Just signed Devon up for beginning agility class

[Calliesmom]

Devon definitely showed that he's far faster than his owner. After he jumped off the downside of the walkway ramp in the first heat because I had to move away from it in order to avoid the tunnel, in the second heat I tried to sprint to the other end of the walkway as soon as he started up it so that I could get around the tunnel and get back to the bottom of the down ramp before he got there and jumped off the side, but I didn't have a chance in hell of beating him to that spot. He actually ran across that skinny walkway, something I didn't see any other dog do and had never seen him do before, and was right with me on the down ramp, and of course he jumped off the side again when I had to move away from the ramp to avoid the tunnel.

seriously all dogs are faster than the handler- some dogs learn to go slow and not get ahead of the handler. if you want to compete, you do not want to slow your dog down. the only place that you can beat your dog is when they are in the weaves.....
here's a video of Destin doing novice jumpers with weaves- he is my fastest dog. you can see he beats me to the tunnel, then I catch him in the weaves and then I don't go all the way to the jump at the turn to run out the end of the course. Destin had some serious commitment to going on to jumps so that's what you'll need to get that distance handling.
Running dogwalks where the dog runs the whole way across the dogwalk and down through the contact area are one of the edges that competitors use to win since a running dogwalk is faster than a 2o2o contact. but if you need that catch up time, stopped contacts can give you that moment to catch up in standard. nothing but weaves to let you catch up in jumpers with weaves.

 

[KarenCurtis]

Here's a picture I took before it started:

IMG_3137

• SRW
• Nov 29, 2019

I couldn't get Devon to go up the ramp starting on the side with the tunnel because he would always just go through the tunnel instead, which you could only do twice for points; so I took him to the other end to get him to go across from that side. When I had to move away from the walkway to avoid the tunnel he would jump off the side to follow me before getting into the yellow. We did the course twice (two separate heats), so the second time, knowing what he did the first time, I didn't bother trying to get him to go up the ramp on the tunnel side and when he started up the ramp on the far side I tried to run as fast as I could so that I could beat him to the part with the tunnel and get around it to the bottom of the ramp before he got there so that he wouldn't jump off. That failed too because he just ran across the walkway instead of walking fast and so was still right next to me when I had to go around the tunnel, and of course he jumped off again before he got to the yellow.

Now I get it, Minnie would want to go thru the tunnel every time! She loves it

 

[KarenCurtis]

seriously all dogs are faster than the handler- some dogs learn to go slow and not get ahead of the handler. if you want to compete, you do not want to slow your dog down. the only place that you can beat your dog is when they are in the weaves.....
here's a video of Destin doing novice jumpers with weaves- he is my fastest dog. you can see he beats me to the tunnel, then I catch him in the weaves and then I don't go all the way to the jump at the turn to run out the end of the course. Destin had some serious commitment to going on to jumps so that's what you'll need to get that distance handling.
Running dogwalks where the dog runs the whole way across the dogwalk and down through the contact area are one of the edges that competitors use to win since a running dogwalk is faster than a 2o2o contact. but if you need that catch up time, stopped contacts can give you that moment to catch up in standard. nothing but weaves to let you catch up in jumpers with weaves.

Makes perfect sense! Thanks

 

[SRW]

seriously all dogs are faster than the handler- some dogs learn to go slow and not get ahead of the handler. if you want to compete, you do not want to slow your dog down. the only place that you can beat your dog is when they are in the weaves.....
here's a video of Destin doing novice jumpers with weaves- he is my fastest dog. you can see he beats me to the tunnel, then I catch him in the weaves and then I don't go all the way to the jump at the turn to run out the end of the course. Destin had some serious commitment to going on to jumps so that's what you'll need to get that distance handling.
Running dogwalks where the dog runs the whole way across the dogwalk and down through the contact area are one of the edges that competitors use to win since a running dogwalk is faster than a 2o2o contact. but if you need that catch up time, stopped contacts can give you that moment to catch up in standard. nothing but weaves to let you catch up in jumpers with weaves.

Yes, Destin is really quick. You were further away from him that I was from Devon, and he knew to do things without you being right there. Devon doesn't know that yet, probably because he's been taught that the treats come from me when he does something, so he wants to be right next to me to be sure he gets that treat right away. Also, while I knew he was far faster than me on the ground, I really wasn't prepared for how fast he got across that narrow elevated walkway as no dog in the class, some of whom have been through the class multiple times, even came close to the speed that Devon got across it. If I'd had known how fast he was going to be at it I wouldn't have ever thought about trying to beat him to the other end. Oh well, this was my first time doing it too.

Did you have trouble getting Destin to go over the A frame in the beginning? That's the one thing Devon doesn't want to do, and I'm pretty sure it's because he can't see over the top. I managed to coax him over the top once in class a few weeks ago by holding diced ham cubes in front of his nose and leading him over, but when he got near the top he slinked down and almost crawled over the top, so we've got to work on that as well. I didn't even attempt to have him go over that in the contest because I knew he wasn't ready to do it. Other than that he's shown no fear of any of the obstacles.

