2-minute dog trainer, Tempest at 4.5 months

I’ve initiated “self-control” training with Tempest. He’s too young for prolonged self-control exercises, but his upbringing makes self-control a fundamental part of our relationship.

Since I got him at 8 weeks we’ve enforced:

1) sit to get out of your crate

2) sit for attention

3) random lie-downs while playing with his toy

4) 2-on-2-off on his contact trainer — holding that position while he eats and, most recently, after he’s done eating he has to hold until he gets his release word

5) formal sit/stays and down/stays

6) settling while I trim toenails, do basic grooming

This morning I stepped up Tempest’s stay training. With his breakfast in a bowl in one hand, and his clicker in the other hand, I cued a sit, stepped away, clicked, stepped back, and fed part of his breakfast.

I did this 2-3 times, moving closer and closer to the contact trainer.

On the last sit-stay, I set Tempest in front of his contact trainer, cued “stay” and stepped away from him, walking nearly half-way down the contact trainer, click-return-feed.

On the last exercise, I set Tempest in front of his contact trainer, cued “stay” and stepped away, walked partway down the contact trainer, then cued “walk-it,” and fed him when he hit his 2-on-2-off.

In addition to a brief sit-stay prior to performing his contact trainer, I’m initiating TWO bits of handling in conjunction with his down-contact.

FIRST, now that he’s getting the performance I want, I’m naming it “LIE DOWN.”  I’m saying LIE DOWN in a quiet, authoritative tone, not shouting.

Like Bud’s Kory, I want LIE DOWN to signify “look me in the eye, pay attention, get in the position you know is right, and settle in for a second or two.”

It’s nice to have the same conditioned responses to the same conditioned cues as Bud has for Kory. That way we can run each other’s dogs without being totally confusing to them.

SECOND, now that he’s got a performance and learning the cue to hit that position on his contacts, I must install a release word, or “OKAY.”

OKAY becomes the release word from all stays, including staying in his 2-on-2-off contact position.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, what with Bud’s work-study camp and tons of projects and preparation for my 2 days in Medina (for obed and rally).

We’ve also had excessive heat, in the mid-to-upper 90s, making trips to the training building uncomfortable.

So I’m delighted we still have our 2-3 minutes a day while Tempest is gobbling down his breakfast and dinner. This training is designed for folks who don’t have tons of time to train, or have limited access to equipment.

While I was on the road I didn’t have much room for training, but Tempest did a brief sit-stay for breakfast and supper. Also, first thing Sunday, while the rally building was empty, Tempest and I did some heeling training on lead.

I’m really impressed with Tempest’s capacity to focus in the presence of distraction. He heeled twice around the outside of the rally ring (about 50×40). He loves string cheese, and was incredibly interested in getting a little morning snack.

The stressful elements of the building, the things that worried Dash, received no attention from Tempest.  I’d call Tempest “brave,” but he’s really not being brave because he’s not overcoming concern — he’s just not concerned —  he’s simply focused on the work and blocking out the rest.

Dog in Motion — GPS, mapquest, and Rand McNally

The following essay has been in the works for a few months. One of the interesting elements of being a thoughtful instructor is the constant search for analogies to which people can relate.

This month I’ve spent a good bit of time driving to and from obedience / rally trials, dragging poor Dash around the ring and in and out of Red Roof Inns. My 82-year-old mother has gone with me, just for company on the road and to provide her with entertainment.

First aside — Dash has earned his CD and RE, and is nearly half way to his RAE.  He’s had two experiences in Open A, the first of which was the “least sucky” NQ in his class of 5 dogs, and gave me hope, the second of which was a complete meltdown on his part. He injured himself twice jumping into his crate in the back of the Tahoe, because of a miscalculation of the crate opening, and this is no doubt his last year of trial travel.

Second aside — after 5 days of watching rally and obedience and asking lots of questions, my Mom asked, “do you know ahead of time what courses you’ll be running tomorrow?” When asked if she feels she’s understanding things more, she said, “I still don’t get this whole thing about legs and titles and DQs.”  “NQs,” I said. Wish I hadn’t corrected her — clearly she missed the most important point of the trip — or maybe not!  Perhaps she saw through the superficial legs and Qs and titles to the core of the sport: enjoyment of dogs and dog-people and dog-activities and dog-people-watching.

