Practising ‘go round’

[Leanne]

https://flic.kr/p/2dapHxo

 

[Leanne]

So I’ve been watching lots of ‘hooping’ videos recently and it got me thinking about teaching Mas to ‘go round’ stuff - thinking this can be useful on walks to keep games going ‘go round the tree etc’ but also to start teaching him to work from a distance - at the moment if he’s ‘away’ and I say sit he runs back to me to do the sit (go where the treats are)

Anyway I was pleased at how responsive he was, this is the first real training we have done since he was poorly.

Now to work on distance and the jumping up with excitement

 

[HAH]

Golly, that’s good @Leanne - how did you start that off? I’d love to get a good wrap, but we’re still at the side to side stage...

 

[Leanne]

Is it called a wrap? (god I’m useless aren’t I? Lol)

I got the table and lured him round it with a treat, once he was doing that quickly I did it with just my hand... then took tiny steps backwards until he was actually actively having to move round it intentionally, we only started it today so it’s very much in the basics stage.

 

[Leanne]

OH is working from home today so I called him down to show him and he was like ‘can he go both ways round it’

Way to steal my thunder

 

[HAH]

Ohhh, you two are QUICK! that's aces - I only heard it as a 'wrap' at the pre-agility class we do, I think because they 'wrap' themselves around poles and other stuff(?) but 'go round' explains it far better. Or they might be completely different things, someone will correct us

Nice work OH it's all about stages! Do you know which side Mas prefers? Kipper's definitely right pawed, but I'm not sure which way he prefers turning.

 

[Leanne]

He always goes clockwise

 

[Leanne]

He always goes clockwise

 

[snowbunny]

Lovely

If you think you might like to do agility with him at any point, it’s worth working on your body language as that’s what you’ll use for the wraps: you’ll push forward with your right hand for him to go anti-clockwise and left hand to go clockwise around the object. You can teach the two directions at the same time, so he doesn’t become too one-sided.
And remember not to add the verbal cue until you’d bet £100 on him doing the behaviour with just the visual cue

 

[Leanne]

Ooh really? I thought that would confuse him. Right I will try tomorrow... so left for clockwise and right for anti-clockwise?

I’m way to cack handed to pull this off

 

[snowbunny]

Start with him sat on your left or right to make it really clear to start off with. Then your lure can fade to a "push". You can also step forwards with the same foot you are pushing with, which sort of "blocks" the way, so he only has one option of which way to go. Those cues can be faded later on

 

[snowbunny]

Oh, and one thing that tends to build speed is if you toss the treat. Let's think about the clockwise direction - you might start off by marking as soon as his head is at the post, and then toss the treat to the right, so he doesn't wrap the full 180 degrees - more like 90 degrees. As you progress, you can toss the treat more and more around the "clock face", so you are throwing it behind you to do a 180-degree wrap, and to your left, once he's done 180 degrees, to get a 270 degree wrap.

 

[Leanne]

Now I have to use my hands and my feet?