Miss Boo was a very good girl at agility class last night. We learned some basic handling skills, that were really helpful. When properly employed they actually worked! The Boo even stopped knocking down jumps. And she did the sequence of obstacles that was set up better than any of the other dogs (most important of all, haha), and only ran away to socialize when she was done once!
(For her this is pretty impressive.)
We also found out that Boo needs to be jumping 22 inches, which is a lot higher than we thought. As long as she remembers to go OVER the jump, and not under it, we are ok with that. She seems to like hurling herself through the air.
This week we're supposed to start practicing sending her to a jump from afar, mostly using our body's motion, but a little bit with a hand gesture. It's amazing how much the dogs pick up about how we move, and how quickly they figure out where we want them to go.
This is what we're going for (except imagine a ferocious pit bull instead of a boarder collie):
Pretty hard to believe that a year ago the Boo barely knew "sit"!
4 Pearls of Wisdom:
My mother in law teaches agility classes and I have no idea how she and everyone else get their dogs to do it. MiniMan, however, likes to come over to her house, climb up the ramp, walk over the seesaw, and wiggle his way though tunnels.
EG -- Take a look at this clip from an upcoming House MD episode where he clicker trains Cuddy's adopted daughter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO8af17J1Q8
Maybe this strategy would work for MiniMan too?
;-)
Haha. I bet it would work. Right now we can get him to dance for a cookie.
I've successfully trained Cooper to attack my MIL. And so far no one has been able to un-train this.
He's an awesome dog.
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