Eric was able to come to class tonight so there are photos to show what we worked on . When we first got there, Mason was very excited and had kind of a hard time concentrating. The instructor had to come over and say hello - he likes to greet everyone.

He always breaks the lay down/stay at the beginning of class, too excited to sit still.

But, after that initial wiggle-fest he is usually ready to concentrate on the tasks at hand so I usually try to have him do a stay while the instructor goes over the different stations that we’ll be working on for each class. Then he does the stay perfectly.

This is his calm, but attentive, face:

When the stations were all explained and everyone split up to work on separate ones, the only one open to us was the Teeter, so that’s what we started with. This week we actually walked the dog up the one end and down the other, the instructor held it so it wouldn’t slam and scare them while they hit the contacts and Waited at the end.

Mason is still struggling with where his back-end is and if I am hanging onto his collar, he leans one way or the other and then he usually can’t control his back-end and it slips off. Something we definitely have to work on!

We did it over and over, I made sure to keep my hand as light as possible on his collar (a heavier hand caused such intense shaking that the entire Teeter was swaying), until he was steady going up and down. He looked forward to the treats throughout the process and eagerly awaited his treat after the Wait command as well.

We borrowed a tab from the instructor because the tab I was using on Mason was Midas’s and Mason’s poor little foot kept slipping through the loop and tripping him. We’ll have to make or buy one that isn’t a loop that will work better for the little dude.

The next station we moved to was the dog walk. I figure the more practice that Mason gets, the better he’ll be about where his rear-end is.

He really likes the dog walk and likes to sprint the straight away - I think it’s eagerness to hit the Wait command and then get the treat at the end. He is learning the command Easy though so that’s good.

After that we moved to the Weaves. The guides still occasionally screw him up but as long as I go alongside him, he does them fine. He hasn’t quite mastered being able to do the Weaves by entering one end while I wait at the other - he skips several or comes out early etc. I tried lowering the guides all the way to the ground, so that they were out of the way for the most part and then he did them perfectly, without a hitch.

We worked on the A-frame next.

He has never had a problem with this obstacle and I really wanted to practice more on the Wait command (he does it so extremely well I want to make sure I don’t begin to expect it instead of praising for it).

Here is Mason slamming on the brakes!

And the big praises:

We moved to a tunnel and two jumps for our next station. The jumps are what we struggle with the most. Once he gets the hang of the station and what I’m asking for, he tries to add some speed - at which point his jumps become rather flat and he starts knocking bars. This is an area we definitely need to work on.

When we’ve had a bar-hitting spree, I usually set him up as close to the jump as possible, in a sit and then command him to jump Over, this teaches him to jump up.

The tunnel on the other hand, he has perfected. He never enters without a command and he is always very conscious of which end I’m directing him to, which is awesome.

Because of the jumping problems, we moved to the Speed Circle next. It was a series of 4 jumps in a circle that then leads to either the collapsed tunnel or through the tire jump, depending on the direction that we took with the speed circle.

At one point, Mason hit 3 of the 4 bars and knocked them down . So, we practiced on this a lot.

That summed up all of the stations for the one-on-one time. We took a short break while everyone else finished up.

It was almost the end of class so we gathered together and went through a couple of the stations as a group. The first station Mason nailed without any problems whatsoever. It involved the A-frame, weaves, tunnel and jumps.

The second station was the speed circle, the tire and the collapsed tunnel. The instructor had seen him knock down all but one of the bars on one of our practice rounds so she called on us to go first. I was nervous he would do the same thing but trusted that he would do his best regardless…

…he did not hit a single bar!!! He did awesome!! I was very proud of the little dude! Since we went first, we got to practice our down/stay again while everyone else went through and then that was the end of class .

We missed Midas’s real agility class time because I was trying out a new SAR group with Mason. Instead we went to one of the open agility times that anyone that is interested in can show up for and there were quite a few people there, including our regular classmates .

When we first got there, I tethered Midas to the wall so that I could check out the course we would be doing (a difficult one).

I walked the course after catching up (I am really sad I missed class, I never realized what a huge part of my week seeing everyone is!), it was tricky and I did it multiple times to try to figure out where I could cross:

We went third, and by that time Midas was really revved up - but I was soooo proud of him, he did a little moaning and whining but nothing loud and he laid down and was quiet when I told him to!

