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We’re wrapping up our big trip to Florida (from California) for the US Open. I’m coming away from this event with some great lists of things that went well and things for us to work on.
My biggest priority was to try to make sure Ripley had a great time. I kind of had in mind that this year our goal was fun without a ton of pressure since we’re still such a new team and need more mileage to push to be super competitive. I think he had a great time and was super surprised (and happy) that all of our focus on “Transitions to Trials” stuff and recent NFC stuff at home really carried over.
Our biggest challenges this past year in shows (vs at home) have been sits on the startline, startline stays and contacts. Over the 5 days of the US Open he sat on EVERY startline with no or minimal delay, only broke 1 stay (and just a partial break – moved forward but didn’t take the first obstacle) and only missed 1 contact. 😁
I’m going to put together some clips to hopefully get some feedback since I don’t want to rush him right back into too much training the next few days.
He did some amazing work and only had 1 run where things really fell to pieces. I think a lot of that was that his tummy was a little icky that morning. A lot of his other runs had minor off-course issues (so many eliminations for everyone at this event) but he always immediately found my face to get better direction and immediately got right back on track with no fallout or frustration.
Posting our last run of the event on day 5 because I was so proud he was still able to do everything I asked after being here for a week. This was Challengers to get the final slot in the National Finals. We had 1 bar down which dropped us to 7th behind the dogs with no faults. But his time was really good (fastest of all the no fault and other 5 fault dogs) and he would have won the class and moved on to Finals if not for that bar. On the video he does look like his tail wrapping the wing on the tight wrap was what caused the wing to wobble and the late bar drop. I’m not sure what to do about that as it does seem like a good number of his bars this is what’s happening. I’ve put bells on our wings and bars at home so we can both know when there’s contact made. Open to any ideas. 🤔
Challengers Round Run on Day 5
Sits on Startlines 😁
Lol – no they didn’t change them again. We ran 1 UKI at 22” before doing our first USDAA at 22” and at that first USDAA (last fall) the judge mentioned USDAA heights we’re about to change. So we ended up with a UKI US Open bye at 22” and ended up running 20” everywhere the rest of the year until I realized he could only use the bye if he’s entered at 22”.
Thank you for all of the feedback on that last video. I mentioned at camp that I struggle with decel. I think that’s the thing I need to focus on the most, timing and spacing of accel to decel.
We leave before the crack of dawn Sunday to fly non-stop SFO to Orlando then driving to Jacksonville.
I signed up to help with course building/set-up on Tuesday so likely see you then.
Rip abraded his paw pads training on outdoor turf last week so we’ve been just doing small space stuff in the house on carpet. I just realized I didn’t list our last training session filmed on 11/1/23.
Paws are better now so we’ll get back out to train (and hopefully video) tomorrow.
P.S. Jumps are at 24” here. He’s jumping 22” in Florida to use byes he got in the 1 UKI show we jumped 22” before USDAA changed their jump height cut-offs (had planned to just jump him consistently at 22” before they did that) and I’m varying 22” and 24” right now to see if we should ever do ISC at his regular jump height for that venue.
So, remember we are starting 2 weeks late. Here’s the first 2 sequences from the first set of exercises.
I tried to make it look more like a trial by entering the agility space on leash, doing a trial type moving to the Startline, running the sequence, sending him to his leash (placed at the end of the sequence like I would have at a trial), tugging, putting it on him and then exiting to treats (just his kibble but he likes it) outside the ring. First rep I also had a toy on me (but that makes him want the toy from me and not his leash) reps after that I think I left it in the other yard outside the agility area.
We did take a water and rest break between the 2 sequences.
Let me know if you want me to continue showing that before and after part on future sequences or not. I plan to do it for every sequence just so that we get super fluent in those before and after moments so that trials really are just like home.
Just catching up on the other threads and noticed you mentioned to Ginger (who lives in my area and was at the same show I was at this weekend) less control on the way to the start line. I did a seminar at Argus with Rachel Downs where we talked a bit about ring entry and start line stays. The first thing she asked me to do was take my leash off as soon as I entered the ring during my turns to see if I had engagement. I was a little worried at first that in a real trial Ripley would be interested in the previous dog running or just go take an obstacle. It worked really well and we even had a large, fast, loud dog pretend to be the dog before us when we did that and he did great.
