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.

So that’s the preamble…

Lately I’ve been working on Lilli’s contacts.  Not much honestly – I’ve pretty much sold out on aility lately since Lilli started vaulting – it’s just so stinkin’ fun!    Anyway, we originally trained contacts as two-on-two-off with nose touch.  She would do it, but we had to encourage and remind her to come ALL THE WAY DOWN the contact equipment and Holy Moley did that take forever.  For such a ridiculously fast dog, her contacts move in reverse.   Today I had a brilliant idea…I heard music and saw Angels and the image in my mind became clear…the tasty, juicy, irresistable roast as the reward at the end of the obstacle…it was a FRISBEE!

I took Lilli out as I normally would, with a disc in hand (only one this time) and she fully expected us to play disc.  I pulled out the teeter and put it in the middle of the yard with no other equipment.  I set her up and asked her to teeter.  Now at this point, I didn’t say “touch” or “com’on’” or “all the way” or any of the “helping” I would normally offer to get her to do a proper contact.  (Susan Garrett suggested this as a bandaid for her contacts from how I trained them initially – with a plastic lid to a salad dressing.  If the lid wasn’t there – she wouldn’t target.)

Man, was she confused.  She went 3/4 of the way down and started offering behaviours.  Had no idea what I wanted but she sure wanted that frisbee.  She sat on the teeter, laid down, bowed, stared intently…finally after about 2 minutes she took a small step down…then another…then another…until she had one paw on the grass.  The I looked at her and said nothing (before this I didn’t give her any eye contact or stare down).  She slowly put another foot in the grass.  Then 30 seconds or so later she nose touched.  I said a big YES and released her and threw the disc.

We repeated this about 5 times.  I only rewarded average or better performances – another great Susan method – a couple times she went slower than the time before – and finally when she had the nicest, smoothest trip down the teeter, two on and two off and nose touch I ended the practice.  Tossed the disc several times and she went for a swim.

And I took a deep breath of relief.

Finally…the light went on a bit.  She’s learning to think instead of waiting for me to tell her everything.  Finally.

We’ll continue to practice this “disc reward” strategy for agility and see if it keeps the stakes really high for her.  There is no reward as juicy and irresistable for Lilli as her disc.  I’m so proud of  how she took on our new game today with control, curiosity and concentration.  She’s such a spectacular girl. 

Other than the trial we have signed up for I don’t expect Lilli to be in another agility event for months.  Our thinking is we would like to avoid reinforcing mistakes due to handling.  We’ll get the handling straightened out, work on foundation skills with clear criteria, and have a ton of fun.

We’ll update some specific changes and results in our training.  We’re learning as we go and enjoying the challenge.

Jason and I had a conversation today about the trial this past weekend.  I have really high expectations.  I expect to Q every time and do it in style.  Sometimes being that ambitious gets me fantastic results.  Other times it gives me an opportunity be hard on myself.  You say…“You got 3 out of 4 Q’s in your first trial…you should be stoked!”.

We did well this past weekend.  And looking back I got to see that what I was about this weekend was winning.  Not being great.  I’m not sure how to explain the distinction other than to go back to what Susan Garrett said on her blog about the lady that won first place but didn’t meet her criteria in her run or the post that really stuck with me about her own trialing experiences with her dogs.  She said that someone came up to her and asked her why she did so poorly in these trials. 

Susan responded saying that’s exactly what they were – trials.  They are practice for the big, important runs.  She could handle the dog along the course in a way that she’s absolutely sure they’ll take the right obstacle, OR she could handle a new, creative, interesting or tricky way to challenge the dog.  Maybe the dog won’t respond perfectly or Q – AND opportunity is created to learn something new!

That – to me – is being great.  And great isn’t the same as winning.  In fact, sometimes not winning is great.    If I had Q’d all for of my runs this weekend, my ego-bubble wouldnt’ have been burst and I wouldn’t have crashed back down to Earth.  I would have gone to run-throughs tonight with the big ol’ ego taped to my forehead and I wouldn’t have “gotten” anything new.  By failing, I went tonight with a whole new view of what Lilli and I were up to creating.

We qualified for the standard run with a 90 and finished 2nd.  I was amazed.  I thought for sure we didn’t qualify.  On the jumpers run, I thought we did a lot better – although I had the same issue on the weaves. I was really pleased with our finish.  However – we didn’t qualify becasue of a knocked bar on the 2nd jump.

I debated a lot over that lead out.  I could have handled it from the inside and it would have left me on the outside of course onside the weaves.  That’s fine, but I’d have to run all the way around the wide side for the next several jumps.  So instead, I decided to lead out on the first two jumps and do a front cross onto the 3rd jump.  That plan seemed great – until I pulled off the front cross early and she didn’t take the 2nd jump.  It was all jumbo from there.  I expected that she’d take the rest of the jumps that we missed no problem.  I’m not sure what happened later in the run.

