Wow.
Where to start.
Last night I went on a paranormal investigation. Yep, I went ghost hunting. There is a house in the town where I work that has documented paranormal activity. According to the owners (who don't live there, BTW, nobody lives there full time, except maybe the spirits), there are voices, footsteps, lights going on and off, small items disappearing and reappearing, that sort of thing. It's a lovely old Victorian, build in the 1880s, and the couple who own it plan to turn it into a bed and breakfast. I did a story about it for our paper and they invited me to attend one of the investigation sessions that they open up to the public.
I think in the future I might take up tornado chasing instead.
It wasn't really scary at all. One part was seriously creepy but other than that, it was almost (almost, she says!) kind of uneventful. Interesting but certainly nothing out of the Ammityville Horror.
The event began at 5 p.m. Marsha and Tammy came with me. Marsha and I thought it would be a great birthday present for Tammy, whose b-day was last week. I mean, really, how often do you get to go on a ghost hunt for your birthday? Then I talked Marsha into coming, too.
We were supposed to bring snacks, since the event would last through the evening. I dipped Nutter Butter cookies in almond bark and added mini M&Ms for eyes. They looked like little ghosts. Yeah, pretty lame but they were cute. Two gals (twins) from Iowa City who also came to the investigation said they often make the same thing. We compared almond bark dipping techniques. One of the twins was hoping to land a $25,000 grant to study hauntings overseas. Where do you sign up for THAT program?
The first thing we did when the session started was to burn white sage to purify the area and eliminate any negative energy. It got smokey but not offensive. I figured my hair and clothes were going to smell pretty funky when I got home and the Farmer would probably wonder what in the world we'd REALLY been doing.
The group leader invited any "higher frequency" spirit people present in the house to communicate with us. Apparently this eliminates the troublesome spirits and plain old jerks.
Then we learned about the different pieces of equipment investigators use to document paranormal activity. One is a ghost box. It scans through radio frequencies and if you ask a spirit person a question, he or she may answer by speaking through the box. The spirit people were not into broadcasting their opinions last night. It was pointed out that the sun was still up at this point and most haunted houses become more "active" as the sun goes down.
Another piece of equipment is called an ovulus. It is a sort of electronic dictionary that contains 4,500 (I think) pre-programmed words. Again, you can ask spirits questions and they will respond through the ovulus. It wasn't always easy to figure out what they were saying because it's a computer generated voice, so not only is it tossing random words at you, they're really hard to understand. Sometimes they have obvious connection to the house or the people who are there that night. Other times they just sound like gibberish. At one point, the words "15 minutes late" came from the ovulus. The owner of the house had been 15 minutes late getting there. Weird.
Plus, when there's a large group of people, it's really hard to get everyone to be quiet at the same time, so many times, someone was talking when the spirits answered. And someone was always dropping something, fidgeting, squeaking their chair, etc.
They also had a digital thermometer for measuring cold spots and a digital recorder for recording electronic voice phenomenon or EVPs. Most of what we did last night was conducting EVP sessions, trying to capture unheard (but recordable) responses to questions.
You must need a keener ear than mine to pick up on EVPs. I couldn't hear a darn thing when they played the recordings back. Jennifer (owner of the house) shared some previously recorded EVPs of voices saying things but I was either deaf or oblivious.
The house belonged to a doctor and his family for three generations. We started in an upstairs bedroom. That first session included several cold spots, but none that I ever felt. The thermometer gave readings of around 90 degrees close to a (live) person's arm or shoulder, about 77 for general air temperature in the room (the window AC unit was shut off) and about 62 for the cold spot. So I guess they were there although I never felt one.
Several people said they smelled pipe tobacco. Yes, Doc Hollis smoked a pipe. The gal leading the session asked if the spirit(s) present (Doc Hollis and company) wanted to make contact with any of us, they could touch us. She amended that to "touch NICELY." I guess sometimes poking, grabbing and hair pulling is involved when spirits want to reach out and touch someone. Again, nothing for me. I could smell something smokey but thought it was just residual white sage smoke, you know how smoke gets in your hair and clothes and when you move it kind of drifts around. Yeah, like that.
After frequent breaks throughout the evening (so many folks could go outdoors and smoke cigarettes, seriously, we could have been done at least an hour sooner if not for the smoke breaks), we ended up doing the last session in the basement. It was dark outside by now.
This was the creepy part. Just being in the basement of an old house is creepy when the lights are ON. We were in a small room with only one doorway. When Jennifer turned off the light, yeah, it was dark but there was a little ambient light coming through the doorway from windows elsewhere in the basement. I could see her white T-shirt sleeve in front of me.
Then suddenly it got really dark, the total absence of light. The gal leading the session called it "darker than dark." I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. So help me, if a spirit had touched me (nicely or otherwise) I probably would have had a serious bladder malfunction. Marsha did touch me once, just to make sure I was still there, and so did Tammy. That was okay. I was glad THEY were still there!
And again, people said they could smell tobacco smoke and feel cold spots. It was so close and hot in that room, I would have welcomed a cold spot! I could smell smoke again, not modern day cigarettes although heaven knows there were enough smokers in the group. I wasn't standing next to any of them.
The ovulus had a few things to say and again, it was hard to understand, although it chirped out "girls, twins" and a few other observations about our group. We all had the chance to ask the spirits questions - good grief, I have a hard enough time talking to live people face to face!
The basement experience was the end of the night. I went home, not knowing if I was disappointed or relieved. I went to bed and couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about the pipe tobacco smell and the burning sage smell and how I thought they were the same thing at the time, just drifting off the person sitting next to me as she moved. Finally, I went to the bathroom and took the shirt I'd worn that evening out of the hamper. I sniffed it. It was NOT the same smell.
