Tables, Teeters, Weaves... oh my!

How often have we heard that "my dog only does X in a trial?"  Well I have been there along with many others.  It can be puzzling and frustrating.  Often I am initially puzzled, then confused, then frustrated and then I begin to analyze it and try to figure out how I will "fix" it.

Recently I have been tested in my resolve to "fix" issues with the table.  Feisty was very affected by judges and ring crew near the table and she would run by it and then refuse to get on it or stop and sniff it and then get on it.  She needed lots of desensitization to pressure around the table.  While Feisty's issues have often been very stress related - she did eventually start to be a bit silly with the table and less stressed. 


Spring would either run past it totally or bounce on and bounce off.   Spring was not at all stressed but he was in part not sure of the criteria and quickly realized I couldn't do much about it.  I found he likes to get into a barking argument with me over things and I learned not to engage in arguments on course with him.  I stopped caring what he did and that took some of the fun out of avoiding things for him. 
 He was more sensitive to my pressure but it took awhile for me to recreate that and figure it out.  I am excited that I am seeing improvement in my two dog's table performances in trials.  I had to think outside the box and be creative in my training and do a lot of observing of runs at trials versus training.   

What did I do?

1. I first increased the degree of proofing of the table performance.  I had people sit on the table, next to the table, stand over the table, I played CDs of crowds talking, clapping and cheering, I put all kinds of unusual obstacles in the dog's path on the way to the table so the dog had to work to get on the table and I varied my position relative to the table.  
2. I then looked at videos of the table performance in trials to see what might be different to affect the performance in the ring.
3. In the case of one dog who was inexplicably avoiding it or launching on and off of it I did several standard runs where I just ran by the table and didn't ask for it at all.  I totally took pressure off of doing the obstacle.  It actually caused him to get on the table and try to get me to come back to it.  Then I knew I was making progress. Then I gradually increased criteria and found if I hung back and sent him ahead to the table he was much more willing to go.  I was crowding him a bit - he didn't care if the judge crowded him. 
4. In the case of the dog who was avoiding it because the judge was intimidating her I would have her get on the table - no matter how long it took and then immediately leave to a big reward of a favorite treat.  I wanted her to work through her stress of dealing with a judge up close to her.  Sometimes if the judge was away from her and still she would get on it fine.  If we had NQ'd before the table I would leave to a party.  If there were some fun obstacles after the table when she had done it well I would go on.  If there were hard obstacles I would leave early.  I always praised her profusely when she got on the table right away. Often I wouldn't ask her to stay more than a second - release the pressure quickly.  I gradually increased her criteria to being on there for the 5 second count.
5. In all the cases I gradually increased the criteria and leaving immediately to a reward.  Now I am able to continue the course and the dogs are doing the table well in trial settings.  Often if I have NQ'd before the table I will take the opportunity to jackpot a good table by leaving the ring early to a favorite treat right after the table.  Dogs who like to run agility can be rewarded by going on to more obstacles but be sure they are set up for success.  If they miss a contact or weave and are corrected after doing the table you may undo the work you are doing with the table.  Plan the runs carefully.  I also if I NQ before the table will sometimes make a fun exit of the course and NOT do the table at all.  

I often have students and others ask me about weave pole problems that happen only at trials.  Ever since I adopted the following weave pole training policy I have to say that my own dogs have significantly improved their trial weave pole performance.  I have been doing this for about  10 plus years now.

1. I try not to ever pull my dogs out of the weave poles when they have missed a weave entrance. I wait for them to come out or finish on their own.  There is no point in trying to negatively mark a missed weave entrance because our timing will be late and 99.9% the dog will be actively weaving when they process the marker word.  Then you see dogs become stressed and worried about weaving. We tend to pull our dogs out of weaves more often at trials than anywhere else because we are worried about time.  Dogs become worried about weaving if this has happened to them a lot.
2. When training, I  ALWAYS repeat the sequence before the weaves.  I don't want my dogs to ever learn that I could help them collect for the poles by letting them do the weaves from a slowed or stopped position. 
3. When training weave entries I very quickly move to adding an obstacle before the weaves.  I get myself out of the picture as much as possible when training weave entries.
4. I use ASCA and NADAC trials to work on this in a trial setting as well as Gamblers, FAST and other classes in other organization where I can repeat a sequence.   My first Border Collie Bradish taught me this - he could not hit a weave entrance in a trial and I would always restart him at the weaves and he quickly learned that he didn't need to be responsible for collecting for the weave entrance.  Once NADAC came along and I could train in the ring and repeat the sequence before the weaves in a trial setting the problem got better.  Now I never let my dogs shirk their responsibility - they always have to collect for the weaves.  
5. In training weaves I do a lot of proofing with toys, treats and moving items near the poles. I also vary what I'm doing - running backwards, flapping arms, moving sideways, clapping etc.  I also train very hard entrances and exits, front and rear crosses and distance on the poles.  I do all of this very early on in the weave training.  I don't want them to become dependent on me in any way when weaving.  I also put tunnels and jumps within a couple of feet of the exit of the poles as a form of distraction.

