Stacking the Deck

There was some interesting, shareable discussion on one of the Fenzi FB groups this weekend. But, if you wanted to share one of the posts, the author requested that both were shared.

These really resonate with me.

Denise Fenzi
Admin · November 12 at 3:43pm

Here is why I don't think anyone can ever tell another person that their dog is, or is not, suited for dog sports or a particular dog sport.
Because no one can know how good of a trainer another person is - or how good they might become.
No one can know how important it is to another person. Commitment and determination are a big deal. That is for the person to decide.
No one can know how happy/unhappy their dog can be before they decide it's time to throw in the towel for ethical reasons - also an individual decision.
No one can know what level of achievement they would need to attain before they can feel it was "worth it". My goals and expectations are mine - yours belong to you.
No one can know, for sure, what the future holds, based on better/different training options, the effects of maturity, changing sports, etc etc etc
So it must always remain up to the person - how far are they willing to go? Is their dog happy enough to keep at it? It's just not my place to make those determinations for another.
The only thing another person can do is tell you what route they would take. From there, the owner decides if/when/how much they can put into it.

Denise Fenzi

Admin · November 12 at 9:50am
A meme here got me thinking. What have my current dogs taught me?
Well, a lot of dog training. But that's not what I want to talk about.
What have I learned from Lyra? I have learned that I don't enjoy training her because she has no passion for working - and that's okay. I didn't do something wrong - she comes with opinions and her own interests, and they don't happen to align with mine. If I stand back and consider the route that I think I would have to take to change that? It's way beyond my level of time, energy and commitment. She is a fantastic pet dog. That's fine. We are both much happier with this lack of expectation. If she indicates a desire to work - we do some stuff. Otherwise, no worries if she is happy to watch. Yeah, I can make her look good but it's a glass house - it would fall apart in the face of serious competition and I don't believe all of the best training in the world could fundamentally change her to the level that I would need to enjoy working with her
And Brito? I have learned that if my training is exceptionally good - we can make progress. That is intriguing to me and keeps me in the game for the sake of understanding, so I like to train him. He likes to work and frequently asks, so we train, and it's all good! He has also pushed me dramatically in a variety of training areas, and as a trainer, I truly value that. But if I had serious competition goals - to the level of expectation that I hold for competition readiness? Not fun then - our progress is way too slow and would be exceedingly frustrating. And that's fine.
I no longer beat my head on the wall trying to figure out what I need to do. I just accept that other beings have opinions. As long as I am entertained and the animal is willing - I will train and see what I can do. And if that changes - I'm not having fun or the dog is opting out - then I'm not going to push through. It's okay. I can move on. I don't believe that great training guarantees anything at all - animals come with innate qualities.
If I ever get serious about dog sports again, which isn't looking too promising at this time, then I will specifically look for a dog that will want to play my games without jumping through million of hoops to get us there. With that dog, I would work to create amazing behavior chains that can hold up under specific stressors and without a high ROR at a very high level of accuracy. I've done that before and that's cool too. But I would start with a dog that was just as eager to master this as I was to teach it.
In the meantime, I got the dogs I needed. Because what they taught me - what I wrote above? I could not have truly internalized that if I hadn't gone through it. I needed to learn about slow/forgetful learners, low drives, high environmental interests and...at the end of the day....why I do dog sports. And what I found is that it only interests me if the dog and I are on the same page. And all of the best training in the world may, or may not, turn any given dog into a highly engaged and willing partner that can compete at the levels that would interest me.
And I guess I had to learn that so that I could better help other people. So that they could accept that maybe they weren't going to get there with their own dogs either and it's not just a matter of learning more or trying harder.
The animal has an opinion too. Great training can maximize a dog's potential, but it's not going to turn them into something that they are not because innate temperament is a real thing. Just like you can't "will" your human child into being a great football player when their heart lies with chess, there is no reason to believe our dogs are any different. There's no reason for guilt or self-doubt simply because the dog you haven't isn't quite right for what you had in mind.

