Yoshi & Trek Training Diary

Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - April 2012

By Ellen Clary (Copyright 2004-2011)
(reverse date order)
Feedback is welcome:

Frap.org Training Diary home
Our You Tube Video Archive is here
For the human's blog see: The Non-Dog Blog
Non-Dog Blog Table of Contents

Mon Apr 30
Noon Yoshi walk. He's feeling better and will need some tuning for Rally, but doing well given that we haven't been doing much this week on it.

On Gibbons, two Pembrokes approached and we crossed the street and then said hello once we were across--explaining that he's not that friendly. Yoshi is usually ok with Corgi's and wasn't stressing at all but on watch wondering what was going to happen, but I didn't know these dogs and there were two of them and I needed to get back to work. Their names were BJ or PJ and Pepper (or similar). Very cute and I've never seen them before.

Evening Trek walk. i was just going to let her wander and sniff but she asked to do some work so we worked on heeling. I've notice that when she sits when we're heeling she is wide. I tried just kneeling down and using hand targeting but she was still rumping out. Then I gave up and stood up and things got much better. Pulling again works better that pushing. Tried one backup and it was perfect so I left it at that. Other elements are looking good. She's ready for her trial on Sunday.

Sun Apr 29
Yoshi continues to improve and we're starting to feed him more normally. Took him on a walk. No dogs no issues. Rally is a little rusty but not too bad and he's not in the ring again till March 20th which is his first AKC trial.

Sat Apr 28

Trek got to come with me in a drive to Montara to drop off an APDT Rally entry, then we went to Princeton by the Sea to run around on the beach (dog friendly, easy parking when Maverick's isn't running and where you're past the tourist pub section). She had a grand time doing that.

Photos: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3431294053775.2146577.1013097814&type=3&l=fad8a393a8

Just ordered some photos from Yoshi APDT trial last weekend. He is looking very nice in them.

Yoshi picked up and took a toy outside last night which is the first time since he had that tooth extraction. So he's starting to feel better. Phew.

Fri Apr 27
Both dogs got a walk at noon, then the humans went off on a boat trip in SF Bay.

Thu Apr 26
Trek morning walk. Doing some nice Rally work. She's ready to semi-ace Rally Excellent.

Yoshi noon walk. He's moving along and seems to be recovering well. Didn't ask very much of him but he was volunteering some stuff anyway. I'm still just giving him cheese treats.

Evening/dusk. Went out into the yard and worked on some retrieving with Trek. Wow, she is SO ready for open. Did retrieive on the flat and that lookes great. Added a jump and it was no problem at all. It was like she'd been doing it for months and this is maybe the 3rd or 4th time shes ever done a retrieve with a jump. Her finishes are a little wide but I can fix that. Going to the right around me looks much better.

Also introduced directed jumping. She didn't get it the first time, but when I moved closer to the jump and started throwing cheese then she readily got it. This was only on the left side. She won't be in Utility for a long time so I'm not that worried about it. I don't know if I'll ever be able to convince her to pick up a metal article. For now the real project in Open will be convincing her that I really want her to sit for 3 minutes when I'm not there.

Wed Apr 25
Yoshi's dental could get really expensive and hopefully won't impact the trip to Portand in Sept.

Yes it did. He had a tooth and a small extra one extracted today. I'm not sad about him losing the tooth as it's that very back one that's a total pain to brush but it will put a dent in herding for s little bit. Hopefully insurance will cover it some. They might balk at the cleaning (which is normally a routine thing not a treatment) but it was necessary to see what was going on and the cleaning is less than a 10th of the whole cost.

He took 3 hours to calm down post anesthesia.

Tue Apr 24
Yoshi to Dr Wydner at Park Centre. She can tell his upper right back molar is red but he cries when she tries to look at it closer. She wants to do a dental to get a better look at it while he's knocked out and since he needs it anyway I agreed and it's going to happen tomorrow (she is going to be the one doing it.)

Trek agility class. The teeter is still on the lower field so we skipped trying it but were able to do most of the rest of the course there. The upper field was of course much more fun. Details to follow once I get the course diagrammed.

	Course 1 (orange) The challenge was going to the backside of 6 which worked well by pushing to the right saying out while I was approaching the jump then pulling left and saying over. The right into the tunnel from the dog walk was a challenge and she ran off for a distance and then came back correctly. She skipped the chute at the beginning because she couldn't see me. I'll have to remember this for the future.
	Course 2 (green) The backside was the number 9 jump which went ok.
	Course 3 A shorter fast course tire, jump, right side of the tunnel, jump, A-Frame and more - it was a fun way to end the class she was running really well.

