Agility training

Haha

No.

I was going to give you some advice but, maybe you don't believe it right now, but I think you actually already know how to work on this. You know how to help a dog who is stressed and worried because you did it with Meg. And I know you know, because I remember asking you for suggestions with Auggie.
You're having a rough time with him and maybe some time off will be good. But I think it's too early to start thinking he isn't meant to be an agility dog. You have so much time still left with him. Even if you missed some foundation stuff, that doesn't make it too late. And I know when Gusto is on, he's great. It's just a matter of finding out how to turn that switch on every, or at least most, of the time. I honestly believe if anybody can do it, you're best suited to do so.

Oh my God, so much this.



Sunday was our Stuart Mah seminar. I wrote up a blog post about it on the blog if anybody wants to read the whole thing (it's a bit long.)
http://sheltiechick.com/2014/06/16/paytons-first-agility-seminar/

The short of it is Stuart said Payton lacks "attention to detail." It goes beyond just impulse control although impulse control is part of it. I'm still not 100% sure what that means in terms of dog training. I have a few exercises to do and an approach for the ring, but I'm still trying to decide how to fully work on it. I guess because if you say to me "Payton lacks impulse control" I know how to work on that away from agility equipment even - but "Payton lacks attention to detail" I'm not sure how to apply to just, you know, life in general? Still thinking about it. If anybody here has more insight on what exactly that means, feel free to chime in, haha.
Right now I'm thinking it would be helpful to get him into a class again, but I still don't really have any good options besides waiting for Trkman's foundations class to open again and put him in that, take lots of video, and hope she can help me along too? Not sure. Ugh.
It was good though to hear somebody else say they don't think it's obstacle performance issues, and that it's not that my handling is totally rubbish (just that my handling isn't helping his issues any.) I've just... blown it somewhere along the line and need to do a better job. P is so much the exact opposite of Auggie, he's like trial by fire dog training or something.

Meanwhile Georgie is perfect ugh ugh ugh ugh. I swear if she gets her AJ in July I'm going to start sabotaging her runs out of fury.

Old Dog Weaves!

[YOUTUBE]deEOH7eTOPE[/YOUTUBE]

You can er.... tell we've neglected her right side. But the left side is awesome! Keep in mind the heat index right now is 98 degrees outside. So she's holding up pretty well for a little old thing (I also wetted her down).

:rofl1::rofl1::rofl1::rofl1:

We're slowly working the right. I think once it clicks she'll be good to go.

What sort of exercises were suggested? I'm wondering if things like lifting/targeting with a specific foot would help? When I think "attention to detail" with dogs, I think about being more deliberate about behaviors. I'm not really sure how it would apply to agility though.

Want to join my club? I'm president, but am still looking for a vice president and a secretary.

I really, really do appreciate the thoughts/comments on the situation with Gusto. There is a big part of me that is thinking "he is 3, there is all the time in the world, nothing can't be fixed because by God I made Meg into an agility dog"...and then there is a part of me that thinks I need to mentally accept that I may not be able to fix things. Because yes, he is the second agility dog, and there is pressure I am putting on both of us, and maybe that is hurting things.

I had good talks with a few people over the course of the weekend, and I certainly am not giving up. What I'm mentally stuck on right now are multiple conversations I had about dogs who do agility because they love agility vs dogs who do agility because we ask them to. Neither of my dogs do agility because they love it. Meg absolutely does it because I ask her to, and because it makes me happy. Gusto, as much as I adore him and have a very cool relationship with him, really doesn't give a crap if I'm happy. I think that is part of where we are stuck. He will work because he wants the cookie or he wants the toy, but I didn't do a good job of getting rewards off me when there is pressure on him - because I never really had to with Meg. So I think that is part of what we need to be doing more of.

I've got the lessons mid-July. I'm going to completely take a break the rest of June, and put him on equipment a couple of times before the lessons. In the meantime, work on getting him playing with me without rewards on me.

I'll see what the trainers say. I'm thinking about some fall CPE trials and putting him in level 1 or 2, so we can go in, run short, fast, easy courses, and get out.

Videos from the weekend:

Meg - Standard in the rain!
[YOUTUBE]4H8jYMk6iAg[/YOUTUBE]

And Standard in the sun, after having to chat with the leash runner (excuse the handling before the weaves - I walked the course thinking we took the jump between the teeter and weaves, and only realized it wasn't part of the course when watching the dog ahead of us)
[YOUTUBE]UA74dRHGibo[/YOUTUBE]

And jumpers, with the latest front cross in the history of front crosses
[YOUTUBE]NUVW0Ixrsow[/YOUTUBE]

And Gusto's two clean (over time) standard runs. And oh look at who has completely abandoned her contact criteria!
[YOUTUBE]POjSu94XzrY[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]jGCH4j3rJWo[/YOUTUBE]

Yay, super happy with Onyx! She nailed 12 weaves trying them for the first time at class today Front crosses are coming along nicely, and she is hitting her contacts pretty solidly.

