On Making Lemonade

I’ve often said “I was making lemonade!” when I come off a course early to celebrate something done well at a trial or come off a course to celebrate a run where I tried something new.  “Making lemonade” is what happens when a run is an NQ early on the course and I decide instantly that I’m going to reward X or I’m going to try a specific handling move that I have wanted to try but I might not be as willing if there was a Q in play.  Now as I’ve written about in my blog awhile back – I get mad at myself if I let the thought of a Q get in the way of handling the way I really want or training something I really should.  I call this the curse of the AKC double Q only because I find this is the place where it most affects my decisions.  That has started to change for the better.

However this weekend I am really proud of myself because I took risks on the standard courses with BOTH Feisty and Sinco that actually created two very fast clean runs with some very fast lines and turns.  Now some have said it is because we got our MACHs I can do that.  However I disagree because I really was not that concerned about earning their MACHs and I still have a very substantial goal which requires even more Qs and speed points than a MACH and that is to keep the two dogs in the top 5 for their breeds through the end of June.  I was not at all stressed about getting the last Qs of their MACHs – many years ago this used to be a huge stressor for me but as I’ve written in other blog posts this is no longer a stress point for me.

I really believe because I’ve allowed myself to take chances when there wasn’t a Q on the line in the past, I was able to take those handling risks this weekend with a Q on the line.  I did things I’ve trained a lot – like wrapping my dog around the last weave pole for a nice tight turn on Saturday’s Standard course and leaving both dogs on the teeter and running out ahead to show them the straight line over the last two jumps.  This weekend there were lots of opportunities to do tight rear crosses into weave poles.  Again this is something that I’ve trained a lot and have set up in classes so I feel confident in this skill.  I was very glad to have that skill this past weekend with both dogs because it made it much easier to do the courses.  This is also something I will work on when I have an NQ because it is a difficult skill that needs to be maintained.

Last weekend I NQ’d with Feisty on the table and I ran really fast the rest of the course and handled the last several obstacles at a distance and layered jumps which was really fun to do and she did it beautifully and it actually worked very well and better than it did for most people who ran with their dogs closer to the obstacles.  Now I know if she is running really fast I can trust her distance skills.  There was another run two weekends ago where she NQ’d on the third obstacle with an off course and I left the ring and still rewarded her.  I didn’t think there was anything on the course I really wanted to try, I didn’t want to risk mental or physical injury to her and I decided the best reward would be to reward her for a short course.  She had been slow off the start line lately so this might help.  It has… she has been faster off the start line ever since. 

So the lemonade is tasting really good these days and I can’t help but feel like it is paying off with both dogs but most especially with Feisty.   This past weekend she double Q’d on Saturday AND she took 1^st place in both classes with smoking fast runs!  On Sunday she had another super fast standard run and was only .10 behind first place.  This from a dog who until the last few months NEVER placed at all and often just loped through the course.  I knew she was really fast in training and with good training in trial settings I am seeing her run fast at trials.  Not only is she running faster at trials but I’m starting to see it in more runs on a weekend.  It started last Fall where maybe 1 in 10 runs she would run as fast as I knew she could.  The last few trials I’ve seen it more like 3-4 runs in 10.  So I see this as huge progress and I truly believe careful handling of her trialing experiences have contributed to her increase in speed at trials and her improved attitude.  The other exciting thing is that for the last 2 weekends and 6 runs at AKC trials Feisty has WANTED to play tug BEFORE every run!  This is huge because for her it means she feels comfortable in the environment.  I have not been able to get her to play at an AKC trial for years.   I play with her only 1-2 dogs before we go so it raises her energy level and gets her revved up and yet not stressed so she is ready to go.  I think it is also helping her to come off the start line faster.

So this is another way you can “train in the ring” at any trial without violating anyone’s rules.  If it helps to have a plan of “if this then this” I recommend it.  It takes practice to be able to think quickly on your feet to decide what to do.  I also trust my intuition and go with what “feels right” in the moment.

So even in winter we can all enjoy some lemonade!

Annelise and Feisty who would like her lemonade beef flavored please and Sinco who would like it any flavor other than lemon…

Reflections on ring stress and dog mental management

I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on where I’ve been with Feisty and with my other dogs over the last month as the reality of earning a MACH with Feisty was getting closer.  I have also been doing some reflecting on what it was about her that kept me going in training her.  I certainly won’t judge anyone for why they stop working with any dog.  I have had dogs with serious issues in the past that I wasn’t able to make progress on after working with them for a long time.  So please don’t judge people for why they choose to do what they do with their dogs.  Every dog and human is different and has different life choices to make and not every dog is cut out to do agility.  One of the things to really keep in mind is that when it comes to dog agility – it is a tough performance sport that requires the dog to have athletic ability, mental focus, and mental and physical stamina.  Not all dogs (just as not all people) possess these qualities.  The dogs who do well in this sport have to have a desire to do things and the ability to focus on these tasks. 

