Brilliance, like mud!

Can mud be brilliant? Spur's training seems to be that way. Moments of brilliance, moments of mud.
Sometimes it seems the mud gets deeper and deeper, but I do try to remember the quicksand we were in last year, so mud shouldn't seem so bad, right?

Goddamn, am I being cliche'!!

Sylvia Trkman says the dog should ask to work for you. You want the dog to do YOU a favor, her #9 tip from her 10 tips to agility success -

9. dogs work best when they work for themselves. Don’t ask them for a favour to work with you. Make them ask you for a favour to work with them.

Not sure Spur asks to work for me sometimes - during class. He worries, he feels the pressure, he feels my worry and the pressure I put on myself, he and I get stuck in the mud. We don't have this mud at home so much. It's pretty dry and clear and at times totally BRILLIANT! It's easier at home. No one is watching us, no one is telling us we are doing it wrong or should maybe not do it that way or there is a better way or why the HECK are we doing what we are doing. The mud gets deeper and deeper sometimes and Spur and I get stuck. There are times I wonder how much benefit we get from class. I hate practicing in mud. (OK - slap me for the cliche!!! SLAP - I slapped myself)
I don't like practicing when we are not feeling the love. When I have to ask Spur for a favor to work with me. I don't like that. I want to practice brilliance and happiness and glee and fun. But, there are so many reasons to continue in class. We need to get over this!!! This working in mud (SLAP!!). We need to figure things out, regardless of the setting/environment. We need to work in public, in the presence of other dogs and people, on different equipment, different footing, and we need the help! Goddamn, we need the help!!

So, we continue. It's hard, the hardest thing I have ever done. I may be forgetting the work I did with Roscoe, but I don't know........... Roscoe ALWAYS wanted to work. If there were food rewards to be had, he wanted to give it a try. Always. He asked me to do him a favor and work. Always. We sure had our issues at trials, but he would try his hardest in training if he thought a cookie might show up somewhere along the way. I could totally suck with my training plan, but if a cookie dropped down his throat he was happy to try.

Here is a quote from a horse person I got the other day. I like it. I like it a lot! -

"What people do not appreciate is that every time a horse submits to pressure, whether subtle or overt, he is diminished... If he can be persuaded to give his assent freely and pleasurably rather than give into man’s pressure or clever techniques, he is not diminished." ~ Frédéric Pignon

Boy does that ring true for Spur and our work. Every time he worries and frets and I ask him to perform when he is not comfortable, he is diminished and our relationship is diminished. This quote is really no different than Sylvia's #9. That said, life can not always be a world without pressure. The world is pressure, it's everywhere and all around us. Life is that way and is not always roses and ice cream and pressure free. It isn't, life itself is pressure. But, Frédéric Pignon has a good point and his quote is sure something to think about when we are working with our horses or dogs. A goal of the highest order, perhaps!

Our weekend away here at home!

We had planned to take a weekend away, but life just seemed like it was rolling downhill without us and we should just stay here and be the busy bees we are, preparing the gardens, working on the house, mowing the lawn, setting up the bistro and all the things that this huge property needs to be the incredible world it is! We love it here and sometimes it calls us and makes us work and tires us out, but we LOVE it!
I promised myself I would not just work the WHOLE time, I would do some running contacts with Spur, I would ride sweet Jewel, we would go shopping at The Tractor Supply store, I would read my book and we would go out for a nice dinner.
We took Spur over to Steve and Laura's to run on a novel dog walk. He needs that work, sort of like the teeter parties, but this work involves just me and him. The teeter parties were all about taking ME out of the scene and making the teeter such a fun, friendly game with his fans. The dog walk he likes, pretty well and I just need to instill the good hits on the down contact that we are getting at home. We did pretty well. I think we did 10 and had one definite, complete miss which you will see in one of the videos and I just keep going and ask for it again, then one hit that missed the hit-it board which you won't see. Rich didn't get that one. The others were all good hits! We need to tighten up his turns after, but I am please I can pull off and redirect him and he still hits it!! Good little Spurminator!!




This last one below has the miss. I have likes and dislikes when I watch it. I dislike the sound of my voice as I bring him back. I need to be happier. He SO melts when he thinks he is wrong. He can not take corrections or even no reward markers (for you non-dog training folks that would be like saying "Oops, too bad" or some such thing to mark it verbally that he has a miss.). I need to continue around happily. But, what I DO like is he was faster on his second attempt. THAT's HUGE!! That may be the first time he tried harder and went faster. What has happened on occasion with misses that don't get the ball tossed, we get deminishing returns. He wrings his little papillon paws and makes SURE to hit the hit-it board the next time, which results in a slower speed. That was OK, but I have been waiting for him to simply try harder and keep up his speed. I am SO pleased this time he DID try harder and was faster!! YAY!

