Box Of Tricks - April (Agility Voice Article)

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Box Of Tricks
This month I'm going to again focus on another rear leg awareness exercise and a front leg awareness exercise. The first exercise is great for not only rear leg awareness but for building muscle too. Again, just like last month you must remember to do this in both directions, clockwise and anticlockwise. You may find just like humans that your dog will have a weaker side. Don't give up. Work hard and up your game a bit slower.

Think, Plan, Do

This is an excellent way of training Think what do you want out of the session, Plan the session and then do. This way you know what you want to do and shouldnt accept a left spin if your after, in this session teaching a down. Break the trick down into sessions. I dont plan to achieve a whole trick in one session. id rather the dog understood the movement to the trick, So i up my not up my game twice in one session. Each box session I do will last for no longer then 5 minutes (Normally 2-3 minutes) I want to finish with the dog wanting more not with them deciding they are no longer interested! You can increase the time if you need to.
BOX CIRCLES

Box Circle trick 1
So for this exercise all you will need is a box. You don't need much space at all either. You will need to turn the box upside down so that the flat surface is at the top for the dog to put their paws on. I have a rubber surface board on the top of my box, just helps stop their paws slipping.  I start by standing near the box. If my dog doesn't offer to place both of
their front paws onto the box I may show them by showing them a treat. I will then mark the behaviour once in the position. I will mark it followed by a lower value treat.

I will then begin to move around the box. I will take one step and then wait to see if my dog offers to move. (with their rear legs, around the box.) I will reward after the first 1-2 steps that they take with their rear legs. If they are understanding this and offering the leg movement I will then up my game. If not I would move around the box myself a bit more. But don't start by making it too easy see what they offer first.  Upping the game. Now I am going to only mark and treat the dog for taking 3-5 steps. I will then up my game again and only reward after every full circle my dog makes around the box.


Easy? Want to up the game even more?
Now see if you can start with your dog on one side (your left) and see if they will offer moving around the circle, (without you moving)all the way round till they are on your right side.

Ok so lets swap it about, time for Box Circle trick 2 .
You will still need your box upside down but for this one you need your dogs back paws on the box and the front paws on the ground! Below is a picture to show you the position and posture the dogs should and shouldn't be marked in its ok for the dog to sit whilst doing this but keeping them out of a sit and in a stand position makes them think about their rear legs (that stay on the box ) as they will need to move them too when they move around the box on their front paws. If they are in a sit they will twist round and have to raise to change positions anyway once their have moved the front paws have moved ? of the way around the box. I do not reward or mark the behaviour if my dogs are sat whilst doing this or have a sneaky leg off.

I will again remember to mark the behaviour once in the position.  I will then begin to move around the box. Exactly the same as the first trick. Remember this time your rewarding movement from the front paws which should be on the ground , the back paws should stay on the box.

* Reward 1-2 steps - Until you feel the dog understands it is being rewarded
   for moving their front paws.
* Hold back the reward until the dog moves 2-4 steps, then reward.
* Hold back the reward for half a circle, then reward.
* Hold back the reward for a full circle, then reward.


Easy? Want to up the game even more?

Now see if you can get your dog to move round the box themselves with their back paws on the box and their front paws on the ground. Can you get them to move around the box without you needing to use your hand as a lure or you moving around the box with them.

Enjoy
Lucy Osborne

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Toby -Collie looking for a home .

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Well guys this is Toby.

He is approx 12-15 months old and is truly fantastic.

So why is such a fantastic dog looking for a home?

He has simply being unlucky with his owners! There is nothing else too it! They didn’t expect him to get so big and didn’t think he would need as much work. (a walk!)

So here is my honest opinion on him to give you the best understanding of him.

He is truly fab and if I was looking for another dog he wouldn’t be still looking. He has a fab temperament greets dogs, adults and children all very well. And is very toy orientated, food is ok but toys at the moment are better. When he is settled and everything around him isn’t all SOOO new and exciting I think the treats will become as valuable (Good ones)

He has very good toy drive to a dead and moving toy. Loves a game of ball and tuggy and he does not bat an eyelid at being touched, inspected, eyes, ears, legs, mouth and collar grabs are no problem at all.

