Training Quandaries

March has been pretty busy agility wise. We've had three agility competitions including Cassie's very first attempts at the Masters Jumping class plus a games trial.  I still can't believe she's in Masters already.  Agility on the other hand is an entirely different story!

Papillons really are hard work.  And I have been blessed with a very driven one, so I can't even begin to imagine trying to train one that isn't that way inclined.  I'm probably more frustrated than normal because she was going so well at the end of last year in agility and I just can't seem to find our groove since getting back into it this year.  Handling wise I'm really happy.  I definitely can't complain at all about her first two efforts in Masters Jumping.  Her first was a very minor error caused by a poor handling choice on my behalf, then last week she ran beautifully for her first Q and a win.  She was about 4 seconds ahead of the lovely pap Spirit who came in at second place and she wasn't at top speed for the first third of the course.

Then we have agility... She has been coming off high on the down contact of every dog walk in a trial this year (although has only actually missed once that I'm aware of).  She isn't always getting her weaver entries and worst of all she is often bunking off at the start line.  Her high dog walk is not going well in training either and I have been experimenting with a few things to see what responses I get.  Some sessions are good, others not so.  I just want her to put one more stride in but it's not happening right now.  My brain is in overdrive trying to come up with strategies on working through it.  I've even considered teaching her a two on two off to provide her with more reinforcement right on the end.  I'm still not convinced that it is the answer though.  Even more frustrating than that is the going backwards on the start line.  Over the last twelve months I have slowly seen her evolve.  She would be crazy at my friends place to train but not so much at the Dogs West training grounds, put back further by a couple of bad experiences with ant bites.  Over time I'm now seeing that same crazy excitement when she is training at Dogs West yet when trialling at those grounds she really lacks that same confidence.  When she runs she always goes like the clappers as is her way but I wish I could make her feel happier about the environment that she's in.  It's not that I want her to be perfect tomorrow, I just get frustrated with problems that I can't solve and more than anything I want her to be happy and confident. As her owner, trainer and protector, that's my job and it feels a bit like I'm letting her down by not having the answers.



But it's not the first time I've been through this with her.  It's not that long ago that I was having huge confidence issues with her at training especially after the ant bites and I even thought I had totally ruined her at one overly emotional point.  OK, so it was over dramatic on my behalf but after being blessed with one of the most gifted small dogs I've ever had the pleasure to come across the thought of being responsible for wrecking her does cause me some mental anguish.  I am trying very hard to "just chill out" but right now it is really challenging me more than anything I have come across in dog training.

Poor Sonic is still broken.  He was OK until the Classic where he actually did pretty well with a strong run in Masters Jumping but although he had a nice Q in Masters Agility he was no way near 100% and I could see he was holding back.  After the Classic we did some more swimming but shortly after I found he was even worse.  I'm not sure if it was the swimming or the agility but basically I gave him two weeks off from everything.  This week I have put him back in the pool for very gentle exercise.  I just can't see any way that he will be able to continue agility beyond this year.  Or alternatively he literally competes twice or three times a year when he is feeling OK.  It's just getting ridiculous.



Some exciting news is that Colin has started working with Fizz.  For whatever reason Fizz is not really excited by agility.  I take my hat off to those who can turn less enthused dogs into agility champions but I honestly do believe that they either have it or they don't.  I think Fizz likes agility a lot more than she used to and to some degree even enjoys it but unlike Sonic or Cassie she doesn't have that real drive to want to do it.  And quite frankly I have no intention of not letting her run with other dogs etc to make her want to do agility.  Colin and Fizz have always had a lovely bond and she has always much preferred hanging out with him than with me.  So we had a chat about it and Colin has decided he would really like to give it a go with her.  I personally think she is much happier running with him.  Obviously there isn't the same pressure with Colin than I put on her (even if I don't mean to) and her speed matches him really well.  So hopefully we'll see Colin and Fizz in the ring together very soon.

To that end I have started searching for a new puppy.  I was actually looking at getting one of Kriszty's Red Dog's puppies when she bred from her.  For personal reasons Kriszty has decided to put that off for a couple of years and I don't want to wait that long to bring on another young dog.  So I have begun a bit of a search and have my eye on a few up and coming litters happening in the second half of this year.  Two in particular are top of my list however the bitches have to get pregnant and have puppies first!  So at this stage I just have to sit back and be patient.  Certainly plenty to keep me occupied in the meantime, like fixing Cassie's dog walk and getting Colin in the ring with Fizzy bear.  The prospect of a new puppy is pretty exciting though and I'm really looking forward to it.

