"SoBe", she needs to understand that she MUST stop on her dog walk in competition as well as in training. That is the most difficult mission in operation contact for sure.
Honestly, she has an amazing dog walk we just have to make the point that even with mega adrenaline she must do it properly.
"Merger", because of his gigantic size, I had the presence of mind to teach Merge a very solid 2 on/2off behavior which we continue to work in an effort to proof and solidify the performance.
To do this I am going to begin with exercises that really test Mergers ability to drive into the 2on/2off and hold it. I will put a few of these on tape and add them to the next blog installment, which I will do in less than 10 days time :-)
So, it has become apparent that I am referring to the A-Frame and dog walk and not the teeter, I do not consider the teeter to be one of the contact obstacles. Because of the nature of the teeter and the movement and noise, etc.. as far as I am concerned the teeter stands alone from a training and overall performance standard. The training of the teeter will be addressed separately.
So, what's my plan? My plan is to teach a modified 4 on the floor for the dog walk. I am going to teach Wally and Vandal to drive to and drop on a mouse pad, towel, flat board, whatever immediately after leaving the plank in an effort to get stride collection with out the stop. I will fade the full stop at some point. Wally may have slightly different ideas about how all of this morphs, but, as long as we come to an agreement that suits both of us and the rule book I will be happy.
"Vandal", I have not started any contact training with him other than a little see wood run stuff to check out his level of confidence. I am happy to report that he runs a full dog walk and a low A-Frame without hesitation! I have started to teach a 2on/2off on the flat board but i am leaning towards a stride collection and a "moving" contact on the dog walk and a full running A-Frame.
I was teaching a handling workshop at a friends house yesterday and so I took the doodle bug with me for a little off site training opportunity and lo and behold she was perfect! Even with multiple different and difficult proofing maneuvers she managed a perfect stop and hold several times! Looks like we will be hitting the local fun matches, Trish is it too late to sign up for Sat.?
Honestly, she has an amazing dog walk we just have to make the point that even with mega adrenaline she must do it properly.
SoBe's A-Frame is simply, yes I actually said simply, going to change to a 2on/2off performance to help her keep her brain together for all of the contacts.
"Merger", because of his gigantic size, I had the presence of mind to teach Merge a very solid 2 on/2off behavior which we continue to work in an effort to proof and solidify the performance.
Also, due to his enormity :-) I have been letting him run the contacts just to get an understanding of where is feet are. When I first started putting Merger over the contacts he was either nervous about the narrow dog walk or over thinking the bottom behavior that he thought he was supposed to offer, regardless of the reason I knew what he really needed was to just be able to run the contacts for a while. My friend Ann calls it teaching them the concept of "see wood run".
Well, the really good news is as of this writing Merger is absolutely flying over the contacts without hesitation, the bad news is now the work really starts, pairing the contact equipment with the stop behavior.
To do this I am going to begin with exercises that really test Mergers ability to drive into the 2on/2off and hold it. I will put a few of these on tape and add them to the next blog installment, which I will do in less than 10 days time :-)
Once I have really worked these it is time to put Merger on a low dog walk and ask for the behavior at speed, the proofing is reintroduced once Merger gets the "connection" of run to a stop. Not a very easy concept to wrap their minds around.
So, it has become apparent that I am referring to the A-Frame and dog walk and not the teeter, I do not consider the teeter to be one of the contact obstacles. Because of the nature of the teeter and the movement and noise, etc.. as far as I am concerned the teeter stands alone from a training and overall performance standard. The training of the teeter will be addressed separately.
"Wally", has a perfect A-Frame and teeter as far as I am concerned :-) But, there is still that pesky dog walk issue. The good news is that last weekend in an effort to guarantee a qualifying performance in GP I "sat" on Wally a bit on the dog walk and caused the addition of several strides yet he still took second place by less than 2/10ths of a second!! I must say it gives me tons of confidence going forward that even if I teach Wally to add a stride at the bottom of the dog walk we are still going to have winning times!
So, what's my plan? My plan is to teach a modified 4 on the floor for the dog walk. I am going to teach Wally and Vandal to drive to and drop on a mouse pad, towel, flat board, whatever immediately after leaving the plank in an effort to get stride collection with out the stop. I will fade the full stop at some point. Wally may have slightly different ideas about how all of this morphs, but, as long as we come to an agreement that suits both of us and the rule book I will be happy.
"Vandal", I have not started any contact training with him other than a little see wood run stuff to check out his level of confidence. I am happy to report that he runs a full dog walk and a low A-Frame without hesitation! I have started to teach a 2on/2off on the flat board but i am leaning towards a stride collection and a "moving" contact on the dog walk and a full running A-Frame.
I am of the belief that to accomplish this I am going to have to commit to the process and do a really good job of logging progress, both in writing and on video.
I will gladly share with everyone what I am doing and how it is going, starting today! Wish us luck!
3 comments:
Good luck! Thank you so much for your generosity as a trainer!
We'd LUV to have you come - we're taking day of entries - let me know if you need info/directions
T
Oooh BTW its Sun not Sat.... just in case...enties
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