Trials and Tribulations

So, yeah. I'm back in Boise.

Not permanently, but til the beginning of December, when the semester ends.

I decided last minute that I really did care about getting my Masters degree, and came back to snag the last two classes I needed, which replaces the thesis that I ended up not being able to complete. Shitty, but whatever. I've moved on. It just seemed like a waste of all that effort and struggle to not get any validation for it. I mean, it's only 16 weeks (15 now)... it would be silly not to. Plus, not having to teach while I'm in school is fabulous. LOL. So far, I'm really enjoying my classes and I have high hopes that this will be an overall positive experience.

So.... I'm back in Boise, and living with my parents. I brought Cedar with me, and Joe is up in Richland in our house with the other two dogs.

One of the benefits of being back in Boise temporarily is that I get to hang out with my agility friends again and train on a consistent basis. I'm excited about that.

So here we are. Life and future in limbo yet again... but without that sinking feeling in my gut telling me that I'm on the wrong path. This feels right, and that is comforting.

Anyways, Cedar and I had an agility trial this past weekend, BARC's annual NADAC games-only trial. We competed in tunnelers, hoopers, and touch n go. It was interesting competing in a trial without any jumps (for everyone) or weaves (for us, we didn't enter weavers). Although Cedar had the opportunity to finish three titles, we ended up finishing just our Novice Hoopers (HP-N) title. We would have finished our Novice Touch N Go title, too if not for a bad call by the judge on her A-Frame contact, which to everyone watching (and verified by me on video later) was completely okay. So... that was a disappointment to say the least.

She really ran GREAT in Touch N Go this weekend.... just perfect in all three runs. We won the first round with the fastest time out of all the classes, NQ'd the second because of the judge, and NQ'd the third because of a stupid handler mistake on the last obstacle (ugh!). But I was really proud of a lot of the stuff she was doing in her Touch N Go runs. She is gaining a lot of confidence at a distance and for the most part I really felt like we were connected as a team in these runs.

Tunnelers was a bit of a disaster. She broke her startline TWICE this weekend, both on tunnelers runs. One on Saturday and one on Sunday. Both mistakes earned her a immediate halting of the run and a walk of shame back to her crate without the usual post-run treats and praise. I was extremely disappointed in her as her start lines are normally very solid. Not sure what was going on there... she just couldn't handle all those tunnels, I guess! But I definitely wasn't in the picture in her mind. It was frustrating to feel so disconnected from her as it's not normally like that when we run. Guess it's time for some more tunnel aversion therapy for her ;)

Hoopers was a success, but by the skin of our teeth, LOL. I always feel kind of hurried and confused with Hoopers. Everything happens so fast, and there's not anything to slow Cedar down to give me more time to think :-P. But we did manage to Q in both Hoopers runs this weekend for our HP-N title. Cedar was good and listened well for the most part. I was proud of her tight turns and obstacle commitment, as she has not practiced much on hoops.

All in all, we earned 3 (really 4, if you count the judge's mistake) Q's this weekend out of 8 runs, and earned a new title. Not a bad weekend! We will be working hard on start lines and reinforcing proper contacts before our next trial (AKC) in a few weeks.

And now... a photo of Cedar with her trial loot :)



Trial video to come, hopefully soon :)

Step By Step

ooooh babyyy, gonna get to you weeeeeeeeeeeave poles....

*cough*

Okay, so maybe agility and NKOTB don't exactly go together. But I couldn't think of any other title for this post. LOL.

But anyways.... here's a short video of Cedar weaving tonight. I'm posting it, as short and otherwise unremarkable as it is, because it shows the kind of weaver she is turning into. In short, our hard work is really paying off. See the single stepping and the sustained (but not frantic) drive from the beginning to the end of the obstacle?

Here's the video:



Yeah, that's the money, baby. We're totally making the weave poles our bitch.

We've done a lot of work on weaving over the past month or so. A lot of proofing, training entries, etc. I expected that she would get better at weaving with distractions and at finding more difficult entries, but what I didn't expect was the change in her focus and footwork. She has always been a bit of a frantic, not-thinking weaver. The transition from running to weaving has always been difficult for her. But I think she's starting to see the weave poles as a separate and complete obstacle, something to be tackled in its entirety. She is growing up and learning to manage her excitement better. Good girl, Cedes :)

Riverdogs

Yesterday Joe and I took the dogs to the river for the first time.

