E133: 로레타 뮬러(Loretta Mueller) - "어질리티 입문"

I would imagine that combination was definitely a little bit of energy. Yeah. And it was an interesting combination. His favorite things to be trained with were Cheetos and, and he loved, yeah. And then he loved to chase a plastic bag on the end of like a horse whip, kind of like a fort pole back in the day. And so that was exactly what I trained him with. He wouldn't take any other treats. So he made my life a little challenging, but he taught me a lot for sure. Hey, you got to find the thing that's reinforcing for that dog, right? Absolutely. So what was it about agility that kind of got you hooked, that kept you, kept you going? Uh, you know, obviously I love the teamwork and I got that in obedience as well. When I was doing obedience, I think more than anything, it's the speed and the adrenaline rush, um, that got me really hooked on it. Having a dog that's responsive, well-trained, that's going all out at full speed. It's just a huge rush. And I think for me, uh, you know, I love running with my dog. And so the physical aspect of it also was something that just drew me to the sport. So I was hooked and I've never looked back for sure. Yeah. Was there, was there like a moment where you kind of stopped and were like, wow, I'm, I'm kind of good at this. You know, this is what I want to do. So I think I've always had a bit of the imposter syndrome. So I have a tendency to underestimate my skills and my abilities. Um, I wouldn't say there was a moment per se. I've always, I'm always amazed that I get to travel all over the place and teach people and that they want to listen to what I have to say to this day. It still amazes me that this is my job. Um, but I guess, you know, to try to narrow it down, maybe once I started consistently getting two dogs in the finals at a USGAA national, I would say that probably, you know, told me that I was doing pretty good. And then just when people started wanting to have me out to teach seminars was just crazy. Um, so I always, always believe that, um, I don't know enough and I always want to learn more and I feel like I can't convey enough. Um, again, that goes back to the imposter syndrome, but, um, yeah, I think when I consistently was getting dogs in the finals year after year would be kind of when I realized, you know, I think this is kind of fun and I think I can do this. So I didn't, I didn't like prep you for this. What did you do before you got into, uh, dog training and dog sports? I actually did research. Um, that was my original job. So I came from Missouri, a university, and I did research there.

Uh, and then after I moved up to Minnesota, I was unable to find a job. And so it kind of blossomed from there. I ended up with, um, several people, my first students who actually are all still my students now to this day, uh, we joke, they call them the misfit toys. They were all wanting to quit agility because of behavior issues, zoomies and dogs biting them, you know, during runs and things like that. And so we started just meeting together and I started helping them out with their dogs and it kind of just, you know, turned into a thing. And, um, again, you know, it's the trouble dogs, the dogs that have not just fallen along with the plan that have really been the educators and it kind of brought me to where I am today. And so I think once I started getting confidence with those dogs, it made things progress a lot faster. Cause then you, you knew you could kind of handle that type of thing, that the problems and the things that pop up. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't start teaching dogs that were perfect drive and perfect arousal level and took cookies and took toys and all of that. I didn't have that. And so to be able to work through problems with people and their dogs was extremely beneficial for sure. Wait, are there people out there who only train those dogs? I don't, I didn't, I mean, they seem pretty hard to find these days, but I mentioned that you kind of got in the sport back in 2003, but it's been about, you know, 16 years, I think, when you do the math. So what changes have you seen? How have you seen like the sport evolve over the time that you've been in agility? Saying 16 years is beyond crazy to me. That's a really long time. Um, the sport has definitely changed a lot since I started for sure. The dogs have gotten a lot faster. The course is tougher. The skills required are on a much larger scale. Running contacts have become the thing. And, um, you know, it, it's changed so much. It seems like year to year, it just changes very fast. And I think that you've got to really have to want to keep up with everything. Um, you know, I've also seen the safety aspect of agility really coming to the forefront in the last five years, competitors demanding safe equipment, safe surfaces, which I think is a good thing. Like I said, the dogs are just so much faster than they used to be. And I think people are starting to treat it more like a legit sport as opposed to a weekend warrior situation. Not to say weekend warrior is a bad thing, but I think from the standpoint of keeping ourselves

