Cuddlebugs and Agility Notes

I took these shots of the furry little beasts yesterday. They're always so comical with each other.

I'd be lost without these two.  They offer me something totally different in my individual relationships with them.  

On another note, I didn't get in an agility update yesterday, so here's the (silent) video from last night's class:

We ran better than I could have ever imagined. I was all set to water down this course for Marge and make it easier, but, despite the horrible opening sequence (that A-Frame is soooo tempting) she really did fine. She's starting to learn to watch where I am and come into my hand rather than to just take the nearest contact obstacle.

She wasn't super speedy, but she doesn't look stressed. I prefer her to go at a pace like this, anyway, because she gets out of control when she's super fast, which leads to having to do things over, which leads to more stress. At this pace, she's loping along, picks it up down the line of jumps on the right hand side, but is obviously paying attention to me and where I am when the course gets tight.

We did have some weave issues, as you can see. We've been having them. Going to keep an eye on it. If it worsens, we might be off to the vet to make sure there are no underlying injuries, though I doubt it. The poles didn't seem "right" to me, either.. I'm thinking maybe they were not correctly aligned or something. She's not the only one who flubbed them.

She was uncharacteristically happy at class. Everyone was her friend. Well, except for when one of the male significant others of a handler stood up. Marge loved him when he was sitting down, but got a little nervous when he was tall. So, that was my cue to take the pressure off of her and move her to somewhere she could feel more comfortable.

Next week is our last class outdoors at the field. The winter session will start in December, but I'm still undecided about it. My class is sandwiched in between two other classes, which means that there will be dogs coming and going. Plus, since the classes are destined to not be made up of the same dogs (most people in my class can't attend, with the exception of the lovely Viszla boy) I don't know who or what I'm going to be seeing. To make matters worse, I won't have anyone to come along with me to hang on to Marge when I have to work on handling by myself - though I anticipate less of that happening, since we probably won't be doing big long sequences.

The one saving grace is that the class is on a Monday afternoon, which means that a lot of people will be working.

I have a few days to think about it, so I guess I'll just have to mull it over long and hard and decide what I think is best.

Tuesday Training 14

Once again, a sad preface to my training post.  Louie's family cat, Russell, had to be put to sleep today.  He got sick very suddenly, with some sort of advanced and aggressive cancer.  So sad, and so very unfair.

Godspeed, little dude.  Chase all the birds and toads and mice you want now.

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After skipping the training update last week and having a mostly trick-related training update the week before, I feel like I haven't written my usual Tuesday post in quite a while.

Winning Back the Neighborhood
I was originally going to make this into its own post (and may do so eventually in subsequent updates), but, since my blog has been so filled with training (mostly agility) type news this past week, I decided to just stick it here.

Marge and I have fallen into a nightly routine.  Though we take walks throughout the day in the field, I've made it a point that every evening, between 6 PM and 9 PM, we head out for an approximately half-hour long walk.  We walk along the main road.  At those hours, there are a few passers-by, but we are mostly alone.  We have started creeping up a couple of the side streets as well, with the hopes of eventually being able to walk down them without a problem and extend our route.

Marge does surprisingly well on these walks.  Of course, some nights are better than others, but she does seem to look forward to going.  Sunday night's walk was absolutely wonderful, as Marge was very keen on continuing to walk and even interested in exploring new places.  Monday night's walk wasn't as good, mostly because Marge heard a high-pitched noise off in the distance at one point.  However, unlike her reactions to scary stimuli over the summer, she was able to calm down and continue walking, with just a brief few minutes of going into total flight mode (ie., when she won't take treats).

We extended the route even farther, despite the initial noise problem.  She seemed to be pretty relaxed - not perfect, but workable.  Her body position is very telling.  

When she's comfortable, her tail is curled over her back, and her head is low, nose scouring the ground for interesting scents.  This is how she was on Sunday. 

An example of a mostly comfortable Marge.  She gives the impression that she's just mozying along, being an ordinary dog:

When she's uncomfortable, her tail may or may not be up, but her shoulders are straight, head up, and she often looks from side to side.  She exhibited somewhat more of the uncomfortable position on Monday night.  

