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Thanks for all your help, Bobbie!
Final question: I believe it said access to the course materials never expires, so if we want to review these materials later (links to articles, etc.), we can just log in here as we have been doing? Is it the same for the Forum, or should we copy and paste all that to our own computer? Just checking!
Thank you!
That’s great Tracy shared the big news. We’re pretty happy! 🙂
Yes, definitely noticed the body language in the videos (and in real life). Though the environment stresses her, she loves flyball so much that I think she would still choose for us to help her through her concerns so that she gets to play the game. And we’re proud of her for doing the things, even despite her “big feelings,” as you said in your closing post. Thank you again for your help!
Amy and Matt
Hello! We had a great weekend, as Maddy had her official Flyball debut, earning her FD (Flyball Dog) title! Very exciting! Over 2 years in the making!!
So, first up, the RV ended up freaking Maddy out!! She hated that it moved slightly when people walked in the RV and the generator (there were no hookups at the site) terrified her. She spent most of her time in the RV huddled under the table. Poor thing! For day 2 of the tournament, we altered between car crating and crating in the building. By the end of the two days, Maddy was still terrified by the generator, but she did start to come out from under the table for food, started to take the steps to the bedroom area without having to be carried, and actually went up the scary metal slippery RV steps from outside, so I think over time she could get used to it. We did notice that her anxiety was higher the second day even we thought we were helping her by car crating or crating in the building, as perhaps she actually was able to relax in the RV when we left her in there crated with her pal Ruby, as we didn’t leave the generator running and nobody was walking around to make it move, so food for thought on that one.
Anyway, we have video of shadow handling here, pretty close to the lanes (I pan over so you can see the distance), and they were actively running a race (they’d just finished when I panned over). See that here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=-tDfc0GfHdo
We have video of her warming up (Pattern Games) pretty close to the racing and with a door right behind me (you see Maddy look at one point because someone went in and out of the door). The first weave is poor because the leash gets in the way, but the second one is better. See here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=LFLMYw7fr5c
We also have video of her trying to be calm moments before running and with other dogs warming up nearby (she’s already wrapped, and she knows what that means), shown here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c1giceTwdKk&feature=youtu.be
Finally, her debut!! See here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_LKXngy0mEo&feature=youtu.be
Yay, Maddy! At one point while Matt was doing mat time with her, a very prominent person in Flyball came by and complimented Maddy on her calm behavior, also commenting that you wouldn’t think mat exercises would be so important to their actual performance, but they really are! We could only agree! Thank you so much for all the help over this course. We’ve enjoyed the learning and now have ourselves a Flyball Dog! Amy & Matt
Thanks, Bobbie. We are heading out this afternoon for a flyball tournament. We will be crating this time in the rented RV. If that seems to keep her calmer, we can continue car crating her at upcoming cold weather tournaments. When it starts getting hot/humid again, we will re-assess, but hopefully by then she will be a fully confident canine. 😉 If not, we may just have to buy an RV. Ha!
We will definitely record Pattern Games during the tournament this weekend, but won’t have wifi there and so likely will not be able to post until Sunday unless we drive into town Saturday to find a hotspot to check email/post video.
Regarding the treats, we are actually vegan so that is why we don’t use steak, etc. for treats. For Maddy’s training we have been flexing a bit, looking the other way when teammates gave her string cheese, for example, and the freeze-dried treat we’ve been using for her is salmon (though we hope we can phase that out soon). We have been watching closely and don’t notice much more attention from her with the cheese than with peanut butter treats, for example. She loves veggies, too. 😉
Last thing before we hit the road — here is a Christmas Day video we took of Matt and Maddy doing the Relaxation Protocol at an outdoor classroom on my campus this time (https://youtu.be/tgw4Yz94rOQ). He did a mix of “relax on a mat” and the Protocol (sitting for a bit but then getting up and walking around). We ran out of space on the iPad before Matt did Shadow Handling, but I can attest that since campus is closed for break, it was pretty quiet and there were no squirrels or trains nearby, so that exercise went better than it had previously on Matt’s campus. Cheers!
Hello! To answer your question, we have experimented a little with giving Maddy “people food” as a reward/tool: Popcorn, a Cheerios-type (but healthier) cereal, etc. Our Flyball teammates also gave her lots of string cheese as incentive. I wouldn’t say most of it works any better than what we are currently using.
We are in Virginia and while it is cold now, it is very hot and humid during the summer (you asked about location in terms of car crating).
