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Agility - Sharing the ups and the downs

86K views 793 replies 46 participants last post by  Quossum 
#1 ·
For those that are training in agility - whether it be in your backyard or competing at the excellent level I thought it would be nice to have a thread to talk about the ups and challenges that we all experience.

As an introduction - I am relatively new to agility - started actual training classes this summer and fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Right now I'm training my toy poodle Bella and are working on foundation skills with two Mini Aussies. I have found a couple really good trainers and can't wait for the seminars to start again - hope to be ready to actually train not just audit.

As someone new to agility we really celebrate the small things - a new skill means a jackpot and today we celebrated two! We've been working on going down the A-frame and the dog walk. Today Bella not only offered but was excited about performing the entire A-frame and the dog walk!!! This might not sound like much but this is huge for tiny Bella!

Our continuing struggle is with what many dogs love - the scary tunnel. Bella has decided this to be avoided at all costs even walking near it is tough. And going inside... not even for cheese :-(

Any suggestions on working through this would be much appreciated!
 
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#2 ·
Beginner, too

I think that this is a great idea. I am also new to agility with my 10 month old blue standard. She loves it and I just try to keep up with her. Tunnels are her favorite with A-frame next, so far.

I just watched a great YouTube clip about agility, I don't usually pass things like this along, but I have laughed when I watched it for 2 days. If you are interested, it is Shiva goes Crazy.
 
#4 ·
I think that this is a great idea. I am also new to agility with my 10 month old blue standard. She loves it and I just try to keep up with her. Tunnels are her favorite with A-frame next, so far.

I just watched a great YouTube clip about agility, I don't usually pass things like this along, but I have laughed when I watched it for 2 days. If you are interested, it is Shiva goes Crazy.
The video was great. Thanks for posting it.
 
#3 ·
Great idea for this thread!

Here is a funny story. Two weeks ago we were at a trial and Lily just got totally loopy at the chute on Saturday. She approached it with her head up and then just couldn't make herself go in it. I got RRRRRRR for that obstacle on my score sheet. The irony is that I had ordered a chute for us at home since I knew I needed to be able to work on it more routinely. It was sitting right next to the ring, waiting for me to pick it up. I took it home and sent her through just the barrel a few times when we got home that evening. Her chute was much better on Sunday, but that day she wouldn't weave! Go figure.
 
#6 ·
I am a beginner too. Swizzle catches on so quickly it is a shame he is stuck with a newbie like me. Swizzle was not crazy about the tunnel at first either. He can't see me and he doesn't like that. I was able to coax him through by letting him see me at the end of the tunnel. If that doesn't work rig up a tunnel at home-perhaps use blankets. Make it very short and then gradually make it longer. Have extra yummy treats for things they don't like to do. I talk to Swizzle when he is in the tunnel so he knows where I am. Swizzle seems to be picking up the chute OK, I just treat him when he goes through. Once he gets comfortable I will fade back the treating on that.

As to age I don't think they should start until they have stopped growing. A year plus for a toy and probably longer for bigger dogs. Meanwhile work on foundation. I started Swizzle on rec. agility at a year and a half. Swizzle just turned two and we recently got invited to take agility class. You can't just go she wants to make sure your dog is ready and that your temperament is right. I love class but sometimes I feel like I am all thumbs. Everyone has a couple of years of agility and I am so green. Fortunately Swizzle takes up the slack so it works out. I have started teaching the teeter which swizzle is not crazy about. It is affecting his dog walk as he is leery it will start moving on him. We have yet to do weave poles, I just have him weave chairs. When they have a teeter or weaves in class I just skip that part.
 
#7 ·
I am really enjoying reading all the stories! There is nothing better than a happy dog and the positive agility environment is so much fun!!!

Dusty Rose - The U-tube video was not only hilarious but I really really appreciated how the handler turned this into a "FUN" time even though it must have been very difficult having this occur in front of a judge - yikes!

Lily cd re - I could just see Lily - saying uh uh no way on that chute - can't say I blame her... dark tunnel - heck I don't want to go in those lol.

Mary Edwards - 7 months - perfect time for all that foundation work. Tons of games to play with puppies to get them ready to play this crazy game. A book I'm reading now is "A Beginner's Guide to Agility" seems to have lots of info on getting a puppy ready to start - wish I'd found this a year ago.

CT Girl - I've always found it funny that you'd never start a newbie on a green horse but our poor pups have to learn with us :) We are the newbies in our class and I often feel like a real idiot - thankfully Bella can't tell and loves me anyways :-D
 
#8 ·
When in doubt, pretend you know where you are going and keep your dog moving. Lily gets very frustrated when I get lost and hung up on where we are supposed to go.

Foundation work only until they finish growing, but you can teach many concepts like start line stays, working on both sides, get them used to jump stanchions by just running them through them with bars on the floor, etc.
 
