Assigning Responsability in Vito's Obedience Training

I took the boys to an obedience lesson with Nancy last week.  This has been something I have been wanting to do for a long time but had never made a priority.  Usually I post about things really quickly after they happen but I have been doing a lot of thinking about the advice given to me for Vito.

I see Vito as having 2 issues that is keeping our obedience career on hiatus.  #1 is his anxiety over people watching, especially ring stewards.  #2 is getting him ready to really work/play instead of just going through the motions; this may or may not be related to #1.  I have been handling our 2nd issue by having Vito do some tricks and really trying to get him jazzed up with a toy or treats.  I skip formal set ups and do lots of walking backwards a few steps before turning into him to heel.  It allows an effortless transition into work and keeps enthusiasm high.  Once Vito is in that happy mode he does a fantastic job of working and has a lot of fun.

So at our lesson we talked about putting the responsibility to work on Vito.  Nancy observed that after a period of down time, such as being on a down stay while we talked, Vito had a hard time popping up to work and I fell into my routine of jazzing him up.  She urged me to work on duration sitting in heel position, being quiet, and creating a conditioned response to the two.  Basically I'm supposed to stop working so hard for him and start letting him step up.


I know I didn't fully digested Vito's lesson plan and this week that followed I had many conflicting thoughts.  Shortly after the lesson, Denise Fenzi posted about her long journey with her new OTCH dog Cisu.  Denise wrote about her need to be there for her dog, maintaining that connection through interaction and just supporting her every second.  Comparing those thoughts to our lesson and my want to have an enthusiastic and pushy dog I was confused.

So I've been thinking about how to balance the two ideas and have finally reached the conclusion that they really aren't opposing each other like I feared.  Vito may need that constant connection once we start training, but he needs to make that choice to connect in the first place.  While I've been trying to create more drive for working I've really been luring and pleading with him to start.  My efforts need to go into maintaining the connection that he chooses to seek out with his complete focus, not just attention.

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Champions of the Water

Oh no, Fiona has been taking swimming lessons from Vito!  

Is it possible that all my future dogs are doomed to swim, um specially?

Video of the near drownings:

(Video of Vito's typical swim style is here starting at 45sec, taken last week by Megan.  My little champion!)

We went again to the dog park we found last week, this time with Fiona too.  The plan is to drive out every free weekend this summer and just let them run!

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Chuck Update

Photo by Paul Dols

Chuck, the service dog I raised prior to Fiona, is doing well!  I didn't share it here, but there was a possibility he was going to be career changed from his  life as a mobility dog.  Since he was a puppy Chuck would sometimes leak when resting.  It worsened as he grew and he was put on Proin which seemed to manage it well.  We were up front about Chuck's daily medicine and because of the cheapness of it he was matched a mobility dog.  Things were going fabulous until a few months ago when Chuck's leakiness reappeared and increasing his Proin did not help.

Miraculously several donors chipped in and Chuck had a surgery that had a chance of fixing the problem.  Thankfully the surgery worked and Chuck is eagerly back hard at work!

A link to a nice article is here.

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We can go to a dog park again!

Thank you to Megan, Buzz, and Bailey for introducing us to the best dog park in the Twin Cities (Battle Creek)!  We haven't been to a dog park in ages due to Vito's ball obsession.  While I ended up with quite the collection of found tennis ball quickly shoved in my back pack, there were only a handful of times I had to collect Vito from finding a person tossing a ball to their dog.  The rest of the time was hiking and dips into many ponds while avoiding the open play areas.

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A Tribute to Obedience

I have been reading and hearing a lot of things lately that are poo pooing obedience.  Obedience is described as boring, too serious, snobby, and old fashioned.  Of course most of these things are said by people who have never even experienced the sport.  While obedience is not for every dog or for every person, I truly believe that most people just need to give it a try before criticizing.


The truth is that obedience is what you make of it.  Training for obedience can easily be a high energy sport that can leave you breathless!  Heeling is not marching around in a circle but is sprinting fasts, stalky slows, zig zag turns, and exclamations of true joy.  Boring does not fit anywhere in our training .  I love showing dogs that obedience is FUN!

The serious aspect is your own goals.  In the end, a title is a title whether made up of 170's or 200s; and they don't print the scores on the green ribbons!  Working towards perfect fronts and finishes doesn't have to be your goal even if it's mine.  I personally love obedience for that constant challenge of maintaining performance while still making it fun.   At the end of each run you will see team after team hug their dog and reward generously regardless of a Q.  Obedience people still love their dog above else. 

While obedience trials are quieter than agility or flyball trials, it doesn't mean people aren't cheering for their friends and competitors.  The newcomers are more stressed over their 5 minutes in the ring (compared to 30sec in agility) and the experienced ones are respectfully quiet as they cross their fingers while another person goes.  People are generally more focused on their dogs, but the applause and congratulations are heartfelt, and especially present towards the A crowd.  The number of people I've met who do not fit this image are few and equal in percentage to the other sports I participate in.

As for old fashioned, well obedience people are still loving dog owners.  The sport is slow to change but it is evolving and will only be led by example.  If you want more "positive" trainers in the ring than come join us!

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Reflections on Training

I still consider myself a newbie to the dog agility world, but I thought I'd jump into this blog action day on If I Knew Then What I Know Now.  Unfortunately, my thoughtful post disappeared somewhere into cyber space this morning instead of actually posting.  So visualize something profound here instead of these jumbled ramblings I whipped up over breakfast! 

