Expectations Kill

Not my words but a quote from Silvia Trkman which I happen to most definitely agree with.  So why do we often talk about our expectations on our agility journeys ?  We have high expectations, lower our expectations, meet our expectations, exceed our expectations, live up to expectations and may even have great expectations at times.   And why is it so hard to find a balance in what we expect?  If our expectations are too high then it's a one way ticket on the disappointment express eventually but if they are not high enough then it becomes easy to accept sub standard performances as the norm and not bother too much about improving these. Why is it so hard to find the balance at times?

It seems to me that often it is all to easy to confuse expectations with goals or is there just such a fine line between the two that it is easy to think of them as the same thing if you are not careful.

So far in our training and trialling, I try very hard not to confuse the two, focus on performance goals rather than outcome goals, and see the big picture of where I would like us to be as a team in a few years time.  But every now and then those expectations come back to haunt me and make me lose sight of what I think is important right now and I don't like it one bit.



Take Novice Agility for example.  I would have to say that Ivy is pretty much where I would like her to be at this stage on our journey.  Even though we have a long way to go, I am happy with the work we are doing and have definite ideas about what we need to improve on to form the basis of our training over the next few months.  Plus I can see improvement from a few months back.  But we cannot seem to crack it for a pass in Novice Agility which in the big scheme of things is not all that important at this stage - she has only been running agility for a couple of months - but all my other dogs raced through Novice agility so quickly that I guess I have been fooled into unconsciously having 'expectations' that we will do the same.   

We had a first place at the Scottish Breeds trial last month but it wasn't a qualifying score.  She does look very cute with her tartan rosette though.



Thanks to Sal Robinson for the photo
  

For some reason Novice Agility has seen one little thing each time, and always something different to boot.  On her first couple of runs, she decided that unfamiliar dogwalks were to be avoided at all costs, completing everything else beautifully.  Then she got over that, but we had a couple of 'just one bar' runs.

Then she suddenly started twisting sideways on her startline to watch me walk out, subsequently running past the first obstacle on release, but of course completing the rest of the course perfectly.  After developing an action plan for her startline, changing a couple of things, and pulling her from trialling for a couple of weeks to work on it, she hasn't had a reoccurrence of that behaviour, but then on to Scottish Breeds and the weave pole entry from hell that threw many Masters dogs and got left in for the Novice course.  Ivy's entries are pretty good and I actually expected her to make this one (those expectations again) but we did not and scored a fault there. 

The good thing about missing an entry is that it motivates me to keep proofing way more difficult entries and not just be satisfied with what I have.  The bad thing about it is - on to the following week's country trial with the same judge for Novice agility and lo and behold - he puts down the same course again, with a little bit of 'tweaking of angles' that actually made the course a bit more difficult. 

I handled the weaves differently this time and actually got the entry - but then she popped out when I yelled 'yes' as she went in, LOL.  One more thing to add to my list of weave proofing.

So here we currently are, Q-less in Novice Agility and while I really don't care about this and would honestly prefer to put the runs on the board for a bit before moving up, I still have to remind myself to stay focussed on what is actually important in our training at this stage - and the almighty Novice agility Q is really not.

I want to spend the next couple of months revisiting a lot of basic skills to fine tune these - especially our double box work and contact and weave proofing - plus I want to consolidate all the training we have done on our startline by pushing her a little bit more and 'testing the value' as Susan Garrett would say.

I also want to work on the mental side of training and competing a lot more, as I know I can improve a ton there.  And I intend to start by not letting other people's expectations influence mine.  In fact I am going to take the lead from Silvia, repeat 'expectations kill' over and over again.
Anyone for the T Shirt - it would make a good agility mantra.



Ivy Hits the Wall

Not literally, but she is about to hang on the wall courtesy of this beautiful drawing that was given to us by one of L's clients and drawn by her friend. 

I think this is absolutely stunning - the photo doesn't do it justice either - and really captures her personality as well, plus it's the first time I have ever had one of my dog's photos turned into art work and is something that I think I will be doing with all of them after seeing this.  A big thank you to the artist plus L's client who arranged it - sorry I don't know your names but I hope he let you know how much we love your work and that we are very grateful for this gift.

So I thought this would be a non-agility related post for a change and I would add some of my favourite photos of Ivy instead - taken to mark her second birthday this month and mostly black and whites as I was inspired by the sketch.   You're an awesome model Ivy, sorry my amateur efforts at photography don't do you justice.

