WHAT IS LEARNING TO LEARN FOR YOU AND YOUR DOG?
I have a very interesting quote to start this…
'When the dog knows what his job is he can do it' Chris Hutchings.
Chris has said this often over the years and it is completely correct and chrystalises everything there is to know about dog training. A lot of people come to Dog Sports with their first dog, a rescue dog, a new puppy, a new agility prospect, or just about any other type of dog there is. Most people don't think there is very much to dog training. Every other dog they or their friends or they had when they were a child, was the perfect iconic happy friendly intelligent mutt that ever was. This probably isn't true as most dogs have a vice or two no matter what age they are, but they are very good at doing a con job on their owner so that the OWNER BECOMES COMPLIANT WITH THE DOGS' NEEDS.
I like to start out with the lowest common denominator. Short Tie ups. My expectation is that the dog will settle, lie down, become calm, and is ready to move on to the next learning thing. My expectation is that the dog will short tie up anywhere. Not just at home or at the Training Ground, but to the tow bar of my car when I go to the beach, or to a fencepost when I am on someone else's property. My short tie up sends this message. 'Please be calm, you are safe, I will be back for you.' So grows trust from the dog for you. My next behavior expectation is that the dog will lie quietly when surrounded by other dogs and allow me to stand astride him to keep him in my space. I am telling him 'All is well, the other dogs are fine, I am in control, and you are safe'. Dog is happy with this so we move on.
The point at which the dog is not happy, is jumping around is barking is panting and uncomfortable. Or has started lashing out at other dogs or people and is slow to respond to recall or correction, then it is obviously stressed. This is the point at which the dog has ceased to learn. Anything the owner/handler does forward of this point will be negative training for the dog. The dog will not achieve and remember anything after this with a positive view. This is why dogs who are failing to move forward at Agility are in the state they are in. They will be stuck in the same slow uncomfortable place for ever. They will pant and salivate throughout their work, causing them to move their heads around a lot. Circle or run away on the course, knock a lot of rails and find it difficult to concentrate, often seeing the judge as an obstacle to be reckoned with, people on the outside of the ring upsetting him. Dog has no focus or concentration, BECAUSE THE FOCUS AND CONCENTRATION WAS LEARNED BACK AT THE START AND DOG DIDN'T GET THAT TRAINING OR HANDLER DIDN'T THINK IT WAS NECESSARY FOR THEIR DOG.
One of the upsides of Obedience (the sport of) is that it focuses the dog on the handler, while that focus is on the handler the dog is just fine and can achieve amazing stuff. However, the dog only equates that focus with being in the ring, not with everyday behavior and a lot of dogs who are just great in the ring have no manners or obedient behavior in their toolbox once outside the ring. Again carrying behavior forward as a day to day condition of their lives is not something that a lot of people think is important.
Most people have a top learning capacity that they impose upon themselves. Sad though for dog trainers to impose that top learning capability upon their dogs. Intellectual threshold is something to be fought against. We all need to go on learning and moving our brains and bodies in a better way. I have never met a dog that stopped learning but I have met a lot of people who resign themselves to ‘being dumb'.
People also have the desire to move forward class by class because it means that they are achieving in their own eyes. This isn't necessarily so. YOU NEVER WANT TO BE IN A CLASS WHERE YOUR DOG IS THE WORST BEHAVED AND LEAST ACHIEVING. YOU WANT TO BE IN A CLASS WHERE YOU AND DOG ARE THE BEST BEHAVED AND ACHIEVING THE MOST.
With this in mind I often send people backwards. Some don't take it well. I sent Debbie and Sophie back to pre-Agility at the start of last year, because Sophie was so distracted by other dogs when she was working. A tribute to her early childhood education in Doggy Day Care, which she hated with a passion. The best thing about pre-Agility is that you have all sorts of nutty new dogs there who have no manners and Sophie got used to new dogs with no manners and didn't feel the need to go on the defensive or get mean.
This has enabled Sophie to move forward, because her fear of other dogs is the very thing that stops her achieving. My little Border Terrier X Fae is absolutely magic in 10a.m. Saturday class. She exudes a bored air concentrates on the exercises and copes off lead. Because she is so switched on to bunnies, she can't move forward without making runaway mistakes so she stays where she is happy and contented and is becoming very good at making other dogs feel comfortable too. That is her job, along with controlling rats and rabbits on our small block. She has jobs. They are the one's she copes with best and excels at. That is where I want my dogs.
