"The majesty. That from man's soul looks through his eager eyes.” - William Morris

FEO. FEO. FEO.

I'm beyond excited to say (so much excitement even after a big mix-up!) that Blade and I WILL be competing at the ITT World Team Tryouts which are just under two weeks away!

Although we are not vying for a spot on this years team we will be running FEO (or For Exhibition Only for anyone going "HUH?") and fingers crossed we will be giving the judges a performance (or whoever it is that selects team members) something to remember for 2014 Tryouts!

For those that are not in the know, here in Minnesota we still have snow. Lots of it. Which has made it a bit difficult (not impossible mind you) but difficult to train as much as I would like on actual equipment. With weather conditions being close to dangerous I haven't been able to get down to my ring rental nearly as much as I would have liked this past month. So, instead I have been focusing on Blade's overall conditioning and fitness. It's paid off :) his rear end is the strongest it has ever been and physically he is more than ready to handle a weekend running on carpet.

Today we finally got a break in the weather (sort of) and I pulled out some jumps and set up a mini-sequence that we COULD encounter in a few weeks. I actually saved all of the courses from last year's Tryouts and made some notations where some teams ran into trouble. Going into the next two weeks I just want to focus on "tuning-up" some things that we haven't worked on in a while. I have no intention of introducing any new skills to Blade as I doubt we'd execute it correctly at Tryouts.

The sequence I broke down today was an improvised version of Anne Riba's Round 1 Large Agility Standard course. I wasn't in the mood to set up the dogwalk with all of the sporadic rain showers we have been getting all day, so I chose to substitute it with two jumps instead. 

The full course for anyone interested:

Then the mini-sequence I focused on. Obstacles 7-11.

I ended up running both Blade and Viper on this particular mini-sequence and got some really good effort from both dogs. I even videotaped Blade's session! You can check that out as well:

I have plenty of mini-sequences from last year to brush up on with Blade leading up to Tryouts. The plan is to videotape and time every session and analyze our strengths and weakness just a bit more (you can never do that too much? Right?) to help prepare myself mentally for Tryouts. Blade? Well he'll just keep on being his usual brilliant self. I just have to focus on giving the weekend OUR very best effort.

Wish us luck!

Finding Opportunity in Opportunities.

A while back there was an article being passed around FB and although I can't for the life of me remember who the author was of the article I do know that he (or she?) was a well known herding handler from the US. The article itself struck a chord with me as it was the author's observation at herding trials regarding participating handlers willingness and/or desire to simply sit down and watch other competitors compete with their dogs.

The article struck a chord with me because I think its relevance carries over to any dog sport, obedience, hunt tests, field trials, tracking etc. and yes even agility. I will be the first to admit, my journey with Viper is still evolving. I will also admit at times he has been by far the most difficult dog that I have ever worked with. Some would call him "busy" and to an extent I agree with them. I prefer to call him a "thinker and do'er".

 Da Vipe does think about things, A LOT for about five seconds and then he DOES whatever it was he was thinking about. Generally, as fast as he can. Needless to say, this does get him into some oddball predicaments on a regular basis and for quite some time it drove me absolutely insane. As of late? I simply come to his rescue (the best that I can) and embrace that aspect of his personality, as I did help instill it in him. I am constantly in awe of Viper's ability to reason (for lack of a better word) and problem solve in everyday situations or even while training.

For some reason, while running him in a trial environment I simply forgot to be in awe of his ability to reason. This has made our progress at trials almost as slow as a herd of turtles running through peanut butter (I was going to use the word hindered but refrained from doing so as we HAVE made progress.) Somewhere along  the way I stopped thinking about all of the "little things" that needed to be in place to make the "big picture" shine brightly. My focus remained on the "big picture" end result and that was the problem in itself.

Being able to go back and replay video has probably been the most crucial aid in helping Viper succeed in the ring. Pushing him to succeed when mentally he wasn't mature enough to handle such pressure was a lesson in humility that he handed to me in spades. Behaviors and sequences I KNEW he knew that we consistently could NOT complete in a trial was frustrating to me for a time.

Until it didn't.

