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!

Long time no posting :-)

Hi All!

OK, I know it has been beyond a ridiculous amount of time since I have posted anything to the blog... I do not have a very good excuse other than the pat, WOW, have I been busy! I have not had loads of time to train the baby dogs as I have been concentrating on the "older" dogs, getting ready for Nationals, etc...

So, what has been going on, Ummmm, let's see, I have been doing lots of seminars, I think I have become an honorary Canadian citizen as I have been up north so many times the past couple of months! What a wonderful bunch of people those Canadians :-) I have to say I am never disappointed when I head up to the frozen tundra to teach, OK, it is really not always frozen, and, a good time is always had by me, if not all!!!

I do have to give a huge shout out to my friends Phil and Mary Zacharatos as they can put on a party and boy can Phil cook!!

I have also had opportunity to show my dogs a bit :-) Actually it has been a very good year for me in the agility arena, Wally and Maze have been tearing up the courses and SoBe although still pushy, mouthy and just plain naughty has already qualified for team at the 2010 USDAA Nationals and just 2 weeks ago proved that she "can" weave in a trial where she laid down a 21 second open jumpers with weaves course including starting and completing a set of 12 weave poles on the first try!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love that little dog? Oh yea, I have been missing in action so I have not really mentioned anything!

Besides having a great year in agility in general I just returned from USDAA National Championships where Wally got to play in the Steeplechase Finals and Maze got to play in both Team and GP Finals! The boys had fabulous clean runs and other than a slight face plant by Wally and the small collision between Maze and myself in GP Finals we ended up 4th in Steeple, 5th in team out of 180 some teams and, 6th in GP. Not bad I say!

The very best thing of all was the completely and totally unexpected perfectly clean and ultimately fast enough PGP semi final run that landed Able in the PGP Finals on Friday night. Ask anyone and they will tell you the most fun of all at USDAA Championships is running at night under the lights, Able will second that. He absolutely loves the big ring at night! I admit I had to tear up a bit when I was walking the course because this was the perfect way to retire Able from the Championships, thank you Able for the great runs and great memories! Don't worry he is not dead or dying, he is just too old and arthritic to jump 22" very much longer. We really need to live for the moment as the time goes all to fast and the ride ends way too soon.

What a great Nationals it was from a spectator standpoint as well. Every year the competition get stiffer and I come home with all sorts of things that I "need" to train. The sport continues to evolve and just gets more impressive every year.

Hey, I am actually going to AKC Nationals this year! I have not been to Nationals since I took Secret and I am truly excited about going. Maze is fully qualified and Wally is sitting on 5 double Q's with a 3 day trial after Thanksgiving to hopefully procure that 6th double Q. Next year I may actually have to commit a bit more time to AKC as I do love the Nationals and the pups are really doing quite well in the AKC venue.

I realize my foray back to blogging is primarily shameless bragging which I really try not to do but I just needed to :-) I promise now that I have gotten back to it there will be actual training talk forthcoming!

Geoff and I returned from Nationals last night and although I have several lessons today and am of course exhausted I did manage to get a little training in with the Merger man.

After watching all of the incredible running contacts at this years nationals I am determined to get Merger running his contacts, so off we trudged to the building today ready to do a bit of analysis trying to figure out exactly how I am to accomplish this very daunting task with Merger the giant! Well, although I have been working on a stride collection cue on the dog walk for a short time I certainly did not believe that he has yet developed a behavior on the walk that would have anything to do with the steady command I have been incorporating. I was absolutely dumbfounded when he ran the dog walk at speed with a voluntary stride collection at the bottom, both directions :-)

His teeter has evolved into a thing of beauty and the A-frame is most certainly coming along. Weaves are nice and getting better all the time, and his jumping is really awesome!

