Agility year coming to the end

FREYA

Freya had now her second competition in A3. I had a goal to just get her some experience and take notes what we need to train. Our first run was pretty chaotic but we had some good bits. On the second run everything clicked and she did super clean run. Freya also win the competition and got her first Cert for Agility Champion title. We had really a moment when we worked together as we do in training. On the last two runs we had few hard parts and some problems with jumping. So lots of homework to do with Freya. On total I was very pleased with her work and how she did the contacts etc. We will have nice base work to build on her skills to higher level.

Here is her winning run from TSAU:

Jumping skills has been something I have always been interested. Freya has had some problems with jumping every now and then. Especially going over diagonal jump has been her problem area. I have already made some work with the 8 figure training. This has helped her to learn the right take off position. We have still problems when you have more than one diagonal jump in a row. In this she has sometimes problems to make the right lead change in her canter. This problem I have work with a tight slalom training I learned from Linda Mecklenburg. Freya has become better and in fast lead changes and she has done the exercise in 40 cm height. I started with very low bars just to make her used to the exercise and give time to find the right settings from her body. She improved a lot but she has still some side differences so I will continue this work. I bought a book of Susan Salo from the Clicker Expo. It has a lot of good exercises and my goal in 2016 is to keep one jumping skills training each week to improve Pixie and Freya’s jumping. We will see what kind of results we will get.

PIXIE

Oh boy we have had a hard year. First we started with training our start line stays then we worked half year with contacts. Our National Team tryout went down with one jumped A-frame contact again. European Open we had the first reserve place and I got to know that we got spot too late. I had already had to cancel our hotel room and car. So no EO for us. It had been totally shitty year with lots of training in competition and not really enjoying competing at all. Finally our work has starting to pay of and we did two clear rounds in our last competition. It felt like doing agility with Pixie. This feeling had been lost almost for half year. It has been one the hardest year in agility. I hope our work will pay off and we will have super year 2016. 

Here is video from our last competition:

Merry Christmas and Happy New year 2016 for everyone!!!!!

Marianne, Pixie and Freya

It all about dancing :D

Dog Dancing

I have watched for years beautiful dog dancing videos from YouTube. As a hobby I have trained some of tricks I have seen with Pixie and Freya. After Clicker Expo I got my last kick to start training for it. Michele Pouliot lecture had the coolest videos of dog dancing and I got million ideas of different tricks to train. Now I had a goal to really use my passion to train dogs’ new things because in freestyle everything is possible. I wanted learn more about the sport and I entered myself to Michele Pouliot online class on Freestyle. I also drove to Ylöjärvi to learn more about rules of dog dancing in Finland. At this point my basic knowledge is growing more and more. Still lot to learn to even enter a first competition but I’m at a right path.

On our Independence Day I traveled to Helsinki Winner Show to see Nordic Championships in dog dancing. I wanted to what kind routines people had built and get new ideas for our routines. I saw absolutely amazing performances. Pair work really good together and their routines were nicely built. I also had a little wakening the heal work to music could be fun too. This is all thanks to Nordic Champion pair Sidsel Rychter Lauridsen and German Panda. Their performance just hit me to my heart and hard. It was fast and it had a good story. After this performance I told my friend this could be Freyas’ sport because she love to do heal work and she has super attitude doing it. Freestyle winner Smedberg Jonna and bordercollie Lizzroys Zoya also had wonderful and sporty performance which I really liked and had a vision that our might someday look like that with Pixie. Totally it was wonderful day and I almost cried because the performances touched me so much. I think I found something that really have waken big motion inside me.

Dog dancing work with Pixie

I have started built up our routine around song Bum bum bum by Jari Sillanpää. I had the feeling it had a nice beat and it had a love story in it. I had right away some ideas what could be filled in the routine. Now I have done work with separated tricks and also some back chaining them together. It has been so much and I have taught lots of new trick to Pixie and I have started few hard ones for the future. I have done lots of work also to clean my training to get more and more accurate performances to cues. I have started make more clear to Pixie what I want her to do on each cue. When I have trained tricks as hobby thing I haven’t been totally specific what I want her to do. Our work has payed of and Pixies’ performance has improved a lot. Working with these dog dancing tricks has been super cool!!! We will see how our first performance will go but I’m really looking forward to it.

Here are some trick we will using to our routine:








Still lot to do and new ideas to work on. Half of trick are not video yet. I hope to film them soon to everybody to see.

That's all for now!! Next time agility update.

MPF

Freya to A3 in agility and winner class in ob

Agility

Lots of things has happened since last time. Freya finally rise to A3 and will be competing with Pixie next weekend in the highest class in agility. We have lots of little things to work on with Freya. She has had some problems with jumping again and by this I mean she jumps with a crazy big space of air between her and the bar. But we have lots of time make her work better with that. With her running contact we have worked on turns. We getting close to our target.

With Pixie we have done lots of work with contacts. She has finally started to make as trained in competitions. Our old problem of dropping of one bar in each course has come back to hunt. At this moment it feels like Pixie is a standard 5 fault dog. So yet again we have work to do. This has been really hard on me. We have been used to be one of the top pairs...... Patience, I need lots of it.

Here are our work from last few week:

Obedience

I have almost forgot. Freya got her first prize in open class obedience (OB1). We had a nice trial. Only thing she didn't do was going down from my side. This has never been a problem in training but I guess she was little too tense to listen properly. Otherwise she did super. Her healing is just so good. I need work on our full turn it didn't look nice when I saw it from the video. Little things to work on but we on our way higher classes. Here is our work from the trial:

At this point we have started to do all the new tasks coming in the winner class. So far so good. Especially our directed retrieve is super cool!!!! Freya was born to do it!!! Sit-down-stand has been super also. I have worked on her head position to make her look forward. This has also worked also super good. Our only challenge right now has been scent discrimination. Freya has had way too much speed and she brings usually the next one from the right one. Too much speed and not enough concentration. So I have started train it again from the start. So that's a little bit of our ob work. Here is video of distance control from today:



Next time full text about dog dancing! Pixie and I have started Michele Pouliots dog dancing online course. I have been so excited about our new sport! Next week I will go check Nordic Champs in Helsinki to get new ideas.

