Puppy Class Nearing an End

Mo has just one week left in his Beginner I agility class at Dog Haven, and he has certainly made the most of his time there. He has learned a lot, and has progressed quickly. We've now been introduced to all the fundamental agility obstacles (jump, tunnel, a-frame, teeter, broad jump, weave polls, dog walk, tire jump, pause table) as well as some good footwork obstacles (agility ladder, booja board) that you don't see in competition. 

However, I think one of the best results of the class is how much WE have learned.

When you run one dog, you get very accustomed to their running style, how they respond to cues, and their interaction with you as you run. I've ran other dogs before, but they've all been somewhat similar to Harley's style of running. Little adjustments, but nothing major.

Mo is a completely different case. Deb, our trainer, says he definitely runs like a border collie does. Where Harley can make hair-pin turns at almost full speed, Mo makes wide arcing turns. These differences highlight an important aspect of class: the dog is not the only one training. Handlers have to train their minds to think of how their dog will run a particular set of obstacles.

This understanding between person and dog takes a while and prospers most when on a regular training schedule. It's the main reason someone can't just run another handler's dog in competition. While some dogs will certainly run with a different handler, if no prior work has been done with the dog and handler, the handler is really just winging it and hoping the run is clean and the dog listens. It gets even more confusing for the dog if the handler isn't briefed on what the owner calls each obstacle. A good example: an agility friend of ours has a very accomplished Doberman whose verbal commands are all Italian! 


Coming full circle, these beginning classes have been hugely beneficial to both Mo and his handlers. The best thing about beginner class coming to an end is that the next class will be arriving shortly!

Distance Work

Tonight's class highlighted an issue that Kristen and I were all too aware of: Distance work. 


Admittedly, Harley is a very clingy dog by nature. She's not clingy in the regular kind of way. She's quite independent, and is completely happy doing her own thing. However, when you're doing anything WITH her, she wants us to be close. As a rescue dog, I can understand where she comes from. She's shy, and doesn't like strangers to approach. When she's near us, she's in her comfort zone. Agility has been a sport where she can come out of her shell - most people we train and trial with don't believe us when we tell her she's shy.

That is what makes distance work so hard for her. Thankfully, tonight's lesson gave us a crash course on how to motivate her to send out to jumps.

For those of you who might not know what I mean by distance work, here's a short summary: While running a course, a handler's job is to try and pick the most efficient route for both dog and self. Most of the time this is pretty straight forward, but if you have a fast dog, it's challenging. Practicing distance work allows you to put more distance between you and your dog while maintaining control of their direction through verbal commands and body language. By adding distance, you can make your route shorter, which helps keep pace with a fast dog.

There are classes in most venues that require distance work: USDAA has Gamblers, AKC has the FAST class, NADAC requires distance tests in some of it's standard courses, and there are probably several others in other venues I haven't come across. Since we primarily run USDAA, we are most familiar with the game Gamblers. Simplified, a Gamblers run consists of 2 parts: opening and closing. In the opening, you have x number of seconds to get as many points as possible (each type of obstacle is designated a point value). At the end of this time, a buzzer sounds and you have y number of seconds to complete a closing sequence. This sequence is numbered, must be taken in order, and the handler must remain on the opposite side of a line on the ground, about 5-10 feet in Starter/PIs. Failure to complete the obstacles or stepping over the line results in a fault, and a non-qualifying score. As you progress from Starters/PI to Masters/PIII, the distance between the line and the obstacles increases. You can see now how valuable distance work becomes!

Kristen, Harley and I have progressed in Gamblers to PIII, the highest competitive level, admittedly by mostly sheer luck of the course designs. Harley's distance work has been inconsistent at best, and getting better at this has been a training goal of ours for quite some time.

