You have to work hard for what you want

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!

The exact word you use matters

I had been thinking a lot (ok, I always am, that is who I am) about goals and objectives.  I am really trying to change my mental game.  I know that if I can get my mental game changed the physical part will follow!

I made a list of handling objectives that I really need to focus on for each run.  I suspect that I will continue to tweak this list, but for the moment I am ready to publish it.

I had to really think about this.  Part of my list is constant and part of my list can change with each run.

Party at the End

The constant part of my list

• Be in charge of the run
• Communicate through actions: showing lines, turns, collection etc..
• Have calm and focused energy
• Smile when you begin
• Party at the end

The part that changes

• What is the Performance objective for the run (hold contacts, trust at the weaves, cue and go).  All of these I want to do all the time, but if I am trying to improve on something, I pick that thing to really focus on.  I can't focus on 20 things to improve in one run or even a weekend.

I can't have too many things on my list so I worked on statements that really carry a lot of power for me.  "Be in charge of the run" is better for me than "run aggressively".  The word "aggressive" has a tense or uptight implication.  "In charge" is more fluid, conscientiously competent and consistent with who I am.

This past weekend I worked on getting better about "being in charge".  We weren't perfect, but I was really pleased with my improvements.  I want to say that I took chances, but I didn't.  I was just better at being in charge and showing my dogs what I wanted to happen. 

Competing for Your Next Personal Best

This is a part of Dog Agility Bloggers day, you can find more blogs here. The topic of choice is Success and it is a call to action.  I would challenge everyone to examine how they measure success.

Success, the process of constantly improving, competing against your personal best and winning.

What more can I say...that about sums it up for me.

So how do you achieve success and more importantly, how do you feel successful?

In the beginning it was very hard to not focus on the Q, or not to be disappointed in the off course/knocked bar.  I wrestled with this too often in the beginning.  Way too many times I came off course not happy with the outcome.  How can you always be happy when your expectation is perfection?  Perfection just doesn't happen that often. And for me, a Type-A personality my idea of perfection is always beyond my reach.

There are too many things in agility that are completely out of your control, at least in the short run.  You can't set goals and achieve success while including a majority of the things that are out of your control.

I reset my measurement of success and am a much happier competitor.  I have a list of things to work on for myself and each of the dogs.  These are the items that are incorporated into each practice or trial (yes, trial).  The list comes from several sources: what made me nervous in my last trial, what skills were we missing in order to handle the course aggressively (not just Q), or what skills do we need to acquire in order to meet a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), like trying out for world team.

This is the list that I use to measure success!  When I walk a course I always try to put at least one element of a challenge in it for us (some courses offer so many more).  I come off the course, reward my dog and reflect on how we performed our "challenges".  I don't come off course and ask "did we Q" or "what was our time".  It is what it is.   What I need to do to affect future performances is much more important.  Will I ask those two questions at Nationals, sure, but not at local trials.

I read a blog that Silvia Trkman wrote in April that struck me as something that contributes a great deal to her success...

You will NEVER see me ask a dog (to) do that or another obstacle without having an evil plan on how to proof their understanding more, without asking them to do it with a reason to take their understanding to another level. 

If you are constantly challenging yours and your dog's level of competency and increasing the competency, how can you not achieve greater goals?  Focus on what you can control.

There are so many ways that you could measure success in agility, but most are not within your control.  Can you really control if you win?  Yes, eventually you have a great influence on it, but you can't control it, you work toward it.

I am very mindful when I compete and practice, in their lifetime my dogs only have some many jumps in them, they only do this because they love playing with me.  So, I have to be the best teammate possible and make every moment of play count!

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.

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!

Split

Split is back!

It occurred to me today that this weekend will be Split's first 2 day (almost all the runs) trial since 2/2011 when he was diagnosed with arthritis and an iliopsoas pull.  The doctors nor PT people were hopeful that he would ever be able to do agility again.  They just didn't think that he could come back strong enough.

It was really hard to come to terms with that news!

I set my mind on getting him rehab'ed with the goal that he would keep jogging with us and doing some "puppy" agility in the back yard for the rest of his life.  He needed to know that he was not forgotten or any less of a member in our house.

