Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - August 2011

By Ellen Clary (Copyright 2004-2011)
(reverse date order)

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Wed Aug 31
Yoshi noon walk.  On our block he reacted big time to a yellow lab who was walking calmly on the other side of the street.  He chose to do this even though I had been feeding him cheese.  I put the cheese away and just hung on to his collar through out this tantrum.  I was peeved, but fortunately the rest of the walk went fine.

Because of that I decided that he not Trek was going to ODTC class tonight.
The cool thing was that he did very well.  No outbursts at all.  Now granted I am really good at handling him in that space and Hazel always makes sure to warn new people in class to give him a lot of space, but even so it was nice to have him succeed like that.  Makes me think he could get his Rally Novice title, but he would have to do some fun matches to see if he could cope with gate hubub.

He did sits and downs and was next to a Bernese Mtn Dog who would move around from time to time.  But I stayed with him and he was on leash but he didn't even growl.  He did keep laying down on the sit but that's lack of practice.

He did his awesome heeling (he's way better at it than Trek is), and very nice figure 8's.
Went over a high jump with heeling (like in Rally)
We showed Hazel his retreve which is at the point that he'll bring it back and stand there holding it breifly.  Asking him to sit usually makes him drop it.  She suggested to work on the sit and hold separately like we did with Trek so as not to mess up his retreive.
We then watched some other dogs work on their retreive.  The motion was starting to stress him so I found myself covering his eyes from time to time and finally just crated him in the side room.  After a bit I just took him to the car and went back to watch the recall portion.  He probably could have done it but he was going on over load so the likely hood of an outburst was increasing and I wanted him to end on a good note.

Pulled into the driveway to find a raccoon trying to go down it.  I positioned the car so that it wouldn't want to.  Turns out there's a family of 5 up in the trees and that was mom stalking my neighbor's chickens.  My neighbor was trying to scare her and I joined in but if we don't have a plan for where we want them to go there probably isn't much point except to make them want to move on.  Mom raccoon was not being aggressive which was nice.  I asked Yoshi to bark and he wouldn't do it but Trek sure jumped in.

Tue Aug 30
Yoshi noon walk.  He got to say hi to Judy and got to stand around while we chatted, but then had a nice uneventual walk.

Trek agility class.  She did pretty well.  No obvious issues.  Some missed poles that have more to do with my handling though she did stop at pole 10 a couple of times since I was experimenting with seeing if she would finish them on her own - not really.  One thing I really liked was that I left her on the start line to go set a jump and she stayed there without issue.  Perhaps because it clearly wasn't a lead out.  Maybe I should always just run away from her instead of walking out and her starting to stress.  My leading out seems demotivating for her.  Maybe more of Susan Garrett's recall games would be a good choice.

No agility class next week so we can go to the ODTC Rally Drop in class.

Mon Aug 29
Trek noon walk.  Braved a noisy mail truck door and other chaos.  She's not happy about it but likes the rewards.

Yoshi evening walk.  Several dog sightings. While he was excited and up on his toes he managed to mostly maintain.  Walked around the outide edge of the school and was able to watch the older slower moving lab that eh's seen before walk by,  Also was able to cope with a much faster moving dog not far behind.  And there was a smaller dog earlier.  Though he would go through these periods of "I can't hear you." which is irksome, but no drama.

Sun Aug 28
Yoshi walk.  Started out a little exciting which took me by surprise.  Saw Murphy who appears to be a lab/golden cross almost white in color walking towards us we started to cross the street but I wasn't in a hurry and crossed diagonally and just as we got over to the parked cars along the other side of the street Yoshi reacted big time.  Get that dog or whatever it is and get it now.  Pulling on him just had him fighting harder so I picked him up and he was thrashing until we got over to the side walk.  Then suddenly he got ahold of himself and was able to reconnect.

So we crossed back and then Cisco started barking at us and he's standing on his driveway on leash.  Yoshi isn't barking back so I just walked enough to be on the insde of the parked cars and walked around the barking Cisco who was taken to his backyard shortly.  After thinking about it, Yoshi never reacted.  Same thing for a brown poodle-like dog walking on the other side of the street.