Finally, a recording of Pattern Games (Home Edition):
Hello! We’ve got answers to your questions, a couple videos, and a question of our own. First, the answers. When we are practicing with Maddy, we are either using kibble (part of her meals), teeny training treats (low-calorie when she’s getting a lot of practice), or freeze-dried treats (extra-special to keep her attention), in order of value to Maddy. Sometimes we’ll have her lick peanut butter or frozen baby food if we’re really doing a calming exercise. Not sure we can up the ante from the freeze-dried treats, but we’ll keep our eyes open. Just got a huge shipment from Clean Run, so we’re stocked up for now. Matt says he was using the freeze-dried treats on campus.
For your other question, we’ve done crating out of the car, but have mild concerns about temperature (though we’ve bought car fans, the big silver car cover reflector, mosquito shields so we can have the windows down, and a remote temperature sensor for the warm months, and we have lots of sweaters and such when it is cold outside). Mostly I’d say we just wanted to keep her semi-exposed to all the action, thinking it would help her get used to it. She’s pretty good in her crate in the facility (quiet, calm), but I think she’s got an underlying anxiety that likely prevents her from truly resting. At the end of the day after tournaments we go back to our Airbnb and she sleeps hard, a combination of the physical effort in her warm-up spots, but likely mental exhaustion as well. I’m sure latent learning is happening, but renting the RV should allow her to rest more, though it will still be an unfamiliar environment and she might still be nervous about generator noise (no hookups) and hearing barking from outside the RV. To be determined! 😉
Okay, the videos. We decided the mall was too far away, and likely packed now even for a “dead mall,” so yesterday we opted to go to our local park. Not a dog park, not ready for that yet, but there are bike trails and sometimes other people or dogs. Our iPad was nearly full (still working on deleting stuff to make room), so we only have teeny clips, but we did a little shadow handling (double leash for a little more leeway, but she stayed close even though she didn’t have to) and a little “Go to your mat” (Go to Place) in a very zen spot on a rock by a waterfall. 🙂 There were squirrels and birds and the water sound, so she was a little busy looking around, but okay overall. We should have done a few rounds of this to actually strive for calm, but we needed to get back home.
Videos:
Winter solstice Shadow Handling*: https://youtu.be/Lpus_XXW0SQ
Waterfall “Relaxamat” Session**: https://youtu.be/IdUvvtj7cnw*In the shadow handling video, you’ll notice she jumps up to walk the rock ledge because we encourage that to work on balance (recommended by one of our vets), fyi
**In the “Relaxamat” session, you’ll see she has very much learned she is rewarded for shifting to a hip, so she shifts hips a lot. Clever girl. To me, it shows she is not really relaxing so much as aiming to get a treat, but not sure we should do anything about it, as her inner state may still reflect her body position.Question: In the Pattern Games article, it lists Shadow Handling as a Pattern Game, but I believe you and others have mentioned other “routines” are Pattern Games as well, such as hand targeting (“touch”), weave, spin right, spin left, wave, etc. We very much have a set of exercises that we use for warming up for practice or tournaments, and as a way to keep her attention from her triggers. We do notice if she is not listening, and is too distracted to “touch,” for example, that she is likely near or over threshold. Should we video this in the home environment now and then at the tournament this weekend so you can see any differences or make suggestions if you think we need to alter anything about the routine (other exercises that might be better, faster or slower with rewards, closer or further from the action, etc.)? Thanks!
Amy & Matt
Hello! Hope you are feeling better! Great news about the class being extended because we just learned that we do get to go to a tournament next weekend after all (Dec. 27-29), which gives us a chance to practice and video in a stimulating environment and then get final feedback before the class ends. Before the tournament, we will continue to practice the exercises at home and in other environments.
To that end, Matt took Maddy to his campus yesterday and tried to do shadow handling, both inside and out. When he was inside he did shadow handling up and down the hall and she was great. He also did Relaxation Protocol inside and she did good through most of the steps (knocking, jogging, etc.), though when he opened the front door to his building that unsettled her a bit (massive wooden door to old history building). After a few repeats, she was fine.
He then did mat work outside and she was okay, but then he did shadow handling outside and it fell apart a bit. Though she has been there before, it is a fairly unfamiliar environment with train tracks nearby and squirrels scampering about. Matt said she was darting in for the treat, then lagging behind or looking/moving away because of distractions, then darting back in for the treat again. He was using good treats, but the exercise was a bit rushed since it was getting dark by that time, so he stopped and put her on her mat again and said she was good for that. No video b/c I was not there to help. This weekend we will try the outdoor mall (a mall would normally be a very bad choice this time of year, but we refer to this as the “dead mall”). If it is busier than expected, there are lots of other places we can try. We can try to video.
