Let's have some fun!

HI All! Yes, the course is here, I can actually see it... you see, I think I am one of the last humans standing that has absolutely no idea how to do anything on a computer other than type and check email, anything more complex than that and I just quit... So, I think thanks to my friend Amy who has a MAC also I was able to be walked through the process of actually changing something to something else so that it could actually show up here :-) Now we can have some fun!

This is the approximation of a course that I set up in my building yesterday and thought it was a great little brain teaser to share with the masses on a cold snowy day to keep us thinking about agility and course strategy. Gotta keep the mind sharp you know!

So, I only gave you the first 7 obstacles to start with, I thought the opening was very challenging in and of itself. What I want is some dialog about what you think is the best way to handle this opening utilizing the most efficient path and keeping in mind what cues and signals you need to use to get the correct response from your dog.

I will share my thoughts after some of you have shared yours! Have fun!

Workshops and Christmas parties, it is nice to be home!

I know I keep dwelling on how wonderful it is to be home, well, IT IS!!! However, I do not want to make it sound like I do not enjoy traveling to teach and trial, as a matter of fact I love it. I love meeting new people, I love going to new places and I love the fact that I have a job that allows me to help so many people all over this wonderful country and countries abroad!

But, being on the road so much also really helps me to appreciate my time at home. The biggest problem I have is that when I am home for an extended period of time I am not sure what to do with myself. Don't get me wrong there are millions of things that NEED to be done but I feel like I am spinning in circles sometimes trying to figure out what comes first, what to do next, and, all of a sudden another day is gone!

One thing I did get to do is a workshop for the local agility folks this past Friday. I structured it as 2 half day workshops, in the first session we focused on slightly (and I mean slightly:-), simpler exercises that were designed to point out both strengths and weaknesses in the foundational skill sets that determine overall handling decisions on any given course.

It is my belief that my job first and foremost is to teach the dog what they will be required to do, this includes all flat area cues and obstacle performance skills.

I am ultimately going to need to be able to trust my dog to do their job in order for me to effectively be able to do mine :-)

Being able to walk out onto any course and confidently define a handling strategy means trusting that I possess all of the tools necessary to adequately analyze the course for flow and efficiency. If I am missing tools I can still most likely get the job done but not as easily, or, most likely, without the efficiency that is necessary to come out on top.

The dogs also must have the correct tools for their job, when both dog and handler are prepared it is like a well oiled machine where dog and handler each take on the roles they are assigned and it is a thing of beauty!

We had a blast in the early session and all of the participants were brilliant in their ability to take the information and run with it! By the end of the workshop I truly believe there was a much better overall understanding of how foundation plays a huge role in what will eventually be a very successful agility team.

In the second session I cranked it up several notches and gave the group the responsibility of putting those foundation skills to work on a very complicated course that involved numerous handling situations that required a great deal of thought. It was designed to test the handlers ability to recognize what signals, cues, etc.. they needed to create seamless transitions between the obstacles. It also required dog and handler teams to really evaluate what is the meaning of these signals and cues as far as the dog is concerned, and, to determine if the meaning behind these cues is or has been consistent in it's usage and presentation throughout the dogs agility life so far.

It is always very enlightening to be pushed outside of your comfort zone and to witness just how well the human condition allows us to focus on what we are already good at rather than trying new and/or different things that may be a bit uncomfortable but ultimately the right idea. Plus, it is just a bad idea to limit yourself to jut a couple of tools when there are so many available and so many necessary applications of these various tools. Every side change can't be a front cross, every turn is not a HERE! there is so much more.

As with the early group I had a blast with a bunch of really amazing dog and handler teams who were more than willing to step outside of their comfort zone and try something "new". Great progress was made and a lot of fun was had. I am already looking forward to the next one...

Because I was mentally exhausted by the time we were done on Friday night I made the decision to not run my dogs and to just head home, however, since I was to be coming back to Liz's for a Christmas party the next night I asked her to please leave the course up and I brought the dogs back on Sat. night and we got to run the course! SoBe, Wally and Maze all got a turn or 2 and it was great fun!

Then it was time to party! It was so very nice to get to see so many people that I just do not get to see very often, tons of great food, great company, awesome gifts exchanged in a rousing game of Chinese gift exchange, is that what it is called? And, of course, a margarita or 2 :-) Thank you Liz for the opportunity to play and work in your building and for the unbeatable holiday festivities!

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

What every puppy needs to know :-)

As I sit in Starbucks waiting for my heated seats to be installed in my "almost" new Suburban I got to thinking about puppy stuff...

