MASSIVELY LONG CONFESSIONS OF A DOG TRAINER FOLLOW.
This week while doing a lot of reading and working and thinking, I had a light bulb moment. I'm not even sure how I stumbled across it, if I just happened to Google the right thing and hit on the answer, or what.
I don't think Payton's problems are training issues in the way I've been thinking. That is, it's not that he doesn't know how to weave or do his contacts. It's that during a trial (or even a fun run) he is often so very high he is physically incapable of responding to cues he knows.
Last Sunday I ran Payton in standard and at one point I looked down at him and I even bloody thought it to myself - "He is TOO wound up." I knew it and it might have been in our best interests to have immediately left the course, but for whatever reason, we continued on. He blew all his contacts, I'm not even sure if he was on the teeter long enough for it to start moving, he COULD NOT with the table, and what really drove it home is this. The last three jumps were tire, bar jump, and the triple. He went around the tire. I can't remember if he even took the bar jump. I made the mistake of taking my eyes of my dog and as we approached the triple I said, rather firmly, "GO." It wasn't until after I said it that I realized Payton was not in the approach of the triple. He was actually right down at my side. But because I said "GO" and Payton is a good boy, he tried to take the triple jump. From the side. I'm not certain if he even saw the wing as an actual physical thing in his way, or if "derp, that's a wing" ever even crossed his mind. All I know is that suddenly Payton plowed INTO the triple jump from the side, crashing the wings and all three bars AND the eyes in a rather spectacular fashion.
Tuesday I took him to the chiropractor because even though he wasn't showing me any signs of soreness at the trial, after we got home, or even on Monday or Tuesday, I know my dogs and I knew better, and sure enough, he was all kinds of a mess and took a while of working to get him straightened out.
That cannot happen. It's my fault for not having recognized he was too far gone, or not responding to it the way I should have at least, my fault for taking my eyes off my dog. But in a normal situation, Payton does not do stuff like that. I haven't been able to convince him to do a foot stall or a dog catch because he doesn't trust me not to drop him, he came out of a tunnel at a recent trial because he doubted me at the last second ("are you sure???") - he is not like Auggie, he does not just implicitly trust me that if I said JUMP OFF THIS CLIFF PAYTON!! that he would do it. So I still can't believe he did that, unless I consider that he was just SO far gone that his brain wasn't firing properly. And I think that's the reality of what's going on here.
I have this book and read through it again last night, hoping for some ideas. It does mention in the book about dogs being super high and unable to respond to cues on the agility course, but only in passing. There is no "this is how to work on that." It is really not the same as "here's how to get a dog to be calm when people ring the doorbell!" or "here's how to get a dog to be calm when it sees another dog!" which the book does cover.
Today, with my new theory in mind and a few potential ideas from that book, we went off to a fun run. Before our run, I practiced at the practice jump some of the work I've started to do to proof his contacts (I do still intend to proof his contacts and weaves more; it's certainly not going to hurt anything.) We got in line and I asked him for a down, feeding him for physical "I'm relaxed!" cues like the book suggests.
No luck. Wild man from the word go.
As a test I thought I would ask him to sit on the course to try and get him to regroup his brain. He had trouble even responding to "sit." I might not bet money that my dog "knows" weave or his contact behaviour, but he certainly does know sit. This only reinforces my opinion that he is over threshold and not in the state of mind to even respond to the very first cue he learned, what has become his default behaviour.
I am very lucky that he is NOT reactive in a way that causes him to lunge, bark, scream, growl, or respond in any way to other dogs at trials. He has always been able to stand in the line and not been a problem. He does not charge people, dogs, or do any of the stuff most people are talking about when you, say, Google for over arousal in an agility dog. He just ("simply") has a lack of control on the course.
Two people today made the same comment about him: I put him in my lap and was rubbing his belly. When you approach and look at his body, it appears as if he's actually asleep. But then you see his eyes. His eyes are wide and wild and give the clue that the physical relaxation is just a prank he's pulling to lull you into a false sense of security. I understand the theory is if his body is calm, eventually, he will be calm... I understand the theory. It hasn't happened yet.