That's all for now!!!!!

Marianne, Pixie and Freya

Testing some new things and working on old ones

Do as I do protocol

There has more and more studies coming out about social learning used in dog training. Recent topics has been mimicry where dog are teach to copy a behavior from another dog. Second hot topic has been copying a behavior from an example from human ( Topa et.al 2006). I was fascinated by both topics. I have shown my younger dog always performance of my older in obedience. I know she probably wouldn’t pick up the whole thing but I have always thought she might learn something. The most interesting was the copying protocol. Ken Ramirez had a nice lecture in the new training frontiers in Clicker Expo Europe and this inspired me try this with my own dogs. Plan was to use this method in dancing routine.

I have started to my work with the basic protocol where you use 3 familiar behavior that are under a cue. I chose sit pretty, lay down and volt (dog goes around counter clockwise). Behaviors needed to be easy demonstrate with my own movement. First step was introduce copying cue. I did my behavior first and then I gave “Do it!” cue followed by my cue to dogs wanted behavior. I repeated all 3 tasks in random order with this protocol in short session. It took Pixie about 4 repeat to start reacting to copying cue. In of my first session she was able to repeat all three behaviors from my example. Freya had problem of starting always the sit pretty behavior before I got time to give her behavior cue. She will need another session to figure it out. Although I did with her a copying test without any commands and she did three different touch behavior correctly. So I can’t wait use this to behavior they don’t know! So much fun!

Obedience training with Freya

Our open class test is getting nearer and nearer. I have worked on our tasks through and I’m trying make as full behavior chains. Box training has had its testing phase as it worst but I think / hope it’s starting to be over. Freya has worked really well under different distractions and has started ignore a ring guides commands to me. We have still work ahead but everything starts to look really good. Especially healing and sit-down-stand during healing. I have managed to build very high drive healing that is also really accurate in turns and position.

We had box problem a month ago that Freya went around of mark post on the front. After I fixed that we had a problem going around big mark object. She just stopped seeing it. I tried to show her where it was but still she could start running around the training area without any goal to do something. It took few session and we got the basic going around behavior back. Then I wanted make a sure she watched the mark cone on cue. I put few mark cones all over the training are and started walk around then took straight line randomly to each cone. On the second try Freya tried to go around the first mark cone which was behind me. But this was goal of the exercise to make her focus her look to mark cone that is straight front of us.  

Clicker Expo Europe 2015 - just pure fun!

Clicker Expo Europe 2015

Wow!! I had one the best days of my life. Expo was very well organized by Positive Animal Solutions. We had wonderful expo shop were we could fill our library with dog training books and dvds. I bought a big pile of them to get even more information but the best part was still the lectures. There’s lot of topic choose from. I wanted to see as many of faculty speak as possible. My plan really paid off! Each speaker had gave a lot to think and learn even though some topics were familiar to me. One person I waited the most was Ken Ramirez and he sure didn’t let me down. He was just super at giving lectures. Very lively and I got lot of insides in both topics I went to hear. Actually all the lecturers were just super! So big thanks to the whole faculty!

I learned so much new training techniques and also new stuff for my old training tools that it will take some time to get everything in use.  Since I have come home I have made new training plans for own dogs and I have started design a puppy class. My plan is to build up more course plans as digest all the things I have learned but first my own dogs will be my little test animals. I have tested already some training protocols like Do As I Do. It is still an ongoing progress but I have had a little taste of it how it works. One thing I have also given deeper thoughts has been back chaining. I have used is a lot but I had little wakening in Cecile Kostes lecture how I can use it with even more power. I will tell more about the things I have learned but now I show you few things we have done since I came back home.

Platform work – Michele Pouliot

Platform work has been something I have read about many times but always thought that I wouldn’t have any use for it. This time I wanted learn more about it and I found out that I would have more than one thing I could use it for. My goal is to teach Pixie more dog dancing tricks so we can enter to a competition and I will use platforms to teach Freya a working dog trial recall. So I started to do some foundation work with my dogs. Here is a bit of our work so far:

Paw Crossing

I have seen paw crossing trick many times but finally I had energy to start building it up. I used had target to get the paw movement going. Now later on I learned that it would have been better to use a target stick because the dogs got really stuck to any movement of my hands. In the end I got what I wanted. I want to make this work with a verbal cue and with a leg cue. So far I have given the movement a cue but still use hand as a help but most of the time my dogs don’t need it. Here is a video of our second session:

Orijen Tundra

Pixie waiting for Platform training

It has been also wonderful to test our new sample from Orijen. This time we had a new Orijen Tundra. This is grain free kibble with lots protein that is comes from multiple sources like venison and goat. My dogs went just wild with it! It smelled very yummy for them and we did all our training above with it. I use a kibble for basic training to keep my dogs calmer and in right drive to learn new stuff. Also by this I can control better the energy in take. Orijen Tundra was almost too good but it gave my dog nice high drive to work. I love to use high protein treats in our training and Orijen Tundra was just a perfect for it! 

Coaching from Janita and Freya's first clear round in A1

Training with Janita

It has been a long time since we have had a training lesson. It was really nice to get some new ideas and reminding of my old bad habits. At first we did a course from start to finish without caring of mistakes. I did this first with Pixie. First I was able keep calm but yet again Pixie’s forcefulness made my too busy in my mind. We did ok but most of course went in a half chaos. Next was Freya. I thought this course would be way too hard for her. She did really well although we had our braking points in whisky turn and some points where she needed read the course in long line. In the end I was very proud of her!