Ivy's First Title ..... and Lots to Think About

Ivy gained her Jumping Dog title over Easter at our club trial.  I only entered her on one day as I had promised to steward on the second, and she managed to get 2 Novice Jumping passes, finishing in 1st place on both occasions - with another 'just over 14 seconds run' to prove the first one wasn't a fluke.
We took 'just over 16 seconds' on the other one, but it was a longer course.  Still a very green dog, making lots of green dog mistakes (largely due to her handler I'm sure)  but boy is she fun to run!  And magnificent courses all day, fast and flowing, especially from the Queensland judge who came down.

What beautifully groomed girl decided to jump into her clam shell pool pre-photograph?
Can you guess?  The tongue is a nice touch too.

I have also started entering her in Agility.  We have had 4 runs so far, managing a 3rd place NQ on the last one - just one bar.  She has had an issue with the dogwalk at both trials, refusing it totally on the first run, but having no problems with it whatsoever on the second, not even a hesitation and a good, fast performance.  At the second trial where this occurred, I decided to be proactive and to see how many unfamiliar dogwalks I could tee up to 'visit' - my aim was to find 5 - happy to report that I found four clubs (3 country, 1 city) who are willing for  me to visit and use their dogwalk, once they approve it at committee level, plus one individual who is willing for me to use hers.  And I have another country club that I run classes for once every 2 or 3 months that I know won't have a problem with it.  So I will be keeping an eye on this issue with her and even if it resolves itself (which I still suspect it might) I will still be taking them all up on their generous offers.

I think we tend to proof equipment with handler position, environmental distractions and the like, but don't really think about proofing on different equipment - which might look the same to us but doesn't always to the dog.  Plus the different locations thing is hard with the dogwalk, mine won't exactly pack up and go in the car to the local oval.  Visiting other clubs is something that we really should all be doing with baby dogs (especially in a state that won't even consider 'not for competition, but I won't get into that again) but in some ways we are all so insular and in our own little agility 'communities' that no one even thinks about doing it and then we test things in a trial situation and find that with some dogs, equipment doesn't transfer as well as we thought and obviously forms a different picture for the dog.  Weave poles would be a classic example. We haven't had any difficulty with very different sets of weave poles (touch wood!) but there are a number of dogs out there in Novice at the moment who would appear to be having difficulty with this concept (I know some of these weave well on their own equipment) and again would benefit from being able to work in as many different locations, on different sets of weaves as possible.  So maybe my 'club hopping' will start a trend - LOL.


Last Saturday I ran Ivy in Excellent Jumping for the first time - once again lovely courses but definitely toward what I would call the 'upper end' at Excellent level, in fact they were more like what I would term 'easier to mid level' Masters courses.  Well easier to mid level for the kelpies anyway - with a dog that goes like a bat out of hell they were damn hard - the kind of courses where you have a long straight stretch in the middle of the course that encourages blistering speed, ending up in a tight turn so if you weren't up with your dog (which I wasn't) then it was darn near impossible to handle the next bit.  But they were still a lot of fun to run (even for my short legs) and really showed up some things that we need to work on as a team.  On the positive side, her startlines were great, tunnel discrimination work was excellent and driving the line was also good - apart from the couple of occasions when I wasn't there, resulting in off courses.

Running a fast dog is very different to running more 'medium paced' dogs that's for sure.  So after now competing in a handful of trials, the skills that I really want to have in my toolbox are:
A reliable lead out and a good understanding of positional cues.
Independent obstacle performance.
Good lateral distance to enable me to get into position.
A good send on - especially at the end of a Novice course (LOL)
Tight turns - both with deceleration as a cue and verbally cued at more of a distance. (This one is an experiment at the moment, will let you know how we go)  I am especially interested in how Dave Munnings and Silvia Trkman train this skill and intend to base my training around theirs, without compromising my handling system - that's the plan anyway.
Good rear crosses, which are a skill that we are definitely lacking at the moment, so this will also be a focus area over the next few months.
Good problem solving skills when jumping, especially when working the gap between jumps, if that makes sense.
Me - faster.... heaven help me!


I have another trial coming up next week (only 3 runs this time so I can focus on contacts, no jumping) and then I am not entering the following week so I can start writing some action plans for what I need to train and can have a weekend with a long hike for the dogs that I rarely get time for in trialling season.