The teeter is another difficult obstacle for young dogs when they first start trialing.  Different types of teeters are out there with different tip points and different sounds.  Recently I have had a number of people come to me for help with teeter problems.  I have found the following things when done before teeter training significantly help a dog's confidence when learning the teeter.

Carmine - photo by Neider Arts

1. Shaping your dog to knock things over to make noise and make them move.  You can teach your dog to shut cupboard doors, dryer doors and drawers.  You can teach your dog to knock over cans and bottles, to bang and walk on cookie sheets, aluminum foil etc.  You are limited only by your imagination of how to develop a dog who is confident enough to make noise.
2. "Bang it" game is a critical piece of teeter training.  I spend a lot of time teaching young dogs to push the teeter down with their front feet.  I do NOT move on from this until the dog is eagerly pushing it down.  Gently or tentatively pushing it down is not enough.  Time and time again I see dogs with teeter problems have not played this game and even if they know how to do the teeter they are often afraid of this game.  These dogs are often ones who are slow and tentative in their teeter performance too.  I make sure the dogs are learning to both move it and make noise.  If needed I'll put a cookie sheet under it and encourage students with teeters at home to do the same.
3. I train the teeter with having it low and very gradually raising it.  I don't raise it until I have seen repeatedly fast and eager teeter performance from a dog.  Too often teeters are raised quickly before a dog is really ready for it.  I have all the rewards at the end of the teeter.  I went very slowly with my own puppy on teeter training and I've been known to revisit teeter training with young dogs when they lose confidence - often on a teeter that tips faster than expected or makes more noise on landing than expected.
4. Exposing young dogs to a variety of teeter types in a training setting is really important to build confidence.  Some teeters tip faster than others and this can startle young/green dogs and cause them to lose confidence.  
5. If a dog develops a teeter problem in a trial setting I will address this in training and go back to the very beginning of training with bang it games.  More often than not the lack of confidence shows up with this game and confidence can be increased by playing this game.

Last weekend Feisty, my Pyr Shep, who has been worried about many things in a trial setting had a teeter collapse under her in a FAST run.  It went down slowly and quietly and I didn't even know it happened until we came off the course and the ring crew was running out there to fix it!  She has not had any issues with the teeter since.  She kept running fast afterwards - good brave girl!  She is not fond of many teeters especially when judges are hovering.  Her slow teeters are more a factor of how close the judge is when she is doing it and I often have to keep her focused ahead and on me to keep her moving.  If no one is around (as in the above FAST run) she can do it very fast.  In her first year of trialing she knew every teeter she had ever been on and she would sniff a new one as if inspecting it.  Then one day she stopped doing it and will get on any new teeter right away.  I never fussed over her but let her build her confidence at her own pace.  Teeters are a difficult obstacle for young dogs.  

So in sum, when having trouble with an obstacle in a trial - video your trial runs, examine your foundation training of that obstacle including proofing and examine what you are doing differently in a trial compared to training.  Making training scenarios harder than trialing can help a lot and making sure you are not doing something unusual in trials will help too.

Reflections on World Team Tryouts

As Kory Kaye said: "It IS much more fun to be on the other side of the plexi-glass" at AKC's World Team Tryouts in Hopkins MN.  I have gone and watched many times and this year I had a dog capable of the speed and technical skills to attend as a participant. We have been lucky to have it be here in Minnesota all these years. In addition this year docked tails were allowed in the hosting country.  My plan was to attend as a participant to see how prepared I am for the courses, how much I like the environment and whether it is something fun to do in the future.  I never really thought I was a candidate for the team.  I wanted the experience.


The first challenge however was to have Sinco measured.  In practice she can measure consistently at 16.75 but when she is excited she can measure as high as 17.75.  In order to compete she had to measure under 16 7/8.  We measured once when we got there and she was a "little high" so we did our practice session on Friday, had a shoulder massage by Michelle Bame and walked a lot.  Then she was measured about six times by three different people.  When three different people measured her at 16.75 we were given the OK but warned if we made the team we had a lot of work to do to get her to measure in consistently.


