Up until last week, Porter had been doing great on his contact obstacles. He *loves* the dogwalk and A-Frame and is doing well with his contacts. In G's class we are working on the teeter and are now at the point where we give him treats right at the pivot point and then let him continue down to the end and do his contact. He seemed fine, you could tell he was gripping more with his feet, but he was still very enthusiastic about doing it.
Last Friday in J's class our first sequence was hoop, dogwalk, and so on. Porter ran up the dogwalk about 5 feet then bailed off the side...something he's never done before. I brought him back to do it again and he repeated the behavior. This time I stayed with him, I think I might have even had his collar to help guide him up and about 4 or 5 feet up he slowed down and started walking funny. I was worried maybe he hurt a back leg when he jumped off, but J asked if he had been doing teeters recently.
Apparently what is happening is Porter cannot tell the teeter and dogwalk apart. When facing those obstacles head on they look exactly the same (especially when the dogwalk does not have slats, and J's don't). He isn't the first dog to have this problem I've been told. So when he goes up the dogwalk he is slowing down and trying to find the pivot point.
I guided him all the way up and he was fine and was able to do the dogwalk a few more times.
Then this morning in G's class Porter had problems again. I wasn't expecting it since her dogwalk has slats. Porter was actually worse today than he was on Friday. I had to Hansel and Gretel treats all the way up and across. A few times he still jumped off and from the top as well! So we took it even more slow...treats every few inches, I stayed by his shoulder to prevent him from jumping off. His back legs looked shaky and he missed a few treats here and there. He was really stressed! But of course back ont he ground he was pulling to get back on the dogwalk (thankfully).
After the first try and we noticed he was nervous we backchained the end and he had no problem. G suggested I use the name when we backchain and are at the end but not to label it when we start him from the front and he's going to be scared. She doesn't want to pair his emotion with the obstacle name.
Porter has three turns on the dogwalk and while we made some progress he was still clearly having issues. I'm not used to seeing this dog worried about something. He's always been pretty bombproof.
I made another observation...a week or so ago he stopped taking treats from his Manners Minder in class and I thought it was because he was so exhausted from playing with Theo the night before. He was very slow and unmotivated in class, so I lumped the two. I also thought that the treats inside were not good enough since they were stale and getting hard.
He was very hesitant to go in his soft crate and looked worried about the manners minder so I turn off the beeping sound. It beep when a treat is delivered, like a click, it also does several loud, low beeps when it's jammed. I was concerned this noise was freaking him out.
Now that the sound has been turned off he seems better about the machine but still not 100%. I wonder if he's just bored with it? Or still unsure.
Maybe my dog isn't as resistant to being spooked as I thought? Can they go through a fear period at 22 months?
On a pleasant note, I have been able to use toys as a throwing reward in the last few classes. Int he past I had to use a food filled toy, but have progressed to a normal ty. Porter isn't taking it and running away, but he does expect a treat still and I'm fine with it!
We did some pinwheels in class today and Porter rocked them! I was able to stand pretty much right in the middle and just pivot and he was awesome :)
Showing posts with label contacts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contacts. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Friday, May 3, 2013
Agility Contacts and Weaves
Porter is really coming along in his agility training.
His contacts are not done yet, but they are looking really nice. I have noticed that we need to help him generalize. At his normal agility class he does that perfectly, and even without his targets. I am making sure I am changing up what my body is doing when he hits his contacts so he's not cueing off of me and I am building up a good lateral distance. But at his new agility location his behavior is not as precise. Not only are we on a new field but the ground is dirt instead of grass. Over the weeks he's gotten better but there is still a discrepancy.
We are also coming along with his weave poles. He's starting to be able to do a set of 4 now! Sometimes he want so skip the first set and do the second only, so we are working on that and it's getting better. we are also working on his drive since he's so slow!!! It's weird since everywhere else he's speedy, but in my training I've accidentally trained him to be slow :(
My friends have been raving about this new agility instructor so I decided to give her a try. It doesn't hurt that she's only 15 minutes away and no freeway driving!! Her location is awesome. She has a huge agility field on her property which is fully fenced. She also has an area the size of my backyard which is fenced in for the dogs to potty and run around off leash. I can back my car right up tot he edge of the field and keep Porter crated in the car which is great. He's much less barky that way.
So far, I really like J! Her style is very different different from G so I have to retrain myself a little bit. J competes in NADAC with her Border Collies and handles from a distance. G does less distance with with her dogs, but since her dogs are slower and the venues she competes in don't need as much distance handling it works for her. She does have a BC pup now so it will be interesting to see how this dog will need to the handled.
G likes us to not use many verbal cues but mostly our body to communicate where we want the dog to go. I totally get this. Dogs are more in turn to body language anyhow. And this way, she says when you do need to use your voice the dog will pay attention since you haven't been babbling at him the whole course.
