On drama...

I should be writing another installment of the Flyball Book project, but I can't stop thinking about the drama going on in Flyball Land right now.

Here's the story in a nutshell. I'll leave club names out of it. I wasn't there to witness any of this, so if I get any of the facts wrong, please correct me (I know you guys will).

So you've got two clubs, Club A and Club B. They do not like each other. Old history, bad blood. Both very fast, respected clubs at the top of their game right now.

Club A has some fast green dogs that have a tendency to run into the other team's runback area. They are not aggressive dogs, but they get in the way. Club A knows this and tries to manage it (they have put an extra person into the runback area to block those green dogs from crossing over, etc.).

Club B has some green dogs, too, and they are trying to run their best, too. They are getting very upset and irritated because throughout the weekend, Club A's dogs (and handlers) keep running into their runback area. At one point, one of Club A's dogs is standing in Club B's runback area and almost gets hit by a Club B dog swinging on the end of a tug. At another point, a person from Club B runs to block a different Club A dog from crossing over on her dog (he is in the process of doing so).

Club A interprets these actions as malicious on Club B's part and accuses Club B of intentionally trying to harm their dogs (saying Club B tried to swing their dog into Club A's dog while it was in Club B's runback area, and tried to kick Club A's dog when it crossed over. No contact was actually made in either instance, but Club A says there was intention.). So Club A officially accuses Club B. By filing charges with NAFA (for "conduct prejudicial to the best interest of Flyball," per the NAFA rulebook. See section 5.2, page 23: http://www.flyball.org/rules/nafa_rules_2010-10-01.pdf).

So now both clubs plus witnesses will be traveling to the Detroit board meeting for a disciplinary hearing in April.

It gets a little stickier. Club A also happens to have two people in NAFA leadership positions -- one is a board member and is actually on the NAFA Disciplinary committee (the committee that investigates complaints like this one and determines whether there is a need for a hearing or not. Since this person just joined the committee in 2011, he may not have been involved in the pre-hearing for this particular incident.).

There are two sides to every story, right? (My boyfriend likes to say there are three sides to every story -- mine, yours, and what really happened). Club A's perception is that Club B was trying to hurt their dogs. Club B's perception is that they were just trying to mind their own business in their own lane and protect their dogs from unprovoked crossovers. Add in all the NAFA connections, and now you've got the perception of unfairness/entitlement at a higher level as well.

Everybody involved might be telling their truth and doing what they think is best/fair/allowable. But I don't see anything good coming out of this situation. Club A's going to get hurt, Club B's going to get hurt, and NAFA's going to get hurt. There will be accusations and mud slinging and nastiness all around. Drama just leads to more drama, and once you're on the drama train it's hard to get off.

Not that I'm always the drama-free innocent bystander, full of wisdom and insight. I've been on my share of flyball drama trains, too (perfect example: Just Call Me Lady Gag(a)). But it always leaves me feeling like shit.

This past summer I went to a really cool shooting camp where I was instructed by two of the top women pistol shooters in the U.S. Between the two of them they've won multiple national and world titles in a variety of pistol shooting competitions. Both are highly skilled and highly respected.

The History Channel's new reality show, Top Shot, tried to talk them into auditioning for Season 2, and they both declined. "But WHY????" I asked them. "It's such a great show! And you would be awesome!"

And one of them said, "Nothing good can come out of me being on that show." She went on to say how the cameras were always on the contestants, looking for drama -- the show pitted people against each other in very stressful situations, then captured all the drama that unfolded and made a TV show out of it. And the show's editing (geared towards entertainment and viewership, of course) could really make the contestants look like idiots, or villains, or both. Many of the Season 1 contestants, touted as the most talented, respected shooters in the world, walked off that show with seriously damaged reputations.

My shooting instructor already had a stellar reputation. And she was smart enough to know it, and appreciate it, and protect it. And went out of her way to avoid the spotlight and the drama, and just focus on what she is great at -- competing and teaching others.

