Emina & Tango, 3 years old, Croatia

I think that there are many factors that influence how he behaves. But in general I would say his sniffing and disconecting is most often a way for him to channel stress and cool off, than actual interest in distractions. Maybe that is not the case with puppies :D, but when I see him sniff, it is mostly a cool off mechanism. Now I am not saying that he has what we can objectively call “very good reasons” for what he is doing. But he seems to be a sensitive soul. I think he was reluctant to start each time because of proximity of other people. Both the first jump of the sequence and the tunnel were really close to where other people were sitting so he felt overwhelmed and it resulted in sniffing. This might not always be the case, even though I have noticed also on the last video from Željko’s place that he was less cooperative when he was closer to the side people were on. So when you see that happening, try to start on some obstacle further away from the crowd.
Than there were some sniffing when things wen’t wrong on the course. So I would also be careful how I handle the mistakes – try to not stop – either continue for at least one or two more obstacles and reward or run back to where you want to start again and do it without loosing the flow. Keep him moving. It is not even bad if you reward him a little bit no matter if he was right or wrong – for a dog like him it is more important that he stays confident and “in the flow” because he is not generally the type to ignore your handling. You can give a little reward with no emotions if he is wrong and a much bigger one with lots of excitement and praise when he is right.

With contacts he is also delicate – so yes, I think you sould probably do it every time you are on the field that has them, but not work on them much, just have them in a sequence and design it so the reward comes almost immediately after he does it. I know it is hard as you need repetitions to train his contact performance, but I would first focus on not avoiding them and than see what is happening with the contacts. I would especially not mess with A-frame much. With dog walk you can maybe try a normal session of running a course with DW being the last obstacle and you reward there no matter what happens, than give him good rest and do a session of just DW.

As for the jumping training – I wouldn’t go higher with the bars than what you did so far. When you start on a single jump, put the bar on the lowest height first and than try one more height after that.
With three jumps in line just do the same random variations as you always do, the only thing is – whichever variation you set up, do about 3 repetitions before changing it again. You don’t have to progress from low to high. Just do as you always do. Some repetitions with bars on the ground than raise one or another or two od them and do each variation 3 times unless you see that the second one is worse than the first one. In that case lower the noodles to the ground again.

You sould have access to Let’s play fall 2018, because that is the class you were in. From my perspective you have all the right priviliges so I think you were trying the wrong playroom. If not, let me know and I will try to reset it or something.

Sorry Emina, I got super sick this weekend.
He was indeed ON FIRE over the grid. 🙂 That is really cool! He did struggle sometimes, but what is most important – it didn’t bring him down. And that is what I think we are realistically aiming to – I don’t think he will ever be a perfect jumper for whatever reason… but I think we can get him to not worry about it so much. And the less he will worry the easier jumping will be for him. It is just really important that you keep using those soft noodles so even if he fails, it is not a bad and painful crash that will set him back a ton again.
So I would repeat the same drill again. As always – if you see he is not confident and/or feeling well, you just quit and save it for some other day. Next time you go train with someone on the field, I suggest you do the following – (if the trainer gives you the freedome to do it. :))
Start with a single jump drill – sending him over couple of times like on this video. Make sure you are not close to people and dogs. Go from noodle on the ground to noodle on very low height. If that is ok, start adding up obstacles before that. Throw the toy for him so he knows exactly where it is and than ask him for a wrap or a tunnel first and than directly to that jump. If he is struggling, repeat a couple of times. When he is ok with that, add another jump. So eventually you do a little sequence (nice and easy) of 4–5 obstacles, with that jump and a static toy always being the last.
That can be your first working session, than give him a break and you can run a normal sequence after. I am curious to see how it goes. Now on the second thought – you can first get him used to this at home… you have a couple of jumps and a tunnel, so you can set it up and see how it goes. If it goes well, you can repeat it on Nina’s or Željko’s field.

“ Can our relation also be the cause? In these situations he ignores me, I might be too soft on him. People tell me I spoiled him too much (smiley)”
I mean… it always comes down to a relationship, but I don’t think the problem is that he is spoiled. If you had more firm aproach, you would probably not experience situations where he is sniffing and ignoring you totally no matter what you do, because recall can be a discipline thing. However I don’t think you can “discipline” a dog into doing sometihing fast and with enthusiasm. If you have a dog with very strong drive, it is easy. You can discipline him for stupid things or not paying attention and immediately channel the discomfort of a correction into drive.. and it works perfectly. But if the dogs drive is not super strong, you can suppress some behavior, but than you have nothing to channel it “into” and the dog just remains closed and stressed… and that is def not going to give you great agility performance.
He is a poodle not a malinois or a border collie. His drive is nice, but it will never “override” his brain if you know what I mean. If you “kick” an average malinois and than offer him a toy, he will grab it, channeling the frustration of correction into it so he will grab it even more than usual. If you kick Tango and than offer him a toy, he will for sure not want to play after. I am not saying kicking a dog is an apropriate correction for anything, I am just trying to set an example of how drives work.
So while I can imagine where those comments are comming from :D, I don’t think they are really accurate. However if I go back to my first sentence – it does come down to a relationship but in a different way. I think with you and him it is about 2 things – sometimes you are not reading his behavior really well (and it is not that it easy for a person with not much experience + having many different trainers with many different visions doesn’t help that much either) so you are not reacting the way he needs you to react. Maybe there are some situations where you could be more firm with him, but also there are situations (such as avoidance sniffing) where he needs you to help him not correct him… Most often you do neither of those things, but just keep trying to make him work, which he also experiences as some sort of pressure and it doesn’t really help.
So I think you need to start learning about his behavior and think about how to solve some of those situations differently to what you were used to so far. Like for example – he falls down in a tunnel, you don’t make him take the same tunnel again, to give him time to process it and forget it. If you make him do it again, he will either avoid it or do it slowly, and the experience will “burn” in his brain + he is loosing trust in you.
Same for example if you want to start and he is going out of his way to sniff – not because someone scattered the food there 5 minutes before that, but just out of the blue. Ask your self what he is telling you and see if it is easier for him to cooperate if you start away from people, in the middle of the course for example.
I am not saying you have to ALWAYS excuse him somehow – dogs do stupid things too. If he runs happily but than suddenly runs off a course because he just saw a puppy, that is another thing. You could even correct him for that if you wanted to. Or at least go there, grab him and carry him to his crate to not have fun anymore… so he knows some actions has consequences.
The thing is… you have to know how to “read” him properly and that is hard without proper help. You will mess up and that is normal, but if you keep thinking about it you will get to know him better and will be able to act apropriatelly.

“And the situation where there are people in the field, he sometimes gets frightened, and I don’t know why. In these situations he is sensitive and generally doesn’t like when people approach him (especially if they want to touch him). On the other hand, he loves approaching other people. It’s like he only likes it when it’s under his terms (smiley) . In the city, shopping centers and other places nothing bothers him, he is very stable.”
That is quite typical for dogs actually. He doesn’t like people in his personal space unless he asked for it. And being restrained, carried, run into a person (on the see-saw) and such falls under that category. It is what it is. Many small breeds and almost all smal shepherds act this way. Things are never black and white and I wouldn’t consider him a fearful dog… but he has things he dislikes and he is entitled to it. 🙂