To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn!): Last Day of Trkman Seminar

Nothing like The Byrds to set the stage for my last auditing session with Silvia Trkman.  This morning I attended the portion on teaching the cik/cap turns.  I had been kicking myself for not grabbing a working spot, but am actually glad I did not. I think I learned a lot more by watching the process; this allowed me to begin training my eye for ideal behavior before involving my dog, and I was able to absorb some troubleshooting pointers by watching the working dogs.

I will say, without even having to really try it, I know with absolute certainty that I will train and USE this now. I had thought it was a ‘good in theory’ sort of idea, but wasn’t sure about enough details to know if every aspect would work for The Dog and I in practice. Having received clarification, this seems to be just what we need.  IF we train correctly, it should:

*Allow me to provide The Dog with more advance information (information good, too many options bad for The Dog. Remember, we have an over-thinker here.)

*Teach her more about turning FAST and coming out of the turn also FAST (when my timing is good with a collection cue, or I am there physically, she can do a great hairpin turn. If-IF- this happens and she does the turn, she takes several steps to accelerate back to good speed.)

*Cure our codependency issues (if I don’t have to micromanage, I can get to where I need to be: cuing the next obstacle.  Her speed also stays up if I stay out of her way, so she could use some independence too.)

*Give some efficiency, lose some time (tight turn means better lines, which keeps the whole run from snowballing out of control. So often one bad turn, or one point of being out of place throws off everything else in the run with little hope of regaining efficiency. At the very least, we get one trip to China that puts seconds back on an otherwise tight run.)

These are only the reasons to do this for me personally. There are many that may apply to you as well, and then some.  Silvia stated that of course, this is excellent for the dog with the large stride, but also good for the ‘Nordic’/hunting (straight line preferring) dogs as they learn that they can turn as fast as they could run straight, and also for small breeds/dogs with short strides. Though they may turn tight, they need extra work on maintaining drive from obstacle to obstacle (since the distance is relatively greater).

***

So- how to teach?

You can read the previous post from Puppy Night on getting started. Remember that you should reward the dog close to the object, with their head in the correct direction.  Silvia stated that she does teach both directions simultaneously, and assigns the words as soon as the dog is offering the wrap around the object. (Note that she did say it was ok to use the same word with both directions, but you will need to be more supportive with your body language and obviously won’t gain quite the same level of independence.

Once your dog can circle their object tightly- several consecutive circles in the same direction, without luring- you can start backing up and working on the send to the object and rewarding speed out of the (complete) circle with a toy.  She recommended restraining the dog to build excitement and also advocates giving the command several times so the dog doesn’t a) forget what it is going to be doing and b) you won’t fail with bad timing.  We were warned that the biggest issue with this not working was LATE TIMING so be aware of that.  Remember to continue to support some physically; being static builds confusion.

An important point was that, in the beginning, your turns should be more difficult (complete circles rather than a wrap). You will eventually use this to cue COLLECTION in one direction or another, not a wrap specifically.  When the dog puts full effort into the collection aspect, you may begin to use in a wrap form. (Though she did mention for a true pull-between wrap, like a threadle, you will probably need an additional command, like “come” or you will need to run your butt off in the correct direction.) Also remember that the point of this is to distinguish collected “short” jumping versus jumping long. She clarified that the cik/cap turns are NOT used on any other obstacles (even though she starts with it to teach turns off the dogwalk, she fades it out); she still uses left and right cues for other equipment. Essentially there are three different ways to jump a jump, this just gives you the power (yay, superpower!!) to request in advance which style the dog will use.  If you do this correctly, your dog will not collect until the moment off take-off and not before. 

When your dog is magnificent on the object (she thought her students probably worked on this at least a month) and sends to it and circles, with varied spacing, additional objects and your position varied as well, you can begin using a jump. Silvia stated that she starts as a ground pole and moves up very slowly in tiny increments (I think she said it takes her a year to get to full height.) She does not move up again until the dog circles the same post with perfection repeatedly. However she does start using in small sequences (usually beginning with wrapping between jumps and a tunnel). Then she will up the obstacle count and layout difficulty (but not the bars).

For dogs that are already doing agility and want to learn a new thing, she said not to consider it a retrain, just added tricks basically. She said to pretty much follow the same steps, the exception being that you could begin to incorporate in practice course work right away (first and last jumps are ideal placement), just leave the bar on the ground.  She said to bring out in competition only after you had gotten the dog to full height in practice.  It was mentioned that there can be a bit of an issue with this group when the bar went up high enough to allow the dog to jump normally. She said you must be extra patient and move even slower to full height as these dogs that had already been jumping might forget and extend too much.   Her advice on ‘corrections’ was that you should immediately redo the wide turns and then reward the amazing turns. OK turns you could go on, but then stop to reward the next good one.

