My trainer and I have been working on Blueberry for a while now with confidence issues. The issues are more leaving mom and being around men. In the beginning she was very scared of men, even though she had been around them since she was born. When we went for lessons, Blueberry went with Maggie's husband while we worked with the other two. Darren would lock her in his office with him while he worked and play with toys and give her treats. In the beginning he would have to drag he away, but now she loves him. I didn't fully realize how much she depends on me for confidence, so a couple weeks ago Maggie wanted us to start teaching her the dog walk and A-frame for confidence and to learn where her rear legs are. The first lesson with a lot of food and help from us Blueberry made her way several times back and forth over both pieces of equipment. We practiced at home on my mom's A-frame, but was not able to use her walk as it is rotten. She was doing good and then we headed back for the second lesson. Blueberry made it to the top of the walk and froze, she could not move her feet at all and stood there for several minutes. We finally got her to take a couple steps before freezing again, and did this until she was all the way off. So next we just went up one ramp, about 3/4 of the way and then let her jump off. We did this for several repetitions and jumping off either side. Maggie wanted her to understand that it wasn't that far to jump and to understand that she could land on her feet.
So, at this week's lesson we started on the agility equipment and just had her go up the ramp on either side, jumping off near the top. She was moving up it with speed, had her tail up and relaxed, so Maggie had one of her Border Collie's run across it ahead of her for several times. Maggie had me take Blueberry's leash off, because I tend to be dependent on their leashes:o) That is my confidence area to build. This time I kept moving ahead of Blueberry and dropping food about every foot and a half. Sometimes Blueberry bailed in the middle of the top and would jump up to find her treat, but quickly learned she only got it when on the walk. By the end Blueberry was walking steadily over the walk with a relaxed expression. Yeah for her!!! We the worked on the A-frame, but this time Maggie placed a table by one end(about even with the yellow area). I had Blueberry get up on the table and then step onto the bottom of the frame and walk down to get her treat at the bottom. We did this several times and she really loved this game. Then Maggie added a small jump on the other side, across from the jump, against the A-frame. I did the same as before, but with a jump first then onto the end of the A-frame to come down just that side. Blueberry really liked this one as once we were finished I turned to talk to Maggie and Blueberry did it on her own. Smarty pants dog!!! She the got to run through the baby tunnel for fun, she likes that part and we did a couple beginning chutes, with me holding the chute up for her to see out the end. I am really starting to see things click in her head about this, but still have a ways to go. She then got to go back in the truck to rest and get a drink while Chauncey had her lesson.
I have Chauncey entered in Wild Card Open in 2 weeks, so last night Maggie did a run through of the exercises with us. Her heeling and figure eight are looking lovely. The drop on recall is good, although she is slow on the drop and ends up closer to me. Maggie said in actual Open A some judges might call us on that exercise, but at her age and dealing with her injuries last year, we are not going to force or re-train the issue right now. I may just have to show until I find judges that let it slide. Her retrieve on flat was perfect and a lovely front and finish. We set up for the retrieve over the high jump and set the jump at 26 inches as that is what she will have to jump in the ring. I set her up and sent her, she did a great retrieve, but hit the jump with her feet on the way back. We changed sides and did it again, this time she knocked the top 2 boards off, but still finished her retrieve with a lovely front. I set her up again and sent her without the DB and she cleared the jump by at least 6 inches. So, this time I left her in a sit with the DB in her mouth, ran to the other side and just called her to come, front. She cleared it much better, so we are thinking because of the height change and carrying the DB it threw off her clearing the jump. So I will practice with the 26 inch height and a the DB once each session. The reason I have not had it at full height is due to her neck injuries last year, I am trying take it easy with her. We jumped the Broad jump at 52 inches, man that is a huge leap, but she clears it with ease each time. I have to work on her front after as she is not wanting to come in close to me. So, a great session and i am so happy with her retrieving. This is a dog that I didn't think would ever take the dumbbell much less retrieve with it:o)
Now it was Blueberry's turn for her obedience lesson. She is doing very good with her heeling, still working on straight sits as she wants to swing her butt some, but she showed good progress this week. We are not working on her comes right now as she is awesome at charging to me, but she has to learn to sit and hold it until i tell her otherwise. She can finally sit while I walk across the ring with Maggie holding her lead. I will stop halfway and reward the sit, then continue out. We do this several times before calling her to come. We have been working on her stand and not moving feet or swinging when I move around her. Right now, I have her do a pop up stand behind a bar with a treat on a target plate about 1 foot in front of her. I have been moving from left to right in front of her and applying pressure to the lead which is teaching her to brace against me. Last night I was able to move a whole circle around her without a foot moving. She really kept bracing against me and didn't budge when Maggie examined from both sides. I think the training is starting to click with her and I love watching this.
