12 Weave Poles!!

Eepie Earns Her CCD Title

What an amazing year we have had.

In June the Peep celebrated her second birthday. She also celebrated her first anniversary as an Australian Doggy-Citizen and she earned her conformation championship.

Now in July she has earned her first obedience title - her Community Companion Dog title (CCD).

We travelled to Nowra for the Shoalhaven Dog Training Club morning and afternoon trials and the Peep won both her classes. So after one "false start" trial and one "near miss" trial she earned this title in the month of July with three first places and an average score of 92.6%. That's not too shabby for a young dog.

Throughout the day I learned lots of handling lessons at the Shoalhaven trials because i made some silly mistakes (but i also did some things well). Eep had a couple of indiscreet moments in amongst the great teamwork, too. I need to think more about what i do to keep her "up" between exercises - we managed OK but my efforts seemed a bit artificial even to me and a couple of times she looked at me as if to say "why are you acting weird?"

So now the plan is to rest and re-focus in August and prepare for our first Novice trials in September.

So - What lessons are there to learn from three wins and a new title? Where did we lose points at the Shoalhaven DTC trials? And what can we do about it?

My handling errors

Our judge at the morning trial, Andrew Parker, told me that on the Stand for Exam i returned to a different place than the one i left and this is one of his "pet hates" - so i lost two points there. He was right - When i give the command to STAND, Eepie stops dead which means that my feet are still moving when she stops and end up level with or just slightly ahead of her front feet. But on the return, i go back to "my" heeling position which is with my left knee just behind her right elbow....

In some ways i am still "trialling with Harpo" when i go to work with Eepie - Harpo is a bigger dog and he takes a couple of steps to walk into his Stand - by contrast, when Eepie hears the word STAND she just stops bang-bang on her front feet and she's standing still. I need to work on matching her speed and put in a half-step as i am coming to a halt beside her.

On the recall i turned around on the judge's call ("about turn and HALT") with my hands on my belly and after giving her the signal i returned my hands to a lower position - lost another point.

These are both silly handling mistakes that are easy to fix - i have to be more mindful. Without my errors her score would have been 94 (!!!)

For her part, in the morning trial, Eepie lost one point for a slightly crooked front on the recall, two points for swivelling on her bum to check out the dog next to her in the sit stay and three points for taking a big look around on her first Right About Turn in the heel pattern which meant that she was at the end of her lead for a second and out of position.

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In the afternoon trial she lost six points on her heelwork - she took a really big look around again on the first right about turn and got way out of position for a moment - (so it must have incurred a substantial deduction) - the rest of her heelwork was very nice.

Then she moved one foot on the Stand For Exam - Our afternoon judge, Pat Looker, was wearing a big wide hat and she bent right down over Eep during the exam, i could see the expression on Eep's face - it was YUK! I am a Bouvier, i don't do Hugs With Strangers in HATS! and she stepped away politely - that was a point off for one foot moving.

And then there was the recall - smarty pants - she came OK but she knew the exercise would end with me standing beside her so she just went straight into that position and sat. Three points off......

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Fixes

OK - i have started shaping a "touch front" where she comes in square and touches one or both of my feet with her feet - she can't do that and sit crookedly - that will fix the recall fronts. And we get to do a flip finish in Novice (instead of "Return to Your Dog" in CCD) so i think i need to be rigorous about practising the front and the finish separately for the next month to reinforce that they are two different things.

We will have to do lots of "stand for exam with new people in strange hats" for mega rewards for keeping her feet still.

As for the heelwork, i'm not quite sure how to deal with the 'good look around' she likes to take as we do that first right about turn in the heel pattern - i guess practising with distractions on that side is the answer. Novice is all done off lead so it is really important that she stays with me - the marking in Novice will be harder and there's no "safety belt" of a lead to help us get back on track if she gets distracted.

My handling? I have to be more precise and more aware of what i am doing - it will be really silly if i lose our points by being unconscious in my handling.

The bottom line for me is that Eep enjoys what she is doing - i like it that she works wagging her tail and that she works with spirit and that irrepressible Bouvier sense of humour. So i need to proceed carefully - i don't want to "suck all the air out of the room" by drilling the exercises to death - it makes me sad to see dogs at the starting peg with a flat or worried look - dreading "what's coming next"............

