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Third time’s a charm! That old saying about 3rd time is a charm certainly applies to agility. Our 3rd performance golden just began competing and going back and looking at old novice runs from our other dogs certainly shows a big difference. This time we had the benefit of all the mistakes we made on the other two. Let’s take a look at some of the really big differences. First Trial. We wanted to give her some ring experience yet have fun so we entered her in USDAA and played some of the games like snooker and gamblers. In both of these games there isn’t a set course so she got to experience a real trial, in a real setting and she got to play around on all of the obstacles and there were no refusals or wrong courses. It wasn’t only relaxing for her but for the handler as well as there wasn’t any pressure to Q. Even if you don’t do USDAA or NADAC it’s worth the price of joining just to get some ring experience and it’s a lot less expensive than just taking your chances at an AKC Trial. Toys vs. Treats. #3 is toy motivated, not to say she doesn’t like food after all she is a Golden but she’ll work for toy, praise and play and never think about food. Our other two were lured into learning with food and now that’s all they can think about. They’ll play with a toy but let them know you have food and watch out, they’ll chew a whole in your pocket. From the time #3 was a pup she was taught to play with a toy, we have a special “agility” toy and when that toy comes out she heads for the door to play agility. There are lots of great motivational videos to teach toy motivation so before your next agility puppy be sure to pick one up. Not only is a toy easier to carry around at the trial but also you save wear and tear on pockets. Weave poles. This time I trained weaves with channels and for the entire 1st year of training those poles were never closer than 3 inches apart. We taught weaves with slight resistance to build her drive and practiced entries from every angle, even with me sitting on the porch and sending her out. It wasn’t until 2 weeks before that first USDAA trial that we put them together. Wow, were we impressed. She made the transition without even a blink. Her entries are perfect, her time is always around the 2-second mark and she absolutely loves to weave. She understands that the weaves are like any other obstacle, they have a beginning, middle, and an end and it’s all one obstacle so she understands that popping out isn’t allowed. Contacts. Ah yes, those lovely yellow zones. Our first Golden never missed, always had 4 legs in the zone…. that was however, until we entered her in a real trial. We weren’t going to make that same mistake with our second Golden so we taught her up and over and touch. She had perfect contacts all the way through novice and open and then we stopped reinforcing them in trial situations to gain a little time and viola…. she bails about 50% of the time unless I lie down and beg her to stop in front of the contact. With #3 it was train by back chaining until she was so confident with it that she would offer the behavior from anywhere on the course if I sent her to a contact. After we were confident that she new “touch” we finally let her do up/over/touch. As far as she is concerned it’s 2 separate behaviors, the obstacle and then the touch. Now it’s up to us to continually reinforce the behavior in trials and rest assured we will. Jumping. Why on earth would I need to teach a Golden to jump, after all getting onto my bed isn’t a problem and missing cookies from the kitchen counter prove that they are all capable of jumping at least 36” off the ground. However a friend, and BC owner, told me that her problem with knocking bars was improper jumping and she showed me how her instructor taught her to teach jumping. I figured I’d give it a try. From the time #3 was a small puppy I began teaching her to jump correctly, using the entire body and landing with the head down enabling the rear to come up high, clear the jump and make it possible to turn in the air. The result was a beautiful jump with a high arc and a dog that has some of the tightest turns on course that I’ve ever seen in a Golden. Look for next months article on “teaching your dog to jump”. We’ve learned some new techniques on #3 and someday there will be a #4 who will most likely benefit from things we continue to learn with the other 3. We’re certainly not unhappy with #1 who is ADCH and MACH 2 and one DQ away from MACH 3 or #2 who is MACH 1 and just a handful of points from MACH2 and one Qualifying game away from ADCH. We are, however, very curious to see if #3 surpasses the pace that the other two have set because with her drive and enthusiasm all she needs is a competent handler and she’ll be on her way. |
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