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!

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 :)

I have trained in some crazy places!

Bloggers unite to talk about Backyard Training. 

When I think of backyard training what typically comes to mind is: training alone, working on very targeted skills, and working in smaller spaces in my backyard.  What kinds of courses and skills can you train in small places?

Then I really started to think about my "training program" (I will call it that so it sounds really official) and it occurred to me that I have done some things that people might perceive as crazy and I have trained my dog in places (and people probably did perceive me as crazy).  Really the whole world is your backyard and you can use it to learn/train/proof fundamental skills.  You just have to have a little crazy in you :)

First, let me say, I am an introvert.  Not just a little bit introverted, but a lot!!  But the thing that I have going for myself is I get possessed by my goals.  That possession/obsession tends to carry me through some things that I would otherwise find painful--like training in crazy places.

I find that the thing that drives me to do crazy things is proofing some kind of skill with my dogs.  Tangle has been the victim of this most often, but all three of my dogs are not strangers to the oddity of my ways.  With all of my dogs I am trying to bridge the gap between "he does it perfect in the backyard" and "he can do it perfectly in a trial".  Right?  The holy grail of agility dog training.

Does your dogs have a brilliant stay at the start line, but could not, for even a second stay in the kitchen? The skill hasn't been proofed in all sorts of placed or in all sorts of ways.

When I was trying to get Tip to have more independent weave poles I loaded a set of six in the car (now I would probably load 2 sets of 2x2's).  We went to a quiet park, to a noisy park with lots of people (where we gathered a nice audience), to a horse barn at the fairgrounds (while throwing tug toys at her), etc..You get the idea.  Tip does have very independent weave poles now, BTW.



I have a plank (not painted or anything fancy).  Tangle I practiced his 2o2o in many different places.  In the front yard, back yard, at a trial, at a construction site.  You get the idea.  He can do his 2o2o with amazing distractions now.  And really, distractions are what is going on at a trial.

Tangle Tug Tour #3

One of my more recent "tours" was in the name of getting Tangle comfortable playing in strange places.  He was very good at playing at home (you know because you just play in your backyard and don't get the dog out).  He would NOT tug any place but home.  Tugging is essential to getting him warmed up and ready to drive through an agility course. So, I loaded my dog and a few of his favorite tug toys into the car.  We tugged at a quiet park, at the bank and Starbucks, at REI, and at 13,000 on top of a mountain.  Any place I don't normally play with my dog.  I wanted him to know that playing is important.

I proof start line stays on a soccer field.  No equipment, just me and the dogs.  I train it in a pack.  All three dogs are in a sit/stay, I start running, I call one of their names and give the release word "OK". The others must stay until their name is called.  There is motion, I throw toys, I use the other dogs as distractions.  Yes, I must ultimately proof in the agility ring, but if I can get close before I get there I am happy.  Agility rings at trials aren't frequent enough, are expensive, and you only get a few shots!  (Tip can do this skill hands down, but can't stay in the ring--why, because I didn't proof it there--ops).

So, really my point is that we are only limited by how we define "backyard".  Don't be confined by what is simply behind your house.  It is probably better for the dog in the long run anyway.

It's Your Choice in the Real World

When I got Tangle I decided that I would be very committed to foundation skills with him. Teaching them from the beginning and reviewing often. Tangle and I worked on the It's Your Choice (IYC) game again today. I have to admit this was part of a class assignment and at the beginning of today I didn't really understand how it completely applied to agility. But, being the good student and wanting to participate fully in the learning process we did IYC today. Last week we did the traditional food in hand IYC that is so famous (Susan Garrett and Mary Ellen Barry). Then we did IYC with food on the ground and walking past it on leash so that I could control his access should he decide to be naughty. He did great. I break up the self-control with bouts of tug to help get his stimulated and happy again. Having control all the time isn't much fun is it and is easier if you aren't very stimulated.


