#3 Corgi!

It's official!  Lance is the #3 corgi in AKC Obedience!  The top 3 dogs in each breed, plus the top dogs overall, are invited to show at the National Obedience Championship!

Sadly it's in Pennsylvania this year.  Going to try hard to go though!

Read more...

Working Fronts

I've been on an obedience kick the last few weeks at home.  What a novel concept, actually practicing!
Mainly I've been working fronts with the boys.

- Side stepping in front
- Tiny little waits while he has to side step to me waiting
- Spins to front
- Repeating all the above with various objects

Lance of course is much better than Vito.  Spinning to front can be hard for him and sometimes he likes to avoid the issue by doing a backwards circle instead.

Vito has fabulous fronts.  Unless he's holding an object.  I don't think he had any clue how to move his butt if his something was in his mouth.  Lots of me helping to guide him with my hands as a target.  He's getting much better though.  I'm really pleased that it seems that this will also help him keep nice and close on his dumbbell fronts.  Since I'm doing mainly lateral movements with him, he's keeping the close distance I start him at.

Read more...

UDX leg #9!

Did another 1 day of an obedience trial.

Utility B
Happy, but way less squirrley corgi showed up!   No punching, tossing of items, and no bonus jumps :)   Go outs were 2nd and had his only big mistakes.  First go out was nice and straight but he barked when I sent him to the jump.  Second go out had no barking, but he didn't sit.  Glove #3 was a nice turn but he auto marked the glove instead of waiting for my signal.  Heeling was gorgeous until the last tiny little bit where he decided to forge.  Articles were both nice but the judge disagreed and scored the tiniest of archs on the sends.  But we Q!

Open B
Good corgi!  No major issues.  Lovely heeling, zero forging!  Also I think this was his first run he had zero points taken off on the broad jump!  Lance actually nailed the front!

The long sit I was worried as Lance kept going down even in practice this week :(   Only does so in a line up of other dogs.  But he held it today!  Apparently sniffed so much that the judge took off a 1/2pt but he tried hard.  And we had a run off!  Lance actually won the run off and placed 3rd with a 197.  No OTCH points, but it was our 9th UDX leg!  In 2 weeks we show again so fingers crossed for the title!

Read more...

The Search

I don't have a dumbbell obsession.  I am a wannabe collar collector, have the normal crazy amount of dog crates, and ok I do have an entire dog closet now in the new house.  But a dumbbell collection was not what I set out for.  The pretty colored ones cost way more than my budget!

But Vito has a severe overbite, practically no teeth on his entire left side of his mouth, and a few missing on the other side.  The search for the perfect fit, one where the dumbbell didn't awkwardly tilt to the ground took awhile.  It's been postponed several times over the years since Vito's been semi retired from obedience and all.  Typically I just show up at the CDSP trials with his *ahem* well-loved cheapy one that we sometimes play tug with.  But even that one can still slide down as he holds it.

Lance has a Max 200 dumbbell that I love so I've done most of our hunting from them.  I also had one brief adventure into J&J.    Most dumbbells I returned.  One I kept in shame of my failed attempt.  It's currently on loan to another dumbbell seeker.

This J&J is really only a 2.5in bit, I swear!

Oh no.

But I think I finally got the perfect fit for Vito.  High profile, high angle, textured bar, from Max 200.

Whew.

Read more...

Indoor activities

It's a bit chilly outside.  -19*F outside right now.  Windchill of -40*.  I hate this state.

I got the dogs a treadmill off of craigslist.  Because -18*F.  Oh and I have a goal of using it too.  

Vito is learning how to use it and seems to enjoy it.  We're going slow still and he's learning how to properly hop on and that falling off is no big deal at all.  I'm currently keeping some food in a little dish in front so that he keeps his focus forward versus looking up and sideways at me.

Lance thinks the food is great but he's not so sure about hopping on.  Because of his little legs he has to give a pretty big jump onto it.  This is frustrating for the corgi as he wants to just put his front feet up first and then jump and that doesn't work so well.  It also bothers Lance more than Vito when he slides off the back.  So we're going very slow.

Gracie thinks it's super fun to jump around everywhere like it's a trampoline.

Read more...

Lance at Land O Lakes

I entered Lance in one day of the big Land O Lakes show.  I typically like to show in the obedience only trials and skip the joint conformation shows.  But with Lance qualifying for the National Obedience Championship this March (#3 corgi!) I figured the experience of a really big show would be good for both of us.  I was certainly more nervous today than normal.

