The Finest Einest CDX-C! (And Molly SN-C)

Ein and I have been steadily plugging away in CDSP Obedience, a trial every few months in attempt to earn his CDX-C title. First, we went to matches. Then we started trialing January of last year and we NQd. We tried again in May of last year and NQd two times under a very grouchy judge at a very crowded and not-for-Ein trial site. After that I thought maybe this is not for Ein, maybe he is just getting too old. By last autumn I started peeking at the trial calender now and then, and I saw a trial with a much loved rally judge and thought it was worth trying a new to us trial site. There were two trials and Ein NQd one and squeaked by with his first Open Q and a score in the 170s. I was so thrilled, you would think it was a perfect 200! And that gave me hope. And I decided we would stick to this particular trial site since the ring layout made Ein comfortable. This past January we NQd both trials. All the NQs were for random naughty things, it seemed like a different thing each trial.

And so I entered both rounds of Open in the May trial. And we trained the things we NQd on, and we trained the things we did well on. And I entered the ring with my 13 year old rock star and told him to not be naughty!

He was naughty! His habit of "front? what is front?" that started this January has persisted. But not NQ naughty.

Trial one: heel free was fine. Running broad jump good but attempted to squirrel away to heel position with no front - I gave him a front cue since that is points off but less points off than a no front. Drop on recall. I gave him a very firm stay command and turned to face him. (no anticipating, please!) Rock solid stay, good boy! Retrieve on flat - great! Retrieve over high....here he went! Picked the dumbbell up by the bell - when has he ever done that?! Never! And to his credit he carried it to me and over the high jump and dropped it at my feet. That's 5 points off but not an NQ. (I did not know that and thought we blew it.) Go out he does this weird thing sometimes where he runs out to the stanchion to the right of the center one. Whatever dude, it's points off. Our second leg with a 180!! Movin up into the 180s!!

Trial two: heel free fine again. Running broad jump about the same with the naughty no front attempt. Drop on recall, another good boy stay! and naughty no front. I cued him front and he ignored me but then sat at almost my right side on front position. The retrieves were both good but on both run outs he was giving glances at spectators and the judge, and sometimes when he does that he loses track of the dumbbell and will nose touch it and come back to me. We have done a lot of work on this issue and it paid off, he retrieved both times! The go out he stopped short and I cued him to sit anyway (just points off.) and he laid down. More points off but we survived with a 189!

Companion Dog Excellent!! 

I am so proud of him and so honored to be in the ring with a dog of his age. At the pinning for each trial the judges could not resist telling everyone in attendance how old Ein was and everybody cheered for him. He is such a special partner. My plan for now is to continue to play in Open C class (finally out of Open A!!). Ein really loves the exercises, especially the retrieve exercises. At this time I do not plan to continue on to Utility but who knows, I could be sitting here when this dog is 18 years old typing about his Utility Dog title. Anything is possible! In reality, I don't think that Ein would like the more touchy feely Stand for Exam that Utility requires, and I have always considered it a dead end for that reason.

Aaaaaaand Molly played too! She earned her third leg in Starter Novice (Heel on Lead, Figure 8 on Lead, Stand with Distraction (judge walks around.), Recall (Half length of ring) and Sit-Stay while Handler gets leash. Molly did a very nice job but she was a little bit stressy with some lagging issues on Figure 8 and two no sits between both heeling exercises so we got a 190. Still very respectable!
Since Molly titled and I had prepared her for the exercises in regular Novice class, I moved her up for the second trial. (Heel on Lead, Off Lead Figure 8, Moving Stand for Exam, Recall over Bar Jump, Sit-Stay (Handler Walks Around Ring.) The heeling was okay but I was very supportive of Molly. I miss my sharp little heeler that I had in January and it shows that I have slacked off on a lot of the motivational work I was doing with Molly's heeling. I'm going to put more work into that so we can have a nicer time for her last two Novice legs! The other exercises were uneventful and she was a Very Good Girl with no errors, I was especially pleased with her Moving Stand for Exam.

Looking forwards to our next Obedience trial in a few months, and it's time to really get serious about working on training Molly for Open.

Ein CDX-C and Molly SN-C!

Ein qualifies in Open!

I worked up the nerve to enter Ein in another CDSP (double) trial.   Truth be told I almost cancelled my entry, fretting that he was simply not ready.   Especially not for his Go Out.   But I kept the entry.   I picked a trial with a judge I love and who I knew I would feel comfortable with.   Ein and I have worked hard on his Go Out as well as some other problem areas between Spring and now and I really did want to see how things were looking.

This particular trial building was perfect for Ein.   Ring separate from crating and spectating.   Steward table off to the side in the ring rather than at one end or another.   The ring entrance was a doorway with two foldable ring gates stretched across it.   Wide, and it allowed room for spectators to see in, but not on either of the ends of the ring where Ein would need to run towards or away from.   Cool.

Ein's heel off lead was laggy on the first trial and he had a missed sit because the heeling pattern ended right at the entrance of the room and he got distracted momentarily by spectators.   I was told a missed sit is -5 points but a verbal cue to sit would have been a -3 points, so best to give a verbal if I'm not getting a sit. (And really, best to support my dog too.  Bad Handler.)
Running broad jump, good!   The BJ was right by the spectator gate and I was happy with how he handled that.
Drop on Recall, good boy!   I can't remember but I think he anticipated the finish on this exercise.
Retrieve on Flat great!!    No anticipating the send, picked it right up and was fast! (and adorable!)
Retrieve over High Jump Ugh!   Retrieved the DB and then came wide around the jump and....didn't take the jump.   We've worked on off set pick ups of both treats and the DB and he catches the jump.   The judge reminded me I could have cued the jump as I saw he was coming in on the flat, I did not know that!   (I forget to ask if was points off, not that I care but it would be good to know.)
Go Out was okay.   He went out but sort of started this arc and return to me.   I just cued him to sit by the gate and returned to him.   Not bad, definitely and improvement!

I was super thrilled with Ein's attitude and work in the first trial and really felt like our hard work has paid off.   Ein is loving being in the ring.

Perri got to play in Novice C (in CDSP Novice C class is for dogs who have earned their CD-C title).   I tried some tricks, having some super high value treats.   Asking a friend to hold Perri for me right before my turn so she would be excited to be with me when the leash was handed back over.   Perri still flattened out for the ring.   Dutiful flat heeling for the heel on lead (though only 1/2 point off.), she did perk up about half way through.   Figure 8 was....well we got eight points off for steward sniffing and getting lost with stewards.   Sigh.   No deductions on the Stand for Exam or the Sit-Stay, and a half point off on the recall for a crooked sit.   Strong finish!   The judge even pointed out Perri's tail which was firmly slammed down for her whole time in the ring.   Like everything with Perri, I know she is capable of loving the ring but today was not her day.   She was still a very good poodle and tried very hard for me.

After that I stewarded in Utility and before I knew it, it was Ein's second turn!   Heeling was much prettier this time, but he had some other tricks up his sleeve!   Broad jump was good but Ein went right to finish position afterwards and grinned up at me.   Clever boy!   Drop on Recall was great but the same thing, why front when you can just go straight to finish??   The retrieve on flat he amped it up to a new level by dropping the dumbbell at my feet and speeding into heel position.   Oh my!   Too much!   For the retrieve over high Ein returned over the jump no problem and I firmly reminded him with a verbal "front".   He say quite squarely, held the DB until I took it and did a finish when told.   What a hoot!!   Still in the realm of the (barely) qualifying, we proceeded to the send area for the Go Out.   I made a fuss of showing him his mark, stood up and sent him.   Beautiful rockstar Go Out, stayed put while I returned around him.   Besides the extreme naughtiness on the fronts, it was our best run yet!