As a matter fact I entered him in his very first AKC trial in JWW only as a test run and he was brilliant! He Q'd in both runs and the courses were vastly different a really great test of where he is at. The course on Sat. was very open and flowing and the course on Sunday was practically a grid exercise for Merger with a 4 jump pinwheel taken twice. He judged his jumps perfectly and adjusted accordingly.

He had a perfect stay on the start line and was completely at home in the trial environment, playing and acting as if there were not tons of people and dogs all over the place. I was very proud of him!

OK folks next time we talk training!

The secrets of success in agility

HA! If only it was a simple formula that could be written on this blog and magically create success in agility beyond your wildest dreams :-) It is!!!!
There are several foundational basics as I call them and they are Attention, Hand Signal Awareness, and, the understanding of Parallel Positioning. That would be the AHSAPP Principle :-) OK, just kidding, I just thought maybe assigning a fancy acronym would give it more creedence :-)
There is an inability of most handlers to communicate a start line position, maintain connection with their dog for any length of time, cue a turn over a single jump, etc... this got me thinking about how Merger, one of my young dogs (14 months old), who at this point was unable to weave a straight set of poles, did not have a full teeter or dog walk performance, is just now learning to judge proper take-offs in a jump sequence, and, has yet to do a sequence of more than 4 jumps at full height, can line up on the start line in a near perfect parallel position to me on a verbal cue, can stay for whatever duration of time necessary, understands how to target to my hand, seek out the parallel path, collect before a jump, wrap an upright with beautiful full body flexion, and, in essence is prepared to be "handled" through a masters course.
It was because of these things that I had an epiphany! The most difficult part of agility is handling the dog between the obstacles, not the obstacles themselves, therefore, I have subconsciously taught all of the between the obstacle behaviors before even completing most of the actual obstacle behaviors, making it impossible to show the dog before we are truly ready! You can fake the handling stuff and although probably not pretty, get the dog around the course but you cannot fake a set of weave poles if your dog has never seen them in a straight line!
Do you get it, I have successfully found a way to insure, (as well as we can insure anything), that my dog is truly ready to compete before I "can" compete!
I know I beat this foundation stuff to death but is there any substitute for proper foundation training? I think not!
By the time Merger has all of the obstacles figured out his flat area behaviors will be all worked out and I will be able to enter the ring with a level of confidence that allows me to handle even the greenest of dogs without spectating and micromanaging the things I have not yet trained. This ends the vicious cycle of no trust, spectate, lack of information to dog, wrong behavior, no trust, more spectating, even later and less information to dog, worse behavior, and it goes on and on.
I will go into the ring with a well trained, even if inexperienced dog who I will direct with confidence who will in return offer me the behaviors that I am asking for in a timely manner as correctly as possible for a baby dog embarking on a new journey. It must also be noted that there will be growing pains in any new partnership and it will take time for it to become the well oiled machine it may be with the older dogs I am running.
It was really awesome to know that I could use Merger to demo all of the bits that needed to be available in order to get the dogs from point A to point Z, even if he couldn't do straight line weave poles.
This epeiphany was a direct result of the secrets of success I know to be true in my experience as and agility/dog trainer.
The AHSAPP Principle :-) I feel that if my dog understands how to pay attention, has hand signal awareness and knows that it is his/her job to always be looking for a path parallel to me there is absolutely no configuration of obstacles I cannot get the dog thorugh. All of this is of course in reference to the between the obstacle performance, the obstacles do indeed have to be taught but that is a seperate issue.
It is also necessary to teach the value of the various hand signals and maintain clarity and consistency in their usage.
I do not need to practice a "serpentine," I need to know what cues to offer my dog to correctly negotiate the 3 obstacles in this particular order or configuration. My very attentive dog will read the hand signal and will accomodate what I am asking by reading dirction by way of seeking out a path parallel to me. It is of course important that the path that I am indicating is correct and that I am moving in the direction of the course :-)
You see the secret of success in agility is teaching the dog the to read and understand your cues , and, the various behaviors you will need on course and then trusting what you have taught so that you can walk a course for the most efficient path, share the necessary information with your dog expecting them to respond accordingly. It is your job to plan your run and run your plan.
Well, it is off to bed for me as I have another big day of teaching ahead of me tomorrow :-)

So much to do, so little time!

