Susan Salo Workshop At Say Yes

Susan Salo is here for the next week, although a few of us are sneaking out on the weekend to support our one and only USDAA trial in Ontario.  Susan has been coming around here so long now, I am sure our absence won’t be noticed!  We have a great group of “repeaters” here for Susan’s mid-week workshop.  “Repeaters” being, people that have worked with Susan on multiple occasions.

As usual Susan started off with a brief morning lecture. And again as usual, Susan had some profound logic to share with us all.  Often times Susan is just phrasing common sense in a

way that affects people differently that day. One comment she made yesterday  morning I felt necessary to really emphasize for all. I added that it was sage advise applicable to all of dog training when Susan said of jumping “it is important that you never have a static lesson plan. Read your dog after each repetition and know what he needs at that point. Be flexible and willing to adapt your plan for that session to suit the current needs of the dog.”   

I think of this statement as it relates to people following the 2×2 method of weave pole training. The DVD presents a lesson plan to train or re-train your dog. However it may not be in your dog’s best interest to try to keep up with the pace that I set with the dogs that use for I demonstrations.  You shouldn’t try to push a dog along if his actions and success rate is telling you he is not ready for a bigger challenge.

Another gem I got from Susan was when we were discussing the current popular practice of punishing dogs for dropped bars (something neither Susan nor I approve of). Susan’s comment was; “you can not prepare for peace while you are a planning for war” when she was describing the conflict of trying to build a jump education while using punishment. 

Those of you struggling with teaching your dogs to jump please know it is not an overnight or even an over-month fix. It is a career long process and perfection is elusive, all you can aim for is a constant improvement. For the sake of the dog, that has got to be enough for you. If you do not have a current jump education program for your dog, I strongly recommend Susan Salo’s Jumping DVD as a place to start.  When you get it, print of the PDF that is on the disc and follow along from that handout while you watch the DVD.  It is never to late to go back and give your dog a new beginning!

Today I am grateful for the continual improvement I have seen with my own dog’s jump education.

Very Impressed. . . really!

Seriously, thanks guys. Some awesome ideas came in yesterday. Any of you tuning into my blog today, looking for some great dog training content, go back and read what other people posted on the blog yesterday about prioritizing your life. Here is a quote that came in late that personally struck a cord with me; “being right brained doesn’t mean I have to live in choas.” Thanks Misa, I have got that one printed out already!  

It is not like I am new to this stuff. Crap, I spent 15 years in Corporate-Canada. In those years, I did lots of continuing education training, so it is not like I haven’t learned about list making, prioritizing etc.  With that in mind, I love the input you guys have shared about how you have made everything that is important in your life stay important.

So as to not distract from the importance of everyone else’s message. I am not going to bring up any new topic today. If you have any more time managment, prioritize lessons to share, post away, good stuff guys!

Today I am overwhelmed and grateful for the responsiveness of this blog. You guys ROCK!

Keeping All the Balls in the Air

Hey guys, thanks for the awesome contribution of the motivational quotes added to Friday’s blog post. There are some real gems there I am for sure going to add to my growing list.

Encore, Feature and I spent the weekend at a CKC trial.  Saturday was cold and rainy, Sunday was windy and freaking COLD! I have admitted on this list that I am a fair-weather walker and I will now tell you since I have this beautiful indoor training facility I am definitely a fair-weather agility competitor. If the weather even hints at being nasty I just train inside. In spite of being cold and incredibly wind burnt on Sunday, I stuck it out to the end and did enjoy myself . . . I use the term “enjoy” loosely.

My girls didn’t seem to mind the inclement weather at all, but why would they, they were doing what them love best! I felt like a cross between the Michelin-Tire man and one of those big major league baseball mascots as I tried to maneuver around the courses (sorry, no video footage to entertain you).  Not being the swiftest, nor most agile competitor out there at the best of times, it doesn’t get any better when wearing 2 pair of pants and layers of winter clothing & coats!  All things considered my girls did have some nice runs but I came away with a bigger list of things I need to get to work on.