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Overall: amazing seminar. I find it rare that so many skills can be so universally applied to different dogs but this was such a case. So grateful to be able to work with such a successful and, dare I say, innovative handler. THANK YOU to MAC and ACTs- GREAT IDEA! THANK YOU to Silvia too of course; you can’t know how much you helped get me unstuck on more than a couple things.  Maybe someday you will Google yourself and see my appreciation… though if she ever read that last “LEADER” post I would be red. I know I provided *some* information (ha!!) but truly nothing can replace working with her and listening to her in person. There was so much more that was discussed (I know, you’re thinking HOW CAN THAT BE?? You just took up half the internet!) and the visuals helped immensely. If you have the chance to even just audit, make like The Dog and GO. 

Na na, na na, na na, na naaaa LEAD-ER (More from the Trkman Seminar)

There is a classic Simpson’s episode (“The Joy of Sect”), where a cult comes to town and is trying to brainwash all the townsfolk to follow THE LEADER of the cult. But Homer is “too smart” (actuality: has ADHD) and they can’t convince him to join the cult (because he is too busy chasing poofy-tailed dogs). Then they realize that he loves Batman, and they brainwash him into loving THE LEADER using the old Batman theme song.

This is typically me and handling systems, if I am Homer and the systems are the cult. I rarely consider myself a student of anyone else’s training philosophy, not because I think I am above the approach or don’t believe in systems, but simply because I am too ADHD to follow anyone else. I get very confused trying to understand the big systems and honestly can’t tell many apart (I really have tried!).  I may LOVE how someone runs their dog and think it would work great for me and my dog, but when it comes to breaking it down into the philosophy and taking the steps to build up into the actual training system, I fail. So I run around chasing my poofy-tailed dog instead. 

But twice now, a ‘cult’ has found my weakness for superpowers (Batman!!) and managed to penetrate my skull with the ethereal brainwashing chant in order to grab my attention long enough for the basics to sink in. The first was on developing jumping, accredited to Linda Mecklenburg.  I get it. I totally get it. I can do it. It works for me. I would be a certified cult member if Linda handed cards out.

Now it has happened again.  I mentioned a looooong post ago that I had found a lot of hope in reading about Silvia’s teaching and handling of her sensitive soul BC.  When I first discovered her for myself, I could hear the faint start of “na na, na na, na na, na naaaa” beginning. Now, it is loud and clear.  I completely get where she is coming from in her training philosophy. From the ground up, it makes sense.  So yes, I will belong to the cult. I will incorporate ideas. I beg you to bear with me while I use this space to record everything.

 I wonder if she gives out cards?

***

I was equally enthralled by the Running Contacts session last night. It was informative and enlightening. A lot of us who had been attempting to train these alone seemed to go “oooohhhhhhhh!”

Key Steps:

     *When starting out, video your dog running on the flat. Get a sense of how it looks, so you know what you are looking for in the next steps. (Video a lot, period.)

     *Then move onto a board. Wide, thin, longish. If you need to, start first with a rug, then move to a board.  You want the dog to run over the thing. Foot placement- not important.  (She said that most dogs tend to hit naturally in an acceptable area anyways once the height goes up- as long as they are really running. She does not ask for exact foot work-ever, even in subsequent steps. If it is one paw in, it is still in.) Now, you are only looking for the dog to be running as opposed to jumping (back feet apart instead of together). Send to a toy.  Send to a jump too- why not?  Click running. Reward a lot. More than you think. Strict criteria=bad and de-motivates the dog from running, as they aren’t going to get the toy a lot.  Toy good. You can still distinguish good from bad without taking away the toy or correcting, just make a big deal over the great reps. (For me, she suggested a regular ball every time, but then to let her come back and play with EARTH BALL, the best ball in the world, when she had an awesome stride.)

     *Then you could go narrower (she suggested just shaving the sides of your wide board). Or higher. Or both. Just make it gradual. Move on, don’t live forever on a low, wide plank waiting for 100%. Use your table and other supplies to go up bit by bit. You are still rewarding the running versus leaping. 