It seems counterintuitive (and not something you could do at NADAC since you can’t take your leash off until the judge says “Good Luck” and they fuss if you aren’t ready to start right after that). But, I think it is really helping Ripley to use just a little bit of self control before I ask for an actual Startline stay. We used that entry at our last few shows and I felt his mental state was better. Sometimes I take the leash off and tug with him a bit, others I just take it off and toss it toward the finish. I was surprised but happy to see how’s handling that routine.
**”This is all great! In your opinion, what really helped him for the end of run behavior? What didn’t seem to help? I like to keep track of all of this so we can use it in the future for dogs with similar questions.“**
1. I got some leashes that are really good for tugging, including 1 that I had made for us with that fingers/mop like material partway down as a great bite surface. Also a nice grip when I want to keep him closer so I can show that to judges if they think I’m bringing a toy in the ring.
2. Taught him to love tugging on his leash and we do it all the time.
3. Taught him to find the leash near us in various locations, just out of sight, or even hidden in another room and bring it to me to tug.
4. I taught him NOT to find/bring the leash until cued. I then left it out during indoor training sessions then in the middle of the course when doing sequences.
5. Sent him to it after an obstacle, then short sequence then full courses.
6. Sent him to it during course work with it in all different locations – obvious to not obvious, right after the last jump, behind the last tunnel, hanging on the ring, on a big chair, on a little chair, etc. to avoid frustration when leash placement isn’t ideal. I even bought a little kids camping chair since a few of our clubs like that.
6. Learned NOT to send him to it over the last obstacle. 🤣. I do my best to wait until all 4 legs are on the ground and then cue it.It’s made a big difference. I do try to watch my leash runner to know where it will be. Occasionally have to tell leash runners at certain venues to leave it on the ground at the end of the course (little old lady leash runners zombie walking it to him with their arms outstretched is one of my nightmares – we’ve trained against it a bit but still something I want to avoid). I also tend to look for the leash chair during walk throughs and if I don’t like where it is I move it to a better place for the dogs. Or, if I see a leash runner throwing it as the dog is coming down the last line or tossing it 1-2 strides from the last obstacle I am more specific about where I want it.
The show went well. Did LOTS of Fix N Go and FEO (was USDAA). It is SOOO hard for me to maintain my criteria and not continue when his Startline or contacts aren’t a faultable thing but don’t match what I’ve trained. I’m getting better but I 100% have to plan my responses/fixes during the walk through and remind myself right before I run.
We even ran Grand Prix FEO so I could fix more than 1 thing if needed. It was SOOOO hard changing my check-in to FEO because it was a fun course. I did a big lead out, added a layered dogwalk no one else tried, threw in a threadle wrap where it was a little tough. We ran it for real but I knew I’d be able to fix Startline or a contact or a couple of contacts. He was great, just had a bar. Would have been 2nd place to Bob Daigle who just got back from Worlds without the bar but I was happy that I ran it FEO.
I am waiting for him to sit on the Startline. I’ve tried letting him choose and he often chooses a stand but then can’t hold himself back. If he breaks and I ask him to come back he immediately sits so I think he feels better able to control himself in a sit.
Here’s this mornings more pause cheeseball ping pong (this is a go to for us in lots of settings), up down with food distraction and then some volume dial.
Just popping in about iMovie. The newest version you do have to pick “Share Video” and then should have the option to “Save Video” which saves it to your camera roll as a regular video. Then you can upload to YouTube. Here are some screenshots of what to pick. If your device shows something different when you get to the third screenshot in this you should be able to “Edit Actions” at that step and add “Save Video”.
Oh my god! You want spins, I’ve got spins!
I think I might have gotten a little spin crazy. This spacing just felt so tight. I adjusted the jumps as much as I could for this particular sequence but it still felt like all the spins were the best way to give him the info. he needed.
Full disclosure, I rarely do spins on course – in training or in trials. They often don’t occur to me or feel counterintuitive, so this is good practice for me to see places I might consider them and how he responds to them.
