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Hi Denise! Which youtube links aren’t working? Please copy here so I can check. Or do you mean the Documents aren’t coming up? Everything is working on my end, so let me know what you’re seeing and we will sort it out.
Thanks!
TracyHi!
>>n past events, I have tried centered breathing, but the nerves are still there. I do do the positive self talk too. It is still a challenge. Is that normal to have some level of nerves?
It is normal to have some level of nerves, and also a bit of nervous energy is encouraged in us humans 🙂 If we are too calm, we are probably not going to handle at our best. If you feel like the nerves are getting in the way of your execution on course, then yes we need to do more. The biggest thing is to practice all of these elements such as centered breathing and self talk and visualization at home and away from the trials at first, until you feel really comfortable. Practicing at home when you are relaxed and not stressed will help your brain and body acclimate to the process. Then you can add the process back into slightly stressful environments, such as visualizations at home where you make yourself nervous on purpose 🙂 You can do this by pretending someone intimidating is watching you! Or pretending you are in the national finals. Then, at home, use your centered breathing, self-talk, etc, to center yourself.
Then, bring the process to classes then to a trial. With practice, it will all be a lot easier 🙂>>Also, sometimes I go into the ring, and all seems ok… nerves are under control.
Yay!
>>Then out of no where, dog decides to shut down, or do the zoomies, what is the best way to curb that? The dog has been acclimated to the area etc.
The dog’s process is separate from the human’s process. And in dog sports, we humans can have the best process but the dog might not be at the same level of readiness. From the human side, you can do some mental prep on how to handle things when the dog struggles in the ring – visualize how to call the dog back and settle her, or add things to the dog’s trial day routine to help her. And use release valves and reframing to help overcome the worry that it might happen.
For the dog’s process, you can look at the training side of things – what might trigger the shut down or zoomies? How can you get the dog more pumped up and focused to run? Where can you add pressure in class and use tons of rewards to help the dog learn to deal with trial pressure? I also recommend trialing in classes & organizations where you can train in the ring with a toy and some even allow the use of food in the trial environment.
This all falls into the dog’s trial routine and the dog will need a lot of prep in classes – I have found that for many dogs, acclimating outside the ring doesn’t carry over that well into inside the ring, so helping the dog understand how to predict rewards really helps!
Let me know if that makes sense 🙂
TracyGood morning! You are totally on the right track!! I think you have it 🙂
>>Performance Goals: scenario -” there is two jumps then a turn with a tunnel and jump next to tunnel. I am wanting Tanner to take the jump instead of tunnel.”“Now to have my body language indicate that we are turning tight, with a slight pause on my pivot & my arm dropping next to me when Tanner is 3 strides from jump and then saying my verbal cue “here” when he is two strides from jump.”
>>Performance goal : my body and verbal cue’s timing being accurate in the correct spot in communicating to Tanner to take jump.Yes, perfect.
>>Now even tho my timing was right on Tanner can’t help himself he just has to take that bright red tunnel !! My performance goal is my timing of cueing however the outcome goal is Tanner taking the tunnel.
Yes – it is possible for your performance goal to be nailed perfectly… but the dog makes a decision or maybe the dog doesn’t understand it. So that becomes a training goal – teaching him to read & understand the cue in every possible situation. For example, a training goal: to teach my youngest dog to get in and stay in her weave poles as I run away from them. I could easily execute this as a performance goal in a trial, I know how to cue weaves and leave… but if the youngster doesn’t understand this because I haven’t trained it, then she will fail. So part of performance goals is delivering cues that the dog is likely to understand. And I say “likely” because what we *think* they know and what they *actually* know might be 2 different things haha!!
>>Release Valve – Wow !! here a friend and I have a code word that we will say to one another before going to the line if we are really nervous /stressed. To help keep things in perspective in the run. I had no idea there was a word for it!! Awesome
Great! And how fun to have a friend to support you like that!
>>connecting to the line – YES!! I totally get it now and your correct that I do have one , I had no idea there was a name for it !!!
It seems that everything has a name in agility LOL!!! Trying to match all the names is harder LOL!
>>Reframing- Yes your examples were perfect.. doesn’t matter what is going on at that moment with one/few persons, there is still no cure for cancer. or my best example that my brain relates to ” it didn’t matter how many titles, and agility runs Toby achieved/had his last year of life, the fact remained Cancer would still be taking My Toby.”