Mon Apr 23
Trek morning walk - fine she's not nearly so worried about the crossing guard now.

Yoshi noon walk - he is dropping treats. He likely has a sort tooth or jaw. I'm concerned about him and he's going to the vet tomorrow at 10:30am.
His hamburger couldn't have caused this so I'm wondering what happened.

Sun Apr 22

HE DID IT! Yoshi got his APDT Level 1 title today.with a perfect score of 210/210!!! I am so thrilled. He was able to focus and I was able to help keep him that way which avoided getting 1 pt dings for going too wide. We were in the A class and we were number 125 in the list below.

Here is the video: http://youtu.be/TcQIoJJzDtg

He got a McDonald's plain hamburger which he was thrilled about.

Sat Apr 21

Post to CU_Dogs_SF

Yoshi showed in Rally for the very first time today ever (two APDT trials in Redwood City). Not only was he able to focus, but he got a 207/210 (3rd place) and a 208/210 (2nd place). I am so proud of him. And I owe a huge thank you to the staff of Just Rewards who helped him to succeed by running a fabulous trial) Wendy, Nancy, and Jann.

The above is what I sent to Facebook.
I can add here that if you have a reactive dog you can not find a better venue that what Wendy, Nancy, Jann (and everyone else whose names I missed - please chime in I was pretty focused on Yoshi) have created. Each dogs runs individually and there are only the next two dogs are in the building. The venue is Java Training Center which is where we have had CU seminars in the past with Kienan. The only hard part is getting your dog to the ring because you have to go through a crowded crating area. I can work around that by carrying him, but I'm sure they can offer advice in how to make that work. Here people are rooting for you and are interested in trying to make it work for you and your dog.
---------------

It was hot and the crating area was too crowded so I had him in the car covered with Reflectix until it was too hot for him so I moved his crate to some shade by the building.

Later on I posted the videos (this is a Performance Corgis post):

I have videos of Yoshi's APDT Rally runs. In them you can see that an APDT course is considerably longer and the ring is copious. It can be a challenge to not get lost and you can see me looking around. For the first time I actually had to pay attention to the sign numbers because I could see 2-3 at a time. While a challenge, it was a blast.

Run 1: http://youtu.be/beAXxwB76Wo
Run 2: http://youtu.be/gQjKSwBSAgg

And yes, treats are allowed when a dog has completed an exercise and is stationary. Handicapped dogs are allowed and can make exercise modifications if they give the plan to the judge ahead of time. Bobbie competes with her wheel Corgi and her one eyed Corgi.

Fri Apr 20

Post to corgiherders

At herding training an obstinate goat tried to butt Yoshi.  Not a good 
choice.  This goat had been challenging him some throughout the run 
(though things were going fine up until then). Yoshi doesn't know 
anything about measured response.  We had a screaming goat running 
across the pasture with very angry Yoshi attached to her/his butt.  With 
me and Linda chasing after.  Fortunately it was all just noise and spit, 
and I'm told it was quite a sight.  Yoshi managed to yell a lot too and 
we can't figure out how he managed to do that.  And yes in the end it 
was funny, and I'm glad it doesn't happen very often.

Then both dogs had very nice duck runs.

Trek did very well on her duck run she is very interested in worked. She works at a bigger distance and does more of a drive by style like other Corgis do. Yoshi is more focused.

Thu Apr 19
Yoshi morning walk. Pretty straightforward, can't remember too many details. He's ready for his Rally weekend and I'm trying not to worry about it.

Trek evening walk. I intended this to be a casual walk just to sniff around, but she insisted on working She really is a Rally Excellent dog now. Her backup looks fine now and not nearly as crooked as it used to be. Her stp-stay works great and I can walk around her with out her moving.

The we went to Lincoln Part and in the front side area we worked on obedience. Her heeling looks great. She still doesn't have a solid understanding of "Front." We went over Front a few times and it improved but she still has a tendancy to want to go straight to the finish position. Her stand for exam is working, but when I return she does shift a little which is points off (but not an NQ once I return.))

Then we went to the back of the park and played some fetch and then walked home via Central. After we crossed High St. I let her find the way home which she always does and it always slightly amazes me.

Wed Apr 18
Trek walk
She willingly went over to the crossing guard and he gave her a cookie.
We then walked around the school chatted with one of the attendants and then back over to the crossing guard and she went out of her way to say hi to him and then chatted up another man on my block.