What does every puppy need to know? LOTS of things, but, what are the most important things? I guess that depends primarily on what your goals are :-)

My goals are to be the very best teammate that I can possibly be for my dog, to be competitive while having the time of my life running with my best friend, to know that I can count on my dog to take direction and respond to every cue as if every forthcoming cue is the one he has been waiting for his whole life. 

It is my goal to be the very best trainer that I can be to insure the former will come to fruition. It is my goal to be fair and consistent, to expect no more from my dog than I am willing to give and to never blame my dog for my mistakes, understanding the whole while that any and all information that my dog gets comes from me and that I am ultimately responsible for the outcome of any run, training or trialing, one obstacle or 21.

It is true that dogs are capable of making decisions and choosing what behaviors they will or will not offer at any given moment, however, the better I train my dog and the more consistent I am in that training, as well as how consistent I am in usage of cues, signals, etc.. the more likely the dog will make the correct choice. 

It is also my job to define correct and incorrect choices made by my dog in order to help them WANT to choose correctly. 

I think it is very hard for people to truly understand just how important a role we play in creating the dog we run is. Sure, on a base level it is understood but human nature has a tendency to overtake common sense very early on and the thought process changes to one of rationalization and excuse making as well as gray area infiltrated training ideas.

You cannot read the rule book of any given organization, learn the criteria for a qualifying score and infer it to your dog through osmosis. 

Since dogs are incapable of reading the rule book, and we are not able to translate the rules in dogspeak we must become dog trainers and figure out the myriad of ways that we can translate the rules into behaviors that the dog can offer which fit the standard of perfection we are all looking for.

Ask yourself what is your expected criteria of the dog  for  the performance of any of the individual obstacles to be performed on any given agility course, if you begin your answer with Ummm, well, Ahhh, you have no canine understandable criteria. If you have to explain your criteria the dog cannot understand it. The answer should be simple, concise and to the point. You have a responsibility to teach the dog what they need to know to be able to offer correct behaviors immediately when asked.

This does not even scratch the surface of what is the really difficult part of running agility and that is controlling what happens between the obstacles :-)

Truly, in my list of what every puppy needs to know it is the flat area cues that make up the bulk of the list.

So, let's get to it... first and foremost is of course attention. I think I spend more time talking about attention, it's value and necessity than almost anything else, the problem is, it is very hard to explain what to do to earn the level of attention that I am talking about.

Dogs do not come understanding that you are to be adored, this must be taught. I have been going through this process with puppies of my own for so many years I find it hard to even break down exactly what I do, I just know that on average by the time my pups are 4 months old they already understand where their bread is buttered and although they are allowed tremendous freedom they are already far more interested in me than anything else that may present itself. When I take pups to seminars they are awesome demo dogs of what attention looks like. they are not interested in attendees, they are interested in ME! 

That is the point, right? I earn this by being the most important and rewarding experience in y pups life.

Another list topper is hand signal awareness, my hand signals out on course are ultimately going to dictate to my dogs where they are heading, what obstacles to take and also what not to take. My hand signals, arms included are like gates on course that open and close to allow or deny access.

I do not name this behavior I just teach the pup to offer a nose touch on an open hand for reward, it takes very little time to convince them of the merits of this behavior.

I have no idea how I have been able to get so many dogs around so many courses before I discovered just how ridiculously important parallel path work is???

My job as a handler is to direct the dog around or through a course, how incredibly helpful is it to know that my dog will seek out and maintain a path parallel to me while I drive? 

A dog's understanding of parallel path as well as hand signal awareness and unwavering attention allows the handler to actually HANDLE assuming responsibility to the dog for following said path and honoring all offered cues and directions.

This does put a formidable responsibility on the handler to offer the correct information but if you have properly trained the dog and you trust what you've trained all will be well.  

I must teach individual obstacle skills which of course vary in degree of difficulty depending on the nature of the obstacle.

Every puppy needs to be taught basic obedience commands at an early age, including but not limited to STAY. People wait far too long to incorporate stay into their set of skills and thus we have a huge start line problem in the sport of agility. Waiting until you have awakened the dogs complete lust for the equipment and then trying to incorporate the stay is definitely an exercise in frustration.

Finally, off the top of my head what does a pup need to know? He must need to know the value of reward, toys and treats. Food is a wonderful training tool, but if you forego toys while you teach initial behaviors with food you will have a hard time getting the toys back into the list of most valuable and wonderful things in your pups life.

Toys are interaction, toys are stress relief and toys are awesome training aids, you must incorporate play into every training session form the get go without fail. OK, I feel that "I" must, but, this is "MY" list :-)

I am sure I will think of more things but this is a good start and my truck is done so I am going to take a mile walk to go get it, anyone want to pick me up?? Have a great day!  