Deb setup a very nice course to gradually get our dogs to learn the 'out' command. When handling at a distance, using a word to tell the dog to leave you is a must. This word, like all the agility obstacle commands, needs to be consistent every time you say it. In Deb's course, she set up a tight double-pinwheel with 7 jumps (shown below). The dog would complete the pinwheels in a figure-8, while the handler attempted to stay on one half of the course while using their 'out' command to send the dog to the outer jumps before turning back towards the handler. The handler's objective was to not cross over the red line draw below. After a few repetitions to pattern the dogs to the course, the pinwheel would become larger. More repetitions, and then larger more.

Harley's first go at it was a bit embarrassing. She just didn't know what we were asking her to do. She'd start the pinwheel, and at the 'out' command, she'd just stop running and start casually walking towards us. After I admitted failure, Kristen tried with similar results. Finally after supporting her a bit more, blocking her return route with a wing fence, and breaking out the ultimate motivator (the blue racquetball), the course sunk in. This then allowed us to start moving the jumpers further apart. Using our out command, she got better and better. I was surprised at how fast she was catching on! By the end of class, she was reliably sending out to jumps on a full-blown course that incorporated the double pinwheel at the center.

There was a magic moment near the end of class when Harley started to come back to me and I yelled 'OUT!' while pointing to a jump. Harley then altered her course and took the jump. Why do I think this was a magic moment? Because she thought about coming toward me, recognized the command, and changed her direction accordingly. This told me that she didn't merely memorize the course, but she was learning and recognizing the command.

Training Pop Quiz: Does this mean mission accomplished? Harley is now an expert? NO! While she is beginning to learn the out command, there's a lot of work to be done to hone and maintain this skill. Harley now knows what to do on that specific course. The hard work comes in generalizing the command so Harley can apply it in a variety of different courses and obstacles (Gamblers course designers frequently like to put contact obstacles in their closing sequences).

Looks like I'll need to start building some more jumps so we can do our homework!

Mo Starts Puppy Agility Class

Fresh from our trip to Arizona, we started puppy agility class at Dog Haven with Mo!

For those of you who are interested in starting agility, we'll try and give you a good picture of what to expect here. It certainly is a humbling experience going through the beginner class now that we've been trialing with our other dog, Harley, for several years now. As an added bonus, we had several friends in the class with us (Susette & Archie, Katie & Rosy, with Laura co-teaching with Deb!)

First class is all about acclimating dogs to the obstacles. There are a lot of different obstacles you will encounter on an agility course, and it takes time for you dog to 1) get used to what the heck they are and 2) consistently perform the obstacle correctly on command. The best advice is to GO SLOW!!!! Don't do too much too fast. Don't expect your dog to start agility and be in a trial next month. Training too hard could lead to injury due to unsafe execution of obstacles, or your dog could just burn out and decide "I hate this agility class mom and dad make me go to!"

This class we focused on leg awareness exercises, and acclimation to jumps, weave polls, and the A-Frame.

The leg-awareness exercises included walking over polls, and going through the agility ladder. Each of these are designed to make your dog aware of where they are putting their feet. This is important when they have to negotiate a dog walk or teeter, where it is very narrow, and they have to hit the contact zone.

Mo was definitely scared of the A-Frame at first. With a scared dog, DON'T FORCE IT! Take it slow so that they learn to enjoy the tasks at hand. Forcing it creates a negative experience and will make them not want to continue. Mo is proof of this. After taking it slow, he was LOVING the frame by the end of class.

Weave Polls are the hardest thing to teach a dog to do. Think about it: a dog has to enter the weaves with its left shoulder, then know to weave in and out of each poll and not skipping any. This is not something a dog naturally knows how to do! It takes a LOT of work to get good, consistent weaves. In this class, we started going through the weaves in a V-Channel. Each weave poll is angled so when you look down the center, it looks like a V. The dogs walk through the center. This method gets them used to picking up their feet going through the polls, and learning to go straight through the polls.

After instruction, we had some free play time at the end of class to practice. All in all, it felt great to be back to square one with a new dog! Laura did a wonderful job taking duties as a first time instructor under Deb. We're looking forward to next week!