Flying Poodles

Some new photos

Nina Sage, a Portland photographer with excellent skills, took these photos at the late July CPE trial at Argus.

Elly's startline stay

Dancer jumping

Proof that clicking for handling and calm grooming behavior is working…

I took Elly to see the vet today. She needed to get a quick blood test to make sure that the Rimadyl isn’t affecting her liver function. The vet called a few minutes ago, and the results were good. She also said that her technician had mentioned how relaxed she was about being handled and how easy it was to do the blood test. Apparently, the report was “I just met the nicest poodle.”

Another way to train high energy…

Before breakfast.

When Dancer is truly hungry, she will work for food. So this morning, before the girls’ breakfast, I took Dancer out and worked a speed-and-distance oval of four jumps. Got great energy.

Then I groomed Elly. Yesterday I did most of the her body, clipping to the skin with a #10. I even did her ears, as they were somewhat matted and thus due to be clipped. And it’s August. Today, I cleaned up the shaggy bits from yesterday and finished her legs.

I’ve been using lots and lots and lots of treats when I groom, and it’s really paying off. Both dogs are much calmer and much easier to groom.

After the grooming and the training were done… THEN the girls got breakfast.

I had to go into Velotech for a while today, so I left the girls in puppy jail and biked in. When I got back, I realized that Dancer was in a lovely high-energy state when she greets me. I grabbed a toy and we played tug for a few minutes, and then I put the toy away. I want that tugging to be something that means high excitement to her.

Why didn’t I do more of this when she was younger? Well, I did… and then I kind of let it go. Hard to maintain a good tug when your knees hurt. Bad choice on my part. But that’s twenty-twenty hindsight.

High Energy Training

Debbie has been after me to only train when Dancer is at her highest energy level. This takes some doing–I need to plan pretty carefully, get ready thoroughly, and then quit while she’s still peaking.

This morning, Jay and I went out to breakfast (we rode our bikes together, I am SO proud of myself) and left the girls in puppy jail (their spacious and very comfortable crate) while we were gone. When Dancer first gets out of the crate, she is just SO thrilled; usually I try to keep her from jumping on me, but this morning, I handed Elly off to Jay (who had a handful of treats and instructions to go work “sits, waits, and comes” until the treats were gone), and then I took Dancer and her tug toy down to the world’s smallest agility field.

I ran as fast as I could down the stairs (not easy after cycling up the Mt. Tabor hill, but what can you do?), pulled out the toy, let her tug for a few moments, then–following Debbie’s advice–pulled the tug away and didn’t ask for a wait or control, just sent her right over a jump. Wrap tight to the toy, tug madly. Send over a U of three jumps. Tug madly. And so on, for about four or five minutes. I was already dripping sweat from the bike ride–this just finished me off. BUT… I quit while Dancer was still eager to play. Yay for me!

Being a city dog…

This morning, rather than do five minutes in the yard with Dancer, I took her for a long city walk. We walked from our house through Mt. Tabor Park to the off-leash area on the south side of the park. I asked for good leash manners in the face of other dogs, squirrels, and cats. I reinforced heavily for good behavior. I got good behavior.

At the off-leash park, she continued to just hang with me, rather than playing with the other dogs, until we encountered a lovely little Airedale bitch. She was delighted to play with Dancer and they ran for a good bit, then Dancer and I made our way back through the park and home, with Dancer once again expected to behave nicely on leash.

I normally train two or three times a week at the barn and with Debbie. Adding in the five minutes per dog every day and trying to vary the location has really made a difference that I can see already.

It’s a truly bad photo of something very nice…

Everyone who knows Dancer knows she has cat issues. And my son’s cat has been living in the guest room, and making poor Dancer completely nuts. Every time I spend half an hour with the cat, Dancer sniffs me all over, quite furiously. Today I decided, for some reason, that I’d let them meet each other, for the first time in almost three years.

(By the way, if you’re wondering, that’s a left-hand photo taken with an iPhone. Best I could do. Even that took six tries.)

Two videos from the CPE trial

Dancer’s first level 1 run in standard

Dancer’s second level 1 run in standard

Four Paws Fur Fun CPE trial

I’ll just say that level one CPE has really low standards. Dancer Qd in 9 out of 10 runs; Elly Qd in 3 of 5. Elly had a pretty good weekend, feeling good enough that she did four runs with enthusiasm and verve… I took her off after the first obstacle in one run, gave her a massage–she recovered enough to win in her next run.

