First steps in agility

In my previous post I detailed how Sumo entered our lives and how we ended up doing agility. He made such impressive progress in a short time that I started to research agility training more and more. My very first aha moment was when I discovered Susan Garrett's 2x2 method for training weave poles. I got my first copy of the DVD in February 2013 and my jaw dropped when I watched it for the first time. The one word that changed my thinking fundamentally about dog training was repeated a number of times by Susan. That word was CHOICE! Letting a dog make his own choice for a behaviour and then rewarding that behaviour, supercharges the reward. I saw and experienced the power of positive reinforcement first hand. It was such a powerful experience to me that it changed me as a parent. I live in a culture that overemphasises discipline and rules when bringing up and educating children and even though I was very critical of this I still caught myself overusing discipline and correction with Juan. Susan's 2x2 DVD taught me the mechanics of positive reinforcement (which we arrogantly think we understand but we don't) in a step by step fashion and at that point in time I started challenging myself to be more creative and set up environments and opportunities for Juan to make his own successful choices. So besides letting your dog and the people around you make their own choices, you have to help them set up an environment where it is easy for them to make the right choices and be successful.

Now I'm sure you can imagine what happened after having such a profound experience right? I became totally addicted to the sport of agility and loved every moment training. I loved how technical the sport was and I couldn't stop learning about this amazing sport. I started training daily at home in my backyard, in the nearby parks and Sumo could weave twelve poles within 2 weeks, just like Susan promised in her DVD. I had an insatiable hunger for more information and bought more books and DVDs. The moment I wanted to take my training to the next level I met my first real obstacle, lack of equipment. I asked Zimzala if I could come train there more often but they weren't open to the idea of me using agility equipment without a trainer being present. I started making PVC jumps and bought my first tunnel at a pet expo. I continued training at Zimzala with Mariann on a weekly basis and a couple of months later I entered Sumo for his very first dog jumping competition in July 2013. I was super excited to compete and had very high expectations since he was doing so well in training. My expectations were too high and nobody really prepared me for what was to follow. Sumo started great but the new environment overwhelmed both of us and he ran off the course after the first few obstacle to take a quick sniff at a nearby bush. He came back to be me when I called him and we completed the course. Luckily there was a show the next day and we went back for more. This time I let him explore the environment for much longer before we ran our round. He ran beautifully and stayed focused. Unfortunately he missed his entry into the weave poles but he stayed on course and completed his round.

Jump 3, first trial.

Making progress, now at jump 7, first trial.

I think I was a bit lucky with my second round on the next day. Many more eliminations followed. The key thing any new handler must realise is that it is very important to train in different locations on different equipment before you go to trial. Your dog needs to generalise its skills and the only way you can achieve that is by training in as many different environments as possible. Do yourself a favour and listen to Bad Dog Agility's podcast about generalisation. There is never a good reason to blame your dog, never. Even when it feels like they are not listening to your commands, especially when they do it so well in training, there are almost always something in the environment that is new and you are not realising that a significant variable changed. More than often you as a handler are also behaving differently when you are under pressure or nervous in a trial. Late cues and conflicting body language is probably the number one mistake all new handlers make.

It was mentally quite tough to process failures and move forward. I realised I didn't really have a clue where I am going, I had no idea how to take my training to the next level beyond just training simple skills. I didn't even know all the skills I needed to train and I am still figuring that out. I had no roadmap and I definitely needed one. One also needs somebody to tell you that success comes in small increments and teach you how to adjust expectations so that you can find a win and joy out of each round. It is always there, you just have to challenge yourself to find it.

More on how I got into the next gear in my next post. Happy trials!