Did I really smell Doc Hollis' pipe tobacco? Maybe. Maybe not. For every real "haunting" there are probably a dozen frauds. How hard would it have been to stage some of the things we experienced? Who knows.
It was an interesting night and I'm glad I did it.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
The sun is shining but . . .
My dog is wet. My shoes are wet. My socks are wet. My pants are wet from mid-calf down. The gloves are wet. The tug is wet. The jumps are wet. The ring gates are even wet. My T-shirt is decidedly damp. We could not possibly be any wetter if someone had deliberately turned a hose on us.
Phoenix and I went to train at a park this morning. We've been training basically at home for the last six weeks with occasional group sessions at buildings with friends. I wanted a change of scenery.
The only drawback to training early in the morning was the wet grass. Not that I really minded. I knew my old battered Merrills were no longer waterproof. No surprise there. And I knew Phoenix didn't mind getting his paws wet. He is a lot of things but a prima donna is not one of them.
I just didn't realize HOW wet we were going to end up. It was relatively cool at 7 a.m., 70 degrees. I say relatively because we've had a lot of 75 to 80 temps before the sun even comes up lately. The air was dripping with humidity, so what didn't get soaked from the wet grass absorbed it out of the air. My hair objected and did its she-stuck-her-finger-in-an-electrical-outlet imitation. No wonder the clerk at the convenience store gave me a funny look when I stopped to get a cappuccino on the way home. He had piercings all over his face so I didn't think he had any room to talk.
Back to the park. I like going new places to train to test how well my dog knows his job. Granted at 7 a.m., we pretty much had the park to ourselves, not a lot of distractions around. But there were still new smells and the novelty of not working in the back yard. Plus I like being able to go train first thing in the morning, knowing there's nothing else on the morning's agenda and we have all the time in the world —we don't have to rush to be somewhere else at a certain time.
I was really happy with our session. Phoenix is still working without food for 98 percent of the exercises. He's responding better and better to verbal praise and seems more comfortable with and understanding of working without the expectation of cookies. I'm using limited food for a couple of skills we're re-training.
I've added a toy back into the mix but it's not a reward. It's just a toy and we play when I feel like playing, not with the intention of rewarding any specific behavior or building attitude. Whether Phoenix sees it that way or not, I don't know. But I'm not expecting our play to produce miraculous results — I just really, really love playing with my dog and he loves it too.
I don't know if it was the cool (ha-ha, see how hot it's been here, I think 70 is cool!) or the wet grass or what, but Phoenix was absolutely squirrelly. He worked hard and made some mistakes and we had some corrections and do-overs and let's-take-this-apart-and-work-on-it moments but he was happier than I've seen him work all summer. Seeing him so relaxed and silly made it easier for ME to be relaxed and silly, too, once again making me wonder how many of our problems I've created by being too stiff and formal when we train.
It was worth getting wet. Now all my training gear is laying on the patio table to dry out. My wet clothes are in the laundry and my wet dog is taking a nap. It's 9 a.m. and I have a whole beautiful Saturday at my disposal. Love it!
Tonight is the paranormal investigation, starts at 5 p.m., ends at 10 p.m. Can't wait, this will definitely be a new experience!
Friday, July 29, 2011
The crazy people are here!
Spent all morning and early afternoon in Homestead, taking pics and watching RAGBRAI roll through.
Ran into Barb Taylor from Iowa City and some friends. Barb was doing today's ride only. Really, what are the odds of watching 10,000 bikers and you see someone you actually know!
My "Friends Don't Let Friends Go To Iowa" T-shirt was a big hit! I had my picture taken at least 4 times with Cyclone riders and once with a Hawkeye rider who thought that was the funniest shirt she'd ever seen even though she is an Iowa fan.
Here are some of my favorite pics. It takes for-freaking-ever to upload from dial-up Internet so I only put up a few.
Tandem has to be the way to go. Make the guy in front do all the work!
This guy had the right idea. It was really hot.
How about a little keg toss action?
If you chucked it far enough, you got a free beer!
This gal did better than most of the guys.
The apple pie hunter.
Pie. Everywhere. Awesome. Rhubarb. Yum.
Nothing says welcome to a German community like a guy wearing lederhosen. And a Hawaiian shirt. We're a very multi-cultural community in Homestead. Actually I have no idea where this guy was from. 
No idea what these guys were doing. But it involved a ladder on the roof of a SUV. I think they were hanging a banner. Honestly. I had to look twice to see if the Farmer was involved. That is sooooo something he would do.
My favorite team jerseys.
It says "Donner Party" . . .
Thursday, July 28, 2011
The crazy people are coming!
For those of you who don’t live in the Midwest, this is RAGBRAI week: the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. Or, the Register’s Annual Great Beer Run Across Iowa, take your pick. Check it out at RAGBRAI.com.
It involves about 10,000 people riding bicycles across Iowa, from the Missouri River on the "west coast" to the Mississippi River on the "east coast" over a 7-day period. This year’s route brings the ride through Iowa County tomorrow.
I think you have to be mental to ride on this thing. On the surface it sounds like one huge fun rolling party, with tons of food vendors (emphasis on homemade pie!) and entertainment in all the pass-through towns and a great party at each overnight stop. I’m all about that except between the food and the parties, you’re spending about 400-odd miles with your butt perched on a hard little bike seat while you sweat and strain to pump through 50 to 70 miles each day. In July. No matter the weather. Or the hills. Iowa is not flat. I can be exhausted and sore after two days at an agility trial in a climate controlled building. Doing something like RAGBRAI would be the end of me.
