The corgi and I are giving up. True running contacts are apparently not meant for us. Between his body structure, love of flying, and tendency to stress, slow down, and then completely shut down when trying to figure it out it's just not working.
Thanks to Loretta's suggestions on giving him complete control of offering starting the dogwalk plank without any release cue from me and shutting up my praise which was putting too much pressure on him, I am able to get him happy again fairly quickly. But then a few weeks later we go through it all again. I am just not a good enough trainer to communicate what I want to him.
We are also giving up on the aframe. Without someone to help me lower it we haven't been able to practice it as much as we need to. And even with a completely lowered aframe I can't get Lance to clear the apex nicely and do clean striding. He stutters and it hasn't gone away even with increased confidence. At least Lance has never gotten stressed out on the aframe but I still can't get what I want.
I guess I could go back to our 4 on the floor for the dogwalk since that seemed to work ok there, but the crashing into the ground on the aframe is what started this 6 month project. Since I have completely destroyed my dog by retraining so many times I think we are going to go to managed contacts for both. I haven't decided how I'm going to manage them yet but that training will at least be on me and not my dog. Now Lance can just run carefree, no stress. It might put a damper on gambles but any other course I should be able to beat him to the bottom and handle as needed. And if I'm not there, well Lance can just have fun flying!
I always thought I hated managed contacts but I guess I just don't like the people who don't admit that they have one. Those who scream at their dogs to touch and then get really upset when the dog misses. They say they have a running contact but the poor dogs have no idea what they're supposed to do. Maybe since I am going to completely own my managed contacts it will be ok? Or do I need to train a 4 On for the aframe and something for the dogwalk?
I want a happy corgi!
Photo by Anna Kucera
On a happier note, Lance ran hoopers and weavers on Friday at the NADAC trial. He had fun
This weekend I entered the land of border collies and running skirts, otherwise known as USDAA. Well the skirts were only seen on Saturday, today was long pants and jackets. It certainly was a different crowd than the NADAC and CPE trials we've been to but since agility people are amazing we had no problem finding nice people to video tape us and letting us move into their tents. Vito ran 4 events yesterday and today.
Saturday did not go so well. Vito would rather eat grass than play his ball during warm ups and was extremely distracted and unresponsive to attempts to play. At one point during a run he actually stopped to sniff the grass and avoided a jump. He knocked a ton of bars and had very slow weaves and popped out. On the postive side his running dogwalks and aframes were all fabulous. I almost pulled him the last run but decided I would use his
willingness to play with a ball as the deciding factor. And Vito was
starting to wake up a bit and really wanted his ball! During the run he
actually broke his startline and I couldn't have been more pleased with
that! He started out really well although he started to slow down by
the mid point.
Today I decided not to give Vito his Alprazolam in the morning to see if that would make a difference. I didn't think anything was physically wrong with him and he had just seen a chiropractor a week ago. If things started the same as Saturday I had decided to scratch runs as needed or leave mid run.
The good news is that I seemed to have my dog back! Vito was very excited to be at the trial and very much wanted his toy during warm ups. I can't say that our runs were all that brilliant but he was happy to be there and was even running full speed at certain points. His one dogwalk and most jumps stayed up today as well.
Quick clip of running contacts and his first 2 runs on Sunday:
A few of the things I need to work on:
- Vito needs to see more doubles and tripples in practice. And in general needs more practice jumping 22 if I'm going to keep doing USDAA.
- More work with a full height table. The table is rarely out in practice and almost never raised.
Things that are hopefully a confidence issue and will go away as he gets in more trials:
- Speed in weave poles during trials
- Attention at startline. Not getting distracted by the judge walking over to us and then back out, and the need for Vito to say hello when the course leads close to him. Not searching for Daddy or Grandma when he knows they're watching.
- Speed in general at trials.
Run by run breakdown of the weekend
Saturday
Gamblers, Q- The run itself wasn't horrible. He biffed it on the first jump and actually land on his head but then recovered. He knocked a lot of bars, missed and popped out of the weaves, but had lovely aframes, a gorgeous dogwalk even if it wasn't the fastest, and we got the easy gamble. Somehow we even got just enough points to qualify. I wanted to chalk up the substandard run to the fall.
Standard, E- I thought I had him at the start line since there was a delay and Vito started a tiny bit of excited screaming. But the weaves were second and Vito first missed the entry, then really slowed down and popped out, and then finally completed them on the 3rd try but again slowed down. Knocked the triple on a rear cross. He avoided the table to go sniff the number and didn't do his auto down. But another really nice dogwalk and turned when I called him on the flat. I was over too far after the tunnel and had to move out of his way and we just ran by two obstacles.
