My last post was in September. My goodness, time flies.

This past year was an important turning point for me and my dogs. We didn't do much in agility- it's been at least 6 months since we've run! In fact, Tristan finished his MACH2, I believe, on Jan 2 2011. He's done pretty well in limited showing towards his MACH3, but we may never finish it. I don't think I want to run him in "regular" agility again. Our next runs will be in preferred. I'll probably finish Scout's MACH 2 and then put her in preferred as well. She will hopefully be bred in the next couple of weeks (!) which will keep her out of agility for many more months to come.

I don't miss agility very much. The truth is, that I'm just not that much into agility. I do love running and playing with my dogs, but I don't like the more extreme aspects and even some of the core values of the sport. For example, the deep rooted belief that "tugging" is fundamental to performance. And trying to wring out every bit of speed. Frantic tugging doesn't thrill me. Speed doesn't thrill me. And I guess that's fundamentally my problem. If agility is all about speed, and I don't have the will to drive the speed, I'll never be as "successful" as I could be. I'd rather concentrate on teaching my dogs to be problem solvers. And I'm really interested in exploring the limits of problem solving, puzzle solving, and thoughtfulness in dogs.

In other news, I'm planning for a big change in my professional life. After nearly 13 years in a company with a cut throat culture, I have decided to leave. I'm hoping that this will happen in March, give or take a few months. But I won't be leaving my profession. I love developing software, and I see some great possibilities ahead. I've always taken pride in "staying current" professionally- and lately, I've taken that to a new level. Literally every single Sunday, and almost every morning hours before dawn, I've been working finishing several college courses featuring new technologies unheard of when I graduated from college years ago with my BSCS. It's an interesting revelation to me, that as much as I love my dogs, I still so enjoy software development.

What will this new year bring for us? I am hoping to do much more herding work. In addition to his MACH 2, Tristan also finished two herding titles. I didn't trial Scout, since it's taken some time for me to communicate what herding is all about. She's making great progress! And I'm so much more knowledgeable than I was last year. Still pretty ignorant, but much better than I was. I'm also taking lessons from Karen Child, and that's helping tremendously. So definitely more herding for us, sprinkled in with as much practical farm work as I can get in. Owning my own stock is not going to happen, at least in the next couple of years. And Saturday is the only day I can get to stock, which is another reason agility - for the collies- will be on the back burner. Seamus, on the other hand... we think he's going to love agility. He'd be out in the ring now if it weren't for Steve's ankle injury earlier this year. Let's hope we can get Steve and Seamus ready and prepared for competition in the coming months.

I also hope that this year will bless me with a new collie litter. I'm scared and excited about it... hopefully, God willing, things will work out for us.

This past year was wonderful for us... a real turning point in many respects. I'm looking foward to what the New Year will bring!

I've been under stress lately. So on Thursday, I took off to go herding. It was such a healing, restful, peaceful experience. Steve drove us there... it was nice to have him with us. Both dogs worked really well. Scout has done nothing but improve since sheep camp. And Tristan, he's just an awesome dog. I decided to do something very different, very unapproved and unrecommended. We went out to the "chicken field" at Fido's. The sheep were a long way away. I asked T to lie down, then I stroked his forehead. Then I asked him to bring me the sheep. I didn't care how he flanked. Just bring the sheep to me. No other commands. I thought... well, does he really know this? The fact is, he didn't. He looked at me, rather bewildered. So I helped him, showed him the sheep, but still I didn't want to get into go byes or way to me... just let him work it out. And he did. I guess that's the first step in really solving this problem, isn't it? Not to do perfect flanks, but to get the basic concept of bring the sheep to me... from a long way away.

Later, we went into the clover field and did a huge walkabout, almost a four square walkbout through the entire clover field, and having T move the flock through the panels. He was so good; learning to read sheep very well. I think the best day ever... relaxed, just my dogs and me and the sheep.

