Registration
There are no scheduled sessions for this class at this time. We update our schedule frequently, so please
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Registration will begin at 11:30 AM Pacific Time.
Enrollment limits: Gold: 12 students, Silver: 25 students, Bronze: unlimited.
Gold Level includes access to all course materials and the ability to post questions and videos to the course forums. Students will receive instructor feedback on written and video assignments.
Silver Level includes access to all course materials and the ability to participate in the discussion forum. Students may ask GENERAL questions about course materials and may submit two, one-minute videos for instructor feedback. Any questions specific to your dog MUST be accompanied by a video.
Bronze Level includes access to all course materials and the ability to read all questions and answers posted in the class forums. Students will not post questions or submit written or video assignments.
For more details, refund policies, and answers to commonly asked questions see our FAQ page.
Course Details
This class is all about building a strong foundation for your agility career! This class will focus on my obstacle skill foundations and sequencing foundations I do with all my young dogs.
This class will cover how I start sequencing with my young dogs, starting with one jump and moving on to 4-5 jumps in a sequence. This class will also cover the first steps to adding obstacle independence and verbal independence, as well as basic crosses and cues.
There will also be lectures on how I use Reward Markers, cone work, and more!
Syllabus
Week 1 -
My handling “system”
Beginning targeting
Starting with one jump
Week 2
Introducing obstacle independence
Building Confidence
Week 3
More jumps
Verbal Independence
Week 4
Introducing Front and Rear Crosses
More sequencing and jumps
Week 5
Adding more obstacle independence with crosses
Week 6
Sequencing multiple jumps
Advanced obstacle and verbal independence
Prerequisites & Supplies
This class will focus on ground skills and beginning sequceing with jumps. Puppies can enroll, email Amanda to check if this class is the right fit for your puppy.
Sample Lecture
Obstacle Value and Indepdance
During my initial stages of foundation training, I want to build value of obstacles and “finding lines” or “sequencing”.
I do this with shaping hoops and jumps to begin with.
For the most part we build a lot of value for tunnels (they are fun!) contacts (lots of treats and praise for contact performances) weave poles (again, lots of treats and praise) But something that sometimes gets overlooked is building value for the “simple” obstacles such as jumps and hoops.
I will start with just a hoop, I will stand quite close to the hoop and mark (or click if you are using a clicker, I use a verbal marker such as Yes) when my dog has any interaction with the hoop. My goal being that my dog will start to offer a behavior of going to the hoop and going through it.
I am not giving my dog any verbal or body cues, I am standing and letting my dog offer the behavior of going through the hoop and then rewarding that with either a toy or food.
I will then start to vary my position with the hoop, moving to the left, to the right, behind, or slightly ahead of the hoop.
I also want to bring some distance into play as well, i will start to move away from the hoop in 1 foot increments, with my personal goal distance being about 10-15 feet away from the hoop.
My goal with this exercise is that my dog starts to look for obstacles, and will look for “simple” pieces of equipment. And for me this is a very big step for distance work, I want my dog to be able to see lines or equipment and sequence them together, and with my system, this is the first step!
The video below shows Ally and I working on some shaping with the hoop. You will see me help her a bit with my body as I had just been working on moving waits with her in the previous session and she was still pretty sure we were doing that!
:-D
Beginning Verbal Independence
For this lesson we are going to begin working on verbal independence!
Sometimes on courses you will find that maybe you can’t get in the right spot as a handler, or maybe you are at a large distance from your dog and you need your dog to respond to verbal cues independent of your body.
I start teaching verbal independence right in the beginning of their foundation work, the previous lessons have been working on obstacle independence and letting your dog learn how to see a “line”. This lesson will build off that confidence we have built and start to build their confidence with verbal only cues as well.
We will start with one jump.
Set your dog up fairly close to the jump, perhaps 2-3 feet (I lay the bar on the ground)
We have been working on obstacle independence and your dog looking for equipment so they should want to offer to go over the jump, as the dog starts to leave you to go over the jump give a verbal cue.
For this set up, I use Go.
The verbal cue “Go” for my dogs means to take the obstacle ahead of them. Some of my students prefer to use an obstacle name like “jump” and that is fine as well! Do what works best for you and your dog!
Before we move on to the next lesson, I want your dog to start going to the jump as you give the verbal cue, they should be looking for that verbal and then moving to the jump.
In the next lesson we will add more distance and slowly start varying your position as well.
Testimonials
New class for the August 2018 session.
