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A TON of Updates!

Oh dear, I'm afraid I've been very bad about posting here lately :(  We've been very busy, but I am going to try and get all caught up... I can't really figure out how to organize this, so I suppose I'll just post things in chronological order.  That should make sense ;)

Weave Work
Two of our biggest issues with weave poles are rear crosses into them, and also getting the entry at high speed.  So, we have been practicing those a little.  For the rear cross, I set up a jump next to the weave poles, send her over, and attempt to indicate the turn into the poles correctly.  For speed, I send her through a tunnel first.  Both could still use some work but are getting better.  For the rear crosses, I need to start helping her less by staying back more.

Anything's Pawsible Show N Go
At the beginning of May, we participated in a very fun Show N Go at Anything's Pawsible Agility Center in Kokomo.  We ran a Standard course and a USDAA-style Jumpers course.  I didn't get video of Jumpers but here's our first attempt at the Standard.  It went pretty well, basically I need to work on my handling, mainly better use of my arms and better timing of cues.  (This is also where we figured out that we need to work on weave entries after picking up speed, such as coming out of a tunnel!)

We are also very lucky to have some pictures taken by the amazing Jodie Hemersbach!  Check out the pictures from the Show N Go at her website, www.jodiehphotography.com, along with the rest of her work.

Obedience
The weekend following the Show N Go, Penny was entered in Beginner Novice Obedience again in Perry, Georgia and she QUALIFIED this time!!  Our heeling still needs work but the other exercises were such an improvement from last time, and I am so so proud of her for that.  The next step here is to start working on heeling and rewarding her after working, by not treating her from my hands but rather from a stash kept elsewhere.  We have been working on this at home already, and after that will start working in different places such as the park, pet store, etc to get in some practice in varied environments.  It's odd because she lost interest at the beginning of the Heel pattern, but reconnected with me after the About Turn.  I think the "whee!" factor of the About Turn is fun for her, and is what brought her back to me.  Unfortunately she disconnected for the Figure Eight, but we got through it and Q'ed, and now I know what we need to work on.  I also want to work on tightening up her heeling position, as well as her sit position when we Halt. 

Darwin!

I suppose the biggest reason for the lack of updates is the new addition to our family, a three-year-old Ibizan Hound named Jakona's Natural Selection, aka Darwin!  We met his breeder in Georgia at the show cluster in Perry, and he has been settling in wonderfully.  While we were there, I showed Darwin in the B Match where he got Hound Group 2!  Then Jeannie showed him in Open Dogs on Saturday where he got a second place!  He did so much better than his last show.  We hope that, while it may take some time, he can eventually be finished.  I am going to try to show him in Conformation a little bit this summer, then we will be going to the National in St. Louis in September.  I also plan on doing performance events with him, along with lure coursing.

 

Lure Coursing

Speaking of coursing, both dogs got to try it out in Perry and they had a blast.  Neither had ever seen or done it before and they LOVED it!  Unfortunately they were only doing practice runs and Coursing Ability Tests (for non-sighthounds), so Penny got one leg towards the CA title and Darwin got a couple of runs in for fun.

 

However, last weekend he was entered in his very first lure coursing trial and did fabulously!!  He passed his Qualified Courser test with ease on Saturday morning, then went on to take Best Of Breed on BOTH days for two 3-point majors!  We are so very proud of this athletic, willful boy and super excited for his future :)

First USDAA Trial

Only one Q, but Penny and I had a blast at our first USDAA trial this past weekend!

Saturday

• Gamblers: NQ/3rd/15 points.  Just barely missed the buzzer, argh!  Nice run though!  Wasn't able to get it on tape because my batteries died, oops.
• Standard: NQ/3rd.  Lost my mind and let her back weave, but really nice run other than that.
• Jumpers: Q/2nd.  This was an awesome run!!  We were behind the first place dog by just .05 seconds!

