Griffin at Agility Class: Week 3 and 4

Last week... Griffin was very fast, working very well, and amazing.  We made mistakes on every single exercise.  But the speed and enthusiasm are definitely a priority for now. I was very happy.

Today...   Sometimes fast, sometimes not.  Sometimes coming when called, so fast he would skid. And other times running out of the ring for water or to beg his friends for play time.

We had a lot of trouble with some of the exercises.   Griffin was often moving in too close to me, rather than staying out and taking obstacles.  Back to that obstacle focus issue.

For the first time in many weeks, we tried the weave poles... and only got it 1/3 times.  One mistake was continuing on after the entry, and another time he cut out at the end when I moved past him.  He can weave if I'm behind him, but we haven't done work with me ahead or moving past.  

His very best parts today:

• We did an activity with 'directed jumping' of sorts. He was great, I could be very far away and I didn't have to move to get him over.  Because of our obedience work and fluency work...he already understood most of this.  Many other teams had less experience in this area and they had to be closer to the jumps or move and prompt the dog.
• Aframe, flipping to a tunnel underneath.   He's always great at this, but we've never done it away from our usual training place.   He was perfect and responsive. It sure was easier for me than it was for many of the teams who had to be much closer to cue.
• Table:  He's not seen very many tables, but he was able to jump up and Down right away. He almost broke position a few times as I moved, but he fixed it himself.
• Stays: While others walked the course.  He had people moving within 12" and he held position, easily!

Things to work on: 

• Straight out of the chute:  He turns towards me quite a lot...making it potentially unsafe (for both of us) and more difficult for any handling challenges.
• Dogwalk: (Help!).
• Weaves: esp with entries, with handler ahead, and handler moving past
• "pushing" out to a jump, away from a line we are following.
• Recalls.....

Focus points today:

• Keep food in my pocket until after the sequence.   
• Feed low (rather than high like for Heel position).
• Run!

Griffin at Agility Class: Week 2

Last week was a bit of a disaster in a few ways.  

During the week we worked did a few things to help us:

• Almost daily contact training sessions to prep for the dogwalk.  I moved the board taller and taller with a very high success rate. Last night after teaching, I ran him on the real one...it didn't go well. We tried to do training on it...and still had too many misses.  We stopped and will do more work at home.
• Weave pole work: Running through the steps and filling in the training gaps (addition of the second set of six).  Did about 4 sessions with the weave poles this week.
• Recalls and focus:  Extra large amount of work.
• Handling exercises: Practicing what didn't go well in class and recreating some of those embarrassing moments.

And right before or during class, I did a few specific things:

• Extra exercise.  Some dogs do better without exercise...he needs some right before class.
• Good treats:  Last week I had hamburger and ham and kibble stored with meat.    This week I took kibble and cheese as my low value and the NaturalBalance rolls as my high value. He LOVES those.  I HATE buying them...they're ridiculously expensive per pound and while the quality isn't bad, it's not the same as just feeding him meat.   I was given a few of the sample sized rolls when judging last weekend....so we were able to use that. Might have to go buy more for class.
• Training while waiting: Last week I just tried to get him to settle and did some hand touches and head on floor.   This week, we did that along with duration touches, stand-sit-down work in front of me and some other small-space tricks.

The results?  Griffin was really great.   He didn't run off to visit.  He had less barking than last week. He only missed one obstacle the whole class. We maintained criteria.  

For next week, we're doing exercises specific to class, more weave pole and dogwalk work, and I will remember to bring a kong for our waiting time.  If I could park closer, I would crate him until he needed to run...it's really tight quarters in the waiting area.  Due to his voice.....we get more than our fair share of space. He did a lot of growling today which was scaring people.... it's hard for me to say "don't worry about it" when it's a deep and long growl.   When Griffin is trying not to bark, he muffles it into a scary sounding growl.

I can't wait to see what happens next week!  In some ways we're beginner dogs in the group...some of the classmates have done the class before, many are already competing,  but we're still holding up pretty well in the environment!

CleanRun Article: On Leash Agility Class

In this month's CleanRun magazine is an article that we wrote about the "On Leash Agility" class that we've been teaching on and off for about a year.  

Horray!

The class is really great, focusing on good training, good agility foundations, and providing an agility opportunity for dogs that would otherwise be unable to do agility (not appropriate to be off leash or would not do well if an off leash dog would come up to him/her).  

We don't shortcut or skip training steps....though we do only do activities that are safe to do on leash (no tires/tunnels).  The humans learn appropriate handling, with only slight modifications for the leash in hand.

The only down side of this class?  It always falls at a time slot when Griffin should be at agility or obedience class (As it just did, yet again!).

Griffin in Beginner Agility Class V: How I was reinforced for going to class

All day I deliberated on going to agility class. Only one night left. Griffin had been bad. I didn't want him practicing more bad behaviors. He had already had good training. It was a long drive. Was it really worth it. I'd have to be taking the long drive up there the next night too. I took my warm clothes to our afternoon training just in case I decided to go. And then I realized I left them at home. And then I found them in the back. And then I was going to go home. And then I was going to ask Megan what to do. But she was at work. And the car ended up deciding to go. So we did and got there just in time.

It was a good choice, only one other dog there. We did a lot of contacts. Griffin was tired. I had used up all my food reinforcers. I had two handfuls of (my!) goldfish crackers. 3/4 cup of kibble. 3tbs of cream cheese. And toys. And cans of food. But no spoon. And I can't use that with gloves. And I didn't have paper towels for after...so that was literally going to be emergency use only.

But we survived. And did very well. Griffin ran off and surprisingly tried to play with the other dog (who wanted to play too but was intimidated!). Dogwalk contacts were lacking. I found out that the color markers are for whatever org has a smaller contact zone, so that's part of the problem, but he was definitely leaping. Aframe was scary good. Every. Single. One. Very low, and springing off from there. We used the frisbee and my toss was so good and my timing was not. I hit him in the head as he bursted away. His teeters were good too. I think he could be a bit faster.

But then after, I talked to one of the instructors about running contacts and we might be trying to get together to help each other. That would be great as it's way easier than with one person. We went from no training opportunities to a lot very quickly. I don't want January to come...I don't know how I'll manage to train my dog between everything else!