Yoshi & Trek Training Diary

Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - January 2012

By Ellen Clary (Copyright 2004-2011)
(reverse date order)
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Tue Jan 31
Yoshi walk. Did a fair bit of rally work. While he's a great heeler he gets easily distracted so if we're actually going to attempt to compete we're going to have to work on it more. I forget that he's not as used to my doing circle to the left while heeling and his concentration breaks though went he gets if back it's solid (unlike Trek's which waivers).

	Lower Field Courses. 9-10 was a leadout pivot, but the most challenging part was the weave pole entries. Each tunnel entrance was also tricky. 14 to 15 required an off hand treadle signal to pull her off of going over 13 again.
	Upper Field Course 1 #3 was a fun kind of a wrap to the outside. Our class got quite the lecture about 5-6-7 as several of us, me included, went way too far into the center instead of staying more to the outside. I bought the wrong end of #7 for my mistake. Her lead outs were ok today which is a nice change. She has a great stay unless a dog is making her nervous behind her which happens a lot in class but didn't tonight.
	Upper field course 2. I may have the #7 on the wrong side as I forgot to write it down. Trek charged off the dog walk and flew over some jump that wasn't #10. I was just happy to see her driving so hard on contact equipment so I didn't mind and we did it properly on a second try. Also ran by #3 first time - not the only dog to do that.

Mon Jan 30
Noon walked both dogs. There was a dog (maybe two) across the street from the house that Yoshi was upset about. I paused and we hid behind my car which happened to be on the street. I didn't have food out and he was already unhappy so I just held his collar and talked to him and calmly touched him. He settled down, but possibly because the dogs moved further away. Rest of the walk was fine.

I'm now pretty confident that I can walk the dogs together without major incident but there's not a lot of training we can get done besides sitting at corners and trying to not have meltdowns around other dogs. Trek was an emotional destabilizer for Yoshi ("I'll defend you."), but now I think she's possibly a calming influence. Trek is less of a head case when he's around. She didn't blink at the crossing guard though no whistles.

Sun Jan 29
Yoshi bike-run at Washington park
It went well. We rode around off and on for an hour of so.
Some of our resident Canadian geese were there so we took time to carefully walk up to them and going "Slow" and then "Stop" or "Sit." He did it all very well, but these Geese are wild and not cranky like the L.A. Geese.that will be at the April Corgi trial. I can't decide whether he would be successful there. I talked to EllenG about it and she was saying that I really should find some to work even if it meant traveling a ways.

Looking around I see that Nola Jones has both geese and ducks. Her herding website is here: http://performancedogsinaction.com/herding.htm
I wrote them and asked about geese herding.

But he was tired and we were able to go to the dog park parking lot and play Look At That and he got to eat cheese every time he was able to look at a dog and not freak out. Earlier on when we biked past the dog park he was more his usually bark at that dog sort of thing, but having him tired makes a difference:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2886127704957&set=a.1120490245124.2018870.1013097814&type=3&theater

Trek hike
Went back to Chabot, but this time we left from the Parkridge Trailhead and just hiked along MacDonald trail for about 1.5 miles and then turned back.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2886010822035.2136634.1013097814&type=3&l=9aaf614c61

Sat Jan 28
The tough went skiing. Dogs had a relaxing day

Fri Jan 27
Trek morning walk. She even got past the crossing guard who blew the whistle three times. She doesn't like it but she's no longer panicking and will eat cheese.

Yoshi noon walk. Lots of Rally work. No dogs. We were there at 11:30 so too early for parents and dogs to start appearing. Some kids said hello to Yoshi through the fence.
Used the noise but non-kid side of the school to work on Rally exercises. He's not quite used to 360 lefts and pivot left is new (though that's not a novice exercise). His right hand finish is ok but will need work.

I am looking all over for duck herding trials for him Not many at all which is annoying. Maybe we should keep working on sheep though I think he will be much happier with ducks. I have corgiherders talking about geese herding now.

Thu Jan 26
Noon, both dogs walked
Saw two dogs across the street and no problem.

Wed Jan 25
Yoshi noon walk
Went back over to the school. Saw three dogs, two twice. One dog was on the fence and not moving and Yoshi didn't even acknowledge the dog even though I had him look at it across the street twice. The other two were one large slow moving lab, and a small white dog. His behavior for both dogs was exactly the same. Across the street no issue. Being only a car width apart was too close and he reacted both times (I corrected him both times but it was clear that it was too much for him.)