I’ll spend tomorrow doing photo coverage as riders come through the Amana Colonies. It's going to be a fun day! People from all over the world come to ride in this event. They wear crazy costumes and have crazy team names, like Team Skunk, Team Cheesehead, etc. Plus the theme for Friday is “College Spirit Day” so I’ll have an excuse to wear my Iowa State “Friends don’t let friends go to Iowa” T-shirt. Like I need an excuse to wear it. Really.
Bring on the pie.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Car-top luggage carriers
A bit lighter fare today.
When Phoenix and I went to the seminar in Des Moines last weekend, Jamie stayed home with the Farmer. He usually goes with us wherever we go, even though he's been retired for 3 years, but this time I thought he’d be happier at home, hanging out on the couch and having a male bonding weekend than he would sitting in a crate for three days at the seminar.
I thought wrong.
When I called the Farmer on Saturday night, he said, “Your dog is not happy.”
Jamie had spent Friday evening pacing and barking and watching out the windows. He was in a constant state of distress when I did not come home. Then there was a severe weather outbreak over eastern Iowa that night, which only made things worse. Jamie is a drama king about severe weather. True to form, he spent the night leaping on and off the bed, quivering, vibrating, pacing, panting and having a meltdown. The Farmer did not get much sleep.
Saturday, Jamie wouldn’t eat. This freaked me out and I was seeing an IBD flare-up on the horizon. I was afraid the stress from the storm and being “left behind” was going to have negative effects, even though he was still in his own home and the Farmer was taking care of him.
By the time we got home Sunday night, things had improved. Jamie was eating again. He was very happy to see me. He squeaked and barked and showed me his teeth repeatedly (Jamie is a champion smiler.) The Farmer was very VERY happy to see me although he did not squeak or bark or show his teeth. Apparently, Jamie spent most of Sunday pacing around the house and howling. Not barking. Howling. The Farmer could hear him from outside the house. Which is where he spent most of Sunday because he couldn’t stand to be inside with the Howling Drama King and it was too bloody hot to put the Howling Drama King outside in the kennel.
If I ever left Jamie at home again for another extended weekend with the Farmer, I suspect the former would bite me when I got back and the latter might file for divorce. It’s flattering to be missed that much by one’s dog but I really wish Jamie could chill out about staying home by himself, so to speak.
But Jamie has never been much into “chilling” about anything and at age 12, I don’t expect him to start now. If it distresses him that much to be left behind, it’s totally worth the extra time and effort to take him with. With that in mind, I’m thinking about ways to make hauling gear for two big dogs a little easier, especially when we go camping this fall.
When I bought R2, I did not think having enough room to load up camping gear several times a year was very important on the overall priority list when choosing a vehicle. Now that the reality of fall camping trips is growing closer, I’m rethinking that decision and realizing while I have enough room for dogs, crates, gear bags, coolers and stuff, it’s going to be a tight fit to get a tent, sleeping bag, air mattress, etc. jammed in, too. Okay, the obvious alternative is to get a hotel but I really do enjoy camping and look forward to our annual September outings.
I’m thinking about getting a car-top luggage carrier but the idea of strapping things to the roof (R2 has a luggage rack), only to have something break or come loose and scatter bits and pieces of my life down Interstate 80 is a bit frightening. If anyone has any experience with these things and/or brand recommendations, I would appreciate hearing them.
When Phoenix and I went to the seminar in Des Moines last weekend, Jamie stayed home with the Farmer. He usually goes with us wherever we go, even though he's been retired for 3 years, but this time I thought he’d be happier at home, hanging out on the couch and having a male bonding weekend than he would sitting in a crate for three days at the seminar.
I thought wrong.
When I called the Farmer on Saturday night, he said, “Your dog is not happy.”
Jamie had spent Friday evening pacing and barking and watching out the windows. He was in a constant state of distress when I did not come home. Then there was a severe weather outbreak over eastern Iowa that night, which only made things worse. Jamie is a drama king about severe weather. True to form, he spent the night leaping on and off the bed, quivering, vibrating, pacing, panting and having a meltdown. The Farmer did not get much sleep.
Saturday, Jamie wouldn’t eat. This freaked me out and I was seeing an IBD flare-up on the horizon. I was afraid the stress from the storm and being “left behind” was going to have negative effects, even though he was still in his own home and the Farmer was taking care of him.
By the time we got home Sunday night, things had improved. Jamie was eating again. He was very happy to see me. He squeaked and barked and showed me his teeth repeatedly (Jamie is a champion smiler.) The Farmer was very VERY happy to see me although he did not squeak or bark or show his teeth. Apparently, Jamie spent most of Sunday pacing around the house and howling. Not barking. Howling. The Farmer could hear him from outside the house. Which is where he spent most of Sunday because he couldn’t stand to be inside with the Howling Drama King and it was too bloody hot to put the Howling Drama King outside in the kennel.
If I ever left Jamie at home again for another extended weekend with the Farmer, I suspect the former would bite me when I got back and the latter might file for divorce. It’s flattering to be missed that much by one’s dog but I really wish Jamie could chill out about staying home by himself, so to speak.
But Jamie has never been much into “chilling” about anything and at age 12, I don’t expect him to start now. If it distresses him that much to be left behind, it’s totally worth the extra time and effort to take him with. With that in mind, I’m thinking about ways to make hauling gear for two big dogs a little easier, especially when we go camping this fall.