Sunday

• Snooker: NQ/2nd/25 points.  Due to a handling error, took two colors in a row at the end of our Opening sequence.  Nice otherwise!
• Pairs: NQ/2nd.  Not my favorite run of the weekend.  Had some issues with the tire for some reason.  She would not take it in the correct direction, had no problem jumping through it the wrong way though!  She also would not leave me alone for that darn baton, silly dog
• Standard: NQ/3rd.  Pretty nice run - contacts completely fallen apart by this point but she got all of the weaves on her first try!!

Pretty happy with most things, but I need to remember to stick to my criteria no matter what.  I am just still so afraid of her bolting from the ring, having zoomies, jumping on the judge or a ring crew member, or just completely losing focus/disconnecting from me that I have let other things fall apart.  After running her this weekend I don't think she would do any of those things now, so I need to try to stop worrying about that so much.  Penny's 2o2o's completely fell apart this weekend and I'm pretty sure I will be kicking myself for that soon.  Unfortunately this winter/spring we have not had a facility to train at on a regular basis that is large enough  for contacts, so we haven't had much practice with them.  I am planning on entering two trials in May (AKC and USDAA) so I will need to make sure I get in a couple of drop-ins at Pawsitive Partners before then to work on contacts, and we will definitely be working on the teeter 2o2o at home!  I wish I could afford an A-frame, I definitely have room for one in the backyard...

First Obedience Trial

I finally got around to uploading video from Penny's first Obedience trial which was last Saturday at the Louisville cluster, so I figured I should make a blog post about it!  We were going to the show regardless to see a breeder's dogs, watch some conformation, and enjoy the shopping so I figured why not enter something while were down there all day anyway?  They were not accepting mixed breed entries in the Agility trial, so I figured we could try Obedience for fun and to see what would happen.  We have not taken any Obedience classes yet but Penny has her Rally Novice title, and we have worked on heeling, stays, and recall at home: so we have pretty much everything needed to try Beginner Novice and I was curious to see how it would all come together in a trial setting.  Here's video from our run (Heel on Leash, Figure Eight, Sit For Exam, and Sit Stay on the first video; Recall on the second):

I just want to briefly run through each exercise and write down my thoughts :)

• Heel on Leash.  I was a bit disappointed because Penny was heeling SO nicely while we were warming up.  Staying close to my side and really focused on me.  She was still focused on me when we got to the start line but as soon as the judge said "Forward" I pretty much lost her.  I guess it wasn't too terrible but definitely not something I'm proud of.  Had a tight leash a lot of the time, had to call her back into heel position once, had a very sloppy left turn, etc etc.  I think it's clear that we need to practice heeling in different settings and around more distractions!  You would think that with having her RN, this part would be very easy but Penny never really did get super excited about Rally lol, and it has also been quite a few months since we did any Rally.
  

• Figure Eight.  Pretty much the same as the Heeling.  Distracted, needed lots of verbal encouragement (which is not good for Obed), tight leash, sniffed one of the ring stewards, not really paying attention to me even to the point of getting in my way and nearly getting stepped on (note in the video when she does her little hop and I have to call her back into Heel position).  Not as distracted by the girls as I thought she might be, since she does tend to get more excited about kids than adults, so that's good.
  

• Sit For Exam.  As soon as I stepped back I had a feeling she was going to get up.  For a split second I considered giving her a second "Stay" command, which would have just been a deduction, but I didn't act quickly enough and she stood up as the judge got to her.  After I told her to sit again, though, she did very well with the "exam"!  I'm also proud of her for not jumping on or mauling the judge, I don't think she even thought about it so that is good :)
  

• Sit Stay.  We practice this at home a lot but I think the extra stress of the trial environment is what made her break her stay.  She got up as soon as I started to get behind her, when she can't see me and starts to get a little insecure.  We'll have to work on this in bigger places and places that have more things going on... perhaps at Agility class and/or at the dog park.  I'm really glad she came to me, though, when she got up instead of bolting out of the ring like she has done in Agility!
  

• Recall.  This is probably Penny's favorite exercise so of course it was great :)  The judge gave us a very nice compliment about it which was really nice to hear.  We got one thing right at least, yay!
  

