Terry Simons agility workshop

I have been meaning to post about my Terry Simons agility workshop that I attended first weekend in May, so here is my recap of the event. 

This was my third year at his seminar and as always I really enjoyed it.  This year I ran Spryte exclusively,  I didn't really see the benefit in running Strider as our teamwork is probably as good as it's going to get.  The biggest lesson I probably took away from the seminar is that I tend to rush handling with Spryte instead of waiting to make sure she is committed to obstacles.  I find that because she is much faster than I am used to, I want to make sure I am ahead of her. Which means not standing around and "watching the pretty dog land". I want to give her direction and then get to the next spot on the course.  I think eventually I will be able to do that, but she is still a young dog and I need to make sure she has understood what I am asking before rushing past. It is just a learning curve for both of us and will come in time.

The other piece of the puzzle that I took away was how to improve our contact performance.  As I'm sure you all know by now Spryte struggles with holding a 2 on 2 off contact when she is over excited at a trial.  And two, I have been working on teaching her a running Aframe.  For our 2 on 2 off I was instructed to pick her up and carry her off if she jumped her contact and didn't do what was asked.  This advice didn't surprise me as redoing the contact for Spryte is just as rewarding as continuing on with the course.  It was not much different than the advice that Kathy Keats had given me a few weeks back to stop and wait a minute before continuing on.  Only taking her off the course would in theory have way more impact on Spryte because the game was now over.  It took a few repetitions of her jumping off her dogwalk and me carrying her off  before she clued in that the game will end if you don't show some control and stop in your 2 on 2 off spot.  After that she showed remarkable control and we had very few issues for the rest of the 2 day workshops.

The next issue we dealt with was our Aframe.  If the Aframe is lower, Spryte does the 2 hit running Aframe beautifully.  Once it is raised she is leaving two early and not hitting in her zone.  I have been working it like crazy, but I'm getting tired of the battle.  I would rather work on handling and proofing than constantly drilling my Aframe performance.  Anyway after several courses where Spryte either missed her contact or barely got it (Terry said she got about 20%, yikes!) Terry finally said that I have two choices, either go back to the jump grid and box and basically re due my running aframe training or return to a two on two off on the frame.  How discouraging!  If there is one thing I really hate doing its backtracking in my training.  It's frustrating for me and the dog. It is often necessary to go back a few steps if a piece of the puzzle is  missing and the dog just isn't getting what you are trying to teach.  But here I had a choice to return to what had worked before and stop fighting the running frame.  So I tried stopping her in the next course he set up and to my utter surprise she slammed into her 2 on 2 off position and held her contact perfectly.  Well my mind was made up right then and there. No more worrying about running aframes. We'll go back to what works and just do more proofing and self control exercises to prepare for the trial environment. 

I'll admit it has been nice training since then. I don't have to stress about her contacts, I can get into my positions on course and I don't have to do endless repetitions of the Aframe.  So once again I gained lots of valuable experience and tips from my seminar.  The following are some videos from the weekend. Some great moments and you'll see some not so great moments where I rushed moves or didn't handle Spryte quiet right.  But the mistakes are just as valuable to our evolving teamwork as the flawless moments are.  It's all just part of the experience of training and showing dogs.

