Blogging Off

Well maybe - seems that finding time for updates is not happening much of late. It could be that this blog (apart from the results page and dog profiles) is in retirement. It has been a very worthwhile exercise, but in these time-poor days it seems to need a break. After all there is so much to do away from screens.

Happy travels from the Dream Team:

Summer is back!

Hiya!

We think that summer is back. About time too! No more dark morning walks :)

Goodies

Sen and Chook's dining tips!

1. Training snacks:

OK so it costs a bit, bit it is good for us and lasts a long time!

Before and after pics of project "training rewards". Cooking tips: chop raw; boil meats and liver together (grill sausage intact and cut when cool). Add cheese last. Some kind butchers will dice bulk meats but they tend to make the pieces too large. I only use human-grade foods.

2. Easy to load distraction treats we get when Mum leaves for work:

We like the Kong Wobbler, but are not fussed about other Kongs that are hard to stuff and clean. For these reasons we love this "Busy Buddy". Just unscrew and load!

We also like scattering treats in the grass - hunt on!

3. Keeping cool:

Sure you can freeze Kongs and Busy Buddies and blocks of ice with kibble. You can also follow Chook's advice:

Bon Appetit!

Chook Work

It is only one month until Chook is a year old. So, time to ramp up the training regime! Chook is a man that benefits from concentrating on a small range of things, and so he has been working on only a selection of agility-related tasks. The plan is to prepare him for jumping courses. Contact obstacles can wait.

His work has included mostly flatwork skills, a bit of weave pole training, and more recently starting to do some jumping work.

Things that are going well:

- his ability to work off lead in places where he has a clear choice to do something else. He never chooses to;
- he is happily engaged in the work;
- VERY toy motivated (food not so much);
- he has reasonable speed, but I am trying to build more.

Things that could be better:
- I need to learn to move!;
- he could have more speed with some exercises;
- his adult self can be wary of people and other dogs.

He is still going to obedience class and we are working with those exercises too, although the training of competition obedience things is a bit secondary to the agility-related stuff. This doesn't bother me as they are in any case complementary. One just has to accept that there is not time to train everything to perfection all at once.

Good times

Here's a collection of old and new pics of us doing what we like best - hanging out in nice places!

And our training paradise:

 

May update (excellent core strength and overall condition!)

Sen

We participated in this year’s Western Australian State Agility Championships. Had a fabulous time! Really nice courses, really nice weather, increasing numbers of nice people and a very well-organised and run event. I went into it with only one goal – keep Sen smiling! She has not trained course runs or equipment for ages as we have worked only on fitness and on her mental resilience, so it was quite unrealistic to expect no mistakes.

I am happy to say that on this weekend she was a lot calmer than I think she has ever been so at trials. Her tail was for the most part always wagging so something must be going right with her training. Several people mentioned that she was working much better, and she was! I was super-satisfied with all six runs she had. For the most part she stayed with the program. Attempted check-outs there were but these were much more half-hearted efforts than usual and she always came back to finish the run.

 

She won one ADX (Excellent Agility) heat, and made two smoking Masters Jumping runs that I was super happy we managed to handle nicely as a team (one otherwise clear DQ because of a check-out, and one with a dropped last bar – the first time for us to get that oh-so-special agility experience J). One Open Jumping distance challenge was too much for her, the other she nailed (and then I got so excited I forgot that oh yeah that tyre is next,J). There were two lots of 10 weaves instead of 12 – a pesky little issue for us at the moment. She checked out at the start in the ADX final (maybe the crowd, maybe the overwhelming weekend, probably the heat – who knows, I can’t ask her), but that really didn’t matter as we had such a winner weekend in terms of attitude improvement (BOTH of us). It was great to feel and be back on track with her.

I treated her to a massage (who’d have thought she could be massaged!!! – six months ago that would have been impossible J). The only condition issue noted was slightly weak muscles on the front of the right leg. Balance work for small muscles was recommended. I was pleased that the masseuse/vet thought both of my dogs had excellent core strength and overall condition.

I got a treat too! in the form of these great pictures by Jemma Bell:
 

 

 

Chook

Mr C also excelled himself at this trial (periodic manic excitement barking aside). He was well-mannered, could be let off-lead to exercise with the other dogs which he did politely and always came back when called, waited in his crate for the most part without much noise and was happy to play and heel through the run waiting area among the hyped-up big dogs. He seems to be quite at ease in trial environments, although I note that he is still cautious.

