Training a Low Drive Dog for Flyball

I got very lucky with my first three dogs. Indy was so easy to train for anything and despite having no idea what I was doing...she does everything at top speed and desperately wants to please. Goose isn't quite as easy, but did learn flyball in 3 months and still runs consistent 3.8-3.9 in start. And then Pax was also easy. He came with tons of drive for toys and he loves to be trained. I really had zero problems with any of the dogs and this was because they love to tug. Good tug play in which the dog wants to play with YOU can solve lots of problems.  A super fast/stop everything and run recall and tug drive can solve 95% of problems in flyball. Spy is missing the tug part. Oh no!

Ah Spy.  A beautiful body, but low tug/toy drive. She's fine with just hanging out and sleeping. Most  people love that! She's a great and very easy dog.  But I want her to LEARN STUFF and use that body to do things fast!

I tried all the standard stuff to build tug drive and that all worked to a point. I wasn't getting the kind of tugging I wanted. So I starting trying other things.  I put her in a crate and make her watch me train the other dogs, thinking that would make her want to play. Nah, not too concerning for her. She didn't care either way.

Then I did some variation of NILIF (nothing in life is free) or Ruff Love. My version was one training session per day for her breakfast, no free play by herself or with the other dogs (her favorite thing to do). This helped quite a bit and she began to enjoy working with me. It still wasn't enthusiastic at all and we still didn't have a great relationship with her because I was always putting her away when she didn't feel like working. 

At this point she was doing recalls to a tug 75% of the time and total refusal to work for a tug for anything else and definitely not with food around. She was telling me, "Why should I go fling myself at that wall board for a reward that isn't rewarding?" I would give her food at the end of our session when she did a good job and if she didn't feel like it, I just didn't train her that day. I didn't get too far with this method.

Here is what I did that finally worked:

1. Use the Correct Rewards at the Correct Time.  My goal is to use a tug for flyball 100%.  We still have a long way to go, but we are making huge progress. First I made a mental note of her favorite and least favorite things to do. The favorites are my best tool for getting her to do things on the least favorite list. Flyball (or any) trainers need to accept that we can't ask our dogs to do something they don't really want to do for a reward they don't really want. Your dog may eventually find the tug rewarding, but he doesn't right now.

2. Build Work Ethic. Give your dog a cue for when training is starting. "Do you want to play!!!???" and act really silly and goofy and ridiculously excited.  And then while they are still into training say "That'll do, good dog" to end the session (which should be very short).  The difference in Spy is amazing. When she sees me...she goes nuts and when I end our sessions, she still wants more training.

3. Train behaviors that the dog Enjoys. My daily routine with Spy includes lots of obedience with stay to build excitement, body awareness, recall games with a little bit of flyball built in. Use a high value reward. 100% of Spy's diet comes from me for now. Some of the training is more challenging for her and some is just getting rewards for basic manners.  

4. Using food to get your dog to tug. This has to be done very carefully. The worst thing I see is the someone waggle the tug in the dogs face in suicidal bunny fashion and then when the dog doesn't tug, give food. What did you just do? You rewarded your dog for not tugging. You basically said "hey do you want to tug? No? Ok thats fine...you can have food instead! And good job for not tugging!"
 BUT...you can use food to improve tugging in a different way. If your dog tugs at all even for a second, mark it with a clicker and then reward with food. Add duration and start clicking for good tugging behavior like rocking back, head shaking and a tight grip. A good shaping dog will respond to this. If you don't want to shape specifically, you can ask your dog to tug before every meal. Also, I've seen success with the tug-it bag filled with nasty squishy meat. And of course try a different tug.  Just remember not to use the tug itself as a reward until it's REWARDING by itself.

5. Using Life Rewards to get your dog to tug. Is your dogs favorite thing to run free? To go outside and play with other dogs? Ask your dog to tug first or do some task and then release to go do that thing. Start a routine at your door. If you want to go outside and play..you have to tug first. Just be careful that it stays fun and the dog doesn't predict the release. Spy loves to zoom around in the woods. I ask her to tug before she can run and when she comes back to check in with me, we play tug and then I release her again. She loves that game.


6. Stop Tugging Before the Dog Stops. In my classes, I usually have to repeat this many times. I'd rather see 5 seconds of engaged tugging that ended with the dog still wanting more than 30 seconds of tugging that slowly fades away. Only tug when you are directly engaged with the dog.  Most of us with good tugging dogs are guilty of this in flyball. Check your dogs times and talk to teammates while the dog is tugging. It's probably find for a dog with a lot of tug drive. But for a dog like Spy. It's no good. I've been consciously trying to stop doing this with all my dogs. It also helps when trying to teach "out/drop it".

7. Off Switch or Go Crazy and Freeze Game. Or even the ready- set- get it game. Play lots of games that switch between high energy craziness and calm behavior. This is great for dogs who have trouble settling down, but I've found that it's great for dogs that have trouble getting excited. It teaches them to quickly change between the two mental states. I play with a bed nearby and get Spy going nuts...playing keep away, chasing her around, acting very goofy and then calmly say "get on your bed". As soon as she is calm and ideally fully relaxed...I say OK!!!! and start going nuts again.  Or  the ready-set-get it game ultimately works up to being able to say ready-set-......GET IT and the dog can't move until you say GET-IT. Try swing the tug around, throwing a ball,  running away to test them.  It also teaches a very solid stay.


To be continued.......

Jumping for Flyball

There are several things that have led me to start doing foundation jumping and stride training for flyball on a regular basis.

 1. I have a dog in training and I don't want to retrain her later.
2. I am retraining Pax, who doesn't have great natural striding for flyball and didn't get the best foundation.
3. I  am co-teaching an Active Dog Foundation class and want to make sure my students get an excellent foundation.

 I have a lot of experience with using props to control my dogs stride and jumping in flyball, but it's always been to fix a problem. And they often launch the prop too.  The problems started because I originally didn't use any method to train striding or jumping. I just sent my dog over the jumps and hoped for the best. With my border collies Indigo and Goose, this worked just fine and they run well. Now I know that was luck. Pax was a big wake-up call. I didn't worry about his jumping and hoped he would sort it out with more experience and then I tried (unsuccessfully) to fix his run. A striding problem turned into a box turn problem and at his worst he loses 0.5 - 0.3 seconds.

