Agility weekend 22-23/9/2013 (Eden Hill Cup)

Finally after MANY frustrating weekends, the Princess decided she might actually stay on a few courses. For the last month and a half she has been doing lots of heeling - to try and build up her concentration; and as much "other dog" distraction work as I could find. Seems this work is starting to pay off, as she only left the ring once out of 7 starts for the weekend, and this one time only after a nasty incident with an A-frame. Happy days!!!!

This weekend was a grand fun time, with a great atmosphere. Sen completed her AAD title with a win (OH YEEEES! ground speed 4.18 m/s super duper!!!) and also got a teams pass! (3rd place, even I can hardly believe that one - thanks super team mates Courtney and Missy). We got some bling as it was a special blinged up championship competition weekend:

 

There are of course still issues of the off-course variety, but otherwise we are doing some nice work:



Bigi (alas) was a non-starter because of lameness. Enter substitute dog Sheeza! It was fun to get a chance to run someone else's dog (even if she has no concept of contacts - with this she would be perfect!). It was especially good that she was a larger dog than I am used to - good opportunity to learn more of this complex game. I managed to mess up almost all of her runs (mostly with just contact faults), but we nailed one run with an Open Agility win!

 

Sheeza is a lovely lady, and I hope I will have the pleasure of her company again sometime. Here she is with her mum (not spoilt or anything, just feeling a bit queezy here):

 

Bigi Bigi Bigi

Well, just to add to his expenses for the year, Bigi knocked out two teeth - or rather half knocked them out, requiring he be knocked out to fix the job. I have no idea how this happened. My guess is he did it on his car crate. Two small teeth (one upper, one lower) just inside the canine tooth. This has given him an aged smile:

He has also been lame since early August. Increasing his prednisolone did not help this time. I had him re-tested for Anaplasma sp. as that was the cause last time. All up teeth + test =$730 thanks. He is also back on stronger pred - just when his coat condition was recovering from the previous high dose. It took a whole two days for him to get back the prednisolone gut bloat look.

The good thing is he does not seem too bothered by it all. Still up to his old tricks:

Sen, Princess of Wildflowers

It might not be as nice as a Finnish forest, but sometimes we can find a bit of beauty. Of course it helps when you have another bit of beauty with you (Sen my sweetheart)

Mud Buddies :)

 

Chicken Camp 2013

Last weekend I made a big bucket list tick and finally got to go to Terry Ryan's Chicken Camp. Thanks to the lovelies at Paw Prints Pet Training, the dream was realised! I cannot recommend it enough to anyone wanting to be a better trainer, or to chicken enthusiasts in general!

What I learnt:
- Chickens are far easier to train than dogs in many ways. They see it, they get it. BUT - you need to be fast to catch it or they may not give you a second chance.

The chickens were able to learn 3-component behaviour chains in approximately 10 x 30 second training sessions - AMAZING!

- Following on from the above, it is wise to make very short very focused sessions. Meaning SHORT like less than a minute on one thing.

I have always used brief and focused dog training but I learnt that I will probably get better results if I make sessions even shorter and more focused that I currently do.

- CONCENTRATE! my mind wanders, and this is a big barrier to progress.

- BE STILL! I was a big mover, and chickens do not like movement. They want you to be still.

No doubt my dog training will also benefit from the removal of all superfluous movement too. This is really an unconscious part of focusing that I should work to improve.

The chicken preparation was great. Apparently it takes around 2 months to get them used to the intense handling, standing on the table, and staying in their crates.

If only the wider world could understand that all beings are highly intelligent; how then would the world be?

Sen Then & Now

I have been meaning to make this for a while now. Sometimes it is good to stop and notice that although I might not have much time to train, if I chip away in a focused manner I will get the sort of result I want. This video show the result of a slow two year's off and on work on Sen's seesaw. For a long time this was a problematic obstacle for her, but now we are getting somewhere!

Sen reflects