Road Trip

Last weekend was the scheduled road trip to Albany to test the waters for Cassie's first trial away from home.  I'm also happy to admit to looking forward to getting away from Perth for a few days.  I took the Friday and Monday off work to make it a bit more of a holiday.  We stayed at Coraki Cottages which we really enjoyed especially being able to have the dogs inside with us.  Accommodation that is so dog friendly is not so easy to find.  Cassie moved in like she owned the place with a very big pappy tick of approval.  Sonic's first reaction on entering his weekend digs was to turn tail and take himself back to the car.  I'm pretty sure the message was "looks great but I'm ready to head home now"... he got over it and travelled well as he always seems to.  They make a nice travelling pair.  They are great friends and co-exist so happily together.


My agility area 2014!

The big test was, could Sonic make it through a trialling weekend without me breaking him??  I'm very please to say that not only was he still sound by the time we left he also went clear in Masters Agility and Masters Jumping with a win in agility and second in jumping.  Both were really sweet runs and he seemed awfully happy.  His other two runs were hardly bad but he knocked a bar in the second Masters Jumping (my fault for getting in his way) and missed a weaver entry in the second Masters Agility class.  His success far exceeded my expectations.  He has another acupuncture session this weekend so if there are any tweaks there hopefully we can sort them out.  Bring on the Western Classic I say.

Colin & Riot

 To make the weekend even better little muppet pappy pants went clear in both of her Excellent Jumping classes finishing off her Excellent Jumping title.  Not bad for a two and a half year old who has been trialling for just under 12 months!  I had quietly thought to myself it would be cool if she could get the last two legs but I didn't actually think it would happen.  I'm very excited that I'll be able to run her in Masters Jumping not only at the Nationals but also our State Trial which is awesome.  Our Sunday agility classes didn't go quite so well.  When I was warming her up for her classes she would switch on but then I could not keep her focus no matter what I did.  I was pulling out the special treats and iSqueak but to no avail.  She still ran fast, I don't imagine she would ever do anything else, but she was unfocused and not with me at all.  I *think* it may be because she was tired.  We had been out for dinner with some of the other triallers on Saturday night and the car was parked on the main street of Albany with the dogs inside.  We could see that she wasn't really settling from the restaurant.  We didn't have a late night but it certainly wouldn't have helped the situation.  Great lesson for me when we go to the Nationals in that we have early nights to make sure she is as rested up as possible for each day's events.  I'm considering travelling to the weekend trial in Geraldton in May to test my theory.  But we'll see how things unfold after the States.

The kids!

I'm slowly getting back into my regular fitness routine.  The plan is to build up to three workouts a week as we get closer to the Nationals.  I have come up with a "400 calorie" workout which entails a 1.3km run from my office to Jacobs Ladder (Lorna Jane and pony tail compulsory, sweating optional...), up and down Jacob's a couple of times, around to the hill of pain (Mount Street) for a couple of circuits, then back to Jacob's for another couple of sets and the 1.3km run back to work.  I already feel like I've trimmed up since I got back into it after Christmas.  It makes such a difference when trying to run the dogs and of course I feel fitter and healthier.



Next up is the Western Classic in a fortnight.  Then the States in April which is what I guess we are all looking to in the lead up to the Nationals.  I'm mainly keen to see how she copes in finals (provided we make one of course!) when there are people sitting around the outside of the rings.  After how she freaked out at the Royal it's at the back of my mind that she may not like it.  That is something she has to cope with for the Nats.  If she reacts badly then I'll have to do some serious work.  Lots of tests for the pappy pants in the near future and of course keeping Sonic in one piece!

Looking Ahead

I am so glad that Christmas is over.  I feel like I have done nothing but eat for the last couple of weeks.  I actually looked forward to going back to work and getting into my normal routine, such as not eating all day.  Plus getting back into my lunchtime running is probably a really good idea for my waist line...

