Freya the new Finnish Agility Champion (FI AVA) and the National Championships

FIN AVA All Zet By All Means Freya

Freya finally got Finnish Agility Championship title! It took us almost 6 months from the day she could have got. We have had some bad luck and have lost it for 4 times. Same goes to our jumping sert but everything comes in time. I'm so proud of her and this year she has really grown to be super competition dog. We have still lot to learn but our team work has grown miles from last year. Freya got her last cert with a nice win in a big competition and on the same day she got her ticket National Championships in Lappeenranta. So she get to go to her first big competion before hit the road to Denmark and Dania Cup. I proud to show this little girl all grown up to her breeder Jane.

Next goal in our plans is to train for the obedience champion title. She has been so wonderful to work with. Our biggest challenges has been to sending forward but it's getting together piece by piece. I have used a target mat to make her run forward and then clicker for the running straight or rewarded for fast stop by the target mat. I have already started fade the mat away to make just run straight and not to take focus on something. I have also started a mission to make this task everywhere we go. I think I will use all the changes in our two week trip to Denmark and Sweden. :D

Some runs from Vantaa in May:

National Championship Lappeenranta

Both Pixie and Freya took part in National Championships in Lappeenranta. Freya started her work on Saturday by running part of Team Northern Agility Sports. She did a really nice run but missed a pull after dogwalk which made the run a DQ. I was very happy that she worked well even though the place was new and there were more crowd than usually. I don't have any videos from the weekend but cool photos by Rita Larjava.

On Sunday we had individual championship. Freya dropped the wall so her run was done with that. We didn't really get back rhythm after that but she had nice parts. Pixie on the other hand took 10th place on the jumping course and ticket to the final. This was one the best runs she had ever made in the Nationals. In the final she dropped the double jump which I waited because it second jump and I had go a really far to next obstacle. I happy with the place in final and how fast she was. Pixie is really ready to rock the agility fields in Dania Cup. 

Freya will also take part team tryouts next weekend. This will be her first tryouts. I hope that she fly like a wind as she has in the last few competition. I decided to leave Pixie out the try out and rest before trip to the Dania Cup. She has taken part many times in team tryouts but never got in to the second day. One par has always been on our way and to my opinion she is not longer a candidate to bring a medal home from the WC. More and more dogs have running contacts and it gives too much advance in time. Pixie is one the fastest dogs on the ground in Finland but her stopping contacts just puts her out the game. We will see if Freya rise to her level in speed. She has still some tricks to learn but she on her way to be pretty cool agility dog.

ACANA- Pacific Pilchard

This fish based food came on at right time. Pixie had just dropped all her hair so I wanted to see how this food with oily fish would help her skin and coat to recover from shedding. Fat in this food is 38 %  which pretty high but should be good for skin and coat. Pacific Pilchard is a kibble that has a strong smell of fish to it. So the dog has to like fish. Both Pixie and Freya liked it. Pixie ate it mostly and I could she her skin and coat coming back it self more quickly than usual. I was very pleased how this food was digested. Grain free formula made it also very appealing food to use with my sport dogs. I also liked the idea that used to whole fish in production so there would be no fish material wasted. I could recommend this food to any sport dogs or dogs that have allergies ( this kibble has only sardines as source of meat).

Next is DANIA CUP in Denmark

Our next big thing is our two week trip Sweden and Denmark. Girls will take part to Dania Cup in Denmark which is week long agility event. This is first time both of them will compete in foreign country. Our trip also Freya puppy meeting so she will meet some of her siblings from all over the world. I just can't wait to meet them!!! I will write about our trip and all the experiences we have on our way. We will start our journey on Monday 3rd July with a cruise ship to Stockholm. I hope you enjoy our traveling blog. 

See you soon!!!

MPF 

Spring time - best training time

Obedience

I have been working with both girls to get them ready for OB3 which is the highest class in FCI obedience. Both girls have worked on the send to straight which has been a bit of challenge task. Basic are pretty simple but there are just to many distractions to train for example the markings of the stopping circle. I have used a target and toy to get the send straight and with high speed. Freya has has a problem with toy that she starts to make a herding circle so needed to using to toy so much and have very black and white criteria that she needs to run straight. Pixie has learned to keep her head straight forward pretty nicely when I send her to target mat. Next face is to teach her turn stop 180 degrees. We will see how this projects goes.