(as you will see in the video) There is absolutely no food aggression in him at all.

Work in progress

He isn’t to keen on cars travelling from behind of him but after 5 minutes sat by the road he soon learnt it was far more rewarding to keep his eyes glued on me.

He met horses today, I believe for the first time. He was a bit barky/unsure when they moved (Scary things) but as soon as the toy or reward came out the more beneficial thing was to work with me and he continued a game of tuggy and walking through them with no problem.

I have had him in a harness as he pulls on lead. I don’t want him pulling on his neck and haven’t had much time to do much with him but again I don’t think he has seen a lead much. He has no problem with anything being put on him and with a bit of time he will fab.

　

He is such a friendly dog and just wants to play and learn. I have been completely honest with you all on how he has being with me. He isn’t tubby (I think he looks it on some pictures) very lean in fact, just a lot of coat. I know he is slightly older then most working home handlers would like but he has so much to give and will make someone a fantastic dog. He is so easy going and affectionate. He is only on a longline as i was unsure what he would be like and their was dogs on the field when we were working. He was fine :-)

There is a video of him below on his first outing with me.

If this video won’t play or you would like more info please contact me

Lucy Osborne

lucyosbornedogtraining@hotmail.co.uk

07904439004
Please pass on this and share the blog if you know anyone that may be intrested.
Thankyou :-) x

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Agility Voice Article 1 - Box Of Tricks - March

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Box of tricks
There are many tricks we can teach our dogs that have a big relevance to agility. You don’t have to use agility equipment to be training for agility! Through a series of articles I aim to give you something to train with your dog, without having to even go out of the house. A new trick, each month that, over the series of articles will be aimed at different aspects of agility preparation and training. From body and self awareness to strengthening muscles and toning up. This is not just something you can do with your young dog try it with your competing dogs too.

Training sessions should be no longer then 5 minutes long. Which isn’t very much time IF you don’t plan what you want to get from the session. However, you shouldn’t expect the end behaviour within the first session. Break the sessions up. I have always got better results from a shorter planned session. Plan what you want to do, write it down, then train and look back at what you have done. Have you accepted something different and gone off on a totally different tangent? I will show through pictures and text the stages in which I mark ’click’ the behaviour and then how I progress it after each session. You should see this through the articles.

Rear Leg Raises

How do we start? Above I said that it is important to plan. To plan you need to see in your mind the finished look and what the description of the finished behaviour should be. Then in stages think about a not confusing and fun way in which you can teach the behaviour and more importantly getting the dog to understand and learn the behaviour.
I’m going to start with a box, it doesn’t have to be a special size, style or be decorated. Mine was picked up from the local fruit and veg shop, something that isn’t too high/deep.
Before I begin the actual training for this trick I’m going to let my dog investigate the box, let them have a sniff. And walk them through the box, I won’t train my dog with a ‘prop’ that they are not comfortable with. I will reward my dog for interaction with the box. Once my dog is comfortable with the box and walking through it I will then begin my training. Stage 1 In the first session I am going to reward my dog for splitting his rear leg over the box. I won’t reward highly for this. I would reward this with a mediocre treat. Once the dog is splitting its rear leg over and out of the box I will then move onto stage 2. Some dogs may get this in the first 5 mins others may have to do a few sessions before their dog offers the behaviour. I am not going to use a clicker for this as I just want my dog to be aware of the movement, I will use a clicker in the next stage. It should look something like the pictures below.

Stage 2
My dog is now comfortable with stepping out of the box and not jumping out, now I want to start to mark the behaviour that I am looking for , which is the leg lift. I use both a clicker and the word ‘Yes’ to mark behaviour. They both mean the same thing but my dogs are more relaxed when training with a clicker, I will use the vocal marker once my dogs understand the trick. The marker to my dogs does NOT mean end of exercise it means ‘ That’s the behaviour I want, keep showing me.’
Below is a picture of where I would click and where I wouldn’t.