Let me note that the only videos that I have seen on IYC involved the food in hand, food on the paw, food on the nose, food in a bowl, they all kind of fit into the pet trick category to me. Makes you wonder what does this have to do with agility. Sure, it teaches self control, but how do the dog generalize this skill to the agility field. Read on... Today's session was out on the agility field with toys and distractions. Our assignment was to continue to progress with this game and make it real world. So, I gathered all the toys from the toy box, stuffed them in a bag. Brought the other two dogs into the yard just beyond the agility field (Tangle has trouble ignoring them). My objective was to walk back and forth, drop toys, have Tangle ignore the toys and dog and when he did he would get rewarded. Again, how does this relate to the real world?


For some odd reason it suddenly hit me. The assignment is to make it more and more real world. That is, bring the distractions and choices into his working life. For instance, we have been working on a very short sequence where Tangle has to follow me and ignore his favorite obstacle the A-Frame. THAT is the real work of IYC. Choose to follow me because the reward is greater in the long run, or self gratify with the AF (and no reward from me). Or, a Tunnel/Dog Walk discrimination, choice the obstacle that is cued rather than the favorite obstacle. Or, proofing weaves by throwing toys at the dog while he weaves. He chooses to continue the weaves for the big reward rather than self-graitfy with various toys. I went back and reviewed our standard run from this weekend. Just in off courses alone Tangle had 5 opportunities to make choices. It was his choice to stay on course or follow me :)

All-In-One Course Setup

After our recent trials I have collected several things that have made it on the training list.  It seems, particularly in USDAA that the course designs are changing and beginning to include some new elements.  USDAA has announced that this was going to happen, but in general regardless of the venue we tend to see trends in course design.

This setup came about in a very organic way.  I just set up "work stations" to practice a particular skill or obstacle.  As I have practiced this week this design kept growing on me because it was so versatile.

I have setup several numbered exercises, but there are so much more to be discovered.

Skills this design has allowed us to freshen up:

• Sending to backsides of tunnels (turns out of tunnels)
• Discriminations
• Tunnel / Weave - short collection distances, rear crosses, opposite ends of the tunnel, front crosses, and if you move the tunnels out a little you can do blind crosses out of the weaves, "not" the tunnel after the weaves
• Off set line of jumps. Irregular distances between jumps (scoping skills for the dog)
• Serps with obstacles other than jumps.  For example, dogwalk-jump-weaves, backside of tunnel-jump-dogwalk**
• AFrame in a fast line, backside of tunnel-Aframe
• Triple-turns, and at the end of a fast line, or alone 
• Very fast long lines of jumps
• Turns across the broad jump
• Slight angles onto contacts and manged (safety) dog walk entrances
• Send to weaves from the opposite end of the dog walk through the tunnel (yes, I saw this (actually AFrame) on a USDAA Starters course with Tangle)

I am sure there is so much more that I have not seen!  I think that this setup will be around for a couple of weeks since I have not explored all of the possibilities yet.

**I have seen several courses setup lately that have less than friendly contact entrances (several on novice courses).  In general I try to assist the dog by managing/shaping their entrance.  However sometimes either you don't see the bad entrance or it happens accidentally so I train my dogs to straighten themselves before entering a contact.  Post from Amanda Shyne seminar

Weaves in Sequences

Tangle graduated from 6 poles to 12. We have been working on building value for the entries and all 12 poles. Weaves are a hard thing, I don't want to do too much weaving with him, but you have to do some to build the value.

In order the build the value quickly, I brought out the big guns toy for him. The "ball"! I don't practice much with the ball since the reward is always being thrown away from me, but I don't mind in small doses. With most of his other toys, I can choose to either reward by my side or in the case of an independent obstacle I can reward away.

So, prior to today I just did the classic "around-the-clock" proofing of the 12 weaves. Today I decided to put them in short sequences to measure our progress. I have seen with my dogs that when you put the obstacle in a sequence it sometimes changes the picture. In the case of the weaves, it really changes the picture. The dog generally has to add scope to the weave performance as well. That is, look ahead to gage his jump, land and collection, but without starting it at a sit-stay which allows him a ton of time to see what is ahead.

I am not pushing Tangle in any of this. My goal is to set him up to be successful and build confidence. Challenging him will come later.

I am proud of Tangle, he did a really great job. This video isn't just the best of all the performances with him, it is all of them. Notice, he didn't miss a single entry, even when my handling was less than desirable :)

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!