Third aside — every meltdown of Dash’s caused me to flash back to running Banner. She loved performing, didn’t have the stress issues that plague this old boy, and I only had to think about handling my dog. With Dash, I’m constantly battling his panic attacks. He’s able to recover from panic in 45-60-seconds but, unfortunately, panic can pile on top of panic and no recovery is possible before the next attack. I was a little disappointed in my rally judge who told me “go ahead, you’re not going to get that sign” when I was struggling to overcome Dash’s panic at sign 2 on a 15-sign course. I thought his comment showed a complete misunderstanding of the situation, and a lack of sensitivity to a dog’s emotional state. Nothing new, really.  Part of my drive to become a rally judge is that I think I can do better than just about any rally judge I’ve shown under. They’re friendly enough, but they often show no understanding of how dogs move, what the handler’s path will be, how a dog shouldn’t JUMP DIRECTLY INTO THE DOG SITTING AT THE HONOR STATION.  DUH !?!?!

So here’s my essay:   “Dogs in Motion — GPS, Mapquest, and Rand McNally”

Traveling with my mother makes obvious the upgrades in geographic technology.

On every roadtrip she insists on bringing her atlas, circa 200?.  It makes her comfortable to know where in the world she is, currently, and she wants to use her Rand McNally to find driving routes for me. So I get navigation information such as “we’re going to take I-76 to Portage Lake, then connect with I-77 south.” (All the while we’re looking at conflicting information from two more updated forms of driving directions.)

On the other hand, my Mapquest directions break every trip down into little tenths of a mile, and is very difficult to read and understand. It’s impossible to read mapquest directions and drive at the same time, for me. The order of directions should read, “after 3 miles look for exit 153, then take route 25 south towards …”  And I don’t need to know that I’ll drive one tenth of a mile on Some-Local-Hero-Drive to get to the Red Roof Inn.  I know what the motel looks like, can see the sign, and can find the entrance. Does ANYone really follow those tenths-of-a-mile breakdowns?

GPS devices, on the other hand, give real-time information in a timely fashion. “In 3/4 of a mile exit LEFT onto I-77 south … exit left … exit left (as I’m exiting left) … continue for 117 miles.”

When traveling with my Mom, I’m listening to my GPS device, I’m hearing my Mom discussing what her Rand McNally looks like, and (when I say, sharply, “what’s Mapquest got me doing here?”) it takes her 30 seconds or so to figure out where we are on the mapquest directions, and I’m often through whatever confusing intersection caused the scuffle.

In addition to reading her Rand McNally, and struggling with Mapquest, my Mom tries to micromanage my driving by pointing out “do not enter,” “one way” arrows, red lights, etc.

I finally said to her yesterday, “Please put away your Rand McNally and my Mapquest directions — I’m following my GPS device.”  It’s just too confusing to listen to  1) timely directions from GPS, plus  2) late directions from mapquest being read by my mother, plus  3) a general discussion of where we are (complete with a finger pointing at a spot on a map of Ohio — “Hello?!?  I’m reading signs and driving !!   I can’t see what you’re pointing at!”).

As our dogs run agility or rally, they want timely information. “I’m done with this now.  Where do I go next?  Left? Right? Straight ahead?”  Barking is often the dog’s way of saying “I’m not getting information soon enough!”

Our course walk-throughs should focus on finding those precise spots on the course where we need to provide TIMELY directional information.

Whether we train absolute directionals (left-right-ahead) or relative directionals (come-turn-go on-get out-close), the dog must be the FIRST to know what they’ll need to do next.

The pre-cue is taught to the dog to ensure that a FAST dog (one running ahead of the handler) knows before approaching an obstacle what the new direction and the next obstacle might be.

I use pre-cues in rally, and we’re teaching our fast dogs a precue for agility. They’re not perfect for slow dogs, though knowing what’s next, even for a slow dog (one running beside or behind the handler) may be prudent handling.

