[Bremner53]

This is probably for Ambulldogpup, since she is the Agility girl around here. Have you ever used a target stick? Basically a stick with a ball on the end of it. In our pre agility class last night they got us too use one, its supposed to be an extention of your arm, so that when you start you over jumps and stuff you can guide them with it. Well it didn't work so well with Lucy, it was almost impossible to stop her from jumping and grabbing it. It will work great to get her over the jumps, but it will only be cause she is chasing the ball. Is that thing necessary or can I do with out it?

 

[ambulldogpup]

I have heard of that but don't use that method myself. It's difficult, especially when training for contacts (2 feet on 2 feet off dog walk, see saw, or A-frame). The method I use, I take the top of a margin container and use that as Abby's target. I put it in front of her face and she dabs her nose into it and then I click treat. If you want to use that with Lucy, let me know and I can go into more detail. After Abby got the dab nose right in front her face technique, I put the target about 5 feet away and she would go over and dab her nose into and come back. That's how we distance train. So far we have about 25 feet away from us.

Good luck with Lucy though and that's great your doing agility wtih her! If you have any more questions, just ask :wink:

 

[Bremner53]

THanks right now I am working on her targeting my hand. I just hold my hand out, and she touches it I click and treat. Now I can Hold it a few feet from her and she will walk over to touch it.

Its really fun, Lucy really enjoys it I think. She is pretty funny on the board plank thing (sorry I don't know what its called) she was walking on it, but it was a few inches off the gound, and she kept falling off cause she wouldn't watch where she was walking, she was to busy watching me. :lol: I think eventually she will figure out to start watching where she is going. Ihope so anyway.

 

[Chynasmom]

THanks right now I am working on her targeting my hand. I just hold my hand out, and she touches it I click and treat. Now I can Hold it a few feet from her and she will walk over to touch it.

You can introduce the target stick the same way - start with it really close and click for her touching it, but NO click for an open-mouth touch or bite. Then when Lucy starts to understand that it's just like "touch" on your hand, you can introduce distance and speed. (Chyna also had a lot of trouble wanting to bite the target stick, but she figured it out eventually.)

Glad to hear you're enjoying agility! I think it's a blast - for us as well as the dogs.

 

[Tara<3Boss]

With Boss he has a command to touch my hand, which is "touch" and then he has a command to touch the target, which is "target" I don't use a stick, I use a lid for a container, that way he is not tempted to grab it. For the first little while I held the target out with my hand and then eventually he learned to touch the target on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. Maybe you could try using a lid?

 

[ambulldogpup]

Yeah, I reccomend the lid too. I used my hand in the beginning to but when your teaching contacts, which is having the dog front paws off the "yellow area" and his back paws on the "yellow area", it's difficult to get your hand down there in time if you have a fast dog. Most likely your dog is faster then you (as he does have 2 more legs ). So by using the lid as a target, you just place the lid at the bottom of the dog walk or whatever contact obstacle your using and run her down it and slow her down so that she touched the lid a.k.a target.

LOL, you mean the see saw? Try holding a treat in your hand while your walking her over it and have her head facing down so she's concentrating on the obstacle and not you. She'll get the hang of it though, she's still just a puppy. But I think Abby and I started around Lucy's age too. How old is she again?