We took the dogs out towards eastern washington today, they had a three hour hike. OhLa is lying down sleeping for the first time ever I swear!! They are dog tired. :) The place we went to is really neat, it's a forestry road that washed out a couple of years ago. The river is running right down the middle of the road in places, there are trails so you can hike around the washed out bits, then keep walking along this empty road. It was a bit creepy, kind of feels like you are in an abandoned town or something. Great place for dogs though, hiking, swimming, squirrel chasing and all off leash!
OhLa really likes the sunroof in the Subaru......
Fetching sticks!
Three bumps on a log!
Two Pretty Girls
We are heading back to PG tomorrow (and back to work, poo!). We are now on the countdown to OhLa's first trial! Only six days of training left until the big show!
We are having a great time here in Washington, and managed to get some toy hogging
in.....
And some beach time!
Here's OhLa's funny swim technique.....hilarious! She swims like a normal dog in the lake but it seems the waves have her in a bit of a flap!
We went to the local dog park today, they had a great run. It's a nice park, though it affirmed my beliefs that people who go to dog parks are a bit crazy. Seriously annoying self appointed dog trainers are forever providing unwanted "advice" to unsuspecting park go-ers. I'm glad I know better and my dogs (and I) prefer to keep to ourselves, but it makes me sad to hear the words "dominant" thrown out there so often. We all know what that leads to (thanks to you know who the "famous" tv trainer). I am happy that my stable dogs can tolerate telling off a humping husky and help a sweet little pitbull learn that not all dogs are going to get all up in her face and hump her (while the owner is yelling EASY EASY EASY from 50 feet away). Seriously people, like yelling easy is going to alleviate the dogs anxiety issues. Lucky for the dog it has learned how to tune out the owner almost completely (I would too if someone nagged me constantly!) If the dog didn't have anxiety issues to start with it will now, now that you have constantly reienforced with your shrill voice that there is something "wrong" with greeting a group of dogs politely. Sigh. End rant, suffice it to say there is something great about living in the north where you can run your dogs in the bush and not see another person. Having the beach relatively near by is almost worth the trade off though!
I think I must have smacked myself at least ten times this past week. (Reminds me of the V8 commercials!). OhLa has been doing lots of great stuff, do you think I can remember the video camera? Not so much! She has conquered the tire (after hanging herself in a last minute Abort! attempt, no worries she's fine and a whole lot more careful now) and the chute. The table, well, she gets up and lies down so that'll have to do for now. It isn't a super performance by any means but it'll get us through for now. We're working on moving the two sets of six weave poles together right now. She weaves a set of straight six like a pro! Nice and fast and with style, so I'm working on getting her up to a full set of 12. Saturday we embark on a US adventure, I have to go and write an exam for my upcoming move, so Ohla is joining me and we'll hopefully have some beach adventures and new agility adventures to report soon! Keeping my fingers crossed that customs will be nice to me this time!
I think if there is one thing I have learned about having a pointer it's that a good measure of stubborness pays off. When OhLa first came she was a lunging snarling mash of teeth and food stealing pushiness at meal time. She would dive on the counter and steal what she could, dive in the other dogs bowls and then scrap with them when they tried to protect their own dinners. It wasn't pretty, and I doubt she pulls that kind of behaviour at home either. Too bad for her I decided to make it my mission to have her eat her meals with the rest of the group, politely, and waiting her turn (which is last, dead last for the dog with the least manners!). It has been a long process, first having her eat in her kennel and wait to be released. Then gradually desensitizing her to the meal process. Mollie sits, I put her bowl down. Marty sits, I put his bowl down...OhLa dives, OhLa goes in her crate and does not get fed until everyone else has finished their supper. We made it past Mollie, Marty, and Cai, onto Toque...not bad, Jorja and SoBe = diving. She can push those two and she knows it. Finally after a couple of months of the exact same routine (dish diving = OhLa goes to her crate and eats last), she made it past all eight dogs and came to her turn. OhLa sits, I put her dish down, release her (a bit quickly truthfully but I really wanted success) and she eats her supper. But half way through she suddenly realises that other dogs are eating too, they might have something better, she leaves her bowl to snarl at them and shoves them out of their dish. Back to the crate, and the remainder of her supper waits for ten minutes or so before she sees it again. It has been three weeks since then, and tonight I wanted to video just how well she has done. I haven't been feeding her with the group every night, some nights she gets to go first and get her meal straight away in her kennel. I don't want meal times to be stressful, just a gradual desensitizing and learning experience. Right now I am working on proofing her to not release on the word "good", pretty impressive though that she can focus to work through that even with all the other bowls so easily accessible. At last it has become more rewarding to be patient than it is to be pushy. A few weeks ago she would have tried to cream Heidi for being so close to her dish, or shoved Heidi out of her bowl and gaurd both bowls. Tonight she even played tradesies. My dogs always go check out each others bowls when they are finished and make sure every last drop is gone. OhLa couldn't cope with that even last week but now she is joining in the game. Yes, it would have been way easier to just feed her in her crate, but look at her now! So here's the video (no comments on the laundry pile or the state of my dirty house at the moment!)