     *A great idea she had was that once the board is up a bit (ready to move up from your 16 to 20” table) and is sufficiently narrow, you can ‘graft’ it on to your normal dogwalk.  She does this as the dog needs a bit of a run to run the board (obviously) but it wouldn’t be safe to take flying leaps on to the table/other contraption.  But you still have the ability to manage the angle of the plank incrementally. Smart! Start with the dog at the top of the descent plank, then move them back as well as moving the grafted plank upwards.

     *Then you continue in the same fashion, run, click, toy, repeat.  Eventually you get the final performance in full.  Once it is truly independent (the dog will run up across and down with you anywhere, you can start on angles.

     *She suggested using a small vertical pole next to the plank exit on the side you wish to teach the turn and doing a sort of cik/cap thing (more on that later).  Start on the ground, send the dog up on the plank and allow them to run down the few remaining feet and execute their turn. You will trim the pole and fade it away over time.  If you do not have cik/cap turns you can also practice with a jump straight off, then moving the jump to the side incrementally, until you get to a full 180 degree position.

     *After you do all this, you should be set. You should not need to maintain this as a daily regime.  She told us that she mostly runs the dogwalk in sequences, and will only occasionally take the dogs out for a few ball-toss enforcers.

Her thought on the Aframe was that she doesn’t really teach it. If she does it second (after the dogwalk), the dogs pretty much just do it.  She will run super low for one session, and then about 3-4 feet (moving up that difference in one session) in another; then will go full height.

**

She did have a few very good, insightful suggestions/observations for my little retrain issue.  Basically, The Dog is SUPER SMART (ha!) and understands wide planks to mean FUN RUN and narrow planks to mean SAD CREEP.  I must start over with a wide plank and get the behavior, then gradually shave the board down, leaving it wider as I graft it to a dogwalk. In other words, I really will need to outsmart her. Sounds like a plan for when the snow melts! I have informed the Boyfriend that he is officially on construction duty.

Back tomorrow for turns!

That Was Optimistic: Fine Tuning the Competitive Team

 Today we had our working sessions with Silvia, with the all day handling portion followed by the Running Contacts session.

For those of you attending this seminar, you may be familiar with the headlining phrase here: "That was optimistic." For those of you yet to attend or who are unable to, these words are Silvia's gentle way of saying "Hm. Interesting approach to handling, but you know there was no way that was ever going to be executed...right?" In regards to today's courses, we heard this a lot.

And can you blame us? We were throwing out every trick, skill, and desperate idea in an attempt to combat and survive the European layouts.  Optimism was often all we had left!

But seriously, the level of difficulty was an amazing test for our dog's skills, and our own.  The tight, seemingly non-sequential layouts had a way of finding the holes in one's training and throwing into sharp relief the areas which needed further development.  It is truly one thing to succeed in a course that has a wrap, and a serpentine, but completely another to succeed in a course that is ALL wraps and serpentines. Even if many of us will never have to work these courses with any regularity, it was extremely helpful to do so today.

Thanks to a killer new iPhone application, we were able to replicate the courses for posterity (though keep in mind that we were also dealing with poles. Big scary poles intermittently spaced about the facility. As if we needed another element of danger!).  The first course threw many of us for a loop simply because it was so unlike anything we'd worked before. In retrospect at the end of the day- probably not the hardest (again, compared to the end of the day!).

Most people had issues getting from the number 4 tunnel to the number 10 tunnel. The wrap around 5 to 6 and the approach to 9 threw most dogs- and handlers (including mine- she went a bit banzai on this one and displayed her love of visiting China for Silvia).  We were all told to stop looking at our dogs taking the jumps and to MOVE to where we needed to be at least once. I was forbidden from running backwards. Bummer.

 Course number two went a bit better for me. I think the beginning tripped a lot of people up and overall Silvia had lots of suggestions for everyone on improving 9 to the weaves (another example of 'get your dog committed and MOVE'). The Dog did settle a bit into this one and manged to get through most of it. Um, eventually.

 Course number three was the easiest (relatively) for The Dog. This was the only course we made it through without stopping.  She even earned us a 'good job' on rear cross execution from 8 to 9 and being awesome from there into the tunnel- OOOOooo! Though Silvia did want to clarify whether that was an accident or trained... hmmm.  Tricky areas for all seemed to be 5 to 12 and then finding the backside of the tunnel #17.  The Dog surprised me most by not running into the tunnel bags- glad we were able to train away at least one bad habit!

The last course was just ridiculous. The beginning (ambiguous handler position amidst a sea of obstacles) is The Dog's nightmare start. Third try was the charm! Then we manged through to number 11 before it all caved in again. However, we were not alone. The weaves were a unique challenge, and that is saying something based on today's session.

