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Voice Signals in Agility


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Our agility class is really coming along and we are having so much fun! Last week they wanted us to practice on our turns and commands "Out" for a turn away from us and "In" for a command towards us. My dog was originally our working dog so when I tell him out he leaves! :rolleyes: Would you use for those commands? I feel like I'm confusing him!

 

Taking him to the vet this week too hopefully. I've noticed this last week that after he has been lying down at night he limps when he gets up. He will be 6 in March so he's not old not a spring chicken anymore either. He doesn't cry/wimper and he doesn't seem tender. He has soooo much fun doing this but I don't want him hurt! He was the class clown yesterday! He gets so excited! The instructer gets a kick out of him!

 

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Well, be careful, is my advice - I would use different words. Or, maybe Aussies are just "different".

 

We trained the out for agility using a cone, waste basket, tree, chair, etc. Out meant - get out there around that. He's a great distance dog in agility...gamblers is our FAVORITE class!

 

But, because "out" meant get out and go around (through) something, when herding at an arena trial, you can never use "get out" or he will turn and run around a gate/obstacle. Unless you down him when he's out far enough, he will always go look for something to "get out" to. Nice. :rolleyes: Stupid trainer (that'd be me).

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I use "go" to send the dog forward on their current path, "out" to send them away from me laterally, and "away" to turn them 180' to an obstacle away from me. You could also use here or turn or tight or any other word that will make sense to you.

 

I use "turn" on my two older dogs to get them to turn tight. My youngest dog has a verbal left and right, although I try to handle the turns rather than rely just on verbals. I also have a verbal collection cue that I can use if I'm not there to show the dog collection.

 

Words can also be situation specific - out is also my word when I want the dogs out of the kitchen.

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Definately use what's easiest for you to remember and the dog understands. When (or if) you start trialing, it's stressful with all the things to worry about. The last thing you want is to try and remember what command is what during a run. I have found myself using terms that were different than in practice and changing others for faster cues. You'll get it figured out pretty quick. It's amazing the terminology you here in the ring :rolleyes:

 

I use Go, Come or Here, Switch (for directional change off an obstical), Get Out (for the long distance push). I have found that as my handling skills get better, the less I need to rely on verbal cues. Unless there is a discrimination or a tough distance obstical, then Lucia gets a very direct command of what I want.

 

Good luck and have fun. Don't stress too much. The commands that make sence will come naturally as you guys train more.

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I'd worry more about using all "T" words - table, teeter, tire, tunnel, touch, target etc.

 

We do a lot of gamble work in the AAC and at a distance I may need a verbal discrimination. I use box, teeter, hoop, tunnel, and point. I tried using through for the tunnel but it just didn't make sense while I was running. There also aren't very many tunnel/teeter discriminations, unlike the other contact obstacles.

 

I've also switched commands for some things - Chester and Sophie have a scramble (A-frame) and tag (target command), Zephyr has a frame and point. I sometimes forget when I'm running and one or the other will come out.

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I'd worry more about using all "T" words - table, teeter, tire, tunnel, touch, target etc.

 

This may vary from dog to dog, but I've found that my dogs get confused more if the later part of the word sounds the same.

 

Speedy got confused by "pin" (my spin cue) and "in" (one of my lateral cues), but not by "pin" and "place". I have a lot of "sss" cues - "Speedy", "sit", "stand", "circle", "stretch", but he doesn't mix them up.

 

If I say a cue and leave off the first letter, I find that my dog understands. If I said "able" instead of "table", Maddie would go to the table, or if I said "ump", she would jump.

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Hee hee, here is some non-serious advice. You could use different explatives for your comands. That way when you yell "SH&^, SH&^, SH&^!" the dog will do whatever you want, but everyone around will think you guys are amazing! How did that dog know what to do? LOL... ok, just a funny thought I had to share.

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Again thanks for the ideas! I might need the explatives! :D Our first class will end the first weekend in December. I have to decide if we should go on or not. I would really like to. It's a big commitment. It's in another town so requires me to travel and also leave the 2 legged kids with my Dad. I just love it so far though! I look forward to Sunday and am sad when class is over, except that I am totally on a "high"! I am like a sugared up kid afterwards and my dog is out like a light! :rolleyes:

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Hee hee, here is some non-serious advice. You could use different explatives for your comands. That way when you yell "SH&^, SH&^, SH&^!" the dog will do whatever you want, but everyone around will think you guys are amazing! How did that dog know what to do? LOL... ok, just a funny thought I had to share.

 

My friend and I are planning to run through a Jumpers course someday yelling "duck" for every jump and "goose" for every tunnel.

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What was tough for me, initially, was when I started training at different places. Everyone has preferred commands that they use and they don't always match mine. I'd get so used to hearing everyone else in the class using some command that when it was my turn to run, I'd being trying to get out "my" command, but I'd get tongue-twisted because my brain was just hearing "their" command. I've kind of gotten over that now, although it does still happen occasionally. Unfortunately, it happened at a trial a couple weeks ago. We were coming off one obstacle and heading toward the weave poles. For some reason, all I could think of was "poles." But, poles is not Charlie's command. "Weave" is Charlie's command. I couldn't search my brain fast enough to blurt out weaves before we got there, so I said nothing. We got to the weave poles and Charlie just looked kind of confused and passed up his entry. When I stopped, he looked at me puzzled and then just started randomly weaving through the poles, starting in the middle. I brought him back and by then had finally remembered my command. My poor dog. Charlie usually has flawless weaves. I hold him back so often with my slow-moving brain, lol!

