Al's Training Page

Al and I have a lot of things to learn.  In fact the more we do Agility, the more I realize how little I actually know.  It is something akin to "the blind leading the blind".  Poor Al.  He needs a better partner.  The good thing is that I try hard almost all the time. 

I have been coached by Jeff Blake and Barb Davis this year, and the whole emphasis has been to get Al's enthusiasm up all the time, and to increase Al's speed. 

In reality what this has meant is the I have to get my enthusiasm level up!!  No matter what!!  I just can't let down.  If Al isn't driving hard enough, it is because I am not putting enough effort or enthusiasm into our run.  If Al is 80 %, I have to be 120%. 

To increase Al's speed, I have had to learn how to run faster, trust Al more, and to stay out of his damned way!!  Oh yeah, I also have to have the run perfectly clear in my mind too!!.  That means know the course, know what you are going to do, and make the run as easy for Al to run by giving him lots of help as we go through it.  Sounds easy enough, but incremental change gets harder as the speed of the runs increase, and right now Al is consistently hitting 5 yards per second on Jumpers with Weaves courses. 

Even though Al is fast right now, I feel like there are lots of things that I can do with him to make our runs faster.  I'm hoping that eventually, Al will be running in the 5.5 yard per second range which would equate to times around or under 25 seconds on the usual AKC JWW course. Increasing Al's speed from 5 to 5.5 Yards per second doesn't sound like much of a stretch, but there is a huge difference in performance when you realize that .5yards per second equates to 2.5 seconds in overall course time on the usual AKC JWW course. I hope we can do it!!

So now as we get ready to go to the AKC National Agility Championships in Florida, Al and I are working on lots of little stuff, and some big stuff. 

The Big Stuff

Running Contacts.

Barb Davis, Jeff Blake, and Rhonda Carter all think that I  should give running contacts a try.  I haven't dared try this, but now it is time.  Al's 2 on 2 off contacts are really slow, and he doesn't like them and isn't really sure that this is what I want. 

In working on Al's speed, I have come to realize that he really likes quick, staccato type commands, all in quick succession.  I can get a super training session in with Al in about 25 seconds in the back yard, and Al loves it.  What I think I am seeing is that Al loves action, and the contact zones  require him to stop moving and wait for a release and praise.  He just doesn't like the idea of stopping.  It isn't fun.  or fast.

The idea of running contacts will be an experiment that might work or might not. 

The strategy is first to get Al to run under an obstacle instead of jumping over it.  In this case the obstacle is a hoop of plastic tubing about 18 inches wide at the base and arcing up from each end to a height lower than Al's head, but higher than his shoulders. 

I've used a clicker to train this behavior and Al is getting more and more consistent.  If I ask Al to go under, and he is successful, then I increase the distance that he has to run out ahead of me to go "under".  I usually move back about a foot.  Al is getting pretty good at this, and even though the video of it shows him turning back to me to get his reward, I also have him running under, through and straight ahead to a treat bag thrown ahead of him and over his head after he has gone under the obstacle. 

The next step is to ad stride regulators on the ground before the obstacle, so that Al gets used to adjusting his stride as he runs ahead, and ducks under the obstacle.  Once he gets this reliably, I will start transferring the behavior onto an A Frame that is almost as low as you can make one.  I'll want Al to run over the A frame with stride regulators on the down side, then after 2 strides, his 3rd stride is onto the contact zone near the bottom of the A Frame, from where he runs onto the ground at full speed and then ducks his head and goes "under" the obstacle.  All this at full speed. 

After this, Al will be running over a progressively higher A frame.  The Stride regulators will get smaller, and lower, and eventually disappear.  The hoop at the end of the A Frame will also eventually disappear. 

At the end, of several months of work or longer, the hope is that Al will be running up the A Frame, jumping over the top, and landing about 18 inches down from the top, take another running stride, and his 3rd stride will land him near the bottom of the A frame contact.  At this point he will hit the ground and run low off the A Frame as if he were going under and obstacle.

Here is some video of Al learning to go "under" an obstacle.

Click here to see Al Learning "Under".

December 28, 2005

Al amazed me today.  He did his first running contact!!

  Click here to see Al's First Running Contact!!

Click here to see Al's Full Height Running Contact!!

Speed

I don't know how we got as far as we have gotten with the front crosses that I was taught to do.  I was doing the front cross often after Al had taken off, or worse, as he was landing!!  Yikes!! 

So I have been reworking how I do them and visualize the timing, so that I try to time the cross so that Al is getting the signal of a Front Cross  before he leaves the ground. 

This is a work in progress obviously, but I am encouraged that it is possible for me to give him the signal much earlier than I had been.  The improvement in my handling has made Al much less likely to have to slow up and wait for the next instruction.  This is most often when I was in his way. 

Here is some video of us working on front and rear crosses, and tightening up his pinwheels. 

Click Here to See us Practice Front Crosses and Pin Wheels