So what was it about Murphy?  Well he's larger, white, and moving and those are all strikes.  He was also first dog seen and Yoshi hadn't been out of the house for more than a day.  But the reaction was so strangly strong.  We even saw Murphy later and I crossed the street and we let them approach and there was no real reaction from Yoshi.  ood - it's like his reactions are always strongest right when he leaves the house.  I did forget to say Leave It" but it probably wouldn't have made any difference.

Trek walk.  She got to meet neighbors Megan (may' gan), John, and their daughter Hazel who is very young, but walking.  She was very gentle with Trek, though Megan did discourage grabbing onto Trek's ears.  Trek did well.

Sat Aug 27
Baby's first Rally Q!  She did it.  She got a 91 and this was with restarting 2 stations which is 3 points off each.  She had a few tight leash deductions.  The judge said she did very nicely.  I later asked it if was the right choice to redo the 1-2-3 steps forward as things went off the rails at the 2 step part and she had forged ahead and was way out of position.  She said "Well you have make your own judgement call" (they always say that must be in the judging guidelines) but she said that it was looking like it was going to be 5 points off as it was unlikely that the 3 steps would have gone any better.  So it was a judge-like way of saying yes the redo was the right thing as the points in the first try go away.  The risk of a redo is that you get 3 points off plus anything else that goes wrong in that try.  Fortunately if I retry something it usually goes much better. 

The first exercise that we redid was a mistake on our part.  The exercise was Halt [that always means Sit in heel position] then Down.  As we were warming up I would sometimes just have her down as we stopped which she likes to do and right as we stopped she went thunking down (it's possible I may have goofed and said Down as the sign had the word down in in).  If I had her then Sit and Down that would have been considered doing the station incorrectly which is 10 points off so the redo was obvious there.

The hall noise (which wasn't bad fortunately) made her nervous and the forge at the 1-2-3 was probably because of some subtle noise issue at that spot, but she held it together for the second try.  The rest of the course went pretty well.  Swung a little wide on the serpentine.  And we got through the wacko Schutzhund Left About Turn ok too.  That's the one where you send the dog around in a right hand finish direction but you turn left essentially blind crossing the dog.  My dog thinks it's really weird ("where are YOU going???) and she used to chase back around the other way to catch up, but is getting used to it.  Also at the 270 Right turns I've taken to saying "Trek" to get her attention that something unusual (usually a 180, 270 or 360 change of direction) is about to happen.

And no one seems to care if doggy is looking at me when heeling or not, but as Hazel likes to say "Having the dog's attention is most of the game, the rest is details."  If Trek is looking at me I know I have her attention, though she should be able to pay attention even if she isn't, but time will tell how well that works.

As with most large trials the shopping was great - not as many vendors as I had hoped but the ones that were there were good.  Starr Henderson, and Figgy's K9 Pro Shop.  Got some little squeaky toys and a talking Rooster from Starr and a grooming tool from Figgy's.  No colasible bowls and the dumbbells they had were exactly like the basic one we already have. 

For dumbells I'm probably going to have to order one from Max 200 as they have a sizing guidline: http://www.max200.com/max_storefront/scripts/openExtra.asp?extra=11
I measured her mouth width and it's 2".  I've emailed Max 200 with that measurement and asking which one to order.  The silly plastic made in China one she has is narrower than that.  The 9x8 wooden one I got at J&J is too large http://www.max200.com/max_storefront/scripts/openExtra.asp?extra=11 so I'm going to sell that one.  And yes I'm going back to plastic as she's still mouthing it some.

Went over to see the Corgi's in the foo foo (I'm joking) Conformation ring.  I said hello to Bill and also Christine.  Bill was Cali's breeder and I say hello when ever I can which isn't often.  This will likely change as Trek and I start doing more Obedience.  I missed it, but Lila's Hank whose furture is the high levels of Obedience went "Winners Dog" and got his second Major (that's a good thing).  I'm amazed Lila can teach him the difference between the rings, but Trek knows an Agility vs and Obedience ring but that's obvious with no obstacles.  Though I kinda dread when she's in Utility but that's a long ways off.


