Guestbook

I am really struggling at work these days. I’ve always been an employee who prides herself on her efficiency and work ethic. Lately, I’ve been sitting at my desk struggling to complete simple tasks. I hate the loss of my self discipline, and every night at home I vow that the next day will be different. Yet once again I sit at my desk doing anything to avoid my work.

I question my every decision. I contemplate every word in an e-mail wondering what my boss will find fault with. I can never predict it; I just know it will be wrong, so I falter day in and day out.

In the past, I’ve worked at jobs where my immediate supervisor had little or no interaction with me. I knew my job and went ahead and did it. For several years, my supervisor was 370 road miles away from my work site. Yet I came in and churned out work reliably day in and day out. I prided myself on overcoming the daily challenges; some of which were pretty extreme.

So how did I go from being a can-do girl to a woman who sits paralyzed at her desk. There are a lot of factors that play into this. The one I’m going to talk about here is my relationship with my supervisor. He’s not been happy with me lately. I’ll attend a meeting, and say the wrong thing. So we have a formal discussion about my inappropriate comments. Next, I’ll decline to attend a meeting because, in my opinion, there’s sufficient staff to adequately resolve the matter on the table. Again, we’ll have a formal discussion to regarding my lack of participation. I was put into a new position; a job I love. When my old job was posted, my supervisor scheduled a discussion with me to tell my not to say anything to anyone about my frustrations with my old job.

I never receive a compliment on my work unless it’s going to be followed by half an hour of criticism. I feel sorry for my supervisor. He thinks he’s being conscientious. He thinks he’s actually helping me to become a better employee. He doesn’t know who Susan Salo is. If he did, he still would not understand her quote, “Negativity bleeds the speed.”

What does that mean? It mean that my boss is constantly telling me what I did wrong instead of helping me learn how to do things correctly. When I changed my job duties within the department, what if he’d said, “Here’s a great opportunity for you to try and help us get a great candidate for our work group. You’ve held that position for years, and nobody knows it better than you. When potential candidates contact you, you can play a major role in helping us to attract the best candidate.” By scolding me, presuming I’d say negative things in that circumstance, he completely alienated me. It eroded what little trust I had in the man, and he’s not doing what he needs to do to rebuild it.

Thank God I have that boss! What a great opportunity for me to see how certain leadership negatively impact performance. I want my dog to run an agility course with supreme confidence, enthusiasm, motivation and speed. I want him to work with me as a teammate, trusting me to guide him when necessary.

How many of you have seen a dog shut down after a simple rebuke such as a “no.” I’ve seen it. The dog avoids the activity where he heard that word, and if he does do it, it’s with less confidence. You can work hard to rebuild your dog’s confidence, but we all know that even resilient dogs are better before they were rebuilt.

Do you want you dog to falter on the dog walk as I falter on my desk? Hell no! So what are you going to do when you train your dog? You are going to endeavor to show him what you want him to do, and you are NEVER, EVER going to use a correction- even the mildest, calm “no.”

So what do you do if your dog begins to free lance in practice; taking tunnels because they’re fun? Well, the dog probably considers the tunnel fun because it’s rewarding to him.. It’s likely the first thing he learned in agility, he is confident of his ability to do it correctly. Plus, you probably gave him lots of cookies for his puppy forays through his first tunnel. And he probably just thinks it’s fun! So you, as the team captain, need to help your dog do what you want. That means making other behaviors equally rewarding and by telling him what to do.

In a recent training session, Krishna raced up the A-frame without my having sent him there. So I called him to come, and told him he was a good boy for coming. Then I asked him to sit and I rewarded that behavior with a cookie.

What if I’d shouted “NO!!!” as he ran up the A-frame? He probably wouldn’t be as confident the next time he took the obstacle. “Am I right this time? Or will mom yell at me again? I’m not sure, so I’ll be a little more cautious.” Agility is a sport of GO. You sure as heck don’t want to stop your dog at any point other than the pause table or contacts. Those stops will result in hesitation down the road.