Running contacts, could we be on to something?

I dunno, but he is looking better. Does anyone know how to put youtube videos in slow motion? I probably have to edit it before putting on youtube? How, damn it, how????

These look to be 2 1/2 - 3 second dog walks? Not too bad! What was Dylan the rat terrier's, like 1.3 seconds or something unworldly like that? And 7 out of 8 are really good hits! THAT'S AWESOME!



There are 8 new videos of his contacts. One it looks like a miss, but I THINK perhaps just front toes hit? Definitely a miss on the hit-it board. Sound is down so I can't hear the beep on youtube, but when I watch on my little flip I can hear the beep. I think we are getting there. It has been slow and long and hard work. He isn't this fast on a strange dog walk, so now I need to do dog walk parties!!! Oi! I do think he will get faster and faster on strange dog walks, but it is going to take a lot of time and experience. My legs are feeling it, that's for sure. Ran 18 dog walks the other day!! Over several sessions, but STILL, some sore muscles!

Here is the link to the others -
http://www.youtube.com/user/roscoespur

Ooooooh, my favorite agility person has a new website!!!!

http://silvia.trkman.net/lolabu/

Way to go Silvia!!! It is, after all, her fault I am committed to Spur's running contacts!

I need to get some new videos. We have a bit more speed now than what you see in this video taken about a month ago. I am pretty happy with things so far, though. I wish we had more speed, but until he fully understands his job, even at full speed, I have to settle for the little increases we are getting. Any time I try for more speed I get an increase in launches. He does understand the hit-it board, I do believe, finally. He knows his job. Phew!



We have the BARK trial coming up next weekend, two days. I am excited, I feel like he is ready for trialing. Before I felt like it was more just practice, just experience, now I kind of feel like he is ready! It's a good feeling! I am seeing more and more confidence, more speed, less time looking like a wilted flower when he knocks a bar. He knocked one last night and recovered quite well!

I now have my teeter in my yard and he does it every day just before our walks. He runs to it now, it's that rewarding! YAY!

Henry Ford said........

"If you think you can, or you think you can't, you are right".

Poignant? You betcha! It's that mental thing, ya know!

In practice my dogs are ROCK STARS! (Talking about the boys, here. Colby rocked, mentally.) At trials, not so much. Me, too. Although, at times I struggle in practice because especially Roscoe can be SO nutty and crazy and I have to adjust so much it is hard for me to handle that nutty/crazy.

I watched the AKC National Finals this morning. Bought the VOD, so I could watch the runs for the next year. It was only $20, so why not? The little Rat Terrier FREAKIN' ROCKED!! Talk about a Rock STAR! That dog is fabu, man!!! The time to beat, until the last couple of big dogs. The dog can run it's dog walk in RECORD time. HOLY SMOKES!

It is really fun to see a dog and handler who worked really hard to get to that point. The handler said the dog was down to a NINE second dog walk doing a 2o2o. Oh dear. She then decided to train runnings. WOW! Amazing to see such success from a retrain.

I know, all my non-agility folks think I am talking Greek? Sorry!!! Someone asked Rich the other day why I like agility so much. You know, I struggled with the answer because I know the answer, but explaining it, no so easy. The answer is it is an adrenaline rush, I guess, and I am fueled by the little things. And you know, my dogs are not exactly out of control, wacko, speedsters. They just aren't. So why the adrenaline rush? It's the little things. That mental thing. Thanks Henry Ford, I do think I can and I AM right. I have that tiny taste and each bite makes me want more. Like bittersweet chocolate. (Oh dear, now I am getting all cliche'??? ACK!!!). I see my dog's potential. I know it's there and I just need to bring it out and every little time I DO bring it out I get a rush. For now, we practice, we study, we obsess, we thrive on someone else's adrenaline rush. I get a rush watching that Rat Terrier fly across the dog walk in record time!!!! Like a second? OK, maybe 1.3 seconds? Seriously, Muffin Heads, that dog FREAKIN' TAKES FLIGHT!!!!

Roscoe, here he is yesterday, while I watched the results come in on Facebook...........Finding his warmth. It wasn't that cold yesterday, but we had very little sun and it was really windy. What sun spots we had, Roscoe took full advantage of.

Then he clearly asked me to light the wood stove...........

If this were a video you would see shivering. Um, it was 68 according to my thermostat!

Running contacts! WOW!

OK, so this is what my goal is. Lofty? Maybe. Ok, YES, very lofty, but hey "shoot for the moon", right? I hear this dog was originally trained with a 2o2o. That's kind of amazing that she has such great contacts with a retrain. Very cool. Wish I knew how she did it. Roscoe is a retrain. He will never have that speed, but he can be really accurate. He can also totally leap. Oi! Spur, has shown some good speed, but he can also totally leap. Like leap through the contact zone flying so low to it that he just soars over it and it doesn't even look like a leap, but not one single hit in the zone! Like a low flying aircraft, doing a fly by at top speed, swishing the air around in circles, but not hitting anything nearby. That's Spur at top speed, no zone, no go, no Q, damn IT! We are working on it. Working on speed, zone, and dreams of Q's.

