Here was Divine's big debut in an NW2. I figured having trialed Mickey to NW3, this should be easy. But, I also had something going on. My mind wasn't in the right frame of mind. I was stressed. I had too many events happen prior and they stuck to my head like the sticky dew of the morning. I didn't sleep well the night before and didn't get my coffee in the morning. But good handlers will rise above that, so sound buzzer, and say, can't use that for any excuses!
For some reason, the stress of the morning and the negative thinking just kept creeping through. I tried to do some meditations and an inspirational phrase over again to help. They helped calm me down, but I needed a little more meditation.
A week and a half ago I had emergency surgery to correct a leaky peritoneal dialysis tubing that is inserted into my abdomen region, and anchored to the lower part of an internal membrane to have a passage for fluids to my peritoneal cavity. i had to back out of Duffy's trial because of this trial, but I didn't want to back out of Divine's. So strong willed and all, I came to the NW2 trial. I had only practice with Divine like one time in the past two weeks. But still ready to go!
I was #19, and my first search area was Interiors. When I took Divine out, I let her sniff in grass heaven, she sniffed and sniffed and sniffed. One of her favorite things to do. I walked her to the warm-up boxes and when she saw them she pulled me over there and bang! Right at the odor box. I treated her and said WOW, she is ready!!! As I walked to my search area my student was coming the other way telling me she didn't pass. I was thinking, "I don't need to hear that before I go in!" I did have creeping thoughts we were not going to make it, and I kept telling myself she nailed that warm up box! I was having this internal battle, think POSITIVE, and the negative would seep in like mud from a landslide.
The interiors were in trailer classrooms that have ramps to the door, so when you enter the ramp to one door, you are next to the door to the second room. Divine pulled me twice to that door, she could already smell the odor! I walked her up the ramp to the door, unlatched her, and let her go in the room. As I walked it, I couldn't see. The room was dark, and when there is a dark room with windows, the glare from the windows is so strong, it blinds my eye. I have no vision in my right eye, not even light perception and my left eye has many floaters and light sensitivity. I simply couldn't see. I saw Divine fringing around and bouncing around. It was really hard for me to get a grasp of her flow of sourcing. It didn't look smooth to me. I was tense not being able to see and my stress and panic was fairly high.
I even told myself what to do if she fringed or wasn't clear, hook her back up to the leash and do the search on leash. If she fringes, take her to a different section of the room, but that all wint out and my brain froze, couldn't think of what to do.
Usually I will walk in a room and if I can't see, I tell myself it is ok, trust your dog, but for some reason this connection didn't happen. Divine ran to an area, stuck her head in and I called Alert. No. We were WAY off. It is so hard to get that NO the very first time. It can really ruin the mood for the whole day. The judge showed me where one hide was, and we went to the next room. There were two hides in this room we missed.
The next room there was only one hide. The pressure of getting a title was off. Half way in the room was a ribbon to mark the boundary of the search area. Divine went to the other side, in a sweet singing voice I said "DIVINE!" and she came tharumping back with glee, we went to another area of the search area and she went back over on the other side of the room going past the ribbon. I again, said in a sweet singing voice "DIVINE!" and she tharumped back to the search area, put on her breaks, put her head on a plastic container, I called Alert and YES!!!! She got it! YAY!!!!!The change from the negative talk to positive thinking had changed and our day was just fantastic for the rest of the searches.
When I returned to my truck, i told myself, i can't do what I did with Mickey, get so upset I ruin the rest of the searching day. I changed my mood and we did get better. I succeeded in not going into a spiral down and what am I doing at this trial. I saw a few others didn't title and harp on "what am I doing here?" I've been there, and it is not a good feeling at all. I changed my attitude and outlook at it made the rest of the day FUN.
Divine again puled me to the warm-up boxes and she knew where the next search area was because she started pulling in that direction. She was ready!
Containers, Divine did not get distracted on the detractors and they had grapes and muffins in two containers and Divine LOVES both of those! She nailed it and got the right container! Beautiful job.
Exteriors, she got the first one fairly fast, and the second one I accidentally was on the other side of the planters, and I had to stop her to allow her to come back, so I could walk around and let her search the area where the odor was, and ALERT! and we got it!
Vehicles I covered my first two vehicles and half way through the second one Divine darts off to the other one, I followed and bang, she found the odor, Alert! YES!!! What a great day. the first one made us look like we didn't know what we were doing and all the following searches Divine looked like a pro.
Right after my Interior, of course I dwelled on what happened and trying to figure out how to resolve this issue. I first thought that Divine and I really don't have the mileage. And maybe that is really cutting ourselves too quick. I do have problems with Divine fringing and I worried about that in the back of my head. And it happened. It is like I thought about it, it happened and once that was all over, everything happened fine. What we think is really influential. Worrying is something that never helps. itt takes away from focus and task and it doesn't help. I realize what I need more mileage of is working more on sourcing, which has always been an issue with Divine and I need to keep my head clear to problem solve. I have been in situations where I thought good on my feet during a search. This wasn't one of them. With my vision loss, what helps is practicing more. I do have to practice more than the average person to learn my dog better. I did this with Mickey and I can work him when I don't see him well. That extra work on this is what I mean I need more mileage with Divine. Divine and I need to put the mileage in to over come when I can't see. It is a handicap in the sport of Nose Work, but I have worked through it with Mickey, I can work through it with Divine. This interior search was a great set up to remind me what can happen and what I need to practice in. That is the beauty of not titling, you learn. I always learn more in a trial I haven't titled than the ones I do title.
I also have more confidence with Divine, that wrong thinking was that worry, creating a negative energy that is simply sabotaging myself. I didn't think it would affect Divine, but I think it did, even though I always thought she wouldn't be affected by my stress, I think she was because she did so well the rest of the day. She felt my "I can't see" panic. So she just gets silly. Her stress relief.
Even though i am experienced in an NW2 level trial, that doesn't mean it is a shoe in. I have been to the Mind Management seminars, and sport psychologist, but you really need to get your head in the right frame or you can screw it up! My last two trials I was in sync with Mickey. I thought compassion about him. With Divine, i did think about making it fun for her, but my mind as preoccupied. I also didn't think compassion for Divine. That worry kept leaking into my conscious thought. And yes, I know better, but you really need to set yourself up sooner to get yourself in the right frame of mind. Especially if your day started out bad, which mine did. I need to learn how to put that stress aside and not let it leak into my head. What would have helped and does with Mickey, I need to "fall in love" with Divine. When I "fall in love" with Mickey, the last two trials we have done were fantastic.
This is all a learning experience and each time I learn more and I become more seasoned. I did have surgery 1 1/2 weeks prior, I did have a lot on my mind, but it is when you get work through that and over come that, we become better handlers and better people because we learn to focus on what is right, not what our frantic brain wants. We are the best coaches for ourselves and I have to remember before any and every trial, my coach, me, needs to be there for me.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Sunday, September 27, 2015
Gearing up!
In three weeks, Divine will be trialing in NW2 (Nose Work level 2 with searching two odors). It has been 1 year and 9 months since she has gotten her NW1 title. I had been so busy working with Mickey, I put her training on the back burner and would dabble with her. October 17th will be the first time Divine and I enter an NW2 together.
Divine and I had to over come a lot of training issues. Some were her and some were mine. Divine tends to alert to odor about a foot or two away from source, so we had to work on her sourcing skills. Fortunately her last few classes, she has improved significantly on her sourcing. I also learned she is very odor obedient and will pull me back to odor if I pull her off.
Yesterday at Kim Buchanan's 3 hour workshop, we did what Kim calls a modified version of Amy Herot's Timmie in the Well. Kim calls it, Timmie in the Well Right Here. Kim had a lot of chairs scattered around the room with only one odor. We sat in a chair a decent distant from all the chairs and odor was put on a step stool. Divine at first kept searching the odor behind me, possible some odor floating there and because it was closer to me, she checked out the area closes to me. It was just a little bit of a challenge to get her to work in the search area. Kim did have to call her over once. Once Divine got into the search area, she started searching for odor. She found the odor and I got up and fed her the treat. The purpose was to make sure she stayed at odor and not more. As long as she stayed, I fed. She went away, I stopped feeding. I have done this exercise with Divine before, but never had her work this much distance from me.
Divine's second try she went to work better, searched for odor and as I walked up to her, she went away for a few steps from odor. I had to stop, and she went back to odor I fed. She saw that treat coming and she wanted to come to me. But the purpose of this exercise is for dogs to be really odor obedient.
Another exercise Kim had us do was had a clump of chairs together. This was to work on inaccessible hides. This will be a great one for Divine as I have needed to do more of this type of exercise. She did well. The first time was a little challenging for her. I pulled the chair out and it folded up. It is the old metal chairs so it made a big noise. Took Divine a little bit to work through that chair falling to get to the odor. The second exercise in a different area, she did really well pin pointing the odor. When I moved the chair away so she could get to source, the picture changed for Divine and she had to source all over again to find the odor, but then succeeded. Love these exercises.
