Sidetracked!

I have a lot of reasons (okay, excuses) why I haven't done more tracking with Jojo.
But in the mean time, I borrowed a friends dog and have been practicing and competing with her.
This is Mara

She's a seven year old Belgian Malinois. Her Mom trains her in Obedience and Agility.  I pet sit with her when her owners are out of town.

I love working with her she's smart, quick, and happy.  She's also very stable,she appears a little wild, but she's not reactive.

Since I like to compete, and Marilyn does not. I asked if I could try her out in Novice. 

At the Seward, NE trial in April, we took 4th place in Novice B on Saturday and 3rd place in Novice B on Sunday.

It's definitely a learning experience. She does not need any cheer leading. She's pumped at all times. She loves to work, but her Mom doesn't train for the details. The straight sits, the straight fronts, and the perfect heeling haven't been on her radar. She wants and obedient dog who has her brain and body tired out.

So I've been practicing with her. Working on the details, I don't expect to earn an OTCH with her, but I'd like to polish her up a little. And it is fun to be back in the ring with a dog that I trust not to run out after another dog.  She has no interest in leaving the ring, she just wants to work.

Here's our second day in the ring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO0fQdJGy3s

Tracking--or not!

Well I've taken Jojo tracking exactly once, in my front yard.
I started at the bottom of the stairs to my porch and instead of going in a straight line, I curved out to the public right of way and ended in my neighbors yard. I used freeze dried lamb lung on the track. It wasn't the best or longest track, but Jojo did follow it. He did not eat all the food, he passed over quite a bit of it. He got a bit distracted by passing cars, and at one point he was facing me and backing down the track. Overall he did okay, I really need to make time to take him to the park and really lay a track.
I've been practicing Scent Discrimination with him inside, I'm not sure if that will help our tracking. But . . .
I've discovered that AKC now has Trick dog titles!
And I've gotten a little distracted by working with my oldest dog, Missy on practicing our tricks. she knows quite a few tricks and would zip right through the titles.

A new year a new . . .

It seems I start blogging and then as the year goes by, I forget. Oops.
Well as I last left off, Quinn and I were practicing Novice Obedience, and having issues. We went in to the ring several times and we did indeed earn his PCD!

He wasn't High in trial, but he did qualify at least three times. He was more distracted than he has been in the past, but overall he did a nice job. He didn't leave the ring and did what he was supposed to. I nq'd us once by saying "Finish" before the judge called it.
On his last leg, I set him up for the recall, and then called when the judge signaled, Quinn was watching the dog in the next ring. He looked back at me and just sat there staring at me.  I didn't say anything. I figured at some point the judge would say "Exercise Finished" and we'd be done.  But then I could see the light bulb go on above Quinn's head and he got up and raced to me.  What a good dog.  That was it, our title!

I had planned on continuing on with him and try for his PCDX and we might still, but he's now 10 and a little arthritic, I practiced a little of Open with him and then gave him the rest of the year off. We'll see where it goes.

I am planning on trying Tracking with Jojo, I'm hoping if I begin blogging it might keep me honest about practicing. So this year my goal is a TD with Jojo, let's see what happens!

Practice

Practiced in Sunday with a friend. She put Quinn and I through our paces. Quinn did very well until we got to heel off lead. As we did the last bit, we had to do a right turn, slow, normal and another right turn.  As I came out of the slow Quinn ducked behind me and came up on the wrong side.
We tried it again and he did the same thing.
Chris asked if I had been there a practicing for a while because he seemed tired.  Sadly that was not the case. I put him on lead and tried again, rewarding him heavily for staying with me. We did a quick recall and quit.

I'm showing in Seward next weekend. I just hope that he doesn't poop out on me then.

First Obedience Trial in a Long Time!

Oops, I haven't posted since January. The plus is I have been training Quinn!
I've been taking him to the obedience club and practicing at least once a week. I've been doing some practicing at home, but not nearly enough.

I took Quinn to the BDOC Obedience trial last week. I entered him just one day in Preferred Novice, I wanted to see how he did. Sadly, I didn't do as well as he did. I was nervous that he would go off on another dog. The building was very small, many people and dogs crowded together. Alicia initially came in without her wheelchair to video tape my run, but then when the host offered to help her bring her chair in--she went out the door--and out went Quinn's brain.   

He growled quietly a couple of times, but didn't do too badly. There was a woman just outside the ring with her uncrated dog. The Border Collie was either in her lap or at her feet, and did I say I was nervous? 

We started the heeling pattern right in front of her (and did the recall there as well.) I was very concerned he would begin barking at her dog. Quinn was more worried that Alicia would leave without him. Our heel on-lead was just okay, he lagged on the about turn and he refused to sit--why? Most likely, it was because I was hyperventilating and was not consistent. The figure 8 was much better! His stand-stay was great. The heel free was okay, again lagging on the about turn. At the very end of the heeling exercise, the judge had each team halt right in front of the ring gate (and that person with the dog.) It would have been much better, if I hadn't anticipated an about turn instead of a halt. I started to about turn when she said stop and Quinn, confused, circled me and did not sit. Damn! Completely my fault!

On the recall, I called him, he ran right past me to the ring gate. I thought 'Oh no! Here it comes, he's going to start barking at the other dog.' Nope, he was looking for his Auntie Alicia! After all, he loves her and it would be horrible if she disappeared without him. I said "Quinn" and he came back to me, but he did not sit in front and the judge just said "Exercised Finished." I was pretty sure we had NQ'd.

