its really not about me

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there are definitely a few things I miss about doing that downtown gossip column

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Feb. 5th, 2010 @ 08:32 pm wednesday class notes on friday

Sassy gave us all our own personal sound tracks to run our dogs to this week... I forget what each of our music selections were, but Sassy had fun choosing them and it was an added fun distraction... seriously, I found it a little harder to run to music, maybe Stella too, so I'm looking forward to doing more of it...

Anyway, here are a few things I learned about handling the dog this week:

1) When a little motion needs to go a long way don't use a lead out...

The way the class course was set, I really did not want to be moving (much) past the third obstacle because then I would be STUCK behind the DW when two seconds later I needed to be way over on the other side of the DW picking Stella up as she came blasting out of the fourth obstacle, a tunnel...

So, the solution was to start the course WITH the dog - that way I could still be moving forward some, cueing her forward at the third obstacle on ahead of me to the fourth...

and along with this, I had to then trust the dog, that tunnel is the only obstacle back there, she'll find it... then go go go, once she's committed...

2) Quit being wishywashy with my hands... Oh man, I sometimes throw them in the air when I screw up... Stella is having some hesitation issues with tunnels... so my tunnel sends need to be more precise. At one point, Sassie had me be the dog (she's had me be the dog several times before and its always really useful) and showed me how it could have looked to Stella that I was possibly sending her to the wrong end of the tunnel and the reason she didn't go in could have been she was just confused about my cue...

Stella does seem to be increasingly sensitive to what my hands are doing these days... I could REALLY see this when I reviewed the Fun Match video and saw how at one point when I am throwing my hand back to swing it forward for a forward send, she follows my hand and takes the jump behind me first and then comes forward... good dog Stella!

3) Stella!! Stella!! Stella!!! I can call her name on some turns to keep her from going wide... Although, I'm still not sure why in class she went wide on the turn from the eighth to the ninth obstacle... when at the Fun Match---and this part of the course was the same as it was in the Fun Match--she turned like magic to the next jump when I just slowed my forward motion... but in class she headed off straight toward weave poles... like we were moving to the music of slightly different drums...

4) I need to keep bowling treats for her contacts--if her head is down, she's not going to jump them...
maybe get a Rachel Sanders box going too?

5) Teeter? Bring it! Stella's doing the teeter All By Herself... at least the K9 Campus teeter, she did it in class twice when cued and tried to offer it a couple of other times... she's ready

6) I need to practice the switch-a-roo which is just what I'm calling it... Sassie showed me this move--picking her up on my left hand as she comes out of the tunnel, so my body cues a tight turn, and immediately switching her to my right hand to go to the next obstacle, the tire---which is what I should have done, but didn't know, at the Fun Match when I was so busy being stubborn about not wanting to switch sides...

7) And really, Don't collide with your dog--in an attempt to do a push to the next obstacle--when she is just coming out of the chute. Luckily she survived my klutzyness and no one seems too traumatized.

So Sassie took Boing! over the course at the end of class... sorry about the camera work, I wasn't in the right place so you can really see the course and handling well and I was simultaneously trying to throw treats at Stella so she wouldn't bark at Boing! as she ran...

Because B only had some physics homework due the next day, we also made it out onto LI for her SNAP class this week... Lise gave them a front cross challenge that pretty much the whole class had a hard time getting... I'll post the last run video first--still rough, but a good run--and then also... the video with all nine of B's trys leading up to her successful last run.

I think Stella has become addicted to the 24 inch poles at K9 Campus already... although we do work with six 21 inch poles at home and she seems to get her same rhythm in them... so I don't know why these 21 inch poles give her such pause

What is interesting to see in this and what I am loving is that Stella is trying really hard to understand what B wants her to do, you can see her trying different things--ok, not that, do you mean this?? Or this??? And, she keeps trying, which means that even if she is not doing exactly what B wants, she's staying pretty darn focused... so big Yay!

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Feb. 2nd, 2010 @ 05:03 pm are we having fun yet? oh yeah

I went to my first Fun Match in NJ over the weekend with basically three or four goals:

1) To remember the course---it was only going to be 13 or 14 obstacles but when I get nervous I forget things
2) To keep Stella's focus With Me---her first CPE trial with B last fall was... well... she was not listening and all over the place, stressing, visiting, sniffing, randomly taking what ever obstacle she wanted and barking at other dogs and looking for me outside the ring and it brought B to tears
3) To see if I had any instincts at all for figuring out on my own how to handle Stella over the course...
4) To have fun

Beyond that, if Stella held her start stays, landed any of her contacts, did the teeter with gusto---these would all be icing on the agility cupcake for me this time.

