Training Talk Thread

[pie]

I'm lucky I have access to equipment on another training night that I don't have to wait in a queue to use Well unless amypie is hogging it (kidding )

The Rubystar dog to Amypie dog ratio is currently 2:1 which means you hog more :D

I still reckon no ramps at all for a few weeks/ a month then try again slowly, backchaining it.

She doesn't seem too bothered going down the ramp, it's the going up it that freaks her out. Sometimes it would be nice if they could talk hey, or at least understand what we tell them

[NZVizsla]

Hi Ptolemly

I definitely need to get this right. He's either going to be a Service Dog or a Competition dog.

My big problem is that I can't do lots of walking around the house holding his collar whilst he holds the dumbell.

Sp I sort of thought this could be a good way to go! I think I'll use a bumper for back-end awareness, and just use the dumbell for retrieves and presents.

Another quick question..

He's taking,holding, presenting well. But he still needs a lot of convincing to pick it off from the floor.

His mind kind of freezes.. and until I pick it up an 1" or 2" higher, he will resist it in a very passive (bordering on pathetic!) kind of way.

Any tips??

[RubyStar]

Yep I am going to give her a break from it I think... which means no class. But that doesn't bother me, I get more done on a Thursday night anyway. The only thing I don't have is an experienced instructor to help me with my crappy handling skills But you're getting good at giving tips Amy, you can be my mentor

I will continue dog walk with Millie, though, you saw how keen she was to fly over it And her 2o2o is coming along nicer than Ruby's at the moment! Maybe Ruby is only cut out to be a jumping dog Which is a pretty funny concept considering she sucks at jumping unless she has a huge runup

Edited May 21, 2010 by RubyStar

[Ptolomy]

I'm lucky I have access to equipment on another training night that I don't have to wait in a queue to use Well unless amypie is hogging it (kidding )

The Rubystar dog to Amypie dog ratio is currently 2:1 which means you hog more :D

I still reckon no ramps at all for a few weeks/ a month then try again slowly, backchaining it.

She doesn't seem too bothered going down the ramp, it's the going up it that freaks her out. Sometimes it would be nice if they could talk hey, or at least understand what we tell them

I wonder if I took her and tried whether I would get the same result - or whether she would be her normal bouncy self and would get over it quicker. I guess I am asking if you are perhaps part of the problem :D

[RubyStar]

While I am getting frustrated and anxious and playing a part in solving the problem, I don't think she would go over it with a change of handler, as much fun as she thinks you are!

Amy tried last night and couldn't get her to go up it either, we just managed to get her to jump onto the end of it and come downwards.

But hey, you are very welcome to try, you know I never say no to getting help!

[pie]

Yep I did try her with different food, running around and playing like a loon in between But you may have a better fun factor Ptolomy I'm not all that exciting to dogs :

[RubyStar]

Yep I did try her with different food, running around and playing like a loon in between But you may have a better fun factor Ptolomy I'm not all that exciting to dogs :

She was keen to heel for you though! She was in perfect heel position and looking up at you while you were trying to get her to go up! I guess she fell back on what she knows to avoid the torturous dogwalk

[Ptolomy]

Have you tried lowering the ramp? - so putting the up end on the table so its less of an incline?

[Ptolomy]

Hi Ptolemly

I think I'll use a bumper for back-end awareness, and just use the dumbell for retrieves and presents.

Another quick question..

He's taking,holding, presenting well. But he still needs a lot of convincing to pick it off from the floor.

His mind kind of freezes.. and until I pick it up an 1" or 2" higher, he will resist it in a very passive (bordering on pathetic!) kind of way.

Any tips??

A bumper is a good idea

How did you teach the retrieve or specifically the pick up and is it only the dumbbell he is hesitant on? If you were to throw the bumper and tell him to get it would he do the same thing? Does your hand being on the dumbbell have anything to do with the problem do you think?

[RubyStar]

Yep. She was getting this, then uncertainty crept in again, made her lose her footing slightly, then she crapped herself for the zillionth time

I'm probably going to leave it for a bit, then introduce it again slightly. I have no idea if this uncertaintly has been transferred to the A-Frame, too. No doubt it would have!

