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 :)