Agile Canines!

On Making Lemonade

2012-01-24T00:14:00.002-06:00

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

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

I really believe because I’ve allowed myself to take chanceswhen there wasn’t a Q on the line in the past, I was able to take thosehandling risks this weekend with a Q on the line. I did things I’vetrained a lot – like wrapping my dog around the last weave pole for a nicetight turn on Saturday’s Standard course and leaving both dogs on the teeterand running out ahead to show them the straight line over the last twojumps. This weekend there were lots of opportunities to do tight rearcrosses into weave poles. Again this is something that I’ve trained a lotand have set up in classes so I feel confident in this skill. I was veryglad to have that skill this past weekend with both dogs because it made itmuch easier to do the courses. This is also something I will work on whenI 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 ranreally fast the rest of the course and handled the last several obstacles at adistance and layered jumps which was really fun to do and she did it beautifullyand it actually worked very well and better than it did for most people who ranwith their dogs closer to the obstacles. Now I know if she is runningreally fast I can trust her distance skills. There was another run twoweekends ago where she NQ’d on the third obstacle with an off course and I leftthe ring and still rewarded her. I didn’t think there was anything on thecourse I really wanted to try, I didn’t want to risk mental or physical injuryto her and I decided the best reward would be to reward her for a shortcourse. She had been slow off the start line lately so this mighthelp. It has… she has been faster off the start line ever since.

So the lemonade is tasting really good these days and I can’thelp but feel like it is paying off with both dogs but most especially withFeisty. This past weekend she double Q’d on Saturday AND she took 1^stplace in both classes with smoking fast runs! On Sunday she had anothersuper fast standard run and was only .10 behind first place. This from adog who until the last few months NEVER placed at all and often just lopedthrough the course. I knew she was really fast in training and with goodtraining in trial settings I am seeing her run fast at trials. Not onlyis she running faster at trials but I’m starting to see it in more runs on aweekend. It started last Fall where maybe 1 in 10 runs she would run asfast as I knew she could. The last few trials I’ve seen it more like 3-4runs in 10. So I see this as huge progress and I truly believe carefulhandling of her trialing experiences have contributed to her increase in speedat trials and her improved attitude. The other exciting thing is that forthe last 2 weekends and 6 runs at AKC trials Feisty has WANTED to play tugBEFORE every run! This is huge because for her it means she feelscomfortable in the environment. I have not been able to get her to playat an AKC trial for years. I play with her only 1-2 dogs before wego so it raises her energy level and gets her revved up and yet not stressed soshe is ready to go. I think it is also helping her to come off the startline faster.

So this is another way you can “train in the ring” at anytrial without violating anyone’s rules. If it helps to have a plan of “ifthis then this” I recommend it. It takes practice to be able to thinkquickly on your feet to decide what to do. I also trust my intuition andgo 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 beefflavored please and Sinco who would like it any flavor other than lemon…

Reflections on ring stress and dog mental management

2012-01-15T21:00:00.002-06:00

I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on where I’ve been withFeisty and with my other dogs over the last month as the reality of earning aMACH with Feisty was getting closer. I have also been doing somereflecting on what it was about her that kept me going in training her. Icertainly won’t judge anyone for why they stop working with any dog. Ihave had dogs with serious issues in the past that I wasn’t able to makeprogress on after working with them for a long time. So please don’tjudge 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 notevery dog is cut out to do agility. One of the things to really keep inmind is that when it comes to dog agility – it is a tough performance sportthat requires the dog to have athletic ability, mental focus, and mental andphysical stamina. Not all dogs (just as not all people) possess thesequalities. The dogs who do well in this sport have to have a desire to dothings and the ability to focus on these tasks.

Why did I decide not to give up on her? I also trainher in obedience and have since she was a pup. She loves obedience and Idid proofing in obedience before I did in agility with her and she lovesit. She loves solving the problem and she gets so excited with herselfwhen she works through difficult things. So it was knowing this about herthat made me think I could help her work through the distractions and stressorsof 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 botheredFeisty. I also knew that it was agility related because she was anawesome 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 onit. Not everyone has these things. It cannot be done once a week ina 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 obstacleperformance is reliable. There is a lot to do – I know this because I’moften overwhelmed by how much I have yet to train my 18 month old puppy to doand she gets trained several times a week! It is hard to focus on allthese at once so it is best to pick one thing per training session. Forexample you cannot focus on both handling skills AND proofing obstacleperformance at the same time. Just as you can’t focus on teaching asingle obstacle performance at the same time you are also trying to complete anentire sequence of obstacles. You have to pick one thing to focus on per1-2 minute training session.

I did spend some time trying to do stress reducing thingsfor her and honestly they were not as effective as going the other way andbuilding her confidence under stressful conditions. Some of the thingsfrom the Kathy Keats seminar have helped me to have a better understanding ofwhat we as people experience with performance stress and I do think it isanalogous to what many dogs experience. What I decided to do with Feistywas to make a concerted and systematic effort to build her confidence ratherthan try to reduce her stress. What do I mean by that?

Well I knew that she (and many dogs and many Pyr Sheps inparticular) would be very sensitive to her environment when trialing. Sowhen she was about 2 years old I put her in classes around the Twin Citieswhere I knew there would be different equipment, different instructors(different genders, sizes, voices etc.), many loud dogs and different runningsurfaces. I did it purely for getting Feisty used to working in differentenvironments and I never worried about handling. For the first few weekswe did very short sequences with high rate of rewards. Gradually sheworked up to being able to do longer sequences in these different places. Then over a period of several months she could do sequences with differentpeople running alongside the dogwalk, crowding the table, crowding the startline area and being ring crew. She didn’t demonstrate her stress at thesethings in obvious ways but I could tell. People would often wonder how orwhy I thought she was stressed but she would go really fast around something ortake 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 herstressors. She would get more and more confident all the time.

When I started trialing her she didn’t like tunnels shehadn’t been in – she shut down in Tunnelers the first time I ran her init. Then she avoided teeters she didn’t know and she would stop and sniffthem and walk around the base of it and then she would get on it. Sheknew a teeter she’d been on even if it was in a different location (like theMAC equipment that is rented out). She knew a different teeter in afamiliar 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 basethan at the top. Now she can go out of town to a place she has never beenand get on any piece of equipment. It is interesting that she has notever had a table problem in USDAA but there the table is higher and so she maynot have associated the taller table with what had happened to her on theshorter table in AKC. She has attention to detail and I swear she has anotebook somewhere in the house with her name on it and all thisinformation.

While I was working on this I was also training her onobstacles to the point where she had above average skills on theobstacles. She had to do weaves past toys, fluff, treats, bonesetc. She had to do lots of difficult weave entrances and she had to doweaves at a distance and with me right next to her. She had to do weaveswith a tunnel 1 foot from the end of the poles. As a result she justloves weave poles. I also did a lot with her running aframes anddogwalks. I went to ASCA trials and had friends stand at either end ofthe dogwalk with the assignment to cheer if she got the contact (I couldn’twait 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 isnow. I also traveled to work with Dana Pike several times for helptraining her contacts and to work her in yet another different place.

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

Then we did AKC. I still recall the first time she ranin Open AKC and she stopped in her tracks in the middle of the Weaves and I gother back and we ran out of the ring. I knew I needed to keep working onher weaves and proofing her obstacles. I started for awhile in AKC doingshort courses and avoiding hard obstacles and doing Jumpers with Weaves alot. Many an AKC judge and exhibitor scratched their heads as I ran outof the ring early with a big smile and we had a “beef party” for doing ¼ to 1/3of the course. There were the times when she wouldn’t get off the startline – probably because the judge and the ring crew were stressed. Ifthere were any loud voices or arguments around the ring gate she would not runor she’d run slowly. So I kept working on things. Then she was inExcellent Standard at Soccer Blast and she was on the table, the judge, a tallloud man was saying the table count. Feisty stared at him and would notget off the table. After a lot of coaxing I got her off the table andthen she noticed Amy on the floor and shied away from her and then I could seeher scanning the entire ring noticing that there were people everywhere. Thatwas the beginning of our table problem. It was also the beginning of herdislike of male judges. When that same man was judging Jumpers withWeaves the next day she was on the start line. I saw her stare at himwhile he stood in the middle of the ring. I lead out. When Ireleased her she tried to run out of the ring. I got her to do the lastjump as we left and I knew exactly what had happened. On the third day Ionly 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 freezeand not do the table I stopped showing her in Excellent standard for many manymonths – close to a year. I enrolled her in another training school’sclass where I knew there were male students and I worked on majorproofing. It was fascinating – at that point inside the agility ring sherefused treats from everyone. Outside the agility ring she would taketreats from those same people. After a number of months she went fromworking though having people stand in normal places where judges and ring crewstand to running the aframe with someone laying on the aframe, getting on thetable with three people sitting on it and doing the dogwalk with 7 peoplehovering on the down contact (and she got the contact!). It took a lot ofwork and that is all I focused on every week at these classes. Fortunately these other students were friends and acquaintances of mine andthey understand how I wanted to use my time on the course. I didn’t workon handling in trial or group classes – just proofing. It was allconsuming. I worked on handling in places where it was quiet and she wascomfortable. I could do this because I had a way to do training on my owntime.

Meanwhile I just did NADAC and CPE with her where she wasgetting faster and faster running those courses and building her confidence intrial settings. When I entered her in Excellent Standard she started torun cleanly – not as fast as I knew she could but she was runningcleanly. 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 willrefuse the table – as recently as Dec. 4^th. In November 2010 Idiscovered that I had caused her to be afraid of camera clicks. Shetotally shut down at a trial in St. Louis and would not take the first jumpbecause a photographer was taking her picture. It took the whole day forme to isolate the cause of her fear. I won’t go into details but this hasbeen another hurdle for us and it is a very difficult one that is still a workin progress. I have been able to get her within about 30 feet of a camera clickwith treats and tricks. She can’t yet do agility within 30 feet of acamera 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 acourse to memory so it is second nature to remember the course which thenallows more of the brain’s power to be able to focus on handling and thedog. I hadn’t really thought about that because I’ve not ever had aproblem 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 rememberthe course and now you can focus more on your handling and your dog which isgreat. Well I’ve always known that proofing dogs performance makes itbetter – faster, more accurate etc. One of the reasons is that theydevelop better focus on the tasks but I also now believe that the dogs who havestrong skills of obstacle performance are better able to work with distractionsbecause they are thinking less about how to perform the obstacle – it is moreautomatic for them. I see this in Feisty. Today in the Jumpers withWeaves class the judge was close to the exit of the weave poles. Feistywas flying until she turned into the weaves. She can have very fastweaves. She slowed down but stayed in the poles. She was able tomaintain accuracy in the poles because she has had such extensive training thatshe doesn’t need as much brain power to weave but the pressure/stressor of thejudge there caused her to slow down. Once out of the weaves she sped upagain. Now I could have taken it as having a slow weave pole problem butwhen I looked at the big picture and friends pointed out to me where the judgewas it all made sense. She was actually being a VERY GOOD GIRL!!! When she first started in agility she would have avoided the weaves alltogether. On the standard runs I do pay close attention to where thejudge 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 thering as she was today. Feisty has been known to veer away from a judgewho is walking toward her as she is approaching an obstacle – especially a malejudge. So I know I need to keep working on this but I pay close attentionto the judge’s path before I run her.

It is a result of this that I have introduced more and moreproofing exercises into my Monday and Thursday night beginners classes. I’ve always done some but I have definitely increased it as I’ve becomemore and more aware of how much this can really help to boost a dog’sconfidence in obstacle performance. I also do this in the Weaves andContacts special classes. Providing more distractions in training thanthe dog will see in trial and having the dog work through it builds confidencewhich in turn increases speed and accuracy. Many of you have seen yourdog get faster in the weaves working with distractions. It is much easierto do this on shorter sequences and on specific obstacles that we have in thebeginner classes and I like to do it early on in training the dog before doinglonger courses. It is impossible to focus on handling skills andproofing performance at the same time. When I have a free Friday night Iplan to offer more classes on proofing of obstacle performance for those whoneed/want more work in this area.

It will be awhile before I have a free Friday because atthis point I am focusing a lot on trialing in AKC between now and the end ofJune. Feisty is currently the #2 Pyr Shep AND Sinco is currently the #5 Aussieso they are both on track to qualify for the AKC Agility Invitational in December2012. This is something I’m very proud of and really want to strive toaccomplish. Therefore I may not be able to offer as many Friday classesas I usually do this winter and spring because I will be traveling out of townfor many of the trials.

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

Who is the student?

2011-12-09T22:56:00.001-06:00

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

2011-10-31T23:11:00.000-05:00

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

2011-08-22T00:20:00.000-05:00

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

2011-08-02T10:39:00.000-05:00

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...

2011-07-11T10:13:00.000-05:00

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.

Chances - more than just a chance!

2011-05-29T20:16:00.000-05:00

It has been hard for me to handle (no pun intended!) my abysmal Q rate in Elite Chances since December 2008 when I moved Feisty up to Elite. I have had 16 NQs (at least that many that I recorded). That was hard for me to take given that I teach and train distance from the time they are puppies, I have a lot of experience handling distance type classes and Feisty prefers to work away from me and loves NADAC courses. So why was this class so challenging for me?

For awhile I chalked it up to Feisty's quirks. The first quirk was that she literally would balk at the gamble line. I was able to recreate this in front of Susan Perry at one of her distance seminars. So I spent some time working with her and a line on the ground and just getting her to ignore it whether I was doing distance or not.

Then I moved Sinco up in April 2010 and we had 9 NQs with no Q and I was really feeling challenged. When the going gets tough for me in dog training I can get pretty tough.

I had made notes of why we NQ'd on most of the runs. It was never just one thing. It was either my late timing of cues, my poor body position, my dog's lack of training for a specific skill or my dog's lack of attention. So I decided to focus on the specific skills and started to focus my short training sessions with my dogs on improving their ability to turn away from me and find various obstacles, ability to comprehend directionals such as "right" and "left" at a distance. Their independent obstacle performance on weaves and contacts was pretty good. I did work on their ability to find hoops at a distance however.

My discouragement in my own inability to qualify in Elite Chances was so bad that when I decided I wanted to go to Championships this year I moved Feisty and Sinco back to Open so we could have a better shot at getting the two Chances Qs we would need and since we had 0 Elite Chances Qs. In one weekend both dogs earned two Open Chances Qs. This bolstered my confidence. After that I moved them both back to Elite and I went to Des Moines and Feisty came as close as she ever has to earning an Elite Chances Q and Sinco was wilder than I expected. The following weekend I was in Gillette WY for a NADAC judging clinic and funraiser. It really helped me to get some insight into the course design philosophy for Chances and to build some courses and discuss the tests and design. Then at the funraiser both Sinco and Feisty earned their first Elite Chances Qs. I was starting to feel like the training was paying off but I found myself paying closer attention to my handling and being more careful and thoughtful in my walking of the course.

This weekend Sinco earned her 2nd Elite Chances Q and it was a beautiful smooth run - I was where I was supposed to be and she was taking direction beautifully - she came in and went out and did a difficult discrimination at speed.

Now I don't pretend to think that we have it mastered but I do feel like I've made strides. I do think in analyzing this over the last few weeks the one thing that needed to happen for me is that I needed to remember that my dogs work distance well because I trained it. Sinco in particular is not a natural distance dog so she needs a lot of confidence to work away from me and she wants me to be perfect in my timing and position. Feisty is a natural distance dog but that gets in the way at times because she will lock on to obstacles and if I break through her desire to grab an obstacle it is often hard to recover because she comes off the line/course too much. So it adds a level of difficulty with her to keep her on course from the very beginning and not let her lock on to the incorrect obstacle.

I also have to remember that training versatile agility dogs requires that I have to work harder to maintain the different skills they have and to maintain a balance. This is one of the challenges I like in doing different forms of agility.

Now I'm looking forward to trying "EGC - Extreme Games Classes" tomorrow where there will be some different kinds of distance and handling challenges. I've taught my dogs distance using gates as youngsters so I will find out how much they remember about them! I am looking forward to another type of agility training challenge.

It is a good reminder that there are a lot of skills needed in agility and I need to remember to continually hone those skills and do tune ups on those that are most needed for a given type of agility.

Readiness...

2011-05-17T23:51:00.000-05:00

My puppy owners and students have been asking me a lot of questions such as "when should I start weaving?", "when should I start jumping?" and "when should I start... (fill in the blank)?" I've been giving this a lot of thought especially with so many puppies currently training at ACTS right now as well as my first litter of puppies approaching 12 months of age soon.

Puppies need to not only be physically ready for training - meaning growth plates have closed and there is an awareness of their body and how to use it ,but puppies also need to be mentally ready. This mental readiness is much harder to assess but it is so important to the training program. We often talk about how males mature more slowly than females mentally or about how this or that puppy seems to be more immature or mature than others its age. When it is something many of us can see - is there a way to really quantify this so we can have some measure of a puppy's mental readiness?

In my experience with my own puppies and my student's puppies it makes a huge difference if weave training is started when the puppy/young adult is mentally ready compared to starting it when they are still mentally immature. Weaving is a complex behavior involving a lot of mental and physical coordination. It doesn't matter which of the many training methods you use, if a dog is not mentally ready for weaving when it is started it can take an excruciatingly long time to train it to fluency and/or it can cause mental stress for the dog.

I first really noticed this phenomenon 4 years ago with Sinco. Generally I like to move dogs through weave training as quickly as they can handle it which is why it is important to be sure they are mentally ready. Sinco continued to show me that she was having trouble grasping the concepts. Tay who was the same age caught on to weaving very quickly and really seemed to enjoy it at an early age. Feisty also caught on to weaving quickly. I chose to be patient with Sinco and just try her on the weaves every couple of weeks throughout the summer. We were having to rework the teeter as well since she had a set-back on the teeter. One day Sinco went through the weaves with the guides I like to use without hesitation and with speed and I knew that she was getting it. It had paid off to not push her on it but to let her try it every couple of weeks just one time. I believe if I had done a lot of repetitions with her she would have thought too hard about it and stressed herself trying too hard to learn it.

Now I wish I could put my finger on what clued me into giving her more time to learn to weave while the other two dogs I had who were about the same age were able to handle learning to weave and progressed at brisk pace.

I do find that students who start agility training with older dogs have an easier time if and only if their dogs have been taught how to learn and how to make mistakes from a young age. The older dogs seem to have a mental readiness for learning complex behaviors that is missing in many young dogs. Now there are young dogs who are very mentally mature for their age (just as we see in people) and these dogs can be amazing at what they learn at young ages and in these cases we have to use the physical limitations to slow down the training process.

So some things I'm starting to look for in terms of mental readiness for learning complex behaviors and behavior chains (sequencing obstacles for example) include:

Ability to focus on learning new things for a few minutes at a time - continuously without getting distracted.

This may not seem like much but for those who have done two minute timed shaping sessions will realize that two minutes can be a long time and dogs can lose focus multiple times in that two minutes.

Ability to learn new things in a distracting and/or novel environment.

This is another indication of a dog's ability to focus on tasks which requires a degree of mental maturity.

Ability to learn new things that involve different parts of their bodies.

For example teaching them to lift both the left fore and left hind legs at the same time, teaching them to stand on cans/pedestals/pods with one foot on one item and the other foot on a different item (ultimately all four feet each standing on a different item).

Ability to exercise self-control amidst distractions.

This is a sign that they are able think about controlling themselves in the face of fun things like toys which requires a lot of mental energy. Doing stays with toys moving around them or food tossed on the ground for example. Dogs who mature early have an easier time with learning the concept of stay at a younger age than dogs who mature more slowly.

Mental readiness for weave training should be the biggest concern for agility trainers who are asking "when will my dog be ready to learn to weave?". I am familiar with a lot of different ways to train weaves and I know that not all methods work for all dogs and handlers - even the way I have had the most success using. Weave training can also highlight a trainer/handler's strengths and weaknesses as a trainer. If a trainer tends to want to "help" their dog solve problems rather than let them figure it out then this will show up in weave training . The desire to help the dog will inevitably cause weave training to be delayed. If a trainer is not able to work with their dog on a regular basis with weave training then this will also cause a delay in learning the weaves. The biggest pitfall I see - no matter what method is used whether it is 2 x 2, channel, guides or weav-a-matics is that people tend to stay too long at a particular stage in the training which causes delays and problems in the training. If a dog is mentally and physically ready for weave training then the training should be able to progress at a brisk pace. Often a dog is started on weave training that is not mentally or physically ready for the training and then training is delayed due to the dog's inability to grasp the complex concept. This can prove frustrating for everyone involved and this is hard to identify as the underlying cause for the difficulty in training. If you are unsure whether your dog is mentally ready for weave training then I recommend waiting.

It is also very important to allow dogs to make mistakes as they are learning weaves - if they are trying to go faster then let them be sloppy. If you put pressure on them to be accurate when trying to speed them up it can backfire by creating stress in the dog and then creating slow weaves. When training weave entrances in a sequence I always want to repeat the obstacle(s) before the weaves so the dog learns the entry on their own. I don't want to stop the dog and "fix it" for them or dogs will quickly learn that their handler will always "fix it" for them. In the first year of doing weaves the dogs will seem to come and go with their fluency for weaves so be prepared for this and have a plan for how to handle it when it happens. It is very important to be aware that physical soreness/pain can severely impact weave performance.

Once my dogs are proficient with weaves I rarely practice them. I feel that weaves are a physically demanding obstacle much like the aframe and therefore I minimize how much I practice them once my dogs are fluent with them. I have also learned that if weave performance decreases after they have demonstrated fluency that 99% of the time it is due to physical soreness and/or mental stress/fatigue and not due to the weaves themselves. Weave poles can bring out the best and worst in our dogs and our teamwork. If a dog is stressed on a course it almost always shows itself in the weave poles. If a dog is sore it almost always shows itself in the weave poles.

Photo by Great Dane Photos

Photo by Great Dane Photos

I am still amazed that we are able to train our dogs to weave at all - it is truly amazing!

When to trial?

2011-04-30T12:32:00.000-05:00

I have been having this discussion with my beginner students at class and via email. When to trial?

It is human nature if you have any competitive bone in your body to want to get out there and start competing and seeing what you've got compared to everyone else out there! Well at least get out there and start to feel like you've made progress toward a goal. Now I know not everyone wants to compete in front of a bunch of people, it can be a nerve wracking experience.

Nothing makes me happier and prouder as a teacher than to see my students succeeding at their goals with their dogs. For some it is being able to run the course in class flawlessly the first time and for others it is to earn a qualifying score at a trial and for still others it is earning an agility championship title on their dog. My goal as a teacher and a coach is to help students realize their goals/dreams, whatever they may be. I train everyone as if they were going to compete because that will help ensure success in whatever they want to do with agility.

I really want my students to succeed when they first start trialing, especially with their first agility dog. However many of us tend to get in a hurry with our first agility dog and we all tend to enter trials earlier than maybe we should have done with our first dog. I have had only a handful of students who wanted to compete and had to be poked and prodded into entering their first trial. I rarely need to do that. In fact some students ask me to be a gate keeper for them to help them wait until I feel they are ready. Sometimes I have had to push hard on that gate to keep it closed! I try to keep the best interests of the team in mind and the last thing I want is to overface a dog and handler.

Too often I see dogs and handlers in the novice class at a trial who are not ready to be there. I often feel sorry for the dog because the dog is often confused and stressed in the situation and the handler is unsure how to cope with it. Or the other extreme is the dog is so driven to be out there doing agility that the handler is left in the dust and not sure what to do with this very fast dog who has broken a start line, launched off a contact and is running past weave poles.

Before entering a trial I feel that students should have the following skills:

1. Be able to perform courses that are more difficult than novice courses and know how to handle the sequences on their own without outside assistance.
2. Be able to keep the dog focused on agility both in class and at run thrus/open ring time in different places.
3. Have a strategy for maintaining criteria on start line stays, contacts, weaves, jumps and general attitude for a trial setting and have practiced executing this strategy.
4. Have implemented a program to transition from training to trialing that involves random reinforcement on course, concealing toy and food rewards in training and introduced a verbal reward marker that can be used in agility trials.

I have found when students are able to do all of these things they have a very easy time at the novice level in trials and will quickly move to the upper levels if they choose to do so.

I also feel strongly that regardless of the organization's rules that teams should be running novice courses cleanly (no refusals/runouts or off courses) before moving up to the next level. This will help reduce the "brick wall" effect that happens as the qualifying criteria increases in the upper levels.

Building drive and building self control

2011-03-24T12:01:00.000-05:00

These are not mutually exclusive concepts. Having a lot of young dogs in class right now I am thinking a lot about which dogs need more drive building, which dogs need more self control and which handlers need more drive building and which handlers need more self control (to slow down their training goals). I frequently get questions about concern about whether a puppy has enough drive or enough control.

I know from experience it is much easier to train a dog to do agility slowly than it is train it to go fast and I am very careful to monitor every step in a student's training to ensure that speed is being encouraged and reinforced. Some dogs are naturally speedy and so much so that they are not really thinking but just going. Dogs need to be able to think and that usually means go slowly to learn something.  Most of us did not go fast the first time riding a bike, driving a car, walking or any sport or physical activity. We need to go slowly to process new information. As we get confident we get faster, especially with encouragement. Even doing this it is still hard sometimes for newer students to be able to encourage speed in their dogs. There is a small percentage of dogs who naturally want to do everything fast and are very reactive to motion and these dogs need more self control training.

Some of the things I want to see early on in a young dog's training long before agility equipment is introduced is that they can send away from the handler to a target and a toy with speed. If there is no speed here it will be even harder to get them to send to a jump with speed. If the dog learns to go ahead of the handler with speed then it will be much easier to get speed in agility as well as to get distance. I also want dogs who are thinking. Thinking dogs are much better at problem solving, much better at generalizing to different types of equipment and to different environments, much better and body awareness and have an easier time of having sustained focus. If we are always luring (not that all luring is bad mind you), always showing them what we want and not ever letting them learn on their own and make mistakes then we will have dogs who are very dependent on their handlers to be able to do obstacles. This lack of independent thinking makes training independent obstacle performance and distance very difficult. Dogs need to be willing to go out and make mistakes in order to do well with distance in agility.

Using shaping to teach various tricks that use their bodies differently, that involve making noise, that cause movement of objects and that are complex can make agility training so much easier.

The things I want to see in my own dog and in my student's dogs before we introduce obstacle training (aka what is taught in our sports foundations classes - pre-agility foundations)

1. Student and dog's ability to learn new behaviors with shaping including tricks that make noise and/or use various body parts - especially rear legs.
2. Ability to send to a mat, target and a toy with speed.
3. Self control - demonstrated in numerous ways with various games we play in pre-agility foundations classes.
4. Dog is comfortable walking on different surfaces including ones that move.
5. Student understands dog management skills and can use them effectively.
6. Student is working on loose leash walking.
7. A good (not expected to be perfect in young dogs) recall with distractions.
8. Able to be quiet in a crate during class time.

I have found these skills are the most useful for agility training and overall success in the hectic agility class environment as well as in other performance sports.

It is not good for herding to have your dog pull you into the arena - the sheep will read that the dog is in control and be very unsettled and not trust the dog or handler and it will be a wild ride. When dogs walk in under control the sheep are settled and more trusting of the situation so they will be calmer which will help the run be more successful. The same is true in agility, when a dog pulls you into the ring very often the dog is in charge on the course and the handler appears to be going along for the ride.

In the over 20 years I have been doing agility I have seen lots of dogs with different personalities. From my perspective the most difficult dogs to work with in agility are the ones who have high reactivity to motion, noise and/or dogs. These dogs have the most difficult time developing the sustained focus needed for performance sports and they are prone to having high adrenaline levels which interferes with the brain's ability to think clearly.

Sometimes highly reactive dogs also come in high energy packages and sometimes in low or moderate energy packages. Sometimes highly reactive dogs can be high drive dogs in very quiet and calm settings but they have a difficult time being high drive in distracting environments. In my mind "high drive" refers to a high desire to work with a human and a high desire to do what is asked/taught. There are high energy dogs and/or highly reactive dogs who are not high drive, in my opinion because they are in it for their own reasons and have little use for humans in their lives. These dogs require a lot of work to develop a good working relationship with a human. However very often high energy and/or highly reactive dogs are considered high drive without regard to how they interact with people.

I think it is important in the early pre-agility training to get to know your dog/puppy and determine whether you will need to work more on self-control exercises, more on drive/speed building exercises or an equal amount of both. This assessment is important for channeling the handler/student's training time and resources.

