Thoughts on RC

A friend of mine is starting RC with his new dog. I wrote down some of my thoughts on the different methods to him, and if any of my readers are thinking down the same path, here is my thinking:


Running contacts are great when they are great, but it is a heck of a lot of work to make them great. For the record, I'm not done with them yet, Orkan doesn't have the perfect turns that I want (planting his paws on the last 10 cm of the plank, not turning before the end, but not having a wide turn etc).
I would not recommend doing RC to anyone who isn't really sure that is what they want to do - it is so difficult, and requires such a lot of thinking and re-thinking.
But to me it was a delightful process of developing a method that not many has done, and certainly not exactly the same way that I did it. I have very reliable contacts, don't need to think about maintaining criteria in competition (which is what makes trouble for most 2on2off contact dogs, since they are no longer sure what the criteria really is).
And another problem with 2+2 is that many dogs don't understand that they should run fast into position, THEN stop (not creep slowly down into position).
I think that no matter what method you use, it requires a LOT of work... The difference is in some way that when the dog finally GETS the RC, you're kind of done, but with 2+2 you continuously need to keep working on it...


I wish him good luck! RC is so much fun :-)

Exams in my head...

Yep, the echo of three different subjects is messing with my head right now... So there isn't much time to think about dog training. Anyway I want to share a beautiful piece of lyrics with you, making me smile today :-)
If you think you like it, look for BigBang and "something special" on youtube or spotify - you will fall in love...


Did you ever write my name with a fountain pen
In your books or on your desk
or did you tell your friends
That I was someone special
Did you ever lie awake the entire night
Glowing in the dark with no sheets or light
Thinking that I was someone special
You got me running
running late at night
trying to find you
And I started thinking
thinking all the time
But what could I do

I had something for you
Was there something for me
I had something to give you
But it's a mystery

Did you change your clothes
did you hesitate
walking back and forth, always being late
Cause I was someone special
Did you ever take a shower
did you wash your face
making up the bed thinking just in case
That I was someone special
You got me running
running late at night
trying to find you
And I started thinking
thinking all the time
But what could I do

I had something for you
Was there something for me
I had something to give you
But it's a mystery

You got me running
running late at night
trying to find you
And I started thinking
thinking all the time
But what could I do

I had something for you
Was there something for me
I had something to give you
But it's a mystery
I had something for you
Was there something for me
I had something to give you
But it's a mystery

Something special

Agility training

The contacts worked! Yay! Some other issues to work on, but all in all I'm pretty happy.
The talking on the video isn't me, even though it sounds like it. People on the other half of the course (behind the cam).

Boring weather!

I am sooo tired of this boring weather! It's either raining or really cloudy. Don't even remember when I saw the sun the last time... Blah...

Running contacts repair...

I have been paying too little attention to Orkans contact performance lately, letting through hits that were not low enough. Gradually the criteria has slipped, and on sunday I noticed several really bad performances. The good thing is that it doesn't seem to be very hard to fix it:

A check-up with Orkans jumping technique

We have a bit of work ahead of us! Although I'm not all sure what to do... But his hind legs go all high when I push him to take off close to the jump...

Running dogwalks in competition

These are the three dogwalks from competition that I have on tape:

During training I have seen him sometimes hit a bit higher than I like. Is that something I should worry about? He has never been close to missing the contact, but isn't caring as much for where he places his feet any more. I am considering doing a bit of work on that, or should I leave it the way it is as long as he always runs, never jumps?
Comments, please :-)

Oh man! Somebody has done a lot of work!

http://istheday.blogspot.com/

accel vs decel - straight vs turning

Since Orkan has a tendency to turn and watch me if I get behind him, rear crosses don't really work very well. We really need to get that sorted out, so we have done a couple of sessions on one jump outside our house. He is improving, but still slows down if I have rewarded a couple of turns in a row, even though there is no cue for a turn this time.

I follow Greg Derrett's handling system, so these cues are important to me. To make it clear: acceleration on a straight line, no verbal cue, means run straight ahead, don't look back, focus on your line, the reward will be thrown ahead. Decel, verbal cue, means drive to reinforcement zone.

Time comparison tugging vs food reward

I did a really interesting discovery recently. I have had a feeling that Orkan is slower when working for food rewards, even though he loves food SO much more than toys. (He is willing to die even for kibble, this was raw meat!)

The experiment was sort of scientifically set up, with a 150 m 18 obstacle course, that we worked a couple of times, so we were both used to it, and had no bias of news or training. We then clocked two runs, the first one when working for a toy (then took a break), and then one when he was working for food. The difference was astounishing!

The toy run didn't look very pretty, uneven lines, bigger turns, and he was kind of demanding to handle - I had to work hard to get him around the course without mistakes. The time came out at 31 seconds, which turns into 4,8 meters per second. A pretty good time!

Now for the food run: It looked a lot better, he was a lot more pleasant to handle, the lines were shorter and better, but we clocked in at 35 seconds! That is a full four seconds slower, his mean time being 4,3 meters per second. Still a good time, but what a difference, right?


What should I learn from this? I guess it comes down to what I want to achieve... If I want a good agilitydog, easy to train, easy to handle, and almost fast enough, I can stick to the food rewards happily. But if I want a dog that gives a full 100% in every run, with an extra notch of enthusiasm, I should be darn happy I spent all these hours on teaching both of us to love tugging!