OK, you can probably understand my story with my boss and understand that constant “no” is not going to give you good performance. But you might think that the occasional “no” isn’t really going to hurt things. I have an extremely resilient dog. Corrections slide right off his pretty black coat. Yes, mountains of corrections will demoralize and demotivate your dog, but he can afford a few right? That won’t really matter will it? Well, it will matter less. But why do it at all? You don’t have to. And you’ll be more successful without them. Banish “no” and “uh-uh” from your training vocabulary.

Remember Susan Salo’s quote. “Negativity bleeds the speed.”

Now I’m off to train my dog and have some fun!

I’m reading a book about animal communication call “The Language of Miracles.”  I know, no reputable animal behaviorist will accept the possible existence of animal telepathy.  I guess since I’m a scientist, I think differently.  Just because I can’t consciously telepath, doesn’t mean animals can’t.  I sure as heck can’t prove one way or the other.  So I’m open to the possibility, and even if they do, just because my dog might be able to read my mind doesn’t mean I won’t still have to train him.

I was reading about how dogs, like people, only understand positive message.  So if you say, “Don’t jump.” the mind hears “jump” first and then tries to stop the action.  So the best thing to do is to say off, meaning”keep all your feet planted on the ground.”  Sounds good.  I know that, but a reminder doesn’t hurt.

Then came the part about imagining what you want.  For everyone who does not believe in animal telepathy, you can still believe in visualization as a way to actualize since it’s very well established in psychological experiments.  At reputable institutions, not quirky metaphysical science centers.   So if you want your dog to engage in a specific behavior, such as refraining from nipping at you during agility, imagine your dog running nicely and with his mouth pointed ahead on the course.

I have battled for two years to train Krishna not to pull me while on leash.  I’ve tried contraptions and an unbelievable quantity of clicks, hot dogs and cheese in my efforts.  I’ve even resorted to dreaded shaker bottles.  None of it has worked.  I wanted a dog to run with and Krishna pulls at his worst when I try running with him.   I was totally discouraged and had given up.  The weird thing is that my dog would not pull for anyone except me.   Mom, my brother, friends, Krishna walks so politely for them.  So there’s somethng about me and I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out.

Two nights ago I began thinking about Krishna and I running together.  We’re both happy and enjoying ourselves.  Krishna is running along next to me thrilled to be out with his mom.   Yesterday I put on some running clothes, got out some cheese, leashed up my dog and gave it a go.  He was not perfect.  But it was like I was running with a different dog.  He was so much better and I loved having this beautiful dog run WITH me.  I gave him bits of cheese and told him how happy he made me.  We had fun together.

I kept up with my imagination, tossing in the idea that if Krishna wants to win at agility, he needs to support his mom’s efforts at running.  The more I run, the faster I’ll be.  And the faster I can get around the course the better we’ll do at agility.  We went on a slightly longer run today.  Again, it wasn’t perfect.  But it was good and we enjoyed ourselves.  So we’ll keep practicing, and I am very hopeful that before long we’ll be out there and I’ll focus on running intervals, not fighting my dog.

Last night I found a frozen knuckle slice in the freezer.  I gave it to Krishna and he was in heaven chewing away.  When it was time for bed, I pucked it up and we went upstairs.  I gave the bone back and went into the bathroom to wash my face.  When came out. Krishna got up and bounced up on me balancing with his front feet on my legs and pressing he face to my shoulder.  It felt like “thank you.”  Then he did it again, turned and went back to his bone.

So different from the cat.  Gratitude coming through crisp and clear.  It was just beautiful.

I’ve been running through the mini sequences from my latest issue of clean run.  Krishna and I are really having fun together with them.  What I”m trying is first I memorize the course.  Then I do my walk-through rehearsal with the dog.  It seems to help him build confidence with what I’m going to do with my handling.  Plus I’ll through in some contact training for a little bonus work.

