Iggy's First K9 cup

Wow we had a spectacular day.  It's was hot but breezy so very comfortable to sit under the tent and even though it was 28 degrees it really didn't feel bad to run in.  Yesterday I was really not feeling K9 Cup.  I knew Iggy wasn't ready because he didn't have his contacts and I just didn't feel like spending a very hot day doing agility.  I am so glad I did.

Iggy rocked the courses.  We played around with starting to develop a warm up before going in the ring.  He  never got distracted, he was with me and working even through some bobbles.  Lots of stuff to work on; he missed the first weave entry because I miss handled it, he had never seen a chute that looked like that and has honestly not had a lot of chute work, and I would like to see an improvement on speed.  Other than that he made me so proud and so happy with what we accomplished.

Such A Long Way

Every year a friend of mine asks me to speak to her Vet Tech students about training.  This was my third year doing this and Iggy has come with me every time.  It's fun to see how improved he is.  He still loves all the attention and goes and visits but comes when he is called and still manages to work even with everyone crowding around.

We even had failure and didn't fall apart.  I called him and he came looked at me and left to go visit again, I didn't feel he had met the criteria of coming to me so I went and got him and put him on his chair (I had previously built value for sitting on the chair) for a few minutes.  I then released him to go visit and every time I called him after that he came right away :).

We also did a walking/distraction exercise where someone stood at one end of the room and enticed him to come to them and I walked towards them with him in RZ.  Iggy nailed it no matter how excited they became.  Them Kim (the friend who Iggy adores) did it and Iggy again forgot his brain and left me, I stopped him with the leash he found the brain came right back and finished the walking in RZ.  That is such a huge improvement from even last year I am flabbergasted.

We then went outside and did some shaping.  I did some perch work and he very nicely got a little confused, I waited him out and he kept working and figured it out putting his bum behind me like his is supposed to.  I was concerned that he was getting tired and would soon start to shut down but we kept going and he shined.  We did the little balance pods and for the first time ever he got 4 feet on 4 pods.  I wanted to show them stimulation and it's effect on cues so I then just sat and did cues.  He had it and then the brain left for a bit, I waited a few seconds came back re cued and he got it.  This lesson was such a huge eye opener for me that I wanted to share it and Iggy is so easy to read now when I know what I am looking for.

I am so thankful for this awesome dog who has made me such a better trainer and forced me to learn so much.

What a great weekend

photo taken by Heather Gallagher

I have belonged to a number of dog clubs through and so far I am loving the OVBCC.  They seem to have a lot of activities for the membersip to participate in which is great.  This weekend they had a herding day and Iggy got to try some herding.

We did OK.  He was a little nervous at first but got the hang of it.  He did everything I asked like the wonderful boy he is and tried really hard.

Definitely something I want to try again.

On Sunday we went to the BARK walkathon to do an agility demo.  Iggy had no problem dealing with the excitement and distractions around him.  We worked on a wicked lead out and he nailed it.

Very proud of my boy.

It's all in the name

My goal this month is to improve the response to Iggy's name.

What I have is an absolute awesome response sometimes.  A so so response sometimes and finally no response.  A couple of times he has even looked up and waited before going off and doing his thing (which BTW makes my head explode).

I think I have built up some pretty good value for Iggy's name I think I just have let him believe it is optional.  It not working has led to me getting annoyed which has led to our off leash walks becoming worse and worse for ranging, chasing things and ignoring being called.

The plan

1.  Build value for his name

1. on recalls from a stay I always use "break" start using Iggy sometimes
2. on leash let him sniff the environment and call him - assess success after 2 reps - if not working build value for me with collar grabs first
3. call him in situations where he is already going to come

2.  Test the value - always my issue is dealing with failure in a way that communicates to Iggy that's not it try again

1. before you test value build some value for collar grabs
2. make him fail
3. video tape

Hmmmm I think this is much too vague but this is where I am unsure how to make it better.  I think I just wing it, which could explain the problem :).

Situations to set up

1.  Him going for the toy and calling him off.  Need a person to step on the toy if Iggy decides to keep going.

2.  Calling Iggy off someone coming in through the back door.  If he doesn't turn back the person just closes the door and steps out.

