2012 Year in Review

Ahh yes, New Years. Looking back at the last year and making plans and resolutions for the next.

It was a good year, dog wise.

Spencer was diagnosed with a luxating patella, but only a grade 1, so no where near as sever as it could have been. Otherwise health issues haven't been an issue as everyone is still pretty young (under 5.) I'm exceedingly thankful for this.

Lots of trialing this year and lots of progress with Baxter. So many firsts! It's very exciting with your first dog in your first sport!

We got 5 titles this year, moved from Starters up to Masters in everything and have gotten Qualifying runs in all his Masters classes (Snooker, Gamblers, Jumpers and Standard.)

We were inches from getting his MADC on Dec 28 at Training Troop's final Whee Wed (on a Friday) of the year, but missed it. Not over his weaves, or his dog walk contact, but on silly handling on my part. I think we might have gotten his first Steeplechase Q as well, but the SCT numbers look a little funny so we may not have.

We traveled for our first agility trial and stayed in a hotel over the weekend.

Sometimes you've gotta work for it.

Baxter also got his PEN as a Tibetan Spaniel so we can play in CKC agility now too. Now to hopefully get Spencer one so I can play with both boys. Opens up the door to more sports as well, like CKC Rally and Scent Hurdle.

Spencer had a amazing year as well, as I didn't really start his agility training until this spring. He's got many baby dog moments yet, but lots of potential and he tries very hard. He got his first Steeplechase Q on the 28th of Dec, and started/finished his Starters Games Dog title in 3 weekend trials only running partial days.

Spencer is doing very well learning to play Flyball as well, and it's been a lot of fun practicing with the Go All Out Dog Sports crew. I love that they aren't exclusively a Flyball club, it makes for a much better fit for the dogs and I, I think.

Life is a balancing act.

Goals for 2013? In no particular order:

Keep training random tricks and body awareness skills. Not only is it good for them, it's fun and it helps build the relationship that I have with each dog.

Distance skills for agility!

AAC Regional and National Championships are around Edmonton area this year. I'd like to try to go if we're ready. I think we are! Hopefully life cooperates and I can swing it with Baxter at least if not with both boys.

Baxter's ATChC.




Actually attend a seminar/workshop/camp this year. In person, instead of the distance/internet ones I've done so far.

Have fun with my dogs and love the time I spend with them, they're not going to be around forever. Cherish the moments with them. I'd like a better handle on Spencer's reactivity and snarky-ness but at the end of the day I love my naughty dogs. They make me laugh, rotten behavior and all.

Run a dog in a new sport, or 2. Like Flyball and Rally-O. Don't just think about it. Prep for it and do it!

Continue to grow as a dog trainer and a handler.

Sometimes to win, you've gotta pull with all you've got.

The best things in life are worth the effort.

Christmas Wishes

A rather late Merry Christmas to all! Hopefully everyone ended up on Santa's Nice List this year!

Happy Birthday Monkey

I can't believe I actually missed it! My baby dog turned 2 years old yesterday. Christmas is such a bad time for birthdays.

Who would have ever thought that he'd turn out like this from what he looked like as a puppy?!

        He's so tall and lanky. AND Bald!

He's been so much fun so far to train and to work with. I just adore this little dog. He's definitely got more than his share of issues, but he's naughty and adorable with so much toy drive! He's taught me so much about applying positive training and working through fears. Happy Birthday Monkey <3

Just think, only 2 more times and you'll never have to get measured for agility again!

It's a dogs life

 It's a hard life being a dog!

Busy weekend and LONG day. We're all tired out.

First flyball practice for Spencer and strange teeter practice as well at our last practice at Dignified Dogs. Both of which went well. He's finally mastered the box turn picking up the ball. It's been a lot of baby steps and its nice to see it come together. He was also able to run with the heater blowing on him, which is a huge deal for him.

Then agility practice out at Wet Creek. 

Baxter was nailing his hard, fast, nasty weave entries and not popping, so I'm just not sure what the melt down was at the trial last weekend. We were doing 2 sets of 6 today instead of 1 set of 12, but he was consistently popping on the 3rd pole at the trial, so who knows.

Somehow the "barn" dog walk has broken, so no running contact practice today. Hopefully it'll be replaced and just not left that way. The dog walk is kind of important to my training plans!

More teeters and chutes for Spencer. Performance is a little hit and miss. Teeter isn't bad, but he is a little concerned about the drop and rocks back once it starts to pivot. Chutes is the same thing. He'll do fine and then refuse it again for no apparent reason.

Winter is hard, especially when training agility so we're going back to the basics and going to focus on little obstacle drills and enthusiasm instead of sequencing. Easy stuff. One jump drills, flat work for crosses and handling. Not too much to give them a bit of a break for the winter, but with walks being difficult with the snow and the naked dogs I need to do something physical with them to keep them in shape for the winter!

OMG I found this toy for you, play with me!

Me too! Don't worry about Penny, she doesn't want any!

Good Boys - Good Weekend

I love trialing with Baxter.

The ultra competitive people way out of our proverbial agility weight class don't say a lot, but the other people have such nice things to say about my steady little dog, which makes me so happy. We will never be that team on the course with the amazingly fast and crazy dog, but that's okay. We're working on ending up one of those teams that flow around the course and make it look easy. Of course, I hope by then to be able to get our gambles ... and have permanently patched up those holes in our training that have once again become apparent.

This weekend was the Dec 2x4 Agility trial. 

Baxter got another Master Snooker Q, that I am very happy for. We were having a great snooker run, and had "practiced" the #6 obstacle jump, jump, tunnel combo in the opening - so why I lost my mind and almost send him over the wrong side of the second jump, then pushed him way off the jump into empty, time wasting space in the closing is beyond me. I wish had video of the run. As soon as I flubbed up the handling and he stopped, turned and looked at me like WTF lady I think my heart stopped. OMG we needed to finish 7 before the buzzer for enough points!!! I spun around and I don't think I've ever been that frantic on a course before. He pulled it off though, with a couple seconds to spare. Managing to salvage that one merited us some applause, though really, I'd rather get it for a good run without the drama!

