At the Fair Part II: the Agility Course

By Maya on October 31, 2011

A few weeks ago, my Papillon Riyo and I ran our first agility course in front of a small audience, and the way I performed is a perfect example of why I titled this blog “an idiot’s guide.”  My dogs are the geniuses, while I, on the other hand, often look like an idiot.

If you aren’t familiar with the Agility sport, the basic idea is that you and your dog work as a team to navigate through a course of obstacles.  In this case, a course of 18 obstacles (or was it 20?) clearly numbered with bright orange cones place next to each one.  As you move through the course, your dog follows your body language and words to know which obstacle to tackle next.

My little Papillon Riyo is so smart he makes me look like I am much more competent than I am.  He is so intensely focused on me that he responds to every move I make.  ALL I have to do is count to 18 and point at the right obstacle.  (except the weave poles, “we” (I) haven’t quite figured those out yet).  In my defense, following the course IS a little harder than it looks.

Papillon doing Agility

Riyo and me at the last jump!

Starting with obstacle No. 1, we’re off.  We get through the first 4 or 5 ok.  “Jump!” “Tunnel!”…not bad.  Then, either on 6 or 7, I hit my first hiccup.  Where is seven?  I have to clumsily stop and whirl around to figure out where to go next.  Now I’m getting more nervous and instead of saying “Jump!” I find myself counting out loud.  “Ummm….eight! Ummmm NINE!”  Ugh, NO!  I sound like an idiot!  “Jump!”  “Ummm… 11!”  Oh, this is not so good.

Despite my fumbling, Riyo is catching my drift and doing his best to figure out my clumsy and completely un-fluid progress through this course.   But, we’re still going, “Thirteen!”  I yell out, still counting out loud (oh my poor dog) — Then, as if my GPS suddenly lost power, I look around and cannot for the life of me find 14.  I’m spinning around, flustered, looking for 14 until finally the other club members have mercy on me and point at the elusive 14 and yell “tunnel!” at me.

Flustered and rather embarrassed, I look down at my little dog, and there he is still looking at me like I am the smartest, most amazing person on the planet.  He’s just waiting for me to tell him which way we’re going next!  Truly, no matter how idiotic or incompetent I am, my dog still looks at me like I am descended from Einstein.  The other thing I noticed was that he didn’t care how incompetent I was.  He was SMILING!  He was having a blast, just bouncing around and doggie laughing!

You know, he was right!  Who cares!  This IS fun!  And with that  bit of silent wisdom from my little buddy, I stopped feeling embarrassed and nervous and we finished the course.  Next time, I’ll remember that doggie lesson and just have fun!  Can’t wait to try again!

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Riyo flips me the tail at doggie agility graduation day…..

By Maya on March 12, 2011

This week was the last day of Riyo’s second try at beginning agility class and this time around there was no inexplicable “come-when-called-by-stranger” requirement, so he graduated!  For our class graduation, they set up a full agility course and each dog had their turn on the course just like a real competition.  I was completely confident that after Riyo’s stellar performance at the outdoor adoption event on Saturday, he was going to completely blow away the rest of the class.

The big dogs went first and one after another, the dogs went through the course, skipping a couple obstacles here and there, and at worst disappearing at cheetah speed into the field behind the course.  I was watching the performances feeling 100% cocky because Riyo was going to cruise through that course and put them all to shame pretty soon.  He’s already a pro you know.

Finally, it was our turn, very last as he is the very smallest.  Saving the best for last, of course.  So we go to the starting point and I take Riyo’s collar off, noticing, but ignoring his panting and generally weird expression.  He was going to snap out of it in just a sec and impress everyone with his agility splendor.  So, I tell him to “stay” and walk confidently past the first jump.  Look at that perfect stay! This is going to be good.  “Ok!” I say with all the enthusiasm I could squeak out, and here he comes for the first jump!…..and there he goes…skillfully avoiding the first jump altogether and running straight past me and the second jump.  WHAT?  Wait!  Riyo!  This is not impressing anybody.  Ok, let’s recover, we can do it.  “Come on Riyo!” I say in my annoyingly high pitch “I’m-going-to-convince-him-that-this-is-fun” voice.  Let’s go run across the dog walk!  It’ll be great! Ok, “Walk it!” And…….he goes through a tunnel instead and heads off toward his crate at the other end of the course, but we’re only half way through!

