For better or for worse, "things are opening up" where I live, Covid-wise. My hospital is back to operating nearly at full steam elective procedure/surgery-wise. Zorro and I have had three in person agility classes now and it was absolutely wonderful to get back to it. My yard barely has room for a set of weave poles or two jumps at a time so I had to put agility on the mental shelf for a little while. Agility is my happy place, my stress relief - and so when work became more stressful than ever during the pandemic, I really missed having that outlet. Being able to focus my training and earn fun titles at home was a welcome replacement for our weekly agility lessons and I am so appreciative for the organizations that made at home titles a possibility.
We continued on with the AKC Trick Dog program, and earned Zorro's Trick Dog Advanced...
And I just got word that Zorro passed his Novice Parkour title!
We actually had to re-do one of our videos. Darn it, I thought I was good at following the rules! Our "Under" video did not pass. The dog has to go Under something at least shoulder height or lower. I did feel like we met the requirements there but I think we cut it too close. With Parkour, if the violation is "non safety" related, you can resubmit that one video for free. With our Under video resubmission, Zorro passed and earned his Novice Parkour title!
But speaking of agility, UKI Agility was rocking it by offering At Home trials! Every week you could enter in your choice of three different sized courses in many different classes, clear runs earning titling Qs. The smallest size offered is 30x30. I of course do not have even a 30x30 space so, UKI at Home was out for me. As time went along, UKI loosened the restrictions to allow competitors to do UKI At Home in places other than their own yard or building, as long as it was permitted by law. When our state opened to "yellow" phase, my agility trial buddy and I decided to get together and have our own little outdoor trial. We entered Speedstakes, and since we always get a grilled hot dog when we go to trials together, hot dogs would be on the menu. And of course, wine! The Wine and Weenies trial!
We did managed to pass our Speedstakes run. Not my best work, and definitely a different "feel". The course was tight at 30x30 with not much room for the dog to open up, especially a 20" dog but hey - it felt like heaven. And Zorro? That guy is just happy to do whatever makes me happy. Always.
Something that has been bringing me a lot of joy lately was the reminder from AKC that Trick Dog titles can be done through video. A friend was offering evaluations so I got to work!
Zorro has his Novice title, we earned that on a beautiful trial day last fall at an outdoor trial when he was still a puppy. (I actually had never sent his paperwork in to AKC, we will see how much of a delay they tolerate!) And so, we got working on his Intermediate title. What was important to me right now was not just to earn a title, but to have some fun training some new skills and bonding with Zorro.
I certainly buffered the new tricks with skills that Zorro already has, those were:
Catch (a ball),
Manipulate interactive canine game (Zorro eats his breakfast out of his puzzle ball every day and night.),
Go to your place (from 10 feet) - I did spend a little bit of time working at this with Zorro as the distance did not come as easily to him as I thought.
Heeling with Automatic Sit Leg Weave is probably a grey area, we did spend some time on improving Zorro's understanding on this one. I originally taught it bent over with hand targets so we kept practicing so that I could actually be standing up and with less of a visible hand target lure for each weave. I started using a cue word of "weave" but I'm not sure that he needs it - my hand signals are pretty clear for him.
And our two Handlers Choice tricks were "Give Kisses" and "Shake". It was not too long ago that I taught Zorro to shake paw, and I did it simply because it is Vince's favorite trick. He was so thrilled when I finally taught that to Zorro.
New tricks that we worked on:
Head Down was not entirely new. I free shaped the beginnings of this a few months ago but we did spend some time sharpening his understanding of the criteria and getting the behavior on cue.
Roll Over was a trick on this list that I said, "I am not submitting for this title without teaching this trick!" We had a lot of fun working on this, Zorro had some very silly ideas during our shaping sessions. The funniest thing he did was shuffle backwards while in a sphinx down and I thought, "I will have to get that on cue!"
Shell Game was placing a treat under 1 of 3 cups and the dog has to target or knock over the cup that has the treat under it. We had not done this before. This was not too difficult for food motivated Zorro but we had to work through some t-rex demolition issues that reminded me very much of Molly!
