#dog agility
An update for my imaginary friends
So just after New year’s I returned the dog I had on a “feeding contract”. The owner wasn’t happy, but it was her dog legally and it just didn’t live up to what she told me about it. I didn’t want another couch potato. I should have returned it all the way back in November, but I felt sad for it because the owner said I could just euthanize it, if I didn’t want it. It was a sweet dog, but I wanted someone to accompany me to competitions and not just to the toilet. In the end I realized if the owner wanted it euthanized, she could damn well do it herself.
Then back in September I saw saw a breeding announcement on the ‘agility puppies’ Facebook group. There was a mudi litter planned that I just felt really drawn to. I was #6 on the waiting list so I reconned my chances would be nonexistent. But low and behold. In mid January I was told that there would be a puppy for me!
I haven’t chosen my puppy myself, since I believe and trust the breeder knows her babies better and can make the choice better. Shes so sweet and sends me pictures almost daily. It’s her first litter and the parents are both competing dogs. Of course the papers are FCI and yes I am a snob.
I have to fly to get him, but it will all worth the trouble. I’ve taken 3 weeks off from work.
TL;DR
I am getting a puppy
Look at this cute ass dog
First agility lesson 2019
So the winter break is over.
I took Aske with me to socialize and it went reallywell. He was a bit anxious at first, but he calmed down fast and were just having fun looking at the other dogs.
Here he is inside out clubhouse
He took the tunnel without me needing to persuade him. I was just standing near it and he ran through even though it was 6m long and it was dark.
Here’s the course k chose for the evening. I was lazy and picked it up from Pinterest. Though I changed the numbers.
Heres the course for anyone interested. I am pretty sure I put the 5 on the other side of where I drew it on here, though.
an agility
Bash my head against the wall because I went for too long again and she checked out on the last run. I should just do two lots of two!!!! Why push it!!! Anyway she was great, but our contacts are sloppy as she missed one if not two out of five hits.
Practiced some sends before I had to do club stuff. She missed one. I was too far away for her not to take a short cut. When I did it again with me standing closer she did both jumps. I cringe hearing my “wait wait wait” when I realised I messed up. I self-corrected and just let her have the reward. Still not at the laughing at mistakes stage, but getting better at stopping myself from demotivating her.
Ugh this video confirms that it’s all a fatigue thing. I stupidly didn’t plan tonight well and did the hard map second instead of first. I need to really organise these sessions better. As usual, she was switched on and then slowly faded. I also made the mistake of using a tug reward instead of a lotus ball at one point. Got to remind myself to stick to the plan!!!!
Did some lateral push work on Tuesday night. She missed that second attempt because I didn’t set the line right. But I’m not sure why she missed the fourth attempt, she ran around the wing instead. Everything went OK but I was distracted that day myself thinking about other things so I probably shouldn’t have trained in that headspace. I kept it short at least.
And finally this was me was testing out our new rabbit loop tug as a thrown reward. She was pretty into it, but in short bursts not long sequences.
Here is the second map from Saturday morning. Lost her at the beginning, but got her back. This is where I should have really started making it much easier, so I regret not paying enough attention to that.
This is from Saturday morning. Terrible crosses in the first couple tries, then I got smoother. I tried to focus on the don’t fix it, keep going method but watching back I did retry a fair bit anyway. Her weaves were pretty good, but she had trouble with entries again. I think maybe this setup was a little too hard for practicing entries for her.
In terms of her engagement, I thought I did well keeping her motivation up. She loves the new lotus balls. She only checked out briefly a couple of times and then re-engaged. I didn’t really keep track of the time during this session, which was a fault of mine, because she did start to fatigue toward the end of this video and into the next one I’ll post. Need to try to keep track of that and remember to decrease difficulty as the session progresses, not increase.
So I’ve been thinking about Marcie’s behaviour patterns in regards to checking out. Last night training went for around 1 hour during which we did 4 runs. She was super switched on for the first two runs and then noticeably less engaged in the second two runs, butshe was still interested in the food rewards and not as sniffy as the week before. I also dropped the tug for the last run so that she didn’t feel any pressure and only asked for simple, known behaviours (nose to hand touch).
I think that what I’m dealing with here is just fatigue over long sessions (and I think this is the same at trials). I only train this long during club nights. In shorter sessions when she has checked out in the past I’m pretty sure it has been due to environmental distractions (I train in lots of random places) and low value rewards. I’ve substantially upped my reward value and I’m trying very hard with engagement games to gauge her attention before training.
I think I just need to take into account that the longer a training session goes on, the more tired and therefore disengaged she’ll get. At club I have to stay for the full training time and I think *not* training with her isn’t an option as then she will get bored, but perhaps I can just make it easier as the night progresses, focusing on known behaviours and a high rate of reinforcement.
I’ve seen improvement already by changing my training structure and improving my food rewards. Hopefully by adding some new reinforcement methods (lotus balls are coming!) and being conscious of fatigue at club I can get better results overall and ensure that the agility game stays fun and rewarding for us both.
This was the capital H map from Stacy Goudy. The first clip is our second run of the night which went perfectly. The second clip is our last run. I got lost on our first try and messed us up. On the second try she took one tunnel the wrong way and I’m not sure why as I am facing at and gesturing at the correct tunnel entrance but she veers off. Maybe I’m slightly too far in front?
Overall I’m super happy with all of our runs. Before the first three I tugged with her for a bit and did some brief warm up spins and pop ups. On the last one I just did a treat magnet to the startline with the high value rewards (bacon and chicken) because she struggles as the night goes on. I was really happy with how much she stayed switched on all night, I think I’m finally working out what works best for her.
We did two courses tonight with two different maps each from Stacy Goudy’s ABC book. This was Capital B. The first one was our first run of the night, which went perfectly. Really pleased with it, basically no notes. Our first runs are usually our best.
The second clip here was our third run of the night and I fucked us up at the start about four times before we got the clean run. My camera rotated away on its own for that part before my friend adjusted it so I didn’t get it on camera (you can see it rotate again at 25 seconds). So I don’t even know exactly what I did wrong each time except for one of them I accidentally said “Yes” which is a marker and it pulled her off the tunnel. I made sure to say “good job” instead after that as on-course praise.
I tried some rear cross training the other evening. Marceline’s engagement and focus was excellent. I need to work on my timing for the rear cross to avoid her turning the other way. Pleased with her response to my higher value rewards. She also is still responding really well to the tug/warm up routine.