Trek ODTC class. Barbara was subbing for Hazel

I gave her a Xanax before we drove over and it helped. She was better able to focus though someone corrected a dog not hard but the dog cried and Trek (who has never had a hard correction in her life) wanted to bolt from the room and I did take her out for a moment. Poor kid she ran into a mirror thinking it was the door.

Her heeling was still slightly rocky, but way, way better than it has been in times past and even had flashes of brilliance. She still worries about the metal door that rattles when it's windy though it was silent tonight. She did ok on the figure 8 exercise.

Recall was it's usual rock the house. She was on my case about my finish signal where I turn my waist. She had me do it with just my arm and not reaching back as much and Trek did it great

Lengthy obedience lectures that you don't mind hearing: "Your dog is better trained than you are giving yourself or your dog credit for."
- Stop overly helping your dog with extra signals once they know the exercise
- Stop stepping into her

Her point is that once you're pretty sure the dog knows the signal or command then if they don't do it after one signal then step in and guide them - don't add another command.
For example I signaled down and she didn't move until I also said down and Barbara would have, while maintaining the down signal, stepped in a put a hand on their collar to help them down.

She did a retrieve of a dumbbell very well. I had signaled and said Get It. Barbara had me do with with just the signal and just the cue. Trek got it correct both times which prompted the lecture. I was just thrilled to see her do the dumbbell exercise, so well as we haven't been working on it.

Tue Jan 24
Yoshi noon walk. When I was driving home from work I noticed that people had their dogs tied to the fence waiting for the kids to get out of school, so I grabbed Yoshi and some cheese and headed over. Right outside the door as I was tying my show he started barking at one of the dogs who had already left the school. I Just held him and talked to him as correcting him hard seems to get him more riled up and I wanted to get some work done with him calmer. He did calm down and we walked over. When we got there there were still two dogs on the fence, one medium-large and one wee dog. We were across the street watching them and eating treats when Annie a dog who lives across the street appeared behind us which Yoshi was not happy about, so we cleared off some and then we crossed the street. We are about 50' away from the other dogs on the same side of the street (Annie and Joann have gone on on the other side of the street and Yoshi didn't even pay any more attention to them.

I then asked him to do some Rally exercises. Heeling and sitting and downing. Basic stuff but with other dogs around it took effort on his part especially when the small dog started moving to a nearby parked car. It was perfect work for him and it's very close to the kind of focus he's going to need if I show him in Rally Novice.

Trek Agility Class
Kinda pokey but she sped up as the evening progressed.
The obstacle layout didn't change at all from last week but this time there were course cones set out.

	Lower Field: While she wasn't sending out well she did great on the weavepoles and I stayed out about the distance to the #1 jump stantion.
	Upper Field Course 1 - Surprisingly no issues on the tunnel/contact discrimination in either case. She miss 15 on the first try (blew by it heading off to the unnumbered jump) and Sharon said that a few dogs have been doing that.
	Upper Field Course 2 - What a fun course. A whole bunch of running. And this time Trek didn't charge off the field after 13, but actually checked in with me and was able to get 14 without an issue.

Mon Jan 23
Yoshi noon walk. Uneventful. Saw one dog moving away, but no reaction at all. Worked on backing up beside that hedge that we found a while back over off of Central at Mound or Grove.

Trek evening walk - there's finally just daylight to allow a dusk walk. I do carry a trekking pole in case we run into a raccoon but haven't seen any. Found a place to practice backing up along the chainlink fence by the school. It's usually too noisy there for her to focus, but it was nice today since it was early evening.

Trek living room training. Worked on Stand almost exclusively. I'm still trying to decide which signal is best but I need to decide very soon to avoid confusion. There's Susan Garrett's pop up and touch the hand one, and there's Lila's right hand one. There are lots of other left handed ones and there's just the word Stand. So far Lila's seems to be working the best though Trek likes to pop up and touch it so it's not really a kick back stand right now. I don't necessarily need a kick back stand it just looks nice. There's also just walk along at heel and say Stop and keep walking which might just work since she usually stays standing there anyway, but I don't know how to enforce that as I walk away so I first have to get it working.