So plenty to work on this week and more fun to come.
So I headed off to Maggie's with the temperature already dropping and I knew her house would be colder than mine, knowing we would be a couple hours in the great outdoors. I was bundled up, layers of clothes, big jackets, and knit cap, the only thing lacking was gloves as I knew I couldn't use treats while wearing them. Chauncey and Blueberry were the victims for this lesson and they were bundle up in their jackets with warm pads in their crates. Thankfully, there was not much wind so the cold wasn't blowing through us.
As this was our first lesson beck with Maggie after several months off from her and training in group classes at ODTC, we did some review before working on specific issues. We started off with Chauncey, reviewing our heel work and figure 8 movements. She did very well for having almost 6 weeks off because she had re-injured her neck. I then discussed the problem I was having with Chauncey on her recalls, as she was coming in to me her speed would gradually slow down and then she was sitting too far our in front of me. I noticed this had slowly developed the further I went with Chauncey's drop on recall training. Putting my hand on her collar to move her closer just resulted in Chauncey's applying all 4 brakes to come in closer. I explained what was going on to Maggie and we both know that Chauncey fights with new ideas unless we can break it down and let her think it is her idea and very fun. Maggie had me do a couple recalls with no formal fronts just to see how Chauncey responded.
Of course, Chauncey runs right in and sits much closer than what she does at home, but she is not sitting straight in front, more crooked and I move to get her to adjust. Maggie then instructed me to sit in a chair, with my legs slightly spread to form a "frame" for her to come into. I called her and she came into my legs, but sat farther back than we want, so I clicked and treated for the fast come and then tapped my chest while leaning back in the chair to encourage her to move forward. Again once Chauncey moved forward and closer to my body I clicked and rewarded. Maggie explained that the idea was to stop me from moving my body to adjust Chauncey's position and to teach her to find the correct spot on her own. So much of this is done because I can't adjust my position in the ring and I tend to get insecure and not let the dog figure out and learn on their own. We then moved to her retrieve work, which she did readily and with happiness. Again I am going to be using the chair work for this part as well because fronts with the dumbbell need more work.
Chauncey's training goals for this week: 1-Work on fronts with chair for recalls and retrieves 2-Start jumping with the Linda Mecklenberg method, but not the full jump height on the bar jump and alternate with the broad jump (only 2 boards) to gradually rebuild her jumping muscles. 3-Alternate heel work and jump work to give her some rest periods. 4-Do some retrieve work every day.
Blueberry's lesson took a turn in the middle. She did well on her heeling pattern and figure 8 and is really working well on maintaining her own position. I am still working with food held on her nose to keep her attention on me. Now I need to gradually move my hand up a couple inches then drop to feed her, until I can keep my hand at shoulder height and not lose attention. She did this good with only losing her focus for a couple short strides. We then worked on some stand for exams. Blueberry is understanding the command and we do this in a front box. I need to remember to bring my hand down directly in front of her nose, like a karate chop, and not let her move the front legs forward. It needs to be a pop-up stand with her popping her rear end up and rear legs out behind her.
