Everyone loves a challenge!

Well, I am home once again from a long teaching gig out east. It was tons of fun as always even if the weather was about 50 degrees colder than it was here in Colorado!

It was a great trip for the newly named "Vandal" aka "Torque" :-) He named himself, and, will live up to it with no problem I am quite certain!

He was amazing, during our 9 days on the road we "lived" in 4 different hotels, taught at 3 different facilities and were fortunate to be able to reconnect with some old friends as well as meet a bunch of new people.

He learned self control in the cliff notes version as the poor young man had to spend large quantities of time while I taught in either crates or X-pens. By the last day he had it all figured out and was quite content to amuse himself in between naps, I was very proud!

Vandal is quite the people dog he never misses an opportunity to meet everyone he sees and makes a point of displaying his thoughts about jumping on people, if you jump up you get closer to the petting devices known as hands :-)

He is also quite enamored with every dog he sees, the unfortunate part is that his idea of meeting and greeting is to jump square into each dogs face and bite whatever parts present themselves, not the smartest idea ever!

So, what is the deal with todays heading? What challenge am I referring to? The newest challenge raising a Vandal :-)

Don't get me wrong, my life is already filled with many challenges including but not limited to Merger, Wally, SoBe, Sparky and the list goes on, however, I seem to revel in challenge so I have added a Vandal.

He is going to be an awesome challenge however, very different yet again from the older kids here at the Peardot-Goudy household!

Some things I learned this past week: Vandal is VERY bold and equally independent. His independence is not a negative and he is very conscious of where I am at all times but he has no problem heading off on walk about when something interesting catches his eye. 

He is very fast already and has made it clear that he enjoys his time on a leash because he goes out of his way to make it clear that he needs one whenever he is out and about and could potentially wander into a dangerous situation.

I may even have to do something I have avoided with all other puppies, invest in a gentle leader! He has already at the tender age of 9 weeks and with a whopping weight of 12 pounds mastered the art of pulling me around like he were a sled dog!

Vandal loves to play with toys and loves to work for food, well he works for food until he doesn't want to anymore :-) I will be working very hard to insure that I keep food a priority as well as toys so it is a must that I have high value food rewards at all times.

Vandal got to see his very first dog run across the dog walk he reacted like any normal over the top, higher than a kite BC puppy, he screamed bloody murder!!!

He also was fortunate enough to get to watch a dog playing frisbee for about 3 seconds, interestingly enough the frisbee play had the same effect.

I will be diligently working focus and attention work with distractions, minimal at first but you can bet we will be cultivating the tremendous drive that I know he has and that I want but at the same time he will need to understand there is a time and a place.

Vandal is a wonderful mix of bold, brassy, smart, biddable, independent and equally appropriate and inappropriate all rolled into an adorable puppy form.

A challenge yes, but one I am most certainly looking forward to.

As I said earlier I just got home from the big trip and after only getting about 3 hours of sleep last night I can say in all honesty that I was not the most motivated person on the planet today, however I did clean my training building and set up some of the exercises that I found to be the most challenging from all of the past weeks seminars and spent some quality time with SoBe and Wally who were amazing if I do say so myself! 

We got a lot of practice on various weave pole entries as well as some great decelleration and weight shifting exercises, I will explain this in the upcoming blogs :-)

I am very excited about where I am with my dogs right now and I am very lucky to have the up and coming agility stars that I have.

Great ready for a wild ride, it's time to train the puppies!

Super Puppy!

