Dream Dogz

52 Weeks of Mika 2/52

2012-01-16T16:19:00.002-05:00

2/52

Sleepy girl!

I was going to edit out that crown molding on the ceiling, but I didn't have time. Oh well :)

55mm, 1/320s, f/5.6, ISO 400. Edits: none

(Might have to skip the next few weeks because of exams.)

52 Weeks of Mika 1/52

2012-01-08T09:24:00.004-05:00

I've wanted to do this for years, and this year I finally am! I'll be posting a photo of her every week throughout 2012. If it works out, next year I'll do it for Wall-e. All photos are taken with my Canon EOS Rebel T3, using my 18-55mm kit lens (the only lens I have so far). Critique is welcomed! :)

***

1/52

Pretty much what Mika does every time I step outside with my camera; bark! She loves modeling. :)

I wish I could see her eyes better in this photo; something that's hard to do with a black dog....

30mm, 1/4000s, f/5.6, ISO 1600. Edits: cropped

Mika and Wall-e Training Jan. 2, '12 video

2012-01-03T17:03:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfDeh3Cz768

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T16:35:00.004-05:00

This is how the dogs spent their New Year's Eve:

(Sorry for the bad quality; taken with my phone)

Really looking forward to this year :) After all, every year is special! Best wishes to everyone in 2012!!

2012

2011-12-31T23:03:00.004-05:00

It is 11:03pm. I am spending part of the last hour of 2011 making plans for 2012. :) Sitting on the couch beside Mika, who is sleeping. Wall-e is sleeping nearby; he still likes having his own space while sleeping, except for the odd occasion when he lies on the couch beside me.

Plans, plans, plans!

First off, I'd like to say that although I place limited importance on titles, I still use titles as a way to focus our training; so when I say that we'll be trying to reach for a "such-and-such" title in 2012, I'm really just using that as a way to focus our training sessions.

Mika

SGDC (Starters Games Dog of Canada) title
- We're 4/6 for this title. The two Q's that we need are both in Starters Snooker, which we've ever done a few runs in; for us to reach this title, we'll really need to get our Snooker skills in order. So really, I need to get my handling in order! We'll be training through lots of handling exercises from Clean Run Magazine. I have to concentrate on making my handling more fluid and less choppy. At least Mika is back to having an awesome obstacle focus/handler focus balance. I remember back in 2009 when she was insanely obstacle-focused, and had her moments where she'd spot a line of jumps and, ZOOM, just snag 'em all.

AG.I.J. (Agility Intermediate Jumper) title
- 1/3. This is a CKC title. I like CKC courses because they give Mika a bit of a break from her technical Masters runs in AAC; Mika is in the Intermediate level in CKC, so she gets to run simpler courses. Not much to work on for this title; but it will be a bit of a challenge to achieve because we'll only be doing 4 Intermediate JWW runs in 2012, since there is only one local CKC trial. Sooo, we'll have to Q twice out of the 4 runs. The pressure will be on! :) I haven't run under pressure in a long time, since the 2009 AAC Regionals actually (I wasn't even running under pressure at Nationals, since I had no goals for Nats). It'll be interesting to see what happens when I push myself and Mika. Of course, my #1 goal will be to make sure that Mika has a blast; but I do love to see her reach her full potential.

Wall-e

ADC (Agility Dog of Canada) title
- 2/3. Wall-e has all the skills to achieve this title; we just need that final Q! He does, however, have a few things that could use some brushing up; namely, 1. not running by the weave entrance like he's been doing lately, 2. being more clear on his 2on2off criteria, and 3. collecting more upon approving the table so that he doesn't slide off.

SGDC title
- 2/6. He needs his two Starters Gamblers Q's and his Snooker Q's (which he hasn't even tried yet). His distance could use some work; we haven't worked on it in a while. For Snooker, I simply need to improve my handling, like with Mika. Wall-e is turning out to be a bit more difficult to handle as he gains obstacle focus; it's like Mika gave him a bit of her old obstacle focus!

AG.N.J. title
- 1/3. Just a fun title, shouldn't be too hard.

See you in 2012!

EDIT: Forgot to add that I'll also be preparing both dogs for the 2013 Regionals and Nationals. Although we won't be able to attend in 2012, we'll finally be able to go again in 2013; I'm still trying to decide whether we should or not. Mika is ready, since she did well at the 2009 regs and nats; but Wall-e isn't ready yet. I'll be working a lot on his distance skills to prepare him for the Masters Gamblers runs that he'd see at regs (and possibly at nats, if he would qualify).

2011 Year in Review video

2011-12-31T11:21:00.003-05:00

I tried to include equal amounts of each dog, since Mika didn't trial as much as Wall-e this year. :)

It's a new channel, by the way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hndpyP7Z27I&feature=share

EDIT: Oh, and Happy New Year's Eve! :)

Mr. Handsome-Eyes

2011-12-29T11:43:00.002-05:00

Merry belated Christmas!

2011-12-28T11:01:00.003-05:00

Wall-e Advanced Jumpers July 30/11

2011-08-26T09:07:00.003-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78u6ftc2McY

Wall-e trial July 17, 2011

2011-08-09T14:07:00.001-05:00

Wall-e's first run. NQ:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wr6Yf-lGUw

Mika got to train a bit in the practice ring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AR4W0yivhY

Well, this run was interesting! The umbrella that one of the ring crew was using for shade fell over (you can't see it in the video) and Wall-e got startled by it. He stopped on top of the A-frame and just stared! He was in such a trance that he was completely startled when I gently touched him to pick him up so that we could leave the ring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuReICXiszk

The judge kindly let us have a re-run. NQ, but I was SOO relieved that Wall-e wasn't scared in the least:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5fsMT7Vxfg

Mika and Wall-e fun match July 8/11

2011-08-03T10:09:00.002-05:00

Am I ever behind on posts...wow.

I'll just post a couple of clips:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFYvjG7wmek

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcn45gtaAT8

Mika's eyes are (mostly) in the clear!

2011-07-29T18:07:00.007-05:00

Haven't posted in a LONG time; I've been doing a summer course that just ended a few days ago. But now I'm back, hopefully! :)

I've been worried these past couple of days because I noticed that Mika had white/hazy spots on her eyes. I'd noticed a tiny dot on her left eye a couple of weeks ago, but since it was only on that one eye I'd assumed it was a scratch. But over the weeks, that tiny dot got bigger, until it turned into this (taken two days ago):

Brought her to the vet today. The first thing she did was shining lights into her eyes to see where exactly the spots were located. Thankfully, the spots were on the cornea and not in the lenses, which would indicate something more serious (such as cataracts). PHEW!!

She then did two tests; first something called a "schirmer tear test," where she stuck a thin strip of paper into each of Mika's eyes and waited for tears to be produced; the tears were supposed to turn the paper blue, which they did. The second test was the fluorescence eye stain, where she put green dye into Mika's eyes and then shone lights on them to make sure that the dye didn't pool anywhere where the spots where (which would indicate holes, or ulcers). Mika passed that test with flying colours too.

So finally, the vet concluded that Mika either has corneal degeneration or corneal dystrophy. The difference between these two conditions is that corneal dystrophy is hereditary, while corneal degeneration is not. To my understanding, both diseases involve cholesterol or calcium deposits on the cornea of the eye. These usually do not impair the sight and so do not require treatment. Woohoo!!

But Mika had her blood panel done a few months ago, and her cholesterol and calcium levels were perfect, which is odd, considering that both of the conditions involve calcium or cholesterol deposits; so the vet referred us to an ophthalmologist for a second opinion.

Mika still had some green tears coming from her left eye when we got home, thanks to the tests! I still think she has the most beautiful eyes in the world, regardless of whether there are spots on them. (And the spot is hard to see in this photo anyway because of the reflection in her eye.)

Note the green tears:

On another note, I was very happy that Mika seemed more relaxed at this appointment and didn't refuse a single treat!

Mika and Wall-e trial July 3, 2011

2011-07-04T05:34:00.002-05:00

It was so hot -- 100 degrees F -- but my dogs did well considering.

This was my first time running Steeplechase at a trial, and of course my dogs' first time too!

Wall-e had a good run. I liked his first A-frame. He didn't stop in 2on2off on his second AF, so I asked him to hop in position before going on. Then something happened in the weaves; he started to enter correctly, but didn't collect enough to make the turn to the third pole. I guess we should start concentrating on on-side weave entries in training! :) Video of the run below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1pkDb8xQUw

Mika was amazing and driven even though it was so hot! She is a heat-sensitive dog, but the only part of the run where the heat seemed to affect her was at the end, in the weaves (she slowed down just a bit). And I was so happy with her AF; her first true running AF at this venue!! Q and 2nd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zyh99CDY1c

Wall-e fun match June 26, 2011

2011-06-26T14:30:00.002-05:00

Amazing weather today, cool and breezy! I hope it stays like that all summer! (I probably just jinxed it :)

I only ran Wall-e at this fun match. Mika is probably heading into semi-retirement from trials and fun matches (I'll explain that in a future post).

I did run Mika over a few jumps in the practice ring, though, because she just won't settle down until she gets her turn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0jQecpmyDA

With Wall-e, I ran the Advanced Standard course twice. We ran the course mostly as numbered, except that I added an extra jump before the teeter to make the angle less sharp. I really don't want Wall-e to injure himself on a teeter again! I also ran him at 16" because he'll be running 16" at trials from now on. (I've just been running him at 10" to help ease him into the trial atmosphere.)

The first time, he broke his stay, but I kept going. We'll have to work on stays a lot in training. He also lifted his elbows off the table and self-released on the dog walk! I guess I haven't been proofing stays enough. Other than the self-release, his dog walk WAS beautiful, though. I used a target to help him because his DW's weren't so great at his last trial, and I think having the target there really did help. The video of the run is shown below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKDhMvsMgpM

I really worked on his stays during our second try at the course. The "judge" (the owner of the facility) suggested that I lead out more confidently, which helped a lot. Thanks Sue! When we finally ran the course, it was beautiful; Wall-e was fast and we ran the course clean. He kept his elbows down on the table too, and didn't self-release on the DW. I also loved how he kind of "pounced" into his 2on2off on the teeter! Run below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9CiaWoWtzQ

"Will You Catch Me Now?" video

2011-06-25T06:52:00.004-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOU_-FKblMo&feature=channel_video_title

A collection of various training clips!

Kathy, at the end of the video you'll see the set-up for your weave challenge #1; we haven't worked through all the maneuvers yet (we're having some difficulties with the recall), but I hope to in the near future!! :)

Mika and Wall-e trial June 12, 2011

2011-06-12T20:09:00.003-05:00

FANTASTIC day!

Wall-e Starters Jumpers
18.97 seconds, fastest time yet!! Q, 1st, and Best Run in Special; so Wall-e is now in Adv. Jumpers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWhbhP97x_M

Mika Masters Gamblers
Good run; Mika hit all three of her dog walk contacts in the opening, and right in the middle of the yellow too! No gamble.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUzL2juEN8Q

Mika Masters Jumpers
Q (and 1s); can you believe it!? But more importantly, we had fun and I felt so connected with my girl!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjsT6kKa9IM

Wall-e Starters Standard 1
Wall-e's very first Standard run, ever. He watched me so well. Highlights: he did the teeter (wasn't sure if he would jump off or not, even though we've worked through his little teeter problem), stayed down on the table (I thought he might lift his elbows off), and didn't pop out of the weaves! Q, 1st, and Best Run!
You might notice that he sniffed on the table after the table count was finished. This was because a dog (a female dog, actually!) had peed on the table a couple of dogs before.
As for his contacts, they were good. On the dog walk, he stopped in more of a 1-rear-toe-on position instead of 2on2off; only his back toes stayed on the contact. He realized this and backed up to go into the proper position, but backed up a bit too far so that his whole body was actually on the contact. So I waited for him to go forward again...and he gave a cute little impatient woof as he stepped forward to finally go into "correct" 2o2o! His A-frame was nice, but for some reason he let his butt plop back into a Sit after he stopped in his 2o2o. Still, it was pretty fast! Overall, I was so, so pleased with his very first Standard run!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl_3t5Qy4Ck

Wall-e Starters Standard 2
Another nice run! I did sacrifice a Q in order to train in the ring; he slipped a teeny bit as he went up the DW, and then forgot to stop in 2o2o when he descended the down plank. My initial impulse was to keep going, but then I stopped myself in order to ask Wall-e to hop in 2o2o position.
My personal rule with my dogs is to always, always keep going whenever they make mistakes (especially at trials)...except when it comes to Wall-e's 2o2o. I have to maintain criteria or else he'll think that he can do running contacts (which I'd LOVE, but I know that they'd break down over time). I was originally planning on bringing Wall-e back in a loop of obstacles to the beginning of the DW, and then doing the whole DW again; but the judge told us during the briefing that if we did this, we'd get a whistle, which might have freaked Wall-e out...so that was out! You'll see in the video that he had no problem at all with hopping back on the end of the DW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dVwe_S2DhE

Wall-e Starters Standard 3
Another fun run with the Wall-e boy! I was pleasantly surprised when he came back to me after the second tunnel, at 0:14 in the video. We actually did a very similar sequence in training last week, and I didn't use a strong enough off-arm signal, so Wall-e took the DW the first time. But at this trial I knew that I had to really use my off-arm, and Wall-e read it right away and took the jump near me! The rest of the run was great as well. He could have had a faster AF, but we'll work on that in training.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q62A-NhPQHI

The reasons

2011-06-10T18:15:00.006-05:00

What makes a stressed dog?

Genetics? Environment?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I post on a couple of Yahoo lists about my dogs' fears, and also as I finish up my "introduction to social sciences" class at school. According to my class,

Genetics + Environment = an individual

Although the class focuses on humans, of course I generalize everything to dogs :) And I've heard of this equation before, referring to dogs. It's gotten me thinking about why my dogs are the way they are.

Mika came to me as an 8 week old puppy. She was shy and cautious from the start, and her initial reaction to things that frightened her was to run away. I remember when we were in Petcetera one day (a Canadian version of PetSmart) and there was a big, black brindle lab mix. We were walking Mika behind it, and then the dog turned around and lunged and Mika. My puppy, about 10-12 weeks old at the time, ran away screaming. And so began her fear of big black labs.

Today, she is fearful of all dogs; but while she can handle the average dog approaching her without "blowing up," if that dog is a big black dog, she'll go absolutely nuts in panic. Coincidence? I think not.

We started puppy kindergarten with Mika when she was 18 weeks old. During the puppy play sessions, while most of the other puppies tumbled around, chasing each other and wrestling, Mika would spend her time hiding under the chairs.

When Mika was 6 months old, she began to bark at other dogs, and people. Fight instead of flight; a typical terrier response!

And I also believe that the "activity" that Mika was bred for -- conformation -- played a part in her reactive tendencies. Terriers in conformation shows are encouraged to "spar" with each other in the ring; basically, acting tough and showing the beginnings of reactivity. I wasn't aware of this sparring technique until a few years ago. No doubt Mika has some at least slightly reactive dogs in her lineage, as both of her parents were conformation Champions.