Penny doesn't play dog sports because agility is my sport. I could potentially train her to play something else, but lets be realistic here. She's a Chihuahua with depth perception issues. They're not exactly known for drive, and she specifically doesn't have a lot of drive - except maybe to find another patch of sun, or cuddle on your lap. And that is fine. That is what and who she is. 

Spencer can have fun playing agility, but being around other dogs in a trial environment is incredibly stressful for him. So we play when he wants and train bits and pieces here and there. He's an amazing little dog. He's an awesome little agility partner on the days he feels comfortable, and on the days he doesn't - we don't need to prove anything. He's happiest chasing his frizzee in the field and running like a wild thing, or swimming in the lake retrieving his bumper, or even just hiking with his humans. And that is also fine.

Baxter is my rock. He is my first everything dog. First dog I've owned. First dog I competed in agility with. First dog I put a title on. This weekend we received the "Picture Perfect" veteran dog award at the CAA Remembrance Day Agility Trial for the photo of him I took @ Island Lake. I was pretty emotional. He's going to be 10 years old in a few months and his career is winding down.

He is so full of try. Yes, I wish I had done some things differently when we were starting out, but all in all it's been an amazing journey and he has been an amazing partner on it. We may not be in THE competitive height classes in AAC Agility, but we've done pretty well where we are at. 

Nike is a work in progress and while I won't quit working with her, I'm still working to find that key to unlock the drive to want to play my games with me. She's very smart and super sweet, but also so very soft and so very independent. 

Agility is my game. I wouldn't mind competing in some other sports, like Rally-O, but Agility is my game and I want a dog with the drive to WANT to play my game with me.

Baxter wants to play with me. Spencer wants to play in training. Nike does sometimes. But what could I do with a dog who really wants to work with me? It's a thought in the back of my mind for now, and I won't feel like a failure if my current young dog isn't quite right to be super competitive in the sport - she's got an opinion too. No amount of pressure is going to make that come if it isn't in her temperament, pressure will only suck the fun right out of training and trialing.

But for the next time... Next time I'm stacking the deck in my favor.

Confidence Building

Something very much on my mind.

Alicia, an agility friend I had the privilege of meeting and training with last winter summed it up very well in this blog here: Are you Nagging Your Dog?

If it is not exceedingly clear to Nike how to earn reinforcement, then she has zero patience to work through something. She does not work through confusion - she'll leave.

So:

Ignore the bad, celebrate the good and of course, the dog is never wrong. If she gets something wrong, stop on something she can do and and reward that.

Build the dog up.

In an online class with Sarah Stremming, she talks about a dog stepping to the line with their human partner and giving 110% playing the game with reckless abandon. Never take for granted what you are asking the dog for.

That focus, the relationship and the trust necessary for that are built. They're nurtured and grown into that. Sometimes it's like a delicate flower that needs some pretty specific needs met to grow and thrive. Other times maybe (due to the dog's desire to do-the-thing) more like a weed that seems to thrive in very desolate conditions.

The dog is always right. They are trying. When they get it wrong it is a direct reflection of your training (or coaching.) Pay the dog!

So:

As we embark on this chapter of Nike's career and start to test performance with some agility trials, remember this. Do not correct mistakes on course, build confidence. Do not worry about anything but the dog beside you and making her feel like playing this game with you is the best thing in the world.

Run fast, give it your all!

Be brave, you can do this!

Fly high! The journey will take your breath away.

No matter what happens, it'll be fun!

Barn Hunt Intro and Practice

When an opportunity came up a few weeks ago to take part in a Barn Hunt practice hosted by a local Earth Dog Club that my friend belongs to, I jumped at the chance.

Last year when a similar opportunity came up, I decided against it since I was worried that it might distract Spencer more and/or cause more undesirable issues with his prey drive. Spencer already loses his mind over critters, be they squirrels, chipmunks, gophers, deer or our very favorite; jack rabbits. At the time, I didn't think a game that just rewards that mindless hunting would really be a good plan.

