Day 2 training yesterday (another lengthy post, sorry!).
There were 6 of us in the class; the two terriers and their owners, the young collie, a young (~5 months) vizla pup, and a more mature show-type cocker spaniel with her two hoomans. We had the usual (see, getting into the swing of things now!) chat at the beginning about what we were going to do, whilst the dogs stayed in the cars and then went to get the dogs and take them to our stations which we'd laid out in the agility arena with a raised bed, a cone, a flat rubber circle and a raised block.
The exercises were:
The targetting was a new one for everyone I think; the target could be anything, but flat worked well as it was less attractive to the dogs to pick up and run around with
We started with it between our feet (like a Middle position), call the dog and every time the dog put a foot on the target, mark and reward. The next stage would be to stand a little behind the target, then slightly further away, then to one side etc. until the dog has the idea that it's the target they're after, not coming close to you. The trainer said that it varies a lot how quickly dogs get this - those that have a lot of focus on their owners tend to take longer as they're focusing so hard on the person they don't recognise the target. Other dogs she teaches that are generally a little more scatty, can get it quickly as it's a very literal form of focus and they can progress fast.
We found Two Up (which we've been practising) tricky to begin with as Kipper was very food focussed as ever, and tended to launch himself onto the block which is quite unstable so it fell over a couple of times which put him off. The trainer gave us a larger aerobics step which was brilliant, then got us to slow down the step up so Kipper was having to get a firm footing as he went. We returned to the block and it worked brilliantly! It's this sort of small progression I find really exciting, and can see how important it is for developing muscle, balance and really importantly my skills in breaking it down and trying again.
After about 45 mins of running through these exercises (time flew as ever) we had fun with agility tunnels. First we had a small tunnel between 3 dogs, and took it in turns to get your dog to run through by luring at one end with treats and do this for a few repetitions. Kipper loved this.
We then took it in turns with the 'big' agility tunnel; the trainer held the dog at one end, I went to the other end, put my head in the tunnel and called Kipper. She released him, I ran away from the tunnel and fed a treat to Kipper as he caught up with me, then took up his lead. We all did this a couple of times, and I'm really pleased we went first as the 2nd owner dropped a treat at the exit to the tunnel (by mistake) and from then on, all the exiting dogs were entirely distracted by that and didn't quite have the champagne cork effect that we'd managed!
It was a great session for both of us. Kipper had had a day of new experiences (first time in a horrible noisy multistory car park, first time in a mass of seafront holiday crowds with food, noise and children everywhere, first time on a steam train platform) and whilst he'd comfortably de-stressed by training time I was expecting him to be more tired - but he wasn't, and took to the new exercises really well. I'm still wondering if agility or similar might be his thing; he responds so well, and is a very physically-competent dog so I think it would suit him.
Next week we have to take a Pringles lid and ideas for a shaping behaviour we'd like to learn - any suggestions very welcome!
There were 6 of us in the class; the two terriers and their owners, the young collie, a young (~5 months) vizla pup, and a more mature show-type cocker spaniel with her two hoomans. We had the usual (see, getting into the swing of things now!) chat at the beginning about what we were going to do, whilst the dogs stayed in the cars and then went to get the dogs and take them to our stations which we'd laid out in the agility arena with a raised bed, a cone, a flat rubber circle and a raised block.
The exercises were:
- Two Up (front paws on)
- Cone wrapping
- Middle
- Targetting with paws
The targetting was a new one for everyone I think; the target could be anything, but flat worked well as it was less attractive to the dogs to pick up and run around with
We started with it between our feet (like a Middle position), call the dog and every time the dog put a foot on the target, mark and reward. The next stage would be to stand a little behind the target, then slightly further away, then to one side etc. until the dog has the idea that it's the target they're after, not coming close to you. The trainer said that it varies a lot how quickly dogs get this - those that have a lot of focus on their owners tend to take longer as they're focusing so hard on the person they don't recognise the target. Other dogs she teaches that are generally a little more scatty, can get it quickly as it's a very literal form of focus and they can progress fast. We found Two Up (which we've been practising) tricky to begin with as Kipper was very food focussed as ever, and tended to launch himself onto the block which is quite unstable so it fell over a couple of times which put him off. The trainer gave us a larger aerobics step which was brilliant, then got us to slow down the step up so Kipper was having to get a firm footing as he went. We returned to the block and it worked brilliantly! It's this sort of small progression I find really exciting, and can see how important it is for developing muscle, balance and really importantly my skills in breaking it down and trying again.
After about 45 mins of running through these exercises (time flew as ever) we had fun with agility tunnels. First we had a small tunnel between 3 dogs, and took it in turns to get your dog to run through by luring at one end with treats and do this for a few repetitions. Kipper loved this.
We then took it in turns with the 'big' agility tunnel; the trainer held the dog at one end, I went to the other end, put my head in the tunnel and called Kipper. She released him, I ran away from the tunnel and fed a treat to Kipper as he caught up with me, then took up his lead. We all did this a couple of times, and I'm really pleased we went first as the 2nd owner dropped a treat at the exit to the tunnel (by mistake) and from then on, all the exiting dogs were entirely distracted by that and didn't quite have the champagne cork effect that we'd managed!
It was a great session for both of us. Kipper had had a day of new experiences (first time in a horrible noisy multistory car park, first time in a mass of seafront holiday crowds with food, noise and children everywhere, first time on a steam train platform) and whilst he'd comfortably de-stressed by training time I was expecting him to be more tired - but he wasn't, and took to the new exercises really well. I'm still wondering if agility or similar might be his thing; he responds so well, and is a very physically-competent dog so I think it would suit him.
Next week we have to take a Pringles lid and ideas for a shaping behaviour we'd like to learn - any suggestions very welcome!
imagine if you put Neptune on a very large carpet). Kipper wasn't so keen on this, which suprised me as he's been increasingly comfortable playing two up on less stable objects, so I'm going to take this back a notch and work on it during walks. 