J uses a lot of verbal cues for her dogs, for the obstacles as well as which way to turn, to go out further, and so on. This has been hard for me since I'm used to being quiet. But, I have seen that giving Porter an early verbal cue to go into the tunnel has really helped him. I've been able to work him from a farther distance whereas before I'd have to go with him almost all the say to the entrance to the tunnel. I still need to work on giving him that information early enough though. I'm used to him not committing until the last minute so I typically wait to show him where to go next or he'll pull off an obstacle or drop a bar. But he's getting better at this so I need to catch myself up with him and handle him better.
J is very willing to alter things for me when what she does conflicts with what G does. That's been a big help.
Another thing I like about J is she gives you so much feedback on what to change, what you did that caused the dog to do what he did, etc. She is really paying attention and catches everything and has no problem calling you out on something. I love it!! I want all that constructive criticism. I want to be told (over and over again if needed) that I dropped my hand too soon or my feet were pointing in the wrong direction, or I was too late cueing him where to go next. I don't get offended. I need that info to grow in my handling. If Porter drops a bar, I want to know why. If he missed an obstacle I was trying to have him take I want to know what to change for next time to help him. It's always something the handler is doing.
Today several dogs took the wrong obstacle when they needed to discriminate between the two and I loved that J told the handles to just go with it, because the dog was just doing what their body told them to do. The dog was not wrong. The handler miscommunicated to the dog. So don't punish the dog; don't demotivate him. He did what you asked...just just asked the wrong thing.
Right now I am seeing both trainers but I'll probably need make a choice and go with just one. Mostly because the husband says I do (it'll get costly going to two classes at once), but also because some of the small differences might be hard to mesh.
But for this month I'm still attending both classes and learning so much!
His contacts are not done yet, but they are looking really nice. I have noticed that we need to help him generalize. At his normal agility class he does that perfectly, and even without his targets. I am making sure I am changing up what my body is doing when he hits his contacts so he's not cueing off of me and I am building up a good lateral distance. But at his new agility location his behavior is not as precise. Not only are we on a new field but the ground is dirt instead of grass. Over the weeks he's gotten better but there is still a discrepancy.
We are also coming along with his weave poles. He's starting to be able to do a set of 4 now! Sometimes he want so skip the first set and do the second only, so we are working on that and it's getting better. we are also working on his drive since he's so slow!!! It's weird since everywhere else he's speedy, but in my training I've accidentally trained him to be slow :(
My friends have been raving about this new agility instructor so I decided to give her a try. It doesn't hurt that she's only 15 minutes away and no freeway driving!! Her location is awesome. She has a huge agility field on her property which is fully fenced. She also has an area the size of my backyard which is fenced in for the dogs to potty and run around off leash. I can back my car right up tot he edge of the field and keep Porter crated in the car which is great. He's much less barky that way.
So far, I really like J! Her style is very different different from G so I have to retrain myself a little bit. J competes in NADAC with her Border Collies and handles from a distance. G does less distance with with her dogs, but since her dogs are slower and the venues she competes in don't need as much distance handling it works for her. She does have a BC pup now so it will be interesting to see how this dog will need to the handled.
G likes us to not use many verbal cues but mostly our body to communicate where we want the dog to go. I totally get this. Dogs are more in turn to body language anyhow. And this way, she says when you do need to use your voice the dog will pay attention since you haven't been babbling at him the whole course.
J uses a lot of verbal cues for her dogs, for the obstacles as well as which way to turn, to go out further, and so on. This has been hard for me since I'm used to being quiet. But, I have seen that giving Porter an early verbal cue to go into the tunnel has really helped him. I've been able to work him from a farther distance whereas before I'd have to go with him almost all the say to the entrance to the tunnel. I still need to work on giving him that information early enough though. I'm used to him not committing until the last minute so I typically wait to show him where to go next or he'll pull off an obstacle or drop a bar. But he's getting better at this so I need to catch myself up with him and handle him better.
J is very willing to alter things for me when what she does conflicts with what G does. That's been a big help.
Another thing I like about J is she gives you so much feedback on what to change, what you did that caused the dog to do what he did, etc. She is really paying attention and catches everything and has no problem calling you out on something. I love it!! I want all that constructive criticism. I want to be told (over and over again if needed) that I dropped my hand too soon or my feet were pointing in the wrong direction, or I was too late cueing him where to go next. I don't get offended. I need that info to grow in my handling. If Porter drops a bar, I want to know why. If he missed an obstacle I was trying to have him take I want to know what to change for next time to help him. It's always something the handler is doing.
Today several dogs took the wrong obstacle when they needed to discriminate between the two and I loved that J told the handles to just go with it, because the dog was just doing what their body told them to do. The dog was not wrong. The handler miscommunicated to the dog. So don't punish the dog; don't demotivate him. He did what you asked...just just asked the wrong thing.
Right now I am seeing both trainers but I'll probably need make a choice and go with just one. Mostly because the husband says I do (it'll get costly going to two classes at once), but also because some of the small differences might be hard to mesh.
But for this month I'm still attending both classes and learning so much!
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