And Wall-e came to me as a confident 5.5 month old puppy. I could bring him anywhere and nothing seemed to faze him. He always showed a bit of nervousness/awareness when he heard heating fans in dog training buildings, but no true fear; just the typical sheltie sensitivity to the environment. Overall, I called him my dog with "no self-preservation" and he was an outstanding example of a sheltie without any fears (unlike so many fearful shelties). That is, until his bad experience, which changed him into a fearful dog. So Wall-e's situation is a bit simpler in terms of what caused his fearfulness, unlike Mika, who has so many elements that made her who she is today.

Some people say that if both of somebody's dogs (or all, if they have more than two) have the same "behavioural problems," then that person obviously doesn't know how to prevent or fix the problem. But what if things just happened that way? I'm not perfect, but I "did everything right" with Mika during her puppyhood; socialized her, did puppy kindergarten, brought her everywhere and anywhere. And yet, she still became reactive. I've recently read about the new belief that shy dogs should not be over-socialized because this could cause their fears to increase...so maybe that was my mistake with Mika. But to be honest, I think she still would have become reactive anyway, since she'd been showing fear ever since I brought her home.

And Wall-e had a bad experience, which of course couldn't have been my fault, since it was just a "freak" thing (maybe that's too big a word, but oh well) that nobody could have expected.

It's just gotten me thinking.

And I don't know how much longer I can call Wall-e a "fearful dog" because this year I've been seeing so much of the old Wall-e, the confident Wall-e I had before the bad experience. On walks, he wags his tail when children approach him, smiles at women in hijabs (another one of his previous fears that I haven't mentioned), and confidently turns to me for guidance when he hears a scary noise. I know that Mika will never be a completely confident dog because she was never confident to begin with; but I'm getting my Wall-e boy back.

Anyway, these are just some of my random thoughts. Do I hope that my next dog will have no fears? Not really; I love working with my fearful dogs. Seeing them face a situation with a big smile, that would previously cause them to fight or flight (depending on the dog :), is something that I wouldn't change for the world. There are few things in my life more satisfying than helping my dogs learn how to deal with their fears and truly live.

What that sequence was supposed to look like!

2011-06-07T14:42:00.005-05:00

In my last post, I posted a video of a (failed :) sequence that I ran with Wall-e. I also ran this same sequence with Mika, but didn't post the video, so I decided to post it now to give you a better idea of what the sequence was supposed to look like.

We ran the same sequence two different days. This was our first try on June 3. I called her off the last jump to practice our call-offs; she did wonderful!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x9hX4P9WCk

And this is when we ran it on June 5 (the same day that Wall-e ran it in my previous post). I rewarded her early because she had a great A-frame even without her usual prop. (I usually put a jump bar at the end of the AF to help her hit it and retain her muscle memory, but this time I forgot.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRHiOGf1BXs

I still wasn't perfect, but I'm so much more used to handling Mika than Wall-e, and you can tell! :)

Our recent training

2011-06-05T10:42:00.004-05:00

First off, I wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who gave me advice for our gambling and snookering skills (post here). I've been using everyone's suggestions with Mika during our training this past month!

We have a big trial coming up next weekend. Well, big for Wall-e; he'll be doing five runs for the first time (the most he's ever done at a trial is two, but he's done three at fun matches). 2 Starters Jumpers and 3 Starters Standards. It'll be his first time running in Standard, and his first time doing the A-frame and dog walk at a trial. Looking forward to it!! Mika will be doing a Masters Jumpers and a Masters Gamblers, although I might switch the Gamblers for a Snooker instead. It'll probably be hot next weekend, and I'm sure Mika won't be dying to run a 60-second Gamblers run in the stifling heat.

I've spent the last week preparing Wall-e for his Standard runs. His weaves have been funny lately; he's been popping out halfway through. So I've been training them with guide wires. Here is one of our reps from today (we did three in total, but this was the best):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-jJFHWBIxE

We also ran a jump/tunnel/AF sequence that we ran on Friday as well. I need to learn how to handle and support my dog; I pulled Wall-e off a few jumps. Here's the sequence; I'd love to hear any suggestions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLuEOz6jYqg

I'm really happy with how much his table has improved, though! His elbows actually touch the table now, lol, and he's much more relaxed about it than he used to be (he used to occasionally lick his lips when he got on the table).

Then it was Mika's turn. She didn't get the 90 degree weave entry and she had a bit of trouble with the weaves in general. I don't think she likes the guide wires very much; I won't use them with her next time. On her third and final rep, she entered at the second pole and actually made the effort to weave UNDER all of the guide wires! Poor girl was trying so hard, haha; she weaved under the wires for the first 11 poles, which is when I just threw her food tube because I felt bad for her. But she still had some speedy weaves.

She also did great at the sequence and had a nice AF! We ran the sequence fast and clean.

Mika and Wall-e trial May 27, 2011

2011-06-04T14:55:00.003-05:00

I knew I was forgetting something! I forgot to post about this trial.

Wall-e ran first. This was Wall-e's second indoor trial; he did another Starters Jumpers run. The run was good, although he was pretty slow, for him. We NQ'd because of a missed jump.

Mika ran a Starters Snooker course. The opening included a teeter at a 90 degree entry, which Mika did WONDERFUL with!! So glad that all of our plank entry training is paying off. I forgot my opening and did two reds in a row, which got us whistled off! :)

This may have been our last indoor trial. I'll talk about that in a future post.

Dogs: a misunderstood species

2011-06-03T14:13:00.005-05:00

I just posted this on an aggression list that I belong to, in response to someone who said that the most respectful way to treat a dog is to "treat him like a dog," with corrections. I had to reply, and I thought I'd post my reply here because this is an issue that I feel very strongly about. I could discuss this for pages and pages, but I'll spare you all from that :) I'm always trying to learn more about dog behaviour, emotions, etc., and I don't consider myself an expert at all; but I feel so angry when I read about people who still believe the old-fashioned opinions on how to treat dogs.

Treating him "like a dog"? What does that mean exactly? How people treat dogs is often based on tradition, on history, on how their parents taught them, etc. Is using collar corrections treating him like a dog, or is rewarding behaviour with treats treating him like a dog? What about ear pinches, or on the opposite end of the scale, pleasant ear rubs?

I'm not sure if I've made my point or not, but I fail to understand the "traditional" belief that dogs need to be treated as little demons who always try to undermine our authority. If you watch, truly watch, dogs interacting with their people for any given length of time, you'll see that this is not the case.

At agility trials, I see countless misunderstood dogs. I see dogs who lunge at other dogs after showing stress signals, and receive a strict muzzle grabbing from their handler. I see dogs who trot around the ring, sniffing in an attempt to relieve their stress, after which their handler takes them off the course, berating them for "blowing them off." And I see the dogs who painfully walk through the course, appearing as though they would rather be anywhere else than in this stressful environment, but who bear it because they know they are not allowed to leave.

I have successfully diminished my Miniature Schnauzer's genetic-based reactivity to other dogs without any physical or verbal corrections whatsoever. My schnauzer used to start screaming and barking whenever she saw other dogs, whether they were two feet away or two hundred feet away; now, she sees a dog approaching her and turns to me.

Dogs understand reward-based training. What dogs don't understand is being grabbed, yanked, pinched, or jerked for simply being honest. Dogs are always honest, and they always try to communicate with us, but we humans often miss it -- unless we're looking.

I don't pretend to be an expert, but with all due respect, I do wish that people would try to consider the newer methods of dog training.

EDIT: And now I learn that the moderators of the list didn't even publish my response. Talk about bias.

Still stunning at 17

2011-05-31T15:27:00.003-05:00

Our beautiful cat Shadow.

Happy 3rd birthday Wall-e!

2011-05-30T06:16:00.006-05:00

It's amazing how fast time flies. Yesterday Wall-e celebrated his 3rd -- yes, THIRD! -- birthday!

First we went to the field at 10:00am:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4XBzqGrXX4

The rest of the day was interspersed with walks and chasing cars along the fence in the backyard:

That evening, Wall-e had his "cake"; half of a muffin top. Wall-e LOVES muffins, and I'm sure he'd appreciate having the whole thing, but I was afraid he would get sick. He did have a nice-sized piece though:

Happy birthday Mister! I hope you have a fun year of agility, walks, and occasional car-chasing :)

Mika trial May 20, 2011

2011-05-23T09:37:00.005-05:00

Was it ever humid! Two Masters Gamblers runs.

They were both good. I remember at this same trial last year, it was just as humid, but Mika was running a lot slower; but today her speed and drive only decreased a bit. YAY girlie!

Didn't get the gamble in either run! :) In the first one I tried to send Mika to the tunnel, but got stuck on the line:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxYvG-SnkUs

In the second run, Mika yelped as I let her go (I started with her, like I usually do in Gamblers). I think I was accidentally pulling her back a bit too hard; I always pull her back slightly to rev her up, and she leans back in response in preparation to taking off like a rocket. (Not that she took off like a rocket at this trial, lol, because of the humidity!) I stopped running to make sure she was okay, and then we restarted the run with quite a bit more speed. This gamble was kind of impossible -- only one team got it! -- so I barely attempted it. Way over our heads! See below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QQfAsAcKMs

Open house demos May 15, 2011

2011-05-18T17:32:00.006-05:00

Our club held an open house on Sunday, with demos in agility, flyball, and disc. I ran my dogs in the agility demos (and also tried handling a club member's Border Collie in flyball...but I can't say that I did very well in that, haha!).

There were two different agility demos; a Standard run and a run called "Clockwatcher's" (in which two different dog/handler teams run sequences at the same time; whoever gets to the table first wins).

It was raining during Mika's Standard run, but she didn't care at all; she just wanted to do agility and get treats! I have to work on her startline stay; she released herself a couple of times and I had to reset her (after rewarding her for her enthusiasm, of course). There were other spectator dogs watching just 5-10 feet away from her, by the fence, but she only glanced at them a few times and remained totally focused on me! Watching her in the video, I see no signs of immense stress (the lip-licking was because of the treats I was giving her). When we finally started our run, she was wonderful!! Below is the first half of our run:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqZK4x8A1nc

The second half of our run is in a different video clip, which I haven't bothered to upload yet, but it included a really nice A-frame (even though the AF was wet).

Then Wall-e had his turn. He was, well...kind of nuts, doing things he doesn't usually do! Running past jumps, entering the weaves super-late, running behind me to go on the contacts and table...but this was his first time training on the field this year (thanks for noting that, Ashley), so it's no wonder he was acting really green. He did have a lot of fun, though!

I didn't run Mika in Clockwatcher's, but I did run Wall-e, with Helen and her great sheltie Beckett. More running past jumps! Looks like Wall-e will be going back to square one with sequencing for a while :) No matter, I enjoy these training challenges, they're what makes agility interesting. And after all, Wall-e is just telling me that I need to improve my training skills in this area. The video is below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nkmbjxeNZU

We did the Standard demo again in the afternoon. I didn't run Mika again because there were two big black dogs RIGHT next to the fence, actually right where Mika would be running towards to enter the second last tunnel; I definitely didn't want to put her in that situation. Wall-e ran again, though. His second Standard run wasn't much different than the first, but again, he did have a smile on his face the whole time, so I wasn't unhappy! But he had a BEAUTIFUL A-frame that I just had to reward. When he soared over the top, I expected him to miss his 2on2off, but nope, he stopped right when he was supposed to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c07x6zjbNjE

So it was a fun day and I now know that I have a lot to work on in terms of refreshing Wall-e's knowledge of sequencing! :)

Fun match May 14, 2011

2011-05-16T20:27:00.003-05:00

I had this big post typed up and saved it to publish later, but today I looked and all my writing was gone. Sooo, I'll just post the videos :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NyNU870S-0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH2XJyr2tag

Mika's bloodwork results

2011-05-10T16:29:00.003-05:00

Got Mika's results back today. Here are the most significant results:

Free T4: 22.9 (normal range 7.7-47.6), fine. This is the biggest reason that I got Mika tested, although I'm wondering if I should do the other tests in the thyroid panel (T3, T4, free T3, and TgAA).

ALT: 18 (normal range 24-141), vet recommended a homeopathic remedy called Genestra (Seroyal) for the adrenal glands.

Vitamin E: deficiency, vet recommended multi-vitamin by Rx Essentials.

Selenium: deficiency, multi-vitamin applies as well. Our vet said that it was interesting that I'd been concerned about Mika's thinning coat, since selenium is essential for coat and skin health, and Mika is deficient, so....Hmm.

All in all, the vet said that Mika is very very healthy for a Miniature Schnauzer of her age (6.5 years old, 7 in October), as she sees many schnauzers in her practice who have several health problems.

Need advice

2011-05-08T16:50:00.003-05:00

So out of 7 runs, (4 Masters Gamblers and 3 Starters Snookers), Mika and I haven't Q'd at all yet this year. I know it's not about the Q's, and I definitely don't place a lot of value on Q's (it's all about the fun, drive, and speed for me!!). But it would be nice to improve our game.

I need advice. How do you guys do so well in Gamblers and Snooker? I'm just kind of at a loss.

Mika trial May 7, 2011

2011-05-07T21:01:00.003-05:00

Both of us really enjoyed our Starters Snooker run today, even though it was pretty short! :)

I just loved the way Mika released from the start-line. I can picture very clearly her expression, filled with anticipation and abandon, as she flew over the jump, and then dug into the dirt to turn. It's different on the video -- you can't see her expression as she goes over the jump -- but I hope I will always remember it!

I wrapped the tire weirdly because I used our "capcapcap" cue, which means to wrap to the right, and I've admittedly never trained the cik/cap wrap cues specifically with the tire, so I was sure that Mika would back-jump it; but she didn't! But as I was clapping my hands to bring Mika towards me, my feet were pointing towards the weaves, and Mika snagged the weaves because they were the first obstacle she saw. Still, it was fun seeing her racing towards those weaves even as I was running away from them; she didn't get the entry, but staying committed to the weaves as I moved away is pretty great! Her coolness factor went up even higher than it already is :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TRZIY69q7s

First training session at the field!

2011-05-05T17:15:00.005-05:00

Today we went to the field for the first time this year, woohoo! I wanted to try out that tough sequence that I mentioned several days ago, but I'd rather not set up a sequence for only one dog to run (since Wall-e is on rest). So instead, Mika and I played around with teeter banging, angled dog walk entries, and rear crosses.

I put a jump standard under one end of the teeter to create a drop of 2-3". As soon as Mika saw the teeter, she trotted over to bang it.

Then we did two angled DW entries. I used a jump wing to help Mika straighten her body onto the DW. The first entry was about 30 degrees, and the second was about 45. We'll continue working on these in future sessions until Mika can send from angles over 90 degrees.

Finally, we worked on RC's. I'd set up the short double-RC sequence (just three jumps) from our last Snooker run on April 1. The first two reps, I just rewarded Mika for taking the tire, which she had passed by during our run at the trial. The last rep, I added the second RC (and the last jump).

Trial on Saturday, a Starters Snooker run :)

Mika's vet appointment

2011-05-04T15:36:00.002-05:00

Mika had a routine vet appointment today. It was actually the first vet appointment I've had with Mika, over the past couple of years, that didn't make me leave the hospital worried about Mika's health! It was an odd feeling to be leaving with somewhat of a sense of calm....

Mika knew where we were going right after we got out of the car. I was carrying her, and as we started walking in the direction of the vet hospital, she started screaming/barking. Poor girl wouldn't take treats and I didn't know what to do. I regret not spraying her collar with DAP; I don't know if it would have helped, but it would have been worth a try.

