# Training vid



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

A few clips from last night. It was HOT and humid, and if there weren't so many dogs in our class (making for longer rest periods between turns) I probably would not have allowed Nikon to train, so we're all a bit sluggish but he did good, made ALL his contacts and this was the first time he'd seen a cross (between the tunnel and the tire). Also he did good with the "trick" they setup, having the entrance to the tunnel at the end of the dogwalk but I think given the choice he'd always choose the tunnel! He also started the teeter and 2on/2off contact work. The jumps are low b/c it's too much time to change them between every dog so we kind of average it out.






Critiques welcome

I think if I'd pushed him towards the jump but hung back myself that may have pulled him around faster to the A-frame? At that obstacle many of the other dogs just ran off to the row of people/dogs waiting near that jump.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Well first, he's freaking GORGEOUS............. but we are here to talk about agility, right? 


You both are doing great! Love his focus and attention..

I know I always try to toss the toy low and along the ground. Kind of focuses them to continue to drive ahead (exciting and motivating) and they can see the toy faster with no air time. Course I'm a bad throw, so the toy goes high more than it should, but I TRY to toss it out fast and low when we are done or exiting a tunnel. 

Otherwise, I try to have more of a TUG WITH ME experience with the reward (if I don't want them driving ahead, just a fun reward for a GOOD DOG). Helps with the enthusiasm of 'the game' being something that involves ME!

How are you teaching your contacts? 

Funny to see they are teaching you a blind cross. There's a big controversy (well, not BIG) in my area with those who use them and those who say you take your eye off your dog so do NOT.

He did the pull to the aframe much better the second time, so may just be he's learning!


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

That cross was weird. They didn't really tell us how to work the mini course, and the first time through we messed up the tire b/c I didn't cross. So I figured, to heck with it, I'll give it a try and just beat him there and it worked the next two times. It was tricky b/c that tunnel entrance was in the same line as the dog walk. If that wasn't like that, I would have run it differently but I had to me on his left to push him into the tunnel instead of taking the dog walk and then somehow get on his right. If it hadn't been so hot, I don't think that would have worked, normally he tears through the tunnel like a bat out of he11! I was surprised that I did beat him and make the cross.

Ideally, his contacts will be me yelling the word and him knowing to stop and do 2 on, 2 off. Right now when we do the obstacles I am just luring him low or setting a target lid at the bottom, and then we work the 2o2o separately. I did it a bit on the teeter b/c it was his first time so I was holding his collar and moving him really slowly anyway. At home I have a board about 2'x2' that I prop up with a cinder block and use that. It's slow going right now because I have done so much perch work with him, he will go to the contact and put his FRONT feet on, so I really can't blame him. Assuming we pass the BH this weekend our focus will turn from SchH obedience to agility and we will work these contacts every night. I am using food for this, not the ball, because with the ball he loses the ability to think so I only introduce it when I'm ready for the drive and speed, or as a "jackpot" after a sequence.

I do keep toys and food on me but his original problem was being WAY to focused on me. That was a function of Schutzhund training, so anytime he is pushing ahead of me over obstacles I'm happy to toss a toy. If there is no reward thrown he will immediately pivot to me or give me a look like, "hey how did I not earn anything??!"


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Have you seen this video with teaching the down contacts? If you bring them up and AROUND you, then click/treat when the 2on/2off happens, then you get more of the behavior we want.





 
We do NOT want our dogs going slowly up and over a contact obstacle to slow them down to make them slowly get into the contact area where we can 'catch' them.

Instead, we want them to DRIVE up/over and down a contact obstacle cause they KNOW they are getting all the treats/toy/tugging/play at one time. AFTER they assume the position! 

BTW, I still click/treat Glory B 100% of the time when she hits her contact and she's been doing this for over a year now! In fact, I don't ever just click/treat once. Instead she still gets numerous click treats while I wander around the base. She has to stay in position no matter how/where I move. It's when I get still she gets a release!

This next video shows how I throw treats along the ground to help with the overly focused handler issues. This works WAY better on mats than on grass! And you can't see it, but you can hear the 2 separate times I click/treat on the aframe (30 s in). At 2 min in you can see the aframe contact better from us. 

ALWAYS TREAT ON THE GROUND AT THE CONTACTS! Just another way to help get our pups OFF the handler focus and onto the ground.





