I figured it was time for me to post another sleeping photo.
I'm not sure why the two beds are on top of each other, but what's amazing is that Mika actually lay down in the donut bed after Wall-e was already sleeping on the rectangular bed. Mika usually isn't THAT fond of Wall-e to actually lie down so close to him, but this time she had no choice since she wanted to sleep in her donut bed.
At class today, we learned the last of the Novice exercises. Next week we'll spend the hour running a full course. (Do you say "running" a course in rally? I don't know the terminology!)
The exercises:
Halt - Side Step Right - Halt Halt - 1, 2, 3 Steps Forward Halt - 1, 2, 3 Steps Backward (only in CKC Novice rally) Halt - Turn Right - 1 Step - Halt
The least difficult exercise for us was the last one. We didn't really have any problems with that, but the other exercises were tough for me! I found it hard to concentrate on my shoulders, arms, and feet all at the same time. It's like starting agility all over again.
The instructor had a good suggestion of using both hands to reward for the front in the Halt - 1, 2, 3 Steps Backward exercise (holding the treat in both hands to reward, instead of one hand). Since the dog is supposed to be in the middle of the handler in the front position, using both hands to reward will prevent the dog from sitting towards any one particular hand (because dogs orient to where they're getting their rewards). The sequence (or rather a course, because there were a lot of stations) was Start, Fast Pace, Normal Pace, 270 Degree Right, Halt - Sit - Walk Around, 360 Degree Left, Straight Figure 8, Spiral Right - Dog Outside, Halt - Call Front - Finish Right, and Finish. Even though Wall-e was a bit tired because we'd done a lot of training this class, he was happy and eager to do the course.
Looking back over all the exercises we've learned, I think the cone/pylon exercises are our best exercises. (And of course, the stationary exercises are our worst :)
Next week we'll spend the hour running a full course. (Do you say "running" a course in rally? I don't know the terminology!)
Note: I should mention that when I talked about Wall-e's crooked sits at our last class, I didn't mean that he actually sits crooked, but rather than he sits at an angle to me instead of parallel to my body. He sits with his butt far away from me instead of tucked in. Sorry for the confusion! Again, I don't know obedience terminology :)
The year is drawing to a close and our club's agility field has been closed for almost two months. It's time to start thinking about our competition goals for next year and how we're going to get there.
I love setting goals and working towards them, even though the goals that I have right now are not really that big of a deal to me. The only goals that have been important to me at all were getting a title, qualifying for Nationals, and running in Superdogs (this was a huge accomplishment for us because of Mika's reactivity). Mika and I have accomplished all of these goals together and now we're just enjoying the ride, but I still think it's fun to have big goals to work towards.
My big long-term goal for both dogs is to get their ATChC (Agility Trial Champion of Canada) titles. To keep us on track for this goal, we also have the smaller goal of achieving at least one title each full trialing year. (Wall-e's first full trialing year will be next year, since he only started trialing in June this year.) Mika and I got our MADC (Master Agility Dog of Canada) title this year and next year the most likely title that we'll get will be our MJDC (Masters Jumper Dog of Canada) or our SGDC (Starters Games Dog of Canada). Wall-e didn't get any titles this year because he barely did any runs, but we may get his ADC (Agility Dog of Canada) or SGDC (Starters Games Dog of Canada) next year.
I'm still working towards getting Mika's SGDC because we only started trialing in Starters Snooker this year, although we're in Masters for all the other classes. (The SGDC requires two Q's each in Starters Jumpers, Gamblers, and Snooker.) Mika and I only ran in two Snookers this year and didn't Q in either of them due to my handling! The reason I've waited so long to do Snooker is because I wanted to make sure that Mika was completely confident in the ring before trying a potentially stressful class. (It turns out that since Mika is a Masters-level dog, she's used to twisty courses and didn't find Snooker stressful in the least!).
To accomplish the competition goals, we need to have agility training goals/plans as well.
Mika
Contact/tunnel discriminations. Since I've rewarded hundreds of contacts over the past four years of regular training (3-4 times a week, 6 months of the year), and barely any rewards for tunnels, Mika loves contacts, and when presented with a tunnel/contact discrimination, will choose the contact every time, no matter which contact it is. The first step will be to do lots of rewards for tunnels to raise the value of tunnels. Then, we'll train discriminations.
Angled dog walk entries. This is long-overdue. I never properly trained Mika to safely straighten her body to take angled DW entries, so we just avoid them; if we see an angled DW on course, I over-handle her so that she enters it straight. However, we saw two gambles this year that involved DW entries at an angle. In both cases, I modified the gamble so that either Mika didn't take the DW or that she took another obstacle before the gamble to allow her to take the DW straight on. If I hadn't modified the gambles, she likely would have slipped and fallen off. But the thing is, Mika has awesome DW's at a distance (other than hitting the contact!) and those gambles would have been great for us if I had taught Mika how to straighten herself out. That's why teaching angled DW entries is an important goal for us. I'll be using jump wings to condition Mika to straighten her body by muscle memory, since muscle memory works really well with her.
