Stacy Peardot-Goudy Handling Workshop

Strum and I did a 1/2 day workshop last Friday.  Weird to be doing a seminar on a weekday.  The arena was up at Progressive School for Dogs, about a 50 minute drive in no traffic for me, and it was some kind of really nice artificial turf.  I've never done agility on that kind of flooring before and I liked it a lot.  Nice cushion and traction, no dust clogging up my lungs, wish we could trial on that all the time.  It was a nice facility and I know a lot of people who love taking lessons there but it's such a long drive.  It means over a 3 hour commitment for an agility lesson with a lot of people in the class and I'll only get a few turns plus all that gas and driving and pollution.  If only it was closer.

Anyway, I always have a few good revelations and things to work on after a Stacy seminar and this one was no exception.  Seems like I struggled more than I usually do, maybe because we haven't been able to practice much in the last 2 months because of the weather.  I can't remember the last time I had a lesson, probably in October.  It was an intermediate level handling seminar which may have contributed too.  It's hard to handle a fast dog on those open courses.  I did a lot of running and got a good workout in, that's for sure.  My IT bands were whining that night and Strummer was a little worn out which is nothing short of shocking.

I've recreated the course below as best I could from memory and the video.  It's not entirely correct obviously especially the distance between obstacle but it's close enough.  Also, that chute is drawn way too big.  It did not interfere with running from 13 to the cross between 15 and 16.  This is obvious on the video.

The hard parts for me were 8-10, 12-14 then getting that front cross in after 15 and getting the 16 jump.  Some people struggled with the #5 tunnel entrance, especially those who tried to handle it with the dog on their left.  I led out to between 4 and 5, picked him up on my right and it was no problem.

On the 8-10 sequence I stopped between 8 and 9 until he was committed to 9 then started moving again too soon before he checked in with me so he kept taking the #4 jump.  I got it eventually but it's something I'm going to set up and practice some more.  Lots of other people struggled in this area too and Strummer wasn't the only one tempted by that off course A-frame.

My initial thought for the 12-14 sequence was 2 front crosses and others tried handling it with a front then a rear.  Mostly the rears were miscued so there was a spin or some confusion and Stacy told us to handle the whole thing with the dog on the right like a serpentine.  I was one of the last teams to go so I handled it that way and never tried the crosses.  It was awkward at first but once I tried it a few times it started to feel o.k.  I never felt comfortable sending him ahead to the 14 jump though.  I had to get ahead while he was jumping #12 to cue that #13 jump and by the time he caught up to me I ran out of running room to indicate #14 and had to run too deep into that pocket.  I'm going to set that up as well and practice holding back and sending.  Going too deep made the front cross after 15 challenging.  After the cross I felt like I had to run to my right to avoid the wing of the #16 jump and this maybe pulled him off the jump.  Being able to send to 14 and run deeper into the cross would have been extremely helpful.  I got it after a few tries but Strum wouldn't read the cue.  Maybe he'd had enough at that point, he was also dropping bars and running past jumps.  Not a lot, but enough that it made me think he was losing his concentration.  In any case, something to set up and work on.

Here's some video.  It's heavily edited.  I removed most of the mistakes, not because I'm trying to make us look perfect but because I thought they would be annoying to watch.  I left a few in to show  how things can go wrong but only 1 rep of each mistake.  I'll be honest there were a lot more in real life.

Stacy Peardot-Goudy Intermediate Handling Workshop Jan. 2010 from colliebrains on Vimeo.

You can click on the link for the video if you want to watch it on a bigger screen.

I've got a big 4-day seminar coming up in 2 weeks with Mary Ellen Barry and Jennifer Crank.  I signed up mostly  to audit a bunch of stuff for free but I also signed up for a working spot learning APHS handling (Linda Mecklenburg's system) on one of the days.  The price was ridiculously inexpensive for club members so I thought I'd splurge for 1 day and it's so rare to get anybody knowledgeable teaching this system in my area.  Joy has been great so far but it will be interesting to learn from someone else as well.  Definitely looking forward to this one.

Stacy Peardot-Goudy Timing Workshop

I went up to Stacy's place today for a 1/2 day workshop on timing. This is a weak point for me so I'm always happy to get help from someone with a good eye when I can. I had a great time, I always love going up there. It's a beautiful facility as you can see from the video. The floor is so nice and springy, great for my gimpy knee, great for the dogs. I thought Strummer was struggling a bit with the footing, more so than Cody did last year but I think the small loss of traction is well worth the cushioning.