After course training we started to work on the little parts. I learned how little things like my look can affect my dogs ability to read the course right. It was very rewarding to see how a little change made my dogs run really smooth and with confidence. Especially you could see the difference with Freya. If she knew the plan she jumped with good technique. But if she wasn’t sure of the plan she did duck jumps and try to correct my handling errors. Freya is so sweet when she tries to correct my mistakes and do her best to do right. I have learned so much with her but I think I will learn even more.

With Pixie my goal is to be calm, calm and calm. It is sometimes really hard because she is so forceful mover. This makes me feel a busy in my mind. I have started to trust her better and I have my moment when I can watch her do her work in peace. Actually the moments that I have no hurry have increased a lot lately. I just need to build this feeling last in every course and on every jump or task on the course. This is not an easy thing for me. It’s hard to admit that I have hard time of concentrating of total of 30 sec. I think the high speed and fast action makes my adrenaline run and my aggression high. This combination makes me a sloppy handler. I have done a lot of work to make myself more calm and present on the course. I have a constant battle with competitiveness and hunger to win. This is my biggest fault but I hope to win this battle and find my inner peace on the course. We will see how it goes! :D

Freya getting near A2

We have finally run as a team and made 2 clear runs in Rauma. Freya was a bit tired but did really good. My goal was to stop handling in careful way. I had set a goal to run as I would if she was a A3 level dog. This time the goal was set perfect and we became a confident team. Here are the videos of our two winning runs :D

I have too super agility dogs. I hope to be able become as good as handler to them as they are agility dogs.

That's all for now!!!

MPF

Obedience tasks

Box training

Freya has been working on her open class tasks for while. Our biggest trouble has been the box work. She has mixed markers of the box with the big marker object that you use in a jumping retrieve in the higher class. We have done now few box training with a toy in the box. My goal has been to remind her to go to the back of the box and not to go around a marker object on the front. I tried to shape the right position at first but this didn’t work from a long distance. I hope this works and she starts to do her box work as good as she used to.

Scent discrimination

Freya has been a little wild when she does her scent discrimination work.  She goes with fast gallop and does the smelling work wonderfully. Our problem has been that she even if she picks up the right one, she has to make checking round before she brings the right one for me. I need still built her confidence to make her bring the right stick right away to me. Her return speed has been always super but her work on sticks needs some adjusting. She has done this task in many places. It has been very interesting to see that it has been the hardest on a sand field. Freya has done her best work on grass. I have wondered if the moist in grass makes the scents even stronger and this way easier for the dog. At least with Freya it seems work like this.

Jumping retrieve with mark object

This new task in the highest class has so much fun. It has so many little parts that you need train with your dog. First you need teach the dog to go around a big marker object. Then the dog needs to learn to do sit-down- stand 2 meters after it. Next to learn how to do this between two jumps and dumbbells. Then learn to take right or left side on retrieve when asked. So lots of little things the dog learns to master.

My both girls have a little different background to start this work. Pixie has done very hard jumping retrieves and has had a very hard time to give the up the jumps. On the other hand she has trained positions by going around a tree so this part came together pretty easy. Pixie had also problems of going around the mark object and coming back because she has been thought to stop at the mark object. Freya has started everything from scratch so it has been much easier for her to learn the new concepts of the task.

At this point Pixie has done the whole task. Her only problem is the sit position. This seems to be the hardest from a top speed. Right and left commands came together pretty easy and she had no problem of going forward with same cue as in controlled retrieve. Freya has done only position and retrieves but so far so good. She has also some work with position but we are getting there. I hope to get more speed and accuracy to her work. Also we need to start tackling the jumps. All together this has been a super fun task to train and really learn to.

All for now!

MPF

Freya has start her agility carrier

It has been more than exciting to start competing with a new dog. Time has really flied and Freya has reached a competition age. We had had our up and downs but Freya has become a pretty cool agility dog. She is very light to handle and her speed just keeps improving. We have still lots of work to do. After these two competition days we a list of homework but I think we have done pretty good so far. Here videos from our first two competition days:








I love little girl!! She will be a start! We need to do some work and need remember that she is still a young dog. I sometimes forget her and trust her like she was a A3 level dog. It won't take long that she is a A3 level dog but we will have our learning moments ahead.

Just a quick note.... I have few days before go back to training a group!! I can't wait!!!

MLPF

Planning is the big part of the game

Think – Plan – Do, Bob Bailey

I have forced myself to write training diary again. My plan has been to make my training more focused and efficient. Too many times I have done just some training and realized that I haven’t been training the right things. Training diary has given me a change to be more analytic of my training and make every training count more. I have kept diary for three weeks now and it shows. Both of my dogs have advanced much quicker and our training time has been reduced a lot. I actually have got much more energy to train because I have proven record of our improvement.

One thing I have also taken under training is me. I have planned different training session just improve my mechanical skills as a trainer. Target stick training has been one the task I have done. This is a simple task for dogs but it gives me a change to improve my rewarding speed and also my accuracy with clicker. I have had a bad habit of keeping treats in my hand to speed up my rewarding. I have been determent to learn to be as fast as that when I take the treats out of my pocket.  Dog like this training and I usually use their evening meal so super treats are left for competition task training. I also use a timer in this training to keep the training session short to improve my concentration and also my dogs.

I have also started to analyze my training more during the session. I stop and write notes or even watch my training session from video. This is still a habit in training but I hope to make as every time thing. Training analyzing between different little session has help my reduce frustration in my work and also from dogs. The little time that it takes to THINK what has happened and what is the next goal (PLAN) gives me more effect to my training (DO) and better result with dog. This is something I have read many times over from training manuals and guide books to animal training. It’s just hard to change your habits. I hope that I will have strange to do this change to training and really become even better dog trainer.

