What advice would you give?

If this wasn't my dog, what would I say to a client that I'm coaching?

It's been on my mind a lot lately. Some things are coming together nicely ... but others?! Wow. I know how frustrating it feels on my end. It can't feel any better on her's.

I've started to write this post multiple times, and then something would improve so I'd just let it go.

But really, truly, honestly. Things aren't improving that much. She is young and super sensitive, but is she learning the things I want her to learn right now? Is she learning what I want her to learn about trials and the competition ring?! I don't think so.

I strongly believe that when the dog does something "wrong" they're just telling you that they don't understand and you haven't proofed this enough yet. It's a conversation between you and your dog. Well, she's certainly been telling me loudly enough that she can't do this right now for whatever reason. That's on me, not her.

Dragging the dog to Disneyland is just pointless. I can manage to a point, but once that leash comes off and there are no rewards, I don't get to manage anymore. It's all her. I've missed a crucial step along the way somewhere because that connection keeps falling flat.

She'll make me a much better trainer in the long run, and I have the tools I need to work through this, I just need to start and keep the ball rolling. So that's where we're going. Hopefully she'll be in season for the next trial that I have her entered in, because she certainly won't be going into the ring. From there on out, no trialing.

The plan;

1) Relationship building through play
2) Engagement
3) Focus
4) Cookie jar games

Fun matches and training at the barn can continue, but the focus needs to come off of agility behaviors and zero in on the missing link, engagement.

VD (Valentines Day) Trial Review - Feb 11th

It seems like there are a few specific trials that I hit pretty regularly and others that I miss more often than not. This past weekend was one of the former!

Facebook actually shared a memory with me that 6 years ago on this weekend Baxter got his ADC and ran clean in 6/8 runs. That was my very first title I've ever put on a dog.

This weekend Baxter picked up 2 more titles, finishing his Expert Snooker Silver (25 Snookers) and his Master Challenge Dog of Canada (5 Challenge Q's) titles. There are a couple more big titles I'm aiming for with Baxter before retiring him. It's pretty bitter-sweet. I just adore running my Fluff and we are a pretty solid team.

The Challenge course this weekend was just awesome. Such nice flow and I'm very happy with how Baxter and I ran this ... even if people did talk to the judge to tweak it to make the approach to 19 "equally" nice from both ways over 18.

We ran the course in "extension," with the only jump that was wrapped being #17 where that is obviously the shorter distance. I really am appreciating the seminar we recently did where the focus was on the dog's path and which way is faster.

Extension - the way we ran it

Collection - A LOT more turns. 

It always makes my heart happy when we get compliments on a run and this one was no exception. It's high praise indeed when the judge tells you nicely run on the way out - makes me think we ran it the way it ran in her head. This one is going to be fodder for a few days of practice for the younger dogs!

Poor Spencer was feeling off this weekend. He had a really nice Snooker run and then in Challenge didn't want to take the Frame, so I pulled him for the rest of the day and didn't ask him to run in Steeplechase. He needs a couple more Standard for a big-ish title that I would really like to get with him and after that I think he might be done with trialing - especially as I get the little herdy girls up and running so to speak.

I'm very happy with how my little red-head did this weekend as well! Until we get the disconnect kinks worked out, right now I am working on back-chaining and not trying to run a full course. Nike was only in Standard and Jumpers and we only did 10 obstacles in each of them but I'm happy with how she did.

4 Months Old! Already!

Time has just flown by, I don't know how Sizzle can be 4 months old yet ... in fact, when I signed her up for puppy class I might have actually gotten her age wrong!

Since 4 of the 6 puppies in the litter live in Calgary, we got together last weekend for a play date. It was pretty adorable and very symmetrical. 2 boys, 2 girls. The 2 largest and the 2 smallest. 2 tri colors and 2 sables.

I like how Sizzle and Cedar both have one long sock on the front and then one short one, mirroring each other.

