Wise Words

Nose work has been awesome, and going great! More on that in another post, I'll need to download and put together some videos :)

I'm letting this post be about Sam and I and our progress towards our goal of being better bonded. We've been working hard with the nose work and I can see she's more confident while working, but I don't know how much of that is translating outside of nose work. Here's our plan I made 2 weeks ago:

Sam's 2nd JWW Novice P Q
- Ears forward, tail waggin -
Photo at the end of a trial, no dogs around.

1 -Work on weaves - Entries, completion, and speed
We've been working on this and I've seen great improvement, but I'm still struggling with her doing the weaves when she's over stimulated or already starting to avoid doing anything difficult.  
New plan - don't push the session when she's starting to loose focus. Also - pull out the weave-o-matics, I need to get her with some sort of rhythm! If she's got a rhythm, it'll be easier for her to stay in the poles.

2 - Obstacle focus - speed circles, and up the difficulty with angled jumps and maybe even a set of 6 weave poles.

Started with tunnel and jump, but haven't had time to set up a speed circle. On the list to do. Also, need to do lots of rewards after short sequences and tough sections - tug! I need her to realize that she's rewarded for doing extra hard things. I get so excited I want to keep going, but I should be playing with her and releasing the pressure at this point.

3 - Work on our relationship.

Samantha's 1st Title - Novice P JWW
-Ears are back: sign of stress -
She's worried about the dogs around her.

I was reading Denise Fenzi's post from today and this really hit home. I need to start looking at me and how I'm contributing to our issues. I know that with my expectation of how well I know she can do, I forget about how nervous she gets and how I've been playing into her nervousness, babying her. I've been told to give her more space to work and to stop worrying about "what if". I need to work on a few things (taken from Denise's post):

• Don't worry so much about what the course is in class, work the sections of the course to best reward and engage Samantha.
• Really look at the pieces of our relationship to encourage engagement:
• Best motivators (mainly select toys, fur, treats?)
• Surfaces we are best on (inside on matting) and worst (grass in a park)
• Times of day best to train (As soon as I get home from work, after a meal, other?)
• Environmental triggers that negatively impact (prey animals, unknown high energy dogs, start lines that are "open" to threat
• What exercises are more difficult in public/agility ring (weaves, serps, long stretches of jumps)
• How long before she gets tired (1-2 runs with moderate difficulty)
• What stress looks like (running to a door, sniffing, going around obstacles, ears back)
• Start throwing a toy and playing after harder sequences, letting her know she does a good job with a well placed "good"
• Don't just call her name where I think she's going to disconnect, be ahead of her mentally.
• Working independence in the field (see #2) and give her room to do her thing (mentally and physically)

Summary of #3, don't push her if she's in a state she can't learn. Be proactive and assertive. Keep it short and fun. Reward and praise in a timely manner. Take a step back to easier training in harder environments.