While working on the word Stand (which she doesn't know) it was nice to see that she absolutely knows Sit and Down.

However I mean Stop as a casual stop moving forward and I like it that was so I don't want to change that.

Sun Jan 22
Rain day. Day off for everyone.

Getting some feedback about my Corgi Herders post. The geese are still testy if a dog pushes them, and leader goose even latched onto a friend's very experienced Corgi (who, thoroughly peeved, then chased the goose into the pen) but a dog that keeps their distance can succeed. However, if there's one thing that Yoshi is bad about its keeping his distance. The only possible thing in his favor is that we are in Started and I would be standing right there, but in general it's not looking good for being successful at the Southern California Corgi trial

Got out Cali's old ribbons. Wow, what a pile. I took a photo of them and asked Holly how I could get them to her. Though I am keeping the Nationals and that dern Super Q ribbon.

Sat Jan 21
It was muddy so I decided that we were just work ducks. He did really well with them.
Then because it really wasn't that muddy, we tried to switch to sheep and he was his usual idiot stress-head charging into the middle of them and creating basic mayhem.
Switched over to goats and he did well, but he's forever too close to them and that works well for goats and panics sheep.
Then right at the end Linda has us do a few minutes of ducks again and he was a wonder with them. He would generally listen and he read them very well and wasn't in a panic about controlling them.

Linda spent some time going over AKC herding handling with me and said that it's mostly obedience around stock actually (certainly feels that way.)
She talked about how the dog had to go along the fence behind the ducks but not to get too close or over run or they'll suddenly change direction.
She fashioned a long line that went through a small carabiner and went around his middle. The effect was that when I needed him to stop and if he wasn't stopping I could pull on that and it would tighten around his middle. That was nice as it wasn't yanking his neck which would pull him out of position.

Also instead of using Steady I'm just going to use Slow as that makes more sense to me and to him. It is another "o" sound (e.g. no, go) but still seems to be ok.

One bummer is that he won't get as tired, but I can now take him on the bike which is an excellent way to work him and the ducks are a lot of mental energy for him anyway.

Another bummer is that in a way it is giving up on Southern California Corgi herding trial, but the writing on the wall has been there for a while now. At least the Corgi National in Portland will have Ducks and not Geese.

Sent this question to Corgi Herders list:

So after years of arguing over Yoshi being an idiot over sheep, I've decided that the fates are telling us to switch to ducks (they have been for a while now.)

He is amazingly zen-like with them and now he seems to have warmed up to them and isn't intimidated. He listens way better when he's on them and doesn't seem to be forever stressing about controlling them like he is with sheep.

He's also really good with goats, but what makes a goat move makes a sheep run, so the skills don't translate well for us. And trial opportunities with goats are few in my area these days unfortunately after Pescadero shut down.

We had been training with the Southern California trial in mind, but now I'm not so sure because the fowl at that trial are opinionated geese and not ducks. I've seen these geese up close and personal a couple of years ago and I'm not sure if my dog is up to dealing with them (though in Started I would be standing there). If I could convince him it was a goat and to use the same strength it might work, but he's smaller than the geese and if one went after him, he might refuse to herd fowl at all. He's surprisingly sensitive, a goat gave him the hairy eye ball once and he wouldn't go near goats for months.

So what to do? Do we give up on S. Calif.?

Fri Jan 20
Since I am in town Trek and I sent on an adventure to Sonora in search or snow or rain. We found rain which was great and we had lunch with a friend of mine there named Jan. Jan found a dog friendly cafe in next door Columbia at a wonderful teahouse and we had a lovely time and then wandered around the town in the rain. Columbia is an old historic town that's been very well preserved.

Photos of Columbia, Calif are here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2822255148183.2135403.1013097814&type=3&l=3fc9ab8bd9

Thu Jan 19
I am not supposed to be here, but my flight was cancelled due to snow and ice in Seattle, so the dogs both got a walk at noon.
We did see a dog at a construction site at a house on Gibbons. The owner of the dog was on the phone and signaled OK. I pointed at Yoshi, shook my head and crossed the street. The dog was a very nice looking Aussie and not the typical Bully breed that you would see at a construction site. The owner seemed very confident in his dog which told me that the dog was not likely to cross the street.