Other new task has been the going around an object followed by a retrieve over a jump. Freya has already started to do the whole chain. Pixie has still some trouble of giving up the jumps. Both girls have pretty nice positions after going around. Freya has still some work with sit but otherwise work has been super. I have split the task in 3 different chains and tasks. I train the position takes in different situations like going around a tree or after doing an agility tunnel. I train separately the going around part to built it as tight as possible and last have direction retrieve with jump as last part of the chain. This task has been one coolest to train and has lots little things you can make better and better. Just love it!

Agility

Agility has been a little down mode right now. I have had trouble of remembering courses and really have a good concentration. I have had take a little brake to find out how to set goals that don't make too much pressure to competitions. I have had a lock down in my head and I have tried to open it. Sometimes goal setting can make it difficult to find even a little positive things in your work. I hope we get this solved and start having fun again in competition and I would start remember the courses again.

In training we have done mostly running contact which have improved a lot. I have also noticed that Freya would need "a judge" running in training too. She sometimes gets little distracted when judges run next to her. She is sensitive dog and would need more variable training. My fault is that train a lot alone with my dogs so Freya won't get enough distraction training as she would need. Our next goal is to train more course work. I have been very lazy to train course work and we have done just skill improving. So we have to change a little bit how we train to make our work in competition more successful.

Basics Skills for training any dog sports

Basics in dog training - building up a team

I have done dog training for about 14 years. I have trained in many different ways and found my way
to clicker training. During my journey I have learned that training techniques can help you to succeed in your goals but there are few fundamental skills that every dog team should learn before starting any sport training. Basic training is sometimes boring but gives you a rock solid base to built on. Basic skills I see important to learn in first year is socialization, calming down, impulse control, motivation and rewarding. All this basic work leads to a good solid relationship and gives basic tools to do anything the team wants.

Socialization

First thing the puppy must learn is to be with its new family. This time should be peaceful time and time to relax from the stress that comes from separating from the mother and the siblings. Little by little the puppy can explore the outside and see new things but safely. It is important to observe the puppies character and see how much new things it can handle. This is time to teach the puppy recalls and walking on leash. Puppy should also meet safe adult dogs and other puppies of same age and size. Also taking the puppy to new environment is important so it learns different surfaces, smells, sound, traffic, meeting different dressed (man wearing a hat, big coat etc.) and moving people (wheelchair, babies, old) etc. All this need to be done in the puppies terms. Shyer puppy might handle few short visits to new places per weeks and more bold puppy can visit new places more often. You just need to watch your puppies reactions and how recovers from the stress. 

Calming down

Calming down is skill that can be the hardest teach at first but pays off in a long run. It means that you teach your dog a routine that leads to calm lying down. First you train this at home. First time might take 15-30 min if you have already a older puppy. Make sure you have something calm to do like watching a TV show. You can use a mat as spot to lying down so that you can take it with anywhere and it can be save spot for the dog in the future. You can have collar or harness to help the keep the dog close to you and then you start making long strokes from head to the end of hind leg. Remember you need calm down too. In this exercise you don't need treat the dog. Dog just need to learn calm down. At first time exercise end when the dogs has calmed down in lying down position. Dog will start calming down faster and faster as practice this routine. Then you can go and try this same routine in new more busier place. This can lead to longer calming down time but more work on it more faster it gets and the dogs learn to take it relax stage in anywhere. In longer run this helps reduce stress in new places and competition trips.

Motivation and rewards

Motivation can be from internal like hunger, thirst and reproductive needs or it could from outside smell, social interaction, car ( takes to forest run), ball (change for game). Every behavior have some kind of motivational drive. Every time you train and your dog does something out of the ordinary you should think what motivated to do it. Finding our the motivation to each behavior can be the key to solve it or route to find away to train for your liking. Behavior has always reason why it happens. Dogs don't have ability to be nasty or try to trick us. We just have see what motivates them to do it differently or have we have our training lead to the seen outcome.

