Khana and a bit of agility

IliamnasQuest · Post by **IliamnasQuest** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:22 pm

Khana's been "playing" at agility exercises. The weaves were pretty much free shaped originally around two toilet bowl plungers, and speed is not an issue with the goals we have .. *L*

I'd had the weave poles less than a week, she's never been taught on anything but inline weaves (other than the toilet bowl plungers .. *LOL*). Yes, she's stopping to check back with me and I had to send her on to the target, but it's pretty obvious that she understands how to weave two at a time! I've gotten her to weave the entire set without looking up at me since I've taken that video.

http://www.alaskangoldmines.net/dogs/kh ... eapr07.mov

And we've also been practicing "2 on 2 off" for the contacts, using a wooden box and a ramp my Mom got to help her old dog into the van. Khana has learned to jump onto the box, run down the ramp and stop with her front feet on the floor and her hind feet still on the ramp. I added in a little jump first (wow, sequencing already! *G*).

http://www.alaskangoldmines.net/dogs/kh ... tapr07.mov

While it would be fun to put her novice agility titles on her, agility is really not high on my list. Maybe once we finish the first regular obedience title we'll consider doing the agility (and hopefully I'll feel better by then).

Please pardon the mess in the garage. It's a typical garage!

Melanie and the gang in Alaska

Sylvia · Post by **Sylvia** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:31 pm

Videos, I love videos and videos of Khana in training to boot.

Khana looks like a natural in these. I think you should get her started on agility titles. She'd do great. $\:D/$

zingara_princepessa · Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:31 pm

Look at that fluffy-butt princess. Is she so proud of herself or what? She's really something, Ilia. Such a gorgeous baby! Thanx for sharing these.

Salandra · Post by **Salandra** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:38 pm

zingara_princepessa wrote:Look at that fluffy-butt princess. Is she so proud of herself or what? She's really something, Ilia. Such a gorgeous baby! Thanx for sharing these.

She does have a fluffy butt!!
These are wonderful videos! I love the look on her face like, did I do good mom? She is very beautiful and will do very well in agility

vicster605 · Post by **vicster605** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 5:12 am

She really does get it

Thats exactly what I was thinkin'
she looks back at you like she is saying How was that Mom??? Is that right??? Is was right, wasn't it??

What a BEAUTY!!!!

j72 · Post by **j72** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:27 am

She just has the face of an angel... I could watch these over and over! Oh Mel, she is just lovely! And SO SMART!

chowfrnd88 · Post by **chowfrnd88** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 4:50 pm

Oooh, I agree with Sylvia!!!

Go get those titles Khana!!

She does look like she's thinking "oh mom look, is this right? I'm so proud!" Kisses to her, she's a cutie pie for sure. Hugs to Kylee, Trick and of course, Dora also.

IliamnasQuest · Post by **IliamnasQuest** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 4:50 pm

Thanks, everyone .. *proud Mom smile* .. *LOL*

Sylvia, I think Khana would truly love agility .. she's such an active girl. It's ME that's holding her back!

zingara - yes, she's definitely a fluffy-butt! *L* I just trimmed some of that down. I hadn't brushed her before the video so she's looking a bit unkempt, but then again she's a tomboy at heart and thinks nothing of rolling around in the dirt and leaves.

Salandra and vicster - she was definitely checking back with me .. partly "did I do good??" and partly "do you really want me to keep going, or do I get the treat NOW??" .. *LOL* .. she's been trained with a high level of positive reinforcement which means FOOD to her. So she's eager but also only wants to do as much as she needs to in order to get her treat. Greedy little thing!

j72 - aww, thanks, I think she's gorgeous too. And she's such an imp. She definitely keeps me on my toes and makes me think. For her to be doing six inline weaves in less than a week is pretty extraordinary .. most dogs are worked on channelled weaves or "V" type weaves for a long time before they're ever put inline (straight in a row like that). I didn't bother with the other methods .. I taught her the concept of going around poles and voila! she's doing it. For regular agility she'd need to pick up a lot of speed, but I really think she will as she learns that the treat only comes at the very end.

She's just so fun to work with!

Melanie and the gang in Alaska

chowfrnd88 · Post by **chowfrnd88** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 4:57 pm

I forgot to say, I'm going to use a plunger to start that with Special!!!

He loves stuff like that! I already have a hula hoop that he goes through and the broom is a bar he "jumps" over, not really jump at this point!

Now, if I could only get him to stop being afraid of his kiddie pool...

Layla · Post by **Layla** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 5:02 pm

She looks like she is having so much fun! I'd love to get into that. Thanks for the videos

Victory · Post by **Victory** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:41 am

Melanie, the video of her and the weave poles had me cracking up. It's so obvious that she's saying, "are you watching mom? See I'm doing it perfectly, are you watching?"

