Learned in Class: Part 1

[k9kreationz]

I know many of you have told me Koji reads me really well. Well, I thought I'd tell you a story of just how well he reads me.

Long story short, we were doing a DW and I had a target plate on the ground. So, I told my trainer, "I released him w/o moving". She said, "is that what you think?". Uh-oh, that means I moved. She said, "put him back on". I did. Then she told me to release him. I did. She said, "you move your shoulder a bit when you released. Your lower body isn't moving, but your shoulder is moving about 2 inches."

So.........she suggested when I go home, to work on putting Koji in a sit-stay and standing 10 feet away, my back to him and to release w/o moving (have someone watch me). So then she tells me to do it right now. I release w/o moving. Nothing. I say it louder and more emphatically. Nada. One more time. Nothing. She said, "now do it but flinch your shoulder area, move it less than an inch". Ugh. I did. I barely moved my shoulder BARELY. and Koji came running to me.

{smack}

Yup. Koji read my flinch oh so well. All I can think of is just how bad a handler I am and how much work I need. I'm not conscious (or is that conscientious?) of my body movement when I run. I can only focus on one thing at a time. Ugh, I am learning a TON of things and how to handle Koji and how to push us both, but wow! A flinch moved him.

Another thing my trainer highly suggested was................
Remember with his DW, I was trying to find a new command for his 2o2o? One word I didnt' want to use was "touch" because I use that for my hand and don't want him to look at my hands. I told my trainer this too. After watching us do the DW, she suggested I use "touch" for the target plate....BECAUSE I could teach Koji "here" for a hand touch. AND she told me that it'll be better, that way, when you need to pull him to you, you can say "here" and he'll think hand touch and it'll be a good recall word because he'll come into you close.

Wow! I never thought of renaming the hand touch. D'oh! She did it a few times with him, between here and touch and hand and target plate and he got it. Without a clicker. She said, 5 minutes a day, one week, with a clicker, he'll have it down pat.

I am absolutely loving this class. Is this what agility class is supposed to be like? Wow! Just WOW!!!

I just thought of something. For the release w/o moving.....I learned Derrett - I move, you move. I stop, you stop. Is releasing w/o moving counter-intuitive to the system? I'm not trying to stay within the system, but wondering if he doesn't do that because I was taught not to do that. Thoughts?

 

[Silaria]

Cheryl, stop saying you are a bad handler because you aren't. A bad handler would ignore that they need help to improve their performance rather than find the help they needed.

You are not a bad handler because you learned what your old instructors were teaching you. The behaviors you and Koji have are a result of that training. Considering you had ZERO experience when you started, you've done very well to date even with Koji's problems.

Now it sounds like you have a much better, more experienced trainer who is trying to hep you fix the holes in your training. Those holes aren't there because of YOU! They are there because your old trainer didn't recognize them as a problem or wasn't able to communicate clearly ways to resolve the problem.

So, you may have taken a few steps backward to "fix" problems introduced by your early training - it happens. I see it regularly at my club when people come from other trainers.

I wouldn't worry too much about whether not something contradicts the Derrett system; honestly, that isn't important right now. Focus on the behaviors you are trying to improve. Once you improve them, you can figure out how it meshes with Derrett's system.

 

[k9kreationz]

I know Sheri, I know. I just feel like a horrible handler. I see more and more why Koji is a velcro dog. Who was it that said to me that velcro needs two sides to stick? So true. I realized how much I've been babying him. We've gotten this far because I baby him and make sure he gets those weaves because I set him up correctly. Versus how my trainer said to me, "you should be able to walk with a platter of food and Koji should take the weaves". As I stood there saying, "you're joking right?" LOL. No, she wasn't. Makes me seriously think that I need a LOT of help.