Wall-e
Handling sensitivity. This is the only training goal I have for Wall-e (other than my goals of reducing his fears, which apply not only to agility but to everyday life as well). This year, Wall-e has gained a ton of drive, but his sensitivity to my handling has decreased a bit. I also need to learn how to handle this very fast dog. I'm getting Moe Strenfel's foundation DVD for Christmas and we'll use that to refresh our understanding of handling!
Goals are a fun part of agility and I'm looking forward to start working towards them next year. Of course, what we're all really looking forward to is doing any agility at all; we're taking a big break from agility this winter. Other than renting one of the agility buildings a few times, we won't be doing any agility training at all to rest the dogs' bodies. As you can imagine, we're dying to get back to our sport!
Wow, it's hard to believe there's only two classes left.
At this class we learned:
Halt - 90 Degree Pivot Right - HALT Halt - 90 Degree Pivot Left - HALT Spiral Right - Dog Outside Spiral Left - Dog Inside
At the next class we'll learn the remaining Novice exercises.
At the beginning of the class, the instructor accidentally turned the heating fan on (I'd told her about Wall-e's fear of fans at the first class, but she forgot; no big deal, it happens!). Wall-e was scared and wouldn't take treats, so I reminded the instructor about his fear and took him outside as she turned the fan. He didn't want to go back inside, but I carried him in. I would have rather shaped him to go back inside, but it was cold and I would have let tons of cold air in the building. I was impressed with how quickly he recovered, though; he started taking treats again as soon as he realized the fan wasn't on, whereas several months ago he still would have been very stressed.
We didn't practice any pivots at this class because they require a bit of training (preferably in an environment without the distraction of other dogs!), but we did practice spirals. Our first spiral lefts were NOT pretty. I kept almost bumping into Wall-e because I wasn't cuing him properly (hmmm, why does that sound familiar?). But by the end of the class, we were both doing better.
The sequence for this class was Start, 360 Degree Right, Fast Pace, Normal Pace, About Turn - Right, Call Front - Finish Left, Halt - Sit - Down - Sit, Halt - Sit - Down - Walk Around, Finish. We were doing pretty well up until the Halt - Sit- Down - Sit, where Wall-e did his sit and down really crooked. He's always had crooked sits and downs, but I've never really payed attention to it as much as I should. The instructor recommended that I retrain his sits and downs a bit to get them straighter, and she helpfully showed me how to reward him to encourage a straight position.
Below is a picture from our third class a week ago; you can see how crooked his sit is :) They were even more crooked at this class. That's what happens when you don't train for straight sits; I never really did :)
I agree that I should retrain him and we've started doing that this week at home. It'll take a while to build the muscle memory of doing straight sits and downs, but with a lot of retraining, I definitely think he'll be able to do it. I just have to remember to always reward on the left side of his head, away from me, instead of towards me.
I have to say, as I watch the video clips from this class, that I just love how happy Wall-e looks as he trots beside me, even after his scare with the fan at the beginning of the class. I'm actually glad that the incident with the fan happened because know I have a lot more confidence with Wall-e's ability to recover from stress.
About "U" Turn (180 degree turn to the left) 270 Degree Left Turn 360 Degree Left Turn Call Dog Front - Forward Right Call Dog Front - Forward Left Call Dog Front - Finish Right Call Dog Front - Finish Left
Wall-e forgets how to do finishes! We haven't practiced them in a long time. I had to lure him for his finishes and forwards in this class.
He really likes the forwards though because he doesn't have to sit, he can just keep trotting forward after he moves into position.
The sequence in this class was Start, Straight Figure 8, About Turn - Right, Fast Pace, Normal Pace, Right Turn, 270 Degree Left Turn, Sit - Down - Walk Around, 360 Degree Right Turn, and finally Finish. We did well during most of the course, although Wall-e was heeling a bit too far away from me; gotta train closer heeling. For the Sit - Down - Walk Around, I placed a treat on the ground in front of him after he lay down. This gives him something to focus on as I walk behind him. It works well at home, but at class he got up when I stepped behind him. The instructor suggested that I not put the treat down, but instead just step behind more and more gradually. So we left it at that and completed the course with the 360 Degree Right Turn, which went well. We're good at the exercises that involve moving; it's the stationary exercises that we find tough!
After class, Wall-e got to play with the chocolate lab/poodle puppy (I think he's about six months old). He had a blast. Mika rarely wants to play with Wall-e, so any playtime that he gets is a big treat for him!