Yoshi evening walk
He was amped so we took an extra long walk. Went over to the water's edge on Central took in the sights and smells and did some obedience work there. When we were leaving a dog crossed near us and he started to bark and I repeatedly told him to heel and was pulling on his collar. It wasn't the most stellar experience but then we got to parallel walk with the dog for a while which seemed to help.

Then while walking on Eastshore or Fernside a woman running with two dogs was coming right at us. After some consideration I picked up Yoshi and then walked a little ways up a driveway. He was unhappy about the dogs but was much better with me holding him and not facing the dogs. Then coming back on Gibbons we had another two dogs approach but they crossed the street. Again I picked him up and he seemed much better about it.

Tue Apr 17
Yoshi Walk.
He was having trouble focusing - no dogs but his attention was elsewhere part of the time. He would pay attention while heeling then look off more than was usual. Worked on pivots since APDT Rally has it at the Novice level. At first he was awkward with it then improved. Left of course harder than right but it was working well enough.

Trek agility class.
The teeter is still down on the lower field so she was not a happy camper at all down there. Sharon things more toy play would help her - I am not convinced though more toy play never hurts. Upper field she rocked the house once she figured out there was no teeter up there. The weave entries were deliberately hard and she got both of them and did one while I ran into and had to steer around a jump. Her speed was so-so at first and then it picked up. One run I did 2 RFPs and they worked great.

Later on we went back down to the lower field and did the teeter a couple of times with out issue. It's not her doing the teeter it's other dogs doing it and there is a threshold where she won't go near a contact when she reaches it.

NADAC is her future it appears. I wish NADAC was closer than Elk Grove.

Mon Apr 16
Trek walk.
I'm concerned that her Rally heeling is going to mess up her Obedience heeling. When I stop she might not always sit (thinking Stand even though for a Stand I always say Stop-Stay) and if I shift my weight at all she's thinking turn or pivot or back. That amount of readiness is fun. but not quite what you want in Novice or Open Obedience if it turns into squirreliness.

She's also wide - probably worried that I'm going to step on her.

Sun Apr 15
Quick Yoshi walk
Amy's young daughter was crawling around outside pretending to be a dog and I was concerned that Yoshi was bristling but he had actually seen a dog. We walked past them and then when it was clear that that other dog was out of the picture we doubled back and I let him look at Amy and her dog (LabX) and daughter. He was able to do this.

He was pretty distractable for the rest of the walk. Had moments of brilliance and moments of I can't hear you and I popped his collar lightly to get his attention back

I'm trying to decide if taking him to class will help him get ready for the weekend but I'm not sure it will make that much difference really. He is mostly as ready as he's going to be. He could get a 100 or we could flame out but he's going to be in the ring 4 times so everything is likely. I'm actually quite hopeful from him. He's very talented and I want us to get a chance to see if we can show it off.

It is interesting that APDT allows treats in between exercises which actually sounds kinda fun. I don't think we'll do a lot of it as I'm hoping to put him in ODTC's rally trial on May 20. The entries close on May 2nd so I will have a short while after this trial to enter though I think I should just enter it. Ironically I don't know if Trek will have her CD and RE by then so I should probably at least enter her in one of the classes. She has one leg at both levels and will be in the ring 3 times before then. It's a very good chance she'll have her Rally Excellent. Novice Ob is never a guarantee, but I'm hoping to get her CD before or at the Corgi specialty which is 2 days before the ODTC show. Since Yoshi takes so much of my mental energy Trek should be only in one class if any. I probably should have her with me or have Mark and Jan let her out while Yoshi and I are there.

After that Trek will be pausing in her trialing while working on her Open skills and seeing if she can cope with long sits and downs while I'm not there. She also needs to be able to fetch over a jump which should be easy for her. She'll be doing this for a couple of months or so. I'm hoping she'll be competing at Open during the Corgi Nationals.

I'm looking at the APDT sign descriptions here:
http://www.apdt.com/rally/rules/pdf/rules_and_guidelines.pdf

The only difficulty is Bonus 1 and Bonus 3 as they have off leash components that I'm not yet comfortable doing.
Bonus 1 is where you have your dog sit in heel position drop the leash, go to the next sign and called the dog to heel position without turning your shoulders - you can move your head a little.

Bonus 3 is where you do a recall and a finish. You drop the leash when you leave the dog.

Yoshi could do either of these but if he's at all uncomfortable it is potentially asking for trouble.

