On A Valentine's Day

A post about all the weird things I love about The Dog!

**She is crazy bad in the car.  She boings around all over the place when she knows where we are going (or thinks she does…) and squeals.  If she is really excited, she will bark like an air horn in my ear. I have a seat belt for her since I can’t quite fit a kennel, but the seat belt doesn’t really stop her from doing this (in 2.2 seconds she will have crawled up onto the armrest and squawked in my face):

**She really likes Ke$ha and old school Heart songs and thinks it is great fun to sing along: Howling usually starts when one of their songs comes up on the radio/iPod shuffle.   

**She will be four this year and still does the puppy head tilt.  Extra special cute effect: If you tilt your head too, she will mirror your movement.

**She chipped my front tooth because she gets THAT excited to see me. Like a furry torpedo with target lock.  Every time. Luckily I have learned to stand up!

**She will toss her toys down the stairs for attention. If no one gives her attention, she will go get it, and start again with more noticeable toy (like a bone!). And if all else fails, she will play by herself. Stairs are FUN!

**She loves Shark Week. Possibly more than me. The scary shark music makes her sooo happy.

**She loves to wear clothes like a person. And sit on the couch like a person. I think she has an ongoing identity crisis.

**She guilt trips me better than the Jewish Matriarch stereotype whenever I leave the house. She is so dramatic.  Her “I can’t believe you are leaving me” act could win an Oscar from even the most critical Academy.

**She will find my Chapstick for me, no matter where I have misplaced it, and deposit it in my lap in one piece.

Of course, I love about a million other things that she is or does too. These are just a few of the strangest reasons why I am glad to have her, and the things I have a feeling I am going to want to remember someday.

On this day where love is in the air, do remember your doggy Valentines too! After all, they are the best source of unconditional love you could find.  

We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults.  Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment.  ~George Eliot

Life Under THE REGIME

I had my doubts. I reallllly did not believe that this REGIME was doing anything for my cardio endurance. After all, it's 90% strength building exercises. As you know, I feared a complete Viking Transformation- I thought the end was to become a slow and lumbering mountain of muscle who was only quick with an axe. Or worse yet.. no results.

Time to eat my words (but with no salt or sugar added).

I went to the gym today, on this Day of Rest (Well, and Day of Stretching.), after four weeks on THE REGIME.  I hopped on the elliptical, turned the level to SkyRocket and before I had even broken a sweat, my timer sounding the workout's end beeped. What? Hadn't I just started? I wasn't breathing heavy, was not winded in the slightest. OK. If I can take about five minutes off my average mile time and still have energy to spare, then THE REGIME is for real.  I was sorely tempted to see how much longer I could last, but I had a feeling it was much longer than my day warranted.

...because it is grocery day! And a super exciting shopping trip at that since after week four, WE GET TO CHANGE FOOD!!! A new menu starting tomorrow! Hooray! Though I completely love all the new things from the first four weeks (turkey burgers, turkey bacon, soba noodles, jerk pork, welcome to our home as permanent staples!), I am very excited to have REAL CARBS again. Bread... I have missed you so! Brown rice could never take your place. I promise to never be irresponsible about your consumption ever again.  Because while I am so happy to have you, I'm so much happier to not have the extra pounds that I suspect were largely due to my attraction to you.

Totally awesome healthy fridge! Just ignore the wine...

Four weeks down, nine to go! I'm sure they will pass even more quickly than the first four, now that I have Life Under The Regime down... and because I get BREAD again! Now if only I could have pizza... but I will survive! The scales have literally tipped in favor of THE REGIME.

Total Recall

Last night I had no choice- we had to go to obedience class. If there was even the slightest chance that there is any kind of relationship between going to obedience and having nice contacts, then we are going to obedience class.

I was not looking forward to it because there has seemed to be little improvement in our scary areas the last couple months. And having not practiced any former obedience recently, well, you can see there was not much to give me hope that this class would be any different.

Ah, Dog. Sometimes you just like throw a curveball at me, don’t you? Just so I can never completely understand/create expectations of you. Isn’t that just like a female??

Of course, she was stellar. Her heeling was perfect; the ‘about turns’ that normally get a bit laggy were miraculously tight; her attention (usually ping-ponging worriedly between me and the other dogs) was focused only on me; she didn’t try to race me on turns.  And out of the blue, for no particular reason other than she felt like it, she decided last night was the night she was finally going to give me a Total Recall. The Dog will usually either a) not release when I call or b) release but trot slowly in. Then instead of coming in for a nice front, she will sit about three feet back from the 'front' position.  (Another example of her being super intimidated and not finding the front zone to be a Safe Zone- at least she is consistent across all arenas with her weirdness.) We have tried about a zillion ideas on getting her to come All The Way In, with confidence, but nothing has really worked. Until last night! And she did it more than once, so it wasn’t even an accident. I think it is safe to say that there is at least a relationship between rewarding coming into front fast in agility and getting a Total Recall in obedience.  

**

Since she was clearly on a roll, I decided to do a short turns session when we got home from class.  She had been doing really well on her right turn but wasn’t getting the left. As she is a lefty and majorly favors left side anything, this was quite uncharacteristic.  But on the first shot for a left turn last night she nailed it, and now is, true to form, performing the left turn perfectly. Her right turn is fine, but she does a weird thing with her head- sort of tosses it up in the air going around the bend. I have no clue where that came from as I have only ever rewarded at the base of the cone. Maybe she is just showing that it is her awkward side. I think it will get better when I switch to using a toy and get some more speed up into the turn, which we will try tonight.  Plus, food makes her act dorky.

Here is a super short video of our session.  Disclaimer: she HATES it when I try and video while I am asking her to do something, so it is not quite the standard. Also I am normally better with my C/T, but sort of ran out of hands. Alas, Boyfriend hates the clicker noise thus refuses to be my videographer. 

Anyways, just super proud of The Dog this week. Some pretty major breakthroughs for her, though I know they seem minor from the outside. This whole week has been a giant Click/Treat for me. 

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…

What To Do When You Can't Even STEAL a Cone.

Naturally I wanted to start in on our homework from the seminar right away.  I thought that turns would be a great place to start- easy to do inside, lots of reward- fun!

However.

I have no architectural poles inside the house.

The tree is buried outside the house.

There isn't a single construction zone for miles (where else would I get a cone???).

It turns out, my house is devoid of proper objects with which to shape a turn. But then I saw it: 

Surely, with a bit of imagination, even the lowliest everyday toilet paper holder can become a super special TURNS producer?!? 

Ta-daaa! A true Cinderella Story. 

Even better than what you see on Extreme Makeover! You wouldn't even know that this had once been used to dispense toilet paper!

I know, I know. I am going to Menards and getting a cone. 

For the record though- it did work! Until it didn't.

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.

***

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!