So, I am in Massachusetts teaching a seminar and since I had to take a connecting flight to get here Mr. T gets to be the only dog on this trip :-) I think he is very happy! I hate having to leave everyone else at home but there is no way any of the dogs would volunteer to make a connection in Chicago at O'Hare and who could blame them???
SoBe gets to be on vacation at Auntie Debs house so I know she is happy!
Anyway, Torque already got to be a demo dog at the tender age of 8 weeks, at a masters level seminar. How is this possible you ask, well, I was setting up for the seminar doing what I do, letting the pup wander around and check things out, meet people, etc...
Well, I noticed that he was doing what all of my pups do, but he was doing it more obviously and with far less time invested in the "training" of this behavior.
He was visiting, exploring, etc.. and he would very blatently choose to break away from whatever or whoever to come and present himself to me, at which point I would offer him lots of praise and of course a treat.
After observing this behavior on numerous occasions I simply had to gather the group together and talk about attention and what an ordeal it is for so many to get the kind of attention we want to see on the agility course.
torque could not have been a better example of how important it is to let your pup explore and enjoy his/her surroundings and dillegently reward unsolicited attention every time they offer it.
You see, I never asked Torque to come to me, I was going about my business as he was going about his, he just very quickly figured out that no matter how rewarding everyone else can be, or, how reinforcing the environment around him is he can always count on an instant response and reward from mommy.
It is very important to me that my dogs WANT to pay attention to me and do not ever find out that they actually HAVE to pay attention to me.
All of the things that were going on this morning in the training center are just environment, I am the one to be looked to for reinforcement. I call this desensitizing the dog to it's environment. The environment will always be there, let your dog know that and learn that it is not half as rewarding as you or I am.
I am totally OK with the students petting, playing with, even giving a treat or two because no matter how nice they are to my baby i will always be better!
What a great example of a hugely necessary and integral part of the competition agility dog!
Just a little more food for thought!

There is nothing like planning ahead :-)

I just had the greatest training session with my dogs! 

The weather is still really horrible and the wind is howling, the snow is blowing and it is really cold, but, when you are lost in that "zone" all seems right with the world :-)

I started with SoBe , realize there is no prescribed order in which I train my dogs but I guess if I think about it, generally SoBe and Wally go first. Well SoBe goes first because Wally is quiet in his crate while SoBe works and SoBe is a raving lunatic in her crate while Wally works. 

Because of this SoBe has to go first or she uses all available brain cells screaming in the crate and it makes for a less than productive training session.

I suppose you are wondering why I just do not teach SoBe to be quiet in her crate? Well, I am a big believer in picking my battles and since I want the utmost in attitude, energy and drive out of my dogs, I choose not to fight the quiet in the crate battle. 

If I am really bothered by the noise I just make more trips up the hill to rotate dogs.

Also, to be clear, I did not teach Wally to be quiet in the crate he just always is, you see Wally is perfect :-)

Anyway, back to the topic at hand, a FANTASTIC training session! I had a plan for each dog and it is amazing how much better things go when you actually have a plan. 

It also makes a huge difference that I am finally rested up from the latest trip and I did manage to sort of get my house back in order after being gone for 2 weeks.

 This limits the overall stress I am feeling at the moment and makes it a lot easier to just lose myself in the training process.

This brings up another point, when you are feeling stressed, overly tired, sick, whatever, it is a good idea to take the day off, just hug your dogs instead of training them.

I will once again try to get back to the point... why was SoBe so brilliant tonight, even more than usual? Because I had a plan! 

I am really very bad about literally planning out my training sessions. I always have a general idea of what I want to work on or it would just be chaos, but, tonight I really felt ready and very focused on the task at hand.

SoBe needs work on her weave pole entries so I set up a great exercise with 2 sets of 6 poles separated by about 10 feet and a slight angle, I then had jumps and tunnels strategically located to offer many entry choices from essentially 4 different points of entry. With unlimited direction options.

I had great lead ins to the different entries and the best part of all was that I set SoBe up for success right off the bat! I used my fancy gates/cube shelving sections to help her collect at each entry point, I revved her up to near manic proportions and we took off. She had amazing entries and was collecting like a reining horse! 

It was all about speed and more speed and the collection necessary to get into the poles, she was amazing! I never did take the gates off because my mission was to have 100 percent success with SoBe taking all of the responsibility for entering and staying in the poles. Practicing success is always going to help you meet your goals long before practicing failure will.

We also worked on improving her teeter performance by focusing on the end behavior and the fact that it is her job to find the end of the board, not to just move the board.

Tomorrow we will focus on A-frame performance!

Next up was Wally, I know you will be surprised to hear that I find him to be absolutely brilliant! 

He also had some fun finding multiple challenging weave pole entries. 

Wally is also in the process of teaching his handler how to relax when he is doing the dog walk so that we can create the perfect "running" dog walk performance. Please note, I have no plans of ever teaching another dog a running dog walk Wally gets to be the one and only!

