Zumi Running Dogwalk update

The journey continues!  Took an unplanned full week off her RDW training but picked up right where we left off.  After the last blog post I guessed we would be at that height for while.  I was wrong as the 2 later sessions that week both went fantastic.  Almost no jumping being done, and only a few extended strides over the zone!  This Monday I raised it a teeny bit at the end, and Tuesday we started with the new height and then moved it up again the last 2 reps.

More excitement of a dog running a plank.


I would think we have to be at baby dogwalk height now, so the plan is to do another session at the newest height and then re-attach the board to the dogwalk and lower the whole thing to 2ft.  Backchain it slowly until she's doing the full baby dogwalk.  I know the added speed will destroy everything she's learned, so fun times ahead!  Vito never got to do this step and I suspect it will be super painful for me as well as very beneficial in the long run.

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Zumi's first seminar! Vito Threadles!

Seminar weekend!  I do hardly any seminars with the dogs but love working with Loretta.  It's a far drive for Vito, but I'm thinking about going down for some lessons a few times this summer to work with the red dogs.

Zumi spent Friday afternoon working with a novice dog group.  Her first time really doing agility away from home minus the couple weeks she did of that puppy agility class I felt wasn't a good fit for her.  But Zumi came out with great focus and was ready to work instantly!  While she still is a huge launcher onto people when she's not working, gone are the days of Zumi running away from me to cling onto whoever her new best friend of the moment was.

Zumi also made me look like we had been practicing as she had some amazing little sends and mostly did a nice job of holding her line.  I would say the current scales tip much more towards handler focus than obstacle focus, but if I did a better job of fully supporting things Zumi looks really good!  It was a good reminder that I need to spend time on straight-ish lines and just general jump commitment.  I very recently started doing more extension work and less wraps so timely information.  Also got some good ideas on using reward placement to get her out of those wide loopy "yay I'm running!" turns she sometimes does.

On Sunday Vito got to play!  Very hot day but Vito did a pretty good job staying motivated.  I did the first turn with leaving the toy at the start like I try and do often in practice to replicate trial conditions.  Second round I kept his ball on me due to the heat and trying a new move.

I am SO SO excited to share that I have a new way of motivating Vito thru threadles!  I kinda suck at traditional threadle handling and Vito hates the pressure of me having to (half) face him.  On best attempts from both our ends I can pull him through it and be a decent way down the line but Vito always slows down so much.  Also wants lots of babysitting the turn to come in which is kinda odd for Vito as he's a nice turning dog.  Just too much pressure and not enough running from me.

Now we have fancy spinning.  Vito likes fancy spinning.  I still have to get better at my timing and not being so close to the first wing, but anything that helps motivate Vito better thru tight turning is worth it.  Attempts at my practice last night at home.  Love that video shows me what I'm doing wrong as it was hard to tell in the moment.

I also have homework on building more drive towards shaky hand.  Ways to create movement on my end for him when I can't really move much.

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Vito UKI

Spent the day at a UKI agility trial.  Love that this UKI trial is held at the soccer arena where Vito likes the big space and doesn't have any footing issues compared to the location of all the other UKI trials where Vito needs foot spray.  

Since Vito got his last jumpers leg needed at the last trial, we were able to move up to the Championship level in everything for the first time!  Did 4 runs and chose to do the first run and the last run with a secret toy on me.  

Jumpers was first and I bobbled the opening 2 jumps which would have earned a refusal if it wasn't a toy run.  So proud of Vito for recovering and running hard after I sent him to the back side again!  

Steeplechase I ran for real since we still need about 7-8 more Q's (it's on a point system) before we can move up to Championship.  So odd that everything else is grouped together but this class.  Vito was running hard!  I'm in love with this new dog who is becoming happy in the jumping classes as well as his classes with contact obstacles!  It was very pinwheely but a nice course where I could keep moving and do lots of front crosses.  Q!

Gamblers was fast and for the first time in practically ever, Vito popped out of the weaves.  It was only a set of 6 poles too!  But he was happy and when the buzzer went off the gamble was one of the easiest I've ever seen so Vito actually qualified again and got his first championship level Q!

Agility (standard) was last and round 1 was a very tricky course.  

I wanted a toy run anyway so I wasn't too worried about all the collection in the beginning making him Sad.  Vito broke his startline(!) which he is always allowed to do in a trial but it's not something he has done in awhile so I wasn't expecting it.  I bobbled the first backside a little so he slowed down, but executed the opening sequence nicely.  Nailed a tough weave entrance and got his first reward.  Then I used the teeter as an opportunity to lead out a little bit so I could get ahead for a backside after his running dogwalk.  So proud of him!  Technically ran clean so might have Qed if it wasn't a toy run!

