Tuesday, November 29, 2011

A Couple of Winter Projects

After Belle missed a few dogwalk contacts at trial because I was pressing for speed at the wrong time, I decided I would take the next couple of months to work on a running dogwalk.  I've placed a hoop close to both ends of the dogwalk to encourage Belle to run through the up and down contacts and not leap over them.  So far it seems to be working pretty well.  I asked my DH to video so I could see how well I was doing on spotting the performances to reward.  As you will see, I need to increase my skill in spotting when Belle leaps off the dogwalk (even though she may hit the yellow) and when she runs through the yellow.



After watching the video from Champs, I decided Belle's A-frames are getting very iffy, especially on A-frames with 8-foot sides.  I originally taught her TOTO, but in order to gain a little speed, I almost always use an early release.  Several times over the years, I halfheartedly tried to teach Belle a running A-frame by using stride regulators and a hoop without any success.

Once I realized a running dogwalk was probably doable, I once again started to dream of switching to a running A-frame.  Since I was pretty sure stride regulators and a hoop weren't going to do the trick,  I purchased Rachel Sander's Reliable Running A-frame DVD and began using her method.  Here's video of our second practice session with a jump grid.  I was really pleased that Belle was successful 6 out of 7 times and that I was able to see that she was doing the striding correctly.

2 comments:

  1. I originally tried to train a running dog walk with hoops and got nowhere. While I will admit it's still a work in progress at trials, Kaiser has a gorgeous running dog walk that we achieved via the use of a tunnel at the bottom (Lisa Bonker told me to try this).

    Kaiser also had a stop (at home, never at trials...) but his was not as well trained as Belle's. This was his first day:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4tYFEAczXU

    This was a few sessions later:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVgdtTfSh_Y

    And this is the last video I made on it:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eqjhtfEm-c

    He's now running his dog walks beautifully at home without a tunnel present. Trials are still a work in progress, but I think he'll get there. I know he's a lot happier since I started letting him run! :o)

    It confused him at first. If he had several bad reps in a row that didn't get rewarded he would revert back to stopping, so I had to find ways to make him successful -- It often meant moving the tunnel closer to the dog walk again. The process of moving it out was pretty slow for him, but I think it's because his jumping habit was SO ingrained. I know Lisa is able to move it out a lot faster with the baby dogs that are just starting.

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  2. Fantastic videos! I'll have to try the tunnel at the end of the dogwalk with Belle.

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