Griffin: Agility Class Week 6

We did a pretty good job with the skills in class, but not with putting them together.

The last few weeks have been extremely variable. Sometimes really fast, sometimes not.  Sometimes really attentive, and last week he couldn't even do one obstacle.  Some weeks he's taking all sorts of obstacles whether asked or not, and sometimes he's so focused on me that he won't take something 2' away.  I never quite know what we'll get.

We're probably going to skip class for Jan/Feb and do some more fixing.  

• Griffin can now weave, even in sequences. We've done some proofing exercises.... but I'm not as confident as Griffin yet.    
• Dogwalk needs trained and repaired. 
•  A greater reinforcement history for sticking with me.
• Consistent speed.
• Longer sequences.   
• Teeter end behavior repair.
• Chute repair: (straight path out)
• Jumping repair....
• Aframe proofing.

The part that's hardest will be the long sequences.  We're pretty good with --any-- handling challenge, in a small enough piece.  But the more that's added before or after, the more I struggle to get where I need to be. I end up slowing him down or just not directing him well.  

Things that are really great: 

• He is fairly calm while the other dogs work (even noisy dogs)
• We can do the various handling activities.
• He tugs.   
• Consistently enthusiastic (...this hasn't really ever been a problem.... but some of our classmates do struggle with this!).
• He's not afraid/avoiding obstacles.

For the next 2.5 months: More repair work and training and hopefully when we return, things will go better.  It's pretty funny that he was entered in a trial a year ago (and we pulled before going).  A year later and we're still not quite ready despite not having any serious problem areas.  Being in a weekly class definitely has helped us and from here, it's probably just working on the skills.   

We've moved some of our equipment to one of the pastures (Only well-fenced on the road sides) so we have more space than in the fenced yard.  There's been so much rain this week, we've only made it out one day this week.

Griffin Agility Class: Week 7

For the last week of the session, we ran a 20 obstacle course..... or at least everyone else did. I tried to do 19 the first time (skipping the dogwalk at the end)...but Griffin apparently still can't weave properly (no surprise) and so we did half and then the second half.   He did surprisingly well despite not having much experience running longer courses.   His lines were nice and efficient and he was running.  It was interesting to see that we made some different handling choices compared to the others in class. Most of them were similarly sized dogs.  Two differences are that he's the only big dog with running contacts and that I just don't try to get in front crosses unless I know I can cue in time. 

I also think that, in some ways, errors are less relevant to me than the others.  I try to not just circle him back..we finish or run for a re-start location. He's attentive and responsive to cues and I want every single slow down cue to be relevant and to be followed by back-to-full-speed after the turn.  I hear a lot about turns and stops that are "demotivating" and "punishing" and "my dog doesn't like it" in both obedience and agility.  I want my dog to feel differently.

He's adorable.  

We then had two hours of teaching agility later in the day...with a new daytime class.  Three hours of agility is not enough! 

Agility is Hard

It's a silly thing to say after a class where my "advanced" group did an absolutely amazing job.

I've been doing agility for a long time.  Blaze started about 10 years ago.  We went to our first trial almost exactly nine years ago.   Luna went to agility class for years on end.  Blaze did quite a few as well.  I've watched a lot of agility, done a lot of agility, and read a lot about agility.

And it's only getting more difficult.

Initially it was about the obstacles and training my dog to do everything properly.  Then we realized the speed aspect and worked to get faster.   Soon after, I got more careful about handling and being able to do "all the crosses and turns."     And that was agility for a long time.

But now....with more practice, experience, and huge changes in the sport....

-Obstacle training to even higher fluency. Proofing activities with all the obstacles.
-Nit-picking training plans to avoid having to re-train or fix things later.
- Working on speed as an aspect before even starting obstacles.
- Looking at dog lines and handler lines.
- Counting strides, is my dog moving the way I expect.

Griffin is three and we aren't near ready to begin trialing.  He still needs to finish weave pole proofing and some pretty drastic repairs to his dogwalk.  His recall can be lacking, his focus immediately in a new environment (...like the agility ring) is even more lacking.   Crating all day in a new busy place?  Out of the question.