When you’re running your dog, whether in agility or rally, be a GPS device.  Give timely information.  Let them know ahead of time what’s next. Help them prepare physically and mentally for what’s coming next.

2-minute dog trainer, practical applications for Tempest’s training

There are 3-4 special behaviors I’ve been encouraging in Tempest and last night we tested the practical application of this special training.

1)  the sit-and-down-stay … though a four-month-old puppy can’t be expected to stay for very long, I’ve been doing little tiny stays with Tempest at a few of his meals.  I expect a stay while I walk away, a stay while I walk around him, and a stay sitting right in front of me.

Last evening, while the more advanced dogs were working in class on equipment, Tempest and I worked on our pause table stays.  I’m amazed that, at his young age, Tempest is able to stay focused on me, with other dogs running, while I walk away from the pause table and give his release word, then come running to me 10-15 feet away. He was so cute — staring intently at me as if trying to figure out what all this had to do with anything.

2)  the fetch … toy training is going to become a huge part of Tempest’s agility and obedience training. Toys and tugging build confidence, build drive, and are just more powerful for a toy-driven dog than treats. Tempest has begun the initial training on a formal retrieve but, in the meantime, is getting the idea of the play retrieve. “Every time I take it back to Mommy she throws it again — whee !!!”

After class, while I chatted with our instructor, Tracy, Bud was sending Tempest to the tunnel (from 6-8 feet!) and tossing the frisbee for him.  Tempest was happily jumping on the cloth frisbee and “killing it,” but then — every time — would take it back to Bud !!!   At one point Bud got distracted and Tempest stood beside him with the frisbee in his mouth, looking up as if to say, “hey, I’m not done here !!”

3) walking on a loose leash … I began by simply stopping forward movement but, when Tempest figured out how much fun the training building was, he still wanted to rush to get there.  I began a series of left 360-degree turns, turning directly into Tempest if he forged ahead of me.

Last evening, on his walk to the building and anytime I walked him from one spot to another in the building, Tempest offered me loose-leash walking.  Quite a bit of self-control for a baby, I think.

4) we have mulch and wood chips in our dog yard, so I’ve been teaching Tempest “leave it” to drop stuff out of his mouth.

This morning, as we were returning to the house from breakfast, Tempest picked up a piece of wood.  I said, “T – leave it,” and he spit it out !!  Amazing.  What a good boy.

In the meantime, Tempest no longer gets his puppy lunch but instead gets just 2 meals a day of adult food.  He’s growing slowly, getting some of his adult coat (looks a little scraggly right now), and still needs to grow into his EARS and FEET.

He’s a loving little boy who happily follows me around, sleeps next to wherever I sit, and comes when called.  I’m so happy with him, and so completely satisfied with his ability to learn our little lessons and remember them.

2-minute dog trainer, Tempest’s first rally-o lesson

Tempest is just over 4 months old. My intention is to enter him in a local obedience trial in 2 months, asking him to stick with me for three novice rally performances.

“That’s a lot of pressure for a young puppy,” one of our campers said.  “If you know Marsha you’ll know she doesn’t put any pressure on her puppies, or her adult dogs,” Bud responded.  That made me feel good, that my husband recognizes my generous attitude towards the dogs I train and run.

Okay, so today I resolved to start working on Tempest’s STAYS (stay-for-walk-away, stay-for-walk-around, in a sit, down, or stand).  First, some history …

With my first puppy, Banner (born 1996), I wasn’t allowed to take her to classes until she was 6 months old. While I was waiting for the opportunity to get her into group classes I worked at home, alone, on heeling, automatic sits, and stays.

At Tempest’s age, Banner came with me to the horsebarn twice a day and worked on sit-and-down-stays while I fed my horse. My feeding routine had me walking in and out of the barn door, or in and out of the stall, and Banner had to get used to the idea that she’d sometimes lose sight of me.

When Banner was able to join group classes she had tons of opportunities to practice her sit and down stays. Our instructors would return to dogs who changed position and correct them, and this made a huge impression on Banner.

She learned really steady stays while I was in-sight, as well as out-of-sight.

