Game On! Dog Training

A wrinkle was added to my summer when Tai was injured in late spring.  So, this whole summer season – so cherished after our loooong winter and long spring has been spent on a different road from what I expected.  Life has a way of doing that. 

Tai is young and strong and every indication is that he’ll recover fully from an iliopsoas strain.  How to prevent future injury is another blog post altogether.  How brave he has been through this whole process could be another.

For this here and now, I am reflecting on little moments with our dogs and a little/big/huge concept of teamwork.  Do you ever step back and think about how AMAZING it is that they even want to do this crazy agility sport with us?  We layer all this human stuff on  top of the game we play with our dogs.  Like getting that “Q”, “QQ”, title, placement, championship, qualification, etc.  Believe me, I’m not immune from that way of thinking. But it does get in the way at times…of appreciating those little moments when the connection with our teammate is simple and pure.  Those feel good moments. Ultimately, having more of those moments with my teammate is what motivates me.

Speaking of teams…here is a common question that I get when trialing and it makes me laugh a bit.  How did Tai/Breeze do today?  I usually respond with something like “Well, Tai/Breeze was perfect.  I messed it up”.  Because, of course, we know that the human half of the team makes most of the mistakes.  Maybe score sheets should be required to include the handler name because we are the responsible party!

But, here is my big point about little moments.   When I say “I messed it up”.  Probably, I only messed up one thing…maybe I became spatially disoriented for a split second, maybe I misjudged where I could be relative to my teammate and my timing was slightly off.  The rest of the run may have been simple and pure and beautifully reflected all the training together and the hard work that went into preparing for those training sessions. Reflecting on those moments builds confidence; thinking about and holding onto those moments might even make them happen more often.

It’s easy to get hung up  and entangled in an artificial framework of success.  Our sport is a bit brutal that way since in most classes no mistakes (bars, contacts, refusals, etc) are allowed for qualification.  Especially AKC style agility.  Ok, that might be a different blog post.  But think about it…a team might have a fast, lovely run with all those simple and pure moments and the dog runs by the last jump.  Refusal called.  Oh well, no Q today but a lovely NQ is worth celebrating too!

This is the attitude I’m going to foster as I begin trialing with Tai again.  I’m going public, so I give you readers permission to hold me to it!

Hey, here is another question.  So, if this is a team, why does my teammate get to take a nap while I schlep all the equipment around the yard?

So, I’m writing a blog about a newly purchased pink jump? Yes, I am. Because it’s pretty? No. Because it’s new? No. Because I needed another wingless jump? Definitely no. I’m writing about my new pink jump because it represents an approach that Jason Selk, author of “10-Minute Toughness” calls a “relentless solution focus”.  

Here is the history. Tai has a great education in jumping and is a lovely jumper. Ok, so sometimes he knocks a bar. Nearly always that is due to late information from his handler (that would be me). On the other hand, if he knows where he is going, he makes good decisions about what to do on the ground prior to takeoff. By that I mean he puts in an appropriate number and length of stride to both execute the current jump and prepare for what is coming next while moving very fast!

That is where the pink jump comes in…based on my record keeping and videos, I noticed a trend. Sometimes but not always Tai was knocking a pink wingless jump like that shown in the picture. Coming out of a tunnel or collapsed chute, just after a panel jump; after a release from the table, times where he had to quickly pick up the new line. But it was a different kind of knocked bar…not the late handler, slightly mis-timed information information kind that causes a rear leg to drop.  Rather the video reveals an early or late takeoff on approach to the pink wingless; or unnecessary stride before the pink wingless jump that affected the striding on the following jump.

Why would that be? I’m speculating here but I think it has to do with dog vision.  For a dog, the pink jump is harder to see than a white wingless. Colors in the red and green spectrum look brownish yellow to a dog. Magenta look gray.  So, whether the pink jump is set on a dirt floor as seen in the photo or on grass or turf, it may not stand out as much as a white jump.   Under poor lighting conditions, it’s probably worse.  The legs and the bar are white and should stand out, but what part of the jump has Tai learned to use — the bar or the uprights? Don’t know.