Gently Gently Catchee Monkey!

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...................

Australian Champion Ieper-Rilla vd Arkiv (Imp USA)

Australian Champion Ieper-Rilla vd Arkiv

Well - here in Australia its the Queen's Birthday long weekend - 12,13 and 14 June

The weekend is a significant milestone in Eepie's life with us Down Under.

Saturday 12th she went BoB, she got a second run in the Working Group line up and she was awarded Best Intermediate in Group. This left us competing in the General Specials at the pointy end of the show. I was thrilled to be showing this beautiful Bouvier among all the best dogs at the show. It was a huge achievement for a rare breed. Well done, Mz Eep!

Today, 13th June, is her second birthday. We had two other Bouviers to compete against today and Eep was awarded Bitch Challenge and Runner Up in Breed - we needed four points to finish her championship and we earned seven.

Well done Champion Ieper-Rilla vd Arkiv!

Tomorrow we have one more show and tomorrow is the first anniversary of Eepie's "Gotcha Day" - the day i picked her up from the quarantine station and brought her home after her long journey from Delta, Colorado.

Harpo and i love you to bits Princess Eepie........Many Happy Returns to my little darling the Champion

CCD Fun Match

The baby did it tonight - she came second in a CCD fun match at our club.

She had eyes everywhere for the first half of our heel pattern but then she settled down, her brains clicked in and she worked beautifully.

It was assessment night at the club - in the ring next to ours an instructor was putting out stations and distractions for her group. She wheeled out a pram full of stuff - umbrellas, teddy bears and footballs - then she started setting up stations with lots of signs and cones. Peep was **very** interested in all of this. Then the President's Kelpie started wandering around off lead and people were coming and going with their dogs. It was hard work for my little girl - but she managed a heel pattern with perfect figure 8s - she did a perfect stand for exam and a nice recall.

On the stays she had her head swivelling around to watch everything but me - :-( but she managed to do her sit stay and her down stay.....

Our judge for the evening was one of my favourite obedience judges ever. This was a great opportunity to practice our work together under true trial conditions - and she passed!!

Her conformation title is nearly completed and our first CCD obedience trial is in about a month. :::gulp:::

Scent Discrimination for UD

Eepie has come a long way in a short time with her scent discrimination practice.

Here's a video of her taken this week retrieving "leather #3" from eleven articles placed on a towel.

This is such a mysterious exercise to train because we humans cannot sense what the dogs sense about the correct article. We cannot smell nearly as well as our dogs so we have to learn to trust them. I think this exercise is harder for the human than for the dog to "get".

Usually we have been working off about seven "dummies" in training - but this week i decided to put the number up to eleven - and she didn't have a problem with it - not at all.

We won't be competing in UD for about a year - i'm guessing - so we will have plenty of time to proof this exercise and get any wrinkles out - i want her to be perfectly relaxed doing it when she's in competition.

Eep has a Great Nose!

Friday Training

This afternoon we went to the old parliament house rose gardens to train. The gardens are enclosed with a nice level mowed lawn. I was hoping we'd have some distractions - people winding down for the weekend - but there was nobody about.

Because this is a new training area for us, i went armed with yummy rewards for work well done and i had made up my mind to lower the criteria for success. Eepie and i are proofing her exercises now - and the lesson i want her to learn each time we work in a different location is "it is rewarding and fun to work in this new place".

So on top of the obedience exercises we have trained, i am now training Eepie for a happy response and flexibility when she's asked to work in an unfamiliar environment.

Turned out I didn't need to lower my expectations too much tonight - she worked very nicely on a "christmas tree" heeling pattern with all positions, all speeds, all turns and some beautiful figure eights.

We did a couple of easy recalls and then it was Harpo's turn.

Harpo is recovering from major surgery so i'm not expecting to be able to trial him this year - its such a shame because his work has never been better - he heels like a demon, retrieves with a sparkle and does his scent discrimination exercise at warp speed.........