[JulesP]

I reckon she is doing what Brock does RubyStar - waiting for the tilt. The down bit has already tilted in their heads so that doesn't bother them as much. Brock currently has a 'thing' about wooden bridges. He crouches down low and spreads his toes out. I find it totally hilarious I am afraid. Bad mummy! As a mate pointed out I have a high wooden veranda at home that he is fine with.

[Mas1981]

I dont know if horses are the same as dogs but sometimes when you leave it the fear escalates...... If she were my horse ( lol) I think I would try a different approach to try get her to do it sooner rather than later but thats just my opinion and you know your own dog. Wish Mason could have some of Ruby's caution as he goes hell for leather at anything and isnt at all cautious with things which scares me......

[RubyStar]

No, you don't want Ruby's caution if you don't want to spend ages overcoming a fear Training issues I can deal with, fears are something else.

Millie looks like she needs to wear a superwoman cape going over the dogwalk/A-Frame But so far if I don't run with her, she stops in the middle of the dogwalk waiting for me to catch up

Thanks for the horse tip, not sure what to do but I'm thinking of just leaving it so I don't keep stressing her out, I don't want her to shut down on me altogether just so I can get her to do a dog walk. Agility is the least of my priorities with her! She's such a happy and enthusiastic dog to train that I'd hate to lose that!!!

[J...]

Yep. She was getting this, then uncertainty crept in again, made her lose her footing slightly, then she crapped herself for the zillionth time

I'm probably going to leave it for a bit, then introduce it again slightly. I have no idea if this uncertaintly has been transferred to the A-Frame, too. No doubt it would have!

I wonder if breaking it down into tiny tiny pieces & making it different would help?

I started my youngster on a travel plank and we've done heaps of work on that with her 2o2o with a nose touch.

Next I shoved a small step under one end and got her happy and confident with "side-loading" and then when she was comfy with that I starting asking to jump onto the step end run down into the contact. From there I increased the height of the step and repeated.

Part of the game has also been teaching her to walk backwards onto the plank and along the plank on the ground. Same thing with the step underneath.

From then she was confident enough to start backing her into 2o2o position of a standard dog walk and offering a nose touch. Then we did some side-loading slowly at first and then faster. Finally we did some backing up the contact and she can do that as well.

At no stage has she been across a full sized dogwalk yet. She's been asked to jump up onto the top section of a short dog walk and turn left and right with me on either side so I know she's fully comfortable with that dog walk, it's width and turning both ways. She is totally confident where her feet are.

She's not been over a seesaw either but has had plenty of reinforcement for the bang game. I'll teach her the full dog walk first (she doesn't need the seesaw til excellent anyway) and then add the seesaw only when she is 110% confident of the dog walk.

[RubyStar]

Next I shoved a small step under one end and got her happy and confident with "side-loading"

What is side-loading?

Part of the game has also been teaching her to walk backwards onto the plank and along the plank on the ground. Same thing with the step underneath.

At no stage has she been across a full sized dogwalk yet. She's been asked to jump up onto the top section of a short dog walk and turn left and right with me on either side so I know she's fully comfortable with that dog walk, it's width and turning both ways. She is totally confident where her feet are.

Great idea with the walking backwards and turning

She's not been over a seesaw either but has had plenty of reinforcement for the bang game. I'll teach her the full dog walk first (she doesn't need the seesaw til excellent anyway) and then add the seesaw only when she is 110% confident of the dog walk.

Well I never thought we'd be doing the seesaw in class yet because of the fact seesaw isn't introduced until Excellent and we're not even in the trialling nor pre-trialling Novice class yet! Just in Elementary. The dogs are not 100% confident on the dogwalk yet either. I regret putting her over the seesaw so soon.

