Training Talk Thread

[pie]

The bottom oval is looking a bit sad at the moment! Hope they fix the drainage soon.

[RallyValley]

The bottom oval is looking a bit sad at the moment! Hope they fix the drainage soon.

I have black glitter gumboots ;) (Off topic what are we all doing up so late )

[pie]

No it's not muddy, there is a big fenced off section with sand in it which is right in the way ;) Some of the agility classes were all moved around tonight because of it.

You probably already know this but I'm pretty sure you'll have to be a SR member and pay lights money for insurance purposes. Did you become a member when you registered for the Rally seminar? I know a few people that did because it was the same price to become a member than it was to just pay for the seminar.

I don't know why I am up, I should be in bed

[RallyValley]

No it's not muddy, there is a big fenced off section with sand in it which is right in the way ;) Some of the agility classes were all moved around tonight because of it.

You probably already know this but I'm pretty sure you'll have to be a SR member and pay lights money for insurance purposes. Did you become a member when you registered for the Rally seminar? I know a few people that did because it was the same price to become a member than it was to just pay for the seminar.

I don't know why I am up, I should be in bed

Yeah I spoke to SR about membership + lights, also asked permission if they are doing Rally ect. I should be in bed too, damn full time work! :p But it let me do my clean run order. I got a duck thingy, 2010 AKC nationals DVD, 2 whistles for retrieving training and that book about training puppies for agility even though I don't have a pup and don't plan on getting one anytime soon, I just knew I would be mad with myself if I wanted it later andit wasn't free postage.

[pie]

So their free postage works on you too, mwahahaha.

[RubyStar]

valley, you ordered what I wanted to! Haven't done it yet, my bank account is looking very, very sad. Renovating houses is no fun at all ;) What colour whistle did you get? I was going to order 2 of the purple ones

And as Amy said, there is a massive roped off section of the bottom oval, so even being the only one training on my own on Monday, I couldn't even fit next to the rings they set up But there might be room up in the back corner behind the "social agility" class to do some rally stuff. If I could work Millie out of a crate, I would consider heading up there myself. But I need to work out of my car having both girls so it doesn't work for me :p Stupid drainage taking all the space!!! And the top oval is already sooo squished up. New enrolments I guess happened last night and it was just chaos. There was a dog fight up there, sounded and looked quite horrible There is hardly any room to move up there and being mostly beginners, they don't keep their dogs close to them. I had one guy from the social agility group bring his dog up to Millie who was tethered in front of my car, to "say hello". I had to ask (tell!) him to get his dog away as mine is not that friendly!!!

[RubyStar]

I'm up still cos I didn't get home from training tonight until about 10pm. Need time to unwind before bed, even though I'm dead tired!

[RallyValley]

Yes free postage works on me I got two blue whistles (my dogs are boys) ;). That sucks how full the oval is :p I am off to bed now, even though I want to stay up all night watching series 5 of How I Met Your Mother.

I will probably only take the one dog that will happily work out of a crate. The issue will be space I think.

[RubyStar]

OMG the CR free shipping list has dropped from a gazillion things to only 14 things!! Lucky the 3 things I want are still there. Maybe I will do my order afterall :p

Order made, another step towards being in debt ;) Got the focused puppy book, doggles toss-n-tug ball, 2 whistles, and I also bought the reflective leg bands included in the free shipping, thought they'd be useful for night time walking when I start ET training Must give my credit card to someone else for safe keeping! But not giving it to any of you other CR addicts

Edited July 20, 2010 by RubyStar

[bedazzledx2]

No leash if I can help it. When I'm at public places or when its a matter of safety I try to have it as loose and unobtrusive as possible. I hate training with a leash as it gets in the way but its sometimes a necessary evil! For heeling I will hold it in my left hand and try to give the puppy the picture he is going to see for all his heeling.

I must be weird because I really like different dogs rather than matching ones! Our next will probably be something like a puli

Ava is doing really well with her obedience but I can't see us trialling any time soon as she still has to grow a brain, and I need to get my handling skills up to par as she is ridiculously in tune with body language. Once I raised my hand to cover my mouth when I coughed and she did a "spin" ;)

I know this has been discussed before at some point, but how does everyone hold the leash for heeling on leash, when your dog is still learning and still needs a lot of praise/rewards/reinforcement? I'm finding it really difficult to get it right.

[FranVT]

I see people yelling "heel" at their dogs all the time... doesn't do anything to motivate the dog nor does it magically teach them what heel means ;) Feel sad for the dog though :p This is like the rant I posted earlier in this thread... it is so hard to watch people doing the wrong thing, even after you've said something they are not interested in changing.

Heel up is a weird command to give, you couldn't use it in the ring because it's more than one word.

It was really annoying me! It was just "heel up, heel up, heel up, heel up" over and over in an angry voice, and this Dobermann just kept dragging her around anyway, you know when a word gets repeated so much that it actually starts to not sound like a word at all?

I know I'm supposed to concentrate on my own dog but gahhh it is very distracting! And the lady with the 'scared' dog wasted so much time in our class which really annoyed me. After every exercise she would interrupt and complain that the other dogs were scaring her dog, which was just rubbish, SHE was scaring her dog, by being so freaked out! It was really annoying me and the trainer was too nice IMO

Luuka is pulling on the martingale quite a bit at the moment to sniff the ground. It's like someone spilled liver treats all over the oval!

[huski]

Is there a time limit on how long the CCD heeling pattern goes for? I'll have to work up to doing a couple of minutes at a time with no food. I'm pretty sure I can do 1.5 maybe 2 mins if we're working well.

It really depends on which state you are in. From what I've gathered QLD tends to do longer heel patterns. Here's one from our last trial;

Heel on lead was almost three minutes long.

