Learning Curve

It occurred to me that I have no video of Veto other than when he first arrived, playing outside with Fizz. So time to time to rectify that! It's so nice to have something to look back on when they are grown-ups and remember what they were like as babies because they grow up way too fast. Training is an up and down affair. Every time I think I've worked through something with him and give myself a pat on the back he throws something else at me that I have to work through. Plenty of times I've questioned my ability to train a dog like him. Sonic was full on as a pup but mostly just by being an over excitable dork. Veto is not quite as silly as Sonic was (and still is...) but what Ve throws at you is a lot of dog. We are at a point where he's no longer allowed free access in the house at all. While I'm not too bothered about him playing with Fizz he is way too boisterous for Cassie to handle. The problem is that Cassie is such a bossy madam and is more than happy to start a game, but was getting hurt once he got over the top. He doesn't mean to hurt her and there is nothing malicious in it, he's just too much dog for her right now and when he gets over aroused he totally loses control. In a way it's probably a good thing that I've restricted his access because of Cassie. Otherwise it's too easy to let him run around and play with Fizz constantly. I'm not sure that is what he really needs, so the enforced restrictions are probably for the best right now anyway. I also finally measured Veto the other day out of curiosity and he’s almost exactly the same as Sonic was at this age. So I’m guessing he will end up a similar height to Sonic when he’s fully grown.


Finally I'm having some good retrieve success. It's taken a few weeks but after following Silvia Trkman's method I worked on shaping him to pick up a variety of things and put them in a container. Sure enough once he was proficient at that I put my hand out and got a toy delivered to my hand. Good boy Ve :) We are still working up to high value toys because playing with the toy has more value to him than the food, but I'm relieved that even when we are playing tug with a tug toy he is now much more inclined to bring it back to me to restart a game of tug. I've ended up doing quite a bit of ST's stuff from her Puppy DVD. Lots of easy to teach fun games that have an emphasis on body awareness. Interestingly Ve does have a tendency to shut down on me through some of the shaping sessions not unlike To was for Silvia. He can lose focus and start sniffing if he’s unsure. So it's been challenging working through that and understanding what he needs to keep him engaged. Fortunately increasing value of rewards and increasing the rate of reinforcement if he finds something difficult has worked really well. Like To was in the DVD he would start out really strong and you'd think he was all over it, but then suddenly he'd disengage and leave. It's nice when you have enough knowledge to have a quick resolution to what you are presented with each time you have a training session!

Veto started his journey with us being very intense and focused on me. So part of the work I've been doing with him is bringing some balance in without it going too much the other way, as in him finding everything more exciting than me... I almost had a heart attack a couple of weeks ago when for the first time I decided to take them all for a run around the property with the weather cooling off. I stupidly put him on a harness and lived to regret it within two minutes of leaving the house. He literally stood on his hind legs while galloping, his front legs waving wildly in the air and screaming at the top of his lungs. I was barely able to physically hold him. Kind of scary when he had never gone for a run with the other dogs around the fire break before so no reinforcement history for it. In the end the best I could do was get all the other dogs to lie down quietly so I could work with him. It took a while to wait him out but he finally calmed down enough and started responding to basic commands. Once I got that I let him have a run. While we were walking, any time he came up to either Colin or I he got rewarded and we made no attempt to call his name or catch him. The rest of the walk was uneventful and he slept like a log afterwards which was a nice bonus. Since then he only goes out with his little Halti on that I bought just in case I had an issue like this and he has to do some work before he's allowed off lead. I'm pretty happy that he will do a little bit of heel work and respond to commands now even when the other dogs are free but it takes varying degrees of time for him to be able to get his brain to work. Then of course for something new, his latest is to run back towards us flat out and straight into Cassie's face. Managed to stop that one pretty quickly by throwing a treat on the ground in front of him just before he got to us. That turned into running to my hand for the treat. Then I couldn't get rid of the little sucker who wanted to hang around for another treat! So overall I'm pleased with his progress and that he is choosing to come back and check in rather than spending his whole time herding the other dogs. But as is the way I’m sure it will be an up and down process for a while yet. Next will be starting to take some of this stuff away from home and see how he goes. He still needs to spend a lot more time going to new places and socialising.



