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Agility Training Talk Thread


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I know what you mean Vickie - she over markets things. I find it especially annoying if you've paid for something and then get more ads for something else which you * need * to complete the picture. I find myself thinking "just get on with the lesson rather than telling us how great the lesson is".

Jess - is the shapeup handling too?

I have only briefly looked at OMD, but I like what I see. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone in Vic is doing it, so I won't be able to get support here. I'm training my first dog do I need the help. If I was in Sydney I think I would adopt it.

Our club officially does GD, but a fair few members are now moving to SG's system. There is also a private school doing it here so there is plenty of support available. This all means that it looks like the best option for me at the moment.

I'm doing a foundation course starting next week and now have to decide between seeing her in April or doing the course. I get that she needs to make a living but an entry short course would have been really good.

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I think SG is incapable of doing just a handling course, just as she was incapable of doing just a contact course :laugh:

It will likely include all of her foundations such as CG, IYC, Recallers Games and stuff from Puppy Peaks as well as the handling component.

Edited by Kavik
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Yeah but I've done some of those courses and I don't want to pay for them again!

Me too.

With SG I think she does the whole training methodology thing, and she doesn't seem to be able to separate different components.

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I have only briefly looked at OMD, but I like what I see. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone in Vic is doing it, so I won't be able to get support here. I'm training my first dog do I need the help. If I was in Sydney I think I would adopt it.

If you were in Sydney, especially my club, you would be hard pressed to avoid it! :laugh:

I haven't decided what I think yet, not going to change Kaos's handling, he is nearly 8 years old, just want to tweak and improve a couple of things.

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Kavik, I did Shape Up Foundation (still working through it as I had some hold ups along the way) and signed up for Proofing as well.

megan - Yes Shape Up does include handling as part of it as they go hand in hand. Foundation is about setting the dog up with the basic skills and verbals in particular and starting to proof against your movement i.e. that your verbal overshadows your movement so you can send and get to where you need to be on course. There is only 1 lesson done for Proofing so far but the feedback being given to those who are handling in it is very comprehensive, very clear but not overwhelming.

The main difference between Dave Munnings and Susan Garrett is Dave can run, and thus uses less verbals in his handling as he can get to where he needs to be. I'm not a fast runner and I found Dave awesome last time he was out here, and I'm really looking forward to working with him again. He has done some work with Lisa Frick since he was here last year, so that will be really interesting.

OMD looks to be more about body movement and direction and no verbals, as opposed to the sending and running style that I'm looking for, so I will be happily sticking with what I'm doing. :)

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At the Hawkesbury trial last night we got a qually and 1st place in JDM 600, which gives Kaos his Masters Jumping Title! He was such a good boy all night! We missed the discriminations in ADM and ADO - he loves his tunnels :laugh:

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:thumbsup::cheer::champagne:

That's a great achievement, Kavik. Way to go Kaos. Bummer about the tunnel suck in the others. I have the opposite problem with contact/tunnel discriminations - Kirra is a contact suck - except every now and again when she'll take the off course tunnel just to see if I'm paying attention :rofl:

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I must say that I LOVED the online puppy and foundation course that Silvia Trkman ran. So simple to follow, unlimited videos that you could upload and she always gave great personal feedback to each person. Not once did she ever try to sell anything else, talk about how great the course was, and you were free to get out of it what you wanted. Our pups were pretty much right on 6 months when we started the foundation course (which was the minimum) so we didn't do anywhere near as much as what others were doing. To do so would have involved doing stuff every day and that is something I do not agree with for puppies. So, we just concentrated on one aspect of it (worked out to be 1 or 2 simple play/training sessions every 2 weeks) and ignored anything that wasn't necessary for what we chose to teach at the time, which was sending to tight turns and tunnels. We still have access to all the videos and materials so can revisit it whenever we are ready to for the other skills.

At the age of 10 months (and still not anywhere finished with the online course material) these pups have a better understanding of a lot of handling aspects than any other dog in this household. To make it better, it hasn't even been explicitly taught to them (eg they will confidently send to the backside of a jump from anywhere as long as our shoulders point them to it, our other dogs would either need us to run towards it and really keep the line or they would cut across our line to take the front side). That wasn't taught to them, all we taught them was how to wrap an upright tightly :laugh: They just put 2 and 2 together and realised if we were asking for a tight turn and were facing the outside of the upright then they needed to wrap it in the direction that would bring them over it from behind the jump. No more lazy handling for us though :laugh: Gone are the days were we could get away with not giving accurate information and the dogs still saved our arse- if we don't tell them exactly what we want, then they will do what our body tells them we want (even if our head disagrees).

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Here is an example. I have been stuck at home for nearly 2 weeks after a nasty knee injury and am going a little stir-crazy (as are the puppies). Given that I can now hobble around a little I wanted to get them outside to get rid of some bugs, without having to really move myself. So, I created a little sequence to show what I was talking about. If I was able to actually move, I would likely handle it slightly differently (more distance, more driving to upright, less exaggerated arms) but very happy with how well both girls knew what I wanted. I was also pleased with how well they sent to the uprights, they did it so confidently that I have no doubt they would have sent just as well if I was further away. I wasn't game enough to try any of the other dogs in case they knocked me, and I was already tiring from this short period of time, but my suspicions are that Delta may have got it from this short distance as she is good at maintaining a parallel path but any further distance and she would take the front approach. She may not have committed to anything though with me hobbling as she pulls off pretty easily without momentum. Charlie would probably be the same. Whip has no regard for a parallel path whatsoever and would likely take me out in his attempts to get the front of the jump. I have started doing the same foundations from the Silvia course with him, but he is not up to that point yet.

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I love watching the videos on this thread, maybe one day I'll put one up of my own :p

Sarah had her second agility training session yesterday, she's still on the lead but I can see her confidence getting better already.

With jumps she's waiting for me to say over before jumping, she got the hang of the A frame yesterday and is now tearing up that, she still loves the plank walk (so much easier for a smaller dog) and with tunnels she's mostly going through with my guidance although occasionally she'll turn around half way through and stick her head out at the end she went in :laugh:

Can't wait for next week, the weather has been pretty hot the last couple of weekends so I'm sure Sarah's energy levels will pick up with the cooler weather.

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