So much thinking, so little to say

Well, it is winter.  The time of year that typically gets me thinking (because I can't be outside 'doing').

We haven't had a lot going on since last October.  I purposely take some time off and certainly plan a more relaxed schedule for myself and the dogs.  Everybody needs to heal and renew.

We have attended a couple of seminars, a couple of trials, taken some time off, did some rehab...so what has me thinking? All of it!  There seems to be two common themes in my mind.  Reflecting on Tangle's career at the rip old age of 3 and some new ideas that have come from exposure to OneMindDogs (handle system?).

Baby Tangle

First, Tangle's career...in some ways I feel that I have done too much with him.  By the age of 3 he has been to two Nationals, three Regionals, attended world team tryouts, countless trials, and is very close to getting his ADCH title (USDAA's Championship Title).  Now I repeat to myself "By three years old".  Why is it too much?  I guess in my heart I feel like it is too much mileage for such a young dog.  Too much mileage with pressure, that is.  He has held up to it all with flying colors.  I still don't spot holes in his foundation.  Not sure what conclusions I draw from this, I am not that far in my thinking yet.  Perhaps I will make changes, perhaps I won't. I just wonder, should the journey have had a different focus in the first three years of a dog's life? Of Tangle's life!

OneMindDogs!

I know, there are great debates going on in the US.  Is it new?  Is it the same old, just renamed?  Not really interested in that.  For me, it is someone else saying something that I am hearing differently!  It is like getting a new teacher who has captured your attention.  Maybe it is the same old, but does that mean there isn't more to learn?  Certainly not!

A lot of people are focusing on the "moves".  OK, some are fancy and new (to me at least).  But what is more profound to me is where I should be looking! 

He is committed, I am gone, but connected!

Telling him where I want him to land!

I played with this concept some on Lori Michaels' Jacob's Ladder Drill.  I did these drills last summer and found some of them very hard.  After changing where/when I look I was shocked at how well the dog understood the cues.  Very cool!!  Most of the drills felt so much easier!  For me, that is profound!

More to come on this later, but I am going to go back to thinking again...

Tunnels

Nothing really special to say, just thought I would post Split's Tunnelers runs from this weekend.

There are certain things that just make you smile and this is IT for me.

• I love the almost startline. He is on the edge of blowing it but he doesn't.
• I loved that he pulled me out to the startline, just couldn't wait to get started.
• I love seeing him run his little heart out.
• I love the foaming at the mouth and smile at the end.

2

I know, a lot of people try to avoid these overstimulated, not perfect, and well...obnoxious behaviors. I use to as well.  But..

• Any living thing that has this level of elation, how can you not smile?
• I have a dog that worries way too much and is never this eager. Puts this problem into a different perspective.

I no longer look at this as a problem, it is a blessing. I just love to see my dogs smile!

P.S. I got the best question at the trial. "Do you train your dog's to run that fast, or did they just come that way?" Answer: I teach them to love the game.

They are talking, if only we are listening!

Funny, I really try to pay attention to what my dogs are telling me.  But, every so often I get caught up in life and forget to listen.

Trust your dog is always communicating!

My dogs speak to me in so many ways.  They can tell me if they are hurting long before limping appears, they tell me what I have really trained them to do (regardless of what I have asked), and they tell me what they love.

Training...

They naturally understand so many things as evidence of beliefs of several handling systems, APHS and OMD.

The dogs and I were playing this morning.  I was working on some discrimination skills.  Tunnel and two jumps.  Take this closer jump or take the further jump, I was cuing from the far left of both jumps.  Split told me that my cue was incorrect, I was cuing the far jump improperly.  This was the cue for take the backside of the closer jump. He was exactly right!  I had no idea he had that skill!  (basically do a threadle independently to get to the backside). 

Injury...

I was running a trial this weekend and one of my dogs was crashing into jumps in a very unusual way.  Of course I couldn't really see it because I run ahead of my dogs.  A couple of friends brought it to my attention, looked at the video (!!  f.r.e.a.k.e.d   o.u.t  !!), got him adjusted and things became right again.  As a side note, it was the calmest I have ever seen him be while getting adjusted, he knew this was what he needed.

But, if I have been listening, I would have seen this before I got slapped in the face.  There were avoidance behaviors that told me something was up.  If I had only been listening!  Motivates you to be a good listener doesn't it?

Love...

I was working a skill and rewarding with a tug.  One of the dogs was willing to work, but the energy wasn't there.  The lack of energy did have my attention, but I guess not enough to troubleshoot it.  Finally, I decided to listen to the clear message that this was work and not fun.  I got a better, more exciting tug and the game was on.

They can't use words, but I think that is better.  They use a language that anyone can understand if only we care to listen.