Last weekend was our annual State Agility Trial. I didn’t have any idea how it would go and in particular how Cassie would cope. It ended up being more challenging in an emotional sense than any other with the news of my Grandad passing away on the Saturday night. So my struggles with Cassie felt huge at the time but on reflection (and reviewing the video) things weren’t really that bad. I just felt a bit down in general. No clean runs which added to my sense of everything going wrong but overall Cassie ran really well. She is handling the ring entrances with confidence and is showing no signs of concern when the lead steward comes over. No yawning or lip licking to be seen. The only thing that worried me a bit was that for one of the runs she wasn’t releasing with as much keenness as I’d like to see. Given that any actual release work I’ve done has been minimal in comparison to all the ring entrances it’s not surprising that there is still some work to be done there. It just means that now I will start to put more emphasis on the release at training and less on the ring entrances. And not helping things was that Cassie was pretty flat on day two. I had made sure they all had a quiet night on Saturday so she should have been well rested but I just don’t think she wanted to be there. So something else to think about in preparing her for Nationals which always run over multiple days. One step at a time!

Growing Up

Puppies truly are exhausting!  Young Veto is keeping me very busy and our previously experienced calm evenings pe-Veto gone for the time being.  My cute little sleepy puppy has been replaced by a long legged, crazy eared adolescent who has taken over the house.  The boys still dislike him but fortunately the girls are happy to contribute to his entertainment.   

Veto has really got the hang of the whole shaping thing now and is learning really quickly.  Mostly we do body awareness games, go to mat games, and recallers games.  I don't really have anything specific I'm focusing on other than him learning to wait/be released and teaching him to retrieve.  At the moment his idea of a good time with a toy is having a game for one with it, but I must admit he has over the last few days started bringing it back, albeit intermittently.  I'm working on teaching him a formal retrieve to speed things up as bunking off with a toy is right up there on my list of most annoying thing your dog can do.  However I figure that if I can teach Cassie to bring her toy back Veto should be a push over... Overall he's a really lovely dog.  There is plenty of naughtiness in him and when he's amped it's a case of baton down the hatches but I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun with him.

 
Things are going really well with Cassie's ring rehab.  So far we have run in two classes and both have had very successful ring entries.  The first time back in the ring was at the Western Classic where I ended up scratching her from the Masters Jumping class (the course was just not right for her) but ran her in Excellent Agility.  She has an amazing run but thanks to my lazy handling she missed a tunnel entry which gave us a refusal and then DQ.  Her start line was superb and her confidence was high.  At the next trial she was flat as a tack earlier in the evening (for reasons only known to Cassie) and nothing I did could get her engaged for her Excellent Agility class so I scratched her.  I had made a decision after finishing the Ring Confidence course that unless she is 100% with me then I'm not running her.  So it was my commitment to that decision kicking in.  After having such a flat dog I had thought there was no way she was going to be OK for Masters Jumping.  Fortunately before she was due in that ring one of the other rings finished so I was able to use the ring ropes to work on happy ring entrances.  After two or three rewards she was fired up and happy as Larry so I decided that we would give the Masters course a try.  Thank goodness we did as she was fantastic and ended up going clear and winning the class, 12 seconds clear of second place.   It certainly confirmed that the decision to scratch her from the earlier class was the right one.


Such a relief to have some success back in the ring and have a dog who is happy and confident again.  She is still improving in leaps and bounds.  At training she is a different dog.  Not that she didn't work for me at training before doing the Fenzi School courses but it's a different attitude in her that I see now.  I never start training her until she asks me to so I have a dog who can't wait to get started and actually pushes me to get on with it.  And I never give her more energy than she gives me, so I'm not trying to "gee" her up anymore.  She isn't showing the same turn of speed in the ring that I'm getting at training but hopefully I'll start to see that soon.  I'm still working hard on our proofing exercises at training particularly with the lead steward.  Cassie seems totally non-phased by the judges presence but still needs to look when the lead steward comes to get her lead.  So at training, with the ring gates set up I've been getting people to follow us in nice and close and even leaning over Cassie to take the lead so that she is proofed against even the most obtrusive ring steward we could come across!

