Let’s start with a  few bullets:

• Jack and Kat Fahle are very cool.
• Laura Moretz from New Charlotte has mad skillz
• Watch out for Clay Farmer – he is coming fast!
• I did not take any pictures.

This weekend we met Tracy Custer who as Andrea said” Is even cooler than I hoped.”   She was so friendly and encouraging and talented. Watching her dominate the event with grace and a smile and her maniac pack was inspiring and humbling.  You could not tell if she was working or playing because she made it all look so fun and easy.  Tracy commented on my post on routine flow and it was brought to life this weekend watching her and Mark work with their dogs.

We also met Preston Dean and Mark Muir.  Mark is a big kid with great skill and imagination with his dogs.  We were wide eyed watching his freestyle.  Preston is a whirl of elbows and knees who was so fluid and has such control of the disc. They were both a joy to watch.

Watching these and other top level players at the event helped Andrea and I get a sense of where we stand and where we want to be. We are in the middle stage where we both have talented dogs and a moderate understanding of the rules of the game.  Now with more experience and continued work we seek the mastery exhibited by the great players we saw like Mark and Tracy. This weekend was another reminder to be patient, to have fun, to keep learning, seeking, growing.

When we started discdogblog.com we wanted it to be a resource for new(er) teams just getting started in the sport. Over the weekend at least a half dozen people mentioned our blog and how they appreciated the content, learned from the videos, etc.  It was great to know we are contributing something to the sport we love.  And it inspires us to generate even more resources for teams learning and growing like us.

Speaking of learning and growing, Andrea and I noticed that the handlers who were getting coaching from top players seemed to be advancing faster than us.   True or not, it really makes us wish we had someone we could meet with regularly to develop our game.  We don’t have a plan to make it happen yet, but we are open to ideas and suggestions.

Andrea and I identified who we want to be as “dog people”.  We want to train high drive dogs to play disc.  We will rescue and/or foster high drive dogs whenever we can.   Most we will proudly re-home and occasionally we will keep a few of the maniacs.

There were competitive people and not so competitive people at the event. Some people were very intense others were relaxed.  There was a lot of rain. Personally I had a great time and was blessed and humbled.  I love my dogs, I love this life with my wife, and I really look forward to growing new skills and great friendships as a disc dogger.

The DragonDogs-

We fostered a smooth coat BC in MAY. Her name is Flyer. We expected a high drive wild dog. Turns out flyer is more of a cuddler so far.  She is certainly athletic but spends most of her time sleeping. We have not yet seen her chase anything.  Andrea is doing some shaping with Flyer and I am doing lots of loving as Flyer is tentative around men.  Flyer gets a lot of crate time as we hope to bottle up some drive and unleash it in small bursts of training.

Lilli was fixed.  A hard choice really but we feel that there are so many dogs in shelters that we would rather rescue than raise more puppies.  She recovered well and is back playing hard with me.  Lilli is so cool. She really lights up when I intriduce new games to her.

Leila has shown a lot more desire for the disc in May.  She seems to be more of a shaping and potential agility dog and remains an absolute ball of joy and play.

Moxie is the most driven and athletic dog we have.  She is non stop, fearless and has moments as a great pet too. She learned the Japanese dog catch in May.

Kai has been great in practices and training and has improved a ton at events. Her focus has increased and she looks so great in the air.

Sasha came back to us in May and after just her second week was tugging and by her third week was snagging discs out of the air.

The transition of a new dog into the pack always brings some challenges or surprises. Sasha helps balance our pack.  She is 8, much older and bigger than the other dogs.  She had a few accidents the first few weeks but then settled in nicely as she started to fall into a new pattern of work, play and feeding with us.

June will be a busy month, I’ll be posting the June preview soon.

Fancy Footwork

Turns out it was very easy. Especially as a third party observer. Much more challenging to have a clear a view of flow from inside of it.  And I have zero flow with Moxie. She is way over my head. Watching Andrea and Moxie I could see the simplicity of positioning and purposeful movement that would lead to a synchronized effort.   Linking tricks is cool yet it is the mechanics and footwork between tricks at the heart of flow.

