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

Trying it again!

I have a goal for the year, and I thought I'd dust off the old Blog and see if I can use it to help me reach it.
My goal is to take Quinn into the ring and earn his P-CD.
AKC has a new titling class that's Preferred Novice.  It's standard Novice, but the sit (or down) stay is similar to the sit-stay in Beginning Novice.  In other words, no group sit and down!  Yay.
For Quinn that's the only way I'll be comfortable getting a CD on him.  He knows the exercises, but he's frightened of other dogs and I've worked very hard with him quite a bit.  There was a time when I couldn't even take him to a trial. Since then he's earned his RE and BN, so he's improved immensely, but I know I wouldn't feel confident of his behavior in a group of dogs.

So today, I practiced the sit-stay, he did fine, but we were in my dining room, not much of a challenge. My sister brought me a pizza for supper (we shared) and I had her help me practice the Moving Stand.  The first time, he did the stand and held the exam, which is tough because he loves Alicia and wants nothing more than to jump on her and give her kisses.  When I called him to heel, he came to heel, but didn't sit.  Oops, we need to work on that. The second time, I broke it up and did the stand and exam.  Then rewarded him, reset the stand and called him to heel, he did much better.

Tomorrow, I want to practice a full Novice routine, we'll see how that goes!

Playing Catch Up!

March 2009

Training is continuing for Quinn, but I haven't worked with Missy in a while.

Danny was diagnosed with Insulinoma, it's a type of pancreatic cancer that causes him to have chronically low blood sugar.The vet has given him 2 weeks to 8 months to live. I'm spending a lot of time with him and also have switched him to a low carb, raw diet. I'm hoping it will stabilize his blood sugar a little. He's now on Pred and Phenobarbital. I'm preparing to take Quinn into Rally Advanced this spring. He's doing very nicely.

May 2009

Quinn and I competed in RA at the Seward County Kennel Club Show at the end of April. We earned our first two legs with a 90 on Saturday and a 97 on Sunday. Sunday we earned first place. We've been practicing the jump, but I got a little nervous and instead of telling him to 'look' at the jump. I said 'Watch' which he did, as he ran right into it.The judge said later, he's never seen a dog run into a jump before, evidently he's never seen a dog who had good attention and trusted his handler. Quinn did the jump on the second try. I've been working a little with Missy in Agility and we went to an outdoor Agility trial in Omaha the first weekend in May. She left the ring all four times. I was afraid she might jump the very low ring gates, but she found little holes to run through. She didn't really quit working (though the judge whistled us off) she was just too full of energy.

I now have another Aussie named Ketch. He was returned to his breeder, because he was unable to herd cattle. He was then given to a family, who decided they didn't have time for him. He's about 18 month old, and looks like a Border Collie mix, though I have his AKC papers. He's never really been in a house. He's learned stairs and house training. The one major issue is he chases cats. I'm working with him, still not sure if I'm going to keep him or place him.

June 2009

I had planned on taking all the Aussies to Vermillion for the SVKC show and then camping afterwards, but I've been diagnosed with a stress fracture in my foot. So no hiking, I've sent my entries in so I'm going to go ahead and compete in Vermillion. On Saturday 6-20 Danny was having serious trouble standing, and he was vomiting pretty badly. I took him to the vet pretty sure that this was the end. They gave me hope and said it might be just a bacterial infection. Sunday morning he was still breathing, but unresponsive, I think he just had a series of small seizures all night and it was too much for him.

Rest In Peace, Danny!

Eatinrocks Sunshine Dancer RN CGC

2000-2009

July 2009

I took my sister, her Aussie, Ketch, Quinn and a friends Border Collie to the SVKC show in South Dakota. Quinn earned his final leg for his RA on Saturday 6-27 with a 95 and Second Place. He earned an insurance leg on Sunday with a 94 and Second place again.

My sister and her dog Lacey, earned their final two legs for their RA as well.

Overall it was a bittersweet weekend. I missed Danny very much.