As we begin the New Year it's exciting to think about goals for 2014.  It is the year of our next ANKC Nationals, to be held in Brisbane for the first time.  Nationals are undoubtedly the biggest agility event for Australian agility competitors and I love being a part of them.  My plan is to take Sonic and Cassie.  Of course I have to get Sonic sound first, which is going to be a challenge, but try I will.  I'm really determined to have at least one more Nationals with him as it will likely be his last.  I can't imagine that his hips will hold out for another two years of agility. 

Loving his new pool.  The cheer squad is never far away!

 To that end our house currently resembles a doggy rehab centre.  The lounge room is full of egg balls, fit balls, paw pods, balance disks etc.  Sonic now also has his own wading pool so I can work on water therapy and resistance muscle building.  Hopefully that will cover off strengthening of all muscles whereas all the reversing work was only targeting some areas.  The biggest issue seems to be his lower back.  He is still getting regular acupuncture and has just had his first Bowen Therapy session to see if that helps as well.  I know that I won't be able to run him at every trial but even if I can do the big ones or even one a month would be awesome.  I'm sure he'll be pretty happy about it too.  Sucks to love something but not be able to do it.

Pretty girl Fizz

Cassie of course is awesome.  I still can't believe I'm lucky enough to have such a special little dog in my life.  She has taught me so much and no doubt will continue to do so as she challenges every part of my dog training skills.  I'm working on being a better handler for her and I think we are making progress.  It's been really interesting working on handling specifically for her and focusing on what allows her to stretch out rather than using the same handling that I would use for a border collie.  It's going to be really exciting to run her at the Nationals.  I hope she copes with things like the flight and travel.  We are doing a weekend away to Albany in February which will essentially be a trial run of being away from home and competing in a strange place.  So that should give me a pretty good idea of how she will manage.  But she is a papillon and she still often surprises me with what she does and doesn't like.  I am never really sure what I am going to get with her.  I would expect she will be in Masters Jumping by the Nationals given that she already has three passes in Excellent.  I'm not pushing her to get to Masters but I would love for her to title at least in Jumping so she's against the best.  I know she's fast but until we actually get to compete against the top 200 height dogs in Australia I really have no idea.  It will certainly be exciting to see what happens.  I'm not so sure we'll make Masters Agility but that's OK.  She's only a baby dog and plenty of agility years in front of her.  It may be better for her to still be in Excellent at such a big event.

Not so happy when it's her turn...

Then we have young Fizz.  Fizzy Bear is now almost twenty months old.  To say she is challenging me is the understatement of the century.  She is really not driven to do agility at all.  She seems to enjoy the contacts to a degree and surprisingly seems to enjoy the weavers but has no interest in jumping what so ever and even tunnels she is very lack lustre about.  Not such a great thing for an agility dog! She tests my patience to the enth degree as I try and look for ways to get her motivated.  I find myself chanting "try to be like Sylvia Trkman" over and over as I look for inspiration to be patient with her and above all else make it fun.  Initially I would get maybe one really good training session every two or three weeks.  The rest were like pulling teeth.  Fortunately the better ones have been enough to keep me motivated to keep trying.  Thankfully over the last few weeks they have been better a little more regularly and there is some small hope in the back of my mind that I may actually get her into the agility competition ring in 2014.  Firstly I have to see if we can put it all together over a course which I am hoping to do once training kicks off again.  I have decided Nationals are out of the question for her.  I don't believe she would cope with the flight, travel and strange surroundings.  She is too much of a worrier like her father.  Maybe 2016!

 

My Cassie Highlights 2013

Post Trialling 2013 - Christmas Time

Our trialling year is now officially over for 2013 with our last trial on the weekend. They have tacked on an extra ANKC agility trial on 28th December but Cassie is having an agility holiday and Colin is taking me to Cavalia that night.

