Last Class in the Old Building

I spent several hours today helping to move our training school to its new building.  I'll be there most of tomorrow and Sun. too.  It's bigger and better and very exciting for all of us, but especially for our instructor who's glad to be able to expand.  So Gidget's class last night was our last in the old building.

The course set up for class was fun, as usual.  I had some trouble with the front cross in the 4-5-6 sequence.  My original plan was to get Gidget in the tunnel and be on the other side of 5 for the cross by the time she was exiting the tunnel.  Well I'm just not fast enough for that and I ended up pulling Gidget towards me missing the jump.  I was advised to place my self in the middle between the end of the tunnel and 5.  Then with my right hand up, side step or back track towards 5 til she was committed to the jump and then turn towards the weaves.  My movements were smoother so her movements were too.  The direction I was moving told her to take the jump (as apposed to giving her little info by not moving much close to or on the other side of the jump), and having my right hand up prepared her for the turn.  It was tricky but it worked!  Front crosses are definitely my weakness, but I'm getting better!

My other issue was the 8-9-10 sequence in our second course.  I tried a front cross from 8 to 9, which worked beautifully, but didn't set us up well for 10.  I wanted to pull her from the weaves and send her around the jump, but it just didn't work quite right.  Another option would have been front cross crazy!  It did work for a few of my classmates though.  They just did a front cross after all three obstacles, it works but is just too much work.  The last option involved no cross from 8 to 9 then sending the dog out to the far side of the jump and ending with a front cross.  I think this option would have worked best for us but we didn't get a chance to try it.  Definitely something to think about if I see a similar set up again.  A pull and send isn't very strong for Gidget and I (unless it involves a tunnel) and an out is much easier.

Gidget's got her next trial coming up a week from tomorrow.  We're hoping for her NAJ (novice jumpers) title.  Keep in mind we only do one trial day at a time though usually 2 or 3 days are offered.  That will be 2 titles in only 4 trial days (takes 3 qualifying runs for a title and 2 different runs each trial day- standard and jumpers).  I still can't believe that we've only had one non qualifying (NQ) run!  Happy agility!

Our Last Jumping Class

So I've already typed this once and failed at publishung it properly, here goes attempt two.  We started class with a front cross review.  There were 5 parallel jumps set in an X shape.  The dogs did a 7 jump figure 8 sequence while the handlers stayed on one side of the center jump.  Gracie did the front crosses wonderfully.  Our main issue was with the last 3 jumps which were a straight diagonal.  Gracie should have been able to just go, go, go, but she kept taking the last jump wrong.  Once she even slammed right into the bar.  Back to her paying too much attention to me.  Apparently I'm paying too much attention to her too because our intructor noticed that I was watching her which could encourage her to look at me.  She jumps so pretty, it's hard not to look at her.  We tried again with me looking at the last jump and not Gracie, not as easy as it sounds.  We had a little improvement, but it's something we'll have to keep working on.  Had the sequence allowed for me to converge on the last jump that may have helped, but starting with a front cross doesn't lend to that well.

Next we worked on rear crosses with 2 jumps at a 90 degree angle.  We started by keeping the dog on the same side when starting and finishing the jumps so that the dogs saw the pattern.  Then we switched so the dog started on one side and ended up on the other, a nice rear cross.  Gracie and I had been working hard on the one jump version of this at home so she caught on very quickly.  I noticed a lot of my classmates had trouble sending their dogs ahead of them to the first jump (a rear cross requirement) so that they had to slow down or stop behind the first jump.  This translates to the dog as turn back to your person, and the dog ends up turning the wrong way.  They fixed this by setting a treat between the two jumps, closer to the second, so that the dog would go to the treat and then over the second jump.  This worked but I think building a better send, and more drive for the jump would help even more.  A lot of handlers were treating for the wrong turn too, encouraging their dogs to mess up again.  A happy "oops!" and starting over seems to work much better, or at least it did for Gracie and a couple other dogs.

Our instructor left us with two new exercises to try.  One was a precursor to a pinwheel.  You stand facing the jump standard so that you can't really see that it's a jump.  Then send the dog left or right to find the jump.  This way the dog will learn to automatically take the middle distant jump in a pinwheel without you needing to be right with them.  The other was a reverse figure 8.  We've already done a regular figure 8 where the dog jumps away from you and you call them back around.  For this you have to send the dog around the back of the jump so they're jumping towards you.  It's a little more complicated, but I tried it tonight with Gracie and she got it in no time!  Contacts next week!  Can't wait!  Happy agility!

