Welcome March

OK, so I'm like the happiest person in the world that Feb. is over. It definitely wasn't "our month". First I did something to myself to destroy my back for 11 -12 days, but then Bungee badly tore a toenail on her front foot, which kept her from training, which was followed by her coming down with some really bad intestinal problems. 3 trips to the vet in 2 weeks - ugh, poor Bungee, not to mention the bank account!

We finished Feb. off with all of us feeling back to normal, and Bungee in great need of a bath. So a trip to our friend Cynthia's Grooming Salon this weekend was a nice treat. Bungee got the full spa treatment, coming out beautiful, fluffy and sweet smelling. Guinness did some training in a different environment while Bungee endured the bath :-)) (not her favorite) and then Guinness strutted around like he owned the joint in between doing his tricks at a distance, as Bungee got dried. When it was done Bungee was still eager friends with her adopted Auntie Cynthia, so it was all good.

Poor Guinness just had a partially boring Feb. with me laid up, but stayed well. I hand-stripped him last Friday. He always looks so beautiful freshly-stripped in his "underwear". I love the feel of his velvety undercoat when his wire coat is off, it's really thick too. Not that he doesn't look great with his gorgeous double coat in tact too!

Guinness had an audition for a TV commercial last week, and fingers crossed, the early word is they want him. That said, knowing they are subject to changing their minds a lot. Keep you posted. During the audition he had 48 different things they asked him to do and it went great, he did all but one, which shocked me as it was "rolling over", which was one of the 1st tricks he ever learned. Since then we're working on a few things that were weak spots and they're all responding to the skills tune-up nicely, especially "roll over", sheesh... Wouldn't you like to know what they're thinking some time. I am going to get him checked at the chiropractor just to make sure all is well. Though it's probably a case of not having done it in a long, long time.

Bungee literally turned a corner March 1, waking up ready and raring to go, and looking beautiful & happy too. I felt the same way too!

The end of Feb. brought us melting snow followed by drastic low temperatures and then a lot of ice everywhere. YUCK. Thank goodness for lots of tricks & body awareness exercises and a basement in which to work!

The snow is down to just a few inches now and I was able to find some crunchy but not slippery spots in the yard today, so we actually got a little weaving in. Bungee was thrilled and wonderful as ever! :-))

Both dogs are entered in a trial later this month, so after just about a full month off, we'll see if we can't tune up their agility skills too! Back to class tonight.

Happy Training, It's About Love!

A Better Day

Thought I better get some snow pictures up before it's all gone! (dream on lady... :-)

Guinness after a romp in a warm day's snow.


Guinness & Bungee, so why are we stopping for this?


My Progress
Happy to report I've made good progress today. Was able to sit up & walk as soon as I woke up, still a bit slow but big progress. Actually got dressed in real clothes, (not lounge clothes), and walk around the house without any extreme pain or problems. Got brave enough to try some training from the floor. Guinness & Bungee being so thankful for that! I was able to get down to the floor voluntarily and up with a bit of help from nearby chairs & tables. Fed the dogs on my own, they don't take their bowls when they're full but for this very reason, they bring them when they're empty! Next I actually got so brave I took them outside, donning my snow boots with "Wintertrax" attached (springy things that fit the bottom of your shoe and that grip in ice), as I could see some ice in the lowest spots where water pooled up, and slowly but surely, did a decent poop clean up, necessary after a BIG melt like this past weekend - still +8 today :-) Forecast the same for the most of the week ~ WoW!

Poor Bored Doggies & A Good Chew
Right now Bungee is discovering a "Himalayan Dog Chew", for the 1st time. Click on the link to check them out (pictures & story). So far she seems to handle the occasional dairy products very well. These chews are sold as being from an ancient recipe used in Nepal to provide locals with a long-lasting snack they can gnaw on and keep pieces in their mouths while they labor. The information reports a Peace Corp worker in Nepal adopted an abandoned, teething puppy. With no "pet supplies" available locally, the adopter had to improvise for this puppy, and tried one of these traditional chews. It worked out so well he went on to found this company that makes them.

So it's like a 5 - 6 inch long hard stick, that I thought smelled more like beef than cheese but really it's quite a different smell than either and not at all objectionable. Apparently the dog will have to gnaw on it a long time to soften it enough to chew small bits off the edge. Eager to find snacks like this that could provide Bungee with some good calories & a bit of preoccupation at long day's trials, I decided to try one of these at home and see how she does.

I'd love to hear comments about what some of you give your dogs at trials (if anything) in this regard.

In the 1st 15 minutes Bungee has tried to push it under her bedding on 3 different sides of her crate, but either curiosity or aroma has convinced her to hold it in her mouth while she lays down in every different position she can think of. I'm hearing some chewing noises... I'll let you know how she does with it.

Guinness, on the other hand, is in his crate with the tried & true "Tartar Busters" we get at most any local pet supply. Both of the dogs love these, but I only had one and Guinness cannot handle dairy products at all. They produce congestion and diarrhea quickly with him.

What the dogs have most often is simple marrow bones that we get free or very low price at some of our local butchers shops or any grocery. We also have a huge supply of guaranteed all-natural, organic, (guaranteed chemical & poison-free), rawhide. One big order is plain, rolled, and the other is every manner of shape & size meats made in rawhide or dried, from the states. We brought the natural rawhide back with us from Florida last year. We've been hoarding it for the the dogs and handing it out in small doses on those rare occasions when we're out of bones.

Training
A disappointing subject the last few days with me laid up! I did a little shaping with each dog today, putting a new spin on an old trick. Bungee also discovered she can put her rings on her ring toss game 2 at a time - pretty cute. She's going for distance on that game now. She's very cute the way she pounces around excitedly while she does it. Going to give contacts from the slanted travel plank a try at supper-time, but just off the living room floor.

Classes & Entries are on hold for the moment. Dangit anyway.

