Jun's First Agility Trial

I have been training Jun in agility for about a year, doing online classes. We have mostly worked in our back yard with jumps and tunnels, but I have occasionally had opportunities to train contacts and other obstacles. Recently we decided to give trialing a shot. She knew how to do all of the obstacles required for CPE level 1 and in our practice, she was doing qualifying runs on full courses with no toy in my hand, in brand new places. She even got her ACT1 a few weeks ago no problem! So I kind of expected the trial to be a breeze! I expected a little sniffing, maybe a couple "refusals" (but CPE doesn't fault refusals). I did not expect what I got....a completely disengaged dog that I had to walk off the course her second run. We Qd zero out of five runs. We didn't even finish a course. BUT, I learned a TON and in watching the video I got, I know how to do better next time! Here's a recap, and the video below shows our first run (Jackpot) and our last run (Jumpers)

Jackpot
I was a little worried about this being the first class of the day. Jackpot involves a gamble, which requires sending your dog to obstacles from a distance. The distance was probably only 5 feet (which she can easily do at home), but in a new place without a toy, I was pretty sure we could not do 5 feet. I was right, she wouldn't send. We just went on and did a few more obstacles, but we were over time trying to get back to the table that stops time. I was bummed at the time, BUT---watching the video later that night, I saw so much that I missed at the time! I saw a dog that performed TWELVE obstacles for me! Five of those were HARD obstacles for her: A-frame twice, dog walk, and two tunnels. She doesn't like tunnels away from home and I guess I can't blame her--being deaf, she completely loses me in a tunnel. She did ALL of that for me! She disengaged twice, but CAME BACK TWICE, and she was with me on the last line of jumps! And what did I do? Pushed her off the last jump since we were over time to go to a 4" table, which is something she'd never seen in her life, and then instead of having something I could praise her for and throw a party, I got another disconnect and had to go collect her. ALL that hard work, and she got nothing for it. Makes complete sense that her next run went like this:

Standard
Jump, jump, disconnect, A-frame, disconnect, jump, disconnect for good. Lots of sniffing. Had to collect up my girly and walk her all the way across the ring. Sad times.

Wildcard
I may be inexperience at trialing, but I'm not completely dumb. I asked my friends to help me come up with a plan to do 1-2 obstacles, throw a party, and be done. I switched to FEO with the judges permission, set her up in front of the last two jumps on the course, had her do her startline stay, but didn't really lead out at all. Ran two jumps with her, and lots of praise! I had her leash in my hand and she grabbed it and tugged a little. She was HAPPY!! So that was a good decision.

Colors
It was tempting to try to run the whole thing, since it was only 8 obstacles and I could avoid the contact obstacles, but there was a tunnel and she had only just done two jumps before, so that would have been 4x as much. I went with a nice looping arc of 4 jumps, partied, and left the ring. Happy girl again!

Jumpers
She did so well the last time, I decided to go for it. 15 obstacles and two tunnels, but I decided I would just skip the tunnels if she didn't want to do them, ignore any off courses or refusals, and just do as much as we could, get to the last jump and party at the end. This one is on the video as well and while it wasn't perfect, it was SO MUCH improved! I didn't make her stay at the start, but I did have a little trouble getting her collar unbuckled, so she unfortunately had time to look around while that was happening. But she started running! Ended up having to skip the first tunnel, but she did the second one! Got some disconnect a couple times, and a quick visit to the judge, but got her back, finished the course, and partied. And LOOK at her!! She understands praise and accepts it as a reward. So cute!

So what next?
1. Build value for contact obstacles and tunnels
2. Next trial, do a short run first to ensure success and build value for the ring, increase number of obstacles as she is ready.
3. Skip contacts and tunnels for a bit in trials, or limit the number
4. We are doing a UKI trial in December, so I will have the opportunity to use rewards in the ring. I will make it a priority to reward after contact obstacles or tunnels

Understanding and Being Understood

My very first post on this blog was called: What Does The Command Actually Mean (to your dog)? I was still new to dog training and it was the first time it occurred to me that just because I thought I had taught a particular behavior that didn't mean that was the behavior the dog actually learned. I like to think I've become a much better dog trainer since 2009. My doglish has become a bit less awkward. Sometimes, I even feel fluent. But I still have moments when my pronunciation is off.

I've been struggling to teach Ira a formal retrieve. We got off to a poor start, with my eager, super-operant dog refusing to even interact with the retrieve object. A quick look in his mouth revealed a badly broken canine that was the source of our issue. A $2,000 vet bill later, I thought we'd be good to go, and we got the "sit in front of me and hold" part fairly quickly, but the "take" part was lackluster (despite the fact that he LOVES to fetch and tug) and the "move while holding" part....nope.

There are some things that just take patience to teach, but fairly often if my dog isn't really getting it, know I'm just not explaining things properly. But I had tried every method I knew and nothing seemed to be clicking. Then today I had an epiphany!

We were working on a glove hold. Ira was rocking it. Quiet mouth, nice duration. Usually I just give his release work when I want him to let go, but today I decided to ask for a drop. Despite this cue being 100% in any other context, all I got was a blank stare! I was confused--he doesn't seem to really like his holds all that much, so he should be happy to be allowed to drop it. After a couple more reps it dawned on me.....HE DOESN'T KNOW HE'S HOLDING SOMETHING IN HIS MOUTH!!!

Not really. Not like he does when he's tugging or fetching or picking up something he shouldn't have. What to me was a hold was to him a completely random set of actions with no connection to anything else he knew. Here I thought I had taught him "hold an object in your mouth" but what I actually taught him was "close your mouth and sit very, very still until released." NO WONDER he was so confused when I tried to ask for movement! In his mind I was asking him for two completely contradictory things!