Why did I decide not to give up on her?  I also train her in obedience and have since she was a pup.  She loves obedience and I did proofing in obedience before I did in agility with her and she loves it.  She loves solving the problem and she gets so excited with herself when she works through difficult things.  So it was knowing this about her that made me think I could help her work through the distractions and stressors of agility.  Little did I know how many obstacles like this would come along.  Many or even most agility dogs never get bothered by the things that bothered Feisty.  I also knew that it was agility related because she was an awesome dog outside of the ring.  I also have access to agility equipment, agility people and other training resources to help me have the time to work on it.  Not everyone has these things.  It cannot be done once a week in a class – there is so much to do – teaching the handling cues to the dog, building speed and confidence on obstacles,  training cues for turns, collection, acceleration and much more. Proofing these things comes when the obstacle performance is reliable.  There is a lot to do – I know this because I’m often overwhelmed by how much I have yet to train my 18 month old puppy to do and she gets trained several times a week!  It is hard to focus on all these at once so it is best to pick one thing per training session.  For example you cannot focus on both handling skills AND proofing obstacle performance at the same time.  Just as you can’t focus on teaching a single obstacle performance at the same time you are also trying to complete an entire sequence of obstacles.  You have to pick one thing to focus on per 1-2 minute training session.

I did spend some time trying to do stress reducing things for her and honestly they were not as effective as going the other way and building her confidence under stressful conditions.  Some of the things from the Kathy Keats seminar have helped me to have a better understanding of what we as people experience with performance stress and I do think it is analogous to what many dogs experience.  What I decided to do with Feisty was to make a concerted and systematic effort to build her confidence rather than try to reduce her stress.  What do I mean by that?

Well I knew that she (and many dogs and many Pyr Sheps in particular) would be very sensitive to her environment when trialing.  So when she was about 2 years old I put her in classes around the Twin Cities where I knew there would be different equipment, different instructors (different genders, sizes, voices etc.), many loud dogs and different running surfaces.  I did it purely for getting Feisty used to working in different environments and I never worried about handling.  For the first few weeks we did very short sequences with high rate of rewards.  Gradually she worked up to being able to do longer sequences in these different places.  Then over a period of several months she could do sequences with different people running alongside the dogwalk, crowding the table, crowding the start line area and being ring crew.  She didn’t demonstrate her stress at these things in obvious ways but I could tell.  People would often wonder how or why I thought she was stressed but she would go really fast around something or take an off course that was away from the stressor and things like that.  What kept me going with her is that she also wanted to work through her stressors.  She would get more and more confident all the time.

When I started trialing her she didn’t like tunnels she hadn’t been in – she shut down in Tunnelers the first time I ran her in it.  Then she avoided teeters she didn’t know and she would stop and sniff them and walk around the base of it and then she would get on it.  She knew a teeter she’d been on even if it was in a different location (like the MAC equipment that is rented out).  She knew a different teeter in a familiar place.  We went through this with almost every obstacle.  She ran around an aframe the first time she saw one that was wider at the base than at the top.  Now she can go out of town to a place she has never been and get on any piece of equipment.  It is interesting that she has not ever had a table problem in USDAA but there the table is higher and so she may not have associated the taller table with what had happened to her on the shorter table in AKC.  She has attention to detail and I swear she has a notebook somewhere in the house with her name on it and all this information. 

While I was working on this I was also training her on obstacles to the point where she had above average skills on the obstacles.  She had to do weaves past toys, fluff, treats, bones etc.  She had to do lots of difficult weave entrances and she had to do weaves at a distance and with me right next to her.  She had to do weaves with a tunnel 1 foot from the end of the poles.  As a result she just loves weave poles.  I also did a lot with her running aframes and dogwalks.  I went to ASCA trials and had friends stand at either end of the dogwalk with the assignment to cheer if she got the contact (I couldn’t wait for the judge’s hands) so I could mark it one way or the other.   It took a lot of work to get the dogwalk to be as consistent as it is now.  I also traveled to work with Dana Pike several times for help training her contacts and to work her in yet another different place.

Then she ran in NADAC and she would just fly around the courses.  She loves NADAC – there is no one in the ring to distract her.  CPE is her next favorite and I believe that is because the environment is more relaxed.  She is very sensitive to negative energy.