All in all, I could truly consider this an exercise in fine-tuning. Our personal weak zones (Though probably applicable to many today):

*Getting the Dog to run into me/with me at speed. Silvia agreed that China trips are bad.
*Wrapping. Good thing we are auditing the turns session.  Sometimes she was amazing, others- no.  Silvia said repeatedly " I KNOW she can do it tighter." So we must!
*Me RUNNING, not gawking. Countless times we were all admonished for watching our dogs jump instead of trusting their commitment and getting ourselves to the next position. According to Silvia, if they are in takeoff, you are pretty much cleared to move on- so stop being a spectator!
*Keep an eye on how much time (steps) you are wasting on crosses and running backwards. She banished the running backwards completely (I guess you CAN'T run as fast backwards after all) and made us all aware of how consuming and inefficient it can be to even front cross. She wants you to do what you can to get your feet pointed in the right direction and to stay on that path.
*More obstacle independence. Though her dogs run ridiculously tight and she always appears to be right there, in fact Silvia's dogs are performing most obstacles independently. She is always one step ahead, cuing what is next. I had thought The Dog was a good sender, but she is certainly not 100%, even with tunnels but especially with weaves, and certainly not as efficient or controlled to the extent that she could be. This will get better as we work on other points (the not gawking and the tight turn cues) but also comes down to jsut proofing some things.

Lots of homework then, but it's all stuff I kinda thought about doing anyways (but now I have a better idea about bringing it into action) and it is very positive.  I learned we have a few skills that actually have some polished shine to them. Big Positive! Also positive was The Dog's attitude; she was SO high all day and only once got a bit sad (on her nightmare start) but completely rebounded two seconds later. So for her- the world's biggest over thinker- to be happy and run willingly (blissfully even) all day? Completely uplifting. Something is going well here in the Project.

I'm sure I will think of more tomorrow. Stayed tuned for follow-ups on the Running Contacts and upcoming Turns!

Taking an Informational Dump!

Must empty my brain before bed, so that tomorrow I don't get mentally constipated or something...

I audited the popular "Starting Your Puppy" this evening with Silvia Trkman. She was, as promised, a good presenter.  You can see she is much more casual than others on the seminar circuit, or at least gave the appearance of "I like what I do for me" and not "DO IT OR YOU ARE WRONG!"

She mostly reiterated her known philosophy of tricks as a foundation for learning, and then expanded on a few other necessities for puppies. I liked that she explained that actually teaching a dog to run was tantamount to a good agility career. Many of the exercises involved rewarding motion (with you, not random).  It might be something many people do naturally, but not everyone does and (especially for certain breeds) it is a crucial step.

After learning to run, and learning to run with you as a handler, she explained that the next steps for her would involve teaching a wrap- the tighter, the better of course. She demonstrated shaping this behavior very patiently using an object (pole, cone, tree, etc).  The working pups practiced this briefly, then took turns learning the next step: send to the object, wrap, and accelerate out of the turn to chase you. Then of course, reward the motion with you. She explained that you can learn many handling maneuvers this way, including distance sending, wraps, front crosses and could close the exercise in a variety of ways: pivot in a circle, practice front crosses on the flat or simply rewarding forward. Silvia advocates learning handling on the flat before employing with obstacles; she also teaches many items separately until perfection is achieved (e.g. contacts, weaves, and start lines).

She did go over a few of the the most beneficial (in her opinion) tricks you can do with your dog: sit-up, back-up, figure eights, and most interestingly, tricks involving object interaction. I loved the idea of teaching pushing objects as a precursor to the teeter. Pushing in doors, drawers, skateboards etc, with gradual force should help the dog to feel comfortable with motion and to learn that they can control it.  She thought that basically anything you could do that would provide interaction with obstacles, whether it be the front feet or especially the back feet, was a must.

She did talk about about her heeling method as well (starting out as another kind of object interaction) as being good for focus, and remember to be working in many environments as well.  Everything started out as a trick, or used the trick as a stabilizer when working the environmental factors in. A recurring theme seemed to be... a lot of things can be boring to a puppy and are hard because of that fact, since you lose their attention. It can also then mean that you are boring to your dog. So, if you elicit fun things (chase games and fun tricks!) and are an active participant in the fun, then you will have a good chance at a successful team.

Overall, the takeaway points seem to be that you have to make sure you have taught them the process of learning and problem solving, then present your puppy with many, many variables, and make sure you are an ever active FUN partner to all of the above.