[grittyagility]

Ok, I added the bowls to the weaves and upped the energy level. The first half has no sound due to my other dogs barking their heads off in the xpens. He missed the entrance on the first rep, but gets rewarded in the bowl and has no time to worry since we carry on with the bowls while transporting back to the wing. Let me know what you think. He likes wing wraps and my thinking was to take the pressure off of the weaves with the one bowl after the wing wrap. Round 2 has sound since I put my other dogs in the house. He was happy and nailed all of the entrances. We ended with some play. I tried this again last night on a new dw since he has a nice dw at home, but worries in new places. It went very well! I also worked the find my face at home several times with your changes and took it to two new places this week, but no video. He is going to Phoenix with me to work this weekend. I plan to get him out to play find my face and bowl games in this new park. I will DM with details about our future plans with you.

[grittyagility]

Well, it was captured on film today. It’s me. Totally me and I don’t know how to fix this. This video is a little longer than you like, but it shows our entire problem. All of it.

I have made training all about play for Merc. There are never corrections. Effort is rewarded. I was working 4 poles with the Super Bowls game. He was pretty slow and overthinking it as usual, but I kept encouraging and rewarding. I have been working on weaves for 2 years and I assumed he wasn’t “getting it”, but clearly, he knows how to weave and fast unless I am working with him. My husband comes out to ask me a question. This was not planned, but the same event occurred a month ago and left me in tears since it was proof the problem is me. I do not exist to Merc when Roy comes onto the field. Roy does no training, feeding or hiking the dog unless I’m out of town. He loves Merc to death as well as our other 3 dogs. He is just a food vendor and play toy to them. As you can see, I cannot get Merc’s attention back so I ask Roy to ask Merc to weave. Are you effing kidding me? He doesn’t even want a reward other than to play with Roy. I do not even get this effect when I train with a toy. Merc gives me 80% at most, but typically, 60% of what he has during any training session. You can see my attempts at the weaves when Roy is still there is a tad faster than my attempts before Roy came out, but he is still reluctant and overthinking it. He is not in pain, physically. This is about me. This is soul crushing, embarrassing and makes me cry. I am an aversive to him.

[grittyagility]

Ok, The session I’m posting was done before reading my feedback. Yes, the changes to my mechanics make sense and I will try again this evening. And no, I have not had time to watch the evening chat yet.

My plan was a round of Super Bowls in my yard, then work two poles, then back to Super Bowls.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by grittyagility.

[grittyagility]

I have played Super Bowls at home once a day since the last post and incorporated it into our short training sessions. No video, but he loves it. I will video tomorrow.

I spend the last several days playing find my face at home and today I added a distraction. The dreaded tripod. It was poisoned some time ago although he didn’t seem to mind it much today. I practiced “getting lost” as well as “getting it from my hands”. I will take it on the road this week. I would like to get a couple of more sessions of “getting lost” under our belts because disconnecting can be a trigger. Here is the video. Ignore my Flagstaff chic style 😉 https://youtu.be/XrgWF1Jo5O0

[grittyagility]

Instead of posting the van video, here are 2 short sessions from yesterday in a public park. There were children playing soccer, cars driving by, my van nearby, a friend with her dog and a very loud medical helicopter (why there is no sound on second session). He was awesome! The friend and I walked around this small park several times before I did his first session. We walked around it again before the second session. He ended with laying in the grass completely relaxed on his side 🙂
Let’s hold off on the Vet 4 Vet service for now.

[grittyagility]

Ok, took Super Bowls to my driveway (it’s AZ so there is no workable front yard grass) and he was a rockstar! He tried to make a run for my van which is the only reason he ever goes out the front door. Plus he loves his crate in my van. I used his favorite treat, string cheese. He quickly realized we were working and relaxed into the game. I went back out 2 more times (1st and 2nd session are in the video). The first one was on my concrete driveway and second round was on the cinders next to my van. The 3rd session (not in this video) was also next to the van, but the van door was open. This is a HUGE distraction for him since he eats in the van crate when we travel and he sees it as a safe area. There were also cars driving by during the 3rd session. He was awesome. It’s on video, but I’m not submitting unless you want to see it. We will take it on the road this week. I also plan to start the relaxation protocol tomorrow.