My favorite run since he gained speed so well from such a slower opening!

So love UKI!  All organizations should follow suit with the allowances of toy runs!

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Zumi 8 months

Zumi turned 8 months old today.  Feels like such a grown up age to me.  7 months still feel so "puppy" like but this milestone is magically mature.

She finally got her new big girl collar.  Lime green and blue to match the boys, but Zumi's sparkles :)

Not much bigger than last month.  Gained 1/2lb and maybe another 1/4 inch.  Looking so similar to Vito though to most people who see the two.  Zumi's about 5lbs less and 1/2in shorter right now.

Training wise we're focusing on big girl stuff.  Still major props to me for continuing my motivation on scent article practice.  For the most part Zumi can work  pile of 5 metal articles with me right at the pile and has had one session with me at a distance.  Only rarely do I need to interrupt frantic grabbing.  Zumi recently graduated to doing a set of leather bracelets.  I will need to build distance on those, and continue to build confidence on the types separately.  Current plan is to start new metal and leather objects but not combining the two types for awhile yet to prevent her from developing a preference.

More focus on heeling recently as well.  Starting to work on forward motion now more than just a few steps.  Focusing on building up a rhythm so worrying less about precision and more about focus and drive.  She has pivots and sidesteps down fairly solid so I know I can eventually merge that back in and get precision with the forward motion too.

Of course in agility I've already written about starting her running dogwalk training.  And doing a little bit more work on short sequences.  Discovered that the Duck needs quite a bit of work on call to hand as she easily slips into wide orbits and thinks nothing of going behind me in her orbits.

No new tricks.  Resuming some work on getting back some of the earlier tricks I taught her that I haven't done in months.  Sad, Scootch, and shame all are broken and unfortunately all are currently supposed to be done from a down position which makes working on them harder.  I try not to do 2 tricks in a row from the same position with an inexperienced dog, especially if the tricks aren't well known.  It just makes switching between behaviors harder.

 

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More RDW

Running dogwalk training continues.  I've been proud of myself for being a little more committed this last week.  I think I got 3 quick sessions in and a little bit longer one today.  A few big leaps, more extending her stride so she skips the end, and a few nice hits.  Zumi gets the toy every time but it's either followed by lots of praise and tugging or just sending her back on up.

Since some of you expressed interested in the excitement of watching  dog run over a plank, here was Zumi's session today with a little break somewhere in the middle.  I suspect we will be at this height for awhile.

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Rat training

Ratties are doing well.  I joke that Penelope is my pet and Evee is Penelope's pet.  The little girl is still very easily startled and when out of her cage she doesn't venture too far from under the cage or behind the tv where it's safer.  But yesterday for the first time she did start "grooming" my fingers!  Lots of little rat kisses and a few tiny nibbles.

Let us out!

Penelope continues to be a little rock star and I finally started a little bit of trick training with her.  We're working on offering interaction with props :)  Going in the little tunnel, 4 feet on a little box, and standing on the teeter.  PP is starting to get the concept of it but gets stuck a lot with trying to just mob me directly for the food.  She's so cute as she runs off to eat the treat and then runs right back.  And after a few treats she just quickly runs to stash it away but is so food motivated she will keep coming back forever!  Sometimes she just stores a little piece in her mouth and then tries to tell me I didn't give her one.

Evee is still working on coming to the recall noise.  And sometimes I can get her to lure onto a prop.
Super boring video of a training session a few days ago:

New xpen setup is working alright.  But I was a fool to think they couldn't climb it without the horizontal bars!  I've removed Penelope about 30 times the first night.  Thankfully she seems to be climbing it less and less each day. I don't doubt that it will need to constantly be watched, but I am hoping that she will mostly give up.

Kitty is behaving himself.  He has not been allowed to interact with them, but I'm not too nervous that he would injure them if chaos happened and they ended up meeting.  With the (wild) mice we had in our house last fall (eek!) Kitty sadly only toyed with them and was of zero assistance to our problem.  Still, based on how he played with the ferrets I think he would be too rough with the girls.

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Stressy Dogs: To Trial or Not

Another dog agility blog action day, this time on the topic of stress.  A topic near and dear to my heart with the Toller.  I have written extensively on the work I have done and continue to do with Vito to relieve his stress in the ring and increase his motivation for working.  From ring entrances, to jackpot training, to tons of work on building value for behaviors I can use on the startline (in agility) and in between exercises (in obedience).

But now I'm going to talk a little bit on what it's like on the handler side of training a dog who stresses easily.  All the ups and downs.   That extreme high when your dog looks happy and confident and the crushing hopelessness when your dog fixates on a scary barsetter.  So much time spent wondering if you're doing the right thing by continue to train for the sport you love and maybe even trial.   Weighing pros and cons and assessing how determined you are.  And trying to ignore anybody who tries to steal your joy in the little, but huge, successes.  There's just so many helpful people out there!

