What have we been up to? Training, of course!

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging is that the weather finally broke in early March, and we've been able to get outside and train! So where are we?

Devon -- agility

Devon has been doing really well in agility. I'm pleased with her class work, and she's doing some great lateral distance work. Last year I started quick releasing her contacts and now I've been letting her run them. In her effort to be perfect, Devon's performance was very slow with a 2 on 2 off contact. I tried a couple of tricks to speed her up but nothing seemed to work well.

About a month ago, Devon started consistently missing her A frame contact. I worked on several ways to cue it, and about 2 weeks ago found something that worked. Yes, I have a dependent contact that probably won't hold up 100% of the time; but Devon isn't a super speedy dog so I can get there to cue it. Ian had dependent contacts, and it while not ideal it worked out just fine. I've been working on various approaches, as well as pushes, pulls, front crosses and rear crosses off the A frame, and I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Last week I had a private lesson with Jenn Crank at Incredipaws. Most of the lesson was spent on Page's foundation, but I wanted Jenn to see Devon's contacts and other work. In one sequence calling for a 180 with a jump to tunnel, I pulled Devon off the jump. I had done this sequence earlier and done it perfectly. I didn't react and kept going, which Jenn complimented me on since it was my fault and I didn't let Devon know anything was wrong.

I love training with Jenn and wish I could do it more often, because she pushes me to think through why something happened and explain it. I had rotated my shoulders, so three of my cues said go forward and jump and three of my cues said turn. With a 50/50 choice, Devon got to decide and she came with me like a good little girl.

If I have a handling issue with Devon it's usually something like pulling her off a jump. I had been thinking that I wasn't stepping forward enough to cue the jump, but now I'm going to be more aware of my body position. That last run at Gem City were I pulled her off a jump was a very similar situation and I bet I rotated my shoulders too soon.

The other thing we worked on with Devon was a Forward Moving Front Cross (FMFC). I do a lot of these, but after my lesson I realized why I'm usually late with them, as in the Sunday run at this trial. I'm not getting my outside arm up quick enough to give early information.

Finally, Devon's big nemesis is the teeter. This issue has been lingering since last fall, and I've changed up my strategy since I'm determined to tackle this problem. Devon's teeter issue is the only thing holding her back from pursuing her MACH, and it's a goal I want for both of us.

I'm now working with a series of boards, each with a progressively larger dowel rod under it (1 inch, 1.5 inch, and 2 inch). I've worked Devon steadily on these boards, asking her to bang them down and then hop on them. I use high value treats and only do enough to go through 12 of these little treats.

My goal is to get Devon comfortable in understanding she controls the movement on a small board that is not the teeter but acts like it. She's up to the 1.5 inch dowel and ready to move to the 2 inch dowel board. I'm going to take it on the road tomorrow and see if her performance holds up. It did when there were people present the other night to watch her performance.

Devon's confidence must be getting better, because she's now running to the teeter in class even though I'm working very far away from it. She also ran to the teeter in my agility yard this week, too. She gets on a full-sized teeter very confidently, but then only goes to the tipping point. You can tell she has an inner battle of wanting to go over, but not quite being ready.

After she's done a few days on the 2 inch board and is confident, I'll be ready to drop the real teeter all the way to the ground and get her playing on it. I picked up a great tip from Jenn that seems so obvious, but it wasn't what I was doing. When I went for the lesson, Page refused the teeter. Something had happened the last time she went over a teeter and she was hesitant. We lowered the teeter a little and then had Page play the bang game. This worked great and she was up and over it again in no time.

What hit home for me when I was working Page was when Jenn said I didn't need to reward the ends so much because the middle was where she didn't want to be; I should be rewarding only behaviors offered in the middle. Aaaah Ha! She was right, and I'm sure I'm doing too much of this with Devon. This week as I'm paying close attention to the exact criteria I want and rewarding that, Devon has made much better progress.

Devon -- obedience

We've been doing a lot of obedience work this winter and spring. I put Devon in one obedience trial in early April, but she wasn't ready. She would have scored a respectable 191.5 if she had not gone down with 10 seconds left in the sit. However, I know she can do so much better, and she needs more proofing to be confident.

So we've started some occasional parking lot and sidewalk heeling sessions. The first time we did heeling on a quiet sidewalk, it threw Devon for a loop. She had no idea she should be heeling and giving me complete focused attention every time I asked for it! Within a week with only three sessions of this type of work, Devon's heeling improved incrementally. She is such an amazing dog when I finally figure out how to communicate to her!

I'm also working through all the open exercises and starting to demand more perfection with them, as well as teaching utility exercises. This is giving Devon more variety in her obedience training instead of concentrating strictly on heeling. I'm not too worried about pressing for Devon's CD this year. We have so much on our plate, that it's hard to get everything done. So we'll just plow ahead and maybe check out some Wild Card classes this fall or in early 2011.

Devon -- field

Devon's field training was going well, until we went to Mitch's last week, and we put her on some big dog blinds. I had been working Devon on discipline casting and lining drills and sight blinds with factors. They were all going really well.

But then we went to Mitch's and put her on some Master level cold blinds. She wasn't ready, which was fine. But she didn't handle the pressure well and she wanted to leave the field. That was bad. On day 2 when we worked water, she confirmed this was a weakness I already knew about and again wanted to give up and come in.

Mitch reassured me none of this was bad; we just had our work cut out for us. I need to revisit over into the water and swim-by. I worked some water sight blinds this week, and she was 80% successful, with only one battle on an angle entry blind which I won.

Like obedience, I don't plan on doing any hunt tests with Devon this year except for entering one or two WCXs when I enter Page in a WC. I plan to spend this year refining her skills and setting us up for a focus on field work next year.

A great day of training

Yesterday the girls and I headed to the kennel club for training. Over the last 10 days, Page has accomplished not only a full-height teeter, but also a full-height dogwalk. Putting the dogwalk in my small building has been tight, and it takes up at least half of the building. My primary goal with this training trip was to see how Page's teeter and dogwalk held up in a new location.

My secondary goal was to see what I had from Devon. A week into her heat cycle, Devon suddenly stopped working. She didn't want any part of training agility or obedience at the kennel club or here at home. First we took a trip to the vet to make sure all was progressing fine with her heat cycle (which it was). Then she was seen by two different massage therapists. She was tight through the neck and shoulders, which was part of the problem. Finally, it was decided that this heat cycle was different than her past cycles and she just didn't want to work through this one. So she got two weeks off.

On Monday I noticed a change in Devon's attitude. I cannot tell you what was different about her, it just seemed like she was happier; and not so coincidentally she was finished with her heat cycle. Devon's change in attitude prompted our woods walk on Monday. On Tuesday, Devon pushed Page out of the way in the expen and wanted to work; so I worked her. She was absolutely back to normal wanting to work. She's trained obedience all week here at home, looking like she hasn't missed a beat. So my second goal for this training session was to see if Devon's training held up away from home, including agility.

