Chianti's Blog

A Couple of Updates

2012-02-10T16:05:00.000-08:00

Comfort on the grooming table after the work is all done.

As I look at my dog all curled up on her bed, I know that all dogs are not as well loved, or well taken care of. The "Vicktory dogs" up until four years ago certainly were not. Thanks the care of Best Friends Animal Society and other rescues who convinced the courts that the dogs belonging to Michael Vick should be given a chance at rehabilitation, the Vicktory dogs were given veterinary care, training, and affection. These dogs are an example of how dogs can be taken from the worst circumstances and still be rehabilitated: Dogs who have learned not to trust, who have been physically abused, encouraged to be aggressive, and have been kept in the most inhumane conditions can be taught to trust and to good canine citizens with the right care and training. These dogs had amazing strength of character to recover from such conditions, and I think that shows how misjudged the "pit bull" breeds and mixes are.

It should be noted that at the time the dogs were seized the Humane Society of the United States recommended that they all be killed without giving them a chance a rehabilitation. Thank goodness for the Judge who gave the rescues and the dogs a chance. For those of you who have followed the Vicktory dogs, here is an update on Georgia. Finally after over four years, Georgia is leaving Best Friends Animal Society to go to a new home. While Georgia was extremely well cared for at Best Friends, it's nice to know that she will live out the remainder of her life in a home.

Another update, Ohio is now removing its law labelling "pit bulls" as vicious. One more step forward. One day I hope there will be no laws based on breed or appearance anywhere. It's just so much more sensible to have laws for responsible dog ownership that apply equally to all dogs and owners. Responsible dog owner and dog bite prevention education should also be a focus. On that note, dog owners really need to be responsible. Every week I see letters in the paper complaining about dogs chasing deer, being loose in parks that aren't off leash parks, dog owners not picking up after their dogs etc. This is how anti dog laws start, which is unfortunate because those things are all already illegal. How silly it is to pass more laws when really all that is required is to educate and enforce the existing ones. We live in a society that likes to appease the squeaky wheel and when people complain sure enough some politician will proclaim "We outta pass a law!" It's all about looking good, not actually doing good.

I can't change the world as a whole, but when I look at my dog, I sure want to try. To look at Chianti and say she shouldn't exist because of what breed she or what she looks like is is crazy. Enough said.

Tricks, Tracks, Obedience & Agility

2012-02-08T15:16:00.000-08:00

I always thought the Joker card suited her, so I always leave it in her deck

I've dusted off the card trick again. Partly just because I like the trick, partly because it's a good scent work exercise that challenges her in a way that isn't tracking and isn't Utility articles. It's sometimes nice to work on a skill outside of the actual exercise, and let's face it it's just fun!

Another trick Chianti is getting quite good at is hopping along on her back legs. She can go all the way down the hallway and across the living room now and has really good balance.

We've been busy to say the least. It's been tricky squeezing in some extra tracks to practice for upcoming TDX and UTD tests, but we've managed to fit in a few extras and Chianti seems to be back into the tracking groove. I love watching tracking. I'm still fascinated by watching dogs do something that comes so naturally to them. It's fun watching them concentrate and work at something we could never do. Here are some shots from a 5 hour old track on Sunday.

Even though I track mostly urban in practice I try to take advantage of long vegetation where available

Precisely on track, climbing over a barrier following the scent

One of the articles along the way she had to find

On the last leg moving under a barrier to follow the scent

We're also getting ready for an A.I.O.C. Obedience Trial at the end of March. She's doing just fine, but I am reviewing about turns and other footwork on my lunch breaks ;) I haven't done enough heeling patterns lately and my footwork definitely needed some smoothing out. I think I've got it under control now but I sure needed a review!

Agility has been going well too. I never have time to practice its skills with work and it still being dark in the evenings, but we're becoming a better Agility team and I am learning a lot about handling her in this sport where there are so many ways to inadvertently send your dog to the wrong equipment with your body cues.

When we're not doing all of these other things, or just walking or playing Chianti does enjoy her nap times. A lot!.

The Paparazzi are getting completely out of control around her - I'm sleeping!

I have never had a dog that likes to stretch and yawn more than she does. She's a loud yawner, which is hilarious, and she stretches all kinds of interesting ways. Here I had just put her in her crate. This is one of her favourite stretches. Pushing her front feet against the crate. Not low, but raised up quite a bit, see in the photo below where her elbows are in relation to her chest? Amstaff Yoga. I wonder what I should call this stretch?

Stretch!

Spring is now just around the corner. The days are slowly getting longer and it won't be long until we can enjoy more fun time outside after work. Until then our weekends will continue to be very busy :)

Ladybugs Are Bed Hogs

2012-01-29T23:53:00.000-08:00

We had company for dinner tonight, my son and his girlfriend. I made lasagna. Chianti of course, was hoping against hope that some of that delicious cheese would find its way to her during the layering process. It did not.

Supervising the lasagna assembly

After dinner we visited for a little while, then decided to watch a movie. Chianti was all curled up in her bed in the living room sound asleep. At one point during the movie I looked over at her and she was standing. Just standing staring at her bed. I thought maybe she was just in mid stretch or that she was dissatisfied with her blanket nest and was about to rearrange them. I went back to watching the movie and glanced over again and there she was still standing in the same position. Staring at her blanket. She leaned in and sniffed at it. I thought that was kind of odd. She'd been out and she doesn't have accidents in the house, so why would she be staring at her bed and smelling her blanket? Glands maybe? No, I'd checked those today when I bathed her after Agility.

I waited a bit longer and she stayed there, in the same position. Okay, it's been a few minutes and this is odd so I have to figure out what her issue is. Something's obviously bothering her. So I looked at the blanket she was staring at. I didn't see anything at first. I picked it up to examine it more closely, and then I saw what was bothering her so much. A ladybug! There was a ladybug on her blanket. It was moving around, so I guess it was not exactly in a cuddling mood. I can only assume that it crawled on her at one point and that bothered her and woke her up. She got out of the bed and it stayed. LOL! Ladybug kicks AmStaff out of bed. She stayed out of that bed for a good five minutes because of a ladybug and just stood there looking uncomfortable and put out. I really wish I'd gotten a picture of the way she was standing it was so funny.

I tried to set the little thing free outside, but it flew up to the ceiling on the way to the door. At least it was no longer on the blanket. Chianti inspected the blanket when I put it back down, stirred it up, laid down, and went back to sleep in peace.

Learning to Whisper

2012-01-26T17:02:00.000-08:00

I'm an extrovert. I might have shy moments, but overall in familiar surroundings I'm outgoing, social and being around other people does energize me. This serves me well in some respects. I usually interact well with other people, and I appear confident, sometimes even when I'm not, which is great for teaching and great for competing in a sport where people are watching me. I am also a bit, well, loud I suppose is the best way to describe it.

Chianti is definitely an extrovert. She is extremely social, outgoing, confident, gregarious, and is definitely energized by outside stimulus, especially people or dogs. So I suppose we sometimes feed off of each other.

On Monday at Anne's class we were working on the Drop on Recall exercise, because last time I had been practising them her drops had been a little slower than I'd like. We set up and did one to see what problems we might be able to work on and sure enough she was slow. Actually she kind of blew it completely until told again. So I set her up for another one and this time I gave a pretty loud, sharp command. She did drop on it, but Anne said she'd like to see me use a quieter command. The game should be, she explained, that the dog is really going to have to pay attention because the command could be quiet. This made sense to me, kind of like "mini signals" for the signals exercise. If your dog can do the signals with slight, tiny signals in training, the bigger signals in a Trial should be easy. If your dog can drop on a whisper in training, if you need to be a touch louder in a Trial, it should be easy.

There is another element to this though. As I mentioned Chianti and I are both extroverts and we feed off of each other. I've found that if I make a concentrated effort to be calm and focused, a bit quieter in voice and in body language in my handling, she stays a bit more calm and focused. If I'm too energetic and bubbly we seem to get a sort of back and forth almost oppositional reflex type of thing happening, or at least a bit of frantic. I really notice this in Agility. If I have calm and confident body language and voice tone I have a dog who is working with me. If I have frantic, confusing body language or too much voice, I have a dog who is less focused and off course. This is not a dog I need to energize and pep up, it's a dog I need to lead. If Chianti does get stressed, she tends to "stress up" as we say in dog training. Which means she won't likely lag in heeling or freeze on course or look worried or reticent. Instead of those very obvious stress signals that some dogs display she will likely "take her own route" so to speak, and she will take it at a breakneck speed. While that might be entertaining in its own way, it's not what I want in the ring, whether it's the Obedience ring or the Agility ring. My next challenge then, is exuding calm leadership and controlling my own energy level so that she can mirror that.

Today we had a couple of short practice sessions at work. We did some heeling and some "whisper" drops. Later we did some signals proofing. We did signals while Chianti was standing beside a crated Wheaten Terrier. There was a blow dryer going (drying a dog in the tub) and there were several other dogs in the room. I used only signals, but you'll have to trust me because I turned the audio recording off because of the blow dryer. I've definitely seen sharper signals performance from her, but I was pleased with her effort to ignore the other dog. I was also amused that the other dog decided to do the down too ;)

Stays, Articles, and Plans for the Year

2012-01-12T15:38:00.000-08:00

New Year's Day on the beach

First, regarding my last post, I have started an email group for those interested in discussing exercises to replace the Obedience group stays, particularly in Open. If you're interested in taking part in the conversation, find us here. Personally I really do think the Moving Stand in Utility is a much better, more interesting exercise than the Group Stand it replaced was. Why not look at some great exercises to replace some of the other stays?

Lately I've been reading quite a few training articles and random dog things online. Well I always do, but I'm going to link a few of my favourites here:

Here is one by Suzanne Clothier called He Just Wants to Say Hi. I've been sending my students to this site for years. I love the description of the human interaction in the beginning. It's humorous but right on the money. Another one sort of on a similar subject is My Dog is Friendly! A Public Service Announcement. I love the visual of the MDIFs calling out their battle cry of My Dog is Friendly! to the DINOS. It's a familiar battle cry to anyone who has ever walked a dog.

Here's another one from Suzanne Clothier, Just Say No, on the trend of never saying no to a dog. I was in stitches at some of the visuals in that blog post. Again humorous, but I certainly agree, and here's my mini rant on that topic. Even "pure" positive trainers use consequences. Maybe a gentle leader (an aversive in spite of the name), maybe closing a door or a crate door as a dog tries to bolt out, maybe time outs. Each one of these things gives the dog the information "no". The word no is only a word. If it's used consistently with a consequence it is simply a marker, just as a yes or a click are markers. It simply provides information. Obviously if you're screaming NOOOO at the top of your lungs it might cause stress, but so would YESSSS or BANANA or BUBBLEGUM shouted at the top of your lungs.

The word no, used as a simple marker, is no more stressful than any other non physical method of giving a dog information about what you don't want. The funny thing is hearing people say "don't say no, say ahhahh or try again." These terms end up having the same function as no. A rose by any other name.... Giving information about what you don't want is important, as Clothier points out, and I agree. It's been my observation that for dogs understanding clearly what's expected of them helps them become confident (as long as the rules and expectations are consistent) while ambiguity makes the world a scary place. I often say, that no one should live in your home free of expectations, and that includes the dog. Social beings who live in groups, including dogs and humans, require and thrive on structure with consistent codes of conduct.

It's a New Year now, and we have a few things we're working toward this year. Chianti now has 4 Title certificates framed and on my wall, and lots of cute pictures. Anyone entering the grooming salon knows I love my dog ;)

Quite awhile ago I let go of any notions of getting Titles or Q's on any kind of a time frame. It simply doesn't work that way. Every dog is different, they mature at different rates, and each presents its own challenges, which is why training is not boring! If it was always the same there wouldn't be a reason to keep at it. Having said that, we're still always working toward goals, just not in a set time frame.

I just printed the premium and entry form for a TDX in March so right now we're working toward that in Tracking. We'll also try to get into a UTD test at the end of April. In Obedience, I might start entering some A.I.O.C. Trials this year. In Agility, we're going to keep training and working to keep focus. Chianti did great at class on Sunday, and we're going to be getting together with some friends soon to practice a bit more. Hopefully we'll be entering a Trial again in the fall.

Whatever the year brings, I know we'll have lots of great fun working together. Chianti is such a fun dog that in spite of the odd training challenge or frustration, I really do enjoy every minute of our journey together.

The beach and the mountains and a happy dog

Her polar bear swim on January 1

Group Stays - An Opinion

2012-01-04T17:36:00.000-08:00

First of all let me just say that I don't have a stay problem. I have a problem with the group stays, especially the open stays where handlers are expected to leave their dogs on a sit for three minutes and a down for three minutes in a group of dogs with the handlers out of the room. Ironically my very social current dog is also very confident, so stays have not yet been an issue with her, even extended out of sight ones with distractions. It is a solid exercise for her as it often can be for very confident dogs. Having said that I dislike the exercise for several reasons. It is my opinion that it sets a bad example for the public, that it causes unnecessary stress for many dogs and handlers, that it poses a reasonable risk to dogs physically / mentally, and that it is responsible for a lot of people choosing to stop competing.

A small group of dogs demonstrating a group stay at a fair

I'm a long time promoter of responsible dog ownership. I work with dogs every day and I can't count how much advice I give out on being responsible as a dog owner. Follow the rules, don't let your dog impose on other people, and make sure you're looking out for the best interest of your dog, always. In my off time I teach classes, as many people involved in Obedience Clubs do, always promoting responsible ownership. Last week one new student returned a questionnaire to me with one of her concerns being that when she ties her dog up outside the coffee shop and goes in the dog barks. When I speak to her about this I will be recommending that it might not be a good idea to leave her dog tied up outside a coffee shop. It leaves the dog feeling stressed and vulnerable. It imposes on other people. Meantime in the competition class I will be teaching before her class, we'll be working on out of sight stays, where we leave up to 8 dogs in a room off leash on stays with the handlers out of sight. It's not something I would ever do in the real world, and quite frankly when I see other people doing it I think of it as irresponsible and unfair to the dog. Therefore I think it sets a bad example.

A group of friends practising stays together on a hot day in the summer

I mentioned that Chianti is a very confident dog, so stays for her have not been an issue thus far, and I don't expect them to be. Another of my dogs, Loki, was not a confident dog. He didn't like to be wrong, so his stays were solid too, even when a skateboarder did a curb slide practically on top of him at a demo of Novice stays. He held the stay, but was stressed during stays. Some people make this a big dog small dog issue when it comes to the stress piece, but really it depends on the dog's level of confidence how stressed they are. The issue of size comes more into play in the reasonable physical risk portion of my argument. Loki was afraid of other dogs who were bigger than he was. He wasn't small, he was a 75 pound American Pit Bull Terrier, born outside to parents chained to dog houses, bred by a "breeder" who threw water on the baby puppies if they made a sound. The breeder did give up all of his dogs eventually, the last one (Loki's littermate) I fostered and re-homed after convincing him that it was in the best interest of the dog but that is a whole other topic.

I had to do a lot of confidence building with Loki to get him to cope reasonably well. He did learn to cope but other dogs always read his fearful nature and pick on him, even if he was across the room and looking in another direction. They simply saw him as weak. At one point a Labrador in a class crossed the room and passed several dogs to attack Loki while Loki was facing the complete other direction. So while he held his stays, he was stressed. I was stressed too. I knew he would hold position, but I didn't know if the other dogs would. The last thing I wanted with Loki was to worsen existing issues that we'd worked so hard to work through by having another dog attack him. Obedience itself built a lot of confidence for Loki and was therapeutic. The stays in my opinion did not.

While Loki was under confident and Chianti is over confident, many dogs are in between. Many, many dogs are reasonably confident in other obedience exercises and show signs of stress on the group stays. Panting, whining, tongue flicking, laying down on the sit, standing, dogs releasing themselves to go to handlers are common occurrences in the ring. In my opinion being stressed when left on a stay in a strange group of dogs displaying a variety of body language with strange people in the ring, often pin with pin drop silence in the room could be considered normal. The social circle of dogs in nature is actually quite small, so being stressed in a group of strange dogs shouldn't be considered a fault. While it might demonstrate which dogs are over confident and which are under confident, I'm not sure what else a group stay demonstrates. The ability to obey a stay command can be demonstrated in other ways, without the presence of strange dogs, making this an unnecessary stressful situation. Obedience should be fair to the entered dogs. Some dogs and even breeds are typically more confident than others. A group stay exercise is very different for a confident Labrador than it is for a shy Whippet.

Many handlers are extremely uncomfortable leaving their dogs alone in a situation that may or may not pose physical or mental risk. This is especially true of small dogs. While another dog attacking a big, confident dog might cause undue stress, and possibly create a real training problem with the stays from that point on, for a small dog the risk of serious injury is very real. Dogs attacking other dogs on the stays might not be considered commonplace but it can and does happen. It's easy to say that it's a rarity unless it's your dog who is attacked. If it's your dog, you don't care how rare it is. Which is exactly why many, many people have told me over the years that they no longer compete in Obedience. I have personally witnessed some near misses. Even in a Pre-Novice thirty second sit stay I watched a huge German Shepherd lunge aggressively at a tiny Papillon as the handlers were returning. Fortunately the handlers were right there and fortunately the Papillon's owner is a very skilled handler and dealt with the situation very well. That is a situation that could have caused physical injury to the small dog. Best case scenario it would have set back any training on the stays and confidence for the dog, worst case I don't like to think about, but when one dog is less than ten pounds and the other is over eighty pounds it does not take long for serious or even life threatening injury to take place.

Yes people should train their dogs, and no aggressive dogs should not be competing, but they do, and there's nothing to be done to stop them until after an incident. Isn't it far better to mitigate the risk and allow everyone to compete as safely as possible?

I have a few ideas for exercises to replace the stays. I know others do too and I certainly know many people have complained to me about the stays and their dislike of them. I'm asking those of you who would like to see changes to contact me. It would be nice to brainstorm some alternatives and present them. Even if you don't want to participate in that, but would support the removal of the group stays in their current form, please contact me. I'm curious about how many people dislike the stays, and how many no longer compete because of the stays. Please email me at pawsible@shaw.ca

On a more positive note, Chianti's Rally Advanced certificate arrived today and is framed and on her brag wall :)

2011-12-24T08:57:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve. The season has been busy with making preparations for guests and gifts, parties, decorating and and all of those traditional Christmas things, while still fitting in work, and of course time doing things with Chianti. Christmas has arrived, as it always does whether we feel ready or not.

Now is the time we remember what it's really all about: Time to be with people we love. I feel the warmth of a house full of people, laughter and fond memories, and stimulating conversations - solving the world's problems in the livingroom I might add ;)

I feel confident in the lesson the Grinch learned. It's not all about gifts and food, though I must admit I do enjoy the food! It's about the connection to others. Merry Christmas everyone. May your season be filled with comfort and joy.

Matches, Tracking, Agility, Busy!

2011-12-01T08:37:00.001-08:00

Another busy week of dog activities! We had a couple of really good Agility classes. I'm quite sure Chianti will master this game if her handler can learn to manage the tricky crosses and timing ;) More importantly though, Chianti's commitment to staying with me in Agility is improving immensely and when she's with me she works really quite well.

The down on the Signals exercise

In Obedience we had a great class with Anne working on the Signals exercise with a lot of distractions. It was very hard for Chianti to pay close attention with food, toys all over the floor, Anne on the floor, and Flurry working on recalls. She worked through the distractions though and did some great work.

We've been to a couple of matches this past week, one in Novice, and one in Utility. I made a point of challenging her in Novice by doing her recall along the ring gates where her friends were watching, She did a good job of resisting the temptation she must have felt to zip out of the ring and go visiting and came to me. Her front was not wonderful, but she fixed it on her own. In Utility she did a really nice job. There were lots of tiny things to work on but she did all of the exercises, and did a lot of things really well, Most importantly she didn't think about leaving the ring at all and was really quite with me and enthusiastic.

We did at long Urban track the other day at the college with 9 corners and lots of articles. Chianti did a fabulous job, staying right on the track, doing pinpoint corners except one where she checked a storm drain about 2 feet off the corner, which is perfectly sensible since those gather scent. She ignored adults, and while she glanced at the children at the daycare, it was only a glance an back to work. Good girl! I honestly couldn't find anything to fault on that track. We'll be getting together with some other people soon to do some blind tracks, but keeping her on a shorter line and using lots of articles has sharpened her tracking a bit. We'll keep working on that for the spring tests.

Seek Back, her favorite

Scent Articles

Just fun and yes that's mud on her face

Nap time

Back To Tracking

2011-11-16T13:32:00.001-08:00

Frosty track starting leg

On Sunday I took Chianti tracking for the first time in a couple of months. Chianti was quite happy to get out tracking again. It was a frosty morning, which was perfect. After a long break from tracking it was nice to be able to see the track and the cross tracks. For those who wonder, no the dog does not just follow the visible track. You can see from the images she is following her nose.

For me as a handler a visible track like this shows me the majority of cross tracks. In this case there was a person playing chuck it with her dog while we tracked. I could see where the and where the human had crossed the track and what my dog's reaction was. Her reaction was to check the cross track, glance up at the dog and handler playing, and get back to work.

A visible track also lets me see how wide the scent corridor is for my dog at the particular conditions. In this case the conditions were grass, relatively open, with buildings closer on one leg, track aged one hour, cold, no notable wind. In these conditions in this location she was dead on the track. In some conditions the dog will track just slightly off the track, parallel to it. This is often the case if the scent is fresh or has pooled (along the bottom of a hill for example).

She pulled hard happy to be out tracking again.

Chianti did a fabulous job on this track.I'm working on getting ready for some spring tests we'll try to get into in TDX and in UTD. I kept the line a little shorter than I have been to allow her less room for deviation, and I used lots of articles to keep her motivated, head down and on task. She was enthusiastic, ready to go at the start, dead on track throughout and resisted distractions. She indicated articles well and didn't even circle on her corners except the last one a very small circle check.

Checking the corner

Last article

A special treat and then some play for a well done track

My plan for the moment is to keep a shorter line for awhile and use lots of articles as I did on this track, and to focus more on grass. I'm confident in Chianti's ability to track hard surfaces and grass sometimes seems to be her area of weakness, which while it's the opposite of a lot of dogs, it is what it is, so we'll work on grass a bit more.

We also had an Agility class on Sunday, where I learned that Chianti is fine with switching sides and I am not! I had a lot more trouble doing a front cross with the jump on one side than the other. Go figure.

Monday we had Obedience with Anne were we worked on the signals exercise and then did some motivational about turn work to end with something fun. My goal in obedience is better overall focus, which is why I chose signals. We worked through some issues with dropping quickly and all the way at distance on the down signal and made some big improvements. Last night I did signals again on during our "in the dark" play / run / training session using an area of just enough light for her to see the signals and she performed them quickly and beautifully so was rewarded with some chuck it. I felt like Monday's class work on signals had really paid off, so we'll keep practising and working on that focus.

As an aside I find it amusing watching her retrieve the chuck it ball in the dark. No, I don't use a glow in the dark ball, I don't like the idea of glow in the dark products in my dog's mouth. She watches the direction I'm facing. She listens for the ball and the bounce and comes back with it every time. She wears a light but it's certainly not strong enough to light up where the ball goes, though perhaps is useful when she gets close to it (though I imagine being a dog she uses her nose for that part more). The light is more for me to be able to easily track her while she runs around at night.

