ST Foundations: Assignment 1

Lu's serious face and posture when you say "Ready.... ready....!" with
a ball in hand... 

FYI Anybody who reads here- I think I'll jump over to wordpress... meet me there!

The new address is: lifeoflumen.wordpress.com

So Assignment 1 for Silvia Trkman's foundation class is up, and in a way I'm dreading it a bit because it's the thing we're really not that great at, which is sends to wraps.

I watch other people's videos and their dogs dive into the wrap, whip around it, and dive out of it, full speed. I'm lucky if I get a lolling canter into it and around, and usually a sprint out. I can get more speed if I send her from a tunnel but that's not what we're meant to do.
So I'm thinking maybe she's a dog that just does things, but doesn't put 110% effort in... I know she's not a BC, I'm not going to get those low to the ground sprints, but SOME kind of enthusiasm would be nice. Maybe that will come with maturity? I hope so, because I'm feeling very lacklustre right now.
And I shouldn't judge her on this morning- she'd already been zooming around with Mal, she crashed into a wooden fence and hurt herself earlier, and I took her to a new park where we'd never worked before (very sniffy), so of course she's not going to be her best, and I HAVE been getting some better drives into a wrap with a plastic bottle, or the hose or something, but only ever once or twice.

She just doesn't seem to get enthusiastic. Like... when I get Mal out, I say "ready... ready...." and he's dancing on his feet, tensed up, ready to do... whatever! If I say ready to Lu (and we've done plenty of practise with that cue!) she tenses and looks serious, but isn't ready to burst out of her skin to do whatever's about to happen. I wonder if that's experience- she doesn't 100% trust that she knows what to do next so she has to take it easy to figure it out. I know in new situations sometimes she'll stop, observe, walk.. stop, observe, walk... She's a thinker. I think all the thinking is slowing her down.

We're also going to be doing some more tunnel work- I've been curving it gradually over the past couple of tries and I'm thinking the speed is still pretty good (as with her, it could always be better I think - which doesn't bode well for running contacts, but that's another story entirely) so then when she's blasting through, I'll start doing call to hand and turns, and maybe some obstacle discrimination with all my tunnels (fun tunnel-land!).

I just think Lu is so quick and so smart that she should really excel in agility... but I'm just not seeing the best from her right now.
We'll try again tomorrow.

3 fs

I'd say she's showing the 3-Fs here...

So I did a quick training session with Lu on Friday morning. I had looked out the window and seen her doing crazy- huge zoomies, digging up the garden like a hoon, diving in and out of her paddle pool despite it being a balmy 10C outside. I decided she was in a silly and drivey enough mood that she could channel some of that energy into playing with me.

I got out her brand new squeaky ball toy and she was instantly turned on. Focus.

I was going to start with some simple collar restraints but I thought I'd give a cik/cap a try - see how she was driving forward. And she did. Ok, my puppy isn't sprinting into the turns yet, she's sort of cantering in - I think part of that is due to still having a bouncy puppy-gait at times. But she's getting faster and faster.

Then we play. A game I thought of yesterday - 'poke and go' (where I poke Lumen and run away, turn, poke, run away) which ended up with her nipping my thighs. Ouch. However, I realised this morning with a mouth full of squeaky ball she could growl and bark at me all she wanted, but couldn't possibly nip. WIN! So we played. Fun.

Thinking about this training session- one that felt really great, with a really switched on happy dog, I thought of the things that made it feel so good, and found I could summarise in three words:

Focus, Fast, Fun.

Ok, I'm sure there's more words you could work in but I think this kind of exemplifies how I'd like to train. I'd like us to both be focused, and this includes being driven and motivated (Lumen) and being clear about what we're trying to do (Me, and very obviously my teaching background). Eventually this would include not being distracted in environments other than the back-yard, too (though sometimes that's distracting enough for her, too!).
I'd like her (and me) to be fast- to run and sprint and turn on a dime. Silvia Trkman stresses that a dog can't learn something slowly and then do it quickly, because the behaviour changes. That you should train running fast and then work on the finer points. That if your dog is doing something fast and makes a mistake, that it's your mistake (lack of training, poor signals, poor body language, etc) and not the dogs, and to not correct/go back/stop the mistake as this will make the dog more slow and more cautious as they're always trying to get things right. I have to be careful with this if I send Lu into a cik/cap and she goes the wrong way (eg. I say 'cap' and she goes 'cik') but does it fast- I say yay! but don't go crazy or play, or jackpot, and we try it again.
And Fun- I get so caught up in the competitive part of agility that it becomes very, very serious business for me. Ask anybody who knew that I was one pass off my Agility Championship with Mallei, how un-fun it became. Ask Husband, when I find some crack in Lu's training so far that might predict problems down the line, how obsessive I become at fixing it. I think if Lumen is having fun, and if I'm having fun, then the rest should be easy- if agility is just a game, Lumen is a great game-player.