All of Tai’s jumping education has been using white jumps. Not really deliberate, but simply because most of my jumps are homemade and I bought the PVC at Home Depot. So, his experience with this type of colored jump is limited to trials.

Getting back to “solution focus”. At a recent trial, where Tai struggled a bit with these pink jumps a couple of times — not necessarily knocking a bar – but looking less comfortable than usual, I asked myself….What is one thing I could do to make this better? Natural answer…Purchase a pink jump and give him more experience with it! It’s too soon to know whether that will totally fix the problem, but it can’t hurt!

The more general theme here is the value of record keeping, identifying weaknesses and developing solutions.  What is one thing I can do to make this better?  What is another thing I can do?  And so on.  No time for whining…just get on it! 

Happy record keeping!

You can view a short article on dog vision here:

• http://www4.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/la/davis2.htm

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Photo by Joel Basa

For me, this is an interesting time in our sport of dog agility.  In North America, we commonly talk about “handling systems”, with Awesome Paws (Linda Mecklenberg) and Greg Derrett systems of handling, being the most common.  Essentially, these are languages that we teach our dogs – a system of communication based on motion (chase me!) along with arm, foot and verbal signals.  In  foundation training, we teach our dogs if I do this, you do that.  Or:

One cue = one response (behavior)

The discrete nature and clarity of those signals – how they hang together as a language –  is what gets a fast and consistent response from the dog.  If one signal looks like another to the dog, then he has to guess what is required, introducing wide turns, additional strides, bars or off courses.

Lately, some handlers are adopting altogether new systems or languages, like the One Mind system from Finland.  It’s fun to watch the videos to puzzle out what cues the dogs are reading from the handlers.  It is like “listening” to a foreign language because my agility brain is conditioned to the more traditional North American handling systems.  I have trouble watching the dog, because I’m fascinated by the handlers motions.  So, I’ll watch and watch again to parse out what cues the dog is reading to make its way through some darn complicated sequences.  I think I’m starting to get it!

Here is my concern.   Our dogs are not mind readers – although that would be nice, it would take all the fun out of it :-).  If a handler picks up a handling maneuver from another system and plops it into their existing set of cues, it had better be a discrete cue – one that doesn’t look like another cue.  And that cue needs to be taught to the dog.  Or trouble will ensue.  If one time, I want my dog to respond to my shoulder rotation and the next time, I want my dog to completely ignore my shoulders and drive behind me, how is that clear to the dog?  Maybe the response I got was what I wanted that time, but the next time, the dog may make the wrong choice.  Please don’t blame the dog!  Instead, think about the cues you are using and the response you want from each of those cues.  If you want to adopt “fancy moves” you see in other handling systems, think hard about whether that new move is going to create a grey area for your dog.  Or,  make the investment to learn the system from the foundation up, understand the discrete cues and how the combination of cues in that system gets the dog around the course.  That way, the move will no longer be “fancy” but just part of the language you use with your dog.

In each of the systems I mentioned above (and others), I can point to successful handlers.  So, I’m not making any judgements of one over another.  My set of cues are based on the Greg Derrett handling system.  Here is my personal short list of cues for my dogs:

• I run, you run – on the line I have set…do not cross behind me or in front of me.
• I stop, you stop – if I decelerate, get ready for a turn
• I turn, you turn – Follow my shoulders, if I head in this direction, toward the next obstacle, follow me.   My position means we are going that way!
• If I change sides – either a Front cross or a rear cross, drive to the new side presented.

For these cues to work well, from puppy-hood onward, I build a ton of reinforcement for obstacles, teach jumping, contact and weave skills and reward heavily for coming to my side (reinforcement zone).  In executing those cues, I stay connected with the dog,  use the arm and leg closest to the dog for directions and face the way the dog is going until it is fully committed to the obstacle.  How I combine those cues gets my dogs around the course.  If we make a mistake, I ask myself…did I mistime the cue?  Was I in poor position?  Or do I need to strengthen my dogs understanding of the cue?  It’s that simple and at the same time, it gives me endless enjoyment as I refine my understanding of how to combine the cues and my dog’s response to get the most efficient lines on course. 

