International handling lesson

There is this great agility group in Edmonton called Blast agility.  They are a group headed by Justine Davenport, an amazing agility handler that has been on the world team too many times to count!  The club prides themselves on their ability to handle the hardest of the international courses.  They live for threadles, backsides and all sorts of tricky handling moves.

I'm up in Edmonton this weekend with the Shelties for a CKC agility trial. While up here I decided it would be great to get a training session in with one of these ladies.  I booked a lesson with Jessica Patterson,  a very talented agility handler and a member of this years world team.  I wanted to work on international skills, the type of stuff you don't normally see in our AAC or CKC agility courses.  But they are fun skills, challenging and worth learning how to execute properly.

It came down to 4 skills that the dogs need to be able to do independently:

Wraps, from any angle, with minimal support from me. I should be able to send my dogs and run away.  Luckily wraps are something that we do work a lot.  The only difference is that I need to work more on the multiple wraps that Sylvia Trkman does around a pole. My dogs need to keep on wrapping until I stop cueing it.  This should tighten up my turns and teach Spryte how to bend her body.

Backsides of jumps. Again this is a skill we have been working on, and Spryte made me proud showing off her awesome backside abilities. I need to work more on having her do it across the face of the jump, and I need to be able to leave and have her complete the job no matter what my body position or motion is saying.

Running past obstacles while I call her name. Wow is that a hard skill!  As a lot of you know, snooker is not our game! Having Spryte run past an obstacle and not take it is just not in her nature.  But it is a skill that we are just going to have to learn. So from now on if I want her to take an obstacle I am actually going to have to name it on course ("over").  Where up until now I only speak if I need to get her attention and call her off an obstacle.  The international style handling is almost the opposite. If I name the obstacle she can take it, if I'm calling her name, run past it too me.  This will need work.  LOTS of work.

Lastly I need to work on my threadle skills. I don't enjoy threadles. I would rather push my dog through a gap than pull her.  It just works better for both of us.  But now I need to work harder on those threadles.  And to top it off  I am supposed to do it all on one hand!  Yikes, that will take some adjusting to as well.

We did some blind cross stuff too.  But I was surprised at how little they use it.  I was expecting most of the lesson to be on blind cross skills as that seems to be the rage right now.  In their system they will use blind crosses when an obstacle is turning the dog already, otherwise they just stick to front crosses. The theory being that the dog notices it sooner and isn't caught off guard. Ensuring that tight turn and confidence from the dog.  I was fine with that, as I still prefer front crosses on most turns.

Oh the other difference was that they avoid rear crosses whenever possible. I'm ok with this too as I prefer to be in front of my dog and have my dog follow me around the course. Their theory being that the dog should chase you around the course. This leads to faster dogs and more efficient handling.

So all in all it was a great lesson with lots of information, drills to practise and skills to perfect.  Justine and Jessica are planning on coming down to Calgary for some lessons in the near future. I will definitely have to get in on those and try out my new skills on some tricky courses. 

More Nose Work

I did another Nose Work session with the Shelties this morning.  The nice thing about this sport is I can do it at home, and it takes very little time.  Most of my session are between 3 and 5 minutes long. 

Today we were working on several new things. For one we were in a different room in the house that I have never trained in before, second I set up some "obstacles" for them to work around.  A suitcase, a bag, and a couple of box type items.  Third I started to see if the dogs can stay committed while I circle around them.

Below is Strider's session.  In the beginning Spryte was doing better than Strider, but now the old guy has figured it out and is doing well too. He still wants to indicate to the food containers, but has realized that it won't pay off and to keep looking.  There is a great moment in this video at about 41 seconds where Strider goes to move past the correct container and then catches the scent and his head whips around to indicate the item.  I love watching those "ah ha!" moments.

AGDC for Spryte

Spryte earned her AAC Advanced Gamers Dog of Canada title on Saturday.  We finally got that last Snooker Q!  I have decided to play it safe for my snooker runs for a while. I want the Q's and snooker is a hard game for Spryte.  Having to run by equipment and not take it is practically impossible for  her.  So now my plan is to have as direct a route as possible where she is only ever looking at obstacles she is aloud to take and never gets a chance to look at an off course obstacle. I don't care if the  point values are low, as long as it's enough for a qualifying leg. 

