Who called me a wimp?
5 days ago
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
OK, What am I doing wrong?
It took 2 days to up load this.Miley is not getting the pinwheel. She keeps going wide, why? She doesn't understand her job, I giving the wrong signals, I'm to slow, I didn't teach it right? What do you think? All opinions accepted. She did finally get one and I stopped and jack potted that. But I still think I'm not doing something right.
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8 comments:
How old is she? I don't think you are doing anything wrong (wrong signals or going too slow) but it looks like she doesn't really understand her job is to look for jumps.
I would be breaking down the jump sequences in small pieces with more toy rewards (driving to a toy, tuggy or ball). So she starts picking up the jumps on her own.
She looks lovely and fast anyway!
Hi Diana,
Mom and I are total newbies to agility - but we wouldn't worry too much about Miley going wide right now - she will get it! We love how fast she is! She's going to be unbeatable! Thanks for posting your video - it gives us ideas for our own backyard training!
Ricky
She is 11 months. I was thinking of taking 3 jumps to the park where I would have more room to run. thanks, Diana
She is so young, and I know you want to keep the speed up - micromanaging may slow things down (not good).
Only thing I can suggest is cuing earlier, hanging back a bit more and maybe try an RFP, even throwing the treat bag (or toy) as if she would get it from the third jump (that's hard to explain!).
But she is young, she'll get it! Johann had the same troubles early on. Ran way wide!
You're pushing her out too much with your body. When you want her to turn tight, you aren't pulling her in enough with your body.
Other thing is, you just keep going. I don't know- does she find equipment reinforcing? If so, by keeping going (and allowing her to do things like start the teeter but not finish it and come off the side then into the tunnel) you're just further reinforcing that going around obstacles or not completing them fully is ok.
Your and her signals are crossed which is why I think she is going wide, but you need to stop and fix the parts that are troublesome before going on. You essentially did enough in sequence to be nearly a full course, I didn't see a lot of breaking things down nearly enough for such a green dog and reinforcing what you DID want nearly enough.
You also accepted her cutting behind you when you had asked her to complete a front cross and she didn't. Yes you were really late and not precise enough with your handling of the front cross, but that still doesn't give her permission to cut behind you and take equipement. I would have stopped and tried to get that bit more where I want it before going on.
The only reason I ran the course over and over was for the video. I asked my teenager to video and you know how that goes. Its just such a chore to get off the couch and video for your mom. So I didnt have to listen to complaining, I ran the sequence over and over and I could let her go back in the house. I wanted to video the sequence more than one time to see the pinwheel mistakes. Sorry, I know it wasnt the best thing to do.
The things she did wrong I feel were my fault. They are training issues. So I dont want to stop her everytime she makes a mistake. I take that mistake, pull that part out, retrain it and then add it back in. I feel like I always stopped Guiness and made him fix things and that made him really slow down. He started running at my side and didnt have enough speed, but he was more correct. SO I dont want to do that with Miley.
I'm a big fan of not stopping and correcting; and rewarding big for doing right. I think stopping/correcting does slow dogs down like you say...they get cautious and hesitant.
Good for you!
Had another thought - what if you make the pinwheel real wide, and then move it in closer and closer together, as she does it correctly. That way you could keep going, and going!
Maybe that is the way to go, start big and go smaller. I have been working on very small pinwheel where the jump post tough each other but she is still missing the last jump about 1/2 the time. I think a mistake I made with her was not doing enough collection work. I dont know what I was thinking. SO now she is struggling and it my fault.
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