healthy and our dogs also healthy and uninjured, it's, I'm glad to see it becoming more of a dedicated sport. There's definitely been, at least from my perspective, more on fitness and more on conditioning and, you know, more of those types of things offered and out there and more awareness of them. It seems like. Yes, absolutely. We, you know, canine massage, canine Cairo, um, people doing fitness, um, programs that are, you know, centered around agility and lateral motion and stuff like that. So yeah, it's, we're definitely putting a lot more into it than we were in 2003. When I started, I didn't even know what canine massage was then. So I'm good. You know, it's a good thing to see that people are definitely, um, understanding the sport a lot more as far as how it pertains to human and canine bodies and, you know, just taking care of that situation. Are there things that you do differently today? I'd imagine. Yes. Then when you, you know, when you first got started, what lessons have you kind of learned over the years? Oh my gosh, that could be like, we could talk about days, days and days on that one. Um, I, you know, I guess for me personally, I really put a lot more work into foundation work with my dogs. I now fully understand just how important those skills are. You know, it might not be fancy, uh, working on two on two off contact versus doing a whole course, but it really is the foundation for what you build everything off of. And I think as a newer trainer, I just didn't get the concept of how important that was. Um, and so, you know, one of the first things I do with my students who come in to work specifically with me is they have to get my sends, which would be forward send, lateral send, backside send, um, to a specific distance before we start doing any sequencing. And again, that doesn't sound super awesome, but at the same time, once we do start sequencing, things come together, the more advanced you get. That's when you realize things in your foundation might have to be redone, retrained and stuff like that. So I am blown away as thinking back about how much foundation I did not do with my dogs and they still managed to do. Okay. So I definitely really put a lot of effort into the foundation training. Um, is there anything else you, I mean, you said there was a whole bunch there, so I'm curious what, uh. Oh my gosh. Um, you know, just being consistent, you know, as a young trainer, you don't think about consistency, but just being consistent, maintaining criteria. Um, one of the things I've figured out is that I really, really love agility and it's obviously my passion.

However, I love a well-trained dog more. And so I think to be able to change from just really loving the game and being a bit impulsive myself, therefore having impulsive dogs. Um, I'm a little bit more into the, I want a dog that knows their job in the ring, understands exactly what they should be doing and a dog that I can depend on for predictable behaviors because by and far, they're way more predictable and consistent than we are. And so I think that it's just been very eyeopening for me to realize that, um, I really want a well-trained dog more than I actually want an agility run. And so that's really improved my game a lot. And I, that took years, I would have to say, to develop that attitude. And I'm really glad I have it now, but, um, yeah, that would be another big one for sure. So you mentioned, you know, some of your sons and stuff in there. And, um, I think if I remember correctly from talking to you in the past, one thing that is fairly unique is that you don't necessarily recommend or follow one particular handling system. First of all, do I remember that right? And second, can you kind of just talk a little bit about that? Yeah, no problem. So as far as handling systems, you know, system can be a very loaded word in general with agility people. I like to consider it just a consistent set of cues and I'm really more of a guidelines kind of girl, uh, rules. They're meant to be bent a lot. And I think especially with dog training, the dog is an intricate addition to the relationship and they do provide feedback and they do provide, um, you know, yes or no answers to questions. And so I think as I've realized that my handling has evolved, um, I started in the very beginning with position based handling, which is getting into a position and using, um, the D cell in that position to show the dog a turn or whatever. And then I moved on to more of a motion based handling using acceleration D cell rotating early through turns, stuff like that. And then I've also worked with some verbal based handling as well, which is going to be mostly just verbal cues to guide the dog through the course. Um, I think I've taken bits and pieces from all of them and I've come up with a consistent set of cues that works for myself and my dog. Um, you know, no two dogs are the same. And I find that taking that kind of approach, I can mix and match things to that particular dog. Um, I like having all the knowledge to draw upon when working with my dogs or even my students dogs. It allows me to work with whatever system a team is using during seminars, new students,