3.  Try outside in the long grass with a leash on, wait until he starts to sniff, call him.  If he doesn't respond (remember any response is reward-able at this stage) take his collar move him back 5 feet and let go, if he doesn't drive back to the sniff reward.

Yes I think this is a better example of what a plan should look like. 

Stay tuned for the results.

A nice pat for the ego

I am very lucky to be surrounded by some amazing dog trainers.  They constantly motivate me to have a better trained dog.  Motivation and goals are great but they make it very easy for me to forget to look at how well trained Iggy has become.


Today I did a recall class and it was just two students so Iggy participated much more than he usually does.  He was his usual awesome and charming self.  These ladies where in awe of our skill and that made me pause and really appreciate how far we have come.  I purposely made him fail because I was trying to explain testing the value and the need to go to failure and then learn from the failure.  Wow the confidence I have achieved in myself and this dog to work through that process in front of students and not panic.


There are so many great quotes on failure I will just quote a few



Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill


I have not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.  
Thomas Edison


You can't have any successes unless you can accept failure.  
George Cukor

Another aha moment brought to you by Susan Garrett

I had another aha moment on our walk yesterday.

The last few weeks I have been focusing on improving our off leash walks.  Lately Iggy's range is increasing, his recall is decreasing and he is hunting more.  What I want shorter range, more checking in with me and responding to his name.

What I have done
1.  Carry a toy or food with me and throw it whenever he stops and looks back.  With the food I am cueing search when I throw it.
2.  Stopped calling him I was just getting the paw => build some value and working towards calling and me running away.
3.  A lot of walks in fields where I can change direction whenever his range is too long.
4.  Rewarding when he is sniffing and lets me approach, just throwing the food in front of him working towards collar grabs.

Overall I have been pleased with the results, we are both enjoying our walks more.

Back to my epiphany.  I have watched hours of Susan working Swagger and had seen this but not realized what I was seeing.  The other day in the Shaping course she said if your dog gets stuck make it harder, in that case she moved the object further away.  At the time I understood and saw the value in shaping.  After it had percolated through I realized the same concept should be used throughout training.  Not surprising because we are really always shaping.  Make it harder just goes so against the grain because I so want Iggy to succeed.  On our walk yesterday he got too far away from me at one point and I was in an open field so couldn't hide easily, I just started backing up.  It worked he came flying back :).  Such an easy solution, now to find more ways to put this into play.  I had already been doing it when I ask for RZ I had started backing up until he got into position instead of make it easier.  Another gem from Susan.

The definition of relax

It's been almost a year since I have blogged and what a year it's been.  I am regularly saying I think I am getting it which is a great thing to say.

I have relaxed.  I hate saying that because that is what everyone kept telling me when it all was going to shit and I kept answering what does that mean.  Christine who so understands my insanity, said everything is not an iceberg (in reference to a Susan Garrett comment), that at least got my brain on the right track.  So for today's blog I decided to define "relax" as I understand it.  I need to right this stuff down because eventually I will get another puppy and since I am me I am sure I will default to my intense behaviours that don't work.

Relax
- when it all goes to shit STOP, this is not quitting this is learning (as an aside I am constantly amazed as I get older that the saying

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.

applies to my life in all aspects, in this case I was so lacking wisdom)
- learn from watching others work their dogs but don't compare their dog to yours
- laugh all the time
- Iggy slows right down when he is thinking, that's OK you are not rewarding slow it's part of the process
- don't let the details overwhelm you, concentrate on one criteria at a time
- trust your gut, don't let all the learning interfere with what your guy tells you
- have faith in my ability to change anything I screw up and accept you will screw up
- hug and kiss your dog everyday 
- play with your dog, bug him, laugh at him
- the other quote that is coming to mind all the time is from Tony Horton in the P90X2 workouts "do your best, forget the rest" so true


Here is the video of our first trial.  He was with me and never got distracted which was great.  Gave us a nice view of where we are at and what we have to work on.  Very pleased with my little boy.