After making the decision to stop trying to qualify for this years AKC Nationals the boys and I took a giant step back from trialing and just lived. We hiked. We trail ran. We played fetch. We learned new tricks. Somewhere in the process, Da Vipe matured mentally. Somewhere the sequences we couldn't do previously, we started to complete and more often than not I began seeing more and more moments of brilliance and less of less brilliance. Somewhere along the line I started to focus on the opportunities each run presented to us at trials and instead of focusing on the "end picture" of a "Q" I started to ask Viper to "awe" me with his understanding of the "little things".

And awe me he did.

This past weekend on a whim I entered a local ASCA trial to get some much needed "trail like" experience in, with the ability to train in the ring if needed. My intentions were simple. Get Viper on the dogwalk and let him show me his understanding. I've previously posted about his performance of the obstacle and how we are working towards getting it to the "shining brightly" stage. Little by little, each run made a big impact on his next performance and by the last run he gave me a performance that made the entire day worthwhile.

While not running him, I took an opportunity for myself to simply sit down and watch other dog and handler teams run. It has been a very long time since I have done that and you want to know what? It felt good. To watch teams from the very new to the very experienced, to watch their moments of brilliance and their moments of "less" brilliance. All of it. Every second of it.

There were times that I saw some dogs doing things that could be considered "naughty" or "bad", yet the question I kept asking myself was; "Will that dog get to "awe" its owner?" There were some moments where a dog was asking for feedback and didn't receive it but there were also times that when a dog did awe their owner, the dog was praised and they continued on. I couldn't help but celebrate right along with them. Taking the initiative to find an opportunity in EVERY opportunity is not the easiest task. Nor is it always the most rewarding. Yet, I know deep down that the "end picture" will shine all the brighter because of such a simple decision.

Find the opportunity. Take the opportunity and make it what you wish.

If not for your sake, but your partners.

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

Some people are aware and some people are not that Viper and I have been having some issues with his dogwalk performance at trials as of late. 

Some people are also aware due to some physical limitations and the amount of time I have already focused on a running dogwalk with results that are not ideally what I want, I made the decision to put a stop to Viper's dogwalk (he still runs his Aframe). 

I introduced the stop gradually over a span of several months AWAY from the dogwalk obstacle itself. Viper figured it out in like 0.2 seconds. I focused a lot more on the proofing of the bottom behavior at trials, at parks, in the house, out in the yard etc. Lots and LOTS of proofing. Then I added it back to a low dogwalk last fall. 

Only problem with that? Since last fall we haven't gotten a TON of opportunities to train on "other" dogwalks. So, we worked what we could and I made sure I reinforced what I wanted when I got it and ignored it when I didn't. The only problem with that? It created a HUGE gray area for Da Vipe.

Insert problem.

Insert video proof of said "problem".

The video itself only shows the last two trials I entered Da Vipe in. The first few clips are from our weekend up in Fargo a few weeks ago. The very first dogwalk you can see the dramatic decrease in Viper's forward momentum as soon as he caught sight of the dogwalk. You can also hear the crowd's reaction to his behavior. I even had a couple of people come up to me afterwards and tell me what a "brave boy" he was for overcoming his fear.

Note, Viper is not afraid of the dogwalk.

Far from it. It is probably his favorite obstacle next to tunnels.

You can also see that he "downed" on the middle of the dogwalk. Although I give him originality points, it is most definitely NOT his criteria for his "Zoom!" behavior. I replayed AND replayed videos and the conclusion that I have come to is: Viper was so unsure of WHAT the correct behavior was seeing a full sized dogwalk at trials that he offered me the very first "stopped" behavior I accepted from him. For a while I just "moved on" after he offered me incorrect behaviors and you want to know what? They started showing up more and more (that started long before the Fargo shows). After that first Standard run I sat down in the crating area, put in the headphones and mulled over the entire thing for over an hour.

And I new plan of attack was formed.

Critieria for Da Vipe's Dogwalk?

 DOing and not TRYing.

I believe 110% that Viper understands the "Zoom!" behavior, which means race across the contact and get into the 2o2o end position.

I believe he understands the behavior well enough to also verbally mark any incorrect performances.

As the video progresses I made the change from simply restarting Da Vipe and "moving on" to marking TRYing behaviors. At 0.55 seconds Viper simply DID the behavior to criteria and you want to know what? When I gave him verbal praise, the look of understanding on his face solidified to me that he NEEDS that feedback. So what about the jump afterwards we completely annihilated? That one simple act made the gray area diminish quite a bit!

