Day two with Marie Sawford

Today's Seminar was packed full of training tips. This is likely to get very long winded but I want to get as many tips here as possible for future reference. Marie said that for your competition puppy decide all of your signals for utility right away so that you don't inadvertently teach a conflicting signal that will be confusing when the dog is older.

We started out with Fronts for Puppies, Marie's theory is that a puppy that sits up tall will sit straight. First line yourself up to the puppy don't push and pull the puppy we want the puppy to love this spot, then let them nibble at some food from your hand, keep it high enough that the puppy needs to keep it's head up high without lifting his feet off the ground. Never tell the dog they're wrong when they are in front of you, this must remain the best place in the world. Try not to tower over the puppy ( that is very intimidating) bend your knees and lean back. You want them to always think about traveling in a straight line. Then step back and encourage the pup to return to the perfect spot and nibble, nibble, nibble.

Scent Discrimination for puppies, She started with different coloured tubes like mini m&m or mini skittles containers, pezz dispensers, metal tea balls. Create interest in the object, let the puppy see you fill it up with treats. If they show interest in the tube open it up and give a treat from your hand, toss it around, tease them with it, what ever it takes, rub your own scent on the tube and toss it in with a couple of empty tubes. If they pick up the wrong tube redirect them to the right one by moving it around. When the pick the right one get excited, open it up and feed from your hand. On to OPEN

Drop on Recall, Introduce early in the puppies life a drop from a stand with their elbows dropping first and a roll back in to down position. Once they understand what drop means teach them the correction( gently push down and back on the withers), do not reduce the food until you have a correction in place. Then do many drops in motion. Marie teaches the drop on recall using a target and clicker her theory is that it is hard to creep with their chin on the floor. If they want to pick it up anticipate this and click as he's approaching the target to interrupt the thought of picking it up. Feed the treat in the down motion as taught earlier they will quickly see target and drop on it. Once this happens now you can toss the treat past the target say get it so they are approaching you to drop on target. Once the behaviour is learnt add the drop command then fade out the target by cutting it smaller and smaller. Continue with this in many environments. Marie uses a different command for the come towards target then she uses front from drop to in front of her.

Dumbell, start with a dumbell that has a longer post. In competition a dumbell can be any material except metal. How can you tell if your dumbell is the wrong size? If the dog leaves a wet spot on the floor( a long streak, they are scooping it up, a round spot, they pick it up from the top and their nose is hitting). If they are picking it up with their teeth and then flipping it back. If they pick it up on the side. For a dog with big lips that get in the way try tapered ends and shorter post that push the lips out of the way so they don't bite their lips. Make sure there's no sharp corners that could poke them in the eye. Trouble shooting, A dog that kicks the dumbell with his feet, try your retrieves against a wall or in a V of chicken wire fence or have another person advance on the dumbell as the dog is approaching. Or do the retrieve around an object ( chair) For the dog that scans the crowd and comes back slow do the retrieve on leash and let the dog learn that the retrieve to you is the best part. Praise when the new action your teaching occurs, break off formal body posture by walking up and taking the dumbell from him so that you don't think your praising one action and the dog thinks your praising a different behaviour that you don't want.

to be continued........

Fun and Games a Marie Sawford Seminar

I went to a seminar presented by Marie Sawford in Belleville today. First on the agenda was Games for Obedience. We started with healing with a spin so the dog can relax and have fun. Spin the dog on your left and keep on walking, he has to hurry to catch up and give treat in heal position. Next was the Leg wrap, this game will tighten about turns and increase drive on right turns and outside circle of the figure 8. First teach the dog to wrap around your left leg and back to heal position then increase the challange by throwing in an about turn first followed by a leg wrap. Jump Back fronts was a fun way to work on straight fronts while keeping the dog's attitude up allowing for more repetitions.. With the recall game you toss food between your legs during your recall then take off running in the opposite direction, repeat 3 times then call your dog to front. You can also do this by throwing the dumbell between your legs on the third time or another variation is to add a drop on recall to the sequence. When healing we did some skipping the dogs loved this and some started skipping themselves. At a competition you can spin and skip to the start line or skip between exercises and even skip for your fast pace. To increase drive on our about turns we did a motivational about turn . As your dog is approaching the about turn rev them up by saying arrrrre youuuu reaaaaady then do your about turn and take off running when your dog catches up to you reward in heal position. Next Stand with your dog standing between your legs rev him up, then push him back and take off running again reward when he finds heal position. In the afternoon she showed us stuff for the competition puppy like tuck sits, back drops and kick back stands, with these the front feet do not move. Marie said to practice on slippery surfaces, on inclines or even on a pile of dog beds. for the stand practice at the top of the stairs. She even starts puppies with dumbell work, jumps and scent work. Tomorrow the seminar will continue with some foundation training and Open, Utility and Novice work. I can't wait.