'Tis the season...

To get your thoughts together, get goals figured out, and, get to work :-) I know this is the most incredibly busy time right now for most folks but I ma happy, OK... VERY happy to report that I have a short but much needed break from traveling! I returned from Houston last night and find myself without airline reservations for any upcoming travel engagements and actually do not have to sleep away from home until Jan. 1, what a treat!

Of course as I have been looking forward to this time off I have also been relishing the idea of tons and tons of dog training happening! Well, as I sit here and write this I realize that before I can head down to the building with the pups I have to get my thoughts in order and think about where everyone is at this point and what my short and long term goals are at this point for each of them :-)

I also have to realize that I am just a bit tired and also a wee bit behind on housey stuff :-) I have spent the majority of today, picking up poop, cleaning stalls, vacuuming, putting up Christmas decorations and just generally getting my house and "other life" back in order. I have not finished or really started my Christmas shopping, not at all sure when that is going to happen.

And although I am admittedly a bit burned out on agility at the moment I am constantly thinking about getting out there with "my dogs".

So, it made sense to me, although I certainly could just jump right in, that I should think through exactly how I want to spend this very precious time and get my head in the right place before I head out to train.

At this point I pretty much have all of my goals organized, now I have to implement the plan. The Wasatch USDAA trial I recently attended helped me immensely in seeing where I am with all of the pups and what needs to be done.

First, what do they know? Wally and Maze pretty much know it all :-) They are definitely at the stay tuned up, a little practice keeps us perfect place in their agility careers with the exception of a few things that I would definitely like to improve, Maze needs a faster teeter performance and more proofing of his independent weave pole performance, I also want to really work on advanced handling drills to get him tuned up for the AKC Nationals and the FCI try-outs.

Wally certainly can always benefit from dog walk practice as his "moving" contact performance is getting very close to exactly what I want :-) He also will benefit from more advanced drills to keep us sharp for AKC Nationals.

The youngsters certainly need the most work but that is the way it goes, right? SoBe gets to play on the same drills as the big boys with an emphasis on independent contact and weave pole performance. Merger is going to be out of competition for a while because I need to get his contacts to a point that we are both happy. He will get to play in jumpers for ring experience as I truly believe that too be one of the most important things for him right now.

Merger is so at that confidence building stage right now and I think the best way to improve his confidence is through training and making sure that he truly understands his job.

I am also going to be spending a fair bit of time working on my mental game, I do not feel that I am having any specific problems in that area but it never hurts to take another shot of Lanny Basham just to stay sharp.

So, I will let you know how the training goes...

What a weekend!