The puppies had a great time. Sizzle was a little unsure for a few minutes and then she was all for it. It's funny how she likes adult dogs but seems unsure of puppies. They loved racing around outside and then we went inside to measure puppies and play a bit more.

Ash is still looking like she might be oversize, I didn't catch her height. Sizzle is in the safe zone, so she isn't going to end up really tiny. She was at 11.5" (I think?) while McFly her little tri brother was looking just a little smaller than she is right now.

Sheltieing! aka someone has cookies and they need to share!

Mom, Syrah and brother Cedar

In the house the play styles in the puppies really came out. Cedar is a very laid back, serious fellow for a 4 month old baby. There was a lot of barking from Ash who doesn't have dogs in the home and he was pretty ticked at her for the constant barking. Sizzle and McFly love the toys and the tugging and the chasing.

Surprisingly, Sizzle was not barking the way she does at home, she was actually pretty quiet. Except for the growling like a demon with the tug toys. It was very cute. She played a lot with McFly since they both love toys and are similar sized. She also paired off a lot with Cedar to play when he was being kind of cranky with all the other puppies for too much barking and shenanigans. 

She definitely wasn't put off by the larger puppies anymore, since she wrestles with Nike all the time at home!

This week we came off of winter break and have started up the dog training routine again (with me teaching and barn time being rented) Sizzle also started a puppy class just for the socialization with people/ function with new distractions aspect.

She came out to the barn to do some baby recall work, work on impulse control and toy play in a new space with dogs running. I've also started to work more on some of the baby puppy behaviors/foundations I teach for agility.

Shauna Oliver Seminar

Last weekend ( Jan 6 & 7th) Nike and I did a couple seminars with Shauna Oliver. I cannot say enough good things about Shauna or what we were working on, I just wish she was closer!

Saturday we had a working spot in Master Gamble in the afternoon and I audited the Starter Gamblers session in the morning to get some more ideas on how to teach things and how Shauna specifically teaches things.

Nike was the youngest dog in our Master Gamble class, but I'm glad I signed up at that level. We have the beginnings of a lot of the Starter skills - I just need to proof and build distance on some things like switch out of a tunnel and back chaining on LONG sends. Also commitment on the verbal out, go, switch etc without needing to name the obstacle after.

We worked 6 different drills ranging from simple 3 jump or 2 tunnel drills to more complex gamble sequences. By the time we were done the dogs were fried. I'm glad I didn't have 1 dog signed up for 8 hours of seminar! For being a fairly novice dog, I like to think that Nike held her own. We have some decent skills and a fairly decent independent backside. Just need some polishing and then proofing!

On Sunday we were signed up for Masters Handling since my training partner and I talked about where our dogs skills where vs what we had covered in a foundation handling seminar earlier in the year with Shauna. However, when we got there I was horribly intimidated. Nike was the youngest dog in the group and she was the only dog not running Masters level AAC.

THEN we walked the course, which was a international level/handling course. Something along the lines of the SUSO courses I've practiced with the boys but never have run a full course with Nike - it's always been broken down into pieces for her.

It was lovely, but technical and there I am with my baby dog and no back up plan. All things considered, we didn't do half bad. Nike was significantly more focused for this session than the one the day before. She held a start line and it is apparent that I have trained the skills - they're just not proofed enough for a course of this level.

She understands the threadle however my forward motion is an issue and commitment on ugly angles without me flicking is also an issue. So proofing. But hey, at least I have a trained threadle - that's about 1/2 the battle. She does have a pretty good switch and clearly understands it, I just need more distance and more obstacles instead of just off a contact into a tunnel.

I need to trust my training and my dog and commit to handling instead of chickening out at the last minute. Just do it, and if she doesn't get it right, go back and work it!

Also consequences. If she leaves work, walk her down until she connects, then pressure off. If she leaves twice, work someone else. This did seem to be making a difference in this seminar, so fingers crossed.

2017 Year in Review: 2018 Goals and Focus

I figure something is better than nothing, right?!