When I bought R2, I did not think having enough room to load up camping gear several times a year was very important on the overall priority list when choosing a vehicle. Now that the reality of fall camping trips is growing closer, I’m rethinking that decision and realizing while I have enough room for dogs, crates, gear bags, coolers and stuff, it’s going to be a tight fit to get a tent, sleeping bag, air mattress, etc. jammed in, too. Okay, the obvious alternative is to get a hotel but I really do enjoy camping and look forward to our annual September outings.
I’m thinking about getting a car-top luggage carrier but the idea of strapping things to the roof (R2 has a luggage rack), only to have something break or come loose and scatter bits and pieces of my life down Interstate 80 is a bit frightening. If anyone has any experience with these things and/or brand recommendations, I would appreciate hearing them.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Defining "corrections"
My goal for today is to clear up confusion about terminology and show a few examples of heeling corrections.
Let’s start with the C word itself. That seems to be the big sticking point — many folks think correction = punishment = pain. Little wonder people say no-no-no and run the other direction when it is suggested that correcting their dog would improve his performance. The word itself seems to be hard-wired to evoke unpleasant images, probably because we’ve all witnessed truly unpleasant things being done to dogs in the name of “correction.” That's the ugly extreme end of the spectrum and one I will avoid at all costs.
I don’t want to hurt my dog. And I won’t. For me, a correction might be more accurately described as a “redirection” or “do this instead” sort of action.
In trying to come up with a definition of “correction” that others won’t revolt against for the mere sake of the word, I wonder if I’ve unintentionally put too much emphasis on corrections as the solution to all training problems. They’re not. They’re only a part of it and I did not mean to give the impression they are the cure to every ill. The relationship you have with your dog, leadership (or lack of it), training methods, proofing, treats and play, plus what the dog brings to the table in terms of temperament and genetic mix form the big picture. It’s a balancing act and no single element should dominate the others. Leadership, relationship, training methods and play should take up considerably more of the pie than proofing, corrections or treats.
Each dog is an individual. I believe there are dogs out there who can be high achievers in the ring without many corrections in training. I know this because I’ve had them. Either the dog is a naturally bright learner (I think this was my case with Connor) or the trainer is exceptionally skilled in avoiding common trouble spots throughout the dog's career (hopefully, as trainers, the more dogs we train, the better we get at this).
But there are just as many (if not more) dogs who don't work that way. If you’ve only trained dogs who responded so well to positive methods that you never had to correct them in any way, shape or form, I truly hope you have a dog at some point in your life for whom those methods don't work. I’m not being mean but you will learn a lot more about training and about yourself from a dog who questions you than you do from the biddable dog who is content to always obey and never has an original thought of his own.
LACK OF EFFORT ERRORS VS. CONFUSION ERRORS
Once you feel your dog is “trained” and you take away the cookies and the toys to test the dog’s understanding of his job as he will perform it in the ring, the dog can make two kinds of mistakes. And yes, dogs WILL make mistakes in training. I don’t know any dog who is perfect in every single training session. Whether or not the handler recognizes these mistakes and chooses to do anything about them is another issue. It’s easy to let little errors in training slide or make excuses for them. They won’t fix themselves and a tiny error in training can easily lead to a HUGE error in the ring. Even if you don’t care about scores, ignoring errors in training can mean the difference between a leg and an NQ in the ring.
This is where you have to be honest with yourself as a trainer. If your dog makes a mistake when you pull the treats out of the picture, ask yourself, “Did I lay a solid foundation for this exercise and train it systematically without skipping steps so that it is reasonable to expect my dog to understand what I want even though I don’t have a hand full of cookies OR did I rush things and am I now assuming a level of proficiency that really does not exist and I just want to correct because it’s easier than putting the work into re-training?”
First, let me say I don’t want to use corrections to make my dog pay for my own screw ups when it came to training something right the first time. With that in mind, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt if I’m not sure if he’s not making the effort or if he’s confused. With Phoenix, I think most of his errors at this point stem from confusion. Seriously, if he honestly understands what to do, he has shown me he is willing to do it under a variety of circumstances. Distraction on heeling is the possible exception - although he knows his job is to watch me he is very keyed into the environment and hyper aware of sounds and motion. It's very hard for him to ignore his surroundings. That's just who he is and I accept that as a challenge we'll probably have his entire career.
If you feel your dog truly understands beyond a doubt what you expect of him, then his error is one of lack of effort and you can fairly give a correction. But don’t do it if you’re angry or you’re out to “teach him a lesson.” That’s not what it’s about!
If you can look back and see holes in the foundation training of the exercise or admit you may have rushed things, then the error is one of confusion — your dog really doesn’t understand what to do. Then it’s time to go back and strengthen that part of the exercise or maybe even do some re-training. This may or may not involve treats, your choice. Just remember that throwing cookies at a problem is not necessarily going to solve it. Use them wisely.
If your dog is making errors because he's scared, you have to resolve the fear issue first. You cannot correct a dog who is afraid of the environment, men in cowboy hats, baby strollers, etc. Some hard core trainers might argue the dog should be more concerned with the correction he will receive for not paying attention than anything a scary baby stroller might do but I do not buy that line of reasoning. It's thinking like that that gives corrections such a bad rap! Get the dog back on solid ground mentally first, then work on fixing the mistake.
This effort error vs. confusion error scenario is confusing because many of us are in the habit of assuming our dogs “know” the exercise when in reality they don't. It was a smack in the face this summer to realize that on a couple of exercises, Phoenix really did not know what to do, even though he had done them successfully enough in the ring to get a CDX and UD. (I’ll write about those, too, in the future.)