We had little issues with his other runs, and a steeplechase that he did very well and still ended up 2 seconds over time but had 2 very nice jumpers runs to finish up the weekend with our Expert Jumpers Bronze title.

Spencer was very good, but ever the sensitive baby dog. Something about the weaves threw him and he kept popping or avoiding. Maybe the wide base without much dirt on it, maybe the different poles, who knows? I thought I had chute issues fixed in the last few days of practice before the trial, but apparently not. However, he continued to do it after the first refusal.

After great days of teeter and chute practice I was hoping he would rock on the only standard run he was entered in (otherwise he just plays the games right now.) Now I'm glad that I went with my initial feeling and just put him in 1.

After the refusal on the chute, which at least wasn't a complete deke around it - we hit the teeter. He had a great teeter, but it dropped fast and the surface was packed, so it slammed into the ground hard and fast, despite that - he held and waited for his release, but the noise and the motion worried him.

Teeter drama (likely over the noise more than anything) carried on through the weaves where I got half-hearted performance at best and then to the dog walk where he bailed half way up. By that time I was worried about my little guy. I spent a lot of time and effort working on the dog walk and having vastly different (run it vs teeter) cues to avoid this very issue. He did take the dog walk the second time, but very hesitant on the way up and I had to stand and encourage it, not just cue it and run. He did it on his own though, which I think speaks volumes to his trust in me and our training.

In hindsight, what I should have done after that teeter hit the ground and he looked worried was to play for a few seconds in the ring, do a couple of decent nose touches if I could get them and play push back and run over a couple obstacles on the way out to stuff him full of cookies and play ball. Scary thing = party!

Standard was our last run of the day on Sat, while Gamblers was our first for Sunday. I went back to my game plan of spending 40 seconds playing with the dog on course and not even worrying about points or the gamble. I just wanted my happy running dog walk performance back.

I needn't have worried. He blasted off of his start line and blew past me standing mostly still at the bottom of the dog walk (to support the performance and prevent another bail off) Did 2 of those and I went for broke to see if we could do the weaves that were plaguing us all trial. After missing them on the first entry he hit it and I had my good weaves back too. We missed on the final gamble, but the run was a success in spite of it! Sometimes I think with sensitive dogs that we as the humans worry a little too much where the dog really doesn't care, as Spencer proved!

Snooker and Jumpers were our last 2 runs of the day, and like Baxter, he nailed em. Little bit of a bobble in Snooker with a tunnel refusal on a bi-directional tunnel, but those aren't faulted in Starter Snooker, so I didn't send to the other tunnel mouth.

Snooker and Jumpers finished off his Starter Games Dog of Canada title! He's not quite sure what that pretty ribbon is for nor why I wanted him to sit with it, but hey, it got him lots of cookies so that's cool! Such a good baby.

Oh baby dog

Spencer is so very much the baby dog. I find it cute. He'll get there eventually, but right now I have no expectations of him.

It's odd, I'd think I would? I did with Baxter. Maybe it's that Baxter had been training for a lot longer and I after hearing/deciding that we were ready I expected for us to do really good? Maybe it's just the difference in the boys and the fact I would have never thought that Spencer could do this? Or the fact I did it with Baxter and I'm not worried about it anymore. Who knows. It's a neat place to be though.

Spencer did well for how long we've been practicing. Most of our difficulties are a combination of him being a baby dog and not having the obstacle commitment that I think he should have. I just need to support Spencer a little bit more than I do. He's also learning to "read" what my hands are doing vs what my body is doing, so I need to be aware that lateral distance will likely pull him off of a obstacle regardless of what I am indicating with my hand. This is what makes jumpers challenging for us.

The rest is coming along.

The interesting part though, is the people at the CAA trial. Spencer was so scared I had people give him treats when he first started coming to trials with Baxter and I. What I neglected was to first tell him to go visit to get those treats, so he was the one initiating the visiting. I have said on a few occasions I would rather a dog that wants to go visit people rather than one who is scared of them, and apparently Spencer heard that!

He went visiting ring crew and judges in pretty much every run, or thought about it. In fact, in one of his gamblers once I got his attention over the second jump in the gamble, you can see him notice the timer/scribe right on the other side of the jump and go see them, not even looking at me for any further handling commands.

Oops!

The other thing I need to keep in mind is that this is Spencer, not Baxter and I need to work on tugging in/around the arenas as a reward. He loves it, but since I dropped the ball a little on his early training I get a lot of don't wanna, don't hafta moments. If I want the toy to be rewarding in agility, I need to keep using the toy in agility and not just go with food because it's easier.

In the Nov Whee Wed trial yesterday Spencer ran in his first advanced Gamble and then in Steeplechase for fun.

We've made some headway with running off to visit. He had a really good line to go visit a couple of times but was a good little dog and stuck with me.

I do very much need to work on his distance skills and my distance handling skills. Advanced gambles are a whole lot less easy than the starter ones! Round obstacles are also a focus for the next little bit. He keeps dekeing off of the chute at the last second, but will go through once I send him again, which not quite the chute performance I want to be rehersing. Rear crosses into tunnels and tunnels in general are also going to be a big thing. Most small dogs love tunnels, so we'll work on tunnel love and speed through them.

So many things to do! But he's a fun little dog, it'll be a blast when he really gets it and it's the journey that's fun!

Getting there

Baxter and I are starting to get there as a team. I've got a fairly good idea of what he understands well and what I have done a less than stellar job of teaching/proofing - like his running dog walk or independent contact obstacle performance. Since Baxter is a small dog, as a handler I am forgiven a multitude of sins - but we have a different set of struggles that large or drivey dogs don't see.(I suppose the word is actually driven, but I like my word better!) 

Yep - this is another gamble post!

Gamblers is likely my least favorite game. Ranks right up there with Steeplechase. Mostly because my dog and I struggle with it.

It took 6 months for Baxter to get his first Starters Gamblers Q. I try not to think about that often, but as we're moving up getting closer to that big title it's on my mind a little. There is always that one last thing you're stuck on to get your ATChC - usually a game since you play fewer of those and it's just a numbers thing. With Baxter I'm fairly sure it's going to be Gamblers and not just because it's a numbers thing.

