Summer's End

After Perri earned her Coursing Ability title, we turned our attention to Fast CAT. This is a straight 100 yard, timed test. Whatever your dog's MPH is for each run is how many points they've earned. As I have said in posts past, Perri had some worrying issues with the Fast CAT. I figured out that as long as somebody else was releasing her and I was the one to catch her at the end of the 100 yards, she did not have any issues.

That "Perri policy" changed when we went to our next Fast CAT event in June and discovered a new challenge. "Continuous loop" system. The lure is on a closed pulley system, much like regular CAT, but since it is a Fast CAT the 100 yard strip is a narrow snow fenced bowling alley type area instead of a wide open field. (always the case with Fast CAT) Bottom line: with continuous loop, the line that the lure is attached to is always on the ground. Years and years ago when I first introduced Perri to coursing, she was afraid of that line and shut down. Over the years, her prey drive to chase has helped her to overcome that and in regular coursing / CAT events she can keep a bit of lateral distance while still coursing. She cannot do that in Fast CAT. The coursing line is directly on the ground in front of her and at this June event I saw a lot of conflict for Perri. It was a double trial so she did get to do two runs that day, but her first run was sub 20mph because she hesitated nearly at the end of the 100 yards and came through only when I encouraged her. The pause was not long but it was enough to affect her time as well as her enjoyment. Her second run that day I could see her running but there was a lot of conflict and concern about the line on the ground.

"Drag Lure" style Fast CAT

So, drag lure only for Perri. With drag lure, the lure is actually drug along the ground with a four wheeler/gold cart lateral to the fast CAT track and the dog only sees the lure racing up ahead of them. No line on the ground. I don't know the exact mechanics of how Drag Lure operates but I do know it is what Perri prefers! And the only club I have seen offer this style is nearly a two hour drive for us.  (it is more time consuming to run an event with drag lure style.) Thankfully, I love that trial site! We returned last weekend to earn the final points Perri needed for her "BCAT" title. 150 points earned at Fast CAT events and the first title opportunity. There are titles available to be earned at higher point levels but I am unsure if we will be pursuing those.

Perri had two nice runs in the low 20s mph and enjoyed herself, she earned her BCAT title on the first run. She only needed 13 points, I believe.

Overall, Perri enjoys the 600 yard CAT far more than the 100 yard Fast Cat. She likes the wide open field and the turns, she takes them with ease and she barks while she courses and is able to really "open up". We may do more coursing events in the future, as our travels take us to our beloved Freehold Fairgrounds. It has been long since I have been able to play agility there and I have missed it. It is one of the few opportunities to play agility outdoors as trials move more and more to indoor venues.

My favorite coursing photo of Perri! Looking mighty insane while earning her CA title earlier this year.

The closest that I got to agility was having Zorro's AKC measurement done! This will save me from having to show up super super early at his first AKC trial, whenever that may be. He will still need to have another measurement done when he turns two years old. Perhaps we will not even trial in AKC Agility until after he is two, but perhaps we will. That is all up to Zorro and how his training progresses. In any case, Zorro measured 18 3/8" and will be a 20 inch jumping dog in AKC, as I expected. The judge was wonderful and took much time with Zorro, letting him settle down into the measurement and trying to get him under 18". I appreciate judges who are patient and take their time with young dogs.

The last part of our day at Freehold was that the hosting club added dock diving to their cluster of events so Molly got to enjoy that! Two jumps in the Junior division. I had bought a new pack of chuckit balls for her as the Dock season began this year but that pack had been sitting unused due to Molly being on rest for her biceps injury. I couldn't bear the thought of using them for any of my dogs but Molly. We finally got to open the new pack up and I used one new ball for each Splash. Made us both happy!

We have had a fun summer for sure even if it was not entirely what I thought it would be! Not as much Dock but plenty of coursing and Scent Work fun. Zorro's first agility trials. And plenty of hiking. We end our summer trialing season with a sweet day at Freehold. Can't ask for more than that. Here is a final photo of me capturing Perri to get her off the lure. Not the most flattering one of me but I know that one day I will treasure every together photo I have of Perri and I, perfectly imperfect.

AKC Scent Work, Coursing and Tricks!

Intermission from road trip posts (there is one more to come on that subject!) to write about our great weekend of various AKC events and fun!

Molly and I had our first try at AKC Scent Work on Saturday. I entered her in Novice B Interiors, Containers and Buried. I also volunteered for the entire afternoon trial (volunteers were given priority entry and I thought that if I gave my time for an entire trial, I might be more likely to get in!)

Interiors was a small search space with a lot of clutter. Tough on the leash handling. Molly flirted with the judge and then wasted no time shoving a small cooler two feet across the search area. Alert! I am glad we did not get a fault for that.

