Ash's Training Update

Hi all

Finally got round to getting Stuart to take some photos of Ash doing some of her foundation training in the paddock today.

First there are some of her learning her jump bumps. I start with a single bumb (which is a 1m long section of plastic spouting with coloured tape on it) and getting drive to her toy.

Over time we add a second and then add hurdle uprights to change the look. The side rails in the photos help keep the pup straight.

I tend to alternate between sending her to her toy at the end and doing a leadout and going to the toy and releasing her.

She is starting to really drive through the lane of bumbs now and we will simply consolidate this and once she is confident, we will start doing some bend work with the jumpbumps to teach her how to balance on the turn. Important though that she has good drive with the straight ones first!

We are also working on her targetting and have this week progressed to teaching her end position on a ramp and have her give the target behaviour. She gets on from the side of the ramp and assumes her end position, is rewarded for front feet on the ground and rear on the ramp, then I add the target and reward the nose touches.

As you can see, Ash chooses to lie down if I ask for multiple touches. This is no problem - Kindle did this as well. Again, lots of work will be done consolidating this end position.

The next progression will be to ask her to get on the ramp higher up and drive into position. This will be interspersed with tugging with her while she is in the end position - this will add more value to the position. We want the end position on the ramp to carry a high value to her so that it is always her goal from the moment she steps onto a piece of contact gear.

Kindle's end position has stayed rock solid so far and I'm thrilled with that even when she is in high drive at a show. More soon................................

Amanda & Zip

Amanda and Zip had a great show at Eastern Bay of Plenty last weekend.

Below is a photo of her in 1st place lineup. They also had a 3rd and a 6th.

Not bad for her 3rd show!!

Kindle's First Agility Champ Show

Well we ventured to Eastern Bay of Plenty last weekend and Kin had her first official Champ starts.
I was thrilled with her - she was so relaxed all weekend and the basics were all great.

She had a couple of 5f rounds in Starters with new gear - one refusal and she dropped one rail due to inexperience - nothing wrong with that! She did however pick up a 4th place in the other starters so that was pretty special.

Her novice rounds were pretty good too the best of which was a 9th place ribbon!

So a good start and with her getting faster with each run I couldn't have been happier :-)

Kindle's Next Step

OK - so after a couple of Jumpers classes, I ventured out with Kin into an agility Ribbon Trial in order to test our contact behaviour in the ring.
I was thrilled with her - her Aframe was slower than at home or training but her behaviour was perfect.
She even recognised the weavepoles and was pretty confident all day.
Huge improvements from our first efforts in Jumpers and a great step forward.
This weekend we have another jumpers comp then our first agility champ show toward the end of the month.
The next few months will produce huge learning curves for both of us I am sure but we're on the right track now..........
Fiona

Ladder Work

Today we taught Ash to walk through a ladder.

This assists with rear end awareness and teaches concentration on an obstacle and doing a behaviour prior to gaining a reward.

The first step is to walk backwards through the ladder slowly and reward any paws within the confines of the ladder. Doesn't matter at the beginning if not all the feet are in there - just reward for any attempt.

Other photos show the end of session one with ash offering the whole ladder with all four feet.

This was the product of just one session of a total of 4 reps.

Shes' such a clever girl.

See Ash stretch!!!!

No actually this was Ash trying to reach for a moth on the wall but its a cool photo.

And lastly the sad Tervs - waiting for mum to come back up from the paddock.

Are you sure its not our turn????

Ash's Foundation Training Starts

Well its about time I did something with her but I've finally got started with Ash's beginner training. Along with heaps of outings to improve her socialisation, we've started her "waits", downs, and perchwork. We also regularly strengthen her tugging as well as practicing our restrained recalls and other motivation exercises.

She is such a dude and loves to do things.

Yesterday a friend was here with her 60cm balance cushion and we shaped Ash to put her feet on it. The front ones were easy as she has done perchwork but it took a little longer to get the rear feet on. I was so surprised how quickly she got it though and within a couple of minutes she had all 4 feet on the cushion and was happily working to stay on and enjoying the challenge of it.

Long long way to go but I couldn't be happier to have what we have already.

My main concentration for the next few weeks will be to get her leadout skills happening so that in a couple of months we are ready to start introducing her to jump bump work.

In the meantime we are also working hard on hand touches with other people with heaps of rewards in order to get her super confident with strangers. The improvement there is huge and I'm pleased with that too. I am looking forward to being able to show her once she is ready.

Here's hoping

Fiona

Musings on Weave Training

Having now trained 6 of my own dogs to weave I have been thinking really hard about the methods I have used and my own views on the benefits and drawbacks of each. Below is a precis of the methods I've used with each dog.


Nero - 1989 - full upright set - lured with hand. A good if not lightning fast weave - left hand only.

Robbie - 1990 - full upright set - lured with hand. Robbie could only ever weave happily on the left and through experience had fairly good entries by the end of his career. It was an ok weave but not quick enough by today's standards.

Flame - 1996 - Channel with wires. Good bilateral weave with brilliant right hand entries - shallow left entries were never flash and required remedial handling.

Jafa - 1999 - Channel without wires - ok weave nothing too flash.

Fya - 2002 - 3-pole clicker trained weave. Good fast weave with excellent right hand entries. Left hand shallow entries not perfect but all around I am happy with her weave.

Kindle - 2008 - two-pole entry work followed by working through the weave-o-matic or V-weave method. Once I got to approx 4" at the top of the poles, it was evident that Kin's head position was not what I wanted. As the poles came in, her head followed the gap in the poles upward. At this time after much thought, I switched her to the channel weaves and within a couple of repitions her head position was much improved. We have been working through the method and are nearly finished.

In the meantime, my daughter's dog Zip has been working through learning the weave via the 3-pole cliker method. While I have been watching I have been struck by the difference in the understanding of these two dogs. Zip has learnt what the poles represent and how to negotiate them at any speed. Due to Amanda's diligence, Zip understands his entries brilliantly and his speed is increasing each day.
Kindle understands how to run very fast through a channel albeit an extremely narrow one. She single steps at good speed though the set with excellent reliability. However, I do not believe that she has a true understanding of what the poles are and if she approaches at a speed which means she can not automatically single step them, she is a bit lost.

In the middle of all of this, i have just watched Susan Garrett's 2 by 2 DVD. I am now convinced that this is the method I will use for Ash when I start her weave. It is that basic understanding which is missing from Kin's performance and I know it will come back and bite me at some stage.
Watch this space for updates!!!