Ruger's Instinct Test

Ruger had his instinct test this morning and I can tell you that the little bugger keeps surprising me. I thought he would cower and not like being around the sheep, but he had an interest. He also looked toward the herd and not an individual sheep. I was impressed with him. When Kama put the sheep away, he was keenly interested and wanted to run with Nitro. That would have been a sheep scattering experience.

Ruger is absolutely the laziest dog around the house, but with Agility, he has been on and is likes to learn. I sure get a kick out of him and he is slowly developing his confidence. Once he has that, he is going to be such a different dog than the one I picked up in Payson in August. He loves going to Club Doggie and I even traded him out with Lady in the Weaves and Teeters 2 class because he enjoys if more.

Lady is only going to be taking one class a week until we get her "fears" under control. As long as she does not have time to think, I get better performances out of her. She is actually the far smarter dog, but how many times have we seen a really smart person not do well, and the guy who puts in the actual work succeed? Ruger has the work ethic and desire to do the work. Lady, as God is my witness is going to succeed as long as I have a breath in my body.  Not to say Ruger isn't smart, he wouldn't be able to get the things I have taught him, if he wasn't smart. He, after all is mostly Border Collie. Not many of those guys are stupid. Lady, is a genius amongst dogs, but a dog who had decided that she is going to make the decisions and with that knowledge,  I have to re-org my training plan and get her to buy into the fact that I am actually going to make the decisions. I wonder if I am smart enough?

Ruger Starts Agility

Ruger is starting Agility on Wednesday! He is in the beginning "Weaves and Teeters" class. I have been working with him on the 2 x 2 poles, he looks at me like "what the heck do you want Woman"? He has been going through 50% of the time, still not making the connection. Mike thinks he's going to be great at Weave Poles. I guess that all depends on how well I train him.

 I am not sure how he will be in class. Ruger has no real training. He can sit, lie down and now shake, but as far as a "stay" not so much. I remember a year ago when Lady didn't have a stay and now I can go set up Jumps and she sits there (most times :) ). Ruger is starting to feel more confident around us and his genetic Border Collie is finally coming out. He's even started to chase Shubie, but I know she is not bothered by him, since she sticks around

Mike and I were teaching Ruger the tunnel last night and he wasn't too sure he liked it and Lady kept running through it knocking him over or taking him along for the tunnel ride. Ruger is very PATIENT with his bully sister. We tried to keep her on the other side of the fence, but she gave us the slip. Lady does not like me working with anyone else. Good luck to Ruger in his Agility journey

Lady Shocked and Astounded Her Parents

While picking up our new boy Ruger, Lady shocked and astounded Mike and I. Linda, Ruger's foster mom had a pond on her property. The dogs made a beeline for the pond and I said, "I know Lady won't be jumping in". Well you know what happens when you make statements like "my kid will never do that", your kid immediately does whatever you say they would never do. Lady was no exception and ran into the pond with wild abandon and started herding one of the dogs. It was a sea of black and white, and I have never seen so many Border Collies running amok. I am probably prejudiced, but Border Collies are the cutest animals alive. Lady had a great time and it was fun seeing her with her peeps enjoying jumping into the pond. It was apparent Lady felt right at home and I sure wish we had acreage for her to run. Having said that, we live on a lake and Lady never, ever ran into our lake. I guess when in Rome.. or as it happened, when in Payson.

No Bolting Thank God!

The last of the Games was today. Lady didn't leave the course! I was so excited and happy! Lady even seem like she was having a wonderful time. She was a tad bit nervous, but as long as there is no bolting, I can live with nervous. Lady probably would have performed better had I been a better handler, but she was wonderful as far as I was concerned. Lady has come a long way since starting this Agility journey.

We've had some tiny wins with our training and anti-anxiety. I hate to admit this, but Lady has been put on anti-anxiety medicine. This will be short-term, but our vet recommended that Lady be on this medicine because she was chewing her feet up out of nervousness. A few of the benefits has been that Lady has been wanting to play more and isn't shaking violently when we go to Agility.

I think there are many factors that have led up to anxiety on crack and a few are my daughter's dog Hudson. Lady does not like him and when he barks, she runs for the closet in our bedroom. Another factor has been our cat Kasper dying, Lady has taken that hard.

One benefit of the medication has been that Lady does not break for the tunnels at class. She's actually run through tunnels and on to the next obstacle. I am more of a behavior modification type of person, but if the dog is doing themselves harm, there may need to be an intervention.