HI All!

I know it has literally been ages since I have last written! I truly stand in awe of those individuals that have the time and opportunity to update blogs on a daily or even every other day basis! 

I feel like summer and just time in general is flying by so fast it is incredible.

 I write this on the heels of C Spot Win summer camp and it was a BLAST! A huge success if I do say so myself :-) I would highly reccommend camp to those individuals who want to have a great learning experience in a very laid back FUN environment!

After camp it was immediately off to a USDAA trial in Farmington, Utah hosted by Colleen Hawker and Wasatch agility. Coleen really knows how to put on a trial, very laid back but efficient and the site was once again amazing! Thank you Coleen for continuing to offer these great trials!

I also need to make mention of the fact that the overall attitude of the handlers was fantastic! After all of my ranting and raving about what went on at the 4th of July trial it was really great to see people being so kind to their dogs and one another.

I must also mention that I have had more than a few comments regarding my last post and how helpful it was to be reminded that we are truly in control of our own destiny out on the agility field and that we really need to keep a close eye on what we are training and ultimately expecting of our dogs on course and in training for that matter.

I only showed on Friday and Sat. but my dogs were awesome! Able is narrowing in on that Platinum lifetime achievement award, 5 more jumpers legs to go! Wally and Maze were exceptional and capped off Sat. by each winning their height division in the Grand Prix. SoBe held every start line and stopped and waited for release on all contacts!!!We have not yet tried the weaves in a trial but at camp she was nailing them and staying in almost 100%! I really had a great 2 days of trialing :-) Even better was the fact that my son Nick actually agreed to come with me and we had some really nice mom and son bonding time, it has been a very long time since we have had that opportunity!

Obviously my focus at camp was teaching others but I and the other instructors did take some time after class to work and help each other a bit too :-) During one of these "sessions" I was able to really test Mergers running A-frame, I still had the stride regulator on it, but, I ran full speed cueing Merge up and over and he had to chase me for the toy after completion of the obstacle, he was brilliant! Solid contacts that according to Stephanie, (my  other set of eyeballs),  he went deeper the faster I ran really proving that he "gets" it! 

I will admit that I have given up on the running dog walk with the Merge Man as his stride is just too huge!!! I am really feeling confident with my methodology regarding the running A-frames however.

We are steadily closing the gap on Mergers weave pole channels and he is at approx. 2-3 inch spacing. I did not get to work the weaves as much as I had hoped at camp but back at it tomorrow! I did take the day off today, needed to just let my brain cool a bit :-)

Ann spent a bit of time with me and Merger helping with his jumping, we did determine that he does not have a jumping problem he is still just really unaware of how his extra large body works. It is a great learning experience for me that is for sure! Even though Able is a very big dog he is built very differently than Merger and his physical awareness seemed to be better sooner. She gave me some homework that I will keep you abreast of as we progress. 

My contribution was to help Ann with Synners A-frame and her her on track to teach a running A-frame, that was a lot of fun!

Now that camp is done for another year I can get back to a few other things that need my attention, there is always something that is for sure. It was a bit hard to relax today knowing that there are countless "things" that need to be done, oh well it always gets done at some point!

Back to trying to be more timely keeping the blog current! 

Who's the one with the BIG brain?

I am trying desperately to figure out how it is that a species such as human beings that have created and evolved so many high tech gadgets that we can practically do our wash wirelessly from 10 miles away but we cannot seem to grasp the concept of "consistency" and "criteria maintainence." 

I am certain that I am a bit hyper sensitive to noticing the countless examples of inconsistency that occur in class, at seminars and in trials because I witness them on an almost daily basis, but, I find it amazing that the average individual training one, two, or, maybe even three dogs has absolutely no idea what it means to be consistent in maintaining the criteria taught to their dogs. 

