Re: Obi's obedience class That's lovely Rachael, thanks for posting those photos. What a gorgeous boy Obi is, and he is obviously loving his training! Nice hat... ;D
Re: Obi's obedience class This is what we are aiming for - getting good enough to go in a competition. Here is me and Nicolae, my old doggie, at a flyball comp. In these first two pics he is heading down to make his run over the jumps to get the ball. The Border Collie (Jock) running away is on our team and he has just done his run. The yellow Labrador (Jenna) at the back is going to go after Nicolae. The two black 'posts' that Nicolae is running between are an infra-red start gate. It measures false starts and bad passes. The idea is that you want the returning dog and the outgoing dog to pass so their noses are level, on the line. If you let your dog go too early and it crosses the line before the returning dog does then your dog has to run again (meaning your team will probably lose that race). If you let your dog go too late you have wasted valuable milliseconds. There is another team over on the left racing over their own set of jumps. Each team has 4 dogs running at any one time. Clearing the last jump before the box and ball. The jump height here is 14 inches I think. They have to do this all day - up to 10 races, each race consisting of 3 or 5 heats (best of 3 or best of 5 wins the race for your team). Some competitions are two days long. The dogs have to be fit! The fastest teams in the world can complete a heat in under 15 seconds - that's all 4 dogs. The current world record is 14.558 seconds - about 3.5 seconds per dog! Nicolae could do about 5.6 seconds in his prime. Not the fastest - but he was super reliable, and he and I both always had an absolute ball I am looking forward to competing with Obi. Usually it takes about a year of training to get to that point. Hopefully by next year we will be able to enter a competition.
Re: Obi's obedience class Rachael that is absolutely amazing !you and Obi look like you are having the best time.....I love his hopefull face when he only has one paw on the board....not quite Obster! Getting the pass at the start gate sounds really tricky,bet it takes so much practice.Nicolae was gorgeous...you can really see his concentration in the last photo.He was a muscly chap too to be so nimble at the sport.The photos are brilliant x
Re: Obi's obedience class Karen - glad you liked the pics! Obi is starting to get the bug for sure [quote author=Dexter link=topic=1906.msg15689#msg15689 date=1373187801] I love his hopefull face when he only has one paw on the board....not quite Obster! [/quote] It was so funny. He just stood there and put his paw up. Nice try, sunshine. Yes, the pass at the gate is a challenge. It's not exactly natural for dogs to run full pelt at each other like that without flinching so a lot of training is just about passing. And they also have to resist the temptation of chasing members of their own team or, even worse, the other team. Most competitions are are fairs or suchlike, so the environment is noisy and crowded and there is a lot of food that has been dropped on the ground around the flyball ring. At Nicolae's debut competition he took off sideways on his very first run to finish off somebody's discarded hamburger : There are always a few hiccups
Re: Obi's obedience class Thanks so much for the pictures and the explanations, it's really helpful and interesting. How old is Obi? And what age/stage was he at when you started the obedience lessons? I know every dog is different, and we all go at different rates, but I do like to outline things to aim for, it helps me. I'm at the end of puppy class, what's next stage... maybe I can find a club...
Re: Obi's obedience class You can start obedience at any age after your puppy is properly vaccinated. Dog sports like flyball and agility generally require that the dog is a year old. Obi is 16 months now but we only got him at 9 months. We started classes in February this year. We started at the basic level with obedience and we're now at the third level. Each 'level' is an 8 week course of classes, once a week. These levels are just made up by the club. Once you get to the 5th level, though, there is externally established standard of training because that's where you can compete in obedience competitions and earn an obedience title (that is, letters after your dog's name that are recognised by the kennel club). Most obedience clubs will have some kind of structure that you progress through. As well as obedience classes our club does flyball, agility, tracking, Dances with Dogs, Pets as Therapy and Rally-O (which is basically competitive obedience but in a different format). Different clubs will vary greatly in what they offer. We have a fun time at our club - its great for doggie socialisation as well as offering a great opportunity to do interesting stuff with your dog and meet nice people.