Containers was next. We have done agility in this barn, quite a bit of open training and some trials. Molly always gets a little environmentally overaroused there. Today was no different. As we walked across the platform and made a right to the next search area she was squeaking and getting "buzzy". i don't know how else to phrase that. By the time we got to Containers I knew I was in for some trouble. I tried to do "zen hand" at the start line. It did not help. Molly did not even wait for my search command before blasting into the container search and flattening the first box she got to. I thought, "Well, was that an alert??" And now I was embarrassed she ruined a box, worried I was ignoring an alert... I asked her to continue searching. If it was the hot box, she would alert on it again. She godzilla'd down the boxes and then completely annihilated one, smashing and clawing it. I called alert on that one and apologized over and over. She was really on a roll! Ugh! We did the pass the search though. Whew!

Buried was last. Now I was super nervous Molly would tip the container of sand over. Buried is a whole new search element for us and we had only practiced it twice. With soil. There were 6 identical plastic totes full of play sand and in one box the hide was buried two inches deep. Molly searched every box but looked at me after each box she sniffed. That is new behavior for her, she wasn't entirely confident in the search. There was one box I noticed her lingering on more and I made a note of it. When I brought her around the second time she again lingered there and as soon as I saw a paw coming up I sort of body slammed her off the hide and called alert and fed her. I also fed her the whole way back to the car. Molly is confident enough to handle being pushed away like that, but no way was I going to let her topple a huge box of sand and ruin the search area and hold the trial up!

Today, Perri got her day and we spent it doing CAT and Fast CAT! We started the day with her third CA leg and earned her Coursing Ability title. And then Perri returned to Fast CAT, this time with my friend releasing her. No scary people in the catch pen! She ran 24mph for the first run and 23mph for the second run. Perri's personal best is 25.65MPH so, no beating that today but I was very pleased that she followed the lure all the way down. No bailing! I believe that brings us to 93/150 points for Perri's BCAT title.

While my friend and I were finishing lunch and waiting for the afternoon FCAT to begin, I saw the huntmaster from the CAT out of the ring and with a handler and her rottweiler puppy. She was doing a trick dog test! When she was done I asked her if she would be willing to do a Novice Trick Dog test for Zorro and she said absolutely! Zorro did: Jump through hoop, go through tunnel, sit with hand signal, kennel up, nose touch, spin in a circle, go into a box, climb on top of a box, two paws up, jump into my arms from the ground. It was super fun and a nice little unexpected "cherry on top" of a very fun weekend!

Perri's first CAT!

Wow, an update just after a thing has happened. Like the old days!

All through the winter I have been eyeing up CAT season for Perri. After she became avoidant of capture at the end of her last Fast CAT run a year ago we took a year off (mostly due to other pursuits and having the puppy). This winter I came up with the plan: get Perri's CA title where she could enjoy coursing 600 yards with nobody trying to capture her with a slip lead. Return to Fast CAT and have somebody she is familiar with release her, leaving me available to be in the catch pen for Perri. No slip lead, just her leash to clip on.

Yesterday was the beginning! I entered Perri in two CAT trials and she easily earned her first two legs towards the CA. No avoidance of the end of the 600 yard chase. I was telling my husband that it was kind of cool to show up and have Perri be at the top of her game. Usually whatever we do, Perri is at the low end of performance and I am happy to support her and grateful for what she offers. But at CAT, Perri is admired both for her beautiful appearance and athleticism and also for how good of a job she does coursing the lure! And she is 100% enjoying herself, even more than a hike in the woods! This is the first time I have ever sat down and actually watched a good chunk of the CATs, prior ventures have been peppered with agility and fast CAT conflicts. I was surprised to see that not all dogs are Bag Brains. :)

That is okay, but my dog...is a Bag Brain plus! There were three other standard poodles there (our friend Zoe being one of them) but Perri was the Noisiest Poodle for sure!

Next up.... CA title and return to Fast CAT. Perri cannot wait!

Perri's Weekend, Lots of HOPE

I have made a ton of changes for Perri lately and the positive progress that was trickling in this year has begun to flow.

At the beginning of this year I wrote this post about our progress with fluoxetine. I was feeling lukewarm about the flatness I would see in Perri, but when I added salmon oil to her diet I noticed more energy. This was indeed a temporary and probably coincidental change. Perri continued to be flat, slow to rouse into play and exhausted far more easily than she used to be by most any activity. About three weeks ago, I told our behaviorist that I would like to wean Perri off of the fluoxetine and possibly try something else. Our instructions were to wean down to 10mg and keep Perri on that dose until our appointment to see how she does on that dose. We returned to 10mg on April 16th. 