I am going to click when the dog is lifting his leg at the point that the lifting leg is as far away from the ground, as the dog is going to lift it. Click and reward with a higher value treat. You do not want to click when the dog is putting the leg down as shown in the above picture, next to the cross. This would be telling the dog - I’m rewarding you for the behaviour of putting the rear leg down and not the lift.
Make sure you practice the lift on both of the dogs rear legs. The picture above should illustrate this enough .You will find that you dog has a weaker side, just like humans. Help the dog even out by practicing the weaker side too.

Stage 3 - Holding the lift.
If your dog understands what they have just been getting clicked for they should begin to start to offer holding the behaviour if you withhold the click slightly. If not have you been rewarding in the right place? This is a good indication that there may need to be a few more sessions marking the lift.
Gradually start withholding the length of the click once they are holding the positions and not lifting and putting back down.

Mark each increased hold with the highest value treat followed by lots of praise and games.

Don’t ask too much and expect your dog to stand there for a minute. I have taught Stig to hold for about 3 seconds he will hold for longer but it’s not necessary for me to have him holding the position for longer.

Here is some pictures showing the stages in which I trained this trick to another dog.
For a dog who’s being shaped the 2on2off contact position I feel this is the easiest way in which to teach it.
First I’m going to reward one leg lifting to the box no clicker or vocal just a treat.

Once the dog is consistently touching with one leg I’m going to click the lift. Only the lift not when he is touching the box. I am then going to move the box away and reward.
I can use this trick for numerous different things
1. Rear leg awareness
2. When warming up my dog
3. Keep my dog focused and thinking about his rear legs in a long queue by the ring.
4.Putting on and taking off my dogs coats
5. Clipping his claws.
6. Looking in them or pulling something out.

Its not such a pointless trick after all!

Lucy Osborne

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Blog Slacker

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Geez I have been a Right Blog Slacker, I cant believe that a month has gone since I last updated. I’ve been very busy teaching and trying to find time to train my own dogs. So a quick catch up is needed, I think! What I have actually managed to do with my dogs, appart from walk them Hummm this should be short!

February 4th Dave Munnings had organised a training seminar with Kamal Frenandez and invited me on it. I didn’t know much about Kamal at the time of the event and with being in South Africa and then very busy when I got back I never had the chance to even ‘google’ him and find out some info first which is unlike me. It was then the 3rd. Dave had just told he that Kamal competes in Champ level obedience and was fantastic at shaping, and getting focus so I was interested. I didn’t really know what to expect and being fairly open minded to what the day was going to entail so packed the notebook and pen to take as many useful notes as I could. I set off very early on the 4th to get there. After my Sat Nav decided that it was going to take me to the middle of a single track road and say ‘Destination’ hummmmm thanks for that TomTom! I managed to find the location and be 30 mins early, god only knows how that happened.


So the session started and Kamal asked everyone for a BRIEF description of what everyone was looking for and about their dogs.
STIG - Gets a bit too excited about working, need to gain more controlled focus in new environments, looking for more rear leg exercises.
Fairly brief for me! The session started and all the dogs came in and we played a few games which were really good. I was pleased because some of what Kamal taught in his ‘games’ were similar to my ‘Games’ just different names. One of the games what I don’t do but certainly am going to now made me more aware of Stig following body language more then the command. So I was straight back to the note pad writing what I needed to train and work on so i didnt forget.
I feel that in agility and me not having the fastest legs in the world! my dogs need to understand verbal aswell as body language so I have been working on verbal commands only and testing them without body language as back up. ie. Pull though command, Left, Right, Come, Go, Wing Wraps and I’ve put a note in March training exercises to go over it again.


Kamal wasn’t talking about agility when we were all playing that game it was general sit, down and stands but that’s the secret and importance of a notebook and pen, You can jot it down go away and think back over the training and plan how it can help in other areas too.It definitely made me think. Thanks for that.
One2ones I had a one to one with Kamal in the afternoon, we focused on rear leg work, I’ve done a lot recently with Stig because of his pole knocking last year. Kamal recommended grids first which I have tried with him and not just for a week either I have tried to stick to them and followed and researched methods but after a month he was getting worse, grids, they wind him up so much. because once he knocks a pole he get more wound up and tried to try harder but because hes getting wound up he forgets then about everything else. Nutty dog!


