Puppy exercise guidelines

The photo of "bag of floating bones puppy" keeps haunting the internet, same as the (in)famous 5-minute rule (increasing the time of walks by 5 minutes per month, so 4 month old puppy can have 20 minutes walks, which lots of people actually interpret as the total time of exercise for the pup), there is "waiting for growth plate to close" advice and so on - basically it all can be summed up with "unless you limit your puppy's exercise, you're gonna hurt them for life".

In fact, the opposite might be true - there is a disclaimer of course, and that is mainly that you should use some common sense, but basically puppies NEED and HAVE TO move, run, turn, jump etc. to develop muscles, proprioception and coordination. Puppies actually need A LOT of exercise. 

I will provide a bit more sources and details below, but common sense in this aspect boils down to a couple of rules:

- avoid too many repetitions of same behaviour or movement. If you tap your knuckle lightly with a pencil 3-5 times, nothing bad will happen. If you do the same 300 times, it's gonna hurt, swell and there's gonna be inflammation. Same thing works for any puppy exercise. You can teach them many behaviours, just don't drill them over and over. 

- free exercise is good. Mostly what your puppy is doing at their own pace and volition is good - again, some common sense is needed, as some (Pyrshep) puppies have crazy ideas like launching themselves from the sofa as high up as possible for instance, but when your puppy is running freely during the walk, jumping over logs, running through puddles etc. that is usually totally okay.

- slippery surfaces are not good - try to provide at least some surface with good grip at home, so the puppy can play there. On the other hand, varied surfaces are great, so make sure your puppy has the possibility to experience walking on grass, sand, gravel etc. 

- rest is vital and needed. Observe your puppy, provide calm environment, teach them to relax but this is complimentary to actually giving them opportunity to let off of all that energy. Again, puppies need LOT of exercise. 

- early training, including both basic obedience, trick and foundations for sport training is great. It teaches the puppy to learn, it gives them mental stimulation, fosters your relationship. 

- healthy weight is essential and it is actually better for the adolescent puppy to be slightly on the "too slim" side than the other way round. Again, I don't mean emaciated, but same as humans, dogs go through that gangly teenage stage and that is fine, they gain more muscles and substance later on, that doesn't mean you need to "fatten them up" in the meantime. Hardly any exercise can hurt you puppy more than being overweight. 

Of course, you don't have to take MY word on that, so here are two great sources to use - by dr Chris Zink, who is one of the world's leading authorities when it comes to canine movement, development and fitness. 

First is her book:  Fit for Life Puppy. I found a digital copy - here.

Second is her poster Fit for Life Puppy Exercise Guidelines - here. 

Now, when it comes to my puppies and agility training, here is what I do, roughly, as it might vary from pup to pup:

1. Just as soon as I get the pup, at the age of 8-15 weeks - we begin going for walks and I try to give them the option of off leash walks as much as possible. With very young puppies I also have a backpack/ sherpa bag, so whenever I see the puppy is tired, I might put them in the backpack for 15 minutes to let them rest. Usually by the time they are 4 months old they can easily and happily accompany my adult dogs on a full walk, which is usually about 5 km / 1 hr long.

2. Just as soon as I get the pup, we begin some basic training: recall, clicker training for tricks, mainly focused on body awareness, playing with toys.

3. At about 5-6 months of age I introduce first jumping grids, based on Susan Salo's Foundation Jumping program. I work with speed bumps (regulators), so no actual height,but already some stride regulation, soft turns etc. I do one-digit number of repetitions, one or two exercises, roughly once 7-10 days, so again I limit the number of repetitions, not the exercise as such.

4. After 6 months of age I slowly introduce wrapping the objects, running through tunnels, low jumps - again, perhaps 5 minute session once every 7-14 days - you can see an example of such session here. This is Maupka's only agility session this week:

5. After 9 months of age I begin to increase a bit the intensity and length of the sessions. I begin target training for the contacts, I slowly begin to increase jump heights, start building longer sequences etc. 

