You ever had one of those training sessions where you really feel connected to your dogs, and they are responding to everything nicely? Even though you were working hard skills, it seems like you are training party tricks? It is pure joy. It is those training sessions that keep me going.
Tangle and I have been working really hard on new skills. Our practice sessions have been intense, I have stumbled more than I have handled perfectly. It has been hard. Is it worth it? Sure it is. But I do have to take some time out like we did today.
I love working individual skills. It relaxes me and it feels like I am training party tricks rather than useful agility skills. My dogs love it when I am relaxed as well :)
I didn't film everything we worked on, but here is a sampling of the work. I worked a reverse spin off the running dog walk with Hoot. A friend and I were talking about turns of a RDW and a reverse spin came to mind. I think it worked really well.
Again, I was chatting with someone regarding proofing weaves. It occurred to me that I had not worked weaves into fences in a while and probably should. So, of course, I had to raise the bar a few more notches and work a discriminations at the same time.
I finally got to take Hoot out for a spin "officially".
I have a slightly different approach to the beginning of Hoot's trialing career than I have had with my other dogs. With Tangle, I trained him in the back yard, then signed him up for classes in one place, did some tours of different dog walks and AF's and then he went head first into trialing. All the classes. If you think about it and count up all the differences from a back yard to a trial, it really is a lot to ask of a dog. Tangle is a great dog. He never lost his head, but was careful and never wanted to make mistakes.
Hoot is a different dog. I have trained her from the very beginning as high as I can get her. It was clear that she would be that highly stimulated kind of a girl and I needed her to know how to deal with it. We went to several fun runs in the last six months, gradually asking her to do more and more. She did a UKI trial, but with toys in the ring and it was only jumpers. So, this past weekend we did AKC kind of "for reals". Although I have to admit I used the off course I was allowed in standard to reward good performance on the AF :)
I was really proud of her. She was way beyond my expectations in Jumpers and beyond my expectations in Standard.
I can't believe the challenges the judges gave novice dogs with the running dog walk. And Hoot was successful on her hits both days!! The first day was the DW to a table, she stuck it as best she could. The second day was broad jump to the DW (we talked to the judge and had her move it further away from the DW, ended up being 20 feet from landing to the DW and a slightly less nasty angle).
She got all of her contacts, weaves (only with a re-try), held startlines and her table performance was awesome. Really what more can I ask?
So, coming out of this trial, what is next?
I will work on her teeter a bit more, work the sequences that we had refusals, continue to work the tire with speed and continue to work my timing with her.
Agility is a blast, if it weren't, a lot of us would be doing something else!
But let's face it, when there is something that you really want in agility, it is a lot of hard work! Really hard work! Most goals in life are that way. If it were easy, you would already have it right?
You have to really, really want it. You have to keep your focus on it and your commitment toward that goal. Some days it is easy because you make progress and some days are exhausting and hard and uphill!
The first such "project" that I had in agility was with Tip, when I finally realized that if I let her run a muck on the agility course I will never, ever accomplish anything. So, the process of learning to handle and getting the mess under control was huge. It was partially huge because I didn't know how to do it so the journey was a lot of uphill climbs.
The second project, getting Tangle JAZZED to play agility and not to worry was both physically demanding and mentally challenging. I worked physically hard to get that boy to just love tug! And to be honest, now I am a bit afraid each time I tug with him. He is so strong and not gentle AT ALL! Mentally, I had to stay engaged with him always, be cheerful, and be jazzed for him. If you have ever had to do this, then you know, you are mentally exhausted by the process. But, in the end, it is worth it and Tangle takes very little effort to get him jazzed. I had to really want this transformation in our relationship.
My current project, changing my handling style is hard every day right now. In the beginning, the project was driven by Hoot, who is a combo of a flying monkey and Ferrari. I have to be on my game or it will not end well. But now, the project has other drivers and Tangle is benefiting from it in spades. I know all the hard work will be worth it.
This project take changes in how I physically and mentally run. I watch video of myself EVERY DAY! I am on a constant quest for exercises that will test and challenge what I am trying to do, I check my decisions every day to make sure they are in line with my goals. I never take my eye off the ball. This takes devotion and time.
Every day I am physically sore, I am mentally exhausted, but some days I get to be really proud of what I am accomplishing! It will be worth it!
So, if you have something you really, really want--commit to it. Find those few people who will support you and be honest with you, and never let you settle even when you are down, sore, or discouraged. It will be worth it!
Hoot will be the second dog that I have trained on a running dog walk. It is interesting to me how it is still a huge learning experience, but in different ways.
It seems the first time around you don't really know the process, but you have to have patience and faith in that process as it is revealed. This second time, I know the process, but there are different twists and turns in the journey because of a different dog.
Split was my first dog that I trained. He was 7 when I re-trained him from a 4 on. Some things were easy for him because of his experiences and some things were hard because of his experiences. For instance, proofing with motion was really easy. He already knew to stay on task when I am running crazy next to him. He understood that the yellow zone was really important already. Getting him into a full stride was hard, really hard. He wants to take one more stride than he needs on the dog walk. But, that means that his turns off the dog walk are easier for him.
Hoot is my second walk down this path. She is a puppy with no prior experience.
Hoot has been very easy to get her to adjust her stride, she totally loves the process (actually Split does too), and if she has epic failures it is really easy to take her back a step and get her back on track. But she doesn't take to changes as easily as Split.