We have also been doing a lot of shaping which has been fun.  I signed up for both Susan Garrett's online Recallers course and Silvia Trkman's online Puppy training - even though Ivy has already been raised on a diet of games and shaping tricks, it has been a good reminder that agility training is not just about training obstacles and handling that's for sure.  I do question my sanity though, trying to work through both at the same time.  Just as well this type of training is a mindset rather than a recipe and I figure I can fit it all in at my own pace.  Which would most likely be a lot faster if Ivy had her way.

That's One Small Step for a Border Collie and One Wild Ride for Me !

Ivy's first ring experience has now come and gone and I have spent the last 2 days grinning like an idiot I'm sure.  To say that she surpassed my expectations on her first time out is definitely an understatement.

I honestly didn't know quite what to expect - even though I am very happy with how she is performing when training, getting out in the trial ring is a totally different ball game and anything can happen.  This was a bit of a 'fishing trip' for me - all I really wanted was to see how focussed she was before going into the ring, to test her startline under trial conditions and to actually run a full course without rewarding after every few obstacles as to date we hadn't done that at all. 

What did happen was that she ran clear on her very first Novice Jumping run, winning the ring to boot.  The judge set a Standard Course time of 35 seconds and Ivy mangaged to get around in just over 14 secs.  Her handler took a bit longer, LOL.

Ivy and her first place sash - although she would prefer to be in that tunnel rather than posing beside it.

So proud of my little girl right now.  Her second run I was also really happy with - she clipped the back bar of the spread on her lead out in the opening sequence so after that I sent her to the tunnel with a bit more distance so I could try out a 'run-like-hell-to-position' front cross and got an off course when she added an extra jump on her way ......... bad handler !  This course had a longer run home, the first one was a bit twisty-turny- and I was very pleased with her verbal 'go on' that we have done a lot of work with over the past few weeks.   Ivy's special galpal Sassy won the second run, so that was very exciting too !

I only entered this trial for the final afternoon but there were some very fast runs at Novice level and I believe that in the morning and on the previous day there were lots more.  There are quite a few experienced handlers with new dogs just starting out in Novice at the moment and the standard has certainly skyrocketed since I last run Cruz there.  From memory he won the ring every time with a reasonable paced clear, now a run like that would be lucky to finish in the top 5.

This can only be good for the standard of agility though, I believe for a long time we have been lagging behind a lot of the other states, but that appears to be changing (there are some awesome fast dogs in Masters right now) and with a whole new crew on the way up it can only get better.

So I am over the moon that we were able to hold our own against some really promising dogs, but boy are we going to have to work hard - still so many 'green dog' holes in our training that need filling in not to mention the handler ones as well.  But I look forward to lots more wild rides in the process.  Go Ivy !

Proofing Outside the Square

We have just reached a big milestone in our agility journey as Ivy has been entered in her very first trial.
Even though at this point I am not exactly certain if she will actually get to run, it was very exciting filling out the entries and seeing her name in print with all the other agility dogs - this is a trial that uses online entries so instant gratification.


Our favourite motivator - anything that includes a ball

I have no doubt that Ivy is capable of running a novice jumping course- that's all we have entered at this stage.  But that's not the motivation for entering at the moment.  I have reached the point where I now need to put her out in a trial environment to see how she deals with it as this is something that is close to impossible to recreate- especially living in a state that hates the idea of not for competition runs and won't even consider them.  Let's not go there with what I think of that attitude.

So I figure that if I choose a sympathetic judge who is at least a little bit open minded about such things - and we do have a handful- then I can create my own not for competition run if I decide to, or at least something resembling it, without anyone being any the wiser.

So I chose an open minded judge who has the Novice ring in the afternoon and then entered Atilla in Masters for the morning and Ivy in Novice jumping for the afternoon - but now Atilla has injured his leg and joined Cruz on the sidelines. I'm not sure if he will be ready to run by the weekend of the trial plus with his past history I tend to err on the side of caution and will most likely wait longer than I need to anyway.  Whether or not I think it's worthwhile driving 3 hours for Ivy's very brief debut I am still contemplating - especially when I can wait a couple of weeks and then have a whole month full of trials to choose from.  I am in no hurry to get her out - this becoming all too common attitude of 'my dog is only 2 and has Masters titles' doesn't really impress me one bit -  but the little voice inside my head keeps telling me how valuable it would be to have that first hand knowledge of how she reacts to the trial environment in my toolbox..... and it's very tempting.
Decisions, decisions !


