Jumping speed exercise, 10 foot grid

I got Dancer’s favorite tennis ball (the squeaky Kong one) and I worked the exercise from each end up through the tunnel. I stood in the middle, with a long lead out. I threw the ball at various points–as she came out of the tunnel, after the first jump to reward a nice stay, after the tire at the end of nine obstacles… I asked her to do a fast series of jumps eight or nine times, with a long run after a thrown ball after each sequence. Sometimes I threw the ball without even asking for a jump. I did the set as fast as I could, then put her in her crate for a bit while I worked Elly over the sequence a few times (at 12 inch jump height) and then worked on heeling with Elly.

(Elly is actually developing a good heel, because I’ve been working on it for five minutes almost every single day for almost a month now.)

Then I put Elly back in the car and set up this exercise for Dancer:

Distance exercise, 10 foot grid

I started by working 1-2-3 (black squares) and 3-4-5 (white circles) until I was behind the distance line and still getting a good contact. That actually took only a few times, much to my pleasure. Then I put Dancer in a stay at white circle 2. I led out to the middle of 3 at the distance line. I released her, and turned her over 3 to the a-frame with my new OUT signal and ran the line. Much to my astonishment, it worked the first time.

Of course I pushed my luck. I put her in a stay at the tunnel (at 1) and led out to three again, then turned and pushed her, with one step, into the tunnel as I released. Again, she ran the line flawlessly.

Once more: I backed up until I was at the outside edge of jump 2. Once again, she ran the line perfectly.

I gave her every single treat I had in my pockets and we went home.

Two years ago I took a seminar with Susan Perry and she asked “what are your criteria for the dogwalk contact?” My tentative reply of “one toe in the yellow” was not satisfactory.

This is the answer I eventually arrived at, and which I was pleased to give her this spring when I took her proofing seminar: “Stopped, front paws in the dirt, back paws on the board, head up and watching me for the cue for the next obstacle. Release word is ‘okay!’ ”

Since I’ve arrived at that point, Debbie has been very good about making sure I maintain my criteria for dogwalk performance. I’m now keenly aware when I let my standards slip.

Which is why, yesterday at class, I was dismayed to watch as my fellow students let their criteria go over and over and over again. I understand the rationale: it’s hard to focus on everything. I know I decided not to fight with Dancer about her table performance–I let her stand instead of sit. But hey, I don’t do USDAA, AKC is going to “any position”, and CPE just wants the dog to get on the table to end the run. So that’s okay. (I’m sure I’ll regret it if I ever go back to USDAA.)

Last weekend, at the CPE trial, I watched as a friend ignored her dog’s jumping off the a-frame from pretty near the top. Not even a sigh escaped her, she just went on. I get that, it’s more fun, but… Dancer’s done much better at her contacts since I started following Debbie’s advance and asking for the stop I didn’t get as soon as she doesn’t stop. So.. Dancer jumps the a-frame contact, I stop dead, I say “wait”, she stops, I say “okay!” and we go on. So now the a-frame consistently means “wait” even if it’s not perfect. It always means “wait.” That turns out to matter.

It also turns out to matter that I’m training the moving wait that Sharon Nelson introduced in her seminar back in March. The moving wait is: stop right there. Hang on a moment and I’ll give you another instruction. Very useful for all kinds of things, as it turns out, although Sharon uses it as part of handling distance lines, where you want your dog to stop “out there” rather than come in to you for the next instruction.

This morning I woke up feeling rather more energetic and my knees actually felt sort of okay.

So I took Dancer and myself down to class this morning with Dick Watson, who set up a nasty little course that Dancer did beautifully on, getting her contacts with enthusiasm–she loves cheese!–and getting her weave entries (which were tricky) with equal enthusiasm. It was fun, and we both needed a fun practice session.

I’ve been continuing with my five-minutes-daily practice sessions at the world’s smallest agility field (the front yard, 21′ x 40′, grass). Lately I’ve been working distance. I know it’s weird to work distance in such a small area, but… I’ve been working on the meaning of “out” and “that way”.

