Flying Poodles

Rush went to the dentist

I took Rush to the canine dentist to follow up. 43 pounds. His teeth are coming in very nicely indeed; no issues.

Official results, NADAC November 19-20

Elite Jumpers Skilled 126 yards, 26.50 seconds, Q, 4.75 yps
Elite Jumpers Skilled 133 yards, 29.25 seconds, Q, 4.54 yps
Elite Regular Skilled 177 yards, 53.5 seconds, 5 point Q, 3.3 yps
Elite Regular Skilled 177 yards, 49.03 seconds, Q, 3.6 yps
Elite Regular Skilled 179 yards, 49.69 seconds, Q, 3.6 yps

Beginning agility training

I’ve been working very hard on agility foundation skills. Things like a solid line stay in front of equipment, coming to the side indicated by my hand, circle work (staying by my side as I walk/trot/change direction), following tug and toy rules, and a good recall. Relaxing in the crate at a trial. Rush is getting pretty good at these things. I’ve also worked on tunnel skills, since I firmly believe that standard poodle puppies need to be introduced to the tunnel early so that they never learn that they’re so tall they might hit the top of the tunnel. Oh yes, I’ve also had Rush balancing on the Bosu ball, to build core strength, balance, and comfort with motion.

He won’t be allowed to jump more than a jump bar on the ground until he’s at least a year old, and he won’t jump more than his elbows until his growth plates close at 14-to-15 months old. Weave poles? Again, not until he’s at least a year old: too much strain on the joints.

But now that he’s six months old, Debbie says he’s ready to learn the beginnings of his contact behavior. I have decided on a stopped contact–two-on-two-off (reasons why, below*). Yesterday, we started by signaling him to come around my hip and jump onto the end of the dogwalk, with my hand in his collar. I stopped him in place, about two feet up the dogwalk, then took my hand out of his collar and waited. The first step, drop a treat at the bottom of the dogwalk, ideally dropping it right where his head should be if he does a perfect stop. (This food dropping thing is the hardest part of the exercise.) When his first foot hits the ground, another treat in place, second foot, another treat in place; all of this without my moving. (This part will teach him to move quickly to the bottom of the board.) Once he stops at the bottom of the contact, with both front feet off the board and both back feet on the board, I can move, step away a bit, and come back to reward a few times, then release to me. (This part teaches him to stay at the bottom of the board until released.)

It was a lot to think about for me. I was slow with treat delivery. I moved when I shouldn’t have. I didn’t move when I should have. I let him run up and turn around. However, by the end of my lesson, I was getting better at it. I do think, though, before I start a session of contact training, I will need to stop and visualize walking through all the training steps.

*Why a stopped contact behavior: I’ve been thinking about whether or not to train a stopped contact since I knew Nickel was pregnant with my puppy. Debbie suggested that a really great trainer could train a running contact and wouldn’t it be cool for a big standard poodle to have a running contact. Oh yes, very cool. BUT… I’ve been watching Rush, and when he was three months old he liked to run down the stairs and leap from the third stair up to the ground. At four months, the fourth stair. At five months, he leapt from the fifth stair to the back of the couch, just for the fun of it. Last night, he leapt from the back of one couch to the back of the next couch. I can’t imagine Rush not wanting to jump from the top of the a-frame, just for fun. Even with a stopped contact, I expect the temptation to be strong.

Trying too hard…

I spent the weekend at a CPE trial in Corvallis, OR. The usual dusty horse arena. This one had the added fillip of a recent one-ring circus, which had left one corner of the arena reeking of cat pee; the assumption was that it was big-cat pee, and quite a few of the dogs had “issues” with that corner. Dancer did not; I was pleased by that. Elly stayed home; I have no idea what she would have thought, but my guess is: “Oh my god, I have got to roll in that!”

I went to the trial Saturday morning, needing just one Q in level 2 Standard to qualify for nationals. Deadline to qualify is February 27th, 2012. I left the trial Sunday evening, five Qs to the better… and still needed just one Q in level 2 Standard to qualify for nationals. Arrgghh. Dancer had four off-courses in the first Standard run on Saturday (but got all her contacts and did the teeter besides); every single one of them was my fault. Sunday’s Standard run was a huge improvement. Nice contacts, great weaves… and only two off-courses, both my fault, of course. That is, of course, what happens when you really want a Q; your handling goes to shit.

Dancer, November 2011, photo by Joe Camp

Let’s see: Q and 1st in level 4 Jumpers; Q and 1st in level 3 Colors; three obstacles and out in level 3 Snooker (it was a tough snooker!); Q and 2nd in level 3 Jackpot (a gift from the judge, who missed Dancer’s leap off the a-frame–or maybe she got a toenail in, who knows); Q in level 3 Wildcard; Q and 1st in level 3 Fullhouse.

“Vegetarian Chicken Camp”

Greta Kaplan is teaching an intensive clicker training skills class, which of course I signed up for. (It is an abstract of Bob Bailey’s Chicken Camp, but no chickens are present, hence, “Vegetarian”.) Last night was focused on developing better clicking and treat delivery skills. It was quite helpful, I thought, to be timed to determine how the size of the treat affected our ability to deliver treats effectively. Greta also observed our clicking to make sure we weren’t including any extra body language. Apparently, I twitch my click-side shoulder when I click. Who knew?

(I knew my timing was bad: Debbie took my clicker away about two months ago. She told me my timing was so bad I was confusing poor Rush. She suggested just reinforcing the behavior I want. “You’ll get to the same place, and probably sooner.” Since then I’ve only used the clicker for behaviors that don’t depend on great timing. I’m hoping this class will help with the timing issues.)