Then we did AKC.  I still recall the first time she ran in Open AKC and she stopped in her tracks in the middle of the Weaves and I got her back and we ran out of the ring.  I knew I needed to keep working on her weaves and proofing her obstacles.  I started for awhile in AKC doing short courses and avoiding hard obstacles and doing Jumpers with Weaves a lot.  Many an AKC judge and exhibitor scratched their heads as I ran out of the ring early with a big smile and we had a “beef party” for doing ¼ to 1/3 of the course.  There were the times when she wouldn’t get off the start line – probably because the judge and the ring crew were stressed.  If there were any loud voices or arguments around the ring gate she would not run or she’d run slowly.  So I kept working on things.  Then she was in Excellent Standard at Soccer Blast and she was on the table, the judge, a tall loud man was saying the table count.  Feisty stared at him and would not get off the table.  After a lot of coaxing I got her off the table and then she noticed Amy on the floor and shied away from her and then I could see her scanning the entire ring noticing that there were people everywhere.  That was the beginning of our table problem.  It was also the beginning of her dislike of male judges.  When that same man was judging Jumpers with Weaves the next day she was on the start line.  I saw her stare at him while he stood in the middle of the ring.  I lead out.  When I released her she tried to run out of the ring.  I got her to do the last jump as we left and I knew exactly what had happened.  On the third day I only ran her with the female judge and she was fine but refused to get on the table.

After trying a couple of more trials where she would freeze and not do the table I stopped showing her in Excellent standard for many many months – close to a year.  I enrolled her in another training school’s class where I knew there were male students and I worked on major proofing.  It was fascinating – at that point inside the agility ring she refused treats from everyone.  Outside the agility ring she would take treats from those same people.  After a number of months she went from working though having people stand in normal places where judges and ring crew stand to running the aframe with someone laying on the aframe, getting on the table with three people sitting on it and doing the dogwalk with 7 people hovering on the down contact (and she got the contact!).  It took a lot of work and that is all I focused on every week at these classes.  Fortunately these other students were friends and acquaintances of mine and they understand how I wanted to use my time on the course.  I didn’t work on handling in trial or group classes  – just proofing.  It was all consuming.  I worked on handling in places where it was quiet and she was comfortable.  I could do this because I had a way to do training on my own time.

Meanwhile I just did NADAC and CPE with her where she was getting faster and faster running those courses and building her confidence in trial settings.  When I entered her in Excellent Standard she started to run cleanly – not as fast as I knew she could but she was running cleanly.  She was running faster and faster in Jumpers with Weaves.  I wish I could say she has been perfect but she still has runs where she will refuse the table – as recently as Dec. 4^th.  In November 2010 I discovered that I had caused her to be afraid of camera clicks.  She totally shut down at a trial in St. Louis and would not take the first jump because a photographer was taking her picture.  It took the whole day for me to isolate the cause of her fear.  I won’t go into details but this has been another hurdle for us and it is a very difficult one that is still a work in progress. I have been able to get her within about 30 feet of a camera click with treats and tricks.  She can’t yet do agility within 30 feet of a camera click but I am determined to work on it.

Now where Kathy Keats comes in…  She talked a lot about (and many of you have expressed this) being able to really work on committing a course to memory so it is second nature to remember the course which then allows more of the brain’s power to be able to focus on handling and the dog.  I hadn’t really thought about that because I’ve not ever had a problem remembering courses but I know many of you have had this problem.  A few of you have said that since the seminar you are better able to remember the course and now you can focus more on your handling and your dog which is great.  Well I’ve always known that proofing dogs performance makes it better – faster, more accurate etc.  One of the reasons is that they develop better focus on the tasks but I also now believe that the dogs who have strong skills of obstacle performance are better able to work with distractions because they are thinking less about how to perform the obstacle – it is more automatic for them.  I see this in Feisty.  Today in the Jumpers with Weaves class the judge was close to the exit of the weave poles.  Feisty was flying until she turned into the weaves.  She can have very fast weaves.  She slowed down but stayed in the poles.  She was able to maintain accuracy in the poles because she has had such extensive training that she doesn’t need as much brain power to weave but the pressure/stressor of the judge there caused her to slow down.  Once out of the weaves she sped up again.  Now I could have taken it as having a slow weave pole problem but when I looked at the big picture and friends pointed out to me where the judge was it all made sense.  She was actually being a VERY GOOD GIRL!!!  When she first started in agility she would have avoided the weaves all together.  On the standard runs I do pay close attention to where the judge is and I do take it into account for my handling strategy if I can.  Usually in Jumpers the judge is off to the side and not in the middle of the ring as she was today.  Feisty has been known to veer away from a judge who is walking toward her as she is approaching an obstacle – especially a male judge.  So I know I need to keep working on this but I pay close attention to the judge’s path before I run her.     

It is a result of this that I have introduced more and more proofing exercises into my Monday and Thursday night beginners classes.  I’ve always done some but I have definitely increased it as I’ve become more and more aware of how much this can really help to boost a dog’s confidence in obstacle performance.  I also do this in the Weaves and Contacts special classes.  Providing more distractions in training than the dog will see in trial and having the dog work through it builds confidence which in turn increases speed and accuracy.  Many of you have seen your dog get faster in the weaves working with distractions.  It is much easier to do this on shorter sequences and on specific obstacles that we have in the beginner classes and I like to do it early on in training the dog before doing longer courses.   It is impossible to focus on handling skills and proofing performance at the same time.  When I have a free Friday night I plan to offer more classes on proofing of obstacle performance for those who need/want more work in this area. 