Couple questions/answers. You asked above where we normally crate at practice. We normally crate in the building (don’t like crating out of the car for her), in the back warmup area. We drape her crate usually, but open the front cover so she can see if anything is approaching, and she is typically quiet because there is another visual barrier still between her and the actual Flyball fun going on in the lanes. If she gets barky, though, we drop the front crate cover as well.
At tournaments we most often crate in the building (as far from the lanes as possible, but still noisy) or in an adjacent building (depending on the tournament; the latter is preferred for quiet). For this upcoming tournament, however, we are actually renting an RV and will try crating her in there. It will be interesting to see if she is calmer overall with more opportunity to rest. TBD.
Final question: Maddy is now done with day 15 of the Relaxation Protocol (doing everything except the actual doorbell; using the cat bell instead). Does Matt just start over with that from Day 1 or just pick and choose days from the Protocol? We understand we should keep practicing this. Thank you!
Hello! First, a response to your most recent feedback and questions about “go to place….” Yes, since Maddy is already familiar with this, Matt has already been doing this exercise with Maddy at Flyball practices for months. We bring her mat every practice and, when he is not running Maddy or helping with another dog, he’s in the back, working with her. We have not brought our Kuranda to practice, but the facility has lots of agility equipment, so he regularly uses a Klimb or the ribbons platform to put her up on a surface. He can put her in a down stay and walk away to watch other dogs run and she’ll stay, typically. This area is a fenced off crating/warm-up area with gates to the turf area where we actually practice. I’d say he can put her on the mat and walk 20 feet away, no problem, though he probably doesn’t do it when really boisterous dogs are running, as the sound would probably drive her off the mat and he doesn’t want to set her up to fail. Some others crate and warm up in this same area while others crate out of their cars during practice. Most cover the crates with a blanket or sheet.
At Flyball tournaments, we bring the mat (but not Kuranda), and there are usually no platforms available. The environment is much more stimulating and there are not usually fenced off areas, so he might have her go to her mat for relaxation (if she can), or to send her to a place where we can then wrap her feet before she runs, but we do not put her in a stay and walk away (she likely would not stay, being more charged and tense, etc.).
Okay, now a question from the Relaxation Protocol. Today we tried the doorbell but did not video. She was great with the knocking and going out the front door, etc. She didn’t budge. However, when it came time for the doorbell, she jumped up and barked, as expected. After some barking, she put herself back in a down on the mat, but wasn’t relaxed. Our question is whether we just keep repeating this part of the protocol until she relaxes and stays quiet for the doorbell? Do we just ignore the “bad” behavior (barking, jumping up) and move on with the rest of the exercises or do we re-set and try to get her back to a relaxed state again before moving forward? Doorbells are a tough one for dogs! 🙂 Update: While I was typing this, Matt was doing day 14 of the Relaxation Protocol with Maddy, and in lieu of the doorbell, he used the bell from a cat collar. Surprisingly, she had no reaction to that, though it normally drives the dogs nuts! Guess we’ll use this and work up to the actual doorbell.
Finally, today we took video of the shadow handling in the front and back yards, as you suggested. In the front yard, she remained leashed: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=kNQ3n9SYuC8. In the back yard, we had her loose: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=_lK2JssixlI And she waves “bye” at the end. 😉
P.S. Looking forward, unfortunately we don’t have any more Flyball practices until after the New Year (after this class is over). If we need more stimulating spots to practice shadow handling, pattern games, or “go to your mat” before class is over, Matt plans to take Maddy to his campus, which would be different, with new sounds (railroad tracks nearby) and lots of squirrels (very distracting for her). Alternatively, there is a dog-friendly mall nearby (no squirrels) and at this chilly time of year, there likely would not be many dogs at all, but Maddy would still find it to be a different and thus more challenging environment than her home turf. We won’t try the dog park again for a bit. 🙂
Hopefully the web issues yesterday are solved today, as the site crashed before I could upload my post/video. Fingers crossed this works!
Anyway, Matt has continued to do the Relaxation Protocol with Maddy, and has finished day 13. Admittedly, he skipped the part with the doorbell exercise, as we tend to work with Maddy quite late at night, and he didn’t want to set 4 dogs barking in the middle of the night. However, since it is the weekend, we can try it tomorrow in the daytime, maybe putting the other dogs in the back yard for a bit (because it would be too hard for Maddy to relax when the other dogs are barking and jumping around). We’ll try to videotape it. TBD….