As I have learned from many books and courses – training is really a mechanical skill that you need to practice. Planning of training is also a big part of the deal when you want results. I have known these things for a long time but change need time and effort to be part of life. It’s the same thing with mental training but life has really become more interesting when I have found goals that I want to work for. My goal is to improve my training and mental work. One of my treats for myself is the Clicker Expo Europe. When you have something look for you have strength to do your best! 

MLPF

It's all about Freya

Freya’s training

Agility

Freya has finally reached a competition age. Freya has super to train with. Her hardest parts have been jumping. She has done super going around the wing but her jumping cross along the bar has been a challenge. We have done a lot of jumping work to make her take off by the wing and not from the last third of bar. I don’t know how to say this problem clearly in English. But here are some pics from our jumping work and problems.

Running contacts has been our biggest job. This has been a first time I have done dog that has running A-frame and dogwalk. This project has gone pretty well. I have done our work with shaping and using a toy target.  Freya has responded to my training very well. My goal was also to do working verbal cue to turning after contact zone. This process is a still going on but she has done pretty hard stuff already. I think this will be whole life project but I like our work so far. We have done most of our work in contact obstacles so we will see how we will do on whole course.

In overall Freya is very easy to handle and she gets new stuff in just few tries. Slalom entries were done in few sessions. Her ability change her behavior after mistake is phenomenal. If she doesn’t get rewarded she stops and thinks. Usually on the next try she does it perfectly. Our lack off course work shows in our work but I think she will catch up my handling in no time.  She improves every single time. I just need to remember to reward her every time she responses exceptionally good to my handling. My bad habit is to keep running when she is doing super work. Our rhythm on course is getting better and better even though sometimes we have different routes.  :D One thing is that Freya has a very strong jump and this makes it sometimes hard predict where she will land. Good thing from this is that Freya has no problems with bars!

Obedience

What can I say? Freya is a super learner which makes obedience training super easy. She has nice high drive while we work but still she can keep mind working all the time. We have started all ob tasks that will be ahead of us. It’s been really exciting to train because our ob rules change in August. I have had even more motivation because I have had to done lots of work to new create training routines to the new tasks. I have usually tested my training plans with Pixie and then use them with Freya. I hope to built Freya as good as possible and even achieve National Champion level.

Scent discrimination training as advanced really well after I started pine cone training. This has given me change to make more repeats and improve her skills in more difficult situations. Pine cone training has also stopped her from lifting the wrong ones and improved her scent work even more. I have been so thrilled how she works with her nose. I think our Nosework work has also given her more confident in her scent work. Soon we will start to put this all together as a competition task

.

Freya’s heel work and sit-down-stand in heel work has been really good. I actually could do heel work with her all the time. Freya has really good energy and very nice contact. Her position work in heeling has becoming better and better. I do lots work sit-down-stand outside to healing to improve her cue discrimination. As I wrote before our next goal is to make her stand without turning her head. I have used a treat target at this point. My plan is to start training her with Z-walk with mark cones. I will test what she likes if I have sometimes a toy behind the mark cone so she would have front target. This will probably keep her from turning around when go behind her. At first this might lower her speed and accuracy when I built the reward but hope it will improve the total outcome.

That’s a little bit about Freya. She has been just a perfect girls scout in training (saying in Finnish). I couldn’t ask for a better training partner! Thank you Jane!

MLPF   

Why do I want to become a WC in agility?

Why do I want to become a WC in agility?

This is a very good question.  I have always wanted to be world champion in agility but never thought why.  What is my real motivation to reach this goal? I took a little while to answer this. My first thought to get fame to my dog. This is really a very shallow purpose because this really doesn’t matter to my dog. Other thing is to challenge myself to become super good at something.  I am also a patriot so hope that my dog can bring honor to my country. These reasons did raise some feelings but not very strong ones. I really got the strongest feeling of becoming the best agility handler.

So how do you become a best agility handler? I need at least 10 000 hours of training. This has been scientifically proved that you need 10 000 practice hours to become excellent in something. Of course people have some skills that can give first advantage in the beginning of carrier but to become excellent in something you need practice, practice and practice. So I have trained now 10 years agility but I haven’t done my job so intensive that I could say have done work worth of 10 000. I have done this my first years with more emotion than really analytical way. So if we got to the National Team we would really need luck to reach it. I haven’t done my “homework” well enough to say that I’m excellent in agility.

My next goal is to change my training and my other life to support more my goal. I have started to write training diary again and also I plan my training session ahead. I want to get the maximum effect from the training each time and analyze my training from videos. I also know that I can learn more agility by training other so it’s time for me to go back to training other teams. I can train with my dogs only a certain amount but I can repeat my skills every time I teach them to someone. Also from teaching other I can see things what dogs don’t know how to do or get a new idea in training when I have solve a problem of my student. Altogether I need to step up my act to reach my ultimate goal. This thinking has given me a lot of more motivation. I have seen better what I can do better to become what I want. It will be a never ending story but this beginning has too sloppy to really take where I wanted. 

Jukka Pätynen / Koirakuvat

Thoughts after National Team Tryouts

I wrote this blog post before I went to National Team tryout. Pixie did the same mistake she did last year and jumped A-frame contact. This was really a thing I didn't like. She has done 2on2off contacts very well in the last competitions and she never makes this mistake in training. So I was really disappointed to her work. She just got too much steam in her head to make it well. We will see if we can fix her drive issues in big competitions. I was happy of my work in the course. I was calm and kept the contact to her. I know her problems come from the running contact training and I'm not sure can I fix her to be a dog that I can trust on the course. I have had to "fix" our problems too much. I haven't enjoyed competing the whole year. Well in jumping we have had our moments but I hope we will get the same feeling to agility runs.


That's for know.. Soon update of Freya.. She has reached competition age!!!!!

MLPF

Obedience update

Obedience training with Freya

Freya and I missed the National Team championships because she started finally her first heat. Since then we have been working on all ob tasks coming ahead in a higher classes. My goal has been to work little part at the time and make them as good as possible. I have also tried to work with her in different places to make variation skills better. Still lot of work to do but she is ready start competing with the new rules in August.