It will be awhile before I have a free Friday because at this point I am focusing a lot on trialing in AKC between now and the end of June. Feisty is currently the #2 Pyr Shep AND Sinco is currently the #5 Aussie so they are both on track to qualify for the AKC Agility Invitational in December 2012.  This is something I’m very proud of and really want to strive to accomplish.  Therefore I may not be able to offer as many Friday classes as I usually do this winter and spring because I will be traveling out of town for many of the trials.

As a post script: even though I have this goal with Feisty I am still stepping to the line with her as if it is just another chance to have fun together.  Today we had a very good Jumpers with Weaves run.  In Standard she went off course on obstacle 3 so I made a short course to the exit and said “Thank you!” to the judge.  I left in good spirits and loved her up – it is also a good way for her to know that sometimes we do just short courses out there – random reinforcement!  Off courses are my fault not hers but I don’t see a need to keep her out on a course – she doesn’t have to prove anything to me and I also don’t want to risk unnecessary mental or physical trauma to her.  So let’s leave early – wow sometimes we just do a few obstacles!  It will keep her fresher and on her toes.

Who is the student?

Been a busy several weeks!  Sinco and I had an awesome weekend going 6 for 6 and earning her MACH!  She and I have had some awesome runs lately and some runs that made me stop and scratch my head wondering what happened out there.  Lately she is pushing me out of my comfort zone both in training and trialing.  I really like to be quiet when I am running and rely on my dogs to follow my body language unless I need to send them out for distance then I will use more verbal cues.  Well it seems that Sinco is forcing me to use my voice more than I like.  We have been working on tighter sequences and more going past obstacles so there I need to use my voice so it makes sense that I will need to use my voice more on the more open courses too. 

Feisty is close behind Sinco in their runs for their MACHs and she earned her 19th double Q last weekend on the same day Sinco earned her 20th.  However Feisty is always making me think about our training, communication and relationship.  We have been doing a lot of AKC agility these past few months, more than I usually do at a time.  Three trials ago I rewarded her for doing the table in a standard.  She missed the weave entry on the standard run and it was the fourth obstacle and so I decided to use it to reward her for getting on the table right away.  She got on it right away and went down immediately.  I praised her and we left the ring immediately after the table and gave her lots of treats as soon as we got out of the ring.  This is my "make lemonade" out of the NQ runs.

I have always felt that it is important to make runs short whenever I know for sure I have NQ'd on a run - I either want to reward the dog with a shorter course, find something that I want to try in terms of handling that I might not do if I had an important Q on the line, or find a great obstacle performance to reward by leaving right after the obstacle.  It is easiest to do these things when an NQ has happened.  I have been known when I have something I need to improve on in a trial environment to forget the Q and leave after a great obstacle performance to a "chicken party" aka a jackpot for the dog. 

I feel this helps dogs by introducing random reinforcement to the trial setting.  Too often dogs who are not intrinsically turned on to agility count the number of obstacles and they know when they are close to #20 on the course and will get faster to the end because it is closer to the reward.  Also very often dogs will not perform as well in the trial environment as they do in training/class.  One of the reasons is that we tend to not reward the good behavior the same way we reward it in class.  For most dogs going on to the next obstacle is NOT a reward.  For dogs who do find agility intrinsically rewarding I don't let the next obstacle be a reward because if that next obstacle ends up being a knocked bar, missed weave or missed contact then it is not really a reward.  I want the best rewards to come from me and not from the agility course.  Doing agility is the secondary reinforcer for some dogs but NOT for MOST dogs out there.  Many dogs do agility because we want them to do it and they want to make us happy.  It is our job to make agility fun in and of itself and that can be a lot of work for many of us and our dogs.

So with Feisty I reinforced her table three trials ago after she NQ'd.  I thought that would fill up the table bank account again as I never take her table performances for granted.  I worked for almost a year to get her to do the table in a trial.  Well the next weekend after I had filled the table bank account, on our first standard run a male judge moved in on her as she approached the table and she squirted out past the table and turned to face him and me and then got on the table - a refusal...  I left immediately to a reward - hey she got on it in spite of being concerned about the male judge who was in her space (in her opinion).  I couldn't see any other learning opportunities on the course after that.  The next day we had a female judge but she stopped right in front of the table and peered over it and then hopped on.  It was near the end of the course and it was all jumps and tunnels remaining so we finished the course and had rewards.  So clearly the table problem was starting to return.  The third day at this trial was a meltdown on the standard run because a camera was clicking at her (in spite of my request to not do so).  So we aborted the run when she froze in fear in the middle of the ring.  We never got to the table. Then there was last weekend.  She had a fabulous double Q run on Friday and I was hopeful we were back on track.  But alas on day two of this trial she paused before getting on the table and incurred a refusal.  The judge was female and nowhere near her. 

