October, 2003, Weeks Three and Four

October 15, 2003

It's been a rainy couple of days in western Washington! Okay, I know that doesn't sound like anything unusual, but this has been unusually hard, steady rain. Rain in Seattle is usually drizzle. This was RAIN. Suffice it to say that we didn't do much for the past couple of days. Pax and I took a walk along the Green River yesterday, and we did a couple of sessions of "Get Lost!" today. That was it. Jay got the rest of the materials for the agility equipment, but I haven't done anything with it, because it was raining too hard to work outside with the acetone.

Poor me, right? <grin>

Hopefully tomorrow the rain will at least be more sporadic. Pax has been pretty low-key these last couple of days, but I expect he'll start itching to do more pretty soon. He'll drive me nuts if we can't work.

October 18, 2003

Finally! A day without rain. I took advantage of it and got Pax into the back yard. We had a terrific time with "Touch This!" He was really focused, even when the puppy next door came out and barked through the fence. What really intrigued me was that he wanted food during that particular game more than he wanted to tug with his toy, so I ended up getting far more reps than I had expected. I was even standing up! If he's this gung ho tomorrow, I'm going to add a little distance. Or maybe I'll try the front yard. (Major distractions!)

I got the tunnel out in the back yard. I had only moderate success though, because I let Rain out at the same time. They kept getting in each other's way -- plus, I thin the retrieving bumpers I used were *too* high value. The dogs just lose their minds when it comes out.

We did a couple of highly successful sessions of "Get Lost!" today too. I tried just going around him in ninety degree increments, and he totally kept eye contact with me. I could completely see him getting it. Jumping to 180 degrees away from him is just too big of a jump. Either he's focused on the toy, or he just waits -- even when I call.

I've slacked off this week, and let the toys stay down and haven't asked for as many sits and drops. I can see *such* a difference too. Pax is less motivated to work. He just wants to play on his terms. I'm going to have to pick up the toys and tighten up my requirements again.

The past couple of days weren't completely wasted, by the way. We did several short sessions -- a few captured reps -- of "Get Lost!" and I got him out during a break in the weather for a session of "Get It!" He does really well with than behavior, even in the wind.

October 19, 2003

Today was my last day before I start a new job, so I was pretty selfish with it. We did a little bit of "Get Lost!", but that was it for training. Beyond that it was a day of just playing. I'm going to miss being home with my boys all the time. Fortunately, this is a short-term contract, AND after this week, I'll get to work from home much of the time.

The only disappointment of the day was that we didn't get around to making the rest of the agility equipment. Jay had some other things he needed to do, and I wanted to be selfish with my time. It will be interesting to see how much training I'm able to do this week.

October 22, 2003

Two words: "rain" and "work." On Monday Seattle broke its all-time record for most rainfall in a single day. That was also, coincidentally, my first day at a new job. Fortunately, the gray, soggy conditions outside didn't reflect the conditions inside. The job is going just fine, and I love the people. I'm working at the office only this week, and then I'll work from home. Can't say I'll miss the commute or the early hours. So I'll be back to agility this weekend (and probably not before).

But, just so you don't lose interest, I'm posting (with permission) an e-mail I got earlier this week. Enjoy!

Hi Melissa!

You don't know me, my name is Sheila Churchill, I live in B.C., Canada and I own Timmy (Soft Maple Wind on Water), Pax's brother. I just found your Performance Diary online, and was so excited that Pax will be doing agility I just had to write.

First of all, I want to let you know that I read Pax's puppy diary all the time, and it was a GREAT help to me - I got Timmy a few days after you got Pax, and the diary helped me through some rough spots! Thank you so much.

Timmy and I have been training in agility since January and we just started competing. I though you might like to know about things we have encountered and things I wish I had done different. Plus this gives me a chance to go on and on about Tim, which of course I love to do. And if you have any ideas, I would love to hear from you!