With Dash (born 2000) I was learning clicker training, he had no confidence, and I struggled to get an extended stay from him. I tried tiny increments but he tended to “hunker-down” if I asked for even 30 seconds in a sit stay.

Another clicker obstacle was that Dash got excited about offering behavior and I liked the confidence-building benefits of this process. But he offered behaviors so quickly, so rapid-fire, that it was difficult to isolate the sit and to get him to expand his sit-stay.

Every time I tried to get Dash to sit and stay, he experienced what I laughingly referred to as “stress-induced narcolepsy.” He’d start licking his lips, his eyelids would droop, he’d glance nervously about his environment, and, within a few seconds, would drop to the floor.

I relate his stress to the feeling I get when I know I have a long drive ahead of me. If I can start first thing in the morning I’m fine.  I get prepared before bedtime, I get up and go.  If I have to start mid-morning or after noon, however, I get very stressed. The more stressed I get, the more tired I get. Just thinking about a long drive makes me tired and sleepy.

So Dash has always struggled with any sit-stays over a few seconds. His ASCA Companion Dog title was earned at age 4 with his typical stressy heeling scores, and sit-stays that were on the edge of failure every time.

His AKC Companion Dog title was earned at age 10. His heeling was stressy, but I spent nearly 4 months having him do long sits after his breakfast and dinner, while the other dogs were finishing their meals. We built his skills gradually, with me returning to him after just a few seconds at first, and building to 5-6 minutes.

Additionally, I’m moving around, in-and-out-of-sight, hoping that this training will help him be calm and confident. His recent obedience performances have featured the same stressy heeling skills, but Dash has achieved a steady sit-stay about 75% of the time.

With Tempest, I want to see if I can fix my past mistakes without having ANYone correct my dog for moving on the sit or down stays. So we’re starting early.

First I set my criteria and created a mental picture of the sit-stay I wanted.  No slouching to the side — a nice, tight, tucked sit.  No loss of attention — staring directly at me.  No shifting to watch me moving around — holding steady for me to walk away from him, or walk around him, in any direction and at any distance.

Because I start every exercise with a clicker session, I decided to combine clicker work with another method I’ve used for years. I was introduced to this method by Leslie Nelson, a fantastic obedience trainer who gave a seminar I attended many years ago, with my new puppy Wizard (so it must have been in winter ’97-98).

Leslie set up a pile of treats or kibble, in a spot where the dog can see it, and the puppy in a sit facing the pile of food.

One treat at a time, the handler carries food from the pile to the puppy’s mouth. If the puppy breaks his sit, the handler makes a big deal of returning any food to the pile, re-sets the puppy’s sit, and begins feeding again.

I’m combining Leslie’s method with my clicker. I have a bowl with Tempest’s kibble, in a spot where he can see his reward. I have him sit, nice and tucked, then I cue “stay,” reach into the bowl, get a piece of kibble.  If Tempest stays I click and feed him the food.  If Tempest gets up, I make a big deal of returning the kibble to the bowl, and put him back  in his sit. Then I cue “stay” again, reach into the bowl, click and feed.

In our first training session Tempest began offering every behavior in his relatively vast repertoire. He was throwing me everything very fast, and it took me a few seconds to calm him and get him to successfully sit for a second or two.

The key to this training, for me at least, is to stay calm, be patient, don’t prompt or lure, allow Tempest to think and learn, take deep breaths, and wait.

After he achieved a 5-10-second sit-stay with me nearby I began walking to his left and right, walking ahead of him, in one and two-step increments.

Within just a few minutes Tempest was able to maintain his stay while I walked away, while I walked around him, while I stood still nearby.

I plan to continue with this training while adding heeling and automatic sits to Tempest’s program over the next few weeks.

2-minute dog trainer, Tempest fulfills his destiny

I’m sure it sounds strange to dog-sport people, but one of my puppy’s jobs is to be a demo dog for our training protocols, and an ambassador for Houston’s Country Dream. 

Tempest got to visit the Parkersburg (WV) Humane Society yesterday, to demonstrate positive reinforcement and clicker training for agility.  He’s four months old.