Goals for the week
Now I'm trying to let all the meds wear off to evaluate just where I stand. That's not to say I won't take them again this week if it's still really bad, but I need to know we're at and hopefully convince my Dr. I'm ready for a prolo treatment sooner than later. I so want to get it going and get back to my regular life!

Right now the Dr. is considering letting me have a treatment as soon as Saturday, which is also the only day my husband can take me and since I will definitely need a driver, have to live with that. The Dr. 1st started out talking about a date week's away. ACK! I want to be fixed now! On the other hand... How romantic...a prolotherapy treatment for Valentine's Day :-)) Show me the love :-)

Well I'll leave you with that (not so) love-ly thought :-))

Happy Training...It's About Love!

Holiday's over - back to work!

CONTACTS & WEAVES!

I hope everyone had a happy Christmas! We certainly did! Bungee & Guinness made out like bandits with new noise-making toys of all sorts including a new "flickin' chicken" (even though it's a squirrel this time), Ottosson games, and some great new "woolzee" training toys. The "flicken chicken" is actually a flying squirrel toy that Bungee is just over the moon for. She had a similar one before that was a flying chicken so the name stuck. Just a great toy with a built-in rubber slingshot that sends it flying! Guinness's fave has to be his new "Squeeze Meeeze Dragon" which he has only put down to sleep. Another huge hit was a very funny ball from our friend Cynthia which makes all manner of odd noise and delightfully unoffensive to human ears too! Good job Cynthia!!! The dogs have officially learned to tear wrapping paper and snoop in every box that comes their way. But with the holiday officially behind us it's time to get back to work!

That will be pretty easy for us since my husband got me a seminar at Say Yes for Christmas! It was almost a surprise, but an excited friend, the 1st born Griswald (do the initials SMH ring a bell?) blurted it out unaware that it was a surprise! Ooops! However, it's also nice to have a little advance notice of these things, so it's OK, I was glad to get a little prep time if only in my head. I also need to whip up some Salmon Brownies for Bungee (recipe in the archives) this morning, as they seem to work out the best for Bungee in rewarding contacts. So we're off later today to Susan's latest: "Contacts & Weaves". A classroom lecture tonight, and 2 days of work this coming weekend. Click on the Say Yes link above to learn more.

Bungee's weaves are just brilliant already so this should be really nice for her. Our contacts are not quite at the level weaves are, but on that note, perfect work for us too.

I'll take video and with a little luck the hotel will have some good high speed. I managed to get some new video up by making the clips only about a minute long and getting up at 4:45 a.m. to upload them! (ugh) I may be paying for that at the lecture tonight but I'm sure the info will be so new and stimulating we'll hardly be able to contain ourselves! :-))
Ok this is what being up at this hour does to the brain!!! I'll link up the new videos here as I get the up-link opportunities!

Hugs to our Kvarkin family, the Griswald's in Timmin's and friends near & far!

Happy Training! It's About Love!!

So what have you been up to?

Bungee At Training Camp



Training progress this week
Focus on serpentine handling, distance & motion challenges on contact training, moving up from 6 to 12 poles, and speed circles of 5 jumps mixed up with 3 sets of 2 X 2's to create entries with speed. I will also be adding poles after tunnels & out of chutes for the same thing. We found some weakness in one particular kind of 180 situation for both Bungee and myself when we went to work with Sarah yesterday so we have that going too. I learned at camp that Bungee only understood a 270 for a limited distance (maybe with jumps up to 10-12 ft. apart?). When jumps were set on square 18' - 20' (ft.) apart, she really needed a lot of support to stay on her outside line and not come through the gap. So we'll work on that too. Lots of the work is mine to do, to find the sweet spot between the how-to & amount of support she needs and not getting myself stuck, flat-footed in a gap when I really need to be moving down a line. As always we finish any box work or technical sequences with simple speed circles of 7 - 10 jumps (heights & sets always in flux, never the same twice) just to let her open up and release a bit after technical work.

On a personal note
I have been feeling so cut-off and frustrated with our still-dismal internet situation. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to upload one medium-sized picture of Bungee to my blog this morning without timing out - amazing. The line-of-sight internet company told us they are planning a new tower for our area early in the new year. No solutions now :-( Meanwhile my husband was in touch with our county office as they are also doing a high-speed upgrade project for several areas, however our road was not included on their mapping!! When my husband contacted the county administrator in charge of the project, the man asked my husband if he was one in the same as the person that authored a certain whitepaper on MS Exchange. When he found out that indeed my husband was the same individual he really got excited telling him our county is in the process of deploying that same architecture now and he's the architect in charge and agreeing how much we REALLY need the bandwidth and how happy he was to meet him and so on. Maybe we've found a new ally who can actually come through with high-speed for us - fingers crossed. In the meanwhile, I am still stuck with going to an internet cafe for out-bound high-speed or a friends house. Both are possibilities in the near future the trouble is just finding the time.

But moving on to more positive subjects, fall is here in all it's splendor and it's just gorgeous to be outside. Fall days are so fabulous, especially here in Ontario. I don't know how some Canadians can take this season for granted to go about their days in the same hum-drum fashion as always. I never get used to what must be the most beautiful fall color to be seen on the planet. I really just love this time of year. I wish I could put up so many of the beautiful pictures I have been taking here at home. The temperatures have been perfect for working dogs, the colors are glorious, the sunshine is brilliant, this year the grass is plush from the wet summer, it's just hard to stay inside.

Of course Bungee would like to train 8 hours a day in any weather, so she's really all for any day when I'd rather be outside than in! In between training sessions I can find endless odd jobs to do, all the business of being a "good squirrel" and getting ready for winter. Somehow fall always creates an urgency in me to take advantage of every spare minute of sunshine. Perhaps it's the days getting shorter, or recognizing that every day of green grass is a gift this time of year that creates a desire to pack every minute of a training you can into day.

I may only get one picture up at a time but I can make many short notes to the blog when I have uploading success. Videos are still just out of the question from home but I'm looking for alternatives all the time.