Santa's Little Helper

 We had an interesting last two trials with some papillon challenges thrown my way by a certain little pappy pants. She is not one for letting me rest and think that all this agility training is easy! I entered her in an ADAA trial a fortnight ago as I thought she was pretty much ready to try her first ADAA agility class and give the full size see-saw a go. Her first run for the evening was Intermediate Jumping. She was a bit fidgety on the start line so I went back to settle her but next thing I know she takes off over the first jump. I took her back and restarted for a super faultless run however the restart meant a DQ. The next run was the Jumping without Weaves class and it was almost dark with the lights now on. She was running OK but definitely slower than her first run. After missing a jump I took her back and a couple of jumps on she took off badly and hit a jump quite hard bringing her up very short. She seemed OK and we did continue but her jumping was all over the place (one jump she jumped high enough to clear a 400 height jump) and she ran past the last jump. I gave her a cuddle afterwards as always and waited for our next run which was Intermediate Agility. I had decided to do it as NFC as I wanted to help her with the see-saw for the first time. We actually didn't get that far. She did not want to run at all and when I released her at the start line she took off back to Colin. I brought her back and she did about five obstacles before taking off again out of the ring. I was really unsure about what was going on for her so I put her away for a break and got her back out for her next run Open Jumping. Again I took her up to the start line and when released she took off hiding under the scoring table. I tried once more but she didn't want to know about it. So that was it for us for the night. I can only assume that knocking the bar really upset her. She wasn't showing any of the standard stress behaviours, so no licking lips or scratching and she was happily tugging and doing tricks while we waited although in agility she was sniffing the ground at one point. Cassie has always been her own little lady and if she doesn't want to do something she won't. Before we left I did pop her over a spare jump and rewarded her a few times. However I can safely say that I won't be going back to those grounds if it's a night trial as I'm pretty sure that she struggled with the lighting and I'm not putting her through that again.



I decided the following week that I was only going to have one training session with her and not overdo it. I needed to make sure she was still feeling happy about her agility and fortunately where I train is where the weekends trial was going to be. As I suspected she was perfectly fine at training and was being her normal wacky self. I didn't do anything fancy, just lots of rewarding and fun, fun, fun. The day of last weekends trial was crazy hot, something like 39 degrees during the day. I wasn't overly worried about Cassie after the jumping incident but I was wondering what would happen when I put her on the start line.  Plus even though it was evening it was still very warm and not really optimum trialling conditions.

As it happened the first run was great and we got a Q to give us her third pass in Excellent Jumping from the last four trials. She is certainly handling like a dream. Next up was Excellent Agility. She looked to all the world that she was focused on the start line but just before I released her she looked back behind us (Aunty Kriszty had just arrived to watch) and then when I released she ran straight back to the crowd. Mmmmmmm..... I got her back and we took off as soon as she was in position but her brain wasn't quite in the game and she ran past the third jump. Such a shame as she nailed the rest of the course like a pro and was absolutely flying on the second half. Our last event was Open Jumping and I knew that the distance challenge would be too hard. As it happened it was rather a mess and included a pappy zoomie but she was with me and did some super fast weavers that I was very happy with. At the end of the day I really just wanted to make sure she was having fun with no pressure. 

Papillons are such strange little creatures. Cassie is just a mass of contradictions. She is a total mummy's girl but can be fiercely independent and will never do anything that she doesn't want to. Once I figured out what made her tick (generally food) I have found that the majority of training issues I've encountered can be over come with piece of roast chicken.   But sometimes she gets a bee in her bonnet about something and I can forget it. My plan has always been to give her a break from agility over the summer with her first trial back on 31st Jan next year. But I need to sort out her start line confidence so I will do a little bit of work building drive off the start line to one of her favourite things in the world, the Manners Minder. Nothing speaks to her better than a remote food dispensing machine!  The other thing I will try when we return to trialling is not waiting on the start line.  I want to be able to put her on the start line and just go.  I wonder if I'm leaving her for too long.  It is interesting that when I watch some of the top paps in the world compete the handlers never wait with them.  The pretty much drop and go.  We can't do that as such because we must have our hands off the dog before the judge will ask if we are ready.  So I will have to think about how I'm going to manage that.  Ahhhhhh, love my pappy challenges! 

Going the distance

Only two trials to go till the end of my trialling year.  We've had our first two evening trials which have been pretty successful for Cassie with one Q in Excellent Agility, one in Excellent Jumping and the biggest surprise of all, one in Open Jumping.  Who would have thought she would be able to do distance work already!  