Our next trial is at Cloverdale next weekend.  Whether we go or not will depend on the weather as it's our first day trial for the year and at this time of year the weather could go either way.  Then after that is the States in mid-April.  I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself with that one.  I would so dearly love for Cassie to do well and she deserves to be up there as she is such a talented little dog.  I just have to try and keep the pressure off and my mental game at the ready to make sure I continue to do a better job managing her and keeping her 100% happy!

Introducing Veto

Finally after what seems like a really, really long wait, my new border collie puppy has joined us.  I spent most of last year waiting for a litter that never eventuated after the bitch either never got pregnant or reabsorbed.  I was pretty disappointed as I am a huge fan of both the bitch and dog, however obviously it was just not meant to be.  It was fortunate that there were a few other options around with some very nice litters planned for the end of last year.  A pup from any of those litters would have been great but this time round I had my heart set on working lines with a more leggy type who was full on and ready for some fun.  And of course after waiting most of last year for a pup who never came I wasn't going to look at anything until a litter was on the ground!

Veto (8 weeks)

So on 19th February little Veto arrived.  He is a super sweet little guy who is full of life, loves people, a good cuddle.  He also loves papillon ears and tails...but can be convinced to play tug with toys instead.  He had a pretty crappy trip over from NSW between flights being cancelled and then delayed.  Note to self, next time go and get him myself!  He had a very upset tummy for days and his skin got all itchy.  So he had a trip tot he vet and came home with a months worth of antibiotics to sort things out.

Cassie and Veto (8 weeks)

The dogs have taken a bit of time to warm to him.  In fact Riot and Sonic still haven't warmed to him, but I did see Sonic wag his tail at him the other morning.  Before telling him to go away.  He's been good for Fizz and she loves playing with him.  When she's in the mood anyway!  Cassie was really not amused to begin with.  She'd prefer not to share me and my attentions.  But she does like playing with him, he just gets a little too rough for her so I have to step in every now and again to bring things to a stop.  She has enthusiastically introduced him to pappy zoomies.

Veto - ears going up (9 weeks)

 Overall he is everything I could have asked for in a puppy with all the attributes that I am looking for.  Health wise things are good from a DNA perspective with his father clear of all the standard border collie genetic problems.  I will at some point do all the DNA tests just to make sure he isn't a carrier of anything as his mum is untested.  But that doesn't really matter unless I want to breed from him.  He will be PenHipped at sixteen weeks so I can be confident that his hips are going to be OK.  I have no reason to think they won't be but after the frustration and disappointment of Sonic's hips dysplasia I want to be sure that Veto's is going to have a long and sound career with a lot less of the heartbreak.   

Cassie - apparently not amused...

For now his life is all about having fun and getting to know each other.  We have joined puppy class at the local vet to make sure he gets a nice rounded socialisation program which doesn't only involve going to agility training and trials.  I just want to make sure he can handle anything he may come across, not just the agility environment.  He has a great appetite so teaching him new stuff is easy and he tries really hard to earn his food and of course he loves his toys.  Over the years I've come to the realisation that acquiring a gifted agility dog is somewhat of a lottery.  All the planning and care taken to select a "super agility dog" when they are puppies is really all guess work and could likely make not one iota of difference.  So I'm just going to enjoy him for now and we'll see what happens!

Finding our Confidence

Three weeks into our ring confidence course and a week out from Christmas...where on earth did the last couple of months go??  In fact where has 2014 gone...

So I did manage to get a gold spot in the Ring Confidence course.  It really is a serious adrenaline rush waiting for the clock to hit the course opening time and then banging away on the refresh button!  Just unfortunately that it's always some ridiculous hour of the morning.  The course has been a lot of fun so far and everything is broken into itty bitty pieces that are really easy to manage.  In three weeks Cassie has gone from seeing ring ropes and shutting down/trying to avoid, to seeing ring ropes and dragging me into the ring.  It's hard to believe that she's the same dog.  I'm very fortunate that Cassie is so high drive and will do a lot of things for food and toys.  It has made it much less challenging.  But being given the right exercises broken down into the right pieces and then putting together is making all the difference.  With how well she is going, getting her back into the ring actually feels like it might happen. 