Foundation Exercises

1. Shaping a jump. In flyball some people use gates or block dogs to get them over the jumps. What is the dog learning? Not a whole lot. This is common training in agility. You can start out with your dog on a leash and wait for them to move toward the jump and keep click/treating each step until they go over. Then try different angles and different heights. Then add a collar restrain.  Before adding more jumps, I like to see a new dog going over one jump from various angles. This really helps dogs that bail out on jumps. You may want to be careful about training this too much. With a bad bobble on a fast team, a dog that takes the jumps no matter what may be more likely to crash.


2. Jump Grids.  I've been adding jump training to our Active Dog Foundation class.  The purpose of this is to teach prop respect and to teach either shortening or lengthening a stride. It really helps to study Susan Salo's method before attempting to try grids. I learned her basic grids and then adapted them for the needs of flyball, which is obviously very different than agility. They can be used to teach 3 strides, to fix double striding between jumps or any launching or prop respect problem. I have used several different grids, but this basic one has been really helpful for training Pax to stride properly between the jump and the box. 

First I set up a grid with jumps spaced 5 feet apart. I am not using speed and not rewarding for launching two jumps. I have the jumps fairly high to make it easier. 

After tons of repetitions, he was reliably NOT launching and his jumping looked nice and smooth (rocking back and head down).

Next I made the jumps lower, used a starting point and added some speed. And did many many more repetitions. I did this exercise almost everyday for a few months.

Now I do THIS exercise almost everyday, which incorporates the exercise I do to improve turning
with the grids at full speed and one of the jumps flat on the ground. It's made a huge difference for him and it's how I exercise him some days.

Here I took similar jumps to the ones used in the grid and incorporated them into the flyball course.


3. Passing and Launching the Start line

I hate the passing exercise that uses a wide jump. This teaches dogs to jump over the start line. We actually want them to run through it. It's very useful to have something at your practice that can be used as start/finish stanchions and get lots of practice running through them. This can start with no jumps and just doing recalls through the stanchions and then add two jumps and do a restrained recall from the dogs starting point, over the two jumps and to their tug. You can also add another set of stanchions at the end and use two dogs to train both passing and running through the start line. I hope to get video of this soon!

whippet flyball update

Pax thinks he is a border collie and runs into the building for his recall. It's so cute!

We've been working hard on our flyball training. Our new training facility is awesome. I've been going twice a week to work with the dogs for the last several months and have made lots of progress. Our rental house doesn't have much space for training and outside is not an option right now, so I really depend on this time to train the dogs. Hopefully with our new house, I'll add a space to do some indoor and outdoor training during the summer too. The other thing that is lacking at the moment is conditioning for the dogs. They are not in great shape right now. All they get is a hike 5 days a week. No sprinting or muscle building activities unfortunately.

Luckily one of my teammates also is motivated to train twice a week and we are always able to get at least one more person to help on our Wednesday morning sessions. I typically just train Spy and Pax on Wednesday mornings, but lately have been working on Goose's box turn too. On Sunday night, we try to work all the dogs, using Indy as a distraction dog since she isn't working on anything. She also gets to be my demo dog for flyball class and when we are teaching our recall class too.

Oh yeah, my teammate and I started teaching a few classes at the training center. I've been trying to get to the point that I could teach classes outside of flyball for awhile, so this is super exciting. We are also starting an impulse control class in a few weeks. I love training and preparing for the classes gives me lots of ideas for my own dogs that I can use for flyball training.




Oh the whippets. Gotta love them. Spy, spy, spy. Getting a whippet for flyball is like day-trading and getting a border collie is like investing your money in retirement account. Whippets are usually either amazing and the biggest return or they don't play at all. I know there is some in between, but it holds true more than other breeds. And border collies almost always can play, and it's just a matter of how fast they are...but pretty reliably you know you'll get something pretty good.

Pax was incredibly easy to train. His only issues are related to me trying to get the best out of him. He was amazing from the day we brought him home. Fully focused and never once shut down. And then there's Spy. This little girl is going to make me work hard. She is so very distracted by everything.....people, a noise, another dog standing there, a piece of food on the ground etc. Sometimes when I'm trying to work with her she just wanders off. It's pretty frustrating, but she does have tug drive and is interested in learning..so I'll take that and keep at it.

My plan for her at the moment is to get her to reliably do head to head recalls, and only allow her to greet people when released to do so..especially when it's training time! At home I'm working on her wall turn, tug drive and ball retrieve.

I finally got out of my training rut with Pax and found a set up that works for him! I am actually always working on finding ways to get him to rotate into the lane without using a headboard and am still deciding how to fade down his props. For some reason the black tape covered gutter was really making him launch and now I think it's almost a cue to launch. Since we started using a FedEx box, taped up white..he takes three strides out every time and hasn't launched once. When I fade that out, I'll have to go to something other than the black striped gutter.

Well, if the 3.6's weren't shocking enough at the tournament last month...Pax busted out all 3.5s on his first race out last weekend. His best time was a 3.568. I was calling passes and became totally useless when this happened. I think my jaw actually dropped. His return was amazing. I had no idea he was capable of 3.5. I always thought at best, he'd be a solid 3.7 dog. In his second race he ran two 3.5s and a 3.6 and then we pulled him. Perfect weekend for him.

He has a full time spot next month, but I will list Indigo on his team and put her in for him if I don't like what he is doing. After all this time retraining him, I don't want to lose everything I worked for.

First flyball tournament with the new team :)

It's been awhile since I've posted! We had our first flyball tournament since December and first ever with our new team. It was lots of fun, despite the 8 hour drive. We got a new van. It's so lame and so awesome at the same time. Everything fit with no issue and we were are very comfortable, especially Finley. It's really the perfect size for us! I am disappointed that it's white, but am not interested in paying lots of money to repaint it. We just have to accept that it's really ugly and enjoy it. As soon as we finish setting it up, I'll post photos.