Page's dogwalk

This was the first time I asked for full-height equipment away from home. I suspected Page wouldn't have any problems with the transition, but you never know. We started with the dogwalk. I asked Page to hop up on the downside of the ramp and give me her contact performance (2 on 2 off with a chin touch). She did this a couple of times without any problem.

Since she knew what was expected of her and had probably figured out which piece of equipment she was on, I turned her and asked for the complete dogwalk, and she performed it fine. The only difference in her performance at first was to walk or trot across the top of the dogwalk; she continued to canter the ups and downs.

Below is a clip from her second training session on the dogwalk. You'll see at the end of the clip one back foot slips as she gets to the top of the up ramp, but it didn't bother her. I gave her a third session on the dogwalk before we left just to make sure she was fine with the equipment, and she never showed any hesitation on it.

Page's teeter

Next we moved to the teeter. Again, I "introduced" it to her before asking for the full obstacle. I lowered the up end so she could grab it and bang it down and do her contact performance. After this, she turned and grabbed the board before it could go back up, banged it down and went up and over it (banging it again) and did the contact performance on the down side. After she was so confident doing this, I knew she was ready for the full piece of equipment.

Below is Page's second session on the teeter.

The A frame

Now if you're thinking, "Deb never mentioned she'd worked Page on the A frame," you would be right. The only time Page has ever seen an A frame (other than when she's watching other dogs run agility) was when she was about 10 weeks old. We put her over the contact equipment when she was very young when she knew her proprioception and knew her edges and ledges. This is done because we want to introduce them to everything they will do in their life (as appropriate) before they are 16 weeks old. If you look back at the clip, you'll see she was well supervised on her trips across the equipment.

You will also see by reading that clip that Page volunteered a full A frame before I could stop her. Well, yesterday after we finished the dogwalk and teeter, we were walking by the A frame and Page turned and took two acceleration steps toward it. The A Frame was lowered to 5 feet, and I had planned to start her on an even lower A frame and work her contacts. However, if she wanted to volunteer it, I wasn't going to stop her.

I said, "You want to run it?" And took a couple of steps that way, which was all she needed. In a flash Page was up and over the A frame no problem! As her Aunt Marcy said, "See wood, get rewards!" Yes, this girl has had lots of rewards for contacts lately and since she's so confident, she was just thrilled to find something else she might get treats for!

Below is her second session on the A frame. As you can see her contact performance transfered over without a problem. I didn't even have the plastic runners I've been using to keep her straight since I hadn't planned on her going over the A frame the first time. This proved to me she no longer needed those runners, so I've removed them totally now.

Page's jumping

I just started Page jumping in the middle of the week. This was only her forth day of jumping, so I knew I was pushing it a little to do it in a new place. We need more work and confidence in her job, because Page does like to limbo under the bar. The problem is she's so stinking flexible she usually doesn't touch the bar when she limbos! Below is her jumping and limboing!

In all I couldn't be more pleased with what Page gave me yesterday. She was in a familiar location but had never worked on the contact equipment in this building. Her contact performance was solid, even on a contact she'd never done before. On the dogwalk and the A frame she was consistently hitting the last slat or below with her rear feet. She's a little higher up on the teeter, but that's ok for controlling the board.

Her jumping could use work, but I knew that. In addition, she was doing very nice sends to a curved dark tunnel and looking for me on the exit. She also did a lot of nice table work. Page does need work on staying in position as I move when she's on the table. I've taught her an automatic down on the table, just as I did Devon. I decided to move forward with the automatic down even though there are agility rule changes under consideration with AKC that call for a positionless table. The automatic down will still be needed in USDAA if I trial her there, and it's a good thing for AKC even if it's just to keep her on the table regardless of position.

I'll probably put her over the dogwalk one more time in my building and then take it down. The building just isn't functional with the dogwalk up, and I need more room to train obedience with Devon. From here forward, I'll train contacts at the kennel club when I can until we get rid of this snow and I can get the contacts outside.

And now for Devon

Devon had a fantastic day of training. I warmed her up really well before we started working. I only asked for 3 obstacles in sequence at first, and she was very confident. Her weaves looked amazing, and I could hear her digging with her rear legs to power herself through them. One thing I've realized some time back and confirmed yesterday is that Devon works better for toys in agility than treats. I always carry treats with me, but she really enjoys the toys more.

We took a break and let someone else use the equipment while I worked Devon in obedience. Her heeling skills, as well as fronts and finishes, are really looking incredibly sharp. Devon makes me enjoy working obedience because she loves it so much.

To end the day, I wanted to get some video of Devon's weaves. For the second set, she ran a line of three jumps and the tire to get speed entering the weaves. I was really happy with how far in front of me she was and how much distance I got on the weaves. And yes, that's Page you hear in the background protesting it wasn't her out in the ring!

2010 Goals

Happy New Year! The end of 2009 brings with it club membership dues and submitting last year's accomplishments for various club awards. It's a great time not only to look back, but also look forward and think about goals for 2010.

I have one email group and one trainer who asks its members/students to submit their goals each year. I like thinking about both short and long term training goals, so this has been fun to do each year.

So how do you set goals? Jenn Crank of IncrediPAWS said her goals need to be S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-based). I really liked that model.

I also think you need to look at long-term and short-term goals separately. Long-term goals include "career" goals for each dog. I start out a list of titles I want my dogs to have when they retire. Then I think about progression toward each different goal. In balancing multiple sports, which sport am I going to concentrate in first and which will wait until the end of the dog's career? Those are the big picture goals when I bring a dog home. Those goals rarely see big adjustments, other than in the timeline it takes to achieve them.

Next come the shorter-term goals, yearly, monthly, quarterly and weekly. This is where I add my resources into the mix, as well as balancing multiple sports. I start big picture and then work my way down. So, at the end of the year, what titles do I want my dogs to achieve? How much money and training time will that take? If I'm looking toward pushing to a big title, which other trials will fall into the background this year to make room for that accomplishment?

And goals don't have to be about titles, they should include training. For instance one of my big goals for Devon this year is to have a confident teeter performance. One of my goals for Page is to have her agility obstacle performances solid by the middle of the year.

Once you have your yearly and quarterly goals set, then the training begins. How do you organize your training? Do you journal? Do you plan out your training sessions each week? How do you track your progress?

I plan my training session on the calendar about 10 days out. I look at my work schedule and coordinate with weather.com to see what days would be best for outdoor work. Then I list on the top of each page in its own unique color what training session Page and Devon will have each day.

For daily training sessions, I use a checklist to track my progress. I write out all the steps or progressions of each thing I'm training and put an "X" beside it each time I train it. This let's me see at a glance where I'm going. And if I run into problems, I can look back and see where we might have spent too little time and revisit that area.

So, what are the girls' goals for 2010? Ok, I'll be really brave and post them! For Devon, I would like to get her VST in the first half of 2010. This is a huge tracking goal, so we'll start gearing up for it in late February.

