Awesome Agility Adventures:Jefferson's Journey: Mission Impossible: What a Difference a Week Makes!

DEFINITION: The phrase "when pigs fly" is a way of saying that something will never happen or is impossible. The phrase often is used for a humorous effect, to scoff at over-ambition. There are numerous variations on the theme; when an individual with a reputation for failure finally succeeds, onlookers may sarcastically claim to see a flying pig.

This weekend Jane Killion put on a weekend seminar about training “impossible” dogs (i.e. dogs that are not typical agility dogs like Border Collies or Shelties). She has written a book and developed a whole philosophy of training called, “When Pigs Fly.” In preparation for her seminar, I have been reading her book and implementing her free shaping and clicker exercises with great success. For example, after Jefferson ran from his agility leash during the January trial, I have free shaped him to go pick up his leash and bring it to me. Success! Already, I was excited to learn more about “operant conditioning” and how to transfer the clicker to the agility field.

First off, Jane exposed the dogs to free shaping by using the clicker. Handlers and their doggies (we audited this part since I was already free shaping Jefferson’s behavior at home) had the opportunity to work her dogs. By the way, they were the “Spuds” MacKenzie dogs of the 80’s – Bull Terriers – "impossible" breeds that do NOT want to work for their handlers but drink Bud Light. All the participants successfully free shaped her dogs to get on the teeter, take jumps, go in a crate, walk around cones, etc. – all by clicking the dog to encourage this behavior. Amazing…next, the handlers brought their own dogs and shaped their behaviors such as stepping in a box, going into a crate, etc. All the dogs and handlers were very successful in shaping their dogs behaviors. Excellent!!

The next three sessions involved all the handlers running their dogs in an agility course with close to 19 obstacles. I was excited to see how Jefferson would handle the course, let alone the pressure to perform! I was nervous, much like at a trial, because everyone was watching us AND we were being professionally recorded by Jane's husband Mark, who wore a video camera apparatus, while Jane stood on the field to diagnose our run. Well, our run was a complete disaster…Jefferson shut down, ran off, sniffed the ground, ran over to check-out the camera man, and the crème de’ la’ crème…..pooped on the field! Yippee!!! Every “bad” thing that happens in a trial happened during this one run; I was sure to get my monies worth out of this seminar! No place to go but up! up! up!

Jane helped break down the behavior and the next time we ran the course, we took one obstacle at a time and then clicked and treated. Jefferson loved this since it involved the clicker and cheese;-) He was pretty fast and wanted to run more than one obstacle at a time, but I was diligent about clicking after every single obstacle. Since he was familiar with the clicker, he already associated the clicker with good times and “playing the game” of working for me. The next time we ran, we “thinned the ratio” meaning not clicking after every obstacle, but randomly clicking on average of every 3^rd or 4^th obstacle. This worked great! Jefferson really understood the clicking and once again was very successful. Jane said that some dogs were more “operant” than others so it would depend on your own dog as to how fast you “thin the ration” before running a course without clicking. Another important tip she shared was that it is important to stop and click when the dog does something “right” rather than “wrong.” We, as handlers, do not want to stop when the going is good, but it helps to stop and click during the “good” stuff!

On the second day of the seminar, we once again ran 2 courses - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I “thinned” the ratio out pretty far for Jefferson and he ran the entire course for me without stopping or shutting down. Even when he stopped on top of the A-frame, I got him back on track! Yay! Jefferson ran the straight-line of jumps into the tunnel beautifully. Although she encouraged a front or rear cross to get most dogs to take the tunnel, I was successful in handling Jefferson to run ahead and take the tunnel at speed. Distance work is our strength so I try to handle accordingly in most situations.

Later in running the course, he did miss a weave pole entrance due to my awkward rear cross of the jump so I elected to work on the weave poles with Jane. At first, I was a bit skeptical of Jane’s weave pole training methodology because she wanted me to click the entrance and then click after each pole. I was afraid this would slow down his weave pole performance so I was reluctant to train this way. But, after I understood what she was encouraging…for Jefferson to go fast during all 12 and not to slow down in the middle…I was ready to try clicking him for getting the entrance and speed during the middle. Later, I could phase out the clicker once he was performing all weaves up to speed.

During the afternoon session, we discussed agility courses and analyzed course maps to determine where the lead changes occur for the dogs. This was new to me because I had never considered the dog having to change leads (or sides) to take the obstacles. It did make sense because the dog typically leans toward the handler’s lead hand and then takes the obstacles. Here's the course we analyzed and ran:

According to Jane’s handling by body movement alone, whenever the dog’s lead changes, the handler should perform either a front or rear cross. While I do agree with some of this information, I found myself not handling the course quite the same as suggested since Jefferson responds to directionals quite well. For example, on the final course of the day, I chose to rear cross (on the flat) prior to Jump #4. This worked really well for us and I am happy that I handled the course in this manner. Jane even commented on how beautiful it was but she would not recommend that to all handlers. However, I chose to front cross a tunnel and then rear cross the A-Frame. The rear cross after the A-frame resulted in Jefferson’s stopping on the top so I tried a more effective handling method the second time we ran the course. I sent him to the tunnel and front crossed him after he exited the tunnel and took a jump. This was more efficient in that Jefferson was on my left when he took the A-frame which alleviated the rear cross at the A-frame. Yay! Oh, and his weave poles were fast and b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!!
Such a good boy!

Overall, the “When Pigs Fly” seminar was a great training tool for me to add to my so-called "bag of tricks." I learned how to use the clicker on the agility field which gets Jefferson into “work” mode. He loves the clicker because I have been training with the clicker at home every day so he will learn to “work” for me and “play” the game even without the cheese. He’s becoming a much more “operant” dog and teammate. What seemed nearly "impossible" last week is surely possible now...what a difference a week makes!!!