6. After 12 months of age I begin all the other equipment training such as weaves / see saw / A-frame etc. - of course starting with foundations, so when I say I begin weave training it means I start with running through 2 poles at that time ;). 

Don't treat the above as the manual, you need to do what feels right for you and your puppy. The puppy has to be mentally ready for this as well - Zelda for instance wasn't and most of her agility training happened after she was 12 months old, whereas Mojo and Brego were born adults and were sequencing much sooner than that. 

Also, I think it's good to consult the puppy with a good canine fitness specialist or orthopedist. I also believe it's worth taking x-rays before 4 months of age to see if the puppy is developing properly (at this stage early surgical intervention can prevent further damage and arthritis). By all means consult whenever something is bothering you. 

A very subjective overview of breeds suitable for agility

So initially this post was supposed to be only in Polish, but someone suggested it might be useful in English as well, so here we go. It was inspired by people asking on general FB dog-related groups about recommendations for a breed that would be suitable to train agility with and mostly absurd, or funny, or ignorant (or all of the above) answers they usually received. The problem is that people who don't do agility recommend all kind of breeds which they think would be suitable, without having slightest idea what actually is required and expected of the dog in this sport. They also don't really grasp the difference between backyard training and competition, which requires working under greater pressure and among distractions. Sometimes it also happens that breeders recommend their own breed simply because they happen to have puppies for sale and recommend them even though they don't really meet original poster expectations. 

Hence I came with the idea of making a list (which is far from complete although I intend to develop it further) based on descriptions of people who actually work and compete in agility with those breeds as well as my experiences as a trainer and competitor.

Long list of disclaimers:

Disclaimer #1: Dogs are not cookie cutter made - so even within one breed there might be huge differences, especially that the breeding of many breeds is diverging from the original working purpose - sometimes heading towards "sport lines", more often heading towards somehow more "user-friendly", less driven family dog, quite often possesing also quite extreme physical characteristics in comparison to breeds' ancestors. Therefore saying "they are awesome for agility" or "they are not suitable for agility at all" are generalisations and particular individual might not really match that description. 

Disclaimer #2: quite often (though not always) breeds and individuals with great predispositions for agility are not really best family dogs or at least not really easy to live with. Sometimes because of traits such as high reactivity, great intelligence, lots of energy they could be quite demanding especially during first months or years of their lives. Therefore I think it's really important that predispositions for sport are not really main criterion when picking a breed - especially that you might cease to be interested in sport for particular reason (dog's injury, world pandemic, change of life circumstances) and you'd still need to live with particular animal. So ask yourself if the breed characteristics are something that you would generally enjoy and feel good with and whether you are up to providing that particular breed with the kind of life it requires. 

Disclaimer #2a: Lots of people who plan to train agility don't realise yet what it is like. It's costly. It requires regular training, sometimes at unearthly hours or horrific weather. The success doesn't come fast. Well, generally it requires sweat, blood and tears and so on - and sometimes you might realise it's not really what it cracked up to be. 

Disclaimer #2b: No dog, however predisposed, would train and handle itself. Dog's handler is an integral part of the team and without devoted and talented handler the success is not possible. Work both ways actually, even the best handler won't become world champion in agility with a dog that is physically or mentally really not up to the task. 

Disclaimer #3: There is an authentic story about a farmer, who took part in ultramarathon from Sidney to Melbourne, wearing overalls and boots, yet without his dentures, because they made noise when he was running. Cliff Young was 61 years old when he decided to participate and needless to say, nobody thought he'd stand a chance. He ended up not only winning it, but also improving the record by almost two days and actually changing the whole approach to running ultramarathons. The moral of the story is that sometimes you just need to ignore what everybody else is saying and do your thing. I was told cockers are not good for agility and then ended up competiting 6 times at world championship with a cocker, winning Polish Agility Cup with her as well as Polish Agility Champioship (funnily enough, I never won it again with any of my other dogs). You can't really overestimate luck, will and sheer heart for something - and sometimes success is given to those who don't know something is not possible. 

