Losing Sight of What Matters…

Don’t worry, this is not some rant about how crazy we can be, throwing ourselves and or lives into this crazy sport we call dog agility.  This post is about dog agility training and the importance of keeping in your mind a clear goal or end result for all the time we spend training our dogs.  There are so many different theories, ideas and schools of thought on agility training these days that it is difficult to decide what to train that next puppy and more importantly how to train it.  There is a lot more emphasis put on “foundation training” before obstacles, lots of words like “relationship”, “motivation”, “desire”, “control”, “value” etc.  There are so many skill sets and behaviors you could teach a puppy as part of your “foundation training” that it is easy to lose site of the bigger picture.  Summit is the first puppy I have focussed on training a foundation and a set of skills separate from the equipment, this is mostly due to all the time I have spent at Say Yes learning about the science of animal training and the foundation program they have created.  In my mind what I am aiming for when I am raising Summit is a fast, athletic, agile dog who can get around the course faster than any other dog out there.  Of course I want him to be able to do this safely and easily so that he will be able to run agility and be a normal dog for a long, long time.  I also of course want that good family pet at home so that living with 5 dogs does not drive me over the edge.  Accomplishing this goal may include training fast, independent obstacle performance, a great jumper, and a dog who responds to my body and handling with ease, but most importantly a dog who enjoys playing and chooses to work with me over anything else.  There are always many different ways of obtaining any goal, I am training Summit the best way I know how using what I have learned through the Say Yes program, what my four other dogs have taught me and everything I have learned from teaching classes and instructing seminars to many, many different types of dogs and trainers.

I am assuming for anyone who want to be competitive in the sport their goal for a new puppy would be something similar to mine, the sport is about speed while maintaining accuracy and consistency.  I challenge everyone out there to evaluate all the time they spend training their dogs and ask themselves if the skills they spend time teaching are leading them to their final goal or if you have somehow found yourself stuck on some  useless tangent.  Let me digress, not too long ago I really had a good laugh at myself, I was so proud of Preston’s see saw performance after his first season of trialing.   It was my first time training a nose target for the end behavior and I had trained the many, many layers of understanding to create that all important nose touch at the end of the contact.  It took me about 4 months and then anther 2 months trying to fix issues (foot movement, freezing rather than touching, coming off straight, etc.)  I maintained criteria (almost always) for his first season and although the behavior did change a little I still had it at the end of his first season which is not always an easy feat.  When timing obstacle performance a while back I compared the contact and weave times for all my dogs and lo and behold Preston’s see saw performance with its perfect nose target was the slowest performance of all my dogs!  Yet I was so happy and impressed with all my hard work and dedication, how funny is that!  I got so caught up in the challenge of training this new behavior that I lost sight of what really mattered…speed!

It seems silly and far too simple to screw up but I see it so often when teaching.  Do you really think that spending time training body awareness is that beneficial to a dog that rarely breaks a trot round the course?  Or how about the dogs with the perfect, proofed start lines, I mean you can throw toys, food, run past, leave the room, yet the dog does not care to LEAVE the start line to play the game?  And all those dogs who have zero speed and motivation around the course yet when the handler is done the drill says “get in yer kennel!” and all of a sudden the dog flies back into the crate?  Or how about the dog that has been trained to stay in their crate with the door open for the entirety of a class yet the dog would prefer to never come out?    I think you get what I’m saying.  There are many, many skills that are beneficial for training an agility dog but try not to lose sight of the end goal which generally centers around the word “speed” and in order to gain speed you need “motivation”.  So before you think about training any specific skill to your agility dog, ask yourself what it is that will lead you to the end result you are looking for.

In regards to Preston’s see saw, don’t get me wrong, his lack of speed over the contact has nothing to do with the method itself, rather the way I trained it. Rather then being so concerned with perfection I should have been focusing on desire, fun and speed so that he wanted nothing more than to get to the end of that contact…lesson learned, Preston’s loss is Summit’s gain

Happy Training!