So anyway, basically goals achieved... good enough for me... and Stella was great, anticipating where I would send her next in places--magic dog... Sassy said, "That's handling!"

We did not have an auspicious beginning though. I was mistakenly stubborn about my choice of handling the opening of the first run... I wanted her on my right so that at the end of the straightaway she'd be able to make the tight turn left over the jump into the weave poles... I tried to get her to do it three times... and she kept barreling out of the tunnel and making too wide a turn... Sassy said when I look at the video later I would see she was doing what my body was asking her to do... but honestly, I don't know enough to know what I'm looking for... I thought my position would pull her and I was calling her too, maybe if I had called her when she was IN the tunnel... anyway, on the third try I just asked her to go on and she was great, the turn I wanted to be good was good, the poles were good, the AF, the table, the teeter--all good... and then she blew the last contact on the DW...

On my second run on this First Course, I was stubborn yet again... but then I did relent and decided to try a front cross at the exit of the tunnel and it turns out taking her to the tire on my left worked... BUT then as I anticipated the turn to over the jump to the poles was messy, she turned right toward me first and then had to spin back left to the poles...

On the Second course, she broke her stay the first time... I was talking to her and about to release her and she just went... but then after a good start, on the first turn where I thought she would fly out wide, I slowed my motion and she turned with me like magic to the next jump, then went directly no problem to the teeter and from the teeter right to the table, she was doing the obstacles even before I could the words out of my mouth... she also gave me nice downs on the table all runs and again her poles were good... Her chutes were all strong and straight... it was very cool to be running her at Sassie's Fun Match at K9 Campus...

Between runs, I de-stressed her with pee and sniff walks outside and I played with her, a little catch with her stuffed Ellie, soccer with her orange football... also, before a run I asked her for her stretches and had her follow my hands while I ran Ss in the warm up area... when she was waiting in her crate I kept it covered so other dogs doing the warmup jump wouldn't wind her up.... I think these things all helped...

The REALLY GREAT THING about all four runs was, I wasn't losing her, she wanted to do what I wanted... she was trying to do what I wanted, was happy to try it again and again.... and most of the time was doing even better than I expected... we had a blast!

But, ahemmmmmm, even though she got MOST of them... we really have to get more serious about contacts...

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Feb. 1st, 2010 @ 10:58 pm fyi

just noticed on twitter that agilitynerd is featuring a free download of this Angelica Steinker book a chapter a month on his blog
http://agilitynerd.com/blog/agility/publications/ClickAndPlayAgility.html

We don't clicker train a lot with Stella. Just specific things. Once in a while. A fast down on the table. Go right, go left. Go hide. Ahhchooo/tissue trick. Shaking her head No. Gazzoontite. Sometimes its things we've been working on without the clicker and then we use the clicker toward the end to clarify and finish off what we're training. But, for a while now, I've been trying to clicker train her backing up to find her inflatable wobble disc with her hind feet, getting both back feet on... we're looking for hind end awareness and maybe pre-handstand work... we've made a leeeettle progress... at first she was backing up all around it, aware of where the disc was but really making a point of avoiding it. She was so funny. Then she was finding it with her front feet first walking over it and stopping with one back foot on. Then she was just switching one back foot for the other. Its hard to see around her to click exactly when she gets both back feet on, so I think my imprecision has delayed the process... but, sometimes she will back up to it and try to find it with one or two back feet, however, not consistently. So I thought maybe the wobbly disc was asking her for too much and decided to use a kitchen cupboard door that fell off years ago that the landlord has never fixed, propped as a ramp on the bottom stairs with a piece of grippy rubber mat on top of it and she is doing much better with that. Happy to back up and find it with both back feet... she'll even take a step or two backwards up it before she gets worried and sits down... which is probably because I think the rubber mat slips down a little as she goes up... okay, not a perfect world Stella... I'll keep thinking. The ramp is moving toward teaching the handstand. And we're going to study this old handstand training video of Boing! I think there are probably more of them out there, but I can't find them.

http://fjoiris.livejournal.com/69111.html

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Jan. 30th, 2010 @ 11:46 am FUN...

The Fun Match at K9 Campus is tomorrow and I am cautiously optimistic about how much "fun" I will have which is totally dependent on how distracted/focussed Stella will turn out to be... it will be in the same venue where we have been taking Sassie's class, but it will be different, seem very different. I will be nervous. There will be lots of other dogs. She'll be crated in another room that she has never been in. The courses will be longer than what we have been doing in class. Different time of day, different day of the week. I don't know, there will be other differences. Its a competition... if only to see if we can do it... for fun.

