Agility Foundation

[Vickie]

I thought it'd be fun since we have so many enthusiatic people wanting to start agility to post some foundation exercises for discussion. I am sure people have a heap of different things they do, so explanations & video if possible would be cool.

Here is one I started today with Shine. It looks pretty basic...just running around with my dog...but that is what most of agility is & it is amazing how many people don't realise that they need to be able to keep their dogs focus & work just running. It is basically an attention/focus exercise teaching her to follow my hand & body language. I will start to introduce pre-cue hand signals & voice commands as we go along but for now it is just run with me & have fun. It will also teach her to turn tightly around uprights & we will be able to use it for distance/sending exercises. I am pretty pleased with her for a first attempt.

Shine Agility Foundation Link

Resized to 250K:

Resized

Trim had to have a go as well, I still do things like this with Trim, even though she has been trialling for 18 months now:

Trim Agility Foundation Link

Resized to 500K:

If the videos take too long to download, let me know & I will resize them. Will do something else tomorrow.

Edited March 12, 2007 by Vickie

[he'smyhero]

I can't access the video's?? Will try again in a bit- am very interested as I'm one of the people wanting to start agility so thank you!!

[Vickie]

Sorry, they are taking a while to come up on Youtube. Shine's is there now, hopefully Trim's will be soon. I also resized them so the resized ones should come up quicker.

[Kavik]

Thanks for the videos! That looks like a good idea! :D

[leopuppy04]

Great vids vickie. Excellent for us agilty newbies to get some ideas on how to train our dogs and develop a stronger foundation!!! Might have to try some of this at home!

[Mrsdog]

Thanks Vicki - so obvious - but I hadn't really thought that agility is basically just running around with your dog. What a good focus exercise.

BTW now I know how you got so fit!!

Noels.

[sidoney]

Here are a couple of foundation exercises that I do at the park, when taking the dogs for a run. It's just general stuff but is good for later agility work.

One that I do with my dogs is to have them sit and wait for release in a variety of situations. The park is great because they really really want to run.

I start by asking for a sit, and then release. When they learn that, I take a step away, and release, and so on. Spread over a number of weeks. I might do only a couple of sit and releases in a walk, or maybe just one. But since you walk them every day it builds up.

A variation is to call the dog/s to one hand or the other. Facing away from the dog, looking over my shoulder, showing the dog the hand to run to. I have a reward in the hand. If the dogs arrive at the same time, or if I have one dog only, when the dog arrives at the correct hand I can release to free run instead of food reward (toy reward not so good with multiple dogs). Again start close and get further away as the dog learns what is wanted.

I find if I do it with a group of dogs, all but one of which know what to do, the untrained dog picks up the behaviour quite quickly from the trained dogs. This then transfers when you have that dog on its own.

I work up to where I can run away, jump, sit on the ground, etc.

The aim is to maintain the dog/s's keenness to run, their attentiveness to cue, their speed at release, in addition to their reliability in maintaining the sit.

Be very consistent in what your cue is. If it's word ONLY, then you need to use that word while you stand still, hold an arm up, hold a leg up, move a bit, move a lot, and so on, until the dog works out it's JUST the word that releases it.

I also have one that I do which helps the dog to learn to watch my body language at a distance. If the dogs are running out in front of me or to the side, I can turn and start running away from them, at 90 deg., or 180 deg., or at other angles. They will see me (sooner rather than later if they are looking) and run and catch me, at which time I can reward with play or food or just tell them to "run away" (my free run release words) in an excited tone. This also works at a walk, but a run helps them to get started.

I also use the 180 deg. turn away from them if I think they are getting too far in front, in general walking - they bolt to catch up with me, and then if they get too far ahead in that direction, I turn back ... it helps teach them what distance is acceptable.

Edited March 12, 2007 by sidoney

[Vickie]

Thanks Vicki - so obvious - but I hadn't really thought that agility is basically just running around with your dog. What a good focus exercise.

BTW now I know how you got so fit!!

I am ANYTHING but fit! My dogs...Yes, but definately not me.

I think people spend a lot of time on obstacles & tend to think they should come first. I think the opposite. Once you have the focus, the obstacles are a lot easier to teach. Usually when people lose their dog on course, it is between obstacles. To me the challenge of agilityis moving between the obtacles rather than teh obstacles themselves.

