The Dogs Are Really In Charge

Bubba 18wks Video

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 23:31:00 +0000

The bear cub is starting to look less like a bear. His puppy fur is being replaced by shiny adult fur and is forming a weird stripe down his back like a skunk. With time he is also starting to chill out. Zoomies now occur mainly at night time and are now a sign that it is past his bed time. There are even daily moments of peace where I find a Bubba just calmly lying down and sometimes he even has his eyes closed! He's still not a "real" dog though; Bubba needs another half a pound before he reaches that 10lb mark!

I'm not in any rush with his training, but I can't help but notice he will be my oldest puppy who still does not have a stay. We sure are having a lot of fun shaping tricks though! Moving is not his problem :)

But while we don't completely have the concept of staying still, we are making progress on our boundary training. With little reminders from his leash, Bubba is learning that he needs to stay in the cubicle with me even when the office cats and dogs walk by!

And then he has also squeezed through the last bar of the baby gate when it has been closed.

Pvybe Seminar: Discs + PVC

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Mon, 28 May 2012 21:33:00 +0000

The dogs and I just got back from an awesome 4 day disc dog camp by Pawsitive Vybe! This was our second year going and just like last year I learned a lot.

I was proud to show off my dog who (mostly) did not scream at me, did not punch me, and was capable of making eye contact. A huge difference from last year where getting those things were my main homework. Of course I am still using a lot of management by walking on to the field tugging with a disc or making Vito carry a disc out, and either putting him into a down stay or dropping all the discs at any break in action.

This year my main goal was to find a way to help Vito stop over-pursing discs and doing crazy, mistimed, and dangerous leaps from directly underneath them. Lucky for me, Ron and Apryl are very willing to think outside the box and come up with creative suggestions. Unfortunately, Vito is so ramped up and running so fast after the disc that it is not going to be an easy fix. Keeping him safe is obviously my number one priority and there were many times over the weekend where I was thinking that this would be his last weekend participating in the sport. But by Sunday we saw glimpses of hope and times where Vito would slow down and think. With a lot of work it might be possible to keep him safe.

It's funny how Vito has the complete opposite problems between agility and disc. In agility he collects very nicely and has a hard time accelerating back out from turns. In disc he over accelerates and collection doesn't seem to be in his book at all. It's amazing how much the presence of a target can change the jumping styles of a dog.

The plan for the toller involves much usage of PVC!
1. Set point drills- Just like the agility version, but with a disc held high over the bar. Because the dog's have to look UP in disc in order to catch, it completely changes their jumping style and Vito needs to learn how to collect for a catch.

2. Bent cavalettis- Another agility thing, using pvc pipe as stride regulators to help him collect and leap on the run. Just sending him out around a chair/cone is supposed to set up collection and interception and make it likely for the dog to jump well, but Vito accelerated out of the turn (just like I want that red dog to do in agility!) and it didn't help. So putting down PVC pipe for him to stride over on the out should help.

3. Throwing high and curving right- No throwing nice floaters for now. By tossing a disc that goes high in the air and curves Vito will have to run out with his head up. This is going to try and eliminate that head down sprint he currently does.

4. Overs, with dropping his head- I'm to present the disc for an over and then swipe it down to the floor as he jumps for it. This should lower his head and bring up his rear. I can also do this on the set point drill.

Photo by Sean Silvernail

5. Flatwork- Vito is really responsive to our agility front and rear crosses and can do them calmly on the field without me tossing a disc. Especially after a rear cross it essentially sets him up as in the set point drill and I should be able to throw a very short toss or even a flip immediately after he does one.

6. Oppositional Feeding- Asking for a drop and throwing behind Vito as soon as he drops will help to slow down his running back to me and will also create more of a zig zag pattern that can help set up interceptions of the disc.