Moss really, really liked it :)


Cedar had fun, too.


And Scully was cold ;)


I'm so excited that I found a safe and clean place to swim the dogs. It's great exercise and especially good for building condition without a lot of stress on their bodies. This place was great because it it was in an area without much current and the dogs did not have to go out very far before they couldn't touch the bottom.

And it's pretty fun, too :). Moss especially loved retrieving his toy from the water.

The river:


And just 'cause you know you want to see them.... some more pictures :)



















We can't wait to go back!

Dog IQ Test :-P

So I did this test with all three of my dogs today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/pets/testyourpet/flat_alternative.shtml

Here's a breakdown of how they each did individually:

Cedar
Test One, Paw Preference:
It's likely that your dog is either right- or left-handed. In the wild it makes sense to have a paw preference, because in emergencies, one side of the body will take the lead. Why left or right are dominant is open to debate, but in some species it has some amazing consequences.

Cedar used her right paw to get the treat, which was option B. If option B - Your dog appears to be right-handed. Right-handedness in humans is often associated with language ability and a logical mind. There is some evidence that right-handed animals can be better at remembering and using words, so maybe your dog understands more of your conversation than you had thought!

Test Two, Flip The Tin:
This is a view-of-the-world test. Your dog must be able to understand that even though the object disappears from view, it still exists. If the treat has a strong smell, the test would not be conclusive, because scent would give its position away.

Cedar flipped over the cup immediately, which was option A. If option A - Your dog understands what psychologists call "object permanence". It realises that objects continue to exist even after they have disappeared from view. This is cleverer than you may imagine. To understand this, it must believe in a world beyond its perception.

Test Three, Drop The Treat:
This is another view-of-the-world test. It looks at your dog's understanding of how objects, especially horizontal objects, relate to each other. Animals that move about more in 3 dimensions should do better at this than those that move only on the ground.

Cedar looked at the floor briefly, then back up at the treat, which was option B. If option B - Your dog was surprised that the treat didn't hit the floor, but quickly worked out where it was likely to be. Many animals have trouble with this test. Pets that move about more in 3 dimensions should do better at this than those that move only on the ground.

Test Four, Round The Bend:
This is both a problem-solving test and a detour test. First your dog has to work out a route to the reward, and then it has to walk away from the treat in order to get it.

Cedar walked immediately around the barrier to retrieve the treat, which was option A. If option A - Your dog cracked this puzzle remarkably quickly. This may be because it has come across a similar situation before, or it may be very good at looking at physical problems and coming up with solutions. This takes a fair deal of brain power.

Test Five, Command of Language:
This is both a learning test and a memory test. Your dog learns your words, phrases, body language and vocalisations so that it can understand us and can guess what we're going to do next. The number of commands that an animal can understand is to do with both its ability to learn and the size of its memory.

Cedar knows more than 25 commands (38, not including agility and herding) and performed them all on command, which is option A. She is the best trained of my three dogs, so she definitely won this category ;) If option A - Your dog is obviously skilled at learning and remembering commands. When it learns a new command, your dog is associating the sound or body signals that you create with one of its own actions. Your dog's learning and memory has probably got a lot to do with your own training habits as an owner. It looks like you've given your dog plenty of opportunity to learn.

Test Six, Pull The String:
This is a speed-of-learning test. Your dog is presented with a task that it hasn't encountered before. It has to learn how to conquer it by trial and error, but can it learn in just three attempts?

Cedar pulled the shoelace with her paw almost immediately to get the treat, which was option A. If option A - Your dog has very quickly associated the action of pulling the string with the delivery of a reward. It could be that your dog has experience of performing this action already, and that it therefore took to this task quickly, or maybe your dog is simply very good at learning new physical tasks.

Test Seven, Hide and Seek:
This is a spatial memory test that tests two parts of your dog's memory. If your dog can find the treat, it has managed to remember both the layout of the room and the position of the treat in relation to all the other objects in the room.

