I’ve been humming a tune all day. I don’t know if you are like me where a phrase of music will haunt you for awhile. But I do that. It occurred to me that the tune is “Ode to Joy” which is a Beethoven piece. You mightn’t recognize the name of it but you will certainly recognize the music should you hear it. The music always inspires in me the idea of a “grand moment” and very much the sort of feeling that you have which you and your dog are running in agility and the two of you are in symphony.

Moreover, this weekend we have our mini-clinics. My Beginner classes are chocked full of 4H kids; which to me is an amazing development. It is just so cool working with kids especially when they are inspired to be out in the world learning to be dog trainers and even to play this silly game of ours.

I’m going to speak to them this weekend of “How to be a Magician!” This is a good story for kids because any kid wants to be a magician. It’s lost somewhat on adults because adults tend to no longer believe in magic and will miss the point of lessons in magic because they don’t believe. You see, magic only works when you believe.

How to be a Magician

The secret to being a magician is not so much doing things that are extraordinarily difficult, as it is doing something simple to solve the thing that looks very hard.

Here, for example, the handler is faces with a very tough change of directions in the turn from jump #2 to #3. Frankly this is probably a tougher sequence for the Masters dog that has lots of obstacle focus than it is very a very novice or beginner dog who hasn’t yet learned to recognize the work in front of him.

So the Magician’s Rule #1 in agility is that everything is about the dog’s path. And the handler must find the magic path.

The red path is what most handlers will attempt[1]. The more magical path is the black path. You see, all off the peril and risk have been waved away making the handler’s job considerably easier. The lines actually tell the story of what needs to be done, without really addressing how to do it. For example the handler might simply draw the dog Around on Post (at the black “x”) and push through jumps #2 and #3 with dog on right to cross behind the dog at #3. I will more likely have my students practice this as a Front Cross, drawing the dog to “x” on the right side and slipping out of the Cross with dog on left.

Of course, this sequence is a bit advanced for Beginner students and is more likely the kind of thing I’d inflict on my Advanced students.

Gentler Magic for Beginners

While I am a big advocate of the entertainment round… I shall never allow the safety of the dog to be a matter of entertainment. This kind of contact-to-contact performance you’ll almost certainly never see in a standard course. However, it is something that could happen in dog’s choice games, like gamblers or FAST.

I’ll show my students this.

If you draw a line straight off the dogwalk to the base of the A-frame it creates an awful approach which would have many dogs dumping over the side before they could even gain the apex. This is to be avoided at all costs as the dog could easily be hurt by the fall.

So the handler’s job will always be to find a corner of approach to the A‑frame that does two things: 1) squares the dog up for the contact, and 2) gives the dog room to get up a bit of speed to get up and over.

So the next question is… how does the handler actually create the corner and two lines indicated on the drawing?

Well, come to class and I’ll show you!

Tosh_01

Tosh_02

 

AU 06

Is Your Child Ready to Train a Dog for Agility?

The Parent Handout

 – by Bud Houston

Before you enroll your child in agility classes, you should realistically evaluate this youngster’s chances for success. You should understand how complex is the task of training a dog for any skill.

The first and most important question you should answer, frankly and honestly, are you, or is anyone else in your family, a dog trainer? That means, have you trained a dog for very basic skills? Have you taught the dog to come when called? Have you taught him to sit on command? Have you taught him to lie down? These skills are an important foundation for agility, or nearly every other genre of advanced dog training. If you haven’t done any basic obedience training with your dog, you should probably seek out an obedience class before taking the plunge into agility[2].

Most agility training programs rely on the human student already understanding the basics of dog training. The chances for success plunge dramatically if the student doesn’t understand simple concepts like applying reward to reinforce a behavior. Though the instructor will struggle to teach the student how to be a good dog trainer; this learning has to take place at the precise moment in time we are trying to train the dog. The dog’s trainer, the human student, will make mistakes that may hold the dog back.

Well, let’s not beat around the bush. Does he or she feed the dog? Groom the dog? Take the dog out for walks? Exercise the dog? Play with the dog? And the most important question, is the dog your child’s dog, or your dog? If you can’t honestly say “yes” to any of these questions, you should save your money. If you want to do agility with your dog, you go ahead and train him yourself. If you want your child in agility training program he or she, will have to demonstrate a relationship with the dog if there is to be any chance of success whatsoever.