Effort Errors

     I am a positive reinforcement dog trainer.  When training I reward behaviours that I like and want to see again.  My dogs might get cookies, a game of tug,  or I might clap my hands and tell my dog how wonderful she is while she jumps around barking.  If my dog does something that I don't like while training I do not use physical corrections.  The consequence might be no reward, a time out, a non reward marker like "oops" or something else to that affect.  What I am trying to get at is I don't get mad at the dog for making a mistake.  Mistakes are a necessary part of leaning and I don't want my dog to be afraid of being wrong.
    All too often in classes I watch as people get annoyed and angry with their dogs when they make a mistake.  The dog breaks it's start line, goes off course, brings the wrong scent article back, or comes to front too early, and the owners are quick to give a loud "no" or "akkk" while rushing in on their dogs with threatening body language.  The dogs often look confused or stressed and a little bit of the joy for the game is lost in that moment. 
    These mistakes are what we call "Effort Errors" in obedience.  Basically the dog is trying to be correct.  The dog is focused, responding to cues, trying to please and trying to get it right.  The mistake happen when the dog thinks he knows what is expected of him, but the trainer is actually looking for something else.  The dog doesn't know he has made the wrong decision until the trainer tells him. Effort errors occur because the trainer hasn't taught the skill completely, has neglected to teach some foundation behaviours or the trainer hasn't done enough proofing to show the dog that cue "X" means you respond by doing behaviour "Y" and not behaviour "Z".
    Punishing a dog in any way for effort errors is devastating to your dog and your relationship with him or her.  Your dog needs to know that he can trust you.  That if he makes a mistake the worst that will happen is the exercise is stopped and there will be a short break.  A monotone "oops" lets the dog know that what he just did was not what you are looking for and that you will try again.  If you correct your dog for an error like this your dog will be more reluctant to respond to a command in the future.  Your dog will worry that if he does the wrong thing you will reprimand him.  So  most dog's just stop trying.  It is safer for them to sit and wait for a double command or wait for help from you instead of risking taking that first move and making another mistake.
    Here is an example that I see all the time in my agility classes.  The handler brings her dog up to the start line and ask for a sit.  The handler then leads out and before she has a chance to release the dog it breaks its start line and takes the first obstacle. The handler is angry with the dog for not staying and verbally reprimands the dog while physically placing the dog back into the sit position.
     What the handler doesn't see is how eager the dog is to respond.  That dog really wants to play agility and is excited about taking that first obstacle.  The dog is so eager that he is watching the handlers body language for his release cue with so much intensity that he is noticing every little muscle twitch that the owner makes.  And he is often interpreting that muscle twitch as his release cue.
     The confusion comes because the handler hasn't been consistent with her release cue.  Sometimes she releases the dog with forward body motion (she suddenly takes off running), sometimes she releases with an arm gesture forward (like waving the dog onward), other times she releases with a verbal "ok" or maybe the dog's name.  Her dog notices every single one of these cues and because he believes that all of the above is permission to move forward the dog breaks position on the first cue that he recognises.  If this is not the cue the handler meant to use to release the dog then the dog is reprimanded and taken back to the start line for "breaking" position.  The dog is confused and maybe even stressed because he thought he did what was asked of him and now suddenly he has upset his owner with his error.         

      With too many reprimands like this one the dog will start to show stress signals when approaching the start line.  The dog might move slowly, sniff, suddenly become deaf to your commands, or do zoomies around the ring.  All of these stress behaviours are an attempt on the dog's behalf to let the handler know that he is worried about what is about to be asked of him.  He doesn't understand his job and he is afraid to make a mistake.  Agility is no longer a fun game you both play together, but instead is serious business and he had better not make an error.

     The error belongs to the handler for not being consistent in her release and for neglecting to teach the dog that you only break position if I do "X".  For me I always lead out to my position and stop all motion, raise my arm to indicate which side and in what direction we will be going, I make eye contact with my dog, wait a second and then release with a verbal "Go" command.  My dogs are taught that my moving away from then is not a release, raising my hand is not a release, stopping in position is not a release. The only release is the verbal "Go".  This way there is no confusion on my dogs part.  They know every time what to watch for and how to respond appropriately.  If my dog left position early because she misread the release, then we will simply start the exercise again.
        As dog trainers and handlers we should all celebrate effort errors.  It lets us know that our dogs are eager, they want to play this game with us and they are trying hard to get it right.  The errors let us see the holes in our training and what needs improving.  It helps us get an idea of what our dogs are thinking and how they perceive the exercise.  Effort errors help us improve our dogs understanding of the skills and in turn will lead to more success in training and the ring.  So the next time your dog makes an effort error, thank him for his enthusiasm, figure out a way to communicate to him what you actually want him to do and then try the exercise again.

Lloydminister Flyball Tournament

The shelties and I went to a flyball tournament in Lloydminister this past weekend.   Both shelties had full time spots and ran 8 races each day with 3 heats per race.  It was a lot of racing and both Spryte and I gained a lot of experience at this tournament.  Spryte also earned enough points for her FDCH title.

 It was Spryte's second tournament and she improved tremendously from the last one. Our last tournament she kept stopping to watch the other dogs race and she was dropping her ball early and fumbling at the box. This time we hardly had any ball issues (mostly the last races because she was exhausted at that point) and she didn't stop once to watch the other dogs.  Her box turns were beautiful all weekend too.  Even without any props in front of the box she got up and did a four foot turn every time! 

Spryte's speed also improved tremendously at this tournament.  She was so distracted last time that she never really put out any effort to get to the box and back.  Her times were in the high 6's.  In Lloyd on Saturday morning Spryte started out very strong and fast and blew her old times out of the water.  Her fastest time this weekend was a 5.3 and we know she can be faster.  It was nice to see her really trying hard and running fast.  She was excited to play but this time she was better at dealing with her enthusiasm and showed way more self control.  She is improving so much and I'm sure next tournament she will be running consistently in the low 5's and will be catching the ball every time with very few bobbles.