Utility B
Squirrley Corgi showed up.  Articles were first and we were about 5ft from the high jump.  Yup, bonus jumping.  Both times.  Gloves were following and the number chosen for the day was #2.  The judge goes though the normal rattling of where the gloves are and then calls for #3.  I barely hear and pivot towards #2.  I realize what happened, but the judge chuckles and I send Lance to #2 like he meant to say.  The naughty corgi veers off to the #3 glove!  And the judge laughs some more and tells me that technically he did say #3 and isn't going to NQ us!  Heeling is next and Lance actually does a decent job although got further into forging as we went.  Good signals and Lance even refrains himself from punching me.  The corgi rises up both feet in the air and then stops right before actually touching me.  Good corgi.  Some slight moving on the stand during the exam.  Go outs were good considering it was directly to the back of another ring.  Lance was just slightly crooked on both sends and I know I need to practice that setup more often.

So technically Lance qualifies and with the big show craziness taking down half of the playing field, Lance actually places 3rd for 1 more little OTCH point!
http://youtu.be/tRHaYMgL7nw

Open B
Lance brought his A game.  Awesome fronts and finishes.  Some tiny sliding on his drop on recall he did such a fast down. Comes from a pretty decent size angle to take his jump returning on the retrieve over high.  Heeling is beautiful with only some slight pushiness on the slow time.

And then he lies down on the sit.  Pretty much as soon as I was out of sight.  Big sigh.  He had a streak of 8 sits in a row going on too.  Lance would have scored a 198.5 and have taken 1st place too.  

So the good:
- Perfect about turns!  No wide sight seeing!
- Really working hard on his fronts and finishes.  Even had a slight distracted moment coming in from the drop on recall and Lance fixed himself perfectly in the last foot.
- Zero barking!
- great focus with all the crowds.  And of course I had many spectators come up to us afterward and tell me how much they enjoy watching him.  Especially after that utility run!

the needs improvement category:
- bonus jumps
- moving on stand for exam
- go out straightness
- and of course the long sit.

We trial one day next weekend as well.  Back to a much quieter, obedience only venue.

Read more...

Vito USDAA

The Toller did a day of USDAA agility today.  I told myself to relax and not worry about any gift of speed after last weekend's happy and fast runs in the NADAC trial.  Vito hasn't done a ton of trials at this location and it can be harder for him as there's very little warm up space and crowded entrances.

Gamblers was first and I knew that the teeter being the distance obstacle, and from an over 90 degree turn wasn't really going to happen.  But I picked what I though was a nice flowy and fast opening for him.  Going into the ring Vito did only the tiniest Toller Scream and was looking around at all the people behind him.  His run reflected that as while it wasn't a bad run, it didn't have any zip at all to it.  Vito even hopped off the teeter after getting all 4 feet on.  I don't think he has ever refused the teeter before!  I stopped very briefly after that, got him to yell at me, and then continued with our opening.
http://youtu.be/fuxsa1h9Tag

Standard was next and Vito was in a much better mood.  Tons of screaming at the start.  There was a delay as we walked to the line, but Vito was thrilled to yell at me and do his favorite vault trick.  The run started with decent speed and unfortunately the dogwalk setup was the most demotivating setup ever.  Tunnel wrap to the upside, then a tight turn to the table which was very close.  He looked at the judge starting the table count, but I got him back focused on me and Vito sprinted the rest of the course!  We actually qualified too!

Steeplechase was his last run and Vito continued to be sassy.  To do anything to avoid having to do a rear cross I took a risk and decided to sprint the opening line and try very hard to get a blind cross in after the broad jump.  I was too late and Vito headed straight for the wrong opening of the tunnel, but he loved it!  I continued on like nothing happened and Vito continued to run.  Pulled off a jump after the aframe, but other than that it was a very nice run.  The two sets of weave poles didn't even create Sad Toller.

Read more...

Vito in 2013

Same video review from earlier here: http://youtu.be/YxrFrdrCU1g

Anxiety
A year of ups and downs.  Quite a few increases in medications and lots of false hope.  Read the recent post from our behaviorist visit earlier in December for more of an update.  Short version is that 2014 will be the year of starting over.  Fingers crossed that the weeks of weaning off Fluoxetine and then waiting for the new drug to kick in won't be completely unbearable.