Happy Training! It's About Love!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Greg & Laura Derrett Seminar

Bungee and I had the good fortune to attend 4 seminar workshops with Greg & Laura Derrett, during their latest visit to Say Yes Dog Training here in Ontario last week. We took our RV to stay in at the school. I am very disappointed to again report there was NO high speed for us to use the entire time. There is quite a lot of construction going on there and nothing was available with the temporary interruption of all the work. This was disastrous for my husband who had planned to work, and frustrating for me, looking forward to spending spare time in the evenings uploading videos. We had to come home Thursday & Friday for my husband to be able to work, but we returned on the weekend for two more days of training.

I was concnerned that all of it would be a stretch for Bungee who has never done any sequences that size before. But Susan and Laura assured me if we hit areas that were too advanced we'd just break the work down. That was very encouraging. I knew going in that Bungee would hold her own with all the skills she's learned to date and her attitude for the work.

Bungee worked full days in "Double Box Day", "Lead Out's & Positional Cues", "Driving Lines & Cueing Turns", and "Deceleration, Acceleration & Turning Cues", the last being a sort of culmination of the whole week's training as well.

We had a great time in the seminars. Bungee was the yougest dog there and was holding her own very well. Her turns are excellent and her talent is obvious. Finding & driving lines was/is a needy area for her progress and acceleration & deceleration is a needy area for me to work on. I have to improve my running. We shot lots of video and took some pictures too, soon to come.

Now we are again overloaded with agility homework plans, besides the on-going weaves & contacts, but it's great work we will enjoy. The fall season is upon is and it may be the most beautiful time of year in Ontario, the colors are incredible and the warm temperatures and sunny days have been glorious.

Happy Training...It's About Love!

Toys, Toys, Toys - Agility Training Update

Sept. 12, Training Update...Can you believe it's already the 12th of September?

Toys
The over-riding elements in all of Bungee's agility training right now, be it as reinforcers or challenges, are toys. Toys have tremendous value to her. So rather than use toys less, since she has to work hard to be correct in the presence of certain toys, we leave the toys where they are and let her work through the distractions and challenges until she can be correct, even if it means breaking down the work, enlisting the aid of a coach or friend to help, and adding a lot of screw-up cookies to keep her motivated that she can still win this new version of our training game. Bungee has always had to work through toy distractions, but they are proving to be big challenges in contacts and handling, which is great information!

Most of the time we set up a small sequence to be run one of several ways so that we can put the pressure on, then let the pressure off. This also helps keep Bungee in the game and highly successful despite the increased difficulty of the work.

The circle work we did has created incredible responsiveness in Bungee. I have been amazed since the beginning of her sequence work at the obvious result. Her understanding of Greg's system is already phenomenal with what part of it she has been exposed to since we started working small sequences. We know she understands her Reinforcement Zone (RZ), and thus my Blind Cross Body Line (BCBL), we know she understands a Front Cross, we know she understands deceleration. So, the challenges we create with toys are fair challenges.

The reason we know these toys create big challenges is by pushing the envelope and putting the most desirable toys exactly where they will be potential stumbling blocks. Embracing the weaknesses rather than avoiding them. That's exactly what you want in a training challenge - one where you've really accomplished something big when you work through it. How better to prepare the dog for the thrill of the competition field?

Bungee loves training agility, no matter what it is we are doing, but she loves her toys more. As Sarah said yesterday: "Right now toys are the most valuable thing to Bungee, but as you continue to train, eventually the jumps will have the same value to her as these toys." So, much to Sarah's credit, we use these toys to their full potential, not just as fabulous rewards, but as challenges to grow by.

Contacts
Nose touches are really nice now. Turning up the heat with toys, motion and/or distance. Putting teeter games back into the picture with nose touches. Still undecided on frame.

Weave Poles
Working 4 straight poles w/ 2 X 2's. Working 6 straight poles with 1/2 of a regular set of 12. 3 sets of 2 X 2's and 2 sets of 6 poles are set up in various places on our field now. So she's seeing a lot of poles! Her speed & desire for the poles is beyond adequate, but I am intentionally using food more than toys on 6 poles to develop 1-step footwork. Letting her race through as she would prefer, she switched to 2 paw pulling in a moment. Obviously needing to correct that immediately, we slowed her down to food rewards for correct footwork. Right now entry variations and correct footwork are the emphasis. Since I last posted at any length on poles Sarah helped us create proper bending at the 3rd pole so as to avoid popping it later on with fast, angled approaches in couses.

Jumping
Haven't done any big session of grids lately, we're definitely due. I keep a set point jump set up as a warm-up jump on my own field, and one grid at almost all times. I change the one grid I leave up frequently so she does see a variety. She has been introduced to my new double & spread jumps at competition height, in a very simple setting here at home. In small sequences at competition height she is keeping the bars up nicely, handling now being the critical component to that picture too.

Handling
We're working on small sequences, 3 - 6 pieces. Each little sequence is "handling heavy" with the emphasis on learning to read turning cues and various parts of Greg's system. FFW continues with Crate Games being particularly usefull.

Overall Work
Excellent! Bungee is an awesome dog to work with and very impressive to watch. That said, Bungee would probably tell you she's teaching me more than I'm teaching her and that's probably right!

Happy Training...It's About Love!

Training Update - Aug. 27

Vacation homework
We each packed what equipment we could in the RV's. Our combined efforts yielded: 2 sets of 2 X 2's, 12 weave poles, portable chute, jumps & jump bumps, travel planks, crates & toys. With Sarah overseeing things, we put some great training together in the campground for our 10 canine traveling companions.

Agility
Back at home Bungee is working on small sequences for handling, jumping to height now (22 inches) some of the time. Most sequence of even 3 or 4 jumps offers an off course possibility to something attractive such as tunnel. Then working the sequence both ways, 1st to include the attractive line, and 2nd to run past following a different sequence with the same start and same attractive line, now an off course. Clear as mud? Well Bungee usually aces this one - that circle work is proving to have been worth it's weight in gold. Suffice it to say she will never have a problem turning.