My old dog Chan was still learning right up to the day we put him to sleep. The month before with only one functioning eye, he won jumpers C and got his first AD. I had never tried for AD before with him. I was so proud of that dog. Chip is at an interesting point. He is stuck in a couple of places and moving forward in others. His dog on dog distraction can be there at times so he is still in Behavior class and there is vast improvement there. Becki-boo is 12 and still learning and improving. Her sprints are still getting faster. She is still able to get around a Champs Agility Course within course time and is still gaining ADs.
Pansy is in behavior class and going ahead in 11a.m. Saturday class. She thrives in Mini Club. Her dog on dog distraction is better but still got a way to go. She needs to be able to play better under distracted circumstances. But we are getting there. She has gone from a runaway non compliant dog that attacked both people and other dogs with menace five months ago, to having a job doing agility and learning compliance. She is certainly a different dog, but not different enough, the sky is the limit for that little dog and I want to keep her moving forward. I know when she is out of her depth. She gets slow. She is not naturally slow. It is an inability to do the job fast because there are other distractions to concentrate on. Focus must improve. Maybe a bit more Obedience work. The important thing is not to back away from the things dogs are naughty or bad at. Don't practice avoidance, because that vice is the very thing that will ruin your future work with your dog. Train it out.
BRIGHT SPOTS ON THE TRAINING HORIZON.
Benni the poodle. Five months old. Learning at a huge pace. His compliance is still coming. Obedience is pretty good. His tricks and pre agility are in a happy place. His ball play and tug are excellent. His dog on dog is comfortable. He has never been hurt or put in a place where he feels at risk. He lives in a pack with five other dogs who all adore him. His body conformation and fitness is correct for his age. His diet is very good, mostly natural with kibble as a mid day top up to make sure he is getting all the vitamins and minerals he needs to grow strong. Of course his breakfast is fresh goat’s milk so his calcium levels should be fantastic. Won't it be interesting to see him go forward and see at what point he reaches his 'I dunno this, can't do this job'. So far nothing is fazing him.
Jessie James the Labradoodle/Spoodle. How old is JJ now 3 and a half? Jumpers A and still going forward. Novice Intermediate and going forward. Focus in the ring 90%. Focus on obedience behavior outside the ring 55%. Christine Longton, knows no limits. She pushes forward to keep learning herself and working her dog to the level she wants. Very positive stuff. Best combination I have ever trained Storm the Working Dog. Sixteen months now. Learning at an absolute pace. Focus on handler 100%. Focus on games 100%. Focus on work 100%. Concentration levels still coming. He is a very young dog. His concentration is in exactly the place it ought to be for a dog of his type and pace. Again Christine Longton knows no limits.
She does tricks, she does training she does discipline. Again the sky is the limit for this combination. I am so going to enjoy watching the achievements here.
I watch all my trainees for ability and capability. When it is obvious that the handler considers that they have reached the place they want to be, I do not push them to train any more. Because there are real limits to time and opportunity for a lot of people. All they want to do is get out and do the shows. That is good too. They are happy to have 'own goals' and 'social time' with their mates and achieving is not a biggie. After all it costs $1,000 minimum to have me train a dog to Elementary level Agility. So it isn't cheap. Although some people greatly overcommit themselves by going to Champs before they are ready, that doesn't bother me too much as learning the system and getting to run lots of courses is good education for the handlers. Once people have done a few Agility shows and been bitten by the Agilty bug (it is addictive) then they will get another dog and my hope is that they have learned enough to not limit their own and their dog's opportunity to be better. Most people do improve. Some don't. They are the wonderful people at the bottom of the pyramid paying money into a sport for other achievers and enjoying it.
Anyone who would like to test where their dog's sticking point of learning is, what the thing is that is keeping them slow or unfocused, is welcome to get in touch with me and we will go through the entire gamut of behavior and find the thing that is ruining their opportunity. Most people know what that is, sometimes secretly, but they don't confront it and they don't train to solve it, leaving themselves and their dogs stuck in a strange place of knowing how to do everything and achieving nothing
.....speaking of Summer Sprints Season.
This Tuesday night program is proving very popular.
Top Big Dog with Handicap (A Team) is Storm who is now on 6 obstacles and still doing consistently under 12 seconds (current average is 11.19). Other dogs in A team are Sophie (Deb) Minnie and Sophie (Nicole). These are our best and fastest large dogs in the Club
Top Small Dog with Handicap (A Team minis) is Jessie James who has graduated through to Flygility Senior level Sprints with 6 obstacles and has only three more levels to achieve before he falls off the end of the competition. Other dogs in A team Minis are KC and Jade both belonging to Pam and Dave Sharp. These are relatively untried dogs they are doing very well and are learning how to cope with hurdles in their sprints run.