I'm taking this week off... we are all going to Cape Disappointment, where the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery team traveled centuries ago. We are all going camping! Me, Steve, Tris, Scout and wee little Seamus. Where the Pacific Ocean meets the Columbia River. We leave tomorrow! No herding until two weekends hence, but a lovely trip to think about. The first vacation that we've had since we got Tristan that is not dog event related, but still involves the dogs. No competitions to get up early to prep for. Just us and our dogs for the purpose of relaxation, rest, and healing. Since getting Tristan, and then Scout and then Seamus, we've never been away from them. I've taken work and personal trips away, but Steve was always there. They've never and will not ever be kenneled. If we both have to go somewhere, we'll have to take the RV with the dogs. Otherwise, one or the other, but someone has to stay home with them or they all go. Those are the rules, that's the way it will be for us. They are our family. And this family is finally going on a no stress, no event vacation!

I've long been fascinated by the concept of canine problem solving. I do believe dogs have more ability than we give them credit for. Witness herding dogs reading and responding to livestock, or the actions of service animals. But how much of that behavior is either an inherited or trained response to complex stimuli, and how much is an actual thought process? It's hard to know.

I also believe dogs are much better generalizers than we give them credit for. If they can generalize a behavior, they are capable of a level of abstraction.

What about the ability to solve a problem? This occured to me the other day when I was practicing some agilty. I like to use targets in training. I know alot of people don't believe in them, but that's a different post. Anyway, what I often do is incorporate my dogs' "main meals" into some kind of training session. For example, I might put their food bowl with a meal in it at the end of an agility sequence so they can get a nice reward for completing the sequence. I feed my dogs out of metal bowls, and as a separate "trick", I've taught them to retrieve their bowls and present them to me. I call it: "Are you hungry?" I think i have some video of it somewhere that I'll post. Anyway, I did a set of jumps followed by weaves yesterday with the food bowl at the end of the sequence. As Tristan was finishing his meal, I walked away. And, with no prompts from me, he did the "hungry" trick and presented his food bowl to me after retrieving it about 100 ft. Then, he dropped the bowl and it landed upside down. He tried to get it, but was unable to pick up the slippery metal bowl when it was in that position.

So today, I decided to teach him how to solve that problem. I started out as a "shaping" activity, teaching him to nose the bowl so that he could pick it up. But what I'm really after is how to present it to him as a "problem" that needs to be solved. I don't really care how he gets the bowl (when upside down) as long as he can get it. So, I'm shaping a few set of "tools" that he can use, but I'm going to depend on him to "put it togheter" to solve the problem. The shaping helped him and it did give him a tool that he can use. But I don't want to rely soley on shaping. Shaping is a great technique, but too much of it can create a "response machine" that makes it difficult for the dog to "reason" how to solve the problem. If indeed, they are capable of this. And I think that they are.

Tristan learned pretty quickly, and no visible frustration on his part, to right the upside down bowl and then bring it to me. With Scout, being more of a frantic responder, I actually showed her first what I wanted her to do. Then I put the bowl upside down. I did shape a few responses (for her to use the nose to push the bowl so she could grab underneath it), but I tried to keep the shaping activity to a minimum. Then I would "show" her what to do. She seemed to catch on. Both dogs had some successes. I'm going to try it again later to see if any latent learning took place.

It's hard to describe this training. It's kind of a combination of illustrating a problem to be solved, shaping a tool to get a solution started, and then letting the dog work on his/her own. Very different from pure shaping. I don't know what the behaviorists would say about this, but I think these kinds of mind games are very fun for the dog. At least with Tristan and Scout... they were willing and able to keep at the game and showed no signs of frustration. And I have this belief, which might be totally wrong, that doing this kind of thing really does make them smarter- somehow, it strengthens their cognitive abilities. Again, this is very subtle, because my goal is to see if I can go beyond teaching responses and actually help unlock thinking and problem solving skills.

We didn't go herding this weekend. It was going to be really hot, and the last 4 sessions or so have been really hot. So I wanted to give them a break. I'm planning to take a personal day on Thursday when the weather is supposed to be cooler, and stealing away to Fido's for some sheep time.

As far as I can tell, I'm an unusual person. I don't like to take pictures, and actually, I really don't like looking at pictures that much. I do enjoy them occasionally, and some photography is really amazing in its ability to capture the freeze frame details that one's eye cannot see in real time. But I do find looking at too many pictures rather boring. I'm not sure why... and I know that makes me weird and unusual. So be it.