When we got across I let Yoshi see the dog and he wasn't happy about it even though it's not typically a dog he has issues about, but the fact that the dog was off leash seemed to be a contributing factor. I told him to leave it and he did for long enough to eat a treat, but he was back to staring and growling (not barking, not lunging), I again told him to Leave It and after a full second of not getting a response I gave him a firm pop. Had to do it twice. He did sort of grudgingly refocus on me, but only halfway. Now I'm wondering if just pulling him away would have been just as effective or just putting a hand on him. Minor pain doesn't always help him refocus especially if there's something he's really worried about.

Trek USDAA title progress

Trek: Titles Earned

Title	Date Earned
Advanced Performance Jumper	04/30/2011
Starters Performance Snooker	08/30/2009
Starters Performance Gambler	08/29/2009
Starters Performance Jumper	04/10/2009

Other Qs
2- PI Std
2- PII Gam
1- PII Snok
1- Perf Speed Jumping

Wed Jan 18
Trek noon walk. After much discussion on Facebook with obedience friends I've decided to not worry about Trek looking at my face while heeling instead of at my left hand. it's slightly forged but if it's consistent then that's often ok and if she prefers it then that's fine. She did very well on her walk practicing heeling. We spent some time working on back up in heel position and while she could do it while against a hedge, she would rump out with out the barrier. Moving to being in front of her helped. Someone made a nice teaching backup video that I need to go over again.

She is getting Stand with a right hand signal. I'm still kneeling beside her with my hand on her tummy but it's progressing.

I had entered her in agility on Saturday Feb 11 at USDAA Vast in Turlock and in Rally for the next Saturday at Santa Clara KC at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds on Tully which is where we were last weekend. But yesterday decided that I wanted her in Novice Obedience as well on Sunday Feb 19. I was thinking that I wanted to wait will her heeling improved but she's 7 and I want to work on open for most of this year so I have to get her out of Novice (we are 0 for 2 so far). She can be in Rally Advanced forever so there's plenty of heeling practice there.

Tue Jan 17
Yoshi morning walk. Again no dogs. He was doing some very sweet heeling and was enjoying himself.

Noon. Worked a little bit on the dogs doing backyard stays.

Also worked briefly on Trek's roll-over and made a short video of it, but haven't put it on You Tube yet.

Trek agility class. Linda subbing for Sharon. Trek at first didn't want to come out of her crate, but did so and then did well. We were working on gamble distances on the lower field which was fun. We did 3 courses on the upper field and Linda is going to send me the course diagram so I can include it here. there were a couple of contact obstacle and immediate turn into the tunnel.
It was a fun class though she was pokey at time and other times flying (like over the dog walk). Regardless she was a joy to run and it's killing me to think of stopping competing with her in agility as she's so talented at it (I kept telling her this).

We're going to compete through the rainy season and then decide.
I sent off a Saturday entry for Vast USDAA in Turlock (Feb 11) and I sent off a Rally Advanced entry for Santa Clara the next Saturday (Feb 18).

The lower field we worked on distance by sending away to weave poles and a tunnel.
In particular we spent time doing weave poles and then pushing out to the two jumps behind the dotted line and then to the tunnel.
then we reversed it.

As long as I kept my arm up and pushing out she did great.

Courses - Upper Field

	Course 1 This is from scrawled note so I see a couple of possible issues. I don't remember the exact placement of the center jump. Both courses had a lot of contact to tunnel challenges. What worked the best was to tell Trek "Left Tunnel" while she was still on the contact obstacle.
	Course 2 This one was my favorite. After this one we did a short 3rd one that opened with a serpentine then into the tunnel and over the A-Frame and then back around the back over the dogwalk (I think) and the the tunnel and then over the jump and doing a pull through threadle to 2 on the way out.

Mon Jan 16
Yoshi morning walk uneventful, no dogs.

Trek noon walk. She was volunteering some very nice heeling.

Started a nice facebook conversation about why heads-up heeling anyway since it's not in the rules. Some say it's a way to make sure doggy is moving with you, others say it's just a style.