This is fun!! I hope we can keep going with it.

Anyone done UKC? I need to register Summer for UKC anyways because they are starting nosework trials. And there's a few UKC agility trials here a year that are easy to get to. So I'm considering it.

I know they have weird obstacles but what I hear those don't come in until level 2. So I was thinking about trying her beginner titles just cause. She HAS seen the UKC equipment.... over 6 year ago.

We're back from Ontario Western Regionals. We qualified for Nationals!

I really, really, really wasn't expecting to qualify. We had some decent runs, and we had some messy runs. All in all I think we could have done better, but, well, we succeeded regardless!

The weather was lovely. The dogs were great. The competition was fierce. Cohen was a trooper. She barked constantly throughout every run.

Here's a video of our first run of the comp - Jumpers 1. It was first thing Saturday morning and I really wasn't expecting much. As you know, Cohen has a history of knocked bars and I'm always late on my cues so twisty jumpers courses are tough for us. When I first saw the map I was reminded of how I had intended on practicing threadles prior to the comp but never got a chance to. Yikes, not pretty. But, heck, clean run!

[YOUTUBE]s015PgKL42Y[/YOUTUBE]

And a few photos. A friend of mine was snapping photos of quite a few of my runs, plus there was a photographer in at least one of the rings so there will likely be more photos to come, but this is what I have now.

Posing with her qualifying ribbon this morning.



Us after a gamble run. We had a great opening but missed the closing due to a way-early cue from me. I was super pleased with her though. (Especially because she was kind of out-to-lunch on the run prior.)



Dog. Tire. Jump. Go.

I know I already said it on Facebook, but congratulations!

You two are such a fantastic team. I wish I had come out this weekend just for the experience of watching! It sounds like a great time was had

Congratulations She is too cute with her Q ribbon!

Yay Cohen! NICE Jumpers run!

BB - I think Gusto looks good! Man, you should have seen some of Kimma's past runs...... SO SLOW. Her running so slow was what made me take our 4 month break from trialing (2 months of that was a total break from agility). But for her in class and in trials I've just abandoned basically all criteria. Seriously. Her only job is to run. And hopefully do everything. If we miss something, we keep going. It's been helping her attitude TONS. And really it's been helping mine as well. It's almost like I've been forced to only care about my dog having fun LOL.

I hope you figure something out soon!!!

Guys! Look! I didn't think it was possible for Cohen to actually jump, collect & wrap (and yell) at the same time.

Hahahaha that picture is great in many ways

Going to another trial this weekend, outdoor this time.

I've started doing this recently--abandoning criteria--and I can see a difference already.

Crossbone stresses so badly in trials (or when he thinks he's doing something wrong) and it makes me more frustrated which makes him more upset. Add to that his environmental stresses and we have an unhappy Crossbone and handler!

Last night in class he was sniffing and just generally disconnected and sloooow. I said screw it! Grabbed a roll of paper towels and beat him. Jk. I revved him up with the paper towel roll and just ran around the course like a crazy person then gave him tons of treats. When I got him out the second time he was so much better. It reminded me to stop expecting so much and just have fun. I want him to enjoy running with me.

We have.. Limited criteria. I ask for a start line stay but don't really enforce it. I ask for 2o2 contacts but don't drill them. It works for Mimi Ezra gets more criteria. Because he needs rules.

Practiced yesterday, I freaking love my girl. She was awesome. Did well with her weaves, too. If I don't cross the plane of the obstacle before she enters, she stays in them most all the time. If I cross the plane with lots of motion before she gets in them, she'll blow poles trying to catch up. Working on calling her through them and starting to work on tougher entries.. Though I think I'm sticking to my trainer's method of just not crossing the plane first in a trial.

Ezzie is coming along, too! He's at the stage where he takes everything literally. Body posture is too forward or my cue is too 'up' when signaling for a tunnel entrance, he'll jump over or on top of the tunnel. His jump work is a lot better, though, which makes me happy. And he RUNS! Never thought I'd see enthusiasm out of Stonerdog.

This is amazing!

And the trial was cancelled

All except for one of our trials are outdoors. We have competed in rain, windstorms and 90 degree weather. Have never ever seen a trial cancelled due to weather. Assuming that is why the trial was cancelled but maybe not.

Yeah, I think I may need to go that way with Gusto for a bit. It kills me because - ****, he had reliable contacts! But it is stopping which equals thinking which equals stressing. His runs don't look *that* terrible to me; it's more the comparison of those runs to how he runs when he's not stressed.

We've got our lessons in a few weeks, and the possibility of getting into monthly lessons with a trainer I really like come this fall. Hopefully I can get a good plan for going ahead.