Mad Scientist Caliber Experimentationisms.

Experimentationisms.

It’s a word.

Now.

***

Agility experiments are granted ‘Mad Scientist’ designations when they cost a lot of money and involve travel. Only crazy people go so far.

Our need to experiment with the 26” thing took us to a CSA trial last weekend.  We had many variables to test: Trial environment, Turf effects, Class load, Changing Heights, to name a few.  A big test would be held to determine the impact of actual courses on handling, therefore jumping. So many variables there!

All very scientific, you see.

***

With any good experiment comes a hypothesis.  My thought was that her jumping would best be represented by an upside down “U” shape on a graph, where the x axis records the amount of runs and the y axis shows the jumping proficiency.  That is to say, in non Mad Scientist words, jumping would start out not so hot, improve to a peak, but would drop off as she got sleepy from all the running.

Scientific AND mathy.

***

Interestingly, I was wrong, wrong, wrong.  I think I’ve conclusively proven that The Dog is a good girl, and I’m somewhat of a durp (see South Park if that word has no meaning for you).

Her jumping was not affected by turf, being at a show, class load, the unexpected heat, changing the heights on her, or the courses we ran.

Her jumping WAS affected most by…

ME!

To be mildly fair to myself, I’m not used to running her on full courses with actual yardage yet. I didn’t have much of a feel as to timing or what I could or couldn’t do yet.   I DID learn as the weekend went on though and redeemed myself a little. 
***

In order to make actual sense, a recap.  With Video!!

Saturday we ran Gamblers, Standard and Jumpers. Gamblers was the run of the weekend she needed to figure her jumping out and knocked two from poor judgment. Luckily, they were in the opening so we qualified and she even won!  Two amazing things I noticed in this run after the fact: first, she tried to wait on her teeter both times (I’ve been rebuilding her 4 on this entire winter) and second, she FOLLOWED ME!!! I ran somewhat across the ring, bypassing jumps and stuff and she came with me without obstacle shopping. Holy Crap.  Payoff.   (Note: One of the reasons that I’m a durp is that she tried to wait on her teeter a LOT over the weekend yet I ripped her off every time. Ga!!)

In Standard, I (wo)manned up and tried some blinds.  Another theory was that fronts aren’t going to work as well now (more later) so it was time to try. And they worked!! She actually had a really nice run, but the dogwalk and the jump following became a hot mess so 10 faults there. My theory is that her load (after the triple), coupled with the tunnel under the exit of the DW (her new thing that makes her LEAP) just were a perfect storm for what happened.  No worries, homework.

In Jumpers, she jumped BEAUTIFULLY! No bars. Yay.  Enter here one of several REFUSALS for the weekend though.  Totally set a bad line and let her land too long to save it. Oops.  Big “good girl” for though because she followed exactly what I showed her. 

***

Sunday was a full day.  We started with Jumpers and I did THE SAME THING and once again she responded and came into me instead of taking the tunnel.  After that hiccup she knocked a few bars and I started to see that  crushing her momentum (with stopping and squishy squashy front crosses) kills her ability to jump.  Dog requires consistent flow at 26”. Interesting. This was further expounded in Snookers. Two bars and a TWEET after an opening with lots of squishy squashy and no momentum. 

Pairs was a return to awesome: 1^st with the Black Dog, super fast run and clean! (No video unfortunately.)  The Dog was filled with momentum and was super happy.  After getting walked off in Snookers this was a wonderful thing to see.  

Grand Prix, back to 22”, followed. (Er, partial video- camera malfunction!) It doesn’t look super controlled, but I felt in control 100% so that should count for something?  This course annihilated most entrants so I was pleased beyond reason to survive and Q and have a speedy time.  Just a stinky little tenth of a second from that other bye I wanted to get!  But glad to know that I can push her as much as I did on a course like that and get such good results.

Our last run was Standard.  No bars! I tried to carry over and push her on this one to test a new theory and I think it worked! She did really well, detoured to a tunnel but CAME BACK before it was an off course. Then she ran by the aframe- what?? Silly silly. But. I didn’t tell her to and clearly she was in ‘I’m a good girl and I pay attention’ mode. Plus we’ve been working on her following me when I take off so it was the right thing to do.  She did come back to end on a gorgeous DW to a triple so we had a big party. 

