Game On! Dog Training

Attitude…”If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it”.  ~Mary Engelbreit

I had a recent couple of trial days with young border collie Tai that  sent me into my garden for therapeutic weeding and a glass of wine… and an attitude adjustment.    Tai is my first border collie and I’m still learning to live with this unique breed. The Border Collie Rescue web site states: “Training a Border Collie can be like trying to teach a nerdy child that likes to overanalyze everything – it can be frustrating and an exhaustive exercise in patience.”   Combine that with his strong herding instinct and I’m sometimes left scratching my head or worse, feeling anxiety and frustration creep up on me.

Here is a simple example.  At a recent trial, I was challenged to get him lined up at the start line and pointing in the direction we needed to go…Believe me, at home and away from the ring, we have brilliant line up skills.  But on this day (and for the first time at a trial) something kicked in and he picked a point in the middle of the ring to point toward…maybe the judge, not sure but what was for sure is that it wasn’t the direction we were heading.   I retried several times and each time he ended up in the same direction.  Not sure what to do (the judge would only wait so long), I led out, released him and sure enough, he missed the second jump.  This issue was repeated in most of our runs that weekend, although not always with a resulting error. Here’s where the attitude adjustment is important.  Yes, it was annoying that after all the training around this particular skill it would fall apart in this situation.  Yes, this is a skill that was straightforward for my shelties.  But really, he’s a dog, and oh yeah he’s also a  border collie.   He can’t help how his brain is wired.  He didn’t choose my home or this job.  I’m asking HIM to play this crazy sport with me and do it my way.  So it’s up to me to figure out ways to help him get it right.  Because isn’t that my job and my responsibility?

Attitude: “Learn to smile at every situation.  See it as an opportunity to prove your strength and ability”.  ~Joe Brown

My attitude adjustment is this:  Yes, I can have goals that determine our training and trialing,  but on each given day, let go of expectations, let go of ego, embrace the dog I have – with all his brilliance and a few quirks – and enjoy the ride.  Smile as we begin each run. Laugh when it doesn’t go as planned.  Celebrate each effort. Observe and acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses for both of us. Problem solve. Train.

After reviewing the video of that weekend, Tai’s brilliance shown through and I could believe the words of so many of my friends that “Tai looks great!”.  Thanks for your support, by the way :-).   The next day was much more successful…I think we actually had a “q”, but what I remember most is that I enjoyed the day and sincerely celebrated each run with Tai.

Because I enjoy watching videos, I’ll include one here from an indoor trial the previous weekend…with an error that I did laugh at…something I didn’t expect but as it happened added proofing around tunnels to my training list.  You won’t miss it.

Often, the results of a competition only tell one part of the story.  Breeze and I just returned from the AKC World Team Tryouts.  We finished dead last amongst the talented teams that competed in the small dog division.  Ouch.  Double Ouch. Of course, I was disappointed in this result.  We had worked very hard to get ready..and I felt the most prepared ever walking into this event.  With the mild winter, I had more training opportunities than usual leading up to this Spring event (usually, I only get a few weeks to train outdoors before leaving).  Breeze was well conditioned, running GREAT and I was in decent shape.  Over the last year, I had made massive improvements in my mental game.

So what happened?  As expected, the courses were extremely challenging.  There were very few clean runs across all competitors.  Some of my errors were timing errors, forced by the yahoo lines that got me behind the speedy little guy.  But a significant contributor to our results was a weird weave issue that popped up on Friday.    During our practice time, all was all good until Breeze hit the weave poles.  He popped out around pole 8 or 9 and looked confused.  When I entered him again, he put poles together,  then he didn’t want to enter at all.  Ok,  then…what the heck?????   After our practice time was over and I was puzzling over this, I saw the ring crew resetting the poles.  Turns out, the poles were set up wrong and the legs were in the wrong place…apparently where his feet were supposed to go!!  About 1/3 through practice, the organizers figured this out and fixed them.  Everyone affected had a chance to get our dogs back on the weaves but apparently that wasn’t enough for Breeze.   He refused entries and/or popped out of poles in all but one run.  He was thoroughly checked out.  Physically, there didn’t appear to be a problem.  His weave concerns were most damaging in the last round when he refused the poles 3 times in the easiest entry of the weekend in an otherwise near perfect round.  He simply refused to acknowledge the poles were there until I stopped him in front of them and said “weave”.  In international competition, 3 refusals results in an elimination and 50 faults.  At that point in the competition, the results of that one round made the difference between being in the top 10 versus dead last.