I have been doing a lot of juggling this year, working out how to fit in my normal responsibilities of teaching workshops, training my dogs, spending time with John and my family, exercising, cooking etc while mixing in the new tasks I have taken on with the building of the new house, sending out newsletters and writing in this blog. I think it comes down to organizing and better list building. I am not about to give up on anything, but this weekend it was obvious to me, my dogs both need more training than they have been getting (which has been very little lately).  So today I am going to spend the morning organizing, starting with my messy desk and then working on a task list to make sure important things like training my dogs doesn’t get pushed back any longer on my things-to-do-list. I know my girls will appreciate it! Any ideas on how you guys organize your responsibilities would be greatly appreciated, especially those of you that are still in college or have young kids or both!  That can’t be easy, you must be pros at prioritizing and multi-tasking!

This morning I watched out the window when I let my dogs out at 5:30 AM. They milled about doing their business then all of a sudden it was like someone just yelled “fire” and they all took off chasing each other. Stuff like really cracks me up, and it makes me even more grateful for the role dogs play in my life.

Motivational Quotes

I love motivational quotes. They really do it for me, if you know what I mean. For the last 25 years I have been a big fan of Zig Zigler, Norman Vincent Peale and legendary Basketball coach, John Wooden.  Here are some of my favorite from the three of them along with a few others.  If you have a favourite quote that really moves you, I would love for you to share it with us all.

” The main reason for people’s lack of success is their willingness to give up what they want most of all, for what they want right now!” ~  Zig Zigler

” You can get everything in life you want, if you can just help enough other people get what they want.”  ~ Zig Zigler

“Change your thoughts and you change your world”  ~ Norman Vincent Peale

“It is what you learn after you know it all that counts.” ~ Coach John Wooden

“My actions will follow my expectations.” ~ Joel Osteen

” Treat people as if they were what they ought to be,  And you help them to become what they are capable of being.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“There are three ways to do things: The wrong way, the proven way and a better way.” ~ Author Unknown

“There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.” ~ Norman Vincent Peale

” Every person you meet knows something you don’t,  Learn from them.” ~ H. Jackson Brown

” It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given,  That separates one person form another.” ~ Nelson Mandela

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing.. that’s why we recommend it daily.” ~ Zig Zigler

“When you set goals, something inside of you starts saying, “Let’s go, let’s go,” and ceilings start to move up.” ~ Zig Zigler

“Failure is an event not a person, yesterday ended last night” ~ Zig Zigler

“Do not permit what you cannot do to interfere with what you can do.” ~ Coach John Wooden

“Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember the only taste of success that some people will ever have is when they take a bite out of you! “ ~ Zig Zigler

Enjoy your weekend everyone, I am off to a CKC trial this weekend with Encore & Feature. Today I am grateful for the focused drive I acquire every time I re-visit my list of motivational quotes.

How Handling Systems are like Spandex

We had a full day of handling here yesterday and another one planned for today. Double box times two! Yesterday was a group of mostly high drive dogs, 11 of the 14 being over-the-top Border Collies.  For the most part, all of the dogs worked very well.  However, at the end of the day, I had to give the group, a little collective smack down. I was a bit miffed at the fact that of all the dogs working, there were only 2 that had a solid start line (one of which was one of my instructors).  

Even if you are a lightening fast runner, having a dog that you can count on to wait at the start line will be a benefit to you throughout your career. I personally believe that the lead out is critical to a dog learning that your body position remaining motionless in a certain spot, translates to an upcoming turn.  This understanding of “positional cues” is an important part of Greg Derrett’s handling system, thus a solid start line is a big help when running in Greg’s system.

You may notice that I rarely talk about handling on this blog. Handling systems are definitely a matter of personal choice. I have been a fan’s of Greg Derrett’s system since my first introduction almost 10 years ago. However, I don’t write much about handling here because I want this blog to be a welcomed source of dog training to everyone. Handling discussions have the potential to divide people into defensive positioning of “us” against “them.”  Although, I am thrilled with the results I have gotten with all of my dogs while  following Greg’s system, I respect the right for all to handle how they feel is best for the dog.  