It's not too late for Club A, Club B, and NAFA. Take the high road, people.

All of this reminds me of something I saw at a tournament this past weekend. I was sitting on the sidelines and watched a little red Border Collie cross over to chase after a dog on the other side. Her handler was there in a heartbeat -- she scooped the dog up, marched her out of the building, and motioned to her team to run the backup dog. The judge never even had to get involved, the other team was satisfied, and everybody was happy (except probably the little red Border Collie).

I'm thankful to play in a region where, aside from the snarky comment here and there, we all get along and are respectful of each other. My teammate Kristie's favorite flyball saying is "Safety first!" and our region is a really good ambassador of that philosophy.

This is how flyball should be. Right?

The Flyball Book Project: Topic #3 - Basic Skills for Dogs

Greetings! It's been a while since I've posted about the Flyball Book Project. I'm actually in the process of switching jobs, so life has been extra-crazy lately (bear with me!). 

Photo by Willie Moore

Let's dive right back into the book project with a discussion about the basic skills a dog needs for flyball. By "basic skills" I mean things that are not flyball-specific. 

I am a big proponent of clicker training, and had planned to start out the training section of the book with a high level introduction to clicker training before diving into things like training a box turn. I am not a professional dog trainer, however, so anything I write is just from personal experience and/or gleaned from books by Pat Miller and Jean Donaldson and training seminars with folks like Leslie McDevitt.

So, first of all -- should I even try to cover clicker training at all, or should I just refer any newbies reading the book to all the other clicker training resources out there? I feel like clicker training is pretty critical, and I do reference it many times throughout the book. 

Here's how I introduce clicker training in the book:

Before I go into any of the specific skills your dog needs to play flyball, I want to take a few minutes to talk about clicker training. 

I use a clicker to train almost all the foundational flyball skills – recalls, targeting, the beginnings of the box turn, picking up a ball (if the dog doesn’t like balls), standing for measuring, and drop it/out (for balls and tugs). 

You can buy a clicker for a dollar or two at any pet store. It looks like a little plastic kid’s toy and sounds sort of like a cricket. 

You use the clicker to mark (with the “click” sound it makes) exactly when your dog is doing something you like, and to let them know that a reward is coming. I think of it as a taking a picture – when I see what I want, I click. You can also mark behaviors that you like with your voice (with a command like “yes”), but the clicker is faster and more precise. 

Start out with a few sessions of just clicking the clicker and immediately giving your dog a treat after each click, until the dog understands that a click equals a treat (make sure you use small pieces of really delicious treats like lunchmeat, cheese, or hot dogs). This process is called “charging” the clicker. Soon you’ll find yourself with a very motivated clicker-loving dog, and from there you are able to shape almost any behavior you want.  

The trick is to break the behavior you want down into a lot of small steps and work on one step at a time. It may help to picture the behavior as a slow-motion frame-by-frame video. You’re going to work on shaping and rewarding each frame of the playback.

For example, if you want to teach a dog that ignores tennis balls to pick up a tennis ball, you wouldn’t expect him to just walk over there and pick it up on the first try. You’d start by click/treating him for looking at the tennis ball. Then for taking a step towards the tennis ball. Then for sniffing the tennis ball. Then for putting his mouth on the tennis ball, and so on. It may be a slow process, over many short sessions, but it’s cool to watch the dog figure stuff out for himself, and this problem-solving approach is going to help build a solid training foundation.   

Practice training in different places, because dogs tend to learn things in context (they’ll sit beautifully in the kitchen next to the refrigerator, for example, but may look at you quizzically if you say “Sit” at the dog park). You’ll definitely see this phenomenon during flyball training – dogs who love the tennis ball or who tug like maniacs at home may show zero interest in these things at flyball practice.

You can also use every meal as a training session – when I’m really trying to get one of my dogs going on something, I’ll put their kibble in a bowl, carry it out to the living room, and use a few pieces of kibble at a time for their reward while I’m working with the clicker.