Since I know distance is a weakness it is something I'm working on. I've done several distance work classes and it's something I try to practice each time I'm out with the dogs. Happily, there are a lot of failed gambles in my little collection of course maps that I can draw from!

The other thing I find a struggle with gamblers is planning a path and getting enough points. It's bad enough that the gamble itself is hard, but getting enough points for the run to qualify IF you manage to get the gamble is a stress in and of itself. I find my biggest quandary is the mini gambles. They're the quickest way to get the points, but if your dog struggles with the mini's they're a huge time suck and a motivation suck for your dog as well if they become frustrated or confused about your handling and then disconnect just in time for that buzzer to go. But, not enough points and it doesn't matter if you get the final gamble. It's catch 22 type situation.

However, I had a great time with both Gambles runs at CAA's Remembrance Weekend Trial (my name for the trial, not theirs!)  Come to think of it now, I've had good luck with CAA's trials and gamblers runs. Baxter actually got his first 2 Starters Gambles to get his SGDC title at their trial in Feb!

Our first gamblers run was good. I found a good path, tried a mini that I didn't need to get as a actual mini for enough points and was even able to "practice" the weaves for the Standard run following Gamblers. As if that wasn't enough, I not only got to have my cake I got to eat it too, when he actually got the final gamble. Walking the course and looking at the map I thought the final would be harder for the small dogs than the large ones, but the off course teeter/jump discrimination on the gamble actually favored the little guys.

The gamble on the second day was much more challenging for us. The mini gambles were both tough independent contact obstacles (Aframe and dogwalk) and I was beginning to panic about a plan. So I talked to a friend, actually, the same friend I talked to this time, in the summer when I was struggling. She didn't point out a plan, just talked about hers, but she wasn't worried that her dog couldn't do the mini's either. I stopped freaking out in my mind and built a nice little path for my dog to get his points once I wasn't blinded by panic/worry.

No, really no one else would be walking "my" path, but the whole point in agility is to know and run YOUR dog. So I did. I even had a sneaky "cheater" part to my plan to show him the hard pieces of the gamble in a legal manner.

Long story short, we did a good opening path. He had enough points. We were in a good position when the buzzer went. We didn't get the gamble, but that was okay. On our way off the course the judge told us it was a good opening. I was happy with that. Heck, I was more than happy, I was ecstatic with that! I'm moving in the right direction. I honestly was thought I'd need to put him into veterans for more time/fewer points needed because we just weren't making enough points in the time. Now, it's a maybe, not a for sure thing.

And I'm slowly learning the mental management side of the game. I didn't screw up either of our jumpers runs, which are usually the hardest to memorize because of how twisty they are! There is still much more work to be done as I messed up the easy part on Team and totally gave him the wrong handling directions in Challenge, but it doesn't feel like a insurmountable challenge anymore!

Fantabulous ...

... and late. This cold, dark winter stuff is not helping me stay up and write blog posts!

The weather Nov 10 & 11 might have been brutal (-20*C is not good for dog feet) but the weekend itself was awesome!

Spencer's vet appt on Thurs yielded favorable news. I was mentally prepared to hear he had  a grade 3/4 luxating patella, needed surgery and that any strenuous physical activity was out for the foreseeable future. The vet couldn't actually get his knee to pop out, since Spencer was pretty tense. There was more movement in his right vs his left so we went home with some glucosamine supplements and exercises to help strengthen his leg muscles and allow them to help hold his knee in place. As for activity, his behavior/performance should be a guide. For now we'll try the exercises and some rehab/physical therapy and hopefully hold the deterioration off and prevent the need for surgery.

The trial was almost as awesome as the news from the vet. I didn't get any pictures, but I did get video once I have a few free minutes to edit it!

The boys were fantastic. Baxter was so hyped to be playing agility again. He did very well and was very enthusiastic. He came home with 2 Master Jumpers, 1 Master Standard and 1 Master Gamblers Q's, so 4/8 runs, which is a whole lot better than we've been doing in the Q department recently! My performance with Baxter is a little hit and miss - "his mistakes" were really mostly all handler error, but I think I am getting a bit better?

Spencer was a awesome little dog for being in a new venue. He was a little nervous about the venue and had issues with pottying on Sat night/ Sun morning until our awesome agility friend let us borrow some of her fantastic dog booties so he could go poop in the snow. He was quite the baby dog with some silly little moments, but all in all I think he did fantastic. Looking back I realize that I should have done a lot more playing with him between/before runs, and getting him to tug, but he did very well.

Since I'm still working on his teeter, he was just entered in the games where I can avoid that obstacle without just running him past it. He ended up coming home with 2 Q's in Starter Gamblers and 1 Starter Snooker, Qing in 3/5 runs. So different from Baxter who didn't get a gamble for 6 months (I'm sure it helps that I know a little better what I am doing now!) In the exact opposite though, Jumpers is much harder with Spencer than it was with Baxter.

Magical Monday

Ahh yes, a return to looking forward to Mondays. It's a strange feeling. I'm sure agility Mondays have some special magic that non-agility Mondays are lacking!

Stop bothering us. This Monday sucks, there is no agility today!

With his leg issues still unresolved Spencer was benched this Monday, so I had to pull in my backup-alternate-Chihuahua. Well, I didn't "have to" but I thought it would be a decent opportunity to see what she does.

After her recent bout of attentiveness practicing at Wet Noses, and then at Wet Creek I was curious how Penny'd do in a class with even more distractions. Other dogs to bark at, people to wiggle at, a whole new environment. PLUS horse poop!

The idea is if she will actually work with me in a class I might think about training her enough to trial sometime (she has no weaves and not a whole lot of ground work foundation.) Especially if Spencer is eternally gimpy but isn't doing anymore damage to himself - I'll drop him to 6" so its easier on his leg. Then I could have "Team 6 Inch Specials" and we'd be pretty much the whole 6" class in a trial!

Chihuahua's (or at least Penny) aren't going to set any speed records, but it's pretty darn cute to watch those tiny dogs scramble up the A-frame and do agility like the "real" dogs. I like to think that if I can teach these guys to do agility I could do a really good job with a high drive agility breed, different challenges though, that's for sure.