We are also working on poles, table, and contacts. I still have not decided 100% if I would like to teach Bungee a running frame or not. But teaching the contact performance is a lengthy process, especially at the rate we're going with holidays and trips to the U.S. & Finland! Clearly it will be awhile yet until she see starts performing her contacts on equipment and so I still have time to make that decision.

Obedience
This week her performance suffered by lack of attention. She was easily distracted throughout the class and there were only 2 dogs present! ACK! Her skills were very good when she was paying attention, but there was not enough of that to make do. So since Guinness's Tues. night agility class has been moved to an earlier time, I have started slipping quietly in to a busy Beginner II obedience class with Bungee after Guinness's class ends. Bungee & I just work on the side and work attention, nothing else. We work 1 - 2 min. out on the floor and about 5 min. in the crate, and alternating on & off through the hour like this. We actually only get about 45 min. in after I pack off bag & crate from Guinness's class. What a world of difference even one night of such attention work made!

In obedience, Bungee's heeling is a little troublesome with preference for forging close to the front of my left leg. She wants to see all of me every second I think. We're adding U-turns now and we're also working on keeping her in place not lagging slightly. If it's not one thing it's another :-)) Other trouble spots are going down on her long sit, but her long down is good. Everything else is coming good.

Bungee's regular, group agility class is tonight and tomorrow a.m. we have a standing semi-private. Looking forward to both and what new little things our teacher will have for us tonight.

Parting thoughts
I am so lucky to have Guinness and Bungee. It's always a happy time running this black & white girl! There was a time I doubted I would ever enjoy training this much again, but the joy has surely returned to me and to Guinness too. He is really running like a million bucks again and we are having so much fun together too.

I know we have a very special little angel keeping her eye on us and cheering us on too. These moments with our dogs are just so marvelous. Guinness's class last night was just an absolute blast to see him turning on the juice and powering around with me. I came in from running Bungee this morning, and I was absolutely overjoyed with the fun we had. What a thrill to see your training coming to life as you share such a big love between you. Whatever would we do without these big-hearted dogs?

Happy Training...It's About Love

Bungee's Pig

The PIG!!!

A favorite toy & more contacts

How many things can we get going on at one contact session?





Happy Training!... It's About Love!

Backyard Contacts 2

Backyard Contacts - Part 2

Have to work from both sides of course!



Happy Training ~ It's About Love!!

More Contact Video

Backyard Contacts 1

Another day, another session of contacts...and another video clip. :-)) Enjoy!



Happy Training ~ It's About Love!

More Contacts

More Rainy Day Contacts

I'm enjoying my new video skills way too much! Here's some more new "old" video. If we're inside it was another rainy day, (can't film in the rain).




Happy Training! It's About Love!!

My 1st Video!

Rainy Day Contacts

At long last...Here's a clip of Bungee practicing 2o2oNT contacts.


This was her 1st homework session that I videotaped. Lots of room for improvement. Lots more film stacked up to process now and certainly more to come from now on. :-) Best part - I did it all myself! :-))

Happy Training! It's About Love!!

Friday update

Guinness & Bungee at Kempenfelt Bay


Agility & obedience training this week has been great. No matter what else we do, Bungee has worked on her contacts daily. Significant improvement at school this week & really great work at home. Started video recording our training sessions. I don't have enough disc space to edit my own video on my MacBook or our 1st video would already be up - but soon! I have to wait until the DH has time to devote his MacBookPro to the cause. Unfortunately his is in use long hours everyday for actual working, so maybe on the weekend. Ready to start Bungee's weave poles. Obedience focus this week is on heeling, particularly U-Turns. Bungee & Guinness are off to the phsyio vet for a check-up this a.m. A big agility weekend here in Ontario - Canada Cup on Sat. I hear Bungee's half-brother Keen is in town for the event. Hoping to see him again.

Happy Training ~ It's About Love!

July 8 - Training Update

TRICKS!

I almost forgot! We're gaining ground on two new tricks, Roll-Over & Cross Your Paws. One is really a break-through!

Roll-Over ~ Believe it or not, the hardest trick for Bungee has been "Roll-Over". It was a trust issue. It all goes back to when Bungee was small, and we tried repeatedly for a few weeks to tape her ears. We did this with her on her back on the living room floor. She did not like this experience one bit. Bungee has suffered great suspicion about certain kinds of living room floor activity ever since.

Knowing this, we have both gone to extra lengths to gain her trust back, and also given her lots of time & space to decide for herself, the living room floor was safe when we were sitting on it too. She loves her tricks & balancing, and I have always done lots of shaping and playing with the dogs on the living room floor. But the wrong kind of movement from me, would signal her to flee into the next room. The cure for this has always been for me to play with Guinness, which she absolutely can't resist and back she'd come to have some more fun.

However getting her on her back on the living room floor was not happening for the longest time.

Drum Roll please....

For 3 days in a row, Bungee has practiced Roll-Over to the left on the living room floor with me sitting on the floor next to her, and even did it in class Monday night!

That's a personal biggee (for us more than her)! Now we'll get her rolling over in both directions.

Cross Your Paws ~ one of my favorite trick moves, but it's been a little slow coming. After last night's class I realized it's coming a little better than I thought. I was actually sitting on the floor of the training hall with Bungee watching the Utility (Level 3) obedience dogs work after we were finished. I was trying to get Bungee to Roll Over, which she did several times. But do you know she offered me Crossed Paws the 1st three times! I couldn't reward them because I wanted Roll-Over. But I was tickled anyway : - )) Definitely a glimmer Cross Your Paws is coming!

Sitting Food Bowl Retriever -no progress - for shame on me!
I have to remember to work on this!

Happy Training!
Enjoy the process...It's About Love!!