Another attribute that I have that seems rather peculiar is that I'm a morning person, through and through. Even on my days off, I love to get up early, well before sunrise. Today was no exception. Up at 5:00 am, drinking my coffee by 5:30. I'm not sure exactly what time it was when I decided to look out my window. Lightness was just starting to creep into the dawn. I saw the shadowy figure of an elk cross my driveway. We live in elk country, and we see them often. Still, although not a rare site, it's fun to sit and observe them, sipping hot coffee, in the comfort of my pleasantly outdated house.

I saw several calves with their mothers, munching on my lawn. The calves still have their spots, but the spots are losing their integrity, and are starting to fade into their coats. One calf was noticeably smaller than the others. And here's where I wish I had a camera handy... the calf was munching on grass very close to my window vantage point. And then a young bunny hopped within a foot or so of the calf. The calf looked at the bunny the way a puppy cocks its head when it hears an unusual noise The calf then nosed the bunny... pushing it along with its nose. The bunny didn't get scared, and the calf was clearly more curious than scared. How strange is that? After this inspection, the calf went back to its mother for a hearty drink. It's still nursing.

I guess both of these animals are either too young to be worried, or they recognized that the other species posed no threat. A few minutes later, I had the collies ready for their morning walk. By this time, the calves had moved to the neighbor's yard and joined a herd of about 20 animals (cows and calves), with a few large bulls that were keeping some distance between themselves and the other animals. Elk always excite Tristan and Scout. A few barks from them and the herd was gone, disappearing loudly into the woods.

We had a great day herding yesterday. Scout has made, and continues to make good progress since sheep camp. I'm doing walkabouts with Scout now. Both dogs seem to make more progress on larger flocks. I think I still need more work before I can do obstacles comfortably, but I'm not going to rush things. I know some day those skills will come.

Now it's time to sit back and enjoy the holiday.

I've been meaning to put down my thoughts on this subject for quite some time, even if they are not fully formed. But first, I want to remember yesterday for a bit, and how proud I am of Scout. Our first time back to herding after sheep camp, and she demonstrated how far she's come. I worked three different sets of sheep with her- Spice Girls (who always seem more flighty with Scout than Tris), some trial sheep, and some really heavy sheep (Lardy boys). She did very well on each of these very different sheep- demonstrating that she's starting to understand this game. I started some little outrun drills that I learned from Karen Child, and she's doing those well. I also introduced her to ducks! She didn't do ducks at camp, because Tristan was my partner for the duck sessions. She started out a little wary, but then became very keen on them! And she suprised me because she didn't want to dive in and bust them like she first did with sheep. Did some good stuff with T yesterday, too. Mostly the outrun drills, and it's clear that we are just beginning. Still having trouble with obstacles- I'll get some of the sheep thru the chutes, but not often all of them. This is my problem, not T's... so I'll work this without the dog next time.

Now to the topic at hand. First, I am firmly not a believer in "if you do X with a dog, it will ruin them for Y..." where X and Y may be substituted for any activity or subset of activities... never sit your dog in the ring if you want to do conformation, etc. Many people are very successful doing all kinds of things with their dogs. It amazes me and I wish that I had the time to do more things concurrently... if only working didn't get in the way. :) But still, it strikes me how very different herding and agility are, although there are some common behaviors needed - obedience skills, for one... although I think these are more essential in herding than in agility.

I think one of the key differences in the sports is the type of energy that the team must exhibit. Agility is all about adrenalin and performing as quickly as possible but still being accurate. The speed aspect is rather fundamental to the sport. This is very different from herding, because the additional factor of the livestock changes the equation in a very significant way. Rather than speed, concentration becomes the more important energy vector, translating into a very focused patience. I think this is true regardless of the type of herding breed (strong eyed or upright) that you have. Although herding competitions are timed, racing through them, especially during the tricky parts (penning, shedding, etc) rarely pays off and usually works against the team. One mistimed step or even a subtle movement from dog or handler can make one sheep's head turn which can spoil the effort.