I have decided to go back to hoops and just let him run with reckless abandon, wow I feel so much better when I am not stressing about the contact, I bet he does too!

Merger got to come and play next, he was on fire! We are in the process of introducing weave pole channels and he is really racing through them. I think the crowning achievement for Merger tonight was his understanding of that dreaded outside turn cue! He did his "back's" on the left and the right with a verbal cue only!!

He also wrapped some jumps like I have never seen him do before and was pouncing into his Bang position at the bottom of the dog walk and A-frame! Another note, we are doing the bottom position only, not the whole piece of equipment. 

In general, we just had a really good time working and playing together, that is how it should be. We definitely got some good work in but mostly we just really enjoyed each others company!

OK, this is getting rather long winded :-) Torque of course needed his time so down to the building we went, what a little powerhouse! 

We played tug and I introduced him to the 2 toy game which he thought was awesome! Torque learned in about 30 seconds to make eye contact in order to get a treat, he also learned that there are treats to be had if you touch your nose to mom's hand, how cool is that!

There was a lot of toy time in between "behavior" drills it is really important to me that I have a dog that is equally motivated by toys and treats.

Since he was so incredibly driven to tug and chase his toy we brought out the traffic cone and practiced a few laps around the cone just for fun.

Then we took a run over to the teeter where at a very low height he bounced on and off the end of the board chasing his favorite toy of the moment, what fun!

Have I mentioned that I had a really great night?

Toto, We're not in Phoenix anymore!!!!

Well, I am back in sunny Colorado and thank goodness it is sunny because it is crazy cold!!! Today we reached a very balmy high of 12 degrees F. I returned from Phoenix with my new pup who is not impressed with Colorado weather over Phoenix that is for sure!

OK, before anyone says it, yes "another dog!" You see I am addicted to dog training and interestingly enough this is what I do for a living so there is truly a need for up and comers all of the time :-)

That sounds really good doesn't it, but, mostly I just love dogs and have finally and hopefully rounded out my pack to include the most wonderful agility dogs in the world! They fit right in with a whole houseful of agility NOT wanna-be's who are just part of the family.

How lucky I am to be able to have so many 4-legged family members that each offer so much to enrich my life whether it be agility or just warming my lap on these incredibly cold winter nights.

So, my new puppys name is very fun, I have named him "Torque" this may not be the most original name in the world but it is not only an energy drink, (kind of a theme with me), but it also has the coolest definition "Torque: the tendency of force to rotate the body to which it is applied" I am all about tight turns so here's to hoping that what you name a dog comes to fruition in some form or fashion!

OK, so about these tight turns... I did a 2 day workshop in Phoenix centered around tight turns, it was a blast!

I will admit I was not sure at first what to expect as any seminar's success is always dependent on how well you cater to the group. Of course I speak for myself when I say that it was so much fun and we got so much accomplished primarily because everyone in the group was not only all about learning, but they were also very diverse, because of this diversity  we covered every aspect of tight turns from how do you start a young dog on the right track, to, how can I use these skills to motivate?

I admit I am a bit obsessive compulsive and although I believe I have really done the work and my dogs do turn tight, I am always looking for more, bigger, better, faster so I keep thinking of new ways to train and maintain a naturally tight turning radius on my dogs.

A crucial element in tight turns is the dogs body awareness, and his ability to use himself as efficiently and comfortably as possible.

Because of this I begin my "turn" training with the primary focus being placed on the dogs midsection and how flexible they are and can be. 

Many dogs are "unable" to use themselves properly over jumps primarily because they are unaware of their own body. Dogs generally utilize their front and rear assembly's as means of locomotion with very little regard for the entire midsection. 

If you sit ringside and watch a large sampling of dogs' you will see many of them offer a straight trajectory over jumps even when a turn cue has been used in a timely fashion by the handler. 

The dog will be soaring over the jump in an extended stride, slightly turning their heads recognizing the turn cue and landing long, decelerating, setting their lead and pulling themselves through the turn.

None of this means that the dog is incapable of flexion, it usually means they are unaware of the muscle groups that they have available through the back and side regions.

Torque will learn all about his body before he is ever asked to use it on an obstacle, just as my other dogs have.