And I still did not know if I qualified.   I'm not terribly savvy on the rules and I wasn't sure if we lost too many points on all those missed fronts and especially the dumbbell drop.   But then I heard our "Open A dog qualifies with a score of 179.5!"   I raised both arms up, so happy!   Our first Open leg!!   We did it!

Training Fronts with Molly

A few nights ago I was "doodling around" as I think of it with Molly and her dumbbell retrieve.   Molly has gotten to the point, with much self control work, where we have a hold.  When I started to work on some short retrieves, it was pretty clear that Molly doesn't have the foggiest idea of what "front" position is.   Molly's knowledge of front is basically a "good enough for rally" call in with hand guidance.  Ein is a bit more advanced, we started off with the lure in with hands technique and have recently sharpened up with the use of platforms.   Perri has done well using a stationary sit platform, she absolutely adores platform work.

For Molly, a platform is more challenging for both of us, though we are working hard on that.   I thought a better fit for Molly would be a pivot platform.   She has been heavily rewarded for pivoting to heel position or just for spinning around, so we are working through that.   I have also been slipping on videoing my training sessions, but I decided tonight I needed to do so.  These are our 3rd and 4th sessions of working on this skill and we are enjoying ourselves.   I wanted to look at my timing as well as if I was clicking the position that I actually wanted.

And I thought, why not post my unedited training sessions.   They aren't too long!  The camera angle kind of sucks.   By the second video I feel like Molly is definitely catching onto the concept of what I want.   She absolutely cannot handle me having the treats in my hands - they have to be in my sweatshirt pocket -it is just too distracting for her at this time.   I am trying to give multiple treats in the position I will eventually want her head to be in.   And I note that I need to do some reps with myself moving in the opposite direction (counter clockwise vs clockwise.)

Inspiration

Getting a hold on Molly has always been frustrating, and not something I've devoted much time to.   We do short sessions before either of us get too frustrated.  Our sessions largely focus on not so much the hold - but on keeping Molly out of that "tasmanian devil" mindframe.   And any actual work on the behavior is done in the rare few seconds when we find that sweet spot of getting her mind focused and not in a frenzy.

Today I was working on Ein's impulse control (ha!), a short session involving treat throws and waiting until released to grab the treat.   Keeping the dumbbell out of it for now.   Ein had some motivation loss when we worked on his early DB dropping issue from a few months ago and I would like to stay away from that sort of issue.   I love his enthusiasm!   I was definitely able to reproduce anticipating racing out after the treat, of course!, so we have some sessions ahead of us both at home and "on the road."

And since Molly always loves to be involved, I thought "why not!" to a short hold session.   She's doing good!   As always, at the trial yesterday I felt the desire to try Obedience with Molly.   She certainly has the motivation to have very nice heelwork (provided I put the work into helping her see it is a fun game!), she is a fun partner, and I would absolutely love taking a pitbull into a sport dominated by biddable retrievers and herding breeds.   It all comes down to my own need to focus on what my goals are with all three dogs.   I love so many things and want to do too many things.   I am a lot like my dog Molly when it comes to impulse control!  We will see what 2017 brings.   I would love to title Molly in Obedience and Nosework - versatility is fun!

Obedience Match Report 10/2

Obedience match report for today:

Excellent attitude in the ring!   Wagging tail and smiles.

Running broad jump exercise: A+, Ein and I have practiced this and it showed.   No more stepping on the BJ.

Dumbbell Retrieves:
The judge reversed the direction from our experience last month.   This time Ein had to retrieve his DB running towards ringside and the stewards table.   He could not do it.   He went out strong and fast, nose touched the DB and returned to me quite happily and sat at front.   Uh, Ein?  Ya missed something!   The issue is that Ein was worried about running towards people and to dip his head down and break focus on (keeping a close eye on) them was more than he could deal with.   That's okay...we can work on that.   I switched direction and sure enough Ein was happy to do both Retrieve on Flat and over the Jump if he could run away from the people and towards the not-scary back of the ring.   This was really good information!   Back in the winter, Ein had an issue picking up his DB during a rally trial - because the judge was standing directly in front of his DB (a few feet back.)  We did some work on that, but at the time he was not as solid with his retrieve as he is now.   I had thought the issue resolved itself with more confidence - and indeed Ein is somehow okay to run past a judge to do his retrieve.    But going towards them is not the same for him - in fact, I just now realize how truly challenging this is for a dog like Ein.   He fears people - and here he is asked to run away from me (his safe zone) to perform a job independently, near the "danger zone".    And a judge in the ring is a trustworthy factor - for how many years, the judge is a "safe" and "known quantity".   Ringside?   The stewards might be doing something different, talking, standing up abruptly, and perhaps entering the ring unexpectedly....the dogs and people ringside could be doing any number of troubling things.   Tugging, jumping, making noises...   There is a lot more to worry about on the entrance end of the ring than there is inside the ring.    This has always been a problem for Ein.   He has changed so much, he has come to love the ring so much - but that entrance side of the four walls of the ring has always brought out many weak moments and worrying for him

Drop on Recall:
I went ahead and made some time for this one today.   I accidently dropped Ein without the judge's direction!   I got rally-o brain, because in rally for the DOR you drop your dog whenever you want to and I just....brain farted!   The judge kindly reminded me that I must look to the judge for that instruction, so we repeated the exercise.   This time we did a great job, and Ein dropped right when I told him to!  I am feeling very confident about this exercise.   However, we did set up the DOR so that he was coming in towards me and the back of the ring.    Next time, we will try the opposite direction....   I felt that he had had enough challenge in that category today.

We ran out of time so I could not practice my Go Out work at all in the ring.   We were so focused on DB and making sure Ein had a really great experience in the ring with his retrieve, so that is most important.   I think next time I will purchase two different time slots.   Ein does not seem to be very tired after we work in the ring and I think he would be happy enough to do some more work and training.

The volunteers at the training center where we went today were so supportive.   The judge even made sure to tell me that she loved my relationship with Ein.   The best kind of compliment, if you ask me!

Open Obedience Match plus Adventures!

Today Ein and I did our very first obedience match at Open Level.  I realized today that I am getting better at knowing what I want at a match.   Initially I did not have a plan, I would just show up and do the routine...have no Plan B for if things went wrong, that kind of thing.   Today I did not want to do the Open routine.

Today I wanted to test the waters of where Ein is at with his skills.  I did choose to do a heeling pattern, but that was mostly so that I could practice my striding - I tried to take shorter strides and it really made a difference for Ein.   A "corgi person" advised me to give this a try after she watched me heel Ein at our title leg for his CD.

The main goal of today's match was to see how our retrieve is looking under the pressure of a judge in the ring.   I was quite shocked that Ein went out strong and rather fast on the Retrieve on the Flat and returned at a very close front!  (After several false starts while I was fooling around with his platform - and I didn't even end up using it.)   Retrieve over High Jump was lovely and Ein actually started to return quite wide, I thought he would go around the jump but...he corrected himself!   I was super impressed!
We repeated both exercises at the end of our ring time, two more nice repetitions.   Every time I sent him out he gave the judge a glance and near-stink eye but I can see he is confident enough in his job now despite "judge" pressure - on the right path!   Of course, there is one "little" problem - Ein is holding the DB soft when he returns and is dropping it as I reach for it.   One time he actually started mouthing it as I moved my hands towards him, and when I pulled back to give him a chance to regrip, he dropped it.   No big deal, just information!   We will focus on this and see if there is an improvement at our next match.

