Agility "seminar" (One Jump)

Last weekend I did an evening mini agility seminar with Penny. It covers all sorts of techniques you need with a jump, and this one went a bit beyond what we knew (which is fine we just worked at our level). Some things we had covered at the end of last season but it's been so long and I didn't even remember our commands for that anymore haha (must write all the words down, sooooooo many!).

Penny surprised me! she was "on". Good attention and we were "working together" in a set-up with distractions. I expected the worse :P I can't wait for agility season to start, hoping we get out earlier as the field should dry up sooner this year (snow's already well on the way to being melted) it's been a long winter. Once my yard is a bit dryer we can start doing some "one jump" stuff at home as well to prep.

We are working more for tug rewards (VS treat) now which is new (started around the time we did flyball). it's a new handling issue for me to learn (she is distracted by the tug and I have to learn how to move it from hand to hand when we switch sides). When she gets tired she wants food though haha (probably a sign to wrap up the session anyway). Up until recently she worked strictly for food rewards.

Something to try, this tug toy I found. Has a tug and a pouch for treats. It was a great way to transition Hemi from treats to tugging.

You can fill it with treats, it seals really good with velcro, you can throw it and I can actually fold it up and stick it in my back pocket. Hemi knows now when done, it comes flying out of my pocket.
Two-Handled Jackpot

I know we are not advanced after 5 agility classes or anything (ha!), but I find it interesting that people reward their dogs in agility so often. I can see when you are teaching, of course, but for the jumps and tunnels at least, Linus finds it very rewarding that I am "letting" him jump or tunnel. Will that change?

Pen also needs something to drive thru especially as were were in a hall with other dogs and people all over. She gets rewarded at the end of a run at this point (or after a drill) not at each time. Expect maybe contact spots we still remind her about :p

I have a tug with a treat pouch (for Rocky years ago). she doesn't much like it of course. SHe looooves her new tug and it's been a life safer at dock diving (she puts her exitement (err over arousal) onto the tug VS scream and lunge)

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Originally Posted by Labradorks

I know we are not advanced after 5 agility classes or anything (ha!), but I find it interesting that people reward their dogs in agility so often. I can see when you are teaching, of course, but for the jumps and tunnels at least, Linus finds it very rewarding that I am "letting" him jump or tunnel. Will that change?

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Maybe, it all depends what you are working on. Hemi only gets rewarded after a complete course run of say 20 obstacles usually. I say usually because there comes a time when you need to work on certain obstacles again. Like for some reason Hemi got slow on his weaves. So running a course in training every time he got finished with the weaves that tug toy would come out of my pocket and get thrown. This does 2 things. First, he wants to get through those weave poles faster because there is a reward at the end. When you throw it then he finishes the weave poles looking forward, for you to throw the toy, and not at you which is what you want to be set up for the next obstacle. I still will do this once every couple weeks when we run a course just to keep him on his toes. Another thing it is not bad to reward on contact spots like Tanya says, if you have issues with them then you need to reinforce them.

When you really get running and running courses, you also need to be careful of "Suckers" we call them. So if he loves the tunnels and thinks of that as a reward, it is very common of have tunnels wrap in and around other obstacles in a course. Like under the A frame with the tunnel opening right next to the A frame start. If your pup is s tunnel sucker, which means tunnels suck him right in, and your supposed to do the A frame. You can get an "off course" if the tunnel sucks them in. So eventually this will change. Right now don't worry about it, let him have fun.

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Originally Posted by Jeff

Maybe, it all depends what you are working on. Hemi only gets rewarded after a complete course run of say 20 obstacles usually. I say usually because there comes a time when you need to work on certain obstacles again. Like for some reason Hemi got slow on his weaves. So running a course in training every time he got finished with the weaves that tug toy would come out of my pocket and get thrown. This does 2 things. First, he wants to get through those weave poles faster because there is a reward at the end. When you throw it then he finishes the weave poles looking forward, for you to throw the toy, and not at you which is what you want to be set up for the next obstacle. I still will do this once every couple weeks when we run a course just to keep him on his toes. Another thing it is not bad to reward on contact spots like Tanya says, if you have issues with them then you need to reinforce them.

When you really get running and running courses, you also need to be careful of "Suckers" we call them. So if he loves the tunnels and thinks of that as a reward, it is very common of have tunnels wrap in and around other obstacles in a course. Like under the A frame with the tunnel opening right next to the A frame start. If your pup is s tunnel sucker, which means tunnels suck him right in, and your supposed to do the A frame. You can get an "off course" if the tunnel sucks them in. So eventually this will change. Right now don't worry about it, let him have fun.

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I can see the dog walks and weave poles and contacts requiring more rewards. Linus is a "sucker" for the tunnels AND the jumps, for sure!

It's so funny, pen isn't a huge fan of tunnels. the Aframe would be more of a sucker in that scenario ;) She also LOVES weaves :P But we've HIGHLY rewarded it over the last two years.

it's funny i did a hunt class where the fetching was the reward (no one had other rewards). Only...Rocky DOES NOT LIKE FETCHING (especially if it's not a squeaky tennis ball). so basically i realized halfway thru class that he literally was getting NO FUN, NO REWARD out of this class. He would hide under vehicles when it was his turn. it was pretty sad. I was getting more and more frustrated until I realize the issue. So indeed I had to give him a break then start over with rewards. It worked and he still gets exited when I pull out the bumper but it took a totally re framing of things for me. So really reward depends on the dog - for some dogs the jump alone isn't the reward. Or for me in that class I needed something for her to focus on so she didn't go visiting. And I like what Jeff mentionned about not wanting them to reward themselves by taking the obstacle "they want" :P

Daisy falls for the a-frame and dog walk "suckers" all the time!!

We didn't use treats much with training her and she's never been a tugger so her reward was a ball bounced at the end of the course. She's an absolute nut job for the ball. She also works for praise so lately the reward has been a praise party at the end of the run.

With lily, who is still new to agility, we use treats. She plays tug but it's always when she wants so I don't see us transitioning to that as a reward. She's obsessed with our agility trainer so at the end of the run the little brat runs over to her for praises and belly rubs.