So, we pretty much had to run Pax because we needed to enter one team into the regular division and he was one of the 4 that didn't run in the last 90 days. Ben ran him all weekend and did a great job with him. He will be running him from now on....he gets a lot less stressed about trying to get the tug back from him! His first warmup sucked. He went wide off the box and launched over the prop that was there to make him take 3 strides off the box! But then, I was surprised when he ran all 3.7s and took 3 strides and box turn looked great during racing. Then I was even more shocked when he started posting 3.6s including a 3.63. There was one race that was full of false starts and he didn't look as great toward the end of that, so we pulled him for the rest of the day. He ran all but one race on Sunday as well and never ran higher than low 3.8s! 90% of the time his turn held and he took 3 strides off the box!!  We have since practiced and are still figuring out the perfect props to use to get this all to stick. I'd love to see consistent 3.6s from him.

Here is Pax at practice after the tournament this week

I learned from watching this that I need to take out the stride regulator out when he is on the way in to make his striding more even...I am happy with his turn and striding on the way out. 

Indy and Goose ran well and will continue to be on our A team until we switch things around again. Pax isn't ready for that commitment and Raven probably won't debut until later this summer. Spy did so much better than expected. I was pretty worried about her focus issues. She still can't really run head to head with another dog doing recalls, or at least since the last time I tried! She had a little setback with teething and tugging.  She was so awesome at the tournament. I did short recalls with her alongside the run back area during racing warmups and she stayed 100% focused on me. I also played "Look At That" with her on the side of racing, which helped a lot. She thoroughly enjoyed introducing herself to every human and dog that would listen.

I finally got some video of Spy. She is almost 6 months now!

Unless we get snowed out we will go to a scrimmage in the morning and then we will be teaching flyball class and team practice! Big day!

As far as upcoming events..I am going to try to go to 3 more tournaments before my human baby is born. This includes one that is one week before my due date. We will see how it goes....

Whippet Flyball Update

PAX: I am pretty sure I already ruined Pax's muscle memory to take 3 strides off the box, by running him for a long time with the wrong striding. Looking back at videos from last year when I was training him, I had the gutters in the wrong place and was not setting him up well at all.

For the last several weeks I've been trying a new method. I keep it very simple and just recall him over 2 jumps. If he takes 3 strides off the box, he gets the tug. If he takes two twice in a row, he gets nothing and I make it easier for him to succeed. I'm not sure if it's working, but it's my last idea to get him to fix this problem.

For his wide box turn I've been laying a baby gate flat on the ground 1/2 way into the lane, so he can't go wide. I need to figure out a way to fade this too. Still working on that. When we do anything with the box, and jumps and striding all together I don't withhold a reward if he does it wrong because I think that would be really confusing.

The only way this type of training can work, in my opinion, is if you make it very simple. If you are working on ball holding, you can withhold the reward, but you need to just use a dead ball and no jumps or box. I definitely thing dogs learn faster if they get different feedback depending on what they do. The more positive way to do it would be to shape him to take three strides, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet at the speeds that the dogs are running!

SPY: Spy is doing well with her ball to tug exchanges. She even did a few at practice. She is very distracted. I tried running her against our calmest dog and even had the other dog wait until Spy was all the way to me and she still wanted to run over and say hi! I need to get her used to the motion of other dogs and work through distractions. Next practice, I plan to play the game "Look at That" and some premack.

Look at That (LAT) is a control unleashed game. First you teach the dog to look at something (anything at first) and then click the head turn toward the thing and treat. Once they get the game, you can start clicking for specific things, like other dogs or people or anything that they react to. This teaches them to acknowledge that the thing is there, but they can just look back at you and work through it. It's a positive association with the thing being there.

Premack. For this game, I'll keep her on a leash and while the other dogs are running I'll give her the option of focusing on me for treats and playing or go look, try to chase the other dogs. I'll be far away enough that she can make a good choice! This is "trick" her into thinking that she chose to ignore the other action going on around her! 

Exciting Stuff

We haven't been to any events with our dogs lately, but a lot has been going on. We left our flyball team and just started a new one! We have 6 members and we decided to call ourselves Mass Chaos. In just the short amount of time since deciding to start a team, we found a new facility for practicing and teaching classes. We are entered in our first tournament in February. We still have a lot of work to do, but it's been a fun process.

I haven't been doing anything with the border collies other than taking them on hikes and working on their recalls and sit/stays. Spy is taking puppy class and is working on a trick for her last one. I decided to do something useful, so she is working on "go to your mat". I was a little worried about her distraction issues in flyball, but she has been much better lately and is very focused at home. She loves tugging now. She can do a dead ball/tug exchange, which is about where I want her to be. She is very good at hand touches as well. I am auditing Silvia Trkmans puppy class and will post about how that is going.

Oh Pax, Pax Pax. I've been working with him a lot. I don't know if I'll be able to fix him. I wish I knew as much as I do now, a year ago. At least the new puppies on our flyball team will benefit from what we know now! I am going to keep at it and then give him a try in Feb to see how he looks. Until then recalls and box work several times a week.

SPY

We got a new puppy! I have been planning to add another whippet pretty much as soon as Pax came home. I've had a blast with Pax in everything we've tried together...although I do get tired of his obsession to be on my lap at all times. We have especially been enjoying racing and lure coursing. Pax gives it his all and is a solid "B" dog, but of course my competitive self wants a faster dog. I am really happy with her so far. She is confident, smart and biddable. The only issue we are working through at the moment are distractions. She doesn't have the focus to work through any distractions...some of that will come with time. She is a natural retriever and she doesn't tug like Pax, but I have no doubt I can get her there. We FINALLY decided on a name!  "SPY"

Pax hasn't made too much progress since his flyball break started. Retraining a dog is frustrating. I HIGHLY recommend not debuting a dog until everything is just how you want it and if you see something wrong, pull the dog right away. I was so excited and anxious to get him going, I didn't realize all this. Especially with a whippet. They take longer to train than border collies usually. I plan to take close to 2 years to train the new baby unless it takes longer. My goals for Pax are to get 3 strides off the box to the first jump and a less wide box turn. I'll keep updating his progress..if there is any!

The yearly big break from dog sports is coming up so Im planning on doing general obedience training with everyone and keeping them conditioned with chuck-it and hikes in the woods.

Can-Am is always memorable.

Remember when I went to CanAm in 2010? That trip was very memorable. The moral of that story was don't take a 5 month old baby most of the way across the country unless you are A) with the other parent of the child or B) able to sit next to the child. I listened to lots of crying that I was unable to do anything about, which was basically torture for me. On the other hand, when Finley wasn't crying, which was actually most of the time...the road trip was awesome. It was relaxing and beautiful and a special treat to go and run Ezri and Indigo with my Canine Mutiny friends!

