24 replies to this topic

[alligande]

One of my trainers made the observation that when she was starting out that the admired trainers kept quiet, now it is about communicating with your dog and giving them as much input as possible. Which is very different from saying jump jump jump
which I am going to guess we were all guilty of starting out.

[mum24dog]

Talking about body cues is very timely for me. Last night, our agility instructor challenged us to 'silent agility'. We were prohibited from saying anything while we were running the course except for 'OK' or 'Break' to start our dog. We could not name any obstacle while running (no 'Tunnel' or 'Weave'), neither could we say 'Here' or 'Go on'. ALL handling had to rely on body cues.

Try it with your hands behind your back as well as your mouth shut. It can be dione and it's a salutory lesson as to the importance of shoulders and feet.

[gcv-border]

Try it with your hands behind your back as well as your mouth shut. It can be dione and it's a salutory lesson as to the importance of shoulders and feet.

OMG, Noooooooo! I don't think my instructor needs any more ways to torture us.


Actually, that is a suggestion that I will bring up in a few weeks. Awesome idea.

Jovi

[brndlbc]

Dave Munnings has some good exercises for teaching "go" on his DVD "Q-Me". I have used a like method and have really enjoyed the results as it creates drive as well as distance. This is part of the Dave Munnings seminar we had earlier in the year. Unfortunately the audio is sort of bad and only part of the demo was caught on video but this is Dave explaining "go" and how he trains it




I like this method as it can really assist in teaching independent behavior which, as mentioned previously, can be a huge asset for things like weave pole performance. I trained my last two dog's weave poles this way and am very pleased with the results (ideally, my tosses could have been a bit earlier as I don't want the dog looking back at me waiting for the toy to arrive-always a work in progress)

[Cyberdog]

So, Ive spent a few weeks on it, and Im getting wonderful driving forward from the dog at home, and at non-class practices. In class though...no driving. She is the definition of a velcro dog. So, I get to hear about that every class from my teachers.

On an up note... We are one of the few teams in our newbie class who can work off leash and do the big teeter. :-) I like to brag about that.