Cedar went immediately to the hidden treat, which was option A. If option A - Your dog has performed well. It has used two types of memory to perform this task. It used its spatial memory to remember the layout of the space, and it used its episodic memory to remember the action of you placing the treat in the hiding place.

Moss
Test One: Moss first used his left paw, then switched exclusively and enthusiastically to the right. So I'm going to say it was option C, difficult to tell paw dominance. If option C - It could be that your dog has no preference; in other words, it could be ambidextrous. In some animals this has been shown to be unhelpful. It's often good to have a dominant hand to lead the way.

Test Two: Moss flipped the cup over almost immediately to get the treat, which was option A. If option A - Your dog understands what psychologists call "object permanence". It realises that objects continue to exist even after they have disappeared from view. This is cleverer than you may imagine. To understand this, it must believe in a world beyond its perception.

Test Three: Moss looked at the floor, then back up at the treat, which is option B. If option B - Your dog was surprised that the treat didn't hit the floor, but quickly worked out where it was likely to be. Many animals have trouble with this test. Pets that move about more in 3 dimensions should do better at this than those that move only on the ground.

Test Four: Moss walked immediately around the barrier to get the treat, though he did get a little distracted walking around ;). His response was option A. If option A - Your dog cracked this puzzle remarkably quickly. This may be because it has come across a similar situation before, or it may be very good at looking at physical problems and coming up with solutions. This takes a fair deal of brain power.

Test Five:Moss knows between 11-25 commands, which was option B. If option B - Your dog has learnt and remembered a broad selection of the commands that it finds most useful to pay attention to. When it learns a new command, your dog is associating the sound or body movement that you create with one of its own actions. Your dog's learning and memory has probably got a lot to do with your own training habits as an owner. They may be able to learn more commands with the right encouragement.

Test Six:Moss did the best out of all three dogs on this one! He almost immediately pulled the string with his mouth to get the treat. This is option A. If option A - Your dog has very quickly associated the action of pulling the string with the delivery of a reward. It could be that your dog has experience of performing this action already, and that it therefore took to this task quickly, or maybe your dog is simply very good at learning new physical tasks.

Test Seven: I used a toy with Moss, and he found it immediately, which is option A. If option A - Your dog has performed well. It has used two types of memory to perform this task. It used its spatial memory to remember the layout of the space, and it used its episodic memory to remember the action of you placing the treat in the hiding place.

Scully
Test One: Scully used her right paw, which is option B. If option B - Your dog appears to be right-handed. Right-handedness in humans is often associated with language ability and a logical mind. There is some evidence that right-handed animals can be better at remembering and using words, so maybe your dog understands more of your conversation than you had thought!

Test Two: It took Scully a little bit of time to figure this one out, but she eventually used her face to move the cup, which is option A. If option A - Your dog understands what psychologists call "object permanence". It realises that objects continue to exist even after they have disappeared from view. This is cleverer than you may imagine. To understand this, it must believe in a world beyond its perception.

Test Three:Scully did the best of all three dogs on this one. She never looked to the ground, instead following the treat to where it landed on the pillow. Option A. If option A - Your dog understands the way that horizontal objects relate to each other. This may not seem like much, but many animals have difficulty with this test. Pets that move about more in 3 dimensions should do better at this than those that move only on the ground.

Test Four: Once she figured out that I wasn't testing her "stay" command, lol, Scully figured this one out right away. I'll give her option A on this test. If option A - Your dog cracked this puzzle remarkably quickly. This may be because it has come across a similar situation before, or it may be very good at looking at physical problems and coming up with solutions. This takes a fair deal of brain power.

Test Five:Scully knows between 11-25 commands, which is option B. If option B - Your dog has learnt and remembered a broad selection of the commands that it finds most useful to pay attention to. When it learns a new command, your dog is associating the sound or body movement that you create with one of its own actions. Your dog's learning and memory has probably got a lot to do with your own training habits as an owner. They may be able to learn more commands with the right encouragement.

Test Six:It took Scully awhile to figure this one out, but she eventually used her paw to pull the string to get the treat, which is option B. If option B - Your dog has worked out that if it carries out the physical action of pulling the string, it will be rewarded. This is pretty impressive because pulling a string may be an entirely novel thing for your dog to do.