Overall I am very happy with the experience: we got through it without any major hiccups, it was a lot of fun (pretty sure I have a smile on my face the entire time), and I do think that Penny also enjoyed it.  It was good ring experience for both of us and I think that this is a venue that Penny has the ability to do well in with more practice!

Rear Cross Work

Rear crosses are something that both Penny and I have needed to work on for awhile now and with our recent first two trials it has become especially apparent that we need to practice!  In class on Sunday we tried to RC a few times on course and failed miserably 90% of the time.  Turns out that both of us are at fault: I'm not doing it quite right and Penny just doesn't understand.  Here's a clip from class to demonstrate a failed attempt:

Note that she is also jumping a bit high: 26" in preparation for upcoming USDAA trial (in which it's likely she'll measure into 26"), but I am still quite late with the RC cues.  I should have raised my outside arm MUCH sooner before the tire.

And here is some video of some work we did at home on Monday.  I cut out a lot of incorrect turns but I do think we are getting better:

Noted that my timing is better left to right than right to left, and she seems to turn easier that way.  My outside arm should ideally come up before the jump vs after, and I want to show motion toward her vs straight (angled toward the relevant jump standard).  Will be back again hopefully soon with improvements, have not been able to do much else yet this week as Penny has had an upset tummy since Monday night :(

First Q!!!

Penny and I had a great time at the Greater Lafayette Kennel Club trial this past weekend!  On Saturday we got our first ever Qualifying Score (95) in agility, also First Place and High Score in Novice A Standard!  I am so, so happy that things are starting to piece together.  No other Q's for the weekend, had some knocked bars in JWW and lost focus in our other Standard run but hey, I am happy with one as it is definitely an improvement from our first trial (also didn't run out of the ring at all!  She did however try to make new best friends with a poor unsuspecting ring crew member)   It will just keep getting better <3

Our next trial is probably going to be USDAA at Pawsitive Partners on April 7-8.
Things to work on until then:

• Less flailing of the arms!
• Rear crosses
• Automatic "down" on the pause table
• Weave pole entries/12 weave poles
• Continue reinforcing "wait" by ring gates/doorways
• Must be cued or released before going into crate/getting on mat
• "Whiplash turn"/Recall in general
• Remember: DON'T cross the plane of the first obstacle before the "Go" sounds!  :x

First Trial Report!

Well we made it through our first agility trial :)  No Q's but we had a great time and I definitely learned a lot.  Penny was pretty good, all things considered and I am very proud of many pieces she had!  Hopefully we will be able to start stringing things together soon ;)   Here is video from Saturday and Sunday.

Really proud of her, the focus I did get was nice, and she definitely improved with the whole coming back to me thing as the weekend went on.  Saturday we had issues with running out of the ring, I definitely created a monster who LOVES her crate a little too much!  Sunday was better though, I think she thought about it a couple of times but actually listened to me ;)  She also got all of her contacts, and her weaves, yippee!  We definitely need to work on the crate issue, and focus duration.  I will have to try some of the CU games for focus, and I also think that will get better with time.  She is just not used to courses/sequences of this length yet, but we'll get it!

Goals for First Trial

I'm starting to get really nervous, so apologies if this doesn't make any sense :P  but I just wanted to quickly outline my goals for me & Penny's first agility trial, which is TODAY (omg)

1. Have fun
2. Stay safe
3. Remember the course
4. Maintain control - independence and speed can come later.  I believe that it will be easier for Penny to remember what my criteria are for contacts, etc if she doesn't get too far ahead of me. 

I think that's about it!  Will update later with how it goes :)

Solve one problem... create a new one?

The rental at Pawsitive Partners yesterday went pretty well.  The tire was no problem at all once Penny figured out what she needed to do with it, and her contacts improved greatly once I reiterated and reinforced what my 2o2o criteria are.  She got tired pretty quickly though so I wasn't able to do a whole lot of sequencing with contacts to see how it went when other things were added to the mix.  I think that as long as I can keep her with me well enough to be able to cue her to slow down a bit ("easy"), she'll be able to get it.  She was also able to do all 12 weave poles this time so definitely pleased with that!