An Eye for Tendencies

Understanding the tendencies and strengths of our dogs makes a big difference.   With Kai I payed attention to her preferences and considered how I might enhance our flow.  Kai is much more dynamic when I throw her a flip with my left hand, and she needs to be exactly in line with me.  From the flip she is perfectly lined up for an inverted side vault. A non inverted side vault would take a step longer to set up.  Upon landing from the inverted Kai turns back and lines up perfectly and in time for a leg vault.  This sequence requires minimal adjustment or setup. It matches Kai’s natural movements to create smooth transitions as she exits each trick.

Agility Crossover

Lilli knows the most tricks. She is comfortable in any direction.  Her agility training and experience gives her a greater variety of moves and understanding of movement.  I think agility is great cross training for disc dogs and handlers. Ron Watson likes to reference front and rear crosses in his disc dog seminars.   There is also the hand movement, pressure and other techniques used in agility to move the dog through the course. This relationship can translate into more dynamic movement in a disc routine.

Disc Skills

Nothing kills flow like a poor throw. And 2 bad throws in a row is really silly.  Not directed at noobies and rookies.  Anyone who has spent some time in the sport should have a firm grasp on mechanics and throwing with intention.  It’s best for the dogs, flow and spectators I find myself being lazy when I practice and my dogs suffer the consequences with those sliders that jam them up, sloppy vault tosses, etc.

Practicing ( throwing ) with intention is better for me and my dogs.

In competition I am more focused and my throws are sharp. How when and where I place the disc is key for flow.  Moxie is wicked fast and it is easy to be late presenting the disc for an over.  Lilli prefers to jump off to the right on a back vault so I need to consider that when I place the disc or my head will pay the price.   Moxie likes to jump vertically, Lilli prefers more of an out, Kai likes them high and outside.  My biggest challenge is timing and placement on vaults.  I am often low and late.  When I play with my different dogs or new dogs, I watch how high I can throw the disc on an out to improve the chances of a reception.  Some dogs have more of a vertical leap than others.  And what pace do I need to put on the disc based on the tendencies of the dog and its speed.  Lilli is very good at reading discs but like most dogs her weakness is a straight up jump on a slow over head disc. She looks much smoother when the disc is at the right place at the right pace.

We would do a great service for our dogs if we all take more responsibility for proper throws.

Attitude

Moxie is about pursue and kill, Lilli about possession, and Kai is about the chase. Leila wants to please I think.  Knowing their attitude and behavior helps me create games and set up movement that works for them. Moxie will chase the disc anywhere no matter what.  Lilli is a bit more thoughtful.  Kai just wants to run after it and jump up for it cuz thats what she likes to do.  So it works out to keep Moxie moving or she will get antsy.  Lilli enjoys the whole process of obtaining the disc so the pace is less frenetic.  And of course there is the handlers attitude.  A bad attitude is surely a flow killer. Let’s take a note from performers and just smile like nothing happened when mistakes occur. A bad attitude kills it for everyone, including the dog, the spectators and little bunnies.

Anyway, that’s enough blabbering about Flow.  Just keep an eye out for it. never stop looking for it.  And appreciate it whenever you find it.

Lilli is 3 yrs old. We have had her since she was 4 months old I think.  Andrea got her specifically for the purpose of being my disc fetching dog.  Freestyle and agility were not really in the plans at that point.  We started at ground zero as it pertains to training dogs.  In some ways that was awesome because we were a blank slate.  At times it was overwhelming as there are a variety of styles and strategies from old school discipline to new school positive training, mirror training and pack leader strategies.   We had one dog and that one dog got basic obedience training in the kitchen.  We were thrilled at the success of sit, down, stay.  Lilli was great at learning basic commands.  A few months later we took an official obedience course with a local trainer.  She fired us up to train for agility, which Lilli loved.  Then we felt like freestyle would be the next obvious step for Lilli who had really showed a passion for disc play.   We met again with a local superstar disc dogger who gave us some basic steps.  We were thrilled with the progress.  But one dog and two eager handlers was not enough so we opted for a second dog.