Chianti wearing her headlight. Dogs need to run even in the dark season!

Tonight we have our last proofing class of this session, and will have a couple of Obedience practice matches over the next couple of weeks. Before we know it it will be the new year and those Tracking Tests will be just around the corner...

New Title

2011-11-10T09:35:00.001-08:00

Chianti is now Divinity's Chianti Superiore TD, PCD, RA. More importantly we had a new type of trial experience. Rally Advanced is all off lead. Chianti got her first two passes of the required three last year at FPO&TC's trials. In her first trial last year she left me a few times briefly but came back so she passed but with a low score. In her second her score was high, but she zoomed as we entered the ring.

This year was different. We lost 10 points in her first trial because she drove over the jump (the first station) so fast we weren't in good position for the second station as she came back to heel from the jump, so she went on one side of the first pylon on the serpentine and I on the other. Had I been more alert I would have held back from station 2 and gotten her in heel well before we got to the station. She fixed her positioning immediately and did well after that, but the of more significance to me, she did not even consider leaving me! The offset figure 8 was right near the audience where some of her very best friends were sitting watching us, and she did not even consider greeting them on her way by. Even when I released her at the end of the round with a boing (jump to nose touch hand) and some spins she didn't consider visiting anyone. While we finished with a passable but not fantastic 86 (ten points for the incorrectly performed serpentine, 2 out of position and 2 slow responses) it was still the best trial experience I've had with her because not once did I get the sinking feeling that she might leave for a visit.

Last year we got a 97 in the second trial, but I have to say, I felt better about the 86 round because of our connection. In our second trial, our bonus leg, she stayed with me again. Again we lost points, but I'm thrilled that she stayed with me and once again didn't consider zooming. This time we lost 10 points on a down because her elbows were up. I was rushing and should have fixed that before I walked around her. Needless to say we've been working on drops this week! We finished that round with an 88 (10 points for the elbows, 2 for out of position). The scores were not fantastic, but I can't even expressed how happy I am that my little social butterfly is growing up and understanding she has a job to do! Thank you to all of my fellow club training partners and to Anne Everett for all of your support and help with this training challenge!

The day before the trials my friend and training mentor Anne Everett of Heads Up Kennels came to the grooming salon with a film crew to film a segment for a puppy training DVD about preparing your puppy for a visit to a grooming salon. Chianti got to be my demonstration dog for handling. Of course she was thrilled since all attention is welcome in Chianti's world, and of course she was a star about having her feet, mouth, ears, tail handled, being picked up, brushed etc. A big thank you to Anne for including an AmStaff to help focus some positive attention on the breed.

Now we will focus on Tracking and try to get ready for some tests in the spring. I'll keep you posted.

Keeping Busy

2011-11-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

After taking a weekend off of classes due to illness on my part, we've had a busy rest of the week. Chianti had a proofing class on Wednesday and I was thrilled with her work. We did some heeling with noise distractions and food on the floor. I was glad that we worked with food on the floor since I had forgotten to practice this for an upcoming Rally trial. One of the exercises in Rally Advanced is the "Offset Figure 8" which requires the dog to heel a figure 8 around pylons and ignore food or toys on the floor. Having food on the floor in class gave us an opportunity to review this.

Out having fun

Relaxing in a busy grooming salon

After we had done the heeling, we worked on proofing the Scent Discrimination exercise. Ring gates were set up in a + so that the matted area was divided into 4 corners. The article piles were set up for each dog in the corners where the gates met, so that the dogs would have to work in very close proximity to other dogs working their articles. I wasn't sure how Chianti would do, because we haven't worked on Articles for quite awhile and because two of the other dogs working were dogs she loves to play with. She surprised me! She went briskly to the pile, chose the right article, barely glancing at the other dogs next to her or a person putting out an article in a pile next to her, and brought the article briskly back to me! That thrilled me for two reasons: One, it showed me that she really must understand this exercise thoroughly to perform it so well after a long break from it. Two, she didn't flirt with the people or dogs! Usually even when she continues to work, she will more than just glance. She will glance and, I don't know how to describe it, but change her body language to flirtatious, inviting person or dog to engage with her. This time she really did just glance and did not try to engage with anyone but me. It may seem like a tiny victory to some, but for me this is huge. We managed to fit in a tiny bit of work on several more exercises - broad jump, retrieves, seek back, stand for exam, and stays before the class was over, and Chianti's work ethic and attitude were awesome. It was a good night!

Last night we went to a Rally Practice in preparation for tomorrow's trial. She worked really well, stayed with me and if she works like that tomorrow she should have no problem earning the third leg of her Rally Advanced title. Fingers crossed!

Bike Dog and Back at Agility - Big Smile

2011-10-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

We've had some beautiful October days here and Chianti has, as always, been enjoying her "bike dog" time. It's great exercise for her and she truly enjoys it. At the first hint of a possible bike ride, usually grabbing a camel back backpack and filling its water bladder, she gets excited. She is truly well behaved on the trails, sticking with the bike, heeling with it or slipping right behind the back tire when told in narrower sections or to pass others. She handles the dogs, bikes, hikers, squirrels and other assorted wildlife and distractions well and it's just fun going. Here she is on a two bike ride, waiting for cyclist #2, ahem, me, to get up one of my nemesis hills. It's a long, steep hill with some rocks on it in a place that makes it very difficult to get up on a bicycle. Chianti, having 4 leg drive, has no trouble with the hill and seems curious as to why we silly humans take so long!

What's taking you so long?

On this particular trail the best part, in Chianti's view at least, is that we ride to the lake. So here she is on Thanksgiving having a swim. Swimming is definitely #1 on Chianti's fun to do list I think. Although she has fun doing anything active, my short haired Terrier definitely gets pure joy from retrieving in the water.

Today we started back at Agility class. I was looking forward to going back but was also wondering what it might be like since our Agility instructor up until now is taking a break from teaching and we would have a new format. I have always enjoyed Barb's teaching, she has a lot of experience in Agility and also has an understanding of Obedience having been involved in FPO&TC as well as in Roadsters.

Fortunately the group of instructors that took on the task did a great job. The format of the classes works really well for Chianti, with only one dog working at a time and the rest in crates when it's not their turn on the floor. The advantage of that for a dog like Chianti is that it reduces the distractions to humans, and humans can be told to ignore her if she decides to visit. It drops the stimulation down to a more manageable level. The advantage overall is that in a way it's more similar to a ring situation in Agility, Obedience, Rally, where there are spectators and dogs in crates, but there is a large working area. Spectators are good for handlers as well, since being watched is something handlers have to become accustomed to. Any stress from the handler is certainly noticed by a dog, so the more desensitized handlers can become to ring like situations, the better.

I was very pleased with Chianti's attitude today. She came out of her crate and stayed engaged with me the length of the barn to the start line. She did some really good work and I see such huge improvement over where we were a year ago with the zoomies. She did have a few very, very, brief zooms, coming back quickly. The difference was in the frequency and length of the departure, her much quicker recall, and the ability to focus when she came back. One of our instructors actually commented to me that I have great control over her because of her recall. Which I chuckled about because I'd rather she just stayed with me and I didn't need to call her back, but in a sense he's right, she does come when called. She's maturing, finally, and I believe this format will help with no inadvertent reward of interaction with other dogs for zooming.

The future is looking bright again for dog sports. We still have some work to do of course, but I'm so much more optimistic now. A year ago I was actually getting a little frustrated. I needed to go through that, and it helped me get into a place mentally where I'm truly not worried about when we compete at things, get Titles etc., which takes some pressure off. I cut the amount of training I was doing dramatically, focusing more on walks and bike rides and just her being a dog. It seemed pointless to keep an intense level of training when it seemed like it would be a long time before we would trial again. I'll increase the training again now, but it's not a race and I want it to be fun, so I'll do mini sessions. Five minutes here and there, plus her regular classes of course. We have our classes with Anne, and this week we start a proofing class. With two Obedience classes and an Agility class each week mini sessions of practice will be enough!

We're Back!

2011-10-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

We've been taking it pretty easy since our last tracking test entry, but we have done a couple of things and we're getting back into the groove of doing more starting this week.

In September we entered an AAC Agility Trial, a first for both of us! I was not expecting any Q's, entering just to gain experience in Agility. What I learned was that Agility is a whole lot of fun! . The days started early and ended late, so it was definitely exhausting, but it was very fun. Chianti was really good on the grounds, was excellent about staying in her 30" x-pen while I watched or helped as ring crew for some classes. Fortunately the trials were held at the fairgrounds, it was sunny and warm, and we were able to go to the river a couple of times for some bumper retrieves. We entered 4 classes and the toonie match the night before. As I expected we didn't Q, but she did show improvement on staying with / coming back to me and overall it was a good experience. Plus we won an 8 x 10 framed photo from the photographer at the trials Linda Matteson-Reynolds! Click on her name to see her portfolio of the Roadsters Agility Trials.

Chilling in her x-pen at the Agility Trials

We also entered a practice match for Obedience in September and I was very, very pleased with Chianti's focus in the ring. Her day will come and I have learned a great deal about patience. When I first got Chianti at 10 weeks old, she learned so much so fast, and showed so much potential. I definitely rushed some things. I've reached a place mentally this year where I no longer care about the when. We will get back into the obedience ring when she is ready. Probably next year sometime, but who knows? In the meantime we will continue to work together, building our relationship every step of the way, and have a whole lot of fun. Having said that, I have sent in an entry for Rally in November. She needs one leg for her RA. We shall see.

We have not had classes for a couple of months now, but we start Obedience classes with Anne Everett again next week and we start back at Agility with the Roadsters the following weekend, and in couple of weeks we will be in a proofing class with FPO&TC. I'm looking forward to getting back at it!. Chianti is too. She feels like she's missing out when I leave to teach classes with FPO&TC without her.

So Agility Sundays, Obedience Mondays and Wednesdays, and I have to get back out Tracking.... We'll be busy and loving it!

Enjoying some rest time

Chianti Goes on a Holiday

2011-08-20T17:13:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you want to get away but you have a dog? You take the dog with you of course! As soon as the decision was made to go to my favorite City, Victoria BC the search was on for accommodations in the area we like to be, which is somewhere along the seawall within walking distance to the Inner Harbour. Some hotels only take dogs of a certain size, but after a little bit of research we found that the Inn at Laurel Point takes all sizes of dog and will even let you leave a dog in its crate in the room as long as it doesn't disturb other guests and you leave a phone number. Perfect! That way we could go for breakfast or dinner. After it's not like you can leave a dog in a hot car and go eat! Chianti is extremely well crate trained, so we knew she would not disturb others if left for a short time. We got a great deal on a room and off we went.

Honestly it could not have been a much more perfect vacation. When we arrived the room was beautiful, with a gorgeous view.

View from the balcony of the harbour

View from the balcony of the Japanese Gardens

Chianti enjoying the balcony

Not only was the room perfect for us,but it included a dog bed, a bowl of cookies, and dishes for water and food. There was a card welcoming Chianti, and a list of dog parks in the area. The hotel was right on the seawall, making it very convenient for walking the dog whether it was for a quick airing or an hour walk along the wall or through town. It was wonderful, and Chianti was a very good girl.

She quite enjoyed her walks, and also enjoyed prancing through the hotel, riding the elevator to the room and of course the balcony. She coped so well with all of the new experiences. She'd never been on an elevator before, or through automatic sliding doors, and I don't think she's ever seen more people at once than she did walking around downtown Victoria. Chianti had also never seen a statue and was a little confused by this "head" on a day trip to Sooke. After that reaction I made sure that I exposed her to lots of Victoria's statues. She realized after that first experience though that they weren't real. There are lots of giant stuffed animal Black Bears in downtown Victoria too, outside of stores. She gave them some head tilts of interest but quickly realized they were just decoration.

At first this she was suspicious but she recovered quickly

She loved the elevator

She was on her best behavior and made me proud. Many people stopped to greet and admire her, which of course she loved. So many wanted to pet her because they were traveling without their own dogs and missed them.

One day Chianti and I were passing a lady on a bench on the seawall on our morning walk. The lady asked to pet Chianti and Chianti nudged her hand gently and invited petting. The lady began to cry. She told me that she had recently had to put down her Black Lab, and that now her husband was dying. We spoke for a little while, and all the while she patted Chianti who was being uncharacteristically calm. She seemed to know just what was required of her in that moment. As we talked and she patted Chianti the lady, Diane from Oregon, began to smile. When we parted we were all smiling and glad we'd met. Dogs can be amazing. Not just for the therapy petting them provides, but in the bridge the create in people talking and communicating with others. They are a conversation starter, common ground, a reason to reach out. Diane and Chianti connected in that short conversation, but so did Diane and I.

Chianti got to do so many things on vacation. On the way down she walked all through Chemainus and went to the beach there. In Victoria there were walks along the seawall and through downtown Victoria. Visiting Mt. Tolme and Mt. Douglas, Beacon Hill Park and the beach there,Victoria West Park, even walking right past a giant wedding reception in the hotel one night where she was on her best behavior. We even almost took her on a Harbour Ferry Tour, which well behaved dogs are allowed on, but decided she might just want so badly to get in the oh so close water it might be torture for her! So she sat that one out, and a few other "non dog friendly" activities, during which she slept peacefully in her crate at the hotel after exercising. It's the first time I've traveled with a dog other than to dog events, and it was a wonderful experience.

Next weekend we are to go back to Victoria for an Urban Tracking Test, which will be a totally different kind of trip, but hopefully still fun. We'll see if she remembers how to track after all of that vacation fun!

Still Tracking

2011-07-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

Well we get another opportunity to try. Chianti and I got into Victoria's test at the end of August.

Since my last post we've been out tracking a few times. One of those times I set up a track that was similar to the one she had in the test. made sure I put the same corner in as the last one she had trouble with on the test. This track was longer though. She aced it, having no trouble at all. About ten feet before the very corner she had so much trouble with we ran into an energetic Labrador and a family. The Lab started barking and bounding and wanted to play. I let them pass, stopping to speak with them for a moment while having Chianti sit and wait. After they passed I told her to find her track and off she went taking that corner as though it were drawn on the asphalt for her. Go figure. Conditions were similar, but of course I had laid the track and I'm sure that scent is the easiest one to follow being the most familiar. She carried on, doing several more veg and non veg corners with no trouble at all. She was a little distracted by a lawn ornament outside of a daycare. It was one of those ones that looks like a dog has it's head under the dirt digging, bum up in the air. She gave it a good look on her way by, probably thinking it might indeed be a potential playmate.

Today I laid an all grass track, which I haven't done in awhile. I was going to do more surfaces but when I was laying it I decided that I wanted to keep it shorter and all grass because it was going to be the hottest point of the day when we would be tracking it. The way I had started it to add more surfaces would have made the track very long and I didn't want that on such a hot day. When I returned to track the track an hour and a half after I laid it, the start flag was missing. I knew where it started though and also knew it wouldn't be too hard for her to find it because again it was me laying it. So off we went. It was a bit distracting because there were several children walking on the starting leg and bikes headed toward us. However she managed to start, make the first corner, and get to article without any problems. She carried on like that doing just fine. The last corner was an open corner and she was quite hot by the time she got to that one. She handled it well. I need to do lots of open corners so I can read them better. The last article was missing! Darn it! It was obvious she knew one had been there. So I threw down one of the other articles while she searched, she found it and got a big reward. Good girl.

We've been out on bike rides lots and Chianti is getting more endurance again which will be good for her tracking. She's been going to an Agility practice once a week too, and those have been great fun. I'm very happy with her progress there and I'm learning a little bit each time about handling in Agility. Hopefully she'll make her Agility debut soon. We've been back at classes with Anne as well, but I have no immediate plans of entering Obedience trials. Probably next year. I may attempt another RA leg in November, since she only needs one. We'll see. In the meantime we're keeping busy enough!

What a Girl

2011-06-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

I have always thought that the dog's ability to scent to our ability to see colors. If someone painted a thin blue line (or for that matter laid a chalk line out) for me in the way that a track is laid. I imagine in some lighting conditions and on some surface colors the line might be more difficult to detect and keep track of. Especially if it had been trampled down in spots or if people laid other lines across it in spots. It might be difficult to follow the original line.

I will honestly never fully understand scenting problems. I understand a little bit, like that moisture holds scent (anyone who has smelled a wet dog knows that), and that hot and dry is challenging. I know that wind, topography, buildings etc can cause scent to swirl, drift, or pool, etc., and that some surfaces hold more scent than others. I know that some surfaces have a lot of their own scent adding a challenge. However I will never understand how on one day a track can seem easy for a dog and on another day a very similar track can seem hard even under similar conditions. Obviously as a human who can't even begin to understand fully how scent is interpreted by a dog I am missing what variable(s) make this happen.

Honestly that's fine. I don't expect to understand. All I want is effort. On Saturday Chianti and I were in an Urban Tracking Dog test. I'd love to be posting that we passed, but even though we did not I have to give full credit to Chianti. That girl worked her butt off for me trying. It was very obvious to me that there was simply a scenting problem that she was having difficulty solving.

She started well, approaching the flag and going into a down on her own and smelling the ground. When she starts like that I know she is in a good tracking mood. Since tracking is really up to the dog, that is always a relief! Off she went going forward from the flag and then taking a left turn. She had taken the turn a bit early, but went back to the track and moved forward more and took the turn in the correct spot, crossing asphalt, a patch of grass, more asphalt and concrete. She searched the next corner, a right, then made the correct decision crossing some sidewalks and reaching the first article on grass. She carried on and worked the third corner for quite awhile eventually turning left and following the track to her final corner on hard surface, which usually she aces. She searched and searched. Searched and searched some more. She definitely did indicate right but checked left, checked ahead, and couldn't seem to decide for sure which way it went.

We were on the track for about 50 minutes. Toward the end the slight pauses she was making, which expressed to me "help I'm having some trouble figuring this out" were getting slightly longer. I looked back at the Judge and told her that I thought I was going to see the dog quit soon and made the decision to end the test before that happened. At which point the Judge said that she thought the same but that I was going to cry. With the tiniest bit of encouragement in the right direction Chianti got onto the track again and pulled me to the article. I honestly have never seen her so happy to find an article, ever! She pounced on it, picked it up, flung it, then laid down. It was as if she was so relieved to find this thing she had been looking so hard for! She got a lot of praise and petting from me and a big treat when we got to the car. What a girl giving me all that effort. I've never, ever had her on a track for 50 minutes. I'm so proud of her for trying so hard.

Overall, even though we didn't earn the Title that day, it was a good experience. I was not nervous, which was a nice change that I think has come from experience. Chianti worked for me. I don't think I could have done anything differently as a handler so I have no regrets. I tried so hard to back up when I needed to, to keep my mouth shut and let her sort it out, to be patient, to watch her carefully for indications. We both, in my opinion, did everything we could, it was just that on that particular day, with that particular track there was a scenting problem I will never understand. I have no doubt on another day she will ace her UTD Title track!

Fun Being Busy

2011-05-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

Well we've been busy. Tracking, Obedience, Agility practice.

The other day Chianti had a fantastic track with lots of distractions. She coped extremely well with the distractions. There was a motorcycle class in a parking lot, a dog on the track, kids off to the side, a car over the track. The surfaces were grass, short grass, dirt, gravel, pea gravel, asphalt and concrete. There were 2 articles and it was about the length of a UTD track. She actually held her focus very well and did some of the best tracking she's done in awhile, and pulled very strong on the asphalt.

We had an Agility practice yesterday with Sheila and Jett and Story. Chianti got hot quickly, but did very well at staying with me. Last night we went to an Obedience practice. It was a brand new environment for Chianti and she had some focus blips but overall did fairly well and stayed with me just fine. Afterward she got to play with Flurry (and Rory and Luna but really it as just Flurry who was in a playing mood). Flurry actually exhausted Chianti! Amazing! I've actually never seen another dog out - play her before.

Still With Me

2011-05-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

Loves the whistling ball

Say AHHHHH

She's still with me! Chianti's progress has been wonderful with the collar work, and I have a renewed sense of optimism for our teamwork future in the ring.

This week at class we worked on Scent Articles. I wanted to keep it fun and informal and Chianti loved that. She was going out to the pile with a whole lot of enthusiasm and checking the pile and came back with the right article several times and the wrong one only once near the beginning. Of course it was a leather. In any case I was thrilled with her drive and with her checking of the pile. She did a great job and she stayed working with me without any visiting.

We've been out for a few tracks too. All but one were quite good in the last couple of weeks. I'm going to be out a little more with her for the next few weeks. We've managed to get into an Urban Tracking Dog Test at the end of June and I'm very, very hopeful she will do what I know that she can do and pass that day.

We even got out for a bit of Agility practice on Monday, and she did very well with that too. She was able to run a partial course with another dog and handler working and stayed with me. I'm thrilled!

Hey, She's With Me!

2011-05-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

Wow it's a nice feeling! Chianti is definitely learning to control her impulse to visit. She seems to finally get that she really does need to play with me in that situation, and I love it! She's thinking, working, and we're having fun without any frustration.

Last week at Anne's we worked on directed jumping and that little girl did a great job. We've been practicing more go outs lately, and she nailed the go outs last week in class. In the Club proofing class she was totally with me. Even when she was in between stations or work, she was not tempted to visit and stayed with me. I was thrilled to see that! As much as I love that she is social, a couple of things were concerning me about it totally apart from the effect it has been having on sports: First, that she might get into trouble if she meets a dog that really doesn't appreciate her exuberant invitations to play. If she zooms in the wrong place that could happen, even at an Obedience class or event. She really does need to learn that she can't interact with other dogs without my permission, for her own safety. Second, to be honest it kind of bothered me that she chose playing with other dogs over playing with me. Even though I understand that dogs do relate to each other better than we ever can, it still bothered me. I feel so much better that she is choosing to play with me now, and is no longer tempted to try to engage with every other dog she sees ditching me in the process!

In fact recently I've noticed a few real changes while just exercising Chianti, apart from Obedience training. The other day I had her at the Fairgrounds walking. There were several dogs in one spot playing chuck it. We had to walk past them and normally I would have had to remind her to stay with me. Not this time. She glanced at them and made no attempt to engage them or go to them. So we just kept walking and it was so nice! Tonight we went for some training practice to a schoolyard. We trained for awhile, doing some articles, signals, a couple of go outs and a seek back. Part way through she did notice a Labrador not far away on the playground. However, she was able to continue working just fine, and play in between exercises with me and not be tempted to go investigate a potential playmate. When we finished I threw the chuck it a few times for her, and she did not even consider going to visit. The dog eventually ran over to her while she was retrieving the ball and after its owner collected it, she was able to continue chasing the ball and ignore the nearby dog. There was a time when she could not have continued to retrieve after that and would have only been interested in playing with the other dog.

On another note, I've done a couple of tracks with Chianti this past week and she's done really well on them, so I'm hoping she will be ready for and get into the UTD test in June. I'm so excited to have a test offered! She can track so well, it would be really cool if she could do so on that day and get her Title.