In agility, I'd like Devon to earn her AXJ and if not her MXJ be on the way to it with most of her legs. Agility is one of those sports that often has to take a backseat to field and tracking, so she will only trial periodically. Devon's other big agility goal is to have a confident teeter by fall.

In field, I plan to work drills and concepts to set her up for her Master Hunter. I'd like to enter at least one or two tests this fall, just to get our feet wet. And this leaves obedience; poor obedience is once again getting the "leftover time." Our goals for obedience are simply training goals. I'd like to solidify Devon's Open obedience exercises and teach the utility exercises. I plan to continue to work her precision heeling.

And what about Page? Well, Page will also be pursuing her VST in the first half of 2010. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to make a tough decision about whether to pursue Devon's MH or VST in 2010. What made the decision is that both Devon and Page are working VST, and I didn't want either of their tracking to stagnate.

Page's other titling goals for 2010 include getting her JH and WC in the fall. This will take a significant amount of training during the summer, but I think they are achievable goals. With her upcoming field training, she should be on her way to transition to Senior work by fall. This will set the girls up to dovetail field work in Senior and Master very well in 2011.

Page's training goals also include agility and obedience. For agility, I'd like her equipment/obstacle training to be complete by summer, so she can begin to sequence by fall. If I see any fall off in her agility performance due to her other sports, I'll back off her agility training to a maintenance level. In obedience, I am currently teaching heads up heeling and other novice concepts (fronts, finishes, etc.). I will maintain those skills throughout the year as we shift focus to other sports.

Those are our 2010 goals. I'd love to hear about everyone else's 2010 goals! Leave me a comment so I don't feel so alone in my planning!

Balancing multiple sports

I was going back through some of the comments on the blog this week, and I reread a comment from Lora asking I how balance training multiple dog sports. I thought going into the new year, it was a good topic for a blog post.

First, I think everyone needs to figure out what their personal dog training goals are. Some people just want to enjoy time with their dog. I commented recently to a friend as we watched another local competitor run his dog that he needed to be thinking about a new puppy since his dog was starting to show her age. My friend turned to me and said, "With him, it's not about doing agility, it's about doing agility with this dog." Wow, what an insightful comment.

Do you just want to do agility and excel in it? Do you love a particular breed of dog, and you want to do dog sports with that breed? Maybe you have family obligations and you can only attend local trials. Think not only about your dog and your life, but what are your resources (time, money, access to training, access to trials, ability to travel to trials, etc.)?

I think everyone needs to have a realistic goal for their dogs and their lives. Dog training should be about the Journey and not just about the titles and the trophies (but that's another post that I did back in August!). So I think the discussion about doing multiple dog sports or doing multiple venues of one sport needs to start with your goals and resources.

For me, dog training is about the accomplishment of working with a canine partner to achieve as high a level of training as possible. If someone holds out a goal in front of me and thinks my dog and I can do it, I'll go for it.

Here's a couple of examples from my situation. Ian is mildly reactive and people-shy, but he showed incredible performance abilities as a puppy. We tried conformation when he was very young, and he learned growling at judges made them go away (to his credit he really didn't know what he did the first time he growled at a judge, but it worked so he repeated it).

Since conformation wasn't my favorite sport, it didn't break my heart to end that part of his career. I knew he'd also never be an obedience dog, because to earn a CD he had to do a stand for exam where the judge goes over him. So Ian became an agility dog. I chose this puppy because of his performance abilities; and while we had several rocky periods, I knew he had the ability to be an excellent performance dog. His agility career speaks for itself, and when rally came along (another non-judge intrusive sport), he again proved his abilities. So for Ian, I considered his limitations, and we selected sports he would excel in - and he excelled to the highest levels.

Devon has been a completely different story. I originally got her to do agility and obedience; I wanted a MACH UDX Golden. Gayle asked me to put a JH on her, and I agreed. I figured what the heck I'd learn something new and it wouldn't take too long. I found an excellent pro trainer willing to give me private lessons, Mitch White. At our first lesson when Devon was 5 months old, Mitch was throwing a duck for her and she was retrieving it back to him like a big dog. Mitch said, "Devon you go tell you Mommy you want to be a MASTER Hunter, not a Junior Hunter!" That day a dream was born and a new sport was added to our list.

When Devon passed her tracking certification test at 8 months of age, she indicated a 48-hour old cross track. Steve Ripley told me what she had done, then asked me how far I wanted to take tracking with this dog. When I said I was thinking of getting a Champion Tracker, he said he would help me get there. That day another dream was born and another sport was added to our list.

And I love Devon so much, I jumped at the chance to get Page and work both girls in multiple sports. So now I have two amazing girls, and I have high level goals in four sports. Although I enjoy other venues of agility (USDAA, CPE), my goals are too broad based to do multiple venues of one sport. Because AKC offers me high level titles in all four of my sports, it has become my venue of choice.

I learned several years ago that achieving high level titles means foundation, foundation, foundation. So in the girls' early weeks they were started with foundation for every sport. At about 5 months, I began concentrating in areas depending on the season. Spring, Summer and fall have been about field work and tracking since those sports are outdoor sports, and late fall and winter have been about obedience and agility since I can do those sports inside.

The other thing to keep in mind when balancing multiple sports is that as you begin to train the tough, meaty content of the higher levels of each sport, other sports must take a backseat. It's impossible to train advanced levels in all sports without something slipping.

This year was a good example of that for Devon. In the spring her VST tracking looked really good. We worked hard on tracking from late February into early June, and I began to think about VST tests in late fall. But in late June I began a serious push with advanced field work to get Devon ready for her Senior Hunter tests in September. By August, Devon's tracking fell apart and she lost confidence.

I was frustrated, but I knew the problem was our focus on field work and training at high levels in both sports. As difficult as it was at the time (and I appreciate Janet and Steve Ripley forcing the issue), I decided to back off the tracking and push through on the field work. Devon was much closer to the SH in the fall than the VST. It was the right decision, because now that we've gotten through the SH and given her a break, her tracking looks much better.

And going into 2010, I'm faced with another difficult decision: getting the VST title or pushing on to the Master Hunter. The jump between Senior and Master is a lot less than Junior to Senior, and most dogs earn their Master Hunter fairly quickly after their Senior. However, pushing on to Master would leave Devon's tracking in limbo for at least another year, and I'm not sure I want it to stagnate that long.

The other factor in my decision making is Page. She isn't mature enough to handle Junior Hunter tests yet, but she is working VST very well right now. So it's looking like in 2010, field work will take a back seat to VST training (and that's a preview for another post on goal setting!)

When you are working multiple sports and getting into the higher levels, something has to give. You cannot maintain many sports and push the dog in all of them when the difficulty increases. For me that has meant less time spent on sports I really enjoy (agility) and pushing off other sports until later that my instructors would rather not see me do (obedience).

But in the end it all comes back to the Journey. And on my current Journey, I have two amazing girls, and I'm enjoying every bit of training we're doing.

