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Hi Bobbie,
Here are some video from today. I do have a couple more but I was hoping I could capture what he does the first 10 minutes while at the club. I did bring along his bang board and other tippy board for him to do at he club which he showed confidence with these items there and that is what I would really like to continue to transfer with the various teeters.Honestly “little weird at times ” is best described as complete avoidance of the area that the incident had happen in the other training room. His tail goes between his legs, he walks slowly, body posture his hunched and you can see the whites of his eyes.. He would rather be in the crating area or wanting to head out the door. My thoughts are that Two friends where there that day and when it happened they got all upset , they petted him and carried on .. Which irritated me a bit because when I tried to get Tanner to go over the board while it was on the ground they started in on me on how mean I was to make him do that after that horrible scary incident. He just a little guy. I said ” I am not upset about it and he really needs to focus on my energy not yours besides its flat on the floor I would like for him to realize its okay to get back on it.” Well he hid behind them and that was that. That’s when it all started.
I will be taking Tanner with me these next few weeks to work with him on our homework for this class before I teach a foundation agility class. So Hopefully he will show signs that I can video for you to see especially in the other training room.
This video is the closest I can capture of what he does that really baffles me. He has pottied ect before he comes in the building.
this is us coming in from taking him outside to potty.. He doesn’t like to get near the crates when we first come in. doesn’t matter what training room we are in.
Tanner and his Bang board/ tippy boards
teeter games
I was trying to capture him hanging out and working. Its challenging to figure out where to place/put / angle camera so you can see his entire body language. I hope I captured what is helpful to you. I was really proud of his teeter exercises but in the beginning of getting on the teeter where he pauses and I honestly feel like I need to lure him which I know I have at times .. jumping off to the side. we go through this every time we first get on it.. That why I wonder if I am dealing with a mental block and him trying to work through it. Its lots lots better than what it was..
I was really thrilled with him doing his bang board and the two tippy boards its been awhile since he had done them there. That’s the confident enthusiasm I would luv to get every time on the teeter here at club or in a trial.Mary and Tanner
Actually Tanner is not nervous in different environments ( unless there are certain noises and then he doesn’t get really nervous he does more barking at the noise) his body posture definitely shows he is aware and attentive . Unless we are out on the course and there is a noise ( that he doesn’t like) then he will get nervous. Diesel engine’s are his BIG thing. He is really a very confident dog doesn’t matter if its large or small spaces and as far as people and dogs he is super friendly ( little more than I would prefer especially with other dogs but that is my preference I know) I can take him anywhere and he is a polite little man, a bit opinionated (barking) at times. He likes to be the center of attention especially when we go to the antique mall. The club is where he can get a little weird at times. Hopefully I can get video tomorrow to help you observe this better. Now watch he won’t do anything that I have been discussing with you.. (lol)
I know I can be a very literal type person at times. I went to internet and my various books since I am not familiar with the ” environment sensitivities”.. is it the same as noise sensitivities?? If its noise sensitivities he still does have a couple but we have worked through many of them and continue to do so.
I am completely open to suggestions I just want to be able to know what I am dealing with , where I need to look to gain more knowledge and what I need to do to help him, so I can incorporate it into his/our training? I want to be able to give him the best trustworthy teammate I can and make his life even better.Hi Bobbie,
After searching my phone videos for a couple hours I came across this video I cut it down to hopefully give you an idea of what I have dealt with for months. This was not to long after starting your class I have learned A LOT about breaking down the time spent working with him, breaking training down to shorter spans .. I didn’t take him to the club that much due to having to wait for him to settle down for 30 minutes before doing anything with him. Then I started arranging my time when at the club to work with him. So He would have a break in the car while I worked my other dog then pull him back out. I will try and include taking these video’s this session. But I hope this one gives you a good idea. This Video was taken in Feb 2019. He was on the other side of the room sniffing and completely avoiding where I was until I call him.
I did come across this video when I did the course memorization with Tracy back in November. He had been in and out of the build for about a couple hours training in the other room (there was 10 of us that met up that day to practice) before we did this course for my course memorization class.
this last video I have is of us in our distance foundation class just a couple weeks ago.
I am going to be at the club on Fri to work on some things. I will try and get some video’s of running sequences, hanging out and teeter while I am there first thing. Let me know if there is anything else I can video that would help.. these video’s may be longer than 2 minutes.. I will cut down what I can for you unless that is okay.