These are three traits which can come in any combination in your agility dog (do the permutations and there are a lot of combinations possible here):

low, moderate or high energy
low, moderate or high drive
low, moderate or high reactivity

Personally I like moderate to high energy, high drive, and low to moderate reactivity for the ideal agility/performance dog. These dogs tend to need an equal balance of all the exercises - if I find a dog is able to learn stays and general self control exercises very easily and has a harder time putting speed/energy into other types of exercises then I will focus more on drive/speed exercises and less on self-control. The opposite also applies.

Right now in my household I have a myriad of combinations of energy level, drive level and reactivity level.

I have a moderate energy dog who is very high drive - she has a strong willingness to please, strong sustained focus on tasks at hand and if going fast is what I want she is very willing to do it and if going slowly is what I want she will try to do that too. As a young puppy she was very reactive to movement, however I worked very hard on it from when she was 8 weeks old. She could not be inside where agility was going on for more than a few seconds for most of her puppyhood. When she was about 18 months old she was able to sit next to an agility ring while dogs ran through the tunnel and she would look at them and look back at me without making a sound! But that took lots and lots of gradual work on learning to focus around moving dogs. We only stayed a minute and left but that was how long it took to get to that point working on it very hard all the time. I then started to take her to group agility classes for the purpose of working on her focus on me while other dogs are running agility. If I always trained her by myself I never would have been able to work on that. Now at almost 5 years of age she can be crated next to the ring and she only barks when I run another dog.

I have a very high energy and high drive dog whose high energy can interfere with her ability to focus. She is also highly sound and energy reactive which also interferes with her ability to focus. I took her to many group agility classes when she was around 2 years old. This helped a lot for her to learn to focus on me in loud and busy environments with lots of different types of energy around.  When she is able to focus she is very much there and able to sustain her focus and do tasks at hand fast and accurately. She loves to learn new things. She likes to think things are her idea most of the time so that is a challenge but at the same time she likes to be with me all the time so ultimately she really likes doing things with me (but don't tell her that!)

I have another dog who is very high energy but has a very hard time focusing on tasks at hand. She seems to have an attention deficit disorder no matter how hard she tries to do a task at hand she is very easily distracted by her own busy mind and busy world. Stays are almost impossible for her. She can do things well that involve movement but she will rarely do the same thing exactly the same way twice.  She loves clicker training and is very operant but she can get into patterns very easily and not always pay attention to the correct verbal or physical cue. She has trouble "filtering" her environment and sorting out things that are relevant from those that are not. I consider her to be have moderate drive but she is capable of speed when she can focus.

Then I have my youngest dog who is in many ways a very ideal combination of traits. She is very high energy - I have never seen her walk on her own - she has a stop and a 90mph button and nothing in between - yet. She also has incredible sustained focus for a young dog. She is not that easily distracted from her work (for a 9 month old puppy) - whatever it is when she understands what I want. She is very high drive - she loves to learn new things and loves to do anything and is very much of a team player. She is more of a team player than I ever thought she would be but it is because I learned early on that toys have much higher value to her than food so once I started using toys for recall rewards instead of food she started to pay closer attention to me. She very much wants me in the picture and if I walk away she will even drop her toy and come with me - that is huge progress for her! I did work hard on this from the start because I knew at 3 days old she could easily become a very independent dog and I didn't want her to do that and it may have helped her that I've been the central human in her life since she was born. I can work on an equal balance of self control exercises with drive/speed exercises and she sees them all as fun and "work" and she likes work. She likes to do stuff. While being a team player in herding is a long ways off she is already becoming a team player in her early pre-agility training and pre-obedience training. I have not had a successful high drive AND high energy stock dog before so that will be a new experience for me. High drive and high energy agility and obedience dog I can handle and will enjoy the challenge!

My retired Border Collie was probably the worst combination of traits for a successful performance dog. He was a fast agility dog but he was highly reactive to other dogs and to movement and his adrenaline levels could escalate quickly. This interfered with his ability to focus in a trial environment. These dogs are the hardest ones with whom to have success in agility. They are a rush when they run well because they are fast and they can win their class. Then they can be eliminated on the next run. They can be very inconsistent due to their adrenaline levels getting high and out of control from being so reactive to their environments. These dogs need to work on self control and focus from the very beginning - as young as possible and the primary exercise for these dogs is self control/focus with distractions. I would only work on that and until I could get that I would not do agility training with a dog like this. Managing dogs like this outside the ring is exhausting and stressful for the handler.

So this is why I strive for my students to have a good balance between drive and control so they can find their trialing experiences enjoyable and successful.

Puppy Training - nine months old and what lies ahead

2011-03-12T22:47:00.000-06:00

I am enjoying training my puppy, Carmine, so much. It is really fun to train a puppy that I've known since the moment she was born. She was labelled "wild child" because she would wiggle and yell when I tried to tube feed her, she crawled backwards so fast off the cold washcloth at three days old and she would be the last one standing whenever the puppies went on an outing. She is still very high energy and always game to go anywhere, any time. However with a lot of help from me she actually loves being touched, she gets carried a lot around the house because she doesn't walk - she tries to run and often is leaping over elderly small dogs. She has two speeds stop and 100mph. It is very hard for her to walk or even trot. I watch her play and she runs a lot when she plays and she loves games of chase and keep away with other dogs. I play these games with her too. It is really fun to chase her and encourage her to run away with "go go go!" Because I play these games with her she is very ready to chase me when I run the other way. She is motivated to pay attention to me when we play.

After having three excellent puppy seminars over the last three months and assessing my own training programs here is where I am in training Carmine.

She has 20 feet distance with the attention/recall game.
She can do a sit stay while I wave a toy or treat around and while I walk around her.
She has verbal cues for sit and down no matter where I am and she can be several feet away.
She loves to play ball but clearly has favorite toys.
She has learned a variety of tricks using shaping including backing up on objects, putting her two right feet up on a board, pawing at things, touching her hip on walls, turning both directions around a post, she can "bow" on cue, she has a stand stay on a platform, she can do hand touches and send to an empty target (plastic lid) from 20 feet away.
She can do front and rear crosses around a cone and hoop.
She does fun recalls between my legs.
She is doing well with finding heel position off leash.
She is doing well with loose leash walking in most situations.
She can focus on me around agility activities.
She can do recalls to side.
She will send to a stationary toy.
She can do a stand to a down and a sit to a stand.
She can send and stay on a mat and send to her crate.
She will play tug on a table top.
She has a verbal cue for backing up on the flat.
She regularly offers a sit before any door whether on leash or off leash.
She is learning herding.
I'm sure there are other things she knows that I've already forgotten!
I am contemplating her running contact training. As a training challenge for me I want to teach her a true running dogwalk and aframe. She has a very long stride and is fast so this will be a fun challenge.

I will digress here... I have been thinking a lot about running contacts and attended Silvia Trkman's session on it, I also watched Rachel Sanders Running Aframes and had a lesson with her about her running dogwalks and aframes. Training a large dog to do a running dog walk is very challenging. I have experience with small dogs on the dog walk and aframe with true running contacts.

Many of my students morph into some form of running contact after training a 2 on/2 off either because of failing to enforce the 2on/2off or because of a desire for a running contact. For small dogs, especially Corgis, using quick release and then fading the release works well for both aframe and dogwalk, but they first have to be patterned to go to the end of the contact so they don't leap. Larger breeds can be more problematic because their strides can carry them right over the contact zone. I see so many students and others creating confusion with their dogs by not having clear criteria with proper enforcement and reinforcement. The confusion leads to slow and/or leaping contacts. I don't ever want to reinforce a contact that is slow - no matter how accurate it is. I will say "good dog, let's try again!" When they do it faster then they get a treat or toy. Too often people only focus on the accuracy and not on the speed and inadvertently train slow contacts. Then they want to speed it up and the dog gets confused. Almost every dog I've seen goes through a phase early in their contact training where they stop part way down the contact, pause and reflect, and then with coaxing they will step into the 2 on/2 off. The biggest mistake people make is to reward this with a treat or toy. As soon as I see a dog stop I want them to step in and put a hand in their collar and gently guide them into the position. Then verbally praise (no treat/toy) and then repeat the contact again. I have found that this gets rid of the creeping contacts very quickly.
Going to a running contact doesn't fix this problem - it only causes confusion for the dog. I see many dogs who have not been taught any criteria - running or stopping on the contacts. These are the dogs who are most likely to miss/leap over the yellow zone. In my opinion these dogs who are leaping are more likely to harm themselves than dogs doing well trained 2 on/2 off contacts. I have seen very small dogs leap over contact zones as well as large dogs leaping off the aframe over the contact zone.

The aspects of training a true running contact require a lot of keen observation and videotaping. The first step is to find the striding that will carry the dog through the contact and having that become muscle memory when going straight ahead and then training turns. Whether that is watching the hind feet and being sure they are apart as Silvia does or whether it is marking the dog hitting near the end of a board when running - that is the first step. Once you have that criteria established and your dog can do it on a flat board, then slanted board, then a low dog walk and then a high dog walk and then in sequences you have the first step. This is a long step and one I find that most people don't have the patience to do, especially if they want to retrain. Doing it only in class on a weekly basis will make this process take much longer. It is hard to do without access to full height equipment 3-4 times a week. 2on/2off can be taught very well without access to full height equipment and that is a huge advantage of that training method. The next step in running contacts, is having the dog go into the yellow zone and make a tight turn which can be a training challenge. I have worked on this with small dogs and I have found that there has to be some collection/short striding when making a turn. The dogwalk is much like a jump grid. The way a dog does it will be different whether the dog is going straight or turning. In a jump grid dogs will add a short collection stride in order to make a tight turn on a jump. In full extension dogs will take fewer strides in a jump grid. The same seems to be true of the dogwalk. It is not unlike jump training in that you have to constantly balance the tight turns with extension so the dog is clear that it can do both and when to do which one. Dogs will start to run overly collected if too much tight turn work is done with them or vice versa they will not know how and when to collect if they do too much training in full extension. The same is true of the dogwalk. The third step is making sure the dog can do the running contact not only when the end of the dogwalk requires collection but also when the entrance to the dogwalk requires collection such as a tight turn getting on to it. This in my opinion is the hardest step from my experience with small dogs. Obviously there are many smaller steps within each of these but these are the three major training challenges I see to running contacts. The fourth one depending on where you trial would be to work on it with slatted and slatless and rubber matting and rubber granules - all things which can affect striding. In addition the height of the aframe can vary from 4'8" in Teacup to 5' in NADAC, to 5'3" in CPE, to 5'6" in AKC/small dog USDAA to 5'9/11" in USDAA. Lastly the 36" versus 42" contact zone on the dogwalk can make a huge difference too.

So while I contemplate this and work on my own observation skills, my puppy is running across a flat wide board. Yes it would be easier to train her to do a 2on/2off but I feel like I want a training challenge and I know I can also bail on it and retrain to a 2on/2off if needed. Training true running contacts is not for the faint of heart and really requires a lot of time and effort to have them be independent, fast and accurate. Meanwhile she is also going to learn 2on/2off on a small travel size plank but it won't be applied to a full dogwalk or aframe as long as I am committed to training a true running contact.

We'll see what happens...

Silvia Trkman seminar thoughts

2011-02-04T12:01:00.000-06:00

I'm starting to recover from five days of work hosting a seminar at the school. It was so worth it, most everyone enjoyed it and learned from it.

The Silvia Trkman seminar was fantastic! She is so positive and has such a good eye for helping everyone. I got some additional clarification and ideas to add to my training and teaching program.

I first saw Silvia in person a year and a half ago and I really learned a lot from her then. Her handling style fits well with how I handle and teach handling. That is an important consideration for me when bringing in someone to give a seminar. The last thing I want to do is to confuse my students. She also really wants to give the dogs as much information as possible so they can not only turn tightly but not injure themselves in the process. Many dogs are injured because of lack of information or late information regarding turns.

Where Silvia competes in Europe they have very tight courses and the courses have lots of turns on them. This is what she trains for with her dogs. Here in the states we don't see courses like these on a regular basis. Those people wanting to be on a World Team will want to train and prepare for these European style courses. For most of us these courses are just good training exercises. It can help improve your course times if your dog's turns are tighter and if the your dog has more information ahead of time. Dogs without a lot of flat ground speed can make up a lot of time with tight turns on a course. It also reduces the chance of injury when your dog has time to prepare for a turn on course.

In her "Turns" seminar I got a much better idea of the level of detail she has in the training of tight turns with her dogs and what specifically she is looking for when training turns. These exercises are ones that I am going to incorporate into the training of my own dogs and that of my students. She noted that Sinco has good tight turns that are cued by body language. She suggested I add verbal cues to those tight turns to allow me to handle her when I can't physically get to a spot where I need a tight turn. I have already started it and it is making a huge difference. These cues are much more than just "left" and "right" - there is much more to it than that and I'm glad to finally understand her detailed system of training turns much better. As part of Tay's rehab and conditioning I am going to teach her turns in this manner. It will be very important that she be able to make turns safely and that she knows she is turning well in advance in order to keep her front end sound. I will definitely be adding detailed verbal cues to her training.

The Tricks seminar was excellent because she showed how she does a number of tricks and we got to see some experienced trick trainers and some new to trick training working with their dogs. As a result there will be a lot more trick training added to our Sports Foundations classes that will help to build confidence and body awareness, and to help condition the dogs. However for me the most informative was to be able to observe Silvia at her lunch and dinner breaks interacting with her 9 month old puppy and to see how many new tricks she taught her puppy during her stay here. It was very inspiring and great to see how to utilize short blocks of time to do training and conditioning at the same time with a dog. Her techniques were interesting to watch. I've already started to do even more shaping exercises with my puppy and her comprehension of some of exercises has improved greatly. I had been frustrated that the luring was not working as well with her - she was going through the motions but she is so toy driven that I felt she was not thinking enough. So now I am shaping them with a clicker and treats and the light bulb has gone on and she has it so much faster.   I shape a lot of behaviors but there have been a couple that I used to think were easier for me and for students to do with luring but now I am rethinking that approach.

The handling sessions were very interesting and challenging. Personally I like to be challenged when I go to a seminar and I like to leave with some sense of success but also with some things to work on for "homework." If I can do everything easily then I am not being pushed to be a better trainer and handler. Seminars are for learning and not for showing off what we know, in my opinion. She was fabulous in finding something positive to say about every handler and run and finding something to work on for everyone. We can all get in a rut in our training and tend to do that which is easy and fun and not push ourselves outside of our comfort zone. I think everyone was pushed outside of their comfort zone but in a positive way. Silvia had some great expressions to help bring humor to situations that could otherwise be awkward.

The running contacts session was very well attended. Silvia is well known for training running contacts. I found it interesting when she said that more Americans are training running contacts than Europeans and when you watch FCI videos it looks like most Europeans at that level are doing running contacts. There are "true running contacts" and there are "modified running contacts." Most people have some form of "modified running contacts" and few have true running contacts. True running contacts take a lot of work and require a gradual progression in training and access to boards and eventually a dogwalk and aframe to use on a regular basis.   The larger the dog the harder it is for a running dogwalk - not only for hitting the contact zone but also for having turns after the contact. She said she does very few aframes and she trains it on the dogwalk mainly and the aframe is "free." However she is very athletic and she can keep up with her fast dogs. Many of us are not able to keep up with our fast dogs and a running dogwalk can be hard to keep up with on a course. Running aframes are usually easier to train but still can take a lot of work to get a natural relaxed stride across it. She noted something that I've observed but have not put my finger on it. That raising the aframe slowly puts it at a height where it is hard for dogs to be successful so she goes up about several inches at a time. That was good to hear because I've observed that as well and wondered about it. I've successfully trained true running dogwalks and aframes with my small dogs and some of my students dogs. Training small dogs can be hard work and is not for the faint of heart.  It takes a long time to get the rhythm needed. However it was reassuring to hear Silvia say that dogs don't always stride across the dogwalk the same way and nothing can change that and to obsess over it will only stress everyone out. That was a relief because I've noticed that myself and yet so many people obsess that the number of strides needs to be the same every time but that is not realistic. The striding will change depending on where they are coming from and where they are going to next from the dogwalk. She also doesn't obsess over where in the yellow they touch and focuses on hind feet rather than front feet which is also much easier. Training larger dogs to do running aframes has been more difficult and more frustrating for students. I am still struggling with that when the dogwalk is a stop. Teaching two on two off is much easier for me and most of my students on the dogwalk. Many of us have a hard time keeping up with a fast dog on the dogwalk.   Carmine will be my first personal experience of training true running dogwalk and aframe with a larger dog. She is currently 20" at the shoulder. It is my motivation to get in to better shape to keep up with her because her ground speed is very fast. She will know two on two off on a board as an exercise like Silvia teaches all her dogs. So in worst case I will be able to do that. I will also be teaching Carmine verbal cues for all aspects of turning.

It was also good to hear how slowly she goes with her training. I feel there is so much to train a dog in agility and I don't understand why so many want to rush it and are willing to skip steps in their training. Every dog and handler is different and will progress at their own rate. I try to assign homework to my students. Training turns and jumps is the most important training and yet it is the one that we often have the least patience for doing. Watching her with her pup and doing exercises with poles on the grounds was inspiring and it makes so much sense to have tight turns and speed with poles on the ground on jumps before adding height. I have done this with my young dogs and my students dogs for years. I do a lot of these kinds of things using hoops (like NADAC style hoops) because they are easy to move around, there are not poles to go rolling across the floor and yet there is still the concept of two standards for the dog to go through. Using these to teach wraps, front and rear crosses, 270s, serpentines, sends and boxes is so easy and it teaches dog and handler about handling and about how to turn with speed. As a bonus, if someone decides to do NADAC when their dog is older they have no problem with hoops because their dog saw them as a puppy/youngster.

So now that the dust is settling after the seminar I am processing all that I learned and I am planning what things I will incorporate into my agility foundations and advanced level training that will be complimentary to what we already do and I will see what I want to add to my own training program. When I go to seminars I don't like to totally change everything I do in my training and teaching program because I feel that is counterproductive. I like to add things that will enhance my program and/or will "fix" problems I have had. My program is pretty stable and I like to improve it all the time and make sure it grows as agility knowledge and training grows. I like to try out new training techniques on my own dogs first before teaching it to students so I have some idea of the pitfalls there may be and the effectiveness of it. I'm lucky to have a few dogs who have very different personalities and learning styles to work with when I want to try something new.

Agility in the US is much more diverse and open to a wider range of breeds and sizes than in Europe. There are so many agility organizations that it is easy to find one where any given dog and handler can be successful.  We are fortunate to have more agility options here. Just as we have diverse agility organizations we have diverse requirements in agility training. In the US we have many more classes and organizations with distance type challenges on the courses so we tend to focus more on distance training here than in Europe. I feel it is important to also train distance at an early age with puppies because we have a lot of distance requirements in our courses. So for us there needs to be a balance between lots of tight turns and handler focus and distance and sends to obstacles at large distances. This is why I am careful about what I add to my training/teaching program so that it will still fit with our trialing requirements. We also need to have reliable contacts at a distance - 20-50 feet for some of us - that requires very special training.

So when you are processing information from a seminar or an instructor you really want to look at how it fits in with the other things you need/want to train for success in agility. Be thoughtful about what will work and fit into your existing program.

Puppy Training or What I Know Now that I Wish I Had Known Then!

2011-01-23T23:45:00.000-06:00

Having a puppy around is always a time of reflection for me on my training techniques - what I want to do differently with this puppy, what this puppy needs done differently than others and what I can learn from this puppy.

Right now at ACTS we have a lot of puppies in various stages of training to be agility dogs. It is an exciting time. We are working on improving and growing our "sports foundations" program to see how we can best prepare students for the intricacies and demands of agility training as well as for the rigors of daily life training. So right now I'm spending a lot of time listening to my students, getting their feedback, tweaking the program and watching students and puppies. We are trying to do our training as much as possible without training aids such as prong collars, gentle leaders or choke collars. However there may be times when these will be needed in certain circumstances or for short periods of time. Our goal is to help students wean off of these training aids as much as possible. They can't be used in competitive sports so they need to be weaned off at some point and sooner is better. They can become crutches for the handlers if used too long and can be a poor substitute for good training if used for too long.

We try hard to help students master the art and science of shaping or what is more popularly known as clicker training. Too often students use the clicker as a positive marker for existing behaviors that have been lured. To really develop the skill of capturing a behavior takes a lot of practice. It is a really fun thing to do once the skill is developed. Thinking about an end behavior and then breaking it down into the component pieces is very helpful for training but a difficult skill to learn. It really makes you think about how many stages there are in learning a particular behavior. Getting stuck in a spot is a common problem and there are many ways to work out of it. Using tools like strategic placement of reward can be very helpful.

It is really important for my puppies and my student's puppies to learn to eagerly go and interact with objects. I find that dogs who are willing to do this and are not afraid to make mistakes will have a much easier time learning agility and learning to do it independently. If a dog has to be lured across a board, or lured through weave poles the dog is going to be thinking more about the food in the hand than about what they are doing. The food then has to be faded. A dog that is eager to go offer behaviors is more likely to be willing to walk across a board in order to get a treat or try to go through weaves to get the treat or toy. These dogs will be easier to teach to do obstacles at a distance when they are trained this way from the beginning. Will their performance be a little sloppy at first - yes. But with any of my training I would rather have a lot of enthusiasm and sloppiness than a lot of worry and carefulness. It is much easier to refine a dog's behavior who has a lot of enthusiasm and sloppiness than it is to excite a worried and careful dog. The worried dog may gain confidence over time and with that gain speed with the right training but the training has to be done with careful planning to ensure that happens and is more work for the handler.

I've been shaping behavior with dogs since the early 90s. I graduated from college with a degrees in Psychology and Biology with an emphasis in Animal Learning and Behavior and then went on to get a Masters in Educational Psychology focusing on Adult Development and Learning. Before getting into dog training I had a lot of experience with the "science" of learning. It is different from real life learning and training but it has been helpful to have worked with animals like rats, pigeons, mice and chameleons and to apply what worked with them to dogs. The big difference is that dogs live with us every day and all day. They don't live in cages 24 hours a day. So it is really important for dogs to have structure and boundaries in their lives. While some of this can be taught with operant/shaping techniques, much of it can not be. So there needs to be a balance and a thoughtful use of different types of training techniques for different situations. It would be nice to think we could do everything with shaping - click and treat but the reality in my 20 years of experience working with dogs and their humans is that does not provide enough structure for most dogs. Dogs do have free will. Dogs do have minds of their own. There are times when a dog will choose for very good reasons (in their mind) to not follow a cue/command. It is our job as the human part of the team to discern whether that reason was due to a high level of stress, due to high level of distraction, due to a lack of understanding of the cue, due to the dog's desire/preference to do something else or due to the dog's physical inability to do it (due to soreness or illness). It is this analysis that a human has to learn to do very quickly in order to determine how to respond. Sometimes we get it wrong and sometimes we are totally confused. If a dog is choosing to not follow our cues/commands because of free will then there may need to be consequences. However I never impose consequences on something UNLESS and UNTIL I am sure the dog understands the cue and can do the cue with fluency and with distractions and/or distance. Too often students want to introduce corrections before a dog has even learned the behavior by saying "no" or "eh eh" to the dog while they are teaching them something. Not only is this not fair to the dog but it can also lessen the impact of your negative marker when it is over used. I use clearing my throat as my negative marker - it is hard for that to slip out accidentally but I don't use it until I'm very certain the dog can do what I ask in the situation I am asking for it. If the distraction level is too high then I need to work more on that behavior with distractions before I can correct it.

I spend a lot of time analyzing my dog's behavior in many situations and trying to determine the underlying cause of a behavioral problem so I can determine how to best "fix it." This is when it is important to spend time getting to know a puppy. Finding out who they are, how they think, what they like, what they don't like, how they learn and how they feel physically is so important. I don't expect my dogs to respond the same even if they are the same breed or even closely related. They are all individuals. It is important to distinguish whether a dog/puppy is stressed or not. Sometimes people are too quick to say a dog is "blowing me off" when the dog is really stressed and doing what dogs do when they are stressed - sniff! Sometimes a dog is too excited in the situation to be able to focus on the desired behavior. A student needs to look at how much have they trained and proofed the dog to be able to do that behavior with a lot of distractions. Often we don't look honestly at our training programs to determine how well have we taught a given behavior. Dogs don't generalize well so they need to have lots of different experiences in order to generalize. Dogs get excited and need to know how to have self-control in stimulating environments. This all starts when they are puppies. Learn the signs of stress in your dog. Licking lips is another common sign of stress. I see it a lot in dogs on agility courses but the table, teeter and weaves. If you slow down a video of a dog in the weaves very often you can see them licking their lips. This is a huge sign of stress and should be a concern. A very low level of stress is common and should not interfere with learning but it also should not produce a lot of outward signs. The more visible the signs of stress the higher the level is.

Having this litter of 9 puppies was one of the most educational dog experiences of my life. I could see first hand what kinds of things come "hard wired" in a dog by how they responded to things within the first two weeks. No formal learning from a human was taking place - only their own learning and interaction with the environment and processing that information was happening. I learned so much about how puppies develop and how they think and how they interact with novel stimuli and familiar stimuli from day to day. I was able to see one of the puppies was very sound sensitive and easily stressed in new places with lots of people. I immediately did a lot of intervention with this puppy to help him overcome these things. I made sure his owner new of my concerns so she could work with him from the very beginning to build his confidence. I knew which two puppies were almost over the top in energy level as they would be the only two still running and playing after two hours at a puppy party. I knew which ones were going to be easy to handle and which ones didn't like to be touched physically and were going to need lots of work with this. I knew which ones were more independent and which ones were likely going to be "one person" dogs and which ones would be good with kids and families. It was really an incredible experience. Over the course of 9 - 10 weeks I could see as they got older how they learned. I could see which ones were leaders in exploring new things, which ones were followers and which ones were watchers. As I get to see a couple of the puppies on a regular basis and work with their owners I can see how different they are and I can also see similarities to their mother - but different similarities between the puppies.

While it may be hard to see now, many people have forgotten what Sinco was like for the first two years. She was a boisterous puppy. She had a hard time with mistakes and would run around and act silly when she thought she had made a mistake or she would freeze up. However every experienced person I took her to for lessons said she was "high drive." I often shook my head because I couldn't see it since she would freeze up in learning because of her fear of being wrong. Even though I had never used even as much as a negative marker with her in training. She had a hard time with shaping. She would be reluctant to offer behaviors. I would get frustrated and lure her a couple of times and then she would get going. When she was older, about three, I started shaping games with her again and she was much more confident and much less worried and now I can shape things and she will eagerly go interact with an object if I tell her "show me something else."

Now when Carmine and I started shaping I saw her do some of the same things as Sinco. Fortunately I was at Michelle Pouliout seminar when I saw it happen. Michelle had some great ideas (I wish I had known when Sinco was a puppy). She suggested tying a string to the box or object I was trying to get Carmine to interact with and move it a bit and when she showed interest click and treat for it. She also suggested changing the object frequently and have 2-3 objects around at a time to keep it interesting. Within a week of using these different things I had a puppy who was wildly interacting with any object and not at all afraid of making a mistake. She is now an incredibly fast learner with a clicker in hand.

The other lesson I learned from my Border Collie Bryce is to put shaped behaviors on cue as soon as possible. He would offer all kinds of behaviors to me in rapid succession. He was very fun to train but I had to get things on cue quickly to prevent him from always offering his repertoire. I am having to do that with Carmine now and I've reduced how many things I teach her at a time and put things on cue before adding new things to the "list."

Tay reminded me that dogs can learn differently and have different kinds and levels of intelligence. Tay loves shaping exercises. However she is very dependent on kinesthetic learning and having an object present is a much more salient cue to her than any thing verbal or my body language. She has a hard time focusing on my body language or my verbal cues to do a behavior. She can learn very well a set behavior with a certain object. It is very hard to get her to do something different with the same object. For example I taught her to jump on a chair as an exercise to do after a run so she can get her treats. It is almost impossible to get her to do anything else with a chair present and she has generalized this to ANY chair she sees ANY time. She has a very hard time with behaviors that stand alone without any objects in the vicinity. Stay is a very hard concept for her except on a platform or a mat. She has the most reliable and awesome door behavior of any of my dogs - EVERY door she goes through she turns toward me. I rarely reinforce it with a treat but she does it almost every time.

