Foofie agility vid...

Today I went along with Becky for Sixx's first ever run at a show!!
We went very sensibly to a UKA show,which is a different agility organisation we have here in the UK.
They allow training in the ring,you can take a toy in to reward bits you want to,I tend to reward my contacts a lot.
Its a shame when you go to these shows,which are just an ideal (and almost the only) place you can train in a show enviroment,to see so many people with dogs whose performance says they could really do with some clarification of when they are doing the right thing.
People blur their criteria at shows,accepting less than the full behaviour,then they have the cheek to blame it all on the poor dog when unsurprisingly gives less and less of the behaviour as time and the number of shows they've attended ticks by.

I was once moderatly guilty of this,the difference being I was frustrated at myself,not at my wonderful hard working Shady boy.
But I took my turn to watch,and watch and watch the dogs at the top.I learned who handled in the most (to my eye) consistent manner.Who had the relationship with their dogs,which I wanted with mine?
I watched and thought,they have got to be training their dogs a different way,I just didn't know how.

A friend of mine booked us on a workshop with Dave Munnings,someone whom if I was ever passing by a ring,and saw him queueing,I would always take the time to wait and watch him run his dogs.
I have been training with Dave for around 3 years now,and he (and for the past 2 and a bit years Dan Shaw) have opened my eyes to a whole new world of training.

I didn't even know about shaping before I trained with them! I can't believe that now! I also most certainly didn't understand about letting the dog go wrong,so it could be taught to think for itself,to work through frustration and to offer behaviours itself,without having to be lured.

So yeah so many missed opportunities at UKA shows,so many dodgy contacts let go,so many broken waits rewarded by allowing the dogs to start the course!Sadly some people not seeing that they were very  consistently rewarding the very behaviour they didn't want,nice work people,you have just made that behaviour massively more likely to be repeated at the next show! :(

Also so many dogs getting no reward on the completion of their run.Or a crappy reward,or a massively delayed reward.So many dogs could be improved with so little effort,if their owners could only see and understand what they are rewarding,and conversely NOT rewarding!!! SO disheartening!

Mookie has gotten so much faster just because I reward her so much better these days.
I used to just pop a bit of food in her mouth at the end of a run,because I thought she prefered food to tugging.
Well I made her realise what fun tugging is,and made sure no matter what had gone on in the run,I always come out of the ring,happy and playing like crazy,then she can have her food after that,and everyone is happy :)

I'm not saying here that I am perfect,but at least I recognise that the problem is me,not my dogs!
I make mistakes still,all the time,I broke a major rule in the system I use,'don't take your eyes off your dog'!! lol.That's exactly what I did to Foof after the weaves cos I was too busy thinking about getting over for the dog walk! oopps,I don't class myself as a very good dog trainer,I just go to good trainers and do as I'm told :)

Anyway aside from the 'drive by' on the tunnel,I was happy with the Foofa's run.One thing I keep doing wrong,which is going to to cause problems if I don't 'snap out of it' and stop doing it is,on the contacts I keep having her get position,sometimes go back and reward,but almost always then release her the next time I move my body...MUST STOP THAT!!!! that sort of nonsense will quickly create a dog who releases off my body movement,not my verbal queue.
I need to make a point of moving around whilst she's on there,and releasing primarily from a verbal,not bloody movement!! Still I'll get Becky to nag me about it so I don't forget.

So Sixxers and Becky did brilliantly today.Becky very sensibly decided to only run around a 3rd of each of the 2 courses she ran today.
Sixx was very focussed on Becky,even though she's not be in an indoor show before,and this morning ecspecially it was crazy and noisy in the venue.
She held her waits beautifully,jumped beautifully,and went where Becky directed her to go.
Success all round...perfect!!

I can't wait to watch as they develop as a team!