4 Paws Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 (edited) Just started one of my gsd's at agility on wednesday night and I find I'm having a couple of problems already. We attend obedience normally and she's in level 4 which is the trialling class although we won't be trialling but I'm trying to teach her "touch"but she's totally focuced on my face,not worried about the hand and also having trouble working her on the right hand side as she keeps wanting to go to the regular left side She not particuarly food motivated either so when she has done a touch she's not all that excited to get a reward I've taught my other gsd touch previously but she's very food motivated so was easy to get to do it and get the focus off me and onto my hand Any suggestions?? Edited November 21, 2008 by 4 Paws Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlefan Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Just started one of my gsd's at agaility on wednesday night and I find I'm having a couple of problems already.We attend obedience normally and she's in level 4 which is the trialling class although we won't be trialling but I'm trying to teach her "touch"but she's totally focuced on my face,not worried about the hand and also having trouble working her on the right hand side as she keeps wanting to go to the regular left side She not particuarly food motivated either so when she has done a touch she's not all that excited to get a reward Any suggestions?? Yes, be patient. Your dog has to unlearn some behaviour and relearn others. If she's not clicker trained, I'd be making that a priority. How does she feel about non-food rewards eg. a ball or toy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4 Paws Posted November 21, 2008 Author Share Posted November 21, 2008 Just started one of my gsd's at agaility on wednesday night and I find I'm having a couple of problems already.We attend obedience normally and she's in level 4 which is the trialling class although we won't be trialling but I'm trying to teach her "touch"but she's totally focuced on my face,not worried about the hand and also having trouble working her on the right hand side as she keeps wanting to go to the regular left side She not particuarly food motivated either so when she has done a touch she's not all that excited to get a reward Any suggestions?? Yes, be patient. Your dog has to unlearn some behaviour and relearn others. If she's not clicker trained, I'd be making that a priority. How does she feel about non-food rewards eg. a ball or toy? I did start charging the clicker today as she is not clicker trained but have used it with my other girl so will try it again this afternoon She's not toy motivated either,is happy with a pat or a bit of verbal praise.Can be very frustrating training a dog who can take or leave a treat/toy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poodlefan Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 What does turn her on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laffi Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 I agree with PF. Start clicker training It will help heaps for hand touches and such. Btw a hungry dog will be food motivated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 I agree. You could start by feeding her her dinner every day from your right side. If she is responsive to praise, make sure you use a tonne of that as well. Be creative...stand behind her & feed her from each side, throw food to your right side, lure her along with a wall on your left & her on your right etc. It's only been a couple of days, you will probably need to be very patient initially & suddenly things will click into place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laffi Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 I agree.You could start by feeding her her dinner every day from your right side. If she is responsive to praise, make sure you use a tonne of that as well. Be creative...stand behind her & feed her from each side, throw food to your right side, lure her along with a wall on your left & her on your right etc. It's only been a couple of days, you will probably need to be very patient initially & suddenly things will click into place. I only hand feed LOL (totally forgot how important that part is) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4 Paws Posted November 21, 2008 Author Share Posted November 21, 2008 I agree.You could start by feeding her her dinner every day from your right side. If she is responsive to praise, make sure you use a tonne of that as well. Be creative...stand behind her & feed her from each side, throw food to your right side, lure her along with a wall on your left & her on your right etc. It's only been a couple of days, you will probably need to be very patient initially & suddenly things will click into place. I only hand feed LOL (totally forgot how important that part is) I've done TOT with her She just doesn't get excited about anything really.My other 2 (gsd and foxie)are bouncing off the walls when the teats come out but not Kali Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laffi Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 I agree.You could start by feeding her her dinner every day from your right side. If she is responsive to praise, make sure you use a tonne of that as well. Be creative...stand behind her & feed her from each side, throw food to your right side, lure her along with a wall on your left & her on your right etc. It's only been a couple of days, you will probably need to be very patient initially & suddenly things will click into place. I only hand feed LOL (totally forgot how important that part is) I've done TOT with her She just doesn't