Are you FULLY ENGAGED every time you train or compete with your dog? A few weeks ago at an AKC trial I had the opportunity to watch many of the runs in both the novice and the masters’ rings. I watched students and I watched strangers and I left shaking my head at how many handlers had no engagement with their dogs at all as they walked into the ring and to the start line. That lack of engagement was immediately obvious with some of the dogs showing displacement behaviors like sniffing, sight-seeing, scratching, getting up from start line positions, not releasing from stays and generally showing a total lack of enthusiasm or desire to get out there and play with their handlers.

Pie at the recent AKC trial

This lack of engagement was at times followed by non-qualifying and lack luster runs with a distracted dog and a distracted handler. I know handlers are nervous at times before a run, it happened to me that weekend running my young border collie Pie in AKC for the first time. But I knew I had to override my novice dog ring nerves and take care of my dog. The start line is the last place handlers should be distracted and looking around the ring to see where the course goes, but that is what they seemed to be doing. The dog follows them on leash into the ring obediently, the handler makes no eye contact as they are distractedly looking around to find the first few jumps and remind themselves of the course flow. Then they rip off the leash and leave the dog with a look on its face as if they have never met this stranger who took them into the ring.

What does it mean to be totally engaged? It could be lots of things, but overall there should be an obvious emotional and physical connection between handler and dog that could be visible to anyone watching. The handler could be engaging the dog by doing little tricks or games or just making some direct eye contact and verbal engagement, “are you READY to run? ” or possibly asking the dog to be attentive and obedient with quiet heelwork with a nice smile on her face, or physically prompting the dog by their own playful posture that the dog reads as time to go do something fun.

Pie at the recent AKC trial

While thinking about these distracted handlers, I started looking at my own start line with Pie. She tugged enthusiastically with me to the start line, and we had lots of connection there, but a few times I led out like I was running  Scoop or Ace, I just turned my back and walked to my lead-out spot. I deserved the distracted look my youngster  gave me one time when I turned to call her off the line, as well as the start line sit-stay that turned to a stand while my back was turned. The rest of the weekend I made sure I kept eye contact and praised her when I led out. I decided after that weekend that I really had to  help my students learn how to stay engaged with their dogs at the line.

So!

Tomorrow is day one of Power Paws Camp, our 14th year of teaching summer and winter camps. I wrote an article for the Camp Workbook on staying “Fully Engaged” and wanted to share it with all of you and all of my students who don’t get to attend camp this weekend. It is written to our Campers, but of course it applies to any kind of training or competition scenario. I hope it will help you remember to stay fully engaged with your dog if you want your dog to stay engaged with you!

Fully and extremely engaged!

(A letter to Campers from the 2013 Camp workbook)

Scoop and I share a moment

My goal instructing you at camp this year is not just to help you learn how to train and handle your agility dog more effectively; I want to help both you and your dog have more fun and stay more connected to each other. Success in our sport requires focus/connection and what I call engagement. You need to be fully engaged with the training and what you plan on doing with your dog on the course and you want your dog fully engaged in the process.

I have a goal for you at Camp this year. A goal of staying connected to your dog and him to you. From the moment you get your dog out of its crate to begin an exercise you need to have 100% of your dogs’ attention and you want to bring your dog to the correct state of arousal for the job before you get to the start line.

• A dog that is distracted needs to be focused back to the handler with tugging/tricks/or focus games. Try hand targeting, high five, figure-8 between your legs or other handler focus games before you run.
• When tugging with your dog, YOU get to disengage/end the tugging, not the dog. The goal for tugging is that YOU have to ask your dog to stop tugging and get the toy back from them not vice-versa. Try not to let your dog disengage from the tug game until YOU are finished and they were solidly tugging with you before you ended the game.
• EYE contact. Give it and ask for it and don’t start a run without it.
• A dog that is half asleep needs to be woken up and mentally and physically prepared to go play/work. AFTER you wake up and arouse your dog, you need tugging or silly tricks or some animated ground running work to engage them. Try scratch/rubbing your dog excitedly through their rib cage area to get their blood flowing and hope the brain follows!
• A dog that is over the top excited needs to be helped to have calm focus before the handler attempts a drill. Soft eye contact and quiet talk may help to calm them. If you are tugging keep it low key, the toy down at your knee or ground level, and don’t encourage growling.
• A dog that is stressed by the surroundings needs some fun/happy/silly talk from the handler so they forget to be worried. Look them in the eyes, give ‘em a kiss and ask them to trust that you will do the right thing to help them play through their fear.
• A suspicious dog that comes out of its crate and is immediately looking for a dog to warn away or chase needs some very special focus work on the handler and they need to be in motion WITH the handler and prevented from staring at other dogs through focus games and possibly control head halters on their way from crating to start line. If your dog will stay focused on you while tugging that is likely your best offense.