[grittyagility]

He doesn’t have any trials for at least a month. We did take the super bowls game outside onto my agility field today. He has learned the game and likes it now 🙂

[grittyagility]

Figuring out what works is still a work in progress. It is difficult to get his focus off the grass. Cookies and transporting him to the gate area works. I ask for his favorite tricks and simple obedience. He can do these as long as the cookies are flowing. He does not like to play or tug before going in the ring and really stresses if I ask for that energy at the ring gate or going to the start. Getting to the start from the ring gate is difficult since I cannot transport with cookies. He is incredibly distracted and sniffing. He stresses anytime he is on leash. It does not matter if we are headed to the start line or walking in a park. The nose is down 99% of the time when he is on leash. If he is off leash, his head comes up, he will interact with me and other dogs, looks relaxed and only occasionally sniffs.

Back to the trial environment. Once I get him to the start, I ask for a sit once and simply wait for him to sit and then make eye contact with me. I will then take the leash off, lead out and release. At my trial, I put my hand on his chest and pushed back with a little pressure. This seemed to put him into “game on” mode, he instantly focused forward to the first jump, I lead out in a “game on” creepy manner and released to a game of chase while doing the course. Is he too stressed to go to the start? Maybe. But my plan is to leave the ring if he cannot sit and look at me on his own. I will not force him to run, raise my voice, force him into a sit, etc. If he ever shuts down or runs off on course, I would stop. Thankfully, he has never done this and I keep seeing his confidence grow. He ends the run by grabbing his tug toy and playing tug like a maniac. Our trialing is super limited right now. I will only run him in classes where I think he can be successful (no weaves or contacts). I have no qualms about changing a course to meet his needs and keep him confident and successful. There are never any corrections or redos on courses with him. We just keep running and playing. I really don’t want to stop trialing unless you think it is harmful. Again, he is only doing 1-2 classes an entire weekend.

I have thought about a chin rest in my palm to transport him to the start from the ring gate as part of my start line routine. He loves this behavior at home. Thoughts?

[grittyagility]

Thanks for the feedback! And as a note, he did not run at the West Coast Open. He was along for the practice ring and hanging out. However, he did run 2 rounds of speedstakes at my trial the weekend before and was a total rockstar 🙂

[grittyagility]

Hi Bobbie,
I know you said to wait to post new videos after you reply, but I am so far behind that I couldn’t wait any longer. We attempted Super Bowls again in the house. He looks stressed, but never quits. He just gets confused and begins offering all kinds of stuff. I am not using my clicker or my voice marker “yes” since those seem to be poisoned. He is used to shaping with no verbals so I assume this is ok. He figured out the game by the end of this session. https://youtu.be/pdTGnVNR-P4

• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by grittyagility.

[grittyagility]

Hi,
Soooooooooo much going on in this homework attempt. After this, I will not be doing anymore homework until we get home. I do realize this was in a new area with distractions, but to be honest, I’m pretty sure it would have played out exactly the same in my house. I set this up in an area with little activity and after he had gone for 2 off leash romps where he was super happy and animated. This is also before it became very hot. This first video is session 1. At 0:36 a beep of some sort goes off and that is it for him. He typically is not sound sensitive, but to his credit, this did sound like an evil fire alarm and those are satan’s doorbell. He stops wanting to work so I feed him when he comes to me. I attempt scattering some treats but it isn’t rewarding to him. I try going to the end of the stations away from the action, but he never fully recovers. I started using “yes” (one of his reward markers), but I forgot it is poisoned. Clickers are also poisoned. He is eating, but he is stressed. I hate to bias you, but this is the exact situation that will typically lead to poisoned cues, props, stations, environment, me, etc. After events like this, he will usually shut down if I use one of those props again, try the same game again, use a reward marker cue, try the same area again, not ever eat those treat again, etc. As much as I hate this session and how it played out, it is very typical. I put him away and tried again an hour later and he was completely shut down. I have that on video too. Thoughts?

