The first time she switched from offset to straight yesterday, she hopped the entire way. By the end of the session, her best attempt on straight poles was switching between 5 and 6. Today, her FIRST attempt had her switching between 4-5 and she improved to switching between 3-4 for the rest of the session.

I also clocked her three reps at between 3.1 and 3.2 seconds. Room for improvement, but not bad!

I know some people believe you should let the dog choose the footwork, but with a dog the size of Gitta, I really believe that swimming the poles would be not only faster, but easier for her. But during her training, focusing on hard entries, she learned to hop.

We tried going back to spring based offset poles, which was our previous method and produced fast weavers, but poor entries. She would swim these beautifully (and with those fabulous 2×2 entries!). But no matter how we tried to transition, or how long we stayed with offsets, she would start hopping again on straight poles.

My latest attempt has been to isolated the moment she switches from hopping to swimming with the clicker. This seems to be having some success! I started by clicking the moment she switched on offsets. I do believe that any dog will hop the first few poles when entering from an angle. So with offsets, she would hop through the first few poles and then switch to swimming for the remainder. After a few sessions, I switched to inline poles mid-session. The video below shows her progression. Her first time (during this session) on inline poles, she hopped the entire way. No click, just a few kibble pieces. The next attempt she switched about halfway, and the attempts after that she switched even earlier.

I’m hopeful that I can get her consistently swimming on inline poles using the clicker and will consider it a success when she starts swimming on her first rep by pole 4.

When I grab the nursing pillow, she kicks her feet and laughs and claps.

When I grab a Kleenex, she turns her head away and starts to cry.

Ahhh classical conditioning, it’s happening all the time whether you want it to or not!

Brand New Year and time again to review your goals for the New Year!!!

Please complete a separate goal document for each dog that you are training.

Your name: Esteban “Clutch City” Fernandezlopez

Dog’s Age: 1

Venues where this dog is showing/training: AKC, USDAA

What are your short term goals (6-12 months) for you and this dog in each venue?
1. Become the greatest agility dog ever.
2. Never lose to a border collie.
3. Make Debby rue the day she quit golden retrievers.

What are your long term goals (12+ months) for you and this dog in each venue?
1. Force Debby to acknowledge my agility greatness in a full page ad in the Houston Chronicle.

Identify the top 5 skill-based goals that you need to work on in each venue to achieve your short term goals.
1. Running contacts.
2. Weave pole entries.
3. Develop a filing system for our blue ribbons.
4. Victory dancing.
5. Fake modesty.

How many times a week do you train this dog in each venue and how long is the average training session? Briefly describe how you plan your training sessions and whether you do this before/after you get your dog. Include in this description the type of notes you make regarding your training session and when you make your notes.
5 minutes daily, because that’s all a great trainer needs to get the job done.

How much time in each training session do you work on building drive? Self-control? Proofing/distraction work? Briefly describe how you work on each of these training areas.
Self-control is for handlers too scared to run a really fast dog.

How many new locations do you visit when training and how often do you go to a new location? When you do visit an away from home location to train, what type of locations do you frequent? For example, do you train at churches, parks, schools, etc? When you are training at a location, what part of the property do you utilize during your training session?
We train wherever there’s a large audience, and we sign autographs after each
session.

Do you video tape your training sessions? If so, how do you use the video information to plan/improve your next training session?
Spectators tape us for posterity, competitors tape us to copy our skills. I will view our sessions on youtube to improve our victory celebrations.

Do you video tape your runs (if you are showing)? If so, how do you use the video
information to plan your training sessions and/or enhance future showing experiences?
I have signed a 3 year, 2 million dollar deal with ESPN to record all of our trials
and air them on ESPN2 at 2 am.

If you are showing, do you make notes about what happened during your runs? If so, briefly describe the type of notes you make.
I make mental notes only, because I am very smart and highly educated.

What educational materials (books, magazines, DVD’s, etc.) do you read about the
sports you are interested in? How do you use this information during your training and/or showing?
I like to read about other handling and training methods for my own amusement.

If you are showing, how do you train/prepare mentally for competition?
I visualize myself winning. Repeatedly.

Describe a ‘typical’ 24-hour period for your dog. What he does, where he is, where he eats, sleeps, plays, etc.
When she is not eating food prepared by our gourmet chef, she is getting a
massage. She also has a personal trainer and her own gym. She has 8 luxury crates and her own swimming pool and an old Nintendo system. Her favorite game is Duck Hunt.

Review the information you have written above and assess whether your short term and long term goals are realistic in relationship to the amount of time you spend training each week, the number of new locations you visit each week, and your dog’s structure and routine at home. Briefly write your assessment below.
I must be careful not to obtain another border collie, or it will be difficult to never lose to another border collie, as I am awesome.

How can members of the Dogwood Staff most effectively help you achieve your goals?
Videotape for me. Provide food, beverages, and back rubs. Cheer when I win.

Merry Christmas From Team Fernandezlopez

I experimented with different positions and different motions in this video. I think there are essentially 2 types of rear crosses: slight turns where the dog needs a lot of forward motion (extension) as in jump #7a-b, and sharp turns where the dog needs to add a stride before the jump (collection) as in jumps #7c-d. Usually, your dog will be better at one than the other. The differences between 7a and 7b can be handled according to your preferred system of cues; likewise between 7c and 7d.