Speaking of Molly, I submitted for her Novice Trick Dog title! We won't go any further, but we were out hiking and I thought, "I'll put together a video of 5 tricks right here and now!"
We did: Shake, Roll Over, Spin, Hand Target and Fetch It. Our video was interrupted by some target shooting in the distance. That made doing tricks very un-fun for Molly. I video'd her Fetch It clip at a park we stopped at on our way home from the hike.
Almost all of the dog training that I am doing right now is tricks training. Zorro and I are certainly working on some agility skills, but we are having a rainy spring and the yard takes about two days to dry out after heavy rains. It is disappointing but I think it also helps me pace our training. I am still currently working full time since I am a hospital (x-ray tech) worker, so training isn't so much out of boredom and excessive free time for me as it is a way to relax and unwind. Zorro and I are working on our Advanced Trick Dog title next. My "must have" trick on that list is Backwards Circles Around Handler. Fun!
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!
I have been out of commision for a few weeks because my laptop stopped working. Thankfully it was an under-$100 quick fix that did not involve "your laptop is screwed, better buy a new one." and I'm back in business. (I hate blogging off of my smart phone or tablet!)
So with Molly's toe arthritis and the limited abilities of my three dog team to play agility (simply meaning, I can't do All The Venues All The Weekends! anymore.), I accepted that we would not be visiting the East Freehold Showgrounds for a trial in a long long time. Because: no more lure coursing for Molly and no more outdoor AKC Agility.
So when I saw an all breed conformation show on Memorial Day weekend offering Canine Good Citizen tests, Trick Dog tests and NADD Dock Diving at the Showgrounds, one of my favorite trial sites...I jumped on the opportunity! I had been looking for a trick dog test for my friend's young dog to test for her Novice Trick Dog title, as we had been preparing her for it. And on the flip side, my friend has been teasing me into giving Ein a third try at his Canine Good Citizen test. After all, third time's the charm? Ein has failed the CGC twice. Both girldogs have their CGCs and I attempted to test Ein twice over the years when each girl took her test. First at Molly's test where he failed any step that involved contact with a human, and secondly at Perri's test where he nearly passed except for the grooming step.
We arrived and went to check on the Dock schedule. It was around 930 in the morning and the CGC testing was running from 10-12 so plenty of time there. This was mine and Molly's first time jumping with NADD (North American Diving Dogs) and I learned that this event was being run "cluster style." This meant that if you pre-register for "Splashes", that you have no set time for your jumps. You show up in the morning and write your name into whatever time slots work for your day (to minimize conflicts.) Unfortunately for me, getting there a half hour after the event began meant that there were no available time slots until 1 or 2pm. You know, right when the Trick Dog testing was available. Yay, conflicts!
After that we walked over to the Canine Good Citizen ring and testing was already under way. I got Ein's name on the sign up sheet for his CGC as well as the Trick Dog schedule! Zoe Poodle also got signed up for her Novice Trick test. I felt a little nervous going into the test, mostly because of the Grooming step. Ein accepted a friendly stranger, sat politely for petting and grooming. The tester was very respectful and let Ein get to know her and approached him from the side and let him sniff the brush. She also asked him for his paw rather than taking it (upon my request. Ein has arthritic feet and he is happy to "shake" when asked.) Loose leash walking and walking through a crowd, no problem! Sit, Down, Stay and Come - no problem! Reacting to another dog (ignored her!) and reacting to distractions (wheel cart rolled by him and clipboard dropped, he glanced at the distractions but back at me.) And finally Supervised Separation, she kept him in the ring and I walked up through the breed rings for three minutes during that time. It is official, The Finest Einest CGC!