I look at it like this: the release valve is designed to get us to chill out by making us chuckle a bit. The reframing is designed to get us to chill out (and maybe cry a bit) by reminding us of the bigger picture. Both are useful!!!
>>I hope it sounds like I have it.. Cause I felt the light bulb come on !!
I think you have it!!!! Yay!!!
T
Good morning!
Your thought process makes total sense to me, probably because we think similarly LOL! It looks like you thought about it in terms of the shape of the course first (3 distinct segments with curved lines) and then you added in the handling moves to create those lines – with distinct “landmarks” like the spread jump – weaves, the tunnel and the ending line. This is pretty much how I think of things too 🙂
Question – after thinking of the course like this – were you able to remember it more easily? Taking a course like this, try to work it through your mind for 5 minutes or so, then put it away for 10 minutes – can you come back to it mentally and remember it without looking at your map?I haven’t looked at this particular map in a couple of weeks, but your screencast made it SUPER easy for me to remember it now 🙂
>>I am curious – Can we post attachments in the forum? I don’t see a function for that
You can post attachments in the form of links or URLs but not PDFs or documents.
Nice work here!
Tracy
Yes, carving out time to practice will definitely help make it a habit. If you can carve out 5 minutes a day for 2 weeks, I bet you will find that it is very easy habit to maintain.
And thank you for the feedback about the site – we are still sorting out how to use all the software so keep the feedback coming!!!
Tracy
Good morning Mary!!!
>> Performance goals: Just want to be sure I am getting this. Performance goals is/ would be along the lines putting the information that you have been training with your dog on into actual use ( ex: a bow on the teeter, or keeping all four paws on the bottom of a – frame, not visiting every person in the ring )in your run.
Yes, but not in terms of the dog’s performance, only in terms of YOUR performance in the ring. Think of it like this: performance goals are things you can control, outcome goals are things you cannot control. Performance goals are necessary in order to achieve your outcome goals, but it is also common to achieve your performance goals and NOT achieve your outcome goal.
So performance goals for us humans are stuff like: staying connected, remembering the course, timing our cues properly, etc. Stuff about the dog’s performance is not part of this, because we simply cannot control the dog’s choices in the moment. So the bow on the teeter is not a performance goal – we cannot control whether he does it or not. But we can use “cue the bow on the teeter” and “Maintain criteria” and “give the dog feedback about criteria” as strong performance goals for us.
Let me know if that makes sense 🙂 yes, trust your training and cue the skills you have trained – great performance goals. But whether the dog will do them or not? Not something we can control LOL! Ah, the joys of dog sports LOL!!!
So I will cue the 2o,2o on the teeter and stay connected and release (or give feedback if criteria is not met) as part of my performance goals… but I don’t feel that I have missed performance goals if the dog does not hit his 2o2o for whatever reason. Those fall into training goals, which is separate from trials.>>This is where what you have been memorizing / visualizing on this particular course comes into play with keeping the positive dog’s strengths list , and self talk, and your affirmations as part of the performance goals you are wanting to achieve and >>assess on/after this run.
yes! And performance goals can also include: I will drive to that blind cross. I will remember to visualize. I will breath and smile. Getting the Q or the dog hitting the weave entry… not performance goals.
>>where as the outcome goals is more of the human ego achievements
Outcome goals are things you cannot control: getting the Q or the title or the win. We all love to think about these things but the reality is that we have zero control over them, so it comes wasted energy to focus on them in training or trialing.
>>Maximize walk throughs:
part 1 is what dog see’s , and the lines for his path
part 2 is the handlers path
>>part 3 putting both 1&2 together but there is this “connecting with the line you want the dog to run” first I have never heard of this and second is referring to the spatial awareness video that you showed earlier ??Connecting to the line is about the handler connecting to the dog while showing the path – in general, nowadays, that means we are looking at the dog’s eyes while running and showing the path (rather than pointing at the obstacles and not connecting with the dog). I am sure you have some form of connection and line showing in your handling already, but it likely has a different name 🙂 And that is fine – terminology is not that important as long as you show the dog where to go.
>>stealth stress control: controlling your breathing and would this be also along the lines of having your breathing and dogs breathing in synch before you run?
I suppose it could… but I think it would be too difficult and also it would get your heart rate too high – a properly warmed-up dog will have a relatively high rate of respiration and that might put the handler out of breath before the run even begins. I like to keep my heart rate a bit down with the breathing stuff and I use tricks and my pre-run routine to keep the dog from getting too hot and heavy with his breathing 🙂 But I don’t worry about syncing because I have seen no evidence that we actually do sync during work and also no evidence that it is needed.