 
Just to show you how serious we need to be about contacts and NOT rushing them, this is Bretta Lee just a few months ago. She's got a MACH on her and I STILL click/treat her about 1/2 the time in class. Also shows Glory and contacts from 5 months ago, look how I'm STILL really rewarding! See how much I move around and she stays? HEY, I just watched Bretta on this clip, see how she slides off and fixes herself cause she 'knows' whats expected even when she's all cranked up! (fast forward the start of this, just instructor stuff)


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I hadn't seen the first video but that is exactly how we do it at home, a little half circle so he hops his butt up on the board.


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## AgileGSD (Jan 17, 2006)

Nice! He is doing well for a young dog 

For contacts in class, I would suggest baiting the downside of the Aframe and Dogwalk for right now. To get the 2o2o position, place a clear lid with a treat far enough from the bottom of the contact that Nikon naturally falls into 2o2o to get the treat. This will allow you to practice in class what you are training for, to not have to "babysit" the contacts and to help Nikon start to develop muscle memory for it. It should also help speed up his contact performance because he will have more confidence knowing what is expected every time.

I would still work 2o2o the way you are at home and would also suggest teaching Nikon to back up onto things in the 2o2o position. I would say that nothing has helped Whim's understanding of 2o2o better than that - it helps them develop a real awareness of how to use their back legs independently from their front. This is how I taught it (haven't gotten to the handstand part but she'll back up onto lots of different things now): 




One more note: The turns seem to be a bit demotivating to him right now. Try working on teaching him to "wrap" the jumps, so he doesn't lose momentum when he realizes there is a direction change. Here are a couple videos showing this, you can start training it just around uprights, trees, chairs whatever you have:


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I can't wait to get the trial this weekend over with and focus on agility! I feel bad for Nikon because I have asked a LOT of him lately. If he looks less enthusiastic, he's been like that the past week or so. First we put together the formal retrieves, then he learned the send out, running blinds, and then started the call out of the blind and transports, plus in tracking we've totally switched from baited tracks to article tracks with no food. On top of that, all the agility stuff is new to him and some of it goes against what he learned in the past (run AWAY from me, heel to my right and not my left, put your rear feet on the perch, etc). I think he's really kept a good attitude and is trying hard even when he appears a little flat, if not confused, at times. We've basically put together a Schutzhund 1 in all THREE phases just in the past month while still doing the beginner agility class. But I plan to SchH trial in the fall and not overwork him this summer so we will have time do have fun playing agility.

I'm starting a list of what to focus on....

* 2o2o contacts - use my contact at home and "wrap" him on and train to back up onto the contact
* 2x2 weaves - we'd started this but need to get back into it
* jump technique - more work with a single jump, getting him to power over with his rear and wrap right/left


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Great videos from AgileGSD, specially love the second one with the one jump and teaching the turns to be motivating with the immediate running and toy!

Edited to add***********

Call offs (where they are a real off course or just a wide turn) tend to give our dogs the impression they were 'wrong' and end up with a demotivating result. So they slow turn back to us with a 'uh oh I was bad' mindset from the dog. Not that we mean that to be the result, it just is. So the whole thing about the dog slowing to make the turn and maybe seeming very unfocused (or running off) are more of those calming signals for the dog and to us that COMPLETELY look like a result we don't want in agility. Slow and demotivated.

Adding the toy in our training to these turns and calloffs give exactly the opposite result. So when we yell or turn sharply from where the dog thought they were going and they look to us to get the 'bad dog' impression cause they clearly were NOT going in the right direction...................... IF we are standing there with their favorite toy swinging and flailing as we run off, they are certainly going to get that WHOOHOO THE GAME IS STILL ON mindset.

I really try to add this same toy thing to my training and PURPOSELY do my yelling thing with their name or 'come' or whatever yell spurts out of my mouth in a panic. Pairing my screaming with 'the most exciting toy/game' immediately after entirely removes the negative of the yell (and trust me, I am still trying to train myself to stop the insane panicked yelling as I watch a perfect run get ruined by an off course) and replaces the yelling with the immediate attention/focus I want with ZERO of the OH MY GOSH I AM IN TROUBLE that I do not want (these off courses are by far and away my fault for having a bad plan or not training a skill I suddenly need).


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