This dog seems to have a stride that just hits the zone perfectly. Spur, no. His stride at full speed puts his back feet barely at the top of the zone. That's pretty risky. How one gets that speed with both feet hitting the zone is amazing! Roscoe, if I could get that speed from him his stride definitely puts him in the zone. "In the zone", that's our goal. We want to be in the zone, Muffin Heads!

My FIL is here and he's an engineer!

He is on a mission to build me a contact trainer. An electric contact training like the ball launcher thing I posted here a while back. He is retired and enjoying this project. It kind of has him stumped a bit, but it is fun listening to him bat around his thoughts and ideas. Using blue tooth technology and touch pad sensors and stuff. Very cool, if he can figure it out. I am sure the technology will be there in the not so distant future, but for now all we seem to have is the "Hit-It Board" by nosetouch.com

I am using that now for Spur. It's a SLOW process. He is getting it ever so slowly. Trouble is we rewarded him for not thinking about the contacts for so long, just running as fast as he could go, rewarding speed always. Maybe that wasn't the right thing. He has that memory. AND he isn't all that pumped up about food like the Pin Heads. It's OK to him, but what REALLY means something is the ball. But, the ball is what I used to get speed. Now I am using food to get accuracy and understanding of the contact zone being a place for paws. LOL! He's getting it, but we do have failures sometimes and I try like heck to just bring him back around and try again.

This morning's session NO failures, YAY! This afternoon with FIL filming us, we had a couple failures. Perhaps the stress of me chatting with my FIL that broke his focus? I don't know, but we tried to stop when it was a good hit.

Some hits were back feet only, some hits were one front foot and some were both front and back. I would love consistency, but I don't seem to be getting that. Oi, this is one of the hardest training projects I have ever encountered....

Both front and back -


Just back -


Just back -


Just one front foot -


It really is a tough training project!! I am dedicated to making it work and doing what I need to do to make this work. He seems happy enough with the work, so we keep plugging along.

Mirroring and immersion training

We know we all learn from "mirroring". We do it almost automatically or unconsciously. Ever notice how when people are standing around talking, we often end up in the same stance. If one person is crossing their arms, very often the rest will, too. If one person rests on one foot, soon more in the group with, too. It's fun to watch that stuff happen.

Animals do the same thing. Like when one dog picks up a stick to play, so often the other one will, too! Mirroring.......it's just something we do. - Not sure if I can call my weave pole training this morning as mirroring? I have done this before.....run Roscoe right ahead of Spur, to speed up Spur's weaves. Spur gets worried at times, and even though he loves his weaves and is quite good at them, we lose speed when he is worried. Run Roscoe through them ahead of him? NO worries, man, he ROCKS.........screaming after Roscoe doing the fastest, nicest weaves!!! It's useful, I think. It's amazing, really. I need to film it.

Immersion training? What the heck? On Patricia McConnell's blog she mentions that......

"IMMERSION–patients are immersed in therapy. Standard physical therapy was one hour a day, several times a week. In contrast, this therapy uses what they call “massed practice,” in which patients work for 3 to 6 hours a day. Think of how fast people learn a foreign language when they move to the country in which it is spoken, instead of practicing an hour a day…"

Good GRIEF, can you imagine? 3-6 hours of training? OK, no way, I can train and I have stamina, but 3-6 hours? NO. This reference is about working with stroke victims to help them regain the use of parts of their body.

However............I do think it may be useful with some of my work. As you know, my never ending quest for answers to Spur's running contacts brings me to wondering WHY am I having such a hard time with it. I can teach a dog to weave. My dogs weave. They love it, they know it, they weave. No wondering what's required, they weave. I wonder why I can teach a dog to weave SO well, so quickly, yet I am really struggling with running contacts. Roscoe was solid on weaves in two months. Seriously solid! Spur, about four months. Not solid, but really good. OK, so one thing I did was a sort of immersion therapy (training). I trained twice/day for five minutes. Every day, for two months. Spur, I did it for four months. Maybe if I had trained four times/day with Spur he would have been solid in two months? The training is short, seriously like five minutes each session. Can I use immersion training with Spur's contacts?

Maybe! I tried it last week. We had really good weather, so I could training every day. I decided that since he was really happy doing it, and since I have really messed up his contacts (he's quite good at running at top speed and missing it - bad trainer!!!), we could train up to 8 times/day. Five minutes only, but that many times. I never did manage to get in that many, but I think one day I did 7! The most repititions we did were 10. Most were between 5-7 repititions. I am using the electronic hit-it board. He is getting it. Getting it quite good now!

