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.

Equipment Safety!

There has been a ton of talk recently about metal jumps and their safety.  Several blogs have popped up recently about this topic.

Daisy Peel on Equipment Safety, http://www.daisypeel.com/podcasts/session8/

Linda Mecklenburg on Equipment Safety Concerns, http://www.awesomepaws.us/?p=2153

Steve Schwarz of AgilityNerd, Banning Metal Jumps, http://agilitynerd.com/blog/agility/equipment/ban-metal-jumps.html?seemore=y


I would encourage you to read/listen to these statements.  They all make excellent and strong points why we need to evolve and improve equipment safety! 

Make up your own mind!  If you believe that this is an issue I encourage you to get involved in your local community to bring about the changes that will keep our dogs safe!

This is a picture of a dog just last week that was seriously injured on a metal jump.  The dogs eye was cut and was WAY to close for comfort to the actual eye.  She could have lost her sight had it been any closer. If the jump had only one cup (none above the bar), this dog would have been safe!

How many times do we have to cringe when a dog gets hurt on equipment before we do something about the safety?

Rubberizing Contacts - Part I

I have been saving my pennies for a while now with the goal of getting at least my dog walk and A-frame rubberized.  I looked into all sorts of rubbers and solutions, including having someone do it for me.

Well, in the interest of money, I decided to do the rubberizing (yep, it is really a word) myself.

My current contacts are steel with wood and sand coating (no slates).  The steel is still in great shape but I did want to get the decking replaced with something that wouldn't rot. 

After much research, google didn't produce much, actually looking at equipment was the best information, I found that most people put on an Aluminum Composite board (DiBond, Alumicore, e-Panel).  The board is used in the "real world" by sign makers so that was the best source.  If you buy it from the sign maker I found they marked it up 100%, so I finally tracked down a wholesaler who would sell it to my business. (http://denver.lairdplastics.com/product/brands/dibond)

We found, as advertised, that the Dibond does cut with common wood-working tools.  We got a metal cutting blade for the jig saw, but other than that no other "special" equipment was used to make the cuts.

guide for cutting length of the board

guide and setup for cutting smaller boards

We marked our cuts with the chalk, secured a 2x4x8 as a guide onto the decking, and the cuts went very smoothly.  Just to be extra safe I sanded the cut edges with emery cloth to be sure that there was no metal shards left on the material.

The composite board comes with a protective plastic layer.  You will need to peel this off, at least on the side that you will be applying the rubber.

Next we drilled holes for the rivets.  You can apply the rivets on top of the rubber, but we choose to put them on before the rubber.  I think this is the easiest since it would be hard to keep track of the holes or cleanly drill holes after the rubber is applied.

Drilling holes






The last part of this particular board was to mix and apply the rubber.  I ordered my rubber from Circle S Agility.   Gary provided the entire kit of rubber, binder, gloves, great instructions, etc.. that I needed. 

Question the differences!

I know that anyone who teaches agility can relate to what I am about to say...

I know that all of us are guilty of this at some point...

I am being asked more and more how I trained something or wondering how to fix some undesired behavior.  I don't mind these questions at all and as a matter of fact I love to talk about dog training.  There is always more to learn about the theory of it, and always more to learn about the practical side of it.

I assume that they are asking me because they saw something in my dog's performance that was a behavior they would like to have in their own dog, or somehow along the way I have made enough of an impression that they believe I might have the answer they are seeking.

I find it interesting however, that in most cases I hear rather quickly "but I have done that", or "it doesn't happen at home (or class)".  I believe everyone who says it, truly I do!  But what I doubt is that their attention to detail or that their self critique skills on this issue are up to par.  And, those things are OK.  Learning is a life long process and WE ALL are getting better and better as we spend time doing it.

What I rarely hear in my conversations are the questions from that same person trying to determine the differences in my method and theirs.  There is truth in the saying "The devil is in the details".  And the details are what really matters in dog training, and even more in retraining. 

At first this type of interaction frustrated me.  But slowly I am teaching myself how to react positively to these interactions and also how to thoughtfully question the person before any advice or information is handed out.  I am learning that if I can put the information in a better context, perhaps I can prevent the wrong conclusion, such as "I have already done that".