1. Train the dog in front of you.  Not every dog has to tug to do well or needs a fabulous startline stay.  If it isn't important to you or doesn't seem to be working for your dog, then stop obsessing!  I'm currently rethinking a lot of my training and encouraging my dogs to be naughtier.  Bark, beg, jump, anarchy!  Agility should be about fun instead of trying to fit everything into little pegs.

2.  Develop a list of priorities so you don't let that most important criteria slide.  For me, attitude and its reflection in speed has risen to the top over accuracy.  I think I made a lot of mistakes in my training by focusing more on the outcome rather than the process.  Happy corgi didn't care, but I think I let the anxious Toller practice running slower when unsure instead of making sure to move slow enough where he could run full speed from the start.  I understand the opposite viewpoint of with confidence comes speed is just as true, but I think I like the opposite philosophy better!

And finally, here is something that I'm really glad I didn't know when I first started!

Running contacts are really hard, especially for a first time dog owner!  If I had known how much obsession is required I never would have jumped in and learned so much about stride length, timing, criteria, and making training fun for the dog!  Even though I gave it up with the corgi and still have lots to work on with the toller, I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.

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February Tricks!

 I've been trying to start up/finish more tricks the past two months.

Fiona
Fi has been working mainly on being a frog.  This was actually surprisingly easy for her even though she never lays with her back legs out just on her own.  I used a pillow and was able to get rid of it in 1.5 sessions.

I've also never actually taught her to cross her paws yet so we started.  She still needs a target out in the beginning of each session but I can take it away for a few reps in the middle before she needs it again.
 
Vito
Vito's been working on itching.  I suck at capturing things as that would actually require having treats and a clicker handy, so I decided to shape it.  It's progressed weirdly and I wasn't sure I was going to get it but I think he's just starting to get the idea!  For awhile I just had a touch nose to back foot behavior; that was odd.

His main other trick has been cleaning up his cross paws behavior.  While I taught him it as a puppy I never got it on cue and it was more of a stretch your foot as far as possible rather than put one foot on top of the other.  It was bad.  I'm pretty sure I've tried a few other times to clean it up but this appears to be one trick I've never stuck with for long.  The good news is we've made much progress and I haven't stopped trying yet.

Other tricks I've been working on off and on have been a japanese dog catch and standing on a small box.  The dog catch is going so-so.  Vito already knew a back stall and is targeting nicely to my lower hand but doesn't want me to hold him on the side.  I'm not entirely sure why since he has a normal dog catch he loves.  So we're taking it very slowly.  The small box work is hopefully to help my goal of getting a foot stall.  Vito already knew to stand in small dish, but once again I sucked at getting a clean behavior so he has always done a lot of dancing around.  3 feet in consistently with the 4th one going in for just a tiny bit before popping out.  We now have duration.  But since I originally taught it as get the back feet in and then step backwards with the front feet, he cannot walk onto the little box cleanly without stepping over and then backing on.  I'm thinking that won't work for a foot stall!

Lance
I haven't been working with the corgi as much as the other two.  His new trick this month has been attempt at getting frog legs.  Should have been easy since he does it all the time on his own but it has been the opposite of that.  I said I suck at capturing!  The pillow has not worked that well as he is extremely good at lifting up his back legs to stand on the pillow or tries to crawl with them.  I think we have finally made some progress the last two sessions even though I don't think he realizes it.

We've also been doing some strength work of beg-down-beg.  The corgi thinks it's great fun.  And trying to get a tiny bit of duration to his side leg lifts. 

Luke
Cats.  I don't know how we make any progress.  The good news is that even though he still acts like he has no idea the clicker means anything, he is starting to actually offer behaviors.  Sometimes.  We have been working on a little distance on our tunnel, sitting on a little box, our stupid back stall, leg weaves (ha!), and a stay.

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MKC Obedience Trial

 Attempt #2 at a UDX leg was a no-go.  But we had fronts! 

 

Open- Q
Lance seemed a bit off during it but the video doesn't look as bad as I thought.  Isn't that always the case!  Biggest issue was skipping a front on the drop on recall.  At least it was only 1 front this time instead of the disaster at our last trial!  Biggest yay is he again held his out of sight stays!!!  Lance looked stress when I came back and took a second cue to lie down but at least he's holding it.  I'm not sure if he looked more stress because the dog next to him broke and went to sniff the dog on the other side so was removed.  Thankfully he didn't sniff Lance!!!  I hate stays.


Utility -NQ
Gloves
No sit on the turn.  Thought about taking the jump on the way back but didn't :)  He briefly dropped the glove when he turned back to me but picked it up right away.

Signals -NQ
Some moments of lost focus that resulted in some wideness and then some actual lagging!  Walked when I left him on the stand.  Down signal he sat so I gave a verbal :(

Directed Jumping
Go outs were mostly straight but didn't look as confident.  After the first jump he thought about flying behind me to skip the front but hesitated and I gave a verbal front cue.  Way crooked, but he stopped and he fronted on all the other exercises.

Moving Stand
Forged but has been worse.  Took a few steps as I left and the judge approached.

Articles
Nice job.  Especially considering that our run through on Friday night was a disaster where Lance was actively avoiding the correct ones.  I tried a few times and tried to remain happy to not stress him further but ended up just quitting  before I made things worse.

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