I set up two jumps, side-by-side, like this:

Teaching OUT and "that way!"

Then I stood where the toy is, with Dancer on the outside, next to me, holding her collar after taking the toy away from her. Swinging her off my hip, I swung my hand up and push the line, taking one step toward the nearest jump standard but holding my hand up like a traffic cop, saying OUT! firmly. Then, I threw the toy as she goes over the far jump, then raced to play with her.

Once she clearly understood to take the OUT jump from both directions, I did the same swing off my hip but kept my hand down and said HERE! to indicate the near jump.

When she understood both of those well, I went to the next step: I wanted a turn away from me.

As she approached the HERE! jump, I swung up the OTHER arm and said THAT WAY! (it should be “switch” but THAT WAY! is what comes out of my mouth, so I’m going with it). I completed the rotation, kept my arm up, and she followed the path I wanted very nicely over the OUT! jump. I then did another turn, dropped the shoulder and the arm, and pulled her back over the HERE! jump.

It’s a simple path but it does teach what I want, which is the OUT! and THAT WAY!

My goal for the next training session is to move further away from the jump pair.

And I’m feeling stale. I’m working with the dogs and thinking “I’m never going to get a NATCH/C-ATCH/MACH because Dancer hates the teeter, why am I bothering?”

And I have so many good reasons for bothering: I enjoy the competition. I enjoy the friends. Most days I enjoy the training–just right now it seems like a slog–it helps me keep fit. I adore the dogs.

But… I’m tired and my knees hurt all the damn time and I want my knees to STOP HURTING!

Dancer ran in Level 2 Standard for the first time. That meant: the teeter. Now, she’s done the teeter a few times in competition now, but of course, this was a new place and a new teeter. Saturday, both times, she got on the teeter and took a few steps and jumped off. Sunday, when she stopped in the first run, I put my hand on her back and gently kept her from jumping off, while lowering the teeter with the other hand. Yep, that would be training in the ring, so I then thanked the judge and we left immediately and ran ran ran to her treats–freeze-dried turkey hearts, which appear to be basically some sort of addictive poodle drug. In the second run, she was having a wonderful fast run with lots of distance and speed, and I made sure to meet her at the teeter. I coaxed her across and you could see her make up her mind to do it (I even said “you’ve done it once, you know it’s not that big a deal”) and then she went on, fast and happy, got all the contacts, second place.

In addition to her Standard Q, Dancer also earned Qs (2nd) in Colors, Wildcard (3rd), FullHouse (1st), Snooker (1st), Jumpers (1st).

Elly’s Rimadyl is clearly making a big difference. She ran well and Qd in FOUR runs on Saturday! However, that turned out to be overdoing it a bit, and she only did one good run on Sunday–in the other, she asked to leave, so we did. Elly earned herself Qs in Wildcard, Jackpot, Standard, Snooker, and Colors. In Snooker on Sunday, we had the pleasure, as we finished the run, of hearing the judge say “first dog to make it to 7!” Elly reached the table just as the buzzer went off, signaling that it was time to get to the table. That was a fun run.

Joe Camp, one of my favorite agility photographers and one of Elly’s many fans, was there and took these photos:

Flying Poodle Elly (photo by Joe Camp)

Dancer trains her "I'm busy here!" look on the photographer while waiting to start (photo by Joe Camp)

Official results:
Dancer:
Standard, Level 2: 155 yards, SCT 67, 45.33 seconds, 0 faults, 2nd.
Jumpers, Level 2: 108 yards, SCT 39, 23.38 seconds, 0 faults, 1st
Snooker, Level 2: 32 points, 40.95 seconds (game time 45 seconds), 1st
FullHouse, Level 2: 31 points, 34.31 seconds (game time 35 seconds), 1st
Wildcard, Level 2: 71 yards, SCT 32, 19.57 seconds, 5 faults, 3rd
Colors, Level 2: 79 yards, SCT 36, 21.03 seconds, 2nd

Elly:
Snooker, Level 2: 45 points, 48.56 seconds (game time 45 seconds plus 5 seconds to finish), 1st
Colors, Level 1: 79 yards, SCT 41, 28.90 seconds
Standard, Level 2: 141 yards, SCT 63, 56.74 seconds
Jackpot, Level 1: 45.97 seconds, 41 points (game time 45, but they round the time down, so she squeaked a Q)
Wildcard, Level 2: 71 yards, SCT 32, 24.44 second, 2nd

Elly didn’t run, and Dancer Qd in only three of 12 runs, but parts of the weekend were excellent.

