Last "W" Session and... The Letter "R"!

I was able to come by the house twice this past week and work Monster and Shawty on the "W" drill again as well as working some dogwalks! Much better energy from me so our performances were better :). One thing I found odd/interesting about doing this drill with Shawty was that, even with guide wires on, he still wanted to wrap the outside of the first pole when approaching the weaves from the left (which would make it the wrong side entry). I supposed he was going by memory when he has to wrap the first pole when approaching from certain angles from the right side but it was really difficult for me to figure out how to correct the issue other than to repeat it until he got it right and then give a big verbal marker but urge him to go. I felt like not pulling him form the weaves and charging on after the verbal reward was also a marker for him that he had done the right thing (as opposed to me stopping motion and calling him back to do it again). I think we still need some work in the weave department but we will try to squeeze it in this week. 

I would also like to make a side not that I wouldn't normally work so hard the week before a trial but we haven't been going to the big training field lately and, since I am financially strapped, I want to get the most out of this trial. I am concerned I won't be able to trial in November but am still hopeful. These guys always surprise me too- when I think I need to worry about one thing, something else is the issue. So maybe we will be ok... I am going to try really hard to get out to the training field this week if weather permits (it did not last week). 

Well, on to the letter "R". The "R" drill focuses on difficult tunnel entries- something both dogs have different issues with. This drill helps practice taking the opposite tunnel entry than the line the dog has been traveling. Review the picture below for a better idea:

The letter "R" drill form Nancy Gyes' Alphabet Drills

 The weather is cooling off and I am looking forward to working this drill. It is similar to a drill I worked both dogs in when I was taking Daisy Peel's Foundation Handling course online. In that drill, Daisy asked that we work the drill without verbal or physical cues other than changing our direction (to focus on timing) and to show us how even a subtle cue can be read if timed correctly. I have to keep that in mind when working this drill. There isn't much else for me to say right now because I haven't worked this drill yet, but I will post as soon as we do! Below I have posted pics of the setup in my yard (taken via Pano on iPhone) and of the way I decided to post these drill pages on the side of my house for reference. Since the course is constantly changing, even in one session, I wanted to be able to have a quick reference.

I taped copies of this drill in sheet protectors on the side of the house for easier and quicker reference!

The boys (Monster and Punch) waiting for the drill to start (not happening though)

It's Been A While... The Letter "W"!

One of a few layouts for the letter "W" from Alphabet Drills by Nancy Gyes.

So, it's been a while since my last post. Life, as usual, has gotten in the way a bit :). I have felt the pressure of the impending trial, my impending internship, and a current petsitting that requires me to stay at some one else's home (away from our training equipment) for a week and it has caused a huge distraction for me. I was, however, finally able to choose a drill from our Alphabet Drills book and chose the letter "W":

One additional set up for the "W" drill

I chose this drill to work on adding distance and independence to our weave pole performances. There are many different layouts and a few different set ups for this letter which makes it last a long time. I did find it interesting and confusing that, after phenomenal memory and performance of weave poles in class and at run thrus after our summer hiatus, Monster seemed to have no idea how to collect and forgot his footwork when we started this drill. I am still new to dog training and I have been told this stuff happens with young dogs but I have never understood the timing for issues like this. Regardless, I threw our guidewires back on and even that took a few tries before success. We were able to make it work, and I chose to leave the wires on so that I can reprogram his body to weaving "so to speak" this week. I also decided to leave the wires on when I started working with Shawty because distance in weave pole performance is one of our weaker challenges. We started strong and then, for some reason, he started trying to wrap around the first pole when he was on my left (which is a wrong entry AND guide wires were there) so he had to jump over the first guide each time. Another confusing training "qwerk" that I have yet to figure out. Overall, the rest of the jump handling challenges went well. And, I'm glad I saw this issue in training and not at a trial. Hopefully, we can get it resolved before then. 