This is far from impressive.  As a matter of fact, I think we’re making the cheetah dog look good at this point.  I go and retrieve Riyo and skip over to the table.  Ok Riyo, you can do this.  “Table! Table! Table!” I’m really squeaking now. Whew, ok he’s on the table, never mind the down stay. Let’s go to the a-frame!  Ok, we can redeem ourselves here.  This is impressive.  Little Riyo climbing the A-frame will make everyone go “OOohhh!”  So “let’s go Riyo!  Walk it!”….and there he goes past it and me, and over the next little jump.  Train wreck.  One cool obstacle left, the ring jump before the last little jump at the finish line.  Please, can we at least do the ring? With all the squeaky excited puppy voice I can muster I make a try for it.  “Ok Riyo let’s go, ring! Jump!”  And……there he goes past me, past the ring, and straight to the last course jump at the finish line 15 feet ahead of me. He stops at the jump, hops over it, flipping me off with his tail as he went over.  “I’m done, that’s it! BYE!”

How did he graduate you ask?  It’s a no fail class.  Everyone passes.

 

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Traing for Dog Sports or Companion Dog? The school of opposites.

By Maya on February 25, 2011

Rule:  If you want to train a dog for sports, build drive.

I must at this point go back and address my initial post about the Monks of New Skete book. As I’ve mentioned before, I am no professional or expert. I am stumbling my way through and making a lot of mistakes on the way, then recounting what I am learning from the more experienced as I go. The Monks of New Skete and many other training books are directed at people who just want a nice companion dog and have no interest in dog sports. Most people don’t plan on taking time every day to train their dog or try to get a title in some dog sport. If you are a companion pet person, Monks of New Skete and all the popular training methods out there are for you. Probably the most popular figure in the dog world is Ceasar Milan, and his show is also geared at people who just want their dog to behave and be a calm and enjoyable companion. Now, I never thought that this version of how to raise a dog would be so opposite from what I am learning about Schutzhund and agility dogs.

Building drive is a term that I have heard over and over since starting to get into these dog sports. This is a term that I didn’t think about a few months ago and if I did, I thought of it in terms of, oh no, prey drive! What I have been taught now by both Schutzhund and Agility people alike is that drive is key in all this training and that many of the conventional dog rearing techniques actually diminish a dog’s drive and therefore ability to excel in a dog sport.

Why the disconnect? As I’ve understood it so far, there may be a give and take especially when the dogs are young. The Schutzhund club members actually said they like their dogs to be “barely tolerable” until they get over a year. “Barely tolerable” is not what the average family is looking for in a dog, nor what the average person is capable of handling. The drive makes it easier to train the dogs in dog sports as it channels that drive into constructive and permissible activities, aka, the sport. In a companion dog environment with less experienced owners, letting a dog’s drive take over without tempering it with training and sport can turn into a domestic tornado and dogs going to the pound. We don’t want dogs going to the pound! We want dogs with nice homes, living comfortably! So, Ceasar, the Monks, and others are right to discourage a lot of dominant and drive building games that those interested in dog sports work hard at building.