Beginners’ Handout

By now, you’ve probably noticed that the dogs in your class progress at different speeds. Some may seem as though they were born to do agility. Others may still be tentative and face every obstacle as though they just don’t get it.

The more impatient individuals among us will consider giving up. They don’t see their own dogs “getting it,” and they will rationalize that their dogs aren’t having fun. And they won’t do this to their dogs if they aren’t going to think it’s fun. You can’t argue with that logic.

Agility is sometimes a two-steps-forward and one-step-back proposition. The early going especially is an investment in the quality and completeness of your dog’s life. If you give up, your dog will never know what a wonderful and active world awaits beyond the excruciating trials of beginners agility training. You just have to be patient.

Recognize the basic tenants of positive training.

-           Use praise, food treats, toys, and lots of patience.

-           Progress only as fast as your dog is willing.

-           Never make an emotional correction.

-           Don’t fret over how slowly your dog learns. Your dog learns only as fast as he learns. It’s counter-productive to expect him to do otherwise. The important thing is that he does learn and that he enjoys coming out with you to play.

Funny Places and Variable Surfaces

In agility, you’ll be asking your dog to go into and over things that might be beyond his experience. There are a lot of things you can do at home to condition your dog to be brave and confident in all sorts of funny places and variable surfaces.

Please note in this discussion that we never force our dogs through any performance. Instead, as savvy trainers, we endeavor to get the dog to choose his own footsteps and to volunteer the performance. That’s where true confidence comes from. If you push your dog, or drag your dog, you play to his fear. And he will learn that you can’t be trusted. If he chooses his own footsteps, he will quickly become confident, and much more likely to repeat a performance.

At all times, especially if you are working with makeshift props at home, your first concern should be that these props are completely safe for the dog.

You’ll really amaze your family and friends by turning the house into an obstacle course. For example:

-           Try building a tunnel for your dog. It’s quite easy. Take all of your dining room chairs and arrange them into two rows, with backs facing. Then drape a bed-sheet over the two rows of chairs so that you’ve formed a make-shift tunnel for the dog. Make a big deal out of it every time the dog goes through. If the dog is entirely too suspicious of your tunnel, you might arrange the tunnel in a hall-way so that the only way the dog can move from room to room would be to go through the tunnel.

-           While you’ve got the dining room chairs out (and before your spouse catches you at it), you can also use them to create a weaving maze for the dog. The best place to do this is in a hallway: Set One chair on the right, the next on the left, the next on the right, and so forth. The backs of the chairs should be facing the center of the hallway. You dog will have to weave in and out between the chairs to negotiate the hallway. This will help make him confident in tight places.

-           Back the big padded chair up against the back of the couch. You’ve just created a kind of A-frame for your dog. Lure him up and over. Play keep away! Make a big deal out of it every time he vaults over the top. (If you are reluctant to do this kind of living room activity, you could use bales of hay in the back yard, and create a hay‑frame for your dog.)

-           Balance a broomstick on two stacks of books in a doorway. The dog has to jump over the broomstick to move from room to room. See if you can teach him to do it on command! “Go Jump!” Give your dog a lot of praise and a food treat every time he does the broomstick jump.

Buy yourself a 2” x 12’ board at the hardware store (anything from 6’ to 12’ long). There are lots of things you can do with this board. For example.

-           Set the plank with either end on two cinder blocks. When you introduce the plank to him you’ll have to gentle him over it with your hand in his collar. But when he gets to the end you’ll make a big deal out of it and give him a reward.

-           Balance the plank on a single cinder block under the center. Now when the dog walks over the board will tip and drop. Again, be absolutely pleased every time your dog walks up and over. Give a reward and a lot of warm praise.

-           Incline the plank up onto your couch. Get your dog to walk up.

You’ll also want to condition your dog to all kinds of different surfaces. For example:

-           On Christmas day take all of the gift wrappings and distribute them around the room so that your dog can’t pass through the room without walking on the crinkly paper. Okay, if it’s not Christmas, you can do the same thing with a good supply of newspaper.

-           Buy a big sheet of mesh that they use for screen doors. You might have to put it in a doorway to entice your dog to walk over. Congratulate him for being brave and give him a food treat every time he walks over the mesh.

-           Bring a garbage can lid into the house and encourage your dog to walk over it. Again, you might have to position it in a doorway to get your dog to walk over it.

While you’re practicing your sit and down command with your dog, you’ll want to also practice these skills on different surfaces, like on a carpet, a wood floor, in the gravel drive way, or in the grassy yard.