Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - February 2012

By Ellen Clary (Copyright 2004-2012)
(reverse date order)
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Wed Feb 29
Yoshi noon walk.  I had put a prong collar on him, but only used the flat collar, until he saw a Husky or Malamute.  He was instantly on his toes and growling.  I calmly put my fingers in the prong collar and put some pressure on it and he backed off.  I put the leash on the prong collar and when we later saw a medium size brown dog at the corner on Gibbons we stopped 1 house early and just watched.  He went forward, just started to feel the collar and turned right back to me.  Jackpot reward.

Tue Feb 28
Yoshi noon walk.  I put his prong collar on this time and we did see a couple of dogs  First saw two wee dogs walking across the street who even crossed over to our side of the street while we watched a couple of houses away and he did great.  Then later we saw one of the GSDs who lives on Fountain.  That dog barked at us and Yoshi barked back and tried to go towards but came up against the prong collar and he backed off and I had him sit waiting for the dog to reappear from behind a car until I finally realized they were deliberately hiding behind the car so we moved on.  I'm not a fan of the prong collar but it certainly gets his attention with no effort on my part.

Trek agility class.


Lower Field Course 1
The challenge of this one was to lead out on the other side of the A-Frame and make sure the dog could see you and call them through the tunnel.  Trek did it no problem.  Then from the second tunnel to the 9 winged panel jump, I cut into her path while trying to send her over and then rear cross, and she didn't want to take it even when I moved completely out of the way.  Later on after class we worked on this and got it working again.  She does not like me in her path though in serpentines she's ok with me close, but that's more her moving into my path.

Lower Field Course 2
FC to A-Frame is a discrimination between the tunnel and the AF and it worked.
There was a lateral lead out at 1 which we weren't able to do
The first time through the AF-tunnel after the AF I just said "here" and then tunnel and it worked fine.
The harder one was the tunnel 12 to AF 13.  Just after the AF I said and signaled Right and then Climb and it worked!  She turned away very nicely.

We then did an exercise with just doing AF-tunnel and tunnel-AF (back and forth) and that went ok.

Upper Field
White course (#1 - orange cones) - I didn't note any issues on this one.
Black course (#2 - blue cones) She ran well but kept breaking her stay though the 3rd time worked..  She did blow by 10 and had trouble with out 12.  Tried twice and then gave up.  Though now that I look at it I can't figure out how that happened.

She had great teeters - even took an extra one.


Mon Feb 27
Yoshi walk.  He seems in good spirits and didn't seem to be stressed much at all.  Didn't see any dogs.  Worked on heeling, "By me," "Front" and some other things.

Fri Feb 24
I'm in Seattle and Terri has the dogs.  Today she ran each dog around the block.  Said that Yoshi started to bark at a dog across Lincoln but them she started running and he came right along.  Still barking some but them relented.  He didn't lunge which is nice to hear.

Wed Feb 22
Noon both dogs walked.  Yoshi hasn't been getting enough exercise and his behavior is deteriorating.  The dog Annie across the street that he's seen multiple times, appeared and he repeatedly tried to charge across the street.  I kept ordering him to sit and he wouldn't listen until she was past. and i forced him into it.  We kept repeating stop and sit a lot during the walk.  he is unrepenetant.  He needs to run for a couple of miles, but unfortunately I'm going out of town for 4 days.  Poor Terri.

He has earned himself a prong collar and I think I'm going to go get one so she can walk him if she wishes.  I've been resistant to it but it's a lot better than an electric collar which he may need to wear in herding if he keeps charging the fence at passing dogs.

Tue Feb 21
Noon dogwalk got nuked by a meeting with an Electrical Contractor who Yoshi was very snotty too.  Sigh.

Trek Agility class
Did well unless I went into her path too much then she would stop.  Details are pending.  It was a fun set of courses.
A couple of back side of the jump challenges that you see in Europe.


Lower Field - Course 1
The challenge of this one was a wrap around a jump headed for the A-Frame.  It worked fairly smoothly for us.
Sharon talked about crossing behind a dog on a turn after sending them over a jump and then signalling the turn while you're crossing.  This is not easy to describe but it's a classic Derritt maneuver.