Making Ian's day

Friday was an open training day at the kennel club, so I decided all four dogs would get a treat. As I pulled on my shoes, Ian watched intently then turned and trotted obediently to his crate. Mom was leaving and he was getting left behind again. But when I asked if he wanted to go, he about turned himself inside out! Oh joy, oh joy! He barked and carried on until I took him into the garage and opened the crate. Once in the van, he laid down and waited for the adventure to begin. Connor wasn't far on his heels!

Page got worked first (since she had more adventures to come). In reviewing Page's training, I realized I haven't done any foundation work with her in a good two months since I've been concentrated on getting Devon's Senior Hunter. This lack of obedience has led to some of the issues I've seen in her field work. So Page is getting reminded of her earlier training.

I worked stays and releases to a tug toy. This went very well. I also worked at getting her into heel position. For agility, we worked sending through standards and coming back to me. She also saw a tunnel again and did a very good job even on a curved dark tunnel. I also put her on the table for an automatic down. She did a good job, but I need to get back to this kind of work on a daily basis!

Devon was next and we worked obedience. She had already worked the agility course, and she did a good job of it earlier in the week. I wanted to take her to a run through on Saturday, so it was time to revisit obedience again. She absolutely loves obedience. I think her love of the game will be what gets us through the titles. I like obedience, but I don't love it. Maybe Devon will make me love that game, too.

Next Connor got to come into the building while I reset the agility course for Ian. He had a ball running around and acting goofy. He took the lower jumps and ran through tunnels and the chute. I asked for the weaves, and he gave me about 5 poles. Weaves were never his favorite. He accidentally sailed over a couple of 24 inch jumps. This wasn't a wise idea, and I noticed later in the evening he was a little stiff. It's tough when you're 9.5 years old and out of shape!

Finally it was Ian's turn. After more than 6 months off, we were a little rusty. The course was a USDAA Steeplechase course. Ian handled it pretty well the first time through, even nailing a difficult weave entry. Once we were warmed up, he did a fantastic job on the second time through. Ian just loves to play any game with me. I should get him out more often since I know he's bored hanging around the house with nothing to do. At least I could make his day on Friday!

"I'm Page and I'm here for my training time!"

I haven't blogged much about Page's Tuesday night beginner obedience class. We're enjoying it a lot. There are only four dogs total: a Dobe, a Weim, a Sibe and Page. All but Page are adult dogs and much bigger than her, but she fits right in with her attitude!

This week was an introduction to agility equipment. We walked in the door just as the class was starting. Page took one look at the ring with equipment she recognized, and she headed right for it! You could tell she thought this had been done all for her, and her alone!

Once I got her headed to the seating area, it was the same as the previous weeks. Alicia sets up two chairs for each team. One chair is for your training bag, and one chair is supposed to be for the trainer. But in my case, I stand and Page sits on my folding chair. As Alicia reminds me, I'm the one who clicked and treated because I thought it was cute! I must say I'm impressed that Page will jump up in any metal folding chair and sit, even if it is slick and she keeps sliding backwards!

Once we were released out to the equipment, Alicia took the two newer students to the back to work with them individually. The other woman in the class and I have more experience so she knows we can work on our own. Alicia had a ladder, plank on the ground, stool to use as a perch, barrel for a chute, two jumps (just the standards and no jump bar) and a plank angled up to an 8 inch table.

I headed to the first "station" which was the ladder. Page trotted through the ladder and then immediately turned and headed for the plank on the ground. It's agility isn't it? You go around a course don't you? I really put a cramp in Page's style when I explained she had to repeat the ladder and couldn't move on quite that fast. Apparently I'm not going to have a problem with her being handler focused with obstacles on the floor! She was all about "conquering the course!"

Page did a great job working on all the equipment. I must confess we aren't doing as much in the building on foundation work with all the tracking lately. I need to get back to working her regularly on obedience and agility foundation. However she hasn't missed a beat!

After we did all the equipment, I brought her back out of the ring to work on other things. I got a tug toy out and we started working stays with releases to tug. As we tugged, the toy came out of her mouth - an as it did a puppy molar flew through the air, too! Only a couple more puppy teeth to go!

So that's a recap of this week's training class. Page really enjoys them, and I'm going to be disappointed to see them end in a couple of weeks. Who knows what I'm going to challenge her with next!

Free Friday training

The kennel club offers free member training on a couple of Fridays a month. Today was one of those days. I was able to go up early in the day, and I had the building to myself for 2 hours. What a great way to spend a Friday afternoon!

After I ran the boys, I brought Devon in for a couple of agility sequences. The course that was set up was the same one she ran this week in class, so I did some sequences that we didn't do earlier this week. Devon was very strong in her weaves, and I was pleased with her work.

After I ran Devon, I let her stay crated in the building while I trained Page. I have done some work with Page putting her through standards here at home, so I thought I'd do that in a new place. They also had the 8 inch table out, so I thought I'd play with that, too.

Devon has an automatic down on the table, and I really like it. I've been planning to teach Page the same thing, but she was slower in learning the down than Devon was. But now that the down is coming along very well, I decided to try the table today. Yes, I know I should really teach things at home first, but why worry about silly things like that!

The clip below is the second session that day on the table. You can see she picked up the concept in no time; she's very smart. I pushed the session way too long; but she was so stinking cute, I couldn't help it. This pup just makes me laugh all the time! BTW, the protesting in the background is Devon. She is jealous when her sister works!

Next we worked sending Page through the standards. I was really glad to work this here on different jumps and with the cone and other distractions. The next time I'm able to work in the building, I'll add in the wings on the jumps. I'm very proud of her work here. And as a side note, I set the camera on the 16 inch table, and Page jumped up on that one to do her automatic down, too!

The final agility exercise I worked on with Page was a tunnel. Once again I should probably introduce these things at my place first, but the tunnel was handy and she volunteered to go through it! The next time someone comes here to the house, I'm going to have to have them help me put Page into my tunnels.

Page also went into the obedience practice ring to work her walking on a loose leash, sit, down, and leave it. She's finally getting the leave it concept, which is good.

After Page's session, I brought Devon back out for some obedience work. I think her obedience is coming along very well. She still sits a little wide from me, but she's very straight and her gait changes are beautiful. Below are two clips from her obedience session. The first is her "get close" where I'm asking her to work close beside me in heel. The second is just some heeling practice.

I had four tired but happy pups on the way home!

Memorial Day training

We spent Memorial Day training and relaxing with friends. Before breakfast, we had an early morning training session in the building with Page and Devon. Then we hit the road (the girls were really voting for breakfast) for a short tracking session with Page and some more obedience work for Devon. We were trying to beat a thunderstorm rolling in from the south. 

More on Page's track in the next post, but Devon's obedience session was fantastic. She's changing speed extremely well, and we're really together on cuing sits. We're working on getting finishes to the right and the left with both hand signal and verbal, and those are also coming together very well. Now it's down to refining the little things, like pivots and other fine heeling skills. I've never had a dog that loves obedience as much as Devon, and she's really making me enjoy it, too!