I’m sticking with 2o/2o but no target for now.  The reason I’m skipping the target is because I’m cautions about  thrying to encourage Krishna to lean forward and put pressure on his front when the purpose is to solidify a behavior.  It may not be as solid, but with Krishna’s elbows 2o/2o without targeting will likely be healthier.

Next I took my 19 year old kitty into the vet for a blood panel yesterday. This is the cat who became diabetic right after his 17th birthday.  It prompted me to get a dog as a transition pet since the kitty was obviously be going downhill fast.   True to form of his death’s door to thriving lifetime pattern, Ticks recovered.  The puppy gave him a renewed will to live.  Ticks is a stubborn bastard and is bent that the puppy will not survive him and wind up having me all to himself.  You know, every man needs a hobby.  And outliving the puppy is Ticky’s purpose in life right now.

Ticks was sure eating a lot of food, but was pretty thin.  His thyroid is a little enlarged so I took him in to get checked.  The vet drew blood and commented that kitty clearly has a lot of spirit and a sound mind.  So we have to honor that and treat him in a way that will preserve his quality of life.

The blood test all had normal levels except for the BUN of 85 and a creatinine of 3.  Hah, that’s barely enough to qualify him as CRF.  That rotten cat was considered CRF by my old vet some 8 years ago!  Tick’s kidney function has declined with glacial speed.  At this rate he stands an excellent chance of meeting his goal.

Ticks drives me nuts.  So much attitude in that little brat.   But I just love him anyway.  Poor puppy having to endure Tick’s tyranny.

Last night I tried to take Krishna through a serpentine.  Quickly, he became frustrated and started nipping.  Cheryl was trying to help me handle him in a different way since my way obviously was not working.  But I really wanted to be consistent.  So we slowed back down and I took him through it.  Then I sped up again.  Next, I added distance back in.  I thought he had serpentines with the invitation down.  But he obviously needed a refresher.  That’s a good “note to self.”  Refresh all handling cues in the week before a trial since the boy might “forget” them.

He did well on the table.  Especially considering that we’ve done so little training on it.   Next, he’s still blowing weaves since he’s excited and lacks focus when in a group situation.  Lastly.  He help his start line, but I still had the jumping up issues when I first took his leash off.

Bit by bit I’m learning about training my dog.  And I’m slowly learning to teach him to work with me.  But in spite of his aptitude for agility, we’re not proving to be an overnight success as a team!

Alas, it has come to an end with labor day.

The summer of cake began with the fabulous birthday cake my mom made for my July birthday.  Chocolate sour cream with mocha icing.  Yum.  A few weeks afterwards I was talking to my mom and I commented that I sure missed cake.  She;d been missing cake too.  The next weekend she went ahead and made that cake again.  Boy was it good!

Last week I began thinking, hmm labor day weekend.  If I have my mom and her husband over I’ll bet I can con my mom into making another cake.  So I made potato croquettes, which you have to make a day in advance, rotisserie lamb which I also began a day in advance to marinate, and steamed broccoli.

Potato croquettes are a Belgian recipe.  You know, everything Belgian is good in my mind.  You boil russet potatoes, then rice them with butter, egg yolks, salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Then you press it into a pan and chill.  Then you cut the potato into small rectangles and roll into cylinders.  Dip in flour, beaten egg white, and bread crumbs.  Refrigerate overnight.  Then the next day, you deep fry these puppies.  The nice smoosh of mashed potatoes with a crispy golden crust.  Pure heaven!

I told my mom that the croquettes would be nice for the holidays than boring mashed potatoes.  Mom offered to host both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.  I snorted, “yeah, you just want to free me up so I can make croquettes for both holidays!”   The lamb, and Indian recipe, was rotisseried and just amazing.

We had white cake with lemon filling and butter frosting.  It was all so good, and how sad to bring the summer of cake to an end.  Oh well, I guess we’re moving into the winter of pies!

Krishna had a great labor day.  So make plates to lick and extra attention.  Life is good.