So there's my 3Fs: Focus (including motivation, drive, obstacle and handler focus, and focus from me on the task at hand), Fast (speed, running and drive before precision), and Fun (playing, running, not getting caught up in the seriousness of it - for both of us!).

what we're working on

I like this section- it's sort of a nice reminder for me, anyway, of what we were training at a given time.

So, we're still trying to do lots of playing. I find it difficult with Lumen because sometimes she just isn't into playing. She enjoys fetch and chasing balls, which is good, so I can get some good collar restraints with a thrown ball. I've also found she's really into cooked sausages and this gross dog meat and gets quite alert when I have either of these, and so I've been trying to get her to drive into a cik/cap around the bollard or a stool or something by showing her the food, restraining her, letting her drive into the wrap, and throwing the food out of it.
I've actually experienced a bit more success with this than I have other times, and hopefully it'll just be a bridge into getting a drivey, fast, tight wrap to a thrown toy, and not having to rely on the food forever.
So we're just working on driving forward. Most people I've spoken to with Aussies suggest that this forward drive will come more with age and maturity, and Lumen did such an amazing job of wraps at foundation training the other night that I'm not -super- worried about it, I just now have to be careful not to overdo it.

I'm also aiming to do some more tunnel work this week, with a focus on adding a slight bend while maintaining fast forward drive. I want to play the 'two ball game' with the tunnel, as she's quite good at this now and I think it will increase her speed and 'gung-ho' into the tunnel.

In less agility-related things, I'm noticing she's starting to get a little teenager-y (nearly 7 months old now), eg. chasing swallows at the park the other day and giving me a huge proverbial middle finger when I told her to cut it out, so I'm just focusing a bit more on recalls from all situations and making a huge fuss when she comes (and usually, she's really great and comes running full speed, which is adorable)... I also want to take some sausages to that same park with me, make sure she knows I've got it, and see if she chases the swallows... and see if I can call her off. Oh boy is she going to have a puppy party if I can. ;) Of course, if she doesn't, I won't push it (and teach her to ignore me calling her!) but since she's good at most things (even chasing/playing with other dogs) I can't really 'work up to' this distraction level - we're already there.

She's also starting to find weird things scary, so plenty more socialisation to be done, and I can't forget about constantly exposing her to traffic (she's a bit anxious about traffic noise, especially loud trucks or motorbikes).. I've let that fall by the wayside a bit lately, so I'll have to add that to my to-do list! Good thing I'm on school holidays for 2 weeks from Thursday!! It'll be lovely to have 2 weeks to play and cuddle and fuss over them, and especially with Silvia Trkman's foundation class starting on the 8th of April, I want to be prepared, and then we get to start while I still have time off!

What are you up to with your dogs at the moment?

finding the joy

After stressing a lot about Lumen's lack of drive, which I figured stemmed from her lack of 'crazy' and 'enthusiasm' about playing with toys, I'm giving training a break.
In a way.

Which is to say that 'formal' training sessions that I've worked so hard at over the last 4 months, are being put on the back-burner for a little while as we find the joy.

See, I watch Lumen playing, and she plays half-heartedly. It's like, the bit that you have to do before you can get back to learning more, which is great that she loves learning, and loves doing a job... but a happy, driven dog it does not make. Because although she does the job, and she does it well, she doesn't do it with the intensity I want. 

I was saying to a friend of mine that she puts about 90% effort into shaping, and 70% into playing. 

So I'm letting it go. I'm taking her to the park, throwing two toys and not expecting her to 'fetch' them. I've found she loves fetching sticks then running around holding it while you hold the other end. I'll drag the long bits of gumtree bark all over the ground and get her to chase it. I'll break little bits of sticks, get her attention and throw them in the air one by one- at the moment she wants to find them so she can finish the game (bring them back or chew them up) but that's not what we're doing - I don't give her a chance! I throw another one! I find sticks with leaves attached and drag them all around. Nic and I run around the big trees and disappear out of sight. I'll tug if that's what she wants, then take off running. 

I feel so unfit at the moment- little sprints are puffing me out, and part of that is my iron issues, so the more I start jogging, the more running I do, the more iron pills I take (ha), the easier this will all be.