Then I weighed her on the scale; 13.6 pounds. She weighed 12.4 pounds at our last exam; she has gained more muscle mass since then, but I think she also needs to lose a bit of extra "flabby weight" as well! She's not overweight at all, but I like to keep my dogs very slim for agility.

Mika finally took a few treats as we were waiting for the vet. She was shaking, though.

Then our vet arrived, and we went into the exam room. She checked Mika over and had no concerns at all. Then I mentioned how I've noticed that Mika's fur has been thinning (all over her body, not in patches), and that I'd like to have her thyroid tested. (Hypothyroidism is a hugely underdiagnosed problem, and thinning fur is one of the symptoms of it.) Our vet wasn't too concerned about her thyroid, but agreed to start with a free T4 test, which can also be included in a huge collection of tests including tests for the liver, kidneys, pancreas, etc. I kind of wanted the full thyroid panel, but agreed to go along with her suggestion because it included a lot of other tests that are very important for aging Miniature Schnauzers.

Mika was taken in the back to have her blood drawn, and I felt just terrible; she must have bee so stressed and wondering what was going on, why these "strange people" were taking her away. I'm sure she was extremely cooperative -- she always is -- but I couldn't help worrying. Of course, in a few minutes she was brought back, and all was well again. The vet told us that we'll be called about the test results in around two days.

Then our exam was done. Our vet let us know that there was a German Shepherd outside in the waiting room, and so I was prepared as I walked out of the exam room with Mika in my arms, turning my body to block her view of the other dog; but then I saw that it was a big BLACK German Shepherd, ugh oh. But Mika didn't see the GSD right away, until the owner walked into the exam room with it, and then she was just so eager and relieved to be leaving the vet that she didn't care at all.

*****

I'm resting Wall-e for two weeks because a few days ago, on Sunday, I noticed that he was slightly lame in his front right leg (was limping a bit). He's not limping at all anymore, but I'll still continue resting him, just in case. I'm glad that it's not his rear leg again, although I'd been hoping that he could go the full year without any lameness, no matter how slight, but at least it's nothing big. I find it's ironic that Wall-e's been lame three times in the past year because he is SO fit and slim, and has awesome muscle mass...I guess it's just his hard-driving way of living that he chooses that makes him more likely to be injured. Especially running along the fence in the backyard chasing cars, which I've been limiting, but he's so crazy about doing it that I suspect it's caused two of the three lamenesses he's experienced (one was caused by agility for sure, but the other two are unknown).

Mika trial April 17, 2011

2011-05-01T08:58:00.002-05:00

After this post, I'll be caught up with trials; phew!

Again, we ran two Masters Gamblers at this trial.

I love how Mika started off our first run (shown below); I started with her and she just blasted off when I let her go. A couple times during this run, she thought I was rear crossing and flipped away from me, when in reality I was trying to cue a same-side turn...I guess that's a sign that my RC's haven't been so great lately. She also did a huge leap over the apex of the A-frame in this run, which I was thrilled about! (It's hard to see in the video, unfortunately.) We didn't get the gamble; I got stuck on the line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUeGvELfRqk

Our second run was fun too. There was a malfunction or something with the timer, so we had to wait on the line a few minutes as they got that sorted out. I held Mika for the first couple of minutes, but she was whining and just really wanted to run, so I tugged with her using her leash. I didn't expect her to tug because I thought she'd be stressed from all the waiting, but she was such a good girl and tugged intensely like her usual self! As for the actual run, it went pretty well. There was one point in the opening where Mika anticipated my turn cue at the tire and stopped in front of it; I have to work on re-building her obstacle focus (and I spent so much time last year trying to lessen her obstacle focus, haha!). There's such a fine balance between too much and not enough obstacle focus. With the gamble, Mika didn't see the jump she was supposed to take and came back to me instead of staying out. I should have gotten back from the line some more so I could give a more obvious push. Oh well :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IROszzCXmDU

*****

On another note, our agility club set up the field today, woohoo!! I have to submit my membership/waiver today, and then tomorrow I hope to go to the field with both dogs and train on part of a challenging jumpers course from a forum I go on. I'm so excited for this year and what we will hopefully accomplish, mostly in terms of training. Remember, as I said at the beginning of the year, this is our "Year of Progress" :)

Mika trial April 8, 2011

2011-04-17T12:25:00.003-05:00

So I'm behind posting about a couple of trials because I couldn't find the video files; but I'm trying to catch up now!

Mika had fun! We ran two Masters Gamblers.

In our first run (shown below) she actually had more obstacle independence than I'd planned, and actually went over an off-course jump in the gamble because I didn't pull her in enough. She also did a little jump over the apex of the A-frame in the opening!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfiXLPBDPF8

In our second run, I accidentally crossed the gamble line as we were setting up for the gamble, so we got whistled off. :) You might notice that our opening in this run is similar to the opening in our first run. I tend to do that a lot when we do two Gamblers at the same trial; after all, why change?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_mMyWzRQH8

Wall-e's first indoor trial video!

2011-04-15T20:34:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzXned0Yd10&feature=channel_video_title

Get your own valid XHTML YouTube embed code

Mika April 1 Starters Snooker video

2011-04-08T09:16:00.007-05:00

This is from our trial last week. I had another trial today with Mika, but I'll write about how that went once I finish making Wall-e's April 1 video.

Mika's run at the April 1 trial

2011-04-04T14:34:00.003-05:00

I didn't talk about Mika's run during my last post. Well, I was happy with Mika, but not very happy at myself :) Our run was a Starters Snooker. We started off well and got to two reds before being whistled off (one more than our last Snooker run, haha)! What happened? Well, I tried to rear cross the tire after the second red jump, but for some reason Mika pulled off the tire right after I crossed behind her. (My RC was great, for once, so I'll assume that it's a training problem). But the part that I was really annoyed about what how I reacted after Mika pulled off. One of my biggest rules while running my dogs -- especially soft Mika! -- is to ALWAYS keep going when we make the mistake. Well, I kept going, but not after really hesitating for about a second and almost stopping. For some reason I had this big urge to turn around to try the tire again. Mika turned to me like "What happened?" and we kept going to the next red jump (and by then the judge had lifted up his whistle and whistled us off for doing two reds in a row). UGH, I was just so annoyed at myself, especially as I watched the video. I HATE it when I make these mistakes that gradually chip away at Mika's motivation. She was a tad bit slower after my mistake, but soon sped up again.

I am trying to forgive myself for my mistake by telling myself that it has been so long since Mika has missed a jump at a trial, and therefore I'm out of practice in how I should react.

Excuse my little personal rant, it really bothers me when I make these kinds of mistakes! :) I was really happy with Mika's enthusiasm though, and I noticed that she had a nice hit in the yellow on the A-frame. Focus on the good points, and forgive your own stupidness! It just better not happen again! :)

Unworried Wall-e!

2011-04-03T20:09:00.002-05:00

Worried Wall-e is no longer. As of Friday, Worried Wall-e is now Unworried Wall-e.

I brought Wall-e into the trial building right soon after we arrived. I popped him over the two practice jumps and led him walk around a bit in the crating area, seeing the dogs we knew. He noticeably perked up, and mostly forgot about all of the trial noises, when he was doing the practice jumps and visiting other dogs. It really helps to keep him occupied when he's in a potentially stressful situation.

My plan for his Starters Jumpers run (the only run I had entered him in) was to just do the four jumps closest to the ring, then leave and jackpot. But I realized that the practice jumps were actually right under the heating fan (or at least, I think they were; the loudest fan noise was coming from that area), and Wall-e was fine. The ring was actually a lot quieter than the practice jump area. So I figured that Wall-e would be fine running the whole course.

And he was!!! I started with him instead of leading out, to give him that emotional support before our run. As I was saying our start-line revving-up cue, "Ready...Set..." he was wagging his tail but was looking around him a bit (slightly stressed), but when I finished by saying "...GO!" and let him go, he TOOK OFF for the first jump! He whizzed across the first line of jumps like a rocket. A green-dog moment happened at the first tunnel as I tried to rear cross and he didn't see the tunnel until he was almost right beside it, but he made it in and we continued on the course. Our only fault was a knocked bar in the middle of the course, when I RC'd too late and Wall-e had to turn his body in the right direction as he landed, causing him to knock a bar. But we finished the course with a time of 19.19 seconds -- I think it was the second fastest time out of all of the dogs in the class! -- and WALL-E HAD FUN!!!

From the dog who wouldn't even step in this arena a year ago, to a dog who can run like the best of 'em. I am so proud of my little boy, the Unworried Wall-e!

(Will talk about Mika's run later :)

P.S. I said I would explain the April 1 thing. It's just that on April 1, 2007, Mika and I had our first fun match and Mika ran out of the ring -- the beginning of our big battle with the teeter and stress. And then this trial, Wall-e's first time running indoors (HUGE deal for him!), happened on April 1. I thought something else happened on April 1 another year, but nope. Every year when April 1 arrives, I always thing of that first fun match, and now I will be able to think of this trial as well :)

Tomorrow is the defining moment...

2011-03-31T19:09:00.002-05:00

Wall-e's first indoor trial is tomorrow.

We are armed with DAP and green tea (opted for that instead of the L-theanine).

Why is it always that these defining moments happen on April 1? (Will explain that in the next post.)

No time to write more, but I am eagerly anticipating tomorrow!

Reactivity update and L-theanine

2011-03-27T10:09:00.005-05:00

I went for a walk this morning and Mika and I were running at the park. Mika always wants to run during our walks -- as in, full-out sprints. Half of our time going for "walks" actually spent sprinting! It's just awesome to run behind her, trying to keep up, watching her in full extension, legs flying.

So today we were running and I saw a man with an off-leash golden up ahead of us. Mika spotted the golden first and increased her speed a notch to zoom towards the dog. I called "Gimme a check!" (our reactivity cue) and, with no hesitation whatsoever, she turned on a dime to race back to me. She got a few handfuls of treats for that GREAT response!

*****

On a different note, I've been reading up on an amino acid called L-theanine that is commonly used for dogs with stress or anxiety. I first heard about in on the shy-k9s Yahoo group that I recently joined. L-theanine can relax an individual (a person, dog, or whatever), while at the same time increasing focus and NOT making the individual sluggish! This is unlike most of the stress supplements that I've heard of, which do calm the dog, but also make them drowsy, which I don't want. I'm going to read up some more on this amino acid and then maybe try some for Wall-e, in addition to the DAP, for our trial on Friday.

A stroll by the pond with Wall-e

2011-03-23T16:39:00.005-05:00

Doin' the sheltie rub

Hee hee. One of Wall-e's many happy faces.

Showing off his muddy paws

"Zoom!" Chasing a treat up the hill

I wish that leash didn't have to be in the way, but I don't have time to photoshop right now. And Mr. Wall-e can't be off-leash because those darn cars are just too tempting :) The crazy boy would be off and running in a second!

Mika's first walk to the pond in 2011

2011-03-20T19:16:00.003-05:00

Mika and I went for a very nice walk to the pond yesterday. It's the first time we went this year because it's too far for Mika to walk to in the winter (Mika often doesn't even want to step out of the house in the winter!), but now that it seems like spring is upon us, I can start taking her for longer walks again.

We surprisingly didn't see any other dogs at the pond. The pond is a great place to work on her reactivity because we almost always see at least a couple of dogs, but today we didn't see any. We did see two dogs on the way home, though -- and both were her highest-level triggers; big black dogs!

The first was a black bouvier. I don't think Mika had ever seen a bouvier before, but I anticipated a big reaction from her because they're a bit similar-looking to Briards, which is Mika's absolute biggest trigger (luckily we rarely see them). When I saw it, I crossed to the other side of the road with Mika and told her to sit-stay. She did, and I fed her cheese as the bouvier passed by. She was SO good!!! She didn't even get tense, but rather stayed relaxed (well, as relaxed as Mika can be when she's getting treats) and focused on me.

The second dog we saw was a black pit bull mix, almost certainly with some lab in it as well; it had the body of a lab and the head of a pittie. I saw this dog at the last minute and had to pick Mika up so that we could move away fast enough. Mika saw it right after I picked her up and she *almost* went over threshold, but she contained herself as she gnawed on a piece of cheese -- what a good girl -- and when I put her down, about 20 feet away from the other dog, she sit-stayed and didn't bark once.

Very proud of my awesome girl!!

P.S. Next time we go to the pond, I'll try to bring my camera and take photos. The pond would make for some beautiful shots.

Mika Trial Mar. 19, '11

2011-03-19T20:45:00.005-05:00

I am thrilled with how we did today because we accomplished both of my goals!!

My goal for Mika was for her to not react at other dogs in the ring. She not only succeeded with that, but she didn't react at any dogs outside of the ring, either!! Even when they were just a few feet away! As for our run (Starters Snooker), even though we didn't Q, I was really happy with it. At the start line we had to wait 30-60 seconds because the judge had to discuss something, and we spent the time tugging with Mika's leash. I was really impressed with her focus and drive as she tugged; she growled "viciously" and gave a few muffled barks as she tugged just like she does at home. Then we ran the course, and we set a personal record for our shortest course ever :) Red jump, 4-point jump, 5-point A-frame, whistle! Watching the video, I can totally see why she took the AF; my body was definitely pointed towards it. When will I ever learn to handle!?

(The video is a bit far away, but if you squint and/or put it in full-screen, you can see it :)

And Wall-e also exceeded my expectations!! My goal was for him to be relaxed enough to use to warm-up jumps, which he most certainly did (with enthusiasm, I might add), and he even left the warm-up area to play with another dog who was standing next to the jumps. I'm actually pretty pleased that he did that. I know that he isn't "supposed" to, and I'm lucky that the dog was so friendly, but actually wanting to play with another dog means that Wall-e was barely stressed at all; Wall-e won't play with me or other dogs if he's really stressed. (I should mention that this is the first time I can recall Wall-e ever leaving training to see another dog, so it's not a problem or anything :)

By the way, I decided to use the DAP with Wall-e, which I sprayed onto his collar. I was going to use the Gentle Leader too, but I forgot to bring it in, and it turns out he didn't even need it. I don't even know if the DAP did anything, but I'll continue to use it just in case.

Our next trial is a mini-trial (evening trial), in two weeks. I entered Mika in a Starters Snooker and Wall-e in a Starters Jumpers. I was using today's trial to determine whether or not Wall-e was ready to run at this venue, and he showed me that he was. I'll probably just do a few jumps with him and then leave the ring, but I will run him!

March trial planning

2011-03-16T16:52:00.003-05:00

Our first trial of the year, after a very long winter break, is this weekend. Only Mika will be running because Wall-e still has big fears at this venue's trials (which are indoors).

Mika will just be running in one Starters Snooker run. My goal for her is to not react at other dogs while in the ring, but of course I'd love to see her run with the speed and enthusiasm that she's been having in training.

Even though Wall-e isn't running, I have a goal for him as well; to be relaxed enough to play on the warm-up jumps (in between classes, so we don't hog the jumps for competitors). I'll be trying DAP (Dog Appeasing Pheromone) with Wall-e for the first time, and I'm considering using a Gentle Leader and/or a body wrap as well to help relieve his stress.

And, of course, I have a goal for myself; to read my dogs and not push them past what they're able to handle.

Mika and Wall-e Training Mar. 14, '11 video

2011-03-15T04:56:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MqQZXgHXK0&feature=channel_video_title

Mika and Wall-e Training Feb. 21, '11 video

2011-02-28T07:35:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xYtdnubHyo

First agility training session of the year!

