Keepin it smooth

I am attending a seminar this weekend with Mary Ellen Berry and Jen Crank. Both are really great presenters.

I have learned several new things, but one thing a wanted to write down now was something Mary Ellen said today.

For the last six months or so my nerves have been getting the best of me in trials. I am sure it has to do with life outside agility, but none the less, frustrating.

Today was no different, my first run with MEB my nerves got the best of me! I messed up things that I shouldn't have messing up. MEB said that I needed to take the sudden motions out of my running. I guess I had seveal spots were my motion was quick and abrupt. I needed to smooth things out. For some reason, today that made the difference! It finally gave me words that I could repeat and they had an effect on my nerves and motions!!

I have read some of Lenny Basham books and articles, a Mental management speaker. Lenny talks a lot about how you phrase things. For example, don't spill the milk. What does the person focus on...spilling the milk! Well, these words of smoothing things out fit into Lenny's massage too. Focus on what I want to happen. Today, smoothing things out was the magic combo of words!!

Getting Better

Looking back on the last week of running contacts, I see now the first week is really about adjusting to what each other needs. Since we have started there have been several things that I have had to troubleshoot and figure out a better way to do them.

• I added a Manner's Minder (MM) - keep Tangle looking down
• I added a jump for a couple of days after the ramp to keep Tangle driving forward
• I took out the jump because he is now driving forward and I didn't want to encourage driving forward after a jump without my motion supporting it
• I turned off the MM sound because it buzzes late and just use a clicker
• I turned the MM back on to get Tangle looking forward AND used the clicker
• I started with a plank, moved to plank and table, ended the week with the low dogwalk and back chainging. Tangle drives forward much better on the DW.

You get the idea, constant tweaking until I got the desired behavior I was looking for.

I still need to solve my late clicks and clicking for inappropriate behavior. Making the films and watching them over and over certainly helps.

Tangle's latest video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHJ7IUmiTXc

Running Contacts

I have decided to do running contacts with Tangle. I am really uncomfortable with having him stop on the A-Frame. If it turns out that his stride is not very accommodating for a running contact I will add a 2o2o behavior for the dog walk. Hopefully I will always be able to keep a running A-Frame.

Here are some of my resources:
Daisy Peel
Running Contacts

I am now several days into training the RC. I am still messing around with several things trying to figure out the best way to teach Tangle. At first Tangle's challenges were looking back at me toward at the end of the contact. I solved that (at least on 1/23/2011 video) by having the manners minder make a sound. BUT...what I noticed when I was working with it today is that the sound is a little delayed. Video confirms this (really I have noticed this several times, I don't think I am late all the time). He also needed to look back at me today. I will only troubleshoot that one if it happens again.

Next time I will use a hand clicker AND a MM sound AND give Tangle the "walk-it" command.

The video's of the running contacts:
01/23/2011
01/25/2011

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!

Competitive isn't always good.

I don't think too many people know this, but I actually thought long and hard about starting to trial dogs in agility. I shy away from competition because I get too competitive too fast and then set unrealistic (perfection) standards for myself. I don't enjoy myself as a person when I go over the top. I can't always see it coming or prevent going over the top.

I love being active, and in sports. But, when it comes to competition I haven't been able to figure out exactly where the line is that I should not cross for myself. That is, I move from fun loving to a perfectionist very fast. When the perfectionist in me surfaces it sucks all the enjoyment out of competition for me. I totally loose perspective!

That happened to me today AGAIN! If you have followed my blog you may have noticed that from time to time I wish that Split was a more confident dog. One of the things leading to my decision to try and be a better trainer (that is, more consistently reward for good work) was that I wanted to try and build Split's confidence. I have seen some of the fruits of that in the last several weeks practices. His speed and bounce in his work has increase noticably.

We just finished a weekend trial and I have to say I ended it on a VERY frustrating note. Our last run was with Split and Standard. The run started off great but then we had an off course. Once that happened Split went into a little bit of a wilding. He actually took three obstacles before I could get him to stop and think! It totally frustrated me!!! The frustration came from the frickin quest for the perfect run and Q. Hum...in 20 20 hindsight, was that a more confident dog I was seeing?

We have been working on contacts REALLY hard over the last month. In Split's final run, I was frustrated because we didn't Q. I should have been really, really proud, he held all of his contacts until he was released. He even held them as I started motion again and then released him. There was nothing tentitive about his contacts, just a solid hold! How awesome is that??!! I didn't celebrate those moments like I should have. Perfectionism got the best of me!! I should have praised him RIGHT ON THE SPOT!! Ops, am I asking myself to be the perfect trainer?? No, I am asking myself to focus on the right things.

Shame on me.

I have been working on nothing but contacts for the last month and guess what? The contacts for both dogs were much improved.

• Split's contact were much more solid all weekend.


• Split and Tip only blew one teeter the whole weekend. Much better than it has been.


• When I finally got my head together and asked for a 2o2o DW contact from Tip, she was right on it! Good girl.

Now I will say that I have gotten rusty has a handler in the past month and that is not the dogs fault.

Putting together the dog/handler team is like creating a fine wine. I should enjoy it as it ages and becomes better and better. Team's aren't built over night and the quality of the run should not be measure in the Q.

Basement training

I know a lot of people do it, but today was a first for me. There was snow on the ground and the wind was chiiillllyyyy. Normally I am a hardy soul, but I forgot my gloves and that seemed like the last straw to dealing with the wind. I took a few jumps and cones down to the basement and trained all three dogs.

Last night I took the dogs to a fun run and Tip was dropping bars all over the place. Now yes, I was pushing her and when that happens jumps go flyin'. But this was worse that usual. So, in the basement Tip and I worked on jump grids. She was AMAZING! (Maybe I will put carpet on the agility field) Not a single bar went down. I even raised the height of the jumps to 22 inches to see how she would do. I know that people view these exercises as cruel and unusual punishment, but for Tip I think it helps put the focus on a careful jump (ie, stop knocking bars).

Split and I worked some outside on his contacts. I once again tried the manners minder, but he will have nothing to do with it. It is different, makes noise, and doesn't dispense a Frisbee. I will keep trying because it would be handy for some of his 'drive away from mom' work. He was being funky on the contacts, probably because of the wind so I didn't work them that much. Wasn't our day I guess.

Tangle and I worked a little outside, but not much. I really don't want him running too much on the snow. Regular playing in the snow is fine. But when he is still growing and figuring out his body I don't want him turning tight on slippery surfaces.

We moved the practice inside. We worked on rear crossed which he is beginning to get the hang of and ME TOO! I am trying to perfect a tight rear cross (me, not with my dog). A NADAC rear cross is fairly easy! Tangle and I then played a game of puppy snooker. We worked on our flatwork around the jump uprights and cones. Only when I give him a cue is he allowed to take the obstacle. Tangle offers a lot of behaviors and tends to offer obstacles without permission. I KNOW that this will be a bad thing at some point. So, we are working on permission to take the obstacle. I don't overwork this game, but I do play it about once a week.