The wins and losses of a clicker trained agility dog!

Kuling so far

2011-03-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

My border collie puppy "Kuling" is eight months old now. Here are some of the videos that we have made together so far:

Socializing in the city

Palying with new friends

Training with his brother, Vips

Coming back with toys

Shaping new tricks, loose leash walking, etc

Stimulus control

Crate games

New trick: bounce

Puppy handling

Nose touch instruction video (from the start, to ready for real obstacles)

First start at running contacts

Running contacts, one jump stuff, etc

Shadow handling, circle work, abcd (anti blind cross drills), and stimulus control

As you may have noticed by now: we have fun!

Videos

2010-06-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

Notes form Greg Derrett seminar

2010-06-20T14:03:00.000-07:00

These are my reminders form the seminar in Tromsø, june 2010:

Orkan needs lots and lots and lots of first arm rewards, both on threadles and serpentines. I keep rewarding the right behaviour with the wrong arm. Also reward them too rarely in general.

Another thing I keep doing is rewarding crap, just because not rewarding will have Orkan lose focus and go off sniffing. Greg had to keep reminding me that I need to get a new (correct) behaviour, preferrably a nose touch etc, before the screwup cookie. I find it extremely annoying that I need that reminder! I know I don't do as much of that in normal training as I did at the seminar, just beacuse of the limited time and my stress level. Altough it's sort of good that the seminar situation pulls out my worst sides (so they can get pointed out and I get my ass kicked for them) but anyway... I feel a bit stupid when I see myself rewarding c.r.a.p. over and over again...

Circlework: Orkan doesn't have much value for my reinforcement zone. Greg pointed out that food doesn't create that drive as much as tugging does, and that pretty much explaines why I need to work a lot at this. Finally our game is getting good enough to use for almost anything (yippee!) and we have lots of new opportunities for training. We need to focus on inside circles especially, and a bit of anti-bc drills.

A serpentine should have a clear return (second arm change). My footwork tends to be too straight forward, and my arm change too late. I've been trying to fade those signals a bit from having been too strong, but obviously over-done it.

Refusal planes (active lines) should have as much value as the obstacle itself. A very important skill when courses keep getting more technically intricate. That way you can rear cross a refusal plane (!) to "flick" the dog around and over a jump etc. New to me, very handy manouver! 270 skills vs threadling will always be subject for debate, I need to decide what I want, and I definately want to focus more on the refusal plane and less on the backside of the obstacle.

Orkan is now sometimes turning quite wide. Probably linked to more speed, leading to need of more immediate understanding to keep the lines looking good. I need to have that in mind when coursewalking.

I want our startlines to become completely unproblematic. Orkan never gets up to run for it, but he occasionally gets up to shake (especially if it's raining) and I think his stress level drops if I walk away slowly (not running). Sitting there is obviously not the funniest thing he knows, he isn't at all charged up the way I want. That's going to be a separate blog post one day when I have the energy to make a plan and some good criteria.

Reaction times (for the handler) can be trained. Maybe something I shold look into (computer games etc)? As it was pointed out, good dog training is very much about deciding if this was a good response or not, and why, leading to if it should be rewarded. You need to make those desiscions in a split second, and as you can see from the video, I'm not good at that at all (especially not when I'm a bit stressed and want to make as much as possible out of my limited seminar time). I seem to always go by plan A, no matter what my dog does...

Transitions, transitions, transitions. I actually thought I was quite ok at that. Apparently not. Part of the problem is getting Orkan to hang on to the toy while we move (and while I focus on other stuff, like someone telling me what went wrong and what to do). Our game is actually mostly good enough for that now, I don't need to get threats out for him to chew on while I think, walk or talk. But I need to get in his face (and that's a quote!) and stop letting him get away with halfway commitment. Lots of thoughts on that, will have to come back to it later.

Be paranoid about maintaining perfect front cross pisition. Self-explaining but very important.

Update

2010-04-09T02:14:00.000-07:00

Not much posting here lately. Mainly because no exiting training is happening. Orkan has got gastric ulcer, is in and out of hospital, and we don't even know if he will make it. If you want more details you can pop the Norwegian version of my blog into http://translate.google.com
I update that almost daily.

The journey

2010-02-17T03:07:00.000-08:00

It makes sense to watch this one again, every once in a while :-) It's a good one!

Hippo birdie two ewes!

2010-02-12T05:10:00.000-08:00

Orkan is two years old today. Wow! Seems like yesterday, I was watching the little furrballs on webcam, waiting impatiently for him to turn eight weeks old. Even though it feels like yesterday - he has had the time to grow into a fantastic dog that I really enjoy living with and working with. I am so happy he is my little fuzz!

Today's center of attention, mr. birthday himself, seems to think that "birthday" equals "standing permission to steal socks and tug on them", and is taking his old age with impressive calmness.
He wanted me to share with you how to make a doggy birthday cake (so that you can make him many!):

New header

2010-01-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

Figured it was time for a bit of winter in the blog too - to match Norway this time of year. Check out the new header :-)

What would life be like without me?

2010-01-19T02:15:00.000-08:00

Tried to imagine how to catch photographically how it would affect Storm if I died before him...

About time for an update!

2010-01-18T00:20:00.000-08:00

It is definately about time for an update here... I see in my statistics that quite a lot of readers visit the english version of my blog, even though I don't really take the time to update it. Shame on me!
My goals for january are set on the competition next weekend: I want two clear runs. The major problem lately has been Orkan finding no value for the weave poles in competition settings (he runs straight past it like it doesn't exist) - a problem that never occurs in training situations. Frustrating!
He has not been well this last week, but looks better today (no more puking and the fever is gone), so I hope we can do a bit of training tonight.
I've also gotten myself a new camera since the last time I wrote here: a canon EOS 7D. Dreams coming true! Promise to post some pics shortly :-)

Thoughts on RC

2009-12-10T02:28:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine is starting RC with his new dog. I wrote down some of my thoughts on the different methods to him, and if any of my readers are thinking down the same path, here is my thinking:

Running contacts are great when they are great, but it is a heck of a lot of work to make them great. For the record, I'm not done with them yet, Orkan doesn't have the perfect turns that I want (planting his paws on the last 10 cm of the plank, not turning before the end, but not having a wide turn etc).
I would not recommend doing RC to anyone who isn't really sure that is what they want to do - it is so difficult, and requires such a lot of thinking and re-thinking.
But to me it was a delightful process of developing a method that not many has done, and certainly not exactly the same way that I did it. I have very reliable contacts, don't need to think about maintaining criteria in competition (which is what makes trouble for most 2on2off contact dogs, since they are no longer sure what the criteria really is).
And another problem with 2+2 is that many dogs don't understand that they should run fast into position, THEN stop (not creep slowly down into position).
I think that no matter what method you use, it requires a LOT of work... The difference is in some way that when the dog finally GETS the RC, you're kind of done, but with 2+2 you continuously need to keep working on it...

I wish him good luck! RC is so much fun :-)

Exams in my head...

2009-12-04T06:50:00.000-08:00

Yep, the echo of three different subjects is messing with my head right now... So there isn't much time to think about dog training. Anyway I want to share a beautiful piece of lyrics with you, making me smile today :-)
If you think you like it, look for BigBang and "something special" on youtube or spotify - you will fall in love...

Did you ever write my name with a fountain pen
In your books or on your desk
or did you tell your friends
That I was someone special
Did you ever lie awake the entire night
Glowing in the dark with no sheets or light
Thinking that I was someone special
You got me running
running late at night
trying to find you
And I started thinking
thinking all the time
But what could I do

I had something for you
Was there something for me
I had something to give you
But it's a mystery

Did you change your clothes
did you hesitate
walking back and forth, always being late
Cause I was someone special
Did you ever take a shower
did you wash your face
making up the bed thinking just in case
That I was someone special
You got me running
running late at night
trying to find you
And I started thinking
thinking all the time
But what could I do

I had something for you
Was there something for me
I had something to give you
But it's a mystery

You got me running
running late at night
trying to find you
And I started thinking
thinking all the time
But what could I do

I had something for you
Was there something for me
I had something to give you
But it's a mystery
I had something for you
Was there something for me
I had something to give you
But it's a mystery

Something special

Agility training

2009-11-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

The contacts worked! Yay! Some other issues to work on, but all in all I'm pretty happy.
The talking on the video isn't me, even though it sounds like it. People on the other half of the course (behind the cam).