We just beat the rain, and after the dogs ate a late breakfast they napped as the temperatures actually dropped and I pulled a sweatshirt on. In spite of the rain, we spent the afternoon at K9 Athletes having a cookout/pitch-in and spending time with training friends. It was a great afternoon. 

The rain eventually went away for Devon to play on the agility equipment. She did a very nice job on all the equipment, including the teeter. She did bail off the first time but got right back on and was solid every other sequence. Her weaves are very accurate; and although they aren't fast, I'll take accurate right now.

I think Devon's favorite part of the day was getting pets from her friends. She especially liked one little boy and would have sat with him all day for pets! Page also got her socialization time. She enjoyed eating grass clods from the mower and meeting new people. Page also tried her very best to convince Dr. Bonnie that she needed to share everything on her plate. She should know by now Dr. Bonnie is no push over! And she wanted to follow Mike anywhere he was going when he walked past with a pan full of hot dogs! This girl is her mother's daughter all right!

On the way home, it looked like it was done raining for the day, so I chanced laying three VST starts for Devon. Remember I said that was on our agenda! I have the map here, but it's very hard to see because the last satellite image is from a couple of years ago during construction of this building.

The first start was 50 yards in lush lawn with a right turn across a drive, up and over a mulch island, across another parking lot entrance and a leather article at the end of another mulched island under a bush. I didn't lay any chalk or extra scent. The first start was 3.5 hours old when we ran it, and all of the tracks were approximately 100 yards.

Devon did a picture perfect start, but I did give her a straight on approach to the track. She only circled once on this start and tracked very strong. She did 2-3 circles on the turn, but that's because the track transitioned onto the non-veg in less than 10 yards; I think she was truly working the transition and not the turn. Once into the drive area, she tracked straight as an arrow to the glove.

The second start was 35 yards of short, patchy grass to a mulched bed, across a drive to another mulched island, across a parking lot to a gravel divider strip/island and her leather article was in the gravel island under a rock. I gave Devon an 90 approach to the flag, and this time she worked the start much harder. She circled a couple of times before committing to the start, but once committed she was on it and pulling strong. 

Devon made short work of the rest of the track. She does work her first transition to non-veg pretty well before committing. However once she was out there, she worked the islands and pavement very well, tracking straight to her article.

The third track started again on lush lawn. It was a 32 yard start with a right turn and 15 yards later a mulch bed into a parking lot. She then had to angle across the lot, across the gravel divider, across another lot to a mulch island where her article was hidden beside a light post. 

I again brought Devon into the start at a 90 degree angle, this time with the start to her right instead of her left. She's stronger when the track goes left, and I think we've worked more of these types of starts. Devon struggled more with this start, circling several times and back tracking the start. Again, once she committed, she did a good job and got into the track. 

I can also say Devon was getting tired at this point, too. She'd had a long day with little nap time, and this was now the third "sport" she'd trained today. She worked the first turn several times and then committed into the mulch bed and then the parking lot. She worked well to the gravel island, but once she got past it, she stalled. After circling in the same area three times, I called her in for a rescent. This did the trick and she dropped her nose and tracked directly to the article. 

I was very pleased with this session. Devon's last two VST sessions have been short yardage, but I believe we've gotten a lot of good training in. Her next track might have to be a little longer, but we'll see how the weather holds out this week.

Page's latest training clips

Since I had the camera out, I taped some additional training this morning. I really do like taping these training sessions, because it shows me what I'm doing wrong. 

This first clip is of "set ups" or a left finish. The goal is to get the dog in heel position as if you are going to start a heeling pattern. You'll see I'm moving my hips and knees when I'm moving her into position, which I don't like at all. I love what Page is doing, and it's so sad I don't have lean over to give her a treat anymore! She's getting bigger!

Here is Page's backing. She's doing a nice job; now I need to add more distance with her.

Here is Page's accordion or fold-back down. I also had the tug toy in my pocket, so we got to see she's almost as steady on a down as she is a sit stay! Good girl!

That's some of what Page has been working on. Maybe we'll get more on tape later in the week.

Puppy socialization and training

Today we took our puppy training on the road. We visited our friends Raquel and Angela at Silver Square. I wasn't sure if this office building was ready for Page, but it was a fun place filled with young professionals interested in everything. 

As I've come to expect, Page trotted into the building on her leash in the steady rain as I carried a large umbrella. I took down the umbrella outside away from Page, and she wasn't fazed. Inside there was two sets of metal stairs with no risers (you could see through them) with a landing between them, again little Ms. Page followed me right up both sets. 

Page trotted down the hallway which included a catwalk across the lobby below and boldly walked right up to meet Raquel. In fact, she liked Raquel so much, Page followed her back down the hallway! She also loved Angela, who took advantage and got in some puppy cuddles!

Of course, I brought props and treats to take advantage of an audience and a new training situation. Page showed off in style, and the audience didn't bother her one bit. She did her sit, stand, back up, tug and pivot on her perch. For some of her tricks, Pete the Planner was in the "audience," and he thought Page was way smarter than his baby daughter.

After our socialization and a nap for Page, we went back out to the building to tape all of Page's training so far. In the first clip, you can see Page sit on command. This is followed by me asking for a kick back stand. That didn't go so well; I only got a couple that I really liked (I figured out why later). Next I did some agility groundwork or worked her in circles on both sides in a loose "heel" position followed by some front crosses. Finally, I asked Page to back up using the command "beep, beep."

Next we did some perch work. This is probably Page's favorite game (and mine, too). First, she puts her two front feet on the perch to the command "feet." Next she spins around using her rear legs to walk herself around in a circle. The command I use here is "dance." Page is better in one direction than the other!

Next I asked for something very hard, to switch to toy/play drive from food drive. I also asked for playing in the same area that I just fed her. I used a high value sheepy tug toy (thank you Agile Gold for finding this toy for us, because it's Page's favorite). In this game, I'm waiting until she gives me a sit and I want her to stay until she's released with a verbal "OK, Tug." 

I'm very pleased to see her learning curve increase with this game. In these clips you see she stays while I move and even take a step or two. This is real progress, as is her "give" when I take the collar and ask for the toy back. She does get distracted by the food on the floor once, but I like how she came back and worked for me.

This last clip is of a hand touch that I will soon move to a target. In reviewing these videos, I had the "AH HA!" moment why she wasn't getting her kickback stand today. I'm presenting the same picture to her in the kickback stand as I am the hand touch. I need to move the kickback stand to my side anyway, so there's no time like the present!

Homecoming of a wild goose

On Wednesday, we were up and out of the hotel early, headed to HYBAR for an obedience lesson with both girls. Before we headed out, Page made me laugh by sitting in front of the TV and watching the Weather Channel. She was probably hoping for an end to our rain! 

At HYBAR, Devon spent an hour working on open and utility exercises, with Linda showing me the progressions so I could work ahead at home. I can't wait to continue working Devon's heeling, fronts and finishes and moving on to some additional exercises. After an hour, it was Page's turn.