Last weekend I had Perri adjusted by her chiropractor. Jaw out and some cervical misalignments. We visited because I wanted to discuss the spasming that I often see in Perri's lower back, check for any adjustments that needed to be done and find out if I can be doing anything more to help Perri's spine feel more comfortable. Of course, all of the adjustments were needed "up higher"! In addition to the active stretches I had been already doing, we were given a few more. I also purchased a Back on Track mesh blanket for Perri. I have heard very good things about these jackets and I feel that Perri can benefit.

So, a lot of good thoughtful changes for Perri. I am also pursuing retesting Perri's thyroid levels, as she tested a "low normal" in December of last year. I have added a probiotic to Perri's diet, the same type that I use for Molly. A happy gut is a happy dog.

And Perri is a happy dog. I started to notice increased silliness within less of a week of decreasing the fluoxetine. Just little things. Flinging a toy up in the air and doing a ridiculous spin for one of Vince's workers. Actual interest and demand in play time with her standard poodle friend Zoe. And just in the last week, we had one of Perri's famous pounce zoom fests in the back yard, it has been a while. Last Monday in agility class Perri turned it on like I have not seen from her in a long time. She did both of her "turns" with really nice motivation, desire for her ball and actual fast and intense weave poles (with a pop at the 10th weave and a restart where she went even faster after being asked to do them a second time rather than crumbling mentally.)

Yesterday I volunteered with a friend of mine who was holding a lure coursing ring to raise money for a rescue at a large dog event held in my area. I felt apprehensive about letting Perri course. I was really struggling with making the Right Decision. On one hand, Molly has gone lame coursing three times now and I knew that Perri had an agility run the day after at a trial. I am trying so very hard to narrow down the activities I do with my dogs and be more focused. But on the other hand, I love how Perri opens up, de-stresses and gives in to raw prey drive in coursing. In the end I made the decision to let Perri run the course two times, once at the beginning of the day and the next time four long hours later at the end of the event. (It was very popular, we had a line 10-15 dogs deep the entire day!) She was full on BagBrain and each time she ran, Zoe poodle got to run with her (and Zoe did a great job following Perri and/or the bag the entire time, she did not leave or get distracted by anything. A great start!)

I was very nervous that Perri would be too tired for her agility run today. We have had a really really nice week since that beautiful agility class on Monday. On the prior dose of fluoxetine, Perri would typically be wiped out and it would be a big ??? how an agility trial would go the next day. It doesn't help that it was naughty of me to enter today's trial in the first place. It was for pure social reasons that I entered, my friend was going to be there and the original plan was to enter Molly but then that bonehead went and ripped her toenail off at the lake a few weeks ago so....hey I do have another dog, right?! So, I entered Snooker with Perri.

But Perri was....great! The Snooker course was laid out so that in order to get the best flow I ran to the back of the ring with her to use our first red, rather than starting on a "red" on the start line. On our way out there she got distracted by a male ring crew but did call off of him fairly quickly. We ran our course and there were some angles that I was fretting I would lose her on, as well as a jump wrap but she really ran her little heart out and was fast and happy! I was so proud of her and it felt awesome. We started the close and it was a diagonal line from 2-the first jump of 5. 5 was a 180 jump combo. Well I lost Perri to visiting a ring crew who also is a friend of ours, how could Perri not say "hi"? I was going over in my mind if I should be trying to recollect Perri back around the jump to try to earn enough points, or just ignore it and run out the finish and forget #5 but I ended up trying to get her and reset her. It turned out to be a not horrible choice, although I am aware it was not the ideal choice. I can't quite remember what happened but I know that Perri was like "Haha you're weird I'll just take the jump!" and then we had a merry happy little race to the exit and she was mighty proud of herself and quite happy and that is what matters! On reflection, I'm really proud of her for not freezing up when I confused her by trying to bring her back to the correct side of the jump, and just making a decision instead.  She was not sure what I wanted, but there was a jump in front of her so she took it! I am okay with that. Very unlike her and very confident! I did notice that Perri was very bothered by us getting to the leash chair at the end. I need to work on a more positive association with ending the run and getting equipment put back on her.

After Perri's run I let her sit in my lap for a while. Perri had a very good day of behavior fear reactivity-wise as well. Something to discuss with our behaviorist. Perri saw a very drivey doberman yanking on a tug toy walk across the crating area, she had eyes on a german shepherd trotting briskly along but she actually LAT'd to me and then a bearded shepherd was crated next to us and warming up for a run. Perri noticed it but reoriented to me quietly. And I was paying big for all of this with bits of dehydrated lamb lung. And I am proud of myself because I interrupted a conversation with a friend to say that Perri had been very successful and I thought she should go out to the car before something pushed her too far and she had an explosion at a dog.
I am very excited about Perri's self assurance around three situations that would have triggered fear reactivity behavior in her. I have no doubt she was still concerned about all three dogs, but she trusted me today and did not feel the need to freak out and warn those dogs away from her.

Go. Team!