So, as we all try to be better students and teachers we need to remember to question the differences.  When you ask how to train something, generally you are problem solving.  When problem solving the general assumption is accurate, "There is a difference between our methods, we just need to figure out what it is".  It is those differences that lead us to our greatest incites on how to solve the problem.

USDAA Nationals 2012 (aka Cynosport)

Well, another USDAA Nationals has come and gone.  I love these events.  It gives me an opportunity to spend 5 days around nothing but my dogs and agility and an opportunity to watch at lot of FANTASTIC teams.  But, by the end of the event, I am tired.  Bone tired and need a vacation!  :)

I ended up pulling Tip from Nationals.  She pulled a thigh muscle a week before Nationals and I didn't want to run her on drugs or risk making the injury worse.  Hopefully she has another Nationals in her at 9.5 years old!  If so, we will try again next year.

So, Tangle got all the attention at this Nationals.  He loved it!

I had to remind myself this morning.  Tangle is 26 months old, just barely 2 years old.  When I decided to try and qualify him for Nationals I knew I was asking a lot of this very young dog.  He did way more than what I asked him to do and I am very proud of what we have accomplished as a team in the 9 months of trialing to get to Nationals.

Tangle ran Team (Jumpers, Snooker, Gamblers, and Standard) and Grand Prix (Semi-Finals) in Nationals.

It wouldn't be fair to the young dog, nor do I typically measure things in wins and placements.  So I won't.

I change the way I measure things from time to time, but in general I am the most proud of improvements that we have made and training accomplishment.  The ribbons and podiums will happen if those come together.

So, here is our inventory of accomplishments!

1. Tangle kept his head the entire 4 days, no wild BC behavior.  I swear this dog has done agility in another life.
2. His course times where outstanding--placing him several times among the top of the pack (if you take away the handler induced fault)
3. His foundation training is solid
4. Only one bar dropped the entire event (handler induced)
5. No start lines broken
6. No 2o2o contact faults called
7. We worked together to get through some very, very tough courses
8. Always proud of myself when I make it all the way through Snooker :)
9. I stayed organized, eat well and had a good mental game for the majority of the trial

What we learned and/or have to work on

1. Running AF contacts (got called twice)
2. Continue exposure to large energetic trials and working through the stress
3. My mental stamina over 4 days of Nationals.  The last day it was really hard for me to pull out my mental game.
4. Very minor, but set up a couple of sequences that we saw at Nationals and work them.  We got the job done, but I want to be more comfortable with the quality of the work.  Threadles are included in this.

Did you notice, most of the work items are training the handler?

So, we had a great time, met a lot of great people and my dog and I had a ton of fun playing together!!

p.s. Special thanks to my husband for coming as much as he could and just being there to support me, potting dogs, gettomg me food, and having the beer ready at the end of the day :)

Artificial Turf for Agility

Artificial turf is becoming very popular in the US with dog agility.  Really who can blame us?  It isn't as dusty as the dirt arena's and the surface in terms of the smooth factor can be much more predictable.  After my foot injury last year it was certainly easier on my foot to have that predictable surface.

But, is this surface an improvement over other dog agility surfaces?

I was in a conversation the other day with a non-agility person.  We were talking about a recent trial and I was commenting that I was surprised that my dogs slipped on the artificial turf.  This person mentioned that artificial turf for human sports has not been without controversy in regard to injury.

For human sports such as American Football and Soccer, the risk of injury is much higher than on natural grass.  Also, specifically the risk of ACL injury was higher. 

The following article states why the risk of injury is higher. http://www.hss.edu/conditions_artificial-turf-sports-injury-prevention.asp  again, just mentioning the same information, http://www.livestrong.com/article/342142-astroturf-injuries/

Here is video of two of my runs where a slip was caught on film.  Tip had the worse slip of the two.  Slips happen from time to time on every surface, but if I ran my dog on this every day the chances are good that they would get hurt at some point.

 

 I am not saying that I think this surface is evil.  I am not saying that I will never run my dogs on this surface.  I am simply trying to bring to light the possibility that this surface isn't nirvana and isn't "better" than the other choices.  It is simple different and brings risks of it's own.

For me, it makes me more aware that I should vary the surfaces that the dogs run on (cross training as part of the argument) and be aware to not exclusively run on artificial turf.

In general I do feel like my dogs run better (faster) on these surfaces, but is that a good thing?

I would love to hear people's comments on their experiences.

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!