...ready for action !
Thursday, February 19, 2009
See Saw
If there was one obstacle I was determined Secret was going to do well, it was the See Saw. Terra has a terrible SeeSaw (excuse the pun) and this was mainly because I asked for too much speed, and also changed her criteria from an original sit to a down position. For Secret I knew what I wanted- a four on the board position at the end of the board, running across the whole thing, in essence a 'sliding' SS. I started teaching this in two ways; firstly playing the well known 'Bang' game with her. This involved starting low and encouraging the dog to jump on the side of the See Saw and bang it down into position. I had done wobble board exercises with Secret when she was young, on cement, so this didn't worry her and she was soon happily reaching up and pulling the board down and banging it into position. I played this game with her because it is very popular and is supposed to help the dog to increase its confidence on what can be a scary obstacle. I am not sure how much this actually helps, but it doesn't seem to harm. The rewards for the bang game are given on the SeeSaw, with one being thrown off at the end to set up for another repetition. The next exercise I did was to hold the end of the SeeSaw, leave her in a start line wait and call her over the board, lowering it rapidly when she got to the end. This is supposed to encourage the dog to ignore the tip and run to the end. I did this many many times but I still don't think it achieved what it was supposed to as the SeeSaw I have ended up with is a run to just past the tip point, brief hesitation and then run into position. This is not what I want in the long term, but I am not going to force too much speed on this obstacle at this point in time because I learnt (the hard way) that is a good way to make unreliable obstacle performance!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Rear end awareness
One area of agility training that has received a lot of notice in the last couple of years has been the so called 'rear end awareness'. This basically means teaching a dog it actually as 2 legs behind the front ones, as most dogs are inclined to only know about the front ones- after all the rear ones simply follow where the front legs go! There are a wide range of exercises designed to help increase the dog's understanding of this; with the idea being that it helps the dog be more self-aware in general, and definitely helps with teaching obstacle performance- particularly the contact obstacles.
The exercises I found useful with puppy Secret were as follows:
1) working with a box. Using a solid low box and a clicker, rewarding any interacting with her legs and the box. Initially I rewarded any contact with the box at all, later I only rewarded climbing on the box, back legs on the box and so on. Quite quickly she started offering 2 back feet on the box in quite a stretched out position which I rewarded and actually formed the basis of her contact work.
2) moving on the box- her placing 2 feet on the middle of the box and walking clockwise/anticlockwise round the box with her hind feet
3) teaching a proper left about turn and a 'get in' similar to the obedience move to heel position. It always surprises me how many people don't teach this to their agility dog- this move allows the dog to be accurately lined up at the start line as well as teaching hind end awareness. I taught it as a follow on to the moving on the box- once she was doing that well I inserted myself into the picture and moved away from her around the box, encouraging her to move with me. Because the box was there she couldn't move her front legs which led to a good left about turn/get in.
4) Work on the balance ball. This is all the craze in America at the moment, and I did find it quite useful for teaching her about balancing. I put her on the ball and initially just treated for being on the ball, later asking for a sit, down, stand and also wobbling the ball to encourage her muscles to work to support her. She actually quite enjoyed her ball work and got fairly proficient at balancing while I wobbled it around.
5) Ladder work- walking then trotting through a ladder lying down going through each rung with each foot
6) backing up- in a straight line, easiest taught in a corridor by throwing food between your legs and clicking when the dog backs out and away.
I repeated these exercises many times and I could see Secret's body confidence increase through the weeks and it definitely made a big difference in the introduction of the obstacles.
The exercises I found useful with puppy Secret were as follows:
1) working with a box. Using a solid low box and a clicker, rewarding any interacting with her legs and the box. Initially I rewarded any contact with the box at all, later I only rewarded climbing on the box, back legs on the box and so on. Quite quickly she started offering 2 back feet on the box in quite a stretched out position which I rewarded and actually formed the basis of her contact work.
2) moving on the box- her placing 2 feet on the middle of the box and walking clockwise/anticlockwise round the box with her hind feet
3) teaching a proper left about turn and a 'get in' similar to the obedience move to heel position. It always surprises me how many people don't teach this to their agility dog- this move allows the dog to be accurately lined up at the start line as well as teaching hind end awareness. I taught it as a follow on to the moving on the box- once she was doing that well I inserted myself into the picture and moved away from her around the box, encouraging her to move with me. Because the box was there she couldn't move her front legs which led to a good left about turn/get in.
4) Work on the balance ball. This is all the craze in America at the moment, and I did find it quite useful for teaching her about balancing. I put her on the ball and initially just treated for being on the ball, later asking for a sit, down, stand and also wobbling the ball to encourage her muscles to work to support her. She actually quite enjoyed her ball work and got fairly proficient at balancing while I wobbled it around.