Boring weather!

2009-11-08T04:16:00.000-08:00

I am sooo tired of this boring weather! It's either raining or really cloudy. Don't even remember when I saw the sun the last time... Blah...

Running contacts repair...

2009-11-04T02:14:00.000-08:00

I have been paying too little attention to Orkans contact performance lately, letting through hits that were not low enough. Gradually the criteria has slipped, and on sunday I noticed several really bad performances. The good thing is that it doesn't seem to be very hard to fix it:

A check-up with Orkans jumping technique

2009-10-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

We have a bit of work ahead of us! Although I'm not all sure what to do... But his hind legs go all high when I push him to take off close to the jump...

Running dogwalks in competition

2009-10-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

These are the three dogwalks from competition that I have on tape:

During training I have seen him sometimes hit a bit higher than I like. Is that something I should worry about? He has never been close to missing the contact, but isn't caring as much for where he places his feet any more. I am considering doing a bit of work on that, or should I leave it the way it is as long as he always runs, never jumps?
Comments, please :-)

Oh man! Somebody has done a lot of work!

2009-10-16T02:09:00.001-07:00

http://istheday.blogspot.com/

accel vs decel - straight vs turning

2009-10-10T13:10:00.001-07:00

Since Orkan has a tendency to turn and watch me if I get behind him, rear crosses don't really work very well. We really need to get that sorted out, so we have done a couple of sessions on one jump outside our house. He is improving, but still slows down if I have rewarded a couple of turns in a row, even though there is no cue for a turn this time.

I follow Greg Derrett's handling system, so these cues are important to me. To make it clear: acceleration on a straight line, no verbal cue, means run straight ahead, don't look back, focus on your line, the reward will be thrown ahead. Decel, verbal cue, means drive to reinforcement zone.

Time comparison tugging vs food reward

2009-10-02T04:38:00.000-07:00

I did a really interesting discovery recently. I have had a feeling that Orkan is slower when working for food rewards, even though he loves food SO much more than toys. (He is willing to die even for kibble, this was raw meat!)

The experiment was sort of scientifically set up, with a 150 m 18 obstacle course, that we worked a couple of times, so we were both used to it, and had no bias of news or training. We then clocked two runs, the first one when working for a toy (then took a break), and then one when he was working for food. The difference was astounishing!

The toy run didn't look very pretty, uneven lines, bigger turns, and he was kind of demanding to handle - I had to work hard to get him around the course without mistakes. The time came out at 31 seconds, which turns into 4,8 meters per second. A pretty good time!

Now for the food run: It looked a lot better, he was a lot more pleasant to handle, the lines were shorter and better, but we clocked in at 35 seconds! That is a full four seconds slower, his mean time being 4,3 meters per second. Still a good time, but what a difference, right?

What should I learn from this? I guess it comes down to what I want to achieve... If I want a good agilitydog, easy to train, easy to handle, and almost fast enough, I can stick to the food rewards happily. But if I want a dog that gives a full 100% in every run, with an extra notch of enthusiasm, I should be darn happy I spent all these hours on teaching both of us to love tugging!

What colors go with brown?

2009-09-28T04:00:00.000-07:00

For quite a while our living room has been dressed in different shades of brown and a bit of light blue (except the walls, they are white). I like the brown/blue combo, but it's kind of cold, and since fall is here (Sad to say that!) I'd like to change the color scheme a bit. I'll post some pictures at the end of the post to give you an idea of what it's like.

Since this color change project has to be a low cost one (to be approved by Sigurd), I need to keep the brown (which mostly are the pretty pieces, our couch and the floor carpet. So the plan is to swap the cushions, blankets and table cloths for a different color. Here is the million dollar question: what color will be a bit warmer, easy to find (since I need all kinds of stuff in it), and still go with brown?
I'm no fan of brown at all, so it needs to look good...

Jumping technique

2009-09-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

Orkan is refreshing old stuff (that he has almost forgotten about, since it's been a long time since we worked on this...) and Bris is trying jump grids for the first few times.

Our baby is four years old today!

2009-09-25T04:06:00.000-07:00

I find it hard to believe that it's only four years ago that Storm came into my life. It seems like he has been here forever, and is always going to be here... I really love that little guy!

Im going to Austria for world's!

2009-09-10T05:51:00.001-07:00

...at least my thoughts will be there, because Agilityvision is streaming the event live! Me like :-D
http://fci2009austria.agilityvision.com/

Our second weekend of trialing

2009-09-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday both our runs earned us Q's, but none of them were perfect. I look forward to learning a bit more about how he reacts to things, how much I can trust him in reading the lines of the course etc. And I look forward to our first clean run! So far there's been a something with every run, a refusal etc. Solveig taped our saturday runs, thank you very much! Here they are:

Today we disqualified both, due to Orkan having to check out some thingies in the ground (why do they put a watering system that sticks out of the ground in a football field?). After all, he has quite some history of reinforcement for checking out things on the ground that turned out to actually be food... In the first run that got us a refusal, which I thought was just a kncked bar (the tingie was on the ground, right under the bar so he ran head on into the bar to have a look...), so we disqualified. His speed wasn't the best I've seen... Here's that one on tape:
The second run, he did almost the same thing (popped out after the second weave pole) and earned us a refusal. He also flew right off the teeter! He has never done that before... But he's never tried a teeter that heavy either, so I guess what goes around comes around. We need to train on more different types of teeters... Anyway, I went back and did the teeter again, to maintain criteria properly. That of course disqualified us, but it doesn't really matter. The great thing about that run was that he surprised me by having a lot of drive and guts!

What did we learn? That we really need to work on doing agility with various items lying on the ground :-)

I've had a very nice weekend. Great weather, great company, and a great, little, yellow dog!

Where did the happiness go?

2009-09-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

When I think back, I ejoyed the dog training a lot more before... With Storm it was always an adrenaline rush, just to do a couple of obstacles in the training field. I loved it! No matter if we didn't always make the SCT's...

Over the last year, the training has to a greater degree evolved around identifying lacks and errors, and correcting them. When I have accomplished things with Orkan, the feeling has been relief over fixing the problem, rather than happiness. Yes, I have accomplished more than before, but I have not experienced the same joy. It seems almost like higher goals has raised the criteria for happiness too... Why?

I don't know... Maybe it's related to my health issues. The way things are now I don't really get much done. I'm giving the energy that I have to my education, Sigurd, and our dogs. I can't find the energy to maintain friendships, party, or meet new people. Maybe that's why I'm so afraid of failing at the few things I actually prioritize?

I don't know. But I know that I really wish to be more happy about my hobby. After all, it is a hobby. If it doesn't make me happy, I should probably quit, right?

During the debut trial with Orkan last weekend, we got a lot of nice, warming comments from both new and old friends, even though not everything was perfect. Surprisingly many people had nice things to say, supportive words, and belief in us. That really warms my heart! The sad thing is that the words I remember more than any, are the few ones that were'nt meant to make me happy.

I see it as a really sad thing that people tend to talk crap about each other around the norwegian agility rings. Usually the one being criticized doesn't hear about it themselves, but the jabbing still doesn't benefit anyone! I got a bit tired by this tendency over the weekend, and also notice that I get affected by it in another bad way - it's way too easy to join the coversation and make a couple of comments yourself. So, for the future, I've decided to think an extra couple of twice'es before I open my mouth about anyone around the agility ring! I wish very strongly not to be part of that culture...

Not long ago, I told one of the best agility handlers I know, not to let herself get broken down by one grumpy comment among many nice ones. We should enjoy what we do. It isn't easy, and I find myself in the same sad mood over that one comment. Why?

I don't know. But I truly wish to learn to enjoy my hobby at a higher level. I don't want to let myself sit ther with a lump in my throat (is that an expression in english?), wondering if I'm a sorry excuse for a dog trainer, or if my dog is a hopeless case. It is so unnessecary to break yourself down over bagatelles! How to do it, I don't know - but I wish to learn how to smile more.