Tempest is my best advertisement. When he behaves beautifully, students want to know how we trained those behaviors. When he behaves badly, students may think “What a brat Marsha has! She must suck as a trainer.” <g>

There were a few things I did with my first puppy, Banner ’96, that I’ve changed with Tempest. Having taught remedial basic obedience (fixing the horrendous behaviors permitted from puppyhood), I have a philosophy about how to properly raise a puppy.

If I don’t apply what I know to Tempest’s upbringing I’ll be disappointed in myself.  And my credibility will be diminished. The biggest problem with not applying my philosophy is that I’ll be forced to FIX things. And remedial training doesn’t stick nearly as well as initial training.

Take, for example, contact training. If we begin training the puppy by letting them run across the contact zone, applying no training to the bottom of the ramp, we might have a dozen nice “running contacts” in the course of a couple of weeks.

There will probably come a time, though, when the puppy wants to speed up. And the best way to cut time on contact equipment is to hop across that yellow area.

Then we go back and try to retrain that contact but, in the heat of competition, the puppy reverts to what he first learned — running the contact and jumping off prematurely.

Remedial training is a poor second or third choice.  So I’m taking Tempest’s initial training — whether agility, obedience, or rally — very seriously.

Imagine my pride when I took Tempest to be my demo dog at a local shelter during their kids’ camp on Thursday.

They wanted a simple agility demo but I didn’t have the way or will to haul a bunch of equipment. I actually prefer to demonstrate more fundamental training concepts in the context of agility.

So my demo topic became clicker training a puppy from — 1) the agility tire to  2) an open crate on the ground to  3) jumping into a crate in the truck.

My training tools included my truck with crate, a small tire, a portable crate, two strings of cheese, my clicker, and my 4-month-old puppy.

I began with a brief explanation of the principles of clicker training while getting Tempest through the tire multiple times. Since he’s doing so much rear-awareness work (2-on-2-off training), he tended to hop through the tire with his front feet and straddle it, looking at me as if to say, “is this it?”

Once I started moving he discontinued that behavior and began hopping through. As I talked to the kids, Tempest would continue his tire work, to the giggles and applause of the crowd. I reached down, unhooked his leash, and he stuck right with me, staying completely focused.

We then switched to “go in” with an open crate. Tempest applied the same work ethic to the crate that he’d applied to the tire. Popping in and out of the crate, stopping occasionally to ask his question, “What do I get if I just stand here?” To which I answered nothing.

Someone in the crowd asked about Tempest’s 2-minute dog training with each meal, and I told them what he does with stools, milk crates, contact obstacles, any raised surface.  One of the kids picked up a large brick and brought it over to our work area.

I gave Tempest his stupid-pet-trick cue — “What do we do with that thing?”  He immediately hopped onto the brick, moved his front feet to the grass, and stood with his rear feet on the brick.  YAY!  Laughter, giggles, applause …

I continued talking about positive reinforcement training and how we get our dog to offer behavior (all the while Tempest is offering performance with the tire, with the crate, with the brick), building their confidence and making them more comfortable in strange situations by allowing them to pick their own footsteps.

For example, in my experience, most car-sickness in dogs is a matter of them being stressed in a vehicle. If we teach them to hop into the vehicle, to enter a crate willingly, we can make them more comfortable in a vehicle.

I explained to the crowd that Tempest wasn’t able to hop into his crate in the truck due to his size, but that I was working at getting him to “attempt” the jump in, and would help him get into his crate.

As I said that, I pointed at the crate in my SUV, and said “get in!” in the same tone I’d used for the crate on the ground.

Tempest gave a massive HOP and climbed right into his crate !!   The crowd went wild. <g>

I was so proud of his steadiness, bravery, composure, and brilliance.

2-Minute Dog Trainer, Tempest @ 15 wks

Learning is stepping up now that Tempest is fairly solid on the basics:

1) coming when called

2) responding to his name with eye contact

3) walking on a loose leash

4) pottying on cue and outside

5) greeting people by sitting

6) sitting to ask permission to exit crates and pens

7) allowing handling of ears, paws, eyes, teeth, etc., plus bathing and toenail trimming

eight) greeting other dogs with a non-challenging glance, and leaving them alone unless given permission to do a more detailed greeting

My early efforts were all focused on getting these behaviors solidified, while introducing some more advanced obedience and agility concepts, including:

1) 2-on-2-off contact performance, which Tempest has generalized to footstools and milk crates as well as contact trainers.