Hence, the type of energy that one brings to the entire effort is so different. You would rarely see people tugging near the start line of a herding trial. In fact, this would seem so out of place as to almost be comical. This energy difference is very significant to me, which is maybe why I'm so focused on it. The nature of my personality is that I should be more of an agility person than a herding person, because I'm naturally incented towards fast movements. I move and talk quickly. But oddly, I don't gravitate towards that with my dogs. In agility, I like them to work happily and quickly, but I don't push to get every bit of speed that they can. In fact, I'm a bit of a worrier in that I don't want to build the speed in them to the point that they ignore the internal regulation in their own bodies regarding what they can handle speed wise. Collies are really good at heeding these signals. A concrete example of this is the running dog walk- I don't see myself ever teaching this (the way it's intended to be done) because I'm quite happy with my dogs trotting over the dog walk. In fact, I kind of hate the dog walk. It's too high, and I just think it's a rather weird thing to ask of our dogs.

That brings me to the next point of difference that is significant for me. For some reason I can't entirely explain, I really love dog/human team sports that involve doing useful tasks (albeit human oriented). My favorite tricks to train are those that seem to have some utility attached to them- such as picking up toys or clearing the dinner table. (My dogs can do both!) I like silly tricks, too, but the ones that might seem useful, however contrived, are my favorites. I think that's why I love herding so much. There's such an element of utility to it. When we are together in a farm setting, I even have these little fantasies, silly as they are, that we live there and have some work to do. And me and my trusty partner are going to get it done.

Other dog sports- obedience, scent work- also offer similar affordances. And there is some deviation from the useful- although I love stylish heeling, it's not too practical. That brings me to the next difference that is important to me, but related to the energy aspects of dog sports. I prefer quieter activities with my dogs. I like an intense bond, but not one fed on frantic motion. I really need to step up my obedience work with my dogs, because I know we will all enjoy it very much. Especially Scout- she's such a pretty heeler.

Well, that's it for now. I'm so grateful for my dogs and the companionship and partnerships that they provide. I love exploring these different activities together- through it all, developing a way of communicating that forges incredible bonds. Dogs truly are our best friends.

I just returned from Sheep Camp at Fido's. It was a tremendous experience for me and my dogs. In my early days of canine obedience, I attended a fair number of seminars. I attended one camp for retriever training (also 5 days, like the Fido's herding camp), and one agility camp at Argus a few years ago (just before embarking on our agility career). I have pretty much avoided agility seminars (with the exception of 1 day of SG and one audited day of GD.) Although I learned good tidbits from all of these expereinces, this herding camp was by far THE BEST!

The campers were divided into 5 teams of about 5-6 people each. The teams appeared to be classified into those who were more experienced, and those with less experience. Needless to say, I was in the latter category. The agenda for the camp was divided into two main sessions: skill sessions, and practical work sessions. Elsie Rhodes taught the duck herding skill sessions, and Karen Child did the other skill sessions. Each team got two, 4 hour sessions with Karen and Elsie. Karen pretty much gave each of us "private lesson" on what we wanted to work on, with the others watching, and a debrief after each team. Elsie had the same pattern of work for each student (ducks in the big arena and ducks in the small arena), with a debrief at the end.

The practical work sessions were organized as "stations", each handled by one to two practical work instructors. There were 5 such instructors. The sessions were designed to show us basic practical techniques used on a herding ranch- such as sorting sheep, reading livestock, penning and gate work. We also learned safety skills, such as gate safety. Nobody in the world is strong enough to stand up to a herd of stampeding sheep that feel gate pressure. That's were most injuries happen. I made my share of mistakes during this session and learned valuable lessons. Only one bruise to show for it- but you can bet that I took these lessons seriously and will be ever vigilent around gates and sheep from now on.