What makes me more optimistic than anxious though is this week's class. The course challenge for the class was indeed a handling challenge. Stella was good. I wasn't bad.

Sassie broke the course down into three parts to teach it. The first part all about collection and tight turns and changes of direction. The second part all about the weave poles--TWELVE--and handling them with some distance to be able to get to the right position for a front cross or rear cross--your choice. The third part being about an immediate tight turn back away from the handler from the AF to the tunnel underneath it and then some handling distance in a 360 of obstacles, the course ending with the TEETER.
Below is the video of Dawn handling the whole course with Whisper seamlessly.

Stella stuck with me and she's learning to turn her body mid-jump really well--gumby dog--which she had to do three times over the first six jumps, all of which were tight work anyway... and we had to end with the dog angled in the right place--as if we were going on to send them with a good entry into the weave poles... Stell and I got this really tough first sequence almost right away. I was kind of in shock, expecting not to get it, the hard part for me turned out to be being in the right place to handle the last jump which only took a second try... and I remember thinking as she pranced along side me back to her crate--wow our turn was over fast! And whew no total klutz or angsting!

The second part, Sassie broke into two more parts, first doing just the 12 poles, then doing the three jumps to the tunnel and well, I was worried Stella wouldn't stick in there for the twelve poles... she did, she was fine... Sassie said there was nothing to worry about, she was doing 12... and then when we added the jumps and tunnel to the rest of this second part, I could even--again, on the second or maybe it was the third, try--get two jumps away from the poles in time for that front cross... which I thought would be better than trailing her with a rear cross to the tunnel...
Below is some weave pole video from after class when Sassie had me working on getting some distance from her while she's weaving and also DRIVE through the 12... I hadn't thought of this before, but of course it makes sense--Sassie was saying the poles have to be "an independent obstacle" that Stella has to be able to do them to the end no matter where I am moving.
I was so proud of Stella!

And does she have Work Ethic? At one point, because Stella knew that Sassie had all my treats, baggies of delectable little meatball AND hotdog pieces... Stella got glued to Sassie at the end of the poles... She was nosing Sassie's hands and then offering behaviors for Sassie (mainly a beautiful down) and essentially I didn't exist. Sassie had me go away and sit on a chair until Stella figured out that I had gone missing and that she would need to tear herself away from the smell of the treats and come work with me to get the goodies Sassie was holding at the end of the poles... Ok, it took a while. Stella is a treat fiend. But, Sassy (aware of how Stella is a sucker for all kinds of distractions) said it was better to be patient, take the time now rather than deal with these problems later. Once she figured the deal out, she had no problem working.

Then, because Stella will also have to extend this understanding to competition, that even though B and I will NOT be packing treats at a trial, she'll get her reward at the end of the run, right outside the ring... Sassie had me show Stella I was putting ALL the treats on top of a crate at the edge of the room and then take Stella through the opening sequence to the end of the poles--then "throw her a party" and run her over to the treats where I should let her eat ALL of whatever was left in the baggie... This worked great.

On the third and last section of the course in class, the most obvious and surprising sticking points for me and Stella were the tunnels... for some reason she is hesitating at the entry... and this from a dog that was once a total tunnel freak... the only thing I can think is that the last time we had our tunnel out in the apartment the cats ran in and surprised her a few times... one decided the middle was a good place to take a nap and this all gave her pause, but she was still going through...
Who knows what goes on in the dog brain... Sassie suggested we get out our tunnel again at home... show her where we were putting treats a distance from the exit, then hold her collar at the entrance, build some gusto going into the tunnel... In the video below, I decided to work, first with nothing, just to come back to me for a treat reward from my hand and then with her favorite toy---the soccer ball...

All in all, I feel she's doing pretty well. She even seems to be conquering her Teeter fears. Anyway... Wish us luck tomorrow

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Jan. 28th, 2010 @ 03:49 pm a cool thing to see

circles
always a female

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Jan. 26th, 2010 @ 04:24 pm warm ups

When we first started taking a beginner agility class in CT two summers ago, we were told to warm up our dogs before every class with these three stretches. Bow, weave around your legs, and while on tippy toe, back up. I never heard any instructor ever mention the importance of these again, so I don't know whether these particular stretches are actually worth anything in terms of preventing some injury. But, they seem to be good stretches. We get Stella to do them before working anyway. If not for nothing, they get her attention.