7. Dismissal- Continued work on Vito being calm and in thinking mode on the field with all the crap I've been doing with eye contact and manners. But currently he doesn't have much of a "take a break" type cue, especially not if I'm still holding a disc. I'm to add this in, along with trying to change his conditioned response to the presence of the disc bag and the field. Lots of getting ready and not actually playing, or arriving and doing obedience/trick work instead.

Outdoor NADAC Trial

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:37:00 +0000

I hate Minnesota weather. It reached 92 degrees at the trial on Friday and then was 52 degrees of cold rain on Sunday.

Lance
The corgi gave me the finger on our first course of the weekend, weavers. It was VERY hot out and Lance said he could not find his weave entrance nor stay in them. On the positive side, our touch n go run went better since he was slower on the contacts and didn't leap from as high ;)

On Saturday it wasn't nearly as hot and Lance had 3 runs: regular, touch n go, and chances. Regular was a disaster as he again didn't to weave and this time didn't respond at all to my attempt at managing his contacts. Touch no Go I lost my mind and ended up just making up the entire course as I went and Lance plodded along. Chances was AMAZING!! We are now in elite and I felt the course was way beyond our training level. Lance proved me wrong by effortlessly doing the distance, even the dogwalk at a distance(!). Unfortunately he knocked a bar :( I didn't get any video of the run since I thought for sure we wouldn't be qualifying. I don't have a map of the elite course, but here is the open line and the elite line was a few feet behind the number 5 jump and then angled down to the tunnel exit.

Sunday we were only entered in 2 runs: chances and hoopers. This time the weather was cold and rainy and Lance said he liked this much better; I thought it sucked.

Lance qualified on 3 out of 8 runs, with 2 of those being on hoopers and tunnelers. After Friday's performance I was seriously considering that this would be Lance's last outdoor trial. Now I think I will consider running him outdoors in the fall and maybe next year's May trial depending on the weather. Lance really does not like the heat!

Vito
Vito had a pretty good weekend! He ran 3 runs on Friday, 3 on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday. On all but that first weavers run he was really connected with me in our warm up and continued that walking out to the start line! He barked at me and even jumped up on me when asked. I just wish I could take off the leash earlier in NADAC! On Saturday he scanned the crowd more, but didn't fixate on anybody in the ring and on Sunday he seemed as excited as ever.

Here is video of some of our starts that were taped this weekend. It actually goes backwards from Sunday to Friday:

On the course I mostly had a happy dog. His first run of the day on Friday and on Saturday were a bit slow, but I felt he actually ran with a little speed on his other runs. We had some nice off courses that I praised him for! Our biggest issue ended up being the dogwalk. Normally Vito sucks to it and it is his happy obstacle but this weekend he avoided it whenever there was a tunnel for him to choose instead. This was an option for 1 run on Friday and 2 runs on Saturday where he would just ignore my handling and happily go into the tunnel. After 2 or 3 attempts Vito would go on the dogwalk but was much slower than normal. On Sunday he only got to the dogwalk once and it was much more confident.

2012 Disc Dog Season Begins!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Tue, 15 May 2012 01:24:00 +0000

The disc dog season started yesterday with the annual fun match! Vito and I haven't practiced any disc in several weeks but we did get to work quite a bit this last fall and "winter" due to the crazy nice weather. We had been continuing to work on eye contact and not screaming at me in an effort to get Vito to think a bit more on the field.

The fun match just had 2 rounds of Toss and Catch so I was eager to see if Vito could remember our work of walking onto the field politely. He did! I've learned to pre-place a disc near the field a dog or two before we go as this allows me to walk around with him and wait quietly. Round 1 I let Vito grab the disc with me and I transferred him to the start line as such. I quickly gave the thumbs up and Vito didn't do any screaming during the 3 seconds the disc was removed from his mouth and the count down began :) In Round 2 I decided to try Vito carrying the disc to the start line himself. This is my eventual goal with him but currently it is still hard if I have other discs in my hand. Since there is only 1 disc used in Toss and Catch Vito did a nice job! And once again there was no screaming during the 3 second delay. His dropping of the disc was also very fast the second round and we were able to get in a 5th throw.