2011-02-22T19:36:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we ended our second 2010-2011 winter agility break and went to one of the arenas to train! (Our first break was from the end of October to the end of December, and our second break was from the end of December -- after we sneaked in some agility -- to yesterday :)

Wall-e trained first again. I like training Wall-e first because 1. still being a baby dog, he's the one who needs the most training, and 2. I can test out my handling with him and make sure I've chosen the best handling plan before I handle Mika, who slows down a bit if I handle sloppily.

First we did the teeter bang game. I noticed the last time we trained at this arena, in December, that both dogs were a bit nervous about this teeter. Mika used to be fine with it, but considering that she hadn't used a teeter in months, I guess a bit of her old stress started creeping back. (The only way she showed stress was by licking her lips and folding her ears back a bit, but I still had to take notice.) And Wall-e has never been on this teeter before, and he's still extremely sensitive to any noises he hears in arenas. He showed stress by not running right to the edge of the teeter to wait for it to hit the ground, like he usually does.

But Wall-e did really well with the bang game. He wagged his tail as he pushed down the end of the teeter (I propped up the other end with a chair). I gradually moved the chair to increase the bang, and he ended up being able to do the whole teeter with zero stress!

Then we ran part of an Advanced Standard course that was set up. Wall-e was nuts!! The course involved two jump wraps, which he did nice and tight with our cik and cap cues. And his contacts (just the A-frame and dog walk) were great! I'm so excited to trial him in Standard this year and see how his fast 2on2off holds up!

To finish, we played around with a tunnel to build tunnel drive. I used Wall-e's new favourite toy to reward; it's a cat toy that we bought at a garage sale years and years ago. It has a plastic ball in it that spins around and around, and the dogs just go wild for it!! And because there aren't a lot of toys that Wall-e goes wild for, it's great for an agility reward. I can't throw it or tug with it, but I can set it up on the other side of an obstacle:

Then it was Mika's turn! She couldn't run into the arena fast enough; she was just dying to train. And once we got in there and I let her off the leash, she started racing around everywhere, like "Are we REALLY here?!"

We did the same teeter bang game that Wall-e did. You wouldn't believe how the old memories started coming back of how we did this same game, over and over again, in the winter of 2007-2008. And Mika still has the same adorable technique of pushing down the teeter with her front paws, and then flipping her body around to face me. The only thing she's added is increased drive!

The segment of the course that we ran was SO much fun!! As I re-watch the clips I have this huge smile on my face because Mika is just having the time of her life. Zoom here, zoom there, she had so much speed and attitude...this dog is incredible!!

We finished up with some jumping-into-my-arms training. Mika can go over a jump, and she can jump into my arms, but when I try to ask her to jump into my arms *after* going over a jump, she gets a bit confused. She hasn't really connected this trick to agility yet, so we'll be doing some more of this at home. She did get it one time, though!

So to finish it off, this was a great training day to begin 2011. I'm so, so lucky to have two amazing, happy, healthy dogs who I can have so much fun with! I can't wait to see what adventures this year will bring for us!

Hear the buzz

2011-02-20T06:56:00.003-05:00

I'm going to give Mika a haircut for the first time. Probably next weekend. She just gets so stressed at the groomer's that I'd like to start doing it at home.

I started introducing her to the noise of the clippers on Thursday. First it was casual, by accident; I just walked into the bathroom to look for the clippers and Mika happened to follow. When I found them, I let her sniff them and she immediately ran away. This dog is my master generalizer; I've never clipped her in my life, but she knew right away that it was the same thing that the groomer used!

When we had our actual training session on Thursay, Mika knew that we were training and didn't run away when she saw the clippers. First I threw a bunch of treats on the floor, then a bunch more, and then turned on the clippers. Mika started to shake even as her tail continued to wag wildly (you should see this dog during all our training or trick sessions; her tail wags so fast throughout our sessions that it's almost a blur). She stopped shaking as I continued to throw treats on the ground, and that tail kept going. She realized that I wasn't going to clip her, I was just rewarding her for hearing the buzzing noise. And she was fine with that!

We did the same thing in our first session on Friday. In the second Friday session, I threw treats on the ground as I brought the clippers close to her back. She was completely fine with that. In fact, she's loving our "pre-clipping" sessions; all she has to do is hear the buzzing noise and she gets piles of treats thrown on the ground!

I think Mika will be fine. I just don't know how I'll be, concerning my lack of :) Be prepared for a disaster!

Montana's antics

2011-02-10T21:19:00.005-05:00

Thanks to my mom for taking this photo :)

Montana is really starting to fit in to our family. Well, it's impossible for her not to; she's around all the time! She ALWAYS has to follow someone around. One of her favourite spots is on a kitchen chair (it's always the same chair) under the table. I guess she likes it because there's always something going on in the kitchen. She still nips occasionally, mostly our feet. It's a good idea to always wear socks in our house now; not for warmth, but for protection from Montana's teeth :)

Montana would never bite our other pets, though she does find them interesting. Shadow, our other cat, and Montana have been getting along really well. Shadow's definitely the boss between the two. If the two cats are sitting in front of each other, staring, Montana is the one who will look away first. Sometimes Montana wants to play with Shadow (at least, l think she's playing; it's hard to tell with Montana!) and will bat out a paw. Or if Shadow is on a counter and Montana is on the ground, Montana will swing her paw at Shadow's swishing tail. Shadow's an old lady who has better things on her mind than playing, but she's actually quite patient with "the youngster" and will either ignore Montana or hiss if she's getting too bold.

Montana isn't too interested in Mika. Mika knows how to stand her ground and will snap/"roar" at Montana if she really bothers her, so Montana doesn't try anything too daring with her.

But poor Wall-e! Montana takes advantage of the fact that he's so easily bossed around. Wall-e would never, ever, ever snap or growl or do anything to defend himself, so Montana pretty much has a full control. She'll step in front of him and sit down, "guarding" him so that he can't pass by. If he tries to walk around her, she'll move with him and sit down in front of him again. Wall-e knows that if he gets too close he'll get a swat. And he's almost twice the size of her! If only I could tell Wall-e to give Montana a little bark a few times, and then she might not bug him anymore :)

Strengthening the core

2011-02-06T16:33:00.003-05:00

Last week I talked about how I was continuing to train Wall-e the sit-up/beg trick. I have been trying to train Mika to do the trick too, but not with much luck! She doesn't seem to have the physical ability to do the trick. Last summer, she could balance with me supporting her for about a second, but now she can't balance at all. I guess maybe that's because she's not as well-conditioned now as she was in the summer? So because of that, we've been getting back to working on the exercise ball. I realized a while ago that our ball is too small for Wall-e (it's a round exercise ball, not a dog one), but it's just big enough for Mika to stand on without having to arch her back. We did some basic ball exercises today and yesterday; standing, sitting, and lying down. We only worked for five minutes each time, since we're just getting back to it. Soon Mika will have the abs of a body-builder again :) I remember back in 2009 when we were preparing for Regionals, we did ball work 3-7 times a week for months and months, and it was amazing to see how much Mika's condition improved. Then I started getting lazy :) No more of that!!

Do your dogs pull on the leash?

2011-02-05T15:39:00.003-05:00

The age-old dilemma; pulling on the leash. To pull or not to pull, how to train, what tools to use; people have been discussing the "behavioural problem" of pulling on the leash for years.

I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately as we see other dogs on walks. It's interesting, and sometimes upsetting, to see how people attempt to train their dogs.

Some people's dogs don't pull (like Mika). Some people's dogs pull and their owners don't mind (like Wall-e). Some people's dogs pull and their owners yank them back. Some people's dogs don't pull and their owners still use collar corrections if the dog even steps slightly ahead of them. And some people's dogs don't want to walk and are dragged along by their owners (I don't see this often, but I do see it too much). I see dogs with buckle collars, dogs with martingale collars, dogs with harnesses, dogs with Gentle Leaders, dogs with chokes, dogs with prongs. There seems to be no end to how people train their dogs and what tools they use.

Let me talk about my own dogs and their leash "manners." Mika doesn't pull unless she sees another dog; in that case, I wouldn't give her time to pull because I'd already be asking her to "Gimme a check," which is her cue to focus on me and trust me to keep her safe. When Mika was a puppy, she did pull. I was taught at puppy kindergarten class to start walking in the opposite direction whenever she used the leash to go taut. It didn't work 100% at the time. I think she just doesn't pull anymore because she just doesn't find walks all that exciting, and she also doesn't like the feel of a tight leash; at the very rare times that she does cause the leash to go taut, she shakes herself (her key sign of stress) and stops for a couple of seconds. In addition, Mika just likes to stay close to me. She doesn't like being far away from me on walks.

Wall-e, on the other hand, looovess walks and just can't wait to see what's ahead. When I first got him, he didn't pull. Then again, when I got him he was nervous to walk down the street! (He had never seen the suburbs before.) I never had to train him to keep a loose leash because he already did. He probably started pulling at around the same time he started chasing cars (at about nine months). But then I was all about building drive and I didn't want to decrease any enthusiasm. I only started to seriously train him to walk on a loose leash at the end of December, after reading in one of Suzanne Clothier's book that the first step to overcoming any kind of problem with a dog is walking on a loose leash. So we started training loose leash walking, but even though I was using positive reinforcement, Wall-e just wasn't having as much fun as he did when he pulled. I missed seeing him racing at the end of the leash like a little furry sled dog (and yes, I missed desperately trying to keep up with him). So after about three weeks of training him to walk on a loose leash, we went back to our old ways.

I think that letting a dog pull on their leash is perfectly fine. (Well, maybe not for the St. Bernards and Mastiffs. :) As long as the dog still has focus on the handler and checks back often, without being asked, the handler and dog can enjoy their walk while still staying connected. My only worry about pulling on the leash is that it could cause injury to the trachea over time, which is why I'm looking into buying a sport harness. I have a no-pull harness that we got for Mika when she was about a year old, but I don't want Wall-e to stop pulling; I want a harness that will still allow Wall-e to pull without causing him injury. He enjoys pulling and I don't want to get rid of that for him.

So, what about you guys? Do your dogs pull on the leash? Are you okay with it?

"Did you wash your paws?" and returning to disc

2011-02-02T13:58:00.005-05:00

We did some more tricks today and yesterday :) We're all so happy to be back in the routine!

Yesterday I continued training the sit-up trick with Wall-e (sitting up on his haunches, a.k.a. "begging"). Like so many of our tricks-in-progress, we've trained this trick off-and-on for a while. I know that I really should just commit to it and train this trick exclusively for a while, or else my dogs won't develop the muscles necessary for staying in the position.

I've been thinking about what cue to use for this trick after I train it. I don't want to use "Sit-up" because it sounds too much like Sit. Likewise, I don't want to use "Beg" because it sounds too much like "Back" (which is Wall-e's new back-up cue, long story that I'll explain another time). I was reading a trick book yesterday and it gave the suggestion of "Did you wash your paws?". I think that's super cute, so I might end up using that!

Today I did some more disc dog foundation training with Mika. Poor Wall-e had to be "retired" from disc before he really even began, to save his knees.

Anyway, today we had a very short session on building disc drive. Mika likes discs, but not enough to consistently bring them back when I toss them. So for a while I've just been wiggling the disc on the ground (we're using the soft floppy disc at the moment) and do some light tugging when Mika grabs it. After about 30 seconds of wiggling and tugging, I threw a bunch of kibble on the ground to jackpot, and then ended the session by saying "Free Dog!" (our end-of-session release cue).

-----

I meant to say in my last post, thanks for everyone who gave input on whether to get the balance disc or the sport harness. I think for now I'll just get the trial sounds CD and get the other stuff later :)

Tricks: it's time to refresh

2011-01-31T15:45:00.006-05:00

Big news: My exams are done! Now I can spend more time training my dogs, like I used to, instead of studying constantly.

After I got home from my last exam today, we celebrated by doing some tricks; the dogs were thrilled to have me all to themselves again! I did a couple of "Up's" (jumping into my arms) with Mika. This year I hope to have Mika jump into my arms at the end of every run at trials, to have her focus on me instead of running to the exit gate and potentially reacting at other dogs. Mika just loves this trick. The only thing is that she sometimes gets her striding off as she runs towards me and doesn't take off at the right spot. Hmm, maybe we need to do some Susan Salo jump work for jumping into my arms!? Seriously though, I wonder if stride regulators would help.

With Wall-e we did a bit of leg weaves training. He used to know this trick pretty well, but I think I increased the amount of weaves too fast, and didn't ping-pong back and forth enough (ex. first 3 weaves, then 8, then back to 4, etc.). Now we're retraining it. This session we just did one or two weaves, which he did great even though Montana was sitting a few feet away. (Wall-e is a teensy bit scared of that big orange cat!)

Balance Disc or Harness?

2011-01-28T11:44:00.005-05:00

I'm thinking of ordering a couple of things from Clean Run. Coincidentally, they're all things for Wall-e. The little man needs a lot of stuff :)

Indoor Agility Trial Sounds CD
This will be to help Wall-e overcome his fears of indoor trials. I'm definitely buying this.

There are two other things I want too, but I'm making myself only get one of them ($$!).

FitPAWS Balance Disc
This would be to strengthen Wall-e's knees. I already have an exercise ball, but it's too small for Wall-e, so if I had a disc I could put it on the couch, and have Wall-e stand with two feet on the disc and two feet on the ball.

ComfortFlex Sport Harness
And this would be for Mr. Leash-Puller (a.k.a. Wall-e). I've been trying to train him to keep a loose leash this month, but he really just enjoys his walks more when he pulls. (Even though he pulls, he does still have focus on me during walks; he looks back at me all the time.) He's not a crazy puller, but he often keeps a constant tension on the leash during walks, so I'm a bit concerned about his trachea...that's why a sport harness would be good for him.

So which will it be, the balance disc or the harness? I'm having a tough time deciding.

Montana wanted me to say...

2011-01-22T08:08:00.003-05:00

Montana was reading my blog and noticed that I haven't posted about her in a while.

She wanted me to tell you all that we have decided to keep her :)

She's been doing really well. She still stays in a separate room for part of the day; our 16 year old cat, Shadow, spends a lot of time in the basement sleeping, so during that time we close the door to the basement and let Montana out of her room to have free rein of the house. After a couple of hours, we put her back in the room and open Shadow's door in the basement. We don't trust the cats to be alone yet.

Montana is good with the dogs though. She actually like Mika and follows her around. (Mika just ignores "that weird orange cat.") She's a bit intimidated by Wall-e, but she's asserted her ruling over him by chasing after him a few times. Poor Wall-e wanted to make friends, but now he keeps his distance!

Luckily, Montana has never made an attempt to bite/nip either dog. She's completely transformed since we've brought her home. She actually acts a bit like a dog; she follows us around and does crazy gallops around the house. We're very glad to have her!

2011: the year of progress?

2011-01-10T22:11:00.012-05:00

It says that this was posted January 10, but that was because I saved the draft on that date...I really posted this on January 17.

(Okay, so this is super late because I was having trouble publishing my posts on Blogger. I know I'm always late with posts, but I'm really on time with stuff in real life -- honest! :)

So...first post of the year :) Let's all say a big welcome to 2011!

