Seminar Day 2: Ball launcher, more work

In the morning, we introduced dogs to a specific ball launching product.... this one specifically, "The Cannonball." The presenters use it a lot.... not just for working and sport dogs, but also with pet dog clients! The actual product is fabulous, durable, high quality, the timing of the remote is great. Anything tennisball size works (chuck its!).

With several of the dogs, we used it for go outs. For the dogs working on the go part, we did a bit of introduction training and as soon as they would readily watch the box, we would set it up facing away from the dog, 50+ feet out... the dog would run to it, and before the dog slows down, the ball would pop out, away, and the dog would run faster to go get it. For dogs working on the behavior at the end of the go out (sit), we would have the dogs go to their target, sit, and then the ball would be launched back to the handler.

One of THE most interesting things was working with a dog where we did the above. It was decided that more reinforcement earlier on could be even more beneficial, so the Cannonball was set up by the sit plate, facing the wall...the ball would come out, hit the wall and bounce off. The dog really wanted to help himself to it.....

So we took the dog and launcher to the center of the room....and waited for the dog to look at it so we could launch the ball. The dog. would. not. look. We did NOT get a lot of reps. The handler tried using her visual mark she uses to signal go outs. She tried turning the dogs head, she tried tapping at the unit. The dog saw it as a training/proofing set up and refused to look, despite really wanting the toy. But at the wall? The dog tried to get it out. What ws the difference? The go out being less proofed (still in the early training stages)? Handler proximity? Unintentional cues?

It did make me realize it's good I've taught my dog to look away at things in the environment, on cue, and that I need to work on getting that behavior stronger and on better stimulus control.

The afternoon was spent working dogs, everyone getting another turn or two. Mostly it was more bite work. Two dogs on the self control and working while quiet (returning to a crate as soon as they make a noise). I definitely appreciate working on that skill as soon as it develops! It was fun to see the participants get more settled in, more comfortable with where they are and the set up and what we're doing. Some of the group is heading home, some are staying a few more days, and some are going to be staying the whole week. We have a few new dogs joining in today for the week of clinics (or part of the week). I can't wait to work Griffin tomorrow!

Two more points of interest:

- An emphasis on the right dog.... making it easier, more likely to succeed. Not that people should be replacing their pets or shouldn't work with the dog they have, even with less suitability.... but that putting in that early effort of the right dog, for those who are very very serious.... is just as worthwhile as putting in all the training time later. There was also talk about how hard this can be! Many of the people attending ended up having conversations at some point about how it's hard because the R+ crew won't just be replacing dogs, for most of us, these are (rightfully so,) our pets...but its all the harder in competitive circles --because-- we don't have as many dogs to work with.

- How great everyone is.... everyone is SO nice to each other and helping and all teamwork like and it's just great. A lot of the dogs need extra space and only one dog is working at a time, everyone is careful about this and polite and extra cautious and taking turns to run dogs in the back potty yard or when working inside. It's great!

- And despite a whole day of seminar...... teaching classes last night was still great. A bit hard because there were people watching, and some with video cameras... but I was able to focus and teach and the dogs did VERY well.

- Motivation: I'm waking up before my alarm and wanting to get up sooner (yet recognizing I really should sleep more). It's so great to be tired and sleep well and want to get up to train. It's dumb that this morning, when I have an extra hour....it's pouring rain and storming. We've done some work inside but I want to go OUT.... I was hoping to swim dogs so they would be tired all day! Being around people who are competing at high levels and taking their training very seriously is very good. I need to find more experiences like this.

Seminar Time:

It's a -very- unique seminar-week for the next 9 days! Two instructors from Belgium. That specialize in bite work type sports. Clicker!

There are participants and auditors from all over attending. Really really far. Someone from South America.... lots of people from the west coast.... not so many local people. It's really going to be an interesting week/weekend with many clickerly-sport people coming together. I'm especially excited for all of the obedience parts!

During two of the weekdays I'll be working Griffin... haven't decided exactly what I want to work on. Yet.

Seminar Weekend: General Thoughts

2 days of Kathy Sdao. 2 days of Ken Ramirez. Throw in school and work and out-of-the-area friends and I'm absolutely exhausted.

I took so many notes. My hands were hurting (especially the day I didn't have my super fancy pen!). By the end, we sounded ridiculous in some of our attempts to make sense of what we'd been learning.

But now Megan is on her way home, two exams are done, my dogs are exercised and semi-clean and only about 1/5 of my notes have been typed up.

General thoughts from Kathy's sessions: There are no good reasons to not do husbandry training. We need to remember how important classical conditioning is. We need to be smart about how we use operant conditioning. We need to have a plan and keep records. Vets need to step up in making husbandry training happen, little changes can be made without much change in time and with little cost. NILF concepts need some reworking and can potentially harm the human-animal bond. We need to watch for triggers and prevent meeting them outside of a training context.

General thoughts from Ken's sessions: There is no good reason not to do husbandry training. It's part of good animal care. Enrichment and training should not be optional. We need to make training plans and use them. Animals in a group is no reason not to train the animals. Though it's often most simple to work one at a time. Most of aggression work is prevention and redirection, and then we need to put in the training. We need to be clever in our problem solving, as well as clear. We need to look at the big picture. Secondary reinforcers are under appreciated. When people are not willing to go with a training plan. Give options. Consider that change might not actually be a priority.

I learned too much even though I've seen some of these talks multiple times before!!

Obedience Seminar

First seminar for me this year! Deb Jones and Judy Keller came to talk, with the first half of the day was about focus and basic training/foundation behaviors and the second half was activities pertaining to heeling.

I didn't know if I would be able to go until very recently, so I had not registered for a working spot and that was a good choice. While I would have liked to work Griffin in that setting, I don't know that the activities would have specifically helped us and we would have had to sit out on a few.

That said, I had a great time and got to see a lot of people I don't spend enough time with. It was a probably a record number of dogs in the building (12 working, and probably 8+ others) and the first working seminar that's been held at the facility. We also had a few requests from attendees for a freestyle workshop/class and I'm really hoping we'll be able to do that.

And as usual for any training day or lesson or workshop or seminar or event, I came home with too many notes, a list of questions and skills to add to our training skill/concept/behavior lists. I'm feeling really good about my dogs, my classes, my students, and my training plans.

There is a lot I need to process and think over, as well as discuss with training friends.

Enthusiasm for 2011

In the last few years I haven't done as much 'continued education' activities as I had in the past. There are more seminars and events and good speakers than ever, but there's always this balance of time and money and knowledge to be gained. For a while, I wasn't getting out of the events. I always learn something, but, it wasn't always worth the time and money. And that was sad because I really like learning new and exciting things.

But next year! Will be busy. I've known about some of these for a while, but now that it's all much more official... With vet conference in February, ClickerExpo in March and if I add in 4H camp (always an educational experience!) and my week helping at the state fair dog show in August... that's something big every single month until September. I'm tired just thinking about it. But the really exciting thing about the PosiDog events are that most are brand new seminars that haven't been done before and some are from presenters who haven't done very much presenting here. New topics and information!

How am I supposed to train my dogs and compete and plan around all of this! There's a few other events I would love to go to too... some positive field seminars that just got announced in WI and Deb Gross Saunders in OH next month

For the past few days, instead of finishing work that needs to be done, I've been pulling out all of my competition obedience training plans and trying to figure out which ones were the best, how to improve other ones, which things my dogs still need to learn, and how to train everything to more precision, more speed, and in a shorter period of time. I love obedience.