July 7 - Homework Update - Contacts

Jump Grids

This round of grid work has been interesting and beneficial. We started out day 1 with Bungee having some challenge between jumps 4 & 5 on the Progressive Grid.
She was adding one stride instead of a bounce. It was visible this was a result of speed and inertia working together. To resolve this I tried to slow her down visually, by adding visual complexity to jump 4, which did not resolve the extra stride. Next I added visual complexity to jump 3, which did not resolve the extra stride issue either. Next I changed the angle on jumps 2, 3 & 4, leaving the previously added visual complexity in tact, which solved the problem nicely. I "undid" the visual complexity, piece by piece, in the same way I added it until we were back to success with a regular, "plain", progressive grid, which took several sessions over a couple days. It could have gone faster if I'd worked at it more than once a day but I did not.

From the beginning she was almost causing me to brag over her One-Stride Grid, but w/ jump 4 at 20' distance we hit a snag where she double-strided out to 20'.
I'll explain the resolution to this when we get back to it.

Contacts (I told you we'd have a lot to write on this as we went along!)

I'm looking for really specific behaviors here. I want Bungee to go from the position I have her take, into 2o2oNT in one direct, smooth, dynamic move. I want to be standing up when I release her, and working up to sending her from 1' behind her and/or 1' to her side, etc.

Achieving 90% success on slanted plank in basement (food rewards (R), zero distractions), achieving less success on training stairs on field (food or toys R, variable but mild distractions), achieving very mixed results in class (food R, many distractions), much too often what Sarah & I commonly agree on as "crap".

Last week's class was actually a bit of a head-banger for me, causing much thought. This is my 3rd agility dog to teach contacts, you'd think I'd know something by now and be experiencing the best results yet. I almost gave myself a headache thinking about that one last Wed. on the way home after class. But Bungee is quite the individual and no where does she show this as well as with contacts. But we'll get it.

Back to what I want, (like this ever matters to a dog :-) I would have liked for Bungee to have the same intensity for contacts for the prospect of food R's as toy R's - and there's the rub most of the time. I'm just getting crap using food R's at class, unless I never want to leave her side. I am not stuck on food being as meaningful for contacts at class as places of lower distraction, like home, but the correct behavior is not an option.

To get success w/ food rewards in class I've struggled to find a point to maintain her attention, carrying her travel plank clear out of the agility ring to a quiet place on the side and working slowly back into class. Or I might get one dynamic nose touch or sometime two, but never three, the 3rd one is always crap and I can see the eyes look up from the job to whatever else is going on that she can spy, or glaze right over in stalk-something mode, or even the old freeze & stall doing nothing. All signs that motivation for the task is lacking - my challenge.

Toy R's present quite an improved picture, but accuracy can suffer. For instance, outside at home, quite commonly her 1st nose touch is close but no beep -call it a "drive-by", an air swipe, the head is definitely making the right motion, but sorry Bungee, I'm not buying it, no beep-no paycheck, but on a high note, with the toy, she's really into it. However, if I leave her in position for a 2nd chance to touch it, she will always nail it for a beep the 2nd time, the 3rd time, etc. I quickly started breaking it off after the 1st chance w/ no beep, seeing a pattern trying to emerge where she makes contact on the 2nd nose touch attempt.

We seem to have hit on a winning combination for that first successful nose touch, with one specific toy and the training steps by using only a long, narrow, tug toy (Crash Test Toys: Fur T-tug, small ball, extra long shock-cord handle), and one beep - one reward. With this toy, I can get it really compact in my hand, have her get in position on the last stair, and release her to successfully dive directly into a nose touch much more reliably, and still provide a really nice, quick toy reward, keeping hold of the handle but having a toy that flies right out on the ground ahead of her a good meter to release her to. This system has enabled a lot of quick repetitions of success - at home, and motivates her to drive into position accurately for a beep the 1st try. We'll see if we can maintain this behavior at class.

Keep in mind I have already done a lot of rewarding, standing next to her with food for correct nose touches to a target or the "Touch It" from many places. As well she has often worked with the distractions of food and toys on the ground while she nose touches, though I have not been leaving toys on the ground lately for two reasons. 1st, I want her head & eyes ahead as she works & releases, which I cannot be sure of when there is a toy ahead to focus on or distract. 2nd, a toy on the ground ahead can be as much of a challenge as any other distraction if she switches to stalking the toy. This is most likely to happen in class when the environment is more distracting. We will have to come back to this step but first things first.

Now in the general effort to clean up all behaviors, (back to when we backed up a bit in obedience) I am looking for only excellent behaviors, which creates a lower RR for a time (DRE's). With that she needs to learn to drive into nose touch position on one chance, with me standing upright. This is the only way we can advance so that I can take other positions to send her and move myself. At home this is a case of reinforcing very selectively, and waiting her out for the good behavior.

At class a little extra dimension of challenge exists. There I'm almost ready to employ a time-out at class if she's not as interested as need be to perform correctly. I may either take my terrier, and work him in front of her of her crate if she fails to find interest in our contact training, or borrow one of her buddies from our instructor and do the same in an effort at jealousy as instant motivation.

This may seem an overly-heavy set of requirements that I'm expecting of her to some, but if she can't do a correct nose touch from a still position on a mock-contact, she hasn't a hope of managing one in trial, especially with her speed and the confidence on equipment she has demonstrated so far.

This specific contact improvement I'm seeking is another small but important step where we are spending quite a bit of time. I won't say we're "stuck" as I do see improvement, but I haven't seen that breakthrough I'm expecting just yet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm as interested in running contacts as the next person, and a running frame might even be within our scope, but that has nothing to do wtih the fact that beautiful contacts with good nose touches are a skill I still want Bungee to learn and think she's going to need - especially with the penchant Canadian judges have for putting tunnel mouths next to the bottom of frames & dog walks for immediate u-turns into those tunnels.

Obedience

I am really impressed with the progress Bungee is making in obedience in the few short weeks we have been taking this sport seriously (meaning doing regular homework and attending regular classes). Her heeling tonight was different as night & day from just three weks ago. That is with the barn doors to the agility field wide open and a gamble class going on right outside. It's as if something clicked and she just suddenly "got it". She is such a happy worker, we get many compliments on her great attitude, quickness to learn and good looks. I'm still practicing my footwork. :-))

As they say in Hollywood, "That's a wrap".
Signing off,
Hug your dogs & happy training,
and remember, It's about love!