This is an uncomfortable Marge, though probably a bit more extreme than the way she carried herself Monday night.  Notice how her head is up, and, even in the picture, she looks like she's walking on eggshells:

Either way, it is encouraging that she continued walking and did not try to get home as quickly as possible.  The treats helped, I'm sure.

(She did hear the warning bark of a dog a few houses down who didn't realize it was only Marge out walking, and saw another dog standing by the fence.  She began to react, with every hair on her back raised, and letting out a little woof, but I removed her from their sight and she settled down before we went back inside the house.  Louie came over a few minutes later; I purposely brought Marge outside to greet him, but she did not have any reaction to the people and dogs still standing in the same location a couple of houses away.

She has had a couple of other hackles-raised incidents, without a full-blown reaction, mostly with men who are looking/facing in her general direction or appear, in her mind, to be acting strangely or dressed heavily.  Trying to minimize things like this from happening, but, unfortunately, it is inevitable sometimes, living in a suburban area.  Need to step up the clicking/treating for looking calmly at these oh-so scary individuals, and I'm also hoping that the fact that they don't actually pay any attention to her or try to interact with her will begin to make an impression as well.)

Another ritual that seems to have fallen into place is an explode of energy after this night walk.  It seems to me that, although Marge enjoys the walk, it is somewhat more intense for her to deal with than a simple walk in the field or park.  So, when she gets home, she burns off all of that stress (be it good stress, bad stress, or probably both) by zipping around the yard.  I usually bring out a toy to throw around as well.  She seems to enjoy it. 

I was originally worried by the fact that the walk might be stressing her out, but, since she enjoys it, since there are not typically too many scary things going on (and I carry lots of treats with me for when things do warrant them), and since she can really use the exercise, I don't see any reason why I should stop them.  Of course, the zoomies may also be partially related to the fact that the walk is a warm-up for her, so to speak, and after that warm-up she wishes to burn up some energy in the cool November air.

It will be interesting to see how her behaviors change as I continue this routine in the coming weeks and months.

L-Theanine Update
Marge is still getting 25 mg twice a day of the amino acid L-Theanine.  Though I did have some negative thoughts about it this past week, and considered switching to only using it situationally, I've decided that it's really too soon to pull her from it after merely a month of use.  

I'm not sure how much difference I see.  I did skip a dose Sunday night (only to wind up giving it a couple hours later, realizing my stupidity in tinkering with the dosage so soon), yet she looked and felt great on our walk.  However, on Monday night, she had her regular dose, but that walk wasn't as good.

I, personally, do think it's making some difference, though I'm sure the absence of fireworks and other summer distractions is making a sizable impact on her as well.  So, I guess the better question to ask is, what areas is it helping her in the most?  Will it be as effective in the face of those warm-weather situations, or will I need to find something stronger to use in the summer? It's still too early to tell.

The Return to Rally
In the spring, I'm hoping that Marge and I will be able to go back to training in Rally Obedience. Since the new training building is bigger, features multiple rooms and has two exits, she may do better in that setting. (If you recall, our first experience with Rally did not start out well, though it did improve as the weeks went by, with the proper management.)

In preparation, we've been infusing some old Rally exercises into our backyard agility sessions.  Working on fronts, pivots (she LOVES them!) and backing up.   Our heelwork is shoddy due to the emphasis on behavior the past couple of months, but I'm sure that with a little practice, it'll be passable in no time.  

I was going to compile a video of Marge doing some of the exercises, but decided it'd be cruel to wake her up at nearly 3 AM (when I wrote the bulk of this post) to do obedience.  Look out for some more info on the clean-up trick, too - I haven't forgotten about that.

Maybe CPE?
I'm considering a switcharoo in agility venue for Marge. While I like NADAC and I like the classes (especially being able to avoid certain obstacles), I am NOT happy with the hoops, presumably what partially doomed us during the Touch n' Go run at the trial last week.  If they weren't in Regular, I wouldn't mind, but the only classes that don't/can't have them are Jumpers and Tunnelers.

Can I teach the hoops as I would any other obstacle?  Yes, I can.  And, I probably will, since I don't intend to ditch NADAC altogether.  Many people like the hoops, too.  But, just because I can teach something doesn't mean I necessarily want to.  CPE offers more "games" classes than I'd like, just because I prefer a set course rather than having to strategize.  But, I think we can get by with Regular, Jumpers, Colors, and Wildcard for now.  