#10 ·
Bonnie would have nothing to do with the tunnel the first few time. The instructor closed the tunnel up so it was all of two feet wide. I treated her through it. We did that a number of times, always ending on a positive note. Then we lengthened it, 6 inches at a time. At some point, maybe at around three/four feet long, she just decided the tunnel was fine and started ripping through it no matter how long and windy....unTIL....a male dog went in there and peed inside the tunnel. She went ripping through it, I could tell she stopped smack in the middle, turned around and hightailed it out the same side. We had to start all over again with the tunnel small, but this time it only took a little work to get her through again. I was also happy to see the peeing-in-the-tunnel dog leave our class. ;)

Right now we are working on the teeter. Sometimes she'll do it fine, sometimes not. I never force her, but admit to frustration. Why doesn't she run over it EVERY time?

Also, she will work and work and work until about an hour has gone by. Then she just turns her head so she doesn't make eye contact and saunters off to the gate and sits quietly until I come over to leave.

Jazz is still afraid of the skinny dog walk since he fell off of it when he was around 3 months old and exuberant. He is almost 6 months old now and I finally got him to walk tentatively across last week.

There is a big difference between my poodles and some of the other dogs. Some of those dogs are nervous, crazy wrecks. The minute their owners let them go they go barrelling through the stuff. Still, I prefer my calmer dogs who do everything carefully. We are working on speed now, but Bonnie's precision is much better than theirs, so I have that. :)
 
#11 ·
Right now Sugarfoot is doing well in class at my training center and also working through 2x2 weaves. We went through an online course for contacts that has really paid off, and we invested in the Susan Salo jumping DVD's and utilized a lot of grids for our jumping foundation.

There's so much foundation work and body awareness stuff that you can do! My 100 Days of Sugarfoot video gave a taste of it...now I need to do a 300 Days of Sugarfoot video and show his progress!

You're so right about just going on if you make a mistake, being casual and unemotional about it. Sugarfoot fell from the dogwalk once, and I just turned around without more than an "oops!" and we went back and right back on it. No reluctance whatsoever.

By the same token, if there's a mistake in the course of a sequence, I usually just keep on going. Say if he bypasses a jump. My philosophy is to keep on going, then later work with a single jump, running by it and practicing not bypassing it, making my handling more clear. I don't want him to slow his forward motion in the midst of a sequence, or to start worrying or second-guessing my handling. If it wasn't clear to him that he should have taken that jump, that's on me, not on him.

Sugar isn't wild about the teeter, either. We have one at home and have been practicing, but he pauses at the pivot longer than I'd like and sometimes bypasses it. Time to build more value--break out the chicken necks! lol Teeter fear is a little phase that a lot of dogs go through, though, so I'm not worried.

--Q
 
#12 ·
How old should a puppy be

We started at 5 mo., with a trial to see if she would like it, she loved it, ignoring the other dogs except the ones on the course that she watched intently.

I've bee told that they shouldn't be asked to jump before 8 mo. She is now 10 mo. and we are on our 2nd 6 week long class. She is really enjoying it and seems to like all of it. I think she would like it even more if I could go faster!
 
#13 ·
You can let them jump baby jumps, but I wouldn't encourage the higher jumps until over a year old even though they can do them. It's just a few more months to wait for her. Letting her jump the 10 inch height now (assuming she is a standard) and it should be alright, but not over and over and over. My 5.5 month old "jumps" 6-8 inches (well, he kind of walks over it. LOL).
 
#14 ·
The tunnel continues to be Bella's worst enemy. I've left the kids tunnel setup in our home and we've played around it - tossed toys and treats to the entrance you name it. Bella will put her head in and stretch but as soon as she puts her front feet in she freaks and jumps back and shakes. I've tried three different tunnels so far with the same result.

This is sad because she used to barrel through with no problems :-( Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
 
#15 ·
Oh what I wouldn't have given to have a tunnel in Saturday and Sunday's jumpers courses. They were truly just jumps and one set of weaves. A tunnel would have given me a chance to collect my leaping Lily! No Qs this weekend:sad:
 
#17 ·
If she likes balls try this. Set the tunnel up so it is fairly short and straight so she can see through it. Set her up facing the entrance and stand next to her (do it from you on her left and you on her right). Get her charged up for the ball and then throw it through the tunnel so it goes all the way through. Hopefully she will be so excited about the ball that she will follow it through without thinking too much about the tunnel. You can gradually make the tunnel longer, but keep it straight so she can see though it until she is very at ease. Once you start to put little bends in the tunnel it will probably be easier to let her see that you are throwing the ball to the other end over the tunnel. You won't want to throw it in and have it get stuck in the tunnel since you won't want her to stop in it to pick up the ball. Don't throw food or anything else that will get stuck in the tunnel or she will just end up slowing down to search for the toy/treat. Keep her moving so fast that she doesn't have time to think about not liking it.
 
#18 ·
Thank you guys for the advise on the tunnel :-D

I get to share an up tonight!!! I got out the 4' tunnel that is part of a chute set and played around it and then had DS hold her on one end and call her through and she went - yea!!! We had a jackpot party and then ended the session with her actually running towards the tunnel beside me and through - oh sweet success!!!! Then later this evening I got out the big tunnel and guess what that little stinker was running through it handling on both sides!