>>then this Release valve that really seems way out there to me .. I don’t think I have ever been able to switch my mind from serious mode to laugh mode like that.. if I am understanding it correctly.
Truth! This is a hard one it oh-so-important! I learned it from Olympic diver Greg Louganis – he won a bunch of medals and he says this is the best way he stayed calm while he was all alone on the board at the Olympics, seconds before his dive. it might feel weird at first but it totally works!!! It also builds in the stuff that we know about how smiling and laughing and posture change brain chemistry and you will find it quite relaxing!!! And if you do get tense before a run, share your release valve with a friend and they can come up and drop it on you as a tool to relax and chuckle 🙂
>>then reframing : that’s goes along the lines of visualizing the outcome you are wanting to happen and finding the positives when dealing with fear.
Reframing is kind of connected with outcomes – both successes and failures. And it is not really finding positives – it is more about saying nothing big will change in the grand scheme of things if you have success or failure in the ring. Did you win the national championship yesterday? Cool! But there is still no cure for cancer. Did you go off course or did the dog have a zoomie in novice in front of the crowd? Yep, no problem, still no cure for cancer. Reframing is about the bigger picture in the world around us, and it is heavy duty stuff.
>> In many ways all this really connects together in the various areas of visualization, where one gets their mind set at in dealing with anything that can happen at a trial?
Yes! It helps us keep it all in perspective too. Dog sports are important to us and this is a way to help keep things properly in perspective 🙂
Let me know if this makes sense!
TracyHi Nelci!
I think the pre-run routine is solid! Of course, make sure you have flexibility in there in case something changes at the last minute but I think overall, your routine looks really strong.About the visualization:
Yes, they can be very relaxing and so yes, it might help you fall asleep haha!! You can also do it on the couch in the evening – sit on the couch, eyes closed, no dogs or husband in the room, and do 5 minutes. Set a timer so you can do a full 5 minutes and not 5 seconds 🙂 Another option is to do it at your lunch break. I also do the visualizations while driving – but don’t close your eyes haha! Other places for good visualization times: in the shower, at the gym (on the treadmill), out for a run or hike, etc. You can do your visualizations while also doing something else because it is a great way to multi-task.When you practice visualizations a lot, it gets very easy to do them. But for now, set an alarm and a timer so you remember to do them. Also, if you are feeling like you are rushing, setting a timer and visualizations of NON-agility things are helpful: visualize fruits and vegetables! Visualize sailing on a lake or hiking in the woods! These things are more relaxing and can help you maintain your visualizations longer than just agility – and any visualization practice is useful practice.
let me know what you think!
THi Lyn and welcome!
I think your overall routine is strong! The day-before and night-before stuff makes for a more relaxed morning of the trial. As you read through the walk through stuff and visualization stuff, you will find ways to add to your walk through routine (like visualizations in the middle of the walk through, how to walk it like you will run it, and also how to get more comfortable running in front of people).
>> No more than 2 cups of Coffee!!!
Wait, what??? Hahahah!!! Yeah, 2 cups of coffee is a good guideline but sometimes I have more than 2 cups LOL!!!!!
Tracy
Hi Patrice!
>>-“sometimes we nail the run, sometimes the run is frustrating. That is agility in a nutshell!”
>>Thanks for the honesty! Quite often I only see the brags and not the realities. So good to hear the ups and downs are pretty normal for everyone.Yep, I blame social media haha! We can all edit our videos and our social media posts to look world class but the reality is that agility is a high failure sport – we fail more than we succeed. And that is common for such a high speed yet finesse-filled game! For example, on Facebook this week, there are TONS of posts from the US Open – all sorts of great runs. And it was a terrific event! But the E’s and faults vastly outnumbered the great runs 🙂
>>– Tracy you also mention “Adjustments in her pre-run routine might be needed, or she might just need more experience.”
>Any suggestions of pre-run routines/helpful tips for environmentally sensitive yet curious dogs?Do you have tricks that she really likes? I use tricks to gear a sensitive dog up to run, such as barking on cue, spinning, etc – that can really help the dog ignore things in the environment. Keep track of what helps and which environments those things help the most, then you can develop routines based on the history of success.
>>. It takes many times at a center for her to relax more and not sweep the ring area and its workers on first run. Usually I have to run the first run for acclimation and toss the results.