Sat-Sun Jan 14-15
Trek Obedience-Rally Trial

Sat
Q in Novice Rally 75
NQ in Novice Ob sat on Stand for Exam - male obedience judge and she immediately put her ears back and sat down.
Heeling was rocky but passing heeling off leash was great. Sits and Downs did well
Moved her up in Rally to Advanced even with her low score since she did well off leash in Novice Ob.

Sun
Q in Rally Advanced 74
Lots of points off in the heel off leash and I did one station wrong though I though I had done it right. but she moved too quickly and I didn't see it.
NQ in Novice Ob. Qing going into sits and downs but she got up just as I was returning and I hadn't made t back into heel position so it was an NQ. I was bummed but happy to see her able to mostly cope. She was way distracted on the off leash but was able to recover mostly.

Fri Jan 13
Yoshi morning walk. Change course slightly so we would see the Golden and the Chihuahua. This time I had him heel past them and then pause and I remembered to tell him Leave It. It worked he held it together. We then saw then later (our loops cross) and we crossed the street and I had him sit and watch them go by and he was successful at that too. Hooray.

I'm wanting him to get his Rally Novice titles, but he takes so much focus I'd rather just finish Trek's novice titles and then give her a break and work on him. But I might change my mind again because she really is ready for Rally Advanced.

No time for a noon walk, but the days are getting longer so Trek and I were able to squeeze in an evening walk though I carried a trekking pole in case we ran into a raccoon. Saw Mary Ellen who was leaving in her car and we chatted for a bit while puppy Max looked out their window. No raccoons encountered.

Thu Jan 12
Yoshi walk went smoothly. Need to find more dogs

Trek noon walk. We said hello to the crossing guard and I explained that she was afraid of the whistle and he was very sweet about it as he guided us across the street. Went over to the school and a row of children were coming back to class so we waited for them to pass. Trek did very well and then she crossed the street with the crossing guard again and did great when he saw us he said "No whistle."

Worked on sit stay in the back yard with both dogs What makes Yoshi do a swivel head merely gets an ear flick from Trek.

Wed Jan 11
Walked both dogs at lunch. Yoshi growled at the mail carrier. He stopped and I let Yoshi sniff him which usually fixes things but this time he jumped up growling. the carrier didn't see phased but I still apologized for my annoying dog.

Was all set to go to class at Oakland DTC, but decided at the last minute that I was just too tired.

Instead I gave Trek 1/2 a Xanax to see if that would help with her noise sensitivity. I actually had given it to her before I decided not to go. Didn't make any difference she was still running scared at the sound of any metal clang. I gave her the other have and waited an hour fully expecting her to be incapacitated. She didn't want to come out of her crate but I managed to cajole her. Once she realized this was a paying job she woke up.

While she did react to my knocking two butter knives together she would only go a few steps away them come back for a treat. This is the very same behavior as with the scary piano. Go a little ways away and then come back. Without the Xanax she'd go hide and wouldn't come back for a treat. So to some extent this fear reaction is learned. I took away most of the actual anxiety and she still reacted but was able to choose to do otherwise. Interesting. I think for a while now she is going to get a Xanax before going to Oakland DTC. I can't use it for competition, but I can to help her unlearn this fearfulness.

Tue Jan 10
Yoshi noon walk. Uneventful.

Trek agility class. At first she was shaking about the gate clanging, but was able to focus (I did put her T-Shirt on her which helped a little.)

The big news is that she started to have a really nice time. The teeter wasn't out today, but that's usually not too much of an issue at Sharon's.

The lower field went well even though I got behind once but it still worked out. I could do lateral weavepoles and layer a jump (see the diagram.). After her being such a freaky girl on at the Heart Dog Fun Match (See Jan 7 below), (even after having the Winter off), I was having a frank discussion with folks on Facebook on whether I should not have her do agility. On the drive over I decided that I wasn't ready to give up on her yet especially because the raining season (her favorite) hadn't even started yet. And then she goes and has fun at class. I think it's because I just like to show off her rockem sockem weavepoles. I suppose I could have her only do AKC Jumpers with Weaves, but there has to be more to life than that. My favorite course is USDAA Steeplechase, but she has to be in the right mood for it, but when she is she flies (no teeter, no table).

I enjoyed this course. I really had to hustle to get into position for the 5 tunnel and then around the A-Frame to 6 tunnel. No issue pushing out to the 10 tunnel which was a nice surprise. Some lead out issues but that happens a lot with her not wanting to stay. She skipped 2 the first time, but got it the second time.