Distance Control

One big project has been distance control. I have done series of training in pair of two changes (sit-stand, stand-laying down, laying down –sit).  I have done this to keep the technique in super shape. Now I have started to take distance more and more. It comes slowly together but I like the quality of her work. I hope to build up her confidence and speed in small pieces. We will see how this goes. Freya is much faster than Pixie but her staying in one place is the hardest part.

"Square"

Square has had it challenges. At this point I have been able to make her find a right place and run in to the square from various distances. Her stop has been little too slow. This we have worked with Tarja’s constructions where I send Freya to a target mat and stop her before she reaches it. This has made her stops faster and she turns right away towards me. We still need some repeats to get this super stop integrate to the square task.  After we have succeeded in this we have nice and fast square.

Z-walk

Sit-Down-Stand in movement has becoming nicely together. I have shaped each movement separately in different positions around me. Then I have done them during heal work. Freya handles now all three of the positions but we need to work more in different places and I have to start training her between mark cones as you have to do in Z-walk. Freya has pretty nice speed to reach to cues and she holds the positions nicely when I walk behind her. I need to change her focus more to the front so that her position looks more steady and firm. So some work with front reward and that should be fixed. I don’t want her to turn her head when I go behind her.

All together Freya has been super to work with. She is very focused, high driven and very fast learner. What more can you ask from a ob dog? She has so good working attitude that she makes me work better and she makes me smile every time and Freya smiles all the time. I think we will have a super obedience carrier and lots of wild memories.  Just love this little girl <3 <3 <3 <3

For next time I try to make videos of all our work..

MLPF

Competition mode

Mental training

Iris Kieme

I have been doing a lot of reading and practicing of mental aspect of competing. I have tried to find a right focus when I enter the competition ring. Usually I have had very different mind sets depending on the day. Now goal has been to built a mode that I would perform as good as I could. To achieve this I have read several books about mental training and writing a diary about my trip and doing homework from the books. It has been a hard work to find out your strengths and weaknesses. To me hardest things has been to actually say to myself that I am good at something.

Visualization of event and training situation has been the most important tool for me. This has given me a change to find out what things give me power before the course and what are the biggest distractions. Mental visualization of things can take you to competition before it even happens and you can go through things that it happening and make them as a normal thing to you. So you can focus you energy to the real performance. I also use this technique to train different handling maneuvers. You can so much work in your mind before an event or training then you can safe you energy to a top performance in any part of your life. I have use visualization before in my work life but now I have used it even more to little details that can  affect my work.

Pixie competition mode

Iris Kieme

I have done a lot of in my mind but then I have found out that our old mistakes come to hunt us in our competitions. Pixie does super 2on2off work in training. In competition she does poorly. Even though I trained 3 competition full stop contacts, she jumped 2 A-frame contact on competition on Sunday. This was really frustrating feeling. Her mistakes comes from the time that I tried to make her A-frame to running contact (my biggest mistake!! try to make 2on2off dog to running contact dog). I have know idea at this point to make this mistake gone from our competition performance. Pixie's drive in competition is much more higher than in training. Especially this problem comes out if I have to run in front of her in full speed. I guess we have to train this again in a competition. I just hope we will get to point that I can actually just compete with her and trust her work.

Competition mode to a dog and for handler is thing that need to be trained. Most of us get much more excited in a competition and dogs catch up this excitement. I have made many mistakes in competition of letting Pixie take too early from start, leave contact zone before a release cue and so on. Could I have done a perfect competition dog if I had stop every time Pixie broke our training?? Or would I have to still correct mistakes in competition?? I can't be sure but I know mistakes will come during her whole carrier. I will try to be more black and white with Freya and try to make more reliable. We will see how this goes. :D


That's all for now... Next some ob and Nosework update...

MLPF

Agility and Nosework

Winning yourself

Last Sunday Pixie and I went to agility competition in Nummela. On first run I took a goal that I would keep my plan even though it seemed to be choice that you had to hurry. I was so happy that I did it even though my plan didn't go totally ok. I won myself on this run. I need to do this more often. Safe way isn't always to coolest :D :D

Second run I trained contacts and on the last one I did handling sequence all over to show myself we could do it. After this they I felt like I had won myself two times even though we didn't actually win anything. But I think this will takes us more forward than just keeping it on the safe zone. When is the last time you took a risk and went off from your safe zone??

Here are video's from last Sunday and week before:

Nosework training in a farm

We went to a farm of Koirataito to train our Nosework skills. We did a scent discrimination line in tack room of a horse stable. It had lots of different distraction smells so it was a challenging environment to my girls. At this point we had only trained in our house and in our back yard. First I loaded them with a target smell (click and smell from a glass jar with target smell). After this I send them to the scent line. First we did was quick rewards as soon as they hit the target. 

Next round they had give a sign that they had found it. We did few round like this and we started to teach target smell expression and a showing after it. My both dogs express their find by laying down. This is a problem if the target smell is high of the ground. I wanted to add a cue that they need to show by nose target the location of the target smell. This action chain came together pretty fast.  Now I just need to built even stronger.

Pixie's homework was to make her express her findings better and start doing more harder tasks. With Freya I need do more straight reward repeats to built up her confidence in her smelling work. She has a strong target expression but this can give you false target expression if she feels unsure. So work a head of us but this has super fun for all of us this far. 

That's all for now!!!

MLPF

Nosework training

Basics under control

Mesoft (soft bandage)- target smell "carrier"

It has been so much fun to work on our Nose Work skills. I have know all the scents you need teach your dog but we are still working on our first one which eucalyptus. I first started to introduce the scent with a scent discrimination line. I gave the dog starting smell and I teach them to find a pair to it. First I just clicked when they hit the right jar to built a connection with the target scent and reward.