The final exercise in Pref. Nov. is the sit or down stay. Similar to the Beginning novice sit, the dog must sit or down in the center of the ring and the handler walks around the perimeter of the ring. Quinn did fantastic, he watched me, but didn't break his sit. 

I was very happy when the judge said "Congratulations!" We qualified, our score was not very high, just 182.5, but we took second place and earned our first PCD leg. 

My sister took the video with her Kindle Fire. She's been known video tape her feet instead of the intended target, so she didn't do too bad of a job. Here's the video:

Quinn's run

Oops-- It's been two weeks since my last post!

 I've been gone for a while and my sister took care of my dogs, so finally here is a new post:

It's been very cold here (average highs less than freezing,) so I've done little things inside the house. One practice session was solely calling Quinn to heel from various locations.  We started with a step in front (facing the same direction) and built until I was 10 feet away facing him. (The finish on the Moving Stand.) The biggest challenge we had was going to the obedience club for a heeling seminar.  I was actually the teacher. I took Quinn to be my demo dog. I was supposed to have a small group of people (5 or so) but due to some conflicts with an Agility class I ended up with 1 student taking the seminar and an Agility class being taught less than 10 feet away. 

Quinn had issues with some of the dogs doing agility.  Any dog he considered 'out of control' he barked at. Overall he did very well considering he's not used to being in the building with 8 dogs running agility in the next ring. I find that if Quinn views the situation as a 'Dog Show' is much more accepting of other dogs than if he sees it as 'Training.'  At a dog show he'll tolerate a lot more than he would in the real world. I'm not sure if  I do something different, or if it's the number dogs present, but he'll just settle right down at a show or fun match.

I used Quinn to show what a dog should look like when heeling, and then put him in a crate and demonstrated the beginning steps with Sage (Alicia's dog.)  When it was time to talk about proofing, I got Quinn back out and did some more heeling. It was nice practice and the dogs doing agility were  nice distraction. When Quinn makes a mistake I stop what I'm doing, by stepping out of position or just stop forward motion. If I continue to heel, then I've rewarded his inattention. I noticed that he's begun heeling wide on about turns, I'm sure I'm doing something to cause it.  I'm going to have to tape our heeling sessions and find out why.

The biggest reward for teaching that seminar was at the end. When several people were standing around talking, Quinn went up to a woman and asked for attention.  He's not nearly as scared of people as Jojo can be, but he is an Aussie and he's reserved with people.  The fact she was a complete stranger and he ran up (and jumped on her) was a good thing.  She had her Papillon sitting on a chair next to her.  Quinn's met (and lived with) several Papillons, so he just ignored the dog and concentrated on the person. Now if it only warms up enough to go outside and train.



Alicia did a little practice with Quinn while she took care of my dogs, here's her experience with Quin practicing the Stand-Stay:

"While it's true that I very rarely get to work with Marcy's dogs, when they are staying with me, I get to try lots of things with them. This time, Marcy wanted me to work specifically on Quinn's stand-stay. Quinn and I have a special relationship so I knew it would go either very well or rather badly. To my pleasure, it went rather well. I had Quinn get in heel position then gave him the cue to stand. Quinn did a great job of standing but either didn't see my signal for him to stay or was too excited to heed it. As a result, we had to do it again. This time, once I had Quinn in his stand position, I took a few seconds out to "set him up" in his stand position and he responded well to my "stay" and we were successful."

Yesterday we practiced go outs, it's not a Novice exercise, but it's obedience and it gives us something different to do.  I'm using a method, I learned from Shirley Chong.  You teach the dog to hit a target with his/her paw.  You slowly move backwards from various targets until you get full distance.  We're just starting out so I figured we don't need much room.
Alicia taught him to shake hands, so I cued him for that and moved my hand out of the way so he hit the footstool, bingo, he got it.  I had him "whack" the footstool, a traffic cone, (yes I have one in my dining room, don't you?) the sofa, and a plastic storage bin.  He was getting into it We were pretty close to each object, next time we work on it, we'll move a little ways away (18" or so.) To make this Novice related, we did finishes to set up each time, he did very well.

Today I practiced the retrieve on flat. Quinn really loves to retrieve so our difficulty is the stay while I throw the dumbbell. Because it's a challenge I decided to try a Graduate Novice exercise called a Dumbbell Recall.  You hand the dumbbell to the dog walk across the ring and call them to front.  Sound easy?  Well I thought it would be.  I handed him the dumbbell told him to stay took three steps and I heard the dumbbell hit the floor.
I went back set him up again and this time took just one step out (pivoted out in front of him.)  I called him and moved backwards.  He brought the dumbbell to me, yay!  The next time I went out just a couple of steps.  He did a good job.

Since he didn't do as well as I expected, I stopped there and tried something else.  I threw the dumbbell and then told him to heel with me,  The first time he started to go after the dumbbell, I interrupted him and called him back, made him do a pivot and then sent him.  He sat there not moving at all, oops!  I did another pivot and sent him again.  He ran out and retrieved, but dropped the dumbbell at my feet.  What the h--heck?! I did the exercise again and he actually heeled with me and then went out and got the dumbbell.  When I took it from him, I noticed blood on the bell and on Quinn's mouth.  He must have bit his tongue when he picked up the dumbbell, poor boy.  We stopped there and did some heeling and  tricks (walking in between my legs.) He just loves to work, I really feel bad that I haven't practiced with him much this past year.



*Picture By Michael Malak (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons