Marcela and Catalina, 3yrs Parson , Argentina

Overall good! Yes, the problem of the food ball is that she doesn’t really need to hurry to get it and she knows that. So she is always running just as fast as she needs to and is staying close to you. When working with the ball you should try throwing it as far as possible, so at least she has to stretch her legs to cover the distance. Or have the trainer/friend throw it so she realizes she doesn’t have to wait for you. But given that food throws now work perfectly I would do my lesson 1 crazy… drills (running up and down the same thing) using food throws as a reward so she starts to feel some excitement and hurry.

Food on string and food pocket – nice! You can use food pieces on string to lure her out of turns and sometimes on the field on your agility trainings. But don’t “abuse” it. Give her time to enjoy it soon enough and tie a new piece or steal the remaining after she has chewed for a while.
Food pocket – if she is chasing well and fast, don’t wait for her. Keep going until she bites. She will because when a toy moves fast that is the only way she can stop it.

Great! Congrats! The video is too blurry to see exactly what happened, but the thing about being in front – it is not a problem when you are in front and moving constantly. It is a problem when you are far away but you stop in front of an obstacle, because that is when they stop looking at obstacles and start looking at you instead and the flow is lost. So when you know you will have to stop and change direction it is best to moderate your speed beforehand, so you don’t get yourself in this situation. And yes, it could be that she has a slight preference for the right hand because of rewards, so you can make sure to throw with both hands eqally when doing food throws for example.

Training – food throws are working really well. Even that one time you had to hide I had the impression she was just looking for that one trick you threw, it didn’t turn into an overall search and disconnection. She was ready to rock’n’roll when she found you. Regarding her obstacle focus it is really important that even when you train little fun drills and sequences, you are organised and you run a setup that is logical and doesn’t have weird direction changes and broken lines. When you were running somewhat of an U you always turned before you rewarded her and that is something I wouldn’t do, you want her to be rewarded for keeping good obstacle focus, not following you.
Also when you reward with food throws, don’t just throw one. Always make a continuation. If the course allows you can run it backwards… for example that U you were making, run it one way so it ends with a straight tunnel, throw, run in the opposite direction immediately, taking that straight tunnel as the first obstacle and than all the way back to where you started. If the course can’t be run “backwards” than just do a couple of throws while you run across the field. Knowing that there is some real action happening will keep her moving fast. If it is only one throw, she doesn’t have to run full speed to get it as she knows it will wait for her.
Food pocket – when she makes any kind of contact with her mouth, drop the pocket on the ground first, before giving her the reward, so even if she didn’t pull it out of your hands she begins to understand that food comes when she somehow gets the toy from you.
Food on the string – this you can only use for rewarding after turns. You don’t want her to wait for you in straight sequences.

“ Ok. Whst you mean with No broken lines for eg, would be a curved tunnel, a straight one and straight jump better?”
Generally yes. But it is not so much about which obstacles – but about the angle. You want every obstacle to be directly in front of her when working on speed. In the agility training 10 video from your previous post, when you started with the two jumps (at 2.47 for example) you started from an angle and than you had to “push” her to stay on the two jumps, which meant you couldn’t run freely and really push her for max speed. Already on that setup you could have positioned her better on the start – finding a spot where she can see the tunnel directly over the two jumps. So basically more to the centre of the first jump. That way the jumps would have been more directly in front of her.

“ I’m aware of our focusobstacle problem, but not what you are suggestiong us not to do. HELP! I thougjt I was rewarding with food bsll snd throws and far ahead the obstacle”
Look at the situation at 0.32 on that video (agility training 10) – I think it would be better to continue straight forward and throw in the process – further ahead in your direction. You always turned to the left, so she was no longer in obstacle focus but chasing your change of direction just before she got the reward. If you want to work on speed and obstacle focus you have to reward when the dog is in momentuum, focused on obstacles… not when you are pulling him away from obstacles… I hope you know what I mean. Technically there was nothing wrong, you didn’t ask her to go straight while you were turning. But if you reward when the dog follows your movement and not when he is focused on obstacles, your movement will always be more important for the dog.

“ You are saying to throw two pieces at the tome for eg?”
No no no, that would only create sniffing. 🙂 But instead of just one throw, make a food throwing game. Throw one, turn around, run the opposite direction, throw another one, turn around,… You were doing it on a video as a game. Now do it as a reward, immediately after she finishes a sequence. So it is not one throw and stop, but a full game.

“ So you wouldn’t try a stay for eg? Just one sequence after the other one? Also when you say that I make a throw and that she knows it will wait for her… the fact of me going after another throw is what will speed her up, isnt it?”
Yes! You run, you throw, than you turn around immediately, run away and when you see she found a treat, start calling her and handling the sequence again (from the opposite side than before). Just like on my “crazy balls” video in lesson 1 – only you don’t only do it over one jump, but over the whole sequence. You ran jump jump tunnel tunnel. So when you throw after the last tunnel, turn around and run tunnel tunnel jump jump, throw over the last jump, turn around and run jump jump tunnel tunnel again,…

“ Food pocket. The noment she made contact I dropped it to the ground before giving her food. I think she was starting to grab it better”
Yes. Now slowly get even more demanding. Don’t drop as soon as she grabs, but when she offers a little bit more resistance. She will probably drop it first when she doesn’t get what she is expecting, but you keep going with a fast chase, so she turns that frustration into a stronger bite next time. Try to hold the toy really gently and see if you can create a situation where her bite actually makes you loose the toy, because there is resistance.

Yes, food throws work great! And hiding if she gets disconected. Now I think she only starts sniffing when she misses the treat or there is really something interesting there, not anymore to avoid work. Just be careful that you don’t make trainings too long or too boring. I don’t know if this was all done in “one piece” or with breaks in between… but if it was all at once, it was way too much training. You don’t have to do more than 3 repetitions of the same thing and you can make breaks in between where you take her off the field to rest in her crate or in the car if you have that option.
Food pocket – try what happens if you don’t give the toy the first time she grabs, but keep pulling fast, just maybe a bit higher in the air, not on the ground. If the next bite is stronger, give jackpot! She is still not tugging with it, but she was showing good interest so you can use it to “lure her out of the turn”. You don’t have to use it for straight line seqeunces. You have food throws and balls for that.
I think she was loosing enthusiasm for the balls because she was already tired. The goal is to keep things short and fun so she doesn’t get bored of them.