Okay, this is getting long but I want to write about a couple of the corrections I’m using so you can get a feel for what I’m talking about.
The thing with corrections is that not the same thing works on every dog. You might think these are silly but they’re working for us.
HEELING
Remember, I don’t want a correction to be threatening, painful or frightening. If my dog finds it slightly annoying, that’s fine, maybe he’ll work a little harder to avoid it. Or if it makes me more interesting, even better!
Here are the two things I’m doing that have worked best.
1) If Phoenix drops his head or checks out on eye contact while we are either setting up or doing heelwork, I turn and run the opposite direction. I’ve been working him on a very light leash so he has to come with me because he's attached. There’s no jerking or yanking, I just run. I usually only run half a dozen steps. He catches up and gives me total eye contact. I ask him if he got lost. He looks at me like, “You are unpredictable and I need to watch you very closely.” His body language telegraphs interest in what might happen next, not concern.
2) My second correction (I use these alternately, depending on the situation), is this: I reach down and reposition his head with both hands, right hand under his muzzle, left hand at the back of his head. Fortunately, he is the perfect height for this. My hands are gentle but firm. Uh-oh, you looked away, now we will do the dreaded (tongue in cheek) head hold.
If we are heeling, I don’t stop, we keep moving. We heel around the building or the yard or wherever with me holding his head where I want it (actually a tiny bit higher than where he would normally carry it). I scold him verbally in a silly tone and ask “WHAT were you looking at?” But I’m not angry. I truly think having his head physically positioned embarrasses him. When I take my hands off, I might “bounce” him out ahead of me and break off the exercise. He understands being “bounced” and responds well to it. The head holding is annoying - the bounce is fun.
Those heeling corrections are for lack of effort errors. I have worked heeling with attention from Day One with Phoenix and truly expect him to understand what I want. It's not a new concept nor one that was taught hastily.
If he were confused (let's say we were heeling through a playground full of screaming children - honestly, we've NEVER done that before), I would set up at a distance and work stationary attention until he was confident about doing his job (watching). Then we would heel around the perimeter of the playground and call it good for the day.
Hopefully, my next post will explore confusion issues - and believe me, we have a couple dandy ones.
Let’s start with the C word itself. That seems to be the big sticking point — many folks think correction = punishment = pain. Little wonder people say no-no-no and run the other direction when it is suggested that correcting their dog would improve his performance. The word itself seems to be hard-wired to evoke unpleasant images, probably because we’ve all witnessed truly unpleasant things being done to dogs in the name of “correction.” That's the ugly extreme end of the spectrum and one I will avoid at all costs.
I don’t want to hurt my dog. And I won’t. For me, a correction might be more accurately described as a “redirection” or “do this instead” sort of action.
In trying to come up with a definition of “correction” that others won’t revolt against for the mere sake of the word, I wonder if I’ve unintentionally put too much emphasis on corrections as the solution to all training problems. They’re not. They’re only a part of it and I did not mean to give the impression they are the cure to every ill. The relationship you have with your dog, leadership (or lack of it), training methods, proofing, treats and play, plus what the dog brings to the table in terms of temperament and genetic mix form the big picture. It’s a balancing act and no single element should dominate the others. Leadership, relationship, training methods and play should take up considerably more of the pie than proofing, corrections or treats.
Each dog is an individual. I believe there are dogs out there who can be high achievers in the ring without many corrections in training. I know this because I’ve had them. Either the dog is a naturally bright learner (I think this was my case with Connor) or the trainer is exceptionally skilled in avoiding common trouble spots throughout the dog's career (hopefully, as trainers, the more dogs we train, the better we get at this).
But there are just as many (if not more) dogs who don't work that way. If you’ve only trained dogs who responded so well to positive methods that you never had to correct them in any way, shape or form, I truly hope you have a dog at some point in your life for whom those methods don't work. I’m not being mean but you will learn a lot more about training and about yourself from a dog who questions you than you do from the biddable dog who is content to always obey and never has an original thought of his own.
LACK OF EFFORT ERRORS VS. CONFUSION ERRORS
Once you feel your dog is “trained” and you take away the cookies and the toys to test the dog’s understanding of his job as he will perform it in the ring, the dog can make two kinds of mistakes. And yes, dogs WILL make mistakes in training. I don’t know any dog who is perfect in every single training session. Whether or not the handler recognizes these mistakes and chooses to do anything about them is another issue. It’s easy to let little errors in training slide or make excuses for them. They won’t fix themselves and a tiny error in training can easily lead to a HUGE error in the ring. Even if you don’t care about scores, ignoring errors in training can mean the difference between a leg and an NQ in the ring.
This is where you have to be honest with yourself as a trainer. If your dog makes a mistake when you pull the treats out of the picture, ask yourself, “Did I lay a solid foundation for this exercise and train it systematically without skipping steps so that it is reasonable to expect my dog to understand what I want even though I don’t have a hand full of cookies OR did I rush things and am I now assuming a level of proficiency that really does not exist and I just want to correct because it’s easier than putting the work into re-training?”
First, let me say I don’t want to use corrections to make my dog pay for my own screw ups when it came to training something right the first time. With that in mind, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt if I’m not sure if he’s not making the effort or if he’s confused. With Phoenix, I think most of his errors at this point stem from confusion. Seriously, if he honestly understands what to do, he has shown me he is willing to do it under a variety of circumstances. Distraction on heeling is the possible exception - although he knows his job is to watch me he is very keyed into the environment and hyper aware of sounds and motion. It's very hard for him to ignore his surroundings. That's just who he is and I accept that as a challenge we'll probably have his entire career.
