We had our first agility class
Would love some more advice from others. Lisa and Frankie |
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Ah, yes, the challenges of working with a young dog (lack of focus!)  Best advice there is keep working on it. It will come. Can you teach him some fun tricks to do so he has a reason to focus on you while the other dog is working? Ask your instructor for some ideas. Not recognizing the jump as something to jump  - it happens. Do you have a single jump at home? Even a broom stick over two overturned buckets will do (or any other way you can think to improvise). Put him in a sit in front of the jump. I would suggest 12" to start and no more than 12". I've tried starting with 8" since it's the principle, not the height that matters at this time, but most OES I've tried this with refuse to acknowledge that 8" is a jump. Especially since they can walk over it. Anyway, put him in a sit right in front of the jump. To start you can stand in a 90 degree angle to him, straddling the jump bar. Encourage him to jump FROM A SIT (not stand up and then jump) over the jump and land on the other side. You will have a cookie in the hand furthest away from him and you will hold your hand LOW on the other side of the jump to encourage him to jump ROUND over the jump and land with his head lowered on the other side, not sticking straight up in the air and landing hard and four footed. You'll do this from both sides of him - always when you're training agility make sure the little things you practice are done from both sides so the dog does not become "one-sided". Eventually you progress to leaving him in a stay and going immediately to the other side of the jump, facing him, and calling him over. This is Sunny with her Ruby, at an (OES) agility seminar last year I think it was in Wisconsin"  Ideally, for a 12" jump, to be jumping it round (basic gemometry, think trajectory) he will be taking off at about 12" away from the jump and landing 12" past it (keep in mind there must be room on landing side to accommodate big butted OES). Eventually, but you are in no hurry, you will be standing to the SIDE of the jump, facing the direction you want him to go, but still asking him to jump in this round, collected way, so rewarding LOW. This is Sunny with Luca. I hope she intends to follow through, drop her hand and reward him low!   What does this accomplish? 1) you teach him that it is a JUMP (i.e. jumping is required )2) you are teaching him proper jumping form 3) you are building lots of value into the jump - meaning he will start to look at jumps as GOOD THINGS, because he has received so many cookies for hopping over them. Some things to consider: 1) it may be hard to convince him to jump off his rear from a sit, especially because of his hip situation - this is hard work for any dog to start! If 12" is too much, try 8" to see if it may be helpful in his case as it requires less physical effort 2) this is actually good for him - it builds butt and ab muscle. BUT, you don't want to overdo it: don't do tons of repetitions every time you do this. Think about your own (maybe) flabby abs. You decide to do something about it. You decide you're going to do sit-ups. (I want to go on record as noting I HATE sit-ups, but never mind). When you start out, maybe you can only do five. If you keep at it, the following week maybe you're doing ten. And so on. Or maybe you stay at ten but now you add some weights to the equation, and so on. In other words, you build up to this gradually to allow his body to adjust to the requirements. He will get stronger as you go along, but push him too far, too fast and just like in us, you heighten the risk of injury. The risk is small here, mind you, it's not that. It's just that dogs like to PLAY. He's not worried about his (maybe) flabby abs and sees no value in the old adage "no pain, no gain"  You want this to be ENJOYABLE for him. I eventually work my dogs up to jumping 24" from a sit. But this is FAR, FAR in the future and since you will never be jumping him 24", 16" will probably be his ideal goal, don't aim for much more than that. You can compete in CPE by jumping 16". You may even be able to jump 12". Why stress his body if you don't have to? And, again, you can ask your instructor about this. It helps to have someone show you. Writing about it like this it's hard to say if I'm making sense. Now, if he or she is not familiar with the concept - not all agility competitors use the one jump exercises to build jumping foundation, but many do, to the point that there's an article in Clean Run (written by an agility competitor/vet as I recall) that describes it pictorially. If you're interested in the concept I'll try to find it, copy it, and if you PM me your address I'll mail it to you. A class of two. Sweet!!!!!!! Enjoy all the individual attention. It's a great way to start. Kristine |
| Or just send air fare to Kristine to come and teach your fuzz butt. What a wonderful instructor...even I understood her instructions! |
| and I will add in that I followed those jump instructions and Chewie has these really nice rounded jumps - even when full of energy and adrenalin in competition. Totally paid off. Jumps - And we also had the "oh, there was a jump bar there?" going on. At the time it felt like we were going nowhere fast. Attention - Thankfully we had a super sound obedience/focus background, so never ever had to deal with the lack of attention! BUT - I'm not being smug about it - it was something I worked VERY hard at when he was young. It is one of those foundation things that pays off overwhelmingly later on  I've trained so many dogs, that is one thing I learned long ago never to skimp or rush through. It makes everything you do in life with your dog so much more pleasant and easy.  |
| Focus??? What's that? Something Tiggy has on the other dogs!!!! Me? Who's that? I'm the mill stone on the end of her lead that keeps interupting her social life  At least Frankie actually goes between the uprights so he can knock the bar down. Tiggy is certain that the jumps are an obstacle to run around. SIGH. She will jump them when we start close from a sit or a stand but if I go out even a little way she just runs around them. I am about to order a jump or two for my backyard so we can practice a little, often. I am having intermittent success with throwing her tug over the jump but once Tiggy is excited and wanting to run she dodges jumps. |
got sheep wrote: Attention - Thankfully we had a super sound obedience/focus background, so never ever had to deal with the lack of attention! BUT - I'm not being smug about it - it was something I worked VERY hard at when he was young. It is one of those foundation things that pays off overwhelmingly later on I've trained so many dogs, that is one thing I learned long ago never to skimp or rush through. It makes everything you do in life with your dog so much more pleasant and easy. Dawn is right! I learned that the hard way -  But the good news is that it is not too late - Harry is proof of that. Each dog is different as far as soft versus hard. Harry is hard and you practically need to bang him over the head with it. However he wants to do well and it is only fair to him to be consistent. So I must not tell him "sit" three, four, five, six times because then it isn't clear to him what I want. I have gotten a more obedient dog by being more consistent with him. |
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