I am up in very cold and snowy Salt Lake City. It is not supposed to be cold and snowy but you know those weather forecasters, sorry Tracy if you are reading this!
It was a great weekend though, Geoff and I got to trial Sat. and today, and, I am teaching my awesome Utah groups the next 2.5 days. It was really fun to see that at the trial 90% of the people trialing are my students, even though I only get to work with them every 2 months I am claiming them because they are fantastic!!! It was fun to see everybody showing, although Julie would have to point out that I have ADD and don't really watch anyway!
It was a very small trial and really fun! One of the things I was most looking forward to this weekend was showing Merger for the first time in USDAA, and showing SoBe again, it has been a while!
Merger first... he turned 18 months on the 31st of November so quite obviously he is far from seriously ring ready. However, since my intent was to call this a multi run fun match it was a rousing success as far as I am concerned.
Was he perfect, not even close. As a matter of fact out of 5 runs he had zero qualifying scores, but, he ran great! Even in those few runs I saw a huge improvement in his confidence and speed. He dropped two bars in his jumpers run and then did not drop another bar the rest of the weekend. He hit every weave pole entry on the first attempt and finished every set without missing a pole! He picked up my cues and tried as hard as he could to do exactly what I asked when I asked each and every time.
What did I learn? I learned where the holes are, I learned that although I have spent the majority of Mergers obstacle training time working on contacts and weave poles, his contacts are not even close to a finished product. SO, what have I been doing?? Not enough reps of what will teach the desired behavior, what is the desired behavior? Ahhhh... that is the question ,but, I do believe that I have finally figured it out.
I am going to stick with the running contacts, I just have to create a better understanding of the criteria for Merger, this means I have to sort out exactly what I want, how I want it to look, what I expect the desired performance to be, break it down, and, consistently train what I want.
My plan is to get home and lower both the dog walk and A-frame and leave them down for a significant amount of time, doing tons of reps with a hoop at the bottom just building speed, drive and stride placement, reinforcing a foot in the desired area with tons of play and reward! This is not an earth shattering new training method, this is what I believe is necessary to improve on what Merger already does fairly well and make it better. He had some very nice contact performances this weekend but not what I would call finished or even desireable. He is taking way too many strides on the dog walk and I have to address that issue before I go any further with that contact. He is starting to really get the A-frame and is driving up and over very nicely but is only about 50% successful in hitting the contact, that is not good enough.
I cannot train these behaviors in the ring so I have decided to refrain from showing him in any classes with contacts until we get it sorted out. I guess that means he is a jumpers dog for a while! That is totally OK as I am trying to look at the big picture, I will take the time on this end to train the behaviors I want rather than keep showing him and establish tons of bad habits that will never go away.
Thruthfully, the contacts are the only true "training issue" that I felt he had. He needs confidence which will increase his speed and we need experience running together so that I can more effectively handle him.
With the baby dogs you never really know what is going to happen or how they are going to run, this makes handling decisions very difficult, however, I do feel that overall he was wonderful.
He will grow mentally into his extremely large body and he will figure out that his front and rear end can work together it is just going to take time. I am happy to wait he is going to be a great agility dog and he is already a treasured member of my family, what more could you ask for?
Now SoBe, holy crap! What an amazing athlete and so much fun bundled into that feisty little package :-) SoBe is the most amazing jumper, she can maneuver herself from any angle at a ridiculous rate of speed over any jump with ease, I love that about her, one of the very many things that I love about her.
She is like driving a race car down a mountain road at top speed in a snowstorm! If you can keep control it is a huge rush and if not, well....
I learned this weekend that she must have ample warm up time before a run or she is not controlable, I learned that there are always going to be compromises that I must make along the way to keep the peace, I learned that she really is a fabulous team player I just have to be very clear in my direction, calm in my presentation, and, absolutely 100% focused and on my game at all times or she knows it and will gladly take over.
SoBe is power personified or would that be dogified? She comes off the line like a bullet and does not willingly slow down until it is all over. She pushed every start line but I pushed back and won, she pushed her dog walk performance and I am not sure that I came out on top in that battle. Her A-frames were fantastic, as a matter of fact they were the A-frames we of the running contact ilk dream of, up and over the top with just enough air not to have hang time but to put her clearly and deeply into the contact before the hasty exit. Please let them forever and always stay that good :-) You do realize that those of us with running contacts pray daily to the running contact gods :-)
Her weave poles were better than they have been in competition, she missed an entry or 2 but never popped out!!!!
It is proof that hard work pays off, and, SoBe is hard work but so very worth it. She makes me smile just to think about her how lucky am I to have such a wonderful dog in my life! Oh yea, I have many wonderful dogs, it makes me smile just thinking about them all.
In a nutshell the Sobster earned 2 advanced standard legs, a Steeplechase Q, a masters jumpers leg, and a masters snooker leg this weekend. She also went comletely nuts in advanced pairs, and, got carried off the masters gamblers course, she bit me several times every time I lined her up on the start line and barked like a crazy fool while doing it, this is why we do it, right?
Of course the older more distinguished canines in the group also rocked this weekend, Geoff did amazing with Rumor and Xtra, Wally and Maze were brilliant as always :-) Ahhhh... what a weekend!

It's a new day...

...Not a new puppy, but a puppy still in almost every sense of the word :-) I had totally forgotten what a cute puppy Merger was! I spent a fair bit of time going through some old dog photos today. There is something about losing one of the beloved family members that inspires a trip down memory lane.

It is time to move forward though, it is a new day and it is time to really get cracking with the Merge man and SoBe DoBe DoodleBug!

Off we went to the building today and what a great time we had!

First up was SoBe, she makes it very clear that she is to be first always and it is in my best interest to oblige.

I have mentioned in past posts that I have been very much on the fence about what to do with SoBe's contacts, I have decided to go with a running A-frame and she is doing fantastic! I am really a huge fan of running A-frames and I think they are very trainable, although training is a must and you definitely have to get creative at times.

Her teeter was the best it has been today with beautiful slides fast and flying to the end of the board into her lovely "Bang" position.

Now that pesky dogwalk, which continues to be brilliant in training extremely fast and always a perfect princess sit on the end. I have seriously thought about changing to a running but will more than likely go to an early release and keep the basics that I have.

BTW, after this past weekend at the AKC trial I am an official believer in 24" weave poles. I was never opposed I just did not see the absolute necessity of 24" poles. The boys did incredibly well with them, yes they have been on 24" poles lots but it really was obvious at the trial this past weekend that they were just that much more effortless in their performance that I say why not just go with it, now we have to convince everyone :-).