Where I screwed up. I followed every rule to bring up a nice, well-behaved companion dog and in the process broke every rule for bringing up a working dog prospect. I was so proud that Lizzie passed her AKC CGC (canine good citizen) test at 6 months, but when I told the working club guy that he said “I’ll try not to hold that against you.” UGH?!!! I simply didn’t know any better and I didn’t realize I’d enjoy these sports until after I had my dogs. The most serious screw up is with tug-of-war. I had it so ingrained from the books and shows that tug-of-war = disaster. Apparently that is the case for many people. I went with the “if you play tug of war, you better win” method as well as the “DROP IT” immediately command. I’m sure anybody in the dog sport department will groan at that one. So from the time Lizzie was 2-5 months I fought with her daily and made sure I always won. She would look me in the eye and hold on to whatever it was she had and put up a great puppy fight that frustrated me to no end, but I was more relentless that she was. I even used the “coins in a can” method to get her to let go. To explain, a .38 doesn’t phase Lizzie but The Can is like nails on a blackboard, she HATES it. I found that I could not stop her from ANYTHING by the Monks’ “grab her by the scruff and shake with a firm NO” suggestion. Oh no. That was the start of a fight I would lose. But The Can is the Lizzie nemesis. So after two months of daily battles, I achieved perfect companion dog behavior. If my hand goes on it and I say drop, drop it and don’t tug, because if you tug you’ll just lose and feel like a defeated loser dog.

What I really achieved. A dog with almost no toy drive. JUST GREAT. I’ve been working the last two months to rebuild toy drive, but I can still see that imprinted hesitation when she strikes at a toy, tug or rag. I can see her look at me or whoever else is playing with this look like, “when is the dreaded can coming?” I know if I hadn’t spent so much effort in killing that behavior she would be tugging like crazy. I still haven’t gotten her to really put her body weight into a really good tug. Per club instructions, I started the rebuilding process by “back-tying” her to a tree and getting her to get really excited about a raccoon tail that I had attached to a fishing pole. This way, I wasn’t so close to it and she could feel comfortable really going for it. After two weeks of this, her drive went from zero to 50. Then she just planed. She will chase and grab at her toys and pull with about 50% of her strength. The club members are skeptical that she will ever go beyond this level of drive and they are not sure she will have the nerve to do protection at all. I’m now also not sure how much of her behavior is genetic and how much is inflicted by me. I guess the only thing I can do is keep trying and see what happens after 6 months to a year.  She may have reached her genetic potential, which is ok too.

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Riyo flunks agility class and meets the doggie shrink

By Maya on February 21, 2011

Now that I learned a bit more about agility and have some renewed confidence, I will tell my first attempt at trying this sport. When I got my first Papillon, Riyo, I took him to a beginning agility class at an agility club. He was great learning  the basic commands in the class, BUT…the instructor wanted the dogs to do an exercise where another person in the class calls your dog, and your dog is supposed to go to them. I still don’t know why this was important for agility, but anyway…that little exercise Riyo failed with flying colors. Not only would he not move toward the other person, he would just stand there and bark at them. There was NO WAY. So, he was not permitted to continue and the instructor referred me to a dog behaviorist.  We never got within 50 feet of a tunnel, chute, or anything else agility. THAT didn’t go quite like I’d hoped, now did it.

Enter dog behaviorist. I did contact the lady I was referred to, and she showed up at my house in a little mini-cooper with a bag of chicken and a clicker. Her fee, a mere $300. WHAT? At that time I only had two dogs and more money, so I signed up and she started her first session. As soon as she turned her attention to Riyo, he started barking at her incessantly until he literally almost passed out. I’m not exaggerating. The little dope would bark so rapidly he’d hyperventilate and almost fall over. So she tries standing sideways to be less intimidating, ok good idea, and as soon as there is a break in the barking (aka hyperventillation) she would click and treat. Now in theory this sounds like this could be a good idea. Dog associates ceasing to bark with a treat and learns to stop barking. Now, the flaw in this plan, which Riyo also noticed, is that you must first bark to stop barking. Right?

Three sessions and $300 later, Riyo is successfully trained to bark incessantly when he wants a treat. He still despised the trainer and wouldn’t let her near him, but he’d bark to get a treat. I guess the up side to it was that the barking changed from a aggressive, defensive bark to just an annoying begging bark. And yes, you can actually tell the difference. So to this day, Riyo barks at whosoever may be holding food in hopes of getting a click and a treat. Now THAT didn’t go quite the way I wanted either, now did it.

