Train 'Em Tutorials - AKC Rally Sign #9: 270 Right

FINALLY!!!! The videos are back! Over the summer, my tripod I used to take these videos vanished. I have no idea where it went...like it was stashed in a place in this house that it will never see the light of day again. I've looked and looked all over the place and could not find it. I eventually resigned to the fact that it is buried someplace in the basement or maybe got left outside in a place that I just haven't thought of. But, I broke down and got a new one and the tutorials are back in business.

Enjoy!

Expectations versus maturity - Part 2

Since I made that blog post last week about online acquaintances struggling with younger dogs in performance sports...I've done some more thinking while off showing in agility over the weekend and have more thoughts on this.

The more I think about this notion of pushing the maturity issue with younger dogs and the parallel idea of people. (I'm not going down the Anthropomorphism rabbit hole here.)  None of us would expect a 12 - 14 year old kid to go and work successfully on Wall Street as a banker...or as an tax accountant...or a police or fireman. We don't expect 12 - 14 year old kids to be able to work college level calculus. Yes, there are some exceptional kids who could take on college level courses or actual jobs like scientists or law enforcement....but they are exceptional and few and far between. Why do we expect that same level of maturity of our younger dogs for them to work at the same level as a 5 - 7 year old dog??

I was joking with an agility friend earlier this summer that Ocean at 3 was like a 21 year old college guy. A 21 year old old college guy is a mix of great choices and not so great choices. And that in a nutshell, was Ocean this past year...a mix or good choices in the ring and a mix of not so great choices. At turning 4 years old in a couple of weeks, Ocean is more or less equivalent to a 28 year old guy and 28 year old men can be successful at holding down an actual job and making a whole bunch of great choice with maybe a not so great one thrown in for fun. I'm really looking forward to this upcoming year with my true adult dog in agility.

I think there's something to be said about being honest with where your young dogs are in their mental maturity. Yes, a 12 month old large breed dog looks like a grown up dog. But their brain is still in puppy land. So, if you have the 4 legged equivalent of a 12 - 14 year old kid, try to allow them to stay in middle school where they belong instead of trying to shove them into post doctorate work.

Suggested use for Rally Task Packs...

I just love talking with my Tasks Customers because they show me new and cool ways to use my products that I haven't thought of. I get to hear about great ideas from various sources. When someone purchases anything from Train 'Em Tasks, they get an invite to our Tasks Customer Community Group on Facebook. The Tasks Customers group is a great place to bounce ideas off of other Tasks users and they come from all different walks of dog training: Obedience, Rally, Agility, IPO, French Ring, Herding, Mondioring, and etc. I get Facebook messages and emails from past customers where they share how Tasks have changed their training sessions. Lastly, past customers find me at trials, run thus, and when I'm out and about training my own dogs and we chat about how we are using Tasks stuff. I think sharing info between trainers is so valuable. Sometimes having someone's different perspective on something you have been working on or through can help us see it on a much different angle.

One awesome idea that was passed on was for the different rally task packs we offer. This customer has the Train 'Em Tasks AKC Rally Novice Task Card Pack, a small Train' Em! grab bag, and the Full Sized AKC Rally Novice Sign Packs from us.

They were using the AKC Rally Novice Task Pack and grab bag to pull different task card signs so they could build their own course at home. Once they had enough cards that they could have a full sized AKC Rally Novice Course (10 - 15 signs,) they would arrange them on a table like they would be on a map you would get at a trial. They took a photo of what they pulled and built with their phone and then headed outside with their full sized signs. Using their phone pic of the tasks, they can build a rally course on their own.

This is brilliant and I love it. The more I do Train 'Em Tasks, I find that people do not have regular access too classes and run thrus like we do here in New England. A lot of people are going forth and learning rally on their own because they are in remote areas or in places where competitive dog sports is not popular. Using our rally task packs and our full sized signs with the exercise descriptions on the back can totally work for someone who doesn't have access to rally maps because they are new to the sport. It can also work for someone who may have a limited amount of rally maps or outdated (pre 2012) rally maps from past trials. I have blogged in the past about using Tasks in the classroom. This method of using rally tasks and signs could absolutely work there too. The students could pull the task cards and arrange them into a course they want to work on. For anyone who is in levels higher than AKC Rally Novice can do this same method of pulling cards with the AKC Rally Taskmaster Collection (Novice - Excellent and a large grab bag) and our Full Sized Complete AKC Rally Sign set.

