Good morning!
Sorry I have been MIA for a few days. I was working away from home this week, and just got back yesterday. I have been keeping up on the reading, though.
I really liked the reading on threshold stacking, and I think that this really applies to Emily. She is a pretty chill dog, outwardly she does not show (at least to my unskilled eye) that she has any issues with being at the trial environment. She crates quietly, and when she is out walking around she moves with confidence and seems to be happy.
However, I do think that after a few days the noise, excitement and lack of being able to blow off steam increases her stress levels and starts to max her threshold.
The other thing I have noticed, when going back and looking at videos from a few weekends ago, is that one of the times she decided to blow me off was after she popped out of the weaves (an area of low confidence) and I asked her to finish them. Directly after that, she took off after a cone.
In reading the article that you posted about management and agility, I was interested in the last section about corrections. I don’t (or I try not to anyway) correct Emily when she does not get something right. I usually try really hard not to mark it at all, but I will ask her to try again. Weaves being the perfect example. If she pops out early or misses her entry I don’t say anything but I take her back to try again. I am now thinking that this is a “correction” in of itself. Is that enough for her to feel uncertain and disconnect.
One of the things I recently listened to was a Bad Dog Agility podcast where they discussed Sylvia Turkman, who uses a clicker in training agility. I trained Emily with a clicker in our basic obedience classes, along with a verbal YES!. I am thinking that maybe I can incorporate the clicker in marking her weaves when she gets it right and not only ignoring when she does to get it right but just moving on with no click. But I am not sure…will that teach her she can just go on and take away incentive to get the weaves right the first time?
I also wanted to say that we have not had a chance to try the relaxation assignment completely, but we will start working on that today. I will try and get some video for you to view.
Have a great day,
Laurie