Agility 3.5 summary

Only three people (including myself) were in class today. Usually there are five. We did a number of drills one at a time, all of us observing the person practicing. We worked on sequencing 2-3 obstacles.

One was jump, front cross, jump, decel. Next was jump, pull, backside of jump. Then we switched to a tunnel and two parallel jumps, first doing a 180 pull and then a serpentine. Finally, we did tunnel, jump, tunnel and then tunnel, jump, decel to work on cue discrimination.

I am proud to say that Cai aced almost all the exercises, mostly because we've been practicing similar sequences during the past week and he recognized them. He had a little trouble with sending into a tunnel, and would stop and come back out when he saw me not running in the same direction as him. Later he had a lot of trouble when the new tunnel we added  was under the (gated off) a-frame, and he couldn't handle that much lateral distance and me having to go around the gates. If the instructor held him and I moved out laterally and ran forward quickly, then he would go in. So we need to continue practicing lateral distance. I also need to work on being able to quickly turn around/change direction and set a new line without getting disoriented. I'm better at it when I've set my own practice courses. Doing someone else's exercises is more challenging.

In two weeks we'll start weave poles and the instructor will be using 2x2s! I'm a big fan and used the method to start teaching Dragon the poles. He was amazing at finding the correct entry with 2 poles thanks to that. We were working on closing up the second pair before he died. I will try to build at least one pair of poles soonish, so that we can practice. I also need to do more work on teaching Cai to quickly lie down on a rectangular cut of yoga mat, which I plan to use for a modified running contact. Right now he'll lie down on it, but he doesn't do it as quickly as I would like. I need to build up the reinforcement history more. I want him to be reliable on both contacts and weaves!!

Speaking of practicing outside of class, I am stoked that the kennel I'm now teaching classes at allows me to use their yard to practice agility, and I can store my tiny-sized equipment there. Before April, there were a few months when I did not have anywhere to practice other than my apartment, since Cai is too reactive to practice off leash at a park. That's why we're having so mug trouble with lateral distance. We're making way more progress now.

Agility 3.4 summary

Instead of warming up with boring circle work in a circle, we went right into taking turns with a sequence: tunnel, front cross, jump (which was at an angle), pull into tunnel, decel at next jump. Chimera consistently had a problem with running right to my side after the tunnel, and then squeezing between me and the jump stanchion even if I left very little room. So we need to work more lateral distance, especially in sequences, and running to a toy thrown ahead in sequences. Good info! My apartment, where I've done most of Cai's foundation training, doesn't have room to do lateral distance drills. Between that and a huge history of reinforcement for being at my side, it's no wonder he had trouble.

Cai is starting to jump on me in frustration if he is confused during jump drills, especially if we repeat something multiple times and can't get it right. Since this is just a side effect of mistakes in training (both his and mine), I'm ignoring it for now. If the behavior starts to escalate, I'll work on redirecting him.

After this we did a simple lateral distance exercise (stay, lead out, toss reward as dog goes over jump), and he did pretty well. The instructor said our goal is to being 18 feet away and able to cue the jump. I was about 3-4 feet away. Practice practice!

We set up another sequence, with a tunnel and then two jumps in a 180. At first we did a push through/back side of jump with just the second jump, then we added the first one in, and then we moved them just a little bit apart laterally. If the dog did well with that, we did the jumps as a serpentine as well. Chimera did this perfectly, even when my timing or balance was a bit off. We practiced it a bunch at home and at the play yard in Dublin during the past week.

Weekend in Tahoe

We spent the weekend with my parents and sister at their place by Lake Tahoe. Chimera has been enjoying it muchly. Everyone has taken turns playing with him, and he's gotten an hour plus long off leash hike both days. I also had time to do more training with him than I've had in a long time: heeling, stand for exam, dumbbell retrieve, retrieve over jump, stays, backing up, circling around me backwards, and one jump work: sends, push throughs, and serpentine. So fun!!

He also spent a lot of time barking at noises outside and on TV, and at the vacuum cleaner. Less fun.

Also, carrying around his chewies, looking for the perfect spot to "hide" them, leaving them, and after a few minutes retrieving them and starting over again.

A startling conclusion

Chimera has been sleeping more lately, and on Sunday he slept nearly all day. I was worried that he was sick, but he had a good appetite, and on Monday he was his normal self in the morning... Until we got back from our afternoon hike, and he slept for three hours again. And then I came to the startling conclusion that I'm actually meeting his physical and mental needs, and his crazy puppy energy is calming down. Whoa! Is the monster really growing up?

Playtime, reactivity, and developmental update.