For background:

Timmy is smaller than Pax (26", ~ 70 pounds) and probably not as confident. We have done several classes in basic obedience, trained for and took the Canine Good Citizen test. He passed everything except being left with a friendly stranger - he loves people, and has no problem being "home alone", but just hates being left in a strange place with a strange person - he howls and cries. So he has a good grounding in basic obedience (though his loose leash walking leaves a lot to be desired), but certainly not to the precision needed for competitive obedience. We have been taking weekly agility classes since January, and started competing at the beginning of October - we have been to two trials.

Agility Training:

We train at Paws Ahead (www.pawsahead.com) which is also where Tim goes to daycare once a week. They use clickers to let the dogs know they have got the correct behaviour, but only at the beginning stages, or if the dog has been having problems with a particular obstacle. Weave poles are initially trained with guides, which I think worked really well. Timmy had no problem with any of the obstacles except the teeter. He didn't like the movement, or the bang, and a couple of times I was careless and let him do it when he was hyper, so he did a "fly off" and scared himself. This put back our training a bit! Luckily, I was able to borrow a teeter this summer, and could work with him every night for 5 minutes, just attempting the teeter and giving lots of food! Now he does it fine. At this point contacts are not a problem for him, but I haven't started pushing him for the speed he will need at advanced levels. As well, I only let him jump at 16" until this September as I didn't want to do any damage to his joints. In competition he must jump 26".

I use food rewards (mostly cheese, his favorite), he seems more interested in that than a toy. At first he got rewarded after every successful obstacle, now just at the end of a run.

At trials:

First of all, I have to tell you how amazed I was at Timmy's performance at trials. He had always trained in a warehouse, I had only managed to run him in a barn once. But when did our first run at our first competition he was calm, focused and enjoyed himself! The trainer video taped him and his tail was wagging the entire run.

When not competing, however, he definitely found the trial stressful. He HATED being left alone in his x-pen. This was my fault, as I hadn't used it since he was 9 months old, when he "earned" free run of the house. This caused him lots of stress, and he wouldn't even relax if he had one of his canine buddies with him. I actually had to sit in the pen with him and let him sleep with his head on my legs so that he would de-stress. I also left him in the car, which was better for him, but not practical on hot days. You have to have a place to leave your dog at trials, not only for bathroom breaks and walking the course, but you are expected to volunteer at events which can last over an hour.

What helped was a routine - go for a pee, get lots of treats just before a run, do the run, lots of treats after, play time with a ball and running outside, then quiet time in the pen. He is starting to be calmer when left alone.

Things that really work:

Commands- come, heel, look, wait, touch, out, go
I use these all the time when doing a run - am I ever glad I trained them! Look is used to get his attention - when he is distracted by smells or I want him to down on the table. Wait is used at the top of the A frame or teeter, touch on the contact. Out is for distance work - and that is was Timmy excels at - which surprises me as he is a fairly clingy dog. It must be his hunting instincts, but he will readily do obstacles that are 10 - 15 feet away. In our next trial we will have to compete at the advanced level of "Gamblers", an agility game that involves distance work, as we have earned two legs at the starters level. Go is for working ahead of me (i.e. go to the tunnel up ahead).

Things we are having problems with:

Jumps - it is totally different jumping a dog at 26" rather than 16". As well, a big dog has to be run in jumps very differently than a smaller dog. We knock down jumps a lot! Timmy needs time to build up speed for the jumps, I can't crowd him at jumps, and I can't change direction while he's jumping. This is more a handler problem than a Timmy problem, I will have to work more on this, and now that Tim is two I should train more at 26".

Me- I get way too nervous at trials, and I worry too much about going over the time limit. It's almost worse that Timmy is doing so well - if he was awful I could relax and laugh about it, but at this point we have missed 4 titling runs by only 1 bar knockdown and a few seconds of time. I need to calm down and work at completing the obstacles correctly. I did better at the second trial than the first, but there is still room for improvement!