Disclaimer #4: if your breed is not on the list and you're actually competing with it in agility - drop me a message and share your experiences - I'd be happy to update the list. That being said, I'm not really interested in "I've never done any agility, but I have or breed this particular breed and I think it would excel in it" kind of messages. 

Disclaimer 5: if your breed is on the list, but you think what is written about it is utter bollocks, also drop me a message - particularly if you actually compete in agility with that breed. 

The list doesn't include mixbreeds, simply because they are too big and too varied group. If your mixbreed origins are knows, you might usually expect some combination of the traits of the breeds that went into the mix. 

LINK TO THE LIST

Subiektywny przegląd ras pod kątem agility

To będzie trochę wyjątkowy wpis, bo po pierwsze będzie po polsku ;), a po drugie kierowany jest raczej do osób nie siedzących (jeszcze) w agility ani jakoś bardzo głęboko w psim światku. Inspiracją do wpisu są pojawiające się cyklicznie na różnych fejsbukowych grupach kynologicznych pytania o polecenie rasy, z którą pytający potencjalnie chciałby uprawiać agility. Odpowiedzi, jakie się w tym momencie na grupach otwartych pojawiają, są w dużej mierze z czapy i dla osób rzeczywiście uprawiających ten sport z psami i startujących w zawodach zazwyczaj dość zabawne. Polecający zazwyczaj nie znają realiów i nie potrafią rzetelnie ocenić predyspozycji rasy, nie rozumieją również różnicy pomiędzy wymaganiami wobec psa na treningu a na zawodach, gdy dochodzą większe rozproszenia i presja. Zdarza się również niestety, że za poleceniem kryje się chęć sprzedania aktualnie posiadanych szczeniąt bez względu na to, czy rzeczywiście wpisywałyby się one w oczekiwania pytającego. Poniższa (niekompletna, acz w zamiarze mająca być sukcesywnie uzupełniana i aktualizowana) lista powstała w oparciu o doświadczenia moje (czyt. wieloletniej zawodniczki i trenerki agility) oraz wypowiedzi osób trenujących i startujących z daną rasą, jak również innych trenerów. 

Teraz będzie lista disclaimerów:

Disclaimer 1: psy nie powstają metodą odlewu z formy ani na wysoce kontrolowanej linii produkcyjnej, a co za tym idzie, nawet w obrębie jednej rasy potrafią się znacznie różnić. W hodowli wielu ras zresztą odchodzi się od pierwotnej użytkowości - albo na rzecz użytkowości innego rodzaju (stąd na przykład kształtujące się powoli "linie sportowe", gdzie psy hodowlane dobierane są na podstawie predyspozycji lub osiągnięć w konkretnych dyscyplinach kynologicznych), albo na rzecz osobników mniej popędowych, bardziej nadających się na psy rodzinne, często też o przerysowanych w porównaniu do przodków cechach wyglądu. W związku z tym stwierdzenia typu "fantastycznie sprawdzi się w agility" lub "zupełnie się nie nadaje" stanowią generalizacje, od których mogą istnieć różne wyjątki. 

Disclaimer 2: stosunkowo często się zdarza (aczkolwiek nie jest to również sztywną regułą), że rasy i osobniki o wyższych predyspozycjach do sportu równocześnie nie do końca wpisują się w obraz łatwego, nieskomplikowanego psa rodzinnego. Bywa, że z uwagi na silne popędy, wysoką reaktywność, wysoki poziom energii oraz dużą inteligencję psy te są bardzo wymagające zwłaszcza w pierwszych latach swojego życia. W związku z tym osobiście uważam, że predyspozycje do sportu nie powinny być głównym kryterium wyboru rasy dla siebie. Sport stanowi jedynie niewielki wycinek życia z psem, w dodatku taki, który z różnych powodów może nie wypalić (np. kontuzje psa, światowe pandemie, zmiana sytuacji życiowej przewodnika). Należy zatem bardzo poważnie zastanowić się nad kwestią, czy jeśli okaże się, że z jakiegokolwiek powodu nie będę uprawiał z psem danego sportu, to czy nadal jest to zwierzę, którego cechy mi odpowiadają i z którym będzie mi się dobrze żyło (a jemu ze mną).  

