I have trained in some crazy places!

Bloggers unite to talk about Backyard Training. 

When I think of backyard training what typically comes to mind is: training alone, working on very targeted skills, and working in smaller spaces in my backyard.  What kinds of courses and skills can you train in small places?

Then I really started to think about my "training program" (I will call it that so it sounds really official) and it occurred to me that I have done some things that people might perceive as crazy and I have trained my dog in places (and people probably did perceive me as crazy).  Really the whole world is your backyard and you can use it to learn/train/proof fundamental skills.  You just have to have a little crazy in you :)

First, let me say, I am an introvert.  Not just a little bit introverted, but a lot!!  But the thing that I have going for myself is I get possessed by my goals.  That possession/obsession tends to carry me through some things that I would otherwise find painful--like training in crazy places.

I find that the thing that drives me to do crazy things is proofing some kind of skill with my dogs.  Tangle has been the victim of this most often, but all three of my dogs are not strangers to the oddity of my ways.  With all of my dogs I am trying to bridge the gap between "he does it perfect in the backyard" and "he can do it perfectly in a trial".  Right?  The holy grail of agility dog training.

Does your dogs have a brilliant stay at the start line, but could not, for even a second stay in the kitchen? The skill hasn't been proofed in all sorts of placed or in all sorts of ways.

When I was trying to get Tip to have more independent weave poles I loaded a set of six in the car (now I would probably load 2 sets of 2x2's).  We went to a quiet park, to a noisy park with lots of people (where we gathered a nice audience), to a horse barn at the fairgrounds (while throwing tug toys at her), etc..You get the idea.  Tip does have very independent weave poles now, BTW.



I have a plank (not painted or anything fancy).  Tangle I practiced his 2o2o in many different places.  In the front yard, back yard, at a trial, at a construction site.  You get the idea.  He can do his 2o2o with amazing distractions now.  And really, distractions are what is going on at a trial.

Tangle Tug Tour #3

One of my more recent "tours" was in the name of getting Tangle comfortable playing in strange places.  He was very good at playing at home (you know because you just play in your backyard and don't get the dog out).  He would NOT tug any place but home.  Tugging is essential to getting him warmed up and ready to drive through an agility course. So, I loaded my dog and a few of his favorite tug toys into the car.  We tugged at a quiet park, at the bank and Starbucks, at REI, and at 13,000 on top of a mountain.  Any place I don't normally play with my dog.  I wanted him to know that playing is important.

I proof start line stays on a soccer field.  No equipment, just me and the dogs.  I train it in a pack.  All three dogs are in a sit/stay, I start running, I call one of their names and give the release word "OK". The others must stay until their name is called.  There is motion, I throw toys, I use the other dogs as distractions.  Yes, I must ultimately proof in the agility ring, but if I can get close before I get there I am happy.  Agility rings at trials aren't frequent enough, are expensive, and you only get a few shots!  (Tip can do this skill hands down, but can't stay in the ring--why, because I didn't proof it there--ops).

So, really my point is that we are only limited by how we define "backyard".  Don't be confined by what is simply behind your house.  It is probably better for the dog in the long run anyway.

Simplify, the message of the day!

I had a great private lesson with Stacy Peardot-Goudy today. First time I have ever had a private with her. I have done seminars with her and always like them.

We reviewed Tangle's DW performance. He was not 100 percent at her place and I am actually glad for that. Not much to talk about when something is perfect. She gave me some great proofing ideas and again reiterated the fact that when training running contacts you make a couple of strides forward and sometimes you go backwards. Tangle is driving to a dead toy. At this point I should start to move the toy "around the clock" and test his knowledge of coming off he contact straight.

I have felt stuck in figuring out how I wanted to train Tangle's teeter. There is some information out there in the wild, and I had talked to some friends, but for some reason I was still feeling stuck. Stacy and I had some good discussion around training the teeter and the message was to simplify my method. She thought I was going to be teaching too many things and it would be more effort. Won't do any harm, but was it really necessary? Stacy trains the 2o2o behavior first. She always has the end of the teeter move some (stressing that this is really important for running contact dogs). Movement, you stop, no movement, you run! Then once she has completely proofed the 2o2o, she sets the teeter on its lowest setting and begins to run the dog completely across (no back chaining). By this time the dog is fairly driven to get to the end and doesn't need the back chaining.

