My Dad

I haven't posted in a while. The last part of this year hasn't gone well for my family. On November 14^th, my Dad died very suddenly. He had a heart attack while he was driving down the country road we live on to get a battery from the store. I saw him go down the driveway and he simply never came back. My family's world has been turned upside down. We are thankful for a few things. First of all no other vehicle was involved. Secondly Mom, Dad, Chad and I had been out sheep herding that afternoon and we had had a great time. My dad's dog Pepper worked really well and he was very happy. It was a good day.

Chad and I spent a lot of time with parents, we went to the Canadian Open golf tournament for the past five years and last year went to the US Open and this year our trip took us to the Bridgestone Invitational. We had a lot of fun on those trips and there are so many fond memories. We also did a lot of dog stuff together, going to agility and obedience trials over many years. I am very lucky that I have no regrets about my relationship with my dad. I miss him terribly and I have never experienced such deep sadness. I feel like I haven't been able to breathe since the policeman told me my dad was dead.

In December of last year I lost two dogs seven days apart and so have been also dealing with the anniversary of Quinn and Presto's deaths. I feel like I am surrounded by sadness. I know this will get better or at least easier to cope with. But right now I feel consumed by grief.

I didn't want the end of this year to pass without posting what has been going on. My dog's Gali and Ribbon have been trying to make me feel better. They have been remaining very close to me and in the two times I have trained since losing my dad they both have worked really nicely and looked disappointed when training time is over. In the New Year I plan to rewrite my goals and start working towards them. Gali is really ready to get back into the Utility ring and Ribbon is ready to matches at the Novice and Open level.

Here's to a better year in 2011

So Close

Gali has officially lost his utility virginity! He did really, really well. The only thing we missed was the last jump on the second half of the directed jumping exercise. When I signalled him to go to the jump on my right he took the jump on the left. I will have to look at the video to see if I moved my left hand as I gave the signal with the right. It is disappointing to not qualify, but I am so happy with the way he worked. I think he quite enjoyed it. It felt good to be back in the utility ring, it has been awhile.

We had some bobbles during the routine, such as lying down on the turn and sit for the first go-out. He did that at the match too. So I officially have that problem to fix. I will have to try to create that during training and see what I can do to fix it. On the moving stand he moved his rear feet away from the judge during the exam, she very nicely tried to move his back to which Gali gave her a look and put his feet back where they were. It was sort of funny. So one more thing to work on is that I need to get more people to examine him and have them approach from different angles and then I can reward him for holding his position. Also for go outs I have get to more different places and practice having him go in a direct line in strange environments.

I had Echo entered in Novice Rally. She is Chad's thirteen year old Border Collie. I have shown her a couple of times before. I wanted to finish her Novice title and use it as practice for the US Nationals in a few weeks. She did great. We were second in the class with a 99 and she seemed to really enjoy herself. She even had fun walking around the show making friends with people. I would see her during the day laying in her kennel watching people doing things and wagging her tail at them.

I have posted both these videos on YouTube if you would like to check them out, search for Buhund doing utility and Echo Novice rally and you should find them. If not I think I can post them here in the blog. I am just not sure how to do it yet.

Gali's next trials are about a month away. I can't wait!!!

Match night

Tonight was the fun match at the hall where Gali and I will be trialling on Sunday. I also took Ribbon along to do Novice (and to make Gali jealous!) I was feeling pretty good about how things were going, when I trained Gali on Thursday he was amazing. I did a run through in the training hall including a warm up how I have planned for the trial. During the run through the only glitch was that I somehow managed to step on Gali's tail. Quite a feat given that he has a really tight Buhund tail. So I had one finish that he didn't sit, but I can't really blame him. Other than that he was really, really good. I jackpotted him after the signals and fed in a few other places, but went from exercise to exercise.

So tonight at the HDOC match he was feeling pretty perky. He had a large dump while I walked him outside, so he was feeling rather fresh. (You probably didn't want that detail, but there you go). We repeated what we did on Thursday with a warm up and also included a game of tug on his leash. We went from exercise to exercise; I had a no sit on one finish again. We got down to the last jump (bar jump against the baby gate) as I sent him to the bar jump the Novice dog in the next ring halted in line with the jump and Gali pulled off the jump. I quickly took him back out to his go-out spot and redid the jump and he was fine. One other thing that happened was he laid down on his first go out instead of sitting. Not sure why, he hasn't done that in a very long time. When he sat on the second go-out I praised him, hopefully that will help. His heeling was really nice and his fronts where quite good. And he is so darn cute!!!!