Also, you’d posted the “go to place” assignment, and we were able to record a bit of practice doing that. Maddy already knows “go to your rug” and we do that exercise quite frequently. In the video, Matt tried to show her value for the rug/mat, as she wants to jump on it before he can even set it down. He then calls her off of it and puts the mat on the Kuranda bed, and again she happily jumps on. Matt walks away, showing Maddy can remain (mostly) calm despite him leaving (and even when he rolls a toy toward her). He calls her off the mat and then sends her to it from a distance and repeats that. Let us know if you have any feedback. Here is the video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ONqhazrY8bk. Thx!
Ha! No, the snuffle mat videos are definitely in real time. She just really wants her kibble. 🙂 We would not say she is frantic in either video. She was pretty relaxed, especially in the front yard. Less so in the back because of the squirrels.
Okay, on to shadow handling. We did this in the kitchen because the instructions say it is helpful to circle around something, so we had her circle around the kitchen island. She did pretty well considering she is afraid of the register cover in the floor near the stove — she doesn’t normally like to pass near it. Each time, you can see Matt switch her to his left so that he is between her and the scary item. Good man. She then switches back to the outside.
Also, our other dogs were gated in the adjacent sunroom (looking on enviously while Maddy got treats), but this doesn’t distract her. At one point Matt accidentally drops a treat, so Maddy scoots to get it, but otherwise she mostly stays connected to him (well, to the food). 🙂
Video: https://youtu.be/mahtTPp4rWY.
Okay, below are two snuffle mat videos from Sunday, one back yard and one front yard.
In the front (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dVqvW56RB44), she was really focused on the snuffle mat even though we live on a busy street. Since it was a Sunday, it was quieter than normal.
In the back (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tlRNivOKetI), she was pretty good considering when we walked back there about 5 squirrels scattered, and the neighbor’s cat (also something Maddy wants to chase) sauntered past the fence. Once we got started, you can see that each time one of the squirrels scrabbles around up in the branches, Maddy looks up, but she stays focused on the mat otherwise. Matt gets up at the end because he was out of treats.
Tonight Maddy did day 8 of the Relaxation Protocol and did well (no video).
Tomorrow we’ll try shadow handling on video (TBD).
Okay, Matt has been working on the Relaxation Protocol with Maddy and is up through day 6, he said. We recorded as much of it tonight as our over-full iPad would let us before the storage was full on the device. 🙂
Video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=Fe9spd1COas
Matt said to point out that the door he opens, though it is out of frame, is the toy closet, and Maddy attaches a very high value to that door.
Matt also said he feels this process is really helping Maddy. Friday night we had Flyball practice again and he did more calming exercises with her in the crating area, as he has been doing for months. Maybe Maddy connected the exercises with the Relaxation Protocol (they are similar), as she was calm despite a new challenge, as someone brought a child to practice (Maddy has rarely been around small people). 😄
Maddy did very well, bringing her ball all the way back to Matt and taking all her jumps except for one time when I clapped to get her attention (we were using a small dog as her distraction dog and I was a little worried Maddy would think the dog was a squirrel, so I wanted to make sure she was looking at the box/ball and not the other dog). On that run, she barked and skipped all her jumps on the way to the box, though she did take the jumps and carry her ball on the return. I think the clapping (on top of everything else) momentarily put her over threshold, but she recovered fairly quickly. I am glad clapping is part of the Relaxation Protocol, to help her prepare for that at Flyball tournaments.
Tomorrow we will loop back to do the snuffle mat exercise outside our home, back yard and front yard. We will also use our “fluffier” snuffle mat so she has to dig around a littler for her treats. Will try to video. TBD.
*Note: Meant to break my responses into chunks to respond to your three posts with three responses, but once I got typing I forgot and put it all in one long reply. Sorry! Also forgot to note that yes, Matt will try not to crouch when doing the relaxation and he will be more generous with the treats. Maddy likes the sound of that!
Hello! I’ll answer your questions and update you on our recent activities, and will then share some news.
So, you asked if we regularly use the snuffle mat at home? Yes! This is why we felt we could “take the show on the road” as the article suggested, as we’d already built value in the mat. The article suggested using the snuffle mat at places like the Home Depot parking lot, etc. We had never used it anywhere previously but in the home, so I suppose using it at the dog park might be ‘skipping a step’ but we thought we were following instructions. Whoops!