Stacy and I had a great discussion on training flatwork with jump uprights. She trains her flatwork with jump uprights. She trains jumping separately. She felt that we could be doing more in this area and gave me some great suggestions on where to go. We worked a bit on serpentine. I got a really good explanation and understanding of teaching them to a baby dog!

Not all of this was new news, but I guess I am a private lesson kind of girl. I really need to have explanations and discussion around my lessons so I feel like I really have the concept down!

Tangle's first group class

Tangle has done a puppy class, a couple of private lessons and today was his very first agility group class. The class was with a bunch of pups roughly his own age and varying skill levels. The class was indoors on the astro turf kind of grass.

In general Tangle did awesome. We have been working on most of the things that were covered in class so much of that was review. The curve ball for me was Tangle's distraction with crumbs all over the agility floor. He is a fairly high drive pup, but was totally into shopping for crumbs. This distraction level in my dogs is new to me.

There could be a couple of things going on: 1) my treats didn't have a high enough value 2) Tangle did this same thing in his first private (same facility), could be just couping with something new 3) stress relief

So, my plan for next week is to take 1) very high value treats 2) his most favorite squeaky toy that he goes over the top for 3) be as relaxed as I can be so that my stress doesn't influence him 4) this week work on rewarding him more, not marking any mistakes.

In class we worked on: single jump drill, double jump drill, pin wheel drill, and the bang game on the teeter. My homework for this next week will be to perfect the pin wheel drill. I need to work more on sending him forward, but making sure there is no disconnection as I am moving into my next position.

Rear crosses

We have a pile of snow here now so Tangle and I were forced into the basement for training. Not so bad because you can focus on things that don't need the space for. Otherwise I would probably choose to do something where I am running more (I love to run).

We worked on our foundation work--sending to a jump upright, front crosses, rear crosses, and facing forward skills.

Things catch my attention from time to time and I really begin to think deeply about them. For instance, my thought yesterday was "when does the rear cross cue really happen?". Am I late or on time? Sure, you and the dog are running along, you send him ahead, begin to converge on his path, head toward the opposite jump stanchion, probably put your arm forward and magically the dog knows to turn away from you. When is his moment of realization that you are going to rear cross? Is it when you purposely send him ahead? Is it when you converge on his path?




The fun thing for me watching this video is how much Tangle and I are in unison. Watching this in slow motion didn't really give me more of a clue EXACTLY when Tangle realizes that we are rear crossing. I can tell that he knows that he is going to rear cross when his head begins to straighten out and look ahead (he begins to move from direct eye contact and peripheral vision). But there is no moment of realization. Kind of like that moment when your cue is late for the dog, all the sudden you tell them to weave, and their body lowers and takes off (Ah, thanks Mom for the cue, I got it from here).

The other thing that I noticed with Tangle is that he is very sensitive to my hand motion. On some of these turns, I use my hand to turn him on the flat. He follows that motion very closely. Mostly good, but have to be careful.

Love this dog, he seems to respond very naturally to body cues. I think he has done this before!

The boys were on FIRE!

I took all three dogs to the field today, been a while since that happened.

I decided to take a pulse check on where Tangle was when working around the other dogs. I put the other dogs in the yard which is right next to the agility field. I was fully prepared to have to back down and lower the distraction at the first sign of trouble. First I warmed Tangle up with recalls, he did awesome, 100%. OK, I ramped it up a little. Next we did flatwork, at a walk first and then at a trot. Tangle did awesome, never once ran over to see where the other dogs were.

Interesting to me, he completely understands following body motion and really has since day one! That is his natural talent for sure. I didn't fully appreciate it until I watch a couple of other puppies work and it wasn't the same level of understanding.

Split starts barking because he is getting left out, still Tangle is with me.

Next we did cone work, first single cone just for food and then two cones for food and then toys. I did both the stand in the middle, send, FC, and send to the next. Then the stand a send to one with forward motion and the other with lateral motion. Tangle's sends were beautiful today. On average I was sending him about 12 feet or so. He would drive out, round the cone with the same speed, accelerate into the turn and speed back to me. His speed is beginning to pick up which is awesome. He does still "offer" the cone to me without me asking. He just gets a "good boy", but no huge reward. In the long run I don't want him offering obstacles. I want him to wait until he has been queued.