That is where a good routine can really help. If you see that perhaps the site is really noisy, pumping her up with barking and fast paced tricks can help! Or, if she is super-stimulated, a calmer routine with precision tricks and eye contact can help. The main thing is to try different things and track how the run goes after them – the dog gives us the answers, and the answers might be unexpected! For example, my Matrix (who is now 11 years old) used to get REALLY stimulated at different sites. So I thought I needed to calm her outside the ring… NOPE! It didn’t help at all. So I tried getting her nuts and doing crazy high action tricks in our pre-run routine – and it totally helped her settle in and nail the runs. Crazy, I know! That is why we let the dogs give us feedback 🙂
>>She does not play with toys at trial and I can not run her off leash outside with frisbee etc or she would be gone seeking outer Mongolia.>>
You can totally use food as a high action reward! Many dogs won’t or can’t play with toys at trials, so we use treats but we move the treat around like a toy.
>>If I have opportunity to add in as pre-run routine, I use wadded up paper to play fetch/catch near ring and that helps a lot for focus as pressure release. I did not have any paper this time around though. At this trial I had to stick to tricks.
I think you need to have a supply of paper in your training bag and in your car, and also odn’t be shy about asking other people for paper LOL!! It seems like it really helps her 🙂
>>>Balancing rest with re-acclimation is so important for us so she does not switch off or glaze over mentally exhausted.
So true! If you have a long time between runs, you can set an alarm for maybe 2 hours of rest then take her out to walk around and remain acclimated, then back for a snooze 🙂
>>…Ok…I am going to go over to visualization
section now since I have questions about how to work through sideline people etc.I think we will be starting a separate thread for this issue, because so many folks have mentioned it already!!!! Let me know what you think 🙂 Ignoring ugly comments and intimidating people takes practice for sure!
Tracy
Great!! I think the links *are* supposed to work immediately, so we will look at seeing why they did not. And I love your screencast!!!
Hey Carolyn – which links? Can you send a screenshot? Also, which browser are you using? We will look into it.
TracyHi Mary!!
>>I have had courses where every jump was the same color and I end up counting each obstacle which can be very distracting.. So I think that learning to memorize and visualize especially is going to be really helpful when those same color courses pop up.
I tend to learn courses in terms of shapes and lines for the dog, with handling in there to create the shape. Keep practicing and your mind will tell you how it needs you to remember the courses. One thing I do for myself (and when I am feeling evil, I make students do it too haha) is that I will sometimes NOT walk a course or sequence – I try to memorize and run it without walking so I can thinking about shapes and lines.
>>You made me feel soooo much better and all your fantastic suggestions are extremely helpful when dealing with those negative individuals.
Sadly, there are a lot of negative people out there in agility and dealing with it is really important. It is amazing (and not in a good way) how one negative comment can stick with us when a million positive comments tend to roll right off. I am sure it is partly due to how the brains process trauma – we tend to amplify negatives and diminish positives and it takes a concerted effort to change that.
>> I honestly am surprised you even have to deal with it negative people so it is not just me out here.
Yes, it is all of us, not just you. I have found that it feels like I have to deal with negative folks now a lot less because I am more prepared and negative comments roll off more easily – but I still do plenty of prep to be ready to embrace positives and ignore negatives.
>> I think in some ways its worse that it was just a few years ago. But it just depend on the dog.
Yep – it might be worse than ever, especially in this age of social media where folks feel like they can just say anything they want LOL!!! But, no problem, we are better equipped than ever to handle it.
>>As many people you meet and do seminars for I know you can’t remember everyone. But in 2012 I had an opportunity to meet you and attend two seminars you did before CPE Nationals that year with MY Toby.
I totally remember those sessions, they were so much fun!!!! I had my tiny baby Papillon “Crusher” with me LOL!! That was June 2012, right? Fun groups 🙂
>>Happened to be in one of our agility classes and they were making some broad statements in general about handlers and their dogs. I had heard enough b.s. and I walked up to her, put Tanner in her arms and said okay run him!! Here is your chance to prove to me what a great handler you are. Her Eyes got as big as saucers and she handed him back to me with “we all know he won’t run for anyone but you just like Toby!” I looked her in the eye and said “then I strongly suggest you shut your trap and if I hear another word about what a horrible person I am to Tanner, and wants to undermine what I am working on with him besides what rotten agility dog he is YOU WILL be running him at the next trial!” Well all that B.S. stopped.>>
YEssssssssss good for you! You stood up for yourself and your dog!!!
