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Been very busy with US open prep, plus the weather hasn’t been super pleasant nor conducive to setting up a tripod. But I have a very exciting, though also slightly sad, announcement! Pick is going to a new home on my way to Jacksonville! I think I mentioned back in Max Pup 3 that I had been looking for a new home for him and someone that expressed interest in him over the summer has decided to take him after all. So these MAY be his retirement runs, at least with me. I unfortunately didn’t have his favorite toy and you can see what he thought about the stand in. If it hadn’t been his last run ever I would have ended the second run not near the out gate so he wouldn’t have the chance to run out, but I kinda went, “who cares, it’s the second to last run of the day, and there’s no one here” and he got to end being the naughty little thief I have always loved. I know if I were continuing with him then we’d work on his remote reinforcement cue (I’ve done some with it, I swear, but it doesn’t stop him from going for it NOT on cue sometimes!) but as it stands, he kinda gets “old dog rules” and can do what he wants for the next week or so. 💜
Just had a chance to watch the recording from Monday night (was helping set up for our Tuesday ISC trial, which I wasn’t even running in, but just went to help out, and got some training time with Roots at the end of the day).
Yeah, the judge liked to talk to the competitors during their NFC runs. I really like this judge and his courses (I actively seek him out!) but I agree, probably better to be quiet during an NFC run. But at this point with Pick, I’m “sorta” looking for controllable distractions (and I think if he noticed him struggle, he would have stopped talking, but Joel and I are friendly if not friends by this point, so he may have felt some extra need to compliment my run) so I was ok with it.
And I had not noticed the sneezing as a regular thing (probably because videographers don’t usually start until after the “go” but I asked my videographers this time to video us going in the ring too) but will be watching for it now! I have heard of dogs doing that when stressed but haven’t seen in it one of my own before.
The off course at the end of that for real run caused by crap handling was a tiny bit intentional. I had to abort the handling plan for a blind because of having to stop and gather him after the visit. I didn’t like the rear there when I walked it, knew he wouldn’t know where to go. So I just ran that line “into nothing” as my old riding instructor used to say when we rode a line of jumps with no plan. Figured I’d futz it out on the landing side of that jump or accept the off course that I knew was likely rather than confuse him with a bad rear cross. Lesser of two evils to save his confidence? At least that was my thought in the moment. I guess if I was running “no hands” I could have whipped out the toy there and pretended that was the end. Even running for reals, I could have just celebrated like that was the end, asked for an end of run behavior and left, which I will file away in my tool box for both young dogs for the future. I think they’re both a ways off from “fight to save the run” status yet and I’m quite ok with that.One more trial this weekend before we leave for the open (Pick is not entered at the open in case that needed to be stated). It’s at a barn where Pick has never worked before, so it will probably be fully “just like at home” for both of his runs, but I’ll start working on running with the toy stashed on my person at home. I don’t think he’ll have any issue with that, and I’m still not fully convinced he wouldn’t have visited in that scenario even if I’d had a toy in my hand. He’s visited plenty of times when I’ve had a toy on me (usually worse at dirt trials and better on turf, which is why I gave him a shot at running for reals when we were on turf). The set up that seems to be hardest for him is a long line towards a person where I am probably falling behind. Do you think he might feel an element of disconnect when he finds himself pulling away from me? Maybe the find my face game might be more crucial than getting the toy out of my hands?