Handling system preferences have definitely created some “cliques” at agility trials. It is so easy for innocently intending comments to be overheard and turned into fuel for such a climate. It is my wish that this attitude doesn’t prevent anyone from learning from the information that I share here or in my newsletters.   Don’t get me wrong, I have very strong opinions when it comes to my own handling choices, but, just like wearing spandex, it is a matter of personal preference and that has got to be okay.  

At the risk of sounding altruistic, I will tell you that my vision for this blog is to create an atmposphere of inclusiveness rather than exclusiveness.   I want it to be a place for anyone (regardless of handling preferences) who is interested in good, science-based dog training, to ask questions, share their thoughts and collectively help dogs everywhere to be better understood. To this end, handling discussions will be kept to a minimum, however I will occasionally wear spandex as I type.

Today it is Feature’s 2nd birthday and I can’t tell you how blessed I feel to have her influencing my dog training and my life.

Send Them On

Hi all, just a quickie to let you know I am working on the weave pole webinar, hoping to have it completed for the blog on Wednesday. This is your last chance to post any 2×2 questions for me. John and I are leaving the house at o-dark-o-clock this morning to do (what I hope is) our last “home tour” with our builder. We are in the home stretch (pardon the pun:)). I am hoping we will be in the new house by my birthday at the end of the July (so test your powers of visualization and get us out of this apartment!).  Remember send on the questions.

Today I am grateful for all of the weave questions that have come in so far!

Rehearsing Success

When I was a kid I loved to play and watch hockey. As an adult, I rarely watch and haven’t had an opportunity to play in quite some time. Playoff hockey is pretty much on the TV all the time right now up here in Canada. John likes watching playoff . . . any sport. Being that we are still living in this one room apartment, I am osmotically forced to watch hockey again (while I work at my computer). The game has gotten a little less violent from what I remembered (possibly because it is the playoffs and no one wants to jeopardize their team’s chances by getting into a brawl). So it is still an awesome sport, but the fighting got to be way too much for me back when I did watch it more often.

Any sport at “crunch” time has more significance for the participants and often times makes it more exciting for the spectators.  Running agility is always fun, but when a championship is on the line, the excitement is that much more heightened.  Now I don’t have to be referring to  a World Championships here, it can be an special event, or possibly just a certain class, or venue, or certain people watching that causes your adrenaline to run a little high.  Learning to do your best at these times really is a matter of rehearsals. The way you get better at anything is to create opportunities to repeat those successful events over and over.

One thing that I like to do when I have some spare time is to re-run big events with my younger dogs. It all started about five years ago when we were in Hawaii teaching (now that was a seminar venue!).  I was doing some laundry and the laundry room was in the underground parking lot so I didn’t feel comfortable leaving our clothes unattended. I ended up having to sit around this tiny room all alone. After reading the 6 month old issue of Golf Digest cover-to-cover for the second time,  I made up this cool game that I have played many times since.

I started re-running important agility runs in my mind. I am a great visualizer, I actually get an increase in my breathing and heart rate when I visualize myself running agility. I just close my eyes and see my dog beside me at the start line and then I lead out and way we go! Anyway, after I was finished (and still had time to kill) back in Hawaii,  I decided to run all of those runs again with my puppy (who was “Encore” at the time). Now Encore back then was less than a year old and had never been on any real agility equipment, so I had no idea how she would look going over jumps or through weave poles. However I could see her little puppy face and had seen her run and jump while out on our walks, so I just put her at the start line in my minds eye and started to re-run all of those courses with her.  It was really cool. What ended up happening was by the time Encore had her first real run at an agility trial she had already run hundreds of runs with me in my mind. 

This may take some practice before you get really good at it but do try it. If you have no history of big events of your own, watch someone else on Youtube or on a Championship DVD.  Pick a handler that you can see yourself handling similarly to and try to see the run through that person’s eyes but it will be with your own dog. You end up rehearse success for yourself over and over and over and that is never a bad thing!

Today I am grateful for Mike and John H. showing up to help John clear out some of the downed trees this weekend. It was a little scary to have three men with chainsaws and a guy named Jason helping (ok he was my brother).  All we needed was a few hockey masks to complete the scene from a horror movie!  I am happy to report no such horrors occurred and the view behind the new house has improved dramatically!