Luckily we could skip the proprioception exercises since I already know how to do them from agility. We did go over a useful "settle" command that will translate well into any venue. We then went right to learning proper ways to sit, down, and stand for the obedience ring. I also learned how to teach her puppy go outs, puppy recalls, foundation for heads up heeling, finishes, and fronts. We also talked about starting scent articles now, before she does pile work for field. Pile work is one of the few things that contradicts her obedience work, since in pile work the dog just needs to bring back any bumper and with scent articles they need to search the pile for the right article. 

After 50 minutes, we called it a session. I was really proud of this little one working so hard with me, when she had only been with me less than 48 hours. We have a lot to work on over the coming weeks!

And after all the driving the day before, both girls got back in the SUV and fell fast sleep as we headed toward Columbus. The photo at the top of the post is what Page looked like during most of her time in the SUV! After a stop for gas and a stop to visit "Uncle Dave," we were finally headed home. I told Linda this poor puppy probably thought she'd been placed with a homeless woman who just drove around all day and slept in hotel rooms!

Finally we arrived home! The girls had a grand time in the back yard, then they watched as I unloaded the SUV. After looking at this video, I have a feeling I'll get questioned if these two are mother/daughter!

Outside, Page showed what a great job Lise and Gayle did with teaching them proprioception. How many other 9 week old Goldens are this good with stairs?

Devon took the time to show Page where the toys where after the house was cleaned. Devon's such a good big sister!

 

And then it was time for dinner before she met the boys.

I decided to introduce Page to the boys on fairly neutral territory, at my parent's place. I got the added bonus of having Reece around to meet her too. As expected, Connor thought she was pretty neat on first inspection. He didn't play right away with her, but he did like her. Next, I brought out Reece. He is really great with puppies. And remembering Devon's reaction to seeing a black dog with pointy ears for the first time, I thought I'd get Page introduced to him before Ian. As the clip below shows, Reece really liked Page!

Finally, I held Page on my lap as I sat in a chair and we let Ian out. I was most interested/concerned about Ian's reaction to Page. When I introduced him to Devon, I expected him to be thrilled with a girl in the house. Instead he was terrified of her, and Devon quickly learned he'd run from her. Being chased by this strange creature Ian terrified him more, so they had to be separated for several weeks. 

However, I was pleased with Ian's initial reaction. He remembered what puppies where from his terror 3 years ago, and he had his ears up and tail wagging as he met her. He danced away and didn't want to stay long, but it was a much better interaction than his first meeting with Devon!

We ended our Wednesday with me cutting and repackaging Bravo in approximately 1 pound chunks for easy feeding. Page watched and commentated from her crate in the kitchen as I talked with Kathy of Agile Gold and updated her on our trip home. Kathy can testify to the tenacity of this litter to BARK! 

There's nothing like hearing a puppy bark for most of 90 minutes to make you thankful for a good night's sleep. It must have been the barking that wore her out, because Page slept from 10:15 p.m. to 5 a.m. this morning. Aaaaaahhhhh! The benefits and joys of sleep are never overrated!

Bringing home a wild goose, part 2

Tuesday was to be a long day of driving for all of us. I was to leave New York and drive to northern Ohio, where I'd spend the night. After making the trip to Gaylan's several times from central Indiana, now call Pennsylvania the "never-ending state" of Pennsylvania. With a 9 week old energetic puppy known for barking, I was thinking I'd have a lot of new names for Pennsylvania by the time I was out of it.

Even with the new feeding schedule and a new puppy to monitor, I was impressed we made it out of the hotel within 90 minutes of getting up. This included play time for Page and having both girls walked long enough to "do both." 

Luckily, Page was ready for a morning nap when she was loaded in the car. She didn't even move when we stopped for gas about 45 minutes out. In fact, she slept for about 2-3 hours before waking up and getting interested in her surroundings. She barked a few times, but soon decided that wasn't going to faze me. She tried to poke Devon through the crates where they overlapped, but she got the same response from Devon she'd gotten the night before - she was ignored!

Finally, she discovered one of the Styrofoam coolers that held her frozen raw dog food. Now this was interesting! She began to nibble on the lid. Great, I'm going 70 mph down the Interstate with no exit in sight! How was I going to stop this! Well blessings come in all shapes and sizes!

Two days earlier as we were cleaning up from our Golden Retriever club meeting where we have a pitch in lunch, Jim asked if I wanted to take some of the fruit he brought in my cooler as I was traveling. I jumped at the chance for a healthy snack as I was driving! I had the cooler open and a gallon bag of fresh fruit open beside me on the seat, and I was using a fork to skewer fruit as I drove down the road. 

To distract Page, I skewered a piece of cantaloupe, reached back and dropped it into her crate. Bingo! She turned and wondered what manna was falling from heaven. Wow! The angels gave her a slimy orange toy! Soon I heard, "bark, bark, bark!" I glanced back to see her chasing this piece of fruit around the bottom of her crate, pouncing and playing with it. The cooler destruction was long forgotten! I only wish I had video for you!

Page was a trooper and the girls made it within 78 miles of Ohio before we stopped for gas and a potty break. I gave Page "lunch" of two kongs filled with Bravo and grain-free kibble. This kept her busy until the road put her to sleep again. Before I expected, but one more cantaloupe play toy later, we were rolling into our hotel in Ohio.

Once we were checked in, the girls and I had play time. Believe it or not, after 24 hours Devon decided maybe Page was an OK kid after all. Devon waited until I seemed distracted, so I was very quiet when I took these videos of their first play sessions. Once Devon saw me watching, she got a little more aloof again; she didn't want to let on that maybe this puppy was kind of neat!

After 1.5 hours of play, Page crashed. I took this opportunity to load them in the SUV (yes, again) and head to HYBAR to watch obedience classes. I take private lessons from Linda MacDonald of HYBAR, and she had said to come watch if I had time. I was really glad I did because I got to see more advanced work and proofing. Pauline and her Golden boy Blue was also in this class, so it was fun to see them work since I have not seen them do obedience. Page got to come into the building to say hello to some of the Golden crowd after the class. 

As we headed back to the hotel, I ordered carry out, fixed a quick dinner for the girls, walked the girls and got my food. They watched me eat, then enjoyed evening play time. We also did another couple of sessions of clicker training before we went to bed. 

Page didn't sleep as well this second night, probably due to lots of sleep and little activity during the day. She got me up 2 hours after we went to bed, and I did take her out. However, when she wanted to go out again 3 hours after that, I told her "quiet" and she didn't fuss much. I got up around 5:15 a.m. to take her out, and she did go. However, I did notice a damp spot on the towel in the crate. I think I misread the earlier request to go out and she had her first accident. My fault, but we'll both live through it. 

A good attitude leads to success

Last night we went to the kennel club for agility class. I got there early so Devon and I could practice obedience in the practice ring before the class I help with. Devon did a great job. She was prancing in her heeling and really having fun. I switched treats last night and used small pieces of string cheeset, and she really loved it. 