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.

The boys were on FIRE!

I took all three dogs to the field today, been a while since that happened.

I decided to take a pulse check on where Tangle was when working around the other dogs. I put the other dogs in the yard which is right next to the agility field. I was fully prepared to have to back down and lower the distraction at the first sign of trouble. First I warmed Tangle up with recalls, he did awesome, 100%. OK, I ramped it up a little. Next we did flatwork, at a walk first and then at a trot. Tangle did awesome, never once ran over to see where the other dogs were.

Interesting to me, he completely understands following body motion and really has since day one! That is his natural talent for sure. I didn't fully appreciate it until I watch a couple of other puppies work and it wasn't the same level of understanding.

Split starts barking because he is getting left out, still Tangle is with me.

Next we did cone work, first single cone just for food and then two cones for food and then toys. I did both the stand in the middle, send, FC, and send to the next. Then the stand a send to one with forward motion and the other with lateral motion. Tangle's sends were beautiful today. On average I was sending him about 12 feet or so. He would drive out, round the cone with the same speed, accelerate into the turn and speed back to me. His speed is beginning to pick up which is awesome. He does still "offer" the cone to me without me asking. He just gets a "good boy", but no huge reward. In the long run I don't want him offering obstacles. I want him to wait until he has been queued.

We ended the session with a great game of table, Tangle's favorite game. This time I threw him a little twist and asked him the lie down a couple of times before I would start the game.

Never once did Tangle get distracted by the other dogs who by this time were barking and whining (that is a whole other training topic).

Next to work out was Split. I warmed him up with the extension and collection work. That boy is so awesome. Totally understands his foundation. I wonder if the herding has something to do with it. Both boys are very herdy and both are awesome at the foundation work. Next we worked small sequences with contacts in them. Split was awesome. He hit his contacts 100 percent of the time. I ran past, front crossed, stopped and started again, he remained through it all on the DW. His running contact was a little slow, but accurate. Speed will come in time. I worked some turns out of tunnels with Split for fun. RC before he goes into the tunnel, does he come out running in the correct direction? Boy did awesome. Lastly we ended with weaves-fetch which he loves. I worked on speedy entries, and some lateral motion. Seems like 24 inch poles have made all the difference in the world!!

I won't leave Tip out. She did really well except for waiting her turn. :)

20 degrees and still training

This morning, mostly because I had a long list of choirs AND it was 20 degrees we stayed inside to train. Tip worked on sit stays and provided the distraction while I worked Tangle. Let me just say, she needs work :)



We started off with the 'round' command with Tangle. I have a traffic cone in the middle of the floor, and he is suppose to go around the cone. We just worked this with food and little motion. He demonstrated that he was ready for more!



Tangle and I worked on the 'feet' command. His criteria is to put his back feet on a plank and his front feet off the plank (the 2o2o position). He then waits for the release and should move forward upon my release. He was brilliant! Because he clearly understood the command we moved to the next stage which is having me in different positions. I worked the right side and left side. Right side was stellar and the left was a little week. I need to remember to work that side a little more for all things, he is clearly a little weaker on that side.



We ended the training session going back to the 'round' game. This time I started him in the 'side' position, gave the command, and then rewarded with tug. After the first time it took him a little bit to get his head back into the game (over stimulated) and remember what he was suppose to do. Once he got it however, the tug really caused him to pick up his speed going around the cone to come back and play.

Agility skill inventory

Yes, I know, I have been writing a bunch about Tangle lately...

We went over to the agility field early today to work out 'the boys'. I wanted to have a few moments to work on the fundamentals of Split running AFrame (we have a trial today) and Tangle's basics. With Split, I got out the box on the ground and did some target work with that. Then we did some AFrame work, cleaned his performance right up!

Tangle:
Let me say that most of the behaviors that I am working on are not the final behavior. I am in the mode of building tools that I will use later to put the end behavior together (hopefully, very quickly).

Teeter work - Tangle was more excited to get on the teeter today. Quicker to get on and get back on if he moved off the contact. The things that I am trying to remember: bring him around or send onto the teeter, reward at the end quickly with a party, feed low, release with 'ok' and I move after he does. The teeter right now is just being used to get use to motion and perhaps a little of the end contact behavior. It is about 6 inches off the ground. The command right now is "slam".