First we had a jump at an angle from the start line (the jump behind us), then an angled jump (the one he’s going over)…

…and then right angled up onto the dog walk:

Then we had to run past the first entrance to the tunnel and he had to go in the second. The first time, this was no problem. The second time he went partially into the wrong end but came back out when I called him (we started over) and the third time he did fine as well .

After the tunnel we had a funky jump at an angle and then onto the Teeter. The first time he slammed the Teeter and jumped off the end, the second time he slammed it but didn’t jump and the third time I held his collar and he did it properly lol. From the Teeter it was onto the Table:

Through the Tire:

Then through the weaves. He knows what they are about now, that’s for sure. He also really wants to do them fast, but then he ends up skipping and popping out too early. But, he’s progressing quickly and I think it’s only a matter of time until he gets them down perfectly!

Then there was a jump. This jump then led to four other jumps, not in a row, no, that would be too easy. They were all set at opposite angles. So, I could choose to run on the outside the whole time (hard to keep up with my fast dog), the inside (and have to send him Out) or do a cross to optimize both.

Here is the first jump:

I tried running the inside first, Midas does not know Out very well and I had to do a little nudging with my leg and some exaggerated pointing but we made it…sort of:

In this one we are going over the third jump, but you can see the second jump in the background - see the angle? Hard.

Then I tried to do the recommended cross…it went like this:

He started to go Out, paused when he saw I was running past and tried to turn and we collided - neither fell and he did make the jump though so that was good lol. I went back and showed him what I meant by Out:

The middle jumps went alright in that one though:

Then I didn’t trust him to go out so I could cross in the last jump so I was too slow to move over toward the A-frame and he did a little turn trying to find me - oh well, practice makes perfect.

Our only problem on the A-frame was I didn’t say Wait fast enough (he was flying!) and he might’ve missed the contacts but otherwise he loves this obstacle! And I did it right after the first time:

Then we had an extremely tight turn over another jump:

Through the collapsed tunnel and we’re done!

Tonight we rushed around like crazy to head out to the Cannonsburg Game Preserve to meet Kent County Search and Rescue and see how things are run a little closer to home. We were a little lost and confused and weren’t sure we were in the right spot because of all of the bikers (as in bicycle not motorcycle) but then we saw this:

We discussed the various SAR training techniques, the different classes that KCSAR had to offer and the application process then we headed out to see how Mason would do.

We discussed where his training had been left off for the last week and a half and then how we would pick up where it had been left off - teaching the alert and the refind. I decided to try out a new toy because Mason doesn’t really enjoy tugging with anyone he doesn’t know but he enjoys fetching for anyone at any time. I bought a ball that he has never had and will never have at home - a larger, squeaky blue ball.

We did a couple of exercises where he was just finding the victims and then receiving his toy, like we’ve done in the past.

Getting ready to Search:

Then we started to try to work in the refind. He would find the victims, but not receive his toy like he was used to, then I would immediately call him back where he would be asked to Speak. As soon as he did, the victims would make enticing noises and scamper around until he came racing back towards them (with me rushing after him) and as soon as he reached them he would get his toy.  We did this several times but he didn’t quite get the tie-together, although once treats were added he was much more enthusiastic .

So we decided to work on making it more fun for him to run back to me and then back to them specifically. I got a lot of instructions because I didn’t want to screw up on some vital timing.

Mason was taken with the “Victims” and then I had him come back to me, Speak and then race back to them (where he then got treats).

After he had been successful a couple of times, we decided to quit while ahead and Mason was allowed to keep his toy as his reward:

Everyone stood around and chatted some more, about upcoming meetings etc

Mason was pretty tired:

Although I felt clumsy and as though Mason wasn’t progressing as quickly as he should’ve; everyone else said that he did wonderfully and had great potential!

Later I even heard from other members that had not been out with us that they had been told that Mason did wonderfully and is looking good .

Since tonight was Kelly’s Going Away party, I headed to Mason’s agility class on my own. There were some spectators tonight. One lady had brought her parents and another her husband. They were seated around the outside, the best spot to observe.