But on the other end, he's fast, he turns well, he jumps well. He goes where I ask him to. The behaviors/obstacles he has are fabulous.   His stay is quite nice.*

And I'm having to re-learn how to handle.  He's a lot more like Blaze than like Luna.   We run sequences after the advanced class on Mondays and I'm repeatedly finding myself, cautiously and unintentionally, holding him back. I'm doing more rear crosses, handling from behind and completely missing turns.  When I plan to be ahead and have a specific plan...it doesn't always happen. It's not that he's ridiculously fast, just much faster than Luna is during training.  Balancing my focus on my path, cueing my dog, where my dog is, my dog's path, his striding, his meeting criteria.... I end up loosing some pieces.

I intend to insert a video here....haven't fought with the camera to process the clips.  Trust me....he's improving, adorable, and working very nicely.  

*in this context!

CCA and Visiting an Agility Trial

Griffin and I visited an AKC trial today and saw more people than we expected to! We saw lots of golden retriever people we know, lots of people we know from training and class, and some of his family!

We were able to talk about the Certificate of Conformation Assessment (CCA, which is given by the Golden Retriever Club of America. The test is designed to compare dogs to the standard, not to compete against each other like in conformation. A dog has to get three scores of 75+ (out of 100) from three judges. It seems like most tests have three evaluators presents, so often dogs are able to complete the CCA at one event.

It looks like Griffin and I will try to get into a spring test, and should supposedly do quite well. He'll need a good bath and grooming (it's not really judged...but...is definitely important!) and more practice with standing and being touched and gaiting. I have a feeling that the waiting-for-our-turn part will be the hardest.

Back to the trial, Griffin did way better than I expected, he worked with me for a while, asked nicely to go outside, was seeking out doors (one didn't have a handle, it was a door and a door frame... and half hidden behind a vending machine, the door frame must have cued him it was a door!), he didn't jump on some people, he walked past a lot of dogs. He watched dogs do agility. And he only barked a little.

The hardest part was seeing dogs nearby tugging or if they asked him to play. We did a little tugging inside, but there were also several moments where he would not tug and a few moments where he refused to work (...but his response was to move away and lie down in a relaxed down while watching me... so it was a very nice way to refuse!).


If we do the CCA test, we will not go covered in mud and/or cow poop.

So today was a success in a lot of ways...the trial environment is very manageable, artificial turf is FABULOUS, and after too many years in agility, I finally made it to an AKC trial. It looked just like all the other trials I've been to, agility almost all looks the same to me!

We need more tugging, more working in new places and way more training.

Obedience and Agility Pieces

After last night at obedience class, I have a list of skills we are lacking in, but that also made me pull out the list of all the obedience skills we need to work on and we ran through some of those this afternoon.

- Go Outs: Still at using the foot target stage. I'll need to work on getting speed up. If he runs, he does well, understandably, and if he's moving slower, he's less likely to make it. The sit part is beautiful. Today we did a number of reps and then hid the foot target under a mat. He wanted to scratch rather than sit on it, but the second time was great and we probably could have taken it away. He went out about 30'!

- Retrieve: We did a few on the flat. Beautiful pick ups. Nice movement back. Sit was slightly off.

- Directed Retrieve: We probably haven't work on this since late last winter. So on rep 2, we went to one 15' to my right and one 15' to my left, dog facing me, and I sent him. We changed the angle ( objects more behind me) and then I was in heel and sent him. We should do this with foot targets rather than retrieve objects for a while to get more proficiency.

- Stand: We tried to get a better hop and stick in place, clicking when his front feet hit the ground. And theoretically extending the time. Handler still other than re-sets. And hopefully my motion can be added back in

- Exam part...: Very good. He looked completely still for almost all the repetitions. The 2-3 times he moved, it was towards me/away from the person.


And then we went and worked on some agility skills. He's adorable. He is surprisingly proficient on so many skills, I just don't always remember how much help or not he needs. It's interesting to see where he is fluent and where he isn't, he wasn't able to perform a few skills at a distance, but another whole set of cues he was able to respond to with a completely new handler who hadn't ever done agility. Given the right cues, he performed how he should. It's fun that he is so comfortable working with other people.