I think that this mind set was perfect for today's outcome!  I never envisioned that he would be as strong as he is today.

It wasn't until about 8 months ago that I realized that he really recovered well.  So I set my sights on getting him retrained and seeing were he could go.

While Split was injured but before I really realized it he began to develop some bad habits--mostly popping weave poles and wide turns.  Much like someone who has been limping for years, getting the problem fixed, you have to re-train the body/mind to stop compensating for a problem that no longer exists.

So, I believe that we have the weave pole issue much improved, his turns are much tighter for the most part, his AF has been converted to running, he has stopped (mostly) running a muck on course out of happiness and we are beginning to be a better team again.

He won't ever have a full trial schedule again, but really that is fine, I just want him healthy and happy. 

So, we will see what this weekend brings.  I don't care if we cue, I don't care if we place, I really don't care if he becomes a little too enthusiastic on course.  All I care about is that we can run together again and when the end of the day comes he still feels good and pain free.

I am happy to be running Split again and with a very conservative approach, hopefully we can continue for a long while!

Style points count!

They say in agility is doesn't matter how ugly the run was, it is still a cue.  That is true to a point.

I have witnessed several situations over the past month that have really made me *think* about this and believe even more deeply that style does matter.  I am actually not talking about the run itself, I am talking about how you conduct yourself and your attitude and the gratitude/grace with which we lead our lives in every moment.

I was blown away about a month ago when a competitor who I admire (and this is probably why) was proud to be on the podium with such an esteemed group of handlers.  The attitude wasn't all about how great she is, or how great the dog is, it was about recognizing her fellow competitors as well.  She lifted others while lifting herself.  Was she proud of herself for being there?  I don't know for sure, but I am bet she was.  The statement was classy and I see that attitude from her ALWAYS.  It helps me admire her and learn from her.

Too me this speaks to the moments of competition that I love.

Style points also count outside the ring, walking the course, coming into the ring, leaving the ring, in class, or just alone on the field.

My hero's in agility are truly those people who excel at handling/training, but are also kind and gracious in every moment.  You see them in class and they lift you up, you see them at trials and they lift you up.  They live their lives by doing the right thing ALWAYS.  Being kind to both people and animals.

Some days I am far from a kind person.  But, I always try to re-center myself.  I am the most proud of myself when I am kind and lift others no matter what.

So, a reminder to myself, "Style does Matter"!

Surround yourself with only people that will lift you higher! - Oprah Winfrey

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else. Booker T. Washington

Sunrise, Sunset

This shouldn't be a sad blog, it really is meant to be a recognition of the lives to two amazing dogs.  I must admit however, that a couple of tears comes to my eyes as I write this!

I competed with two of my dogs, Tip and Tangle, in USDAA's Rocky Mountain Regional a couple of  weekends ago.  We had several amazing moments with both dogs as measured by a position on a podium and then we had many, many amazing moments because I saw the best coming out in one of the dogs in moments of brilliance.

Sunrise

Tangle is 2, almost 3 years old.  Tangle is beginning to make his mark on this world.  He is an old soul who is teaching me new things about agility every day!  At almost 3 years old he has already qualified for 3 national events, competed at the national level, competed at a world team tryout.  I really believe, no matter my goal Tangle can help me accomplish it.  He is gentle, steady, level headed,  honest, fast and an awesome partner.  I have never had a dog that could compete so steadily in agility, keeping his head at such a young age.

At this Rocky Mountain Regional he was on the second place team.  Not a small accomplishment for a 2 year old.  It takes a consistent performer in 5 events.  He placed 5th in Team snooker, with about 50 dogs in his class. 

Tangle, Wick and Summit

Sunset

Tip is 9 years old.  She has definitely made her mark on this world!  She has been an amazing teacher is so many ways.  She is an awesome leader of my pack, she and I learned agility together, she taught me the importance of foundation (or the lack there of), she taught me to laugh, even in the face of "failure" and the biggest lesson, always have fun no matter the outcome!

Tip has competed in 4 venues, been to 4 national events, on the podium in several of those.  She has been of the podium for either/both/all P-Grand Prix, P-Steeplechase, and Team at three USDAA regional events.