Life is too short for us not to enjoy it. Dear friends - lets be happy!

Water fun

2009-09-02T06:15:00.000-07:00

Orkan really hates water. We are finally able to work in wet grass, but that has taken quite some time. And on saturday, he proved to me that we're not done with the water fun yet. The sight (and sensation) of water puddles in the gravel agility field got him low, distracted, and not the best dog to handle. Sooo: we're building value for stepping in water!

We are survivors!

2009-08-29T05:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we survived our first competition! Lots of stuff to work on (like not getting distracted by water...) but all in all I'm pleased. It feels like we weren't really ready for competition, but at least we did a decent job out there, and now we know even better what areas we need to prioritize to improve in. There has been way too much to do lately (getting our running contacts and weaving ready), so the handling has kind of gotten put off a bit. If you want a more thorough explanation (like me forgetting where the course went in the standard run) I think google reader translates blogs for you... I wrote more about it all in my norwegian blog.

This one made my day :-)

2009-08-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

Handling classes and running contacts

2009-08-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

Short version: Orkan worked very well the first day (finally I'm getting payed for the hard work and persistance regarding his tugging and attitude!) but then got more and more tired...
Video evidence, the last one being from the running contacts clinic:

We have tried a full course

2009-08-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

This is similar to a norwegian fci class 1 course. I'm pretty happy with Orkan. The only real miss was in the middle of the course, where he thinks he is being sent to his crate, and therefore misses a jump.

I'm torn...

2009-08-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

I really don't feel like training with Orkan today. I'm all tired and crabby, just want to roll up on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate...

Then it's said that the people who achieve excellence, are the people who make a habit of doing things that others find boring. I guess you don't get to the world championships by lying on the couch feeling sorry for yourself. But still - when I feel like this I might not be the best dog trainer in the world.

So - what to do? Should I just get over myself and do that piece of training, or should I take a day off even though niether I, nor Orkan deserve it? I'm torn.

What we're batteling with

2009-08-08T07:53:00.000-07:00

So this is the status on the weave battle:

The weaves....

2009-08-07T13:32:00.000-07:00

...are still giving me a hard time. So let's talk about something more appealing, like contacts!

Yes yes yes!

2009-08-06T04:19:00.000-07:00

YEEEES! Finally we're weaving four straight poles! Since the debut trial is zooming closer I decided to stay at the upper half of the arch, and move the poles in no matter. What a great feeling! I still have to go back and work on one jump and four poles to proof all kinds of entries, but right now my priority is to have a safe 12 pole weave from entries in the upper 180 degrees. And it feels manageable. Finally!
Too bad my camcorder was home charging, I wish I had video proof of that session :-D

Teeter check

2009-08-06T01:26:00.000-07:00

...and the conclusion is that we need to work on this. Even though I was standing still, food ahead was enough to mess with the criteria. He just doesn't have the full understanding of the criteria yet. A lot to work on, but I guess that's what agility is always like :-)

Ouups!

2009-07-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

I've entered Orkan for his first competition, and he doesn't even know how to weave properly yet! What am I thinking? Scaaary.... :-p

Update on our running contacts

2009-07-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

We're still getting a couple of errors every once in a while. Turning after the dogwalk, with me at some lateral distance, is still the most difficult challenge. It keeps getting better :-)

Weaving gagin

2009-07-25T08:09:00.000-07:00

We keep weaving... I'm still building value and proper understanding for the right entry, it's proven more difficult than I expected... But hey - Orkan is no border collie, he uses his intelligence for what he wants, not always what I want... He keeps pushing me to be a better dog trainer!

Weave woes continued (ok, we survive!)

2009-07-22T10:25:00.001-07:00

Weaving frustrations!

2009-07-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

I am SO frustrated right now! Let's just say I haven't decided weather to have ice cream or salmon for dinner yet. Ice cream would suit my mood...

Good things first: running contacts are coming along. Worked with a pole in the ground at the end of the dogwalk today, to have a visual boundry he has to go around before turning off the end. Teeter also looks good, he needs to get into a down faster, my movement is very distractive.

Now for the bad stuff: The weaving was really going well. We were working on four poles almost straight, I guess they were off-set by an inch or two. Then suddenly he doesn't get on-side entries! None! Nadas! I opened it up, he still kept running past the second pole. I even tried going back to two poles only, the way you start the whole process - he still wouldn't go through. WHAT??? I really have no idea how this happened. Lying down with his paws around the second pole, hasn't been reinforced, but running through has! WHAAAAAT????

I don't know where to go from here. I really seriously hope he got stung by a bee in the grass in that spot, or something else that made him not want to keep going, 'cause he can't have forgotten what to do? My whole list of dos and don'ts is intact: reinforcement line, progression speed, proofing stuff at the previous level before progressing etc. If you have suggestions for me, I'd love to hear them. I think...

Teeter foundation

2009-07-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

The foundation training has been a lot easier than I thought!

Weaving and teeter-thoughts

2009-07-12T05:17:00.000-07:00

The weaving is happening fast. Now we're at a four pole stage, working on closing the poles in togehter (poor explanation, but I guess you all know the 2by2 method by now). I'm glad I put the work I did into the first pair of poles. We're not struggling with entries at all. The only mistakes I got him to make today were going for the last pair of poles twice, and skipping the third pole once.

We had a very nice session of running contacts at Fanny's the other day, but still need some work on the turning. I'm not sure if I should add a pole at the end, or simply shape it...?

We have also started working on the teeter. I decided I'll have him lie down at the end of the board instead of nose touching the ground, since he's so small. The first step on my plan is shaping him to lie on a plastic board at home, then I'll move it to a travel plank, and finally to the real thing. I'll try to videotape that process :-)

Btw the rear crossing tunnel wasn't a problem at all. Orkan surprises me by suddenly knowing how to do stuff we struggled with in the past, and haven't really worked on since. Great :-)

Finally an update

2009-07-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

With everything else going on there hasn't been much dog training (heard that phrase before, right?). Really - moving, finishing school, starting a new job - I'm completely worn out... The last couple of days I've finally gotten around to working Orkan.

Today we started with some easy sequencing. The serpentines suddenly work very well, after being the hardest nut to crack during the seminars with Fanny in May. Not sure why, since we haven't worked much on it, but it's probably related to general growing up, and syncronizing better. Orkan and I are finally starting to know what to predict from each other on an agility field...

The weaves are coming along too, I'm still working on entries with two poles (Susan Garrett's 2by2 method). Somehow it feels like the work I put into that is going to come back to me with all it's friends. Correct me if I'm wrong... Anyway - adding the second pair is going to happen this week, but I want to be certain that there's no more sudden misunderstandings before I up the ante.

The last thing we did today was running contacts. I set him up at the end of the middle (dogwalks should have names or numbers to explain where I mean!), and varied between running ahead and calling him, and running with him. He was a bit tired (had played with a puppy for twenty minutes before the last session), so the speed wasn't perfect, but he still hit, and worked intensely for the rabbit fur cat toy.

That's all for now, time to go to bed... (it's 8pm in Norway now, and I'm compleeeetely worn out from sleeping a bit too little five nights in a row!)

Weavers

2009-06-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

Over the past week we've worked on 2by2 almost every day. The weather has been extremely hot (over 30 degrees celsius), so night training has been preferable. We're making some progression, but not really as fast as I had hoped for. I'm glad I have another month and a half until what will hopefully be our debut trial... We're still at the two pole stage, working on entries especially from the right hand side, figuring out not to go the wrong way between the poles...

The running contacts are coming along in about the same pace. He hits almost perfectly with me straight ahead now, so what's left is working out the turning and running with me on his side. I use a straight tunnel for that.