We'll see.  That's all I can say.  We're only one trial into this big ol' thing, so I still don't want to get too ahead of myself.

This Place is Fun

We had our first private practice in the brand-spankin' new training building today.  I was worried that Marge would want to spend the hour sniffing, but she took to the place without a problem.  She zoomed all over waiting for us to put the obstacles out.

Since the goal here was to have a relatively easy night but still work on some specific skills, I tried my hardest to get Marge to think and pay attention without stressing her out.  Here is the result (special thanks to my wonderful boyfriend for a plethora of videos and pictures from the evening):

Tunnels were the main focus tonight, since we've been having some problems in terms of control upon completing them.  The first thing I did was re-create as best as I could the part of the NADAC Novice Regular sequence that we screwed up at the trial.  I discovered why she didn't drive ahead to the weaves at the trial (in addition, of course, to my cautious handling) - I should have been telling her "weave" while she was still in the tunnel rather than only when she gets out of it.  I waited too long to tell her to weave while practicing tonight, and had the same botched result.

Next thing I wanted to work on was having Marge explicitly take direction after the tunnel.  This has been a very large problem for us.  In the next clip, I asked her to come into my hand and take the jump next to the tunnel instead of barrel straight down to the weaves.  My handling could have been better, yes, and I probably could have skipped the lead-out and just waited waaaay back for her as she flew through the tunnel.  But, we got it done, and I made sure that was a super happy thing for her - as you can hear by my girlish high-pitched praise.

Later on, I tried to perform some weave drills with her, but she seemed like she was really tired and kept skipping poles, so I called it quits.  The last thing we did was a jump backcross after the long red tunnel, similar to the sequence that doomed us on Tuesday at class.  (Note to self: you wait too darn long to ask for the cross, Sam!)

It was a good start.  Just like when I started renting the old training hall, tonight was all about getting a feel for the room and seeing what'll fit.  Next time, I'll try to do something similar - incorporate the learning of new skills into big, fun, flowing sequences.  When all of the outside equipment at the field gets brought in to winter, I'd LOVE to set up a mini NADAC tunnelers course with the five or six tunnels that should be available.  As we progress, we can add in weaves, too.

I'm glad she likes the place, as we'll likely be having our regular agility class in here in a couple of weeks.  Though I prefer being outside (and so does she), I'm hoping that the transition will go smooth and we can enjoy agility in the winter months indoors.

Our Friday

Let me start off by saying thank you to Samantha for a nice blog award. Sammie is such a pretty gal, and a smart one, too - she's just started competing in Formal Obedience with great success! Her parents don't have a bad choice in name, either. ;)

We went on a really great walk this afternoon.  The sun was out and it was a gorgeous day, but it was COLD and WINDY! 

We mozied through the big field, as we so often do, and I decided to take a gamble.  Let's walk a little farther today.

Just beyond these evergreens stands a small playground.  We usually don't walk this way that reason, but, today, Marge was able to get past it.  She stopped to sniff by the trees, then got a little nervous because she heard the sounds of a few children playing, but was able to continue on rather than try to run home. The treats in my pocket certainly helped.

The goal, of course, was not to freak Marge out with the scary sounds of little kids, but, instead, to reach what loomed on the other side:

The beach in the fall and winter is one of my favorite places to walk Marge.  No one is there, so the BOTH of us can totally relax. 

Marge, though she hadn't been there probably in months, took to the sand like she was there yesterday. She quickly found a piece of driftwood and sniffed to her heart's content.

We then raced up and down the shoreline.

As we walked, we saw these birds wading a few feet from shore. I've seen them in the field by my house, too, certain months out of the year. Any ideas what they might be? They're about the size of ducks, but differently colored, and they honk more like geese.

Before we left, Marge looked out to the ocean sprawled out before her.  I think this would be my new favorite picture of her, if not for that pesky leash tanged underneath her!

We hit the field once more to walk home, Marge stopping at her favorite places to sniff.

She was a little bit bugged by something on the way back, as evidenced by her tongue-flicks as I asked for her to come, and her slower speed while recalling.  However, whatever it was didn't linger with her, as she flew up to the trees on the border of the field in hot pursuit of the squirrel she saw climbing a tree.  (She quickly discovered his ill-fated partner lying a few feet away, probably the unfortunate victim of a car).