Spring has taught me about "show me the money" games. Michelle Pouliout in her seminar talked about not having dogs see you put the food in your pockets when you are getting ready to train. Spring is definitely one of these dogs. If he sees me go for the treat jar or my pocket he will be right there with me. But he plays games at home and at trials where he won't come when called. It pushes my buttons to have a dog not come when called. It is especially strange because he and I have a great relationship otherwise. He is very fun to train and to run at trials except for the table in AKC. He has been taught "go leash" which he will do and 90 percent of the time it is rewarded with treats pretty soon after at trials or in training. So as long as I say "let's go leash" at the end of the run he will come running over and put his head in his slip lead. I make him go to the treats on leash. At home, only when he knows I'm loading up the van to go somewhere, will he play "I am going to run outside through the pet door when you call me" game. It is ironic because he loves to be a lap dog, loves to be cuddled, loves to be held, loves to have his neck scratched and he loves to go places with me. If he knows I have treats he won't play the game. But if he knows I don't have treats like in a trial, he plays the game. So I have taken to being very careful around him about what I am doing with regard to my treats. It is clearly a game. It is very different from when other dogs won't come. He is watching me the entire time, if I go out of sight he will slowly follow me and watch me and if I turn toward him he darts away. It is in his mind a very interactive game of cat and mouse. I have never seen anything quite like it and now it has carried over to trials where the table is involved. So I am trying to connect these two things and I think if I can resolve the problem game at home then I will be able to solve it at a trial. I've had a lot of advice from "walking him down" and grabbing his ruff to using air cookies. I am not fond of any of these because I don't think it will solve this kind of problem. He will go into his crate any time and any where, he will come when called in many other situations very readily. He is at my feet most of the time wanting my attention.

So I am extremely careful with puppies now to make sure they don't know when I have treats and when I don't for recalls. Often I call a puppy in and they have to run into their crate and then I will go and get a treat for them. I don't want to ever show them I have a treat when I'm calling them.

Agility training is difficult to prepare for because there are a lot of complex skills that are also somewhat abstract. An ideal agility dog will be able to have focus and speed at the same time and to have self-control and a willingness to work independently (meaning not overly dependent on a handler for cues or to have to be in close proximity to the handler). These can at first appear to be conflicting skills. They are in fact difficult skills for young puppies to master and definitely difficult for them to have all of them operating at the same time. All of this must be kept in mind. I play a variety of games with my puppies to turn them "on" and turn them "off." I want them to learn to self-modulate depending on various cues from me. I rev them up and then turn them off (very briefly at first) and then rev them up and turn them off. Some dogs have more natural self-control and need more help revving up and others get revved up easily and need more help with self-control. That is why it is important to work on both of these skills early and often. The games we teach in sports foundations help to develop these skills. I also have some games that teach focused speed too. I had a dog with a lot of speed and very little focus and it was a lot of work out there on an agility course to get through a course. He would see his own set of obstacles and he couldn't focus on his handler for cues at times or focus on his job in performing obstacles correctly. So focus with speed is important to develop early.

Most puppies in our classes are on average 9 months old when they move from "sports foundations" to "agility foundations." In agility foundations we do a lot of flatwork for the first 8 weeks. We do shadow handling, targeting/distance exercises, more focus and speed exercises, backing-up and learning to work with distractions. Actual agility equipment is not introduced until they are close to a year old. They have seen wobble boards, played on narrow boards, gone through hoops and around gates at this point. Developing a good working relationship and laying the groundwork for handling skills is so very important. Teaching the individual obstacles is the easy part. Building teamwork takes much longer so it is important to start that early and work on it often.

Usually by 7-9 months I can tell if a given puppy is going to have issues reacting to the motion around them of an agility class. I manage the puppies in agility foundations to minimize the stimulation and keep arousal levels down. However I am watching them for signs of problems with that and I want to intervene as early as possible if I see a puppy having trouble focusing with dogs running around. Then I feel it is best to stop agility training and work on some of the Control Unleashed/Click to Calm exercises and maybe even take our Focus in Motion class to really work on that. If a dog is getting aroused around motion there is no point in training them. They will have too much adrenaline in their system to be able to learn anything properly.

The other thing is that puppies do not fully physically mature until at least a year of age - no matter what breed. Some tiny breeds may physically be done growing earlier than that. The mental maturity in most dogs takes even longer to develop. There is no point in doing actual full size agility equipment until a dog is both physically and mentally mature. Too often I see dogs who started weave training at six months of age. They will come to me when the dogs are 12 months old or 18 months old wondering why their dog can't weave. Their bodies change, even though they may be done growing in terms of height, they still will need to fill out, their chests "drop" and muscles get stronger. These changes seriously affect things like weave poles and running contacts which rely on muscle memory. So I see no point in starting the training of these obstacles early - they will only have to be retrained in a few months or a year because their bodies have changed along the way. You may also cause undue physical and emotional stress on a dog training them this young to do complex behaviors that require a lot of balance and coordination.

Right now my puppy knows a number of tricks, she is great at interacting and offering behaviors with any object, she loves to retrieve any object (not on cue yet), she knows "ready 1-2-3" and "ready-steady" games, she has a stay on a mat, she can do a stand stay on a platform, she does recalls through my legs, she knows "sit" and "down" from a stand, she can send to a target 20 feet away, she does hand targeting, she is learning "choose to heel" and loose leash walking, she has done some cone turns (to stay one step ahead of her contemporaries so she can demo!) she is learning to be calm when greeting people and their dogs, she loves crate games, she has awesome toy drive, she can be quiet in a crate while I'm teaching class and she is learning to ride a skate board and play on the wobble board. She is over 7 months old. That is all she knows. She has yet to get on a formal piece of agility equipment.

What she will be taught in the next few months is the foundation for a two on/two off as well as the foundation for running contacts. I plan to try to train her to do running contacts but will teach her two on/two off on a board as a back-up plan. She has a very long body and long stride so I'm not sure how well the running contacts will go but I need a new challenge. I've taught two small dogs so now to try a big dog and she is a big girl! She will learn some cone turns and shadow handling. She will do some shadow handling with cones and then with hoops. She will do some puppy jump chutes. She will learn "out" with gates and targets.

I know I will learn new things from Carmine and make new mistakes... That is what makes dog training fun for me. Sometimes the learning is harder than I want and sometimes it is not as fun as I want it to be but when we come out the other end of the tunnel it is almost always very rewarding. So I can hardly wait to see what lessons are in store for me now!

How to make the best use of agility class time or why having an agility coach is helpful

2010-12-27T10:35:00.000-06:00

Too often we want to run the entire agility course set up in class or at run-thrus because it is there and we want to see if we can "do it"!

However we know what our own weaknesses are as a team and that there are specific things we really should focus on when in class. This is especially important during Minnesota winters when we can't be outside to do our own training. We have to make the best of the class or run-thru situation.

I have attended group classes at a number of agility schools and I have always been allowed to do part of a course and reward my dog where I wanted to reward my dog. I've also been allowed to continue on at that point or to repeat part of it and then continue on. This is how our dogs will learn that we like what they are doing - when we spontaneously reinforce them for what we like. This is also a time to use a positive reward marker/word. It is also important for us to have positive reward markers like the word "yes!" that we can take into trial competition and use with our dogs. It means that the word/marker needs to have been paired with a primary reinforcer like food or toys many many times in training before using it in a trial. I use this with my dogs and invariably they will get faster and happier when they hear that word in a trial setting. I use it a lot with contact/tunnel discriminations to let my dogs know they got it right.

Sadly we usually are more willing to correct our dogs for missed contacts, weave pole or jump in group classes and are less willing to reward our dogs when they do a contact perfectly the first time, or do a difficult weave entry the first time, or do a hard tight turn between obstacles, or send out away from us to do an obstacle on the first cue, or they stay at the start line the first time. We tend to wait for the mistake to happen, correct it and then sometimes we reward it when they do it right after the correction and sometimes we don't. It would be so much more effective to reward the dog when the dog does it right the FIRST time! We all know when we walk a course what the hard parts are for us and for our dogs and so we really do know what we should reward when our dog does it brilliantly the first time!

Coming back to using class time wisely... it is so important to positively mark the behaviors you like whenever you are training your dog. I very rarely do an entire course or even as many as 10 obstacles without stopping to reward my dog. When things are going well on a course or sequence that is the exact time to stop and reward. Far too often I see beautiful sequences go unrewarded (in spite of my loud pleadings to a student to stop and reward!) and then a bar goes down, a contact or weave is missed and negative reinforcement follows. Meanwhile the beautiful part goes unrecognized and that is the part we want the dog to remember to do again next time!

I feel it is my job as the agility instructor and coach to help students learn the proper time to reinforce their dogs as well as to correct their dogs. Unfortunately people seem to be more quick to correct their dog than to reward them. This is as much a part of the class as helping them with handling strategies. I feel strongly that learning proper timing of reinforcement is a huge key to successful agility training. I try to verbally mark positively when students do things correctly (they don't always hear me but usually others in the class do and add to the cheers).

Unfortunately I think it is human nature that we are much more comfortable with negative reinforcement than with positive reinforcement. We are like this with each other, with our children and with our pets. Even as humans we seem to want more negative reinforcement and are uncomfortable with the positive reinforcement. This is a sad commentary on our own socialization.

Think about the "terms of endearment" you have for your dogs when you are training them. Do you refer to them as dumb, dufus, brainless, goofy, slow or other terms with negative connotations that refer to personality rather than behavior? I try to use as many positive terms with my dogs when I'm training them and let them know that I think they are smart, brilliant, fast, cute and other descriptors that have a positive meaning. This may seem like being picky but lots of studies have been done on how our bodies and minds respond to positive terms versus negative terms no matter how sarcastic or funny we think we mean them to be. It becomes an overall reflection on how your feel about your dog and can affect your overall relationship with your dog. Too often I hear people refer to their dogs in subtle negative ways which I feel can undermine the self-esteem of the relationship in the long run.

It is clear that I am able to run entire courses will all of my dogs at trials even though I very rarely practice entire courses. If the handler needs to practice doing all of the obstacles on a course they should do a lot of it without their dog and use the walk through time in class for that. In some cases I have had students run their imaginary dog through a difficult sequence so they learn the sequence and handling without bothering the dog. This is useful for students who get lost on courses. The dogs when trained well will not have trouble putting an entire course together - it is the human who has trouble putting it all together. Too often dogs lose motivation and drive while the human is struggling to do too many things on a course.

I've watched many of the top agility trainers in the country train their own dogs and the most successful ones are the ones who reward what they like when they are training and don't try to get through an entire course without rewarding their dogs. When rewarding only at the end of the course time after time it is saying that the last obstacle on the course is the one that matters most. This is why I will often "make lemonade" out of a non-qualifying run by finding something good to mark and leave the ring immediately to reward. For example with Feisty, if we ever NQ before the table and then she gets on the table and stays we leave the ring then to a jackpot right away to make the table associated with rewards in a trial setting. If we have NQ'd due to my miscues or due to the dog being stressed I will often find a good note to leave on so I can find something positive for rewarding the dog.

That isn't to say that I have times when my dogs are really wound up and they get so excited they are not paying close attention to me and do things I don't expect out there at trials on course. So sometimes we leave early because my dog is too wired to be able to be a teammate and I'll leave early so we don't practice more of the lack of teamwork. Sensitive dogs do not need much of this and I am usually just smiling and saying "you are naughty!" as we leave. With a tougher dog who has more of a tendency to be independent on a course then I will be firmer about taking them off the course to remind them that it is a team sport. Every dog is different and I respond differently to each dog - treating them as individuals. However even the toughest dog needs positive rewards on course and I don't let obstacles serve as rewards. The best reward needs to come from me at all times. I want to build value in agility obstacles but I will still have a higher value than the obstacles by using high value toys or treats as rewards. This is really important for the teamwork. If the obstacles have higher value than the teammate then why should the dog work with the teammate and the dog can just go and do whatever obstacles they want and will be self-rewarded.

Doing these things at a trial means we did a short course at a trial! So my dogs really never figure out that 20 obstacles is an entire course. Whether we left for good reasons or not so good reasons my dogs only did part of the entire course. My dogs will have done a lot of short courses for one reason or another at trials as well as playing games like snooker which can force us to have short courses! So I avoid the pitfalls of having a dog start out slow at the start line and finishing fast on obstacles 18-19-20. I also keep the performance fresh on the various obstacles with the random reinforcement in both training and trialing. This philosophy has been a huge part of Feisty's training and why now she is doing the table more reliably at trials when she used to avoid doing it at all in trials.

Going to agility classes, remember it is your money for the class and it is up to you to get your money's worth from class and make your training as effective as possible for your canine teammate. No one else knows your dog as well as you do.

Tay - the light at the end of the tunnel - literally!

2010-11-19T10:02:00.000-06:00

Tay's surgery went well. The biceps tendon was 80% torn so it was severed in surgery today. What is amazing to me is that he said it was very badly damaged and he had to do a lot of cleaning in there and yet she only seemed lame to a well trained eye who was really looking for it. When her activity was restricted it was very hard to tell she was sore. When her front leg was stretched back there was no apparent pain response. The only pain response was when the tendon was directly palpated. When she tried to do agility she would show lameness. I tried to rest and rehab her twice with no success because the tendon was torn and not just strained as originally thought/hoped.

So often our dogs will be limping briefly and then the limp "goes away" and we assume that the pain is gone and therefore the injury is gone. This is often not the case. When our dogs are repeatedly sore after activity is a very likely there is a serious underlying injury causing it. Soft tissue injuries can be so hard to diagnose. Dogs are very stoic - part of their survival instinct.

I took her to the University of Missouri Vet School for the consult and surgery - I explored other options but needed something that would have a doable rehab (no hobbles) and not cost a small fortune. As some of you know, Tay is a special dog. She use spinning and pacing as part of her self-calming rituals. She is prone to worry and anxiety about things that are hard to control like strong odors. Hobbling her would most likely cause her psychological damage. Some of my other dogs would handle it fine but not her. The vet there was able to use ultrasound for the diagnostics (not an MRI) and digital x-rays which is much more cost effective. He had excellent client service and genuine understanding of dogs and totally understood Tay's fears of going to the vet and was very respectful of that.

For the initial consult I had a thundershirt on Tay, had given her valium, had her stone collars on her and left her in the car until they were really ready for her to come in. I had very high value treats with me too. When I brought her in the volunteer came over and was really nice to her and talking to her. Tay actually walked through the double glass doors and walked into the exam room which she rarely does at any vet's office. In fact she has generalized double glass doors as scary.

Tay liked the third year vet student (even in her white coat) and without any treats. The student said "She knows I don't have my degree yet." Tay licked her face which she does not do at the vet's office. When the surgeon came in Tay was afraid of him and he was great - no white coat, very soft in his approach and met her on her terms. He got on the floor with her and was very gentle. She still was afraid. I said "she knows he has his degree" and he said "I have no doubt she knows :)" Even the second day Tay still really liked the student so that made me feel good because Tay was not too happy about being there.

The next day when I had to drop her off for surgery I thought she'd be in the waiting room for just a few minutes and they'd come and get her. I couldn't give her any food and I didn't have any thing on her since I thought she wouldn't have to wait long. As it turned out we had to wait 40 minutes because everyone was busy in surgery. Fortunately the waiting room was really quiet and I did lots and lots of T-Touch on her. It was all I had. After about 15 minutes her breathing slowed and she laid on the bench next to me. That is huge for her at the vet hospital. It is good to have a variety of stress relieving tools available.

Over the years with all of the different stress issues I've had with dogs I carry lots of "tools" in my toolbox because I never know what I will need. I highly recommend learning T-Touch - it came in handy for me when I could not use anything else to help calm her down. It took about 15 minutes before she calmed down. Thundershirts are based on concepts from T-Touch body wraps.

Anyway all of this has given me a lot to think about. The surgeon thinks it was a "jump down" injury and not a repetitive or turn injury and probably happened when the tendon was luxated. Very plausible given that Tay is obsessed about jumping into chairs (thanks to Leslie Renaud's idea to give stressed dogs a place to go at trials!) and she has a "running" aframe which when she is excited can be more of a leaping aframe - usually not over the yellow but more of a leap off than a striding off. "Running" contacts can be injurious too. Tay's tendon was luxated in the surgery and the surgeon can't be sure whether it was luxated before it was injured or not. However she has sporadic lameness on the other shoulder which is not typical with biceps tendons. Usually only the dominant leg is affected with a biceps injury UNLESS they are genetically predisposed to luxating tendons. That means the tendon rolls out of place and makes it more prone to injury. I am contemplating having him scope the right shoulder to see if that tendon is luxated and if it is then he can "tack" it down to hold it in place. He scoped both elbows and ultrasounded both shoulders and the right shoulder tendon looks to be in good shape and no sign of problems in the right elbow. She is painful in both elbows so the concern is where is that pain coming from in the right leg. I have a follow-up appointment in Missouri in January and I'm leaning towards having him check out her right leg at that time just to be sure.

In the meantime we have lots of leash walks ahead of us.

Day 2 - Lemonade has been served!

2010-11-13T17:50:00.000-06:00

Today was a much better day on the Feisty roller coaster ride! She demonstrated that she does in fact love agility and she is starting to love it more and more in public. She ran two perfect runs today and ran them well enough to earn 2nd place in both runs!

Her first run was JWW and it was jump weaves for the start - not a very fast start for us and she was a bit cautious the first third of the course. But then she turned on the afterburners and she was back! It was a blast! We ran in the morning today and there were a lot more people around the rings so much more background noise to drown out the clicking of cameras.

For Standard - always our hardest class - the table was in the exact same place it was yesterday. It was a tough course for her with an off course tunnel at the end of the dogwalk and needing to turn a sharp right turn to a jump instead. All of our hard obstacles were done by the time we got to the table. After the table it was a fast sequence of jumps, tunnels and aframe - all of which are fun and easy for us. Feisty was ready to run when I got her out for standard. I had lots of time to let her hang out with me and I massaged her a bit while we waited. She was up and happy and we did our usual obedience warm-up routine. Then about two seconds before we entered the ring she put her tail down and tried to pull me away from the ring. I immediately scooped her up and did something I rarely do with her - I blew in her face. She hates it but it served to distract her. Then I goosed her in my arms and kept talking to her about how great she is and how it is just the two of us out there. This course also required walking into the middle - yes the middle - of the ring to start and we started from the middle going out toward the crowd but it was a tunnel there. So by the time we walked out there she was squirming (good sign!) and I took her leash off and then put her down and didn't ask for a stay. We just took off running and she flew!!! I had to call her name a lot after the dogwalk but she came with me. She did a great table down and then part way through the count stood up and shook (I am VERY glad for the new rules where no position is required on the table!) but she stayed on it until the "go". Then we flew! It was a blast of a run!

So I actually feel this double Q today is a personal Q because it shows we (Feisty especially) have come a long way where we can recover from a horrible experience one day to run spectacularly the next day. That is huge progress since three years ago that would not have happened. It also shows that I have done my homework with her and banked enough positive experiences in agility that today she was able to draw upon them and trust me. She started to shut down right before the run and I was able to think on my feet and jazz her up and go with it. I was worried that yesterday she felt a violation of trust but fortunately for me I think she thought "God" or the "sky" was falling and it had nothing to do with me or agility (PHEW!!!!!!!). It is also a really good thing and example that dogs do NOT generalize well.

One day I'm crying with frustration and literally the next day crying with joy - all with the same little grey dog! For me the more they challenge me the more they reward me! She keeps me on my toes and keeps me thinking all the time!

Trying hard to make lemonade today

2010-11-12T21:41:00.000-06:00

I had one of the hardest agility trialing days I've had since I retired Tobie. That may sound surprising given the ups and downs Feisty and have over the last 4 years. However today I had a melt down.

What brought me to that point? Well I'm in St. Louis trialing in a place that none of my dogs have been to before. We have done a lot of road trips recently and they are getting into the routine of these pretty well. Today we started with Ex JWW and I ran Sinco first. She had a nice run but missed her weave entry in spite of my collecting to help her. No biggie. Then Spring ran and he popped out of pole 10 and so I had him redo them and did them all and we left the ring to a party right away. No biggie. Then Feisty had her turn. I wanted to warm her up a the warm up jump located between the two rings so she could feel the energy in the arena. While waiting for the jump she went from tail up and happy to tail tucked and shivering and not wanting to move. She did this once before a couple of weeks ago and I got her over it but never figured out what caused it. This time I left the area immediately and went to my crating space and got the high value treats out. We worked on tricks and waited by the start gate and her tail came up and she looked ok again. I figured it would be like last time - she'd work through it.

Well we went to the start line and as soon as I took off the leash she wanted to leave the ring. I tried a couple of times to get her to come with me and finally said "thank you" and we left the ring. I had no idea what caused it. I called Pam and asked her to do some healing touch long distance for her. I kept her out and let her walk around outside to shake it off. I assumed it was bad vibes. So I had downtime before our next run. There were only a few dogs left in the JWW ring and most of the people were over by the other ring. I walked Feisty around the outside of the JWW ring. The only place she freaked was where the only person was - the photographer. I tried to give her treats close to him. Then I had a flashback to the summer.

This summer I was taking lots of photos of puppies and she was around one time when the flash was going off. She obviously thought it was lightning and she looked like she did during a thunderstorm. The thunder never came. I didn't worry much about it and I thought it was just the flash and eventually she'd realize that no thunder followed.

Well I decided to test my theory and we got a bunch of high value treats and went out to the van where I had my camera. She likes to get in the van so that is a happy place. I got the camera out and clicked and she immediately froze up and wouldn't eat treats. BINGO! The interesting thing is that she is so convinced it is coming from sky that she is not afraid of the camera when it is quiet. She has made NO association between the camera and the noise.

So I started to formulate a plan for the standard run. I talked to the photographer and asked him if he would please not take any pictures of any of my dogs because I had one who is very afraid of the camera click. I was wearing a blue tie-dyed shirt so I thought he could remember me. He said he would and he understood. I kept a careful eye on him and he left the standard ring and went over the far side of the JWW ring. I thought - great! I ran Sinco and she missed the weaves again - hmmm... Then it was Feisty's turn. Still no photographer at the ring and we had a good spot on the far side. We hung out and she was relaxed and happy. About 5 dogs before us the photographer came back to the standard ring. Well I still was not concerned because I had asked him not to shoot us and I kept Feisty out of range of the sound as long as possible. I took my time setting up so the photographer would be ready.

My plan was that if Feisty was squirrely I'd do one obstacle and leave. If she was a bit squirrely but running I'd skip the table and keep going. She started out on fire - she was fast, nailed the weaves, and so I went for the table. The photographer was about 20 feet from the table. As I released her from the table he clicked the camera and Feisty scooted around the chute - the next obstacle and I looked over at him and he was shooting her. I said "Please stop taking pictures of her!" - by that point Feisty was half way to the exit which was directly opposite of the camera. I was furious. All of the work I've done with the table and to have this happen. The melt down began. I thought I was managing the situation as best I can given that have NO time to work on it. Yes I realize it is a training issue but taking photos is optional.

So I recovered from my melt down and walked her around the rings - by this time most of the people were gone. She seemed fine and happy. She really treats the click sound like thunder and once it is gone she does fine. Hopefully I can get the photographer to remember tomorrow to not photograph her.

So I thought I could work on a bit in the hotel room. I have her stone collar, a thundershirt, and beef liver (stopped at a pet store for some even better treats). I have a business suite room since I have to be here for four days. Even across the room 20-25 feet distance and she can't tolerate the click. Even not having had dinner she was not hungry enough to work through it. Again she likes the quiet camera just fine.

There will be no portrait shoots for Feisty anytime soon. If I could just show her that it is coming from the camera and not the sky she would be fine with it. She is fine with clickers - for awhile I thought maybe the Iclick bothered her but it doesn't. She is not bothered by any other types of clicks.

It is so disappointing to me because she had been running better than she ever has at trials and now to have a setback like this and something new to have to train/proof her for. I am at a bit of a loss of how to begin with it but I think I will have to have someone else help and hold the camera 50 plus feet away - find a point where it clicks but she doesn't immediately go over threshold.

Keep your fingers crossed that this has not added a new problem for the table!

Rambling thoughts on training

2010-11-02T11:32:00.000-05:00

Poisoned cues and Names...

I've mentioned in previous posts how I had created the word "teeter" as a poisoned cue for Sinco's teeter performance 2-3 years ago. I had to retrain her teeter for the third or fourth time and finally realized that if I changed the name to "bang it" she was much happier about doing the teeter. I think she is finally over it now but it took awhile and she would avoid it or do it slowly if I forgot and said "teeter" - the cue I use for all the other dogs. I do try to remember to say "bang it."

Anyway the poisoned cue concept has reared its ugly head again. I am having another mysterious training issue (I seem to get these with each and every dog I train!) and I am having trouble getting Spring to come when called in many different situations including at home as well as in training or trialing. This is a life issue. Jane Fallander watched me with Spring a couple of weeks ago to help me figure out what was wrong. If I said "go leash" he would come happily to me and put his head in the loop of the leash. If I said "Springy" or "Springaling" he would scoot AWAY from me. If I show him the money by letting him know I have treat in my hand he would come back but he would not come without me showing him the money. However he would do agility obstacles or go to his leash without showing him the money. So the "aha" happened that his name has become a "poisoned cue" and no longer means what I want it to mean.

He is a puzzle because he does like to be petted, to be held, he loves his neck and head scratched and his butt scratched and he likes to play hand games. He is not like some Shelties who don't like to be touched. He really likes the touch. I've seen many Shelties (and many other breeds and mixed breeds) cower when the owner reaches toward them. While we may like to hug and pet our dogs there are many dogs out there who really detest the hugging and petting. Spring is not one of those dogs. He relaxes and sits on my lap very often. I never force dogs to snuggle with me. If they choose to do so then great but if they want to be off by themselves that is fine too and I don't take it personally (I've had Border Collies...).

So I've started to teach him "Bungee" means come to me and is his "training/trialing name". It is not yet ready for prime-time but it is in the works. He seems to really like the name and is coming to it without first seeing a treat is present.

How the cue got poisoned is pretty clear. While I love this dog he pushes my buttons more than any other dog I've ever owned. He barks and spins right in front me in the hallway or at meal time or trying to get him to go somewhere. I've almost fallen over him many times. I spent awhile making him walk on leash down the hallway to go outside to help him stop the behavior. I can try to reward an alternate behavior but it very much has to be lured since it is hardwired for him to do the bark and spin routine. I don't think he is truly aware of what he is doing. So as a result I've said his name "Spring" in vain many times and have probably used a harsher tone with his name which caused it to become a poisoned cue. Usually I'm very careful how I use my dog's name especially as puppies to avoid that. But like I said he pushes my buttons which causes me to forget my training rules!

Now I'm in the process of analyzing his perplexing table issues. I seem to be plagued with table issues in agility these days. I think in large part it is the one obstacle that is not offered at the trials where training in the ring is allowed (ASCA and NADAC) so I can't fix it there like I can most other obstacle/trial training issues. I have also done CPE with him where I can't spend extra time having him stay on the table. Spring has developed a tendency to bounce on and off and on and off and on and off the table at AKC trials. I've been working on proofing it with people around it and people running dogs around it. He doesn't appear to be stressed or worried about the judge. I wondered if it was the judge but lately that doesn't seem to be it. I have a hard time collecting him again - his name is a poisoned cue. Again he is pushing my buttons on the table so I have to work hard to have my happy face on while I try to collect him to leave the ring. I've planned table parties for him many times but he has yet to get on the table and stay there for more than a nanosecond since he entered Excellent A. So the problem was not always there - it is new and getting worse. Now the word "Table" may be a poisoned cue except that in training he gets on it just fine whereas his name as a cue didn't work in ANY location.

I have tried to vary my position relative to the table to try to get success. He has had lots of table rewards in training. He is not a sensitive dog, he is very stoic and he is very tough. He thinks very highly of himself and is more cocky than confident right now. He has learned that I can't do much about what he does on the table at trials. He is ring-wise about the table at trials. I've trained in the ring at ASCA trials with him with the other obstacles but they don't have the table on their courses. There are not enough run thrus at convenient times/days to be able to work through it there. At this point I don't really have a game plan for how to address the problem. It is one I have not ever seen other dogs do at trials to the degree that he does it nor have I seen student's dogs do it. It is a new behavioral problem for me. Lucky me :)

Traveling and perspectives on training...