The remaining dogwalks are from the ASCA trial we dropped in at yesterday and during the first few rounds we got a ton of TRYing again. Mind you, the game plan going INTO the day was to focus on Viper DOing his 2o2o contact behavior. I could tell there was a lot more thinking going on between his ears than at Fargo simply because he had trialed at that location multiple times with a RUNNING dogwalk.

Focusing on the game plan was hard.

But THAT was the reason I entered the show in the first place.

Decrease the gray and increase the confidence.

It payed off in spades.

The last two dogwalks are not even CLOSE to what Viper's confident performance is across the dogwalk but it IS a start. A start that reinforced (AGAIN) how important it is to stick to the plan! Knowing that, I just love it when a plan comes together!

Six. Seis. Sie. Kussi. Sechs.

The Bee's Knees turned six years old last week. 

I totally overlooked it. 

Not because I love him less than Viper (I remembered Vipe's Bithday...)

I wasn't too busy...

I wasn't working extra hours...

I didn't have 101 more important things to do...

It simply slipped my mind.

I could go on forever about how much Blade means to me,

He's the peanut butter to my jelly,

The cat to my meow,

the ray to my sunshine,

the kindred to my spirit.

The list is endless.

Yet, I could go on endlessly and still not write the words that best describe my affection for this dog.

Because of this, I think pictures will have to do...

My six favorite pictures of Blade to be exact.

He is honest as the day is long and a better dog than I will ever deserve.

For those attributes alone he received a brand new bone and few new toys today.

I hope we will have at least another six years together, although I think that starting with forever will do.

Although they only come close, these words seemed fitting.

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

                                          ~ Emily Bronte

Happy Sixth Birthday, Blade. You are indeed "The Bee's Knees".

Introductions. The Start of Beautiful Things.

Be it known, my confidence in Blade might be a little TOO high but I already re-introduced him to the running Aframe jump grid. Our first session went extraordinarily well as far as I'm concerned. We had a few minor hiccups here and there but as a whole it was just fabulous!

Looking back at the video (which is below) I noticed how much I emphasis proofing the "forward" corner. I don't knowingly do this but I tend to be AHEAD of Blade 90% of the time when he is completing an Aframe in competition so I think it boils down to my comfort level? Its noted that I do need to really work on sending Blade AHEAD of me to complete his "Hit-It!" command but again, it is a work in progress!

My eyes need a bit of training as well, as you can see in the video the first three (yes THREE) reps were rewarded when they should not have been! This session we just worked on the three different corners again and kept things pretty short and sweet!

What You Need.

Checking for Understanding

As noted in the last few posts, Blade and I are working through some foundation work to help get an Aframe performance that we can both live with.

I'm glad to say that not only did mother nature cooperate this weekend, she cooperated fabulously enough that I had several opportunities to train both of the boys!

Blade and I worked through two separate sessions of box work on Sunday. The only thing that really changed was the location of where we trained the behavior.

Video is below of our second session



We didn't have any major "hiccups" although I am well aware that Blade has the hardest time meeting criteria when he is on my right and I ask him to go ahead of me. It's just another piece of the puzzle to work on to make his performance even better, right?

After this session, I actually felt confidently enough with Blade's performance that I gave him a break and came back later to "test" his understanding of the "Hit-It!" command. Yes, I even got video of that too!

Video is below



*Side Note* I have a had a few people ask what kind of toy I am using as I've been able to withhold the toy the few times Blade has made a mistake. I initially started using a Holy Rollerz but with the dirt from my driveway they just get too everything. Too Slobbery, too muddy, too slimy.

I'm actually using a large Booda Wing-A-Ball. They just happen to be one of Blade's favorite toys and I like that they are considerably heavier than a lot of other ball and rope combos out there on the market.

Overall, I'm super happy with Blade's performance thus far. Keep in mind Blade HAS had some (OK, A LOT) of work with targeting to things in the past, so this was nothing out of the ordinary for him. I'm sure for some other dogs the progress would't be this fast. I have the day off from work tomorrow and I'm going to try my best to set up the actual jump grid and as always I promise an attempt to get video!