In training we need different things to make the dog work for us. Usually we use rewards like toys, treat, social reward or environmental rewards ( like permission to play with other dogs). The most important thing is that THE DOG get choose what is rewarding and what is not. Playing can mean a lot things to different dogs. One might want to chase something or chew the toy or just do the tugging. In the end its the dog choice and as handler it is our job to find out which things our dogs like. Some dogs like treat but you give them in many ways to make it more interesting: like chasing treat hand, tossed treat, treat ball etc. You can also built up value to toys or treats with using the preferable reward to enhance to the other. Treating games can be built but always watch how you dog reacts and does it really feel that reward is rewarding. Some dog might like tugging but other might feel most rewarded when they can run around with toy in their mouth.

It is important to find things that your dog thinks is valuable. This gives you motivation tool to teach the dog to things you like. Different situations might need different rewards. At home your dog might work for a kibble and in the busy dog training arena you might need treat likes chicken heart to get as good as motivation to work with you. More games you teach more tools you have in the future. I try to teach my dog to play with anything from piece of grass to fallen leaf in the autumn. I want the any surroundings to be a change to play with me.

Impulse Control  

Impulse control is one the most important skills when it comes to dogs sports. The dog need to learn to give up from distractions and give the attention to the handler. Basic exercise is given up the treat. This is one the first trick I teach puppies when they been at the house for awhile. First you have treat in your hand and when the dog tries to get it you close hand as soon as the dog moves away from the treat hand you treat the dog with your other hand. This trick advances to a stage where the dog takes an eye contact to get the treat. Later on you can play with the open treat hand near the dog and it needs keep the eye contact to you. This is same thing you can do with food bowl. Dog need to sit and give eye contact before it gets cue to get the food. This kind of work helps the dog to built up self control.

Next game can be done with a toy. If dog tugs well, you can do impulse control game. You start with playing with the dog and then you stop playing and freeze your hands. At this point you wait that dogs lets go of the toy and takes default position. Then you move the toy a bit and if the dog hold its ground you give it release cue to start tugging again. First time you do can release the dog to play as soon as it gives up toy and then increase the distraction. Before you do this it good have done tugging games so that you dogs feel confident and has good drive to play with you. Remember to let the dog win the toy a lot to built up a strong playing mode with you. Some manuals say not let the dog win but that isn't right. Winning helps the dog built confidence and playing drive, also it gives the dog reason keep playing with you because it can win and feel awesome. Impulse control games are just part the game and gives playing some rules.

Here is video of Freya doing some impulse control play:




That my thoughts for today!!!

MPF


  

New winds and new ideas to catch

Agilitycoach course 2016-2017

I glad to be chosen to second level agility coach course. This course will deepen our knowledge in agility training and also our ability train the handler even more. We a training book that introduces the newest training tools in human sports and goes through how human physiology develops. This has been interesting to read even though some of it pretty familiar from own sport background and my studying in the University. I think this will be a very interesting journey in to more training tools. During this course I will also work with a dog team and train both dog and the human part of team. It will new thing to train more specific way the physical part of the human training. More I read it more I feel I want to know about it.

I have also started train in a gym. I haven’t done this kind of training in a long time but I think it will a good way built up my physic and also learn more about training from training classes in Mentor Gym. Learning to train right is journey. Sometimes you get too excited and train too much. Sometimes your training doesn’t take you anywhere. It’s cool to learn more tools to test and analyze training to make it more efficient. I have already got a some training how train and built up a sport dog but I hope learn from that even more during this course. Goal is to be able to train better both dogs and humans and give tools to become even better agility team.

Competition and training

We had a nice competition day in Kirkkonummi last weekend. Both Pixie and Freya did some nice runs even though we didn’t get a clear ones. I tried Pixie’s running A-frame in competition and it went pretty well. The hit was little too high to my liking but much better it used to be. We still need work on that in training. Pixie jumped really well this time. I hope her body starts be in good condition again. Freya had yet again amazing contacts. I just absolutely love her work with contacts obstacles. Freya and I had few spots where she wasn’t sure what I wanted with my handling. So we have some work to do with handling maneuver separation training to make sure she doesn’t always turn away from me when I put my hand down.