If you’ve never worked with a clicker before, read Karen Pryor’s book Don’t Shoot the Dog or visit her web site at www.clickertraining.com and watch some of the videos there. Pryor is one of the founders of the clicker training approach and trained dolphins with clickers back in the 1960’s before applying what she learned to dogs. Pat Miller’s book The Power of Positive Dog Training is also a great read and explains clicker training very well.

Thoughts?

I also talk about how important it is to keep training positive:

Flyball is supposed to be fun. Dogs that love the game will run their hearts out every time they race. You want your dog to trust you and do his very best for you, so make all your training as positive as possible. Your dog should offer behaviors to you willingly and enthusiastically – clicker training makes this very easy. It also speeds up the training process in general so much…trust me, the clicker is like magic when used correctly. 

I try to ignore what my dog is doing wrong and focus on what he’s doing right during training sessions. If my dog does something wrong (especially if it’s a big Ooops, like crossing over to visit another dog early in his training), I may say, “Uh-oh! Let’s try that again” (giving him no reward for what he just did wrong) and try the exercise again. 

Some dogs may need a little “time-out” in their crate if they are having a really hard time paying attention to you. Don’t get mad or frustrated, just end the activity, essentially teaching your dog, “If you don’t listen, you don’t play.” You can work another dog instead for a few minutes, then try bringing him back out for another chance.

A couple of my dogs are so sensitive that even an “Uh-oh!” plus no reward is enough to make them shut down, so sometimes I just reward them by degrees – for instance, I will still tug a little bit with the dog that didn’t do it quite right, but when he gets it right I will say “YES!!!!” and have a crazy tug party with him. 

It’s easier to keep things positive if you tweak the environment to set your dog up for success – use ring gating to keep him from running around the jumps, props to get his feet in the right place on the box, and don’t rush any steps in his training. Make sure he knows what you’re asking him to do, and that he’s doing it for you consistently, before you progress to the next step.

(Susan Garrett actually wrote an interesting blog post yesterday about using non-reward markers, like "Uh-oh", has anybody read it?)

Anybody want to debate any of what I've written above, or add to it?

I don't do a lot of obedience training with my dogs, other than the very basics (sit, don't jump on the kids, don't bite my fingers off when you take treats). I focus mostly on flyball-specific skills like jumps, box turns, etc. I know, I know. One of my dogs actually didn't know how to sit until he was a year old (when my friend Barb finally taught him).

(I do care a lot about recalls, though. I have a whole section devoted to that and will cover it in a future book topic blog post.)

Here's how I talk about obedience skills in the book:

You don’t really need the typical obedience commands in flyball – sit, down, stay – although they don’t hurt. For example, it is nice to be able to put your dog into a down-stay while you’re setting up jump heights or something, but usually in the ring you’re holding onto your dog for dear life while you wait to release him. A down-stay won’t cut it in that type of environment, and frankly, I’m okay with that. I love to see my dogs all cranked up and ready to explode down the lane – it reminds me of the horses in the Kentucky Derby, ready to burst out of their starting boxes.

A lot of people who play other dog sports frown on what looks like a bunch of ill-mannered dogs barking uncontrollably in the lanes, but in reality many flyball dogs have lovely manners and hold all sorts of obedience titles and therapy dog certifications. These dogs just know it’s okay to let loose and have fun during flyball, just like kids know that they can run around and scream during recess but not during math class.

Dogs also seem to have no trouble transitioning from one sport to the other. They may compete in obedience one weekend, agility the next weekend, and flyball the next, and perform beautifully in all three competitions. It’s all about context.

When you’re competing in any dog sport, it is nice to have dogs that are:

• Happy and comfortable spending time in their crates (even better if you can also get them to stay in exercise pens)
• Okay riding in the car on long trips
• Good walking on a leash at rest areas, hotels, and tournament sites
• Tolerant of other people touching them and other dogs approaching them

Interested in hearing your comments on this topic. I'm sure they will be colorful and entertaining. :)


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