Now I wouldn't be doing justice to Tip by not recognizing her crazy side as well.  After all, that is who she is.  She LOVES the game and I am sure she will be running it in heaven as well.  She loves it so much that sometimes she just can't help herself on course.  In many runs, she has taken so many obstacles on course without recognizing that I am standing there waiting for her to come back and work with me.  She has completed a run and started doing a second round on the same course for her 'victory lap', I can't count the number of broken startlines, and running dog walks (she has a 2o2o).  Those are the moments that taught me to appreciate watching another creature just absolutely LOVING something and it makes me smile (it didn't at first!).

So, I recognized on the way home from this USDAA Regional that this may be her last or at least the last time on the podium.  She is not showing signs of slowing down, but at 9, it is bound to happen.

Tip - 1st place PGP round 1 and 2

Thanks to both dogs for being my partner at Regionals!!

Out of the comfort zone!

One of the things that I learned as a musician was that if you want to improve you have to practice at the extremes of your ability.

I am not the person who sits in her comfort zone for too long.

The day has come when I have decided to step COMPLETELY outside my comfort zone and do something in agility to really push myself.  I am going to try out for AKC's European Open World Team with Tangle (now 2.5 years old).  I am going this year as a demo dog which means that I have zero chance of making the team, but for me this year isn't about making the team.  It is about pushing myself to improve and this is an experience that will do that.  It is about learning to play successfully with the "big boys".

This already has been a totally new experience for me and will continue to be for months to come. 

How do you prepare yourself and your dog for this challenge?  I have thought about physical preparation for both of us, and mental preparation for both of us. 

Physically - Tangle normally jumps 22", I have to move him up to 26", and get the muscles built.  Along the way, I have been working to keep his confidence intact (he is only 2) and increase the fun factor for him.  I have had adjustments in my timing and how much space to physically allow him on course.  I have to enter him in some competitions at the new jump height.

For myself, I am working hard to get my pulled muscles recovered, keep from pulling more and just develop a solid base condition.

Mentally - It is very important to me that Tangle enjoys this experience.  Sure, he loves running the courses, but there is so much more.  Tangle stresses when he is surrounded by stressed people/dogs.  Hum, there might be a couple of those (including me) at this competition.  I am working hard at training all sorts of "fun" tricks that we can pull out of our bag when the need arises.  I don't want to push myself at the expense of my dog.  It is a journey for both of us.  One of my goals is to keep Tangle's stress at a minimum.

For me, I need to remain mentally attuned to the challenges that each moment will bring.  What are my measurable goals for this trial?  When we have our "practice" run what will my objective be?  How do I use my time now to sharpen my mental game?  As a demo dog, I will be the first in the running order, I want to come to the start line with the confidence that I have in a local trial, how do I do that?  I have so little time to prepare (made my decision to go late), how do I prioritize and make the most of my time?  Don't let your confidence get shaken by those around you.

I have read the rules and know the specifications for the equipment.  I am not normally a rule reader I just follow the customs around me.  But, this is so different. 

There are several pieces of equipment Tangle hasn't seen before--wall jump and the "Euro" double (two singles placed 18-22" apart in ascending order).  Made those and trained on those.

I am studying course maps.  Lots of the obstacles are the same, but the approaches that they give you to those obstacles are totally different than what we encounter at any US venue.  Setting up exercises that allow us to practice those items.

Lessons learned so far:
Prepare your family, this will be an obsessive effort and will invade life as you know it.
It takes more than a month to prepare for this type of competition (given my experience base)
Talk to everyone you can who has actually done what you are going to do to limit the surprises along the way.
When the weather doesn't cooperate, you have to still figure out how to be productive

So, for me, this is a fairly steep hill to climb: really young, but talented dog, physical and mental preparedness, building my team, making equipment, researching courses, connecting with people, etc.

I know, you say "dah?" of course you have to do all this.  I would too if this was actually a goal of mine 3 months ago!

Practice April 9th! - Restrained sends to a tunnel

P.S. of course this is the spring where it has to snow every 4 days as well!  Thankful for the water, but it isn't helping my preparedness :)

What makes the perfect coach/instructor?