Leila , our red merle, arrived in a plane from Michigan.  Cuter than any puppy I had ever seen.  She was a princess, bred for confirmation, we were sure (ok- hopeful) she would work out as a disc dog with such fine lines and breeding.  We left a few weeks later, flying all the way to Canada for a puppy camp with Susan Garrett.  And it really changed everything for us.  What Susan teaches is like dog training college.  Truthfully we felt behind the curve on just the first day.    We came home with a renewed energy and deeper understanding of the mechanics of training.  Crate games by Susan Garrett for sure has been the difference maker in having our high energy dogs become great house pets.   It wasn’t long though before we felt more lost than found.  Unknown to us we had misunderstood any number of suggestions and tips given to us by Susan.  Our enthusiasm and energy waned because we saw minimal success (really we were just expecting too much- going too fast)

Our First Biggest Mistake

We thought Lilli should teach Leila how to be a proper dog.   Leila is an awesome student when it is time for training. Probably the best in our pack of four.  She is also the worst.  By letting Lilli and leila romp through her early months, Leila bonded with Lilli way more than us.  And now Leila is such a dog’s dog that we can not be assured of her recalls in doggy situations. (more about this later)

Lesson #1    Bond with your dog (puppy or new dog) and establish a solid recall before allowing unsupervised free play.

Susan calls it second dog syndrome. Seems people get an awesome dog and sort of expect the same results with the 2nd.  But novices like us had  no idea the impact of a second dog.  The dynamics change in ways difficult to see with human eyes. And we were dog dumb. We didn’t know enough about packs or dog behavior.  I think it was Ron Watson (maybe Susan) who told us that dogs let loose on their own find all sorts of reinforcement from their environment.  Reinforcement away from us creates unwanted (does not always mean bad) behaviors.  Like Lilli chasing Leila created a Lilli who bites heels and a Leila who wants to be chased by every dog she sees.  And for some reason Leila is the most inappropriate dog I have seen.  She playfully jumps on every dog she sees and one day…that might not go so well.  A dream for us would be to have leila spend time with an experienced pack so she can learn appropriate pack manners.

Lesson #2      Reduce free play/free roaming of young dogs to avoid unwanted reinforced behaviors. This also makes training sessions more valuable.

Ok so Leila was too young and developing really slow and we decided we wanted an older dog we could start playing with right away.  We were warned.  We didn’t listen.  

LET ME SAY RIGHT HERE – there is nothing wrong with anything we did or anything you do.  Dogs can be dogs and however it works for you and your dogs is fine.  As it pertains to having (in our opinion) properly trained dogs these are the issues we have and are experiencing and choose to address for our pack.

We got Kai, a beautiful black bi with brindling aussie.  We didn’t know any better. I am certain if we were to do it over again with what we know now we would not have taken Kai bear.  Not because she isn’t wonderful, but because we realize we want disc maniacs.  Like Moxie and Lilli.  We were not great judges of drive and mostly because of my soft heart we made Kai part of our pack.  At the time Kai would barely even look at a disc.  (She is now a talented disc dog)

So a week later we were heading north to see Susan again. But before Canada we would stay a few weeks in MI with Ron and Apryl of Pawsitive Vybe.  This was like mind blowing canine disc training for us.  What we learned there took us from the backyard and into competitions with all four of our dogs.  We can not wait for another week at Pawsitive Vybe and I will explain why in a bit. First you should know we left MI and continued to Susan’s Camp. Intermediate training!  We focused on Leila and Lilli and mostly left Kai in the borrowed camper(thanks Lynda).   And it was like being there for the first time.  I mean she said a lot of the same stuff and it was like we were hearing it for the first time. The light bulb came on there. That’s why going to Ron’s camp again will be so valuable. It’s like these guru’s impart the basic ideas the first time and then the second time you hear it you have the foundation to begin to really practice the principles.  My friend Andy Steed used to say we are different people every moment and so a story told over and over is experienced differently in each telling. We were different people attending camp the second time and left much better equipped.

Lesson # 3.  Learn everything at least twice.  Come back in 6 months and Learn it Again.

Now we have a fourth dog. And for me, three of the most important lessons come here.  Moxie is an absolute maniac. She is fast and furious, a cattle dog is not an aussie.  That’s not one of the lessons though.  Moxie is Andrea’s dog. And she is working with Leila as well.  Lilli and Kai are my dogs.   Kai has become a frisbee fan. She LOVES to vault and she loves to chase discs.  She still has a weak bite and not nearly the intensity of Lilli or Moxie.  Leila at 16months old is just starting to catch long discs.  She seems like she needs a few more months to grow up yet.  Moxie came into the world a frizbeast and Lilli has a very long trick list and here start the final lessons.

Lesson #4   Focus on Fun when training for competitions.

