Yeah, we do 'gility.

Looking particularly calm in her crate at our fun match.

Unfortunately I don't have any action photos. I have some video of our runs, but since they're instructional, with lots breaks in the action and mistakes they're not particularly interesting to watch.

Today was the second trip out to Daytripper Dog Training. I sign up for their instructional fun matches -- 4 different courses with toys and food allowed in the ring, plus a walkthrough and handling tips by a judge. It's a great way to spend a day out with friends and dogs, and a fabulous learning opportunity.

The courses are designed at roughly the starters level with a few more challenging bits thrown in. It's a great prep for September's potential trial.

Today was filled with a lot more good than bad. Here's a summary:

The Good

• Cohen is working well at a distance from me.
• Her contacts were much (much much) improved from last time (still not perfect, but better).
• Her focus-front is pretty good, with room for improvement.
• I managed to shape/lure her into the pool. She wasn't a big fan, but the water kept her perfectly cool despite the sun's heat.
• Her jump form is nice and tidy. 
• Her teeter was great! She was almost all the way to the other end before the bang, and stuck her contacts like a pro. 
• Between runs she was much less whiny than the last time.
• Her focus on me in the ring walking up to the first jump is adorable -- in a perfect heel, excited and ready to go.
• She is tugging really well around other dogs.
• She greeted other dogs at the trial politely. 
• Peeing on cue is just about the most handy thing I've ever taught her.
• I'm really learning to trust Cohen more. I can simply point her at a line of equipment and have confidence that she'll take each properly.
• Cohen's unusually focused on fetching when we're at Daytripper, and a few good throws are a great way to take her edge off between runs.
• Cohen is a big hit there. People are always complimenting her to me: she's pretty, she's soft, she's fit, she's improving... :)

The Bad

• Cohen got tangled in the chute and misjudged the following jump, tripping over it and knocking it around. Luckily she's pretty resilient (both physically and mentally) and suffered no lasting damage.
• Cohen knocked a bar or two (in addition to the tumble) during the day.
• She seems to be weaker weaving on my right side -- she popped out at the 10th pole a few times, and missed others. 
• Her table seemed unusually rusty. She didn't seem to put a lot of effort into sticking it. Maybe she was feeling some discomfort? I need to remember to decelerate in advance as well.
• I got lost on a few of the courses, and mis-labelled an obstacle or two. (Chute =/= tunnel)

I went up with my friend Kat and her Ridgeback Kiki. Kat's a bit newer to agility than I, but is coming along really well. She's still struggling with contacts and motivation. Sometimes I wonder what it's like to have a dog who actually gets tired.

Both dogs were thoroughly passed out on the ride home, and it's 6p.m. and Cohen is still sleeping. Maybe I won't have to walk her tonight after all.

Oh hey, more not-action photos!

Kiki and Cohen taking a break.

Could you say no to this face?

Cohen -- weave and jump practice

Here's a new video of Cohen's weave pole progress. Adrian was awesome and surprised me with a hand made (Adrian made!) jump. So I've set the 2x2s and the jump out in the back yard and have been running drills on them the last few days.

I think you can see some obvious progress in how Cohen is navigating the weaves. Some of those weave entries were pretty tricky and she was navigating them like a champ. She's single-stepping some of the poles, which I'm really happy to see.

The poles are technically arranged straight, but they get knocked around quite a bit as the dog runs through them.

Watching myself in this video is helpful -- I need to direct more with my shoulders, not my hands. I also need to loosen up and get my arm off my hip.

I've been working on Cohen's tugging a lot, so I think I'm about ready to start using a tug as a reward instead of food. I opted not to here because her arousal level gets a bit too high and her barking gets unmanageable. It's a work in progress.

Agility class round up.

So my agility class finished up last night. To celebrate we were able to run a mock course a few times. Adrian was kind enough to come along and was able to record some of our work. I'm really happy to have a recording of Cohen's and my runs since I lose track of things pretty quickly when I'm out there on the course.

I'm quite happy with the progress that I've been able to make (Cohen's making progress too... but it's my two left feet that are the biggest problem). Of course there are huge opportunities for improvement, so in the spirit of constructive criticism, here I go. If you're reading this, feel free to offer some advice too.

First, holy crap I need to stop using the names of the next obstacle as a release from a contact. What a rookie mistake. I will say break I will say break I will say break...

Lately Cohen has been having trouble with good tunnels if the entry is in the least bit confusing, so I've made a mental note to reward them more thoroughly (which you see a bit here... while I drop a treat and everything). I think tunnels, being so simple, are easy for a handler to overlook for rewards.

Holy moly we're slow! I think I'm going to have to start running flat out to encourage a bit more speed. But I'm also going to have to get in better shape. The excitement paired with the mild exertion have a bigger effect on my body than I care to admit.

I will stand up straighter, I will stand up straighter, I will stand up straighter.

I won't cue a "back up" to re-get a broken contact. I'll focus more on getting a nose touch on the contact -- right now she's 50/50.

I want to see if I can get Cohen's teeter and walk speeds higher. She has a pretty good a-frame performance -- I'm told she just sails over the peak. I think it's a matter of revving her up more and moving faster myself.

With all that said, these are things I like:

I like Cohen's focus forward at the start line. She's doing it when cued. I've not yet gotten into the habit of pairing the verbal with a gesture, but I'll work on that soon.