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Jan. 23rd, 2010 @ 09:51 am off to the Therapy Dog visits in Pediatrics this morning

This picture is from another visit, but yesterday the dog was trimmed and washed the requisite 24 hours in advance---except feet and moosh had to be touched up in the tub this morning following park run and raw diet breakfast. She's so soft and mat-free and her coat restored to the tendril-ly spirals... ready for her therapeutic hugs and kisses... In a little bit I will wake B for her shower and saturday breakfast of sugar donuts and apples from the farmers market and also poof out the dog's tail and paws so she's pretty pretty... On these mornings, when we clip on her Delta vest she knows she's going to work and always prances all the way to the hospital... We never know how busy pediatrics will be... sometimes we see three of four kids and sometimes a dozen... I'm bringing the tissue box this time so she can do her new flu trick, hoping for some laughs...

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Jan. 21st, 2010 @ 10:55 am She's actually a pretty quiet and calm dog, but... lately less so...

Tags: back yard , barking , stella

It used to be that Stella was happy to sit or nose around quietly for long periods of time in the back yard on her own sniffing the smells coming from other peoples kitchens or napping and taking in the sun and contentedly amusing herself with sticks and a soccer ball and the squirrels or cats passing through... but over the last few months she has begun these barking jags.
She barks at the squirrels that taunt her from the fence top or trees. She barks to tell us to come out and play with her. She barks back at other dogs barking from other yards. Who knows what else she is barking about. Territorial barking maybe. Sometimes she just runs out the back door barking.
But, we can't let her do it. I think its good for her to be able to hang out outside when the whether is nice, but there is actually a law in the city.
So, I have been calling her in and treating her for coming, which has probably reinforced the barking actually. Or I have been going out and picking her and carrying her back in with no treat. I have gone out to keep her company for a while too. Played a little. Which probably also reinforces the barking.
But, now I'm trying a new approach that I am not sure why its working but it is... I just toss a small handful of Abady kibble that scatters across the concrete... and she goes on a kibble hunt which keeps her occupied long enough that somehow she completely forgets to bark or why she was barking... I have tossed it out there when she first starts barking. And this morning, she was immediately asking to go out in the backyard the moment we got back from her off leash romp in the park and so I just tossed the Abady right away when she first went out... and she's been quietly amusing herself out there for a long time now...

I know why it initially works, cause she's distracted by hunting and eating all these teeny tiny bits of kibble... but I don't know why after she finds it all it continues to keep her calm, because the calm stays... and she is once again happy to sniff or nap or whatever...

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Jan. 19th, 2010 @ 01:05 pm the disease of writing and not writing

Someone just mentioned this person's work to me... interesting the way that productivity could be a disease as well as writers block... http://alumnibulletin.med.harvard.edu/fascinoma/sight/incurable.php
But I don't think I'm going to run out and buy that book

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Jan. 18th, 2010 @ 11:36 am curiosity...

recap: the tub drain upstairs stopped working and a plumber came to snake it out... but then water started pouring through our living room... he said, hmmm must be overflow from when we were trying to plunge it... but anyway, you need to get this other sewer guy with a special skinny snake to come do your drain... so that guy came and opened the drain and said, no, the plumber has to come back and fix your leak... so today the prime time guys came and said, oops, the first plumber put a hole in the lead pipe when he snaked it and actually more snaking had to be done, this guy said he "got a cat out of it" the amount of hair stuck in the drain over the last probably 50 years... he put some plastic sheeting up to keep any crap from falling... and tonight a fix-it guy (recommended by the prime time plumber) is coming to seal up the ceiling--we hope... and yes

ndozo we know where our cats are

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Jan. 17th, 2010 @ 03:25 pm off leash observation

Out in the meadow, an art dealer with two labradoodles described Stella as "vociferous" this week... she hadn't noticed that one of her dogs had snatched Stella's stick right out of her mouth and was busy chewing it to bits. I happen to think in this case, Stella's vociferousness was totally justified.

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Jan. 15th, 2010 @ 11:23 am over thinking

In general, its a problem I have these days. Over thinking. Not just with agility. With my book too. Its grinding me to a stop. The editor in me keeps saying, no no, you can do better than that, you have it all wrong, that sucks, try again, again, again, totally wrong tone, that character wouldn't say that, you're moving too fast, too slow, too much detail, not enough detail, hey you started this section in the wrong place, no, thats not right either... well, there is no end to the ways I can be all wrong every inch of the way. I miss those days, the first two years or so of the book when I could trust myself enough to just let it rip, gave myself permission to blunder blissfully ahead and invariably I got it close to right. Churned it out like I was taking dictation. Three hundred pages pretty clean. So its a confidence problem maybe. Somewhere along the way there was some kind of shift, a sliding of the inner earth plates and it doesn't matter what caused it anymore, the psychic landscape has changed and apparently I just can't get away from second guessing myself.