***

I learned a LOT. Totally worth the endeavor.

- Most importantly, I got to see that she is starting to show me some focus- I didn’t have to constantly battle with the obstacles for attention.   Now to remember this.

- Blinds are our friend, squishy fronts are not.  A rear will do as well, but getting ahead to show n’ go is key right now.

- Along with that, I really need to shape her takeoff more. Ugh. I can’t wait until she is jumping or even her takeoff point- she lands SO much further out now.  More information, earlier.

- She can do start line stays! Without getting sad and refusing to leave the line!! And no first bars down.

- She’s competitive, time wise.  A big, good group of 26” dogs and her times were there. So hard to tell with refusals, but best time in Stnd Sat and probably would have won Sunday.  I was worried, but not so much anymore.

- Still so far to go on the DW training. So many circumstances to drill!

***

On The Pup front, we spent a LOT of down time practicing walking in to the building nicely, not like a crazy animal who’d never been on a leash before.  Tons of attention and focus work while dogs were running. A few tough love moments, but by the last class we were able to sit ringside while she focused on me the whole time.   She was able to do tricks while fast dogs ran and the practice jump in the middle of the hustle and bustle.

Foooocuuuuus.

 I’m taking the emotionless behavioral tactics of ‘real’ clicker trainers and it works.  Treating her like a ‘reactive dog’ rather than a naughty puppy has helped too- the naughty puppy route just put us both in unhealthy overdrive.  

11 days to go!

Can we go now? Me and Face ball are ready!! 

Then the beast is unleashed. 

Pig-nosed beast.

Implementing A Safety Awareness Program

If you don’t know, my real life job is in Human Resources.  (I’m so curious as to people’s reactions- does it ‘fit’? Did you see that coming?)  While I really try to avoid cross contamination of real life and dog life, I think for once my real life could be of some assistance.

You see, dog life has seen a recent significant rise in injuries and incidents.  What better way to tamp down and cut injury-related costs than to implement a new procedure? After all, Professional Me is a procedure making and enforcing MACHINE.

One of the things that we HR people love to do in a new procedure campaign is to make signs. It’s second only to sending out memos.  So I’ve made this sign to create awareness of our little problem, and to acknowledge the success…if there is any:

Anyways, the procedure is pretty simple. If I sent a memo, it would consist of “Attention all Dogs and Pups. Stop getting hurt. Hurting each other and hurting yourselves is no longer permitted. Thank you for your compliance.”

***

The most recent issue was The Pup. I found a bump on her leg last Monday.  By Wednesday the bump became The Bump (very large and angry looking). Though it didn’t seem to bother her it bothered me. I made an appointment for Thursday.  Not fast enough for her I guess- while I was at work that day she attempted to self-amputate The Bump. 

The Bump (or what is left of him), it turns out, is a histiocytoma. Basically, puppies are growing so much that the cells just start manifesting into an odd little mass for lack of anything else to do. This mass would go away in a month or two, if she leaves him alone. Hence:

I am sure some of you are wondering what The Bump looks like- pretty gross actually. So to spare you, a dramatic interpretation:

Before: 

After:

Don’t worry about The Pup though. She loves her cone.

***

The Dog, as we know, has also had her share of contributing injuries.  She has seemed just a stitch ‘off’ since the appearance of the ‘coffee table ding’ and the Great Broad Jump Crash of 2011.  (Occasionally coming up lame after a rough play with the ball and knocking more bars than is typical for her in practice.)  I’ve always been wary of the canine chiro/massage New Age Mumbo Jumbo (what if some unqualified voodoo doctor hurts my dog???), but decided that since the trial we went to was bringing in a real life vet from TOPS rehab to do chiro we would give it a whirl.  

Sold. Give us Mumbo Jumbo any day. Apparently The Dog was ‘out’ in ways to suggest the coffee table ding DID have something to do with it.  The vet was also able to tell how she tugs and the fact that she’s been tugging lopsided with The Pup based on the way her neck and jaw had shifted.  So she popped everything back into place and off we went on our merry, well-adjusted way.