Develop Success From Failures

 I had dinner with a friend tonight and admitted that I don't even watch the agility runs posted on FaceBook anymore.  There are some that I watch, but it is getting more uncommon for me to watch.

On the way home I began to think about that confession.  I realized, it is not as interesting to me to watch a "perfect" run as it is for someone to post a run with a mistake (dog or handler) or what they learned in their run.  I like things that really make me think.  I like things that help me learn.  Watching perfection sometimes is really awesome, but run after run for me, tends to get boring.  People don't comment on why it was perfect or what was perfect, only that it was perfect or a Q.

Now, it will catch my interest if there is a ton of handling moves that I don't recognize or sequences in a course that are evil and tough.  But the average run, not so much.

I know, it takes guts to make our mistakes public.  But only because not every sees it as a step toward success.  Failure is thought to be a bad word.

I have a quote on my desk, "If you let your fear of consequence prevent you from following your deepest instinct, then you life will be safe, expedient, and thin" Katharine Butler Hathaway.

I don't want a safe and thin life, I want to be as good as I can be.  Which, for me, means taking chances.  It is a chance to learn, a chance to improve, or a chance to trust my training.

My take way from this.  I need to post more "imperfect" runs on my blog (I don't post runs on FB too much--lots of reasons).  Examine what I did well in that run and what I learned.  Why?  Because when I write about that, I am forced to examine the run, to analyze the handling and the dog, and draw conclusions that I can learn from.   Posting one of my perfect runs does not cause me to learn.  I feel proud and that shouldn't be underrated, but that isn't what keeps me coming back to the start line for another try.  It is what I learn that keeps me coming back.  Because I need to apply what I have learned the next time.

Develop success from failures.  Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.  Dale Carnegie  

It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure  Bill Gates

Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence. Colin Powell

If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed.  I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward. Thomas Edison

Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.
George Bernard Shaw
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/mistakes.html#tqRElXmZLfPH1MwS.99

Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde - How my dog and I get ready for our run!

Today's blog in a part of the Dog Agility Bloggers Event on Mental Management!  Here is the first article, The How To Guide for Multiple Personalities.  The second article is Rehersals! My mental management


I have developed a split personality disorder on purpose.  To learn how, read on....

I have done a TON of work on this front.  I didn't start out with this in mind, but it was really brought about by self preservation.

The journey started with Tip, my first agility dog.  She would arrive ring side (no doubt way too early) and begin her wind up routine.  She would watch the dogs on course, get more and more wound until it was finally our turn.  I would walk out of course and release the wound up spring.  As you can imagine, we hit every obstacle on course, probably twice and would end up with high points in trial.  Only served me well in USDAA Gamblers where her random obstacles would gain us "good" points!!

Conductor of the Crazy Train

I began my journey with myself, determined that this routine wouldn't get me upset and wound just like her.  It took me a couple of years, finally realizing the calmer I was, the more calm she was.  Our runs began to come together.  Also realizing (way too slowly) that I should only get her to ring side about 3 seconds before our run so she couldn't continue her wind up routine.

Tip is an extraordinary agility dog, she is the only one of my dogs that can be truly handler focused and obstacle focused depending on what I need.  I began to incorporate some of this into my warm up routine with her.  So, if we were doing Gamblers (of which she was already an expert) I would warm her up with some distance work.  If we were doing Snooker I would warm her up with "come to hand" and tight flat work.  She slowly began to understand that this translated to what I was about to ask of her on our runs.

Don't get me wrong, we have not arrived.  Tip is still the conductor of the "Crazy Train", but we do manage to pull it together more often to win our share of races.

I will contrast this with Tangle.  Tangle is the opposite of Tip and my third agility dog.  The closer Tangle would get to the ring the more stressed he would get.  Sniffing, calming signals, never playing, and slowing his pace.  We would go into the ring and he would be very careful, never wanting to be wrong.  Always doing a great job, but never having fun.  This is just who Tangle was (yes, I said "was").

Holy cow, now I had a dog that I needed to figure out how to "wing up"!  This journey also took a couple of years.  I needed to learn how to be happy, relaxed and playful around Tangle.  I am these things in real life, but running Tip had taught me to be more meditative when going into the ring to run.

So, I had to teach Tangle that it was OK to play no matter where he was.  We had to play in the backyard, at starbucks, ring side, every where.  I actually had to teach this!  He had to learn to bark and be wild on command.  We had to learn to take that behavior to the ring (the gate steward hates me now, but I am OK with that).  So, with Tangle I broke all the "Tip" rules.  We stayed ring side, I let him get wound watching dogs, I asked him to bark and spin, and finally he agreed to tug ring side!
I documented some of this journey in the blog -- IYC, and  Training in Crazy Places

Cynosport 2012 - Playing before a run

Tangle and I still have some work to accomplish at really big events, but we are setting patterns of success which is important.  He is having fun, running fast, and relaxing!