Lower Field - Course 2
Similar cross behind challenge.
Upper Field
White numbers: lead out pivot on the other side of 2.
Black numbers: That  12-13-14 was a tough one.  Front cross after the teeter.  RC at 12.


Mon Feb 20
Lunchtime walk for both dogs.  Saw one dog at a distance.  Tried to set up to watch the dog pass by but the dog went the other way.  Yoshi did see the dog.  Completely uneventful.

Sun Feb 19
Santa Clara Obedience
Novice A with judge Dee Dee Anderson.

Funny I just met a Dee Dee the other day, but I don't think it was a dog context.

By the skin of our teeth we Q'd! our first one with a score of 173.5.  This is the 6th time in the ring for me.  3 for can't-sit-still Cali and 3 for Trek.


It really shouldn't have Q'd since Trek was rubbing at her Dry Eye because I stupidly forgot to give her the eye gel in the morning and while I ran back to the car to get her lighter drops the blower was moving enough air around to bother her during the off-leash heeling, though mercifully it didn't on the long sits and downs.

I decided to give Trek multiple commands to keep her sort of with me and after the second command I should have been NQ'd, but the judge liked what she was seeing, so gave me 3 pts off for each one (I had at least 2).  When her heeling is working it's great.  Her on leash heeling was wide and sloppy and it was like she was worried about being stepped on even though I haven't run into her in a long time :)  And the figure 8s were whacko at the end of each pass as she wound up on my right.  I'm not sure how that happened or how to fix it.

Stand for exam she moved after the judge examined her.  Apparently once you get that far it's just points off.

The recall was good but slightly crooked crokked front hence the 2 points there.

I need to get her through Novice and into Open where she can have some fun.

It was kind of pathetic, before we got the score I was sort of holding her and silently weeping into her fur asking her what were we going to do?

During the classes long sit and down they were putting metal articles out in the utility ring and Trek who has an excellent stay noticed and I was praying they didn't drop anything. (They didn't phew).

I count seconds as something to do during the stays and right around the start of minute 3 it was 1, 2, 3, ohgodmetal, 4-no-5, eekdontdropit, 5-no-6,  eek, whatever, focus dern-it, 10, 11, 12...




Yesterday, Pat was kind enough to say come talk to me about noise sensitivity I called her when I got home and she offered some great suggestions. Noise freakasoidness is a tough one. Her Flat Coat Havoc had a hunt training scenario go vastly wrong where he was shocked repeatedly by a wire fence that he got tangled into.  As a result, any noise that was going on at the time (shots, booming and more) made him have major meltdowns.  After consulting with a whole lot of people she says that the one thing that worked was Melatonin.  I have Melatonin but hadn't done anything with it and I have the timed release version and she is suggesting the more immediate one.  She would give it incidentally (like if she was going to an agility trial) and says that it lasts about 4-5 hours and took about an hour to take effect.  for Trek she recommends 1.5 mg since Havoc who was 55 pounds used 3 mg.

I went to the store and picked up some liquid Meletonin since that will make dosage control easier.  Looking at the label it says that 1/2 a dropper (which is about how much you get when you squeeze the bulb) is 0.75 mg.  How perfect is that?  I usually have all sorts of trouble getting the dosing correct for my dogs.  Given that the listed tablet human doses in the store were only about 1, 2, 3 mg I should double check the dosing guidelines.  But I gave each dog 0.75 mg tonight just to see how they do on it.


Yoshi spent lunchtime with Jan relaxing and sunning himself.  She notices how much he's mellowing out.  She says she wants to just take him over to her house to play with Cameo.  I said I worried about that since he can be so touchy but she says she'd be careful.  Though I said I've be devastated if something were to happen, but if she's willing to try it might be ok (eek).  I said she was welcome to take him for a walk too.  I'd almost be more comfortable with that though I do have to tell her about how we stop at corners.  I really like it that she enjoys him.  They are his godparents so this is encouraging.

At Santa Clara, I talked to Kitty at length about the APDT Rally trials that Wendy hosts at Java Dog Training Center.  She has a couple of them coming up and given that it's a place that Yoshi has been to and given that it's not AKC, it seems like a good place to try Yoshi since it wouldn't be risking his herding career if something were to go RONG.