I love doing exercises with chairs, there is so much you can do with them. Odor travels very interesting around them and you will find chairs in trials.
We had a mixed element exercise outside. Divine has never done a mix element, so it was fun. A hide in the ground, slightly above the head on a palm tree and the tir of a vehicle. The temperature was extremely hot, probably high 90's or 100 degrees. Divine did have to have a few run overs and passes to finally get odor, but she got them. The tire hide in the car she got instantly. I really do think when hot air is blowing, it is different for a dog to search. The air felt like a heater gust. I can't imagine what that is like for the dog. I couldn't wait to get back inside and I didn't watch the other dogs because it was just too hot.
Divine has a different style than Mickey. I have had to learn how to adjust to learn how to read her. She has gotten better and I've gotten better in how to read her. Divine is jut at a breaking point, and I remember Mickey was the same when he was at the NW2 level. That it is coming together but have a little bit more work to go. A few more practices with Divine and she will have this down. It is going to be a lot of fun trialing her!
Divine and I had to over come a lot of training issues. Some were her and some were mine. Divine tends to alert to odor about a foot or two away from source, so we had to work on her sourcing skills. Fortunately her last few classes, she has improved significantly on her sourcing. I also learned she is very odor obedient and will pull me back to odor if I pull her off.
Yesterday at Kim Buchanan's 3 hour workshop, we did what Kim calls a modified version of Amy Herot's Timmie in the Well. Kim calls it, Timmie in the Well Right Here. Kim had a lot of chairs scattered around the room with only one odor. We sat in a chair a decent distant from all the chairs and odor was put on a step stool. Divine at first kept searching the odor behind me, possible some odor floating there and because it was closer to me, she checked out the area closes to me. It was just a little bit of a challenge to get her to work in the search area. Kim did have to call her over once. Once Divine got into the search area, she started searching for odor. She found the odor and I got up and fed her the treat. The purpose was to make sure she stayed at odor and not more. As long as she stayed, I fed. She went away, I stopped feeding. I have done this exercise with Divine before, but never had her work this much distance from me.
Divine's second try she went to work better, searched for odor and as I walked up to her, she went away for a few steps from odor. I had to stop, and she went back to odor I fed. She saw that treat coming and she wanted to come to me. But the purpose of this exercise is for dogs to be really odor obedient.
Another exercise Kim had us do was had a clump of chairs together. This was to work on inaccessible hides. This will be a great one for Divine as I have needed to do more of this type of exercise. She did well. The first time was a little challenging for her. I pulled the chair out and it folded up. It is the old metal chairs so it made a big noise. Took Divine a little bit to work through that chair falling to get to the odor. The second exercise in a different area, she did really well pin pointing the odor. When I moved the chair away so she could get to source, the picture changed for Divine and she had to source all over again to find the odor, but then succeeded. Love these exercises.
I love doing exercises with chairs, there is so much you can do with them. Odor travels very interesting around them and you will find chairs in trials.
We had a mixed element exercise outside. Divine has never done a mix element, so it was fun. A hide in the ground, slightly above the head on a palm tree and the tir of a vehicle. The temperature was extremely hot, probably high 90's or 100 degrees. Divine did have to have a few run overs and passes to finally get odor, but she got them. The tire hide in the car she got instantly. I really do think when hot air is blowing, it is different for a dog to search. The air felt like a heater gust. I can't imagine what that is like for the dog. I couldn't wait to get back inside and I didn't watch the other dogs because it was just too hot.
Divine has a different style than Mickey. I have had to learn how to adjust to learn how to read her. She has gotten better and I've gotten better in how to read her. Divine is jut at a breaking point, and I remember Mickey was the same when he was at the NW2 level. That it is coming together but have a little bit more work to go. A few more practices with Divine and she will have this down. It is going to be a lot of fun trialing her!
Sunday, May 3, 2015
We are on our way to getting in sync
Nothing like dancing with your dog where you don't even have to think. You both flow in movement together. This doesn't happen over night, it is part of building a relationship with your dog.
Divine was entered in two element specialty trials this weekend. My goal was to keep my stress level down and allow her to be happy and silly. Divine enjoys nose work and my goal was for her to have fun. She and I have only done one NW1 trial and three ORTs. We donj't have a lot of experience working together in a trial stress situation.
Divine did beautiful in containers. She had to check each box again in some of the searches, but I waited her out and she got it right. She titled in Containers.
For the interiors, we missed one out of four hides. She did get a leg and will need to trial at this level again before she can title and move on to level 2.
Divine found the hides in three rooms well. Thought I could tell my confidence wasn't as good as the containers. I did say I wanted her to win so she could have a title over Mickey. Mickey only got a leg in his Level 1 interiors (L1I). I'm finding for me, that thinking in that way takes my focus on task. It is what I learned is don't focus on outcome, focsu on task. When I focus on outcome, it messes me up.
The interior room we had trouble was a classroom. There were desks, and then various objects around the room. The desk could seat more than one student and putting four desk together makes a nice work area where 4 students on one side face 4 student on the opposite all facing each other. . There were two sets of 8 students work area.
Divine got fixated on one group of desks. She circled, and circled, tried to sort it out, and worked it. She went counter clock wise and clock wise. She would get stuck in this one area, circle the desks and come back to that same area. It didn't feel right and I didn't call it. A few times I shifted my body position to lightly pull her off and she went around the desks. I tried again to pull her off by calling her name and turning my body away. She did pull away about 4 feet but went right back to that one spot of the pooling odor. My nerves got the best of me, I called it and I got the No. The odor was about 6 feet behind her underneath the center of a two sided Easel.
When ever I miss a hide, instead of getting devastated, I start problem solving. It wasn't until 24 hours later it dawned on me I should have puter h back on leash to pull her away, and set her up in another area of the room. The other three rooms I did have heron leash. I haven't had a lot of experience with her off leash.
Divine and I haven't been practicing a lot, just 1-2 times a week, which really isn't enough to get in sync. I have felt that beautiful feeling of being in sync with Mickey where everything flows so nicely it all comes automatically. You don't have to think or if you do, it comes naturally. It took a lot of practice to get to that point. As of late, I haven't worked Mickey for about 4 months and I know we are out of sync, we will have to work and condition, to get that special balance and flow going again. I have never achieved that with Divine yet, in nose work. I need to really get serious with Divine to work on our dance, if I want to go further with her.
Divine could have found that odor, and helping her out while she was "stuck" is what would have helped her. My issue was what I call "trial brain." I freeze. I become a deer in headlights and my brain doesn't think. I have been in workshops and heard "put the dog back on leash" many times. Thek nowledge is way back in there in my brain. It just didn't think of it at that moment.
Although I can feel aggravated for not thinking to put her back on leash, everyone in a trial situation has done something where the brain didn't think of doing something they know how to do. Either way, the handler either over thinks or under thinks is what gets them in trouble. That takes away from getting in sync with their dog.But this expeirence keeps fine tuning my handling skills and working a different dog is just making me learn how to dance better.
But the biggest success I had for the day, NOT ONCE did I wish I had Mickey. That was a day for Divine and I. Now I can pat myself on the back and say JOB WELL DONE! You made a huge leap of improvement to not think of Mickey. You thought of DIVINE. I am on my way to getting in sync with Divine.
Divine was entered in two element specialty trials this weekend. My goal was to keep my stress level down and allow her to be happy and silly. Divine enjoys nose work and my goal was for her to have fun. She and I have only done one NW1 trial and three ORTs. We donj't have a lot of experience working together in a trial stress situation.
Divine did beautiful in containers. She had to check each box again in some of the searches, but I waited her out and she got it right. She titled in Containers.
For the interiors, we missed one out of four hides. She did get a leg and will need to trial at this level again before she can title and move on to level 2.
Divine found the hides in three rooms well. Thought I could tell my confidence wasn't as good as the containers. I did say I wanted her to win so she could have a title over Mickey. Mickey only got a leg in his Level 1 interiors (L1I). I'm finding for me, that thinking in that way takes my focus on task. It is what I learned is don't focus on outcome, focsu on task. When I focus on outcome, it messes me up.
The interior room we had trouble was a classroom. There were desks, and then various objects around the room. The desk could seat more than one student and putting four desk together makes a nice work area where 4 students on one side face 4 student on the opposite all facing each other. . There were two sets of 8 students work area.
Divine got fixated on one group of desks. She circled, and circled, tried to sort it out, and worked it. She went counter clock wise and clock wise. She would get stuck in this one area, circle the desks and come back to that same area. It didn't feel right and I didn't call it. A few times I shifted my body position to lightly pull her off and she went around the desks. I tried again to pull her off by calling her name and turning my body away. She did pull away about 4 feet but went right back to that one spot of the pooling odor. My nerves got the best of me, I called it and I got the No. The odor was about 6 feet behind her underneath the center of a two sided Easel.