Anyway, what I forgot to say about this week's agility class in the last post - what actually might be the most important thing I learned in the class was at the very end - Sassie said, You have three minutes left, do you want a three minute challenge? She had us quick walk a mini course and without taking time for much thought and discussion about the possible handling choices, just do it---and... I got it right on the first try... was exactly in the right place at the right time... even got the timing of a rear cross (that Stella and I really have just about zilch experience with) perfectly so without even glancing back to check where I was, she made the sticky turn to the last obstacle... we were seamless

note to myself: think less and just do it--more... there will be consequences, but what the heck

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Jan. 14th, 2010 @ 12:43 pm me needing a leetle more brain agility

Got there to the class in NJ in plenty of time to walk the first course... jump-tunnel-chute-jump-jump-jump... It looked like a simple loop, but Sassie warned us it was deceptive, the class before us had spent MOST of their class time figuring it out...
There were three potentially hazardous handling spots... No clear best way to handle the last four obstacles...
So then of course, all my self-fretting, second-guessing, worrying about where I should be proved to be totally counter productive. Stella is a good sport, but my lack of self-confidence is really not helping the dog. Last week, I worried about not being able to be in the right place at the right time so I was booking it too soon. This week, I was worrying about not being in the right place at the right time and I was hesitating too long. Poor Stella... I confound and confuse her.

At some point, I guess one hopes for it to feel like second nature out there on an agility course, where one day, you know the dog and the dog knows you well enough that the distance and speed you are moving together becomes instinctive.

The only issue for Stella with any obstacle itself was the chute, which we don't practice much of... she loves it, but she doesn't barrel out of it straight, which could be dangerous, eventually tangle her up in it... we'll need to bring our little chute home from CT one of these days for the winter... to practice straight exits..
.

(pix are from when we first got our soft pop-up chute in a little backyard agility kit)

So, anyway, while the first course was primarily designed to be a handler challenge and the second course was a challenge for the dogs... contacts... jump-Aframe-tunnel-teeter-dogwalk...
I bowled a treat on the ground after the Aframe to keep her head down, which keeps her from jumping the contact... then Sassie had me pressure her with a very long lead out, starting from the far side of the Aframe, and also yelling "tunnel" (the next obstacle) the moment she was at the top of the Aframe, to see if with more speed she would start jumping the contact.
It wasn't until the third or maybe it was fourth time---when combined with a very long lead out, Sassie also had me add the pressure of starting to run ahead to the tunnel the moment I released Stella from the start--that she jumped the contact... so no reward and back to the start... Sassie said she wanted to see if Stella understood why she was not rewarded... and this next time, with the lead out and run to the tunnel, she did hit her contact nicely... granted, I slowed ever so slightly when I was driving toward the tunnel, to help her get the contact... Sassie said that was ok, when it matters, handlers will do what they need to do to insure a contact... She is a very forgiving teacher... She also suggested working with a weave pole attached to the Aframe at the top of the yellow contact--which is what she is doing with Boing! now so that the dog registers there is something she needs to go over, landing her stride in the contact zone...

Stella's teeter is still a work in progress. She jumped off of it mid way the first time on. After the initial balk, she was relatively ok with the bang and the motion. We are not that far off... And I'm thinking eventually we will want Stella to go into a down at the down end like the work Sassie is doing with Toggle.

And the dogwalk was fine.

Stella seems to be physically in good form these days... perhaps (knock wood) whatever her injury was from the squirrel chasing incident has completely healed...

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Jan. 12th, 2010 @ 02:44 pm Our Newest Trick (for flu season)

We are trying to come up with some new tricks to teach Stella for her visits with the kids in the pediatrics unit at the hospital. This one took about three seconds to teach. She can't believe she's getting permission to do this.
I am wondering if I start delaying the click a little more, if I can give her a little more distance and she might bring it to me?

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Jan. 10th, 2010 @ 10:09 am Jump Into My Arms Stella

Stella now pretty solidly has the trick of jumping into our arms.
It took us a couple weeks. We had to work our way away from the sofa where we started teaching it, adding more and more pillows and a beanbag chair and her dog bed until we were essentially standing... Then, we started asking her to "hup" standing directly infront of the sofa. Then, we moved a couple steps away. Then, we rotated slightly in relation to the sofa, asking her to "hup" perpendicular to it in both directions. Then we could ask her when we were standing in the center of the living room. Then we tried the kitchen. Yesterday, I asked her to "hup" in the field where we play soccer while B swims and later randomly on a leash walk. Last night I tried it a few times, getting her to start from across the room--a running start from a mat to where I was standing again (in familiar territory) in front of the sofa. This morning she was happy to do it on the second time I asked her in the meadow in Prospect Park... the first time was kind of huh? but, she's got it, she's figured out the height she needs to leap, trusts that we won't drop her, and doesn't even mind the occasional klutzy catch... she brings all her adorable enthusiasm to this leap of faith... and we are still rewarding her with a handful of treats and will continue to do so until it seems like she feels she has been doing this trick her whole life... but for a while there, every time we moved away from the sofa it was almost like asking her to do a whole new trick.

