Microscopic Progress

I took Mimi to an agility trial yesterday. It is a three-day trial in Wichita Falls, about 2 hours north of my house. It was a very easy drive and a beautiful sunny winter day.

Everyone said this was a nice arena. And I've been thinking non-stop for a week about how to solve Mimi's fear issues in the ring. So it was time to give this another try.

I loaded Mimi and Dyna in to the car along with our gear and set off around 10am. The trial of course started at 8am with all of the FAST classes (AKC's new gamble game) but I decided to sacrifice that run. The Novice classes usually run last in the day and I estimated that they wouldn't start until at least 3pm.

I found a quiet place to set up that backed up onto the Standard ring. I did NOT walk Mimi around the arena. I put her in her crate, snuggled my chair up facing her crate, and clicked and gave her a treat every time we heard the PA system give the electronic "go", every time we heard the teeter bang, every time we heard a big dog bark. I sat there with a bit of vienna sausage on my finger waiting for the scary noises and then jammed that food in her mouth. I did this for hours with short breaks every so often.

I also pulled Dyna out of her crate and played games with her right in front of Mimi's crate, running and jumping and lots of verbal praise and treats, all the while ignoring Mimi. It drove her crazy! Never discount the insane jealousy these fox terriers have for their pack members.

When I pulled Mimi out to walk her outside, for the most part she was excited, ears forward and tail up. When I saw this, I started clicking and treating her even if there was no noise as long as she was wagging her tail and had her ears forward in her crate. In other words, I was using the theory that if you can reinforce a happy, relaxed posture, which is no different than any other behavior like touching a target or sitting, it makes it more likely that the dog will feel happy and relaxed more often.

So, while I did have specific criteria for the click and treat (either noise or her body posture), I spent hours feeding her a constant flow of treats. She did seem somewhat more relaxed than last week.

She did the first two jumps in Jumpers, started to panic, so I ran her to the end of the course where she did the last two jumps. That may seem like nothing, but it was a HUGE thing for us. She left the ring with me, in my arms, and got a jackpot of treats.

Before our Standard run, she played with her bunny fur tug-n-treat near our set up. She gets too stressed in the gate area so I stayed way back from that. She was pouncing on her toy and putting her mouth on it. Not tugging, exactly, but certainly interacting with it.

Once in the ring, I actually managed to leave her and step to the other side of the first obstacle, the tire. That's a hard obstacle to get the dog to do when you run with them so I really needed to lead out. She was clearly stressed but held her stay. She did the tire then the teeter, perfect execution, then the jump after that. I had a bail out plan for every single obstacle and thought, maybe the chute? She panicked once she hit the ground after the jump, so without hesitating, I took off at top speed for the exit of the ring and she came right with me and again we left together. She wasn't happy but at least she didn't leave the ring on her own.

The trial continues today but I decided to give her a break. I plan to return on Sunday and do the exact same thing as on Friday. I think that I will take Jack and let him have a special day out with us.