Reasons I am sold: besides the vet being able to tell what happened without ME telling her first (not fishing for hints a la John Williams on the ghost psychic show), The Dog sat through it and let a STRANGER touch her (WOW.), which tells me it felt good at least, and the biggest reason? The magically good way The Dog ran all weekend.  She was…light? I hadn’t realized how awkward she had been looking until I saw ‘normal’ again. Back to feather jumping and showing good confidence on weave entries, Aframe and teeter.  Now the question is… where can I get good, reliable (licensed!) Mumbo Jumbo in MN?

So yeah. It goes without saying at this point (but I will say it anyways) that we had a REALLY good weekend.  I was thrilled to the point of giddy at how well The Dog ran. This was a pretty big show with a good size, FAST 22” class and The Dog was sitting well in placements all weekend. (Many Top Ten points! Hooray!) Saturday was probably her Best Day Ever. It honestly might make me a bit teary to dwell on it so I’ll just say she ran as FAST as anyone and the ever sought after TEAM component was there in spades.  She is finally having fun I think, and I’m finally trusting her.  Sunday she was wired all day (not complaining) and things weren’t quite on the same page (still not complaining), but it was still nice to see her running her butt off to the very end (of what was a looooonnngggg day of running).

Looking at her records, she finished her Silver Snookers title thing, and overall she knocked out 8 more Qs for her Bronze LAA- down to just 15 left of anything. And TWO of those Qs were second place Standard runs…could my dream of being able to run Standard (well, and not like a runaway train…with a bomb on it…heading for a metropolis) finally be coming true???

***

To close, Puppy Fun Time (picture compliments of Katie H. Thanks for some pictures of the Velociraptor that aren’t blurry!!!), because who doesn’t love Puppy Fun Time? 

My favorite, illustrating the Velociraptor:

On Target Family Reunion! 

Luck of the Irish??

Not sure what the difference was this weekend. I’d like to think it was the payoff of hard work, understanding and dedication, but maybe there was just a dash of luck thrown in there too. Whatever the cause, the effect was one great weekend of agility with The Dog!

It was pretty much the opposite of the last CSA show in February.  Like being in an alternate universe. Wait. Is this the Twilight Zone?

Our first class was rocky. She was ‘sticky-‘ slow and tentative off the start line, borderline Aframe’s, sluggish teeter and then a total blown Gamble.  Big time confidence deficiency was apparent.  I decided then that, although we REALLY needed a Standard Q, we also really, really needed some feel-good fun or the whole weekend would be down the tubes.   So for Standard, I went in with a 'screw you accuracy and control' attitude and jazzed and cheered the whole way through. And wouldn’t you know, she actually responded amazingly?  She had a very good time, listened really well and did a happy auto-drop even (the true measure of the version of The Dog I am running is found in her table performance).  Near the end of the run, she gave me the best dogwalk she ever has in a show so of course I marked it with a super mega “YES” and clapped and woo-hoo’d…causing her to knock the jump after. Oops.  Still glad I did it!

Because we consequently had super mega awesome dogwalks the whole rest of the weekend (Note- DW performance not true running, but paced to me).  After the boost she got from Standard she was able to deliver a clean (though a bit more reserved) Grand Prix run on a crazy course.  (I think the most accurate quote to summarize the crowd’s feelings about the course was “WOW… I feel like I have just been through a WAR!”-uttered by anonymous shell-shocked competitor.) Then we ended the day with a really clean Steeplechase round. I was blown away by her time; I thought for sure the two sets of weaves would result in a slower run, and was worried as to whether we had qualified or not but she ended up in 4^th with the 2^nd and 3^rd times within 10ths of hers.

Sunday was a great day in itself.  She qualified in everything, which meant a Bronze ADCh for her after Standard (with ANOTHER GREAT DOGWALK!) followed immediately by a Pairs Q with Black Dog, securing her Bronze ADCh too.  (I can’t believe they finished another title on the same weekend, it’s too funny.)

In honor of the day, we had her bronzed...