I'm feeling more confident in my ability to control her on a course. I'm starting to learn more handling techniques through the class. Hopefully I'll be able to increase Cohen's already-pretty-good impulse control via the e-course I'm taking. Previously I'd thought that competition wouldn't be in the cards for another year or so, but I might revise that and say we'll be ready in a few months.

I'm re-taking this course (ahh, the benefits of working at the place you're schooling...) and next time I hope to use more tug rewards to build that drive and energy. Cohen's tugging has come along really nicely recently, so I'm hoping she'll respond to it as a reward in Agility from time to time.

With all that said, I'm really having a blast. It's been a lot of fun for me to learn, and I'm really enjoying the challenge. I just need to work on my flatwork more often at home.

Weave poles, celebrating our successes. Week 2.

Weave pole training has hit an impasse with only 6 poles to work with at home, and the almost-constant rain. I think progress will be slow from here on out. However...

Last night we had our agility class and there were 12 poles set up in a corner. My eyes lit up!

I sent Cohen through them and whoops, she popped out 3/4s of the way through. Sent her through again and she missed the tenth pole. So I slowed down, sent her through and rewarded 2 poles in. Restarted, rewarded 4 poles in. Restarted, rewarded at 6. At that point I think Cohen kind of "got" it and was able to finish the rest (slowly) while watching me out of the corner of her eye. After that she was doing the full row of twelve as long as there were few distractions. She would do the full row with me a fair distance away as long as she could hear me encouraging her.

Ideally in true 2x2 fashion there would have been a space between the two sets of 6 poles and she would have been introduced more slowly to keep her confidence higher. The weaves weren't the focus of the evening so there wasn't really an opportunity to introduce them properly.

So, Cohen can do 12 poles in ideal circumstances. Confidence is still a bit low (she's great on 6 though) but we're definitely making progress.

Last night was a good class.

On other class-related news, the last agility class I took there were only 4 dogs. Now there's 8 and class is noticeably slower and more chaotic. It's frustrating. Especially when it takes other dogs 2-3 minutes to get through a mock-course that takes Cohen 30 seconds. Ah well!

Weave poles, trials and tribulations. Days 1 & 2.

First, some background. I'm taking a 3rd-level agility class and Cohen and I are doing pretty well all things considered. (Things to consider: my unathleticism, my disinclination to flail, Cohen's disinterest in tugging in public...) However, we're falling behind in our weaving. Cohen and I never really "got" the weaves when we did them in our last level class, and this class is not set up to accommodate us slow folks still stuck on teaching via the 2x2s.

So, in an attempt to make up the gap I picked up some 2x2s (6 poles) and borrowed Susan Garrett's 2x2 training DVD from a friend. It's recommended that I keep a training journal, so that's what I'm doing.

It's recommended that you not do all your weave training days in a row, so, if there are gaps they're probably equal parts break-taking and laziness.

DAY 1, Wednesday 2 Mar 2011

Building and testing value, poles set to 2 and 8 o'clock.

Since Cohen had already done some 2x2 weave pole training previously there wasn't much time required to build the value. I started out using food as a reward with a marker word readily. Testing the value was successful as well, with a good rate of success.

I angled the poles to the standard 2 and 8 o'clock position and kept my rewards on the reward line. Problem: Cohen will sometimes look back to me after having gone through the gate, not at the reward line. Solution: I need to use the rewards more accurately.

DAY 2, Thursday 3 Mar 2011

Working the arc, adding two more poles.

I thought I might power through multiple steps today since Cohen had done these steps previously. As a result I feel as if today has been rife with frustration.

I attempted to move locations into my back room to have more area to work the angle of approach, but I still did not have sufficient room. Foolishly I also added a second set of poles, giving me even less room. Rate of success in difficult approaches was 50% at best.

For some reason I thought maybe having more room to work would help, so I moved the poles yet again (two sets), this time outside. Because the ground was wet, and because the DVD warned against using food in the grass I opted to attempt to use Cohen's soccer ball as reward.

She was incredibly aroused by the ball, so much so that she lost sight of what it was I was asking of her. I was pleased to find a toy to which she responds so well, but there was no progress to speak of.

The biggest problem is her arousal barking. I feel like this barking was initially developed as a response to the excitement and stress of learning the poles initially (in Agility Level Two) and now this emotional reaction is tied to the training. Sometimes I opt to ignore it, but sometimes it grates on my last nerve. I did not cope well with it today.

I think I'm going to reduce Cohen's arousal level despite Garrett speaking of how important it is. As soon as Cohen begins barking her ability to be receptive to commands and her capability to learn is diminished.

For our last session today I plan to move back indoors, remove the second set of poles, and use food as a reward while I work angles of approach. I feel like this step might be worth sticking with for additional time depending on how Cohen reacts. It is always my tendency to want to push past training the basics to more flashy behaviours, so I'll have to remember to slow down.

The snow, cold weather and wet ground also make it difficult. Weave training really seems best learned outside, but I make due with what I have.

Edit: Later in the day we revisited the process. I was indoors and was working with food. Cohen had a high rate of success with all entries (though being indoors and crowded we didn't have as much room to work as I would like). So I re-added the second set of poles and had greater success. There wasn't one instance of barking. I consider it a success. Tomorrow (or later tonight) will be more of the same. Obviously I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here, but I really need to pace myself.