get excited about anything really.My other 2 (gsd and foxie)are bouncing off the walls when the teats come out but not Kali Maybe too much of control work (like TOT)? I would start baby steps with her. I think clicker will help heaps! My golden can be quite slow sometimes, but then go back to using the clicker and she gets really excited Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4 Paws Posted November 21, 2008 Author Share Posted November 21, 2008 Thanks for the suggestions Will work with the clicker and see how we progress.Unfortuately all 3 of my dogs have progressed really fast with obedience so its hard when we hit something like this that does not come naturally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavik Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Remember too that TOT teaches the dog to focus on your face, great for obedience, but not what you are looking for with agility. What about teaching touch with an external target initially instead of your hand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4 Paws Posted November 21, 2008 Author Share Posted November 21, 2008 Remember too that TOT teaches the dog to focus on your face, great for obedience, but not what you are looking for with agility. What about teaching touch with an external target initially instead of your hand? Yep,I reliase about TOT but did that as was doing obedience and didn't really have intentions of doing agility. Do you think an external target would really help?Any tips on it Kavik? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulesP Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Praise can be a reward! I would be using a target plate if you are wanting to do the 2 on 2 off nose touch stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff'n'Toller Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 (edited) What treats are you using? Does she eat once or twice a day? Is she BARF fed or dry? I am training weaves right now and Geordie has to give me one correct run for his dinner. Perhaps you could do some right sided work in the yard and jackpot with dinner or a cat/dog wet food tray (those little 100gm ones). Sit with the dinner dish and hand feed her for hand targets (Click, food) sits, drops and eventually targetting discs as has been mentioned. Keep going with it, my first 2 dogs were advanced obedience dogs before agility and it just takes a bit longer. Once you start to get agility brain you become very wary of classically conditioning the left side too much. :rolleyes: Practice at home makes all the difference, if you can get a tunnel and a dogwalk or something and just work left and rights you will progress heaps faster. Mel. Edited November 21, 2008 by Staff'n'Toller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RosieFT Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 I have a question that has been raised by this thread (I hope you don't mind me jumping on your thread 4Paws...??), I was thinking of perhaps doing some agility with my foxie once she has matured (she is 8months) and assumed you would have to have a certain level of obedience before you were allowed to do it? I currently do very low level, beginner obedience with her and am sure I would never get anywhere near the amazing level of 4paws dogs! But I never realised this might impact on agility?! I assumed (and you know what they say!), that all agility dogs are super trained obedience dogs too?!? Obviously I am completely new to all of this dog training/agility stuff so sorry if I sound completely stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavik Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 Competition obedience and competition agility focus on different things. You need some obedience to do agility (recall, sit and drop stay) but agility has a lot more distance work and obedience has a lot of close work (until you get to higher levels). Also obedience you work exclusively on the left while in agility you have to work both sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vickie Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 I currently do very low level, beginner obedience with her and am sure I would never get anywhere near the amazing level of 4paws dogs! But I never realised this might impact on agility?! I assumed (and you know what they say!), that all agility dogs are super trained obedience dogs too?!?Obviously I am completely new to all of this dog training/agility stuff so sorry if I sound completely stupid. not stupid at all Rosie. Most clubs require a certain level of obedience before they will let you start agility, so it is a perfectly natural assumption. While many good agility dogs do have a great level of obedience, most are not formally trained in obedience beyond beginner level. There are certainly some, but I would say the majority of very top agility dogs do not have obedience titles and there are very few dogs who have achieved the highest titles in both sports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kavik Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 It would be so much work to get high titles in both obedience and agility! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cramet Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 try the falcon method this might sound mean at first starve for 24hrs first then like the others said ur dogs gota earn his tea reward =some tea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ness Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 There are three dogs who are both Obedience Champs and Agility Champs so it can be done :rolleyes: . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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