Another suggested layout for the "W" drills

As I write this, I also feel like I may have brought less energy and enthusiasm for training that day. I hadn't really intended to train that morning but knew I might not get another chance for a few days. I was tired and stuffy from allergies and as much as I tried to throw out some energy, I don't think I did well. We will attempt the same drill today or tomorrow before I alter the layout. What I love about this letter drill is that Nancy provided a few different ways to set up the "W" drill. I have shared some pictures of those layouts above. One last perk that I wanted to mention earlier in the blog about this book is that in the back is a chart of handling sequences that may challenge handlers and/or dogs and which letters work those challenges the most. It has really helped me quickly choose which letters I want to set up depending on what skills I want to work! :)

Day 1:The Letter "M"

Tonight's training session was great! I love it when I can walk away from training my dogs feeling great even if there were some mistakes. That can be difficult for me to do some times. Today was the first day we tried working the letter "M" from Nancy Gyes' Alphabet Drills. We had many successes but a few failures. Monster nailed the rear crosses. I am sure I wasn't the best at executing them all. After all, these exercises are for me too- probably even more so than for them. I made sure to take breaks in between the tough exercises so that we good do some things that we are typically successful at and to keep it light and fun. We worked a few front crosses, pushes to the pack side of the jump, and some serpentines. Had some good weave poles (only room for 6 in the yard right now) and worked some targeting on the dogwalk. I used the Manners Minder to reinforce a 2 On 2 Off position. I feel so bad for Monster because I haven't been able to make up my mind, but since I don't have dreams of Nationals I decided that we don't need those extra seconds and I feel more comfortable teaching him a 2O2O. I think it will take lots of repetition and some muscle memory to get the best final product but he's remembering the foundation we started with quickly. Overall, I am really happy with how tonight went.

Shawty and I tried working some rear crosses with quite a but of difficulty. But I made sure to take breaks to get/keep him motivated and we had a few successes (not without some verbal directional cues). We will keep working at it until we don't need verbals. Once I can video how sessions, I think I will be able to see how much is my timing and how much is his necessity to see me. I know that this particular issue is not all my handling but I am hoping with more consistent cues from me, he will be able to handle a rear cross better. While we were misreading each other, he sent himself into 6 weavepoles away from me and into a fence!!! I couldn't believe it! I was so proud of him and cheered and screamed and he got a big ol' party! He did it twice! Finally, I had to reel him in so that we could work on what we set out to do. I attempted to work some serpentines with him but he preferred threadles, lol. A lot of it is my handling but some of it is that he stays on handler focus too long and then I am forced to either cue the jump to early and push him to the back of the jump OR I cue it late and have to do a (successful) rear cross. We worked the dogwalk as a running contact to the Manners Minder. I am hoping that with enough repetition, he will have the muscle memory of just running straight through the yellow. I want him looking forward and not at me on this obstacle. We had a pretty great training session tonight. I want to make it clear that none of the comments about our failures are meant to be negative or complaining. I want to keep track of our strengths and weaknesses through this blog so I can look back and see how far we've come. I have every hope and intention to be able to do so. 

Last, but certainly not least, Punch got to do some jumps and tunnels. He is gonna be FAST! That boy can run and he's got drive! We just need to harness it a little bit, LOL. I sent him through to jumps (working a startline stay) and then to the tunnel. I then added a few jumps in different sequences after the tunnel. Had 2-3 instances where he got too focused on the ball I had and barked at me but I made sure not to correct him too much and just keep moving to stay motivated. I learned this from Janet. Less do overs make puppies stay confident while they are learning this crazy sport called agility. Then, I introduced him to the dogwalk with a 2O2O and the Manners Minder (he is familiar with the Manners Minder but not the 2O2O). I only work the last 1-1.5 planks. He did great tonight too and I am so amazed at how different the strengths and weaknesses in all of my dogs are. I think it's more interesting that their breed and foundation backgrounds speak a lot for where their strengths lie. 

Stay tuned for, hopefully, some video of our next training session! I will certainly try to post some video from some point this week. G'night all!

The Letter "M" (Part 1)

In my previous post from today, I talked about choosing a letter from Nancy Gyes' book Alphabet Drills. I chose the letter "M". I chose this letter because 1) It's easy to fit in my space 2) I only have about 6-7 jumps 3) I can work rear crosses which I am not good at and therefore my dogs don't read them well. I also set up the dogwalk that I borrowed from my trainer, Janet. The dogwalk isn't regulation for USDAA but it should suffice for training. I threw in some weave poles so that I can work weave pole independence as well. It'll be nice to switch it up during the week. Hopefully, I can get a few days of training in. I work super early every day this week so the evenings will have to work. I will post some pics of the set up in my yard, a page from Alphabet Drills, and some pics of the pups! This book is awesome!!!

As you can see if you look at my set up below, the rows of jumps should be diagonal from each other. I made them parallel (whoops!) Luckily we haven't practiced it yet!

I hope I don't get in trouble for sharing a page- I just wanted to share the idea  with you guys. There are 2 or 3 more pages to this letter. SOOOO many exercises with ONE letter!