It has been a few years since I've had dogs ready to take "on the road" to trials outside of Minnesota. This Fall I've been trialing in Iowa and Wisconsin and soon to Missouri in the hunt to qualify for AKC Nationals. We are really fortunate here in Minnesota to have a canine massage therapist at almost every one of our trials. In other parts of the country it is rare or even unheard of to have a massage therapist at a trial. As a result participants are still not as aware of how much physical well-being is affecting their dog's agility performance. Here in Minnesota we are getting trained to "rule out the physical" when a performance problem develops especially with weaves and jumping.

We are also spoiled by the high quality of agility equipment we have at most of the area trials. In Minnesota we are cutting edge with more of our clubs/groups getting rubber on the contacts, smaller slats on contacts, safer jumps, tunnel bag tunnel holders and 24" weave poles. I lived in Wisconsin until 1993 and started my agility training there and for most of the 1990s went back to Wisconsin for trials. I was surprised to see one of the clubs still has equipment that is from the 1990s and has not updated their jumps or contacts. I'm very grateful to live in an agility community where we strive to keep the equipment safe and updated for the sake of the dogs safety and well-being.

Agility Foundations thoughts...

I'm so excited that we have so many puppies up and coming here at Agile Canines. It seems to be a cycle every three years or so when many of us have puppies at the same time. I am always striving to improve the foundation training for the puppies and those older dogs new to agility. Jane Fallander has been incredibly patient as I've tried to train her in for how to work with agility students and how to best prepare their pups for performance sports. She is an excellent clicker trainer and has taught students how to shape behaviors and use the clicker effectively which is something that I value in my training program. I've been teaching her how to teach my favorite agility training games like "Ready-steady" and "Ready 1-2-3" which can be challenging to teach. However because she has more time available we are able to get more puppies started and that has been very good. This is the first year of trying our program this way and there will be "growing pains" and revisions made. But the first group of "novice a" students - those who have never done agility before that graduated from Jane's classes are excelling and progressing so rapidly through agility foundations that I'm really encouraged by our program.

I'm discovering too that while agility foundations is something that has become a jargon term in the agility arena and it talked about a lot on various agility training lists and in various magazines it seems that it is still not actually taught at many schools. I've recently had students come to me for training who started in agility in other parts of the country such as Chicago, Colorado, Arizona as well as other parts of Minnesota. I always want to know how they started their dogs in agility.

The skills I want dogs and handlers to have before starting agility foundations are the following:

Dog management skills - able to get the dog in and out of doors without the dog lunging at the end of the leash and able to protect dog from dog running loose off leash.
Loose leash walking
Send to a target (plastic lid)
Send and stay on a mat
Able to be in a crate quietly during class
Able to play with toys and take treats with distractions
Able to stay and do a recall with distractions
"Ready" games
Able to shape new behaviors with a clicker easily
Wobble

You will see NO tunnels are listed.

The skills I teach in agility foundations:

Front and rear crosses
"Out" and "Go"
Start of contact training with a board
Teeter games
Serpentines, pinwheels, boxes, 270s, threadles and straight lines with hoops
Lead outs
Running with the handler with acceleration and deceleration cues
Puppy jump chutes

You will see no tunnels are listed.

Note: I teach tunnels near the end of the beginning agility obstacles so dogs learn to love other obstacles first and also because I feel that curved tunnels are slippery and can cause injury to young developing dogs as well as adult dogs!

Most of the foundations exercises are for the handlers as much as for the dogs.

Running Contacts or Two on - Two off?

I teach all of my students how to train a two on two off with a board they can use at home. I feel that regardless of how their contact behavior ends up the process of teaching this the unique way that I do it really develops rear-end awareness in the dogs. This awareness I feel is invaluable for agility dogs.

Then as the puppies become fully developed and the handlers assess their physical condition I discuss with each one about the pros and cons of running contacts versus two on two off contacts. Choices are based on size, structure, ability of the dog and the physical ability of the handler. Keeping up with a running dogwalk can be very difficult. It is possible to have one criteria for the dogwalk and a different one for the aframe which many of my students have done successfully. Some of my students have tried the running contacts and found it to really have pit falls and have opted to return to a two on two off which is easy to do since the dogs were taught that on a board initially. Others have opted for what I call a "modified running contact" after a couple of years of doing a two on two off they introduce a "quick release" on the contact. This can be very effective for a running contact and still have the independent performance desired.

Training a "true" running contact that has no sign of deceleration in it on the part of the dog, that hits the yellow zone consistently every time requires hundreds of repetitions. The aframe is usually a bit easier than the dogwalk. While it may on the surface seem easier than a two on two off it is really based on muscle memory and getting the dog to have the same speed and striding each and every time over the contact is much more difficult than it appears.

Dogs taught a two on two off actually need FEWER repetitions on the contacts to train and maintain the behavior than those doing a running contact. When a trainer is consistent the dog will actually do fewer contact performances for a two on two off. I do get concerned about the impact of a two on two off on the aframe for many breeds of dogs and yet a running contact may be very difficult to achieve. I encourage my students to do as few aframes as possible when they have the desired behavior and have a two on two off. I have one dog now who does a two on and two off and she has done far fewer aframes in her lifetime compared to my Sheltie and Pyr Shep who have running aframes and have needed lots of reps. I also will try to avoid the aframe in gamblers if I can and places where I can avoid it I will to minimize the frequency of impact. I also am careful about the surface I run my dogs on.

As an aside, more dogs are being injured in curved tunnels and poorly timed/cued turns on jumps but the injury often shows itself on the aframe or weave poles but may have occurred elsewhere. I have a dog with a running aframe - never been asked to stop and she has a shoulder injury that most likely happened on a slippery turn between jumps or in a curved tunnel. Tunnels are much more slippery than many realize. But the aframe is often the one blamed for shoulder injuries when the turns are more hazardous.

Enough of my rambling thoughts from the last few weeks!

Mental Game

2010-09-21T11:17:00.000-05:00

Competing in agility is like other competitive activities - it has a large mental game component to it. Whether you are competing in Novice A or the World Championships it is very important to be aware of the human mental aspect of competing.

While I coach my students frequently about the mental game and about how their stress and nervousness is conveyed to their dogs and may adversely affect performance, I was recently reminded of how it impacts me. Years ago I had horrible "last leg syndrome" and I would consistently choke when I was needing that "last leg" for a big championship title. It took me almost as long to get the last leg for Bradish's ADCH title as it did to earn all of his USDAA legs - a slight exaggeration but not by much! Then I decided I had to make a change in how I was thinking about these things in order to be able to continue to have fun and success in this game. I started reading about the mental game and I attended a Lanny Bassham seminar and read his books. I also had dogs who really needed me to be calm and to be having fun in order for them to perform well. All of these things combined to help me lower my stress at agility trials no matter what title or leg was on the line. Then last weekend at the Rochester Kennel Club AKC trial I back-slided.

I have set a goal of qualifying for AKC Nationals with Sinco. She just moved into Ex B at the May TCOTC trial and that same day earned her first double Q. Then she was pregnant and had puppies and was out all summer until St. Croix Valley. I have from then until the end of November to earn 6 double Qs and 400 points to qualify. It is a doable goal but it is a bit of a stretch goal. At St. Croix Valley it was fun just to be back running her and we got better as a team as the weekend went on. We had some Qs and some PQs that weekend. Then the next weekend was Rochester and it was the third day of the trial and I had finally Q'd in the first standard run so I had a double Q on the line. I found myself more nervous and stressed walking to the line for that JWW run than I had been in a long time. It was not fun at all. I did not run as smoothly as I wanted. We did earn a double Q on that run but it didn't feel as fun. It felt stressful and on the edge the entire time. It was a wake-up call. I need to relax and focus on what is important - having smooth and fun runs with my canine teammate and doing my part to make the run go well.

We had a weekend off which helped me to train my dog and get myself back on track mentally. This past weekend was the Bloomington trial. I was back to feeling calm and confident running Sinco again. We earned two double Qs - going 4 for 4 that weekend. I did not feel like I was going to be sick at the start line. I felt calm and confident and our runs were smooth and fun. I did my part and she was able to do her part just like we train. It was a huge reminder about the mental game in this sport. If my mental game is on then my dog is more likely to have her mental game on as well.

So things I do before I run my dogs - I visualize our runs being smooth and accurate. I visualize running the course with my eyes close - seeing all my crosses, turns, accelerations and decelerations. I start the runs the same as I do in training. I rarely "fix" things when I run a course so I just keep the flow going for my dogs so they learn running at trials is fast and fun and not stressful. I don't want my dogs to think trialing is a place to worry.

I focus on handling the course and my plan and not on the Q. The Q is the icing on the cake.

Feisty started out on Saturday this past weekend the fastest I've ever seen her at a trial. It totally surprised me and it caused us to have some bobbles but I kept going and I just let her run and we didn't do the course exactly as numbered but Feisty didn't know that. I was just as happy that she wanted to run fast and run with me as if we had Q'd. If I had fixed things or fussed over her I would have deflated her and lost all the speed. She is a very speedy dog but rarely does she show that speed in public. I need to nurture that when she chooses to show it. I know in time she may give me that speed more often and I will learn to be more ready for her to show it and ready to properly handle that fast dog. She is very fast in training so I do know how to handle her.

When we focus too much on the Q we very often create stress not only for ourselves but for our dogs. Our dogs didn't fill out the entry form to be at this trial. They are there because we made them come. Many times they may not really be in the mood to run at an agility trial and yet we make them do it anyway. If we are stressed then our dogs often pick up on our stress and they respond in various ways to our stress. They will often act very differently than they do in training. The more we put them into that situation and it is not enjoyable for the dog the less they will want to play agility at a trial. This is why changing our mindset to doing what is best for our dogs will ultimately improve the performance of our dogs at a trial.

Very often I will do short courses - either as the plan from the start line or as a change of plan based on how the dog is running on the course. With Feisty if she NQs early on a course and it is before the weaves or table I will often abort the run. I know that the table is stressful for her so why do it more than we have to do it? I also know that weaves can be stressful both mentally and physically and I feel dogs only have so many weaves in them for their life time so why waste them when it won't further our agility career. Some dogs of mine may need to practice the weaves in public so I will continue on and have them weave after an NQ. Each of my dogs is different and how I handle things on a course will be different with each of them and it will also vary from run to run and weekend to weekend. I am very sensitive as to whether one of my dogs is sore as well. The last thing I want is to associate agility with pain by running my dog when they are sore.

When my dog appears to be "naughty" I first look at my handling and whether I caused the problem, if not then I look at my stress and the external factors that may be stressing my dog and then I look at my dog's overall demeanor. Was my dog having so much fun and running so fast that they just disconnected from me out of joy for running the obstacles? If that is the case then I'm happy my dog was having fun. Was my dog so high on adrenaline that he was running like a drug addict? If this seems to be the case then I as the trainer need to try to simulate that mental condition in training more to help my dog learn to focus through it. I also need to work harder at trials to prevent that condition from happening prior to our run. Very rarely do dogs do things to intentionally upset us. Most often things happen because of our poor timing/position, of stress (ours or external factors impinging on the dog) or the dog's excitement/adrenaline.

Lastly we never know when the last agility run will be with our canine teammates. I don't want that to be on a run where I have regrets about how I felt about my dog then. I always want to leave feeling happy. Even when one of my dogs is naughty I try to joke about it and focus on the positive in the run. Then I come up with a training plan to work on whatever the problem was, especially if it is becoming a trend. A one-time thing doesn't worry me but a repetive problem becomes a training issue.

This is a game we play with our dogs and the dogs don't get to decide which trials they attend.

Back Trialing!

2010-09-07T00:13:00.000-05:00

It is fun to be back trialing after being off about three months because of raising puppies. Sinco is back - better than ever! Feisty has even earned two double Qs! Spring has moved out of AKC Novice. I am focusing on AKC trials this Fall because I am trying to make a last minute effort to qualify Sinco for AKC Nationals. She just moved into Excellent B in May before she had to take time off to have puppies. We will see how it goes!

It has been fun to see my students trialing and to be able to help them out. I have enjoyed doing two outdoor agility trials. It is sad that outdoor agility trials are so few and far between anymore.

It has been an interesting couple of weekends for a lot of reasons. It has been fun to see people I haven't seen in many months. It is fun to watch dog and handler teams running agility. It is interesting to watch novice classes and wonder why so many people trial there dogs before they are ready and they openly admit the dogs are not ready!

I have also been presented with some ethical dilemmas during these two weekends. The first was a standard run under a judge who was under supervision. My dog knocked a bar and the crowd groaned so I knew it happened while I was running. Awhile later, after the class was almost done, I went over to see what my time was on that run. It turned out that I was awarded a clean run and second place (which meant "multiplier points"). I asked to see my scribe sheet and there were no faults recorded. I decided to go ask the judge about it and she could not recall whether she called it or not. She said "agility gods give and take." This is true however I did not feel right when it was a clear fault seen by many AND it was a placement that awarded extra points. I asked her to take away the Q and she did. What would you do? Would it matter if it were for a MACH title?

Then another incident happened where a dog missed the weave entry and had a beautiful rest of the run. The handler didn't fix the weaves. The judge didn't call anything - no one saw him call anything and exhibitors ran over to the handler to tell her that she had been given a "gift." The judge proceeded to call faults on the next several dogs who made the same mistake. The exhibitor talked to the judge about it and the judge said if people saw that he didn't call it then he would not change the clean scribe sheet. What would you do? What if it were for a MACH title? What if it were for a placement that awarded extra points?

Many people said that one should just accept these gifts. In my mind where the faults are visible to all and not just a judgment call such as a contact and the faults are not recorded then the judge should be made aware and the judge should decide how to handle it. As a judge myself I want to know these things. I've judged places where I've had to constantly remind the scribe to watch me and not the dogs and I have sensed that they were missing calls on the sheets. I would have to periodically go and look at the sheets during the class. It is difficult being a judge and watching lots of runs all day long. Things get missed, I know that. It is hard on the other competitors when titles and placements are awarded on runs that should have been faulted.

I have had things go in my favor - I knew that I didn't have a clean run with one dog and I never checked my scribe sheet or score. I assumed it would have been recorded as an NQ. Then weeks later a title arrived in the mail because of a Q that was awarded on that run. I still felt badly about it. I want my titles to be earned fair and square every time but I know that is not possible.

In the end we all have to live with ourselves and the decisions and choices we make in this world. For me it is most important to be ethical and to be thoughtful of others, even if it means "nice guys finish last."

Puppies, puppies, puppies

2010-07-25T17:15:00.000-05:00

If you want to know what I've been up to the last 5 weeks go to my other blog on Sinco's puppies! It is at sincopuppies.blogspot.com.

I am having a blast playing, observing, feeding, teaching and yes cleaning nine beautiful puppies! It is a great learning experience for me. I have had some great help from some very experienced mentors as well as being able to apply things I've read and researched. These puppies are so athletic and have been so from the very start. They are strong, agile, quick and bold!

Right now they are enjoying wobbling on an upside metal garbage can lid. There is a webcam too that is on most days when they are home. Now they travel to the school 2-3 days a week where they have yet another enriched environment with lots of visitors. I can't believe how many people have played with them already and from many different ethnic backgrounds and ages. I just hope to keep it up for the next four to five weeks!

I have been influenced by Myra Fourwinds, Suzanne Clothier, Ian Dunbar and many others in this whole adventure. I also know that this is something that is very fun and rewarding but something I can do once every four years or so. However at the same time now that I'm doing this I don't know that I would want to get a puppy anywhere else but raising it myself. There is something very special about knowing everything about what these puppies have done and experienced and knowing how much is hard wired from day one and what can be changed and molded. It is also hard work keeping the potential puppy owners up to date with things and letting them see what is happening to them. I want them to know as much as possible about the puppies before they get them because that is what I would like to know before getting a puppy. I try to put myself in their shoes.

Now I am off to try to make some more puppy obstacles for the outdoor play pen.

Choosing a puppy

2010-06-05T22:47:00.002-05:00

This has been a hot topic around the school lately because a number of students are getting puppies and Sinco is having puppies.

We all get puppies for different reasons. Sometimes the puppy we pick is for reasons other than agility, then later on we decide to try to make it into an agility dog.

All kinds of puppies can make good agility dogs. My biggest thing is trying to get the best fit between person and puppy. Sometimes we pick puppies because they are cute, we feel a hole in our lives and feel we need one, any one or we pick because we like the pedigree or like the parents. These are all considerations when selecting a puppy but if you want a puppy that will be a good performance dog then you need to look at many other characteristics.

If the puppy I'm considering is from a planned breeding then I want to know as much about the parents as possible. I ask lots of questions.

1. Health screenings - I want proof (no matter how well known a breeder is, I want to see copies of all health checks) of OFA certification, CERF tests, any genetic test results (check out your purebred dog - almost every one of them has a list of recommended genetic screenings) and DNA recordings with AKC and any other parent organization.

2. Health information on the dogs related to the ones being bred - littermates, offspring, parents, grandparents and others. Every line of dogs and every breed of dogs has problems and it is what the breeder you are working with has done with that information in their breeding program that is important. There should be known health screening records on all dogs going back 8 generations.

3. Temperament information about the dogs related to the ones being bred. It is important to meet as many dogs as you can that are related to the one you are getting. Ask owners of dogs related to your future puppy about their dogs. Ask what they are like around other dogs, children, strangers and what they are like at home versus around busy activities.

4. Then when your puppy is born if possible watch videos of your puppy, ask lots of questions about which puppy got out of the box first, which puppy is the pushiest, which is the most laid back, which is the loudest etc. When the puppies are old enough to move around more watch videos or ask questions about how the puppies do in new places, around new things, around loud sounds, around people and around other dogs. A good breeder should be exposing the puppies to lots of different things before they go home. Ideally they should have experienced riding in a car, been started on potty training, been introduced to a crate, been to a number of different new places and/or new surfaces. In most litters there will be wide variation in temperament and structure among the puppies. Just because two "high drive" dogs were bred together doesn't mean that all the puppies will be "high drive." Just because a specific breeding produced "all great dogs" doesn't mean that the repeat of that breeding will also produce "all great dogs." Look at each dog as an individual. I have seen in any given litter some pups who are more sensitive and reserved, and some who are bolder and more active and everything in between.

5. The breeder should know lots about you and what you want in a puppy so they can help you match up with a puppy. They are the experts on their litter. Try to visit the litter often if at all possible. More than once is recommended. You also want to see if there is a connection between you and a particular puppy. Often a puppy will pick its owner.

6. Things to look for in the temperament of a puppy for performance: boldness, self-confidence in new places, lack of sound sensitivity, follows people readily, persistence, energy level, forgiveness and biddability. Now some people like a dog that is tougher or harder meaning that the dog is more independent, more self-serving and more easily aroused into prey drive. Other people like their performance dogs to be less independent, have a natural off switch and to be very biddable. Both kinds of dogs can be highly successful performance dogs with the right owner. However if there is a dog/owner mismatch it can be a tough road for both. In agility you can have a biddable dog with a natural off switch who is also plenty fast enough to win. (I have one of those, so I know...) But not everyone wants or needs a dog who will win at a national level. Most of us want a dog who will run and do well at local trials and will earn the championship titles in the sport of our choosing. Again it is important to be realistic about your goals and about your time and resources for training and trialing.

7. Structure. This is very important. It will vary somewhat depending on the breed but having balance of angulation in front and rear and a front that is not too easty-westy is important for most sports. 8 weeks is generally considered a good time to evaluate a puppy's structure.

8. Lastly there are times when puppies come to us for reasons unrelated to performance sports. It may be good to be open to these experiences because they may come to us to teach us valuable lessons about other aspects of life. So when a puppy chooses us be aware they may not be choosing us because they want to do performance sports with us but they may be choosing us because they want to teach us something else about ourselves. This happens to me all the time so I know it does happen. I also know it doesn't work to ignore those opportunities either. They may even be disguised as performance prospects if they think we won't pick them otherwise.

A note about selecting a mixed breed. I think there are a lot of great mixed breed dogs out there who make great performance dogs. Again you want to select one with good overall structure and temperament. The more you can find out about their history the better. The notion of "hybrid vigor" is a myth. Mixed breed dogs are just as susceptible to the genetic diseases of their purebred counterparts. It is made more complicated because they can inherit them from different breeds. Many of the genetic disorders only need one copy of the gene in order to produce problems. Genetic based aspects of a dog that affect temperament or structure will not change with training or conditioning. You can improve upon it but you will be limited by the genetic make-up. With a dog of unknown parentage it is hard to know what that genetic make-up really is. If you are getting a dog from a rescue or other group where you can foster the dog for awhile to see how the dog fits in with you and your family that is an ideal situation. Then you will have some idea of who the dog is before you adopt them.

The bottom line is that if you are trying to choose a puppy/dog for a performance sport then you want to do your homework and find out as much as you can about the dogs who interest you. Also think about the details of the kind of dog you would like and think about who you are as a trainer and competitor. The more you know yourself, the easier it will be to find a dog who is a good match for you.

Spring is Sprung!

2010-06-01T23:32:00.000-05:00

Spring made is AKC Novice Standard debut this weekend. He earned two Novice Standard legs and two Novice JWW legs. He earned his NAJ this weekend. His confidence was definitely increasing and therefore his speed in JWW was increasing. He nailed all of his weave poles. On Saturday and Sunday he did his contacts well. On Monday he bailed on the teeter which was the fourth obstacle. I had him do the weaves right after it so we could end on a good note and left the ring. He needs more work on contacts in different places and on different types so we will do that before we trial again. I will only trial him in ASCA and NADAC where we can repeat the contacts. It is too hard when he can bail and I can't put him back on so he doesn't get a chance to work through it. The teeter at BOTC caught a lot of dogs by surprise so I am not surprised that he started to lose confidence on it. I have been working him on my teeter at home and he is gaining his confidence back.

Spring is interesting because he doesn't show signs of fear with the teeter. He can jump on low ones anywhere and ride them down in all kinds of crazy positions. I do think his vision issues cause him to become unsure - the base seems to be the latest to throw him off. He doesn't know how or can't see the base well enough and maybe he doesn't know where the tip point is relative to the base. You can see him stutter step before contacts sometimes and we believe he has a vision issue which causes this. So I suspec he doesn't know how to interpret what he sees and how it relates to the location of the board and tip point. More miles will help him sort it all out, I'm sure of it.

It is always something new with my dogs! I know I learn more from having different dogs and I don't have "cookie cutter" dogs which is why I so firmly believe there is no one way to train a dog. No matter what anyone says - there is really no one training method that will work for all dogs and all people. This is why I like learning different methods and I'm willing to try different things. The methods I use the most are the ones I've had the most success with and are the easiest for people to be able to use at home on their own. I also like to use training methods with my own dogs first before training others. It is best to experience how a method works before teaching others. It helps to be able to work with a lot of different dogs to be able to try out different methods.

Now to go out and learn more about dog training, conditioning and trialing...

Tay Update

2010-06-01T23:09:00.000-05:00

Tay was cleared earlier in May to trial at BOTC AKC trial. I picked that one because it would be just 2-3 runs a day. Tay struggled with the weaves all weekend and I realized I had rehabbed her on 24" spaced weave poles and they had narrower ones at the trial. Once I realized that I stopped worrying about her weaves. I made sure to have someone watch her run or video it so I could be sure that she didn't hurt herself or appear sore in any run. She ran fast and she ran well. There were glitches but we are rusty as a team. Most of our rehab at the end was done working on individual obstacle performance and short sequences.

Well I was at a seminar with Stacy this morning and our first run involved a lot of tight turns. I asked folks to watch her to be sure she ran well. She ran great! I was pleased with how well she did. I did our usual warm-up and lengthy cool down. I put her away and then about 40 minutes later brought her out again and she was limping. It was noticeable to everyone there. I walked her around and around and she got better. I ran her on a shorter version of the sequence and cooled her down for awhile. I put her away. Lin Gelbmann came by and I asked her about it. Tay was again limping when I got her out and Lin palpated her bicep tendon and she was sore again. Lin thinks she is almost as sore as she was last January.

I'm so disappointed. I was hoping to be able to run her this summer and to focus on her more. So now I need to start over with the rehab. I now have a large wading pool which I will be able to incorporate into her rehab which may help. It is not clear whether I will be able to get her strong enough to do agility again for an extended period. Lin thinks she is stronger than she was last January. Lin thinks she is injuring it by planting that foot and turning.

Stay tuned to see how things go from here. It looks like I won't be trialing much at all this summer.

Feisty Files Update

2010-06-01T22:52:00.000-05:00

It is time for another chapter in the "Feisty Files"!

As a refresher, in March of 2008 Feisty entered Excellent Standard and JWW. Since then she has earned 26 Excellent JWW legs (23 MXJ legs) and over 275 MACH points (all from JWW). She has also earned only 5 Excellent Standard legs. She earned her AXJ in March of 2008 and her AX in June of 2009.

In standard the table has been the biggest training issue. I have spent a lot of time working on proofing her table performance and making it fun. In February of this year at a USDAA trial she did the table which was situated right next to the ring stewards, timer and scribe as well as a row of people leaning over the railing AND the place where the noisy speaker had been. Feisty got on the table and went down without any hesitation at all. I knew we had made a huge breakthrough. After spending many runs in Standard getting an "E" for training the table (either leaving the ring to a party when she would finally get on it or leaving the ring because she refused to get on it at all, this was a huge victory.

May's TCOTC trial was our first time in Excellent standard in over 6 months. I was feeling good about her table performance and Jacque Hoye was the judge. We spent a lot of time working in Jacque's classes to proof her table performance so I thought this would be a good place to begin again. Feisty did a great table and a great everything else on Saturday to earn her FIRST Excellent B Standard leg in two years!!!! I was ecstatic! On Sunday she missed the weave entry which was right before the table. I made her redo the weaves so we could go to the table. She got on immediately and went down and we left right away to a huge party. Perfect way to reward the table!

This past weekend we ran in the BOTC AKC trial. On Saturday we ran JWW first. Feisty knocked a bar on jump 2 which is unusual for her but most likely due to the long grass in the ring. So I went into training mode and did more distance handling than usual at an AKC trial. I also "left" her in the weaves. She proceeded to miss the entry and pop out early and it was the next to last obstacle on the course. If I do this with my other dogs it is not a big deal. However I had a momentary lapse in memory of which dog I was running here. Feisty remembers everything and forgets nothing! Then on our standard run she popped out at pole 10. I remembered then that I better try it again and she popped out again so I took her off the course. I know I can't repeat my mistake from JWW and let her go on without weaviing again. On Sunday she ran JWW and popped out again at pole 10 - and I pulled her off right away. Then in Standard she took a wrong course into a tunnel when all who watched said that I was turned and calling her in plenty of time for her to come with me. So we left the course to cut our losses at that point. Needless to say I was feeling pretty frustrated with myself for having not "fixed" our weaves on rd 1 on Saturday.

So once again Feisty puts me into a position to consider something that I've only ever done with one other dog of mine (Tobie). I rarely recommend going home and training something between trial days. For most dogs they are too tired to really be able to process any training at the end of a day of trialing. For other dogs the adrenaline rush of the trial atmosphere or the stress of the trial scene is ultimately what is interfering with their performance so practice at home is not going to help that. I decided that I needed to make myself feel better that Feisty could weave 12 poles. I also realized that she had been practicing on the 24" poles so I should get out the 22" poles and practice with those. We stopped at the school on the way home and set up the narrower poles. I used the container of hot dogs as proofing material and placed the container by the 10th poles. The first time she weaved great right by it - she got hot dogs for it. Then she realized there were yummy treats in that container. Then she actually started to pop out to check out the container. Yippee! I recreated the problem and I verbally corrected her and asked her to weave again. She got faster and more excited about weaving and very quickly figured out how to weave past the container to get hot dogs. Then Pam offered to guard the container and we had it open and by the 10th pole. Feisty worked through it and got faster and more excited about weaving. Proofing does help build confidence and speed!!!

Our Sunday night training paid off! On Monday Feisty ran two perfectly clean runs to earn her FIRST Double Q - two years after getting into Excellent!!! It was great! She took second place behind Pam and Windy in JWW!

It is really hard to run a dog who has as much as potential as she does and is as skilled as she is when she can act so squirrelly at times! She is also the first dog I've had who is in that very small minority of dogs who exercises her independence. She has done this in seminars as well in trials where she has made up her own course that does not reflect my handling at all and she has refused to do obstacles by stopping and standing there staring at me. There have been times when I could tell it was stress related but there are times when she is definitely not stressed. So any time she is running as a teammate it is a real treat! She is a very high energy dog who loves to do things with me but everything has to be aligned just right for her to be willing and able to run as a teammate! She is also the kind of dog who loves to be challenged in her training and does not shut down when she is mentally challenged. She can be shut down with stress or boredom. Proofing is mentally challenging for her and she gets into it.