July 7 - Homework Update - Contacts

Jump Grids

This round of grid work has been interesting and beneficial. We started out day 1 with Bungee having some challenge between jumps 4 & 5 on the Progressive Grid.
She was adding one stride instead of a bounce. It was visible this was a result of speed and inertia working together. To resolve this I tried to slow her down visually, by adding visual complexity to jump 4, which did not resolve the extra stride. Next I added visual complexity to jump 3, which did not resolve the extra stride issue either. Next I changed the angle on jumps 2, 3 & 4, leaving the previously added visual complexity in tact, which solved the problem nicely. I "undid" the visual complexity, piece by piece, in the same way I added it until we were back to success with a regular, "plain", progressive grid, which took several sessions over a couple days. It could have gone faster if I'd worked at it more than once a day but I did not.

From the beginning she was almost causing me to brag over her One-Stride Grid, but w/ jump 4 at 20' distance we hit a snag where she double-strided out to 20'.
I'll explain the resolution to this when we get back to it.

Contacts (I told you we'd have a lot to write on this as we went along!)

I'm looking for really specific behaviors here. I want Bungee to go from the position I have her take, into 2o2oNT in one direct, smooth, dynamic move. I want to be standing up when I release her, and working up to sending her from 1' behind her and/or 1' to her side, etc.

Achieving 90% success on slanted plank in basement (food rewards (R), zero distractions), achieving less success on training stairs on field (food or toys R, variable but mild distractions), achieving very mixed results in class (food R, many distractions), much too often what Sarah & I commonly agree on as "crap".

Last week's class was actually a bit of a head-banger for me, causing much thought. This is my 3rd agility dog to teach contacts, you'd think I'd know something by now and be experiencing the best results yet. I almost gave myself a headache thinking about that one last Wed. on the way home after class. But Bungee is quite the individual and no where does she show this as well as with contacts. But we'll get it.

Back to what I want, (like this ever matters to a dog :-) I would have liked for Bungee to have the same intensity for contacts for the prospect of food R's as toy R's - and there's the rub most of the time. I'm just getting crap using food R's at class, unless I never want to leave her side. I am not stuck on food being as meaningful for contacts at class as places of lower distraction, like home, but the correct behavior is not an option.

To get success w/ food rewards in class I've struggled to find a point to maintain her attention, carrying her travel plank clear out of the agility ring to a quiet place on the side and working slowly back into class. Or I might get one dynamic nose touch or sometime two, but never three, the 3rd one is always crap and I can see the eyes look up from the job to whatever else is going on that she can spy, or glaze right over in stalk-something mode, or even the old freeze & stall doing nothing. All signs that motivation for the task is lacking - my challenge.

Toy R's present quite an improved picture, but accuracy can suffer. For instance, outside at home, quite commonly her 1st nose touch is close but no beep -call it a "drive-by", an air swipe, the head is definitely making the right motion, but sorry Bungee, I'm not buying it, no beep-no paycheck, but on a high note, with the toy, she's really into it. However, if I leave her in position for a 2nd chance to touch it, she will always nail it for a beep the 2nd time, the 3rd time, etc. I quickly started breaking it off after the 1st chance w/ no beep, seeing a pattern trying to emerge where she makes contact on the 2nd nose touch attempt.

We seem to have hit on a winning combination for that first successful nose touch, with one specific toy and the training steps by using only a long, narrow, tug toy (Crash Test Toys: Fur T-tug, small ball, extra long shock-cord handle), and one beep - one reward. With this toy, I can get it really compact in my hand, have her get in position on the last stair, and release her to successfully dive directly into a nose touch much more reliably, and still provide a really nice, quick toy reward, keeping hold of the handle but having a toy that flies right out on the ground ahead of her a good meter to release her to. This system has enabled a lot of quick repetitions of success - at home, and motivates her to drive into position accurately for a beep the 1st try. We'll see if we can maintain this behavior at class.

Keep in mind I have already done a lot of rewarding, standing next to her with food for correct nose touches to a target or the "Touch It" from many places. As well she has often worked with the distractions of food and toys on the ground while she nose touches, though I have not been leaving toys on the ground lately for two reasons. 1st, I want her head & eyes ahead as she works & releases, which I cannot be sure of when there is a toy ahead to focus on or distract. 2nd, a toy on the ground ahead can be as much of a challenge as any other distraction if she switches to stalking the toy. This is most likely to happen in class when the environment is more distracting. We will have to come back to this step but first things first.

Now in the general effort to clean up all behaviors, (back to when we backed up a bit in obedience) I am looking for only excellent behaviors, which creates a lower RR for a time (DRE's). With that she needs to learn to drive into nose touch position on one chance, with me standing upright. This is the only way we can advance so that I can take other positions to send her and move myself. At home this is a case of reinforcing very selectively, and waiting her out for the good behavior.

At class a little extra dimension of challenge exists. There I'm almost ready to employ a time-out at class if she's not as interested as need be to perform correctly. I may either take my terrier, and work him in front of her of her crate if she fails to find interest in our contact training, or borrow one of her buddies from our instructor and do the same in an effort at jealousy as instant motivation.

This may seem an overly-heavy set of requirements that I'm expecting of her to some, but if she can't do a correct nose touch from a still position on a mock-contact, she hasn't a hope of managing one in trial, especially with her speed and the confidence on equipment she has demonstrated so far.

This specific contact improvement I'm seeking is another small but important step where we are spending quite a bit of time. I won't say we're "stuck" as I do see improvement, but I haven't seen that breakthrough I'm expecting just yet.

Don't get me wrong, I'm as interested in running contacts as the next person, and a running frame might even be within our scope, but that has nothing to do wtih the fact that beautiful contacts with good nose touches are a skill I still want Bungee to learn and think she's going to need - especially with the penchant Canadian judges have for putting tunnel mouths next to the bottom of frames & dog walks for immediate u-turns into those tunnels.

Obedience

I am really impressed with the progress Bungee is making in obedience in the few short weeks we have been taking this sport seriously (meaning doing regular homework and attending regular classes). Her heeling tonight was different as night & day from just three weks ago. That is with the barn doors to the agility field wide open and a gamble class going on right outside. It's as if something clicked and she just suddenly "got it". She is such a happy worker, we get many compliments on her great attitude, quickness to learn and good looks. I'm still practicing my footwork. :-))

As they say in Hollywood, "That's a wrap".
Signing off,
Hug your dogs & happy training,
and remember, It's about love!

