So that’s the preamble…

Lately I’ve been working on Lilli’s contacts.  Not much honestly – I’ve pretty much sold out on aility lately since Lilli started vaulting – it’s just so stinkin’ fun!    Anyway, we originally trained contacts as two-on-two-off with nose touch.  She would do it, but we had to encourage and remind her to come ALL THE WAY DOWN the contact equipment and Holy Moley did that take forever.  For such a ridiculously fast dog, her contacts move in reverse.   Today I had a brilliant idea…I heard music and saw Angels and the image in my mind became clear…the tasty, juicy, irresistable roast as the reward at the end of the obstacle…it was a FRISBEE!

I took Lilli out as I normally would, with a disc in hand (only one this time) and she fully expected us to play disc.  I pulled out the teeter and put it in the middle of the yard with no other equipment.  I set her up and asked her to teeter.  Now at this point, I didn’t say “touch” or “com’on’” or “all the way” or any of the “helping” I would normally offer to get her to do a proper contact.  (Susan Garrett suggested this as a bandaid for her contacts from how I trained them initially – with a plastic lid to a salad dressing.  If the lid wasn’t there – she wouldn’t target.)

Man, was she confused.  She went 3/4 of the way down and started offering behaviours.  Had no idea what I wanted but she sure wanted that frisbee.  She sat on the teeter, laid down, bowed, stared intently…finally after about 2 minutes she took a small step down…then another…then another…until she had one paw on the grass.  The I looked at her and said nothing (before this I didn’t give her any eye contact or stare down).  She slowly put another foot in the grass.  Then 30 seconds or so later she nose touched.  I said a big YES and released her and threw the disc.

We repeated this about 5 times.  I only rewarded average or better performances – another great Susan method – a couple times she went slower than the time before – and finally when she had the nicest, smoothest trip down the teeter, two on and two off and nose touch I ended the practice.  Tossed the disc several times and she went for a swim.

And I took a deep breath of relief.

Finally…the light went on a bit.  She’s learning to think instead of waiting for me to tell her everything.  Finally.

We’ll continue to practice this “disc reward” strategy for agility and see if it keeps the stakes really high for her.  There is no reward as juicy and irresistable for Lilli as her disc.  I’m so proud of  how she took on our new game today with control, curiosity and concentration.  She’s such a spectacular girl. 

We qualified for the standard run with a 90 and finished 2nd.  I was amazed.  I thought for sure we didn’t qualify.  On the jumpers run, I thought we did a lot better – although I had the same issue on the weaves. I was really pleased with our finish.  However – we didn’t qualify becasue of a knocked bar on the 2nd jump.

I debated a lot over that lead out.  I could have handled it from the inside and it would have left me on the outside of course onside the weaves.  That’s fine, but I’d have to run all the way around the wide side for the next several jumps.  So instead, I decided to lead out on the first two jumps and do a front cross onto the 3rd jump.  That plan seemed great – until I pulled off the front cross early and she didn’t take the 2nd jump.  It was all jumbo from there.  I expected that she’d take the rest of the jumps that we missed no problem.  I’m not sure what happened later in the run.

Anyway – here are both runs.  Overall a mess – I was really disappointed in my handling.  Great learning experience.  I think the second run was an improvement over the first even though we didn’t Q.  I got to practice and experience moving past a bad first run and starting over fresh.

This is the Novice Standard Run.  We qualified with a 90 and placed second.

This is the Novice Jumpers with Weaves Run.  We didn’t qualify because of the knocked bar on the 2nd jump.

Since this is our first season with an agility/disc pup, we’re experiencing all of this for the first time.  We thought we’d share some of the resources and info we’ve come upon recently…

Video of the Top Agility Dogs in the WORLD – AWESOME!

Some handling diagrams and ideas

Lilli’s done a great job with both her front and rear crosses.  We start a new advanced agility course on Oct. 8 with Kristin Spillane.  This week I also chatted with Lilli’s breeder for a while and she suggested a great place to practice and get some other training in agility, obedience and tracking.

It’s at the South Florida Fairgrounds – and you can get an annual membership and practice on any of their equipment for the whole year for a low fee.  Check it out here.

That’s all for now.  We’re going to check out some of these new classes and spots to practice, take some new videos and post them.