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Jan. 7th, 2010 @ 10:44 am Stella and B's class last night

Stella was somewhat less focussed in B's class on LI last night than she was in NJ earlier in the day with me. There could be several reasons for this. Maybe two classes in one day are too much. Maybe Stella prefers to work for meatball pieces and B prefers to work with less messy treats. Maybe B has been busy with homework and college stuff and working with Stella less in general so they have less of a connection these days. Stella has been hungry to learn new tricks, so I have been the one teaching them lately. (We're hoping the Semper Fido Tricks Class with Sassy still works out at the time B can go.) Maybe Stella gets anxious waiting in the X-pen on LI--she spends the whole time standing and making noises when the other dogs run, whereas she's calmer, gets her downtime in her pop-up crate in NJ. Maybe also because this was a bran new venue (with a bran new super-traction agility floor), the class has moved inside for the winter and Stella had never worked in this place before.

B didn't seem too unhappy about it, she felt the trip was worth it---even though she got carsick doing her homework in the car both on the way there and back... But she did ask me afterwards---Was she better with you? My answer was--I was not as good with her... and anyway, I carry meatballs--in both hands!!!

However---Last night Stella started out really great with B.
The main challenge for the evening was a new kind of lead out that neither B or Stella had ever seen or done before. Facing the dog, but sending the dog away over the first two jumps... And Stella did it the first time just fine! Later, there was also a rear cross to contend with, which we don't do too much of and then the 12 weave poles were disappointing to B... I am not sure why they were lackluster. I know one thing--the poles and bases were not in a straight line when Stella went into them the first time... which for a green dog still figuring out a rhythm---had to be confusing. I'm also wondering if they were spaced closer together than the 12 she did beautifully in NJ last week.

I can't hear most of what Lise tells B... but I know she told B to get a better connection with Stella, play with her, get her interested in playing while on the way out onto the course. Lise showed B how she could jazz her up just with her hands... a little gonna-get-your-butt kind of game. Which did make Stella bring it a little more next run. And I know there was a place mid-course where B was running ahead and Stella kept missing a jump and running off to hunt for treats where someone must have accidentally dropped them... Lise told B to slow down and Stella would turn into her and toward the jump---and this worked. B never got frustrated and Lise let her keep working until the run went went pretty well.

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Jan. 6th, 2010 @ 05:44 pm Outclassed? Maybe. But it was fun.

I have a couple of minutes now, so even though I haven't digested it, I'll jot some thoughts down about the agility class in New Jersey. I tried the more advanced class today and it obviously is more advanced than I am. Stella is fine. For me, I wish there was some level in between the two classes. But, I guess if Sassy thinks I can do it, I'll keep coming to the more advanced one because its probably better for me to just take a breath and push myself. More advanced people in the class to watch and learn from. And Stella can use all the experience we can get her on the obstacles. I just have to tell myself that the more opportunity for mistakes--the more opportunity to learn.

1) The two courses were 13 or 14 obstacles, almost twice the length of what we were doing in the lower class, but still not full competition length.
2) Both were challenges of alternating speed and collection and full of pinwheels and tight wraps and even a couple of full 360s throughout--OMG, requiring what felt like pretty intricate footwork to be in the right place in time and have the dog on the right side and on the right lead... going in the right direction. (I think this might be what people are talking about when they talk about more "technical courses".) I feel like when it counted I was never exactly where I should be. I knew where to be, but I freeze up because I am trying to keep too many things in my head at once, or thats the way it feels...
3) I was more nervous in this class than the other one, mainly because right away, looking at the course, I felt I was out of my league. I don't naturally know where I need a front cross and where I need a pivot turn and how far I need to move for Stella to know where I am sending her. I wasn't sure at all (as I was walking it) what Stella would do in certain spots.... unlike the easier class, which offered simpler or more familiar challenges. Pivot turns just feel weird to me cause I never had to do them.
4) Stella is pretty sensitive, and it turns out, forgiving and went in all the right and wrong directions I sent her---good girl.
5) I worry that I will be screwing up the dog for B. I don't want Stella to feel she's wrong or get stressed when its me who screws up. B would have been smooth as silk out there handling on both those corses. I even accidentally punched Stella in the face... when she was turning around to see where I was telling her to go next and I was just catching up to her to send her in a tunnel...
6) The courses were way funner. The class was a little smaller. And I get to see our other teacher Dawn Prentiss training her beautiful new red BC Shasta.
7) I wonder if I should worry that two agility classes in one day might be too much for Stella... it didn't seem to matter so much with the earlier easier class... Tonight B resumes her class on LI and Stella will have to be using her brain again---its not her physical stamina I'm worried about. We'll just have to see.
8) Stella stuck. Agility glue. She did not run off. She was looking to me to tell her what to do next, the whole time. Her only lapse in concentration came at the start of the second course, twice she uncharacteristically sat at the start--not looking at me, not looking at the first jump, but turning around to check out her own tail... I think something spooked her. I heard a rumbling somewhere in the distance, like faint thunder in another part of the building... She probably heard it too... nothing more scary... after class when we got outside I heard it again farther down the little mall or on the other side... like a truck unloading iron girders or a dumpster or something.... and she really went all spooky.
9) I don't know if she always does, but after class Sassie took out Boing! and handled her through the last course. Cool to see.
10) I'm going to try my flip video tonight in B's class.