 

What I find even more exciting is that after working through the I'm Just Little and now the Confidence Building course Cassie is just different in general.  It's a bit hard to describe, but it's like she's lost the suspicion about what is about to happen.  Because the pressure is off she obviously feels less concerned and is far keener to engage.  She still takes her toy into the tunnel from time to time but as she learns that it doesn't matter and I'm not going to make her do anything she wants to come back and she wants to engage me.  She is now more often than not the one who is initiating the work.  I've had nights after work when I hadn't planned on doing any training with her and she has hassled me constantly until I've caved in and taken her out to do something.  I feel like I finally "get" my dog.

 

I can't imagine not doing more courses after this.  The whole thing becomes a bit addictive.  Having someone there at any time who you can ask questions of is just brilliant.  I'm learning so much I don't really want to stop.  I might not always do gold level but I think I'd like to find something at bronze that might be interesting.  I can't rave enough about Denise Fenzi.  She is like a miracle worker!  If she lived in Australia I'd find her and give her a bit kiss.   

I took Sonic to Murdoch last week for x-rays and a full going over.  Fortunately nothing we didn't already know about was found and it is still his hips that are causing all the problems.  The specialist basically told me that all I can do is modify my expectations and accept that he is going to get sore.  Doing the odd trial isn't out of the question but some level of discomfort is unavoidable so medication will become a way of life.  I guess it's about deciding for him how much he is allowed to do.  I want to give him the opportunity to do agility when he is feeling good but it will be a trial to trial proposition.  At least I can give him meds to make his day to day life more comfortable.  I'm glad I took him in to be fully checked out.  I feel a lot happier now that I know more about what I'm dealing with and how to look after him the right way.  With a lounge room that has become a fitness centre I'm certainly well prepared to keep him in the best possible physical condition.

  

The Kitchen Sink

Getting back in the ring is so close I can almost taste it!  I did enter Cassie in a trial last weekend, but I don't want to ruin things by jumping the gun so we are sitting tight for now.  We are coming to the end of the "I'm Just Little" course and Cassie has been a total superstar.  I am literally throwing the kitchen sink at her and she is blitzing it.  Probably because now I'm finally listening to her and giving her what she needs.  Feedback from Denise has been great and understanding when to push and when to give invaluable.  I thought I was an OK dog trainer before but now I feel like someone has turned the light on.  That was the biggest issue when the ring stress first appeared.  I had no idea what to do to give her the confidence she needed.  Instead I treated her like a border collie.  Big mistake...

Phase C of Cassie's ring rehab will hopefully begin in December.  After showing Denise some video of Cassie working at home with ring ropes up Denise is convinced she can help me fix it because Cassie becomes a different dog very quickly when the ropes are present.  So I'm going to try very, very hard to get a Gold Level spot in Denise's Ring Confidence course that starts on 1st December.  Registration is 3.30am WST.  Won't that be fun... This course is great timing and gives us something structured to work on over Christmas and into the New Year.  So the plan is that Cassie might be ready to be back in the ring at the first trial of 2015!  How awesome that would be.



Back in October we did the Shape Up Dogs seminar with Justine Davenport and Jessica Patterson.  To be honest I was really worried leading up to it.  I thought that it would be way too much for Cassie and that Sonic (aka Mr Lame) would have to stand in, somehow.  Not to mention the forecast of warm weather.  As it happened the weather was OK.  Warmish on one day but not too bad.  Cassie went above and beyond my expectations.  Lots to work on but it gave me more direction on putting my handling into practice, something that has been sorely neglected since I have had to put all my focus on Cassie's confidence.  Cassie was the only non-working breed in the Advanced session and she was amazing.  Worked her butt off every time I got her out no matter what I asked of her.  When I go to training now I just combine the confidence and proofing work with handling skills.  It's been a long time since I have really felt happy with a handling system but this one is great.

So poor Sonic is lame again.  No more trialling for him this year.  I think he my have slipped in the house and then after running around outside was quite obviously really sore.  He is due an acupuncture treatment next week and then I've got him a specialist appointment the week after for a thorough going over to see what I can do to help him.  Hard to know what the future holds in store for him agility wise.  I hope he can do something, just not sure what yet.  I don't think he's quite ready to do nothing.