I need some ideas on how to work on this. This is only an issue that happens in the ring at a trial or a fun run, not something I have a problem with in training ("but he does it perfectly at home!"), which is what makes this so challenging for me to come up with ideas for fixing it. I also have a theory that his first day at a new location, he is not positive we're there for agility - but once he knows what we're there for (the second day) he gets cranked and this happens. Our fun run today was our second time at this particular location.
Self-control has been and probably always will be a lifelong battle with Payton, but I feel like we've made some real improvement that isn't translating. Example: today we were practicing self control games out in the waiting area between our runs. Payton was sitting and I handed him a cookie and didn't quite get it into his mouth. I didn't even notice it fell and bounced away a bit. It dropped on the ground and I got ten feet away, turned around, and saw he was staring sadly at the cookie on the ground. He didn't break his sit to go get the cookie. He just looked at it sadly. How he can do this and then go into the ring five minutes later and be unable to respond to "sit" is very frustrating for me. So I need some brainstorming with other trainers to try and hit on something that will translate.
I will not use any positive punishment, not that this even occurs in any situation where I could apply positive punishment and not get written up, but you can skip suggesting I put a shock collar on him and zap him on the contact obstacles.
I will fully admit I'm also not 100% sold on the idea of, say, pulling him off the course if he misses a contact or his weaves; I feel like that is just as likely to make him start stressing DOWN as opposed to stressing UP as to actually get him to learn anything. If he is not of mental capacities to respond to me, I'm not convinced punishment of either the positive or negative type is fair. I feel like the key is to just teach him more self-control. In some way. Somehow. And a time-out may not help here.
And I am going to continue proofing his weaves and contacts to hope beefing that up will potentially help, but if he can't even sit I'm not sure that's our real issue.
Thing is, if he WERE responding by being a crazy frothy pulling monster while standing in line for his turn, I WOULD know how to work on that. But this one is just challenging me for ideas, so I'm hoping together we can brainstorm something. I might even know the answer, I just haven't had THAT part of the light bulb moment yet.
Help this thing. Please. Before he kills me.
This week while doing a lot of reading and working and thinking, I had a light bulb moment. I'm not even sure how I stumbled across it, if I just happened to Google the right thing and hit on the answer, or what.
I don't think Payton's problems are training issues in the way I've been thinking. That is, it's not that he doesn't know how to weave or do his contacts. It's that during a trial (or even a fun run) he is often so very high he is physically incapable of responding to cues he knows.
Last Sunday I ran Payton in standard and at one point I looked down at him and I even bloody thought it to myself - "He is TOO wound up." I knew it and it might have been in our best interests to have immediately left the course, but for whatever reason, we continued on. He blew all his contacts, I'm not even sure if he was on the teeter long enough for it to start moving, he COULD NOT with the table, and what really drove it home is this. The last three jumps were tire, bar jump, and the triple. He went around the tire. I can't remember if he even took the bar jump. I made the mistake of taking my eyes of my dog and as we approached the triple I said, rather firmly, "GO." It wasn't until after I said it that I realized Payton was not in the approach of the triple. He was actually right down at my side. But because I said "GO" and Payton is a good boy, he tried to take the triple jump. From the side. I'm not certain if he even saw the wing as an actual physical thing in his way, or if "derp, that's a wing" ever even crossed his mind. All I know is that suddenly Payton plowed INTO the triple jump from the side, crashing the wings and all three bars AND the eyes in a rather spectacular fashion.
Tuesday I took him to the chiropractor because even though he wasn't showing me any signs of soreness at the trial, after we got home, or even on Monday or Tuesday, I know my dogs and I knew better, and sure enough, he was all kinds of a mess and took a while of working to get him straightened out.
That cannot happen. It's my fault for not having recognized he was too far gone, or not responding to it the way I should have at least, my fault for taking my eyes off my dog. But in a normal situation, Payton does not do stuff like that. I haven't been able to convince him to do a foot stall or a dog catch because he doesn't trust me not to drop him, he came out of a tunnel at a recent trial because he doubted me at the last second ("are you sure???") - he is not like Auggie, he does not just implicitly trust me that if I said JUMP OFF THIS CLIFF PAYTON!! that he would do it. So I still can't believe he did that, unless I consider that he was just SO far gone that his brain wasn't firing properly. And I think that's the reality of what's going on here.
