Chiggers and back aches and training, oh my!

I see it's been about 2 weeks since I've posted! Goodness time flies! We've been up to a lot of training lately and too busy to spend much time blogging.

We have had beautiful cool weather to train in this summer. July has been the second coolest on record. The down side has been chiggers. I really hate these little devils and never remember being so affected by them! They really love my feet and ankles when I'm doing so much field work and tracking!

The other down side of the last two weeks has been back spasms. I think after two weeks I'm finally over the worst of them. Thanks to my good friend Sheree who is a master at releasing muscles, I could actually walk again last Wednesday and I was able to travel to Ohio for some field training.

Field training

Speaking of field training, it's going really well. Devon and I have worked hard, and last week it really showed when we visited Mitch. Devon did a really hard lining drill, which worked suction from buckets that were closer when sending to farther buckets. You were only allowed to handle to each bucket once, then the dog had to line it.

The next day we did an over into the water drill, which is done before swim by. I was really proud of Devon for looking great and nailing this drill. Mitch said all our hard work on land showed with how well she did on this drill.

Page is officially field training now. She started her hold work on the table and was collar conditioned. She did a marking drill in the big field. Even though she was distracted by all the great smells, she did mark each throw and step on the bumper going out. We can fix bringing it back with her force fetch.

Tracking

Our tracking continues with mixed success for both girls. After doing a fantastic job on a blind track one evening, Devon has been loosing confidence over the last few tracks. We've increased the difficulty by no chalk or hand prints. I also haven't been working pieces of tracking through the week; I've only been working tracks laid by someone else on the weekends. Put this lack of "training" together with "testing" on the weekends and a lot of field training, and Devon's lacking confidence. We're going to solve that by putting her back on fresher veg tracks and really getting tracking again.

Page is continuing to learn VST and retain TD tracking. She's doing a good job on her VST tracks, putting a lot of information in her "Rolodex" for future tracks. She's a fantastic problem solver, and leaving her to it is my best option.

Agility

I have to put a note in here about Devon's agility. She is really looking fantastic in her weekly class. Because of our emphasis on field and tracking, this is all the agility training Devon has each week, and it seems to be a nice balance.

It used to be if we did any type of field drill in the morning, Devon would melt during agility that evening. However, that doesn't seem to be the case these days. I'm not sure if Devon's new attitude has anything to do with Page having a class right before hers or not, but whatever the reason, I'm really enjoying the fun times!

Devon the library dog goes to preschool reading time

This month Devon is the "library dog" again. We haven't been to the library since April, but I was pretty sure she wouldn't forget how fun it was. I was right.

This month we're attending the preschool reading time. We arrived 10 minutes early, and we met a family of three children in the entrance. Right away they said, "Hey it's her! It's the library dog!" Devon was in heaven. She "talked" to all of them and got her first pets. Once downstairs in the Children's area, she was swamped with kids wanting to pet her and talk with her.

Chrissy introduced Devon and we sat at the front of the room. The kids were in a semicircle around us. Chrissy talked about how reading to dogs is beneficial, and then I told a little about Devon. She sat quietly through all of this talk, wagging at each child and "smiling."

Once Chrissy began to read, Devon started working the crowd in front of her. She went forward and sat in front of the kids and they gave her lots of pets. But Devon had an even better idea! She laid down and put her head in one boy's lap, then put her toy in the next boy's lap and rolled over into the laps of three kids sitting in the front row! I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, the three kids who were rubbing Devon's belly, the proud boy who said Devon asked him to hold her toy for her, or Devon whose eyes were closed in pure joy. I'm not sure there's any dog who loves a belly rub more than her!

After a few minutes, one of the girls got my attention and pointed to her foot with big eyes. Devon was laying across her leg, and the poor girl's foot was going to sleep! Guess I have to watch out for that in the future!

Then another boy from the other side crawled over to tell me his side hadn't seen her as much as the other side had. So I got up and we went to see those kids. After reading two books, Chrissy said we could sit up front and each child could have their special time with Devon and then choose a dog book to check out of the library.

Devon greeted each child specially. She was so good with the few who weren't really sure of dogs. The thing that impressed me was how she handled the children who wanted to hug her. I knew she could handle this because it was something that she was tested on. And she thought it was great, even when one boy laid his head on hers and gave her kisses.

And the kids weren't the only ones who wanted to see Devon. The adult volunteers all made sure to pass through the room to say hello. One volunteer even gave Devon a hug, and when Devon melted into her, the volunteer said, "She's hugging me back!"

Two boys stayed after to read to Devon. She enjoys the one on one time, but I think she still believes she needs to "do" something with them instead of just settling in and listening. Next time I'll tell them it helps her listen if they pet her and see if she'll settle with that.