And the best part of the day was that Vito relaxed enough to eat a stuffed Kong while sitting under the tent. We were about 15ft from the field!

Bubba 16wks

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Thu, 10 May 2012 04:26:00 +0000

The rare sighting of a sleeping bear

The Bubba is proving to be quite a challenging project. Zoom, zoom, zoom all day long with a few short cat naps thrown in. He has also discovered how to jump on his little legs and now effortlessly propels himself onto anything that he can reach. Thank goodness Bubba is mostly quiet in his crate even if he barely sleeps in it! At work he needs to be crated most of the day since when out of his kennel he is a very vocal cub, talking to his toys and the corgi nonstop!

Our biggest challenge seems to be his very independent nature. Bubba just doesn't seem to care if he's being praised or cursed. I am very grateful he's not a sensitive dog as I've had enough of that! But I would like a little more care for my opinion!

Training is going pretty well. We even have a little stay on his mat with distractions and handler movement. I was proud of Bubba for making it through a full hour of being a good little bear at World Team Tryouts this last weekend! It helped that the bleachers allowed him to sit right next to me and he ate a bully stick for the last portion. Of course then the puppy limit was reached and into the car he went.

Training for Advanced Teamwork

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Fri, 04 May 2012 04:02:00 +0000

I have been considering training for AKC's new Advanced Teamwork class ever since Lance finished his UD. The UDX is still our goal but I'm really attracted to training some new exercises!

I don't know if training some of the exercises is the correct decision based upon where Lance is in his training. He is still a very green dog when it comes to competing in open and utility and I know that some of this work will only confuse him more. I was originally only going to train some of the exercises but I am now very tempted to just jump in and have fun!

I'm not making it a priority, but I have been playing around with a few of the exercises every now and then for the last few months.

1. A distance stand from sit and down- Lance's stand was pretty iffy. Unlike the other dogs who do a beautiful kick back even at a distance, Lance tends to take a tentative step forward or sometimes just briefly lifts his butt. I've thought about quickly reteaching the stand from scratch with him but for now I'm just expanding where he's at. So far it's going pretty well and he can stand from 10ft away and so far I'm ok with the stepping forward into it. Vito has a beautiful kick back stand at a distance :)

2. Sit in motion- Lance has a great verbal down from all the fun drop games we play and a great verbal stand from utility. Sit blew his mind but he's doing better and only rarely folds into his down now.

3. Sit after a retrieve- This went surprisingly easy for him! I was prepared for him to try drop it as soon as I gave a sit cue but he never has! Mainly we are working on distance as he tends to take a step or two after I call sit; or if I try and call sit as soon as he has it I end up being too early and he sits before it's in his mouth. I'm a little scared training this might bite us in the ring, so I'm only doing this with non dumbbell items.

4.Drop on recall to Baseball gloves- Currently practicing a baby version of this exercise as I'm starting him in the middle. It didn't take much training to get him to go out to glove 1 & 3. With glove #2 he's doing well but I'm still stepping into his path as if I'm bowling him backwards. We're currently playing with understanding of glove #2 vs glove #3 as both of my signals use the right arm.

5. Call to heel while still and moving- Having him join me in heeling while I'm moving is proving to be no challenge. While I am still he needs me to look over my shoulder or he comes front.

6. Go out to cone- alternating cuing a sit or a down, or if I'm close enough, a stand. At first I was having him touch the cone but it morphed into Lance going out around it. I don't know that I care until I see more videos of other people doing it.

Bubba Wins

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Tue, 01 May 2012 01:33:00 +0000

Well those who saw the Bubba that first weekend guessed it. I fell for the trap and told our director of training that she would not be getting Bubba back last Monday. We will be puppy raising the bear cub! I didn't want to fall in love with the little guy! I am so not a little dog person but I'm still finding myself liking the ability to easily scoop him up with one hand. If he wasn't a service dog in training I fear I would create one of those little devil purse dogs people carry at all times!

