Quick update from me.
Dash and I had a great time at Vyne show on Monday. This was our first show in quite a while, but he coped brilliantly, especially as it is quite a busy one and we really enjoyed ourselves. We got a very dodgy clear in agility (guess who didn't walk the course? Stupid me- had ring party) and a placing for it. I reckon, if I'd walked it properly we could have stormed it and got a higher placing, because although as usual he was running like the clappers, I on several occasions, left it late to call him and give directional cues, which meant he jumped out wide and had to double back! Poor dog! That said, his contacts were fab and he did a beautiful weave entry into a set of twelve poles after the first jump!
Similarly in the jumping class we had a lovely run (I walked this one!) and we were belting it round (great weave entry for 12 poles at a slight angle then heading into the tunnel); the only thing I didn't anticipate for was his line of vision as he came out of the tunnel and so we got 5 faults, where I didn't indicate the jump before a spread! Again, great dog, shame about the handler!
I was also really pleased with how great he was at queuing for his runs on Monday. He was a star. Happily just sat next to me, playing look at that calmly for lots of yummy treats. Not at all overexcited, lungey or overaroused. I only really noticed it when another collie who was queuing next to us lunged towards another dog's movement, and I realised that Dash was just sat by my side looking at me!
In any case, I've got plenty of things that I need to work on (as usual all handling type errors) and also proofing hideous weave entries.
I think my dog has developed a bit of a thing for people with big lens-style cameras though, which is quite funny. At the last show we went to he decided that the photographer man was his best friend, and he did this again on monday to several photographers! LOL. Wierdo.
Anyway next part of my post is about some of the stuff I've been doing with new addition, Khuma-collie! In a nutshell, I've been working on adding value to toys and teaching her how to play with them. I'm hoping that eventually she'll be able to work for her favourite super high value food-bag toy in agility! That's the aim anyway!
In the video, I've been clicker training and heavily reinforcing basic behaviours. The aim is to combine these behaviours with the dog's natural instinctive behaviours (which we aim to tap into) and should become apparent once "toy games" become more and more rewarding and fun for the dog. The main basic behaviour is a nose touch of the toy, in any position (but most importantly on the floor). We teach this at short distances, then as a send away. I've been able to capture her interest in movement too (instinctive behaviour) and combine this with the send away nose touch to get her food from her food-bag. So as you can see we are crafting a chase type behaviour with the toy (and following on from that, rewarding any kind of mouthing and or bringing it towards me).
I've been using a tug e nuff food bag toy with her. These come highly recommended, especially if you are working with a dog who is really motivated by food and you want to add tons of value to the toy. A toy that is stuffed with food is alot more interesting than a boring plain one!
Take a look at the tug e nuff website here:
http://www.tug-e-nuff.co.uk/
That's about all this time folks. :D
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