So I finally got the positive reinforcement I needed to keep going with her! We have had a LONG dry spell!

Busy couple of months!

2010-05-29T21:21:00.000-05:00

It has been a very hectic couple of months. Mid-April saw Sinco come into heat, finally after waiting since October for that to happen! Then the mad-dash to decide how to get her to Canada to be bred. I had planned to do AI when I thought it was going to be a winter breeding but now the weather was better. I was doing the progesterone tests and it was starting to look like she was going to peak on a weekend which makes doing AI riskier. It can end up being done too early and too late. I looked up airfares and decided it would cost the same to send her on a plane with Myra and then in a rental car. So off they went to a small town 5 hours drive north of Vancouver. Sinco was great and two breedings took place.

Then Sinco came back and ran great at our April NADAC trial. The weather was chilly and damp but our spirits were not dampened and many of us wore our Hawaiian Shirts to show Mother Nature we would persevere. I ran Sinco, Spring and Feisty. Spring ran great all weekend. Sinco ran like a champ. Feisty had a blast with the wide open courses.

Then the first week of May my father fell and broke his hip the day before his 82nd birthday. He lives in North Carolina. He had been living alone since my mother died a year earlier. He had been doing alright on his own. He had surgery on his birthday and then a couple of days later was admitted into a rehab nursing home. He has been there ever since. He lost a lot of cognitive functioning through the ordeal and he is no longer able to read or write well, dress himself or even eat without help. Before this happened he was almost completely deaf so that doesn't help matters.

The following week Susan Perry came to town and put on an awesome seminar! She is great and I heard lots of positive feedback from it. Things were difficult with my Dad and I wasn't getting good information from the nursing home so I had to go to North Carolina in the middle of Susan's seminar. I was disappointed to have missed most of it. However it was good to go on the trip.

Then we had an ultrasound on Sinco and they heard NINE heartbeats! Wow that is a lot more than I was expecting! But it was nice to hear good news for a change!

Then I get back from that trip and have to head out the following weekend to supervise judge in Florida for two days. It was at this point that I decided to resign from judging for ASCA and to resign from doing course reviews. I just have too much going on with the school, my father and the puppies on the way.

Friday night I went to St. Peter to do an obedience run through with Feisty in Open. She did well and she did things I expected. She is rough around the edges and definitely not polished. However she is not the kind of dog I can drill or overtrain. I have her entered one day at the Lake Minnetonka obedience trial on June 12th.

Now this weekend I have been able to run my own dogs. Tay is making her re-debut after being in rehab for a strained/slightly torn triceps tendon that happened at the end of January. She is physically looking very good. Unfortunately today the folks in the tent next to me started grilling their lunch. Tay was freaked and incredibly stressed out by the smell of the smoke. The wind blew the smell all across the agility rings. I was able to get her to calm down enough that she was able to somewhat run in the ring farthest away. She ran better after they were done grilling and the smell had cleared. I did so much work on it last year and now to feel like I'm back at square one with it is disheartening. Feisty was a bit squirrelly today. Spring however had a very good novice standard run. He is still a bit tentative on contacts he doesn't know and his striding was not the best since he was thinking hard about them. He did have a clean run in standard and he had a great FAST run. We had a back jump in novice JWW but otherwise the run was great. He did very well for his debut in AKC standard.

Now to spend the next couple of weeks getting ready for puppies that are due between June 15-19! I have a very busy summer ahead of me!

Teacup Trial

2010-04-04T13:58:00.000-05:00

We had a fun weekend hosting our first Teacup Agility Trial in our new building! It was a lot of fun! Rachelle was a great judge with fun and challenging courses. Everyone pitched in and helped and we had a wonderful worker raffle organized by Chris Mosley. We had several vendors here on Saturday and a couple on Sunday. The food went over well both days having soup on Saturday and ham and turkey on Sunday.

As of this writing there were three TACHs! Chris and Winn earned their TACH, Dennis and Daisy earned their TACH and Kelly and Sired earned their TACH2. Wow!

Windy and Spring made their Teacup debuts and handled the tight little courses amazingly well. They are both much more adaptable to running collected than we ever imagined. I wasn't able to run Feisty much because her back is sore.

We had a great turnout with the most runs entered we've ever had and we had a number of entries brand new to TDAA and a few brand new to agility trials. Everyone had a great time and it is such a relaxed setting. We are going to look at our calendar and see when we can have some more of these here!

Annelise

Great lessons!

2010-03-28T12:02:00.001-05:00

Once again I am amazed at Suzanne Clothier's gift of observation. I never cease to learn from her and to hone my own observation skills. She really brought home the concept of "ask the dog" who they are. We tend to get caught up in what she refers to as the "frame" of what we already know about the dog and our preconceived notions about what that means. Looking and closely observing the dog without any prior knowledge from the human is an excellent skill to have.

I have always seen and believed in dogs being unique individuals and that "cookie cutter" dog training is not the way to go. My own dogs alone have shown me that, let alone the many others who have come before me for help over the years.

Suzanne is also the master of human analogies that can really help drive home a concept or point she wants to make. This makes her an excellent teacher of the human part of the team. It is important to learn from Suzanne with an open mind and also with a willingness to let go of your prior beliefs and ideas. She may upset you if you chose to go that route or you can thank her for the incredible insight she has shared with you.

This is exactly what happened to me this past weekend in a completely unexpected way. I decided to volunteer one of my dogs for the group exercise of asking the DOG who they are. I brought Tay out for the group. She was her usual happy self and wiggling around to visit everyone. The point of the exercise is to observe the dog and to not seek information from me. Tay didn't stop moving the entire time and she was aware of things in her environment. After several minutes Suzanne came over and observed that she is a dog that we don't get to see all the time but we should notice them more. She noticed immediately her sweet soft eyes. Many of us have seen her "sweet eyes", it is one of the most salient characteristics she has. I don't know of anyone who has met her who hasn't commented on her "sweetness." Well what I learned is that her eyes do lack that intensity and depth that many dogs have. This is so true. What does that mean? Suzanne believes it means that Tay may not be functioning fully cognitively.

Rather than feeling sad for her, I immediately felt relief! Now I had a reason why some things are so especially hard for Tay to learn and other things were incredibly easy. It was a huge "aha" moment for me. What else did Suzanne notice about her? She used the analogy that Tay does "not take notes." Now many of you who have read my posts and my blogs know about the detailed 20 volume set of notes that Feisty has and the shorter more concise notebook series that Sinco has. I have never felt like Tay was a note taker but I did feel that she would generalize some behaviors very easily. Tay at the seminar greeted everyone in the circle the same whether she knew them or not and she would repeatedly cycle through the group.

So for the past several days I've been pondering the kinds of things that Tay learned easily and the kinds of things that she still struggles to learn and I struggle to teach her. She learned the agility obstacles with incredible ease, even weave poles. I waited until she was 15 months old to start weaves. She learned 2on/2off very easily. She learned the cone exercises and hoop exercises I did with her from when she was a puppy. She has an awesome recall. She is awesome with targeting. She generalized agility obstacles with amazing ease and she generalized targeting from a lid on the floor to tape on the wall with amazing ease. She can play "101 things to do with X (fill in box, pedestal, etc.)" with the cue "show me something else." She learned to run and jump in a chair (be careful what you teach your dog!). She loves crate games and is wonderful in a crate anywhere. She has a very good automatic sit in front of any door and will turn toward me automatically when going through almost any door.

What kinds of things have been hard for Tay? Stays... - even though when I tried to video this she did one of the best stays (I was only a couple of feet away). She tends to keep moving her feet constantly on a stay whether in the house, by agility equipment or anywhere else. She has a marginal stay on a mat - it takes a lot of work to maintain. She has trouble with heel position. I teach all of my dogs to "choose to heel" with a clicker and treats and I do it on both sides of me. As I refine for obedience I set a distinct body posture and hand position to cue the heel position as well as the word. She can not orient to my side - she is a bit random and is often out in front curving around me. My other dogs have learned this with relative ease. She does not understand hand signals at all in spite of lots of use of them. She does not appear attentive at all to my body cues. My other dogs are very attentive to subtle changes in my body position - one twitch and I can send them off anywhere. I believe Tay does not understand obstacle names for discrimination. I am starting to believe it is 50/50 for her. It is something I work on with all of my dogs and she has the weakest skills in this regard and requires a lot of work on my part. Suzanne said she would have a hard time with distance. She has a lot of confidence on individual obstacle performance that she can do obstacles at a distance with ease. What she can not do is take direction AND do obstacles at a distance. This is what I'm discovering with her. In training I break things down and in pieces she can get it but when put together she has trouble keeping two ideas/thoughts in her head to be able to change direction or do discriminations at a distance. She will either head to what is in front of her but if she is derailed I can not redirect her at all unlike my other dogs who will redirect. The other thing she has a hard time with when outside in a field is "auto check-in." She can do it in familiar surroundings that are not too distracting if my treats are good enough. At the livestock arena and outside in a field she would not both keep an eye on me and be able to keep sniffing. I work on this with all my dogs when they are puppies and take them to different places. When off leash I will make sharp turns away from them and when they catch up with me they get a treat. Then they can go off sniffing and anytime they check-in they get a treat. My other dogs do this with ease but Tay often has to be called and then she turns on a dime and comes.

I have also in the last three weeks been working on her doing front paw lifts/stretches as part of her rehab. I knew it would be easy to shape it but what I didn't expect was how difficult it is to refine it. I want to try to teach her to do one paw a few times and then switch to the other paw. Even after three weeks she still will offer each paw equally and wildly and can not seem to repeatedly offer the same paw over and over in spite of reinforcement to try to shape that. I am using my hands as the cue. I am considering teaching her to touch an object to see if that will make it clearer to her rather than touching my body part.

For comparison I decided to train my dogs who had not ever been asked to do this trick to review how they do it. Two of the dogs had very strong right paw preference and I had a hard time getting them to offer the left paw (Sinco almost fell over a couple of times trying to do it!) One dog had a strong left paw preference - Feisty ;) Tay does not have nearly such a strong paw preference. Suzanne said that both in dogs and humans that lack of handedness/pawedness is associated with a lack of bilateralization in the brain. This may also be linked to my difficulty in teaching her left and right which I train all my dogs to do.

On Friday afternoon I set up a session to video for Suzanne. I had been trying to come up with different scenarios to show what Tay does. We did one thing which is the start of teaching a dog to find someone or something. I showed her where I was hiding a treat. We went out of the room for 3-5 seconds and came back in and allowed her to search for the treat. She had a really hard time with this and after 45 seconds or so needed help. We repeated this two times each with two different spots. Each time she needed help after a long time. She was wondering around sniffing but seemed to have no recall where the treat was. Then I had someone else hide the treat in one of the two spots and brought her in and she could not find those either without help or after a long time searching. This was interesting so I wanted to see how my other dogs would do with this exercise. I used all the dogs I had who had never been taught any tracking or scent discrimination. Sinco remembered the treats right away and ran to them every time. Amigo the JRT did as well (especially after a potty break). Then I did it with Spring and Tobie. They both did better than Tay but took a bit more time than Amigo or Sinco but caught on pretty quickly. After a break we brought Tay back and tried it again with different treats and she did much better the second time and was more like Tobie and Spring on the second time. Tay is a highly food motivated dog who also if very smell sensitive and uses her nose constantly so one would think she could find a hidden treat easily.

In a few days I am going to try it again with Tay in the same place to see how she does. If she does well then I will move it to a new place.

I have a theory about Tay. I think she can learn behaviors quickly when there is a clear large physical object (stimulus) involved. All of the behaviors she does well involve some object that is pretty visible. The behaviors she struggles with involve body cues from me or no physical objects at all. I knew early on that obedience would not be a good sport for her and clearly that is true - the precision and awareness of my body cues is not a strong suit for her. Agility is a good sport for her.

Tay is very high functioning on the spectrum. But she is here to remind us that there is a spectrum of cognitive functioning in dogs like there is in humans. We have seen ranges in emotional functioning in dogs (i.e. reactive dogs). We often overlook the fact that some dogs may not be able to learn what we want to teach them, may have difficulty learning the way we are teaching them or may not have the innate cognitive ability to do it. I am very glad that I taught Tay with a clicker early on - I think that may have been the smartest thing to do for her. She does not do well with luring - but the clicker is very powerful for her. I have been learning that clicker training works well with autistic children. I don't think Tay has trouble socially, she is very non-reactive and friendly but she does mediate well between people she knows and those she doesn't know. I am busy reading resources that Suzanne has given me to brush up on cognitive psychology.

The good thing for me about Tay is that she is taking me back to my college and grad school psychology studies and now I'm getting caught up on the latest research in the last 20 years since then! It is very exciting for me.

Since this has happened in the last week a number of top trainers have shared similar stories where they thought it was the owner not having a clue about training the dog so the trainer took the dog home to try to work with it. The top trainer also had a hard time with the dog. So remember it is not always the owner's fault when a dog is not understanding a concept. Sometimes it is part of who the dog is.

So when first looking at a training problem - open your mind and ask the dog "who are you?" There may be physical reasons, mental limitations or relationship with the owner problems that are affecting training the dog.

Open your minds as well as your hearts and you will be amazed at what is out there!

Annelise who never ceases to learn from her dogs and her dogs never cease to teach her!

PS For those of you who want some light reading (or listening) - Suzanne and I recommend the Sapolsky lectures available at http://itunes.stanford.edu/ or at http://www.thegreatcourses.com/.

Leysha, run free sweet girl!

2010-03-18T23:11:00.001-05:00

Rising Sun Leysha S-NATCH ADCH ATCH APD MX MXJ TN-E TG-E WV-O CDX STDs,d FM HSAs,d

6/22/96 – 3/18/10

Leysha has brought me full circle and yet she took me to a lot of new places. She was born next door to where we live now before I lived here. She was out of an “oops” breeding from a dog I always really liked. She was an easy dog to train but 13 years ago we were still just figuring out how best to train dogs for agility. She taught me a LOT about motivating dogs and about ring stress. She was the first dog of mine to be great in the backyard but at trials she would either not want to leave the start line or she would run out of the ring part way through the course. She helped me learn about doing short courses/sequences at trials to build confidence. It worked well enough for her to win the 20” Open Division at NADAC Championships when she was just two years old. She was very consistent and fast enough for any agility organization. Our last competitive run together was in the Veterans Grand Prix Finals at the 2003 USDAA Nationals where she placed 2nd. It was a wonderful run that I can still see clearly as if it were yesterday (and I haven’t even watched the run on the DVD yet). Yes she was retired at age 7 because she clearly did agility for me and I had always promised her that we would do herding together. We focused on herding and obedience for the next couple of years before her complete retirement from the competitive world.

She got me started in competitive herding – it was what she loved doing best. She did most of it in spite of me – I learned from her how much natural talent in herding is a good thing but also how important foundation skills are for good teamwork in herding. We didn’t have the foundation skills. But we had fun. She loved herding ducks best , and she loved it when we moved to Stacy and had sheep and ducks that she needed to herd and keep in line.

She also did flyball (not the speediest but VERY consistent). She and I did obedience but the stress of Utility competition was too much for her and I retired her before she was able to earn a leg. She loved her retirement. She loved running around the front yard keeping an ever watchful eye on the sheep and ducks.

Leysha was also very willing to help students learn agility handling. She had a sense of humor about it and would stop in her tracks and look at them if they were not at all clear – even if she had a pretty good idea of where they wanted her to go. I think she took perverse pleasure in pointing out handling mistakes.

She and I went to NADAC Championships, AKC Nationals and USDAA Nationals. She was always very good with the many puppies I have had here and was firm but tolerant of them. She didn’t like a lot of out of control playing unless she was involved. Her favorite toy was a jolly ball which she would obsessively play with through the woods and the barn.

She also got to see me into the new school and spent some time there with me and she was able to see me through this latest transformation. After a couple of weeks where she was not doing well after a bad seizure we got her meds stabilized and I got a gift of a couple of weeks where she was bright-eyed, running around supervising the youngsters, getting into the toilet paper rolls, and cleaning out pockets of pants. I treasure those two weeks and spent a lot of time with her and appreciating everything about her. They are never with us long enough but I’m grateful for the time I had with her and all that she has shared with me. She and I have been together many times and I am sure that she and I will be together again sometime.

http://www.agilecanines.com/AgilePack/Leysha.html

Tables, Tables, Tables

2010-02-25T16:25:00.000-06:00

We had a great time at the USDAA trial this past weekend. Sinco earned her PD3 title in very short time. She was in PD3 standard for only two trials!

The biggest personal Q was Feisty's awesome table performance on Sunday's Advanced Standard run. The table was very close to the edge of the ring and very close to where a timer, scribe and bar setter were sitting. The bar setter was a tall man who I've worked with in the past for proofing her tables. She is often stressed out by him when doing agility but not when she sees him away from agility. The table was also near the speaker box which had spooked her during her snooker run. I did a lot of desensitization outside of the ring near this area before our standard run. Feisty ran non-stop to the table and got on and laid down immediately with her back to the people. I praised her the entire time on the table and smiled at her. I was thrilled! I thought for a moment about leaving to a party but I remembered the last time I did that I spooked her by being too loud and excited and then she was afraid to do the table near me! So I opted to just be happy while she was there and continue on the course. I've spent a year and a half working on her stress over the table. I have not run her in an AKC Excellent Std class in maybe 9 months or more.

Some folks have asked what I've done to work on this problem, well I've done a LOT of work on it! I decided to not give up on it. The problem started in July of 2008 when at an AKC trial the judge had a loud booming voice and Feisty noticed for the first time a judge's presence while she was on the table. She was visibly distracted and could not focus the rest of the run. She would not go near him when he was judging the JWW class - she knew he was there. So I thought at first it was just an individual judge thing or maybe a male judge thing. But then it generalized to a table problem at trial after trial. She would stop and sniff the table and not get on, she would run away from the table, she would slam on the breaks and refuse to move, she would jump on and then off immediately - you name it she did it.

So I first started by leaving the ring to a big treat party when she got on the table. In the meantime she discovered that judges sometimes laugh when she does her table refusal antics. She loves to make people laugh. So I started to not be able to get her to go on the table at all. I stopped running her in AKC standard classes at that point. I took her to a group class where I could enlist the help of other students to hover around the table and also be major distractions around the course. This was very stressful for her - she had a hard time working through people crowding her on course. She would be fine with people outside the agility ring but not inside it. I had varying degrees of success with this project. I also had my students hang out after class to act as distractions for her.

I used CPE as a good place to train the table because it is the last obstacle in the games so what better way to have a party for getting on the table. Well she was sometimes reluctant to get on the table in CPE. I lost a few Qs because she took too long to get on the table. One time she did get on the table and it was part of the Jackpot class and I was so excited that I scared her with my excitement! That set us back a bit in CPE last summer.

In USDAA Feisty has been pretty good about getting on the table in most cases. There have been a couple of USDAA trials where she balked at it and it took a few seconds to get her to go on it. But this weekend is a major breakthrough for her to get right on the table when so many people were just a couple of feet away from it and it was a male judge in the ring. It was also in a ring where earlier that day and the previous day she experienced some stress. While it is way too early to tell I am thinking positive thoughts for our next AKC trial which will probably be this summer.

I have advised some of my students to reward their dog's table performance by leaving the ring after the table to a party. Mixing up when those rewards come at trials is so important to keeping ring performance fresh and consistent. We too often take our dog's good performance for granted until it deteriorates to the point of losing Qs. This is hard to do but it is SO important to improving a dog's performance in a trial setting. No amount of run throughs or open ring time will be the same as a trial setting.

So we'll see how things go this summer at our next AKC trials.

Annelise

The "R" word ... again

2010-02-14T13:10:00.000-06:00

While having Jedi's retirement discussion was hard this past week because we were not prepared for it but I was really unprepared to hear the "r" word mentioned for Tay. It is hard when we have fun doing this game with our dogs and yet they are doing much more physical work than we are out there.

To have to face the decision to retire a very high energy 4 year old dog who loves agility is something I have not had to do. Amigo's early retirement decision was not so hard because he really didn't seem to like agility (maybe because it always hurt him to do it). I have lost dogs at young ages so I am grateful that Tay is still here with me. I love her spirit - she (and Feisty) are always the first ones to volunteer to go with me. She loves doing things with me, she has boundless energy and she loves learning new things. While she has not been the most consistent agility dog, she is always fun to run because she is happy to be doing something with me.

While I love competitive agility, realistically I know it is not something I will do the rest of my life. I am pretty sure I will always have animals in my life. I don't know what is in store for Tay and me but I will have to find a way to make time for whatever it is. I do know it won't involve things that require lots of stays and self-control :)

Tay has had off and on front end lameness since the end of January. I thought she had pulled a muscle at the seminar. But after 10 days of massage and chiropractic she was still on and off lame on the left and right legs. I decided to take her for x-rays. Having learned my lesson from Spring that this could mean a broken leg, I wanted to be sure that was not the case. I also had her tested for the tick diseases. I was not at all prepared for the findings that showed she is in the early stages of arthritis on both elbows and has irritated lungs (she is asymptomatic). The elbows are due to wear and tear and dogs with straight fronts are very susceptible to this. I try to be careful about when I start jumping my dogs and where I jump them but some dogs are just more vulnerable to developing this condition.

I went to a seminar the day before the trial and I ran all of the dogs there. I was concerned with the surface because it seemed harder and slipperier than I expected. All of my dogs had sore muscles when they had massages at the trial the next day. My dogs usually are not sore unless they injure themselves in some way. So please, please, please think very carefully about where and when you run your dogs in agility. The softness of the surface is just as, if not, more important than the degree of slipperiness. I would definitely not have run an older dog on that surface. You just never know when your dog might have a condition that is going to be aggravated by running on hard surfaces and you never know what injury you could cause by running on that kind of surface. Agility is an athletic sport and the risk of injury is ALWAYS there. I try to stack the deck in my favor to minimize injury as much as possible. I'm now even more adamant than ever that I won't knowingly run my dogs on a hard surface. Sometimes even at outdoor trials the ground can be as hard as concrete.

I guess I have another adventure ahead of me and more things to learn. I just wish I knew what it was I had to learn and if the lessons could be easier...

Annelise

Retiring dogs - difficult decisions

2010-02-08T14:49:00.000-06:00

Another era in dog agility may be coming to a close. The decision of when to retire a dog is so much easier when we can make the choice ourselves. It is much harder when the dog makes it for us before we are ready to let go of the joy of running agility with our canine partner.

My very first dog and the one who got my hooked on agility died when she was two years old - shortly after we discovered the fun of agility! Then Demi was the next one who went blind just when she was starting to get the hang of agility and being a teammate with me (she didn't come to me until she was a year and a half old and she had no training). The cataract surgery was not enough to help her see to do agility safely in different types of lighting so it wasn't worth the risk of injury. Then Bradish came along and really got me hooked on competitive agility. He loved flyball and agility. I had planned on obedience as his post-agility career. However the years of flyball took their toll on his carpal joints and he was not sound enough to do the jumps required in Obedience Utility or Open so he was retired from that activity before I was ready. Then Nigel was always watched carefully because he was diagnosed with moderate hip dysplasia at 2 years old by two different Orthopedic surgeons (one at the U of M) even though OFA said his hips were "good." He developed Spondylosis as well as severe arthritis in hips and his agility career was very short lived. He didn't like agility much and probably because it was painful to him at times even though he was plenty fast enough when he felt good.

Then the next generation came along. Leysha loved herding and liked agility and obedience. I tried to do obedience earlier in her life than I did with Bradish in the hopes of actually finishing a UD with her. Leysha was retired from agility in 2003 after she gave me the run of a lifetime with a fast clean run at the USDAA Veterans Grand Prix Finals. We took second then. She learned to love agility with a lot of help from me and I wanted to remember her running agility with that run in mind when we were in sync, she was giving me 200% and having a ton of fun. She didn't need to do anymore agility after that - that was my gift to her. She spent much of her retirement doing herding chores around here and earning started sheep and duck titles in AKC. She became too stressed trying to earn a UD so I retired her from that. I was able to work her through her initial stress in agility but doing it again at the age of 9-10 in obedience just didn't seem fair to her. I wanted our obedience runs to be fun together and if she didn't enjoy it then I was not going to try to make her enjoy it. She has loved her retirement life and she is still going strong and runs around the yard eager to help with any barn chore. I love seeing her so happy just doing things around here - she was never that happy to go to an agility trial even though she earned many upper level agility championship titles and won national competitions.

Tobie is the next one in this generation. He came to me at a year and a half. I learned a lot from him, he loved agility and ran fast. He taught me what it is like to train and run a fast dog. He also taught me what it is like to have a reactive dog who is aggressive. I learned a lot about training and managing a reactive dog. He was a lot of work to manage at an agility trial. He also was what I call an adrenaline junkie in that he would get so high he couldn't think when he was running. It would interfere with our teamwork at trials. He would listen and follow direction well in training and even at seminars but at a trial he would become like a drug addict who can't hear or follow directions. He did earn a couple of champion agility titles but it was not fun for me as his teammate to run him at trials. Yes he was very fast but when he was not a team player more than he was it made it not as much fun for me. I retired him when he was 9 years old. I also was concerned that he does get so high in agility that if he did hurt himself he would keep running and as he aged the likelihood of hurting himself increases dramatically. He actually doesn't seem to mind retirement. Due to his dog aggressiveness I can't take him to trials with me and I really can't do many other activities with him. He and I did Rally but he gets high doing that and started barking while waiting his turn and then he can't think clearly. He is a great dog around the house and easy to live with.

Amigo had to be retired from agility at the age of 3. His structure with his front-end was causing repeated tears in his pectoral muscles when jumping. He would have on again and off again lameness. After rehabbing him twice from the injuries I consulted with a few different people and decided that retiring him from agility made the most sense. He is a reminder that structure is really important for agility. If you know your dog has poor structure for agility in some capacity or another you need to take extra care of that area and you need to be prepared that your dog may have to be retired from the sport at a younger age than most dogs. When selecting a dog for agility it is so important to look at structure in terms of longevity in this sport.

Sonic, well most of you know he lived a short life with us. He left me long before I was ready at the age of 6. He was just coming into his prime in agility. He is a constant reminder that they can leave us all too soon at anytime and we need to cherish our time with them all the time.

Pam's Jedi falls into this generation. Her is what Pam writes about her struggle with the decision about when to retire him.

Pam writes: "Jedi is almost 11 years old, and a small sheltie who I expected to be able to play with in agility until he was at least 12 or 13. I thought that in the next year I would move him to 8" jumps in the organizations that have that option, and run with him that way for a few more years. I thought he and I had a lot more opportunities to step to the line together and smile at each other before taking off to play our favorite game. Now it's possible that he and I have had our last agility run together. Two different vets have told me it is time to think about retiring him. Mostly I don't want to think about it. I tell myself to wait until he's had time to heal from his latest episode of limping and pain, and then make a decision. I tell myself how much he loves the game. I tell myself lots of things to try to rationalize how this would be an OK thing to keep doing with him. But in my (broken) heart, I think that he and I have run our last agility course together.

I want to stop doing agility with him before it becomes something he is only doing to make me happy. I want to remember his joy and enthusiasm while running a course, not the little worried look he gets when something goes wrong because he was hurting. I want to remember him running fast with me, not struggling to get around a course. And mostly, I want him as strong and healthy as he can be, so his senior years are as joyful to him as his younger years were. I may have to stretch myself to learn new dog activities that Jedi and I can do together with his aging body, but his wonderful attitude that is about loving to do things with me, not necessarily about loving to do agility.

I'm not ready to make a total commitment to retiring him from agility -- I keep telling myself that maybe he will heal well and I will be able to feel good about continuing to play with him. But I hope I am able to make the right decision at the right time. He deserves that from me for all he is and for all he has done for me for so long." - Pam

As Pam notes too, we are the guardians of our canine partners/friends/family members. It is up to us to decide when it is time to quit/change activities. They can be so stoic and not show how much pain they are in. When I see my dogs doing any one of these things: running slower than usual, running around obstacles, missing weave poles and not seeming as interested in doing agility, I stop to check for physical problems. I don't ever want to knowingly run my dogs when they are in pain. We have the privilege to say "I know you really like this game but it hurts you too much to do it anymore." Agility is a game for athletes and it does take a toll on our dogs. Many dogs will keep playing because they love us and they want to please us so much. I want my dogs to play because THEY love it not because I love it. Knowing your dog is very important and being honest about it. Dogs don't care about titles, placements or national competitions.