So much to do, so little time! I hope to post a video update soon, but still I haven't figured out the camera software issues, and my whole life is still partially packed in boxes, and thats actually a priority. Yes, I'm not ALL dog maniac :-)

Not much dog training right now

2009-06-25T11:08:00.001-07:00

I am completely exhausted from moving to a new place and starting my new job. I absolutely love the job (if you didn't know, I should mention that I'm working as a journalist this summer). The editors and my co-workers take very good care of me. The fact that I'm completely new to journalism and newspapers hasn't been much of a problem. So far I've finished three articles, one of which is going to be a big thing in saturday's paper. Yesterday I spent half the day writing about how to make the hot summer easier on your dog - not a bad subject for me :-)
I really have to go get some dog training done... Orkan tends to forget what we have been working on if I leave it too long, and our last training was saturday I think... Time to go!

Status update

2009-06-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Ingerid is: very, very tired from moving and finishing school stuff, living in the remains of a very messy home, partially packed in boxes, and pretty nervous about starting my new job tomorrow. Time to sleep!

Just for laughs

2009-06-15T07:09:00.001-07:00

Oooo. I love this!

Running contacts - eleventh video

2009-06-15T02:04:00.000-07:00

Keeps looking better :-) I need a real contact obstacle now...

Pictures from Oslo Dog Show

2009-05-31T04:02:00.000-07:00

...can be found in my norwegian blog. Translating pictures just doesn't make sense ;-)

Seriously impressive!

2009-05-31T03:12:00.000-07:00

Measured: small

2009-05-30T09:52:00.001-07:00

Orkan was officially measured today. He touched the measureing thingie, but was still declared small. Yay! I'll have to measure him again after he's turned two years old, but there's not much risk he'll grow more now. I really hope he doesn't, he was SO close to not fitting under that thing today ;-)

Handling classes - the last night

2009-05-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

Norway

2009-05-21T15:57:00.001-07:00

So this is my country :-) Enjoyable! And almost true :-p At least the part about fish and wool and skiing. Haha...

Six dogs and an ethology book...

2009-05-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

I'm in Son for a couple of days now, taking care of five of Fanny and Thomas's dogs while they are away. Orkan is here too, to do a bit of agility training in my study breaks. Yesterday was the fifth night at the handling seminar. Orkan worked a lot better than the last couple of times, I managed to set him up for success (not too difficult stuff, and his attitude was happy and focused). Here is the video (Though youtube has gone back to making my videos 4:5 again. Arrgh!):

Running contacts! Yes!

2009-05-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much running contacts training since the last video, just four or five sessions on my little plank outside our house. So I didn't expect much when I went to do a bit of training with Lene today. But MAN I was wrong! This was Orkan's first experience with a real dogwalk ramp. I started it very low (50 cm) and successively raised it over our three sessions. The last session was filmed:

Congratulations!

2009-05-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

I rarely blog about other stuff than dog training, but here's an exception: Congratulations! My old friend Alexander Rybak (always known to me as Sasha) has done an exceptional job of his participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Wow! You really know how to work a stage and an audience :-)

Norwegian?

2009-05-16T04:18:00.000-07:00

It looks like norwegian is winning. I'll still keep this blog alive, but I guess it will slow down. More about major accomplishments and thoughts than everyday frustrations...
This is where the norwegian stuff can be found: http://klikkeragility.blogspot.com

Poll

2009-05-13T07:05:00.001-07:00

Google reader users need to go to the actual blog in order to see this.
I've made a poll, so you can decide what language you want this blog to be in. From the comments to the last post, so far it's 50/50.

Language? Comment poll :-)

2009-05-13T01:19:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking of maybe switching back to blogging in norwegian. My readers statistics tell me that most of my readers are from scandinavian countries, but not all. Writing in english is a good exercise for me, since I don't speak english that much any more after moving out from my parents, but I've gotten quite some number of complaints from norwegian readers who want me to stick with their language. Who cares? Do you? Leave a comment, and I'll take that into consideration before I decide. If norwegian comments win, I guess I'll switch back :-)

Handling and running contacts

2009-05-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

I didn't blog about wednesday's handling class yet. Not much to say about it really, except Orkan lacks the "suction" towards the obstacles, which I need for rear crossing, and that he doesn't respond very well to a serpentine arm, which is completely logic since I haven't really taught him that yet. Work to do! Hope to solve the "suction" with some easy stuff, thrown rewards etc, and the serpentine will be a topic this spring, little by little. But I'm kind of afraid of ruining his speed, attitude and the little "suction" (give me an english word for what I'm trying to say, ok?) that he has, by doing too much difficut stuff, so the serpentines are not at the top of the list yet.

I've painted my running contacts plank with sand (lots of wet paint, then sand on top), and today I tried a bit of training with Orkan again. The tape is now at 45 cm, the middle of the contact point. I had to fail him a lot of times in a row, but at the end of the session we got some good ones in. Turns out he finds it a lot more difficult to hit when he runs a long plank than when running an "A". I'm not sure why, could be due to higher speed on a longer straight, but I haven't really seen much difference in his speed either. Anyway this means I'll be doing virtually all that kind of training on a long plank.

I've also done a bit of jumping technique training lately, but not much to brag about. I look SO much forward to starting the weave training, but I'm forcing myself to figure out the contacts first. Don't want to stick myself in the trap of having a 'jumpers class only' dog ;-p

Huskies

2009-05-09T00:45:00.000-07:00

These dogs belong to my wonderful friend Ingvild.

Finally some training again!

2009-05-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

With my hands wrapped up in bandages and myself mostly sleeping there hasn't been a lot of training lately. Orkan wants me to say hello and that I've forgotten about him altoghether!
Anyway - I took his dinner outside today initially to do a bit of running contacts training, but ended up having him tug for his raw food in a bowl (tiny pieces at a time). He is willing to work FOR EVER for that food, allowing me to ask for real dedication to the tugging before he gets his reward. It's fun to challenge myself on really demanding the behaviour that I want, a topic that has been a luke warm potato when it comes to tugging...

Orkan surprised me by not giving up or trying to get to the food by cheating. The most difficult one I threw at him was tugging our way towards the bowl from about 7 meters distance. Whenever he loosened his grip on the toy or dropped it, we walked back to the start, to Orkan's great frustration. Fun :-) The only downside is that now my nose is bleeding, since he suddenly let go of the toy when I didn't expect him to, and I was pulling so hard that my fist flew back and hit me in my own face! But I can live with a bloody nose as long as he tugs with attitude! Just wish I had the nose incident on tape :-p

Competition and rear crosses

2009-05-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to a competition to watch, and as I expected Orkan's tugging issues were a bit more present there than at home. But we worked through it, and I think we'll be ok. He did tug with the food in the back of his head (being rewarded for good tugging), but he growled, pulled and had fun at the same time. I walked the course for one of the novice classes, and found that it was really easy. If we had our contacts and weaves done, we could have made that course easily. What a great feeling! In half a year, when the rest of the stuff is ready, I hope our handling will be smooth and fast, and we'll have a blast out there :-)

Wednesday was rear cross night at the handling seminar. Orkan needs more drive for the jumps in order to let me place and execute my crosses better, but all in all we did quite well I think. He had his moments of leaving the tugging to sniff the ground, but that's old news and I try not to focus too much on it. I blame it on Shejpa eating raw chicken necks off the ground there, which smells like heaven according to Orkan, and that's a good distraction for us to work through. I have no guarantee that no one will drop treats on the ground in a competition, and actual treats (not just the scent) would be a lot more difficult for him to ignore than this! Here is the video from wednesday (thanks to Lene for filming!) - I used the editing software that came with the camera this time. Faster, but I'm not frieds with the titles yet, so It's nothing fancy...

I just love this pic so much!

2009-04-29T03:50:00.000-07:00

Looks like they don't love me quite as much as I love them, right?
Looks like they don't love me quite as much as I love them, right?

Feels good :-)

2009-04-28T02:18:00.000-07:00

This morning Orkan and I went out and did a tiny bit of double box training. Felt really good. I guess my tendency to over-handle is linked to knowing I'm being watched and critiqued, and therefore have more motivation to do everything absolutely right. It fealt a lot more smooth when I just had some fun :-)

I've also added another height option on my jumps. I used to have 60 cm for the large dogs, 45 for medium, 35 for small, and then 10 and 20 for jumping technique training. Orkan is jumping very nicely on 10 and 20 now, but the gap to 35 was too big, and he didn't jump that very pretty. Even knocked some bars... So today I added another on about 27, and the good news is that he didn't even seem to mind the extra height. So in some weeks I hope I can add an occasional bar on 35, and make the transition into good jumping style on full competiton height. That would feel awsome! Even though we probably won't compeet before 6 months at the earliest, height is an issue for a lot of dogs, and I would love to have it sorted!