After the day's first victory, we returned to the car camp and put Ein in his crate for a rest. Now it was Zoe's turn for her Novice Trick Dog. Since Zoe has previously passed her Canine Good Citizen, for Novice she had to do five tricks. (If the dog has no CGC they must do 10 tricks from the Novice list.) Zoe did: Shake Paw, 4 Paws on Platform, 2 Paws Up, Get in Box and Spin. What I just love about AKC's trick dog program is how it encourages people who may never have done a competition with their dog or who are too intimidated by obedience or rally-o to get out there with their dog, train tricks and earn a title. I love it. That was exactly the case for our friend's Zoe and Mary, the Novice Trick Dog title tested them on skills we have been training and the challenge was accessible to them. Really exciting!
The dock diving schedule was running late so we decided to try to get Ein in for his Trick Dog tests.
I chose to do the Novice, Intermediate and Advanced levels with Ein. What a busy day!
Once again, I have been so excited to do AKC's Trick Dog testing with Ein since I heard of it. I did the mail in titling with Do More With Your Dog with Perri, and she has her Novice and Intermediate titles, but it was so much more appealing to me to go in person with my dog and show off the tricks.
For Novice, since Ein passed his CGC in the morning, he only had to do 5 Tricks. We did: 2 Paws Up, 4 Paws on Platform, Hold It, Shake and Hand Target.
In Intermediate, things got a little intense! The tricks that went according to plan were: Balance treat on nose, Fetch it (dumbbell), Game (Manipulate puzzle toy or kong), Hand Signals (Sit, Down, Come), Leg Weave, Roll Over, Handlers choice "Heeling with AutoSit", Handlers Choice "Right and Left Finishes").
The tricks that did not go according to plan were that I was planning on using Ein's dumbbell carry for the "Carry" trick - but the tester would not allow me to use any object but a basket. So that was out, as Ein had not generalized his object hold to a basket. I wanted to do "Catch" instead, where the dog must catch a treat or a toy but geriatric Ein has lost his ability to catch so that was a total fail. The tester was very kind and told me to go take a break with Ein and return with a trick we could do. Ein was getting hot and there were people waiting for their turn to do their tricks so, this was a good thing.
I couldn't believe it - one trick away! I was totally flustered. Mary and I went back to the car, gave Ein some water and I petted him and told him he was a good boy. I tried to get him to carry the basket, there was lots of attempts to revive his ability to catch treats and Ein was happy to eat all 400 treats I threw at him but his skills grew no more reliable. We tried "Crawl" but with Ein's hips as they are, it is too tiring for him to go the 5 foot distance required reliably and the tester was by the book. "go Find your handler" was an appealing option but I was told we could not do that since we were in an outdoor ring. We tried to get him to jump through my arms circled as a hoop! Paws up on handlers arm! Nothing! When we were in the ring I tried to get Ein to paw target on a little musical piano, and that would have been a passing trick but Ein just kept laying down on the piano and that was Not Good Enough. I finally had the good sense to get Ein paw targeting and rewarding him like crazy for it, and then we went back into the ring and I asked him to paw target on the $%$&!!! toy piano and he did it and we finally passed the Intermediate Trick Dog. Whew! It did me a heckin concern!
Comparatively, Advanced was a breeze. Ein did Back Up, Circle Right and Left, Turn on pressure activated light (with the paw target again!), Play Dead (Bang!) and Down at a Distance of 15 feet (verbal or hand signal only.)
And all that remained was the blissful relaxation and no-thinking joy of Molly's dock diving! It has been almost two years since Molly has gotten to dock dive at an actual competition event, and she was cranked to the max! She was so frustrated having to wait she latched onto my leg and tried to hump me a few times. Oh my! Molly had her first two jumps with NADD, in the senior range with a 15'6 and a 15'.
So I got my Freehold showgrounds fix for the year and a well rounded day for all! Only Perri was left out of the action. I am curious about getting her up on the dock to see if she is brave enough for a leap but the day was far too busy for that. I am planning on some more NADD events later in the season and they do allow "Try Its" with a second dog on the dock, so that is going to be a very good way for Perri to get acquainted with jumping. And as far as the Trick Dog titles, I can grandfather Perri's DMWYD Intermediate title so she can go straight to testing at the Advanced level. I will look forward to a future event with her! Not that Perri minded coming along for the ride and being support staff, she is always happy in that role.
