When I started, all we had was the local kennel club that met in a small room that was of course matted concrete, but we aren't talking those nice cushy agility mats, we are talking thin green obedience mats. Our equipment of course was homemade and scary if best. I can still remember the little rickety mini teeter that had two giant metal poles sticking up on either side at the pivot point. We didn't know anything about the bang game or plank work, we simply took our poor dogs and drug them across the teeter as it slammed to the matted concrete. If the dog was fearful, stick a cookie in their face and drag them over again and again. One time berry managed to wrestle herself free from my grip and stabbed herself on one of those dang metal posts and then refused to even look at a teeter for like 6 months. I also remember teaching weaves. We didn't have channels or WAMS or anything that made sense to the dog. We simply put a cookie in their face and lured them through, step stepping all the way through, not really weaving. Remember sticking your hands through the poles to mimic having a cookie in your hand in a trial? I do!
And contact criteria, what the heck was that? Two on two off was just becoming in vogue when I started miller. Berry was just taught to go, go, go and I prayed that she got some part of her in the contact zone. At the time I started Miller, we simply put a target at the end of the contact with a cookie, showed them the target prior to them getting on the contact and then expected them to run the full contact and stop at the bottom (as we were screaming bottom) and get the cookie. Remember what happened when that target was faded away? Usually the dog forgot all about stopping which resorted to us screaming even louder BOTTOM and sometimes frantic pointing. One of my favorite pictures I have of miller is at a show, jumping over my pointed finger with a big grin on his face. It wasn't until I taught him what the heck bottom meant separate from the contact that he even got the slightest clue.
I also remember the first time I was taught what a cross was. Previously i resorted to all rear crosses(didn't even know at that time those had a name), which sometimes worked and sometimes didn't because berry really didn't have a great concept of go ahead of me. I have many videos of me running up to a jump and stopping and her putting on the brakes too and stopping before the jump. I took a seminar with Lori Michaels on the concepts of crosses and thought I had been dropped into a country with a foreign language. Fronts, blinds and rears? What the heck? And systems, what are those?
my first agility dog berry
Anyway it was a long fun journey and I am glad that I took it even with all the mistakes. I have met some of the best friends I have in the whole world thanks to agility. Now that I embark on this journey with my 5th agility dog, I have come so far in the methods I use for training. No more dragging and luring, we shape and reward. No more praying that they understand what the heck we mean, we are clear and do foundation work prior to ever getting on the equipment. We teach our dogs how to fail and how to deal with it. How to be thinkers and how to problem solve. We treat our dogs like athletes and stretch them and take them to chiropractors and massage therapy when they are ouchy. I don't regret any part of the past but dang sure am glad we know what we know now and train the way we do now!
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