I wanted something I could do in the house, where he would be calmer to learn it and then I could it take outdoors. I couldn’t see what I was meant to be marking so Kamal worked Stig so that I could observe. I wanted to be clear and to be marking the behaviour correctly and know what I was to be looking. Watching stig work really useful.
I’ve been working on the exercises Kamal gave me and they have been FANTASTIC. I am now doing the exercise in my warm up routine and he is lifting his rear legs now. Whereas before he would hit one pole and plough down the rest now if he hits one he is really trying hard with his rear legs and thinking about them more. There is massive progress.
So all in all that was a really beneficial day for me and I’m glad that I went. Being able to watch the other one2ones were great too because I could observe how Kamal would teach other behaviours. Most, I had already taught to my dogs but its good to see other methods and to have them stored up as a plan B if plan A doesn’t work when teaching.
I have asked Kamal to come and teach at my venue and I have managed to get him on 6th and 7th August, if you click on the picture below it should enlarge. There is info on there about Kamal and how to book your spot.

I then had two weekends of one2ones and classes at my own venues And resumed my weekly classes after a month off.. Can safely say all of the dogs were off their heads, and had missed it.


I have had some training evenings over at Halifax and at my venue . The Fun Filled Puppy Foundation went down really well and I received lots of good feed back so im now running a Fun Filled foundations class every other Wednesday. So much fun shaping and teaching new behaviours getting out young agility dogs as confident and bullet proof as we can before we bring them into the agility world.

I managed to squeeze in time to train my dogs and have just being going over awareness exercises. I’m trying to retrain Bens A-Frame, its proving harder then I thought. And its taken me a month to convince him not to stop and him not to think I was testing him. Bless him
I was then over in Northern Ireland teaching for the weekend, it was another fantastic weekend as it always is over there. I stayed with Kirsty and Irene Jess. I went out Saturday evening with Kirsty and Curtis Mullan. I had a fairly sensible night and only had a few drinks I wouldn’t possibly think of anything worse then teaching with a hangover and lots of noise. So a sensible night… The music was so loud my ears were ringing until Monday. Some weave training, foundation training and advanced training. Cant wait to get back over there in May Judging and teaching.

This weekend I was at Dans’ teaching Foundation/ Drive work then Foundation weaves and independent weaves following my system, some good reviews and more people going to teach my method. I then had a Super see saw session which had a mixture of breeds and lots of talented dogs .
                                                      

I have started writing for the Agility Voice too so I will post my articles on here once the edition has been sent out.


 So its Crufts next week, I’m not competing this year, I’m glad in a way because otherwise I wouldn’t of had time to retrain Bens A-Frame I’ll just miss the A-Frame out at the coming shows. I’m going to cheer on some students and catch up with some friends. It will be strange not beeing it agility etire.

Looking forward to the start of the show season now! First KC show is on 17th of this month so not long now.

Lucy Osborne

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Teaching In South Africa - Update 6

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Teaching in South Africa

Final Update

Tuesday 17th January
Today was our first training/ workshops in Joburg. The first workshop was in 3 different sections Lee had Agility Foundation and Handling Skills as they could fit together well and I had weave training for young/beginner dogs. It was a good session , it was the total foundations of weave training and my method. Lots of FUN, playing and REWARDING.
I then had a Building confidence and drive group where is spoke about how in the beginning we can set our dogs up to be confident, and exercises is how I build and reward drive and confidence, and how important the handling and reward consistency is.

For tea we went to a south Africa restaurant which was basically like a buffet. The waiters brought different meats around and you said ‘Yes or no’ There were loads of meats. I loads of things a try. At least it wasn’t Sushi! Lee didn’t feel very well but it was still a very good evening.