If you feel your dog truly understands beyond a doubt what you expect of him, then his error is one of lack of effort and you can fairly give a correction. But don’t do it if you’re angry or you’re out to “teach him a lesson.” That’s not what it’s about!
If you can look back and see holes in the foundation training of the exercise or admit you may have rushed things, then the error is one of confusion — your dog really doesn’t understand what to do. Then it’s time to go back and strengthen that part of the exercise or maybe even do some re-training. This may or may not involve treats, your choice. Just remember that throwing cookies at a problem is not necessarily going to solve it. Use them wisely.
If your dog is making errors because he's scared, you have to resolve the fear issue first. You cannot correct a dog who is afraid of the environment, men in cowboy hats, baby strollers, etc. Some hard core trainers might argue the dog should be more concerned with the correction he will receive for not paying attention than anything a scary baby stroller might do but I do not buy that line of reasoning. It's thinking like that that gives corrections such a bad rap! Get the dog back on solid ground mentally first, then work on fixing the mistake.
This effort error vs. confusion error scenario is confusing because many of us are in the habit of assuming our dogs “know” the exercise when in reality they don't. It was a smack in the face this summer to realize that on a couple of exercises, Phoenix really did not know what to do, even though he had done them successfully enough in the ring to get a CDX and UD. (I’ll write about those, too, in the future.)
Okay, this is getting long but I want to write about a couple of the corrections I’m using so you can get a feel for what I’m talking about.
The thing with corrections is that not the same thing works on every dog. You might think these are silly but they’re working for us.
HEELING
Remember, I don’t want a correction to be threatening, painful or frightening. If my dog finds it slightly annoying, that’s fine, maybe he’ll work a little harder to avoid it. Or if it makes me more interesting, even better!
Here are the two things I’m doing that have worked best.
1) If Phoenix drops his head or checks out on eye contact while we are either setting up or doing heelwork, I turn and run the opposite direction. I’ve been working him on a very light leash so he has to come with me because he's attached. There’s no jerking or yanking, I just run. I usually only run half a dozen steps. He catches up and gives me total eye contact. I ask him if he got lost. He looks at me like, “You are unpredictable and I need to watch you very closely.” His body language telegraphs interest in what might happen next, not concern.
2) My second correction (I use these alternately, depending on the situation), is this: I reach down and reposition his head with both hands, right hand under his muzzle, left hand at the back of his head. Fortunately, he is the perfect height for this. My hands are gentle but firm. Uh-oh, you looked away, now we will do the dreaded (tongue in cheek) head hold.
If we are heeling, I don’t stop, we keep moving. We heel around the building or the yard or wherever with me holding his head where I want it (actually a tiny bit higher than where he would normally carry it). I scold him verbally in a silly tone and ask “WHAT were you looking at?” But I’m not angry. I truly think having his head physically positioned embarrasses him. When I take my hands off, I might “bounce” him out ahead of me and break off the exercise. He understands being “bounced” and responds well to it. The head holding is annoying - the bounce is fun.
Those heeling corrections are for lack of effort errors. I have worked heeling with attention from Day One with Phoenix and truly expect him to understand what I want. It's not a new concept nor one that was taught hastily.
If he were confused (let's say we were heeling through a playground full of screaming children - honestly, we've NEVER done that before), I would set up at a distance and work stationary attention until he was confident about doing his job (watching). Then we would heel around the perimeter of the playground and call it good for the day.
Hopefully, my next post will explore confusion issues - and believe me, we have a couple dandy ones.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Seminar, corrections, attitude and lots of other stuff
This is long. Sorry. See what happens when I don't blog for a couple of days? My head gets so full of stuff I have to do a brain dump.
The Laura Romanik seminar was great! Possibly the best part was her use of detailed handouts that reflected the topics she covered so I could actually pay attention to what she was saying and doing instead of trying to scribble 100 pages of notes that I probably wouldn’t be able to read after the fact anyway.
Got some great new ideas to try. Of course, I’m not going to run out and change the way I train everything but there are a few things I can implement and I'm looking forward to working them into my training with Phoenix.
Ironically - or coincidentally - she did a great segment on corrections: when and how to use them and why they are important. I can’t repeat her entire seminar here but if you get a chance to see her, it’s worth the time and money.
Interesting comments from readers on the “Are corrections really necessary?” post! Honestly, every single point you guys have made has been bouncing around in my head during the last month, since I’ve overhauled the way Phoenix and I are training.
I’ll address some of those comments and try to make my thoughts clearer. I stand by my belief that corrections are an important part of obedience training if you want to achieve anything beyond a CD or if you want to achieve competitive scores at any level. Like many of you have said — and it bears repeating — they're not harsh or abusive. They're just an information route.
A correction is information about what you’re doing wrong and how to do it right. Imagine trying to learn a new job. You’ve been working at it for awhile and think you understood just how it should go. Your boss looks at your work, throws it out and says, “Start over and maybe you’ll get it right this time.”
Not too helpful, huh? If your boss had pointed out the place where you had made the mistake, you could remember not to make that mistake again. In the future, if you made different mistakes, your boss would be there to point them out, allowing you to eventually master the task at hand and be able to do it confidently and correctly, knowing exactly how it should be performed. That’s what I want from my dog: I want him to know exactly what I expect and for him to be able to do it truly independently, with only one command - no repeated commands, do-overs or cookie waving. And yes, I totally admit I’ve fallen short on this with Phoenix. Lessons learned. My previous dogs were incredibly tolerant of my bad training habits!
