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:
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Yoshi and Trek Training
Diary - Jul 2011
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