Fri Aug 26
Yoshi herding.  Linda is back and we're working on goats again and he did great.  Apparently what I did to get the goats to move is really important.  If a goat stands up to him I need to get right on that goat and make that goat move.  Yoshi has to know that I have his back.  Whenever I did that Yoshi was right there with me to help.  This is what was missing when a Pescadero goat stood his ground to Mr. Y and set us back months and months.  We were able to move across the arena several times.  I had him stop a few times but he's not that good about that and that's what we have to work on.  I was also able to put them back in the barn though it took some maneuvering to get the position correct so that they would go in the stall smoothly.

We need to work on him stopping  on the other side of the stock from me and working a little further away (though the goats don't move if he's too far away.)  This time I used my black stock stick but for the most part it was vertical in front of me unused unless I needed him to change direction and he was a ways from me.

I asked him to bark at a goat and he happily obliged over and over again.  He needs to learn that I only need one or two barks not thirty.  Finally "Steady" has meaning to him.  Walk along behind the goats and a calm pace wearing back and forth to keep them together.  Less and less did I constantly have to tell him to change directions as he was doing it himself.  I have to remember to use the herding commands (I use "Away" for Way to Me and "Flank" for Go By) and not just hand signals.  Linda thinks we could learn a lot with the slow motion of the goats and he can build confidence that way.  He seems happy, albeit still a little stressed hence the barking and the not stopping.

Thu Aug 25
Trek noon walk.  Pretty day, the walk was uneventful save for some great volunteered heeling.
Though along the way I've decided I like her split attention heeling.  Looking up at me, but glancing where we're going occasionally.  As long as her body stays in position there's really nothing wrong with it save for it not being in the usual style of today's heeling.  I nearly heeled Cali and I into a car so I like having doggy keep an eye on where we're going.

Yoshi evening walk.  Hung around on the corner of Gibbons and Lincoln waiting for a dog to come by and we watched one go by and were just about to leave but another one approached.  The technique I've been using is wait at the corner and then as the other dog approaches we retreat down the block about a house width or so and let the other dog pass by as they are usually going straight.  So as that dog crossed the street we retreated and I started feeding him as we watched the dog, but then the dog and his people started coming right at us.  Apparently we're on their block.  The dog was older and I assumed slow, but even an older dog picks up the pace as they get closer to home and this was a larger dog.  As a result, we had to retreat in a hurry as Yoshi is doing the over the shoulder "Eek, Monster!" look that he used to do a couple of years ago.  We got to the next corner, but doggy and he people had gone in their house and Yoshi relaxed some.  Saw a yellow lab that we've seen before and another medium sized brown dog both  across the street and even though he was upset by being "chased" by the earlier dog he did ok with plenty of cheese to sooth his worried self.


Yoshi makes an appearance in the Non-Dog Blog
My "son" the Ranch Hand
http://nondogblog.frap.org/2011/08/my-son-ranch-hand.html

Wed Aug 24
Yoshi noon walk.  Uneventful, but he is volunteering heel very nicely.

Trek ODTC class.  We're going to the Mensona trial on Saturday so we did class just to get some practice.  She still doesn't like the industrial building and its accompanying noises and rattles, but she's coping better with it.  Still heels wide around Hazel's very sweet Saint Bernard Samantha.  Though she'll stand beside me if I greet Sam.  Sits and downs had Hazel wheeling around in a wheelchair as the judge uses one.  I don't know how much of an issue it will be for rally but it was good practice though I did stay close to her when the chair was around.

During the brief organizational break Trek and I played fetch with her toy and she really liked that and I'm hoping it creates good associations with the space.