Forty-five minutes after we set out, we were back home.  Marge plopped on the floor, and grabbed her little inanimate buddy...

The fish!

P.S. - I did return home to the news that my father has been taken to the hospital by my mother due to a kidney stone attack.  I saw his car parked when I arrived home and figured he had simply gone up into bed for a nap, but, apparently not.  Though this is a recurring problem with him (he is stubborn about his diet sometimes!) I ask that you please shoot a good thought his way.

Something's Fishy

First, I wanted to acknowledge this great award given to our blog by Cookie and Cinnamon. Thanks for the thought, guys! We think you're pretty lovely, too. :)

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We've also been wondering about the disappearance of some great blogs.  We've got a whole lot of blogs that we follow, but some seem to have not been updated in a while.  Evgeni was a beautiful Dobie friend that we made, but he hasn't been around much.  Same with Kitchen Gone to the Dogs, who had a really cool and creative twist on their blog.   We also miss reading the tales of Addie the Standard Poodle, but we know her mama's been busy lately.  Pedro has been undergoing some construction at his house from what we understand, but we hope he comes back soon, too.  Still others have been slower to update than they used to be, but we're hoping that they'll be back in full force soon.  We miss our friends!

(We're also not letting the new blogs of Trent, Gatsby, and Cain, Abel & co., all of our forum friends, off the hook!)

Hope you all find the time to pop back up in the blogosphere soon.

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Since I was upset about our agility class yesterday, Marge and I took it easy today.  We had a walk in the field this afternoon, but I realized that Marge needed to potty, so we headed home rather quickly.  (Aside from her tomboyish marking of trees, she prefers the safety of her backyard to do her business.)

After I got home from school, and before the Yankee game, which I'm currently watching, we went out on a walk on the road.  It borders the field, so we walk on the sidewalk side first, where Marge ususally has to pass a couple of people.  On the way back, we cross the street to walk in the cross at the field's edge, so we can be totally alone.  We wandered a little farther down the road tonight, and I'm pleased to say that Marge did really well and was happy to explore.  She's put on about 4 lbs since February or so and, although she definitely could have used the weight, I do not want her gaining any more.  So, exercise is key.

Then, we had a very short agility session in my yard - just weaves and stair contacts, with absolutely no corrections.  Marge was very enthusiastic.  Next week, depending on the difficulty of the course, I may opt to switch it up for Marge's sake and run her in a very easy, different sequence.  Agility needs to be fun!  Even if we remain at the Novice level forever, I consider it a miracle for us to have even gotten this far.  Looking at the pictures of Marge when she was in the shelter and then comparing them with the professional trial photos sure is an eye-opener.  She has come such a long way.

After our backyard training, Marge came inside and played with her bright orange fish toy.  It reminds me of a Goldfish cracker.  She was instantly attracted to it when I brought it home a week or so ago; maybe she's drawn to the color.

Looks like a good night to me.

Stressing to Succeed

Forget Tuesday Training for now, because I'm more than a little bit upset with tonight's agility class.

In short: the course was too damn hard.  

This is a class of Novice dogs.  Sure, some of us have started competing, BUT, when it all comes down to it, most of us are green.  Half the dogs need the weave poles bent, another half needs help with the teeter.  Other dogs have their problems with certain obstacles as well, no matter what they be.

 

So, then, why are we running an Excellent B course?  

Marge was EXTREMELY stressed out by this course.  Awful body language, leaving the ring, licking, disengaging, lots of sniffing. The biggest problem was the fact that it started with a God-awful A-Frame/tunnel discrimination exercise.  So, to be putting her back at the start line 5 zillion times to try to get her in to the tunnel really didn't do much for her ego.

There was also a really hard back cross to be executed after she shot through a straight tunnel, and she totally wasn't with me on that, so it presented problems, too.

Fortunately, the class did end significantly better than it started, because I used many more treats, stopped a lot more to praise and feed her, and didn't fix our mistakes.  I took her out on to the field when everyone was done and just did some simple stuff, like the weaves alone, or a single jump, or going through the tunnel.  She looked alright.. not perfect, but not terrible either.  It could have also had to do with the fact that we'd been there 1 1/2 hours already.