As for the running contacts - there's too much to work on right now. I believe that shaping is a lot more efficient if you do it often, so my goal woud be to do the running contacts training intensively over a couple of weeks (maybe more), but to work on it at least three times a week to keep it fresh in both our minds. Since I don't have the time to do that right now, I'm postponing the whole project for a while...

Tomorrow is handling class day agian - jeg gleder meg! (can't really be translated directly, but means that I'm looking forward to it)

More handling...

2009-04-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Lene and I did some agility training again. I spent some time on getting Orkan to keep up a straight line to a jump after a tunnel even when I'm a bit behind (throwing the toy), but our straight lines obviously still needs some work. Another thing that needs work is his response to a front cross or a threadle. He kept turning extremely wide in a front cross situation, even though both my positional cue, the front cross and the repetitive pattern of doing the same exercise several times should have gotten him tighter. I will spend some time on that with one jump, I think. Anyway - we have gotten some training on doing several obstacles with successively more speed and independece over this past week, and I can sense some progress. Look forward to see if we do a bit better on wednesday than last week :-D

One thing I've been twisting my mind about is that Lene thinks I'm over-cueing my blind cross body line (bcbl) by turning too much, or maybe too soon. I tried to do it more slowly (can be seen in the video below), but then I under-did it, which lead to Orkan stepping in towards me (which is absolutely correct since he had met the face of my bcbl and I hadn't kept moving it towards the jump. Then I accelererated the movement agian, but the jump was already a flick, so I'm glad Orkan didn't jump it. Anyway - when I try to think about not turning too fast (aka being to far ahead of my dog, sort of) I end up being too slow! Extremely frustrating. I can see on the video that Lene has a point - I do turn very clearly, and could probably be a smoother handler if I didn't. But a) I don't think it's a very big issue (correct me if I'm wrong!), and b) I think it will fade away when Orkan and I get more "into" this system. As soon as he starts understanding my cues better, I will probably be able to make them smaller. I hope? If any of you have thoughts on this (or thoughts on my handling) I would love a comment...

Bris' first puppy show

2009-04-26T13:01:00.000-07:00

Kritikk (in norwegian): For alderen passe stor. Godt skåret hode som mangler utvikling i bredde. Store ører (dominerende, som han uttalte det, red.anm.). Pene øyne. Godt utviklet kropp med bra bryst (sjelden med så bra utviklet forbryst sa han, red.anm.). Bra hale. mg ben og bevegelser. Litt høy haleføring under bevegelse. Meget lovende. 1-1-BIR-BIS3

Critique: Aproperiate size for age. Nicely cut head, lacks some development in width. Large ears. Goodlooking eyes. Well developed body with very good front. Good tail. Very good legs and movements. Tail a bit high when moving. Very promising. Best quality, Best of breed, Third best in show.

I did the handling, since I'd done most of the training, and we (Sigurd mostly) were a bit concerned that she wouldn't walk or stand very nicely. I had done a bit of training with her the day before, but not much else, so reverse luring (it's your choice game) gave me a huge advantage! She stood like an angel! :-D She also walked pretty, and behaved at the teeth check and the measureing. Lots of free puppy food, toys, glass bowls, other stuff (MY - puppy shows give a lot of prizes!) and good socialisation. All in all: good puppy!

Double box fun :-)

2009-04-25T01:26:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged about the handling class on wednesday yet, so it's probably about time! It was fun, but still I was a little bit frustrated by my own performance. I wasn't really disappointed, niether in Orkan or in myself or in anything. It's just that I want things to happen faster than they do! Orkan worked pretty well, I only had to give him a time out once (decided to sniff the ground for food instead of tugging), and his attitude really has improved over the last year. But he's still young, and I can't expect him to do full courses, which leads to not being able to do the sequences that the others work on. This handling seminar is all about teaching us handlers how to work, not the dogs really. My handling needs an upgrade so badly, but in order to actually handle, you need the dog to run the course. When the dog needs to be rewarded for every good move he makes (that means every two, three or four jumps), and isn't up for the challenge of distance, independence and generalisation, you can't really do it the way that teaches you the most. That's a bit frustrating. Of course I could still do it, but that would mean setting Orkan up for a lot of failure (doing six jumps right and then failing on the seventh means not getting rewarded for the previous six, and then not knowing that he did right). We simply need more experience, and I know I need to do that gradually in order to get the confindent, fast and happy dog I want. So I'll do what I can at the classes, and put the rest in the back of my head for later. I promised myself before I got him, that with Orkan I'm not going to move on too fast, it's about hurrying slowly :-D

Yesterday Cathrine, Lene and I did some double box training, and tried to keep in mind what Fanny had told me wednesday - teaching him to hold a line. So I varied between running straight ahead and turning. I think I have sort of neglected doing long straight ahead stretches, like straight across the double box. It was fun to see him figuring that out :-)
We also worked a bit on lead out pivot's and rear crosses. Most of it was filmed and can be seen below (although my 4:5 vs 16:9 issues with youtube have reoccurred). One funny thing I see on the video is that when I dare to push his line early in a rear cross (I tend to be a bit late I think, will be funny to hear what Fanny thinks about my rear crossing on wednesday!) his turning is a lot better. One time he didn't even turn in time for the jump, and I think that was caused directly by my poor handling.

I love agility!

A bit of complaining

2009-04-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

(Don't read it if you don't want to - bad mood warning!)

I just want to sigh... Deeply. And not really speak. But somehow I think it would feel good to complain a bit, and this is a great place for complaining, since the listener can choose to walk out of the conversation without even telling me, unlike if I was speaking to you in person. So here we go:

I am just so endlessly tired of being sick... Is it really too much to ask to be able to wake up, and press the buttons on my alarm clock without having to collect all my strength and all the pain my fingers can take? Is it really too much to ask to be able to run an agility course with my dog without tasting blod in my mouth? Is it really impossible to just live a normal, active life, sleep those normal eight hours and feel good? I wish it wasn't. But it obviously is.

One tiny piece of advice: don't ever catch an illness that the doctors can't figure out. It's a bit like what I imagine hell must be like...

And another piece of advice: get yourself a Norwegian Lundehund. They make any pain go away in the blink of an eye. If you ever need that kind of comfort, just ask. Storm will help.

Runnning contacts - day nine

2009-04-21T04:24:00.000-07:00

I tried really hard to focus on his front legs today, but the hind legs really are easier to see, and usually they hit lower too. According to Siliva Trkman (founder of this methond) the dogs that do running contacts with their front paws have an easier time turning tight after the contact, but Orkan seems to find the hind legs easier. And I love easy :-p

Birds?

2009-04-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

,,

Why do birds
suddenly appear
every time
you are near?
,,

Remember that song?
I'm singing it with a frown on my face! Orkan has decided that chasing birds is a lot more fun that tugging. He might work for r-e-a-l-l-y good food rewards, but even then he takes off. MAJOR selv-rewarding issue alarm!

After complaining to Thomas today (and getting some good advice) I decided that a good way to attack this problem is to train a crisis "sit" command. I took Orkan (long leash dragging on the ground) and his dinner out to work on a bit of sitting. No birds, so I didn't have to use the leash a lot, but he found some very interesting smelling things (had been a dead bird once upon a time I think) that he wanted to roll in, so we had a selv-rewarding temptation to work on.

My goal is that he doesn't mind the birds flying or jumping around at all. Not when training agility, nor when going for a walk. I want to be able to walk him off leash all year! In order to have him get used to the birds, I need to control them reinforcement-wise, and that's what I hope to do with the sitting. Thomas said that when training hunting dogs he often finds it easier to train a sit than a recall, so I'll try that.

The downside by doing something about this problem is that I need to keep him on a leash (no self rewarding!) until we have learned to handle those winged monsters (I'm going to have nightmares about tiny little birds, ok?). I hope that won't take too long... It means most agility training is impossible right now... Let's just hope there won't be too many birds at the handling classes.... (pray with me!)