The feral one showing her jumping style - accidentally captured when L. was meant to be shooting video.


For a brief moment a week or so back,  I almost had 3 broken dogs ....... Ivy had a fall from the top of the dogwalk which she was negotiating like a formula one racing car in her usual style.  She has fallen from the top at home once before where she landed on her feet, then raced back to the start to get on again, but this time she squealed and held up her rear paw when she came down and scared me to bits.
By the time I had her lead back on and walked back toward the ring entry she was walking normally and showed no effect whatsoever.  We had a walk around for a bit, then played tug for a bit and when I was pretty sure that she was OK we did a couple of jumps and the dogwalk again, which she had no trouble with.  And no sign of anything wrong since thank goodness.

The whole experience really scared me and has made me back up a few steps and think about how I can do some more proofing on the dogwalk, especially as I was told that she turned her head and looked at me before she came off, which she does not usually do.  When I think about working the dogwalk at home, I am usually working it as a recall to try and tempt her off the end, or we are running together, where she is usually so fast that she well and truly gets to the end before me and completes the middle ramp ahead of me.
Friday was the first time she has completed the dogwalk in a sequence and as I was ahead of her when she got on, I was actually running right beside her when she came off.  I am wondering if this might have been the first time that I have ever been in this position, so now need to proof it.

I have lowered my dogwalk and have been running right beside her as fast as I can but no matter what I do I can't seem to make her look at me, which I am actually pretty pleased about.
So far I have tried :
*Running alongside really fast - well as fast as my short legs will allow me to anyway.
*Pumping my arms in a very exaggerated fashion as I run.
*Running in a flapping coat and hat.
*Running with me on one side and L running on the other side.
*L. standing still really close to the middle ramp and then calling her name as she came over.
*Waving a tug toy around as I run.

Nothing takes her focus from the end so currently I am leaning toward some sort of a shadow going across the dogwalk that distracted her as we train under lights and this was the first time she has done the full height dogwalk at night.  The experience has given me some things to think about though and made me realise just how many things we take for granted and don't proof.  It's also made me a bit more aware of actually looking for where my shadow might be when we run at night, especially if it's falling across contact obstacles.  I don't want her to react to people very near contacts as it's common for a couple of judges here to run very close to the dogwalk as the dog is completing it, not something that I particularly like but something that I may very well have to deal with occasionally and I don't want to be worrying about her safety.

Another area needing proofing has also just surfaced - her A Frame has been really solid up until now and I have done lots of proofing involving me being in different positions, but we ran a few reps today and I had dragged the tunnel really close while I was moving equipment around and hadn't put it back.  When she came over the A Frame and saw the tunnel entry directly in front and very close, she was so excited that she didn't stick her end position and leapt off before being released.  Even though she was well and truly in the colour, this is not the behaviour that I want to encourage so I now need to do some equipment proofing as well.  Again, I have done this with the end of the weaves but it never occurred to me to do it with the contacts as well.  The list keeps getting longer and longer.

Last Friday we ran the Masters Jumping course at training as I was instructing in the same hour as the Novice/Excellent class that she normally works in.  I broke the course up into 3 sections and rewarded in between and she had no trouble with it, providing I was able to stay ahead on the tricky sections.

The only area of her training that I really feel is way behind where I would like it to be would be the seesaw, mainly because I totally shelved this after I had my accident last year.  Last month we went back to working the seesaw between 2 tables in the shed, then removed one table and worked the bang game, and now I have moved the adjustable seesaw out to the back of the agility area and we are working on the whole thing at the lowest height.  Hopefully I will be able to raise it at least one link by the weekend but I don't want to rush it and I am unsure how long it will take realistically to get to full height.  She is confident but I am very conscious of how easy it is to have a setback on this obstacle and really want to avoid this if possible.  Plus her position at the end at the moment is kind of awkward and I'm not sure if this will disappear as she gets more confident or whether I need to look at a different behaviour for the end of the seesaw.

I certainly don't remember having such a long list of things to work on with Atilla when he was younger, but as your training knowledge increases so does the training list !  Guess it's all part of the journey and she will be ready when she is ready and there is no time limit on this apart from my own impatience.

How To Get Two For The Price of One

Take a perfectly good agility tunnel.   Add a Border Collie (see illustration above for appropriate model.)

Now mix the two together at warp speed - or something that feels very much like that when you are trying to get into position for a front cross anyway.

