Archive for March, 2008

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Midas, Rally Round II, Class #3

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

Tonight was Midas’s third Rally class, Eric came with to get some photos.

It was a good time. We worked entirely on his martingale collar and he did fantastic! :) We’ve come so far in such a short amount of time.

We started out with practicing the Swing command, in which Midas leaps up from in fron tof me and turns to land in a heel beside me. It’s fun to train and he enjoys it. He’s really getting the hang of it. Now to apply the command and start asking him to do it that way.

We had two “issues” to work with tonight – Midas’s love for the instructor:

Which made it difficult for us to have her follow us on the “course” since the first quarter he wanted to gaze after her…dang dog!

He also had some extremely sloppy sits:

His heeling was much better since I’ve been practicing leading him with the treat, he’s more liable to be in the correct position. He’s also really caught on to the Back command when we do our Right Turns.

(look how he’s watching me :) )

He’s also been really itchy lately, which results in a lot of head-flopping and scratching – Spring is hitting all of us:

Our second time through the course, his heeling was much improved!

Look at that loose-leash!

He of course took the jump in the course fine:

(look at his tongue :) )

We finished the course with loose leash still hanging (you can see it behind my leg) and tail wagging:

Which is what makes this fun. As long as I see this:

I know he’s enjoying himself! :D

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Mason’s Intermediate Obedience Class #6

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

Tonight was Mason’s last class. He was soooo good! Everything we’ve been working on he did really well at, with the exception of the moving lay down. Those were really sloppy. We worked 1/2 the class off-lead and he never lost focus once. I’m going to bring him to Midas’s Rally class during the next round. :) Can’t wait.

I talked to the instructor about his lack of attention span outside and she said that I should treat him just like I do in class. With treats and everything. Not sure why I didn’t think of that myself before but I can’t wait until the weather gets nicer so that will be enjoyable for both of us. My only worry with Rally is that I’ve been training Midas on my left, Mason on my right. Now Mason’s at the point where he whips around to my right if he accidentally gets on the wrong side, but in Rally, he’s going to have to work on my left…not sure how to approach this quite yet.

Posted in Non-Competitive Obedience, Training Story | No Comments »

Midas, Agility Round II, Class #3

Friday, March 21st, 2008

Tonight was our third agility class and it was so much fun! We had everything set up again and we each got to move to a “set” of equipment to try out and then move onto the next thing. Midas was on a roll tonight! He was on the commands well, he was fast and he was focused. Several times another dog ran up to him and he completely ignored him. One time, we were coming through a series of 4 obstacles, he was on a run for the 5th and another dog came and stole his treat off of it! I made a huge leap and snagged his collar, but he wasn’t even getting upset, he was looking to me like, “Mom, where’s my treat?!”. Our instructor commented that she was impressed with my fast reflexes and that she had thought that a train wreck was coming.

Since Midas was doing so well she had me try a couple of more complicated things – and he passed with flying colors! Our only little glitch, was when I tried to run him from his left, he would sometimes try to switch sides so that I was in the “proper” position, but we kept working on that until he had it down so I was happy :) . He was one of the few dogs that has absolutely no issues with the teeter-totter:

The weaves are still rahter rough, so we worked on that:

We had another “course” to try at the end of the class. It started off with two jumps:

Then a tunnel:

(Eric had to stand kind of right in the way for this one, and Midas never even looked at him, he was totally focused on me and the next object *so proud I could burst* )

Then we had a “Big Jump”:

The table was next, he can’t go flying off the back-side and he has to lay down, with elbows touching for five seconds.

I moved around behind him to get to the next obstacle for his release, and he spun to look at me, lifting his elbows and so we had to start counting again.

Next was the dogwalk:

We worked really hard on the “wait” command tonight so that his contacts were on – tonight is the first night that he consistently did it :)

Then we had a circle of jumps, including a tire jump, that we had to do 1.5 times:

Then was the collapsed, chute tunnel, which he mastered with no problems tonight, then we race down to the A-Frame, up and over and the “wait” command again. Then through the weaves. The weaves are the only area that Midas is behind the other dogs, I still have to lead him through every time. He always wants to take shortcuts, the little brat.

Then we’re done! :-D

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Midas, Rally Round II, Class #2

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

Eric came with to Rally class tonight so I’ve got some photos. We had another advanced course set up and it was a little confusing when I walked through it first by myself. But, when we went through all-together it made much more sense. Midas was wound pretty tight tonight – but for once that actually worked in my favor. Once I did a walk-through, I practiced a couple of things off the course.

