Variety is the spice of life!

This post is a part of the Dog Agility Blog Event on Internationalization.

I am really looking forward to having an opportunity to run some more courses with an "International" flare. USDAA is promoting it's Master Challenge course and AKC is creating an Excellent C class that I understand will have more international challenges.

 This topic takes me to the core of why I do agility. There is always something for me to learn. That is who I am, I am a life long learner. Change is good for me, it keeps me on my toes and it keeps me learning. Bring it on!!

However, I have to be honest, I don't want every course to be twisty, turny, I have to collect my dog to turn at every obstacle. Some of my favorite courses have been wide-open fast courses with very subtle challenges because of the speed. Sometimes you can't spot those challenges in the walk through and suddenly you have to manage the course real time. Love that! Love livin' on the edge.

 I also love the courses with an International flare. It appeals to the puzzle solver part of me. I walk the course, ponder all my options, wonder if there are better ways to handle something, look at the problem from all sides and finally make choices. I get to see if those choices created the desired outcome for my run (not always a Q for me).

So, for me, I need the sport to appeal to the problem solver in me and the speed daemon livin' on the edge part of me.

Tangle at Cynoport 2012

But these courses are not for everyone or every dog. I recognize that. I would hate to live in a place where the International courses were the only thing that is offered. I have talked to a couple of folks in Europe who wished they had more options. Their course favor the motivated, driven dog. The one that doesn't shut down when you ask it to make 100 tight turns. Not everyone wants to live with those kinds of dogs, nor is every dog built that way mentally/physically.

I want choices myself. I typically don't run my young dogs exclusively on tight, technical courses. I want them to learn to love to run and chase me. This is much easier to do on a wide open course. I have an older dog who lives for agility, and I try to not run her on too many tight courses. If I only had the choice of tight courses she would have to retire from the game (And I am not going to be the one to tell HER that).

There are also different forms of this sport that are every bit as challenging, involve team work and a thing of beauty. Have you every watched anyone handle a dog from a distance on an agility course. Either in NADAC or someone who is not able to run like the wind. The team work involved and the dog's command for the English language are very impressive. I like the adrenaline rush I get when I run, but I love to watch the teams who have mastered this type of work. Amazing!!

So, for me, bring it on!! Give me options and variety. Ask me and my dog to be versatile. Ask us to master the fast course and the technical course!

Deposits in the Agility Bank

I was on a trip back east with my son recently and had a chance to catch up on a fair amount of agility reading--Clean run, reviewing foundation articles, and a few small books.

One of the books that made an impression on me was "Click and Play Agility", by Angelica Sneinker.  She had a lot of really good information in there in general, but one concept hit home.  Now, I don't remember if it was something very specific that was said, or just one of those concepts that rang other bells in my head. Or if it was a combo of all the things that I read on the trip.

 It was the concept of 50% of your trials should be training trials.  That is, you are true to your criteria (startlines, contacts, dropped bars) and don't let things slide.  You take the opportunity to proof what you train (huge lateral motion away from the weaves).  You make "deposits" into the agility bank and a solid foundation.

I have been practicing this concept for a couple of weeks now.  I was at a trial this past weekend where I did just this all weekend.  Let me tell you, it actually feels great to walk a course, plan ahead exactly where you are going to test your training and do just that.  It feels even better when your dog holds up his/her end of the deal :)  But if they don't you are perfectly prepared to handle it well. 

Startlines - At the trial I worked several start lines.  1) put my dog into a sit-stay, started running away and then released  2)  sit-stay, walk out and then walk back and reward (only with praise in the ring)  3) stand-stay, lead out a fair distance, turn around, smile and talk to my dog, then release.  You never know when all of these skills come in handy and one thing I have learned in agility is you want to be confident that you have the skill when you need it.  This is by far the most challenging skill for Tip and Split (startline stays).  I didn't push either one to the point where I KNEW they would fail, I just took it to the edge.  Tangle, who has a solid stay, got tested much more.

Weaves - I sent to the weaves, I charged full speed (that is, I didn't collect even though my dog had too), moved away laterally, and rear crossed weaves.