One more thing, I attended a Ward Falkner seminar that our Club hosted this past weekend. Chianti didn't have a working space, though she did get to go with me on Sunday and just keep me company. Ward was great. The seminar did what good seminars do, re-energized my desire to train and reminded me how much fun both Chianti and I have doing so. He had lots of great tips and I recommend his seminars to anyone who wants to compete in Obedience. I feel so lucky to have such a great foundation in Obedience from being with FPO&TC for so long and from classes with Anne Everett and several seminars with Janice Gunn. Seminars like Ward's and the Adele Yunck one I recently attended always provide some great information, ideas, and alternative methods as well as those "ah ha!" moments with excellent tips I'd never thought of or seen elsewhere. They also show me that in many ways the trainers in our Club are on the right track thanks to the mentors we've had in Anne and Janice. It's great to go to seminars, as many as possible by many different presenters, and I will always do so, but it's sure great to have mentors nearby. I can't thank them enough for sharing their wealth of knowledge and experience with the Club and with me personally.

Progress & A New Sport to Try

2011-04-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

First of all,we are making progress the zooming with some collar work. It's working very well. We had a productive class on Monday with Anne, and another productive class on Wednesday with the club. It was nice on Wednesday to see Chianti thinking instead of just reacting to her environment. I'm confident this is the right direction to take to address this issue. I'm glad that she is a social dog who loves everyone, really I am. However, if she does need to control the urge to go see them other dogs or people whenever she feels like, especially when she has a job to do.

On a more fun note, some fellow Club members went to a Nosework seminar recently and told us all about it. It was very interesting and given that Chianti is such a nosy girl already with the tracking and the Utility scent discrimination exercise and the card trick, I figured it might be something to try! Essentially the goal is to teach the dog to recognize and find specific scents in different types of environments. The dogs learn to search rooms, vehicles or open areas for these specific scents. A little like a customs dog searches for illegally imported foods at an airport for example, but in this case it is just for fun, and the scents are birch, anise and clove. The club is hoping to organize a seminar here on the Island, and I think it will be fun. In the meantime I have started Chianti on searching boxes laid all around a room. At first she is searching simply for a hidden treat. It will get more complicated from there, but we'll work on the beginning stages in several environments until we can have a seminar here.

Checking her first elevated box

2nd elevated box

Searching the boxes to find a treat

It was really interesting watching her when I brought her into the room of boxes. At first she thought we might be shaping something. She found the treat in one of the boxes, ate it, and immediately started offering behaviors which of course I ignored. She put her front feet in the box and looked at me expectantly. Then she pushed it. Then she flipped it. She stopped and looked at me between these offered behaviors. I said and did nothing. I had slipped a treat into another box and just waited. She eventually started looking at the other boxes and found the treat. Since she is quick and alert, I put her behind a door while I hid the treat most of the time. When I brought her back in she would often go to the last box that had a treat first. Eventually she started also looking in other areas, not just the boxes, but beside the crates, or putting her feet up on the table and the tub and sniffing. So after awhile I put a box with a treat on top of a crate. She went into the crate, searching, then came out and stood on her hind legs sniffing the box, then got the treat out.

Twice she got a box stuck on her head momentarily trying to get the treat! Knowing Chianti as I do, I knew that wouldn't upset her, and sure enough she went back to the same box right away to check it. She is not easily put off.

It was fun watching her try something new again! I think it's a good outlet for her and a good compliment to the other scenting activities she does. So here we go delving into yet another dog sport!

New Week, New Attitude

2011-04-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

We had a great proofing class on Wednesday! It wasn't perfect of course, but it was so much better than last week. Chianti was much more focused and gave me a lot more effort.

We did a couple of things to address the lack of focus. First and foremost we practiced - something we had cut back on a bit, and clearly that was the wrong direction to go with her! I had thought maybe cutting back a little would make those "work" times more valuable, but every dog is different, and for Chianti is obviously one that needs a lot of training sessions. I took her for a few play / training sessions over the week. These are "work for chuck it" sessions. At one of them there was a soccer practice and children on the playground. She had to struggle at first to focus, but we were able to work our way closer and closer to the kids and maintain focus. We worked on go outs, signals and heeling, and actually I was quite happy with her progress.

The second thing I did differently was take the leash off at the beginning of class on Wednesday and not put it on again until the end. We worked on heeling, seek back, articles, retrieves and stays. It was quite cute when we did articles because my friend Arlene and I worked together setting out each others piles and articles. We worked Sassy (Arlene's Mini Schnauzer) while Chianti was on a down stay. Then we left her pile out and worked Chianti. The piles were side by side. So of course Chianti checked both, which was fine by me. She was probably slightly confused by the fact that I had put out Sassy's articles and at one point did gingerly pick one up - which looked hilarious because Sassy's articles are quite small, but then put it down and went to her own pile and got the correct article. Overall I was quite pleased with her improvement over last week and hope that next week will be even better.

The plan now is to keep practicing in increasingly distracting environments insisting on total focus. Hopefully we can get back on track and Chianti can show what she can really do the next time we enter a ring.

Honesty and Preparation

2011-04-04T18:24:00.000-07:00

Well I always try to be honest, even with myself. After last weekend I thought for a moment that it would be really easy just to quit and never worry about entering a ring again. I felt a bit frustrated that Chianti has recently turned 3 and is still having trouble containing her social nature and focusing on the task at hand. Then I thought about a lot of other things. I thought about all of the time and effort I had spent teaching her the Obedience exercises, and the joy I feel in watching her do them well. I thought about the fun we have had together in our practice sessions. I also thought about what I have done in terms of preparing for the ring.

The reality is that I have not yet done all of the preparations that should be done before entering a trial. Honestly I haven't, even with all of the training we have done. Yes I have taught her the exercises. I have proofed them to some extent. I have had her work at times for a long time before rewards. The truth is though, I have not spent enough time working on overall focus in environments where there are lots of people other than our regular class ones. I really haven't, especially not recently. It's partly because it's difficult. Chianti is so social and so cute and everyone always wants to greet her. I have trouble saying "no, we're training and she has to learn that she can't stop and greet people." So is it any wonder that she thinks it's okay to do so?

What I have decided to do is spend a couple of training sessions per week working on extreme focus where there is lots going on. I will also need to get food off of my body again and use it sparsely as a reward, expecting a lot more for each tidbit than I have been lately. It really isn't fair to take Chianti into the ring without doing these preparations and expect her to perform to a high standard. It will probably be challenging for awhile, but we will get through it and she will have a much more clear definition of what is expected. She needs to understand that there is a job to be done no matter what else is going on or how many people are around watching. I need to get to a point where I trust her to do that and don't doubt her for a second before I enter a ring again. Eventually we will get there. I just need to be consistent with my expectations.

Close up during a frisbee session yesterday

Practicing the retrieve over the high jump yesterday

Front with Dumbell yesterday

My Little Entertainer

2011-03-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well she's entertaining. A crowd pleaser if you will. Sometimes that can be terribly inconvenient, for example when we are in the Obedience or Rally Ring and Chianti feels the urge to acknowledge her "peeps", but I have to say, I would far rather have a happy dog with her zest for life than a dog that looks uninspired by the world. Okay, honestly, just a tiny bit less zest would be a bit of alright ;)

Last week we had a good Agility class. Chianti's weaves are really coming along and she is doing actually a lot of very good things in Agility. I'm quite happy with her progress in that area, and she is showing better self control in that environment. She quite enjoys it and so do I.

In Obedience class, also a great class, we worked on Signals. I kept trying to throw a treat behind her, but I have to throw it really high because she always just catches it, being the quick dog (and food motivated) that she is. We made some good progress there. I have continued using the back, signal, reward behind method using a chuck it as a reward a few times this week outside. Chianti's stays have been very solid for a long time, but they were tested in that class by the presence of a young puppy, playing in front of the dogs stays. Chianti so wanted to be with that puppy. She did break her stays a couple of times, for the first time in a long time! However, the message did seem to get across, so it was just good proofing. Afterward she got to say hello to the puppy and was quite happy to let it put both paws on her face. It was quite cute.

Monday we went tracking with Margot and Chianti did a great job on a difficult and long Urban Track. She made a couple of errors, but nothing that she didn't recover from, and her effort was the best I've seen in awhile in tracking. Her start was beautiful: She saw the flag as we approached, and she laid down at it on her own without having to be told when we got to it. She was ready to go! As we walked back to the car after the track we passed a daycare. The children were outside playing, and were thrilled to see Chianti. So I stopped her on the path and had her wave for them. They were so excited! Of course she was happy do entertain as always.

Today I was evaluating a CGN test for FPO&TC. It was in conjunction with an Association of Island Obedience Clubs Obedience trial. I took Chianti with me, and after all the CGN dogs were evaluated I entered her in Pre-Novice. She has her CKC PCD, but only had one leg on her AIOC PCD. I was not expecting too much because we have not been training with this trial in mind at all. It was a last minute decision. She passed, but it was not her best work. She had some beautiful moments, but it seemed to take her a little while to get some focus in the heeling. She had a zoom between the exam and the recall, but came back. I could tell she was going to do it, and wish I had been more proactive. I saw her ears go out to the side in a way that they do when she is considering that option. Sigh. In any case, she came back, did the recall, and did her stay and qualified. I should not have put her in, because we hadn't been preparing for it. Now she has had another zoom in the ring, which is naturally rewarding for her. I will need to go to lots of matches to fix that. The other thing that I am acutely aware of is that I really, really need to go to a LOT of busy, strange locations and work on focus. It's a good thing it's lighter for longer now!

I have to say though, again, at least she is a happy girl. Earlier in the day someone said to me, just watching her working with me doing some warm up stuff to acclimate her to the room, "She's an entertainer isn't she?" Yes she is. That is definitely her calling in life. She can entertain a room full of people like nobody's business. She wins people over with her joie de vivre. She is happy to perform for them, if not always exactly what I want her to perform! However, it will come. We have a lot of work to do over the summer. It's time to get busy with it, but I would not trade her personality. She is the coolest dog I've ever met. Okay, I may be biased....

More Light Means More Fun!

2011-03-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

Well the days have been getting longer, and now we have moved the clocks ahead. It's been great this week being able to get out a bit after work and train / play, and now we will have even more light - yay! Chianti will certainly enjoy the increased play time and getting back to some evening training.

Last Sunday we went tracking with Margot and her Standard Poodles Donovan and Mitch. Chianti was full of beans and I did not run her enough before the track. She did well in spots, but she was definitely having a hard time keeping control of her excess energy. The really neat thing is though that the second last leg went right past where we were parked and standing talking, not even 10 feet away. We thought she might have trouble there but she did really well on that part! It was really neat to see how well she stayed on there.

Monday morning we went for a good long walk through Seal Bay park. It took about an hour and 40 minutes. Chianti had a blast.

She saw this and believe it or not, jumped in! Crazy dog.

Posing on a stump at Seal Bay

Monday at class we worked on some heeling, more for my benefit so that I could work on my timing with a called pattern. Sometimes I worry about that because I rarely have one called for me. We did fine, and ended up working on Chianti's halt sit which was just a tiny bit forged and not fast enough, so we fine-tuned it and it is much better now. We are looking forward to class tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Chianti!

2011-03-03T15:47:00.000-08:00

Today Chianti is 3 years old. It's hard to believe! She has grown up quite a bit in the last year, but is still full of vim and vigor and has some maturing left to do. Somehow I think she will always have spunk though and a joie de vivre to be envied. She is always ready to have fun at any given moment. Since she has so much energy when we are out and about, people don't realize what a couch potato she can be. At home, she spends much of her time sleeping, or storing crazy as I call it. Here is a shot of her snuggling with me at the hotel when we attended the Adele Yunck seminar last weekend.

Fast asleep at the hotel in Duncan

We had a great time at Adele's seminar. Chianti used her charms to win some new friends, and I had a few offers if I ever want to re - home her. Like that would ever happen! It was cute though. She enjoyed herself and we learned some new things for sure. I really liked Adele's philosophy about positive proofing. Chianti and I did some proofing on retrieves and that was interesting. Adele was holding "phantom food" near the dumbell and Chianti had to ignore her and retrieve. In our regular training venues that would likely have been pretty easy for her, but in the seminar venue she had to think about it. It shows me that we need to get out and train in more locations. Adele had some great ways of teaching drops and building retrieve drive too, and of mixing things up to avoid anticipation. It was a great seminar and I'm really glad we went. It was kind of fun having a girls weekend with Chianti too, and spending time with friends. Chianti's friends Flurry the Australian Shepherd and Rory the Border Terrier stayed at the same hotel. BFF Golden Retriever Jett sat beside her at the seminar and I was constantly looking down to see the two of them licking each and wagging. That is when she and Flurry weren't licking each other and wagging!

At class on Monday we worked on proofing retrieves since Chianti had struggled a bit with that at the seminar. In the end Anne was laying on the floor eating cheese (yes humans can actually eat string cheese, not just dogs!) between Chianti and the dumbell and she was successfully retrieving. She made some really good decisions and I was very pleased.

Happy Birthday Chianti, and many, many, more. There is a lot of fun and adventure yet to come!

Ya Gotta Love Vancouver Island

2011-02-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

So it rains. I've gotten used to the rain, and I don't have to shovel it. What I love is the green. There are so many shades of green! I love walking in the woods with Chianti surrounded trees, ferns, and moss. It's also great to be able to get out and track etc. all year long without the extreme weather of other parts of Canada.

On Wednesday we had our last "proofing" class of the session, and that was good. Chianti did fairly well, and I'm happy that she is progressing with her work. She made some really good decisions and only made one mistake that night, which was quickly addressed with a time out in her kennel for a moment that worked like a charm. Her best decision of the night, though there were many, was doing a retrieve of the dumbell. There were handlers and dogs lined up on each side of the retrieving path. She was certainly aware of all of those dogs there, so close, and everyone watching her, but she made the right decision and picked up her dumbell and brought it back. Good girl!

Speaking of proofing, I love this article on proofing by Janice Gunn, on her TNT Kennels website. Sometimes people stress their dogs by over proofing with extreme scenarios. Janice talks about proofing in terms of building confidence and helping the dog to be right, introducing distractions that they can handle and increasing them gradually. The dog should not shut down. It's a good article, and in her video she shows a dumbell proofing activity that Chianti and I learned at one of Janice's seminars, and Chianti loves it!

This weekend we had a a "free" weekend with no Obedience, Tracking or Agility. We lazed around and went for walks and generally slacked off. It was nice to take a break, but we're both looking forward to getting back at it too. I filled out the questionnaire for the Adele Yunck seminar, which is only a couple of weeks away! I'm so excited!

Here are some shots of Chianti just having a whole lot of fun on a walk in the woods.

She would not to want to miss something good just because it's underwater!

Wondering where the ducks who were there went

Nature's Agility

The race is long and in the end it's only with herself?

I'm sure we'll get back to work this week, and will keep you posted!

Another Busy Weekend

2011-02-07T20:18:00.000-08:00

I had the day off on Friday due to a water main repair on our street. No water, no grooming! As it turned out Nanaimo Kennel Club was having a practice match, so I decided it would be good to go. I took Chianti for a good walk in the woods first, and off we went.

I decided to play with Utility at the match. I figured it would be pushing her a little since we have not done all of the Utility exercises together often. I think the last time was actually at the beginning of December in our regular training hall. A new location would be harder. My plan was to see how it went. If things started to fall apart, just to back up a bit, then end the session. I was pleasantly surprised with the effort Chianti gave me! She did make some errors, but it was very clear that they were just due to her level of distraction. It was also very clear to me that she was trying really, really hard to work through that. In the end she did work through every exercise, and a lot of it was really nice work. I could see that she understands the exercises, is certainly capable of putting them all together, and really just needs a whole lot of practice matches and working in different distracting areas. Overall I was quite pleased with her effort.

Yesterday we had an Agility fun day. It was an opportunity to spend time with and meet other members of Roadsters Agility and play some really fun games. I was a bit reticent about going, wondering if it would be too hard for Chianti to stay with me with the high drive environment and a whole lot more people there, but decided to go anyway and do whatever we could do. I'm so glad that I did! Barb had some great games, and it was fascinating watching the Masters dogs run a complicated tunneler course. I was, however, quite relieved that they made it easier for we beginners at Agility! Even that course I was worried about getting lost on, but actually, we did just fine. Chianti was a very good girl giving me tons of drive and effort, and boy she can move fast! I was so relieved to see that she could work in that high drive environment. We played another couple of games too, one where you chose which obstacles (out of predetermined routes sections) and got points. I was impressed that she did so well at that! Another was a relay where two dogs were running at once. I was worried she would run with the other dog! She didn't! On the way back toward the crowd she did run to see everyone but came back to me, which was great, did her weaves, and we finished! That was huge progress in a very challenging situation. I am so thrilled!

Today we went Urban tracking on a windy, windy day with Margot and Dono & Mitch the Standard Poodles. Chianti did great. She was a bit cheeky at the beginning, wagging at all of the people at the College, but managed to work through her distraction and stay on track. Her corners were really, really nice today. Her hard surface work was excellent, and her indications were beautiful. Especially the last one where she picked up the article, which was just off the curb, flung it on the grass and then did her down. It was quite cute, and actually made some people driving laugh. I was glad she did that because they were turning to go around that corner, and this way she was not on the road. Smart dog - though I know that's not why she did it ;) More likely she figured it was easier to do her indication where she was rather than the six inches away where it was. In any case, I was again thrilled with her effort today. Good girl Chianti!

Tracking, Agility and A Surprise Play Date

2011-01-30T19:56:00.000-08:00

Today I decided that I was going to lay a longer track to see how Chianti handles it. It's been awhile since we did a really long one. My plan was to lay the track, take Chianti for a short run / chuck it and then go home and let her rest until tracking time and go from there to Agility. I laid the track and went to run her in a nearby schoolyard. However, instead of chasing her ball, she wound up playing with two very happy Labs. She had a blast and was pretty tired after that, so I took her for home for a nap before the track.

Chianti, Crosby and Diesel

3 dog tug, they had so much fun

Definitely having a good time


Later, at work on a track

When we tracked this track it was 2.5 hours old. She got off to a good start, and actually did a pretty good job of it. There were only 3 articles and it was a long TDX length track. I have been using lots of articles as a motivator lately, so it was different asking her to work a little longer between rewards. There were also 2 acute corners, and some changes of cover. She did need a bit of encouragement a couple of times, but really did quite well overall. She didn't have any trouble with the acute corners, though did check the second acute one which was the last corner of the track. She indicated all three articles nicely. Though she looked a bit tired starting the last leg, not surprising after her play session, but as she went along it she actually picked up steam and happily got to the glove.

After that we went to Agility. I wasn't sure how she would do, thinking she would be very tired after tracking plus the surprise play session. However, she actually did very well, even coming back to the course after momentarily getting distracted at one point. I was very pleased with her weaves and her teeter today. She made a lot of effort to be on my team actually. By the end of class she was obviously a bit mentally (and probably physically) tired, and made a few errors, which were probably partly my handling. We helped her through and ended on a positive note, and overall I am thrilled with her performance today.

It's a good thing she is having a good nap now, because tomorrow it is Tracking again, this time with Margot and the Poodles, and Obedience class!

Strides in the Right Direction

2011-01-24T20:50:00.000-08:00

Well we've taken a break from blogging but that doesn't mean we haven't been working. Chianti has 2 Obedience classes each week, plus and Agility class and a Tracking day.

With Obedience we've been working on transitions, keeping her engaging with me between exercises and during set ups for off leash exercises. Anne has had me use Chianti's "boing" (jump up to touch hand with nose) which is working wonderfully! I have used it in between exercises before a bit, but it's amazing how it has worked on the set up for off leash heeling. I get her into heel position sitting beside me, unsnap and hand over the leash, "boing" up to hand just above her nose, and then sit. It's rewarding, happy, and focused, and has worked wonders. Yay!

Agility has been incredible. Using the crate and backchaining everything to the crate, starting with one obstacle, crate and adding one obstacle at a time has worked so well! Chianti is trying so hard, and slamming into that crate so fast at the end. It's really been a great tool and I feel like Chianti and I have taken some big strides toward working as a team in Agility :)

Today's Track was much better than the past couple. It felt like she remembered today that Tracking is fun but it is a job too, and she was more committed to it than in the last couple of weeks. Her start was better, and she had some of those moments I love so much where she pulls hard into the harness telling me "it goes this way" without a doubt. As a bonus today, dozens of children poured out of the Aquatic center and crossed the track in front of us. I had Chianti sit beside me while they went. She sat on a loose tracking line and while she was looking with interest, she was simply sat. That moment made me realize what a long way she has come. A year ago she would have pulled on the line, maybe whined, and gotten herself all wound up wanting to go visiting. She was not disinterested at all, but she wasn't intense, and she was well mannered, so it was huge! Best of all, once they passed I told her to find her track and she had a wonderful, committed restart, good transition to pavement and did not make any attempt to go in the direction the children were walking. She focused on her track: Amazing!

One more exciting piece of news, we have a spot in the Adele Yunck Obedience Seminar that Nanaimo Kennel Club is hosting in February. I love Adele's books Competition Obedience: A Balancing Act and The Art of Proofing. So I'm so excited to be going!

Agility, Tracking, Obedience and SNOW!

2011-01-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

Sunday we had a great Agility class. With it being our first class back since the beginning of December, I knew that Chianti would be highly likely to zoom. So I told Barb that and that I really wanted to work on mostly just the control piece, keeping her on leash a lot of the time. She suggested that we should also use Chianti's crate and the work we are doing on impulse control with it. It worked so well! After doing some flexi work, we started using the crate. Barb had me do some back chaining to the crate. So from the exit mouth of a tunnel I sent Chianti to a crate. Then through the tunnel to the crate, then jump, tunnel, crate etc. It worked really well! Chianti was slamming into that crate so fast! We did the same thing with every little course, adding more obstacles and always ending with the crate. She did tunnels, jumps and weaves and wow did that technique work well! I left very pleased and not frustrated at all, and resolved to continue with this type of training at Agility.

I managed to get in some Tracking starts over my weekend as well with Chianti. I decided that I had jumped back into tracking too quickly, without enough of a plan. Since her starts have not been quite what I want in terms of commitment and focus, I am only working on those for a little while. Sunday I had on that was three hours old by the time Agility was over. I had laid it myself and it was a simple start, article at about 50, continue on, corner to the left and an article a short distance from the corner. Unfortunately there was someone there with Agility equipment working a few dogs when I went to track it, so it did not improve focus! It did give us a proofing situation, but really that was not what I was hoping for at this point. In any case, she did get back to work after being told firmly to do so. The next day Margot laid two starts for us. On the first one the start was not as clean as I would have liked, but she warmed up to the track as she went and got very focused. She did overshoot the corner but found her way back and her restart to the second article was good. The start on the second one track really committed. I was thrilled, and it showed me that this is the right way to go. We just need to motivate starts until they are really good, then start adding in the rest again. I also laid a track with a lot of scenting problems for Donovan to solve that day, and it was really interesting watching him work through what was presented to him. There were a lot of hills and dips on his track, and he is not accustomed to that. I find it fascinating to watch dogs solve scenting problems, and it is very, very educational about how scent works.

Club classes were cancelled this week due to snow, but we did have a class with Anne. We worked through some signals issues with Chianti. I thought she had them, but it goes to show that sometimes just when you think you've got something aced, a new problem arises. We also did some "greetings" as we did last week. That is coming along really well, even though we have not practiced it in public at all! We continued with the open crate impulse control which I think is proving to be really valuable.

On Sunday our weather was cold but beautiful, and the other day we got tons of snow! It is melting fast, but Chianti had a little bit of fun it yesterday :)

Snow on Wednesday

Cool but gorgeous last Sunday

Big Smiles This Week

2011-01-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

So far Chianti's leg has been fine, and that is enough reason to smile, but there have been a few things to smile about lately. We have a ranking result in Rally, a funny Articles training quirk, and a couple of class related successes to smile about.