It's funny how she was so happy on the big wide NADAC Novice course, but totally bummed at class.  I think that presents a fairly large problem and I sure hope it doesn't keep happening and that tonight doesn't have lasting repercussions on her drive and performance.  

I don't blame her one bit, though.  The initial tunnel was downright demoralizing.

I'm going to do some private training time in the training building so I can do some extremely fun and motivational stuff with her.  I can understand how agility would be no fun if every two seconds you have to start over and try something again.

More Trial Musings

Since my last post was an enormous block of text, I figured I'd show a couple of the proofs that are on the trial photographer's website. These are both from our Regular run - we only had pictures of the dog walk from our failed Touch n' Go run, and honestly, they're not flattering for either Marge or me.



I really like the Tunnel shot, though her face is not in perfect focus. I think I'm going to get an 8x10 print of it, along with a mousepad (I really need a new one, and who could pass this up, especially at such a good price?). 

I would have really liked jumping shots, but he didn't seem to take any of any dog in Novice Regular.

I have a lot more thoughts going through my head about my experience yesterday.  

The Zoomies

I admit, I've given a lot of thought to how botched the Touch n' Go run was.  (I'm still deciding if I should give in to Carolyn's interest and post the little bit of video I have of it!) 

Why did it happen?  As I said in my last post, my first thought was that it was from lack of exercise, since Halloween was the day before.  Couple that with the cool air, an agility course, and the freedom of being offleash, and it all seems to fit.  She looked like she was having fun!

Someone did tell me, though, that zoomies can be a stress reaction.  I didn't think that that was the case during this episode, since she play bowed to Louie as she approached him and continued her zoomies even after we had moved away from the ring.  Additionally, she has done the same sort of thing at class on a couple of occasions, and they always seemed to be on cold nights.

I guess I have no way of really knowing right now.  It is encouraging, at least, that even if it WAS a stress reaction, she was much better in the subsequent regular class, especially through the last few obstacles.  Perhaps her behavior at tomorrow's agility class will illuminate something for me.  (Let's just hope no one potties in the ring and she doesn't get all zonked out about having to walk on the grass.)

The People

I can't say enough good about the people there.  No one did anything to scare Marge, like reaching for her or talking directly to her the way the unsuspecting passers-by in a park or on a street might do.  This is part of the reason I think she does so well at trials - people are occupied in their own business, and people seem to know better than to assume that every dog is friendly and perfect.

In particular, my friends from the Fearful Dog e-mail list were so helpful and understanding.  I was totally bewildered when I was asked, "Is it okay if I approach you and your dog?"  At first, I didn't know what he meant, but then I realized - he is actually respecting the fact that my dog has special training needs!

Other than that, I spoke to several people who were so helpful on a myriad of subjects - everything from getting my scores, to sharing trial experiences, to discussing their own problems with fear or stress.  I was really surprised at the number of people there who seemed to have some sort of training problem or behavior issue to work on.  I felt like I wasn't alone.

The Dogs

The dogs were all under control and kept either on lead, in a crate, or out of the way when they weren't competing.  No dog there caused Marge any problems.  She eyed a few dogs when she first got there with a somewhat tense look, but learned quickly that no one was there to bother her. 

I did not do a whole lot of introducing her to other dogs, but she did meet a Beardie puppy who plopped on the ground as Marge sniffed her all over, and a senior Westie who Marge seemed to really like.

The future

Like I said, I'm going to continue to take it slow with Marge.  I do not anticipate doing any trials this winter, since I feel that the indoor scene is a totally different beast.  I am looking at some trials in March and April, and a series of trials that begins in June.  Obviously, I will pick and choose which will work best for us.  Ultimately,  I think our club's annual NADAC trial in late summer will be a big weekend for us, as I know we'll both be comfortable having all of our human and canine friends there and being in a familiar location.

We will continue to take classes, hopefully take private lessons as well.  Since I intend on sticking with NADAC, I really would like to work on Marge's hoop performance, since she really doesn't seem to think very highly of them.

I would like to do some run-throughs at new sites.  I would not rule out an indoor run-through as long as I inquire about it and ensure it is the correct environment for her, and, most importantly, as long as I can use treats.

Look out for Tuesday Training tomorrow, and then we'll switch gears and go back to hikes, hopefully, if the weather holds up at the end of the week.