U-TURNS, Wednesday Morning Field Practice

Updated 4/1/12 (April Fool's Day)  I Googled "dog agility flip" and was disappointed that this blog post from last August was the first entry and there wasn't much else out there. It is a confusing read. I had not remembered writing about it. I didn't know much about it when I wrote it.  I feel like a fool.  I'm leaving the post up due to it's high Google placement, and the course sequence is well worth setting up and trying, but the subject is much better covered in The 180 Flip which I posted today (no fooling).
Sheryl, bless her, and I met at the field again today, 8:30 a.m.  We feel rushed to practice eanother lawn mowing, and there will be nothing set up again until Saturday night, so we stayed there for 2.5 hours.

On this chart, we ran into a particularly difficult sequence we never could figure out how to do smoothly and predictably.  It was too easy to get stuck behind the dummy (turquoise) jumps. 

As illustrated, green H can handle 1 (see-saw), from the right side and be in a good position to direct D into the tunnel past 4, then U-turn back and over 4 with a right/left arm change, but on the red path after the FC before 4, the rest of path is the same (orange path and H).  I moved the upper turquoise jump to the right to make room for my orange H's, but in reality it is right in the H1 space so there isn't as much room at H1 to maneuver as shown.  It becomes imperative to block that jump with your body.

At H2, it's very hard to run fast enough to get a FC in -- you almost have to flip D to 6.  But flips are frowned upon in some schools, and it makes you feel like a darn airplane there are so many arm changes in this sequence!  I don't know what else to do?  I may reach out and ask our local experts.

Addendum: I did reach out, and Georgie came back with the FC solution.  I tried it several times but there isn't really enough time at H2.  So I resorted to the flip.  It worked for Maxie about half the time.  Lucky went HUH!  I can see that teaching the flip is important after all.  Sometimes you might need that flip.  Okay, so next I'll blog about The Flip.

#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.

"Murky Waters" - Dog Club Politics

I had a mentor once who advised "If you don't like the way somebody does things, just take good notes then start your own enterprise where you can do things better."  But I don't want to start my own dog club.  LCCOC is the only AKC dog club in town and there can be no other within 100 miles (by AKC rules).  I just want to be included, have a voice, in the club I'm in.  Every member with a voice should have a voice, especially after 2.5 years, taking on numerous duties, and helping out the club every which way I can.

Sometimes it seems like swimming thru murky waters, trying to figure out how clubs (all clubs, too) work, all the personalities and politics involved. The simplest things seem so difficult. Getting information. Understanding policies. Fitting in. Wondering why an offer to volunteer is not responded to. A problem-solving suggestion is ignored. One person gets away with extreme rudeness, another is considered rude for being enthusiastic. Problems the entrenched leadership can't seem to solve, they assume there is no solution, meanwhile turning a deaf ear to those who are offering a solution. It makes me sad, mad, frustrated, left out. Democracy is just a dream, not a real reflection of the dynastic manner that people in charge operate.

Can I tell you how many people I've run across who once belonged to LCCOC but quit with a really bad taste in their mouths?  Three so far, each complaining of the stuffy, elitist leadership, rude instructors who treat you stupid for asking questions, giving some teams long turns in class while the next team is hurried along and dismissed. Yet these offenses go unpunished, and offenders seem to have an iron grip on the reins of the club.  The way leadership positions are so jealously guarded, you'd think they were all high paying jobs instead of an all volunteer effort.  You'd think they would be cultivating volunteers and making the jobs lighter on themselves.  But not so.

The AKC has successfully gotten past a bit of dog snobby where only purebred dogs deserve to live, love, show, compete when, as of this year (2010), they began registering mixed breeds as bona fide AKC Companion Dogs and accepting mixed breeds into obedience and agility competitions.  Waahoo, this is a milestone!  I've heard it said, though, they did this only because their revenues are falling off.  For whatever reasons, noble or financial, it has happened and a lot of dogs are very happy about it.  The democratic world has moved another teensy step forward.  Snobbery took a blow.

Maybe desparation is what it takes to knock down barriers and move forward.  Then again, some people would rather go down with their pride intact and take everyone with them, than accept any kind of change, as if change implied that they were somehow doing things wrong.  Don't they get the "flexibility",  "growing with experience", "change with the times", "team effort" thing? It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, by Thomas Paine:

"I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine.  He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of ever changing it."

Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, Part 1, 1790

Reason has been in an upward struggle for a very, very, very long time.  Also, humility, cooperation, inclusiveness, cordiality.

So what brought on all my angst today?  Actually, it's an ongoing thing, but I've made a vow not to turn this blog into a bitch session against any dog person in particular.  I'm practicing the old adage, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything.", and the other adage "telling the truth usually gets you in trouble", but believe me, sometimes it's a serious exercise in restraint and I struggle with it.

