Agility training

I will say I did get a kick out of our level 3 TDAA first places. Won't lie. That's the only venue I've run yet that I actually have competition. All of our level 3 (superior/masters equivalent) TDAA Qs have been first places in very full classes with dogs that have several TAChs and quite a few with NATChs.

It is fun when you win. Not going to lie. But there's a lot more to it than that for me.

The most impressive thing to me was the course (i forget the game's name) where you have to handle behind 3 different distance lines (each progressively farther out) and she did all of them! Summer and distance don't go together, she's a dog that wants to run at my heels.

And on the note of 'heeling over obstacles'.... well I have a dog that doesn't send out worth crap. I'd prefer if she did obviously but it means I run a LOT in a course. Summer really feeds off me and if I'm confident and running fast then she is too. If I slow down, she does too. I actually run a lot more than a lot of my friends with bigger dogs because Summer's distance skills suck so bad. And at this point I don't care to fix them much. I work on them in ring rentals some but I'd rather her be fast and happy and rightnexttome than stressy and slow because I'm asking her to send out. In TDAA I can run fast enough to get to the backsides of most obstacles but in USDAA HAHAHAHA. Yeah. It doesn't work so well.

I think a lot of her wanting to run next to me is because of her foundations with her breeder and then her first classes wayyyy back when were on a leash. Even though I took her back through foundations at 8 years old I still see a lot of that peeking through.

That is the thing that has blown my mind training with people who handle toy dogs. I think about "oh my god, the running with border collies", and the people with toy dogs are running so much more.

We had our lesson today, and it was very reassuring. No brilliant magic wand moments for the stress, although I was glad he showed it once so she could see what I was talking about. Happy, happy Gusto, working, shaping, cookies toys, and then a moment of slower and then...just stuck. In his 2 on 2 off on the a-frame, and his eyes kind of glazed over, and he couldn't release.

But I got a GREAT plan for retraining my dog walk that I'm really excited about, and that Gusto seemed to be game for. I just need to make myself go out and work on it regularly. I have 2 nights a week where we have practice, and otherwise I'm basically inviting myself over to friends' houses (hey, can I come play on all your nice equipment?).

Also some good reminders (and some new info, because I haven't always thought it through enough) about reward placement.

But mostly, as sad as it sounds, I needed to hear that I'd done some stuff right with him, and that happened. He has good foundations. He showed them off. His body awareness is phenomenal (nothing like watching him do full handstands while searching for the contacts with his hind feet). He was, other than that one moment, happy and willing to work with me. I missed some big things like teaching him to work under pressure, but I did get some stuff right, and I really needed that reassurance.

I wish it wasn't a 3 hour drive to this trainer, but I'm hoping to make it for at least one lesson a month on average. I think it will be far more worth my time and money than local lessons weekly.

And he got his CPE number today, so an entry is headed out. I'm only putting him in 3 classes (Jackpot, colors, and wildcard) so I can hopefully just have fast, happy, jumps and tunnels and leave the ring for big cookies. And Meg will go along and maybe finish her level 3 stuff.

I don't care why people do agility --people do agility for alllllll sorts of reasons, and if you don't want to be competitive but still want to trial, that's okay! As long as everyone is having fun!

I love trials. I love the social aspect, I've been going to CPE trials since I was 8 and know a lot of people in the circles. I have a good time just going and hanging out. I have never had a real competition dog of my own--Jack did trials but we only did a couple a year and he never had any sort of formal training.

But I'm to the point now where I WANT to be competitive. I want to show off our skills, training, speed and teamwork. Right now, that's totally not happening Crossbone can and will (?) be awesome someday. He shows me glimpses of the future every once in awhile. If I could manage his stress at trails and lack of a work ethic when there's no reward dangling in front of his face, we'll be good. At this point I think I need another dog to work with. Not to replace Crossbone, because I am always going to work on his issues and I know with lots of practice we'll slowly make progress but I am putting so much pressure on him and he's so soft, he just crumbles if I'm not 100% happy and peppy. Once he thinks he has done something wrong, he shuts down and has the memory of an elephant.

We've stopped trialing for the summer and have only been working on fun things in the yard. I've changed up my reward system which has helped tremendously and have kept everything fast and fun in the yard and at class. I'm lowering my expectations a bit and am just working on getting him into the right mindset. He can and will trot and stay with me in the ring and it bores me--I want him to give 100% and leave me in the dust. Nothing is more awesome to me than watching a fast, in-sync team.

Like in this Standard run--he never gets out of first gear. Then after the tunnel before the weaves he totally spaces out. When he comes out of the tunnel at a WALK I know we're doomed--then he takes 20sec to weave. Really!
[YOUTUBE]R96kJofGPFE[/YOUTUBE]


BB- Glad you had a good lesson. I sooo wish there was a magic want cure for stressy dogs. I feel your pain.

If you could do it over what would you change? How would you practice working under pressure?