When ever I miss a hide, instead of getting devastated, I start problem solving. It wasn't until 24 hours later it dawned on me I should have puter h back on leash to pull her away, and set her up in another area of the room. The other three rooms I did have heron leash. I haven't had a lot of experience with her off leash.
Divine and I haven't been practicing a lot, just 1-2 times a week, which really isn't enough to get in sync. I have felt that beautiful feeling of being in sync with Mickey where everything flows so nicely it all comes automatically. You don't have to think or if you do, it comes naturally. It took a lot of practice to get to that point. As of late, I haven't worked Mickey for about 4 months and I know we are out of sync, we will have to work and condition, to get that special balance and flow going again. I have never achieved that with Divine yet, in nose work. I need to really get serious with Divine to work on our dance, if I want to go further with her.
Divine could have found that odor, and helping her out while she was "stuck" is what would have helped her. My issue was what I call "trial brain." I freeze. I become a deer in headlights and my brain doesn't think. I have been in workshops and heard "put the dog back on leash" many times. Thek nowledge is way back in there in my brain. It just didn't think of it at that moment.
Although I can feel aggravated for not thinking to put her back on leash, everyone in a trial situation has done something where the brain didn't think of doing something they know how to do. Either way, the handler either over thinks or under thinks is what gets them in trouble. That takes away from getting in sync with their dog.But this expeirence keeps fine tuning my handling skills and working a different dog is just making me learn how to dance better.
But the biggest success I had for the day, NOT ONCE did I wish I had Mickey. That was a day for Divine and I. Now I can pat myself on the back and say JOB WELL DONE! You made a huge leap of improvement to not think of Mickey. You thought of DIVINE. I am on my way to getting in sync with Divine.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Stress and the Happy Dog Divine
I attended a Handler Stress workshop April 18, 2015 with Rock Solid K9. I originally signed up to do the workshop with Mickey, but he has an injured Iliopoas (inner hind leg muscle/tendon issue). This will take several more weeks to recover.
Divine passed her Nose Work level 1 (NW1) trial January 2014. She has been more of a NW+ dog the past year. She can search the three odors, but since her trial, we haven't done a lot of work on converging odors, multiple hides, and inaccessible hides. We have done some container exercises with distractors.
The goal in this workshop was to add something extra to create a more stressful practicing environment for the handlers. This included distractions, giving different times for searches than is normal, add multiple hides with an unknown number beyond three, add a square zone where odor will not be in the square, etc.
My first challenge was to get over what we call in the service dog world, "second dog syndrome". When you have developed years of working with your first service dog, then you retire that dog and work with the new one, y ou are on edge because the new dog isn't as good as your old dog. You don't remember the growing pains you had with your first dog, you remember how you worked together, like a well seasoned partner. The bond is great and now to develop a new bond with the new dog is a bit unnerving. With Divine, getting her to NW1 level isn't that big of a task. But as you move up into converging odors and more complex hides, your ability to read the dog is at a higher level.
We will miss our first dog and while working with the new one, we start missing our first dog even more. We start to compare, which is unfair because we haven't invested the same amount of time with the new dog. After 28 years of experience in the service dog world, I have seen this issue a lot and with most people it takes a year or more to develop the working bond with your service dog. I am on my 6th service dog and each time there is an adjustment period, a doubt period, a frustration that you want it to be easy like you had it with your last dog.
Divine isn't a replacement for Mickey in Nose Work, Mickey is the dog I have practiced and trialed with the most. I am more comfortable working with him than Divine. I raised Mickey from a puppy, I didn't Divine. Mickey and I read each other well and we have a stronger bond.
The stress that came out of me in this workshop, was my ego got a bit tarnished because Divine and I are essentially new partners. We haven't put a lot of hours in Nose Work with each other. My ego would focus on that I felt I was performing with less finds than I would if I had Mickey. That terrible thought of, "oh I could have done better with Mickey" did creep in. It is hard to admit I did this, but I must confront it if I ever want to succeed with Divine.The frustration that I wanted Mickey there, as he was the one I had signed up with originally, was a mental process I had to tell myself "let it go, move on, you are working Divine now". Once I can get over that hurdle, Divine and I will succeed and have a beautiful dance together.
The first search was an exterior. It was in an area that it was partially under a overhang with several school benches that were made from a press of grates. It wasn't solid. The benches were put in an arrangement that you would have to go around to the other side. There were some folding chairs set around in the sun is a random arrangement. They were not there when we did our walk through. The addition of the chairs was to add a stress factor to our training. There was a some swirling wind. The temperature was warm, not hot. In the grass field nearby were a bunch of young kids playing soccer. They were noisy. We had trash bins as our starting cones.
Divine started her search by being attracted to the chairs. I don't know if odor was swirling there, but before long she went to the pole that held up the overhang, and indicated on the odor. Because she has indicated a foot or so away from odor in the past, I wondered if it was on the other side. I also do not have a lot of experience developing a gut feeling with her. So I did pull her off odor to go to the other side. She searched, went under the bench, and then indicated that "I can't get to the odor from here." Divine pulled me back around the benches and brought me back to the pole where the odor was indicated and I called alert. This did look bad like I can't read a clear indication. What is the hardest on this is I felt like such an idiot in front of everyone. I felt that my instructors don't look at me as a great handler, just someone that really doesn't get it. I wanted to scream but I have a title in NW3! I would have done so much better with Mickey. I can do this, I really can be a good handler! This voice screaming inside me, but I put on a cool face. No one knew I was crying and screaming inside. This is why I hate videos and this video was shown to the class at the end of the day. But again, I had to put ego aside, and look at what an amazing thing that happened. Divine pulled me around the tables and back to the odor. If that were Mickey, he would have gone on to something else, but Divine kept focus that she hadn't gotten paid on that odor yet, and she was determined to get that pay for that odor. To me, I find that rather amazing.
The next challenge was a container search in an auditorium with carpet. There were boxes and buckets, some on folding chairs and a few other items. There were probably something like 60 containers. When the door was opened and we went inside, coming in from the extremely bright sun, so the fluorescent lit auditorium, I did my instant panic of I can barely see. My eyes do not adjust fast coming in from a bright light. Then as my eyes adjusted a little more, I could tell there were 60+ containers on the floor. Oh wow! Divine has never worked that many boxes. I have done crazy stuff like this with Mickey, but not Divine. I knew if I had Mickey we could have worked through the issue, but with Divine, it was a bit of a panic. I let her go. She ran to a box, showed interest but then I called way too soon. Nope, that wasn't the box. The bucket next to it had the odor. We went on, and Divine hit on another box, and at this time I was really losing confidence in myself and a bit nervy. The "I'm not succeeding and I'm looking like an idiot" set in to paralyze me a bit.The instructor told me where the odor was and we started working Divine to treat her on the box with the odor. That box had a tin with 13 or 17 swabs.
After these two searches, I had a very bruised and punctured ego. I know I can do better, but I was just not doing well. I have been under difficult or unusual situations with another instructor with a different dog. I have trialed at higher levels. I had to really coach myself to get over my ego. I get too fixated in what others think.
Divine's issue of alerting on neighboring boxes have surfaced. We haven't been under a stressful situation in awhile. We haven't worked enough together to know how to work through this issue. I had to remind myself this is a learning situation to become a better handler, it isn't about pampering my ego.And although successes are good, we also have to be put under stress tolearn how to deal with them. That was the sole purpose of this workshop.
The afternoon we had two rooms and vehicles search. One room Divine went in and got one hide, false alerted on a desk and then about 5 seconds after time was called she found the last hide. Because the time was short, I jumped a bit on calling the desk instead of working it out.
The next room we were given 99 1/2 seconds. I couldn't stop laughing. Divine found 2 hides, however, there were a total of 7. I didn't know this until our debriefing. Normally with Mickey we either get all hides or close to all the hides. Again this really took a stab at my ego. I'm not a beginner, I can do th is, I know what it is, and no one looked at me as the seasoned handler, but someone fumbling. I certainly didn't show I was a seasoned handler.
But setting ego aside, Divine never done more than about two hides in a room before. She isn't aware that she can go and find several other hides. We haven't worked those issues. I have never done unknown number of hides with Divine. With Mickey, I have done blind hides of unknown numbers of 12 hides and he got them all. I am use to working multiple hides, but Divine isn't.
I thought because I have done unknown number of hides, I could work Divine through this, but when your dog isn't use to dealing with it, you will have problems if you don't realize how many hides there are in the room. Divine in her little mind we had success. In practice I will build her up to more hides slowly and I think she will do great. She just needs to learn the new game.
The vehicle hides were ok, we found 3 out of 4. The soccer game had a lot more noise. There were kids nearby playing with balls bouncing, which my hearing aids picked up fairly well. It did interfere with my concentration. I did get a little lost. I had worked hard with Mickey to not get lost in vehicle searches, but with a more experienced dog, it does make a difference. Doing this search with Divine we did ok. I don't think she has ever done more than two hides on vehicles. Divine during the day kept wanting to go back to the search area. Which is a good sign she really wanted to do more. So I don't think my stress issues affected her in anyway. Divine is less affected on my emotions than Mickey. She is more solid in that regards. That doesnt' mean she has no response to my emotions, she is just a lot less than Mickey, which is a good quality of hers.