In Tuulias training last week we had the same turning away from me problem when I started to do a normal handling of a wrap. We did some work with it but it needs more training. Otherwise she did pretty nice job. Her jumping has improved a lot. Our forced front cross starts to look pretty ok. I need take off from marking site really fast to give her enough space and time to make a nice jump. Freya can really commit to handling maneuver and obstacle really early. This is something I need to learn to be faster and give her room to do her thing. Slalom was a little slow but we haven’t trained it so much so yet another thing we can improve to get more speed.

ClickerExpo 2017 and my first clicker training class

CE is coming again!! I can’t wait to be there again. Lots of super classes and lots new people to meet. New training ideas and improving my old skills. CE is one the best training events I have ever been. Your just get overwhelmed from all the exciting lectures and the faculty is just full of amazing trainer. If you haven’t been there yet you should go! This year it will be held in Denmark. So I have a very short fly to get there. I hope to have a backpack full new books to read and head exploding from new ideas.

I have also put together my first clicker training class. Well actually I want to share training tools that have helped me to get better performance in different dog sports. I have learned to use different target training in rally, obedience and dog dancing that has made training easier and make dogs performance even better than before. I have also included social learning to my course. I want share the wonder Do as I do protocol created by Claudia Fugazza. My dog have just loved to train copying. I have notice that their focus have improved and they pay much attention to my doings. I hope that this would be a nice plus for everyone that has passion for dogs training.

TALENT DOGS - TYÖKALUJA KOULUTUKSEEN KURSSI

That's all for now!!!!

MPF

Talent Code - What is talent??

Talents aren’t born, they are made.

I finally had time to read a book Talent Code written by Daniel Coyle. This books takes a research how some place have produced multiple super star in their field. Studies have shown that there isn’t talents. Talent is made with right guidance and support. More Daniel found out about the talent hot spots, more story seems repeat itself. Behind every talent is a coach that can support deep practice and motivation. Usually behind talent weren’t any fancy places and top class facilities. They just needed a teacher that ignited their motivation and fueled the hunger for learning for the rest of their lives. These stories came from music and sport world but similar way talents were created in business world.

Ignition

Sirpa Saari

When you start your sport or other hobby, you don’t need to have a super coach or teacher. The person just has to have a way of teaching that fuels your motivations to practice yours skills in your chosen sport or other trait. First touch to for example to new sport can be to key factor does your inner flame burst in fire and to learning start on the right path. This really makes it even more important to find the right persons to teach to first steps. When ground work has been done solid and motivating it can create a life long journey of learning. This can be transferred to agility too to both in humans and dogs. Motivation base must be built well to help the team go through the hardships and difficulties on the route. Passion must be fueled to help fire the learning. So do we support enough the learning of the handler and the dog to give start to route to become supreme agility team?

Deep practice

Sirpa Saari

Next part on the journey is to learn to train in deep practice mode. Deep practice is based on error solving. We learn most efficiently when process the mistakes we have made and divide them in to small pieces. This actually reminds of clicker training. There we chop up the skills in to little pieces and built them together. In clicker training we try keep learning error free but do animals learn also from mistakes? We all learn from our mistakes. Of course as humans we can make this process deeper but I think dogs will also learn from their mistakes in life and in training (this means when dogs don’t get rewarded which makes them change their behavior).  Deep practice is mental zone when we work more slowly and work the problem bit by bit. Deep practice actually helps us built myelin in our brain which enhances the neural transmission. This is a important part the learning in brain.  

Deep practice is something we can learn and train but to help it we need a teacher or a coach that knows how keep us in the deep practice zone. Super coaches can change way of teaching to match each learner. It key to find the best way individual learns and take the teaching in. Everyone has little things that helps them to keep in deep practice zone and coaches in the hots spots have learned see them in every learner. Coaching is another skill to learn to become a deep practice expert. It takes 10 000 practice hour to master a skill, it needs about ten years of training and deep practice to become the talent.