Ben and I  decided to go back this year, but since Ben would basically fail out of veterinary school if he missed Thursday or Monday, he decided to skip it..sort of at the last minute. Joe decided he also wouldn't go, so we canceled our van rental and Sue and I decided to take my small SUV. We did have enough time before CanAm to make sure Dave was comfortable running Indigo and that I could run Goose. Indigo will run for anyone and is easy to pass and Goose is..well..he means well.

Sue and I loaded up Pax, Indigo, Goose, Stingray and Mustang along with crates, flyball gear, food, cooler etc. The car was very full! We left on Tuesday afternoon, so that we would have plenty of time to get there and no long days of driving. The drive there was very uneventful and we got pretty good at unpacking and repacking. We got there on Thursday afternoon and just hung out and took it easy that night. We decided (unlike many of the other teams racing for the CanAm) to run our dogs on Friday. They are in really good physical condition and are used to a lot more running that we had planned for them. I'm really happy we chose to do that because they did not run well on Friday and had that been Saturday (the day that determines if you make it to the CanAm), we wouldn't have made it!

Pax ran pretty well in his very first race on Friday and then not so great for the rest of the weekend. He will be taking a break until the Spring for some retraining and his performance at CanAm shows that he really needs it! So for Indigo and Goose's team we didn't really have a plan going into Saturday. We just ran the best we could and tried to win races, but still push for a good time. We didn't expect to make it into the finals with so many teams running 15.5 and below lately. We were very pleasantly surprised with our times on Saturday. We ran right around 16.0 and below and our 15.7 ended up putting us in the 3rd seed going into the CanAm. So, Canine Mutiny and 7 other teams accepted spots for the CanAm on Sunday.

Our first race was against Rocket Relay's B team. We won that race, but it wasn't easy and ended up being decided by an awesome rerun by Stingray, our height dog! That put us in a position to be racing Rocket Relay's A team for the next elimination. They are the team that won last year, so we knew we would have a hard time beating them. We took them to 4 heats and lost. This put Rocket Relay and Spring Loaded as the two teams racing for first and second place and us and Animal Inn racing for third and forth place.

Eventhough we lost one race, we were still excited to race for third place! The race started out pretty messy. I unfortunately had to rerun Goose in an earlier race against Rocket Relay and between that and all the cheering and yelling, he got a case of the reruns. Stingray needed to rerun and everyone was yelling "GO GO GO". Well of course Goose thought they were talking to him, so he also reran at the same time. She actually would have run clean if she didn't have a big border collie running full speed at her, which made her drop her ball. Ugh GOOSE! By the time we were on the 5th heat that would decide the race, I was fully aware that Goose was out of his mind. We ran that heat clean and as I saw Indigo in 4th come across the finish just barely before the other dog, I knew we won it. At that same moment, my very confused Goose thought again that with all the cheering, he should probably go run again. This time I was prepared and there was not a chance I was going to let him lose this race for us. So clearly the best thing to do was to DIVE for him just as he was fully accelerating away from me. My arm was fully extended as I flew and ended up grabbing him by the tip of his tail and stopping him (he has an appointment at the chiropractor already). We won the race by very little! No one has ever been as excited for third place as we were. I got up and tried to give everyone high-fives, but by arm wouldn't move!

I somehow managed to put Indigo and Goose away in their xpen and go to watch the Spring Loaded vs Rocket Relay race. And then the pain set in. It was, by far the most excrutiating pain I've ever experienced. It was like being eletrocuted with every slight motion of my arm. I was so freaked out that I couldn't move it and in so much pain that I lost it. My amazing teammates and flyball friends helped me with everything and I went to the emergency room. I got xrays, which probably sounded like I was being tortured because I was literally screaming as I was forced to put my arm in the most incredibly painful positions. Anyway, nothing was broken so they gave me some pain meds and sent me on my way. I managed to make it home because of my awesome teammates, especially Sue. It turns out I have a rotater cuff injury and have just started a minimum of 6 weeks of physical therapy. Oh yeah and Goose bit me in the face on Saturday at some point as well.

My second CanAm was certainly an experience I will always remember. It was so much fun and exciting and so very painful. Although, I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to go back!

whippet fun

Pax and I had an awesome day yesterday. We went to a one day Sprint race meet hosted by the NEWC (new england whippet club). After our first meet, I almost gave up on Spring racing with him. His high drive can only get him so far. He just doesn't have the muscle or stride length to keep up with some of these whippets. Seriously the thigh muscles on some of these dogs are amazing.

There is still plenty of competition here in New England, but I think Pax does well enough to make it worth while and wow does he LOVE IT! He is crazy for flyball, but out of his mind for racing. At the last two meets he was 7th and 6th place, which I am very happy with. I think his stamina and again huge amount of drive actually help. He seems to do better than some of the other dogs in the 3rd and 4th programs.

Racing is much slower moving than flyball and especially with just one whippet.. but the locations cannot be beat. Yesterday we were in Western Mass on a gorgeous piece of property. I love being outside all day surrounded by this amazing scenery, watching the incredible speed of the dogs. Pax has a lure coursing trial in a few weeks and it would be very convenient if he would get 1st place..that isn't too much to ask right?

a new striding training method

Unfortunately for Pax, he is my practice dog for training striding. His natural flyball striding isn't great, as I may have mentioned many times. Had I started him differently, I have no doubt that I wouldn't be having this much trouble now.

The only way I can get the striding I want ( 3 strides in and 3 strides out between the box and last jump) is by putting gutters at 5' and 10' from the box. I wonder if a dog that has already run for a year or more can change their striding with gutters? It hasn't had any sort of permanent effect on Pax.

Last weekend I tried something a little bit different. I slowly moved the last jump away from the box slowly and kept sending him and videoing his striding. At 15.5' he still took 2 steps in and 2 steps out, same at 16'. At 16.5-17.5 he took two big strides and one little stutter step and still mostly 2 strides out. Then I moved it to 18', which is the limit for where I would be willing to move it. And that's where he took 3 strides in and 3 out. This seems a little bit ridiculous because dogs much bigger than him easily take 3 strides in 15' and I believe that with more space Pax stretched out even more. I figure his striding can't get much worse than it already is, so my plan is to leave the jump at 18' and than very slowly over time move it back in and hopefully taking 3 steps will be so ingrained by then that I won't need gutters.

