Powder Puff Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 i Have a couple of questions to ask any suggestions would be great. My border collie is now 11 months, is doing great in obidence training but when the instructor tells the group to go to fast pace roxy (my bc) automatically starts jumping up and biting anything above my hips how do i stop this, if i raise my voice she goes all submissive and wont even walk on a lead and just lays on her back. Also does anyone know where you can get cheap agility equipment in australia?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powder Puff Posted December 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 also she is really slow when doing the agility course especially the weaving poles, any ideas on how to spead her up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miztiki Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 I'm sorry, I don't have any suggestions that I can give confidently, but I did want to let you in on a secret that I recently discovered. If you look at the top of your posts, you'll see an icon that looks like a white piece of paper with a pencil. If you click on that, it lets you edit your post so that you can add on or delete or fix spelling mistakes or whatever. There should even be an option to completely delete your post if you ever wish you hadn't posted in the first place. Not the advice you were looking for, but thought I'd pass it along and maybe others would find it helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keegan's Mom Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 I wouldn't suggest speeding up your BC at agility until they know what is right and what is wrong. I'm now trying to slow my dog down at agility. You may want a fast dog, but sometimes mine acts out of control!!!! However, this has improved drastically over the past couple of months. Sorry, I don't have any suggestions for the obedience parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparty Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 at her age get the knowledge of the equiptment down first speed will come, border collies are i think the most watchable agility dogs exciting and fast but they quite often are too fast for their own good so basics first hey with your fast pace try gradually picking up the speed, practice at home is always good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rave Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 There are many reasons why a dog is slow on the agility course, it's really hard to 'diagnose' over the 'net. You may get more help asking your instructor. If a dog is slow on the equipment, he was either taught to do it slow or doesn't yet know how to do it. Either way, back up to basics (lower equipment, go back to training stage) and work on building speed and confidence there. If you don't teach a dog HOW to do agility fast and don't ALLOW the dog to go fast by calling him back constantly or giving poorly timed directions, then you'll end up with a slow, hesitant agility dog. In that same vein, if you teach him how to do things at a slow speed, then expect the same performance at a different (faster) speed, you most likely will not get the same end result (i.e. blown contacts, dropped bars, etc...), which is why I only teach my dogs at one speed....GO! -Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigD Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 I thought you weren't supposed to do weave poles or jumps until 18 months so that growth plates could close???? Denise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rave Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 most people assume growth plates in BC's are closed by 12 months, not 18. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawna Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 About your girl jumping up when you go faster. It sounds like she's getting too excited by the fast motion also it sounds like you have a very sensitive girl which makes correcting the problem difficult, as you already know. When you work with her at home start out slowly and build your speed up in tiny increments that she can handle. If she starts to jump up slow down a little to take the excitement out of it. Once she's calm you can walk/jog a little faster again. When she jumps up to nip - don't raise your voice - rather lower the tone (deeper voice) and tell her quietly "that's enough" or "no" or what ever you use. By lowering your tone you are letting her know your'e serious, by lowering your voice you add to the effect without freaking her out. If you have to, give her a quick tap on the muzzle with ONE finger just as she is about to make contact with her teeth. Then the second she backs off praise her. If she trys to drop back or throw herself down pat your leg, bounce up and down, anything that will make you desirable to follow. I realize in some classes they still have people walking around in circles and it's hard to put these things into practice during a session, if you can, do it, if you can't slow down, just use the lower voice and see if that's enough, however make sure you practice tons at home so you can build her confidence. Praise every tiny effort she makes at first and then stretch the work out between praise. You may have to keep the praise quiet so she doesn't get over stimulated, but let her guide you there. Give her the maximum amount of exuberance she can tolerate and still hold it together. This way you can build her confidence and self control at the same time. I hope this helps. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Posted December 14, 2004 Report Share Posted December 14, 2004 If you use the channel method of teaching weaves,the dog can run full bore right from the start, every time through, and you can have a reward waiting at the other end to provide incentive. It's a good way to follow Laura's (good) advice to train at speed always. An out of control dog at speed is no good, though, and you have to work on control concurrently. The dog needs to learn self-control when it is excited, but you start by practicing self control in less stimulating settings than agility. Examples: wait for dinner, for a toy to be thrown, to go through doors, to get in or out of the car. As the dog gets better at exercising control in these settings, you add more and more distractions (e.g. throw the toy out the open door but ask the dog to wait for permission to go through the door in order to retrieve the toy). A big part of self-control is the "self" part. What that translates to is that your goal is that you say nothing when you open the door, because the dog knows it cannot go through without receiving permission. If you always say "wait" before opening the door, the dog is just following instructions, which is not self-control and is not good enough for agility, where both partners need to know their jobs and perform them without prompting from the other partner. That leaves (just enough) time for you to communicate the course to the dog, which is about all you are there for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanna in OR Posted December 16, 2004 Report Share Posted December 16, 2004 My collie, now 17 months, would do exactly the same thing--jumping up and nipping and barking whenever I increased the pace. We are doing Rally (and we'll do formal Obedience later), and so she had to learn to go faster (for the Fast Pace) without doing this jumping and nipping. Maturity has helped, but the other thing that helped was teaching her to target on my fingertip. First I taught her to come "Here" to my fingertip (either hand, in any direction) while I was standing still. I learned this in the beginning agility class--use the canned squeeze cheeze, or peanut butter, smeared on the extended finger. Once she knew to target on my extended finger and "here", I now just hold my arm down, slightly in front of her nose, and tell her "Fast", and we trot right along without the jumping. Her nose is focused on the extended target finger. If she does jump/nip, I stop immediately, cross my arms and turn my face away from her, ignoring her for 20 seconds or so. Then we start up our heel work again. She's about 95% cured of this behavior now and is pretty reliable for a Rally or Obedience Fast Pace. Deanna in OR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zenotri Posted December 18, 2004 Report Share Posted December 18, 2004 My pup is 11 months old as well. We haven't really done a lot of equipment yet & no courses but are just starting short sequences. We've spent the last 9 1/2 months building a relationship and teaching her to play tug & toys. There is a lot of essential stuff you can teach without equipment: Following your hand, come to hand presented right & left cross behinds stay close go out go on running along side you start line stays fast downs for table I use PVC pipe for uprights an air conditioning duct for tunnel a board on the ground for contacts PVC pipe for finding weave entry (she hasn't started weaving yet) scattered PVC pipe on ground for rear end awareness a kids hoop for tyre and have an old small wooden table As for speed, because we have built a strong play drive, everything she does gets rewarded with a tug toy. She is pretty desperate to get it so has never learnt to go slow. I practise sending her through uprights to a toy at the end, so she is happy to go ahead at speed. As time goes by, I can reward with the toy a little less & the game of agility itself is starting to become the reward. I also go to as many seminars as I can & if a puppy foundation class is offered, take it. Hope this helps, I'm sure there are plenty of different ways & equipment sources...these are mine. Vickie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powder Puff Posted December 20, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2004 hey thanxs everybody it was great to see all the replys having been on here for a while, all the suggestions have been great. Thanks shawna and denna both those suggestions help with the nipping im gonna try with them. fingers cross i dont know why she is so sensitive when ive never hit her she just seems like that type oh well. Well i hope you all have a great christmas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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