Starting with the Rally Results, I never did post here that, even though we were only in two Rally Advanced Trials, Chianti, according to www.canuckdogs.com is #2 American Staffordshire Terrier in Canada in CKC Rally O. Yay! Unfortunately part of this is due to the shortage of AmStaffs in Canada, especially those entering trials, but I am still proud of my little dog :) She passed both, and had moments of brilliance in one round, and did some really nice work in the other.

We went to class on Monday and worked only on impulse control using the open crate, and impulse control with people petting her informally. She did pretty well on the crate part, making a couple of mistakes over the course of the class, but really making some good decisions and exercising some self control overall. There were times I could tell she was very tempted to go join Flurry playing with her tug toy but she resisted temptation. I wanted to work on the informal greeting because Chianti knows a sit for exam, stand for exam and moving stand cold: She is solid on those. However, in keeping with our mission to exercise better self control when people outside of the dog sport world greet her I wanted to set up some informal type exams and get some suggestions from Anne. We used a clicker, which I have been trying at Wal-Mart and the Mall, and clicked her for staying put in a sit beside me while someone pets her. From now on our trips to the storefronts will include very special treats only given when people are petting her and she stays calm. She did well, and we continued that theme at the end of our class with FPO&TC on Wednesday. This time I had Francine be boisterous and excited, and also had her get down low. That was a face licking risk for sure, and Chianti wriggled and wagged, but progressed very nicely through the exercise. She was a bit distracted for the other parts of the class, more than usual. I am putting that down to lack of exercise because I was still resting her, and 'first class back' syndrome. I'm sure she will be better next week.

Yesterday we were working on Scent Articles. I put them all in a straight line this time, just for a different look. It looked a bit like this:

She did something really cute, and I sure wish I had video of it. She went down the row of articles and knocked one out of place with her foot. She went back to that one, picked it up by the very edge of the bell, and put it back into the line! I know she is a dog, not a human, so this is not the case, but it really did appear as though she didn't want that article out of place in the line. I was trying really hard not to laugh because I don't want to encourage moving around unscented articles, but it was really quite funny to watch. She then immediately went to the right article, picked it up and brought it to me.

Bringing back the scented leather article


Bringing back the scented metal article

I saw an interesting thing happen training wise in the line too. We were quite close to the first article in the pile at the start, which was informal. Instead of sitting her at heel and doing a turn, I just had her sit with her back to the pile while I faced her, then gave her a "ready, steady, find it!". She turned and was already passing the first article in the row. So she got the first scented article, which was in the middle of the row, no problem. She got the second scented article at the far end of the row no problem. I could see the potential for a problem though, so I placed the third scented one at the beginning of the row, closest to us at the start. I knew she would be past it before she started checking, and wanted to see if she would come back to it or not. She searched from about the third one in the row to the far end. Then she searched back for a few. Then she got either frustrated or felt pressured, or whatever goes through a dog's head when it is solving a scenting problem and half heartedly picked up an article, I think it was about the fourth one from the start. She started back, and as she passed over the right one, stopped, dropped the wrong one, and picked up the right one. Which tells me we need to practice for this scenario. So we did the same type of drill today and again set the third article at the start of the row. This time she searched to the end of the row, turned around and quickly searched all the way back to the right article, picked it up confidently and brought it to me. I was sure she was going to have a problem again, and said so to my husband who was watching. She pleasantly surprised me! I heavily rewarded her good work and we finished our short training session with a grin on my face and a happy tail wag from her.

A Bump in the Road

2011-01-03T14:57:00.000-08:00

I was so looking forward to another fun and relaxing weekend over the New Year's weekend. It was shaping up to be a great one weather wise, and I had an extra day and half off to fill with fun activities. Friday though, Chianti was limping on her front left leg. My suspicion is that she just landed slightly "off" on it when she was running around on Thursday night and strained it or bruised it.

After careful examination it appeared to be the outside toe that was bothering her. It did not appear to be too serious, so I decided to rest her over the weekend and monitor it. If it wasn't better by the end of the weekend I would take her in for an exam and x-ray. So after a couple of days of carrying my 52 pound AmStaff up and down the stairs so she would not aggravate or re-injure anything, and keeping her contained and quiet, it is looking much better. I'm just glad she is not a Rottie at this point! There is no obvious limp there anymore, although I'm not convinced yet that she isn't still being just a little cautious with it. She is back to walking up and down the stairs with supervision to be sure she is not bouncing up and down them.

We had to miss a tracking day with Margot and we'll have to work only on a few really static things tonight at class. We missed running around in the outdoors in beautiful sunshine, but at least it's getting better, whew! We have a proofing class on Wednesday, but we'll just work on light things, and Agility starts on Sunday. I will take her, even if we only do a few fairly static things, just to get her back into that environment. It is so important to have her learn to stay focused there. Plus she is going to go a little stircrazy without some mental stimulation soon! If we take it easy for a week or so I'm confident she will be fine.

Chianti has been very, very good about napping at my feet and taking it easy this weekend, but now she is getting a little bit bored. She just ran in here to show me her Kong. She may be trying to tell me something ;)

Getting Back on Track

2010-12-27T16:59:00.000-08:00

We only had a few days off this Christmas, but we made the most of it with Chianti. Christmas Eve we had my son and his girlfriend for dinner and a visit. Chianti loves having company! Afterward I took her for a late night walk. It was neat because of course the store parking lots were empty, and it was very quiet. She got to run free a bit and zoom all around the parking lots. She had her L.E.D. collar and headlight on, and it was fun watching her just zoom and zoom.

Christmas Day we started with a cuddle on the floor while I watched a movie. She loved that because we just don't do that. So it was a good start. Then she had a whole lot of fun with her new toys, and we went for a bit of frisbee chasing fun. It was really a good way to spend time together on Christmas.

Catching the frisbee


A food dispensing toy, she has to bat it with her foot

She was tired later and snuggled up at Scott's feet on the blanket that she likes to claim as often as she can by laying on whatever part of it might be touching the floor. She then rolls around in it, and pulls it until it's all hers ;)

Wrapped up like a burrito

On Boxing Day I try to stay away from the shopping. It's too busy for me. I did lay a track near my house though and after a bit of a rough start Chianti did really well on the track. It was 2 hours old and mostly asphalt. The start was on grass and gravel and that was where she had the most trouble. I'm not sure if it was trouble actually or just that she was not focused, but it certainly ended well. I made a note to myself to work on starts, then took her for a walk in the nearby nature park, and decided that on our way home we would stop in front of Wal-Mart to take advantage of the Boxing Day business for crowd desensitization. Hee hee, well, if you aren't going to shop in the crowds you might as well use them for some good right? She was actually pretty good. She's gotten to the point where carts and people walking by can practically step on her and she will stay sitting still. She is more polite for the most part when people pet and greet her. The exception is usually children. She gets so excited she does have a hard time containing herself. She loves kids. I just have to work on her not getting too hyper and on her not licking them. We'll get there, it's coming along. We went for another short frisbee session after, so she was definitely a happy girl.

Today I needed to work on a Tracking start after yesterday's less than stellar one. I decided that I'm going to do a series of short tracks over the next little while, and make some notes on how her starts are at different ages, in different places. Getting back on track after a break is proving to be difficult for me, probably more than her. I have a lot more self doubt, I'm not confident about what I'm reading from her etc. Really I just need to get out there and do more and get used to reading her and trusting her again. She needs to remember that she's doing a job. I laid a fairly simple track starting on grass and then moving to asphalt and then gravel. There were 3 corners, kind of a u with a tag on the end and I aged it only an hour. There was no one there when I started to lay it, which I thought was fine, since I just wanted to work on her start. However, people started to arrive while I was laying it, and when we tracked it there was a casual football game going on right beside it. That was fine too! Sometimes you just change what you're working on. It turned out that we were working on starts with a significant distraction (balls, people, running, yelling, laughing, jumping 15 feet away). Fine.

It was a good exercise for her. I knew when I was putting her on the down at the start that I was going to be competing with this distraction. She was not focused at all on her job. I started her, and she went a couple of feet and then picked up her head looking at the people. I brought her back to the start and made her start again. I did that twice and then she started clean. At about 50 paces she stopped and raised her head again, and I gave her a leave it, get to work command, quite firmly. It would be nice if she'd just had a clean start and gone without me having to restart her or give her an extra command, but that would not be training would it? ;) This was more valuable because it reminded her that it isn't optional. She did and actually did very, very well after that. Her first corner was very clean. Her second, on asphalt, she circled a little first, but executed it well staying right on track after her circle. Her last one was clean and that last leg looked truly committed and confident. She indicated all 3 articles well and was rewarded: Tracking is not optional, but in getting back into it after a break, I do want it to be rewarding. At the end of the track she was heavily rewarded at the last article with a bit of turkey, and then we threw bumpers for a few minutes, she went into the pond (crazy dog) and then we played frisbee for a few more minutes before leaving. So all in all I think it was a pretty positive experience.

Hopefully next weekend we can continue to work on starts with Margot and the Poodles. I can't wait to get back on track with tracking and feel more confident in both my dog and in my ability to read her again. I know it will come, we're just out of practice.

Holidays & Reflection

2010-12-21T20:42:00.000-08:00

It is now only a few days until Christmas, and as the year comes to a close I find myself reflecting on the fun that we've had, the challenges we've faced, and the accomplishments we've made.

While we were not successful in earning a TDX this year, but that just means that we get to keep tracking :) The good news is that we were very close to success, so that bodes well for our next attempt! We were successful in an Urban Tracking sanctioned test this year, and I'm still very proud of Chianti's performance that day. I'm looking forward to an opportunity to get into an actual Urban Tracking Test in June, here in my area. Hopefully she will perform as well and get a UTD! We will continue working toward TDX as well, and see if we can manage get into a test next year.

We were successful in earning a Pre-Novice Dog Obedience Title. It is a beginner Title, but Chianti showed some flashes of brilliance in the ring, and was absolutely joyful there. The PCD is her third Title, and all are in different areas, which I love because it shows her versatility as a canine athlete. She is now Divinity's Chianti Superiore TD, RN, PCD. I look forward to working toward a CD next year hopefully.

We were successful in passing both Rally Advanced Trials we entered, which means we are 2/3 the way to another Title! One of her rounds was nearly perfect and I'm so proud of how she did in that round. She pulled herself together and really did some nice work that afternoon. Maybe next year we'll try to get that final leg for an RA.

Aside from competing we have enjoyed many adventures together in 2010. We really loved Agility and Obedience Classes, the Janice Gunn seminar in the spring and the Terri Everwine Urban Tracking seminar in the summer. We learned so much from all of these things. Both Chianti and I definitely enjoyed participating in the Fall Fair and Christmas Parade, Rally practices and Obedience matches. We have had many good walks through the trails, swims, runs in the parks, and made friends of all kinds, canine, equine and human. Goofy upside down fun, zooming around the back yard, and just general silliness created some memorable moments as well. Chianti continued with her love of bumpers and Chuk It, and discovered love for the frisbee.

While I do have many goals for Chianti in dog sports, I never, ever forget to enjoy the ride. All of these sports are really about one thing: My relationship with my dog. We have fun together!

This holiday season may you all have good memories of the ride to reflect on too. Have a wonderful Christmas everyone, and a very Happy New Year!

Tracking & Expectations Continued....

2010-12-15T19:41:00.000-08:00

On Monday I took Chianti tracking. This is only the second time we've been out since our TDX attempt in September. We were busy with Rally, Obedience and Agility so we took a break. Last Monday we went out for the first time since the test with my friend Margot and her Standard Poodles Dono and Mitch. It was fun to be out again! Chianti had moments of commitment and moments of distraction that time out. It was especially distracting for her on her final leg near the daycare. All of the kids were up at the window watching her, waving, and the supervisor opened the window and spoke to us, apparently a big fan of dogs :) So Chianti had to be heavily encouraged to get back to work, but did eventually get to the article. I am certain she thought it would be worthwhile to take a break and visit the daycare kids ;)

Approaching corner 3, going strong

After a clean corner 3

Tracking uphill

Tracking downhill approaching acute corner 6

On the acute corner

This Monday it was just Chianti and I. She did better than last week, though I think I could have laid an easier track to get her back in the groove. Not that it was that complicated: It had 6 corners, and 4 articles, one hour old, light rain, no noticeable wind. She got off to a good start, worked the first corner well and fairly quickly, and committed heading across the asphalt. The second corner she managed quickly, and the third. At the fourth corner there were a few distractions: A trash bin that obviously smelled well marked, a dead bird, and people doing Tai Chi. She needed encouragement to work past the bird and bin distractions, and oddly enough did not pay much attention to the people, unusual for her. Off we went uphill toward the fifth corner. Away from the distractions she committed nicely going up the hill, but at the top had to work the fifth corner for a short time before deciding which way to go. The track went left along the ridge of the hill, and it seemed from watching her as though the scent had pooled a bit in the opposite direction to the right and downhill, as she was momentarily convinced it went that way.. She worked it out, went left and carried on. I thought the sixth corner was going to be difficult. I set it up on a downhill section with an acute angle. I thought for sure she would overshoot and have to work her way back. Surprise surprise, she aced it.

Exercising self control and waiting for release

We have also been continuing with impulse control training. It's been going very well! Yesterday I don't think I locked her crate once all day. She was in there lots, but with the door open while we worked. Periodically I would give her a release and let her wander the salon for awhile and then I would send her back. She did incredibly well! It was an incredibly busy, crazy day, so that is impressive. She curled up and napped or watched what was happening but waited for release to leave the crate. I really think this is going to help her.

Tonight we went for a walk, and then I stood outside a very busy Wal Mart with her sitting beside me watching people walk by and being expected to sit politely and not mush all over everyone as she would like to do. Understandably so, because lots of people want to greet her but this month's theme is self control. She did very well and I will keep using the busy holiday shopping season to my training advantage!

Expectations

2010-12-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

At some point when I teach a class, I tell the students it's time to start expecting more from their dogs. There does come a time when you just have to expect certain standards of behavior and insist that those standards are met. Well, I have to take a bit of my own advice.

Yesterday, I had a bit of a discussion with my husband about Chianti. Don't misunderstand, he loves her absolutely to bits, and she adores him. However, he did point out to me that while she is doing very well at sports, she does still have a few bad habits outside the ring world. I have to admit that he's right. There are a few areas where I need to expect more from Chianti, and I've decided to spend the next little while tweaking those things. It's a very good time to focus on housekeeping with her manners right now since we don't have any events planned in the immediate future, and since classes are not in session for a few weeks.

Everything that Chianti does that is slightly annoying comes down to one issue: Impulse control. She is the most social dog I've ever had, as I've mentioned before. She loves, well everybody and everything quite frankly. To the point where she does have a hard time containing herself when a new person or dog arrives wherever she is. I love that she is social, I really, really do, but she does need to learn a bit of self control. If allowed she would jump on people and greet every dog she saw.

One thing we have started to do is go back to walking in high volume of traffic areas. It's a good time of year to do that: There are shoppers everywhere! So we walk at the Wal-mart plaza, at the Mall, etc. Sometimes we spend a few minutes outside the entry / exit to the stores and just watch the people go in and out. I keep the leash loose and expect Chianti to behave and be polite and not greet people without permission and certainly not jump on people. She finds this challenging: She would much prefer to be the official greeter thank you ;) I think it's something we just need to do a lot of, and I'm hoping that if we do it will just lose its novelty.

Today at work I thought I would try an experiment. Chianti is in my grooming salon when I work. She is not normally running around free in there unless all of the dogs are either gone home or in crates while we are on a break, or if I'm just taking her outside for a romp and bathroom break. She has a very large wire crate in there that she is normally in while I'm working on other dogs. She likes being in the salon, and anxiously comes downstairs every morning, ready to go to work. I decided today that she was going to be given more freedom and that I was going to expect her to take some responsibility for herself.

I did not use Susan Garrett's "Crate Games" method of crate training with Chianti, but I did do something similar. Had I seen Crate Games when Chianti was a puppy I would have used that method, because I really like it. Chianti is crate trained, and understands that "Kennel" means get into your crate. Today we tested the limits of her going there on command under pressure, and staying there not breaking the plane of the open doorway until told. In the afternoon I let her loose. The expectation was to not interfere with the dogs being worked on, an already known rule, and to go directly to her crate on command and stay there in the open crate no matter what.

While she is never, ever normally loose other than when we are breaks or in transit, Chianti has been taught not to interfere with dogs being worked on in the tub or on the table. I have taught her that since she was puppy whenever moving through the salon to go outside or upstairs, so she already knew that rule. I started today by randomly giving the kennel command a few times and rewarding her for going directly to her kennel and staying there until given a release cue, just to remind her. Then the pressure was increased by adding distraction. The first "distraction" was a dog that Chianti knows arriving for grooming. It was a Golden who she has played with before and knows from the dog club. When the car pulled up, I gave the kennel command. She went to her kennel and I praised her. When Remy came in the front door, Chianti stayed put. I spoke with the person dropping Remy off, and opened the half door while checking to make sure Chianti was staying. I saw her having an inner struggle and she put a foot out. "Ah Ah, no." I said. She pulled her foot back in and she stayed as I brought Remy in! I know she had to work really hard on self control to do that.

I continued with the same drill for the rest of the afternoon. The door of the crate was open for the rest of the day, and Chianti had the responsibility of going there when told and staying until given a cue. She did this while I checked in and out several dogs. When I was finished grooming Remy in fact, I got him off of the grooming table, let him loose while I got his collar and bandanna, and expected her to stay in her kennel while he wandered. She did! Huge progress. When Remy went home, I let him through the half door to and while I spoke with his dog sitter, I gave Chianti her release cue and expected her to exercise self control and not jump up on the half door to greet human or dog. Again, she rose to the occasion and did what I expected, pleasantly surprising me! I have decided that I will continue to use my work environment whenever it is safe and reasonable to do so. People and dogs, her two favorite things, go in and out constantly there and if I can use that to teach her to exercise better self control, I think I will see a huge improvement in the few bad habits she has. That combined with the high traffic area walks should go a long way. I'll keep you posted!

Chianti "helping" Scott dry Remy by sitting against Scott. Silly dog!

Not quite knowing what to do with her new found freedom, she manages to trap herself momentarily.

A Successful Match

2010-12-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

I have said I need to get into a lot of Practice Matches with Chianti to get her ready for trials. Tonight I had her in a Club Practice Match, and it was exactly what we needed. We just need more of them!

I put her into Utility first. Set up, as soon as the Judge said "Forward" on the seek back, Chianti went on a super short zoom. We were set up heeling along the ring gates where the audience was. She zoomed, checked her "peeps" and came back and set up when I called her. Sigh. After that she was fine, and though I had lots of little handler cadence and timing errors (I need matches to learn to wait for the Judges' commands) she made a pretty good effort. On her seek back she did jump the jump on the way back, which is not something she normally does, but she did come straight to me, held the glove, and performed the exercise fairly well. She made some stress mistakes on the Articles, but it was easy to get her to correct them. I am positive that was stress. We have not been doing articles in many different places, and right now she really likes leather. Her Articles have been perfect at home, so we need to move around a bit with those. We did a condensed signal pattern, which was fine. She needed a verbal for the down which was undoubtedly ring stress too. We have not done them in that setting. She did do the sit, recall and finish on signals :) Her moving stand was fine, which is great because that is a very hard exercise for a social dog. I was not sure that she would remember directed jumping, because we have not been practicing it lately, and in fact have not put the whole exercise together more than a few times ever - go out, jump, front, finish, set up and repeat with other jump. So I was pleasantly surprised that she did it! Actually fairly well. Her go out could have been faster, she trotted and would normally run. It could have been a bit more straight too, but it was way more than I was expecting! Her turn and sit was fine and I did not see any faults with her jumps or fronts. So yay!

Because of the zoom at the beginning, my friend Ruth suggested putting her in Novice. The idea was that the set up and heel on leash would help her have a chance to get her brain engaged and settle in before the leash came off. I am so glad that she suggested it, because Chianti did a beautiful job of her Novice routine. Ruth was exactly right: Chianti was good on the on leash heeling, and I think, from my perspective, that her figure 8 was very pretty. Her stand was perfect, and by the time we got to the off leash heeling she was totally in the zone and did not think about zooming. Her off leash heeling was very nice too, and her recall was perfect. Of course we also got to do stays, which are always a good thing to practice,and those were solid. What a nice way to end the night!

I feel like overall it was a very productive night!

A Great Class!

2010-11-30T22:03:00.000-08:00

We had a great time at class yesterday in spite of the lousy weather. The wind and rain howled outside, but we had fun and did some productive work.

Last week when we practiced signals Chianti crept forward at bit. So we put out a barrier to remind her to stay put. It worked well. This week Anne had a new idea that came from something Connie Cleveland is doing with signals. It involves using a platform and having the dog's front feet on it close to the edge for the stand. Then leaving the feet resting on it on the down, which helps them learn to move the front feet back for the sit. It took a few for Chianti to have any idea what I was asking, but here are some photos of us working on it at home using a phone book. A slightly thicker one would work better I think.

It was kind of a fun way to do the exercise, and it was neat watching how Chianti reacted to this change in the picture. She definitely showed that she was not quite sure, which is good. Helping her understand that the signal is still the same thing even with a different set up will build confidence.

We worked a bit on the seek back too, and she stayed with me, which I was very happy about. I was also pleased to see her bring in the glove without any mouthing or hold reminders and that she made sure her front was good on her own without any reminders. Then we worked on proofing focus with heeling. She worked really hard for me and I was thrilled with her effort last night. It was much improved over last week actually.

Before and after class she said hello to her canine classmates and I think she quite enjoyed it. Plus, I wish I had video of Liz teaching her to tap her front feet. Chianti was sitting with me, just vibrating because Rory was having fun. She was lifting her front feet off the floor, alternating in quick succession, very quick steps in place. Liz looked at her and did the same with her feet, quick steps in place. Chianti did it back. Liz did it. Then Chianti did it. It was so funny!

Tomorrow we have an Obedience Practice Match. I have put her into Utility and we will do parts of each exercise keeping it fun and motivational. It will be interesting to see how she does with Utility exercises in that setting. Sometimes I actually think she is better with things that she has to think more about. We'll see.

Chianti in Her Element!

2010-11-28T20:23:00.000-08:00

Well as I mentioned in my last post Chianti is an incredibly social dog. She loves people and dogs, and loves attention. So today at the Christmas Parade she was definitely in her happy place!

We went with red and white collar and anklets, and a harness decorated with garland and some decorations. We decided to go without antlers, since they probably would not stay on well while she was being active, and she does not really love them, though she will tolerate them for my sake. She was definitely looking festive, and even though I did not take a camera several photos were taken of her ;) This one was by my friend Arlene Bishop, but many onlookers took photos of Chianti.

Last year Chianti was almost overwhelmed by the crowd on the main parade route. Her reaction last year made me think of a scene in the move A Night at the Roxbury, where Will Farrell's character is overwhelmed by the women at the Roxbury, referring to it as "hottie overload". Chianti was in people overload last year, completely overstimulated and had some difficulty at first in performing any tricks, though she did settle into it with some really good treats and some time.