There was only one period with Vito where I seriously considered retiring him from trialing in agility, although in obedience he has been in a semi-retired state for years.  In that lowest time I went through a lot of checklists and tried to assess where we were at and if trialing or even training was worth it or if I was being selfish in my want to play agility with my dog.  If you are wondering the same things, there is no right or wrong answer but I wrote some of my thoughts below.

Vito relaxing at the trial this last weekend.

- Is my dog comfortable in the trial environment itself?  In other words is just spending time on the grounds stressful?  In Vito's case the answer was no, he was always super relaxed hanging around at trials.  But if your dog is stressed, is there ways to minimize that?  Crating out of the car?  Outdoors vs indoors?  Really short days?  Being in the ring is less than a minute, but if they're super stressed all day at the trial then you have more to consider and weigh.

- What's the most likely "bad" case scenario if my dog is stressed in the ring?  Vito's Sad Toller runs are mainly a big decrease in speed now and in the past also included quite a bit of pulling off obstacles and occasionally some reactivity towards ring workers.

- Do you have reasonable hope towards improvement?  Is the dog being highly successful in practice at home?  Does the success rate continue if in a group class?  At fun matches or new places?  UKI trials where you can reward in the ring?  At one point I realized that while Vito was doing amazing when I practiced with no one around, he was showing some small signs of our trial issues in his group class.  I was having to work very hard to get him UP and running fast at the start line before each sequence, although once the on switch was turned on he was fine.  Switching to a smaller group class and a different setup helped work through that issue, along with all the other work I put in and continue to do.

Zumi can't wait to trial!

- Why do I want to trial?  My personal answer is that trialing helps me to set (super small) goals and honestly assess progress.  I know that without trials I become lazier in training and that spending one on one time with each dog training for a goal is very important to me.  With a retired dog this can still be accomplished through trick goals, or training for a different sport, but I really want to share my love of agility with my dogs for as long as they are physically and mentally able to.  And of course the other main reason I like trialing is the pride aspect.  I love my dogs and I know they are amazing and I want the world to see how amazing they are too.  Celebrate with me the first time Vito screamed at the startline without being asked to bark!

Depending on your answers to the questions above, and to other questions you likely ask yourself, taking a break from trialing might be the best answer.  Or maybe continuing to battle through issues and fully supporting your special dog each and every run is OK to.  Don't beat yourself up over your decision and don't bow to the pressure of others.  Agility is such a small part of our time with the dogs.

At this time Vito continues to trial in agility and is mostly on an upswing for the past year!  Obedience and rally trials are done on a much more limited basis and usually restricted to organizations where I can reward in the ring.  But we continue to practice and work towards our goals of eventually being the Happy Toller at both agility and obedience trials!

For more posts on the topic of stress from other agility bloggers, visit the event page!

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Running Dogwalk Saga Begins

Zumi had her first 2 "bad" running dogwalk sessions.  I knew it would be coming eventually, the first hurdle of many, many ups and downs in the process.  Since we've only been doing it about x2/wk she just hasn't had that many sessions in since we started slightly over a month ago so thus the delay.
In her fairness Zumi has absolutely zero clue that there is criteria now.  She's just excited she gets a thrown toy!  And on the big positive side, Zumi's not really jumping, but she is over extending that last stride now.  Lowering the board slightly helped a bit so I'll keep it at that height for awhile.  I also think it was worse than previously since these were the first sessions I grafted the board onto the full size dogwalk versus being propped up on the ground or grafted onto the lowered dogwalk.  The increased angle between the full height board and the grafted board resulted in Zumi doing a little jump onto the plank from her start position.  Since I don't have anything around that can prop it up to about knee high on the ground I'm going to continue the grafted setup and just try starting Zumi very close to the plank instead of further back on the actual dogwalk.


I was thinking about Vito's running contacts recently and how much I screwed up that initial training.  But persistence paid off.  Over a year ago Vito did maybe x1 running dogwalk session a week mixed in with sequence practice.  And then I lost that open ring time and it's been almost a year now since Vito has had any weekly dogwalk practice.  Owning a dogwalk is very new and I still need to better apply the rubber material so Vito hasn't done much with it at home yet.
Looking over his trial records Vito missed only 1 DW contact in 2014, none in 2013 and only 2 in 2012.  Of course I know there were some in there that would have been misses in NADAC if it were a 36in zone versus the 42in.  In general the faster Vito goes the deeper the hits, so we certainly have had many in trials I wasn't excited about.  It just feels so much more carefree about training Zumi's knowing that it will come.  And of course I can always turn it into a stop ;)

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