Obedience
I am happy to report that Vito is actually doing really well in our motivation building, generalization attempts.  Still in a semi-retired state from competitions, but is doing well in CDSP trials.  He competed a total of 8 times this last year, much more than in previous years.  The best part is that he has been happy every single time!  We've still had some struggle with checking out the judge and ring stewards, but it's gotten better with every single trial.  The recent trial in October Vito did tons of happy toller bouncing!  And of course his trial last weekend was also focused and happy, just minus the bouncing.  We're sticking in the Open C class to keep his confidence up.

In practice I've continued our massive work on ring entrances and have expanded that to include taking off the leash and heeling.  I've also worked heavily on Vito being the one to choose to engage with me versus me expending tons of energy into trying to excite him, usually by showing him the prize up front.  This has included working on our personal play skills- mainly letting Vito bark and jump on me.
Lately this has been expanded into going to new places and evaluating how quickly Vito is ready to work with no toys/food on me.  After the first test, we then work on leaving the toys far away and trying again.  Progress is happening very quickly these last few months compared to the solid year and half it took to just get entering the ring happy and attentive.  I've been a slacker this last month and half so I'm hoping to pick back up where we left off.

Agility
Vito continued to have a good year in agility from the progress we made in 2012 of not worrying about judges and ring crew.  Vito had one incident of running off to bark at a ring steward, way back in January, and it seemed more of a happy visit than a scary one.

He finished up his USDAA advanced standard and pairs title and I decided to move him up to masters in his least favorite games of jumpers and snooker as well.  In NADAC he finished up his open versatility title by finally completing jumpers and chances.

In training we continued our work on powering out of wraps and tight turns as Vito has a hard time coming back to extension.  I also tried to fix his constant pulling off of jumps.  I'm not quite sure what finally worked, but Vito has had much improvement on both issues.  In practice it's not uncommon now for him to remain fast, happy toller throughout all his runs in a group class, even in courses that have lots of tight sequences.  Vito is pulling off way less jumps as well and most I can now say are honestly my fault.  We've had an unofficial break the last 3 months where his only training has been the weekly group class.  Hopefully when I restart training in the new year we will both be fresh and continue to improve.

I wrote this post right before Vito's NADAC trial this past weekend.  I had written:
"In trials Vito didn't make any significant changes with his running style.  His screaming at the start is not a predictor of how fast he is going to decide to run.  Lots of variation in speed from run to run.  He's super cute about it though and has also discovered that Momma doesn't care at all if he breaks a start line stay.  I think I'm finally more relaxed about his speed difference though.  Vito's not really worried at trials anymore, seems to have a good time, and has some really amazing runs every now and then."

And now I get to add that for at least one entire weekend, Vito decided to run in a trial.  The best way to end the year!

Tricks
We didn't do much of anything this year.  I had started strong and was beginning to teach him the following tricks:
1. Grab his tail- I did get him to bite his tail.  Took a while as grabbing a body part was not a crazy idea he thought his mother would have.  We never got a hold of any type.

2. Walking in slippers- Vito's digging behavior was relatively new the beginning of this year so all he wanted to do with the slipper was hike it backwards.  We eventually got standing on, but then I got bored when I realized i needed sturdier shoes that would force him to aim for the opening versus squish it.

3. Repeated jumping in front of me- Actually I spent a ton of work on this trick.  First idea was a nose target to my hand gradually raised.  That was very frustrating for Vito.  Added in my leg to jump over and made some progress, but he really, really did not want to raise his hind end.  Lots of rear end dragging behind him.  Very similar to our disc dogging issues before he was retired.  It took months of off and on work and clicking only the best efforts to get nice jumps over just my leg.  Then I added in going back over the other direction.  More work.   Now Vito has much nicer air time but he still needs my leg and will tend to cheat at times by dragging his rear.    Amazing how hard this is for him and how easy this is for all 3 of the last puppies I've raised.

Goals for 2014
1. Continue working really hard on his obedience engagement and generalization to NEW places.  Re evaluate and see if just maybe he could do my club's AKC trial in October of next year!

2. Actually practice obedience things besides engagement.  Like fronts while retrieving.  And go outs.  And stuff.

3. Continue experimentation that was recently started, and then put on hold, of not having Vito's ball on me when practicing agility.  Instead, practice having him leave it before entering the ring to help mimic trials.  See if this is a possible reason for speed issue in trials.
Otherwise, relax and and keep having fun as long as Vito's having fun.

Read more...