This year Chianti was thrilled, but not overwhelmed. While we were waiting for the parade to start, she greeted people, wagged her tail happily, prancing along to our place in the line, and wanted to play with her all of her dog friends, especially Tango (bottom left in the photo below) who also wanted to play. When our turn to start on the parade route came, she performed lots of tricks and did really well. She wagged for the crowd, was happy to see them, and was truly in her element, but was able to engage with me too, and put on a show for the parade watchers. She did some heeling, pivots, waves, bows, back arounds, spins and twists, backs, some signals, and lots of "boings" jumping up to a hand touch. She definitely had lots of fans. It was really nice to see her having such a great time today, and I had a great time too.

All of the dogs and people from Forbidden Plateau Obedience & Tracking who participated had fun, I am so glad we participated again this year. I love Trials and Tests, and most of all the training for them, but my favorite thing to do with my dogs has always been these public events - parades, fairs, demos. I love getting out there and showing people how much fun they can have with their dogs. I also, of course, like to show the positive attributes of the often misjudged breeds. Chianti did a great job of that today. I am very proud of my little tail wagging, happy-go-lucky ambassador!

Below is a photo of the members of FPO&TC who participated today, Chianti and 10 of her good friends. Top row Leah and Flat Coated Retrievers Luna and Toby, Lisa and Shih Tzu X Panda Bear. Middle row Liz and Border Terrier Rory, Jo Anne and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Guinness, Chianti and I. Bottom row Pam and Australian Shepherd Tango, Wendy and Chinese Cresteds JJ and Zeeba, and Arlene and Miniature Schnauzers Sassy and Zoe.

Understanding the Why Helps With the Plan

2010-11-25T18:04:00.000-08:00

I have been doing some reflecting on Chianti's performance in Rally Advanced. I've been trying to make sure that I fully understand why she is responding the way she is, so that I am able to make an appropriate plan to deal with it. I really feel that the zoom and come back is a stress response. Some dogs stress "up" and Chianti is in my opinion, one of them.

Someone asked my why I thought she was stressed. Probably she asked because sometimes "up" stress just looks like a dog being bratty. Of course a normally confident looking dog who can heel quite well ditching heeling momentarily to do a quick lap looks bratty! However, knowing Chianti as well as I do, and observing all of her body language, what she is looking at, how she is looking at it, seeing a conscience of sorts in her coming back to me, and watching for patterns, I am sure that it is stress. So that's why I see stress.

As for why she is stressed, that's an important thing to understand when coming up with a plan to help her through it. I think I understand the kind of stress she is feeling. It's like seeing a table full of desserts and being told you can't have them, you have to eat your vegetables instead. You might like vegetables just fine, but wow, desserts would be better and they're right there for you to take! Or like a kid having to do homework in a toy store. Or an adult having to finish an assignment for work at the office party. You know you should do what you are expected to do, but the temptation is huge! There is some stress in resisting temptation and doing what is expected: It is hard.

Chianti is an extremely social dog. She loves everybody pretty much without exception. She has, since she was a baby puppy, been showered with attention just about everywhere we go. Partly due to her obvious happy nature, and probably partly due to her sharp markings and her unusual ears. For whatever reason, she has charisma that causes her to get a lot of attention from people. That is fine, but people are her toy store. She likes working, she knows what her job is, but it is just hard for her to do at her age and experience level, especially when the leash is not on. That is the other piece: I think it was a lot to ask of her to perform off leash when we not done a significant amount of off leash proofing. So all of the sudden she has the option of a lot of freedom in a tempting setting, knows she is supposed to stay with me and feels stress. She burns some of it off, sees the error of her ways, feels slightly more stressed because she has now made a mistake. It can build on itself. It was probably too much, too soon. We will be doing lots and lots of matches and lots of off leash work everywhere with variable reinforcement.

On Monday at class, I worked with her on off leash heeling. Anne suggested releasing her unpredictably to a hidden toy. We worked quite a bit on that while other dogs were working on the other side of ring gates. She did zoom a couple of times, but got better as time went on. I do think that I need to make myself worth staying with. However, I will have to be sure to add in some formal between unpredictable, fun releases, and at various points. I can't make it all fun and informal during training and then go into the ring and be formal: That would make the ring a very negative place.

Last night we went to a Rally Match. She did pretty much what she did at the trials. Set up, start, zoom, back. So we did more than one set up and start. I did some random releases and play. I watched her watching the "judge" and could see that she was having an inner struggle. When we went into the ring again later, she did the same thing, but when we set up again, she made a conscious decision to work with me and work well. She looked at her peeps, and made a very deliberate decision to work instead. For that she was released and heavily rewarded with a game of tug. Now that I have figured out the why, and have a plan in place, we will continue with proofing and matches.

Some of this will get better with mental maturity: Most of us, dogs included, just make better decisions when we are more mature. In the meantime, I learned that she is not quite ready to go to a Trial, even a Rally Trial, and be expected to work off leash. We have a bit of work to do first.

This weekend though, we are in a parade. Just sheer fun for Chianti, with a little bit of heavily food motivated obedience demonstration along the way. Here she is trying on a couple of different outfit options for the parade :)

2 Rally Advanced Passes

2010-11-22T08:54:00.000-08:00

There is just no mimicking a Trial, even at a Match, at least not for Chianti. She seems to know the difference. On Friday night she was great in the Match, stayed right with me, I was quite thrilled since Rally Advanced is all off leash, and had great hopes that she would be that good on Sunday for the 2 Trials we entered.

In the first Trial, I set her up at the start, took of the leash, she stayed nicely while I handed it over to the gate steward, and began to heel. We got to the first station, a circle left, which she started to do, then decided to do a quick run off. She came right back, and and was with me for a few more stations, then got out of position again, but quickly came back. She stayed with me after that until we got to a pivot 180 left. She normally pivots very well to the left, rear movement being something she is really good at. Between a change I made in my footwork and her not being focused, it just did not happen so we lost 10 points on that station. The Judge commented on how entertaining she was, and the crowd certainly loved her happy antics. Sigh. I guess someone had to be a clown! We did qualify with a low score, to my surprise actually. I stood outside the ring analyzing our experience. I decided that the work she did was really actually quite good other than the pivot, and that she came back to me really well. I felt that, while not thrilled that she "took her own route" so to speak, I did manage to keep my composure and get her back calmly and quickly. She got better as the course went on. So after seeing her have a better second round last weekend in Pre Novice, I decided to stay and compete in the afternoon trial. If she had been getting worse as the round went on I would have pulled her from the afternoon.

In the afternoon I had her all warmed up, with me, paying attention and ready to go. Just as we were entering the ring someone knocked on the door (which had slipped shut and locked) and a couple of dogs started to bark quite loudly. Chianti was definitely distracted by it, curious what the noise was all about, and while it's too bad it happened, it would have been worse if we had already started I think. I did my best to get her back as we went in, set up, handed off my leash, and started heeling. At the first station a 360 right, which is only a short distance from the start, maybe 8 steps at most she ran off again. I thought oh shoot, here we go again! This time though, she came back, we redid that station, and she was completely with me for the rest of the course. We lost 3 points for re-trying the first station, and did not lose a single point after that, the rest she executed perfectly! Yay! She went from a low qualifying score to a 97. More importantly, she went from a distracted performance punctuated by moments of brilliance to a very focused performance punctuated by one moment of distraction.

What I am learning about Chianti is that she will settle into Trials. She is still very green, being a young dog, but she is showing me that once she is a bit more seasoned she will do very well. I think the plan is going to be a lot of matches. I have her in a Rally match this week and an Obedience match next week and we will be doing all off leash work in Rally and we will do Utility in the match which of course off leash, just to get her to take responsibility in a similar environment. I will also have to make a point of doing what I did this past week more often with proofing in busy, highly distracting places. I think all of our work at Anne's will be on off leash exercises for awhile. What I am going to take away from this weekend and focus on is the really good stuff. Yes she left me, but she came back and got back to work. She improved as the first round went on and as the Trial went on. The work she did was actually very, very good work. It's the little things in life! As a bonus, she did earn 2 legs toward her Rally Advanced Title :)

Rally Match Done, Trials Sunday!

2010-11-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

At class on Monday I asked Anne about our experience at the NKC trials. She did agree that this was typical of a green dog, and that it is a very good sign that Chianti managed to sort out for herself by the end that she was to be focused and working. So yay! We worked on proofing focused heeling on and off leash at class, with all of the dogs and handlers up on the floor while we worked. It was a very good session. I also took Chianti for some walks to Wal-Mart this week and worked on focused heeling there, which we have not done for a long time. That was also very valuable and it made me realize how little of that sort of thing we have done lately. I have to make sure that even though I don't have as many training sessions as I used to with her, that the ones I do have are valuable. On Wednesday I took her to classes even though she wasn't in one. I just wanted her in the building, and used her to demo a couple of little things. She was quite happy to go of course :)

Here is a photo of us from last weekend, ignore the date stamp, it was not changed when the battery was replaced ;) Below is another of Chianti after I released her from her group sit. She bounced!

Tonight we had a Rally practice in the building where the Trials are this weekend. We are only entered on Sunday. Tonight she was great! She was with me the whole time in the ring, and even though she did glance at the toys on the offset figure 8 she stayed with me. So hopefully on Sunday she will be that attentive! If not I will chalk it up to green dog and the different stress level, and we will keep training and proofing. Well, we will keep training and proofing either way! Next week I have her entered in a Rally Practice Match Wednesday, and the following week in an Obedience Practice Match where we will run through most of Utility, just for a change of pace. It should be fun!

A New Title

2010-11-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

Chianti passed both Sunday Trials at Nanaimo Kennel Club's CKC Obedience Trials in the Pre-Novice class. That means she earned her Pre-Novice Dog (PCD) with a bonus leg. Yay! There were some things she did very well. She stayed put on the sit for exam and still managed to lick both Judges. Her Recall and her Group Sit Stay were perfect in both Trials. Her heeling was not. She was unfocused, and that was a bit of a surprise because normally her heeling is very good. In the first trial she bumped me a ton on the circle left because she was just not paying attention. In the second trial, she was still not focused at first, but somewhere between the end of heeling and the start of the circle left and right she clicked into working mode. Her circle left and right was very pretty heeling in that trial, and I was so relieved that she seemed to realize on her own that she was supposed to be working. The whole reason I stayed for the second Trial was to see if her heeling would be any better than in the morning, so I was very, very glad that she had that great moment.

I'm not sure how to take what happened with the heeling. I'm sure that it is largely green dog stuff, and I am happy that she seemed to sort it out in the end. However, as far as training goes, I need to decide how to deal with it. I will be asking Anne tonight. I'm leaning toward more proofing in very busy areas, which we have not done as much of lately, but I'm going to see what she says.

We are entered in Rally Advanced next weekend. I have no idea how that is going to go after the surprise heeling this weekend, and Rally Advanced is off leash. However, I can talk and use gestures in Rally. We are entered in both Trials on Sunday but maybe we'll only do one.

I think the strategy part of training and trials is difficult. Each dog is different, and there is a lot of trial and error in choosing when to enter, how many events, what warm up to use etc. I'll figure out eventually what works best for Chianti. In the meantime, I will be happy that she fixed her lack of focus herself and had a really nice moment of brilliance with that circle left and right.

Good Weekend Helps With Healing

2010-11-08T20:52:00.000-08:00

Well, yes and no. I was so upset about Ginger's case I actually chose not to go to my FPO&TC monthly meeting on Thursday. It was just too hard to be around people when you feel such sadness and feel so defeated by stupidity.

I went to the practice match in Nanaimo on Friday, though I slept little the night before and my head was not entirely in the game going down right after work. So all I did was a set up and a few steps of heeling, then several recall set ups and recalls from different parts of the ring. It was good, but I think I really was only half there. At that point I was still trying to decide what to do on Sunday. Trial, or Agility class or what? At one point I thought neither. Agility would end too late to go to visit my cousin after in Port Alberni, which I had promised to do. So I decided for sure I was not going to go to Agility. On Saturday night I decided that I would go to the AIOC trial in Nanaimo on Sunday morning, enter only the morning Pre-novice, then go to my cousin's from there after. So that is what I did. Chianti earned her first Association of Island Obedience Clubs leg in pre-novice, and the judge was very nice to us and said when he presented us with the ribbon that Chianti is a very good example for the breed and that I should get her out a lot and do a lot with her. I smiled, knowing that he is Judging a Rally trial we are entered in a couple of weeks. She definitely will get out a lot over the next several years ;) She did a fairly nice job with a couple of head drops on about turns - yes I am being picky! So we worked on some strategies for that tonight in Anne's class. One of them was warming up with breaking into a leash tug game as we make an about turn. Chianti loved that so we will definitely practice that a bit to motivate about turn focus.

After the trial I went to visit my cousin. She has two youngsters there, and while I know that Chianti loves kids, I was a little worried she would be too hyper for them. Not at all. The kids were great with her, and she and James, who is 6 (I think) bonded especially well. She followed him around, he threw toys for her. It was great.

The best part for me though as a dog person, was watching Chianti cope with their Chihuahua who greeted her with a lot of aggression: It was growling and snapping at this strange dog on her turf. I watched as Chianti did her thing. She is so good at reading and talking to other dogs. I kind of use her in the grooming salon as a stabilizer actually, crating aggressive dogs or nervous dogs beside her. With all of her body language she explained to Belle the Chihuahua that she was not a threat, and that she had no interest in bothering her. She was so appropriate, I was very pleased. Belle decided to retreat to under the table and just watch from a distance for the most part while Chianti continued to play with the kids, ignoring Belle. Given more time I'm actually quite sure Belle would have accepted her even further, but it was great to see Chianti's reaction to aggression be so appropriate. I guess she took a deescalation course ;)

It was good to have a good weekend, but bittersweet knowing that there is so much unfairness to this breed and several others (and mixes) referred to as pit bulls in Ontario. Imagine how different Chianti's life would be there.... poor Ginger.

So now I am looking forward to the CKC trial this coming Sunday, and hopefully getting Chianti's last PCD leg. I will let you all know how it goes, and will continue to try to set show the world as best I can that these dogs are wonderful, loving dogs who deserve to exist in the world by doing just as that Obedience Judge suggested: Getting out there, doing lots of things, and setting a good example.

Ginger Ordered Killed

2010-11-04T17:45:00.000-07:00

Gee Ma I wanna go... Back to Ontario... Gee Ma I wanna go home... Part lyrics to a song my friends and brother and I used to sing as kids. That was back when Ontario was my home. It was also when I thought that the world was a safe and good place for good people: That wrongs could always be righted, the good guys always won. It was when I looked at the Trillium as a symbol of Ontario, never to be picked, and to be looked on with reverence when spotted on my childhood walks in my rural Ontario area. The innocence of youth is a fleeting gift. Do I want to go back to Ontario now? I am so sorry for the sake of my Mother and late Father no way.

You may remember the story of Ginger. Ginger was being walked leashed and muzzled in accordance with the law in Ontario. She was attacked by an off leash dog and had her muzzle torn off and eye injured. She bit the other dog, and apparently its owner when she was attacked, though there was no injury to the owner that required medical attention. Ginger was incarcerated for over 3 years while her owner fought to have her freed from death row. Eventually the owner's lawyer managed to free the dog while the case was before the courts. Ginger's case was won, but was appealed by the City of Toronto. The Appeals Court ruled today that the "destruction" order will stand. I don't like to call it a destruction order, or euthanasia when it is a healthy animal being discussed. It is not a destruction order, it is an order to kill. Here is the entire ruling of the case if you would like to view it. I find the summary distasteful. In essence, the eradication of "pit bulls" loosely defined in the legislation, has been ruled constitutional. Therefore it does not matter what circumstances Ginger bit under, because she is labelled a "Pit Bull" she should be killed under the law. Here is the very last paragraph:

[30] I recognize this decision will be difficult for Mr. Huggins, and the result perhaps
incomprehensible to him. Like pet owners generally, he is undoubtedly very fond of
Ginger and sees her as the friendly dog and docile pet his mother portrayed at trial. The
legislature has decided, however – as it is entitled to do – that pit bulls are inherently
dangerous animals that pose a risk to public safety by their very presence in public
places. The language of s. 4(8) is clear and unambiguous about what is to happen when a
pit bull contravenes its provisions, and must be given effect.
“R.A. Blair J.A.”
“I agree D. O’Connor A.C.J.O.”
“I agree Janet Simmons J.A.”

Well all due respect, but I do believe this is incomprehensible to many, many more people. I find it quite frankly disgusting and it is certainly a miscarriage of justice. If I were assaulted while walking in a park minding my own business and obeying the law, I would certainly not expect a death sentence for defending myself, especially if the only permanent injury was sustained by me! I realize that some people think of dogs as "it's just a dog" or disposable somehow, but dogs are living creatures. This dog is loved, as this Judge pointed out, just as my dog is loved. This dog did not act unreasonably given the circumstances and this is simply unfair and just plain wrong. A dog should not be sentenced to death because it had the nerve to have short hair and an athletic body when it was attacked by another dog. Or because it had the nerve to not just stand there and be attacked. The other dog by the way was not sentenced to death.

I won't even start in on the part where the legislature is "entitled" to decide that certain types of dog pose a risk to public safety by their very presence in public places. That is ridiculous and anyone who knows anything about dogs knows it.

The only way that this decision can possibly be appealed is to the Supreme Court. Will it happen? Who knows... it is exceedingly expensive: Justice is only for rich in Canada in civil matters, and apparently killing dogs isn't criminal if you are the government and killing them under badly written, unfair laws. There is a time limit in place, so it is not easy to raise funds in time. There is no guarantee it will be heard - even after the fees are paid. The future is looking bleak for Ginger and her owners.

I hope that this law will someday be ruled unconstitutional. At the very least I hope that a different government will be elected in Ontario who will repeal the breed specific portions of the legislation. I will not hold my breath though, because apathy seems to know no bounds in Canada. Which brings me to a bit of a nagging point..

When I talk to people about this issue, the overwhelming majority agree that Ontario's law is ineffective and unfair and punishes innocent dogs and owners. The statistics agree with that conclusion with dog bites unchanged in the five years since the legislation came into effect. I know that some people have donated funds, but I have to wonder how much, or really how little, political pressure people have put on their MPPs in Ontario. Even though I now reside in BC, I have written letters to the Ontario government. Have you Ontarians? Have you written or called your MPP and informed he or she that you believe this law is unfair? When the Liberals were campaigning in the last election someone voted them in. Did you ask your candidate about their views on this issue? Or are you apathetic while innocent dogs are killed? What are you doing about it now? I call on you to write a letter to your MPP about this issue. Put some pressure on these politicians to be fair. There is simply no excuse for this bad legislation that calls for the killing of dogs based strictly on their appearance. The good guys are losing...

Proofing Articles

2010-10-30T08:41:00.000-07:00

The other day I had some time at the end of my work day before closing the shop. So I decided to do Articles with Chianti. I put the articles out and added a few toys we had just been playing with to the pile. I wasn't sure how she would do, but I figured it would be a good proofing exercise. To my absolute delight she did great! I did not have to help her, remind her, or anything. She simply went out, searched the pile, picked up the correct article and came back to me nicely! I did three articles, metal, leather and wood, and each time she did it perfectly! I do not know why I am so surprised by that, but I am. I thought it would be hard for her. Yesterday I did it again, just to be sure it was not a fluke. Again, she did the exercise with no problems at all. Yay! So obviously distractions in the pile are not a huge issue. We will have to work on distractions outside the pile (people, dogs, action) more I am sure.

We went for a walk yesterday in the fall leaves. I love fall days when it isn't pouring and windy. The colors are so vibrant, and the temperature is great for being out. Here is a photo from yesterday's walk. Chianti had a blast running around. It was kind of fun watching her hear the leaves falling and watch them.

The proofs of Chianti's photos from the Help Us Help Floyd Fundraiser are up. I am going to get prints of all of them because of course I can't resist photos of Chianti, but large ones of #4 and #5. I like them all, but I like the ones where she is grinning best, because she is just such a happy dog, and those ones illustrate that so well.

It should be a busy few weeks coming up. Agility tomorrow as always, then classes with Anne start on Monday. I am in a different group this time, so that will be new, and probably a good challenge for Chianti. There is something on every weekend in November. An AIOC Trial, a CKC Trial, a Rally Trial, and then the Christmas Parade, plus some matches. I really want to make the AIOC trial, but I don't know if I will. I will have to miss Agility class for the CKC Trial and the Rally Trial already, and don't know if I want to miss 3 in a row. Sigh, sometimes it can be a bit of a juggling act prioritizing things. The problem is I don't like missing out on anything, because it is all so fun!

Loving Agility

2010-10-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

It rained like crazy this weekend. I wanted to give Chianti a good run in the rain, but it was the kind that soaks you through in seconds. So we bought a new coat. The old pink one is a little too small on her now. Unfortunately it was blue or black, no pink, so we went with the blue this time.

We had another Agility class on Sunday. I have to say this about my little zoomiegirl: The times when she is with me make it so worth the times she gets a little bit goofy. She definitely enjoys life, and even when she is being a bit bratty, she is just so darned happy go lucky it's almost hard not to laugh at her. Especially since she never does anything malicious, she is purely about having a good time and enjoying life to the fullest.

I really felt that "worth it when she is with me" when we were working on some jump circles and variations of. We started with a lead out, one jump. Then one with two jumps. Then two jumps and tunnel. Then three jumps, etc., changing things a few times to get the dogs to go where we were sending them, not guess. Chianti did awesome! For a naturally fast, flat jumper, at one point she cleared a jump by about 8 inches! At the end we did one where there was quite a sharp turn and jump and she did just great. I was thrilled with her ability to follow my direction. We worked on her weaves, A frame and teeter a bit too, and one thing that is great is that she is absolutely fearless. I really think she loves the game of Agility, and it is going to be a lot of fun to trial her when she is ready.

Saturday after work we did something special. There was a fund raiser for Hugabull. It was specifically for "Floyd" and his veterinary bill, but the event was so well attended that likely there will be funds left over to help other dogs at Hugabull. The event was a photography session with Kimberly Rose She spent the entire day taking portraits of dogs to raise money. I was unable to make it before the posted end time, but called and she generously let me come a few minutes late. Chianti, who is of course no stranger to a camera, hammed it up offering head tilts and cutesy faces, and Kim said she got some good shots so I look forward to seeing them! This was a great thing to do on "pit bull" awareness day. I am so glad that there are so many people out there willing to support a good cause, and so many who see that breed bias is just wrong. Way to go Kim (and Kim's husband and baby who were there all day helping) for all of your hard work!

A Match, Proofing and Agility!

2010-10-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

We have done a few things since my last post. We had a practice match, which was really good for Chianti. I worked on Open, so all off leash work, and worked really hard at getting her to stay focused during and between exercises. She had a little bit of trouble at times, but we worked through that and got some nice work happening. What I noticed, yet again, was that her behavior outside of the ring was significantly more calm than it used to be. There was no room for crating, so I kept her with me on the leash, and while at one point she and Baron shared a toy and played momentarily, she was pretty relaxed relatively speaking. At one point she even laid down at my feet and had a nap!