I've never had an hour go by so fast or had Devon enjoy something more ... okay ducks are high on her priority list, too. But Devon is a gifted therapy dog. It made me realize that if all this competition stuff goes away tomorrow, Devon's real joy in life would be to visit people. Devon wouldn't miss any of it as long as she could go do her therapy work and make people happy.

"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!

People, dogs and discipline casting!

Well, when you train at a new place, you must be ready for new things. At first glance this new park was a great place to train. It was quiet and big with open flat spaces to lay out a nice double T. In fact, there was a mound for a driving range where I could handle from and Devon could see me easily. It's so cool to look down on a perfect double T drill ... ok, I'm a field nerd.

Devon did a good job with this double T, except for her overs. After two days of blinds, she started coming in on her overs again. This is going to be life-long maintenance. I see double T drills every Monday after tests in Devon's future.

At one point I had sent Devon to the back pile set at 100 yards. Sat her on the back over intersection which was 70 yards out and looked to the right over bucket only to see a man and woman walking hand in hand directly for that over bucket. Huh, guess she was getting a left over instead! I sent her to her left, and she easily took it. The couple realized they were about to walk through my training drill and changed course.

In the meantime, Devon got her bumper and came running back into me, clueless about the two walkers. At least she's focused on me! When I asked her to mark her back pile, Devon sat straight up when she watched these two walk right behind her back pile! She went straight back and never missed a beat.

Next we worked discipline casting. We had to work through some no sits on whistles. This was frustrating, but I learned if I walked out to her and told her she must sit, it fixed the problem.

The next thing she did was refuse to go back with a bumper in her mouth. This was quickly fixed with a collar correction when I sent her back. This correction worked because it's one she understands. After one correction, Devon repeatedly drove straight back without turning around until I whistled.

Finally, the coming in on overs came out again with the discipline casting. I had to walk out and tap on the over buckets to get her to go straight. It was during this time that we had or second distraction session.

I looked up and a woman who had parked near my vehicle rolled out of her car with three dogs and no leashes. She had two medium sized dogs and a small dog. She saw me and I stood near Devon (who had a bumper in her mouth) and watched as the woman did her best to call the dogs in another direction. Once I thought she had them out of range, I left Devon and walked toward the over bucket.

Unfortunately, this is when the youngest of the group saw me and started running to me. I know he wanted to say hello, but I didn't know what he'd do when he saw Devon. I told the woman to call her dog and get him under control. She tried, but he wasn't coming. I headed back to Devon, who was still sitting perfectly with the bumper in her mouth. The dog kept coming and was coming fast. I ran the last few feet to get to Devon first. Thankfully 10 ft. short of Devon, the dog broke off and returned to his owner.

Whew! I was relived. And for some reason I took the bumper out of Devon's mouth. This was a mistake. Devon thought she was released from work, and she took off after the retreating dog. I yelled and she came right back. That bumper went back in her mouth so fast! Lesson learned: when Devon has a bumper in her mouth she's working and she's under command. No bumper, not working!

That little break in action must have given Devon time to think about her overs, because she did them well. I sent her to the back pile one more time, and she did three perfect casts and she was done!

I think the session was a great one for Devon. I learned how to correct her with a couple of different methods, and she respected the corrections and stepped up to the task. I don't use corrections unless I believe she knows her job. On this day she improved her performance, leading me to believe they were the right choices.

I doubt I'll use this park again during the summer. It has too much doggie activity for me even before I set up the drill. I can tell it's a place people let their dogs run, and I'm not comfortable with that. The three off leash dogs invaded the playground area on the other side of the park as I was cleaning up our drill. As much as this woman probably believes she has control of her dogs, she proved to me she really didn't. I'm going to seek out other places to train for a while!

Page's TD track on July 14

On Tuesday we headed out to do a field drill with Devon at a local school. I figured I could put in a VST track there for Page while Devon was working. However, when we got to the school, two groundskeepers were sitting out front with spray equipment. I pulled up and asked and sure enough, they had just treated the lawn. Great! One good location was out for a week or so!

The good news was they wanted to meet the dogs and asked what type of training I did. They told me about a park I didn't know of in the next town that they thought would be a good place to work the dogs, so I headed that direction. On the way, I found a new TD tracking field! My goal is to keep working TDX and VST and keep up with TD every week to 10 days, so it looked like today was TD day!

The great thing about this field is it's right across from a bank that gives the time and temperature. I know I started the track at 10:53 a.m. When we came back to run it, the time was 12:35 p.m. The track was 490 yards long with four turns. The cover was short clover.

Page had an outstanding start and pulled me hard. I forgot to mark the first turn, but it didn't matter. She had only a very short search a few feet from where I knew it would be. A short leg and another beautiful turn put us on the third leg.

