AGILITY UPDATE:
We had our 2nd advanced beginner class this week. Last week's class was canceled because our trainer was attending The German Shepard Nationals. Her dog took home first place! Yay!
Bailey was okay this week. I was expecting her to do better since she was so good two weeks ago. I noticed that she gets scared when a heavier dog runs over the A-Frame or through a tunnel. Bailey was about to go over a jump until an Aussie ran like a speed demon over the A-frame. The noise spooked Bailey. Her tail went between her legs and she refused the jump. Thankfully, she got over it quickly and was back to jumping and running the dog walk. However, every time this Aussie ran fast through the tunnel or over the A-Frame and Bailey was close by, she would get spooked. I'm to have to try to desensitize her next week. I'll have Bailey watch the Aussie practice and feed her treats. I wonder if that is what caused "the incident" in August?
Bailey didn't do such a great job taking direction from me. I tried to have her run a short sequence: jump, tunnel, jump. She kept running past the last jump no matter how many different ways I tried to get her to take it.
The trainer lowered the A-Frame for us. It took a few tries and then Bailey was running over it. I hope she will run over it next week when it is back to normal height.
Next class, I plan to practice the A-Frame, Teeter and desensitize Bailey to noises.
Last night, I tried practice contacts with Bailey. I had her run across the contact board to the target plate. She figured that out, but then she would walk off the board, step on the target plate and turn around to face me. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to to get her in the correct position. Tonight, I think I'm going to try running her across the board with her leash on. Hopefully, that will fix the problem.
RALLY UPDATE:
We NQ'd in our 2nd novice rally trial last weekend. Despite the NQ, Bailey was fantastic. The NQ was all my fault. I walked right past the third station. Whoops! The layout of the course was easy, so I didn't concentrate on the numbers like I should have. Also, when I got into the ring, the judge reminded me to keep the leash loose. She just gave me one more thing to worry about! Between that, making sure Bailey is paying attention to me and is in heel position, I lost focus of the numbers. Oh well, at least Bailey greatly improved from our last trial. There was no barking, jumping or biting her leash. She performed every station correctly. Her fronts are still a little crooked, but I'll take 'em. She started getting sniffy at the first sign, but recovered nicely. Too bad I couldn't Q for her. We do need to practice our left turns. I almost tripped over her at some point.
Our next trial won't be until January, so we have plenty of time to practice. I'm even going to do 2 or 3 match runs to prepare us. I just found out what a match run is. I wish I would've known about them earlier, so we could've practiced before our real trials. So, my goal for our next trial is to improve our turns, fronts and Bailey's heeling/distractions.
On a side note...I decided to test Bailey's sit/down stays last night. I put Bailey into a sit position and asked her to stay. I walked back about 10 feet and bounced a tennis ball. The ball rolled right past her. I expected her to immediately jump up and grab it. Nope! She stayed in a sit position. She did turn to look at it and even scooted back about an inch or two. I was so impressed! I tested her again with the same result. I was such a proud mama.
Thought I'd offer a suggestion about the contact board. Teach the end of the contact the way you would teach a stay. So for the first few times, you may need to be right to her or near her to keep her from coming off, looking at you, etc... Feed her when she is in position, and you want to do it before she pops out of position. You also want to only do it as long as you think she can stay in that spot. If you see her get antsy, or it's been a certain amount of time, release her. The more you don't allow her to choose to come off on her own, the better.
ReplyDeleteSo basically, run with her to the end of the board, to the target plate. Once she is in position, feed off the plate. Keep feeding. Move around a little (from one side to the other). Try standing up a bit. Again, if she gets antsy, or you see her wanting to come off, release her and praise her.
Don't try to make her stay in that spot on her own until she's ready.
By the way, that's really interesting about the loud noises (big dog) scaring her. That definitely makes sense. Hopefully you can just feed her near it and she'll get over it quickly.