Resq TailsThe trials and triumphs of rescued dogs

Lately I’ve found myself stuck in a rut of just going out to train with the young girls, without much direction in mind. Not the most productive way to train. LOL So, the last week or so, I started really trying to sort out in my head a direction to go with each of the girls.

For Layla, I think I’m going to focus more on agility stuff right now. I think I did really well when I had a goal of getting her weaving. However, once she got the general idea and the weather turned all bad, I lost a bit of focus. Ok, so I lost a lot of focus and motivation. Maybe some nutritional supplements would help. We are limited to a much smaller space in the barn right now, but that’s really no excuse. I got a DVD called “One Jump, Two Jump” by Sandy Rogers a while back. It gives you a lot of exercises to do in limited space to build a good foundation for handling. I’m going to watch it again today and get started with Layla. I’ll try to keep you posted on our progress.

Now that we’ve finally caught up on the agility part of the past weekend, we can share the other bit of good news. Dare passed her CGC test. I know it’s nothing ground shattering, but it was fun, and I’m glad we did it! She’s such a good girl and I think she’s got so much potential for doing great things in both obedience and agility. I don’t think we need any stainless steel drums to store all her titles and ribbons in just yet, but I bet we will one of these days…

So, I keep hearing about how important a good warm-up routine can be for agility. I have to say that I’ve never really concentrated much on it with Zoe. But with Layla and Dare I don’t want to take anything for granted and I want to help them anyway I can. I especially worry about Layla. Ever since she came up lame for no reason that I could see, I’ve been worried about her injuring herself again. I was intrigued by Diana and Miley’s trip to see Debbie Gross Sanders and to attend her seminar. I would love to know more about what kind of warm-up routine she recommended, but I do know that one thing that Diana mentioned was having Miley weave through her legs. So…with a little help from Ricky we were able to find a video to help me figure out how to train that behavior.

Anyway, this is just a silly short video of different skills Dare has been working on, including weaving through my legs. I don’t know if any of them would work into a good warm-up routine or not, but I figure it can’t hurt to teach all these different things anyway, and if we don’t end up having a use for them, oh well!

Ok, so I really have a hard time saying the word pivot without thinking of an old episode of the tv show “Friends”. They were trying to move a couch to Ross’ apartment and they were going up some stairs and he just kept saying, “pivot, pivot, pivot”. Just makes me laugh everytime I think about it.

Anyway, to get back to the subject at hand. Dawn and Ricky wanted to know how I taught Dare to pivot. So I went out and attempted to get a video showing what we did. The problem is that since she already knows the game, she kept offering it with or without me asking. LOL So, this was our best attempt. I will forewarn you that it’s not great. You have to keep in mind that I’m not a teacher by any stretch of the imagination, and Dare kept wanting to just give me the finished skill. I still think that the video on youtube of Kikopups was probably better.

A couple things to keep in mind if you do want to use a dowel instead of the perch box. Some dogs don’t like the dowel at all initially. If that’s the case and they are worried about it, I would do some work with them to get them comfortable with the dowel separately before you could even start using it in combination with teaching the pivot. The other thing is that if you are as uncoordinated as I can be, you may want to practice using the dowel without the dog there at first too. Just see if you can keep your hand with the treats were you want the eyes to focus and still move the other hand in the direction you’ll need it to direct the rear end. It might sound silly, but I know that I find that sometimes my hands don’t follow the plan that I had in my head. LOL Anyway…here is the video.

So, my friend that I train with calls it doodling when you work on the little bits and pieces of heeling position and obedience exercises. I find doodling to be a really useful tool in not only teaching and reinforcing heel position, but also in giving you something that you can use for a quick little warm-up routine for obedience before you go in the ring. I use it for keeping my dogs connected before we go in the agility ring too.

Anyway, today I took Dare out and we worked on the “finish” part of the recall in obedience. I want her to be able to “finish” from both sides. Right now, I’m still using both a verbal and a hand signal. I will have to fade out one or the other before the skill is ready for the obedience ring. We also are working on an “in” which means that she needs to be aware of her rear end and move it as much as needed to keep her body in heel position. We are also working on reinforcing heel position by just taking one or two steps forward with her in position. For agility we are working on directionals, though I have serious doubts that I’ll be quick enough to use them when I really running a course. LOL So today we worked on “right”, “left”, and “back”

I think it was Diana that mentioned that it was recommended that she have Miley weave around her legs for a part of an agility warm-up routine. It sounds like a great idea, so I think I’ll be searching for videos to help me figure out a plan on how to teach Dare to do that next. Anyway, here’s a short clip from our training today.

This week is getting away from me quicker than I expected. LOL We had a really nice weekend! Friday started off with an obedience lesson for Twist and Raven. We have lots and lots to work on before the Utah Sheltie Specialty at the end of April. That’s good though.

Saturday and Sunday we spent at the DOCNA trial. I only had Zoe entered, but then they offered day of trial entries, so I broke down and entered Raven for the last run of the day on Sunday. Zoe had a nice weekend. She was really consistent and Q’d with first place in 8 of the 10 classes that she ran in. The other two were my fault. I got lost and sent her into an offcourse tunnel on one class, and realized it too late to get her turned around, and the other was a class called Strategic Time Gamble, and you make up your own course to accumulate points in the opening time period of 30 seconds. Then they blow a whistle and you have another 10-15 seconds to cross the finish jump. The problem is that you can’t finish too early or too late, it’s more a gamble of whether you can estimate how many obstacles your dog can complete in a certain amount of time, and I suck at that. We crossed the finish jump too soon, and lost the Q. Raven Q’d in her one jumpers run, which should have finished her Beginner’s jumper title.