Our days were divided into 4 hours of practical work and 4 hours of skill work, except for one full day of practical work. In addition, each team had to do one session of morning chores and one session of evening chores. The team doing evening chores also had to get lunch on for the entire camp. By the way- these camp had all of the food you could eat, complete with unlimited ice cream available throughout the day, and an unending supply of "adult beverages"- wine, beer, and "hard" fruit drinks. What a way to keep campers happy. :)

I loved our chore sessions. Morning chores were to be done from 6:00-8:00 am, and evening chores were started at 4:45 (while camp for that day was winding down) and ended around 6:00 pm. Dinner followed chores, at 6:00 PM. Our team had evening chores on Tuesday. That morning, I was the first person to do the practical session of gathering lambs and ewes from the Rye Grass field and moving them to various areas. This was a "test" session, and you could only do it under Chris's instruction. The ewes still have full udders and it's essential that the dog be gentle enough to move the sheep without biting the udders or the lambs. We were the first team to do the exercise, and the sheep were scattered all over the field, peacefully grazing or relaxing. Tristan gathered them (about 50-60 sheep) and moved them about in a beatiful, quiet manner. All under a quiet blanket of mist as the sun was rising. We passed with flying colors! This earned me the privelage of moving the sheep from Trillium into the barn (about 70 sheep- half of the flock!) as part of my evening chores. Tristan performed flawlessy! Chris then asked us to pick up the rest of the ewes and lambs from the Rye grass. For my morning chores, I got to do the reverse- except that I only did half of the flock this time while a team mate did the other half. The two sub-flocks were in two separate sections of the big sheep barn. I moved the sheep from the east side of the barn (or was it west?) to Trillium. This exercise presented a few challenges. One challenge was that Chris was weaning the lambs, and some of the lambs had been separated from their mothers and put into the other part of the flock. A few of these lambs just didn't want to follow the flock out of the barn, preferring to stick to the barn fence and bleat mournfully for their mothers. Tristan is gentle, but persuasive, and we got them to go along. The second challenge was that the Rye Grass sheep couldn't be moved until the Trillium sheep were, to prevent those same lambs from running to the fence to see their mothers. That was easy- just do the tasks in the right order. The third challenge was unexpected. I opened gates prior to moving the sheep (to minimize injuries). As the sheep moved from the Trillum gate box to the field, they hesitated and started to come back. Uh oh. Two people were playing with border collies in the field. Not a good thing when I'm trying to move the sheep into the same field. Fortunately, my collie proved useful and I had him hold off the sheep from backtracking while I quickly closed the gate, all the while keeping myself out of the gate path and my eye on the sheep... practicing gate safety! No harm, no foul... got the job done.

I have so much more to write about-Karen Child lessons, and Scout's progress (she did well!), and some of the people that I got to meet (Hart's "dad" from Oregon). And I discovered that as much as T likes the wollies, he's wild about ducks. But gentle! He herds them intently, while prancing lightly on his collie feet. Elsie was so taken by him. She refered to him as "our sweet collie who really turned on to ducks". But I'm much too tired to write anymore now... so I'll add more later.

Patience pays off! Scout is getting more and more in tune with stock. I finally found a method that works for the displacement behavior. The first step was recognizing what the behavior was. She is really interested in stock, but if she feels they are out of reach, she grabs for something else. Sheep poop, grass, even gravel. She does the same thing when we are walking and she sees a bunny. I finally found a simple solution. Chris didn't want me using a long line, because she feels they are dangerous. But Chris does use a flat leash when training students in the round pen, so I bought a flat fabric leash with no catching parts. Now I simply redirect Scout back to the sheep when she runs for a grap of poop.

This behavior is somewhat related to gripping. Scout doesn't really have a grip in her... but sometimes she'll run in and shoulder bump the stock. I think this is a combination of fear and displacement. She's getting more confident with stock, so this behavior is minimizing.

Scout has had very little in the way of formal herding instruction. I've spent months on my own, just building up her confidence. I've done the majority of my lesson time with Tristan, because it's a little easier for me to concentrate on what Chris is saying with him, rather than worrying about Scout eating poop. We are going to sheep camp week after next, and I'm planning to work with both dogs. I hope all of the ground work will mean that we can get more out of camp. I'm looking forward to it.