I skipped the Figure 8 and the Drop on Recall - though I probably should have done the DOR to see what I had.   I did do the broad jump and we did it as we will see it in CDSP and Ein ran right over the top of the broad jump with a loud clatter and grinned up at me.  "Aren't I great?!  Where's my treat?"   Ha!!   Ein "knew" the BJ at one time, we trained it when he took foundations agility class and he remembered that long enough to perform it at a rally trial and a rally B-match one time (the only two times I saw it in rally-o ever!) but that was years ago.   I thought he would have remembered just fine, but no big deal - we will do a little tune up and see how that looks at the next match!

I do wish I had done a test drive of the DOR to see what I have.   Ein does that exercise really well in Rally-O when it is included in a Level 3 course, we have never had an issue with it but I do need to see what he will do in an open ring (no rally signs) and a longer distance.  Next time!

So, we have some direction, we have some things to focus on.   Ein will need a Go Out for CDSP Open but we have been hard at work on that and things are looking nice - we may try that at the next match.

After the match, I had a geocaching agenda.   First stop, a geocache on an island accessible only by boat or wading.  I was a little intimidated by wading at first, because the half of the river closest to parking was about waist deep and the current was strong.  I would not have minded just swimming across but I had to take my phone so I could, ya know, find the geocache. (It was a reasonably big island, not having the coordinates would have been like finding a needle in a haystack.)   Then I had Ein and Perri with me, and I had to make sure they could handle the task.   So in we went.  I actually leashed Ein up and ended up holding his collar the whole way across, the current was very strong indeed for him and even for Perri - she actually swam across totally sideways, wasting energy trying to swim upstream to me and doing her yodel the whole way across because she couldn't get to me!   We reached the island no problem and the dogs got to run around off leash, fetch sticks and play while I found the geocache quickly.

I should have taken a photo of the deep area we crossed, it is off to the left.

I really did not want to wade back!  This time I walked upstream as far as possible, so that the dogs could swim across and though the current would pull them downstream, they would sort of be swept to our entry point nicely.  I left Ein off the leash this time.   Both of them, especially Ein, kept looking back after me.   It is so nice to have dogs who are trained, because I kept telling Ein "go on!" and he would turn away and paddle for shore.  This was way more preferable than him trying to swim upstream towards me, and it was good that he understood.  

Our next stop was called "Stephen King cache" and it was at a pet cemetery!  For the geocache that I was searching, you had to do some simple math based off of dates on some of the memorial stones in the cemetery - and of course it was a nice walk in a level field for both dogs.   Ein was happy to sit and rest while I worked out coordinates and math.

Our last stop was for an actual lengthy walk on the trail along the Canal.   Ein got to be off leash nearly the entire time and we had a very nice 2-ish mile out and back walk with good evening sun.   

I am so grateful for everything I have with Ein.   He is not ancient, but he is not young.   Yet he is learning advanced Obedience exercises and performing them and wanting more, he is swimming a strong river and he is not afraid and he still had plenty of "gas in the tank" for our canal walk.   His body is not what it used to be, and towards the end of the day I could see his rear leg shaking - but he has so much heart.  Today was one of those days where I let him "run it into the ground" activity wise.   I gave him a rimadyl when we got home and he is doing well.    Walking through that pet cemetery today I saw all those little memorial stones, all of those pieces of somebody's heart that has left this world and I know that someday I will not have this incredible little dog by my side.   But on this day, today, I did - and it was one of our countless Best Days Ever.

The Finest Einest COMPANION DOG!

Today Ein and I earned our third qualifying score for his AKC Companion Dog title!  

I have to be honest, I enjoyed our first and second legs more.  The trial environment (four rings, louder, more distractions) seemed to make Ein more comfortable.   The place that we went to today was at a small obedience training club (one ring.  Quiet.)   There seems to be a fine line to "way too noisy" and "just the right amount of background noise/activity".  "Silent as a tomb" is actually worse than "too noisy".  Ein can be so environmental, so it is important to choose well!  

Ein was happy enough ringside.   His heel on lead was decent as was his figure 8 with a lot of happy smiles and tail wagging as he worked.   He was doing some glancing around and had one no-sit on each exercise.   That was my first indication that he was more stressed today than he was last weekend.  The Stand for Exam.  He rotated out of his stand-stay when I returned to heel position and my heart sank.   Bless the judge!   She told me right away, "It is just points off, you are okay!"  She read the mind of a Novice A handler (smile.)  It still chipped a little piece off of my heart because I knew that Ein was stressing.  I should have not scheduled our trial weekends one right after another - if I could do it again, I would have left a few weeks in between and built in some training sessions/ring times with more heavy reinforcement for his stand-stay.  (versus in the ring where he is doing a Very Hard Job for "free".)

Next was the heel free, and it often happens that if something goes "wrong", Ein's stress intensifies.   And it did.   I cued him to heel forward and he stopped for a stress sniff.   He caught up to me and did the rest of the pattern rather nicely until we had to heel towards ring side and he saw the People! looking at him.   I lost him to major stress sniffing on the about turn and felt that I needed to call him to me.   He came and we finished with a sit at halt.  Whew.

The recall came straight to finish - no front.   He did that on all three legs.   The group stays were just dandy.

We earned our Companion Dog title with a score of 175. (wince!)

But that is our journey!   It is a miracle my boy could do this and I am grateful for our time together.  I said he never could do this, and he proved me dead wrong.   This is our new work, our new challenge.  I am considering showing him again in Novice B later this year.   I would like to see how being outdoors would affect his stress levels.   And the bottom line is that my Ein is a worker, and so am I.  We both love to train.   I can see our problem areas highlighted consistently after these last three trials and I would love to try to work them out.  I would love to earn a score about 190 with him.  We will see.  This is what some people find some aggravating about Obedience, but I just love it.  The nitpicky point deductions, the desire for perfection.  Well I just see it as the opportunity to train more, and Ein sees it as an opportunity to play with me and eat cookies so...we all win.

Ein's First AKC Obedience Trials! (York Kennel Club and Delaware County Kennel Club)

We return....VICTORIOUS!

Ein and I made our AKC Obedience debut in Novice A class both Friday and today.   I was feeling a little nervous so I made myself watch our best rally-o video (from August of 2015) to remind myself of how beautiful our team work can be, and I put my favorite photo of us heeling onto my phone wallpaper.   Whatever works!

Friday the heel on lead felt good to me but we did lose some points for wide heeling.   The Figure 8 Ein noticed the one person in the post and worried about her, he even left heel position for a few steps to sniff her leg!   Oops!   But overall, kept with me and worked well.   Stand for Exam was flawless!   I don't think I breathed the entire exercise but my boy stood there solid as a rock, like we have worked on all this time.   Heel free felt worrisome to me, Ein was getting more stressy and noticing people outside of the ring more by that point - but when I asked the judge to go over our score sheet we actually earned more points in the heel free.   The recall Ein anticipated the finish and went to heel position but then realized that wasn't where he should be so he just sort of made up the difference halfway in between and grinned up at me.   Scamp!   I asked him to finish when the judge commanded but I accidently did both a hand signal and a verbal - I was stressed and I forgot myself!   I did not even realize it until me and the judge reviewed our sheet, so it was really valuable for her to go over that with me.  Our score was 185.5 - points lost for wide heeling, figure 8 stressing, one missed sit on the heel free, two points for my finish oops, and points lost for no front.  I was thrilled!