Visiting Geoffrey

Yesterday we visited an old friend, Geoffrey, who is an artist. It was the first time since she came to live with me that Ieper has been in another house - and the first time Harpo, Ieper and i have been invited anywhere together.

It was a beautiful autumn day and a peaceful drive about an hour and half into the countryside to the little town of Taralga. Geoffrey lives on a few acres and says that it is fine for us to use his land for tracking practice. I couldn't track yesterday or let the dogs stray very far, unfortunately, because the grass is long and full of seed and the temperatures are still warm enough for brown snakes to be out in the middle of the day.....

Geoff doesn't have any animals and I was a little bit nervous about how the guys would behave in this new environment but i needn't have been nervous. He seemed quite happy with these two big hairy dogs sniffing and playing around him and the guys were incredibly well behaved.

What a relief! We will be asked back again!!

The dogs had a great time sniffing around Geoff''s house and when we went out to the studio they rumbled up and down in that nice big open space. They were pretty funny wrestling all over the floor while we talked about paint qualities and the problems Geoff was having with his latest set of paintings.

I was really proud of the way they behaved and i was very happy with Ieper's good natured curiosity and general acceptance of this new situation. I would have loved to see them racing around the paddocks at Geoff's - but maybe we can do that later in the year when winter has sent the snakes packing.

We did some "two on-two off" practice on some of the steps at Geoff's studio and we did some focus- and heelwork around the studio when a local couple dropped by to see his paintings. It was a good opportunity to ask Eepie to work in this new environment with new people around.

The training/exercises that came in handy yesterday were two simple, everyday 'household' commands - Settle (lie down now and relax) and Here (informal come to me and hang around nearby).

Agility Tunnel Arrives!

Our Agility tunnel arrived yesterday - it is bright yellow, 5 metres long, 600mm in diameter and both the dogs love running through it.

I'm really happy about this new toy for the dogs.  Our training yard now has twelve weavers, two jumps and a tunnel - and there is still room for a few more things to go in out there.  I'd really like a dog walk - i could put it over some of the unmoveable parts of the garden and make good use of that otherwise unusable space.

By the time she is ready to compete, Ieper and i will be very good at working small, tight courses.  Last night we played with the tunnel, the two jumps and right or left entries into the weavers - the angles are impossibly tight but she made a really good effort and i am learning how to move with her so i can cue her for a correct weave entry regardless of which side we go from.

History Page

I found some old pix in a file and had to put them here.

This is Percy, Stavast Gosta Grenda CD aged about eleven

Percy doing one of her favourite things in the world

This is Harpo, Stavast Gitta Harpo CDX, speeding up on the last leg of a track - the "lost" person is

in a bush just out of the picture

Percy getting her/our her first Novice pass

Two On Two Off

This vid shows Eepie learning a version of "two on-two off" which means that she is learning to stop with her back feet touching a specific area on agility equipment. Yes, i am concentrating on the placement of her front feet - but when we work on the stairs this has the effect of also controlling the placement of her back feet. You can't see it, but i am pointing to each step to show her where i want the "one" step to happen.

We ended up with the command "one" because i was asking her to do "one step at a time" - One is our shorthand for "take one step, stop and watch me"

When she's coming off the agility equipment, instead of leaping with Great Enthusiasm as her puppy heart loves to do, she must come off deliberately, taking care to touch the contact areas - we don't have a dog walk or an A-frame to practise on at home so the stairs are quite handy for this.

I am looking forward to putting this new skill to work next time we're in class.

Well done, Mz Eep!! This new trick has taken three x 2 minute sessions to shape and now that she has learned how to do it, i'm beginning to increase my distance from standing directly in front and blocking her 'flight path' to standing one or two steps away from her.

As i increase the distance - in effect taking the props away - it gets harder for her because she has to think and remember and behave in a certain way all by herself. Her reward for getting it right is her release signal that means she can BOLT the last step or two and go flying into her back yard where she loves to charge around.

If she forgets and charges down the steps midway through i just stop her and ask her to go back up onto the deck and start again.

We do two reps - that's enough - Bouviers do not do "robot dog" training.............

Extra distractions for this exercise are provided by people, dogs, kids on bicycles etc passing by in the park on the other side of the fence.