Tristan and I had a lesson with Chris today- obstacles! We actually did all of the obstacles- but I can tell it's going to take alot of work on my part to calm down and help position T to guide the sheep through them. Later on, I worked Roy- the new resident "training dog" at Fido's. Roy is a bc who is owned by someone no longer able to work him. So he now is staying at Fido's, and is being worked by students and run in trials by other folks. I practiced outruns with him in the rye grass. Alot of fun! The sheep in that field were yearling ewes. Later, Chris said I could try Tristan on those sheep, but they might be too much for him. But try him I did, and he worked really well! His outruns are getting to "approaximate" what an outrun should be. We also practiced driving. My dogs seem to drive more naturally than fetch- just the opposite of many well bred bc's. I was very happy to see the distance that T could work those sheep!

Today, I'm going to try to work some agility, if the weather cooperates. Steve and I decided that finishing T's Mach 3 will be a joint effort, with me running him primarily in Jumpers, and Steve running him primarily in Standdard. And, I'm going to arrange for Steve to actually be the one to finish the Mach! It will be a real thrill for him. Seamus is along way from being ready to trial, and finishing T's Mach 3 will be great ring experience for Steve.

I went to my first herding clinic on Saturday, and took only Tristan. The clinic was more on trial logistics and not on training. It was useful to walk through the courses and should help with my trial prep when the time comes. The military bases in the distance were doing some sort of training, and the loud noises were just the type to disturb Tristan. But I must admit, he handled himself well, all things considered.

On Sunday, we went down to Fido's again for herding practice. I've never seen Fido's so quiet. Chris and Syliva were there, working, and just one other herding person. Chris road up on the tractor and said she had some farm chores for me to do! I was to move the big flock of sheep from the cattle pasture to an area that had a shade tent, so the sheep could get shade, and then split three off of the flock and put them in the trial arena. That meant going through 3 sets of gates. And we never split sheep before.

Amazing! We accomplished it! And it didn't take too long, either. Moving the flock to shade was the easy part. Getting three to leave their friends was hard. Actually, all of the sheep ended up in the trial arena. So Tristan and I moved them to the vicinity of the gate, and I opened the gate and let them go through. Then I blocked the last three with the stick and got the gate closed on them. I moved Tristan so he would not make them feel panicked and he pushed them off the fence after I separated them. Then Tristan and I moved the larger set of sheep back to the shade. Good dog!

We practiced our obstacles with the three sheep we placed in the trial arena. But they must have been tired from being used in the clinic yesterday because they just didn't want to move much. So I took Tristan over to the big arena where we practiced outruns.

Then it was Scout's turn. She had her best day yet! I finally figured out a way to help reinforce sheep movement over the displacement behaviors, and she really turned on! She's moving the sheep now (not just circling) and she was wearing the sheep in a very nice fashion on the fetches. Steve was impressed!

I then practiced with T with the Spice Girls - moving them into and out of the free standing pen. Those Spice Girls... the are just too cooperative! :)

The highlights of my day were doing farm chores with Tristan, and Scout's progress. So centering to be alone with sheep, bleating peacefully, and helping them get comfortable by giving them access to shade. All with the help of a beautiful collie. And then seeing Scout really turn on to the sheep.

Life doesn't get much better. I'll remember these days forever. I hope Chris will give me more practical work, because it's so fullfilling to do something useful with your dog. I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity!

Interesting post by well known trainer about "busting" dog training myths. Alleged myth #1 is that one should end training on a good note. Alleged myth #2 is that if dog is scared, take him back immediately to show it is "okay". I have a huge amount of respect and awe for Silvia Trkman. I love her you-tube videos, and she is so much more of a trainer, and more accomplished, than I will ever be.

But yet, I don't view her advice as my gospel. I both agree and disagree with the hypothesis. I agree with it because "ending on a good note" is not a sure path cure for success. But quitting just when the going gets a bit tough isn't a cure all, either. I guess every trainer needs to find their own way. For myself, I've learned a HUGE amount by working through issues and not just stopping when things got a bit rough. My definition of "rough" may be quite different from others. "Rough" means not going as planned... not getting the 100% "happy" response. Tristan, in his earlier days, could not deal with the stress of "being wrong". How did he know he was wrong? I guess he could sense it in my attitude. If I gave him some kind of cue, and he ignored or refused it, I didn't "correct" him, but my posture and demeanor telegraphed an attitude to him. This caused him to exhibit avoidance behaviors. These avoidance behaviors, in turn, caused a mini-panic attack deep within me. Which caused even more avoidance on T's part.