Griffin in Beginner Agility Class V: How I was reinforced for going to class

All day I deliberated on going to agility class. Only one night left. Griffin had been bad. I didn't want him practicing more bad behaviors. He had already had good training. It was a long drive. Was it really worth it. I'd have to be taking the long drive up there the next night too. I took my warm clothes to our afternoon training just in case I decided to go. And then I realized I left them at home. And then I found them in the back. And then I was going to go home. And then I was going to ask Megan what to do. But she was at work. And the car ended up deciding to go. So we did and got there just in time.

It was a good choice, only one other dog there. We did a lot of contacts. Griffin was tired. I had used up all my food reinforcers. I had two handfuls of (my!) goldfish crackers. 3/4 cup of kibble. 3tbs of cream cheese. And toys. And cans of food. But no spoon. And I can't use that with gloves. And I didn't have paper towels for after...so that was literally going to be emergency use only.

But we survived. And did very well. Griffin ran off and surprisingly tried to play with the other dog (who wanted to play too but was intimidated!). Dogwalk contacts were lacking. I found out that the color markers are for whatever org has a smaller contact zone, so that's part of the problem, but he was definitely leaping. Aframe was scary good. Every. Single. One. Very low, and springing off from there. We used the frisbee and my toss was so good and my timing was not. I hit him in the head as he bursted away. His teeters were good too. I think he could be a bit faster.

But then after, I talked to one of the instructors about running contacts and we might be trying to get together to help each other. That would be great as it's way easier than with one person. We went from no training opportunities to a lot very quickly. I don't want January to come...I don't know how I'll manage to train my dog between everything else!

Moving and Staying

Training group yesterday and today! Yesterday we did this rear cross exercise. It didn't go as well as I expected. I'm having a hard time switching from how Blaze responds to cues (which is what I would like from the others!), how Luna responds, and Griffin. We had a lot of people in the room and that was definitely a challenge at times.

The best part was Griffin tugging readily the whole time (not so great that he wouldn't take food). He wasn't looking ahead enough to make rear crosses work well and I was having to put in a lot of effort to get him to even take jumps nearby. He may have been sore from his OFA experience two days before, I'm not entirely sure.

Training group today: Great focus with lots of people and dogs. While doing obedience. Absolutely horrible precision. He did great stand for exams. But he was twitching before or after the exam (NONE during the exam which is AMAZING). He was actively trying to hold still for the touching. But the rest was ridiculous. We had a TON of wrong clicks, at least three different people tried. But he moved so much and we responded so poorly. Eventually just giving up and hoping this was a one day thing and not a long term problem.

Second part of his session was spent looking at differences between his obedience focus (high) and his agility focus (not high). So we alternated between 1 min of obed. 1 min agility. 1 min obed... And it was crazy. As soon as we started agility, and not even real agility, sending to a platform for 2o2o, he went off into space, far away.

He also had trouble switching...I sent him to a table and he stopped before it. Sat. Offered behaviors. Not sure where to go or what to do. That was with a Table cue. After a few reps where he showed no interest in the table other than a brief nose target when nearby. But when I sent him with "Up" he went up and did an auto Down. He has great concept ideas. But not the specifics. He saw the table as something to go "up" on, but NO idea of what Table actually meant. Amazing!

And we spent way too much time talking about handler focus and more attention and my expectations and all of that great stuff. We're doing a Super Ton of Training for a few weeks, both in training groups and alone. And it's not enough time between groups to work on all the little problems. There are so many tiny pieces and big pieces I'd love to work on!

That said, Griffin is the best dog ever. We've been going with someone else. And he says nothing about two completely unknown dogs in the car with him. He's jumping into the building and wanting to play. He's adorable. No video from the last few days. I take my camera but forget to use it.

Secondary Reinforcers, Toys, OFA's, Walks Without Food. Agility

Yesterday was a Good Day. And we got a lot more done than I expected.

Play: With a few inches of snow, I safely let the dogs play in the yard for half an hour while I cleaned out the van and even vacuumed it. They had fun digging and running and getting snowballs on their feet. Dog cars are hard to keep clean.