After that high we ran the second round of Steeplechase. The Dog was doing brilliantly but had one of her rare yet spectacular altercations with a jump- she kersplatted (yes, that’s a word, no matter what spell check says!) the broad jump and it was like a NASCAR crash- no recovery possible. She went down terribly so I had to check her out to make sure her face was in one piece. She was fine other than the amount of black turf pellets she had plowed into her open mouth (she HATES anything like that in her mouth- very upsetting!)- but our run was done. Oh well! I am sure it would have been a great score!  At least she was ok.  

We ended on Snookers and Jumpers. The jumpers run was nice and fast, even with three big China trips (a bit high I think after Snookers). I was very happy with her time- it was right in the cluster for placement- the top 5 times were all less than half a second apart (she was 5^th, and was out of 4^th by .01 seconds). Her Snookers run was, I think, the best of all her runs.  It was a very interesting lay out and I chose to experiment.  My plan had an “out” (run around and take the backside of a jump coming in) in an unnatural place (coming down a line of jumps- the obvious thing to do was take the jump straight- very difficult setting for an “out.”), a giant run across the back of the course to send to a jump followed by a sharp weave entrance (for her), and then a run back across to the close, where the ‘2’ jump was buried amongst three other jumps. She managed all three challenges very well.  I was honestly shocked that she sent to the jump across the ring so easily- she was like a little jump seeking missile! Then she nailed the weaves and, even more shocking, directed to the correct #2 jump from the long fast run in from her last color. The rest of the run was perfect and overall good enough for 2^nd place (again though, just 10ths from the best time!).  She is now a real joy to run in this class- it was like pulling teeth for a long time but I think she is starting to see the fun of this class. And that is the real goal! 

Puppy had a good weekend too. It was her first road trip! She did really well with the travel and fair to good at the hotel (“Whaddaya MEAN we have to sleep now? We just slept 6 hours on the way hereeeee!”).  She got an A+ for good behavior at the show again- nice and quiet in the crate and silent yet attentive while watching. She did some training in a new place and stayed very focused.  And of course, she made a million more friends.  We introduced her to her brothers Decker and Kai- Kai who is her older clone brother. She LOVED him and wishes she could have taken him home. It was so cute to see them together, though next to impossible to get pictures of the moment!  If only they weren’t so identically bouncy.  Really cool to see both older boys running too. Glad they are around so we can watch them evolve in person!  

Clone and Clone unite!

Dynamite and Kai in a rare moment of stillness!!

Perpetual Motion Machines!! 

Just to show how hard picture taking is!

But she WILL sit for food- if no one else is looking!! 

Treat please! NOW!

***

She got a D- at the vet this morning though! She chomped on EVERYthing. She perforated the vet tech AND the vet. She tried to dig a hole in the exam room. She somehow climbed into a cupboard and wouldn’t come out. She stole a leash and chewed it up. Very naughty!  Healthy though, and a whopping 10 pounds.

The Dog was her best ever at the vet. She felt she had to make the puppy look bad I think (not that puppy needed help there). Normally she is a terror and has been known to poop on the vet as a revenge tactic. But this time she let them do whatever- though she was tenser than a steel girder. She was standing on the tips of her extended claws and was more immobile than any statue I have ever seen. The vet couldn’t believe she was able to hold that pose the whole exam- I explained that we do a lot of conditioning. Hahaha!

My dogs are weird. They are very exhausting. I always get the feeling the vet and vet techs are a bit relieved when they see us leave. 

Two sides to the coin…

What to do?

For the first time, I really love training. It’s crazy, but with Banchor I never had to -we both thought it was unnecessary and bo-ring.  Maybe it’s because he didn’t learn, he just... intuited?

But The Dog... she learns! She figures things out! It is amazing to watch. It is harder, but darn it, it is fun and challenging. I could almost just train with her and probably be happy.

Except for the fact that I also love showing. Competition is thrilling, and the test of your training.  And I am finally, FINALLY getting to The Zone with The Dog. (As in Comfort Zone, as opposed to Danger Zone.)

