Wicca is a great dog, and I am very proud of what I have trained her to do- but there are big gaping holes in my training that at this point are coming back to bite us in the butt....So- with Pixel I am covering MORE of those foundation skills that will help us out in the long run.
3 month planThe Basics- sit, down, stand- verbal cues only, no luring for any position. We have all of this but the stand still is not quite what I want.
Duration to the Basics- adding a "Stay" cue.
Impulse Control- crate games are going really well- I can totally see how it is building value for working. I have always had dogs who like their crate, but I have never incorporated it into my training. Wow. Is all I can say. I HIGHLY reccomend that anyone training a pup use crate games. Add in more Rule-Outs, incorporate more into training.
Hand Touch- I have hard, repetitive nose touches, now I need to add in "rule outs" (or distractions) At the seminar Pixel had a hard time ignoring the food hand- we need to work on adding more RuleOuts...
Plexi- Once I have a good hand touch, I need to add the plexi in the hand, and then move my hand to the floor, and then just the plexi on the floor. I have a great flow chart from the seminar that has really helped me figure out what the steps are.
Plank Work- staying on the end of the plank (in a stand) no matter my position. This is the first step to a contact behavior. Once all my targeting work is completed on the flat I need to add it to the plank. Her still on the board, staring at my hand with the plexi but not releasing. Once we are past that (with all the rule outs) then you add the release to step off to the target- I won't be quite there yet though in three months. My aim is to have her on the board with rule outs staring at my hand/target.
Accel/Deccel/No Motion Cues- this has been my biggest struggle with Wicca- and it is SO easy to teach....Pixel and I have started already, and she is pretty good- we need to add rule outs (toys)
Jumping Mechanics- jump bumps. which are about 2 inches off the floor- basically we are teaching her to respect the bars- she is rewards for running over them without ticking them. We haven't started this at all, but will be at the end of the three months.
Shadowhandling- basically running with me on the flat- lots and lots of circles, running around pylons, front crosses, rear crosses...She LOVES this game and is pretty good about staying on one side. When she makes a mistake I stop until she comes back to the "right" side.
Body Awareness- backing up, standing in a food bowl (Kim suggested a square plastic tray to start) tricks, getting on the ball, wobble boards. Lots of this we've started, I am excited to shape the food bowl, and we are having fun with the ball and the wobble board.
and amongst all of this I am teaching her heeling, fronts, and finishes!!! It reads and sounds like a lot- but really it is just a few minutes every day- some day we can only manage to squeeze in five minutes, others we can get in a half an hour- but everyday we do something. She is a very smart pup who loves to work for either food or toys, and is always up for a game of fetch. Training her has been lots of fun, and I am pretty determined to do it right this time.
7 comments:
you are on the right track!!
remember how we joked my foundation book was my Bible :)
I didn't get Gyp as a pup, but approached her as one and used the BOOK. Things have progressed even since 2.5 years ago, but the idea is the same. but I believe I was able to hit the ring with her when I did because of her understanding of my body, cues etc. Don't get me wrong, we have holes too, I wish I would have slowed down the contact process a bit, we followed all the steps with the hand to plexi to ground, but missed the plank work (it wasn't the THING then, just the stairs) and more jump/bend work too, but you work with the knowledge you have.
you learn from each dog what to fix. thank DOG i fixed my weave poles after Jane :)
I think the young dogs and pups from our group have really benefited from this stuff that we taught them, I wish we were taught this stuff YEARS ago, and what we have learned from the seminars we go too is really good.
you know what you are doing, you just needed a dog to do it with.
You should be applying this to Wicca too, I STILL do shadowhandling with all the dogs.
Remember my favourite saying "Nothing changes, if nothing changes"
Pixel will be a star, quite stressing so much about it!!!!!!
wow that was a long reply.
i do lots of this stuff with wicca- well, except for anything to do with weaves and contacts. I am mostly happy with those.
it was a long reply because it was a long ass post!!! I wrote it last night while watching a creepy episode of criminal minds...took me an hour...
LOL
good thing your post wasn't creepy.
Is there a book for this foundation stuff? I'm still not THAT interested in agility, but I'd like to get a copy so I can read it and learn more so I'll at least understand what my agility-person obedience students are talking about when they talk about RuleOuts.
kim collins wrote a book a few years ago now called From the Ground Up- you can get it on Clean Run.
Rule Outs are essentially distractions that you proof.
I watched that episode of Criminal Minds last night, & then suffered with a nightmare!
Thanks! I'll order that on monday with my CU DVD
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