I Am Paying Attention

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Jamie

One of these days, I will learn to trust you as much as you trust me, Risa.

I’ve always struggled getting and keeping Risa’s attention. Part of it is my fault. I had a bad habit of dropping treats which caused her to break her focus after every treat delivery. “Grab treat then search for potential dropped goodies” became Risa’s default. While I’ve become a bit more skilled with treat delivery, this bad habit of hers still remains. I often get better focus from her when I DON’T reward it.

On top of that, Risa is a hypervigilant dog. Because of her fears, she is constantly scanning the environment. Looking out for potentially scary things and always on alert. This makes it particularly difficult for her to maintain her focus completely on me. It’s a constant struggle which has become less problematic lately. She trusts me more now than she ever did before. She is able to pull her focus away from the environment and turn it to me instead hoping that I will keep her safe. Since I generally do protect her from the scary things, her focus on me has improved.

However, it is not always obvious that she is paying attention. As I said, she is almost constantly scanning. I generally assume if she’s not looking at me, she’s not paying attention. Over the weekend, I found out this is not necessarily the case.

During our freestyle routine on Sunday, I cued Risa to sit and wait while I walked away. The next move was her recalling to a jump over my leg. As she sat there, she turned her head away and started looking around. I feared I was losing her and recalled her early. It turns out she was paying attention to me after all as she came running without missing a beat. I should have trusted my dog.

I still wonder, though, if I will ever get complete focus from my dog when we’re working. Will she ever be capable of maintaining eye contact with me as we heel around a ring never breaking it despite whatever is going on in the room? Probably not. And, really, that’s okay. Maybe she’s not boring a hole in my head with locked-on laser vision. But she is still paying attention to me.

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Natural Born Performer

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Jamie

Eating up the applause and wowing the crowd.

It’s surprising to me to realize that Risa is a natural performer. This shy, fearful dog absolutely loves putting on a show in front of an audience. It seems like such a foreign concept knowing her history.

This weekend, I had the great pleasure of competing in WCFO canine musical freestyle with Risa again. I have always known Risa had a great affinity for canine freestyle. As soon as we started training for it in March 2007, I knew this was her thing. However, I was worried about how she would be this weekend after our recent rally trials. AKC rally seems to be far too busy and overstimulating for Risa. I was afraid she was going to be stressed out again even though we were trialing in a completely different venue. I had hoped I hadn’t ruined competing in canine freestyle for her.

It turns out I had nothing to worry about. She was slightly stressed by the venue but no where near as bothered as she was at our last rally trial. In fact, she seemed quite calm in her crate and I’m fairly certain she was napping in there for a while. It didn’t hurt that the location where we trialed is one she’s been to several times. In fact, it was the same location where she earned her first novice leg in her first ever trial!

As soon as I saw that there was going to be another trial close to us (close enough to make the drive anyway), I wanted to go. I had so much fun trialing with Risa last year at that location and met so many awesome people. I wanted to relive it. I had been practicing with Risa to improve her skills (both for freestyle and in general) for a year. Our performance last year was not what I had hoped it would be. Do not get me wrong; Risa was AWESOME. She was with me the whole time and she truly had a blast. However, due to factors beyond my control, we had had little time to practice freestyle. The first time I performed the entire routine with her was the day of the trial! Because of that, Risa was confused. I barely knew the routine myself. We still managed to do well but I wanted to show that we were capable of better. I had my chance this weekend.

Focus focus focus!

Over the year between the last trial and this one, I was able to get some stellar advice from various trainers which helped me become a better team member for Risa. I learned from Joan Tennille (founder of CFF freestyle) that I needed to tone myself down when working with Risa. High-pitched, squeaky commands sent her over the edge and caused her to lose focus and get frantic. Risa is already up; I did not need to encourage her to go higher. By keeping my cues at a more even tone and saying them slower, Risa was able to understand what I wanted better. At the Kathy Sdao seminar I attended, she mentioned that many of us inadvertently reward missed cues by rewarding too quickly after them (often for another behavior). By cuing once and then turning away for several seconds if Risa didn’t comply, I helped Ris learn that she needs to respond on the first try. Not to mention, this helped clear up any confusion on what it was I was asking her to do. I also got several pointers and help from friends that I used to help build Risa’s focus on me. Spending time in the rally ring working on focus and other behaviors also helped improve our relationship.

I was also able to spend more time working on the various movements in the routine. I really polished them up and eliminated hand signals. With the exception of her jump spin, I was able to get every behavior I needed from her in the routine on a verbal cue only. I spent time on single sections of the routine and ran through those so that Risa would become familiar with the sequences. Once the yard dried out after a solid month of rain, I was able to get her outside and work the routine in full.

This year, I knew we were ready for the ring but I was more nervous than I’d been the year before when we weren’t prepared at all! In fact, I remember standing over Risa’s crate getting ready to get her and feeling like I was about to pass out.

When we entered the ring to perform, I was nervous but also a bit surprised. Last year, Risa took off to sniff the corners of the ring when I entered it with her. This year, she walked in alongside me (not in a perfect heel but she was with me nonetheless). She was attentive to me and I had no trouble setting her up to start. During the entire routine, I kept her attention and we looked like a solid team. While she did miss several moves which cost us a bit, she was focused on me and didn’t get over the top and out of control. She also earned some great applause from the spectators and clearly had a great time. We earned the second leg towards our novice title that day as well as 4th place.