We had a good practice on Friday.  She did the weaves and had no trouble with the viaduct jump and she was really pretty amped up there.  I was happy with the warm-up.


Saturday was Rd 1 Standard first.  I felt confident that we could do everything on the course.  I had a plan on one section that was unique but it worked well for us.  I had no doubts as to how to handle it.   Sinco and I handled the beginning part of the course well and then 2/3 of the way through the course she popped out of the weaves at pole 10 three times and I moved on to finish the course.  At first I thought it was my handling because it was a hard exit but when I got on the other side of the weaves and she still popped out I realized it was something else.  Yet otherwise she seemed to be feeling ok.  I  had Michelle check her and she was a bit tight in the TL junction so Michelle worked on her before the next run.  


On Rd 2 JWW I again felt confident about my ability to handle the course and the weaves were in an easy exit location so I hoped that she would do them.  I knew we were out of the competitive picture and I was not stressed at the line.  I felt confident that the courses were challenging but they were within my ability to handle them.  I handled the opening well and she did the weaves and I said  "Yay!  Good Girl!" when she did them.  Well that got her really high and I could not keep her on course after that.  So we had a number of off course issues after that and I tried to recover and keep going but she was rather silly and made me smile out there.  When she gets silly like that and starts to lose focus there is not much that can be done to get her back on course!


Michelle checked her and she was given the ok that she was feeling fine. 


On Rd 3 Standard the weaves had a hard entrance and exit but were near the end of the course.  I felt it was a challenging course but I felt confident in my ability to handle it.  We handle the entire course well and I was very pleased.  I got there to the weaves and she got the entrance but could not hold on to it in the weaves.  I finished the course anyway since I knew the weaves were our weakest link.  I was pleased with my handling and how she ran otherwise.


Sunday Sinco checked out ok and ready to go.  The rd 4 was JWW and I was excited to handle it because I felt confident in my plan.  It had a very collected start and then an opening straight line so I thought she would like that.  Sinco was really slow at the start and then didn't open up well on the straight line so I had to ad-lib my handling which is not always good.  It caused an off course and I kept trying to get my dog back but she was not running happily for some reason.  Then she lost her confidence and didn't want to send to a tunnel and I tried to keep going and we recovered at the ending and she did her weaves.  I realized that at that point I needed to do something to get her more excited about running these courses.  She didn't seem to be barking but was more worried.  I think the micromanaging on the opening parts of the courses was getting to her and shutting her down and she didn't trust opening up again.


The weekend before at a local AKC trial I had figured out if I play with her too much before a run she gets too high and loses focus.  Therefore I try to do a more controlled focused warm-up.  That is what I was doing at the try-outs.  But I realized as she was not enjoying the courses I need to try amping her up again.  So I got the toy out again at the warm-up jump and she was doing tight turns to play tug with the toy.  Then she got excited and barked while waiting to run so I was happy to have my dog back.


Rd 5 was Standard and again I felt confident in how to handle it.  It started out tight but she came out of it fast and was sending into tunnels.  She was slow on the aframe and got called for her aframe contact when I released her and she didn't take one more step but leaped off.  I didn't realize it until I was done.  We were in sync handling the rest of the course and our lines were tight.  I missed a tunnel near the end of the course so we again had an E but I was happy my dog was barking and happy on the course again.  So we ended on a good note and as a happy team - both dog and handler.


In summary I enjoyed running those courses and having technical handling challenges.  I am excited to prepare Carmine for these challenges because she is not as much of a worrier as her mother and so I think she will be able to enjoy this kind of competition more than her mother Sinco does.  I'm hooked... 


Sinco enjoys NADAC Championships as does Feisty so we will be going there in October and enjoying every minute of it.  Meanwhile I will still continue to do international style training with Carmine as well as distance training.

Perspective starting again with a novice dog...

I have been traveling out of town to trials a lot lately and staying late to run my novice dog, so I have a lot of time to watch runs by handlers and dogs I don't get to see very often.  It is fun to watch different teams and to watch different handling and training styles.  Often at local trials I don't have as much down time to watch runs because I'm coaching students, helping at the trial or plan to leave early to go do some chore at home.  Being out of town I have nowhere to go but the hotel room so I might as well spend Saturday afternoon watching agility.  It also helps to watch novice dogs just starting out to be reminded of what it is like to start with a green dog. 

