Devon's first triple

I now have more confidence about this WCX test in a couple of weeks. Janet called last night and wanted to know if I wanted to field train today. Oh yes I did! We got together and just worked Zoe and Devon since Archie is recovering from a UTI (poor guy). Zoe came right out and nailed her triple, and I was really impressed. Wanting to do that, but knowing better, I decided to do three singles first with bumpers, then try the triple with pigeons. Janet made me feel better when she said they'd been practicing that way for a couple of sessions.

Building the triple with the singles went fine. However, when the we did the triple, the third bird down was nearly invisible when it came down and the gun didn't go off. It was a black pigeon against the dark trees and without a gun, I knew Devon didn't see the mark, since I only glimpsed it hitting the ground because I knew were it was supposed to land. I sent Devon anyway, and in spite of help, she couldn't find it and switched to the middle mark. Steve couldn't find it either, and he really had to hunt! I accepted the switch, and sent her to the outside mark, which she got after all that hunting on the first mark. We re-threw the first mark and she did get it as a single.

I put her away successful, and we made sure we didn't use that dark pigeon on that mark again! After Zoe had another very successful turn, Devon came out again. This time, I tried the triple cold since she'd already been to the marks twice. The last bird down, the go bird, was a white pigeon! Oh yeah, she saw this one! Out she went and nailed the mark. I called her back in, lined up for the outside bird, the first mark down. She was just off the line, but a quick hunt and she nailed it. Now for the 85-90 yard long mark. I lined her up, asked her "Where?" and sent her. She lined it and put her two front feet on it! I danced around at the start line and waved my hands in the air, completely forgetting I had the second pigeon still in my hand!

After that great success, we went across the street and did a water double. We built Devon's with two singles using dokens, then did the double with ducks. She struggled on the memory bird, which was on land, wanting to go right to the gunner then past him to near the first fall. However, she went back and found her duck. She did the same thing when this mark was a single, so I think she was just struggling to mark it and both times she got out of the water to the right of the fall and kept going right. Her line swimming out was pretty good, though, so it was odd that she struggled.

We ended there. I'm not really worried about the double on water, and I can have Dad come to the water and help me with that next week. I was thrilled with the triple! Before we even started running the marks, I set up bumpers in Devon's two permanent blinds and ran them. The older one she ran cold and got two bumpers. Then new one I taught last week I re-taught to her, then ran it two more times. After that, I returned to the first permanent blind and ran it one more time on a new line. She was perfect. 

Now Devon can barely keep her eyes open. She was curled up in her drying off towel in the van dozing as we talked. She came home and crashed and even curled up on my lap completely sacked out for a while. I had to pull myself out from under her to move. She's now sound asleep on the daybed. She can have the rest of the evening to sleep -- she deserves it!

Sunday's agility session

Ok, maybe the teeter issue yesterday was a little of both types (not understanding and refusal to want to play). I think I did present something new by going to the teeter, especially the end of the board, and asking her to walk the whole board. She has been scooting up on the board around the end of the yellow on the down side (going on halfway up the down side). I've been worried about her getting a failure to perform call because both the up and down are judged on the teeter, so I had been presenting her with something different. 

This morning she didn't want to do the teeter, so out came the leash again. I'm very neutral, in fact more positive than neutral about the leash. She hopped off a couple of times with the leash, then compiled and did the teeter three times with dog on left and then easily with dog on right three times. I was overly enthusiastic about my praise and cookie giving with each success. Then we stopped! I think I'll also take the pressure off doing the whole board for a while. I'll take success as getting on, tipping and walking down!

We worked weaves, and she's driving to them and checking her speed to get into them. They are out 4 inches, so I'll shut them down to 3 inches tomorrow. She's not super speedy, but I can tell she's working on foot work and she's thinking. 

After the weaves, I did two jump work. We started this yesterday, and she struggled with the lead out to the second jump; understandably because this was the first day. So I made it easier for her and added in motion between the first and second jump to get into the position she needed. This worked wonders, because today she was confident and nailed every one of her two jump lead out positions without the help of motion.