Strummer was such a good boy, I was so pleased with him. He was mostly quiet in his crate, a few bits of barking here and there but no hysterical out of his head screaming/lunging/etc. at the dog in the ring. He had a few lunges when I was trying to get him outside and a dog was running but only 2-3 and no screaming and I got him back quickly enough. He had no problems with any of the other dogs and the only time he ran off or broke focus was during one of the first runs where Stacy said loudly 'Oh what a good boy' just as he was running past her and he had to run over to flirt with her. He held all his stays and had great focus and enthusiasm.

Holy smokes people, it is hard to handle a dog like this, so little margin for error and at times my brain was a blur. It was like 13 degrees or something outside first thing in the morning and only minimal heating inside with a few space heaters so Strum was super speedy. I'm so glad I had someone tape me, just like the swimming I can't believe what a spaz I look like at times out there. Front crosses have never been a strong point for me so it was good to be able to practice so many. I did only one rear cross the whole workshop and that was only because I was out of position and behind with Strum blasting out of a straight tunnel and I was working purely on damage control. Stacy made a good point that if that happens the best thing to do is to stop and reward the dog and try again rather than try to salvage something gone wrong. It's a hard thing to remember in the heat of the moment but it makes good sense so I'll have to try to drill that into my brain.

I'm forever forgetting to use a quiet little 'Strum' to get his attention. It works great and once I finally remembered to do it I was able to keep him out of multiple tunnel traps. I use very few verbals when I run so it doesn't take much to get his attention.

I felt totally hopeless when we ran the first course the first time and by the end after we'd beaten it to death it felt so easy. Now if only Stacy could follow me around the course at trials and tell me what to do and I could have multiple do-overs I'd have no problem. I'm getting better at working it out myself but somehow it feels like I should know what I'm doing by now. I wished I could have stayed for the afternoon workshop but the one workshop was already a huge splurge. I suppose I have enough stuff running around in my head for one day anyway.

There were no course maps so it's hard to discuss the video but I thought I'd show off my baby dog anyway. It's a nice documentation of where we're at in our training right now.

Stacy Master Handling Workshop

(Click on map for larger version).

I took Lola on a trip up to Fort Collins for a Stacy Peardot master handling workshop last Saturday afternoon. It wasn't at her place but rather at a field in town so we were outdoors on grass, hot (80's), full sun, slight breeze. It wasn't miserable but it was hot enough to muddle my brain a wee bit and slow Lola down. There was a ditch to cool off in but the amount of shallow shore was small and Lola refuses to swim so she didn't have a whole lot of room to work with and had a long standoff with her tennis ball when it drifted just out of reach.

The actual course that we ran was changed a bit from the original course map so I had to redraw a portion of it for the map I've posted here (mostly #12-15) so it's not exactly as we ran it but you get the idea. We broke it down into 3 sections, running it ourselves then going back for analyses then running it again with the new ideas in mind. I was happy with myself for figuring out a few of the handling challenges myself but ended up making some not so great choices for the last part of the course (#13-#18). I started of running with Lo at #1 (no leadout), front crossed between #2 and #3, kept her on my right for #4 and #5 and front crossed the threadle between #5 & #6. This required some running but I made the cross in time no problem and had some nice tight turns. I kept her on my left up until #9, slowed before the jump to cue the wrap and had her wrap to her right, picking her up on my left then sent her to the poles. Kept her on my right through #14 (it was almost a little push out for some dogs to get in the #14 tunnel, some dogs took the other tunnel entry esp. if the handlers got too far behind). Picked her up on my left, wrapped #15, had her on my right for #15 -#17 and that's where I ran into trouble. My though was to keep her on my right and run with her to the weaves, flipping her in when we got there and also blocking the very inviting #3 tunnel. However I couldn't get Lo to turn into #17 and she ran past, headed for #8. Stacy pointed out this was also a bad plan (I wasn't the only one that had it) because in setting the line to the weaves you're in the dog's way if he's on your right and thus he has to enter the weaves at a shallower angle. Front cross so he's on your left and he has more room to get a better turn into the weaves. I kept her on my left through the weaves and turned her away from me for #19 then turned back toward #20, that part was not a problem for most if not all handlers.