To be honest, I'm still not sure it would be. But I decided that since he is an awesome little dog who tries to give me what I ask for in agility when he is overwhelmed by the environment and the worries, I would see if he would like to play Barn Hunt. Something he just finds rewarding. Something he loves.

Love this little dog. Need to find a dog sport that he loves!

I'm not sure if Barn Hunt is that. I know the practice wasn't for sure. Way too many amped up dogs in a small space. Not unlike Flyball that he is also very much not a fan of.

I was hoping he'd love the gerbils the way he loves gopher holes. It's a critter, you can poke it or bark at it and maybe it'll move. It smells like a critter. What isn't to like here?

Sure did not have this happy Spencer when learning to hunt gerbils!

Turns out, everything.

It's indoors. This was the first time he was allowed to harass a domestic critter that wasn't a cat. But there were so many other dogs around, and he was inside. He was just scared of the environment period and couldn't care less about the gerbils.

So all we jumped on some straw bales and went through straw tunnels for cookies. That was easy. We left it there for him. He was NOT HAPPY with the environment.

Baxter actually did much the same thing as Spencer, for all that he isn't as environmentally sensitive. Too many dogs. Way too amped up. Just too much. He was also pretty sure that the gerbil box was the devil.

Way to not set my dogs up to succeed. Might have gone a little better if I tried to introduce the concept of gerbils in a box at home. At least I didn't enter the Barn Hunt trial!

I think the boys and I have attended too many agility trials where people are very conscientious with their dogs. They try not to crowd other dogs. No dog-dog visiting. Generally, if a dog is out with their handler, that dog is the handlers focus. Maybe because there are more reactive dogs and dogs with issues playing agility? I don't really know!

So, the choice is. Give up on this idea, since the dogs are not innately bonkers for a gerbil in a box. Or get a gerbil and teach the hunting of it, not unlike Nose Work.

The gerbil plan doesn't really excite me. One more thing to take care of. I'm thinking if I have to train something like Nose Work, it might as well actually be Nose Work. At least I have the supplies and I don't need to feed/water/clean up after the scent oils!

Maybe in the Spring we'll see if I can find any Coursing Ability Tests for Spencer. He likes to chase moving stuff AND it's outdoors. Right up his alley.

Chase the happy!

So naked! Decent impression of a sight hound though!

Toys. Fading rewards and Building ring behaviours.

We had a great time today spending most of the day out at Wet Noses. Spencer and I are starting to click as a team in the face of distraction, which is good, because he's entered in his first trial in 2 weeks!

It will likely be the last outdoor trial of the season and may be a *little* bit early to begin to trial Spencer. However, I want him to have a good experience at his first couple of trials and outdoors is easier for him. Less weird echos, not so crowded. No dogs that attack the front of their crate when you walk by benched right by the entrance to the arena. Outdoors makes things easier when you're a soft, fragile little dog!

Spencer is also comfortable enough (at Wet Noses at least) to full out play tug with me. The kind of toy obsessive tug that I get at home when my little guy isn't worried about his environment.

What I'm working on right now is fading out the toy being on my person or at least visibly on my person. When we run courses or when we work drills, I usually am holding his toy. So he KNOWS it's there. He doesn't track(stare) the toy as he works, which was a nice side effect of training weaves by 2x2's, but he's anticipating earning it. When he can't see it, he's not as sure about working.

Baxter didn't do this, but then he was training for much longer and I primarily used treats with Baxter, only using his cherished ball to teach that burst of speed at the end through the finish line. Treats build value in a behavior, but toys build drive for it. With Baxter I've had to work on re-building his toy drive due to the focus on food rewards. With Spencer I am working on keeping both toy drive and motivation for food intact during training. Not focusing on the "easy" one to the exclusion of the other.