At the last agility trial, Krishna’s start line stay began to slip.  Acting on advice from Susan Anderson, I began a program where I heavily rewarded the stay with lots of jackpotting, did lots of proofing- throwing toys dancing around, that sort of thing and rewarding him for not moving, and releasing Krishna backwards as often as I let him go forwards.  We played start games for 45 minutes, and then I decided to do a little contact work with the same game.  “Climb.”  Krishna went to the end of his dog walk.  I jackpotted him with 10 treats.  Wow, Krishna sure thought 2o/2o was great.  I released him.  We played a bit and then I sent him again.  I jackpotted the contact, and walked away three steps.  Krishna didn’t move.  I threw a toy to land 4 feet in front of him.  “I’m not falling for it, you didn’t say O.K.”

He was so motivated for that 2o/2o that I began moving further and further away from him so that his contact will be totally independent from me.   I’m also working on weave pole entry angles.

But…. here’s the reason I’m blogging.  Krishna did not understand that he had to follow me during a rear cross.  So instead of monitoring my body position, he’d turn a bit and race toward the first obstacle to turn to.  Lovely if our path is straight and we don’t have a trap.  I’d have to scream “KRISHNA!!!” to get him to take a full U-turn.  What to do, how to solve this?

I put all the obstacles away except for tunnel-tire-jump.  I’d call him through the tunnel then as he was in the tire I’d switch to my off arm.  As soon as he committed to the jump I’d say “turn” and run behind him.  Sometimes I’d run straight.  Other times I’d go to the side.  Occasionally I’d make a full U-turn.   We practiced this for two sessions, and it seemed to make a huge difference.  So I pulled out some obstacles.  YES!  Krishna would turn his head a bit and keep an eye on me to see where I was going in my cross.   Now I just need to improve my timing a bit.

I’d called him off the one jump by saying “turn” before Krishna had committed to the jump.  Next, I need to pivot really quickly for an extreme turn to help Krishna know to turn tight.  See, he slows down quite a bit trying to figure out where I’m going.  If he knows that I’ll give him good information quickly, he’ll me more confident moving out ahead at a nice speed, or wrapping around a pole tightly for his turn.

Poor guy getting hosed with a novice handler.  He’s a great dog, I wish he had a more experience handler.  Oh well, we love each other and I believe he thinks he’s got a pretty good life even if I’m not the most adept agility handler.

The other day the neighborhood girls came by selling wrapping paper for school.  Of course Krishna, who loves people of any sort, was thrilled to have company.  So they asked to play with him while I thumbed through the catalog.  Since I was there to keep an eye on them all I thought it was a great idea.  The girls tossed a Frisbee around for Krishna.  I taught them to say “drop” to get Krishna to give the toy over.

So, the next night, the girls rang my doorbell asking Krishna to come out an play again.   They played Frisbee for a bit, and then asked if Krishna knew how to play tug.  I said that he did.  So two of the girls raced home to get tug toys that their own dogs wouldn’t play with.  They engaged Krishna in tug.  These girls are pretty young, 7, 8, and 11.  I was awfully nervous that Krishna might accidentally nip them playing tug.  I may have been sitting in my lawn chair, but I was sure keeping a close eye on things.  Fortunately, they weren’t getting him too worked up.  It didn’t take long for the game of tug to turn into a heeling game.  One girl would grip the toy and run, with Krishna running along in tow.  The girls all took turns nicely and it was fun to watch them play.

A few days later, they were back at the door to invite Krishna out to play.  No problem.  I set up my lawn chair on the driveway and let them all go.  They wanted to know if Krishna could play tag.  Hmm, how would you teach a dog to play tag?  One girl solved the problem really quickly.  She snatched up a toy, and Krishna trotted along behind her.  I immediately stopped the game.  Christina is a screamer, and is less comfortable with a big dog chasing her than the other two girls.  I gave each girl a toy and told them that if they were scared of the dog, to stop running and throw the toy.  The dog would chase the toy leave them alone.  The little girls ran round and round screaming and shrieking while Krishna, thrilled with the game darted around behind each girl in turn.  It was so funny watching these girls running around in their little pink crocs!

