Tuesday Training 37

Rally and Manners
Here's Marge hanging out in the car before we went in to class.

I was completely determined on Sunday at Rally to keep Marge from barking at our Golden Retriever classmate.  So, we waited waaaay back away from the door as he came in, to prevent Marge from being right in the line of Golden-happiness fire.  It worked!  We enjoyed a very peaceful class and I rewarded Marge every time she showed interest in him (she even snuck in a few sniffs).  Marge gave a lip curl to one of our other classmates, but it was my fault for putting her in the situation, any way.  She "redeemed" herself later on, by sneaking away from me when she was offleash to go over to him and play bow.  Silly girl.

We also had one really huge moment.. Marge was in a down-stay across the room while I was helping to clean up the Rally equipment with the rest of the class.  One of the handlers' significant others (a man) walks in to the room, and Marge begins to growl and her hackles raise.  But, she did not budge.  She was obviously threatened by the situation and may have felt even more restrained by the fact that she was in a stay, so I quickly went over to her, fed treats, and released her.  She had no problem after that.  Despite the growl, I think she handled herself very well, and I think I handled the situation correctly, too.

The Rally itself was very good - her best so far in the class.  She is doing pretty well with being offleash.  We've learned a lot of new signs, and nothing's stopped her so far.  We'll be back in the APDT Rally ring on August 14, in hopes of accumulating some points in the 1B class and debuting in the 2A class (which is off leash).

Training, But Not Marge
We began our second session of the Pet Agility class this week, which I am assisting in.  Because we've got a full house of dogs (seven) of different sizes, we split the room in two.  I had three big dogs that I was working with - a Gordon Setter, the fearful Mix from last time (who has absolutely blossomed), and a reactive Shepherd Mix.

It's a lot of fun teaching people new skills and showing them ways to bond with their dog.  Marge stayed home this time, because I didn't think the excitement of a brand new class of dogs (new to both her AND me) would be a very good thing.

We did have one incident where the Shepherd Mix suddenly broke from his handler and went off to the other side of the room, which really scared the hell out of a poor Dachshund, but thankfully a scuffle was avoided.  His owner was really upset, but I told her that I'd been down the reactivity road before.  I'm going to help her out and teach her some clicker/conditioning games so that we can curb this behavior using positive methods.  He seems to have a bit of a chase drive, and doesn't have much tolerance for rudeness from other dogs. But he is also very in-tune to his mommy, and has a superb recall. Honestly, he's a bit like Marge (I say that a lot, don't I?).

The dogs got to practice recalling over 8" jumps and running alongside their handlers.  They also learned  how to go through a short tunnel and picked their legs up through my agility ladder.

Back on the Field
We finally had agility tonight.  Marge was just as happy as I was to get back out there.  The time off was really good for her - she was definitely a bit worn out from agility after our last trial (Marisa even said the same tonight).

Nice little course.  Very flowy (probably what we needed to get back in to it)...

• Started with Marge on my left, pushed out to 2 and then ran down the line to 5.
• Front cross 5-6, ran ran ran to the tunnel.
• Up and over the A-Frame just fine.  Hit her contact BEAUTIFULLY (and didn't creep too much, either)
• No problem out to the double, and hit her weave entrances each time.  She did weave a little bit slowly, though, and popped out once when I got too far ahead.  Weaves are something we'll work on during our next private lesson.  My hunch is that Marge is not liking having to switch back from 24" weaves at trials to 22" weaves while practicing.
• No other problems what so ever on course.  Lots of pulling.  The 18 tunnel wasn't bad at all.. she only missed it once when I changed direction before she committed.

She was a little speed ball tonight.  Didn't sniff, didn't wander off or make up her own course.  I think it helped a lot that there were only two other people there (her PWD friend, and Spirit, a Golden who I walk a couple of days a week, who Marge is mostly tolerant of). I got to run Spirit, too, and we did really well together.  She's such a neat dog!  

And I will now end this post with a picture of my dear cat checking out a foot-long zucchini that we grew in our backyard.  It was tasty, and we've got more of them on the way.  Notice she is sans cone - finally, the nose has healed!

Tuesday Training 36

Advanced Rally Class
We had our first Rally class on June 20th, then skipped two weeks (one because we were too tired after the SIKC agility trial, the other because the class was off on July 4th).  Sunday was finally our return to Rally.

Marge is doing much better in this Rally class than she did in her first one - partially because she already knows most of the other dogs, partially because we're in a newer, bigger training hall than we were last summer, and partially just because she is less stressy and fearful than she used to be.

She DID have a lot to say to our Golden classmate, though, who also takes agility class with us.  He barely pays her any attention, but something about him bothers Marge.  Tremendously.  Thankfully, that was her only snark of the night, and we were able to use the Golden to play some Look At That.  Oddly enough, she is able to sit on the sidelines next to him with no problem - even wanted to sniff him, but I verbally marked her attempt to do so, so she came back and got a cookie instead.  It is only the first few minutes when he first comes in that she reacts.  I think it's because he's excited to be there and see everyone, and she's the reactive sourpuss (kidding kidding) and wants none of his happiness.  My goal is to get her to stop reacting to him.  Hopefully, we can do it, between both Agility and Rally.

As for the actual Rally, this is AKC Advanced/APDT Level 2 Rally, so lots of new signs are being introduced, and everything is off leash.  So far, Marge has handled everything swimmingly. We've done a lot of it on our own at home, purposely.  Heeling around food bowls filled with treats was a little rough, though.

Performing for an Audience
Last night was the last week of this session of the non-competitive agility class I'm involved with.  I brought Marge along, since she hasn't been getting out much due to the heat/fireworks/whathaveyou.

The other teacher and I arranged a competition between the students.  We set up a short, one-sided (ie. no crosses) agility course and timed each team to see who could run it the fastest.  I had gone to the store before hand and picked up a whole bunch of squeaky toys, so, depending on who had the best time, they got to choose their prize first, second fastest chose their prize next, etc.  I think every one liked their toys.

After the competition, every one took a break to check out their toys and eat some treats.  Marge came out to run the course.  She didn't even look at the people sitting across the room.  She was so excited to see the agility equipment (and the treat in my hand) and ran like the little speedy girl that she is.  She even held her contact on the A-Frame, which was set very low for the students.

She also made great friends with the Chihuahua in the class.  What a nice combination - a tiny dog able to keep up with a big gal, and a big dog gentle enough to play with him.  They made for quite a funny pair, but it was adorable.  I wish I had pictures.  I hope Marge can play with him again sometime.

All in all, it was a very good night, and proof of how far Marge has come.  I got to brag a bit, too, telling the students about the titles Marge has earned and how she came from less-than stellar beginnings.  I told them that even some of the most unlikely of dogs can do sports like this, with just some time and dedication.

Around the House
I have a hunch that Agility is going to be cancelled again tonight, as it just downpoured here.  Since last week was cancelled, I was really eager to get back out there, but perhaps we'll have to wait another week.  We'll find out in a few hours, I guess.

In the meantime, let me introduce to you Marge's newest trick:

We've been working on this for a few days, but today was the first day that we tried it with the actual tissue box.  Eventually, I'd like to be able to say "Achoo!," have her go out to the tissue box on her own, and bring a tissue back to me.  I have a feeling that this trick will be a hit with my family.  I'm most eager to show it to my grandmother, who recently broke her wrist and is feeling kind of down.

A thunderstorm rolled in just a little while ago, and Marge hunkered down next to me on her mat next to the back door.

She wasn't all that scared, though, and took cookies as I threw them to her.

So, that's what we've been up to lately - trying to keep busy and beat the heat all at once.