I think what I messed up on was that we are working on this in our living room for practice between classes. We have hard wood floors and the tunnel was moving when she put her toes in - I got out the PVC tunnel holders and no problem at all.

Wow what a long winded post about a tunnel but finally :cheers2::cheers2::cheers2:
 
#19 ·
Minnie, that is great news! It is so rewarding when you have seen them conquer a fear.
I know occasionally my teacher says I tunnel stuff. I am not sure what that is. She did tell me but I just didn't absorb or understand. I think it may be that I use the wrong hand to cue my dog to the tunnel. Can anyone clarify this for me?


It is frustrating that I have not been able to try out my newly purchased teeter as we are in Florida now. I am thinking of purchasing "Sizzling Seesaws" from Clean Run. Has anyone seen this? I hear Salo has great information on her jumping video.
 
#20 ·
Thank you! It was a great feeling. I googled "tunnel stuff" and I didn't find a thing so hopefully with someone that is not a beginner like me can answer that one.

We had another class last week and Bella was great - we worked on the small tunnel to keep it no stress for her hopefully next week we'll try the larger tunnel. The tire through her a bit but towards the end she was jumping through with no problems. We need to work on handling on both sides and changes of direction. One obstacle we haven't started on yet is the seesaw. This one has me the most concerned and I'm hoping to wait on this for a while to keep her confidence up in class.

How is everyone else doing? Taking a break for the holidays or continuing class and/or training?
 
#21 ·
My training center doesn't do classes during the month of December, so my holiday month goal for Sugar is to get him weaving. We've been at it for about three weeks now.

We are doing 2x2 weaves, and are now to the point of four straight poles, with a jump at various angles before the poles. I want to be weaving 12 by the time classes start again in January. We're getting there!

--Q
 
#22 ·
Since I haven't seen what your teacher is commenting on regarding tunnel stuffing, I am using my imagination that she means you are stuffing the dog into the tunnel entrance. Are you going right up to the tunnel and moving in really close to her to get her to go into the tunnel. If so, then you aren't getting independent performance of the obstacle. Perhaps your concern about her not wanting to do it has you feeling like you have to babysit it.
 
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#24 ·
Our second class was last night. Things went better than the first. Max is still working on his fear of strangers that affects him some in class. He also is very cautious of trying new obstacles. Last night we did for the first time weave poles, tunnel, tire, and walk.

He hesitated on each of the obstacles but got through each except for the walk. He really pays attention to me but needs a comfort level to get through the obstacles. The ladder was his nemesis last week but after working on it a little last night he was able to fly through it! Now we need to work on the walk. He was almost able to make in across last night so next class he should get through.

I wanted ask the experts about the weave poles. Last night we went through with the poles sloped away from the center to make it easier for the dogs. What age is it appropriate for dogs to do weave poles? Max is one? I have heard that it is not good on the spines of younger dogs.

Thanks
 
#25 ·
I can't say i've ever heard anything about keeping young dogs out of weave poles, but since Max is one I think you are ok with all obstacles. It is ok for him to be cautious at this point. I would rather see that than have a dog be overconfident, fall off and then not want to do the obstacle at all. I have seen that happen with any number of dogs including my own. Peeves fell off a low dog walk when he was about 15 months old. That literally was then end of his agility career. He is now afraid of pretty much all of the equipment except for tunnels and jumps. Lily fell off a full height dog walk in summer 2011 and it took until winter 2012 to get her moving well on it again. She fell because she was being reckless, going too fast while not really paying attention to her footing.

Be conservative with closing the weaves. If you work them from wide open to closed down slowly you will get a better finished product. I'm glad to hear you had a better second class.
 
#26 ·
I know better..... but in the middle of the moment I allowed something that I shouldn't have and now feel awful - that is the theme from our last class - Bella just didn't seem herself - just not as confident and even a bit stubborn but still we kept going. Our previous instructor... only has outdoor facilities :-( is extremely patient and everything is positive. Our new instructor seems more rushed and pushy and it came out... Bella refused the A-frame and the instructor basically pushed her up the frame - Bella's front feet didn't move she shoved her butt up and then she slid down and scared herself to death - this was a full height A-frame - we've only ever worked on a lowered one. Bella was shaking and so scared after this that she wouldn't touch it and I said - stop! Too late but still we stopped. I called our previous instructor the next night and thankfully it wasn't too bad out and she had her going down with confidence - we didn't ask for up as she was still scared. Now I'm worried that I've really set her back and very unsure if we should continue with our new instructor or wait until we can get into a class in a different facility??? I just feel sick typing this!!!
 
#27 ·
This is definitely one of the "downs" of agility. It is easy to end up having them lose confidence on a piece of equipment when the picture is different. Can you work with the instructor you like at a rented indoor space? I have a person who I work with for privates. We normally train outside, but as we are looking at it getting colder we are planning for indoor lessons at a rented space as a contingency.
 
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