A very busy month!

We have had a busy month, starting with the trip to Austria for the world championships then flying out to Vernon, BC for a week of seminars, then directly to Moncton, NB for another 4 days of teaching and finally back home to starting my very own classes at a new arena.  In the middle of all of that I have been attempting to raise and train my now 4 1/2 month old puppy Summit.

Worlds was fun, I was happy with the way Riot was running and although I wanted to do better over all we had many good moments.  I will definitely need to work more on Riot’s ground speed if we want any chance against all those medium border collies.  Vernon was fun, got to catch up with friends and met lots of nice new people.  Summit got to go swimming at the lake and be a demo dog for the foundation workshops.  Moncton was as always a great trip, this years groups have many great people and lots of talented dogs.  The puppy group was a blast with 13 puppies in the group, it will be tonnes of fun to see each team progress each month.  Although I hate leaving the older dogs at home the trips were great to get Summit into many new environments and meet lots of new people and dogs.

Summit is now 4 1/2 months and yes, he is still perfect  He is such a confident, happy puppy and is always so much fun to work with.  Training him has taught me so much about high drive dogs and motivation.  I have been trying to build more strength in all of my other dogs weaknesses:

-I have put way more effort into building value for tugging and just playing with me before building any new behaviors

-more focus on creating desire and drive in control positions rather than just proofing distractions

-We have made sure we have built equal drive and speed on recalls when I am standing still as when I run

-not barking EVER!

-if we work on shaping any behavior with food I have been very picky about keeping the desire in each behavior I teach him

-lots more jump grids!

We don’t know a whole lot more than what we posted last time, we do know how to swim and have been doing lots of socializing with other people and puppies.  Because I have been so busy we havn’t started too many new things, but we have been building a stronger understanding with all the foundation games:

start line: he can hold a sit, stand and down without any paw movement throughout any distraction – throwing toy behind, running past him, running circles around him, kicking soccer ball, dogs recalled past.  Just need to wok on dogs tugging and retrieving past him, then in front of equipment.

circle work – working on proofing handling manouvers with the toy ahead as a distraction.  We have been running circles around toys and using the table as a distraction.

recalls- calling off people feeding him, tugging with him, while running to a toy, while eating supper, while chasing the shelties, while playing with other puppies…no problem!

Tugging – can tug on a low value toy while I play with and tease with his favorite.  Can tug while shelties run circles around him and retrieve a ball, can tug with cookies practically up his nose, while fast dogs do tunnels, while children are near, while preston is tugging on another toy beside him (thats a tough one!  While I grab the collar, blow in his face, pick him up and shake him upside down

Crate games – have been working on staying in crate while I send Chase and Bounder over equipment

Walking on a leash – gentle leader is being faded, occationally we have to put it back on but he is very good.  We get lots of practice up and down the aisles of the pet store now that the snow is here

Body awarness – I was holding off on too much shaping in order to balance control with more craziness but we know the balance disks, perch faded, lift back legs, bow, yoga…

Sleeping – I have seen him sleep! Just once….

2009 CAT Blog

Since I am not updating my blog much while here, check out team member Tiffany’s blog  http://blog.tntbordercollies.com

And We’re Off!

We are just finishing off our to do list before we leave this Saturday for Austria.  Riot and I have been training hard all week, setting up courses from this years judges and working lots on jump grids and obstacle performance.  I am really happy with the way she has been running lately and am getting very excited about the competition.  This will be my sixth year competing at the FCI world Agility Championships, but my first time with Riot.  The FCI World Championships in my opinion is as good as it gets and it is my absolute favorite event.  Even though it seems crazy to spend all this time, effort and money on travelling half way across the world for only two runs, believe me, when you step onto the carpet and put yourself up against the best of the best, it is so totally worth it!  I think this years Canadian Team is the best it has ever been and we should have a fair shot on the podium.