She's so natural at it. She is just too pretty as well.

j72 · Post by **j72** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:43 am

I showed her video to Simon and asked him why he doesn't do that... he said "lets get some cheeseburgers and discuss it mom."
He thinks Khana is the prettiest girl he has ever seen! When I told him she was in Alaska he packed a bag and said "lets go".

Dogdad · Post by **Dogdad** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:42 am

Cool, I know Yoshi and Max wouldn't do it if they wanted too but it certainly looks like yours are having a ball.

David

chowgrl · Post by **chowgrl** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 2:07 pm

Goregeous, Brilliant, Talented.

She brought a little tear to my eye.

Love Her!!!

IliamnasQuest · Post by **IliamnasQuest** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:04 am

chowfrnd .. the toilet bowl plungers work really well .. *L* .. I lured a couple of times through them, but then just stood back with the clicker and let Khana figure it out. I clicked and treated for moving past and around the first one, then she had to move between and past the second one. Toilet bowl plungers are cheap at least! The weave pole set cost me $150.

Layla, it's fun and Khana enjoys it. Dora was kind of so-so about it, but Kylee really liked agility too even though I didn't start her until she was nine!

Victory, I have such a hard time not laughing when she's "working" .. every time I laugh she just gets all silly and I KNOW I reinforce her for the wrong thing at times, but I can't help it! And yes, she definitely likes to check back with me. It helps that I have the treats .. *L*

j72 - hey, cheeseburgers work! I have actually stopped by Arby's on the way to training and picked up a roast beef sandwich as Khana's training treats for the day .. *LOL* .. I try to always have treats available (today's treats were fresh beef, microwaved and cut into little pieces) but in a pinch fast food will work. Oh - and Khana is a complete flirt! She would bat her eyelashes at Simon and he'd be off buying her a diamond ring .. *G*

David - every dog is different, some really like agility and some don't. My Dora is a couch potato of the best variety .. *L* .. Khana is a spitfire and if I don't have something for her to do, she FINDS something and it's not always good!

chowgrl - awww, thanks! Khana has great potential, we'll see how she does. We're entered in rally trials in mid-may along with pre-novice obedience, and hoping to go for her companion dog title at the end of May (at least start on it, anyway .. *L*).

Melanie and the gang in Alaska

tekendall · Post by **tekendall** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 10:04 am

What a smart girl! I love how she does the weave poles. Zoey has been working on that, but, we're really slow. How did you teach her?

IliamnasQuest · Post by **IliamnasQuest** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:09 pm

tekendall wrote:What a smart girl! I love how she does the weave poles. Zoey has been working on that, but, we're really slow. How did you teach her?

I used a clicker for this exercise initially .. I don't use a clicker a lot but for some things find it handy. So first Khana had to understand that click = treat (if you decide to use that with Zoey and haven't, you need to do some click, give treat, click, give treat until the dog is really used to the concept that the click results in a treat .. then you can do a few little exercises like sit, click as soon as the rump hits the floor, follow with treat, etc.).

I started with two toilet bowl plungers and decided I would just teach her to do two poles at a time. At first I used a treat and had her follow the treat past the first pole - click as soon as her shoulder passed the pole and then treat. I lured it a few times and then stopped luring it and just encouraged her to go forward. It took a little time but within that first session she would go forward just past the pole and would get her click/treat at that time.

Next session we started out the same and then I wanted her to curve around and past the first pole to go between the poles. So when she went past the first pole, I was standing on the other side (the area she'd head for if she went between the poles) and I just waited instead of clicking. She finally took a step toward me and then I clicked and treated that. From that point on she had to go past the first pole and between the two poles.

She was doing really well on the toilet bowl plungers when I brought in the set of weave poles, and it just took a bit of coaxing to get her to do two poles, then two poles, then the final two poles. I have always sent her ahead of me so she doesn't need me running alongside of her (which I did with all my other dogs).

I still reinforce her for doing the weaves, and I started putting a target at the end to send her to past the last pole. It didn't take too long - I'd had the weave poles less than a week when I took the video. I never did channels or "V" style weaves with her so this is all she's ever known. We have a long ways to go before it's fast and consistent!

Hope that helped. All of my chows needed to understand the concept behind weaving, unlike my shepherds who just had to learn to single-step through the poles as fast as they could go .. *L* .. I don't think that the concept of "go this way, now that way, now this way" was ever important to Trick and yet she was one of the fastest weaving dogs around (she won a timed weaving event in our advanced agility class). But the chows had to understand the concept in order to be consistent.

Melanie and the gang