Handler Novice Agility

Romeo smashes his face into my hand when I ask for a nose touch - he reeeally drives into it. Juliet will lick or just ever so lightly tap her nose to my palm. She has improved slightly and I can feel her pushing in abit more!
I feed using the same hand that is being nose touched coz I think it builds value and focus in that hand. I do it for one hand first then the other.

Hey!
That is EXACTLY what I am going to do now, its what she recommended to mark and put the reward in the hand that you asked for the nose touch for... I saw the difference almost right away... no diving at my hand just yet, lol but a little more firm nose touches, lol
Good for Romeo being THE man!
 
First intro to the teeter and little course today

First intro to teeter and he did well! :biggrin2:
He is starting to drive towards the target for 2o2o position... and it made him go on the teeter and it looked pretty good and solid to me for his very first time! I find that he is NOT a tunnel kinda dog, and I can tell I still have to build up more value for the tire...

The course was starting to show me that Toffee is a bit of a wild man, lol
He ran off to holler at another handler who had moved and was sitting on a wall where there were no people before and so on... We did a little mock gamblers course and that taught me that I have to do more flat-work, because that dog is FAST all of a sudden and barking his fool head off as I apparently don't give instructions fast enough... lol
Amazingly enough he went out to the gamble...
Was a fun exercise!

Here he is with his little buddy, Mocha and then playing with the ball for reward (as he loves soccer)
 

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First intro to teeter and he did well! :biggrin2:
He is starting to drive towards the target for 2o2o position... and it made him go on the teeter and it looked pretty good and solid to me for his very first time! I find that he is NOT a tunnel kinda dog, and I can tell I still have to build up more value for the tire...

The course was starting to show me that Toffee is a bit of a wild man, lol
He ran off to holler at another handler who had moved and was sitting on a wall where there were no people before and so on... We did a little mock gamblers course and that taught me that I have to do more flat-work, because that dog is FAST all of a sudden and barking his fool head off as I apparently don't give instructions fast enough... lol
Amazingly enough he went out to the gamble...
Was a fun exercise!

Here he is with his little buddy, Mocha and then playing with the ball for reward (as he loves soccer)

How fun! And way to go for getting out to the gamble!

Umm..and why no video? :( Haha!
 
Sounds like Toffee is coming along nicely and congrats on the gamble. I'm sure he'd outdo Koji any day. Definitely use high rewards for things he dislikes. but the tunnel? crazy dog, they're supposed to love those. Koji didn't like them either, took a couple weeks of training and high high rewards to love them. keep on training. can't wait to see the outcome of fast crazy dog who will do gambles. hehehe.

and yes, where are those videos?
 
SHOULD we enter a fun match?

SOOOO
I am contemplating our FIRST fun match... what do you guys think??

I am not putting Toffee on a full a-frame or a high teeter yet... but they are running a Starters Jumpers and a Gamblers course so that means only jumps and tunnels in the Jumpers course... I could likely get away with not doing the contacts in the Gamblers pretty easily as there usually isn't a contact in the main Gamble in a starters course and even if there is, I could just skip it :)

But oh my Gosh I need to learn this handling business... I get so confused out there... LOL
Do you guys think I should just enter since it is just a fun match and what the hell? This way I can learn what I need to train over the winter?!
 
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I say, 'go for it!'. :biggrin2:

Seriously, you seem to have a good grasp of your limitations as a team. The beauty of fun matches are you can run the course as it's laid out or just do the parts you want to work on.

While the fun match environment isn't exactly like a trial, I still think it's a good intermediate step toward getting your dog used to a trial environment.
 
I say, 'go for it!'. :biggrin2:

Seriously, you seem to have a good grasp of your limitations as a team. The beauty of fun matches are you can run the course as it's laid out or just do the parts you want to work on.

While the fun match environment isn't exactly like a trial, I still think it's a good intermediate step toward getting your dog used to a trial environment.

I am so excited even just at the possibility... lol
Even tho I will prob make a fool of myself :o:biggrin2:
 
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