labgirl
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Lol, going to work on my posture then
Merlin agility vid
- Thread starter labgirl
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k9kreationz
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LOL. Love it. Stand up! Yup, I thought the same thing. And yes, was told the same thing. It's hard to do that when the dogs are so small. hehehe. I'm sure with Cadbury you didn't have to.
I can't believe how old Merlin is and he is looking GREAT!!!
I will give you one piece of advice, because I saw it with Koji. And I'd hate to see anyone repeat my mistakes and have to retrain.
I'm not 100% sure what you're doing with his dogwalk contact, but you should decide on a specific criteria. If it's a 4-on (stop), then I'd suggest stopping near the bottom. I have a feeling he'll always creep to the contact zone, then wait for you to urge him on.
After retraining Koji from a 4-on to a 2o2o, it's like he knows his criteria now and doesn't creep as much. And yes, I still have issues, but that's because of me, not him.
Just wanted to throw that out. Merlin is young and doing great. I'd just hate for you to have to retrain like I did. It sucks.
Now, stand up! LOL.
I can't believe how old Merlin is and he is looking GREAT!!!
I will give you one piece of advice, because I saw it with Koji. And I'd hate to see anyone repeat my mistakes and have to retrain.
I'm not 100% sure what you're doing with his dogwalk contact, but you should decide on a specific criteria. If it's a 4-on (stop), then I'd suggest stopping near the bottom. I have a feeling he'll always creep to the contact zone, then wait for you to urge him on.
After retraining Koji from a 4-on to a 2o2o, it's like he knows his criteria now and doesn't creep as much. And yes, I still have issues, but that's because of me, not him.
Just wanted to throw that out. Merlin is young and doing great. I'd just hate for you to have to retrain like I did. It sucks.
Now, stand up! LOL.
Justicemom
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That is my #1 thing to work on with Diva too. Creepy contacts. My fault not hers. I have learned alot since I started training Diva and that is one of the big ones but I was too late. Birch will be much better..
labgirl
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I only just got him stopping on the white, because he was constantly jumping off before the white. I want him to trot down and pause with two paws in the white, but I don't want the creeping.
Can you explain how you got past that? I'm thinking of using my clicker to 'mark' the pause spot, so he knows what he is doing?
Can you explain how you got past that? I'm thinking of using my clicker to 'mark' the pause spot, so he knows what he is doing?
k9kreationz
Forums Celebrity
Just so I understand. DO you want 2 paws in the white and 2 paws on the ground? Or 2 paws in the white, and 2 paws in the red?
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Loved the video of the boys playing in the garden too.SheltieChe
Forums Sage
Merlin is sure grown up boy! I would love to see more confidence on DW and teeter though, if for nothing else but safety. Putting long board on the ground and letting him run full speed will help with both. Rewarding heavily at the end will help with not jumping off. Leo also has flying sheltie syndrome , you might want to see if there any similar behavior Merlin does at home like on the stairs etc.
labgirl
Forums Sage
This one
He did have more confidence on the dog walk until I introduced the pause, which is when he started to creep and go slower, lol.
Seesaw we are working on, but I don't think that will be a problem, since he decided last Friday that he didn't want to do the weave poles because mum had been awful and held his collar when he went through because he kept missing a pole, so he did the seesaw instead, which was right next to the weave poles every time I asked him to do the weaves. Five times over the seesaw later...
He hates being told he is wrong!
We used to have this problem too. I find shelties in general hate being told they are wrong - my dog was slowing down and second guessing himself, not because he was being stubborn (as many people assume), but because he was trying to be right. He also did the avoidance trick - taking another obstacle he was sure of (ie. teeter), as opposed to the obstacle he was unsure of (ie. weaves).
Clearly what I was doing didn't work for my dog, so I adjusted my training method. Whenever we are working on something, and he misses it twice, I make it easier. For example, if he pops out of the weaves, first I check to make sure the weaves are spaced correctly and there's nothing on the ground he could be avoiding (wet spot on grass, a prickly weed, a hole in the soil, etc.). If I don't see a reason for him popping out, I send him through a second time. If he pops out the second time, I know there's a problem.
Depending on where he's popping out, I'll reduce the # of weaves to make him successful. If he's missing the entrance, I'll go down to two weaves. If it's in the middle, I'll go down to 6 weaves. I reward the effort with my voice, and I reward the correct result with a toy/treat. This sets him up for success, keeps his confidence intact, and keeps his speed up where I want it. I also found I was able to correct mistakes quicker - when I was correcting on obstacles before, the obstacle would be corrected fairly quickly, but then I had to deal with the avoidance/reduction in speed etc., which could take a few training sessions to fix. Now, once the obstacle problem is solved (usually within a session), that's it - I don't have any follow up problems to deal with.
You're doing a wonderful job with both of your dogs - good luck with all of your training
SheltieChe
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I call it "Don't wanna Dont hafta" moments and prefer to work on them away from " important stuff" like agility. I do have many more with Che than with Leo maybe due to our training or maybe due to their different personalities.
Those are different from NRM/ no reward marker/ which I would use for incorrect weaves. I do train NRM to be message "reward is not avail at this time, try again."
I do hate to see that deflated attitude dog gets if they told they are wrong so we have few games to play before I start using NRM to mean just that and keep driving for more.
Those are different from NRM/ no reward marker/ which I would use for incorrect weaves. I do train NRM to be message "reward is not avail at this time, try again."
I do hate to see that deflated attitude dog gets if they told they are wrong so we have few games to play before I start using NRM to mean just that and keep driving for more.