Old dogs, new dogs

The old man wanted a walk in the worst way a few weeks ago, so we went to the forest nearby and he got to mosey around. One blessing of being old, he can no longer run away from me, so got to be off leash for awhile. He very much enjoyed sniffing leaves and peeing on bushes. The simple pleasures...

The puppy saw contact equipment for the first time on Friday. He was, not surprisingly, quite excited about it. The A-frame was only partially elevated and it was just a 3/4 dog walk, but he thought both were very fun. If I don't mess it up, this guy will be fast! He also got some needed balance practice and more work on the dreaded phone book, bleh. It did scare me a little at one point that he was running so fast down the dog walk his feet came off the side, but he held on. It makes me appreciate having a dog who is (mostly) well trained on the obstacles.

Griff and I had a much better agility class today. We are still the worst, but we are learning a lot since the courses are so much harder and everyone else's skill sets are so great. Not the worst deal. I still get embarrassed, like when I was so excited he got a difficult weave entry that I neglected to realize he'd done so by cutting behind me, oops. Nice dog, shame about the handler indeed. But he did do some nice serpentines, only had one weave bobble, and nice contacts.

Need to work some 2x2 with Zig today, probably need to bring them inside rather than get poured on. He hates wet grass.

Being the worst

Griff and I just started a new agility class (well, same instructor, different group of dogs). Two handlers I know, both experienced agility competitors with relatively young dogs. The other two I've seen at trials, but don't know.  We have the dubious honor of being the worst in the class.

I am going not to care because a. it's a better learning situation to be in than being the best, b. we are out of practice after being off a month or more, and c. well, it's just agility. Heh. But I did feel a little embarrassed, which is such a stupid emotion. Poor Griffy had probably no idea what to think of me. But we will persevere and get better because of it.

It did remind me that a. we haven't worked contacts in a long time, b. you can't expect distance skills you haven't trained, and c. be careful what you wish for, or you just might get it. I was always trying to get Griff to focus more on me in class because I didn't want a runaway dog, to the point now where he'll try to jump over a tunnel rather than take a jump because it's closer to me. Arg. My fault.

It's funny how ego-driven we are, no matter whether a big, life-or-death situation, or our hobby, we can still get all mixed up in "performing" well. I will go lick my wounds now.

Fleet Feet trial 9/10-9/11/11

Soooo, agility. Status of agility training has been a bit sketchy since the last trial. I was so frustrated at times by our lack of progress, then following sickness in both myself and my old man dog, I missed most of agility class for August. We did do a 2x2 weaves workshop, which, at least in practice, seemed to really help Griffy with some weave trouble he'd been having. We practiced weaves and jumpwork at home quite a bit. No contacts, no long courses. With Zig, I took a class based at least loosely on Control Unleashed, and since he's turned 1, started some jump work with him. I also (very slowly) have started some 2x2 weaves with him (just one set so far).

We had to sign up for the September CPE trial long before I knew we'd be taking a month off class. I was not at  all sure how it would go, considering Griff hadn't see the arena, a piece of contact equipment, or even run while another dog was nearby since July. And, Saturday, it turned out, was predicted to be close to 100 degrees. Eek.

Let's see: good stuff. Fullhouse: startline stay. Weaves were 1/2. I didn't correct since it's a time issue. No problem with teeter. Ran pretty fast. Q and 2nd (due to points). Bad stuff: weaves were 1/2. One knocked bar.

Standard: nicely run course! No complaints. Both sets of weaves perfect (both 6s). No knocked bars. Q and first.

Snooker: Weaves 1/2. Otherwise, no complaints. Did not make it all the way to #7 but he didn't need the points to Q. It was a very low qualifying snooker, mostly because 5 and 6 were combos and the course was so long a lot of people were running out of time. He q'd and took 2nd.

Jumpers: Pretty good run-now he's in level 5. No complaints, especially due to how hot the day was.

Sunday:
Jackpot: perfect jackpot execution, read reverse flow pivot and rear crosses well. Weaves 1/2. Q! Not very high scoring, since I forgot that in jackpot weaves are only worth 3 and not 5, but it was ok enough. We don't have distance skills so Qing in jackpot is hard for us.

Standard. Beautiful run that I messed up by forgetting where I was going. Caused him to knock a bar, but he still q'd. Perfect 12 weaves. Q and 1st even with 5 faults.

Wildcard: nice run. Weaves perfect. He was a champ. No complaints. Q.

Colors: nice run, good weaves. No knocked bars!!!! YAY!

My main disappointment is that his weave pole performance, while much improved from last trial, was still only about 2/3rds accurate. Not good enough for AKC. And geez, that's all we've been working on! It was mostly about not searching for the correct entry still. He was much better, but still not as solid as I'd hoped. Gotta keep working it, maybe going back to just two poles.

Most of the frustrating things about this trial were other people. People complaining about the CPE rules, the judge, other trivial stuff. One "friend" who likes to take support, can't give it. A dog tried to eat Zig's face, and the owner was a bit annoying about it. Too many people yelling at their dogs in the ring in the name of "training" and thinking that rules (such as the new no gates closed rule) did not apply to them and their dogs.

But it was nice to hang out with several agility people that I really like but don't see often. So many people are friendly, supportive, and just out to do well and have fun with their dogs. I just have to ignore those who aren't.