Strider and I ran on an open team at this tournament.  Basically it's a team that is formed just for the one show and it can have dogs from any club on it.  I am on Go All Out and I was racing with people from Northern Power Paws and Rebel Racers.  The team was named "Go Rebel Paws" which I thought was cute and very clever :).  I didn't know any of these people and would be meeting them all for the first time this weekend.  Some people in flyball are a little "hard core" and want to have the fastest times and win all the races. I just go to have fun and put points on my dogs.  I was a little worried that my temporary teammates might take it a little too seriously for me. Well there really wasn't any reason for me to worry.  The people were all very nice and encouraging.  They loved Strider and cheered for him every race.   The team captains mentioned to me in the beginning that they are there to have fun with their dogs and at the end of the tournament they said that I am welcome to race with them anytime, they would love to have Strider and I back. It was a great experience and even though they are not my actual team, I still felt like I was apart of a team when I raced with them.

So all in all it was a very successful weekend. I had a great time playing with my dogs and seeing huge improvements in Spryte.  It was fun meeting new people and experiencing a different team.  And as always I had a great time with my teammates, racing together, chatting about dogs and life, going out for supper and witnessing some silly water slide shenanigans. It was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to Go All Out's tournament here in June.

Unconsciously incompetent

Currently I am reading Kathy Keats "Success from the Inside", it is a great book that talks about the psychological side of becoming successful in any given sport (or any goal for that matter).  In the book Kathy lists the four phases you pass through while learning a new skill. The very first step describes me to a tee in herding:

"First you are unconsciously incompetent.  You aren't very skilled and you don't even know it.  You have no idea what you are doing right or wrong".  That line pretty much sums up my herding lessons.  I am trying to get my dog to circle the sheep, change sides, move them at a slow pace, lie down on balance points, etc.  Half the time I have no idea why something went right or wrong. My instructor is busy telling me "yes stop there" or "move to your right" or "back up" and I am happily trying to obey but still not sure why I am doing it. I have brief moments of clarity where I think I have it figured out, and then I go and make the same mistake a few minutes later.  As frustrating as it can be sometimes, I am not discouraged at all.   I am really enjoying the challenge of learning a new dog sport and I am always eager for my next lesson.  I understand that the setbacks and frustrations are all part of learning a new skill and one day we will be at the fourth phase "unconsciously competent when you don't have to think about the skills." That day is a long way in the future, but for now I will celebrate every small success as it happens.

I think one of the biggest draws for sheep herding is watching my dog do something that is instinctive. I don't have to teach, bribe, coax or manipulate my dog to do anything. She wants to herd. Spryte gets into the pen and instantly goes to work. She is focused and confident, and an intense calm comes over her that I never see anywhere else.  Spryte knows what she needs to do to move the stock, all I have to do is channel it.

Each week I'm excited by our progress. Sometimes it's as little as stopping her at the top of the sheep and starting her again, other weeks I am able to send her around the sheep and when I back up she calmly brings them to me in a relatively straight line. This is a skill we both still struggle with, but each week it gets a little bit better.   I am doing my part by watching videos and reading what I can about herding. Spryte is doing her part by patiently putting up with my mistakes and never giving up. We are both learning what our jobs are and sheep herding is starting to happen.

One day soon I will have to get pictures of Spryte herding, or maybe another video. For now the pics on here are from our walk yesterday around the acreage.

Kathy Keats agility seminar

Spryte and I attended the Kathy Keats seminar last Friday.  I realised this is the 5th year in a row I have been at her workshops.  Kathy always sets up international courses with many challenges we wouldn't normally see in Canadian competition.  The first few times I went to one of her workshops I felt completely lost.  Strider always tried his best, but I just wasn't used to handling those type of challenges. Each time we attended a workshop we learnt more and were better able to handle the difficult elements on course. The last few years it has "clicked" for Strider and I, and we would often do very well.  We became a team and it was a great feeling. 

Well this year it was time to bring Spryte out.  She is young and still learning about self control and agility in general.  I was very pleased with her accuracy on many of the challenges like backsides of jumps and pull throughs.  When we broke exercises down into smaller pieces of 6 or so obstacles, Spryte could perform them perfectly.  However as soon as we did a full course her excitement level rose drastically and the errors began to occur.  What we mostly struggled with was holding our contacts and hitting weavepole entries with speed.  She just gets so excited that she doesn't want to slow down and stop on contacts or collect for those difficult weave poles. For her it is much more fun to blast past them and continue on.  These are the mistakes typical of a green dog and once she learns to control her excitement she will be a phenomenal agility dog.  But for now we will continue to work on the basics.