 

We did something kind of neat in class last night. We did some courses where were weren't allowed to use commands or our hands. We had to direct our dogs with just the position of our shoulders and body language. We were allowed only to tell them to stay and then release them at the beginning. Obviously, there are times when you are going to need commands (sending and distance work), but it was still a neat exercise. Charlie did awesome, too. He blew the rest of the class away. I love my dog. :rolleyes:

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Very interesting. I had heard and pretty much expereinced with my cat that he only paid attention to the first sylable of his name, which is Bitsy (Bill , according to DH, but that's another story) and the dog's name is Bess and at first it seemed that they boyth would look and come when I used either name, and now, they pretty much know who is who. So my old assumption that all they would attend to would be the "B" sound got proved wrong. I had read someone wanting to change a rescue's name(calico cat I believe, and had been going to suggest they find something that started with the first part that sounded the same...consonate and vowel, but now I don't think it would make much difference maybe...anyone one else notice this concept?

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... Everyone has preferred commands that they use and they don't always match mine. I'd get so used to hearing everyone else in the class using some command that when it was my turn to run, I'd being trying to get out "my" command, but I'd get tongue-twisted because my brain was just hearing "their" command.

 

 

:rolleyes: I know what you mean, Mary. Stacy Peardot-Goudy came out to Australia last January and I attended a 4 day workshop (great), but after a couple of days of hearing Stacy say 'teeter" for what we in Oz call a 'see-saw', I was running a course saying 'teeter' - luckily, since Kirra is a contact suck, she had no problems knowing what I meant. :D

 

The no hands no voice exercise sounds great. We did a bit of Greg Derrett box work at one seminar doing that - even when our dogs were quite novice, it worked surprisingly well. Thanks for the reminder - we'll have to bring that into class again.

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A fun class I started in had us doing words for every command

but the real class we are in we dont really say much at all - its more in the position

I deff dont need to tell Ben the name of the obstical, point him in the right direction and say 'GO' and he will drive out and do the one you want

I just use 'Go' for either do what is in front of you or go away from me and do the obsticle I am heading for

I am teaching a 'go left' and 'go right' for sharp turns over jumps

But at the moment body postion works best

 

Funnily enough I was in class one day and the guy infront of me insisted that his dog needed all the commands he was using but he didnt realise cos he was facing the other way that he was telling his dog to go 'right' when he really wanted it to go left, the dog was going left because he was getting his cues from the handler

 

TBH I am so unfit I dont have time to try and remember lots of words, I just run and look where I want him to go and he figures it out, I use commands for more tight intricate bits

 

Honestly I thought putting words to things was the more advanced thing that I would figure out how to train later

but I am getting along much better just with body ques

and when a really good run comes together it is so fab and flowing and fun because its almost like your dog is reading your mind

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I'm sure you are all going to get sick of me! :rolleyes: Sorry!

 

Oh man today we had a blast! We worked on the teeter-totter again and then went to a sequence of the tire, tunnel, table. Then we did weave poles (not weaving yet) and chute. Then a series of weave poles, A frame, table.

 

It was very interesting finally putting a few things together.

 

Then at the end she let us do a whole sequece (tire, tunnel, table, A frame, table, weave poles, chute). My dog did awesome, I struggled. It became very clear that that there is a lot of thinking I need to do! He is soooo fast that it was difficult to get myself in the right position. I learned that where I am makes a big difference!

 

Thought about your advice today too! :D

 

I am loving this! The instructer is a little odd though! She is a papillion lady and she's pretty hard on my dog. Today we ran through the chute and he went over to a golden (who has been a problem child since class started). The golden growled at him, I called him and he came to me. The instructer said she was glad that the golden growled because "Zak attacked him". There was no growling, no posturing, nothing aggressive out of my dog! She's always kind of on him but then at the same time she sees his potential. Today she said that the only dog that was in a mindset to do the run again was him and she told me today how fast he was and that I will never be able to out run him and how to try and position myself to stay ahead of him.

 

Anyhow...just had to share my excitement and lessons learned today! We don't have class next week but the week after is our last. I think we'll go on. Any opinions?

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So here's my new voice command from a Masters Agility run at the weekend - luckily it was towards the end of the weekend, so Kirra was a bit tired, and not quite as fast as she was at the start of the weekend. Anyway the new command was

"go weave ... no, don't go weave, Kizzy here" - with a big body cue

 

:rolleyes: - and bless her heart, she listened, and took the correct course, and we finished with a first place Q - yay. (Can you tell I had a senior moment, and had forgotten that we'd already done the weavers. :D )

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That's funny! She sounds like a smart girl!!!

 

Today when we were working on the chute I said "I'll have to be careful because that's what I feel like I'm always saying "shoot I went the wrong way, shoot I should be on the other side, shoot I'm directing with the wrong hand" We had a good laugh!

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With my youngster I have revamped my commands a bit. For DW and A Frame I've trained a poke command without naming the obsticle. Since I have yet to see a DW/A frame descrimination :rolleyes:) I feel pretty comfortable training the command poke (touch) to mean take that piece of equipment and get in your "Poke" position aka 2o2o, and for the Teeter I use to use teeter, but since I am not naming the equipment I use "Tip" to indicate that this piece of equipment is going to move and then get in your 2o2o. This seems to work well so far, Whim happily gallops to the end of the DW and simply flys over the frame to his positon the teeter he is a little slower at as he is still a bit intimidated by the movement but we are improving everyday. I myself use out to move the dog away from me laterally, and go for simple go on ahead of me. His name means check in with a head turn for further info, verbal or by body signal which he is understanding well. In two weeks we do our first fun match so we will see if the proof is in the pudding so to speak. I can hardly wait to see if all this training is paying off as I hope it is

 

If you are looking for a word to use in place of out try "Far" it sounds like nothing else, and "Close" when you want him to come in. I use "close" when I want the dog to move in tight to me and not swing wide over a jump or when Im negotiating a Snooker course and want to avoid inviting obsitlcles

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