Tag Archives: agility training

Run & Training

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Run
I have discovered a slight flaw in my well-considered fitness and conditioning plan, in that Kim is too smart for her own good. She now refuses to run for the first toy now, and will only run for the second, meaning Mollie is doing twice as much work. I probably should have seen that one coming, to be fair! Dylan has tried this a couple of times as well, but Dyl is easier to outwit, usually by pretending to have three toys, one toy, throwing it in different directions, etc, whereas Kim doesn’t fall for those kind of mean tricks. Mollie is clueless and still runs after every toy every time.

Kim hasn’t been agility training for 5-6 weeks, partially because we’ve redistributed people at agility training and now there isn’t as much time for me to run 2-3 dogs in the session. As I just have Dyl there at the moment (I haven’t trained with Jet for months now, but that’s the disadvantage of borrowing a dog!) I can concentrate solely on him, but because we only get limited chances to use the equipment, I have to be more focussed with what we do. Less impulsiveness on my part, more planned training.

Because we have more dogs in the session now, it’s also given me a chance to work on keeping Dylan relaxed whilst the other dogs work. Lots learnt in the past few weeks about stress and adrenalin levels, and I’ve tried to spend more time observing what the dogs are actually doing and then acting to encourage them to be calmer. I can’t eliminate stress completely but I do want the dogs to respond in a way that tells me they’re in control of the situation and handling the stress in a positive way. I’ve adjusted the way I handle a couple of things with Dylan and so far so good. It’s been quieter anyway!

Run

I’m just torn at the moment on Dylan’s waits in the ring at Hare’n’Hounds this weekend; at training, I have a strict break-and-you’re-out policy, where we walk (cheerfully) away from the equipment if he breaks his wait. He has 98% solid waits at training, but no wait at all at competitions. I know that I need to follow through with this at shows, and consistently, and I also know that as I want to stay in n G5 for a while yet it makes perfect sense to do this now (at this show especially because I have Kim and Jet so I still get a chance to run some courses). I know that Dylan only does this because of my poor training. But it’s still very hard to do it, because I just tend to counter it with the “well I manage with Kim” argument in my head. Which is a stupid argument! I’ll see if I can be brave enough to walk away this weekend.

Training with a Plan

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I actually had a plan for training this week. I know that every trainer I admire advocates having a training plan in advance, and that going and messing around on the equipment doesn’t actually achieve anything. I know this, and yet a lot of the time, I like just messing about running silly courses. (I suspect this is one of the many reasons Dylan and I aren’t running in Championship classes).

I will admit that my plan was not terribly complex. It was called “AFRAME CONTACTS”, and had no further details.

Still, we worked our Aframe contacts! I even took the clicker, partially because Dylan is my demo dog for the new handlers next week when I talk about contact training, and I had a massive panic attack thinking that maybe everything had fallen out of Dylan’s head and he wouldn’t remember clicker contacts, since we haven’t done it in a while. I still can’t promise that won’t happen (it keeps me up at night, I swear), but he was excellent this week. He really does have a beautiful stop position, I’m very proud of him.

So, we worked on reinforcing contact position, and then proofing contact position. Dylan does have a tendency to release himself if I keep running waaay past him, but this is really a little niggley thing since I don’t think I’ve ever run a course which required me to run 50ft beyond the Aframe whilst Dylan stayed in position.

We then worked on release to obstacles, because we’ve had some tough releases recently where the next obstacle is not the most obvious one. This is obviously more about me than about Dylan; Dyl always looks for the next obstacle whilst in position – which is adorable, he goes all collie stare on things – but I’m not always as clear as I should be with my cues. I know I should be letting him know almost pre-Aframe where the line is going to go, but I have a habit of relying on his stop and then redirecting him from there, which is inefficient. I should know this from running Kim, where I don’t get that handler advantage on the contacts, and it does save us time. Because she will run at an angle to come off the side of the Aframe (providing I give her the correct information!), she’s taking the quickest line. I should really be giving Dyl the same information, but the stop makes me lazy.

My plan for next week will depend on what happens at Hare’n'Hounds this weekend, assuming we can get there through the snowdrifts!

Why We Compete

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… if you train but never compete, it’s easy to convince yourself that what you’re doing is hard, or hard enough. It’s easy to ease up in training; easy to say “that’s good enough”.1

I’m still not quite sure why I was reading The Fellrunner this afternoon. I’m almost certain it had something to do with not having a computer and having read everything else in the house, because I’m not a runner and I’m certainly not a fell runner. But I happened to read the above comment in an article, and immediately fell in love with it. Of course the author was referring to running, but for me it is equally applicable to agility.