I did an experiment with the turf the following day. I put my hand down on it and it felt very grippy, the fibers create a LOT of contact area with the foot pad and in addition the dogs nails can really sink in deep because it’s pretty high piling. So I was highly confused (as I have been all along watching dogs struggle with this turf) about why dogs slip so much. Then I tried to move my hand along the surface and because of that high piling the whole carpet moved with my hand, up to 1/2”. 😔
Running Beat, yeah, it FELT like she was slipping, and I thought I could hear it, but watching the video I couldn’t actually see her feet slipping (other than the obvious). I think the sound is the carpet fiber moving against itself. I think what is happening is the dog’s brain is getting conflicting information: foot pads say the surface is stable, nerve endings in tendons and joints say it’s unstable. Recipe for disaster. To be honest, I hate most dirt surfaces and feel on average they are more slippery than is ideal, but at least the dog’s brain is getting consistent information about whether their foot is stable or not. And unfortunately our dogs need to be able to run on dirt since all national events are on it. Just like with dirt, I think they can learn to adjust for the slip, but is it worth it? After videoing my own hand moving with the turf, ugh, I’m not sure I even want to run Roots on it. He’s never had an issue and was even moving with extra oomph than usual as even good dirt is usually his slowest surface and that’s what we’ve mostly been on. I hate “untraining” good proprioception so will have to think about it. He (and Pick to a degree) have a much longer history of me prepping them from a fitness perspective for poor surfaces, so I may have to see how I feel about this one going forward.So Pick did so many good things! This facility is about as “hermetically sealed” as it’s gonna get. I mentioned above that there are rarely other dogs in the room, though other dogs don’t seem to be an issue for him any more. It’s totally enclosed and relatively low on distractions. Ring crew has become his biggest distraction and I guess the question becomes where to draw the line between letting him work through it and when he’s just rehearsing what I don’t want. Ideally, there’s zero visiting of course, but is this realistic for a dog working through dealing with all that arousal?
He did two runs, the first was open Speedstakes, which I ran NFC with his toy. Entering the ring I knew the dog ahead of me has had some reactivity issues in the past (never in the agility ring that I’ve seen, but she did a fitness workshop with me once and warned me the dog can have some issues) but the owner didn’t ask me not to come in, so I came right in when she was finishing. You hear her panicking a little calling the dog, but I think it was just pretty innocently following the leash runner who you see coming into view pretty oblivious and on a mission. I trusted that Pick could handle a visiting Border Pap if it came to that, so just tried to keep him engaged to help the other dog out so he wouldn’t look over and draw her in. On the actual run, no visiting even with the judge doing a running commentary as we ran past him, I didn’t even stop to reward (which I actually find sometimes breaks the flow and can actually tip him over to being overaroused and needing to visit, so the toy is mostly a back up plan to help refocus him if needed). Had the one off course that I knew would happen, and he had just done a couple of hard things with those two backsides, so I let him take the off course and I don’t think he ever knew.
So next run I ran BN Speedstakes for REAL for the first time ever. Tried to give him some extra time setting up due to a sneezing fit and then also some time to process that curtain flapping over his head and I was pleased how well he moved on from that. One brief moment of visiting and in the scuffle to get him back, I had to change my handling plan for that next line. I knew I was running him into nothing, with no plan, so I wasn’t surprised about the off course jump, but I sort of think he locked onto the ring crew over there and the off course jump just happened to be on the way there. He changed his mind before he got to actually visiting so good boy?
Overall I think the visiting is improving though slowly, and I don’t think the lack of toy on the second run was the reason for the visiting. He can easily still do it when I have a toy. But where do I draw the line and say he just isn’t trial ready, that he’s just rehearsing what I don’t want? Is rewarding him running past the ring crew even worthwhile since it seems to actually INCREASE the chances that he checks out and goes visiting? Rewarding him for running past ring crew also just feels off since I get the feeling that the visiting isn’t even about the people, and it’s just coping with the arousal.
Both young kids had some good things at the trial this weekend. Hope you don’t mind that I post some questions about both?