Today started off with a bang when I thought the briefing was at 8:30am...and that was actually when the ring started.  And we were the first dog!   I arrived at 8:18!!!!!  And Ein had to poop!  We made it ringside by 8:27 and into the ring we went.
Heel on lead was much smoother than the day before.   Figure 8 I made extra effort to keep him engaged and not worrying over the stewards and we did much better with only one person-sniff, though there was some google-eyeing and lagging and one missed sit at the end (with a big grin up at me and a tail wag!   The judge could not help but remark on how very very cute he is.  I agree!)   Stand for Exam - rockstar!   This judge had a sweater on but she was very careful to gather it and hold onto it so it would not hang in the dogs face.  Awesome!  Much appreciated!    Heel free was good with some wide heeling but all around great attention and enthusiasm.  Recall he missed is front again but this time I gave only a hand signal for our finish.  Score of 186!

Oh, group stays on both days were totally fine.   Talk about nerve wracking though!   I counted in my head because what else could I do?   I saw Ein looking at things around the room at times and I felt like I should glance at what he was noticing and acknowledge to him that I saw it - isn't that funny?  But it felt like it would be important to him.   On the second day the dogs were lined up with their backs to the Rally Excellent ring so that was a bit of a challenge.   Ein handled that well but it still made me nervous, I was glad that there was not too much commotion!

These last two days were golden.   Beautiful and unbelievable.   I am so humbled by my dog and so grateful to him.   AKC Novice Obedience was one of those things that I truly accepted we could never do.  Until we could.  Until we did.

Happy to Be Here

I signed Ein up for a 6-week CDSP Obedience (Novice Level) course at our training club.  Tonight was the first night.  I mainly wanted to attend the class so that Ein could have one more obedience practice before we trial in AKC Novice this weekend.

Tonight we practiced walking a heeling pattern with the judge instructing us. (without a dog.)   We then did the heel pattern with our dog, and practiced moving into position for the next exercise - the figure 8.  (A good skill to practice!)  We practiced a lot of zen exercises like "slow treats" and self control work in the sit/down/stand positions.   And the recall over bar jump.  

Ein was super with the figure 8 and the zen exercises.  (In fact, on one exercise I had his pile of treats in between his paws while he held a down stay.  He was foaming drool but did not take any of those treats unless I gave them to him!)   The heel on lead did not relieve my stress about this weekend's trials.   He went blasting ahead when our instructor commanded "Forward" and I reset him.  That upset him enough to make him stressy and sniffy and miss his sit on the Forward-Sit portion of the heel on lead.  The recall over bar jump he broke his stay.   (He is naughty about stays in class as a rule, but rarely naughty at trials.   Only one broken stay ever at a trial - in 2013 in Rally Excellent.  Still.)

Bad dress rehearsal, good show?  The worry-demons are creeping up on me.

I had to give myself a little pep talk on the drive home.  Enjoy this time.  While 11 is not ancient as small dogs go, it is certainly an age that many performance dogs are good and retired by.  Especially obedience.  My guy is still raring to go, he loves being in the ring with me even if his stress sometimes gets the better of him, and we get to do this together.  We get to do this thing that I never thought was possible before.  So instead of worrying that Ein might sniff or break a stay or we might lose points or this or that... I'm just going to choose to be happy to be here.   Happy to be here with my good old red dog.   Cause he sure is happy to be here with me.

photo by Michelle O.

Catch Up, Hiking, Life is Grand!

Perri and I have been enjoying a lot of hiking recently.  I so love hiking with Perri and the feeling is mutual!  Spring has been off to an early start and we just can't walk enough miles - it is probably time for some backpacking because I can't get enough of being outdoors!

Last weekend Ein had an obedience match at a new-to-us training center, so we did some hiking around the area afterwards.   It was thankfully quite cool outside and Ein was able to relax in the crate with a bowl of water and some snacks while Perri and I hiked.   I tried to take him walking but his left rear leg was bothering him after not even a mile - shaking and he was favoring it very obviously.
(The Obedience match was our last before we actually trial in Novice Obedience and it went pretty well!   Flawless stand for exam.   Some anticipation on the judge's "forward" command on his heeling, with Ein blasting off without me!   Lovely Figure 8.   Lovely recall and finish.   Some stress on the heel free when the door to the quiet training building slammed open and there was some commotion.  I am not too worried about that - there is no sense fretting over Ein's stress levels.   The best thing I can do to help him be confident in the ring is to be a confident handler.

Anyway, our hiking!   On Sunday we went to a frisbee golf park and found all of the geocaches there, that gave us about a mile.

Then we discovered a fascinating little outdoor art enclave created by students at the local college.  The Lehigh Valley Millennial Folk Art Enclave.   It was incredible!   They even had a throne for Perri to perch on!

!!!!!!

Too cool right!   It's not every day I find something t his fascinating out in the woods.   Totally made my day.

Even had a dream catcher tree.   I asked Perri to pose dramatically next to it.

Fast forward to Thursday and I was sent home early for work because of a slow day so out to the Gamelands for Perri and I!   This time we stayed close to French Creek State Park and found a "multi cache" that took us several hours of hiking on both trail and through brush.

I bought this dog back for Perri well over a year ago, for backpacking, but since we have not backpacked....we have not used it!   I plan to do at least one or two overnights in the woods with a friend this year, so Perri will need to get used to her pack.   I thought Thursday would be a good day to get started.  Perri acted like she could not walk at first (she does not even really like her harness) - but eventually hiked with the empty pack on as though she had nothing on at all.

I selfishly left Molly at home for this hike.  It was a hot day (for Molly), 81 degrees and I knew she would do her "boat anchor" routine before long.   The non-selfish reason, and deciding factor, in my leaving Molly at home was that there was an outdoor shooting range next to the parking area for this Gameland.   Molly is very gun shy and would have been miserable and afraid if I had brought her.   For as many worries and strange fears as Perri has, she could not care less about gun shots.   Dogs, who can understand them!

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

After our hike we stopped off at the State Park for some lake swimming and fetch!   Perri is happy to retrieve her ball!  

We tried some off the dock work but Perri was reluctant to jump off even the side of the dock.   There was a spot where she could jump from the side and into shallow water and we did work up to that - so there is hope!

And then she got cold and shivery and "can we go home now?".   We found the lei in a geocache and she wore it the rest of our hike and into the lake - funny!

And Friday, there was rest!

But today, there was the Appalachian Trail!   I had been wait-listed for an AKC agility trial for today, but did not get in.   My friend told me she was meeting someone to go hiking and asked me if I was free to go along...I sure was!   We met up and climbed "cardiac hill" from the Hamburg Reservoir to the "spectacular Pinnacle".   It was a gorgeous day in the low 60s and although I was bummed initially  to not get into that agility trial, I was way happier to be out hiking!  The day was made for it.

Pulpit Rock

The Spectacular Pinnacle (the trail guidebook calls it "spectacular" and I have always loved that.)

Rock Poodle!

So, we are caught up on our outdoor adventures!  Looking forwards to more.

Ring Rental with Ein

A friend and I rented the ring of a local training building today to work on Obedience Things.

I wanted to work on:

Stand for Exam
Dumbbell Retrieve (on the flat and over the high jump)
Ring Entrances

My friend thankfully brought some sections of ring gating which we were able to set up.   I noticed at Ein's last match that he entered the ring and spent the first few moments of heeling sniffing, so I wanted to work on that picture a little bit.  I wasn't able to recreate that stress in Ein, although there were a few moments where he broke focus and I was able to ask him to reset.