Dancer Qd in Open Tunnelers and got her Superior Open Tunnelers title in a time that would have qualified her in Elite (and took 1st), so we move out of Open Tunnelers, at last.

She Qd in Open Weavers (4th), Saturday afternoon at 4, in 97 degree heat, which is amazing.

She Qd in Novice Regular (1st)… one run out of four. I think they should have special contact zones for poodles, that run from the top of the a-frame to the bottom! We need to work even more on the contacts! I told her–as I led out for the start of the course–that if she jumped the contacts in that run, I would take her out and shoot her. It was the last of the four runs in regular. She got her contacts, but honestly, I don’t think anyone–much less Dancer–took the threat seriously. At least, I’m pretty sure the judge would have whistled me off for dog abuse if she’d been worried.

She had two clean-but-over-time runs in Elite Jumpers, but she was 5% over time in one and 7% over time in the other, both of them in the heat on Saturday–this is an improvement on 10-12% over time in previous Elite Jumpers runs on cooler days. And the heat was slowing down many dogs! She took third in her first run–only two dogs ran faster than her and ran clean, out of 20! After the first run, Susan Perry suggested that I focus on tightening my lines to get those times down a bit more. I did the next run with three front crosses and got tighter lines, but it was 95 out by then…

Touch N Go, being dependent on contacts…… should I say more? The good news? She was WAY under time.

Our Chances runs (distance class) had good bits and bad bits. Pretty much all of the bad bits were my fault and all the good bits were Dancer trying to understand and do what I was asking. I just didn’t have enough uncooked brain left.

Finally, our last run on Sunday, the one with Jay watching? That was the one where I completely forgot the course I’d planned and just left the ring by the shortest route. 97 degrees! Just too bleeping hot!

* a dead, half-eaten beaver, with two vultures circling just above the remains
* lots and lots of coyote scat just full of blackberry seeds
* a beautiful stag loping away from us
* a great blue heron fishing in a pond
* an enormous flock of sparrows feeding on blackberries–you could hear them from hundreds of yards away

When I did start to retrain contacts, I trained them using a nose touch in the classic method. I had no problems training a nose touch contact and it only took a few months before Dancer’s in-class and in-practice contacts were excellent. But in trials… the extra speed and extra excitement caused her to fail to nose-touch (although I did get a slowdown) and I compounded the error by failing to enforce criteria.

However, by diligent practicing of the nose-touch I did start to get a pretty reliable contact behavior, but not a great one, and not an independent contact, which is what I want.

Around this time I had an enlightening conversation with Andrea Dexter. She pointed out that I really needed a contact behavior that had consistent criteria, and she suggested going to a foot touch rather than a nose touch (because *I* would be better about maintaining that criteria, not because it was inherently better–acknowledging my own failure). I started clicking for, and reinforcing, those two front paws hitting the dirt on both the frame and the dogwalk–and stopping there. Around this time, I started getting contacts-to-criteria in trials.

Then in April of this year I went to the Susan Garrett Advances in Dog Training seminar. As part of the seminar, she gave a demo of teaching a dog to foot-target using a big blanket that she kept folding smaller and smaller (every few rewards). I thought it was a brilliant way to build a foot-target behavior and immediately retrained Dancer’s foot target using the method. That took about five minutes and it immediately transferred to agility equipment. I was stunned at how effective it was.

I now have a great foot-target stop in training and a decent foot-target stop in trials. I have a set of criteria I can maintain in a trial.

I have been reading the new Agility Right From the Start–which is an amazingly thorough book on training agility–and am interested to see that they also use a foot-target contact behavior for several reasons in addition to the ones I give above.