Stacy had an interesting way to handle the opening that hadn't occured to me but worked really well (once we practiced a few tunnel sends). Start with dog on your left and front cross between #2 and #3 as I had done then send the dog to the tunnel and turn around running towards the #10 end of the weaves and pick up the dog on your right between #4 & #5 as she comes out of the tunnel. Then you have oodles of time to make the cross between #5 and #6. At first Lo wouldn't send to the tunnel even with me supporting the send with my arm out. Stacy pointed out that when she wouldn't go I gave up right away and told me to try holding my ground until she got it, something I always do at Gamblers don't know why I gave up so easily here. After 2-3 tries she got the idea. One handler led out and stood near the #10 end of the weaves and sent her dog to the tunnel from there from a stand still and Stacy pointed out that this was teaching the dog to ignore your motion. The idea was to run a bit of the way to the tunnel with the dog and support the send with motion, not turning the other way until the dog was committed. I had to go maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the way to the tunnel with Lola and I still had plenty of time to pick her up on her way out of the tunnel and make my cross. It was a lot faster than running the whole way down the weaves to the #18 end and picking her up there.

She suggested handling the rest of the course as I had up until #16. Initially she suggested a front cross between #16 and #17 but after seeing someone do a front cross on the landing side of #17 she suggested that that would be better. I had a bit of problem with this at first because again Lola wasn't getting the turn cue quickly enough since I was drifting too far downstream before turning for the cross. Trouble was I had to stay back behind #15 to cue the wrap to #16 so I was behind for getting in place on the landing side of #17. Stacy pointed out that I didn't need to give her all that much room to get over #17 and that I could start my cross much sooner, before getting all the way to the other jump stanchion. It felt funny because I had to turn my back to her and trust her to take that #17 jump but if I was early enough with the start of my cross she read it no problem.

Setting a line to the #18 poles wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I missed it the first time, partly because I was still thinking about how cool it was that she'd taken the jump and wasn't concentrating on where I was going but she got it after that. Some dogs sucked in to the tunnel if the handler didn't turn early enough to cue the weaves. Some handlers cued too early in an effort to avoid the tunnel or approached at too shallow an angle and missed the weave entry. The rest of the course was fairly straight forward.

A fun afternoon and Lola did really well in the hot relentless sun. She had a few moments of distraction/stress sniffing at the starts of her runs but I was able to get her back on task fairly quickly and while she was running she did a nice job of paying attention and keeping with the plan. I even got her excited enough to bark and sass at me a few times, silly girl. I feel much better about handling her now after our long lay off. My foot didn't interfere with my running so that helped of course. My foot still hurts but I can shift my weight to the outside and off the surgical site when I'm running. This is likely the cause of my knee problems but that's a whole 'nuther post and I won't whine about it right now.

Stacy Peardot Foundation Workshop

It's been years since I've had a lesson with Stacy Peardot mostly because she stopped holding lessons at my practice field and I couldn't see myself driving the 1 1/2 hours in rush hour traffic up to her lessons in Fort Collins after work and of course driving back and being coherent for work the next morning. Never mind how tired & fuzzy I would have been for the actual lesson. So I was pleased to be able to pick up a last minute spot in her foundation workshop this weekend (handling workshop was sold out by the time I heard about it, darn it). I'm not sure how much teaching she does in the area anymore so it seems a rare treat when she offers something, esp. on a weekend. I finally felt confident taking Strummer to something like this and thought it would be a great opportunity to work on his barking/lunging at other dogs working agility in a pretty low key atmosphere where dogs wouldn't be running too crazy and he'd have a good chance at being successful (he was, yay!). Also I'm always eager to see what other people are doing in the way of foundation training and was looking to pick up a few new things to work on. I feel like I know what I'm doing in some areas but have holes in others so I was hoping to fill in some gaps.

Her training center is located on a beautiful piece of land at the end of a private dead end dirt road in the hills a few miles north of Fort Collins. There were a few hairy, narrow turns on the dirt road going up to her place but coming back down was no problem somehow, maybe because I had an idea of what to expect or more likely because the big drop off was on the other side of the road so it wasn't as freaky. She's got a nice outdoor ring as well as an indoor training center with a carpeted surface. I was worried about this at first but it felt pretty spongy. I'm not sure what's beneath the carpet but I wouldn't have a problem working my dogs on it if the opportunity ever arose again (and I'm pretty picky about that kind of thing). Of course we weren't doing anything concussive for the foundation workshop so it didn't matter anyway but something for me to keep in mind if she ever offers another workshop.