Apparently Little Black Dogs Are Bad

We had Gracie's second tunnel class today.  We'll start with the good parts of class.  I got there early to help set up, but our instructor was already ready so instead she asked us to go through the lesson plan with her so that Gracie could be the demo dog.  Gracie was all for that and she got some good practice in before all the other dogs showed up.  We lengthened the tunnel to the 4-6 ft range, and I once again had trouble keeping up with her.  Our only issue was getting Gracie to run straight out of the tunnel instead of immediately turning to me (there she goes paying too much attention to me again).  We improved this by making sure I threw treats with my hand near the end of the tunnel where Gracie would see me throw it as she came running out.  If I threw it any other way, she wouldn't see it and would turn to me.

We worked more on targeting.  Gracie will go a pretty decent distance to "touch."  We put a jump bar in her path too so that she'd have to go over the bar to touch the target.  At this point we also talked about collecting your dog and having them stay with you as you get them set up to try again.  As our instructor said at least 50% of a course is the space between the obstacles and many mistakes can be made there so we practice keeping our dogs under control between obstacles.

The last things we worked on in class were our "outs" around cones, the chute with the cloth even lower over the barrel to the point that they couldn't see anything on the other side, and more tunnel work.  Our second instructor would hold the dog at different angles and distances from the tunnel entrance while the handler went to the other end and called them through.  Gracie got really excited about this and would let out a big, happy yelp as soon as she was released to fly through the tunnel.

Ok, now for the bad part.  We had a new dog in class today, a little black cocker spaniel like dog that was under 1 year old.  She wasn't very good at paying attention to her owner and her owner wasn't the best at keeping an eye on her and of course they sat right next to Gracie and I.  I keep Gracie in a kennel during class for many reasons: I can pay better attention to the instructor, I have a consequence for her should she misbehave, she loves running to her kennel, etc.  Gracie and I got up to demo some targeting and on the way back to our spot she started driving to her kennel, as usual, and got ahead of me, as usual.  Now normally she charges into her kennel slamming it back towards the wall even if there are other dogs within a few feet, but not today.  She saw this poor unsuspecting little dog and changed direction.  Thankfully I wasn't that far behind her and could quickly pull her away, put her in her kennel with no treat, and covered her up.  After that I was way more careful about keeping her right next to me, on the opposite side of that dog, whenever she left or entered her kennel.  The rest of the class went smoothly, she even behaved perfectly when all the dogs were standing in line, fairly close together.  Then we had to go back to the kennel one more time.  She stayed with me and went right in, but as I was zipping the door closed, that little dog was sitting there staring at Gracie.  This was just too much for her and she flew out and attacked the poor thing.  I got ahold of Gracie as quick as I could, put her in her kennel, and covered her up.  This was the second time since I've had her that she full out attacked a dog and I'm very greatful that she didn't hurt either dog.  The pup was pretty scared though.  I feel bad about what happened, but as far as I can tell I did just about everything I could to prevent it.  The only thing I could have done was asked the owner to sit somewhere else when it was obvious Gracie wasn't going to ignore this dog.  Definately need to work on recognizing dogs/owners that won't mix well with Gracie.  Ok, time to take what I've learned and move past this event.  Gracie is who she is and I will do everything I can to keep her happy and healthy and the dogs around her safe.

Refer to Notes

I got home last night and drew out the course we had from Gidget's class and jotted down a few notes of what we worked on.  We work on so many things in the intermediate agility class, and a lot of it is specific to an individual team, so I think I need to start taking a notebook to class to write down our specific issues and what we did to work on them. 

I like rear crosses and I have a tendency to use them more than needed.  I used a rear cross between jump 6 and the tunnel when a front cross ended up being much smoother.  Front crosses are a little more difficult for me yet, and I just don't see where they would work better for me.  This is the third class recently where I've been told that I really ought to use a front cross when I tried a rear cross.  In these situations I'm just faster than Gidget and can get ahead of her for a front cross.  I don't realize this in course walk throughs and plan on a rear cross.  I end up having to slow down, which in turn slows Gidget down.  The front cross ends up being a faster, tighter turn... if I do it right.  Mostly I just have to remember to signal the front cross early enough, get that opposite hand up as soon as Gidget is committed to the jump.