I am however a bit worried about the teeter now.  Hopefully I am just overreacting, but she got bounced off of it early on during the rental, and actually bailed a few other times when we tried it.  I would say it was about 50/50 of either bailing on the way up, or getting through it.  I do think that it helped for me to be right there with her, verbally encouraging her to keep going (and also sort of physically blocking her ability to jump off the side.)  Luckily we have a teeter at home, so I see a lot of practice with that in the near future to build up her confidence with it again, probably at a low height and working our way back up.  Again, I think it will be important for me to be close to her when she does it at the trial.  When she got bounced off, it was at the beginning of the rental and she was pretty excited and got waaaay ahead of me as she took it.  So I think a combination of practice at home and making sure I don't let her get too far ahead of me with it (for now) will be the most beneficial.  Could be wrong though and I could also be way overreacting, I wouldn't put it past her to have completely forgotten about it by now :P

I also plan on starting running contacts soon, for the A-frame at the very least, since Penny stops pretty hard on her front end.  Possibly also for the dogwalk, depending on how she does with it :)   2o2o will have to do for the upcoming trials for now though.  I do think that she understands what the criteria are, it will just be a matter of getting there slowly enough to give her brain time to think about it!

I also think I may have, in Jenn's words, "created a monster" in terms of the crate/mat haha!  I may have to start adding in the step of sitting down and  getting the leash put back on before we go night-night and get cookies, or I fear she might dash out of the ring and head for her mat at the end of her runs!

Pawsitive Partners Show N Go

Penny's first trial is coming up February 18 & 19 so we took advantage of a Snow N Go held at Pawsitive Partners yesterday.  I am very grateful for the opportunity to get her on their turf and equipment to see how she would do in a new place.  I am very, very pleased!  It wasn't very crowded but she handled all the dogs, people, etc of a trial-like environment really well.  She seemed a bit stressed at first but definitely got better as the afternoon went on, not sure if this is because she was also getting tired or if she was actually starting to relax.  I did however, notice that she is much more relaxed in her crate than she was if we were waiting ringside, but at least it appears that the crate/mat work from CU is working.  She didn't really lie down in her crate at all, instead she prefers to have the top unzipped so she can sit inside with her head sticking out the top and have a nice view of everything :)

Anyway, while on course her focus was great!!  At the USDAA match we did recently, she had a bit of the zoomies and sniffed a lot.  Granted, that facility was on dirt which is more smelly, I am still really happy with her focus.  She stayed right with me for most of the time (I'm sure that the instance or two where she went off ahead of me was my own fault) and got through all of the courses.  Now if I could only get MY act together!

I forgot the first course both times we did it, and my contacts fell apart because I wasn't reinforcing my criteria.  Penny was getting the contacts, and under the influence of anxiety I just kept going even though she wasn't meeting my 2o2o criteria.  It eventually got the best of us and she completely missed a contact on the A-frame on our last course.  I made her redo it and she got the contact but again, no 2o2o, and I let her continue.  Oops.  At least I now know what our homework is.

Penny was also unable to do the weaves, but I had suspected she might have trouble with doing all 12 since it has been at least a month since we did 12.  They were also at the very end of the course so she was already pretty tired.  I had her try them a few times and she could get most of them in but always popped out at the end.  I eventually just gave up, and I'm OK with that, I didn't want to completely fry her brain!  I know she *can* do 12, and I am proud of what she was able to do in a new setting and also at the end of a challenging course.  I'm also OK with it for now because in AKC Novice she will only need to do six, so we have time to work on it.

My last concern is the tire.  Our class does not have a displaceable one so she has not done one yet.  There was a tire at the USDAA match that I could not get her to take at the set height.  I tried once to get her to take the one yesterday, at the end of the run, and she ran up to it like she was going to but stopped.  I think she will be fine with it as long as she can start out at a lower height until she figures out what she needs to do with it, so that is also on the agenda of things to work on before the trial.

