Wyatt Agility Photos From October NADAC Trial

Downs

I have been working on Wyatt's downs a lot. He has been coming up into a sit lately. He has done this before. Not sure why it happens periodically. Perhaps it has something to do with the colder weather or a physical discomfort issue.

I made some tunnel bags yesterday for a about $2 a piece. Much cheaper than the $100 most places get. I'll take a picture and describe the design in my next blog.

Ob Class - Challenging

Wyatt and I had a challenging obedience class last night. First, we did long sits and downs. Wyatt has been having trouble with downs so I decided to stay in sight. The down was first. I asked the teacher if the dogs were too close since we had many dogs against the smaller wall. She say no so I went ahead. A few minutes into the down, a black Briard lunged over at Wyatt barking at him. He broke and walked towards me. I put him back in a different spot and he was OK. He proceeded to do some really great drops and retrieves. I decided to try directed jumping next. Wyatt had a difficult time but we did have some success with help. For example, I had to use cheese and go up to him for the sit. It was definitely harder at class. I assume this is because of the new location (also, there were poles next to the jumps) and greater distances. He has been doing a 100% unassisted directed jump exercise at home. So that's fine. Need to practice more at class with support. We then decided to try scent discrimination, which is usually a fun no brainer. Wyatt has a lot of trouble with that too, which is very unusual. The difference was the location and greater distance and I think, more importantly, that the "steward" handled the articles. So I definitely need to practice with different people's scents too. It may be that Wyatt is going to the hot scent and not my scent.

NADAC Results

I had a very fun weekend at a NADAC trial. The weather was miserable Sunday but Wyatt and I had one of our best days ever. We came very close to having perfect day and getting our elite versatility title missing Touch N Go by a few seconds. But we got 5 Qs in regular (2), chances, tunnelers, and jumpers. We did not get any regular and chances Qs the day before. The courses were really hard so it was great to get all of them Sunday, a first for us. This puts Wyatt at 10 more Qs for his NATCH for regular and chances. He got his elite chances title Sunday. We also got 2 jumpers Qs this weekend. Wyatt needs just 3 more for his superior elite jumpers title. I will probably retire him from jumpers after that. We have been in a bit of a slump for jumpers lately. I made sure I did not take any jumps for grants and stayed connected the whole time. Wyatt really rocked. He only missed one contact all weekend and I did what I needed to do to ensure good contacts. Patriot really did well too with lots of Qs and seem to really have a good time except when the weather got really bad and except when I demotivated him with an intense calloff. That really slows him down. I'll write more later on what it felt like to have an almost perfect day as I have been thinking and writing about the mental aspects of qualifying lately.

Wow, Great Practice

Wyatt had a very good practice last night. I really worked on distance all night and kept a good distance away at all times. He did great and I could not believe how much farther he works than he used to. The other dogs, who we have been in class with for years, do not work much on distance so I could really tell how much Wyatt and I have improved comparing the distance we now work at comfortably with the other dogs. It was nice to work the distance in a relaxed fashion. I did get a few good tips too on some harder sequences that had lots of jumps side by side. That can be hard at a distance for sure. His contacts were great too although that does not mean much, if past experience is a guide, for our NADAC trial this weekend.

Upcoming

Agility class tonight. Wyatt and I are dropped in for a tune up and practice some distance before this weekend's NADAC trial. I signed up Wyatt for Novice and Open and Patriot for Novice in a December AKC obedience trial.

Obedience Class

I took both Wyatt and Patriot to obedience class last night. We got there late but I worked with Patriot in Novice/Open for about a 1/2 hour. He did well. He needs work on drop on recall. He retrieves but is hesitant and not too motivated. Good sits and downs. If only I could combine Patriot's sits and downs with everything else for Wyatt! Wyatt was happy to be back in class and also did well. The "judge" moved towards his in the retrieve over jump and he needed a second command. He also needed a second command for his first article. He went down once on the long sit even after months of practicing. Oh, well! More work to do. His broad jump and gloves were great. I am going to try and get to class every other week alternating with agility. I'd like to enter Wyatt in the Spring and possibly in a December trial.

Grasping for Qs

The elusive Qualifying Run (Q) in agility. I thought a lot about getting Qs and earning titles Saturday at the local NADAC trial. I have a goal of getting another agility championship with Wyatt in NADAC agility. The title is called a NATCH. It's a good goal. It has forced me to learn how to handle Wyatt at a much greater distance. That process has been very fun and it has forced me to improve my handling. Ultimately, I do agility because I like to learn new things and improve. I also like the excitement of having a fast and clean run with my canine partner.