So, have fun with your dog and think about the cues you give on course!  Here is a short video I recently posted from an Anthony Clarke seminar where I was doing just that.   It was a lot of fun and GREAT to have some coaching for a change.  Excellent coaching at that!

Lately, I’ve been thinking about Motivation and Rewards and whether our dogs are getting what they want.  So, what makes our dogs – or us humans – motivated to engage in an activity? I don’t mean that we just do it, but that we develop a passion for it, so that dog or human approaches the activity with joy and enthusiasm.  Well, the answer must be that we get something we want so that we want to do it again and again.  On the human side of the equation, we enjoy building a working and playful relationship with our dog.  We enjoy the process of teaching our dog’s new skills, motivating the dog to want to do this sport with us and striving to be successful dog trainers.  We are proud of our dog’s skills, and may enjoy the admiration of others, the titles, the ribbons, etc.  We enjoy the challenge of sorting out the handling strategies and execution to master courses or the act of competing itself….the game of agility.  Maybe it’s the social aspects of the sport.  Everyone’s list would be a little different, if not in content, in priority.  Since this is a totally optional activity for most or all of us, we must be getting things we value from the act of training and competing with our dogs that makes it worth all the sacrifices in terms of time, money and lost opportunity to do other things

Now, lets pose the same questions for our dogs.  What motivates them to want to do agility with us?  Same answer.   A history of receiving something they want for the effort put in.  Call it a reward or a reinforcer for the behavior offered… but to build enthusiasm and passion, the reward must have great value for the dog. Every dog will be a little different!  Some love the chase factor, some love to tug, some like to win the tug from us, some get excited over food, some love to retrieve balls, splash in or run down a jet of water, wrestle with us, some love a vigorous body rub, some like soft petting, a happy voice, or all of the above!

Our job is to figure out what our dog finds rewarding and under what circumstances.  Evaluate but don’t judge.  Your dog is as unique as you are.  Find out what he loves and use those rewards to create a history of action-reaction (behavior – reward) that motivates your dog to want to do more.  A virtuous cycle.  Just because your friend’s dog is a tugging fiend,  don’t try to reward your dog with tug if he doesn’t like to tug (yet).  Instead use a reward your dog loves now and work on building a reward system for your dog that includes toys/tugging play separately, which of course, is a very useful tool to have in agility.

Rewards as an Event

I listened to a great interview with Michael Ellis recently on the Bad Dog Agility site. Michael works dogs in Schutzhund. The topic of the podcast was tugging and was full of great information including a discussion of dog’s preferences around tugging, illustrating the point that even dogs who love to tug have particular preferences that should be respected and used to create a reward that is right for that dog.  I also loved the way he described rewarding the dog as an Event…whatever the reward.  For example, not simply rewarding the dog for the correct behavior by placing a treat in front of the dog’s mouth but making the delivery of the reward something more meaningful with chase and praise as the food is delivered.  Or instead of one prolonged tugging session, execute a series of tug-release-tug.   Then the delivery of the reward becomes an Event –  more interactive, building the relationship between handler and dog.  It reminds me of how I made up a “Let’s chase the squirrel” game with my Sheltie Lacey. Chasing squirrels was her FAVORITE thing to do, and our yard was full of them. So, I would ask her to sit, get in “game-on” position and ask her “do ya think there are any squirrels out there?” Then release her and we would run together from tree to tree and look up for squirrels with her barking and running.  After the game was established, I would use the anticipation of that reward event as motivation for her agility performance in training, with the goal of building speed say – across the dogwalk;  and would even sometimes lead out in competition, crouching in game-on position, saying “ooh, do you think there are any squirrels out there?”, just before releasing her.

Here is the link to the interview with Michael Ellis… definitely worth the listen.

 http://baddogagility.com/episode-39-interview-with-michael-ellis-on-tugging-part-1/

So, give some thought to what your unique dog finds reinforcing, use ways to make the delivery of the reward interactive – an Event! — and your training sessions will not only be more fun but will serve to motivate your dog to want to do more!