Ah puppies! Learning is a way of life!

There is always a difficult side to participating in Dog Agility Blog Day.  I always sit down, think about what I know on the topic and come to a similar realization.  "The more you know, the more you know you don't know" - Aristotle

I spend an amazing amount of time thinking about agility in general, and when the blog event is upon us, I spend an amazing amount of time thinking about that topic.  I have been around agility for a while, I am certain that I know more than I knew when I began, but I am also certain I have more questions as well.  Training puppies, at least when it comes to agility is no exception.  Training puppies for everyday life, I know exactly what I want and a pretty good idea how to train most of it.

Baby Split and Randy

Starting a puppy can be a very passionate topic for most.  We want to build these lean, mean running machines that can jump over a tall jump (without knocking the bar) in a single bound.  We want them to attend trials, love all people, dogs, children and noises.  We want them to wait at startlines, run full blast when asked, run by our sides at a critical moment and have independent weaves, and contacts.  Really we want nothing less than perfection.  How do we train that?

Well, only speaking for my life and my dogs, agility is about 2 percent of their existence on this earth and I am an avid agility person.  Most of my dog's time is spent being a great member of my everyday existence, and wonderful member of my greater Border Collie pack.  I keep that in mind when I am training my puppy, I try to focus on the perfect everyday puppy first.  I truly believe that this is the best foundation I can give my future agility star.

I focus on three things when training my puppies:

• Life skills
• Learning skills
• Playing skills

I may change my methods with each puppy, but fundamentally these are my three goals for each of my puppies.

Life Skills - these are the skills that it takes to be a successful "pet" dog in my house.  The puppy must learn how to interact with his/her pack members, greet other dogs, warn other dogs that it is uncomfortable, not surf counter tops, rely on me to protect it, love people and children, walk through home depot without getting scared, jog with me, sit/stay, lay down, etc...  You get the idea.  Everything it takes to be a fantastic pet.

Learning skills - Just like children, puppies have to know how to learn.  They need to know that I am not going to show them everything, I want them to help think through the problem at hand.  I want them to offer solutions of their own.  I am mostly talking about shaping, yes.  If my dogs never stepped one foot on an agility field, they still need to know how to learn.  I have all sorts of "tricks" that I use in every day life and they need to be brilliant learners. What should you do when the ball goes over the fence?  Go around it and find the opening of course!  Great puzzle for dogs.

Playing skills - I use these skills to exercise and interact with the dogs, and on the agility field.  Simply put, I want my dogs to know how to play and be happy about playing anywhere and everywhere.  Not all dogs are born with this ability.  Some worry or get stressed in strange/different environments.  Play is a way to help release that stress or emotion and just PLAY.  My dog must know how to de-stress or channel his/her stress at trials and classes.  I want them to do this through play.  Also, in general life, I use this play to help keep them engaged. SQUIRREL!  We work on tug, fetch, chase, spinning, going around trees, hide and seek to name a few.

All of learning is incorporated into real life as much as possible.  I try not to have too many "training sessions", I want my dogs to be use to learning, thinking, and playing all day long.  Border collies pattern and if I only teach them one time of day, or in the same place they are very capable of drawing the conclusion that is the only place they need to "think".  All of these skills are a way of life around my house.

So how does this relate to agility?  I believe that perfecting  all of these basic skills helps when I start my basic agility training.  If my puppy can sit/stay when I open the backdoor to let him out, wait at the gate to the agility field before released, sit/stay before a meal, it makes training the startline that much easier.  I have already worked many situations where the puppy needs impulse control skills.  Does this make them perfect, heck no, but it is a great foundation.

5 Foot Jumps, why did I wait so long?

It is funny how suddenly some idea occurs to you and then you wonder "why didn't I think of that before"?

A couple of weeks ago I decided to convert most of my field over to winged jumps with 5 foot bars.  What made me decide this?  Well, while trying to do threadles with Tangle it suddenly dawned on me, he just doesn't fit over a 4 foot jump bar when taking it at an angle.  There just isn't that much room for my very long boy to maneuver between stanchions that are 4 foot apart.  And, as Rachel Sanders would say, he fights for the tightest line so that REALLY doesn't leave him much room!

5' Winged Jump

This started me wondering, Tangle's size isn't that unusual.  Why don't all venues that have backsides and threadles require a 5 foot bar?  Have you ever really WATCHED the effort it takes for a medium/big dog to do a backside with no wing?  New found respect for that dog!

I believe USDAA now requires a 5 foot bar.  If we are going to see a backside or two in AKC and UKI, why don't they require a wing and 5 foot bar?  UKI strongly encourages wings, but neither AKC or UKI require a 5 foot bar.

This is why I adore Tip

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!!

Agility, Colorado style

What more can I say, we have been snowed in with -12F (-22C) temps.  Today, it was sunny and hit 20F by 9:00am so we celebrated!  The field will be ready for practice this afternoon!

Snow blowing the agility field!

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.