Penny did pretty darn good in class for the amount of work I've put in with her (ie: not much since the foundation classes over a year ago ...) No chute bobbles. Mostly good on the jumps - she likes AAC's 6" MUCH better than CKC's 8" She had some troubles with the Aframe which is sanded. I don't think she's ever been on a sanded one before so she didn't get enough momentum and the slats are pretty far apart for a toy dog to get much traction. She was doing it after a couple of tries though!

Baxter was lovely again as well. Beautiful weaves in deep sand. Some start line issues, but then again in a trial I hardly ever ask him to hold a start line. We have been doing running starts for over a year. I started with them for enthusiasm and just kept it since I don't need much lead out to stay ahead of him. Good to practice them though, easier to do a LOP (lead out pivot) instead of doing it on the fly and risk sending them over the wrong obstacle. More a issue with larger dogs with a bigger stride, but still.

I am such a good, fluffy dog!

Our class is relatively small, which means lots of time to work on stuff. The other dogs in class are young/new as well, so I don't feel so out of place with Penny or Spencer. Sometimes it's hard feeling like you should still be in something with your unusual size or breed, especially if you're struggling.

They make me appreciate Baxter a whole lot for all the things he does right (and wrong even, since the wrong is pointing out my failings not his!) He should be fairly good at what we're practicing! We've been training in agility for over 3 years now and trialing for 1. We're still learning to work together, and I make noobie handler mistakes with him, but we're finally starting to click as a good team. I think I've finally got my mind wrapped around not being stressed, still running the course as best I can "competitively" It's fun to run, I don't worry what will motivate him or stress him out because we've kinda been there and done that. It's nice and fun, and sort of comfortable.

He's just a good dog who tries for me. I absolutely adore him, especially on cold days like to day when I'm home sick and he is snuggled up leaning against me.

I am a good dog laying on my bed hiding with the blankets.

Sometimes you have to hide somewhere else, but I am still a good dog!

Tomorrow is Spencer's vet appt and then this weekend is the CAA Remembrance Day trial, hopefully both go well. Our Flyball team has some other people who will be there on Sunday, so that is cool too! I might even bring my camera to the trial and get some pictures that don't suck.

Ups and Downs

It's been a interesting week and a bit, that's for sure.

First, we didn't get into the TT's Halloween trail, which was a bit of a disappointment. That was Baxter's "first" weekend trial last year. I even tried seeing if just Spencer could get in. Nada. I know, these things happen, but it's never fun to find out you got wait listed. I was looking forward to hopefully getting Baxter's MADC and a new club's title ribbon for the collection on my wall!

All dressed up, but no where to go

However allaying the disappointment, Monday night after the trial heralded a return to agility class. Something to look forward to! It's back in the Hebson Arena (super fun to find if you haven't ever been there, NOT!) I was interested in how Spencer would do in a new place. Especially a new place with mice/cats making regular appearances and horse poop to distract him from paying attention to me.

On the plus side, once we (I) braved the horrid fog that was as thick as pea soup and made our white knuckled way to the arena, Spencer wasn't too distracted to work. On the down side, the footing in this arena is different than any other surface we've run on before. It's regularly used as a riding arena and is quite loose/hard to run in sandy dirt. Spencer sometimes has a hitch in his stride where he skips with his right hind leg. This was VERY apparent at Hebson, due to the footing I think.

Dr. Google and some experienced dog people think it might be a luxating patella (slippy kneecap) which I knew was a congenital health issue, but I didn't realize that it isn't uncommon to develop it later in life as well. Several different vets have looked at him and no one has ever noticed him having issues, but because of the severity of it on Monday I want him checked out again to determine what exactly is up with him. It doesn't seem to bother him, but it sure bothers me!

Why do you keep looking at my leg lady?!

Baxter was also very happy to return to classes. Slightly less happy to share my attention with Spencer but still a very good boy. He did awesome and nailed his weave entry and was quicker to complete them. It was apparent enough that our instructor commented on how we must have been working on them over the summer. It was great to see my hard work paying off!

Spencer had a vet appointment with a rehab vet on Halloween to get his leg issue sorted out. That was the quickest I could get him in unless I wanted to wait over a week. The downside was the appt was for 5 and TT's Whee Wed trial that Baxter was entered in wants the first dog off the line at 7 - not a whole lot of time.

I figured it was more important to get Spencer checked out, and if we missed Baxter's first run it wasn't the end of the world. We got to the clinic really early, like 4:40ish, so we could get the first time paperwork and questions out of the way and still see the vet by 5.

Apparently I neglected to pay Murphy off so that my plan could go off without a hitch. The appointment before me was late getting there, since I doubt they only schedule 15 min between appointments. Then that dog needed extra diagnostic tests. THEN the owner got bad news (thin walls + waiting boredom = lots of overhearing.) So at 5:45 I went out to the front desk and asked to please reschedule since I had been waiting an hour by then. Which was annoying as I had to take time off work to get the dogs to make it to this appointment to begin with.

Cue panic that I'm not going to make it to Wet Creek in time for the trial! We made it though, with some time to spare, and no, I didn't break the sound barrier speeding to get there either.

So you'd think after our stellar Monday night class that we'd have some great runs, right? Maybe a couple Q's? Yep. Nope! Murphy strikes again and Baxter won't weave. First run he was good, just popped out early on the last pole. Ok, maybe I pulled off and didn't support them to the end? Rev him up, start him over and he does it great, maybe he just needed a reminder that yes, you do need to do all 12 poles here.

2nd run was team. This time he popped out of the weaves 3 from the end. Oookkkaayyy .... Put him back in, and babysit. Pop, 3 from the end again.

His jumpers run though, was lovely. His handler was just a noob and I didn't support/cue a jump properly so he missed it. I didn't think the angle was that odd while walking it, but several other dogs had the same issue.

Ah well. On the final up side. Today was time change. I love my dogs. No one moves in the morning until I go to get up. It's great. The dogs and I can sleep to noon or get up at 6 am, LOVE it! After the emotional roller coaster of a week, I needed the hour!