Bonus 2 is pretty easy as you have doggy do a front and take a side step left or right and doggy follows you and fronts again. We'll practice that this week.

The rest of the signs all look familiar. They do have a Call Front and Forward Left (or Right) instead of Finish Left or Right. You basically don't stop and sit at the end.

They have this extra award that you can earn if your first 3 Q's are above 190. It's called an Award of Excellence. Sounds like something worth striving for especially for Mr. CU doggy. Your Level 1 title is called RL1. They also have a "Championship" (RL1X) which is an additional 10 Qs in the B class.

Sat Apr 14
Herding mostly Yoshi some Trek.
Started with goats and then moved to ducks and let Trek do a brief duck session
I continued the treat tossing as a reward for stopping and it worked really well. Fortunately, the goats are always happy to stop
Scenario was I would stop and so would the goats and Yoshi would then stop. He would be amped but if we didn't move anywhere he'd settle down and the I could push him Out and have him do a Sit or a Down and then throw a treat as a reward. We stayed stationary doing that and then moved a little. When he started to ramp up we would stop and we would go back to Stop and reward and Stop and reward. Then move some. This worked really well and I bet I could get him through a trial course with goats by just stopping often. What's also cool is that the Pygmy Goats are small enough that I can reach over then if I need to get in Yoshi's face to move him out more. Sheep are not nearly so tolerant and would run away.

I did a similar strategy with the ducks with both dogs though we usually weren't that close to the ducks. The ducks were mostly about stopping further away and I still get out of position with the ducks if I'm not moving fast, but I didn't want to move fast as I wanted each dog to be calm. The ducks wanted us to be further away this time and i could keep that distance by calling doggy back to me which seems a bit like cheating as it's not what you do with other stock.

Fri Apr 13
Yoshi morning walk
His fronts were a little rocky this morning so we worked on those. He was more just aiming at my pockets but he's ok really.
Heeling and his turns are spot on including the left about turn, stay and me walk around works fine too.

I'm thinking Rally is missing something as they should include people walking by as heeling past them is very difficult.

Trek noon walk. She is also doing some nice heeling. Her back up still goes to the side but she's getting it and it would work for Rally standards. Her Stop-Stay is working well which is more important as that's used in Utility though she will have to learn to tolerate someone going over her, but that's months and months away. The new crossing guard doesn't use a whistle. I thanked him for not using one as my dog is afraid of the whistle. I'm not sure if he heard me correctly but that's ok. She did stiffen when she saw him, but didn't freak out too much.

Thu Apr 12
Trek noon walk
Some very nice Rally work and no agst about going near Gibbons. Fortunately the crossing guard wasn't there and there appears to be a new one anyway.

Yoshi Walk
Saw 2 Yellow Labs at two different times. He barked at the first one and i corrected him with a short tug on his collar and said Come and he was able to refocus on me. The second one came around the corner headed right at us a house length away. So we U-turned with me saying Come and he was able to calmly walk away and cross the street and then pass by on the other side. When he first saw the Lab he made a small throat guttural growl but other than that he was fine. He mostly wanted to know that the situation was under control. If I have only known this seven years ago.

Wed Apr 11
Got brave and took both dogs for a walk at noon. Saw two poodles across Central but we stopped a house distance away. Yoshi still barked but I got his attention again but he drifted a couple of times until I told him to Watch. And then suddenly he was looking right at me. Maybe he doesn't need to do LAT so much anymore.

Saw a Lab on Gibbons across the street. Yoshi barked, but not seriously and I got them both sitting while they passed by and we chatted briefly. He still reacts more with Trek around so it's better to walk them separately when I have time (was pushed for time today.)

Come is clearly the go to word when I need his attention. Leave it is way too wussy.

Tue Apr 10
What happened Tue?
Trek now knows all the Rally exercises at least on our walks. Backup is looking ok, and Stop Stand works too.

Mon Apr 9
Took Yoshi on a quick evening walk.
I was concerned about raccoons so we went in a direction that didn't have big trees, but sure enough there was one at the sewer entry across the street. I just stopped and watched to see what would happen considering what to do if it found its friends and charged (which has never happened to me, but has happened here). Fortunately this one just decided to go back in the sewer.

[I was in Seattle Thu - Sun]

Wed Apr 4
Noon Yoshi walk. He was a very happy boy today. Did some more of the same work as before.