Last week I tried to see if I could get her to run to a dead toy. This would allow me a bit more freedom to begin to introduce motion. She runs to the dead toy like a champ, but she gives me 3.5 strides on the dog walk (4 being ideal). 3.5 strides leaves less time to adjust strides to hit the yellow. So, back to tossing the toy I go. I will just try to throw it earlier and earlier to see if I can ease into it.
Also, she can tolerate some faster starts (like from a tunnel), but I can't do a whole session of them. She begins to give me less strides again.
The absolute nicest thing about doing a running dog walk with Hoot is she resets herself. That is, after she has been rewarded she knows we will be doing it again. She runs to the start, places herself where I have been starting her and she is ready to run again!
We went to a USDAA trial this weekend (Wasatch Agility). I ran both Split and Tangle, both were awesome and gave me a lot of things to be proud of.
Funny how sometimes you have a moment however that gets you thinking about where you are and where you have been. A friend was commenting after Split's Standard run that he really doesn't want to get out of PII. We have been trying to get out of PII for ever and now we are finally down to just one little thing always. My perspective on the run was much different since I am VERY FAMILIAR with the road we have traveled. Only having one issue on course is AMAZING to me!
It was my fault! I didn't pull Split off the field soon enough when he was injured and he associated many obstacles with pain: teeter, weaves, AF, tight turns, etc... So when he came back one of the reasons for the re-training was to let him start to have fun and rewards and begin to love the obstacles again. Not an easy road.
So, I have re-trained a 2o2o to a running AF, a 4 on DW to a running DW, trained him to turn tight again, re-trained the weaves and am working on the teeter and the table. I have a lot of experience re-training and should now write a book on what works and what doesn't.
These are Split's runs from this weekend. Having traveled the road that we have, I would say this dog is fairly resilient and amazing! We will make it, and he will get his Q.
This morning I was working Running Dog Walk turns. This is the course that I set up. I am trying to perfect my handling of the RDW. I am trying to give Split the most information I can so that he can do his job correctly.
Split and I have been working on a running dog walk for the past several months. When it got up to full height he decided to start giving me 6 strides and collecting at the end. I am sure that he knows to hit the yellow and this was his insurance policy. I also think that it was influenced by teaching him the Rachel Sanders box method on the AFrame.
Silvia Trkman was worried that it wouldn't hold up in a trial when he was uber excited. So, she encouraged me to see if I could get 5 strides out of him.
So, we lowered the DW, put a carpet on the end and set everything up to get extension out of him. Super speedy entrances and exits, I was running ahead of him, etc...
A week of running like that, clicking when I got extension and not really worrying if he didn't hit the contact zone (which was covered with carpet). I would jackpot however if he did hit it.
Finally! I got 5 strides out of him. This is his session from today, carpet is faded, not quiet full height.
There is one rep where I think something surprised him and he collecting on the top, but other than that, we have progress. Huge progress!!
I have been struggling with how to get Split to have 4 strides (5 hits) on the dog walk. He seems to want to collect at the end and that gives him 5 strides. Yes, he hits the yellow nicely, but we worry that it isn't maintainable once the trial excitement hits. I have my theories as to why he is collecting, but don't really know.
So, most inspirational moments in life happen, one thought vocalized, lead to another thought, that lead to the "inspiration". Tell Split where he is going when he is over the first apex of the dog walk.
You can visit my channel on YouTube if you want to see what he was doing.
So, just for good measure I ran him again this afternoon. BEAUTIFUL!
Pushing my luck, as I always do, I decided to see what Tangle was going to do today.
Here is his running AF. I have been working on USDAA height trying to get deeper hits. FINALLY! Yep, my golden day. Really nice hits.
Let me preface this with saying that Tip is basically retired. I don't have any goals for her, but I do run her in an occasional trial. She still joins our practices several times a week. It keeps her connected and happy.
I am retraining Split's dog walk to a running dog walk. It is kind of messed up anyway, so I decided that I might as well mess with it more :)
Tip
So, since one dog gets to do something, Tip must never be left out. Especially if it involves a thrown ball!! So, just to entertain her I was letting her do a couple of running dog walks each session as well. She wasn't bad, but she did leap some.
About a month ago, for some reason I gave her the command "hit it" (curious what she would do with it). I used "hit it" for Rachel Sander's box method when I was retraining Split's 2o2o AF to a running AF. Again, I had no intent to apply the box method on a contact for Tip, but it involved those two ingredients 1) another dog getting to do something 2) a ball being thrown. So, Tip ended up with a stupid pet trick where she can target a box on the run and I will reward it with a ball toss.
Just a side note, if I don't think it is going to hurt any current training I will always teach all three dogs the same thing. You never know when it is going to come in handy :)
So, for a month now, a couple of times a week when I work Split I will let Tip run her dog walk with the "hit it" command. Her version of a RDW has been amazingly reliable. Most sessions she never misses even one contact.
Now, would I do this with all my dogs--never in a million years. Tip has some unique skills that make her a great candidate. She is uber confident, she has a ton of forward motion, and she is amazingly smart. So, she can actually slow down, hit the contact and then drive at full speed again to the next obstacle. Split and Tangle would just end up confused. They would slow at first, but if some slow is good they would slow more. We would eventually end up with walking at the end. They are both smart, but don't have the confidence that Tip has.
Here is video of her this weekend and again today. Notice today I had carpet on the end of the contact. That was there for Split, but somehow she still knew where she needed to slow down and she did. She never stops amazing me!!