I did learn a couple of things about the venue. Sound proofing panels have been added to help with an echoing problem they had, I think it deadens the sound, so I needed to project my voice a little better. The other thing that I learned was that Gali had no problem with the siding on the wall for a go-out surface; he just marched out there and did his thing. So overall I am feeling pretty good about Sunday. I think our team work is pretty solid and Gali is relaxed about his jobs.

Ribbon did a nice job tonight too. I was really focused on Gali, so my run with her felt a little choppy and she got into trouble for losing attention on the fast pace. She was distracted by the utility ring beside us. Her attitude was really up. Nothing seems to bother her. I am really glad that I had asked for her to be videoed (thanks Dawn!!) on the video you can see how hard she is working and how happy she is while heeling. On the figure 8 she is really using her rear end around the circles. As the run went on her sits got a little crooked, but she was pretty excited. On the recall she came beautifully and popped up in the air and came down really slowly with her front end into a perfect front. For some reason I sent her to the right for her finish, which isn't her best finish, but she an okay job of it. I would like to see her go around faster and sit closer, but the foundation work is all there. Judging by tonight I would say we are about a year away from entering Novice.

I am ring stewarding tomorrow as one of the many requirements to apply for judging licence. I am so excited to see how all the Companion students do. Everyone looked fantastic at the match tonight. There are students in every level!!! I better adjust my eating plan and leave room for lots of cake!!!

Still counting

When I trained Gali last night, I was trying to squish it in before classes started. It didn't go as well as I had hoped. He was distracted by everyone arriving and I had to get on his case about working with distractions. This was not what I wanted to achieve during my training session. He did do quite a number of things really well. His attitude was quite nice, even though he got into trouble over running to the door to greet Jaimie arriving to teach her rally class. I was able to settle in and just stay focused and keep Gali on task and get some good feelings out of the session.

A few minutes ago I went to the hall with lots of time to spare and I worked on articles (which he missed the first one), Front exercises, Heeling with turns at a slow pace and random rewards for different elements of heeling. When I worked on my signals I worked from a much further distance than will be required this Sunday. He was AWESOME!!!!! I always say that Gali is a fun little dog to live with and to train, but what I sometimes overlook is how talented a dog he is. I really want to showcase that side of Gali at the trial this weekend. I am so lucky to have a dog like him.

My plan at the trial is to arrive with lots of time to spare. I know from past experience that Gali likes to do something as soon as possible at the trial site. So I will do some heeling with him and a few signals. But I will also need to find a time closer to our run to calmly warm up without having to keep my eye on the ring. Gali needs to have energy from my, but he really needs me to be calm and focused to lead the team.

Five days to go....

 

Also, I did a no-food run through with Ribbon in her rally class last night and she was amazing!!! Her eyes never left me, we moved together as a team and her rear end was fantastic. It feels really good to have her work this well as we approach the speciality and the fact that I am hoping to enter her in some pre-novice trials and rally trials this fall while Gali is out doing utility.

The Countdown has begun

One week and two days from today Gali will be in his first utility trial. I am really looking forward to it. I can't wait to see how he does!!! I just finished training him and I have a pretty good idea on what I will be working on this week. EVERYTHING!!! I started off my training session with some heeling and signals from a short distance, (which he didn't drop all the way to the ground). I also worked on some fronts and finishes. I took him into the "ring" on lead, no food on my body, but he knew where the food was (specifically meatballs, the new wonder drug for training) I worked formally through each of the exercises and didn't do anything that I wouldn't be comfortable doing at a trial.

He jumped on the way back from retrieving the glove, but tried pretty hard to correct his front. He did both articles very nicely. On signals he did a horrible about turn after the slow pace. It was as if he felt squished by the gate and sort of shot forward out of heel position and then waited for me to catch up. He did a LOVELY drop and then walked in on his sit signal (so no pass on this run through), I kept going with the routine. His moving stand was really nice and his directed jumping was fantastic!!! I trained for about 15 minutes more and did some heeling, more signals and some fun proofing drills such as verbal only directed jumping and rewarding touching on the go outs. We ended our session playing with the Frisbee. Gali seemed relaxed through most of the routine and training session except on the signal recall; his body language was telling me that he was pretty unsure.

Here is my list of things to work on:

1. Glove exercise coming through the jumps, reminding him to watch and/or maybe a chute on the ground.
   
2. Heeling
   
3. Fronts and Finishes
   
4. Fun article things to keep him up and relaxed
   
5. Working our signals from various distances, and rewarding different parts
   
6. One or two run throughs this week
   
7. Getting people to do moving stand with me this week, I am always practicing alone
   
8. Various distances for go-outs and distance between the jumps. Randomly rewarding go-outs and surprise endings after jumping.
   
9. I should also ask Susie if I can train in her hall this week to give him a change of environment.
   

It is going to be FUN!!!!