Me? I am sore. All that running, OI! I know, it's only like 5-7 times the length of the dog walk, but Muffin Heads, it's SPRINTING. I am sore.

Today I tested my training. I brought it to a new location. DAMN, he did it five times BRILLIANTLY !!!!! We had to do one re-do where he DID hit the contact zone, but not the hit-it board, so the beep didn't occur. That's fine, I just continued around and did it again, BEEP = JACKPOT!! YAY!!!! He isn't at top speed, but he loped each time. Not once did he trot, so I am feeling pretty pumped about things!!! I think he is really starting to understand. I think it is working. He seemed SO proud of himself! I was happy, he was happy, OH happy day!!!

My "immersion training" will have to wait a few days. This bad weather isn't good for running his dog walk. But, I am feeling like MAYBE we are on the road to getting this. FINALLY!

Rally-O match at It's A Dog's World in York. Poor FREEZING little Roscoe!!

I should have remembered. Last year at the Tibby Chase seminar I had to tell them if they didn't turn the heat up I would have to leave and ask for my money back. No WAY was I staying for a day long seminar with it so cold. They turned the heat up.

Yesterday, I didn't feel like I could be that pushy. Matches aren't very expensive and I wasn't going to be there all day. I let it go. I let my poor tiny, 9lbs MinPin shake and convulse during his downs and stays. He's a good little buggar, but he did require a second command on his moving down. 2 points off, darnit! And his back up three steps, which you can't see that well in the video, were not great. There was a photographer there, RIGHT IN HIS FACE, which is all good stuff for him to have to deal with, but that section was kind of sloppy.

The match showed our weaknesses, so it's all good stuff!! Downs are hard for him on cold surfaces, period. And the three steps back in heel position are hard for him. He is a little bit confused. We just fixed up his backwards weaving around my legs trick and unfortunately I use the same cue words "Get back" for that. I just realised that's what I am using for the three steps back move. Must clean that up and come up with a new cue for that before the trial in March.

Hmmmm, how about I just count....One, two, three? Since I seem to be a little challenged with that. In the video I step back....uh ..........FIVE?.........times??????? DOI!!!

OMG, I gotta have this thing!!

I just sent it to my FIL to see if he could make me one. He's handy and retired and loves a challenge like this. I hope! It looks a little complicated to set up. Not easy to just put down like the "hit-it" board I have borrowed, but OH MAN, SO COOL! Spur is ALL about his BALL!! It's how I have gotten speed out of the little buggar running his dog walk!

I am a terrible clicker trainer! I seriously am! I have always said that. I suck at clicker training!!

You can see that in this video. This is part of an on-line training challenge to teach your dog to "Whiz" on cue. This is session three with Spur. The Spurminator being afraid of jump bars - he HATES to knock a jump bar - is worried about the jump bar target I am using. However, I think it is fun enough work that he soon becomes OK about the jump bar and starts to forget about it after a while. Especially when I start being a dumb trainer and clicking for the wrong thing. I think in this video you will see me click at least FOUR+ times for his hind leg MOVING!! That's NOT what I want, dumb ass I am! I want STILL leg in the air, thank you very much!

Did I tell you I suck at clicker training?? Really! It just isn't my forte. I used to love it when Sherry Britton would click for me in obedience class. THAT was the BEST!!! Someone else could click for me and I didn't have to worry about my poor timing! That was awesome!! In fact, I am of the opinion that very FEW people are good clicker trainers. Like, I mean GOOD clicker trainers. Very few. Sherry, she is good. Brenda Buja, good. Lo Baker, good. Me, I suck. Most people, suck. It's just the way it is, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't try it or that it won't help you. It will. Dogs learn in spite of our poor timing, they really do. They learn no matter HOW DUMB us humans are, dogs are SMART creatures! They figure things out!

Spur gets frustrated part way through this video and starts barking at me for being such a dumb trainer. We'll get it, though, don't worry. Dogs are so forgiving of our stupid training abilities. They manage to learn in spite of us, somehow, good dogs! And I think this is good work for him. He is forgetting his jump bar worry, while yelling at me for being a stupid trainer and that's all good stuff! :D

This video is Colby's session 3. SHE is much easier to work with since she isn't afraid of the damn jump bar. (And just so you don't wonder - YES, I could teach Spur a different way, but isn't it good that I am getting him to deal with his jump bar issue AND teaching a new trick???? YES!!! Cuz, really, I don't care, it's a silly trick and if he doesn't learn it lickity split, so what???) Colby, she gets it. She does get distracted at one point because of the dogs in the yard barking in front of the door watching me train her. My other dogs are not exactly good, patient observers. They bitch and bark and swear at me for NOT training them!! :O

Where's Roscoe's video? Um, it'll come, in time. He's different. Still doing his nutty handstands and offering WAY too many other behaviors and it doesn't make for a good video. Too many pauses for me to take a breath and try to regroup and settle him down and laugh at him and start over. But, we'll get there. And once he does, it will be solid, I know. That's how it is with Roscoe, Muffin Heads!

