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Friday, November 27, 2009

Heeling to music

Obedience today...

My friend, Mary, got me started on a habit that I like very much. It's actually sort of addictive. Heeling to music helps me keep a rhythmic pace. The dogs really seem to pick up the beat, and it seems so much more enjoyable than drilling the heel.

With Samurai, I've started having him "pop" up for a treat on the left hand turns. Turn, take one step and pop up for treat. It's really getting him to dig in and power around those turns.

Taylor is working hard on his dumbell, and I'm working hard to try to throw it correctly. We use the smallest size dumbell made and it is very hard to throw it any distance accurately. It's kind of like throwing a toothpick with pieces of wood on the sides. I am improving, or at least I hope so.

One thing I'm trying is throwing the dumbell with the long end leading, getting it a bit of a spin as it is released. This helps it not bounce around so much, and it sort of digs in as it lands.

The other thing about a small dumbell is that it is very hard for the dog to see, especially when it falls up against white ring gating. Taylor's eyesight is not all that sharp, so I give him a hand on that one.

When you're working at the far extremes of a sport, you have to make allowances for what is normal within that particular context.


Thursday, November 26, 2009

I See Dog People

Small towns in America often hide interesting surprises. Like this photographer in Tuscola, Ill. They will take a photo of your dog and create a "dog person" portrait. These particular dog people seem to be frozen in a perpetual 1950's suburban world.


Last dog this class

Tired papillon. Soft, soft bed.

And back we go to our hotel. Usually, something bare bones and simple. This time, a pleasant surprise. A real hotel. Nice cushy carpets. Dense, soft bed. It accepts pets, is the kicker, all for a basic pet hotel price. Dog and humans both, revel in our good fortune.



Sunday, November 22, 2009

2 Double Qs

Taylor earned his second and third double Qs toward his PAX2 this weekend. He had nice, smooth fast runs and we felt like we were having fun again after the pressure of getting the last couple of QQs for our PAX earlier in the fall.

The runs also counted as the fifth and sixth legs towards Taylor's MJP4 and his sixth and seventh legs toward his MXP3. His total number of double Qs for the AKC trialing year is 15.

The biggest accomplishment of the weekend, though, goes to Samurai, who managed to stay pretty calm (for him) and maintain his composure pretty decently (for him) over the two days of trialing.

For Sami, this was a pretty hard goal and we are very heartened by his improvement. Many times the hardest training jobs are those that don't earn ribbons.


Monday, November 16, 2009

Even Samurai sleeps


My puppy Samurai is a whirling dervish. Always moving, seldom stopping. But sometimes, even the wildest little dogs must succumb to the comforts of a downy pillow. When they do, they are particularly endearing. One of those blessed, rare occurrences of nature, like the sun obscured by the moon.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Positive reinforcement, sit com version

Here is a cute clip from a sit com that demonstrates the principles of operant conditioning in a humorous way. The funny thing is how many dogs could pick up much more and faster than the human in this video? Also, many of our training-savvy dogs, in this situation would probably start throwing behaviors, providing more opportunities for reinforcment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA96Fba-WHk

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Re-training the A Frame. Again.

I think this is maybe the third time?

First time was when I went to a seminar and the instructor kept having me repeat a front cross sequence that ended in the A frame. After a few times of this, Taylor decided: No more A frames.

Dumb of me to not see what could happen. To put him up to that. I trusted an expert, when I should have been trusting my dog.

Lesson is, never blindly do what someone tells you to do, if you feel it might not be the right thing for your dog.

After all, that person that sent us to climbing that A frame went home that night and slept soundly.

Me? I went home to a problem that would dog me the rest of my dog's career.

Bottom line: if you have a tiny toy dog, your dog has only so many full height A frames in them. So use them wisely.

Ration yourself to only a slim few per practice session. If you really need to train something, lower the darn thing down.

Yes, it's a pain. No, you can't lower that thing alone. But maybe you can trade off a favor with someone to get it done.

Work at a height that your dog is comfortable with. Work at getting them to power up it confidently, engaging their hind end -- a lot of little dogs will try to actually PULL themselves up with their front paws. This never works since the front of a dog is not as strong as the hindquarters.

So watch for them to engage the hindquarters on the climb and reward it.

Practice all kinds of approaches. Work on distance.

Then, slowly raise the monster up. Only if your dog is successful.

Repeat as often as necessary throughout your little dog's career.

Above all, don't get discouraged. Take it one step at a time. One inch at a time. And hopefully you'll get that monster tamed. At least for awhile.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Coming next session...

Fall session training classes are wrapping up. Plans for Winter session are underway. And once again, I consider my options for my two active dogs like proposed movements on a chessboard.

Place this dog here, and block opportunities for...what?

Place this dog there...gain this, but now need to give up that.

Glad there are so many options, but only wish there were more time and energy to do it all.

Now, as always there will be choices. Some things taken. Others dropped.

Hoping to do the most with the precious time available. Both in terms of sessions and in dogs' lives and careers.



Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Dog like a bird

A beautiful toy dog is like a bird. Delicate. Graceful. Coat soft like feathers.

Bright eyes. Bird bright mind.

Out on the course, it's like they're flying.

A swoop of cool air around me.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

So small we're almost invisible

Or so it would seem in many of the many dog training classes we attend. Dogs no smaller than than medium sized are usually chosen to demo. Most usually, it's a Golden.

So, it's no wonder Toy Breed trainers are so often frustrated and retire early from dog training.

Personally, there are things in obedience that are hard for me to translate for my dogs. Fronts. Close work. It's hard to do without bending yourself into a pretzel. And worse still, presenting an improper picture for the dog (that later needs to be retrained).

Training a toy breed teaches one early to think independently to find solutions that fit within a miniature frame. I find it an interesting challenge though, and I feel the explorations I've done to find the right approaches for my dog are often the best part of the journey.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Trainer's Disease Strikes

Yesterday, I took a break from working and (finally) took the dogs to practice at the club. I found myself "over-practicing" with my 16 mo old Papillon Samurai and immediately felt very bad about it.

I have seen this "trainer's disease" of doing things "one more time," one too many times. The worst part of this syndrome is it's easier to detect in someone else than yourself.

I think it's human goal orientation that pushes us to chase that extra bit of improvement that seems just around the corner, when the very action of pushing sets that goal even further away.

So, I promise to myself and to my little dog that I will put a timer in my training bag. Set a maximum time for each training session, say 5 minutes. I will keep only a limited number of treats on me for this time period, and when they are done, we are done.

Finally, I promise to be more observant of my dog. To heed when he's telling me he's had enough, and try harder not to even make it to that point.

Trainer's disease is curable. And the cure is keeping the dog's needs first above the trainer's.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Welcome to my 4" World!

I have been an admirer of several wonderful agility blogs for awhile now. Sadly, most of them, like the world of agility itself, are from a big dog perspective.

My world is different. Smaller. Sort of the needle point version of your agility. It's different down here. And hopefully this blog will be a forum to share with others a little of what it looks like.
Just inches above the grass blades.

The View From 4 Inch Jump Height.