Yesterday I took Chimera with me to the Puppy Playtime I host in Dublin. He's not a puppy anymore, but it seemed like he would get along well with the puppies who were there. He was a hit. He LOVES running as fast as he can, and getting chased by the other dogs (so long as they're not catching up and nipping him).

The Small Dog Playtime followed the puppies, and one dog came. It was a seven month old that had not been around other dogs since the family brought him home from the breeder's. Cai did so well. (Thank goodness he'd just been playing and running and had gotten most of his energy out!) The other dog was excited to see him, but didn't know how to interact normally. He just barked and barked and bounced forwards and backwards. I rewarded Cai for looking at me, and he quickly stopped paying attention to the "weird" dog and did LAT, some fronts, and heeling on both sides. I was very proud of how calm he was!! After forty-five minutes, the other dog was slightly calmer and braver, but it'll be a long road for him to gain social skills.

This morning we went on a trail hike, and encountered three dogs. Again I was proud of my little guy! He was still immediately reactive when he saw them, but I was able to redirect him 80% of the time, and he ate treats. I'm always happy when he eats treats while outside, especially in the presence of new dogs, because his interest in food fell dramatically at the same time that his reactivity started. We are making progress!

In the afternoon I put him in his crate and left for six and a half hours, the longest I've ever left him. He was happy to see me when I returned, but it was the same level of excitement as when I've been gone for just one hour. After greeting me, he settled down to chew on a bully stick. Even though he's with me nearly all the time, he's able to handle staying home in his crate so well. That had been a worry of mine! He didn't pee the first time I made him go outside, and waited for a second trip. So his bladder control is quite good. We're still working on poops, though.

He bounced around and play-attacked the cat, but settled right back to sleep when I put him back in his crate less than an hour after getting home. What a good dog! He is nine months old now.

Agility 3.1 summary

The title of the new 6 week session is "Dog Meets Jump". Today we had our dogs going over a jump bar for the first time! (In theory, as Chimera has been doing a bunch of handling work on super low jumps since he was little. I'm an overachiever.)

We did a few different jump foundation exercises. Restrained recalls, including with lateral distance. Jump around the clock, focusing on rewarding stays even more than practicing releasing over the jump. Shaping a collected jump with us standing in decel position. And using a collar grab to get our dog to focus forward, then running with them and throwing a toy/treats ahead. Most of this was old hat for the monster. We did some at 4 inches and some at 8 inches. It's hard for me to measure him, but he seems to be just under 12 inches. Eep, I hope he doesn't measure over 12, since that would put him in a higher jump height.

Since we've been working on retrieving different kinds of objects, I figured it was time to introduce a small treat container as a throwable reward. Up until now, I'd used toys when throwing rewards because I knew he would run away with any food containers. Toys are lower value, though. I did use socks with treats inside, and that worked okay, but he kept ripping giant holes in the socks and then the treats would fall out too much. So today I tried out a little pill bottle with cut up sausage, beef liver, and peanut butter flavored Zukes inside. It was a big hit! He let me put my hands on it every time so that I could open it and hand him a treat, and a few times he even brought it toward my hand. What a good boy. Besides using the retrieve to combat his guarding problem, I just love having a dog who retrieves all different kinds of things. I dream of teaching him the hot dog retrieve someday!

Retrieving

The shaped retrieve is one of my favorite things to teach my dogs. In the past, Chimera has learned to retrieve small tennis balls, other small toys, a pill bottle (covered in duct tape so that it's not so slippery), his dumbbell, metal cannings rings, and small leather rings (for obedience scent articles). Just now, I did a generalizing session in which he retrieved, twice each: dumbbell, pill bottle, metal canning ring, leather ring, clicker, tiny leash tab. The last two were brand new items, and his first impulse was to play with them. With a little verbal encouragement, and after jackpotting a successful retrieve with multiple pieces of chicken, he decided that it was better to hand them over. Hooray!

Agility 2.5

Circle work all in a group. Fairly good attention.

Crate games, working on lateral distance. I only did a handful of reps because this requires him running enthusiastically to a toy, which he will only do a few times before he starts calmly trotting to the toy instead.

Fun sequence with a curved tunnel: circle work all the way around the tunnel, rewarding the dog for NOT going in on his own, then sending in and doing a pull to continue on (so we stayed standing at the entrance and our dogs came back to us after exiting, circling around again, and then sending in and doing a front cross to finish up with the dog on our other side. Cai could hear that I was staying by the tunnel entrance so he had a lot of trouble continuing on to the exit, and would turn around and come back out. After a couple of failed attempts I did move to the exit so that he could be successful. The instructor didn't like that -- she didn't want us to change our handling if the dog is struggling. She had us do it again, and this time he was successful without me moving toward the exit, but I think that that was because I had helped him the previous time.