Mary and Tannerfinally got the upload figured out again!! woohoo!! each video is labeled with the month we were working on. First two it at home, third one is at the club, the last one was at a CPE trial I call ” Breath taking Miracle”!!
Mary and Tanner
Hi Diane,
I apologize in taking so long to get back with you. With my dog club having a huge 3 day Thanksgiving trial and the following weekend having another big trial . Plus getting my work days in at he antique malls with the holidays I have been slammed.
I have been reading my homework besides trying to do the the analysis’s you provided then watching the video’s. Shaking my head going well I was way off on that one and still haven’t figured out why or even how to ask the right questions. I spent a couple of days working on course analysis 3.. I have to laugh I have three different areas ( Anchor) where I need to be to do the cross but it was on the other side of jump three. Not on the same side as jump and 4a,4b,&4c. Then I realized that I was making a whole lot more room on that side than what was on the map. Especially after watching the video. With that video especially It jumped at me why we need to make eye contact with dog because at a certain spot your body language could be indicating something else and not the weaves or far side of tunnel. But with the eye contact connection the dog adjusted its stride to get its self on to the path you were wanting. May things jumped at me in that video as to what you have been talking about.Honestly the biggest thing I am struggling with when doing the analysis with top dog, & course #4 is that I really don’t see where to put a front cross in. I would use other handling moves ex. rear cross, pull – push doing a serpentine . I do get frustrated. Is there some easy way to help me figure out where a FC would go when I am doing the analysis homework??
I couldn’t get the Blind cross intro and Basics video to work in week 3 blind crosses section. The rest of them worked fine. Have others had problems with this video?
Then my next question is IF you can see or determine where “x” is , does it apply only to front cross or blind crosses or can it apply to rear, tandems, post turns?
The only thing I can relay is that when I am walking a course and knowing that I need to get to the other side of the dogs path so a handling move needs to happen. I am actually visualizing the lines and where the “x” is to accomplish the front cross especially is. I am feeling more confident in executing the front cross in my runs over the past weekends. There are a few things that I have noticed about myself that I don’t know if its good or bad. But I don’t always remember to verbally cue my dog to send him. (Trigger)I use more body cueing for that. Does it make a huge divergence in not cuing both?? The second thing I have noticed is that I am on my toes when doing a front cross not my whole foot. Any other handling moves I use my entire foot except that one. I figure I am a weirdly balanced.
If I haven’t explained something please let know. This has been the most challenging class yet. I couldn’t believe when I started visualizing all my lines to make an “x” when walking a course. I sure hope this means I am getting it even if its not on paper.
Mary and the boys
Hi Tracy!!
Boy oh boy do I have much to relay and I used from this class on Saturday and Sunday at a Teacup Agility Trial.First ,Thank you in pointing out the positives on Friday. I hadn’t really looked at them that way and yes your right those where big accomplishments for me!!
Second, This is something I have pondered for a while and then in two weekends it worked out to see if I was just imagining it. I have noticed that when Tanner runs first, he seems more connected with me and we succeed more. Now if Buddy runs first, Trying to really connect with Tanner is harder, more challenging and we just don’t seem to do well. I said something to my mom about this and she said that it doesn’t surprise her because when all three dogs are over at her house. It shouts that Tanner thinks he is my whole world , that he is #1 in my eyes and is very jealous if any of the other two have my attention. So my question(s) is when the running order is short to tall ( Buddy would run first) Does Tanner perceive that he is not as special because he doesn’t run first. Like he might being punished for not running first?
If any of this makes sense what I am say… How would one go about in trying to fix this behavior? If that is the right way to ask it. I know I am putting many human emotions on this but I am not sure how to say it or fix it?Third, Saturday Buddy did very well besides not maintaining he focus on me , he just had to say Hello to anyone that was in the ring.. ( The ring is a lot smaller than any of the other venues.) There wasn’t has much weave grumbles and out of 5 runs he Q’d 2 and would have gotten a couple more if his visiting didn’t put him over time !! ( chuckle shaking my head) He adjusted well to differences in the size of the equipment, and his stride. I notice that he will send out ahead of me better in teacup probably that the distance from me is more in his comfort zone.
We stated in a hotel Saturday night and none of us slept well.