Sirpa Saari

The deep practice idea can be also transferred to dog training. I actually just had light bulb moment when I thought of jumping technique training – deep practice! We give dogs training exercises where they can learn and feel about the jumping and built up their myelin wrapping in their brain circuits. Of course the dog need to be in deep practice zone which in dog training terms is in the right alert state and motivated. So how can we take deep practice to more consideration when coach our dogs? One for starters remember built up everything from little pieces. Clicker training rules are quite like building animal to do deep practice. So more you understand science based training more you can coach your dog work in the deep practice zone. I know this is my conclusion but to me it really make a lot of sense.  My thought may not be totally true. But if it makes even few people to explore operant training this writing has open few new windows to clicker training world.

That's All for now!!

MPF

Finlands National Championships in Nastola

WE DID IT FINALLY!!!!!

What a wonderful National Championship Weekend in Nastola. Pixie was a part of TSAUs team. We had four dogs in our team Petri Mannonen and Bordercollie Fleet, Santtu Stenberg and bc Rairai, Pixie and I, Taija Salokannel and Iisi. Our team did the fast clean runs and got GOLD in team championships. This was our first clean run in big competitions and our first medal in National Champion level. This was a big win to me and my dog and of course to the whole team. Feeling just amazing to finally succeed in a big competition.

I have to thank you Tanja Kotti and Leena Piira to helping Pixie to become better again!!! All our coaches Janita and Jaakko from One Mind Dogs. We are finally starting to find right way to work together still lot to do but it nice to have little prize for all the hard we have done. We want to thank you Acana and Orijen for providing the best nutrition to my Queen. Here is our super run
from the team championships:

In National Championships we did a pretty nice run with one fault and we were first dog out of final but I was really pleased with our work during the whole weekend. We worked as a team and Pixie's jumping had improved miles from the work she has done so far. Her body isn't still perfect since her sick leave but we are getting there. Things are done right and it is starting to so in our work. I think this weekend you could see our totally improvement in agility. My vision and work have started work to our favor. Thank you to our jumping trainer class!! Lots of thinking have changed. It is process that is still going on. I like where this journey has started to take.

Here is our run in the jumping course in National Championships:





In few weeks we have National Team tryouts. I can't wait!!! We are so ready for them!! I have the feeling we have finally have found our team work. It has taken 6 years. Too long for Pixie, she could have been super dog but she needed to wait for me to develop to be worth of her skills. We have found a flow feeling.... We will cherish it as long as we can and Pixie has healthy year ahead.

That's all for now... Next time we will see do we ticket to Spain ;D ;D ;D

MPF

Training with Jaakko and Janita

Jaakko’s training

Koirakuvat Jukka Pätynen

Finally had a training session. It has been a long time since we have had someone to watch our work. We did a course training in Onemind Dogs Arena. I had develop my old bad habits back like forgetting to handle tunnels. Too much hurry in my head again. Pixie did pretty nice work but I had to remember real lines to find my right positions to do handling maneuvers. With both girls I needed reminder again about the connection. Especially Freya really got benefit from connection before slalom and also in other training parts. I wish I could slow down my mind even more. I don’t know why I have problem to keep the contact because in many cases I can be too far ahead.

One thing we also worked on was Freya cross bar jumping. She has tendency round up the jumps she goes behind and this makes it hard for her to get in to right rhythm in serpentine work. We did 8 figure work with nets that made a round circle behind the jump. The goal was to stop her from rounding up the turn behind the jump. Freya got the idea right away and started to do smooth and tight jumps cross the bar serpentine jumps. We also did this training in course in few little parts. Freya did really good job. Now we just need to train this a little bit more to make as skills she masters. This will give us more speed in serpentine tasks in competition courses.

Practicing on our own

Koirakuvat Jukka Pätynen

We continued our work with the serpentine jumps. I used jump bars behind the jump to guide her to do a tight and smooth jump. This worked as the same as the nets. It prevented Freya to round up the jumps. I did different angles and started to do more than one jump in row. I used a target toy in the end of the serpentine to help her keep her head and neck line in down position. This helped her a lot to find right rhythm. All jumps were maximum of 45 cm when I started this work. At this moment she can very nice and collected jump with 60 cm jumps. Still work but she is getting there. She has got a lot more confidence in her serpentine work.