No! It's not up time yet!

Addictions in Dog Training

It's not so much the competitions, the trialing, the "winning" or the ribbons and titles that keeps me so interested in dog training. Those are like icing on the cake - they just make it a little sweeter that's all!

The fun is in how you can teach something (with shaping/clicker training and reinforcement) to a dog that wants to learn and work with you, and how absolutely awesome and cool that feels!

Take a step back from what is broadcast on national TV about being "the leader" and physically controlling or confronting the dog.

When you were a kid, did you listen better to your parents when the yelling, ultimatums, punishments and "physical corrections" got tossed around? Or did you listen better and do what they wanted if there was something in it for you? Which did you enjoy more? Was it fun wincing away from your parent if/when they raised a hand and you knew you were gonna get smacked for something? Remember, you at least spoke the same language as your parents and could actually understand what they wanted.

Or work. How many people are going to work hard  for a "good employee" and a pat on the head once when you do good? You're really going to keep working hard and toeing the company line? Even if the job is something that you LOVE I highly doubt it. Heck, even if you would, I sure wouldn't!

Anyway - off  the soapbox.

Once you have something that your dog is motivated for - food, a toy, chasing the broom, your cat (okay, maybe not the cat, but you get the idea.) You use it to reward and reinforce what you want, you don't bribe them with it.That means Fido doesn't see the treat until he does what you want. You're paying him for a job done well, not begging him to do what you ask!

Rewarding a dog for what you want is positive training, it's easier to ask them to do something than to tell them "no." Don't do this, don't do that - they don't know what they're supposed to do! It's your job to show them what you want.

Positive training is not permissive. There are still consequences, they just don't look like what is shown on TV. Chase that cat, and the dog calmly taken and put in a time out in a kennel. Look at the cat calmly, get a treat or maybe grab a toy and play for a few minutes. Pull on the leash and instead of walking your human does a impersonation of a tree until  the leash is loose.

Oh right, soapbox ...

Seriously though. It's amazing what you can teach your dog once you have a reward they'll work for. You don't speak a common language (mostly not anyway, dogs are very good at reading body language and humans can get good at reading the dogs body language with practice, but I digress) However, once you teach them that people are fun and you get awesome things for paying attention to them they're game to try provided you reward them for that effort.

The biggest  (lowest?) low in dog training is when you have something your dog is struggling with. They just do not understand what you want. Or they can't do it, for a variety of reasons. You break it down into little baby steps and teach the dog each step, not perfectly, but roughly what you want. Then slowly chain it back together. Still nothing.

You make it fun! As Susan Garrett says, work is play, and play is work. Other top trainers like Silvia Trkman and Denise Fenzi have slightly different takes on the same things. Building your relationship with your dog, playing with your dog and getting what you want through that.

Sometimes you might come at it from a different angle, with a different plan of attack, but always remember; your dog is doing this because they do not understand. Maybe they're worried and concerned about what you're asking for, maybe they just don't know how to do what you're asking for. Your job is to help them understand what you want, that they don't need to worry or be afraid and that this thing you want them to do is fun.

 Landing and then bouncing back off with all 4 feet on a vertical incline that makes noise and moves was very difficult.

This was an intermediate step toward the end behavior.

The biggest high is that light bulb moment at the end, when they understand what you want and they NAIL it. It's when you feel like a million bucks and it is ABSOLUTELY worth all the hard work =D

Motion Component Games and Teeter Work

We're still here! I may not be blogging (mostly because I have run out of pictures and hate my camera but can't get a new one) but we're still practicing.

It's somewhat un-nerving to be out practicing agility in the "country" (at Wet Noses last night) and have the coyotes start up howling sounding like they're just beyond eyesight in the adjacent field. If it weren't for the fenced agility field we would have been outta there then and there!

Motion component games have been a huge part of Spencer's training. What is a component game? It's making a component of a behavior into a fun game away from your finished behavior so that the dog LOVES to do it. Then, when you chain it all together you get a more enthusiastic response and a better finished behavior since hopefully your dog didn't learn (or more accurately, you didn't teach) anything you didn't want to see as part of the finished behavior.

Take for example the weave poles. If you teach by luring a dog through the poles you build several things you don't want to see into the performance;
1) Your body position is what tells the dog what to do and the dog's job/criteria are very unclear to them.
2) The dog learns to do the weaves very slowly and it is difficult to speed them up as you have built this into the performance.

As well, if the wheels should fall off somewhere down the road, you can work on particular games away from the finished behavior to "fix" it instead of rehearsing that behavior you don't want to see repeated. Bailing off the teeter before the pivot point anyone?!

But, back to Spencer.

He can wobble disc with the best of em, okay, well maybe just the best of thechihuahuas. Both extension (front feet on one disc, back feet on another) and compression (both sets of feet, same disc.) He can even balance on 2 discs stacked on top of each other.

Upping the ante with a travel plank on balance discs also poses no problem. Walk up it, walk down it, turn around in the middle of it. Not a problem!

Small ghetto wobble board, nary a issue. He'll bounce onto it and then spin around to grab his tug toy. I need a larger one though - this one is a little too small.

Confidence running full tilt across a plank, fantastic. I have a hard time beating him across the dog walk - he loves it!

Now for the hard part - the teeter. Last night was all about the teeter. With a high table under each end to reduce the motion, we practiced driving across the pivot point into end position. Super high value food rewards and then break to have a party with yellow ball. He noticed the pivot but didn't bail off of the teeter.

I also made a point of interspersing the teeter work with dog walk and a frame work. The frame to just mix it up, but the dog walk to make a point that it is NOT like the teeter. I've seen a lot of teeter nervous dogs end up with issues on the dog walk since they look similar. Not a problem though!

Since he "noticed" the pivot, the drop was reduced. What I should see before I up the difficulty is no fear across the pivot. Since he noticed, it's back to more extreme wobble board work before we work that particular teeter game again.

Slowly we're working our way through the content of the contact course.

What I'm happy with is how he will still work his way through something, despite being worried or stressed. This is the second time this week he handled stressful situation well and bounced back from the worry to continue working with me - which is huge! I couldn't believe how well he handled crazy barking dogs on Sunday, and being handled/held by a "stranger." He was concerned, but we moved away from the action a little bit and he would offer play and tug if I really worked for it.

