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Chandra's agility training

11K views 60 replies 11 participants last post by  TwoBigEars 
#1 · (Edited)
Kinda quiet around here so I thought I'd start a thread to chronicle my puppy's agility training. She's only 5 months old right now so we're mostly working foundation, toy play, body awareness, etc. I'm not very diligent about taping our training sessions but I'll add them here when I do. :)

Today we worked on sends around a cone with the toy in my inside hand. This is challenging since her first impulse is to grab the toy instead of going around the cone, but she works through it! I specifically work on this so we don't have to deal with "but I can't run with the toy/food because my dog is too focused on it" and it teaches her how to think and earn what she wants instead of just grabbing. :)



And from about six weeks ago, ladder for body awareness and cone wraps without the toy challenge.

 
#3 ·
-cone/wing wraps, gradually increasing distance, overlaying "check" and "dig" cues, juuuust starting to work commitment.

-body awareness on plank, harder with a bigger body!

-toy in middle/cookie jar, first session!

 
#6 ·


Starting our journey into running contacts.... won't be doing a lot since Chandra is still young, maybe one or sessions a week for now. And just some boring flat ground/carpet running for a while. Working on the verbal cue for running and my technique throwing the ball and seeing her feet before we bring any equipment into it. The poles are 24' apart, so the length of two planks.
 
#8 ·
Haha! Just a boring video of her running back and forth, but it's something. I'm not the most diligent about taping our training sessions but I'll have to tape the running contact stuff at least. We have been doing some work on call to hand, and handler focus vs. obstacle focus as well so maybe I'll get video of that soon.
 
#11 ·
Been working serpentines/convergence lately. She's starting to get the idea! Need to keep working on jump commitment, had a few issues with that that I cut out of the video. But I'm really pleased with everything she's doing well, she's such a fun puppy.

 
#12 ·
Working some jump skills with Susan Salo's set point exercise. Height only 6-8" since she's still young, just want to get her thinking about jumping and using her body nicely. Still have work to do on this front, haha. But at least we finally have a useful sit-stay!



And beginning our attempt at a running dogwalk. Just intro to the planks with food to get her going through the poles. Will probably only do 1-2 sessions a week on this for a few months since again she's still young.

 
#13 ·
Chandra is beginning her journey to a running dogwalk! We'll see how it goes. :p My current plan is to train a running dogwalk for the straight/easy exits, and a 2o2o for the turns or exits I need to manage. So yes we will be working on a 2o2o as well, and if the running dogwalk totally fails at least we'll have the 2o2o.

Only planning 1-2 sessions a week of this for now, and we may have to take a hiatus for a while when it comes time to raise the planks since she is young. Winter weather will probably hamper our training anyway.

 
#17 ·
Some perch work! Not directly agility stuff, but good body awareness exercise for agility. Starting with independent rotation, then offered movement into heel/side positions.

 
#20 ·
Lots of stuff to do without much equipment!

-body awareness (perch, ladder, plank exercises)
-line ups on both sides
-backing up
-2on2off on a plank or object
-sits/downs/stands in motion (similar behavior to 2o2o with no equipment at all!)
-wraps around a cone (or tree, or barrel, or whatever)
-handling on multiple cones to work on wraps and commitment
-wobble board and tippy plank
-exposure to different surfaces
-classical conditioning to noise
-shadow handling
-delayed reinforcement (example, do some shadow handling and then run to the reward placed elsewhere instead of carrying it with you)
-collar/harness on and off
-weave through legs
-left and right spins

Just some ideas!
 
#22 ·
Chandra working on 2on2off at club drop-in practice. Mostly building value for the position, as well as working in a new distracting environment (new for this behavior, anyway).

 
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#23 ·
Some sequencing with Chandra this morning. Mostly working rear crosses, and some other stuff too. We have been working on rear crosses on one jump, now starting to put rear crosses in sequence. Hard for a baby dog but she's getting it! Also some impulse control at the beginning, being polite for her toy instead of mauling me for it.

 
#24 ·
Some of our recent foundation work for the running dogwalk. Still not doing much intense work since she's young but trying to take advantage of the weirdly nice weather right now before it gets back to snow. Revisiting body awareness, first intro to the dogwalk, some hoop and foot target stuff. I'm trying two approaches, Ali Roukas-Canova's method (with the hoop and small foot target) and my own "idk making it up" thing with the carpet piece. Hopefully one of them will work, but we'll see!!!

 
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#25 ·
Haven't posted for a while, but we've been training! Chandra is a year old now, so we're starting work on the contacts and weaves.

From a couple weeks ago, straight line jumps to work on driving forward, clearly a struggle but not a surprise since this is hard for most beginner dogs. Clearly I need the help of a lead-out and throwing the toy at this point!


First session on teeter between two tables. Ultimately I'll be using the TipAssist to train her teeter performance, but the two table method is still good for working with the movement, height, and noise of the teeter.


And today we started backchaining channel weaves!
 
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#28 ·
Find a trainer near you who is well experienced in competing in agility. I typically recommend avoiding the "just for fun" trainers because they usually have very little experience with agility and it's easy for things to go wrong or even be dangerous with an inexperienced instructor. Most competition trainers still don't require you to compete, just understand that progress might feel a bit slow since there is a lot of foundation work and skills to work on before running sequences and courses.

There are also a lot of great online training options now too. Fenzi Academy, Agility University, and Daisy Peel's Online Classroom would be great places to start. You can find classes for engagement, toy skills, shaping, as well as "agility stuff" like obstacle skills and sequences.

If you look back on page 2 of this thread I listed a few things to work on with little/no agility equipment. If you're unsure of how to train any of those things, definitely check out the online classes. Building a good foundation with engagement, play, shaping, and body awareness makes all the "sexy stuff" of the agility obstacles much easier!
 
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