Anyway – here are both runs.  Overall a mess – I was really disappointed in my handling.  Great learning experience.  I think the second run was an improvement over the first even though we didn’t Q.  I got to practice and experience moving past a bad first run and starting over fresh.

This is the Novice Standard Run.  We qualified with a 90 and placed second.

This is the Novice Jumpers with Weaves Run.  We didn’t qualify because of the knocked bar on the 2nd jump.

Here are our first 2 runs ever.  I’m really surprised how much leeway is given in Novice.  You can make mistakes and still qualify.  I thought for sure we had blown it in each of these runs, but it turns out we took first and scored 95 in each.  That’s just crazy.

Anyway here you go.  Please feel free to pull it apart.    Suggestions and laughter are welcome!

This is the Novice Standard run.

This is the Novice Jumpers with Weaves run.

Last week, Susan wrote on her blog about C=Continually, R= Rewarding, A=Ambiguous, P=Performances.  Since this was our first trial, there’s not a whole lot of “continually” going on, but that’s not the point.

I remember a couple months ago Susan wrote about a student of hers that sent her a video of a 1st place showing at a trial.  The student was so proud of the victory…AND Susan was there the burst the bubble.  Now personally, I believe that bubble bursting is great.  It’s messy and gross and ugly sometimes, and it’s where you find all the good stuff that makes you extraordinary.  Otherwise, we’d all just keep doing the same stuff over and over, and never care to look at why or how or what else is possible.  Also, bubble bursting isn’t always popular.  So it takes a certain love and commitment to burst someone’s bubble. 

What I got from what Susan said, that I carried with me this weekend, was it didn’t matter that she won.  It mattered what really happened on the course.  Did the dog hit her contacts?  Did she handle the way we’ve been practicing?  Did I settle on my criteria??

This weekend, in 4 runs, Lilli took 3 Q’s, 2 Firsts and 1 Second.  AND, more than anything, I saw how much work I have to do.  It’s not like I have to do the work, but I’m up to Lilli being a MACH dog and getting her Novice STD and JWW titles in 2 weekends.  I have 2 legs of STD and 1 leg of JWW.  One more weekend to go.

In another post, I’ll write about the stuff I learned this weekend specifically.  This post is about crap. Crap because we’ve been practicing for a year straight now, and I still missed simple obstacles with handling errors.  Crap because she’ll run 12 poles in practice no problem but had issue with all four of the 6-pole sets this weekend – and they were easy entries.  CRAP because we’ve been working contacts intensely – 2o2o w/nose touch – and she ran off 50% of obstacles this weekend without a stop.  On all the others, I had her stop extra long and give multiple nose touches.  I give myself a little pat for that. 

We Q’d.  For most, that’s a reason to celebrate.  For me – it’s crap.  It matters that I hold her for those nose touches.  I don’t care about the time so much.  I want her to stop – expect her to stop.  I want to see it each time without fail. I want to win, beat everyone else by a mile and look fantastic doing it.  I’m competitive.  Lilli is a very talented dog.  And I want it now!

So that’s the big lesson for me.  Perfection doesn’t just show up.  There’s a difference between a) running a course on run-through nights when you can go back and work a problem area again until you nail it and b) walking out onto a fresh course (novice or not) and having a clean, fast run.  There is a gap there.  And I’ve got work to do to close it.

Like a good student, all runs are recorded.  So we”ll review them over and over (and share them here on the blog so you all can see us) – like Tiger does, like Jordan did – maybe he still does…  These past 2 weekends, we got lots of awards and acknowledgment.  Ribbons, medals and even bidding to have litters with our dog. At the end of the day, I realized how far off I am from where I thought I was.

So back to work for us.  I’m generally not a “final thought” person.  This time though, I’ll end with something like that.  None of what we did this weekend in that trial had anything to do with Lilli’s anything.  She knows her stuff just fine.  It was all me – my nerves, changes from my usual body posture, my speed, energy, everything.  Jason said it earlier today and I think he’s right; Getting that it’s all me, that’s where being extraordinary comes from – that’s how I get to the next level, and the next.

So here are a few things that I learned this weekend – first hand experience with agility trials.

10. 6 month cut off – Only a couple people mentioned it to us…(and none of them mattered because they weren’t the judge) but no dogs under 6 months old are allowed.  Leilani was there – she just turned 10 weeks, so just a little under 6 months…

9.  Lots of leeway in Novice - Man, there is a lot of leeway in Novice.  You can jump over the wrong jump, go through the wrong end of the tunnel, then reset and go back on course and it’s only a 5 point fault!  Don’t know who did that this weekend…

8.  Meeting before the start - Not really shocking, but cool to know.  The judge meets with the handlers before each run and goes over the rules and answers any questions. 

7.  Don’t line up too early - Several people this weekend that we were chatting with shared that we shouldn’t line up for our run too early.  There is a lot of tension in the starting area, barking and people riling up their dogs in preparation.  Wait until you see your buddy set up (see Pick a Buddy below) and then head into line about 5 minutes before your run.

