Gilgamesh had a qualifying run yesterday to finish his AKC Excellent JWW agility title. He took 1st place and ran 5.4 yards/second. Woot woot! We are so proud of him. He is now moved up to Master's JWW! ❤️
Last Call for Sign-ups: Friday Agility Workshop!
This is the last chance to sign up for the 2-hour Basic Verbal Directionals for Agility Workshop taking place this Friday at 7 PM at the Confident Canines Arena in Northwest Las Vegas. We will cover left, right, turn/wrap. Regardless of whether your dog runs with you, behind you or ahead of you, it will increase their confidence and your capabilities as a team when you provide your dog with as much information as possible about where to go on the course and what comes next. So if you don't have directionals trained yet, I highly encourage it!
Are you unsure how verbals are useful? See this video below from our agility trial this past weekend. Watch/Listen with the volume on.
Sign-ups are available at the link below. $65/team.
https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=21547046&appointmentType=category:Group%20Classes
Hope to see you there!
Eileen
Gilgamesh qualified and took 1st in Excellent Jumpers AKC agility 💕
Startline Stays in Agility.
Just because everyone else is doing it does not mean it is right for you or your dog. Don't be afraid to be different.
Every trial I attend I am asked why I don't use much of a startline stay with my dog. People assume that he must not be able to stay with any duration and/or distance since I don't do it. However, he can stay well, but there is NO BENEFIT for us as a team to use this at an agility startline. I have spent a significant amount of time training him to be directed from behind to where those skills are strong, and he prefers me to be behind him. He likes to run the course independently but being directed where to go with my body language and verbal cues while I am running far behind. When we put a dog into a stay there is usually a certain level of anticipation but also frustration about being released. This is even more so when what they are about to do is very stimulating (or in the case of some dogs, very stressful 😥...I am thinking of the dogs who pee on the course or at the startline). There is no benefit to me to be in front of him since it gives me no edge on being able to handle him through the course.. Putting him into a duration stay while I get distance would likely lead to him being over-aroused.
Managing arousal to be at an optimum level is a delicate balance. He is a bit more aroused than optimum in this video. It had been a long day, long weekend, and not enough sleep the night before. We have a game plan to hopefully improve that next time. When arousal is too high it will affect their performance negatively -- as well as their well-being. See how he turns to bark at me after the dogwalk and before the weave poles. The focus is not there as much as usual. He ran beautifully, but this is not where I want him to be and I don't think he does either. He is capable of so much more when we keep arousal in check. Thankfully, this is more unusual for us anymore. But we always have to look for ways to
1st place in Excellent JWW agility today! I thought our run was prettier yesterday, but today was the qualifying run. Yesterday was a difficult for me. Traveling is challenging with making good food choices. The things that sound healthy aren't necessarily healthy, and nutrition information is not always available. I thought I selected a good protein smoothie but it turned out to have massive amounts of added sugar. As a result, my blood sugar was very brittle, bouncing sharply up and down all morning and afternoon, leaving me nauseous, pukey, and with a headache. He did amazingly in spite of all that. Our Open Standard run yesterday had a couple errors, so I tried to get him through the course and keep it fun without stopping to re-do too much (which demotivates him). Keeping frustration low is key. The judge was a very kind man and talked with us this morning. He said that if I had corrected one thing that we would have qualified. Oh well. Gilgamesh had a lot of fun! He has had an absolute blast. There will be more opportunities. We are on a journey making progress together as a team ☺️
Gilgamesh had a beautiful Excellent Jumpers run this morning. I messed up the cueing at the tunnel, so it was not a qualifying run for us, but I am thrilled with this beautiful run. He did everything I asked him to do, and with incredible speed and drive! ❤️. Later in the afternoon, we qualified and took 1st place in Open Standard! Yay!!
Gilgamesh finished his AKC Open Jumpers title!!! We will move into Excellent JWW class tomorrow. We are four trials into trialing at full height. We didn't have any luck in Open Standard today. He made so many new doggie and human friends at the trial, including another Kooiker. The day had started by him getting attacked by a large off-leash dog at our hotel who was 25-30 feet from the owner. The day could have turned out very differently, and I was afraid he would be fearful seeing dogs at the trial. But he has built a lot of resiliency. Just a reminder -- please keep your dogs on leash in public settings!o!!!
I just finished presenting a two-day workshop on Rattlesnake & Environmental Hazard Avoidance through positive reinforcement at BadDogs Inc --- what an incredible group of dogs and humans! All the dogs were able to detect multiple species of venomous snakes in varied terrain (easily visible, elevated, hidden/buried) and offering some stellar independent avoidance behaviors (cued by the presence of the snake/scent, not cued by the human). Everyone learned to read their dogs' subtle body language and communicate with them more effectively, and better understand what drives their dogs' behaviors. Great job to everyone! Keep practicing!!
This is a short clip from the morning on Day 2. Thanks to everyone who attended and thanks to Barbara Davis and BadDogs for hosting me!
The REAL peek at the Gilly Halter. An unfinished video was uploaded accidentally initially.
Beowulf did a Rattlesnake Avoidance training refresher today. He is NOT being cued by me...the scent of the snake is his cue to offer avoidance behaviors. It had been a few months since we did this. He had fun and did well!
Here is a follow-on video to the one I made about independent jumps for an out-of-state behavior client without access to local agility classes. Here I am teaching the tunnel. Almost any dog can enjoy and benefit from agility training. You don't have to compete to enjoy agility and the confidence and cooperative relationship that it can yield!
Eileen Koval, CDBC, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA brings unmatched expertise to difficult animal behavior issues.
