Thirteen Months

At this point in time I've decided it really isn't a good idea to watch what other people are doing with their young dogs.  The other day Justine Davenport posted a video to celebrate her young dog Never's first birthday where she proudly showed him doing entire courses (jumps on low height of course) pretty darn well.  Veto is up to three jumps in a row...clearly we have some work to do!  lol  Around the house he is definitely growing up.  He still has moments when he is the biggest pest ever and his lack of self control drives my other boys nuts.  But he's getting better and can now at least spend time around the house with the other dogs and manage to settle.  I thought he had grown out of his shoe stealing fetish but apparently not so the pet gate remains across the door of our walk in robe.  The fetish appeared to transfer itself to the bath mat briefly but the novelty of dragging that around the house thankfully had a short lifespan.  Fortunately for the most part he steals stuff but then brings it to you so I have still had just the one sock casualty and our shoes/thongs have surprisingly survived thus far.

Ve has just gone thirteen months.  We've been happily forging ahead with the running dog walk and I think it's going OK.  I videoed a session the other other day and was a bit unhappy that I was rewarding a few that were higher than they should have been so I've put tape three quarters of the way down the contact zone so I can use it as a guide.  While I like to think that I'm getting better at being able to pick the good hits from the bad the tape makes such a difference to being able to clearly see that he has hit on or below it.  I've also started putting fluro bands on his back legs so I can see where they are.  The dog walk is now probably one height away from full height.  If he goes high and isn't rewarded he normally gives me a better one on the next try.  I guess the main thing I'm looking for is his understanding of what I want and his ability to adjust his stride over the walk to make sure he hits.  His 2o2o work is progressing in the right direction.  Still taking it slow and it's paying off as he is definitely getting more drive into position.  I'm trying to keep it really fun and using the toy more and more as his drive is way better for a toy than food.

I'm still jumping him on 300 or 400 for the most part.  I find myself feeling paranoid about doing too much jumping with the inevitable amount of drills you do as they learn the handling.  He is such a powerful boy, he really takes my breath away.  On the very first session I did with him with jumps at 500, on his second run through he bounce jumped 4.5 meters (15') without even batting an eyelid.  I can't say I'm thrilled with his turns just yet and he is not what I would call a natural turner.  Not surprising as structurally his back end is by far his weakest area.  Even when I make sure I give him plenty of notice I don't think he turns well.  So we are taking some time to work on his understanding of how to use his body when he turns.  Hopefully that will help and of course better to do it now than let the problem grow and try and fix it later when he has a history of doing it badly behind him.

While I am doing a lot of agility training with him I'm trying to keep it balanced and interesting.  We've been trying to get out to new locations regularly as well as weekly swims and free runs when we can.  It's not the same as winter when they get to free run every night on the property but it's better than nothing.  We had some nice cool weather but since then its been hot again. Veto will work quite happily when its warm and overcast but he does not like working when the sun is on him even when it's early morning.  Which is fair enough, I hate wearing black t-shirts in the sun.  I managed to find an Australian supplier of the Chillybuddy Cool Coats so I bought one of those for him.  Unlike the standard cool coat they are much more fitted with a cut that leaves the shoulders free which means he can wear it while he's working.  Hopefully it will help to make him more comfortable once he gets used to wearing it.  Any thoughts of more sheep work have gone on hold as I don't think we've had a Saturday under 30 degrees since Christmas.

Training with Cassie is going slowly but surely.  She seems happy which is the main thing.  Her sessions are always short and sweet.  I'm still focusing on skill building and team work.  We have our first trial of the year this weekend and she'll be back in Masters so will be interesting to see how she goes.  A lot will depend on the course design.  I would imagine we'll struggle at this point with anything too technical but we'll keep it fun and no pressure.  I really just want to see her happy out there.  I'm probably feeling the most confident I have been with her for quite some time.

Birthday Boy

Veto is now officially a big boy having his first birthday on the 23rd!  I am so happy with him and I feel pretty lucky that it has all worked out so well so far.  It was always going to be a bit risky going for lines that have limited health testing and an interesting combination of structure with the working cattle lines and ISDS working sheep lines.  Looking at him as a 12 month old he is shaping up better than I hoped as an overall type with really nice structure.  He has a massive stride, is extremely powerful and has a really nice temperament.  The only thing I could have done with less of is his barking.  When he wants something (which is often) he barks till he gets it (not that often which means the barking goes on and on and on).  He has the girliest bark ever and it drives us nuts.

