Game On! Dog Training

Tai is 19 months old now.  Handsome, athletic, sweet, smart and still a little nutty.  Watching him grow up and immersed in training this young dog, I’ve been thinking a lot about “balance” .   It first occurred to me as I watched video of Tai jumping at a Susan Salo workshop last month.  With his bigger size and smooth coat – compared to my hairy little shelties — it’s easier to see the power and control required to stay balanced throughout the jumping exercises.

But “balance” has many more meanings and here are some that resonate with me:

Balance: a means of judging or deciding  what to work on today; this week; this month to build his skills in all aspects of life and sport.    Or how about the balance of “perfection” vs “better than average”  when judging what to reward in the thick of training.  That instantaneous decision that says “acknowledge that”  – stop and reward — when you see a brilliant turn, nose touch, start line, response to handling  – balancing the urge to go on with the longer term goal of building a skilled and confident partner.  Or… after a few days of training,  deciding that today should NOT be a training day but the priority should be a long hike in the woods and fields.

Balance: a counterbalancing weight, force, or influence  Balancing the pressure of training and travel vs the release of  down time – long walks, hiking, swimming and hanging out.  A few weeks ago, Tai spent 3 days at the Susan Salo seminar.  Beyond the restrictions of life on the road and the physical and mental demands of the jumping,  the mental work to hold it together around the stimulation of other dogs was a challenge for him.  We ended the week at our camp – hiking, swimming and hanging out.  A good balance.

Balance: physical equilibrium; the ability to retain one’s balance – I watch in awe the athleticism of this dog as he negotiates his way through more and more complicated sequences.  This physical ability didn’t come all at once to this leggy lad.  I’m glad that I was in no hurry with his early training; that I matched his physical (and mental) maturity with appropriate challenges – I’m liking the results.

Summer finally arrived in upstate NY and I have been training, camping, visiting family and friends, gardening and keeping up with volunteer activities.  Also occasionally cleaning my house and trialing.  Finally, training a running dog walk is very time consuming…not the actual training time but the obsessing over the video.  All in all, that’s a  recipe for NOT writing in this blog.  I have grand intentions of videoing some of our sessions and putting a montage together.  Hasn’t happened.

So…what prompts me to write now?  Well…it’s the look that Tai has been giving me after some of our training sessions.  It says “we did good together, didn’t we Mom?”.    Here is a shot of that “look” after a running dog walk session today.  I love it.  It says to me that he’s learned we are a team and partners as we play and have fun together doing this strange, pretty unnatural but totally addictive sport called agility.

Tai will be 18 months old in a few days. Yikes!  Where did the time go?

His training is coming along but probably slowly by some people’s standards.  I watched a friend put her 14 month old neatly  through a whole course, contacts, weaves and all yesterday.  Made me wonder what I’ve been doing!  I guess the answer is a combination of a long winter, giving Tai time to grow up and just plan not being in a hurry.

So a quick review: contacts in progress; weaves at the proofing stage; jumping coming along nicely; working our way through box work exercises showing that our flatwork foundation is paying off nicely.  Trying not to forget little things like revisiting our table training.

Still some challenges for sure…he still needs desensitizing around other dogs running agility…I really need to get on that more deliberately.  Will make that a project and part of my record keeping for the rest of the summer. 

Bottom line?  We’re having fun and working our way through lots of challenges (or opportunities rather)….We are at the beginning of a journey that will no doubt lead to lots of new “opportunities”.  I hope it is a very long road… a road as long as my friend Nancy’s with her wonderful dog Morgan who left us last week.  Morgan was 16 yrs old and had a huge heart – part of which I know he generously left with Nancy and her family.   As I watch Lacey slow down and find new ways to enjoy summer…like sleeping under the table, it’s a reminder to enjoy it all.

It’s finally spring in upstate NY.  That means instead of enduring wet, 40 degree weather; we are celebrating wet 50 degree weather.  I’m not complaining because while every walk means muddy feet…well I guess I mean muddy feet, legs, face and belly, I can get outside regularly to work with Tai.  Now 16 months old, Tai is growing up.

I updated my training journal last week with lists of skills we’re working on…contacts, jumping, weaves, handling…it’s a long list that will keep us busy for the rest of spring and summer.  I also have a tab called “Focus” as Tai is a typical male adolescent with a short attention span.  And he is motion sensitive and he has very acute hearing.  Oh, did I mention he is a border collie?  I’m recording where we are working including the distractions, what we are working on, his level of intensity for his work and the number of times I lose his focus during the session.  My definition of losing focus is simply a head check toward a barking dog in neighborhood that means even a little bit of work on my part to get him back in the game.  Strict criteria but it helps me measure the value Tai has for the “work” we are doing.

That record keeping reminds me to be a good dog trainer: plan out our sessions, have all equipment ready, prepare the rewards I’m using and keep our sessions short.  Following these simple steps vastly improve the chances Tai will stay focused and work with great intensity during our sessions.  I also am ready to change the direction of our training if the neighbor lets out her barking, fence running cocker spaniel when we are in the middle of weave training!  Sometimes I plan our work around distractions, sometimes they just happen.   It’s all good.

Tai did a good job as a demo dog in classes this past weekend.  He executed his flatwork (no obstacles) quite nicely as I made the point to the students that agility is really just a game of running around a field with your dog, chasing “reinforcement zone” while taking obstacles along the way.   He also demoed his love of crate games – showing their value to build both self-control and drive.  I was proud of my youngster!