Since things were going so well, I decided to ask Devon to "smack" the wall (this is an intermediate step in teaching a go-out). She has really struggled to foot touch things, and I finally realized why last night. I believe this goes back to the very first time she put her foot on the teeter board (low) and it moved and banged. That really frightened her, and she doesn't like to foot touch anything that might move. The wall has been hard when she sees my shadow moving on it.

But now, Devon has figured out the foot smack on the wall. In fact, she climbs up the wall with her front feet she's so proud of herself. I was sending her to the wall and she was climbing up it and I was giggling at her. She just thought she was so funny to make me laugh, I'm not sure she really needed any treats. 

She "smacked" several walls and then we called it a session. She went into a crate while I helped with the intermediate agility class. An hour later she came out and did her novice agility class. The first thing we worked on was a sequence involving the weaves. It was jump, chute, 12 weaves. I was sure she could do it and she did! She flew through those weaves to a big reward. Everyone was proud of her since they knew we'd been struggling with weaves.

We repeated the sequence, this time with a rear cross at the weaves. Devon handled this just fine, but she popped out at 10 when I got too far ahead of her. I told her she was silly and she must do all 12 poles, and we repeated them with the rear cross. This time she was successful. She was strong all the way through all three times at the poles and just looked fantastic.

The rest of the class went really well for Devon. She never hesitated at the teeter which was surprising since she had trouble with it the previous two weeks. This was my first clue that being successful was leading to more confidence to be successful. 

Toward the end of class we were sitting in the observation area while the 24 inch dogs were sequencing. I had asked Devon to lay down and relax, but she kept getting up. Finally, I realized she was "shaping" me to be responsible for her position. I decided to turn the tables on her. I just looked at her and waited her out, and pretty soon she realized she was supposed to lay down and that would earn her a treat. 

Well, Devon has this shaping thing well in mind. Hummm, if I offer more behaviors, I might get more treats. She backed up, and I ignored it. She got up and went to the back of the metal chair I was sitting in. As I turned my head out of the corner of my eye I saw her foot touch the chair. I started smiling! She wanted that cheese in my pocket so badly, she was giving me her toughest shaping behavior! 

I asked her what she was doing, and she heard the smile in my voice. She gave me a foot touch of the chair, and I gave her cheese! Then I decided if she was still going strong after 45 minutes of agility class, we'd see what she could really do. I got the clicker and more cheese (this got her attention), and I went to the ring gates near the practice ring. It was quiet over here and I knew I could shape her. 

She gave me a nose touch of the ring gates and got thing. Then she reached forward and smacked her foot on the ground below the ring gates. That earned her a piece of cheese. A second foot smack just under the gates earned her another piece of cheese; but then I upped the requirement. The next foot smack on the ground didn't get her anything. Hummmmm ... and the foot went out and barely tapped the gates - jackpot! She gave me several more foot touches of the ring gates, and I laughed and gave her cheese and told her how brilliant she was on each one. What a girl!

Last night reminded me that you can either spiral up with your dog or down. If you're in a rotten mood, the training session tends to go badly and everything starts to spiral to the bad. Last night, I just enjoyed my dog. I had fun training and she made me laugh. This set the mood for the whole evening. It led to our confidence and success in the weaves and on the teeter, and eventually to the success of the foot touch of the ring gates.

Attitude is everything, and you must have a positive outlook on each and every training session. You choose your attitude. I heard in a sermon one time about a man who said he didn't think he loved his wife anymore. A counselor told him every day to do something for his wife as if they were newlyweds and act like he was in love with her again. This man brought home flowers for her, did chores around the house, spent time listening to her, etc. After a couple of weeks, his attitude changed and he fell in love with his wife again. His attitude and feelings followed his actions even if his heart wasn't in it at first.

This story has stuck with me, because I think it is a good parallel to our training. Do I always want to train? Not really. But if I act out a positive attitude in my training session, my session will be successful and positive - and fun. If I continue to tell my dog he or she is brilliant and smart, the dog will act that way. 

Today's weave training and other adventures

Devon discovered exactly what happens when she shows too much energy in the morning - she gets to go work! I got home from my exercise class and Devon was wound. A great time to get in a weave session before training later this afternoon! So out to the agility yard we went.

I put two sets of 2 poles first, then a set of 6 then the last set of 2 poles. This was a little tricky since the bases are quite different. I angled the first base so the first two poles were easier for Devon. I wanted to work those tough right entrances. 

Devon was ready to go and she nailed the first attempt from a low challenge area very well. As we moved down the entry arc to the higher challenge entries, Devon started occasionally entering with the first pole on the right. Just when she got the entry correct, she'd pop out at pole 10. I couldn't reward that! 

I'm sure the reason she popped out here was the difference in the weave bases since she hasn't shown this behavior before. After this happened the second time, I removed the 6 pole base and just worked these tough weave entrances on three sets of 2 pole bases. There was no reason to fight two battles, and what I wanted to work on was her entrances! Although I totally believe in teaching the dogs on 12 poles and moving to 12 poles as soon as possible, I see no reason to work 12 poles if you're having an entry problem. As this session demonstrated, there are other problems that crop up on 12 poles, so why battle two separate issues and end up not being able to reward at all?

OK, off my soap box and back to her session. Devon worked very hard on these right hand entrances. She was close to an 80% success rate, and she was able to get an 8:30 entrance (if the first pole was in the middle of the clock and the poles ran to 12) successfully. Although she didn't want to come back to me very quickly when she failed, she was pulling to get back to the poles and try again. I was really pleased with her work ethic.

This afternoon, I headed to the kennel club for members' training. I was able to have the building to myself since I went so early. A full 1.5 hours to work all three dogs in that building is priceless to me; well worth the price of the membership! 

I decided to work Devon on the 12 poles for the first time in this building. Based on her success on Tuesday with 6 poles and her success yesterday on 12, I was sure she could do it. I first asked for the weaves alone, and she was strong and confident on 12 poles. Then I asked for one jump to the weaves. It was a right hand entrance on the edge between a low challenge and moving into the high challenge. She missed the second attempt but came back strong.

Next I back chained two jumps to the weaves. Devon was very successful, so I asked her to take one jump after the weaves before her reward. Next I asked for a three jump pinwheel before entering the weaves with a low challenge left entry. Success! Then I turned the pinwheel around so she had a high challenge left entry; again we had success! Finally, I worked the first two jumps again to the weaves, but ran it on the left and then with a rear cross; these were also successful, including when I front crossed coming out of the weaves. 

To end the session, I did a sequence with two jumps to the weaves, front cross at the end of the poles (and I purposely front crossed early so she'd see my rotation while she was in the poles), pinwheel to the teeter and three jumps back out. Her weaves were perfect. I could not have been more pleased with her success on these sequences! 

She also worked through her teeter issue and was very strong working it today. In fact, she kept volunteering the teeter and I had a hard time getting her back to working other equipment! After a short break where I worked Ian and then let Connor have some fun, Devon came back out to work another set of sequences which included the A frame and dogwalk. 