Tracking: We met our new training friend to do some tracking. It was about 15*. Wind chill made it about 0*. We didn't last very long, we both ran one dog on three tracks. Blaze's first: he stopped to go to the bathroom. And couldn't seem to find the track, but kept working. But when he was going through a 6" drift and stopped holding up his feet...I carried him to the car. We did his next two on the snowy gravel and he did much better but was still working WAY slower than usual. I was smart and used more food on the later ones... but I was still surprised at how much it slowed him and how well he kept trying!

Toy Play: Griffin was going to have his OFA xrays done in a few hours and couldn't eat food. So after tracking, in my many layers of clothing, I got out a longline and we played frisbee fetch-tug. And it went really well even with no food! I was able to reinforce recalls, and it was just a lot of fun to be at the park with absolutely no one else there at that point. He was adorable and we REALLY need to do more of this. Our play reinforcement value is greatly growing!

Walks in Town Without Food: We had twenty minutes until our vet appt, so we parked and walked around town. Without food. With two golden retrievers. And it went really well. Even with the cold, we saw quite a few people and walked past them. I wanted to reinforce, but had to go with "great dogs! Let's GO!".

OFA sedation and Secondary Reinforcers: The sedation part is what I was worried about. Once sedated, all is fine, but before then, he could be a flailing scared dog. I tried pinning him to the wall (which he thinks is great, do I want a leg lift with that?). And then using his conditioned secondary of head scratching. We repeated several times, and it definitely was a reinforcer. Then it was time for the real thing...and the vet touching was not okay. Griffin reared up and put his front paws on me. So we did the injection like that. And it worked. Much easier than I thought.

Waiting and walking: Blaze and I had twenty minutes and took some treats and went around town again. I took food and reinforced attention and good walking. And once we were to well-shoveled areas, I took off his Gentle Leader for about ten minutes. He was adorable, prancing along and staring at me. And it was somewhat sad to think that even almost-ten-years-ago as a puppy we spent time walking in the exact same places. In some ways a lot has changed, and in other ways, not so much. still, just walking along, wanting his treats. We went back and picked up Griffin and went home. Griffin wasn't up for agility training that night, so I took Luna.

Luna's agility: She was great! Attentive and focus and never wandered off. She wasn't her fastest, but she seemed happy, what do you think?

Sometimes she's super scared there and sometimes happy. I wasn't sure if tail-up was happy dog or if she needed to poop. But I think she was happy. I have to find a way to get her in class and trialing again.

Griffin: Agility Lesson #2

Griffin and I were finally able to get to another private. It was only...about two months since the last. My intent was 2 weeks in between. But we DID practice between!

What did I find out?

- Griffin got (...I think?) all his contacts. Including the first time. 1/3 were higher than my critera.
- He worked for his toy for part of the lesson. I think it's easier for him to use his toy when there are other dogs around.
- He still is wandering off more than is desirable at times. But about 1/3 of the times it would be when I sent him off to an obstacle and he just went...away.
- Obstacle focus is still lacking. A lot.
- Contact obstacles should be put into sequence.

And what will we work on?
- Recall. I've probably said before... but he doesn't really have a recall. He has a whistle recall. And a verbal recall word. But that "Don't call unless you're sure he will come" thing...has been taken a little too far. If I don't use it...he can't fail to respond. The only problem there... is that I don't have a verbal recall to actually use. Ahem.
- Contact obstacles in sequence. Yesterday we did that for, mostly, the first time. And he was okay for some, on others he was running off and looking for his reinforcer at the end.
- I need to practice with me ahead of Griffin on contacts.
- I need to practice being closer to the contact obstacles.
- Obstacle focus?

And so our training plan?
- More contact work with all the needed variables
- More adventure walks, etc...
- Working with 1-2 obstacles, using toys tossed ahead as the reinforcer. Add in handler distance.
- Recall. Verbal cue. NOW.
- Get back before it's been 2 months. A few weeks would be more idea.
-

Gaining Control?

Griffin is adorable. Exceptionally adorable. He has the opportunity to get a lot of environmental reinforcement because he is so cute doing so. That's not to say he can do whatever he wants... we have rules and I maintain criteria. But it's not always set where it probably should be.