For this summer I decided to purchase a treadmill for the dogs.  I almost got one last year but at the last minute went with the pool because I thought it would be better conditioning for Sonic.  Although the pool was great exercise I really struggled with the upkeep of maintaining the water quality, filtering etc.  So this time year the treadmill came out on top.  Not much to choose from by way of dog treadmills in Australia.  Only two that I could find anyway.  One fancy but very expensive.  The other much cheaper but still had all the things that I wanted and reviews were all good so that is what I went with.  The dogs responses to using the treadmill have been very predictable.  Cassie no problem as long as there is food involved.  Riot is quite happy to use it but really doesn't seem to see the point and when he has decided he wants to stop, he does, whether it's going or not.  Sonic total maniac.  Jumps on, flails around for a minute or so then launches off it like it's about to self destruct underneath him.  You can't push him or give him a hard time about it, he just gets worse.  Problem solved by putting the Manners Minder on a stool in front and letting him work it out for himself.  You get on it, the MM gives you a treat.  Even very silly boys can figure that out...Fizzy was slowly and quietly but she's got the idea.

Getting Closer

Well I managed to get my Gold spot for the "I'm Just Little" course!  It felt like I was buying tickets for a rock concert.  Course registration opened at 10am Pacific Standard Time which was 1am our time.  Rather than wait up I went to bed and set the alarm for 12.45am.  So up I got bleary eyed and half asleep.  As it got close to 1am I started hitting the refresh button.  I'd heard that Denise Fenzi courses sell out in about one minute so it was serious stuff going on.  Luck was with me and within seconds of it hitting 1am the Gold spot came up for purchase.  I can't believe how excited I was that I got one!  Unfortunately so excited that when I went back to bed I couldn't sleep...lol


Fizzy Bear

We are three weeks in and I'm really enjoying it.  The stuff I worked on in the Bridging the Gap course has certainly put us in good stead to be progressing really well.  I love some of the little games we are doing including a game called "doggy toss" that Cassie really loves.  Not sure a lot of the other little dogs are very impressed but it's right up her alley!  Cassie has come such a long way in the last few months and I'm so pleased with where she is at.


Sonic

On the weekend I took her to a Show and Go held at the Dogs West grounds just to see what might happen in a simulated trial environment.  Unfortunately the weather was crap so not as many people there but with four rings set up it at least looked like the real deal.  It's challenging that her interest in personal play really lowers we are in a trial situation.  Things that would arc her right up at home don't get her engaged at all.  Movement works well though so I was able to get her chasing me and then tugging on her lead.  But, as soon as I go up to the start line you can see her arousal take a serious nose dive back to terra firma. 

A distinguished older gent...Riot
 

The first couple of runs I honestly thought she wasn't going to come with me, but she did.  I couldn't get her to nose touch at all on the start line.  Looking back at the video I probably shouldn't have bothered because then I was faffing around with her for ages and it didn't help at all.  Good lesson learned there.  No problems with her speed when she did take off, she was flying.  I rewarded her mid course on the first one and then second time around did the course and rewarded her at the end like we would at a trial.  To finish off I worked on a jumping course.  I decided to focus on the first couple of obstacles rather than the course.  Again she started off a bit hesitantly.  We did two obstacle to her tuggy.  Second start line again a bit of avoidance creeping in so I did the first two obstacles and then let her jump into my arms.  The third one was the by far the best take off.  I just put her down gave her a pat and we were off.  No hesitation from her at all.  Yay!


The many faces of a pappy

So although my work isn't finished just yet, the show and go did give me an idea of where she is at and where to from here.  I've entered her in a trial in about three weeks.  One class is NFC and one normal.  I was in two minds earlier today but after watching the runs back I think we'll give it a go.  I have a better idea of how to manage her and even if she is not happy in the normal class I'm prepared to blow it off and get her to jump in my arms if I think it will help her.  I feel like a have a lot of tools in the toolbox now to deal with whatever comes up.