Sunday with 5 runs he Q’d 3 would have gotten one more except that he had to finally decide that was the run to poop in. ( I Said well Bob ( my husband) Buddy finally pooped) We spent an hour walking him before the run. It happens and one moves on. I could tell Buddy was tired he would get these expressions during the run ( EX: where am I ??? ooohh yeah need to do the jump) it was brief but I could tell. He tried hard and the weave grumbles were really bad sunday .Tanner got 2 Q’s on Saturday. However,He was actually staying until I released him, and He got Super Brave and did the teeter all by himself!! NOT JUST ONCE HE DID IT TWICE!! The first teeter round
he got on it and looked at me and I said want to do it together , stepped in closer touched his side ,I pushed the teeter down ( as I was pushing it down I said what a brave boy you are) when it hit the ground as I removed my hand from tanner I said ” ooohh looky what you did!!” The next 2 round he did it himself.. We partied and on the first one he did by himself we did a victory lap!! (lol) There was plenty opportunities to work on layering and at one point he was so far ahead of me I told him to Weave and Tanner nailed those weaves with me being 20 – 25 feet away. He was still in the distance mode Saturday so I did what I could to accommodate him. It was good practice opportunity. However by the 5th run and another teeter in it He wasn’t going to do another one come high or hell. I don’t blame him. He REALLY took a giant leap with what he did!! He adjusted just fine to the smaller equipment , his strides were great and He was working hard on certain things but anything close handling was a BIG challenge. ( Something we still need to work on ).
Sunday he tried really hard with the close handling. Teeters were not happening at all !! I could tell he was Just as tired as I was by his speed and ear movements. He did get one Q on Sunday.Now Sunday was when sssooo much of what we have discussed about others came in to play. The first run sunday morning I am going to be nice and say that calling it a challenge. It was a game that you had to have so many points and to get those points with only 13 obstacles. OF course there was teeter that had a high point value… the weaves had low point value. I was being realistic excepting the fact that Tanner wasn’t going to Q this.. A LOT of micro managing handling but hey we need to work on this close handling. Anyway Tanner did better with the handling than I could ever imagine, Buddy pooped . So we didn’t Q the first run.
This one local individual comes up to me and says:” Your dogs are the only ones that didn’t Q that run”
I SAid: YOU are telling me this … Why???
she said: ” to rub it in”
I said : So .. THis makes you feel good to be mean???
she said: “well uummm ” and walks awayI shook my head and let it go…. or to say I put in the box to growl at later..
A student I have had this past year came for his second trial ever. THey did FANTASTIC I was so proud they even got their first two titles ever. An individual that I see at many trials ,has been doing agility for the past two years, their still new to the sport. Dog is super fast and athletic.
Laura : Mary I hear that drew is on of your students
Me: So
Laura: He needs to quite leaning down when running and not talking so much to his dog
Me: He is aware he needs to work on that but nervous have kicked in , I ‘m not worried about it.
Laura: She goes into 10 minutes of her trainers told her and therefore everyone shouldn’t do chatter
( I think you get the picture)
Me: That’s great that it works for you and your dog. But they are not you or your dog they are their own team. I am fully aware of what they need to work on. Considering this is their second trial ever and they are green newbies. I think you have a lot of guts to come up to me,when you are only two years into this sport, telling me what I need to teach the students at our club. Granted I definitely prefer you coming to me and not him. But what you and your dog need to work on to be a team is most definitely not that same thing at this time they need to work on to be a confident team.
Laura: (eyes big as saucers ,mouth on the floor) UUMMM I have no doubt that you are a very instructor, turns around and leaves. (I am not the only one that helps these students at our club)
I put in the growl box.Well I can’t believe I kept my cool on both of these stupid ignorant situations. It helped a lot to physically shake my head, to move forward and not let distract me for rest of the day/runs. I couldn’t wait to pull them out of the growl box and discuss with you. I was impressed that since our last couple discussions I could think of the things to do to handle it maybe not the correct terminology but I do feel better in my confidences in how to handle these situations. Than before taking this class.
I have really enjoyed this class and all your feedback.. I know I will continue to go back over my notes and work on various areas to improve. You have been wonderful and really insightful. You have made online learning so positive. I will miss our discussions. Thank you for everything. May God bless you through this season and the new year.