12 months

8 weeks

 Training is continuing on nicely.  He's starting to show me a great understanding of his verbals and I was super surprised when I could put out toys as a distraction, give a verbal turn cue and have him  respond to the verbal instead of ignoring me and going for the toy!  For a while there I really didn't think that would ever happen... I don't think I could be happier with his progress on the handling side of things.  Over the next few weeks I have some pretty challenging handling work lined up over a couple of jumps so I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes.  I've decided not to put the jumps up to full height quickly, rather I'll just leave them around 300/400 for a while and then slowly raise them up over the next couple of months.  He is jumping nicely over that height and is rare for him to knock anything which is a good sign.

I have started teaching him a proper 2o2o, as in building a solid foundation complete with proofing etc so I have it as a behaviour I can use as soon as he's ready to start trialling.  I don't want him to just have a running contact and then if it falls to pieces in the ring (which I suspect may happen) then have to rush to teach a stop.  I like the idea of having both anyway and no matter what he ends up doing in the ring I think that teaching him to run to begin with was the right thing to do just because of his personality.  At this stage I don't plan on starting weaves with him until February or March.

Ve got to see sheep for the first time a couple of weekends ago at Simon Leaning's property in Mt Helena.  He was a bit unsure to begin with but settled into it pretty well for his first go.  I will definitely take him out again a few times over summer.  He needs something apart from agility to give him that overall physical and mental work out.  Not to mention it is so much fun watching them do what they were bred for.

The gang - Christmas 2015

I'm so excited with the way that Cassie and I finished our trialling year.  I entered her in two more NFC runs and she probably did the best jumping run so far.  It was flawless and less than a second slower than the very speedy border collie that won the class.  In agility she started off a bit hesitant but flew once she hit her stride.  I'm feeling pretty positive about our trialling year in 2016 and just hope I can continue to keep her happy.  The plan is to enter her in some Masters classes in the New Year and see what happens.  I will be continuing to train her over summer as she has had a very light year and build our handling skills so she is ready for some harder handling challenges.  How awesome will it be to have two dogs competing by mid 2016!  First time for a long time that has happened.

Eleven Months

Month eleven was a touch crazier than normal with the big W day thrown in for some extra excitement!  After a bit of stress leading up as is the way with these events, we enjoyed an amazing day with our friends and family.  Life post wedding has everything pretty much back to normal now.  We decided that a honeymoon can wait till next year when I have long service leave due to make it a big one.

Wedding day - photo by Mike Kelly

Veto and I are still merrily working our way through H360 and the base handling maneuvers from Blueprint.  For the most part when I introduce a new skill I use a jump bump rather than a jump bar so we can focus on handling but I'm finding that I can use a jump bar on 300 now and it is not causing him any particular issues and he is rarely knocking it.  I've been trying to vary things a bit to keep it interesting so we'll do a few days on something a bit more complex as in back sides, threadles etc but then we'll do some straight forward extension and collection work so he can blast around a bit.  While he can be a typical young adolescent male and be a bit of a buffoon, he's not actually a silly dog if that makes any sense.  He approaches his training with thoughtfulness and picks up things very quickly which is making teaching him handling a really fun experience.  I never find that he struggles to learn anything and I've had no feelings of frustration with lack of progress due to him just not listening or being a dickhead. 

Handsome boy

His running dog walk is continuing to be a really interesting experience...he has done some amazing work, but then we can have days where our success rate is barely 50%.  So at the moment we are bouncing between more challenging work and bringing it back to make sure he has at least an 80% success rate.  He isn't a dog who does well with lots of failure so to keep him up and confident it is really important that he is chalking up plenty of success.  So as soon as I think he has had too many failures I will just make it easier.  There is plenty of time in front of us before he'll be trialing so we'll keep pottering away and see what happens.  The dog walk is still only a few feet off the ground so I might start raising it over the next month provided his success rate stays high enough and see where that takes us.

His focus can still be all over the place.  Keeping him with me when I train at the Dogs West grounds is a challenge and I have to manage his environment if there is any hope of doing off leash work.  I probably spend more time working on rewards for him making good choices than anything else.  As I have all the equipment at home it's not really that big a deal if he can't do any "agility" so focus work is always my biggest goal when I'm out.  And of course plenty of recallers games get thrown in.  When we do manage to get on a little sequence way up the back away from everything he is great.  His drive is everything I hoped for and he is clearly enjoying it.  So even though its slow going there is plenty to look forward to as he does mature which I'm assuming will happen eventually, if I'm lucky...