So, there is this little trick training challenge going on!

What do I love more? A trick training challenge or chocolate? Um.........geez, that's a tough one! We were given a Lizzy's Chocolate Cheesecake for Valentine's Day from one of Rich's radio reps. OH THANK YOU Radio Rep!!!

I feel like we have a head start. The challenge is to teach your dog to "Go Whiz" on command. The trick is not the whizzing part, they all do that, but a leg lift that looks like the dog is whizzing. My dogs all have some sort of hind end awareness. As you saw with Roscoe's videos, he will kick and climb something with his back feet into a hand stand. Spur will limp, a little, still working on getting that better. Colby has some some hand stand back end work, but not much. So, here's how it went last night our first session.......
Colby just surpassed both Spur and Roscoe! I should have figured. She has done SOME hind end up on the couch before, but really not much so she was kind of a clean slate. I am using a jump bar held vertical to try to get really specific targeting. She gets it! If she were a human I think she might have slapped her hands together said....."Got it! Next trick, please!", but it isn't on cue or perfect by any means. Cute, though, that she so quickly figured out to lift her back foot and search to feel for the bar and hold her foot still on it! Miss Colby Carlson is another smaartiepants! Another session and we may have it on cue? She can be SO quick learning tricks, which is kind of silly because I haven't taught her that many.

Spur - he is still thinking. My thinker. And he worries about jump bars, that one. So, this is good work. Him putting his back foot on the bar and holding it is good work! He'll get it pretty quick. He is offering without prompts, some, but at times I have to adjust him and manipulate his body in place so he can hit the bar to get him going again. He already knew leg lift, so it's pretty easy for him once he stops worrying about the blasted jump bar. Worry wart!

Roscoe, good GRIEF, he is SO not getting it. My doer......offering kicks, hand stands (seriously, I had to stop and laugh at him because he was doing a La handstand - back feet thrusted sky-ward, nose on the ground!!), back ups, certainly nothing STILL!!! OI! At lightening speed, so capturing a still foot is near impossible. I ended up actually holding his foot in the air and clicking that. Will that work? Is that just lame? I dunno, but at least I was clicking for stillness, damnit. :O This was session one.

Roscoe's fancy tricks!

OK, so I was asked to video Roscoe doing some of his fun tricks. The first one is "Be a bat". I call it that because when he finishes the trick he kind of looks like a bat hanging on the wall. I did this video outside today since it is SO nice out! He'll do it against anything. Tree, couch, wall. Whatever. It's really cute! Love how he is reaching with his back feet! Cute little smaahtiepants!!!

This next one is his "Rev Yer ENGINES", where he kicks his back feet. He will do it for "rev yer engines" or "kick". Either cue works. Really cute and fun to do while warming up in the start line area at agility trials. Everyone thinks it's SO adorable!!!

This next one is just a combination of stuff......back up, roll over, kick! Silly little man!

Are you sick of running contacts, yet? So sad, too bad.

I borrowed my friend's "hit-it" board. It is a 1x1 foot electronic pad that beeps an obnoxious peep when pressed. It's kind of cool because it is electronic, but no plug, no apparent place to replace batteries? But, it beeps when hit. Roscoe doesn't have enough weight to trigger it, which is OK because he HATES it because the beep sounds like our smoke detector reminding us it needs a new battery or when the power goes out telling us it is working. He HATES that sound and will shiver and shake when it goes off. I kind of thought I could train a pleasant (treat) association to the beep, but he kept avoiding it and since Roscoe's contacts are AWESOME and perfect, I don't need to do that work with him.

With Spur, it might be helpful. However, at the speed he goes sometimes I think a 1x1 spot might be hard to hit? I mean, really, in this shot his next step will be back feet hitting the top 1/3 of the contact. How the heck? Can I train him to adjust and hit another spot with his front feet? Maybe. I am going to play with it some and see what happens. I now have speed on the dog walk, but I need clear, uncloudy performance. I need him to KNOW that hitting the yellow zone is acceptable and any other option is OUT! That all without stressing him out or making him wring his little papillon paws in worry. Can I do that? I don't know.
Remember my home made hit-it board? It was simply too hard to deal with and I never did get it clear. Clear as mud, but not clear as clear. This electronic board can be used and trained anywhere.
One thing I know for sure.........this sort of training is going to take patience and TIME. Lots and lots of time.
Should I swap to a 2o2o performance? I am still not convinced. I personally do not like that performance. I see too many dogs going slower and slower and creeping and worrying about their 2o2o performance.
I don't think there is a good answer, yet. Someone may come up with one, but right now, nothing clear as clear. Every option I see trained is clear as mud, more often then not. World team members have fabulous runs and are called for awesome contacts. It happens. Percentage wise, I saw perhaps half of the Nationals runs called for contacts. Nothing else, just contacts. So, training a good contact is essential. Harder than training anything else, I think. At least for me.