But you're right. She's just picking at all my holes. The ones I never thought about. Being in this class is like learning a whole new way how to do something. And I agree, if my ex-trainer actually knew more (and I don't blame her for her ignorance, it's not like I intended on going for a MACH) about agility and handling, I think she would've fixed a LOT of my issues long ago. But maybe she didn't know how. Or she thought this was fine. I guess I'm just in shock of the simple things I'm learning. I mean, they're not major handling things, but those small things are huge for us.

I wouldn't worry too much about whether not something contradicts the Derrett system; honestly, that isn't important right now. Focus on the behaviors you are trying to improve. Once you improve them, you can figure out how it meshes with Derrett's system.

ITA. I guess I'm just wondering how hard it'll be to break Koji of those habits. I mean, I'd say they're pretty ingrained. And now that he's so movement focused, yikes.

Thanks for the support. I know I'm not a bad handler, per se. I just feel like I'm going so far backwards. However, I know it's good, because like someone said (Sharon? Ashley?) Open level shows me all the holes in my handling. Excellent is fun, but yeah, I need Koji to focus more on me and that's back to the beginnings of training.

Sharon: looks like I'm going back to "foundations" anyways. LOL. Ah, but that's good. I know I need it. In 2 weeks, I'll be learning more from Daisy Peel regarding contacts, so yay. Actual training on how to train the DW contacts. I sooo need that. I think I learn best when someone shows me what to do while I'm standing there.

 

[Justicemom]

Shelties are so good at picking up the subtle things we do with our eyes , our bodies, our breathing and our voices. It is what makes them really good at preformance sports but also a bit of a challenage because they learn so fast good ,bad or otherwise. I think I have mentioned but Ember and Justice can do utility signals with just my eye movement(look at judge, then dog , down, judge ,dog ,sit, judge ,dog, come, judge dog, finish). Seriously I can not look at Ember until I want her to down or she'll will do it. Ember will also come on recall if I take a deep breathe. Apparently I take a deeper breathe before I talk.

Some of them like elephants never forget once they learn something heaven forbid they learn it wrong! There has been alot of times with Justice for whatever reason he thinks something he is doing is right and I have had a heck of a time getting him out of the habit. Right out Diva bleives a front means to line up on my right leg. Sometimes she'll do it right , but sometimes she falls back into the old habits. The key is just keep working and try to build those new habits.

I am on my 3rd agility dog and still learning all kinds of new things. Different trainer ,new ideas. I love learning and if we all knew it all from the beginning what fun would that be. I say enjoy the journey and put it in the bank for your next dog. Believe me even with your next dog or 5th or 30th dog there will still be things you will need to go back and fix and work on. That is part on the fun.

 

[corbinam]

I'd love to say "don't beat yourself up" but it's a bit hypocritical because I just went through this after our last agility lesson.

Of course, Sheri is right because your desire to get better and fix things shows your abilities as a handler far more than the mistakes that you made given the resources that you had.

 

[Hurtseverywhere]

I agree with everyone else, its amazing sometime's how well our dogs key into us. It's not your fault as a handler,if once you have identified the problem you do your best to correct it. Heck I blew a std Qual run for a ADC title for us a few weeks ago by doing almost the same exact thing, I had Cosmo down
on the table and at a four count I made a quick forward motion & he popped up
( he rarely does this even if I walk away from the table till I release him & I had to set him for another 5 count), but in my excitement to get the title Q I made a quick Jerky turning motion that I wouldn't normally do and it made him lift

Purely and 100 % my fault we missed the Q for the title by .7 SEC, talk about beating yourself up I was smacking myself silly for 3 days. But at the next trial you know I was frozen solid till the GO count when he was on the table. we all do things that mess up , sometimes its the dog , sometimes its us as handlers, thats why it is a team sport and both members have to do thier respective jobs right on any given day to achive the desired results.
Now you know what the issue is , all you can do is work at fixing it and you are doing your job as part of the team.

Sounds like your class Is Very worthwhile and you are learning a crapload of stuff about both you & Koji and how you work as a team sounds like a great class.