Worked on heeling, figure 8's (which went surprisingly well), Worked with the dumbbell and she really has made a leap forward in progress without my realizing it.  She will fetch it, and separately will take it and hold it and will take a step with it in her mouth (I didn't realize she would be ok with doing that in that building though she can mostly do it in the backyard.  Hazel says to keep increasing the distance until she can do a recall with the dumbbell (that's a graduate Novice exercise).  That way she won't be mouthing it as much during the retrieve.   Mouthing seems to be something that everyone but me is concerned about.  I can't get too worked up about it.  I said that Trek has a lot of time as she was just doing Rally this year, but Hazel said it was good to work on it since the dog isn't getting any younger.  Fair enough, and it's fun to work on anyway.

Recalls.  The hall was bothering her so her recalls didn't rock as much as they usually do, but they were ok.

The broad jump was a surprising success.  I can pretty much already do it in the correct position and it mostly works already and this is without my working on it much.  Hazel says to keep a baby gate up beside the broad jump so that she doesn't cut the corner and to do it on both sides.

Tue Aug 23
Yoshi noon walk.  We saw the GSD that we've seen before.  They walk slowly so we crossed the street and passed them and neither dog made much noise.  Yoshi actually made none, I don't know about the GSD, I do know that she was watching us pretty carefully.

Trek agility class.  It was fun, with the occasional don't want to do that oddity, but it didn't seem symptomatic of anything terribly serious.  Did a lot of serpentines.  She still doesn't like me to lead out very far.

Mon Aug 22
Yoshi Fernside walk.  When we came to a corner the two wee dogs that we often see walking were about 4 houses down and started barking furiously at us.  Yoshi growled and considered returning fire but I told him to leave it and he actually did and we were able to walk away from them with no drama.  This is making me hopeful.  Fewer dogs in this area but the encounters can often be positive since we have a lot of choices on where to walk since the traffic is lower.

Trek walk.  Did a lot of Rally exercises and she did great.  She's ready for Mensona this weekend.

Sat Aug 20
Dog's mostly tore around the yard while I did yard work, but I did have Trek join me as I took a bag of rocks over to a neighbor in a wagon.  Trek usually doesn't like noisy things but she was able to loose lead walk near this rattling wagon though she did keep a careful eye on it.



Fri Aug 19
Trek noon walk fine.

Yoshi evening walk.  Starting to explore the Fernside area which is a different direction for us.  The streets in the Fernside are narrower, but less busy too.  Across the street saw Justin and his newer Schnauzer Cosmo (Max has passed away).  Yoshi didn't react at all.  The walk went fine (except for a lot of "new place" sniffing) but as we approached High St nearly ran right into two small dogs (one a pug).  Yoshi was yelling, but I turned him around saying "leave it" and dragged him away and he finally relented.  Then a block later we see Corgi Shelby and Janice and Mark, and we walked parallel on opposite sides of the street and that went very well.  At the end, I even let the dogs greet briefly but was concerned that Shelby might incorrectly assume that he was a Corgi Boy that could be pushed around like most of them and since he hates that (unless it's Trek) I kept the initial greeting short

Thu Aug 18
Trek noon walk - some street sweeper noise, but she coped.

Mark and Cooper could join Yoshi and I for a walk so we went over to Bay Farm and the ferry terminal and walked along the shore line which was lovely.  He really enjoyed hopping up on the benches and traversing them.  No dogs, but saw the ferry dock.  The little park would be good for some basic CU work.







Wed Aug 17
Yoshi noon walk.  He was volunteering enough heeling that I had him do the same Rally exercises as Trek was doing.  I've said before that his heeling is actually better probably because of his shorter body he's more naturally in the right position where Trek is often forged.  His backup goes off to the side also but he got the idea quicker.  His fronts are good.  I need to teach him the right hand Finish as I haven't taught him yet.  But his about turns and 360 lefts were great.

Trek agility class.  Sharon let us drop in on the Wed class since I had a schedule conflict on Tue.  It's a more advanced class that ours is and the courses were longer (lots of running) but I think they're the same courses mostly from class to class.  If a person was standing near an obstacle she would go around the obstacle.  This happened on the A-Frame and a jump.  So we worked on doing obstacles with someone standing there though I don't know how much effect that had.  It's not common to have a person right beside an obstacle but they are often nearby.