[grittyagility]

I survived hosting my first trial last weekend and drove to Paso today for the West Coast Open! Tomorrow is a recover day. I hope to play with the assignment. I realize we are not at home and might not be successful, but I’m going to give it a go. I bought a 36 pack of his favorite treat, mozzarella sticks and I I have a few stations. I’ll attempt to get away from any excitement or triggers and see what happens. He was a rockstar in speedstakes Sunday! I can see his confidence building. I ran him like a “big” dog and he stepped up. Of course, I had a plan in case he didn’t want to leave the start line, ran away or shut down. None of that happened 🙂 He isn’t entered in anything for the next couple of months.

[grittyagility]

Thank you for the feedback! I am not familiar with the games you mention but I’m eager to learn. I am hosting my first trial this weekend then heading to the west coast open on Tuesday. I will do my best to do the homework but it’s a busy week for me.

[grittyagility]

Thank you for the feedback! I think you nailed the anxiety/agility part. I have accidentally made it stressful for him. Anytime I up the criteria even in small increments, it is a struggle. I have kept criteria super simple for the last year. If I get the slightest bit picky about criteria, he stalls. It seems like a catch 22. If I am not clear with criteria, I create grey areas that I worry will create ambiguity. If I try to dial in criteria, I get overthinking, stalling out and shut down.

I realize you are getting to know us as a team, but I want you to know I have no problem not fixing anything because I don’t with him. Never. Actually, I haven’t “corrected” anything since his initial meltdown where I withheld a a single reward for a mistake. He gets rewarded even if he is wrong but tries. I don’t use NRM either. I took video of a short weave session this morning where you will see how I handle his “mistakes”. He still gets a manners minder treat for every attempt no matter what he gives. We had decent weaves but they became poisoned by something that I never saw or understood. So, I have gone all the way back to channels as well as 2x2s. If you feel I am correcting please let me know. I don’t feel like I ever correct a mistake. I try to take responsibility for a lack of skill or handling error. I always “keep going” even at home. It is one of the skills I try so hard to teach my students. I apologize for all the time stamps listed. I will use a program from now on and mark it on my videos like I do for my students.

Thank you again. I hope I am not coming across as argumentative. I want to learn, but I realize the written word lacks emotion.

Here is video #3.
at 0:10 he hears the other dogs howling in my other yard
at 0:18 he seems totally recovered
Recovery time 8 seconds
Severity 1

at 0:43 I did not correct him or pull him out of the poles, he backed out himself. He seemed surprised that there were now 4 poles. I used a reset cookie before trying again.
at 0:58 he seemed to have recovered when going for the reset cookie
Recovery time 15 seconds
Severity 3

at 1:02 he was stressed again at the entrance
at 1:05 he had recovered again
Recovery time 3 seconds
Severity 2

at 1:07 he really stresses at the entrance
at 1:22 he recovers at pole exit
Recovery time 15 seconds
Severity 4

at 1:30 mild stress but much more confident than when we started
at 1:34 he ends confident
Recovery time 4 seconds
Severity 2

at 1:42 seems mildly stressed at entrance
at 1:44 confident at exit
Recovery time 2 seconds
Severity 1

[grittyagility]

Video #2
Merc in the most recent trial. I was over the moon with him all weekend! I was ready to quit training him the previous week because he just wasn’t into it in my own yard. He was already entered in this trial in novice speedstakes and novice jumpers (we avoided the poles with our own course design). I spent a lot of time just sitting in the grass with him, letting him sniff the entire field and getting him to play with me at the practice jump. I stopped asking him to play with me before we go in the ring. This was his most stressful run of the weekend. I can see in the video he is stressed on the line when I lead out. Noted: I need to stay connected with eye contact with him as I lead out. He was concerned about missing the first jump. He heard the verbal and he is super literal. I just kept going after the “mistake” and he recovered by 9 seconds. He really takes off with confidence at the 9 second mark and flies into the tunnel.

Total time of stress 0-9 seconds on the timer.
Severity 2

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