The team arrives in Austria on Saturday with a chance to settle in.  We have team practice on Monday and Wednesday and a few tours planned on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday is the vet check and check in as well as our team training at the event.  Each country is allotted a short amount of time on the floor to practice on the equipment and get the dogs used to the footing.  The time alloted depends on how many dogs are on your team.  Team Canada will get 18 minutes on the floor for all 13 dogs to train.  In the past we have divided into groups based on jump height and rotate through 3 stations.  This is the first year I have only had one dog on the team so those 18 minutes will seem much more relaxing for me, but for the rest of the team it is a whirlwind

The competition starts on Friday and continue through until Sunday.  All team events will be finished on Saturday and Sunday is left for the final individual agility runs for all heights.  The event always ends with large individual agility as this  is the most exciting and competitive category.  By the last day of the event the stadium is packed leaving standing room only.  Supporters from each country are grouped together in the stands to cheer on their own dog and handler teams.  The final round is run in reverse order and when the top placing dogs begin to run the crowd falls absolutely silent.  When dogs who have potential for final placements make an error the crowd bust into a chorus of rhythmic clapping in support of the attempt.  When the class is coming to a close and the final few dogs make their way to the line countries in contingency prepare for celebration with supporters ready with flags to run onto the floor as the winner makes their way around the ring in victory as the music plays “simply the best” or “we are the champions” .  After celebration the floor is quickly cleared of equipment and  filled with people from all countries who sing and dance to the world championship sound track .  It is quite the event.

Thank you to all the people who have sent me good wishes and to all my friends and students for supporting me.  To all those that bought t-shirts and poop bags, it is greatly appreciated!

Wish us luck!

14 weeks

Well I am back from Sweden ad even though I had a good time I really missed my dogs!!  After 10 days away from Summit we had some training to do.  I am still extremely happy with him and I can’t believe how focussed he is, I still have not found anything he would choose over food and toys, kids come close but he will always choose to work with me which is great.

Our major focus is still on building great attitude and drive for each and every behavior and skill he learns.  It is just so easy to go through the motions teaching and playing all the foundation games while building on mediocre desire.  Susan Garrett has a great Acronym DASH which stands for Desire, Accuracy, Speed, Habitat.  The acronym stresses the important of building desire before accuracy and accuracy before expecting speed then changing your environment.  DASH is a great thing to keep in mind during any training session and throughout the upbringing of your puppy.  The tricky part is defining “desire” .  Does desire mean that the dog likes to work with you, take food and take toys?  Or does it mean that the dog will do anything to work with you and is crazy about taking toy and treats.  I am keeping my “D” criteria as high as possible before building any accuracy.  Where I have seen dogs lacking in the “speed” department it is due to weak desire from the start.

Everything I do with Summit and each training session we have I am re-evaluating his “D” and asking myself if it could be better….of course it can always be better.  So a lot of our sessions are soley to build more desire for work and playing with me.

Of course we have learned many other things along the way We can do perch work, hand targets, roll over, puppy yoga, box games, balance discs, yoga balls, puppy grids, playing on planks and tippy boards and our control positions are really good.  Our major focus this past week has been recalls with distractions and retrieving.  I will post some retrieving video up as soon as I can.

Likely due to working so much on his desire our recalls have been so impressive.  We can now recall off other dogs, other puppies, visiting people and children and even food and toys.  Yesterday I accidentally called him while he was peeing and he came running at me forgetting all about what he was doing  We have been working on throwing cookies then telling him to “get it” then when he is a couple feet from the food I will recall him and reward with a tug toy.  I have yet to call him without that perfect puppy running as fast as he can to get to me.

All the border collie people keep saying “just wait…” but I really will be surprised if he becomes a terror.  Even at agility practise he watches the fast dogs for a second or two then offers me his perfect attention and is ready to work.  The only problem we need to work on is his startline behavior.  We have been building so much desire and drive while holding position that he has made it a habit to vulture and he practically has his chin on the ground

We are off to the mountains this weekend and will bring the camera to get some good photos.  Just two more weeks until we leave for world championships so we have ben hard at work polishing up Riots skills!

