Agility Seminar with Tanya Lee - My Notes

Our club's beautiful agility field, on a cool November day, perfect for a seminar.

Our local dog club hosted its 2nd agility seminar of 2012 two weekends back, it so happens, on my birthday.  We brought in Tanya Lee from north Louisiana, who competes with her border collie, Boost, and serves as Trial Secretary for the Ouichita Valley Dog Training Club out of Monroe, LA.

She sent out requests for what we wanted to cover, I replied FOUNDATION WORK, and that's just what we got.  I was well pleased.  Below are my class notes and sketches.

Below, D stands for Dog, H stands for Handler.

FRIDAY:
I brought Pepper for the Friday Beginners class from 2-4:30.  Content as follows:

Impulse Control:
Should be 80% of training until dog is calm and in control, 20% agility.  Best way to teach this is Susan Garrett's Crate Games and Leslie McDevitt's Control Unleashed DVDs.  Everyone should have these. Your home life is the indicator of what will happen in agility.  Start training at home.

To perfect Impulse Control, and get your dog paying attention to YOU, she placed a dog on the table with handler in front, then looked for things like "front paws still, ears forward, mouth open, shoulders relaxed, and dog's eyes focused on handler".  CLICK/TREAT for one behavior, then another, then a combination of 2 or 3. When all are lined up, then JACKPOT.  She did this for about 10 minutes with the same dog, increasing the distractions little by little.

Obstacle Focus:
D and H at take off side of a jump, D sits in front, H off to the side.  Every time D looks at jump, CLICK/TREAT.  H moves in various places, including landing side of jump, and repeats.  Never release D to take an obstacle until D is looking at it.  Similarly, place D before tunnel entrance, handler to the side.  Every time D turns their head toward the tunnel entrance, CLICK TREAT.  Handler eventually increases distance from D, and when D looks at tunnel entrance, release and run the sequence.

Never release using D's name.  "Pepper, tunnel" is wrong.  When you call their name, they look at you instead of obstacle. Calling their name should mean "look at me, come to me".


SATURDAY 8-12/SUNDAY 7:30-11
I alternated Maxie and Lucky during both Saturday and Sunday classes, which was not the best idea as skills were built upon one another and neither dog got the full compliment.  But it worked out OK because Tanya's main focus was on training the handlers.  I got the usual advice:

• I don't run, am slowing my dogs down, etc.  Get on the treadmill every day and sprint.
• My arms are too high.  Hold them no higher than the dog's jump
• Point to the path, not the obstacle.
• Should not call name of obstacle if it is in D's path.  They should know to take what is in front of them unless you call them off.
• I don't have the courses completely memorized ahead of time so I hesitate.  She recommends studying the course maps thoroughly before walking the course. It's imperative that by the time I run my dog, I need to be able to not "think", just "do".  Figuring things out as I go along just confuses the dog! 

Crosses:

• Blind crosses should be done as far ahead of D as possible and while D is looking the other way.
• Rears as far behind D as possible.
• Fronts ON the dog's running line, not way past it and as far forward as possible. Timing is important.

We practiced blind crosses and ketchker maneuvers on each and every drill.  She explained when these maneuvers are the very best moves to make in certain situations.
1. Turning into D always signals collection.  Pull through, ketchker. Ketchker lets you signal collection while at the same time keeping D on same side. It is a reverse post turn. It says "stay tight to me".
2.  Turning away from D always signals extension.  Post turn. 
3. Collection become more important for larger, faster dogs than for small dogs.

Commitment Point: It's important to support the obstacle until D commits to it, then LEAVE.  D's commitment point should be long before D takes off.  Learn to recognize it, then get going to your next point.  Commitment Point is different for each dog.

Zone Of Information:  D should definitely know which obstacle they are going to next BEFORE they take the current obstacle. This tells them how to gauge themselves over the current obstacle (extension, collection, lead change). Do you know when you tell D what the next obstacle is going to be?  Is it too soon?  Too late?  When is the proper zone of information for your D?  Ideally, you should name the next obstacle as soon as they commit to the previous obstacle.

LEAVING:  Leaving is different from a send, because YOU are leaving.  Taught with target work.  Dog's job is to take the obstacle you indicate no matter what you are doing.  Train this by having them "drive to a target" over an obstacle, such as food, while you are going the opposite way.  Here's a diagram:

Obstacle Commitment:
D should take whatever is between you and them without instruction.  Here's an exercise to develop this skill.  Work both sides and using different equipment.

Jump Slices:
Teach D to take jumps from every angle.  As the slices get more and more angled, D gets closer and closer to the jump cups.  It's important the jump cups aren't sharp or jagged, which could result in injury.


NOTES:

• Everyone should do lots of pinwheel work.
• Dogs read your feet more than your upper body.  Be mindful where your feet are pointing.  Face the path, not the obstacle.
• Hold your hand low, point to the bar not over it.
• Use verbals when your body disagrees with what you want.
• In training, use a clicker.
• Noel got some ultra light tennies at Payless called Champion Light, on sale for $19
• Tanya recommends New Balance Minimum shoes.  Helps you run lighter and on your toes.  She does not recommend heel to toe running, nor heavy soled shoes.
• Tanya NEVER runs full courses, except at trials.  She works on foundation skills every day.  Foundation.  Foundation.  Foundation. Best way to kill your dog's enthusiasm for agility is to consistently make them run 20 obstacles before you pay them.