And hey, if I end up having to train her initially with a ball or a stick (two favourites, I think), or a sock, well, at least they're cheap toys. 

So right now, it's all about playing, not trying to get a result. Sometimes I'll do a collar restraint, but that's just part of the 'chase a stick' game. 

I need to stop worrying and find our joy. 

knowing when to stop, and when to stop worrying.

Wild dog.

I am my own worst enemy, particularly when it comes to 'the unknown future' and when those 'unknown future' events happen to involve anything slightly competitive.

So can you guess what really stresses me out (and not always in a bad way, but sometimes in a bad way)...? 

Training a young dog to eventually compete in agility.


Here's how my head reads:

I need a good collar restraint.
If I don't have good collar restraint, I won't have good drive forward.
If I don't have good drive forward, I won't have good cik/cap or running contacts, or weaves, or whatever.
If I don't have good (insert thing), I won't do well in agility!!!

MUST TRAIN COLLAR RESTRAINT....!!!

**spend every waking moment thinking about collar restraint and how she's not doing as well as I want**
**train madly, several times a day (luckily for her this is all about playing and racing me to food)**
**obsess about how to get her faster, stronger, better-- NEW TOYS!! BETTER FOOD!!! HOSE!!! MEAT!!!**
**realise I've only been properly training collar restraint for 2 days, and she's gone from just staring at her toy like; uh... are you gonna let me get it? to pulling forward - big improvement!**
**take breath, try and relax**

I don't know if anybody else lurking around here is as obsessive as me, and it's a bit sad because I know I should just let it go and have more fun but I can't, it's not who I am. I problem-solve and analyse, and over-think, and worry and I plan. And if I can't plan and lock-in an outcome, I worry. 

I suppose this is a note to myself:
Dude. Relax. Your dog gets better, just not straight away- it doesn't take long, but it takes longer than you think it will. She's a prep kid- they don't learn to count to 20 in one lesson. It takes them a LOT of lessons (so she's smarter and quicker than them, anyway). In fact, in that case, if you feel bad, compare her to the preps. 
Just not maybe some of the really smart ones. They put us all to shame.

product review: JW hol-ee roller

I've always wanted to do a product review, and I'm guessing we've spent a couple of hundred dollars trying to source the perfect and most motivational toy for Miss Lu.
Everything from tug ropes including real fur or fleece (extremely against my ethical beliefs as a vegan, but I'm willing to try anything and the fur one is apparently sourced from op-shop fur coats, neato), different balls and plush, or not-plush toys... flying disks, flying rings, and a myriad of others..

I have 2 toys in circulation at the moment that seem to get 'the best' out of Lumen, and I'd like to write a review of the one I'm using the most.

Keep in mind, this post is not sponsored by anybody, I'm just writing this because I think it's a great toy, and anybody trying to get into dog sports needs a toy their dog is super enthusiastic about, and in this case, the toy is super versatile, too. Big plus!

I'd seen Silvia Trkman training with a version of this toy initially, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Hol-ee roller in action. Look at that stretch! Look at that tug!!

I bought the 'medium' size which would be better suited to a border collie I think, as Lumen's lower jaw often gets stuck in the holes already, and she's still meant to get bigger. That being said, she doesn't mind, and just pulls it off with her foot or manages to spit it out.

The best thing about this toy, as I said, is its versatility. You can throw it, tug on it, skitter it around on the ground, all without your fingers or hands being chomped on (Lu likes to tug and tries to play with a traditional tennis ball. Uh, no). This is the toy that Lumen has actually managed to learn to TUG with. She was an average tugger before, but she puts all her strength into tugging this one. I think she can get a great grip with her teeth (ropes she's always found a bit hard to grip- a bit slippery) and because it's rubber, it's sort of bouncy and stretchy, meaning no jarring when she tugs back.

Because it can be thrown, brought back and tugged, this opens up a great amount of possibility for games - if she lets go during the tug, I'll throw it, keeping her prey-drive high.. I can throw it as she comes out of a tunnel, or use it as a target to latch on to after a tight turn.
It seems very sturdy for my girl, though I wouldn't leave a serious chewer alone with it- she'd have no inclination to destroy it - and despite all the full-on tugging we've been doing, I haven't been concerned about it breaking from being over-stretched at all.

Price was pretty reasonable, I guess, given the price of most toys and tug-ropes. If you compare it to a tennis ball, sure, it's going to come out more expensive.

I bought mine from Game on Dogs, who have a huge selection of great toys for motivating your dog. I also got my 'lamb tug' from there too- our other favourite.  Check it out if you're looking for an affordable, versatile toy for motivating your dog!