Yeah, that video of Crossbones looks a lot like many of Gusto's runs. I wish I'd videoed more of Meg when she was early on in her career. I don't remember ever having these sorts of issues with her, despite the fact that she's a very worried dog. I'm not sure if I didn't notice it, if it didn't happen, or I'm just blissfully forgetting.

With both of my dogs, I spent a lot of time teaching behaviors in relatively 'sterile' environments before I started adding in distractions/stress. I focused really heavily on accuracy with Gusto (other than the last trial where I was intentionally early releasing, his stopped contacts are ROCK SOLID for instance). I wish I'd taught him earlier to work with me and learn new things in the midst of heavier distraction. And I wish I'd focused much, much more on speed and done tons of rewarding for it, instead of worrying about accuracy so much. I thought he was going to grow into this crazy fast dog and I was going to have to worry about the control.

I'm not sure it would have made a difference, but it's what I would try if I had a time machine. His littermate is just as weird and quirky and stressy as him, and obviously grew up in a different (agility savvy) home, so maybe it is all genetic and I couldn't have made much of a difference.

We had a fun usdaa day. We had probably our best run ever in snoopers and we smoked the course time like whoa. Even with me forgetting my plan and also summer saying hi to the judge (but she called off). We were 10 seconds under course time.

Jumpers wasn't bad but we missed 3 jumps and I had to correct. With three big corrections we were barely over time.

Gamblers- summer is great but they forgot to whistle is so we had to redo and then missed the gamble. On a plus she did actually send out but I stepped one foot over the line.

Kind of a bummer as I wanted a title. But she was fast all day and just having a ball. I got some great compliments from a lot of people and a lot of people wanting to meet the cute papillon. She's kind of a novelty here. And wveryonw is shocked by her age.

Georgie got her first open standard Q today!! It was even a clean run.

Payton wants me to start a new agility organization called Paytongility. Where you go under the tire instead of through it, you DON'T touch the yellow AT ALL, and weave poles are absolutely, definitely, fully optional.

Penny is lame. Ughhhh. Drove 3hrs each way to a trial-like practice. She got 1 run before coming up lame. And I mean limping off stride lame. Why, dog. Why.

Summer had another seizure like episode this morning at the trial. I ended up having to rush her to the vet. I'm just a mess right now.

Yay Georgie! And Jari will happily join Payton in his new agility venture

Poor girlie - I hope it's nothing serious

Oh Laurelin, I am so sorry. I really hope it's nothing major. Poor Summer

Georgie got another standard Q on Sunday. One more and she'll have her OA which will dump her in Masters for both. Not too shabby for a little girly who just started trialing last September. Sunday wasn't a clean run, but it was actually a really good run, because she didn't quite get her weave poles done so I had to pull her back to re-attempt... which meant we were coming back at the a-frame. And I successfully called her off her beloved a-frame. Big!

Payton's standard run was another disaster and I went outside and cried when he was done again. Last trial it felt like we were making some progress but this time it just felt like... nothing good was happening. No weave poles. No contacts. And people who see him run all think I just haven't trained weaves or contacts and the solution is to just go back and re-train it when the issue is much bigger than that. I didn't even know if I wanted to stay and run him in JWW. My mom told me to just go in to run him, and if he didn't do his weaves, then just leave the ring with him. Well, he got his weaves on the second try. First time he's gotten all his weave poles since May. I didn't care about the rest of the run after that (totally forget we actually could have gotten a Q out of it had I paid attention) because I was just so **** happy he got his weaves. Big celebration afterward, lots of steak and kisses. I've got no idea. He's just trying to drive me insane I guess.


I wanted to try entering him in some CPE or USDAA or something, something where the runs are cheaper and I could get him in the ring more often, but there's hardly any around here. And there's just not enough fun runs either to be able to go and practice in the ring and reward him with cookies for weaves in the ring. I'm trying to figure out places I can go in town and set up weave poles and practice at different places, although I have no clue if that will be helpful at all. I know I can't just fix it overnight but I felt like we were making progress after that last trial and now buhhhh. Right back to zero.

God bless agility people though, for their unfailing enthusiasm for Payton's speed - and his good looks. At least he's pretty.

As nice as the Q might have been, I think that was probably exactly the right way to finish the run! Congrats!

Drat, that would have been my suggestion. The other nice thing about those venues is that each has some games where you can basically work on what you want. I know plenty of people who use gamblers (jackpot in CPE) to work their dog's contacts or weaves in the ring, since you can just keep putting them back over the a-frame, for example. Plus USDAA jumpers doesn't have anything but jumps and tunnels (no weaves), so it is a great confidence building class.

I have long said that I am going to start my own agility organization. It will consist only of snooker, jumpers, and steeplechase. When you register for the year, you get 3 do-over cards, good on any run at any trial.