stuff like that, which I think in turn helps me help more people. And so I'm happy that I'm not in one specific system, but that I can jump around if need be just for education purposes. But also there've been times where certain things haven't worked for one dog. And because of that, I have the different knowledge base that I can draw from to help communicate. I feel that we can all do a front cross. We can all do a rear cross, but the ability to adapt your handling to each dog that you run, I feel is where the art of handling comes into play. And so it's just nice that I have multiple areas that I can draw from to create a full picture when I'm handling my dog. That makes me really curious. Cause I know that you, you obviously you mentioned, you know, your dogs at the beginning, you have a number of different dogs. So you play the sport with, so how different is your handling per dog? Like, is it like 90% similar? Are we talking like they only like have 10% in common? Like how much do you end up adapting it for your dogs? I would say, yeah, it does depend on the dog. Just in general, the three dogs that I'm currently working, my oldest boy Gator, he does not turn unless he hits a brick wall. He goes forward. That's what he does. Left turning is not his favorite thing. And so for him, my cues are just much earlier. They're much bigger. So a lot more of a cue. Whereas if I gave the same cue, I give Gator to my dog Lynn, who is very bendable. She turns nicely. She would probably not even take an obstacle. So for her, her cues are much more toned down. They're much more subtle. And, you know, for my youngest dog, Gig, she's somewhere kind of in the middle. So I think it's, I would say, you know, in general, 90% of the cues are the same. But it's about the intensity of the cue, whether they need really intense cues or they need more subtle cues. My goal with my dogs is to give the most subtle cue that I can give them to get the desired behavior. That allows me to keep moving through the course better. But if the dog needs more of a cue, then I can adapt. And I think over time, some dogs start off needing a lot of deceleration cue, for example, to turn. And as they get older and more educated and settle down a little bit mentally, then they can actually start getting less of a cue. So you can even adapt it within a young dog versus an older dog. So, yeah, I would say 90% of it is going to be the same. But just the way that the cues are given, the intensity would be variations depending on the dog's need for turning cues. I am so impressed by those of you who run multiple dogs in agility.

Because you're not the first person that I've asked, like, a similar question to that, right, about how you handle different dogs. And I just, I could not imagine trying to keep them straight in my own head if I was running multiple dogs. Yeah, I mean, it's, in the beginning, I think your first transition from running one dog to two dogs is a little tricky. But I think after you go through that, it gets a lot easier. My dog, Gator, was by far the hardest dog that I've ever ran. And it was not because he was a bad dog or anything. He was actually, he's a phenomenal dog. Very, very good boy. But he just doesn't have the ability physically to turn. He's got not the best front end shoulder area. And so I learned to run him. And I can run anything after him, basically. So he was the one that was the hardest dog to turn and to get, you know, cues to. But now that I've worked with him and we've become a really good team, every other dog doesn't seem nearly as tough. So. Fair enough. So your intro to agility class is on the schedule for October, which is partially what led us to chat tonight. Can you just talk a little bit about what you'll cover in that class? Absolutely. So when I was talking earlier about my students having to have sends in order to sequence, that's really what I'm looking for in this Ag 110 class. So commitment to jumps, making sure that the dog goes to the obstacle when the handler is moving in the opposite direction. That's a huge thing in agility because you're supposed to be moving the entire time. And if your dog cannot handle that, you're going to struggle. It's one of the biggest issues I see in teams that are struggling with handling. And what happens is if you have to babysit, you end up stopping and starting a lot, which doesn't allow you to move through the course. And then you become a lot more inefficient. In addition to commitments and jumps, we learn basic handling skills, front crosses, rear crosses, et cetera. And it's just a nice way to break everything down into small pieces so that when you put everything together, you can see the big picture. But you've already done all the little pieces that go into that. So in the description for that class, you say there are kind of two people that might benefit from it. Kind of those total newbies, folks who really, truly just need an intro to the sport. And those folks who, you know, maybe they've been in the sport for a while, but they want to go back. They want to rework some of their foundation skills. Can you talk a little more about that? What is it about the class that makes it work for both of those?