Devon is definitely a jumpers dog (sigh, just like Ian). She likes the A frame and is fine on the dogwalk. I have a feeling she'll do fine with the weaves. It's that blasted teeter that will be our problem obstacle for a while. There are two upsides, though: 1) if I have the patience to work with Ian and get him to the levels he's achieved, I'll have no problems with Devon; and 2) Devon actually ran over to the teeter today after we finished our jump work!!! I asked her for it since she ran over to it, and after a split second of hesitation, went on it and was successful!! Interestingly, I was several feet away when she did this. I'm wondering if like Ian with the weaves, because of the pressure we've had on the obstacle, will she be happier with me farther away from her so she can do her job? I'll have to keep a look out for this behavior!

More on Devon's teeter

Something interesting happened with Devon's teeter yesterday, and it prompted an interesting discussion between Kim and I last night. On Friday, I noticed Devon glancing over the side of the teeter like she was considering coming off. I did just a few reps (maybe four), and we ended. The glancing started toward the end of the session, and it was what prompted me to end teeter work. On Saturday, she again gave me the head flicks off the teeter from the first time over it. I did about three reps then moved to other exercises. 

I considered leaving the agility field and not asking for the teeter again. I knew what she was showing me was a "warning" signal she was going to break down. However, I asked for the teeter again, and she did come off and start refusing. I got the leash back out and insisted she do the teeter. After she did it with the leash, I took the leash off and asked for a couple of reps without it and then we were done with that success.

It wasn't until later when I realized that the glancing over the side was a similar signal to me as Devon's head flick to the left right before she's going to break down in pile work. In pile work (field training) where the dog goes out to get bumpers from a distant pile, the goal of the exercise is two-fold: 1) sending to a distant pile for a bumper that isn't thrown and 2) repetition to build work ethic by doing something when asked by the handler (even if they don't want to). In pile work, Devon will start to break down around bumper #6. If we don't push through to 10 or 12 bumpers, she starts breaking down earlier and earlier until she won't even go on bumper #1. At that point we have a huge battle. However, if I correct the problem in the first training session when I see it, we never get to the huge battle.

Last night when I was talking with Kim, she brought up another training issue: doing too much and then failing when the dog has had too much. I've done this way more times than I can count! I've had 2-3 successes, so I push for more instead of getting out of it on a good note and then ending up with a battle I don't need. The proper procedure in this case is to go back to where you were successful, be it fewer reps or and easier requested behavior, and then stop with success. I totally agree with this. 

I guess for me it's all about reading the dog and where you are in the behavior. In my example with the teeter, the head checking went from rep 4 or 5 to rep 1 in the next session. That told me we were going to have to deal with this issue and stopping earlier in our reps was only going to delay addressing the behavior (like the pile work). Second, Devon has been doing the teeter at this height successfully for two days before a one-day break. She's been happily banging the teeter down, wagging her tail and standing straight up at the pivot. It's not like it was the first day she'd seen this height where she might be unsure and worried.

In my analysis, she just didn't want to do it. She doesn't like the teeter. She'd rather do any other obstacle out there; kind of like pile work. It's not fun, but doing that skill builds on other skills that are fun and that she's getting to do now. If we didn't have solid pile work in her foundation skills, she wouldn't be able to do blinds, and we are both having a lot of fun learning that skill.

I also have to admit she's likely getting a little bored. We've been doing isolated obstacle work for about 2.5 weeks now, and I'm sure it's getting boring. However, I need her to be confident on the equipment before we can start sequencing. This is the foundation work I didn't do last fall that bit us in the butt when I moved into sequencing and trialing way too quickly. 

It's about time for me to go out and do agility training again today. I'll be interested to see what kind of teeter performance we have today!

Back to VST work

It's so great to have a weekend at home to train. Thanks to Devon passing her JH in four straight tests, I didn't need this weekend to do another hunt test. Devon got to do VST tracks Friday and Saturday evenings. It's been 5 weeks since the last time we tracked. Friday Devon started strong on her track. I gave her 100 yards of grass before hard surface, and it was aged three hours. She did great onto the parking lot and even did well against the building; however, a worker came out and told us to stay out of the flower beds (we weren't even in them), and that broke both of our concentration. Devon got back on track and headed around the building for her article, and then shortly after pooped. I think this bothered her and it got even worst when I dropped the article to mark the spot so I can could come back and clean it up. She worried over the article being dropped and us leaving it; she knows they are supposed to come with us. She did work through it and found her glove. I think the article distraction was the biggest issue; something I'll remember not to do in the future (I need to carry a poop back in my tracking bag). She tracked her hard surfaces great and had no problem with the age.

