Gidget and I were in an AKC trial on Sat. It was a hot day but the AC was working pretty decently, thank goodness! I've been having issues getting Gidget pumped up for agility lately. I can't quite figure out her deal. She has her pokey days now and then, but she's had all pokey classes for about a month now. It started with our first outdoor class. Her first turn went well until she knocked a bar (which she never does), then she went into pokey mode. I got some ideas from the instructors on how to speed her up, but they weren't seeming to work. Though she was enjoying running top speed away from the jumps. I had forgotten about the knocked bar for a couple weeks so it wasn't til this last week or so that I thought I should probably do something about it. It's very possible she scared herself which made her leary of jumping, hence the pokiness. So I got out our jump at home and went for some good value building. We also got out to a big field for Gidget to run like crazy once, would have done it more but the heat got in the way. At class this past Thur. my plan seemed to be helping. Gidget didn't show her speedy side as she often does at the start of class, but she wasn't truely pokey either. I was pleased and took it as a good sign for the trial coming up.
Exc A Standard was up first. Not a terribly tricky course, but looked like fun. Gidget started off quite well. She took an extra wide turn from the A-frame to the tunnel next to it which slowed her down a bit. She was good at those contact to tunnel turns at one point, guess we haven't seen those in class much lately. She took the teeter just fine by Gidget standards, she's still rather hesitant about teeters though. Then we got to the dog walk, an easy fun obstacle you'd think. An observer suggested I was a too far ahead of Gidget and she decided to keep up with me instead of taking the obstacle. In the video it doesn't look like I was more than a step or two ahead. There was some space between me and the dog walk so I wouldn't trip over the tunnel, but Gidget's seen that plenty before. I suspect the dog walk looks too much like the teeter and she doesn't want to do the teeter again. She's refused the dog walk in the past, after she'd seen a teeter in a previous run, but it doesn't always happen that way. She often does the dog walk just fine after having been on a teeter. I don't get this girl! Moving on, Gidget did the chute wonderfully and her weaves looked great! I did cue late to turn her away from an off course jump near the end, causing a refusal, but I'm fine taking 100% blame for that one. So there were some good things in this run: teeter, chute, and weaves, but the dog walk has left me with some confusion. Here's the video:
Exc B JWW was up next and we didn't have a horribly long wait in between. It was another fun looking course with some nice challenges. We ran clean but ended up being just over 4 seconds too slow so NQ. I didn't think Gidget was that pokey for this run, but her nice weave performance didn't show up again. She really took her time in the weaves, even pausing between the last two poles to stare at either the judge or the camera on the side of the ring. Other than that, I was fairly happy with this run. Here's the video:
I am rather frustrated with not being able to get Gidget's speed up. It's enough to cause me to question how much Gidget is really enjoying the game. I've seen her look truely happy while running, those runs where you feel connected and it couldn't be more perfect run and you're just plain happy when the run is finished. We usually get those in class. Maybe trials are just a bit too much stress for her. I don't know. We've got another trial at this location at the end of July so we'll see how that goes. That's a whole month to figure out some ways to really get her pumped up. As far as stress goes, I do everything I can think of to reduce her stress: covering her kennel, thundershirt, DAP spray, our usual pre-run warm up. I don't know what else I could do there. It doesn't help that Gracie's been spoiling me when it comes to trials. She's constantly improving. Her stress started high at trials, but I came up with ways to reduce it, namely tricks at the start line among other routines, and she is happy and fast everytime now! The same things don't work so well for Gidget, she is a different dog you know. I just don't know what will work for her. Back to the drawing board. Happy agility!
I understand your frustration Ali. I unfortunately don't have the answer for your dog (or mine). I'm sure you've tried many of things I've done with Vito, but in case you haven't I'll share some things that have helped us:
- Finding a way to get Vito excited before walking into the ring and continuing that as we walk in. We are still working on thus but what seems to help is letting Vito stare at the ring (while dog running, or even if we're first in) and chanting "are you ready?" in that quiet, yet exciting voice. Then running into the ring with him, no walking. - Finding a startline routine. I taught him to bark on cue, I push back into his chest as a little restrain, and if there is any delay at all in the ring I have him do his reverse chest vault. For him doing a 3 step lead out while I crouch down in racing stance builds more excitement than a long lead out (bad) or no lead out (slow) - In practice I've gone back to rewarding more frequently and always reward while he's still running. - In practice, racing out of wraps. Vito tends to collect nicely but doesn't race back out of it so I've done lots of send to a jump for a wrap and having him chase me out of it. - In practice if Vito is distracted and not feeling ready to start, I won't walk up to the startline. We will walk a step towards it but then I tell him to sit, I wait a few seconds and try again. We only go the startline if I feel he is fully engaged with me. For him, the sit stops letting him practice sniffy/avoidance behavior and gives him time to relax and offer reengagement. - Get Silvia Trkman's Ready, set go video for amazing advice on building speed, teaching the dog to stress up instead of down, and finding games that put them in the right frame of mind.
I understand your frustration Ali. I unfortunately don't have the answer for your dog (or mine). I'm sure you've tried many of things I've done with Vito, but in case you haven't I'll share some things that have helped us:
ReplyDelete- Finding a way to get Vito excited before walking into the ring and continuing that as we walk in. We are still working on thus but what seems to help is letting Vito stare at the ring (while dog running, or even if we're first in) and chanting "are you ready?" in that quiet, yet exciting voice. Then running into the ring with him, no walking.
- Finding a startline routine. I taught him to bark on cue, I push back into his chest as a little restrain, and if there is any delay at all in the ring I have him do his reverse chest vault.
For him doing a 3 step lead out while I crouch down in racing stance builds more excitement than a long lead out (bad) or no lead out (slow)
- In practice I've gone back to rewarding more frequently and always reward while he's still running.
- In practice, racing out of wraps. Vito tends to collect nicely but doesn't race back out of it so I've done lots of send to a jump for a wrap and having him chase me out of it.
- In practice if Vito is distracted and not feeling ready to start, I won't walk up to the startline. We will walk a step towards it but then I tell him to sit, I wait a few seconds and try again. We only go the startline if I feel he is fully engaged with me. For him, the sit stops letting him practice sniffy/avoidance behavior and gives him time to relax and offer reengagement.
- Get Silvia Trkman's Ready, set go video for amazing advice on building speed, teaching the dog to stress up instead of down, and finding games that put them in the right frame of mind.