Puppy Agility!

[Anneke]

Thanks!!! Shivon can jump really high (when she plays with Carmel or the cat) although I don't know if it's good for her. When I practice over with her though, she gets REALLY LAZY and won't jump more than a couple of inches (sometimes she goes under instead of going over).

Jumping in play is very different from jumping over something.
What I did was start really low, just high enough so my dog had to pick up her feet, but not actually jump. I went over the jump together with her, saying JUMP the moment she went over. Then I throw a ball(Jinx loves the ball as a reward when we are training).
After a few times, I stop jumping with her. I made her sit in front of the jump, placed myself on the other side of the jump and then calling her towards me. As soon as she went over, say JUMP, and throw the ball.
This way she will keep moving and it will stay fun for her. I have notice in training, most dogs will stop as soon as the handler stops moving. So by calling her towards you over the jump, you can create the movement you want.
My next step was to sit her in front of the jump then running towards the jump. She jumps, you go keep running.
And then slowly raise the bar.

Right now we are still training with the bar at 40 cm, which is about 16 inches.
When we are going into competion and we clear our beginners levels the bar will be raised to 65 cm( 25,6 inches) Really high for my girl who stands 54cm(21.3 inches) high!!

 

[Dogster]

Thank you SOOOO MUCH for the advice!!!! So far, I'm at the step where I'm making Shivon sit, then jump over my leg.

 

[tigerlily46514]

OH, i get your meaning better now, Anneke.

I'd still bet, if two people with equal skill at training dogs,
set about teaching agility,
one to a puppy,
and
one to an adult dog,
i bet the amount of minutes or hours spent, would be similar. that is cool your dogs could learn all the names of all pieces of agility so easily. I don't think *my* dog could have learned them well, if i'd tried to teach them all at same time. If i run along beside him, and point at next item, he understands that, too, but, i also wanted him to learn the names.

I really dont' think puppies have any unique ability to learn anything more than adult dogs do, at all. (except, like i said either on this thread, or another thread, i DO think puppies who grow up around cats or chickens, or horses, or bunnies, or other animals, have HUGE advantage over trying to get an adult dog to be cool with other species.)

Of course, all dogs are individuals. For example, my dog hates fetch. I can almost hear him saying, "Ey! I am not a retriever, okay!? If you really dont' want that frisbee, i'll quit bringing it back to you already...geez."
so Any game or cue involving much fetch, my dog will zone out fairly quickly, and begin to make disgusted faces at us, and lays down. So, because of some dogs having lil quirks, we'd need a bigger sample than just "two" dogs, to rule out just one individual dog's preferences or abilities,
to be able to compare anything, on how fast a puppy learns, vs how fast an adult dog learns various cues! whether it's straight lines, or curvey lines, or distance work, or close up work, whatever, i don't think puppies learn faster than an adult dog, i just don't.

I think if a puppy knows a cue well for an entire month, it's the same as if an adult knows a cue well for an entire month, too. If you spent two months working with an adult dog to do some "straight line" cue, it'd be same as if you spent two months working on some "straight line" cue with a puppy. A year later, if both dogs had same opportunity to keep up the work, it'd be the same.

Certainly among individual dogs, one dog or one puppy, can "get" something faster than another dog, or puppy, of same age.