Ok. Times up.

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Jan. 5th, 2010 @ 10:26 am Leave it

We need to work on Stella's Leave It again.
It was good and now, well, its totally our fault because no one was exactly paying attention on Thanksgiving, and she managed to polish off half a cheese plate sitting out on a coffee table at our friends party and now ever since she has no solid Leave It when it comes to people food. This level of cheeseplate skulduggery is uncharacteristic, something she has never done, never occurred to her to do. She has never been a people food beggar. Happy to go lie down when we eat. Never a people food thief. Socks and underwear yes, but not food. But, this was a party and lots of temptation right at nose level, so we really should have been on top of it, not taken her good behavior for granted and partied so cluelessly. Because then, the cheese plates out on our coffee table again when the in-laws came for postxmas xmas, proved to be a pretty annoying temptation. She didn't get anything this time, but she sure get hovering... And now I've also noticed in other instances Leave It is eroding, it just means Leave It for a few seconds, but feel free to try again... Then, last night, the last straw, she managed to quietly get the kitchen garbage can lid off and we might never have known she was indulging herself except our girl choked herself trying to reach something at the very bottom and coughed... so, yeah, self control, we've got to get on the case.
Its over Stella. Over. The Leave It police are back.
And while we're on the topic... I also need to work on Leave It with myself. Really I have to get better about leaving all the distractions, my list of a gazillion things I have to do that buzz around in my head, be strict about the time I am working and really Leave It - them and finish this novel... there are just like three major parts... I can do this. I can Leave it.

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Jan. 2nd, 2010 @ 12:54 pm off leash...

There are a lot of characters out there at off leash in the park... We've made a lot of friends... some really great friends... sharing treats and dog toys and trading info... more than you'd ever want to hear in your lifetime about dog poop... but plenty of other things... usual and unusual gossip, things we've read, heard, seen, neighborhood stuff, health issues, real estate, given each other suggestions, advice, nothing to do with dogs... becoming a part of eachother's lives in a peculiarly intimate daily way... we've seen babies come and a few marriages go and there has been a cancer scare and issues with kids, schools, work, and issues with other adults... there is a group of us, mainly because our dogs get along so well, we look for each other, we look out for each other... a whole other world Stella has brought us that we wouldn't have had without her.

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Dec. 31st, 2009 @ 05:42 pm agility in new jersey - the SSSSSSSSS

When I got to the car I noticed (among several things starting to go wrong with the car) the front right tire was going flat so part of me was saying go home, forget the agility class in New Jersey, this is a sign, there's a nail in it or something from all the construction going on around here and you've got family stuff to do, and you're going to get a blowout on one of those highways driving 70 mph cause you are late and one of those big trucks that barrel along like they are little sports cars will flatten you and your kids will need a new mom... but the car was loaded, Stella was buckled in and well, I just drove to a gas station and put in some EXTRA air and said the kind of prayer someone who is not sure what they believe in says... it turns out the traffic was light, the tire was fine, (at least to the K9 Campus and back) and I only got to class ten minutes late... and it was a good class, Stella and I are learning some cool stuff. Again I'm glad I went.

The little dogs had already started taking their turns when we came in, so I missed my chance to walk the course and that is probably why I never got the middle part exactly right... It was a nice little S shaped course beginning fast with a relatively straight on tunnel-to-tire jump combo into a tight pinwheel turn of jumps, requiring then, a front cross at the center of the S to change sides and bring the dog around the last turn over four jumps and out the other end of the S...