We've done a lot of small handling drills and double box work so he's used to frequent rewards to create enthusiasm and drive for the behaviors. So I'm lengthening the sequences we run before he earns his toy. We're not up to running a full course without a reward yet. If we're not there by the trial, that's fine, I'll just do partial courses and then have a party with him.

I'm also juicing up nose touches as a rewarding behavior. They're already pretty rewarding, but now I randomly jackpot them as well. Why? So in the event my soft little dog shuts down on a agility course, I can ask for a hugely reinforcing, easy behavior that he loves to do.

Yes, it will get us (me) faults for touching the dog, but it can be my "toy" on the course until we can get off of it to get his reward. It will also enable me to positively influence his frame of mind to get one more obstacle done with focus and enthusiasm so we can get outta there and not reward shut down or other stress behaviors by just leaving. As the truism reads, plan for the worst and hope for the best! It's also just plain fun =D

Just passing by

Where'd it go?

Tongues

The Grass is Greener ...

Like the title says, Grass isn't always greener on the other side; it's greener where you water it. (thank you Justin Bieber)

But seriously. Things just don't fix themselves. If you want what someone else has, you've got to work at it! And isn't the journey just as important as your destination?!

Working at it, we have been. I recently discovered drop in outdoor training at Wet Noses. It's fairly close and convenient to get to with nice equipment, 2 agility rings and a great online reservation system. It is CKC heights (4, 8, 12") not AAC (6, 10, 16") so the dogs are jumping some funny heights and equipment is a little different but it's close enough. We've been heading out a couple times a week to play.

Spencer's running contacts are a work in progress, but at least he isn't afraid of the equipment. Teeter games are also progressing. So far I have just been using toys with him, but I think next time out I'm going to start using food in tossable containers  to see if that changes his focus and enthusiasm at all. Right now he's still a little spooky with it being a strange place. He will offer play, but it isn't with the same insane enthusiasm as he displays at home so transferring value to agility is not a quick process.

Baxter's weaves are getting better and faster. Hopefully this will carry over into trials. We work on various gambles as well. His running contacts are solid, I just hope to speed up the performance a little.

Yay weaves! (picture by Jay Collins from spring Fionavar K9 trial in Olds)

Penny is surprising the heck out of me. She's doing really well playing on the agility courses! Working on manners during walks has had some positive carry over in other areas. Being rewarded for giving me attention and not sniffing the ground for food or alarm barking is finally paying off. It's quite cute to see. She'll even play ball in the backyard with her tiny little hollee roller ball - the only ball I've found that is small enough to fit in her mouth.

We went to the Go Dog Go games trial last weekend. I'm a little sad that I couldn't do the camp, but the trial was fun. Baxter ran well despite the heat. We got another Jumpers Q, last run of the day, so that was lovely! I managed not to get lost on course and handle like I walked it, so I was happy with that.

Starting over with a puppy might give you a different starting point and make things "easier" in the beginning, but in the long run you will likely end up right back where you are if you don't change what you're doing to cause the issues.

I'll just keep thinking of that as I read Hyper Hounds updates on Spryte's first litter of puppies! I might be a little jealous of how good of a start those puppies are getting, but now was really not the time for a puppy. Everything that Kim plans to do with those puppies to give them a great start as stellar little dogs may cement Shelties as the next breed I get - specifically one of her puppies. It would be nice to start a puppy without a socialization/confidence deficit for once!

Summer fun

aka a outdoor agility trial in 30 degree heat (with no breeze) and mosquitoes. But no, really, it was a lot of fun and a great time!

This weekend was Fionavar K9's "Woofstock at the Beach" trial out in Olds. We were only entered in one day - but it was a most awesome day.