The high point of my weekend was a pair of standard runs. Dancer got her level 1 standard title on Saturday (cheap thrills, two runs, two Qs, one title) and there weren’t any moveups so I thought I’d really push the envelope on the two Sunday runs. On the first one, I led out lateral to the third obstacle–it was two jumps to a tunnel–as we’d been working on. I was about twenty feet lateral. I released her and she just flew down the line, got the “out” jump after the tunnel, and cantered over the dog walk… and I forgot to say stop and she missed the contact (but great opening!). 27.3 seconds for 121 yards. The course was reversed, so the next round began with jump-frame. I led out to the end of the frame, and then I tried to move as fast as I could, with as much distance as possible. She did the course in 26.01 seconds, and I remembered to say STOP on the dogwalk and she did get the contact. It was fun pushing us both that way. I have videos of both runs and I’ll try to get them up on Youtube sometime today… That’ll be a learning experience for me.

(I also got a huge kick out of the being the only handler in level 1 to attempt and get the 7-point obstacle in Snooker.)

The low point of my weekend: there were FIVE standard poodles at the trial. Four of them from Elly’s breeder (and closely related to Elly). Two of them have hip dysplasia–diagnosed with x-ray. And I had the sad task, after watching a 19-month-old standard refuse to jump, of asking the handler if she’d considered the possibility that her dog also has hip dysplasia. Great way to introduce yourself to someone. “Hi, my dog is related to yours and she’s got all these health problems, some of which are genetic. Have you thought about the possibility your expensive dog might have some genetic problems?”

Official results:
Dancer completed all legs in level 1 so she now has a new title: CL1:
Standard level 1: 132 yards, SCT 59 sec, 33.09 sec, 1st
Standard level 1: 132 yards, SCT 59 sec, 34.08 sec, 1st
Standard level 1: 121 yards, SCT 54 sec, 26.01 sec, 1st
Jumpers level 1: 90 yards, SCT 33 sec, 19.08 sec, 1st
FullHouse level 1: 23 points, 35.39 sec, 1st
Wildcard level 2: 91 yards, SCT 41 sec, 44.39 sec, 3 faults, 1st place
Colors level 2: 77 yards, SCT 39, 21.26 sec, 5 faults, 2nd place
Jackpot level 1: 41 points, 39.55 (time permitted 40 sec), 1st place
Snooker level 1: 44 points, 39 seconds, 1st place

Elly:
Standard level 1: 121 yards, SCT 54 sec, 41.27 sec, 1st
Standard level 1: 132 yards, SCT 59 sec, 58.58 sec, 5 faults, 2nd
Wildcard level 1: 91 yards, SCT 46 sec, 47.61 sec, 1 fault, 1st

Am I a bad person?

Dancer has the hiccups, and I think it’s funny.

Does that make me a bad person? Really, a dog with the hiccups… she looks so confused after every hiccup.

Wait! Okay! Come! Wait! Sit! Okay! Come!

My five minutes today with Elly was all about keeping the reward rate so high that she didn’t have time to get distracted. There are mice in the barn (at least I assume it’s mice and not some bigger rodent)–always an attractive nuisance as far as Miss Elinor Grubby Paws is concerned.

So I started with two handfuls of treats as soon as I opened the crate door. I made her stay and wait to be released from the crate, and I gave her a treat as soon as she came to me. Then I stopped, asked for a wait, then released, then said come, then rewarded, over and over and over as I walked around the barn. I threw in an occasional sit-down-sit sequence and a few tunnels and two jumps, and I got rid of the last of twenty or so treats right in front of her crate and sent her back into her crate. I didn’t give her time to get distracted. The whole thing probably took about 3 minutes. I did three sessions like that.

In between sessions with Elly, I worked with Dancer. I’m trying to work Dancer at as high an energy level as possible, unlike Elly, whom I’m trying to work in a calm, focused state. I’ve discovered I get one high energy tug session, one high energy ball session, and two medium energy food sessions–although I’m working on increasing the energy of the food sessions.

Debbie had a new way of training discriminations. Set up the dog about ten feet the other side of the choice, then I walked past the choice and faced the dog. Standing very still, I called out “tunnel”. Rewarded only if she chose the tunnel. Boy, was that hard! We got a few correct choices, and we’re going to work on it more next week.