We had our last proofing class last week. I will miss that class, it was a whole lot of fun. Chianti was totally on her game at that last class, with excellent focus and really good decisions. An area was set up with a straight line of heeling, then at the end of that turn right and set up for a recall or drop. Beside the drop was a broad jump set up heading toward the heeling path. Beside the broad jump was a high jump set up. Another area had a figure 8. So everywhere you were working their were dogs beside, in front, behind working. I was very impressed that Chianti stayed with me the whole time, and her work was quite good! Nice drop, nice retrieves, nice figure 8 and broad jump, good signals, but most importantly good focus. On the out of sight sit stay four dogs were doing follow the leader heeling all around the room, and all around the stay dogs. Chianti did not budge, except apparently her tail, which she tucked in beside her body while sitting to avoid having it stepped on, without moving anything else! I was very pleased as that is a lot of pressure for a social butterfly such as she. What progress!

Today we started back at Agility. I walked her first, hoping that she would be a little more calm. We have not practiced at all, but she seemed to remember everything for the most part. She did get silly and zoom a few times, but came back to me more quickly each time and got better toward the end of the class. We will be working a LOT on the control pieces in Agility. She is so "up" there that I know that drive will not be a problem, control will be. So I will have to work a lot on control between each obstacle. It was fun though, and she certainly enjoyed herself and did do some things very well.

Classes with Anne start again Nov 1, so we will look forward to that too, back to a busy schedule!

Proofing

2010-10-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

In my last post I talked about needing to get out and do some proofing. The practice match in Nanaimo showed me which exercises most need proofing, and the kind of distractions I need. Chianti is quite focused on leash. Even her off leash heeling is usually quite reliable. She is quite stable on group stays, even out of sight stays. If she is going to lose her focus it will most likely be on a distance exercise, like a recall or broad jump when there is an attractive distraction. I need to work on those kinds of exercises in areas where there is a lot of distraction, ones that she will be tempted to break for.

On Sunday I decided to try the Fairgrounds. I knew at the very least there would be people walking their dogs. I chose a good day apparently! There were indeed people walking there dogs. There were also people coming and going from Agility class right beside where I was practicing. There were people coming and going from Curling, and people riding horses too. Perfect!

We warmed up with some focus work, which was not easy for her there. Once I got her focused we worked on recalls and drops. She did quite well at those, though on the first one she did have a glance at the horseback riders behind me, so we kept working on it until it was perfect.. Then I got out the dumbell and did some retrieves. Just as we began that a Westie and its handler arrived and were walking nearby. Chianti was really, really tempted to go see the Westie, but continued on with her work. She was distracted though, and did not do a perfect retrieve, instead having a glance at the other dog on her way back and sitting slightly crooked. I wanted her to really focus on her job, not just be adequate. So I kept working on it until she did a perfect retrieve and then and only then rewarded her. I was determined that in this session only 100% effort was going to be rewarded in any way, and then it would be rewarded lavishly.

After that we worked on Articles. This time as we were working a van with some very loud Samoyeds arrived. The handler walked back and forth in a U around us. I sent Chianti to her article as the other dog was behind the pile. The dog was about 15 feet away. I watched as Chianti dealt with her inner struggle when I sent her to the pile. She stopped in the middle of the pile, raised her head and looked at the dog, undoubtedly weighing her options. She does feel that every other dog is a potential new playmate. As soon as her head came up to look at the dog I said "No, find it" and she did! I was thrilled. The second time she raised her head again, but went back to work right away without being told, coming up with the article quickly. The third time she did not raise her head! She was lavishly rewarded for that one. The handler put the dog back into his van where it sat and barked at us for the remainder of our time there.

We finished up with a seek back, her favorite exercise, which she did perfectly. After that we had a play session, playing tug and then rolling the frisbee a few times, then went for a short walk. I was very pleased with the progress in the session.

At class last night I saw an improvement from the week before. While she lost focus a few times briefly, she was very quick to return to her work, and did some really, really nice work. We did some great drills thanks to Trainer Shiela and Assistant Trainer Leah, and all were very valuable for Chianti. Follow the leader heeling as a group, a set up, heel routine followed by broad jump and then a retrieve with the duubell thrown to an open gate, a figure 8 around pylons and toys, signals in a group, and full out of sight stays with distractions. I am very happy with the overall work last night!

Agility starts up again soon, and Obedience with Anne too. We have a couple of correction matches and trials in November. We are back full steam ahead to busy, but it's lots of fun and I will keep you posted!

Class & A Practice Match

2010-10-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

I am so glad that we are back in a class. The proofing class on Wednesday was really good for Chianti. I think that being back in classes will really help her with her upcoming Pre-Novice entries. She is out of practice in that type of setting and needs the review. I feel like we have taken a small step backwards from July. Not a huge step, and she comes back really quickly if she does make a mistake, but I need her to not make the mistake.

Strangely enough, Chianti's stay exercise is really solid. She did the long sit and down with me out of sight on Wednesday with no problems at all. Even when Baron was quietly released beside her while I was out of the room. She is more likely to make a mistake during an active exercise. We did do some really good proofing at class, and it was so good for her. One exercise was a set up with "judge" and ring steward, a short stretch of heeling. That was followed by doing a drop on recall, then a retrieve over the high jump, then a broad jump. We were doing this in rotations, so that when I finished the heeling and set up for the recall, someone else was heeling behind us, and another person was doing the high jump beside us, etc. The idea was to focus on focus, not so much the exercises. The first time she lost focus on her recall, did a zoom, then corrected herself and came. She seemed to remember after that and did a nice retrieve. I could see her thinking about wanting to visit the recall dog behind us as she fronted, but she made the right choice. The broad jump was fine. The second round was much, much better. She had way better focus overall. After that exercise we did some group heeling that had us with dogs beside, in front, behind at different times, and she did really, really well.

Last night we went to a practice match in Nanaimo. I am entering her in Pre-Novice at their trials in November, so I thought it would be a good opportunity. The good things: Her Pre-Novice round was really, really nice. Also, I noticed a really big difference between this time and the last time we were in that building, last spring, in her demeanor outside the ring while out of her crate. She was definitely more calm and while not disinterested in the world around her, she was less interested, more focused.

I was very happy with her round, and decided to try a bit of Open as well. We did the stays first, just so that those of us from out of town could leave after our individuals. That was very nice of Nanaimo Kennel Club! She did the full out of sight stays flawlessly. I stepped back into sight when other dogs broke just to be sure that she would stay since we have only done this exercise a couple of times before in a group and since it was a different building and different dogs, then stepped out of sight again. She did great! I was so pleased! When we did our individuals, I did the heeling on leash, as I often do. I don't like to do a LOT of off leash heeling, since it can get sloppy after awhile. She did a beautiful job, in spite of my bad footwork at times. I was very tired! On her drop on recall, I set her up, walked away, called her, and as I told her to drop she lost focus and left the ring to go see her friends Ruth and Liz. The good news is, she came back to me. I calmly set her up again and she did the exercise just fine. She needed that reminder, and I think that it was good that it happened in the sense that in that building I was able to remind her. She went on to do her retrieves without incident, and while she looked away on sit at the broad jump, she did not break and looked back at me when I called her name and performed the exercise.

We went back into the ring to do some heeling while someone practiced an honor exercise for Novice Intermediate, and her heeling was once again very nice.

So while I was not happy that she lost focus in open, I was thrilled with everything else. The blips in Open just showed me what kind of proofing I need to do. The improvement in her distraction level while outside the ring showed me that she is growing up. So off we go to do more proofing this weekend!

Almost TDX

2010-09-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

Well she tried. She tried really hard, and came so close. She started well down a long first leg, doing the traditional one circle to look at her fans ;) That is how she sees the Judge and crew walking behind us.

The first leg was only 200 hundred but when you don't know where the track goes, that can feel like a mile. She took the first corner, a right angle to the left with relative ease. She crossed the cross track easily, acknowledging it but carrying on, and got to her first article. Yay!. She restarted fine, worked corner 2 a bit, then committed right and off we went. She crossed the second cross track with no problems. Corner 3 was an open corner, which I hate. They are hard for me to read, and I always wonder if the dog is just drifting off. However, she handled it fine and got to the second article. I had a big grin on my face, thinking 2 articles down, one to go! Almost done!

However, on corner 4, a right angle left, she overshot. I made the handler error of assuming that the track could not go left there. I thought from my perspective that it would take us too close to the perimeter. Tracking folks know, you never, ever should think you know where the track goes. Yet we all make that mistake once in awhile. So I followed my dog over the corner even though she was not committed. I should have seen that she was out of scent. I should have backed up. Darn! She did not find her way back, and instead headed from corner 4 toward corner 6. She looked frustrated. She was obviously confused about not being able to find it. I could tell we were in trouble, and ironically just before the whistle blew thought "I should have backed up". Too late....

We were so close! I am disappointed not to have earned the TDX title. However, my dog worked hard. She gave me a lot of effort. She simply ran into difficulty, and I can't fault her when she tried so hard. That dog has heart. We will try again, and even though we didn't get the pass, Chianti showed her ability to track, her heart, and her lovely temperament. She was willing and she was ready, and I am very proud of the effort she made. No title yet, but I still got to go home with a fantastic dog with whom I have a great relationship, and that is what dog sports are really all about.

I am very pleased that some good friends passed, along with several other dogs and handlers. The pass rate was high among TDX tests, in spite of lousy weather for Saturday's test. The weather on Sunday was perfect. 3 our of 5 passes on Saturday at TDX level, and 3 out of 6 on Sunday. That is phenomenal considering that the pass rate is statistically low (around 30% I believe). Congratulations to my friend Francine and her German Shepherd Ryser who passed on Saturday and my friend Jo Anne and her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Guinness who passed on Sunday.

Back At Class

2010-09-23T08:27:00.000-07:00

Last night we started back at Club Classes. Chianti was thrilled to be there! This was a proofing class. We worked on lots of heeling with distractions, toys, squeakers, other dogs, random chaos. There were kids standing at the door looking in, so that was a good distraction too. I was surprised at how well Chianti maintained focus after doing so little training. She did really well.

We also some static dumbell retrieves - which means that the dumbell was placed, not thrown, and it was placed in different places with different distractions. In some cases with a person standing right over the dumbell. Chianti made the right decisions with that, so I was happy!

We worked on go outs too, with toys on both sides of the go out path. On the first try she thought she might check out a toy, but quickly came when called off of the toy. We set up again, and she did just fine. This was a new game, she just needed to learn the rules.

Near the end of the class we worked on stays. Kim and I intentionally placed Baron and Chianti side by side, since they would love to have a romp and need to understand that they can't. They both did really well. There were distractions, and we were out of sight for a good portion of the time. Neither one of them broke position. Yay!

It was sure nice to be in classes again, and I've decided to enter for the last leg of Pre-Novice in Nanaimo in November, and start Rally Advanced here in November. Being back in classes will help us with that. Anne's class starts up again in October, and while I have been glad to have a break, it will be great getting back. I was hoping to go down to the US to try for an American TD this fall, but it is going to have to wait for a bit since I would need to take an extra day off and just can't do that right now. Maybe next spring.

Now if we can just get that TDX this weekend......

Obedience Training Schedule and TDX

2010-09-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to stick to my plan of training a little bit less often, for a little bit less time. It has not been easy, but it will be a good thing to do for a little while I think. At the very least it will be a good training experiment. Every dog is different, and with Chianti, I am learning by trial and error what will work best for her. After last weekend I do realize that I have lots of proofing to do, and it also confirmed that while Chianti is almost ready, she does still have some maturing to do. It won't be too much longer though: She has come a long way this year. I just need to work a little bit more with her on impulse control.

We did a little bit of Obedience training this week. Some heeling, go outs, drops and retrieves. The sessions have been short and infrequent, so I have to think about what I want to work on specifically and only work on that for any given session. This is not easy for me!

I tried to upload the video of our first Pre-Novice round. Unfortunately I didn't video the second, better round. Also unfortunately it did not want to upload! Overall I was happy with the heeling after watching the video. Slightly forged on a halt, slightly forged due do a "boing" on fast (she did not do that in the second trial) and a couple of times she lost focus for a split second, dropping her head or looking elsewhere. Which tells me that I have more proofing to do. I was very happy to see that her tail was indeed wagging the whole time, so she was happy to be in the ring. I believe there are some matches upcoming that I can get into, which should be helpful. I have been thinking a lot this last few weeks of less training, and re-evaluating my training plans overall. I have come to realize that training plans are very, very fluid and change regularly ;)

On Sunday I took Chianti for a very short track. I kept the tracking to a simple L, 3 hours old,Urban, with an article halfway down the first leg, and one at the end. With the TDX Test next weekend, I am simply trying to get her in an "I want to do this" state of mind. I already know that she can do it, so hopefully on Test day she will want to do it and will pass. Fingers crossed!

Trial Results from the Weekend

2010-09-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday we were entered in Forbidden Plateau Obedience & Tracking Club's CKC Obedience Trials in Pre-Novice. We passed! So Chianti now has two of the three required legs for a PCD Title. More importantly it was a good experience for us.

Friday night we had a practice match. She did really well in the Novice run through, staying right with me. In her Open run through, I was extremely pleased with her Figure 8. I did make a handling error between finishing the retrieve on flat and starting the retrieve over high, which caused me to lose my oh so social dog. I released her instead of just praising her, and she caught sight of her friend Baron just outside of the ring. Oops! Off she went, but we collected her and got her back in to finish her job, which she did just fine.

Apparently I didn't learn my lesson. On Sunday, our first round started really well. Chianti's heeling was very nice, focused, with me. The Judge Bud Milsom was very complimentary about our heeling after we were done that part. Our circles were good, and I was very pleased that she managed to stay put on the sit for exam, which is a very difficult exercise for Chianti. Our recall headed toward the other ring, where there were Open dogs on a sit stay with handlers returning. While setting up I unsnapped the leash, and then the Judge kindly explained the exercise, and I lost my dog. My heart went to my throat as she headed toward the ring gates between her and the dogs on a stay. I called her, and she came back thank goodness! I would have been devastated had she ruined another dog's success, but they all stayed put, and no harm done. We set up again and she did her recall perfectly. The Judge told me that because it was between exercises and she came back right away, that I had handled it well and it was fine. Oh my I was not feeling fine about it! However, she was solid on her sit stay and I left the ring feeling better.

Fortunately our next round was better. Her heeling was nice, and after the circles the Judge, Karen Brearly said "How cute is that!". She did all of her exercises well, and the Judge wrote a nice note on the bottom of the score sheet. She complimented the wonderful job we did, and I left feeling very, very good.

Looking back, the best part of the day was that Chianti was SO happy in the ring. I received many compliments on her wagging tail and happy attitude. I also like that the second trial was better than the first, which is a great sign for the future. So it was a great experience!

Tracking in Heat and Wind

2010-09-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

This morning I laid a track. It was about 630 meters, which is close to 700 yards, so short of a TDX, but not too short. When I laid it I knew it would likely be hot to track it, but there was no wind. I placed 4 articles, included an acute corner, and some surface transitions. It was in busy area for people walking or dog walkers, so I could count on natural cross tracks. Here is the track:

When I took Chianti to track it, it was just over 4 hours old, and it had gotten really, really windy! Suddenly we had an aged track with heat and wind. Wind when tracking near buildings is different from wind in an open field: It tends to change direction, be really strong in some areas, absent in others. It can create little wind swirls etc. Terri Everwine did a great demonstration at her seminar using a board with lots of little miniature flags all over it and a fan. She would put some cardboard boxes over some of the flags and show us using the other flags how the wind changes around buildings, or clusters of buildings, tall buildings etc. It was a great demonstration.

So today's track was challenging! The wind was blowing very hard in some places. She definitely had to work at it. However, she did manage to keep pushing and get all four articles. At times she looked a bit frustrated though, so I was glad that I had picked up a high value reward to motivate her at each article! By the end she was hot but happy. Our next track will be an easier, confidence building track after this challenging one.

Time Flies

2010-09-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

Time does fly when you are having fun. I have been sticking to my plan of training less and making it more valuable, so we have had some down time. It's been good for both of us I think. We still go for walks and chuk it sessions and swimming, but less training. We had our last Agility class until October last week. It was a good class, and at the end we put together a small course, which was fun.

Visiting with children

Over the weekend we participated in the Fall Fair, doing Obedience, Rally and Agility demonstrations. Chianti was in heaven greeting people all day, getting hugged, petted and showing off. She did her wave, bow, hi-5, and yucky over and over again. She showed off her card trick a couple of times too. During the Obedience demo she held a down stay for almost 20 minutes while I announced as the other dogs played obedience based relay games and demonstrated the obedience exercises as a group. After that she did a group sit stay with me out of sight. We then demonstrated the hot dog hold, dumbell retrieve and seek back while the other dogs continued with a down stay. She did do one zoom during the seek back, which was actually a good demo, because she did come back when called and the other dogs held their down which was impressive with the little wing nut trying to entice them to play ;) We did the seek back again, and she did it just fine. The Agility demos were a mixed bag. She's had so few classes! However, she did really well in the morning when she was fresh. In the afternoon I had her collar with tags on her and I think it got caught on the tunnel. She stopped and scratched at it, and at some point the tag eventually came off. She lost her focus, perhaps because of being pinched a bit, perhaps because by then she was tired and so was I, and it wasn't as good as in the morning.

Chilling in her X pen

A Group Down Stay on the Friday night

This weekend we need to get out for a track. The test is in 3 weeks. We also need to do just a bit of fun Obedience, since we have Pre-Novice a week from Sunday. My plan is to continue to take it easy on the training. We'll see how that works out!

Changes in Training

2010-08-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

I did some work with Chianti tonight for the first time since Wednesday. She has had walks and some chuk it, but I've been trying to pare down the training sessions a bit to build more enthusiasm and play drive, per my last post. Tonight she was bored after laying around for most of the day, and I decided it was a good time to do some training. I saw my articles sitting in the dining room and thought that would be a good place to start.

I've been using a smaller pile for the Scent Discrimination exercise lately, to build confidence. Tonight I poured the whole bag out on the living room floor, which meant that there were actually 6 of each plus the scented one. I set it up informally, having her stand with her back to the pile, placing the article, then pepping her up and sending her. I thought the pile might be too big, but she did great! I ran off as she got the right one, she came running to me with it, and we played. We repeated this with all three articles, leather, metal and wood, playing briefly after each one. At the end of all three she got a special treat.

A short while later we went outside and did 8 weave poles with a toy as the reward - the exact toy she wasn't interested in at class on Wednesday. Here she is with it tonight! She was enthusiastic, had good speed, and I actually forgot to angle the entry poles and she did just fine. We tried from a few angles, doing weaves about for times and she did well except once. The one time that she missed the entry, she showed some minor stress in her posture, which tells me that even though she appears confident, she isn't quite sure of herself yet. Her confidence is more fragile on this exercise than I thought. I need to be careful about how I give her information about an entry mistake and do a lot of fun entry practice so that she is absolutely sure of what I want her to do. No is a very strong word to her apparently, and I should probably not use it on this exercise.

After some play I put her on a stay while I put the poles away and got out a glove. The seek back is a favorite exercise and she's very confident about it. I thought it would be a good one to follow the weaves. She thought so too, and did 2 very enthusiastic seek backs. The best part was that she stayed focused during the heeling as I dropped the glove, through changes of pace and turns after, and while waiting for me to send her. I will add more halts next time though, so that she doesn't start to think that as soon as we halt she gets to retrieve. Here she is doing the seek back.

Return #1 was slightly crooked, so we worked on fronts with the glove twice from an angle before trying again.

Return #2 was straight. I was so pleased with her enthusiasm, and yet she didn't shake or chew the glove, and she didn't anticipate or lose focus. She is finally growing up! At least sometimes....

We played after each seek back, and she was enthusiastic about the toy. After a few minutes I put the toy away and told her we were all done. It definitely left her wanting more, which is what I always preach to my students. I'm hoping that a short, enthusiastic session ending with a favorite exercise and some play will help Chianti want to play at training more, even with distractions. I'll keep the sessions shorter, enthusiastic, and less frequent for awhile and see.

It's less than a week until Fall Fair and our demos. 3 weeks until the Obedience Trials, and 5 weeks until the TDX Tracking Test. Tomorrow we will do our weekly track, maybe we'll do that at the Fairgrounds.

Problem Solving

2010-08-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

Connie Cleveland says that dogs are problem solvers. She even wrote a book called Dogs Are Problem Solvers, Handlers Should Be. I have to say that I couldn't agree more, and if you haven't heard of Connie Cleveland, you might enjoy her website and book / dvds.

The reason I was thinking of that title is because I'm trying to solve a problem. Chianti is normally reasonably toy motivated. She enjoys tug of war, retrieving balls, and running around with squeaky toys at high speed or squeaking them from a play bow position with her bum up in the air. Play drive is not usually a problem for her. However I've noticed at Agility class she is not all that interested in the toys or play. She will work well for food, but if I throw a toy at the end of the weave poles or a tunnel, she just isn't all that interested. I'd like to figure out why and see if I can change it, because play can be such a valuable part of a high drive activity. The first step, I think, is to figure out why she isn't interested. Here are the possibilities:

She is distracted in that environment and would rather play with the other dogs. Yet she still goes for the food. So is that it? One would think that she if she were that distracted the food wouldn't work either. It's not as though she's starving to death.
She is in a low level of stress. It's possible, but not probable. I am not seeing any other visible signs of stress. She's still eating, and I don't think she finds the game of Agility difficult, so I doubt that is the problem.
She takes her toys and playing with me for granted. This is a more probable factor. She does get lots of attention and training / play time. Perhaps it might be a good idea to change up our routines a bit to make her have a stronger desire to play during class time.
She needs to burn off more energy before class so that she can focus better. This is also a possibility. We don't always get a lot of time between work and class for exercise, and sometimes it's a struggle finding balance between not enough and too much in that short time frame. That may be easier in the fall when class is on a day off.
She may need a different warm up before class to get her focused on the task at hand. Again, a distinct possibility. I certainly warm up before working on anything in Obedience.

By working my way through these possibilities I can start to see what the problem might be, and come up with some things to try to solve it. It might take some experimenting to find just the right solution, but I have a few things to look at.. Assuming that the issue is likely a combination of the distracting environment, taking play with me for granted, and not enough exercise I can make some changes and see what happens. I can make my training sessions less frequent and very fun, therefore increasing their value. I can try to make sure she gets some exercise before class, with enough time for rest immediately before. I can warm her up with focus exercises, and I can even introduce a toy that incorporates food and play.

One of the most challenging parts of training a dog is this kind of problem solving. Trainers have to be flexible, and prepared to change course when something isn't working. Every dog is different, and presents different problem solving challenges. While that makes training far from easy, it is also what makes it so very satisfying: It really is about the journey. The joy of that journey is the learning on the part of both the handler and the dog.

More Practice Matches

2010-08-17T21:48:00.000-07:00

Last week I was on holidays! In the past that has meant lots of training time, but not this time. This time we did a tiny bit of training but for the most part really had some down time, for Chianti too. The weather was hot, so it was just as well.

We did do a Rally practice and an Agility class, an Agility practice and a Track, but spent most of our time relaxing in the A/C or swimming.

At last Tuesday's Rally Practice, we ran the Advanced course a couple of times. Chianti was a bit distracted by a Yorkie working on Agility beside the course. It was a good opportunity to proof a bit. At first it really affected her focus, with glances away. That is not good in Rally or Obedience: The dog must stay focused all of the time on the handler or they miss cues and make mistakes. In the end I was able to get some nice focus right next to the Yorkie working the dog walk, so we left it at that.

Afterward we went to say hi to Warrior the miniature horse. I wish I'd had my camera with me that night. Chianti and Warrior loved each other. Warrior stuck his head under the fence and nuzzled Chianti while she licked his face. Next week I'll try to get a photo, but I did snap this one of Warrior tonight. He was eating so we left him alone.

