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