His sits are becoming SO much better!

I struggled with the Swing command and kept mistakenly putting him into a sit afterwards instead of moving forward. Totally my fault. The instructor said that some people, instead of having their dogs execute the Swing on a walk, will teach them to jump up and pivot into position. She also thought that Midas would really excel at that because he’s so athletic (and he likes to jump around). So, she demonstrated how to go about teaching him that.

He was really loud and obnoxious when we first got there, so I tied him to the wall and we practiced the Quiet command – with other dogs on the course – he did really, really well!

Since the instructor has started working more often with him one-on-one in class, he really likes her – here he’s having a hard time focusing on me because she’s following behind and might give him a treat.

*eye roll* goober dog.

Advanced Rally classes are supposed to be off-lead – but we’re obviously not ready for that. So, everything is on-lead. He does great over the jump (it’s just like agility).

The figure-8 we do fine on, except a little “leash-steering” on my part, something I really have to work on!

We really tried to nail the Close command on this course:

Which he did very well!

We had a new sign, which worked on a different version of Close than we’ve done before.

Description: “HALT – Side Step Right – HALT. With the dog sitting in heel position, the team moves one step directly to the right and halts. The dog moves with the handler and sits in heel position when the handler halts. The exercise may be performed just past the exercise sign. (Stationary exercise)”

He did this very well considering I wasn’t sure what I was doing. :) Great fun!

We did the course twice, once on the prong, once on his martingale – the instructor says that we’re not quite there, but so close! :) How awesome is that!?

Then he had to sit patiently (and quietly) while the other dogs went through the course:

This is a silly photo:

Posted in Rally, Training Story | No Comments »

Ultimate Sport & RV Show: Grand Rapids, Michigan

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

SATURDAY

This was our first event right here in GR and we were psyched. Some members of Midas’s agility class were planning on coming, some of my classmates and family from both sides were coming. I had entered the boys in both splashes for Saturday – one at 10 and one at 2:30. We kenneled the boys and I decided to wait in line to practice Mason first since he can handle waiting in line.

I had him in a sit/stay on the dock….


(all un-watermarked photos are courtesy of Paul Gray)

and he kept creeping forward…

I kept creeping back and:

Yeah, I fell in the pool. In front of an entire crowd. If you notice in the photo you can see one lady covering her mouth in a gasp, most people laughing…and Mason worried and wondering what in the world I’m doing in the water – with his toy! The water was FRIGID, I sank to the bottom in shock before coming up and then I had to jump Mason in my sopping-wet clothes…

It was embarrassing, but what can you do but laugh?? When I got off the dock I had several amazingly nice people offer me clothes (LOVE the UAD family!) – and UAD gave me a free shirt. So, I rushed into the bathroom to change and when I came out, Midas was being announced! He hadn’t even gotten to practice. So, I rushed up onto the dock with him (thankfully he has a strong sit/stay – no backing off the dock this time):

He refused to jump! My water-loving, 18′ jumper just refused to go off the dock. Both times!

I tried to pep-talk:

To demand:

Milt even tried to encourage him to jump:

To no avail, so we gave up and I pulled him from the 2:30 splash. We obviously have some work to do….

Mason on the other hand, is my little dog who is all heart! He is such a joy to work with at these events! After my fall-in-the-pool mishap, I asked my little cousin, Paige, to come up on the dock and be my handler for Mason.

Here we are waiting in line (Mason’s trying to sneak behind my back and grab the Wubba):

Then he hops up and down, trying to get my attention:

He is overall so dang good waiting in line though! He’s fairly quiet (he only barks if I ask him), he completely ignores the other dogs and people in line – even when they’re being inappropriate with him. He’s just such a focused little dude.

Then we get on the dock. He’s pumped, he’s barking and running and jumping – and I’m encouraging it. I place him in a sit/stay and have Paige hold him (no more backing off the dock for me!).

I love this photo, they’re so focused on me and just waiting for the release word!

He had a little trouble finding the exit ramp, he’s accustomed to it being on the other side, but he caught on:

Then we do it all over again:

The exit ramp didn’t have the AstroTurf on it so it was a tad slippery, I had to help him up the last little bit:

He’s so funny. If I hand his toy to him, he will take it, then drop it at my feet, then pick it up, and drop it again. If he actually retrieves the toy, he will hang on to it until I tell him he has to drop it:

He hangs onto that Wubba out of the water, down the stairs, around and into his kennel :) . He also doesn’t remember to shake unless I tell him to. He’s so driven – I love it!

