ResqTails

Here is another belated update on our training challenge. I have one when I only had Rogue with me, and then another when I had Rogue, Twist and Raven along.

Last Thursday I got a call from the volunteer in charge of adoptions with our local all breed rescue. She needed someone to come to her house and meet a family that were finalizing an adoption of a Golden Retriever/Lab puppy. I figured that while I was there I would work with Rogue too. So, we loaded up a few practice jumps and the play tunnel and off we went.

It was mid morning and I was the only one there with Rogue at first. She was hesitant when we first arrived, but after having a chance to walk around a get her bearings she was better. We set up the jumps and tunnel on the side yard which is nice and grassy. She was able to do a few short sequences and since it was already getting hot, we went in the house to wait for the family to come pick up the puppy. After that was done we went back out for another short session and this time my friend’s step-daughter came out with us. Rogue was worried about her at first, but once she got going, she was able to work with Maddie sitting about 10 feet away. So, that’s good progress!

On Sunday we went down to Parowan to do some herding again. Unfortunately, it started to thunder, lightning and pour rain right as we got there. So…we waited for a half hour or so till the storm passed and then we got to work. I thought that this would be a good chance to work on Twist’s stays with distractions again, since one of his biggest triggers for breaking is moving dogs. I had him do sit stays while the dog ahead of us herded the sheep around the field. Twist did such a good job with such a tough distraction. I’m really proud of how well he’s doing lately. After that hard work, he got his turn at herding too!

Our friend had an agility course set up as well, so I got Raven out to work on that. There were about 7 people and at least 10 dogs there, but Raven didn’t even seem to notice them. She just got out there and ran like she does at home. Good job Raven! Gave me some hope that she’s getting more comfortable in outdoor settings with the agility.

Rogue came out and I was going to let her try the agility course, since herding in the pasture grass that touches her belly has just not been her to her liking. But, she was too stressed to try any agility either. We walked around the yard, but she never did get comfortable enough that I thought it would even be worth asking for anything more difficult than basic targeting to my hand and walking with me.

That’s all for now. I figure we’ll try to get in at least one more update before the month is over.

Well, we’re about 3/4 of the way through the month already. Time flies! Last week seemed short for training because I left on Thurs. to go to the Obedience trial in Idaho Falls and I wasn’t home till Mon. night. The good thing is that while we were up there I had a chance to work with both Twist and Rogue in new places.

While we were in Idaho Falls we walked the dogs in the evenings along this really nice pathway that ran beside the Snake River. At the end of the pathway was a dock and our friend’s dog Chase spotted this as a great place to swim. So, since Twist needed work on his stays with distractions, I put him in a “sit stay” while Chase played fetch in the water. It was a really tough distraction for Twist. He did break his stay once, but after that lapse of concentration…he did really well. He also did an awesome job of “leave it” by ignoring the ducks and geese in the water when I set he and Rogue up on the shore for pictures. Both of those things were pretty big challenges of his focus and I was really pleased with how he handled them.

I wanted to see how Rogue would be able to handle working near the ring at the Obedience trial, so on several occasions I walked her up close to the rings, (like 10-20 ft. away), and asked for some basic skills that she knows well. The bad news was that even at that distance she was so stressed that she was having difficulty targeting my hand, or sitting, or anything else. So, we increased the distance from the ring until she was comfortable enough to do a couple things and then we’d leave. I was so disappointed. I really didn’t expect her to be that stressed just by being in the vicinity of the rings.

When we came back to Utah we had a shared private lesson at a new location for both Rogue and Twist. It is a place that you can rent to work obedience or agility, so it seemed ideal. We went pretty early in the morning so it was nice and cool. There was Cynthia and Chase and our obedience instructor and Twist and Rogue and myself.