The yard before the sequence setup...

Playing in the freshly cleaned kiddie pool :)

One view of the letter "M"

Another view of the letter "M"

The letter "M"

After reviewing, I may have to make some adjustments. Seems that the 2 rows of jumps are diagonal from one another. But, you get the idea.

Dont Spoil What You Have (September Run Thrus)...

Well, today we went to run thrus and had a pretty good morning. For those who may not know, run thrus are like practice after all of your training in class, home, etc. It helps mimic a trial type setting with the ability to train, reward, and redo certain sequences without any fault. Run thrus are also usually cheaper than a trial and you get to catch up with familiar faces and fellow competitors. They are great for testing skills in young dogs in a new environment because all it takes is a change of location to make all that fabulous training a little shaky. Lots of sounds, smells, and sights to offer distractions. 

The morning started with Monster running a Standard course that is above his level. It's been 3 months since we did anything agility related (with the exception of class last week) and we were pretty rusty. We had done great in class so I didn't expect much but that change in environment told me otherwise. Monster was very handler focused and a little distracted. Of course, the course started with a few obstacles Monster doesn't see often when we are at home (tire to chute). I warmed him up with the tire and we had no issue with it. He came out of the barrel of the chute once he realized it was closed (after getting stuck multiple times in the chute at LCDA at our last trial, he's been a little cautious of it). I brought him back, revved him up and tried to send him again without success. Windi, our host, came over and held the chute slightly open and we had success! Then we did 2 small sequences that I made up to test our chute confidence and he did great! The rest of that first run was a lot of turning around and resending him to obstacles, poor weave pole attempts, and we just weren't in sync. 

Monster ready for more action!

Shawty had a great first run with 100% success in the weaves (we have trouble at this place sometimes because I think the weaves are 20", maybe 22" but they are tighter than what we normally train with)! He ran fast at 8" and I had no real complaints. 

Shawty wondering why I'm bothering him after such a great run thru!

Monster's 2nd run was much more fluid. Windi suggested breaking the course up and rewarding him after short sequences and it was very helpful. We had weave pole troubles but I wasn't going to push him since I believe it was not a performance issue. Monster was much more obstacle focused and excited to run this time!

The one constant that I noticed was that our contacts didn't exist! I'm not upset about it because I haven't really been training them. I am not very fluent or comfortable with contact training but I have to do something about it. That is the lesson I learned today. That's the great thing about dogs. If you listen and pay attention they will tell you where the holes are in your training. They're so honest that way :)

So, Phil (my boyfriend) mowed the yard today and I am planning on putting up a small sequence from Nancy Gyes' Alphabet Drills book up and setting the dogwalk up some where as well. We don't have a standard dogwalk (it's shorter in height and length) but we should be able to train what we need to. On top of that, I am going to start training Monster with an aframe box made of PVC that was can place on the aframe in class. I just need to decide if I want him to run or stop on the dogwalk... Decisions, decisions. Contact boot camp starts tomorrow!

The yard freshly mowed and free of agility equipment! I'll post a pic of the alphabet drill we set up!

Alphabet Drills by Nancy Gyes

Oh, how could I forget about Punch?! Punch got to play with his sister, Vamp, today whil the big boys played agility. After run thrus, I let him do a few tunnels and teeters (the bars were too high for jumping) which he executed naturally and beautifully :)

Punch chillin'

Program Dilemmas and Agility Title Tracking Apps...

So, I decided to post today because I am so very frustrated with myself and the situation. Shawty and I have been competing in USDAA for 3 years now and it took hard work and lots of money to get where we are now... 1 Q away from his AAD (Advanced Agility Dog title). That's a big deal for us. I sent entries for an October trial at LCDA in Charleston, SC and just realized I made a huge error. 

Let me back up and try to explain some things for non-agility folks: In USDAA (one of many agility associations in the US) dogs can run in 2 different programs. The Championship program is more competitive with faster qualifying times needed and some height differences in the A-Frame, etc. The Performance program is more focused on an individual dogs performance and usually has lower jump heights. In championship, dogs jump their shoulder height or higher vs. performance program dogs jump their shoulder height or lower. Plenty of people enter the performance program because they know it would be asking too much for their 17" tall dog to jump 22". The only thing about performance at this moment is that performance program is not available for those who want to go to Nationals. Those dogs can still get the Q's needed but they have to jump higher than they normally do in performance. But that's a whole different topic...