Goodbye stitching !   Hello daylight !

Now take hold of each end and apply a little pressure (thankfully I now have two arms that work again so I can actually do this bit)  and  ............. tah dah !......... you  have 2 tunnels, or at least you will have after a bit of renovation involving some sharp scissors and a pair of wire cutters.

That sure was fun, can we do it again ?  Can we ?  Can we ?

To be fair, the tunnel(s) in question has been sitting outside for the past seven years so I can't really blame the Border Collie, however I'm sure she played at least some part in helping it on its way. 

The kelpies are totally miffed with her as they know that the tunnel is the best hiding place for those days when you don't feel like bringing the toy back and will be lost without it.

I always did mean to pack that tunnel up and put it away but somehow or other I never ever got around to it.  Seven years though?  That works out at around $30 a year for loads of tunnel fun - quite a bargain when you look at it that way and Ivy is dog number 5 to enjoy it.

Oh well, looks like another belated Christmas present is on the cards in our household.

When Things Don't Go To Plan

Pretty crap video quality as it's just from my digital camera, (hopefully a Flip is on Santa's pressie list)  but it shows the type of one armed training we have been doing for the past month.

Ever since Ivy arrived, I have been writing a list of the things I want to focus on with her each month and putting it on the fridge as a reminder but thanks to my own stupidity resulting in an accident involving a broken window, jagged glass and severing muscles and a nerve in my arm, the November list certainly hasn't gone to plan.

It could have been a lot worse and I am truly thankful that I am still around to blog about it, but I figure that almost 6 weeks of splinting, huge discomfort, feeling helpless and the ugliest scar out at least gives me some credibility in having a little pity party - but on the scale of things I promise it's very little indeed.

Training related, the things that I am most pissed about are:

-Missing the Susan Garrett seminar, especially after I had paid for both the seminar and accommodation.

-Missing my favourite trial, Warrnambool, with the kelpies.  At least Ivy got to go along for a beach holiday and some more trial socialisation and focus work outside the rings.

-Having to put an enforced halt on a lot of the work we were doing, espcecially when she was making such good progress.  We were just about to start alphabet drills and double box work, but these have been put on the back burner - hopefully for not too much longer.  Seesaw training has also been put off for a bit as I really feel I need 2 arms to train it safely the way I want.

My long hair has also gone as I couldn't manage it with one hand, so I now have a new much shorter haircut to get used to which will also take me some time.

Luckily there are a lot of positives to come out of our revised training plan for the past month.  Not being able to do so much has meant that I have probably looked a lot more closely at what we have done, rather than just thinking 'that's ok' and moving on.  So our focus has been:

-more crate games, and trying to invent some creative ways of using crates.  We have been using two crates to teach a verbal left and right cue.  I don't know that I will ever use this on course, but she is totally nailing it and we have had a lot of fun with it.  I have also been recalling from the crate with a high value ball on the ground in various positions where she has to come to me and tug first before I release her to the ball.

-lots of startline work and lead outs, as you can see on the video.  I have been trying to vary the angle and distance of the jumps to really get her to think about her jumping. 

-revisiting 'jump around the clock' type work with one jump, varying how close I set her up to it.  She generally finds her take off point a lot better when I set her way back compared to when I set her up close so this is something that I need to be aware of and may need to use a stride regulator at some stage.

-set point exercise using the spread jump in loads of different configurations.

-recalling through the weaves, which is something that I always focused on when teaching channels but haven't done so much with 2X2's.

-continuing with lowered contacts, the A Frame is almost at full height now and I am planning on the dogwalk going up next week, once I can get back to adding some run bys to the recalls and sends.

-some straight line work involving a tunnel, 2 jumps and a table. (Thanks Trish)

Last week my splint was shortened so I now have 2 good hands at least, and the splint is a lot lighter so I don't need the sling any more.  Yesterday I was able to start on push through threadles with her which she had no problems with.   I have to say this whole experience has also made me realise how much more important good positioning and shoulder movement is rather than sticking your arm out and pointing, so another positive thing to come out of it and a lesson I need to remember.  Plus I already have a training list ready and waiting for me for the next couple of months when this splint finally comes off.

So I am grateful that I am still here to spend time with my amazing Ivy and that she loves me unconditionally - no matter how many arms I have and what my hair looks like and how cranky I feel sometimes.  Fingers crossed for getting back to normal training soon.