To do this training, I really can't also be running him in tournaments. So Pax, is getting the big "P-WORD"...PULLED after Canam, which we already committed to. It may not help, but I would always regret not trying and I still have my Indigo to run.

blah blah blah

I feel like Pax has been the main topic of my posting lately. He's just such a project! Indigo is a finished product in my opinion for flyball. She is cured of ball spitting and she is consistently running to her potential, considering her training. She is running on the A team in flyball. and possibly the most consistent dog on that team. Goose is still spitting his ball, but thats because his trainer sometimes slacks on working with him. Otherwise he he running really well too!

Ben has stopped doing agility with Indigo and Pax, which is sad considering the amount of training that she had. He just isn't the type to go out and practice a few times a week and so agility really isn't the best sport for Ben. Also with starting Vet school, time is an issue as well.

With everything that is going on in our lives outside of dog sports, we've decided to focus on flyball and whippet racing/lure coursing for now. When things calm down I'd love to find a place to take Goose herding just because he loves it so much.

Speaking of lots of craziness in our lives right now, the last thing we need is for our dogs to get Skunked. So of course one day last week just as we were about to go to bed, we let the dogs out one more time and sure enough our entire house starting smelling like the nastiest onion smell. We step outside and Pax puked and couldn't open his eyes after getting sprayed in the face. Goose got it all over and Indigo even managed to pick some up too. After consulting with the internet and our facebook friends, Ben ran out to the store to pick up Hydrogen Peroxide and we make a mixture with that, baking soda and dish soap. We applied it to the dogs without water and let it sit on them for 30 minutes. Then we washed them off. By this point it was 1 am and Finley was fully asleep. The stuff worked really well. We put them in their crates and aired out the house all night long. The next day I took everyone to the groomer for a deskunk treatment. Luckily, everything we did helped a lot and now only Pax's neck stinks.

ball on the wall

We had a tournament this past weekend and tried Pax running full time on the A team. He's our fastest dog in theory, but his times are very inconsistent because of his striding. I got a few 3.8s out of him in last, but mostly 3.9s -4.0. His box turn was consistently wide despite the extra work I've been doing with him.

I know it just hasn't been enough time and he's been rewarded many times by going wide. I also know that the root of the problem is not just the turn itself, but the way he approaches the box. His approach doesn't allow him to collect himself to make a tight turn. However, I know he CAN do a tight turn with his striding into the box because when I put a prop there, his turn is lovely. While I continue to work on his striding, I'm also focusing on getting him to bend more (I posted about this last week) and rotate better. His wall work has been nice, so I've advanced him to getting the ball off the wall.

I started this last night and this morning. I thought it looked pretty good for his first time getting the ball off the ball. I'll do a lot more of this and then start working the actual box.

HERE IS THE VIDEO

Ball Spitting

Here is a question from a reader about training a 4 month old border collie:  

Question: .........I'm pretty sure he's going to be a spitter, as he very much prefers the tug over the ball (which is good), but how can I work with him down the road in bringing the ball? Ive started doing exchanges from ball to tug because i did that in the past, and he spits as soon as he sees the tug. he knows the 2 toy game as well. Or is it too early to worry about that? Anyways, any suggestions you have for me would be wonderful.

Answer: 

First of all, I wouldn't worry too much about a future in ball spitting at 4 months. At 4 months the things I focus on are:

1. TUG DRIVE especially with distractions (balls, other dogs, people running etc)
2. flat recalls against lots of different types of dogs
3. opposing recalls or introduction to passing through the stanchions
4. introduction to box work - "over & back" over a gutter or low jump
5. body awareness exercises or introduction to gutters if you plan to use them
6. introduction to clicker training and being handled by people if that's an issue
7. toy exchange
8. basic retrieve to the hand, not necessarily a ball and not a big focus.
9. Impulse control games


Between 5-7 months is when I would suggest revisiting the ball work. Here is a combination of the steps I did with Pax and Indigo.  With Pax to prevent ball spitting and with Indigo to fix it. This is in addition to playing tug with the ball and using the tennis ball as a reward in everyday life.

1.  Clicker train to put the ball in my hand. In a small space with the dog on leash (if needed), toss the ball a very short distance. Shape him putting it in your hand. Start with a click for picking up the ball then for bringing it toward you and then eventually click the second the ball makes contact with your hand. Practice this a lot!

2. Throw a ball further in a large space with no leash and have him bring it to my hand, building up to him bringing it while I'm running away with my hand out.  There is no tug involved yet.

3.  Same as # 2 but with dead ball. If he does 4 in a row correctly, take out the tug play a short exciting game of tug with him.

4. With a tug in hand, throw a ball and then turn and run with the tug hidden in front of you as you are running. Look back to see if the dog has the ball as he approaches you. If he has it and is within 2 feet of you, give him the tug. If he spit it, ask him to go get it and bring it to you and then give him the tug. If he spits it no where near you, you need to move back a few steps.  Ideally you will be able to send him to a dead ball run away with a hidden tug and then when he presents you the ball, give him the tug.

5. Using a low value tug at first and eventually moving to his favorite tug, try #4, but drag the tug instead of hiding it. It's important that you look back to see when the dog drops the ball. If it's early (more than 2 feet from you), immediately pull up the tug. Ask the dog to go get the ball and bring it to you and then give him the tug. Again, if it's too hard make it easier and slowly raise the criteria.

The mistakes I made in 5 years of training Indigo to hold her ball: hiding the tug as a permanent solution, facing her instead of running away, and most importantly rewarding her in tournaments when she didn't carry it within 2 feet of me, but did carry it barely over the line.

Here is a video of Indigo from a few days ago. I am just getting to the point of dragging the tug. The first few I was still hiding it and then I tried dragging it. On the last two she made me laugh because she tried to get the tug while the ball was still in her mouth!

Bending

Pax has been racing in flyball for almost a year now and has made lots of progress. He's more confident, has better striding and just started passing with no issues. It's nice to have him in 4th because his box turn is very variable. You couldn't pass into him easily as he is coming off the box because often he goes wide.