One spot where a front cross was kind of fun was between the tire (black 8, red numbers were a second ending to the course) and jump 9.  As I learned in Gracie's class on Wed. the key to this is to face the dogs path and to not back up.  So I sent Gidget to the tunnel, got in position in front of the tire while facing the path between the tunnel and the tire, cued the jump and continued on.  It worked really well the very first time we tried.  To improve, I would have walked this option more (I wasn't planning on doing a front cross originally and only walked it once, but changed my mind after seeing my classmates run the course).  Landmarks are really handy for front crosses, things you can see so you can position yourself the same way consistently.  I probably would have chosen the far side of the tire and something on the dog walk or wall.

The last thing we worked on was a bit of layering, at least I think that term applies here, I haven't worked on that skill enough to know for sure.  Anyways, we worked on going from the tunnel to the weaves (7 to red 8).  When we'd run the full course earlier, all but one person went to meet their dog at the end of the tunnel and run on the same side of the tire as the dog to the weaves.  That one person saved herself some time by running from the tunnel entrance to the weaves while staying on the opposite side of the tire from her dog.  The dog may need an out cue to stay away from the tire and enter the weaves at an easier angle, but if you're converging (which pushes your dogs path away from you) and your dog has a good weave entry, the dog should skip the tire and find the weaves with little difficulty.  At least Gidget and I had no trouble!  Most of those that did have issues either got too far ahead of their dog or their body position was off just enough to suggest that the dog should take the tire.

It was a fun class with a slightly smaller group than normal.  Gidget had had a long day (she went to work with me so she could get a VOM treatment - post for another day) and was calmer than normal which made getting her focused on that first run was much easier than normal too.  Happy agility!

Front Crosses

At Gracie's jumping class last night we mostly worked on front crosses.  We practiced with a 180 set up (two jumps in a line with a gap between them, like - -) and a third jump to go to after the cross.  The key is to face the dog's path (the space between and on the other side of the jumps) and not back up.  Send the dog over the first jump with hand 1, side step in front of the second jump raising hand 2 to cue the jump, then continue on to the third jump with the dog on the opposite side of where they started.  The side step can be slightly forward towards the second jump too, if the dog needs an extra clue of where to go. 

Once everyone had the right idea, we did a sequence of eight jumps.  That's the most they've done so far!  We got to go fairly fast and had to put a front cross after jump 4.  It was really fun going fast with Gracie.  She's going to be a speed demon!  It would have been even better had I not tried to treat Gracie after the front cross, as our instructor was yelling at me to go and that she didn't need a treat.  She'd done the cross so well I thought she did need a treat, but afterwards I realized that taking the rest of the jumps nice and fast would have been just as rewarding with some good treats at the end.  I wish I could have tried it again, would have been lots of fun, but class was over with.  Only one jumping class left.  It went so fast!  Then the contacts class starts up which will be just as fun!  Happy agility!

Practice, Practice, Practice

I live in an apartment.  It's bigger than a lot of apartments I've seen, but it's still an apartment.  We have no yard space to call our own (we're on the 3rd floor).  All this means my practice space is very limited.  I make do with what I have, though.  We rearranged the furniture not that long ago so now we have a decent open space.  I can set up my 3 2x2's (a set of 6 weave poles), one or two jumps, my wooden board (used for contact training), my plunger (used for handling practice), and if I get really creative I could probably get one jump with the weaves or wooden board or maybe even the board and the weaves.  Last summer I was lucky enough to use the backyard at my workplace for some outdoor practice with Gidget.  I was able to use all 3 of my jumps, my 12 in-ground weave poles, and my tunnel after work a couple times a week. 

Gidget earned her three novice standard qualifying runs required for her novice standard title in just three tries.  Judging by that, I don't think our limited space is holding us back.  Sure we may not develop some of the distance or speed that could be worked on with regular access to a larger practice space, but Gidget is no slow poke and for the moment I don't mind staying right with Gidget through a course.  It works for us.  Someday things will be different but for now we're happy with what we've got.

Tunnels and Chutes and Cones Oh My!

