How would you train this? (Sighthound and/or agility folks?!)

SaddlePsych'D

SaddlePsych'D

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Ivy is loving the countryside life but one thing we struggle with is stiles!

Some we have cracked teaching her to go under, through the dog gates when they have them, or round if there is a gap in the fence. Some we have to accept she just can't do them (ones that have a bit to step over at the same time as go under, or ones that just are too low).

There's a couple though that I think we can get her under. One we've managed once or twice but she isn't keen. They will make a big difference to our walking options so I'm wondering how we can practice this, perhaps recreating an obstacle at home, to teach her how to duck down.

Challenges include...not sure how much is physically possible for a greyhound to duck down given the long legs, and that she is nervous of things touching her back (unsure if this is a concern for dogs generally as I imagine other big dogs I've seen going under the styles (think Labrador size) seem unfussed.
 
Spotherisk said:
The deep chest causes the problem, they have to kind of screw under things. Can you teach her to jump on command instead? Teach to jump over your coat laid over a low obstacle? Or would you prefer if she didn’t know how to jump?
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Probably best we don't teach her to jump I think.

Some of the fences she would have to jump over are awkward and I would worry about injury. Also skilling her to up to escape the garden not ideal 😂
 
SaddlePsych'D said:
There's a couple though that I think we can get her under. One we've managed once or twice but she isn't keen. They will make a big difference to our walking options so I'm wondering how we can practice this, perhaps recreating an obstacle at home, to teach her how to duck down.
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Do you think that with her spinal problems it could be uncomfortable/painful for her to try to get under?
 
skinnydipper said:
Do you think that with her spinal problems it could be uncomfortable/painful for her to try to get under?
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I mentioned it to the vet at last visit and she didn't say anything about it. I can have another chat with the proposed 'dog limbo' training in mind!

She's the sort of dog that wouldn't nudge through an open door even if it's open wide enough for her to do so easily, and we've had to teach her how to walk between other obstacles on walks, so my hunch is that a lot of it is her worrying about fitting under. She's also got form for screaming when she's sniffed a bit too far under a bush and a branch has had the audacity to touch her back! Thinking about it just now I do wonder if she has had bad experience in race traps in the past.

We're not talking getting her super low, just even an inch or two down would be enough. I'm ruling out anything more than that as aware her anatomy is not built for it. My hope is to find a way we can practice it to get her confident and work out how to move her body in the right way.
 
Sit on a chair with your knees out, lure her underneath your knees, reward. Repeat till confident. Start sitting a bit lower, on stools and the like, so you start 'forcing' (very very gently) her to crouch a bit through it. Normally, you'd get it to the point where you're sat on the ground with your knees out and they go under your knees from there, but I presume she's too big for that.

I just think it's easier to moderate the height of the obstacle when you are the obstacle, and once you've got the crouching down, you start training it in different environments/with different obstacles.
 
Friend has greyhound x deerhound. He’s huge, yet does agility and manages to fold himself through a tunnel. He wasn’t keen at first, but home training sessions involved two chairs and a towel/ blanket. Chairs set with their backs facing with towel blanket over top of backs to make a high tiny narrow “roof” so he only had to lower his head/ neck to duck under/ through, then gradually lowering blanket and also stretching blanket out so “roof” got wider.
 
lizziebell said:
Friend has greyhound x deerhound. He’s huge, yet does agility and manages to fold himself through a tunnel. He wasn’t keen at first, but home training sessions involved two chairs and a towel/ blanket. Chairs set with their backs facing with towel blanket over top of backs to make a high tiny narrow “roof” so he only had to lower his head/ neck to duck under/ through, then gradually lowering blanket and also stretching blanket out so “roof” got wider.
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Oh there's hope! I tried to look up sighthounds doing agility but just kept getting that video of the greyhound who gets the zoomies during his agility round, or videos of greyhounds sniffing the agility stuff then just walking around the obstacles instead 😂

This evening we have attempted with holding tube of wrapping paper with one end on the arm of the sofa. At first poor Ivy thought OH was going to wop her with it! Thankfully we don't have too many reminders these days of her life before us but I think the implication there was quite clear. :(

She was less worried with me holding it while sitting on the floor so we did a bit of 'sniff this thing, it's not scary etc.' and built up to her going back and forth under it at an easy height where she just needs to put her head down. Will just leave it at that to practice for now and see if we can take the height down a little at a time. Will also need to practice with her harness on so she doesn't worry about that touching when we go under the stiles out on walks. Possibly in her thick winter coat will be easier as it won't touch her directly.

I will check in with the rehab vet when we go in a couple of weeks time in case there is likely to be any connected problems/what to look out for. I think the key will be not to do too much too quickly.
 
With one of mine I used to ask him to go through under a chair. I was actually training him to down on command but he did not understand that until he learnt to dip down to pass under the chair. My last one was claustrophobic and it took years to even get him through a mostly open door, so he would never have managed a style.
 
MurphysMinder said:
I would check with the rehab vet before you start teaching any sort of crawling action. They have to use their hind legs in a different way and it might cause more issues with her back problems.
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Yes am planning to speak to the vet. We're due back within the next couple of weeks. I definitely don't want to undo all our hard work, especially when we are now at a stage we've been given the go ahead to try a little bit of off lead time. I'm also realising we need to do the off lead stuff first, otherwise if things do go backwards we won't know if it's that or teaching Ivy to duck under things causing a setback.

I'm glad I posted now as it's given me hope it's possible to do but also got me to slow down. We can dodge/lift her over the stiles for a bit longer. Priority is getting her in the right place to have regular off lead time again. I made the secure field booking last night and the last booking we had was April!
 
Teach her to commando crawl. I teach mine to do it just as a fun trick to occupy them. Sightnounds seem to find it easy as they are long and prefer to lay than sit
 
I'm Dun said:
Teach her to commando crawl. I teach mine to do it just as a fun trick to occupy them. Sightnounds seem to find it easy as they are long and prefer to lay than sit
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Hadn't thought of that. I'd assumed that it would be more difficult although Ivy was playing with her toys last night and naturally did a little commando crawl so one to keep in mind!

Next vet visit is next week so not long to wait to have a chat about whether to give this bit of a training a go.
 
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