Joining dog agility bloggers in writing about the topic of "What makes the perfect coach/instructor".  To see other blogs, http://dog-agility-blog-events.posterous.com/

I have been doing agility for about 6 years now and I think my answer to this question probably would have changed several times.  Also, I think that this answer changes depending on where my dog is in his/her career and me in my agility career.

There are a couple of traits that I think are essential to the perfect coach/instructor no matter where you are in your career.

• Trust - You have to trust your coach.  Trust is the foundation of the relationship. 
• Flexibility - The coach needs to be able to adapt to the team's needs. 
• Patience - Everyone learns at a different pace
• Listen - The coach is able to hear what you are trying to say
• Bring out the best in you
• Lead by example

An average coach will make you feel his or her greatness.

A perfect coach will make you feel yours!

 

 

I also believe that you should probably have several coaches or instructors in your agility career.  Not everyone has a diverse enough skill set to teach everything you need to know from the basics of dog training to handling international courses.  The attributes of the perfect instructor are always the same, it is just the name that changes from time to time.
 

At different times I have needed help in the mechanics of dog training, the mechanics of movement on course, motivating my dog, better strategies for handling my dog, believing in myself,  course analysis, and mental management, just to name a few.  There has been no one coach who could do all of that, at least for me.  Seek out the coach that you need at that time.  Seek out the instructor who brings out the best in you.

Lately my perfect coach/instructor is my dogs and my favorite tool is my video camera. 

• Trust  - Dogs are so honest.  Their feedback is always honest and without bias
• Flexibility - The dogs are very flexible in doing what I need as long as the pay is fair
• Patient - They keep playing with me, they don't care what the game is.  They are always quick to forgive my lack of skills and try again.
• Listen - Well some would debate this, but my dogs do listen when the pay is fair.
• Bring out the best in me - They keep me smiling, and show me that pleasure is in the simple things.
• Lead - They lead by example.  They live in the moment, always have fun, enjoy the simple things in life and know the value of a good belly rub :)

My dogs have made me feel my greatness!

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!

Training becomes harder

I have been thinking a lot about this lately. To me, a puppy is very easy to train and to set goals for. You want the puppy to sit. You have very concrete measures of success for a sit. You want your young agility dog to learn the weaves. They go through all the poles, they know how to weave. (I know, not quite that clear cut, but close).

Tangle now knows all of his obstacles, he is very clear right now what the criteria is for success. So, how do you set your goals and how do you measure them now?

My goals for Tangle are to gain confidence, speed and more passion for the game. He also needs mileage or experience. My challenge is how do I measure progress and what is my criteria? More esoteric for sure. What does "mileage" really mean? And how do you put "mileage" on a dog with the least amoung of repetition and stress on their bodies?

I am starting with developing pictures in my head of what a confident, passionate, and speedy runs would look like. (Mileage is something I am still trying to define.) I look for examples among my other dogs, and I look for examples among many, many videos of other people's runs. OK, now that I have a few examples, I am setting my mind to defining concretely why the run looks confident, speedy, and passionate.

One of the challenges is defining milestones of success and knowing when we have arrived. I can break it down in many ways, just deciding which is the best is the trick. Do I break it down by obstacle? For example, the weave performance goes from 2 seconds down to 1.3 seconds? Do I break it down by body language? No stress on the startline, eyes engaged. Full strides, head down (it's a border collie thing) where he is capable or is he reserving energy (ie, hesitant) still?

I think that my answer lies with both of these types of measurement. I don't want to stress too much any individual obstacle at this point and the "body language" indicator is very hard to measure.

Stay tuned!

What Makes a Champion

I read this article yesterday What Makes a Champion?. I really like the point of the article. I am a competitive person, more with myself than with other people. I always expect the most and best out of myself and when I don't meet my expectations I have to pick myself back up from disappointment.

For me agility is doubly hard since I have lofty expectations for myself and for my dog. I do know that ultimately how the dog performs comes back to "me" and my training ability.

For me I loved the fact that the people that ultimately succeed are those that don't give up! I don't give up! Sometimes I should, ya know when you point out to yourself what is the point of accomplishing that anyway? For instance, pursuing something at work when it was just driven by politics and you can't influence that process. Spend your energy elsewhere!