I am so optimistic and so terrified it will all fall apart again. That's our journey, I am learning to embrace it and not resent it. It's easy to say that now when we are progressing in the right direction!

Autumn Fast CATs!

Sunday was Fast CAT day!   I really enjoyed my first Fast CAT with the girls in the spring and was looking forwards to another day of it.  While this sport is not something that I could enjoy more frequently than a few times a year, I think doing it on occasion and allowing my dogs to be total barbarians is sort of liberating.   Ha.

There was an AM and a PM trial, so each dog got two tries each.   We were very fortunate to be on the top half of the run order, Perri was #26 and Molly #31.   Perri got to go first and clocked in at 9.76seconds (so, 20.95 MPH.)  Quite a bit slower than her personal best, but honestly...I can't say how much I enjoy watching Perri going all in and just enjoying something!  On Perri's second round in the PM trial though, she pulled up short and refused to go through the cones and timers at the ending.   She ran back to me!   Perri had returned to me in the AM trial, but she had gone through the timers first.

I was very upset about this at first.   Perri can't even chase the bag without freaking out about something.   This. Just. Sucks.   So tired of my dog having her life ruined by fear.   Upon further reflection I thought about what happens at the ending: the delightful chase ends abruptly.   Strangers converge upon the dog and come at her with slip leads to hold until the owner gets down to the other end.   Does that sound like something Perri would like?    While Perri does love people, the abrupt shift in activity as well as people coming to put things over her head....it is no wonder she returned to me the first time and unsurprising she refused to go in there at all the second time.  I actually think that she slowed down towards the end of the first trial as she came into the finish line.   The timer handed us our time slip and said, "We can't believe she got a time this fast, it looked like she was barely moving!"   At the time I just laughed and said "Poodles float!" because they do cover a lot of ground with seemingly no effort, but I have to wonder if Perri slowed down her sprint significantly because of people at the ending.    As usual, things are a bit complicated with Perri!   I have three choices: no more CAT activities.   Coursing ability test only (600 yards, ending where she starts so I am the one to catch her.)  Or, get somebody else to hold her at the start of the Fast CAT and I can go down to the end line to catch her.   I already suspect there could be some issues with an unfamiliar person holding her at the start so I would need to bring a friend along or find somebody familiar to her at the trial who would be willing to build rapport with her before her run.    Or.   God forbid, Vince could join us and release her!   Oh heavens no, Vince coming to a dog show!

Molly was much less complicated!   7.88 and 7.99 in the AM and PM, 25.95MPH and 25.60MPH!   Not beating her personal best but still very respectable!   I was told down at the finish that Molly released the lure, allowed the leash to be placed on her and was very polite.   Good little barbarian!   I am proud of her manners down at the finish with strangers.

We will return in the Spring for more Fast CATs and I am hoping to finish Molly's BCAT title then.   The titling system for Fast CATs is to use your MPH and convert it into points.   At this time with all three of Molly's scores she has 80.77 points.   If she continues to average at least 25 mph, she would need to run three more Fast CATs to earn her title.   

BCAT is 150 points, DCAT is 500 points and FCAT is 1000 points.   I think a BCAT is a fun goal for Molly and I!   My main focus in on a day of fun and barbaric behavior and foolish bag chasing, but hey if they want to give us a pretty ribbon for that I can't say I wouldn't enjoy it!

And at last, a compilation of the lunacy of Bag Brain Day!

Since the trial site was only about 20-25 minutes from the coast, I treated all three of us to a drive out there to the Asbury Park Dog Beach.   We did not stay long but the girls enjoyed some off leash time and ball chasing.   Unfortunately when I got home, Molly was quite lame on her bad left foot.   She was moving well when we got to the beach so I don't feel the Fast CATs were to blame but they certainly didn't help.  (add in the day before's agility runs and the 2-3 hour hike.)  The beach was not a great shore line.   It was all fluffy sand with a sharp slope down into the waves, which were fairly rough.   I did not want to keep throwing Molly's ball into the surf because she drinks so much water when she swims, and drinking that much salt water would be disastrous for her bowels.   Considering a few weeks ago I had her in the ER for GI issues, I did not want to push it!    This resulted in a lot of throwing her ball into the loose dry sand, which meant a lot of power sliding on poor footing. 

So, next Spring we will play more Fast CATs but no beach trip afterwards!   Molly has never had issues with lameness on our beach vacations in the past, but the beach that we go to has a different layout.  I have no regrets!   Molly is my rock, she plays agility with me whenever she can, no matter what.   I owe her so much.   A day of self destructive favorite activities is the least I can do for her.   Molly is already walking well again and her pain responses to toe massage have stopped. (the most painful area was actually her "outside toe", the toe on the opposite side from her arthritic area.   Compensation most likely.)   From the start her shoulder was stretching well (whereas last time this happened, she was resistant to extension.)    As a precaution I scratched Molly from this Saturday's CPE Agility trial, I want her foot to have a proper amount of rest. 