On his cooling mat under my desk. Too hot in the house for him to sleep after we got home

1) Baxter worked for me. In that heat. He was fantastic! It's always kind of a concern of mine how he would handle the heat because of his coat. He had his cooling mat to lay on but I haven't gotten one of the metallic shade tarps (you know the woven metal ones that block more sun and keep the tent cooler and still let in the breeze.) I brought lots of water to soak him down before and after runs too. I think it also helped that the tent was pitched in a soggy spot, so the ground was nice and cool.

2) Did I mention that he worked for me in the heat?! So happy with my little guy. Not only did he work in the heat, but Jumpers was the last run of the day and he ran his little legs off in the omg-so-hot-I-think-my-brain-melted to Q in Jumpers at 4.03 yards per second (which is really fast for him.)

3) Technically we only Q'd in 1/3 of our runs. However, he did SO GOOD that I don't care, it was a huge success.

Standard went well. There were only 6 poles (done twice) but he likes that better than 12 poles anyway. He missed the first weave entry, initially I thought it was because I didn't babysit it - but now I think I was also late telling him to weave. I didn't hold position on a front cross into a tunnel long enough for him to commit, resulting in a refusal for that one. I need to work on this with him in drills, seems to be a weakness of ours. I either need to support better or build in a little more value for tunnels. Other than those 10 faults we did good, and under time. More importantly, I handled it the way I walked it, for the most part it worked and I didn't get lost!

I thought that Advanced Gamble was going to be a donation run once I saw the course map. It was a tough final gamble.

It doesn't help that I've never sent him to the backside of a tunnel to find a entrance either. One of the other competitors was a huge help suggesting I send him into a tunnel in the opening to show him that there is a tunnel entrance there. I was only a little in front of the gamble line sending him through the gap in the tunnels to the right entrance of 2 and he took it like a pro, no hesitation whatsoever! The rest of my opening was a little helter skelter, but we were mostly in place when the buzzer went to start the final.

The blue line is the path he took. HE DID THE FINAL GAMBLE!! Staying out, and not coming back in around the back of 2! Sadly, the buzzer went while he was in the tunnel 3, and we missed qualifying by 0.09 of a second ... story of our agility career, lol.

It's bloody difficult to do these gambles with a short dog who doesn't move the tunnel much, I couldn't see him once he was near the tunnel mouths so I didn't know when he went into 3 or if he was looking but not in etc. I don't even care that we "didn't" qualify. I think the only other Adv dog to get this gamble was Flash, who isn't handled or trained by someone new to agility. Distance skills class is working (and in more ways than one, the small drills and good rewards are building drive really well too.)

The Baby Dog

Spencer. He's a little difficult, but I LOVE the drive of this little dog! He's fearful and reactive, but once you get his focus he is so much fun. He's very soft and sensitive so dealing with him and his issues is really helping me grow to be a better trainer/handler as well.

I had no idea that my cute little, "bunchy" puppy would turn into this leggy, gangly dog. As a puppy he looked very similar (body wise) to Penny, I was expecting him to look similar as a adult.

Priceless little face and floppy ears!

Baby Spencer

Now, not so very similar ... he's taller with much longer legs, a finer head/face and a long neck. He grew into his eyes as well, so they don't point in opposite directions anymore (he looked a little "special" as a puppy.) He's got the Boston's legs and build, minus the bulk you see on mature males. He might bulk up a little, but he was neutered very early so he may not.

What is fantastic about him though, is his toy drive. He LIVES to play with his ball which has let me transfer that value to other toys and activities - like tug! I can get play/tug in most situations now, including at a pet store and at a agility trial using a hol-ee roller toy with his ball stuck it in. (JW brand toys are fantastic the dogs LOVE them - iSqueak Balls and OtherCuz toys are nearly indestructible and the squeakers last forever!)

With his prized "yellow ball"

Snorkeling for yellow ball - one of the first times hes played in water!

At home yellow ball is saved for training, so he finds another other toy on the ground and attempts to solicit a game of tug or fetch every time you look at him. Right now we're working on building value for laying in his bed when people are sitting quietly.

How about this one?!?!