Disclaimer 2a: wiele osób, które dopiero planuje rozpoczęcie aktywności sportowej z psem, w rzeczywistości nie zdaje sobie sprawy z tego, co się z tym wiąże - tzn. że są to stałe, wysokie koszty, konieczność regularnych treningów, zdarza się, że w mało komfortowych warunkach pogodowych lub o horrendalnych godzinach, że sukces rzadko przychodzi od razu, i że w ogóle krew, pot i łzy, i tak dalej i tak dalej. Innymi słowy, może się okazać, że zapał będzie słomiany - a pies nie. 

Disclaimer 2b: jeszcze żaden pies, nawet o najlepszych predyspozycjach na świecie, nie odniósł sukcesu sam ani sam się nie wyszkolił. Przewodnik stanowi tu integralną część zespołu i w dużej mierze od niego zależy, ile danemu zespołowi uda się osiągnąć. W drugą stronę niestety również to działa, tzn. jak to się ładnie mówi, z piasku bicza nie ukręcisz, zatem z psem kompletnie pozbawionym predyspozycji fizycznych lub psychicznych nawet najlepszy przewodnik mistrzem świata nie zostanie. 

Disclaimer 3: jest taka autentyczna historia o farmerze, który wygrał ultramaraton na trasie z Sidney do Melbourne, biegnąc w ogrodniczkach i kaloszach, za to bez swojej sztucznej szczęki, bo mu dzwoniła w biegu. Cliff Young miał wtedy 61 lat i gdy pojawił się na starcie, delikatnie rzecz ujmując nie był faworytem - koniec końców nie tylko wygrał, ale pobił dotychczasowy rekord o prawie dwa dni i w ogóle zrewolucjonizował podejście do ultramaratonów. Morał z tej historii jest taki, że czasem trzeba mieć w tyłku, co ktoś o czymś sądzi i robić swoje ;). Jak szukałam swojego pierwszego psa, z którym - a jakże - planowałam uprawiać agility, to usłyszałam, że cocker spaniel się zupełnie nie nadaje. Mój nie nadający się cocker spaniel sześciokrotnie wystartował w Mistrzostwach Świata Agility (i wstydu nam tam nie przyniósł), wielokrotnie wygrał Puchar Polski Agility i został Mistrzem Polski Agility, czego nota bene nie udało mi się dotychczas powtórzyć z żadnym innym moim psem, lol ;). To nie do końca jest tak, że "nie matura, lecz chęć szczera zrobi z ciebie oficera", ale osobistego zapału, serca i szczęścia nie sposób przecenić w jakiejkolwiek dziedzinie - a sukces często odnoszą ci, którzy nie wiedzieli, że się nie da ;). 

Disclaimer 4: jeśli Twoja rasa nie znajduje się na liście, a masz za sobą starty w agility lub nawet osiągnięcia w tym sporcie - podziel się ze mną swoimi doświadczeniami i wiedzą, z chęcią uzupełnię listę. Uwaga: nie interesuje mnie zupełnie, jeśli masz lub hodujesz tę rasę i WYDAJE Ci się, że mogłaby świetnie sprawdzić się w agility, ale nie masz w tej mierze żadnych doświadczeń. 

Disclaimer 5: jeśli Twoja rasa znajduje się na liście, ale uważasz, że napisano o niej kompletne bzdury, to również zapraszam do kontaktu, w szczególności jeśli faktycznie startujesz z psem danej rasy na zawodach i możesz podzielić się doświadczeniami z pierwszej ręki. 

Uwagi co do samej listy:

Lista nie obejmuje mieszańców, ponieważ jest to zbyt szeroka i zbyt zróżnicowana grupa, żeby móc wyodrębnić tu jakiekolwiek prawidłowości. W przypadku miksów o znanym pochodzeniu można oczekiwać cech zbliżonych do cech ras "składowych". 

