Elly, Saturday 2-13-10, Open Tunnelers
Elly, Sunday 2-14-10, Open Jumpers (she took first place in her class)
Dancer, Sunday 2-14-10, Open Weavers
Dancer, Sunday 2-14-10, Open Jumpers
Thank to Three Pines Broadcasting Network for videotaping at the RAT trial.
At yet another stop on the teeter tour today… and Dancer was great. Jump-tunnel-jump-teeter… and she came right over the teeter. Not fast, but steady. Can’t complain.
I entered the Standard–with teeter–class at an upcoming AKC trial. We’ll see!
"What exactly did you have in mind?"
(Photo by Joe Camp)
I spent the weekend in rainy Elma, WA at a (thankfully) covered and heated and indoor horse arena, competing with both girls in NADAC. Saturday Elly was very sweet, on the ball, and actually paying attention–and she Qd in both Open Jumpers (2nd place in 16″ skilled) with a 29.79 sec run over 124 yards (thereby finishing her OJC) and in Open Tunnelers (29.31 sec over 137 yards, also second place). Dancer got only ONE Q on Saturday, finishing her Superior Novice Chances title (S-NCC). (Should I mention that her contacts were a mess? No, I think I’ll pretend that she didn’t have to do any.)
On Sunday, BOTH girls Qd in Open Jumpers (and Dancer finished her Outstanding Open Jumpers title (O-OJC)). Elly took FIRST in her 16″ skilled class with a run of 23.87 seconds over 110 yards; Dancer ran the SAME course in 24.17 seconds (for fifth place in her class). Note that Elly was FASTER than Dancer.
Dancer also Qd in Open Weavers for the first time, taking second with 35.55 seconds over 154 yards.
(Sunday, after her spectacular Jumpers run, Elly slowed to a trot in Regular and I scratched the rest of the day. Novice Regular was the last two classes of the day, and I expect they’re still running them up in Elma as I write this–but I came home.)
After my lesson with Debbie today (which went surprisingly well) (including some (I can hear you yawning!) teeter training), I headed over the the park with the girls. I let them off leash about 50 yards into the park, and Dancer trotted nicely along with me. I noticed Elly investigating a trail down into the blackberries but I figured she’d be along momentarily. Another 100 yards or so, and Dancer was stopping regularly to look behind us, anxiously. No sign of Elly. I decided that Dancer’s worry was enough reason to walk back along the trail and see what the heck Elly was up to. No sign of her, but I could hear crunching down in the blackberries. I called to the crunching and Elly’s head popped up and she walked around a bit but didn’t come toward me at all. There was no path in sight and I could see blackberry vines arching over her head.
Dancer was very worried at this point. I could see her problem: it looked to me like Elly had gotten herself well and stuck. I walked up and down the path looking for a way down the hill and through the tangle to where she was. I was thinking of calling Jay and getting him to come with a couple of boards. (You can walk through blackberries if you have two 2×12 boards; you lay them down, walk along them, put the next one down, pick up the last one, etc.) I thought about that, and decided it was not yet necessary; she might still get herself unstuck.
Then I heard Elly yelping and crying in pain. Dancer was visibly startled and wanted to go to her. I ran Dancer to the car and put her in her crate, and got a 2′x3′ crate base out of the car, and a crate pad. I thought I could step from one to the next and get to Elly that way. I started running down the path–and Elly appeared on the path ahead of me. I have no idea how she got herself untangled. There was blood on her face and a lot of scratches. I called her…
AND THE DAMN DOG RAN BACK DOWN THE TRAIL AND BACK INTO THE BLACKBERRIES.
I went back to the car, put away the equipment, got Dancer out of her crate and put her on leash. I grabbed a very large handful of treats. I walked to a spot on the trail where I could see Elly and started talking to Dancer in a very high voice about what a great dog she was and didn’t she just love the bits of hot dog she was getting. That got Elly’s attention. She edged closer. I started walking Dancer back toward the car and Elly started heeling on the other side, very nicely. I popped a few hot dog pieces in her mouth, then stopped and put her leash on.
Then I went straight to the car, put the dogs in, and brought them home. Elly got a full bath and removal of the blackberry thorns. She had a lot of them tangled in her fur. She has scrapes and little thorn cuts all over. I think the soap from the bath must have hurt a bit; I feel a little bad about that, but she was so filthy I was more worried about infection.
She’s sound asleep now; she looks very sweet and charming.Yep. Sweet, charming, and with the soul of a wild beast.
It seems “everyone” believes that a good tugging session is a great way to reward your dog… Elly’s never been much interested (”where’s my treat? and it better be good!” seems to be her motto), but Dancer had a great tug… up until I had my knee surgery (when she was about a year old–almost three years ago now) and I didn’t keep it up, because I couldn’t. Anyway, now I’m trying to get it back, because I’d like to be able to revvvv her up during training.