Then there is Split, not to be minimized, but he is somewhere in between.  He would stay calm ring side, yes, excited to run but not really showing it.  I honestly don't think the excitement hits Split until he is about 3 obstacles into the course.  Then he realizes again why he loves the game and looses all connection to me (joining Tip on the crazy train).  So, with Split I had to bring his excitement level up BEFORE the run so that he could begin to level out before we hit the startline.  Split (thanking the universe as I say this) is fairly easy to deal with mentally.  We have begun to tug ring side (which I also had to teach him to do) and our runs are beginning to level out and be fairly nice.

Split's Crazy AF

All three dogs get the same treatment at the end of our runs and I am religious about this!  We never stop to talk to anyone, we run to their reward, I smother them with praise and we play!

So, no story is the same in terms of mental management of your dog.  But hopefully, you take away the bits and pieces that make sense for your team and learn to get your dog "in the zone" and become the person that they need you to be!

Rehersals!

Today's blog in a part of the Dog Agility Bloggers Event on Mental Management!  Here is the first article, The How To Guide for Multiple Personalities.  Here is the link to my dog's mental management, Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde - How my dog and I get ready for our run!

The mental game is a journey.  It helps to know that you may never arrive at the perfect destination!

I am always trying to improve my mental game at trials.  I have made a lot of progress, but there is always more work to be done.  I don't really get nervous anymore at local trials and find that I enjoy myself most of the time (there are exceptions).  But at really, really big events nerves play more of a factor.  I am not going to talk about how to control nerves (see list in the "How To" guide for multiple personalities).  What I want to focus on is "focus".  The mental game of rehearsing my run, and writing this is yet another way for me to improve upon this.

I find that visualizing my run is intensely helpful.   It does a number of things for me.  It helps me relax, it reduces my handler errors, increases my confidence on parts of the course that would otherwise be 'iffy in my mind, and helps me plan better cues for my dog. 

Cynosport 2012 - "In the hole"

When I pick up the course maps in the morning I try to look at all the runs quickly, prioritize which I need to review first.  When I am looking at the course map for the first time I am trying to make some preliminary handling decisions.  There might be a section or two where there are a couple of options.  I will decide those in the walk-through.  If I have some down time after this I will begin to mentally walk through the course as if I am running it with my dog.  Yep, I look like the crazy person on the side lines "air" rehearsing my run!  My objectives are to build muscle memory, picture exactly where my dog and I are on course at all times, and to rehearse the verbal cues that I will be giving.  I try to get very detailed, down to exact where the dog's feet are when I start my cues.

When I walk the course the first time I walk my dog's path.  It is amazingly helpful for me.  I can spot what the dog sees (off courses), pay attention to how my weight shifts, it tells me how big of a lead change my dog will need.  Also, walking his/her path tells me if my dog needs to be in extension/relative extension/collection.  This all confirms my handling decisions.  Then I switch quickly to rehearsing my actual run on course.  I get in as many reps as possible in the time allowed.

Assuming that I have time between the walk-through and my run I do more rehearsing of my run.   I pay attention to how I am breathing.  I pay attention to how relaxed I am.  I must rehearse the relaxation as well!

When I am about ready to enter the ring, I try to smile and feel the love of the game!

The "How To" guide for Multiple Personalities

Today's blog in a part of the Dog Agility Bloggers Event on Mental Management!

My first reaction was "Holy Cow" this topic is so big.  My second reaction was "Holy Cow the more I think about this topic, the bigger it gets!"

The two aspects of this topic that I am intensely interested in are: 1) the dog's mental game, from ~3 minutes before the run to post run  2) My mental game when I pick up the course maps, right after my walk-throughs, and from ~3 before the run through post run.

Enjoy the Ride

But, let me be honest for a moment.  There are lots of tools to help with my mental game, but none hold a candle to the following list.  These are the things that help me relax and get in the zone better than any other:

• I always remember it is a time that I have carved out in my life to play with my dogs.  I keep it special to my heart.
• I try to enter the ring and leave the ring with a smile on my face and love in my heart for my dogs.  My dogs and I do agility because we love to play together.
• Breath deeply and enjoy the ride.  Every run is part of the journey!

So, back to the heady discussion of the mental game...

For those of you who want to read about my mental game, Rehersals!.

If you want to read how I help my dogs get in the zone, you can read Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde - How my dog and I get ready for our run!.

Both of those articles were written for this event, however I need to be in two different places mentally to get them written.

Agility is a complicated game mentally.  The mental dynamics are unparalleled to my time as a musician.  As a musician I only had to worry about me!  Getting myself into the zone.

Agility you have to worry about yourself, your dog, switching between your dogs and always being the person that you want to be and who your dogs need you to be!