Then logically, can I have one without the other? NOT REALLY! I do train because I love to, but also always with a thing called INTENT in mind. I have to be working towards a goal, and for me, that goal is to show successfully.  Things (important things) that are an effect of training are the relationship, learning experience, and fun factor.  They should happen regardless, so by definition probably can’t be a goal.  So if I am training, I should show.

And the other side to that coin… if I can’t train then I REALLY CAN’T SHOW! Right? Logically?

I guess once again my situation is something like:

Rock.

Project Leader.

Hard place.

We tried showing this weekend, with very little training over the past month. No training to recondition contacts since the AKC show.  No training to proof new superpowers in multiple environments and scenarios. So Saturday was an unholy mess. Priests lined up to perform exorcisms. We started in Gamblers with a great start; nice contacts, good listening, qualified and first place even. Don’t worry- I am getting to the mess. And here is it:

Then we ran Standard. I tried to pull out some superpowers (blind crosses) that I swear we have been working on for several weeks (PROMISE!!) and, just like that one time when Peter Parker’s Spidey Senses failed him and he fell off the side of the building into the trash, ours failed too.  Clearly, I forgot to proof these on spread out sequences, and with tunnels placed to suck the dogs into their vortex. And then she missed her dogwalk.

Then we ran Grand Prix. Ran without being super powered and we were surviving. And then she missed her dogwalk.

Then we ran Steeplechase. You may be thinking, HA! Can’t miss a dogwalk in Steeplechase! And you are right. But you can miss your Aframe. Both times. You can also have a dog SO HIGH that they can’t think and the tunnel vortex tries to suck them in and they run around two jumps. 

Then I became so flustered at her horrible, horrible Aframe that I actually told her NO. She then fell over on to the turf after our run and flashed me the pink belly, which made me feel very ashamed so I spent the next 6 hours giving her bribes so she would acknowledge/love me again.  

If she looks sad, it is not because of me- she thought the hotel was GROSS!

So we both slept on it. She determined I wasn’t a monster and I determined that maybe she was just having a bit too much fun to think about things like proper striding.  The facility is VERY exciting, with lots of noise, and it’s very open, so kind of like one big tunnel vortex.

We started with Standard Sunday and while she did an ok dogwalk, it was pretty creepy. She missed her Aframe again, but this time seemed to stutter and wait for me (where did THAT come from??) and then launched.  By now I had determined that Dash ‘N Splash was the place where good contacts go to die. I examined every inch of them, checked the height, but could not find anything to truly ‘blame.’ 

Except of course, the train to show ratio. The ratio that is currently waaay out of balance.

We did manage to qualify in the rest of her runs. Though she missed her Aframe in Pairs (gggaaa!!!!), the course time was generous enough for several missed Aframe contacts.  Thankfully, the contacts were then whisked away for the remainder of the day so we got to end on two high notes: Snookers Super Q with a first place, and a Jumpers qualifier to finish off her Bronze Jumpers Championship title thing. It was actually quite a nice Jumpers run for her with one of her best YPS to date and only one moment where she gave me a worried check-in. Plus, no China visits! Normally she is 4 or 5 seconds behind whoever wins, but was just less than 2 off this time (yes, technically still an eternity) - and the winning run was AWESOME.

So yes, it wasn’t all awful. In retrospect, probably much more good than horrible. Her weaves were probably the best they have ever been in a show, and she maintained speed with a swimming stride for every run. Her teeter was also really good- I have been able to work on this some, and it showed. She was not creepy through the tip point, but charged up and waited until I released her. Also- best moment of the show here- she was able to do a long run to the first red in Snookers. This is HUGE- normally she would trot worriedly behind me (or worse, sit and stare at me on the line) if she didn’t know where we were going, but we have been working a lot on running together and recalls into sends and it WORKED! She actually ran. Very happy. 

Here is the PROOF! 

But the question remains: do I stop entering her until I can actually try to fix the contacts (keeping in mind that I can’t do much serious training until the snow melts)? Do I enter but accept that those are loss causes?  I had hoped to get the last two Standard Qs for her Bronze ADCH and the two GP Qs in the winter and THEN stop entering to focus on a total retrain.  We seem to have lost the ability to muddle through the contacts though, so that plan may not work.

Not loving these options. Might as well just flip that coin…