For the trainer

I recently started watching the Julie Flanery's 'TAP Dancing' DVD seminar. I'm only halfway through the first disc but I already have learned some good tidbits. 

'Clean Training' is something I struggle with, but becoming a clean trainer is one of my biggest goals. I was not taught to train clean, and judging from what I see on YouTube and in person, not many trainers are. It has made training alone much harder than it already is.  

Note: I don't have a following on this blog, I don't write for others, I am not wanting to be noticed. I will never post controversial stuff or EVER engage in training wars. I refuse to. I fully expect few, if any, people will ever read my little corner of the 'net. And that's fine with me. I am mostly using this as a place to store my thoughts on training, share pictures of my dog with her breeder, post brags, and have a place I can come back to from time to time and review how my dogs and I have progressed. I've tried training journals and it just doesn't work. A blog is easier to throw thoughts up on, post a video or two and some pictures on. 

Now that that's been said, here are few thoughts I jotted down during the time I watched last night.

Some of the qualities of a good trainer:

• Patience
• Clear Communication
• Consistent
• Predictable 

 We trainers also need to understand:

• Clickers/Markers (doesn't matter what you use, they all work the same)
• Reinforcers/Rewards
• Lures - anything (toy or food) the dog will follow that is also a reward
• Prompt - anything that the dog will move to to get the reward (ie targets)
• Guides - gating, barriers, platforms, expens, etc

Remember: Any method or combination of methods can be used to create precision. Not everything works for every dog. Use what works for yourself and the dog. 

^This is something that I think isn't said nearly enough by the majority in the clicker training world. 

Lures don't train behavior. They show criteria.

Reinforce. Don't hand out free food! (something I really struggle with, as I mostly only personally know less than stellar 'treat dispenser' trainers in person. The the better trainers I know live too far away to get hands on training with.)

Avoid becoming lure dependent. Get the food out of your hand ASAP. 

When adding cues:

•  If luring, verbal cue predicts physical cue (hand signal, etc), then behavior, then mark and reward.
• if shaping - verbal cue predicts behavior and then mark and reward. 

Add a cue when you can predict the behavior is going to happen. (Another weakness, I tend to rush into putting a cue on the behavior)

Foundation skills need to be maintained to a high degree throughout the dog's lifetime. (something else no one ever told me.)

Training sessions are for gathering information

• what works
• what doesn't
• where is my dog lacking
• what's my criteria
• what do I need to do in the next training session

 
 

Update

I have been so busy the past year that, much to my dismay, serious training has fell by the wayside. It wasn't by choice, but sometimes life throws you too much to handle at once, and something had to give.

But, we are now getting back into the game. And boy is there so much left to learn.

I have realized that as much as I want to train for and reach my competition goals, I first need to put the time into laying a solid foundation. A dog with a truly solid foundation becomes a dog that is an outstanding competition to live with, and performance dog that can handle everything in stride.  I have realized I haven't put near the foundation on my dogs as I should have. Part of that was due to lack of knowledge, and part of it was I was just in a rush to get to the 'fun stuff.' Lesson learned. This journey sure does keep us humble.

And now for an update. It's been a relatively quite past few months but we were able to try out a couple of new activities.
 

We attended our first UKC show back in March, and Darcie was Best of Breed over competition in smooths, and then went on to win a Group 1 and a Group 4. It was quite an exciting day! She is fast closing in on her UKC Championship. She also ran a couple of practice runs in Lure Coursing and seems to be a natural at it. 

We were also able to go to a Herding lesson earlier this year. Tess and Darcie did EXTREMELY well. Their handler, not so much. Herding is something we all enjoyed and I hope we'll be able to fit in some steady lessons in the near future. 

19 months old

 

 My silly girl is growing up!

 

 

Showing off her paw targeting skill

The Summer Slump

It has finally happened here in Texas, the high pressure, high heat cap has settled over us. We have quite a few days of 100+ heat both behind us and ahead of us. The low at night is in the 80s. And some days the humidity is almost unbearable.

This is always the hardest part of Summer. Even with good AC,  the house is never quite cool enough to your liking, the pool is warm, you sweat at the idea of stepping outside and when you do step outside you are drenched in a short time. You guzzle water and try to conserve energy. The dogs sleep, sit in their wading pool and dig craters in their yard when they go outside. Being dogs in general, and collies specifically, they really do seem to take it better than us humans (who are forever complaining and wishing we had it better!) do.