A Visit to Freehold! Molly CA!

Today we check off another item from Molly's "bucket list": finish CA title.   Does Molly care about a CA title when there are bags to be chased?   NO!   But it means something to me to have her efforts (ha.) honored, and Molly isn't going to turn down a chance to chase her bag!   Without a doubt, Molly  passed her third "Coursing Ability Test" and gets to add the CA (Coursing Ability) title to her name.  She even bit a big hole in the snow fencing while being rudely asked to wait her turn.    Yikes!

We also signed up for AKC's new game, the "Fast CAT.", a 100 yard straight dash that is timed.   They use electronic sensors, the same as we use on agility courses, to start and stop the time.   Molly predictably earned a qualifying round with a speed of 29.22MPH.   Yeah!    And since they were accepting Day of Show entries, and Perri has a new found love for the bag - I let Perri have a Fast CAT run as well.   Perri did not beat her older sister, but she did qualify as well with a respectable 25.6 MPH!   She was barking at the bag, and when the gate steward told her to stop barking, she stared at him for a half second and started barking at him.   Ha!   You tell him, Perri!   You can earn a title if you get a certain amount of points (based on your dog's MPH), but mostly I wanted to see what the girls' speeds would be.   Future Fast CATs remain to be seen.

And now, the lure coursing song....

Perri also got to play some agility, since there was an AKC agility trial being held on site.   This is Perri's first trial at Perferred 20" and she seemed happy about the change.   Open FAST was first and she was the only Open dog to qualify.   She did get a little silly with some short zoomies but settled down quickly and did the jump-tunnel-jump send with ease.   Thankfully, Perri does not usually take obstacles when she zooms (unlike a certain Molly I know!)   Standard was very decent, unfortunately no weaves and a bobble after that but otherwise really nice.    This is only Perri's second outdoor trial so I'm just gonna go ahead and blame it on that.    JWW Perri completely shut down after the third obstacle so we left the ring early.   I asked her to do the last two jumps and that made her tail wag so I feel like we reconnected on my terms.   When Perri gets like this, it makes me sad but it just seems to happen with AKC Agility and my mental state right now is to just stop doing AKC Agility for now.   Though I think a lot of today was that it was a new experience: outdoors.   Perri has done exactly one outdoor trial and our first (and last!) outdoor agility trial was the one before I pulled her for her injury.

Still, "Q and Blue", baby!   I see everybody on Facebook bragging about the "Q and Blue" so we get to do that today even if it is only on FAST.

 

But now for the sad news....

Molly is broken!   The lure coursing was not the cause, but it was the "straw that broke the camel's back."   I confess, over the last two weeks I have witnessed about three episodes of Molly holding her left paw up.   Each time I checked her foot, found a thorn or torn up skin and thought that was the cause.   She did it in agility class two nights ago and I started to Feel Worried, but when I got home her one toe had skin chewed up and I thought, "Well, maybe that's it." especially since she recovered quickly to a normal gait.   Weak.   Wishful thinking.

Today's lure coursing was fine, and I cooled her down very thoroughly afterwards, but when I got her out of her crate to potty, Molly was extremely lame on her left front.   I think I hoped against hope this wasn't coming, but here it was.   By some stroke of luck, there was a rehab vet at the trial working on dogs.   Molly got massaged and manipulated and evaluated.   And he pointed out the bump on Molly's left forepaw, "This is not normal."

On Molly's paws, she has arthritic deformities that the vet says he often sees in hard hitting, older agility dogs.   The tendons and ligaments suffer micro-injuries over time, the body floods the area with calcium and tries to heal and stabilize itself....and then you have this deformity on your dog's poor abused paws.   Molly is hard on her body and it is showing big time.   Molly is also very tender in her shoulder, whatever tendon is in front of the humerus/scapula, Molly was reacting big time to manipulation and massage on that area.  The vet feels it is secondary and a result of compensation because of the pain from her foot.    We have stretches to be done and I hope that helps her.   I want to set myself on fire and run screaming from shoulder issues!

My poor girl.   More health issues she does not deserve.   The vet said "a few days off", we will give it a few weeks off.    Rest, no fun, leashes - low activity to give everything a break.  I am hoping that will be the end of it, but I am not optimistic.

Bag Brain Day

The dogs and I have been enjoying our rest-of-May off of trialing, doing more training and hiking and relaxing.   This past weekend there was a lure coursing fun run being hosted semi-locally to us and since I was free I thought why not let Molly enjoy chasing the bag again?

Molly one million percent did not forget her bag, as soon as she saw it move she was shrieking and ready to get in the ring.   Her first run she was so overaroused she latched onto the plastic folding ring gate that was over the entrance through the snow fencing!   No video, but Molly enjoyed three runs - the last one a double - of pure bliss.