Video

Well I caved and finally bought a new computer.  My old computer was about to give out on me so I decided to go for a Mac this time.  I wanted to test out some of the video editing stuff so I took a few quick videos of Summit tonight.  Turns out I have the wrong cable adapter so I just did a quick upload onto the old computer. We have only been working our hand targeting for a few days now and it is coming along so well that I thought I would do a session or two on the stairs…except I don’t have any…an old shoe box did the trick.  Quality is kinda crappy but here it is.

Unfortunately I have to leave Summit for a week while I go teach some workshops in Sweden…I’m sure he will be up to no good with his auntie

12 weeks!

Summit is now 12 weeks old and we have accomplished so much.  I have not had a puppy since Riot who is now 5 1/2 and back then I didn’t put much thought into the foundation training that I now know is so important.  So in other words, this is the first puppy that I have actually trained a good foundation with.

Summit has more and more energy each day but has learnt to relax and sleep in his crate between training sessions and our daily outings.  Here is a quick run down of all the things we have been working on for the past 3 weeks:

Socialization:  When creating a good pet and a great agility dog it is important to me that Summit is happy to be around different people, dogs and many different environments.  We are sticking to our 50 new men, women and children each week.  Daily trips to the pet store, hardware store (great to meet men, for him of course ) and local playgrounds are a big part of his training plan.  We have been to the airport 4 times to work on recalls, tugging and crate games.  We have walked down town, in the river valley and had many training sessions beside the highway (leash on of course!)  An important attribute to any pet or performance dog is that they are not fearfull of any person, place or thing.  It is important to be aware of any fears or apprehensions your pup has and deal with them asap.

Tugging:  Next on our priority list is tug drive.  Developing both food and toy rewards is extremely important for a performance dog.  Tugging naturally raises the dogs level of arousal and gets their heart going.  Have you ever seen a dog who tugs like mad anytime, anywhere yet runs slowly on the agility field?  Likewise how many blazing fast dogs do you see that hate to tug?  Not only is it important to build intense drive for the tug, but also that the puppy will tug on anything you present to them.  Summit has a bit of a stubborn streak so for most of his first couple weeks we worked on tugging on more boring toys then as a reward he got to play with his favorites.  Similarly he would throw a temper tantrum if he could smell the kibbles in my hand and would refuse to tug.  This was a bit of an issue to work through but he is now happy to tug on any toy, even if I accidentally drop a cookie on the ground.  I did not want to start any foundation training that involved food until we had really good tug drive so that I would not run into a situation where I had to fight with him about the tugging.

Release: our next focus was teaching the release.  Summit seems to have extremely good verbal discrimination and learned his release word very quickly.  I teach the release with Susan Garrett’s sit-tug-sit game.  The first step was to teach Summit that when I take the toy away he needs to offer me a sit, next we added  bit of a distraction by lowering the toy over his head, if he broke the sit I would quickly hide the toy then try again.  When he could hold position with the toy above him I said “break” and he jumped up for the toy.  After a couple session of this I faded the lure of the toy and said “break” and when he broke I would then present the toy as his reward.  Make sure to be still with your body, the release word should be purely a verbal cue.  Even now he takes it very literal and actually “breaks” up into the air…

Recalls:  We are trying to keep up with our goal of 20 restrained recalls a day, but some days we don’t have a holder.  Recalls are so important for building drive, motivation and a great recall.

The fun stuff:  I really enjoy training the more exciting skills like start lines, circle work, hand targets, etc.  It is very easy to teach all the skills that will lay a foundation for a good agility dog.  The hardest part is building great intensity and drive into each and every skill/behavior you teach the dog and this has been my major focus.  Teaching a sit stay is a very simple exercise for a puppy, but more important than distractions and duration is the attitude your puppy portrays when you leave them in a sit.  My biggest goal with Summit is to build in as much attitude and intensity into each individual behavior I teach him and not move forward until I am happy with his level of desire.  Again this goes back to building that great desire for toys and food as a reward before moving onto the fancy stuff, sometimes hard to do but it pays off in the long run.