In order to do any of the above things to get your dog engaged, YOU need to be fully engaged.

Scoop at the startline

Don’t turn your back on your dog or mentally “drop” them. This goes for the start line and in between obstacles if you have a whoopsie and need to start over. When you walk to the start line keep your dogs’ attention by making eye contact, tugging, praising or saying silly stuff so that your dog knows that you are being attentive to them.

If you have a momentary mental lapse on course, or you or your dog have a screw up and you need to get restarted on the course or talk to the instructor about your handling:

• Call your dog to you immediately, don’t let them wander.
• Don’t talk to the instructor until you get control of your dog!
• Tug if possible, or give them a treat if appropriate to the situation and if they responded to the recall immediately.
• You could also ask them to lie down or sit and praise them for doing so.
• If you have called your dog to you, gently hold them by the collar, or kneel down next to them. You could put your arm around them and cuddle them to your side to gently confine them so they can’t nick off or get distracted by dogs, people or surroundings.
• Small dogs could be picked up, but don’t grab at them, and try often to keep your small dogs feet on the ground where they play and work.
• Always take a few moments to re-engage or play with your dog before you start the drill again.
• ALWAYS re-engage and reward your dog at the end of every run. Throw your toy, or have a game of tug. If you can’t tug or play retrieve then stay engaged with extremely lavish praise and some kind of physical play or a bit of rough housing one-on-one connection and of course eye contact. Don’t dis-engage from your dog until he is off the course and back at the crate area.
• If you need to talk to the instructor or repeat some part of the drill, reward and play momentarily, THEN go get the info from your instructor.

Stay fully engaged with your dog and it is likely your dog will stay fully engaged with you!

NJG

PS:Thank you Erika Mauer for the Pie photos from the trial!

Scoop and Ace and I were in Southern Oregon last weekend teaching at Lisa and Robert Michelon’s agility training center for three days. I parked my RV right next to the training yard and had a really great weekend hanging out with my dogs. Yeah I guess I worked for three days, but teaching friends and long time acquaintances in a beautiful environment does not really feel like work until you are done and tired to the bone. I got some nice photos afterwards, especially of Scoop and my new blue boots:) Thank you Dawn for the Blue Boots and Scoop photo, I love it!

The weather in Oregon in June is more likely to be 100 than it is to be cold and rainy, but we got lucky and hit the middle of the temperature range, a perfect 70 degrees most of the time, and since I am a weather wimp, it was totally absolutely perfect. Is there a place on the planet that has 70 degree weather all year round without humidity and still has sun much of the time? Do they need to have an agility instructor there? Exactly 7 minutes before the seminar was to end Sunday the sky opened and the rain came down in buckets. We all jumped in our cars and were out a there. Well since I am a driving wimp too I only made it three hours to a really nice RV park during daylight so the boys and I could go for a nice long walk along the river in Red Bluff before we hit the sack.

Scoop has ‘snurfled” less every day since his procedure so he got to help out by being a demo dog some of the time. He is so much better that I am totally optimistic that we are on the downside of this disease. His doctor is optimistic and thinks we must have a good combination of drugs for him to be doing so well. I am relieved and happy yet still anxious about the outcome.

Scoop is a really great demo dog. All my dogs have to work for a living, I teach agility and so do they. Some of my dogs have been or are better than others. My first border collie Scud was a great working dog until the demo ended and I started to talk, then he grabbed his toy and dumped it in the nearest handlers lap and of course unless I threatened their expulsion if they played with him, they would happily toss the toy and I would yell for him to come back and lie down and he would till the next moment my back was turned and then the toy/lap/toss/yell thing started all over again. Oh my!

Riot was the best demo dog I ever had and a great helper too. She never interfered with any handler or dog but she loved to watch. She would demo a drill, lie down with her toy, then when a handler went to the line with their dog she would sneak up behind and after the handler dropped the leash she would pick it up and watch the dog run and then deliver it to the finish line where the handler would have to ask Riot for the leash. She would always oblige then silently creep over behind the next dog to run and repeat the scenario. No dog ever gave her the evil eye, or cared that she was watching and taking their leash. She has dog instinct and manners and never took a dogs leash until they left the line. She was my all time perfect working assistant while I taught, and of course great entertainment for all.

Wicked was too silly to demo. She is the sweetest dog there ever was but unless you were actually running her in agility (which she would do with anyone) she could not focus on the job of demoing a little exercise. She was just too silly and would jump around playing with the toy and maybe do what I asked her to do, maybe not. Stage fright? I dunno. Panic was a darn good demo dog, he loved to work but would also chill on the sidelines while he waited for another turn. He was a bit too fast and frantic at times, but he tried as hard as any dog ever could when the reward was to get to do agility.