Since Perri comes along to nearly everything we do, even if she is not participating, I had signed her up for a run.   She would be there anyway and why not see if her opinion had changed?   This was the last time we tried, August 2014.   Perri was interested, but her fears overruled any interest she might have had that day.

Do I care if Perri chases a bag?   Not really.   Do I care if Perri can relax and enjoy herself?   Yes!   I got Perri out and started warming her up, trotting her around.   We actually went around the side of the snow fencing to get a geocache and while I was signing the log, we were sitting in the gazebo where it was hidden.   Perri was watching the lure with great interest.   Suddenly she erupted barking!   I still wasn't convinced, maybe she was just barking at the running dogs.

It was not the dogs.   We went and stood by the entrance and Perri was getting into a frenzy watching the lure zing around!   She was up on her rear legs, leaning back against me and doing some of her ridiculous yodel barking!   When we got into the ring she was dragging me towards the lure and when I unleashed her she followed it the whole way around the field barking her fool head off the entire way around.

I was floored.   

I have been crushed recently over Perri's backslide to some of her fearful behaviors, some of her actions of low confidence - all seeming to have stemmed from Molly's diagnosis and all of the stress and uncertainty of that time.  It started to feel as though all of the progress that she made on conquering her worries about the world was gone and while such is life when trying to help a complicated dog like Perri, it still did not feel very good.   Again, it's chasing a bag.   But it is something that Perri was too afraid to do a few years ago even if she might have wanted to.   Fear did not rule Perri on that field yesterday, Perri won.   And I so needed to see that.   I needed to see my girl win for a change.   Not win a ribbon or a Q, but to win the battle that wages in her brain all the time.

After her second run (yes, we did a second!) I did a cool down walk with Perri but she had other ideas.   She flopped down in the grass and panted with her eyes closed and I took this photo.   It might be my favorite Perri photo ever - totally blissed out and happy-exhausted after running full out and driven by nothing but pure prey drive instinct.   No tricky mind games, no puzzles, no worrying, just a normal dog out having a good day in the sun.     

AKC Agility and Coursing Ability Test @ Bayshore Companion Dog Club!

Today was a big day for Molly.  In fact, it was probably too big!

We headed out to the Freehold Show Grounds again for an outdoor agility trial ... and a Coursing Ability Test x 2!

Of course, both of my agility classes conflicted with both of our CATs.  Of course.  First was Open FAST.  Molly and I started walking over to the CAT area to check in, with plans to return to walk my Open FAST course, run it, and then head back over to the CAT.  Except Molly stepped on a thorn on our way over.  Her front foot became immediately leaden, a stiff and useless extremity that resulted in a very dramatic limp.  Not good.  I inspected her foot, found the thorn and pulled it out - I was rewarded by a fantastic squeal from Molly.  That was not good enough.  Her leg was useless.  Further inspected resulted in more crying, beginning quietly and escalating to hysterical screams.   Great.

I took my lame dog back to her crate, rinsed her foot off and walked back to the CAT area - I was assured that I had 90 minutes to return for Molly's test.  I walked Open FAST, without being sure if Molly would be capable of running it.  The thorn was gone, but Molly is hopelessly dramatic about pain of any sort.  In her crate Molly was no longer one with her paw.  She was curled in one corner of her crate with the afflicted foot on the other side.  Amputation was the only choice.  I got her out of the crate and began giving her treats, then began asking her for tricks for the treats.  Then we went and played some ball and....healed!

Was that painful to read?  Boring?  I felt the same way about it.  Let me tell you how much I was enjoying the thought of driving 100 miles one way only to have it all rendered useless by a quarter inch of wood in a Princess Pitbull Paw.

We went into Open FAST and nailed it with 66 points and a Q - the gamble was a tunnel send to the Aframe to a tunnel discrimination.  I had to pull Molly from the Aframe, off of her line and onto the tunnel end that was not in line with the end of the AFrame.  Yikes!  A recipe for a blown contact.  But we got it.  I am so proud of her!
I am wondering if she does better with me further away from the Aframe! May be something to experiment with at our next trial.

From there we ran straight over to lure coursing for Molly's first CAT.  Well as soon as she saw the bag she was out of her mind.   Screaming, jumping up and down and trying her best to shake her pesky owner away and get down to business: chasing the bag!  We had to wait in line of course and that was a small bit of torture.  We also had to be inspected for soundness, and I was given some toilet paper to wipe Molly's lady parts to make sure that she wasn't in heat.  What a laugh!  There is no video but rest assured, I released Molly when I was told "Tally Ho!" and received many compliments on Molly's "great run!" "nice run!".   I thought it was sort of funny because Molly would never even dream of doing anything except a nice run for her precious bag.   And different from the fun run was that Molly grabbed and shook the bag this time and did not want to let it go!

