Bud Houston's Laws of a Dog in Motion

Here are some good thoughts

1. The dog turns when the handler turns
2. The dog tends to work in a path parallel to the handler's path
3. The dog gets his speed cue from the handler's speed
4. The dog gets his direction cue from the handler's shoulders, toes, hips, & movement
5. A dog ahead of the handler tends to curl back to the handler's position

Maintaining Criteria

I went to a fun run last night with both dogs. The course was challenging, but very fair (explain that later). Both dogs did great, but one of the first lessons was re-taught to me. I realized that I had not been maintaining criteria on the contacts. I am fairly consistent in the back yard, but once we get on a 'real course' I allow behaviors outside my criteria.

This concept is really hard for me. I am not a follow the rules kind of person in life. All rules are guidelines. When it comes to running a full course my goals are not in line with maintaining criteria on contacts. I want to run the course fast and good enough (to Q in a trial). I need to shift my goals in non-trial situations so that I can meet my goals in a trial (to Q).

In a fun run they give me 90 seconds to run the course and work on what ever I need too. My goal should be to run the course in 90 seconds. That is, have the dog hold the contact for 5 seconds, run past the dog and see if he/she holds the contact, be out in front when calling the dog over the teeter (I can usually bait the dog and get a fly off), lead off a ridiculous amount from the table, etc.

So, next time I am at a fun run (this weekend) I am going to see how well I can meet my new goal for my runs.

P.S. a fair course to me is when there is a way to handle the course and keep the dog from doing maneuvers that would add to injury. I am game for extremely hard courses and I have seen some that are very fair and VERY hard. They don't have to be too tight, 90 degree kind of courses to be challenging.

Injuries

I had the privilege to run Tip again this week. What a sweet run that was! I had thought that 8 weeks ago was my last run with her and I didn't even know it would be my last run.

I guess I didn't blog about this. Not sure why, maybe that the news changed everyday and I kept waiting for the 'definitive' answer to what was wrong.

We came off our last run of the weekend and Tip was limping just a tad bit. Once we walked a little it went away. I decided to go to the vet and see what they thought the issue was. The vet (ortho surgeon) said that she had a partially torn ACL. He was not recommending surgery, just give it a while and we will see what happens. I can't even begin to describe how I felt. I knew at some point she would have to have the surgery and that would end her career. I am not one of those people who would do the TPLO (adjust the geometry of the dog) kind of people.

I won't drag on the story too much, but we went for a second opinion up at CSU vet school. The head of Ortho diagnosed it as a sprained hock with arthritis. Much better news!

So after 8 weeks of bed rest, physical therapy, Tip is back on her feet so da speak. I have bringing her back slowing--long walks, hiking, then slow jogging, low straight jumping and finally this week a full course. The jumps were only at 12 inches.

It was sheer pleasure to run her. What an honor to have my dog back!

Haven't posted in a while, not because I have not been working with the dogs.

Tip's progress has been amazing. Since we put her on 'bed rest' I have not seen signs of her injury except for the other day. She had to be restrained to get blood drawn for heart worm and I think she stressed the leg (Split took it like a man). It is back to normal now. We are beginning to increase her activity. She gets to go for very long walks, and very modified agility (no leaving the ground or sudden starts). She is very happy that she gets to do this.

Split remains an awesome little puppy (2 years old now). He has caught onto the 'driving' through the course concept, almost achieving NADAC distances at times. I need to go back and review collection with him now. Weave poles still remain a challenge in strange places. I am beginning to think it is about confidence. If this is the case, patience and practice will be the key.

Well, Monday morning, 8 inches of snow, I guess my only choice is to go back to work!

Its not easy being green

Well, Tip (my experienced dog) is on rehab rest for a couple of months so Split gets all my attention.

We just came off of a week vacation to the Pacific NW and had a grand time. Thought I would take Split out to brush off the dust and get ready for next week's trial. What I realized in practice, he is an AWESOME dog! I already knew that, but the universe just keeps reminding me.

Practicing with Split today gave me the following list of things I need to always remember (I know them, I just keep forgetting to practice them):

1. It is really about what the handler needs to practice/learn
2. Deceleration gets him to turn in (the more dramatic the tighter the turn)
3. Pausing ( like declaration) gets him to adjust his path into me
4. Take your time out on course
5. Sometimes it is the dog that chooses what will be worked on that day

The short story behind each of these bullets...

