Running the Course - need advise
 Yesterday we ran a course with our dogs. There is a maltese, who honestly, I think is a ringer, he never seems to have any problems. There is also a retriever who has a bit of difficulty, but is progressing well.And then there is Asterisk. She loves to run and for the most part 'gets it'. She runs far ahead of me, I can't seem to keep up. Then she will nearly body slam me! It's like she gets so excited that she has to push herself into me as she's jumping or running the course! I'm surprised I didn't end up flat on my face. Maybe I'm giving conflicting signals? Maybe I have to work on my ability to send her over obstacles? Does anyone have any idea how to keep her from wanting to jump all over me while we're running? |
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| It sounds like your instructor is really rushing things. Is this a competition geared class, or just geared toward having fun? If you are serious about competing at some time with Asterisk, there is a lot of (sometimes boring) foundation training involved. I know several people on here (Judi and Harry come to mind....) who are having to do retraining because they didn't get proper instruction early on. It literelly comes back to bite you! My daughter (with Martha, Chewie's sister) have finished 2, 8 week session of foundation agility classes and are nowhere near running courses. Just short sequences and working on focus, a lot of handler skills, turns and jumps, obstacle familiarization, body language for better handling, and stuff like that. Agility is really a more complex game than it looks on the surface. A huge part is the teamwork and focus part, and lot of it is handler training - a HUGE part. We spent MONTHS just learning jumping form (the way Chewie goes over jumps)...and it has paid off immensely  If you are even considering doing this as a sport, you may want to consider a new training center or instructor. Not that where you are is bad, just that it won't help you in the long run. If you want to get out and just play, then you are OK. But, it sounds like you already have higher goals for yourselves, and can see the problems with Asterisk's behavior already by rushing things.The behavior you are decribing is exactly normal for a dog getting frustrated with not getting the support it needs. In my classes almost all the focus is on me/the other human handlers - as we directly affect our dogs, and if we fix OUR handling, the dog is fixed too! Quite humbling...  , but I love getting the feedback and seeing an improvement in how we work as a team.  |
| That's what I was wondering myself. It's odd, at the club I'm at, it goes beginners agility and THEN foundation. The two other owners and myself also wonder if we're not connecting correctly with our dogs. If anything, our dogs seem confused. We are doing what we were instructed, but I don't think there is enough focus on how to connect with your dog and get them to understand. She is having fun though! She LOVES the plank and A frame more than any other item on the course. In fact, when I bring her to class, she tends to walk herself across both. I guess what also gets me a bit depressed is that it's so HARD to teach her these jumps, etc at home... since I don't have the equipment. It feels like it takes 75% of the class for her to remember what she's doing. |
* Capt. Obvious Danger wrote: That's what I was wondering myself. It's odd, at the club I'm at, it goes beginners agility and THEN foundation. The two other owners and myself also wonder if we're not connecting correctly with our dogs. If anything, our dogs seem confused. We are doing what we were instructed, but I don't think there is enough focus on how to connect with your dog and get them to understand. She is having fun though! She LOVES the plank and A frame more than any other item on the course. In fact, when I bring her to class, she tends to walk herself across both. I guess what also gets me a bit depressed is that it's so HARD to teach her these jumps, etc at home... since I don't have the equipment. It feels like it takes 75% of the class for her to remember what she's doing. Erin - you have it figured out perfectly! There is nothing wrong with a fun class, if it is your goal just to get out and spend a bit of time with your dog. But, if you want to have this as a sport, you are doing harm in the long run. There are also the safety concerns long term with you both not having a solid foundation. Agility gets fast and there are potentials for crashes, falling off/over obstacles, and structural injury for both of you (pulling muscles, twisting ankles, leg injuries) and all that. Learning things correctly at a slow pace, then amping it up when solid is really the best way to minimize things getting out of control later on. Most people who get "bit" by the bug do end up buying equipment to practice at home. You can see the value - it is frustrating only being able to work on things at class. It severly limits your progress! My 1st purchase was a 4 pack of simple jumps. I still have them. They are from www.affordableagility.com and cost about $100 including shipping. That is the best deal I have seem, and they are still in daily use, even after being outside all the time for the past 2 years! I bought a 2nd set last summer to start making courses, as we progressed in class and needed to start making that part of our practice. Good luck! |
| Erin - I am pressed for time so I will make this quick. Then PM at another time if I forget to address this again. Dawn is correct about foundation. IF you even THINK you want to compete in the future you need a more disciplined class with a better foundation. One thing with Harry is he never jumped on me BUT I wish I had insisted on better obedience at the beginning because it was harder to go back after he had gotten away with so much for so long to insist that he focus on me. It is in your best interest not to let her choose her obstacle. The reward for an exciting dog is you releasing them to go to the obstacle. Sorry about the short note. We can go into this later next week. I am going out of town for Mom's weekend at my son's fraternity. So no doggie stuff. I will be back Sunday evening. I can PM you my phone number if you want to call me sometime. You are smart to ask these questions now. I had doubts at the beginning about our training and that was before I knew anyone to ask. |
| Simon used to do this ALOT. It took time but we soon worked as a team(if he was at his regular training place). He is VERY fast but started looking to me to see what to do next. If I was confused and stopped he stopped. Now that we are on the injured list(me) he will probably forget everything. |
| Ditto everything Dawn has written. The foundation work is critical not only for the finished product but for the saftey of your dog too. They love doing the obstacles. But repeating them several times in a session isn't really good for them. Very easy to tear an ACL if you overdo the A-frame. It takes a long time to train for competition. My trainers told me to expect a year to get the weaves correct. My husband has made me some of the equipment.....channel weaves, wobble board, dog walk board & regulation obedience jumps too. I bought a tunnel to practice with as that seems to be the thing that freaks out José (I think because he's a big boy). Inside I have narrow pcv piping cut into lenghts that fit in between the chainlink kennels. If they want to get to the other side of the room they have to jump it. I can change the height in 2" increments. I've been looking at buying a set of agility jumps for outside so I can set up more than one jump & sequences. Teaching the correct movement & signals for the handler is the critical part. You have to give your dog the correct commands before you can expect it to perform correctly. Even people that have been doing agility for years will go back & work on the foundation stuff from time to time. |
| Ditto again. The easy part for Tiggy is going hell for leather at the obstacles. The hard part is for her to pay attention to me so we work as a team and she knows where to go next. She gets soooo excited she doesnt want to stop and look to me for direction. So we are not be a team at all, just a slower upright trying to keep up with a speedie sheepie. We are hardly doing any obstacles at class. Its nearly all ground work with just occasional things like going from a wait on the table to the tunnel. Usually its just a wait for me to release Tiggy. We usually fail the first two attempts Tiggy is really good at reading my body language and she can tell when I'm getting ready to call the command and jumps the gun. |
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