I decided a while ago I needed a right and left cue on Fin. My plan is to use these cues only in two places:
- When I need a way to turn her in gambles
- When I need a turn away off a contact into a tunnel
I WILL NOT use these turn cues as I'm running a regular course. I want her to learn to continue to read my body language rather than verbal. Thus, in AKC, probably won't see much of my verbal cues. In USDAA, might see a few.
I decided I would free shape. I decided to teach right first, then left. At first I didn't apply myself to the task and Fin and I didn't have success. Doing a clicker session a week isn't going to get us where we want to be.
This week I decided to buckle down. Doing 3-4 sessions per day, I really didn't think we were getting very far but yesterday we had a break through. By the 2nd session she absolutely knew I wanted the head turn but it wasn't until I was able to get the reward in the right place that she got it. By the placement of the reward causing her to continue the turn, she started offering the turn. On the 4th session yesterday she got it and I added a cue "right" as well as started doing it different places in the house.
Today she is totally working the left turn in multiple different places and I upped the stimulous by having her sister out with us.
Next step, I'm only going to reward when I say the cue. I'll do this for a couple days then free shape the left and see what happens.
Just for fun, Maddie and her silly back up.
3 comments:
Woooooot! new blog!! With puppy pics!!!
More Maddie!!!!
Laura P.
I taught my first 3 agility dogs left/right as a full turn, but none of them did it well on the agility course (including Tika). With Boost, I went for just the head turn, and she seems to get it better when running. Standing still, her head just snaps right or left.
I liked Robert Yi's video that he posted a couple of weeks ago about teaching the turn around a jump standard. I'll send you a facebook msg with it since I can't seem to "share" with just one person.
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