Wednesday 18th January
We went to Maropeng Museum and Sterkfontein Caves in the morning. The Museum was all about the story of mankind.

The whole tour had loads of different exhibits which most were interactive so was much more fun :-p

Lee still couldnt help himself, with his need to touch things!

There was also an underground boat ride which we managed to do twice and have a ice/snow fight the second time around ..

He he he The Caves showed us the formations and geology, early life forms, mammals and hominid fossils. There was also the important finds such as ‘Mrs Ples’’the ‘Taung child’ and ‘Little foot.’

http://www.maropeng.co.za/

Then we went to the venue to teach

My first class today was Building Confidence , this was a totally different group of people from the day before and again I spoke about ways in which we can build confidence with something the dog already loves. I gave a few examples. - For the students that were in the class and want to see how I used a target to gain confidence with ‘Evie’ The link/Video should be below.

I then had Handling Skills for A3 dogs we worked on some exercises. Concentrating on the importance of consistent handling, positioning and what skills at this stage the dog should be able to do, what the handler should be able to do and what the dog actually knows.
My last class was weave training. The dogs in this session could weave. We spoke and trained my entry method and the importance of this. We then worked on independence within the weaves and how we can maintain this and how I get the dogs to focus forward, instead of checking back, slowing down or pulling out when we try to distance ourselves to position better.

After finishing we came back and had a BBQ or should I say ‘Braai’ with a MASSIVE steak.
 
 
Thursday 19th January

We went to a South African crafts fair in the morning where where both Lee and myself purchased some gifts and bartered. Lee however nearly made us late for training as we couldn’t get him out of the shops. He is turning into more of a woman every day!
My first to lessons were One2ones.One was working of different turns and where I feel the turns need to be qued. And building confidence with her second dog to want to work away.

My second One2one was a fantastic one2one we sat under the tree and spoke.. Spoke about ways in which I train contacts - getting the dog to learn instead of having to pick up and position all of the time. Waits - To make them more fun. Also commands such as GO, COME, LEFT and RIGHT. How to build confidence around the ring in different places.

I then had a weave proofing workshop. Within this workshop we worked on independence and entries at speed. Also training entries to reward them. Again really enjoyed all the sessions again today.

Both Lee and myself received another 2 presents, this time is was a dog bowl which was great as I need another one for the car! :-P Thanks!

Lee then had a judging seminar so we got Pizza in :-D


Friday 20th January
Today was our last day of teaching.. We had One2ones first. My first one was working on turns, teaching, training and quing. The second one2one was with about puppy/foundation training (groundwork not on agility equipment)we spoke about drive and motivation training and behaviours/tricks that can be taught now to help them when going out onto equipment later on in their life. My final session was a contact group. The first time I had had a ‘contacts’ session in joburg. It was more of how we can make the 2on2off position as rewarding and run as possible. Getting the dog to understand the position and find it rewarding to be there, and how I would initially go about teaching a contact.

We then had a BRIIA again with everyone who trained with us in Joburg, it was again fantastic! Great Great food, ive never seen steak so big, followed by a few drinks before heading off home.
Thoroughly enjoyed teaching in both Cape town and Joburg, Great people and great dogs.
Saturday 21st January
Today was our first day off in Joburg. We went to see the Cheaters at a different sanctuary and watch them run.

We also was lucky enough to stroke one again.

We then went on a trip trough the sanctuary and was saw lots of different animals like the wild cat, wild dogs, hyenas and wild cheaters along with game that was in the sanctuary too.

After we went to see the elephants. Again it was a sanctuary that had rescued the elephants from a very cruel life. We fed them and then listed to the guide telling us why and elephant never forgets. Then we went to meet the elephants and feel then. They defiantly didn’t feel like id of expected. We were then lucky enough to get to ride on them. It was absolutely fantastic. Something like is so mumerable, no better place to do it then in South Africa.

How cute is this picture!

That brings me to the End of my Teaching and time over in South Africa, as you can see from all of the previous posts and this last post I really enjoyed it. Truely lovley place.

 Lucy Osborne
http://www.agilitybuds.com/

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