Start line, smart line, what the hell happened?

I made my plan, I practiced it and I implemented it. Roscoe already knows the bouncy game. He loves it, it pumps him up and we use it as warm up already. BUT, I had not used it on start lines with my "plan". Which was to bounce two times, then GO!! Last weekend at the trial I tried it. OK, so it worked alright. Roscoe knows that game well. It's fluent and practiced. We used it a lot in obedience. It helps him focus, warm up, pump up, it's a great game.

So, I had this plan. Bouncy game, one-tw0-GO, would be our new start line performance. My plan. Love those plans. Like designing my website. Bwwaaaaaaaaaaaa...................like I design anything on the internet. Picture me rolling on the floor with dogs lapping my face as I giggle to oblivion! That's my plan, roll on the floor with the dogs jumping on me as I giggle to oblivion. THAT plan I can implement!!! Love THAT plan!



In agility.......at the smart line start line? Um.......it felt strange. For one, I STILL felt like all eyes were on me to "just START already!!!". For two, as I was doing his first bounce towards the first obstacle I thought........hmmm.......this could almost be called a refusal? But, with electronic timing set right AT the first obstacle, maybe not?

The strange thing is, I worry about starting and not wasting time and not having people thinking......."just START already!!"........but those with start line stays - they lead out, putting their dogs in a stay then everrrrrrrrrrr SOOOOOOOO slooooooooowly walking to their position, then telling their dog..."Gooooooooooooood dooooooooggggggggg" and FINALLY releasing and running, taking WAY more time than my silly, little bouncy game.



I tried working on the game with Spur. He's getting it, thinks it's fun, but at practice he didn't want to do it and wanted to just start instead. OK, so should I INSIST on the bouncy game? Um, maybe, but maybe not. I don't want to INSIST on too much with Spur because my experience shows me if I insist too much he shuts down and it isn't fun any more. Now, that said I don't want him doing whatever he friggin' wants to do when he gets stressed. I want him to be focused and attentive and enjoy doing that I ask him to do. It's a fine line.
With my yard free of snow and ice I can do some running contact work with Spur. I always say.......Ready? Ready? Ready? and GO for that work and he loves that. What was happening in practice, though, was saying "Ready?" was worrying him some. I guess I just need to keep at it. Keep trying new things. I know I need something CLEAR, but with Spur it never seems so clear. There is always that grey area. That issue of something working in one area and not generalizing to another area. I struggle with that and need to get that going a little better. I think eventually it will, if I can clear my OWN head and make things clear to him. Clear!! Websters says......"free from darkness, obscurity, or cloudiness". Trouble for me, that thing about being clear, is I am not free from cloudiness or obscurity or darkness myself. What makes me think I can be clear to my dog?????


My plan. In the dark, obscure clouds.

Start line, smart line!

OK, I need a start line behavior. I remember someone, some clinician? Some instructor? Some author? Someone saying to me once that start lines should be treated like any other "obstacle". Trained as if it is obstacle #1. Actually, I do believe that person was saying "start line stays" should be treated that way. Well........I don't DO start line stays. I did, once before. For years with the MinPins. They are obedience dogs, they stay. I can't even remember the day I made the decision to stop doing start line stays. It was years into our competition. Colby doesn't mind start line stays and does fine! She's not that much of a worried dog. Stays don't bother her much. She'll stay, she's a good little girlie.

Roscoe? Stays can totally bum him out. Self control work is very hard for him and leaving him in a stay sometimes breaks his trust in me. I can see it in him. He looks at me like I have betrayed him. Seriously, he can bore those eyes into my head like a drill sometimes. Like Cin's pup Zep. Ever look directly into HIS eyes? He will bore a hole and suck out your brain cells!!! Roscoe, he just tells me I suck and leaving him in a stay is a BUMMER MAN!!

The day I quit start line stays with Roscoe I had a DOG out there. I had a partner. He breathed such a sigh of relief!! It was THAT clear. We never did another. I have struggled a lot with simply running, however. Instructors sometimes don't even know how to deal with running starts. I have been to seminars where they want me to "just try" the start line stay. I have to argue and explain that what I need MOST is help dealing with a running start line, thank you very much!! Amazing how hard that is for some.