I do think we've been pretty lucky so far and I don't think we've had an overly difficult Excellent course as yet.  I remember last year when we were still in Novice seeing some of the Excellent courses and really worrying about how we were going to manage when we got there.  Some of them looked harder than the Masters courses I was running with Sonic.  In saying that some tricky courses are probably what we need.  They are the ones that flush out the weak spots!  Saturday nights trial was a good example of that.  In agility there was a tyre right next to the entry of the weave poles.  It took Cassie three attempts to find what would normally have been an easy entry for her, I'm assuming because the tyre changed the picture for her.  So guess what we'll be working on for the next few weeks....

The see-saw is still a work in progress.  I'm trying hard to get her to listen to the verbal and not assume which is the dog walk and which is the see-saw.  I'm not sure I've been that successful yet.  It definitely needs a lot more work.  I can still remember Sonic taking a while to get the hang of the difference.  I've entered her in her first agility classes at ADAA this weekend which is why I've been focusing on the full height one so much.  Although I'm still hoping it won't be too much longer before the ANKC one returns to it's former full size glory.  Lets hope she listens when she goes charging up the plank!



Poor Sonic is resting from agility for the rest of the year.  I haven't been happy with is lower back.  So I decided that it would be better to just rest him and then slowly build him up for the Nationals next year.  I'm still optimistic that I can get him there sound and ready to go.  It would be such a shame to not take him and I want to have at least one more with him but I guess we shall see.  I have a full exercise plan in place to have him as physically ready as I can.  I miss trialling him so much.

The WAO try-outs for 2014 have been and gone.  I did feel a pang of regret that I didn't try out this year but at the same time I know it's the right decision and having my own dogs right for the Nationals is more important.  It will be hard when the time comes and the team heads off knowing what I'm missing.  I guess we can't always do everything.  As of February 2014 the quarantine restrictions mean that dogs only have to stay in quarantine for 10 days when coming into Australia.  Does that mean that we can consider taking our own dogs next time?  Wouldn't that be amazing.  Competing with my own dogs at a world agility event is something I thought I would only ever dream of.  2015 maybe....

Back to the real world, my focus for the rest of this year and early next year is to work really hard on my handling.  We are fortunate here in WA to have some amazing international seminar presenters come and work with us.  I have booked a couple of slots with Dave Munnings when he is here in April/May next year.  I feel like I'm getting a lot more comfortable with changing things to a more European style  but I have a long way to go.  Certainly the move from most is the European handling which is funny when you think about it.  We've always been so influenced from the UK and USA styles but even they have shifted to European handling.  If you can't beat them join them perhaps?  We are also very lucky having our own agility local Megan Bell Jones having recently come back from a Lisa Frick and Tereza Kravlova seminar.  Very much looking forward to continue working with Megan and learning more about being the best handler I can be for my dogs.

An excellent pappy

It has felt like ages since the Royal so I was really looking forward to the weekends agility trial hosted by the Agility Club of WA.  Unfortunately I managed to pick up the flu bug AGAIN during the week so it wasn't quite the pleasant day doing agility I had planned plus it was an unseasonably warm day of 29 degrees as Perth does it's annoying launch from Winter to Summer with the barest hint of spring in between.   

Cassie has never competed in that sort of heat before so I wasn't really sure how she would handle it.  I purchased a very cute extra small sized cool coat for her last year so that got a good work out and certainly seemed to keep her temperature down during the day.  I thought she looked a lot more comfortable than some of the other small dogs who were huffing and puffing away.  Her speed once on course seemed as per normal.  She absolutely flew around the Excellent Jumping course using her super pappy warp speed (aside from a brief visit to say hi to the judge, as you do...) finishing with a clear round and her first pass.  Her second run was Excellent Agility and again she flew around the course but unfortunately crossed behind me when I was trying to push her out to a jump and we ended up with an off course.  For her first time in this class was very happy and she handled the see-saw without any hesitation.  I just need to work on getting her to run more to the end.  I'm sure that will come with practice.