LINK DO LISTY

Building speed

This is bonus material from my How to tame a T-rex diary, and of course this is HUGE subject and there are as many solutions as there are dogs, so I'm just sharing some of my general thoughts on speed in agility as I see it.

First of all, paradoxically I think the worst you can do is to actually "push for speed". Nothing kills speed as much as physical or psychological pressure.

I'd like to share one video with you, this is Brava's first ever competition start:

Ignoring the super weird distances on this course and my equally awkward handling, you can still see that Brava, as cute and sweet as she was, was yet far from being one of the fastest dogs in Poland and one of the best agility dogs in Europe that she would become later.

I really believe that speed in agility is by-product of three components: structure and physical preparation, motivation and understanding the task. Therefore I don't really focus on "my dog needs to run fast", but rather on preparing my dogs when it comes to those three elements. You need to also remember that they change in time: the dog develops both physically and mentally, they learn more skills, they become more motivated and as it happens, they also become faster. So I assume if I take care of those three elements, the dog would work as fast as they can at this moment and you need to appreciate them, reward them and praise them for that.

This is exactly what you see on the video - Brava was running as fast as she could at this moment and I just made sure she knew she was the greatest, the most pyrfect and fantastic dog ever.

Coming back to the elements of speed:

1. Structure and physical abilities of the dog. We cannot influence structure (so pay attention to this when choosing a puppy), but of course we can help the dog to develop coordination and muscles.

• as always, I repeat: long walks = happy dogs. The dog needs regular walks, during which they can RUN. Agility is a sprint and the dog must have the chance to practice it. Nothing can replace long, off-leash walks, fullstop.
• secondly, proper conditioning exercises. I really encourage everybody to consult a good physiovet, who can help you evaluate your dog's structure and would advice on exercise program. There are also lots of excellent online resources on canine fitness and conditioning, the once that I used myself and can fully recommend are:

Avidog.com (by famous Chris Zink) and Dogs4motion, but I'm sure there are more great ones.

2. Motivation. This in itself is a huge topic, so just some basic points:

• find what your dog really LOVES. It's not true that the dog has to play with toys, has to tug or has to retrieve to be great in agility. It is useful, it makes it easier FOR US, but if your dog loves nothing more than chicken hearts or liver sausages, use that.
• reward actively! reward that is running away is more attractive that the one that just pops into dog's mouth. Move, praise your dog lavishly (watch out, some dogs are actually overwhelmed by too loud praise), choose a toy that you can throw or drag on the ground, use a clam ball (lotus ball) if your dog works for food, race your dog to the reward, experiment, find out what is best for your dog.
• reward often and for small steps. Plan the training in such a way that the dog is mostly successful, divide the behaviour into little steps that you can reward. Use backchaining and frontchaining (you can see that on the video with Reksio). BUT that doesn't mean you need to reward everything! Actually lack of clear criteria is very frustrating especially for softer dogs and might cause frustration and shutting down, because the dog doesn't know what to do to get the reward, and still obviously they can see whether the trainer is genuinely happy or not.
• reward for speed. That seems obvious but actually is one of the most common mistakes I see on the seminars. People for instance stop to reward, so the dog also stops and hence, gets rewarded for being static rather than running. The other example is rewarding right after the dog omits obstacle or starts sniffing etc. Reward when the dog is doing something correct and fast.

Again, I can recommend excellent trainer for motivation issues: Polona Bonac, one of the greatest trainers ever in my opinion, with lots of insight and lots of ideas on how to engage your dog.

3. Understanding of the task. The better the dog understands the behaviour, the faster they can perform it. Be patient, it's a process. It's normal then when the dog is learning the behaviour, it won't be as fast as later - very simple example is the grids that you can see on the video. Notice the difference in speed when he was first doing the grid and now, several weeks later.

NEVER try to get speed before understanding, it's a recipe for disaster , if you ever saw dogs that seem deprived of self-preservation instinct and demolish the course, those are the dogs that have physical abilities and motivation but lack understanding.

The three elements of speed are all interconnected and you can not reach dog's maximum potential if you neglect any of them.

