Someone is a smart little piggy

[Courtney]

And it's Thor. He made me laugh at agility last night. He is getting to where he anticipates what he thinks we're going to do, and he'll go and do something on his own in the hopes of getting treats for it.

Case 1, we worked in the beginning of class on the dog walk, which I think is his favorite. There was a tunnel set up under it so both obstacles started next to each other, and he got pretty good about listening to where I was asking him to go, either tunnel or "walk it." So, at the end of class, we did a sequence starting on a jump near one end of the dog walk. The little turd decided he didn't want to wait for me and the minute I took his leash off, he headed right for the dog walk and up it. I said "Uh, Thor..." and he turned around halfway through and came down, like "aww, mom...." He did this more than once! I had to stand right next to the intended jump and call him to it.

After we finished that sequence, we'd walk back over to the end of the line, past the A-frame. He still is not excited about going all the way up and over it without encouragement, but we've been clicking him whenever he shows interest in getting on it. WELL....he loves just sticking his paws on there and getting treats so much that he went over, sat parallel to it, and put 3 paws and his butt on the ground, with his right front paw just sticking out and ON the A-frame. He sat there for a couple minutes, touching it, just looking at me like, excuse me where's my treats?? WHAT A GOOF!!

[Barb]

Woo hoo - you ROCK Thor !!!! We :appl: :appl: :appl: you !!!!!

Rudy and Brandy

[Linus]

You already knew Thor was a genius..."thor-thirty" proves that...now he is just trying to take over the rest of the world.

:love9: ya, Thor!

[Otto'sMom]

Treats make for smart doggies :D

[Patt]

:cheer3: for Thor, he's got it all figured out.

[Jill]

:cheer3: Awesome. :rotfl:

[bittyup]

WOULD LOVE TO HAVE WATCHED THAT. WAY TO GO THOR.:party2:

[Tex]

I can SO picture Thor sitting there with his paws up on the a-frame!!!:rotfl:

Silly pupper!

[areese]

That's so cute and smart! I'm sure you'll find whenever you've been working an obstacle a lot (with a lot of treats) it becomes the new favorite!
I'd work a complete a-frame now but really really low until he is very confident, the raise it gradually. Both my weens really like the a-frame.
Although Owen slid right down it backwards yesterday in the trial. I don't know why..he was running SO fast but I was on the other side of the incline and didn't see what happened. Just heard a lot of scrabbling then a bit "AWWWW" from the audience LOL. But he tends to LEAP at it, maybe he hit it too straight on and lost all momentum!!

[Courtney]

Haha, poor Owen. Thor has slid down more than once. :( Our trainer said we'll work on it lower when it's not so dang hot. And, I'm going to see if Adam's grandfather will build us one...

Thor tends to leap at it too. He wants to jump ON it. I think he just isn't really sure how to tackle it yet. He really looks willing, just hasn't quite figured it out on his own with it so tall.

[areese]

Haha, poor Owen. Thor has slid down more than once. :( Our trainer said we'll work on it lower when it's not so dang hot. And, I'm going to see if Adam's grandfather will build us one...

Thor tends to leap at it too. He wants to jump ON it. I think he just isn't really sure how to tackle it yet. He really looks willing, just hasn't quite figured it out on his own with it so tall.

I was lucky enough to borrow one. Cuz Owen was leaping over the contact area all last spring and summer and then Salsa really had to do it a lot to build up her teeny butt muscles. What are you guys using as contact behavior (to make sure they don't jump the contacts) I taught Laika to stop with 2 feet on, 2 off and wish I didn't (cuz it slowed her down and also I don't like how it jarred her back/shoulders at the a-frame). She doesn't stop anymore. So with Owen..he's so little I thought o he won't jump contacts. Wrong. Little sh**t has jumped off over my HEAD.

[Courtney]

We have done target work separately from the obstacles, but we're not working on anything in the contacts now. The bigger dogs (aka all the other dogs) work on sitting at the end, but we don't b/c of his long back and like you said, because it will slow him down. If he hops off the dog walk before the end, I just don't click him for that. He's pretty good about finishing the obstacles, at least so far!

Did I mention he likes the teeter too? We didn't do it last week but we did the week before. He even was thumping it. It helped that the assistant trainer was standing at the other side of it with treats. ha. Man he really is such a PIG.

[areese]

That's cool. I ended up having to teach owen to lay down after he gets off. Somehow having something to do at the end made him think about that instead of jumping. Before he killed his little self.
It's very cool he likes the teeter. I was so pleased with mine friday (we did a USDAA trial) cuz they both did the teeter very nicely and it was the hard one. It tips REALLY late and that confuses them.
Hey, we don't say pig, we just say food MOTIVATED. :rotfl: :rotfl:
Of course we can't even say the word "eat" (or strangely enough, anything that RHYMES with eat :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: ) within hearing distance of Owen. It sends him into a frenzy.

We have done target work separately from the obstacles, but we're not working on anything in the contacts now. The bigger dogs (aka all the other dogs) work on sitting at the end, but we don't b/c of his long back and like you said, because it will slow him down. If he hops off the dog walk before the end, I just don't click him for that. He's pretty good about finishing the obstacles, at least so far!

Did I mention he likes the teeter too? We didn't do it last week but we did the week before. He even was thumping it. It helped that the assistant trainer was standing at the other side of it with treats. ha. Man he really is such a PIG.