Eli & Stitch, working cocker, 10 months, Uruguay

Don’t worry, everything you describe is normal! Dogs are always a little bit conflicted when you first start working with static toys, but it pays off to clear this misunderstandings now with these very simple and easy drills, because in the future with more complicated sends/outs/ins,… training is MUCH easier if you can reward with static toy.
That doesn’t mean you have to train only with static toys, you can also throw them sometimes (crazy balls or just one), especially if you see his overall mood or motivation is decreasing. Like for example – start with thrown toys, than do one or two reps with the static toy, than one more where you just do it over one or two jumps and you restrain him first, throw the toy and release him after the toy almost immediately – this is easier than if the toy is just lying around and the dog has to do other things before being sent there. Than to finish you do another little sequence with thrown toy. You can follow Caro&Seven’s topic because I just wrote a few suggestions for static toy games that will improve his understanding of when to go for a static toy and when not to as well and those you can do away from agility equipment.
And one very important thing – he is at the very begining of agility journey, so for now he doesn’t really make mistakes… he only makes some things that are better and some things that not so good. So rather than telling him NO every time he misses the jump or something, don’t say anything or say just something kind like “oopsi” with a happy voice and try to think about how to make it easier for him. You can put the bar down and wings more apart, so it is easier for him to not miss it, or you can take food and just walk him over the jump rewarding with food throws and than gradually adding more distance – starting from further and further away and eventually from the tunnel… Rather than telling him no, make a BIG difference from not being totally right to being totally right – when he is successful, make a big big party and take long time to give him proper and dynamic reward. 🙂

“Should we repeat the sequence mixing types of rewards? or do you think a new sequence would be better?”
You can repeat and add some other variations on the same setup. 🙂

He had fun with crazy balls, but remember they are really tiresome, so I don’t suggest too many repetitions. He looked tired at some points and therefore also not as tight anymore. So I would try to mix up the exercises some more. You can start with a short crazy balls drill and than switch to a short sequence with a static toy, than lure him out of wraps couple of times, than back to some static toy drills and at the end another round of crazy balls. And also do breaks between rounds. When you are luring him out of turns, pull the toy a bit faster so he doesn’t catch it right behind the wing.
For food toys exchanges – let’s do it this way. Start with some food throws, than suddenly grab one of the toys and don’t give up with it. If it is a ball, keep on throwing/rolling it. It it is a tug toy, keep offering chases. Run away from him with toys and look like you are having the best time with it until he engages. Than after some playing switch to food throws again and repeat. Just be more stubborn than him to help him switch.

Hi! I was wondering how you and Stich are doing. 🙂 Overall I think you have nothing to worry about, at least from what I can see from the videos. It is common for young dogs to not just sprint out with all the speed in the world, especailly if they are not maniacs and are trying to learn in the process. Stich has some variations in overall speed and enthusiasm, but for example in the session with Felipe he had really nice speed and he also did pretty well on the trial! Things to look for is how he generally behaves. Is he interested, cooperative, likes to come back to start a new sequence… ? As long as he is like that, you can assume he will gradually add more and more speed when his confidence grows. If you see some avoidance and you have to “beg” for attention sometimes, than I would say he needs some differently structured trainings because that can lead to troubles.

If you want to do things to help him improve speed and confidence, I suggest you mostly run very open and fluent sequences. I also have the feeling that chaining works well for him. Meaning that you start with a small part, reward heavily and than build more before or after that part. I saw on 19.5 home video that he got confused when the course went on for too long without reinforcers. I would also work on how you set him up in a start line (doing some happy and energetic tricks maybe). So you can choose the sequences from my lessons or any other ones you have set up, and try to focus on his emotions… getting him pumped up before start, doing one of the chaining methods that leads up to a ful and total jackpot party. 🙂