The big issue here was from the dog walk to 12 I was running to catch up (she likes charging over this dogwalk) and she didn't like me crossing into her path for the cross behind. This usually isn't too much of an issue, but I don't think we've done something like this at speed. To make it work I had to back further off from her line which put me further behind. This is a dog who won't do dogwalks if she gets frightened. Guess it's all about what is familiar. Think I need to put her over a whole lot of equipment.

Mon Jan 9
Yoshi morning walk
Saw the Golden and the Chihuahua across the street and I had Yoshi sit to let them cross in front of us. He was fine until he wasn't fine. They were right in front of us and he lunged. I pulled up on the leash and just hung on until he relaxed which is like an old style Koeller correction. I hadn't had time to set anything else up and was kinda curious to see how he would do without my micromanaging things. I wonder if it would have made any difference if I had said Leave It. I had told him to sit and he knew the routine, but just couldn't quite cope with a small dog bouncing by in front of him. If there's one thing I really want to change it's this.

I'm tempted to take him back to the small dog park and eat treats outside of the fence, but the best place for him to be would be at an obedience match where the dogs are all well behaved and under control.

Trek noon walk
we practiced backing up using the bottom of a neighbor's wide staircase and later a hedge. Got past the crossing guard and after we were past we head his whistle about 3 houses away. she was able to stop and eat treats at that distance though her inclination was to run.

The Rally Left Pivot will take some more work. Wonder if I can use one of the herding wands as a training dowel though she usually thinks something bad is going to happen if a dowel like thing comes near. In the mean time if it comes up in Advanced we'll just have to risk the Incorrectly Performed deduction since the dog is supposed to be backing up some on the left pivot and Trek just shuffles instead.

Sun Jan 8
Yoshi got a bike-run at Washington Park. I need to remember to go earlier as the part was a little busy in the afternoon and we can cover a lot more ground earlier without too many encounters. This time we did see dogs. For the most part I just rode off to the side and sat and held him by his harness and talked quietly to him which seemed to help. I need to get a more comfortable harness or similar as the climbing sling is not that comfortable and I need a softer attachment rope too.

Trek walk. We went down Lincoln and since it was a Sunday we were able to wait for a break in the traffic and cross without having to go down to the signal at Buena Vista. We then went over to Webb and then over to Park St. and walked down Park till Santa Clara where she was all too happy to go down to get away from Park St.
She did very well considering how Park Street's relative noise level would cause her all sorts of stress.

Sat Jan 7

Sigh. Trek went to an agility fun match at Heart Dog today. She was great if she was the only dog making any teeter sounds (she was first dog and that first run was great.) But as soon as other dogs started to run and making teeter sounds she started to sulk and wouldn't run in the next-door jumpers ring. The next couple of runs with the teeter she'd do with a lot of convincing but she was not a happy camper. She wouldn't come out of her crate after a while and this is Jim W. sweet talking her out (she really likes guys over 50). This is after a winter off. Not quite sure what to do yet.

Regardless, I really enjoyed seeing the folks down at Heart Dog as it's all the way down in Ben Lomond, (almost all the way to Santa Cruz) so it is a trek.

The Bay Team party was a lot of fun tonight. It helped my melancholy mood.

Fri Jan 6
Trek morning walk.
A short one because I had to get to work but saw Mark and Corgi Shelby.

Yoshi herding with Trek as Tourist.
He did great. Linda set up three goats on some hay with an expen around them and we did the same thing as what we were working on last week though this time he got it a lot quicker.

Then we let him work the goats for a while, took a break and did it again. The second time I took them through the gate and also worked them in the other enclosure and then successfully penned then in a stall. He did so well I am very happy with him even if I was on his case to stay out more lateral. He would even stop around the goats without arguing nearly as much. It's like it too this exercise to get him to understand that I want him to Stop. He would even sit or down occasionally around the goats.