One thing I have also tried to improve in the connection. I have my moments but I really need to concentrate to keep my eye contact with the dog. I have done this work with small practices because it has been hard for me. I want to give my self a little goals we can reach with my dog. I have also started concentrate to work in handling to make more calm and clearer to the dog. Still a lot of work and the hurry in head has given me a good fight. I think I have one some battles but the war with my brain is still going on strong. :D

Connection Connection - Training session with Janita

Yesterday we had a training class with Janita. Again we did a connection work. We did a course walk where Janita walked the dogs line and checked our connection. First I had hard time of giving up connection to obstacles but I did found my connection points. This is skill I need to still train. I feel often very unsure about the obstacle positions even though I have done the course walk. I need to concentrate even more to work a eye connection to my virtual dog on the course walks. Yet a new skill to improve in training and competitions. Here are some video of our training. Freya was just super little girl!!! 

Dancing Queens on the road

Dog Dancing competition 3.4.16

I had entered both girl to a dog dancing competition in Ylöjärvi. Pixie did her first run at open class and Freya made first try in beginner HTM (heelwork to music).  Pixie's dance didn't go as well as I wanted it to but she ok and was only 0,7 points from honor prize. I think with her we will do a new program. Freya did routine to Maniac song from Flashdance. She did pretty well for her first try in this sport. We got 172 /200 points which meant that she got honor prize and ticket to open class. I was very happy with our work. I was too fast with my side steps and Freya couldn't keep up. Otherwise everything went almost how we planned. Here is our video from our performance, but the music is wrong... Youtube will block the video with the right song:

Acana treats for tasting

We got this seasons first testing bag from SLN imports. We got Acana Pork and Butternut Squash which has been a huge hit with my girls. They liked it so much that it is easy to use as training treat. I always carry part they meal in my pocket so I can train recall and passing of another dog or human. Kibble is very clean to keep in coffee bag in a pocket. My dogs are pretty greedy so this makes it easier to keep them in shape if use part of their daily meal in everyday skill learning.

Acana has kept my girls in shape for almost 5 years. I wouldn't change for any prize. Best quality, best content and very taste... Well my girls thinks so anyway :D :D

Jumping training begins.... So cool!!

Next week I start my training to become a jumping technique trainer. I hope this course with Vappu Alatalo will give tool to help my future agility students and their dogs to succeed even better. We will have our first training day in Lohja. Freya will be my project dog for this class so I will write more about her training here. I will also start a group that I will teach the jumping technique skills and I will work with them the whole summer. This will be an interesting route and lots of thing to learn. But more about this course in the coming weeks.

That's all for now!!!!

MPF 

Dog Dancing and agility

Dog dancing training

We finally got confirmed that both of my girls got place in a dog dancing competition. Pixie will dance in a open class level freestyle and Freya will make first try at beginner level HTM (heelwork to music). Pixie will do old routine with Jari Sillanpää’s song Bum Bum Bum. I hope our routine will be complex enough get us through the open class. We have been working on a new more difficult routine but I hope I this will be shown in the highest class in the end of the year. Freya’s music will be Maniac from Flashdance. It was just so her song. We did a pretty simple routine to it and we had a lot of help from Sanna Lipponen a member of the Finland National team of dog dancing. I hope this will be a nice entering routine for her and we will have lots of fun.

I think the best part of dog dancing is the training. I can use shaping with very creatively and even the dogs become more and more creative. Pixie has developed many new tricks during our shaping processes. It has been so much fun and also sometimes challenging to find away make the dog do certain things you have in mind. One evening few weeks ago I was training with Pixie with a paw target and doing 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 2 – 3 lifts in variable schedule. We had done this already many session and I started feel that this wasn’t working the way I wanted it to. Then on our third mini session I just adjusting my treats and target, Pixie started to do Spanish walk in continuous space. JACKPOT TIME!!! Pixie had super light bulb moment with our Spanish walk work. I was so trilled. These are the moments why dog dancing is just great. New things to learn and train all the time. It was sad I didn’t get this moment to a video but I try remember film our next session.

