Rushing Foundations

Phebe*DD said:
Phebe must love foundation work ... she keeps making us go back to it! :lol:

We are always reinforcing some part of foundations, usually with the contacts. I don't think it's possible to spend too much time on foundations and that you really need to keep reinforcing the contact criteria, circle work, and start line stays, if you use them, pretty much forever.
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:lol:

Totally agree. We still use targets on contacts every once in a while. It doesn't hurt to reinforce the behavior. We also do some target training, jump grids, and work on start line stays. I am always tossing in some proofing (on contacts, the table, start line) whenever I can.
 
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When I was looking for somewhere to train, the reason I selected the club I ultimately joined was because of how much time they spent on 'foundation' classes.

We break our foundation work down to 4 8-week classes and each class builds on the one before. All the other organizations that taught agility only had one, maybe two, classes dedicated to teaching agility.

Our instructors will recommend people retake a certain level if they feel it is necessary but it is ultimately the handler's decision. We've actually had people quit because they were advised to retake a class and weren't happy about it. Those who did take the advice, excelled when they started to trial.

Personally, I continually work Edan's foundations - behavior, jumping, contacts, weaves, even flatwork. We are always working on something.
 
In AKC they are allowed to start competing at 15 months.Not sure on CPE, or,NADAC,or TDAA or even UKI,and DOGNA.
 
You actually get a choice. I have attended agility at two clubs, at neither club did we really cover foundations per se. Just the basics, nothing fancy, we dont learn directionals or fancy crosses. We do some foundation work in the first session of classes and thats about it. We have a huge drop out rate so very few people make it to trialling. Some of that will be because people lack the confidence to take it further as we miss the critical foundation work. Most of the people trialing here have been doing agility for years.

I have a dog in excellent who is hesitant of seesaws and often flies off the table. But I dont get to practice these things in class. So I still enter the odd trial, knowing we aren't that competitive, but I figure as long as Tully enjoys herself we will give it a go. Wish I did get to work more on foundations but we would never trial if I waited for that to happen.
 
I see the same tendency to rush through foundation. I suppose it is good if you planning to compete because you know those people going to start failing:no:
anyway, I think green handlers just don't know any better and experienced ones think they do not need as much...
I am really wising up on luring too and it becoming clear why people continue to struggle with same obstacle over and over again.
Che is 19 months old and we have one foundation class, 1 advanced beginner, 1 intermediate and 1 advanced:lol: Funny part that my foundation class I am surrounded by dog trainers or tough competitors who know what they doing... so I think we in right place...
We just finally started jumping 20" which is Che's height for most of the venues. I hate getting up so early to get our measurement and then wait half the day to start our run so am thinking we are not going into competing until Che is 2 years old, we just play with trial here and there for now, fun matches etc. I am not a competitive person so training is much more fun for us right now...
There is contact e course coming this fall from Susan Garrett, oh boy it souunds very attractive because if it is anything like recallers e course it is soooo much more than just a recalls... OTOH I am turning my dog training world upside down as it is, thanks to my new visions... can I handle more?
 
I know I probably rushed through foundations. Mostly because my training facility didn't have the classes set-up like they do now. Now you have to pass a "test" to move to the next class. I doubt Koji would've passed a lot of those classes. When we took it, we just moved to the next class.

However, when I wanted to start trialing, I only stuck to the stuff we could do, and at the same time, I started having another trainer work with Koji. So I think we finished up a lot more foundation during that time too.

Do I continue foundation? No. But as you guys may recall, I'm starting over. Heck, I was working on heeling in class the other week (while other dogs ran). I personally think most place probably do rush foundation. We did foundation for about a year. I also think foundation is everything from day 1 to short sequences. And by short, I mean no more than 3 obstacles and those don't include any contacts.
 
I quote one of my great Instructors I trust, after I asked her that I want to start with the teeter and a frame:"The secret to contacts is value for the 2 on 2 off position. The worst thing that can happen is that the dog takes the equipment in a trial and becomes fearful of it, very hard to re-train. At best you'll end up with slow and unsure, when you're looking for confident and drive to the end. Anyways, there's a lot to training contacts, personally I spent a lot of time on them for safety reasons, call me crazy! :)"

aka Toffee has NOT yet been on a dogwalk, and I won't til she tells me it is ok
 
UKC is 12 months and CPE 15 months old.
I am not quite sure what I am doing with contacts, I think I am totally confusing my dog since I can not arrive to conclusion. Problem is Che LOVES contacts and will take teeter, frame or DW any time over tunnel or any other obstacle... he had natural running ones, then generalized to 2o2o all on his own, now we back to running on everything except teeter which I want to keep...
 
[ Now you have to pass a "test" to move to the next class. I like that .My club does something similar to that also.It is up to the discretion of the trainer to see if you are ready to move on to what they call Basic 1.I did Sting's foundations elsewhere because as I have said before I will not train with someone who is competing in the Novice or Open levels.
 
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