 

The Chookster also got a massage and no problem areas were found. She did note that he had unusually high-set patellae, which was not a problem as long as he stays in shape but was just something to keep in mind should anything ever go wrong in that region.

A few weeks ago Chook participated in a practice obedience trial (heeling, sits, down, stand, stay, recall, and a few tricks). To my surprise he did really lovely work. Seems that something is sinking in with his training after all!

 

20!

Sometimes time just goes by and you forget to reflect on your achievements. I have been concentrating so hard lately on:

-        Sen and her reactivity issues; and,

-        Chook and his muscle conditioning/barking/socialisation

So much so that sometimes it can become a bit of a downer. So today we report our very satisfying recent achievements:

Sen

Although I almost didn’t notice, Sen passed the “20 clear rounds” mark this month – a fine achievement! As it had been about a year since a pass in either agility code, things had been starting to feel a bit grim. Granted she had been out of competition for most of last year, but her efforts from Oct 2014 to now had been somewhat less than stellar. However recently we have had signs of return to form. She passed both runs at his year’s Western Classic, and made a smokin’ run at last weekend’s ADAA trial (no video for that one unfortunately):

More importantly, I think she is starting to really learn how to calm down, although progress in this area is a bit off and on. For the first time in her life she has actually greeted a few dogs at the beach with an appropriate but sniff instead of a mugging. This is ENORMOUS progress for her. On-lead, she has occasionally walked passed by dogs closely without a reaction. I have started a few new things that I think are really working:

- taking her to a mix of classes (obedience class, show class, agility class etc.) and asking her to do nothing except stay calm. No participating in the actual class, just hanging around and watching what is happening. This has come as a total shock to her – not being asked to do anything;

- teaching her to walk slowly. She is a big-time prancer and the foot-padding looks cute but is just all about hype. If she walks slow she has no choice but to slow down on the inside as well

 

Chook

Chook seems to have new levels of motivation – good motivation! I can now get some reasonable duration out of him during training, and he is starting to generalise things very well. This has mostly occurred in the past two months. I have to say this is a big relief as he was pretty frustrating to work with before.

The lesson I have learnt here is that it pays to persevere – sometimes the foundation is really being built even if you don’t always see immediate indication of this. One very good choice I made was to sick with just training a small range of things until I got the speed and accuracy required, rather than trying to lay a basis for everything. This is really paying off now as he has full speed with his "tree agility" - a good get from a dog not naturally driven to be fast. He might not know much yet, but what he does know is very solid and well-generalised to different locations.

Lots of hill walking and stair climbing seem to be helping him develop better coordination , and to balance out the muscles of his rear legs. I’ll find out whether or not that is just my perception is the next two weeks.

The barking issue goes on but I have been concentrating my training on me and trying to calm down about it! I think overall the situation is improving. Every day I’m thankful that he is a friendly and outgoing guy. At obedience class he pays no attention to other dogs at all, will play with me in their face, and can stay happily engaged for most of the class.

Chook 5 months

A LOT has changed about the C-man in the last month:

• His legs are twice as long;
• He is a lot more motivated (to eat at least, and to train);
• He has discovered that he can actually use his back legs, and that he has some degree of coordination control;
• He now has some ability to rest quietly when required;
• He is house-trained (except when nobody notices his requests for transport down the steep stairs to the back door which are still not possible for him to negotiate alone);
• Sleeps all night (like a dream!!!!! :) :) :))
• The bottoms of lady dogs start to be very interesting

I would love to be able to say "and the barking is gone!" but it hasn't. At least it is MUCH better than it was. It is still a bit of a struggle to train at home because of it. At first I thought "fine I'll just train high-excitement things somewhere else" but that isn't very practical and so the project continues.

Thanks to his new-found control of body parts we have been doing a lot of work to try and develop his movement, and it has come a long way in a short time! Stays have been a theme of this month and the concept is starting to sink in.

My main crime is my neglect of training him to walk nice on a lead. He works fine in a show lead but put him in a harness and, well, the effect of long uninhibited park and beach walks can be seen :). I got him a martingale collar dedicated to project "walk nice" and I think that needs to be the theme for next month.

Chook 4 months :)

Chook turns 4 months on Wednesday, and he has been living with us for a month now. What a great little man!, I think in the silent times :). Chook's good points:

1. He is super good-natured. He is very easy-going and loves people. He is a piece of cake to handle - he can already have his nails clipped with no drama, behaves for brushing and ear cleaning. Teeth handling needs a bit more work, but he is not very mouthy (at least when it comes to chewing...).