It’s another rainy, cool day today.  But we’ll be out there for sure.  I’m excited to move to the next step in training his running dog walk a la Silvia Trkman.  We are in the beginning stages – simply running across a flat carpet runner using the same striding as he would running fast across a field.   But today we will move to a wide and thin wood plank.   Thanks to the internet, I’m taking an on-line running contacts class with Silvia, submitting videos for feedback.  Enjoy our first homework assignment in this clip (you will need to copy and past into your browser):

And, before I close out this blog post…a nod to Breeze who will join me on a trip to World Team Tryouts this weekend.  He’s an amazing, amazing little dog…love him! 

Each year in upstate NY most agility enthusiasts have break in our training imposed on us by mother nature.  It can be a good thing to slow down, to let body’s recover and to concentrate on cross-training activities.  We’re nearing the end of that cycle this year and soon (please, please, please), the snow will stay away and I’ll be able to get outside with nearly 15 month old Tai and train the way it works best…several short sessions a day.  It has been a LONG winter.

I also introduced a not so natural break in this training last week…the danglies that never dangled in Tai, were searched for, recovered and removed.  A 3 inch incision on his belly is healing nicely and HE is trying to tell me that he is good to go for a romp.  Just a couple more days to get to the magic 10 days post surgery.   That timing will put us in Lexington where the AKC Nationals will be held later this week. Virginia Horse Center – with it’s beautiful open grassy fields will be a nice setting for Tai’s first run since surgery.  Hope we beat the crowds so it can happen.   Here’s a picture of Tai at that site in February.

This break along with a Foundation Day seminar with Nancy Gyes and the ramp up to Susan Garrett’s Recaller 2.0 course has also given me some things to think about and plan for in our training.  Priorities include: Games to improve his toy retrieve and drive back into me including tons of retrained recalls (hope my husband is ready).  Revisiting and ramping up our crate game to an even higher level – which then become a tool to create that drive back to me; or to obstacles.  More deliberate “it’s your choice” distraction training to build his self-control around motion.  The notebook is set up and I’ll be record keeping on these items.

Some of you might be wondering why I haven’t mentioned training jumping, weaves or contacts.  That’s on the agenda of course and I have record keeping started for those too!  But that training is vastly helped by having a dog that is 100% engaged in his work,  and who has a well established reward system (e.g. drive to toy reward and bring right back to Mom for a great tug game).  Without those, the training goes slower and it can be frustrating.

Oh…in a few days Tai is officially old enough to begin trialing in AKC.  The thought makes me laugh but give us a few months and it will all come together.  That thought makes me smile.  Meanwhile, here’s to good training and here’s to reaping the rewards with fun and successful runs with Breeze at Nationals!

I’ve been in “another world” for the last 10 days here in northeast Florida.   No snow; no bundling up to go outside; plenty of sunshine and instead of cleaning up muddy paws, I’ve been sweeping sandy floors.    It’s been a heavenly change.

Tai has enjoyed his beach running but honestly, he seemed just as happy running in the snow.   Dogs are so adaptable and really very easy to please with some exercise of the body and mind.  A simple walk/run engages the dog’s “seeking” mechanism.  And in a new place, that is magnified…as they check out all the different smells of beach sand, seashells, jelly fish, starfish, seaweed and on and on.  And sometimes making new friends adds even more joy.

Exploring a marine and sub-tropical environment feeds my seeking need too.  With a training in biology and ecology, I love learning about and seeing first hand different ecosystems.  Water, water everywhere here in Florida…the salty ocean, the estuaries, the freshwater rivers fed by aquifers.    To native Floridians, seeing dolphins, manatees and alligators is everyday fare but for a traveler like me…it makes me smile and lifts my spirits.  And I swear the alert “look” in the eyes of the Sandhill Crane I had close-up in my binoculars yesterday reminded me of Tai!

If you are reading this blog, you are probably a dog lover and likely share my fascination with observing and interacting with the “other species” we live with.  That’s one reason why teaching young dogs (and old dogs too) is so much fun.  I had a chance to observe dolphin trainers last week…lots of joy there too!

Teaching Tai his 2×2 weaves has been a blast on this trip. The method (thanks Susan Garrett) makes so much sense and is so flexible…I just love it.  When we arrived here in Florida, Tai had value for the poles, knew his entries on 2 poles and was ready to go to 4 poles.  With a bunch of short little sessions sprinkled in between our sightseeing and hiking, Tai was shortly weaving 4 straight poles and nailing amazing entries.  Today we went to 6 poles.  He’s a weavin’ border collie!

Of course, he’s made some mistakes along the way but when that happens the “how to learn” process that started at 7 weeks kicks in…. he keeps trying and figures it out.   For me, that is the fun of dog training.  I present a challenge, he tries it, gets rewarded or doesn’t and tries again.  I observe his behavior…and react (hopefully) appropriately with a new challenge.  A little frustration is ok…hey, I didn’t learn ride a bike without some frustration along the way.  Or if we’ve gone too far too fast…make it a little easier. It’s an art that is based in science.  I’m grateful my dogs let me explore that world with them.

We’ll be heading back up north in a couple of days but with spring right around the corner, all is good and who knows,  maybe someday very soon Tai can try out his new weaving skills on the grass in my backyard!