Agility Princess Class

  At the trial last weekend, my friend Kim ran her lovely Basenji, Zest! Zest! is very feminine and elegant, and runs with a beautiful shimmery gold collar. Kim was lamenting that AKC rules don't allow her to paint Zest!'s toenails gold to match her beautiful collar.
  I decided that we need a NEW agility class, called Princess Class. Toenail painting is certainly allowed, as are cute sweaters, spangled collars, and even tiaras.
  Here are the preliminary rules of Princess Class:

• All obstacles are optional, because sometimes a princess just doesn't feel like doing some obstacles.
• Just running a victory lap and taking no obstacles is still a qualifying run, if the Princess is acknowledging her spectators during the run.
• Princess class trials are NEVER held in dirty old horse arenas. They are usually held in ballrooms of nice hotels, on clean carpet.
• The table obstacle in Princess class is covered with a pretty pillow, in a color and pattern suitable for the princess, with lace and/or ruffles. This pillow shall be changed for each Princess because she certainly won't use one that has been used by someone else! The handler is allowed to serve appropriate tidbits to the princess while she relaxes on the table. If a massage is preferred by the princess, the handler shall oblige.
• Visiting the judge during a run shall not be discouraged, in fact it shall be awarded extra points for being a good hostess and making the judge feel welcome. Judges shall tell the Princess how cute and smart she is.
• Handlers lucky enough to run a princess are encouraged to dress appropriately, to complement and coordinate with the princess. Handler's outfit must never upstage the princess.  If the handler chooses to wear a tiara, it must be smaller and with fewer jewels. Clothing colors must be more muted and subtle, any glitter or sequins must be understated to allow the Princess to shine. 
• All Princesses shall get a standing ovations after every run. Standing ovations after every obstacle is recommended.
• There are no losers in Princess Class. All Princesses shall receive a very large rosette, with glitter, sequins, and LED lights if possible.

Kilda, Champion Princess!

 



The Dog Trainer's Magic Wand

  One of the reasons I don't instruct dog training any more is that my Magic Wand hasn't been delivered from the Magical Dog Trainer's Shoppe yet. It's the same place Susan Garrett gets her Magic De-Stressing Pixie Dust.

  With the Magic Wand, all dog problems are solved RIGHT NOW and they never come back.

  Without the Magic Wand, my students have to make the time each day to TRAIN their dogs, which is such a hassle, so inconvenient, and besides, it doesn't work. That's what they tell me, anyway, although I've somehow managed to train my five (count 'em! FIVE) dogs to titles in various sports, without a Magic Wand. No, I don't spend a lot of time watching TV or playing video games. Interacting with my dogs is much more rewarding and fun.

   Last spring, I went to some very nice folks' home for private lessons with their dog. This is a young, energetic, intelligent dog. The owner's main problem is the dog would snatch things out of her hand and run under the dining room table, playing keep-away. Kleenex, papers, laundry, just about anything that the dog could grab was fair game. Getting to see a demo wasn't difficult because the dog had such a great time grabbing and running. That part was tremendously fun for the dog, and the fact that the owner would fuss at the dog, chase, and try to grab the forbidden object back was MORE fun, but the best part came when the owner would go get a treat to give the dog so she could get her item back!

  Experienced dog people are now laughing their asses off. For more laughter, imagine the look on my face when I saw that whole show. For non-doggy people, this dog was doing the equivalent of getting paid a ridiculous sum of money to play really fun video games that annoy other people. Of course the dog grabbed stuff at every opportunity! Reinforcement builds behavior, behavior that is reinforced is more likely to be repeated, and every part of the dog's behavior was being reinforced by the owner. Bored? Grab a kleenex! Hungry? Grab some laundry!

  I outlined a training plan, including practicing with non-valuable items on a daily basis (things the dog could snatch and the people could ignore). I provided a management plan for times when they were carrying things they didn't want snatched. I helped them start an obedience training program so they could give the dog an alternative behavior (stay on a mat). They should have spent about 15 minutes per day on this training, in several short sessions.

  Holy cow, you should have heard the whining!! "That won't work for THIS dog!"  "It takes too long!" "It's not convenient!" "I just want him to stop it!"
  "OH!" I wanted to say, "You want the Magic Wand!"

  Just as soon as my Magic Wand is delivered, I'll get back into instructing. But my rates will go up dramatically!

  Meanwhile, here's a photo of Tucker, just because he's such a cute dog.

 

 

Scottie Personality

   In "The Complete Scottish Terrier," John T. Marvin writes "The Scottie... is a canny individual that never reacts without reflection and consideration of the consequences. Once the decision is made, however, he enters the melee with authority and abandon."  I call this "running a cost/benefit analysis of each situation" and it has certainly been my experience with Wager. It can be a challenge, but it is also a benefit to many areas of training.

  The biggest challenge right now is in Junior earthdog. Wager goes straight down the hold, getting to the rats in time. Then he assesses the scene. And considers possible action points. And reconsiders. For several minutes. Then he gets comfortable and watches the rats.

  The benefit to Scottie temperament, to having a dog that thinks through every scenario, is once the decision is reached, it is Written In Stone. This makes training very easy if you take it at the dog's pace. If you rush anything, the dog may quit. But if you give the dog time to process that detailed cost/benefit analysis, he will perform beautifully and quickly.

  A good example of this is training Wager to run the agility teeter. It took about 18 months to get the performance I was looking for, shaping each step and very gradually raising my criteria. I wondered if he would ever really Get It. Then one day, he ran across a full-height teeter, crashing it to the floor. No problem! It's one of his favorite obstacles now, because we took so much time and he earned so much reinforcement for interacting with it.