Bubba is more of a Tasmanian Devil than a dog. He is constantly zooming and self-entertains easily. Our biggest challenge has been working on impulse control, surprise! He is really fun to shape :)

Lance is done pouting and has remembered that he loves puppies, especially those smaller than him. Vito is actually doing a really good job with him. For the most part Vito is just completely ignoring him and even lets Bubba trample over him as he zooms around. Way better than the pouting and constant evil faces he gave the labs!

To those wondering about what Bubba's service dog potential, he will likely be either a diabetic alert dog or hearing alert dog. The alert jobs do not depend on a dog's size to do the job so any breed is a potential candidate. Unless something else comes in the program that just grabs my attention(!), we will have Bubba at our house until he goes in for final training between 12-20 months of age.

Lance obedience trial

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 22:34:00 +0000

Not our best day in the ring. 2 NQs and his attitude didn't seem to be fully there either.

Utility- NQ

Gloves- (#3) Lance takes off for the glove as soon as my hand goes down and my mouth opens. He drops it a few feet away from me but picks it up immediately to front with it. I feel like this has happened quite a bit recently and I'm not sure what the problem is.

Article #1- Lance goes out wide to the spread out pile with mine in the center. Lance always takes forever to find the center one and this time was no exception. Except after finding it Lance picked it up and walked a few steps towards me before dropping it and staring at me. I stare at the article and Lance goes back to work the pile except stresses and wanders over to the judge so I call him to me.

Article #2- Much better. Finds quickly and doesn't hesitate on his return. He does take a bonus jump on the way out to the pile.

Directed Jumping- 1st go out was crooked in the direction of the glove. He did cross the ring nicely to take the farther job when asked though! 2nd go out was worse. Lance started to stop between the jumps so I take a step towards him and resend him. He goes out again but doesn't seem sure. Ignores my first sit cue and touches the gate, ignores my 2nd sit cue and stares at me.

Signals- I thought Lance did a really nice job heeling, especially on that slow! He immediately took 2 steps after I left on the stand. He sits on the down signal so I give a verbal.

Moving Stand- not as bad as forging as usual. He walks a few steps as I leave him but does a nice exam.

Open- NQ

Drop on Recall- Lance travels a bit further than I like.

Heeling- Lance looks away a few times so I'm not thrilled with his performance. Because of that, I decided to start to the left on the figure 8 instead of going to the right like I usually do with Mr. Forger. He again gets distracted and looks away on the outer posts.

Retrieve over High- Lance goes out slower than usual but comes back nicely with a pretty good front and finish.

Broad- good, need work on front and finish

Retrieve on flat- better enthusiasm on way out. Was coming back crooked but fixed angle at last moment to be better.

Long Sit- Lance lies down as soon as the line of people have exited the ring.

Long Down- good.

I think I'll take him in to the chiropractor for another visit, it has been awhile since our last one and it always seems to help him.

Zoe 3/1/07-4/24/12

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:49:00 +0000

Good bye Zoe.

Zoe was always my favorite ferret. She was a tiny girl who loved giving out kisses to everyone she met. Zoe loved the dogs, especially the labs who let her nibble on them and cuddle. Remember this video, or the 2nd one?:

But she was also an extremely cunning ferret who was always finding creative ways to get into trouble. She loved trying to jump over the baby gates if any object nearby was moved remotely closed to it. Removing all the books on our bookshelves was another favorite hobby of hers. Zoe was always our most active ferret.

A rare moment of the corgi letting her cuddle 5 years ago.

And an even rarer sight was captured last night

NADAC Trial- start lines and contacts

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:30:00 +0000

I took Lance, Vito, and Bubba to a NADAC agility trial yesterday. Bubba did awesome in his crate and loved to prance around when freed. He will tug anywhere, as long as he doesn't think you have food on you. Although he did get distracted often by the wonderful smell, and taste of dirt.