Agility was all about contacts and speed over the dog walk and A-frame last week, and some teeter work. It was fun class, and Chianti loved flying over the dog walk and A-frame to a treat target. It's the first time we've worked on speed over those, and I don't think that will be a problem. On Thursday I went to the Agility ring for a little bit of practice time and she did really well. I sent her over a couple of jumps and then the A-frame to a target, and she had good speed and good contact.

Sunday we went for a track. I had been hoping to take it through water, but the creek I had planned on using was completely dry. That was fine, except that I work rubber boots with my shorts for no good reason. Quite a fashion statement! I didn't age the track much because it was going to get very hot, and she did just fine. It went through short grass, very tall grass, rocks, creek bed, a gravel road, and a pea-gravel field. She did really well and we went for a swim.

Tonight we had an Obedience practice. I worked on the exercises in Pre-Novice, preparing for a trial in a few weeks. Then we worked on some stays, and I practiced out of sight ones for the first time in that situation. She did really, really well on those, in spite of some tempting distractions.

After that we spent some time working on getting one of the more shy dogs to be more comfortable around the bigger dogs. We did this with a group feeding session, which does seem to help dogs relax around other dogs. The dog that was shy is out of frame off to the side of her handler who is feeding everyone.

It was a good week, even though we didn't do too much training (or blogging!) and we are looking forward to Agility class tomorrow.

Motivating Precision

2010-08-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

I've been continuing with breaking down the fine elements of heeling this week. I always try to work in short sessions on any one exercise, and that is working really well. I think everything is getting more precise again. We have worked quite a lot on motivating about turns by doing just quarter about turns on the spot without heeling and then releasing up to food and running. It's making them more sharp. Now when I'm actually heeling and do one she drives around a bit better and just looks more enthusiastic. We've also worked on changes of pace, motivating both the fast and the slow. Sometimes I think we trainers forget to motivate the slow.

We've continued working on left finishes to get them precisely accurate because I felt that she was ending up slightly forged. I've been working on both her understanding, and my handling. One thing I discovered is that if I return my hand a natural position at my side after my signal for left finish I get a much better result than if I return it to where it is for heeling. Maybe she is forging because she is anticipating forward motion, or perhaps her focal point is a little off, I don't know. I don't think she's forging at all on her heeling halts, but I'll watch for that in case it's a focal point issue.

Last week I did a quick run through of most of the Open exercises, just to review them and make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. I've been working so much on Rally and Agility skills lately, and Tracking, I haven't really done any Open or Utility stuff. Her drop could have been slightly faster. It was passable, but that was the only thing that I saw that stood out as needing some fine tuning. Her retrieves were good, and her broad jump was good. That tells me that the foundations for Open are holding up so far :) We're a long way from any trials at Open, so we'll obviously keep revisiting the fine points and working on things, but the concepts all seem to be there.

This week I thought I would try some of the Utility exercises since we worked really hard on them for awhile but haven't worked on them as much lately. Everything gets trained in blocks. For awhile we focus on one or two exercises, then when those are looking good we move on for awhile to something else. We didn't do an "in order" run through, but we did work on Articles, Directed Jumping, Seek Back, Signals, and the Moving Stand. Everything was looking really good. In fact, I think she is slightly more confident about Signals now than she was the last time we did them. The concepts seem to be there for all of those exercises, though we have a lot of proofing to do. However, we do have a lot of time to proof since that's a long, long way off!

We went tracking today with JoAnne and Guinness the amazing Cavalier. We laid each other's tracks and both dogs did really well. Here is Chianti's track. The track is the red line, her path is the yellow, and the light blue is where JoAnne walked from the end of the track back. This was to be a motivational track since our last track was very difficult. The circle at the beginning was just typical Chianti cheekiness. I could tell she was sure of where the track went, she was just burning off steam. The first corner was very accurate. At the second she checked where JoAnne walked off closer to the track than we would see in a test, running a quick circle, smiled as if to say that she wasn't going to be fooled, and went the right way :) The third was accurate. On the last leg - I can't remember but I think before Article 3, she rolled in something momentarily, sigh, but got up and back to work quickly. After that article there was a bumper, which was thrown a couple of times for her. Then she ran around the field at full tilt having a ball while chasing a bird that knew she couldn't fly. She had a good run anyway.

We've worked a bit this week on agility too, practicing "1 jump" exercises to get a better jumping form. It's really coming along actually, I think she's getting the idea. We reviewed plank work tonight for the first time this week, and we made some great progress on weaves. Here is the 5 second video. Happy Training!

August Already? Lots of Upcoming Events!

2010-08-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's already August. So many things are coming up quickly! Fall Fair is at the end of the month and we do a demo there. Our Club's CKC trials are September 11 & 12. Our Club's TDX test is September 25 & 26. By the time all of that rolls around we'll be looking forward to hopefully an American TD test in and our Rally Trials in October / November.

The good news is, I feel pretty ready for everything I've entered or plan to enter Chianti in. I'm really glad I decided to enter Pre-Novice in our trials instead of Novice. She is more than ready for that level, which should make it a great ring experience for both of us, without the pressure of scores since it's pass or fail. She is definitely ready for TDX. That doesn't mean she'll pass for sure, because tracking is tracking and you get what you get on that day, but she has definitely faced and succeeded with every element in a TDX test and more. Hopefully it will be a good day! We have our certification letters in hand now for our American TD, and if we get into a test, I'm quite certain Chianti will do fine. In November's Rally trials, she's ready to be entered into Advanced. As long as I read all of the signs and do what I'm supposed to, she will be just fine! So I'm not so much nervous about all of these events coming up, but excited!. I can only enter the Sundays of the Obedience & Rally trials because I have to work on the Saturdays to keep Chianti in the lifestyle to which she's become accustomed ;) So there won't be enough rounds for fast titles, but hopefully we'll get a couple of legs on PCD and RA.

This week we've been breaking down heeling in a motivational way. I've had a couple of sessions with her just working on that, and it's really brought out some pep. I isolated about turns and just motivated those, then put them back into a heeling pattern and she was sharp! I did the same with auto sits in heel to get them more snappy, and they look much sharper too now. We have worked a little on changes of pace and really accurate left finishes too. I'm very happy with how going back to this stuff has cleaned up her heeling. At Rally practice this week she did some beautiful heeling in her RA round.

Agility was really good last night. I made sure to exercise her a bit between work and class, and it really helped. I took her for a walk on the way to class, but it was so humid, and it was smoky too, from wind blowing smoke from the forest fires in the Interior of BC, I was worried she was going to be too hot for Agility. I stopped at the river and threw 4 or 5 bumpers for her and then went to class, and that did the trick. She had fun, and was more focused than last week. She did a great job on her weaves. We need to work on our one jump exercises. Chianti tends to jump flat - she is always more about the "fast" - so that will be a project this week. Her dog walk was beautiful, the plank work we've been doing is paying off! We worked on jump grids, the tire, tunnel and chute too, it's all coming along. I have so much to learn about Agility handling, but it is fun learning new things!

Off to wake up Chianti now - she's decided to sleep in this morning ;)

Long, Hot, Track

2010-07-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

I've been looking forward to this weekend's track all week. Usually when I track I try not to throw every challenge at my dog at the same time. Sometimes it will be age, sometimes it will be hard corners or lots of surfaces, or along track, but it won't be all. This weekend I had been planning a well - aged, long track with all of the complexities of a UTDX track.

I used lots of articles, because I figured if I was making everything else hard, at least she could have more rewarding article finds along the way. When we ran the track it was hot outside. I normally don't feel the need to give Chianti water on the track, but today I did at several of the articles. She was working hard for a hot day. She definitely found parts of it challenging. For some reason the starting leg was difficult for her. She was working, but it took her a little time to get really onto it. I don't know whether that was the heat, or our approach to the start, or the amount of traffic. There had been lots of foot traffic through there - while I was laying the track I met several people walking dogs, running etc., and there are deer and rabbits as well. However, urban cross tracks don't normally bother Chianti, so my inclination is to think it was the heat or the approach. In any case, once she got started she was fine. I was wishing I had put the first article closer to the start - it was after the second corner - but she worked through it and was quite happy to get to that first article!

I had a couple of handler lessons, one, be careful of your hat walking through the trees - it came off and I had to stop and grab it telling her to wait when she was tracking well, which is a shame. At another point I had a line handling problem in the woods.

One thing that fascinated me was watching Chianti approach article #3. It was a little piece of metal, pictured to the left. As she approached, she was right on track. I could see her go into article search mode. Her body language changed, she did some air scenting and was obviously looking for an upcoming article. It fascinated me that a little piece of metal could hold enough scent for her to pick up on it from at least ten feet away.

Chianti got a bit distracted by a family, three on bicycles, which she loves, and one with a dog, which she also loves. However, when told to find her track, she got back to work with a vengeance.

Here she is tracking on asphalt after that distraction. This was her "moment of truth" corner, a corner well onto hard surface without any vegetation nearby, and she handled it very well. Much better than her first corner that was on grass, go figure! The most important thing to me is that when she was having a tough go at the beginning, she kept pushing. She worked through and didn't quit, and managed to complete a very complex track. She gave me a lot of effort today, and earned herself a big reward - leftover steak is good for these occasions!

When It's Hot, Go Swimming!

2010-07-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

This has to be the longest stretch of dry weather I've seen on Vancouver Island... It's nice in a way, but I won't be sad to see a cloudy day.

Looking back at the days since my last post what Chianti and I have done for the most part is have fun. We did do some training, but we've also done romps in the woods, swimming and just running. I spent a lot of time working on yard / house projects on my two days off, so didn't have a lot of energy for training. This photo was taken Sunday in some woods near where I'm planning a track next weekend. I was scoping out the area and then walked back through the woods. Chianti had a great time running up and down the hills, through the bushes and over the logs.

Monday I knew I would be busy for most of the day. I laid a track not far from my house in the early morning, planning to run it when I got a chance, which came 4 hours later. It was a very short track, two corners, and several surfaces but mostly asphalt. It started on some short, dry grass, then went immediately to gravel, asphalt, dry grass, dirt, asphalt. The first corner was on grass, the second on asphalt. I used two articles, because I knew it would be an older track than we've been tracking lately, and wanted to reward the start. She did great! She nailed the track perfectly, and when we approached where the last article should have been, I was disappointed to see it wasn't there, even though I kind of hid it behind a curb and it was valueless. It's a busy urban area, so it wasn't surprising. I told her to find it, and threw down another one while she was searching so that she would have that reward of finding something. I am so pleased that the age didn't give her any problems.

Monday evening I took her for a swim at the Fairgrounds. She ran and ran in the field there, just running to run, just for the joy of it. It was beautiful to watch. When we got to the river she did the same with swimming. I didn't need to throw anything for her and didn't have a bumper anyway, but she just swam and swam. I'm so glad that she enjoys swimming so much. Last night I skipped a Rally practice and we went swimming again, and this time I brought a bumper. I felt kind of bad missing practice, but I was just too tired and hot to focus. Here is Chianti swimming and then bringing the bumper to shore, pushing it under and sticking her head under for it.

A short time later she was out getting her bumper when a dog suddenly appeared. We were on a little riverside beach just off of a trail, and the 'beach' is only about 20 feet wide. Chianti saw the dog on the way back to shore, and there I was, worried that he might be aggressive. The owner wasn't in sight. So I called out, just to make sure that there was someone with the dog. Sure enough there was, and it turned out okay, but I sure wish that people would be a little bit more cautious about letting their dogs dart ahead in busy areas. Here is video of that.

Tonight was Agility class. I am happy to report that Chianti didn't hesitate at all about going through the chute! She still went through it like she was on fire, as though the incident from last week had never happened. She was a bit goofy overall tonight, wanting to play with everyone. Otherwise she was great! Her weaves are coming along - we've been practicing 2 x 2's:

We spent some time on the tire tonight, and that was fun - we haven't done it much and Chianti loves it. We worked on a lot actually: Weaves, pinwheel jumps, plank work, tire, and then some putting things together - chute, tunnel jump. Tunnel, tire. I love it. It's just way too fun! Okay, on to the next adventure...

Rally, Agility & A Playdate!

2010-07-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday we had a Rally practice. Chianti did fairly well. It was an Excellent course, and was a fair but challenging one. Arlene is getting really good at setting up the courses! I was pleased overall with Chianti's focus: It was much improved over the week before. Once we were done our turns on the course, we worked a bit on stand for exam, seek back, and retrieves. She did well at that stuff, and then about six of us practiced group stays, which she also did well. A good night overall! I was also very pleased that she managed to contain herself appropriately while she and Switch (the Papillon beside her) were taking turns for treats. Switch likes her but finds her a bit overwhelming, so we were working on getting her to be more still around him.

Wednesday was Agility. It was mostly a great, fun class as always, except that we did have an incident with the chute. We were sending the dogs through a tunnel, then through the chute. A chute is a barrel with collapsed tunnel attached to it, see photo to left. Chianti flew through the tunnel at lightening speed, then flew into the chute at lightening speed. Unfortunately the chute detached from the barrel with her in it. She was going so fast, and she was stuck in the chute. I'm not sure if she was still running or just trying to find her way out, but she kept moving forward quite a distance until the side of a tunnel stopped her and she was able to get out. Poor girlie! She wasn't too upset, but we did have to step back with the chute and build it back up by holding it open. She was looking pretty suspiciously at it since it tried to swallow her ;) By the end though we got her to do the tunnel / chute drill again, so she recovered quickly.

Friday I went to a friend's house to practice Agility. I practiced a bit with Chianti, then while Kim practiced with Baron I used it as an opportunity to proof stays, which was really good. Chianti and Baron really, really like each other, so it was good proofing for both of them. Afterward we let them have a play, which was pure joy.

Here are a couple of videos of them having a great time together:

Tracking, Obedience, Agility...

2010-07-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

Recently I read an article on Balance from Life with Big Dogs Blog. It's a good topic! Sometimes it can be hard to balance dog sports and the other aspects of life, and even just the dog sports themselves! I've got to admit, I don't try that hard ;) Dog sports are a huge part of my life, and hey, the dog needs exercise and attention anyway, so why not? I do tend to work on things in blocks, or sometimes just a little bit of everything. I might combine elements of Agility, Freestyle and Obedience into one 15 minute training session. The dog doesn't know the difference: If I ask her to side pass, I'm thinking of rear movement for turns in Obedience, an element of Freestyle, and body awareness for Agility. So really I'm training for all three at once. When I work on go outs or directed jumping, it's control at a distance - good for all sports. When I work on contacts, it's working on self control. Again good for all sports. So really training is training. I managed to fit in quite a few short sessions this weekend, even though I was away for most of yesterday.

Yesterday morning I fit in a field track before I left for a visit with my cousins for the day. I haven't been in the field for ages, so I made the track fairly easy. I kind of want to run fairly motivational tracks once in awhile and with a TDX coming up and possibly an American TD I want fields to be happy places! I only had time for half an hour of age, so it was really quite fresh for her. It started right at the gate which is something we need to practice once in awhile. As I was walking along the first leg I came across a glove just a couple of feet off the track. I left it there, and put an article not far past it. This field is called the Bear field because bears live in the stand of trees on the right and are often seen in the field by my fellow trackers. I don't mind as long as they stay on their side ;) Fortunately I didn't see any yesterday, unlike my unlucky friends, all with Toy dogs (Cavalier, Crested and Papillon) who ran into 3 there recently!

Chianti did really well on this track. She checked the non article glove quickly and moved on. Her corners were well executed and she didn't even circle on them. If I had to be picky I'd say she pulled a little hard on the last two legs. I could've fixed that by giving her a little less line. I was happy though because she was pinpoint accurate and enthusiastic! So she got the reward of throwing bumpers after and was quite happy.

Today before Obedience class with Anne I stopped by the Agility ring and had a short 15 minute session of practice. We worked on some jumps, then the plank, then some contacts. It was great because Barb's dogs were out and at the fence and Chianti stayed with me. Really I wanted to work on the plank, and we made some progress until near the end when Chianti heard a cow moo for the first time from across the road. She thought it was a very interesting sound!

I did a Novice run through at Obedience. It wasn't perfect, but it was a zillion times better than last time. My goal was to keep a connection and a positive energy, and that was definitely met! I also remembered to take my time on the stand getting my leash organized. My transitions on the changes of pace still need some work, but it's coming along. I need to practice those without the dog!

This afternoon we did some work on weave entries in the back yard, and played with a new toy. I love it. It's a Jolly Tug and it squeaks when you tug with it. The weave entries are coming along :)

I was also doing a little bit of work on proofing with food distractions, just because I happened to be taking some photos of teaching food respect for a forum post.

Here is a video of doing a drop on recall with food all over the place (and a toy). It's a slow drop, but that's okay, we haven't done this kind of proofing with that exercise. She was also very aware of the food and didn't want to make a mistake. I could tell because she kind of banana-ed around it on the first straight recall.

Dog Days of Summer

2010-07-17T19:17:00.000-07:00

It's gorgeous out. A little warm for intense, daytime training, but gorgeous! Today after work I decided to take Chianti for a tiny bit of training and then just some fun. What I ended up doing was a mini run through of Novice. I worked on my changes of pace and footwork while at the same time trying to project positive energy and stay connected. I think I succeeded tonight!

What I was working on with my changes of pace was keeping them smooth. It's really easy to get bouncy on the fast, and it needs to be smooth. So if I as the handler were a horse, I think I would be looking for an extended trot as opposed to a collected one ;) That way I will actually cover ground more quickly instead of just moving limbs more quickly while the dog really doesn't need to change pace. An important part of staying smooth for me is stillness in the upper body. It's a small detail, but well worth working on.

I also worked a little bit on halt footwork so that it's easier for Chianti to plant her rear into a sit without a forge on halts. If it's always the same footwork it helps. For me it is right step, shorter left step, close up with right. Everyone is different, but that works for me if I remember to do it the same every time! Sometimes I have a harder time with the pressure of someone calling a heeling pattern for me. It's easy to rush the halts in that situation. I was on my own, so no calling, but made a point of consistent halt footwork. Muscle memory does help!

The best part of this training session was that my dog was with me and happy. I worked on formal but checking in with smiles and glances, and with some focused fun in the transitions between exercises. There was a family at a nearby playground, so that was good proofing, and Chianti stayed focused without a problem. When we were all done we had a little bit of chuk it and a happy dog!

Still Smiling From That Track but Moving On...

2010-07-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

I don't think I'll ever forget that track from the last post. I'm still smiling. I feel like Chianti worked really hard for me and we were a good team in a test environment. It's nice to know that she's ready for that Urban Title, and while I absolutely am going to try to get her into a test whenever there is one, just passing that Sanction Test with flying colors makes me not worry so much about the fact that there aren't many Tests in BC. To me she's already passed one! I'm now toying with the idea of trying to enter a test in Washington to get an American TD, mostly because I just love Tracking so much.

Scent work is fascinating. I watched a program recently on the OASIS channel about dogs, and it showed things I've been aware of for some time but still touch me. Things like canine scent work being used to detect cancers, or to detect low blood sugar in a Type 1 Diabetic child. As I watched the story of this young boy who couldn't live a normal life for fear of a drop in blood sugar leading to a seizure, I was just touched by seeing how a very special German Shepherd had truly changed his life. It's amazing to think that a dog could be conditioned to sleep with that boy and wake up the adults when the dog detected changes in body chemistry with its nose, and that the dog just keeps on doing so. Amazing animals. Amazing noses.

Even though our kind of nose work doesn't involve saving anyone, helping anyone or anything but pure fun and entertainment, it's still amazing to me. There's something just fascinating about watching a dog do something so well that we can't do at all. If you asked me to tell you where someone walked an hour or more ago I couldn't tell you if that person smelled like a clove of garlic - at least not in an open environment - but dogs can do that. It's just cool to watch. It's amazing that they do do it for us, simply because we ask them to and we offer the occasional reward.

We haven't done any tracking since the test, but we have had some Agility & Rally & Obedience practices. Agility class was fun, her weave entries are getting better pretty quickly. I have so much to learn about handling! It's very different from Obedience.

Rally Practice was okay. Moments of brilliance and we finished well, but there were some focus blips here and there with some distractions. It was a good training session though: We were able to work through it.

Tonight we did a bit of practice at a playground, working on some "plank" work on the edge boards, and also doing some Obedience. It was good because there were kids and dogs and people, and Chianti can use all of that proofing. We worked for awhile on the plank, and then did quite a bit of heeling as well as some stands and a few tricks, breaking things up with play. It was a good, fun session with a bit of formality thrown in, which is exactly what we're trying to do right now. I wish I'd gotten some photos, but I was just to focused on the session! Next time ;)

We Passed!

2010-07-11T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today was the Flat-Coated Retriever Society of Canada Sanction Urban Tracking Test. Even though this was a Sanction Test, I feel like my dog just earned a title! The map is to the left, and below is a googlemap that I made, not as precise but shows the terrain.

Rendezvous was at 7:00, so we woke up and packed up and went. We drew track one in the draw, and we all headed up to North Island College.

Chianti was excited to be out. We approached the start flag, and she was sniffing around it before I even asked her to down. She downed nicely, and I waited a moment before asking her to find her track. Off she went! It was a really nice start. She indicated left at the first corner with a quick look, checked right, then went confidently left, quickly finding her first article and indicating nicely. She carried on when asked, zipped around the next corner to the right without any hesitation, crossed the road and down the next leg. She did do one circle on that leg, but then carried on. She was indicating a corner to the right when she spotted a German Shepherd walking with its handler toward us from the direction. She watched for a few seconds, then got back to work as the Shepherd turned and went in the other direction.

She crossed the parking lot, and followed the sidewalk / grass area beside the building, working well. As we approached the last corner along came the Shepherd again - they must have done a speed lap and were back! This time the dog was on our track again and walked right past us right on the corner. I told Chianti to sit and waited for them to pass, then asked her to get back to work. She checked just past the corner, bowing out a bit from the actual track but not far at all, then came back in and bowed our just a tiny bit the other way, then came back in to the article. It was great! 14 minutes and she was done. She actually did a very nice job and I was very proud of her :)

Run Through and Motivational Track Today

2010-07-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

Sigh. I need to work on my handling. I did a Novice, formal run through with Chianti today. She did fine, nothing major at all. It wasn't what it could be though, and it's my fault. I need to practice having someone call for me and still connecting with my dog. Not by staring at her or talking to her of anything like that, but just by keeping a connection with her. As soon as we went really formal, I turned into a robot. Not good. So I have to work on that element, formal but still connected, a team, and having fun. I can do it, I know it - but I need practice! So I'm going to work on that by doing small bits of formal stuff and chaining it together, smiling more even when I'm trying to listen, follow instructions and think, and do some fun things between exercises. I also need to work on my leash handling on the stand. I use a skinny leash, and I love it for heeling, but I have to say my old wider one was better for the stand. What it really comes down to though is that I need to take my time before I tell her to stay, make sure I'm in exactly heel, and have my leash organized properly. I need more matches! I also need to remember that I'm there to have fun with my dog and that that is the most important thing - the two of us need to be having a good time. I'm glad I did the run through, it showed me exactly what I need to work on. There is always something!