 Having opinions written in stone seems to be a recurring theme in Scottie temperaments, and it is one of the traits that I adore about Wager.

   Here's a short video of Wager demonstrating the "Slam It" cue. At this point, he had been clicked for putting his feet on a target, then I moved the target to the shed door for a few more clicks. This is the next step, with no target. This was a total of about 5 minutes of training.

Obedience Match

This afternoon I took the Border Terriers, Tucker and Kilda, to a Rally/Obedience match. Both Borders, but particularly Kilda, get stressed in trial situations. Kilda has completely shut down and was unable to function in the last two RallyO trials we've entered. I take every opportunity short of driving to Denver to train in the ring!

First, I was very pleased with Tucker. We walked around the show site (this is a big conformation show) for about 20 minutes playing "Look At That Dog" from Control Unleashed. We had NO outbursts of barking! What a good boy! I took Tucker into the crowded rally building and worked with him for a few minutes on simple cues with lots of dogs around. Again, no reactions to the other dogs, but lots of great focus!

I took Kilda into the rally building several times for short sessions of focus. I tried to limit her work time to less than 10 minutes to prevent stress. She gets "sharky" taking treats when she's reaching her threshold. She never got near that point!

Her time in the ring was VERY productive. I asked a friend to pose as a judge, since Kilda was very concerned about the judges in her scary trials. We walked in the ring, and Kilda started stressing immediately. I stood calmly, letting her look around. In just a few seconds, she sat and looked up at me. GOOD GIRL!! I gave her very special treats, real meatballs, to make a big impression. Next, I took her leash off. Another treat for sitting calmly! Then I stepped to the right and asked her to line up with me. She seemed to visibly relax and realize that we were having a great training session! I only planned on taking her on a short "up and back" but she was doing well, keeping calm and focussed, so we practiced a leadout on the rally jump and did a lot of the signs around the ring. Angie (our faux judge) kept following us, and Kilda didn't seem to mind.

I think with another 100 or so matches, she'll be confident and comfortable in the ring!

I didn't get any video of the rally match, but here's a clip of Kilda practicing agility on Saturday afternoon in a park.

It was a dark and cold afternoon.

Weekend Report - Iowa Edition

Last weekend, Ann Brodie and I were invited to Adel, Iowa, to judge earthdog for the Central Iowa Dachshund Club. I was very happy and honored to go, especially since I haven't judged in over a year (I've been secretary for the local tests, and the secretary isn't allowed to judge).

  The club has been doing earthdog tests for several years, so they know what they are doing and they do it well. The site was very, very nice. Here's a photo Ann took:

The barn housed the secretary's table and the hospitality tables. The Junior tunnels are behind the barn, to the left. The club has recently dug a second set of Master/Senior tunnels, so we could use a different set for each test. I judged ME on Sunday, and I loved the walk-up hunt portion- lots of tall grasses on one side, woods on the other. The dogs ALL hunted quite well!

Ann and I were able to spend the weekend at the host farm's guest house. It was so nice to have a full kitchen, comfortable beds, and real bathrooms available, and it was wonderful to not have to pack up and drive to the site every day!

We took dogs with us, and I'll post soon on The Terriers' Great Iowa Adventure. For now, I'll tell you that they had a great time!

Judging went quite well for me. The entries were good, the weather was perfect, and the dogs were having a great time. However, Ann had a "challenging situation" in SE on Saturday. After several dogs came out of the hole smelling like dead possum, the committee inspected the tunnel and found......... a dead possum. The decision was made to pack up the test and move to the other SE tunnel, and to re-test the dogs who had NQ'ed due to the deceased critter.

If you read Patricia McConnell's blog, you know she frequently ends with a fabulous photo of her farm. So, as a nod to Patricia, here's another photo of the Lehmann farm....

Belated Weekend Report

I haven't posted lately because I'm reading the Team Small Dog blog and I think YOU should read it too! Laura's adventures in agility are very entertaining.

However, last weekend Jackson, Cozy, Wager and I traveled to Fort Collins for an AKC agility trial. Cozy and Jackson competed, and Wager got some good experience paying attention to Da Mama.

Cozy scared me on Saturday. She bypassed several jumps and was startled by the wings on another jump. After thinking it through, I realized she was having trouble seeing the dark uprights in the arena! Cozy is 11, but no where near retirement. On Sunday, I tried to keep her in the arena for about 10 minutes before her run, instead of taking her out in the bright sun for one last potty break. I was hoping her eyes would be well adjusted to the light. It seemed to work- she Q'ed in Jumpers, and had a pretty good run in Standard, too. However, I was reminded that she probably should have an eye exam by our favorite canine eye specialist, Dr. Dugan.

Jackson earned his Open Jumpers title on Sunday, and his second Open Standard leg on Saturday. Both runs were very fast and clean! His breeder, Bob Gann, came to watch and take some good photos. I'll post some as soon as I get some! Jack had a pretty bad jump crash on Sunday, but recovered enough to run the rest of the course. Poor little guy! The arena dirt was quite uneven, and he might have stepped in a dip in the dirt. Or his crappy handler may have made a bad decision. I feel guilty either way.

Wager got to practice on the warm-up jump both days. He walked through the crowd and behaved beautifully. His leash somehow came off when he was outside, and he came to me when I called him back, even though the other options were VERY tempting. Yes, he got a jackpot for that!!

Here's a shot of Jackson weaving at the park last week.

Tomorrow morning we leave for an earthdog adventure in Adel, Iowa. I'm judging, and taking the three Highlanders for the ride. Stay tuned.....