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 180 Flip

I Googled "dog agility flip" before teaching my class yesterday, and was disappointed that my blog post from last August was the first entry and there wasn't much else out there.  It was a confusing read.  I had not remembered writing about it.  I didn't know much about it when I wrote it.  I'm leaving it up there, not as an April Fool's joke though I felt like a fool re-reading it, but because it has a sense of history.  It shows I'm making progress, and progress comes dropping slowly. It also has a very interesting course map I'd like to set up again.

Now I know more about flatwork, teach it to my dogs much better, and have more to share.  The main thing is that a 180 Flip is a PUSH away from you, and your paths are like 2 candy canes, both curving in the same direction.  It's more than a straight push -- your arm describes a big circle in the air, away from you.

FLATWORK (SHADOW HANDLING):
Even puppies love this work and catch on quickly if your motions are precise and treats delicious.  You can do this in your kitchen or living room.  Not much space required.

On the flat, (i.e., no equipment), put 3 treats in each hand.  Stand your dog to your right.  Lead their nose out and away from you, enscribing a big circle, so they make a 180 right turn.  Just after they commit to their turn, you also turn tightly, 180 degrees right.  Do NOT cross the dog's path.  When you are both turned and your dog is now on your left, treat from the left hand.  Walk a few steps forward, luring the dog with the second treat in your left hand.  Lead their nose out and away from you so they make a 180 left turn.  As they turn, you also turn tightly,180 left. When you are both turned and your dog is now on your right, treat from your right hand. 

Repeat this sequence, left turn, right turn, until all your treats are gone.  Praise, tug, play.

Repeat this sequence every day (maybe 2 minutes), increasing the walking distance between turns, walking faster, running.  Lure/treat intermittantly, then quit luring.   Treat intermittantly from your pocket, after 3 or 4 turns.

Intersperse flip flatwork with post turn and pull through flatwork.  This teaches D to watch your body moves carefully.  3-5 minutes a day of this is all you ever need do.  They think it is so much fun.  It's also a great warm-up at trials, something more than just putting D over a jump a few times, and can be used to signal that "the game is on".

COURSE WORK:
When the dog can flip out perfectly 90% of the time, take the skill to the agility equipment.

The most common "on course" flip is shown in the diagram above.  D has to turn away from you to make the tunnel entrance off the dog walk or A-frame.  The treat comes after they complete the tunnel.  First, teach the flip alongside the tunnel (see diagram), both sides.  Then increase the difficulty by adding a contact obstacle.

The 180 flip is also used in other ways by a few distance handlers.  Jane Simmons-Moake can send D ahead 2 jumps, flip them over a 3rd jump and get them coming back in her direction with confidence (see diagram).  Her flips are wild to watch.  She flings her arm out so hard it just about lifts her feet off the ground!  Her forward motion is minimal.

Some bloggers say the flip doesn't work for them.  Instead they cross the arm nearest the dog over across their chest, turn towards the turn. roll their shoulder, decelerate.  Others say this results in pulling the dog in towards them rather than a push away.  I suspect it depends on how the dog is trained to read your signals.

I believe a unique signal for a "flip" is important.  It should not look like anything else.

My dogs do the flatwork flip quite well, and today I taught the move in my Handling Fundamentals class.  All teams seemed to catch onto the flatwork fairly fast.  Taking it to the tunnel worked well.  Taking it to the equipment was quite a bit harder, but I was only demonstrating when the flip could be used on a competition course.  They hadn't practiced it for long enough to master it at a greater distance than a few inches.

The trick is getting the dog's head turning away from you.  The body follows.  The other trick is convincing students to do their flatwork at home.

P.S. Some people call the 180 Flip a rear cross, and use the above described flatwork to teach the rear cross. I do not. To me, a rear cross is NOT when the dog propels his backside from the handlers right to left, nor when the dog ends up on the other side of the handler, but when the handler crosses over the dog's path, behind the dog. Looking at the candy canes above, you can see the handler never crosses the dog's path. Likewise, some call a pull through a front cross. I do not. To my mind, to be a "cross", the dog's path must be crossed, and the cross must be made by the handler. A fine but important distinction, and it may look otherwise, but it should be firmly implanted that dogs are NEVER allowed to make crosses.  All crosses are made by the handler.  What might look like D crossing over in front of H, had better always be H crossing behind D! 