Kathy had many tips for us and offered lots of positive encouragement.  The biggest piece of advice she gave me was to stop all motion when Spryte makes a mistake.  Up until this point when practising if she misses her contacts or misses her weave poles I just turn her around and we do it again.  The problem with this is Spryte doesn't necessarily know that a mistake was made, it just becomes one continuous loop of agility.  She gets more and more excited by all the motion and then accuracy goes out the window.  So I need to consciously stop myself from continuing on.  It has become such a habit that I find myself forgetting to stop and instead winding her up even more.

When Kathy pointed this mistake out to me, it became so obvious, and now that I am aware of it, I can make the necessary changes.  That is the nice thing about having a coach.   They notice things that you can't because you are too busy being "in the game".  It is the reason I attend so many agility seminars.  When you train by yourself you tend to develop bad habits.  Seminars fix my mistakes and set us on the right path again.  So I look forward to our next agility seminar with Terry Simons in May and in the meantime Spryte and I will continue to train and work on improving self control and teamwork.

Beating ring nerves

      I often have students come up to me after class commenting on how they would love to start competing with their dog, but their ring nerves are preventing them from entering a show.  Having ring nerves isn't necessarily a bad thing. It means you take the sport seriously and you really want to do a good job.  A little bit of ring nerves will keep you focused and provide just enough adrenaline to think clearly and react quickly.  However too much of this emotion can bog you down, causing slow reaction times, foggy thinking and poor handling decisions.
   
 I have been competing in a variety of dog sports for 10+ years and I do still on occasion get ring nerves.  Here is how I keep it under control.
   
 The first thing I do is remind myself how much I love my dog and how proud I am of him (or her).  I know it seems a little silly, but it helps keep me grounded.  It helps remind me that I am simply playing a game with my dog and we do this because I love spending time with him, and I love the teamwork that the sport fosters.  It doesn't matter if we win or loose, get that Q or miss it by a point, in the end my dog always tries his hardest.  How can I be upset with him or embarrassed by his performance if I know he did his best? Instead I am proud of his efforts, regardless of the outcome, my dogs never disappoint me.  I am not going to waste my round stressing over what might happen, I am going to enjoy our time together and celebrate at the end of the round like we won the world cup.
  
 One of the biggest keys to beating ring nerves is being prepared.  If you do your homework, practise with your dog regularly, know the rules, and know how the sport is played, then you will know you have done your best when you walk into the ring. You will be confident in yourself and your dogs ability.  If you neglect to practise with your dog, you will walk to the line doubting yourself and your chances at success. As soon as you start to doubt, the ring nerves will begin to take over.  You will start to visualise all the things that can go wrong, and you will loose that confident air that the more experienced competitors have.  Your dog will pick up on your lack of confidence, and likely begin to send a plethora of calming signals your way.  This will only add to your ring stress, because now your normally attentive dog is busy yawning, sniffing the ground, looking away and acting sluggish.  At this point, take a couple of deep breaths, try and picture something positive, tell yourself you will be better prepared next time and begin your run.
    
 Having a warm up routine can really help too.  If you get to the show late, miss your walk through and then run into the ring after the ring steward hollers your name 3 times, you will be stressed.  And if you are stressed you can bet your ring nerves will take over.  So instead plan a warm up routine that begins at your home.  Make sure you pack everything you need, so that you and your dog are comfortable at the show.  Next get to the show grounds early, so you can set up your crates, and walk your dog around to acclimatize him to the new facility.  Then let him rest in his kennel until it is your time in the ring.  How early you get your dog out for his run really depends on your dog.  Some dogs might need 15 minutes or more to relax and be able to focus.  Some dogs do better with very little warm up as they get over stimulated by all the activity.  There is no right or wrong way, you need to try different things and see what works best for your dog.  Develop a routine together and the consistency of the routine will keep you calm and give you confidence.  Your warm up might include focus work, tricks, stretching, games and obedience moves.  Again it really depends on you and  your dog.  Instead of standing around stressing about the course, the judge and disengaging from your dog,  having a consistent routine will keep you and your dog connected, and help you feel like you are actively doing your best to prepare for your round.

