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Am on-topic article on handler stress affecting dogs. no tips on how to prevent it.:
Deep breaths do seem to help. I need to remember to be consistent with this. I recall taking some deep breaths before round 1 at invitationals and the gate lady commenting–“you got this” to me. Yes I visualize the course successfully and air handle the coursers and even draw them out on a piece of paper. All of these things help. I need to make a habit out of the smile and telling Endo how awesome she is also. I have tried scratching her some and cant tell if it made it better or worse. Worse–I think. I think I will write all of these things on a card and attached them to her competition leash and read them 5 minutes before we run.
How does she feel about being in your arms? Can you carry her into the ring? Would this make her more or less comfortable? From there you can briefly put her down and run with her. Doesnt like it a lot. I do it occasionally ESPECALLY at top notch to avoid dogs charging crates near the in gate. It does allw me to tak off the leash sooner as I wallk in but I stil need to let her down to make sure she doesn feel the need to scratch befre we take off.
What about the startline make her nervous? I think it is me. Especially at big scary event with super technical scary difficult courses like worl team tryouts.
Is it worry about breaking the startline? No–not at all.
The stress of the environment? No not the environment. She is a rock about that.
I would like to get to the root of the problem in order to work on it.
What’s the history behind the stress at the startline? Hard to remember exactly. We did have one really bad start line issue a couple of years ago. I cant remember for sure if we had these issues before that, but I think so. The really bad issue was at Top Notch, a tiny indoor trial facility. She was stresssed about the environment in there due to dogs charging their crates and tons of barking in the crates. Then we were waiting to go in and a spastic little reactive border collie “turned into a monster” and freaked Endo out big time. The dog was in a collapsable crate and was rolling it and collapsing and uncollapsing it about 20 feet away fron us waiting on deck to go into the ring. Endo hid behind my legs. She was frozen on the start line and it took me forever to get he runstuck. When i did, we were going around pretty well and got about 2/3 of the way through the course and Endo charged the judge barking and snapping at her. I called her back and we complered the course and got a Q. I was scared to death would be be in trouble and banned from the facility or AKC. The judge made a joke about it the next breifing about a tiny little dog tryng to kill her. We have sense gotten alot better at Top Notch becuse I bring Endo’s hose and spryer and hook it up outside and play hose game before and after runs. I oftern carry her in the side entrance of the competition ring when it is our turn to avoid flash backs and exposure to dog charging their crates.
Invatationals –closeup of startline scratching and routine to unfreeze
Round 3. Her startline was so much faster than planned that I did not “get there” for the blind before the teeter. I didnt have plan B in place for faster than anticipated start.
Kim. We have been trialing and I will post some videos. The biggest problem that we have is that she freezes and gets really nervous on the start line. It makes it worse to ask her to bark because she can’t get her voice to work and then she thinks she is a bad dog. She wants to scratch and look miserable. It has helped to not let anyone pressure me and to let her finish scratching and then try to get her unfrozen and to jump up or something. Still looking for help with this.
Thanks for that Kim. I think I can be a bit of a perfectionist. My new priority is to make sure my dog is having a blast. The more I do that the faster she gets!
mat work continued:
And then some jolly fun ball chasing and pool jumping. We are dock diving at invitationals also so I was glad to see her willing and excited to jump into cold water. Then she got to go inside and try out her new custom bathrobe and new electric warming jacket. Spoiled much????
Kim, Here are Links to videos of our mat practice this morning. Since we cant go anywhere to practice before invitationals in 3 days, I am so glad you brought up this topic since the last dw we did was at EOTT and was a leaper/fault. I feel more confident now and would love your suggestions on adding speed. FYI The last time she had a dw fault before EOTT was at AKC nationals last year!!!!
Opposition start line practice:
Mat work:
Crap–having internet issues. Will have to post the rest later
Kim, what I am wondering how to handle a really fast dW with a leap. Reward or no?
I really do think Endo is confused (at least sometimes) and thinks I just want slow careful dws. I haven’t been able to get her to understand how to hit the mat at full speed or even to get her to full speed very often anywhere on course but especially the least 1/3 of the dw.