From there we moved to working on Blueberry's recalls, she loves this part. Maggie started out by holding her leash as I left her in a sit as her stays are not solid at all when I leave her yet. I found out just how unreliable they truly are. As I left her she immediately stood up and strained at the leash to follow me. A little history on Blueberry, she is a mommy's baby and stresses when I leave for any distance when she is with a stranger, or we go to new places. She lacks a lot in the confidence area. So, instead of working on recalls our lesson changed to building confidence with me not beside her. Maggie held her leash so she couldn't get to me when she stood up and as soon as she sat I would click and walk in with a treat. This took quite a while for Blueberry to understand. She kept wanting to get up and turn towards Maggie as she was standing behind Blueberry. Because of her insecurity she then decided that in heel position by Maggie or I was where she would be in the "good" place. We kept working at it and finally got her to calm down and hold a sit with me moving out about 6 feet, waiting 10-15 seconds, clicking, and returning to reward. This will be fun to do at home without an assistant, so I will be using a fence post and door knob so she can't follow me and clicking and rewarding when she sits and holds it longer than 10 seconds. We are not using any verbal commands for this, just a clicker and reward. The idea will be to increase the distance from 6 feet by about 1 foot a week. Whew, always fun when the lesson plan changes.
Blueberry's training goals for this week: 1-Work every day on leaving her in a sit or rewarding the sit when I am at a distance. 2-Gradually raise my hand in our heel work. 3-Pop-up stands, keep her front feet stationary. 4-Start dumbbell work and keep working on her tug game.
Once the lesson was finished we blasted the heater in the truck all the way home.
Since my blogging was non-existent for most of last year I thought I would catch everyone up on what I am up to with all the girls. Altogether the year ended pretty well and I was happy with how are training is coming along.
Chauncey-Finished her RAE title in September, so she is now "Curlytop's Wild Child CD RAE". We finished it in 10 out of 11 tries, not a bad record for her. Her retrieving is great, she loves it and we are now just working on a faster return before getting in the ring for our Open debut. She injured her neck the beginning of last year and has had a couple re-lapses throughout the year, with her last one being the beginning of December. This does make training difficult and slows us down as she is on bed rest for at least 4 weeks and then we have to slowly build her back up to regular training. I know out jumping has paid a price as I am leary to jump her much or very high. Starting next week we will re-introduce jumps, but very low and will be training using a new method for correct form and stronger muscles. Otherwise her Open work is going smoothly with just polishing the rough edges to get ready for the ring. Oh, we were also asked to compete with the Orlando Dog Training Club's team at the annual DOCOF (Dog Obedience Club's of Florida) competition. We had a lot of fun and the whole team was so supportive. Had some mess up's, but overall had a decent score. ODTC had 3 teams and our team (#3) was in 26th place out of almosy 40 teams.
Jasmine-Is getting so close to being ready for Novice that it is scary. She is holding her sits and downs very well. We are training for longer times now as I move around her and add distractions. She is doing a great stand for exam, not moving or trying to kiss people and all 4 feet stay planted as I move around her. For Jasmine this is a huge accomplishment because holding still is very hard for her to do. I have started her retrieve work and she got the idea in a couple sessions, so mush easier than teaching Chauncey. I have been teaching her a lot of new exercises we learned in the V1 class at ODTC. They really help to sharpen her heeling skills and focusing skills. They also helped me to polish up my work with the clicker.
Blueberry-Is still training, but I didn't give her as much attention as the others. So, at the end of the year there was a jumping skills class and I took her. So much fun, it is from the book by Linda Mecklenburg "Developing Jumping Skills for Awesome Agiltiy Dogs". It teaches them to jump with the correct form as well as took look for your hands as signals. Blueberry loved the jumping and floor work. It also gave her more work in a stressful environement. She did well, but when men came around would worry until I had them give her treats, then she relaxed.
That is basically what we did last year. We haven't tracked since May'09 and will be starting that back very soon. The last half of the year we have been training, but I took some much needed time to relax and just enjoy training with out added pressure of trialing and trying to meet goals. Those we are aiming for this year. One of my main ones will be to blog our training, the good and bad, more regularly.
