Handling your baby dog

Often when I teach Novice/Intermediate level seminars and there are sequences of obstacles involved, handlers will first comment about the fact that they are running a "baby" dog and that said "baby" dog is not necessarily ready for whatever the sequence is. At this point handlers will generally over handle the situation trying to avoid allowing the dog to make a mistake, etc...
This is all very innocent of course, all done in the name of helping the dog be successful, however, even though the handler is completely managing the exercise mistakes are made. Most of these mistakes are due to confusion on the dogs part because the handler is acting in an unfamiliar way, giving unfamiliar cues, probably Being a bit erratic in their physical cues.
Think about all of those nights at class, the seminars, etc... You are teaching your dog to recognize and respond to the cues that you will be utilizing throughout the dogs career, these are the cues you should be using now as well.
Before you begin to sequence, you teach the cues, hand signals, motion cues, etc... You do this on 1 or 2 jumps.
When you start to add obstacles to your sequences you absolutely should not change your cues or anything else that you have taught your pup to respond to. There is no reason to modify or change what you have been teaching simply because your dog is inexperienced. Changing your cues or handling strategy will do nothing except ultimately require you to retrain the things you originally trained when the dog is no longer considered a baby.
When you begin to sequence with a young dog the only differences in how you should handle this dog vs. An older more experienced dog is to keep the sequences shorter with even more than the usual effusive praise and reinforcements for a job well done, and, don't be in a hurry, speed comes with understanding, clear concise cues without rushing will get the job done without compromising the end result.
Your cues should be a bit more dramatic to ensure understanding. It is at this point in my dogs career that they learn the meaning of the individual cues, the more consistent I am in how I present these cues and the more clearly I present them, the better the dog will be
able to react quickly upon the initiation of these same cues later as the dog matures.
Your handling decisions should be the same with your novice dog as they are with your agility champion, just more dramatic!
In summary, train your pup, trust your training, maintain clear consistent criteria and most of all, HAVE FUN!

Contacts :-)

I have been thinking a lot about contact obstacles again recently, OK, it is true I am pretty much always thinking about contact obstacles! Recently, however, they have been a huge topic of discussion at seminars that I have been teaching. They have kind of moved into the spotlight because I have been using them a bit more in seminars.
In general I am not a huge fan of contact obstacles in handling seminars as they are either a problem because they are "speed bumps" and make certain handling situations easier. I also think they can cause a completely different problem, they hinder peoples ability to truly plan their handling strategy because a lot of students worry around contacts, not trusting the dog to perform them properly so they babysit the contacts completely throwing off their handling.
I have been bringing the contacts out more frequently in my Intermediate level seminars because I think that people need more input and education involving the contact obstacles and because this is the level that seems to be in transition.
There are several different issues surrounding the performance of contact obstacles these days, should I do running, should I do 2on/2off? Should I do 4 on the teeter or 2on/2off? Can I do a different behavior on the different obstacles? These are just questions regarding what criteria should be utilized, the questions only multiply once a criteria is selected.
As far as what is the "right" thing to do, that is completely up to you and your dog! I do let the dog help with the decision. I do this by paying very careful attention to what there movement, structure, and, natural propensities are regarding their natural behavior across the obstacles. Not every dog is built for a 2on/2off and not every dog is going to be able to have a running contact.
I also weigh how much time I have to devote to the training as well as well as how observant I may have to be to maintain consistency in my criteria.
For now I would like to talk about the 2on/2off criteria. The biggest issue that I see regarding a failure to achieve the fast, consistent, 2on/2off criteria people are looking for is first and foremost rushing the training. It is a huge mistake that we make by combining the bottom behavior with the full performance of the contact obstacles before we have fully trained and proofed the bottom behavior by itself.
Most creeping that we see on contact obstacles is a product of misunderstanding, the dog is not at all sure where they are supposed to be going or what they are supposed to be doing and it creates creeping.
We generally start early releasing the dog from the contact to circumvent the creeping, however, in actuality this just makes it worse but graying the behavior.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to fully train the 2on/2off behavior with all types of proofing, etc... before applying it to the full performance of the obstacle.
Within this process you should be building value for the bottom of the obstacle creating drive and desire to the 2on/2off position. If you have taught the behavior fully and correctly when you give the cue for the bottom behavior your dog should drive with passion, speed, and, confidence to the bottom completely unaided by you, the dog should have a completely independent performance of each of the obstacles. Definitely something to shoot for! Now, list your contact criteria, the steps you are going to employ to train it and have fun!

Crocodile calls, Mouse lines, and, killer Bananas

First, let it be known that Jenny Damm puts on a GREAT seminar! Her teaching style is amazing, her knowledge is incredible, and, her ability to communicate how to do things is just fantastic! SoBe and I are just back from an incredible 3 days of seminar with her in Hamden, CT at the awesome Paws N' Effect training center.
It was an incredible opportunity and we made the most of it! SoBe was brilliant if I do say so myself, and, although I was continuously pushed outside of my comfort zone, (which is exactly what I was hoping for), I held up quite nicely and learned oh so much! :-)
Jenny helped us with a crocodile call, the ability to put serious emphasis on a verbal cue to REALLY get the dogs attention, imagine a crocodile on the other side of of the jump you are sending your dog over and if you do not call the dog with serious passion the crocodile will get your dog!
We were perfecting the mouse line which is the line line you should be creating for your dog on turns, going between obstacles, etc.. picture your dog as the size of a mouse when setting lines.
Killer bananas are pretty much the opposite of a mouse line as they bow out in the shape of a banana. I think you get the gist of the 3 days!
I had some serious agility handling epiphanies at this seminar which I will go into more detail about as I incorporate some of these techniques, etc... into my handling.
My mission in going to this seminar was as I said to be pushed outside of my comfort zone, but, also just to be PUSHED! I am also really trying to be not only the very best trainer and handler that I can be but also the very best teacher. In order to be these things you have to not only have an open mind but be willing to continue to learn, to try new things, and, be open to different ideas.
I feel as though with a bit of time and practice I can incorporate several of the lessons I learned at Jennys seminar and improve on what I am already doing, very exciting indeed!
After the seminar Sonya and I went directly from the airport to a USDAA trial in Denver where we had a pretty good weekend considering how brain dead we were upon arrival!
I am very happy to report that after a scare with Danger he is doing awesome and will be returning to the agility scene soon! He competed in his first trial a couple of weeks ago and on MOnday after the trial I decided to take him in to see Kera (PT vet), just to see how he was doing. Kera noticed a bit of laxity in the knee and a fairly substantial muscle mass discrepancy as well. Needless to say I was freaking out that my boy was once again possibly done with agility forever!
Deb A. was very kind and took Danger to see Dr. Stubbs, out Ortho surgeon while I was in CT. and he said everything looked great and was impressed with the overall recovery, although he did feel that strengthening exercises for that leg are in order. Back he went to see Kera and she concurred that he seemed already to be doing better and so we are on an exercise regimen along with his agility training.
On that note, his dog walk looks amazing!!!! I have to sift through some videos that I shot over the past couple of days but he really seems to understand the job and id decidedly moving forward on his dog running dog walk performance!
Well, I am off to walk dogs... more later!