Vito
The toller had a fantastic day! We worked on (yet another) start line routine for him that I've been playing with for the last two weeks. Vito is finally getting my bark cue and did it at the start line today! I also had him do his reverse chest vault before going in the ring, and in the ring on the 3rd run when there was a delay. During his 2nd run, chances, Vito looked like he was going to fixate on a bar setter but it was short lived as he quickly turned back to me. And on the 3rd run we almost collided with the bar setter as she went to talk to the judge during the delay but Vito still didn't pay attention to her!

We qualified in touch no go where Vito had his fastest run of all time, 6.1yps with 2 beautiful aframes and 1 dogwalk. Chances he shot off the startline and took an off course that I've never been happier about! He missed the dogwalk/tunnel discrimination but I'm pretty sure I sent him out to the tunnel with my motion. Jumpers was a sad NQ in novice for a knocked bar. He started off great the first 3 obstacles but as soon as it turned he slowed down and didn't pick up speed until the closing run. I also floundered a bit trying to get him to move and didn't handle as great as I should have.

Video of the 2 nice runs, unfortunately minus the start line routine that i didn't think to request:

Lance

Oh corgi. Lance was also in 3 runs: regular, touch n go, and tunnelers. He missed 4/5 contacts. His first aframe in regular was a launch from a good foot and half above the yellow and he somersaulted off. He learned a tiny bit from that and only missed by 6 inches on the other aframes and last dogwalk. Clearly our managed contacts is not being managed. I don't really care that he missed as that's my responsibility now and not his, but I need to keep him safe. No idea what to do with his contacts.

Bubba the bear cub

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:02:00 +0000

Surprise! Less than 12hrs ago I was expecting to bring home this on Friday:

This is Ivy, the only girl from the "I" litter at work.

But then plans had to be quickly changed; Ivy went home to a new puppy raiser and I somehow ended up with this thing:

This is Bubba. I've dubbed him a bear cub because I didn't want to bring home a Schipperke.

But in a few hours he earned a thousand comparisons from Tasmanian Devil to a Velociraptor.

I'm only supposed to have him for a few days, but is it wrong that I'm falling in love with this continuously moving ball of fluff?!

Fiona 11 month video!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:07:00 +0000

Since I turned Fiona in before I was expecting to, I didn't get a chance to compile a new video of her before she went of to prison. (It's reported that she is doing very well there.) But here's a quick look at some of the things we were in the process of working on before she left us:

Limping is in the early stages, but we finally got more than one step!
She was just starting to master nudging close very low drawers.
And we made cross paws on a signal only before she went!
Hind leg lifts are better with the right leg than the left, but we were starting to get some duration on both legs.
Tugging a heavy door was something she could do for awhile, but we were just starting to work on continuing to hold it open so someone could walk through.
And of course bucking bronco has always been her favorite trick of all time!

Lance UD-C

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Lance was also entered in the trial this Saturday. He did one round of CDSP utility and another of APDT Rally level 3. And then he scared the crap out of me.

Obedience
Due to his still healing hot spot I had him wear a harness in the obedience ring:

Signals- No moving after left on the stand!
Articles- Didn't seem to know what he was doign when sent, but then spotted the pile and quickly worked it. Dropped it twice coming back to me, near my feet.
Directed Jumping- 1st go out he went to the tape mark and then didn't sit. 2nd one he again went to the tape but did sit.
Gloves- this judge liked the glove VERY close together (about 7ft!) but Lance did both sends without an issue.
Stand- no moving again!

And that was our 3rd leg to get our UD-C title!

Rally:
I thought Lance was moving weird in the harness so I put on a really thin and lightweight collar that hung low enough to not hit his hot spot when off leash.