So, in an effort to prepare for our competitive endeavors, we've changed a few things.

- More training in public and various places.
- Increasing the variety of food reinforcers we use.
- Increase toy/play reinforcers
- Adventure walks: Walking even without attention or polite walking. no frenzied pulling etc... we feed and walk when passing people or dogs. Vary the locations every time.
- ONLY letting him off leash if I'm VERY sure he'll stick with. No being pressured by instructors or others.

And after a week, how's it going? Our adventure walks have been great. Today we were able to use a toy as the reinforcer for most of flyball class. The exceptions were food for the resting in between turns and at the beginning of class before I pulled out the toy.

Griffin didn't run away or think about it during flyball. I felt safe enough to let him get the toy and bring it back, rather than only tug from my hand.

So... something we're doing is working. I just wish I knew which pieces were making the biggest impact!

Griffin in Beginner Agility Class IV: The Teeter

We left really early...and so, we stopped for walks. A new part of our week is going to be Adventure Walks. We just walk and walk and walk in new places. And I reinforce attention if I happen to get any. The only rule is I don't allow marking.

First time around: Barely any glances my way.
second: Some more looks. He gave me a leaf and we played with it. He carried a stick for a while.
Third: Lots of attention and several places we stopped to play. We ended up in front of a building with a few steps... I'd send him up. Ask for a Down! And then release to play. It was bitey-growly cute. And adorable. He was so wound up!
It was a lot of fun other than the rain part.

And we got to class, just in time. But no one was there. So I drove past a few times... and it ended up that yes, we did have class....

Tonight we only worked on the teeter. Griffin is great at the teeter. Goldens are supposedly notorious for teeter problems, I keep hearing this. But both of mine are great with it. Luna is afraid, but, she's afraid of everything.

We started with it low and gradually raised it. Initially our instructor gave us a hard time about running it... so I stopped Griffin a few times. And that was cute. But we were told we could run. And apparently our instructor was impressed with how Griffin runs and waits and runs.

Between our turns... we did some heeling like usual. And some stays. We tugged with the bear. And we tugged with the frisbee! And the tugging was GREAT. He wanted MORE MORE MORE of it. His outs were poor. We used a toy as a reinforcer for our last set of teeters and it was great.

I think part of his high interest in toys was that I wore a scarf. And he REALLY WANTED to tug it. But he knew to leave it alone.

At the end of class while waiting for a turn, we went around and sticky touched lots of things. Number cones. Standards. Dogwalk base. Tunnel. Jump bars.

And we played 1-2-3 RUN TUG.

No off leash work...so I don't know how that would have gone. But the shelties were always about 30' directly from the end of the teeter and he didn't think about visiting them. The other dog in class was a challenge at first, but by the end of class we could sit 15' from where she was working.

What do we need to work on? More time around different dogs. More recalls in varied locations. More being adorable. No...he has that one mastered!

Griffin in Beginner Agility Class III

One word for tonight? Bad.

Good parts:
- He tugged! I offered his disc four times and each time he went right for it and tugged. I cued the out and gave him food each time. And we tugged again. He was less enthusiastic on the last one, so we'll stop a bit sooner. Next week, I'll try to bring it out more than once. This week I'll see about tugging in various places.
- The heeling! BEAUTIFUL attention and movement with me. He was adorable!
- First working minutes. When we had our first turn, he was great while I talked to the instructor. We did mini formal recalls, relaxed downs, and some tricks. He was attentive and going NOWHERE but with me.
- All running was FAST.

He was annoying when we arrived ( a few minutes late.> Garrr!). Next week I'll arrive 5-10 early and do training to get better walking to/from the building. We can definitely be working on this at home and at work.

As soon as we were inside, he was turning to me and ready to work. We did our own things for a while, when it was our turn with the dogwalk, we did two reps and then talked about placement of reinforcer (I'd left our food toss item at home).