I have a huge fear of performing in front of people. More so in a class situation than a trial. For some reason I can focus on a trial. In a class learning situation, I am much more distracted and on edge. When I have somewhat of a relationship with my instructors, I feel more I have to impress them. When an instructor thinks you are good, even their attitude is different towards you than if they think you are so so. All I ever want to do is be good at what I do.
At a trial, there is no impressing, just focus on what you need. Yes, I know that mind set would work in a practice, but when people communicate to me, it takes much more effort for me to concentrate. In practice, instructors interfere, I have that in the back of my head. At a trial, there is no communication or talking. You just do, they say yes, no or thank you. Once in a rare while you can ask to move something or have a question about an area, but that is rare. Generally you are focus, no interference of communication. When I am half worried about what someone is going to say to me, I am not completely concentrating on fully on my dog. In a trial, I just focus on my dog, become one and in zone with them.
My NW3 title I got with Mickey, the thought all day was "to make Mickey happy". The other two NW3 trials I didn't title with Mickey, I wanted to title and do well. With Divine at this workshop, it was "I want to do well". I took the focus off my dog and on myself. Wanting to do well is more ego. When I think I want to make my dog happy, we perform much better. If I think of making my dog happy, I will stop comparing with my other dog and realize I'm there with that dog in front of me. When I think of the more experienced dog, that is my ego taking over, which in the end ruins it.
At the end of the day we watched the videos of each student. Each person put on the spot. Some were trying to save face by excuses or other tactics to get off the fact that they messed up. I did the same. I did it lightly outwardly but was in pure panic and upset internally. Which really is a waste of energy and you do not learn as well. But it is a situation I have anxiety. This workshop made it loud and clear I still have major ego problems. I am still hung up on trying to impress and please people. If I can just get over the ego issues, I will really go forward with my dogs.My dogs feel the stress and know I am not completely focus on their success.
Nose Work is the sport of the dog, we do better if we leave our egos out of it.
Divine passed her Nose Work level 1 (NW1) trial January 2014. She has been more of a NW+ dog the past year. She can search the three odors, but since her trial, we haven't done a lot of work on converging odors, multiple hides, and inaccessible hides. We have done some container exercises with distractors.
The goal in this workshop was to add something extra to create a more stressful practicing environment for the handlers. This included distractions, giving different times for searches than is normal, add multiple hides with an unknown number beyond three, add a square zone where odor will not be in the square, etc.
My first challenge was to get over what we call in the service dog world, "second dog syndrome". When you have developed years of working with your first service dog, then you retire that dog and work with the new one, y ou are on edge because the new dog isn't as good as your old dog. You don't remember the growing pains you had with your first dog, you remember how you worked together, like a well seasoned partner. The bond is great and now to develop a new bond with the new dog is a bit unnerving. With Divine, getting her to NW1 level isn't that big of a task. But as you move up into converging odors and more complex hides, your ability to read the dog is at a higher level.
We will miss our first dog and while working with the new one, we start missing our first dog even more. We start to compare, which is unfair because we haven't invested the same amount of time with the new dog. After 28 years of experience in the service dog world, I have seen this issue a lot and with most people it takes a year or more to develop the working bond with your service dog. I am on my 6th service dog and each time there is an adjustment period, a doubt period, a frustration that you want it to be easy like you had it with your last dog.
Divine isn't a replacement for Mickey in Nose Work, Mickey is the dog I have practiced and trialed with the most. I am more comfortable working with him than Divine. I raised Mickey from a puppy, I didn't Divine. Mickey and I read each other well and we have a stronger bond.
The stress that came out of me in this workshop, was my ego got a bit tarnished because Divine and I are essentially new partners. We haven't put a lot of hours in Nose Work with each other. My ego would focus on that I felt I was performing with less finds than I would if I had Mickey. That terrible thought of, "oh I could have done better with Mickey" did creep in. It is hard to admit I did this, but I must confront it if I ever want to succeed with Divine.The frustration that I wanted Mickey there, as he was the one I had signed up with originally, was a mental process I had to tell myself "let it go, move on, you are working Divine now". Once I can get over that hurdle, Divine and I will succeed and have a beautiful dance together.
The first search was an exterior. It was in an area that it was partially under a overhang with several school benches that were made from a press of grates. It wasn't solid. The benches were put in an arrangement that you would have to go around to the other side. There were some folding chairs set around in the sun is a random arrangement. They were not there when we did our walk through. The addition of the chairs was to add a stress factor to our training. There was a some swirling wind. The temperature was warm, not hot. In the grass field nearby were a bunch of young kids playing soccer. They were noisy. We had trash bins as our starting cones.
Divine started her search by being attracted to the chairs. I don't know if odor was swirling there, but before long she went to the pole that held up the overhang, and indicated on the odor. Because she has indicated a foot or so away from odor in the past, I wondered if it was on the other side. I also do not have a lot of experience developing a gut feeling with her. So I did pull her off odor to go to the other side. She searched, went under the bench, and then indicated that "I can't get to the odor from here." Divine pulled me back around the benches and brought me back to the pole where the odor was indicated and I called alert. This did look bad like I can't read a clear indication. What is the hardest on this is I felt like such an idiot in front of everyone. I felt that my instructors don't look at me as a great handler, just someone that really doesn't get it. I wanted to scream but I have a title in NW3! I would have done so much better with Mickey. I can do this, I really can be a good handler! This voice screaming inside me, but I put on a cool face. No one knew I was crying and screaming inside. This is why I hate videos and this video was shown to the class at the end of the day. But again, I had to put ego aside, and look at what an amazing thing that happened. Divine pulled me around the tables and back to the odor. If that were Mickey, he would have gone on to something else, but Divine kept focus that she hadn't gotten paid on that odor yet, and she was determined to get that pay for that odor. To me, I find that rather amazing.
The next challenge was a container search in an auditorium with carpet. There were boxes and buckets, some on folding chairs and a few other items. There were probably something like 60 containers. When the door was opened and we went inside, coming in from the extremely bright sun, so the fluorescent lit auditorium, I did my instant panic of I can barely see. My eyes do not adjust fast coming in from a bright light. Then as my eyes adjusted a little more, I could tell there were 60+ containers on the floor. Oh wow! Divine has never worked that many boxes. I have done crazy stuff like this with Mickey, but not Divine. I knew if I had Mickey we could have worked through the issue, but with Divine, it was a bit of a panic. I let her go. She ran to a box, showed interest but then I called way too soon. Nope, that wasn't the box. The bucket next to it had the odor. We went on, and Divine hit on another box, and at this time I was really losing confidence in myself and a bit nervy. The "I'm not succeeding and I'm looking like an idiot" set in to paralyze me a bit.The instructor told me where the odor was and we started working Divine to treat her on the box with the odor. That box had a tin with 13 or 17 swabs.
After these two searches, I had a very bruised and punctured ego. I know I can do better, but I was just not doing well. I have been under difficult or unusual situations with another instructor with a different dog. I have trialed at higher levels. I had to really coach myself to get over my ego. I get too fixated in what others think.
Divine's issue of alerting on neighboring boxes have surfaced. We haven't been under a stressful situation in awhile. We haven't worked enough together to know how to work through this issue. I had to remind myself this is a learning situation to become a better handler, it isn't about pampering my ego.And although successes are good, we also have to be put under stress tolearn how to deal with them. That was the sole purpose of this workshop.
The afternoon we had two rooms and vehicles search. One room Divine went in and got one hide, false alerted on a desk and then about 5 seconds after time was called she found the last hide. Because the time was short, I jumped a bit on calling the desk instead of working it out.
The next room we were given 99 1/2 seconds. I couldn't stop laughing. Divine found 2 hides, however, there were a total of 7. I didn't know this until our debriefing. Normally with Mickey we either get all hides or close to all the hides. Again this really took a stab at my ego. I'm not a beginner, I can do th is, I know what it is, and no one looked at me as the seasoned handler, but someone fumbling. I certainly didn't show I was a seasoned handler.
But setting ego aside, Divine never done more than about two hides in a room before. She isn't aware that she can go and find several other hides. We haven't worked those issues. I have never done unknown number of hides with Divine. With Mickey, I have done blind hides of unknown numbers of 12 hides and he got them all. I am use to working multiple hides, but Divine isn't.
I thought because I have done unknown number of hides, I could work Divine through this, but when your dog isn't use to dealing with it, you will have problems if you don't realize how many hides there are in the room. Divine in her little mind we had success. In practice I will build her up to more hides slowly and I think she will do great. She just needs to learn the new game.