Snooker, NQ- disaster. During the run he seemed to do ok for the first few obstacles but then started major sniffing and avoiding a jump. I got him over it and we finished our opening ok although not pretty since he couldn't do any rear crosses. Knocked #4 in the closing.
Jumpers, NQ- Broke his startline! He started out really well although he started to slow down by the mid point. I set him in the wrong end of the tunnel and he knocked a bar. But at least we ended with a happy Vito!
Sunday
Gamblers, NQ- Happy dog, and really running! He seemed to trip over his feet while getting on the teeter but when I asked him if he was ok he stepped into his 2o2o. I was then really late in cuing a wrap and tried to plot where to go next instead of looking at my dog so he went around behind me as the buzzer went off. We fix things, start the gamble and I don't even know what possessed me to handle it so stupidly, and we blow an easy gamble.
Standard, Q- Just as we were getting ready to start the judge walked over and moved the ring post back a bit to give us more room at the startline. Vito watched him walk all the way up and then all the way back out. I could tell that he was going to head off for him as soon as we started. At least Vito was nice enough to run fast through the first 3 obstacles until we got to where the judge was standing and he could go say hi. He came back to me before making any contact at least. I think he then stumbled or did something in the chute as he came out with zero speed and thus kinda ruined my rear cross. Weaves were faster than yesterday although still kinda slow and he at least got onto the table right away. DW was great!!
Snooker, Q- Grandma was here to visit and Vito decided to fixate on her presence. It was harder getting him to focus on me instead of sniffing the air for her or looking around on the startline. At least he ran with me and didn't run off to look! While my course wasn't very technical it had a few wraps that Vito slowed down on a bit and at one point in the beginning he decided to yell at me instead of jumping. He also didn't read one of my last front crosses and crossed behind me and thus made me rear cross the #7 tunnel that he decided to turn around it. It didn't get a whistle so I put him back in and finished.
Jumpers, NQ- More fixation on Grandma at the start. But he ran fast until the first turn. He ran by one of the jumps and knocked the double.
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NADAC trial with the boys today. Fiona went along for the ride and was happy to be kidnapped by puppy lovers. She certainly has more bounce than Chuck ever did!
I was happy with how Lance did on both of his runs today. Hoopers was first and I planned a nice flowy course. Unfortunately I didn't support one of them enough and we had to redo the first test and I ended up improvising the rest of our course. I guess I pulled it off ok and Lance just barely came in under time to his Q and novice hoopers title. Lance's 2nd run was Open Chances. He did the first part of the distance challenge great but then I wasn't far enough ahead to support a layered jump coming out of a tunnel and Lance jumped towards me instead. Oh well.
I guess Vito did ok on his 4 runs. He wasn't all that into tugging with me although he did want treats. His lack of energy showed as he bounced or jogged around the courses. I thought we were getting over that phase with him but I guess not really trialing all summer has set us back. Hopefully it's just a confidence issue and putting him in more trials will get him back running full speed.
Oh, and Vito also ran off in Regular 1! I was actually able to get him revved up before starting and Vito did the first 4 obstacles great, until he took off to say hi to the judge for a second. Came back and did 2 more obstacles until he sniffed the tunnel upon exiting. He knocked a sandbag off on the exit so I'm not sure if that's what attracted him for the brief sniff or what. While Vito HAS ran off to say hi to Daddy in the past, he has never gone over to a judge or worker and has never sniffed any equipment.
On the positive side, all dogwalks and all aframes were gorgeous. Luckily all the DW exits were mostly straight ahead except for one which had an off course attraction to pull Vito towards. But I was able to turn hi gorgeously on the flat! He also got all his weave poles on the first attempt!
Vito qualified in Novice Hoopers and Open Reg 1. We knocked a bar in Open Regular 2, and by Open Chances he had zero obstacle focus so I just ran with him.
Work has been crazy this past week and will continue to be so for another very long week. The "G" litter is at work. 9 puppies.
I wasn't planning on introducing Fiona to the babies since she can be quite the trouble maker with other dogs. She is extremely respectful if another dog tells her to knock it off, but since all the dogs at work are teenagers well... she is quite the bitch. But one frustrating day this week I decided the puppies needed sacrificing and let Fiona in.
After being yelled at twice for going puppy bowling, she surprised me and settled in like an angel! Fi has learned to play while lying down
And has the greatest expresssions!
I can't believe how big she looks compared to the little ones! Fiona turned 18wks yesterday and is a tiny 23lbs.
Is it wrong that I want to trade her in for this cutey?