Spryte and Strider both earned a team leg on Saturday too. I'm sure it's been at least 6 years since I have played Team in agility.  It's something you just never see anymore.  I completely agree that it shouldn't be apart of the ATCh, but it would be nice to see it a little more often at trials. It was a ton of fun and both my partners were great.  Strider was paired with a Bichon Shitzu named Tessa and Spryte was paired with Flash.  The Spryte/Flash relay video is below.  It's neat to see the two shelties together on a team, the Super Sheltie couple did great.  They even managed to not flirt with each other during the run.  I ran first with Spryte (you'll see me pause at the Aframe, expecting my dog to stop! and then rushing ahead when she didn't, bad girl) then Dave ran with Flash. Enjoy the video.

All in all we had a great time at the CAA one day trial.  The Fez Dome is my favourite barn to trial in. It's warm, very bright, clean and has a really good surface.  The trial was very small and was attended by a great group of friendly agility enthusiasts.  Fun was had by all ;)

Catching up on my blogging

I have been terrible with my blogging lately, it's been a full month since I've posted anything.  I have been busy training my dogs, organising three trials for 2013, forming a nose work class and trying to form goals for myself for 2013.  So there hasn't been much time for this site.

So what's new with the Shelties? Well for starters we have been diving into the sport of Canine Nose Work.  I am loving it!  In fact when I should be out training agility or obedience with the dogs, I find myself placing "hides" for them instead.  The dogs think this is a great game too.  As soon as they see the containers they get straight to work searching the area.  At the moment the biggest things we are working on is finding the correct container (the shelties are going through a phase were they think nose touching any container is acceptable), and then when they find the correct container stay committed to it until I call them off it.  I am really enjoying the proofing portion of the commitment training.  Things like "can you stay committed if I walk past you?"  "What if I kick the other containers around?"  "What if I throw food on the ground?"   It's really no different than proofing for any other obedience behaviour and since my dogs have been exposed to a lot of proofing in the past, they are catching on quickly to this step.  So we will keep training in this sport eventually working up to having "hides" indoors, outdoors and on vehicles. Below is a video of Spryte during a training session. Strider is doing it too, but so far I haven't had time to upload his video (takes like an hour and half for 3 mins of video).

What else have we been up to?  Well Spryte and I continue to work on our open exercises.  I am really happy with everything except her dumbbell retrieves, she continues to mouth them despite all my efforts to teach her otherwise.  Some days she's great with very little mouthing, other days I feel like I'm back to square one.  This battle will not be won this year, in fact it could take several years.  So we will just keep training until that day comes.  I won't wait until its perfect to show her, but I won't give up on trying to fix it either.

 

 So lastly I'm trying to figure out what to do with the dogs this year.  I like having a goal in mind to work towards.  First Strider is only three standard Q's away from his CKC agility championship, so I have to make that a priority.  Second the AAC agility nationals are in Alberta for 2013, so I really want to qualify to go with both dogs and do well. So looks like a lot of my time will be spent training and showing in agility.  Third, Spryte only needs two more points for her CKC conformation championship, so I better hit some shows too.  Oh and I would like to breed Spryte in the summer/fall.  So it's not looking like I will have time for showing in obedience this year.  If I can make it work I will, but when I really sit down and think about it I know that it is just unrealistic to add obedience to this year's goals too.

 

Pictures are from a play date that Snap and Quinn had about a week ago. Puppies are now 5 months old!  All the puppies are doing really well. 3 of them are in classes with me doing pre-agility training and rally obedience. They are catching on quickly to all their new skills and having a great time while learning! 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  

 

 

Fed Ex delivery

Who doesn't love a delivery from Fed Ex?! If that big brown truck is showing up at my house it's because something fun was ordered and is now arriving on my doorstep.  Today's little cardboard box contained three bottles of liquid.  Specifically the three scents you need for Canine Nosework. It wasn't supposed to arrive until after Christmas, so I was pretty ecstatic when I saw the truck pull up today.  I have wanted to do Canine Nosework for a while now, ever since I heard about the fun new sport taking over the U.S.  The problem was always that I couldn't get the scents up here in Canada.  Well last week I looked into it again and this time they had a Canadian dealer listed, so I went ahead and placed my order.