B Team on the flat is currently lead by Chip (Raewyn) who refuses to do .50 of a second faster and graduate. But the amazing new dog Awhi is now in second place and will have no trouble overhauling Chip and graduating to the A team very soon. Bree Kimmy and Star make up the rest of the B Team large dogs
B Team Minis are lead by Boo and Pansy with Gracie Chips (Nicola) and Fae trailing behind but at each competition all the minis are cutting their times.
We are running a 12 meter flat Puppy sprint( the 12 meters needs to be accomplished in under 6 seconds) a further meter is then added to the run .
Leading the field at present is Benni followed by Linda and Dash. They are just learning to trust and run away the twelve meters and come back. Super puppy training.
The Summer Sprints Competition is very infectious. Addictive has also been applied to it. Apart from the flat and handicapped sprints we also run a sendaway recall Novelty which is currently working on Advanced with weaves. Everyone gets to do this regardless of their level. Each week we work through the levels we have done a Beginner level, an Intermediate level, last week's senior level saw Sophie (Deb) beat Storm for the first time. The work was just a bit much for Storm very understandably at his age. I thought I had it sown up with Chip who loves complicated courses, and then Sophie beat him by 2 seconds. Great Sport.
All the dogs improve in speed and fitness every week. About three weeks ago Deb's Sophie got a bit slow and didn't look comfortable. Sure enough she needed a treatment on her back from the Chiropractor. After a brief rest she is now back up to speed. Sprints make it possible to pinpoint falls in fitness and speed. They increase muscle tone and the dogs learn independent running over 100 meters.
Just superb. On top of that we have raised about $300 towards the winter rent.....It’s a winning combination. Bring on next Tuesday. Oh and as we pay prize money to the winners no guesses for who takes home the most money each week. But we are working on it. Having high quality dogs in the competition makes us all work harder to achieve better times.
There is still 6 weeks to go in this competition so anyone who wants to start now should come and have a sprints lesson FREE and see if you can get yourself in contention for those lovely trophies at the end of the year.
Club Captains Report
Here we are well into another year. Just over a month to go to the end of the Financial Year for the Club. Year ends 31st March. By the time the books are prepared and the trophies are engraved it is usually late April or early May for the AGM.
Last year we trialed a new system of Membership. We created an Executive Membership which cost $180. It includes keys to the containers so that members can go train at the grounds whenever they wish. The idea for the $180 was to put aside the rent money in advance so in the event of bad weather through the winter we still had the money available. Jenny Williams (Club Treasurer) will be able to tell us at this year's AGM, how that system worked.
The Executive Membership is available to people who are current members. That is it cannot be a new subscription. Most current members have been members for the last six months at least. For those people who want to train three or four nights a week plus have extra coaching or just want to practice on their own, this is a huge saving in $2 coins. If like me you are training at the club four times a week then I would spend around $300. $180 is definitely a big saving. So think about it and pick up a current membership form. There won't be any changes to subscriptions this year. Feel free to ask any of the Club Committee about this option. We would be happy to help you with any queries.
Dave Sharp looks after our gear at the Club. But hey team we need to be a bit more careful about the way we handle our gear. Especially the hurdles. We know the new plastic cups on the hurdles are delicate but with care they can last a lot longer than they currently do and the cups are expensive. Dave doesn't mind helping out but it is becoming a full time job replacing cups on hurdles. Dave has made and donated a set of boxes for training. Raewyn requested them. We used them this week at Mini Club, they are just amazing. I think they will be cropping up quite a bit in classes from now on. Thank you Dave.
The placings are very close for on the flat Sprints for the year. The Trophy will be decided in the next two Club competitions and the next month of weekly sprints. The dogs in contention are Skyla, Jewel, Chip, Bella and Bree. Maybe they might like to give winning it a go and attend some of the sprints meets and make sure they are defending their place at the Club Competition!
There is currently a series running on TV 1 Wednesday night called “Vet Tales”. Last year a clip was filmed on Megan Hill and her dog “Jack”. A group of us provided a back drop with our dogs, this should be screening over the next couple of months, unfortunately we don’t know which episode!
See you out there.
Deb.