Dogwalk - All my dogs have a 2o2o contact performance.  I ran past the end while they stayed, I let them get ahead and arrived late (testing Independence).

It is amazing the pride that you feel as your dog begins to show you that your training has held up!  The one item that was a challenge for all three dogs was a dogwalk with a tunnel as the next obstacle.  Of course they can resist the tunnel in the backyard, but not at the trail.  All three dogs broke once and I had the opportunity to take them back and train the criteria (NADAC).  The next dogwalk and then tunnel, all three stayed!  Good dogs.

Just as a side note to all of this, I once took a seminar from Carry Jones who said that she proofs the weaves in all sorts of ways, however in competition if it is a tough entry, she always helps her dog get the entry.  This made sense at the time, but now I am not sure that I agree.  If the dog knows that you are always helping under difficult situations, isn't that training the dog that you will always help?  Don't you want your dog to be independent no matter what?  That way, when you really need the skill you can depend on it being there?

As another side note to this topic, I worked this idea in class last night.  I found that I needed the work, not the dogs.  There were certain things that I didn't have a solid skill or muscle memory to depend on when working these skills.  One in particular was leaving the dog in the weaves and recalling laterally over an odd angle jump.  Not hard to learn, but I had to think too much about it.  My point being, proofing builds skills in the dog and YOU! 

Just do it!  Put deposits into the agility bank, you WILL need to make a withdrawl later when it really counts!

Trial this weekend

We did a NADAC trial this weekend. Tip earned her lifetime points, only one Q away from her points in Weavers for V-NATCH. Split earned his weavers title. Proud of both of my dogs, but Split did excellent. He had some really awesome runs this weekend. Really proud of his work and our team work. He didn't Q a lot, because I choose to train his runs. He didn't get called for contacts by the judge, but it wasn't what I wanted to see in a trial so I trained. We have been working on running contacts!

Tangle did a great job at the trial as well. Got to meet a ton of dogs, we did a lot of trick work 10 feet from the ring. He was totally focused and with me the whole time. Funny, the most distracting environment for him right now are his two pack mates running around the agility field. Working at trails, soccer fields, in parks he has down cold! Love this pup!!!

We worked this morning with his playmate Soleil. Both dogs did great! I will just comment on Tangle's work. We worked a little on teeter work, restrained recalls on the teeter, cone work, FC, and RC. He is working with my motion really well. At this point he doesn't try to herd which is great. I am sure that I will have that issue at some point :)

Twist on distance debate

So, I have been chatting with a friend about handling at a distance. She handled a certain part of the course in a way that had her easily 15 feet or more away from her dog. Someone commented “nice distance” which started the conversation. Since she does not do distance (as in the nasty ‘distance’ word)…

I asked her what she thought of as distance…

I think of distance as cueing direction/obstacles from a distance (meaning you cue the dog when he is far away, to take an obstacle or to turn). I cued my dog when he was very close to me, to take the jump that was right in front of him, in his path, and then turn back to me. Yes, he ended up a fair distance away from me, but the cueing happened in close (one jump away). I think of it as a boomerang.... that FS (forward send). In my mind, they are very different things. The FS is cued by forward cues (inside arm, verbal jump) in conjunction with deceleration. Very different cue combination than what I consider "distance" cues. I don't ever do distance with my dog, that is why we suck at Gamblers....

Makes sense right? So the next question was “what kind of distance do you consider distance? 10, 20 feet?”

at this point, I think of distance more in terms of how cues are delivered rather than absolute distance away from dog. Distance to me is when I can't

really set a line of motion for the dog but rather have to use verbal cues or shoulders/arms instead... so the verbal (right, left, get out) or the hands override the motion cue (which might be no motion at all)...

so standing at a gamble line "sending" the dog to the A frame.... distance

i think it is possible to set a line of motion for the dog from a distance.... but there is still the same "connection" to the dog. What I think of as "real" distance is when the cues change because that "connection" isn't possible.