Next stage was to teach them to mark a finding. I choose laying down as marker position. This was made stronger with a one jar and target smell. I waited a laying down response to a target smell and rewarded. I also gave a little help cue to the dog as soon as it has found the right smell from the line of jars. This has been an ongoing work every time we have done work in a new environments.

New places and box search 

We have done some scent work in our backyard. I have used a matchbox or a plastic container to hold the target smell. I have hidden the target on a ground inside a bush, inside a fence gate and in different high places. It has seem to be easier for them to work outside. All my girls have been super fast when they work outside. Next I have take this search work to unfamiliar place. I think they will just love it!

Box search was harder for them at first. I did too hard exercise in which I used straight away boxes that where totally closed. I needed to take step back to make it work again. I did a training session where I had open boxes and a target smell in little box which had some treats over it. I did this few time and then I left the treats off and gave treats from detection. After this I did first closed boxed exercise. Freya was just perfect!! She just dropped to the ground as soon as she smelled to the target scent. Pixie and Louise took their time but in the end they did ok. 

Now we just need work with boxes and containers made from different materials. Also we need start using distractions smells and objects. I have used  already food as distraction. in the scent discrimination line. Different places will be also on our training plan. This sports has no limits and it is really fun even though the basic idea is really simple. Dogs have fun and it pretty simple to set up. I can't wait to able to test my dogs skills in real trial!! :D

That's all for now!!!

MLPF

Obedience training with Freya

Freya has been getting ready for her depute in obedience National Team competition. She will be doing a beginner class performance for our team. She still hasn't had heat yet so that could ruin our change to take a part. So one day at the time. We have done lots of basic work. I have wanted her to be driven when she does ob and that she has as good as possible attitude.

Distraction training

One big thing we have been working on is distraction. In the National Champion Ships there will be several ring going on at the same time. So the dog has to handle multiple commands, distractions from other competitors rewarding their dogs etc. I have had a plan to build up a distraction duration so that Freya will see it as a mark to sharp up her work and rise from it. We have done a lot of work with this. First we done was a order command work this a distraction that come from a Stuart in the ob trials. We did some heal work and every time she ignored the extra command I rewarded her. I didn't take any notice if did something while she heard the command from the Stuart. It took few times reward her and her drive just started get higher and higher.

I have done distraction training with corrections with my older dogs and this has show in their work. You can see from the dogs in high level ob are their trained with correction or rewards. Correction use left to dog tense and wanting to keep contact to avoid correction. This showed out in the dogs postures and also many of the dogs make stress signals in they are in high level stress. I wanted do this a different way. I wanted to make Freya work for me rather than looking or reacting to things out side. I wanted her to like even more training in distractions. This has worked out super well!!! I hope that every time you correct your dog from reacting to distractions think again. Are you interesting enough?? Does your dog know what is expected from him/her???

Scent discrimination

We have had a problem in the scent discrimination. Freya has always took one bar in her mouth before she starts use her nose. She brings the right bar but it's a fault to take one incorrect one her mouth. So we tried a new trick. We put treats on the ground before the bars. We had long line of bars she needed smell before she could find the right one. This really worked good! Nose went on right away and no retrieve mode. Freya did excellent job. I need to keep using treats for a while to get her nose working right away. I think soon we have full scent discrimination handled!! :D

That's all of Freya's ob at this point!!

MLPF

A new way see training process

It' been a long time since last update. My perfect Pixie turned 5 years-old. Time has really flied fast. I can remember my black little lighting as puppy. Pixie always ran fast and slept a lot. She also destroyed my house but I love her so much. She has been a super dog that has taken me totally new level in many sports. Pixie has been the dog that stole my heart and soul. I hope to have many many ahead of us. My dear diamond <3

 Pixie 7 weeks and Pixie as an adult.

Training thinking evolves again

I was got a light bulb moment when I read an article in the Dressage magazine written by Eliza Romm. This as article was written from a dressage point of view but this could written also from an agility view. When you read the article you really find yourself in all the stages of incompetence and competence. The key in to really brake the training a part and find the answer to reach the level of unconscious competence. Super trainer can help to reach the level and also help you to see what skills need developing. In agility I find myself finding new skills that I have reached the conscious incompetence which means I have seen a fault in my work and I need to find help to reach the next level.

For example I didn't really realize that Freya didn't really know how to jump a jump in a side way position ( unconscious incompetence) until my coach pointed her fault to my. Freya did high jumps and bunny jumps to a side way jump (slalom jump). I had hard time doing pulls and pushes in slalom jump setup. Her jumping skills was to key to the whole problem. At this point I have started to work with her on her jumping skills (conscious incompetence). Today we reached a level of conscious competence. Freya had started to make good jumps an side way jump. Now we just have to master our new skill to level that she can do everywhere at anytime. Work, work, work but I have learned a new way to see things in training. :D

“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.”– Vince Lombardi

Scent work with both girls

Can you find a tea bag?

I just read an article of different nose work things from Canis magazine. I have done some track work with all of my dogs but the idea of scent search in a room or car sounded just fantastic. So I took two tea bags, glass jar and clicker. I teach the dogs to smell from the glass jar to get a scent what they needed to find. First hiding places were really easy so that the dog almost founded immediately. As soon as the dog sniffed the target tea bag, I clicked and rewarded. After few tries Freya got the idea. Pixie and Louise had a problem of offering different tricks at first. It took few tries before they really started to search the scent.