Details are at:  http://www.apdt.com/rally/calendar/details.aspx?Type=1

Sat Feb 18
Trek Rally Trial in Santa Clara Fairgrounds put on by the Santa Clara Valley Kennel Club.

I had downloaded a Rally App for my phone that Susanna had told me about.  It was very helpful to double check the rules and got a lot of attention.  "Hey she has the Rally signs on her phone!"  I checked with Google and there are at least 3 rally obedience apps.



She got her second Advanced Q with judge Loretta Delinger.  76 points which is not stellar.

3 do-overs which is 3 points off each.  Should have done a 4th one because the Down Stop wasn't done right and I knew it and chose not to so that's an Incorrectly Performed (IP) which is 10 points off (ouch).  Then I had a handler error as I didn't do the Side-Step Right directly in front of the sign.  It's confusing as most of the rally things are not right in front of the sign, but the Right About Turn (and About turns actually) is and this one is.  Also got a 1 pt ding on cone sniffing (yeah well), and lost a point because her slow wasn't consistent enough.




Yoshi walk.
Immediately we saw a dog on our side of the street.  We crossed but I really didn't have time to set up so I just talked to him.  He held it together but then lost it in a barking fit.  After I got a hold of him I saw that it was neighbor dog Annie and another dog.  The other dog was bounding along in that way that drives Yoshi nuts.

Later on on Central we saw a small Bulldog moving slowly towards us.  We took a side street and walked just over a house length down and waited for the dog.  Yoshi successfully watched the dog cross in front of him then turn and go down the other side of the street that we were on.  Cool.

So walking back home we were completely taken by surprise when the very same Bulldog appeared at a corner we were coming up to.  We crossed the street as immediately as possible and Yoshi was suprised but didn't react.

I'm still trying to figure out whether he would like Rally Novice or not.  He's a brilliant heeler and likes the structure but the dogs around would not make him happy.  I think I need to keep taking him to class and see.

Fri Feb 17
Yoshi gets to go herding today.  I'll take Trek along and see if she wants to race around the ducks again.

Yoshi did goats first and we worked on a free standing Y chute.  Mostly frustrating as I was trying not to be in the chute, but Linda tells me that it's only a few points off to go through the chute so I think we'll just do that.  Otherwise Yoshi and I get into arguments and then he obsesses on charging the fence at passing dogs which is really annoying.

The cool thing about him doing goats first is that he's tired and can then do good work with ducks.  He actually was able to do an AKC course A Y chute successfully.  I could let him go far enough into the chute stop him when the ducks were out of it and then say "Stop" and then "Round" and he would turn around and come out of the chute and stay with me and we could then rejoin the ducks.  After a few tries it actually started working reliably.

Trek was then allowed to cheerfully race around the ducks inside an expen after demonstrating that she couldn't be trusted off leash around them yet.  It's funny because she's been on them before but wasn't nearly so over the top.  After a bit, I let her work them on leash which she was only marginally better at after racing around the expen some.

I'm definitely going to let Trek try Nola's geese and see what she thinks.  Birds are very exciting to her but I have no idea of her opinion of larger birds.

Thu Feb 16
Yoshi morning walk.  No drama.  Did some good training.

Trek noon walk.  We went over to the school
At first she didn't want to go in that direction, but we crossed out street and somehow that made everything ok.  We were earlier so the crossing guard wasn't out yet for the school gets out duty around 12:30pm.
When we got over to a quieter side of the school we worked on moving stand and are getting somewhere though I'm using too much signal to be workable.

Then we walked around the other which was a mistake as the kids were playing basketball right by the fence.  Ball bouncing, chain link rattling, and the worst was the metal backboard being hit.  She was trying to run into the street and I'd drag her back.  We finally got through it and it wasn't far before she could eat again (about to the kids' garden)

Evening did more work on moving stand.  We now have something that would work for Rally Excellent Moving Stand, but it would not work for the one from a Halt where I can't take a step forward.  She's so used to moving to my hand so she wants to take a step forward first.  My signal is evolving to be a hand target in front of her held low moving away from her but that's not very practical for either Rally or Utility.  Lila uses a right hand rising from her side across her body to right in front of the dog.  It looks so simple, but I haven't bee having any luck with it.  Been struggling to come up with a name for it Stand and Stay are very similar.  Halt is said by an obedience judge and means sit.  I use Wait casually and Stop is in herding.  "Freeze?"  Just messed around with it and if I can remember it it will work fine.