And the Winners are . . .

 

First of all thanks to all of you that took the time to give me your feedback by filling out the survey I posted last week. For those that intended to take the survey but didn’t get around to it, you can still do it by clicking this link http://ponyurl.com/wphpde.  I don’t think I will get perfect scores from the survey design staff, so thanks for your patience while while I perfect my skill at survey writing.

However, I got lots of great ideas and that was the many purpose of the survey. I now have a much clearer vision of what I need to do next and I wouldn’t have had that understanding without your feedback. So I am now going to get busy preparing content for all of you. Some will be free tools for you, some will come with a reasonable price tag, but all will be very worthwhile content since YOU guys have been the ones that have helped to designed the products!

I did promise prizes to randomly drawn survey participants. I picked the 3 big winners by logging into the survey results and choosing participants   number 35, 135 and 1035 (if you have read the stuff about me in a previous post you will remember I have an unexplainable obsession with the number 35:). So I am sending out a really cool Say Yes Dog Training sweatshirt with “Positive is Not Permissive” printing on the front plus an autographed copy of “Ruff Love” to . . . . 

Kim Oatway

Barb Giudice

and Wild Bill McFarlin

 

Thanks to all, this was a fun first attempt at survey taking.

 

Some interesting tidbits from the survey.. Most of you that participated  (more than 70% of you) have been doing agility for more than 4 years. So potentially there are alot of newbies out there that have not found this blog or my newsletters so please SPREAD THE WORD.  If each of you encouraged 3 newbies (doing agility less than 3 years) to sign up for my newsletter think of how many dogs you would be helping to get a more positive start on their agility careers! Anyone can sign up for the newsletter by going to my website (www.clickerdogs.com) and filling in the form there or by emailing sayyesnews@profollow.com with the subject line subscribe. It is that easy.

 

So back to the survey, the next interesting fact, can you guess what was the number one reason people put down for not qualifying? If you are like me, you would guess wrong. The answer is weave poles! When I combined the 3 categories of entries, exits or popped poles, it made weave poles collective be the number one reason most of you don’t qualify!  Ok folks, there is this great new DVD out that WILL help you with your weave pole training. Seriously, I will be posting more free weave pole help this week so send or re-send your pressing 2×2 questions and I will try to get to them.

 

I am happy to see that most of you are book and dvd junkies and that more than half of you owned all of my books and DVDs (next step is to take the shrink wrapping off and put them to good use people!:)).

 

As for the content, I got thousands of thoughtful replies explaining where you need help with your agility training. I am listening to what you are asking for and I have already set things in motion to get you the direction each of you have asked for. I am not going to say anything more than that, but I am excited and you should be too. It will take me a while to get all my ideas out of my head and out to you but some of it will be out to you this week (in the form of another free 2×2 webinar to be posted here).

 

Thanks again everyone for all of your input and for your active participation in this community. We are in it together, the more you write, the more I learn about you. . . as you read and learn more about me. It is like we are becoming one big happy cyber-family!

 

Today I am grateful for all the ideas you all have sent me, I am stoked!

Wii and Dog Agility

Okay, lots of you are using Wii so this one is for you (and those of you thinking of buying a Wii).  I have Wii Fit,  Play and Sport. I think the Wii Play is just a glorified video arcade.  The other games are worthwhile with the warning there are a lot of Wii injuries out there, so you must be careful, especially with the games that have you wildly swinging at the air (boxing, tennis etc).  Unfortunately I do not have  a magic way to get dog agility up on my Wii screen. Nor do I have a way to get the dogs using the game (yet:)), however I do see a real connection between Wii and the sport we all love so well (dog agility).  

It hit me as I played a few days ago.  I am using Wii most for the social aspect of a bunch of us getting together and having fun and the balance games. Although Hula can be a real ass-kicker (and a belly laugh when you watch the likes of Greg Derrett doing it, oh my,  it is like he is seizing or something!). It is the balance games that I think will have  real impact on your dog agility. First of all, there is the obvious reason, the balance thing. How many of you have tried to come out of a front cross and lost your balance on your second step so that you end up with your centre of gravity being behind you (this is often when calve muscles are pulled btw).  Any time you can play games on or off a Wii that improve your balance will benefit you in dog agility.