Different dogs need different types and levels of correction. I believe there ARE dogs out there who need little or no correction while others will question everything you ask them to do for their entire career. My sheltie Connor was one of the former. I am starting to think Phoenix is one of the latter. Jamie fell somewhere in the middle.
One reader asked how will corrections solve the problem of a dog losing his “support system” when we get in the ring where neither corrections nor treat/toy rewards are allowed? By correcting the dog for errors in training, the dog learns what is the right response and what is the wrong response. It erases the gray area of confusion. A dog who knows how to do the job will be confident when he goes into the ring and won’t NEED a support system to help him perform beyond what the handler can give with verbal praise, petting and body language. I think this is a state of nirvana that a lot of dog and handler teams never reach. They go into the ring in a constant agony of worry, lacking the trust and confidence that YES, their dog totally understand what to do.
Another reader mentioned the genetic factor when it comes to a dog’s trainability. She was right on! It’s no accident that many of the top OTCh. dogs in the country are from the same kennels or that when ultra competitive trainers look for a puppy, they go to kennels known for producing high-achieving dogs. That’s not saying these are going to be “easy OTChs” but it’s going to be easier to put an OTCh. on a golden retriever with three generations of OTChs on both sides of the pedigree than on one from, say, conformation lines only and no history of performance titles. Not saying that can't be done but the dogs from OTCh. lines have traits that make them highly suitable to the demands of training for that level of competition.
Most of us trainers, OTCh. and non-OTCh. alike, simply train the dog we have. We buy a dog because we like the breed, we have established a relationship with the breeder, someone else recommended the breeder, they have healthy dogs, etc. Sure, we put some time into researching pedigrees but the bottom line is we get our dogs not because we want an “easy OTCh.” but because we want to share our lives with this particular breed, for whatever reason.
None of my dogs have been chosen because they had a long string of performance titles behind both the dam and sire. Knowing that, I realize it’s largely up to ME to produce the motivation, compulsion, desire, etc. that will turn us into a winning team.
One more question from the comments: what if Phoenix makes a mistake during the non-food stage of our training? If it’s not an NQ-ing mistake, right now I’m letting it slide. Our bigger picture is stringing together a successful, passing performance in all exercises. I’ll get back to the precision element later. Yeah, I care about heeling bumps and crooked fronts but I don’t care about them right now!
If he makes an NQ mistake (doesn’t drop on signals, for example) I have to ask myself: was he not trying (result - correction) or is he really confused and doesn’t know what to do (result - pull this part of the training OUT of the non-food work and work on it individually. A bare minimum of food can return at this time but only if the dog shows me genuine effort. Flooding him with treats is not going to suddenly make everything clear in his mind.)
BTW, I have brought toys and play back into our training picture on a limited basis. Phoenix has several exercises that are rock solid (did I really type that out loud? what am I thinking!?) and after a successful sequence of 2-3 exercises (done formally, front, finish, the whole works), I will release to a toy and play. But this is not a mid-exercise release and I’m not doing it with the intent to reward or build enthusiasm. It’s just play because I enjoy playing with my dog. More on that in future posts, too.
Oh, and several of you mentioned attitude: I absolutely agree - I do not want to show a dog in the obedience ring who does not want to be there. I want my dog to be happy when we train and show. No, correcting a dog is probably not going to make him “happy.” But think about this - if you were doing a job that you were very uncertain and hesitant about because you really didn’t understand how to do it properly, how happy would you be? What if someone stepped in and corrected you when you made mistakes? Believe me, I’ve been there! Being corrected didn’t make me happy either but it helped me learn the job. When I got good at the job, I was much happier and could truly enjoy the work and perform it well.
Please understand that my corrections are followed by genuine, sincere, heartfelt, honest, appreciative (help, I’m running out of adjectives) praise when he gets it right. I am not browbeating my dog. I don’t expect him to work like a golden retriever who wags his tail nonstop and is delirious about obedience. Phoenix is an insane nut around the house (flower pot on his head, stealing socks, etc.). He's serious when we go to train. He CAN be nutty in training, depending on the exercise. I think he'll get nuttier when our understanding of each other improves. I can live with that. If he were truly miserable, we'd stop this obedience game and do something else. But he's not. The journey continues.
Something I’d like to point out from Laura’s seminar and this is only MY interpretation, but if you have to correct for something more than twice in a row, you need to do something different with that particular skill - don’t just keep correcting the dog. Either make the exercise easier or go back and strengthen whatever part of it the dog is having an issue with. Repeatedly correcting without getting better results is going to create learned helplessness where the dog thinks, “I do not know what to do. I cannot win. I give up.” This is very sad.
Okay. There’s more to come. I just have to get my mind wrapped around what I want to say next.
The Laura Romanik seminar was great! Possibly the best part was her use of detailed handouts that reflected the topics she covered so I could actually pay attention to what she was saying and doing instead of trying to scribble 100 pages of notes that I probably wouldn’t be able to read after the fact anyway.
Got some great new ideas to try. Of course, I’m not going to run out and change the way I train everything but there are a few things I can implement and I'm looking forward to working them into my training with Phoenix.
Ironically - or coincidentally - she did a great segment on corrections: when and how to use them and why they are important. I can’t repeat her entire seminar here but if you get a chance to see her, it’s worth the time and money.
Interesting comments from readers on the “Are corrections really necessary?” post! Honestly, every single point you guys have made has been bouncing around in my head during the last month, since I’ve overhauled the way Phoenix and I are training.
I’ll address some of those comments and try to make my thoughts clearer. I stand by my belief that corrections are an important part of obedience training if you want to achieve anything beyond a CD or if you want to achieve competitive scores at any level. Like many of you have said — and it bears repeating — they're not harsh or abusive. They're just an information route.