Dang! Nothing like a 4 foot long tunnel and teacup agility spacing to help clean up timing with a big border collie.
We worked on the first couple of sequences from the last live that we missed.
On the last sequence I kept forgetting to have him take the final jump tunnel and it was getting hot so just reinforced after the left hand turn.
He actually does rest nicely between runs. I am a bit over the top about protecting his mental state at trials (maybe not surprising 🤣).
He does not like it when other dogs come right up into his space when he is confined and especially doesn’t like hard eye contact or any kind of menacing movement/barking when he is confined. He doesn’t totally lose it but will just react (with good rebound, but still). So, I never crate him anywhere near an agility ring or the pop-ups people have around the rings. I crate him out of my little camper van RV and create a little shaded yard with a pop-up and tent attachment +/- fabric x-pens with visual barriers and usually traffic cones to set a perimeter around that to prevent dogs from coming right up to his enclosure (especially in public places where “normal” people might be out walking with their dogs).
I like for him to have options/choices. He has access to both outdoor and indoor spaces with this set-up and I usually try to use existing structures at the location to give him more of a space buffer or park away from where most folks have their RVs even if it means we can’t watch the ring from our set-up or have a longer walk to get to the ring. He’s gotten quite tolerant of closer neighbors when we haven’t had a choice lately but my preference is still to try to give him that space. Typically he’ll divide his time between sleeping on the king bed in the RV or on his cot in the little yard I create.
Even at West Coast Open last year where we rented a stall I was pleasantly surprised to find him sound asleep on his big cot every time I checked on him.
We also use a white noise machine at night to keep out sudden environmental contrast like intermittent barks/people noises so we can both sleep well and often for multi-day trials I give him a low dose of Trazodone before we go to bed just to help him come down from the day and get a good night’s sleep. I don’t think he really needs that as nights I forget he seems to sleep just fine (and we both sleep in as late as possible nicely at shows that let us do that) but I feel it’s a do-no-harm mild anti-anxiety to help him rest well (like the Diphenhydramine and Melatonin I take myself a lot of the time).
He’s also an amazing traveler and sleeps soundly throughout all of our road trips (most are 2-6 hours in 1 day). On road trips we stop every 2-3 hours for a little hike and limit travel to 6 hours a day with an overnight stop if we are going to Washington state/Argus/Run Wild since that’s 12 hours away.
At the trial we have a routine for our warm-ups, runs and cool downs and his after run routine of playing in the hose (I bring it everywhere we go) and doing an after-run snuffle mat back at our RV. I also put a chair and his mat just away from the ring so we have our “home-base” until a few dogs before his turn and for his reinforcement stash after the run so he has a place to go when he’s still all excited and aroused. We do lots of little routines and pattern games before each run also. He has his nice go get your leash and bring it to me at the end of his runs which has worked great to prevent him from coming in and yelling at me when we finish the run.
Before and after the trial (or during long breaks) we’ll go for little loose leash walks, off-leash play if there’s a safe secluded spot or hikes if the place is amenable to that. But, we also don’t over due that and they are no goal walks where he can stop and sniff, roll around as much as he wants (not trying to run-walk or meet step goals).
We also spend lots of time in the RV binging Netflix during down-time during the day, at the end of the day and go to bed early. I spend some time hanging out ring side with friends but not really too much. I like my friends but I feel like shows are really mommy and me time for me and Rip and I can only do so much run analyzing without it feeling not as fun.
So, I feel like we do a good job of balancing both of our arousal levels.
Here’s a montage of some of our set-ups – no laughing!
Okay, great I’ll use the mini tunnel and work on those.
Here’s our final run of the 3 day West Coast Cup. This was Masters Series agility. Bill Pinder course.
I think this trial there was quite a bit more mental management needed as it was a bigger event (actually both UKI West Coast Cup and an AKC show were happening on the same field). 2 rings of UKI and 2 rings of AKC. 3 of the classes from the weekend were run with the 2nd UKI ring shut down so that we were all competing in the same ring (vs running in our groups the way we did for other classes).