It is interesting to watch teams that I don't know where they train, how they train or even who they are.  I watch them objectively and I often think about how I could help them do better if this were a seminar I was giving.  Trial situations are interesting because I know from personal experience that the performance that I may get in familiar training setting will decrease by at least 10% at a local trial.  I also know from personal experience and that of other top handlers and trainers that performance at a national competition will decrease another 10+% because of the stress of the environment.  If you do world competition then anticipate another 10% decrease.  These are really just abstract numbers.  I think the percentages will be higher for dogs who tend to get very excited in trialing environments and very eager to do agility and higher in dogs who are having trouble focusing on agility when in a trial environment.  So I know that you can't and shouldn't judge a team based on how they are trialing because there are so many variables.  When I don't know a team I don't know what their goals are or where they have been already on their journey.  It takes courage to get out there and perform in front of others.  I do watch the dog's demeanor because that is what is fascinating to me and I do see behavior patterns - common elements from dog to dog.  My own novice dog is experiencing that 10% decrease in performance in a trial setting so I am taking note of that so I can focus on those skills in training.

So I know with my own dogs the collection cues I give on a regular trial weekend seemed to be somewhat less effective than in training and the turns are a bit wider.  I've been trying to pay closer attention to this so when I see my dog do tighter turns at a trial so I can positively mark that in hopes of increasing that trend.  Many of us have experienced contact performances disintegrate right before our very eyes in a trial setting.  Now that I've started a little bit of trialing with my novice dog I have seen wider turns at the trial than in training and I've seen some confusion on the contacts.  Carmine stopped two on/two off beautifully with me moving past on the aframe twice on one course.  Unfortunately her criteria is a running aframe and a stop on the dogwalk.  I fully expected the dogwalk to turn into a running one as I've experienced that many times before with other dogs of mine.  She also learned to run narrow boards for a time while I was deciding whether to train a running dogwalk.  I did some proofing of her dogwalk and even did some quick releasing her and then making her stop in training in order to test her focus and understanding.  That training may be helping her stick her dogwalk in a trial.  I need to do more proofing of the running aframe to make it clearer that is what I want.  I was able to get the running aframe on two out of three runs in a trial setting with the aframe.

I rarely start trialing a dog in AKC to the degree I have with Carmine but that is where my focus is with my older dogs and I feel she is ready. So far she has gone two for two in novice standard and two for three in novice jww.  She is also the kind of dog that could develop too much obstacle focus if she stayed in novice too long so I am wanting her to get in and get out of novice.  She is training on more complex sequences but I am still wanting her to know how to extend so we do work on transitions from extension to collection and back to extension.  It is also interesting that I have not done much more than 10-11 obstacle sequences with her  in training so the 14-16 obstacle sequences of novice in a trial are the first ones she has done.  It helps that I am an experienced handler, however I don't try to do an entire course with my dogs in training.  Even if one is setup I almost always will stop somewhere along the way to reward a great performance or to redo something I want to do better. 

The thing I love about teaching is that I get to work with a wide variety of students and dogs so I know there are so many variables that go into creating a successful team in competition.  What works for one team may not work at all for another team or may only work in part.  Sometimes it is a trial and error type of learning which can be frustrating but often it is the only way.  Sometimes it takes a lot of repetitions.  Generally speaking they say you need to do 3 times as many correct repetitions for every incorrect one in order to get the desired behavior solidified.  This is why it is important to address something right away and not let it go on for run after run.  The longer you let it go the harder it will be to fix.  I am on a new journey with Carmine and I need to take notes and keep track of what works and what doesn't work with her.  She is like most dogs, very complicated.  It is extra fun to run a dog that I have literally known since the day she was born.

I enjoy starting out with a novice dog at a time when a lot of my students have young dogs too so it helps me be able to appreciate their challenges in training and trialing and keeps my perspective fresh.  I enjoy watching agility runs because it is an ongoing learning experience for me and tests my observation skills. 

What I've learned...

Many folks doing agility now never saw or met my first agility dogs.  I thought I'd share some of the positive things the dogs in my life have taught me.   Many of us like to say that each dog comes to us to teach us something.  I have been privileged to have had some really great teachers over the course of my time training dogs personally and professionally.    They have given me a broad base of experience and skills.  The provide the basis for my philosophy that dog training can not be done with cookie cutters but has to be done with individual molds for both dog and handler. They have all made this journey very fun as well as educational. 

Ashley

Ashley taught me:

• how fun obedience training can be
• how fun agility can be
• how fun having a dog can be
• how loyal a dog can be
• how horrible it is to lose your first special dog suddenly at the age of two years.