I arrived late so everyone was in the midst of their long sit/stays against the wall. Once they were finished, Mason got to do a shorter one, which he broke twice and I had to reseat him. But when I gave him his release word and told him to Come he flew at me full speed, skidded to a stop right in front of me and sat for his treat - it was adorable and the whole class laughed

Next we went through a walk through of the stations. The guides were back up on weave poles so I decided to work on that. He does the best on the weaves when we are on the same side and he is on my left. So, I practiced the most with him on the opposite side from me and on my right - he was starting to get the hang of it and go faster. Everything else was pretty much the same. We practiced the tunnels from various angles and even from the center and he nails that every time. There was a series of three jumps with the last one at a tight right angle from the second one and we struggled with that. He jumps very flat and knocks bars a lot so we have to work on that for sure! He is doing really well waiting while I lead out though .

The dog walk went much more smoothly, I held onto him at first but he was way more steady and even slowed down on it when I told him to. His Wait command was extremely solid, he would even glance back at me for the release word before lunging ahead for the treat. I can also put a treat on the target with the command Leave It and not even touch or look at him and he’ll leave it alone until he does the obstacle properly. It’s pretty neat, the instructor even commented on it. I had to remove the tab because his little foot kept going through it so we’ll have to make him a shorter one.

We did more work on the teeter. I am still picking him up and placing him but we are almost to the opposite contact zone, the instructor holds it flat and lets it slowly tilt down while he walks off - he is a little sloppy at the end because he’s so eager to check with me on the wait command but hopefully that will clean up with practice.

Then as a class we all did some combined obstacles. The first one was to send the dog to the table from a spot farther away, the dog sit and stays and then we release them to the dog walk, over the A-frame and they’re done. Mason is doing wonderfully on being sent ahead but he doesn’t like it when I move around him and he can’t move so we had to start our count over again but otherwise he did terrifically.

At the end of class we did a mini-course. Start at a jump, into a tunnel, through the tire (at a slight angle from the tunnel), through the collapsed tunnel and then through the weave poles. No one wanted to go first so Mason and I volunteered. He was fast, he was accurate and we didn’t have any sloppy crosses or anything. Part was I planned my course better than everyone else, I’m sure because of the practice I get in Midas’s class. But, Mason was eager and right on so it looked amazing. I never figured Mason would get the “he’s fast” comments like Midas does! He did very, very well. Plus, he was off-lead and off-tab the entire time and was perfectly mannered. Several people commented on his happy-go-lucky attitude and friendliness .

Another difficult class tonight in agility. We didn’t just work on control, we also worked on distance. I don’t know if it was because of this, or in spite of this that Midas was under perfect control but didn’t care for the distance.

The first mini-set that we did involved sending our dog over a jump from beside us, but then forward and away from us to a tunnel, into the collapsed tunnel immediately after and then onto the table. All of this from at least 8 feet away ending up about 15′ away when the dog landed on the table. It was difficult. The jump was fine but when I threw my arm out for Midas to go into the first tunnel, he kept jumping up, trying to catch/get the non-existent treat in my hand. After a couple of times though he settled down and went through it fine. The collapsed was no problem and neither was the table (there was a treat waiting for him there). We did this quite a few times until it was more seamless, although there was still some hesitation and confusion before entering the first tunnel.

Then we reversed everything and started on the table, with the handlers 15′ feet away. From their Stay on the table, I sent him to the collapsed tunnel, into the yellow tunnel, over a jump and across the dog walk, with a Wait at the end. He nailed this one no problems at al with the distance. But, we did have some problems with the tunnels not being properly anchored. In this one you can see that the collapsed tunnel was pulled a little ways with him:

This next one is after I finally got him out of the collapsed tunnel. He ran in fine, the tunnel came unattached from the bungees holding it down and he ended up thoroughly wrapped up in the end. When I finally untangled him and he popped out, I kept acting like nothing scary happened and treated him really well. It didn’t bother him at all

The yellow tunnel started out fine:

But then one of those bungees got him too:

Luckily, I have a dog that is not bothered by things like that and he never hesitated going through either of those tunnels again.

Because these two things were really difficult for everyone, we had a lot of waiting time. He was really good tonight, quiet and calm and laying down for the most part.