5) Ladder work- walking then trotting through a ladder lying down going through each rung with each foot
6) backing up- in a straight line, easiest taught in a corridor by throwing food between your legs and clicking when the dog backs out and away.
I repeated these exercises many times and I could see Secret's body confidence increase through the weeks and it definitely made a big difference in the introduction of the obstacles.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Circle work
Circle work was next on the agenda for Secret.. in my opinion an essential part of training an agility dog as it teaches them to follow your body and acts as a preparation for handling work done later with jumps. I teach it simply as a loose heeling exercise- rewarding if the pup stays round about the position of my knee. Its not as precise as proper heeling but I do like attention from the pup. This was started by doing big circles with the food in the outside hand rewarding frequently for position. Once she became more confident in finding the position I would throw the food out so she would run out to get it and run back into finding the right position.
The turns are taught independently- to start with using a luring technique. The first turn I teach is the post turn: show the pup you have food in your hand and once they are in the correct position turn 90 degrees to the right (easier to teach then left) and reward in position. Then build up to 180 degree turns. Again I often used throwing the food to encourage speed through the turns and to set up for the next repetition.
Once the right and left post turn was taught I started her off on learning the basic front-cross on the flat. This was again done using luring; with her initially on my left I lured her with that hand, then transferred the food to my right hand and turned her to face my body, then rewarding from the right hand after the turn had been completed.
I do not teach this on lead for twofold; firstly to allow the dog to make choices and to think about what she is doing, secondly because to hold a lead and treats and co-ordinate the dog isn't always the easiest to do!
The next part of circle work I teach is one that not as many people do as it has kind of gone out of fashion (in our agility scene anyway) which is directional turns. I teach a turn away from me on both sides (absolute directionals)- which I call 'back' (turn left) and 'turn' (turn right). Jess as my first agility dog did not have directional commands and managed absolutely fine without them. Terra however I DID teach them to and have found them to be invaluable as being a much faster dog she is quite often quite far ahead of me, in which case I can give her the information with my voice as to which direction to take. Having said that, however, I know body position will always override directionals so obviously the two commands must be in agreement!
When I first taught Terra her directionals I was worried I would get them confused on course in the heat of the moment and send her the wrong way. This happens very occasionally, but mainly I walk the courses and plan then which directional to give her and try to avoid using them 'on the fly'. Directionals are also my way of starting to teach a dog how to rear-cross.
To teach the directionals again I lure it initially; but I try to fade this out as quickly as possible. Terra took a very long time to learn hers, hundreds of repetitions later she still hadn't got the idea and I toyed with shaping it. Before I started that she did finally comprehend what to do, and Secret learned in only a couple of repetitions. I teach each turn in separate sessions, but would do both turns on the same day. Once she was reliably turning the correct way on both commands I introduced the idea with her standing next to me, on the left and right hand side. Then it was built into the rest of her circle work.
The turns are taught independently- to start with using a luring technique. The first turn I teach is the post turn: show the pup you have food in your hand and once they are in the correct position turn 90 degrees to the right (easier to teach then left) and reward in position. Then build up to 180 degree turns. Again I often used throwing the food to encourage speed through the turns and to set up for the next repetition.
Once the right and left post turn was taught I started her off on learning the basic front-cross on the flat. This was again done using luring; with her initially on my left I lured her with that hand, then transferred the food to my right hand and turned her to face my body, then rewarding from the right hand after the turn had been completed.
I do not teach this on lead for twofold; firstly to allow the dog to make choices and to think about what she is doing, secondly because to hold a lead and treats and co-ordinate the dog isn't always the easiest to do!
The next part of circle work I teach is one that not as many people do as it has kind of gone out of fashion (in our agility scene anyway) which is directional turns. I teach a turn away from me on both sides (absolute directionals)- which I call 'back' (turn left) and 'turn' (turn right). Jess as my first agility dog did not have directional commands and managed absolutely fine without them. Terra however I DID teach them to and have found them to be invaluable as being a much faster dog she is quite often quite far ahead of me, in which case I can give her the information with my voice as to which direction to take. Having said that, however, I know body position will always override directionals so obviously the two commands must be in agreement!
When I first taught Terra her directionals I was worried I would get them confused on course in the heat of the moment and send her the wrong way. This happens very occasionally, but mainly I walk the courses and plan then which directional to give her and try to avoid using them 'on the fly'. Directionals are also my way of starting to teach a dog how to rear-cross.
To teach the directionals again I lure it initially; but I try to fade this out as quickly as possible. Terra took a very long time to learn hers, hundreds of repetitions later she still hadn't got the idea and I toyed with shaping it. Before I started that she did finally comprehend what to do, and Secret learned in only a couple of repetitions. I teach each turn in separate sessions, but would do both turns on the same day. Once she was reliably turning the correct way on both commands I introduced the idea with her standing next to me, on the left and right hand side. Then it was built into the rest of her circle work.
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