No show this weekend, but instead we attended a training day with Lee Windeatt. We got a lot more out of the day than we would do at a show. Lee has a lot of good tips and was very good at explaining everything to the group. We took Zazu to the 1-3 session and Shadow to the 4-7 session.
Shadow waiting to train
Unfortunately for Zazu, the weather in the morning was miserable. At times I had to drag him out from the shelter so that he could run. I wasn't too fussed about this as the day was more about learning new training techniques than perfecting our runs. We can see that the main thing we need to work on is dog independence from the handler. This applies to all areas of the course, jumps, weaves, contact equipment. It's about the dog being able to do whatever you ask regardless of where you and and how you're moving. It's quite easy to train, but takes a long time to build up and keep the dog confident. Another good training technique was how to encourage the dog to look at the poles to jump rather than looking at the wings. Try setting up three jumps in a row, but instead of putting the poles on the jump cups, put them on cones at a random distance between the jump wings and you'll see what I mean.
Zazu's training was more learning how to train the dog better, Shadow's was how to train the handler better. We spent a lot of time talking about the dog's lead leg on bends and over jumps, and how to encourage the dog to be on the correct leg before it needs to turn. Being on the wrong leg over a jump will cause a wider or slower turn as the dog corrects itself. Generally speaking, crossing in front of the dog will encourage a change of lead leg as the dog comes past. The other thing we learnt about was cueing the dog to turn, again generally require you to be ahead of your. The dog ideally needs to know a couple of metres before take-off where it is going so that it can jump longer or shorter as required. If you can't get ahead of your dog for the turns, then you need to look at the 1-3 session for how to encourage the dog to work away better!
We both thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and have a lot to go away and work on with all our dogs. If anyone gets the opportunity to attend a Lee Windeatt training day or session, I would definitely recommend it.
We have recently started a new clicker training class with Zazu. This a distance learning course at http://www.lolabuland.com/. Every couple of weeks we have new tricks to learn. We film our attempts at the tricks and send videos of them to the trainer. She then looks at the videos and gives us tips and advice on how to improve.
For those that don't know what clicker training is, it is a method for teaching dogs tricks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clicker_training. Basically, you have a 'clicker' and a pile of treats. The clicker is a small device that clicks when you press the button. The idea is to condition the dog so that when they hear the click they receive a treat. So when trying to teach them new tricks, you use the click to tell them they have done right, then give them a treat. Using the click is more accurate than using words to let the dog know that they have done something you approve of.
We are given 5 tasks every two weeks to work on. To start with we had to condition Zazu to the clicker by clicking and treating lots. The hardest part about starting is getting the dog to think. The whole point is that the dog has to think about what they have to do to get the treat. When we started with a touch lid on the floor, Zazu would just look at, sit, squeak, and walk off. We had to show him a little then give him a treat. After a few goes he would go back on his own accord. He the learnt to try things out to get a treat.
The first week we had 5 tasks:
1. Recall
2. Not looking at treats
3. Feet in a box
4. Touch pad with feet
5. Frog legs
Here is the video of Zazu training the basics of these tricks. It's quite long but shows how Zazu has gone from nothing to starting to understand the tricks.
1. A recall is fairly self explanatory, get the dog to come back!
2. This is requires a pile of treats on the floor with the idea being the dog to not focus on them. When the dog looks away from the treats or at you, the they get a click and a treat. Zazu picked this one up quite quickly. It is a good start to clicker training as they can get lots of treats by not having to do too much. It is a big start to condition the click-treat reaction.
3. This is trying to get all four feet in a box. We started with a big box and progressively get smaller until the box is only just big enough for his feet. We are down to a lunch box size now. We would start by clicking every time he showed any interest in the box, then for putting a foot inside, then for getting all feet inside. This did take a few days to get his feet in. We reduced the size of the box to a lunch box size and went through the same routine, all be it a it quicker. It did still take a while for him to get all four feet in as he had to think about what he was doing.
4. The touch point followed a similar routine to the box, clicking whenever he showed interest in the pot lid, then for one foot, then two feet. He did get there with two feet on a Tupperware pot lid.
5. This trying to get the dog to stretch out their back legs whilst lying down. We haven't had much time to do this with Zazu.
He is working nicely now and has started to think about what he is doing. It took him a while to get to that stage but a bit of perseverance helped get him to a point where ha can now learn.
Today me and +Susi Cooper went for another training session at Little Revel End. We hired the kit for 30 mins as there were a few things we wanted to train with Zazu and Storm.
We started training Zazu with a few jumps in a row. He is still bunny hoping over jumps so we are trying to get him to stretch forwards more. We are also trying talking to him less to let him think about what's going on. He was starting to get better after a few runs of throwing a toy full of treats forward. This also helps him to focus forward rather than running at our pace. We then moved on to the dog walk. The first time across he was looking back at Susi but ran down and got his treat. After that he flew across not looking back at all to get to the frog. Lastly we moved on to the A-frame. He scrambled the first couple of times then decided it was quicker to run round. We went back a step and just the the A-frame and it reminded him what to do. he ended up with good A-frames and contacts.