Two weeks ago, I started taking a beginner rally class with Wall-e. I've taken rally before with Mika in 2007. I've always wanted to do more obedience of some kind with Wall-e, as he just loves to heel and is pretty good at it too!
First class: October 30
Wall-e loved seeing the other dogs at the beginning of class. In the class, there are two lab/poodles (I think one *might* be a golden/poodle, can't remember), a hound mix, a shepherd mix, and a German Shepherd Dog.
The class covers both CARO (Canadian Association of Rally Obedience) and CKC (Canadian Kennel Club) Novice rally exercises. Most of the exercises are the same, but some have different names; for those, I'll just use the CARO names because if we ever do compete, we'd concentrate mostly on CARO. I'll In the first class, we covered:
Halt - Sit (CKC only) Halt - Sit - Down Halt - Sit - Stand Halt - Down - Sit Halt - Walk Around Halt - Sit - Walk Around Halt - Down - Walk Around Weave Once Fast Pace Slow Pace Normal Pace
(Sorry if I messed up any of the names; I'm working from memory.)
Wall-e really enjoyed it. I realized how much I have to work on his downs; at this class, he wasn't dropping fully down and usually had his elbows off the floor.
When we first approached the cones in the Weave Once exercise, Wall-e tried to interact with one of the cones (pawing it), haha. We've done a lot of shaping exercises with cones and he probably thought that's what we were doing! He soon understood what to do, though.
At the end of each class, we'll be doing a sequence of exercises that will eventually build up to a full course. This week, we did Start (basically just the start line, not really an exercise), Weave Once, Halt - Down, and then Finish (the "finish line"). The Weave Once went well, but I do have to work on Wall-e's downs! He enjoyed it, though.
Second class: November 6
Exercises covered:
Straight Figure 8 Moving Down - Forward (CKC only) Right Turn About Turn - Right 270 Degree Right Turn 360 Degree Right Turn
(Only right turns were covered this week because left turns are a bit tougher.)
After working on downs at home, Wall-e's downs were much better this week!
The sequence for this class was Start, Weave Once, Halt - Sit - Down, Right Turn, Halt - Sit - Walk Around, Right Turn, Fast Pace, Normal Pace (just a transition from Fast Pace), and Finish. The first few stations went well, but we had a bit of trouble with the Halt - Sit - Walk Around; Wall-e hasn't learned this yet, so I tried to let him chew on a treat as I walked around him, but he would stand up when I started to step behind him. After two tries, I rewarded him for staying when I took a tiny step, and then moved on to the next stations, which Wall-e did great at.
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We would have another class today too, but it was canceled because the instructor is attending a local rally trial. Next week, we'll learn the left turns.
Whew. I'm so behind on writing about our latest events. Let's get started.
Fun Match, Oct. 16
I ran Mika in two Masters Gamblers runs and Wall-e in two Starters Standard runs. Wall-e's runs were first. I let him do all of the obstacles except for the weaves, dog walk, and A-frame (although he did sneak onto an off-course AF twice!). Once, he forgot to stop in 2on2off on the teeter. He realized that right after he jumped off and immediately backed up to try to get into position! Good thing that the teeter was already high enough that it didn't hit him.
The Masters gamble was too hard for Mika and me, so I broke it up into smaller pieces and then gradually increased the distance and amount of obstacles. We didn't get to the full distance, but she did send out really nicely to the correct end of the second tunnel, which was the hardest part of the gamble for us. She also had some good weaves during the opening.
Trial, Oct. 24
This was our last trial of the year. I just ran Mika because Wall-e isn't ready to run at this venue yet. We ran in two Masters Gamblers runs and one Masters Jumpers. In the middle of our first Gamblers run, Mika thought we were done because she went over the jump closest to one of the entry/exit gatesMika has been trialing long enough to know that when we're running towards a gate, it's time to get her jackpot reward. Unfortunately for her, what she thought was the exit gate was actually the entry gate, and there was a Keeshond waiting to run. She reacted to it, but came back to me when I called her with "Gimme a check!" (our reactivity cue that means to focus on me when a dog is around). In the gamble, we took the wrong obstacle in the discrimination, so no Q. This run was still a blast, though, because Mika was speedy and barky!
Our second run was another Gamblers. In the opening, I actually called Mika out of the weaves by accident, causing her to pop out; I meant to call her after the poles, but I anticipated and called her while she was still weaving. Silly handler. The DW entry in the gamble was too sharp for Mika, so we did the gamble a bit differently, as you'll see in the video. (Angled DW entries will definitely be a training project for next year.)
Our last run of the year was the Jumpers run. The course wasn't easy and was a bit twisty at times, but we ran it clean and Q'd.
This video is from all of the trials and fun matches we've run in this fall:
