Wednesday, January 7, 2009

I broke down and bought the DVD

So I decided to buy Susan Garretts new DVD on 2 x2 weaves. I just watched the first 4 chapters. It was very interesting. So far I havent seen anything about letting your dog fail and figure it out. She talks about what she feels your dog needs to know to make training faster and easier on your dog. She feels your dog should know how to shape, they should have self control under distractions and most of all the should have body awarness. She shows different things they should be able to do that shows they have body awarness. Like walking in ladders, balancing on disk , doing the elephant trick but most of all they should be able to walk backwards 15-20 feet with out you having to move into them.
After you have those things you start with 2 poles and build value for the poles. Which depending on your dog, maybe a day or two. ( that's my opinion). Then you start training entries with the first two poles. I really like what she showed and how she explains the reward line. I have been a little confused on that when watching other peoples videos. Each session you need to document: how many attempts made, how many times they failed and how many times you reinforced. Then you need to figure out you success percentage. You should have 80 % success rate before change one aspect of the training. If you move on before you have that, you will have to many failures and the dog will be demotivated. ( Interesting, she didn't say let you dog fail repeatedly which people keep talking about). In chapter 4 she takes her dog , she had been doing the training with someone elses dog, and sets him up. Now she did say with her own dog she would let him fail and try to figure it out because she feels he knows the training. But that is the only time Ive heard her say let the dog fail. And she was very specific to say , "with my dog" and why. She didn't she that is what you should do.

4 comments:

Chris and Ricky said...

It's interesting to hear your opinions of the dvd - looking forward to hearing more as you go along........

Sara said...

Wow, it sounds like a well thought out process. Now wonder why it is attracting so much interest.

Lian said...

That sounds very interesting, you better tell us all about it when you finish watching the video.

One thing I have learned, you can let your dog fail (hopefully he will learn to pick up the right entry) but not too many times, they will get demotivated if the dog keeps failing, especially you have a sensitive sheltie that wants to get it right all the time.

Anonymous said...

Keep us posted. I've been asking for it for my birthday but have been wondering if I should have. You are bringing a fresh viewpoint that is needed--thanks!