Sunday, August 14, 2011

Hey, Look, Agility

I was thinking today about something someone said to me at a trial in July.  We were talking about contacts. Her dog was going kinda slow over the contacts.. She said someone told her to put a tunnel at each end of the dogwalk and run her dog about 10 times. And not to do a 2o/2o  during those 10 times. It teaches your dog to race across the contacts.  Anyway, that got me thinking about the table today.  I dont know why, when I had the conversation  over a month ago.  I thought if I put a tunnel at each end with a table in the middle maybe it would create a lot of speed an she wont stop on the table. ( she stops on the table aways at home and I was just trying to get the excitement I have at a trial).  So here is what happened. Multiple times she would touch and go off the table, but only in that one direction.




She definitely was very excited.  So I worked until she finally hit that one she had been missing and then jackpot.  The other thing I was thinking was, I dont always practice tables. When we practice, I always do jumps and tunnels. Add contacts several times a week and weave poles.  But tables , only once in a while.  Hmmmm, not sure why Im doing that.  So Ive decided to train it just like I do jumping skills, contacts and weaves.  I dont know why this is just occurring to me. LOL

10 comments:

Berts Blog said...

Not an agility knowledge dog but that looked pretty darn impressive to me and My Vickie.

Bert

Sara said...

I love how she did a 2o/2o on one stop.

This lesson definitely seemed to show Miley that getting on the table doesn't mean the fun stops there. What a great idea to try.

Boondocks Love Shack Pack said...

Oh, we're signed up for our second round of agility classes starting next month!! This sure gets us excited to get started back up!!

AROOOOF!
Boondocks & The Love Shack Pack
www.theloveshackpack.com

Chris and Ricky said...

Excellent idea!!! I think your break from agility was the key to getting you to calm down and made you think about the tunnel idea. It was so awesome to see Miley skidding to a stop on the table and obviously so excited to go on to the tunnel. She is so fast and so powerful! Congratulations on this great idea!

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

Good job, love the tunnel idea! I think anytime you can make something a fun game and isolate one part of the behavior, just getting on the table it is a good thing!

Elizabeth said...

I love your tunnel table tunnel game. I'll have to tell my instructor.

We play table games sometimes in class to make sure our dogs know there job and don't skid off.

Another fun one is to set it up like an obedience recall with your dog in a sit stay facing you and a table in between. Release the dog and say 'down' or 'stay' or 'table', or what ever you say when they get on the table. The first time most dogs bounce off and come see the handler.

After this exercise is mastered we release our dogs from a start line stay running toward the table full kilt. We still use there table 'command' or 'single' as we approach the table but instead of stopping when we get to the table we keep running right by. Usually this gets the dog to give us that same hop on hop off behavior that you sometimes see at trials. Usually this takes several steps a bit easier to get success (first run then come to a slow stop taking three steps past - run until the table then walk past- to full run)

I like these games because the instill that if a table is in your path regardless of where I am or what I'm going you collect get on the table and stay till released.

Anonymous said...

Great idea!!! She definitely looked excited to play this new table game.

Morganne said...

What a great video! She obviously isn't stressed about the table there. Great idea to make it a fun game!

Natasha said...

She's looking fantastic!

Sophie said...

Looking good, and what a fun game that seems to be!

One thing I noticed was that your cue for getting on the table was harsher than the cue for her to go through the tunnel (which she obviously loves). I don't know if lightening your tone a little when cuing the table would help at all, but it might!

By the way, there's an award for you at my blog. :)