I set a nice flowing course that included a "backy-uppy" out of the tunnel over a jump before racing to the A frame. I worked the backy-uppy separately, which was no problem for Devon with her one-jump, recall to heel foundation (Ian had a little more work to do before he read it). Then I back chained it with the tunnel before having Devon do the sequence leading up to the backy-uppy. I rewarded her and then put it all together. 

Devon handled this section equally well, and she stuck all her contacts. She had a very successful agility training session. I gave her another break and then worked on some obedience in the small training ring. She did a lovely job heeling and working fronts. It's nice to have mirrors to see her progress! 

And not to leave Ian out. He also had a great agility session. It's incredible how much faster he is when there's no one around. He's a different dog! He was moving so fast, I was running as hard as I could to keep up with him. It was such fun to let loose and really work him. At this point, I was very glad for my exercise class that I've been taking for a month. The muscle tone and flexibility I've gained saved me today.

Connor also had his big adventure today. I took him out on the floor with me as I was resetting bars from 24 back down to 20 for Devon. Just like last week when I let him into the barn at Pawsitive Energy, he ran around like a crazy puppy. He wagged and ran. In fact, once he jumped over a bar still set at 24 inches. He still has beautiful jumping form. He sailed through a tunnel and up the A frame all on his own, but he put on the brakes when he saw the 24 inch double. He looked back at me as if to say, "Hey mom, can you get over here and fix this? It broke my flow!" Funny how being 9 years old suddenly makes the yellow contact zone on the A frame more appealing! 

The only down side of our training session came when Devon had an accident before she started her second agility session. She likes to "boing" or jump straight in the air from a stand when she's excited. It looks something like what an Aussie or Border Collie would do, and she jumps so high she can look you in the eye or give you a kiss on the cheek (and I'm 5'6"). 

Devon was so excited to come out of the crate the second time to work (after watching both her brothers work), that she was boinging. On the third jump, she hit a table behind her with her behind, about three inches below her tail. Luckily her tail was tucked or it would have been very bad; however it was bad all the same. When she landed, her legs crumpled under her and she landed pretty hard. She kept her tail tucked when she got up and you could tell it hurt. I let her walk it out and moved her to the padded agility flooring and walked her out to make sure she didn't have an injury. As she moved, she recovered and actually volunteered obstacles, so I continued training. 

Tonight she got a traumeel, because I'm sure she's sore. I'm going to walk her out and stretch her very good before we do any training tomorrow. I'm sure there's another appointment with Dr. Bonnie in her future! She's exhausted after two good agility sessions and "helping" this afternoon with equipment. As usual, I'm sure she'll sleep well tonight. She deserves it after the great training day she had.

My recent train of thought

After last weekend, I’ve spent a lot of time reviewing videos not only of Devon, but also elite handlers and their baby dogs. Repeatedly I’ve been reminded that baby dogs are just that – they are babies. They have moments of brilliance and moments that resemble a train wreck. It’s been nearly 5 years since I’ve had an agility dog at this stage, and quite frankly I’ve forgotten what it’s like.

I want to say publicly how VERY GRATEFUL I am for the emails I’ve received this week saying how great Devon looks in agility. I really needed to hear that because it made me go back and review her runs and pull out all the brilliant moments and stack them up. It didn’t take me too long to agree – she looks fantastic! She has some incredible skills for a girl who wasn’t even doing a full-sized teeter 5 months ago (and was still having fear issues with it).

These thoughts led me to examining what I want to focus on in each training session; what skills are solid and what skills do we need to improve. Further, I’ve been thinking a lot this week about out long-term and short-term goals and prioritizing them. For instance, I told Linda at HY-BAR that my obedience goal with Devon this year was earning her CD. Linda’s response was earning Devon’s CD is very doable; BUT since we want some nice scores (and we believe she’s capable of them), we don’t want to rush her.

Then along comes yesterday’s post on Susan Garrett’s Dog Training Blog. Susan may have written this for one of her students, but the One who looks after me was whispering in her ear that I needed this post right now, too. I need to remember that sometimes you’re Winning When You Lose and Losing When You Win. I could have held Devon’s contacts longer last weekend, and I had a start line issue, too. So, because my goal for Devon is a MACH, we’re going to settle in and focus on all her basic skills now. I can’t wait for tonight’s agility class!

A bit about obedience

Devon really enjoys obedience. We had another private lesson this week with Linda, and Devon did surprisingly well. I still have to work harder on set ups, but the "get close" work we were doing on her left turns was really nice. She also surprised both Linda and me with her fronts. I've not really worked them, and we had her doing side step and step back fronts within a minute. She is going to be a fantastic heeling dog.

Our only struggle in obedience has been the foot touch to the wall. This is a part of how Linda and Mike teach the go out. Unfortunately, Devon hasn't liked the foot touch. She'll do it at their training facility, but when I get home after a couple of successful attempts, she runs away very stressed. This time I've stuck with it, and I've seen some improvement. I started sitting on the floor and asking her for the behavior with lots of good treats. This is really helping. I'm also changing the word to "Smack." I think this will also help solidify the behavior as a happy one for her. Thursday night we were able to get her to touch three different posts at Pawsitive.

Devon is a really flashy obedience dog. I can't wait to see how her skills will continue to develop! 

Devon’s obedience training

I haven’t posted yet about Devon’s obedience training. We started with a new private trainer in Ohio, Linda MacDonald. I’ve known Linda for years through the One Ash Kennel and obedience training. Since I’m taking privates with other trainers in Ohio, might as well throw one more in! Plus I’ve heard great things from my friends who train with her.

Devon is eating up this obedience training. She’s naturally good at it, and luckily the moving heeling I’ve worked on with her was solid so we could build on it and not start over (Whew!). Linda liked Devon a lot on our first visit. Of course Devon walked into the building with a bumper in her mouth talking away not knowing who she would find in this building but thinking it had possibilities! Linda said she naturally wanted to work with me, so weaning her off food wouldn’t be a problem. We worked my pace in heeling, right turns and about turns.

Linda also told me how to start scent articles. I’ve been working this process in the early morning up in the bonus room. While Devon’s not getting it as quickly as I expected her to with all her tracking work, I can see the wheels turning and she’s giving me her best. Even better is the look on her face as we’re working. She’s sitting at attention with bright sparkling eyes as though if she stared at me long enough she could just figure it out. Even funnier is when I say, “Hide your eyes” and I put my hand over her eyes, she waits patiently and doesn’t struggle to see what I’m going to present her with. It’s just too cute!

We’re also starting to teach her a focus word for go-outs, which she loves. Hey, tell her to look at food and then she runs to get it? She’s all about that!

So even though she’s doing four sports right now – tracking, field, agility and obedience – she’s really having a ball. I’m glad that Devon is in various stages of the four sports, doing advanced learning in field and tracking, firming up foundation in agility and doing fundamentals in obedience. All Devon knows is that she gets to have fun playing games with mom, and she loves it!