FAST class in AKC is the option for that... one of my friends told me he had to enter FAST with his dog to reinforce her contacts. I've been kind of resistant to entering because I don't really like FAST, but I think I might need to give it a shot.

We got waitlisted for our next trial, and my second option for an August trial is already closed. So we might be taking another month off. I'm twiddling my thumbs waiting for some online courses to open too, since I got my raise and can afford some stuff again. I really want to try a Tracy Skelnar Agility U class...

I still haven't submitted my entry for the trial in two weeks.. I want to find success with her. I've done SO much to find success.. is there ever a moment in a stressy, runaway dogs life where you instantly can tell they are ready to trial?

$125 for the entry fees
$110 for the hotel
$150 for gas
-------
$385 total


Basically, I'm sick of burning that much money to compete& only end up sad& in tears that my dog runs away. I need to decide before tomorrow evening what to do.. ugh.

I hope it's not unreasonable to offer up this great read here. http://thecognitivecanine.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/844/

I don't think it is at all. I agree that it is a great article.

Gusto and I are coming off a break. As hard as it was, it has already had an impact. Maybe it only did because I was so frustrated with trying to do agility with him, but I'm so glad I took the break. It wasn't long - about a month of zero agility. We hiked, we swam, we played ball on the green, and I fell in love with him again. I also went back to a training aspect that had gotten kind of lost in the shuffle - the quote I like from Ian Dunbar was something like "Every five minutes, ask yourself 'is this good', and if it is, tell them." Lots more rewarding just for doing the right thing, even if I didn't ask for anything. And yesterday when we were at the green, and a dog popped out of the bike path, Gusto started to bark and run to the end of the green as he usually does. And I quietly said "lie down" and he dropped into a down, looked back over at me, wagged, and then came running back for a cookie when I told him he was a genius.

We are starting on our new dog walk training plan, and I went to practice at a friend's house last night. I told myself getting out of the car that my ONLY criteria for at least the first week is "Gusto thinks this is a great game". I want him quivering with excitement when he sees the hoop. If he runs by it or takes off with his toy, I don't care. Happy, happy Gusto. The rest will come.

Rockstar pug was on fire tonight at the field. Weaving all the things from hard distances and with me layering from behind contact equipment. The hardest thing for us was sending out to jumps, go figure she gets the trickiest obstacle from a distance but a single jump throws us haha. Good Pug.

I decided I really wanted to get off my ass and start filming training sessions. Not to show to people really, more for myself so I can see how we are working and progressing as a team.

Anyway, today I *finally* had some time to pull the camera out. It's supposed to storm tonight so I had to do it this morning. It's also humid and he shuts down early when it's humid... I set up the jumps, I set up the camera, I warmed up the dog... I turn the camera out, we go out.... and everyone starts letting the other dogs out(there are currently 5 in my house because of visitors and the neighbors also just got a new dog).

My dog is scared of my bother's dog bc it's mean and likes to randomly run out and attack him. My brother thinks it's "funny." So when my dog sees my brother's he just freezes in place or runs off course to hide... so did that a few times. Then my cousin's dog was let out and she charges people... yup.... and then the old lady was let and she's just become rude for treats. She doesn't care about other dogs but she'll run to the middle of course and sit in front of me for treats. EVERY take got messed up by a dog... I *finally* get all the dogs away and now he's done and started skipping weave poles and dropping bars and slowing down because he's tired and hot.

SO FREAKING FRUSTRATED.

We're taking a break and I'm going to give it one more try... I left everything set up for now... hopefully we can get something filmed before the storm comes in.

I have been so freaking excited by how Gusto is running lately. It know it is home and I know the issues we've had have been trial related but...it just feels like something good is coming. He's happy. He's working with me, and choosing to do so. We both walk away from training in a great mood.

We have a CPE trial (only entered one day, he's only doing 3 games) next month, and an AKC trial at the beginning of September. It sucks that winter is coming so fast and it really limits trial options, but if he keeps training like this, and we really get the trial stress worked out this year - he's still only 3. Next year we can do more.

And we've got a whole series of lessons set up for the fall/early winter. I haven't felt this hopeful in a long while.

We did some really short sequences tonight - tunnel and chute, plus either low dog walk or a mostly-supported teeter (so it only tipped a few inches).

He's not afraid of any old thing, he loves to play/work, and we've done enough other stuff before this that we really know each other and mesh. We are having so much fun together. So. Much. Fun. I love this dog.

Even if I'll barely be able to keep up with him soon.

[YOUTUBE]k94DcAy18jU[/YOUTUBE]

Just wanted to see what would happen if I tried to sequence some stuff tonight, we haven't worked on any agility things in a bit, keep on meaning to but meh it's hot. Keeping in mind she hasn't ever done multiple obstacles other than a straight line of jumps driving to a toy... These are the 2 highlights of some pretty hilarious attempts, she's definitely figured out that running past jumps is the faster way to get to a tunnel. <3