Luuka is pulling on the martingale quite a bit at the moment to sniff the ground. It's like someone spilled liver treats all over the oval!

LOL I can tell you all about scenting, how hard is it to get her attention back on you when she's scenting?

Edited July 20, 2010 by huski

[FranVT]

Hmm.... moderately? With a "Luuka! Watch!" she will look back at me 90% of the time, but not for long, then the nose goes back down. It reminds me of how Atlas behaved when there was a bitch in season in our group once ;)

[huski]

Do you train with food rewards Fran or a toy or both? If it's food what kind of food do you use?

When she looks back up at you do you treat straigt away and that's when her nose goes back on the ground? Or can you say look and she will maintain eye contact until you reward?

[Ptolomy]

Hmm.... moderately? With a "Luuka! Watch!" she will look back at me 90% of the time, but not for long, then the nose goes back down. It reminds me of how Atlas behaved when there was a bitch in season in our group once ;)

I would not be putting any verbal on it at all at this stage - further down the track if you are thinking of trialling, you want a dog that looks at you automatically rather than you having to continually give a verbal watch command. At this stage of her training - I am suggesting that she has no idea what watch means and one watch verbal will turn into 2 watch verbals and then 3 watch verbals. This is an ideal time to get a clicker and some treats out and when the dog looks as you C/T.

[Ptolomy]

FranCQ - do you know any of the puppy attention games eg where you stand facing the dog and have a piece of food in one hand and outstretch the arm with the food in it - the dog should automatically look at the food. Wait until the dog looks at your face (usually wondering what the hell you are doing to begin with, and it will only be a quick glance) and mark this with either a "yes" or a clicker and reward with the food in the hand. You can then repeat by putting the food in the other hand and doing the same exercise. Then you can progress to food in both hands.

Going back to my corner now....... ;)

[huski]

Love that game Ptolomy! I play with Daisy where I get her in heel poisiton and hold a treat in my left fist with my arm down so she has to look right past the food to make eye contact with me. So cute the way she looks like 'ugh get that hand out of my way, I'm trying to make eye contact here' LOL

Edited July 20, 2010 by huski

[FranVT]

Do you train with food rewards Fran or a toy or both? If it's food what kind of food do you use?

When she looks back up at you do you treat straigt away and that's when her nose goes back on the ground? Or can you say look and she will maintain eye contact until you reward?

I don't treat all the time, and yes she will maintain eye contact MOST of the time.

Oops, ETA - I use HappyPaws Training Treats in roast chicken, though I wish they were just a tiny bit bigger sometimes, they're hard to get my fingers around sometimes! Also my obedience club buys really good treats from down south somewhere in bulk and chops them up and sells them to members, Luuka loves them and the ingredients list is fine with me

Hmm.... moderately? With a "Luuka! Watch!" she will look back at me 90% of the time, but not for long, then the nose goes back down. It reminds me of how Atlas behaved when there was a bitch in season in our group once ;)

I would not be putting any verbal on it at all at this stage - further down the track if you are thinking of trialling, you want a dog that looks at you automatically rather than you having to continually give a verbal watch command. At this stage of her training - I am suggesting that she has no idea what watch means and one watch verbal will turn into 2 watch verbals and then 3 watch verbals. This is an ideal time to get a clicker and some treats out and when the dog looks as you C/T.

Really? I've been asking for a 'watch' with a "good!" (that is my marker word, can't use a clicker, too uncoordinated and would rather not use one) since I got her pretty much. That was over 6 months ago. I know what you are saying though! I never repeat the command, just wait until she looks at me then mark and reward. I also mark and reward when she looks at me without the command. She does this regularly, especially when we're not in motion, I'm just finding that I am struggling to get her to pay attention all the time when we're in motion. I would say that she is looking at me 50% of the time when we are moving in training. I reckon that's alright for a 9 month old puppy!

FranCQ - do you know any of the puppy attention games eg where you stand facing the dog and have a piece of food in one hand and outstretch the arm with the food in it - the dog should automatically look at the food. Wait until the dog looks at your face (usually wondering what the hell you are doing to begin with, and it will only be a quick glance) and mark this with either a "yes" or a clicker and reward with the food in the hand. You can then repeat by putting the food in the other hand and doing the same exercise. Then you can progress to food in both hands.

Going back to my corner now.......

I do the exact exercise above all the time! I started by having the food quite close to my face, where I wanted her to look, but now I can hold it behind my back, out to the side, above my head or not have it in my hand at all (ie, have it in a treat pouch) and she will barely glance at it (or not look at it at all) and look straight at me. At first it was quick glances at me which I would mark immediately and treat, but now we can pretty much have staring matches :p The trainer last night again noted how focused she is on me.

The nose to the ground stuff is really not a huge complaint at the moment, it was really frustrating me for a part of the lesson last night but apart from that she was very attentive!

Edited July 21, 2010 by FranCQ

[ness]

Ptolomy I did that game too except bugger me we did it with her breakfast bowl so bowl on the ground dog would look at me. Hmmmm we then had a few issues when I wanted her to look at the bowl so we could get started on directed retrieving and NOT offer eye contact.

Not sure if I have screwed it the other way with Kenz though we did so much jump grid work/locking in on dead toys that she looks at the object and not at me .

[RallyValley]

This morning I tried to do an obidience session with Toby with an iSqeak as a reward trying to shape heeling. The guy was allin agility mode, wouldn't stay at my sideand kept running away jumping random objects hoping I would throw the iSqueak. Think we are going to try again with some food tonight

Toby has been a bit stiff in the leg he broke this winter soI am thinking he may only be an agility dog in the summer and once he is titled retire him from agility.