Test Seven:Scully found the hidden treat immediately, which is option A. If option A - Your dog has performed well. It has used two types of memory to perform this task. It used its spatial memory to remember the layout of the space, and it used its episodic memory to remember the action of you placing the treat in the hiding place.

Overall, this was a really interesting test and I'm glad I got the chance to try it out on my three mongrels :)

"Oh yeah, we're smart."

Back to Work

Moss and I FINALLY found a place to work sheep!!!! Hurrah!!!



Yesterday I drove out to Walla Walla to meet with Mary, who owns Moss's littermate brother Toss (no, I'm not kidding LOL). Toss is an amazing working dog and is qualified for the 2011 USBCHA Nursery finals. They are gearing up to attend this very prestigious sheepdog trial, which is held in September. This year, it's in Carbondale, CO. I'm very excited to see how they do! I'm sure they'll be amazing, they're a great pair.

Here is Toss. Isn't he gorgeous?





But anyways.... yesterday was a really fun day. We started off working some agility and freestyle in Mary's back yard. I used Cedar to help Mary and her awesome JRT, Kitty, get started with some cool freestyle moves, and then we did some agility jump drills.

After we finished with that, we drove over to Mary's friend Erica's house to vaccinate some sheep and do some chores. Toss is a very good chore dog and he was very helpful in getting the ewes loaded into the trailer. All except for one particularly nasty ewe with a lamb. She had no qualms about headbutting the dogs or chasing them across the field.

Toss tells the ewe to turn back...


She says "no way!"


But she turns.... for now.


Their troubles were just getting started...




Even Erica's dog, Tate couldn't get her into the trailer.


Toss tried his best, as did Tate, but eventually the three of us humans had to catch her and haul her bitch ass into the trailer. Sorry, no pictures of that ;)

A few hours and lots of running around later, we ended up back at Erica's house and worked our dogs on some fresh lambs that had never been worked by dogs before. Lambs like that tend to be really light and not flock together very well, which can be challenging. I was a little nervous because Moss hasn't worked sheep (and neither have I) in almost 5 months. I shouldn't have worried, tho. He was FABULOUS. He listened well, read his sheep intelligently, was a lot of fun, and didn't get us into any trouble... even if I wasn't totally on my A game all the time. I'd count that as a success! I just love working him.... he takes such good care of me, especially for a young dog.



My favorite moment was when two of the lambs split off from the group and tried to run for home. The draw was really strong on one end of the pasture. Moss calmly swept out and cut them off, holding them to the pressure. He just stood there, keeping them from breaking away and moving ever so slightly whenever they did. This dance kept going for about thirty seconds or so, until Moss finally took one tiny step forward and they ran back to the rest of the group we were working. What a good dog!

Erica snapped a few photos of him while we were working... thanks Erica!











Oh, and I actually remembered to do Saturday Blog Hop for once! :)

Once More, With Heeling

Jeez, I've been pretty lax about posting regularly on the blog this summer! I've been surprisingly busy since returning to Kennewick from my two week trip home to Boise. But I've been sure to make time for dog training!

Since the Nancy Tanner seminar, I've been really jazzed about freestyle. I've been working with both Cedar and Moss on some of the things I learned, and both dogs are progressing well. Cedar LOVES her go-out training and is getting much better about backing up to a target as well. I need to start sidepass training with her, though... that's a trick I really want to have in our arsenal!

Oh, and Moss got to go dock diving on Monday... it went pretty well. As soon as he gets more confidence to jump, I know he'll be great.



Some Cedar video:



Some Moss video:

Nancy Tanner "Freestyle and Beyond" Seminar Wrap-Up

Last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a seminar on canine freestyle with Nancy Tanner of Paws and People dog training in Bozeman, MT. Nancy is a judge for the Musical Dog Sport Association (MDSA) and also trains and competes in agility. I've been wanting to learn more about freestyle for a long time, and it's safe to say that after last weekend, I'm hooked!

And so is Cedar :)



Since Cedez and I had a working spot, we were quite active during the two-day seminar. On Saturday, Nancy started out teaching the group the basics of freestyle and those of us with working spots got to try out some of the basic moves and foundation exercises. First, we worked on basic attention and hand targeting, which Cedar knows well. Then, we practiced delayed rewarding by having our dogs perform behaviors with a plate of treats on the floor next to them. Only when the dogs gave us calm, focused attention were they released to their reward. After we had mastered those skills, we worked on teaching "bow" (which Cedar has never figured out until this weekend!) and leg weaves. Cedar really digs all these tricks and it was fun getting to play with her. It was also very motivating to have a goal, or purpose for doing all this fun stuff.