And, you know, what can each of those types expect to learn? I think for new people, we go into a lot of depth about how to handle. And it goes into so much depth as far as I'm concerned. So where you look, where you point your feet, when you move off, how you move off. And so I think for new folks to agility, it's broken down into small pieces that can really help them get started on the correct foot. That kind of is a pun intended. And so that way you're not developing bad habits, right? So you go to a seminar, I fix your bad habits. But if you've been doing it for 10 years, it takes a long time to fix those habits. If you're new to agility and you learn all this stuff and how to be technically correct from the get-go, you don't have to fix bad habits. Your dogs get this. They understand your training. They understand what your body's doing. They read it. And it's amazing to see these people that have never done agility that don't have bad habits to fix how quickly they come into this training and just turn into superstars with their dogs. And then for people who have been doing agility for a while, which actually when I first started doing Ag 110, I had all newbies. And now I'm not having all newbies. I'm actually having quite a few people that have either done agility before and they're bringing their trained dog back in or they've done agility before and they have a new dog that they're wanting to work up. So for people looking for with a new dog or a trained dog, just going back and working on those foundations. Again, you get very specific information so that you can see the holes in your training and you can fix them. And also so that you can see the holes in your body language as far as, you know, are you getting sloppy with your handling? I think it's very, very good to go back and work basic handling so that you don't get sloppy because as your dog gets more educated and more seasoned, they will let you get away with some stuff that a young dog is going to call you out on. So I think it's really a great opportunity to be able to back up and work on those specific things. As far as, you know, what works for both types, you know, everything we do in agility is based off basic handling maneuvers. So even the advanced stuff is just using those basic moves, possibly putting them together. If you're not doing the basics correctly, the advanced work is going to be a major struggle. So it's always really good to get the foundation solid. And if it's not solid, then let's work on what the team needs to get there so that they can have that foundation.

So when they do go on to more advanced coursework, it's a smooth transition and it's not going to be a struggle for both the dog and the handler. So for those listening who maybe are totally new to agility, if I was to ask you to kind of give them one piece of advice, what would you tell them? I would tell them, honestly, to reward your dog. That might sound completely simple, but remember, agility is not an instinctive thing for these dogs to do. They're not born knowing what body language is as far as how to translate from human to dog. And basically it comes down to if they don't know it, you didn't teach it. If they're confused about it, you probably confused them. And there's so many things that they do figure out that we don't always give them credit for. But they are working for you. They're working hard for you. And they need their paycheck. And so by rewarding your dog for errors, as far as when you're handling, you're not going to get a dog that gets upset about when you're late on a front cross. Or if you cue something incorrectly and cause a refusal, you're going to get a dog that is resilient, bounce back. And, you know, in a perfect world, obviously, we would never make handling errors. Right. But that's not the real world. So it's really, really, really important to keep that intensity in your dogs and the drive and the want to work. And the bottom line is I don't think there's too many of us that would go to work, even if we loved our job every day, and not get a paycheck. So just always, always make sure you reward your dog and keep that rate of reinforcement very high. So let's flip that. If somebody, you know, you mentioned that the class for newbies and we've been in the sport for a while. So if we're talking to that person who's maybe been in the sport and they just haven't, you know, they just can't seem to achieve the level of success that they, maybe they'd hope for. What piece of advice or what would you recommend for them? I would say the biggest thing, especially if you've been doing agility for a while and your dog is trained, is to just identify where the communication issues are at. Are you cuing in time? Are you connected to your dog? Does your dog have the commitment that you need in order to keep moving to the course? Are you actually moving through the course? Are you trusting your dog? And then identify those situations and say, okay, what skills am I missing? Another thing to think about as well is, especially if they're not having the competition success, do they love agility more than they love a well-trained dog?