Hudson went to daycare one day last week and there was a huge difference in our dogs and the lone cat, in just one day. I suspect when Hudson moves out August 1st, our household will start to go back to normal. Hopefully, I will be able to ween Lady from her "Happy Pills" and we will not have a life long pill popper.

Friday we had a really good class in Alphabet drills. I had Lady jumping 26" and could not tell any difference in her speed. she was quick and she just sails. Now if I could actually be a better handler and not confuse Lady, we would be golden.

Square One and Lots of Practice

Lady had a pretty good week this week. The nail gun at Club-Doggie almost did her in, but she rallied. Once I get her jumping, she forgets for a moment, her fears. On Tuesday, she actually (after one tunnel incident) ignored the tunnel and payed attention to my turn cue.

I am still going back and forth as to whether I will run Lady in "Tunnel Fun" this Saturday. Mike thinks she shouldn't go because she has gotten in the "I'm afraid" habit. I don't want to push the dog more than she can endure, but by the same token, letting the dog dictate our actions is kind of goofy. I will ask Kama and Jubie their thoughts on if we should sit this next game out.

Last night we did tunnel and jump exercises in the yard and Lady was fast and in high drive. Tonight we will do the same thing, but add weave poles. I am going back to square one, creating high value for the obstacles and make it fun. We are also working on a few tricks. Lady is an accomplished door/drawer closer whether we want the doors/drawers closed or not! Now to teach her to open doors/
drawers. I am sort of reluctant to teach that one! Had a bad experience with a cat who would open doors and opened the pantry door, and our dog Maggie drug dark chocolate hot chocolate mix through our living room/dining room cream carpet and proceeded to lick the mix into the carpet!

Our square one lesson is more fun, more praise, little expectations. Since this is hard for me to do, I am writing it down and making "square one" my mantra!

Tunnel Fun or In Our Case Tunnel Struggle

Our newest challenge is to keep Lady from hiding out in the Tunnels. I beg, and I plead, yet she stays in the Tunnel and whimpers. This dog - Oy Vey! The next game on July 14th, is labeled "Tunnel Fun", hmmm? I am considering pulling Lady from that competition and talked to Jubie about it. Jubie thought that if Lady continues to hide in the Tunnels it is creating bad habits. I completely agree. I am not sure she will make a 180 in two weeks. Generally, when there is a break to the Tunnels, I wait and she comes out. I praise her and give her a treat, but she will run for the tunnels again, the first chance she gets. We are creating quite a game, i.e bad habits.

How to fix a dog that is strong-willed and completely nuts? I got our training tunnel out and will place a target at the end. I want to get her to run through the tunnel, so the behavior is running and not hiding out in Tunnels. Unfortunately, our Tunnel is 6 feet long, but I am trying everything. Additionally, we haven't been doing any training these past few months unless it is at the gym. I am changing that and we are hitting the training hard at home, so that we can make Agility fun again AND training at the gym.

I know a large part of the behavior (99.9) is me and it is hard not to be frustrated by the passive/aggressive behavior of my dog, but if I am training just as much at home where I am not thinking dollar signs for every minute the dog wastes (just being honest), the fun will come back and perhaps Lady's behavior will change. I am sure it will not change over night, but perhaps I will be training the frustration out of me as well. Then I can bring that percentage down to 98.5!

I love that crazy dog and she is quite honestly the greatest dog I have ever had. I know she loves Agility or I wouldn't be subjecting her to it. Lady's Agility tutleage will be long-term and so will mine for that matter. We both need to take some chill pills.

The Games number 2.

Lady got a first prize on her second run. I'd like to say skill and excellent handling, but that would be a big fat lie. However it happened, we'll take it! I was showing Mike videos from all three runs, since he was in Singapore at the time, we were laughing quite hard. I am bent over on all three runs trying to keep Lady  on course. I think it is good to see videos of yourself (Kama and Jubie talk about that all time), because you see your posture and the errors that you make. Lady is still terrified, but I have decided that her fears are a work-in-progress and it may take another year (or more) to get her in a good place, which is okay. I am still catching up on my handling skills and I maintain Lady is a good dog to learn the sport with. My patience is tested by the bolting, but I am working on that as well. Looking forward to week two with One Jump Foundation and Alphabet Drills, very fun!

Lady Teaches Kasper to walk on a leash.

Lady has taken her cue from Shaping Behaviors training and is working with her friend Kasper to try and teach him to walk on a leash. In her training plan, Lady is starting with a string to work Kasper up to leash status. Next she adds the actual leash. Kasper loves this training.