It has been a busy week here at the little house with lots of dogs! I hit an all time high this week, 18 dogs and counting! I have a Momma and a litter of seven pups though, so pups at two weeks don't really count (at least in my books anyway!). OhLa has been having a good time, she is very interested in the pups. Much to my relief this temporary fostering will be over tomorrow and we will be back down to a much more reasonable 10 dogs. This week in training, we started out building dog walk confidence. Dog walk you say? Why yes, when I was in abbotsford running the other brats in the regionals, I bought one of these:
Since we have already trained the teeter, the more scary of the obstacles with skinny planks the dogwalk was a cinch. It helps too, that OhLa has discoverd jumping off the top railing of my deck will land her in the agility yard (much to my horror she does this regularly). She can be seen from the kitchen window randomly running back and forth along the dogwalk all by herself funny girl! She has not however learned that the art of nose targeting applies to dogs who are running full obstacles.
We also spent some time working on weave pole footwork. She has the idea of weaves down, but she didn't get how to move with rhythm so for that, we went to the old style chute poles. If I had enough sets of two I would use those, but we don't so we improvised. What I really don't like seeing the video is how easily the poles move out of the way, not good it really teaches the dogs to push the poles which you don't want. However, a little style practice and we'll go back to the other set.
We finished up this week with an agility fun match, yippee! OhLa's first time out with a judge, other dogs, and a real trial atmosphere. She did really well, I was very proud of her! We ran around a few jumps, did the tire backwards and needed to have the chute held open (Woops! Forgot to teach the chute!) BUT huge success in my books: she didn't run away to go visit the other dogs; she sat, waited and held her start lines all three runs; she did all the obstacles nicely including the strange teeter, the newly learned dogwalk, and drum roll please.....6 straight weave poles! Not only did she do them, she did them fast and with perfect footwork, someone even commented on how nice she weaved! She jumped the jumps, responded to my front cross cues, and stayed with me through 18 obstacles (with lots of treats inbetween of course). I was very proud of her! Of course, I forgot the camera at home so no proof! Now I need to work on the tire, the chute, the table (it has been a while for that one) and I need to teach her how to rear cross. And of course the ongoing work of weave poles. So much training, so little time!
More work on weave poles this weekend. After I did this video I moved the poles into line, she did okay, but too many errors to consider it successful so we'll go back to them opened up a bit for the next session.
And just for fun, some video of OhLa with a Kong toy I just got. You put the kibbles inside and let them go for it, she had fun! Such a funny girl.
Right now she is torn between playing with Heidi and this cute little character here who is hanging out for a while waiting for his new home:
Yup, okay so we are back! Monday was a long drive home from the lower mainland, but we all survived, no worse for the wear. OhLa enjoyed her home vacation, and was raring to go when she got back here. First thing she did (after checking on the contents of the counter) was to launch herself into Heidi's face for a good wrestle interspersed with sumptuous grass eating (and there was lots after ten days of rain and no mowing!). Life is pretty good for her these days, now that she isn't being left out of the raw food yummies! All the activity and toy training and not enough nutrients left her a little thin all of a sudden. She is looking great now (her mom will be pleased she's gained another 0.5lb since we arrived home this week) and not so much like a little mexican street dog! She wanted me to show you all the goodness.... . So on Tuesday we had a rest/play day as I had to mow the lawn after work. Holy smokes, the mower quit several times, it must have rained a lot!
We did get a little practice in with the Touch it! Target plate after the lawn was (mostly) mowed.
Wednesday was return of the weave poles.... we had to go back a step and open them up a bit the first session since she'd had some time off. I've also gone to rewarding her with a tupperware container of high value treats instead of the toy. Hoping to keep weight on the little maniac so she is getting cheese, hotdogs, and rollover as reward instead of the toy.
Thursday we went up to the farm for a good run and some practice in the tunnels, I kinda thought we better get on that one! She was pretty distracted, zipping all over the place and randomly taking the tunnel at will. Her first trial should be interesting....!! :) Friday we did more weave practice and a small jump grid, and Sat/Sun have been swim and run days. Too hot for training, but great for swimming! I keep forgetting the camera when I take them out, she is a strong swimmer and can outdo all of my guys for the toy unless they get a head start!