As I always do I start to reflect on what may be causing the table problem to return.  One table refusal here and there has not worried me but now it is starting to look like a pattern.  One thing that has occurred to me is that when the male judge (even though he was softspoken and average in stature) encroached on her the weekend before she may have had a flashback to a couple of years ago when the large loud male judge startled her on the table with his booming table count.  Feisty doesn't forget anything.  Flashbacks can be scary.

So on day three of the trial this past weekend the table was in the corner of the room and the judge far away and no ring stewards in sight.  Feisty was running great - through a lot of the hard spots on the course, we were 3/4 of the way toward our 20th double Q.  It was weaves that pointed at the table but the course had a jump 90 degrees off of the weaves and then back to the table.  Well in spite of my front cross at the exit of the poles, Feisty squirted out of the weaves and headed to the table!  I managed to call her back and get her over the jump - it was a really awkward move as she somehow went behind me to the jump and then I sent her to the table.  She strolled past the back of the table by about an inch and then got on.  The crowd groaned as did I internally.  A table refusal had occurred.  So I left the ring and I didn't reward her but I picked her up and teased her a bit.  I suspect that calling her off of the table didn't sit well with her so she wasn't sure she wanted to get on the table when I asked her to do so.  I normaly don't attribute such thinking to dogs however this is Feisty.  Her training has been about making it seem like it is her idea to do things.  She is not easily convinced to do things she doesn't want to do.  Fortunately she loves to be busy and loves to do things so it is easy for her want to do things.  I usually try hard not to call her off of obstacles and probably if it hadn't been the blasted 20th double Q on the line I would have been happy that she was heading to the table after having had 3 NQs from table faults.   I let a possible Q affect me as a trainer and I was the bad dog trainer and Feisty was going to make sure I learned that lesson the hard way!!!

So once again Feisty is the teacher and I am her ever humble student!

Mental Block Revealed

For three years Feisty has been in Elite Chances and for over two years Sinco has been Elite Chances in NADAC.  For the first time I have had a "block" on qualifying in a specific class with multiple dogs.  Going into the trial this weekend Sinco had 2 Qs and Feisty had 1 Q in Elite Chances.  I have been training all of my dogs distance skills from the time they are puppies.  Both dogs have earned many Gamblers legs in ASCA and USDAA.  I have earned many NATCHes with multiple dogs back when NADAC had the Gamblers class. 

So when Susan Perry was here I told her that I needed help figuring out why I was having so much trouble with this class.  We worked on some challenging distance sequences on Friday with both dogs in the seminar.  I was really pleased at how well both dogs did and I found a couple of things I was having a tendency to do - like moving too fast as if I was runnning with them instead of going slower when they were at a distance.  After Friday's session I felt very confident going into the trial.

On Saturday morning I handle the Elite Regular courses from significant distance. One of the courses had a "bonus box" in it and I handled quite a bit of the course from that box with both dogs.   I did a lot of distance with both dogs on both courses. 

On Saturday of the trial the Chances course felt very doable to me.  I had a plan.   I ran Sinco first and somehow I thought I had cued the rear cross flip out to the jump in a timely manner but she kept going straight ahead into an off course tunnel.  I ran Feisty and she was amazingly thoughtful and smooth and she did the course perfectly to earn her second Elite Chances Q!

I ran jumpers and handled the jumpers courses with a lot of distance 40 plus feet with both dogs and they both qualified which was really a rush!

On Sunday morning I did some distance on one round of regular and ran with the dogs in order to work on Feisty's dog walk on one run and to help keep Sinco motivated I ran with her on one of the regular rounds.

On Sunday the Chances course felt even more doable than Saturday's.  I had a plan.  I was going to be far from the line.  I ran Feisty first and she did the distance part beautifully like clockwork and then I did a front cross and came out of it blocking the aframe which is what she was supposed to take and she went into the tunnel under the aframe for an off course.  Then I ran Sinco and I somehow didn't support the "out" jump enough and she came in to me.  I was pretty upset with myself after both of those runs.  It occurred to me pretty quickly that I am mentally sabotaging myself in this class for some reason.

I ran Tunnelers and handled it with a lot of distance with Sinco and she qualified.  I did the Jumpers course from about 20 feet from the bonus line and she qualified.  I feel as though my dogs and I have distance skills.

I feel strongly that with good quality training that is consistent with strong foundation skills in handling and distance that dogs and handlers can compete in any organization they want to do.  If I have a dog with strong obstacle focus and weaker handler focus I spend most of my training time working on the handler focus.  I would be careful to not keep a dog like that in Novice very long so the dog is having to run more complex courses where they face choices in obstacles.  If I have a very handler focused dog then I would work more on distance and increasing obstacle focus and I might keep them in novice longer to develop confidence and distance.  I am always working on maintaining a balance between handler and obstacle focus. 