I don't have any big goals for this year; no Regionals, no Nationals, no ATChC. (We still need too many Q's for Mika's ATChC, so realistically, we won't achieve it this year and probably not next year.) *Maybe* SuperDogs again with Mika. But I still have some big hopes for this year. Last year was kind of "meh"; I slowed down my handling to try to learn how to handle the very fast Wall-e, and as a result Mika's speed suffered because she adjusted to my slower speed. None of that this year! I plan to handle both dogs fearlessly because that's the way I want them to run. We're going to have some awesome, fast runs this year. (I should mention though that Wall-e had a really good year last year; he started trialing and really amped up his speed, and we also re-trained his contacts to a fast, reliable 2on2off.)

I've already stated my 2011 training and competition goals in a previous post, so I won't say them again here. I just wanted to add a few things.

I really hope to improve Mika's reactivity this year. Last year we had one pretty big "incident" at a trial, which has never happened before, and I definitely don't want that to happen again. (I'm sure Mika doesn't either!) We're going to work as much as possible on reactivity; once the snow melts, every day if possible, every second day at the least. We've been doing this since 2007 when Mika was first diagnosed with reactivity, but armed with some new and "refreshed" knowledge, I hope to make some more progress with her this year. I'm re-reading one of my very favourite books, Suzanne Clothier's Bones Would Rain From the Sky, which has some great stuff on aggression. I'm also reading everything I can online about aggression and reactivity. Mika's made some great progress last year, but our battle isn't over.

And of course there's Wall-e. We've made lots of progress on his extreme fears of constant/loud noises, but we're still not at the point where he can trial indoors. I've entered him in an indoor evening trial in April, but he's not ready for that at the moment. Along with continuing our noise sensitivity training daily, I'm planning on ordering the Indoor Agility Sounds CD to help desensitize/counter-condition him to the sounds of a trial environment at home. I'm also looking into trying a herbal or natural stress product (no drugs!!) to help put him in the right frame of mind for training. Right now I'm thinking Rescue Remedy, but we'll see. I've realized that Wall-e might not ever be able to trial at noisy indoor venues. He's made TONS of progress, but indoor trials seem to be a big step for him.

So to sum it up, this year will be The Year of Progress. Progress with agility, of course, and also reactivity and fears. Bring it on!

Mika & Wall-e Training Dec. 28, '10 video

2010-12-31T10:52:00.003-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th7CR3AQEfE

And by the way -- Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-26T15:57:00.008-05:00

(All of these pictures were taken on Christmas Eve.)

Mika loves her new dog bed, but is wondering why my mom is bugging her with the camera.

"Oh -- I get treats?! Take as many pictures as you want!"

Wall-e gets his share as well.

Shadow opens her presents; a couple cans of two new brands of food, with lots of treats on top!

Montana meet Rudolph before checking out her present.

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!" Except for Shadow, who's still awake and plans to wait for Santa. (She's in the window beside the reflection of the tree :)

Merry (belated) Christmas!

Wall-e's last rally class

2010-12-19T20:12:00.004-05:00

This is quite late, sorry :) Our last class was over a week ago, on Saturday December 11.

At this class we each went through a full course twice.

I think our runs went well. Our instructor commented on how much Wall-e's sits have improved since we began the class. They're not perfect yet, but her ideas of improving his sits have really been working for us!

What I really liked was that after the first time we finished the course, we had to say one thing that we liked about the run; and after the second time we finished the course, our classmates had to say what they liked about the run. I think this is a great idea.

Another thing was that there was a dog in heat in the class. I was totally fine with it, but I wasn't sure how Wall-e would react. Thankfully, he barely payed any notice to the bitch in heat and was as focused as ever during our runs.

Montana

2010-12-18T07:22:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we began a new adventure; fostering a cat.

The story began at the end of October, when an orange tabby cat was dumped, in her cage, in the parking lot of a local vet hospital. She was covered in poop and had to have parts of her tail shaved to remove the mats. I'm doing a co-op at the vet hospital, and I was given the job of caring for the cat daily. She soon earned the name of "Montana."

In the past two months I have gotten more and more attached to Montana. Both the vet hospital and I tried to find a home for her, but it seemed that nobody wanted her. You see, Montana is declawed, and she bites when she feels she needs space; after all, since her claws are gone, she has no other defense other than her teeth. Nobody wants a cat who bites. And if we had brought Montana the the humane society, it was almost guaranteed she'd be euthanized because of her biting.

Last week, I offered the possibility of fostering Montana. And yesterday, after school was out and the Christmas holidays began, we went to the hospital and brought her home.

We're keeping her in a separate room until we're absolutely certain that she'll be fine with Shadow (our cat), Mika, and Wall-e.

She's already met the dogs. First we introduced them, one at a time, while she was in her cage (I realize now maybe not the best idea because she probably felt trapped). Mika wasn't that interested and didn't get too close, but Montana was hissing and growling at her. Then Wall-e got to see. He went right up to the door of the cage and Montana whacked her paw against the bars. It made a big noise, and Wall-e got scared and ran away. I guess that's a good time; I want the dogs to respect Montana and not bother her.

Later in the evening, when Montana was out of her cage (but still confined in the room), my mom brought Mika in and held her, while Montana got to choose how close she wanted to get to her. Mika was nice and calm, and stared at me almost the whole time. (She got some treats for her great behaviour). Montana was very interested and walked closer, and eventually sat down staring up at Mika. She didn't hiss or growl, though.

Montana will probably be re-introduced to Wall-e in the same way today, and sometime next week she'll meet Shadow too.

Now I guess all we can do is try to find a home for her and, in the meantime, see what happens.

Another zzz... photo

2010-12-11T08:15:00.003-05:00

I figured it was time for me to post another sleeping photo.

I'm not sure why the two beds are on top of each other, but what's amazing is that Mika actually lay down in the donut bed after Wall-e was already sleeping on the rectangular bed. Mika usually isn't THAT fond of Wall-e to actually lie down so close to him, but this time she had no choice since she wanted to sleep in her donut bed.

Wall-e's fifth rally class

2010-12-04T17:32:00.003-05:00

At class today, we learned the last of the Novice exercises. Next week we'll spend the hour running a full course. (Do you say "running" a course in rally? I don't know the terminology!)

The exercises:

Halt - Side Step Right - Halt
Halt - 1, 2, 3 Steps Forward
Halt - 1, 2, 3 Steps Backward (only in CKC Novice rally)
Halt - Turn Right - 1 Step - Halt

The least difficult exercise for us was the last one. We didn't really have any problems with that, but the other exercises were tough for me! I found it hard to concentrate on my shoulders, arms, and feet all at the same time. It's like starting agility all over again.

The instructor had a good suggestion of using both hands to reward for the front in the Halt - 1, 2, 3 Steps Backward exercise (holding the treat in both hands to reward, instead of one hand). Since the dog is supposed to be in the middle of the handler in the front position, using both hands to reward will prevent the dog from sitting towards any one particular hand (because dogs orient to where they're getting their rewards).

The sequence (or rather a course, because there were a lot of stations) was Start, Fast Pace, Normal Pace, 270 Degree Right, Halt - Sit - Walk Around, 360 Degree Left, Straight Figure 8, Spiral Right - Dog Outside, Halt - Call Front - Finish Right, and Finish. Even though Wall-e was a bit tired because we'd done a lot of training this class, he was happy and eager to do the course.

Looking back over all the exercises we've learned, I think the cone/pylon exercises are our best exercises. (And of course, the stationary exercises are our worst :)

Next week we'll spend the hour running a full course. (Do you say "running" a course in rally? I don't know the terminology!)

Note: I should mention that when I talked about Wall-e's crooked sits at our last class, I didn't mean that he actually sits crooked, but rather than he sits at an angle to me instead of parallel to my body. He sits with his butt far away from me instead of tucked in. Sorry for the confusion! Again, I don't know obedience terminology :)

Goals for the next season

2010-12-03T17:53:00.004-05:00

The year is drawing to a close and our club's agility field has been closed for almost two months. It's time to start thinking about our competition goals for next year and how we're going to get there.

I love setting goals and working towards them, even though the goals that I have right now are not really that big of a deal to me. The only goals that have been important to me at all were getting a title, qualifying for Nationals, and running in Superdogs (this was a huge accomplishment for us because of Mika's reactivity). Mika and I have accomplished all of these goals together and now we're just enjoying the ride, but I still think it's fun to have big goals to work towards.

My big long-term goal for both dogs is to get their ATChC (Agility Trial Champion of Canada) titles. To keep us on track for this goal, we also have the smaller goal of achieving at least one title each full trialing year. (Wall-e's first full trialing year will be next year, since he only started trialing in June this year.) Mika and I got our MADC (Master Agility Dog of Canada) title this year and next year the most likely title that we'll get will be our MJDC (Masters Jumper Dog of Canada) or our SGDC (Starters Games Dog of Canada). Wall-e didn't get any titles this year because he barely did any runs, but we may get his ADC (Agility Dog of Canada) or SGDC (Starters Games Dog of Canada) next year.

I'm still working towards getting Mika's SGDC because we only started trialing in Starters Snooker this year, although we're in Masters for all the other classes. (The SGDC requires two Q's each in Starters Jumpers, Gamblers, and Snooker.) Mika and I only ran in two Snookers this year and didn't Q in either of them due to my handling! The reason I've waited so long to do Snooker is because I wanted to make sure that Mika was completely confident in the ring before trying a potentially stressful class. (It turns out that since Mika is a Masters-level dog, she's used to twisty courses and didn't find Snooker stressful in the least!).

To accomplish the competition goals, we need to have agility training goals/plans as well.

Mika

Contact/tunnel discriminations. Since I've rewarded hundreds of contacts over the past four years of regular training (3-4 times a week, 6 months of the year), and barely any rewards for tunnels, Mika loves contacts, and when presented with a tunnel/contact discrimination, will choose the contact every time, no matter which contact it is. The first step will be to do lots of rewards for tunnels to raise the value of tunnels. Then, we'll train discriminations.

Angled dog walk entries. This is long-overdue. I never properly trained Mika to safely straighten her body to take angled DW entries, so we just avoid them; if we see an angled DW on course, I over-handle her so that she enters it straight. However, we saw two gambles this year that involved DW entries at an angle. In both cases, I modified the gamble so that either Mika didn't take the DW or that she took another obstacle before the gamble to allow her to take the DW straight on. If I hadn't modified the gambles, she likely would have slipped and fallen off. But the thing is, Mika has awesome DW's at a distance (other than hitting the contact!) and those gambles would have been great for us if I had taught Mika how to straighten herself out. That's why teaching angled DW entries is an important goal for us. I'll be using jump wings to condition Mika to straighten her body by muscle memory, since muscle memory works really well with her.

Wall-e

Handling sensitivity. This is the only training goal I have for Wall-e (other than my goals of reducing his fears, which apply not only to agility but to everyday life as well). This year, Wall-e has gained a ton of drive, but his sensitivity to my handling has decreased a bit. I also need to learn how to handle this very fast dog. I'm getting Moe Strenfel's foundation DVD for Christmas and we'll use that to refresh our understanding of handling!

Goals are a fun part of agility and I'm looking forward to start working towards them next year. Of course, what we're all really looking forward to is doing any agility at all; we're taking a big break from agility this winter. Other than renting one of the agility buildings a few times, we won't be doing any agility training at all to rest the dogs' bodies. As you can imagine, we're dying to get back to our sport!

Wall-e's fourth rally class

2010-11-30T15:41:00.004-05:00

Wow, it's hard to believe there's only two classes left.

At this class we learned:

Halt - 90 Degree Pivot Right - HALT
Halt - 90 Degree Pivot Left - HALT
Spiral Right - Dog Outside
Spiral Left - Dog Inside

At the next class we'll learn the remaining Novice exercises.

At the beginning of the class, the instructor accidentally turned the heating fan on (I'd told her about Wall-e's fear of fans at the first class, but she forgot; no big deal, it happens!). Wall-e was scared and wouldn't take treats, so I reminded the instructor about his fear and took him outside as she turned the fan. He didn't want to go back inside, but I carried him in. I would have rather shaped him to go back inside, but it was cold and I would have let tons of cold air in the building. I was impressed with how quickly he recovered, though; he started taking treats again as soon as he realized the fan wasn't on, whereas several months ago he still would have been very stressed.

We didn't practice any pivots at this class because they require a bit of training (preferably in an environment without the distraction of other dogs!), but we did practice spirals. Our first spiral lefts were NOT pretty. I kept almost bumping into Wall-e because I wasn't cuing him properly (hmmm, why does that sound familiar?). But by the end of the class, we were both doing better.

The sequence for this class was Start, 360 Degree Right, Fast Pace, Normal Pace, About Turn - Right, Call Front - Finish Left, Halt - Sit - Down - Sit, Halt - Sit - Down - Walk Around, Finish. We were doing pretty well up until the Halt - Sit- Down - Sit, where Wall-e did his sit and down really crooked. He's always had crooked sits and downs, but I've never really payed attention to it as much as I should. The instructor recommended that I retrain his sits and downs a bit to get them straighter, and she helpfully showed me how to reward him to encourage a straight position.

Below is a picture from our third class a week ago; you can see how crooked his sit is :) They were even more crooked at this class. That's what happens when you don't train for straight sits; I never really did :)

I agree that I should retrain him and we've started doing that this week at home. It'll take a while to build the muscle memory of doing straight sits and downs, but with a lot of retraining, I definitely think he'll be able to do it. I just have to remember to always reward on the left side of his head, away from me, instead of towards me.

I have to say, as I watch the video clips from this class, that I just love how happy Wall-e looks as he trots beside me, even after his scare with the fan at the beginning of the class. I'm actually glad that the incident with the fan happened because know I have a lot more confidence with Wall-e's ability to recover from stress.

Wall-e's third rally class

2010-11-21T08:05:00.002-05:00

In this class we covered:

About "U" Turn (180 degree turn to the left)
270 Degree Left Turn
360 Degree Left Turn
Call Dog Front - Forward Right
Call Dog Front - Forward Left
Call Dog Front - Finish Right
Call Dog Front - Finish Left

Wall-e forgets how to do finishes! We haven't practiced them in a long time. I had to lure him for his finishes and forwards in this class.

He really likes the forwards though because he doesn't have to sit, he can just keep trotting forward after he moves into position.

The sequence in this class was Start, Straight Figure 8, About Turn - Right, Fast Pace, Normal Pace, Right Turn, 270 Degree Left Turn, Sit - Down - Walk Around, 360 Degree Right Turn, and finally Finish. We did well during most of the course, although Wall-e was heeling a bit too far away from me; gotta train closer heeling. For the Sit - Down - Walk Around, I placed a treat on the ground in front of him after he lay down. This gives him something to focus on as I walk behind him. It works well at home, but at class he got up when I stepped behind him. The instructor suggested that I not put the treat down, but instead just step behind more and more gradually. So we left it at that and completed the course with the 360 Degree Right Turn, which went well. We're good at the exercises that involve moving; it's the stationary exercises that we find tough!

After class, Wall-e got to play with the chocolate lab/poodle puppy (I think he's about six months old). He had a blast. Mika rarely wants to play with Wall-e, so any playtime that he gets is a big treat for him!

Wall-e's first and second rally classes

2010-11-13T06:19:00.004-05:00

Two weeks ago, I started taking a beginner rally class with Wall-e. I've taken rally before with Mika in 2007. I've always wanted to do more obedience of some kind with Wall-e, as he just loves to heel and is pretty good at it too!

