Ep 85 Troubleshooting Your Agility Training
===
[00:00:00] If you train, compete, teach, or simply love the sport of dog agility, you're in the right place. Hey there, I'm Megan Foster, creator of Fostering Excellence and Agility. Join me as we explore training, communication, handling, mindset, and all the little details that help build stronger and more confident teams both in and out of the ring.
Whether you're just getting started or working toward big competition goals, this podcast is here to support your journey with your individual teammate. Let's get started
Hey there. So this week's episode is a recording of a live coaching call that I hosted in my free community, Fans of FX Agility. In this coaching call, I talk all about troubleshooting your agility training. And so there are a few edits where I pause for questions, which I have removed, or paused for a small downtime.
So I [00:01:00] do hope that it goes smoothly as a listen, and I hope you will join the free community and join my next live coaching call in October I want to talk today about troubleshooting your training. Uh, as an online coach, I have a lot of clients that are going to be training alone by themselves, especially when they are, um, you know, doing an assignment that I gave them.
And it is one of my main goals as a coach to give my students the skills to make decisions. Uh, mostly because I find that the students that make the most progress are the ones that are able to get a little bit curious, ask some questions, do [00:02:00] a little bit of problem-solving on their own, and then come back and tell me what they found.
And with that, we have to break down the fear that we're kind of screwing it up. And this curiosity, and ability to experiment, and the ability to, you know, make a small mess, realize you're making a mess, and then clean it up, is a skill. And it's one that I've developed over my entire career because I often did not have a coach, did not have, uh, regular instruction, did not have training partners.
So that... And also, I'm just really, really into puzzles, so I naturally had a lot of curiosity, but I didn't naturally have the, uh, ability to not fear failure. In fact, [00:03:00] fear of failure was programmed into me from a very young age, and we don't have to go into that. But- That tenacity, that ability to ask questions anyways, even if it might lead you, uh, not directly to the answer, I think is a really important part of being an effective trainer and being a successful one.
So I do find that my most successful students have that ability to go ask these questions, and then bring that back to a conversation with me, and we can be more of a sounding board collaboration together, rather than, "I did exactly what you said and it went terrible, solve it all for me." Right? I think there's less progress made, and everyone gets there in their own time.
But when we're learning agility online, there are a lot of [00:04:00] pros, right? You have a much more flexible schedule, so you can do this in your own time. You get to choose a comfortable environment. Um, you know, I taught in-person classes for a really long time, and m- many, many times it was not the right environment for one or both members of the team.
Someone was too nervous, someone was too overwhelmed. So learning online, you get to choose your safe space. You get to go make your mistakes, no one's watching, um, and then you share it in a safe space. And one of the most important things to my coaching community is the safe space that it provides, and that we're very kind, we're very supportive.
No one cares if you're in your pajamas. No one cares if you forgot the instructions. And we meet [00:05:00] everyone where they're at. So having that safe space is a huge pro, um, to learning online. And obviously the unlimited access to m- different materials, different instructions, it's a huge benefit to learning online.
However, that also means you are likely getting an overwhelming amount of advice And that can be hard to move through in your training if you have, you know, 15 coaches in your head saying, "Well, this one would do this way, and this one would do it that way, and that one would do it that way," and I want to avoid that.
I want to give you a process where you have information. You also have your experience and your expertise of being that dog's guardian, and push you through so that you don't have, [00:06:00] you know, 10 coaches in your head arguing about what you should do next. Um, and so I always want you to know what to do next, and that is my, my goal when I'm coaching, and I'm gonna give you a little bit of that today.
So the things that, there are some things that I can troubleshoot in the moment, and there are some things that I cannot.
, So the things that we can usually fairly easy, easily troubleshoot in the moment are things related to our handling or things related to our coursework, refusals, wrong courses, turning wide, turning in the wrong direction.
We're gonna go through exactly how to troubleshoot that, because those are typically straightforward, pretty easy to solve in the moment. Those things should, like, hardly [00:07:00] ever leave you paralyzed. There are the exceptions, but ... And we'll get to those. Um, but generally speaking, those can be solved in the moment, and they should be solved in the moment.