Realized that Yoshi has never done a left about turn so introduced him to it and we have a workable one where my left arm travels across the front of my body and then I would toss a treat, but I can just as easily spin around to the left.  But honestly I'm wondering if using my right hand as a target (similar to Trek's signal) might be better.

Trek insisted on getting in on the action.  Her signal is different as I show her my right hand as a target and as she's moving to it I spin around and present my left hand as the next target.  We do a lot of hand targeting so it's pretty natural for us.

Wed Feb 15
This just in - there will be geese practice Friday April 13 in LA in the morning, so I'll drive down on Thur.

I have to decide if I want to take Trek.  She might love it.  She might hate it.  Birds are exciting to her, but these are big opinionated birds.
I think I'll take her to Nola's the second Sunday in March.

Trek morning walk.
Rally Excellent exercise training going better.

Her back up is improving.
Pivot Left is nice now.

Then thing that is still not working yet is Moving Stand though she will stand up from a sit.
May need to have the verbal Stand better, but it sounds similar to Stay

Noon Yoshi walk.
Wow.  Today as we were standing in the front driveway a fluffy wee dog in a coat walked by.  Major bark fodder in the past but Yoshi looked at the dog hard and then relented and looked back to me for a treat.  Good boy!  He then barked a few times and then again broke off for a reward.  We then parallel walked with the dog down the street.  Just as we were about to turn, he was staring forward and moving a little faster, but when he hit the end of the leash he came right back.  I looked up to see a Beagle had appeared right in front of us.

Then on Central we were working pretty intensively on heeling and turns and finishes (which he knows well know) and a Chow appeared across the street.  Yoshi watched the dog for a bit (the dog ignored him) and then looked back for a reward.  Such a different dog from years past.


Tue Feb 14
Yoshi walk
Trek agility class


Lower Field
Some weave pole entrance issues as Sharon wanted us to go straight to the 2nd pole and not shape the entry.


Upper Field Course 1 (white numbers)
1-2-3 was just a simple dog on the left turn into the tunnel.  No issue with Teeter 4.  FC After 6, then to the DW.  I faded and called her over 10 which worked great and the rest of the course went smoothly.
Upper Field Course 2 (black numbers)
This time Trek stopped before the yellow and hopped off from the dog walk as I was fading out to the next jump so after class we worked on doing the DW with me tossing treats forward
This time 1-2-3 was a lead out pivot.


Mon Feb 13
Yoshi walk.  Completely uneventful and did some work on fronts and finished with some heeling.  He's got the right hand finish down.

Trek walk.  Not a lot of time so just went down the block, up High Street and then back down our street.  the weather was cool and a little windy and she was up and happy and didn't seem to mind a neighbor's wind chime too much.  She still heels wide but Lori's trick of bending at the knees when asking for a hand touch is pulling her in nicely.  I'm cutting down how much I signal her for a finish and some times she doesn't go far enough but I still don't need to turn my trunk but instead hold my left arm further back and wave my hand as a reminder.  It was fun to see her so responsive.

Sun Feb 12
Yoshi herding at Nola Jones'
I took Yoshi to Nola Jones' place Performance Dogs in Action because they have geese.
Yoshi spent 30 minutes sniffing the ground, eating poop, rolling in poop, barking at any dog within 10', and then after Nola said he didn't seem that interested, he switched on and started herding them very nicely and he had a good stop and flanking commands  He's probably good enough to try the LA geese though he probably should go at least one more time.  He was listening which is nice though it was because he was a little off balance because he didn't know what they were.  As he gets more confident he tends to get pushier, so I don't know if too much exposure is necessarily a good thing.

I later put him on goats and he was not great with me but when she stepped in he did much better.  She likes his energy and thinks I should just keep moving and stay with the goats' heads instead of arguing with him.  She didn't mind as much him splitting them all up (there was a flock of them and not just 3-5.