We tried to figure out what causes him to go wide. We thought maybe it was when he gets tired, but it's variable throughout the day. It definitely has to do with the way he collects himself between the 4th jump and the box.  Also he hits the box too far to the left and isn't able to bend his body easily.

I'm still working on his striding into the box, but I'm focusing on improving his flexibility so he can bend more easily. I want to be able to practice his box turn without using the upright of a box prop to keep his head in. Most dogs with this problem only have a tight turn when the prop is in, so that doesn't really help fix the problem.

This week I've been doing wall work and experimenting with some agility jumping. He already knew some basics from his classes with Ben, so getting him around the jump was easy. I need to work on calling him sooner so he starts bending mid-jump and we plan to add some serpentine jumps for more bending skills. For the agility jumping I'm purposely working on both sides event hough he turns to the left. Please excuse my "agility handling" or lack of. I'm not an agility person!

Enhance Performance in Dogs with Herbs

At a recent flyball tournament we got some sample bottles of a product called AgilityPro which contains: American Ginseng, Ashwagandha, Siberian Ginseng, Codonopsis pilosule, and Astragalus. I knew the uses of these herbs in humans. I know from personal experience that they are useful during times of stress. I found Ashwagandha to be very useful while I was in graduate school. I wrote this little article and based on what I found regarding their use in dogs, I am going to start giving a similar product to my dogs. 

All of these wonderful benefits I am about to tell you about are not based from personal experience. It's based on studies in humans and reports of success from horse and canine vets. I'd love to know if anyone has used a performance enhancing supplement in their dogs and how it works!

  
When talking about good qualities of a performance dog people tend to say things about "no self preservation" and "giving 110%" despite pain, stress or fatigue. We also know that we need to decide when it's time to force rest to prevent injuries or accidents, which can lead to a shortened career in the long term.  Hard working canine athletes may benefit from some assistance in handling the physical and mental stress brought on by their work. Many of the sports and daily work that our dogs perform are very taxing on the body.

The herbs in Agility Pro and other similar products are known as ADAPTOGENS which literally translates from Greek “to produce an adjustment "

They are used by humans for adrenal gland support / stress management. These herbs have a non-specific activity, increasing the resistance of the entire body. They work to help the entire system gain balance or homeostasis, helping to normalize body system functions affected by stress.  Many of these herbs improve endurance, work capacity under stress, and recovery after strenuous activity.  Interestingly most of the adaptogenic herbs tend to grow in challenging environments and survive despite the conditions.

Based on studies in humans and animals the following benefits might be seen in a performance dog.

• Fewer injuries and faster recovery due to a faster rate of tissue repair
• Delays the onset of fatigue during exercise
• Improved performance and endurance
• Increased learning, memory, focus and accuracy when tired or stressed
• Skeletal muscle & strength
• Immune system protection from long-term or intense stress
• Glucose movement into muscle cells
• Higher levels of ATP in muscle cells
• Utilization of lipids for energy production
• Mitochondrial efficiency for energy
• Protects digestive function
• Protects against oxidative damage
• Calming for anxiety, depression, nervousness, irritability, or aggression
• Reduces stress during performance and traveling.  

These herbs will not enhance performance beyond natural ability like an anabolic steroid or stimulants, but will support the body and help the dog reach natural potential. During events or conditioning you may see improvements in endurance and delayed exhaustion, which can prevent injuries related to fatigue and a lack of focus and concentration.  

After strenuous activity adaptogens will help with muscle repair via protein synthesis. The time needed for the body to recover from high-intensity training or extended periods of stress is greatly reduced. In dogs that are well conditioned and mentally sound, you may not see improvements until the dog is faced with a difficult situation or is tired.

It is best to choose a product with a combination of adaptogenic herbs. For example, the benefits may be seen immediately with Rhodiola and Schizandra, whereas Panax ginseng and Ashwagandha needs to build up in the system. 

After discussing with your vet, try giving one dose per day or more if there is major stress. If the goal is overall stress relief vs improved performance, it may need to build up in the system for 2–4 weeks before you see results. Many people will give their performance dogs a lower dose at home and then increase it just before and during an event. 

THE HERBS

Aralia mandshurica: Protects the body from environmental toxins and infection; protects the stomach lining and intestines, improving absorption.

Codonopsis pilosule: Works in a similar way to Panax Ginseng, but is milder and less expensive

Siberian Ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus): Prevents exhaustion from physical and mental stress; fat & glucose metabolism; may increase the numbers of mitochondria, increasing exercise capacity; ability to withstand adverse conditions (heat, noise, increases in workload and physical exertion);  physical and mental performance and quality; memory, mental alertness and work output.

Panax ginseng:  Increases blood flow to the brain, improves libido and reproductive performance, stamina and energy levels; ability to withstand stress, improve work performance and quality, and enhance mental function.  

Rhaponticum carthamoides: Helps build and maintain lean muscle mass improves fertility and prevents impotence, prevents fatigue, and improves recovery from long illness.

Rhodiola rosea: Increases the blood supply to the muscles and brain, and increased protein synthesis; immune support, resistance to fatigue, improves mood & attention especially with not enough sleep; useful for acute stress; helps with depression and time spent in recovery; increases endurance, mental and physical strength; heart rate recovery after intense exercise; lipid metabolism

Schisandra chinensis: Helps during times of stress and fatigue; anti-imflammatory; stimulates central nervous system and use of oxygen in the cells; enhances mental coordination and physical endurance, improves vision especially at night; reduces stress via the adrenal gland; suppresses excessive stomach acid production and protects against stomach ulcers.

Ashwagandha: improves immune function relaxation & sleep, anti-inflammatory and immune boosting; adrenal support, lowers blood pressure; improves thyroid function (increases energy, digestive function and mood): alertness and memory, promotes a feeling of well-being; anxiety and irritability.  

Astragalus: useful during weakness ; recovery following an illness or prolonged stress; boosts vitality.; enhances immune function by increasing natural killer cell activity, increasing T cell activity, and enhancing macrophage activity.

While adaptogens may offer many benefits, there are also a lot of things they can't do. Please use feed quality diet, allow for rest, regular conditioning and veterinary/chiropractic care.

 

This product seems to be the best one in terms of variety of adaptogenic herbs. It contains: Eleutherococcus senticosus,Rhodiola rosea, Schizandra chinensis, Aralia mandschurica, Rhaponticum carthamoides. I am going to order it and see how it works and will report back! 

