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Post by masha on Jul 28, 2005 9:07:48 GMT -5
Here is something I've been stuck with. Our trainers suggest that (in agility) we have a good short and unambigious command word to say before our dog does any particular piece of equipment: to distinguish the dog walk from the see-saw, for example, as it can look quite the same from dog point of view as they approach. Now, I have words for some of the equipment, but I struggle to think of good distinct commands for the other things. I say " tunnel" for the tunnel " wikkel" for the wiggle sticks, "oor" for jumps (means " over" in my language) " check" to get her to stop on a contact, and then I've run out of ideas. What do other people use? My trainer says when doing the course she also tends to forget what the different things are called and will just shout " that thing there" on the spur of the moment
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Post by Am on Jul 28, 2005 15:54:16 GMT -5
Me and my dog are very much beginning agility people, so we don't have a long list of words. What I use so far are... "Over" (jumps) "Tunnel" (tunnel) "Through" (tyre jumps) "Weave weave weave" (weaves) "Hup" (table) "Waaait" (slow down) "Chhhchhchh!" (speed up!) "C'mere" (come back to me) There are a couple of people at our club who can send their dogs "left" and "right" to different obstacles, and I've always been very jealous of that.
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Post by sheeba on Jul 30, 2005 18:47:12 GMT -5
jump (jumps) tunnel (tunnel) hoop (tire jump) weave (weave poles) stool (pause table) chute (closed tunnel) walk (Dog Walk) ramp (A-Frame) teeter (teeter-totter) wobble (wobble board) here (come in toward me) out (go away lateral) go (go away linear) switch (rear cross) touch (2on/2off) dog's name (look at me) I also sometimes use praise while I'm running... but I usually run with minimal speaking I use speech only when necessary
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Post by Aussienot on Jul 30, 2005 20:17:46 GMT -5
I didn't try to name specific obstacles, just specific actions. I am also quite prone to blurting our the wrong command in the heat of a run, so keeping it simple works best for both of us.
Obstacle commands
Over (all jumps) Thru (both tunnel & chute) Tire (tire jump) Weave (weave poles) Table (pause table) Walk ON (both Dog Walk and wobble board) Walk UP (both A-Frame and teeter)
Directional commands
To Me (come in toward me, handler focus) Out (go away in direction pointed left, right) Side (work on my right) Zoom (run straight ahead until commanded to do something different)
Control commans Halt (contacts) Wait (start line)
Words are just a human thing. The dog works much more on your body language. Your feet and shoulders say more to the dog than your face. 9 times out of 10 you can call the obstacles anything, as long as your body and movement path are directing the dog in the right way.
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Post by masha on Jul 31, 2005 11:28:42 GMT -5
Wow - these are great. Thanks!
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Post by DivineOblivion19 on Jul 31, 2005 13:20:19 GMT -5
Verbal commands are overrated!!!
My Divina (Boston Terrier) was born deaf. I've been doing agility with her for a year and we are ready to compete. We do everything by sign. This dog is a first in a lot of things for me. She's actually the first dog I've ever trained from scratch, first therapy dog, first agility dog. She's my heart. Training comes so easily for me I didn't think anything of training a deaf dog. Her agility classes are nothing for me, my patience for her is unusually high.
I've recently gotten a Corgi who is unsocialized and nervous. I took her to classes and she did very well, but I unfortunately can't afford to pay for both dogs so I only continued with my Boston. But I have 3 jumps at home in which I work different runs. I never knew how hard it was to work a deaf dog until I started working my hearing dog! Wow, how nice is it to be able to say "here" when I want her to come to me instead of waiting for her to look at me. Ahh, the luxuries of working ear drums...
Anywho, I'm babbling... I think that certain verbal commands are important, but it can be done without! In our advanced agility class we occasionally run the course silent (this always makes me giggle since we always run silently. My teacher tells me no hard signing! ;D) It is interesting how well the dogs do at just reading your body language! At the beginning stages verbals are important, but later on you should be able to do without. It's hard though, I still use verbal commands with my deaf dog, but I think it's only so that I know where I'm going...
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