We ended the session with a great game of table, Tangle's favorite game. This time I threw him a little twist and asked him the lie down a couple of times before I would start the game.

Never once did Tangle get distracted by the other dogs who by this time were barking and whining (that is a whole other training topic).

Next to work out was Split. I warmed him up with the extension and collection work. That boy is so awesome. Totally understands his foundation. I wonder if the herding has something to do with it. Both boys are very herdy and both are awesome at the foundation work. Next we worked small sequences with contacts in them. Split was awesome. He hit his contacts 100 percent of the time. I ran past, front crossed, stopped and started again, he remained through it all on the DW. His running contact was a little slow, but accurate. Speed will come in time. I worked some turns out of tunnels with Split for fun. RC before he goes into the tunnel, does he come out running in the correct direction? Boy did awesome. Lastly we ended with weaves-fetch which he loves. I worked on speedy entries, and some lateral motion. Seems like 24 inch poles have made all the difference in the world!!

I won't leave Tip out. She did really well except for waiting her turn. :)

Never overrate foundation

Every once in a while I gain a deeper understanding of why foundation is so important! I have been watching Mary Ellen Barry's (MEB) new foundation DVD. Fabulous addition to the library and she is just an amazing teacher.

I was working out the dogs today and I think that I could spot every foundation skill that either I didn't work on or I short-cuted. All three dogs!! Something MEB said on the DVD is that she spends a ton of time on foundation skills, perfects them, so that when she is teaching agility equipment she is not fighting the lack of any other skill! HUGE!!!!

Examples from today's' practice:
Tangle - Although he isn't even 5 months old and I have not finished his foundation by any means, I can spot what I need to work on more. I started out with just a little circle work at a slow trot. He didn't know that he was suppose to stay with me. It was easy to remind him, but I need to incorporate some specific training that helps him understand that better.

Split - he is a really strong flanker. He always wants to be slightly ahead and turn into me. Again, I need to go back to foundation work and teach him the value of being at my side. Also, Split has zero forward send to a tunnel. The nice thing about that is that I have to be moving in order to get him into the tunnel. However, if I start off with some motion and send him 5 feet he should be able to get into the tunnel without looking back at me.

Also, Split has lost/never had a strong enough understanding of the weaves. We went back to almost square one today and worked on weave entries. I was going to click/treat it, but Split would not take food today--interesting. So, instead I clicked and threw the Frisbee. We worked with just 4 poles and worked my way around the clock from 9 to 3 on the entries. Once we got past either of those he could not get his entry anymore. We will work that. I also noticed that he is dependant on my motion. I need to think about that and decide how independent I want that performance. Ie, I am moving forward in the general direction he needs to go, but I should be able to peel off laterally. I don't want him doing the weaves if my motions is going against the flow.

Tip - Tip was my first dog and I will always give her credit for that! She has adapted to so many different techniques, it is amazing that she can be successful on course at all. Tip does not have a good balance of obstacle/handler focus. She is way more obstacle focused. Probably because I was when I taught her! We need to review her permission to take an obstacle! Her start line stayed sucked today as well and I have been working that as well. Need to go back and work impulse control work with her.

Today's work

Tangle and I did a boat load of work today. I didn't get to work out the others because a storm rolled in this afternoon :(

We took a ton of video while playing all these games. Since Tangle is a wee one I can't always see how well he is lined up with me. The video really helped. It also helped me spot where I was not releasing properly!

We played a ton of short games:

• start lines stays
• table games
• "round" the cone
• "8's" around the cones
• "feet" on the table
• FC, RC, pull and push

A lot of these games have releases in them. I am trying to release either in motion and completely still (ie, don't introduce a new motion when saying the release). For the most part I was fairly good with this, but I did notice that in the table game I was REALLY bad about releases and starting motion at the same time.

I was really pleased with his no motion flatwork, just the basic crosses. He was lined up well, and followed perfectly. I did notice that his rear crosses still need work (my coordination which I am sure he can then follow).

Playing with Tangle on the table