Thanks Pam, I agree completely that she's wandering off and sniffing because she doesn't understand. This little clip was taken after about 4 or 5 lessons. Back then she LOVED it. I don't know if you can tell from the clips, but her little sparkly eyes would be fixed on me the moment we entered the barn. She'd stick to me like glue eager to do whatever I had in mind. In this clip I was making up the course as I went along and she was having a great time figuring out where I wanted her to go next:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27172079@N08/3220826234/

This is her weaving after just a few days practice:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27172079@N08/3282165294/

Then classes moved onto things where our approach didn't work as more distance control was required. The others in the class managed fine, but Beanie & I struggled. It's not that she minds in the least being sent away....it's just that she seems to need to know exactly where she's going at the moment you send her. She's not too good at taking instructions en-route (at least part of the problem is that I'm not giving instructions correctly).

I completely agree with your suggestion that rewards need to be good and the difficult stuff has to be done in small steps. To Beanie, the reward is tearing around a course at high speed with me beside her - and a tasty treat at the end. If we do plenty of what we're good at and introduce tiny bits of the difficult stuff in between the fun stuff (i.e thinking of it as tricks as you suggest) I've no doubt that we'll get there. But we can't expect classes to be changed to suit us - and the format of classes is just setting us up to fail. I did ask about private lessons but that wouldn't be possible through the summer.

So we're going to slowly plug away at things on our own. There are things that we're very good at and there are things we have great fun doing. Once we get Beanie having fun again we can start tackling the things that we find difficult in tiny chunks. Hopefully at some point in the future classes will be suitable for us.

I want to try some other ideas too. For example, a friend from the park does very well with her dogs by teaching them the names of the apparatus. I think Beanie would pick that up very quickly.

We wouldn't have time for competition so really it's not important that we learn to do this a specific way. The main thing is that we're both having fun and enjoying working together. I think we will get quite good at it though!!

The challenge now is to find a great place to practice (not just agility, but all of the doggy activities we do). Our garden is too small and we don't want to move as we love the house. The park is fine sometimes but other times you get pestered by other dogs. I'm thinking of buying or renting a little plot of land.....no idea how to go about it though.

Looking at the clips I think you are worrying about nothing

From that she is looking ahead of you to the next obsticle and she has no problem driving ahead to get the ball

My class is full of collies but Carol had totaly no problem with the fact that I had to run more towards the obsticles and couldnt send Ben away to them
and all that has happend over time is that distance I could send him away to increased a tiny bit at a time - also his understanding o the word 'GO' now he is hearing it and heading off over whatever he is facing
We still have to run more than the fast collies - but thats what it is all about - different things with different dogs

actually Carol is having me sending Mia away far more than Ben becuase she is such a different dog.

Honestly I wouldnt give up just yet because what I see she is doing great and from my own experience and watching lots of different dogs from all over Scotland run carol teaching does work, she does adapt it to different dogs


and never say never with the competing I have no time, cant camp and have a dog agressive dog to contend with - but I am still checking the scedules to see where my next show will be

Thanks! But I was very happy with things back then. She wouldn't do that now. She's completely shut down and lost interest in agility. I don't think it's possible to get her interested again in a class environment - not when the class has moved on. The only way I can see to get her engaged again is to go back to what we were doing. Just making it fun and exciting for her.

As you suggested, we can introduce tiny bits of the stuff we find difficult as a kind of trick. If we keep it fun and exciting she'll pick it up easily in small chunks. Then we can consider classes again further down the line.

Sending Beanie away isn't a problem (typically the problem with Beagles is keeping them with you! ). It's hard to explain why distance work is difficult. Part of the problem is with me as I've got two left feet and tend to have my body pointing one way and my arm another - it's hardly surprising that Beanie gets confused. But it's not all down to me. She has issues too! I can relate to what Bonwillan said about his beagles:

Maybe Bonwillan has figured out exactly what the problem is with distance work with his Beagles. The best way I can describe Beanie is to say that it's all-or-nothing. She enjoys the game of running about with you by her side. She'll pay very close attention and is really quite good at doing as she's told. I can tell that she gets a real thrill out of the two of us running together (like a pack I guess). But you need to be right beside her. If you send Beanie away she'll happily go charging off tackling all the equipment in her path. She won't just do one thing and listen for instructions. If for example I was to send her away down a line of jumps, tunnels and weavepoles she'd happily tackle the lot at full pelt without giving me a second thought. The weavepoles would slow her down and I *might* be able to beat her to the other end of the line. The moment she saw me she'd happily switch back into 'running with me' mode. But if I'm not there to 'catch' her after a send away she'll wander off and start sniffing when she runs out of things to jump over. Now I'm quite sure she can be taught to do anything, but if you can work WITH things that are hardwired you've got a head start!

I quite like the idea of teaching her the names of equipment. The kind of game that works well with Beanie is to send her through a tunnel and have a jump set up at 90 degrees to the left and another at 90 degrees to the right. As she runs through the tunnel I shout 'left' or 'right' and if she jumps the correct way she gets rewarded. This is excellent as it forces her to listen whilst in full flight and to really think. If she has to listen for me shouting "weaves", "tunnel", "jump", "seesaw" etc she's learning to always listen to me when she's revved up and raring to go. Which is something that doesn't come naturally to Beagles (there ears switch off when they are in flight). This kind of thing as a game between sessions of hurtling around the course together at full pelt would work with her.

We took Beanie up to the Agility Barn again for the first time since we stopped classes. She loved every minute of it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo8jg...layer_embedded

So now I'm looking for some ideas for interesting courses for us to tackle. She's comfortable with all the equipment. Has anyone got any links to 'maps' for courses?

Hi
I am doing agility with my four dogs although it is only for fun, and only half a dozebn times through the summer.
I am looking for an agility club in or around the Glasgow area that is more regular and will work towards becoming competitive.
If anyone involved in a club can recommend I'd be grateful

Hi there
I train with Clear run who are in the glasgow area, also there is Glennifer but when I looked at them they only have beginner courses once a year with a long waiting list.
Look forward to seeing you and your dogs in training

Oh DUH!!! I've been trying to think how to get info about Clear Run over ever since I saw first post Knew I couldn't link as they have a forum and couldn't pm as the member is too new.

Trying to be too smart for my own good

Hi thanks for getting back to me.
What is it like at Clear Run? I would like to know a lot about the club.
Are they taking members, what level can you enter. What das/nights do they meet. All the usual stuff.

No probs
If you google clear run agility glasgow you should find them

I really like Carol and have learnt lots from her, they only use positive reward based methods and classes tend to have less than 8 dogs a time, so lots of one to one attention
Training is most days of the week - I train thursdays and its in lots of venues ranging from horse barns to bellahustion park
Not sure what spaces there are in classes just now - best to mail carol and she will let you know

Hi

Thanks for that.
Once you get through the course, is it like a club then where you have certain nights to turn up and train? Or do you train on your own?
I'm looking for the club atmosphere and social side.
Is clear run like that?