We had a break from everything, so I went over to the Excellent/Masters ring and tried my hand at some agility photography.  I did not get a whole lot of photos that I loved, but I certainly had a lot of fun and wish that I had taken more!

The afternoon brought an even more intense conflict.   The second CAT test ran way ahead of schedule, and when Molly and I went over to check in at the time that it was supposed to start, it was nearly over.  We got stuck running the CAT at nearly the same time that Open JWW was being built.  I do not like needing to be in two places at the same time!  Of course our second CAT was a pass (with another vicious grab of not just one of the bags, but both at once.  Rawr!).

Molly was completely hot, tired and panting and panting.  I gave her water and arrived just in time to walk Open JWW.  The reality of doing CAT and Agility at the same trial settled in, Molly was way too tired to run her agility course.  I took her to the baby pools and hosed her off (she did not even try to escape, I knew she was appreciating the cool off.) and we rested in the shade until her run.  The agility field was hot and Molly was moving ... I would not say slow but perhaps a "jog" would illustrate the speed I was getting from her.  And we would have qualified.  Finally.  All of the NQs keeping us from that final OAJ leg, we have never once...dropped a bar.  We would have Q'd if not for a tired take off and one bar down.  I couldn't be the smallest bit unhappy with Molly, she gave me 100 percent on that course and really handled beautifully.  And agility had to be the thing she felt like doing the least in the whole world, and she did it for me.  How could I be disappointed with that?

I really love outdoor agility trials and I think that next year I would like to try to do more of them.  Of course, that is easy to say on beautiful days like today...not so easy to say on really really rainy days!

And in parting, coursing bros...Molly and Crookytail!

Chasing Confidence

Confidence. 

The Big Poodle C word.

Almost all of my goals for Perri have fallen away, and have been replaced with the simple goal of helping her to be confident.  To learn tricks.  To not shut down and be overwhelmed.  And it always feels like one step forward, three back.  No matter how hard we work, a leaf blowing in the wind might derail her if we have the nerve to venture out of my basement.

We have not worked on her dumbbell retrieve in months.  The thing has been collecting dust.  I had not given up on it, but knew that it was something that was going to need to wait until later.  I have this fantasy picture of "later" with Perri in my mind.  Because as much as I joke that Perri is a Martian and A Mess and tricked me with her cuteness into taking another fearful dog in, I truly believe in her.  I see an incredible dog in Perri.  I see a dog that just needs to break through a wall, and all of the puzzle pieces will fall into place.   When this amazing thing may happen, I could not say.  So I just say...."Later."

An issue with Perri is that she has a very hard time trying something again if she does something "wrong".  Especially something on the more "complex" end of the spectrum, such as bending down to pick up the dumbbell and placing it in my hand.  (Do not laugh, we have not progressed further than that.)  But tonight?  Out of nowhere I just decided to play around with it.  Perri remembers everything we worked on.  She is to pick the dumbbell up and rest her chin on my open palm while holding the dumbbell.  Where Perri begins to get overwhelmed is if she picks the dumbell up and opens her mouth: before reaching my hand, while in my hand but before I click, or picking up and dropping as soon as possible.   For quite some time it was almost as though the thing tasted like poison to her.   We generalized picking objects up but that seemed to only help a little.   The real issue was Perri being overwhelmed by the entire experience.

Tonight I lost time.  We must have worked for 15 solid minutes on it!  I backchained what I wanted to start with, since it has been a while and then she was doing so well that I was able to toss the dumbbell.  Perri had some mixed success.  Still some trouble at times with picking it up and then walking it several feet away from the pick up and putting it back down.  (And then looking at me hopefully wondering why I did not click it.  HA!)  But the coolest thing was that Perri was completely enjoying herself, completely willing to just pick the dumbbell up and try again.  At one point I tossed the DB and it banged against my washer, making a loud metallic noise.  Perri stopped and stared for a beat and then walked over and picked the thing up, then walked it back to me and set it in my palm.  I was floored!  

My dog's tail was wagging.  My dog kept trying even when she was "wrong."  My dog enjoyed something that used to overwhelm her.  And furthermore, my dog is doing agility trials - and having fun!  My dog is heeling ...forwards and backwards.  My dog is really trying hard.  I do believe...my dog has gained a whole lot of confidence.   And more to come.

In other unrelated news...

Ein is doing amazingly well and is completely back to normal.  As much as I keep taking his chew bones from him, he just keeps finding more!  His mouth does not seem to bother him, not even a little bit.

I just discovered that the judge tells you "Tally Ho!" when it is time to release your dog at an AKC Coursing Ability Test.   It is hard for me to express just how much I love this.