I also entered her in Open Jumping for the first time.  We've been working on some distance handling at home and she is going really well so I thought it was a good opportunity to give her additional experience on courses that are generally more challenging.  At the end of the day if the distance challenge is too hard I can just cross over the line.  She didn't do too badly but I thought the heat was starting to take it's toll and although she ran fast I struggled to keep her focus and she went visiting part way through her run but finished off really well.  Lastly we had our first Novice Strategic Pairs run with our new partners Ashleigh and Spirit.  I had to wake Cassie up for this one as she was pretty whacked by that stage.  I had trouble getting her focused before we went in the ring and I wasn't overly surprised when she air scented her Aunty Kriszty watching and I lost her briefly while she thought about going over for a visit.  Thankfully I got her back and we still got through it with a Q and 6th place against all heights.  I'm pretty sure they were first placed 200 out of three pairs.  Spirit was his normal Mr Perfect self and didn't put a foot wrong.

Sonic was only entered in Masters Jumping and Masters Strategic Pairs.  His MJ run was OK but he turned the wrong way over a jump, got all out of position which I struggled to fix and we ended up with a refusal.  He doesn't look lame when he runs and is still running better than earlier in the year but is still not driving off the ground as much as I would like.  So his hips are clearly still impacting the way he runs even with everything that I'm doing.  He has a ball when he's out there though so I'm going to stick with it and see if I can increase his muscle and fitness further to see if that will help.

By the end of the day I was truly knackered and my voice was barely a croak, with a bit of sunburn thrown in.  Our next trial is two weeks away and the really good news is that we now move to night trials until April next year.  I suspect that Cassie will love doing night trials!

Perth Royal Show 2013

I have a weird phenomenon going with the Royal.  One year will be amazing and the next I can't buy a quallie card.  This has been going on since I started doing Royal's with Murphy and Soda back in 1999.  I remember one year taking home 30kgs of dog food (in the days when we actually got good stuff as prizes for the Royal!) only to leave with nothing the next.  The tradition has carried on yet again in 2013 with a pretty average Royal after Sonic double Qing and placing in both his events in 2012.  Sonic ran overall reasonably well for a dog who gets very little training.  He had two fantastic runs in Masters Jumping but wasn't fast enough to challenge for the top spots.  Agility didn't go quite so well but the courses were pretty hard and our skills a bit rusty.

Then we have poor little Cassie who I can safely say is not a fan of the Royal Show.  She was pretty freaked out from the minute she got there.  She has never been comfortable under cover in unfamiliar places so the kennelling area under the marquee was stressful for her to begin with.  She settled a bit when she got to play with some of her friends and before her runs was offering me tricks and playing with her toy as she would at any trial.  But once she got to the start line and copped an eyeful of the crowd she didn't want a bar of it!  She did get better over the two days she was there and was running reasonably confidently on one side of the course where the competitors were but as soon as she had to run on the side where the crowd was gathered it was all too much for her.  I did everything I could to keep it happy and fun with no pressure.  More than anything I wanted to give her that experience and even though it was overwhelming to her I hope that she is stronger for the exposure and being out of her comfort zone.  I also have to say a huge thank you to both Kriszty and Simone for being outside the ring and ready with rewards as soon as Cassie finished to help make the experience as positive as possible. 



After how upset she was I had thought that I would never take Cassie to the Royal again but on reflection I probably will.  I've seen so many other dogs who haven't coped at the Royal as young dogs but have overcome the stress later on.  So we'll see.  The problem is there is no other place quite like the Royal so almost impossible to proof for that sort of distraction.  Cassie has a lot coming up over the next 12 months and I'm sure she will mature and grow as an agility dog over that time.

Aside from dramas with my own dogs I enjoyed the Royal and the opportunity to watch others competing.  In particular the Masters Jumping courses were fantastic and allowed competitors to throw caution to the wind and just go for it.  There were some phenomenal runs that were seriously breathtaking to watch.  One of the reasons I love competing in Perth is the depth of talent here and how much it drives you to be better handler and dog trainer.

We have a few weeks off now which is weird after the crazy agility month of September.  I'm looking forward to a bit of a break as I have heaps to catch up on at home and an agility area to finish off.  Our next trial is ACWA where Cassie will have her first Excellent Agility class. She did the see-saw properly for the first time at training last week and I have set up the tunnel under the dog walk at home. So we'll keep working on getting those two things ready for the ring. Then we get to do Strategic Pairs for the first time with our new partner the handsome Spirit a little tri-colour papillon who has been doing agility for a few years now and one of Cassie's many boyfriends. I'm sure they will make a great little team and all going well will partner up for the ANKC Nationals in Brisbane next year.