At the very least, I feel I must encode this page with something to remind myself of who and what is bothering me so here I record a few barbed statements that one person has thrown at me just so far this year -- "none of your business", and "as usual, you're trying to take over", "nobody orders me around", "tell your dog to shut up", "I don't need your help", "as long as you do exactly what I say, I won't throw you out", and the worst "Your dog will never be an agility dog!"  There's a slew more of these, and more than one person delivering either cruel words or dour facial looks and hostile body language, but these are enough to catch my drift.

I just got a fortune cookie.  It said:

"It's never crowded along the extra mile."

Humm, I wonder what that means in relation to this situation?  Any ideas?  Leave me a comment.

Proofing Against Distractions

Proofing against distractions is a very important, often neglected part of training.  Dog training, that is, though it applies equally to us humans, but this isn't a blog about humans.  Well, of course it is, really because trainers need to learn to focus, too . . . . . oh shit, where am I going with this.  I've gotten off point. 

Back to it, I remember once at a fun match in Kiln, MS, a couple of very experienced handlers (not mentioning any names) were tossing treats right onto the dirt floor at the end of the Dog Walk and A-Frame contacts to reward D for a correct stay. When Maxie did his practice runs, he would invariably stop and sniff there.  Must have been microscopic bits of treat residue left in the dirt. And the very next day, there was a trial there. That's not right! BUT, what are you going to do about it, go scrape up the top layer of dirt with your trowel just before you run?  NO, you have to prepare D to ignore EVERYTHING but you and running those obstacles.

Some D's are so tunnel focused, when they see a tunnel ahead they race to take it, even if it is off course and H is directing them somewhere else.  That's why they call a tunnel a "border collie accelerator".  Major distraction.

I've personally witnessed D's get frightened by a strange man standing around the ring.  At trials, observers sit right outside the ring, while D is performing, eating a sandwich or feeding treats to their D.  I've heard about D's getting spooked when someone opens an umbrella.  Lucky is distracted by sounds in the woods.

Observers in the stands call D's name.  "Go, Maxie!" may sound like cheering, but it distracts D.  This is a big no-no in Agility Etiquette, but people do it all the same.

And then when you get to the higher levels of competition, there are the PA systems!

You have to proof against ALL OF THESE THINGS, AND MORE.  But how?

You start with exposure to a wide variety of environments and circumstances, I suppose; then there's the "leave it" command; then focus exercises.  I've been to practice sessions where someone is stationed along the fence, opening, closing and twirling an umbrella, or banging a pot.  I've seen shiny plastic whirly toys stuck in the ground alongside obstacles, or strange men (unknown to D) standing alongside the dogwalk as D goes over it.  I've seen, on training videos, wind-up toys moving around as D takes the weaves.  It is also recommended to provide wings of different shapes and colors, and differently decorated bars, including streamers fluttering in the breeze under bars.

Lordie have mercy!  So many things to think about.  As I get more data, I'll add it to this page.

Wednesday Night XJWW Practice

Nedra called a special practice for 8:30 p.m. Wed. night, after the Advanced Beginner's class ended, to make up for the missed Monday night class and give all competitors a chance to run the XJWW course Sheryl and I had set up on Sunday.  I got there about 8 and had a chance to watch the AB dogs run -- Casey, Charlie, and a sheltie named Max. 

Right at 8:30, I had a chance to run Maxie using the distance handling techniques I've been practicing.  He got the first half right (red), made it through the box (9-13) but blew the 2nd tunnel (orange) the first time, blew the weaves the second time, and for the rest of the night (3 more runs), got it right.  Lucky was the last to run, and she pretty much ran the whole sequence at 22", with breaks for treats in between.  I mostly wanted everyone to see her jumping and note her progress, since I'm training her all on my own and so many instructors have expressed concern as to her lack of drive.  It was about 10 degrees cooler tonight, though, and she had some drive.  Not BC drive, but as much as many other D's I see out there competing.  I don't want her to ever get too fast for me to handle.

Maxie keeps smelling something in the grass, though, stops half-way thru the weaves or going along a run to sniff the grass.  I have to proof him against smell distractions.  I don't think it's a stress behavior.  He does this at home too.

Unfortunately, the course got taken down after Lucky's run.  I lost my battle to keep it up another week.  I would have liked to perfect my handling techniques behind those lines, sending Maxie far away, layering, and so forth.  I wanted us to run the course backwards, which would have presented a whole new set of challenges, such as making it from 9 to a correct weave entry.  Seems such a waste of time, energy, and opportunity, not to mention Thursday, Friday and Saturday there will be nothing set up for anybody to practice on.