 

This week is pretty exciting with the Justine Davenport and Jessica Patterson seminar here in Perth.  These girls are at the top of their game in world agility at the moment.  I love their handling style and it's the direction I want to take as I move forward in agility.  I haven't done nearly as much work on handling for a while as I would like to have.  Working through Cassie's issues has taken priority and Sonic isn't up to a huge amount of training.  The seminar is three full days.  I have no idea how Cassie is going to handle it and the weather forecast keeps changing.  But no matter what hopefully we will learn heaps, have a lot of fun and get through it!

But I'm Only Little!

And so the FCI World Agility Championship's for 2014 has been run and won.  Last weekend was full of late nights so I could watch the live stream from Luxembourg.  We probably shouldn't support the FCI event as much as we do given that it's the only world agility event that only allows registered purebreds.  So out-dated and really unacceptable in this day and age.  But they are the Worlds that everyone aspires to win and watching it inevitably fills you with a suitably big dose of inspiration to run hard and run fast and be the very best you can be.  What sort of legends are Lisa Frick and Hoss!  To win Worlds four times is just mind blowing.  I swear they get better and better each year.  Not to forget Jenny Damm and Lilli who I'm sure we'll be seeing a whole lot of over the next few years.

Sonic and I have been hitting the trial ring a little bit of late.  Still just doing the Masters Jumping class but really enjoying it.  I do miss Masters Agility but I'd rather jumping than nothing at all.  He's doing super and has had some really great runs including a very close third behind Liryk and Rosi two of our fastest Masters dogs.  It was a perfect Sonic course that suited him to the ground and he showed how much he loved it by running such a great time.  He knocks the odd bar but really, who cares.  His next trial is the Royal Show.  He's only entered in teams this year because I don't think his body will cope with two full days of trialling.  So hopefully the team has a good one for 2014.  Last years Royal was total crap!  I haven't even entered Cassie this year after last years melt down.



The pap with the attitude is doing OK.  We've worked our way through most of the Bridging the Gap course and I'm pleased to say that we probably achieved more than I thought we would.  She is now jumping into my arms which I never thought I'd be able to teach her and is consistently doing courses with minimal rewards.  Even more exciting is that it no longer terrifies me to not have food in my pocket when I'm training her...  I think we are pretty close to going back in the ring again.  But we've come so far I don't want to rush it (OK I'm shit scared that it will go wrong!).  There is a Show and Go scheduled for mid October so my plan is to run her in that.  I'll do something like do half a course and then surprise her with her fav tuggy.  Then if that goes well we'll do a full course and do our set up of to her lead and to her treat bag at the end.  If nothing else I'm really keen to see if what I've been doing has made an impact when she's faced with the trial environment.  If that goes well then we will attempt an NFC run at a trial.  That will be the ultimate test.

Before that happens I'm going to attempt to get a Gold spot in another upcoming course that Denise Fenzi is running.  The course is called "But I'm Only Little".  It looks like it works through all the play stuff a lot of which I'm pretty comfortable with after doing BTG.  But there are parts of it where she looks at dealing with pressure in little dogs and I think that will be invaluable to us.  I still feel that there are times when Cassie is really susceptible to pressure and I'm not confident that I deal with it in the right way.  Fingers, toes and eyes crossed that I can score a working spot as I really want to get Denise's feedback to what I'm doing.  That is probably the thing I've missed most from doing the online courses and sometimes it's really hard to know if I'm making the right choices.  But I am really pleased with mine and Cassie's progress and I think we are a long way down the road from all the ring stress in the first half of the year. 

And I'm finally back into my fitness regime.  After being a depressed slob for about six weeks I snapped out my stupor, pulled on my running shoes and got my arse back pounding the pavement.  After about three weeks I already feel significantly better, trimmer and able to breath normally after working my dogs.  I've had to tone down the work out a little bit so it's just a run and Jacob's ladder now.  For some reason running up Mount Street aggravates a muscle in my hip.  If I don't do Mount Street it is fine.  And I purchased a Fit Bit Flex which is great in that it keeps track of what I do all day (or rather what I don't do).  But I find it's supposed "messages of encouragement" such as "you only have 2,000 steps left to make your daily target" the equivalent of "get off your fat lazy arse and do some exercise"!!!  It works...

Jacob's Ladder...going down!