Her sending out to jumps and her lateral teeter was good.  Did well when we had to pick the tunnel or the dog walk in one exercise.  Her serpentine was ok though swung a bit wide (my fault).  Our front and rear crosses are ok but we could use more speed should probably do more toy throwing.

Tue Aug 16
Yoshi noon walk.  Saw a GSD and followed along a little bit but they were deliberately walking slow.  I had crossed the street and when we caught up the person wisely retreated down a house width.  Wonder if she's a professional though professionals tend to walk faster.

Trek walk.  Did a lot of Rally practice and she was so happy.
Worked on trying to stay in position by using a lot of nose touches in the area on my left side.  Waited until she got into position then said "yes" and rewarded her.  about turns and 360s were good, backing up still goes off to the side but improving.  Fronts are great.  Finishes on either side are nice.

Mon Aug 15
Trek noon walk.  Fine changed to walking more down Santa Clara for variety

Yoshi evening walk.  Took him over to Grand St near my friends' house and we had a nice walk in Alameda's Gold Coast area.  Our area is nice but not as stately and doesn't have that Old Money look to it like the lovely Victorians of Gold Coast have.  He was pulling a fair bit initially but chilled out some.  Again if I kept the distance between him and another dog equivalent to a street width and one house width he was fine.  The one time I didn't (the dog was approaching but across the street but we were on the corner), he was very barky and lunging and I corrected him which shut him up a little but did nothing for his stress level.  (I hadn't expected the dog to come in our direction.).  After that I endeavored to keep the distances back to what I know and things worked great.

Sun Aug 14
I went mountain biking so dogs just got ordinary walks today.
Both were volunteering some nice heeling.  Yoshi is very much in the habit of I must go sniff that tree now, and I'm tired of it so I've just been pulling him back and only letting him sniff when I give him permission.  Not sure if it's having any effect at all.  Saw the two wee dogs (one a pap I think) across Gibbons so we hung back a little to make sure they were not going to be coming at us (they didn't).  Yoshi was happy to watch them from a distance.  His stress level has gotten better since I don't push shortening the distance as much.

Trek's heeling was very nice (only worked on it for 1/2 a block) but she would still volunteer it from time to time.  When we turned for home i called her back as she likes to try to drag me and we worked on more heeling which was a big win in the let's not drag me home category.

Sat Aug 13
Had to do a fair bit of yard work so dogs didn't get walks today but instead played in the yard some.
Later in the evening played indoor fetch and tug with each dog in the living room.  Neither one is a big tugger but they both love fetch.  Trek just loves small squeaky toys that she can squeak with every bound back to me.  It's totally adorable and she even preferred a squeaky fake fur toy to a no longer squeaking rabbit fur toy.  Yoshi would fetch anything I tossed for him and he did it with enthusiasm.  I started with the little tennis ball which of course rolled away and got eaten by the resident black hole so we instead played with an Air Dog dumbbell and a Beaver Frisbee and a rabbit fur toy.

I wish I could have them tug more, but I've reinforced them handing me the toy after they bring it back that they don't want to hang on to it if my hand is on it because once they let go of it they just might get a reward.  Trek will tug with the now shredded tug n treat or a squeaking rabbit fur toy so I have to decide how much it means to me for them to tug.  Personally I find fetch more fun and they probably do too at this point.

I ordered Trek more small squeaky toys.  This time from Pet Smart.  A hamburger, a hot dog and a carrot.  Yoshi destroyed the last hot dog so I think I'll keep these toys off the floor and in the training bag.

Fri Aug 12
Yoshi herding at Woodside.  Linda is out of town so we're just there training on our own.
For the most part it went poorly as I as expected until a small miracle happened.
First tried goats and they wouldn't move for him and he didn't want to go around them as they were in the corner and one was facing him off.  Got them to move some, but it wasn't working, so switched to sheep still in the larger arena and the sheep just wouldn't settle and he charged across the arena a couple of times so I leashed him and we just did some on-leash Walk Stop work. 