A big smile at the end: just before dark, when the birds had gone to bed, we had some three jump fun. Except for having to work a bit on lateral distance, not skipping the last jump before a LOP, he did extremely well! Tugged like a hero, ran like a hero, and responded to my handling just the way I want. His turns are very, very tight, so he knocks a bar every now and then (yes, both), he just doesn't seem to mind. I guess that will change as soon as he is introduced to heavy wood bars... Mine are very light plumming pipes, hitting one of Fanny's bars will feel quite different. Reminds me we need to work a bit more on the jumping technique. I guess I'll do that tomorrow :-)

RC day 8

2009-04-19T05:35:00.000-07:00

We're getting the hang of it. I think...
Catching myself saying ouup-yes, redeciding about whether it was a good hit or not. My mind just isn't fast enough...
And just a sigh before the video: it's april, and we're already picking ticks off the dogs! The snow isn't even all gone yet! Grrroowl! I've given all the dogs Exspot today. Orkan didn't work very well on that last year (he needed new treatments every two weeks, which is way too often) so I think I'll get him an anti-tick collar instead. On the other hand, he didn't respond to anasthetics very well last year (we had to drug him as much as a 30 kg dog!) but that has changed after growing up, so the Exspot might last longer now too... It's a lot easier and I think more comfortable for the dog to have a drop of something in the neck once a month than having to wear a collar all the time... Siiiighhh!

Storm's puppies!

2009-04-19T01:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't heard much about Storm's puppies since they left the breeder a year ago. Today I found this:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.01.2008 ble det født 2 valper hos fam. Storli Kullnr. 081434
Far N Uch Maahornet`s Storm 25099/05 Dette er hans første kull.
Mor Lyrypa`s Jette 12442/02 Hun er nå mor til 7 valper

06110/08 Lyrypa`s Viking Leo 7670 Inderøy
06111/08 Lyrypa`s Viking Kaisa 6868 Gaupne
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'd love to hear from their owners, see pictures etc... If you know anything about them, please email me: ingerid.klaveness@gmail.com

Feeling good!

2009-04-19T00:44:00.000-07:00

When I went to my father's place in Østfold yesterday I brought one of my jumps, and did some one jump training on his (dry!) lawn. Orkan worked really well, he tugged like a hero, and we had no issues with distance and understanding. Feels good!

We also did the daily bit of running contacts training. I have replaced the 50 and 30 cm tapes with one (red) 40 cm tape, since I've decided that 40 cm is an ok criterium for Orkan. Somehow it was a lot more difficult to see where he hit after I did that! I'm not sure if it's the color, or if it's just that it looks different now, but I hope I'll get used to it. Since the criteria was a bit more strict he missed more, and it didn't feel good at all... Fanny really was right when she said that running contacs either feel very good or very baad. It's such an ambivalent thing...

Running contacts - day six

2009-04-17T23:40:00.000-07:00

vYesterday the first session was still good, and I decided to raise the plank. That resulted in some insequrity (he slipped off once and tried to run beside the plank after that), but I kept working him through it, and as soon as he had tried to run beside it and not gotten rewarded for that a couple of times, he decided to try the plank version agian. His hits got higher, but still ok. One serious jump where he took off before the 50 cm mark, but the rest were below 50, and some below 30, and I rewarded all of those.

More angle made it easier to differ between running and jumping. Some of the 50 cm hits were jumps today, so I'd like him to hit lower than 50, and before the next session I'll replace the 50 and 30 tapes with a 40 cm mark. That will make it easier to narrow the hits down. I'll still jackpot the really good ones, but the ones that were right on the 50-tape yesterday were done jumping-style. The black line really helps a lot with seeing where he hits, I focus my eyes on the tape, and then I see clearly if the paws landed above or under it. Sounds funny, but before I needed to check the video to see if I had rewarded something I shouldn't have :-p

Fun!

2009-04-16T02:56:00.000-07:00

This: http://norwegian-speedtest.10-fast-fingers.com/
I'm somewhere around 450 characters per minute. Can go faster, but then I start making mistakes. One funny thing is that I type the same speed and accuracy in norwegian as in english (it has multiple language options). I'd really expect myself to be slower in english... Wish I had a swedish keyboard so I could try that too (I sort of speak swedish, leart it when I was a kid) - but typing in the special letters that don't exist on my keyboard would take too much time. Try it! A bit addictive!

Bad dog - shame about the handler?

2009-04-15T06:23:00.000-07:00

It's not that I expect our tugging ordeals to ever end, but still its soooo frustrating whenever I run into a problem. Sigh...

Situation being: Orkan doesn't want to tug as long as the grass is wet (or any other reason he might come up with). I know his behavior is a reflection of my abilities as a trainer, so this means I'm not doing my job. Since tugging isn't really fun in these situations, I tend to avoid them (work on jumping technique using food rewards instead of just going out to tug, right?) - which makes the problems ten times worse. I need to step up and face these issues. Waiting won't solve them...

Having him tug for the food doesn't really work very well, so I guess my only option is tugging A LOT, or maybe going back to the no food rewards regime. New rule from today: every day Orkan and I have to go out and tug, do circle work etc (no planned training, just tugging), and try to have a blast. I want a border collie!

Running contacts day four and five

2009-04-15T06:13:00.000-07:00

I uploaded the videos from yesterday and today. Have a look at my youtube channel if you're interested (http://www.youtube.com/user/ingeridklaveness).
The progress is ok, I still catch myself on the video rewarding not so perfect behavior, but anyway we're getting somewhere! Karine and I discussed ideal criteria (how picky I want to be before raising the plank) and I sort of see the point of not necessarily demanding 30 cm hits, as long as they are in the lower half of the contact (below 45 cm). That would make the training a lot easier (most our hits are already within that area), so I'm going to consider a bit of change in our plans :-)

More RC

2009-04-13T11:57:00.001-07:00

Statistics of today:
Total miss (ran beside the plank): 31% - probably due to the fact that I tried to run beside him etc, which got him a bit out of focus on where the reward was etc.
Below 90 cm mark: 12,5%
Below 50 cm mark: 22%
Below 30 cm mark: 34%

Usually he hits below the 50 cm mark as long as his focus is straight forward and nothing else goes on around him. Pretty ok. I need to start failing him on the hits that are everywhere els, but I find it a bit difficult to see where he hits and react in time :-p

Jumping :-)

2009-04-13T05:38:00.000-07:00

Today is too rainy to do difficult stuff, like shaping hits on the contact plank, but a little bit of jumping was ok. Orkan actually behaved pretty well despite the rain (ok, he tried to avoid hitting the grass, but who cares :-p), and we got some work done on not being intimidated by big looking jumps. Nothing higher than 35 cm, but bars all over the place got him sometimes jumping with bigger margins than he needs:

Proper statistics

2009-04-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

Running contacts criteria...

2009-04-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

Let's start with an update on Storm: He isn't feeling too well, but an headache is a detail compared to what we were afraid might happen! Thank all of you for your express of concern for our baby, that really warmed our hearts!

Now some Orkan training: I tape most of our running contacts training to be able to analyze how our hits really are. So far my only criteria has been that he needs to run on the plank, no excessive jumping, and no jumping off the plank (to the side). After having a look at the footage from this morning in slow motion I find that not too many of his hits are below the 30 cm mark (last third of the contact point), even though he's just runnning, not jumping. This means that the criteria of just running isn't enough. With more speed comes less precision, and I think I would end up having marginal hits by the time I start competing...

Time for a criteria plan: I will reward the 8 best out of 10 until I have a 100% of hitting the last 30 cm's, and then move the plank up gradually. That means rewarding hits in the last 50 cm of the plank right now, and monitoring the success rate to see when it's time to change the criteria. I hope that by establishing the criteria of where to hit first, and then adding angle, the angle will not be such a hard thing. He is an intelligent dog, so I hope that he will get that the same criteria applies no matter what angle the plank is on. Who lives will get to see :-)

One really great thing is that he has been tugging like a border collie the last couple of days! Let's not mention what happened when the neighboor dog came around, or two horses, but at least most of the time, the tugging is great!