Beat I guess I don’t have all that many questions about, but more a statement of “this is where we are”. She unfortunately had a bad crash that I think basically gets chalked up to baby dog doing baby dog things. This facility has turf that really doesn’t agree with some dogs and she worked here once as a puppy after I judged and slipped coming out of a tunnel, but otherwise has never run here. I tried to get footage of us waiting to go in, but it’s very short, and mostly her chasing down a stray cookie that went flying, so I didn’t include it. Dogs mostly wait outside the room and just the on deck dog comes in to be next to go. Started as a COVID rule and while it’s not a rule any more, it’s sort of the culture here now. With really no time to acclimate, I was happy with how she came in the ring and the course was well set up to not need a lead out, though I think with a lead out, I could have been out of her way better and #3 wouldn’t have come down. Very happy with how she handled those soft turns, really working hard to find the right jump. She did run past the blue jump on that back line along the wall. This was my main hesitation about giving her big extension lines off the bat, that she just doesn’t have the experience to “find” the jump on a line like that and it’s a habit I’d rather not get her into- defaulting to just going around the thing (although given what happened next, maybe aborting mission SHOULD be her default for an ambiguous approach!) Then that last line, I wanted to try to layer those jumps and I intended to throw her reward after she did the two jumps out of the tunnel, but I knew time was running out so decided to try to cue the tunnel so we could finish near the out gate and save some time. Unfortunately her line was wonky between those two jumps, more like a v set and she locked on to the wrong tunnel. I think she felt pressure from the line I was running, lost focus on what she was doing and wound up wiping out a stride before the tunnel, slamming into the side of the tunnel and literally somersaulting through the tunnel. I was barely containing my panic after that, but with a little laser for her shoulder that took the impact with the tunnel and an NSAID last night, she seems none the worse for wear. Phew! There are two views of the run, my videographer got a little zoom happy so I grabbed it from the live stream as well.
Redo of these sequences here. Jumps were a mixture of 12” and 14”. Smoothed out the handling 5-7, but still got a bar on one rep. Tried it with a blind on 3 on that first sequence and it actually felt good (those tight blinds in Max pup 3 were very challenging for me!) so I was happy with that. And on the second sequence I did alter the angles on jumps 2 and 3 slightly to make them more blind friendly and leading out further definitely helped too.
Another NFC run at 12” at a trial tomorrow. Just one run, and I won’t bother with a start line stay and I might try to trust her on a few more extension lines.
Here is some sequencing with Beat. Space was a LEETLE tight since I built it off of where my tunnel already was for a course I ran with Roots. I was super proud of her tight turn on #3 of that first sequence both times through! Then the second half of that sequence I basically had to stand still or she overshot the line to that last jump. The rep where she skipped #1 was totally my fault, she never once acknowledged the jump and I should have waited for that.
The second sequence was much more comfortable for me with the lead out push. She had that one bar because I didn’t get out of her way early enough, and then after that I watched and waited to see if the bar was going to come down and never really cued #3. Trying it with the blind, it felt really hard to be off her line and connected and moving the right way to cue #3. I did try a few more reps of that after a bit of a break, but no matter how early and how connected I tried to be, her line looked the same.The looking away during the pattern game was definitely “this is stupid and boring, where is the action?”
I can definitely switch to higher value food as this was done with kibble. I have traditionally done most “warm up” behaviors with kibble, since the challenge with the terriers is not getting them over the top too early and then exhausted by the time they run. They are plenty excited for kibble for warm up stuff, then turn ON when I switch to meatball (or string cheese for Pick, his preference) right before they run. But I could modify it for her and do higher value food for warm up, then toy right before going in.I haven’t (consciously) done any volume dial game with Beat in a while, and I don’t do much of this type of thing on leash, so thought I should practice for trial situations. I’m also still working out if she needs toy or food for this sort of thing. I didn’t show any of the back and forth or up and down game that we played before this clip. She had a few moments of gazing off behind me, looking to see if there were any squirrels or bunnies in the neighbors yard. And just as this clip starts, she sensed I was transitioning from that game to something else and she started to head for the toy, I think hoping we would start something more interesting and do some sequencing. She seemed more engaged AFTER the work for the food, but I’m pretty sure she was just anticipating that I was going to send her to the toy? I definitely “had her” more when I did it for the toy, but in that moment of assessment after the toy play was done, she kind of went flat. I have noticed in our training sessions she can sometimes disengage after I ask her to give up the toy. Not huge, but it’s been consistent. So not sure which one is actually more effective.
Thanks for all the input on the webinar the other night!
