6 weave poles, day 2

And here she is on day two of being able to do six poles - - happy, skipping and getting more fluent..........

Clever method, Clever dog!

And For My Next Trick - Six Weave Poles!!! TaaaDaaaa!

Suddenly we have had a breakthrough with our weave training. Most of the problems we were having came from a combination of (1) having very light equipment, (2) having very wet soil in my training areas which meant that (3) being a solid, energetic dog, Eepie was knocking the weave poles out of position as she went through them - so she wasn't learning to W-E-A-V-E

First, a friend at work made me some beautiful, solid 2X2 bases (thanks, Michael!!) and then a friend at the dog club lent me her Susan Garrett 2X2* dvd (thanks, Barb!) and when Eepie and i were able to work the 2X2 method for a couple of days on proper equipment - almost overnight she could do four weave poles easily.

I noticed, though, that she didn't like stepping over the bases when they were sitting free on the ground - so i got some nice long deck nails with flat heads and hammered them in securely - suddenly the bases didn't move or wobble At ALL.........

and now she's getting the hang of it nicely -

So here she is doing her very first runs on six weave poles. She was zooming through four poles confidently and its clear on these first attempts at six that she's a bit worried and has slowed down - but this is after about half an hour of sporadic 2X2 training spread out over several days (with major breaks for tracking weekends and a sore foot!). We'll iron out the wrinkles and she'll be zooming it again soon enough.

It seems to be an excellent method of weave training and she clearly understands the task. My early observations are that the 2X2 method makes sense from the dog's perspective and it combines two of my favourite training concepts of shaping and back-chaining...(so it makes sense to this trainer, too :-)

At the end of this little vid, she also shows off the clever trick she learned for stopping on the target areas of agility contact equipment - (dogwalk, A-frame and see saw/teeter). She is such a fast doglet and she loves to FLY - so learning to control her speed (and her aspiration to be a bird) is really important.

But we don't have any contact equipment at home and we had to 'make do'.

So Eepie began her contact training on the five broad wooden steps off the back deck (not the steps in this vid). I wasn't happy with her slamming into the yard off the deck steps so her contact training had a useful spin-off - it was an opportunity to encourage her to come down into the garden in a nice, controlled manner - and to put this steady, controlled behaviour on command.

She learned to come down the deck stairs one at a time - hence my verbal cue "One". (i guess i'm not very imaginative with verbal cues :-)

Take a bow, Princess Peep - You're AMAZING!!

[Oh - by the way - her foot is much better today - for the last few days we haven't done much other than rest - and i think tomorrow we will be able to get out walking again...]



*2X2 method is the brainchild of Susan Garrett -

Injury Time

Last weekend the dogs and i went to a tracking workshop at Suzy's - it was brilliant fun being out with the dogs laying tracks and soaking up the winter sunshine.

Mz Eep wasn't too sure about the game of "Find Your Mommy". Her first attempt was a "free track" where she broke away from the person handling her, raced up the hill after me and FLUNG herself on me as i lay in the grass. It was funny looking up to see a flying Bouvier with wide eyes bounding over the tussocks towards me - her little face was saying quite clearly "Mum, what are you DOING? and why did you LEAVE me with that person?"

On another starter track she stood still a few yards away from where i was hiding on the hillside and barked for me which was a bit heartbreaking - but i could tell she was thinking things over - on her last attempt she put her nose down and started to use her natural skills to solve the problem. I think she will take another couple of startup sessions to get the hang of it and then we can shift over to working together on tracks i have laid.

Its complicated tracking alone at the beginning.........

My beautiful Harpo boy has had a lot more experience and when it was his turn he knew exactly what to do - he LOVES this game and i was thrilled watching him with his head down reading the tracks i laid and hauling along nicely into his harness - its a fine thing tracking with a Bouvier on a perfect winter day on perfect ground - Thanks, Suzy, for a wonderful day out!

Yesterday Eep wasn't interested in anything and kept taking herself back to bed which is just not like her so i knew something was up. I went over her thoroughly and finally discovered a sore-looking left back foot. On the underside and between the pads the skin was all pink with one curious paler welt. I put some cream on it (antibacterial, anaesthetic etc) and watched her for the day - she was subdued - So this morning i figured it was time to go to the vet for some professional help.

We saw Dr Ben who pronounced the foot infected and said "looks like there has been a grass seed in here, but there's nothing in there now" - that was the pale welt i noticed. So she has to take antibiotics for a week and i'm hoping she'll be back on all four feet next weekend when we are entered in two more CCD trials - this time at Nowra on the south coast.

Its funny - my usual request in the early mornings is "Eepie, stop being so enthusiastic - please" because she bounces off the walls in her enthusiasm to get out walking. Now with her sore foot i miss her bouncing off the walls and i'll be happy to see that crazy enthusiasm back again.

Meanwhile - here are some pix of the dogs on their tracking holiday - both of them "tracked" the resident Wombat to his beautiful burrow in the ferns and thought he smelled wonderful. :-)

Lessons about Winning

Well - it was fun to win last weekend - 97/100 is a good CCD score. It tells me that when the Peep is ON - she's ON. Winning was a lot more fun than popping the stay and not qualifying at the trial the weekend before - but what lessons can i learn from a win? And - where did we lose those three points?

First - i learned the useful lesson that We Can DO It! its good to know that we can - one of the keys to competing successfully is "appropriate training history" - i can store this successful trial as a reminder that we can, indeed, do it at a high level of accuracy.

Secondly - i need to ask, What did i do that helped us get it right on the day? and what can i do to shore up the weak spots in our training? Where can i practise a down stay with a dog doing a fast seekback twenty feet away? Where can i practise precise heeling with dogs being interesting just - over - there???