2) heeling, with just a couple of sessions because I don’t want to stress his body with a bunch of “heads up” heeling

3) fronts, mostly while I eat my cereal, with Tempest in a nice tucked sit with his head nestled in my legs

4) self-control, doing a “lie down” and breaking off from his whip toy, then getting to play some more (aka “drop on recall)

5) a play retrieve, learning that everytime he brings the toy back to me it will be tossed again

6) a formal retrieve, using Sue Sternberg’s inducive retrieve

This past weekend Tempest had his first trial weekend.  He traveled with Dash and I to Dayton for a 3-day obedience and rally event (Fri Rally only, Sat Obed and Rally, Sun Obed only). We stayed in a terrific Red Roof Inn just south of Dayton, with a quiet parking lot, restaurants in walking distance, and plenty of grass.

Several of Tempest’s learned behaviors made the weekend more pleasant, and I’m always surprised that people don’t take the time to teach these easy tricks.

First, Tempest learned from day one that first thing in the morning we pee and then we immediately poop before going back inside for something to eat.

This little trick makes life incredibly easier on his person, who has more than enough chores to do between waking and taking off for the trial site. The training for it involves little more than patience when the puppy is really young — having a set phrase you use consistently, and patiently waiting for the littlest of puppies to perform their duties before running happily back to the room for breakfast.

Wow, how great was it to be able to finish this chore in just a few minutes.  We then were able to return to the room, feed the dogs, go get coffee, and start our personal preparations.

Second, Tempest is learning to jump up into his crate in the truck. At his size he can’t quite make it all the way, but I want him to have a response when I open the crate door and tap on the bumper.

Learning to jump into the crate enables the dog to pick his own footsteps into the crate, to enjoy the very first step of traveling with mom, and takes a lot of heavy lifting off my back.

With the right bumper configuration (on my Tahoe I have 2 levels of bumper and a third level into the crating area) even little Hazard (our 10″ sheltie) can jump up and get into a crate without being man-handled.

Third, and on the same lines, Tempest is learning all about jumping.  He learned to jump onto the bed at home using the ottoman as an intermediate level, but the motel beds were at a convenient height for him to learn the power of his rear legs for lifting. Within a few seconds of his initial attempt to hop onto the bed, Tempest gave a bit more effort and was rewarded with petting and attention.

In addition to jumping up onto the bed, of course, Tempest began his formal broad jump work by jumping from bed-to-bed. I imagine this is incredibly common amongst dog-owners who stay in motel rooms with 2 beds. <g>

Fourth, I want Tempest to have a focused response to my movement. His job is to assume a path parallel to me.  I will not accept biting, nipping, diving in towards my legs, or barking. I do not want Tempest to move into inappropriate herding behavior, just because he sees movement.

I created a protocol in 1999 to teach Banner how to do agility without barking or biting.  I called it “My Dog Bites Me,” and it’s been incredibly useful to  a) help people see that biting is BAD in dog agility (the hardest part of the training), and  2) help the dog see that agility continues if they’re silent and moving parallel, and that agility stops if they’re barking, biting, or diving in towards their handler.

The key to this training is a timely and consistent response to the behaviors we wish to extinquish — all attention is removed from the dog, handler stops moving, turns back on dog, walks placidly to the beginning of the sequence.

Another important element of this trainin is to incrementally build from one obstacle done silently, to two obstacles done silently, then three – four – five – etc.

The most common mistakes include:

A) Allowing even a small nip, whine, yip — all precursers of bites, barks, and screaming.  If we allow the precurser we create confusion in the mind of the dog. The early stages of negative behavior are allowed while the latter stages are not allowed?  That’s way too complex for people, let alone dogs.  I want my dog to know I expect SILENCE and FOCUS ON THE WORK.