As far as her physical development, up until 15 months she had no chest, no shoulders to speak of. But the past month (she’s now almost 16 months) I’ve added more exercises for the lateral muscles of her shoulders (to prep for learning to weave and bringing jumps up in height) and upped her food by a LOT (had to laugh when you mentioned the skinny teenagers last night) as she was getting quite skinny overall and I’m starting to see her shoulders developing, but she’s certainly not done. Body control is still a work in progress as well. So probably give it another month at 12” and reassess? We are currently also just working on a single set of 2×2’s and learning entries from all positions so I probably also won’t go much further than that until she develops a little more as well.
Final video as I think today was the last day for posting. She’s come a long way with the bang game, and with body awareness in arousal. She was pretty tentative when we first tried a moving teeter in the early part of this course, and this was her best session yet with a moving teeter!
Sorta mind blowing that she’s Speedstakes legal in a week. Planning to do some NFC at 12” in October. There are so many jump skills to train these days on low jumps that it seems to take a really long time to feel “ready” for full height! And then of course gotta teach obstacles. I joke that Roots still only really KNOWS how to do jumps and tunnels, Pick is 4 and definitely only knows jumps and tunnels. I’m determined not to have a third dog in a row that can’t do other obstacles passably!
Thanks for all the help and advice! I’m planning to sign up for max pup 4 soon!
Another serp session, with a tunnel this time. Not sure why the first direction was so hard for her. I felt like the angle and everything was about the same for both sides, but first side I had to open it more, second direction I was able to add challenge and close it up. Left lead is her stronger side, and I figured having to switch from left TO right lead (second direction) would be harder since it’s going to the harder side, but I guess not for her?
Alright, I’m waving the white flag on these tight blind crosses on a wing! Video recommended using soft turn cues, which definitely didn’t work, so today I tried the tight turn verbal cue and being deliberate with the “fast forward, slow forward, rotate” set of cues for a tight turn, and other than the first rep I got the same result in that she kept going wider and wider as the session went on. It also feels like so much more work to change sides that way rather than rotate into the dog with that kind of approach angle.
So for the double crosses I switched to using a front and I think those went fairly well.I set up the wing wrap cloverleaf exercise today. When I was setting up I thought I had plenty of room from the tunnel, then got done setting up and looked at it again and went “eh, kinda close, but let’s see” because I was too lazy to move 4 wings and a tripod again. First few reps I was definitely blocking her view of the wing. Sorry Beat. Also seemed like turning my shoulder so it was a more definitive throw back send helped too. Shoulders turned at the tunnel even the tiniest bit sent her there. Then trying to do the race track part nearly broke her little brain! (So proud of that last rep!) I haven’t done the discrimination exercise with her like the boys worked on from CAMP. The wing/tunnel discrimination exercise in Max Pup 2 was a disaster with her and muddling through it with the boys was all the energy I had (it’s still just not a skill I inherently ENJOY teaching, I like handling!) I guess it’s time to revisit.
Last training session for this course, and maybe, just maybe there’s light at the end of the proverbial tunnel? Worked the discriminations exercise with Roots and it was one of our most successful. I unintentionally set the start wrap jump where I barely had to move other than turn in a circle to get the jump or the tunnel. With where the sun was, I also couldn’t really see so it made my body language that much more ambiguous! The first rep the sun in my eyes surprised me so much I forgot words, and on another my toy throw was far less than ideal reward placement lol. When I switched to the “hup” side, I forgot that he still needs a little physical support on that one since it’s still a relatively new cue for him. Overall, I was very pleased with how he did, even with moving the obstacles pretty close together. It only took us the entire course to get him to figure out this ONE exercise, and I haven’t varied the setup at all or brought in weaves/a third obstacle. Who knows if he will still be able to do it when the obstacle positions are switched, when there’s more movement/in a sequence, or when another option is added, but hey THIS exercise he can do now lol. We taught the 9 year old dog at least one new trick! 🐶
Thanks for all the input and all the help! I think the biggest change I’ve been able to make from all this was your advice to treat myself like a student and it’s helped me stay more objective during a training session. Thank you so much!