Then we put the sheep in the smaller area but the horse was on the other side and the sheep wisely keep running to the horse and Yoshi didn't want to go near the horse  I would get them out of the corner with him on leash but the second they go a chance there were right back to the horse.  So I took him into the now empty larger pen and just did ground work which went very well.  My open hand stop signal works a lot better if I keep my hand by my face instead of reaching high up.  I keep forgetting this, but I remember Lori pointing out that our dog's tend to watch our face, so signals near the face are more visible.  I also got rid of the flag stock stick as that seemed to be bothering him, so I  just used hand signals.

Things were going well enough that I let 3 goats out that were in a nearby stall.  I stopped paying much attention to Yoshi and just focused of getting the goats to move.  After getting them going suddenly he was right there barking.  It was like a switch flipped.  So we all went across the arena several times with changes of direction, and Yoshi was wearing behind them.  If he came too far forward, I just put my hand out and he switched directions.  I did get a couple of stops in though stopping with goats can be risky as they can take cheap shots.  After years of arguing with him. It was scary easy.  It makes me miss Pescadero all the more as I was hoping to do an AHBA trial with goats with him because you get to go all over the place with them.

Thu Aug 11
Trek noon walk - fine.
Yoshi Park walk/work.  Saw one lab and a smaller dog coming at us as we had just started down the walk way that goes along the back of the baseball field.  We turned around and went back to where it began (at the edge of the field) and let the lab approach.  As they got closer we retreated bit by bit.  When the started moving faster towards us we retreated to the small parking lot with a small fence between us and them.  Yoshi was able to watch the lab and the smaller dog walk by, then we were able to follow them.

The only slightly alarming thing was that the lab's owner let the dog off leash at the front of the park, but the dog was moving slow and we walked to the edge and were fine.

Wed Aug 10
Yoshi walk - fine.
Trek ob class ODTC.  Her sit stay needs attention.  I was pushing too hard and wandering around since she's at the Beginner Novice level and I have to walk around the ring but the rattling of the metal door was bothering her and she broke her stay a couple of times, until I parked myself in front of her.  Then she moved when I returned.  We repeated it till she got it right.

Her heeling was bad until I switched the leash to my right hand speeded up and started to talk to her more (Rally style), then she rocked.

Did some jumping recalls and broad jump basics with me no looking at her but standing with my body turned sideways to her and calling her over.  She did fine without my looking at her.

Hazel was trying to do some stand for exams with her in a wheelchair as one of the judges at Mensona uses one.  Trek is familiar with wheelchairs because Mom uses one and knows to stay out of the way of them so she wasn't about to stand around so I stayed with her but I don't blame her for not wanting to just stand there with a wheelchair coming at her.

Tue Aug 9
Trek is entered in Mensona now.
Yoshi walk - uneventful.
Agility Class for Trek.  Her lateral leadouts are improving.  Her weave poles, teeter, dw and A-frame were great.  Today she would go slow at times and then speed up other times. Sharon had us handling from the rear of a curved tunnel which was difficult as the dog is using the lead that matches the curve of the tunnel and when they come out they are wanting to continue in that direction so I was getting a spin when she would discover me on the other side.  I don't know how much I want to work on this as I'm more concerned about keeping her enthusiasm up. 

It's funny that her enthusiasm for agility is all over the map, but she's way over enthusiastic in obedience.  I'm looking forward to seeing that photo of her doing a recall and all four feet are off the ground.

Mon Aug 8
Mailed off the Mensona Rally entry for Trek.
Given that Mensona is a very large AKC show probably with an admission charge and a whole lot of dogs, Yoshi isn't going to it.

Lunch.  No time for a walk so worked with the dogs briefly on recall and stay.  My neighbor was working on the other side of the fence so this was a good leave it exercise for Mr. Y.

Yoshi Walk.  Went ok till he saw a chihuahua across the street and he barked at it until we backed off a house width then almost suddenly he got a lot better and could even sort of look at the dog.