I thought he did a nice job, especially after the first sign when I caught him off guard on the 270 left because he broke eye contact with me. We had to redo the send to jump since Lance didn't go out to it the first time, and on the recall over jump he again needed a 2nd cue to come. There were two backing up exercises in a row, first in heel, then in front; so Lance got to yell at me about that.

Scariness

When getting ready to leave the trial I suddenly noticed that I had a FAT corgi. Lance's belly was extended big time. I then remembered that before going into the rally ring Lance was really wanting water badly and was acting a bit weird, but I shook it off to not having enough time to do a warm up. After we came out of the ring I offered him water and he wanted to drink a ton but I cut him off. Then I must not have zipped up the crate far enough as a few minutes later I noticed Lance poking out and licking the now empty water dish. So when I took Lance out 20min after the disappearing water trick he was a giant. Luckily there were two nice vet techs there who examined Lance and didn't think it looked like bloat since his stomach was squishy and he didn't have any other signs. A call to my vet also suggested waiting since corgis are not known for bloating and he wasn't showing the typical signs anyway. I took Lance home and had to block off access to our water fountain as he was still wanting more water. While his stomach remained huge all night, Lance didn't vomit, didn't have diarrhea, wasn't restless (other than wanting water), and had a soft belly. In the morning he seemed much better but his belly was still slightly extended.

I have no idea what the corgi did. It also makes me think that he might not have been feeling well during both of his runs. He certainly was showing signs right before rally although I don't think he was bloated yet.

Vito CDX-C!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 21:13:00 +0000

Vito has his CDX-C! But most importantly he was HAPPY! Vito was entered in 2 runs at the CDSP trial today.

Open Run #1:

I am so proud of him! He showed some stress as we walked into the ring and tried to get him set up, but as soon as I stepped off he forged!!! We've been working hard on setting up and charging off so I'm very excited about his response. I know I'll have to fix the charge later but that should be a much easier issue with him. The rest of the set ups I had no problem with and he was an eager partner. I loved that he had enthusiasm when he saw the judge had his dumbbell and had good speed on the retrieves. The go out was ridiculous but cute :) He was just certain that something was out there for him to retrieve! I was shocked when we got called back in the ring as a qualifier, something about doing the principle part of the exercise...!

Open Run #2:

I still had some difficult getting Vito set up at the start, and this time he heeled with me instead of charging off. Right at the halt he looked away (at the judge?) and then missed me stopping. I gave him a cue to heel but he just stared at me. In hind sight I should have given my left finish hand signal. The heeling was nice but I felt like I was in the verge of him wanting to lag. After the broad jump he didn't want to jump up on me like I asked, but did when I repeated the cue. The rest of the exercises he performed nicely but without the attitude he seemed to have in the first run. But the go out was much better :)

Today really gave me hope for future trialing. I think that we will limit ourselves to only 1 run a day though, just to keep his enthusiasm as high as possible.

Running Contacts with Daisy Peel

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

"Running contacts = rabbit hole!!" That quote by Shenna about sums up my knowledge quest on running dog walks. I audited the Daisy Peel seminar on the subject in the morning and then worked Vito in the afternoon session. So many more questions now!

Going into the seminar I knew Daisy's method had evolved since she started with Silvia's, but I still wasn't prepared for some of the huge core differences. I find it fascinating that both methods are capable of taking the dog to the same place.

I think Daisy's focus on location over speed in the training process would have been a huge benefit for Lance. It would have been interesting to see if letting Lance go slow when he was unsure at certain points in our training would have resulted in that ideal image of a RDW that I was looking for. I am almost debating trying the corgi again on the dogwalk, but then I think someone should slap me for putting the poor corgi through another retrain.