Despite the results, there was much to be proud of.  Overall, I was pleased with my handling decisions and execution…we had beautiful lines through some of the most challenging sequences. Breeze was fast, responsive and accurate with the exception of the weaves (and one teeter). My mental game rocked and all the work I’ve done over the past year paid off.  Before every run, I felt confident, relaxed and focused.  After his first weave refusal in Round 1, I was sure to visualize him entering correctly so I wouldn’t inadvertently let my handling make things even worse. Even when things were going really badly on Saturday, I was able to put that behind me.  I’m proud of the fact that I could come back after such a disappointing first day and found a way to get into that zone on the next day’s runs.

After every competition, I ask myself what I learned.  Training opportunities?  Need to get back to a consistent full stop on the teeter in trials.  Breeze has a fast teeter because he runs nicely to the end of the board but the risk is that if he doesn’t shift weight and work his stop, we can get a call.  Hasn’t happened much…maybe once in the past trial season but he’s been uncomfortably on the edge of late.  He’s so light that it can seem to take forever for the board to drop and patience in waiting for the drop is not his strong suit (see picture above where he did shift weight).   I need to make sure he knows this isn’t an option!

And what about those weaves?  Why did that one bad moment in practice have such an effect?  It’s not like him to worry like that…he’s had plenty of little things happen over the years…falling off contacts, hitting metal jump cups, maybe even his handler knocking a jump down on top of him.  He’s always just gone right at it again.  So, it’s quite uncharacteristic of him to worry about anything like this.  Not long after arriving home, I couldn’t resist trying him out in the backyard in a couple of short sessions.  He did great…driven, confident and  accurate on tough entries.  I’m going to assume for now, that the issue was isolated to weaves in Hopkins arena.  I’ll be sure to add the highest value rewards to his weave training and work on even more independence to build his confidence.

From a handler perspective, I’m still noodling over how to know when I can get places on some of these long speed lines. Could I have trusted Breeze more in round 4 and made it to serp position before the double threadle?  After watching video, I think the answer is “yes”!  Can I train to be faster?  Yikes, Tai is coming up.  Since I’m not sprouting longer legs, I need to work smarter on my handling and harder on conditioning and running form.

Most of all, I’m grateful for having the opportunity to play amongst such talented teams and to be running this gifted dog.  Hard to believe I can say this after what happened but its still my favorite event of the year.  Am I crazy?

Here is the video of Round 5 (thanks Agility in Motion!) where you can see the weave problem.  It’s a journey!

Incredible…one word to describe my little buddy Breeze.

Just returning from our 4th AKC agility nationals held in Reno, Nevada, I want to celebrate:  His cool – even in a big venue, & even bigger casino hotel.   His endurance – thriving after long air flights both ways.  His toughness – working through some soreness.  His athleticism.   His skills.  And his overall cuteness – that he was happy to share with the many people (including kids) we met on our travels.

After a little bit of a rough start on the warm-up day, we did well in the competition, making it to the Finals with a 4th place cumulative score across 3 rounds (among 170 dogs of his height in the competition).  With a decent Finals round, we ended 7th place.  Ahhh…but for that little brain blip that caused a refusal at obstacle 19.

A perfect agility run is rooted in confidence – knowing what to do and how to do it; relaxation – a balance of holding on and letting go; and focus – being in the moment and executing without regard to the past mistakes or future outcomes.