Lure Coursing - Molly's New Game!

I have been wanting to try lure coursing for quite a while now, and since I am not doing agility trials this month I have a lot more weekend days open.  So in the middle of last week when my friend Jennifer let me know that there was a fun run on Sunday, I jumped on the opportunity!  

I really thought that Perri would love this activity, if she was not afraid of the flapping plastic bag (she has been afraid of such things in the past.)   Perri loves to chase everything and anything.  With Molly I was not sure.  Molly can be a bit of a lazy bum about things that don't motivate her.  In fact, I drove away without Molly this morning!  She was sleeping on the couch, and as per protocol on the second day of the weekend she did not want to come up the stairs and out to the car with me.  So I left her!   But three minutes from the house I turned right back around and broke up a biscuit and lured her into the car.  Dammit she would have fun when we got there.  And if she didn't have fun there, I had a hike planned for afterwards and I know she loves hikes!

It had rained the day before so when we got there the field was still drying.  I was hoping for this and relieved that the people running the event were doing so.  I worry endlessly about Molly tearing a cruciate or straining her iliopsoas muscle by flying around and slipping or doing a hairpin turn that her mind desires but the body ain't so willing to do.  

I of course wanted to watch some runs before bringing my own dogs out.   There was first two "demo dogs", two Westies that they brought out on the field to run the line through and make sure there were no breaks in it.  There were some breaks, but the Westies did not mind chasing and then waiting while the line was fixed or replaced.

A boxer ran next and she was just as into the game as the Westies had been!

And so very graceful!

Or, maybe not!

Before Molly's run I was told to get her warmed up.  Getting a dog fresh out of relaxing in her crate or car is not advisable, you need to get the muscles moving and the blood flowing first.   I trotted her around and let her flap around in the baby pool a little bit and then walked her over to the field.  I had discussed with Diane, the lady who owns the equipment, about how I was not sure if Molly would like this game or not.  She seemed genuinely amused and told me that she hasn't met a pitbull yet who isn't totally into lure coursing.

All thoughts of Molly only having a half ass interest in this game vanished the first time she saw the bags move.  Total screaming madness!   As soon as the bags jerked forward the line broke.   Molly alternated between panting and looking around to yapping and jumping.  Then it was SHOW TIME.   This video is Molly's first two runs stitched together.

SEE YA I HAVE A BAG TO CATCH!

I really could not stop laughing at Molly's unbridled passion for this new game of chasing a plastic bag!  Just like that, she loves something as much as chasing her Ball.   I immediately bought her another run and prepared to enjoy Jennifer's dog Crookytail on his run!  And what enjoyment!  If Molly was frenzied about the lures Crooky was absolutely on another planet of ecstasy.  When the lures moved the first time he launched forward and took poor J straight off her feet!   It is hard not to enjoy a dog who is having so much fun!

READY STEADY GO

Taking Lure Coursing photos was quite a juggle for me.  My zoom lens is very low end and does not autofocus as quickly as some of the better products available.  Things are moving very fast.  And I want the dog and the lure in the photo, yet still want to get a good close up of the dog!   Practice practice!  Add to that that my memory card is completely worn out and was never high enough quality for this camera in the first place, so there is a delay in storage.  Ugh!   Shutterbug troubles.   I had a lot of fun nonetheless!

Perri was next!  The following video shows far better than I can explain in words that Perri finds lure coursing to be possibly interesting, but way too scary to take the risk of finding out.  When her legs touched the lure line and it moved! that was the end of the road.  Maybe I can train her interest by adding "running around with a plastic bag tied to a string" in my front yard to the list of bizarre activities that keep my neighbors certain that I have lost my mind.  

Diane suggested bringing Perri into Molly's second run.  Sometimes that is all a dog needs to get over being afraid of the equipment is to run with a dog they are bonded with.   This seemed like it could work.  One of Perri's most favorite activities in the entire world is chasing Molly.   No Thank You.  This time Perri just stood on the sidelines and barked a little bit.  I clipped her leash on so that I could take more Molly photos and called it done.   The guy running the equipment told me to give it another try some day, that a lot of dogs that were previously afraid do grow to love it.  Since I will most certainly be doing this in the future more with Molly, I will probably give Perri another chance.  But I'm not getting my hopes up!

Now it was J's other dog's turn and Crooky had had enough of waiting - especially if his brother was going to be out and he was not!  He escaped from the car.  The windows got rolled up further.  We all heard an insistent car horn honking...it was Crooky!   We found him trying to slither his large body out of a crack that a 30 pound dog would be lucky to slip out of - so we transferred him to Dog Jail in my car where he could no longer see the coursing field and where there was also no chance of escape.

Misery!  

Of course I then had to buy my girl a third run!  She was very crazed now while waiting for her run and it only got worse as the day went on!

YEAH, BABY.