At one point, Krishna went over to see his girlfriend Ella who was outside barking.  The girls ran after Krishna trying to get him back.  I really try to limit my role to safety monitor, and here’s a case where I was really glad I avoid making even the simplest suggestions.  Krishna wasn’t coming when they called him.  So they ran up, circled him and darted away.  Immediately Krishna followed.  Lord they executed it with perfect dog language; I was so impressed with the kids and the way they solved that little problem.  And I was sure happy I hadn’t jumped in to help them out!

It wasn’t a big surprise when the stopped by again on Saturday.  That time I asked if their parents would be upset if the kids came in the backyard for a few minutes.  They felt it would be OK for a few minutes since they were in and out of everyone’s houses already.  So they got to watch Krishna play on his agility equipment.  Boy did they love that!  They weren’t impressed with his independent contact execution, or how hard it had been to train the teeter.   But they though the tire and weaves were so cool.   Krishna jumped through his tire over and over.  I started to have the girls applaud for him.  This is awful, but Krishna lights up when he hears applause.  Since I didn’t have cookies, we went with applause.

This is one of those things in life that I am enormously grateful for.  I have this charming dog who adores people and who can bring such joy to them.  Who is so careful and attentive playing with kids that they come by to invite him out; even though they all have family dogs.  And I am so fortunate to have this neighborhood with very fun, intelligent children.  I could not ask for such a wonderful gift.

Yesterday we had two nice training sessions with Krishna.

First I practiced obstacle discrimination with a dog walk and tunnel trap. It took a little experimentation to get it down. I can’t just use an arm cue with him. I have to turn my shoulders to get him to go out and take the dog walk. Then he’d stop in a lovely 2o/2o contact at the end, but would not offer up a “bop” unless I cued him. So off the dog walk to play a targeting game. He’d race across the yard to “bop” the target with his nose. After playing that game for a bit, back to the dog walk. He still wouldn’t bop the target when placed at the end of the ramp. Though he does stop in a consistent 2o/2o. It looks like I’ll have to do some experimenting on that one. He understands stopping on the contact, and the nose bop, but doesn’t quite know to put the two together without help.

We’ll we’ll keep playing and get it.

Next we did two jumps side by side. I practiced taking him over the near jump, and then sending him “out” to the far jump. I’ve been trying to get him to understand a cue of a higher arm to direct him out, but he doesn’t understand it yet. If I turn my shoulders, he will go further out. Some dogs really cue off feet, others seem to watch hips. With Krishna it’s all in the shoulders. May-be it’s where my head is turned instead, but I’m not sure. It does seem to be shoulders though.

As a puppy, I would make a point of looking at where I was heading to cue him where to go. So he learned early to to go where I was looking. Strong patterning in puppies is tough to override so I’m going to take advantage of it instead. Always look at what I want.

I loved cuing Krishna out, and he’d turn wide and run around the tree. OK, he could take the jump quite easily without going around the tree. But I loved when he’d run around the tree in his eagerness to get on the “out” path. After a bit I played a little game where I’d send him around a tree, and then get him back to me just by turning my shoulders. It was pretty fun.

Once we had out gong well, I set my weaves in between the two jumps to practice weave pole entries. I set them too close to the jumps, and one of the angles was rough. So I moved them out to where Krishna was taking them really well. Today I’ll move them in a few inches closer to sharpen that angle.

Lastly, we played in a three sided box. We did all sorts of fun 270 angle games. Krishna really understands it and we had lots of fun.