Cassie's progress is going surprisingly well.  So far she has happily run at every trial we have done (although has only been a few) and last trial I did the full course in both classes albeit still as not for competition.  I have contemplated entering her normally but our handling is so out of sync, and well pretty crap basically, that I don't want to ruin it by overwhelming her on a complex course she's not ready for.  So I'm sticking to my plan of NFC in the lower classes for the rest of the year and then putting her back in masters next year.  As Veto goes through H360 I'm doing the same exercises with Cassie which will hopefully put her back on track for the New Year.  We both also need a lot of fitness work to get us back in shape as well so that will definitely be on the agenda for next year!

Ten Months

Veto has hit double digits and is turning into a really stunning looking young dog.  He has even grown into those ginormous ears...  He is getting more powerful and driven as he gains confidence.  He has been elevated to almost grown up status which means he can have free time in the house now with the other dogs.  He loses his shit on occasion when his brain explodes with excitement and we need to have a chat about chilling out but overall he's way better at putting his sensible boy shoes on.

Training is continuing to be lots of fun.  He used to get bored doing wraps but now he loves them and fights me to drive round the traffic cones.  I love his understanding of wraps and I'm working hard on maintaining that lovely flexibility.  I'm mixing things up by doing some H360 work interchanged with grid work.  I wanted to spend some time focusing on grids to teach him to think about his striding and figuring out how many strides to put between jump bumps, an important skill to have.  Dog walk work is continuing along nicely.  We have good and bad sessions but overall I'm still happy with how he is progressing.  The dog walk is nice and low, probably only a foot off the ground so no danger if he does come off and it will stay about that height until he is 12 months old.  So far I love his turns.  I only hope I can keep them... shortly will be time to start proofing the performance before the dog walk goes up.

I'm trying not to only focus on agility stuff even though sometimes its hard not to, so with the addition of a FitBone and more FitPaws bits and pieces we are working on building strength as well as working through the Recallers program.  So plenty to do over the next couple of months before he reaches his first birthday.

Cassie's progress is still moving in the right direction.  We did another NFC run a couple of weeks ago and in both runs I did 7 - 8 obstacles with her with no problems what so ever.  She still manages to freak me out on the start line with an expression on her face that leaves me totally guessing as to what may unfold.  But for both her runs once she took off she was flying and did everything I asked.  So we will continue forward on this path and stay optimistic about our chances to make the Nationals next year.  We have I think three trials left this year so some more opportunities for NFC before it gets a bit more serious next year.  Lots of work to do over summer!  

Nine Months

Veto has grown up a lot in the last month.  It's surprised me how much he's changed actually and how much he's matured.  When we have our little training sessions I feel like we are becoming a team as opposed to me rudely interrupting his fun time with his buddies.  There is a new sense of us working together which is really quite nice!  It's not always perfect and he's still just a baby but it's nice to start feeling like a team.   He's become much easier to manage around the house and slightly less likely to throw himself on the other dogs.  He still can't resist socks and slippers and of course toilet rolls if the toilet door is left open.  Mostly he's thinks he's clever and retrieves them to you but sometimes it's more of a stealth maneuver and he disappears with his prize to a quiet spot.  Fortunately just the one sock casualty so far.

The warmer weather and snakes on the move means that we aren't using the property for exercise anymore this year.  So his morning workout is now training time which is what it was before he needed the extra exercise, just that it's more likely to be running contact training or handling training rather than body awareness which we now do in the evenings.  I'm really pleased with how he is picking up handling and having the H360 exercises to do is brilliant.  We just use wings with a jump bump instead of an upright and a traffic cone either side.  He struggled a bit initially as he didn't really get the wrap thing and was quickly bored with it but now he is wrapping beautifully.  I'm also really happy with his turns and at this stage he's nice and tight and really light on his feet.  So we'll keep fingers crossed that we can maintain that once he starts jumping.  Right now it's all about him learning extension and collection.  He has also decided that balls are his thing.  He is quite happy to tug and will tug on pretty much anything but he really loves chasing balls.  I get way better drive out of his turns when I use one so happy to stick with that if that is what he likes!