The things that could go either way are kind of your obstacle mistakes, um, like if they make a mistake in the weaves or they make a mistake on one of their contacts, um, maybe even bar knocking. So think of, like, your obstacle faults. Those can sometimes fit into the system that I'm gonna talk to you about today, and sometimes they are bigger problems that aren't gonna be solved in the moment and shouldn't be.
And then there are things that I don't solve in the moment. When I see them, I usually end the session right away or, I pivot and I go do something else [00:08:00] entirely. And it, it's because I don't want to develop a habit around, um, overriding these things and pushing through. So things that I don't troubleshoot in the moment, focus and engagement.
If my dog isn't interested in being there, I don't try to make them be interested in being there. I stop that session for a bit, I think, and if I can make changes that are likely to solve it, I will. But if I believe that my dog should be able to be focused and engaged in that environment and they can't, I take their word for it, and I go back to the drawing board and I try and solve it later out of context.
But I don't tend [00:09:00] to, um, troubleshoot focus and engagement. Uh, there's like... I, I, I give very, very little energy into trying to convince my dog to play with me. If I think that they should- if I think that I'm done with focus and engagement, I've done an entire talk on focus and engagement where it is my entire job to convince them that it's worth playing with me.
But if I've already done that, and I get them out of the car, and they have no interest in what I have for them, then I'm not gonna get it, and I have to accept that. Um, fear and discomfort, same thing. If I believe that they should be safe in this environment and feel safe in this environment, and they have shown me that they feel safe and comfortable in this environment, and they get out of the car and they are not, I'm gonna go, "Wow, I had no idea."
I'm going to [00:10:00] address the fear. I'm going to help them calm down. I'm going to help them feel better, but I'm not going to try and then train them through fear and discomfort. Um, and I'm also not going to troubleshoot lack of motivation. Again, if I believe that, uh, they should be motivated by the things that I have, and that we have a history of being motivated in this context, I'm not going to try and solve it in the moment.
So, if I'm working on any of these things, if focus and engagement is what I'm training, that's a different story. If I'm doing setups for fear-related behaviors, that's a different story. If I'm working on motivation, that's a different story. So let's assume today we're not talking about those things, okay?
Because it... And I liked, I wanted to start there because, sure, [00:11:00] I want to give you a flowchart that works, but nothing is 100%. There is no set of circumstances that is going to work every single time. So, these are rules of thumb. They are guidelines. They are ideas to keep in your head so that when you do see a problem, you can start to solve them.
But there are plenty of things that I don't try to solve in the moment Okay, so generally speaking, any-- So when I have one of these issues, like a handling problem and maybe some obstacle problems, I have to start with reinforcement. So this is, um, usually n- I'm gonna go into this troubleshooting process when a, when a mistake surprises me.
Uh, because if I'm not [00:12:00] surprised by the mistake, I probably already know what the problem is and I can immediately fix it, right? Also, if I'm not surprised by the mistake, why did I ask? Um, that's again, a different tangent of, like, errors in general, but these are going to be things where I go, "Oh my gosh, I had no idea that was gonna happen."
So I'm always going to check in with my reinforcement first because reinforcement drives all behavior and m- a lot of times if I tweak this stuff around reinforcement, I can fix whatever problem I'm trying to fix. So first I have to make sure that the dog understands how reinforcement is collected for this particular thing that I'm training, and I'm looking for [00:13:00] confusion or misunderstandings around reinforcement.
Um, so like if you're planning to reward from your hand, but your dog is completing the behavior and scanning the environment for where the reward is on the line, that is impacting the behavior, making your dog do things that you don't expect them to do, and needs to be solved. So misunderstandings around reinforcement is usually a big one.
Um, I know I said I don't solve motivation in the moment , but the, the length of your reward events is impacting your training, and I've talked about this a lot lately and sometimes the-- this is usually not a motivation piece, this is actually where frustration leaks in for a lot of dogs, [00:14:00] is that they're working for 10 seconds and then they get a tug for two seconds or they get one cookie, and they're right back to work, and it's very drill sergeant-y.
And when we look at our videos, there's a lot more work and a lot less rewarding, and frustration behaviors creep in. And then when your dog is chronically frustrated, then we probably do have a motivation issue. So- I can, I can take this as information in the moment and troubleshoot it if I know what to look for.