First class: October 30

Wall-e loved seeing the other dogs at the beginning of class. In the class, there are two lab/poodles (I think one *might* be a golden/poodle, can't remember), a hound mix, a shepherd mix, and a German Shepherd Dog.

The class covers both CARO (Canadian Association of Rally Obedience) and CKC (Canadian Kennel Club) Novice rally exercises. Most of the exercises are the same, but some have different names; for those, I'll just use the CARO names because if we ever do compete, we'd concentrate mostly on CARO. I'll In the first class, we covered:

Halt - Sit (CKC only)
Halt - Sit - Down
Halt - Sit - Stand
Halt - Down - Sit
Halt - Walk Around
Halt - Sit - Walk Around
Halt - Down - Walk Around
Weave Once
Fast Pace
Slow Pace
Normal Pace

(Sorry if I messed up any of the names; I'm working from memory.)

Wall-e really enjoyed it. I realized how much I have to work on his downs; at this class, he wasn't dropping fully down and usually had his elbows off the floor.

When we first approached the cones in the Weave Once exercise, Wall-e tried to interact with one of the cones (pawing it), haha. We've done a lot of shaping exercises with cones and he probably thought that's what we were doing! He soon understood what to do, though.

At the end of each class, we'll be doing a sequence of exercises that will eventually build up to a full course. This week, we did Start (basically just the start line, not really an exercise), Weave Once, Halt - Down, and then Finish (the "finish line"). The Weave Once went well, but I do have to work on Wall-e's downs! He enjoyed it, though.

Second class: November 6

Exercises covered:

Straight Figure 8
Moving Down - Forward (CKC only)
Right Turn
About Turn - Right
270 Degree Right Turn
360 Degree Right Turn

(Only right turns were covered this week because left turns are a bit tougher.)

After working on downs at home, Wall-e's downs were much better this week!

The sequence for this class was Start, Weave Once, Halt - Sit - Down, Right Turn, Halt - Sit - Walk Around, Right Turn, Fast Pace, Normal Pace (just a transition from Fast Pace), and Finish. The first few stations went well, but we had a bit of trouble with the Halt - Sit - Walk Around; Wall-e hasn't learned this yet, so I tried to let him chew on a treat as I walked around him, but he would stand up when I started to step behind him. After two tries, I rewarded him for staying when I took a tiny step, and then moved on to the next stations, which Wall-e did great at.

---

We would have another class today too, but it was canceled because the instructor is attending a local rally trial. Next week, we'll learn the left turns.

Fun Match Oct. 16 and Trial Oct. 24

2010-11-06T07:14:00.003-05:00

Whew. I'm so behind on writing about our latest events. Let's get started.

Fun Match, Oct. 16

I ran Mika in two Masters Gamblers runs and Wall-e in two Starters Standard runs. Wall-e's runs were first. I let him do all of the obstacles except for the weaves, dog walk, and A-frame (although he did sneak onto an off-course AF twice!). Once, he forgot to stop in 2on2off on the teeter. He realized that right after he jumped off and immediately backed up to try to get into position! Good thing that the teeter was already high enough that it didn't hit him.

The Masters gamble was too hard for Mika and me, so I broke it up into smaller pieces and then gradually increased the distance and amount of obstacles. We didn't get to the full distance, but she did send out really nicely to the correct end of the second tunnel, which was the hardest part of the gamble for us. She also had some good weaves during the opening.

Trial, Oct. 24

This was our last trial of the year. I just ran Mika because Wall-e isn't ready to run at this venue yet. We ran in two Masters Gamblers runs and one Masters Jumpers. In the middle of our first Gamblers run, Mika thought we were done because she went over the jump closest to one of the entry/exit gatesMika has been trialing long enough to know that when we're running towards a gate, it's time to get her jackpot reward. Unfortunately for her, what she thought was the exit gate was actually the entry gate, and there was a Keeshond waiting to run. She reacted to it, but came back to me when I called her with "Gimme a check!" (our reactivity cue that means to focus on me when a dog is around). In the gamble, we took the wrong obstacle in the discrimination, so no Q. This run was still a blast, though, because Mika was speedy and barky!

Our second run was another Gamblers. In the opening, I actually called Mika out of the weaves by accident, causing her to pop out; I meant to call her after the poles, but I anticipated and called her while she was still weaving. Silly handler. The DW entry in the gamble was too sharp for Mika, so we did the gamble a bit differently, as you'll see in the video. (Angled DW entries will definitely be a training project for next year.)

Our last run of the year was the Jumpers run. The course wasn't easy and was a bit twisty at times, but we ran it clean and Q'd.

This video is from all of the trials and fun matches we've run in this fall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9BDQvOKQXE

Happy birthday to my little 6 year old!

2010-10-17T16:48:00.008-05:00

On Thursday, October 14, Mika celebrated her sixth birthday. I couldn't spend as much time with her as I would have liked because I had to finish two lab write-ups and study for a big test. But we did go for a nice walk at a park we haven't been to in a while (the same one we went to last year on her birthday).

In the evening, Mika got a meal of her usual Tollden Farms raw beef and veggie patty, but also mixed in with some canned pumpkin and cooked lamb. Needless to say, she LOVED it.

(The fuzzy thing next to her left paw is her old favourite Monkey toy, which disappeared for a while and was just recently found again!)

For presents, Mika got a new flexi-leash (so that she doesn't have the share our other one with Wall-e) and organic chicken necks from The Urban Carnivore, which we haven't bought in a couple months.

My little dog is now middle-aged. The more I hear about all the health problems many schnauzers suffer from as they age, the more I appreciate the time I have with my own healthy girl.

Happy birthday Mika :)

Fun Match Oct. 9, 2010

2010-10-10T12:15:00.003-05:00

Both dogs had a great time at the fun match yesterday. I ran Mika in two Masters Standard runs and one Steeplechase, and Wall-e in one Steeplechase.

Mika had some great independence in our first run, the Standard; I accidentally sent her to an off-course tunnel that was 20 feet away! My handling of this course wasn't the greatest, though. There was a section of the course where I had to RC over the first jump of a 180. The first time we tried it, I pulled her towards me instead of pushing her away over the jump. The second time, I managed to push her away, but she didn't know where she was going after the jump and knocked the bar. But oh well, we had fun and I rewarded Mika a lot during the run.

My rear cross at that 180 was much better in our second run (same course as our first run). She jumped the apex of the AF in this run! We haven't trained the AF in about a month, so I doubted that she would jump it.

Next was Wall-e's turn at Steeplechase; "finally," he says! He'd been waiting hours to run and by the time it was his turn, he was ready to burst.

I ran Wall-e at 6". He had tons of fun careening around the little jump/tunnel sequences (we couldn't run the full course because the AF and weaves are too stressful on the rear legs). I rewarded him with a nice "party mix" of Polish sausage, cheese, and sweet potato.

Last run of the day was Steeplechase with Mika. She had a beautiful AF, jumping the apex again, but much less awkwardly this time! At the end of the run I started sending Mika over the wrong jumps, haha, but she went and started taking the right ones, which made me realize my mistake. If this were a trial, she would have saved the day!

Moose

2010-10-08T06:16:00.003-05:00

New animals are always popping up at the farmhouse my parents are renovating! They saw three moose there earlier this week. My mom got a photo of these two:

Mika Trial Sep. 25, 2010

2010-10-01T15:45:00.002-05:00

I am still super happy about this trial because, although we didn't Q, Mika actually BARKED ON COURSE!!! She has NEVER done this before. Understand that Mika is a very vocal dog; she barks at people, she barks at dogs, she barks when she's doing tricks, she barks before agility, she barks after agility...you get the picture...but she has never actually barked during a run or sequence. At this trial we did Snooker for the first time and the least thing I expected was to hear Mika barking during the run!! This is absolutely a great thing because Mika only barks when she's excited and "high," so hearing her bark during our first Snooker runs means that she's happy and not stressing, and is just plain having fun.

I had planned a flowing course for our first run, but we got whistled off after about 15 seconds for accidentally taking two obstacles-of-choice in a row. (Mika was pleasantly surprised to get her jackpot after only 15 seconds in the ring).

In our second run, Mika entered the weaves wrong, so after she finished them I had her do them in the opposite direction because the first time hadn't counted. But then I didn't have a plan for what to do after that, so I just sent her over a red jump we'd already taken to stop the run. This was Mika's first time doing 24"-spaced weaves at a trial and her footwork was great considering!

Again, awesome trial because I'm uber happy about Mika barking during both of the runs!!

August trial video

2010-09-26T14:35:00.002-05:00

This is the video from our trial back in August. Took me a while to get it up. Mika wasn't too fast because of the incredible heat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2JjIPK_VRY

How to make eggshell powder

2010-09-19T12:27:00.005-05:00

(Eggshells, from left to right: almost-finished product, slightly crushed, whole eggshells)

I'm making eggshell powder today for the first time, thought I'd share.

I feed a raw diet to my dogs. On a typical day, they get either Tollden Farms frozen patties and/or various other foods.

I don't believe that a dog's diet has to be perfectly balanced every day; as long as they get a fairly balanced diet during the course of a week or even a month (although a week is preferred), they'll be eating well. I don't feed my dogs the pre-made patties day in, day out because dogs' bodies don't respond well to eating the exact same foods every day. My dogs get their patties several times a week, but the rest of the time they get various assortments of food. Also, both dogs get Prozyme enzyme supplements every couple days and a fish oil capsule twice a week. Wall-e has been getting glucosime every couple days since his injury in April (he used to get 125mg, but now I've upped it to 250mg because of his re-injury).

But even though a dog's diet doesn't have to be exactly balanced every day, they should be receiving a good calcium/phosphorus (Ca:P) ratio as often as possible. This is pretty important for dogs. The Tollden Farms patties have a good C:Pa ratio, but when I feed other foods, I still want my dogs to be receiving a good ratio. The recommended ratio is 1.2:1, but many individual foods have more phosphorus than calcium. What to do? Add a calcium supplement.

I referred to one of my favourite books, Dr. Pitcairn's Natural Health for Dogs & Cats, to choose which calcium supplement to use. I narrowed it down between bone meal and eggshell powder. I chose eggshell powder because I would have to buy bone meal, and when there's an option between buying and making my own, I prefer to make my own (when possible).

I'll put the instructions from Dr. Pitcairn's book in my own words, adding some tips that I discovered today while making the eggshell powder.

1. Collect at least a dozen eggshells. I collected two dozen.

2. Wash the eggshells.

3. Bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. This makes the eggshells brittle and easier to grind, and also removes the coating that is sometimes added to the shells to keep them from drying out.

4. Crush the eggshells, as shown in the photo at the beginning of this post. This will make the shells easier to grind.

5. Grind using a mortar and pestle, blender, or nut and seed grinder. I chose to use a mortar and pestle. Grind to a "fine powder."

And you're done. Each eggshell makes about 1tsp of powder (1,800mg of calcium).

It's actually kind of fun to use the mortar and pestle. I'm only about halfway done making the powder, but it's going well. And soon I'll have some pretty powder to add to some of the foods my dogs eat.

Double box sequences...late late late!

2010-09-17T19:37:00.003-05:00

Mika and I have been working on double box jump sequences for our past couple of training sessions at the field. (Well, we did add the DW and a tunnel into the sequences, but most of them were jumps set in a double box configuration.)

I need to tighten up my rear crosses...I'm always so late with them! When I'm late, Mika (being the good girl she is) still manages to turn in the right direction, but even so, I need to tighten up and cue quicker. Not just with RC's, but with everything. Mika is always so responsive to my handling, and since she is now pretty much back to her normal speed consistently, it's harder for me to cue at exactly the right time. But even when I'm being a confusing handler, Mika is still snazzy and runs great. She's always having fun, even when she doesn't know where to go for a second.

Having fun with my crazy dogs

2010-09-15T16:58:00.003-05:00

At Week 5 of room rest/rehabilitation, Wall-e is still looking sound. We haven't started getting back to agility yet, but I'm slowly starting to introduce him to short spans of running again with lunging. As soon as I got home today I took Wall-e in the backyard with some cheese to do a bit of lunging. Lunging, which originated from the horse world, is where the dog runs in a wide circle around the handler. For Wall-e, I use four pylons for him to circle around. Today was only our second session of lunging, so the "circle" isn't very big (maybe five feet across in diameter), but it still allows Wall-e to have some fun running around it. The look on his face is just great; he's super happy to be allowed to run again, even if it's just running around some pylons a few times! Next week I'll let him start running through straight tunnels (just one tunnel per session).

Later, I practiced retrieving with Mika with a toy that I've just recently found out she's totally bonkers for. I braided this toy out of a felt-like material for Wall-e when he first came home, but he's never liked it that much, so now it's Mika's. I want to start using it in her weave training. (I've been helping her with her footwork in 24" weaves by using four slanted poles). Anyways, we went in the backyard to do a bit of retrieving. The first rep was so cool that we didn't do any more reps. I threw the toy and Mika zoomed ahead to get it, grabbing it and racing back to me...but she was having so much fun that she just barreled on past me! As soon as she realized this, she turned around to bring me her toy and we had lots of fun tugging. The way she growled sounded like she was killing something. She always sounds like that when she's tugging, but today she was seriously crazy.

3 years since our last group class, and...

2010-09-11T14:16:00.003-05:00

The last time I've taken a group class with Mika was in 2007, when we took two sets of agility group classes.

In 2007, it was a constant struggle to keep Mika, who was then aggressive and pretty unmanageable, calm and focused on me instead of reacting at other dogs. When we got out of the car, she was pull towards the other dogs, barking LOUDLY. If another dog got close, she would lunge toward them and snap. During class, she would bark the entire hour except when she was busy chewing a Zuke's bone or licking a Kone, which both didn't last long. I had no idea then, but I now know that she wasn't merely barking at other dogs; she stressed, freaking out, and worrying for her safety the entire time, even though all the other dogs were perfectly friendly. Mika didn't know that.

The first class we took in 2007, in June, was the hardest for us because the class involved a lot of individual obstacle training as well as sequencing. During the obstacle training, all of the dogs took turns on one specific obstacle, one after the other. This type of class would have been fine for a dog like Wall-e, but it was way too much for Mika to handle.

In the summer class, there was a JRT/Toy Poodle in the class that she was the most reactive to. She would fixate on it and wouldn't -- couldn't -- glance at anything else.

Halfway through this set of classes, on the recommendation of another class member, I got a Halti for Mika to help with her barking. But the first day we used it, Mika pulled towards that JRT/poodle as hard as she could and the Halti broke. I can still clearly picture the horrifying image of Mika thundering over to the other dog and the tussle that followed. We pulled the dogs apart and there was no damage except for a couple hairs that the other dog had pulled out of Mika's beard, but it was emotionally shocking. We had just started working through our challenges with the teeter and Mika's stressing in agility, and now we had this aggression that seemed huge, even compared to our other very challenging problems. That day, I was very seriously considering retiring Mika from the sport.

That was 3 years ago. On Monday, I ran Mika in Wall-e's last sequencing class.

The whole week before the class, I toyed with the idea of running her in the class. On one hand, would it be too stressful and too risky to run her in a class with other dogs? On the other hand, hadn't I learned my lesson that with Mika, I should always go with my gut feeling, which in this case was to run her in the class? I am a worrier and an over-reactor (maybe Mika gets it from me), and it was hard not to think of the what-ifs while making my decision.