Caught between the extremes

In those uncertain times, one thing is still certain: whatever you're doing, someone knows you're doing it wrong and will comment on it in non-specific way on their social media, which is like the famous soapbox in Hyde Park nowadays.

We have those training fads as well. Like all those years ago we discovered clicker training in Poland and everybody was shaping and just being positive and clicker training zyliards of tricks and people were sharing new batch of tricks each month with their puppies and everybody went oooh, aaaah and there was this sort of competition who would teach the most tricks and the most creative ones. Then suddenly we discovered calming signals and that whole methodology and everybody was spying on "oh, but he licked his lips, he's clearly not comfortable in this situation" and taking part in communication classes and what not. Now it's fitness training and conditioning and half of the world is obsessed with dogs maintaining proper stance on two objects and there is this whole progression from stable objects to unstable ones etc. Me, I actually love all of it and learnt from each - I have this kind of mind that likes synthesis, so picks up bits and pieces and somehow joins them together (which is also what I'm doing here, it's not a detailed historical survey of training methods, just several examples that caught my attention at some point or other). On the other hand, my mind hates extremes and likes to look for the "middle ground" or "golden mean". 

What is kinda new is people actually bragging what their dogs cannot do yet ;). "My dog is fifteen months old and can only do a straight tunnel". "My dog is one year old and he cannot do ANYTHING, I just let him be a puppy". This is usually in response to someone posting a video of young dogs doing relatively advanced things... or sometimes not really, sometimes it's young dogs doing anything. Well, I find this peculiar.

It's a bit like saying "I want my children to have childhood, I don't teach them anything". Well, I don't think we should enroll babies in all possible classes, so they could play the piano, sew, cook and talk in three five different languages by the age of four, but if you're saying that, probably you're lying through your teeth, as most likely you taught them to use the toilet, dress themselves, say "thank you" and "please", eat soup with a spoon, look both ways before crossing the street and so on (or at least I really really hope so). Same goes for dogs, if you're against training on agility equipment before certain age, fine, but I certainly hope you're teaching your dog to come when called, play with you in different locations, walk on leash nicely, ignore distractions, maintain sit-stays, having their nails cut and so on and so on so why don't you brag about that? What I mean here is that I find it much more constructive to list what you can do with a puppy (and there is lots) rather than pointing fingers at someone doing it differently. I really like the idea of "follow my puppy's progress" kind of courses, where famous trainers show what they are doing and how and why, thus giving good example and ideas. 

Also, in the end, even if there is right and wrong way of doing things (which is generally a very complex subject), what someone else is doing is their responsibility and their decision. People are entitled to make mistakes and they can even, wait for it, make mistakes and NOT learn from them (that's idiotic, but it's their problem). And you might feel it's super unfair, but sometimes people make mistakes and get away with it ;). 

I always give example that Brava could weave as one year old - it's true. She was also running sequences at that time. When questioned about it, I also said that she was super easy to train and she learnt much faster than I expected (huh, I might be the first one to come up with "I just have a genius dog" explanation, do I get the credit for that?). That was also true, I didn't even have everyday access to equipment at that time (it was 40-60 minutes drive away and I had a toddler to take care of, so two or three times a week I actually got up at 5:40, left home at 6 am, got to the training place at 7 am, trained four dogs, including warm-up / cool-off and left at 8:15 at the latest to get back home by 9, when my husband had to leave for his work... so much for drilling and overtraining... and yes, I admire my own dedication from that period).

I didn't start teaching weaves that early with any of my "later" dogs - not because it hurt Brava - it didn't, she is still in great shape and was actively and successfully competing until almost 11 years old and now enjoys healthy and active retirement, but because since then, I've found things that I'd rather do at that time, and weaves are pretty easy to train anyway ;). There are also things that, unlike one year old Brava weaving, really make my skin crawl when I look at my old videos (like for goodness sake, I was running agility ON SNOW!) and that I wouldn't do today, because I know better. But I'm glad I was allowed to make my own mistakes. And I'm glad it was not discussed on FB at that time ;). 