This photo pretty much wraps up Saturday:

Mason ended up just outside the Novice bracket with his finishing jump being 6′4″ – that’s TWO feet onto his old Personal Best! :)

SUNDAY

We decided to bring Mason to finals today just in case a couple of other dogs dropped – he would then be in. When we got there, Sara informed us that Milt was allowing anyone that showed up and wanted to jump, to jump in the finals. :) Then so many dogs dropped that Mason ended up being in 4th anyway. Since he was the shortest jumper, he was the first to jump in finals.

None of my family came so it was all Eric taking photos:

Lynn held him for me and apparently she was whispering some big-jumping encouragement to him because he jumped…8 FEET 8 INCHES!!!! :-D I was so psyched!

His second jump he slipped going off the dock, but it was still 5′6″ – better than he’s ever done before:

He ended up placing THIRD! :) The two dogs he lost to also jumped completely out of Novice division – so technically he got first ;) . He just did such a great job and I’m so dang proud of him! He’s all heart! When we got home he was so exhausted he could barely keep his eyes open, let alone hold his head up :) .

Posted in Event Recap, Ultimate Air Dog Events | No Comments »

Midas, Agility Round II, Class #2

Friday, March 14th, 2008

Tonight I was supposed to have Mom, Dad, Adam and maybe Eric going to class with me…but I ended up going alone instead. Midas was being kind of a brat when we first got there. He wasn’t focusing on what I was asking him to do at all so I took him into the middle of the room and made him quietly watch everyone else and when we started again he was much more focused.

We had a full teeter-totter this week, all the way to the ground and he had no problems with it at all. The instructor tried to soften the bang to the floor, until she realized that he didn’t care and then we just let it hit.

I worked on sending him to different obstacles from a distance but the only one that he does consistently is the tunnel (and only from a left-entrance) and the table. Everything else I have to guide him or be close.

There were four jumps set up near each other and I was supposed to guide him over the first two every time and then the third one would differ depending on command. I really don’t think he noticed the difference in commands and that he just jumped the one that I was pointing to.

The chute was set up in a shorter version this week and he did fine with that. The dog walk was no problem. The A-Frame was 4 feet tall and he didn’t have any difficulty what-so-ever with that either.

At the end of the class, in the last 1/2 hour we played a game called Snooker. Everyone else had to be off-course and one at a time every one else got to try their best for the game. There was a tire jump, two regular jumps and a tunnel to work with. We had to enter the “course” by jumping the first jump and exit the “course” by jumping the second jump – pointing out. The rest was up to us. Each obstacle was worth 1 point and we had 30 seconds to try to do as many as we could.

Midas did great! He didn’t hesitate and I only treated him once I think for the whole time. We had to race to get to the last jump in time but he was rushing right alongside of me so we made it – we got 9 obstacles. We got beat by two other dogs. One was disqualified because she knocked over a jump and then they kept using it – although she did get 13. The other dog only beat us by one so that was pretty cool. :-D Overall, a fantastically fun class!!

Posted in Agility, Training Story | No Comments »

The Chase Practice

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

Tonight Adam came with me to walk the 3 blocks down to the elementary school’s baseball field. I actually walked with Midas on one side and Mason on the other and it went really well. They had to be reminded where they were supposed to be several times but there was no real yanking at all – which was really awesome! There was a dog in one of the side yards that made Midas start up with his whining, which in turn caused Mason to try to make him feel better – and cross in front of me, but that was a one-time thing :)

We got to the field and Adam watched one dog while I practiced with the other. I started with Mason because watching him usually gets Midas raring to go. He did amazing! It was so great!! Last year, I was just working on him chasing and pouncing on the toy – the beginning of The Chase technique. Now, he’s finally got the concept. His sit/stay are a little shaky and no where near the distance that Midas can go, but it’s there at least. He runs at me full-speed…and JUMPS!! :-D He jumps now – and he CATCHES!! Consistently :-D I couldn’t be more thrilled with my little dude! :-D

Next, I switched them off with Adam and took Midas out to the field. He did lousy, similar to the last time we practiced and the last event. But, only for the first couple of times. After a warm-up he finally got it right twice in a row. I switched off again and Mason did well again and then I did Midas again. He was much more into it the second time. I’m not sure if he just got lazy over the winter, lost his drive or just forgot what it was all about. But, we ended up with one really spectacular run and jump so we called it quits on a good note and walked home. They were exhausted for the rest of the evening :)

Posted in Dock Jumping, Training Story | No Comments »

Mason’s Intermediate Obedience Classes #4 and #5

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

We skipped class last week to meet Kya so I got to make it up by participating in the Beginning Obedience Class yesterday and then our regular class tonight. Adam came with last night but it wasn’t very productive. Since it was a beginning class, there wasn’t a lot of movement welcome and we mostly need to work on correct positioning in the heel and the sit/lay down etc. So, we mainly focused on eye contact and being quiet while other, younger dogs bounced around near us (Mason doesn’t particularly care for puppies). He did really well though.