The vehicle hides were ok, we found 3 out of 4. The soccer game had a lot more noise. There were kids nearby playing with balls bouncing, which my hearing aids picked up fairly well. It did interfere with my concentration. I did get a little lost. I had worked hard with Mickey to not get lost in vehicle searches, but with a more experienced dog, it does make a difference. Doing this search with Divine we did ok. I don't think she has ever done more than two hides on vehicles. Divine during the day kept wanting to go back to the search area. Which is a good sign she really wanted to do more. So I don't think my stress issues affected her in anyway. Divine is less affected on my emotions than Mickey. She is more solid in that regards. That doesnt' mean she has no response to my emotions, she is just a lot less than Mickey, which is a good quality of hers.
I have a huge fear of performing in front of people. More so in a class situation than a trial. For some reason I can focus on a trial. In a class learning situation, I am much more distracted and on edge. When I have somewhat of a relationship with my instructors, I feel more I have to impress them. When an instructor thinks you are good, even their attitude is different towards you than if they think you are so so. All I ever want to do is be good at what I do.
At a trial, there is no impressing, just focus on what you need. Yes, I know that mind set would work in a practice, but when people communicate to me, it takes much more effort for me to concentrate. In practice, instructors interfere, I have that in the back of my head. At a trial, there is no communication or talking. You just do, they say yes, no or thank you. Once in a rare while you can ask to move something or have a question about an area, but that is rare. Generally you are focus, no interference of communication. When I am half worried about what someone is going to say to me, I am not completely concentrating on fully on my dog. In a trial, I just focus on my dog, become one and in zone with them.
My NW3 title I got with Mickey, the thought all day was "to make Mickey happy". The other two NW3 trials I didn't title with Mickey, I wanted to title and do well. With Divine at this workshop, it was "I want to do well". I took the focus off my dog and on myself. Wanting to do well is more ego. When I think I want to make my dog happy, we perform much better. If I think of making my dog happy, I will stop comparing with my other dog and realize I'm there with that dog in front of me. When I think of the more experienced dog, that is my ego taking over, which in the end ruins it.
At the end of the day we watched the videos of each student. Each person put on the spot. Some were trying to save face by excuses or other tactics to get off the fact that they messed up. I did the same. I did it lightly outwardly but was in pure panic and upset internally. Which really is a waste of energy and you do not learn as well. But it is a situation I have anxiety. This workshop made it loud and clear I still have major ego problems. I am still hung up on trying to impress and please people. If I can just get over the ego issues, I will really go forward with my dogs.My dogs feel the stress and know I am not completely focus on their success.
Nose Work is the sport of the dog, we do better if we leave our egos out of it.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Our first trial together, can we do it?
Trial day January 5th, 2014
Nose Work is still a relatively new sport, although many have gotten Nose Work level 1 titles. I even got one with Mickey. So entering Divine, since I've already been in a trial, I should be ready set to go. However, I was extremely nervous. I got jiggers and was anxious every time I thought about the trial. Though it was a good anxious. I had to remind myself that being nervous or anxious means I care. When you are not exited, you won't have the spunk or extra boost to do well. Nose Work does mean a lot to me. It is the only sport I have time to participate and also one I can physically participate in. So all my efforts go into this sport.
I use to joke that "Divine is my problem child." But, I had to stop thinking that because any negative thinking is not good for moving forward. And in the end, the problem child wasn't Divine, it was me. In the past I would be nervous, thinking the more nervous and anxious I was, that would work for me. As I got older, I found that wasn't the case, we need a healthy level of being nervous, but not to the level we turn into a deer in headlights. So to work through this, I had to coach myself.
The day before the trial I prepared. Getting ready really helped me feel as if I were in control. We all have control issues one way or another and putting them into getting ready for the trial would relieve Divine of me trying to control her at the trial.The week before I had Divine in a Sniff 'n Go where Jamie wrote, "pulled her off odor twice." This is me trying to "control" the environment. I don't know where the odor is, but I keep trying to mettle in my dog's searching patterns. Which to Divine, this interprets as nagging. I coached myself and said over and over, "Let her work out the odor in the trial!" And I continued to do what I could control, I packed up the day before. I also did 3 hides at Mast Park. No drilling, just a little easy fun to boost her enthusiasm. It did. After the first odor, the other one was about 40 feet away and she started pulling me to it! I just let her go, let her do her searching. YES! now keep this in mind when we trial tomorrow. Remember, "Let her work out the odor!"
I also reread the rule book and to avoid any driving mishaps, I virtually (using computer screens) drove to the trial site. I love the maps you can use on the Internet like you are there getting to see the landmarks. This proved to be the best thing for me to do as getting there was super easy. Nothing to raise my blood pressure if I miss a street and get lost!!
The morning of the trial Divine and I got in my truck and headed out. I tried the toll road to Long Beach for the first time. What a beautiful drive to calm the nerves before the trial. Hardly anyone on the road. There were patches of fog, but also beautiful. Stress free getting to the trial. The trial was held in San Pedro. I went over St. Thomas' bridge where you see Long Beach and L.A. Harbor, the two largest Sea Ports in United States. The stacks of shipping containers is an incredible sight. As I saw Harbor Boulevard off ramp sign, I got off as the arrows pointed to the cruise ship ports. Driving on Harbor Boulevard I started thinking of my father, who had passed away 9 years ago. The feeling was rather strong and I didn't know why I was getting this intense feeling for him. I'm already full of emotions for this trial and now I'm thinking of this? Good Grief! At the stop light, I looked to the left and saw a banner that said "Battleship Iowa". I was over come with emotions, I looked up and to the right past the cruise ship and saw the U. S. S. Iowa. The emotions were intense and i was trying hard to hold back the tears. The U. S. S. Iowa was the ship my father served on in WWII. I knew it was in Los Angeles but that was a back thought, I had no idea I would be driving right past it. Oh how I wanted to go see it, but I had a trial to attend. I knew I wouldn't be able to see it all day, but at least the thought of my father near and that I can go back with my mom was a bit comforting. I had a trial to attend. It was like that was there to say, "Hey, I'm here!" and my father was trying to tell me, "when you get a chance, you got to see the ship I served."Then I was able to put it in the back of my mind and focus on the trial.
I arrived at the trial in plenty of time, set up, and went to the front check-in table. Whew. Made it here! YAY! We were #8 to run in group A. As I walked around, I saw a few familiar faces and mingled a little bit. We are all in this together, we all want our dogs to succeed and get their titles. Some folks were there for the third time, the fourth and even fifth time. Wow, I really give them credit for their love for this sport and getting out with their dogs. The dogs love this sport and I know Divine does too.
We were right on the water. No waves because we were in a harbor. But beautiful full sun, not too hot, no strong winds. A perfect day to trial.
I was #8 to go. That gave me a little time to take a breather to give Divine a lot of time to sniff and potty. I've notice when I give her a lot of time to sniff other dog's pee, she cares less about it on a search. This doesn't mean another dog would care less, but for Divine it does work. So I gave her a nice long 10-15 minutes just to sniff pee. One of her favorite things to do. Then she will decide to pee. She's not like Mickey who does his business right away and ready to move on. He likes to sniff pee too, but he doesn't need 10 minutes of it. Divine needs to sniff, sniff, sniff and sniff more, then pee. Then sniff, sniff and sniff some more and then eliminate. Oh what we have to do when getting our dogs ready for show time! I wish she was like Mickey, do the business and be done with it and let's go!!!
As the time gets nearer, the adrenalin in my body starts to rise. I took Divine to the practice boxes and she got it right away, but i was so phased out that I didn't notice! Good to do that on the practice box instead of the actual search! I brought her on again and she alerted, I treated. Ok, she gets it, I just need to get my head together.
We waited in the waiting area. They said we could potty our dogs, so I allowed Divine to take a potty break, but because she just did the warm up boxes her brain was thinking ODOR and she started searching the area. I pulled her to the side and decided to wait on the side walk. They called us up.
We went down these steep stairs where I saw the judge. I told her I don't hear well so this is the time you can yell at me and get away with it! She laughed and said she knew I couldn't hear well.
Our first search were the containers. They were Pizza boxes! Oh fun! I knew this being NW1 they didn't have pizza smell or grease on them. So at least I could relax about my Labrador not sniffing any residual pizza! We started and her nose kept hitting the boxes. Bang, bang, bang and bang. Very distinct bang noise as if she is doing a quick sort. It was in a very random order that i couldn't remember which box she hit and which one she didn't. As time went on, I got a little nervous. I usually let my dogs go at it first and if they get a little lost, I will then lead them methodically to each box. She probably was a bit nervous herself, not that systematic and a little frantic, which isn't her style. She probably felt my anxiousness being at this trial. She finally hit the right box with both her paws on the box, which caved in a little. Opps. I hope that doesn't mean she will fault. But later found out we faulted for something else. When she went through training as a guide dog, I suspect they did a lot of platform training with both paws on a platform or box. She use to do this often and we had to work through this in her early training. That the odor was more important than planting both paws on the box. When I was able to look at the web site that evening, I saw we did fault, but I wasn't sure why. When I got my sheet a few days later, I faulted for food. DRAT! I did that with Mickey on his first NW1 trial with containers. I like to bend down and treat next to the box, but my dogs are experienced, I don't need to do that anymore and should stop. It is obvious in a trial setting I spill food. So I will treat them standing up. They do this fine in practice.