Stand for Exam work, very happy there!  Ein has certainly come a long way on this exercise.   We warmed up with my friend walking past and stopping next to Ein's shoulder, and quickly  moved on to the full exam.   We did two full SFE exercises and Ein handled it well, though he did look at our "judge".  He reoriented to me quickly enough and I think I am happy with that.  I don't think I want to ask Ein to completely ignore something that makes him uncomfortable and I will have to play it by ear as we go along.   I don't want the glances to become fixations, but only more set ups and training will tell me what course of action needs to be taken.   We took a break from SFE but later did a second set up where my friend carried a clipboard and wore my dangling lanyard work ID while she did two separate exams - again solid stays and this time his attention on me only flickered for a second.

We did so much work on proofing his stays and "you stay no matter what", he quickly figures out that "this is just another trick and I'm going to do my job."

Retrieve work was super.  There were a few times I threw the DB far and Ein lost track of it and returned to me.   (the far throws were accidental.)  And in fairness to him, we have not had any opportunity before today to work on throws that far since my garage is our main training area.   We did a lot of work on Ein's retrieve and I was completely happy with him!   No dropping the DB, no mouthing it.   Retrieve over High went super, I even did some off centered throws and he found the jump on his return.    I did have my friend stand a few feet from the DB and we tried a rally-style retrieve and he did go to sniff her on quite a few send outs.  So, having a person in the ring during his retrieve is something that is going to continue to need a lot of work.  But then again, the concept of working independently from me in the ring is still extremely new for Ein.

Videos are so valuable.   I'm certain that I don't always so "Okay, Get It!" but I did here!  I don't want to be saying "Okay".   I took this short video of Ein because he is cute and I wanted to get his retrieve on video, but I got some valuable feedback about myself in the process.

Ein's First Obedience Match!

Ein got to go to his first Obedience match today!   I had wanted to go to this match, but missed entering because it filled up.   I got lucky because somebody ended up not wanting to go, so she was giving away her two Novice slots to the first taker.   Meant to be!

I don't know if it is because Ein makes me more confident, or because I am finally learning something, but I felt like today I had A Plan and I stuck with it!   A big deal for me!

My plan was to do our heeling patterns exactly as we would do them in the ring.   No food, no extra hand signals and no chatter during heeling.   I planned to take Ein out of the ring to our crate for a special treat (salmon brownies!) after each successful exercise.   I planned to take advantage of having the "judge" to work on Stand for Exam - Ein and I have been working very hard on this exercise at home with great success.  We are really enjoying the "Stand with Me" class on FDSA from Bronze level and Ein has risen to the challenge of having his stand-stay proofed and made extremely valuable.

Heel on Lead he was distracted and sniffy for the first half - he missed the first halt because he was not paying attention (he did feel me stop and sat about two paces ahead of me).  I stressed but talked myself through it and reminded myself to handle my dog instead of wilting.  It worked.   We hit the first about turn and I had my dog back, bright eyes and that big grin and prance and he nailed the rest of his heeling.   He was forging on the figure 8, both times!, and that is such a new problem for us...I'm not even sure I actually care!  I'm still so charmed by the change in his attitude.

Stand for Exam: our first time in I asked the judge to do a wide walk around.  Ein was solid.  I asked her to walk along side of him and pause near his shoulder, about two feet away.  He looked at her but refocused on me ("you're not gonna get me, mom!")  I released Ein and partied with him and then I we reset and I asked her to do the exercise as directed.  He never even looked at her.   I could have cried.  My boy!!    Our second ring time I asked her to just do the normal exercise and once again, he never moved a paw, never looked at her.   She was just another silly distraction for him.   WOW.  Very encouraging for me!

Recalls...wow that's a long distance!   Ein was a little unsettled by that big open ring floor but he came trotting into front and sat nice and close, although off to the side slightly.   Crooked finishes because of that.   I'm sure Ein will enjoy some sharpening up with a platform - not that I care too much about crooked fronts or finishes, but Ein loves training so why not?

Group stays: Ein was solid as a rock.  I assumed that he would be, but it was good to test drive.  The dog next to Ein was very antsy, sniffing the air next to Ein and moving around with the handler coming in every few seconds to reward or reset.  It was a good challenge for Ein and no one actually invaded his space, which I was grateful for.

Very very positive first time for Ein at a match.  I really wish that I had been smarter before I introduced Ein to the CDSP Novice ring, and prepared him better.  We will probably revisit CDSP this spring, because it will be fun for him and I would like to see him in the ring as the prepared and confident dog he is now!

Ringisde DB practice.

Speaking of dumbbell, more progress there at home.   I started placing the dumbbell next to 'upsetting" objects, like the vacuum cleaner or piles of trial gear or any jumble of "stuff" that would throw Ein off.   He progressed quickly with that so I really wanted a person to stand there because that is what threw him off at the rally trial...but Vince has been busy working so...Perri to the rescue!   Who says those long stays aren't helpful in real life??   I put Perri in a sit-stay and placed the dumbbell a few feet away from Perri.   Ein acted exactly like he did at the trial, bingo!   He came back to me without the DB.  This is a good challenge for Ein, he is very uncomfortable going into Perri's personal bubble to get the DB.  But! Ein is overcoming these challenges with ferocity, I think another session or two and his confidence will grow that he can get that DB no matter what! (He did, he was just reluctant about it.)   And the upside is that Perri was very eager to do a dumbbell retrieve after having to hold that sit-stay and watch Ein have all the fun!

And speaking of Perri: she came to the match today and all we did was work on her comfort level and engagement.  I got a pocket full of treats and just stood and waited.   She was scanning intensely, she cannot focus on every thing at once so she goes into a tizzy and becomes paralyzed with sensory overload.  This is why she cannot heel.  We are going to progress slower from here on out, and give it as much time as it needs.  I waited for a good long while and she eventually looked at me.  Treat.  And so the game went.  We moved to different locations and for focusing on me, she got a treat.  I noticed her response was much more enthusiastic and her focus stayed on me longer when I asked for a "sit pretty" or another trick that she liked.  One time she focused on me and offered her back-up (heavily rewarded from when we were doing it twice daily during her active rehab!)  She was much more comfortable when we left the building and I felt very good about the whole thing.   We will do this at Ein's next rally-o trial as well as his next match.  

A raging success all around!   And we had enough of the day left afterwards that I could take the girls on a hike (and found my 1000th Geocache!)

Ein's Biggest Challenge Yet: The Stand for Exam

Meanwhile in Ein-Land, training sessions have been harder to find time for.  It is all I can find time for some days to get Perri's rehab visits and at-home PT sessions in, and that leaves less training time for Ein.

We did work on his back up at front position, because losing points at the rally trials for that is silly!  I made a channel of two broad jumps for Ein and as I expected, he learned pretty quickly!  Lots of butt bumping at first but he is picking up the muscle memory to go straight back.  As usual, he is throwing his "all" into it and flies backwards with a big goofy smile on his face.  Walking backwards is good for his fitness, too!  (this is even one of Perri's rehab exercises.)  

Dumbbell work happens here and there.  We have a good hold going, and that was a major breakthrough for him to be calm about that, but Ein is stalled out at learning that he can move and hold the DB all at the same time.  He has his chin target and nose target but it has been almost impossible to get him to even shift his weight at all while doing a hold.  He has not grasped the concept yet that he can do a nose touch while he is holding the object.  I am confident that he will have a lightbulb moment about this little roadblock when we have more time to train consistently.

Our next project is a little incredible to me.  Completely driven by Ein's attitude for work and newfound confidence in the ring, I believe we are going to try AKC Obedience and work towards Ein's Companion Dog title.   

Wow.

I feel great about Ein's heeling, his stays and his recall.  We are going to attend some matches for sure.  I have been progressing both at rally practice and trials towards single cues (for example, you are permitted to say "Finish" as well as a hand gesture simultaneously in Rally.  But not in Obedience.)  Ein is adjusting to this with zero issues.  