B) Building sequences that are too long too fast and too early in the dog’s training. If a puppy isn’t showing signs of nipping, barking, biting, etc., then sequencing takes a normal path. For the biter or barker, however, we have to place tons of little rewards and positive responses to silence and focus.

Instead of building from one obstacle to 5 obstacles in six tries, it may take 20 tries. It may take 30 tries. The more Tempest gets to do one or two obstacles, with a treat or a toy as a reward for silent focus, the better his foundation will be in this behavior.

If the handler moves too quickly to 5 or 6 obstacles, and the puppy gets over-stimulated, the more likely the negative behavior will emerge.

In other news, Dash earned his first two RAE double Qs (he needs eight more for his RAE)  AND  he earned his last Novice B obedience leg to earn his CD in an incredibly stressed performance yesterday.

On Saturday Dash was in the ring for his Excellent B rally performance. While he was working folks were tearing down their metal crates, folding chairs, and generally spooking him. (Dash’s early training with his moronic first owner made him sensitive to any sudden noise.)

As Dash was setting up for his honor performance the trial secretary turned on the PA system, causing a loud cracking noise, making everyone in the room jump and yelp, and spooking the crap out of Dash.

Then the nice leash runner attempted to place the next dog’s leash on the ring gating near the honor position and tripped, falling foward and nearly knocking the ring gating over into Dash and I.

Lastly, and perhaps most unfortunately, the dog we were honoring was large, slow, and — instead of taking a normal 1.5 to 1.75 minutes — must have run 2.5 to 3 minutes.

It was all too much for Dash and he stood up about 2 minutes into his honor sit, losing 20 points or so for that.

His stress from Saturday’s disaster carried over to Sunday morning in the same ring. His last novice B obedience leg was probably a gift, though he did manage to do his sits and downs even though the dog next to him jumped up and ran directly in front of Dash to head towards a back door in the building.

I’m thankful to be done with Novice, with all that on-lead heeling, and have moved him to Open A for our trial at the end of July. Less heeling (which Dash hates and where all his stress shows up) and more fun stuff, like retrieves, drop on recall, and jumping !!!   YAY !!!   Our big challenge will be the out-of-sight sits …

In the meantime, he’s now   ARCH Slydrock’s Dash For Cash CD RE AX AXJ … and my best prospect for a CDX.

2-minute dog trainer, Tempest week 8

Tempest is now 16 weeks old.  In another week he’ll be four months old and I’ll be dropping the “weeks” designation, hopefully.

In a week he’ll also go onto a good quality adult dog food and off of puppy food. I’ve been feeding him Wellness puppy food and have been very pleased with his response to it, and his general good health.

Tempest had his last puppy vet visit last Tuesday, getting his last booster shot for Parvo, etc., and his first Rabies shot. So he’s good-to-go as far as getting around other dogs at shows, etc.

He’s accompanying me to Dayton next weekend for obedience trialing, along with my entourage which includes:  1) Dash, my obedience dog,   2) my Mom who may come along for the sheer pleasure of sitting all weekend at an obedience trial and watching her grand-dogs,  3) my dear friend Gwenn who lost her beloved Poochie this year and who enjoys watching the dogs and dreaming of her next pup.

I’ve been doing doggie activities on a regular basis since 1995.  My siblings like dogs, but none of them immersed themselves as I have.

Upon retiring from 35 years as a 5th grade teacher, my sister has joined agility classes for the summer. She works my veteran Dash in intermediate agility. He likes the cheese, but wears out prematurely halfway through the 2-hour workshop.  I think agility training may have found its way onto my sister’s “bucket list.”

It’s fascinating to me that Janice not only enjoys agility with Dash, the activity and the training, but is quite a good student. When faced with a sequence she asks all the right questions and has a basic knowledge of the learning process. Probably a result of all those years in grade school. <g>

But what she enjoys most is the sense of community and comraderie in the advanced class that follows hers. She stays and watches, contributes to and draws from the potluck offerings, and chats with students. Perhaps I’ll get her to travel to shows with me sometime.

Janice, my sister, is Tempest’s second mother, and takes a special interest in him. She keeps hoping he’ll turn into a “dud” so she can take him. That’s probably not going to happen, but it’s funny watching her try to spoil him for dog agility.