Well, that's all I can remember.  My job was to set up and keep the portable PA system working, which I did.  Sunday, I made a wonderful discovery.  Rather than stretch speaker wire out over the ground and move the equipment table to different areas of the field where we were working, I put the entire system in the wagon, including the speaker, and wheeled it around to wherever we wanted.  No more hauling stuff.  No more wires stretched out.  It made my job so much easier. So simple. Why didn't I think of that 2 years ago?

I sent Tanya a link to this page, and here's what she wrote back:

Wow....extremely comprehensive analysis of what was covered.  Great recap and I hope you share with others in your club.  Most excellent job!

I sent the link to Georgie, our seminar organizer, for distribution and she sent it out for Christmas.  Cool!

Upwards and onward!

The Blind Cross - Part II

I see the Blind Cross more and more often at agility trials and I've come to like it a lot myself, yet the controversy still rages. So here's my 2 cents.

The Blind Cross violates two cardinal rules of agility: 

1. Never take your eyes off your dog.
2. Never let your dog cut around behind you.

I will never forget my first Blind Cross.  It was a complete accident.  I was running considerably ahead of Maxie across a 25' space between obstacles (in class), realized I needed to be on the other side, had no time for a front cross, so I cut across Maxie's projected path to the other side, switched arms and tried to find him in vain.  He had tried to follow my feet and gotten totally confused when I switched arms.  I had to jumpstart him to complete the sequence.  We both felt weird and disoriented afterwards.    I could have tripped over him, hurt him, fallen myself. I almost cried. The instructor wasted no time pointing out to me that this is why the Blind Cross is taboo.  For the next year, I agreed.

But there are times on course when the Blind Cross is the easiest way to handle.  It saves time, wear and tear on knees and ankles, and once your team is used to it, it's fun to do. I wrote an earlier post on The Blind Cross, which now that I do it regularly, and teach it, I can see how much I've learned since I wrote that. 

So here are examples of when I think the Blind Cross is perfectly acceptable.

When D is in the tunnel, you can't see your dog anyway.  And your dog can't see you. So, so long as you have crossed their projected path and have turned so you can see them by the time they exit, all is well. Some handlers, however, fear their dog will collide with them on exit, and this could be a real concern if your dog is lightning fast, or you are slow and  can't get across the path in time. (This can also be said of the Front Cross, though, and I have seen some crazy antics with H and D stumbling around to avoid each other, despite their being able to see each other the whole time.)

Slower dogs may also take awhile to scramble up the A-frame or See-Saw, giving the handler time to blind cross in front of the down side.  Distance handlers can cut more caty-corner to the A-frame on their send (green),  and have time to BC before even faster dogs gets to the down contact.

Dogs on the dog walk can hardly choose to veer off path, so H can afford to run ahead and turn their back for a second before D reaches the down contact.  At least in theory.  I've never tried this.

The hardest part of the Blind Cross is mastering it.  It feels weird, disorienting, perhaps at first sinful, to turn your back on your dog.  It's like a broken connection.  But you soon master the art of quickly turning your head and shoulders towards the dog's projected path.  You are only disconnected for a second.  It feels much like a ballet move -- the pirouette!  Turn your head, your body follows.  Here's a diagram of the blind cross.

The blind cross isn't for very many situations, and may not be for some handlers.  But I'm seeing more and more advanced handlers doing it routinely, and it looks elegant when well executed.

Training the Blind Cross:
Start with Flatwork. 

1. Whenever you take your dog for a walk, on leash, and they happen to fall behind you, cross over in front of them without turning to face them.  Pass the leash behind your back to your other hand.  This naturally desensitizes both you and the dog to the maneuver.
2. Put them in a sit/stay or stand/stay.  Cross over in front of them with your back to the dog.  If they stay put, click/treat out of the hand nearest the dog.  Vary it up by walking circles around the dog, clockwise, then counterclockwise, always facing forward such that sometimes you'll be walking backwards.

So the Blind Cross is coming back into favor.  Dont' be shy.  Give it a try!  If nothing else, it's great practice being out of your comfort zone, and "thinking out of the box".

Upwards and onward!

The "Blind Cross"

At a recent practice, I had my first experience of a blind cross.  It was not planned, and boy, was it weird!  I had heard of a blind cross but never ran across an explanation of it.  It is basically where you turn your back on your dog and lose eye contact.

A blind cross is similar to a rear cross, except that H is asking D to cross behind H, instead of H crossing behind D!  I saw this at a trial in Kiln where as D went up the A-frame, H ran ahead and crossed to the other side before D got to the down contact.  For a few moments there, D disappeared from H's view because H turned her back on D.  In this case, H was reasonably sure D was running down the A-frame, but on the flat, H can not be sure where D actually is.
What makes this handling move happen is when D is running behind H, H is desparate to transition D to the other side, and there is no time for a front cross.   So H changes arms in the hopes D will cross over behind H.  Didn't work for me.

Training the BC: I suppose the "blind cross" could be trained for, and could come in handy in certain circumstances.  Maybe sit your dog, take several diagonal steps forward and away from D, then look over your opposite shoulder and call them to cross behind you for a treat in your opposite hand.

I'll try it and report on how that goes.

Videos:  I intended to post a clip here of a blind cross I had videoed in Kiln.  I had already uploaded the videos to my Picasa Web Albums and erased from both my camera and computer.  When I went to download that particular video from Picasa back to my computer to make the clip, I discovered Picasa doesn't let you download your videos back out of Picasa.  What a shock.  What's up there is yours to view, but never again to claim!  From now on I must store all of my dog's videos on my hard drive.  So much for Cloud Computing!  Not worth a damn if you give up your right to ever get them back.