General Update

Bungee & family are enjoying the beautiful summer weather we've been enjoying this past week. Temps are on the up-swing now - thoughts are with our friends & former alumni off to a few sweltering days of training at camp.

On a good note, this has made for lots of great swimming and long, enjoyable summer days & summer nights.

Jump grids, contacts & obedience have occupied much of our practice time this week.

Family matters have settled back down to almost normal. Our laneway expansion came to a sudden stop when our poor contractor cut phone service to two families on our road (the neighbors and us) due to improperly marked or unburied phone cables hiding in high grass where we never mow. We're promised Wed. for getting the wire buried and then we ought to be back on track to finish the project.

The (Mac) thrill was almost gone when the hard drive on my MacBook died Sat. night at 10 p.m. But Mac being what it is, the DH not only was able to replace the hard drive, but I only lost about 2 hours of unsaved content, my last back-up had been at 7:47 p.m.

Unfortunately that was the latest round of downloaded digital pix of Bungee and a whole gang of dog pals swimming at a local conservation area lake. :-((

I can tell you Bungee and "brother" Guinness, definitely enjoyed themselves, the water, and all their swimming pals immensly.

Happy Training - next back to that update.

July 4th Update

Gotta' LoVe the 1st Week of July!


(Air show photo via iPhone! Wow eh?)

1 Week - 2 Holidays !!

July 1 - Canada Day!
4th of July - American Independence Day!
This year that means long weekends at each end for us! Yippeee!!!

I guess it's a good thing when you're too busy training & living to write on your blog, but that's been the case the last week or more. We had a really terrific Canada Day long weekend - 3 days of yard work and 1 day of play. We all had a great, long & sunny day, visiting, boating & swimming at a friend's lakeside cottage, with Bungee even trying her skill at some Dock Diving!! (Pictures next post.) Classes were closed for 2 days this week. We only got to Bungee's agility class last night and a private this morning for each of the dogs. Both were welcome fun - the dogs definitely do not like being kept away from school!

Training is moving along on all the basics. This week we will re-visit our Susan Salo jump work for both dogs. As that takes at least 15 jumps to set up, this work limits me from setting up other things while it's going.

Meanwhile excavation and expansion of our laneway has finally begun, the 1st of bigger & better improvements to come.

On a personal note, this seems to be a season to fight the feeling of frustration of not trialing more than we have. But, "To everything there is a season" they say, and faith tells me there is a reason somewhere, (which does not yet mean I have a clue what that reason is!) Somehow we manage to stay busy as ever and just as on-the-go, go figure.

One thing is certain, Bungee and I are going to have a LOT of fun when we finally get there! In fact, we're having a LOT of fun anyway right now!

Happy 4th of July to all!

We have another long weekend to enjoy now too with July 4th upon us and this one is all play!

Best Wishes to everyone for success & fun in all your trials!
Happy Training ~ Hugs to all the dogs!

...and remember: It's About Love!

Focus Forward vs. Attention

No Compromises Necessary
Bungee has really caught on to the FF work in Agility nicely. She has done this in spite of a great deal of attention work of late in the obedience setting. So I'm really pleased.

I'm also thrilled the way she has caught on to her job in agility, in the continuum of transition from flat work to equipment. Once it clicked in her mind what to do, it's as if there was never any concern to begin with.

No Fear
I'm happy to move forward with both agility & obedience in confidence. Through a clear and solid foundation, allowing 1st for good understanding of whatever it is we are teaching, Bungee will have no trouble distinguishing which behavior is needed at which time.

The Joy of Training
I'm also so happy I chose to learn to train purely positively a long time ago. I never went into it to become a zealot, but only for my own professional growth. I knew it could be done, I wanted to learn how too.

I can't imagine what the training experience would be like for myself or my dog, if my only joy was the end-picture of the competition result. For me, the joy is very much in the process, and seeing what we have learned come alive when it's happening in the ring, when it counts :-)), and rarely the competitive result (which is almost always great!).

But the pay-off now, is that unlike so many other dogs we see that are immersed in obedience with correction-based methods at Bungee's young age, and then have trouble finding the mental freedom they need to do agility well (fast & fun as our friend Lynda says!). I can say with full confidence, this will not be an issue for Bungee!

I remain in such gratitude to the ability of training with purely positive methods. Bungee will not be stifled, fearful, or inhibited about learning or running in agility, nor suffer any ill-effects in learning her obedience skills either, on the contrary she is going through the learning stages of both with the joy we all want our dogs to know.

Happy Training! Hug your dogs!
...and remember: It's About Love!

Monday Night Obedience Class

What a difference a little homework makes!
We have good news to report on Bungee's Mon. night obedience class. My personal goal for the night was attention first, and sticking to my plan of breaking things down for better quality work second. Success on both counts!

As has been the case, distractions abounded with the Gamble workshops still taking place outside the doors, barn doors open, the other dogs in our class, plus heavy rain and a bit of hail on the building's metal roof on & off all night.

Attention
One thing I did when she first "lost me" for the excitement she could see outside, was simply leave her. Some people might consider it wrong, others right, but whatever, it worked and I didn't resort to jerking her off her feet with a choke chain.

My attitude was if you don't want to pay attention to me I'm not paying attention to you. If I started out to get into heel position and she locked her gaze to the agility outside instead, I simply stepped quietly away behind her, dropped the leash silently and slipped away. I did this twice, once leaving the building and going to a window where I could see her looking for me, the other time going to a boring corner where nothing was happening of any interest to her, other than me waiting there, (but it had a mirror where I could watch her). Both times she held her position of sit while craning her neck all around, looking for me and not taking her eyes off me or the direction she last saw me leaving.