That’s Logan’s Mom’s leg in the background of this one. Logan snuck up and sniffed Midas’s butt a couple of times. The first time Midas growled. The second time he looked and then immediately checked with me for his treat. The third time he shifted his weight away from Logan’s inquiring nose and laid down like a good boy. I was very proud!

Next we did the dog walk, two very oddly turned and placed (and therefore difficult) jumps and then the purple tunnel, which was in a new shape than any of them had seen thus far. It was in a serpentine shape rather than just one U. Midas never hesitated, it did slow him down to make those turns but he went flying through like he always does.

Then we had to wait some more:

We did a short station with a jump, a broad jump and then a choice between a tire and another regular jump and then the teeter. It was way easy after what we had been working on. This was Midas’s first time on the teeter with no handling on my part except for a well placed Wait command and he did fine, it was a little awkward at the bottom but fine . After that we moved over to Midas’s favorite obstacle, the A-frame.

This one was different. We could choose the side we wanted to be on and which obstacle we wanted to end on, as long as we did them all. First the A-frame, then there was another oddly angled jump that we had to do, then we could choose between another jump very close to the foot of the A-frame, a jump farther our and at a different angle or the weaves behind the first jump.

We did the A-frame, the jump and the jump by the A-frame first, no problems.

After that we did the A-frame, the jump and the farther out jump, again with no problems. I saved the weaves option for last because we don’t quite have them down yet. For that one I reversed the way that we went over the first jump and asked him to enter on the side opposite me, which is always kind of difficult.

He knows what I’m asking now and is really trying his hardest to give me some speed. The problem is that once again the guides were on the poles and he was distracted at first (when I asked why they were back on there again, I was told “because that’s where they go”) but he eventually caught on.

That was the end of the real class. To cap it off, we set up some taller jumps again. Five jumps in a row, from one end of the building to the next with every other one tall and every other short. This is to help them learn their strides and how to correctly gauge the distance between the jumps. Along with helping them get used to jumping at the height they’ll have to for trials.

That was really fun. At the beginning, I led out one jump away at a time and then called Midas over them, by the end he was running the entire thing with me at the end waiting - which was awesome to watch .

Good class

Today Eric, Mason and I left bright and early to head to Pontiac Airport for the every-three-weeks MISAR training. It took us about 2 hours to get there and we got a little confused on the directions but we finally made it.

This was Mason’s first time doing the obedience at the beginning of the training and he did well. We walked in a big circle at a heel with several about turns and stops thrown in along with a couple of speed-ups and slow-downs.

Then we all left our dogs in a stay at the outside of the circle while the handlers went to the inside. Then they were called in, Mason’s recall is fantastic so that was no problem. I was surprised he didn’t break his down/stay because the distance was decent.

Next we left them in the middle of the circle, beside each other while the handlers went to the outside, and recalled again.

The final bit of obedience was to weave in and out of the other dogs and handlers in a circle.

Everyone split into separate groups after obedience. The tracking people started to decide who was going to follow track first, the air scent people split into those less experienced (and those training them) and those with more experience. We drove away from the airport to a large field bordered by two roads, a fence and a forest.

(that’s us under the tree to the left)

Several other handler/dog teams went first to find the two victims hidden along the fence (including Eric). Here’s Eric’s view from his hiding spot:

This is my mentor holding her Malinois and the one of the leaders’ dogs:

After watching the other dogs struggle to deal with the shifting wind, we changed tactics and Mason and I started up the middle of the field instead of the outer boundary to give him the best opportunity to catch the scent. He was excited and eagerly waiting his turn, nose in the air. I got him revved up to go and then released him with the “Go Search!” command. He ranged out comfortably and started sniffing around. I could tell when he hit Victim #1’s scent cone and he started bolting towards the source, weaving off both sides of the cone. One of the leaders commented that this was very good, the way that he veered right back into the cone when he realized he had gone out of it. When he found his victim he was very excited but not really interested in tugging so instead his tug was tossed for him and the he was allowed to parade around proudly.

After his reward, I took the toy from him, repositioned and gave the command again. He took off about 5′ then whipped around to look for the toy that he’d already gotten. I told him to go back out to where he was supposed to be and to “Search More” and he headed right out. He was running flat-out at this time and I could tell when he caught Eric’s scent. Eric was lying out on the ground and it took Mason a couple of passes before he pinpointed where he was. He was much more interested in tugging with Eric and again showed everyone how proud he was of his toy before we went back to the van to cool off and get some water.