Last week I stepped up Tempest’s training on several fronts.

A.  Movement was added, both mine and Tempest’s.  Instead of a stationery 2-on-2-off for meals, or a small drive down the dogwalk plank, I started him on the ascent of the a-frame (he quickly learned that he needed to drive up the center of the a-frame to find the descent plank of the dogwalk on his contact trainer), and allowed him to drive all the way down the descent without having his food bowl on the floor as a lure.

Additionally, I was moving, and would assume any casual position as he was working. I don’t want my movement to be part of his performance, so it becomes a variable instead of a constant. I want him to really focus on what he should do, not on what I’m doing.

Additionally, Tempest ran with Renee Clark last Thursday night and showed a propensity for biting and barking as he ran.  I resolved to begin my protocol called “My Dog Bites Me” as soon as possible. This protocol shows the dog that running silently, and without putting teeth on flesh, is a good thing. Bud’s Kory runs silently, mostly because that’s who he is — Bud didn’t teach that behavior. But he said, “I really don’t mind the dog barking while he runs,” to which I replied, “Well, I hope to do gamblers and other games, so I DO mind if he barks while he runs.”  LOL

Barking while running, though sometimes an outward sign of inward joy, rattles my brain and disqualifies a dog in rally or obedience, so it has no place in my canine partner. Work is best done silently — he needs to be listening to me, not contributing to the noise level of the venue.

So yesterday I worked at sending Tempest to a tunnel (which, for some strange reason, he loves!) and letting him see me running as he exited. The first few times he caught sight of me running and came after me barking and nipping. My response was to go completely deadpan (for barking) and to down him (for actually biting me — this only happened twice before he realized it wasn’t nearly as much fun to bite me as one might assume).

Within 5 tries he was working silently, exiting the tunnel and running to whichever lead hand indicated the treat. My next step, this week, will be to add the stuffed toy and allow him to do the tunnel, come to my lead hand, and drive forward for the tossed toy.

B.  Tempest was introduced to weave entries last week, using my clicker for a proper entry and a treat thrown on the floor ahead of him. I’d like to transition this month to toy training, but first have to teach him to …..

C.  Retrieve!  Tempest has had 2 short lessons in the inducive retrieve using clicker and food. He’s gone from being totally focused on the food to touching the toy, to putting teeth on the toy, to lifting the toy, to tossing the toy, to bringing the toy toward me, to fetching and lifting the toy toward me. He’s about 25% of the way to a formal retrieve with his first prop — his stuffed hawk.  When he’s retrieving it nicely he’ll get to play with it on the agility equipment.

Bud’s Kory learned a terrific play retrieve. Since Tempest will be doing formal retrieves he needs a little more foundation training which encourages the pup to drive directly to the item, pick it up without mouthing, return directly to me, and sit-in-front to present the toy to me.

D. Tempest got to spend an hour doing agility with the beginner class yesterday. The class goes 2 hours but I didn’t want him to peter out during class, so I withdrew him mid-way. It was 90+ degrees, so the heat was another factor in my decision to quit early.

In class, Tempest got to do the table (getting on, hearing his attention word, turning to me and getting his treat) about 6 times, the trainer teeter a dozen or so times, the trainer dogwalk a few times, and — most importantly — beginner sequencing!!  Table-dogwalk-tunnel was his big sequence, and he shows a ton of drive when I’m moving and he’s working.

Things are getting exciting !!!

On a domestic note …. our house is very quiet without Wizard alerting us to movement outdoors. Students note that they miss his barking as they drive past the house.

I’ve put dog beds and the ottoman next to where I commonly hang out, and Tempest has decided that right-next-to-mom-on-the-cushy-thing is the best place in the whole world.

Dash is going to attempt to get his CD and his first 2 legs towards his RAE this coming weekend.

Kory is just a few weeks from his AKC Novice debut — in Dayton, Ohio, inside their training building, on rubber mats.  There’s a possibility we can both go to the trial, and I’d love to get to watch my boys run for real, to be in charge of videotaping and cheerleading.