But in agility, I don't give up! Frequently, I pause, feel like I have given up, but then develop a plan and get back on the horse. I heard something recently (from Mary Ellen Barry) that I just loved "Realize that failure *is* part of the process.", "The more times you do something, the more you will fail at it (Daisy Peel)". I am now a believer that failure is a part of the process, I have to get better at that and learn to embrace it's lessons quicker.

The other thing that spoke to me about this article was the triangle of: persistence, timing, and talent! Two out of the three have to be true to succeed. This applys to agility as well. In my previous post, ya know the one that I was commenting on Timing. So true! The hard part is that timing isn't a constant in most fields. That is, once you have it down you are good. Timing is changing and evolving, very true in agility! So really, to me, the talent is adaptation of timing to be more precise.

On another note, Tangle and I had an amazing practice this morning! I decided not to bring the camera out, but I really wish that I had. We worked on several things, proofing 12 poles, contacts in sequences, jumping. He was just amazing with his ability to stick with the game! Enjoy it tremendously. I am very commit ed to keeping practices short, but when you are on a roll, it is really hard!

USDAA Rocky Mountain Regionals

My little girl, Tip and I accomplished some goals that we had been working on for a while. Our goals aren't really first place ribbons, or beating so and so, etc...Those come as a natural by product of attaining our other goals. The goal of being "present" in every moment of your run. Only focused on the run, the performance of every obstacle, and how your dog is interpreting your cues. I want to be as calm and clear as I can with my dogs when I run them.


Tip and I had an amazingly consistent weekend. I was proud of myself because I hit every start line this weekend with controlled nerves, focused on my dog, and being present for her during the whole run. Tip sat at every start line focused on me and determined to work as a team. I really tried to focus on the courses, reading them and running them the way that Tip would run the best.

The rewards came:
1st Place Performance Team!
1st Place Local Performance Grand Prix
1st Place Performance Team Jumpers
2nd place in Regional Performance Grand Prix to earn a 'Bye' to Semifinals at the USDAA Nationals
Earned a 'bye' to the Semifinals in Performance Speed Jumping

Both 'bye's are for USDAA World Games Championships in Oct. in Louisville, KY!

Puppy license

I have noticed in the last month the changes in Tangle as he progresses from puppyhood to adulthood (at least in growth). In the last several weeks Tangle has lost his puppy license with some other male dogs, his drive is moving to a new level, and he is beginning to show signs of the adult male that he will become!

At the same time my perspective in training him has begun to change. Up until now he has clearly been "the puppy". As such, our training has only included puppy tasks (sort of). Low dog walks, no jumps, just weave entries, no AFrame, etc... Although my criteria for him is solid, somehow it isn't the same as when you know you will have the dog in a competition this weekend!! There is puppy license filtered into the criteria.

I began to realize this weekend that technically he could be competing in 5 months. And although I doubt that I will compete with him that early it dawned on me that we would need to move from all the puppy activities to the "real agility dog" activities.

Is he beginning to loose his puppy license with me as well?

Tangle will be "the puppy" for many more years, but soon he will begin some adult tasks.

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.

Goals

Two posts today! This came in my email today and I thought it was worth remembering! Remember, it isn't always about winning the class (although that is awesome), we need to remember what we are doing better than we did yesterday!

Scenario One – Performance Goal Focus

So in this situation, the coach chooses to focus the team’s attention to how they performed as a team. The hard work we put into practice had come through in our performance during the game. The players can see that they were successful in their performance and that by continuing to work hard they will achieve even greater levels of success in their performance which has side effects – positive outcomes in their games.

Scenario Two – Outcome Goal Focus
In this situation, the coach focuses the team’s attention on how they lost the game. The players know that they have been working really hard in practice to develop their skills, however, this clearly wasn’t good enough. They quickly learn that despite their best efforts during practice, they still failed. Their motivation to continue to work hard in practice diminishes and their development stops, thus feeding into the poor outcomes they will undoubtedly experience in the future.

