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. 

It started with contacts – Lilli needed to learn 2 on and 2 off in preparation for her first agility trial in February.  I’ll post a separate article about our progress with target training.  Once she got that down, we needed some other stuff to work on.  I began to touch on some behaviors I had started training a year ago when we were focusing on obedience and beginner disc dog skills.

To help me to remember what we’re working on and to track our progress, these are the behaviors we are focusing on now.

• belly – basically a play dead and wait for release
• over – roll over
• “quiet” down – Aussies tend to bark a lot so we’re working on only quiet downs
• stand & around – Lilli has her stand on back legs down pat so now we’ve added turns
• left – turning to the left – helpful in agility handling and for freestyle – working on only verbal cues
• right – turning to the right – we’re just beginning this side so still using hand cues
• tidy up – started tonight – she brings her toy and puts it in her toy basket – not sure of the value
• touch – 2 on 2 off w nose touch – we’ve moved from the step to the treadmill – nice progress

I appreciate training a bunch of fun behaviors instead of just one.  Susan Garrett mentions on her blog that training (specifically referencing 2×2 weave pole training) should only be a few minutes at a time, then moving on to a new activity.  Agility has helped to fine tune this process by proofing.  You work on the behavior, get a great result and leave it alone.  Come back to it the next day or in a week, and it’s amazing how well the dog remembers and how the skill has developed while they’ve been “thiking about it”.

So we work on something, then move to something else, then back, always moving from more difficult or new behaviors to more “fun” behaviors that give the dog success and reward.

All this to train 2 on and 2 off.  Which by the way, is going beautifully.  I’m very impressed with her progress.  And we’ve trained it all in a relatively small space in our living room – no large field or rental facility required. 

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 started Lilli in basic obedience training when she was about 8 months old.  We learned sit/stays, heals, come to sides, down/stays, recalls and how to walk around the little orange cones in a figure 8.  Lilli thought obedience needed a lot more running.  She learned quickly so we could move on to advanced obedience (conformation training) where we learned off lead and then on to where it really got fun…basic agility.

The obedience classes were required before agility and we certainly needed the setups and sit/stays!  In beginner agility, we learned the Wobble board, Dog Walk, the Plank, Table, Jump, Tire, Tunnel, Chute and Lilli’s favorite to this day, A-Frame.  Agility was a great way to expend energy and keep her mind active. Essentially, it was a huge playground for her.  She was fearless and nailed every element.  She was ready for advanced agility.

The major differences between basic and advanced are the combinations of equipment and added distractions – and we were also introduced to the weave poles and teeter.  In the last 4 sessions, we learned front crosses and rear crosses, 270 turns, and tons of jumping combinations.

What I learned most of all is that agility, like disc dogging, has a LOT to do with the handler.  When I’m relaxed, she’s relaxed.  It all depends on how and where I step,  my pace, and having some idea of where I’m headed next.  Walking the courses first helped a lot.  Handling an aussie like Lilli can be challenging because she’s so FAST. Most of the time, she was on to something else before I got there so leading out and giving the next obstacle command quickly was very important.

It helped to have someone there with me when I was training to see things in my body movement that I wasn’t aware of.  Kristin helped Lilli to nail closed weave poles tonight for the first time by simply standing in the spot where she was breaking.  She went all the way through several times before adding a jump before the poles – and she nailed it!

Tonight, we graduated advanced agility.  Now we are on to proofing and mastering the more advanced details.  Lilli took this class with a springer spaniel, so you don’t need a herding or agility breed to play agility.  Anyone can do it – and it’s such a fantastic bonding opportunity for you and your dog!  Next training session, we’ll bring our Flip video so everyone can see Lilli fly.