I have been watching and waiting to get my next puppy. A breeder friend of mine, Joyce Carelli, has some very pretty and athletic Standard Poodles. I have watched her train Janie (CH Carlyn Calamity Jane NA JH), for hunt work, then watched Janie's puppies come along. Derby (CH Carlyn's Foolish Pleasure) was from Janie's first litter. Both of them are brown. Janie's second litter produced MaGregor (CH Carlyn Hard Spun), who is a awesome dog and very pretty. My next puppy will be from Derby, she was bred March 24th, so if all does well she will have puppies the end of May. So, late this summer I will be bringing home a new puppy to play with and train. I have a lot of plans, but also am being realistic about how much time we have to work on everything.
We have been doing a lot of training since I last posted. Chauncey is now getting ready for open competition. She has made great strides in her retrieving work. We had a a lesson last night with Maggie. We spent the beginning discussing our rally trial this past weekend. We were entered in Eustis trying to earn our 7th RAE leg. Our first class was the Excellent B. We started class fairly well, but at the Back up 3 Steps Chauncey wasn't able to get it correct. After that exercise Chauncey started lagging more and more, I could feel myself getting frustrated with her. We qualified in Excellent with an 81. I then put Chauncey in her crate and walked outside to calm down. I walked around and took several deep breaths. I then sat down relaxed and reviewed the course for the Advanced class. A couple dogs before the start of our class I got Chauncey out of her crate, gave her a few treats and started to warm up. I ran through several exercises and and then played around with her to get her revved up.
Our turn was up, we entered the ring. As we started, I could tell that Chauncey was not with me. We made it to the Off-set Figure 8 and Chauncey was lagging and I didn't get her up with me and she went around the wrong side of the cone, so we had to repeat the exercise. As we came up to another exercise I completely misread it and forgot the halt sit before giving the stand command. I did the exercise wrong and then realized it as I came back into heel position, and then redid the exercise. I was completely flustered by then. We managed to sloppily finish the course. We NQ'd and deserved to.
Maggie and I discussed what happened at the show. Basically, Chauncey was getting mixed signals from me and I wasn't there for her. I have been dealing with ring nerves, so I apparently still have more to deal with. Maggie also decided that Chauncey is too dependant on food/treats during training.
We started our lesson by doing heeling, I hid my treats and used praise and playing as a reward. Maggie wants me to use that to be able to engage Chauncey's focus on me in the ring. If I notice her lagging or freezing up on me then by adding praise and play, I can regain her focus and give her encouragement in the ring. We want to finish our RAE title, but also have to prepare for open and the failure rate in that ring is tough so we are trying to prepare. Chauncey really liked the playing and praise and I was able to see her re-focus on me when she was drifting.
After heeling, we worked on our retrieve. Chauncey's retrieve has come along way and taken a lot of work to get here. I got to the point where she was taking it from my hand anywhere, but when placed on the ground she refused to pick it up. At one lesson Maggie said that she was taking too long to make her decision so she forced her to pick it up by pushing on the back of her head towards the dumbbell. Chauncey screamed like Maggie was killing her and even placed her mouth on Maggie's arm at several points. After a few sessions Chauncey picked it up on her own. We started adding small steps to each one. I am now throwing it about 6 feet in front of me, sending Chauncey for it and calling her to me while running backwards for about 20 feet. She is also retrieving over a 12" jump and jumping back to me with it in her mouth. Last night we worked on both and she is really making nice progress. Our goal is to be ready by Labor Day weekend to compete at DOCOF with my club's, ODTC, team.
We then worked on the broad jump. Chauncey knows the broad jump very well when I am in the correct position. Now we are working on her jumping correctly when I am standing in any position in a 360degree radius around the broad jump. The first time I was in a different position, she couldn't figure out that she was supposed to jump. Now I am giving the command from numerous positions and she is clearing the jump with no problem.
I then left Chauncey on a sit stay while I worked Jasmine. We started with our warm up routine of heeling, getting her relaxed and heeling smoothly. Jasmine really heels well and tries so hard to go slow and keep in heel position. She is by nature very fast and forges, so we work slowly with many about left turns to get her controlled and using her rear to drive. She catches on so quickly and is a very high drive dog. As Maggie says I will never have to worry about revving her up, but keeping her under control. I love high drive dogs, so much fun. After working on heel work we did some figure 8's and then Maggie held her while I changed Chauncey from a sit to a down.