Mary and The Boys
Hi Tracy,
Just a quick update from today’s NADAC trial before heading to bed.Since NADAC doesn’t hand out copy’s of the courses. I realized that memorizing in segment’s is something that I have learned to do.
Anyway Tanner’s first run had me completely lost as to what was going on with him. We started out great then we turned and it started in the weaves , him acting funny at one point he was standing behind me hiding at this one area of the ring. It finally hit me what was going on. Outside of the building in this one area you could hear tractors , diesel vehicles and maybe power tools. I am sure they were working on area on the other side of the wall where they are adding on. I honestly tuned them out or had completely ignored them. However these are still some sounds that we are Working on that bother Tanner. He has come a long way when it comes to sounds and getting past them. Once I had that figured out I gave him more handler support and verbal encouragement.. once we got past it he was rocking but when we got to that corner again to start in on the closing. He literally stopped and went right behind me. I said ” Tannie lets get brave and get that tunnel, had my body next to him took maybe four steps and he went to that tunnel to start our closing..
when we finished one of my friends said holy cow I didn’t know you could get that kind of distance with him that was awesome. I said thanks and almost let mr. negative come out of my mouth. I was able to change my wording of what was coming from the mouth into positive. I was able to shake that weird run off thankfully.. Another learning experience… Tanner had 4 runs today and Q’d 3 of them.. He did layering in his jumpers course just cause I knew there was no way either of us could work that close. His Distance run.. was FANTASTIC!! WE were a lean mean distance machine out there. Then his standard he ROCK it hard. Nailed his contacts and weaves!! He was a fantastic team mate !!Buddy had 3 runs today .. He Q’d one of the 3. He Was over time in one ,from all his work of being a good will ambassador (lol)
He got the first part of this distance run but the second part I knew would be way out of his comfort zone and it was but he ran it great with me close by.. and His standard was awesome and he didn’t waist that much time greeting the judge he hadn’t had a chance to do thus far today ;).Rest of the weekend is teacup.
HOpe you have a great weekend!!Mary and the Boys
Hi Tracy,
I am beginning to think you know me better than I know my self 😉 hahaha
Start off thank you for such kind words. I was shocked that my family came with such 3 active little boys. Yes, those last two runs with Buddy was definitely more training than competing (lol). They have never been around for practices so this was really a challenge for him. I have to admit getting a chance to see all this through their eyes was very thought provoking and interesting. They were completely clueless that Buddy NQ’d. All they saw was our dog out there doing these obstacles smiling , wagging his tail and running really fast. I have never taken the time to step outside the box and get an idea what other people see. It was an eye opener especially when one of the nephews hugged buddy and said you ran perfect. (lol) Hard to stay upset when Auntie see’s and hears this.
Few thoughts on difficult spots:
This was the big reason I was so thrilled you are keep’n class open a little longer. I never would have thought about having a different approach to the routine or entering fewer classes. Or that it would have unconsciously effect me as a distraction.“we can totally q or win this one!”: self talk focus on outcome goals – You are correct and Honestly I knew better than to do this. Part of us being human I know .. I just wanted Tanner to do what I have seen him do in practices , already being disappointed that he hadn’t done better with the earlier runs. I jumped way ahead of the run. Not making excuses just thinking it all they way through that if I wasn’t already distracted not knowing or realizing I was would I have done the same thing?? I don’t know. I am going to make sticky note in my folder to remind me not to do that . If you don’t mind me using your words ” only way to Q is to execute”. I like that!!
disappointment: I never would have thought of the various mental prep techniques that we have covered. The only thing going through my mind was ” okay affirmations to squash these negative thoughts. When those didn’t help I did withdrawal. But only after I stuffed those in a box and Focused on getting Buddy ready to run. That is one thing I REALLY really work on is not to carry over one boy’s run into the other boy’s run. So once I withdrawal yes those negative voices get worse and I don’t want to get others brought into the negative world I am currently. When I read your feedback I felt like you were watching me. lol
You brought up sooo much good feedback that I need to make self aware of and to remember other ways to recover from my disappointments.I do have to share this with you I only because how our discussion on dealing with disappointments come into play. I honestly feel like my disappointments just shout out.
Anyway after our dog club meeting last night one of our club’s students who had been at the trial volunteering to bar set. Came up to me and said ” You have always talked in class about building our dogs confidence up and while we are doing that we are also building our own confidence up in what we are learning together.