Just got back from Gracie's first tunnels and flatwork class.  It's another good group of dogs, two of which are also in our jumping class.  Let's see: 2 Border Collies, 2 Blue Heeler mixes (Gracie and another dog), a Beagle mix, a 3 month old Burnese Mountain Dog (so cute!), and a lab mix.  The first thing we learned about was the target.  It's very handy to be able to put a target (a butter tub lid works great) at the end of an obstacle and send the dog over/through the obstacle to the target.  It sounds like we'll be using the target for chute work mostly.  It will encourage the dogs to go straight through the chute to the target instead of turning towards the handler and potentially getting tangled up.  I've already introduced the target to Gracie at home, so she caught on to it in no time at class.  You want a tab on the back of the target for you to hold on to so that your fingers are never part of the target behavior.  Store the target with treats or food or rub something tasty over the front so the dog's nose is drawn to it.  Hold the target sort of nose level with the dog then when they go to investigate and their nose touches the front of the target click and treat, giving the treat at the target since dogs go where they are rewarded.  If they don't seem interested in the target you can reward for looking at the target which will hopefully get them more interested in it.  Once they get the idea you can start moving the target around; knee level, ankle level, left side, right side until they are nose touching fiends!  Don't go higher than where you started because once they are targeting like pros the target will be placed on the ground and you'll have to be able to send your dog to it.

Alright, enough on targeting.  Next we introduced a very short, maybe 1-2 ft. long, tunnel.  I only had to lure Gracie through a couple times before she was offering to run back and forth through the tunnel.  I couldn't toss treats fast enough!  The chute barrel was a little more difficult.  It's longer and has a cloth hanging over one end.  Same idea though, lure through (one direction only) until the dog goes through on her own, then lower the cloth and repeat. 

The other two exercises weren't obstacle specific.  We worked on proprioception (being aware of where all those feet are) by walking the dogs back and forth through a bunch of pool noodles.  The noodles were different sizes and spaced randomly so the dogs had to figure out how to place their feet to get over all of them. 

The last thing we did was introduce "out."  Out is used to send your dog away from you laterally, off to your side.  To start we walk in a straight line towards a cone (I use a plunger at home) in such a way that the dog has to go around it.  You click when the dog is on the opposite side of the cone from you then say "here" and treat when then dog is back at your side.  Eventually you can be several feet from the cone and be able to send your dog around the cone as you walk past it.  Gracie is really good at this at home, but everything is different at class, plus all the puppies from the next class were walking in so she was a little distracted but still did fairly well.

I love how quickly Gracie learns things.  This class will be a lot of fun!  Happy agility!

Look! A Chute!

At Gidget's intermediate agility class last night we saw two obstacles that we don't see nearly enough of in class: the chute and the broad jump.  It was nice to get some practice on them and you could tell the dogs enjoyed the change of pace too.  Gidget especially just couldn't stay away from them on our early runs.  She's a good girl and didn't take the obstacles when I called her off of them... well maybe the chute once.  The course was fun, a big loop around the room - great for gaining speed!  Followed by a straight line diagonal across the loop - this was one spot we needed work on.  It ended with a bit of a serpentine down the middle of the room.  Please forgive my attempt at drawing it, for just using Paint I'm pretty proud of it!

So we've got lots of speed coming into jump 8 where our options seemed to be a front cross between 8 and 9 which would nicely block that chute the dogs all seemed to be enjoying but may backfire if you get stuck behind 9.  Or you could pull the dog to jump 9 and rear cross into the tunnel.  We went with the latter option which meant practicing that pull in order to perfect our straight line to the tunnel and stay away from that chute!  The advice given was to send the dog to jump 8 and hang back lifting the opposite hand once they were committed to 8 to pull their attention off the chute and that leaves a beautiful straight line to the tunnel!  It took a little practice but Gidget and I got it!

The weave entrances from the chute and tunnel were a little tricky, but as long as you remember the imaginary first pole most dogs will get it!  The next big challenge was that serpentine.  Most of the students, myself included, automatically placed their front cross at the end of the weaves giving a wide entrance to a 180 which, in Gidget's case, sent her straight to that oh so fun broad jump.  What we didn't notice was that the dog comes out of the weaves after the fifth pole in a way that sets up a decent serpentine.  So a front cross at that fifth pole sets up a much tighter entrance to 12 making the broad jump less tempting and pulling the dog back over 13 much easier.