We worked with Jasmine on her dumbbell. We are just starting, so she is just doing a take, hold, give right now. She is getting the idea now so we have progressed to the touch game. I put a small amount of squeeze cheese on the dumbbell and hold it it different positions for Jasmine to move and touch it. She got the idea very quickly, so over the next week I will vary the touch game with cheese on the dumbbell and then try having her touch it without cheese and the cheese will be added after the touch. Once we were done with the dumbbell work I released Chauncey and put her in the truck to relax while we finished up with Jasmine.
We worked Jasmine over the broad jump, doing the same rotation around the broad jump as Chauncey. Jasmine loved this game and never missed a jump command. She catches on very quickly, so I have to be very careful to teach things carefully or it gets in her brain wrong.
Okay, so that was a very long post to catch up on what we have been doing. Will be back soon with more.
We had our obedience lesson Tuesday night with Chauncey and Jasmine. It was raining off and on all day, so I met Maggie in Orlando at the dog training club's facilities. I arrived about 8pm and paid for 2 run throughs. Most of the classes were finishing up, so I just worked with each one on focus while others were working around us. Once the classes finished Maggie and I used an empty ring. She is an instructor there, so she has a key to lock up and we get the building to ourselves.
I started with Chauncey and we did an open pattern backwards. We did the broad jump first and Chauncey sailed over, hit the target plate and had a beautiful front. The high jump was next (we are not doing any dumbbell work with the exercises right now, just target plates and rewards) and another perfect jump and front. Maggie also does not have me doing any finishes with Chauncey right now, we work on those separately as she does not want her to start any automatic finishes. The retrieve on flat, with no retrieving, to a target plate was very well done. We did the drop on recall and she did pretty good. I am still moving in to her with the signal and reward her once she drops. She is getting much faster with the hand signal, but it still needs a little more work to polish it off. We then did a long heeling routine and she did really good. Another gentleman was there so he came over and was a post for our figure 8. I was pretty happy with what Chauncey was doing, she and I have made a lot of progress. I am going to borrow a video camera next time so I am able to see what she does. After we finished our routine, then Maggie had me get Chauncey's dumbbell out to see how we are doing.
I have not been very good at making sure I practice the dumbbell every day, so at our previous lesson Maggie threatened me if I didn't practice every day, if possible twice a day. So, I made a huge effort and we practiced almost every day. Up to this time I was at the point of holding the dumbbell in front of Chauncey's mouth and giving the take command. After thinking a moment she would take it, which was a huge progress for a dog that would not touch it. As I was getting her dumbbell to put in our training bag, she ran up and tried to grab it. So I told her to take it and she did, no hesitation or refusal. I was thrilled. At class I told Maggie and she did it again repeatedly for us. Now I am able to hold it a couple inches out from her and she will reach forward, take it, and hold it for me. We are definitely making progress and there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have been working her since and she is taking it consistently and now I am moving it around a little and she is still reaching for it. I never thought that we would get to this point as retriever has seemed to me like banging my head against the wall with her. Maggie has been very patient with both of us, trying different methods until we have success.
Jasmine was up next and did very well on her run through, we are still working on getting her ready for pre-novice. Jasmine's heeling is doing great, it is the stand for exam and the stays that are the hardest for her. Holding still when she thinks she needs to be kissing and playing is very difficult. She finally managed a stand without moving and held a nice sit stay, but the down stay was so hard for her. I worked Chauncey and Maggie did Jasmine, while another man put his English Cocker in the middle of us. I am leaving for Chauncey's work, so Jasmine kept crawling to Maggie until Maggie had to give her a pretty good correction and she managed to hold still for a minute. It is coming, but we have to really work on settling down and focusing with her.
We have started dumbbell work with her and she took it in her mouth. so hopefully she won't be as tough as Chauncey was. I think I have made this part of our training more difficult than it ever had to be. I will let you know* hos it goes this week with them.
....and working again. I know life has been a little busy lately, and I have not kept you all up to date on what has been happening with us. We are still training and finally entered Chauncey and Jasmine in a rally trial in St Pete. yesterday. It has been a few months since Chauncey's last trial in Advanced A, where she had a 98 and earned third place. We lost that leg because I mistakenly entered her in the wrong class, so oops lesson learned, read the rules first. Jasmine has not been in the ring for a couple years and when I last showed her, she was all over the ring and definitely not under control.