I don’t train with a club or experienced trainer. I think most people who read this blog know that. I am extremely fortunate to train with a group of friends, who push me and discuss with me and, inevitably, stand and spend far too much training time chatting and eating buns. It’s a brilliant group and I love it! But it requires me to put the pressure on myself to do well, because I don’t have anyone to do that for me. I don’t have a trainer standing there each week telling me I’m not working hard enough, that I’m not getting the best out of my dog.

And I think that’s what it comes down to, because I always want to let my dogs reach their potential. If I don’t, I feel like I’ve let them down. I know I have these amazing, athletic, honest dogs, who love agility. How can I justify letting them drift around a course once a week and think they’ve done as much as they want to do, or can do? I can’t. And so I try to train them to the best of my ability, (which isn’t always to the best of theirs), and we work hard to have fast weaves, fast and reliable contacts, beautiful jumping and tight turns.

So we come back around to the quote. How do I know if I’m doing the best I can for them? How do I know I’m not just saying it’s good, when really it’s just good enough? Because we go and we come 2nd or 8th or 19th, and I know we we could have been tighter on that turn, or faster on that Aframe, or smoother on that line. I know my dogs can do that, because they’re awesome! So I get pushed to do better, to train better, and not let myself get complacent in either my training abilities or the training we do.

I’m not sure I’ve done anything with this post but write down a stream of very tangled consciousness, but I still love the quote, and maybe I’ve at least revealed I’m secretly a much more boring/interesting (delete as appropriate) person than you thought I was because I read fell running magazines. Very occasionally.

1. Mountain Running in the USA: A Singular Experience “Mr P”, The Fellrunner (Autumn 2010)

Mid Week Philosophies

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Feels like it’s been a slow week. Training went well on Tuesday, and I continued to try and make a bigger point of properly rewarding Dylan. This is such a basic thing, but because Dylan is always happy to continue after a quick toy-throw or verbal positive reinforcement, I get lazy.

Kim would not let me get away with that kind of lazy attitude. Kim is a very firm teacher, she will never let me get away with slacking in training. Dylan is a much more honest dog, and in that special Border Collie way, he continues to try long after Kim would have given up in disgust. Kim taught me to get my ass in gear, and then Dylan taught me that I shouldn’t be relying on my dog to tell me that.

Kim Watching

I also ran Jet this week, and we have so much to work on! Jet is very well trained, and I am an ok handler, but together we are not quite working as a team yet. Not only that, but her strengths and weaknesses are almost the complete opposite to Dyl. Jet is brilliant athlete, she is a beautiful confident jumper and can wrap wings so tightly when required. But her contacts aren’t as sticky as Dylan, she has a tendency to see what she can get away with and occasionally be a bit creepy, so I need to watch that. I also need to make sure she doesn’t lock on to a line, since it’s almost impossible to re-route her once she thinks she knows where she is going!

Either way, both dogs were wrapping some excellent 90 degree weave entries and exits. We definitely need to work on the contacts a little more though, as usual!

Full Circle

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After last week’s bad training session, we had a great time this week. We had a fun set up for courses that involved a tight boxwork section, which then opened out into a huge loop of weaves-tunnel-jump-long jump. Made for lots of running! Both Dylan and I really enjoyed it, and we got a lot out of it; there were some unexpected challenges on the courses we ran, where the handlers assumed certain sections would be difficult and they turned out to be easy, or vice-versa.

One of the toughest challenges was something the handlers all thought was fairly straightforward, a diagonal across a corner of the box. The dogs were approaching with a long run up from an angle, and we all assumed the dogs would carry on the line to take the diagonal. None of them did! They all straightened themselves up and carried on across the box, taking the jump opposite.

Sadly my ‘adopted dog’ Jetsy wasn’t feeling too good so I didn’t get to practise with her for our runs at Hare’n'Hounds in two weeks. Katie is busy at university and she’s decided that she’s not relaxed enough at shows to run Jet to their full partnership potential. I know this has been a tough decision for her, so I’m incredibly grateful to Katie for letting me borrow Jet over the winter season. Of course, I’m not sure I can do Jet justice, but we’re going to try and bring some rosettes home anyway. It also means I get two dogs to run, which I always love doing!