So Sprint is pretty clear about it because her resets, um, so what, from moving from collecting reinforcement to setting up again, she lets out a noise that is unlike any other noise that she makes. And that is a very [00:15:00] clear sign that I have not paid her appropriately. And so when I hear that noise, it is a very good motivator for me to fix my reinforcement.
So when you're watching your videos, that's, those are the types of things I'm looking for, is how does the dog act b- after collecting reinforcement and starting work? Do they let out frustration noises? Do they avoid lining up all together? Um, do they move away from you and sniff? These look like focus, engagement, motivation issues.
I think they're directly tied to the frustration over the fact that they're doing a lot of work for not enough pay. Um, and I could talk about that for weeks if I had to. Um, and then on that kind of same line, I always want to make sure that I've chosen the right reinforcer for [00:16:00] this task. So is my dog in the right head space to use this reinforcer and complete this behavior?
So i- especially important if your dog has a very clear hierarchy of, like, this food they're kind of chill about, this food they're crazy, eyes bugging out of their head for, this toy they're pretty, uh, they're normal for, but this toy he can't think with. That's what I'm talking about. Um, I'm very lucky that Sprint pretty much across the board loves everything pretty equally.
She doesn't have huge intense feelings about these things, but that was not always the case. When she was a puppy, we had more, um, of a clear difference, and so when I would choose a reinforcer, I would have to work, I would have to look very hard at what does this reinforcer do to her emotional [00:17:00] state, and is that the emotional state I want for this training project?
So almost always that is where I'm gonna head first for any sort of problem I'm trying to solve in the moment
Next thing, assuming, you know, I've checked my reinforcement or I know my reinforcement is good, but I haven't solved the problem yet Uh, the second thing I'm looking for is me. Am I the problem? I'm probably the problem, and if my problem wasn't reinforcement, I, I'm the one that gets put under the microscope next, um, especially when it comes to handling issues.
And, you know, same thing with the obstacle skills. I know there can be kind of an argument for, um, the dogs h- [00:18:00] knowing their jobs and being independent with their jobs, but we have so much power over their behavior, I believe it to be a disservice if we don't look at ourselves first. So h- especially in handling, if I can make the wrong thing happen, I can also make the right thing happen.
So what I mean by that is if my dog goes off course, instead of assuming that the dog blew me off, wasn't following my handling, I assume that I caused it and so the first thing that I do is I immediately try to make that behavior happen. So I, I will r- like, I'll reset, reward the dog or don't reward the dog, I don't, we don't have to discuss that today.
Spoiler, I reward my dog, like almost always [00:19:00] And the next rep, I send them to the off-course obstacle on purpose because now I have really valuable data to compare it to. Because now I can review the first rep, the mistake rep, to what I just did, and I can go, "Oh, they looked really similar. No wonder my dog took the tunnel the first time.
That's exactly what it would look like if I did want them to take the tunnel." Or I go, "No, I was pretty clear. My handling was different, so can I check the timing? So even though my cues were different, were my cues on time?" Right? I talked about in the Training By Yourself pod- podcast that video was non-negotiable.
This is why. You [00:20:00] can't problem solve if you're basing it off your memory, because your brain likes to lie to you. Sorry. It's not meant to keep you happy, it's meant to keep you safe, and we're afraid of failure. So it is likely to tell you a story that does not match up with what actually happened. So video's non-negotiable because you can't... You, you might be able to solve the problem in the moment, but you won't learn anything from it. Let's put it that way. But when you have solid data... And just think, like, if we were training together in person, I would tell you, "Okay, can you send them to the off-course tunnel on purpose?"
And then I have both of these movies in my head, and I can tell you, "Well, this is, you know, this is what was different between those two, and here's what I think your dog interpreted from that" but I'm not there. You're training by yourself, so you have to do that. And doing it off of your memory, mm, it's not reliable.
You are [00:21:00] not a reliable source, I am sorry to say. So watching from your dog's perspective when you are analyzing your handling is your best bet. So, and what I mean by that, is you have to watch based on their hierarchy of information. So one, the timing has to be for them. So if you were waiting to get to a perfect position and then you gave them the information, you're, you were probably late.
The information needs to be given based on where they are in space. So first I'm checking the timing. Then I'm checking, was my motion correct? Was my position helpful to them? Um, was I looking in the correct direction or did I disconnect at this moment? Um, where is my chest facing? And [00:22:00] also, what verbal cue was I giving?
