Agility Trial Saturday with Kyara- Advice needed

[corbinam]

You guys are doing well! As I read your post, before I even watched your videos, I knew exactly the behavior that you're describing.

Kyara isn't driving ahead of you, and is stuck quite often in handler focus. If we don't give Bentley clear direction, he will nip at our heels and won't look up for the next obstacle. He is WAY better now, and very rarely does it. But, we've worked really hard to train him obstacle focus as well as have learned how to handle him by giving him clear direction.

If I were you, I would work A LOT on forward drive and obstacle focus. Reward her away from you, don't reward her for looking back at you. Between obstacles she checks in with you quite a bit, and you want her to cue off of your body motion--she doesn't need to stop and look at you all the time. Not sure if you get Clean Run, but there are often (at least there were before I stopped subscribing!) some really great articles with sequences to work both obstacle and handler focus.

And to Heather's (ortegah's) point about gamblers, gamblers is actually trickier than it seems because it can be really choppy. I remember once a good handler came off a gamblers course and NQd, but she was ecstatic. She said it was a really great opening. Try to plan a smooth course, something simple if that's easier--keep Kyara moving with you and driving an easy course. That's what works for Bentley--he gets in obstacle focus and it helps him to be successful.

 

[Meldor]

But, we've worked really hard to train him obstacle focus as well as have learned how to handle him by giving him clear direction.

If I were you, I would work A LOT on forward drive and obstacle focus. Reward her away from you, don't reward her for looking back at you. Between obstacles she checks in with you quite a bit, and you want her to cue off of your body motion--she doesn't need to stop and look at you all the time.

Thanks for all the great tips !

Just a quick question, what did you use with Bentley to reward away from you? I'm thinking of either throwing a ball or the frisbee ahead when she gets it right. That will probably do the trick.

 

[corbinam]

Thanks for all the great tips !

Just a quick question, what did you use with Bentley to reward away from you? I'm thinking of either throwing a ball or the frisbee ahead when she gets it right. That will probably do the trick.

Either of those will work--just make sure you're timing it so that she has to complete the sequence correctly to get it, but not so early that it becomes a lure.

Unfortunately Bentley isn't toy motivated so it is a bit harder for him. He also won't chase a bait bag. We used target plates for him with food. It is more of a lure, but it worked for him.

 

[corbinam]

I should also have added that you want to make sure that you throw the reward early enough that she doesn't have to look back at you to get her reward.

 

[SheltieChe]

What was your goal/s for this trial/runs? Did you achieve them?
You might consider signing for gamblers and work on your contact performance as a goal and not a Q otherwise you are in the process of successfully ruining your contacts by not being consistent.
Kyara appear stressed by lead outs. Is she stressed at practice as well?
She is frustrated because handler is super late with information what to do next, nipping is not a dog´s problem. Circle work with increase speed and slowing down-walk at signs of nipping/ arousal might help.
Paycheck for taking obstacles was not high enough, returning to foundation One Dumb Jump exercises might do wonders. Obstacles should be like magnets, dog leaves you in order to take them with no care in her mind

 

[Sharon]

Agility Trial Saturday with Kyra

Kyara appear stressed by lead outs. Is she stressed at practice as well?


The dog does't looked stressed to me.She looks like she is raring to go and run.What do you see as stressed? Also she didn't lead out.

 

[SheltieChe]

Every dog is able to handle a certain amount of stressful challenge, and every dog can be in a situation that exceeds their capacities.
At start line I see fidgeting, ears going back, worry about what is behind her which increases as handler moves away, change in breathing pattern, barking, tension of the body. Everything should be taken in a context though. What is fine for one dog and is mild concern is a reaching its limits for another dog. Combine it with increasingly worse performance as day goes by, not taking obvious tunnel entries at last run, having small zoomies running around tunnels, bailing out and reverting to nipping and flanking when handling gets confusing and I see a dog where stress went over the dog´s capacities to handle it.
http://3lostdogs.com/do-you-recognize-these-6-signs-of-a-stressed-out-dog/

 

[Sharon]