The underlying issue when you focus your goals on either the competition outcome or your performance is control. You can’t always control the outcome of a competition. When your goals are outcome oriented, you can only contribute your portion to the outcome. You can’t control what your competition does. You can’t control what a judge or referee does. Ultimately, you are leaving your success up to someone else. You can, however, control your performance. You can make changes to your training to improve your performance. When your goals are performance oriented, you can make them happen.

While “they” may not ask “How?”, you should. It’s a dead simple way to get more enjoyment out of your sport and motivate yourself to put in the effort in practice to develop your skills.

Never can predict when the challenge will come!

Anybody who has read or met Split knows that he is my soft dog. Not only is he my soft dog, but he get spooked/thrown off by the strangest things. Most of which I can't identify.

Last night we went to a fun run at a place that we have been many, many times. I took Split and Tangle. Split had been doing awesome on his contacts at home so I wanted to start working them in another environment. Really his contacts haven't been that bad, I just wanted to clear up the criteria for him.

I walked the course like I usually do and at a fun run I tend to work the dogs stays. I ask them to sit on the sidelines and wait while I walk the course. For some reason Split could not stay. Wasn't too bad, just kept scooting closer.

I went to warm him up on the practice jump, asked him to stay and I walked to the other side. He could not sit, he followed me around the jump. I was shocked. For all of Split's issues, he has ALWAYS had a rock solid stay at a practice jump and at the start line. ALWAYS! He has broken his start line twice in his whole career.

So the lesson continues with Split, I never know exactly what I will be training that day!

At the practice jump I started with him, got him jumping and happy. Then he would stay, still not happy, but he stayed.

Our turn on course now, I put Split at the start line and walked out. Guess what? He followed me again! OK, it is apparent we are working on confidence and happiness today on course.

Split is such a funny dog. When he looses confidence it never slows him down, he just runs fast, but with no brain engaged and in a velcro style. He broke his start, leaped off of contacts, took every jump remotely near him, and nailed his weaves (why did he do those right?). I tried to just run him, find something I could reward (that WAS hard) and make him a happy camper. I didn't feel really successful!

My wish? I wish that I could see these episodes coming, figure out a successful plan of attack and turn them into a positive training session. I can never get all three of those wishes at once! That is my goal with Split. Funny goal for an agility dog eh?

BTW, Tangle was picture perfect when I was working him ringside on his foundation work.

Visualize the team you want to be

This has been lifted from Susan Garretts blog, but I wanted to put it somewhere for safe keeping so I can play with these words and form my own vision of the Tangle/Mary team.

Trained skills of the most brilliant agility dog your mind can visualize
1.) A rock solid, confident but excited start line.
2) Runs in “squirrel speed” around the course
3) Ability to drive lines. She locks her head on a line and doesn’t look up until the run is over (ie doesn’t have an unbalanced value for the handler over the obstacles)
4) Comes off any obstacle when prompted by her handler’s body cues (ie doesn’t have an unbalanced value for the obstacles over the handler)
5) Amazing tight turns.
6) Lightning responses to her handler’s cues: front cross, rear cross, threadle arms, post turns, accelerations and deceleration cues.
7) Full independent obstacle understanding (does not relay on the handler’s speed or body position for her ability to complete any obstacle at full speed).

You can get to the whole article here, http://susangarrettdogagility.com/2010/02/defining-agility-brilliance/

The followup thought to these is of course, what is my training plan for getting there?

Progression of Back!

I decided weeks ago that I was going to teach Tangle to back up the stairs. Don't really know why, could be the whole hind end awareness thing, or maybe just fun to have another stupid pet trick!

I started with teaching him "back". Which was on the floor and just walk backwards. He caught onto that in about 15 minutes. Mostly the behavior was shaped with just a little bit of luring (pressure to start going back). He now has a better back than any of my other BCs.

Tonight I decided to work a little bit on the stairs. Mostly because he kept offering me back in response to everything :). At first he would not back up into the stairs. Probably actually a smart move on his part. Again, I mostly shaped it, but I did apply the "back" command as well.

So, as you watch the video you can see that he knows it involves the hind end. He just doesn't quite know how to put all the motions together to make it happen. He was rewarded anytime it involved the hind end.

Give us one more session and perhaps a little more growth in those legs to actually get up the stairs and he will have this down!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdVkMiaFp7Y