On Sunday, Nancy moved into a discussion of more advanced freestyle moves, and also taught us the basics of how to put a routine together. I would have liked to spend more time on this stuff, since it was completely new information for me. We learned about how to train our dogs to go out to a target/mat, how to back to the same target (which Cedar really loved), how to train our dogs to sidepass, how to do fancy "switches" (or changes of direction), and a few other more dance-like moves. We learned how to figure out specific aspects of our dogs' personalities, and how to do the same for ourselves.

Finally, Nancy taught us about how to put routines together, from picking music to how to rehearse for competition. One thing I thought was interesting is that she recommends finding music that matches the natural beat of your dog's footfalls. To figure this out, video your dog heeling and then watch the video while playing a wide variety of music (like on YouTube). We practiced really feeling the music to train our brains to learn how to develop routines that move logically with the music in a flowing way.

At the end of the day, a few teams were "volunteered" to do short routines based on an exercise we'd done earlier (we wrote down routines in the shape of letters). Cedar and I were one of those teams ;). It was definitely an experience walking the course to music, seeing how my planned moves worked in a real setting. Once I walked it a few times without my dog, I got Cedar out and we tried to routine as a whole. It was fun! I definitely see the value of walking the routine without a dog first. But all in all, considering I only had about five minutes to come up with the routine, walk it, warm up my dog, and run through the routine with her, it went well. I can't wait to come up with a "real" routine for us :)

A few things that stuck with me:

1) Calm gets you everything, pushy gets you nothing. This was a good lesson for me to learn, because Cedar can tend towards "pushy" with me while we're training (bumping my hand, jumping into my space, etc). In the past, I thought it was cute (okay, I kind of still do, LOL) but I can see now how it affects our working relationship. By rewarding her for being calm and thoughtful, we were able to get a lot more done.

2) Train to compete, compete like you train. I am guilty of being a bit "permissive" as a trainer. I tend to think that if something's not perfect, I can go back and fix it later... but I think Nancy's approach is much more logical and leads to cleaner and less lazy/sloppy training. So, in the future I will go into each training session with my criteria and goals clearly defined.

3) Freestyle is really just "play with a purpose." The idea of "play with a purpose" was really interesting to me. I guess I always separated trick training from "real" training, but really, the two are very much entwined. So yes, freestyle/trick training is fun, but it still is important and should be treated as such. The most productive training sessions, regardless of sport, are those in which the trainer approaches the session with focus and a clear head.

4) The importance of knowing your dog's personality as well as your personality as a trainer... and using that information to your advantage. This is a biggie. I don't think many people really sit down and take the time to analyze the motivations and personality traits of their individual dogs. And I'd bet even fewer people have analyzed who they are as trainers. These exercises were interesting, eye-opening and informing for me, and helped me to approach training my dog in a different way. One interesting thing I learned was that "cheerleading" Cedar when she's not into being a participant is actually demotivating for her.

This was a fabulous seminar that left me excited, encouraged, and totally jazzed about canine freestyle. It seems like a logical activity to do alongside agility because its focus is on teamwork and building a stronger relationship with your dog.


And now.... a completely unrelated photo of Moss:

Jumpin' Jumpin'

Last weekend at the trial I finally picked up my new jumps! I bought two really nice jumps from a local friend that makes equipment for all the agility clubs in the Boise area. I got a purple one and a blue one :). Tonight, I finally had the chance to set them up and, well, since I never do anything noteworthy without my camera, it was a good time for a photo op.

I practiced with all three dogs, and they all did great! I jumped Moss at 26" for the first time tonight and was pleasantly surprised with how nicely he did. He had very nice form, was thoughtful, and listened very well.









Cedes also got her chance, and jumped 26" with ease. I most likely will never compete with her at that height, but it was nice to see how well she adjusted to jumping 6" higher than normal. She's such a good girl <3





And even Scully got a go!