At 12 weeks old here is what we know so far:

-release word

-sit on cue and hold position: good duration, I can move about 40′ away from him, and I can throw a toy back behind him without any foot movement then release him to it.

Tug drive – on any toy and with distraction like cookies or people he really wants to go see

Recalls – great drive on his recalls and have not yet rehearsed not coming when called

Crate Games – sits at back, drives out and in with great speed

Circle work – his circles are as good as Preston and Riots already, we can do outside, inside, front crosses, 360 spins, you name it!

Its yer choice – we wont take cookies off the ground off jump for our toy unless told “get it”

Hand targets – they are killer!  Hand is almost on ground and he pushes hard with distractions and multiples

Perch work, 4 feet in a box, backing up, wobble bards and stability disks are coming along

Table – drives on, hits the deck and wont budge!

Our priority is now on retrieving….this is our biggest challenge yet

Stay tuned for a video sometime soon!

Summit’s First Jump Grids

We had Susan Salo here on the weekend for a repeater jumping seminar for all the people that came out for her foundation clinic in November.  I got to work Preston, Riot, Bounder and even Summit!  The seminar was great and everyone walked away with things to improve upon.  Susan has a great style of teaching and always has something positive to go along with the constructive criticism.  Preston still needs a lot more work on his bends but I was really impressed with Riot and Bounder’s progress.

We had a puppy session on the second day where Susan did some demonstrations with the younger pups then talked about the progressions from 8 weeks to trialing which was very helpful.

Canadian Nationals 2009

Well we are back home from the 2009 AAC nationals and finally have a free moment to post.

Our trip to Ottawa started off with a bang when we were held up at the Edmonton airport and almost missed our plane.  We had  13 dogs on the flight which is a few more than usually allowed so the security check and check in took longer than planned.  We got to the gates just as they were taking off our luggage but thankfully allowed us to board the plane.

This was Preston’s first nationals and his highlight was definitely winning Jumpers round 1 in the 16″ regular class.  He has plenty of very good moments but unfortunately forgot how to hit a weave pole entrance.  I’m not sure what the problem was as he normally has extremely good entrances.  In every single run including the warmup games he missed his entrance so our results in the standard and steeplechase class suffered.

Riot ran three clean rounds and won the standard class on Sunday.  Unfortunately it was the first year she didn’t make the steeplechase finals since she pulled out of the weaves when I said “yes!” (more proofing to be done).  Overall she came in 10th which is the highest placement thus far.

Bounder was the super star yet again as she had her best nationals ever.  She ran 6 clean rounds with lots of speed and many mini gambles.  I was pretty sure she had won the thing but its not over till its over…  Unfortunately I forgot to check my scribe sheet in the last gamblers run where the scribe forgot to give me that almighty tick in the gamble box.  She would have gotten a final score of around 620 points but ended up coming second behind a very cool little papillon.  From now on I will remember to check my scribe sheets    Bounder also missed out on the steeplechase finals for the first time, unfortunately she fell off the top of the a-frame in round 2 and I carried her off course just in case she was injured.

Summit got to come along for the ride and definitely went above and beyond his quota of 50 new men, women and children for the week.  He got to experience hotel life and even got to go see Parliament.

Minus the banquet and results presentation, this years nationals was very well organized, the site was beautiful and the competition was the best yet.   Next years nationals will be closer to home just a three hour drive to Calgary, AB.

Recalls

Here is a video of our restrained recalls and a few photos.  We have been trying to do around 20 recalls per day in different environments learning to come screaming when he hears his name.  Recalls are a great way to build motivation for working with you and creating a speedy agility dog.