Drive the line or give the dog lots of room? Based on my sample size of 1 crossover Greg Derrett dog, I conclude that driving the line gives you the better turn at the wing and more clearly distinguishes this from the traditional decel stop (where the dog does not rear cross but should collect and turn toward you).

So are decels okay for a GD handler? In Clean Run pages 18-21 September 2010 Nancy Gyes, a GD handler, gives a compelling argument that one should NEVER decelerate on a rear cross because she believes that deceleration should ALWAYS mean the dog turns TOWARD the handler. Clearly, I am contradicting Nancy here. I think as long as you drive the diagonal line, deceleration is okay on a rear cross and will help the dog collect and turn better. In my video, after 30+ rear crosses in a row, I threw in a normal decel stop where the dog is expected to jump and turn toward me and NOT flick away/rear cross to test if I had broken my cue–my dog did the right thing, and this is shown in the last exercise you see on the video.

In conclusion, I think it’s legitimate for a GD handler to use decel/accel and some positional cues on rear crosses as long as you are always driving the diagonal line. I would combine an accel while rear crossing further away from the jump to cue extension, and I would decel stop near the jump to cue collection.

It may be that Nancy is ultimately correct, and over time my dog will begin to flick away (turn the wrong way) on simple turns, but I am comfortable enough with my conclusions to put this to the test on course. And yes, I’ll ask Greg about it when I see him.

Lead out stand still decel cue: I lead out to the take off side of the jump, and orient myself forward, looking over the appropriate shoulder, but do NOT MOVE my feet until my dog collects/gathers for the jump. The dog wraps the wing nearest to me and basically comes to my front where she is rewarded. Taking a step forward before the dog jumps will launch the dog in extension and destroy your tight turn. The concept of cueing “collection” or tight turns with physical deceleration of the handler is a life changing concept (learned from Greg Derrett) for a front cross dominant handler. With this tool, the “front cross-only” handler can avoid a lot of wide turns you create by running full blast for a front cross and getting there late. However, using it generally forces the handler to immediately rear cross the next obstacle.

In motion decel cue: In the first photo above, I am decelerating, slowing down in an attempt to come to a full stop just before the wing of the jump in order to cue a tight turn to the right. In the next photo, I am accelerating, about to run past the wing of the jump, as I want my dog in full extension and racing forward. Notice the contrast between a handler slowing down vs running.

Simple turn to the right: This is how I cue a turn to the right. This is pretty much how everyone cues a turn to the right. Unfortunately, many people will cue a rear cross to the LEFT by first pulling their dog to the RIGHT with their shoulder (and sometimes feet) and releasing them back to the left, like pulling and letting go of a rubber band. For these handlers, their dog will often incorrectly anticipate the rear cross, turning the wrong way after the jump, when their poor handlers wanted a simple turn. This is because the visual/positional cue for a simple turn looks the same as the first half of the rear cross. The dog will usually guess correctly, but sometimes chooses the wrong one. If your dog has ever inexplicably turned the wrong way, you could be one of these folks.

Rear cross: these 2 sequential photos show how I currently rear cross. I am turned slightly toward the dog and I apply pressure to her path. This type of rear cross has the benefit of NOT looking anything like a simple turn to the right to my dog, so I don’t suffer the inexplicable wrong turns/spins other handlers get. However, I am very unhappy with my rear crosses. I do NOT have the ability to wrap a wing with a rear cross and I do not have a reliable way to send my dog in distinctly different directions after the rear cross. Annie Pyle has a great piece in Oct 2010 Clean Run page 43 where she notes that with respect to rear crosses “handlers often choose to force late front crosses or attempt awkward landing-side pushes.” Annie’s anxiety-provoking Figure 2 kept me up for an hour last night; I could barely eek out my QQ double 1st place this morning.

I see a few options: I can use the same rear cross cue in the same place relative to the jump but move in different directions/speeds/turning after (which I currently do, I think). Or I can use the same rear cross cue but do them in different places relative to the jump (closer to or further away from the jump/similar to Greg Derrett’s positional front cross cues?). Or do I need to scrap my system of rear crossing and come up with distinct handling cues to navigate jumps 7a-d in Annie’s Figure 2.

Tell me what you think. Because I really need to know. And then I’ll tell you how I would handle 7a-d with rear crosses and try them in the field.

This is her second session on 12 poles. The first session, she wasn’t ready. She could make it to about 8-10 and then wasn’t sure of herself and popped out. So I went back to 6 and 6 (2 sets of 6 poles with a 6ish foot gap between) for a few days. This is her first session after that refresher

I’d like her to start swimming through the poles, so next step is to get on a set that’s 24 inches and see if she swims that. If not, then I’ll work on footwork using Susan Garrett’s method of opening all the poles just a hair.

This is her second session on 6 straight poles with a fixed base (we also had several sessions on 3 sets of 2×2′s staked straight). She still gets those amazing entries!!! I’m hoping that with time, she’ll switch to a swimming style.

But MAN look at those entries! And she stays in – even when I really race her!

Last day of 4 poles for Gitta. She’s doing fantastic on angles and I’ve started ‘racing’ her on some straight on entries since many dogs have a hard time staying in when their owners are running too.