After my dogs got the idea, I started to hide the tea bag to harder and harder places. I used sofa cushions as hiding place. I put the tea bag between them in different places and also under sofa pillows. These were pretty easy places. On our second day I started to use closed hiding places like cupboards and pen sharpener. In these cases dogs needed show me that they had found the target. I used laying down as a marker position. For this I gave a cue to the dog as she sniffed the target smell. Here are some videos of our work as girls have done this few times:

Nose Work and scent discrimination

This work also made me interested in a dog sport called Nose Work. This sport has been invented in the US and its coming to Finland. In Nose Work dog needs find certain scents from four different scenarios - car, box search, room search and open area. Dog needs to show it has found to scent and there can be more than one hide. This sport sounds super interesting so I have started our work in scent discrimination. At this point I have used tea smell and spices as scents. I just want to sold the idea to my dogs. On our first training I used two different scents and one scent as distraction. I built our set up from glass jars and holders. Here is video from our first training:



As we trained we used our new samples of freeze tried food from Orijen. Girls just loved it!! It very easy to use and hands were clean the whole time. Next we will try in training as energy food Orijen Adult Freeze dried food that you can solve in water. Here are girls with their super treats:

That's for now.. Our Nose Work scent are ordered so that work will start soon!! 

MLPF

So far story of Freya's running contact

Freya’s running contact project

I wanted make Freya a true running contact dog. I had tried to build running contact with Pixie but her strong 2on2off messed up the whole process. Freya was my empty canvas that didn't have any history on the contact obstacles. I had done work with box method and Silvia Trkman method. More or less I saw weak parts on both of them. Then I saw a video of Jenny Damm and Miss Lily’s contact training and their competition contacts, I was totally sold. They had fast contact but still a control after a contact zone. I started to watch their story from her YouTube Channel. Jenny had work on the contacts with little steps and change the reward ways on the way. This seemed to me our way too. Work little by little our in mind.

First problem I had that I didn't have access to planks or dog walk that I could lower alone. So I started everything with one contact piece and started to make her run the contact plank. I did this few times and then I changed it to a full size dog walk. Firsts few times I just made her climb the contact obstacle so that Freya could get used to it. Next I started make her run half of the dog walk and started to shaping her running style. I was first only on the front so that I could control rewards.  At first I used treats and a bowl. This way Freya has a bowl target but she got treats only from right performance. After her running was nice and low I added new criteria – she had to hit the contact zone as low as possible. I rewarded the right performances even if the speed wasn't super. I only change one criterion at the time. Speed wasn't my big concern I just waited it to build up later on when Freya gets more confidence.

Soon as she started to hit the contact zone from half of the dog walk I started to do the whole obstacle. This change rhythm a bit and we needed to clear the criterion a little bit. At this point I started to make straight runs on the whole dog walk to a toy target so that Freya would start build up speed. Second thing I started was turning cues to left and right. I used long jump mark poles in the in the dog walk to help her got the idea and also stop her from jumping of too early from the contact zone. I used the same turning cue that I had used jumping. This made easy for her to catch the idea.

When she learned run full dog walk, I also started to work on the A-frame. In A-frame work I just watched first her natural rhythm on the obstacle. This turned out to be a perfect two canter technique. Only thing I needed to do was not reward her too crazy contact performances. This meant jump from contact zone to contact zone with one leap. Right now I have been working on Freya rc performance in course work and also worked on different obstacle combination.  I do also do every now and then some run trough work with basic set ups so that I can click for sharp and accurate turn and hits on the contact zone. We will see how these contacts will last in competition drive. I have tried to do every different contact in new places to make her used to different situations. So far so good…… 

¨

That's all for now!!

MPLF

Training between sick days

It has been a very long time since an update to my blog. I have been sick for 1,5 months and I still have some symptoms of a flu. I hope it will start getting better and we get to finally start our agility season. I have lost a lot time of getting myself fit again. Dogs have also had again some vacation from work but we have done some progress in obedience with both of them.

Freya’s ob depute

It was so exciting to take another a new dog to its first trial. Freya had worked pretty well in training. She had had a problem with guidance person giving commands in standing in heel work.  I hoped that the problem was solved but it turned out to be our only mistake. Freya worked really well in the ring even though she really pulled me in with the leash. Ring entry really was our biggest homework from our first ob trial. Overall I was very pleased to see that Freya worked really well the whole time. 

Our next goal is a National Champion Ships. Freya will be part of team and she will compete again in the beginner class. We have been working on with our problem areas and also done some work with higher level tasks. It has been a pure joy working with her. She just wants to do her best and she learns super fast. I think this route to ob champion will be a cool one.

Scent discrimination

Freya has started her scent discrimination work with looking for a one bar that has been hidden in a grass or snow. Next step was to put more bars around own one. I did this first with a net so that the untouched ones were under a net. This went pretty well. Next I just tried what she would do if I put a lot bars on a sand field. Not a good idea! Freya took 3 bars at the same time in her mouth. I really needed reset the situation. Then I put the bars on a grass and hid the own bar. This time time she brought me first a wrong bar. This one I just ignored and I send her again to find the right one. This time she found the right one and I was trilled!!! Still a lot of work to do but I think I'm clearing the idea of scent discrimination to her. I hope at least.

Agility training

Both girls have worked on agility a little bit. Freya has done contact and jump work. In jumping we have sharped our skills in different handling maneuvers. She has had a little bit of problem of jumping smoothly in German turn. Her jumping from left canter is a little bit different but when changed her reward spot I could get the jumping technique that I wanted. Lots of little things to improve but Freya is doing agility courses pretty well. She starts to really feel like a competition dog.


Pixie has improved with her start line stays a lot. She have had a problem of leaving too early and I made her stop running courses every time she took too early. I used negative punishment as technique this means I took some that she wants away from her. I needed to do this in competitions and it cost me some serious money but we have finally results. She has been sitting nicely for a few competition weekends. This has been a very waited change. Our next target is bar work. I have planning of stopping her runs every time she drops bar. Pixie can be a little too careless with bar work. She has a super jumping style but sometimes she just don't take time to make a neat jump. So lots of work on that area.

Here is video of Pixie doing a nice run with one bar down:





That's all for now!! Just quick note after long brake!