The workshop was scheduled to last 3 hours but Stacy took an extra half hour or so to work with us. Overall it was really helpful. Stacy's an excellent teacher and she does a good job of spending an equal amount of time with all participants. She went into a lot of detail and answered everyone's questions but still managed to move things along at a good pace so we covered quite a bit of material. In fact I can't think of a single negative thing about it, it was a fun morning of training on a perfect Colorado spring day in a beautiful setting, what more could you ask for?

I have several pages of notes and not nearly enough time to type all of it up, at least not tonight. I've been busy w/ work and the return of normal weather means I've been spending most of my free time outdoors so I'm afraid the blog's been suffering a bit. I'll try to type up the most interesting bits for now.

Traffic Cone Game

The purpose of this game is to teach the dog tight turns and also to get him to work his spine. You start facing a traffic cone with your dog on your left and a bit in front of you near the cone. You have a toy (or food if he doesn't like toys) in your right hand. Take the dog's collar in your left hand to restrain him a bit then tease the dog with the toy in your right hand. Release the dog, lure him clockwise around the cone and quickly rotate 180 degrees, picking the dog up on your right like a front cross. The idea is to get the dog to turn as tightly and quickly around the cone as possible. Strummy really liked this game but it took me a little bit of practice and guidance from Stacy to get it just right. Eventually you can transition to a jump to practice tight wraps.

Position Training (heel/side)

This was simply teaching the dog to sit straight facing forward in heel & side position like in obedience and to put a hand cue to it. The purpose is to train the dog to come up to your side parallel to you on the course and to never cross in front or behind (unless you cue him to). To start out we were to lure the dog into a sit position at our side. This sounds so simple but I've been having a hard time teaching Strummy to sit straight next to me. We started this in obedience class toward the end of classes and we never quite got it. Part of the problem is that Strum is such a long backed dog and I have such short arms that it's hard for me to reach back to give him enough room to lure him into position. He's also uncomfortable with me standing next to him. Stacy's solution for this was for me to put him in a sit and then move myself into position next to him, say the verbal cue ('heel' or 'side') then give him his treat. The idea is that he'll eventually become more comfortable and learn the verbal cue so that he'll soon go into position himself when he hears the verbal. Funny thing is that this was my first instinct in obedience class but the teacher told me not to do it. So far it's working out pretty well, we'll see how things progress. Of course there was also the option of lining him up next to a wall.

The next step is to take a step forward and call/cue the dog to heel/side position. He should come up next to you right into position. Ultimately you should be able to cue the dog to come up parallel to your side while running a course.

I'm embarassed to say that this basic skill is a huge gap for me. I've never had anyone explain in detail how to train this (other than a baffling article in Clean Run some time ago) and never seen the point of it so it was especially helpful to see how to use it on a course.

Directional Training

Nobody was interested in learning left/right so Stacy spent most of the time teaching the 'turn away' cue. She does this by starting with the dog sitting in heel/side position then luring the dog to turn into a 360 circle away from the handler and finish up right next to the handler back in heel/side position. Because Strum is so long backed I was allowed to take a little step forward if I needed to to allow him enough space for his turn. You say the verbal cue (I use 'turn') as the dog is executing the turn away from you.

Next step is to add motion to it, turning toward your dog as he turns away from you and picking him up on the opposite hand like a rear cross. I'd actually already trained Strum to do this with the motion part already added but I think I'm going to try the circle thing too. Yes, I know this violates the Greg Derrett method of handling and I do like how Susan Garrett trains the rear cross but I trained Lola to have a 'turn away' cue and I've found it invaluable. It's about the only verbal directional cue she truly understands and I really really like it. I've never had a problem with her turning away from me when she's not supposed to and I'm not sure how you do Gamblers without having this kind of a cue. Since I don't have these other people in my area to explain their methods to me I'm staying with what I know works for me for now.

Eventually you add the jump in. You start by straddling the jump with the dog facing the jump. You send the dog over the jump and throw a toy away from you while saying 'turn' and the dog should turn away from you to get the toy on the other side of the jump. You can also put a toy on the ground to act as a lure.

Phew, that's all I have time for right now. Hopefully I'll have time for more later.