With Storm we were mainly going in to train contacts. We had decided not to use any touch points as we wanted to simulate the environment at a show. Normally at training she has good contacts as she runs down to the touch point. With the touch point gone, like in the show environment, she jumps off the contact as there is no point in stopping. We started with the A-frame. The first few times she flew off just like at a show, which is a good start as we know she is running with a similar mind set to being at a show. I put her back on gave her lots of treats and praise. The treats came from me so that she wouldn't just run off. After a few attempts she was coming down and stopping at the bottom. We moved on to the dog walk ad we started with a similar problem, but after a few attempts again she was beginning to stop. I would also walk around a little with her staying on the contact and giving her treats after. This makes it easier when you get to a show so that you can get into position before releasing them from the contact. We finished back on the A-frame going in the other direction coming out of a tunnel. She was much sharper this time. I need to remember to run slightly beyond the end of the contact to get her to stop in the 2-on-2-off position. This is where the dog has their front two feet on the floor and their back two feet still on the equipment. Getting the dog to stop in this position makes sure that they have hit the contact area whilst still being under control.
I also did a few jumping exercises. We had a couple of issues at the beginning of course where Storm would follow the line of my feet. If my feet were pointing slightly to the side in the direction I wanted to go next, Storm would miss the first jump and run in that direction. This was also the case mid-round if I turn too soon. To combat this, I set her up in front of a jump, walk to the side and point my feet away slightly. I would then say 'go' and throw a ball in the direction I wanted her to go. This is to show that I want her to follow the line of my arms, if I'm pointing towards a jump, I want you to jump it. After a few attempts she was always moving forwards no matter where I was standing. A few more sessions on this and we should be in much better stead.
I think I've managed to talk for longer about our training session than we actually spent there! It was a good session, we will probably be back there next weekend to continue the good work.
Just got back from Zazu's weekly class. He did 2 runs with good contacts and a nice see saw, once he realised he was supposed to do it. His jumping needs some work as he rather bunny hops at the moment. It may be due to me not running fast enough, but hopefully as he/we get better his speed outside of agility will transfer to jumping and his jumps will start to be smoother (I hope).
We have started training storm on her contacts again from scratch. I need to sort out a few videos so I'll update this post shortly but I wanted to keep the post in order!
On New Years Day we hired out some agility kit to do some private training. We hired Little Revel End in Hertfordshire which is near where we live. They have a full set of kit on astroturf so it's great for training in any weather. It did help that it was sunny though.
We took all of the dogs along for training but we concentrated on the puppy, Zazu, and Storm, who generally needs more experience.
Storm
We started with Storm on the dog walk. One of the issues with Storm is that she often flies her A-frame and dog walk contacts. We wanted to continue working on this so we carried on with the method that she knows which is essentially treats on a touch point at the end of the contact. As you will see from the video that this help her to an extent. The problem is, that even with treats I don't think she really knows what she is supposed to be doing at the contact.
On the video you'll see her coming down and looking for the treat. Sometimes she will come off sidewards, sometimes straight down, and on the A-frame sometimes leaping the contact and coming back for the treat. The other point is that when she gets the treat she continues to hunt around more. This helps to show that she doesn't necessarily know what she is getting the treat for and there may be more around if she looks hard enough.
Later on in the video there is evidence of a slight mistake on our part when training the A-frame. The first time we did the A-frame we only went in one direction. Later on we did it in the other direction but the first few times Storm stopped on the up contact briefly to search fr treats. This goes to prove that contact equipment should always be trained in both directions and with the handler standing on both sides.
Another thing you can see with Storms contacts, particularly on the A-frame, the she doesn't drive away from the contact very well. She can be quite slow in moving to the next obstacle which isn't ideal. This is less of an issue when not training with treats on a contact but nether the less we want her to drive away.
We are going to have a think about other methods to use to re-teach Storm the contacts and see what works. We have a contact trainer (basically a small A-frame) and a plank we can use train just the contact.
Zazu
Zazu is still a puppy at only 12 months old. He has been training for a few months now. He can do all of the equipment and we are starting to put it all together gradually. I will point out that he is only jumping over small jumps so as not to hurt his growing joints. Recently at training he lost a bit of confidence with the dog walk and didn't seem to want to go on the dog walk when running at it. So guess what today's training involved?
We started him off on a low height dog walk to gain his confidence. He managed this a few times quite happily. Unfortunately we didn't film it as it took both of us to train. Later we moved on to the full height dog walk. He was starting to pick this up much better.
His contacts are also coming along nicely. We are stopping him slightly off the contact to eventually encourage a running contact. We'll see in the long run how this turns out.
We did a little bit of jumping with a tunnel. This shows how he isn't running on at the moment as he waits for Susi to catch up before running.
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