Rogue worked first. Or maybe I should rephrase that. Rogue was supposed to work first. She was so shutdown that she even refused to take a hunk of Bil Jac treat. This is the first time that she’s ever just walked away from me and not come back when I called her. She just looked over her shoulder and kept going. Right back to the crate. Honestly, I was in tears. It felt like everything that I seem to try to help her has backfired. Even our obedience trainer said that she didn’t know what to think.

Twist on the other hand, was game to work as usual! We did a little bit of heeling, and then a little work on our stays. After that we tried his dumbell retrieve over a jump. He did so well. I have so much fun working with him. He’s really a lifesaver some days when I get down and start taking things too seriously. His enthusiasm for life is hard to resist!

Anyway, that’s our update for last week. Sorry it’s a week late.

This was our first trip back up to Clear Creek without Jessie. Sure did bring back lots of memories for me. My husband and I had hoped to be able to let the dogs walk on the ATV trails, but…there were two trailers full of ATV’s on the trails. So, we changed plans a bit and just decided to let the dogs play in the water. They didn’t complain a bit! LOL Here’s a few pictures. You can see the water is pretty low right now, even the Shelties could get across without swimming. That’s just how they like it. Well, except for Rogue, who still hasn’t decided that water is her friend. You won’t see her in any of the pictures because she was sitting on the rocks with me watching everybody else play. Silly girl!

I finally got my camera back from being repaired. Yippee! It came just in time to get some pictures of the Shelties and the gorgeous sunflowers that are blooming right now. Enjoy!

Twist’s weekend at the Obedience trial in Idaho Falls definitely qualifies as a huge triumph for us. It probably sounds corny, but it seems like yesterday that he was entered in Rally Obedience for the first time. What a complete disaster! LOL If anyone had told me then, that Twist would be doing so well now, I would have told them that they were crazy. But here we are, we didn’t give up and he’s doing great! It is so rewarding to know that despite being given up by two families prior to coming to live with us, he is now excelling! I’m soo proud of my boy!

Rogue, on the other hand is currently at the other end of the spectrum. We are continuing to struggle to overcome her anxieties and reactivity. You’ll know from previous posts that I’ve been working on having her target new people’s hands with either a “touch” with her nose or a “hit it” with a paw. I really thought that this might alleviate some anxiety for her since she was comfortable with these behaviors. Instead, I think it backfired in a big way! It seems like it made her even more aware of people and (although I didn’t think it possible), even intensified her worry that she has to interact with them. Ughh!!! The worst part is that since we meet most people at agility situations, I think she’s linked the two things. I’m beginning to wonder if that is why we started to see such a dramatic shutdown at the trials.

I find it hard to look at things with perspective when I’m in the middle of them. I’m overwhelmed alot right now with Rogue’s problems and how to solve them, but I am going to keep hoping that someday in the not too distant future I’ll be writing little posts about her triumphs too!

This is a picture from last September when we went to Camp W at Lake Tahoe. I can’t believe it’s been a year already!

We got back home from our trip to Idaho last night. It was so much fun! We camped with our friend Cynthia and her three dogs, Levi, Chase and Tatum. Idaho Falls was really pretty, and RV park where we stayed was very dog friendly. The park where the trial was held had tons of trees so shade was easy to find. There was a great walking path along the Snake River that we took the dogs on twice and the weather was beautiful! We took some really nice pictures of the dogs there, but since my camera is broken and being repaired right now they are all on Cynthia’s camera. I would definitely go back to another trial there!

The first day Twist surpassed all my expectations and scored a 193! I was so happy that he was able to concentrate in an outdoor setting like that. Yay! The second day he was working on another really nice score, (a 194 to be exact), when he got distracted and sat up 15 seconds away from the end of the “long down” exercise. Ughhh!!!! That was an NQ. The third day had me really nervous to start with already, and then right before I went into the ring we found out that regular obedience is different from agility and rally obedience in that you cannot have two qualifying scores under the same judge. I had no idea! That meant that the Q we earned on Friday didn’t count and we couldn’t finish our CD this weekend. Needless to say, I was not in a great frame of mind when we went in for our last day and Twist was pretty brain fried after 3 days of obedience too, so we did manage to qualify with a 179 1/2, but it wasn’t pretty. So…Twist now has qualified 3 times in Novice Obedience, but we won’t have his CD till we earn another leg under another judge. Bad mom, should have read the rules closer! It was a great weekend though, and I can’t believe that Twist has made so much progress! When we started out, he never would have been able to focus long enough to get through the first exercise of Regular Obedience and now he was able to keep it together enough to handle three days in a row! What a good boy!