Him and other dogs. Some dogs that were staying at Elvies were charging the fence (Trish tells me that they did this to every dog). Yoshi started to get riled but I kneeled down and held his collar just talking to him. Basically telling him he's on the other side of a fence and he's fine - since he's usually an expert at recognizing when a dog can't get to him. Trish yelled at the barking dogs and Yoshi settled down though he still was unhappy about an LWFD that was also in that pen, but he coped. Then he was able to walk into the waiting area and walk past two other dogs (BCs) and Jake the Sammy was also able to walk by.

During herding he did charge the fence at a dog and I chased after him big time. I actually do hit him with my wand flag if I get to him before he comes back. He seems to know he's being an idiot, so I don't feel sorry for him at all, and funny how he manages to come back just before I get to him.

Still haven't heard back from Mission Bell. I'll try sending email again.

Trek is going to a Heart Dog agility fun match at Kathleen's Heart Dog Agility in Ben Lomond. She'll get to try out a different teeter.

Thu Jan 5
Noon - walked both dog which fortunately was uneventful.

Set up an expen in the backyard to practice herding commands - similar to what we were doing Dec 30 during our lesson. Yoshi is getting it and he really likes having treats tossed at him. I would send him out in one direction, have him stop and down and I'd toss a treat.

Wed Jan 4
Yoshi morning walk. Fine. It's nice to see him act kinda normal.

Trek noon walk. School is back in session, so the crossing guard is back. I had forgotten about it and was walking towards him then I realized that there was another person in front of us who was going to cross and that we were going to get the whistle. I stopped about 3 houses off and started feeding her cheese. She stiffened at the whistle, but kept on eating mostly. But getting her to go forward did take more cheese. Went through 1/2 a stick of string cheese to get her around the corner but she did it and wasn't sulkly or trying to run away.

Worked some on left and right 180s (instead of 360s) and trying to see what a left pivot would take. Backing up is what I need.

Tue Jan 3
Yoshi morning walk
He didn't react to someone carrying a while shopping bag coming right at him. He has in the past but this one he didn't even look at it. Probably because it was coming right at him and clearly wasn't a dog.

Lots of people out but only one dog, though a good experience.
Small Schnauzer across my street. they were in the process of walking up to chat to the crossing guard. Yoshi make a gutteral growl and instead of giving him a harsh correction (since that made things worse yesterday), I pulled him steadily and calmly said "Stop" (or similar) and told him not to worry about it. He shut up but kept watching some then broke off asking for treats though glancing over occasionally. No further reaction.

He is so all about ORDER. And don't move unless I give you permission. i wish I could convince him completely that he doesn't have to worry so much. Maybe I should pick him up more to get him closer to other dogs in a way that he doesn't feel he needs to control it.

Wonder what would happen if i took him over to Bay Farm and carried him on the bike path there or sat on a bench. I'm always so careful to keep a distance at one of the parks, but I need to find a way to work on that more. simply just training obedience at that park will help.

Trek Agility Class

Lower Field

Her lateral weaves went well though we did some as a warm up and they were far better and quicker than in class. Weaving towards the tunnel was a little rocky as I was pulling off a bit to send her into the left of the tunnel and during our warm up I just had her barrel into the right side of the tunnel.

There was some issue with her not wanting to be lateral of me to do the tunnel at 10 (it was the first obstacle of the sequence). I clearly need to work on more lateral starts.

Upper Field

The first course went fine but the second one was just hilarious. It was in the part that heads back to the start and the dogs just keep charging off the course. At 10 you're supposed to turn left and when I did, Trek just kept charging forward and did the teeter. I was so shocked that I gave her a treat for it. Then the second time we tried she got through 11 and the again started racing off to the off course 4 jump.

Then I got her into the tunnel and had trouble getting her to smoothly turn right. Trek knows left and right but not well in that context.

All in all it was a very silly course but it was fun to see her enjoying herself.

Mon Jan 2
Walked both dogs together. It's pretty cute as they vie for heel position.

Backed off a house length to let a Schnauzer pass by and it worked great. But Yoshi was uncomfortable about two dogs across Central. I kept correcting him for it but it probably wasn't the correct thing to do as it seemed to make him more tense. A steady pull and reward would have probably sufficed as the wasn't that amped up at the beginning. No outbursts in any case.

Sun Jan 1, 2012
Happy New Year.
Terri and I went hiking in Tahoe (it was supposed to be a snowshoe but sadly there is no snow.) Jan and Mark came by to visit and then later feed the puppies.