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My intro to a USDAA Agility Trial

By Maya on February 21, 2011

I have been interested in agility for quite some time and seen it on YouTube and TV a few times, but I had never attended an actual competition. The local training club here TOTC (they are the best) hosted a USDAA trial this weekend and I signed up to help work it. I sauntered in a little before 8am and the place was already buzzing. There was equipment of all sorts going up, tables of goodies, and dog crates all over the place. Even better, there was coffee, kolaches, and donuts. Jackpot.

In turn for my coffee and donuts, I was quickly assigned the job of pole setter for the Relay or “Pairs” event, and had my very own chair at the side of the arena. First lesson of the day, don’t bring coffee or any other food items onto the course. Rookie mistake one. If you spill then there’s a yummy scent to distract the dogs. Sans coffee, as pole setter your job is to run around the ring setting the pole at the height the judge yells out and if a dog knocks one over, run out and fix it. I was setting poles at 8in, 12in, 16in, 22in, and 26in, depend on the dog size of course. So itty bitty dogs ran the course, then then next size up, next size up. Every type of dog was out there from a toy something-or-other and yorkies, to border collies and a Doberman, and everything in between. Any size dog, any breed dog, and any mixed breed dog can participate. In pairs, one dog would run half the course, they’d pass the baton and the second dog would start. Dog one did jumps, tunnel, teeter totter, and weave poles and dog two did the dog walk, A-frame, and jumps.

The next round was Standard Agility, which is about the same course as Pairs except one dog runs the entire course and there is a chute in addition to the tunnel. I was assigned as chute girl. Sure! Why not? Turns out chute girl is the dog agility version of ball girl. About every 45 seconds a dog was running the course, and about every 45 seconds I was hustling onto the course to re-set the chute for the next dog. Re-setting the chute is simply straightening out the fabric exit so the next dog can get through without entanglements. The first run, I discovered quickly that timing is important. Rookie mistake number two. The judge instructed me to go to the chute and get ready to fix it as soon as the dog went through it, but before it was finished with the course. So, I get up and start sauntering over to the chute, taking my sweet time until I notice the dog was coming back my way. I almost blew that one, but fortunately I just got an amused smirk and cautionary instructions from the judge. The last thing I wanted was a mad dog handler cussing me out for ruining their run, so from that point on, I did not saunter, I hustled. Back and forth and back and forth.

YouTube video of Standard Agility run:

In case I may have been tempted to flee after chute duty, they bribed me with a ticket for free lunch and with four dogs to feed, I never pass up a free lunch! During my lunch break, I watched the beginning Jumpers, which got me all excited. I didn’t realize they had an easier course for beginner dogs and/or handlers. I’m thinking maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to do that with Riyo? I will try. Before today I was very scared of trying an actual competition because I can imagine everything just falling apart because I or Riyo has a bad day. Now I see that falling apart is expected. It happens. You have a big noisy place full of dogs. So the worst that could happen is I just pick Riyo up and go home. Maybe in May at the next one we will star in beginners Jumpers! Though Riyo only runs this fast for dinner, one can aspire:

In payment for my “free” lunch, I went back to pole setter duty in an event called “Snooker,” which I still do not understand. Someone tried to explain the rules to me, but they lost me about 5 seconds in. There are points and flags, and some kind of pattern that I never understood. The judge is yelling out numbers as they are running and if a dog jumped over x jump instead of y jump it was bad. Again, I did not figure out why one jump this way was bad and one jump that way was good. Here’s a video of a very nice Snooker run:

Last event I did was the Advanced Jumpers. This time I was leash girl. This is a fairly simple job. The handlers remove the leash and collar from the dog before they run and chunk it in your general direction, sometimes without looking. So the only real issue is paying attention and not getting hit with a flying brass leash clip. While they run the course, in 18-30 seconds, you move the leash to a bucket at the finish line where many times the dogs proudly retrieve it themselves. The winner of that round was a border collie that finished in a little over 18 seconds.

Advanced Jumpers video:

And that ended the day of Agility and I came away with a better understanding of the sport, free meals, and a good bit of exercise. Next time, Riyo and I will be on the course!

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