Each time I returned to her quietly & calmly picked up the leash, started over, with a much better result. At the same time, when we were back to work, and she gave me attention she got rewarded, fast, again and again. That recognition (reward) was really good information from me to her that this was just what I wanted her to do. For the next half-hour she was keeping at least one eye on me at all times and usually both. Though she had many breaks in that time, I never once lost her interest again when it was our turn to work.

That tactic may not have worked for another dog but it worked for her. I took a gamble that between our good relationship and the fact of her being a Border Collie, it is more important for to her to know where I am than to know where anyone else is, and my actions forced the point.

The Power Of Jealousy
At one point about 45 min. later in the class she got a little gawky again out that barn door to the agility class. The class had gone on a little long, and bless her heart, she really would prefer to be out there. I am happy to see that she loves it so. But that moment I lost her to the action outside again, I walked her quietly off the floor without hesitation, crated her in a strange crate (one of the instructors) facing away. I then went directly over to an instructor's dog I knew in another crate, released that dog (with permission) and played with it, out of sight to Bungee but well within earshot. She protested with a little whine, I waited until she was quiet. Returned to her & released her. Played with her a few moments and went back to work. After that I kept her attention completely.

Once we had attention, everything else went smooth as silk.

What I Didn't Do
At no time did I ever say her name to ask her to pay attention to me, nor did she receive any punishment, jerks, sighs, snide remarks or hint of frustration from me. She either did pay attention or she didn't and when she didn't the consequence was lose/lose to her, you don't get to keep on working, you don't get to be with me.

I simply created a desire within her to keep a closer eye on me and what we were doing together, which allowed a win/win, especially when I had upped the ante with a much higher RR for the thing I wanted most - attention!

Rewards
Fried chicken gizzards & hearts for bite-sized food treats (that I cooked & cut at home before class). A small Planet Dog "Old Soul" ball carried in a side pocket. A cow milker toy on a rope, carried out of sight in the back of my waist band, and a loop tug that I can carry over my shoulder and hangs almost to perfect heel position under my arm for nice placement of reward for heeling. I mostly used the loop tug throughout the whole class but mixed it up with a surprise a time or two. Each of these toys was chosen because they are somewhat thin and low profile, easy to carry in pockets and best suit us for heeling rewards.

Loading Value In Her Name
At home on Sunday & Monday, I also decided to "load" her name "Bungee" and the word "ready" by simply pairing them with a reward many times in a row. This really paid off as even when the instructor would say: "Are you ready?" smart little Miss Bungee would look at me on the word "ready" from him! So, when I said "ready," I really had super results!

For me this goes back to quite a long time ago when we had some family staying with us that were constantly saying Guinness's name around the house. They were overusing his name for everything. After they left I spent the next week putting value back into his name. What a difference it made!

I did this by doing 2 sessions a day of simply saying his name, click/treat, (C/T), saying it again, C/T, etc., and getting in about 30 repetitions each time. Easy exercise for very big pay-off.

The benefit then with Guinness was visible and immediate in improved responsiveness, especially when we were working. As expected, the benefit to Bungee was equally beneficial. In this case, I don't believe her name was "over-used" by either of us, but I was not getting the response for saying it I like to see.

However it happens, a dog's name can lose some value in the casual environment once in a while. I personally really dislike having to call a dog twice, or say their name more than once to get them to turn their head in my direction, much less come to me.

I don't know what the big training brains think of this concept, but I do know that it works really well in a short time to re-establish that nice, cracking responsiveness we all want from our dogs, especially in training, and it worked with Bungee last night!

One a separate note, now when family comes we know better. If you say our dog's names you need to have a cookie in your hand to give them.

Getting into Heel position
I have not yet put "heel" on cue. But I have now put "Ready" on cue. She has also stopped hopping an inch forward in anticipation on her sit at heel when I say "ready", or even when I don't!

Heeling needs a little fine tuning, as expected. At the present she tends to forge a bit creating a wide rear end. She's also moving in very close to me and will bump my left thigh with her head in this position. Placement of reward does improve this but circling large circles to inside left really puts her in the perfect spot and beautifully straight if I move into a straight line immediately after that.

The "Magic" Mirror
Last night I think Bungee discovered mirrors for the first time. There are full-length mirrors on several walls of the school. So U-turns presented some new challenges once she figured out they hold big reflections to look into! I actually saw her in the mirror as we were approaching at the moment I think she realized there is a lot to see in there! Her eyes got wide and she had this look on her face like: "oh my gosh, there's another place!". You should have seen her head go back and forth from the dogs on the floor to the mirror, as we rounded that corner the 1st time she spotted it! I wish I would have had a camera for those high speed double & triple-takes!

The next few times after that she approached that mirror eagerly and smiling, (and in total disregard of heel position!) just trotting around wide as could be, head going this way & that trying to put it all together, kind of like a kid seeing a carousel of horses at an amusement park for the first time - next to a big life-size mirror! But I just let her work it out and continued to be consistent with my method, rewarding her when she was correct. I also didn't avoid the mirror, instead walking by it more frequently as I was able.

Bungee being the fabulous & smart girl she is, she quickly accepted this strange mirror business and was right back in step with me like a pro.

Front
Recalls to "Front" were great! Backing up and breaking it down was the key to success, as always! I was not a flyball box on the 1st recall attempt!! Each practice got her in nicer and nicer and always straight and we were able to keep our criteria moving away about 10 feet. :-))

Everything else is really nice, just continuing on building up from where we backed up to.

Training Plan for Class
I did stick to my plan, made notes, if I broke something down and backed up at home I backed up there. I started at that same point in class that WE were working on at home. This is a little bit different than what the other students are doing, but we are shaping, they are not. This has always worked for me and last night was no different. I would much rather have a perfect 1/4 or 1/2 of an exercise than a sloppy whole exercise, because I know the whole exercise will come. The instructor knows this about me too and couldn't be more helpful or supportive.

I also used my clicker in class this week. What an improvement that made too! Dogs just need a certain amount of communication until they get it right. In our case we benefited from the extra "Uumph" the clicker adds, I suppose like boosting a cell signal if you will.