Several people commented to me how much better the two of us looked that day compared to what they’d seen us do before. Many people mentioned the great bond we have and how much fun she is to watch. Risa made several new fans that day as well. 😉

Take a bow, Awesome Dog. You've earned it.

I had no idea what to expect from her on Sunday. She’d never trialed in freestyle on consecutive days before. Early that morning, I went over some of the movements she missed on Saturday with her. I was careful not to drill her; I just wanted to remind her what it was that I wanted. When it came time to step into the ring, I had no idea what to expect. What I got was Risa’s best performance ever. Sure, she still missed a couple moves and my ability to get to the right spot in the ring at the right time was a bit questionable. But she absolutely nailed the complex stuff and really put on a show. Not only did she earn her final leg for her novice title but she took 1st place as well.

On top of the qualifying ribbons, legs, the first place medal, and her novice title; we received two other awards. On Saturday, we took home the prize for the “Happiest Rescue.” Sunday we earned the award for the “Most Bonded.” Both mean a lot to me. Risa and I have come so far together.

I wish there were more frequent freestyle competitions. Everyone at the event was so supportive of each other. Willing to share their love of the sport with everyone and so encouraging to newcomers. They’re such wonderful people that I wish I could spend more time with. Not to mention, I think I get a better performance from Risa when she’s in front of an audience. 😉

This weekend, I also had the privilege of meeting the founder of WCFO freestyle, Patie Ventrie. I was so happy to see that she was present to watch both of our performances this weekend as well. I hope we made a good impression.

Now that Risa has earned her novice title (W-FDX/MF), it’s time to create a new routine! I cannot wait to pin down our music choice, design the performance, and get down to training new moves!

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Age is Just a Number

Posted on May 22, 2011 by Jamie

Whether 11.5 years old or 20 months, it's not a dog's age that matters.

When I’m out with Risa, I’m often asked how old she is. When I reply “She’s seven,” people often comment that her age is the reason why she’s so calm/well-behaved/good at whatever we’re doing. As if just being older makes her a genius.

I’ll admit one has to take age into account when working with a dog. It would be foolish to ask a young puppy for a 5-minute sit stay. It would be ill-advised to ask an elderly dog to jump over a 3-foot high jump. And most people who’ve had an adolescent dog know that they, like human teenagers, like to push boundaries and see what they can get away with!

But it seems to me that the general public thinks that as a dog gets older, it becomes trained. That Risa’s age is the sole determining factor for her good behavior and her ability to perform in various dog sports. Age is not the issue. It’s the amount of time one spends training a dog. If your 2-year old Lab pulls frantically on the leash when you pass another dog, he’s still going to do it when he’s 8 if you don’t train him not to. Had I done no training with Risa when I got her at 2.5 years of age, she’d be a fearful, dog reactive, untrained 7-year old now.

Certainly, as dogs age, they calm down some. A hectic, frantic puppy may mellow out as he ages (granted, this is NOT always the case!). Dogs’ attention spans increase as they age as well so they can maintain focus over longer periods of time. However, if you don’t work with your dog, this isn’t going to matter much.

So when you see Risa calmly walking alongside me and staring into my eyes as we pass another dog or if you see us practicing rally or freestyle, keep in mind she’s not good because she’s older. She’s well-behaved because I’ve taken the time to work with her. We’ve been together almost 5 years now. That’s 5 solid years of training practically non-stop. There’s rarely a day that we don’t actively train. Even when we’re not training, she’s still learning. So, in that respect, age does matter a little bit. Because she’s older, we’ve had more TIME to work together. But her age alone is not a factor.

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Being Mindful

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Jamie

Be mindful of what you're actually teaching.

I was working with Risa in the yard the other day. Our yard isn’t fenced so I’m constantly watching the road to make sure no one is coming; especially other dogs. Should I see anyone, I get Risa and either hold onto her or bring her inside.

At one point, I noticed Ris’ body posture change. She stiffened up, barked, and headed towards the road. I panicked and yelled “Ris! AH AHT!!” as I ran to grab her. She stopped and I was able to get her collar. I didn’t see anything that would have caused such a reaction so I released her and went back to work.

I try really hard to NOT use corrections like ‘ah aht’ when we’re training. But I panicked and fell back on my old habits. It would have been better for me to cue her to recall to me. I’m human. I make mistakes.

Later on in the training session, I was working on the ‘come to me and jump over my leg’ move part of our routine. Risa sat nicely but she hesitated coming to me. I was confused. Generally, she’s quite happy and willing to come running and fly over my leg. I tried several times and she was still slow. It was then I realized my error. When I corrected her earlier, she was heading in the direction I was standing in now. She was unsure if she was allowed to go that way since I had told her not to earlier.

So I called her to me and got all silly. I petted her and let her jump on me while getting wild and crazy. Then I tried the freestyle move again. The speed and enthusiasm had returned!

This is another example of why correction-based training can be more grey than black-and-white. I thought by saying ‘ah aht’ that I was telling Risa “Don’t take off after that!” but that is not what she interpreted it as. Risa ended up thinking I didn’t want her to go towards that part of the yard. Had I just recalled her to me, things would have been more clear. We really need to be mindful of what we’re telling our dogs and be sure they truly understand what we mean. Because it’s not always as clear to them as WE think it is!

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Annual Easter Egg Hunt

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Jamie

One of our good friends suggested this activity years ago. Risa enjoyed it so much that I’ve made it an annual tradition.

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