She is being rewarded for jumping all over both ends and has even tried jumping up onto the top plank of the baby dogwalk, so she can clearly see it won't tip! But now I think it's not a tipping issue, because she had this fear before. The seesaw caused her to freak a bit and yes I think it was transferred to the dogwalk, so now she has just lost confidence in the dogwalk altogether because I think she feels like she is going to step off the edge. I'm concerned because this fear was already in her, and she hasn't overcome it like I first thought.

[Guest RosieFT]

*puts hand up* Here goes an admission of stupidity.

Around the house etc. Rosie has a release word of 'okay'. ie. sitting and waiting for food, waiting to go through doors/gate etc. released with an okay.

When starting agility were told to choose a release word not usually used in every day. After trying with one word very briefly as i felt really stupid (quiet amy... LOL), i switched to 'go'.

So i set her up for a course/jump line or whatever, and say "go" to start her. Great brilliant. Practiced with her having to wait while i threw a ball and then released her to fetch it with 'go'. where previously i had said "okay'.

Well, i realised that i am mixing up my release words so am using both. argh.

I always release from a sit/wait cue to start a course or jump with go... but find myself using "okay" after she has stopped at a 2o2o on a contact..... it just comes out of my mouth as the more natural cue as i use it in everyday as a release word.

So now i have a dog with 2 release cues.

What should i do now?????

thanks, i should add that yes, i am a complete gumby and my dog is very tolerant!

[J...]

Side loading is jumping onto the travel plank from the side, which turns into being able to do the same thing on a down ramp on a dog walk later on. Once they have a heap of value for 2o2o position you can start them off really low and work your way up.

Zee will jump onto the side of the dog walk now from about mid thigh height - she's not going any higher until she's older

It's a similar principle to the "extreme bang game" in Speedoggies You tube - google it, it's amazing. They know exactly where their feet need to be.

How much agility rear end stuff have you done - obviously you have for obedience turns, what about ladder work, jump bars on the ground - can she walk backwards, forwards over things on the ground like that? Walk down steps one foot/step at a time, walk backwards up a set of steps?

The other thing is stair work for your 2o2o - get her used to using her bum end muscles to hold her position and build up her strength. Darcy's get worked all the time yet I still have to give her a few sessions for obedience because they seem to be different.

Wobble boards and dura discs are great for strength and getting them used to stuff that does move.

[Tiggy]

*puts hand up* Here goes an admission of stupidity.

Around the house etc. Rosie has a release word of 'okay'. ie. sitting and waiting for food, waiting to go through doors/gate etc. released with an okay.

When starting agility were told to choose a release word not usually used in every day. After trying with one word very briefly as i felt really stupid (quiet amy... LOL), i switched to 'go'.

So i set her up for a course/jump line or whatever, and say "go" to start her. Great brilliant. Practiced with her having to wait while i threw a ball and then released her to fetch it with 'go'. where previously i had said "okay'.

Well, i realised that i am mixing up my release words so am using both. argh.

I always release from a sit/wait cue to start a course or jump with go... but find myself using "okay" after she has stopped at a 2o2o on a contact..... it just comes out of my mouth as the more natural cue as i use it in everyday as a release word.

So now i have a dog with 2 release cues.

What should i do now?????

thanks, i should add that yes, i am a complete gumby and my dog is very tolerant!

I chose break as my release word as I use okay all the time and I use go on or go for going ahead of me. The only thing I had to change was my wait to a stay as wait and break sound very similar and I definitely don't want them two confused .

[pie]

Side loading is jumping onto the travel plank from the side, which turns into being able to do the same thing on a down ramp on a dog walk later on. Once they have a heap of value for 2o2o position you can start them off really low and work your way up.

Yep I making her do this on the baby dogwalk and she did it fine.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

release words

Maybe you want to "do weave" instead of "go weave"?

I use "weave weave" and some times "in, out, in..." but I'm such a gumby I often use them back to front.

I use "go" for "go play" release

Maybe "play" or "playtime" would work for one of the releases.

And some people use "free"

It does take some practice to say the right thing at the right time. My current gumby act is waving both arms when I run, instead of making a steady guide with one and tying the other to my waist or something.