Except one little thing, you might say.  There's one exercise you haven't mentioned.   The Stand for Exam.  And the stand for exam is the one thing that may keep us out of the Obedience ring.  When Ein earned his CDSP Companion Dog, his SFE was not pretty.  Ein is very hand-shy and I just threw him into it with little of the understanding that I have now about building up to the exercise.  (Oh, how much I have learned in just two years.)  We NQd one time for severe shyness, and our three Qs all involved me giving him a stern repeat "Stay" command.  His title leg he cringed away so badly that we probably deserved to NQ.

That's not going to be how we will roll this time.  I have been working on Ein's stand-stays already.  Just working on the stand-stay-leave dog all on it's own and building value into that.  Last night we took it on the road.  We went to Petsmart on our way to Perri's UWTM session.  

Let me take a time out here and point out that in year's past, we could not go into Petsmart.  Ein would freak out on the slippery floor.  His entire body would be shaking in fear, whipping his head from person to noise to person and pouring drool.  He would pin himself along the aisles as if the very earth was going to fling him away if he did not ground himself.  

Me and this same dog walked into Petsmart and I waited for him to engage with me.  He had that spooky look in his eye at first but it wasn't long before he engaged with me.  Cheese.  Less spooky but still worried.  More offered engagement.  More cheese.  And then he couldn't take his eyes off me.  He wanted to work and he was smiling.  And so it begins.  We worked on his stand stays like we do at home, with formality, and he was a champ.  The only thing he had trouble with was my return to heel position. (Not an issue at home, but the stress of being somewhere new produced it.)  I gave him two tries but he kept breaking his stay.  We took a little break and worked on long stays (he was awesome.) and a wee bit of heeling (more awesome.) and then returned to the stand-stay.  I broke down the chain of the return and rewarded him for holding his stay on my approach and worked my way to his side and yo-yo'd back to front...and we were able to have a handful of successful stand-stay-leave dog-return to dogs before we left.  One his final stand stay, an employee came behind me and began stocking some wet dog food.  She apologized to me and I said it was no problem without turning to look at her.  I did not ask Ein to do hold duration, just waited a second or two after her approach and returned to him and rewarded him.  We are not ready for human distractions just yet!

So, I'm excited!  I would never be able to make time to drive Ein to stores and work on this, but he can easily come along to Perri's rehab and I can make a pit stop and work for 5-10 minutes with him.  And he loves it.  There are quite a few dog friendly stores on our drive to Perri's appointment, so we will have a variety of locations.

I never considered AKC Obedience with Ein, because he used to worry so badly in the ring.  Any ring: AKC/WCR rally, matches, CDSP, rally-o class.  But he is consistently happy and focused in the ring now, that I'm willing to try to conquer the Stand For Exam.  And there is even a class on Fenzi Dog Sport Academy starting in December focusing on just this exercise.   Awesome!  We are in.

foggytop photography

Sad July Obedience Match

Perri and I went to Let's Speak Dog for another obedience match today.  As uplifted and good as I felt when we went to our obedience match in June...I felt pretty crappy today.

I got there only five minutes early.  I did not set Perri's crate up.  We went in, did a little acclimation and went into the ring.  I don't know if that was "the issue", I don't think that it was but I don't think it helped.  Every time I bring my dogs (Ein or Perri) to this training center, they are more stressed than usual.

Perri was stressed.  She was scanning big time.  Scanning the mounds of equipment on the opposite side of the one ring gate (agility stuff, boxes, lots of stuff.)  She was scanning the opposite ring.  She was scanning the two vacuum cleaners in the building, one was inside of the ring and one was outside of the ring.  Despite that she did try to play with her bunny tug, but it was very mechanical and her heart was not into it.  I could see that.   Things were bothering her that did not bother her at our match last month.  I left her leash attached, same as I did last month.  But today the leash bothered Perri.  When the leash grew tight while she pounced for her toy, she recoiled as though I had strangled her.  When the leash slapped on the ground when she went after her toy, she became afraid of it.  Both of those things happened at our last match, and Perri was too into her playing to care.  It sticks in my mind how proud I was of her rebounding to toy play after that golden retriever smashed into the ring gate towards her and barked last time.  There were some very intense distractions and Scary Perri things last month, but those things did not bother Perri.

I tried to do some Work, but she could not remain engaged with me.  And I can't just survive heeling with Perri, I know that we can do better than just trudging along.  I tried to look where I was going and be confident and not melt down, but despite that but I had to break off our heel patterns over and over again.  Not good for Perri, not good for me.  She sniffed the steward's butt on the figure 8.  We broke off and started again.  Perri actually lasered in on me and did a beautiful figure 8 loop.  I pushed it and tried to go for the second half of the loop and she lagged.  I am so angry at myself for not rewarding her with her toy and finishing up.  But every time I threw her toy, she was just not interested.  Still, I should not have pushed it.

Not the best time with Perri.  I promised myself that these matches would not be "make or break" with Perri.  (As in, avoiding "if Perri does not do well at this match, we are done with obedience!" type thinking.)  And we have done enough matches for me to know that if Perri might stress and scan at one match, she could do very well at another.  After two matches at Let's Speak Dog, I have to say this is her poorest place to practice obedience.  We will not return.  I want to go ahead and say "If I could get Perri to Not Worry and Stay Engaged here, she could do it anywhere." but...you have to ask yourself when you have a sensitive dog... Should I cherry pick locations where we can be successful?  Or should I try to bulldoze ahead for the elusive bomb proof dog.  The latter is never going to happen.  I will be amazed if Perri and I ever achieve even a Companion Dog title.  I dream so often of the day when I finally feel that we can try Novice again.  I dream of it being this winter.  A fool's dream, maybe.  Probably.

I have to accept that.  Perri is who she is.  She is three years old.  She is teaching me so much about building ring confidence, about listening to my dog, and about expectations.  I could desensitize her to the slap of the leash on mat flooring, to a vacuum cleaner in a room.  But those things might not bother Perri at a different training/trial site.  I have so much to learn still.  But right now, attending matches is about building mine and Perri's confidence in the obedience ring.  We need to stay away from training centers that, for whatever reason, Perri cannot handle.  For now, maybe forever.

By the way, her group stays were solid.  As ever.

June K9Jym Obedience Match

I was nervous to do it, but I finally signed Perri up for some Obedience matches.  Time to get back in the saddle!

The last match that we went to had promise, but went downhill fast because I did Too Much.  I was not going to let that happen this time.  That match really shook my confidence.  This time around, I made a plan, and stuck with that plan.  I was still nervous before leaving for the match and upon arriving at K9Jym.  I had a funny idea when I was sitting by Perri's soft crate waiting for our turn: take your shoes off!  I did.  I always feel more happy and relaxed barefoot, so why not?  As silly as that is, it really really helped!  Whatever it takes, right?

My plan was to work on ring entrances.  We enter the ring, I throw Perri's toy and have a party.  Repeat, repeat, repeat.  Mix some work in.  Exit ring.  Enter ring, do the heel on lead.  Party party party.  Do the Figure 8, one loop only.  Major party!  Stand for Exam if there is time.

We did it.  We did all of that, and I did not deviate!  And she was gorgeous.  I was absolutely buzzing! with joy.  I channeled my instructor's voice in my head: "Watch where you are going!" and I did it.  It is so hard for me to not look at Perri, but it is detrimental for us.  We did an entire heel on lead pattern without any praise from me, without any treats...just a poodle hopped up on her fleece bunny fur toy (I had it tucked under my right armpit while we heeled.)   The Figure 8 I felt her start to lag on the outside turn, just a little bit, and I started to look at her and shoulder into her.  That was a split second.  I thought "No.  Not going to wilt!", squared myself up, looked ahead and walked the outside turn and she flew around it with me and came into a straight sit at the halt.  PARTY!!!!!!!   No ring steward butts were sniffed, she was too happy heeling with me!