Re: Obi's obedience class Thanks - I'm going to look for something. We were booked to go back to the village hall for adolescent classes with a local company, but having the dogs all so close together inside was a pain, even with just puppies. I'm going to try find some outside classes, Obi's look much more suitable.
Re: Obi's obedience class I wish I could do something like that here!!! I live in a small rural town, with no clubs for dog sports at all, as far as I know. But I'll have to check around in the fall when I get back....you never know....
Re: Obi's obedience class Fantastic photos Rachael, and so lovely to see Obi enjoying his classes. I am sure more people would have a go at these activities if they realised how much fun it can be.
Re: Obi's obedience class Thanks, everyone! If anyone does have the chance to do any organised dog sports, or obedience, I really recommend it. Or even just going along to a flyball or agility competition to check it out. It's all great fun
Re: Obi's obedience class Oops just catching up after being forum free for days Wonderful photos and fascinating explanation! I always wondered about the turn as it looks like quite an impact but so interesting that they have to turn properly to get the ball. I think they go so fast it's hard to see what they actually do Love how focussed he is on you, I dream of that level of attention ;D
Re: Obi's obedience class Thanks, Barbara Yes, in competition they are moving pretty fast and it's hard to see what's going on. Many dogs do still do the 'slammer's turn' though, if they haven't been taught a proper turn. It depends on the club. I (and hubby) took a few little videos today. Here is Obi going over the jumps. Flyball is a noisy sport, and loudly encouraging your dog is the norm I hope this works since I haven't put up a video here before.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/93962102@N05/9279955821/ In the next vid he is having a go with the box. The training steps before the stage shown in this vid are: - teach the dog to turn around a stick (so you will see a stick hammered into the ground in front of the box) - teach the dog to turn around a stick and pick up a tennis ball on the way round - teach the dog to turn on the box with their back feet making contact with the box We have trained for all those things and in this vid they have been put together. We start with the ball on the ground but eventually the ball will be 'loaded' into the box and it will pop out when he hits it. You can't really see it in this vid but the box has holes for holding tennis balls, right up near the top of the sloped part. There is one hole on the right and one on the left. Dogs have a preference for turning left or right - Obi turns to the right, which is the most common way, and so his ball would be placed in the right hand hole (right hand side from his perspective as he approaches the box). We are not up to that level yet though Obi gets a C&T for getting the whole sequence right. He is not very fast at all yet (in fact he is very slow), but we will work on speed later when we have got the reliability angle covered. http://www.flickr.com/photos/93962102@N05/9282748990/ In this vid we are practising passing. We start with the new dog (Obi) passing an experienced dog (Peanut, the red Kelpie). They both go over a wide jump, so it is not too hard for the new dog. Basically, Obi has to ignore Peanut, go over the jump, and come to me. http://www.flickr.com/photos/93962102@N05/9279953611/ He did very well today We'll see if we can make a bit more progress next week.
Re: Obi's obedience class Trying again Over the jumps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkIz2vjJ8Qo On the box: http://youtu.be/u0Tcrv0Y_S4 Passing: http://youtu.be/vZV_s_VVt0o
Re: Obi's obedience class Oh Racheal,he is lovely and you sound so delighted he can't help but do it for YOU! Is nothing to do with the C&T he he he!Dexter thinks his name is Obi,or he recognizes the tone in your voice....he's lying on my feet but head whipped up everytime you said Obi!bet you can't wait until you compete ,he'll be brilliant.
Re: Obi's obedience class They're brilliant videos! It's very clever how you train the dogs to use the box properly. This have to master the water bowl first before we more onto more complex issues.
Re: Obi's obedience class Can't pick this up on my iPad, will be looking forward to having a closer look once I am home!
Re: Obi's obedience class Brilliant to see Obi working and enjoying himself. I took Charlie to agility for a while but again he just barked at the other dogs all the time he wasn't working so had to leave which was a shame as after 6 weeks he was really good at it. Thinking of maybe going back as the trainer does 1:1 so maybe could do that and build it up. Helen x
Re: Obi's obedience class Thanks everyone for your comments Sorry that there has been a bit of trouble viewing the videos...