Not all fun and games (or is it?)

It's Labour Day weekend and I've been off since Thursday night. I've had things to do, you know the usual, laundry, clean the bathroom (hummm.. still have to do that). Chad and have had two herding lessons, one today and one yesterday. Basically though, I've had a lot of time off this weekend to lie around read, watch the tennis and golf. The thought has occurred to me that I should post something on my blog. I wasn't really sure what to write about. I've been getting Gali ready for our first utility trial in October, he coming along really nicely. I think we may be peaking at the right time. So other than bragging about my fabulous Buhund, which I am happy to do, there is not much to say. Ribbon's heeling is suddenly coming together. Her understanding of head cues has come together and I am working on perfecting her figure 8. Signals and articles are coming along great; she is really enjoying those skills. While training random drops and figure 8 tonight I momentarily heard myself saying to classes this week, "Make sure you choose two things each week that aren't your favourites to train and put some time into those skills." Well, guess what I was doing? Heeling (favourite), Articles (another favourite) and random drop with food tossing (nothing more fun than watch your dog chase a piece of food across the floor and then drop). What wasn't I doing? Fronts (least favourite thing to teach) and Dumbbell (not high on my list either).

So before I left the training hall I did some doodling and worked on fronts reminding Ribbon where her focal point is for this skill (my face). She has a habit of planting her rear end quickly and then moving her front feet off to my left which makes her crooked. Sort of an unusual thing I think. By reminding her to watch she picks her head up higher and keeps her front feet still. Then I added some distance, we had some anticipation problems, but no big deal. One thing I really like about my new little girl is that she holds onto a concept really well. What I showed her to do only travelling a few feet easily transferred to a full length recall and she nailed 4 out of 5 fronts. Guess what?? My dog was reinforcing me for training a skill that I am not usually that motivated to train!! How cool is that? Next I got my chute out and worked on sharp off angle fronts allowing her to chase a piece of food to get her away from me. As she was coming back towards the chute, if she wasn't looking up I reminded her to "Watch" and cocked the knee closest to her to make her go around it and into the chute. Worked like a charm and again I think I got 4 out of 6 fronts perfect. I can't wait to train fronts tomorrow!!!!

Good girl Ribbie

 

Up too early

Chad and I (and all six dogs) are leaving in a few hours to go to the Canadian Border Collie Associations Sheep Dog Championships for the weekend.  I am so excited I can't even sleep.  We are only volunteering. Isn't it silly to be this excited??? I have certainly spend more time herding this summer than anything else.  I had a lesson with Ribbon yesterday that went really well for Ribbon, but I felt like a complete idiot.  I am trying to get ready to do a HT at the BC Specialty in October (AKC).  I have never competed in herding, so I feel like a have three left feet.  To cut myself some slack this was the first time I have put together all the elements of this test.  But I really struggled with the parts of the test not going as I had imagined and then having to remember which direction to walk in and then to turn clockwise or counter-clockwise.  Keeping Ribbon where I wanted her and to continue to walk so that the sheep and Ribbon knew where we were going---It is frustrating just writing it down!!!! I really struggled with going from training mode to trailling mode.  If something didn't go as it usually did, like getting her to bring me the sheep, right away I wanted to get in there and fix it, but Steve kept saying, "go with it, keep everything moving." Why is it so hard to switch from being the leader of the team to being part of the team??

This certainly reminds me to spend more time with my Novice students (or any students showing for the first time at any level) on the strategies of moving around an obedience ring and setting up for exercises, so that it becomes second nature for them.  Someone has to guide the team from location to location and the dog is not the likely candidate for the job.  Something else for me to remember is that each handler needs more than one plan.  What do you do if your first step of heeling doesn't go well, your dog hesitates to move or doesn't move at all?? What do you do if your dog become fixated on one of the figure eight posts?? At what point would you use a second command?? So many scenarios to think about. 

Using visualization certainly makes a difference as far as the perfect mental picture, practicing the routine over and over again.  I believe that you should also include some bumps along the road, so that your reaction to a mistake is pre-planned and then you can return to your routine more smoothly and feel good about things. 

Okay so now I have a plan for my next herding lesson.  A few weeks ago I sent Ribbon on a gather and when I asked her to lay down she did it immediately and the sheep were calm and with me.  Steve's comment was, "You can't do it any better than that."  This is only time I have heard Steve say this, so I am going to put that into my visualization and then add turning counter clockwise and clockwise at the cones and Ribbon pushing too hard on the sheep or over flanking and how I would deal with that and then return to my perfect mental picture.  Three out of four times I am going picture the test going perfectly, but one out of four times I am going to add the bumps in.

I guess getting up early has its advantages!!! Gotta go pack the van now