I suppose it is equally surprising how many handlers do not even begin the whole process of training with any clear idea of what they want the criteria to be.

Now, you could say that if they are not teaching criteria to begin with then there is no criteria to maintain, this is true, however, it would then be only fair to accept that the dog has not been trained to be responsible for the obstacle performance and should smile and say "good dog" no matter what the performance is.

We all know this is not the way it happens. I was at a trial this past weekend that seemed to exemplify this issue to a level that left me quite sad for a large group of dogs.

I do not know if the level of dog blaming was at an all time high or it was just the fact that the trial was not exactly moving at a breakneck pace which left more than the usual amount of time to watch others compete.

Either way, I was really quite distressed at how many people used what I am certain were supposed to be cues relevant to a specific contact behavior that quite obviously did not happen. In some instances the handler simply ignored the lack of criteria and went on, this would be the least of the problems, or, would have the audacity to get visibly angry at the dog for not doing what the handler had cued without requiring numerous times prior to the actual missing of the contact.

I found a large number of handlers that allowed their dogs to blow off proper performance without incident as long as it was still resulting in a qualifying score, if the infraction would result in an NQ you bet there was a reaction from the handler, how incredibly sad!

In what I guess was an attempt to get our reward of the almighty Q the handlers would then resort to totally new and unrelated cues that I guess would surprise the dog into offering the behavior, quite the head scratcher says me :-)

I write this on a day that I find out that a friends 8 year old Golden literally fell over dead on Sat. and another friends BC died of Cancer yesterday and wonder what are we thinking?

Even if Agility was not meant to be a game we play with our dogs, even if agility was a known cure for cancer, or could pave the road to World Peace we would ultimately fail miserably because although we have the BIG brains and thumbs, we expect our dogs to sift through the crappola and be able to do what we want or need them to do to make us feel good without any real training, or, total disregard for maintaining the criteria we may have actually taught them.

I hear a lot of  "I am working on that", "I know I am not very consistent", etc... without any real plan for change. 

Far too many dogs are trialing far too early and pushed too hard to do things that they have not had nearly enough time to learn specifically enough to hold up in a stressful environment like a trial. Most dogs do not have a clear understanding in training of exactly what is required, let alone the understanding necessary for the show ring.

I am a human as well and am equally guilty of my own bouts of inconsistency, but, I better notice it, and fix it! It is my job to have a clear understanding of what the ideal performance of any given cue or behavior is and my job to teach my dog how to do it correctly. 

It is also my job to not create confusion by allowing the one behavior that I have taught to evolve into any number of other behaviors because I am not capable of paying attention to what my dog is doing and run a course at the same time, I MUST be aware of what my dog is doing and what I am allowing at all times. I have to reinforce the behaviors that I want and must not accept and certainly not reward the behaviors that I do not.

It is my dogs job to perform the behaviors that I ask for correctly, when I ask. It is not my dogs job to fix my inability to properly train or maintain the behaviors that are necessary to be successful in agility.

The dog cannot walk the course, read the rulebook, obsess over course maps, etc.. any information that your dog receives on course or in training comes from you, they are simply reacting to the information provided, you do the math.

OK, now that I have ranted and raved and beat all of my wonderful readers over the head, might I remind you that agility is FUN!!! It is a GAME!!! Enjoy the time you have with your wonderful canine companion, it is all too short.

The moral of the story, do not have greater expectations of your dog than you are capable of returning. Now, go TRAIN your dog! 

  

Is it the handler or is it the dog?

As I travel all over doing seminars, camps, workshops, etc... I spend a great deal of time teaching people how to better handle their dogs. I also spend a great deal of time trying to impress upon said handlers the incredible importance of foundation training.

