Theory Review for Agility Foundations

In reviewing dog agility theory, it has been iterated to me that a sport dog should maintain a lean physique, in order to avoid stress on organs and joints, and in order to avoid injury, as well as an ability to stay at peak output potential.  One wouldn’t expect, for example, to see a heavy marathon runner, so we should not expect our dogs to run well with extra weight either.  

It occurs to me this principle is best applied to myself as the handler as well, so while Jackie seems to have a body type (much like my previous Border collie Prissy did) that tends toward the lean-to-almost-skinny side, my own fitness level is best to be looked to as well, which I am actively working on by increasing exercise and being aware of diet choices. 

An exception to the lean rule is with a puppy; they don’t need to be rolly polly, but puppies should have a bit of extra weight because they are growing. In general, one should be able to feel an adult dog’s ribs, to feel their hip bones, and feel where their shoulder blades come together behind their withers.

Continuing the dog agility theory, the toe nails of agility dogs (really all dogs) should be kept short in order to maintain biomechanically correct movement as the dog runs, jumps, and moves over an agility course.  It is important to make a game of trimming their nails, with one snip and then a big fuss and a piece of cheese, another snip and another piece of cheese, and so forth. To get my dogs’ nail quick (the innervated vascularized core of the nail bed) to recede, I trim the nails very small amounts, frequently. 

Since Jackie is new, the first time I simply touched her paw while petting her and praised her generously then went on petting her.  The next time I saw if I could handle her paw during a petting session, which she consented to let me, and I praised her generously.  While grooming Jackie the first time, I held her paw then gave her a cookie. Then held her nail in my hand in the trim position (without the clippers), and gave her another cookie, and with her consenting I repeated that with all four paws and 18 nails, reinforcing for calm behavior.

The next grooming session, I brought out my guillotine clippers and held then to her paw (but didn’t clip) and gave her a cookie— repeat repeat repeat with reinforcement.  Then I progressed to trimming one nail, just barely into the nail, and reinforced her for lying still.  She was so chill about it all that I proceeded to trim all 18 nails, only just a little and with reinforcement for lying still. We had previously worked on reinforcing settling quietly so Jackie was already familiar. As a result, Jackie is now very willing about letting me trim her nails. (This is the same method I use with horses to teach them to stand quietly while I clip their ears, bridle path, and fetlocks, and pull their manes).

The other foundation that will help an agility dog is to allow her to walk over a myriad of different substrates, surfaces, textures, and elevations.  One can create this at home by laying items on the floor and walking the dog across and through them, and we can find many different surfaces while out hiking and walking in nature.  Not only is it fun, this also allows the dog to become aware of it’s own body while moving, a skill necessary to advance in agility. 

To teach the beginnings of making their contacts, the dog must learn a stand-stay.  The early phase of this for Jackie is, while standing she touches my hand with her nose when I hold it in front of her with my palm facing her, then I turn my palm up, drop a piece of food onto my upturned palm with my other hand, and let her eat the cookie.  Then I swivel my hand back facing Jackie while she’s still standing, when she touches my hand target with her nose I swivel my palm upward, drop another treat in my palm with my other hand, and let her eat it.  Then repeat, repeat repeat to build value for standing still. 

Pearls:

• Maintaining a lean weight is important for agility
• Nails should be kept trim, and over time with frequent trimmings the quick recedes
• R+ can teach an animal to consent to almost anything (in college a saw chimpanzees that would voluntarily stick their arm through their cage for blood draws using R+ operant conditioning; I can closely shave even the inside of a horse’s ear while he stands sleepily after teaching this method)
• Jackie is working on body awareness that will help her to navigate various surfaces and elevations, and stand-stay that will become correct contact behavior later

Jackie looking trim while being trimmed on the stainless grooming station

Dressage Lesson

Recently I’ve been riding Piper, a talented and patient off-the-track-Thoroughbred mare, in lessons with Lindsay Cooper at Kismet Sporthorses.  Today Piper and I did counter-canter loops for the first time which was great big fun.  In order to control my pelvis, it first starts with my shoulders.  By keeping my shoulders down and back, my elbows at my sides (think T. rex arms), and my torso tall, I can then influence my pelvis by moving with the horse.  Today we worked on my position, and bringing my inside shoulder back as I rise in rising trot, and by bringing my inside shoulder back as the horse’s withers come up (toward me) in canter.

In the counter canter loop, my inside shoulder came back-back-back-back in rhythm with the true lead canter, and in the counter canter phase my inside shoulder came forward-forward-forward while we were “bending” along the arc of the counter loop. This allowed my pelvis to follow Piper, and not to block her, so Piper was able to maintain her canter in balance.

With Piper, we want her to gain strength and build muscle, and while she is working on that we want her frame to be allowed to be a bit longer or “stretchier.”  But we ride with the idea that she is going toward carrying weight on her hind legs.  So even while she is stretching to the bit, we want to have the idea and the feeling that she is shifting her weight from her front end to her hindquarters.  Even when a horse is in very collected canter, for example in a canter pirouette, we want to know that in the contact we could stretch the horse toward the bit.  So we ride the greener horses this way, but with the idea that they begin to shift weight to the hindquarters.