I am still debating about when to neuter the shrimp. He's 13 months, and I have him on the schedule for the 23rd, but I am kind of hating doing it. I wish his breeder would weigh in for me, but she's not been answering my emails. Hmm.

off to prepare for a six day week! BLEH!

Agility musings

Griff and I trialed this weekend for the first time since March. Zig came along for the experience and socialization. With the wedding and June being such a busy month, we haven't been in very aggressive training for about 2 months. It was clear this might be the source of some of our issues.

We entered all 8 CPE classes. First was jackpot-Griff was attentive and his opening was fine, but the closing was a traditional jackpot with a distance jump tunnel layered with two jumps closer. You sent them into a tunnel, angled towards the far jump but still requiring comfort at distance. We just don't do distance, especially with layered obstacles, since jackpot is the only class that uses it and we don't run NADAC. So naturally, after coming out of the tunnel Griff oriented towards me and "out jump" wasn't enough to make him take the far jump-end of jackpot. I wasn't disappointed with it since I can't expect him to do what he hasn't been trained to do!

Standard-we had weave trouble, which we corrected. Should have been 5 faults but a q. Somehow, they marked us as a 15 point major fault. NQ. I am pretty sure it was a scribing error, but nothing to be done about it.

Wildcard was a nice run, and we finally got out of level 2 colors! Fullhouse is always a fun run.

Standard II on Sunday was the problem. The first four obstacles were tough. Jump to dog walk but set at a right angle, so if the set up wasn't just right it was a difficult entry, and Griff was nervous as soon as we walked out. He never, ever shows ring anxiety, he will occasionally knock bars if my direction is late but he doesn't seem to worry about it. This was different. He wouldn't get into position on the start line, kept looking back at the dog that was leaving the ring, and then when I sent him over the jump and onto the dog walk, I took my eyes off him for a split second and he tried to cut behind me instead of going onto the dog walk. We recovered, but after the jump were the weaves. We had a complete weave breakdown. At first, he popped the 10th pole, so I took him back to fix it. Then we popped at the third, then the tenth, then he acted like he couldn't weave at all....such a strange thing. SO....stupidly too late, but finally I gave up and just ran the rest of the course, knowing he'd get an NQ but wanting him to end on a good note-and he ran the rest of the 14 obstacles perfectly. Strange. I don't know why the stress behaviors were so bad.

Snooker-I played it safe with the points and he did perfectly, no stress, perfect attentiveness, blew past 6 weaves first but then executed them perfectly. Jumpers course-he saved our ass, did great. Much more like the Griff I am used to.

There are a few things to note about this trial:
1. Competitive people are everywhere, even in a "fun" sport like agility. They can make you feel bad about your progress even though objectively it is right where you expect it to be.
2. I should have been more careful when reining in Griff's forwardness. He now checks in too much and won't necessarily run a line if I am too far, even if I am cueing him correctly.
3. I cue late too much in trials.
4. I need to trust the front cross.
5. I need to make sure my training efforts are in line with my training goals, and not feel bad if the results reflect the efforts. Not everyone can be a fanatic, and if you train at a specific level, that is the performance you should expect.

Zig was great at the trial. I wish I had him further along, but he was awfully mellow in the crate and attentive out. However, he is certainly more aware of his testicles, and I am thinking I really want to neuter him at 12 months. Maybe I can make it to 14-16 months but don't think I can make it to two.

Foundations and Grown-up Agility

Zig's foundation class:

Did a better job of being motivating. A new schnauzer in class necessitated me working harder at being fun and keeping Zig with me. We've got two on two off phone book. We've got good jump drive over the standards. We've got the beginnings of circle work. We're getting very good stays even in front of the jump (which he desperately wants to take). We've got tug! We get distracto-pants during the last minutes esp when he's waiting to run his mini courses.

Grown up agility

The class I'm in is not challenging enough for us right now. Tried to spice it up by adding some distance practice but the course really wasn't set up for it, didn't work too well. I think most of the people in the class run AKC novice which is much different than where we are. Which is who knows? I know I want more distance work, I wish I'd done more foundation work with Griff-especially jump work. Need to start puppy jump grids more vigorously with Zigster. Weaves and contacts were especially good tonight. Not a bobble at the startline. Why only when I can least afford it (ie, colors run that he blew) does he break his stay???

I want an incredibly toy driven dog for my next puppy. I've decided.

My puppy hates shaping

We have been having a devil of a time with the "phone book" exercise in Agility Foundations, namely, get two back feet on the phone book. We had little trouble with two front feet but 1. changing the game 2. expecting back feet when dogs have much less control/awareness of them and 3. trying to increase criteria have left me with a very frustrated puppy! He's started vocalizing when I get the phone book out. I feel this exercise is kind of dumb but my instructor insists this is the way I should do it (no luring, no teaching to back up first without the phone book). Today after finally (sort of ) nailing two back feet on, she wanted us to do a sit on the phone book. This just about broke my puppy (although , or maybe because, he was frequently offering a sit on the phone book when two front feet stopped working).

He's also having some difficulties with focus/motivation right now. I hope it's just an adolescence thing, but I suspect it might have something to do with his handler :(. I am afraid somehow I'm dampening his motivation, by not making it fun enough, decreasing frequency of rewards, or being too predictable.

I'd really like to find a rally class we can take, but my schedule is so busy none of them are fitting in, sad.

Wedding planning is taking over many spare moments as well.

engagement shots and dogs