Demi taught me:

Demi

• about the challenges of bonding with a 1 1/2 year old who has been left to play with other dogs her whole life and not been trained to do anything
• introduced me to the concept of ring and performance stress
• introduced me to the idea that not all dogs are cut out to be performance dogs, some just like playing the game in the backyard or class and that is ok
• some dogs are awesome with any dog or puppy or person of any age (and some are not)

Bradish taught me:

Bradish 1998 AKC Natls

• how much fun agility can be
• how easy distance training/handling can be
• how fast a dog can become ring-wise and behave differently in training and trialing
• how athletic dogs can be
• the need for criteria on contacts
• how they can keep running when high on adrenaline and seriously hurt
• the importance and value of "flow" in courses for safety
• the importance of a reliable recall which he did not have

Nigel taught me:

Nigel

• how hard agility training can be
• the importance of motivation
• how to manage a dog aggressive dog
• how some dogs can do things to get attention whether it is punishment or reward
• how hard it is to raise two dogs 2 weeks apart in age
• how independent a dog can be
• how important physical soundness is and how important conditioning is to soundness
• how hard stays and self control training can be

Leysha taught me:

Leysha

• how to motivate a dog for agility and how to reward speed
• how easy obedience and self control training can be
• how to handle smoothly and how to train distance
• how stressful trials can be for dogs
• how much dogs know about what they have been bred to do
• how much a dog who is willing to please will do for a person

Tobie taught me:


Tobie

• how to handle a fast dog
• how to use toys in training
• how hard stay and self control training can be
• how to manage a reactive dog at busy agility trials
• how important jump training is
• how hard it can be to maintain contact criteria in a trial when a dog is easily self rewarded by doing obstacles



Sonic

Sonic taught me:

• a deep appreciation for trial ring stress and how it affects dogs in many ways
• how much what we do in a trial setting especially with weave poles compared to training is creating stress for dogs
• how hard it is to teach one criteria for the aframe and a different one for the dogwalk
• a deep appreciation for what it means to lose a dog at the peak of their performance career as well as when they are full of life and potential and are as sweet as the day is long
• how truly sweet a dog can be to all animals and people

Amigo taught me:

Amigo

• the importance of good structure for longevity in performance sports
• the challenges of training a dog who is "what's in it for me?"
• the importance of a good "leave it"
• the fun of shaping a dog to do tricks in a manner of minutes
• how to live with separation anxiety
• the importance of bridging the gap between training and trialing

Sinco continues to teach me:

Sinco

• a love for all dog sports
• not all dogs enjoy shaping with a clicker
• how much fun a dog enjoys competition can be
• an understanding of how much dogs can want to be right
• an understanding of the importance of rewarding what you want especially speed
• an understanding for being careful about correcting a dog
• a greater understanding of how much work it is to raise a well socialized litter of puppies
• a greater understanding of hormonal changes and how they affect performance
• a greater understanding of what aspects of temperament are hard-wired an what aspects can be affected by nurture.

Feisty continues to teach me:

Feisty

• a great understanding of the many ways trial ring stress expresses itself
• a great understanding of how the presence of people can produce pressure that can affect a dog's performance
• a greater understanding of how to use food to motivate and train for speed
• what it is like to live with a  high energy dog who is very sensitive to her environment
• an understanding of how to train to make it seem like it is all the dog's idea
• about what sound sensitivity really means
• how reinforcing the crowd laughing can be for a dog

Tay continues to teach me:

Cante (Tay)

• a love of shaping a dog to do tricks
• a great appreciation for the impact of soreness/injuries on a dog
• an appreciation for how dogs can be very sensitive to smells, touch as well as sound
• an appreciation for the different types and degrees of intelligence dogs can possess
• what a truly sensitive dog is in all the ways she is
• how really truly difficult training a stay can be for some dogs and how abstract some training concepts are and how some dogs have greater difficulty grasping those abstract concepts
• to remember that not all dogs enjoy competition no matter how much I do

Spring

Spring continues to teach me:

• the universe really doesn't understand "no" when you wish for something in other words don't tell the universe "I don't want a Sheltie who spins and barks" because you will get a Sheltie who spins and barks at high speed!
• how difficult shaping as a training tool can be for some dogs
• how hard running contacts can be even with a small dog
• how smart a dog can be in terms of the "show me the money" game

Carmine is just starting to teach me:

• how much fun a dog who loves a crowd can be
• the challenges of training a highly toy motivated dog
• the importance of on and off switches that work well
• how to handle a fast dog
• how hard running contacts can be
• how training the agility obstacles can be the easy part but the rest of the relationship training takes much more time and much more work

On Making Lemonade

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

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

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

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

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

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

So even in winter we can all enjoy some lemonade!

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

Reflections on ring stress and dog mental management

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who is the student?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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