Right now we have task card packs and full sized sign packs for WCRL (formerly known as APDT) rally and using them this way would totally work too. I'm hoping to finalize the task packs and full sized sign packs for the other venues of rally we carry in Prep Pack form this fall.

Train 'Em Tutorials - AKC Rally Obedience Signs #7 and #8

The next installment of the Train 'Em Tasks Tutorials are the #7 and #8 signs in AKC Rally Novice. These two signs are the straight forward about turns - one to the right and the other to the left. I do talk about some troubleshooting where people can run into issues with the Left About Turn, like if your dog sits or has problems moving to the left because they don't have good rear end awareness.

Sign #7: About Right Turn - While heeling, the team makes a 180° about turn to the handler’s right. 

Sign #8: About "U" Turn - While heeling, the team makes a 180° turn to the handler’s left.

Train 'Em Tutorials - AKC Rally Obedience signs #5 and #6

Even though I hadn't been blogging regularly, I had been doing the Train 'Em Tasks Tutorials for rally off and on. This video features signs 5 and 6 which are the left and right turns. Like with the other videos, I have the sign graphic and exercise description featured at the end of the video in case you're one of those types of people who need to see a how to in words too. Enjoy!!

Train 'Em Tutorials - AKC Rally Signs #3 and #4

Over the past couple of weeks, Ocean, Lars and I were able to video the next two signs in AKC Rally Novice. Sign #3 is the "Halt/Sit" sign and Sign #4 is "Halt/Sit/Down" sign. Both of these exercises are considered stationary exercises. I'm getting a bit more fancy with the editing of the videos. Now...at the end of the video, the sign graphic is shown as is the exercise description. 

Sign #3 - Halt/Sit

Sign #4 -Halt/Sit/Down

This past week, time slipped away since I was kind of more busy than I expected. The videos for the turns will start to be recorded this week! As always, if you have any feedback or questions regarding the Tutorials, please don't hesitate to drop us a note. :)

Train 'Em Tutorials - How to videos! AKC Rally Start and Finish

Last week, we launched a new feature for Train 'Em Tasks. For the longest time, I had been kicking around an idea of tutorial videos to help people do dog stuff at home. I started to get questions about the how of dog training and dog sports...and I would try to explain via email or private FB messages how to do various things. The longer I do Train 'Em Tasks, I am learning that not everyone lives in an area like Southern New England where I have access to several dog training facilities within an hour's drive of Tasks HQ. Most people do not have regular access to instructors or training facilities and they are left to try to learn things on their own. Or others may not have the funds to attend classes. And others may have other reasons that classes may not work for them. Once I figured all of that out, I decided that the tutorial videos were something that we needed to do.

I videoed our first one last week and posted it on our Train 'Em Tasks YouTube Channel. I decided to start with AKC (American Kennel Club) Rally Obedience Novice because that is a popular dog sport and most dog and handler teams find it fun and doable at any skill level. I will also post the videos here with some written commentary as well as the actual exercise description featured in the videos.

I will say one thing...we did get one comment on our Facebook Tasks Page which I feel should be addressed due to possible viewer expectations. One person felt the first video was tedious to watch. In this video. Lars and I demonstrated and talked about the Start and Finish signs found on an AKC rally course. I also talked about basics of setting your dog up into heel position and how to correctly place your reward for your dog. . If someone is pretty experienced in obedience or rally...some of these videos might be too basic for them to watch. My target audience are people who are new to the sport/dog training but want to do rally and don't have access to intro to rally classes. If you have lots of dog training experience, some of the Train 'Em Tutorials are going to be rudimentary. But, with that being said, I still encourage people who are experienced to check them out. Just maybe, there could be something in the videos that you might find interesting or helpful. I'm in the camp of we can always learn something...I, by no means, know everything and I'm always looking for new info to help me become a better handler. :)





 Here are the actual exercise descriptions for start and finish:

Sign #1: Start: Indicates the beginning of the course. The dogs does not need to be sitting at the start.

Sign #2: Finish: Indicates the end of the course - timing stops.

The next video we'll do will be Sign #3 which is the Halt sign. We're going to try to do these twice a week if we're not too busy and weather allows. Like I mentioned on the video...if you have questions or problems or comments, please send them to me and the boys. We might do some troubleshooting and problem solving videos too based on questions, problems, or comments. I think this will be a fun project for Tasks and it will help put faces and personalities behind the Train 'Em Tasks products too.