We did the exercise again going in the reverse direction, and again Cai didn't want to go all the way through the tunnel. She stood behind the exit so that the dog couldn't see her, and she had me send him again and tossed a treat to him when he came through the exit (so it was just raining down from the sky). We did this a few times until he was happily going all the way through while I stayed by the entrance, and we finished the exercise without any more problems.

Then another fun sequence with ladders, working on rewarding our dogs for NOT taking the ladders if not cued, taking them when cued, and one rear cross, which Cai did well. Yay!

All the dogs had been doing pretty well at the wobble boards (though Cai was able to handle the highest, wobbliest board, if I may brag). So we lowered a teeter and put a towel under the heavy end, and had the dogs bang the other end. Cai did just fine with this -- we started it quite low, and raised it twice, and he was quickly jumping on and off.


Things I need to practice more at home: running to a toy/food item (sock filled with liver needs the tears sewn up), stand-stay with distractions, circle work among small distractions, lateral distance with crate or our known mini-obstacles. I have also been working on contact training for a while -- I want him to do a modified running contact, in which he does a down on the floor immediately after the obstacle (obviously not for teeter, that will be a crouch/down at the end of the board). I have a target (piece of yoga mat) for him to down on. However he's pretty slow at getting to it and lying down. He lies down slowly. I guess I'll try timing him in my head and do some sessions just rewarding faster downs. I would prefer for this to be pretty solid before we start it in class (which will be a while). I've also been rewarding him for running over a plank at home.

Good BAT and failed BAT

Had a wonderful session with Rebecca and her mastiff mix, Luke, whom we did one session with before. We discussed beforehand that we would act like strangers on a walk, and not talk to each other, and Rebecca would randomly come toward us, cross our path, or hide and walk/jog out into our path. Cai of course barked a couple of times the first time he saw Luke, but then he quickly settled down and was able to give me good attention. I was so proud of how he did!

He did so well, in fact, that I decided to try taking him into PetCo a couple of hours later. A pair of westies came in, and he saw them as they were moving in our direction, and he lost it. Lots of barking and straining at the end of the leash (and slipping on the smooth floor). I walked him around and he calmed down a bit, but then he caught sight of a pair of toy poodles (why all in pairs today?) and growled and lunged, so we left the store. That was disappointing. It's too hard in the store to get a sightline on another dog, from far away, and make sure they're not coming toward us.

I guess the next step is to try BAT in a store with a friend who will stay on the far side, while avoiding other customers as best I can. I will also continue our work at the local trailhead where I want to hike with him someday.

Two great BAT sessions!

This morning I took Chimera to a popular trailhead, and we positioned ourselves on the side that is less used. We were in luck -- there were a few owners and big dogs milling about, waiting for another person to arrive with her dogs. Cai was AWESOME. I cued him to look, and he would look, gather some information, and then look back at me, and we'd jog away, and I'd reward him with dehydrated duck liver, another super duper favorite treat. This lasted about ten minutes. Then we were ambushed by a lady coming right toward us with two big, excited dogs pulling on their leashes. With a bit of a leash tug, I managed to get Cai turned around with just one bark in protest. I think it was solely because of our head-on work with Iroc yesterday morning that he was able to do that. However it still rattled him, and he went over threshold and barked mindlessly at the next two dogs he saw, even though they were farther away. We left after that. Despite the poor ending, I'm happy the session, and I think he'll do even better next time. I just need to keep sessions super short if we're working on sudden appearances.

In the afternoon, I did a BAT session with a client, during which I was holding the decoy dog. The client's dog is, overall, more reactive, but he too has learned to recognize the setup (and me) and quickly habituated to our decoy. So I put the decoy back into the car and got Cai out, and we did a mutual BAT session -- like an improvised dance, constantly moving towards and away from each other, at different angles. Cai did amazingly well at first. Again, I cued him to look at the dog, and he was able to look at him and then back at me, amazingly calmly. After a handful of reps, the client accidentally got way too close, both the dogs started barking, and then Cai was on edge for a few minutes. After four or five successful reps from much farther away, he settled back into the rhythm, and was again doing very well. We ended on opposite sides of the street, passing each other, which was difficult for Cai but he held it together. The duck liver really helped.

This time he did not seem to recognize that it was a BAT setup, as he did yesterday. I think this was because it was less controlled, and the client and I didn't talk to each other. I will keep that in mind for our next session.