This week we learned some new things we had not worked on before. Which made me excited, but not Trinity. I get excited and she gets confused because she doesn't know what I'm asking her to do. But she ends up learning what I want from her pretty quickly.
Standing in one spot while turning the back two legs ( I don't know what this is called)
Our instructor gave us a plastic plate to work with and the dog is supposed to put the front two legs on it. She got this pretty well but kept thinking it was a frisbee she needed to pick up. So she kept digging and bitting at it. She broke two of the plates, but our instructor wasn't upset by it, thank god. The goal of this exercise is to have her front paws staying in one position while the back two move. Easier said than done. She was able to stand o it and moved her back legs a few times in the 10 minuets we worked on it. So i think we have some more practice to do on this.
Backing up into heel position
It's like backing up into a parking spot, but with the dog. Its pretty self explanatory, you get your dog to back up next to you into the heel position, then they sit down. She was doing ok with this. Our instructor didn't care at this point if she sat at the end of it, as long as she backed up. It will take awhile for me to figure out how to get her to do it perfectly. But, she has known how to sit on my left side for a year now, so hopefully backing up there won't be to much of an issue.
The long jump
This is where the dog sits on one side of the jump, you go to the other end and call the dog over to you. Well, let me tell you that we tried agility two times. Both times Trinity was more interested in playing with the other dogs than actually doing the obstacles. Plus, she was scared of everything except the jumps, a-frame, ladder, and the weave poles. To top it all off she would run away from me after finishing the obstacle. But this was last year so I wasn't sure how she would do at the jump in obedience. Well, she did excellent! She stayed on the other side, looked at me while coming over, jumped over it, and came right to me for her reward. I was very happy for her!
Next week is our last class in this section. I think that our instructor will have us repeat it before going on. But that's fine and we can work on our skills further.
I taught my dog to stand on a spot and spin both ways. I initially started with the frisbee and she had the same problem, then I tried magazines and books which were no good either. Then I tried turning the bottom plates of plant pots over and they are perfect so try those if you have any lying around! Once she got it she will "place" on anything and spin both ways...took weeks to teach her though:/ Now she's a pro!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip.
DeleteStanding in one spot while turning the back two legs is a pivot! Was the most fun for to learn as a puppy. Learned by standing on a book. If had been given plastic plate, would also have wanted for to play with!
ReplyDeleteThanks Vertigo! Trinity doesn't really like doing it. But we're still in the beginning stages.
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