Because if I'm using incorrect physical cues or incorrect verbal cues for the situation, then I can't really say that they made a mistake. And it came up more when she was a little bit younger, less now that I have learned uh, through this process, that I would give her a verbal cue and she would give me an unexpected response, but then when I looked at it from her perspective, I could see how she was right, y'all.
And that is really cool. So because it, because we have to know how your dog understands the cues. It's not enough to be like, "This word means this thing, and it was this thing, and this can [00:23:00] only be this thing." I think you'll have a very frustrating experience if you don't consider their perspective and what they actually know.
Because we can think all day long that we've taught it this way and that this is what it looks like and this is what they learn, and they learn something completely different. So having that moment to ask why did they think that's what I wanted, and that is the, the idea behind making the mistake happen, because now I can start to understand what they understand.
And then I can make a decision, do, do I update my data and adjust my handling system for them, or is this something that we actually need [00:24:00] to do better in training? And that's, um, a, a much larger question, but the, the idea is when a mistake happens, and it can even be a refusal, if your dog runs by something, um, dog runs by an obstacle, we make that happen on purpose because if you can make it happen on purpose, you can make the correct thing happen as well.
And like I said, that data is really powerful
So if we still have a problem We still haven't, we haven't solved it. It's still happening. Maybe it's still, like, it's still happening in that session or it's happening in the next session. We do have to consider that the dog's skills aren't what we thought they were. And we can [00:25:00] always, asterisk cause always and never are very strong words in my vocabulary, um, so I'm sure there's an exception here, but we can always break things down into basic skills, into foundations, right?
Advanced skills are just really fancy applications of the basics. And so if I'm seeing a problem that reinforcement could not solve, and cleaning up my own handling could not solve, it is now time for some dog training. And whether we like it or not, it is almost always rooted in your foundations. Um, so going back to that, of, you know, how was this skill originally trained, did we skip a [00:26:00] step, you know, i- in the process, where does this specific question fall in your process of teaching something?
And that can be difficult to track, especially if you've trained it a bunch of different ways from b- a bunch of different people. But it is one of, it's one of the questions I ask new clients when they have a problem that they need help solving, like a bigger problem, not an in-the-moment problem. I go, "What should it look like, what does it currently look like, and how did you train it?"
Because if you can't answer the how did you train it bit, I got news: you probably didn't train it fully, and we need to come back to the basics. Um, so basics like commitment, keeping commitment, following the handling, um, [00:27:00] situation-specific skills like, um, circle work with following the handling, figure eights on a jump, um, collection, extension.
There's usually some misunderstanding that you need to return to. Um, I also just have to talk about physical ability and fitness for the situation. So if you've done a lot of good training and your dog still can't do it, they probably are not capable And no one likes to hear that. Neither do I, and I don't like telling people that either.
But it is kind of my jam right now. It's so important that we prepare the dogs physically for the demands of the sport, and when they aren't prepared, there will be fallout in the training, uh, a- and in competition. And sometimes that fallout can look like they're not [00:28:00] doing something that we think that they should be able to do, and it could be as simple as they could do it when there was no speed, and now there is speed and they can't do it.
Or they could do it when the bar was lower, and now the bar is higher and they can't do it. This is not a technical skill problem. This is a physical fluency problem, and we outs- outsource um, that to conditioning experts
But I especially want to Address my foundation skills and address their physical fluency skills before I bring in a prop to change the situation. So props are not the last thing on this list, but they are second to last. You know? Um, [00:29:00] because they're just aren't appropriate for most situations that I have found.
And my very generalized statement about props is that if we use it to teach a behavior, you're probably okay to use it slash fade it. But if we use a prop to change a behavior, it's less likely to work, and that I, I, that is just my generalized statement of experience. I tend to use props to eliminate wrong choices So that the dog doesn't get stuck Uh, so this could be like blocking a little bit of access, um, to the wrong side of a jump.[00:30:00]
So obviously they could just go around the prop, they could usually go over the prop. Um, but it makes the wrong choice just a little bit less accessible. Um, a wi- like wires on a weave pole entry, it makes the wrong choice less accessible so that especially if I have a dog that tends to get stuck doing the wrong thing even though I've maybe made adjustments, they're just like, "This is the right thing, I know it is," if I can change their mind pretty quickly with a prop, mwah, I can finish the training session and adjust for the next time.