Next we went straight to vehicles. This is her best and fastest. We start off, but she hung on these two vehicles. after awhile I could tell there was no odor there. I tried to make sure she covered the first two cars fully, but not remembering what I did, the judge did note, "Not to sell the odor to her." Hmmmm, ok, I need to be careful when I go over an area too much. I finally got her to the third vehicle and ALERT and there it was. This was long for Divine, she's usually very fast with vehicles, but life in a trial situation is when we learn. I learned and I know Divine learned. The best thing is at least we passed!
Lunch time. We can relax, put her up and wait about 2 hours for our next run. It started to get a little warmer. Divine was panting a little bit. Not too hot, but was panting a little bit.
Just before our turn, I did the ritual of sniff all the pee you need for a good 10-15 minutes, potty and ok, let's rumble!
The next two runs were Exterior and Interior. The sun was bright, so it was easy for me to see well. The search area was a bit convoluted. So convoluted, it is kind of difficult to explain here the ins and outs and inlets and marked off areas we had. I really didn't care about the boundaries, other than just let Divine do her search and work it. She had a little bit of a challenge but got into the area of the odor. I could tell, but sourcing it was a bit of a challenge to her. It was an inlet. Like ones you see in apartments that are semi-enclosed with an over hang and door. It had a gate, that was permanent for most of it, and a gate that was open. When Divine went into this inlet, she went to the crease of the door. She did a half alert. I could tell she wasn't sure, so i didn't call it. If this was a few months ago, I probably would have called it. She continued to source. Her nose went up the crease of the door, then went where the crease was in the cement where the gate would close, then back to the door, then when she went back to that crease, her nose stuck, she looked at me and I called alert.....that half of second while you freeze hoping to hear "YES" from the judge feels like it is 10 seconds long. You hold your breath hoping and praying to hear that word "YES" and I heard the "YES!" my body relaxes and I let out a big sigh of relief. I got a pronounced on this element. This means Divine and I worked well as a team. The judge commented, "Enthusiastic dog!" I just love it that Divine is much happier now. I stopped nagging her, I make it more fun and she is having a blast!
When we did the walk through, I couldn't see inside the room that was set up for the Interior. Laura, who guided us through the walk through said, "See that big chair there? That is also in your search" I couldn't see it. The room was too dark. It was an awkward feeling when Laura asked me twice. I couldn't say yes. This room had no natural light. It was like a dungeon. There was one dim florescent light. Those lights are a frequency that it makes grey spots in my vision. With my floaters that semi-block my vision and only seeing out of one eye, there isn't a lot I can fall back on. It is extremely hard for me to see. I can see Divine's silhouette, but no details. This is when knowing your dog well comes into play. If I have a dark dog, this will be very difficult, which I will face with Duffy, but Divine is a nice light yellow lab. There is hope.
When it was our turn to go, I told the steward, "This is just a precautionary, but my eyes do not adjust well to dark rooms and I most likely won't be able to see well. You do not need to do anything for me, but just to let you know." The Steward said, "You can wait a few seconds for your eyes to adjust." I said, "My eyes don't adjust that quick. I will just wing it as I go." I was thinking the minute Divine goes into the door of the room, the time starts. The best thing to do is just let her work it because that clock is running. We could have had this off leash, but I needed to know where she was located, so I left the leash on that was hooked up to her harness. This really helped to give additional feedback of what little I could see. When Divine first went in, she ran to the end of the boundary. As she ran in front of me, I let the leash out, she was grey to me, but I knew she was running. My hesitancy was not to run into an obstacle I couldn't see, so I stayed, as best I could behind her. I knew this was safe. It was a half partitioned room where the other side of the partition was not part of the search area. I remember having a practice session with Kim we had the same situation. During Kim's workshop, when Divine would go to the other side, "I pulled her off odor a few times" because the odor was right there on the edge. She went to the other side to work the odor. I was thinking she is out of the boundary, there can't be odor there and pulled her off. But, remember, odor doesn't know those boundaries unless it is a solid wall. Odor was going to the other side of the room. I wasn't going to make that mistake again today and pull her off odor. So today in the trial I let her work it, not being worried about her "going out of bounds." Fortunately Divine is a light yellow lab and I could see the contrast of a silhouette. She didn't look light yellow to me though, she was like a grey that was lighter than the light of the room. I let her do her thing and work it. We know how to do this and yes my vision is extremely impaired, but it isn't completely black, but a huge disadvantage. I was able to follow Divine around and she went back to the front part of the room. Probably 30 seconds passed and my vision started to adjust just a little bit better to the dark room. Just enough I could see her head move. As she worked the front part of the room, she found the odor, sourced it and ALERT. That half a second I wait to hear the glorious word.....and "YES" was given. WOW, she passed all four! WE DID IT! And having a huge disadvantage in that room with it being like doing night time nose work, we succeeded. I also got a pronounced on this search too. I can't tell you how special that is to me, being at such a huge disadvantage of not being able to see. This is a sport, I'm not looking for any handicap advantages. Then that means I can't compete with the big boys. I will work it out and learn how to do this like everyone else that will have challenges to work through. That is what a sport is all about, not to whine of your disadvantages, but to say this is my disadvantage, acknowledge them and finding ways to get around it. It is exhilaration when you succeed because you were able to be tested on the same level as everyone else. This means a lot to me. I now can say I got two NW1 titles on two dogs the first time. I need to be careful to not get too full of myself, because NW2 level is a whole new game. Some great handlers are not passing the first time in NW2. However, I will work with Divine about a year before I decide to enter her in an NW2.
Nose Work is still a relatively new sport, although many have gotten Nose Work level 1 titles. I even got one with Mickey. So entering Divine, since I've already been in a trial, I should be ready set to go. However, I was extremely nervous. I got jiggers and was anxious every time I thought about the trial. Though it was a good anxious. I had to remind myself that being nervous or anxious means I care. When you are not exited, you won't have the spunk or extra boost to do well. Nose Work does mean a lot to me. It is the only sport I have time to participate and also one I can physically participate in. So all my efforts go into this sport.
I use to joke that "Divine is my problem child." But, I had to stop thinking that because any negative thinking is not good for moving forward. And in the end, the problem child wasn't Divine, it was me. In the past I would be nervous, thinking the more nervous and anxious I was, that would work for me. As I got older, I found that wasn't the case, we need a healthy level of being nervous, but not to the level we turn into a deer in headlights. So to work through this, I had to coach myself.
The day before the trial I prepared. Getting ready really helped me feel as if I were in control. We all have control issues one way or another and putting them into getting ready for the trial would relieve Divine of me trying to control her at the trial.The week before I had Divine in a Sniff 'n Go where Jamie wrote, "pulled her off odor twice." This is me trying to "control" the environment. I don't know where the odor is, but I keep trying to mettle in my dog's searching patterns. Which to Divine, this interprets as nagging. I coached myself and said over and over, "Let her work out the odor in the trial!" And I continued to do what I could control, I packed up the day before. I also did 3 hides at Mast Park. No drilling, just a little easy fun to boost her enthusiasm. It did. After the first odor, the other one was about 40 feet away and she started pulling me to it! I just let her go, let her do her searching. YES! now keep this in mind when we trial tomorrow. Remember, "Let her work out the odor!"
I also reread the rule book and to avoid any driving mishaps, I virtually (using computer screens) drove to the trial site. I love the maps you can use on the Internet like you are there getting to see the landmarks. This proved to be the best thing for me to do as getting there was super easy. Nothing to raise my blood pressure if I miss a street and get lost!!
The morning of the trial Divine and I got in my truck and headed out. I tried the toll road to Long Beach for the first time. What a beautiful drive to calm the nerves before the trial. Hardly anyone on the road. There were patches of fog, but also beautiful. Stress free getting to the trial. The trial was held in San Pedro. I went over St. Thomas' bridge where you see Long Beach and L.A. Harbor, the two largest Sea Ports in United States. The stacks of shipping containers is an incredible sight. As I saw Harbor Boulevard off ramp sign, I got off as the arrows pointed to the cruise ship ports. Driving on Harbor Boulevard I started thinking of my father, who had passed away 9 years ago. The feeling was rather strong and I didn't know why I was getting this intense feeling for him. I'm already full of emotions for this trial and now I'm thinking of this? Good Grief! At the stop light, I looked to the left and saw a banner that said "Battleship Iowa". I was over come with emotions, I looked up and to the right past the cruise ship and saw the U. S. S. Iowa. The emotions were intense and i was trying hard to hold back the tears. The U. S. S. Iowa was the ship my father served on in WWII. I knew it was in Los Angeles but that was a back thought, I had no idea I would be driving right past it. Oh how I wanted to go see it, but I had a trial to attend. I knew I wouldn't be able to see it all day, but at least the thought of my father near and that I can go back with my mom was a bit comforting. I had a trial to attend. It was like that was there to say, "Hey, I'm here!" and my father was trying to tell me, "when you get a chance, you got to see the ship I served."Then I was able to put it in the back of my mind and focus on the trial.