The DH went along with us and gave me all his pointers on the way home, as well as much whispered, face-twisting & contorted motions of criticism during class! You should see the sign language he's invented for my in-class heeling improvement :-0`!! Between the mirrors and his antics from the chairs, we could have made quite a comical video!

Hug your dogs & Happy Training!
...and remember It's About Love!

Monday, Monday

Bungee through the iPhone lens.


The weekend flew by and another week has already rolled around. We continue to spend a good part of every day dodging severe thunderstorms and complete deluges of rain. All still great for our field, still not complaining & still no sign of the weather pattern changing any day soon.

I spent a lot of my training time this weekend working on obedience. Evenings I spent catching up with some dog-related reading and working through a small stack of borrowed books. It's nice to see what some of the latest titles are about, and to catch up on older ones that escaped you when they were new.

While every piece of information may not be useful, or even agreed with, it is delightful when an idea or solution sparks in your mind, even if it is about something other than the one you are reading about at the moment. That's most often what happens to me.

Meanwhile, with Bungee's obedience training I am backing up a bit on a few exercises. I am re-examining which exercises are still being shaped and which are rightfully on cue. Also, what I'm expecting of Bungee in class, which typical in our area, obedience is not a clicker-based class. Nevertheless I gave my word I would not put Bungee into lure-based training situations, and I continue to work to my own standards on that point, with the full cooperation of the instructor.

For those behaviors on cue I am reminding myself to insist on rewarding only excellent behaviors. This is called Differential Reinforcement of Excellent Behavior's, DRE's.

After beginning actual record-keeping again (tracking # of rewarded & unrewarded responses and rate of success), I also increased my RR (rate of reinforcement) by a lot. It was quite obvious I was not rewarding enough as soon as I started tracking on paper. In fact, we are just about back to hand-feeding one full meal a day so that we can work our obedience. The improved results in our sessions are like night & day.

Lastly I'm going to try some new little tips regarding focus & attention in class, via a couple of exercises Dr. Deb Jones & Angelica Steinker write about. One thing about such tips is you know right away if they work or not. My interpretation of them is sort of an "It's Yer Choice" situation where I'm the hot item, at least that's how I'm going to use them.


Obedience
Distractions - looking for simple basics in the presence of distractions, does she look to me when I say her name, does she change her gaze to me and come immediately when I ask? Very meaningful rewards when the answer is "yes". If the answer is "no", she does not respond to me, she does not turn her head to me and come instantly when called, we relocate and try again. Keep in mind - she always comes, but she may take what I call her sweet time in doing so, depending on the distraction. At one point last week I was changing her nickname from "Sweet" to "Sweet-Time"! Back to those DRE's, with the one catch being the recall is not optional.

Stand - good improvement here at home and also while out & about this weekend on routine errands. Bungee is offering a nice kick-back stand and nicely planting those front feet and cooperating about doing so in the spot I've put her in. She is almost always doing so with a toy on the ground that given her own devices she would probably choose to stalk. However, she is managing to work through all of that nicely, as she needs to. Success comes back to motivation - what's in it for her? I've apparently succeeded in making it more worthwhile for her.

Sit & Down - working for dynamic behaviors in both.

Sit, Down, Stand - also working for changes of position.

Heeling - DRE's all the way, rewarding much earlier for position, w/ attention ahead or on me and will continue to keep this a very short exercise for a high RR for a while. Her heeling went from excellent to easily distracted and I know it was due to "lumping" and low RR. Right now I'm carrying 2 and sometime 3 toys, (one being a small soft ball) along with food, so able to really up the ante on reward surprises.

Making regular batches of Salmon Brownies for heeling and contacts as they are the only food I can give her that she can get, process in her mouth, (she is a very careful eater), swallow, and almost immediately take a toy without the problem of spitting out or dropping food out of her mouth.

Front - very nice work here from 3' - 6', but it tends to fall apart from 20', where I get her bouncing a foot off me on occasion. So we will just incrementally add distance as we can maintain the behavior we want and keep it varied.

With all - I'm making more effort to ask for the exercises where ever I am. As an example, I have never thought twice about weighing my dogs in the vet's waiting room and asking for a nose touch before they leave the scale, when we're in the heat of training contacts. Or likewise on the curb next to the car when the DH is in a store on an errand. Now I'm making more effort to ask for obedience exercises where ever we are. We'll call it "obedience immersion" :-))

Agility
All the basics continue. Have taken a week off from any jumping since last week's class due to a combination of things, weather, time, other interests to work on.

Contacts - DRE's all the way here too. I had her getting up on her travel plank in 2o2o position for nose touches (NT), or I had her get on her travel plank (or stairs) and on "ok" going into 2o2o position for NT's. Now I'm asking her to get on to her travel plank and go directly into 2o2oNT. We've done a lot more work on the indoor travel plank than the outdoor stairs due to the weather.

Teeter - anxious to put some of the good stuff from "Sizzling See-Saws" back to work. So came home and ordered a 2nd table - finally, should be ready to pick-up Thursday. Going on my 3rd dog that has needed a 2nd table so finally broke down and bought one. Bungee really didn't like my make-shift version of a square board on a recycled steel frame from an old set of army surplus drawers. We'll ought to have some great photo ops when we get back to work on it.

Miscellaneous
I discovered that Bungee cannot sit, take and hold her food bowl for me outside of her crate. She has no problem going into a sit in her crate, picking up her bowl and waiting for me to take it. She also has no problem carrying it to me all over the house. But asking her to stop & sit with it in her mouth, after she's carried it to me across a room, was not in her skill set. That's when I learned even just asking her to sit, giving the bowl to her, (which she will take in her mouth) and then hold it for me was also not in her skill set. Of course, this is on the top of the "must learn" tricks list at the moment!

So, to Pirjo & Fun, it is going to be a little while longer until I can snap that picture and show Bungee & Fun, side-by-side, holding their bowls like twins!
But we're working on it!!!

Happy training,
Hug your dogs & remember, It's About Love!