The flower baskets on the front porch have just about succumbed to the heat, but the little garden plot is stubbornly hanging on and is still giving us tomatoes and peppers.

These are the dog days of Summer, the final countdown month until Fall. We are just concentrating on staying cool and surviving right now. 

Training with the collies has slowed way, way down. Even at night, inside, we only do short sessions. Everyone just feels tired.

But sometimes I see the light slant just right in the late afternoon and realize that it won't be long before Fall, we just have to hang tight. As we have done year after year.

In an effort to do something new for August, I signed up to audit a course from Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. I applied for a scholarship (only for the Bronze level) since money is extremely tight and was one of the winners for this cycle of classes. Big surprise! We are auditing the Obedience Skillbuilding 1 Class. Refresher for us? Probably in a lot of ways but we either weren't ready or interested for the other classes, and I have a couple of dogs here who know nothing about scenting or pot pivots and it will get us up and moving this month.

The Class will be covering:

• Handler skills - the better we are at marking, reward placement, etc, the smoother training will go. 
• Looking at how laying a solid foundation helps in a variety of different dog sports. 
• Nose Targeting
• Paw Targeting
• Chin Targeting - something I've never done before
• Pivot Platform - haven't been doing this near as much as I should
• Positions - Tuck Sit/Fold Back Down/Kick Back Stand
• Wrapping - this concept is new to me
• Take It/Hold
• Jumping - Oh dear, this means digging my old set of jumps out of storage - or an excuse to make new ones!
•  Scent Discrimination - finally I can put all of these mint tins to good use!

I have three dogs at varying stages of training and all could benefit by something being taught in this course. I've already rounded up the items needed for the class and they are now happily sitting out where I can see them. No excuses now.

I found a picture of the dog that started it all, my Novice A dog who got me hooked onto obedience and just doing thing with my dogs. Thanks for everything, D!

My Novice A Dog: CH Dickon CD RA CGC

Wordless Wednesday

Summer Update

Since yet again I have slacked on updating, here's the latest news. 

In early May, Darcie picked up her 11th point in her final outing from the 12-18 class. She dumped coat immediately after that and is spending her days sitting in her wading pool and enjoying life in the way that only Darcie can.  

I heard about an ASCA Rally/Obedience Trial coming to the area on Memorial Day weekend. After reading through the rules and signs I decided it would be fun to take Tess out for her RN. And if she enjoyed getting out again, maybe we would start full time training and work towards higher titles. 

Getting back into the training routine wasn't easy. The heat is so bad here that we were having to get out the door at 6:30 AM to get out on the road and find places to train. But we had a blast. 

We spent most of Memorial Day weekend at the trial. Visiting with dear old friends and making new ones. Darcie came along for the ride and had a blast. Even during two very loud thunderstorms in a metal building she maintained her good attitude and played and tugged like the weather was perfect outside. 

Our hard work certainly payed off. :)

 

Tess picked up her first leg with a 186/4th in the class. The left pivot really got her the first leg, but she tried hard and that's all that matters. 

She got her second leg with a 197/2nd in the class. Nailed her pivot!

On June 25th a local club held an evening trial. That was a new thing to us so I entered and Tess, a friend and I hopped in the car and set out to see if we could title.

And she did. 192/2nd place. She is now: Tex-Sun Testify To Love BN RN CGC ASCA RN 

 She says she is just the coolest dog ever. And she'll be back out working on higher Rally titles and her CD in the near future. 

Two days later, I lost my beloved Charm. It's heartbreaking to lose a dog that has been a part of your life for 12 years, but I have two of her daughters and a grandson, and every day I see a part of her in them. Life with dogs is not easy. Allowing yourself to love/become attached to anything always carries risk. There will be loss, and gain, happy times and sad times. But it's a good life, a very good life.

In Memory of Charm

“I wonder if it is heretical to believe that when at last my tired
feet shall tread the Other Shore, a madly welcoming swirl of exultant
collies—the splendid Sunnybank dogs that have been my chums here—will
bound forward, circling and barking around me, to lead me Home!” - Albert Payson Terhune