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

Golf and Dog Training

Some of you know that I like to watch golf. I have never played a day in my life (but would love to) but I find this sport interesting. For the last five years I have attended the Canadian Open to watch the players do their thing. Last year Chad, my parent's and I ventured to Long Island, New York to watch the US Open (that is a whole story in itself...) and late last night we got back from going to the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio. It was a great trip; I would go again in a heartbeat. I saw the world's best golfers and got to follow my favourite, Canadian Mike Weir. I proudly wore my Canada shirt that says "True North Strong and Free" on it. I had a number of people coming up to me to ask if I was Canadian and then conversations where started about where everyone was from and so on. By the end of the day I would see these people on different parts of the course and we would share a wave to say that we knew each other. It was pretty neat. I have to tell something else that was totally cool... actually there are two things. This has nothing to do with dog training or how I am going to segue into dog training. I just want to share this experience with you. If you don't care about my golf story please skip ahead to the next paragraph. ... The one thing I really wanted to do was to be on the first tee when they announced Mike Weir, so that we could cheer for him. We planted ourselves in the stands (the front row of course!) and cheered with many other Canadians and Mike's fans when his name was announced. It was quite a thrill, firstly because it was the biggest cheer we had heard all day and secondly, I think he was a little shocked by it and looked up and acknowledged us with a wave and a head nod. I think we made him feel good. I would like to say that he looked right at us and maybe, just maybe he recognized us from all the years of stalking him at the Canadian Open. My second story is really, really silly... it was late in the day and the final pairings were getting ready to go. We were walking to first tee to see Phil Michelson tee off. Chad and I were crossing the first hole near the tee with about 40 or so other people. I started to hear people yelling "Hey Phil", (I want to go on record to say that I am not really a big fan of Phil's) I started looking around to see what people were yelling at, and lo and behold Phil is standing about 6 feet from me. Being the very cool person I am, I pointed and said "Hey look Phil Michelson" (duh). He answered someone's question from the crowd and went on his merry way. Once Chad and I regrouped on the other side of the crossing my immediate response was "okay, I know I am not a fan, but that was pretty cool." It was very cool to see someone you watch weekend after weekend on TV that close to you. It was also very interesting to feel the energy around him. The fans were excited to see him and he was responding to their enthusiasm. Lastly I also think that when you are good at what you do and you are embedded in that environment you feed off of it and the result is a very palatable type of energy. My response was silly, but what a neat experience.

 

While waiting for Mike Weir to tee off, we stopped by the practice range. The golfers can warm up their driving and putting. Often the coaches and caddies are present and you can see some of the things that they are working on and hear some of the banter that goes on between the players. This brought to mind that the same feeling is true at obedience trials. Many of us are there to compete but there is the underlying social aspect to the shows. Friends group together and get caught up on each other's lives. For some of us we only see certain people at certain shows, so that is a part of the draw to that event. The other similarity to golf that I noticed was the ratio of time spend preparing vs. actually competing. Some of us train for years to complete a title that takes about a total of about 45 minute to complete (actual time in the ring + stays). These players practice every day, some play 36 holes of golf a day, plus time at practice ranges and watching video and play four rounds in a tournament for a total of 16 hours of golf. They still have family life to balance and most do charity work and have other irons in the fire with sponsors. They live very full lives just like those of us who choose to compete in dog sports. Another thing I noticed was that the players and coaches fussed about the little things. Where is your head? Keep your left elbow tucked in, routines leading up to hitting the ball and visualization are big components in golf. Sort of like front and finishes for the dog and handling skills for the human part of the team. I think the biggest comparison is that golfers practice, practice, practice and then compete under pressure to put everything they have worked on to the test. Once they hit the ball they can't take it back, just like we do when we start our heeling pattern, whatever happens happens and you have to work forward from that point. Maybe this is what draws me to golf; too bad that dog training can't have corporate sponsorship and prize money equal to this sport. Now that would make things really interesting.

 

Happy golfing, I mean training!

So proud (part two)

On my way to the match on Friday I reviewed what my plan was for Gali. I was really looking forward to seeing where Gali is at in terms of when he'll be ready to trial. The seek back exercise went as planned, he managed to jump the bar on the way back to me, but no biggy. It was really, really hot in the arena, so setting up for articles I wondered how Galibwas coping and if what I was seeing was the heat or the fact that we had a male steward hovering at the ring gate. I let him do the first article and I thought he did a great job with it. To test my theory on heat vs man at gate, I asked the ring steward to back up a bit before Gali did his second article. I think he was pretty much his normal happy self, so I guess he was just hot. He had to work his second article much harder than the first and really did a nice job with the whole exercise. For signals I used my one verbal praise that I had planned about 5 steps before we started signals, everything wad going well, I gave my drop signal and he dropped like a stone, but immediately lifted his elbows back off the matts. I re-enforced the drop told him he was a good boy and went on to the sit, which was lovely. I had planned to feed after each signal, but didn't feed the drop because he popped up. My lesson learned wad that I have been putting too much focus on the sit. Moving stand went fine, one little movement on the exam. Our go outs were going to be tough, Gali has done few go outs in context away from home. I did the one short go I had planned, but it didn't help, he went to the jump. I reset a couple of times and had moderate success. His directed jumping was fine. So no real surprises from the whole run, he is pretty much where I thought he was. I was very happy with his heeling and his attitude was fantastic. So over all I am proud of my curly bum dog!!

So proud

While I sit here watching the FIFA world cup soccer, I am reflecting about the match on Friday night. It was a tough one for me because I would have been Presto's 12th birthday. I am certainly struggling with getting back in the game since losing Quinn and Presto at Christmas time. So for me this match was a big deal. The result is that I am very proud of myself for going and enjoying being with my dog show friends and being able to concentrate on what I wanted to achieve. I'll come back to Gali and Ribbon in a minute.

What was really cool for me is watching the people that train with me do there thing at this match. I was sitting in the stands taking in the atmostphere and I realized that all three rings had Companion Dog Training students in them. I was so proud to see their dogs working with attention and tails wagging. What impressed me the most is that they all had a plan. I saw Dawn rewarding fronts and keeping Emma relaxed in utility. Cheryl was working Indigo and was keeping her attention between exercises and alternating rewards of food and a tug toy in the novice ring. In the open ring Angela was working her green open dog and making sure he knew what exercise he was doing and spending time playing with him between exercises. If the dogs made mistakes all three handlers dealt with the mistake quickly and got the dog back on track. There were quite a few others that also did a fabulous job. I have to admit to feeling a little pressure to do just as good a job. One little side note is that Jaimie St. Maurice and her Beardie Windy, finished their CDX and HIT!!! Way to go you two!!!

I will post later and tell you how I handled the pressure of having such great students!!!
My family is calling me for dinner.