Ending the session is okay. But after a few of these, I decided that T needed to learn how to cope. I did alot more shaping, so he could learn that offering a behavior was good. And gradually I learned that dogs do slow down when they are learning, and that's not a bad thing. Recognizing this made me evaluate the entire situation in a different light. I no longer considered such behavior as "undesirable", but simply as information. There was no need for the inner panic on my part. The behavior is what it is.

As a result, I think both T and I learned a set of skills that we wouldn't have attained had I simply quit the session.

I've had even more revelations with Scout. From watching her body language, and her reactions, I've gained valuable information. I realized that she never really learned to weave properly, even though she earned her MACH at barely 3 years of age. I never let her work through those stages in training that are in-between experimentation and true mastery. We always quit too early. I also learned, through very patient observation, that "sheep poop eating" during herding is displacement behavior. She does something really similar when she sees a bunny on our morning walks, when she is in her exercise harness. She grabs at grass or dirt because she can't really get the bunny. I can't work through these issues by avoiding them.

So, I tend to stick to the old adage of ending on a good note more so now, then not. But oddly, hardly any of my training sessions "go bad". I just don't have that attitude any more- well, at least not most of the time. If I fear that I'm "practicing failure", I'll try to set the dog up for a high probability for success, and get that success before stopping. This helps me to feel really good about my sessions, which in turn, rubs off well on the dog.

But then again, I'm starting to look at everything we do together as blending of companionship and partnership. "Training sessions" are simply blending in to every day life. Not that my dogs don't have down time, they do. But it feels that we are always learning and growing together.

Silvia decided to leave myth #2 for another day, and so will I. I have definite thoughts about it, but I'm simply too tired right now for coherency.

So everyone is blogging about volunteering at agility trials.

I used to be someone who volunteered at every single trial. And so did my husband, Steve, who wasn't even running dogs.

Last summer, Steve told me he won't volunteer anymore. At best, he felt unappreciated and unwelcomed. Occasionally, he was actually yelled at by crabby know-it-alls. He tried time keeping once and it scarred him for life.

I haven't attended many agility trials lately, choosing instead to focus my weekends on herding. But I did find myself volunteering less and less, for the same reasons as Steve. The excellent/excellent format that has become so popular in our area makes it really difficult to volunteer if you run multiple dogs. You have to keep your eye on the rings so you can potty/warm up your dogs in time not to miss your walkthrough or not be ready in time and invoke more wrath from the gate stewards, judges, etc. I often made it a habit to work the novice or open classes in order to avoid such conflicts. But in my last couple of trials, I wasn't able to do that, or I was just kind of fed up with the whole thing so I didn't.

I was "asked" to volunteer at a USDAA regional once. I don't compete in that venue. The person promised to "pay" me. I said that wasn't necessary... I would be happy to help. So I arrived very early, ready to do my job and to be there all day. The organizer told me that because the trial didn't fill, she couldn't pay me as much. No problem. I didn't need to be paid. But then, the organizer also hired a group of young adults who had never been to an agility trial to work. They DID get paid, even though they didn't do that much (which I can forgive, they didn't know what to do), got free lattes, etc. I got nothing that day. I did take a bottle of water to drink (it was very hot, and the trial was outdoors). I could have used a heartfelt "thank you". That would have meant alot.

Those complaining about lack of workers should remember the basics of positive and negative reinforcements. I won't go near certain gate stewards and other trial people because of the negative energy. It puts me in a bad mood, and, let's face it...this is supposed to be a HOBBY!

I pay alot to run my dogs in agility. I am really enjoying my break from it, from the cronyism and crabbiness. So now days... when I do run agility, I volunteer if I feel like it. I don't care who is "keeping score". I certainly don't feel obligated, after many negative experiences in the past.