I have this book and read through it again last night, hoping for some ideas. It does mention in the book about dogs being super high and unable to respond to cues on the agility course, but only in passing. There is no "this is how to work on that." It is really not the same as "here's how to get a dog to be calm when people ring the doorbell!" or "here's how to get a dog to be calm when it sees another dog!" which the book does cover.
Today, with my new theory in mind and a few potential ideas from that book, we went off to a fun run. Before our run, I practiced at the practice jump some of the work I've started to do to proof his contacts (I do still intend to proof his contacts and weaves more; it's certainly not going to hurt anything.) We got in line and I asked him for a down, feeding him for physical "I'm relaxed!" cues like the book suggests.
No luck. Wild man from the word go.
As a test I thought I would ask him to sit on the course to try and get him to regroup his brain. He had trouble even responding to "sit." I might not bet money that my dog "knows" weave or his contact behaviour, but he certainly does know sit. This only reinforces my opinion that he is over threshold and not in the state of mind to even respond to the very first cue he learned, what has become his default behaviour.
I am very lucky that he is NOT reactive in a way that causes him to lunge, bark, scream, growl, or respond in any way to other dogs at trials. He has always been able to stand in the line and not been a problem. He does not charge people, dogs, or do any of the stuff most people are talking about when you, say, Google for over arousal in an agility dog. He just ("simply") has a lack of control on the course.
Two people today made the same comment about him: I put him in my lap and was rubbing his belly. When you approach and look at his body, it appears as if he's actually asleep. But then you see his eyes. His eyes are wide and wild and give the clue that the physical relaxation is just a prank he's pulling to lull you into a false sense of security. I understand the theory is if his body is calm, eventually, he will be calm... I understand the theory. It hasn't happened yet.
I need some ideas on how to work on this. This is only an issue that happens in the ring at a trial or a fun run, not something I have a problem with in training ("but he does it perfectly at home!"), which is what makes this so challenging for me to come up with ideas for fixing it. I also have a theory that his first day at a new location, he is not positive we're there for agility - but once he knows what we're there for (the second day) he gets cranked and this happens. Our fun run today was our second time at this particular location.
Self-control has been and probably always will be a lifelong battle with Payton, but I feel like we've made some real improvement that isn't translating. Example: today we were practicing self control games out in the waiting area between our runs. Payton was sitting and I handed him a cookie and didn't quite get it into his mouth. I didn't even notice it fell and bounced away a bit. It dropped on the ground and I got ten feet away, turned around, and saw he was staring sadly at the cookie on the ground. He didn't break his sit to go get the cookie. He just looked at it sadly. How he can do this and then go into the ring five minutes later and be unable to respond to "sit" is very frustrating for me. So I need some brainstorming with other trainers to try and hit on something that will translate.
I will not use any positive punishment, not that this even occurs in any situation where I could apply positive punishment and not get written up, but you can skip suggesting I put a shock collar on him and zap him on the contact obstacles.
I will fully admit I'm also not 100% sold on the idea of, say, pulling him off the course if he misses a contact or his weaves; I feel like that is just as likely to make him start stressing DOWN as opposed to stressing UP as to actually get him to learn anything. If he is not of mental capacities to respond to me, I'm not convinced punishment of either the positive or negative type is fair. I feel like the key is to just teach him more self-control. In some way. Somehow. And a time-out may not help here.
And I am going to continue proofing his weaves and contacts to hope beefing that up will potentially help, but if he can't even sit I'm not sure that's our real issue.
Thing is, if he WERE responding by being a crazy frothy pulling monster while standing in line for his turn, I WOULD know how to work on that. But this one is just challenging me for ideas, so I'm hoping together we can brainstorm something. I might even know the answer, I just haven't had THAT part of the light bulb moment yet.
Help this thing. Please. Before he kills me.