A correction is information about what you’re doing wrong and how to do it right. Imagine trying to learn a new job. You’ve been working at it for awhile and think you understood just how it should go. Your boss looks at your work, throws it out and says, “Start over and maybe you’ll get it right this time.”
Not too helpful, huh? If your boss had pointed out the place where you had made the mistake, you could remember not to make that mistake again. In the future, if you made different mistakes, your boss would be there to point them out, allowing you to eventually master the task at hand and be able to do it confidently and correctly, knowing exactly how it should be performed. That’s what I want from my dog: I want him to know exactly what I expect and for him to be able to do it truly independently, with only one command - no repeated commands, do-overs or cookie waving. And yes, I totally admit I’ve fallen short on this with Phoenix. Lessons learned. My previous dogs were incredibly tolerant of my bad training habits!
Different dogs need different types and levels of correction. I believe there ARE dogs out there who need little or no correction while others will question everything you ask them to do for their entire career. My sheltie Connor was one of the former. I am starting to think Phoenix is one of the latter. Jamie fell somewhere in the middle.
One reader asked how will corrections solve the problem of a dog losing his “support system” when we get in the ring where neither corrections nor treat/toy rewards are allowed? By correcting the dog for errors in training, the dog learns what is the right response and what is the wrong response. It erases the gray area of confusion. A dog who knows how to do the job will be confident when he goes into the ring and won’t NEED a support system to help him perform beyond what the handler can give with verbal praise, petting and body language. I think this is a state of nirvana that a lot of dog and handler teams never reach. They go into the ring in a constant agony of worry, lacking the trust and confidence that YES, their dog totally understand what to do.
Another reader mentioned the genetic factor when it comes to a dog’s trainability. She was right on! It’s no accident that many of the top OTCh. dogs in the country are from the same kennels or that when ultra competitive trainers look for a puppy, they go to kennels known for producing high-achieving dogs. That’s not saying these are going to be “easy OTChs” but it’s going to be easier to put an OTCh. on a golden retriever with three generations of OTChs on both sides of the pedigree than on one from, say, conformation lines only and no history of performance titles. Not saying that can't be done but the dogs from OTCh. lines have traits that make them highly suitable to the demands of training for that level of competition.
Most of us trainers, OTCh. and non-OTCh. alike, simply train the dog we have. We buy a dog because we like the breed, we have established a relationship with the breeder, someone else recommended the breeder, they have healthy dogs, etc. Sure, we put some time into researching pedigrees but the bottom line is we get our dogs not because we want an “easy OTCh.” but because we want to share our lives with this particular breed, for whatever reason.
None of my dogs have been chosen because they had a long string of performance titles behind both the dam and sire. Knowing that, I realize it’s largely up to ME to produce the motivation, compulsion, desire, etc. that will turn us into a winning team.
One more question from the comments: what if Phoenix makes a mistake during the non-food stage of our training? If it’s not an NQ-ing mistake, right now I’m letting it slide. Our bigger picture is stringing together a successful, passing performance in all exercises. I’ll get back to the precision element later. Yeah, I care about heeling bumps and crooked fronts but I don’t care about them right now!
If he makes an NQ mistake (doesn’t drop on signals, for example) I have to ask myself: was he not trying (result - correction) or is he really confused and doesn’t know what to do (result - pull this part of the training OUT of the non-food work and work on it individually. A bare minimum of food can return at this time but only if the dog shows me genuine effort. Flooding him with treats is not going to suddenly make everything clear in his mind.)
BTW, I have brought toys and play back into our training picture on a limited basis. Phoenix has several exercises that are rock solid (did I really type that out loud? what am I thinking!?) and after a successful sequence of 2-3 exercises (done formally, front, finish, the whole works), I will release to a toy and play. But this is not a mid-exercise release and I’m not doing it with the intent to reward or build enthusiasm. It’s just play because I enjoy playing with my dog. More on that in future posts, too.
Oh, and several of you mentioned attitude: I absolutely agree - I do not want to show a dog in the obedience ring who does not want to be there. I want my dog to be happy when we train and show. No, correcting a dog is probably not going to make him “happy.” But think about this - if you were doing a job that you were very uncertain and hesitant about because you really didn’t understand how to do it properly, how happy would you be? What if someone stepped in and corrected you when you made mistakes? Believe me, I’ve been there! Being corrected didn’t make me happy either but it helped me learn the job. When I got good at the job, I was much happier and could truly enjoy the work and perform it well.
Please understand that my corrections are followed by genuine, sincere, heartfelt, honest, appreciative (help, I’m running out of adjectives) praise when he gets it right. I am not browbeating my dog. I don’t expect him to work like a golden retriever who wags his tail nonstop and is delirious about obedience. Phoenix is an insane nut around the house (flower pot on his head, stealing socks, etc.). He's serious when we go to train. He CAN be nutty in training, depending on the exercise. I think he'll get nuttier when our understanding of each other improves. I can live with that. If he were truly miserable, we'd stop this obedience game and do something else. But he's not. The journey continues.
Something I’d like to point out from Laura’s seminar and this is only MY interpretation, but if you have to correct for something more than twice in a row, you need to do something different with that particular skill - don’t just keep correcting the dog. Either make the exercise easier or go back and strengthen whatever part of it the dog is having an issue with. Repeatedly correcting without getting better results is going to create learned helplessness where the dog thinks, “I do not know what to do. I cannot win. I give up.” This is very sad.
Okay. There’s more to come. I just have to get my mind wrapped around what I want to say next.
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