And then we worked more with heeling and fronts. We were on the other side of the barn and...Griffin caught scent of ...something. He was REALLY interested. So, unsurprisingly, he ran off during our next turn to go visit the smelly spot. (and someone was standing there with a sheltie....) After two tries, I clipped on the leash. While waiting for our next turn, we heeled over the smelly area, did smell-leave-smell-leave practice, and lots of reinforcement for leaving it. Un

Next turn? Again. He went out. We tried that twice with just the tunnel. It WAS really cool to see that I talked to him and was able to send him 8-10', full speed ahead, he was definitely seeking out the tunnel on his own without extra motion from me. He ran off and visited the sheltie-less lady. Very happy about her.

And that was our night. We'll be doing more public visits, esp in busy areas, and lots of reps.

I'm sad that I let Griffin repeat the incorrect running off thing so many times. I should just keep the leash on when I'm in doubt! Don't be fooled into taking it off!

I was told to use less food and less from my hand. In past 'tests' Griffin has performed equally as well with the food in my pocket rather than my hand. But I know it can be sloppy training!

Transport (Agility Right From the Start)

It was interesting that something on my priority training list with Griffin was a main feature of a lesson last night. The owner was in agility class and had done a lot of classes before elsewhere. The dog was great with equipment supposedly, but lacked focus. So... despite being in an agility class...we spent more of our time working on the set up and the 'what to do at the end of the sequence.'.

I introduced a "food transport". End of the sequence? Reinforce. And then little nibble-licks all the way to the start of the next. No chance for the dog to practice wandering off. Some learning that great things happen for sticking with the handler.

I'm sure they didn't have as much fun with the "agility" part of class... but hopefully they'll be seeing the progress desired soon.

Griffin is great about transports. It's something I had done a little with unintentionally, but the sessions at expo and in the book helped me to be more proficient. That period of time from when the dog gets the reinforcer to when he's set up for the next rep is SO important and undervalued!

In group class with Griffin, I do transports to set him up for the next rep, either food or collar, but mostly food. I think it distressed our instructor a bit because even for incorrect reps Griffin was getting a little lick-nibble of his treats. Yes...we reinforced the incorrect behavior a little tiny bit. But more importantly, I can set him up for the next rep without loosing him.

Griffin in Beginner Agility Class II

Week 2!

Training since last week: We'd only worked away from home twice, but we did work outside the house many times this week. We didn't work on stays while other dogs play. I intended to... and then...it just didn't happen.

Class This Week:
Entering the building: VERY wild getting out of the car and into the building. He wouldn't eat outside the car so I did a collar transport into the building. He did start working right away.
Targeting: We started off with some targeting. Griffin was great. The first two times he touched the lid he was sniffing...but it looked like a sticky target and he did release from smelling when released. The third and fourth time he held until I released. I was told to feed the treat at the target location. As picky as I am about placement of reinforcer, I don't know that I ever do with targets. Probably because I remove the target after the click or release? So, do I leave it out after the release or do I put it back out just to feed? And then remove before presenting again?
A Frame Contacts: CPE Height, 4 times. All correct. He was SO enthusiastic about going towards it. Once he started and I called him back (he'd gone one stride) and he DID flip back to me but I sent him immediately. At PosiDog I toss the reinforcer ahead, but we can't do that in the dirt at class... so he's arcing back towards me.
Dogwalk Contacts: We tried one at full height, and like I suspected, he jumped from just before the contact. But he DID run the first plank and the top without trotting, he only trotted a step or two at the top of the down plank. The instructor put it to about 2', and then set the table next to the end, we had Griffin get on the table and then run down the end. Clicking for "feet in yellow". I tried to feed ahead, but again, hard without being able to toss. Griffin, being a well trained dog, did an auto down every single time with the table. I did reinforce those. After about 8 reps we stopped...but ended up doing 2-3 more sessions of ~8 reps. However, Griffin was almost always trotting at the end. I asked about that..and was told we were reinforcing him for going to the end. I agree with that...but as he was trotting, we are ALSO reinforcing him for trotting. Right? And as he goes back to running.... his pace will change, his striding, and this part of training might fall apart. Or am I worrying too much?
Finishes: We demo'd a left finish... the instructor apparently hadn't seen dogs do it like Griffin (we trained with a pivot box). I elected to not work on a right-side-set-up-in-heel-position. I can just get him set on the left and ask for him to stay.