Serpentines and Weaves

Lady and I have been working our tails off to get Serpentines and Lady's jumps are pretty tight. I've also added a small clip on her weaves. I am going to take Kama's advice to go to four poles to work on speed. When Lady goes into twelve weave poles, she just moseys through them. Speed Lady speed!

Lady is also taking a class on Desensitization class and we had our first one on Friday night. It was pretty fun and I think it will be ever so helpful to keep Lady from madly running off course, looking for a way out.

On the positive side, I am getting lots of experience on handling a frightened dog and creating a model citizen. Well that's the goal anyway!

Lady's First Competition

Diane is trying to convince Lady that the second run will be easier.

Lady had her first Agility Competition It was just a Club Doggie Sponsored event, but run like a normal Trial.  I understand now why they call it a "Trial". Let me back-track and say that since we moved into the new 11,000 square feet indoor facility, Lady has been terrified to be there. God and only God knows why. My suspicion is that the echoes and reverberations of the place scare her. Or we can just go with the fact that the dog is a 25 cent cab ride from the edge. I think I will stick with that one.

Our first run was an unmitigated disaster. Lady broke ranks and started madly running around the course to find a way out. We managed to get three jumps out of her before removing her from the situation.

The second run was better. She broke ranks, but I was able to get her back on track and we actually finished. 

To be honest, I expected that she would do exactly what she did, but hoped for the best. Everyone was very nice and kept telling me to stick with it. Oh yes I will. The whole point to all this dog training that I have been conducting for the last 11 months, is to get Lady to a point where she is not scared anymore. Some people might think that putting the dog in these situations might be too much for her, but I disagree. No physical harm can come out of these trials, and if anything, Lady will learn confidence and that nothing will try to kill her if she goes over a few jumps indoors or out. It takes time, and I've got it. We are not trying to groom Lady for any trials this year, that would be perfectly silly on our part. 

We have three more "Games" to attend. Next one June 9th. I have a month to work on Lady and her fear of the indoor gym and judging where she was last year and how far she has come, I think that we will be ready on June 9th. Will we have a perfect run? Ha! I'm not crazy enough to think that, but if we can just stay on the course, I will be satisfied. 

I will say this; that dog can jump. And she is getting faster and faster. I see such potential in her that giving up is not an option (plus I am no quitter). We have some fun classes coming up this summer and it will aid in the Agility training as well as the confidence training. 

The Club Doggie fellowship that we have was wonderful. Agility people are just very nice and supportive and everyone feels your pain as well as your triumphs. Special thanks to Brenda, who really went out of her way to help Lady and I out, our first time in the ring.

Why is Lady a Chicken?

Why is Lady a Chicken? I wish to God I knew. We are trying to get ready for the Games next weekend. To say Lady is freaked out about the new indoor location for Club Doggie is an understatement. I was trying to complete the a full run to practice for the Games and Lady is trying to hide out in the Tunnels. I am so frustrated. I am trying to have a good talk with myself and tell myself that it will take time for Lady to get used to the new location, but are you freaking kidding me? Okay! I think I have gotten my negative thinking out of my system.

In the scheme of things, who cares right? As Jubie's son stated, we have to start somewhere. I think why I am so frustrated is that this dog is scared of so much and we have been working so hard for so long. My cousin's wife Joy has been working so hard and so long to win her fight with cancer; I feel stupid even worrying about whether or not my dog will do well next weekend. I vow that I will not put pressure on my dog and myself to win. We are going to have fun and more importantly, work with Lady to not be scared.

In the acting school lessons, Lady is doing great. She is learning to shut cupboard doors, revolve around a training ball and nudge a ball around the field.

Tightening the Turns!

Today we had a make-up class, which has nothing to do with this picture posted, this picture is of Lady perfecting her down on the "Table". Our class today was a Serpentine with poles, a jump and the chute. It was not executed well (my fault - of course), but one good thing came of it: Lady actually went through the chute! We had to go last and of course instead of obsessing about executing the Serpentine well, I was obsessing about Lady going through the chute. Wouldn't you know, she did the chute fine and I screwed up the Serpentine cueing ( is "cueing" a word"?). Additionally, she went through the poles like a tortoise.

Next came the tight turns. I did well on the "wrapping around" the stantion cue, but having Lady go through the jump and to my side, where-by tightening her turn, not so good.

This was my first time back in the saddle so-to-speak and it looks as if I have a lot of work ahead to get Lady ready for Level 3. We are finishing this Level 2 and taking another 4 week session at Level 2, but I want her ready for Level 3 by the end of the next 4 week session. Looks as if Serpentines and Threttles, are going to be my life from now on!

Another lesson learned: stop worrying about the obstacles and worry more about my handling plan!

