We Are Back...

....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.

Tall Grass, Standing Water

I took all three of my Poodles tracking this week. That was fun as I had to fit three crates in my truck. We met Joyce and her Goldens at a different location. When we arrived we saw surveyors in the fields marking off areas with flags, this is very upsetting because it is hard to find land to track on. These fields are not supposed to be developed for at least another three years, if they are markings with flags then it will probably be earlier than expected. This is area has very nice fields to track in and a lot of different cover for obstacles. The only drawback is it is very near a huge airport and the fields are right in the middle of the flight path, so a lot of loud jets going over our heads as they land.

We decided what we wanted for each of our dogs and started laying tracks. Joyce laid Ziggy's as she is working on TDX with him and knew what she wanted and it would be run last with the most aging. I laid Micah's on the other side of the road. Joyce wanted to test him with a full length track, so I made it about 475yds with 4 turns. There was a lot of tall cover as the fields had not been mowed in while, most of it was over 4' tall, but it was not so dense as the field where Joyce laid Ziggy's track. It had rained very hard all night so there was a lot of standing water on Micah and Ziggy's tracks.

After laying theirs we decided which of mine to lay, so Joyce headed to the opposite end of Micah's field to lay a track for Blueberry (the map will come later as I left it at home). After she laid Blueberry's we went off in another direction with Jasmine. Since she is just beginning I held her while Joyce laid some straight tracks in front of us. She would lay it and we would run it. She started with a 20yd track, then built up from there, 35, 45, and then 60 yds. Jasmine did very good keeping her head down and working it out. Joyce is really correcting me if I don't stop the instant my dog's head comes off the track or they drift off the line. I have been bad about moving with Chauncey and I think that is why we have so many problems now. Jasmine loved it and Chauncey was able to see us and it really made her jealous.

We ran Blueberry's track next. She started very well and kept her nose to the ground. Blueberry is a very serious tracker and takes me with her as she tracks. She works the turns very simply, a double check and she is off down the next leg. Due to the heavy cover she had to find her way around some large bushes that Joyce walked around instead of through. On the last leg we came to a definite change of cover, it went from tall, thick grass clumps to shorter, very dense weeds. Blueberry went back and forth in front of the new cover looking for a way around and then just plunged through and found the glove on the other side. Her track was about 300yds long and had aged for about 40 minutes.

Micah's track was next and it had been aging almost an hour. Micah started well and right after the 30yd flag was a car path that was driven over before and after I laid his track about 4 or 5 different times by the people surveying the fields. When Micah came to the car path, he went left and right a couple times and the crossed over to pick up the track on the following side. I wasn't sure how he would handle cross tracks that early, but he did fine. Once we got back to the truck Joyce reminded me that he has had cross tracks a couple times now, accidentally, with no problems. Micah did very well with his track and each time he came to a turn he would pick up the next leg and be pointing directly at the landmarks I picked out to lay the track. Water and tall bushes did not slow him down at all. He happily worked his way to the glove in nice time.

Joyce then headed off to another field to lay a track for Chauncey. We are not aging hers very long right now, but really focusing on turns, keeping her working and focused on the track. There were about 5 turns (again my map is at home) with 3 articles on the track. She started okay and then after the first turn she found article one halfway down the 2nd leg and really started working better. She worked the turns okay, but Joyce was very good at telling me to stop if she wasn't working. Sometimes it helps to have someone watching you and keeping you straight during training! Chauncey does not give a very clear signal when there is a turn, so we are working a lot of turns to help me read her better and help her give more signals. We finished the track and she found her glove. A much better effort on her part than last week.

Ziggy's was last to be run, in the tallest and thickest brush, and aged the longest (almost 2 hours). He started well and worked through the brush fine with no hesitation on going from shorter grass to tall thick grass. He found 2 of his articles, but missed the third one. He also had standing water and went right through it. Ziggy has been in 3 TDX tests so far, the first two he took the cross tracks and the 2nd one he missed his articles.

It turned out to be a nice day for tracking and even warmed up quite a bit. Not much breeze and it didn't rain on us even though the ground was wet. We did see a coyote that ran across the field Chauncey tracked in. He took off when the dogs barked at him. I will try to track some this week at home, but we won't meet up for another 2 weeks.

Blueberry As A Model

Since I am an amateur photographer I am always using my dogs as models and forcing them to pose for me. Blueberry is one of the easiest to work with and she gives the right expressions for the camera. Here are some recent photographs I have taken of her.

Always learning something new!