Also keep in mind that it is not just the jumps that are hard on our dogs. We can lower their jump heights but tunnels can be slippery, contacts can be hard on their front ends, weaves are very hard on backs and legs and turns can be hard on the body too.

So give your canine partners a hug and kiss and love them for who they are and not just for what they can do on the agility field!

Annelise

Sinco Video

2010-02-04T10:24:00.000-06:00

From this past weekend's ASCA trial and courtesy of Linda Heaton here is a link to a video of one of Sinco's runs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkoH-hMrzQY

Thanks Linda!

Annelise

Tay's amazing January!

2010-02-04T06:58:00.000-06:00

Tay started out her agility career trialing at 18-20 months in novice AKC and ASCA and in levels 2 in CPE and P1 in USDAA. She did really well and did not seem any different at trials than she was at home training. She was really fun and consistent. Then when she was about 25 months old at an ASCA trial I put her on a stay and did a four jump lead out. It was something I had done many times in training so I thought I would try it at a trial. Those of you who know what ASCA/NADAC jumpers courses are like - it can be really nice to have that long lead-out. Tay became visibily stressed and by the time I got to jump four she got up and left the start line sniffing. I took her off the course and began to ponder things. At an AKC trial around the same time her dogwalk criteria started to fall apart and she was becoming visibly stressed about it. I tried verbally marking it and that didn't seem to help. Then I tried taking her off the course for not doing it and it only made matters worse. These were all things I had done in training with her when she had gotten too excited to be able to maintain her criteria.

Tay is a dog who in training is very resilient. She has no problem making mistakes and learning from them. She loves clicker training and she will work endlessly to figure out what I want. If she gets excited and misses a contact in training it doesn't take much to fix it.

Since she was about two years old I have spent the last almost two years working to get the dog back at trials who loves to train in agility. It has been a long road with a lot of learnings for both of us. Tay has had more "PQ" runs ("personal Qs" or "Party Qs") than any dog I've had. She and I have tried essential oils, Florida Water, Pelliscastle collar and stones, talking to Mary Stoffel, past life clearings, Shamanic healings, T-Touch, Massage, Healing Touch, Chiropractic and probably a few other things I'm forgetting about. She and I have had more short training runs in trials. I stopped showing her in AKC all together and only entered her in trials and classes where it was going to be easy to make up our own courses. We did classes where we didn't have to do a dogwalk or weaves. I would use ASCA and NADAC trials to work on those things where we can repeat the obstacles or sequences and where it is ok to make up your own course even on a regular course. I stopped asking for a start line stay in trials and began running with her.

In the beginning of all of this as I let go of asking for a start line stay I saw her ability to do weaves and any contact go downhill. I figured that they were all linked together under the "self control" issue and if I don't ask for control at the start then it is hard to ask for it later in the run. I stopped asking for those obstacles and just worked on having her run and have fun doing jumps, tunnels and teeters. You'd be amazed how many classes you can do with just those obstacles and even pick up some Qs along the way!

Back when the meltdown first occurred I spent some time playing with a running dogwalk contact. She has a running aframe. I thought it might help. I think it made matters worse. In training she would offer me the two on two off. So several months ago I went back to proofing the two on two off contacts on the dogwalk. I really made it hard for her to maintain criteria with treats and chewies within reach of the dogwalk and by tossing things and running in different directions. She got it. Mind you had I proofed these things when she was younger but I think this time around she was more mature and the proofing started to sink in. I did the same with the weaves poles. In training I threw the hardest and most difficult weave entries at her and I put all kinds of distractions by the poles. I would run backwards and far away and up close on the poles. She just got faster and faster in training and seemed to love the game.

However in trials she was still stressed if I asked her to do weaves or a dogwalk. There would be avoidance or sloppy performances if I "tested" it at a trial to see where we were with it. I also entered her mainly in ACTS trials where I knew what the situation would be like and the equipment would be familiar and honestly I would not feel like I was out of a ton of money in entries and travel!

At ASCA Nationals I totally planned to train in the ring - expensive training but good experience. She totally melted down when I tried to train the weaves there and she totally stressed and avoided them. After that I made the decision to move her back to Novice in ASCA and enter FEO so she could gain confidence again on 6 weave poles. I did that this past Fall. I think it really helped build her confidence back up. So in January I decided to try her back in Elite Regular to see how she is doing.

At our January USDAA trial Tay ran the best she has run in years at a trial. She earned a Starters Standard leg with a perfect run! I was so thrilled and amazed. She was really focused and fast and fun to run! She had more great runs in a trial setting than we have had in ages!

This past weekend at the ASCA trial she gave me her first fast (like she gives me in training) two on two off dogwalk in public in two years on an elite regular run! I was so thrilled I just wanted to make my way out of the ring and she hit a set of twelve poles like a pro! I was so excited (she had an off course) that you would have thought we had earned an ATCH on that run! It was her very FIRST Elite Regular Q. This was in spite of being a bit sore and by Sunday I pulled her from most runs because Kristin thought she had a rib out. I won't run her when she is sore, I've worked too hard to make it fun to run that I don't want to ask her to run when she is sore.

While I know enough not to rest on our laurels here I will continue to do proofing and to do calming things with her at a trial. I still think and know she is sensitive to her environment but I also think she is learning to cope with it much better as her confidence increases.

The one thing that has not come back in trials and I'm still "testing" is a stay at the start line. I've been training her with both me running with her and with stay leadouts. I'd like to get a leadout back with her - it is really helpful with ASCA courses. She still glazes over in a trial setting if I ask her for one there and can't do it. I need to keep working on it. She was able to do it at Dana's seminar on Friday which is progress. She can do it a run thrus too. I've had to go back and retrain a stay by having her sit on a stool/pedestal so she is more aware of her her foot movement. Stays have always been hard for her to comprehend. So I will keep working on it. Since she showed me she can do a two on two off fast and confident at a trial and she can hit 12 poles perfectly with speed I am optimistic we will get our stay at a trial back too! I am grateful for organizations like NADAC and ASCA where we have more liberal training in the ring policies to help ring-wise and ring-stressed dogs work through things. Trials are different than run-thrus to many dogs (and handlers) so it is helpful to be able to use these places to work through things. I have done a lot of positive training in the ring with her. I tried using corrections with her and didn't realize that her mindset at trials was different from training and it was causing her too much stress. So after creating my own problem I am finally seeing improvement two years later and I have hope that we can move forward now and both of us enjoy trialing together again!

So it is just a reminder that every dog is a unique individual and the way a dog is in training may not be how they are at a trial. Many of us are very different in training compared to trialing.

I am also realistic and know I have a lot more PQs waiting for me than Qs still for Tay and me but it is much more fun this way!

Annelise and the "Amazing Miss Tay"

What is drive and how does it relate to ring stress?

2009-11-21T22:13:00.000-06:00

This past week at the ASCA National Specialty I spent a lot of time thinking and talking about "drive." I'm planning to breed Sinco to a dog who has not competed in any official performance event. I was asked "does he have drive?" and "does he play with toys?" and "is he fast?" I had to think about all of this quite a bit.

How does one assess "drive" in an adult dog that hasn't been trained or reinforced for doing things fast? or for playing with toys? For that matter, how does one assess "drive" in an 8 week old puppy?

I first gave a lot of thought to the puppies I've personally had under my roof. I've had puppies I picked because they were cute and the "last one", because the breeder said it was the "pick" of the litter, because they were really outgoing and fearless, because they were the best choice out of two and because the puppy picked me. I've had experienced breeders, experienced agility competitors and experienced dog people help me pick puppies for agility and I've made inexperienced choices too. I've looked at dozens of litters of puppies over the years and I've been asked to help pick puppies for various people. I reflected a lot this past week on what are the most important qualities for both parents and puppies to have. I've been reading some articles and discussions about puppy raising and breeding since I've decided to breed Sinco last spring.

First of all what are the qualities of the temperament that we as agility competitors are really looking for in a dog?

1. Self-confidence: this can represent itself as fearlessness, outgoingness and resilience.

2. Sociability with people: desires to interact with people and seeks out people.

3. Biddability: ease with with the dog can be taught and willingness to be a teammate.

4. Quickness: quick to learn and assimilate information, quick to move and body awareness and agileness.

5. Determination: whether it is determination to go faster, determination to be right or determination to do the job. This requires focus.

After a lot of thought about this I really believe that "drive" boils down to these five aspects. "Drive" is not just about speed in my mind. When we think of humans who are driven they are goal oriented and determined to do something, so determination is a part of it. This requires intelligence and self-confidence. The quickness is both in mental and physical aspects. If a puppy is missing any one of these five aspects I think their success in agility with a human teammate could require more work to develop it in the puppy.

I've had or worked with puppies who were missing one or more of these qualities. A puppy who lacks self-confidence is a fairly obvious one with regard to agility because these puppies may be more fearful of agility obstacles and/or fearful of new places like trial sites. However agility training in and of itself can increase a dog's confidence when done properly.

The puppy missing sociability with people is a very hard one to develop a good working relationship with even though it may play with toys like crazy. I've had a puppy who was very toy motivated but really had very little interest in me and in working with me as a teammate. This puppy was in it for himself and not really as a team. He was extremely easy to distract.

Biddability is really important for agility. A dog has to want to be trained, want to work with people and want to follow instructions in order to be a good teammate in agility. There is not a lot of room for independent thinking in agility.

The puppy who is lacking quickness in learning may have trouble generalizing to new environments, may take longer to learn complex behaviors and/or may have trouble thinking independently when necessary. Lastly a puppy who is not quick will have a hard time keeping up with the fast pace of agility.

Determination is something that is seen in hunting dogs when hunting, herding dogs when working stock and any dog doing something they really love to do. This is an important aspect of drive in agility dogs. Agility is a man-made dog sport so there is not an instinctual desire to do it, dogs have to develop positive associations with it. Some dogs discover early on that it is a sport they love.

These are all characteristics that can be present in an older dog and can be present without the need for specific "toy drive." I saw all of these qualities in the dog I plan to breed to Sinco. I also saw that he did these things in a novel environment and with people he had just met. What is an unknown to some extent is how would this dog do in a high intensity performance environment such as a large agility trial. He has done well at smaller 4-H trials. I have yet to figure out what are predictors of success in a trial setting. There are the handler considerations - their stress level, experience level and confidence level. But if those are removed from the equation or made equal such as the case with my dogs then how do you determine which puppies will excel in the competitive arena?

Out of these characteristics I think self-confidence, biddability and determination are the most important aspects. I look at Sinco. She was a very confident puppy - she exhibited all four of these characteristics before she came to live with me. She knew she wanted my attention and she figured out how to escape out of ex-pens to come look for me, she would scream loudly when I left in order to get my attention, she would seek out interactions with people, especially me and she had a lot of confidence in doing things. As she grew her confidence changed. She wants to be right and has a strong determination to be "right." This desire to be right is about biddability. She wants to be a team player. When she is not sure how to be "right" she will lose some self-confidence however it is very easy to get it back. The more confident she becomes in herself the better she performs. I saw that at a young age when she would sit faster and better each time when she truly understood what I wanted her to do. That determination is a large component of drive but the underlying aspect is confidence. She was confident when she knew she was right. From the very beginning many experienced trainers described Sinco as "high drive." It is interesting because she is not what I would call an "operant" dog - she does not like "trial and error" learning at all. She wants me to show her what I want and then she will do it. Luring works well for her. So how a dog learns is not correlated with their speed in agility. Sinco has determination, she likes to "do stuff" and she likes to do it well whether that means doing it fast, doing it accurately or doing it well.

When I look at Tay I see something a bit different. She learns very rapidly and she loves to do things with me and she can move very quickly. She can offer behaviors in very rapid sequence and she can be very aware of what behavior is being clicked and when. She is very quick mentally and physically. She can come across as appearing to be high drive but she doesn't have the focus and determination that helps to maintain that.  Her energy level is very high. Self-control is very difficult for her and even though she is very outgoing and very fearless she seems to have low self-esteem. She is anxious when left alone and she has trouble sitting still which interferes with her ability to be a good team player. The breeder selected her for me because she was one of the tougher puppies in the litter. She is very resilient and she is not a soft dog in the usual sense. She needs a firm hand in training because she can lose focus. However she is prone to stressing in trial environments which makes competition very difficult for her. She learned agility very quickly and she loves doing it. However in trial settings she has trouble doing those behaviors which require self-control and she can freeze or shut down when asked to do those in competition.

Then there is Feisty. She is a very quick dog both mentally and physically, she is very biddable when she is in the mood, she is very self-confident and she has a lot of determination.   She is very willing to work with the few people that she trusts. Overall she likes people as long as they have a postive attitude. She has a lot of speed out there on agility courses which do not include the table. She likes to make people laugh and she likes to turn negative energy into positive energy. The way in which she does this is not always the way I would like her to do it. Is she a team player 100% of the time, no she is not, but when she is then she is really fun. If she has a different agenda then there is no changing her mind. In her mind she does answer to a higher power.

When I evaluated all three of these dogs as puppies I knew they had all of the individual characteristics of my idea of "drive."   However what I have not yet figured out how to evaluate as young puppies is how well they will handle stress like that of a trial environment which contains a lot of negative energy. Many dogs are very sensitive to negative energy. Now Sinco is very soft and I just look at her and she will melt and yet she is very able to tune out the negative energy of a trial and tune in to the fun. Tay and Feisty are more resilient and it can take a stronger correction for things to get them to respond and neither of them ever melt or submit the way Sinco does. So that response is not an indicator.

I've seen a number of dogs do things on course that do not make sense at the time however it garners a laugh from the handler, the judge and/or the audience. Don't underestimate the power of that transformation of energy. There are a lot of dogs out there like Feisty who will do things because it gets a positive response from others at the trial. That can be very reinforcing to dogs who are sensitive to energy levels and energy types. I truly believe this is at the heart of the table problems I have with Feisty. Judges often smile or laugh when they see her stop and dance around avoiding the table by staying 3-4 feet away from it. She is about transforming their energy and not about mine. I know this because I was able to turn the energy around a bit at a small trial when Feisty was doing all kinds of odd things one day. At the end of the day I asked people around the ring to be totally quiet and not respond emotionally to anything she did except for a perfectly clean run. After a couple of runs like that she was running clean runs by the next day. Now if I could influence all judges and exhibitors at trials like that it would be great. I also think this is what allows her to be a great obedience dog. Obedience judges just light up when they see her and how cute she is. Feisty thrives on this. The one time where our run was just awful was the one time the judge did not smile at us and the worse the run got the more disgusted the judge got with us and Feisty just shut down totally. So I really believe she responds more to how everyone else around us responds than to me. I have to work hard to break into that mood of hers.

I have yet to figure out what it is about crossing over the line between the warm-up area and the ring that causes Tay to totally check-out. At this point if I try to ask for a stay at the start line I can't even get through to her to make her sit. If I don't run with her from the start line she can't function. However this stress affects her ability to do weave entries and dogwalk contacts because they involve self control which she totally loses when we enter the ring. At the warm-up jump she can sit and stay and I can run around her and jump up and down and she doesn't leave. So I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to bridge the gap from the warm-up jump to the start line. I have finally been able to teach her a stay and to do proofing of it to the point where I feel confident she understands the concept. Until recently I was not sure she really understood the concept.

So I would really like to figure out a predictor in 8 week old puppies for which ones will stress in a trial environment and which ones won't. I'm not sure that taking them to novel environments is an indicator. The first time I met Feisty was in a brand new place and she ran around like she owned the place. Tay very quickly adapted to her new home and did well on the plane ride home in a sherpa bag.

All of these dogs came to trials from about 10-12 weeks of age onward so they were all very familiar with the environment from a very early age. All of these puppies were well socialized before 8 - 10 weeks of age. All of these puppies were viewed as performance prospects by their respective breeders.

If anyone out there has ideas on how to evaluate how a puppy will handle stress at trials as an adult please let me know. I continue to ponder this question as I plan to breed Sinco and wonder how those puppies will turn out.

What's the rush?

2009-09-10T15:19:00.006-05:00

It has been a month since my last entry - time just flies by. A lot has happened in the last month. Now I have some down time as I transition into the winter season and wind up the outdoor training season. I've had more time to spend training Spring who is now 16 months old. It is interesting that I was just thinking that it has been good for Spring to have been laid up quite a bit during his adolesence because it actually gave me more time to work on his flatwork skills. He has probably had more training on turns, stays, following my hands and sends to targets than any of my other dogs. He just started low teeter training and low dogwalk/aframe training and he still have barriers on his weave poles. However because of all of the flatwork he has done he is now doing serpentines, 270s, wraps, 180s and straight lines with ease and speed. Adding the jumps to the flatwork was such an easy transition for him because he knew what to do between obstacles.

Stacy Peardot-Goudy talks about this in her most recent blog entry as well. It is hard to go slowly with the young dogs and spend time on these foundation skills but it so makes everything else easier. I also agree with Stacy, if you do that and you don't teach them the full obstacles then there is no danger of trialing a dog too early. I learned this with Sinco who had trouble with the teeter so she didn't do standard courses until last fall when she was about 27 months old. It also helps to wait for the obstacle training until they are older - they learn it so much better then. If we try to train 6-12 month old puppies about doing full obstacles we almost always end up having to retrain it later. Their minds and bodies are not really equipped for that kind of training and precision. Time is much better spent on training attention, stays, turns, following hands and speed cues. These are the kinds of things that puppies learn well and when taught first will stick with them for life. They are also much easier for us to train and we are less likely to "screw it up." It also gives me a lot of time to get to know the puppy and to then to make decisions about how I want to proceed with the contact and weave training. Knowing the drive, personality, physical abilities and mental stamina of your dog is important before you embark on training obstacles that require both speed and accuracy as well as balance and coordination.

It is also so important to train your dog to follow YOUR hand cues. If you don't have a training method in place when you start then your dog has to figure things out on the fly. If you are always changing your handling cues because someone told you to try something different then your dog is always a step behind trying to figure out what you are doing. Being consistent from the start with your young dog and your training will pay off in the long run.

I've started Spring on his contact training, after a lot of thought and reading and watching what others are doing, with a modified version of Sylvia Trkman's contact training method. I made a wide board about 8 feet long and 3 feet wide and laid it flat on the ground. I put a small hoop on the end of the board and then an empty target about 10-15 feet from the end. After a couple of sessions he was running down the board and driving out to the target. Then I raised the board up a few inches on to a table top. He continued to race down the board and out to the target. The target helped him to keep driving ahead regardless of where I am. We did that for awhile and then I moved him to a low dogwalk - about 18" or so off the ground. I backchained it by having him start in the middle of the down plank and go through the hoop to the target which was again about 10 - 12 feet from the end of the board. It didn't take long for him to be able to do the entire low dogwalk. We are staying at this stage for awhile. He is getting faster and faster on it all the time. Running contacts are much harder to train and take more space and more time than a two on/two off if you want it to be a consistent behavior. Feisty is almost 4 years old and I am just now starting to trust her running dogwalk contacts. It has been a lot of hard work. The aframe was much easier for her to do. However Spring is having a harder time with the aframe and I'm having to go even slower with that obstacle. But I have lots of time to work on it. Sinco and Windy were over two years old before they began serious trialing and when they did they were ready. I'd rather go slowly and make sure things are well understood by the dog rather than push him too fast.

Annelise

Tay Update

2009-08-10T11:53:00.005-05:00

Tay and I have had a second trial in a row where the dog I have fun with in training showed up at the trial!

Last weekend at the ASCA trial I was prepared to do short courses and to work on weaves and contacts. On both rounds of jumpers she was great - I didn't support one jump and she missed it but otherwise she was focused and fast. This was in Leatherdale arena where she has been the most stressed in the past - she has even started shaking in the middle of the ring.

In the first round of regular she was a bit wired and she was missing her dogwalk contact. I was trying to get her to stop 2on/2off. She finally came close on the third attempt and we left to a party. I was amazed that she kept trying in a trial - in the past she would have gone off sniffing and been too stressed to repeat it. On round two of regular she did better and we left early. We didn't get to work on the weaves until the second day. A couple of the gambles were going to be too hard for her - involving weaves or aframes and we just skipped those gambles.

On Sunday we were able to train the weave poles a bit more - repeating the sequence before the weaves. She did great the second time through them and we left to a party. She earned one gamblers leg on Sunday with a fun tunnel gamble.

This past weekend at the CPE trial she ran so well at Soccer Blast. She earned quite a few Qs and she played fast and focused with me. Sometimes she was a bit sticky on the start line on Sat but by Sunday she started with me right way. She only went off sniffing once and that was when the dogwalk seemed odd to her on Sunday and she went up and came back down. The judge was great and let us repeat the dogwalk after we fixed it. She was fine then. Tay even did 6 weave poles on the first try for the first time in a trial in several weeks.

At the ASCA trial the weather was nice enough that I was able to keep her in the van during the trial. I thought it would be less stressful for her. This past weekend it was too hot to leave her in the van so she was crated inside near the back of the building. I was amazed that she was actually napping in her crate. In the past she would pace and circle and be standing almost all the time in her crate. She seemed very relaxed. It was such a relief. She also *walked* - and I mean WALKED around the trial area - normally she is such a bundle of energy and can not calmly walk at a trial. Yet when I was ready to start the run she was right there with me running full speed! She finally beat Sinco in time and/or points in some classes!!! Now I've known all along that she can be very fast and can when she puts her mind to it run faster than Sinco - few people have seen it or believe me but I know because I run both of them! She also did a lot of collected turns which she does in training and in the past could not do in trials!

So I had a blast running my Tay Tay this past weekend!

So you may ask what do I think brought about this transformation?

I think it is a combination of things and I believe the combination is the key.

1. I am much more vocal running her and praising her a LOT for things. If I see her head start to drop to sniff I immediately say something in a loud happy voice and she would pick up her nose and keep running.
2. She started wearing her custom made collar that has a LOT of Jade stones on it last weekend at the ASCA trial. She just wears it at trials and I take it off right before she runs and put it back on after she runs - she usually wants it on and will put her head into it. Jade stones are known for providing protection from negative energy and spirits and are self clearing.
3. I sprayed "Florida water" in the van at the ASCA trial and in our crating area and on me. It is a special water created by Shamans in Peru that provides protection from negativity and it smells wonderful. I immediately feel relaxed when I smell it. Tay actually doesn't mind it and she is very sensitive to most essential oils.
4. I once again abandoned the 2o/2o dogwalk criteria for her when she started to collect and trot through the contact zone. Would I like it to be faster and to be less managed by me - yes! But that will take more time and practice with her. For her, as it was with Sonic, it is too hard for her to do a running aframe and a stopping dogwalk. I've seen dogs who can handle different criteria on the different obstacles but it is a hard concept for many dogs. Tay has to really be thinking hard to stop on the dogwalk which she was originally taught and I've asked her to do many times in practice. But trials are stressful for her and it is very hard for to concentrate to do it. It just isn't automatic for her enough to do it under stress. How many of us can think clearly under stress?
5. Lastly the other thing that has happened which can not be discounted in how it may have impacted her is that she had surgery 10 days before the ASCA trial to remove an implode sebaceous cyst from her neck. She had drains in her neck for a few days. Going to the vet is very stressful and it was an emergency situation. She may have undergone some sort of change under anesthesia.

Now she will have a break from trialing until Labor Day weekend. This will be good for her. I plan to not run her in AKC at all or USDAA standard for several months - I'm going to wait until I am sure her confidence in trials is here to stay and her weave pole performance improves in trials. In the meantime I will use ASCA and NADAC trials for training it and run her in CPE trials where there are a lot of classes where weaves can be avoided or where there are only 6 poles.

I had more fun running her at these past trials because she was RUNNING and she was trying really hard to stay focused - she was the fun dog I have in training! To see her run with joy and not stress was so rewarding and she was so proud of herself too! I could tell she was having more fun than she has had in a long time at a trial.

Progress! Woohoo!!!

Frustration Tolerance and Stress

2009-07-16T18:06:00.007-05:00

I've had a lot of thoughts about Tay lately. Her performance at trials has been troublesome and such a contrast to the dog I have in training (at different places) and at seminars. It has been taking me back to my days with Sonic and how he stressed about weave poles in trials.

She was the kind of puppy who was "easy" to train. My first dog like this. She learned almost everything very quickly and was eager to do more. She loves clicker training and while she is moving constantly when I'm shaping behaviors with her, she still knows what she was doing when I clicked. She could be a little circus dog. She learned to skateboard, roll buckets and balls, put her feet on anything - moving or not.

At trials Tay has been running between pole one and two of the weaves and then putting her nose on the ground and running around. If I repeat the weaves with my happy voice (thinking I'm de-stressing her) she usually does them perfectly. I've been doing AKC and USDAA lately where I can not repeat obstacles before the weaves. I've been concerned that I'm teaching her that I will "fix" the weaves for her in a trial. (Been there and made that mistake with my first Border Collie many years ago.)

She will sometimes go wide around obstacles and have her nose on the ground looking like she is sniffing in a stressed manor. She has frozen on the table and won't sit or lie down quickly and sometimes not want to get on it at all.

She has also been launching her aframe contact which is not as bothersome because I know her running contacts are a "work in progress" and will always require some management. She was taught a 2on/2off on the dogwalk which morphed into a running dogwalk via a quick release. The aframe was taught as a running aframe from the start but no one method seemed to work for her. This has been her weakest area of learning and yet she still seemed to gain an understanding of what was expected fairly easily. Her weaves however have been stellar in training.

So what could be causing these problems?

1. Lack of frustration tolerance. One of the things I've come to realize is that she has a very low frustration tolerance. Since she learned so quickly she never really had any extended "frustration" or stress in learning something new. She didn't really make a lot of mistakes as a puppy so she didn't need to be corrected much at all. However she loses focus at trials which causes her to miss cues and make more mistakes than she does in training situations. So I am theorizing that one aspect of the problem is that she stresses because she is not used to making mistakes like that and doesn't know how to recover. My other dogs have had some training issue to overcome where they have had to take time to work through it and have learned how to cope with struggles in training in their own way.

2. Lack of focus. I've observed that Tay seems to do best with courses that have more complex sequences of obstacles. The novice courses at trials have too much open space where she can get easily distracted. I talked to someone who was judging at one of our trials who knows her littermates out in California. I asked him how they were running and if there were any similarities with Tay. There are - he told me that the handler/breeder of her sister talks a LOT when running her sister and he also gets on her case when she loses focus. This handler is an excellent distance handler and is very quiet and soft spoken. So to hear that he is louder with her sister than with his other dogs was interesting. So I have tried talking more to Tay on course at trials and really keeping a very happy voice. It seemed to help somewhat.

3. Lack of self-control. Tay has some mild separation anxiety. At trials if crated indoors I've noticed that she doesn't seem to rest very well, especially before the first few runs. She gets very anxious if I take out any of the other dogs instead of her and spins in her crate. My other dogs will merely lift their heads to see if it is their turn or not. She wants it to be her turn all the time. She doesn't have a lot of natural self control.

What things could I do to improve these "problem areas"?

1. Proofing. I did more proofing in general and with the weaves in particular so they would be harder in training than at a trial. I placed open bags of treats so that they were leaning on the weave poles and she weaved beautifully - this is from an incredibly food oriented dog. I've tossed toys and done things with my body and she will stay in the weaves. I've had toys and bags of treats laying around the agility field while training her and she ignores them. I take her to a group class and she handles distractions of people acting like judges and ring stewards well. I've been taking her to group classes for a couple of years to help her deal with these distractions.

2. Minimize the situation. I've pulled her from AKC runs until I can figure out how to get her more focused and motivated at a trial. I've lentered her in trials such as ASCA and NADAC where I can repeat sequence and train to some extent.

3. Additional work. I've been trying to come up with additional "jobs" for her. Perhaps teaching her some new things will help with her frustration tolerance. My other young dogs have at least two performance type jobs. Tay has lacked the self control to do well in obedience and she has been slow to turn on to livestock for herding. I read Silvia Trkman's website for the first time (I had been meaning to read it for ages now). I was inspired from the first page alone because of her enthusiasm for obedience and for trick training. http://silvia.trkman.net/
Tay loves to do tricks and to be able to set a goal of teaching her 100 tricks really excited me. I have wanted to teach her more tricks but I need a goal of some sort - she is not a candidate for commercials because she is too dark so I needed some other reason.