Her jumping seemed good at 24", I am pretty sure that the knocked bars were the fault of my poor handling.  I am hoping that she will measure into 20" for AKC, since she does not seem to get too sloppy at that height.  (The lower I can run her at, the better, I think.  As far as long-term joint health and things of that nature go)

Here is video from the Show N Go.  Not really worth showing off, but I wanted to put it here for my own reference and also to illustrate what I'm talking about in this post.  I am still overall very happy with her performance, since we have had trouble with zoomies and sniffing in the past.  I think I will have a lot more confidence now that I know she is capable of focusing!

We are doing a rental at the same facility tomorrow so we will have a good opportunity to work on the things I messed up.  Here is a quick list of what I hope to address:

• Tire
• Contacts: reinforcing my criteria
• Weaves
• Handling (as usual!)
  

On a side note, we will hopefully be starting a running A-frame this spring.  I will definitely be sticking with 2o2o for the teeter, and probably also for the dog walk.

I love my mat!

So I am finally getting my rear into gear and starting some Control Unleashed stuff.  Took a mat to agility class on Sunday to start working on Go To Place.  For anyone who hasn't read CU, the idea is basically that the dog learns that their mat is the best place in the world (and eventually you should be able to cue the dog to go to their mat from anywhere.)  For Penny, I hope that it will help her learn to relax in various settings and during downtime at class, trials, whatever.  I also want her to learn that it is where she gets cookies after doing a good job!  She picked up on it quickly, in fact, halfway through class we would finish our sequence and she would immediately dash back over to her mat and wait for her cookies, even if our turn wasn't finished because Mom messed up and we were going to redo the sequence!  :)

Clearly, my next step is to add a cue so that she doesn't just go to her mat whenever she wants.  I am planning on calling it "go night-night" since that is what her cue for getting in her crate used to be.  She hasn't been crated in the house for over 6 months now, but I want her to be OK with it again because we are going to be trailing soon.  I also want her to understand that being on a mat or being in a crate is kind of the same thing in the sense that it is a place that she can relax and enjoy.  I am thinking that if I put the mat in the crate, it will be the same thing... since she is still going to the mat (it just happens to be inside of a crate).  I also need to tighten up my criteria and only reward downs on the mat (I was allowing sits as well, which might have been a mistake), and eventually only reward a relaxed/settled down.  We'll also need to start enforcing being released from the mat, and I need to be better about not rewarding broken stays (on the mat or otherwise!)

This is the relaxed state we are going for :)

Anyway, class was also good in other ways.  I think our communication is definitely starting to improve and I like to think that my handling is also improving!  Penny jumped at 20" to see how she would do at a lower height, since that's what I entered her in for a couple of upcoming trials.  She may measure too tall anyway, but I would prefer to run her at the lowest possible height that she can still do without being sloppy.  She would be fine at 24" too though, and will have to do 26" in USDAA regardless, so we will see what happens.  I like to think that jumping lower at the first few trials will be better for her but that could also be a completely incorrect assumption.  I just like to think that I should make it as "easy" for her as possible until she gets more used to it, if that makes any sense.

Happy Belated New Year!

Oooops, it's been such a long time since I posted anything!  We have been pretty busy with the holidays and stuff, also took a little break from training.  But we started up agility class once again last week and had a blast!  Penny is jumping surprisingly well at 26", she is entered in a couple of AKC trials at 20" so we are going to have to play with heights and see what is going to be best for her - of course we want the lowest possible height we're allowed to do, without being sloppy though!  Good to know she is comfortable at 26", since I'm pretty sure that is what she'll have to jump if we do the Championship program in USDAA.

Anyway, here is a little montage I made for Penny's year.  It was full of so much learning for both of us, and we had many "firsts."  I am so happy to have shared these moments with my crazy little heart dog, and am nothing but excited for the future!