On Monday at the class, I didn't run Mika in the first sequence because she would've had to weave towards the group of dogs in our class. Mika stayed in the car; I knew that I would definitely be keeping Mika in the car at all times except when she was running.

The second sequence wasn't too close to the other dogs, so I decided to go for it. Armed with lots of freeze-dried liver -- what else? -- I carried Mika in; she feels a bit safer when I carry her. But not once did I see her glance at the other dogs. When I put her down to start the sequence, she was in high-drive. She leaned back when I held her by the stifles and said our typical "Ready...Set...Go!" and then blasted off to the first obstacle! She ran the sequence like a dream. Very fast -- as fast as she was last year -- and extremely focused. Not only was she not worried about the other dogs, but she was driven!

I brought Mika in again to run the full Starters course. Again, FOCUSED and FAST! I skipped the weaves and a jump that would have brought her towards the group of dogs, but the instructor let us do the weaves in the opposite direction. They were the new 24" spacing (which went into effect this month in the AAC) and although she wasn't very speedy through them, she drove through them fluidly with her body low, and did the whole set of 12. She's only 12.75", so it'll take a while for her to get her usual speed on the new spacing. We ran the rest of the course and that was it; we'd done it. After 3 years of very hard work, Mika successfully ran in a group class without worrying about other dogs!

Continuing with our work on Wall-e's fears

2010-09-02T15:28:00.002-05:00

This should be my last "catch-up" post from the 2 weeks that I didn't blog!

Wall-e didn't run in class on Monday this week either because of his injury, so we used class time to work on his fears again. We walked into the building with no problem at all. We even walked almost directly under where the fan was blaring. After 30 minutes of hanging around and doing a bit more fear training, we went home.

The way it's going now, I think Wall-e would definitely be able to do agility in the building. I won't trial him there this fall, but next spring he can probably do some indoor mini-trials, which are less chaotic than regular trials.

A big step for Wall-e and his fears!

2010-09-01T17:13:00.004-05:00

Wall-e's classes are held at an indoor/outdoor venue. Although we've dealt with his fears of the indoor arena where his bad experience happened, he was still terrified of the arena/building at this venue. Well, he wasn't really scared of the building, more the commotion and noise made by other dogs inside the building, as well as the sound of the fan.

So before our class last week, I rented the building for 30 minutes. I'd planned to first train Mika inside the building, with Wall-e watching by the door, so that Wall-e could see that being in the building can be really fun. Then, I'd planned to slowly shape Wall-e to step inside the building.

The beginning of our rental went as planned. I just did simple stuff with Mika; running through a tunnel for a game of tug, doing the teeter a couple of times for freeze-dried liver. She was great. Then it was Wall-e's turn. It turns out that since the fan was off during our rental, Wall-e didn't have a problem with going inside at all. He just walked right in! Later, when the fan was turned on for the classes (which were held inside that day), I saw that Wall-e was very hesitant to go inside, so we shaped it. He wasn't as scared as he used to be -- going inside without the fan in our rental had helped that -- and within 5 minutes, he was able to step all the way inside. Within 10 minutes, he was trotting around inside the building with his tail up. Wow!! He wasn't even too nervous when the other dogs made a noise. He flicked his ears back for a second, but soon recovered and went back to being happy. Go Mister Meister!! (I don't even know why I call him that.)

I didn't run him in class that week because of his injury. He wasn't showing lameness when we arrived at the venue, but when it was time to go home, I saw that he was slightly limping again. Too much trotting? He'd also bounced in the air a few times during training, although I tried to prevent him from doing that by rewarding him close to the ground (I don't want to correct his enthusiasm that he shows through bouncing). Bouncing definitely isn't good for his knee!

I checked out what Kathy had written about Breeze's partial CCL tear a couple years ago. It was really informative! It also made me realize that if Wall-e does have a CCL injury (I really don't know if he does, but all of the signs are pointing to it), it's a bit more serious than I was treating it. When I posted about it in the middle of August, I said that I planned to have him back doing simple agility exercises in just 2 weeks. I realize now that 2 weeks is too soon for this kind of injury. After doing lots more reading from lots of different sources, I think that Wall-e can *gradually* get back to doing a bit of agility after a month of room rest, which will be 2 weeks from now. He'll just do one obstacle per session; not a lot of running at all. After 6 weeks of room rest (4 weeks from now), he can start doing sequencing again.

I'm following a home rehabilitation program that I found in the September 2007 issue of Clean Run Magazine. The program is meant for dogs recovering from surgery complete ruptures, so I'm modifying it a bit for Wall-e, since his injury isn't as serious; I'm dividing the days in half. For example, instead of waiting 30 days to do the second set of exercises, I waited 15 days.

I probably made it sound complicated, but basically, right now Wall-e is doing room rest, 10-20 minute walks, and the home rehabilitation program. I don't know if he does have a CCL injury, but I'm playing it safe, just in case.

Mika Trial Aug. 29, 2010

2010-08-31T15:43:00.005-05:00

Whew, it's been 2 weeks since I've blogged!

Sunday was Mika's first time successfully running at a trial in almost 2 months (at our last trial, we had those *incidents* with the other dogs). I've been working very hard on her reactivity since then. We've always worked at it, but for the past several weeks we've been doing as much as we can to get exposure to as many dogs as possible to work on reactivity. For the rest of this year I've only entered Mika in trials that have fenced rings, for the sake of safety, in case she does react to another dog.

She did have a reaction at this trial, but it wasn't in the ring. I can't remember the dog because it happened right before our first run, but I was preparing to cue Mika into a sit-stay close to a few other dogs when one of the dogs approached her and she lunged. Nothing else happened and I moved Mika farther away from the other dogs.

It was hot throughout the whole day, but Mika ran at a good speed considering that. (She has been getting slower these past few months, but we're getting her speed back.) When it was time to do our gamble, Mika read my (wrong) cues, saw the last jump in the gamble, and started running towards it. I called her, but as we approached the first jump of the gamble we were already at a bad angle, so I couldn't send her out to the intended second jump. Off-course to another jump, NQ. Doesn't matter, I'm just happy that she's getting her drive back!

A knocked bar caused our NQ in our Masters Jumpers run. Yes, Mika knocked a bar! She occasionally will knock a 6" bar in training, when she doesn't lift her feet up enough to go over the tiny jump, but she's only ever knocked 2 bars at trials; once at Nationals (last year) and once in a Gamblers run. I don't think she would have knocked the bar at this trial if I had led out. I started with her in this run because she broke her stay in the Gamblers run and, since she's been breaking stays a lot this year, I don't want her to rehearse that. Anyway, it's too bad it was so hot for this run because the course was super flowing. Other than that knocked bar, we ran it clean, except for an off-course to a tunnel (she only put a paw in it, but it was still an off-course). She wasn't fast, but that was to be expected in the heat.

No reactions to other dogs in the ring...things are looking up for us!

I'll talk about Wall-e in a later post, but he isn't showing any signs of lameness at the moment.

Not again...

2010-08-17T10:13:00.003-05:00

The beginning of Wall-e's class yesterday was amazing. We ran the first exercise beautifully. He ran hard through his weaves and watched my signals perfectly. (I ran him at 10" because we were at a fun match on Sunday.)

But the next exercise involved an angled approach to the teeter. I didn't think it would be a problem. I pushed into his path a bit to help him get on straight. He got on at just a bit of an angle, but not too bad, and then slipped off halfway across. I brought him around in a loop to take a couple of jumps and try the teeter again, which he did fine. He ran the rest of the exercise great.

The last exercise started with the dog walk, then went into a curved tunnel, and then finished from the tunnel to a table. I started Wall-e from the jump before the DW, so that he could get some speed onto the DW. I knew that something was up when he cantered slowly up the DW, then trotted across the horizontal and down planks. He *never* trots across the horizontal plank! I rewarded him and stopped running. My first thought was: knee. Wall-e was lame in his rear left leg back in April.

Sure enough, when I got home, I saw that Wall-e was limping, favouring one of his rear legs. It was hard to tell which one it was while he was walking, but when I did a soundness test I saw that he was putting more weight on his right rear leg than his left, and when I picked up his rear legs his right leg felt heavier. That could only mean that something was up with his left rear leg....

Not again!

I watched the video clip of the spill off the teeter and he definitely hyper-extended his left rear leg. Though it's hard to see, it looks like he might have banged his left knee against the teeter base as he slipped off. The left rear leg was the one that stayed on the teeter the longest. From what I've read, cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) tears often happen on teeter or dog walk spills with the rear leg that stays on the obstacle the longest.

I'm pretty sure this time that it's his CCL (which is part of the knee/patella) that's the problem. With Ashley's help, I've been thinking up a plan for his recovery. It's a lot like what I did last time, but this time I'm going to include swimming (Ashley's idea) in the plan. This week will be rest, with daily massage. Next week will be very short walks and swimming sessions.

Week 3 will be 15 minute walks, conditioning exercises focused on strengthening the rear legs (using Dr. Chris Zink's recommendations from her book The Agility Advantage). Also, short daily agility sessions with no turns involved and only straight tunnels, 6" jumps, and tables (another one of Chris Zink's suggestions). We'll see about swimming. By then it'll be September and it could be too chilly. Week 4 will be 30 minute walks, continuing conditioning exercises (I'll hopefully do these for the rest of his life). And short daily agility sessions with slight turns, and all obstacles except the A-frame and weaves. (At least 50% of jumps at 6" and no more than 50% at 10".) Week 5 will be up to 45 minute walks, conditioning exercises, and agility sessions with all obstacles. (But still 50%-50% of 6" and 10" jumps. I think that's a good idea anyway, for any dog.) Finally, Week 6 will be the same except with 60 minute walks.

I entered Wall-e in two Starters Jumpers runs on September 12. I was going to start running him in 16" at this trial, but entered him in 10" again instead because of this. I'm not sure if he'll be good to run by then. Starters courses don't involve sharp turns (or at least, they shouldn't) and are only 15-17 obstacles. I'll see how he is. We might not be able to finish our set of classes, though, because they end on September 6. Maybe we'll be able to do the last one, but we'd skip the AF and weaves and I would run him at 6".

I think Wall-e's knee (or whatever it is) will always be weak, but considering that he is still putting weight on it, I really don't think the situation is right now. The vet didn't even see a problem when I brought him in in April, 3 weeks after he started showing lameness. Anyway, we'll take it as it goes.

Fun Match Aug. 15, 2010

2010-08-15T16:24:00.004-05:00

VERY good fun match!! I don't feel like I made any big training mistakes (but if you caught something, let me know). The only thing was that I pulled Wall-e out of the weaves when I sent him off-course to them, but I'm excusing myself for that because by the time I saw him enter, he'd already realized that I wanted him somewhere else and pulled out.

My main goal for this fun match was for Mika not to react at any dogs, and we achieved that goal with the help of tons of freeze-dried liver! Weren't Mika's weaves great!? She got a hard ON-SIDE entry (Mika is not an on-side entry dog!) and never popped out!! She didn't 2-hit her A-frame, but the contacts were really wet, so of course she didn't. She did hit the yellow 2 out of 4 times, though (we did 3 reps of the AF in our second run, which I didn't put in the video)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKEWcp4YebQ

Mika's feeling blue

2010-08-13T11:13:00.003-05:00

It seems that Mika is turning into a Smurf.

Or maybe it's just an attack of one of our blue bone-shaped toys. The colour is starting to come off.

But you never know.

Back to work on turn cues

2010-08-11T20:29:00.002-05:00

Quick post.... Remember when Mika and I were working on turning cues over a jump back in the spring? Well, we've been getting back at it (again, using the Clean Run "It's Your Turn!" article series). This month's turn cue is the push-through; sending the dog to the opposite side of the jump (a.k.a. the back side of the jump). Today, my feet weren't pointing to the path I wanted Mika to take at first, so for the first rep she didn't understand that she had to go AROUND the jump standard to take the back side. The second rep went really nicely, though.

Wall-e's third sequencing class

2010-08-11T09:03:00.002-05:00

I love Wall-e's A-frame :D It's fast and reliable. The first exercise involved the AF and then an outward flip to a tunnel that was wrapped underneath. Wall-e didn't get this at all. At first I was using my outside arm to try to flip him (my rear cross cue), but the instructor told me that using my inside arm in this situation is clearer to the dog. After a few more tries, Wall-e finally got it. After the tunnel, the dog had to go into a couple more tunnels and then collect into an on-side weave entry (45 degrees?). I tried handling this with Wall-e on my right the first couple of times and he didn't collect in time to snag the entry. I was told to do a front cross in front of the tunnel to get him on my left for the weaves, which worked a lot better. Then we ran the whole exercise again, adding a tunnel after the weaves. We got everything right, except that I sent Wall-e onto an off-course teeter (the instructor said that my hand was flapping, ugh, I thought I was doing better about that recently!). When I kept my hand to my side and called him, he sent into the tunnel fine.

The second and last exercise (we spent a lot of time on the first one because it was pretty tough for these Starters dogs) involved a teeter, a tunnel (wrapped under the dog walk), and the DW. We got it the first time. His teeter was great, but his DW could have been faster. He didn't get too much momentum going onto it though because he had to turn from the tunnel (which was under the DW) onto the up-plank.

It was a good class :)

Cute little guy

2010-08-07T20:25:00.002-05:00

My parents saw this little critter at the farmhouse that they're fixing up and my mom snapped a picture. We think it's a groundhog pup. Cute!

Wall-e's second sequencing class

2010-08-06T09:08:00.002-05:00

This class was much better than our first one! I stuck to my usual training style (rewarding for both the good and bad, jackpot for the good), so I felt a lot better about myself. The first exercise we did was a lateral lead-out over 2 jumps set at a 90 degree angle, and then going on to the teeter and table. It was a bit too lateral for Wall-e the first time, so I reduced the distance for the second time and he got it. He ZOOMED over to the teeter.

Next was a bit of a simpler exercise, a jump to a 30 degree on-side weave entry (12 poles). Wall-e got that right away after all of our work on weave entries last week, good boy!

The final exercise involved a straight line of the table to the dog walk to a tire, and then a turn to the A-frame and a straight tunnel. His DW was really nice! He ran all the way across, not hesitating on the down plank, and touched his nose to the clear target as soon as he stopped in 2on2off. The first time we tried the AF, he collected for his 2o2o, but not enough to actually stop. He did get it the next time, though.

When all of the individual exercises were done, we ran a full course that involved all of the exercises, like the first class. (I like how the instructor does this.) Wall-e was so good!! He ran it clean; his first time running a Standard course clean. His DW was beautiful. His AF could have been faster, but it wasn't really slow, and he stopped. I even got a chance to use our cik and cap cues (Silvia Trkman's method of teaching wraps over a jump). It was really fun!

July video...it works!

2010-08-05T14:09:00.003-05:00

The last video got blocked because of the songs I chose (something about copyright), so I took off the music. It should work now:

Trials and Fun Match July '10 video

2010-08-03T19:49:00.001-05:00

Fun Match July 31, '10

2010-08-01T11:09:00.003-05:00

Mika ran Masters Jumpers and Wall-e ran Starters Standard.