Yesterday I laid a longer track with less veg and more hard surface; I also ran this at 3 hours. I took Devon to the start flag at a 90 degree angle, and it took her a long time to start. I waited until she was fully committed before I followed. It was interesting because I had assumed her starts were solid and this one was not. I think I'm giving her all the information for where her track is because I always know where the start is. I'll have to do this more often.

Devon worked very well but didn't want to track the sidewalk on her second leg. She wanted to fringe onto the grass on either side. I tried to hold her to the sidewalk, and that's where I think I started losing her a little. She struggled on the non-veg turn, and I finally showed her where it was. I had used good water and hand print there, so I was confused why she had such difficulty. I think it was because I was trying to hard to make her "honest" to the track versus letting her fringe and do it her way. When I let her have her way at the next non-veg turn, she did fine. She then followed that leg nicely onto another sidewalk, across a tether ball court, past a toddler and her grandmother playing and into the curb. She even caught the angle across the road well. 

Then I screwed up. I kept her in the opposite curb when I should have given her the veg for about 70 yards instead. After that turn we were in a tennis court for some challenging non-veg. I should have relaxed her with the veg and easy scenting instead of back to back hard surface challenges. Devon broke down about two-thirds of the way through the tennis courts, and we limped to the glove. Bad mom!

Overall she did a good job. I could have given her a lot more help with my track laying on Saturday. I did a good job on Friday of giving her veg breaks, and I did a poor job on Saturday. I'm pretty sure I can get some tracking in on Monday evening, so I'll plan a better track for her then.

From 0 to 120 yards in 2 minutes flat

Well, maybe it took Ian longer than 2 minutes to get down that 120 yard track because I gave him an article halfway down, but it felt like only 2 minutes! Wow, he's going to be a great tracking dog. I ran him at 25 minutes ... well, it was 25 minutes when I started to get the stuff out of the van, so by the time I got his tracking harness on, I got cookies in my apron and we got to the track, it was probably a full 30 minute track. Ian just did a great job. 

I think I'm going to have to make him really honest to the line of the track. I noticed tonight he'll go off of it 10 ft., and I'm still walking with him. I started making myself stop when he was 2 ft. off of it and he quickly learned to get back on his track. Janet was right that I needed to do more straight line confidence building tracks before trying turns. I think I'll just do more of these and learn how to read him and build up some age for the next few weeks. 

I saw Sheree this week, and I told her I was tracking Ian and her reaction was, "IAN?!? You're tracking IAN?!?!" I laughed and said he loves it and told her what a natural he was at it. I can see me having fun with him for a while and even doing TDX and possibly VST (although I'm not sure how he'll do with the added people in a VST ... well we have a lot of time before we have to worry about that!).

70 yard permanent blind

I am so proud of Devon. Tonight she nailed her 70 yard permanent blind cold! It's easily been a couple of weeks since I asked her to do this blind, and it's only the third time I've presented her with it. Even so, she marked it and went straight as an arrow out to it. I taught her a second permanent blind, again 70-80 yards, and after learning it, she nailed it straight twice in a row. WOW! What a girl! On the way back to the van, I threw in a couple of whistle sits, and she just turned and sat. Yippee!!! This was after 20 minutes of agility about an hour before we went out to play with the blinds!

I know how to do it!

Devon didn't miss a beat at the higher teeter. She knew it had been raised; I could tell when she went up to it. And when I asked her for it, she jumped right on without hesitation, went to the pivot point and tipped it down. She was standing almost straight up -- no crawling for her! I thought by the way she was doing the lowered teeter she had figured out the tipping point and how to make it tip on her own, and I was right. Devon is also starting to make it "bang" with the speed and force of tipping it, which I'm encouraging! YEAH!!! I have real confidence that we're going to tackle this challenge this fall!