Here, Page suddenly went off the track to investigated something in the grass. I told her to leave it, and she plucked something in the grass and retrieved it back to me. It was a dead baby bird - YUCK! I got it out of her mouth, told her to leave it and track - and she did! What a great girlie! And now you know why I carry antibacterial wipes in my vehicles!

Frankly, the dead baby bird was the most eventful thing on this track. Page nailed her turns, was dead on her track and even handled her 160 yard leg very well. When she got to her glove, she gave me a sit on the article and we were done in 11 minutes (that clock was handy!).

Devon and blinds

After the break throughs from last week, I was anxious to get to more blinds this week. On Sunday, I gave Devon her first truly cold blinds. We were at a fellow Golden Retriever club member's home, and there was a lovely tree standing alone 80+ yards out in a field. A perfect target! We put orange bumpers under it and a bird house about 60 yards away on another line.

Devon was incredible! She lined both of these cold blinds the first try! I was jumping up and down I was so excited and proud of Devon!

Of course, I couldn't just let the training session go with a perfect blind. I asked Steve to take a white bumper and throw a "wipe out" mark across the line of the blind. He did and Devon retrieved it. They aren't called "wipe out" marks for nothing! Sure enough, the mark completely wiped out Devon's memory of the line of the blind and caused suction when I sent her.

On both blinds, the second time I had to handle Devon to the blinds. Once she handled, she lined them the third time out without the wipe out mark. I was really pleased with this session.

On Monday, I went to another location where I could set out blinds at a distance. I set one at 125 yards, one at 140 yards and a third at 130 yards. I marked all three with a black post with bright pink streamers. I know from experience I can see these posts and Devon cannot until she's right up on them. However, they gave me a good target to send to.

Before I got Devon out, I got my "fairway" to each blind, so I knew how far to let her drift. I lined her up for the 125 yard blind, sent her, and she went out in a straight direct line just as she had the night before. I was thrilled! She definitely has learned what she's to do on blinds!

She ran straight for 90 yards before she broke down and drifted left and I had to whistle sit her. She turned and sat like a dream. Awesome, one over and one back and she'd have it. I carefully put my over cast out and yelled "over" and walked to my right. Devon sat like a beautiful statue and watched me walk. Nothing. No movement at all. HUH? I've never seen that!

So I repeated my over command and again nothing. Three times and I knew I'd have to do something different. I'm not sure if she had never handled that far away from me, or what. I walked up closer, about 30 yards, and said, "Devon! Over!" Well, on her name, Devon came it. Darn it!

So I had to resend her to the blind because she wouldn't sit on her way in. This time it wasn't quite as pretty, but she handled to it. The next time she lined it. Good girl!

The other two blinds were much harder because of the suction from the previous blind. The middle blind she got on several handles the first time, two handles the second time and lined it the third time. We had quite the battle on the first send because of the suction from the first blind.

The third blind was a repeat of the middle one with extreme suction from the previous blind. On the third send, I got her to two whistle the third blind and I knew that was the best I would get.

Overall, I was pleased with Devon's blind work this week. She's really getting her job and we're starting to handle pretty well as a team. I think I'm going to stop marking the blinds with sticks and just do cold blinds the next time we train. I do think the blind markers made the suction worse because once she knew they were there, she looked for them.

Devon's 12 hour track

On Sunday evening, I laid Devon a track at 7 p.m. However, after we got done running Page's track, it would have been after 10 pm when we ran Devon's. So I decided to try her on an overnight aged track. I know those on the west coast and in southern states run overnight tracks all the time because of the heat, but this is a new experience for Devon.

I wish I had a map of this track, but the location is too new for Google. Devon did a really good job with the track and found all her articles. She struggled a little with the start and the first non-veg which was a baseball diamond. I could see my footprints from the night before, and I could see added prints from a coyote or dog and deer from overnight.

Once back in the lush grass, Devon did really well through her next non-veg and first article. She didn't struggle again until her real non-veg turn. Once she committed to it, she tracked it well back into the grass and then to a plastic article. It was hidden, but she was on the track and found it easily.

Once in the grass again, Devon didn't want to go back out into the parking lot. She indicated that's where the track went, but she skirted the track on the sidewalk instead. I followed her, but the track angled out into the parking lot and she was soon far off of the track. I took her back to where she lost the scent and told her I didn't go on the sidewalk and she knew it.

Apparently my comments worked, because once she was back to the transition, she worked it properly (although grudgingly) and did go into the parking lot. She worked this surface swiftly, but accurately. She knew what she was doing once out there. Then it was back into the grass for her final article.

I won't do 12 hour tracks very often with Devon, but it was an interesting experience. She worked the track very meticulously, taking three times the normal time to complete it. This track had some extra scent, but no chalk. It proved to me she really doesn't need extra scent. The chalk is still helpful for MOT turns and transitions, but it's also time to fade it, too.