Last month I got caught up in trying to compete.  It’s a normal human reaction.  I went to the first few for fun, did well, and then felt like I needed to keep doing well.  I started to feel pressure to do things right and found myself not having fun in practice.  After a few weeks of being frustrated and delivering poor throws (poor dogs) I sat down and thought it through.  Having fun was way more important than competing.  So the next week I just went out and played and it was the most fun I had in a while.  It inspired me to edit the routines I had created for Lilli. Instead of trying to jam in all the cool tricks she could do, I narrowed it down to the ones she and I do very well and have fun with.  I’m going to sneak in a tip here about competing  in disc events.  Practice like you are competing to get a real feel for the status of your routine.  Go to a strange field, play music and have someone time it.

Back to Moxie and on to the next lesson.

Lesson #5  Don’t settle and don’t settle for unwanted behaviors.

Moxie has a horrible shriek.  Andrea and I both hate it.  Susan says barking is a low cost behavior for dogs. Super easy to for them to do. No work at all.  It’s the one behavior that really brought up this topic for me.  The things our dogs do well are the things we hold strict criteria for.  The unwanted behaviors are things we have not yet chosen to address.   Our dogs sit at the door because we hold that as a strict criteria.  Lilli will bite at Leila’s heels when they are playing together because we have not yet addressed it.   All the dogs will go to their crate when asked because we maintain that rule.  Leila will not recall 100% if there are other dogs present because we have not yet trained the wanted behavior.  We get what we train and we get what we don’t train.  A dogs behavior is absolutely a reflection of the trainer.  And repeated behaviors are naturally reinforced.  This is a reminder for me that I am responsible for my dogs behavior.   I can’t really ask or expect from them anything I have not taught them.  Once they know the behavior I do expect it from them.  If I don’t, they won’t.

What are the costs.

The cost of not training. The costs can’t all be measured and thankfully many will never be realized.  There are horror stories and funny stories.  Lilli use to chase ducks into the middle of ponds.  We stopped that.  We lived in fear until we did because Lilli could not swim at the time.   I would be swimming to the middle of some nasty body of water to rescue my doggie paddling dog. Leila might one day meet a dog with no patience and big teeth.  We are always yelling at Moxie to shut up.  Using her name in vain, because we have not yet trained her to shut up.  This will likely confuse or water down the power of the recall.  Lazy is what that is.  I speak for myself of course.  Yes we are busy, busier than ever!  Our business and our dogs has reached an all new demand.  And plenty of people say just let your dogs be dogs and that’s fine. We do. They are dogs.  And we are responsible for their training and their safety in a world of cars, wild environments and untrained dogs.

The next step for Andrea and I is to take a look at the unwanted behaviors and decide what we will address and how.  And any behaviors we don’t address are the ones we choose to live with. We’ll do this with a  consideration for the costs of allowing certain behaviors to continue.  What will that look like over time after years of reinforcement?

And Finally Lesson #6   Rescue a Dog

Leila was our first and last puppy.  We will be getting Lilli (this week) and Leila fixed. Kai and Moxie already are. The world does not need more dogs (you know what I mean). There are millions of abandoned super stars, cuddle monsters, and abused pups in shelters all over the country.  In time we will get more dogs and they will all be rescues.

So at the heart of all this is being responsible for our dogs.  We have learned so much from our pack.  We were in over our heads and maybe we still are.  But we love our dogs and they seem pretty happy too.  We will continue to learn from the great friends we have who are enthusiasts or gurus who love to share their knowledge.  And we will make time to teach and share what we know with others.  We’ll be back to see Susan and Ron this summer I am sure.  Sorry this one rambled on a bit and I hope the post helps some other up and coming dog lovers in their dog training adventures.

Since this is our first season with an agility/disc pup, we’re experiencing all of this for the first time.  We thought we’d share some of the resources and info we’ve come upon recently…

Video of the Top Agility Dogs in the WORLD – AWESOME!

Some handling diagrams and ideas

Lilli’s done a great job with both her front and rear crosses.  We start a new advanced agility course on Oct. 8 with Kristin Spillane.  This week I also chatted with Lilli’s breeder for a while and she suggested a great place to practice and get some other training in agility, obedience and tracking.

It’s at the South Florida Fairgrounds – and you can get an annual membership and practice on any of their equipment for the whole year for a low fee.  Check it out here.

That’s all for now.  We’re going to check out some of these new classes and spots to practice, take some new videos and post them.