You guys seem to really be enjoying the agility classes, and it sounds like Harley is doing well.

 Quote: Ariane Gauthier

They could not get over the down and sit in motion or the recall were I stand with my back to Harley and he still come right in front of me.

When I decided I was going to do schutzhund, I built a finish into Sadie's recall, as well. I love the way it looks, it is easy to teach, and it translates to sport very well. I will always teach recall like this in the future. I like it so much better than having the dog waiting for another command when she gets back to me, or coming back to within a few feet and thinking she has complied.

 Quote: Duane Hull

You guys seem to really be enjoying the agility classes, and it sounds like Harley is doing well.

 Quote: Ariane Gauthier

They could not get over the down and sit in motion or the recall were I stand with my back to Harley and he still come right in front of me.

When I decided I was going to do schutzhund, I built a finish into Sadie's recall, as well. I love the way it looks, it is easy to teach, and it translates to sport very well. I will always teach recall like this in the future. I like it so much better than having the dog waiting for another command when she gets back to me, or coming back to within a few feet and thinking she has complied.

Can you elaborate on your methodology or provide a link? Sounds interesting.

The first thing I had to do was improve the recall I had. My dog gets her runs in an open field, and she would sometimes hesitate or ignore the first recall. Through suggestions, I improved her recall by marking as soon as she turned to come. She has high food drive, so this was all the motivation she needed to start coming enthusiastically on the first command.

Once we had that established, I started luring her in. I quit marking when she started in and held the food right in front of my belt buckle. This brought her eagerly to my front, regardless of which way I faced, and I marked. When she had that down, we added the sit and didn't mark until she sat. Naturally, tho, she wasn't always straight, so after she learned she had to sit, I started withholding the mark until she was straight.

We polished it with intermediate bridges; "uh uh" if she wasn't tight enough or was crooked, then luring her into the correct straight front (sometimes with a slight step backwards), and "good" if she got a nice straight, tight front on her own. I held it long enough to imprint the correct position, then released.

ETA: John, the most important part is the enthusiastic recall. If you don't like the way he's coming in, you're not going to like anything after that. For it to be usable as a front, the dog needs to come in straight and hard, and look like he's ready for the next behavior.

Edited by Duane Hull (12/05/2012 03:26 PM)
Edit reason: eta

 Quote: Sharon Empson

So, let me know about the new way to teach the pivot. sharon

Sasha loves doing a finish to the left using the "swing" command so my trainer had me put the leash behind my back in my right hand to keep Sasha's head in tight to my leg. With Sasha in heel position and a treat in my left hand, walk two steps. One step forward and one to the left. My left hand is between her left shoulder and her left ear and I use the "swing" command at the same time.

Before Sasha wasn't getting up to move; she was just shifting her front feet around to follow me but in competition the station will be marked as incomplete (and a DQ) if she doesn't actually get up. By taking the step forward she knows I want her to get up. We're going to practice it all this week with the steps getting smaller and smaller and see how far we can get. I'm hoping she'll start to understand that I want her to swing her hind end in like she does on a finish left.

As always; any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Club night last night...

We have a jump in a chute that Sadie likes. She hasn't jumped a meter yet, but we've been up to 30 inches. She jumps it enthusiastically and reliably, coming and going (LOVES dem treats!). I thought I would try some jumps over the competition jump, which is out in the open. I removed a few planks, lowering it to about 24", thinking I'd make it easy. She refused, so I took out another plank, and this continued for a few more attempts. She was showing a desire to jump, but seemed unsure about what may have been on the other side. I finally got a couple of clean jumps at 18".

Discouraged, but looking for a high point to end on, I took her to the chute, where she went over 30" and back twice. We had a little party and moved on to some flat retrieves. While watching us do some nice retrieve work, TD told me to try a retrieve over the chute jump. Sadie jumped, retrieved, and returned nicely, though she did drop the dumbbell accidentally when her feet jarred the ground. TD had wanted to see if her drive stayed high even with the obstacle, and seemed satisfied. I was very happy, but I want to get some more reps asap so that she gets accustomed to jumping and landing with the weight in her mouth.

I think TD may have been wanting to see if her drive for the dumbbell would get her over the jump, and I think he may want me to use this to get her jumping the free jump. Can hardly wait for the next session to see if we can sort it out.

I'm gonna double up, cause both days were the same, and I missed posting last night because of a Hockey Game
Had two great days of training with Zocha, the weather was kind of questionable so we headed for our favorite out of yard training spot, a completely enclosed double tennis court with a huge park and a good bit of vehicle traffic on the one side, so great for distraction and able to work off leash. I took full advantage and we trained and played for close to 90 minutes both days. Don't worry not 90 minutes of focused training, but 2 or 3 minutes of focused heeling, 10 minutes of free play and lots of recalls, 2 minutes of sit stay, ten minutes of tug retrieve tug etc... All in all a great couple of days,and plenty of basic obedience to boot, keep raining and blowing weather

I'm gonna double up, cause both days were the same, and I missed posting last night because of a Hockey Game
Had two great days of training with Zocha, the weather was kind of questionable so we headed for our favorite out of yard training spot, a completely enclosed double tennis court with a huge park and a good bit of vehicle traffic on the one side, so great for distraction and able to work off leash. I took full advantage and we trained and played for close to 90 minutes both days. Don't worry not 90 minutes of focused training, but 2 or 3 minutes of focused heeling, 10 minutes of free play and lots of recalls, 2 minutes of sit stay, ten minutes of tug retrieve tug etc... All in all a great couple of days,and plenty of basic obedience to boot, keep raining and blowing weather

I'm gonna double up, cause both days were the same, and I missed posting last night because of a Hockey Game
Had two great days of training with Zocha, the weather was kind of questionable so we headed for our favorite out of yard training spot, a completely enclosed double tennis court with a huge park and a good bit of vehicle traffic on the one side, so great for distraction and able to work off leash. I took full advantage and we trained and played for close to 90 minutes both days. Don't worry not 90 minutes of focused training, but 2 or 3 minutes of focused heeling, 10 minutes of free play and lots of recalls, 2 minutes of sit stay, ten minutes of tug retrieve tug etc... All in all a great couple of days,and plenty of basic obedience to boot, keep raining and blowing weather

Heeling as always, stays have been solid and the retrieve as well just still need to get that lag out of my girl before next weeks trial. As for my boy lots of tug and retrieving games and stays as his stays are Ok as long as everything's all calm but if he gets stirred up he won't stay so trying to teach him control when he's wound up.

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