Monday, February 4, 2008

agility training and Rally

I have been trying to teach Miley an out command. First I tried using a cone. You have the dog walk beside you and then they have to go around the cone. When they go around the cone, you say "out" . Then you progress to getting farther and farther away from the cone. But it wasnt working . So then I tried using a bait bag. You throw the bait bag out and say "out" as the dog runs to the bag. ( that is how I taught Guiness) . But that wasnt working either. So I took a lesson the other day. The instructor told me to use a tunnel. Because most dogs really love the tunnel. You use both side and work farther and farther out. Adding the "out " command as you go farther and farther away. That is working well except that now she is curling into me as she is coming out of the tunnel. So I put a target at the end of the tunnel , which helped.
Im working on getting Miley more toy motivated. Food helps her learn but I have noticed that food makes her run slower. So this week I have decided to just play with toys with her and do no obstacle training. I am also working on a "wait" command. She does well until we get on the agility field. Then she breaks the wait. More training is needed there. And last but not least Im working on heeling work. She is running at my side, straight line and cirlces.
My daughter and I are taking a Rally class. Im working Guiness and Stephanie is working Miely. ( we tried Mickey but it was to much for him). Guiness does pretty well except his heeling isnt to good. About half way through the class I could tell he was getting tired of it. He wanted to run. Miely didnt do to well. She just kept jumping up and not following commands. It was hard because she just wants to come to see me. But Stephanie did well keeping her with her. Maybe next week will be better.