What I'm saying is that: 

- you should do things your way, the one you feel comfortable with,

- you shouldn't do things you don't feel comfortable with (it's that simple: if you're against training equipment before one year old / before growth plates close / before you teach particular flatwork skill / etc., just don't do it),

- you should have some argumentation behind it (like why you're doing things in specific time, in specific order and in specific way), especially if you want people to follow your way,

- and that's it. What other people are doing with their own dogs (or children) is really their business, as long as it doesn't endanger you or your loved ones (hence my hope everybody teaches recall...). 

 

Being an owner of a difficult dog sucks

Being an owner of a difficult dog is very taxing thing. Or to be more precise, being a RESPONSIBLE owner of a difficult dog (otherwise, you just don't care and let the world deal with your problematic dog). By difficult I mean dogs with behavioural issues such as fearfulness, aggression, anxiety, reactivity etc., not dogs that for one reason or another fail to fulfill their owners expectations of perfect show / sport dog. That's another story and I don't really want to discuss it now.

Being an owner of a difficult dog engages so much of your mental and psychological resources. 

You try to control the dog, so you need to be always vigilant and ever watchful. If your dog doesn't really like other dogs, you need to watch for all those fucking friendly golden retrievers, who are always off-leash with the owner hundreds of meters away yelling joyfully "he only wants to say 'hi'!", in order to distance yourself before your dog lunges, before you get into yet another verbal fight with the said owner after his stupidity caused you a major setback in your work with your reactive dog. You tend to walk in those abandoned places or in unearthly hours to avoid meeting anyone. The walks are hardly the fun they were supposed to be when you decided to get the dog in the first place. 

You try to control the environment, keeping your dog under threshold, which quite often is impossible, because well, the world is unpredictable and full of children on bikes, birds, dogs wanting to say 'hi', plastic bags flying over from nowhere and also, unfortunately, people deprived of even tiny shred of imagination and consideration. Seriously, you never notice that, until you have a difficult dog and then of course the weirdest things happen exactly when you are working with that one dog that might have problem with them. Like you know, of all of our dogs, Flaszek used to be the fearful one, and of course it was him I was running when some lady decided to shake off her blanket in the very precise moment when he was weaving two meters away from her etc. I mean Brego wouldn't even notice, so it didn't happen to him. 

You try not to lose hope, while at the same time progress might be unbelievably slow and more often than not it feels like you're taking one step forward and two steps back. 

You try not to blame yourself, but you do. After all, there must be a reason why other people have normal dogs, dogs that behave, dogs that don't bark their heads off when the agility judge pulls a hood over his head in the rain, dogs that don't vocalise when left alone in the appartment, dogs that never attack other dogs or people, dogs that are ok with being touched by strangers, dogs that are not resource guiding like maniacs and so on and so on.

You try to find help, while at the same time ignoring all the unsolicited advice of self-proclaimed experts, people telling you that you're doing it wrong, people telling you that you're not trying hard enough, that you are trying too hard, that it will never work, that it's not for you. People who offer you platitudes that everything will be fine, you're doing just great are also dangerous, as they either lie and badmouth you behind your back or don't really know what they are talking about. 

Well.

First of all, not all dogs are created equal. 

So no, it's not your fault. You were dealt a shitty hand. You were faced with a situation that you didn't sign up for. Did you make mistakes? For sure you did, but don't beat yourself about it. You were doing your best at that time, with the knowledge you had, with the abilities you had, you progressed by trial and error. Some mistakes can be repaired. Some can't. Could someone else do a better job with that dog? Perhaps. Would someone else give up long time ago or mess things up even further? For sure. 

Secondly, at the end of the day, there are only some things you MUST do. You must ensure safety and relative comfort of your dog, other dogs and people. This is your responsibility and your duty, especially if your dog is aggressive. 

But don't forget about yourself. As I said, taking care of a difficult dog is exhausting and stressful and prolonged stress is one of the leading causes of depression. Seek help for yourself if you begin to feel this is just too much. 