I was proud of Rush. A new place, new dogs, 3 of them also puppies, and he stayed focused on me and working hard almost the whole class. Towards the end, we both kind of faded.

Neat and clean

I spent the morning grooming all three dogs. The results:

Elly, Rush, and Dancer

Rush continues to grow…

Rush will be six months old in 3 days (on the 11th). Today he weighs 41 pounds. He still looks lean, runs faster than I ever expected, and goes through tunnels like a border collie on steroids.

Working on the new list…

I’ve been working on several things from the new training list, as well as training some foundation skills that are needed for other things on the list.

I’ve asked several people how they train LEFT and RIGHT. A surprisingly large number start with a spin, but I don’t like that idea (I don’t want a spin, I want a 90 degree turn). Susan Garrett sits down with the dog between her knees facing away from her and taps the hip on the side, then clicks for the head whip. Joan Armstrong has the dog sitting and stands behind the dog, then presents a toy on the side she’s training and plays tug when the dog comes in for the toy; lure twice, then wait and reward for the turn the third time. Andrea Dexter and Susan Perry (and some other NADAC people) use gates–setting up the turn, teaching it, then naming it. I’m sure there are other methods out there. Everyone trains one direction, then the other.

I’ve decided that before I can train LEFT or RIGHT, Rush needs to be willing to sit with me standing behind him. I mentioned that I hadn’t trained that really solid sit… I’ve been working on it, and we’re getting there. (It’s also useful for LOOK BACK and SWITCH.) I haven’t decided whether I want to train SWITCH or LEFT/RIGHT. I need to ask advice on that one.

I’ve been doing circle work and THIS WAY/THAT WAY work. I just walk around with Rush at my side, doing front crosses, rear crosses (THAT WAY!), post turns (THIS WAY)—and rewarding Rush when he does what I ask.

Rush has been very high-energy today (I guess walking more than two miles out at the Delta isn’t enough exercise!) and so I decided to channel that energy into trying for a better front-foot target. I used Susan Garrett’s “big blanket method” a few months ago but wasn’t happy with the results. Rush just didn’t seem to get what I wanted. I dropped it for a while. Today, I got out the blanket again, got a bowl of chicken heart treats (mixed with kibble), and started with the blanket (a big piece of yellow polar fleece) completely unfolded.

Every time Rush’s front paw (either) hit the blanket, I said “yes!” and tossed a treat off the blanket. Every few times, I folded the blanket smaller. In about twenty treats, the blanket was down to about 6″ x 12″ and getting to have too many folds. I picked it up, took it inside, and cut a piece off the blanket about 6″ x 12″. I put it down and Rush immediately stepped on it. More yes!-and-treats ensued.

Tomorrow I’ll do the whole thing over again, just to reinforce it. I need to decide what a good cue for the behavior is. Maybe “FEET!” or “STEP ON IT!” (which is pretty long) or maybe just “POUNCE!”

In which Elly persuades a squirrel to come down out of a tree….

Elly is obsessed with squirrels. She thinks they’re the best thing in the world ever to chase. Way better than cats. If she could climb a tree to get a squirrel down, she would. She’s tried, several times.

There’s a squirrel in the tree in our neighbor’s yard. It’s a pine tree, of course, and it’s full of pine nuts.

Mostly, Elly sits on our side of the fence–she hasn’t figured out how to get out in a few weeks now–and watches the squirrel, silently willing it to come down and jump into her mouth. She comes in only when I go out there, take her collar, and bring her in. When I do that, she breathes a sigh of relief and comes in and sleeps for a while. “My name is Elly, and I’m addicted to squirrels. Please take me away from them!”

This has been going on for weeks now. I’ve looked in the tree but I rarely see more than a glimpse of the squirrel.

This time was different. When I went to take Elly’s collar, I heard a chirrup, chirrup sound from the tree, and I could see Elly was tracking something quite specific in the tree. I looked up and there was the fattest squirrel ever, leaning over a branch and laughing at Elly. It was about five feet above Elly’s nose and I swear he was talking to Elly, in the rudest way.

“I’m quite sure you can’t catch me!” he said, practically thumbing his nose at her. “I can see that fence, and I can see your person right there. And you have to wear a COLLAR! Nanner, nanner. A fence and a collar! Ha! What are you, some sort of domestic animal?”

“Come closer and say that again. Dare ya!”

It might work, she’s already gotten the squirrel to come down into plain sight.

Wild Puppy!

I woke up this morning to a new Rush. Yesterday he was calm and cool, listening attentively at class; this morning he’s a whirling dervish, dying to tug, taunting poor Elly and Dancer until they snap at him, running wild all over the house. He just settled down for the first time since 6:30. High energy!

It might be my fault. I shaved him down yesterday (he was pretty itchy, and it helped last time, so I thought I’d try again). He was lovely on the grooming table, relaxed and even willing to let me shave his face without a big fight. Jay fed him treats as I finished up his feet, and the whole thing took less than 45 minutes. But I did find that the very thick hair on his legs took some work to trim, which made me wonder if that might be part of the itchiness. He does seem to be less itchy today, though.

Yesterday at class he was a wonder. He was so focused on me! When we practiced recalls, the instructor wanted to make it difficult, so I gave her Rush’s favorite tug toy and she tried to tempt him with that. It didn’t work–he came right to me, and quickly! When we practiced loose-leash walking, he pranced beautifully next to me, ignoring the other dogs, bouncing and proud of himself. Finally, in his sit-wait, he let me walk a circle all the way around him, without moving a single paw. What a good boy!

However, I’m assuming with this burst of energy and misbehavior, I may have to re-teach him everything!