So I’ve been trying various things, like just a little tug and let her win, that kind of thing… I bought a nice soft fleece tug, that helped. But Monday, I put Elly in the car and then came back in and thought “oh, right, let’s try a little tugging with Dancer.” She was a dog on fire, tugging like a maniac. I was even sensible and quit while she was still having a good time (I let her win, too). So today I tried that again: I put Elly in the car and came back in and got the tug out. She was a maniac again.
And the coolest thing? When I let her win, she ran away with the tug, right over the a-frame, and down into a lovely two-on-two-off, where she let me play tug with her for a moment!
I take the girls out to Sandy River Delta Park a few times a week. It’s good for their fitness to run and play off-leash. It helps keep them somewhat sociable (although they have serious fence issues!). It’s good for me to walk three or four miles at a time–keeps me fit. I like getting outside and I miss it if I don’t go. We do better at agility if we’re all fit. This all matters.
But today… today I saw a pair of bald eagles doing their courtship flights. They were a study in grace and beauty. Bald eagles are great big birds, and watching them fish is always amazing. This was different; they may have been obeying a biological imperative, but they surely were having fun at the same time.
But training is going very well right now. Contacts look good in practice; I’ve added a contact cue for the 2-on-2-off (”yellow”); the teeter looks amazing (Dancer’s wagging her tail while she does the teeter); tunnel/contact discriminations are vastly improved. I’m cautiously optimistic that things will go well at the two trials I have coming up–RAT in Elma and CAT in Ridgefield–the next two weekends. We shall see….
Yep. Another one.
Debbie and I worked out two more things to add to the teeter training basket. (Summary below.)
Now that Dancer is more comfortable with the tip, we put the teeter against a 24″ table, so that she walked down from the table, tipped the teeter from approximately level, and continued on down. This meant she couldn’t see when it was going to tip. Surprisingly, after a few tries, this didn’t faze her a bit, and by the end of the session–about 10 repeats–she was running to the table, and running right down the teeter.
Debbie suggested that instead of cheerleading her with words, I try clapping. Wow! She likes it when I clap.
Then, over the weekend (at ClickerExpo) Ken Ramirez demonstrated how to make clapping into a conditioned reinforcer by clap-clap-clap/click/treat. I did that a bunch over the weekend, then today I tried clap-clap-clap on the teeter, then click, then treat. Did that a bunch of times.
Oh my! I have a teeter! She runs into it, strides over it as I clap, goes on. I put the teeter into a sequence, and she was unfazed.
So here is the summary. Note that steps are cyclic; I do low and high teeters and easy and difficult steps all the time. I lower the teeter and play the bang it! game with each new teeter.
Click/treat for looking at teeter (reward away from teeter)
C/t for walking toward teeter (reward away)
C/t for putting a paw on teeter (reward away)
C/t for ignoring the bang (at a distance)
C/t for ignoring the bang (moving closer)
C/t for walking over non-moving wedged teeter at lowest setting
C/t for walking over infinitesimally moving teeter at lowest setting
C/t for banging teeter at lowest setting
C/t for banging teeter at higher settings (until she is pulling it down from level with enthusiasm)
C/t for walking over teeter at progressively higher settings (lifted off if she stops moving)
C/t for running to teeter and putting both paws on it
C/t for running to teeter and banging it down
C/t for walking down teeter from table
C/Throw tennis ball for walking across teeter without stopping at lowest setting
C/Throw for more and more speed across teeter without stopping at lowest setting
C/Throw for higher settings and not hesitating
I had a moment of horrendous panic today with Dancer… she’s fine now but… quite a story so take a deep breath. She was jumping out of the car, seemed fine, then every time she went to put weight on her back left, it would shoot out behind her (scraping toenails as she went), then she’d sit down and chew her toenails. Then she’d be fine for a bit, until she put full weight on it–and then it would happen again. I called the vet, and took her down there, in a complete panic. She was clearly miserable. We get there, we lay her down on the table, me and the tech hold her, and the vet starts working her way down her leg, hip fine, knee fine, toes chewed on and pink. She shaves the foot, looks at it, can’t see anything. She starts gently pulling each toe to check for sprains, Dancer gives an enormous sigh of relief and relaxes as she gets to the third toe. I say “you fixed it!” The vet tech says “yes, she just relaxed.” The vet says “I didn’t do anything. If it was dislocated it was very subtle.” Dancer hops down off the table, we trot her up and down the hall. No problems at all. She jumps up on my chest, full weight on both back legs. She tells me “let’s get out of here.” We pay $78 and get out of there. (As long as she was there, I had her ears cleaned–otherwise it would have been less.)