I'm looking forward to the next few months and how he comes along.  He won't start jump training until he's 12 months old which isn't all that far away now...it is exciting to have a young dog and see their potential developing. And he's become such a nice dog to train that the whole process becomes so enjoyable.  What agility is all about.

We had the Royal Show last weekend and had a fun couple of days.  My decision to retire Sonic from agility was confirmed as a good one after running him in the teams.  He had a couple of lovely clear runs in jumping but slipped a couple of time on lines that were very gentle turns and no reason for him to slip.  In general the amount of warm up/cool down and stress involved worrying about soreness not really worth it.  Sonic will still have a great life as one of the gang filled with running around, swimming and being a nut bag.  It just won't involve any agility anymore.

Donut girl...

 Cassie's training is still ticking along nicely.  I'm pleased to see that by not rewarding her in the ring at training I'm now getting a much more similar responses to what I get at a trial.  She seems comfortable with the game and it will be interesting to see the progression over the next few months.  My plan is to finish the year off with short NFC runs and then as soon as we kick off in 2016 I'll try a few proper runs and see what we have.  There is just no way of predicting what may unfold when dealing with the mysterious mind of the papillon.  But we are probably closer to success than what we have been so far.  I feel like everything else has been a band-aid and although has helped to work through ring stress never really dealt with the lack of reinforcement in the ring that seems to be the biggest issue plaguing us.  So Nationals for her next year is a 50 -50 proposition at this stage.  I guess I'll know more once we get through the early trials.

Eight months

Veto has hit month eight and in the meantime Cassie has turned four and Sonic has turned eight.  My "little" boy has shot up big time and is now resembling a Shetland pony.  It will be touch and go if he ends up in 500 or 600.  It would be weird being in 600 but it's getting pretty competitive these days so it doesn't bother me which ever height he ends up in.  I just expected that he would be in 500 and am still a bit surprised just how quickly he's grown.  There is more and more to like about him.  I absolutely love his temperament, he is such a friendly, happy boy who loves everyone.  Possibly sometimes a little too much... He's not a screaming, crazy idiot.  He tends to get more serious than anything when he's over aroused.  Although he still does the odd really stupid thing as youngsters are want to do.  I make sure we get time together with just the two of us every day, ideally taking him for a run by himself.  It's taken a bit of time but I'm starting to see a good relationship developing between us where he really wants to do stuff with me, rather than doing it because I'm asking.  The biggest challenge with him is just how much exercise he needs.  You expect a working border collie to need a lot of exercise but he is above and beyond what I've experienced before.  And if he doesn't get enough he turns into an out of control wild animal who destroys everything in his path.  I'm very relieved that I waited until we had five acres before I got him.  Goodness knows how I would have managed him in suburbia.  I shudder at the thought...

Nothing startling happening on the training front and more of the same really.  His body awareness is great and he loves his tricks.  He is just starting to be able to hold himself up when doing sit pretties after a few months of working on it.  I'm happy with the progression of his running contact work so I don't think it will be too long before I move on from the carpet and set up some planks on the ground.  I've started doing a very small amount of grid work using jump bumps to see how he goes.  I don't want to get caught up with speed only and getting him to charge around uprights without giving any thought to what he's doing with this legs.  So far he seems to be a fairly natural jumper and confident with his body.  He still has a time limit on his sessions and if I try and push him beyond that he will lose focus and switch off.  It's actually not a bad thing as it certainly stops you from over doing it with them.  Every now and again I'll see if he can handle more but for now he's not really ready.  Overall he's doing a pretty good job when I have him out in the agility area.  There are a lot of distractions with the bush just on the other side filled with bandicoots, rabbits just begging to be chased!  Which is pretty much every puppies idea of an awesome time.  Cassie was about 18 months old before I could have her off lead out there so all in all he's doing pretty well.