Zoe did qualify in the North American Challenge Class though, and that is DOCNA’s qualifier for their Championships, so if we decide that we can get away (time and moneywise), we are qualified to go to Prescott, AZ in Oct. for the Western Championships. That would be fun!

The next few days are going to be busy. I am sitting waiting right now for a client to pick up their dog. I hate waiting for people. It seems like that’s what a majority of my time is spent doing with the boarding kennel. Waiting for people to pick-up/drop-off dogs. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could count on them showing up at a specific time, but you just can’t. People tell you that they’ll be there at one time and then show up hours later. It’s very frustrating because it means that you are tied to the house, and can’t leave.

Anyway, in the meantime, today I’m trying to get a packing list together so that I can be ready to leave Friday morning for Salt Lake. Zoe is entered in a DOCNA agility trial this weekend. I was only planning on travelling with Zoe and Layla this time, but there is an obedience ring set-up on Friday if we can get there early enough that would be ideal training for Twist and Raven. So…it’s looking like I’ll be bringing all the Shelties but Rogue this time. She’ll have to stay home with her dad and keep things in line here.

I have a three boarding dogs going home tomorrow, and at least one coming in, and then I have agility class with Zoe and Raven, and somewhere in between that I’d love to get a chance to bathe everybody. It’s not looking real promising though. LOL I almost forgot I have the cats that I’m watching for some friends while they are in Indiana too. All in all, it’s going to be a busy last half of the week, but I think alot of it is going to be spent hurrying up to sit around a wait for people.

If you look at this blog lately, it looks like we’ve spent the winter sleeping and taking pictures. LOL Admittedly, during the winter, my training seems to take a dive. I have trouble getting motivated to do a whole lot when it’s cold outside. That being said though, we have still been training (at least a little). Fortunately, we have a friend who has a heated indoor building with mats where we can meet to train about once a week. I don’t know what I’d do without her! Another friend of ours has recently acquired an Aussie puppy that’s Layla’s age, so we’ve been driving the 1/2 hour to train together in the heated building.

Which brings me to the title of this post. I’ve been working with Layla on some basics, like “sit”, “down”, “stand”, “here”, “wait”, targeting (both nose and paw touches), walking on leash, etc. I love training the basics again. It gives me a chance to evaluate my training and try to improve my skills. One thing that I know I want to improve this time around is my distance work. I seem to be able to teach the basics, but then I’ve got a hole in my training where I don’t seem to ever teach them to work away from me.

So, I made up a chart that includes the things that we’ve worked on, and then gives me different criteria for the same skills. For instance. “Sit” She is pretty reliable at a close distance 1-2 feet away, but more than that…we need to work on. So, I made small goals of increasing distance to 3-5 feet away and so on. Same goes for changing criteria of training in the house as opposed to training outside in the yard, to training in a new building, to a public park, to a trial site. We’ll see how it goes. I don’t have any doubts that Layla is capable of doing great things, it’s just a matter of me figuring out the best way to work with her to achieve them.

Well, another year has come and is nearly gone already. I don’t know where the time goes anymore! It’s been a year full of great accomplishments, a big loss, some continuing struggles and new beginnings. Wow, we really crammed alot into a year! LOL

Zoe earned her MACH, to become the first Sheltie in Utah to have that title. She also qualified to go to the AKC National Agility Championship in North Carolina in March, and we’re really looking forward to that trip!

Twist tried his paw at regular obedience this year, and in his first Novice Obedience class, took first place and earned the High in Trial at the Utah Sheltie Specialty! Woohoo, Twist. He went on to finish his CD in September. Now we’re working on moving into Open Obedience!

Raven took a break from competing in agility for most of the year, but she did try Rally Obedience at the Utah Sheltie Specialty, and she qualified first time out. She’s entered in an agility trial in Jan., so we’ll see if the break from competition and the training we’ve been doing have paid off. In the meantime, she says that she doesn’t mind just chilling out and chewing on a bully stick.

2008 was a great year for Penny! She got to try out for a tv commercial, and even though she wasn’t chosen, we had a great time! Of course, now she thinks she’s a star and we’re just staff that here to serve her. LOL

We said goodbye to Jessie this past August. It was an unexpected loss, and she is greatly missed!

Our attempts to help Rogue overcome, or at least manage more successfully her anxiety issues…continue. The last year has allowed us to meet some wonderful people. I feel really grateful to have found such great support and guidance as we work with Rogue. We hope that 2009 brings more progress for Rogue.

As for Lucy, she’s enjoyed another year of being Lucy. There’s really not much more you can say. To Lucy it’s not the end of one year or the beginning of another…it’s just a wonderful day to be alive!!!

Lastly, I guess it’s time to admit that the little foster girl, (formally known as Lucy), has found her permanent home, with us. I knew there was a reason we hadn’t done any fostering for several years! LOL For obvious reasons, we’ve changed her name. My husband got to re-name her, and he’s chosen “Layla”. I looked up the meaning of the name and it’s “dark beauty”, so I guess he did a pretty good job, for just pulling a name out of the air…he doesn’t overanalyze naming like I do. Hehe. I don’t know that I’d describe her as a beauty just yet, more of a cutie at this point, but I’m sure she’ll grow into the name.

So, I guess that about sums it up!

Well, we’re back!  The host crashed and so we’ve been gone for several days now.  Sorry to anyone that tried to stop by and found us missing.  The good news is that things are back up now and running.  Now hopefully in the next little while we’ll be able to restore most of what we lost.   

I’m headed out now to work on some projects around the place that I’ve been procrastinating about for way too long.  The weather is starting to cool down and I think that’s my cue to get in gear before it gets too cold to work outside.