Trek park obedience work. Worked on clockwise heeling again and recalls, fronts and finishes and stands, and she did some great work with the dumbell. The only real issue is sitting on the stand especially when I return. Went over this a few times and stopped the one time she got it right. Sometimes sits on stop-stay. Did a little backing up and it's ok especially since the Rally's idea of heel position is not Obedience's. (6' instead of inches).

It the OMG I'm SO slow dept. is.
Facebook status.

For Rally I taught Trek both a right and a left hand finish (go sit by my left side after sitting in front of me). We've always done left hand finishes in life and have been doing it for Obedience and it's never perfect unless I over signal it so we get dinged. It finally just occurred to me that her Right hand finish (where she goes behind me) is enthusiastic and flawless and why, oh why, am I bothering to struggle with this? Duh.

She does the leap up to bound around to heel position which is way fun to watch a Corgi do.

----

So am I really going to do NADAC with Trek or just pause for a while and work on obedience? She is entered in Mission Trail on May 6 and in the Corgi specialty later in the month. April is more Yoshi's month as he is in an APDT Rally trial in mid April and I'm in Seattle this weekend. Maybe I should wait till July or so.

And am I going to train Trek how to Track or is that just too much of a time commitment? My mother is in poor health so my dog time might get compromised at any time.

Looking at the Schedule I've decided. No. It's too much especially since both dogs will be herding ducks, Trek will likely do Agility, Trek will do Obedience and Yoshi might do Rally Novice. This whole thing is going to cost me around $1000 with hotel fees. What's funny is the day after is my anniversary so we'll escape to somewhere nice then.

Looking at: http://www.pembrokecorgi.org/CurrentNS.html
Schedule
Fri Sep 21 Tracking (1 hour south of Portland)
Sat Sep 22 Herding ( Brush Prairie, WA)
Sun Sep 23 Herding
Mon Sep 24 Agility (Batttle Ground, WA)
Tue Sep 25 Obedience (Portland Convention Center)
then it's time for the beauty contest and we'll leave then.

What I can't figure out is whether we should stay at the host hotel for all the nights since it's far away from herding and agility. Asking a few opinions via email.

Tue Apr 3
I know what I need to do with Yoshi and his herding now.
I need to get over there more often on a Saturday and I need to work on the goats and the sheep to work on just relaxing around them.
Maybe we should just do some on-leash/line work. Though I won't be able to get there on a Saturday for a while.

Noon Yoshi walk. No dogs. Worked a lot on heeling turns and fronts. Also I would let him go out to the end of the 6' leash and then either down or recall him. Now I want a 10' leash (something in between 6' and the long line's 15')

Trek Agility Class. We were late because I stopped at Lilas and we were talking about Rally.
She didn't want to be on the lower field though she did do a couple of teeters down there.
Upper Field

	Course 1 (orange cones) Had trouble getting out to the correct weave entry. She didn't like that Sharon was raking the dirt where the weaves were so she wouldn't take a nearby jump.
	Course 2 (green cones) Rocky start (still weird around jump 4 where Sharon had been raking but wasn't anymore) then once she got past sniffing around the tunnel she did very well. Her lateral weaves were perfect and I could move over to the next jump with out having to baby sit her. She flew over the remainder of the course.

Mon Apr 2
Terri let Yoshi race and race around the yard and get exhausted.
Trek and I went over to the park in the evening to do a little obedeince and play fetch.
She likes the front and the rear of the park but the middle has a playground and court area that she doesn't like because of the bouncing balls. I got her through there the first time but the way back I just carried her. It might be better to just walk on the street going home, but I like going through the park better, but I think we'll do the street in the future unless the park is really quite.

We did some clockwise heeling around a tree as she always lags in that direction when she's on the outside. I need to remember to take shorter steps as even though it feels weird, I'm told it looks fine.

Sun Apr 1
Trek and I went to the herding trial to watch Tony and his Corgis herd ducks. They did a nice job though his Corgi's have a looser style than Yoshi does. If I can get Yoshi to stop he'll be terrific.

Trek really had a nice time being there. It was sunny and we did some nice obedience practice in the driveway that was very nicely packed down from the rain yesterday. She had a good time socializing when a dog wasn't running, though she was very put out by not getting a chip that was on the ground under the table.

The most disconcerting thing was I had put her in the car with the windows down but not in a crate. One of the Corgi's was working goats and was barking and suddenly I had Trek at my feet. She had jumped out of the car which was completely alarming at it's a 4 foot drop, but she seems to be fine. We explained to Trek that she doesn't bounce quite so much now that she's 7, but she didn't listen.