You asked what Maddy’s behavior is like on the snuffle mat at home? I’d say good, as she is intent on getting the treats. Matt feels she is always a fast eater anytime food is involved, whether at home or out in the world. At the dog park, though we aimed to use it only as a snuffle mat, giving her treats so she would focus on nosing around for them, her behavior caused us to improvise and use the mat as if it were her relaxation mat to try to get her to settle down. We do have a different mat we normally use for that purpose (relaxation) and we frequently take it with us to Flyball practice, etc.
Matt actually *has* been using the relaxation mat with Maddy daily. Previously we’d used the mat as a “down, stay” tool, as in “Go to your mat” and then reward calm behavior or reward staying on the mat despite distractions. When I’ve used it with Maddy, I’ve worked in some canine massage as well. Maddy is usually ready for action at any time (she wants to play all the time), so relaxing is tough for her.
At your suggestion, Matt did take the mat to the back yard where squirrels live. He reported that she was obedient and listened to him and stayed on the mat, but he does not think she truly relaxed. We’ll keep at it, though.
Now, although this response is getting long, I do want to report that on Sunday we had Flyball practice and Maddy did fantastic!!! The day was unusual because we typically have the facility to ourselves, but on this day they were finishing agility run-throughs when we got there, and they were also doing a holiday photo shoot in the back, so Maddy was quite unnerved by the new things happening in her home facility. When it was her turn to practice, she was literally shaking, possibly because it was also a very cold rainy day, or all the new things, or both. She was initially distracted, not listening to Matt, looking around.
We thought it was going to be a disaster, but it was quite the opposite. We’ve been working hard on ball-carrying at home because previously she kept spitting the ball and it was preventing her from actually progressing with Flyball. On Sunday, when we actually lined her up to go (giving her something to do, as you noted above), she did her job and carried the ball every single time. This was excellent! She also took her jumps every single time except one single jump on one single run after she turned wide off the box, but she corrected herself very deliberately. It really was phenomenal, because before she was dropping the ball every single time and before that she was skipping the jumps every single time. Somehow on Sunday it all came together. Go Maddy! 🙂
Hi! To answer your question, I cannot recall why that person felt it was a bad idea to take Maddy near the dog park to work on threshold issues. Perhaps they misunderstood what we wanted to do, or maybe they thought it would only increase Maddy’s frustration (as her barking and lunging seems to be her saying “I want to run and play – let me go!”). In any case, we tried the dog park today, and it did not go as well as we’d hoped.
Since we feel Maddy has a good understanding of the snuffle mat, we tried to “take the show on the road,” so to speak, using the snuffle mat out in the real world. That was a novel idea, as we’d only thought of the snuffle mat as an enrichment tool — a way to make the dogs (we have more than the one) sniff out part of their meal so that dinnertime lasts a little longer. We have a different mat that we use for relaxation, and we do always take that one to flyball practice and tournaments.
Though we started out using the snuffle mat as solely a snuffle mat, you’ll see in the second video that we ended using it a bit like the ‘relax-a-mat,’ since Maddy went way over threshold near the dog park and needed to calm down. We had to be a looooonnnggg way from the dog park for her to even use the snuffle mat, and I feel like she was faster (almost frantic) in her movements sniffing out the food (Matt feels she is always fast at that). Here is the video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haVUhzHzafE&feature=youtu.be
Next, we put her on a long line and tried to see if we could work on recall and such while staying below threshold. We had a pretty good set of recalls, where we could approach the dog park, call her name, and she’d return quickly for a treat. Alternatively, we’d call her name and then run from her, since in flyball you want the dog to chase you back down the lane, and she did really well at that. However, when we tried to do an “off switch” and have her calm down and relax on her mat, we had to be pretty far from the park to even get her attention long enough to relax on the mat. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC9HToUhFaI&feature=youtu.be
As a bonus, somewhere in the article it asked if we could play near the trigger, so we did some quick frisbee and “bring it” games. She likes the frisbee better than food, so she was pretty responsive to that. Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACJzzC89giE&feature=youtu.be
What surprised me was that we actually had to be farther away from the dog park than from the flyball lanes to get any responsiveness from her. It had been so long since we tried the dog park that I’d forgotten how excited she would be for that environment. At first I was disappointed, as in “all the work we’ve been doing and she still won’t focus.” However, maybe it’s a good thing, and she is actually getting used to flyball tournaments and therefore behaving herself more there than in other environments. 🙂
Tomorrow we will try the relaxation exercise in the backyard (where squirrels will likely keep their distance, but will surely still be present). Thx!