Woo Hoo

Exciting news Blaster got best of Breed at the Port Hope(Pineridge) dog show giving him his final points needed to become a Canadian Champion. He was able to get all 10 points needed in 4 shows at Kawartha Kennel Club in July and Pineridge in Oct with 4 Best of Breeds in a row and Best Puppy in Group ta-boot. Ok enough with the gloating. O wait I also entered a Rally Trial Blaster got 2 legs towards his Novice title with a 195 and 191, and Tucker got 1 leg toward his Versatility title with a 191. Tucker now has his Master's Snooker Agility Dog of Canada Title. What a Great Summer.

Dancing with my dog

This week in Blaster's class we worked on the turn(swing) meaning we want the dog to turn away from us. Susan Garrett describes it well in her blog at http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2009/08/swinging-with-the-dog.html

because we never want the dog to break the plane of our shoulders we must turn our shoulders into the dog dropping the inside shoulder. I've decided I like the word swing better then turn with all the t words we are using so far my tongue is getting tied it might make it easier for blaster to hear the difference. We also worked on Get Out, and I don't me get out of the kitchen or get out from under my feet which i also use. Get Out meaning move further laterally away from me on a parallel line. We need to extend our arm and have our shoulders facing the dog, the article in dog sport described it as drawing a crayon line on the path we want the dog to take. The other thing we worked on was Go, meaning go ahead of us and take the obstacles in a straight line, with this we just kept throwing the toy under arm and saying go until the dog started anticipating the go and looked forward. Then you step it up by putting the toy in the other arm, swing arm, say go, when he looks forward toss the toy.

Shaping, pushing pulling

By meeting our dogs at the end of the tunnel and charging (leaning) forward we can get their speed up. Also conferging on their line to push them out to the tire so we can take the short cut.

Again by shaping their approach to the next jump we can take the off coarse teeter out of the picture.

Diane and her bullmastiff Gem demonstrate how a good plan comes together.

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Off coarse to tunnel

Here Lane is explaining how to push your dog out from the bottom of the Aframe and over a jump with a quick arm change and landing side front cross for a tighter turn and to prevent them from taking the off coarse tunnel.

Diane and Gemini executed the first 3 jumps very well with the positional cue and landing side front cross. You can clearly see here why Gem fell for the offcoarse tunnel trap when Diane was very late with her arm change. Lane said everything in her body was saying "Gem take the tunnel"

Jan was able to push Tess out to the jump and she performed the arm change on time but her body was still facing the tunnel and she didn't turn until Tess was almost in the tunnel. I didn't see this until I watched it in slow motion, wow it's amazing how tuned our dogs are to our body motion.

Now Jan and Tess perform the push out and pull back to the weaves perfectly.

Lane once again explains the push out and pull back move, the bungee affect seems to speed our dogs up ( a where ya going)

Masterminds Agility lesson 1

Here Lane is explaining options at the start line with an electronic timer to get a good angle of approach and shape the dogs path for a tight turn to the next jump, then with a landing side front cross you can give your dog a positional cue so your dog has no question as to what path to take.

Tess performed the first 2 jumps great with a tight turn but watch what happened as soon as Jan turned her back on Tess, she immediately disengaged and started sniffing(KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE DOG) Then Jan and Tess got their acts together and performed it perfectly