Something unexpected happened before any of the heeling work though.  On our second or third time exiting the ring, a golden retriever in the adjacent ring was working on his go outs.  He was frustration barking.  Just as Perri and I walked out of the ring, right in her face was the edge of that gate...that golden charged the gate looking for his target and absolutely shrieked and hit the side of the gate.  Perri was rattled.  I waited a second and she amazingly reoriented to me and we went back into the ring and had a party.   I was floored that she was willing to play with her toy again!  We exited and re-entered the ring and this time she was bouncing beside me with her eyes lit up.  She knew that getting in that ring was pretty cool!   And with that we began working on heel work.

I needed this.  Oh, I need this so badly.  By the way, group stays were solid as a rock.  As always.

We left the Jym, I got some candy to enjoy, and we went to Peace Valley Park for a few miles of hiking and geocaching.  Swimming for Perri and just generally relaxing and feeling like we were on top of the world.  This was truly our best match ever, for so many reasons.  I am proud of myself for finally understanding what Perri (and I!) need to feel confident and good in the ring.  We have another match, different location, in two weeks.  I am looking forwards to it.  I feel like I made All The Right Decisions today, and I feel like Perri and I both felt great working with each other.  Two good matches, in two different sports, all in one weekend.  Can't ask for more!

Matches: Hard Learning (This is a Long One!)

WARNING: This is really long and journal entry-ish and this is after I let my emotions calm down about the whole day.  But it is here because I am keeping a record of what we do and how our journey is progressing and I think someday I will appreciate looking back on this.
So, unless you want to see a girl whine about her inexperience and her poor poodle, may want to visit some other blog!

The plan on Saturday was:

Go to an Obedience match.  Perri does two ring time's worth of Novice, separated by roughly an hour.  Ein does Rally Advanced.

Then Ein and Molly got into a little fight over an ice cream bowl and while Ein is fine now, he was drooling and sore in the morning.  I could not and still could not find any wounds externally or in his mouth or gums and I have to wonder if he bit his own tongue.   Still keeping an eye on him and rinsing his mouth daily, but he is eating normally and chewing his bones and does not seem uncomfortable anymore.

So now in the middle of my two neatly planned Novice entries, I had a RA entry.  And I should have scratched it.  But I thought, "Why not?"

The environment was way over our heads.  It was at the K9Jym, where we played agility last weekend.  There were four rings in that space with the walkways standing room only, lined with crates and people and dogs and lots of all of those things.  I felt claustrophobic and irritable and I can't imagine what my space sensitive strange-dog-fearful Perri felt like.

We started with a round of Stays, because of time conflicts with my rally ring time.  The Rally ring was adjacent to the Novice ring and the stays line was made with the dogs' backs to the Rally ring.  The handler was very talkative, the dog not having the most cooperative time so there was lots of "Down!  No DOWN!" and a lot of erratic movement from the dog.   The entire stay time.   And Perri didn't move a paw.  Very proud of her.  If Perri is consistent in anything with Obedience, it is her group stays.

Our first ring time I am proud of: we worked on offered focus and engagement while waiting our turn.  We worked on ring entrances.  We worked on playing in the ring and Perri did a bang up job of that.  You would have thought we were in our own back yard with how well she was playing with me and how engaged she was.  I would ask for a toy release and then ask for heeling and it was all quite pretty.   We did a formal heel pattern with the judge and it was wonderful.  We worked on the F8, heeling past the first post and not sniffing his butt.  Another success!   We did one formal loop around the F8 to follow, gorgeous.   We left with a minute of ring time to spare and I felt great about it.

Then I had to do what I don't like: hurry.   I had to put Perri in her crate, rush back to the rally ring.  Do my walk through.  And we had to be the first dog in.  And here's where my painful lessons learning started: that was too fast for Perri.  She even had more turn over time last weekend when we had to repeat that Jackpot run (and I knew she needed it!) - and that was agility, which she is most certainly more relaxed with.  And it did not help that we had to walk through the entire crowded room all the way to the back past countless large dogs with the end of it walking through a group of four large black dogs on either side of her.  That is the stuff of nightmares for Perri.  She shut down very badly in the rally ring.  I had no dog, I had no engagement.  And I just wanted to leave.   (I will say she still did a beautiful kick back stand and I heard someone say "pretty!" ring side.  So, there was that.  Ha.)
The stewards told me to try some cookie throws and use up my ring time.  And I did that and we did some fun stuff on the 16" rally jump but Perri was just going through the motions.  I should be and I am grateful that she did at least that.  There was a time when she would have shut down on food or any sort of play.  There was a time when she was afraid of a jump, in fact.  Now it was the most relaxing and stress free thing for her.

I carried her back to her crate, I just couldn't walk her through all those dogs and people.  I couldn't make her bump into them and let them sniff her butt when she was feeling so uncomfortable.

We had a half hour before our next Novice ring time and I wasn't sure how that was going to go.  I was torn with indecision: what is the Right Choice here?  Go home or go in there and try for a positive experience.   We did go in, and unfortunately I tried for a formal run through.   Sigh.   The wrong decision, I always make the wrong one.  (Like why on earth wouldn't I just try to repeat what I had done earlier?  Live and Learn.)

And just when we went in the environment rose to a high volume clanging of scent articles and a handler who clapped loudly at intervals of about 30 seconds and someone else was using a clicker.  Too much for a fried dog and handler.  And Perri worked so hard.  Her heel on lead we had some disengagements but she really was trying to stay with me.  The Figure 8 there was no butt sniffing but there was lagging due to environment staring.  It broke my heart when she would look back at me and rush back to heel position: she knows where to be, she wants to be there.  But she just couldn't do it.   Maybe I'm giving a dog too much credit, but I know my girl.  She wants to be right and she really is a hard worker, she just gets overwhelmed too fast.
The SFE was beautiful.  The heel free we fell apart.  I had told the judge that we were feeling very delicate before we went in, so when Perri shut down again I told her that I wanted to leave.  The judge was very nice, and she loves poodles and she said "Why don't you try some cookie throws and why don't you try some short heeling if you can get her into that with releases to cookie throws...."
It worked.  Then we did a few steps of heeling into an about turn and cookie throws.  And I had my dog back!  We finished with the recall: Perri as still as a statue in her stay.  No anticipation twitches, not a muscle moved.  The judge said verbally to "Call Your Dog" and still she stayed.  I waited a few beats and called her and she exploded towards me and she was relaxed and full of joy (versus "Oh god let me get back to you I'm going to die!").  I met her with personal play and cookies and finally made a good decision: no formal front or finish!   She had worked hard enough.
I am so grateful for the judge who gave me the strength to continue our ring time and make it a positive experience for Perri.  I shut down just as much as my dog did and it was nice to have some support, it truly was.   I have so much to learn.  So very, very much.

I did not leave feeling great.  I left feeling never in my life so close to quitting Obedience.  Perri and I were going to try Novice again.  At the Poodle Training Club of New York trial next month.  I almost e-mailed the trial secretary right from the K9Jym Parking lot to scratch those entries.  But I made myself think on it.  Give it 24 hours.

I still scratched the entries.  I scratched them because I know we are getting close.  We just aren't there yet.  Denise Fenzi's wonderful blog article, The Miracle Method, came to mind.  And if I am totally honest, going to that April obedience show would be classic Miracle Method behavior.  And I won't do it.  I swore I would not do it again.