Poor Sonic's body is pretty much stuffed so I've decided that the Royal Show will likely be his last ever agility event.  He looks amazing at the moment and since I moved him from a "premium" biscuit that was full of brewers rice, corn gluten meal and beet pulp and onto a biscuit that actually has some nutritional value he has blossomed.  However keeping him sound is another matter all together and it's all a bit too hard.  It will be nice to finish at the Royal with the teams event, he's always loved it there.  But whether he'll be sound enough is another thing as he's been showing some soreness in his shoulder at the moment.  We have a few weeks to go so I'll give him as good of a chance as I can.  Such a shame :(

I've started Cassie's ring rehab with my new and redesigned strategy.  Only one trial so far but I was happy with the result.  The first run I literally did one jump yelled "jackpot" and then we sprinted to her lead and treats.  The next run she was a lot more reluctant to come off the start line but thankfully did, ran past the second jump but then I managed to get her to do a jump tunnel combination before yelling "jackpot" and off to her lead and treats again.  My goal is to remain at one or two jumps to the reward until I can see a change in her demeanor at the start line.  When I see her keen to start and leaning forward in anticipation like she does at training then I'll know it's time to add in more.  I think a lot of people think I'm crazy letting her run out of the ring to a reward but I'm not worried at all.  Her getting her treats is contingent on her doing what I ask in the ring first.  If she took off out of the ring to get her rewards without working for them first she wouldn't get them.  And of course she already had a strong understanding of that food isn't hers because she's decided it is.  She has to earn it and can work with open food all around without any issues.  She can get distracted by it but she'll still work.  Given that the alternative is never being able to trial her again so I figure it's worth the risk!

Seven Months

Wow, another month gone...if nothing else he continues to grow! Not sure that he's gotten a lot taller but he's muscled up and is really developing in the body. He's certainly one powerful boy. There is a lot to like about him. He's very sweet and loves his cuddles. He is fantastic with other dogs and loves everyone.  I just hope that once the testosterone starts kicking in fully his lovely temperament with other dogs remains.  He has really slotted into the routine at home and is so much easier to manage now. He still has a lot of restrictions on him and not sure when he'll settle down enough to be allowed loose in the house with the other dogs but one step at a time. One day I'm sure he'll graduate off the lead!   Although I'm not sure the other dogs are in a rush for that to happen.

Training is going OK. Inside sessions are normally spot on. Outside can go either way and he can be distracted by the environment.  Sometimes we have good sessions out there and other times not so good. He is learning some really cool stuff and tricks I've never tried with my other dogs before. His rear end awareness is fantastic.  I've been doing a lot of Recallers with him as well and I'm really happy with how hard he drives after me. He's not super fast driving into a tunnel at the moment but at seven months, who cares. The Recallers game push back and jam is definitely helping so I'll keep playing with that. I don't have any specific plans time wise with all of this. We've been doing some wraps to tunnels which have been fun. His understanding of wraps is going really well. I've started some very basic running contact work and I'll just see how it develops. I've been teaching him two on two off as well so I'll decide later on which one I'll go with. Really depends if he picks up the running contact skills relatively easily or if it all goes to crap once I start to put it on a dog walk. And of course depends on my ability to train it! Nothing will be on actual equipment for a while so I shouldn't be able to mess it up too badly for now...then everything else at the moment is tricks and games. 

Veto - 7 months

Things with Cassie aren't going nearly so well.  The "not getting any reinforcement in the competition ring" is hitting us hard.  Everything works for a couple of trials and then she figures out that she's not getting any rewards in the ring for that either so it all goes to crap.  The only way I figure I will ever be able to work through this is to either be able to do NFC runs so I can reward her in the ring for a significant period of time and then randomly reward from then on.  Or I go back and expand her understanding of never getting rewarded in the ring.  As part of the Denise Fenzi "Bridging the Gap" course, we worked on doing a whole series of exercises and then being released to her reward.  So at the moment my plan is to grow that at training so that she literally never gets rewarded on the agility field.  If she does something great, she'll get a cue and we'll run to her treat bag for a reward.  I've only tried it once at training and it worked really well because she already knows the game.  And she understands the concept of working with open food around and her getting it being contingent on her earning it.  So I'm happy that the foundation of the game is well ingrained in her.  It will really be how I can transfer it to the ring.  I think it will take quite a few NFC classes where I can do a few obstacles and then leave the ring for a reward.  Then if the judge allows me to, go back into the ring and do some more so I can develop the skill in that ring environment.  I would work on it over a period of time to build duration from doing a few obstacles to doing a whole course.  Then potentially randomly releasing her from the ring to her reward at trials so she never knows when she may get her reward.  Other than that I'm totally stuck and have no idea what to do!  It's been good to have a break from it all anyway.  Sometimes you really just get sick of thinking about it!!