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Comment by Judith Andre on November 20, 2014 at 6:52pm

Murray falls in between too.  I run him Preferred in AKC.  He's a bar dropper though even at 8".... even though he can stand right next to a 16" jump and hop over it (I don't encourage this).  I'm not sure it's a good thing for a dog with a Corgi build to jump higher than he is....at least in the long term.

Comment by Marcie on November 20, 2014 at 6:11pm

What height are you jumping your Corgis at? Becca jumps at 8in in CPE. I'm comfortable with that. However she measures more than 11 inches, less than 12, so she would be at 12in for AKC. She can jump that high, but I'm not sure I like the long term implications.

Comment by Becky Focht on April 23, 2014 at 8:35am

Carolyn sounds like you've got it handled.  So glad things are working out.

Comment by carolyn matassa on April 22, 2014 at 2:00pm

Update :o) & thanks for all the TIPS :o)

We had agility last night, I talked about this with the trainer first, and we agreed that I should give Sonny one chance if he stops and "blows me off".  We did the whole course FIRST on leash so he knew exactly what to do. Then we went off leash....he did a few jumps, and stopped and looked around like "hey, I'm off my leash...let's play the mom has to catch me game."  I turned my back to him, folded my arms and waited.  They tell me he just stood there, kind of looked around, and came right up behind me.  I gave him crazy praise, which he really likes (no treat).  We did HALF the course, stopped for crazy praise & then finished.  Crazy praise & treats at the end, and he really looked like he was having fun getting to run the course off leash....he's much faster off leash than on.  I'm learning that I need to know BEFORE I begin, how I'm going to handle behaviors I want to change with my dog.....this is the first dog I've trained beyond CGC.

Comment by Cheri on April 17, 2014 at 11:50am

Yes, you don't have to do an old fashioned "correction". All there needs to be is undesireable consequences. In this case not getting to play a really rewarding game is the undesireable consequence of not following the rules. Usually that's enough for them to realize that following the rules results in them getting to play the fun game with Mom. 

Good luck!

Comment by carolyn matassa on April 17, 2014 at 11:01am

Thanks, everyone for some great ideas. I will try leaving the ring and/ or putting him in his crate for not listening. Sonny is certainly smart enough, and has had enough regular training, to know what I am asking him to do with me.  Also, this is a fun game, and a "correction" would be completely wrong, especially since I have only "corrected" him maybe twice (and not very hard) in our 1 1/2 years of obedience.  Also, putting him on his leash will get him through....but I really want him to have the fun of running the course "off leash"....I just need to have enough control over him to have him come back to me when needed :o) 

Comment by Cheri on April 17, 2014 at 10:35am

The ultimate goal right now is to train and teach your dog that this game has rules that the dog needs to follow. Right now the rule your dog doesn't understand, or isn't willing to adhere to, is the "with me" rule. So what we need to do is to convey to the dog that there will be undesireable consquences for not following this game rule. It's the same lesson we try to teach our children, if you don't follow the rules, there will be undesirable consequences. Then we set it up so that the undesireable consequences they experience aren't too nasty or dangerous, but shape their choice in the given situation. Just like children, our dogs want to have fun and it's always more fun to play a game by your own rules rather than the set rules. But that's not going to happen. Just like we wouldn't allow a kid to set their own rules when playing baseball, we're not going to allow our dogs to set their own rules when doing agility. The kid playing baseball who decides he's always going to run to third after he hits the ball, ends up sitting on the bench until he decides he's going to follow the same rules as everyone else. Children quickly learn with team sports that if they don't follow the rules, they don't get to play on the team. This is the same lesson we're attempting to teach our dogs and the same methods used to teach children team sports usually work with dogs too. 

Comment by Bax & Zigs & Rosie on April 17, 2014 at 9:00am

I just got a link to this blog post about the "running off" subject. It's pretty long, so I didn't read it yet, but I've heard great things about the author.

Behavior Chains

Comment by Jenny, Tucker, & Zoey on April 16, 2014 at 9:06pm

Hi Carolyn, We've had the same problem and are now training at a new facility where they've been helping me fix it. We do one of two things: If Tucker runs off, he gets one chance to return on recall. If he doesn't, I run out of the room. When I return a minute later, he gets another chance. This has really helped him. He's starting to realize that we have to play the game together, or mom's not going to play at all (and he hates when I leave him). The other thing that we sometimes do, is I keep running my own course and having great fun with my own "imaginary dog", pretending to give treats, etc. Again same concept-- we need to play the same game, or Mom is going to have fun without me. These two things are really helping us make progress. 

Comment by Marcie on April 16, 2014 at 7:59pm

Becca still goes AWOL. She got the zoomies at her first trial and managed to get out of the ring. There was audience participation. Hopefully it goes better at our trial this weekend. At class when she doesn't focus. I put her in a crate and work someone else's dog in front of her. Then I get Becca back out. It works wonders for her.

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