1. Since Split is my second dog I knew better how to train the foundation skills. I am just beginning to realize the value and wisdom of what I have taught him. I taught them, but didn't completely understand how to apply them. So, now when I am practicing with Split, the practice is really about what I need to practice in order to follow the rules that I taught him. He follows the rules when we run and when I follow them too, we have an awesome run. This covers my first three statements.
2. Although Split is smarter than I, he is still green. He needs my support. If I can just remember to lengthen the 'moments' in each run, it will go better. For instance, take my time, point out what I need him to do (it only takes a split second) and then move on to the next thing. Split, unlike Tip needs permission to do each obstacle. So, if I take the time to give permission it will build his confidence. In time, permission might be just a glace at the obstacle instead of a hand pointing at it for a full second.
3. The fifth statement was one that I didn't have to learn so much with Tip. Tip is always motivated, and not much shuts her down. Split on the other hand is motivated, until something shuts him down. Sometimes you can spot what is it quickly...like me getting too intense. Sometimes the horses in the next field could have scared him. So, when he is shutting down or being scared, what gets trained that day is what he finds fun! Or how it gets trained is totally different. I am learning that if he has no issues, the Frisbee might be too much stimulation. If he is having issues, the Frisbee is just right! It brings the fun back and distracts him from his troubles. The other part of this statement came from today's practice: he forgot how to sit! OK, we all know that he didn't forget, but that is what it was like. So, instead of fighting that today (cause that shuts him down), I just changed how we did things in order to keep the games going. For instance, put a table on the start line and he would 'sit' on it. So, that is what we did. We will work on sit in other ways this week.

Ditch 'em

Today we practiced a course that we found in the March clean run. It was the courses by Stewart Mah. Surprisingly it had several elements that were really good for the dogs and I to practice.

Tip's and my challenges lately have been dropped bars. In the last year we have really been working on switching her to a more handler focused dog. Now she has arrived, but my skills have not caught up. Several of her dropped bars are due to me stopping my movement in preparation for turning or ditching her to get to were I need to be. She is very responsive to my movements and when I stop mine, she drops her back feet if she is over a jump or worse she will miss judge her take off because she is looking to see what I am up too. Stewart's course had several places where I needed to ditch and run. The exercise gave me some practice is keeping my movement going at least a little, supporting Tip's activity and getting to where I need to go.

Split is progressing on his path of learning to drive forward and being more obstacle focused (yes, one dog obstacle focused, one dog handler focused). We had a really good practice earlier in the week, but today there was a little backward movement. Probably cause there was more distractions with my training partner being there. But...it was EXCELLENT cause Split was keeping me completely honest. Keep my motion going, feet must support his motion, can't do my thing until he is commited to his. It is hard to keep all those priorities going all the time! Every handler should keep running green dogs. You really have to re-sharpen your skills again.

Side note in all of this agility. I was diagnosed with Graves last fall. I began to loose my thyroid in December and I began medication. All that being said, I have been low for about 2.5 months. It has been really hard to get out and work the dogs with the regularity that I should. I have been getting out, but the creativity that I need to solve the problems. Things are getting better and I am hopeful :)

Reflections of the past couple of months

Here we are mid-January and I have not written when I should have. I think since I last wrote, we have done a USDAA and an AKC trial.

I will comment on Tip first. Tip had an amazing USDAA trial. I always think about where we came from to measure what we are currently doing. Not sure that I have ever really blogged on Tip's start in agility. Our first agility class was a drop-in. I took Tip through the course on leash, yes a course on a leash. We did all the obsticles-over the A-frame on leash, through the weaves, kind of pulling her through, you get the picture. Well, after several classes we tried the course off leash. Took me about 6 months to get the weaves, thankfully there was a pair of channel weaves to practice on. Tip was one of those dogs that did it all willingly (thank godness huh?). Not sure how we did it, but she had beautiful running contacts, willing to go over any jump, drive ahead to the next thing. She was FAST from the start and MUCH perferred distance. If I was 10 feet behind her she was a happy girl. WOW, what a start!

So, after that beginning I had a ton of ground to cover to teach her fundementals that she/I missed once I realized that I was missing them. That only took about 1.5 years :)

So, we had an amazing trial. Tip was focused in every run, watched me really well, came into me when I asked, tight turns when I asked, the contacts were to die for--I am a lucky girl. We did team and got our first Q in that! We did Grand Prix, she dropped a bar, but her time was 2/100th of a second behind Steve Moon's Slick. That felt great. We picked up several other Q's we needed. The only one that I did not get was a standard Q. Dropping bars was the issue of the weekend. I have since gotten her adjusted (chiropractic) and that problem looks like it is on the way out.

Tip at AKC blew start lines! I decided that was the last time I was going to put up with that. I am sure that will be another blog topic.

Split had a great weekend as well. I measure Split a little differently. Since I had more of a clue when I started him, he had a much better start to his career. Split is a really soft, kind of velcro dog however. How I deal with Split is so much different than how I deal with Tip (who is hard as nails). I wasn't worried about Q'ing with him. My goal was to keep him driving through every course. To do that, I must cue him much earlier than Tip, run slightly ahead (and he IS faster than Tip), and completely support him ALL the time. This is hard!! Run fast, don't make any sudden moves, know where I am going, think ahead to where he has to go, cue that. I am just not as good as I need to be yet. I will get there however. Both dogs are making me a better handler!! So Split walked away with several Q's, but a ton of GREAT runs. My minor challenges with him right now are weaves the first time, cueing ahead of time, trusting so I can cut some corners to stay ahead, and managing the A-frame. He is inclinded to leap so I am managing it until we get enough repititions to build muscle memory.