Staying focused on the “now” is more of a challenge for me than for Breeze.  I recently saw “now” described as occupying no space but as a hypothetical gap between the past and the present.  “Now” is hard to hold on to.  Learning to be present in the moment takes practice.  Learning to let go of outcome takes practice.  Learning to forget the mistakes in the past takes practice. Learning not to be afraid of success takes practice.  Like most of us, I’m still practicing!

Anyway…here is a video of Breeze at the Nationals…my incredible boy.

With dogs of different ages, my definition on The Best Of…is all about perspective.  For 12 year old Lacey, the best right now is good health and soundness.  For 8 yr old Breeze, it’s about peak performance for us as a team.  At his last trial, he was just phenomenal – a nice place to be with Nationals around the corner.

For 2 yr old Tai, it’s about finding those best moments and nurturing them.  It’s also about believing that those moments will happen more and more often as Tai matures, gains experience and we grow together as a team.

It’s officially Spring now although we hardly had a winter this year.  Tai turned 2 years old on New Year’s Day and since then we’ve done three trials, two great seminars – Nancy Gyes and Susan Salo – and spent 2 weeks at the beach.  A good balance.  Tai’s trialing has been limited to T2B, Fast and Jumpers.  It hasn’t yielded much in the way of qualifying but has been invaluable in providing experience for both of us.  Here is a newsflash for you…handling a long-striding border collie is a lot different than handling a small sheltie!    Well, that difference has got me on the path to becoming a better handler, for sure.

With lots more to work on — including proofing contacts before we begin trialing in Standard Classes — I decided to take some time to celebrate some of “The Best Of…” Tai’s moments over the last few months.   I’m a firm believer in holding close what is going well, while acknowledging what needs improvement and continuing to strengthen skills on both our parts.  So, enjoy this video and I hope you will embrace your “Best” moments too.

There is frost of my contacts (and on any remaining pumpkins as well) this morning.  Amazingly, I’ve been able to continue training outside in my yard through mid-December!  I keep checking the weather forecast to see when the first substantial snowfall will get us hurrying to bring the contacts in.  Not in the 10 day forecast yet.  Yeah!

I love training my dogs in short bursts throughout the day and the week.  To make a plan, walk out the door and get it done in 10 minutes.  And I love being able to fit the training in between household projects, errands, our daily walks and work/volunteer commitments.  Here’s a picture of Tai who was outside to “do his business”, asking me to come out and play now, please?  Pretty please??

Yesterday – in the afternoon, after the frost was off the contacts, I cobbled together a little novice style standard course – without moving any of the contacts — so that Tai could work all the contacts within sequences and I could see “where we are”.  First thing to remember…don’t just warm up the dog….remember to warm up myself!  Because, with Tai, I will be running…full out.  He did well…gorgeous running DW and A-frame but he was surprised by the speed with which he hit the teeter and did his nose touches off the board until the rising teeter board whacked him in the tail.  Just didn’t shift his weight quickly enough to stay on.  I laughed and decided to spend a few minutes working that piece.

Later…just before dark on one of these short, short days of the year…we went out and worked handling around and turns off the dogwalk.  It’s a fun challenge to learn how to handle around a running dogwalk.  I can see that eventually it’s going to feel very smooth.  I just need to figure out timing, and continue building Tai’s understanding of turns – from gentle turns to severe turns.   One thing for sure…if at all possible, I don’t want to have to wait around to babysit the entry to the dogwalk!  So helping him learn to get on from lots of different angles is another piece that we are working.

It’s very likely that we’ll have that snow soon.  It will be beautiful…and perhaps we’ll have a white Christmas.  We’ll enjoy walking in snow covered fields (less mud is a good thing!).  We’ll put up our Christmas tree, shop, wrap presents, bake, have lots of family visits and sometimes the dogs will get loads of extra attention and sometimes they’ll feel neglected and if they could talk, would say they don’t appreciate this disruption to their lives.   And I’ll have to accept that contact training will have to move to training centers once or twice a week.

It’s part of the rhythm of life where I live…four distinct seasons if we are lucky (not just summer and winter).  With winter adding it’s special beauty and challenges and time to teach new tricks to all of the dogs.