He has been puppy classes twice a week for 4 weeks. This was a good idea as he learnt about friendly dogs. In a few weeks he went from hesitant with other dogs to Mr Outgoing. His best buddy from puppy school was a huuuge Am Staff puppy. From Sen he has learnt that dogs are not always in the mood for play, and that wise puppies make polite enquiries about play enthusiasm status before barging in.

2. He is very confident. He doesn't mind things that go bump in the night, and recovers quickly to investigate things he has initial fear of. He is still a bit afraid of traffic, but he is after all a country boy and this is the inner city. We spend a lot of time on a certain bench at a certain road intersection - like a pair of homeless people watching the world go by.

So far he has had the great benefit of lots of opportunities. He has done quite a few café lunches and dinners at people's houses. He does not have much capacity for long walks yet but has done a nice mix of bush and urban strolling. He has been to a few agility trials and handled the environment really well. Next weekend he is off to obedience school.

3. He is a very well-structured dog. Oh yes and he is handsome and he knows it :)

All of these are great attributes! I am happy that he has them. He is everything his breeder said he would be and more :):)

Now on to the "room for improvements":

1. Love is lost here due to his somewhat extreme, split your ears from 100 m piercing bark. He is a young man with a lot to say, and often. However everyone (man and dog) is on his case about it and the message is getting through - keep it closed young man, nobody likes it.  He has stopped barking in the car, and for the most part when training. Sad fact of inner city living is that the barking needs to go ASAP. The good thing is it is mostly excitement/attention-seeking barking, not barking at actual things and he doesn't seem to do it when home alone.

2. He does not really offer much during training - actually he doesn't offer anything. All of my previous dogs have been great free-shapers. Chook needs to be lured to start things off. I find this a bit frustrating as I find shaping great - tires them out and gets a more active behaviour. Good thing though it isn't the only tool in the box.

He is fairly toy motivated, motivated by simple attention, but not very food motivated (sometimes not at all and there are few things he will work for more than a few attempts for). Motivational challenges are, after all, to be expected for some individuals not from traditional working breeds.

Overall he is a great addition to life! Sen is on a whole much happier now that she has a playmate.

The happiness of Sen

Sometimes it comes when she is paying attention:

Sometimes when she is thinking up trouble ("look into my eyes"):

But always it comes when we are together :)

Fantastic photos by team Taryn, Bob & Chappy :)

Morning sickness?

Seems it gets harder and harder to have a peaceful morning walk - one where nobody comes to dump rubbish, no loose giganto-dog chases as, nobody gives us lip, and so on. Oh well, we try to look for the sweet spots!

What have we been doing?

This blog has been a little quiet. That is because of numerous holidays :). We are just hanging out and all is well.

Spring has sprung:

The dog looks better straight:

Sen AD JDX

In the post today! Very proud of my girl:

 

5 x 0 (Q) = Sen, WA State JDX Champion + AD + JDX titles!!!

Sen seems to have the ability to pull things off when most wanted. I might be frustrated with her inconsistency and passion for taking off at high speed, but there are moments of brilliance! I got to see a few such moments at this year's WA State Agility Championships. Sen's State's achievements:

 

-  2014 JDX State Champion (200) - TADAA! 

-  1st place Qs in all three JDX heats!

 

Here's the video for the first heat (speed 5.04 m/s!!!) and the finals run:

 

Great as these results were, the remaining 4 classes were are collection of DQs. Still I got a lesson in frustration - these all felt bad at the time, but when watching the videos later, each run contained some great work. Clearly things are going forward and that is the main thing, AND MOST WEAVE POLES WERE CLEANLY DONE (about time...). The States were only her third competition for this year, and lack of competitions certainly shows in her ability to concentrate. I noticed that she is better on tight courses than easier courses. Someone hypothesised that this is because she cannot get up a full head of stream on harder courses and enter the crazed zone - maybe this is true. At least the stats for this year are so far better than those for 2013:

 

There was one downside to the States. Our awesome agility pals Bob & Taryn made their competition debut! We were so proud :). Bob did fabulous work, but pulled up lame the next day. Fingers are crossed that it is not something too serious, but cruciate ligament has been suggested :( :(. Best wishes Bobby boy:

 

The following weekend we attended a normal ANKC trial, and by this time Sen was with the (concentrate) program. There were no crazy run-offs on this weekend, and in 10 minutes she finished her AD and JDX titles. The JDX title had been quick - 4 passes in two weekends and the other from Albany last November (her first JDX run). The AD title was ANOTHER story (two passes at last year's States and then the looooong wait.....).