I think everyone out there understands that foundation training is super important but I also think that there is still a lot of confusion about what foundation training really is, and, how it applies to the overall big picture in agility.

I just returned from an awesome seminar in Minnesota during which this seemed to be a pervasive theme running through my head. 

Copious amounts of time was spent on trying to help people achieve the perfectly timed front cross, while even if the side change was indeed timed "perfectly" there was still a less than desirable outcome :-) 

The problem is that for so many people, even if they are perfect the dog is still not contributing to the overall process. It sounds here like I am "blaming" the dog but I am not...

Who teaches the dog their part or their responsibilities on course? That, of course, would be the handler :-) It always comes back to us, doesn't it?

I was finally able to really put my finger on the overall issue yesterday when I was doing a lesson with a very talented handler and there was a section in the exercise that called for 2 front crosses in succession, we cleaned up the handlers timing nicely but it still was not quite right.

I kept thinking about how I had run it that same morning and did not have the problem that was occurring, which was that the dog was over running the handlers side change. 

These were front crosses that required the handler to move through the side changes in order to make them both, however, in this case if the handler did not stop at the initiation of the cross the dog would over run her.

The main issue here is that no matter how "perfect" the handler is, the dog must also know what their responsibility is in all of this.

So, what was missing? This particular dog does not truly understand the value of the extraneous cues involved in the front cross. He is not bending to the handlers hand signal, he extends through a front cross without converging on the handlers path. 

He does understand that if mom decellerates and begins to rotate that he should come back to her but he is still extends over the jumps and turns back on the flat "after" the jump instead of flexing over the jump.

When a side change of any type is cued in a timely fashion the dog should never extend or have a straight body posture over the previous obstacle, there should be collection and flexion.

It is really important to practice timing and learn to "read" the dog and their position, etc.. However, in the meantime do not forget about the dogs part.

The dog has to be taught about collection, flexion, cue specifics, etc.. 

My style of training and handling focuses primarily on shaping "natural behaviors" into specific behaviors relevant to what I am going to need to be competitive on the agility field. It makes perfect sense to me to capitalize on things that are innate to my dog and add a few tweaks here and there to make these behaviors more specific to agility in general, however, the problem is this, because these are "natural" behaviors first and foremost we can easily forget to spend the necessary time to create the specifics that we need.

For example, one of the things that my dogs absolutely must learn is to find and maintain a path parallel to me, if my expectations are that my dog will follow me around a course reading my cues then don't I need to teach my dog to follow the direction "I" will be taking? If a dog is just willy nilly running across my feet or behind my back I will spend more time trying to keep the dog next to me and watching to be sure that he/she is next to me that I will not be able to get the course cues out in a timely manner or at all for that matter.

I need to be able to count on my dog understanding that their job is to always seek out a path parallel to me, this takes time and training as well as a handler who makes sure to notice if what they are teaching, (and you are always teaching), is what I want my dog to learn.

I start every exercise, even 1 jump work, with my dog parallel to me, I make it my mission to practice the correct cues, handling, position, etc.. whenever I am training and whatever I am training.

Pop quiz, does your dog know how to line up next to you on a start line in a parallel position without you physically manipulating them? If not, there is a big hole right there. If they cannot find this position while not in motion how are they to know to find it when you are running around a course?

I know there are not a lot of great foundation training resources out there at present but even just taking a step back and taking inventory of what cues you use and what they are supposed to mean to the dog is a great way to start to get a handle on what you have available in your tool box and what tools you need to acquire. 

Short list: 

Does my dog know parallel path?

Does my dog know and understand hand signals?

Does my dog know how to interpret the various hand signals?

Does my dog know how to interpret the variations in body cues, speed, etc..

Do I use these cues in a correct and consistent manner?

Does my dog know and understand how to pay attention through all levels of distraction?

These questions should get you started :-) I am sure there are many more that each of us could ask ourselves but 1 thing at a time....

To answer the question in the topic line of this post, it is both!