       Another great technique for beating ring stress is to visualise success.  If you picture yourself nailing that front cross, getting your footwork perfect during your heeling pattern, running through the course in the correct order, then you are practising being successful.  Most people instead focus on what will go wrong.  They visualise themselves being late with their cross, they picture the dog leaving them to go sniff, they picture themselves getting lost on course.  Your mind cannot tell the difference between visualisation and the real thing, so you are in essence practising being wrong.  You are practising failure.  And because your mind thinks its real, your body will react as if it is real.  Your ring nerves will come on full force along with other negative emotions associated with failure.  You will be anxious, feel disappointed, maybe even a little depressed.  You will walk into the ring feeling as if its too late, the round already lost.  If you practise visualising success, you will enter the ring feeling confident and in control.
  
  You also need to remember that dogs are not robots and they are not going to be perfect every time.  You WILL fail, you WILL loose, so you might as well just accept it and move on.  It is not worth stressing every time you go into the ring, wondering if you will pass this round or will you be "giving another donation to the club".    Everyone at that show has failed before.  They understand what it's like and they will not judge or ridicule you.  In fact many times a friend or friendly stranger will come up and comfort you, offering words of support.  In the end it is just a dog show, it is not world peace, it is not the cure for cancer.  It is just a ribbon, it is just a title. And there will always be another show.  So reflect on what went wrong, what you can practise and improve on to better prepare for next time.  Accept the failure, learn from it and then get over it.

   So the next time you enter a dog show make sure you are prepared, you have a great warm up routine,  you have visualised success and remember to stop for a moment to appreciate your dog and give him a hug. Remember that this is just a game, and not a life altering moment.  And those pesky ring nerves will melt away.

Weaves and Wraps

Last night was lesson 4 of my Weave pole class.  It is the first time I have run this class and I was absolutely amazed at the progress of the dogs.  After only 4 sessions, there is a Duck Toller in class weaving a full set of six weave poles with entries from all sides.  There are also several other dogs in class that have 3 sets of two poles set out, with the gates angled open.  By the end of next class the poles should be almost in line with each other and I have full confidence that they will be weaving a set of six weave poles by the end of the last class.  It's absolutely incredible that a dog can go from knowing nothing about weave poles to weaving a complete set of six poles in a six week class.  I love this method and I will never teach my dogs to weave any other way again.

Spryte and I continue to work on her agility skills.  I try and go back and revisit foundation skills as often as I can.  It's easy to get caught up in working full courses, but then the finer skills tend to fall apart.  Lately I have noticed she cannot turn tight over a jump. Her idea of a wrap around a wing is to fling yourself as far as you can over the jump and then turn back to me.  She turns wider than a Mack truck!

I did a lot of sending her around cones and obstacles as a puppy.  She loved the game and would race around the cones, running as tight to them as she could, and then she would race back to me.  Next we did it around wing jumps and again she had great success.  We added a jump bar, and it was decent, she still jumped a little long, but nothing like what I see out on course.  Yesterday we practised out in the yard and again I had terrible wide turns.  I was really starting to think that I need to fix this. While pondering over her wide turns it hit me, I have only every done wraps from a stationary position.  Every time I did the ground work for this exercise, I was standing still and sending her out ahead of me.  So of course as soon as I added a lot of motion into the picture, she read it as "jump with extension" and would jump way past the jump before turning.  I had added motion into our courses when working on wraps, but I had never done it in the groundwork. 

It seems so obvious to me now, but it was such an easy thing to overlook when training.  That's the thing with dog training, you can't possibly remember to train every skill to perfection every time.  You will miss stuff and then you must go back and retrain that skill. So Spryte and I have started revisiting our wraps.  I use "dig dig dig" to cue the wrap around the jump and I have started adding a lot of my motion into the picture.  And just as expected, the first few times she flew over the jump.  By the end of the session she started to collect her stride and jump close to the wing and wrap around it.  It's no were near trained, and I don't expect it to carry over into the ring yet. But with a little more practise I should start to get the tight turns that I desire.

That is why I love dog training so much.  There is always something that needs work.  The behaviour is never perfect and it will take years of consistent training to get my dogs to the level I want them. In the meantime I get to spend countless hours training my dogs.  This means many hours of bonding with them, playing, learning from each other and growing as a team.  Nothing beats the relationship that forms between a handler and a performance dog.  It truly is priceless.

Here is a video of Spryte and I working on "wrap" when she was a puppy. Notice I always send and don't add motion! Naughty me!  The goal was for her to wrap the cone and always turn towards me, never turn away from me. If she turned the wrong way, we redid it.  I also wanted distance (that's why I am far from the cone)

Today's practise on wraps and motion.  Her first time over Spryte didn't notice the wrap signals and jumped long (and looked very surprised that I had turned), after that she started paying attention and wrapped tightly around the wings.  The jump bar is angled to encourage jumping tight to the the wing.