I don't think I actually set any "goals" for 2017. 2017 was pretty much just a continuation of 2016 - still not a lot of trialing due to the economy and the fact I wanted to spend the time training my young dog instead of just focusing on trailing the boys. I've also decided that trialing in the cold isn't so nice on my dogs, so we aren't going to do a lot of winter stuff - especially for Spencer with his knees.

In 2017 we competed at the following trials;

Jan- Training Troop
Apr - Calgary Agility Association
May - Rocky Mountain Agility Club
Aug - Dog Days of Summer - Nike Trial Debut
Sep - Sundog in Lethbridge
Nov - Calgary Agility Association
Plus a couple of little Sunday Sampler trials through AB Herding Dog Rescue.

We did not compete at Regionals (or subsequently at Nationals) this year. I've decided that 2016 with both boys winning their divisions was enough for Baxter at 8 years old and he's retired from Regionals/Nationals. With Regionals being a 3 day event this year and Nike not being ready, I decided not to enter Spencer - there were just better ways to spend my time and money.

2016 was the 3rd Regional win in Baxter's career. I don't want to push my old guy for Regional competitions anymore - he's done so much more than I though we would, and will just play at little trials to do a couple runs here and there and eat some hot-dogs from now on. With that in mind, he's also retired from Gamblers. He was never really a great Gamble dog to begin with now with no more Regionals, no more reason to frustrate us both!

Nike turned 18 months old in the middle of May, so she technically would have been old enough to trial in the Regionals warm up trial put on my RMAC and possibly run at Regionals. Mentally however, she was no where near ready. We did debut at the Dog Days of Summer trial in August. Had some really great stuff and FEO runs with toys. So she was entered for the Sundog trial the following month in Lethbridge. We had a FANTASTIC Gamblers run @ 16" on Saturday morning where she got a boat load of points, held her contacts and even got the final gamble (after 3 times running past the final jump.) The next run up was Jumpers and it was a complete disaster where she left the ring completely and freaked out out the dog that was barking/ out of control at the warm up jumps. We were dismissed from the ring. I still am not sure what happened - but since then we've had some disconnect issues where she is just leaving work.

Title wise, we haven't gotten many this year. Baxter got one whole title! Finishing up his Bronze Steeplechase on 31-Dec-2017. Spencer got two titles, finishing his Bronze Gamble and earning is Versatility Bronze Award on the same run with Sundog in Lethbridge.

I don't think titles are the be all - end all of trialing, but I do have some goals for the boys this year.

AAC has the jump height change this year, so now the boys only need to jump 4" instead of 6" as veteran dogs who are less than 12 inches tall - which will be nice for Baxter I hope. Not that 6" was really a big jump.

I'd like to finish up Baxter's Gold Jumpers - he only needs 3 more for the 50. As well as his Gold Award of Merit which is only 8 Standard away. Once we complete those, I may retire him from everything but Jumpers which is "his game." Jumpers was our very first Q in agility, I like the symmetry of it being our last as well - and Jumpers is easier on his front end with no contact equipment.

With Spencer I want to obtain his Silver Award of Merit which should be even more do-able than Baxter's Gold. We only need 3 more Standard. Hopefully we have a few more Regionals before he retires from those, but I'm still not sure yet if we'll be going this year - it depends on Nike.

Which brings me to the biggest surprise of 2017.With the performance stress issues with Nike and the struggle working through those, that when the opportunity came up to get a puppy from a proven performance breeder, I couldn't say no. Sizzle joined us on the 26th of November - a Shetland Sheepdog from HyperHounds out of Syrah.

She is so much fun! Such a sassy, opinionated little dog and such a fantastic little puppy - especially as compared to how difficult Nike was. Don't get me wrong she's incredibly busy and prone to naughty - but what I love is how easy she is to live with. Those shining little black eyes just melt my heart.

So this year the focus is on the girls and building (or revisiting) foundations/ building and then proofing skills. Also focusing on cross training and conditioning the older dogs and making sure to keep them active training something too!