 

[Calliesmom]

Yes, Destin is really quick. You were further away from him that I was from Devon, and he knew to do things without you being right there. Devon doesn't know that yet, probably because he's been taught that the treats come from me when he does something, so he wants to be right next to me to be sure he gets that treat right away. Also, while I knew he was far faster than me on the ground, I really wasn't prepared for how fast he got across that narrow elevated walkway as no dog in the class, some of whom have been through the class multiple times, even came close to the speed that Devon got across it. If I'd had known how fast he was going to be at it I wouldn't have ever thought about trying to beat him to the other end. Oh well, this was my first time doing it too.

Did you have trouble getting Destin to go over the A frame in the beginning? That's the one thing Devon doesn't want to do, and I'm pretty sure it's because he can't see over the top. I managed to coax him over the top once in class a few weeks ago by holding diced ham cubes in front of his nose and leading him over, but when he got near the top he slinked down and almost crawled over the top, so we've got to work on that as well. I didn't even attempt to have him go over that in the contest because I knew he wasn't ready to do it. Other than that he's shown no fear of any of the obstacles.

Our instructor lowers the Aframe when dogs are first learning it so it's not as high for the dog to get up. Destin had no fear of anything and another advantage that he had was watching my other dogs do everything so he was pretty sure he knew what he was doing.
It is hard when you first get started- there's so much to learn for both you and the dog.
I also used a lotus ball with Destin- you put treats in it and toss it away from you so that treats don't always come from your hand.

 

[KarenCurtis]

Our instructor lowers the Aframe when dogs are first learning it so it's not as high for the dog to get up. Destin had no fear of anything and another advantage that he had was watching my other dogs do everything so he was pretty sure he knew what he was doing.
It is hard when you first get started- there's so much to learn for both you and the dog.
I also used a lotus ball with Destin- you put treats in it and toss it away from you so that treats don't always come from your hand.

Our instructor lowered the A frame also, gradually made it higher as each dog got more successful at it. I love watching your videos, I learn from them. It is hard and takes time! When I start agility again in the Spring, I'm going to get there earlier and practice that course so I know it well, then my goal is to to always know where my dog is and get that distance handling so I can keep up with Minnie. The instructor told us that this takes TIME. She's been at it for ten years

 

[SRW]

Our instructor lowers the Aframe when dogs are first learning it so it's not as high for the dog to get up. Destin had no fear of anything and another advantage that he had was watching my other dogs do everything so he was pretty sure he knew what he was doing.
It is hard when you first get started- there's so much to learn for both you and the dog.
I also used a lotus ball with Destin- you put treats in it and toss it away from you so that treats don't always come from your hand.

I think I remember the instructor saying that their A-Frame doesn't lower. I'm pretty sure that's the case as it would have been a lot easier to do that with Devon versus trying to coax him over the top at full height on his first try. However, some of the other dogs don't seem to have a problem, but then again Devon is the smallest dog in the class so I suspect that the A-Frame looks more intimidating to him.

 

[Calliesmom]

Our instructor lowered the A frame also, gradually made it higher as each dog got more successful at it. I love watching your videos, I learn from them. It is hard and takes time! When I start agility again in the Spring, I'm going to get there earlier and practice that course so I know it well, then my goal is to to always know where my dog is and get that distance handling so I can keep up with Minnie. The instructor told us that this takes TIME. She's been at it for ten years

it does take time... we've only been doing it for 8 years but nowhere near thinking I could teach a class.......
I still have tons to learn and teach the dogs.... but as a multisport house- never enough time for everything so something or someone is always on the back burner......

 

[KarenCurtis]

I think I remember the instructor saying that their A-Frame doesn't lower. I'm pretty sure that's the case as it would have been a lot easier to do that with Devon versus trying to coax him over the top at full height on his first try. However, some of the other dogs don't seem to have a problem, but then again Devon is the smallest dog in the class so I suspect that the A-Frame looks more intimidating to him.

Do you have something you can make into s small a frame yourself? Just a thought

 

[Calliesmom]

I think I remember the instructor saying that their A-Frame doesn't lower. I'm pretty sure that's the case as it would have been a lot easier to do that with Devon versus trying to coax him over the top at full height on his first try. However, some of the other dogs don't seem to have a problem, but then again Devon is the smallest dog in the class so I suspect that the A-Frame looks more intimidating to him.

Dixie would be the dog who wouldn't do the Aframe in class. She put a paw or 2 on it and that was it. I went to our practice field another evening when there wasn't a class and took Cranberry with Dixie. He'd already taken the beginning class and was doing all the obstacles. I let them do some jumps and tunnel together and then sent Cran to the Aframe- Dixie followed right up behind him and never had an issue with it after that.
The power of jealousy and copycat behaviors- when you have multiple dogs, use that to your advantage