The Standard runs were first. Wall-e got to practice his new 2on2off contacts (both the dog walk and 5 foot A-frame) in a trial environment. He did really well! I put his targets out for the first run and left them out for the second. His first run was cute. On both the AF and DW, he stopped in 2o2o. I rewarded him, and then after he ate his food he broke his 2o2o, turned around, and hopped back into 2o2o. Haha!

The Masters Jumpers course was a lot like a Snooker (which is actually good because Mika and I will be running in Snooker for the first time this fall). Mika was slow, though. I don't know why she's been so slow this year. And she reacted at a dog (black lab, no surprise!) in our second run. Oh well. The good part was that we had no off-courses, just some missed jumps. She was still a good dog, even if she was stressed by the black lab :)

Revealed: No Country for Animals

2010-07-30T12:00:00.002-05:00

Do animals have any rights in Canada?

Revealed: No Country for Animals examines Canada’s deplorable record on animal welfare and looks at the people who are fighting to bring about much-needed change.

This documentary introduces viewers to some of the people who are fighting to bring about change in this country. There’s Nicole Joncas challenging the Quebec courts to close their horrific puppy mills, or Twyla Francois, armed with an undercover camera, campaigning vigorously to bring attention to the mistreatment of farm animals. We meet Canada’s first lawyer to specialize in animal law, and a new, young generation dedicated to the fight to improve the lives of animals through legal and educational means.

This documentary will enlighten and enrage you and will leave you wondering how humane our society really is.

I missed this on TV, but am watching it now...click on the link below to watch it.

Revealed: No Country for Animals

Mika, flying A-frame dog

2010-07-29T18:48:00.002-05:00

For probably the first time ever, we went to the field twice today. Once at 7:00am, once at 4:00pm. The first time we went, Mika and Wall-e worked on the A-frame, on-side weave entries, and dog walk/tunnel discrimination (all stuff that Wall-e needs for his class).

But it was our afternoon session that completely amazed me.

Mika trained first this time. I ran her over the DW a couple times first. (Well, she ran over it by herself the first time!) Then it was on to the AF. The first rep wasn't a true running AF, so I rewarded her quickly and then went back to do it again. I held her by her stifles (back knees) to rev her up like I often do, saying my usual "Reeaadyy...settt...GO!!" She took off like a bullet. And WOW. WOW. Can I say it again? WOW. She zoooomed over to the AF, strided up, and FLEW down. FLEW. What I remember most is her back legs straight out behind her as she soared through the air. And then I remember seeing her back paws hit the yellow at the top slat of the contact zone. Mika. did. a. flying. A-frame.

We must have looked like crazy people to the cars passing by. I screamed out, "GOOD GIRL, GOOD GIRL!!" to a hyperactive Mika who soaked up my approval eagerly, but who really just wanted me to throw that darn food tube. Which I did. I threw it and threw it and rewarded her until it was empty.

A one-hit AF probably isn't a performance that'd be safe long-term, but I'm sure that Mika won't be doing it again. I'm perfectly happy with a 2-hit running AF with a nice jump over the apex (not a ginormous, soaring Superman impersonation like she did today). I'm just so thrilled (and shocked!) that she did it today because I've been wanting a jump over the apex for years, and what did she do? She exceeded my expectations, as she's done countless time. Ohhh yes, she gave me a jump, but she gave me a BIG jump!

(Mika, by the way, is only 12.75" tall. I swear to God. Can you say -gasp-?)

Wall-e's first sequencing class

2010-07-28T10:48:00.003-05:00

On Monday, Wall-e and I had our first Starters sequencing class.

The first exercise that we did involved a lateral lead-out with a curved tunnel. The dog was left in a stay in front of the left tunnel entrance, while the handler led-out in front of the right entrance and released the dog to the left entrance. (Am I confusing anyone yet!) Wall-e ran to me the first couple of times, but when I stood in the middle of the tunnel, he got it.

Then there was an S-shaped sequence involved the teeter, jumps, the A-frame, and 12 poles. Wall-e did a tunnel instead of the AF because his AF is still under construction. His weaves were funny in class for some reason. The first time we tried this sequence, he went through the first and second poles, but hadn't collected himself enough to make the turn to the third pole. The second time we tried it, he entered at the second pole. I was kicking myself afterward because I called him out of the poles a couple times to send him through again, instead of letting him finish the sequence like I do at the field. Next time I'm really going to try to act like I do at the field, though.

The last thing we did was run a whole course that included the exercises that we'd run. Wall-e did everything beautifully, except for the dog walk, strangely! There was a tunnel wrapped around the entrance ramp, which he'd never seen before. When I cued him to go up the DW, he started to go up, then jumped off the up-plank when he saw the tunnel underneath him. The instructor said to lure him up with my hand, which I did. Once he realized that it was still a DW and wasn't some weird tunnel-DW hybrid, he was fine. He didn't have his usual speed, but he was good and stopped for his 2o2o. Next week I'll try to get to class a bit earlier to practice the DW and get his normal speed.

The rest of the sequence went great. He even got his weave entry the first time, although he was slow and uncertain. (I shouldn't have called him out before....) He stayed in the poles when I did a front cross at the end and finished with a nice send to a tunnel.

CKC Trial July 24, '10

2010-07-27T11:31:00.005-05:00

Mika didn't run. As we were at the car getting ready for her first run, she saw a black Standard Poodle about 20-30 feet away, ran over, and snapped at him. Augh. We went over to the ring. I did our usual mental warm-up and she seemed focused again. So I went in the ring, still distracted from her reaction, but thinking that it was over with and we would do this run. As I began to lead out, Mika saw a Tibetan Terrier walking past the ring behind her and immediately ran over to the side of the ring, trying to find a way out. I called her and she started to come back to me, but just before I could grab her, she spotted the dog again and ran through the entrance of the ring. She raced over to the dog and started a scuffle, but to my relief, the owner pulled her dog away. I called Mika and this time she came all the way to me. We were excused from the run (but I would have excused ourselves anyway).

I'm lucky that I know the owners of the poodle and the Tibetan, and they were very forgiving. I wouldn't have blamed them if they were upset, but they didn't act upset in the least. I pulled Mika from her remaining two runs, both for her safety and for the safety of other dogs.

Things to change...well, Mika will be wearing a Gentle Leader to the ring from now on. It definitely helps keep her calm. (When she pulls on her regular agility leash, it makes her more excited and potentially reactive.) I'll be taking her for individual walks to work more on her reactivity to other dogs, like I did when we were getting ready for SuperDogs last year.

It's amazing; Mika is so much more reactive with big black dogs. She always has been. My guess is that it's because she was lunged at by a black lab mix in a pet store when she was 10 weeks old. She ran the other way, screaming and terrified. At the trial, the poodle was a big black dog. With the tibetan, she must have still been in that reactive state of mind. She's seen that dog before and hasn't minded him.

Later that day, I walked Mika around the trial a couple of times to play our reactivity games. In our second session, we were setting under the shade tent in front of the same ring she had run out of that morning. There were about five other dogs around her, some only a couple feet away, and she was lying calmly in her down-stay, staring at me. She didn't even offer a glance at one of the dogs, so I knew that she was feeling super-comfortable in that situation. Then, she saw a big black Whippet walking over, about 50 feet away. She stood up, completely tense, stared intensely at the Whippet, growling. I picked her up (I had to, or else she would have gone nuts) and brought her as far away as I could.

Hah, she's totally fine with 5 strange dogs crowded around her, but when she sees a big black dog 50 feet away, she loses it! What a dog! :)

Okay, onto Wall-e's runs. It was his very first CKC trial and he got his first Novice Jumpers with Weaves Q. The run was 19.71 seconds!! Our second run, another JWW, was fast too, but we missed some jumps. At the end of the run, he LEAPED into the air so high that I could have caught him. He knows how to have fun!

Wall-e AAC Trial July 8, '10

2010-07-23T15:23:00.002-05:00

Never wrote about this trial! Whoops!! It was awhile ago....

Wall-e was entered in two Starters Gamblers runs, his very first try at Gamblers. In the first run, I did a fairly long lead-out and he stayed sitting beautifully. We did several jumps and a couple of teeters before the person timing told us to restart because the timer had malfunctioned. All right, back to the start! Wall-e got up from his stay this time, but I'm trying to keep everything fun for him, so I didn't tell him to sit again. But what a great run!! It was his first run with the teeter and first run with weaves. He did all of them perfectly and awesomely!! The gamble had tunnel sends, so I didn't handle it from behind the line (he'd been having some refusals on tunnel sends in training).

In our next run, I started with him instead of leading out because I thought there wasn't really any need for a lead-out. He seemed a bit confused about where to go after the first jump, though, so I probably should have led-out. Note to self -- always lead out with Wall-e! This run felt messy, but it was still good. I would have tried the gamble (only jumps), but I didn't heard the gamble buzzer. Other people didn't hear it either. It was pretty quiet.

He was a good boy! Will post the runs with the video of our CKC trial that both dogs are running at tomorrow.

Mika's latest groom

2010-07-18T08:49:00.005-05:00

Mika got another haircut on Thursday last week. The groomer always puts a bandanna on her. It's always a different bandanna every time and it often corresponds with a nearby holiday or the season. This time it's yellow, great for summer!

(I shouldn't have taken these photos into the sun, but I hadn't planned to do that; I was taking photos of Wall-e and saw Mika standing nearby, so I turned around and snapped some shots. Oh well, she still looks pretty!)

Mika and Wall-e also went swimming in the pool a few times last week. (Mostly Wall-e because he doesn't mind swimming as much as Mika does.)

Mika MADC video

2010-07-14T18:01:00.002-05:00

Forgot to say that she was running kind of slow because it was HOT, especially for this country, haha!

(In the video it says "June." It should say "July.")

Mika AAC Trial July 4, '10

2010-07-12T19:43:00.004-05:00

This is pretty late, sorry!

Well, it's finally here...Mika and I got our Master Agility Dog of Canada (MADC) title :) Nothing really more to say other than how proud I am of her. The video will be up soon.

Happy Canada Day!

2010-07-01T19:45:00.001-05:00

Freestyle

2010-07-01T10:56:00.002-05:00

I realized that I've never blogged about one of my new(ish)-found loves; freestyle.

Canine freestyle is quite a new sport; it was born about 20 years ago. There are 2 main types of freestyle: musical freestyle and heelwork to music (HWTM). Basically, musical freestyle is all about tricks, while HWTM is (you guessed it) all about heeling. Both types of freestyle are performed in time to music.

This is one of the most well-known musical freestyle routines, by Carolyn Scott and her late golden, Rookie:

And this is an example of heelwork to music:

I discovered freestyle soon after I discovered agility, but I just started to get more serious about it this year. Musical freestyle is the one I'm into. Mika, being the flashier trick dog, is my main freestyle dog for now, but I might try HWTM with Wall-e one day; he's great at heeling, whereas Mika's version of heeling is bouncing/galloping along beside me!

I choreographed our very first routine a couple months ago. It's perfect for Mika because it's fast and involves a lot of motion. The song is "Get Up And Dance" by Faber Drive.

I'll admit it...I'm terrible at dancing. The good thing about freestyle, though, it that the attention is mostly on the dog and if the dog is flashy, she'll make up for the human's lack of dancing skills!

Sadly, there are no freestyle competitions in my area that I know of. I guess that's kind of a good thing though, since the judges generally don't appreciate barking in the routines :)

Finished back-chaining!

2010-06-29T18:23:00.003-05:00

As of today, we're all done back-chaining the dog walk! We still have to increase the distance/speed that Wall-e is approaching the DW at, and fade the target, but blah blah blah....It feels good that we're done back-chaining and that Wall-e knows how to control his body to stop at high speed!

When we went to the field yesterday we saw that somebody had set up a Starters Jumpers-type course and left the numbered cones! Wall-e and I ran it clean, and very quickly, yesterday (it was a rush!), and today we ran it in reverse. We had a bit of trouble with missed jumps, a refusal at the tunnel, and off-courses, probably because I set the jumps at 6" today, while yesterday they were at 10". I have to remember that Wall-e is still green; I have to run fast and cue extension, while not getting too far ahead of him.

After that, tunnel sends. No refusals in any of the 4 reps.

Wall-e Training June 22-25 video

2010-06-28T09:08:00.000-05:00

Dream Dogz

52 Weeks of Mika 2/52

Sleepy girl!I was going to edit out that crown molding on the ceiling, but I didn't have time. Oh well :)55mm, 1/320s, f/5.6, ISO 400. Edits: none

52 Weeks of Mika 1/52

***

1/52Pretty much what Mika does every time I step outside with my camera; bark! She loves modeling. :)I wish I could see her eyes better in this photo; something that's hard to do with a black dog....30mm, 1/4000s, f/5.6, ISO 1600. Edits: cropped

Mika and Wall-e Training Jan. 2, '12 video

Happy New Year!

2012

2011 Year in Review video

Mr. Handsome-Eyes

Merry belated Christmas!

Wall-e Advanced Jumpers July 30/11

Wall-e trial July 17, 2011

Mika and Wall-e fun match July 8/11

Mika's eyes are (mostly) in the clear!

Mika and Wall-e trial July 3, 2011

Wall-e fun match June 26, 2011

"Will You Catch Me Now?" video

Mika and Wall-e trial June 12, 2011

The reasons

What that sequence was supposed to look like!

Our recent training

Mika and Wall-e trial May 27, 2011

Dogs: a misunderstood species

Still stunning at 17

Happy 3rd birthday Wall-e!

Mika trial May 20, 2011

Open house demos May 15, 2011

Fun match May 14, 2011

Mika's bloodwork results

Need advice

Mika trial May 7, 2011

First training session at the field!

Mika's vet appointment

Mika trial April 17, 2011

Mika trial April 8, 2011

Wall-e's first indoor trial video!

Mika April 1 Starters Snooker video

Mika's run at the April 1 trial

Unworried Wall-e!

Tomorrow is the defining moment...

Reactivity update and L-theanine

A stroll by the pond with Wall-e

Mika's first walk to the pond in 2011

Mika Trial Mar. 19, '11

March trial planning

Mika and Wall-e Training Mar. 14, '11 video

Mika and Wall-e Training Feb. 21, '11 video

First agility training session of the year!

Hear the buzz

Montana's antics

Strengthening the core

Do your dogs pull on the leash?

"Did you wash your paws?" and returning to disc

Tricks: it's time to refresh

Balance Disc or Harness?

Montana wanted me to say...

2011: the year of progress?

Mika & Wall-e Training Dec. 28, '10 video

Merry Christmas!

Wall-e's last rally class

Montana

Another zzz... photo

Wall-e's fifth rally class

Goals for the next season

Wall-e's fourth rally class

Wall-e's third rally class

Wall-e's first and second rally classes

Fun Match Oct. 16 and Trial Oct. 24

Happy birthday to my little 6 year old!

Fun Match Oct. 9, 2010

Moose

Mika Trial Sep. 25, 2010

August trial video

How to make eggshell powder

Double box sequences...late late late!

Having fun with my crazy dogs

3 years since our last group class, and...

Continuing with our work on Wall-e's fears

Sleepy girl!

I was going to edit out that crown molding on the ceiling, but I didn't have time. Oh well :)

55mm, 1/320s, f/5.6, ISO 400. Edits: none

1/52

Pretty much what Mika does every time I step outside with my camera; bark! She loves modeling. :)

I wish I could see her eyes better in this photo; something that's hard to do with a black dog....

30mm, 1/4000s, f/5.6, ISO 1600. Edits: cropped