Following the advice of a very experience tracker Donna Brinkworth I decided to lay an easy, motivational track for Chianti today and heavily reward her. After class I headed to the college and laid a simple L track. I put an article on the first leg, just to reward her start. While the track aged I picked her up a plain hamburger - the plumber hasn't been to the house yet, and the kitchen is not usable! I only aged half an hour, then took her out. She downed at the flag beautifully. She started beautifully. She stayed on track and indicated the article perfectly. I gave her a bit of the hamburger and then told her to find more. She got to the the corner and executed it perfectly, not even over-shooting it. She simply looked left, then right, then went left. She carried on right on track to the asphalt, took a couple of steps to her left there, checking, then got right back on track and carried on back onto grass, then asphalt again, then grass again. She indicated the glove again perfectly and got some more hamburger!

I am just thrilled that all of the elements were so good, especially the start. I was kind of worried that she would start thinking that tracking is always hard after doing two challenging, reasonably long ones on Friday and Sunday. This one was just easy and fun, so I'm hoping that on Sunday for the Sanction Test she will be enthusiastic and have a good start.

What a Day - Tracking, Plumbing, Photos and Sanction Test!

2010-07-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

It's been kind of an up and down day today. Right now I am hiding in the office typing and keeping Chianti from trying to help while hubby tries to unclog the kitchen sink. Not just a little clog, a horrible clog that may end up resulting in a plumber having to come. Okay, scratch that, I just spent the last half hour helping to try to clear the clog, and it's just not going well, so yes, it will result in calling a plumber :(

Anyway, that aside, I do have some Chianti adventures to share. I had posted something about the Terri Everwine seminar to a Tracking email list, and got a lovely email from a lady who has the first CT (Champion Tracker in the States) Staffordshire Bull Terrier. We had a nice e-chat, and I'm always quite thrilled to talk dogs, but especially Bully breeds. She used to have AmStaffs, and trains for Tracking with Terri. It was really nice to "meet" her. I love that about the internet!

I went tracking with my friend Arlene today. Arlene started her Miniature Schnauzer Zoe at the seminar, and I planned on laying some tracks for her and having her lay one for me. To my surprise Arlene had already laid one for me and did a great job! Chianti did not have her best start for some reason - which turned out to be that I hadn't given her enough of an opportunity to potty before we left! Once she got that out of the way she was much, much better and was able to focus. I'm usually really good about that, and feel that it was definitely handler error. She did an awesome job on most of her corners though and a passable job on the others. She cut the first acute slightly, but I think that was because there was an article fairly close to the corner, which I've learned can cause a dog to skip over as the lines come close to converging. I had planned on just giving her an easy short track, this one was moderately challenging with 6 corners including an extreme acute, moderate acute and three opens and one about 90. The parallel lines were fairly close together, but not unmanageable with little wind. That part she did fine. It's hard to see the track in this photo - used the wrong color - sorry, but you can kind of see it!

Arlene's tracking went well, Zoe is progressing nicely, and easily handled some transitions, and then some open turns. Her starts were great, and got better each time.

I entered a Sanction Tracking Test when entries opened today, and got in! It's next Sunday :)) A Sanction Test is a practice test that CKC requires clubs to hold while they are seeking approval to hold real tests so that they can show that they know how to organize one. It will be a great opportunity for me to get Chianti out on a track in a test situation, but much cheaper. My hope is that it will help my nerves, and in turn help her. Every opportunity I have for an Obedience practice match I take, and I kind of look at this the same way. Practice tests are valuable! So now I'm trying to decide if I should try to squeeze in one motivational track this week, since today's was challenging and Friday's was challenging, or just leave tracking alone until then. I'll think about it....

The other neat thing that happened today is that Chianti's photo won a contest on Woofy's Facebook page, and we won a $25 gift certificate! I will have to get Chianti something nice. The category was animals sleeping, and this is the photo that won. Too funny that a bizarre close up of her nose won, but hey, we'll take it!

Tomorrow we have class with Anne, and I'm thinking about a Novice run through. Wednesday we have Agility, and possibly may have a semi private Agility class one other night this week with just Barb, Sheila & Jett, and Chianti & I. That will be fun! Then the Sanction Test on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to this week now. Well, everything except the plumbing part....

An Evening Track

2010-07-02T20:28:00.000-07:00

I've been itching to get out tracking since the Terri Everwine seminar. I've been to a few Obedience seminars, and of course Grooming seminars, but never to a Tracking one before. I find that with any given seminar there is always at least one gem of a revelation that I can benefit from. With Terri Everwine there were definitely a few.

One thing I learned is how important it is to work on article indication separately from tracking. From now on I will lay out articles in parking lots or wherever and just work on positive reinforcement of indication.

Another thing I learned is that reading your dog means looking for tiny, tiny little indications and changes in body language, and that the only way to learn to read them really well is to let them make mistakes. I lay a lot of my own tracks, so I almost always know where the track goes. That's fine, but I need to stop preventing my dog from overshooting corners all of the time. So I need to know myself where the corner is, but then follow her past it, and watch her. I need to know how she tells me she's out of scent (head up, quartering, circling, looking back). I need to let her sort out how to get back to the scent.

After work tonight I played with weave poles a bit, then laid a short track with lots of corners. It had 3 right angle corners 2 open corners and 1 acute corner, because we overshot an open corner at the seminar. I do lay tracks with open and acute corners, but must admit that the majority of my corners are right angles. It's harder for me to read an open corner as a handler, so it's good for me to practice them. I didn't mark the articles on the map above - hurriedly just marked the path - but there was one (plastic) about 30 after the start, on after the first open corner (metal), one well after the acute corner (a wooden clothespin), and one at the end (a glove).

Chianti started well, and pounced on the first article. The first corner went left at 90 degrees on concrete, right in front of a building. She overshot slightly, maybe 5 feet, checked right, and then came back and followed the track left. This leg was short, and she soon came to another right angle corner, this time to the right, on asphalt. She made that corner without much checking or hesitation and moved on to the next corner, an open right. She handled the open corner well, but watching her and letting her sort it out taught me that it is hard for handlers to see dogs do an open turn. That's partly because, as Terri mentioned, we are kind of programmed especially in urban areas where things are more rectangular and regular shapes, to see things in those shapes. I think it's also because when a dog takes a right angle turn it's more obvious. When it's an open turn it feels like their just drifting. The article was at the end of some pavement and she indicated well.

The acute angle was next, and it was interesting. I knew exactly where it was. She was right on track approaching it, and then overshot it. I went with her, watching her for signs of loss of scent. She was probably about 15 feet past the turn when she raised her head, went back and forth a few times checking, pulled a couple of feet further forward halfheartedly, and then circled a loop around me. I said nothing. I circled with her, watching her. I used to just stand facing the same direction, but Terri cautioned against that, and I kind of see why now. I knew my dog was past the track. The direction I was facing didn't matter because I was past it too. Me standing like a stone might inadvertently prevent her from checking behind me well. So I circled with her and watched her and waited. For a minute and 10 seconds I let her sort it out and she DID! She circled. She came back toward the track on one of the circles, and I backed up with her. Then she hit scent and I just followed her as she confidently followed the next leg. Beautiful! She got to the clothespin, which I hadn't even noticed I put right with 2 or 3 other little sticks, and she sorted out easily which one was "hers" and indicated. Well done! Had I to do it again, I would have ended there since she worked so hard on that corner, but we just had a tiny bit left to go. She easily handled the next 90 degree right, and then got to the last corner, an open right. She managed it very well, overshooting a tiny bit, backing up on her own and following the track quickly to the final article. Yay! Bumpers were thrown as a reward and Chianti was very happy to have that reward!

So what I learned is to not "help" her so much with nagging and preventing her from making errors, but instead learn to read her and to trust her to be able to sort it out. Which we all say we know we should do - trust your dog is a favorite saying among tracking folks, but sometimes we even unintentionally try to micro-manage them. Would I let her keep going off the corner of the track indefinitely? No, I think if she got really far off or quit working I would do something, but letting her sort it out and learning to read her doing that was very, very valuable for test situations!

Below is the video of the Acute corner portion of the track. It's longer than I like to post here, at just over 3 minutes, but somewhere around a minute she loses scent and then starts searching. At about 2:20 she finds the track. Wow that 80 seconds can seem like a long time, but I have to pat myself on the back for not saying a word. Those of you who know me know how hard that is for me! I was doing my best to be very patient and observant.

Tracking Seminar and We've Got Weaves!

2010-06-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at the Terri Everwine Urban Tracking Seminar! I learned a lot. Terri does a great demonstration in the theory part by setting up a board with little mini flags on it nails (short straws and a paper flag) and a fan. She puts boxes on it of different sizes and types to represent buildings, sheds, tall buildings, buildings clustered etc., and you can see what it does to the the wind - where it might swirl, where there is no wind, where there is lots of wind. It was really interesting! I loved watching all of the different dogs track, and learning to read their smallest indications. Chianti had a great time during her working time on Sunday. It's been a long time since I ran a blind track, and since I had anyone following. She felt like she had an entourage, and being the dog that she is, was very, very happy about that. She looked back once in awhile to make sure that they were watching her, and at her first article put on quite a show before she indicated, prancing for the crowd as if to say "watch me, I'm about to do something here!" Then she did a little spin, pawed the article and downed. As I told her to find the rest of her track, she smiled back at the crowd "did you see that? Did you see what I did? Keep watching!" It was just hilarious! She did overshoot her last corner, an open one, and Terri pointed out to me that she was clearly indicating a loss of scent. I think my mistake has been not letting her overshoot in training lately. If I know where the corner is, I need to let her overshoot it if she wants, watch for her indication of loss of scent so I know what it looks like, and then see if I can get her to back up and find it. That will give her the skill to sort it out in a test, and I won't be worried about her overshooting as much. It was a great seminar, and I found Terri to be a good presenter and an skilled reader of dogs.

On the Agility front, my friend Arlene loaned me some weave poles! Yay! I will probably make some of my own, but in the meantime I can get started on working on finding the entry and on running her through some channel weaves. Way fun! Here is a photo of her going through the channel, and one of her smile after ;)

Here is a video of her weaving. I'm really looking forward to class on Wednesday!

Another Great Agility Class

2010-06-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

We had Agility again last night and as usual had a great time! We've been taking classes with Roadsters Agility and have been learning a lot from Barb and crew. Last night we worked on stretches, jumping skills, the dog walk and the table. Chianti just loves it, and I'm finding that she's settling in more and more each week. We've only had three classes but I see huge improvements already. It was fun doing the stretches, although I have to review "take a bow" with her. We haven't done it for awhile and she flubbed it a couple of times by laying down. It is a good stretch as well as a trick. So is standing on her hind legs, and of course "cookie" stretches are good also.

The jumping skills we worked on were interesting because they are a bit different from the Obedience style of jumping. Chianti did well once I got myself sorted out! The dog walk was great, she is quite confident. Of course as you can see from the photo posted above from one of our regular walks in the woods, she is quite comfortable running around on logs, so I imagine that helps her dog walk confidence. I think that she will love running a course, and really the biggest problem will be getting her to run the right course and not take her own route! I'm looking forward to having a lot of fun in Agility, and have already decided to sign up for the next session. I absolutely love it! At the end of class we worked on "Go Wrap" and it was nice to be able to show how well Chianti is doing that. She did a great job :) Here is an updated video of her wrapping a tree at the Airpark, a very distracting place.

Last night I spent some time trying to sort out whether I'm going to buy some practice weave poles or make my own (still thinking on that one) and trying to plan which Rally / Obedience trials I might want to enter in the next year or so. I have think ahead, because I work most Saturdays, which is going to limit me to usually only 2 Trials at a time on the Sundays. I have entered Pre-Novice on the Sunday at our Club's trials in September and plan on entering our Club's Rally trials on the Sunday too. So assuming we pass we will still need a leg for each, and I'm trying to sort out where I can get those on a Sunday. I'm also going to try to get into our Club TDX test in September. Next year I will likely start her in Novice Obedience. She will be turning 3 then and probably a little more polished. The last 6 months has been incredible in terms of her maturity. In fact, I think for my next class with Anne I will ask her to run me through a Novice routine and then give me a really picky critique of all of the little fine points that I need to work on. Then I'll write it down and start dissecting each thing and working it back up again in the hope of entering the next AIOC trials and then maybe some CKC in 2011. We'll see!

I am getting excited about the Terri Everwine Urban Tracking seminar we are attending this weekend. Should be fun!

Chianti's Hip Results & Lots of Fun

2010-06-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well first things first, Chianti's OFA hip results are posted, and they are "Good". Which is great! Not only was it part of my contract with her breeder to have them x-rayed, it is also good to have them checked on dogs participating in dog sports. Now I know that when I'm having my dog jump at Agility, or in Obedience, or off the end of a dock I'm not aggravating a physical problem, and I'm relieved. I think it's great that Renee & Chip at Divinity AmStaffs want testing done. Even though Chianti isn't being bred, it's important to know what you are producing as breeder, and I imagine it helps you make good decisions.

This week we did a lot of little sessions. Our only intense training was a session at a busy dog walking area. There we worked on just some focus, a little on signals, and articles, which was challenging. Just as we were beginning, a person pulled up with a Miniature Schnauzer that started squealing like crazy at the sight of Chianti. The first article, during the screaming, required some extra commands, but she did get it. Here she is on number three, still a bit distracted, but much better than the beginning!

We also worked more on Go Wrap there. I used a tree this time, and was able to work at a greater distance with more drive. I was probably sending her from about 20 feet by the end of that session. The next day I sent her from about 30 around a stool. She's getting onto that game really, really well.

No tracking on the weekend, I took a break from that. I have a tracking seminar on the weekend to attend with her, and figured it wouldn't hurt to skip tracking this weekend since next will be all tracking. Mostly it was because I didn't feel that great on Sunday, and that's when I usually track. We went for a couple of good walks and some chuk it sessions.

Agility is tomorrow, and I have to say, I'm really looking forward to it! I'm sure I'll post blog not too long after :)

A Fun Training Session

2010-06-17T20:48:00.000-07:00

After work today I decided to have a training session working on a few different things. I really wanted to practice having her wrap around objects. I taught her that for Obedience, using a pylon for the broad jump exercise, but apparently it's useful in Agility too. To the left is a photo of her right after wrapping around a pylon. It's a very silly photo: Mouth open, ready for her squeaker!

Here is a video of her wrapping around two different things:

We also practiced a bit of target work, some direction changes, and some jumping. I decided near the end it would be fun to run her over a jump, do a direction change, and then run her over two jumps, just to see if she would pay attention. Here is a video.

I used a lot of play in this session, and this is Chianti showing the camera her squeaky. She's such a goof!

In the middle of our training some kids came over to see Chianti. I let them pet her, but she was so hyper with the work it was hard for her to keep all of her feet on the ground! She managed in the end though, and just as the kids were leaving two small dogs came for a walk around. That was a good opportunity to do more work with a bit of a distraction, so we did, then a little more play, and off we went. Now Chianti is having a fitful and well deserved nap.

Getting Hooked on Agility

2010-06-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

Agility was fun when Chianti was a puppy and took a puppy class. We took a break so that she could grow up a bit. Now it is even more fun! We've only had two classes of this session, and I think I'm getting hooked on it. Chianti clearly loves it and I think will love it even more when we put it together a bit.

Last week we worked on some handling and directing skills, plus jumps and A frame. This week we worked on tunnels, chute, jumping and weaves. It is just so much fun to watch my little tunnel maniac go flying through that tunnel happy as can be! I think she loves the energy bursts, and this will be a good sport for her, and it will be good for her to focus in a high environment and learn some self control while still having a blast.

I'll have to try to nag Scott to come and take some photos next week to post. I just had to share how much fun we are having!

Way Too Much Fun

2010-06-13T22:50:00.000-07:00

This week we've just had way too much fun! On Monday we had class with Anne, and worked on directed jumping. It wasn't her best work, she was a little bit easily distracted. However we worked through that, and it ended just fine.

Wednesday we started an Agility class. I honestly forgot how much fun it is. Or maybe it's just that it's more fun now that Chianti is older and ever so slightly more mature. Anyway it was fun! We worked on some jumping and on directing our dogs, ladders, and the A-Frame with two on / two off contacts. The next day I thought I had better review nose touching a target because we haven't done that for awhile. I started with the target in my hand, because she still uses hand touch. Then moved it to the floor at my feet. No problem. I moved it away a bit, and when I told her to go touch, she decided to retrieve it! Sigh. So we worked on that a bit this week. I also reviewed directing her around pylons and did some work on changing directions and having her work on my right side part of the time - a hard trick for us Obedience types where all of the work is with the dog on the left. I'm really looking forward to class on Wednesday!

Today we fit a ton into one day. I laid a track at the College this morning. It was windy but sunny. I let it age about 3 hours and 20 minutes. After I laid it, I took Chianti to the sports centre parking lot and we had a short, upbeat training session. I purposely placed us around the corner from a motorcycle training class so that there would be noise. We worked on directed jumping and she did way better than on Monday. We did a bit of signals, and a little bit of Agility training. Then I took her home so she could rest up before our track. After tracking we went for a short walk and she had a quick dip in the river. I bathed her when we got home, and tonight we went to a Rally practice. SO it was a full, full day!

My plan on this track was to be quiet in my handling. I was trying to let her sort everything out for herself. For the most part she did, with the odd bit of verbal encouragement. There were 8 corners and 4 articles. Much of the track was on hard surface. It was windy, and there was a lot of debris blowing around. There weren't too many people, except near the end.

Here is the last leg. Notice the pause and tail wag as we walked by some people. They were looking at her and calling her cute. When I laid the track I purposely climbed up onto a ledge instead of taking the stairs, not thinking at the time of course that I was going to have to climb it again with a dog pulling on a line! Sorry for that second or so of video ;) Also, when I laid the track there was a deer at the end that I scared off, and of course along the way there were other dogs. So cross tracks were not all human.

Chianti made me very happy at Rally practice tonight. We did all three courses, Novice, Advanced and Excellent. Advanced and Excellent were off leash. We were in a strange place, with some distractions -miniature horses, some dogs she didn't know and the ring wasn't a ring, just an open course. So I was incredibly pleased that when we did the off leash courses she stayed totally with me, even when there were jumps and a great opportunity to zoom. Yay! It's a small thing, but that would have been next to impossible a year ago, so it makes me realize how far we have come. The photo is of her on a down stay today during our Obedience / Agility session at the sports centre

Today's Adventure

2010-06-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

Well, you can't say I don't try to proof my dog. Today's track was an adventure! There was some sort of event there today that involved those inflatable things that kids bounce around in, lots of people, bagpipes and other music, a PA system etc. It was a pretty busy place. When I laid the track I was able to park not too far away, but when I returned two hours later to track it, I had to park a fair distance away. Here is a slide show

Here is the overall map. It was kind of a strange track, lots of little curves in it. On the non-veg corner a lady approached us and wanted to say hi to Chianti, so I had her sit and be petted, then we got back to work. Another person stopped to me to ask about a local event that she thought was happening. It is good to stop and talk to people during a training track, because it can happen in a test, so I'm always glad when people approach me on a track.

What I'm most impressed with in Chianti's track today, is there were 3 times when she had to turn away from the distractions she would under normal circumstances want to be in the middle of to stay on track. Each time she did so. The first time was very close to a bouncerama. She hesitated, watching what to her would be a very odd and interesting scene (kids bouncing in it - you could see through a screen). I reminded her to find her track, and she got back to work. The second was overlooking the entire event from above. She stayed on track on her own. The third was heading toward the activity on a path, and then the track turns left. She again stayed on the track on her own. For an overly social dog this was a huge accomplishment and I'm very pleased with her performance today!

This is one of my favourite photos from today: Pulling hard into the harness, confident as can be.

It was kind of hot, so I took her for a quick swim after tracking, and then we went to the Fish and Game club to see an outdoor show. Dogs were allowed there on leash, so it was another good experience for her walking through the crowds. We were parked right by the gun range, but the noises didn't bother her at all. We walked around the grounds, she said hi to a few kids, then we watched an agility demo being put on by the Club we took agility with. I've been thinking about getting back into agility now that she is a bit older, and it turns out there is a class starting this Wednesday. So guess who is going? Of course we are! We'll see how it goes, but I think it will be a great thing to do over the summer. Chianti just loves to be active, so I'm sure we'll have a great time.

Back to Normal

2010-06-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

Well, mostly back to normal. Normal for us anyway! The surgery was Wednesday, and by Thursday night Chianti needed a run. She was absolutely itching to get out and do something fun. We took her for a walk, and she ran and bounced and just generally had a good time. Here you can see that she is back to her normal level of bounce ;)

Today after work we went for another run and I snapped a photo of her new "gap" while she laid happily panting on the grass. It seems to be healing fine, and it's certainly not slowing her down. As soon as it's a little more healed up I'm going to have to start brushing her teeth again though. The one below it is not going to get a lot of chew time.

She's gone far too many days for her taste without any dog sports time though. I'm hoping to get her out for an Urban track this weekend. Tracking shouldn't hurt her gum any, and there are only a couple more weekends are left before the Terri Everwine seminar we are attending! I'm very excited, but feel like I should get out tracking so that I know exactly what challenges we are having to ask about.

On that note, I'm off to plan a track now. I will let you know how it goes!

Surgery Went Smoothly

2010-06-02T19:02:00.000-07:00

This is Chianti's post anesthetic face. She was a little out of it. However, the surgery went very well. It turned out that the slab fracture we saw was deceptive: The tooth was much more severely fractured in the middle than it looked. No wonder it abscessed! She will have a different smile now, but that's okay. She is already eating her soft food well.

Notice the flowers on the little table - sorry the shot is a little dark - a beautiful vase of fresh cut flowers from Chianti's friend - and mine ;) - Francine. Thank you Francine!

I bought Chianti a Jolly Ball a few days ago. She loves it. I'm sure it's not going to be long before she wants to work on the handle some more. Yes it's pink! Sometimes I like to get her pink things because when people see her they call her "fella". She loves to fetch this thing too, and most importantly, it's nice and soft!

I'm sure glad we got that tooth pulled - I do think it was bothering her, and that he infection was affecting her. She seemed just not quite herself at various times over the last few days.

Here she is at a play session last night. I thought I should run her a little, knowing that she will need a little bit of recovery time. We went for a light chuk - it session and run. I let her set the pace for our playtime last night. I know when I had an abscessed tooth it hurt and it made me sick and less energetic. So she played to her heart's desire, and we had a short, fun session. She is a hilarious dog. I often find myself laughing during our outings.

Hopefully the next time I post, we will be back to normal, well, normal for us, and have some fun adventures to talk about!

Dental Surgery Next Week

2010-05-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

You may have read my post a week and a bit ago about Chianti's slab fracture of her molar from chewing on a bone a little too enthusiastically. We were monitoring it to be sure that it didn't develop infection. In the photo to the right you can see that there is a red lump on her gum, indicating clearly that there is infection present.. The fracture looks worse too. So Chianti is on antibiotics and the tooth will be extracted on Wednesday. It's an upper left molar and removing them is actually a bit difficult because this tooth has 3 roots. The tooth will be cut and removed 1 root at a time. It will leave a big hole that will require sutures. Hopefully all will go well and there will be no complications other than a different looking smile.

In the meantime I will be taking it easy Chianti. Even though dogs are much more stoic than we humans are, dental infections are painful. While I'm not going to keep her on strict rest or anything severe, I don't think I'll put any pressure on her with training this weekend. After the tooth is removed I'm sure that she will recover quickly and we can get back to doing the sports she loves.