Wheeeeeeee.......

The last Wednesday of every month Training Troop puts on Whee Wed trials. It's a little mini agility trial starting at 7 pm and hopefully not finishing super late. Usually there is one "all levels" dog class, like Steeplechase or Team Relay and then there is 1 starter/1 advanced class or 2 masters classes.

Septembers was Starter/Advanced Jumpers and a Steeplechase. I figured with the recent success of Flashing Canines, I might as well see how Spencer is going to handle a indoor trial at Wet Creek. As that is the venue where most of the trials are held around here.

Spencer has been joining Baxter at trials since last Dec. Just getting used to noises and people and dogs etc. Trying to teach him that they're not a bad place to be and even if it is a little scary, nothing bad will happen. We've practiced maybe 2-3 times out in that arena for drop-in but have mostly trained outside. I had no idea how my little guy was going to do.

I was in fact pretty prepared for scared, shut down dog, especially after the parade of bully breeds doing weight pulling filed in and set off all the reactive agility dogs. Fantastic! Loud, echoing, frantic barking dogs, just what Spencer loves. /face palm.

So, we went into the ring for starter jumpers I was pretty much caught with my proverbial pants down. Spencer exploded off of the start line, blew past me down a straight away, missed the tire jump and was already over the next jump after that before my brain kicked into gear. Ok, no tire, fine, whatever. He missed another jump on the straight away to the finish line, but all in all he did fantastic!

He was *just* a little high/frantic, and when one of the ladies timing or scribing said I could move up closer to the start line he had to take off like a bullet to go wiggle at them. But all in all, he was brilliant. Zoomies were directed at the course more or less and he stayed with me. Enthusiasm - check. Fun - check. Handler wasn't a bone head and didn't make him redo things that are her fault not his - check!

Steeplechase was a little slower, but still he did a good job. Not quite as high. He slipped in the loose dirt on his way into the weaves but stuck the entry and didn't pop. He's still a little odd with tunnels - I can't rear cross them near the tunnel mouth or I'm almost guaranteed to have him spin back out and sometimes if I don't support enough he'll spin out anyway - so I got that once. He was also hitting his A-frame contact really high and it isn't quite independent of handler position yet, so more proofing and work (which I knew) on those specific issues is needed. I'm not sure if the jackpot treats at Flashing Canines contributed to the fantastic attitude at Wet Creek, but I'm not discounting it. So those will continue.

For a baby dog I think he did very well. He is SO different to handle than Baxter. That is going to be a steep learning curve! Sadly, I have no video of these runs. I think I'm just going to bring a tripod next time and have it video me.

As for my big guy, Baxter had a weave bobble when he popped out 2 from the end. Then he also had a bar down. Both in Steeplechase. I didn't really fix the weaves and I should have, but he was still overtime. The shocker was the bar though. Baxter doesn't knock bars (unless we're in class and I am talking to him at the wrong time) but otherwise he is fantastic with that. This was a straight away of 5 jumps at full speed. I didn't think that it would be that challenging, but for a dog running flat out (I was ahead by a tiny bit, but he was moving) I can see that it would be hard to have the same control jumping over multiple jumps. So that's something we'll practice a bit too.

No Q's. But it was a very fun Wednesday!

First Trial

Spencer's first agility trial was a success!

Flashing Canines was a awesome trial because it was a little quieter and benching was pretty spread out. I LOVE the venue because of the other fenced baseball diamonds though. It is awesome beyond belief to be able to take your entire group of dogs for a offleash walk/run/game of fetch during the trial within sight of it! It makes pottying after staying in the hotel overnight a cinch and if you happen to have dogs with you not in the trial they don't spend a mind numbing day sitting in a crate with only potty breaks!

My goal was just to get my baby dog out to experience a trial environment, run around the ring and have a good time. Anything else is just a bonus. I was also really trying not care how he did, except that he would have fun and be enthusiastic. I think I succeeded.

We were just in starter jumpers (because it is easy) and gamblers so that I could run him over "strange" contact equipment a few times and then have a party. Mentally I was making a huge effort not to care about qualifying and not to let anything in my mind change my behavior. No pressure on the dog!

Spencer was a little unsure of agility. Watching the videos of our runs I can't really "see" the difference,  but in our first gamblers and jumpers run he was unsure. He stuck with me, but I didn't have my happy little dog from practice. He noticed the ring crew (but didn't bark at them!) and was sniffy with the chute, but I think that was more curiosity than stress behaviors.

Our third run, the second gamblers run was awesome. We hit the dogwalk and the Aframe, and he was with me the way he'll run in practice! It doesn't look faster/drivier/different on video though, which I found odd. It almost feels like he actually needs contact obstacles/weaves/table so that he is confident of what I am asking him to do, jumps/tunnels are not valuable enough and his enthusiasm and speed wanes as we do more of them without a reward - he thinks he is wrong maybe? I do reward mistakes in training with him so hopefully not! He's just so soft.

With Spencer, our pre-run routine still needs to be established. I have to pump him up and then cheerlead through the course. 110% of my attention is on my little guy so that he doesn't have a bad experience and shut down. He is very toy driven/ball obsessive, so I wanted to use a toy to motivate him instead of just food. But it's hard to bring that toy with you to the ring before you run and it's distracting for the other dogs or they focus on it and scare Spencer. He'll tug, but not with all the dogs around the gates at a trial. He jumps into my arms, but he doesn't do the personal play thing yet, there have always been toys or treats involved too, so definitely something to work on.

I wasn't sure what kind of "exit strategy" I wanted to use with Spencer either. Baxter gets a jackpot of treats at the end of his run, but it's kind of a pain to prep them. I wasn't sure I wanted to double that, but I think I will. Spencer was a little surprised the first time he got it, but after that "Where are your cookies? Good boy, lets go get the cookies" got lots of enthusiasm. Then we can play ball or tug, or whatever.