Burn Out

We went to another tournament last weekend. It was local and our dogs did well overall. Pax wasn't running nearly as fast as he was at the U-FLI tournament until Indigo got injured and we needed him to run in her place. He had never been confident enough to pass into another dog, we haven't had a chance to practice it much and the multi team needed a start dog. I slowly tightened up my pass and by the last heat Pax ran a 3.82 passing into Stingray! We are thinking about switching Pax and Goose now that we know Pax can handle being in the pack.

Back to Indigo. Her right front leg has been off for awhile. It's hard to tell with a dog that already has an unusual gait and shows no pain. A few times during chuck-it she wouldn't bear weight on it, but then a few hours later she seemed fine. And then last weekend she seemed to have a slight limp. We pulled her on Sunday and since then she's been to the chiropractor and has been only swimming for exercise. As usual she seems totally fine now, but we are taking it easy for at least a full week. We really need her to be sound for the Coconut Classic next weekend in PA.

We have this weekend off and are looking forward to the break. I think dogs experience burnout and benefit from a break. I don't think one week is really enough, but it's better than tournaments every weekend. I think it gets a little boring for them! We decided to skip U-FLI nationals for a number of reasons this year - we couldn't find flights that would work, Ben starts school Monday morning after and we just don't have it in us to do another really long trip right now. We will probably skip a few other tournaments too.

Despite the dogs being a little burnt out this past weekend, Finley had her best tournament yet. She was fully involved as much as she could. She helped the dogs get wrapped and carried our tugs for us. She came in to watch all of our races and cheered us on. She had the most fun helping with Chase. She was in charge of calling him and giving him treats in the runback. Our plan is to start teaching her to run a dog in practice and then hopefully as soon as she is old enough she will be ready to go. And then we'll have to find a dog for her to run!

I saw this box prop and I like it instead of Plexi glass

 

Finley enjoys putting vetwrap on the dogs

POWER JUMPING!

My dogs lives have recently changed for the better. They are living it up! I thought they had it good before, but I was very wrong.

First of all we have been going to lots of flyball tournaments. We've gone to 2 since we got here a month ago. We have another next week and then a week off and then another! With all this additional competition, I've been conditioning them more. This week we've played lots of chuck-it, went on a 7 mile hike And......

Yesterday they had a chuck-it session in the morning before it got hot and then a power jumping session right before dinner. We've been using power jumping to get the dogs, especially Pax to go for the ball full speed. I mentioned this in my last post. I love this because it's a way to get him to think less. He does do much thinking when he is running for a chuck-it ball, so incorporated it into flyball training. You need a lot of space for this drill.

Again it works like this....Someone releases them ideally from the same place you would when sending on a full run. Just as the person releases, someone is on the other end with a chuck-it and throws it away from the jumps, so the dog can see it. It's amazing to see how fast they can actually go over those jumps. This drill was helpful for all of our dogs to increase confidence and drive. We also used it for Goose to carry his ball. When Goose goes to get his ball he also has to carry it back over all the jumps.

HERE IS THE VIDEO LINK TO LAST NIGHTS SESSION


I think all this conditioning and training has been paying off because I was very happy with my dogs performance last weekend. Goose didn't spit his ball once and even started showing some signs of ball obsession (it's a fine balance!), Pax ran faster than ever before going TO the box and had some great times despite a wide box, and Indigo ran well in the pack too.

Pax ran well in singles and we were so close to a 3.6 on the clock!

The dogs are also feeling great because they have been going to the chiropractor. On Wednesday they went to their 2 of 6 weekly appointments to get them realigned. They were all really out, but I was happy that they held what she did on Week 1. This chiropractor is using Applied Kinesiology, which I don't know much about. I know it's not well accepted in traditional medicine at all, but I really just care about results, so we will see. In Applied Kinesiology they can also determine food allergies. Pax has chronic diarrhea,  or poops like 6 times a day and has the worst gas! I've started an elimination diet for him in addition to the probiotics and digestive enzymes. I decided to start with Venison instead of Lamb. According to the chiropractor, he was allergic to Lamb AND Venison! I'm going to try the Venison anyway and then put him on RAW as soon as we get our chest freezer and move into our own house!

We are off to another LOCAL flyball tournament this weekend!

Adjusting

The dogs are adjusting well to life in New England. Our friends house has a big grassy yard and a pool, which is a huge improvement from our tiny yard and very few swimming options. Between our two families, all of our faster competition dogs are jumping 10" in flyball, so we've been doing power jumping in the yard and then swimming to cool off and get more exercise. We also do some hikes and chuck-it sessions.

We took our three dogs to a chiropractor today that knows sport dogs. She was really great compared to our other experiences. I've always thought Indigo didn't seem right, but when I've taken her for adjustments they always look at me like I'm crazy. That's because the sport dog and pet dog are way different. Our three dogs were all off. Indigo's pelvis was crooked, Goose's head/neck was off and Pax's whole left side needed work.

We had a tournament two weeks ago in Seekonk, MA. Our Division 1 team didn't have much competition, which sucks. I'd rather lose to good competition than win easily. It was actually a good thing though because Goose's ball spitting problem got a lot worse. He spit the ball in almost every race. We had to pull him a lot and use Pax and Mustang, both running full time on the multi-team. We won multi and regular, but really need to fix Goose's little problem quickly.

We came up with a fun game to work on ball spitting - We set up powerjumps and then send Goose back and forth between us, but he has a carry a ball over all the jumps and then as a reward he gets to play ball. We've also been using the outdoor jumps to work on Pax's speed to to the box (my on-going challenge). I have Ben start him like he's sending him for a full run, but instead of a box at the end of the jumps...it's me with a chuck-it. As soon as Ben releases him I throw the chuck-it. Wow! He can run fast for a moving ball. The jumps barely interfere with his full speed running.

Otherwise the dogs are doing well. I'm experimenting with Pax's food to see if he has a food allergy because it's not normal for a dog to have such nasty gas. Right now he's on Lamb only. Also the ticks are awful here. I'm getting used to pulling them off the dogs on a daily basis. If we go into the woods it's pretty much guaranteed that they'll all have several ticks.