Jumping technique training and smooth runs

I have started a jumping technique trainer class with Vappu Alatalo. To this class we need first have project dog and later on own group that we train. I have started to do more of the basic training with my dogs and filmed the trainings. This has been already a very interesting project and I have learned more about dogs. Freya has been very good and adjusting her jumping to different exercises. Pixie in the other hand has shown a little decline in her jumping skills. So it has been interesting work with both girls and make confidence in jumping even better. Here are some of the training we have done so far:

Pixie has had a little problems with her body and we had to discontinue our competition in Lohja. After that we had Piira’s osteopathic treatment which showed that Pixie had multiple locks on her spine. 1,5 weeks of rest and some physical training to her right leg. Little brake and treatment worked well and we did 5 clean runs from 7 at Easter competition. This meant that Pixie had all the needed results team try outs and Finnish Championship competition. Best was that Pixie didn’t drop a single bar during two days of competition. This was a very relieving feeling. And of course when we had good flow in competition, I don’t have a single run on film. Freya had also her moments but I have still few things we need train on and one is slalom distraction. We had few spots that were little too hard for her. So more training to do but Freya found a totally new gear in speed. Super girls!! This is good point to continue.

That's all for now!!

MPF

Quick note from Jaakkos training from yesterday

Agility training with Jaakko

Pixie 2011

It had been a long time since last training session Jaakko. Pixie had had a 3 week brake from agility do to Freya’s kennel cough. We had course with 36 obstacles. First round we did a competition run. We did pretty well. At one point we had few dropped bars from my bad handling. Next we did some talking about when to choose front cross or blind cross. This lead to interesting conversation about the dogs’ line. Do I see the realistic line or the perfect fantasy line? This was a very good note. I often think too much about “fantasy line” and get frustrated when we don’t achieve it. This really gave a good aspect to think when I train and plan my actions in a competition. There are just few things dogs really can do and some things you have accept. Some turns are tight and some will have longer curve to it. You just need see beforehand to make right handling maneuver.

Pixie 2011

Other matter we had was rhythm. I had few spots that I started to run way too early and made Pixie work in inefficient mode. When go too far it makes Pixie a little bit unsure and this shows in the speed. It very small change but it could be difference between winning and losing. It is my job to give my dog support as much as it need even though Pixie can do many things on her own. This is something I need to remember before I just start running fast away from her and have to wait her on another spot without any movement. We need to learn to keep the flow in our motion. 

Here are some nice runs from 3 weeks ago. Pixie did two clean runs:

That's All for now!!!

MPF

What is important in building up your performance dog?

Thoughts from these days

What to train? How much to train? When to start? How balance training? These are few questions that have been on my mind these days. I have been constructing a base line to a puppy class. Since Freya have had some issues in everyday life I have changed my thoughts what is important to learn during puppies first year. Last few dogs I have built pretty fast to competition form and I haven’t done so much everyday skill training. Freya made me really change my mind. With her I have had to train a lot of everyday skills like passing other dogs relaxed and control her re-activity. This has given her more tools to cope with scary and unexpected situations. Of course there are dogs that can cope with lots of things without any problems but shouldn’t we make “the good headed” dog ever better?

Many of buy a puppy to a certain sport in mind like agility or obedience. Most of thing about starting to train the task that will come in these sports. But how much we train the social and environmental aspects of the sport? Do train relaxation by the training field? Do we train relaxations after high drive play? Do trained to dog to be ok walking in the crowds and noisy places? These are scenarios that the dog need to cope to even do sport without extra stress. Many of train the dog to do agility and hope it will just fine in competition situations and don’t burn itself down the situation where there is lots of new dogs and people. Training for competition situation can take a lot time and effort when you have for example a sensitive or reactive dog. It can be done but how many are ready to do the work for the dog to get used to more to competition environment?