Therefore my dogs and my student's dogs can go from Teacup trials one weekend where spacing between obstacles is 8-12 feet to a NADAC trial the next weekend where spacing is 20 feet between obstacles to an AKC and/or USDAA trial the next weekend which is in between the two for spacing.  I do think it requires more training to have a dog who can compete in different organizations which have different niches in the market.  It is a challenge I enjoy.  I do have one small dog who does not enjoy Teacup courses and has made that very clear so she doesn't have to run in it very much.  I have another dog who stresses too much at AKC trials so she doesn't have to them for now.  So I do look at what my dogs seem to enjoy doing and will respect that.  I personally enjoy doing all of it and I enjoy the different training and handling challenges presented by each organization. 

So now that I have realized I have a mental block in one class in one organization I am determined to work on it.  I'm grateful Kathy Keats will be here soon with her Inner Power Seminar to hopefully help me overcome this particular mental block I have.

Hit me with the 2 x 4... or I hate the AKC "Double Q" syndrome

Lesson 1: Sinco

Ok so at Saturday's AKC trial I had qualified with Sinco in our first run in Standard - it was a lovely run.  The Jumpers with Weaves course had a section that was going to be particularly challenging for us (and for many others...).  I ran Feisty first and had messed up the section when I came out of my front cross completely not where I thought I would be and I lost track of the course so we left the course early and I never let Feisty know something was wrong.  When I ran Sinco on that course I got to the section in question which involved an offset line of jumps with a 180 degree turn from a jump into the weaves with an off course jump set 90 degrees out from the jump before the weaves.  It was difficult to get there with a fast dog without doing a rear cross.  So I rear crossed and tried to pull Sinco into the weaves.  She went wide heading to the off course jump.  I called her and even clapped - I never do that on course with her.  She came to me but missed the weave entry.  I let it go and finished the course.  I knew immediately that I had shut her down and began to ponder what I should have done differently. 

Well she is a fast dog but she is a sensitive dog and I have always vowed to let her go off course if I make a mistake and can't be clear to her.  Well that time I didn't and I did a "call off" which I abhor.  It shut her down and I felt horrible about it.  Yes she needs to be able to recover better but really it is just another course and it really is not worth shutting my dog down in order to get a Q.  The last thing I want to do is cause her to slow down and worry any more than she already does about making mistakes.  She is very fast and that is due to a lot of work to build her confidence. 

As a young dog just starting to trial she would go into stress zoomies and search for any friendly face if I even thought a mistake had been made by either one of us!  I had to work hard to always pretend as if everything was going along well.  It took a long time to get her confident enough to pull her off a start line when she broke a stay or to take her off for launching a contact.  She so rarely does either because she wants to be right.  In fact she will ask "are you sure" at the start line more often than break. 

What I should have done the second she started to come toward the weaves was praise her with "Yes!  Good girl!" instead of telling her to weave in an emphatic tone!  Out comes the 2 x 4 for me!  If I hadn't had a "double Q" on the line it would have been easier for me to let her go off course and tell myself how I should have handled it better.

Sinco also reminded me that I need to be very careful with her physical well being. She loves agility and working but she is so rarely sore that when she is the least bit sore it distracts her. I've learned to notice that if she doesn't bark before we go in the ring, doesn't bark on course, takes unexplained off courses (probably to avoid turning in a direction that hurts) and can't do the weaves that she is sore. This happened on our first run on Friday and sure enough after the run I found a muscle that was spasming. I was able to massage it and loosen it up and she ran better in the second run. This was a hard lesson I learned at AKC Nationals when she was very sore there and she and I were so disconnected as a team because she was so distracted by her own body.  Very often this kind of distractedness is not properly related back to the dog's physical well-being when it should be.  Again a lesson relearned again to first check out the physical aspects of the dog when something is not going well in training and/or trialing.

My lesson was learned and applied and we had two beautiful clean runs on Sunday that were fast and smooth.  So that was good for both of us to end the weekend on very good high notes!  I needed a reminder that no Q is worth shutting my dog down to get it or running my dog when she is sore!

Lesson 2: Feisty

Friday at the AKC trial, w ran early in the day and it was hectic so I didn't have time to watch many runs before our turn.  On our first run which was standard the judge had to move a lot to be able to judge all three contacts - it was not the greatest course design from a judging perspective.  She was moving toward Feisty as she approached the teeter which caused Feisty to veer off toward me and I had to "herd" her on to the teeter.  Then the table was three obstacles later and Feisty got on the table at the far corner from the judge and was barely on it.  After that she ran well.  I was not sure how things had been judged and whether Feisty had veered off enough to have gotten a refusal on the teeter or not but she hadn't.  I have not had her veer off toward me like that in a very long time and it caught me by surprise.  She usually veers off completely away from me and the judge.  So this was a huge lesson to me to remember to watch the judge's path before we run.  Ideally in AKC if I can watch the judge's path before I walk the course then I can have a plan that is  hopefully ideal from both a handling perspective as well as manging the environment perspective.  AKC and USDAA and sometimes CPE judges are most likely to encroach on her. 