What prompted my recent Fed Ex delivery was the news that Denise Fenzi is offering a Canine NoseWork course through Agility University starting in January.  And unlike other training schools that start your dog finding food first, her plan is to teach the dog how to find and indicate to the three scents right from the very beginning.  That makes much more sense to me and I had to sign up!  I would love to offer NoseWork classes in the new year, so I'm pretty excited to get started with my own dogs.  And I'm happy to have something new to teach Strider.  It will challenge his mind to learn a new skill and keep him young without adding physical stress to his body. It is a great sport for young and old dogs alike!  Now the only problem is I have to wait until January to get started :(

I have also been doing a lot of obedience work with Spryte lately.  I find it gives us a nice break from agility.  I really need to work multiple sports with my dogs or I get burnt out.  And since the ground is covered in snow, it's time to move inside and work on Open and Utility.  Both are going well and we have mini breakthroughs each week.  I know we are improving because I have started adding distractions into our training. Things like heeling while I am swinging a rope toy around and throwing stuff , or fronts while I am squeaking a toy, or toys laid out with the utility articles and other similar types of distractions.  Generally when I add the distraction for the first time Spryte will struggle a bit and make a mistake. I always let her work through it and then we reach success and she is more confident in the exercise and what her job is.   I need to consciously remember to keep adding new challenges and distractions to each session, and not fall into the trap of being lazy and doing the same old routine. It is the only way she will improve and learn to work through anything that I set up for her.  Seeing her overcome a new challenge is one of the best parts of training in any sport.  It keeps it fun and exciting for both of us.

Here is a recent picture of Quinn (HyperHounds the Mighty Quinn) that was taken last week at a Christmas photo shoot. I had to share, he looks so handsome. Puppies are now 4 months old.  The other puppies are all doing really well too, I just don't have any recent pictures of them to share.

Dumbbell work

So I didn't end up entering the Cal K9 obedience trial. I really really wanted to, but the more I practised, the more I realised I need to work on Spryte's dumbbell mouthing first.  When holding a dumbbell she tosses her head back, rolls the dumbbell to her molars and chews and throws her head around at the same time.  Sometimes she just flat out drops in on the floor. It's ugly and I want to fix it.

So it's back to the drawing board for our dumbbell work.  I have started tying a string to it and teaching her to keep holding the dumbbell or I'll pull it out of her mouth.  And she knows that the only way you get a cookie is to have the dumbbell between her teeth when I say "yes".  When I first started this exercise any little bit of pressure with the string and the dumbbell would come rocketing out of her mouth. Basically she wasn't really holding it at all.  Once she realised that if she didn't hold it, the dumbbell would leave and all chances of getting  a cookie left too, she began to hold tighter and resist my pressure forward.  Now I can pull really hard and she clamps down on the dumbbell and doesn't let go.  I am excited about this progress, if she is holding it tight she can't roll it back in her mouth or drop it on the floor.

Next step is getting her moving with it and still maintaining the same hold.  I started this yesterday and it's going pretty well.  First I put her in a sit a few feet away from me. Then gave her the dumbbell with the string attached.  I backed up a few steps, start applying pressure and then called her to front.  Just as I expected the first few times I did this the dumbbell came hurling towards me as she relaxed her mouth while moving into front position.  She didn't know how to keep holding tight while in motion.  Again several repetitions later she realised what she needed to do and was able to move towards me and not drop the dumbbell.  Lots of cookies for Spryte!

It will probably take us a long time before her dumbbell holding is improved to a point that I can show her.  But at least we are making progress.  I wish I had of done more foundation skills initially with the dumbbell and holding tight.   But my last two obedience dogs understood quickly how to hold a dumbbell without any special training, and I assumed Spryte would be the same.  It has been a good reminder to me not to skip steps along the way and that every dog is an individual. I'll do it different with the next dog. <grin>  how many times have we all muttered those words!.

All the pictures in this post are from todays walk (Spryte is still very naked after having puppies!).