FYI. I started out backchaing DWs to get her to understand the criteria and go back to doing it occasionally especially if she gets a few leaps in a row. Doing that REALLY slows her down though.
Opposition reflex is my favorite start line tactic. We use it for dockdiving also. I pull her back from the chest and say ready, Ready, READY? and then say OK (her release word)
and race her to the first obstacle while giving the verbal cues for the 1st 2 obstacles. I usually have good luck with it but sometimes she stops and scratches her self–especially at world team tryouts or other really tricky classes that have made me nervous.I did some mat and plank work this morning and finished by working for the ball and letting her have it and jump in the pool. She was really happy about that! The ball often gets her to forget all about “hit it” and she sometimes leaps the contact repeatedly once the ball is in the picture so I was really pleased with her today. I will attempt to upload today’s practice vidoes to youtube and post them.
Regarding classes without treats–we never take a class and dont use lots of good treats. We sometimes use less treats if she has valuable non food rewards available like jumping in the pool or playing hose game or ball. She generally wants treats at the beginning of a class and doesn’t have any interest in her ball. I am sure this is because I withhold food before classes and competitions so she will be more motivated. At the end of class after she has had a bunch of treats she is more motivated by her ball. She gets really pissed off though if you try to use the ball without actually throwing it far and a lot (a real game of ball) and wont play with it and give me a really dirty look and sulks.
One of the big struggles, that I have a the start line is the scratching issue. I know that right after she has her sport leash removed is the time that she is most likely to do it. So If I can get it off faster and let her scratch and get it over with or get her to think about something else before the “Go” buzzer, that is key. I am still trying to figure out a plan that works reliably or at least have plans A, B and C. USDAA trials are more relaxed about taking off the leash sooner than they are at NADAC or AKC trials.
Kim, Yes I saw the stopping to thrown the lotus ball in the homework video also and I agree. I usually do throw the lotus ball ahead as I am running. I dont have much space in the pool area at home so I will have to plan better to make sure there is forward motion for the lotus ball. I also noticed that I was giving really late verbals which cuts down on speed.
As far as tricks and banking on the start line go–Yes I try to do jump touches, gimme 10, barking and spins. That is what I was trying to do in the EOTT video. Sometimes, especially if I am nervous, she shuts down and doesn’t want to get fired up and cant get her voice to work for barking. He moth opens and closes and no sound comes out. That seems to get her even more discouraged. She gives me this pitiful look like “Moooom, I caaaaant. I’m scared! She very half halfheartedly tries to do the tricks and often will stop and scratch before leaving the start line. Also in general, she knows she wont get treats on the start line so she thinks that it is bogus of me to ask her to do tricks for nothing. I need to find some videos of closeups of this bad start line situation to send you. I will try to find one or more later today,
Also you never answered the question about rewarding for fast leapy dogwalks. How should I handle that? I am having a hard time figuring out how to stop training slow careful dogwalks inadvertently. She does know the verbal run run run. I have used it to good effect in the past and have kind of forgotten about it. When I do sprint training with her on foot and also with the bike I used to say run, run run!!! and when she runs really fast I stop and give her a jackpot of meat treats and says good run run run!!!!
Todays homework
Kim, being a terrier, Endo has lots of prey drive. She doesn’t have a lot of toy drive. She has 2 balls that she really likes that are “odd” non conventional ones. I am not able to use them in our home practice area in the winter because she likes to throw them into the pool.
She loves to catch her treats and jump for them so I do that to fire her up as well as do right and left spins, jump touches, ask her to speak, “gimme ten” trick, & throw the lotus ball.
I still use the mat off and on. I use it in the living room some on a contact board and also put it on dog walks sometimes at class or at practice. We started with just the mat and sometimes go back to that and get her to run across it and toss a treat or have a food dish with a spoonful of foods or a piece of meat and then put the verbal “hit it” to it. Then we practiced approaching at various angles or have a food dish at various exit angles with directions like turn, switch, right and left.
Here is a recent Nadac trial. She won all 8 of her classes and was the fastest dog of all heights in 6/8. Chasing me around. I got her jazzed up well before starting.