Ace is not a really happy demo dog. I cannot speak to anyone or talk at all while he is working. He can do anything in agility if he is thinks he is on a course, or he and I are doing a drill on our own, but he is suspicious when I talk to people after or during his working times. It is like he is saying “if we are working why are you looking at them and saying things I don’t understand? Am I doing something wrong, what are you saying? Why are you talking about something we did, while you are playing with me? This is too weird, I can’t work if you are talking to ghosts”.

Scoop worked at a foundation seminar when he was just a few months old. He coped with the audience, the distractions, and the job of doing one thing and being rewarded then sent to a crate to hang out til the next opportunity to work. Somewhere around 5 months old demoing in a class situation became pretty difficult, and not because of the difficulty of the foundation exercise, but that he was too excited after the drill to settle quietly. He would scream when watching other dogs work. When he was older self control started to kick in and he learned to wait quietly for a turn.

Scoop will lie at my feet for the most part, or in his open crate and is not at all naughty unless I am helping a handler perk up their dog with a restrained recall. Scoop will occasionally without invitation join me to “help”. That’s ok, I don’t mind the occasional naughtiness, I am not perfect and neither is he:)

I hope you have a dog that can be by your side while you teach, or accompany you to your workplace and hang out politely. If you have to go to work, always best to do so with a dog by your side.

Nancy

Scoop is wild, maybe feral. He looks a lot like the photos at the top of this page, only bigger! I was only gone 5 days but he went south on me while I was in the east. I got home from teaching seminars at Clean Run yesterday afternoon and immediately took him to the field to play and train. Maybe I was too tired and he just thought he could take advantage of my obvious deficit in brain power. He barked his way through teeter, frame and weave training. He was still crazed today even though I got him and the rest of the dog family out for some vigorous exercise in the fields a few times.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that even with him acting like a feral beast, he still had a good sit stay. ha! I think taking him off the course 10 days ago at the show, as well as lots of really high value rewards last week in training made some lasting impression on him. ( i can dream can’t i?)

The weather is bad, every jump in the field was lying on its side when I went out to train this afternoon. Wind and light rain on and off then clearing for tonight’s classes which was nice. I have a show this weekend and want to train lots in the next two days. On the list: dog walk and teeter targeting and proofing; start line rewards, 20 A-frames and no more, lateral distance on weaves. Rain rain go away.

I wish I had time to do some of the fun drills I did at the seminar. Maybe next week. I put up five of the drills I did on the first morning. They are somewhat elementary as that is how I like to start a seminar, but there are a few threadles thrown in because it was a masters level group and I just couldn’t resist. They are at the end of this post, maybe you’ll have time to run them even if I can’t!

I put up a new page on the epilepsy study which can be accessed on the front page of the blog on the right side. The email of the researcher, Allison Ruhe is on the page, and the form you will need to send a bloodwork sample is there too. Just click and it will open up.

The ETS study is on track. The researchers are setting up a web page for information about how to participate, and there is more cool stuff to tell you about in the coming days. Thanks for reading, thanks for participating, thanks for your patience.

I hope you have a great week training your beast this week, even though mine is wild, he sure is fun and I sure do love him.

NJG

CR 2011 first set1CR 2011 first set2CR 2011 first set3CR 2011 first set4CR 2011 first set5

Which came first the chicken or the egg? In dog training which comes first; teaching the release from a position or place, or the position/place? I teach the release word first. Before I teach my dog to stay in the crate or to do a sit or down I want a behavior that means the pup is finished and should move my direction. I want the positions or place training to have a specific end.

I have changed slightly now how I teach a release word to my pup. Since my release (ok, break, all done, that’ll do) ends the behavior and also brings the dog directly to me, I decided just to teach the release right now as a recall. When my pup is looking elsewhere I say “break” and then click when he turns and looks at me. He runs to me to get the treat or have a game of tug. This method seems to have worked fast and is simple to teach.

No name puppy understands just a few words and those are mostly situational, meaning that I don’t think I could demonstrate them in new environments 100% of the time:

• Hurry up- potty cue
• sit
• break
• kennel-up- get into the crate
• get-it- get the toy on retrieve or tug
• He also responds to Jeep, and Jute for recalls. (poor no name puppy!)

Today my puppy watched an agility foundation class. Because he learned to chase a soccer ball all around the field before the class began, he was an exhausted angel in the ex-pen the entire class, snoozing the entire 90 minutes. Good puppy!!!!

Hope you are enjoying your puppy as much as I am mine!

NJG