He’s still pretty wild, but I feel ready for the NADAC trial next weekend and hope we can have some fun runs together. I’m really not out for Qs. My goal is to have clean, fluid runs. No spins or wild nipping or jumping.  When Krishna understands what I want, and I get him the information he needs quickly, we run so fast and clean. It it thrilling beyond words. If I can have just one of those thrilling runs; the weekend will be well worth the entry fees and all that time I’ve spent practicing.

One of the things Susan A really emphasized with me is to practice a skill in as many different contexts as possible to help a dog understand the concept. Krishna is fast and completely comfortable working ahead of me. I want to have a solid rear cross on him since I prefer it to a front cross in many cases with this dog. It’s easier for me as a new handler to stay out of my dog’s way if I’m behind him.

We’ve been practicing turning off the dog walk into a tunnel, rear crosses to a serpentine, rear crosses to a 270, and rear crosses on straight jumps runs. Last week, he seemed to really understand it.

Yesterday evening we set up a little course with weaves, a serpentine, pinwheels, and obstacle discrimination with a tunnel next to the dog walk. We all ran the course in a way that we’d practice whatever we felt we needed. I ran the course simply the first time, going 1.5 times in the pinwheel. The second time, I put things in a different order, but still ran the pinwheel in the same way. For my third turn, we did three jumps, then a rear cross to the tunnel. Krishna executed the turn perfectly. He didn’t spin, nor did he look back for confirmation. And he took the jump I wanted, turning a bit back to get in the tunnel. I’d made it a bit tricky. Yayyy!!!! He gets it. And I did it right too!!!

Next Krishna has had trouble collecting his little doggy brain to do nice weaves. After two failed attempts, I grabbed Krishna’s ultimate motivator, his tuggy frisbee. We went back, an he almost had it, popping out at the 10th pole. Linda and Cheryl suggested that I stay closer to Krishna and support him more. I tried it, boom! He did it. A little slow, but he still got all of them. I threw the toy. We went again, same side. Krishna did it faster, and more confidently. Again I threw the toy, only this time we played tug when he came back with it. I had him weave a few more times to get his brain re-programmed a bit. I was really happy to get him weaving nicely again.

Last brag. I haven’t written much about Krishna’s less than pleasant adolescent jerk phase. He had a period where, if he didn’t want a dog around him, he’d attack the dog to make it go away. I tried behavior modification for several months, and it really wasn’t working. Next, I wasn’ t totally accepting of the underlying precept that a reactive aggressive dog is always a reactive dog, but you can train them to ignore other dogs. It didn’t fit what I saw in my dog’s temperament. In retrospect, I believe that his dog aggression had been enforced by other dogs. Once I used some positive punishment to make the behavior less attractive, it came to an end. It took a while before he settled into behavior where he’d walk away from dogs that didn’t interest him.

Last night, Pat’s Flash saw me playing with Krishna and ran over to join the game. Flash is a 16 month old intact male, Krishna is a 2 year old intact male. Flash is a sweetheart, and he was being polite in his overtures. Krishna has a much lower tolerance for other Belgian boys, particularly intact ones. While Flash was right up next to Krishna asking to play, I was working hard at keeping Krishna’s attention. I was so nervous that I hadn’t fully put that jerk demon to bed. Plus there are loads of girls in season out and about. Krishna did a light growl when Flash nosed his rear, but ignored the other boy so well. Flash really wanted to play with us, and wouldn’t go away. And I didn’t want to push my dog past his tolerance limit with this other boy. I walked backwards, and Flash came along. So I got Krishna to grip the toy, pulled him to the side a hair, and stepped into Flash to back him off. Then Flashy at last ran back to his mom.

Flash is much more puppyish than Krishna was at his age, and I think that helped. But I was immensely proud of Krishna and gave him a fistful of high value tasty treats, and then he got more Frisbee play. That polite behavior was hard won for both of us, and I am still over the moon about it.

I think of Krishna as enormously biddable; and he really is. He gets hyper and spazzes out. Next, he’s more apt to high speed activities such as agility, over obedience. He’s very coy, silly, and playful. So it’s easy to overlook just how intense he is. He has a healthy dose of those tough cookie genes from his mom’s family. I know that there are a lot of people who don’t care for that edginess. With Justin’s splendid temperament modifying that edge, I think it’s come together to make a truly special man-dog.