Hmm... I hope what I wrote here makes sense.  I'd like to be able to figure out what I learned here months or years from now when I look back and review.  Still proud of the picture.  Happy agility! 

Jump! Jump! Jump!

Last night was Gracie's 5th foundation jumping class.  We were missing a few dogs from class, which is normally pretty big, possibly due to the freakish cold.  I think one of the dogs may have been in heat since her handler was there without her.  The class is made up of mostly herding dogs; 2 Border Collies, an Australian Shepherd, an English Shepherd, a German Shepherd, Gracie (who is a Blue Heeler mix), and then four non herding dogs; a Portuguese Water Dog, 2 black lab mixes, and an English Toy Spaniel.  It's a fairly good group.

Last night we first learned about converging.  When you have obstacles (in this case jumps) in a relatively straight line, you should start a short distance from the first obstacle and instead of moving parallel to the jumps as the dog takes them, you move at an angle towards the last jump in the sequence.  This gives the dog more information as to where they are going instead of needing to check back in with you after every jump.  Moving towards a dog pushes them away from you so converging pushes them towards the last obstacle.  Gracie and I had a little trouble with this going one direction, but not the other way.  Gracie has a good problem, she pays too much attention to me - she just heels too well!  That makes doing a sequence of jumps with her on my left slightly more difficult as she's too busy looking at me to see and take the jumps.  We had better luck with me changing how I held my arms.  I moved them like I was running (that's all I'll be doing when she's up to full speed!) so that I didn't look like I was asking her to heel.  It wasn't perfect, but it seemed to help.

Next we did an exercise to see how well the dogs were paying attention to their handlers.  Three jumps were set up in a straight line with another jump set up so that you'd have to turn after the second jump to take it.  We took the first 2 jumps and then stopped and the dog got a reward if they paid attention to us and didn't take that third jump.  Then we went back, did the 2 jumps, stop, reward, then turned to the jump on the side.  I think only one dog ever took the third jump, they all pay great attention!

Last we got started on rear crosses.  Standing with the dog between you and the jump, lure the dog over the jump and turn toward the jump to meet and reward them.  Eventually we'll move to starting in front of the jump and adding "left" and "right" commands.  I don't know how I'll ever keep my lefts and rights straight while on a course!

Gracie did so well at class!  She hangs out in her travel kennel while waiting for her turn to jump.  She whines a lot while waiting but we're working on that issue too - I reward her a lot when she's actually quiet!  Classes with Gracie are a lot less stressful and a lot more fun than they used to be!  I used to stress out so much about her behavior around other dogs, but she's improved so much that I'm finally relaxing with her.  I can't wait to start her tunnels class on Saturday!  Happy agility!

Grace O'Malley The Irish Pirate Queen

When my husband and I decided we wanted a second dog, we never imagined the trouble we were getting ourselves into.  We scoured petfinder.com for a couple months before finding two dogs that we actually wanted to meet.  One was a sheltie mix named Raina.  Raina was sweet, young, and high energy.  Now I'm not sure why we though we wouldn't have been able to handle her.  Both dogs came to visit us and meet Gidget.  Gidget ignored Raina, but really wanted to play with Gracie (at the time called Malley).  We really like Gracie too, so a few days later she came to live with us.

That first week was really hard.  Gracie discover our bird and guinea pig and did everything she could to try to get to them.  We kept her on a leash inside for a couple weeks.  This let us keep her away from the small critters, keep an eye on her, and be able to reward her for good behavior.  We also put a big gate around the critter cages and squirted her with water with a loud "AH!" everytime she jumped up on the gate.  It took a little while, but she learned that the critters weren't worth bothering.

Another issue was Gracie being unwilling to potty in a new place.  She had lots of accidents those first few weeks.  The crate was our solution.  If she wouldn't potty while outside, she'd have to hang out in her kennel for half an hour or so and then we tried again.  Once she pottied, she could be out of her kennel for a couple hours.  This worked great when we went to new places too!

Our last big problem with Gracie is her reactiveness, mostly towards other dogs.  We quickly realized Gracie had trouble behaving with other dogs (or squirrels) in view.  She'd lunge and bark and growl and become completely out of control.  What was worse was when we tried to introduce her to other dogs in our family.  She would do everything she could to intimidate my parents' dog until they finally got in a fight.  She immediately went after my in-laws' dog.  We knew we needed a lot of help with Gracie.