I thought this conversation was worthy of a post. Very good content. We both agreed it is no longer the “distance” bebate, but rather needs a new title.

Amazing trial weekend

We did a NADAC trial this weekend and had some amazing things happen!! Sometimes it is not all about the Qs.



I went into the weekend knowing that I would have to train Tip's startline stays. She has been blowing them off for a year or so, but I only train one major thing at a time and the dog walk had been getting our attention. It took us three runs, she blew it, and walked her back and asked her to stay. The rest of the weekend was awesome, no broken stays! Only three times--amazing for us. Took a year for her to stay at the end of the dog walk.



Typically Tip and I have at least one crazy run over the weekend. She has a bee in her bonnet, gives me the finger and goes where she wants. There was NONE of that. Again, amazing. Wondering if it was because I was also running Split. Jealousy works in mysterious ways. Wonder if it is the flatwork that we have been doing. Maybe the wild runs are her way of blowing off stress (the stress that her handler can't steer her)?

Split improved an amazing amount over the weekend. Our first run of the weekend he was glued to my side and would spin when he didn't get the info quick enough. We have been mostly doing practice type drills and his lack of drive through the course caught me off guard. I decided to not worry about the Qs, but to see if I could get him to drive through the courses better. Every run, every thing he did got a PARTY! One run he was going way off course and intinct had me call him like I would Tip. From that point to the end of the course he spon on EVERY obsticle. I realized that when I needed his attention if I called him like I do Tip, he looses confidence. I put the happy face on how I called him and that made an amazing difference.

All in all I was very pleased with how much I learned about my dogs!

The first double Q standards

Split sprained his hock a couple weeks back, so it was just Tip and I doing NADAC this past weekend. It was a Mountain Dog Sports trial--they are always fun, and challenging.

Tip and I had a great weekend. We could only do a half day on Saturday, but ended up Q'ing in TNG and Hoopers (my first Hoopers Q since Randy usually runs Tip in Hoopers). Sunday we had an AWESOME day. Tip and I were so connected. We Q'ed in 4 out of 5 events. Jumpers was the only thing we did not Q in. We did end up Q'ing in both Standard runs for the day. We have never done that!! Also, we got a chances that only one other dog got. I was so thrilled.

Tip is truely a NADAC dog. She loves the distance and she loves the speed!

NADAC in Durango

We are doing the Labor Day NADAC trial in Durango. Very fun, very social.

Split's first trial was rained out except for one run, so this was really the first. Today he was entered in Jumpers, Standard, and Touch N Go. Randy and he q'ed in both jumpers and standard. For the most part they did very good. Randy could have supported some areas a little more to avoid spins, but they g0t the job done.

Tip had 6 runs today, but only Q'ed in one. She had beautiful standard runs, but I ended up having to train both dog walks, bummer. In the jumpers run she dropped a bar, but other wise great run. Not sure why it was dropped, I think because I paused a little too much in a jump box to make sure she committed. Chances was handler error. She got the distance challenge, which was quite the challenge--change of direction, and discrimination. She dropped a bar when I called out 'weave' when she was over the jump. Duct tape is in order I think! In weavers she skipped some poles because I was running too fast past them--hum, guess I need to proof some more. At the end of the day she finally q'ed in Touch N Go.

In USDAA Tip has a FANTASTIC running A-frame, but with the shorter NADAC A-frame I have to draw my hand down the landing side so that she hits her contact. This causes me to babysit the obstacle. I am sure this is because she doesn't really understand how she is suppose to perform the obstacle. But....She FINALLY stopped on her dog walk contact!

There is so much to re-train with your first agility dog. Where to start? We will see what tomorrow brings.

The next two days at the trial was fun, however we were not blessed with q's. Randy and I did learn what we need to work on next with Split. Sequencing, rear crosses, and Randy driving Splitty.

Tip continued to blow her dog walk contact. *&^%$, Grrrrrr

We did have some beautiful runs except for that. I tried a bonus line tunnelers run. That was fun! I need to learn how to run Tip at distance (60 feet!). Bless her heart, she came into me which is NOT her default behavior.