What about starting to compete? As soon as the rules lets you? Or do you wait your dog to be more mature and ready to handle all the distraction and your excitement in competitions? I started competing agility with Freya as soon as I could but later on I realized should have waited to let her grow to her role better and work more on her skills on the competition site. In obedience I have kept my mind and made her pretty ready to each level. I have really given more thought about letting your dog to grow up and enjoy teaching it new things and building up strong resistance towards different distractions. It is our benefit build a dog with strong confidence when it enter its first competition.

Bodywork out for performance dog and nutrition

More have done dogs ports more I have learned how important is to keep your dog in super condition. As wrote before we do a lot of balance work with my dogs. I usually use our evening or morning meals to train these exercises so that the dogs don't get too much extra energy. This time we got another delivery from SLN Imports. Freya and Pixie got Wild Boar Treats, which are freeze dried meat treats. These are so good that my girl get little wild. These are easy keep in you pocket because they are dry. Other bag was from Acana single series, where you can have on option with only one meat. This is good choice is your dog have any sensitivities.  We got to taste Pork and Butternut Squash. This food has 50 % of pork and 50 % fruits and vegetables. I like to use grain free food for my dogs to keep them in shape. Grains can make muscles to build up fluid and make more easy stiff. I have been super happy with Acanas and Orijens grain free products.

Here are some balancing work from our girls we try to do about 2-3 times a week depending on our other training session. I also your different object in the forest walks to do similar exercises. So I can do this training during our walks. Now less words and let the videos do the talking:

I hope these little works outs will give some tips how to built up your to more stronger and balanced.

That's all for now!!!

MPF

Planning the training year

Training year

I have read a lot about how to build up your training season. You need to have training, competition and rest period during your year program. In sports training people spend lots of time to build up their training year so that they could be at their best in the most important competitions. This is also something we need think with dogs. Especially in agility dog to high performance work that ask a lot from their whole body. As dog trainers we should also build up training and rest routine for our dogs. Did you know that you could roughly say that 1 year old dog needs at least one day to recover and 5 year old dog 5 days to recover from hard competition day? To me this was a little surprise how fast the recovery time rises. This would actually mean I could safely push Pixies limits only once a week and other times keep the training and competition work to minimal. With her it is pretty easy because she knows her stuff.

For whole year I make rough plan how I keep my training and rest periods. My plans evolve with how my dogs are doing and how I my own training is going. I usually keep a longer brake during Christmas time. At least 3 weeks without training. This is a recovery time for all of us. Other bigger brake is kept after tryout season. Then we usually keep at least 2-3 week brake enjoy the summer. I think, it’s important watch your dogs’ behavior and condition to make fast changes to your plan if needed. I have only seen improvement after our brakes. Learning goes forward and movement also becomes better.

During training season we work with three different areas. Body balance, muscle work and of course specific sport training. I think it is important to build up your dogs’ body as good as possible. Going to walks and run is part of it but one important piece is core work. More stable the body less injuries you get. We do core work three times a week with balance pillow, different platform and trick. At the same practice I also do stretching exercises. This helps to keep the body working smoothly. Usually training session last about 5-10 min. I have also thought my dogs to stretch with cue and I always praise long stretching. Muscle work includes hill work and also lactic acid training during walks just build up my dogs’ durance. I do lactic acid training only if I’m not doing hard agility training because agility is always anaerobic training because its high speed. Little things can sometimes make difference. Listen to your dog. Help it become balanced in body and in mind.

For everyday work

In everyday training it important to remember warm up work and cooling walks. Warm up are as important to us as it is to dog. You can try to run full speed 100 m run or do 20-40 tendon jumps without warming up. Next day you can feel how the dog feels if you do agility training without warming up. Cooling down is as important because it help body recover from anaerobic training with causes lactic acid to build up in muscles. Lactic acid is one the reasons our muscles get stiff and painful. I do usually warming up walks that last about 30 minutes and rise speed and stamina all the way of the warming up routine. Cooling down routine I do in two steps. 20-30 minute walk right after agility run /competition and second round two hours after when I do trot run about 45-60 minutes. With these routines I hope give my dogs the best treatment to keep them in good shape. Of course these routines make my body recover too.

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

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

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

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

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