Weaves, why they drive me crazy.

I wasn't able to attend this week's Agility class and missed the lesson of teaching the dog to enter weaves in an unorthodox manner. Mike said Lady didn't do that well, so I worked for awhile last night on Lady's entry. It was so stinking hard. As everyone who knows me, knows teaching Lady how to weave has been the bane of my Agility existence and adding a new factor is a bit of a sticky widget (I always wanted to say that). Towards the end of our training last night she really started to get the maneuver. I know we will need to work on this manuver often because it is not a natural move. Yea! one more "non-natural" trick to teach her.

In behaviors we are working on jumping on the exercise ball and the huge surprise here is that she is actually not afraid. I am also trying to teach her to "hike", which is lifting her leg like she is peeing like a male and to bow. You would think I was teaching her how to off herself. She tucks her tail and looks all sad, but I preserver because eventually, like the weaves, she will get the tricks.

Birthdays and Fun Runs

Lady (pictured here) was having quite a Birthday in the old Stamp household. 3 years old!
We decided to end the Birthday week attending a Fun Run at Club Doggie. Of course I am still lame, so my wonderful husband ran the dog. Once we arrived we immediately started to study the course. It was impossible! Happlily one of the other "Novices" mentioned that we were only to run the Orange cone designated course not the Red. Phew! Prior to that Mike asked me "What the hell did you get me into". Yikes.
There were a lot of people and dogs also attending and I was quite worried that Lady would freak out and be intimidated. She didn't and she wasn't. She did pretty well, balking both times at the dog -walk. Mike did a great job running her too, so dog-walk aside, her runs looked good. I took her to the dog-gym the next morning to work on entering the dog walk and some other skills that she needs. One day we will move up to level 3 by working on all of the equipment and learning to be fast on it. I'm not sure Mike and I are ready however.!

Birthdays and Bumbling Fools

Yesterday was Lady's 3 birthday. She didn't seem excited however, must be a girl thing. We had our last One Jump Foundation class last night and it was pretty hard (for me). Lady was on fire and was trying to get past my mistakes. I was reminded last night about how far we both have come since starting Agility last June. I was reminded by Jubie, (who is the owner of Club Doggie), not myself. Myself just wanted to crawl in the tunnel for the duration of the class. But Jubie's comments got me thinking because Lady and I have grown into this sport. Yes, directionals and pretty much learning every stinking "Cue" and trying to execute them properly, is really hard. If Lady had a more experienced trainer, I am sure she would be further along. Lady is patient and is becoming a bit of a Diva, enjoying when it is her turn to perform. That is the part I love the most, how far this dog has come. Rescue dogs take patience, but the reward is higher because you are transforming a scared, relectant dog into the dog she was meant to be all along. I love this dog, I really do. Onward we go, we are taking only 2 classes this next session and while I like the One Jump Foundation class, 8pm is hard to drag myself to when you get up as early as Mike and I do. Hopefully directionals will come just a bit easier in the next session and the dog can (or us) move up to Level 3 within the next two session. Happy Birthday Lady, you are a great dog!

Bop it! A new game Lady learned in just 10 minutes.

Well, since my surgery, I have not been uber active on the training part of our new resolution. Mike has been doing well training with Agility however. Today I bought Lady this funny little gadget at Hallmark and I think it around 6-9 dollars. I've seen similar training gadgets for dogs selling for $129. Pays to know how to substitute.

Basically the rules of the game is Lady will hit the button on the gadget hard enough to emit a sound and then she gets a treat. This was very easy to train, but I will stress, Lady is at a point in her training, that when we set something in front of her, she goes through just about all her tricks to see what works. If you are starting this for the first time be patient. I have trained her with different objects to "touch it", now I have substituted the word "Bop it". She really likes this game and will hit the object over and over if it is on the ground. By the way, this object emits a series of different laughs so it is not all together annoying!

The other behavior she learned today is to hit this object with her nose. This is a bit harder to train and I will post another video of her "hitting that" with her nose. She pretty much has the behavior down and I have been treating even if she does not hit the object hard enough with her nose to emit the sound. Reason being is that this behavior is a bit harder to train and we really have not done much with nose hitting. Somehow Lady picked up on the fact that I wanted her to hit the object with her nose. Once the object emitted that laugh, I treated her to more than one treat. Lady picks up quickly on food-to-trick ratios and starts to do the trick that I want her to do. Now having said that, if there is a trick I want her to do that is in any way shape or form going to make her feel insecure, i.e. bowing: she will not provide me with a lot of progress. Baby steps!