Its All About the Attitude

I teach agility on Saturdays and this weekend after class I placed six jumps (uprights only) in a simple circle and brought Gimme in to play.  Initially I turned her loose to investigate the arena, since she hasn't been there in many months.  She ran around excited and wild and when she buzzed by me, I clicked her.  I only did that once or twice, because she didn't stop for the treat, so the clicking was pretty meaningless.  I figured she was too far out of her thinking brain to respond, so I just let her go and get it out of her system. 

What I did do was to walk around and back and forth in the arena.  Whenever she buzzed by, I'd change direction and walk in a direction more or less opposite to where she was headed then.  I didn't say anything or in any way try to curtail or change what she was doing.  I simply walked and changed directions as her movements called for it.  Before long I noticed, while she was still buzzing by, she was almost immediately curving back to pick up my new direction. 

When I saw that she was actually giving me some brief eye contact as she went by, I tried clicking again and sure enough, she was ready to respond.  She got her treats and then was free to go.  I repeated this until she indicated she wanted more from me and was ready to work.  After that we had a nice training session where she was totally focused and giving me all she had. 

At one point the barn dogs came out and were looking in the gate.  She was distracted then and left briefly to go check them out.  I was happy to see that she didn't show any posturing and soon came back to work.  So we are already making progress on that front.  Woohoo...

I was very happy that she gave me such complete focus in what is essentially a new place for her and worked hard for ten minutes.  I was even happier that despite distracting to the dogs, she came back to work with the same great level of focus she had before.  What did she learn in this session?  Not much agility, just going through uprights which she has done before.  But more importantly:

• Mom respects my needs
• I can play agility in a strange place
• Mom is fun
• Agility is fun
• Dogs watching are okay

Contrast that with a recent semi-private agility lesson.  It had already been a pretty full day and in retrospect wasn't the best time to have a lesson, especially a semi-private (not my choice -- it was sprung on me when I arrived).  Gimme did well for most of the lesson and was trying hard to give me what I wanted. 

While things started out well enough, after awhile Gimme started sniffing. The instructor told me that I was certainly more interesting than the ground and Gimme had to return to work.  I worked her through it as best I could and was getting some success.  Even if she wasn't learning anything, she was, at that point, still having a positive experience.

However as things continued, Gimme became more and more distracted and was clearly starting to stress. She started running out to the wading pool after the second jump in the sequence. The instructor would go and herd her back by pestering her.  As this pattern was repeated the pestering became harassing.  Gimme's brain was basically fried (my thoughts and later the instructor's exact words) and she was trying to avoid what she couldn't concentrate well enough to do.  The pool was then turned over and the next time she went that way, the instructor went after her, got in her face and yelled "get back to work." Gimme then came right to me, but she still couldn't do the exercise.

The instructor insisted that Gimme had to learn to work through her "fried brain" and that she could only quit on "my terms".  She said it wasn't up to Gimme to say when she was too tired and couldn't work anymore.  She would not accept that Gimme had enough, too much, in fact, or that it was sufficient reason to give her a break. I let it go on a few more minutes, broke down the exercise and basically the last time Gimme walked through it getting treats every two feet.

While the instructor insisted that was so much better, she couldn't see that Gimme was very stressed and behaviorally suppressed, only seeming her usual lively self for the last obstacle, a straight tunnel. Then after having said before that when Gimme did what I asked, we would quit on "my terms", she told me to do the sequence again. I said "no, that's enough" – which ended the lesson. I should have quit much sooner.

What Gimme learned from that awful lesson is that:

• Sometimes agility isn't fun
• Sometimes Mom isn't fun
• Sometimes Mom doesn't listen to Gimme
• Sometimes people aren't nice to Gimme

Obviously that's not where I want our training to "go".  Gimme is too great of a dog and has such a wonderful attitude.  Fortunately she has enough confidence and plenty of attitude to bounce back, even from that crappy lesson.  So what did Carla learn from that dismal experience:

• Don't let someone surprise me into doing something that isn't right for my girl (the unplanned semi-private).  I should have said "no" when I realized we weren't going to get what I had scheduled.
• Don't listen to someone who tries to push me into training in ways that my girl isn't ready for.  Such as exercises that are too difficult for her level of experience or discouraging me from luring Gimme to help her deal with the difficulty and/or distraction.
• Don't listen to someone who criticizes the advice I was given my another instructor who has worked much more with Gimme and who's method is showing results.
• Don't listen to someone who shows a lack of understanding about canine calming signals and who shows no evidence of having even read some of the latest works on helping dogs deal with distraction/stress, such as Control Unleashed.
• Don't listen to someone who is starting to channel Cesar Milan.
• Do tailor the training method to where Gimme is at in that moment.
• Do remember that while she is full size, Gimme is after all still a puppy.  She doesn't need to experience stress while learning (no dog does).
• Do pay attention to what the whole Gimme is telling me.  Its okay for her to tell me when she is done working; its not important for me to be in charge.  
• Do respect Gimme and her needs. 
• Do defend Gimme's needs at all times.

To clarify the title, "Its All About the Attitude"...  I'd rather have a dog who chooses to work with me, than one who is compelled to work with me.

I have to admit its embarrassing to share with the "whole world" how poorly I stood up for my darling girl in this instance.  I could hide it and keep my reputation intact.  I could explain in nauseating detail how and why I think it happened this way.  I could try to defend or justify my errors in judgment.  I have already analyzed it to death for my own benefit.  However, I think the important thing is to share it with you so you can benefit from what I learned. 

Please learn from my mistakes...  Do not try this at home.