Kristina & Myle, Miniature Schnauzer, 4 years, Lithuania

this is our target game with C shape

Few times she get distracted, started to sniff, maybe I dropped a piece of food accidentally, so just waited silently while she comes back to the game. Overall I felt she was quite concentrated and motivated to get food.

What do you think?

“I was trying to suggest starting with some starts, but you said you did – were you doing it on the same starting spot as for the sequence or in some other way? How many repetitions? Was there some break in between training starts and doing the sequence?”

“Start exersises” I did with other obstacles at the beginning of other course, I mean not with these ones which we run later. It was totally different course, even to opposite direction from the ones which we were training later. We did 4-5 “start” repetitions, a break was approx. 5-10 mins. Maybe that was the problem – too short break? But in the start exercises she wasn’t sprinter as well, she was trying but didn’t put all efforts.

I have a suspicion that other obstacles was distracting her – when she sees lot of stuff around and have to run straight 15 meters without any action, its not usual agility training. If you remember, in our last start training session she chose A frame instead of trying to chase me. Sometimes I don’t have possibility to “clean” all field and make lot of free space without any agility stuff (I mean to destroy standing course, because it will be used for other groups). Some barriers or tunnels stand from the sides in 1-2 meters distance.
What do you think, can it affect general concentration or it is just a small detail and I should try other things to motivate and attract her attention??
I will try to prepare max free space in the next session and check whether it works better.

I will try to play target outside. This week we have some snow, but not so much to disturb running. 🙂
And I still have some chestnuts!, but it will be lost in the snow, no chance to use it now. 😀

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by Kristina Jugulyte.

We are still practicing target

Watching the video at home I saw, that it was few times when she was cheating – jumped over the target. I didnt notice it during the training and didnt correct it.
In the evening we repeated the same C frame target game at home. After morning training outside, she was more motivated and faster, also tried to run (as fast as it is possible at home on the carpet) and always touched target, i mean didnt jump over it. Maybe she was too excited outside and was too hurry to catch the food and thats why she was cheating… Will practice further

Thank you very much for the link, I will look for it.
Meanwhile, we have tried to do target few times more. At home she does it better, touches target with all four paws. When we did it in agility field, few times she jumped over (I asked my friend to watch the process, because I cant always clearly see it while I am running), also it was few times, when she touched the target with 2 paws, I mean right front paw ant right back paw. Unfortunately i didn’t film it. But she was more concentrated, just because of hurrying to get food she was still cheating. Next time i will do everything little bit slower, to show her that she must do it the same as at home. Will show you the result later.

And we are practising other lessons as well. This is video from yesterday training.

I cant find the “button” to make her run faster. She was rested enough, she was hungry enough, even she had to be missing me enough. But still she was running in her usual speed.
After the run I also did few start positions. It looks she is watching after me, we have a contact, i try to tease her and she is ready to go with a full speed, but when I give start sigh, she is like “hm, ok, if you say so, lets go” 😀 . This is my Myle 🙂 .

And one more try with the same course, the beginning was slightly different. Maybe this way of beginning she enjoyed more, but i am not sure. The overall attitude was the same.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by Kristina Jugulyte.

We had a good training on weekend which I am really happy about 🙂 . Myle was motivated, I felt she was having fun at the field.
Start training

As you advised, I was practicing it on the same sequance which we run. I think her speed was quite good, despite the 3 try when she started without the command (I didnt correct her because this doesnt repeat in our usual trainings, so simply ignored).
And after that I tried another strategy – to put food on the ground after the barrier. I am not sure if it is a good idea to put food in running course, because thinking logically, the dog begins to stop at some point before the food… But this time it worked, Myle’s speed increased. She was very eager to take bites. Later I changed food place and put it after the tunnel, at her first run she was trying to cut her way and reach food escaping the tunnel (you will see it), next try was good. In a long and normal courses probably it would be difficult to do the same, but maybe this could be a good strategy for our start trainings and her speed increase exercises, what do you think? On summer we did the same putting toys on the grass and competing who will be first, I dont know why, but Myle likes this kind of “game”.

Also we tried front chaining running idea.

First run was fast, second little bit slower. The third one she was quite fast again, despite the strange beginning, where she looks scared because I raised her and put on the opposite side from the course – this time we begin from the same line, she had to run around the cone.

And the last job on weekend training was target. I started with simply shaping, then C frame and slower walking, later C frame and faster walking + running. During the training I could swear that she touches target 100 %, I was watching all the time, but now looking at the video I am not so sure, because at some phases she was running fast and now I cant see clearly. Target part didnt took very long, I tried to do few each phase repetitions and release her without mistakes. We also repeat the same sequence at home with her dinner.

Is it ok or we can improve it somehow to get better result?

Polona, and what about this part:
“And after that I tried another strategy – to put food on the ground after the barrier. I am not sure if it is a good idea to put food in running course, because thinking logically, the dog begins to stop at some point before the food… But this time it worked, Myle’s speed increased. She was very eager to take bites. Later I changed food place and put it after the tunnel, at her first run she was trying to cut her way and reach food escaping the tunnel (you will see it), next try was good. In a long and normal courses probably it would be difficult to do the same, but maybe this could be a good strategy for our start trainings and her speed increase exercises, what do you think? On summer we did the same putting toys on the grass and competing who will be first, I dont know why, but Myle likes this kind of “game”.”

Do you think it is a good way increasing her speed?