Ira is a very literal dog. Once a cue means something, that's what it means. And don't go trying to give it a different meaning in a different context! We have "come" (put your collar in my hand), "here" (run towards me generally and through my legs if I toss a treat) and "front" (come sit in front of me formally). And he gets very worried if I ask for "here" but then stand straight and formal. So this hold issue is really not that surprising.

Tonight, I ditched the "take it" cue. I tossed his toy and told him to "bring it" which is his informal retrieve cue. We did that a few times, then I presented him the toy while walking backwards and asked him to bring it. It took a bit for him to catch on, but he DID IT!!

This is what I love about dog training--the conversation! It's like learning to speak a foreign language. It's those moments when you think you have the words right, but you're still not understood. And eventually you figure out that you have the words, but your pronunciation is off just enough to change the meaning. Oh, but when it comes together! Is there anything more magical than understanding and being understood? If there is, I haven't found it.

Here's the boy, being awesome with his heeling and hold breakthroughs tonight:

The Relationship Part

Eight years in, I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of the relationship part of dog training. The respect and trust part. The part that puts one's own agenda aside and listens to what the dog is telling you.

Not that anyone reads this blog I never post on, but there is a new kid in town. Meet Ira.

Photo by Sara Bruekse

Ira is perfect. He is the most honest dog I've ever met. He has a huge work ethic and is so very full of try! Ira is a dog who will work his heart out for his person. But he is also sensitive.  He needs his person to be his anchor. He needs his person to support his choices. Eight years ago, I wouldn't not have been able to do that. The concept truly would not have even crossed my mind! I am so thankful for Lok, Jun, and Elo for slowly chipping away at my ego and selfishness. If it weren't for them, I think I would have truly struggled with this dog. This fantastic, amazing, perfect, willing dog who wants nothing more in life than to make me happy. I don't think I would have been able to see it. I would have pressured and been overbearing and constantly disappointed. Me--a "positive trainer!" I would have ignored him when he told me he was uncomfortable with strangers touching him. I wouldn't have heard him when he told me he didn't want to be touched anywhere other than his head. I would have gotten upset when he didn't let me trim his nails or bathe him. When he was unfocused in training, I would have seen a stubborn dog, not a worried dog who was doing his best.

Because my previous dogs taught me (or maybe more accurately, forced me to learn) to listen and respect their choices, my relationship with Ira is starting out on a foundation of trust. And it's beautiful. He has a choice. Always. For example, I made it clear to him that he had a choice in interacting with strangers and that I would respect his choice and make sure others did as well. And now instead of hiding behind me or rolling over at people's feet like he did in the beginning, I have a dog who happily greets people---some people, the ones he wants to--and he knows that when he is done he is allowed to be done and he can just come back to me. I have a dog who trusts me to touch him all over, because I worked on desensitizing and counter-conditioning, rather than forcing. I have a dog who will lie still for nail trims. He knows when he gets overwhelmed he can just get up, and he can make the choice to lie back down when he is ready.

A couple months after Ira came home, I was working on teaching him a dumbbell hold. He was NOT getting it, which made no sense, because he loved putting toys in his mouth and he had proven to be a quick study at shaping. He was very operant and creative with offering behaviors. I blamed the training first. My criteria must not be clear enough. I must not be splitting the behavior down enough. I must not be explaining this to him well enough. I put my "good dog trainer" hat on and made a better plan--short sessions, clear criteria, HIGH value rewards. The first session I got mouthing. The second session I only got nose touches. The third session, I got sniffing the ground....... Despite the fact that Ira had JUST had a dental a few months earlier and his teeth should have been fine, I thought, I should check his teeth, just in case. Sure enough, he had a canine that was absolutely mangled! Broken in half the long way and the short way. He also had a premolar that I suspected may be abscessed (it was). Wow! All this time he had been playing tug, catching discs, chewing on bones. There was no indication that he was in pain, except his "refusal" to learn a hold. I suspect the higher arousal nature of toy play allowed him to work through the pain. But the pain was there and it was our entire problem. After surgery to remove the painful teeth, we had our hold in one session.

Ira likes to stare at other dogs. He's a border collie. He's motion sensitive. It's normal. But 99% of the time he redirects easily and focuses really well on me when we are working around other dogs. Then occasionally he doesn't. To others, it probably looks like bad behavior. It looks like a dog I need to be harder on, to demand focus from. But in reality he fixates on other dogs when is nervous or afraid or over-the-top aroused, and has nowhere to hide. It's like a default behavior. A familiar behavior pattern he reverts back to when his brain just can't process anything else. Thanks to my previous dogs' lessons, I figured this out after the second time and not years down the line.  He was like this in class the other day. I'm not sure why--maybe the weather (he doesn't like storms, but it wasn't really storming), maybe he wasn't feeling well. The reason doesn't matter. What matters is, he was clearly telling me with his behavior, "Mom, I can't." And I listened! We went home early. Despite external pressures (that, lets be real, were probably all in my head) of potential judgment from others, and internal pressures of the need to perform well in class and the feeling that my dog should be ok. It didn't matter what should have been. Only what was. I respected my dog that day first by hearing "I can't" where I would have previously heard "I won't" and then by responding to "I can't" with "that's ok, you don't have to." I think it's that kind of thing that builds trust. And trust builds relationship. And when you have a relationship with dog........it turns out, that's what this dog training stuff is really all about. That's where the magic really is.