Sat Feb 11
Trek agility in Turlock
She seemed to be less miserable and seemed to sometimes have a nice time.  Haven't decided if she was having a good enough time to make it worth it though.

Got another Master's Q in Jumpers and ran well in that.  Her favorite time appeared to be chasing Karey's BCs around in the play area.


Courses

PI Standard

In Standard did the teeter without hesitation, but was funny about the other contacts.  Gail says it was because I didn't tell her early enough but I could have sworn I did but earlier is almost always better.  She also encouraged me to talk to her more especially at the corners and turns where she gets distracted or where she encounters something new like a ring crew person.  I am out of the habit of talking much as my voice sometimes gets too hyper and stressed and when I calmed down things got a lot better.

PII Gamblers

Opening plan
Jump, A-Frame, tunnel, jump, A-Frame, jump, far tunnel, far tunnel

We were in good enough position to do the gamble but she ran by the teeter.
She did both A-Frames with cajoling.

PII Snooker

Plan was to do it as I diagrammed but at the end of the closing she took 2 instead of 4 and we got through 6 which is 36 points and we needed 37,  The Front Cross after opening 5b worked since there was space before the tunnel to work in.

PIII Jumpers

It went great!   She Qed!  I nearly steered her wrong by sending her over 7 instead of 12, but recovered.

3 minutes after we ran the train went by.  Phew.


Fri Feb 10
Trek Lori Class
In general she didn't freak out excessively though she was intensely uncomfortable anytime anyone would mess with anything on the entrance side of the room where the jumps are.  I would give her breaks from time to time and she actually could concentrate better

Regular heeling was ok and then Lori made a great suggestion for me to when asking for a hand touch while heeling to kneel down using my knees instead of leaning sideways and she was suddenly not too far to the side.  It worked really well.

Lori talked some about using mild collar pressure to help teach the dog to move away from it and then use it to help the dog to learn heel positioning.  Not just lagging or forging but also the Rally step to the right.

Worked on Stand for Exam borrowing the one man in the room to go over her.  She managed to get through it with only some ear flicks and lifted paws.  I decided to leave it at that and gave her a break since she wanted it.

Did some straight head heeling down the hall working on attention and she was surprisingly perfect.



Sits and down were great.

Yoshi and Trek Herding
Yoshi with the ducks - he has gained confidence and is getting pushier and not listening well, so I kept him on leash and kept making him stop.  He's kind of getting it but on the fence he wasn't stopping.  When I got him out into the open he was better.

Trek was really funny.  I put her in the pen with the ducks and she was completely beside herself with excitement.  I walked her around on leash and she was pulling and not listening, so Linda put the ducks inside an expen and I had her race around and around back and forth over and over.  Flank, Away Flank Away.  Linda had me follow Trek around in order to try to teach Trek about balance, but I think she was just having a gleeful time racing around.  After a while she got tired enough to stop and sit and then keep working.  It was really fun to watch but I don't think she needs to trial much I think she just needs to race around outside of ducks.

Thu Feb 9
Tried doing some whistle training with Trek.
Complete disaster.
I would blow the whistle lightly and treat her and she wound up walking away while Yoshi was eating bread which is one of her favorite treats ever.  The later in the day she didn't want to even go outside, then later on she wouldn't hop into my lap at the computer.  This happened a couple times until I realize that she might have seen the herding whistle on the desk.  I moved the whistle and the next day she seemed to forget but I don't think I'm going to worry about getting her used to whistles.  She doesn't forgive that easily nor is it essential as whistles while at agility are much further away.

Wed Feb 8
Yoshi morning walk.  Two missed dog sightings as we were working on some heeling, but one was the Golden and the Dachshund and we saw them later crossing in front of us from a distance.

Trek noon walk.  Let her take a very casual, lots of sniffing walk.  No issue at all until we were within hearing distance of the Crossing Guard whistle then she stopped cold and wanted to go the other way.  With cajoling I got her closer and she even walked past someone cutting tile very noisily.  She was mostly not happy about the whistle which happened every so often.  With a lot of cheese I got her up to the corner and past it and once she was able to eat cheese at the corner I let her run away until 4 houses and she stopped and was able to eat more.

