weave poles - dogs going in the wrong end of the tunnel Elbie is too fast for me so I have to give myself plenty of lead-time which means: 1. I have to make sure his stays are strong. While his stays are normally very good, in agility he does a hover-sit and looks like he wants to break and hurtle over the first jump so I need to keep working on these. 2. I am concerned at points where the next step is not very clear e.g. jump or tunnel/not clear which end of the tunnel to enter and I'm not there in time to tell him what to do. I am trying to teach him the names of all the apparatus so I can verbally tell him where to go but I definitely need some other techniques. So, for those of you who have very fast dogs who frequently make up their own minds about what to do: 1. Do you start your dog in a sit or a drop? I've always put him in a sit but I'm wondering whether a drop might be better to 'slow him down'. Would it be better to start him back further? 2. I've noticed that some people make their dog pause at the top of the scramble or the dog walk. Is this a good technique to ensure proper contact but also let the handler catch up? 3. I noticed that some handlers make their dogs go into a drop after the dog is off the dog walk or scramble. I'm assuming that this also ensures proper contact because the dog knows it's going to be asked to drop immediately after the apparatus so doesn't hurtle but also lets the handler catch up. 4. Have you taught your dogs to veer left and right so that they know which obstacle to take? If so, how did you do it? Doing front-crosses is very hard for me because it's very rare that after the first lead-out that I can get ahead of my dog, even when he's in the tunnel. The one time I managed to get ahead of me, I ended up almost tripping over him because he caught up. I know the emphasis is on speed and during class when I've told Elbie 'slow' or 'wait', I've frequently been told not to do this because I shouldn't try to slow him down - but if your dog is already quite fast, do you see a problem with slowing it down during the course to make sure the handler has time to give the right guidance? Thanks in advance Apologies in advance if these are dumb questions - I'm still in learning phase, we haven't even learned see-saw yet let alone done a full course.

I want some more treats. *oink oink!* And no, I did not do that to him - that's Hoover pressing his own nose against the desk to form a pig snout.

Wow, wuffles' plastic dumbbell made all the difference - it must be magical! Day 6 and Hoover finally understands he is supposed to hold the dumbbell in his mouth. It has taken him 6 days whereas Elbie took 2 days but he got there in the end. Will try some retrieving next to see if he will bring it back and sit nicely

Thanks all. wuffles gave me a plastic dumbbell which is heaps better - Hoover mouths that much less than the wooden one. Quick question - for the return and sitting before me (same position as the recall), how close should the dog be? Sometimes I've seen the dog's nose almost touching its handler it's that close - I don't think I could ever persuade either of my two to sit that close - they prefer to hover a little at a distance to see what's going on.

You're welcome. Having witnessed the mortification of owners when their dogs do zoomies, I will only start trialling when Elbie stops the zooming ... He definitely has the ability and he's very fast - he just gets a bit excited

You were right that I couldn't see that many runs in detail - my OH was timekeeping so he saw more. I was walking back and forth between the pegs with a leash but I did see some very good runs. What was great was that the judge was totally fine with me walking the course. The novice course wasn't horrific but the Masters and Excellent courses were pretty hair-raising

Thanks for this - Elbie was releasing too early i.e. as soon as my hand approached but as you suggested, tonight I tried tapping on it and doing different things to teach him not to release until I gave the release word. He seems to be getting good at it. We also tried with different objects and he seems fine about that, too. Hoover did a little better tonight. Held it a little longer, a bit less mouthing. I'll keep taking it slow with him.

I attended a trial over at ACTCDC a few weeks ago and saw a gorgeous golden retriever vanish from the field. I think he/she might have gone off to chase some birds, but the dog had a grand time. I loved Teddy because he stayed on the field and clearly intended to continue the course - he just wanted to dance around for a bit first :D

Thanks all, I've been following the Shirley Chong website. I guess the frustrating thing is that Elbie was able to get it in four days but Hoover is clearly going to require a LOT longer. It's definitely no this fault - he is super keen - desperately so and will offer up all sorts of behaviours in an attempt to satisfy me, but I'm clearly not being clear enough in conveying what I want him to do. I am going to have to go back to basics with him and yes - a rubber dumbbell will help a LOT