We meet at 8 p.m. next Saturday to set up 2 short courses.  Nedra says one will be only jumpers stuff, the other will have the contact obstacles.  We'll work 1 for half the class, then the other.

Polly surprised me by inviting me to assist her next Beginners class.  Unfortunately, that is on Monday nights and conflicts with Maxie's Competitive Handling class.  I had to decline.  Maybe after the Gulfport and Kiln trials coming up, I can switch Maxie to the Tuesday night class, but then I'll be gone from home Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights!  I hate to be away from John so many evenings in a row, especially since his meetings are on Friday nights.  But then, what we mostly do is watch TV all night, except we do enjoy dinner together, and we get a few chores done during commercials or between episodes.

Agility Field Management

After LCCOC's monthly meeting last night, Nedra, Polly and I discussed my suggestion for how we might leave a course set up for 2 weeks, letting the yard man mow around the course and me push mowing under and between obstacles after the 1st week.  Nedra said nobody wants to run the same course for 2 weeks.  This surprised me.  Some people, like me, would love it.  I need the repetition, and maybe those who don't could run it backwards the 2nd week.  But hey, they're calling all the shots, and if they want to tear down and set up every week, so be it.  I'll help where I can, but I'm usually not available on Saturday nights when they set up.  Nedra, Polly and Loralie, who usually set everything up, are all single so their evenings are probably freer than mine.

We did discuss leaving the A-Frame and Dog Walk up (the heavy pieces) and using a weed eater or  push mower under those.  Also, Nedra said when the folks were together in Hattiesburg, everyone was asking for more drills rather than always running full courses, so she's decided to set up more Backyard Dog exercises out of Clean Run Magazine, and a full course only every 5 weeks or so.  These exercises are designed by high level trainers and competitors, usually don't include the contact equipment and only about 8 obstacles.  They target specific skills and are easy to set up.  It's exactly what I need, although I usually set them up in my back yard anyway.

Polly said she used my XJWW course last night with her Beginners class and "didn't find it difficult".  That surprised me, too. It must be because they ran alongside their dogs, whereas I'm trying to handle from a distance and work within a "handler's corridor".  All I can say is, almost nobody at the trial Q'd on this course and I've got the videos to prove it.  I think Kay was the only one from our club who Q'd.

Nedra said we'd have to bring our own weed eaters because we can't keep push mowers or tools out in the shed because they always get stolen.  She said we don't even lock the shed any more because thieves break off the lock and damage the door getting in.  People even sleep in the shed.  They climb right over our 6' high chain link fence.  All this is pretty disturbing and makes me less willing to go out to the field alone. 

I will get John to show me how to use our gas powered weed eater. I could put it in my trunk once in awhile to use after class.  Maybe Nedra has a weed eater, too.

Agility Training Academies

Cruising the internet, I have found some websites outlining a variety of training curriculums.  I will record my research in this post, and when I get time I'll check out the links one by one.

First one sounds mighty interesting:

Martini's Ranch
http://members.cox.net/martinisranch/training_curriculum.htm
Debby Wheeler, her husband Jake, live in Escondido, Ca where they have built Martini's Ranch, a dog agility training facility for use by the San Diego dog community.

Description:
We use only positive training at Martini's Ranch taking from several well know trainers to provide a well rounded training program. Training philosophies such as Susan Garrett's Operant Conditioning and DASH, Maureen Strenfel's Training Theories on Foundation, Greg Derrett's Handling Philosophy , Sandy Rogers One Jump Two Jump training, Bud Houston's distance work, Linda Mecklinberg's Jump training, and a collage of many other top names are sprinkled into the mix. We use both food and toy motivation and clicker work for shaping (clicker is recommended, but not required). Below are descriptions of what to expect: Agility Foundations 1 & 2; Obstacle Mastery 1 and 2; Beginning Sequencing / Sub-Novice; Novice Handling - Ring Ready; Intermediate Handling; Advanced Handling; Distance 1 & 2.

Under Advanced Handling, the description intrigues me, and mirrors what I've been saying I need: This is where most classes loose their "training" and turn into just an hour of running courses. But at Martini's Ranch, we realize the importance of training new challenges to our dogs and handling options to the human. This class still allows the handler to run courses as this is an integral part of training at this level. But additionally, we take a closer look at problem areas on courses, discuss handling options and allow the dogs to learn the correct way to execute them before running it at full speed on the course . . . . . . . We also incorporate fun and games into the class to keep things fun for both you and your dog.

The 80% Rule

If the 80% rule is right for practice, then I think it should also apply to your competition results. In other words, if you aren't Q'ing 80% of the time, then your team isn't ready to compete. Time to go back home and drill your skills -- become a real team. If done correctly, it shouldn't take very long to see big improvements.

