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Comment by Beth on October 2, 2012 at 10:22am

Cheri, your description of your novice dog cracked me up. Sometimes Jack will hit the weaves when he's not meant to and you can see him going "Uh, I lost mom" and start to slow up and by the end he's just wandering through them (still getting them in the right pattern).

It reminds me of the way it's very hard to walk past a hopscotch board on the sidewalk without hopping. Jack can't go by weave poles without weaving. Something we definitely need to work on while not losing the enthusiasm to weave.

Comment by Beth on October 2, 2012 at 10:19am

Thanks for the moral support guys! I must say Jack is a tough dog. There are two issues we are struggling with. One is there is a puppy focus class right before mine, and some of the puppies tend to leave treats buried in the grass, so Jack will work for awhile and then decide he'd rather wander off hunting treats, even if the treats on the ground are Cheerios and I have liver or dead fish or cheese. I'll gather him up and do some obedience or a time out and then he'll be ok for a bit then blow me off again.

The other is he picks up too quickly on patterns. So if we do jump-- Aframe-- tunnel--- weaves and then try to do jump-- Aframe-- tunnel-- teeter, I have a HECK of a time calling him off the pattern. We've worked on it and he will do great discrimination the first time or two we do a run, but once he thinks he knows the course, that's the route he's taking!! lol

We went through a rough spot after he crashed at the tire earlier this summer where he didn't like the tire, then decided the REAL problem was tunnels. We seem to have gotten past that. Last week he was brilliant and I was SO proud and he was happy and waggy and sparkly-eyed. This week he was my stubborn beast, though I had to crack up when I looked down to see why I had lost him and he had a huge mouthful of cut grass, despite the fact I had liver in my hand.

What a goof. Part of the problem is I don't work much in between classes, and part of the problem is he knows when I can catch him and when I can't....

Comment by Cheri on October 2, 2012 at 9:13am

Beth you should trial! What you describe are some of the things that the baby dogs just need to figure out and even when they figure it out in class, they'll still do it in the ring until they figure out that they're supposed to do the same thing in the ring as they do in class! Novice is a hoot! I just trialed with my novice boy this last weekend. On Saturday he was perfection, following me, reading me, taking the obstacles and earning a Q in Standard and JWW. Then on Sunday he was crazy novice puppy! "No Mom, I don't WANT to do the Weave poles! They're slow. I want to do this tunnel over here. I'm GOING to do this tunnel over here! What? No? But I don't WANT to weave! Tunnel!? No? But...there's a tunnel Mom. Okay, how about this other tunnel over here? No? WHY NOT???"  It was like trying to get a kid to eat his vegetables when he was arguing to have dessert first. I was laughing so hard I could barely stand up! You just have to go through some tribulations with some dogs but they eventually "get it" and then you're off to the races!

Comment by Cristi on October 2, 2012 at 12:12am

It sounds like Jack is already fabulous! I think every thing will come together in time. Keep up the good work.

Comment by Bax & Zigs & Rosie on October 2, 2012 at 12:06am

I think you and Jack will trial! Everyone goes through struggles with keeping their dog focused, whether it's a head on obstacle discrimination or just paying basic attention to what is ahead of them. Depending on the course layout, I will try to use a name call or clap to redirect their attention. I found that as I ran more with Baxter I could tell when he was about to get distracted or needed extra guidance. And the most important advice I can offer is that no matter how much you train, they can and will still surprise you. Like by perfectly taking a jump 10 inches over their jump height. :)

Comment by Beth on October 1, 2012 at 10:39pm

I should also add that he found an 18" jump stuck in the corner (mixed height dogs in class) and went over it after coming down the A-frame.   lol    Almost from a standstill and he was perfectly clean....  If he would just apply himself better he could be fabulous but I just don't think he'll ever be that dog.

Comment by Beth on October 1, 2012 at 10:33pm

So the good news is that Jack will nail his weave entrances from just about any angle, and will do so when I am halfway across the ring from him.

The bad news is that he will do that when what he's supposed to be taking is the teeter.   :-)

Agility is such an adventure with Jack.  He is so independent and he really does not care if I am pleased with him or not.   I know some dogs always get sucked in by the tunnels.  With Jack, it's the weaves.   

I have joked with my instructor that I have two identical Corgis:  the really good, really fast one and the one who blows me off and does whatever he feels like.

I'm not sure trialing is ever in our future.

Comment by Cheri on July 3, 2012 at 10:11am

I have a new agility puppy with the same issue. Slowing down is not in his agility vocabulary. One of the handling techniques I use with my guy is to be as obvious as possible that I want him to decelerate, and the nice thing is it reinforces that he needs to pay attention to my body and motion cues. I decelerate and actually do it very forcefully, almost stomping my feet so he can see we're decelerating. I do this when we're running at a trial. But it has to be prefaced with teaching the deceleration cue in class. I think Gordon just gets so hyped up at trial that he just wants to go, Go, GO! Also jumping exercises where you first present them with jumps that are evenly spaced, and then change the jumps (without them seeing) to variable spaced jumps it very beneficial. The unexpected change teaches them to access the course to determine their take off point and not take it for granted. It takes practice for them to figure it all out.

Comment by Bax & Zigs & Rosie on July 3, 2012 at 9:47am

Ouch! That doesn't sound like fun. I have a couple of suggestions.

 

1. Baxter had a similar problem of being too fast for his own good. If you have taught the command "easy" or "slow" I would definitely try to use it as he is blasting through a tunnel, especially if he's coming up to something that requires him to collect (i.e. weaves, tire.) Baxter learned the "easy" command when coming to the downside of the A-frame and dogwalk. I use it with him when we're practicing heeling and he starts going too fast, or when we're practicing keeping him from over-running a table. After Baxter started getting up more confidence and speed, I was surprised at how much "easy" can be used as a reminder to slow down.

 

2. Jump grids are a great idea too. I like to try and put together long straight sets of jumps to get him to build up speed and then end it with a table to practice getting him to slow down at the end.

 

3. Have you tried any ladder exercises? Bascially you put a ladder down in the grass and have him hop over the rungs. It helps teach him body awareness of his front and back end. Ziggy had to work on this a lot because he would also just fling himself into a jump rather than actually jump.

 

4. You might also want to work with him specifically with the tire. Especially if he's not really feeling it anymore due to the knockdowns. If you start with it lowered a bit, maybe it will be easier for him to realize the jump when you eventually raise it to his full jumping height.

Comment by Beth on July 2, 2012 at 8:45pm

Soooo, Jack absolutely flattened the tire jump in class tonight.  We did tunnel-teeter-dogwalk-jump-tunnel-tire.   He came flying out of the tunnel at mach 10 and went through it without bothering to collect himself to actually, you know, jump.  

The entire contraption fell down right on top of me.  My thoughts went something like "OUCH!!!"   "Is my dog ok?"  "OUUCCCHH"   I have a nice bleeding brushburn and it will be interesting to see where the giant bruises show up; I'm thinking mostly my upper arm and maybe my ribs.

Anyway, any suggestions?  He is not a careful jumper.  For those who also do horses, George Morris would say he's not safe if I sent his pic into the jumper clinic.  He flattens and is not careful with his feet.  He's brought things down with the front and with the hind.

I'm thinking jump grids are in his future.  Also working him deep into a jump from a stand.  However, I don't like to jump him too much because my boy carries a lot of weight (not fat; he's rail-thin) in his front end and I think too much jumping might be hard on him.

Any other suggestions?  And now he's not too crazy about the tire.  This is the second time he brought it down but the first time it did not land on ME. 

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