Table - The table is completely flat. We are working on tugging on the table. We do the ready-set-go game, race to the table, once he is completely on, I begin madly playing tug with him. If he comes off the table the game stops until he is back on. There is no command to this behavior. I am going to use this later on to introducing tugging at the bottom of contacts. I want him to be very comfortable with tugging on equipment (and perhaps chairs in my house etc). Also, this game will lead to his table performance.

Flat Work - We are just working on the six presentations of LM's flatwork. Tangle is awesome at them since most of it is natural behavior.

Flat Work with a hoop - I introduced this today. Tangle did awesome coming through the hoop to all the presentations. The one thing that I noticed was he does not have an understanding of 'stay' when the hoop is present. When I put my hand out in prep for the RTH he would come, not when I released him. I went back to see if that was the case "on the flat", and it is not. The hoop made some kind of a difference to him. Fun!! We worked on the stay command in the presents of the hoop.

I have been working for the last month on 'stays' with and without motion, walking, running etc. He does great with those. Just proof that you have to really "proof" your behaviors.

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

Skid steers, dump trucks, and agility

This morning we went over to the field to train. I suspected that we would have some distractions, and the construction people didn't disappoint me!

There were skid steers, dump trucks, people pounding and walking around. This was actually great for two reasons: Split and Tangle. Split does not like loud noises and machinery, and Tangle is to the point where training with distraction is good.

With Tip and Split I worked on jump grids, contacts, and lateral sends. Tip has been knocking bars and not acknowledging that she knows she is turning. We worked on that and it only took her 4 tries to get back into shape. Split was perfect from the beginning.

When I get a second I will post the jump grid that we worked on.

Tangle was stellar this morning. It took him about 30 seconds to get over the distractions (mostly the other dogs actually) and figure out we were training. Once he knows we are training he is ON THE JOB!! We did a little bit of teeter work. That is the teeter was about 5 inches off the ground and he was just on/off it making it move. My goal was not the teeter, but the movement! He still does not have control of his hind end (not surprised) so keeping his hind end on the teeter is a bit of a challenge. That will come.

Second we did flat work. We are working at a walk and just following my movement. Although he has always been good, today I noticed more fluid motion in the work. We did front crosses, rear crosses (not natural yet) and walk beside me. We also did recalls to my side.

Greatful for an excellent practice

Today I took Tip and Split over to the house for a practice. We worked on some short courses authored by Kathy Keats (on the Cleanrun site) and some jump grids.

First I worked Split prepared that we might have to scrape the course work and go back to circle drills (he was a little wild yesterday). Split was 100 percent in the game and ran the courses exactly like I asked! It was a great course because we had an opportunity for me to work on my timing with him. I am trying to better hone when I can cue and good and when I need to wait and be patient! In general I need to wait when I need collection--working on being better about that.

Tip did an AWESOME job on the same course. Very tight, not straight forward and she ran it clean. Man she still amazes me how far she has come. She watches me so close now!

We need worked on jump grids. I went back to the tunnel, three collected jumps and an extended jump. I felt that I had more to learn in terms of timing with the dogs. It was very fun to play with this. Split needs me to be slightly more patient with him on the collected jumps. Tip, she gets the cue and then I can go. In some ways Split is way more sensitive to my lack of motion that Tip.

I will throw in here a word about Tangle's practice last night. First we worked on recall. Boy do I need to shake this up. When he sees the treat bag he is ON IT and knows the game. It is probably time to up the distraction a little and see how he does. Maybe a park this weekend. Next we worked on sit, tug (from Susan Garrett's book). He got really good at this one as well. My goal is to get a really fast sit with him which he is well on his way to achieving! We are also playing the ready, set, OK game with tug. As soon as he hears "ready" his butt is down waiting for the next round to begin! Such a bright boy. Tangle has been getting daily walks with a little running in there (not much). He sees horses, goats, skid streer's, dogs, people, birds, etc.. We make it a little further every day.

Progress on the dropped bars?

