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…… 

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That's all for now!!

MPLF