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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Ev lives the Lower Mainland of Beautiful British Columbia, Canada where she has been training dogs since 1969. She is experienced in many methods including clicker and motivational training. Ev is an original Superdog Performance Team member and her own dogs have travelled and performed with the Canadian SuperDogs since 1984. She has also served as an A.A.C. judge ans is an original Member/Trainer with the Dogwood Pacesetters Agility Club.
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5/29/2005
My aunt has a border collie Lexus that I am teaching agility to. I was wondering if you could tell me how to train the basics (jump etc.) or if you have tips if I take a class? (pugy, Oregon )
I'm a big one on 'vocabulary' and with Border Collies, I find it is less show and more talk that is needed.
Normally, I would show a dog a jump, say the word jump and perhaps entice them over with a treat or lowering the bar real low. With Border Collies, they love the metal challenge of trying to figure out what you want so... I would jump the jump myself AS I said it and then stand back a bit and ask them to "Jump." then wait a few seconds before repeating the command.
As you repeat the command, take a small step closer to the jump ... wait ... now a little step closer and command and wait ... IF they take it (which most will that are over 6 months of age), dash back to where you originally gave the command and lavishly Praise using the command IN the praise.
Obstacles should not be combined until this type of fundamental is done with each piece then you can go back and start putting two or 3 together. Work on the same 2 or three until you have the dog doing both directions without you hardly moving.
Now using those same three obstacles, change their position so the dog believes it is a different course.
BC's get bored as easy as Terriers so the more you can switch things about for them, the better. They also work on praise a lot more than average breeds.
Body language is also important and the measure of importance depends on whether you want a competition dog or just want to use agility as an exercise.
Say you are talking to a friend on the sidewalk and another friend approaches and comes toe-to-toe with you ...
What would be your initial desire??
To move back, right?
Do you know why??
Some would say it was a space issue but that's not necessarily true.
Take the same scenario above except this friend comes up from behind and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with you...
Do you still have the same desire to back away??
Do you know why not??
The chest or large form in front of a dog is a language to Back Away - a formidable front that is asking for a challenge - keeping the dog beside you when you move and taking him AS you walk a pattern is much more inviting to the
dog. Use this type of should-to-shoulder when training obstacles and especially jumps. This also means that your arm is an extension of that shoulder - remember that when instructing a dog over an obstacle and you have half the battle won.
Now added to the Body Language and the Commands is the Voice Tone.
When a dog is rushing an obstacle, like the teeter, and you don't want that because he can get hurt, then you use a lower voice tone (not mean, just lower and calmer) to slow him down with your voice Tone and add a proper body language and you'll speak volumes.
When the dog hesitates at an obstacle because of it’s height or maybe because he remembers hitting the bar with it last time, you raise your voice Tone and get excited about this new request.
My Training site has a couple of pages discussing Vocabulary, Body Language, etc. and the Equipment page also gives you an idea of 'how' obstacles should be performed and some hints on how to achieve that with your dog.
http://www.itsmysite.com/cgi-bin/itsmy/go.exe?page=13&domain=1&webdir=K9Care
http://www.itsmysite.com/cgi-bin/itsmy/go.exe?page=14&domain=1&webdir=K9Care
If done right, you can have a Border Collie pretty much running an entire course with minimal movement from you in about 3-4 months.
You certainly can have him executing all the obstacles properly within a week.
Accuracy First - Speed Last. Get the precision, the commands, the body language, the Team Work, the accuracy, the comfortable position of the dog being happy-to-work and then you can work on speed. Border Collies have an intense focus on what they are doing and they always want to do it NOW! Slow him down and 'Ask Him To Think.' Don't always be right there showing him everything - you'll bore him. Don't take things too slow or you'll lose his focus. If you feel you are not ready to move onto a new lesson because the dog just hasn't quite got it, then find a way to re-arrange that lesson so it SEEMS different to the dog but you have not yet gone forward in training.
Anything else I can help you with, just Ask.
(I'm also a big one on directions, which is also explained on my site and Border Collies will pick that up in no time)
Canine Caretaker Training/Consulting
http://www.k9care.ca
"United We Stand."
http://www.standunited.ca
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