After all the dogs got a chance to find the victims, everyone spread out to find a radio that had been lost during the various searches.

Then we had a little pow wow under the tree to discuss our thoughts on the search training we had just completed.

Next we headed back to the airport and the hangar to get some experience working inside a building. This hangar photo is similar to what Mason and I worked (this is where Eric was hiding and we didn’t work in the same one he was in):

The hangar we were in had the door open on the side as well, but only one plane in the middle and someone was moving in and out of, but the rest of the floor was fairly clear with a storage room and some stuff stored around the outside against the walls. When I released Mason with the command and he attempted to take off, his feet slipped a little on the slick floor and he was a little unsure of what exactly I was asking him to do but he was still sniffing around. He checked out the shoes of the guy in the plane but wasn’t too interested (no toy reward after all ) and continued to move on to investigate. He hit the scent along the outside wall and really started moving, I could tell by the tense and excited line of his head, tail and body. He zeroed right in on the victim and had a short game of tug before showing everyone his hard-won prize. He did well for his first time in a building . We relaxed for a few outside and then we headed home.

Tonight started Mason’s Round II of Agility classes. He is still struggling with the sit/stay at the beginning. He lasted for longer this week but still broke at the end. I worked on it a couple minutes before we started the stations. He does have fantastic recall though!

Then we started to work on the dog walk, which he’s a little shaky at. The ladder wasn’t out so I couldn’t lead him through that to remember where his rear-end so instead we had some falling off issues on the dog walk. I made sure to have a firm grip on his collar to add as much stabilization as I could.

Here is what happens with his foot when he’s trying to walk and listen to the next command - in this case Wait.

He really nailed the Wait command this week and was paying good attention to me.

He got better at the A-frame after we had done it over a half dozen times. The last time I was still holding his collar, just in case, but there was no pressure and I was releasing well before the Wait command so that was good.

Next we moved to the yellow tunnel at the foot of the dog walk. I put a target on the ground with a treat to speed Mason’s progress through. He apparently thought that it replenished itself because he ran into the tunnel a couple of times with no command and came out to eagerly check the target for a fresh treat lol. Silly dog! I switched from using a treat to tossing the new toy I brought (a ball with a rope attached) and that really sped him up . Who would’ve thought he would work harder for a toy than food!?

We worked on the tire next. The idea was to start leading out and calling him from the other side. He did great with that and never once ran around.

After that we moved to a different, darker tunnel. Some dogs have some fright going through a darker tunnel turned so that in they can’t see from one end to the other. Mason never paused. We worked on sending him to different sides from the center of the tunnel, using not only the command, but also hand gestures. He did great watching me and choosing the correct size.

We moved onto to the A-frame next. It was a little taller it seemed this week but Mason had no hesitation.

We worked on it in both directions with the Wait command at the end, again nailed it .

The objective with the table this week was to send the dogs from a bit farther away. She marked where she wanted us to send them from with bright yellow markers, which Mason had to check out for treats (they do look like targets) before he could concentrate on my commands. But, he did terrifically after that.

This is an example of an obstacle that treats work better for than the ball:

We worked on the broad jump next which was made a lot simpler by tossing the the toy over it .

Then we worked on some regular jumps in a row:

He had the weaves down pat last week. This week there were guides on them, they were totally threw him off and we struggled . Stupid guides!

The collapsed tunnel was next - he had absolutely no hesitation and bolted straight through:

Tonight we finally introduced the teeter-totter. First we picked our dogs up and placed them on the yellow contact, facing off and then had them Wait off of the teeter and then treat. Then we picked them up and placed them farther back, still facing off. We did that a couple of times.

I don’t think Mason even noticed he was on something new. He was too busy enjoying getting all the attention of two people!

After all of the dogs had been on the teeter that way, we all stood around while the teeter was banged on the ground and then the dogs were treated so that they would associate the noise with being treated. Mason never flicked an ear or turned his head until I asked him to watch lol.

At the end of the class, we all ran some small 1/4 courses, Mason did really well!