OK, so that's the trouble. Most instructors do start line stays. It's well practiced, they train it, they do it, it's the deal, Muffin Heads. Start line stays! Running starts, not so much. And I need help with it. I need help dealing with the mental preparation. I am going to try to train the bouncy game better with Roscoe. He likes it, he's well trained to do it, I think I can make it a regular occurance at start lines.

Spur - I need to figure something out. Stays are uncomfortable for him, too. And "uncomfortable" isn't the right feeling to start an agility course with, now, is it?? Right now I am doing a rev up sort of game that I can see he is figuring out. I say "Ready, ready, ready??? GO!" and he does get ready and I see him looking at which obstacle he needs to be ready for. However, it isn't fluent, it isn't well practiced and I haven't done it that well at a trial, yet. I tried the bouncy game with him last weekend, but that also isn't all that well trained. He does it, but it isn't fluent like with Roscoe. I do have a new trick I just trained that he loves and he DID at the trial last weekend just outside the gate. A jump off my leg to a little flip like move. However, I am not sure that's the best start line performance? It means I have to perform something and that may make me a little behind on my take off? I don't know. I may try it. I need impulsion from him at the start, so that's my next project.

I have done TONS of rev up games with toys. Holding his collar until he is straining and releasing with impulsion to a toy. But, that's not all that realistic for us at a trial. I won't be taking a toy into the ring. I need a behavior I can take into the ring and use to get impulsion at the start.

Sylvia Trkman drives me!

She does, I admit it. I am hooked on her style, her theories, her incredible training methods, she ROCKS! I often go to her site and read stuff over and over. She gets it. She just does. I met her once. Did her seminar with Roscoe. She said he was a cool dog! My heart swelled that day!!

Taken from her site, just in case you have never read this...........

"Many people mail me to ask why I don’t write a book… Here is your answer: because I can tell everything that I think is important for success in agility in 10 paragraphs:

1. develop a firm and trusting relationships with your dog

2. properly condition your dog: my dogs’ minimum is 2 hours off of leash running in the woods per day + one all-day-long hike in the mountains per week

3. teach your dog tricks – as many as you can think of: tricks teach you how to teach, they teach your dog how to learn and they also teach the dog that learning is fun, that you’re fun. Side effect is total awareness of his body, tricks teach a dog how to use his body. I guarantee you that if you teach your dog 100 tricks, you won’t have jumping problems. Rear end and overall body awareness, balance, strength, power, flexibility and agility that my dogs excel in so much are all the side-effects of all the tricks they’ve learned. "Too much tricks" doesn't exist. If you don’t have any ideas, you can get some from our tricks videos.

4. teach your dog obedience, obedience in high-drive of course. It’s very easy to motivate a dog for those 30s on agility course. It’s much harder to motivate your dog for long minutes of just heeling. If you want to learn about motivation, obedience is a way to go. If you can make those long minutes of heeling fun to a dog, then making agility fun for your dog should be a piece of cake.

5. boost your dog’s confidence – only confident dog will dare to run at his maximal speed. Make sure your dog knows he is World Champion before you let him do his first jump.

6. don’t be afraid to do things your way. Books, videos and seminars are helpful, but no one knows your dog better as you do, especially after teaching him those 100 tricks and playing and walking with him every day, so… Trust your intuition and do what YOU think is best for your dog. Avoid those that think there is just one best way. Wary those that want to make you believe you need particular breed/method/handling tool/video in order to succeed. Were you told too that you MUST have a lead-out in order to win? Well, I win at least 90% of my runs with La. And she doesn’t stay.

7. if something goes wrong, always remember it’s your fault, caused either by your training or handling. That’s good news since it gives you a power to fix it yourself too. Things would be much harder if it was dog’s fault. Luckily, they, unlike people, come without mistakes.

8. never forget that results don’t count. Because of the speed of my dogs, I can have a very ugly run and still win. And I might go off-course sometimes, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of the run wasn’t perfect. Who would care about that off course then anyway? I always say that every good dog goes off-course sometimes – that’s not the case only if handler is perfect too. But I don’t know any of those, so…

9. dogs work best when they work for themselves. Don’t ask them for a favour to work with you. Make them ask you for a favour to work with them.

10. you want agility training tips? If you follow the advise from above, agility gets so easy that you don’t need those. Just go out and have fun with your dog!


There is no big difference between training your dog for tricks, obedience or agility, it's all the mix of everything. "

Link to her site - http://www.silvia.trkman.net/
She's got it goin' on!

Learning to roll with the punches......

How cliche! But, really it kind of explains what I am trying to do with little, worried Spur. He worries, it's who he is and I am SO demanding. I have a lot of practice being demanding. :P The Pin Heads allow it. They thrive on it. Roscoe needs it. But, Spur.......no. Demand from Spur and he goes into the corner and "does his rosary". He's thoughtful and concerned and when I ask too much of him he melts a bit. However, I make it sound like he is really a wimp, which he is, but he isn't THAT wimpy. He LOVES to train and in these videos the barking dog in the back ground is SPUR, barking his fool head off in the crate waiting for his turn to train.

