# Just Signed Up For a Beginner Agility Class!



## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

Congrats! It's a great sport and most dogs love it. Good luck!

--Q


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

That's a great idea! Have fun with it and we expect a full report


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Have fun you two. You have such a great relationship with Dulcie, I am sure this will be marvelous.


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## nifty (Aug 2, 2013)

First Class Update!

Well, we attended the first class and it was a lot less active than I expected. Naturally, the instructor was giving a lot of talk to get people up to speed on how to work with the dogs. So, in effect, we spent only about 10-15 minutes actually doing anything and the rest of the hour listening to her speak with the dogs kind of sitting there. She said it will be more active next time and I am still psyched. A lot of the things she was talking about were slightly different than in Obedience and so it really was kind of important to get the talk. Interestingly, the other participants were all continuing from previous classes and so my "first" class was actually walking in mid way through an ongoing series (even though online it clearly shows 8 week increments with weeks 1-8 and then starting over - with last night being a new week 1)

The thing we did last night was to stand by two wickets (weave poles) and wait for Dulcie to look toward them and then throw a treat in a straight line between them and praise her and then quickly bring her back and wait again. 

The tricky part is that some of the ways I need to behave in this are opposite to how we work in Obedience! Dulcie and I have been working hard on eye contact and she is doing GREAT with that - we can walk for a city block (Probably further, but I do have to break contact at crossings obviously) and she is focused on me no matter what - crowds, dogs, car horns etc -- BUT at agility, this was a problem! Dulcie was looking right at me and eagerly expecting praise -- and of course, my goal in this class was for her to offer new behaviors by herself! Haha. I hope she doesn't get too confused

But, you all know Dulcie by now, I think! HAHA With little reinforcement from me for the eye contact, she did eventually start offering OTHER behaviors (but already learned, of course) such as getting into heel position etc. IT was really cute seeing her go through her repertoire.

Finally, the instructor advised me to begin by rewarding her for even glancing toward the weave poles. When she breaks eye contact with me and looks toward the eave poles, I was to toss the treat through the two poles onto the ground directly between them on the other side. Then have a party when Dulcie stepped through the poles to retrieve the treat.

So we made some progress there and she caught on pretty quickly!

I have to think hard about how to practice training at home - because the goals are so different with the two classes. With Obedience, I want to reward her for eye contact and heeling etc. But for agility, my goal right now is to reward her for offering NEW behaviors - using a box as a prop for her to offer exploring behaviors etc.

It is really interesting!

However, before next week's class I will make sure I give Dulcie more exercise. Yesterday, I was concerned that I might tire her out too much if we did all the usual stuff, so I took her for one short and one longer walk and skipped the energetic fetch session that we usually do. So, in the end of the day, she did not have enough exercise yesterday for her needs. I'll know for next week!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

It is different but she will still need to be paying attention to you in agility. Obstacle focus, handler awareness is what happens with agility. You can work on stuff like body position awareness, go outs, wrapping a jump (use a pole of some sort or a stool and have her making tight turns around it).

Don't worry about what anyone else has already done. Focus on what you and Dulcie need to do. Also keeping her relaxed while other dogs work is time well spent.


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## nifty (Aug 2, 2013)

Catherine, I knew you had mentioned the working bond/eye contact (I keep forgetting the word that you use for this) between handler and dog before, so I was a bit confused by the instructions to discourage her from eye contact and to avoid meeting her eyes. However, I do get what the instructor was trying to show us - that we want the dog to offer lots of behaviors which we can then reinforce toward the agility goals - and not have it be that the dog is going treat hunting itself. The thing was for them to do a behavior and then make a connection that it is desirable and then to build on that. So glancing toward the weave poles was the first step. Then after a few times, no reward for that but a reward for looking that way PLUS taking a step towards them ---and so on.

Yes, I intend to keep working on eye contact and our relationship. I figure if Dulcie and I are doing eye contact and heeling every day (plus "hurry!" and "sloooooowwww" and halt and so on) then she will maintain the importance of the relationship even as she learns to offer new behaviors - and the ability to look in front of her without staying on my eyes so that she can see the obstacles and then check back in with me in a flash for the next cue. Does that make sense? I am guessing from what I have read here on PF and also from the flood of information at the class - that this is kind of the eventual goal?


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

That term is centripetal attraction!

You know I have to say that my agility foundations weren't stellar. I took some fun classes and then a series of "competition" classes with someone who I think wasn't very interested in me or Lily or in helping us make progress (I actually don't know why I went back for as many series as I did, wasted a lot of time and money).

I hope Quossum will look in here and make some comments/suggestions. She is much more experienced than I am.


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## lisasgirl (May 27, 2010)

I'm not experienced with Agility in particular, but it sounds like you're learning shaping! Shaping is tons of fun for teaching all kinds of behavior. There's a game you can do at home called "101 Things to Do With a Box" that can help you both practice the general skills. I recommend googling it. Most of the websites will be clicker trainers, but you can do it with a marker word as well. 

Don't think of it as teaching her not to look at you - think of it as teaching her not to wait for you to cue her all the time. You want her to do some independent problem-solving. I would guess in the context of an agility competition you want her to be able to start on the next obstacle almost faster than you could tell her to do it.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

lisasgirl, yes a lot of agility behaviors are shaped. You always need to keep it positive.


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## lisasgirl (May 27, 2010)

lily cd re said:


> lisasgirl, yes a lot of agility behaviors are shaped. You always need to keep it positive.


I heard that it was positive-oriented, but I didn't know about the emphasis on offering behaviors. That's pretty cool. I'm hoping to get Archie into a beginner class (maybe a "Just For Fun" class through our current trainer, just to get an intro) sometime soonish, so I like to learn about it.


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

Yes, Agility is a lot easier with a confident, "operant" dog who is willing to move ahead, offer new behaviors, and be comfortable away from their handler. The activity you were doing with the poles sounds a lot like the beginning of teaching 2x2 weaves, which is how I taught Sugarfoot. ( http://youtu.be/KUOfT6cJYQE )

This whole thing is not exactly incompatible with traditonal obedience, just a different mindset.

It's good to have a trainer who has competitiveness in mind from the start, particularly if your goal is to be a hotshot. There are a lot of little things that you would never think of at the beginning if you didn't fully realize what the final picture will entail.

It sounds like you're off to a good start!

--Q


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## nifty (Aug 2, 2013)

Quossom, that video is great! Yes! It seems like this instructor is trying to do just what you did in the video. Boy Sugarcoat is a handsome SPOO and smart!

I'm thinking the orange ball would be a better incentive for Dulcie than either food treats or the tug toy. Although, we have discovered HOT DOGS this past week and I must say it is something that Dulcie actually does seem quite excited about. I am trying to put a few pieces in a bag with more healthy treats and squish them up a bit so the healthier treats get that hot dog juice on them - that way I can feed her fewer hot dogs and still have a ton of treats for the new learning sessions! 

By the way, hot dogs were the answer this week to recall too! OMG I can't even believe it!


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