polonabonac » Topic: Kathy and Vega (Border Collie, 6 years old) US

Tagged: impulse control, Over arousal

This topic has 7 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 2 months ago by Polona Bonač.

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January 4, 2023 at 5:34 am #19436
Kathy Upton
Participant
Vega is a total fanatic for agility….but she becomes over aroused and loses her brain when we walk into a ring. Knows stays outside the ring perfectly. Obstacles in front of her are a huge challenge…occasionally she will see a “line” and do 4 or 5 things in a row. She’s competing in Open AKC standard and jumpers and Master FAST. In NADAC she’s competing in Elite level almost all classes,..because there are no refusals and she’s incredibly fast. She gets frustrated when she sees options and comes back to me barking to make sure where we’re going. LOVES contact obstacles so standard courses are better for us. NADAC Touch and Go is one of her best classes.

We’ve been struggling with start line stays for ever, yet she can nail a dog walk stopped contact and wait 10 seconds for me to catch up…then has no tolerance for me passing her 2 on 2 off position. Loves toys of all sorts! Also her over arousal results in lots of dropped bars. We tried a couple other programs for over arousal…1) teach verbal commands and reward with food…2) the scatter food to calm. Both work great outside a ring. Proper use of toys IN FEO classes the ring would help us. In NADAC we can treat every class as FEO.

So much potential…so little impulse control…and being a senior handler doesn’t help either!
- This topic was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Polona Bonač.
January 4, 2023 at 10:42 am #19442
Polona Bonač
Keymaster
Welcome! 🙂 Let’s “tame that beast”. 😉
January 5, 2023 at 2:17 am #19453
Kathy Upton
Participant
Can I post a link to a trial sample run as well as class work? She’s so nuts for toys and tugs and balls I don’t need to work at it. Stopping playing is the big challenge.
January 5, 2023 at 8:44 am #19458
Polona Bonač
Keymaster
Yes sure. You can absolutely post it and we can work on anything play (drive) related. 🙂
January 10, 2023 at 7:31 pm #19482
Kathy Upton
Participant
Here’s brief example of her attitude toward toys and retrieving and tugging in the yard…before rain hit again today. I’m protecting her from herself a bit as she had a right patella ligament that was strained and healing.

Also some trial work. We have not trialed since November…she’s much better in NADAC Regular and AKC standard classes because contacts are a great target for her… still nuts. NADAC allows a toy to be tied to the leash and dropped at the end of the run. I have begun using that. But I CAN have toy in the ring in all classes. We have a 3 day NADAC trial this coming weekend in that covered arena in several of the links. Would like to get some new ideas on how to use the toy drive this weekend!

Also I’ve tended to fear being tripped as I’m older and falling isn’t in my list. But I’ve realized that she WILL get out of my way and MOVE is when she is and I try to keep going forward. I practice walking INTO her outside the ring and saying “Move”.

NADAC Elite regular

NADAC Elite Regular

AKC Open Regular

NADAC Jumpers
January 11, 2023 at 9:43 am #19485
Polona Bonač
Keymaster
Vega is such a powerhouse! But I can see she has troubles navigating between either a complete obstacle focus and finding her own lines :), or getting a bit stuck barking at you and getting in your way. I understood she is having some troubles with startline stays on competitions so one thing I would work on is teaching her some anticipation freeze (starting with food games, check Ween Sze and Moonbeam’s topic to see what I am talking about) and developing it into an active stay from lesson 3.
I would also work on her ability to switch from handler focus to obstacle focus immediately, without getting in your way. To do that, we can start with a simple exercise. Take two or three of her roller balls and spread them into a big triangle across your garden. Go with her to the centre of this triangle and try to encourage her to engage in the behaviour she offers on the course when she gets “stuck”. If you can make her bark at you, do that. If not just keep her engaged by doing little steps to your left and right and while doing so, turn slowly towards one of the balls in the triangle. When you are ready, point your arm towards the ball and give her your “go go go” cue. If she is not immediately reacting to it, keep moving towards the ball yourself until you see she started running there – this is when you verbally prise her and play with her when she comes back with the ball. After some playing put her in lie down, throw the toy back to where it originally was and engage her in handler focus again. Repeat the same drill couple of times, sending her to a different ball each time. The goal of this exercise is that as soon as you point in a specific direction she runs there without question. That can help you get out of those “sticky” situations on the course.
And another thing – we can teach her to better understand the 180 turns on courses on a verbal cue even when you are not in the right position or on the right side. It seems like there is a theme of her loosing her flow when the next obstacle is a 180 turn and you are not in the right position. But we will get there, let’s stick to the basics first as it will be important later on.
February 12, 2023 at 7:41 am #19641
Kathy Upton
Participant
It took me a while to get to this exercise triangle of balls outside the yard…needed a larger space. Unfortunately it was also next to a noisy freeway, but Vega is very familiar with the setting. She loves that ball on a rope and it REALLY surprised me that I got that bark at me reaction with this. Sorry the video is way too long….but occasionally she did a clean run to it. Maybe visibility? Not sure. I may try it again with a more obvious toy like a frizbee. We had to stop in the middle for a few minutes while an off leash dog wandered up and stole one of the balls and ran off…owner finally retrieved the stray ball and put the dog in her car. How can improve this? Was I doing something wrong?

After doing the ball exercise we did some serpentines…fairly successfully…could NOT do at all in class this week.
February 20, 2023 at 8:20 am #19650
Polona Bonač
Keymaster
It is actually very good that you were able to “get her” already with this easy enough exercise. Things are always easier to solve when you can recreate them through exercises vs. when they happen only in a very specific, potentially even just competition like setup. It seems like she had no problem running there if she somehow knew/remembered or seen the ball, but not if a direction was “unfamiliar” to her. So I would definitely try bigger and more clearly visible toys + I would start “breaking” her patterns when she goes into barking mode. As soon as she turns to you and bark, tell her to lie down, move a few steps in front of her (make sure you are not blocking the view on the ball) and send her again after. We will eventually want her to “re-group” out of barking as well, but for now she needs help “finding her brains” again, so a little time out can work miracles.
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