P.P.S.  There are other ways to get to the dog's other side besides crosses, most notably, the "180 flip", and the "pull through" (also a 180 turn).  I call each of these a "change of sides" rather than a "cross", and I hope this clears up a lot of confusion for my students, as it has for me.

P.P. S.  There is also a straight line flip over a jump (without a 180 turn and without any change of sides), but I'm not covering that here.

Upwards and onward!

Backward Front Crosses

A few weeks back we set up a course with a very unique sequence that ran best with what I am calling "backward front crosses".  It was my first experience with this maneuver, felt very weird at first, but worked great.  It's a maneuver where the handler is moving forward thru the sequence while walking backwards and sidewards the whole time.  I tried my best to capture it with CR Course Designer.  Since that experience, I have incorporated a few more backward front crosses into my routines, and it feels fairly normal now.

It definitely takes getting used to.  It messes with your mind at first, and I haven't noticed many handlers in competition videos moving backwards more than maybe 1 step now and then.  But the dogs don't seem to question it.  They respond beautifully.

Learning, learning, learning, always, always, always, moving

Upwards and onward!

#7 Practice w. Sheryl, More Pentagon Drills

Sheryl had never worked the pentagram drill before (missed last week), so we worked with Charlie, Max and Lucky on sending to T from 1,2,3,4 and various other combinations, then calling from 4 back to 5,6,  or 6,5, and various other combinations, all while H remains within the pentagram.

Then we did a bunch of other stuff, like calling D over the dogwalk from the far end, sending over the dogwalk from the near end to a target on the table, a bit of practice on 12 weaves and A-frame.

We explored Susan Garret's rear cross head-turn exercise and found it very elementary.  All our D's follow us with their eyes and heads.  What we found more challenging was a reliable sit-stay no matter where H goes (front, rear, away, close), and D waiting for a release before getting up.

I wasn't satisfied with today's practice.  In hindsight, I wish we had stuck with sending D OUT to T over 3,4, maybe varying it by adding more straight jumps, repeating it 10 to 15 times and fading the target.  I want to be able to send Maxie ahead 5 or 6 jumps without him looking back.  He's nowhere near that level of confidence.

Next week, I'm going to practice that more diligently.

After breaking a good sweat, we came in and applied ourselves to reserving our Ramada Gulfport room.  I called Ramada by phone and their quote was $79/night with AARP discount.  Thru Expedia, we got a rate of $63, plus tax and $35 pet fee (covers all dogs for as many nights as we stay). Comes out to $41.07 per person per night for 2 double beds and continental breakfast, plus fridge, microwave, cable, free wireless internet, pool, etc.  It's about 7 miles from the trial site.  We were unable to specify "downstairs" due to some remodeling issues, but I'll call a few days ahead and see.

#5 Practice with Sheryl - Pinwheel Practice

NOTE:  Today I've been blogging for 1 month.

Last Saturday I set up a 5 jump pinwheel in my yard, but even in the shade it was so darn hot out that's about all I could muster. 90 degrees felt like 110.  Worked it on Sunday morning, twice in each direction, before Maxie and Lucky both pooped out.  Thinking about it, though, that was about 30 obstacles apiece, if you count every obstacle they took.  Longer than an Excellent run, so I guess that wasn't bad.

Monday morning (yesterday) Sheryl and I worked it, taking turns, for about an hour.  I describe the exercise here.

We also set up a 5 jump straight line sequence where D has to zig zag while H runs a straight line, like so:

Then we came in and watched Susan Garret's Success With 1 Jump - Disk 2, Crosses and Turns.  I tried taking notes but while it makes sense to watch, even do, it is hard to describe.  We did some floor practice but both of us are still a little confused.

I spent the late afternoon trying to come up with another way to describe FC and RC, as if I was teaching a child to envision having the dog at the end of an invisible leash and needing to get to their other side and pull them along a different line.  Whether you cross in front or behind, you have to transfer the leash to the other arm.  I practiced RC with Lucky in a sit/stay, I cross behind and treat when she turns her head.

Monday night, I went to class, described in my next post.