Ian is Qualified for the 2009 AKC Agility Nationals

Whew! Ian did me a HUGE favor and earned more than the 7 points he needed to qualify for the AKC Nationals in his first run this morning. I wasn't keen on going into this last weekend of the qualifying period still needing points, so I was really glad Ian didn't make me sweat it out until Sunday for a Q!

Ian was at the end of the 24 inch dogs, and I got to watch at least 10 dogs before he ran. I was a little worried, because the judge moved around the course a lot, especially in the weave poles. Ian has been refusing to weave when a judge is moving in the weaves. However, Ian was flawless and fast up until three jumps before the end, when he slowed considerably. I was convinced he might not even make course time with only 18 obstacles, but he earned 8 MACH points.

On a side note, I think I've finally hit that big sigh of relief most people feel after they MACH. Ian wasn't running well when he MACHed in June, and we've had to work through some weave and stress issues this summer and fall. I had this one last goal for him to qualify for a second AKC National, and as soon as he did this morning, I felt a huge weight off my shoulders! Our JWW run was a lot of fun -- he Q'd with a nice time and was one of only 7 dogs (out of 31) to Q. It's really fun when you and your dog have reached all the goals (and in Ian's case more goals than I could have ever expected) for the team.

Photo MEME

Ok, I read this on C-Lee's blog, and it sounds like fun. This is the 4th photo in the 4th folder of my photo files. It was taken the first week of June when we had the 100 year flood. This is looking off my back deck toward the north. What's underwater is the circular drive in front of my training building. I didn't get nearly the rain others south of Indianapolis got. On a work note, the floods caused me a month's worth of overtime because the state opened it's emergency center and on-going disaster recovery programs.

Oh, and you can see "Ian's tree" (aka Charlie Brown's Christmas tree) in the lower right hand corner of the photo. This was a lovely little evergreen tree when I moved here. I'll let you figure out how Ian killed it. Connor is responsible for breaking off the dead limbs. He loves sticks.

Anyone who reads this must do the same on their blog! Tag you're it!

She’s not a baby dog Part 2: The compliment

After we finished the game, there was a nice woman with a black Lab asking about being measured before the Novice classes in next weekend’s AKC trial. It will be her first trial, and I told her Devon and I would also be in Novice. While I didn’t need a measure Devon, I would make sure she got to the right place for measuring, and I offered to answer any questions she had during trial.

She looked at me, then at Devon in shock and said, “SHE’S in Novice? She looks so much better than a Novice dog!” I could have cried! What an awesome compliment for a girl who only started back jumping in early September and didn’t have a successful full-height teeter performance until exactly one month ago in October. We still have room to improve on a consistent weave performance, but I am just so pleased at on outside opinion of her performance. Of course I did admit to this nice person that Devon was my 4^th agility dog.

She’s not a baby dog Part 1: Gamblers

Last night Devon and I went to Lafayette for another games night. This week it was Gamblers. While one of the Novice level Gambles had a teeter in it, so we didn’t “do” the gamble, the other was a fairly straight forward Jump, tunnel, jump, jump at about 10 ft. of lateral distance. The difficulty for Devon and I on this second Gamble was the tunnel was under an A frame. The tunnel opening was closest to the handler/gamble line, so based on my handling system, Devon should have done the tunnel. However, I’ve rewarded handsomely for contacts and the line off the first jump set them up for the A frame.

You guessed it – Devon did a lovely jump to the A frame. I was so befuddled and there was a dog on my opposite side lunging at us that I forgot to ask for her contact, which befuddled her! She came off and to me since I didn’t even signal the other two jumps. I laugh and told her she was brilliant and we played tug.

So our second time into the Gamble, I stopped my forward movement after the first jump, which should have made her turn toward me and change her line to the tunnel – NOPE! I was ready. I called her to me and she turned and came back to me for a treat and a good girl. I then redirected her to the tunnel and she nailed the last two jumps at 10 ft. of lateral distance.

To note, she was AHEAD of me over the first jump … shades of things to come! The atmosphere was high in the building last night, since all the dogs were in the ring watching each other and we had two sets of dogs running. Devon was calm and good, even volunteering tugging to relieve her stress (wish other owners had taken note). However, this higher energy atmosphere is what we’ll be dealing with at a trial, and she’ll be wired and ready to run. I’m glad we know rear crosses!

Back to the Gamble for a third time, and I only needed deceleration and a verbal to change Devon’s path after the first jump right into the tunnel. When we ran the game for real, she nailed the Gamble! I had set her up badly for the whistle, so we were over time by 3 seconds and didn’t get enough points in the opening to “qualify,” but it was a well executed run by both of us. I didn’t panic when the whistle blew, and Devon completely ignored the number shouting and the whistle blowing.

