Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Slow Poke Agility

Finally made a video........

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

14 comments:

Marie said...

OMG! That video is so reminescent of how Raven tends to run at trials. She's even seemed to disappear into the tunnel at some points...

I just can't seem to get the same dog that I run agility with at home and at training when I go to a trial. It's soo incredibly frustrating! Keep up the good work and maybe one day both Raven and Ricky will turn on the speed and show everyone how fast they really are! :-)

Diana said...

Ok, I thought it looked pretty good. The only thing I might say is how you are rewarding. You need to act silly and get excited when he is doing good. He went down a line of jumps and was pretty speedy and you didnt reward that. He did a fast sit on the table, and you didnt reward. But when he went really slow toward the end and didnt take the jump, you picked him up and hugged him. So you rewarded the behavoir you didnt want. Im not critizing, just trying to show you what the dog may be thinking what the rewards are. I hope you dont take offense. Its good to video, it lets us see what we are doing wrong. It really looked pretty good. The speed will come. Diana

Sara said...

That is how Oreo was by the end of our seminar on Sunday.

But hey, Ricky did everything correctly - he's a perfectionist:)

Diana said...

I hope I didnt offend you by what I said. Sometimes I need to keep my mouth shut. I hope I didnt hurt you feelings. You really are doing well and Sara is right, he was perfect. Its hard to get your dog to read the crosses and Ricky did great. Diana

Sara said...

Diana you worry too much :)

Arran, Arthur and Mum said...

My mum says sometimes slow and steady wins the race cos then you get everything right. You don't look that slow to me anyway!

Hey, do you bite your mom's ears when she picks you up, cos I do that to mum and she thinks it's funny.
~lickies, Ludo

Dawn said...

Hey there Ricky, I agree with Diana, I think it's all about when you get the treats isn't it! :) Sometimes you did the weaves pretty darn fast. At least you know how to do weaves, Katie still doesn't have a clue what those are all about!

Chris and Ricky said...

Hi you all! Firstly, no, Diana, you didn't offend me and mom at all! We love to get advice from all of you so don't worry! I thought it was funny that you thought me getting picked up was a reward! I HATE being picked up or cuddled - BOL! Mom should make rewarding me more of a party and be careful about what she's rewarding! Let's just not worry about offending each other any more - I think we all try to help each other and that's great!

The truth is mom was kind of just making fun of us in the video - we know there are some things we do pretty well and some things that we really need to work on! I think mom is secretly happy that I'm rather slow because she doesn't have to run much!

We appreciate everyone's support and advice - thanks for your comments!

And Ludo, I don't bite mom's ear when she picks me up!

Brittany said...

Lol, my mom wishes I would slow down sometimes, because I run into the jumps rather than over them. I am sure you will get faster love it.

-Hobbs

Lexi said...

He's so cute! He looks like a little Sheltie puddle when he lays down :)

Running slow could be a good thing if it help him be more accurate. Speed will deffinatly come with confidence. (You can do it Ricky!)

My sister's dog, Koda, was so fast he was a messy wreck. :)

Johann The Dog said...

You make me laugh!!!! What a fun video. We definitely have had moments in the backyard just like that before. And it always seemed like when Mum got out the camera, BOL!!!

But have to say when she gets out the toys and treats now to rev me up, all that went away. And she started growling at me and pushing on my chest, I love that!!!

I hate to be picked up too!!! Not a good thing since Mum wants me to jump in her arms after a run, oh well.

And Ricky, you are a perfectionist, just like me, my Man!!! That makes me laugh!!!

Amber-Mae said...

Oh, I enjoyed the video! Hey, going sooper fast doesn't mean you'll do it any better ya know. So many slow & steady dogs in the trials here always win against the fast ones especially if the course is smaller & tighter. I agree with someone here. You should reward him when he goes fast & executes each obstacle perfectly. Oh yeah, that's some pretty fast weaving! Hehehe. Too funny. You've got lots to work on but there's no rush. I can be like Ricky too sometimes. If I go any faster, I mess up.

Belly jiggles,
Solid Gold Dancer

Cowspotdog said...

that is one super cute video and I KNOW why you are slow - It's cause your so small and have short little legs...it takes your so many more steps to cover the ground!!!!! I think really though, you are just one cool little dude who doesn't see any need to rush.

Natasha said...

Lookin' great Ricky! Love all the comments too :)

Just a suggestion -- what works really well with Mika (who used to be really unconfident) is pretending that she doesn't make any mistakes. I noticed that when Ricky went around a jump, you turned back to do it again. I think Ricky might be worried about making mistakes, which might be why he slows down...he figures that if he slows down, he's less likely to make mistakes! So if he goes around a jump, just keep on going and pretend that you meant for that to happen, and just make your handling even clearer the next time. Eventually he'll realize that he can't make any mistakes and that he's always right, which will improve his confidence level and -- increase his speed! :)

It works, it really does! I can see that Ricky is trying really hard to make you happy. Once he knows that he can't make any mistakes, he won't be worried about being wrong :)

Great video!

~Nat