As for Vito....no idea what to think. He was super excited to demonstrate his running dogwalk but didn't demonstrate the best criteria according to my standards and worse according to Daisy's in the 2 attempts he did in the beginning. Vito did hit the yellow both times, and the 2nd attempt was in even on the smaller USDAA zone, but he wasn't driving as much as usual so his hind legs weren't split. My thoughts/excuses: 1) It was a VERY crowded space to put a dogwalk that barely squeezed the two tunnels in and Vito hasn't had much experience with all that wall pressure, especially when I had to decelerate or run into the tunnel myself. 2)Vito hasn't seen a non rubberized dogwalk in ages. 3) I was nervous, and there were a ton of people watching and while he seemed completely fixated on his tennis ball he might have also been feeling pressure from the crowd as he tends to do.

After the 2 dogwalks, Daisy had us break while they lowered the dogwalk for everyone else. I'm not sure if she forgot to bring us back out at that point or what, but we then had to wait 2hrs for our next turn. On the lowered dogwalk he did fine so she had us work on turns which is what I was really curious to discuss. I haven't worked on turns in almost 12 months, ever since we moved and access to the dogwalk became difficult. Daisy is very anti toy in training running contacts so had us use a manners minder once the jump moved to an angle difficult for him.

Vito is not a very food motivated dog but he does love the robot. Unfortunately I knew that Vito would never RUN to it. I cringed during our turn training as Vito trotted down the plank to the MM although I could see where going slow would teach the dogs clearly that going to the end of the board was important. But I almost wanted to die when during the next session she had Vito do the full dogwalk to the manners minder for turns. Vito has NEVER trotted across a dogwalk since we started on a RDW as a puppy. Going the opposite direction from the MM he slowly came to the tunnel and going towards it he went faster but still didn't break out into a run.

See for yourselves, 1st is Vito working on increasing angles targeting a jump with ball as reward, at 47sec it switches to increasing MM angles, and at 1:48 it switches to full height dogwalks:

Lori Michaels Seminar

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 03:18:00 +0000

This past weekend I have been auditing a Lori Michaels agility seminar at my club. She is such a nice person and I love her philosophy of not caring at all how people handle something as long as they execute it well!

I picked up some new ideas for teaching dogs to keep bars up and collect even when excited by their handler's motion. Collection isn't Vito's issue, but watching the work I realized that switching back into extension/RUNNING is a big issue for him so I asked Lori about ideas. She directed me to Silvia Trkman's cik/cap work which I have been meaning to do for awhile but has been stuck on that "to do" list. But just spending a little bit of time during the lunch break working on wraps and running out of them seemed like it could really help us. I don't know if I'll systematically go through the work of increasing heights although I certainly plan on working the sprinting out portion.

On Sunday I decided to pick up a working spot on handling skills with Vito. It was both good and bad:

Bad- Vito definitely noticed Lori and some other people standing on the edges of the course as we started walked to the start line and set up.
Good- Vito didn't bark or run up to them
Bad- Our initial start routine sucked each and every turn. Vito stretched, yawned, did some scratching one time, and didn't want to do his tricks. Stressed Vito who was capable of walking up and doing and looking at me but not much else.
Good- after stopping to give him his ball or to restart, Vito would very happily tug with his toy and would happily start again within each round and with good speed. He even screamed a few times.
Good- Running Contacts. Of course I chose to cheat on the one course where it was the far end of the tunnel and just did the straight exit to keep him happy. But on the other course I was further behind than I usually am and he still accelerated to the next obstacle and let me rear cross.

I am not sure where to go with Vito and his start line anymore. In practice he is mostly good but there are still some runs where he can be sluggish off the start. I thought I found a trick he liked, reverse chest vault, but Vito wouldn't do it today when asked. I already don't lead out with him and try to push back on his chest when waiting; he doesn't like being fully restrained. Lori suggested I teach him to bark/scream and I actually just started doing that this past week. It has been surprisingly difficult!

I am struggling to apply what was discussed in Vito's obedience lesson about similar issues to the agility ring where I usually want him in obstacle focus for at least that first obstacle.

Happy Birthday Lance!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Happy 5th birthday Corgi!!!