Perri was able to do a whole lot of things at that match (a busier atmosphere than we have ever worked before) than she was ever able to do before.  Recover from multiple shut downs, play with true relaxation, hold four minutes worth of stays with a large dog working behind her back in another ring.  But she is still so delicate.  And so am I!  The minute things started to get hairy I got stressed out and started turning into Perri and slowing her heeling down even more.  I shut down just like my dog.  We both need more work, more polishing, more confidence.  Agility is helping us.  More matches will help us.  And you better believe our next match I will be going in with a Perri-friendly plan that I will not deviate from!

We know the behaviors.  But the environmental acclimation is something we are sorely lacking in.  We need to get to Home Depots, Petsmarts and we need to take the formality out of this stuff and just work on play and short short spurts of work when Perri asks for it.  Hell, we need to probably work on just eating cookies and hanging out in those types of places.  We can do this, it's just going to take time.  I saw a thread on Facebook where looking away in heeling was the subject and one sentence stuck in my mind that Denise actually said.  "And most dogs do outgrow their need to look at stuff as they grow into their work."   That meant a lot to me and since I do not think Perri's issue is one of true intense fear but more one of "low confidence and concern/worry", I firmly believe that Perri will grow into her work.  She has already begun to.  She just needs me to make good choices for her.  And I just need to learn how to.

Perri Versatility Excellent!

Late last December, I applied for Perri's "Versatility Excellent" certificate from Versatility in Poodles.  When I discovered VIP and read over the requirements for a Versatility Certificate, or a Versatility Excellent Certificate (there are two levels.), I was surprised to see that Perri was eligible for the VCX certificate.

The certificate is earned by a point system.  There are ten different categories: Conformation, Obedience, Rally, Tracking, Agility, Hunt/Field, Working, Flyball/Scent Hurdles, Herding, Miscellaneous, Temperament Testing.  I have bolded the areas that Perri earned her points in.

Obedience we submitted Perri's CDSP CD and her AKC BN.
Rally we earned points for her WCRL RL1 and her AKC RN.
Agility we earned points for her AKC NA and NAJ as well as completing CPE Level One. (We don't have certificates for our current achievements in CPE.)
Working we earned points for Perri's therapy dog certification, her year of service and her achievement of the AKC Therapy Dog title (THD.)
Miscellaneous we earned points for Perri's Intermediate Trick Dog title.
Temperament Testing we earned points for Perri's Canine Good Citizen Advanced title.

Part of me wanted to wait until I could add higher level titles into a certificate like this.  But I went ahead and submitted it.   Because I was amazed in what we had accomplished in 2014.  I was amazed by the boost in Perri's confidence.  2014 was our first year as a therapy dog team, our first year as an agility team and it was a year of much growth towards our future as an obedience (and rally!) team.  Perri truly is a talented, complicated dog and I am lucky to be her friend.

I would love to earn AKC's VCD1 title: we have the NA and NAJ, we will need the CD and the TD.  I think Perri would adore tracking and it is on my To Do List.

And by the way, our selection of "hold" items is growing: magic eraser, sponge, toothbrush and now wooden spoon.  I only wish I had a chef's hat to perch on her head for this photo.

Generalizing the Retrieve, Take 2!

Perri and I started our gold spot in Hannah Branigan's Obedience Skillbuilding 2 class on FDSA.  We are working on many things but one of my main priorities is a happy retriever.  We have been tasked with generalizing our retrieve to different objects.   An excellent suggestion, and one that didn't come with a little guilt on my part because we did work on this very thing a year or so ago.  I just never kept up with it past a handful of sessions.  Nowhere near enough to make an impact.

I'm in a different state of mind with the retrieve now, though.   A year ago I was overwhelmed and resigned to the fact it was not going to happen.  To the fact that Obedience in general was (probably) not going to happen.   Now I have Perri doing a good hold, she has solid understanding of what I want.  We need to make it more fun and boost her confidence with the exercise.

I still struggle with those overwhelmed and self defeating feelings.  Obedience is so big.  I am finding it grounding and important to focus on specific criteria in my training sessions and not let the big picture get me down.  These growing pains and lessons learned are an important shift away from clueless green trainer.  Actually remembering to go into a training session with my criteria in mind is a whole new mental project for me.  I am not a "planner" in life in general, but it is very important that I learn to become one when it comes to training my dogs!  They deserve that.

Novice Obedience Run Thru

Last night I got the rare opportunity to do a Novice Obedience run through at my dog club.   Run thrus are not offered very often and when they have been in the past, I wasn't able to attend.  I was told that only Perri and one other dog were going to be in attendance, so I decided to bring Ein with me as well.

Jailbirds.

Ein hasn't been to a dog class in probably over a year.  He was pumped.  It was absolutely adorable and made my heart melt.  Ein was forging on the heel on lead.  FORGING.  Never before!  He was forging and gazing up at me and panting and absolutely and utterly in love.  This dog missed the memo that "heeling is boring."  The Figure 8 was great and not so much forging, Ein paid a little more attention to where he was stepping since we were not going in a straight line.  The stand for exam was pretty much "eat this cheese while our instructor touches you." but he was still not comfortable with it.  He never will be.  The heel free he heard "forward" and shot off without me!  I was shocked, I was laughing.  Ein did do some disconnecting during the heel free, and some stress sniffing.  He has always had a hard time with feeling insecure when the leash is off.  Either that or he was mostly rattled from the SFE.  We had a recall anticipation but after that he did a lovely recall, front and finish.   Good boy!

It was fun.  It was far from perfect but "happy" is my main criteria for Ein!  No more stand for exam, I should not have even done that last night.  He loves to heel with me and do recalls, but stand for exam?  No.  (We also did not do group downs.)

Perri was next.  Her heel on lead was a dream come true for me.  Her figure 8 was also good.  She lagged a little on the outside turn and I had to think to myself "keep walking!" and she caught up to me with head up and happy attitude.  Earlier before the run thrus we did some figure 8 practice and Perri did one butt sniff.  I broke off our heeling right away with an "oops!" and reset her.  For the rest of the evening she did good work on the figure 8.  The stand for exam was good.  The heel free was interesting.  There were two different times where she spaced out, very briefly, during our heeling but she snapped back into it and locked back into heel position and continued her head up happy heeling.  The second time was after an about turn.  She saw our instructor and started walking away from me as we completed the about turn, only a few inches and then chose to come back to heel position.   Some people might be very unhappy with that, and I certainly would have preferred no disengagement, but that was a pretty amazing choice for Perri.  (Understand - Perri used to get completely lost and shut down and that would be the end of any type of teamwork.  Seeing this dog bounce back from any shut down is dizzyingly beautiful for me.)
The recall was fast and happy, the front was straight but further away than I would like.  The finish was fast but too far behind heel position.  Both of those things were a little strange for Perri - but one thing I did consider was that I had recalled her to front in the exact area of our training club where, last week, we were working on some ring confidence exercises and I was wearing fleece and kept shocking Perri's nose with winter static.  She was very upset that night and could not focus on me inside of that work area.  I have to wonder if there was some residual nervousness.
Group stays were good.  The down stay was a little hair raising.  The class before us was a manners class and there were a lot of treat crumbs all over the floor where the dogs were in their stays.  Perri sniffed the ground and licked the ground and stretched her giraffe neck as far as it would reach while keeping her body in the stay position.  There were also some loud banging doors and commotion as the class in the neighboring room left for the evening.  She stayed, though.   Through everything we have struggled with, Perri has always been a great stays dog.