OhLaLa has gone on holidays for the week! She has headed home to go play with her pal Elliott and to visit her mom while I head off to the agility regionals with some of my dogs. Holy is my house ever Q-U-I-E-T! She really does have quite the presence! We will miss her though (except for the part where she launches onto the counter to steal and eat a banana peel at mach 10) and look forward to seeing her again! Meet us back here Tuesday June 15th for more OhLa adventures!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Sunday OhLa had her first really big off leash run with the dogs! I have been paranoid about taking her out off leash in a place that wasn't fully fenced just in case. I feel confident now though that she has a good recall and that she has bonded to me and the other dogs, i.e we are more interesting than whatever birds she might find! We went out to a big park at the river, they ran and swam for two hours! She enjoyed being in the water and had a big grin on her face the whole time. It was great, I had the whole day to do chores afterwards they were all so tired. :)
Sessions 11 and 12. We went out to the farm this morning and everyone had a good run. They were pretty pooped most of the day, but we did get in a couple of sessions this evening. It's pretty exciting, you can actually see her starting to bend now!
Thursday was a write off completely for me, so OhLa got a rest day. I brought her out on Friday for a session with the weaves, I turned the poles in a wee bit more than day 4. Only one session on Friday, I had a lot of catching up with life to do so she got to play chuck-it instead! (Which she loves)
Here are sessions 5 and 6 on the weave poles. I'm really happy with her drive, looking ahead for the poles, and going for the toy. It helps that I worked today and she's been cooped up in her crate! I need to work harder on her looking for the first set of poles, this is my fault for not rewarding enough inbetween the two sets. I also love the barking when she doesn't get the toy, I shouldn't encourage it at all because I'm sure her mom doesn't want a barking dog on course but if she could swear and say "what the f&*#" when she doesn't get her toy I'm sure she would!
Session one No video, forgot the camera sorry! I took OhLa to the indoor training centre and worked on shaping running between the two poles using the clicker and food. Dropping food in the grass is not such a great idea so we had to go indoors for that one.
Session 2 Came home, gave her a rest and then did the same exercise in the grass with no clicker and a toy instead.
Session 3 Two sets of two. Working the arc and rewarding in between the two sets 50 percent of the time. I didn't do very well at that! Note to self. :) Time to start staking the poles as well.
Session 4 was the same as session two, but with me rewarding in between the poles more often. I also switched from a toy to a food tube for reward as she was quickly losing interest in the toy and going off to sniff and eat grass. Sadly, I bumped the camera when I hit the record button and the whole session was a lovely picture of the top of the neighbours shed!
Now that we have some rear end awareness, a toy that Ohla really likes (her favorite ball stuck in a sock) and some shaping practice we are about ready to train weaves. Someone commented to me yesterday that I should do the 12 poles in 12 days with her, just to see if I can do it. I'm tempted, for sure! Not sure if I want to really challenge her like that though. Maybe that's a cop out, who knows? It took me a lot longer than that to teach Heidi! I'll keep you posted!
I did some more video tonight of OhLa's teeter work. I apologize, the videos are all out of order!
Step One is the Wobble Board (a certain someone knocked the camera askew, wonder who that was????!!)
Step 2 is the Bang game from the previous post
Step 3 is run the plank. As you can see in the video she isn't quite running with gusto yet. I'd like to see her have more confidence with running straight to the end and hanging off before I start letting the board drop. Also, I could be using way better treats, she was just getting plain kibble tonight. Some hot dogs may be in order!
Step 4 is to surf the teeter
Step 5 is Hup hups, hop on the raised board and nose touch
Step 6 is to put it all together! We're not quite there yet, but soon!
I was at a seminar not that long ago where the presenter said "expect more, get more." With OhLa that has proven to be very true, I have progressed a lot of steps really quickly with her and challenged her early. It is really working, she is the type of dog that has no problems being wrong, she can accept failure and try harder to figure things out without getting weird. On the other hand, she runs into things like a bull in a china shop, she has no sense of boundaries!
Greetings from OhLa! If OhLa could talk she would say "Squeeeee!!!!" Her morning ritual consists of waking up with the sun (oh yes, 0530 is such a fun time to be up!)and bringing me presents and then poking me in the face with them. Such lovely sharing! Her favorite is generally socks, but if I don't take the lovingly delivered sock (cause gee, maybe I am sleeping?!) she brings me all kinds of presents. Like my shorts, my shirts, toys, and this morning I was privvy to a fork she stole off the counter. What a nut. She loves to show you what she's got. Take for example this afternoon I was cleaning out the flowerbed. She brought me a clump of dirt and poked me with it. How much more thoughtful can you get? :)
We did a little a-frame work today. I've ordered a touch-it to experiment with. http://www.nosetouch.com/touch_it.htm I've been thinking about these for a while, I figure it can't hurt to tune up the girls before regionals and maybe work with Heidi and Sobe as well as OhLa. Anything that is efficient and saves me time is good in my books! The only way you can have and train nine dogs and work is by being efficient in your training!
Here's a little video of OhLa doing her hand targets. She is working on keeping repeating nose touches despite distractions. She only gets rewarded if she nose touches without looking at the hand with the food in it after each touch.
Fetching sticks!
Two Pretty Girls
