Flying Poodles

I’m Diana and I have a problem…

This morning I was at the grocery store, and I noticed that steak was on sale, for a very nice price. What was my first thought? Not, as you might think, “oh maybe we’ll have steak for dinner!” No, it was “dog treats!”

Worse, I bought four pounds of nice lean round steak, then spent 45 minutes cutting it into little tiny cubes and cooking it, then putting it in single-training-session containers and putting them in the freezer.

And even more worser than that… I just realized I forgot to buy dinner.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

Well, the NADAC trial this weekend was interesting… painful… exhilarating… frustrating… maddening. (How many gerunds can I use?)

I did a total of 15 runs and got two Qs. One in Open Jumpers, with Dancer–that’s always been her best event. One in Open Hoopers, with Dancer. Elly did three runs Saturday and I left her home on Sunday because she was clearly not feeling her best. Her brush with IBD a few weeks ago seems to have left her rather less resilient. I’m hoping she can recover her fitness.

I had fun with the Open Hoopers run. The four non-test hoops were strung diagonally across the ring, followed by the start hoop of a six-hoop test. In Elite, you have to do a six-hoop test, but it’s not required in Open. Still, it looked doable, if I could do it and still make time, which is always the challenge. I led out the entire diagonal of the ring–five hoops, so more than 110 feet–and Dancer just sat and held her stay, completely focused.

When I said “okay” she just flew through those hoops. She did the challenge, which put us in a nice position for two non-test hoops to a serpentine, which she did perfectly. One more hoop put us in perfect position facing the first hoop of the last challenge–the six-hoop challenge–and she did it perfectly. We ran toward the finish hoop and she did two hoops ahead of me, then stopped and looked behind her, at me: “that hoop? you want that hoop?” She waited for me to signal it. It was the finish hoop, and I could have done without the pause! She went through it in 39.17 seconds, just barely under course time of 40 seconds.

Flying Finish

I’ve been working on contacts for a year and a half–about as long as I’ve been working on the teeter–and perhaps as frustrating. On Saturday (in Touch and Go), Dancer leapt off the a-frame, and I sent her back up, and she came down and did a perfect full-stop two-on-two-off, which is the FIRST TIME EVER she’s stopped at a trial. Yes, it was a repeat, but still…

Then, in her regular run, she stopped on the dogwalk contact. I have proof:

Dancer stops on the dogwalk contact

I held her there so long we didn’t make time.

In our next regular run, she walked off the end of the dogwalk and I didn’t ask her to repeat it, but she got to the top of the a-frame, stopped there, and then came down slowly into the 2-on-2-off. She held it. I led out. We didn’t make time.

Sunday, though… she leapt over her contacts again in the first regular run, then stopped at the apex of the frame for a LONG LONG time in her second run. I finally had to chivvy her off, but she did stop for me. I led out and we ran straight to the last hoop and left.

Most maddening, in Open Chances, the last run of the day, she got all the distance portions of the course–and it wasn’t an easy course–then leapt over the dogwalk contact instead of stopping…

I have LOTS of work to do on training the contact, but I feel like we’ve made HUGE progress. For the first time, Dancer has some understanding that I want her to stop. She’s clearly not sure about how to deal with the a-frame contact, and she’s not thrilled about stopping on the dogwalk. But I’ve made SOME progress with my training. Some is better than none. I know what I need to work on. My plan: lots of target-plate work to really reinforce stopping and the new “yellow” (take your contact position) cue; lots of speed and distance work; lots of distraction work.

(Photos by Joe Camp, of course.)

Videos from the RAT NADAC trial

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.

Teeter tour…

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!

“You want me to do what?”

"What exactly did you have in mind?"

(Photo by Joe Camp)

Another NADAC trial…

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.)

Elly: part-time poodle, part-time wild beast

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.

A lesson on tugging…

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!

One more reason to go to the park with the dogs…

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.

It’s probably a mistake to say this out loud…

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….