Still sorting through old pictures. This one of Penny always baffles me. How did she get the mud all over her head? She absolutely had to have been rolling in it like a little pig. LOL

I’m leaving for the weekend again. Yay, I’m excited, but at the same time I’m tired and as usual I feel pressured for time to get everything done before I leave in the morning. I’m washing clothes, packing, writing this…LOL

Twist, Rogue and I am going to drive to Salt Lake and then meet up with my friend, Cynthia and her two boys, Levi, Chase and I think Tatum too. Gonna be a carful! Then we are driving to Idaho Falls for a 3 day obedience trial. We’re going to camp this time. I’m looking forward to it. I think we’ll have alot of fun. This is our chance for Twist and I to try to finish his CD title. He got his first leg in April (I think), so he only needs two more.

Then when we get back into Salt Lake on Monday, Rogue has another appointment with the holistic vet to determine whether the stuff we’ve been doing is working. So…I will be away from the computer for the next few days, but hopefully we’ll have lots of good news to write about when we get home!

I ran into a couple of snags in my training challenge this last week. I made two attempts to train in different locations. First, I went out to the shelter to use their parking lot, lobby and area by their livestock pens, but because of poor planning I ran out of time to work with all three dogs. I then went to the county fairgrounds another day and didn’t have the cooperation of the weather, so we got rained out. So…we went back out to the shelter on a second attempt yesterday. Here’s the update.

Time of day: It was about 12:30.

Who was there: I was by myself, with Twist, Raven and Rogue.

Where we trained: Local County Animal Shelter. It has a paved parking lot, several acres of unpaved, undeveloped dirt area back by the livestock pens, and a lobby/waiting area inside the building. The shelter staff was inside the building, but no one else even drove into the parking lot while I was there.

What we worked on: Twist went first. We did some basic heelwork, both on and off leash around the parking lot and outside of the building. We did a couple of recalls, and then we set up a practice jump in the dirt area close to the parking lot. We did several dumbell retrieves over the jump. His heelwork was nice, and his about turns were much better than last time. I think the work on doing 270’s is helping that lag we were getting before. I was really happy because he wasn’t going around the jump on the return trip with the dumbell this time, even though these were my funky practice jumps. Raven went next. We did some on-leash heelwork, a couple of recalls, some signals, and we played around a bit with the jumps too. I was most pleased with her signals. Rogue was last. I let her take her time walking around the grounds for a few minutes to figure out where we were. Then I started her with just doing a little 3 jump sequence. She did fine. She didn’t seem worried about being in a strange place at all really. Since she had really struggled with being inside the lobby the first time we came out to train, I decided to try that again. This time, we didn’t have any of the shelter staff come out to sit with us, it was just Rogue and myself. She was really nervous as soon as we got inside again. I decided that I wouldn’t have any of the staff come sit and talk with us again, I’d just work with her by myself instead. The door makes a funny noise as the wind blows, so that really had her attention. Anytime she would reorient to me, I’d click and treat her. After a few minutes she got relaxed enough to give me a few “hit its” with her paw on my hand, and I called it a day.

Overview: I was really disappointed that there weren’t any people coming in and out of the building or parking lot. I would have liked more distractions like that for Twist and Raven. They both worked really nicely, but I didn’t think that it was much of a challenge for them. Rogue did better than the first time we visited this location, but I also tried to lower my criteria inside the lobby so that she could have more success, and less stress.