We got her started in obedience classes as soon as we could.  Working around other dogs on a regular basis helped so much!  I also got Gracie into a reactive dog class where we learned how to reward Gracie for coming back and paying attention to me when she reacts to something.  Even if it's just for a second, if she looked at me instead of the squirrel or other dog she got a reward.  This helped a lot, especially with her squirrel issues.  She'd even occasionally ignore a squirrel!  We recently tried a different kind of reactive dog class.  Our instructor used Susan Garrett's Crate Games to teach the dogs control in difficult situations.  Gracie behaves extra well in class, due to the familiar environment and extra good treats, but I plan on taking what I learned there to places where we have more issues like in front of our neighbors door when their dog barks as we walk by.

Gracie got through three levels of obedience and even tried a couple rally classes before she could finally start agility.  She's incredibly smart.  I still can't believe how quick she picks up on new tasks.  The foundation agility classes have changed a little since Gidget took the classes.  There are now three seven week units: jumping, tunnels/flatwork, and contacts.  Gracie is half way through the jumping class and starts the tunnels/flatwork class on Saturday. 

Hopefully this is my last really long post.  Future posts will summarize classes, at home practice, and other work I do with Gidget and Gracie.  Happy agility!

How My Journey Started

Hi!  My name is Ali and this is my new blog!  I'll base my postings on things I learn while training and working with my dogs.  As my first post, I figure I should share how I got into agility in the first place. 

My husband and I got our first dog two and a half years ago now.  She was a fluffy little ball of energy and was unbelievably cute!  We started Gidget's training at a big chain store, not knowing any better place to start.  We learned the basics; sit, down, come, shake, roll over, loose leash walking (not heeling), and stay (we never really got stay during this class).  Over the next few months we watched Gidget grow and run.  Boy could she run!  Her favorite thing to do in a big open area is to run really fast in big circles, first around you in one direction and then a quick switch to the other direction.  We went camping with some coworkers once and brought Gidget with.  She found a great spot to run at a nearby beach.  She ran her circles, flying over a couple downed trees, then headed straight out into the lake.  I swear she made it a good ten feet before she actually sank and realized she'd been running over water.  So back she swam before continuing her running.  We'd discussed it before, but I'm pretty sure it was this event that solidified the fact that we needed to train her in agility!

Next we had a find a place to train.  I didn't check out many places, though maybe I should have.  My coworkers knew of a good place so I signed up.  The instructor required that dogs get through level 2 obedience before starting agility and that's where Gidget and I started.  I almost started crying that first class, we were so behind.  All the other dogs knew how to heel!  They knew stay in multiple positions!  I was terrified when we were first asked to stay our dogs.  I had Gidget sitting on my left, what I now understood to be heel position, told her to stay and took a couple steps forward, turned around, came back and rewarded her.  She'd done it!  I was shocked and so proud!  To this day I'm not sure why she seemed to finally understand.  My best guesses are she either grew and matured enough to focus and actually sit still, or something about the heel position gave her more of a guide as to what she was supposed to do.  When we originally learned stay we just had the dog sit somewhere in front of us, nothing specific.  Whatever it was, I'm glad it worked because now she has the best stay of any dog I know!

After that first class Gidget and I worked very hard to catch up and ended up passing the class with flying colors!  Next it was on to foundation agility.  21 weeks of learning every obstacle and trying to understand the basics of how to put them together.  Gidget loved it!  She was often the class demo dog.  It was a very fun class and Gidget and I both made some friends.  We made it through foundation, spent several months in beginner agility, and are now in intermediate agility.  We competed in our first AKC trial in October 2010.  To my amazement, we qualified in both our standard (STD) and jumper's with weaves (JWW) runs!  Gidget earned her novice title for STD in just three tries and we're only one leg away from our novice JWW title too!  Our next trial is on March 5 and I'm rather nervous about running the open STD course, but I'm very excited too.

Alright, that's enough about Gidget and how we got started in agility.  We got Gracie in May 2010, but she's a story for another day.  She's just starting her agility classes and should be fun to follow.  I'll try to keep my future posts shorter than this but I make no promises.  Happy agility!