Marched her and Yoshi to the backyard and I got the herding whistle out and more cheese.  Let them pee for a moment then blew the whistle.  Yoshi came and was rewarded.  Trek crept up and was nicely rewarded.  Alternated between the two and Trek was mostly ok.  Then the crossing guard whistle sounded and she left (and we let her go) even while I rewarded Yoshi and kept saying "Good boy Yoshi." which always brings Trek running.

I think this means that the crossing guard whistle is getting a fear reaction too besides the initial it hurts my ears or that is scary.  It doesn't hurt at this distance as she usually doesn't react to it when she's standing in her own back yard.  With Trek things build up and take a bit to wear off.  Once she gets tired of teeter sounds she won't go on a contact obstacle at all, but after time has passed she will come back and do a jumpers course.  Turlock may be like this.  She has Standard, Snooker and Gamblers and later has a Master's jumpers course.  Jumpers is by far her best class and I hope she has recovered enough before then.

ODTC class Yoshi.  Lori was there with Sheltie puppy Trix and since Yoshi now likes Shelties in general I let him briefly greet her and it went very well.
He did quite well in class.  My goal is to see if he would be able to get his Rally Novice title and he was able to heel around with the other dogs without issue.  He was concerned about Patricia's younger dog Gimli, but she was only there for the sits and downs  When he would try to stare at Gimli I covered his eyes.  There were only 5 other dogs there which was perfect.  We did a lot of heeling and he did quite well though it takes effort for him to focus sometimes.  When they started to work on the broad jump we just went off into a corner and relaxed and watched.  When they started to work on recalls and dumbells I instead of making him do a recall had him do heeling on the other side of the room from where they were working and this worked well.  He still worries when a dog is close or making any noise and he and a couple others joined in one brief strange little outburst of not quite barking. 

All in all it was a good experience for him and should be repeated.  He would alternate between stressing and relaxing and one time I took him into the hall to give him a break, but another time he laid down and I rubbed his chest.

Tue Feb 7
After raining all night it stopped midday and we actually were able to have agility class.

Sharon's mantra:
   "Placement of the reward changes the behavior."

Here are the courses:


Lower Field Courses

On course 2 (squares) rear cross on the 1st set of poles, then turn right to do the second set, then front cross for the 3rd set - or you can  rear cross.  Trek had some trouble with the entrance to 18.  she had me put her in a sit, get a little ahead, right foot forward, release and step with my left foot towards the 2nd pole.

Sharon was emphasizing that you shouldn't have to shape the entries.

Then we did a drill just with the weave poles to work on all sides.  Started at 3 (person on the right) then to 18, then front cross and go down to the other end of 3, so that set and then over to 9.

Upper Field Course 1 (Orange cones).

Upper Field Course 2 (Blue cones).

After 10 you have to use your off hand (right in this case) threadle cue to pull the dog away from the tunnel and to the dog walk.

Poor doggy did a face plant right into 10 because it was shadowed.  Sharon said that some other dogs have done it also (though no one else at class did it.)  Trek didn't want to go up it so she had us do it the other direction.  After class I had her do the shadowed one and she seemed ok.

Upper Field Course 3

She let me to a nice lead out past 2.  Right arm up and then front cross to three.


Mon Feb 6
Trek morning dog walk.  Worked on some Rally stuff but the big thing is that she was able to go past the crossing guard and not freak out too much.  3 whistle blows and much cheese.  She still wanted to drag me home, but would pause to eat.

Yoshi noon dog walk.  Went over past the school and all the way down to Broadway and then down Buena Vista.  Actually didn't see any dogs mysteriously enough.  Worked on Rally especially circling left and he's getting better at it.  Dog out in her front yard started to bark at him and he just looked to me for a reward.  Good boy.

Sun Feb 5
Yoshi bike-run at Harbor Bay.


He did very well.  We rode from the restroom down Harbor Bay Parkway down to just past the Hampton Inn and turned around (1.4+ miles).  Mostly running on the grassy strip beside the bike path.  Didn't see any dogs during the run, but saw a couple later.  One he barked at (not seriously) and a larger one that was colored like a Border Collie that he didn't react at all to.  Afterwards I just let him walk around taking in the smells and relaxed some and I took the above photos.  Did some Rally work.  He still needs work heeling to the left but is improving.