Agility

Every dog is able to handle a certain amount of stressful challenge, and every dog can be in a situation that exceeds their capacities.
At start line I see fidgeting, ears going back, worry about what is behind her which increases as handler moves away, change in breathing pattern, barking, tension of the body. Everything should be taken in a context though. What is fine for one dog and is mild concern is a reaching its limits for another dog. Combine it with increasingly worse performance as day goes by, not taking obvious tunnel entries at last run, having small zoomies running around tunnels, bailing out and reverting to nipping and flanking when handling gets confusing and I see a dog where stress went over the dog´s capacities to handle it.
http://3lostdogs.com/do-you-recognize-these-6-signs-of-a-stressed-out-dog/

I don't see a dog stressed at the start line.And there is no lead out there.

 

[k9kreationz]

I'm not sure why, but I can't see the last 3 videos. The 4th showed and error and the other two are 1 second long, so nothing. Weird. Just an FYI. (looks like it's an issue on my side, I can't even see my own videos)

First and foremost, you guys looked great!!! Seriously!
And secondly, when you were on the table, as the judge got to 3, I realized he was saying it in French. LOL.

It always is hard in the beginning. So, here's my advice. Don't let things slide. I know you're excited, nervous, want to do your best. BTDT. And well, screwed my dog up.

Everyone has given you great advice about the nipping. I know when I do Gamblers, although I'm still running smoothly at the end and making up things as I go along, it's almost like Koji KNOWS it. I don't know how, but he knows that I'm just making up things until the buzzer goes off. He starts barking at me, and telling me off. I guess I'm not as slick as I think, LOL. Definitely "nip" that in the bud asap. Once I realized Koji was telling me off, I started working on my handling. But until that came together more, I'd just stop running, get him a bit more under control, then move on.

As for the contacts and the start line. I had to retrain both. Why? Because I let things slide and over time, it got really really bad. So, here's my BIG two cents. Don't allow it. I know, it's hard, try to catch yourself.

First, the contacts. You said, that you didn't even stop because you were nervous. Honestly, that's not an excuse for Kyara NOT to stop. The dog should stop regardless of what we're doing. So make sure you proof the 2o2o/4on, by having her stop if you stop, her stop when you're still running, etc and also with releasing. Release when you're moving, release when you're not moving, etc. So, something to keep working on.

Second, the start line. I agree with a couple of others who talked about working on this now. You're releasing while you're moving. Proof that. Kyara should sit there and wait until she is released. It doesn't matter if you release when you're moving, stopping, walking, turning, dancing, hopping, etc. You should be able to run away, look back, say WATCHA DOING? and she shouldn't move (unless that just happens to be your release cue, hehehe).

Trust me, I know it's not easy to fix when you're in the ring and I know it's even harder to do it in the ring when you're new....but trust me when I say, there's a reason I had to retrain everything. LOL. I let things slide and boy did they get out of hand.

I will never forget the time that I walked 6 feet out past the first jump. Koji broke his start line stay. I put him in a sit, thanked the judge, picked him up and left. I had a LOT of people saying, "I give you credit, that is NOT easy to to do" and "good job, I couldn't do it" and "I can't believe you just did that, great job!" I'm telling you this, so you know how hard it is for seasoned people to walk off (sometimes it's worse for us because we want that dang Q!!!).

In the last year that I trialed, I think I walked off the course more than I actually ran due to retraining the start line stay and the contacts (granted, I went from running to stopping).

But again, you guys look great! And you guys will only get better. Definitely get the start line and contacts proofed now, it'll be easier in the long run. The more you allow "bad behavior", the worse it'll get and then you'll have to retrain it, like I'm sure, many of us had.

When I get YT up and running again, I'll go watch the other vids. I'm sure they're great!

 

[Toffee's Mom]

You knowwww...
I was thinking about the nipping etc etc...
Spruce and I are starting to work on all of this right now, but I thought what could help if you HAD to interrupt nipping... to be able to refocus, get an emergency down on the field to interrupt the behaviour.

Might be an idea?


This should keep Spruce and I busy for a few months