I think the hardest part is wanting for him to be successful. I just don't know if what I am doing is going to enable that. He doesn't have the most confidence and is really soft so I am trying to be proactive and avoid things I know can shake it. No start line stays yet, and any wrong obstacles or incorrectly done ones are my fault, not his. No major obstacle call offs of yelling his name either. If we look silly but have fun, so be it.

Baby dogs are fun, but stressful!

Just about a Year

Or it would have been had I posted this on time! So it's like a year and a month - whatever!!

Baxter started trialing and got his first Q last year on 31-Aug.

I am SO happy with how far he has come and how we've grown as a team. I'm pretty happy with me for sticking with the sport as well and growing as a person/trainer. Granted, Baxter isn't as difficult a starter dog as some people have had, but it's easy to start out with something and then decide that it really isn't for you.

I love it when there are photographers at the trials! I got one of each of the boys @ Medicine Hat! Photographers Album

Aside from guarding the hotel room, he was fantastic at the Flashing Canines trial last weekend. We came home with 2 Q's; his first master standard and his first master snooker. But, he tried in all his runs AND he hit all his weave pole entries and didn't pop out. I also got fast weave poles (we can get single stride weaves at home and are working on transferring that to other venues) in his qualifying master standard run. The things we've been working on are improving!

We had a couple little bobbles here and there, what I'll refer to as "baby dog" (and possibly baby handler) mistakes. I front crossed on the flat to push him onto the dogwalk and instead of going up the dogwalk plank he went beside it in a standard run. He missed a jump because I drifted a little bit laterally away from it in one jumpers. Then we both buggered up a backside of a jump in the other jumpers. But we're getting there. I have a happy dog who wants to work for me in a trial. THAT is what I care about, the rest will come with polishing. I didn't get lost on course either, which I am happy about!

Notice I don't mention either of our gamblers runs though. Those were just sad. First run I tried the mini's on, and he wasn't terribly successful. Not only did he not want to work away for the mini, we also didn't get the super awesome main gamble either. 3 jumps, 2 tunnels, 4 multi directional obstacles. It was like a gift!

So. I changed my plan after some advice. Stop worrying about the mini's. Plan a nice speedy path to wind him up instead of struggling in the first 40 sec which is going to pretty much guarantee me a melt down in the final gamble. Ok. Makes sense. I think we did better in the second gamblers run - except for Mr Excitement jumping a dogwalk contact >< That final gamble was hard though, out to 6 weaves, twice and some jumps, only a handful of dogs even got to the weaves, only one did the gamble correct but over time. We weren't any of those dogs!

So I need to break down distance work to not such a distance I think, and get it solid there. In our distance class we took I usually had to step over the line to get Baxter to read the handling right. If that's what it takes in a trial, that's what it takes. I'd rather step over the line and help him get it right than for my handling to be unclear and teach him not to trust it. That's the plan for now anyway. Gamblers is going to be the hardest thing for us to master, but I knew that right from the beginning when it took forever to even get our first gamblers Q's.

Even though he is doing good in agility, I'm thinking about dropping him into veterans once he turns 5 in January. It still feels like a little bit of a cop-out right now, but if he needs a couple extra seconds to qualify when he's trying I don't think I'm going to stay in specials until he's 7 just to make the a point of doing it "the hard way." I guess I'll see in Jan. We're in Steeplechase this Wed and I'm curious to see if he will make time or if he'll still be over.

Motivation

The dogs and I spent the weekend in Medicine Hat for the last outdoor trial of the season put on by Flashing Canines. It was a great trial and has given me lots of blog fodder! Before I start on the good stuff tho ...

...Irritation is motivation

I think I am sufficiently motivated enough after this past weekend to put a stop to barking at noises.

They look so cute and innocent ...

Rewind a few months. I went to get Spencer measured at a trial, just to practice and get used to it. It went badly, he was terrified and actually growled at the judge - not quite the way I wanted things to go. So we worked on that really hard. I made a little PVC wicket and he got "measured" and "petted" on the back and neck by the wicket every couple of days while he worked for his meals. This weekend he was great for measuring. Although I'm sure it helps that they had thin metal wickets and a female judge instead of huge PVC ones and a male judge.

I'm talking about this why? Because this weekend was the first time I've stayed in a hotel and I was pretty apprehensive about taking all 3 dogs with me. When they're together pack mentality is quite apparent, if one dog reacts to something even if the others individually are fine all 3 turn into little lunatics. Penny is very vocal while Spencer is really high strung, so I usually don't have both Chihuahuas with me - especially in new situations.

I guess it wasn't THAT bad (then again, I wasn't the people in the room next to mine, so who knows?) The 3 hour car ride had the boys pretty out of sorts and Baxter was a bit stressed by being in a strange place. I'm glad I came up the night before instead of making the drive the morning of.

The hotel put us in the very last room in the hall, the one right beside the door to the stairwell that also has a outside door. Instead of having a nice little handle you press it was one of those doors with the bar across it. You know, the ones with the bar you hammer on and smash into the door to open it. It's quite noisy. You can hear it from in the room ...

I had hoped that all the camping and staying in my parents trailer with the dogs would lend itself to a easy hotel stay but between the room location and being in a strange place, none of us got much sleep that night. I even crated and covered the smaller ones together in hopes it would keep them quieter. Didn't quite work.

Saturday night went better maybe because they were falling asleep on their feet from the day at the trail, but again, when people started moving and thunking and bashing around on Sunday morning starting at 5:30 the dogs would get a bark or two in before they would shush.

Ah well. Something to work on. 

Toys. Fading rewards and Building ring behaviours.

We had a great time today spending most of the day out at Wet Noses. Spencer and I are starting to click as a team in the face of distraction, which is good, because he's entered in his first trial in 2 weeks!

It will likely be the last outdoor trial of the season and may be a *little* bit early to begin to trial Spencer. However, I want him to have a good experience at his first couple of trials and outdoors is easier for him. Less weird echos, not so crowded. No dogs that attack the front of their crate when you walk by benched right by the entrance to the arena. Outdoors makes things easier when you're a soft, fragile little dog!

Spencer is also comfortable enough (at Wet Noses at least) to full out play tug with me. The kind of toy obsessive tug that I get at home when my little guy isn't worried about his environment.