I begin my flexion training with "cone work". Using toy drive, tons of play and a bit of opposition reflex, I teach my pups to wrap a standard traffic cone as tight and fast as they can. This game has many benefits, it of course promotes flexibility, but also teaches dig and speed through turns, and the beginnings of front cross work.

Using a traffic cone allows the pup to actually hit the cone as they race around it without the worry of injury, it also minimizes how much I am asking the pup to flex and makes it very simple for me to see that the pup is actually "flexing" around the cone.

I do not use jump stanchions as there is no way to really determine if the dog is flexing because it is unrealistic to expect a tight wrap on something as narrow as a jump stanchion. I also really like the fact that the traffic cones are made of a soft pliable rubber that I am happy for the dog to hit as they go around.

The cone game is one of the things that will be featured in C Spot Teach :-)

I also teach my pups a 360 degree outside turn at my side to encourage flexibility. 

When I cue a turn on course I want my dogs to understand that this turn can be made so much easier and more comfortable if they use their whole body appropriately. 

Ahhh.... it is good to be back!

 

 

More coming, I promise!

So, I have been away for a while... I am down in sunny Phoenix working and have been here for almost 2 weeks! It has been fantastic as always! Ihave been coming to Phoenix to teach every Jan. for 12 years now and I enjoy it more and more every year!
I have also been lucky enough to be able to trial 2 weekends as well, the second weekend being tomorrow and Sunday so no results for that trial yet, however, last weekend was great!
Seminars have wiped me out so I have been completely ignoring my blog.
It is absolutely not for lack of thought provoking ideas, as a matter of fact the seminars have provided much in the way of food for thought, I have just been way too tired at the end of each day to actually put ideas together in any form that you or even myself would be able to understand.
Therefore this very boring post is just to once again whet your appetite and give you a heads up on what crazy things have been roaming around in my head!
I have lots to say about tight turns, contact training, and, thanks to my new puppy foundation training both on the flat and obstacle wise.
I had the pleasure of working with some incredible people these past 2 weeks and I have alot of thoughts to share!
I will be back on Monday with hopefully enough brain cells to do this blog justice!

Thanks for your patience, those of you who have been patient! :-)

Stacy

Food for thought

It is always difficult to decide on the best obstacle performance criteria for each dog. The same could be said for flat area criteria as well. We know it is important to take our dogs physical attributes into consideration. It is also important to pay attention the types of behaviors that seem to come more naturally to our dogs. But let's face it, ultimately we are the trainers and the end result of whatever behaviors we teach depend on our ability to establish criteria and then formulate a training plan that breaks the criteria down into dog friendly components.

We must have a good enough understanding of what we want the end result to be. We must be able to recognize success and failure instantly during each phase of the training process. We must be prepared to take a step back, if necessary, we must be patient (I read that somewhere :-)) while the dog learns the behaviors or elements of it.

We have to have an immediate response for the dog that makes mistakes. A response that helps, not confuses or shuts the dog down. There are always transitions during training that will test the dogs understanding of what we have taught. Are you prepared to deal with mistakes?

We must proof and reproof every piece of every new and old behavior and recognize and reinforce success. We must be prepared to "fix" the holes or problems that arise when we proof each of these pieces. We must trust that when the training is done that the dog will reliably offer the behaviors we have taught in any situation when asked.

We must be able to trust what we train! It is impossible to move forward in agility if you have not taught your dog what their part of the job is, and what their responsibilities are.

A very common problem in agility today is planning an efficient course strategy when the primary thought process while walking courses is how do I keep my dog from doing that, or I have not taught my dog to do that. If you have trained specific criteria and have proofed that criteria and are diligent in maintaining that criteria you should be able to plan a perfect course with the most efficient lines. And trust your dog to perform as trained.

It is not uncommon to see a handler and dog in a total state of confusion while training contacts. This is because handler X was told by instructor Z to do a 2on/2off behavior at the bottom of the contacts. Handler X has no idea why they would teach this but instructor Z said so, therefore it must be done. Handler X will never be able to get a consistent 2on/2off behavior because handler X does not even understand the behavior. If you do not have a clear and concise understanding of the behavior you are trying to teach there is no way your dog ever will.