We have ANOTHER tournament this weekend and then next weekend too! This weekend is Navon, Ontario. We are leaving tomorrow night and driving to the Albany area so that we don't have to do eight hours all in one day. It's U-FLI and we are running two teams and lots of singles and we'll have Fin with us.

Big Changes

A lot has happened in the past few weeks. We left our house in Seattle on April 20th and took two vehicles across the country. Ben drove the truck and trailer (our temporary home) and I drove the little car. When we got to Reno, we traded cars with Ben's parents and ended up with a Ford Escape. It's not quite big enough for our family, but the dogs have a lot more room in the back and it's 4WD.

We stopped at dog parks and rest areas along the way to run the dogs. We had some long days, but everything went smoothly overall. We found a flyball tournament in Iowa to run with some friends and give the dogs a chance to stretch their legs. Indigo and Goose ran very well on their pick-up teams. Pax ran in singles and on a team, with the highlight being a doubles run with Indigo of 7.641. This makes them the 21st fastest doubles of all time and 6th for the year. Pax and Goose both ran singles as well. With Pax's best time being 3.820 and Goose 3.810, making them the 6th and 7th fastest singles for the year. We are planning another U-FLI tournament in June in Ontario and then the Tournament of Champions in August in Nebraska.

To continue our really crazy flyball schedule, we got to Massachusetts on May 3rd and then our new flyball team, Canine Mutiny hosted a tournament in Greenfield, MA. Indigo and Goose are on the Regular 1 team in 3rd and 4th position and Pax runs in start on the Multibreed team. The regular team had a best time of 15.8 and the Multi team ran in the mid 17 second range.  Running on consistent 4 dog teams is new for us and really nice. It was a little bit chaotic to get here and then immediately host a tournament, but it was pretty low key and it was easy to take our trailer because it was already packed with all our stuff.  It was all fun and games until a Norovirus type "stomach flu" passed around to at least 14 people including me. I showed my dedication by running Indy and then immediately going back to the trailer where the bathroom was close. Ben ran Pax for me and I may have lost my dog after that because Ben had a good time with him and was way better at getting the tug back from him!

Here is our schedule for the rest of the summer:

May 13th - ASFA lure coursing trial Granville, MA
May 19th-20th NAFA flyball Seekonk, MA
June 2-3 U-FLI Ontario
June 9-10 NAFA flyball Littleton, MA
June 23-24 Coconut Classic PA
July 21-22 NAFA flyball Foxboro, MA
August 11-12 NAFA flyball Henrietta, NY
August 24-26th U-FLI Tournament of Champions Nebraska
September 1-2 NAFA flyball Foxboro, MA
September 6-7th ASFA lure coursing Griswold, CT
September 22-23 NAFA flyball Greenfield, MA?
October 12-14th Can-Am NAFA flyball nationals

I also need to find some straight and oval track races for Pax, but our schedule is looking very full this year!

The dogs are very much enjoying their new location! We either play chuck-it or go hiking everyday. Ben has even taken them on bike rides on the rail trail!


This post has already been very long, but I just wanted to add some training thoughts about Pax in flyball. He is a never ending challenge for me. My most recent thought is that he is thinking too much on the way down to the box and in general. When we play chuck-it and he is chasing the ball he runs with reckless abandon...that's what I'm looking for. Here are my ideas to fix this problem:

1. head to head racing with the lanes close together against a fast dog and start him after so he has to catch up.
2. chase recalls where he is chasing a dog that is faster than him
3. set up flyball jumps outside and have someone release him as if he is going down to the box, but instead of having a box there, someone will be there with a chuck-it and as he starts down the jumps throw it. This way he will get used to running full speed down the jumps. Eventually we'd fade the movement...not sure exactly how that would work.
4. Power jumping with someone on both sides of the jumps sending him back and forth.

Three in Three out

We went to the NW U-FLI qualifer in Victoria this past weekend and had so much fun! Our friend Sue, from our new team in Massachusetts came out with her borderjack Stingray. We ran as a regular U-FLI team with Stingray, Pax, Indigo, Goose, Ezri and Havoc from Total Anarchy on Saturday. This is the fastest lineup we've ever put together and it was amazing how well the dogs did passing eachother. We ran many times in the high 15s, two 15.6's and even a 15.4 with a dropped ball. A 15.6 or faster is required for Division 1 at the championships. I was not expecting to run this time and was sort of hoping to be in Division 2, but I guess we are faster than I thought!

Poor Paxy wasn't in any of the record breaking lineups and didn't get any amazing times in singles. He did run a 3.79 and lots of 3.8s in start, but I know he could do a lot more. His striding still sucks. I've been spending a lot of time watching striding into the box and on the return. Pax takes two strides in and two out usually. He will take 3 out if he has a wide box turn. The nicest box turns come from dogs that take 3 strides in and 3 out. With only two strides in the dog is not set up well to have great control and power during the box turn.

Last weekend I decided to try putting gutters at 5 feet and 11 feet from the box during warmup. He is stutter stepping at first, but you can see him getting used to it after a few and it even had some effect during his runs!  HERE IS THE VIDEO. Right now his time from the line to the box is in the 1.6 range and from the box back to the line is in the 2.2 range. My goal is to get his "go out" time in the 1.5-1.6 range and his return around 2.0. The return includes the box, which is where he is losing a lot of time. You can see HERE when going head to head that Pax is ahead or even until the forth jump and then he gets behind on the box and up until the 5th jump and then he smokes Goose over the jumps on the way back. He should be beating Goose!

I'm going to try calling him earlier to help him set up for the way back. I still believe a lot of his problem is confidence. I have to find a balance between letting him get more miles of running flyball and allowing him to run with his striding the way it is! I'm going to continue full course snap offs and start box work with gutters to force 3 strides in and 3 out.

Indigo is an example of a dog that needed more confidence. She never ran faster than 3.9 for the first year of racing. She hit 3.8 after about a year and then shortly after that ran 3.7s. She ran her best time with a pass of 3.80 just this past weekend. She is now 5 years old. She takes 2 strides in and 3 out very consistently and probably would have been faster with 3 in. At this point in her career, it's impossible to fix her striding and it might be too late to fix Pax's, as it gets ingrained quickly.

For the next puppy I train, I'd like to teach striding from the beginning, so it's not a process of fixing it later, but training it and not moving on to the next step until it's right. I'll save the topic of teaching a puppy striding for my next post!