Today was the every-three-weeks training for MISAR. It was based at the Michigan State University Experimental Station in Clarksville. It wasn’t too much of a hike for us to get there. When we arrived, my mentor and another guy were already there, so we drove up to the buildings and prepared to wait for everyone else to arrive. I worked Mason on his heel, sit, down and stays while we waited. He did extremely well after the initial 2-3 minutes of excitement. A little while later and everyone else had arrived. I was quizzed (as was Eric kind of) on my field support information and passed almost half of it, reviewing the rest to prepare for the next time.

I got a lot of practice field support time following not only one of the leaders of the group but several other people as well. It was interesting to see the dogs work through the same problems in different ways.

Eric didn’t get any photos of Mason working but here are some of the dogs we followed:

Heading out on the trail:

Getting really close to the Human Remains that were planted:

Even closer, going in to get some help from the handler:

Showing to the wrong thing - ooops:

Just checking:

Rusted truck that was in the gully where the scent was being dragged:

A treat for finding, alerting and refinding correctly:

A more experienced and certified dog next:

Plowing past the truck:

The next handler/dog team is ready:

Barking to show she wants to get to work:

Getting some tips and some directions:

Alerting on…something:

Hydrating:

After the more experienced dogs got to go out and find the HR source, Mason got to have his very first real training search for live victims.

Mason had been waiting semi-patiently in the van this entire time so I got him out to potty him first. He was very excited to get on with the game though so he only took a short break and then we arranged his victims. Three people with three different tugs were going to go hide in the orchard. We waited for them to get into place and then I walked Mason on leash to the entrance of the field. He was very over-excited so his heel left quite a lot to be desired.

When we reached the entrance I unhooked his leash and sank down to whisper to Mason to get him even more excited and then I released him with the Go Search command and he shot out into the field at full speed. He circled through the soy beans but at a very quick pace and we were almost at the end of the field when he whipped around and disappeared up into one of the rows, finding what should’ve been Victim #3. The victim tried to engage him into a game of tug but he was using a different dog’s tugs and Mason wasn’t sure of it or him so he wouldn’t latch on too hard. Finally it was tossed for him and Mason proudly brought it back to me and then paraded around to everyone else as well. He released the toy easily when asked.

I re-hooked the leash and walked him on a heel a short distance before whispering to him and then releasing him again. We were pointed back in the direction we had come from and he very much wanted to run on and explore, plus he knew that Victim #3 still had the toy so he was lingering behind me a tad. I redirected with “Mason this way!” and he rocketed ahead. He darted almost immediately down one row and I saw him shoot past Victim #2 before his nose caught and he whipped around and ecstatically found him. Victim #2 had a lot better luck with getting him to latch on (with one of his own tugs) and after he had really got a good hold on it and had a lively game of tug, I asked for him to be released and he brought the toy to me, I then turned and pushed him toward everyone else to “Go show them”, which he happily did.

After he had paraded for another minute, I leashed him once again and he released the toy to my mentor and we prepared for his third and final find. He circled the group again, checking out all of the people, specifically those that he knew had toys, but when directed he once again ranged ahead. He found what should’ve been Victim #1 right away and was very enthusiastic about tugging (with his oldest and most favorite tug), he played a short game and then was released to retrieve to me and then to show everyone else. I let him walk aways back with it then leashed him, allowing him to carry it the rest of the way to the van. He was very thirsty so I gave him some water and then we were set. We reviewed the next step of Mason’s training – adding in the bark alert and the Show Me immediately and then we all headed home.

Look what Mason got in the mail today!!!

Go little dude!!!!

Kya’s last class was tonight. It was a pretty good one too. There was another mini-Rally course set up. Kya was a happy girl again. The course was pretty simple, some sits and turns and heeling pretty much. Her hardest part was not begging for treats from the people who have routinely been giving them to her. She was wagging her tail, trotting around, trying to play with the other dogs and sniff their people - just a general goof. Here she is realizing that the Look command results in treats:

But anyway, we passed!!

That is her very first certificate, here is to hoping there will be many more!

I talked to the instructor about where to go from here and we agreed she is not ready for the next level yet so my best option is to take the class again. I don’t feel that she is going to gain much more at this time though, so we’re taking a little break until there is yet more progress at home before we add another class. Yay for Lil’ Ms!