The 7th teeter

My plan to get Devon on as many different teeters before her first AKC trial has worked out far better than I imagined. I had no idea I’d be able to get her in seven different locations in 6 weeks. I have dedicated time to this mission, and probably an additional $100 in building rental and drop in fees, but it has been one of the best things I’ve done in my training.

I know Devon and I need to have lots of training and foundation behind us before we start to compete. We’re both more confident walking to the line. She gives me her all every time she goes to the line, but she prefers to know exactly what her job will be. I made a huge mistake last year pushing her through some half hearted agility training and expecting her to know her job.

So here is a list of the training facilities we can count to Devon’s credit: Pawsitive Partners (two different teeters), Greater Lafayette Kennel Club, K9 Athletes, Wild Weavers of Ohio, Dogwood Training Center (Ohio), Pawsitive Energy and Queen City Dog Training Club. We’re doing weekly classes at Pawsitive Partners and we’ve been able to do several training sessions at Lafayette. This has been very worth our time since our first several trials in December, January and early February will be in these two training buildings.

Today, I can confidently say after seven teeters and training in various building under lots of conditions, she’s ready. I can’t wait until next weekend! Here’s hoping I can get a video camera on special Friday morning so I can post Devon’s runs (and runs by Ian and Connor, too!).

It’s that time of year

The agility equipment is now neatly tucked away in my small training building. Sigh! We had a pretty, but cold day on Sunday, and it was the perfect day to pack up the equipment since a rain/snow mix was coming in on Monday. In about 1.5 hours, we had everything neatly stored, with the weaves, one tunnel and a teeter still out for practice. Devon got to show off for mom and dad before we started packing everything up. We also discovered a rabbit huddled under the dogwalk before Devon did. It bounded to safety while Devon watched from the dog yard one fence away. She was sure to check out the rest of the rabbit beds in the tall grass after she missed that one.

Breaking the “bailing off” cycle

Last week I noticed Devon had developed a pattern of bailing off the teeter on the first time over it during an evening practice session, but she would turn around and do it successfully the second time (usually to great rewards) and then remain successful the rest of the evening (also earning rewards). She did this three training sessions in a row, so I was seeing a pattern that I didn’t want to continue or to crop up in a trial (since she cannot repeat the obstacle at a trial if she bails off after having all four paws in it).

The first thing I decided to do was change my words. I’d been saying, “teeter, teeter, tip it” as she approached the teeter and as she progressed over it, even when she’d glance over the side which I take as a sign she might bail. I believed continuing the performance word was encouraging her to continue the obstacle performance. However, I started to wonder if repeating the teeter command might be putting too much pressure on her. She was well aware of her job on that board. So thinking about Wendy Pape’s contract training sessions, I decided that once she had four paws on the board, I’d switch my words to “Good girl!” as she went over the obstacle. As Wendy always says when she’s training contacts, praise them on the board and don’t stress the whole obstacle.

My second concern was that she would learn to re-try the obstacle once she bailed, which would get us whistled off the course at a trial. I have already vowed never to call her off a teeter, especially when she’s on it. I never want the teeter to be a bad thing. However, this would add a lot of stress around the teeter from the judge if she tried to get back on it at a trial.

After much discussion with Kim, we decided if she bails off the teeter, I’m will take her immediately away from the obstacle and put her back on course 3-4 obstacles before the teeter. We want Devon to know she has to perform the obstacle correctly the FIRST TIME in order to earn a reward. If she goes back to it instead of coming with me, she’ll get a “good girl,” but no food rewards for the second effort; again only rewarding the completion of the obstacle the first time. We thought this plan might also rehearse moving her away from the obstacle if she bailed at a trial.

My first test of this new “protocol” came last Thursday in her class at Pawsitive. This is a location that she has done the “first time bail” before. We also had a different teeter that she had not seen for 4 weeks, so it was a good test. She was successful the very first time over the obstacle with the new verbal reward after she mounted the board.

The biggest test was Friday evening at Queen City Training club. We went to run thrus and she’s never been to that facility before. She nailed the teeter the first time over it. I gave her jackpot rewards, then turned her around and asked her for three obstacles and the teeter again. She was successful and got more jackpots. We did a second run and she was again successful.  Last night at Lafayette, she was successful every time over the teeter, especially the first time.

So while she may still bail on a teeter performance in the future, I think I discovered the problem this time was my verbal pressure in continuing to give her an obstacle command on the board. Since I have switched to full praise when she’s on the board, she hasn’t bailed off the teeter a single time!