Q for dog agility people

[Brindlebtch]

Pat, you just want the name of the exercise? How many classes have you taken and how many consecutive jumps can Russell perform?

I don't have any way of showing how jumps are set up here.

eta or how to show you what to do with your body or show turning cues. arg.

 

[patandchickens]

We have taken zero actual agility classes yet; we're currently taking a second Intermediate Obedience class (this and previous one with other instructor are focused mainly on rally and agility-foundation prep, not on pet dogs or actual obedience competition) mainly to give him practice keeping brain plugged in during a class and while waiting for them to schedule another basic-intro-level agility class when there's enough people. Russell is pretty well educated in terms of basic control off-leash, I can send him in various figures around our baby spruce trees in the backyard without running next to him the whole time, has 'get out' and 'around' and such.

Mostly (not that we've done *so* much, as the snow is only now melting enough to really allow jumping) I've played with him taking a single jump from all possible angles (running with him, or calling him to me, or sending him ahead). Last weekend I built two more jumps so now I have three total (plus a non-jump "hoop") but I am sort of at a loss as to how to most effectively start USING them, or how to work on handling skills per se (as opposed to dog's skills). I have dinked around a tiny bit with sequences of 2-4 jumps and was able to keep dog with me and going over correct jumps, at least at a slow canter, but I just have no idea of what to do in a more systematic way, you know?

I dunno, maybe what I'm asking for is not easily summarized in a few sentences and unrealistic to be requesting <shrug>, if so, sorry

As far as *how* to do the handling, I am sort of figuring that the dog can teach me that to a reasonable degree for now? I mean, either it works or it doesn't

When what I do works, I try to figure out what I'm doing right so as to keep doing it on purpose; when he does something other than what I intended, I try to figure out how I accidentally made him do that so I don't do it again (or maybe can harness it on purpose for future situations), you know? That's what I've been doing so far anyhow, and I feel like it is working reasonably well, as it is not THAT different from free-longeing or roundpenning horses and I am starting to figure out which particular rules are different for dogs (e.g. 'bending lower tends to send dog faster').

Pat

 

[Brindlebtch]

OK, I searched youtube looking for beginner agility
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=beginner+agility+class&aq=f

beginner agility groundwork:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=beginner+agility+groundwork&aq=f

Beginner contact zones:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=beginner+agility+contact+zones&aq=f

Beginner weaves:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=beginner+agility+weavepoles&aq=f

beginner jump exercises
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=beginner+agility+jump+exercises&aq=f

Main elements of agility are contact zones, weaves, jumps.

More jumps out there than anything! Try sifting through this stuff to see if it is any use, if you haven't already.

 

[patandchickens]

I'm sorry, I probably should have mentioned, I cannot really view Youtube videos as I am on slow and unreliable dialup (it takes like 40 minutes to load anything at all, and that's *if* it's a short clip *and* my connection doesn't get dropped)

I will try those sometime when nobody else is wanting the computer though, in case I can eventually get something to load, thank you so much for searching for them for me.

Pat

 

[Brindlebtch]

Dang.

 

[patandchickens]

I'm sorry, I *do* appreciate your hard work in finding those! I *will* try them, not today because it's windy and my connection is dropping every five minutes or so, but when I can.

I did find one cool thing yesterday, while poking around at agilitynerd.com (which has some good articles although not easy to sort thru). There is a whole FREE BOOK downloadable there (http://agilitynerd.com/blog/agility/publications/ClickAndPlayAgility.html), Click and Play Agility by Angelica Steinker. it was apparently also published as a regular hard-copy pricetag-having book and once you accept the authors few quirks it is pretty comprehensive and useful-looking. The first half is attention and motivation-building games, then she gets into agility equipment and handling etc. I found the jumping chapter and the introduction-to-basic-handling chapter especially useful for where I'm at. One interesting idea she mentions is to lay out a (visible) line on the ground in the shape of a large letter or other geometric shape and then just *figure out* how you need to handle the dog to get the dog's path to follow that line. That should keep me busy for a while LOL

Anyhow just mentioning it for anyone else reading this.

I wish Clean Run was less expensive and/or had more archived articles available for free on their website (I can find very few)

Pat

 

[Brindlebtch]

No no that's not what I meant! It wasn't hard work or anything. That is just really too bad you don't have access to youtube!


I'm thinking I might draw a couple of pic and scan them, or something, with a description.

 

[WriterofWords]

I like those links thanks!!

 

[Brindlebtch]

Your welcome!

PAT HEY PAT!!!!!
I have some stuff I can mail you if you want to PM me your address!

ETA: Real stuff! Not drawings by me!

 

[Melabella]