I arrived at the trial in plenty of time, set up, and went to the front check-in table. Whew. Made it here! YAY! We were #8 to run in group A. As I walked around, I saw a few familiar faces and mingled a little bit. We are all in this together, we all want our dogs to succeed and get their titles. Some folks were there for the third time, the fourth and even fifth time. Wow, I really give them credit for their love for this sport and getting out with their dogs. The dogs love this sport and I know Divine does too.
We were right on the water. No waves because we were in a harbor. But beautiful full sun, not too hot, no strong winds. A perfect day to trial.
I was #8 to go. That gave me a little time to take a breather to give Divine a lot of time to sniff and potty. I've notice when I give her a lot of time to sniff other dog's pee, she cares less about it on a search. This doesn't mean another dog would care less, but for Divine it does work. So I gave her a nice long 10-15 minutes just to sniff pee. One of her favorite things to do. Then she will decide to pee. She's not like Mickey who does his business right away and ready to move on. He likes to sniff pee too, but he doesn't need 10 minutes of it. Divine needs to sniff, sniff, sniff and sniff more, then pee. Then sniff, sniff and sniff some more and then eliminate. Oh what we have to do when getting our dogs ready for show time! I wish she was like Mickey, do the business and be done with it and let's go!!!
As the time gets nearer, the adrenalin in my body starts to rise. I took Divine to the practice boxes and she got it right away, but i was so phased out that I didn't notice! Good to do that on the practice box instead of the actual search! I brought her on again and she alerted, I treated. Ok, she gets it, I just need to get my head together.
We waited in the waiting area. They said we could potty our dogs, so I allowed Divine to take a potty break, but because she just did the warm up boxes her brain was thinking ODOR and she started searching the area. I pulled her to the side and decided to wait on the side walk. They called us up.
We went down these steep stairs where I saw the judge. I told her I don't hear well so this is the time you can yell at me and get away with it! She laughed and said she knew I couldn't hear well.
Our first search were the containers. They were Pizza boxes! Oh fun! I knew this being NW1 they didn't have pizza smell or grease on them. So at least I could relax about my Labrador not sniffing any residual pizza! We started and her nose kept hitting the boxes. Bang, bang, bang and bang. Very distinct bang noise as if she is doing a quick sort. It was in a very random order that i couldn't remember which box she hit and which one she didn't. As time went on, I got a little nervous. I usually let my dogs go at it first and if they get a little lost, I will then lead them methodically to each box. She probably was a bit nervous herself, not that systematic and a little frantic, which isn't her style. She probably felt my anxiousness being at this trial. She finally hit the right box with both her paws on the box, which caved in a little. Opps. I hope that doesn't mean she will fault. But later found out we faulted for something else. When she went through training as a guide dog, I suspect they did a lot of platform training with both paws on a platform or box. She use to do this often and we had to work through this in her early training. That the odor was more important than planting both paws on the box. When I was able to look at the web site that evening, I saw we did fault, but I wasn't sure why. When I got my sheet a few days later, I faulted for food. DRAT! I did that with Mickey on his first NW1 trial with containers. I like to bend down and treat next to the box, but my dogs are experienced, I don't need to do that anymore and should stop. It is obvious in a trial setting I spill food. So I will treat them standing up. They do this fine in practice.
Next we went straight to vehicles. This is her best and fastest. We start off, but she hung on these two vehicles. after awhile I could tell there was no odor there. I tried to make sure she covered the first two cars fully, but not remembering what I did, the judge did note, "Not to sell the odor to her." Hmmmm, ok, I need to be careful when I go over an area too much. I finally got her to the third vehicle and ALERT and there it was. This was long for Divine, she's usually very fast with vehicles, but life in a trial situation is when we learn. I learned and I know Divine learned. The best thing is at least we passed!
Lunch time. We can relax, put her up and wait about 2 hours for our next run. It started to get a little warmer. Divine was panting a little bit. Not too hot, but was panting a little bit.
Just before our turn, I did the ritual of sniff all the pee you need for a good 10-15 minutes, potty and ok, let's rumble!
The next two runs were Exterior and Interior. The sun was bright, so it was easy for me to see well. The search area was a bit convoluted. So convoluted, it is kind of difficult to explain here the ins and outs and inlets and marked off areas we had. I really didn't care about the boundaries, other than just let Divine do her search and work it. She had a little bit of a challenge but got into the area of the odor. I could tell, but sourcing it was a bit of a challenge to her. It was an inlet. Like ones you see in apartments that are semi-enclosed with an over hang and door. It had a gate, that was permanent for most of it, and a gate that was open. When Divine went into this inlet, she went to the crease of the door. She did a half alert. I could tell she wasn't sure, so i didn't call it. If this was a few months ago, I probably would have called it. She continued to source. Her nose went up the crease of the door, then went where the crease was in the cement where the gate would close, then back to the door, then when she went back to that crease, her nose stuck, she looked at me and I called alert.....that half of second while you freeze hoping to hear "YES" from the judge feels like it is 10 seconds long. You hold your breath hoping and praying to hear that word "YES" and I heard the "YES!" my body relaxes and I let out a big sigh of relief. I got a pronounced on this element. This means Divine and I worked well as a team. The judge commented, "Enthusiastic dog!" I just love it that Divine is much happier now. I stopped nagging her, I make it more fun and she is having a blast!
When we did the walk through, I couldn't see inside the room that was set up for the Interior. Laura, who guided us through the walk through said, "See that big chair there? That is also in your search" I couldn't see it. The room was too dark. It was an awkward feeling when Laura asked me twice. I couldn't say yes. This room had no natural light. It was like a dungeon. There was one dim florescent light. Those lights are a frequency that it makes grey spots in my vision. With my floaters that semi-block my vision and only seeing out of one eye, there isn't a lot I can fall back on. It is extremely hard for me to see. I can see Divine's silhouette, but no details. This is when knowing your dog well comes into play. If I have a dark dog, this will be very difficult, which I will face with Duffy, but Divine is a nice light yellow lab. There is hope.
When it was our turn to go, I told the steward, "This is just a precautionary, but my eyes do not adjust well to dark rooms and I most likely won't be able to see well. You do not need to do anything for me, but just to let you know." The Steward said, "You can wait a few seconds for your eyes to adjust." I said, "My eyes don't adjust that quick. I will just wing it as I go." I was thinking the minute Divine goes into the door of the room, the time starts. The best thing to do is just let her work it because that clock is running. We could have had this off leash, but I needed to know where she was located, so I left the leash on that was hooked up to her harness. This really helped to give additional feedback of what little I could see. When Divine first went in, she ran to the end of the boundary. As she ran in front of me, I let the leash out, she was grey to me, but I knew she was running. My hesitancy was not to run into an obstacle I couldn't see, so I stayed, as best I could behind her. I knew this was safe. It was a half partitioned room where the other side of the partition was not part of the search area. I remember having a practice session with Kim we had the same situation. During Kim's workshop, when Divine would go to the other side, "I pulled her off odor a few times" because the odor was right there on the edge. She went to the other side to work the odor. I was thinking she is out of the boundary, there can't be odor there and pulled her off. But, remember, odor doesn't know those boundaries unless it is a solid wall. Odor was going to the other side of the room. I wasn't going to make that mistake again today and pull her off odor. So today in the trial I let her work it, not being worried about her "going out of bounds." Fortunately Divine is a light yellow lab and I could see the contrast of a silhouette. She didn't look light yellow to me though, she was like a grey that was lighter than the light of the room. I let her do her thing and work it. We know how to do this and yes my vision is extremely impaired, but it isn't completely black, but a huge disadvantage. I was able to follow Divine around and she went back to the front part of the room. Probably 30 seconds passed and my vision started to adjust just a little bit better to the dark room. Just enough I could see her head move. As she worked the front part of the room, she found the odor, sourced it and ALERT. That half a second I wait to hear the glorious word.....and "YES" was given. WOW, she passed all four! WE DID IT! And having a huge disadvantage in that room with it being like doing night time nose work, we succeeded. I also got a pronounced on this search too. I can't tell you how special that is to me, being at such a huge disadvantage of not being able to see. This is a sport, I'm not looking for any handicap advantages. Then that means I can't compete with the big boys. I will work it out and learn how to do this like everyone else that will have challenges to work through. That is what a sport is all about, not to whine of your disadvantages, but to say this is my disadvantage, acknowledge them and finding ways to get around it. It is exhilaration when you succeed because you were able to be tested on the same level as everyone else. This means a lot to me. I now can say I got two NW1 titles on two dogs the first time. I need to be careful to not get too full of myself, because NW2 level is a whole new game. Some great handlers are not passing the first time in NW2. However, I will work with Divine about a year before I decide to enter her in an NW2.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Ten Hut!