Running contacts!

2009-04-11T06:59:00.000-07:00

Since my lawn isn't dry enough to start training one jump yet, I decided to use the driveway for running contacts. My plank is 5 meters long, has hinges on the middle (so I can start making it higher like a mini a-frame as we progress) and 21 cm wide. A normal dogwalk is 30 cm wide, so we're in one manner over-training. I like :-)

The first step in my plan for criteria is running ON the plank no matter what I do, what kind of reward we're talking about, and if a toy is placed up front or if I'm throwing it after the click. Next step will be hitting the last 30 cm of the plank. Then I'll start adding angle.

Started pretty well, with two sessions of 100% success. Then (not so sure why) he started running beside the plank, jumping off the plank half way etc. Turns out I have to work a bit on that. Before I move on I want him to know that he has to run on the plank all the way, even if I add an angle of approach, if the reward isn't in a completely straight line, etc. Some generalization, then... I hope that will save me some time later, in building value and accuracy. Orkan is the kind of dog that might try everyting BUT running on the plank if I fail him due to poor hits, so I really want to put some value and certainty into the equation before we make it harder :-)

Here are the first four sessions:

Let's go for a swim in the bathtub?

2009-04-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday someone mentioned that my dogs were small enough to swim in the bathtub. They aren't - but still, the bathtub can be used for physical training. Doesn't beat the water treadmill in Laxmi's office (I wish I could move into that office!), but it's considerably cheaper, so it'll be ok for now...

Handling theory and a bit of practise

2009-04-09T05:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the theory class for the handling course with Fanny. I've become quite used to thinking in Greg Derrett ways over the past year, but it's always nice to get some repetition, along with the details I've managed to forget since last time. We had a really nice time with coffe and brownies :-)

First of all, I learned that we are just going to be four handlers and dogs (in addition to Fanny of course), which means lots of time for each of us, and they are all really nice people. Me like! Secondly, I learned that if it feels flicky, it probably is, and it can most likely be solved by a serpentine. Sure, that is an exaggeration, but that was my over all thought. I could really use some practise in finding the serpentine possibilities in a course, since it's such a smooth manouver, and for some reason they haven't become obvious to me yet. Third - which I sort of already knew - I can't trust my instinct in descision making, I always have to go through the three points (where are you coming from, where are you going, and what is the shortest distance? See Greg's last dvd if you don't get what I'm jabbing about). As mentioned I knew this, but still I was somewhat surprised by how wrong I am when I guess!

Today I took Orkan and two jumps (With bars this time! Yey!) down to the horse riding arena owned by my landlord, to do some double box corner proofing. I want to have confident and independent turns even with longer distance in two weeks, at the first practical class. Started nice with some very good 90 degree turns, then my plan was to move to 180 turns and then 270. But instead our training turned into one of the many battles in the war against horse shit (or anything else that might be eatable or otherwise more interesting than tugging). Oh MY I'm SO tired of that...

Right now the clippers are charging, and as soon as that's done I'm going to freshen up Orkan's haircut. I am completely gobsmacked by how fast his hair has grown, but at least he does not shed at all any more, and the matting is long gone :-D

My world collapsing

2009-04-08T03:00:00.000-07:00

Storm fell on his head today. He has been in Horten with Sigurd and Bris the last couple of days, and today Sigurd walked in on him standing on the table. Storm got scared when Sigurd entered, and tried to jump to the floor, but fell. His feet didn't help him at all, his head crashing to the floor. He screamed, eyes rolling, not albe to keep control of his body. Everything moved slow. Sigurd rushed him to the nearest vet immediately, borrowing the neighboors' car.

Luckily his neck didn't break, he doesn't seem to have serious brain damage, and after several check-ups and a cortizon shot (I think - I was on the phone the whole time, trying to hear what was said and what happened) to avoid swelling in his head, they got to go home to Sigurd's parents' house and relax. Storm has to be alone, no interaction with other dogs, and he will be woken up every fifteen minutes to monitor him and avoid passing out...

Not much more to say right now, except we pray and hope he'll get through this... Complete and utter sadness...

Storm - we love you...

Youtube 16:9?

2009-04-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

I still can't figure out why youtube makes my videos appear in 4:5 format!
I'd love some tips on that...

Egg search instruction video

2009-04-07T07:15:00.000-07:00

The Norwegian Puffin dog, or Norsk Lundehund, was designed to search for and retrieve puffin eggs and the puffin bird itself. On a cold winter day we decided to put Storm's abilities to the test. Here is the result:

Jumping progress and general happiness :-)

2009-04-07T02:15:00.001-07:00

I've made a habit of taking Orkan and his dinner out to the grid outside our house almost every day lately. When we started the jumping techniqhe training some months ago, he did really well. We focused on basic grids, progressive grids and after a while we started working on distance evaluation. That was when the problems started. He didn't seem to bother to adjust his stride if the last jump (distances 4/4/8-12) was a bump, so I tried making it look a bit more difficult. That didn't work at all, and I started to wonder if he found the exercise too difficult, but that didn't really make sense either. Hence frustration.

The handling course starts next week, and I really wanted him to be confident and happy with jumping bars (the handling I've done so far has been done with bumps only) before that. I'm not planning on having him jump competition height or anything that soon, but having to change the bars for bumps etc would be a downside, and it would be a shame if the handling training got to ruin his jumping style because I started too difficult stuff too early, but after working on this every day since our driveway got dry enough to make it possible, it's looking a lot better! I'm not really sure what made the difference, but I know where to go from now.

Today we worked in set-up based on a distance grid: bump - 4 feet - 10 cm bar - 4 feet - bump - 10 feet - jump. That last jump started out being just a bump, and with every repetition I changed it, until we finally had bars on 35 cm in addition to various confusing bars and a bump to make it look bigger than it really was.

In order to make it as little difficult as possible (building confidence first of all, but still having him cope with the height) I didn't vary the distance to the last jump like you normally do with a distance grid. That could cause some trouble with his distance evaluation since you're supposed to change the distance with every repetition, so I need to go back and work on that as soon as possible. This has in some ways been doing things in the opposite order, there is only one thing that can really mess up these exercises (according to Vappu Alatalo), and that's height on an early stage. Orkan really is on an early stage, so I'm compromising with that to get him ready for sequencing, and I was't really sure if this was the right thing to do. But now, with one week left of jumping technique before the sequencing starts, I have plenty of time to focus on distance, collection and some one jump. We're back on schedual!

Now for some other stuff. Sigurd has gone to Horten to visit his best friend who studies in Bergen (almost a day of driving away from here), so they don't meet very often. He took Bris and Storm, so Orkan and I are home alone most of the time. My mother is visiting, that is she's sleeping here while she works in Oslo this week, so I have some human company as well, but all day Orkan and I get to play agility, read books, chew on carrots (not stolen by Bris) and chase flies.
We love it! (Yes, I miss you Sigurd.)

Finally we're getting somewhere :-)

2009-04-06T05:01:00.000-07:00

Today I got Orkan jumping 35 cm's in a nice style, looking comfortable and confident.
As usual I took his daily ration of raw food outside and we worked on the distance grid. Three bumps 4 feet apart, and then a full stried (10 feet I think, or something like that) to the last jump. I didn't vary the position of the last jump (aka distance) but kept varying the look of it. One bar, two bars, crossed bars on different heights, bars all over the place etc etc. Good results, finally! He even jumped with three bars, 10 cm, 20 cm and 35 cm without any problems. He used to run under the 35 cm bar, so when I added one on 20 cm I kind of expected him not to jump it at all, but he didn't seem to mind, and his technique looked good too :-)
I LOVE grass! Although it's a bit wet out here still, we can finally do some training!

Muddy jumping

2009-04-04T01:59:00.000-07:00

I've had too much to do and some lack of energy lately, so my laptop hasn't even left my school backpack - hence no blogging.