Yesterday Chauncey was entered in a tracking test by Orlando Dog Training Club. The time for the draw to see what running order we would have was set for 7am, so we were up and running by 4:30am. I have never enjoyed getting up in the dark. We arrived at the area for the draw at 6:40, so I had time for a potty break and to say "Hi" to everyone. Once everyone arrived, we did the draw. I was the last person to draw, of 7 entries, and picked track #2. After the draw we waited a few more minutes before heading to the area for the first 3 tracks. The dog to run track #1 was called and I watched the beginning which was very strong. I headed back to my truck to walk Chauncey around and take deep breaths to relax. I heard the spectators cheering and clapping, so I knew the dog found the glove. The judges walked back and had me follow them in my truck to the starting point for my track. It was in the back of the field area and much taller grass than the front area, very wet, and I could see an outline of the tracklayers path.

I took Chauncey to the start flag, had her down at the sock, changed her lead from the collar to harness, and to her to "Find it". She started out pretty well, but when she got to the first turn Chauncey indicated to the right and then circled around to double check. She then kept going back and forth and never committing to the track. After doing that for a few minutes, I called her to me and let her sniff the sock again. She then went out and headed down the second leg. she was strong down the second leg and picked up the second turn, circled to check and the headed to the left down the third leg. This is where we made a couple mistakes. We hadn't gone very far when Chauncey veered off to the right at an angle and I just followed right along. I knew we hadn't gone fifty yards and I knew it was too early for a turn as we had just made a turn. I didn't stop and question her I just followed right along, so it wasn't surprising to hear the judges whistle. Once I looked at the map, I saw where she cut the turn and instead of picking up the next leg, just kept on heading out into the field. They started us back at the turn and Chauncey found the last turn and the glove with no problems.

We always know what we should have done when we look back. I should have held my ground and questioned her early turn. I don't know if that would have stopped her, but at least I would not have blindly followed her along. We made it much further down the track and she kept working an didn't do too much sight seeing along the way, which is her usual problem. She also did pretty good considering she hasn't tracked all summer and I just did some fun tracks the week before.

So, I will need to re-certify both Chauncey and Blueberry before March. The lady I have tracked with in the past, Joyce, had entered one of her dogs, Micah, and he had the track right after me. I didn't get to watch him as we were busy hiking back to our truck. Micah was whistled off on the first leg, he just was not focusing and looking at everything else. He finished up the track fine and found his glove. I did get a picture of Micah returning with his glove. Joyce and I are going to get back out and track together after the Christmas holidays.

I will add the track maps once I get them scanned in and loaded.

Micah returning with his glove!!

Chauncey wet and ready for breakfast

Picture time!

We have been taking it easy the psat couple months. We are still going to obedience lessons, but our tracking is on hold right now. I hope to get started back into that soon. now that the weather is cooler. I will leave you with some recent photos of them.

Chauncey snoozing

Blueberry snuggling

Jasmine being her normal goofy self

On the bench

Jasmine hurt her back this morning, I was awakened at 4:30 by her crying and going in circles on my bed. I wasn't sure what happened, but I got her to lay back down and when I got up a little later she was very stiff for her walk. When we head out for our walk and Jasmine just stands there and walks out the door behind me, never once jumping, goofing off with Blueberry, or pulling on her lead, then something is not right.

I will keep her in her cage for a little while until she feels better, but her training is off for a couple weeks until she heals. The problem with injured backs is we have to give the a good 2 to 3 weeks to heal thoroughly or she could reinjure herself and do more damage.

So, another set back in her training, so much fun!!! I'm sure she will heal quickly and I just need to be careful with her for a little while.

More Training

My mom is taking her puppy, Marly, to classes at Maggie's when she has the time. Since Chauncey and Jasmine already had one on Tuesday, I took Blueberry along for a class.

My mom has been practicing with Marly, which is more than I can say for me. Marly did very well, but tired quickly. They worked on her walking nicely with my mom, sits and downs, which take her longer to do than the Poodles. She is also working on watching and attention to my mom. Maggie started working with them on recalls and retrieving. After all the work I am going through to ge tmy girls to retrieve and Marly runs over and picks the toy up, brings it back to my mom, on the first time and three more times after that. Maggie thought is was funny that she is already retrieving.

Marly heeling for food!

Coming to my mom!

After Marly was done I brought Blueberry out and we started with our heeling routine, which Blueberry has greatly inproved on. The lessons are starting to click and she is figuring out what I am asking of her. We worked on her broad jump and she is not even trying to avoid the jump. I need to practice more with her on sits and downs, because she doesn't want me to leave her and Maggie had to hold on while I left. We are also working on her getting in and sitting in our box, so we will be able to add recalls and more things later on. The lessons went well and I am trying to get some practice time in this week.

Practicing her down in her box.

Working on her heeling.

Jumping the broad jump

Working on her stays

Maggie had a big fan outside and we were standing in front of it, trying to cool off.