I'm very pleased how Divine's pivots are nicely done when I turn left or right. It didn't take much. I'm also pleased that she no longer rocks back when she sits. I did notice however, when I was away from home, and we went the second time through a rally course, her old habits came back. This just tells me I need to reinforce her much more in a variety of settings.
Tonight I started with making sure when she sits, she pulls both of her back feet tighter under her. She has been sitting with her hind legs out. I certainly want her to sit up like a lady or maybe it is more a Ten Hut!
I've been luring her to see if this works as I have never trained a dog that had a sit where their back legs would splay outward. I'm learning through this process in how to lure her to get her body in the position I want. I can't really say what I'm doing, other than it is working. I"m so pleased in how fast she is working through sitting with out rocking, pivoting nicely that I'm so pleased with myself as a handler how fast I am able to solve these things.
Divine is such a happy eager worker that it is a joy to work with her. We have a lot more refining training to do, that I probably won't enter her in a show until maybe Oct/Nov or wait until January.
I also worked Divine on Nose Work today. Today was the first day I paired scent. I'm just going to keep doing this over and over, and will add less food, until I can see if she targets the odor. I just know she will get this before Mickey. I'm working them both on odor and hope I can get their Odor Recognition Test (ORT) in early May.
Tonight I started with making sure when she sits, she pulls both of her back feet tighter under her. She has been sitting with her hind legs out. I certainly want her to sit up like a lady or maybe it is more a Ten Hut!
I've been luring her to see if this works as I have never trained a dog that had a sit where their back legs would splay outward. I'm learning through this process in how to lure her to get her body in the position I want. I can't really say what I'm doing, other than it is working. I"m so pleased in how fast she is working through sitting with out rocking, pivoting nicely that I'm so pleased with myself as a handler how fast I am able to solve these things.
Divine is such a happy eager worker that it is a joy to work with her. We have a lot more refining training to do, that I probably won't enter her in a show until maybe Oct/Nov or wait until January.
I also worked Divine on Nose Work today. Today was the first day I paired scent. I'm just going to keep doing this over and over, and will add less food, until I can see if she targets the odor. I just know she will get this before Mickey. I'm working them both on odor and hope I can get their Odor Recognition Test (ORT) in early May.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
To platform or not?
I have taken a focus on Divine's heeling. Getting her ready for competition obedience. I realized on her turns her rump would swing out a bit wide. Many people had advise to do platform training. It is the popular technique now for everyone in obedience and for rear awareness training in obedience. I've tried to wrap my brain around it. Dabbled a bit with Mickey and Divine using the platform. Call me dense all you want, I don't get it. Meaning, it just seemed very cumbersome to me. I think it is great to use for teaching a dog to move on its hinds, and I see the concept of it teaching placement for heel work, but I actually like what I have done with Mickey. His heels are with precision and impressive. I used pure shaping with a mixture of food and his favorite toy, the Kong to achieve this precision. So, a platform for placement, just seemed like another prop. I'm not big on props unless there is really no way around it. But in this case, I'm not big on platform training. So I'm dense to the rest of the dog training world.
So how did I get Mickey to pivot so nicely without using a platform? I actually did it by mistake. It was doing my canine freestyle training first. I was watching some cool videos, one on how to train your dog to back-up around you. They are in heel position on your left, back up around pivoting around you until they are in place. I saw this in a video on line in YouTube and modified it to suit me. After that when I would do heeling, Mickey's pivoting was really nice and moved so well with me. His dance moves looked impressive.
So 2-3 years later, its time to teach Divine to not have her rump sway out. She needs to be in-lined with me and when I turn, her body moves with mine, not have her rump stay outward. Again, I got the advise of platform training. I thought yeah, I really need to try it. You can't say you dislike something or have an opinion if you have never tried it. I tried doing the platform and just felt it was like training 3 extra steps you don't need to get where you wanted. My brain kept saying, NO!!! Train how you trained Mickey! So enough of dabbling with a platform, trying to find the right size and getting her use to standing on one. I ditched it, now to how I really want to train!
I found a free corner in my house. I use the two walls as barriers and then put either a file compartment, boxes or Rubbermaid container to make a barrier of a perfect square. I stand in the middle. Divine on my left side. The purpose of this is all she can do is either move forward, or backwards. A different kind of prop from a platform. When she steps back, click and treat. If she doesn't step back after a certain amount of waiting, I will rotate to my left to see if my body movement will move her. It does, click and treat. I realize this is a form of cuing, but Divine, being trained a a guide dog, doesn't tend to move a lot or experiment a lot. So I need to guide her just a tad more. I turn in a circle and every step she takes back, I click and treat.
With a five minute break in-between, I did some heeling with her and left and right turns. WOW, impressive, rump tucked in better and only after ONE session of doing this way of training. I'm thrilled! What affirmation on my own way of teaching pivoting. I don't have to follow the crowd and do the platform training. Don't get me wrong, I might need it to teach something else, but for this, I like my method or technique. It has proven to work well for both my dogs. I'm sticking to it.
Second session. Did a little more of the same trying to fade the movement of my body. Sometimes I would try to lure with my hands, but that didnt' do very well since Divine isn't a strong luring dog. Again, waited out a little bit with moving backwards, click and treat. Some slight rotating of me, she would back up, I click and treated.
Third session. Ahhh yes, now her wheels are turning. She is realized she is in a shaping game. more behavior. So much so her nose was bopping my blinds, one of the boxes, she tried pawing....now to some people, they would think that is terrible. I actually was delighted she was offering MORE behavior! she eventually started to back up on her own. Click and treat. She offered this more that she backed up around me in segments without me cuing her with my body. WHOO HOOOO Success!! We did a few more of these sessions. It won't be long she will back up around me all the way with one cue.
What I have learned in this exercise is to trust myself and have more confidence in myself. I really do know how to see the problem and the picture. I know my dogs and I don't have to keep running to other trainers for help. I can't wait to get into that ring and start showing. That's the biggest hurdle, to get over my ring nerves.
So how did I get Mickey to pivot so nicely without using a platform? I actually did it by mistake. It was doing my canine freestyle training first. I was watching some cool videos, one on how to train your dog to back-up around you. They are in heel position on your left, back up around pivoting around you until they are in place. I saw this in a video on line in YouTube and modified it to suit me. After that when I would do heeling, Mickey's pivoting was really nice and moved so well with me. His dance moves looked impressive.
So 2-3 years later, its time to teach Divine to not have her rump sway out. She needs to be in-lined with me and when I turn, her body moves with mine, not have her rump stay outward. Again, I got the advise of platform training. I thought yeah, I really need to try it. You can't say you dislike something or have an opinion if you have never tried it. I tried doing the platform and just felt it was like training 3 extra steps you don't need to get where you wanted. My brain kept saying, NO!!! Train how you trained Mickey! So enough of dabbling with a platform, trying to find the right size and getting her use to standing on one. I ditched it, now to how I really want to train!
I found a free corner in my house. I use the two walls as barriers and then put either a file compartment, boxes or Rubbermaid container to make a barrier of a perfect square. I stand in the middle. Divine on my left side. The purpose of this is all she can do is either move forward, or backwards. A different kind of prop from a platform. When she steps back, click and treat. If she doesn't step back after a certain amount of waiting, I will rotate to my left to see if my body movement will move her. It does, click and treat. I realize this is a form of cuing, but Divine, being trained a a guide dog, doesn't tend to move a lot or experiment a lot. So I need to guide her just a tad more. I turn in a circle and every step she takes back, I click and treat.
With a five minute break in-between, I did some heeling with her and left and right turns. WOW, impressive, rump tucked in better and only after ONE session of doing this way of training. I'm thrilled! What affirmation on my own way of teaching pivoting. I don't have to follow the crowd and do the platform training. Don't get me wrong, I might need it to teach something else, but for this, I like my method or technique. It has proven to work well for both my dogs. I'm sticking to it.
Second session. Did a little more of the same trying to fade the movement of my body. Sometimes I would try to lure with my hands, but that didnt' do very well since Divine isn't a strong luring dog. Again, waited out a little bit with moving backwards, click and treat. Some slight rotating of me, she would back up, I click and treated.
Third session. Ahhh yes, now her wheels are turning. She is realized she is in a shaping game. more behavior. So much so her nose was bopping my blinds, one of the boxes, she tried pawing....now to some people, they would think that is terrible. I actually was delighted she was offering MORE behavior! she eventually started to back up on her own. Click and treat. She offered this more that she backed up around me in segments without me cuing her with my body. WHOO HOOOO Success!! We did a few more of these sessions. It won't be long she will back up around me all the way with one cue.
What I have learned in this exercise is to trust myself and have more confidence in myself. I really do know how to see the problem and the picture. I know my dogs and I don't have to keep running to other trainers for help. I can't wait to get into that ring and start showing. That's the biggest hurdle, to get over my ring nerves.
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