I couldn't rehearse/train on the Q&DDTC grounds because we are not members of that club - so i went early to the trial and walked both dogs around to let them read this new area and get familiar with it. By the time she was due in the ring she had met and spoken to a few dogs, walked around with Harpo and just with me and she was relaxed, alert and ready to work.

She didn't have breakfast but i took some lean braised 'roo steak cut into tiny pieces and while we were familiarising ourselves with the grounds i rewarded her for checking in and paying attention to me.........i paid her for working - that was the only way she was going to get food that morning! (of course i'd have fed her if she didn't trial well and qualify - but i didn't tell her that)

At home during the week i asked the Peep to practise her stays all over the place because i didn't want another POP - this was a good strategy because in the sit-stay last weekend, the Dalmatian bitch next to Peep got up and walked at snail's pace towards her handler. It was the longest sit stay of my life and i found myself standing there breathless watching the Dal and just WILLING my pup to sit still while the Dal crept forward. It was a very long minute.

So we have reinforced our Wait command (i use Wait and not STAY) in lots of places and with all sorts of rewards - Wait sitting while i put Harpo in the car - reward is its now YOUR turn to get in the car and go out. Wait down while i fill water bowls and prepare dinners - reward - hopping into your crate for dinner - YUM, Wait down while someone interesting goes past the backyard fence - reward for quiet attentive waiting in a down is "Aff - GO!" and she is free to run again

This week i have also asked her to wait in a down while i play with Harpo - getting him to be bouncy and happy while she has to lie still and watch. This is a handy skill to develop - as it seems lots of CCD dogs have trouble on the stays........last weekend one ran out of the ring before the judge had finished giving his orders for the sit stay - and a couple more just bolted off the downs - we need to be able to ignore such behaviour, Eepie!!!

Eeepie Wins CCD!

Today my clever girl won her CCD class at the Queanbeyan and District Dog Training Club trial. Our judge was John Green. This is her first qualifying pass, her third trial...she was so close last week - and this week she nailed it.

We hadn't been on those grounds before so i went a bit early so she could have a good look around - it worked and she was able to focus when we were heading into the ring - We got 27/30 for our heelwork and full points for the Stand for Exam, Recall, and Stays (sit&down).............

Lessons From Yesterday's Trial

First lesson - i didn't lose my patience with my beautiful girl when she popped her down stay.

Second lesson - she worked beautifully except for that one glitch - so she did very well for her second outing in an obedience competition - there was a lot to be happy about.

Third lesson - i came away from the trial somewhat annoyed that the trialling environment is not structured to help dogs succeed - but more to test them to the limits of their patience and training. This is not a rewarding environment for the dogs and it seems to have a very poor effect on the humans. I saw some dreadful Primate > Canid behaviour yesterday.

I saw one handler slapping his dog in the face during his warmup work - and i mean really slapping his dog in the face - i thought "if that is what he is prepared to do in public - what does he do to this dog when he thinks nobody can see him?" and my heart broke for the poor dog.

I saw one handler storm out of the UD ring with a grizzled older bitch in tow - the dog was shoved into her crate - a bowl of food shoved under her nose and the handler said "there - see that? You're not getting it" and threw the food down on top of the crate and slammed the door shut. Then the handler proceeded to complain loudly about all the "mistakes" the dog had made in the ring......

again, my heart broke for the poor dog

Yes, i was annoyed yesterday that the judge in the next ring couldn't wait for one minute to let the young dogs doing pre-Novice do their stays in peace without distractions. Yes i was disappointed that we didn't qualify and earn that second place - but i am SO GLAD that i left the ring happy with my dog - that i didn't take out my frustration on my dog. Thinking slowly about it i am SO GLAD that i didn't leave the ring thinking that my dog had "let me down" or "failed"

Its like this - if your dog learns that a consequence of going into the ring with you is that you will abuse him/her and be upset or angry - why would you expect your dog to do well in that unnatural and stressful situation that is an Obedience Trial??

CCD Trial

Oh Dear.

She got 21/30 for her heelwork - started off a little rough and missed her first position but she settled quickly after that and worked nicely - her figure 8 was almost perfect - i was very proud of her and once back at the starting peg after the exercise i realised i had held my breath nearly the whole time - must work on that!!

Then she did an almost perfect stand for exam - i think we lost one point - and a nice recall, too - so then it was the stays.

For the stays the CCD dogs were lined up facing the UD ring and it was just our luck. The sit stay was fine, Eepie looked around a bit but stayed put. On the two-minute down stay at about one minute twenty seconds, the judge in the UD ring started his next dog with LOUD commands. My heart began to sink as i notice Eepie listening intently to the commands for the heelwork/retrieve lost article exercise. The handler shouted SEEK to his dog and then i watched Eepie's eyes following the dog in the next ring - up and back, up and back.

At about 1 minute 30 seconds she popped her down-stay and sat in position watching the dog in the next ring. My heart broke.

She had been coming second. The dog who came first was trained and handled by a judge and had done a fantastic job with the exercises with some beautiful heelwork - coming second to that dog would have been an honour.

Sigh...

She maintained her position though - didn't race around and leave her place - so i was pleased about that - at some level she knows what it means when i tell her to "WAIT" - but we need more distraction work.

I am pissed off at the judge in the next ring. If he could have been thoughtful and waited one minute more, we'd have gained some good, positive ring experience, earned second place and a qualifying card.

Our judge in the CCD ring was genuinely disappointed for us - which was nice - He said "What HAPPENED? You were doing so WELL?"

Sigh again - 30 seconds can make a big difference to the outcome of a trial...................