Other comments:
-- Much less smelling than last week. He would "Leave it" or respond to name to move away 9/10 times. Not quite good enough, but improved from last week, I was confident in calling him.
-- Beautiful heeling!
-- Less barking. There was a little during a stay and just after entering.
-- GREAT teamwork. I was very comfortable letting him offleash. He was NOT going to leave me. I didn't feel that my reinforcers were that high value, but he did understand he was to be working with me. He really loved getting the chance to be on the equipment. I wish we were doing some sequencing.

What we need to work on:
- While waiting for our turn, we did some 2o2o on a plank at that end of the building. He did not hold it twice out of about 20 times... he didn't even try.
- Sit stays with duration
- Stimulus control from a front position to finish. He needs to actually let me say the word before moving.
- More recalls. Just in case.
- Working out in public. (Yesterday at the park we couldn't get out of the parking lot!!! He was so worked up!).

Distraction Training (More agility for Griffin)

Today we met with friends to do some training.

Griffin was better than expected in some ways but he really wanted to sniff EVERYTHING.

We know that people are going to be a huge distraction for him (more so than dogs!). So...we trained for it. Initially our helper (one of his FAVORITE people in the world) stood near a jump standard for a few reps, then started slowly walking and moving. This is the second training session.



Once in the previous session he made an error and went towards her but came away on his own. And then one other time, she ran towards the tunnel as he went over the first jump...so he went into the jump as cued!

I wish we could do this training every day!

Distractions are a HUGE challenge for so many dog owners, whether with competition training or basic pet training. We try to emphasize in our pet classes how to gradually add distractions. It's not just something we talk about! And it's surprising to me how quickly owners can be walking their dogs while biscuits and toys are thrown or recall the dogs through a group of noisy kids.

Luna got to do a few minutes... I warmed her up over the jump (boring). And then we did a few A-Frames. I was VERY happy with how she did. But. I have a few questions.
- She hasn't done agility class and barely anything else in 1.5 years. How was she able to retain it so well? During that time we've maybe done 25 contacts on the teeter at home. Look at how she holds position! While I run past! She's not done that before!
- Why didn't she run off? She came when I called. She followed me.
- She ignored the other dogs. After a few reps over it, I realized the other dogs were right behind the camera, about 10' further. She didn't look at them! She IGNORED them! One of them she's played with well and at other times played VERY inappropriately with...and fought through a door. I've not felt safe taking her to group class (or had the time...). But maybe she's not the trouble maker I thought she was?
- She's so cute. And she weaved four poles. It's been forever...and while she had a few years of classes, I didn't expect her behaviors to be this strong.



Later on we did a race-to-reward session with weave poles for Griffin, and A-Frame work that caused problems and needs its own post, and more of the distraction work.

Rule Ten

An often overlooked part of training plans is the plan for how to respond to errors. It can be hard to decide on the best type of response and it can be even harder to remember your plan when it is needed. Many games and activities have rules. At 4-H camp we have rules. This year, we started Rule Ten.

The full definition:
If your dog misses an obstacle or makes a mistake, keep running. We will do training and discussion later. Maintain speed now!

The short definition:
RUN!

Speed can be more challenging than precision for many teams and we want to encourage full speed from early on in training. Many times errors are made, it’s a handler mistake and stopping the dog will only slow him down in the future because the silly humans sometimes stop without warning.

While simple, Rule Ten is much harder to apply in real life. Here’s a clip of Griffin and I this week. The first sequence went great. During the second, you can see my slight pauses every time Griffin makes an error. I soon remember Rule Ten and keep going. On the third sequence, I time my cues better and we have no errors.



One very smart camper did stop when she made a mistake. When I said “RULE TEN!” she turned to me. “But this is a chain of behaviors. If I keep going, I reinforce the mistake.” I told her she was very smart, and that yes this is a chain, and yes continuing can reinforce performance. In the case of agility sequencing, once your dog is familiar with obstacles and how to turn, mistakes can often be a handler mis-cueing or a dog not ready to perform at that distance or with that set of cues’ If we never addressed the underlying training and handling issues, we would have a problem. But at the time of the error, keep running!

Like all rules, there are exceptions to Rule Ten. For many beginning and intermediate level students… it’s very important!