MLPF

Obedience debut coming closer and closer

Freya heat is still not here so it looks like we are going to our first OB trial next week. Time just flied. We have been training our basic ob skills for last few weeks. Most inside in our living room- I have been sick again. Freya has been working really well and her attitude is just perfect. Our hardest task has been laying from healing. Sit and stand is much easier for her than laying down. It a bit odd problem for a bordercollie. Oh well something need to be challenging. Here are some video of our work:

Pixie has done some dog dancing work instead of ob. She has sometimes problems in concentration. Pixie might start doing multiple tricks and don't listen to my commands. So we have a big stimulus control problem. Although I do change our chain of tricks all the time. We have work on the control more to be able built a routine. I don't know will I have courage to enter her to a dog dancing competition in the future. I think it would be fun but I'm not a very skillful choreographer. Anyway here are some our trick we have been working on:




That's all for now!! Just a quick note.. I hope to have some agility update soon... I hope to get in running condition soon.

MLPF

Clicker Expo Europe 2015 here we come!!

I finally had the courage to enter myself to Clicker Expo Europe. This is an expensive investment but this gives change to learn from the best and meet new people. I have been dreamed of going to this event but never had the money but this time I just decided that I will just enter and save money for it. I hope that this would start a every year tradition. I hope to get also new tools to train my dogs and if I have to courage to start teaching as side job. This has been a little dream but I still think I don't know enough.

This week I have had a vacation. So lots of lazy time and some training. Freya did some nice ob in a new arena and with new dogs. Still some work to do before we are ready for our first ob competition. I have already entered her to a competition but her first heat hasn't started yet. So we will see do go to this competition. Freya has been working super in obedience. She learns super fast and she gets new task as whole chain really quickly. I have very high hope to her ob carrier.

It has been really nice to have time to take long walks and rest. This has been a nice week for all of us. We have taken many pack sleeps ( all dogs around me) and played silly games. Just lots of relaxing and doing things we don't have a proper time. Louise has had a bad fake pregnancy. She has been super mellow. I hope her hormones are soon gone and get my crazy perro back.

I also got to meet Vinka and Punssi's new pups. We took them to a puppy test and vet on Monday. They were really balanced and strong puppies. Especially Eino took my heart. He was really strong and brave. I think we will here from all them. It was nice to see puppies again. There is just so much you can learn from them. It is interesting to see what kind of adults they will be. Starting looks super! We will see how environment changes them. I have been writing a paper of epigenetics and behavior. This has been a hot topic in the last few years. Life can change our genetic outcome with epigenetic changes so that big stress effect can be inherited from parents. This has been given a totally new way to look at breeding choices. But more later on...

That's all for know!!!

Beautiful Spring to Everyone!

Evolving as a dog trainer

Cross-over trainer

I have started my dog training carrier from a working dog side where training methods were more or less force based.  I remember when I got advice how to correct misbehavior: say “no” and pull from choke chain. This did stop the misbehavior but it didn't make it disappear. This was the way to change the behavior of a dog that had dominance and leader issues. This was the first way I learned to handle dogs.  These advises were given by a top dog trainer that worked with trouble dogs. Today I see this as sad thing but this was how it was done about 10 years ago.

When skill ends violence begins. This phrase is true in many ways in animal training. I could say many of us have trip to this hole when working with dog. At least I have many times and I still do. When a dog pulls and I’m tired, I could pull from a leash to try to stop. Dog learns nothing but behavior stops at that moment. I hate this part in me. I know how to do this better much better. I should always take the time to do it the right way but in my mind I justify my actions with phrases like : I’m in hurry and we need walk certain distance or my hand hurts so badly that reactions comes before brain. Why is it hard to just stop and think before acting? This is a key thing when it comes to training. In everyday things many of us can’t be very consistent and we get this “trouble” behavior like pulling on leash or jumping on people. It is a weakness that many times animals pay the price.

In dog sports I have really have had an inner conversation. Why do we do it? How should we see the dog sports? Are the dogs really enjoying it? What would my dog choose if it had a change? I have developed a lot in my training skills since my first dog. I have learned a scientific way of training. This has opened a window to a real connection with my dog. These skills have made me better trainer but have I change as person? This has been the big question. I have been a very competitive person. This has sometimes resulted of taking the training time too long or asked the dog too much before it even knew what was ask for it. All this pressure from me leads to a point when founded that competitions weren't fun anymore nor was training. Why was this all happening?

I started to look another motivation to enhance my training skills and to become even better trainer. I think one of my eye opening courses was a chicken-dog course in Kangasala. There I got more tools to the answers I had especially in ob. I had had a problem of making some ob task super good. In this course I really started to realize that how much we have to do and think before we can do a good quality training. It this course opened my eyes to not see mistakes but to see thing that my dog didn't really know or was unsure. These tools helped me to develop as a trainer one more step. 

With Freya I have done ob totally with shaping and during this progress I have learned more about training dogs or other animals than I have learned since. Freya is a very sensitive dog but learns super fast. She really shows you what things she an idea of and what things she is still unsure. Freya has made me see every time beyond of seeing mistakes but really communicating with each other and really solving problems. Think-plan-do! I started to see training as a puzzle and a game of solving the puzzle as my treat in training.

Puzzle solving approach gave me a better view in the dog sports. I started to use this also in competition. Competitions became a game of puzzle solving. All this turned off my competitive nature. I started to become more relaxed and see my goal better. My goals were little things on agility course and prizes started to lose their appeal.  This is still an ongoing progress but I have started to become a better person to my dogs and I can see better how they communicate with me rather than the trophies or titles they can get. This development is a never ending story but I hope become a better trainer and a better competitor as I have changed my view in animal sports. I hope to change my ways also in horseback riding. This will be tested next week. Can I change my attitude and open a window to a better communication? Or do fall to old learned habit of using a whip as correction without listening first? 

That's all for now.....

MLPF