Lance is such an easy going and happy dog that he is easy to overlook especially when the Toller's issues takes precedence. Thank you for being one of those elusive normal dogs!

Unfortunately, Lance is still recovering from his bad hot spot. It didn't start improving with the zinc cream or antibiotics until we added prednisone to the mix. Lance was finally able to start lying down on Thursday but is still hiding in a crate all day. At least I know it won't be too much longer of sad corgi, but we will have to miss the obedience trial we had planned for tomorrow :(

Fiona 12 months- Bon Voyage!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:30:00 +0000

Fiona has moved on with her job in life. Today she is going to the state prison to be finish up her training.

Close It

I have to say that I have really enjoyed puppy raising her and am afraid I'm going to be disappointed with all the future dogs I puppy raise. She is bossy, high drive, and loves to work. She is athletically built and has all the makings to be a great sports dog. I even taught her an awesome 2o2o on the aframe and dogwalk, although she hasn't done the full obstacle yet!

Unfortunately the drive that I love could make it difficult to place her as a service dog. The majority of clients on our waiting list want and need a much calmer dog. The life for most service dogs isn't an active on the go job. Most public outings consist of the dog doing long stays under a table at a restaurant, a conference table, the pew at church... While her love to work would be a great use as a mobility dog, most people do not keep dropping pens all day long. Luckily for her, Fiona has a great nose and a huge love for the scent work games we play for diabetic alert work. This broadens up her pool of potential clients, giving her the greater potential of finding someone with a more active lifestyle.

One of the reasons she is going to prison is so she can continue diabetic alert training. She is doing fantastic with the start I have given her, but now she is ready for the next stage of doing more random "real life" low scents rather than in the context of a training session. With my schedule I am unable to work on that in the home and prison life can easily provide that next step of training for her.

The next stage for Fiona is not a guarantee that she will make it through the program. Fiona still has to pass her xrays and CERF tests, as well as behavioral. While her behavioral issues of being a submissive wuss has continued to improve and there are no longer any episodes of self doubt occurring at home, the issue still lurks. Currently, Fiona will only cower if she has to go to the bathroom. At those times, any command given other than walking nicely and waiting at a door has the potential to cause her to flatten herself and then pee if pushed. The issue is non existent if I simply potty her before any training session or just keep an eye on the clock.

Vito won't miss her. But he does a great job of tolerating her, and if stuck in a close space with her, such as the car or cubicle, he even lets her do a tiny bit of cuddling. Lance seems to like her but doesn't play with her much anymore. He definitely hates how rough she plays.

I was organizing her videos and came across this one from January when she was 9 months. What a nut!

Poor Corgi

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 03:46:00 +0000

Sad corgi is sad.

He has a gigantic hot spot on his neck and has spent the last few days playing musical kennels. Lance's version is spending all day sitting in the kennel, not lying down, and occasionally going to sit in Fiona's.

Pre Shave

He has been giving me death stares when we have to apply ointment to it but to his credit he hasn't even tried to snap even though he must really be hurting.

Lance went to the vet today to have the area shaved and to get some antibiotics. I had Adam take him but ended up having to drive down to hold him for the shaving. The corgi had enough and wouldn't hold still so they were going to have to sedate him since there's not an easy way to restrain for a neck shave. Luckily when I arrived he let me hold his head. And then went and hid behind the potted plant. The poor guy didn't even come out for dinner tonight until after Fiona and Vito had some training and I had to coax him out :(

After Shave

The Flying Fi Fi!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:54:00 +0000

Assigning Responsability in Vito's Obedience Training

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:40:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

Champions of the Water

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:00:00 +0000

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

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

Video of the near drownings:

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

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

Chuck Update

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:00:00 +0000

Photo by Paul Dols

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

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

A link to a nice article is here.

We can go to a dog park again!

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 03:52:00 +0000

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

A Tribute to Obedience

noreply@blogger.com (Laura, Lance, and Vito) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:30:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

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