Boy was I pooped after this weekend. I drove 4 1/2 hours on Saturday and 4 1/2 hours on Sunday to this seminar. I should have stayed in a hotel.
Linda is a top trainer. She has Border Collies. Most people that show in obedience have BIG dogs. One of her main points was that people rely too heavily on food or toys. It's hard to make the transition off food/toys for the show ring. She taught us ways to get the dog into you. You are suppose to become the cookie. She demonstrated motivational pops and butt tags. The show ring is suppose to become more like your training.
She does something called a flash training session where she puts music on for 3 minutes. During this time, she doesn't want you to use food or toys.
She helped me with Sidney's heeling. He has great drive and attitude. I've been teaching him heads up attention heeling using a cookie in the beginning stages. Sidney needs to be closer to me not wide on his heeling. He also forges. Linda said he needed to be bound to me to help teach him to be in correct heel position. She had me put an adjustable dog collar around my upper left thigh with the ring on the back side of my leg. I ran the leash through the ring on the dog collar attached to my leg and pulled the leash through my legs. This caused Sidney to be very close to my left leg and brought him from a forged position to a correct heel position.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
"motivational pops" Can you explain more?? I've heard this term before, but can't understand it for the life of me, keep in mind I'm not an obedience person.
I can't speak for obedience, but in agility I haven't any issues with using food/toys. Typically way before they're competing, I only reward at the end, or for something I really like, or they something they struggled with..... they need someway to know what they did right.
To teach a motivational pop, place your left hand palm facing up underneath the collar on the back of the neck. In your right hand you have a cookie/treat, quickly and gently pop the collar forward and up toward the cookie. The dog should move forward and up to get the cookie. Tell the dog to get it. The dogs think this is a game. Both Sidney and Jasper really get into it. The purpose is to get your dog into drive. It resets their focus. Once they understand it, you can remove the cookie.
Post a Comment