We did a USDAA trial this weekend. Out of 9 runs Tip only dropped 1 bar and that was totally my fault. To me, that is a dramatic improvement over most of the trials this summer. Sure enough, when we don't drop bars we take 1st in everything we do!

I looked back on my last post about working the jumping skills. After those drills I dragged out my Linda Mechlenberg jumping skills book. I decided to start from the beginning of her advanced grids and work my way through all the skills again (urging from a friend).

Before this trial we had gotten through the three jumps in a row, the pin wheel sort of jump drill. These drills were really hard for Tip. I filmed each series and could tell at the beginning she was really working her muscles. Toward the end, her skills seemed more effortless. With each exercise I didn't move on until I saw that effortless performance. In general I would say that we worked them for several weeks a piece.

She nor Split are particularlly trilled with the exercises, but to their credit they both do what I ask of them.

Here is a link to Split doing the pin wheel grid. He showed little effort when doing these and had a nice jump style IMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJFWbdrpXd0

Moments of Brilliance!

I have been having a problem with Split on the agility field lately and I didn't really understand what was going on. At my new agility field he would rather chase horses and follow smells than play agility sometimes. I noticed the problem over at a friend's house as well. Also, Tip was misbehaving and wasn't able to stay when I was training Split. She had this down cold!!

Hum, with Split was it:

1. Tip stressing him out
2. The smells were just too overwhelming
3. Losing his drive for agility

I think I had a moment of brilliance last night on what the problem was. I was reading one of Susan Garrett's books in preparation for the Red Headed Puppy. The section I was reading was on building value in something. The dog does what he wants, and he does what you want because there is something of value in it for him. I had momentarily forgotten that I built value for Split in food, and I had been training lately (actually before the new field) with toys. (picture ah ha moment now).

The value of smell and chase were higher than the value of toys. When introducing the toy I did not build the value the same way I did with food!! Tip's high value is a toy, which Split was playing with now (her medium value is food, hence her ability to stay).

This morning we went out to the agility field and I got out the food. Split was off doing his thing with smells/horses. I ran across the field, Split chased me, I rewarded with food. Tip chased too, I rewarded with food. After about 10 minutes of this, Split was GLUED to my side and Tip was sitting patiently and watching the game. INTERESTING!!! I love these moments!

Split got trained with food this morning, and Tip with toys. My well-behaved, high drive dogs were back!!! :)

Segments from USDAA team

I ran team this weekend with both dogs. I think it was safe to say that the theme of the courses was pull throughs. Here are some excerpts from this weekend that I want to isolate and practice for Nationals.

First excerise--demonstrating option 1 that people choose for handling










First excerise--demonstrating option 2 that people choose for handling (more popular)









Second - more popular choice









second option 2











This is a segment of the course so no leadout will demonstrate the problem. Handling #4, several people either got the tunnel or a refusal at #4. With a fast dog it was hard to get from the Frame to #4 to handle smoothly. Weave pole entry was hard to cue ahead of time because you needed the dog to jump toward you and then you could cue it. Of course the dog weaved into the edge of the course.











Again, segment of the course. Not many people too many problems on this. Just thought it was interesting. I have now seen this at AKC and USDAA were the dog is blind to where you are coming out of the tunnel.

My next exercise for timing

On the threadles the idea is to FC on the take off side of #2. I will have to run it to really figure that out.

After I do this exercise I will post a course map where I put the crosses.

These are comments after I ran the courses with both dogs. This is a great exercise. Certainly one that goes into the book of "revisit often".

First Split--He did a great job with the front crosses. Read them very well as I would have expected. The rear cross were a little more rusty, but he caught on well (or I did). Threadles need the most work. He really wanted to turn each threadle into a 180. As well, this is the exercise that was the hardest for me to get positioning on which didn't help him. As I went down the line of threadles my position would get worse and worse. I really need to work on this one. I should open my chest to the next in the path, leave him to get the job done while I am getting into position for the next. Because my back is facing the 180 option he should not take it.

Tip was showing her maturity here. She did great on all of these exercises with threadles being her strength. I am so proud of us, I never could have said that even a year ago. When she recognizes that you are handling and asking for collection she switches modes quickly.