If that's the case, sometimes impulsive people and impulsive dogs can end up with bad agility runs because both are impulsive. And so that's definitely something to think about as well, right? We love doing agility. So do our dogs. That can be a double-edged sword. And then also just the competition aspect of mental management. So do you have a good mental management program? Do you have the ability to block out all the outside influences and just work on that moment with you and your dog? And so those would be the areas I would look at first to see if we can improve. And then we can come up with a plan to help that person achieve the success that they really wanted. Man, that's a topic I'm going to have to have you back to talk a little bit about. I think that'd be a great one to have a couple folks on from a couple different sports talk about the mental management piece. Because that just seems like it's a huge topic, some good stuff to dig out there. Absolutely. Mental management is kind of a make or break. As someone that used to have really poor mental management, I can completely understand what a struggle it is and also just how long it takes for you to develop a program and a plan to not let any outside influences take a hold. So, yeah, that would definitely be something I think that our listeners would be really interested in hearing about for sure. Totally. I'm going to add it to my list. All right. So I know in addition to the Intro to Agility class, you also have your multi-dog class back on the schedule of the session. And I know we did like a whole big interview about it I think last time it ran. But can you share just a little bit about the class? You know, what do you cover? Maybe who should take it? Yeah. I love this class. I think it's near and dear to my heart just because I have five Border Collies and a Labrador Retriever in my house currently. And, you know, dealing with dogs that don't always speak the same dialect can be interesting. And so from that, you know, it's just one of those things, right? Labs versus Border Collies. They definitely communicate extremely different. But, you know, I think it's for anybody that wants a calm house with more than two dogs, honestly. When you add that third dog, things start changing and more problems arise. And so you're going to learn about, you know, areas that could have issues as far as working on areas of conflict. If you're looking at getting a puppy and want to know how to introduce them to an already existing group of dogs, that's a good class for you. Working on impulse control with multiple dogs, that's a good class.

And, again, just to think in terms of dog behavior and just how much different things change when you add that third dog or fourth dog. But usually once you add three or once you add three, don't add three at a time. Bad idea. Once you add one to the mix and then you add two, you're okay. But that third dog on, three, four, five, continue on, then that's where things get a little tricky. And so it's just a nice class to take for if you're looking at having a multi-dog household that you can get a lot of information. And a lot of it's going to be so that you don't have these problems arise and you can stay ahead of them and know what's happening and be able to take care of it before it becomes a big issue. For folks that are listening who are not aware, registration is open now. It will be open when this first comes out if you're listening to this then. And class starts October 1st and registration is open until October 15th. So you just have to make sure you get on and sign up by then. Though if you wait until the last minute, you'll be just a smidge behind everybody else. But that's okay. You can move at your own pace. All right. Last question for you, Loretta. What is something that you've learned or been reminded of recently when it comes to dog training? I was actually just reminded of this at my just recent seminar in the Southwest. Mirror the dog you want. So what I mean by that is if you have a lower drive dog, you want to show that dog energy and excitement. If you have a dog that's the type to go through the roof, you want to mirror calm and collected. So instead of going with them, which is the most normal thing for us to do as humans, you want to concentrate on the energy that you want to give back that's going to help them become the dog that you want. And I think it's really important. People have quoted me many times saying there's only room for one crazy on course and your dog has it, so you can't. And I think it's just really important to see that. I saw several handlers change the way they were interacting with their dogs, and it was a completely different dog within a few seconds. And so I just think it's really important to remind people of that, and I was just reminded of that this past week. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming back on the podcast, Loretta. This has been great. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Absolutely. And thank you to our listeners for tuning in. And we'll be back next week with Suzanne Clothier to talk about her training journey. Don't miss it.

If you haven't already, subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice to have our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. Today's show is brought to you by the Fenzie Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenzie for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty-free by bensound.com. The track featured here is called Buddy. Audio editing provided by Chris Lang. Thanks again for tuning in, and happy training. Music. Music. Music. Music. Music. Music. Music. Music. Music. Music. Music. Music. Music. Music.