Krishna and I had a house guest for several days over the weekend. I learned a tremendous amount about myself, about my dog and about the interaction of different personality types with dogs Boy was it a great weekend and loads of fun to boot.

Marty brought her girl Raven up to visit for some dog shows. Raven, another BSD, is Krishna’s niece and is just a few weeks older than he is. She’s got a compatible play drive, and the dogs have been friends since they were just a year old. They’re just over 2 years old now.

We let the dogs enjoy each other company, and I handled Raven in the show ring. Raven has had some conformation training, but not nearly as much as Krishna. And I didn’t really practice much with Raven either.

Here’s what I learned about Krishna:

Last October Marty brought Raven up for a few days. Raven loves to hump Krishna, but he was clearly the more confident of the two dogs, and I thought he seemed to be a bit more of a leader comparing the two. They’d visited down in Portland back in January as well. My sense was that Krishna had a slightly higher rank than Raven, but not by much.

7 months later, cough, cough. Krishna is KING. Holy smokes he is so much in charge. In many ways, it was so subtle during previous visits, that much of it would be easy to miss. It’s evolved to the point that Raven won’t eat until Krishna has been served. If she’s invited for petting, he’ll barge in for the petting first. You name it, Krishna gets what Krishna wants, and Raven lets him have it. She even guesses at what matters to him and self defers.

So although Krishna is silly, flirtatious and coy, he is still very much in charge.

Next taking Raven into the conformation ring was another eye opener. Krishna has had much more training than Raven. And Krishna and I have practiced together quite a bit. So we’re a fairly experienced team. Raven has not had much training, and we practiced very little to prepare for me handling her.

I took Raven in, and once we learned that she needed to have Marty completely removed form the picture, she performed much more readily than Krishna. While we waited I played little games with her. I’d step into her, and she’d step backwards, then forwards. Just little things to get her working with me and to keep her from getting bored. She enjoyed the little games and liked seeing me happy with her. What a difference. Krishna works because he loves action. Krishna wants to run, Raven just wants to be engaged with you. With Krishna, everything has to be as fast and wild as possible.

Raven performed beautifully for me. I actually handled her. She’d gait at a pace I directed she stopped beautifully, she behaved herself. I had no clue how hard Krishna is to control until I handled Raven. It’s not that he’s bad or disobedient. It’s that he’s so intense and has such a strong personality; he’s always putting his own little twist into everything!

I take him in and get him set up. Lately, he cooperates well getting stacked, but every so often he’s not interested in posing. Once we agree on his set, he’ll hold for ages and ages. Gaiting? He wants to go to the end of the lead and at his own pace, not yours. But he’s always got his head and tail up at maximum altitude. He thinks he’s mighty special and it shows.

Now comes the fun part. The judge’s exam. I’m holding Krishna’s collar in a death grip. Krishna loves people and thinks that all the attention in the world is HIS. At the merest hint of invitation, he’s jumping up on the judge. Or giving the judge a nice kiss, or squirming up to rub himself on the judge like a cat will. My job, is to keep the dog in place, and let him do his sucking up while standing still. And it is NOT easy.

In contrast, Raven will stand there and I’ll pet her neck and tell her how good she is. She may not really know “stay” but she tries so hard to work with me. She’ll be too nervous to take bait, but she puts her ears up and looks lovely. I was presenting with Raven. Krishna? I’m constantly struggling to keep control so I have no attention to divert to the niceties of presentation.

Raven is lovely and a joy to handle. Her conformation is better than Krishna’s. Yet, he is a born show dog.

Here’s what I leaned about human – canine sociology.

I am not much of a believer in being alpha over you dog or of pack theory. In my mind, as a dog trainer, you need to be consistent with your dog. Next you need to be very mindful of what you’re reinforcing.