The heel position is finally looking somewhat like what I want it to, though I haven't worked on it as much as I probably could have. The low carb diet makes it hard to find low energy treats (he still has his tendency of putting on wheight in a hurry, remember), and some shaping is a lot of work when using toys... So.... Lots of excuses, but at least we're getting somewhere :-)

We have also tried to do some jumping technique exercises out on the little patch of grass that has re-appeared (spring is finally coming my way!) outside. But in Orkan's opinion wet, muddy grass is WAY too uncomfortable, and he won't place his pretty paws anywhere near it! So my plan of getting him used to jumping bars and hopefully with some height, since the handling classes start next week (which I'm looking forward to, btw!). Anyway, because of his getting dirty fobia, we haven't gotten any of the planned bend work and height work done. I stick to basic grids with a tiny bit of variation, but his speed and enthusiasm is nowhere to be seen as long as the ground is wet, so the training is more about doing SOMETHING to get used to moist conditions (to put it nicely - but we risk running competitions on similar surfaces if it's raining enough, so we really need to get over that!). In other words - not much to brag about, but at least we're trying to have some fun! I look SO much forward to start working on weaving and running contacts, but I'll try to keep myself serious and get over our jumping technique issues first...

His coat looks really nice now that it's grown a centimeter or two, I think I'll stick with it. His shedding is reduced to a minimum, which can't exactly be said about the two other monsters... I don't get why Bris has decided her puppy coat has to go alerady, she's just three months, for heaven's sake??

I have to go do some work (piggy weekend), but I'll try to get the portrait pic's of the huskies posted some day soon. If this was television, I would have said "thanks for watching", but since it isn't I'm not ;-p

I've gone dog sleddin'!

2009-04-01T02:08:00.000-07:00

Had a really fun weekend with Ingvild and her dogs :-)

Catch-up with my training plans

2009-03-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

March:
* Physical activity every day (at least a 30 minute walk) to get him in better shape and lose the last bit of overwheight.
* Heel position, both sides
* Sitting rear crosses
* Loose leash walking (I'm sooo tired of not having that settled, so now it's time to grab the monster by it's tail!)
* Jumping technique: distance, bend work and jump height.
* One jump: proofing and distance

Ok. So today I and Orkan had a check-up with how we're doing with the loose leash walking. Pretty well, actually! Walked with a short leash to the mailbox and back (which is approx a 1 km walk) and I had to stop only a few times. Yes! This feels great! I've never succeeded with that training with any dog before, so it's been one of those I wasn't sure I was ever going to find the courage to really pull through in case it didn't work anyway. Ok, so we need to work on it with dogs ahead and other motivations to pull, but at least he knows what to do, and that's the best foundation I could ever ask for :-)

As you know, the jumping technique isn't really our best card right now. We've started the distance work, but no bend work or height, so I guess I'm going to have to work on that even though succeeding feels like a million years away...

Heel position: at least the left side is getting somewhere. I've worked mostly on the left side to make it easier (less frustration). As soon as that is done, we'll transfer it to the right side, and I think that transition isn't going to be too much of a deal, since he has all the foundation on both sides, and the command is slapping my hand at my thigh, which transfers nicely to the other side (as in the foundation with the box). We're working on a sit now, but I still reward a lot of just getting into position, to remind him that I want him to be straight in line with me. Low carb tuna treats are cooking in my oven as I type, I think treats will make this training a bit easier (faster reinforcement = more repetitions a day).

Physical activity and food change: I've _almost_ stuck to the at least 30 minutes rule, and together with the raw, low carb food, Orkan has lost wheight! Finally, he's 6,5 kg's, and with some muscle building I'll be really happy with his shape! It feels extremely good to finally have found a solution to his overwheight problems....

Sitting rear crosses: needs more work. Will also be easier with treats (maybe that's just a lousy excuse?)... We're still needing some proofing of not moving his paws while I move around him in a sit, which is a crucial foundation to do the sitting cross work. Good thing march isn't over yet, we have some work to do!

One jump: lateral distance needs some work. As Karine reminded me some days ago, working on the distance isn't neccecarily more important than just reinforcing the exercises over and over again. Susan Garrett wrote something interesting on that a while ago, she had divided students into two groups, both working on the dog staying on the table. One group was to reinforce a lot from less distance, the other group was to work on distance and speed towards the table. It turned out the first group got the best results even distance- and speed-wise, probably because they had done more repetitions, more rewards etc due to less distance and less difficulty. Correct me if I referred to this wrong (it's a while since I read it). Anyway - I need to work on the one jump exercises, and some finding the lines between several jumps (speed circle, or arch, as I prefer) too.

Turns out I have a lot to work on those last days of march! Haha... Guess I'm not going to finish it all :-)

Really impressive videos!

2009-03-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

Fanny posted some videos I would recommend a look at:
http://www.klickerklok.se/blog/imponerande-videos/
Dogs and dog trainers really never stop impressing me! Wow!

Fun!

2009-03-25T00:27:00.000-07:00

After deciding that I have to put some energy into making training fun, I went out with Orkan and two toys, with (for once) no plan whatsoever, except throwing toys and simply havi'n a ball. We got to put some value into coming back with a won or thrown toy, since he loves both the kong with fleece and the sheepy squeaky. Orkan was really having fun, and then of course was I :-)

After a while of just playing I started doing some circlework. That was such a lot of fun! We have a huge field outside our house, and now it's covered in a thick layer of rock hard snow. One of my problems with circlework is managing to run fast enough without tripping over something or losing track of my dog, but this surface was perfect! It is huge, smooth and flat. Orkan impressed me by working with great focus and having fun, for quite long stretches. That's one of the things I've been missing a bit when thinking of mastering a whole agility course - he needs to be able to work circles without any fuss and having fun for about one minute before I feel comfortable adding obstacles to the equation. Of course that's a gradual transition, but being able to work the way he did outside yesterday gives me a tiny itti bit of confidence!

I sort of wish I had filmed this, but I guess circlework is really boring to watch anyway :-)

Lack of motivation...

2009-03-24T01:45:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit unmotivated right now... It feels like Orkan and I will never get anywhere no matter what I do, and the training just doesn't seem to get done. Everyone around me is accomplishing such great things with their dogs, while I don't. I want to have a loving and fun relationship with my dogs. After all that's why I spend all this time on dog training, isn't it? Not to prove anything to anyone, simply to have fun...

The only way to influence our future is getting my butt off this chair, turning off the computer and go out and get some training done! So I guess I'm gonna have to go out and make some fun for myself :-)

Jumping frustrations...

2009-03-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

Karine and I did some agility training after our lecture today. We focused on jumping technique, and in addition to that I did some circle work and a speed circle, which both went pretty well. I timed one of the speed thingies, and he does almost 6 meters per second, which is pretty ok. 6m/s is a great spead in a course (storm regularly did about 3 or even less sometimes) but of course this is easier. At least it tells me that when he feels confident on what to do (where to go, how to jump etc), he has some speed stored in there somewhere that I hope to see on course eventually... It doesn't hurt to hope, does it?

The jumping technique is another story, though. Orkan coped pretty well with every exercise I threw him until last time, and now his jumping is a complete disaster! (Or something like it. Wonder if he's figured out what his name means?) He has even started jumping the last two in a basic grid. What's up with that?

Here is the slow motion video (notice that with everey clip the camera is tilted a bit more. The camera was sitting in the snow, which kept melting, so the last clips from the first try are pretty crooked! Haha):

If you see the video in old 4:5 format, click on it to get the 16:9 from youtube. I don't know why I can't make it appear in 16:9 in the blog...

Sunshine training!

2009-03-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

When I was done working this morning the sun was shining, helping me melt the snow. Yesss!
I'm lucky to have horse-people as neighboors, meaning I can use their riding arena when they don't... Which is 90% of the time, still I tend to collide with when they use it! Wierd...
Today I had the place to myself, so I took Orkan and some obstacles down there to do some training. We stuck to speed circles and easy rear cross stuff, but he still feels slow. Not sure what to do... (tips, anyone?)
At least my reinforcer (squeaky toy on a rope) works well, and he behaves himself (most of the time) around horse poop and pig feed, which is definately improvement :-D

And: we have reached our goal of 6,5 kg's! Low carb certainly was the way to do it :-)

Love our doggies :-)

2009-03-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

Fourteen ways to catch a snowball

2009-03-16T02:30:00.000-07:00