Whenever I feel a judge is encroaching on us I always say outloud to Feisty in hopes the judge will get the hint "It's OK Feisty - its just the judge - don't worry".  In this case I think it helped because in Jumpers with weaves the same judge was especially still for our run over by the weaves.  Feisty was very slow in the weaves as she went by the same judge and was licking her lips as she weaved which is a sign of stress.  She was concerned that the judge could walk toward her at any moment. She did earn a double Q under this judge which demonstrates how well she is doing recovering from a stressful experience with a judge.  Two years ago it would have set us back months in our training.

On Saturday Feisty stopped and sat in front of the table and then bounced on and off and then stayed on in the ring with the same encroaching judge who had encroached on us the day before.  I knew for sure she was concerned about the judge.  But she did get on the table and stay and it was near the end of the course so we could just run out and have a party anyway.   On Sunday she did well in standard with a different judge and qualified. So that was also huge recovery for her to get on the table perfectly with a different judge. She has come a long way!  She ran in Jumpers with Weaves with the judge who had bothered her and I watched the judge's path carefully before I walked the course.  I noticed that the judge would walk behind dogs while they were in the weaves and I noticed where she stood relative to a hard part of the course.  So I stayed close to Feisty in the weaves and reminder her to weave - she slowed down at pole 10 and started to sniff but I was there to remind her to weave and she did.  I know she felt the presence of that judge walking up behind us in the poles.  After that she sped up but she was not as speedy as she can be so I know she was watching the judge.  I stayed close to her in spots where I knew the judge would put pressure on  her and she may feel it.  We earned a Q on that run and she doubled Q'd too.  I feel that she did well on that course in part because her recovery skills and coping skills are improving all the time in dealing with stressful ring situations and because I paid close attention to things that might bother her so I was there to support her at those points on the course.

While I would like to be able to handle Feisty as if there were no issues I know that it is in her best interests if I handle the course in a way that supports her.  What I won't do is handling moves that she is not used to me doing just to try to avoid an environmental/judge issue.  I will always only use handling techniques that she is comfortable with because that will also build her confidence. 

So I had the hard reminder this weekend that I must do what is best for my dogs regardless of the Q on the line - it is about the journey, it is about the progress we continue to make and it is about having fun doing it!  Feisty is proof that patience does pay off and attention to details is very important in trialing and training.  Also she has taught me that it is not always the most obvious thing that is the stressor.  What is stressful for one dog may not be stressful for another. 

Training Sessions

I am frequently asked by students how long a training session should be, what does a training session look like, how often should I train etc. 

My answer is almost always "it depends".  My general guidelines are that a training session with a puppy/young dog should be about 5 minutes for one exercise.  This may or may not include your set-up time for the exercise.  I don't let my puppy run amok when I'm setting up.  it is a good time to practice being tied up or crated or staying on a mat while I set-up.   While this may seem like hardly any time if you sent a timer for 5 minutes you will be amazed at how much you can do in that amount of time. 

With a puppy/young dog shorter sessions fit well with their shorter attention spans.  You don't want to go past what their brain capacity can handle.  Some puppies may even need a 2 minute limit for a training session if they are easily distracted.  The last thing I want to do with any dog is over-face them or stress them in a training session especially when teaching something new.

With Carmine I try to do a minimum of two 5 minute sessions each weekday.  If I get a third one in on a day we are doing really well.  On the weekends I may get one session in if I'm lucky when I'm away at a trial.  If we are on the road then we do a lot of "life training" where we work on walking around distractions and new sights and smells and that is the main focus of our training.

I have a couple of exercises that I like to take with me to new places because I don't need any equipment and they are about focus, control and drive.  The one is the game I call "Ready 1-2-3" which is about focus, self control and drive when called.  I can do the game anywhere and I can do it with the leash attached if I feel I need to do so. 

The other exercises I do with my puppy/young dog in different places for quick on the fly training sessions are to work on fast sits, fast downs and fast releases to a toy.  Lastly I try to continually work on loose leash walking wherever we go and I work on not losing their mind around people and dog activity.