But I have been too focused on getting Qs and getting that NATCH title. Focusing on these is not bad by itself. However, it was decreasing my enjoyment and actually counterproductive to our success. We have this part of mind called the ego that is always grasping for things, criticizing, and calculating. So when I messed up and lost a Q for us, I was beating myself up and having a lot of so called bad feelings. When we got a Q, I was too proud and having a lot of so called good feelings. And the grasping for the Q increased my nervousness, which decreased my performance and was resulting in handling errors on my part.

So I tried to take the No Q approach this weekend. When I found my mind saying we really needed this Q for a run coming up or calculating how many more we needed for a specific title, I just let it go and return to breathing and focusing on the upcoming run. I have found that I really need to remind myself lately of what I need to work on for each run, whether it be how I handle Wyatt's contacts (he need to hear from me throughout the contact, I need to drive to the end very smoothly, I need to paint a line with my hand a few feet ahead of him but stopping at the end of the contact), keeping my arm straight out for an "Out" command and not pumping, and a number of other things I tend to forget in the intensity of the run. So I focused on the course, keeping connnected to my dog, and what I need to work on and also remember for each run. The titles and Qs should follow from that. Starting for a place of grasping for Qs results in nervousness and also bad handling. I also find that I will take shortcuts and allow things that that I should train in the ring for if I want the Q too much. This actually results in less Qs in the long run.

I did well after our first jumpers run. We had a great run and I ran close to Wyatt because he has been running around jumps. I was pulling or pushing him around them no doubt. He did great. I thought he Qed but I saw we had an off course and a missed obstacle lately. The judge pointed out the jump I had missed lately. So I stayed happy with Wyatt's great performance and did not beat myself up. The next run was Chances, our hardest game. We qualified in Elite for the second time! I actually found it harder to stay focused on fun and the next run after getting a Q. My mind tended to go back to that place of calculating how many more Qs I needed for title or what I could get that day if things went well. Again, all things that are counterproductive. We had some other really nice runs where we missed one thing, which I accepted and focused on what went right. In regular round 1, we had contact problems. But I figured out what I needed to improve on next time and Wyatt's contacts were excellent for the rest of the day. We also had an awesome Weavers run and got Wyatt's elite Weavers title. It is extremely difficult to make time in Weavers. We had a perfect run with 3 awesome 12 pole weaves.

I found I had a very enjoyable day at agility, much better than my last weekend when I felt very disappointed. So my new mantra is: "have fun and focus on the run."

Agility Tomorrow

I can only do one day of agility this weekend and it's tomorrow. We are entered in a NADAC trial in VT. It's upposed to rain. For some reason, I am not too excited about it. I've had a very stressful and tiring week and have also been feeling that we need to practice more. Oh well. I am sure it will be fun to get away and who knows? Maybe we'll have an awesome day.

Fixed One Thing; Another to Be Fixed

Wyatt has been anticipating the finish on retrieves. He brings back the dumbbell and sits in front of me and is supposed to wait for a command to come back to heel position. I waited extra long and did not treat when he jumped the gun so he now waits (reluctantly.) I try to wait a little extra so he won't start anticipating again. I am still having problems with barking before the glove (directed) retrieve though. I think those are most like a prey item to him and all the fooling around and moving with me before he gets to go seems frustrating to him.

NADAC Last Sunday

Felt a little disappointed last Sunday. Got a Tunnelers Q with with Wyatt but nothing else though we had some really good runs we could not get the 100%. It sure it hard for both you and the dog to both have a good day and put everything together with no mistakes. The courses were hard but we could have done them. Made some mistakes like I the last 2 tunnels with Chances. In regular, I realized that I was overhandling and stopping Wyatt before the yellow zone so I drove to the end more in our second Regular run. But then I got lost, something I never do. Ran by some jumps in Jumpers when I did not maintain contact. One of those days I guess. I think I need to write a list of things to remember that I can review before our runs so I don't keep making the same mistakes.

New Courses

I finally got the lawn mow Thursday night so I need to set up some new agility courses. I feel really stuck in thinking of new courses. Our contacts are pretty much stuck in the same place. We have 2 areas, one with contacts. With the non-contact area, I seem to always make up similar courses. We missed out Chances Q last Sunday in an otherwise awesome run with 2 tunnels side by side sending him out to the outer tunnel. Totally my fault, I saw that we might Q, got nervous and started to pump my arm, which brought him in.

Quick NADAC Report

Wyatt went 1 for 6 but has some real close ones like .6 over for tunnelers and almost got chances but his 1 Q was a 1st in Regular (Standard) which we need for his NATCH. Patriot went 3 for 4 but pooped out on his last run.