Trek Walk.  Brisk and she was happy.  We worked on heeling for a half a block but she was forging quite a lot.  I don't know if she understands the position, but I'm not sure I should worry about being slightly forged, but I must admit to never understanding heeling with attention as it seems so artificial and what is the point of a dog that is only looking at me rather than where they are walking.  However dogs are flexible and my have often volunteered it so I don't worry about it that much.  But now that I have a dog that actually likes obedience we might as well work on it.

Sun Aug 7
Monterey DTC, Watsonville, CA
Trek's Rally and Ob debut

Rally Novice A
Forgot to train for THAT one dept.
Note to self, when on the Rally course and you find you're having a quality conversation with doggy who is telling you in great detail that
T: "A dog peed RIGHT there."
E: "Yes, I know, honey it's ok let's go"
T: "Do you see it? Right There"
E: "Yes, really, it's ok, let's go."
T: "But..."
That you don't miss a station during the conversation. D'oh.
In my effort to get the show going again I sailed by the station I was standing right beside
An Open Dog had peed in the ring - the handler was mortified.

Beginner Novice A
Q'd in this one, but her heeling kinda sucked and she got a 181.
Things that worked great were her sit for exam, her sit stay while I walked around the ring.
Her recall rocked until she went blowing by me, but did stop before leaving the ring, then I was able to give her a second command to get her closer to sitting in front of me.

I think I'll keep her in Rally until her in-ring heeling improves because I can talk to her more in that class.  I will enter her in Mensona just in Rally.  It closes Wed the 10th, but the entry only has to go to Pinole so if I mail it tomorrow morning I should be ok.

It's only now sinking in how happy Trek was there.  It was a small show and the loudest sound was a table being moved, and people were pretty relaxed.  It was a very nice first exposure for her.  She didn't seem to mind going into the no treats zone though was forging and not paying that great of attention, but that's a mileage thing I think.

Mensona should be much different, but will be good to see how she does there.

Yoshi was along for the ride and actually did ok since the dogs weren't very close to him mostly.  He would grumble if one came too close, but that didn't happen very often and he's fine with dogs milling around further away from him.  I first wanted him to get a Rally Novice title, but I don't think he'd enjoy it.

Sat Aug 6
Fascinating video of baboons capturing and raising feral dogs as pets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2lSZPTa3ho

What I found really interesting is that the dogs bonded to the baboons and would then keep watch for other feral dogs.
This actually helps me understand Yoshi better.  To me it seems so counterintuitive to be so hostile to your own species, but it's clear that the dogs (and humans and baboons) think family first, rather than species first.

Fri Aug 5
Trek walk fine.

Yoshi walk less fine.
We were out the door and he was connecting well with me and then I had just picked up poops and I was getting organized when a larger dog on the other side of the street appeared.  Y saw the dog watched for half a second and then started barking and trying to charge.  I grabbed him by the collar and was not too careful about pinching his fur some.  He whined and this in no way dampened down his charge attempts.  I held on to the collar and the dog passed and he calmed down.  Peeved, I silently contemplated my vow not to kill him.  He was pulling to sniff trees and I decided that's a privilege that he wasn't allowed (it is a self-reinforcement that I should control better) and he did the walk on a short leash with me pulling him back from every tree (it seemed).  When we got all the way back to Lincoln I saw the women and her two wee dogs.  Ok let's see if we can make this better.

They were approaching very slowly on the other side of the street.  We waited for them to get closer, once they got with in two house widths Yoshi whined some and we retreated some which made Yoshi happier but we let the other dogs follow us and Yoshi didn't seem terribly worried about it.  When we got back to a street corner we went round the corner and went a house length down and waited there.  The two dogs came to the corner and turned the other way (going away from us).  Yoshi watched them with interest but did not react. 

One difference is those dogs were moving much slower and stopping often.  There was nothing that he needed to control.

Thu Aug 4
Trek noon walk.  After a week of flakey heeling, and having it completely screwed up yesterday by a rattling metal door, suddenly she if offering perfect heeling even when I'm not asking her to.