6.  Pick a buddy - We ran next to the same dogs/handlers both days this weekend.  So while I was waiting to run, we chatted and I said that I’d keep an eye out for her when she went up to line up that way I knew I was coming up soon.  We ended up chatting all weekend and “being buddies” the next day too.  Turns out we were also competing for 1st and 2nd spots all weekend too. 

5.  Take Videos - If you have a friend or partner with you, ask them to video each of your runs.  It’s amazing to look back at what “actually happened” versus “what I think happened” in each run.  I can go back slowly and over and over and see exactly what happened in each problem area.  We use the Flip Mino Series Camcorder as an inexpensive and really portable option.

4.  85 is Q – You need 85 points to Qualify in AKC Novice.  This article is really simply written and explains the differences between AKC and USDAA points and qualifications.  I definitely need to read it a few more times!

3.  Weaves are freebies – This detail is covered in the above article but it’s a super cool point to know so it deserves its own number in the countdown.  You don’t get marked off for missing or messing up on your weave attempts.  As long as you complete them, there is no penalty.  You just lose time from having to do them over and over, and over…(wonder who had to do that this weekend…)

2.  Don’t stick both stickers…- When you check in to a 2 day trial, or a 3 or 4 day trial for that matter, each day that you’re registered for runs, you get a sticker to put on with your number on it.  Don’t stick all the stickers to yourself the same day.  I know that sounds funny, but really.  I saw 2 stickers and put one on my hat and one on my pants thinking that – Wow I just got an extra one… – yah, no.  Thankfully I could just wear the same hat on Sunday!

1.  Knocked Bars are auto NQ – On our last run, the Novice JWW, we knocked the second jump bar.  Someone came and told us that knocking a bar was an automatic no qualify.  I had no idea.  I also didn’t find this on the above article, but a couple blogs referenced this rule.  If anyone has something more “official” or any more detail on this, please post it in the comments, I’d love to read it!  I chose this one as the #1 thing to know this weekend since it was the only reason I didn’t get 2 double Q’s this weekend and run the tables – even though it was C.R.A.P.

If anyone has any more cool rules or tips the newbies could use, please share!  I’ll read over them and make a new list of the best tips.  Lilli and I had a blast this weekend – Jason mostly avoided being bored out of his mind.    I look forward to our next trial in a few weeks.  Hopefully we’ll be a little more seasoned and prepared by then…

First of all, I’m very grateful at how generous everyone we’ve met has been.  Our agility trainer, Kristin Spillane, was there and stopped to hang out with us for a while.  We saw several of our new agility friends from the OTCPBC and had the opportunity to watch several of them run.  Even though we are newbies to their crowd, they have all been very welcoming and friendly.

My experience today reminded me of my first Ultimate Frisbee tournament.  Everything looked new, the crowd was laid back and people had cool setups for their stuff – which instantly made me want to get a cool dog pen and an RV and camp out for the weekend.    Another thing I learned was that all different levels, ages, sizes and breeds go and play.  Some people ran perfectly and others couldn’t connect with their dogs and all went downhill on the course.  It reminded me that agility is all about connection.  Connection and focus with my dog.  My mindset carries on to her – my nerves or frustration or relaxation and fun.

We’ll take some video of the trial later this weekend and post it. We plan to go back sometime this weekend to get Lilli measured for her first trial. I feel like we’re finally ready.

Lilli was a dream today – very friendly and patient all day around tons of dogs running the courses and having to watch from the bleachers.  I’m thankful for all of the help and advice and encouragement we’ve gotten over the past year.  Agility really is a great sport.

We always imagined Lilli as a fantastic competition disc dog and thought of agility as a way to enforce obedience and a great alternate form of exercise.  Agility has become so much more than just bubble gum (something to chew on) for us over the past several months.

We just met a great agility group in West Palm Beach and wow, what a fantastic environment!  What I appreciate most is the feedback from teams of all different levels. We have some things to “un-break” – like contacts.

We never took the time to learn and enforce “2 on and 2 off”, which is an essential contact element on most obstacles.  We practiced and nailed “target” no problem, BUT we never enforced it on obstacles – rather let Lilli run through them. Result: Maybe we hit our contacts, maybe we miss all of them…

2 on and 1 off means just that, the dog needs to pause, nose touch, wait for release word, whatever behaviour you want to enforce, with 2 back paws on the yellow portion of the obstacle and 2 front paws in the grass – off the obstacles. You want your dog to do this each and every time – without question.

So how will we “un-break” the “broken” behavior of Lilli running through all of her contacts? We’re using a step and a board – essentially creating our own ramp – and have her jump up and pause, nose touch, and wait for release with 2 on and 2 off.  And treat and clicker the behavior.  Then move further up the ramp and further away until we can lead her up the A-frame, dog walk, teeter, etc. and she stops at the end and does 2 on and 2 off.

Agility Products

We’ll work on this over the holidays and do some videos of our progress.