When I go to agility trials with my puppies I do not want them erupting outside the agility ring.  I have seen over and over again that there is no correlation between dogs who are reactive to the motion of dogs and people and their success/drive in the agility ring.  Often fast, high drive dogs are the ones more likely to have high prey drive and demonstrate that outside the ring.  I have seen many dogs be reactive to dogs running agility and then have a low interest in doing agility themselves.  It is prey drive that is activitated when they see a dog running so all they may want to do is chase that dog.  Some dogs do get excited to have their turn out there once they understand the game but in the beginning the puppies don't know what the game is and all they see is a dog running.  Having adrenaline levels amped up before an agility run often correlates to low productive brain function inside the agility ring.  My personal experience with my own dogs, student dogs and friends dogs has showed this to be the case time and time again.  So I work on teaching my dogs how to function well outside an agility ring so that they do not "lose their minds."  Keeping a dog below "threshhold" for adrenaline levels is very important.  Once a dog goes "over the top" they need to be removed from the situation to get the excitement level back down.  It won't go down on its own by staying in the environment.  If the adrenaline level did go "over the top" studies have shown it can take up to TWO weeks away from stimulation for levels to return to normal.  If  dog is continually and habitually in that environment they run the risk of becoming addicted to the adrenaline rush and will be more difficult to train.  I've had a dog who was what I called an "adrenaline junkie" and while he was fast in agility he often lost his mind and could not be thoughtful on course and therefore had trouble collecting, had trouble maintaining contact criteria and stays at the start line.  So I work hard to teach my puppies early on how to behave around dogs in motion.  It is the number one thing and until I have focus around motion.  This has to be the highest priority in training if you want to have a performance dog.  The agility training is far easier and can be done any time but working on self control around dogs in motion is much harder for many dogs and handlers.

In terms of being a good dog person, having a dog outside the ring barking at dogs running agility is also inconsiderate to the dog running.  It produces an intimidating environment for the dog running agility or it can provoke a dog who is running to go after the barking dog for staring at them.  So there are many reasons having a dog overly aroused around agility is inappropriate behavior. 

So I like to take my dogs around distractions early on as puppies so I can see how they can function and start to build on their focus.  In the beginning it may only be a few seconds and gradually - over months - work up to minutes of focus around distractions.  Every dog will work at its own pace.  Since my dogs don't usually get to group classes I have to be more creative in setting up distractions for my dogs.  Generally group classes provide a lot of distraction for young dogs which is why it is a hard place to train new things to a young dog.  When I have a puppy/young dog who is easily distracted by their environment I do make a point of enrolling them in group classes so they will have more exposure to those distractions and that is the main focus of my training in those classes. I make sure my dog is not going to be disruptive in a group class - then it would be too much for my dog and the other dogs.  But if I just need to do short training sessions with the distractions and the dog just needs to learn more focus then it is fine.

Again short training sessions - less is more is the key to quality dog training!  My dogs don't get a lot of time in training but they get short high quality training sessions focused on only one or two skills.

 

Enjoy training your dog! 

Different dogs, different training, different handling...

The universe continues to send me different types of dogs for my own personal training experiences so I can learn and presumably use that knowledge to help others (at least I think that is what is supposed to happen!)

This past weekend I ran Tay in  a NADAC trial in all the runs for the first time in close to two years.  She has been one of my interesting training and trialing challenges for me.  Now that she is not in pain when running she is less stressed and not avoiding obstacles as much as she was before I found out about her injury.  In training she is fast and brilliant.  She rarely makes a mistake or misses a body language cue.  She loves agility and any kind of training as long as food and running are involved.  Training her is so easy because she catches on to things quickly for agility purposes.  However trialing her is very different.  She is a very different dog in a trial setting.  She absolutely can not do a stay at the start line in a trial.  I've tried pulling her off for breaking it and it doesn't get through to her.  She is so high at a trial that she can't put that together.  By the end of a three day weekend she was tired enough that I could do very short sit stays with her on the last couple of runs.  At a trial she does not seem to pay any attention to my body language.  I really want to run quietly with my dogs and I train that way.  However there are times when I have had to be louder than I like on occasion.  With Tay it seems like I need to be loud and extremely vocal with her during the entire run.  This takes me way out of my comfort zone.  I also need to sound threatening to her in order to get her to do her contacts correctly.  I think she gets very excited and then becomes easily distracted.  She often seems to be scanning the outside of the ring when she is running.  Some of her photos show the whites of her eyes like she is very excited out there.  She really wants to play but there are times when she starts to sniff that I know she and I are not connected and she is worried - I think she loses focus and then needs me to help her get back on track.  Anyway she requires more micro managing on a course than I am used to doing.  At the trial some folks said maybe I should just train her and not trial her.  I thought about that but when you see how much she wants to run and she was trying hard to do her dogwalk contacts at the trial.  It is the first trial where she actually did her dogwalk with a 2 on 2 off (sometimes sloppily) and she stayed on course more than she has in a long time.  While she is a lot of work to keep on course I do think she is enjoying it and she is fast enough to make time in elite jumpers even when we had to fix a jump - that is pretty fast!  Everyone who watches her thinks she looks like she is having fun out there.

So once again I am adapting my handling style and techniques to the dog in order for us to be successful teammates.