Otherwise, you don't have to do anything. You don't have to fix your dog. Sometimes it's not even possible. You don't have to explain yourself to anyone. You don't have to make a success story out of your difficult dog - you might manage to do so and it's great as it gives hope, but every great trainer has a story of failure as well.

I do feel that in the end you get rewarded for all that trouble one way or another. Maybe all your hard work pays off eventually. Maybe one day you realise how much you've learnt and that you have knowledge and experience you would have never gained otherwise. Maybe your difficult dog gets old, a little deaf, a little blind, a little less active, a lot less reactive and suddenly you enjoy peace and understanding in your relationship as you never knew before. Maybe one day you get another dog that is that easy-going soulmate you've been dreaming about all that time. But that doesn't change the fact that while it lasts, being an owner of a difficult dog sucks. Cut yourself some slack. Take care of yourself.

Back from B.A.C.K 2020

Today is the day almost everybody I know on FB writes "back from B.A.C.K." posts so I'm gonna join the crowd for once ;).

There is lots of things I loved about this competition, which I will list below, but I'm pretty sure from now on if I ever have agility nightmares it will be about 5 minutes long coursewalkings with yellow numbers on white background, standing on a yellowish sand in dimly lit hall at 8 o'clock in the morning.

I mean, seriously. 5 out of my 6 runs with Brego were on the ring with those numbers, 3 were early in the morning, I was in the first coursewalking group with no chance to watch the judge measuring the course or others coursewalk first and I lost like 2 minutes each time just trying to locate the numbers. I'm normally quite good at coursewalking, but this time it really felt as I had no time to think and test different solutions and then I was running as no. 9 which also gave me no time to watch the others and well, I made some stupid handling choices as a result, so I had just one clean run with Brego out of six, which is kinda disappointing, since he was awesome as usual. 

The things I loved though:

- the venue, as always, particularly because I could spend hours walking my dogs (yes, still obsessed with #longwalkshappydogs idea). I walked like 50 km in three days and even took some photos,

- some of the courses, which gave me lots of training ideas and made me super happy about our choice of judges for Silesian Open ;),

- salmiac vodka from Finland,

- watching some great runs from others,

- meeting friends with special mention to watching the finals with Carmen and Laura (you were great company :D),

- most of my runs, hahaha. Results wise it's not so impressive, since I didn't even qualify to the finals (combination of bad luck when Mojo knocked the wall in otherwise awesome agility run and stupid handler in jumping where I got totally lost on the course), but in general I'm super happy with my dogs and their skills (might consider introducing another verbal for the wall though, since knocking it seems to happen to Mojo now and then and we don't really train it often enough),

- Mojo won jumping 3 on Friday, getting us pretty cool prize, that is an sport dog evaluation with Dogs4Motion. I decided to take Pucek instead, since a/ Mojo tends to get really stressed by things like that, b/ I was worrying about Pucek's coordination and structure a bit (it got much better since he is with us, but I still wanted some tips). It was really good and thorough and actually seems like everything is fine and we're on right track with the things I've been doing with him, but still got some more exercises to work on.

- the "sometimes you win, sometimes you learn" aspect of the competition. This time it was more about learning than winning, but that usually pushes me to do better, so let it be :D. 

Another thing that I didn't like so much and you might hate me for that, was the fact that children automatically qualify to the final... First of all, with some notable exceptions, I'm not particularly fond of  very small children (I don't mean teenagers) competing in agility in the first place (long story, but MOST of them really can't handle properly and then get frustrated about losing pretty easily and then get angry at the dog etc.). Secondly, I really think - again with some notable exceptions, as Sun Zenner's run in the final was amazing and really gave me goosebumps - that MOST children are not ready to handle the attention and the pressure connected with running the finals and generally are not even ready to run at this level (I mean, if they were, they could just qualify according to the same rules as everybody else). So in the end we watched some performances... well, that I'd rather not watch, particularly in the finals. I don't think it's fair for both the dogs and the children and maybe it would be better idea to just give them special prize for their other runs to encourage them if you want to do so.

Anyway, mostly I'm full of plans and ideas and that's a good thing in the beginning of the year I guess.