My dilemma is that I have switched Shawty to performance because I am not sure how old he is (at least 9 years old) and I feel like 12" is going to end his agility career sooner than it would at 8". We don't have plans to go to Nationals so there's no harm in giving his short legs a break. The problem is, to switch programs, you must move to the level you are in in Championship. Example: Shawty has his Advanced Jumpers Title and Advanced Standard title which are Championship program titles. He is able to move up to Performance level III in those 2 classes. He only has 1 Q in the other classes (Snooker, Gamblers) except for Pairs. If he had his Pairs Q, that would earn him his Advanced Agility Dog title and he could move to Performance level III in every class. Because he is missing that 1 Q, he has to stay in Advanced (Championship) Snooker, Pairs, Gamblers. He has not earned titles for Advanced/Level II Gamblers or Snooker. 
* a Q is a qualifying run. Certain criteria must be met during a run in order to qualify. Visit www.usdaa.com for more info.

Basically, we are stuck in 2 both programs until we get that Pairs Q. It sucks but I didn't feel like it was worth throwing all the other Q's away and starting back at Level II in Performance, which was also an option when I made the switch. The only reason I discovered this error was when I was reviewing our entries and trying out a new Title Tracker App on my iPhone/iPad. As I entered the results, I realized that we weren't out of the proverbial woods yet. Thank goodness I was able to catch it before it was too late but I am also left feeling deflated. Nothing is a worse feeling going into a trial for me than to realize that our future depends on a single Q. That if we don't get that Q we are stuck in LaLa Land until the next trial. I know every trial is a good experience and learning experience for us but it's so stressful knowing I have to continue to jump him at 12" part of the way and that I have to remember to enter him in both programs when I send entries in. 

I have attached screen shots of the Title Tracker app below. I really like how well it works as a quick reference. Most tracker apps want all the info from each class like the SCT and your dog's actual time on course, how many yards the course was, and that info can be helpful for those training competitively with big goals. However, this app just wants to know what class, what level, and if you Q'd. It does provide a Q rate and you are able to enter how many previous Q's you have with your dog. 


Left: shows number of 
qualifying runs needed to earn a program title.

Right: the area in the Title Tracker app where you can enter previously earned Q's that occurred before you started using the app. 

Left: A reference guide in the Title Tracker app, that can be 

used to see how many Q's are needed to earn each title.

Right: If you scroll down in the Title Tracker app under your dog's titles (above left window) you can see how many Q's are needed to earn a title in each class.

Old Habits...

After having such a great first class, and our instructor being out of town this week, I decided to set up some small jump sequences in the back yard to work on handling skills. I didn't have a goal other than to navigate which ever course we were running and choose the best handling strategy for the dogs. I also use those small courses to find weaknesses in our training. 

Well... we found our weaknesses but I fell into my old habit of just repeating the exercise instead of quitting and thinking of a way to work on strengthening that particular skill with my dog. Shawty and I struggle with rear crosses and that weakness revealed itself in the same spot every time on the course we ran. Monster and I were actually pretty in sync until we had to bypass one entrance of the tunnel for the other. All the dogs were sucked in lol. It could partly be that I suck at recreating courses from maps and there's handler error mixed in. 

But what I realized was it is crucial for me to video tape our training. I know, I know. Experienced handlers have probably done this for years. I'm sure some good handlers have enough self awareness to judge where they've gone wrong handling a course but NOT me. I get frustrated because I think I've changed my handling when I repeat the exercise but I haven't. 

Enter: Coach's Eye. It's an app for sports videos that is available on iPad, iPhone and I believe some Droids. You can import videos that were not recorded using Coach's Eye as well. What's great about it is that it gives you the ability to break your activity down and even put it in slow motion. There are lots of tools for writing and drawing on frames of the video to point out where you were late with a cross or a cue so that you can actually go back and correct your performance when you repeat the exercise. I tend to get frustrated when I can't get something right handling in agility and it makes my dogs shut down and stop having fun. It makes training become unpleasant for all of us. I don't want to continue with my old habits so I am going to start video recording our training. 

The next issue is that I don't have a videographer and the app is on my iPad and my iPhone. I have a tripod but needed an attachment to hold my iPhone. I could import the video like I mentioned earlier but that takes time that I don't want to spend. So, I have ordered an attachment that will hold my iPhone and allow me to put it on my tripod so that I can film our training. 

I am excited about this next adventure and I hope that it improves the way I train my dogs so that we can both have more fun training!