I guess it is worth saying as well that obviously there are steps to be taken before the above exercises. With Trim I made the mistake of always rewarding her when she was in front of me ( :D makes no sense, since she will rarely be facing me on course). So of course I had to fix that before I could even start training. I am trying not to make the same mistake with Shine, so she has learnt from Day One that all good things come when she is parallel to me. Her rewards only come from the hand that is presented to her and it has paid off because she is already more tuned in to moving parallel with me than Trim was at this stage.

Variations/proofing on this would be:

Take it to a quiet park

Take it to a busy park

Increase the distance of the poles

Decrease the distance of the poles

Decrease the distance I am running

Increase the distance I am running

If at any time I was not getting the enthusiasm I wanted I would reward every couple of steps until I was getting the speed & focus & then gradually build it up.

Edited March 12, 2007 by Vickie

[border14]

Hi Vickie

Thanks for the video. I'm going to try this with Duke tomorrow and on Wednesday at the park.

[Vickie]

I'm going to try this with Duke tomorrow and on Wednesday at the park.

Cool! It'll be interesting to hear how everyone goes with it & what issues arise. BTW...We want video

[Vickie]

I also use the 180 deg. turn away from them if I think they are getting too far in front, in general walking - they bolt to catch up with me, and then if they get too far ahead in that direction, I turn back ... it helps teach them what distance is acceptable.

I like this one, I have done a similar exercise, where I turn 180 deg as soon as they pass me. I like it, it really teaches them to keep an eye on you. It is amazing how powerful actions can be with no voice commands.

[Henrietta]

Thanks Vickie and Sidoney for this thread.

You are right - there are heaps of us agility newbies who are keen to learn more.

Although, it'll be a bit before I start training my dog for agility, it is great to get as many tips and info as you can.

Thanks again guys

I think people spend a lot of time on obstacles & tend to think they should come first. I think the opposite. Once you have the focus, the obstacles are a lot easier to teach. Usually when people lose their dog on course, it is between obstacles. To me the challenge of agilityis moving between the obtacles rather than teh obstacles themselves.

Yes Vickie, that makes a lot of sense, although I wouldn't have thought of the importance of these exercises myself

I suppose you could do some of those running with you type exercises when dogs are a little bit younger (not the recommended 12-14 months to start agility training) as long as you didn't over do it of course. Would that be too much physical stress or is it kind of the same as mucking around in the yard anyway?

Cheers,

Em

[sidoney]

You can also do body awareness exercises, such as trotting over poles. You can make them out of bits of PVC and squashed aluminium cans to hold the ends.

You can run the pup over a low plank - just a few cm off the ground is fine to start.

You can make a wobble board, a 1m square board placed on a small ball is fine.

Another park training exercise is to call the dog to your side when it's running free, reward the dog for coming, let the dog be with you for a few paces, reward again by releasing to free run. You can pick up the distance the dog stays with you before you release. Do this on both sides. Make sure you show the dog what side to come to, and don't have the dog cross over behind you.

When on a walk, don't let the dog cross over behind you in general, esp. when on a lead.

When on a walk, if the dog is ahead of you, cross behind it, say "cross" or some other rear cross cue as you do it. By cross behind it, I mean if the dog is on your left, go behind it laterally as you walk, to put the dog on your right. At first the dog will find it strange and look back at you, as it gets used to it, it will look for you on the new side.

When on a walk, you can teach the dog to go out ahead of you by saying "go" (or whatever go on cue you want) and tossing an easily seen treat out ahead of you. Then you can either use your side cue to bring it back to you (and reward), or cross behind it, and bring it back to your new side (or not).

[Maverick]

Another one is .. have a rock solid stay and a release word. You must have this before you even look at equipment.

Alot of the problems I have with Maverick is that he is unsure of the release word and I never taught it until now.

[Vickie]

I suppose you could do some of those running with you type exercises when dogs are a little bit younger (not the recommended 12-14 months to start agility training) as long as you didn't over do it of course. Would that be too much physical stress or is it kind of the same as mucking around in the yard anyway?