Sits

I have been working on sits more. Instead of doing long out of sights, I am doing more short in sight sessions trying to work on fidgeting. I actually think I should do both types of practice. Wyatt tends to fidget quite a bit, which can turn into moving out of position, laying down, or standing up when under stress. So I am rewarding for short periods of no movement and saying "Oops" if there is fidgeting. Hoping to do at least one Open attempt this fall but agility has been the priority. There is an open date in December but my teacher is the judge. Shoot!

Run Thrus

Did some run thrus tonight at our local club. We brought Aidan. We are trying to keep him exposed to dog sports. He wants to do agility but it's hard as the dogs focus on me and not him and it's hard for Aidan to connect to the dog when they aren't focused on him, he does not understand that he has to keep at it and keep issuing commands. Then it's hard for him to treat quickly and not eat the treat himself.

Both dogs ran well though. I pushed the distance with Wyatt so we had a few small errors but it was great practice for our NADAC trial in Wrentham this weekend.

Checking In - Agility

I want my dog to constantly be checking in with me. When we run the best, we are continually checking in with each and adjusting to each other. Checking in, to me, is different from stopping and turning back to me. When that happens, I have not given Wyatt a cue in time. That is not desirable.

The NADAC folks that do bonus lines (they run the whole course basically from behind the start/finish line), usually teach their dogs to keep running in a "straight" line unless directed otherwise. That can work too, but then you need to be able to change directions with a verbal or physical command or both. They usually run the course "in miniature" from behind the line, but in theory the dog would keep going in a straight line no matter what they are doing. There is a very good team that trained this way but the dog does not always check in and runs its own course frequently and the handler complains that the dog did not check in with her. Anyway, what I want is a continual checkin using peripheral vision. That does mean I have to leave space to move in the desired direction when working behind a gamble line. It's a real challenge to shorten one's stride when one is used to trying to run WITH a fast whippet. But it does work.

Also, in a previous post I talked about the OUT command and that a lot of people pump their hands screaming OUT, which brings your dog in to you (the hand pumping.) Note that is it possible to just use a verbal to discriminate 2 side by side obstacles at distance. However, it is going to be much easier and less stressful to find out the physical cues your dog naturally needs to discriminate at the distance.

It is going to be helpful if you run NADAC or other venues with challenging gambles to have an OUT and GO ON command. However, they are typically going to be mostly physical cues. In my experience, this is something that needs to be studied and worked on when you get to the larger distances. I see a lot of really bad distance handling because people have not really worked on it or studied it. Again, typically you see this when people pump their arms and scream OUT to the dog, often from a stationary position. What they should be doing is leaving space behind the gamble line to be heading in the right direction, painting a line with their hand/finger a few feet ahead of the dog, keeping there arm out and level and (not high up or pumping), and supporting the dog with a verbal OUT. When I do OUT, I push out an open hand against the dog's line and lean into the dog's line. Some people keep painting the line. Also, if I need to do a contact/'tunnel or other discrimination at a distance, I push perpendicular to the dog's line at a point 1/3 of the way from the first obstacle. I was taught to go 1/2 way but I found with Wyatt that that was too late.

Tracking Sunday

Here is Wyatt's track from Sunday. He did pretty well once we got going. I do need to start reading him more and reading the track less. He does tend to go off track and I need to recognize what he does when he goes off the track rather than reading my map or seeing the track itself and stopping to let him get back on. He found once turn very nicely, which I had lost track of. This field is narrow and I forgot to leave a good escape route and he picked up my scent from walking back after laying the track at one point. Wyatt followed the whole track and found all the articles. He seems to really like it because he gets very excited before we start.

Check In

I have been working with Wyatt (and Patriot) but not writing much. No big insights or competitions. We do have a NADAC trial in 2 weeks. I hope to be able to squeeze in an obedience trial or 2 in the fall. I am running out of room in yard to work distance with Wyatt (unless I can think more creatively) and Wyatt's go outs have been fantastic. I should try those outside and add the directed jump part in before he gets to used to coming back directly to me. I am also trying to ramp up my sits and downs training as I have been a little lax lately and I know from experience that we need to always be working on that.

Running Out of Room

I feel like I am running out of room in our yard with Wyatt. My main focus in agility now is distance work for NADAC Elite Chances. He is doing great but I may need to drop in on our local agility classes or rent a ring to get the distance we need.

Vacation

I have been on vacation at the beach for the last week and a half and have done minimal dog training, just a little obedience here and there.