Trek Point Isabel Walk.  She enjoyed the smells and didn't seem that intimidated by all the dogs and eventually seemed to have a nice time.  We met Pembroke Soup and a Cardi/CattleDogX named Widget.

Sat Feb 4
Trek walked downtown to buy treats and exchange her coat that was too large
Remarkably she didn't seem too freaked by the traffic.  It helped that it was a quiet day.  She wasn't thrilled by the noise but was willing to put up with it.





At corner of Park and Alameda.  A few months ago she wouldn't have gone anywhere near this.
As a reward she gets designer treats that we get at Dog Bone Alley.
Even retreating just a few feet down the alley reduces her stress level but there is still some puckering at the corners of her mouth which indicated stress.
This is the coat that we got for Trek that she'll likely wear next Tues in class.


Fri Feb 3
Yoshi herding Woodside
I've been getting concerned about our ability to handle the obstacles in AKC herding (as opposed to doing actual herding), so I asked to work on it some. 


He hadn't exercised beforehand so was pretty pushing and not listening.  I think I'm going to have to run him on the bike before he works.
But we did set up a Y Chute and we learned a lot as the ducks would go through the chute and then turn back to where they were released.  We worked on pulling Yoshi back into the center, but then the ducks would just turn around and go back up the chute.  The timing has to be just right and I struggled with it.




The idea is that doggy goes part way down the chute to get the ducks to go down it, but then pulls out in order to head them off before they can turn into the center, but doggy can't get too close or they'll turn right


Bought Trek a coat while we waited to go to dinner at Tomatina.  I have one I made for Cali but I was hoping to have a coat that actually fit Trek better.

Thu Feb 2
Yoshi noon dog walk
A dog on Central was barking at him pretty intensely from behind a fence and he was able to just look and look back for cheese.

Boston Terrier on Gibbons across the street.  Owner walking slowly on the phone.  Yoshi did great was able to look at the dog several times and look back back at me for cheese.  He really is improving.  We did some pretty intensive Rally work. on Central.

Trek evening dog walk.  Still a bit dark. in the evening but ok.

Wed Feb 1
Yoshi noon walk
It's now time for him to act more like a real dog and is now getting walked on hist regular rolled buckle collar with an ordinary 6' leash.
We were working on some Rally exercises. He's starting to get better about circling to the left but will need to do it more.  He's good at front and his right hand finish is improving.  As we were working Dog Ruby who lives on Court walked up so we crossed the street and walked 1/2 a house length down to let her walk by.  In times past this was too close but this time he was perfect.  Doing LAT and eating cheese.

Trek Oakland Training Club class
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In some ways, Trek's sound sensitivity turns her into more of a head case than Yoshi is. At Oakland DTC in class she's terrified of people touching the jumps because they have been dropped occasionally and make noise. Tonight Debra had some jump pieces on the ground just as a guide for Gauge. Trek couldn't take her eyes off of them. The jump pieces never moved or made noise, but she just stared and shook. I finally gave up trying to get her to focus on working, and just went and sat down to see if she could work through it but she never really did. I first held her putting pressure on her, I had tried her Thundershirt earlier, and then just let her sit on the ground and pant and shake. AND I had given her a Xanax before class. Poor dog, I want to help her through this but I'm running out of ideas. Last week we didn't get the jumps out and she was fine (with a Xanax.) I can't decide if class helps her or not. There are some things like sits and down and figure 8s that I can't teach her at home.

Maybe I should just cover her eyes when the jumps are being moved but they weren't being moved for minutes.

When the jumps weren't being touch she did ok.  Her dumbbell retrieve was all right, but her front with it needs work.  Hazel thinks we should work on finishes separately from the retrieve which works for me.

Her long sit and long down was fine though she didn't want to move into the hall space so I just had her do it over on the bench side.  She's less worried about Samantha Hazel's Saint Bernard and during a pause in class I went over to say hello to her and pet her belly and Trek came over with me though keeping behind me.



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2012
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2011
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2010

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2009
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2008
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2007
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2006
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2005
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2004
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