Hi Em,

I think it's fine so long as you don't overdo it. What Shine is doing in my clip at 9 months is pretty much the same as she does in her zoomies. I am not doing it often enough (LOL, only 3 times ever so far) or long enough (11 seconds each time) for it to become a forced exercise for her. Of course there is no harm in waiting, I only did it yesterday as an exercise that I could put up to demonstrate the point of getting focus in running without obstacles, it's certainly not something that we will be doing every day. I have done some running with her at the park where she follows my hand & then I turn in front of her or behind her, so it's just an extension of that.

I will also do figure 8's around a jump with no bar on it, but haven't started it yet.

If I am going to teach an "agility specific" behaviour or command that I will use, I want speed & motivation right from day one, so will not work on anything very seriously that her body is not ready for. I am also working on her "cross" (turn away from me) command...again, since it is a command I will use in agility, I want it fast & FUN, pretty much from the beginning...To her it's just a game, she has no idea yet that it will be a crucial tool in a couple of years time.

[Henrietta]

Thanks Vickie - Shine looks so good for only doing it 3 times! He can certainly turn very sharply. Like you said I suppose it just like him doing his zoomies ;)

Some really interesting stuff here.

Thanks too Sidoney for the body awareness excercises. I think this thread should be pinned

Extremely helpful for those of us who don't know where to start.

[border14]

I thought it'd be fun since we have so many enthusiatic people wanting to start agility to post some foundation exercises for discussion. I am sure people have a heap of different things they do, so explanations & video if possible would be cool.

Here is one I started today with Shine. It looks pretty basic...just running around with my dog...but that is what most of agility is & it is amazing how many people don't realise that they need to be able to keep their dogs focus & work just running. It is basically an attention/focus exercise teaching her to follow my hand & body language. I will start to introduce pre-cue hand signals & voice commands as we go along but for now it is just run with me & have fun. It will also teach her to turn tightly around uprights & we will be able to use it for distance/sending exercises. I am pretty pleased with her for a first attempt.

Shine Agility Foundation Link

Resized to 250K:

Resized

Trim had to have a go as well, I still do things like this with Trim, even though she has been trialling for 18 months now:

Trim Agility Foundation Link

Resized to 500K:

If the videos take too long to download, let me know & I will resize them. Will do something else tomorrow.

Hi Vickie

We were at Obedience training last night and during the break I thought I might try the foundation work you put up. I didn't have any poles for Duke so I put our jackets on the grass as a substitute. I was really happy as he ran where I directed him and he was watching me closely. He didn't go around the jackets all the time especially when he started getting a little too excited but I thought for his first time he did well. (Hope this makes sense)

Going to the park with him later on today to do some more

Edited March 13, 2007 by border14

[sidoney]

Try poles if you can, the push in electric fence post ones are fine, as the dog will be able to associate them later with jump uprights.

[Vickie]

We were at Obedience training last night and during the break I thought I might try the foundation work you put up. I didn't have any poles for Duke so I put our jackets on the grass as a substitute. I was really happy as he ran where I directed him and he was watching me closely. He didn't go around the jackets all the time especially when he started getting a little too excited but I thought for his first time he did well. (Hope this makes sense)

That's great! Good on you for having a go!

I agree with Sidoney, poles will be better than jackets as it will give him something to "see" & will be much easier for him as well as helping with wrapping uprights later. It's good that he got excited & good that he was watching you.

The other thing I forgot to point out is that you can do different things in the exercise, you can have them run around the ouside in a big triangle or you can do a loop around each pole & go back the way you came. I do a bit of each with the girls in my clips. YOu will see that someth=imes they are on my left & then I turn & they are on my right.

Once you have got him running well with you, the next one you will have to do is to teach a send around a single pole. This is a good one b/c he will also need to learn to go ahead without you as well as running alongside you. Both these skills will be very important later. Start by going with him & gradually back off once he understands what you want so that you can stand still & send him. Put your arm out to signal the pole & hold it there until he gets to it & then turn away from him. He will probably start off doing it slower than running with you, that's fine, but as he goes around the pole (ie once you are sure he is committed to going around) then you can run away a bit & reward & he will run with you & you will see that he will start to get faster. Then you can set up 2 poles & then 3, so you can stand in the middle & send. The final goal is to get the same speed out of your dog as when you run with them...afterall for them it is the same exercise.

Hope this makes sense, I can do a clip of the second one if you need it.

Vickie

[Kavik]

I did this at the park the other day too - I used trees. After the first few times Kaos was understanding to go around the trees Do you use a command when you do this?