Another area that you will improve is through playing the Soccer game. That is the one where you have to head the ball but also duck out of the way of flying Panda heads and shoes (I think former US President George Bush demonstrated that he Wiis when he ducked that shoe at the news conferences in the middle east last year).  I see a real connection between your ability to watch your dog and react to him in agility and this game where you observe the objects coming at you, make a decision and act on that decision. **Little Wii hint for you, the key to this games is to watch the ball as it is being kicked not as it approaches you.

But here is where I see a massive benefit to playing Wii, it is to your mental prep for dog sports.  How many of you lose your concentration partway through a run you when you are otherwise acing it?  Likely it is a really important run, say the last leg of a double Q or a big qualifier or perhaps even a “finals” class. Things are going along swimmingly and then you let your “conscious mind” know how good you think you are doing.  I have done it myself many times. When you allow your conscious mind to play a role in your run it will immediately say things to you like “wow, don’t screw up now” or “if you can just not make any errors you can go clean.”  Once thoughts like that enter your head, your focus has been taken away from your run and more often than not it is difficult to get it back without a “hiccup” in the run. That hiccup can be your downfall, that is when you are out of position or cue a turn incorrectly and disaster flows.  

Here is where the Wii comes in.  It is in playing games like soccer  or downhill slalom skiing. When I play either of these games I want the perfect score. A clean run under 24 seconds in skiing or  no hits to the face with any flying distractions and no misses of any balls in soccer. I can do it pretty regularly on the lower level but it is a massive challenge (have come as close as 1 missed ball away from it) on the advanced level.  Here is where my conscious mind comes out to distract me the way it used to earlier in my agility career. I may be nearing the end of a Wii Skiing or Soccer and I allow myself to think “wow, almost there” and then wammo, I most often will screw up. I think this is great training.

There is normally no pressure when playing these games alone as there is no “competition”, nothing to play for.  Which is why I play for the perfect game.  For most normal human beings this can just be playing or your personal best score.  While doing this you automatically put “pressure” on yourself like you would during an important agility run.  When doing this don’t pay attention to the score of that game but rather to see if you can maintain your focus without allowing your conscious mind to interrupt you right to the end.  Do that until you can successfully allow yourself just to “play the game.”  That is when you are going to be at your best in agility (and it Wii btw). When you are just focusing on your dog and your own handling maneuvers, not thinking about any possible outcome while you are running you will always be at your best.

Since I have been recovering from this flu I have not been able to work out (still have a massive chest cold). I have been playing Wii as a way of doing “something” without taxing my body while I get better. Lately when I have played,  I have purposely created those conscious thoughts as a distraction to my performance.  This way I have been able to challenge myself to being able to  be distracted and then recover from it without allowing it to effect my game. It is like playing a mind game with myself to improve my own mental prep for sport.  

Either way you play it, there are ‘extra’ benefits from Wii that you may not have thought of before. I hope my OCD personality has not just ruined your enjoyment of the video game.  You know it also is okay to just jump on the Wii and have some mindless fun, I also do that on occassion (ok, I admit not so much, everything ends up being a competition with myself at some point:)).

Today I am grateful for that fact that even though I am not 28 anymore, I still love to play any kind of game or sport that is going.

Do You Wii?

Do you Wii? (no not wee, Wii). Just throwing it out there to you all, kind of an informal survey (hey btw thanks to everyone that has taken the survey from last week, winners to be announced at the end of this week). I bought a Wii “Fit” last year when we had the FCI world team practice here. I thought it would be a good team bonding thing. Those of us that played, did have a blast.  So I am asking you guys.  Do you have Wii Fit, if so, which activities to you enjoy the most and why?  Do you use it as an actual “work-out”?  I have my own opinion on how Wii ties into dog agility, I will share with you once you guys give me your thoughts.

I finalized all of the appliances for the new house yesterday.  Not many decisions left for John and I as this process is winding down. I am very grateful for the fact that, although we are still months away from moving in, most of the major decisions have been made so now it is just a matter of patience:).