4. Reduce her exposure to stimuli. I unexpectedly was able to recreate her trial behavior in training this week. I've been trying to do more with her and really try to find other "jobs" for her to do. I took her to Prior Lake for my classes down there and let her "hang out" with me. I worked on tricks during our down time and I worked on rewarding her for hanging out quietly (very hard for her to do). I usually practice in Prior Lake with her every week and she does very well - she is fast and focused. I've done weave proofing there and she has been great. This evening, she started out very anxious and antsy and then she settled down! I was very happy with how calm she was hanging out while I taught the classes. After the last class I wanted to run her to see how she would do after hanging with me for 3 hours. I had hoped she would be very fast and focused having to wait for three hours for her "turn" to play and having worked on "hanging out." To my surprise she was distracted right off of the second obstacle and I was able to get her back and restarted. Then she did what she does at trials and went between pole one and two in the weaves and put her nose on the ground to sniff. I was very surprised - it is the first time she has ever done that in a training situation. So I got to thinking and wondered if the hanging around all day at trials is contributing to her stress. This is not uncommon for many dogs. I am considering that she needs to be more isolated from my other dogs and agility at trials so she doesn't become overstimulated to the point of losing focus.

5. Be more interactive on course from the beginning. I took her to her group class later in the week and had her out for the whole class hoping to recreate her stress behaviors. I also worked a stay at the start line which does increase her stress. The first time through she was great through the weaves. I rewarded the weaves. Then I tried the sequence to the weaves again and she couldn't do them. After making my voice sound happier and happier and making it easier and easier she finally got the weaves so we went on and then she launched the aframe contact. I had her redo the aframe and she launched again so I put a jump after it about 5-6 feet from the bottom. She did the aframe well and I rewarded. When I went to move the jump away so we could do the rest, she got distracted and I couldn't get her re-focused no matter how happy I sounded. So I gave her a time-out. I was starting to wonder who was training whom. She seems to like agility but I really wondered if she was using the sniffing as a way to change my behavior or was she really stressing because of not knowing how to cope with a mistake. It occurred to me that this was like the behavior of one of my student's dogs but with a twist. I have seen an Aussie belonging to one of my students do amazing off courses that were not at all handler induced or miss entire obstacles at trials and then proceed to run the rest of the course fast and focused. The handler in that case admits she gets very stressed at trials and my theory is that the dog learned that the stress was gone once he made a "mistake" on the course. The handler would then relax because the pressure was off. This was a team that would often qualify in the classes that "didn't matter" but could not qualify in the ones that "did matter." I wondered if Tay was trying to train me to lighten up and to be more verbal because that is exactly what I would do when she would seem stressed. So I need to work on being more verbal on course and working on anticipating when I might lose her so I can be proactive. My default is to be very quiet when handling my dogs so I tend to get louder when I see she has lost focus.

6. Adding meaningful consequences for missed cues. At the group class this week, I trained the other girls and then came back to Tay. I did a short sequence and she did the one weave pole and went off sniffing. I stopped and took her by the collar and wanted to determine what to do because I had decided that taking her off the course was not meaningful to her. All of us in the class were in agreement that Tay should have some different consequences for not weaving. I also think she needed to start learning how to handle her mistakes. I weaved her on-leash through the poles, a correction that I have used occasionally with other dogs. She still tried to miss the poles but was not able to do so. Then I removed the leash and repeated the tunnel before the weaves and she did the weaves perfectly and I rewarded with a big party. We started at that point and finished the rest of the course with a very fast and focused dog.

In sum, I am going to handle her differently from my other dogs in that I will be more vocal throughout the course with her. I am more vocal with Feisty than with Sinco but I need to be more vocal evenly throughout the entire course and not just when a problem occurs. I will continue to do proofing with her to make training situations harder than trials and I am going to set her up for success by picking and choosing where I trial her until we start to see improvement in her demeanor on course at trials. I am also going to try to keep her by herself at trials so she is not aware of when I'm running the other dogs to help lower her stimulation level. I am going to teach her to do more things to help with her frustration tolerance and to help increase her focus and attention. Lastly the consequences will be different in training for mistakes that she makes when I'm confident that she understands what is expected. I never introduce corrections before I truly believe a dog understands what is expected.

Once again I have a dog pushing me out of my comfort zone and in need of different training and handling techniques than my other dogs. The alternative is to not trial her at all and I'm not ready to go that route just yet. She is a very fun dog with a lot of potential to do well in agility.

Is my dog really focused?

2009-06-29T17:00:00.001-05:00

Focus? Is my dog really focused on the task at hand? How do I know if they are?

We as humans tend to try to "multi-task" and do more than one thing at the same time. How well we can do more than one thing is debatable. Our dogs are capable of doing the same thing to some degree.

There are signs that we can easily recognized when our dog has lost focus - they go off sniffing, they run over to something interesting or they take off running 90 mph in large circles. However the times that we don't often recognize are when the dog is still doing obstacles in sequence. The dog may be sniffing as they are doing them or they may be looking over their shoulder as they do them or they even may be looking ahead but their mind is elsewhere.

Having just competed in an AKC trial where my Pyr Shep by all accounts appeared to be focused on agility however to a very keen observer she was most often not totally focused on the job of running agility. On our first standard run of the weekend she was running quite well until we got to the table. She slammed on the brakes two feet from the table. I felt the judge's presence behind me and knew instantly that she and he had made eye contact. It took me three tries to get her on the table. This is a recurring problem that became very bad last year at an AKC trial with a male judge who had a loud voice. This time, once I got her on the table - I just asked her to get on it - we left the ring and had treats to reward her herculean effort to work through a fear and get on the table.

The next day in that same ring with the same judge on a standard course she ran slower but fine until the table again. She went up and put one foot on it and then backed away from it. It only took two tries to get her on it and she went down easily. I decided to keep going on the course this time and she flew through the rest of the course and we had a party. On day three the male judge was in the JWW ring and we ran there first. She was distracted on the start - I could tell her mind was elsewhere. She came off the start line slowly and then as we turned toward the weaves she veered off them as if there was a strong magnetic field on the weaves pushing her away from them. I knew instantly that her mind was on the judge. Now Feisty is a very interesting dog, she has a lot of concerns in her life but she also likes to work through her fears. I've said all along with her that she doesn't like to be afraid - she likes to feel tough and be in control. So as we were renegotiating the weaves (I don't like her to think it is OK to avoid an obstacle - I made that mistake once and it took a while for me to train her that she must do each obstacle) she was wanting to approach him albeit reluctantly. I knew she was concerned about him. He was being quiet and still. I tried to get between him and her and help her out. She did the weaves but then as the course curved back toward him she squirted away from him again. I just kept running as if the course went that way.

My point in sharing all of this is that so often we think a dog is focused on us just because they are looking in our direction at the start line. However just like humans we can look at each other when one is talking but our minds can be elsewhere. A keen observer or one that knows their dog well can tell the difference. I know when Feisty is slow to come off the start line that it is not a hearing problem but a listening problem. Her mind is not really listening for my release but is thinking of something else. She scans the ring and scopes out what equipment is out there and who and where the judge is. In Feisty's case stress and lack of focus are often combined.

I saw the same things in Tay all weekend, she was not focused on the tasks at hand however hers was not tied to stress as much as Feisty's. Even though I run with her at the start line I can tell when she is not focused on starting with me. She is the queen of going through the motions and looking like she is doing agility when in reality she is not paying attention to my cues and she will turn wide or miss an obstacle. Hitting the weaves at speed requires a lot of concentration for green dogs and she could not handle it all weekend long. At home with minimal distractions she can do weaves with speed from anywhere. Trials are very distracting for her. She can do weaves in group classes and with set-up distractions that I create. I'm finding I have to be more vocal and I have to make my signals more exaggerated at trials than I do in training in order to keep her attention. It is not in my comfort zone.

I realized that last year when I pulled Tay off the start line for not staying and when I corrected her for not stopping on her dogwalk contact that I created stress on those two things. I did so because she had lost focus and didn't realize what she was supposed to do. I should have, in retrospect, addressed her lack of focus/attention instead of lack of performance of a behavior. I can see now when she is not focused on the task at hand and I've been able to shout at her (again not in my comfort zone) and I've seen her visibly startle and then she performs the behavior. That tells me that she really was not with me thinking about the task at hand but her mind had wandered off. It also explains why she often will take tunnels way out of the way on a course.

I used to think Tay may be suffering from ring stress but I believe it is lack of focus. There have been a few times when she has been stressed due to other factors (scary smells etc.) and I can tell she is stressed because she has "whale eye" when running and often she will visibly shake. But when she is not focused her nose will be on the ground when running or she will be looking at obstacles instead of at me for direction. She does best on complicated courses where I have to keep moving and doing a lot of crosses - it keeps her attention. The wide open flowing courses (of the lower levels in agility) give her too much time to let her mind wander. She is talented though and she can do long sequences by going through the motions but I can tell she is not giving me 100% of her attention.

Tay and I ran two days of a seminar (half days actually) and she ran great - she was fast and focused. I know she has the skills to do agility and she is well trained for the game. Something about trials causes her to be distracted. Many years ago I used to be a nervous wreck showing my dogs but since then I have learned that I can survive just about anything that happens in the ring. I think just about everything and anything that can go wrong on course has happened to me and I've survived. So I really don't worry about things at trials. I try to be the best I can for my dogs. It is a continuing challenge to read my dogs and I wish I could anticipate how they will be before we step to the line instead of having to adapt to the situation as we run. So far I have not found any precursor clues to let me know how focused my dogs will be before we step to the line. But just like us, their moods can change the minute they step into the ring. They feel the energy from everyone around them and even if I'm not stressed there are plenty of stressed people out there. The judge could be stressed, the ring crew could be stressed, the exhibitors waiting are stressed, the dog that just ran could have been stressed and left a trail of stress pheromones - many things are possible that are beyond my control.

At this point all I can do is know the signs of lack of focus versus stress in my dogs. Sometimes the two are related and sometimes they are not. We have to learn to become excellent observers of our dog's behaviors and of our own behaviors.

I recommend if you have a dog that performs inconsistently at trials that you keep a detailed journal of every run at a trial. Feisty has kept a detailed journal and my goal is to keep one that is more detailed than hers so I can learn to recognize patterns of behavior and signs that will impact her behavior on course. I'm slower to learn than she is about these things. This weekend I came one step closer to the solving the puzzle known as Feisty and the puzzle known as Tay.

Annelise

Herding and Learning styles of dogs

2009-06-08T15:04:00.005-05:00

I consider myself still having a lot to learn about herding even though technically I've been doing it for many years. When I first started with Leysha I really didn't have a clue what I was doing. I didn't have a chance to go for regular lessons and at the time I didn't have access to sheep on a regular basis. I knew I had a dog who knew a lot more about it than I did. We some how managed to earn our ASCA started sheep and ducks titles with very little training, in retrospect. We earned our last sheep leg when I opened the take pen and the sheep used me for a launching pad. I seriously hurt my back and became afraid of take pens after that.

When we moved out to Stacy I had use of my neighbor's sheep for the first year or so and then I got a few of my own for awhile. Then Nancy bought some sheep and wanted to keep them there. Having access to sheep I learned a little more - I spent more time observing sheep behavior. I also got some ducks.

Then Nancy introduced me to Marc Christopher clinics. I audited my first one and learned a ton. I finally started to figure out what we were doing. I had read some books on herding but it didn't click until Marc drew pictures and demonstrated things. While his methods are very different from what most Aussie people use I have found that the technique of using a line to help the dog be correct in learning flanks and learning walk-ups has been invaluable. Instead of using a line just to keep a dog under control, the line is used as a training tool. It helps slow things down for the people and for the dog. Being able to work with Nancy on teaching foundation herding skills using March's methods to Sinco has been great.

For my "thinking dog" Sinco, the line method of training has made a huge difference. She likes to be shown what to do and doesn't like trial and error learning. A lot of the Aussie training methods, of which I learned more about this past weekend, seem to use trial and error learning. But unlike a clicker that marks the correct behavior, in herding the wrong behavior is corrected by the handler/trainer putting pressure on the dog. I think this would have been a very hard way for Sinco to have learned her flanks. Using a line and helping her to be right and releasing pressure when she is right seems to have worked well for her. This may be in large part to her learning style. She doesn't like to be wrong and she likes to be shown how to be right.

Now that we are progressing in her our herding training I see that there is a need, maybe just for my dog but I suspect for other dogs out there too, for a combined training method. Again like in agility there are different learning styles and there are different ways to train things - the same is true in herding. We are starting to use some of the training techniques the Aussie folks use with Sinco to help her learn to cover her sheep. When she knows what she is supposed to do and a correction is given she responds readily to it. Just as in agility, when she is corrected for making a mistake in a behavior that I know she knows how to do she can handle it. However being corrected when she doesn't know how to be right is very stressful for her.

I think there is room for lots of training techniques and the one size fits all approach just doesn't always work.

The other thing that I've been learning about in stock dogs is that there is a trend favoring the "tougher" stock dogs. I think part of the idea is that these dogs will handle cattle better but I also think part of it is that they will handle correction based training better. I've learned that many of the older Aussie lines from which Sinco comes (on her dam's side) had softer temperaments. Apparently many of the ranchers didn't know how to work with a softer dog even if that dog was keen on stock. So they bred away from these lines and are breeding for harder and harder dogs. When dogs are tougher on stock it means that they will need a handler/trainer who is equally or more tough. I've seen these dogs in agility and herding with people who are not up to training a dog like this. I know I've learned that I don't do well with a very hard dog. The sensitive dogs can still move stock and run fast in agility. It may take more finesse and more thoughtful training to get to that point. As many of you have seen Sinco in agility - she started out very slow and careful in her learning and now is running quite fast. I will say that she is not an easy dog to train and she may not have done well with a novice handler/trainer. Sensitive dogs are often not easy dogs to train either, they may not be very forgiving. A harder dog may be more forgiving but they can be harder to get a point across if they find things self rewarding.

I honestly think that a softer thinking dog can be a fine stock dog and can be just as tough on stock if trained properly. So much of moving stock is about the confidence and presence the dog has. The handler also has to have confidence in their dog too so that it goes down the leash to the dog.

I've had hard-headed Aussies and BCs and give me a softer dog any day - they are much more fun to train and do not require the 2 x 4 to get a point across. I'm not into physical violence :) If every training session is going to be a knock down drag out battle then it is not at all fun for me - I've been there and done that and it is just not enjoyable for me.

So knowing the kind of dog you like to work with is very important when selecting a dog. The kind of dog that works well with one person may not be the kind that works well for you. I know many people who do not do well at all with the softer dogs. Sometimes we have to try on different types of dogs before we find the kind we like to work with.

The main thing is that just because a dog is soft/sensitive doesn't mean that dog can't be fast and successful in agility or be tough enough to work stock.

Annelise

Learning styles of dogs

2009-06-08T14:23:00.005-05:00

Well it has been quite awhile since I've blogged. May was pretty much of a blur for me with all of the family stuff to do.

I just spent three days with Gail Winnick at a herding clinic in Wisconsin. It was very fun and a nice break from agility training.

Having read Stacy's blog many months ago about "Thinking dogs" versus "Doing dogs" and "Thinking-Doers" as she calls them I have really liked that way of looking at dogs. I was talking to a friend yesterday on my way home from the herding clinic and talking about how dogs have different learning styles just like people do. So I asked why do we feel the need for a "cookie-cutter" approach to dog training? We seem to recognize that people don't learn the same way so why should dogs?

I used to think (and I still do sometimes) that I would like to try to train different breeds of dogs from "different groups" such has sporting, hunting etc. so I could experience different learning styles of dogs. However as it turns out I have two dogs who are 10 weeks apart in age and the same breed with two completely different learning styles.

I discovered they were different early on when I was trying to teach them things as young puppies. I love to use the clicker when working with young puppies and to do a lot of shaping of behaviors. Tay, my black tri girl just loved the clicker. She could offer me behaviors at a rapid-fire pace as if to test my timing and miraculously she would know exactly which of the behaviors I had clicked. She was and still is very fun to teach new behaviors to. She just loves it. As a result I do have to be careful or she will offer me some of her favorites such as jump on any nearby object and sit. Not always a good thing. The down-side is that it has been extremely difficult to teach her to stay - being still is very hard for Tay.

However Sinco my little red girl had a really hard time with the clicker. The absence of a click seemed devastating to her. Both puppies were raised the same and I have never made an issue out of making a mistake. I always teach all my puppies that it is ok to make a mistake. However internally Sinco is very much of a thinker and she thinks making a mistake is just horrible - she wants to be right with every fiber of her being. So she would rather offer no behaviors than risk being wrong. At first I worried a lot about how she was learning but then I adapted. I started using luring. She loved it - I could show her what I wanted and she could be right. She is very smart and she is easy to train as long as you show her what you want. She was also very easy to train to stay.

Her breeder took her for awhile and was going to teach her to lie on the couch on her side or her back for a photo shoot. At first she tought it would be easy because she is clicker trained. However she soon discovered that Sinco did not respond well to that. As soon as she started luring her and showing her what she wanted then Sinco got into the training session. She did it perfectly for the photo shoot as it turned out.

Different dogs do learn differently. I have seen this in my students' dogs but often it is hard to tell how much of it is the dog's learning style and how much of it has to do with timing on the part of the trainer/handler. But in my side by side real-life situation I can say with confidence that dogs do learn differently even if they are the same breed and living in the same environment. I can also say that Sinco's littermate is much more interested in clicker training than Sinco is and that is two closely related dogs.

I believe that the "Thinking-doers" do best with clicker training. The "doers" are often too busy moving and not paying enough attention to what their body is doing to catch what the click is marking. The "Thinkers" are analyzing the situation or worrying about making a mistake to want to just "do" behaviors.

Just like with people, when we impose a particular training style on to a dog and it doesn't match the dog's learning style then we create stress for that dog. The more stress the dog experiences the less likely the dog is to learn anything.

In college I studied a lot about operant and classical conditioning and I worked with rats and pigeons quite a bit. I went to a mini-Bob Bailey chicken camp. I enjoy capturing behaviors when offered and I enjoy shaping behaviors however I appreciate that it is a difficult skill to acquire and I appreciate that not all dogs enjoy learning that way. It is too easy to blame the trainer for poor timing but it may be that the dog doesn't really respond to that kind of training.

The irony is that the idea was that using clicker training created "thinking dogs" because dogs could figure out how to get reinforced - solving the puzzle. I think that is an illusion. What it does is make dogs think it is their idea to earn the food reward. I think some dogs want that sense of control of the situation and operant conditioning does put the dog in control. This is very effective for many dogs. Many times when the trainer is slow to put a cue on a shaped behavior then the dog truly does establish control by exhibiting that behavior a lot of the time when it is not desired. There is a fine line between putting the cue on a behavior too soon and waiting too long.

With a dog who is worried about making a mistake it may be too much pressure to be in control of the training session. There may be a correlation between the dog's social status and the desire to control the training session. In the case of Sinco, she tends to be very submissive to people and dogs so she may have no designs on controlling any situation that involves learning new behaviors. Once she understands what is required of her then she is very willing to go do that behavior - like in agility and herding - she is not shy about stepping up to the plate for that work. But when we first started and she was first learning she was very cautious.

This is why I continue to offer training that is individualized. Even the beginner class is set up to progress at the rate of the dog and handler team. If a method doesn't seem to be working then we can try something different. I have preferred methods but often I've had to suggest different methods in order to help a dog and handler progress. Training handlers and dogs is very challenging because there are two learning styles involved as well as many other factors that can influence training progress. I have had many "teams" train contacts and/or weaves in ways that are different from the others in the class. The main thing is to try something long enough and well enough to see if it is working.

Annelise and the Aussie girls

To Refresh or retrain

2009-04-06T21:16:00.004-05:00

I often hear people talking about retraining their agility dog to do this or to do that (usually some contact performance behavior). With the greater emphasis being placed on training foundation skills for our dogs in agility I hope that there will be more emphasis on "refreshing" a behavior rather than retraining it.

To clarify: in my mind retraining a behavior means that a new behavior is going to be trained that will replace a behavior that is no longer serving the team. For example if a running contact were taught originally on the contacts and that behavior has eroded into a leaping over the contact zone then one might want to "retrain" the dog to do a 2 on/2 off behavior with a stop on the bottom of the contact. That would be replacing a behavior that is no longer working for the team with a new behavior.

On the other hand "refreshing a behavior" means that a behavior that had been working well in lots of situations has started to deteriorate. This is usually due to a lack of reinforcement or enforcement of the behavior. Sometimes this may happen due to some sort of confusion that has developed on the part of the dog which again would be due to lack of reinforcement or enforcement of the desired behavior. In this instance it is usually best and fastest to go back to how the behavior was originally taught and "refresh" the dog on what is desired. A complete retrain is usually unnecessary in these cases.

This is another reason why having a good foundation on which to build is so important. It makes training and "fixing" problems so much easier!

Focus on/and Foundations

2009-04-03T13:24:00.005-05:00

So it has been an interesting couple of weeks as a number of things have come together for me and have come full circle. I've really started to solidify my foundations classes and training more than ever. It has always been a work in progress and will continue to be so. I think each session/year it becomes better and more robust as a program. Students who come back with a different dog often remark that we are doing something we didn't do before. If I kept it the same then we wouldn't improve our skills in this sport. The sport is becoming increasingly technical and speeds of the dogs are continuing to increase so to stay competitive we need to continue to improve our training skills. I know some students who have started dogs with me 2-4 years ago and are starting new dogs now with me are finding some things are different.

The things to keep in mind about foundations training is that it is not a one-time thing. I continually revisit the "basics" of foundations with my older dogs. The beauty of having a foundation is that you have a structure or a set of exercises to go back to and review with your canine companion. There are things we as humans forget how to do and if we have resources to use to review how to do it then we are ahead of the game. If we have to figure out how to learn it all over again it can be much more time consuming.

One situation in which it is really beneficial to be able to go back and do foundations exercises with your dog is when the previously unfocused dog starts to gain focus in agility. A number of students are currently experiencing the fun of having a dog who is now mature and focused after spending 1-4 years working in agility with a very distracted dog. Dogs vary greatly in the time it takes them to mentally mature. Dogs who are sensitive to their environment i.e. easily distracted by movement, other dogs or smells are not going to be able to focus on learning new behaviors. Often with these dogs the first year or so of training is spent concentrating on improving the dog's focus. It may seem like the dog is learning some things and they may be learning by rote repetition. However the concepts that involve more thinking and problem solving will not be learned by the dog until the dog can stay focused on tasks at hand. This includes learning how and when to collect for a turn, learning how to collect to stop for a 2on/2off, learning how to collect for weave poles and learning how to stay at the start line. These are difficult behaviors for dogs who lack focus to do.

In the last few weeks I've had about 4 students who have noticed that their dogs who are now ranging from 2 to 5 years old are now able to be more focused in agility. Recently the dogs are able to do the obstacles in a sequence more reliably than ever before. These are dogs who have had a history of not being able to stay at the start, not being able to sequence obstacles reliably and not being able to perform contacts to specified criteria reliably. Most of these handlers have worked very hard with their dog by taking "Focus in Motion" classes, by working with behaviorists and independent consultants, by setting realistic expectations for the team and by having a lot of patience. The handlers are now able to start really handling the dog instead of managing their dog's attention span. Many dogs will gain the ability to focus when the leave adolescence but there are many other dogs who are not able to focus for extended periods of time until they are much older.

Some of these students have on their own and others at my urging are now going back and working on foundation exercises with these dogs. I believe that the foundation exercises will now make more sense to these dogs because they are now able to think and focus more in training than they could before. It shouldn't take long to go back to these exercises and it will help the dogs to really learn about collection, about stays, about weave entrances etc. It is an exciting for these teams because I believe they will see their rate of progress in agility begin to increase exponentially.

Working with dogs who are easily distracted (and all dogs go through this - it is the state of all young puppies) is like trying to teach someone to knit while they are standing perched at the edge of a cliff with a sharp 100 foot drop off onto rocks. It is hard for that person to concentrate on something new and complex like knitting when they are also having to focus on maintaining their balance. If that person is afraid of heights it will be absolutely impossible. So when you have a dog that is fearful or easily distracted you are not going to be able to teach them very much.

Dogs do learn some by pattern training, meaning they recognize patterns of behaviors and can learn these by sheer repetition without a lot of conscious cognitive activity. This can give us the false sense that the dog has a deeper understanding of what we want them to do than they really have. When you take the dog to new places and ask for these behaviors often the behavior will fall apart indicating that the dog really doesn't truly understand the behavior. One of the reasons for the behavior (and there are others) to fall apart is that the dog never really thought about the behavior but was in a sense "going through the motions" when doing it. New places will often really magnify the degree of inattention these dogs have. Agility requires dogs to be able to think and problem solve at speed and in different and distracting environments. Every course is different and there are a lot of different obstacles out there requiring different and specific skills. It is a complex activity for our dogs. It is not an instinctual activity for the dogs. It is really important to be sure that our dogs understand what we are asking them to do in a lot of different settings in order to be successful in agility competitions.

Foundations - not just a one time only thing... foundation exercises are for life.

Entry Fees... where do they go?

2009-03-31T10:36:00.004-05:00

So this is not my usual type of topic for this blog but having read recent posts on lists from people complaining about entry fees and having recently experienced a fiasco with parking fees... I feel I have something to say on this topic.

I look at entry fees for various trials around our area and in the midwest (when I travel to trials at other places). If I know who is putting on the trial I will ask them about their expenses because I'm always curious about that. I'm always "shopping" for places to have trials and for ways to keep the trial costs down so I don't have to pass it along to competitors. My goal for ACTS trials is to break-even. As a business and not a non-profit or not-for-profit club I have higher overhead than they do when putting on trials at some venues. While the facility rental fees we pay here in the Twin Cities are some of the highest in the country we still have some of the lowest entry fees in the country. Certainly some of the lowest entry fees for a large metropolitan area. How long that may last is hard to say because the rental fees and expenses are continuing to increase.

This past March trial we learned that the parking police at the U of M had recently stepped up their enforcement and I was really worried that they would ticket our competitors and cost everyone a $20-25 ticket. That would have been horrible. We had been avoiding paying for parking because no one had been checking. Well at the last minute I had to buy a "lot pass" for 50 cars at $6 per car per day from the U. I thought long and hard about how to handle this unexpected additional cost. I decided to pass it along to exhibitors at a discount of $5 per car. It turned out that on Saturday the parking enforcement counted cars and found 73 there and so they charged me for the additional 23 cars at $6 each - but better that than ticketing everyone. I did not quite collect enough money in parking fees to cover this cost. Smaller trials like the ASCA ones may get by with paying for fewer cars on a lot pass and they pay significantly less in rent than I do so they also may be able to "eat" the cost of the parking passes more than I can.

One thing I've learned is that the rental fees Agile Canines pays to Leatherdale and SoccerBlast are among the highest in the country. Agile Canines is a business, not a non-for-profit, so I have to pay more for weekend rental at Leatherdale than the ASCA or MAC do. This is a rule of the U of M to charge less for the clubs. Simons Arena and the Isanti barn are also higher in rent than other places around the country. These facilities do not provide equipment rental either. At Leatherdale I have to pay $500 a day compared to $300 that the clubs pay plus $6 per car for parking. For an average ACTS trial that is 75 cars (an additional $450 per day). SoccerBlast charges all groups the same - $1200 per day and parking is included. When I research other areas and the rent they pay it is often less than than $800 per day and often this fee will include equipment rental.

The other factor that goes into entry fees is the cost of ribbons. For CPE trials where we use 500 qualifying ribbons per trial that is a large additional expense.

When you look at your entry fee and where the money goes keep the following in mind:

Judges are paid $1.00 per run (some AKC judges are paid more than this) as long as the dog is listed in the catalog/running order regardless if they run or not.
Clubs pay on average $1.00 per run to the parent organization for recording fees (AKC and USDAA have higher rates and different fee scales)
Ribbons for double flats you can figure that the Q ribbon is around $.70 to $1.00 and the placements may be less. Rosettes run around $3.00 each.
Toys per dog are about $2.00 each.
For an ACTS Leatherdale trial that has 400 runs a day you can figure that $1.25 of your entry fee goes toward rent (not including parking)
Then there are the judge's expenses - airfare, hotel, meals and judging gift. This varies a great deal but very often airfare can be as high as $500 especially for judges living near smaller airports. Often judges can't fly out until Monday morning so there are three nights of a hotel stay. So you can figure that at least $1.00 per run goes toward judge's expenses.

