Admit it

corbinam

corbinam

Moderator
Alright, admit it. What's your least favorite obstacle to train? For those of us who have been training for a while, which do you find the most tedious or frustrating? And for those new to the sport, which has caused you the most grief or trepidation?

I ask because we just got Enzo weaving 6 poles and it took a while. I know a lot of people hate training weaves for that reason. I don't--but I do hate training the teeter! Takes forever, you have to break it down into multiple parts, rushing it can cause big setbacks, and it doesn't help that I don't have one at home!

And because I'm proud--here's Enzo's first work at 6 poles! https://youtu.be/AjeeAxirUwc
 
Woweeeee Enzo! He definitely lives up to his name!!

I'm new to the sport but I am absolutely hating the teeter right now! We haven't taught weaves yet, so I can't speak for that but it can't possibly be more difficult than the teeter! It doesn't help that Cruz is in a fear phase right now and wants absolutely nothing to do with it. Sigh... patience!
 
In Rally, I've been dreading the "Walk Backwards 3 Steps" station in Rally Excellent. Then my trainer gave me a good tip -- and now Beckon is learning it so fast!
 
Weave poles!!! Especially using the 2x2 method... and for the very reason you dislike training the teeter.
My favorite to train is a running aframe!
 
holy moly you SHOULD be proud! Enzo looks awesome!

The teeter causes anxiety for both (wo)man and beast at my house. I built a wobble board for home use, and it is helping Betty acclimate to the moving surface, but it's very much not her favorite.

Here's a super-beginner story for all of you to laugh (with me) at... for a while, we were having a lot of trouble learning the tire. Jumps were fine, but jumping through the tire? Heck no, you'd think I'd poured gasoline on it and lit a match before asking her to jump through that thing.

Part of the problem was that I was trying to shape it. Betty's "first move" when shaping with a new object is to do a nose-touch to it. Well, when you touch the tire with your nose, it moves and it makes a noise. It is a known fact in Cocker-land that things that move and make noise are deadly traps!

So this goes on for a while (that would be weeks). She looks at it, I mark it and give her a treat. She touches it, I mark it and give her a treat. More touching, more noise, more freak-out. No good.

Finally - in violation of my trainers' strict orders to Shape Everything - I set her up on one side of the tire, walked to the other, and called her to me. She flew through that tire like she had wings, and happily collected her cookies. I swear I could hear her say, "Oh, you just wanted me to jump it? Well, why didn't you just say so in the first place?"

Nice dog, shame about the trainer!
 
Weaves, definitely weaves. But now I have retrained Merlin using channels I feel much more confident with them. Now started on Sparrow.

Enzo's weaves are fab.

Here's a question, where do you stand to throw the reward? At the moment I vary it from being at the end of the weaves, to running with her from the start, because Sparrow has a tendency to look back and miss the last pole (I am training on 6). I found if I did some standing right at the end, putting the toy between the last two poles, it helped her to drive forward.
 
Enzo is looking great:yes:

teeter for us- we don't have one either and I want to do a better job with the biboys than I did with the brown dogs.....
 
Chris said:
In Rally, I've been dreading the "Walk Backwards 3 Steps" station in Rally Excellent. Then my trainer gave me a good tip -- and now Beckon is learning it so fast!
Click to expand...

I'd love to know what you are doing- we are having a tough time with that one:(
 
I am not fond of the A frame. I have been going back to using a target during practice because during trials Riley has started jumping over the contact. He us good on the dogwalk and teeter though.
 
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