Whenever our end cleared out for whatever reason, I would work on heeling as much as possible.

This is what I get to see every class:

Who wouldn’t want to work with a face like that??

Tonight’s class I was on my own. But, it went extremely well. Once again we worked on loose-leash walking and sit/lay down in the proper position. We also worked on sit/lay down and stay in preparation for our upcoming event. I talked to the instructor and she thinks that Mason could take the CGC test without the class and pass. I think he would struggle with staying calm while being greeted by a friendly stranger. I’ll have to think about it and see. Either way, pretty terrific compliment! :)

Posted in Non-Competitive Obedience, Training Story | No Comments »

Midas, Agility Round II, Class #1

Friday, March 7th, 2008

Tonight was the start of Midas’s second round of Agility classes. There weren’t anywhere near as many dogs enrolled. There were a couple of new things including a chute tunnel and a teeter-totter.

The chute was a little difficult for us. He would lift his head up and then run in a 90 degree angle straight into the teeter-totter. We practiced with that for a bit and finally got him running straight.

He did well on the teeter-totter, not really any fear of going on it. But, once he got the hang of it he would hop off the last couple of feet, which is bad because it’s a contact point that he has to hit. So, we worked on going “easy” the last couple of feet and that worked well for us.

We had a couple of tunnels that we had to work on sending from really close and farther and different angles and through either side. He did really well except for one of the tunnels he didn’t really like to go in the one side if I was farther away. It wasn’t facing us, he had to go around to the end to reach it and for some reason he didn’t really like that.

We also worked on a taller A-Frame, 4 feet. He didn’t do well when I was walking too slowly, so I took him off-lead and let him go and he did great, he even did fairly well with the “wait” command at the bottom. :)

(tunnel facing out of this photo is the entrance he didn’t like to go in)

At the end of an hour we all got off to the side and got to go through everything on our own. I love that part. He’s so responsive and he doesn’t even glance towards the other dogs that are off-course. I love this class! :-D

Posted in Agility, Training Story | No Comments »

Midas, Rally Round II, Class #1

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

We had the beginning of our second rally class tonight. Only one lady, plus us, were there form the time before. But, she brought a new dog and her friend brought her Portuguese Water Dog to class. That dog was amazing.

Midas did really well tonight. We were just on. His worst problem was sniffing the ground but we’re working on that. This was an Advanced level course and so there were several new signs that we had not used before.

My favorite were these:

This was the description: “Left About Turn. While moving with the dog in the heel position, the handler makes an about turn to the left while at the same time the dog must move around the handler to the right and to the heel position. The dog does not sit before moving forward in heel position with the handler.”

This was pretty self-explanatory, and he did great (because it’s just like agility). There were two other signs that were very new and I didn’t have very high expectations because his tight heel is pretty…loose. But, he did both of them fantastically, like he’d known them the whole time!

Description: “HALT – Turn Right One Step – Call to Heel. With the dog sitting in heel position, the handler commands the dog to wait or stay. The handler then turns to the right while taking one step in that direction and halts. The dog is called to heel position in the new location before moving forward to the next station. (Stationary exercise)”

Description: “HALT – 90 degree – Pivot Left – HALT and Forward. With the dog sitting in heel position, the team pivots 90 degrees to the left in place, halts, and then moves forward. (Stationary)”

There was one that we had to practice off-course before we could even remotely attempt to do it on the course. I should’ve expected that since we had the same problem with walking around him in a lay down/stay.

Description: “HALT – Stand Dog – Walk Around.With the dog sitting in heel position, the handler will stand the dog, command the dog to stay and walk around the dog to the left, returning to heel position. The handler must pause in heel position before moving forward to the next station. In the Advanced Class, the handler may touch the dog, move forward to stand the dog and may pose the dog as in the show ring. (Stationary)”

We got a plastic lid with peanut butter on it and held it in front of his face while I walked around him. It worked but I would still like to teach him the command “Stand” just for general use.

The class was a blast, as usual. We were really challenged and he did great! It’s also a great bonding experience as well! :)

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