I started with Colby and Roscoe to see how it might go teaching a dog to roll a bar. See, my thoughts here are to get Spur to understand that jump bars falling are not the sky falling. It's just a JUMP bar. In agility if he knocks a bar, he scurries off with his ears at half mast, his tail down, it frightens him. I tried classical conditioning - treats for me knocking the bar. Over and over, I did a ton of that. That stuff works sometimes, but this time, no. Not with Spur. So, I changed my plan. I decided to teach him to knock bars. Well, not really, but to take control and MOVE the bar. We are starting slow, just rolling the bar on the floor. It's that simple. It's that scary. You'll see............

Colby, she gets it. She figured it out in like......two minutes. Done. Roll the bar. "Got it MA!"

Roscoe - he's frantic!! He's offering everything he can think of. Roll it, yeah, somewhere in that crazy activity he rolls it. Yikes!!

Then we have Spur. Worry, worry. All the barking is simply worry. When Spur doesn't know what else to do or gets worried/frustrated he barks. However, I do not discourage that. He's trying.......notice his half mast ears when we get to the wood floor and how we have to go back to simple nose touches for a bit. Tomorrow I'll try to video an update. Today he was really rolling it all over the kitchen. This after just two sessions at home. We have done some in other settings, to try to generalize this work. Little Screamin' Monkey Pants is taking control of his jump bar!!

APDT Rally-O!!

APDT Rally-Obedience! (Association of Pet Dog Trainers - APDT)

I just signed up all three dogs, yep even The Spurminator, for a Rally-O trial at www.wagitinc.com the first weekend in November. Just Sunday, but Colby and Spur get two routines and Roscoe will get three. Which means if he qualifies in all three it will be his level-1 title. Roscoe and Colby are both in Excellent level in AKC Rally-O, but none of them have done APDT. It is very similar, but there are a few differences. Honestly, I am not even really sure the differences, but hopefully we can figure it out. We have, what, two weeks? Three weeks? We can do it. Heck, if Roscoe can get a perfect score in AKC Rally after having not practiced for three months, I think we can do this. Spur might be a challenge, but I kind of figure it will be good for him to give it a go. He has matured SO much this past summer, I feel like he is ready for ring time.

Next week we start our Rally-O classes again, weekly. I don't do them in the summer because I am at agility class two nights a week and poor Rich would like he didn't have a wife if I did THREE nights/week. When I retire that's what I want to do. Dog class every night, LOL!!! I guess I need to financially plan for that? Rich's dad said to us last week that one thing he didn't plan into his retirement program was dental costs. OK........so, once I add that, then I must add my three weekly dog classes to my retirement plan. I say that as if I have a retirement plan. I have a plan, that's for sure. Just may not be like what most people think of when they think "retirement plan". I plan to have tons of money, tons of time, lots of animals, a huge farm, someone to maintain it, a big RV to go to dog shows in, someone I trust to stay home and tend the farm. Asking too much?

"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?" Hmmm........, what was Pink Floyd really saying? I need to make money so I can retire? How can I retire if I don't make any money? Hmmmmmmm.............really? Damn!

I am moving to Slovenia!!

OK, well, not really. But, you all knew that. I am SUCH a home body and hardly ever go anywhere outside of New England. Yes, I know, I went to CA once. That was ONCE, you read! Once in my life!

Here is why I am "moving to Slovenia" -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUPQ8EnQiCI

This is Sylvia Trkman's tricks class. HOW MUCH FUN are these dogs having????? My dogs all love tricks and this just makes me want to teach more. She is such a fantastic dog trainer/teacher. She was one of the World Team members I watched run a few weeks ago in Austria (video on demand - no I didn't go to Austria!!). I watched her runs over and over. I just love how her dogs work. They are happy and brilliant. Trick training may seem silly, but it teaches the dog to think and strive to learn more. Silly tricks are also so much fun for us!

One thing I look forward to with winter arriving soon........more time indoors to just play with my dogs doing tricks. Right now I have wood to bring in, perennials to cut back, windows to wash, agility to train before it gets to cold, pastures to tend to, lawn furniture to put away and the list goes on, so I haven't focused much on tricks. But, I do have a three day USDAA dog show coming up this weekend that looks like a HUGE trial and that means I will probably have plenty of time to hang out between my runs and work on some tricks with my dogs. Colby knows the head shake from side to side, but she doesn't move it that much or quickly. I need to tighten up that trick and get her shaking her head further from side to side. I'll try working on that this weekend, but she is on a Team which means she will be running the most this weekend. She doesn't have a Team Q, so that would be nice to get this weekend. We are teamed with two great dogs, so hopefully we can pull it off.