 

I have to say that I am happy with her work, and once she gets more exposure to competition environments I'm sure she will settle down. Sen now gets to "rest" until the end of the year (+/- a run or two at the end of May). We started our relaxation with some Perth tourism, and the princess had much training in inner city life:

 

 

Sen's Western Classic 2014

Was a hoot!

Her focus suffered a lot from her total lack of attending competitions (not since Nov 2013), but some great work was done. We had a blast in teams with Corgie Tobie, Papillon Spirit and super dog Astro - thanks guys!. Our team showed 'em how jumping was done and pulled off a 3rd place in Teams Jumping:

Sen's runs were pretty much chaos - except for this great Open Jumping run, her first JDO Q!

Some coaching, at last!

At the end of last year I took Sen to Perth for a seminar by former US world agility team coach Stacy Peardot-Goudy. Below you can see the videos of our work before and after Stacy. It is amazing the improvement you can get from a little calibration. How fantastic it would be to be able to do something like this regularly, not just every other year.

Tuesday night:




Thursday night:

Sayonara 2013

And may I say from a vet bills cost p.o.v. a very good riddance. My main hope for next year is that dog health in the household improves.

 

So brings the close of our first year of Australian agility. I am for the most part pleased with our results. Sen would no doubt show improvement if we had a chance to go more often to compete, or at least to dog-rich training environments.

Results:
Bigi
15 clear runs from 26 starts (65% Q rate)
Winner, WA State Championship Novice Jumping (300)
ANKC Agility Dog title
ANKC Jumping Dog title
ADAA Australian Agility Dog title
+3 passes towards the next ADAA title and 1 ADAA teams pass

The bad news here is that this was more than likely (we can probably say certainly) his last competition year. Next year we will start to compete in Rally Obedience so that he has something to work towards.

Sen
11 clear runs from 57 starts (19% Q rate)
From these stats we can make two observations:
A. That is a lot of runs, too many, &
B. These are crap stats.

ANKC Jumping Dog title (in straight runs - fabulous!)
2013 Western Classic Novice Jumping Champion (300)
ADAA Australian Agility Dog title
+1 ADAA teams pass
+2 ANKC AD passes

I am pretty happy with her work, she just needs to settle down and think a little more. I am still adjusting to handling Sen, who is a different style (one could say opposite extreme) to Bigi. Fingers crossed she keeps her health so that I may have at least a few years of fun.

The New Year's Eve pies are sliced this way:

Sen's results:                                                                            Bigi's results:

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Bigi AD

Which is of course nice. The disappointing thing is that this was probably his last run. His back has an unknown dysfunction and his elbow arthritis is getting worse.

An Unexpected Journey

I am starting to wonder - what the hell is going on here? I fork out lots of cash, I get no diagnosis.

Bigi for some time has had a bit of a back problem:
- a month of not being able to jump on lounges or beds;
- strange lumps that come and go;
- a sore base of the tail/rump, and tightness in this area;
- wobbly back legs;
- a weak tail;
- scary rapido weight loss

Finally I thought work was needed. So of we went to Murdoch University AGAIN. After x-rays, CT scans, blood work and even a spinal fluid tap they came up with ZERO cause for these problems. On one hand this is a good thing - there is no hideous major problem. However this still leaves me with a dog in discomfort and not clue about what to do about it??? The only thing we achieved was getting some broken teeth fixed (oh yes, he falls apart at both ends, and ends the year with 5 less teeth than he started with).

Meanwhile, Sen and I filled in the waiting times road testing some new walk locales:

1. Bold Park (fantastic!) - you can see the city from here, out there over past the leafy suburbs in which we stayed with good company

The big GRIN (because I aint the one at the vet)

City on one side, beach on the other

and a neat pine forest (the team likes a pine forest)

2. Bibra Lakes - where there is potential for getting lost we learn

The banksia are in bloom

as is Christmas Bush

Beach Babes

Finally, a holiday! Two days in the sun, followed by some agility fun that we will tell you about later. Since moving here I keep hearing what a fabulous place Esperance is - and guess what? It lives up to expectations and then some more.

For once we also managed to get fantastic dog-friendly accommodation - a small cabin just off the beach with a HUGE fenced yard. Next time I will take some jumps as it will make an excellent training venue :). We spent most of the time exploring beaches, which we had all to ourselves - a dream come true! The only downside was that Bigi continues to be not at his best.