The 80% rule states that when D is completing an exercise correctly 80% of the time, it's time to move on to the next exercise.

The only way to tell this for sure is to keep accurate training records.  You put 10 treats in your pocket, reward at the end of each correct performance until 10 treats are gone.  If that took 10 tries, you are operating at 100%, if 12 tries, 80%, if 15 tries, 66%, etc.  At 80%, D knows it well enough to move on, at least according to some literature I've read and Elaine Coupe's Agility Seminar I took last year.  I don't know whose idea this was originally.

I don't understand why some competitors object to repetition of a course or course segment. How will you reward correct choices and discourage wrong choices or innacurate performances if you don't stop when they happen, go back, repeat, and reward only when they are right? Maybe not 10 times at this level, but at least 3 correct performances in a row.

I've heard it said dogs can memorize a course within 3 turns and do it right from then on, so their correctness on repeated tries doesn't truly test the team's cohesiveness. So what? How else but by repetition can a team learn to work well together, feel each other's field, read each other's body language, develop muscle memory?

I'm sticking with my guns -- repetition, repetition, repetition. -- until you've covered every possible combination of moves multiple, multiple, multiple times. Only at that point does Q'ing become more than just a happy accident.

Then again, what do I know.

#6 Practice with Sheryl - Tuesday Morning XJWW

Sheryl and I met at the field at 8:30 a.m. to practice the XJWW we set up Sunday night.  It was shady and cool but the ground was sopping wet from a big storm last night. No matter.  Skies were clear. With us were Max, Lucky and Charlie.

Here's a small image of the course, but the large one is 2 posts back, here.

We broke the course down into segments 5-6 Target, 5-7 Target, 5-8 Target, handling from further and further behind 5.  Within 3 tries, Maxie could do 5-7 with me behind the turqouise line and tunnels in between us.  Within 5 tries, he could do 5-8 with me behind the line, but kept popping out at weave 10 until I ran to meet him at the last weave.

Charlie couldn't handle from that far back and found it great fun to run away with the plastic target.  Had to switch targets to my water cooler top!

Of course I had to run right beside Lucky but she took the jumps and weaved, if slowly.  She didn't run off, at least.

Then we all repeated 9-13 over and over and found it easy enough if we got deep within the box and completed a 360 after D committed to 11.  After sending to 14 then RC, 15 and 16 were easy.  We kept hanging back further and further and increasing distances.  16-19 were surprisingly easy from within the turquoise corridor so long as we turned our shoulders to support the tunnels. Sheryl got to where she could stay behind the line and get past the 2nd tunnel before Charlie exited it.  Earlier, he was beating her and she was nearly tripping over him.

After several segment repetitions and several sit-stay reinforcements from as far as 3, I put it all together for Maxie and he ran it flawlessly with me inside the corridor, with a treat after the weaves.  It's the best distance handling we've ever done. Charlie needed a bit more support from Cheryl and I had to run right alongside Lucky and treat after 4, 8, 13.  But she did it.

Running this course over and over, breaking it down into segments, and seeing everyone's (D's and H's) enormous progress in just one session, convinces me that this is exactly what we need, and also that Maxie is not ready to compete at the excellent level.  Applying the 80% rule, I have done right keeping him out of trials for another couple of months.

I emailed Loralie asking if we could leave this course up past Wednesday night, in fact volunteered to push mow between the obstacles if we could leave it up another week.  We'll see what she says.  It's a shitload of work to set up a whole course on Sunday for it to be taken down on Wednesday for a lawn mowing.  Between me and Sheryl, we could lay each obstacle over one at a time, mow under it, replace it, in about half an hour, whereas it takes a few hours to set up a course, another hour to tear it down and stack all the equipment way over there, by the fence line.  There has to be a better way than what we are doing now.

Conditioning Exercises/Tricks

I found a bunch of these on the internet, and gather them here, with credit to the authors.

STRENGTHEN THE HINDQUARTERS:
http://lorriemaxx.wordpress.com/2009/04/

To strengthen the hindquarters, teach your dog to sit up, stand, and move back to the sitting up position without their front feet touching the ground. Start with the dog in a sit. Raise a treat slowly above her head to get her to sit up. Mark and reward. When she has this step down, have her sit up and then bring the treat straight up so she stands. Mark and reward. For the last step, very slowly lower the treat so she sinks back down onto her hindquarters. For longer-backed, out of condition, or heavily-built dogs, you can teach them to sit up while bracing them against your legs (they will have to sit with their backs facing you). Dogs with very long backs like Corgis may always need support to sit up safely.