# My Lucy LOVED her agility!!!!



## schnauzerpoodle (Apr 21, 2010)

YAY~ Glad to know that Lucy is loving her class now!


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## ArreauStandardPoodle (Sep 1, 2009)

That is wonderful Purley! Way to go Lucy!!


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## debjen (Jan 4, 2010)

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Gald she is having fun.


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

Wonderful! Sounds like she's just a careful girl ... now the fun can start.

I can't tell you how much mine loves agility. He's impatient to go, go, go, and when we send him out, he gives this little yelp/bark that sounds like it's just been squeezed out of him, it's hysterical.

Have fun!


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## Purley (May 21, 2010)

There is a Standard poodle in her class. She was in her obedience class too. The dog is black with white on her chest and white "slippers" on her front feet. She is a bit of a goofball. She reminds me of my son's Doodle actually. She is very "clunky" looking - looks like a male to me, but that obviously doesn't matter to the owners. Anyway, she kept slipping out of her collar and then she would race around and avoid being caught. Lucy gets really excited when another dog races around and she was yapping her head off!!

But she watched me most of the time. We did some "push-ups" -- sit, down, sit, down -- and then a treat. We did some "watch me's" in between. She was just a totally different dog from last week - tail up and wagging and obviously enjoying herself. We had a different trainer last night. She said she prefers to do the equipment as it will be - i.e. - she does the teeter with the teeter on the stand - whereas the usual trainers do it without the stand. Tyson is small and he crouches down when he knows the teeter is going to go down - so it lowers his centre of gravity and it doesn't "bang" down. 

The new trainer likes to do the weaves "as they are" just using a treat to weave them in and out. Lucy was pretty good at that.

When I started with Tyson, we learned the weaves with the poles spread almost on the ground and then gradually they were raised higher and higher. It took Tyson ages to do the weaves with the poles vertical. 

I think its easier to teach them with the poles vertical from the start. Anybody else have opinions on teaching the difficult things - weaves and teeter??


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

Vasco likes agility so much that we are training with two different clubs. One teaches weaves with the channel method, and the other with guides. He's picking it up much faster with the guides (plastic strips to demarcate the path). Like this pic.

One instructor likes to teach the seesaw first, the theory being that once the dog is comfortable with something moving under him, he'll be fine with the dog walk. Doing the dog walk first then surprising them with the seesaw can be intimidating. That made sense to me.


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## Purley (May 21, 2010)

That is interesting because Tyson, my shih-tzu has always absolutely loved the dog walk. We do course practice all the time and if there is a tunnel beside the dog walk and I say "tunnel" Tyson will quite often decide the dog walk is way much more fun and choose that instead. On the other hand, the teeter is not one of his favourites even still. He does it all the time but I can tell he would go back and forth on the dog walk all the time if I let him!!


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## debjen (Jan 4, 2010)

In the 13 years I have been doing agility and with 4 different dogs I have probably tried most of the various ways to do different obstacles..and have found that things once taboo are now common place. I personally like to teach things in parts and pieces. I have found the dog has a better understanding of things if I teach the contact performance whatever it might be and actually running the contact separately. For the teeter I teach the bang game at the end of the board first so the get use to the movement and sound of the board. 

For the weaves I've used the lure, the push and pull the channels and the weave a matics. But I am completely sold on Susan Garrett's 2 x 2 method. 

Of course I start my dogs pretty young so I do a lot of stuff on the ground before ever getting to the actual equipment such as walking on a board..learning contact performance on a board, tunnels, jumps without bars and focus work.


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## Purley (May 21, 2010)

Yes. I did check on youtube for Susan Garrett's method and I think I will try it when I get my own equipment out when the lawn is dry enough. What is the bang game by the way?


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## debjen (Jan 4, 2010)

Purley said:


> Yes. I did check on youtube for Susan Garrett's method and I think I will try it when I get my own equipment out when the lawn is dry enough. What is the bang game by the way?


The bang game starts at the end of the teeter with the dog just putting his front feet on the end..treat..when dog is comfortable doing that lift the teeter off the ground about an inch and again dog just has to put front feet on ..treat everytime they touch the teeter..dog gets use to the movement and the noise...slowly lifting the teeter to a few inches..then take them to the side of the teeter (may want to start back with it on the ground) and have them get on the end facing down in their contact position..again start to lift off the ground about an inch slowly raising again..when dog is comfortable doing that from both sides I have them run the whole teeter while controlling the down so the bang is not too bad until the dog can run the whole thing on their own.


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

My training center does offset poles with the dog driving towards a lure. This method builds good head position and speed.

I've very intrigued by the 2x2 method, though. I think I'm going to give it a serious go with my next dog.

Another thing to start considering right now: What contact method are you going to use? :afraid:

--Q


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## Teffy (Jul 4, 2010)

JE-UK said:


> Vasco likes agility so much that we are training with two different clubs. One teaches weaves with the channel method, and the other with guides. He's picking it up much faster with the guides (plastic strips to demarcate the path). Like this pic.
> 
> One instructor likes to teach the seesaw first, the theory being that once the dog is comfortable with something moving under him, he'll be fine with the dog walk. Doing the dog walk first then surprising them with the seesaw can be intimidating. That made sense to me.


That's so interesting. For Buffy, it was the opposite. Once she learned the dog walk, she was very willing to go on the teeter whereas before, it was like 'brakes' and a "HELLLLL NOOO".


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## Teffy (Jul 4, 2010)

debjen: thanks for the bang game...very good teaching method.

Quossum: 2x2 worked fabulously with my younger dog whereas channelling (I think that's what you're referring to) was more suitable for my older, less confident, less drivey dog.


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## Purley (May 21, 2010)

When I started agility with my Shih-tzu, Tyson, we learned the weave poles by starting with them spread apart on the ground and we called the dog through while the trainer held the dog at the start. With Lucy they are different trainers and we are luring the dogs through with a treat. The first class we held the treat. The last class we threw the treat on the ground at the appropriate side of the weaves. I think this way is going to be much quicker than the way we did it before. But then again, Lucy is probably going to pick things up quicker than Tyson. He loves agility and I don't think Shih-tzus are not smart -- its just that they are sometimes very stubborn!!


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