Agility Rewards?

[Pugsley1]

Hi guys

I am new to all this Agility stuff, so hopefully you can help a bit??

I have just adopted (4 weeks ago) a black and tan Kelpie bitch from the RSPCA and she is about 1year old.

She is learning all tricks and comands very quick and very well , although......

I have just started jumps and weavers with her.... but she seems to be not to impressed with food rewards (she wants it but would really take it of leave it) so i am interested in what some other people find good to use as a reward?

The other issue i have which i think is probably a Kelpie thing...... is that she likes to work at a distance of about 1 - 2 mtrs away from me.... which is making it hard to get her to learn how to jump jumps, as if i get to close, she gos wide and misses the second jump???

She is a sweet little thing that likes her cuddles, but when playing or working she likes her distance. (even returning a fetched ball, she will drop it for me about 1mtr in front of me and wait for me to throw it again)

Any suggestions would be greatly appriciated.

Thanks

[W Sibs]

You can use tug as a reward? Does she like playing tug?

Food is a hit and miss with Emmy too but she will work for a game of tug

ETA: What food are you using for treats? Does she have a favourite food that she will go nuts for?

Charlie will work his little butt off for a Tic Tac and Roast Chicken.

Edited January 5, 2011 by CW EW

[pie]

You could use her ball or other toys for reward, sounds like she likes the ball

For the Kelpie personal space problem see this recent thread discussing the same problems: http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=211784

[Kavik]

I use both food and tooy rewards with my Kelpie, his favourite toy is a thrown squeaky toy. Tug is ideal if yours will play tug.

Some circle work/shadow handling may also help with the personal space problem and also help her understanding of your body language. The distance will come in handy for things like Open and Gamblers - we almost always get the distance challenge, it's the other bits we make mistakes on

What food rewards are you using? I use cheese, but a wide range of things can work such as cooked chicken, cabanossi, frankfurts etc. I have never had a problem with mine as they are gutzes and will eat just about anything

[Pugsley1]

Thanks guys, i will try some different foods and her squeaky ball.

I have tried Smackoos and diferent meats.... but she isn't a guts, so makes it a bit hard.

She doesn't play Tug as she lets go of what ever she has as soon as i touch it. (she has a very soft mouth when it comes to toys etc.)

Is it ok to throw a ball at the end of an exercise?? or is that teaching her to break from consentration??

have used food treats for tricks like Shake/ High 5/ Stick 'em up etc but see that is in front of me so it is when i need her to the side of me when we have an issue......mmmmmm....

I will go and have a look at that other tread that was recomended.

Thanks heaps

P.S. - what method do you guys use for Weavers???

[Kavik]

I use thrown rewards when I want the dog to continue along the same line/active (so weaves, jumps and tunnels if you want them to send ahead) and food for stationary exercises (start lines, contacts).

I trained my weaves using a combination of slanted poles(v-weaves), channel weaves and a 3 pole entry (which really made a difference in his understanding - thanks Vickie!). Next time I think I will give the 2 x 2 method a try.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Pugsley1

you might want to look up 2x2 weaver training (by Susan Garrett but there's a lot of stuff on youtube), you start with two poles and throw the reward along the line where you want the dog to go/be when she goes through... there's more to it than that, I highly recommend the dvd(s).

You also want to do body awareness exercises (SG), and handling exercises (Greg Derrett "Foundation") - ie teaching yourself and the dog what signals mean what so you don't have to run the whole course with the dog, you guide them.

Throwing a reward, requires a good recall and game of tug ideally. There's no point using a thrown reward if the dog nicks off with it.

[4Kelpies]

Oh the joys of working dogs. When I did agility I had to be so careful not to move towards my Kelpie Tia or she would break out even further, sometimes going over the ring rope and taking an obstacle in the next ring. Fortunately the ring wasn't in use at the time. I only wish I could get that kind of distance when working sheep. I could never use food as a reward anywhere near obstacles, she just wouldn't look at it. If your dog likes the squeaky ball, make the most of it. Tia loved tunnels and I would use this as a reward for contacts - by asking her to go to a contact, use the word "touch" meaning two feet on the contact and two on the ground and after a pause would tell her to "go tunnel." I occasionally used a clicker for this but didn't really need it, she would be quivering on the contact just waiting for the release and fly into the tunnel. Just make it all a game. Maybe she would respond and come in closer to you if you have her chase you. You'll probably be able to work out how close you can get to her on course. One to two metres isn't really all that far away from you. I used to run Tia a lot further than that from me. On most of the courses I was just sending her on an arc over several obstacles and running to different meeting points on the course and then sending her out again. Not many people are fast enough to run with a Kelpie.