Allowing myself to digress a bit after the horrible night on Thursday, I pulled myself together and double Q'd both Wally and Maze on Friday so they both get to go to AKC Nationals this year!! I am pretty excited to go as I have not been to AKC Nationals since Secret went.

Anyway, back to training, we worked some pretty difficult sequences with tough weave pole entries and SoBe was brilliant, I guess she is just brilliant all the way around :-).

Merger is really figuring out the weave poles and I believe he is actually ready for his debut this weekend in Utah at the Wasatch USDAA trial. Merger and contacts, Hmmmm.... we will call them modified running just for fun. He has adopted Wallys philosophy on the teeter and runs to the end, drops the board and moves along, I like it!

A-frame and dog walk running/moving contacts lots of reps, lots of reinforcements! His jumping is looking good too. Merger continues to be a thoughtful young man who is going to put in amazing times with minimal effort, or what will look like minimal effort. Mergers stride is immense, I am really excited about his future!

I have set some goals for next year which really helps keep my training fresh and gives me a place to go as it were. Short term goals are to get Wally and Maze all tuned up for AKC Nationals. I am also planning on taking Maze to the FCI World team tryouts in May and going to the European Open in July with Maze and Wally.

Those things along with coaching the IFCS US World team should keep me plenty busy! And, of course there are the youngsters...

Ahhh, coaching the IFCS team, I have made no secret of the fact that I was trying out this year with Maze, the good news is that he ultimately tied with 2 other dogs for the 2nd and 3rd places on the team. The bad news is that the tie breaker criteria which was a numbers issue left me in the 4th position on what will be a 3 dog 26" team. I was pretty bummed but at least I know that Maze and I did our best and that in theory we DID make the team. The other interesting factoid is that Wally, who is just about 1/8" too tall to compete in the 22" height class at Worlds ended up the top point earner of that height division! I am really proud of how well both dogs did in such amazing fields of competition. There is always 2012! For now, I am going to be very proud and happy to once again coach the US team and a great team it is!

So, for those of you who have not yet established goals for next year, what are you waiting for? Everyone needs goals, both short term and long term that is what keeps us motivated. Next post, Goals and how to achieve them! In the near future top 10 things that every trainer must teach the up and coming agility prospect, until next time...

Happy Thanksgiving, I think?

Our family did what we usually do for Thanksgiving only we did it on Tuesday instead of Thursday... You see we are not even remotely like a conventional family, my job guarantees that! OK, not always my job, sometimes what my job doubles as, which is my hobby :-) I had entered an AKC trial in California over Thanksgiving weekend which I would be flying out to on Thanksgiving night so we decided to have our Thanksgiving feast on Tuesday.

As we sat down to dinner each of us had to say what we were thankful for, it was pretty much the usual, we were thankful for each other, for our great friends, our fantastic dogs, and really just thankful for being fortunate enough to have such a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner!

The next couple of day were glorious, beautiful weather allowing for long hikes and lots of outside time with the pups.

Thanksgiving Day was no exception, as a matter of fact the weather was the nicest it has been for quite sometime! Geoff and I took the dogs for a very long walk and really got to enjoy them just being dogs. At the same time we were marveling at how Geoff's little tiny barely 10" tall sheltie could run so fast that she could keep up with the border collies. We talked about the previous night when we had taken her down to the training building and tag teamed teaching her to run across a low dog walk and A-frame and what an incredibly bright future she had in agility.

This, of course was just icing on the cake as Geoff is just so madly in love with her that it is really a non issue if she ever does agility.

We laughed at her silly antics and constant boinging straight into the air and how she had the most incredible zest for life!

These are just a few of the many things we will miss about her.

Boing passed away on Thursday night just before midnight at just barely 6 months of age... After such a wonderful morning and afternoon without warning Boing was struck by a neurological episode of undetermined reason that left her essentially paralyzed and Unresponsive.

Unfortunately, Geoff and Nick were here alone as I had already left for CA. and so he was essentially faced with this catastrophe on his own. Geoff rushed Boing to the Animal Emergency Clinic where it was determined that the anurysm or whatever it was caused her to bleed from the brain and ultimately go into cardiac arrest.

Boing was with us for a very short time but she will live on in our hearts and memories forever!

It was during this short time that we got to know her incredible howl that was her plea to Geoff to get up and get going, her insatiable desire to tug that was sometimes diverted to border collie tails when there were no toys or when they were just a better option. She had to attack all closing doors including her crate door when she was sure she did not need to be in a crate. There were so many things to be Thankful for with our little girl Boing, and so many things to be thankful for in general, but this Thanksgiving not so happy.

Hugs to all your dogs!