Look at the break down of where an $11 entry goes:

$11 per run
- $1.00 judge fee
- $1.00 org recording fee
- $1.00 ribbon cost
- $.25 toy cost
- $1.25 rental fee (indoor venues or outdoor venues with porta-potty rentals)
- $1.00 judge expenses
- $1.00 for miscellaneous expenses such as sanctioning fees, trial secy' expenses for paper, ink, software updates, general office supplies for the trial, gas and truck rental.
- $.50 per run for worker lunch (when it is not a potluck - $.25 per run when it is a potluck)

Then when you consider that 25% of all entry fees for an ACTS trial come in the form of worker vouchers... that amounts to a further discount of $2.75 in cash per run.
- That leaves a $1.25 per run in cash to cover additional costs that may arise - like parking fees at Leatherdale, new title pins and other special awards, costs for equipment maintenance and purchase of new equipment. This is why I felt it was necessary to pass along the cost of parking at a discount to competitors otherwise I would have lost money on the trial.

So before you complain about entry fees increasing you need to look at how much it costs to put on a trial. There is not much money (and sometimes no money) being made at the ACTS trials so I really do it because I enjoy doing it and I feel I am supporting the various parent organizations by doing so.

For 2010 there have been rental fee increases announced by some of the places we use for trials as well as other expenses increasing. Do not be surprised if entry fees start to increase later this year and into 2010. You may also see groups cutting back on things in order to help cut costs.

Other expenses that many clubs incur - paying trial secretaries (can be thousands of dollars per trial), renting equipment and higher recording fees to their parent organization.

In addition with the changes and improvements made in equipment requirements for the different agility organizations it is expensive for agility groups to keep up with these when putting on trials. Many clubs in the area are updating their equipment and adding rubber granules to their contacts and looking at purchasing displaceable tires and other things.

Often clubs have to set their entry fees before they even know how much all of the expenses will be for a trial and they have to guestimate what to charge based on previous events.

Annelise
Agile Canines

Course analysis - Challenger and Finals Rounds

2009-03-29T19:54:00.008-05:00

Here is the link to the Challengers course:

http://www.akc.org/pdfs/national_agility_championship/2009/courses/Sun_NAC_Rd_4_Challengers.pdf

This was a technical course where handlers had to push to be fast and clean. Winning this class was necessary for a spot in the finals for those who did not make the original cut for finals. Up to 12 dogs in each jump height are eligible for this class, which is open to the top 4 dogs of each jump height from rounds 1 through 3, that have not already gaiined placement into the finals based on three rounds of cumulative scores, provided they scored 100 in that round. Two clean rounds are required to be in the Challenger's class.

So the pressure was on for this class. The opening with the 1-2-3 serpentine into the weaves went well for most handlers. Lead-outs proved a distinct advantage for this sequence. A few dogs knocked bars here or missed weave entries but most did fine. Then on to the panel and wrap to the aframe. Having fast aframe contacts made a huge difference in saving precious hundredths of seconds. Once again the teeter proved problematic for the smaller dogs with many of them bailing off of it. All of the teeters were provided by J&J and in my opinion these are very heavy teeters for small dogs. All weekend long the teeter was a problem for many experienced small dogs.

Most handlers of all size dogs did front crosses between 9 and 10 and 11 to 12. The well timed crosses had the tightest turns and again made a difference in this close fast competition. Some handlers were in a hurry to get the front cross in between 11 and 12 that they didn't support 10 well and got run-bys on 10. The wrap to the tire and tunnel entrance were not a problem for most dogs. There were a couple of dogs who got hung up in the tire. Then the ending produced two different handling strategies. The majority of the handlers did a front cross on the landing side of 16 and then ran with their dogs on the right to the finish. Several handlers kept their dogs on their left for 15-16-17 and rear crossed on the take-off side of 18.

The crowd started cheering while dogs were on the dogwalk which got dogs running faster and there were many missed dogwalk contacts on that finish. Most handlers are pushing and the dogs are running fast. A handful of handlers celebrated a little too early and the last bar came down.

It was really fun to watch handlers really running all out and going for broke.

The finals run was a very technical course with a few spots where handlers could push for speed. The opening sequence of 1-2-3-4 was challenging. A lead out was definitely needed but many dogs were pretty amped and pushing the start line stays a lot. I was seated with a perfect view of this part of the course and could see many dogs looking past the first jump to the tunnel under the dogwalk. But all the dogs took the correct jump but I think many worried their handlers. Handlers had to work the chute exit because it was hard for the dogs to see the jump coming out of the chute and if the dogs came out too much toward the handler they could incur a refusal on #4 jump. Then handlers sprinted from #4 to the #7 tunnel. Handlers wanted to hustle to get to the exit of the tunnel because it was very challenging section of the course.

The 8-9-10 proved to be the most difficult part of the entire course. Many, many small dogs took the off course tunnel instead of the dogwalk. The number of dogs taking the off course tunnel decreased as the jump heights increased but it was not a "gimmee" for anyone. Some handlers chose to keep their dogs on their right from the tunnel to #8 jump and rear crossed the take off side of 8 and then pulled their dogs to the dogwalk. Other handlers sprinted to the exit and did a front cross and sent the dogs over #8 off their left side. A small number of handlers did another front cross between 9 and 10 to try to push their dogs off their right sides on to the dogwalk. This worked for about half of the handlers who tried it. What I noticed was that handlers were not decelerating to get their dogs to collect and check-in for the dogwalk cue. Many handlers kept racing forward and relayed strictly on verbal cues and dogs blasted into the tunnel. Two dogs at the last second looked up and noticed their handler was almost to the end of the dogwalk and went up the walk when they looked committed to the tunnel. Handlers who did a full reverse flow pivot (RFP) often pushed their dogs into the tunnel when they came out of the rotation (main reason why I find this to be an ineffective technique for this kind of obstacle discrimination). Handlers who did a bit of a turn and hand cue had some success but they usually also stopped or hesitated long enough to get their dogs heads. Overall I was amazed at how this very common set-up caused so many problems for otherwise experienced dogs and handlers. I suspect many people will be going home and training this sequence.

The other part that caught some of the medium sized dog handlers and some 20" dog handlers was that the panel jump off the dogwalk was a bit of a push. Many run-bys occurred at this jump as handlers were racing to try to get crosses in by the aframe and to push for speed on this otherwise straightforward sequence. Some handlers did great front crosses between the tire and the aframe and others did them on the descent of the aframe. A few rear crossed the jump after the aframe. Almost every front crossed before the weave poles. A handful of dogs popped out of the last pole of the weaves as handlers started racing for the finish line.

The clean runs were very close in time for every jump height. But there were very few clean runs - it was a very challenging course when handlers are pushing for speed.

It was interesting that they had a judge assigned to just judge the down side of the dogwalk. It would have been a hard course for a judge to judge alone - not a great judging path because they would be in the handler's way and with fast dogs it would be hard to judge the downside of the dogwalk and then get over to the downside of the aframe without getting in the handler's way. I also suspect that with the increase in number of dogs doing running dogwalks it is getting harder and harder to judge the dogwalk and at a competition like this you want to be sure you are making a good call.

I also noticed, because I was seated up high, that most of the running dogwalk contacts work well for the 42" contact but would not work well in a 36" contact (USDAA). This is a problem that I've encountered and I know Stacy Peardot-Goudy and Dana Pike have experienced it as well. Having a consistent running contact under pressure is very difficult. Many handlers were releasing their 2on/2off early to save precious time and I could see many dogs were leaving the contacts higher and higher up as the weekend progressed. I believe there will be a lot of contact training going on in the next several weeks by folks who were at the nationals. This is why I really believe that nationals events are the place when releasing early can help you achieve some goals and can make a difference in time and makes the price to pay worthwhile. That price being some going back to contact foundation for several weeks/trials to pay for it. The stronger the initial foundation of 2on/2off the less the price will be. The longer you release early, the higher the price. Some dogs can evolve into modified running contacts with early releases but many others will get pushier and pushier about leaving the board earlier and earlier. Again which way a dog will go depends on the attitude of the dog, size of the dog, speed of the dog, degree of foundation training on contacts, degree of reinforcement in trial settings, amount of trialing and many other factors. The other thing is that having a running contact requires a handler to be present at the end of the contact to direct the dog which in the case of the finals most of the handlers were athletic enough to run every inch of the course with their dogs.

Watching competitions like this can be very inspiring and can be very educational in terms of watching handling styles and moves. I strongly recommend getting your hands on the videos of the finals because this was a very challenging course. Sometimes finals courses can be all about speed and not as technical. This one was technical and therefore very educational in terms of handling and training.

Annelise

Jedi's big AKC adventure comes to an end

2009-03-29T18:34:00.003-05:00

After a morning massage and morning icing Jedi is cleared to run today's hybrid course. The course is called "hybrid" because it is a combination of standard and JWW. It has an aframe, teeter, weaves and lots of jumps in it. The activities start a half an hour earlier today and Sarah Fix (who many of you know as a NADAC judge) came in at 5:30am to help course build the four courses that needed to be built. General walk throughs start at 6:30am. They groomed the dirt so it was softer again today.

We are running in the last group of 12" dogs so I'm happy to have plenty of time to walk Jedi around with breaks in between so he is going to be loosened up for the run. I use the warm-up jump fairly early with him to be sure he is jumping and turning well and he is.

We go to the start line and I set him up at an angle to the first jump so he can see jump #2. I lead out to between 1 and 2 and then move laterally away from 2 to get in front of the right side of jump 3 for a front cross. I push him into tunnel #4 that is under the aframe and sprint to the 5-6-7 serpentine. I race him to the landing side of 5 and do my front cross between 5 and 6 on the teeter side of the serpentine. Then we go off to the teeter, chute to the weaves and then tire to the aframe. I push him on the descent side of the aframe to send him out to the hard left turn to the triple. Then I front cross between the double and single jump and race to the finish. I find myself dangerously close to the wing of the last jump and realize how Terry Smorch ran into it on his run with Remy. It really came up in the handler path much more than I expected when walking the course.

As for course analysis.... knocked bars seemed to the biggest problem for 8, 12 and 16" dogs. Bars came down in the serpentine and/or in the double/triple sequence near the end of the course. The teeter was not well liked by most small dogs and there was an increase in fly-off calls in the small dog group. For the big dogs not only were knocked bars a problem but the tunnel under the aframe was a problem when handlers were trying to get the dogs from the aframe to the triple. Pushing too hard or late front crosses caused dogs to duck right into the tunnel instead of going to directly to the triple. Some dogs had a hard time with the weave entry coming out of the closed tunnel.

I am happy that Jedi and I were able to end on a very fun and clean run. There were quite a few dogs who were sore this weekend and I think the footing played a large part in it. If you want a good overview of how footing affects dogs you should read Susan Salo's article in this month's edition of Clean Run Magazine. Dogs do take time to adjust to footing for running and jumping and in the case of this footing it kept getting harder and more lumpy over time. Dogs who ran early in the morning had better footing than those who ran at the end of the day.

Annelise

Saturday AKC Nationals

2009-03-28T17:15:00.011-05:00

On Friday Jedi slipped in a tunnel on his standard run and came out running slowly. A massage yesterday found that he was very sore on his right side. We iced him and applied heat last night. This morning he warmed up well and stretched well. He was a short striding slightly. His attitude seemed great. It was standard this morning.

If you follow along with the course diagrams on the AKC site... The start of the course is pretty straightforward with a tire, aframe and right turn to a jump. Jedi starts out fine. He is on my left as we make the turn to the teeter and I cross in front of the end of the teeter. Then he is on my right going back through the tire to the triple to the weaves. He starts to bark and to pick up speed. I do a lateral send on 10, the panel jump, and a front cross on the landing side of 11. Jedi comes in nice and tight over 11.

This sequence proved to be interesting for many handlers. I believe all of the 26" handlers did the front cross on the take-off side of 11. The 12" and 16" handlers I watched were split about 50/50 on where they did the front cross. Almost all of the 20" handlers I saw did the front cross on the landing side of 11. Keep in mind that while all courses were technically the same it is impossible to set a course identically. In my opinion if you could not leave your dog in the weaves and get far enough ahead for doing the cross on the take-off side then you didn't get a tight turn. Linda M. did it beautifully but she could leave her dog in the weaves. Unfortunately I knew I couldn't leave Jedi in the weaves that much nor would it serve him well to do so and therefore I opted to do it on the landing side.

Jedi is on my left over 12-13 and 14 tunnel. I pull him into the correct tunnel opening and take off to the dogwalk. I'm thrilled that he ran into the same red tunnel that he had slipped in yesterday and so I take off. I find myself cheering him on a lot on this course.

The next part proved to be the first difficult part of the course for many handlers. The 13 jump to the close side of the tunnel for #14 and then up the dogwalk. There were two main ways to handle it - one was to front cross between 13 and 14 and push to the tunnel or hang back and pull the dog into the tunnel. Jedi pulls better than he pushes so I opted to pull him. There were quite a few off courses at this point of the course as well as some very close calls.

The last difficult part of the course was still ahead. I use lateral distance on the dogwalk and found myself almost forgetting to get moving and I start running toward the take off side of the #16 jump so I can front cross. I get the cross in and successfully pull Jedi into the chute and then I do an impromptu rear cross between the chute and final jump in order to pull him over the last jump. It was a clean run and his time is 38 seconds - in the middle of the pack of 12" dogs. Jedi is not fast enough to be in the top dogs at this calibre of competition.

After the dogwalk, was a right turn to a wingless jump with a wing jump nearby making it a tight handler path. Then it was # 17, an offset wingless jump, and a discrimination between the #18 chute and the weaves. The chute angled out and it was a right turn to the final jump. This sequence was especially difficult for the big dogs and there were lots of refusals and off courses in this section. Many handlers were caught behind at the chute and there were lots of spins before the last jump - some close enough to be called refusals and all costing valuable seconds of time.
Many of the big dog handlers did rear crosses at the jump before the chute and again at the chute to zig-zag through the finish. If you couldn't leave your dog on the dogwalk it was hard to get in a front cross on the jump after it. Others were caught behind their dogs on the dogwalk and then it was hard to squeeze between the wing jump and the wingless jump after the dogwalk. Some of the handlers caused the dogs to pull in because they were trying to get around the jump and this brought the weaves into play more.

For some reason in the 12" class there were a handful of dogs who hit the aframe hard or at an angle and lost time and probably incurred some sort of minor injury as a result. I'm not exactly sure how that happened or what caused it.

Jedi seemed to be fine after his run. It is now raining hard and steady outside but fortunately no thunder. Jedi has had a chance to rest for quite awhile before JWW. The JWW course definitely has a lot of turns in it and requires handling. I walk it with 6 front crosses planned. The footing which is moist clay is getting really packed down and very uneven in many spots. Handlers are tripping and some are falling. Many of us are really worried about staying on our feet for all of the crosses needed. I warm Jedi up well, gently massage him and stretch him. He is not showing any signs of soreness. We set-up for the JWW course and I plan a short lead out so he'll be fast off the start. I do a front cross between 2 and 3 and send him out on the pinwheel of 3-4-5. He runs around #5 barking at me. I already know we are not in the running for anything so I opt to not fix it and I'm puzzled as to why this happened. If he runs around any jump it would be 4 because I didn't support it. It was a hard push and I wanted to front cross on the landing side of 5. Many small dog handlers opted to front cross on the take off side of 5. I go on to 6-7-8 pinwheel and he runs around 6 and 7 and is barking at me. I'm really puzzled and we are told we should try to finish as much as possible so I keep running as if he is jumping. He does the weaves fine and then one jump and I continue crossing and trying to find my way off the course as he takes some of the jumps but not others and is barking at me like crazy. It was very out of character for him. I immediately suspected he was too sore to jump. Fortunately he was scheduled for a massage in about a half an hour.

Jedi was massaged and was in fact very sore again. We suspect he landed and turned over one of the jumps and it hurt and he was taking care of himself and not wanting to do any more turning and jumping. We are now doing more ice and heat tonight and he is scheduled for a massage and check first thing tomorrow morning. It is very possible he is done for the weekend.

As for the course analysis of the JWW class... Anne Braue handled it with all 5 front crosses that I had planned and in the location I had planned but unfortunately Scream took the last bar. The front crosses were between 2 and 3 (or the lead-out that Anne took care of that one), landing side of 5, landing side of 8, end of the weaves, landing side of 15 and between 17 and 18. Today's JWW course required the ability of the dog to weave into the pressure of the wall and the ability of the handler to front cross at the end of the poles which almost every handler I saw did.

It was really a course made for front crosses. Those that handled it with rear crosses often had wider turns or lost time. There was a very fast dog in the 8" class who had a very fast time but it would have been even faster if she had front crossed, I believe. Her dog slowed down every time she slowed down to do a rear cross. I saw this very often with any cross, either a poorly timed front cross or rear cross will slow a dog down too much. Again timing is everything and it is so important to practice, practice, practice these so you can learn to do them both smoothly. If you always do one and not the other then you won't improve your skills. At this level of competition the time is measured in thousandths of seconds. Poorly timed crosses can cost time.

The majority of participants here are happy to be able to play on challenging courses and to be a part of the experience of being able to watch some top handlers and friends run their dogs. What was also fun for me to watch was the number of handlers who were able to use distance skills on these courses. That is a real challenge because the courses are tight and obstacles are often in the handler path. There were some handlers who are physically not able to run every step of the course with their dogs so they have done a lot of distance training with their dogs. It was also interesting to have courses that encouraged independent obstacle performance - like being able to run ahead to the next obstacle while your dog is doing the weaves or the dogwalk. It really expanded your handling choices.

Now back to more ice and heat for Jedi, eating pizza in the hotel room and hoping the winter weather will hold off so we can fly home Monday night!

Annelise

AKC Nationals Friday

2009-03-27T19:08:00.005-05:00

Jedi would like to report that spending several hours in a Sherpa bag on Thursday was not much fun for him. We flew from MSP to Raleigh and then drove for over two hours to Concord NC to our hotel. We got in around 8:30 pm to the humid and rainy south. Jedi was the happiest to get out and stay out of that silly bag for awhile.

We got to the show site at 6:30am on Friday morning and checked-in and found out crating spot. Jedi has a little pup tent for events like this. Pam was the support staff and helped keep us organized when she wasn't visiting with all of her friends from "back east". Actually we both saw a lot of people we haven't seen in a long time today which was fun.

We walked the jumper course around 7:45 am and then we were about the 70th dog to run. The dirt is moist clay. It is spongy to walk on but it is very uneven. Handlers were (including me) more worried about turning an ankle or twisting a knee. The dogs with their smaller footprint handled it well.

The link below will take you to the courses from today. There are four rings going and each jump height runs the same course in a ring so the 12" dogs were in one ring and the 8" and 24" dogs were in another ring and the 20" and 16" dogs each had their own rings.

http://www.akc.org/events/agility/national_agility_championship/2009/friday.cfm

The jumpers course proved to have a very challenging threadle that was set very close together and was followed by a 180 sequence. Many dogs and handlers incurred refusals and/or off-courses in this section of the course. Most of the Minnesota 12" dogs ran the jumpers with weaves run cleanly.

I was able to watch some of the 24", 8", 16", 14" and 18" dogs run the course. The larger dogs had even more difficulty with the threadle section of the course.

If you look at the course on the link and follow along... I angled Jedi at the start so he could see jump #2 from jump #1. I was surprised at how many people did not do this and had wide turns from 1-2. I did a front cross between 3 and 4. Then I did a bit of a lateral send on 5 and ran on the section of 5-6-7. If you got stuck behind the double at 6 it made it awkward. A number of handlers did a front cross between 5 and 6 and then a rear cross on the take off side of 7. I found by taking off and being in motion on the line it helped to speed Jedi up. I think I would do the same thing with my big dogs if I were running them.

I did a front cross between 7 and 8 and while I saw a lot of people walking it with a front cross there I saw very few people do it. For me it made a very tight turn off of 7 and then I used deceleration to have a tight turn to the broad jump at 10. Then it was just running with him on my right and I got ahead of him on the weaves, pre-cued with my left arm to let him know before he took off for 13 that he was going to need to turn tightly and he did. He came in nicely for the threadle. I didn't make the front cross I had planned for 15-16 so I had to rear cross at 16. But it worked well and I was very pleased with the run.

We ran the standard course (minus a table) in the afternoon in a different ring. Two of the rings are located in the large arena with lots of seating. The other two rings have standing room only around them so it is hard to hang out there to watch. It is very crowded and there are walls around three sides.

I ran about 21st in the standard run which is fairly early in the running order. I lead out a bit between 1 and 2 and sent him in the tunnel. He took a long time to come out of the tunnel and I heard a scratching noise in there so I think he wiped out inside. He was running but very slowly for the jump, tire and aframe that followed. I handled that line with him on my left side. There were many 12" handlers who did that. I watched almost the entire 20" and 16" classes and did not see anyone in those jump heights handle it that way. They all did a front cross between 3 and 4 which in almost every case caused a really wide turn and then also made a wide turn from the tire to the aframe. I'm anxious to set this sequence up to see if I can handle my bigger dogs the same way I did Jedi - handle it like a serpentine.

After the aframe Jedi picked up speed and I had him on my left going into the weaves. Then I kept him on my left and he read the turn and did the pinwheel and came in tightly to the serpentine. Then he was set up on the right (correct) lead so I wrapped him between jumps 11 and 12 and had him on my right side as we headed to the dogwalk. As in jumpers this wrap section proved to be the most difficult for handlers of all levels and more refusals and off-courses happened in this part of the course.

I proceeded to the teeter and crossed in front of the up side of the teeter and finished the course well. I watched the big dogs and many dogs had problems in this section of the course. Most handlers had to pull their large dogs to the teeter - several dogs went into the off course tunnel on the way to the teeter. Most handlers could not get to the end of the teeter to do a front cross so they were rear-crossing before or after the broad jump. Very few succeeded with rear crosses here because dogs either took the broad jump at an angle (NQ going sideways over the broad jump) or pulled their dogs off the panel jump that followed the broad jump and sent their dogs right into the chute. I was amazed at how difficult that was for many handlers and dogs. Those who were able to get the front cross in at the end of the teeter had the most success on the closing sequence.

On the standard course the fastest times were in the 30-31 second range for all heights. Ashley and Luka the Pyr Shep (Feisty's aunt) had an awesome standard run and ran as fast as the larger dogs. Tammy Cutsforth and her younger Golden Retriever had an awesome 30 second run on the standard course. Terry and Remy had a nice standard run but Remy got hung up in the tire and made us all gasp a bit but she is so experienced she didn't give it a second thought. There were many nice runs out there by Minnesotans. I'm having fun meeting dogs and handlers who have dogs related to Spring, Jedi and Windy. It is fun to have an AKC type catalog because it does list a lot of information about the dog's running including sire, dam, birth date and breeder which is fun for finding dogs related to my dogs and finding dogs who might be related to a dog I'd want to breed to Sinco. There is a half sister to Sinco and a cousin of Tay's here which is fun.

Now to crash for the night and get ready for another fun day of agility.

When to trial???

2009-03-23T20:22:00.001-05:00

One question that I'm repeatedly ask is "Am I ready to trial?", well more accurately it is a question I wish I was asked more often!! But handlers need to be prepared for the answer if they ask. The answer will start out "it depends..."

1. It depends on your goals and your experience trialing a dog. Those experienced with training and trialing may trial a young dog in classes such as jumpers and tunnelers to "test" how well they hold a start line, how well they mentally function in the environment and how well they can handle the end of a run (i.e. do they come back to the handler readily). There are no expectations ofQ'ing and often a short course is what is taken rather than the entire course.

2. I think that those who are newer to trialing and training should wait until their dogs can do complex sequences in class well before even considering trialing. Ideally they wait until the dog is able to do 15-20 obstacle sequences well in class and can handle run-thrus and fun matches well. By well I mean that the dog can successfully complete all of the obstacles and the handler is able to perform front and rear crosses when running their dog.

When you make the decision to trial your dog you are making a huge transition. You are now entering an environment where the dog needs to understand delayed gratification. I teach my dogs "yes!" which means you are brilliant but keep working which almost always makes my dogs speed up. If you go from always feeding from your hand or bait bag in class at a high rate and then go to a trial ask for 14-15 obstacles in a row with no reinforcement you are going to lose your dog's attention out there. The concept of "bridging the gap" which I've talked about is key to transitioning from training to trialing.

Remember that every time you run your dog in a trial you are "practicing" behaviors. If your dog is missing contacts in a trial, running around obstacles in a trial, knocking bars in a trial or missing weave poles in a trial then they are "practicing" all of those behaviors. Dogs are very context specific in their learning which is both a good thing and a challenging thing. Dogs can very quickly become "ring wise" meaning that they can learn to do things like miss contacts, avoid weave poles and/or breaking start line stays very fast in a trial setting. No matter how much we reward these behaviors in training if the incorrect behavior goes uncorrected or conversely the good behaviors in a trial go unmarked/unrewarded then dogs will go the path of least resistance in a trial.

Trialing can become addicting because you may be able to earn a qualifying ribbon and/or a placement ribbon when your dog did not perform the obstacles as well as you had wanted. For example if the dog puts a foot in the yellow and jumps off but you taught the dog to go to the ground with two front feet on the ground and two on the board, the judge will not fault your dog's performance. However your dog has practiced a new behavior that is different from what you had originally taught. This new behavior can soon deteriorate into a dog missing the contact and/or a dog who is launching ahead to the next obstacle (which may be an off-course) without waiting for direction from the handler.

When a handler allows a dog to "practice" these new trial behaviors then a number of things can happen. In all venues the lower levels allow more time and very often more faults in order to qualify. If you are qualifying with a lot of faults at the lower levels it will make qualifying at the upper levels more difficult. In every venue it becomes more difficult to qualify as you move up in the levels. The times will get tighter and you will need to have fewer and fewer faults to qualify. So it will feel difficult to move up to the upper levels because the dog has practiced these behaviors in a trial setting which may not be good ones to have practiced to be able to qualify at the upper levels.

My goal with my students is that their first early trialing experience is successful and fun for both handler and dog. Not everyone wants to trial but for those who do I'd like it to be a positive experience from the start.

Annelise

Trial season is picking up!

2009-03-23T07:42:00.010-05:00

With the summer trial season almost upon us (yeah!!!) it is time to check our calendars and to check in with our dogs. We are fortunate that now the agility season does last all year long here in Minnesota. Several years ago that was not the case and we had about 5-6 months of agility trials and then 6-7 months off. However there are still more trialing opportunities in the summer months and more choices need to be made.

Our dogs need mental and physical rest as well as mental and physical conditioning. There are some good articles about it for human athletes and how the body needs time off to build muscle. It is difficult to know how much is too much for a human let alone for our dogs. We are all different. Some of you know this because you've had dogs become "muscle-bound" from having built up too much muscle and needing more rest time.

Overtraining syndrome is known in human athletes and with horses. There is some good information at www.sportsmedicine.about.com for how this impacts humans. It can cause physical as well as psychological problems. In reading about it in humans there are a lot of articles out there on this. Some of the symptoms in humans can be related to in dogs and are listed below. This is a list of human side effects that has been modified for dogs.

Washed-out feeling, tired, drained, lack of energy
Mild leg soreness, general aches and pains
Pain in muscles and joints
Sudden drop in performance
Decrease in training capacity / intensity
Moodiness and irritability
Depression
Loss of enthusiasm for the sport
Decreased appetite
Increased incidence of injuries.

Hopefully you have given your dog some time off this winter. All athletes need some time off whether it is one long stretch or periods of 2-3 weeks to rest. They need time for the muscles to rest and heal. Whenever we do a lot of active use of our muscles we create micro-tears. These are actually what is used to build more muscle however they can also go the other direction and develop into a major tear. So having some down time for these muscles to recover is important. All human athletes take time off from training and they may go and do a different kind of training that uses different muscles or uses the muscles differently. Having multiple activities to do with your dog can help provide this variety in muscle development and muscle rest as long as their are extended periods of rest.

Right now my dogs are on a break from trialing which I believe is the most stressful of the training activities we do with our dogs. Except for Jedi all the other dogs have four weekends off. Jedi will have three off. They are also only being trained in agility for a few minutes once a week during this time. Feisty gets occasional obedience training and Sinco gets occasional herding training. The training in different sports is a good way to work different muscles and to keep them mentally fresh. I feel this is important for both their physical well-being as well as mental well-being. There is one fluffy little grey dog who doesn't handle time-off well at all - she is bouncing off the walls. It is good that she has obedience training she can do for awhile. Well there is another fluffy grey dog who is too young for mental time-off - in fact he doesn't get enough mental activity! I need to work on that!