I kinda feel sorry for the folks who stir up that kind of BS – when I get to know them, I find that they generally have some sort of overriding sadness or anxiety in their world which leads them into a super negative place that gets dumped on us. So I do have a bit of empathy… but I also will stand up for myself and my dog!
The “here, you run her!” approach was developed for my BorderStaffy, Matrix – and I also use it for my Crollie, Voodoo, who is one of the fastest dogs I have ever seen – and that is not always a good thing hahahaha!!
But I also now surround myself with people who see his strengths, even on the runs that have gone to crap. We just ran in the US Open and the feedback from folks I talk to was: wow, he is so amazingly fast! and also: he has so much POWER, you are going to have a great future. Such terrific positives from 2 runs where we had big errors.
So keep surrounding yourself with people who will lift you up. Stay away from both the negative people AND also the people who seem to enjoy delivering the negative comments (those folks are not helpful, now are they? LOL!)
>>>But with Tanner it has been almost non stop..
Bummer. I don’t really understand why people feel the need to do this to other people… but yet they do. Cultivate your agility friends and facebook friends to make it so that you just don’t hear it. And squash any talk of it – just don’t be receptive to listening to even one word of it. I make myself non-receptive to it by literally walking away. I have no interest in standing there listening to someone be negative or listening to someone deliver negative words. What a waste of time when there are so many other things to do 🙂
Tanner has taken you on a different path. You love him, he loves you, you both love the game – and neither of you need to listen to the negative spewing from others 🙂
>>since I could get the help I was needing in the area I decided to take online classes something way out of my comfort zone and after the first one I was HOOKED !! The feedback I was getting from agility U was so positive and instructors explained the why’s, the information WOW!!
I think we are super lucky to have access to all of this online stuff – I am able to work with people on the other side of the planet as both an instructor AND student. SO fun!!!!!
>>I hope I haven’t relayed more information than what you wanted or needed. But it was nice to rattle to someone that has been there and it definitely gives me more confidence in being prepared. Thanks
Rattling and venting and group support are major parts of this! Feel free to rattle any time 🙂 We can’t keep it all inside and it is better to chat with like-minded folks who will lift each other up!
T
That is really interesting! And I think that maybe it is a sign that you can strengthen your visualizations even more so you can pull them up after the run… and after the event! I think you might be committing them to short term memory – which means they might be disappearing after the run so that you can only rely on the video afterwards. That is probably just fine for local trials, but you will also want to work on committing them to long term memory so that you have them super solid for when you walk a course at 7am and run it at 3pm (like at NAC, Cynosport and US Open).
So to practice – pull up a random course map (either from this class or from Facebook haha) – then memorize it at breakfast time. Then see if you can visualize it at lunch and at dinner… without looking at the map again. This might help get it into long term memory (or ‘longer’ term haha) which will be super useful for big events.I was thinking about courses that I can still visualize after the event… and they are all from big events. So the visualization process needs to be longer-lasting at these events and we can get working on that now.
My guess is that your next big event is EOTT? If so, you won’t need the super extended long term memory because each height class walks then runs. But definitely start working on it now because it will totally help!
T
Hi Nelci!
Hmmm, that is interesting! Maybe women at the gym are not comfortable or grappling with their own inner thoughts? At dog events, I have gotten positive responses from both men and women – everyone will smile back 🙂 Try it at your next trial and let me know if you still see a difference between men and women! I wonder if it is regional as well – I live in the South now, where eye contact and greetings with strangers are completely normal. But when I lived in the NYC-area, eye contact and greetings with strangers were NOT normal at all, in fact we tended to avert our eyes and NOT smile. Hmmm……T
Hi Nelci! I totally agree that the judge should stay in the ring during an E – they don’t have to continue judging, but they shouldn’t walk off. I *did* address this directly with the person in charge of the entire organization – one of the perks of UKI is that the head honchos are also competitors, plus I was on the event ‘crew’ so I had easy access to him. He actually went and pulled my video, then talked to the judge. The judge actually apologized to me the following day, saying that the E call was incorrect, there were things happening that she should have dealt with better, and that she was sorry that it went poorly. I believe she stayed in the ring for all future Es haha! It was a good conversation – I told her what I learned about not getting distracted, she told me what she learned about running her ring better, and I told her that I feared for her life & safety because my dog is such a freight train haha! We shared a laugh and both of us are better for it.
So, at least for UKI, be sure to have the conversation – you will be amazed at how receptive people will be and how it all works out nicely in the end.T