Yoshi evening walk.  I have resolved to try to find a way to help him be more comfortable when out and about and to come up with a structure around his training. 
This time there was a small dog approaching right at us.  They were quite a distance away (about a block with each of us mid block.)  So since he wasn't stressing about the dog we continued walking straight at them and stopped at the corner and let them keep approaching until they were 3 houses or so plus the street width.  then we retreated down the side street about 1 house length plus another one (approx. 3 house widths) and we sat (well he did) and watched the dog walk by and he carefully watched the dog with interest, but no reaction at all.

Later in the walk he was starting to pull me and I was wondering why but we were within a block of the house (similar to Trek).  I would just stop occasionally and then he'd come back.  After 1/2 a block of doing this he started pulling less.

Wed Aug 3
Yoshi noon walk.  I've decided to work with him at a greater distance from dogs to see if I can get him to relax more.

Yoshi evening walk.  To continue the experiment I took him over to the park
On the way over saw Kim, Dave and son William who said hello to Yoshi.  Stood at a corner and waited for a smaller dog to come closer across the street.  When they got closer backed off 1 house width and watched them pass.  No problem.  Saw a lab coming out of the park.  Yoshi barked but not seriously and we backed off to let them pass.

Them worked on a long line on basics like recall and heel.  Kept it short, no dogs, no drama, good.

Coming back hustled to catch up with two small dogs being walked.  We're near the house so he sees the dogs 4 houses away and is stressed and on guard.  We stop and let them go a little further and Yoshi is able to refocus on me.  Not sure if being near the house is a factor.  We watch the dogs go away and when Yoshi refocuses on me we retreat back to the house as a reward.

Trek ODTC.
Went to class because she's entered in a Rally and Beginner Novice Obedience on Sunday.
I also went because I needed to buy a six foot leash because that's what is required in those classes.  Now I have to figure out how I want to carry that much leash.
Her heeling was forging a lot.  I expect that will change when she gets on unfamiliar grounds and then it might change to lagging.  Barbara (who was filling in for Hazel) noticed that Trek swings wide on the part of the figure 8 where she is on the outside.  Given that she used to lag in this part I'm not sure I care.

Her recall rocked which was cool.  Her stay was compromised by the rattling metal door but she did ok.  Same door completely messed up her heeling near it.

Tue Aug 2
Noon Yoshi walk.  2 dogs.  One we waited for until within "range" and then we started to move away laterally as the dog approached us   I let the distance probably get too close, as he was barking at the dog some.  However back on Lincoln we crossed the street for a big dog approaching and Yoshi didn't growl or bark at all at the dog.

Trek Agility Class.  Thyme was having some shoulder soreness so I didn't run her today, but instead ran Trek.  I was going to pay a drop in fee and run both dogs.  Maybe next week.  Trek's stay is not great still.  Her lateral jumping skills are better since Sharon showed me how to throw a white cheese reward in front of the dog after they successfully jump while you are standing laterally.

Her lateral weaves are great.

Spent time working on a right turn after an A-Frame.  I have to get in front of her as she's coming down and step to the right as I'm saying Right Tunnel.
happy voice is definitely making a difference.

Mon Aug 1
Met with Citizen Canine just to have a conversation about what the possibilities for day care for the dogs was.  Unlike Metro Dogs they don't offer solo play time which is a shame.  I didn't think that it would work well for Yoshi, but it was Trek who got disqualified because she has bitten Yoshi.  I didn't think that was very fair since she clamped on to him and it was the circumstances of Terri carrying Yoshi that caused the tear, but by the time we reached that point I had already decided it wasn't going to work so didn't really argue.  Yoshi has clamped onto dogs but the injuries that resulted were pull apart injuries, but I don't think he would be a good choice for that environment anyway as though he would settle down, the moment a dog would appear he would react.

I am going to talk to Metro Dog when I get a chance.




Archive - Go to:

2011
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Jul 2011
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2010

Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Dec 2010
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2009
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Dec 2009
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2008
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Dec 2008
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2007
Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Dec 2007
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2006
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2005
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2004
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