I arrived at the trial early (7am) to find a place to set up my large crate that holds three of my dogs as this trial site is very small and crate space is very limited. I didn't even have to prepare for the first walk-thru until 10:45, so I settled the girls in, gave them a little breakfast and took a nap in my chair, hoping it would help steady my nerves. After resting for a little while I went over to the rally ring and watched some of the Excellent runs and studied our courses. This judge, Brenda Critelli, did not give out individual maps, but posted the course maps on the wall. I copied them down in my book and went back to my seat to study them and make sure I understood the movements. We finally had our walk-thru for Chauncey's Advanced B course and the course was set up very smoothly. It was an easier course, no serpentines, weaves, or off-set figure 8s, so the judge said that she would really be judging tough on handling as the courses were easier to work. Talk about adding pressure! We waited a while to go as we were 6th from the end of 30 dogs. You can read the sign descriptions here. Below is the course we ran: Start #1-360 degree Left Turn (Sign #12) #2-Halt-90 degree Pivot Left-Halt (Sign #38) #3-Send Over Jump-Handler Runs By (Sign #34) #4-Left Turn (Sign #6) #5-270 degree Right Turn (Sign #9) #6-Slow Pace (Sign #17) #7-Normal Pace(Sign #19) #8-Halt-About Turn Right-Forward (Sign #32) #9-Left Turn (Sign #6) #10-Halt-Turn Right One Step-Call To Heel-Halt (Sign #35) #11-Left About Turn (Sign #29) #12-Halt-Sit-Down (Sign #4) Finish
We finished Chauncey's course with a 97, losing a point on #4 as she was forging aftr the jump and bumped into me as I turned. We lost a point each on #8 and #10 for Chauncey lagging on the about turn, or she lagged because I left too fast. Chauncey did a very nice job of keeping her attention on me and we worked well together. I can see our hard work of the past couple years starting to pay off. The judge said that she was a very nice working dog and had very nice attention.
Jasmine was entered in Novice B and I was nervous to see how she would act in the ring and if I would be able to keep her focused on me. Her class did not even have the walk-thru until 1:30 and we were towards the end of the class of 8 and the judge actually combined the A & B classes as there were even less in A. The buildings had emptied quite a bit as the only regular obedience class still finishing up was Open A, so most people had packed and left. This made it much easier to walk Jasmine around and let her settle down, so she wouldn't be so hyper in the ring. I let her stand ringside and watch the dogs work. It seemed to help and she kept her focus fairly well in the ring. I only had to keep her from forging most of the time, I have never had a problem with lagging from Jasmine. Here is her course:
Start #1-Halt-Walk Around Dog (Sign #30) #2-270 degree Right Turn (Sign #9) #3-Call Front-Finish Right-Halt (Sign #15) #4-Left Turn (Sign #6) #5-270 degree Right Turn (Sign #9) #6-Slow Pace (Sign #17) #7-Normal Pace (Sign #19) #8-About Turn Right-Forward (Sign #32) #9-Left Turn (Sign #6) #10-270 degree Left Turn (Sign #10) #11-Left About Turn (Sign #29) #12-Halt-Sit-Down (Sign #4) Finish
As you can see both courses had many of the same signs, so I was glad I took Chauncey through first. Jasmine lost 6 single point errors, probaby for tight leashes, forging, and extra bounces thrown in. We lost 3 points for redoing #3, as when I gave the command for her to finish right she went in another direction. We also lost 10 points for an incorrectly performed station, which I believe was #12. The judge did not write down which sign # it was, but as I gave Jasmine the down command as she went to down she stood up and then downed. Me, being the nervous person I was forgot to redo the exercise. So, there were some handler and dog errors on this course, but overall I very pleased with Jasmine's attention and how far she has come in her training.
I will do my best to keep this blog regularly updated. We have a lesson at Maggie's tomorrow night, so I will post that after I get home.
