Opposition Reflex – Bad Dog Agility Academy

Opposition Reflex

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  • Claire says:
    May 8, 2020 at 11:55 am

    Here is CharLee working on some Opposition Reflex exercises.
    https://youtu.be/zxAbfNSQH0c

    • Jennifer Crank says:
      May 8, 2020 at 5:22 pm

      Good work! CharLee was definitely better with the the toy than the food dish. You have no idea how happy it makes me to see a sheltie better with a toy than food. Keep it up!! I have found that dogs who have a lot of early “it’s her choice” training are not good with opposition reflex with food. They worry it’s a trick. I struggle with this with Vento. He does seem better when I use a treat and Train vs a dish so something to consider.

      The first toy throw where he almost jumped out of your arms was perfect. You can also do some of this training with anything he desires. When I let the dogs out in the AM Vento wants to run out the dog and chase the other dogs. I have been holding him and letting them put first and then doing some “ready, steady” and releasing him.

      Reverse retrieve – looks good. The last one was best as he brought you the toy back more quickly. I wouldn’t worry too much about that. Again, a sheltie who likes a toy is a good thing and I will allow them to get away with less toy manners than say a border collie.

      Keep working on this as we want to use this to train much of our foundation training encouraging speed and drive.

  • Jennifer Crank says:
    May 5, 2020 at 8:48 am

    Here is a video of me doing some opposition reflex work with Hi5 at just 8 weeks old. This will hopefully give you and idea of how I start and how I adjust for really young dogs.
    https://youtu.be/dERAmxCeIHY

  • peggyclapham@hotmail.com says:
    May 3, 2020 at 10:32 am

    Beck (is just 9 weeks), can I start this with him?

    • Jennifer Crank says:
      May 3, 2020 at 6:48 pm

      Absolutely! Just keep the distance close. It would be great to do a meal times. And I would suggest holding him by the chest instead of by the collar at that age.

  • Lauren says:
    May 2, 2020 at 7:49 pm

    I have a papillon that doesn’t like to be restrained. He would rather back up to avoid the tension than pull. Suggestions?

    • Jennifer Crank says:
      May 3, 2020 at 9:31 am

      How is he with the collar grab game? I would start by counter conditioning him to you touching him. You can also play around with restraining in different positions. Vento (black sheltie) hates when I hold his collar so I try to put my hand on his chest instead or hold his back legs like a flyball hold. Same with Surprise but she got better the more I worked on it. The first session I did with her she just laid down in the grass when I held her. You can see her reaction in the beginning at :46 here – https://youtu.be/zcGKGwM4D70. It took some work but when she learned the release was doing to be for something fun, she changed her mind.

      I am in an online class with someone who will do them with a harness on their dog and then they just hold the top of the harness. That seems to be working very well. She doesn’t really “touch” the dog, but still gets to build some drive out of it.

      If after working on it a bit you still don’t see a change, you can always just use a physical cue next to him. Get him excited (“ready, steady…”), bend down like you are about to race, and have him power out of it. Watch :28 on this video – https://youtu.be/49VG1gwg8Cs

  • mach1ab@windstream.net says:
    May 1, 2020 at 8:28 am

    At 10 1/2 months old is this something I can or should do with Buddy? Between obedience classes and using the drag on the ground toy like we did in class before a release, he has a good start line stay (that will still need a lot of proofing). If so, since he knows to run to the treat and train when it beeps, would it be appropriate to hold on to him and use it?

    • Jennifer Crank says:
      May 1, 2020 at 4:21 pm

      Yes, this is good for all dogs at any age. Working opposition reflex is more about building speed and drive than anything else. You will see in many of the lessons/demo videos that I will start the drill with opposition reflex rather than a stay or controlled set up in order to encourage speed and excitement.

      You can work this to any reward so a Treat and Train is fine as long as you beep before you release. You should feel him push on you when the beep goes off and when you feel that push, release him.

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