60 days to go...
Time seems to be running out quickly now, and I still have SO much to do.
Over the last weekend from Sat-Tues I spent a wonderful four days auditing training days with Lynda Orton-Hill. Wow. I knew the basics of shaping and the associated Say Yes games but these four days really helped to bring it all together and how the foundation stuff sets the basis for an excellent agility dog. It made me realise the stuff I have been skipping over like crate games, working more on tug drive, rear end awareness and so on is so much more than just games. As with the days we did last year with Greg and Laura Derrett more often than not it was a case of thinkg 'Duh, that's SO obvious - why didn't *I* make that connection?' It will definitely be altering the areas I emphasise in my training sessions from this point on.
I haven't re-read my notes yet as haven't had time, so may have some more observations to make later, but for the time being one of the things I liked best was Lynda's insistence that all training be FAST and FUN - so from the moment the dog is released from the crate it is fun and play all the way to wherever your training exercise is, then all the way back once it is done. And the point that since dogs run agility at a high level of arousal, you need to make sure to train them at a high level of arousal also (rather than trying to calm them down before training/trialling). I can already see how this will apply to multiple other situations - Billie's show training for example - I will now be sure to get her very excited before we do any show training, so we will both be more set to cope with the more exciting arena of an actual show ring when we go back to that (not til after Nationals I think as all my focus is on the boys currently).
My Nationals entries have been posted so now it is official - the boys are entered in all the Open and Novice classes, so hopefully I can get them to that point in 60 days. I think Novice we should be ok... perhaps Open was a bit optimistic of me, but you never know. I feel much more confident, having done Lynda's training days, of which direction I need to go now.
Watch this space :)
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Milestones of Mention
82 days to go...
This last week has been excellent so far as training goes. This is the first time I feel like all the foundation stuff is starting to pay off.
Starting with last Thursday evening. Lee-Anne had offered to come do some training with us so both of us could get more motivatedso she brought Toby and Cassie round and after the dogs had run round the backyard like lunatics for a while (and created a dust storm - this is what happens when the dogs have already worn off most of the grass!) we lugged the jumps, weaves, contact plank and various other doggy items across the road to the park.
Since Lee-Anne's two are far advanced to my own dogs, we each set up our own little exercises and worked the dogs through them. This was fantastic for me, because my dogs have never worked with other dogs also working close by. This is was the night for Josh to blow me away, because I assumed he would be the more distracted one. However, despite thw two dogs running and barking right next to him, and even another strange dog running around on the other side of the park, I had excellent attention from him, I was able to work him off lead and call him back to me. He did down stays right next to Toby and Cassie flying over bars in front of him and did recalls there as well, and continued to offer behaviours throughout. He did a little bit of jumping and weaving, but it was the attention and recalls that really put me on a high.
Fyre did less because I realised once again that whilst he is excellent in the backyard he needs more work in different areas - what is exciting in the backyard is much LESS exciting at the park, i.e. the fluffy noise-making toys that he usually goes nuts for were less impressive outside of the yard. To that end, I went straight to the food box as reward because that is his all-time highest value reward, and we did manage to get some nice weaves and a couple of jumps.
The weaving has really started to improve in leaps and bounds this week too - Fyre is now doing 4 poles with very little rotation, so they are just off being straight. This is a little video I did of him last night:
As you can see, the handler still needs to improve her timing on throwing the reward, and the dog is still not 100% (though bear in mind this was only his second session using the poles almost-straight) but starting to show some style hhitting entries and moving through the poles. I am very happy and expect we will be able to get the next set of 2x2 added by the weekend and maybe 6 straight poles by then as well. Just have to see how much time I have :)
Fyre's jump training is going well too - here is a video from last night showing him doing a practice grid.
In the first run I returned to him and rewarded because I saw him about to launch himself and then decide to stay where he was since he hadn't been released yet, so I wanted to makr a good decision on his part. (Though he did move a foot, yes, need more work on criteria there :>) First time he just did the three bounce jumps as he hasn't done much distance between bars before, and I wanted to start on a good note than challenge him too early on. The fourth bar was set, by my approximate measurement, to have room for a single stride between, and he did exactly as I'd hoped :) To continue reinforcing his wait, I had one run where I left him, then threw the food box back to him and released as a reward simply for staying there.
Then this morning we worked on 2o2o and I was again blow away as I was able in one session to move the foot target, and also rotate my position so I was no longer facing the end of the plank but standing almost alongside it and facing away and still had him take up position. It's sessions like these that show me I must be doing SOMETHING right and the dogs understand what I want.
Of note, Josh is currently having some time off after minor surgery, but I promise to get some new videos of him up in the coming weeks too.
This last week has been excellent so far as training goes. This is the first time I feel like all the foundation stuff is starting to pay off.
Starting with last Thursday evening. Lee-Anne had offered to come do some training with us so both of us could get more motivated
Since Lee-Anne's two are far advanced to my own dogs, we each set up our own little exercises and worked the dogs through them. This was fantastic for me, because my dogs have never worked with other dogs also working close by. This is was the night for Josh to blow me away, because I assumed he would be the more distracted one. However, despite thw two dogs running and barking right next to him, and even another strange dog running around on the other side of the park, I had excellent attention from him, I was able to work him off lead and call him back to me. He did down stays right next to Toby and Cassie flying over bars in front of him and did recalls there as well, and continued to offer behaviours throughout. He did a little bit of jumping and weaving, but it was the attention and recalls that really put me on a high.
Fyre did less because I realised once again that whilst he is excellent in the backyard he needs more work in different areas - what is exciting in the backyard is much LESS exciting at the park, i.e. the fluffy noise-making toys that he usually goes nuts for were less impressive outside of the yard. To that end, I went straight to the food box as reward because that is his all-time highest value reward, and we did manage to get some nice weaves and a couple of jumps.
The weaving has really started to improve in leaps and bounds this week too - Fyre is now doing 4 poles with very little rotation, so they are just off being straight. This is a little video I did of him last night:
As you can see, the handler still needs to improve her timing on throwing the reward, and the dog is still not 100% (though bear in mind this was only his second session using the poles almost-straight) but starting to show some style hhitting entries and moving through the poles. I am very happy and expect we will be able to get the next set of 2x2 added by the weekend and maybe 6 straight poles by then as well. Just have to see how much time I have :)
Fyre's jump training is going well too - here is a video from last night showing him doing a practice grid.
In the first run I returned to him and rewarded because I saw him about to launch himself and then decide to stay where he was since he hadn't been released yet, so I wanted to makr a good decision on his part. (Though he did move a foot, yes, need more work on criteria there :>) First time he just did the three bounce jumps as he hasn't done much distance between bars before, and I wanted to start on a good note than challenge him too early on. The fourth bar was set, by my approximate measurement, to have room for a single stride between, and he did exactly as I'd hoped :) To continue reinforcing his wait, I had one run where I left him, then threw the food box back to him and released as a reward simply for staying there.
Then this morning we worked on 2o2o and I was again blow away as I was able in one session to move the foot target, and also rotate my position so I was no longer facing the end of the plank but standing almost alongside it and facing away and still had him take up position. It's sessions like these that show me I must be doing SOMETHING right and the dogs understand what I want.
Of note, Josh is currently having some time off after minor surgery, but I promise to get some new videos of him up in the coming weeks too.
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