That meant basically all the UKI competitors were watching that 1 ring (and it was kind of a social event with everyone hanging out) plus folks from the AKC show if they were bored on their side. LOTS of folks I consider big names from our area and lots who flew in. So, a bit of pressure knowing folks like Nancy Gyes, Jessica Ajoux, Perry Dewitt, Dudley Sumate, Sally Connell, Dave Grubel, Megan Miller, Taner Dogan, etc. plus all of our other amazing Northern CA folks (many of whom are my friends but still lots of respect for them so feelings of not wanting them to think me and the pup are crappy), plus lots of bigger name CA folks from down south.So, anyway, I did have to remind myself to be a good partner for Rip and not worry too much about what folks thought. This video is of our last run of the show – end of day 3 – and was really fun with no issues except a bar at the end. This one we were 10th out of 54 or so dogs (would have been 2nd if we hadn’t dropped that bar). I’ll find some of our more problematic ones for your feedback from over the weekend. I’d say every run we did had some amazing parts. Some had some weird craziness but mostly issues with some more challenging bits. Often we had issues with the same parts really experienced dogs and handlers had problems with but we also had lots of runs where we didn’t have issues where most did.
He does still struggle with sitting on the start line after the 1st or 2nd class of a show and I’m gauging when and how much of a start line stay/lead out to ask for while we continue to work on that issue.
Hi Tracy,
Footing on my field is still not good and the last time I had him out there he abraded another paw pad. Will probably need to have new substrate brought in for $5-$10K so need to put some research into that and see if I can swing it.
I’ve been setting up some mini sequences on my small grass yard and got a Clean Run mini tunnel (4 feet long) to have the concept of a tunnel in a small space. I’ll go through the exercises I had waited on while I was having my footing worked on and see if I can tease out some elements to work on in a small space.
We had West Coast Cup this past weekend. Wondering if I could post some of my runs here for feedback? I’m waiting on 4LeggedFlix versions but have my personal phone videos already.
Cindi
Refund is fine if that’s okay. Credit works to if that’s easier since you know I’ll be signing up for more stuff but I just don’t have anything to apply it to right now.
Gotcha on the cue before tunnel. I seriously know that, no idea why I was delayed. Yeah, I really need to work out my timing on these 1-2 stride turning sequences.
I continued this set of courses with the next 2 variations this AM and tried to be a little harder driving and get those cues in. I hosed him off partway through this video. It’s not super hot out but I want to keep him in a little more trial-like frame of mind so hosing helps keep his arousal in that sweeter spot.
I’m also adding some sending behind my back to get him started instead of boring sit stays all the time. There are times I’d like that in a resend situation to keep his energy up and not let him get annoyed with me.
Finally back to posting. Rip had a paw pad injury that I think was caused by my agility field footing being way too hard packed and having rocks. So, we had to wait for both paw to heal and surface to be reworked a bit.
We did a short session of RYG Challenge from Packet 2, Part 1.
Thanks for all of this feedback and advice Tracy. It makes a lot of sense. I do think in the background there was also some stress (work stuff and the night before I had just found out my wife had COVID and trying to figure out a plan for when I got home from the show) that kind of exaggerated some feelings of not doing a great job training that day and letting Ripley down.
I did also catch up on the Zoom recordings.
Lots to think about.
I have been using music during some walk throughs but with a specific group’s playlist. I found Outskrts when I was looking for motivating music for an online conference I was organizing for animal shelter workers. I found their “Let’s Do This” song by literally googling those words as lyrics. You know it’s a good pump up jam when you can listen to it for hours on end for weeks while you’re creating a promo video and still want to play it for yourself during walk-thrus on the weekend.
I ended up creating a playlist with only that group’s songs (they seem to specialize in pump up type songs). I’ll share it here with the caveat that I’m not quite as into winning as these songs focus on but just like how they kind of motivate me to do our best, push ourselves a little and run a little more aggressively (almost all of our “flow” runs were ones where we took some risks but were just super in synch).
I’ve added a couple of other bands’ songs in now. I’m creating single song playlists after hearing the last Zoom and am going to try single song walk-thrus just for fun (and maybe rub some apple pie scented Vicks under my nose 🤣).