Saturday- MN Disc Dog Star Jam
Vito's going to ruin me for any future disc dogs! I am learning to throw low so Vito has no crazy thought of doing a spectacular somersault for the disc and still missing. And it worked. Only 1 spill and he caught most of the discs, although in a very boring but safe way.
Sunday- CPE Trial
Our first agility trial since April. Lance was entered in 3 runs and Vito in 1. I picked the games for Lance so he wouldn't have to do the dogwalk or aframe during our wreck of training running contacts. Unfortunately in Colors I had the choice of doing the course with the dogwalk and then flip to a tunnel, or a straight exit off the dogwalk and then the aframe later. I chose the flip and planned to turn him late. I am happy to say that Lance hit the contact without any spectacular leap and even turned away from me... into a different tunnel. And then besides our usual stuttering issues, jumpers and full house went well.
Vito was entered in jumpers. I wasn't holding out much promise for our run since Vito was once again obsessed with the astro turf at the arena. It took him a long time to focus on me and take his toy or treats during our warm up. All Vito wanted to do was roll on that sweet grass. It shocks me every time since Vito doesn't roll around on normal grass/dirt/smelly things ever! I feel like the run started really well and Vito was actually running instead of jogging like he sometimes does at trials. But then I lost him for half a second to sniff the grass. He connected with me right away again but lost his speed.
Chuck has officially passed his public access test with his new momma and has moved into her home. Their move in was delayed a bit as she was moving from the third floor to the first to better be able to take care of her new dog. She is completely in love with Chuckles and I think Chuck loves her too. They will continue their training in the home over the next few weeks and will hopefully become a certified team soon with graduation in November.
While they were still in the earlier parts of their training I snapped a few pics of him in the yard with Fi
And then one day I had all 4 dogs in my cubicle. Vito was thrilled.
The puppy turned 15wks old and is a tiny 18lbs. She's growing on me though. I especially love her Up skills. Meal times are becoming quite the specatcle. While the toller is often sleeping in the bedroom, the corgi and lab both start spinning in circles when I walk out with their food bowls.
Vito still isn't in love with her but they coexist nicely. Mostly he's up on the furniture so Fi doesn't have an opportunity to bother him. She takes full advantage of the car rides to snuggle with him and he doesn't put up a fight.
Vito's in a tight tank in my attempt to imitate a thunder shirt.
All 3 in the truck.
The corgi loves her. Except when she steals his kennel, which is practically every evening.
Training wise, we are starting to get our verbal positions of heel very well and side is almost there. I am also setting out to actually teach her front as I completely failed in teaching Chuckles it. In his confusion Chuck would just dance his body around back and forth from heel to side unless I cued wait in the right spot. We are also working on getting a stand. Fi can transition between sit, down, and stand with about 75% accuracy when her front feet are on a book, but is still clueless off the book. And my biggest accomplishment has been getting Fi to switch from food to toys in the same session. She still isn't always eager about the toy when it first comes out, but will play with me fairly quickly now and with less effort on my part.
Vito has now been left for a record breaking 2hrs 50min and did fabulous. We may not be doing great in other areas, but he certainly is relaxing and SLEEPING when left at home. At work his anxiety has increased the last 2 weeks and now he starts whining as soon as I walk out of sight. If we can get up to 5hrs he won't have to come with me to work every day and can wait until Adam gets home. In the car he's doing ok as long as he's given 2mg of Alprazolam at least 90min prior to going.
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This blog is about life with my 3 dogs. It's mainly to keep track of my training with the dogs and my exploration into the world of competitive obedience, agility, disc dog, and trick training. We reside outside of Minneapolis, MN.
Train With Me!
I offer online private lessons, online group classes, and in person lessons! Find out more by visiting my official training page, Tandem Dog Sports
Fenzi Dog Sport Academy
Lance the Corgi
Lance is my first dog, born April 2007. We faced early retirement due to an injury but Lance enjoyed playing in obedience, rally, and agility. He got me hooked on dog sports.
(photo by Sarah Beth Photography)
Vito the Toller
Vito was born on Halloween 2008. We currently compete in agility and are slowly making our way back to the obedience ring. Vito is making me into a better trainer every step of the way.
(Photo by Great Dane Photography)
Zumi the Duck
Born October 2014, Zumi is adventuring into the agility world and competitive obedience. We are working on some over arousal issues!
Luke the Kitty
Luke is a 10yr old kitty who finds his greatest joy in tormenting Lance. He also loves to wrestle with the fosters, cuddle with his tollers, and steal as much food as possible through trash can raiding and chewing holes in pockets.