But if they don't work quickly, that wasn't your problem. Like, when I use a prop to... on known behaviors, I feel like, like there's all these ... It's why this is not an easy [00:31:00] thing to do, but when I'm using a prop on like a known behavior, I'm not using them to teach. And what I wanna see is the dog go, "Oh, well of course it was that.
It was always that. I have no idea why I thought it was that. Oops." That's kind of the vibe I'm going for when I'm using a prop to problem solve
Um, because using props to teach things, I'm pretty on board with that. Like, my entire A-frame class, there's a, there's a prop included, and I've never had... Never is a strong word. I, 98% of the dogs that take my A-frame program have no issue fading that prop. Um, so using props to teach behaviors, I generally have no issue with.
Using [00:32:00] props to troubleshoot behaviors tend to be more problematic. Um, so they should fix it very quickly, and, uh, a- and like I said, if they don't solve it really quickly, then your problem was back in the other steps Or in the next step
and I guess I should just add another, like, mention that
Even using props to teach, if you are not seeing that the dog gets it, there's probably a lack of physical fluency. Because they can, when the prop is there, they're kind of forced to use their body in a specific way that they're [00:33:00] probably compensating in order to do, and then when the props are gone, their bodies are more free to, to perform the way they like And the behavior is no longer there.
And this last one might answer some of these, um, thoughts because we're back to reinforcement, and not just reinforcement that you were using in that training session, but history of reinforcement
Because if there has been a history of using the wrong type of reinforcement or the wrong placement of reward, then your behavior is likely kinda stuck a situation that you can't move on from. So when you have a chronic problem, [00:34:00] this is usually not a quick fix, right? Which is why it comes after props.
Because if in the moment you run through all of those things and you still have a problem, we can't solve it in the moment. Analyzing your reinforcement, making sure that you're doing the handling correct, making sure that the dog has the basic skills, using a prop if that's appropriate.
Those are things that I could do within a group class situation with you and have. Those are things that I can do in a reasonable amount of time when I'm training on my own. But if I go through all of that and I still have this problem, it is likely we have a bigger thing to solve. Sometimes it really is just that that area of your training space needs to be saged.
It needs [00:35:00] to be cleansed, and the next time you do this, you won't have a problem anymore. I can't explain why that is, other than you're a human, they're not a machine, and shit happens sometimes. But that's not every time. So when we can't solve it in the moment, we do have to look at the history of this behavior.
And this is in my notes where I talk about how dogs attach, how they collect reinforcement to the thing that they've just completed. Um, so o- one example is I, I had a, a client a long time ago where anytime the handler would slow down, his dog would move away flank and turn towards him, and usually this kind of flanky behavior would result in, like, missing a jump.[00:36:00]
And I had heard about this behavior before he was a client of mine, like, that's why he wanted to start training with me. And so first night I see it happen mid-course, and he stops the dog and he starts again, blah, blah, blah, blah. But then they got through the course, and guy stops, takes out his Frisbee, and chucks it to the dog.
But how does the dog collect the Frisbee? This dog would do a little bit of an outrun, flank, and turn to face the Frisbee. And instantly I, "Give me your Frisbee. No more of that, sir." Um, because that dog had decided any time his handler slowed down, ready for this.
So we had to work for a long time fixing this dog's expectations around reinforcement, because it had impacted their entire handling [00:37:00] system I have worked with plenty of dogs that can do whatever contact behavior when the reinforcement is visible and in a certain position and those types of things we m- we cannot solve in one training session
So in my of thinking about this is that if I cannot solve something in a reasonable amount of time, and generally that's like a handful of repetitions, like seriously five, if I can't solve something, I'm usually moving on from that problem that day because I need to take it back to the thinking room and [00:38:00] figure out, could be causing this
so recap, like again, check your reinforcement, check your handling skills, check the dog's skills, potentially use a prop if that makes sense. If none of that works, return to the drawing board
Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love for you to leave a review, share it with an agility friend, or connect with me on social media. Your support helps more handlers and teams find the podcast and be part of this community. You can also find all of my training programs, coaching, and resources at fxagility.com.
[00:39:00] Remember, excellent agility is built one training session at a time, and every small step forward matters. Until next time, happy training