What I'm working on right now is fading out the toy being on my person or at least visibly on my person. When we run courses or when we work drills, I usually am holding his toy. So he KNOWS it's there. He doesn't track(stare) the toy as he works, which was a nice side effect of training weaves by 2x2's, but he's anticipating earning it. When he can't see it, he's not as sure about working.

Baxter didn't do this, but then he was training for much longer and I primarily used treats with Baxter, only using his cherished ball to teach that burst of speed at the end through the finish line. Treats build value in a behavior, but toys build drive for it. With Baxter I've had to work on re-building his toy drive due to the focus on food rewards. With Spencer I am working on keeping both toy drive and motivation for food intact during training. Not focusing on the "easy" one to the exclusion of the other.

We've done a lot of small handling drills and double box work so he's used to frequent rewards to create enthusiasm and drive for the behaviors. So I'm lengthening the sequences we run before he earns his toy. We're not up to running a full course without a reward yet. If we're not there by the trial, that's fine, I'll just do partial courses and then have a party with him.

I'm also juicing up nose touches as a rewarding behavior. They're already pretty rewarding, but now I randomly jackpot them as well. Why? So in the event my soft little dog shuts down on a agility course, I can ask for a hugely reinforcing, easy behavior that he loves to do.

Yes, it will get us (me) faults for touching the dog, but it can be my "toy" on the course until we can get off of it to get his reward. It will also enable me to positively influence his frame of mind to get one more obstacle done with focus and enthusiasm so we can get outta there and not reward shut down or other stress behaviors by just leaving. As the truism reads, plan for the worst and hope for the best! It's also just plain fun =D

Just passing by

Where'd it go?

Tongues

Tibby or not Tibby?!

That was the question. However, the CKC agrees with Tibby and I've finally gotten Baxter's PEN!

C'mon easy agility! Erm, did I say that out loud?! Excellent may not actually be easier, but at least to get there is quicker than moving up to Masters in AAC. Fewer skills to master as well. No distance skills (Gamblers) or crazy handling (Snooker) needed. Just Standard and Jumpers with Weaves.

Last night at Wet Creek was not so easy agility. I struggled with all sends in Gamblers. Obviously I'm doing something he doesn't understand in a trial. Or maybe he was just hyped and thrown off by the venue. We've also gotten to point where Baxter's 12(ish) obstacles in the opening is going to be really close for qualifying points in masters and I need to work on being able to send to mini's, which he also struggled with. When working on our distance skills I'm also going to work on obstacle value.

On the positive side though, his weaves in gamblers and in relay were good, and quicker! Not quite single striding but not plodding through the poles either. I'll absolutely take that over a Q!

He was doing very nice in Snooker too, until my brain melted and I didn't think on the fly. I didn't try to pull him off a wrong obstacle with motion (ie serp arm) as well as a verbal. He might have pulled off of the wrong tunnel if I had thought to stop forward motion and pull him away from that entrance with a serp. I'll have to try to set that up again out in practice sometime. I find I'm also a little hesitant and look sort of lost in videos, which doesn't help him be confident of what I'm telling him to do.

I also discovered I use Baxter's nick name more than I thought.

I was talking to some people at the trial who were in town from Vancouver. One of them was a younger girl and she introduced her Sheltie, Bonny and then said "And this is Snickers, right?" Close and a cute name, but not quite! The thing is, I seem to be calling Baxter "Snackers" a lot.

In my defense, he came to live with me with that nick name, thanks to the rest my family and his fondness for food. It also starts with a S ... so when I screw up on course and call the wrong dog name Snack and Spence aren't terribly dissimilar, right?!? Maybe they don't notice! (yeah right!)

My boys! <3

The Grass is Greener ...

Like the title says, Grass isn't always greener on the other side; it's greener where you water it. (thank you Justin Bieber)

But seriously. Things just don't fix themselves. If you want what someone else has, you've got to work at it! And isn't the journey just as important as your destination?!

Working at it, we have been. I recently discovered drop in outdoor training at Wet Noses. It's fairly close and convenient to get to with nice equipment, 2 agility rings and a great online reservation system. It is CKC heights (4, 8, 12") not AAC (6, 10, 16") so the dogs are jumping some funny heights and equipment is a little different but it's close enough. We've been heading out a couple times a week to play.

Spencer's running contacts are a work in progress, but at least he isn't afraid of the equipment. Teeter games are also progressing. So far I have just been using toys with him, but I think next time out I'm going to start using food in tossable containers  to see if that changes his focus and enthusiasm at all. Right now he's still a little spooky with it being a strange place. He will offer play, but it isn't with the same insane enthusiasm as he displays at home so transferring value to agility is not a quick process.

Baxter's weaves are getting better and faster. Hopefully this will carry over into trials. We work on various gambles as well. His running contacts are solid, I just hope to speed up the performance a little.

Yay weaves! (picture by Jay Collins from spring Fionavar K9 trial in Olds)

Penny is surprising the heck out of me. She's doing really well playing on the agility courses! Working on manners during walks has had some positive carry over in other areas. Being rewarded for giving me attention and not sniffing the ground for food or alarm barking is finally paying off. It's quite cute to see. She'll even play ball in the backyard with her tiny little hollee roller ball - the only ball I've found that is small enough to fit in her mouth.

We went to the Go Dog Go games trial last weekend. I'm a little sad that I couldn't do the camp, but the trial was fun. Baxter ran well despite the heat. We got another Jumpers Q, last run of the day, so that was lovely! I managed not to get lost on course and handle like I walked it, so I was happy with that.

Starting over with a puppy might give you a different starting point and make things "easier" in the beginning, but in the long run you will likely end up right back where you are if you don't change what you're doing to cause the issues.

I'll just keep thinking of that as I read Hyper Hounds updates on Spryte's first litter of puppies! I might be a little jealous of how good of a start those puppies are getting, but now was really not the time for a puppy. Everything that Kim plans to do with those puppies to give them a great start as stellar little dogs may cement Shelties as the next breed I get - specifically one of her puppies. It would be nice to start a puppy without a socialization/confidence deficit for once!