I use positive reinforcement almost exclusively to train my dog. I do my best to make my expectations crystal clear, and to make my way rewarding to him. I tend towards negative punishment to address undesirable behavior, but have been known to make judicious use of positive punishment.

I really try to make everything a fun game for my dog. For example, Krishna and I will be practicing jumpers drills. The drills alone are like a game. But we’ll do 4 to 6 drills, and then play Frisbee and tug for a minute or two as a break

Marty is very nurturing and has a softer temperament than I do. Raven is sound sensitive, and moderately soft as dogs go. Raven is cautious to accommodate change of any sort, but accepts it fairly readily for the breed as a whole. She’s not very resilient.

I am bold, confident, and decisive. Krishna is insensitive, fearless, resilient, competitive, and demands to be the center of attention.

Obviously, we were paired with the right dogs for us.

If I took Raven away from Marty, Raven would constantly look back to Marty and Raven would be incredibly nervous. If Marty took Krishna, he’d do better, though he really wants to know where I am.  In both cases, this is pretty typical for one person dogs separated from their primary person.

Here’s what was interesting, if I took Raven somewhere by herself, she was much more comfortable than if she was separated from Marty but Marty was visible. To me, that doesn’t make sense. In the total absence of her security blanket, Raven was more comfortable than if she could see her blanket, but had to stay separated. Marty attributes it to Raven being forced to be dependent on me. I believe that it’s because I come across as more confident, which Raven found reassuring.

There were several instances where Raven was clearly protective of Marty. I’m really wondering if Raven’s concern was that she was leaving Marty unprotected and exposed. Raven is playful with Marty, but seemed to be a little bit bolder in new situations when she was with me. She was absolutely at her most comfortable in any situation when King Krishna was around.

While I’m primarily a Skinnerian, I think there is an undercurrent of pack theory involved with dogs too.

I suspect that I strongly reinforced Krishna’s innate confidence, independence, and leadership attitude. Not that it would have mattered much in his case. He was born to run. Thank goodness I established a good working relationship with him when he was young because he would have been VERY tough to recover if I’d blown it.

Next I suspect that Marty reassured uncomfortable Raven and inadvertently reinforced some nervous behavior and lack of resilience. I think she rewarded protective behavior as well.

In the end, I think that a softer, nurturing personality is more approachable for dogs, and more snuggly. In addition those personality types reward behaviors that promote a less bold dog. Next, a more confident attitude will make a dog feel secure because they have a leader; further, this personality will reward more resilient and bold behavior.

For dog training, dogs tend to work better with command and control attitudes. Note that command and control includes playful, positive training. But people? People find that attitude off-putting.

Next, dogs don’t feel as confident with a softer person. They don’t train to task as quickly, and are less responsive with desirable behavior in a variety of circumstances. But people will love you.

So for everyone who’s noticed that the best dog trainers have some of the worst people skills, and the nicest people just don’t get dogs. By comparing two extremes, Marty and Raven, with Kristen and Krishna I think I get it. The observation about great dog trainers lacking people skills is often entirely correct and it’s a combination of training and pack theory in dogs; and the sense of autonomy that people have.

One side observation, I was struggling with Krishna breaking the start line in agility repeatedly. A friend pointed out that I kept looking back at my dog and seemed hesitant as I walked. I walked away confidently without looking back. My dog sat tight. It was an immediate change. Same dog, same level of training. One minor change in behavior and a huge problem was resolved.

Like so many things, when competing with dogs, attitude is everything.

Upcoming NADAC Trial

Krishna and I are competing in a NADAC trial in under two weeks. EEK! We’ve come a long way since our first trial back in April. But we still have so much to learn! For the next two weeks I’m going to practice the following:

Targeting for 2o/2o contacts
Rear crosses
Weaves
Out
Threadles
Table

OK, I won’t use those last two for a NADAC trial, but I do need to work on them.

Take care,

Kristen