Whatever behaviors you decide to teach, it is a good idea to make a list of what the components of the behavior are to ensure a full understanding on your part, this will also allow you go back and check what steps you have taught and if you have possibly missed any :-)
There is so much more to be said on this topic, which I will save for another day, until then consider this your daily food for thought.

Time for a little Quiz!

I'm baaaack! It was a great vacation and I highly recommend Costa Rica to anyone who is into adventure! We did 2 different zip line tours through the Canopy of the rain forest, a rappelling trip down rock faces next to and in waterfalls, lots of beach time and I think my favorite part was the horseback ride through the rain forest :-)

Of course I missed the dogs so much but now I am home and although it is awesome to be back, SoBe is in standing heat and the boys are literally beside themselves, not fun!

OK, the quiz...

1. if I asked you whether I used more verbal cues with a young dog than an older dog what would you answer?

2. If you are working on a sequence with your dog and he/she is not listening would your first response be to offer a verbal cue such as here or to say nothing the next time around?

3. If you are trying to keep, maintain or motivate your dog and he/she makes a mistake would your first response be to reinforce the dog with a verbal or tangible reward or would you simply ignore the mistake and try again?

4. If the dog corrected the issue and was successful the next time would you stop and reward or would you continue on with the next obstacle in the sequence?

These types of questions could go on and on and although I am very confident in my responses, I am equally confident in what the majority of handlers responses would be as well.

The interesting part being my responses would most likely be the direct opposite of the responses of most people.

Does this fact make me right and others wrong?

Not at all!

I am just completely committed to a common sense, dog responsibility vs. handler responsibility, training the thinking dog concept of training and handling.

The answers you give regarding the questions should be thought out in this regard.

Let's break it down:

Answer 1: 90% of my students believe, (before I set them straight, of course:-), that the correct answer is to "help" those younger dogs and offer verbal assistance. I use very little, if any verbiage with my young dogs when we begin to sequence obstacles, I have several reasons for this starting with the fact that my baby dogs have not had much time to learn the value of the verbal cues which I teach more often than not on singular obstacles not within sequences, and, secondly, verbal cues are and should always be secondary in the whole handling process.

Therefore, I am going to be from the get go, fostering the attention that I have worked so hard to create from the very beginning of our training program. At the same time I will be continuing to build my dogs awareness of my physical cues as well as perfecting my own timing of said physical cues.

Is the "common sense" part of this showing? If I am continuously talking to my dogs I am in theory allowing the dog not to pay attention and potentially creating a very serious white noise problem effectively nullifying a good portion of the attention and body language work I have done thus far. I would also be doing a huge disservice to my thinking dog and would be taking away a large part of that thinking process.

It is ultimately going to be the dogs responsibility to offer the behaviors that I suggest with immediacy and precision.

Answer 2: I think this answer is pretty obvious after question no. 1 :-) Most would immediately want to offer a verbal here or dogs name to get their dogs to pay attention.

I, of course, would do the direct opposite I would repeat the exercise in question and say absolutely nothing. I would simply offer the cues necessary to get the dog to go through or over the desired obstacles and offer a complete stop prior to the point at which the dog had chosen to ignore me, saying nothing.

This puts the responsibility of attention on the dog. it is the dogs job to pay attention to me, not my job to get the dog to pay attention.

Answer 3: In an effort to keep a non-motivated dog motivated, or, to encourage motivation, handlers have a tendency to verbally and in some cases even tangibly reinforce their dog when they make a mistake. You have to be thinking about what you are rewarding when you are using these measures to keep the dog happy :-)

Although the intentions are noble what the handler is really telling the dog is that the wrong behavior that they just offered is actually correct.

It is preferable to just ignore the incorrect behavior and try again. When you try again and the dog is successful it is incredibly important to reinforce this, the "correct" behavior with all of the praise and rewards that were previously offered as motivational aids.

You should also notice that we have successfully answered 4 as well. Although we the handlers are reinforced for a dogs success by continuing on, this does nothing to mark the desired behavior and we are not any more likely to see success then next time. It is so very important to "mark" behaviors that we want to continue and reward them handsomely, it will certainly make training easier! I want a teammate, a thinking partner in this game we call agility!