Things I wish I had done:

Gotten Timmy used to being left alone in his xpen in strange places, especially ones with lots of dog and other noises.

Taken him more to lots of busy people and dog places - sounds like you are doing this!

Started training him on a "mini" teeter, so he could get used to the motion and noise before attempting the regular teeter.

Gotten more sleep before the trials so I wouldn't be so stressed.

Gotten someone to come to the trial with me so I didn't have to leave Timmy alone for more than a few minutes.

Only go to a trial for one day on the weekend, not both days. It's too hard on the dog and the handler for the first few trials.


At this point Tim and I are competing in AAC (agility association of Canada) trials, but hope to do some NADAC ones next summer. Wouldn't it be great for Timmy and Pax to compete at the same trial? I'll let you know if I am planning to attend any trials in Seattle.

Meanwhile I will faithfully follow Pax's performance diary, I'm sure I will pick up lots of hints. Any suggestions are more than welcome, and I would also be glad to answer any questions you might have. I'm sure Pax will enjoy agility as much as Timmy does!

Take care

Sheila and Timmy

October 26, 2003

I survived my first week of work! Actually, I shouldn't say it that way, less you think I don't like the job. I very much do, and I love the people I work with. The only downside was that I fell so far behind on everything non-work-related last week. Yesterday (Saturday) was busy with non-dog activities, but today is all for the dogs!

Jay and I built the rest of our initial agility equipment. I have three single bar jumps without wings, three single bar jumps with wings, and a set of six weave poles. We didn't affix jump cups to the jumps yet. Helix Fairweather had the wonderful idea of using binder clips as temporary jump cups. (See photo here.) Since I'm going to be adjusting the height during the jump chute training, I figured it would be easiest to use those binder clips at this point. Eventually I'll have Jay add real jump cups.

The only thing I have left to do (besides, <cough>, buy binder clips) is put colored tape on the jump bars for contrast. I'll do that tomorrow sometime. Hopefully I'll have the chance to go out to Kalisa's and actually do the first jump chute lesson!

I don't have pictures of the jumps yet -- I'll try to get pictures of the jump chute when I get it set up. Here are a couple of pictures of the weave poles. Notice that I haven't used the acetone to remove the extra primer or the writing from the PVC. <shrug> Like I told Jay, these are just for my dogs to practice on. I don't really care what they look like. I just care that they're the correct width and such, so Pax will learn the right behavior.

Okay, and for a TOTALLY off-topic question, can anyone identify the fruit in this photo? It's red and sort of strawberry like, but it comes from a tree. It is about strawberry sized, has dimples, and even has something similar to the green "top" that a strawberry has -- except on this fruit it's the same color red as the fruit. Inside it's yellow and kind of stringy, and there are many large seeds. If you know what this is, please contact me!

October 27, 2003

Okay, I've got some fine tuning to do to the jump chute. During lunch, I packed everything up and went to my friend's house. She has a couple of unfenced acres that will be great for this when I get my system worked out.

The first problem I had was Pax. He was way too excited to focus on the jumps. He wanted to run and sniff and mark. If the area were fenced, I'd have been happy to let him do so, but it isn't. So challenge number one is figuring out how to get him to focus there without letting him run wild.

The second problem was the lack of a "chute" in my jump chute. <grin> That meant that Pax was able to swerve around the jumps. I tried running him through on leash, but I really screw up his gait -- and it's still no guarantee than he won't swerve around. So I'm going to have to work out a fencing solution that's portable, inexpensive, and doesn't in any way damage Kalisa's yard.

The third problem was the binder clips. They would work well if he knew what I wanted and cleared the jumps cleanly every time. The issue is, when they're jiggled, they have a tendency to slip and shoot off the PVC.

On the plus side, we had fin with the weave poles today. All I did was click him for a proper entry -- and I followed that up by treating him in a way that required him to go around the pole through the second opening.

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