Monthly Archives: January 2010

4/52

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52 Weeks for Dogs: Week Four
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The theme at Ruffdogs52Weeks this week was A Colour.

This is not the picture I anticipated. It’s so overexposed, so lopsided, Mol is too far away — I’m not even sure I like it all that much. But it is the Mol. Mol is overexposed, lopsided, and frequently too far away (usually in pursuit of her One True Love, the holy tennis ball, and her flight is heralded by panicked screams of people she is escaping … or in some cases, running towards).

Most importantly, Mollie is Purple. Mollie lives flyball, and when she flyballs, she wears purple.

Badly Behaved

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There’s been loads of talk recently on almost every forum and blog I visit about dominance theory, behaviourists, clicker training. I think most of it has kicked off from the Cesar Milan tour in the UK, which has brought him into the sights of people who don’t normally talk about him. I don’t much want to talk about Cesar Milan either. He doesn’t do anything for me, but I don’t watch his shows and I try to avoid the online clips. But reading all these threads and posts has got me thinking, and in some cases left me a little uncomfortable. Maybe I’m just reading it wrong, maybe I don’t understand. (That’s perfectly plausible!)

I’ve read some really passionate arguments demolishing dominance theory recently. I don’t buy dominance theory, so that’s great! A lot of it focusses on clicker training, and again, great! However — and maybe this is just the way they’re choosing to present examples – most of the clicker training, (or even just the non-dominance training), outlined by people seems to suggest that it should be approached as a clinical exercise, between trainer and dog, even when free-shaping.

That’s what makes me kind of uncomfortable. The detached way people assess their dogs, look at training as a kind of curious, scientific interaction between human and dog. Or that you should approach it as a meeting between strangers. And the one that really bothers me; if isn’t done right, you will ruin your dog forever. If you make a mistake, or punish your dog with a verbal correction, it will ultimately be the cause of your dog’s spiral into depression and perhaps death. (Ok, perhaps I exaggerate. But that’s what I was beginning to feel like!)

Allow me to establish that I don’t think my dogs are people; I know that they’re dogs, a completely different species who don’t work like we do. I can see that they do manipulate us for their own selfish needs and wants, and I don’t think my dogs feel the same way I do about … anything!

But. The but! I don’t want to own dogs as a training exercise. I stopped reading all those long threads and passionate arguments. I made a conscious decision that I don’t want to know. I like making mistakes, I like figuring it out. I don’t think my dogs suffer for it. I do think that sometimes my dogs are naughty, and it’s not because I’m a bad trainer, it’s just because they’re feeling playful and silly and don’t want to concentrate. I think sometimes they are over-exuberant or over-cautious because they’re feeling that way out, or perhaps because it’s in their personalities to approach things in such a way. Sometimes, when I’m clicker training, I’ll make a negative verbal “ah!” sound, which doesn’t appear to have turned any of my dogs into neurotic, stressed or anxious dogs (I swear Dyl was like that when we got him!)

So if I don’t comment on your blog post, or reply to your thread on whichever forum, please don’t worry. I know I usually write long, argumentative, opinion-based rants, but I am actually healthy and happy, because I’m giving this one a miss.

Getting a Kick

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There is nothing more exciting than planning and plotting and worrying, formulating a strict plan and 15minutes after finally taking the plunge and putting into action, seeing results.

Well, maybe it wasn’t quite so dramatic as that. I have been encouraging Dylan to stretch and extend into his jumping for months, but it does seem a little bit co-incidental that after 4 runs through a grid pattern he suddenly remember how to actually use his legs. It really was as dramatic as that.

First grid went well, although it didn’t go to plan. I had a grid on a 3-4-4-5-6 basis, and Dyl shortened fine for the first 3, and then bailed on the second two. First time I’ve ever seen Dylan bail on a jump of his own accord, and it made me very happy. It told me two things; one, Dyl did not know how to extend into the second two jumps, and two, he is confident enough to bail rather than smashing onwards in an effort to please.

He’d sorted it out the next three times, really working it nicely with a bounce action until the last one, where he threw in a small single stride between. (Though I do have to say that Kim also did this exercise, and she bounced every single section comfortably). I don’t think I had the final spacing quite right for Dyl, but I’ll adjust for that next time.

We then did some straightforward flick-flack sequences, and wheee, lovely extension! Dyl was twisting and working his lanky little self all over those jumps. He was better with more room from me, and oddly (?) with less movement from me. Flicking him away from me over obstacles seemed to produce his best jumping, although anything where I was practically motionless seemed to encourage better jumping. Which suggests the the problem is me! Options then …

  • Dylan is paying too much attention to me (anticipating cues?) so the jumps are coming up too quickly for him to sort himself out – he can’t do two things at once.
  • Dyl is trying to focus on the jumps but is getting distracted by me running. (Opposite of the above, but same results)
  • I am confusing Dylan somehow – am I not being clear and consistent enough with my cues?

The only really obvious issue was one of the last sequences we did, which was a very widely spaced three jump right-angle pinwheel style thing. Dyl stuttered into the first jump, was tight into the second and then only really relaxed into the third. So much for my theory of corners being better! Whilst I wasn’t moving a whole lot on this section, I had to keep moving to be able to handle the turn to the weaves 2 jumps later. So theory above still holds up, sadly.

I got such a kick every time I saw his back pads flicking over those jumps. I hope we can continue to make progress on this, and get it fluent and consistent every time around. I’m almost looking forward to doing some more work on this!