The first obvious challenge for us was that Stella was going to have too much speed going into the pinwheel to make the turn. She naturally picks up speed in a tunnel and she would need to collect her stride after the tire jump to make the pinwheel turn... I am nowhere near as fast as she is, so if I went in deep to the pinwheel turn to babysit her through it there would be no way for me then to beat her to be where I needed to be for the front cross to take her out the bottom end of the S...

So Sassie first had Stella and I just practice the pinwheel to the front cross (without the tunnel) and I could rehearse stopping at the tire jump, sending her into the pinwheel from there and then moving laterally left to be in place for the front cross... This distance-send stuff is new for us, so understandably mildly confused, Stella naturally stopped or slowed at the tire jump when I stopped...
Then, once when she took went on to the tire and headed into the pinwheel, she skipped a jump... Sassie fixed this by putting a treat after that jump, mid pinwheel to reinforce my send into it... when we were getting the pinwheel and essentially the front cross, we added the tunnel... and Stella was fine, headed out the rest of the course like a pro... Sassie let us do it multiple times and my front cross probably looked fairly discombulated every time... instead of moving directly sideways and doing the cross, every time I got stuck in this thing of backing up into place and then turning... which Sassie said, as long as I wasn't bumping into anything was fine... she was pretty funny about it, showing us how someone she knows would notoriously back up to hold her dog's start stay and then knock over the first jump... maybe if I'd had gotten to class on time, I could have walked it, rehearsed it... and then, because apparently I am researching multiple ways to screw up, one of the times I froze, unsure of Stella (when it turns out she would have been fine) and my hands went in the air, (a quirk I seem to have developed when I screw up) which totally flummuxed Stella and she knocked a jump down, which she never does... but we're learning this stuff in increments... building handler-dog confidence... Stella is holding her startline stays, sticking to the course, and I am learning to trust that she will actually do what I ask her to do and she is learning to pay closer attention...

Then we broke up to work on individual issues... Stella and I did some teeter work with Sassie's daughter Celine... the teeter was up on two tables, one high, one low so there was some motion and bang. Celine asked for some of our meatball pieces (our very effective high value treat thanks to Dawn Prentiss) and she treated Stella as she came across to the down end, holding the board the first time or two and lowering it slowly until Stella got her teeter legs again... then Celine took the low table away so there was more motion and bang and after a few repetitions, there was no flinching at the motion or sound... so that was great. I haven't been doing any teeter work at home, Stella has not been so crazy about our little teeter ever since the cats got on it with her...

The last work was with the weave poles and once Sassie saw that Stella was making her entries and weaving the 6 poles - we worked on speed... adding a jump and tunnel before the poles... and then Sassie had me running way ahead of her when she got to the poles to get her weaving faster... she really did pick up some speed and I was thrilled that she stayed in without popping out... Sassie also had me take her collar off so her tags didn't hit the poles, which never occurred to me might be a problem...

And then, because its something I've been concerned about, I asked Sassie whether practicing only 6 poles all the time would end up being a problem for Stella (we just have six at home) because she has never yet shown enthusiasm for 12... she slows way down or pops out the few times we've had a chance in a class to do them... Sassie figured Stella might be up to the challenge of 12 this week and added the other 6 poles... and Stella WAS awesome in the 12... there was a split second hesitation in her rhythm when she hit the 7th pole but she stayed in there... very cool...

Sassie's patient, fluid, "can do" or "let's try it" approach is really great for us... she can intuit a problem and the problems her students have actually seem to interest her... viewing the problem as a challenge--so you don't feel judged, but more like how you or your dog's screw-ups can be useful... and she has a way of breaking things she down so they don't feel insurmountable...

Also, twice on the jump/tunnel/poles run, Stella took off visiting her classmates a little after the first jump... not really engaging, but investigating what other people or dogs were doing around that end of the room... maybe looking for Celine who had given her treats earlier on the teeter... and for me, I felt the instant panic--okay here we go, obnoxiously playful friendly noisy out-of-control labradoodle, no focus, no work ethic, no brain, everyone is about to start hating us... but, then she didn't really go way off, she came back to work with me... And Sassie--she has this particular respect for the animals--suggested Stella may have just been wary of the tunnel, because one of the dogs working over there had just run through it and Stella could be wondering if that dog was still in there... which actually took the panic out of my panic... Stella really is a "good dog" but of course I'm still wondering... if it might be... now that Stella's feeling more confident in this space that she might start testing me, asserting her own little happy agendas... B's tears at the CPE trial live fresh in the back of my mind and remind me more than anything else, right now we are supposed to be keeping Stella's focus---developing it like crazy glue

well... we shall see... but really - so far so good and thats HUGE for us.

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