I watched a lot of handlers this weekend and now I get it!! A few things really stood out watching all these handlers and their dogs. I could see what you were talking about the dogs not having the confidence in doing the obstacles or particular cross , meanwhile I started noticing that the same handler wasn’t confident either. There is some handlers that completely had a melt down. But when you ran your boys even if they messed up you kept going like they did it correctly. Even that one time When Tanner was running around like a wild man. All you did was stop and touched your toes , as soon as you did that Tanner was standing right beside you ,looking right at you with his tail wagging
and you said very calmly are ya ready to try it correctly now as a team. Tanner as usual answered you and wow you guys were awesome!! You always ran very confident and both your boys always ran with confidence.
But now it makes sense what you have been saying about building our confidence and our dogs confidence”Honestly I was shocked she had even noticed still being so new new to the sport. She is still working on areas in foundation class so she hasn’t even moved up to the next class yet. Secondly I was shocked that I didn’t show my frustration or disappointment when Tanner decided to make up his own course or that I didn’t communicate better for them to understand. Because I sure feel it on the inside.
All I could think of to say to her was “Thank you, that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. I am so proud of you for being able to put that connection together. Now you can really apply it in building your confidence as a team.” she smiled big and said yes.So since this seems to be a them on this discussion for me anyway. Do you think that having many of these mental preparedness skills down/understood/ applied gives off a certain perception to others??
Or would you say that it all goes back to the beginning of teaching the dog how to do obstacle, read your body, building their confidence in understanding , the whole agility foundation from the beginning??Anyway I have a Nadac trial Fri and Teacup trial sat and sunday. Have made my notes from your suggestions. Will let you know how it all goes. Since these are completely opposite ends of the spectrum to me.. One being more distance and speed while the other being micro managing handling.
Mary and The Boys
LOL well that makes me feel better knowing it wasn’t just me on that distraction. 🙂
Thanks, I think they are adorable but I always figured it was because I was bias..
I have never heard this handling technique with small dogs.. It makes sense what your saying. I will definitely have to try it especially with this type of close handling. To get used to it more. I know with distance I have used more of my shoulders and upper body, slowly trying to get the lower body to be more precise with my upper body with my distance handling, always a work in progress. (lol) I appreciate that information definitely going to add to my list of things to work on with handling for me. That is so nice of you to share this information. I greatly appreciate it.
ooohh Buddy if its not about greeting everyone its about the food. lol Which I was really shock that he didn’t go visit. I guess he knew the camera was on and wanted to perform. HEE heeE.
Thanks
You are soo awesome!!Mary & the Boys
Morning Tracy,
I always wanted to try flyball it looks like it would be tons of fun. Congrats on winning your division!!
My female Holly was never a competitive dog , I mean we did get her novice Rally , novice obedience and it took 9 years to get one agility title, and I was always trying various sports with her just so I would have something to do with just her. Even at the ripe young age of 16 she stills loves to learn and we got two trick titles last year. I discovered Tracking at age 11 this was her thing. lol yes while most dogs are retiring at this at that age, here I am starting her in this. The biggest thing I had always discovered with Holly that if my nerves were really up she would shut down. So with Tracking I repeatedly told myself “trust Holly ” although she never got a title in that year n half of tracking it was the most fun I had with her. She really enjoyed it as well her tail never stopped wagging. lol One of the things I learned to do is mentally before we got to our start flag was go back through what dog language she would do in turns ect.. Many deep breaths with “Trust HOLLY , Trust HOlly” The only thing that I never got nervous about with her was she was our dog clubs distraction dog for the CGC test’s. She took this job ssssoooo seriously , it didn’t matter you had her she performed it beautifully and after 9 years of doing this I finally had to retire her from it last year. 🙁 This topic definitely brought back all the good memories and triggered what we have been learning in class that I had learned to do to some degree with Holly. 😉
Mary and the boysHi Tracy,
>> my mind wasn’t thinking about it until I walked back in with Tanner.Were you able to pull up the visualizations and remember it clearly? How did it feel?
Actually I did have a little bit of visualization and I was able to remember it clearly once I got to start line. It felt positive and confident . Which is what I like to feel when I am at the start line 😉I am trying to send the video’s again Hope they come through this time for you. If not let me know I will attempt again.
Mary & the boys
