Sun Jul 31
Drove back from Southern Calif. Also stopped to take a look at
a Best Western (Best Western Valencia) in the area. They
clearly take dogs because they have poop bags posted in
places. It looks very nice and I like that there are separate
entrances to the room (more motel-like), rather than having to go
inside though that would have been ok. Nicer grounds too,
though food is still a bit further away and it's right beside Magic
Mountain would could affect availability and price.
Rest of the trip was long, but went smoothly.
Sat Jul 30
Dogs went with us to my father's memorial celebration. Dad
really liked Trek when I brought her up to Issaquah, so I felt
obligated to bring her along and I needed her with me anyway as I
was going to be speaking and she is very reassuring to me.
Yoshi went along for the ride and was crated in a quiet room during
the speaking part but brought him out when everyone was eating and
socializing. Bev has a nice fenced yard in Torrance and they
got to race around and wrestle some. I had to reassure folks
their beating up on each other was play.
Yoshi may have been on good behavior as he didn't appear to sleep
the entire time going down. I-5 is pretty old in places so it
can vibrate the dogs a lot because the crates are right over the
rear axel.
We spent the night at La Quinta in Santa Clarita as that's one of
the hotels recommended for the Corgi herding trials in Silmar.
It's a nice hotel but the areas to walk the dogs are limited and
there wasn't a lot of food around that you could walk to save for
Outback Restaurant.
Fri Jul 29
Trek walk fine
Yoshi walk
One dog approaching us running with his person. They crossed
Central and kept running at us. We sat and watched, but
instead of feeding Yoshi, I just held the cheese until the dog
passed. Seems like a cheat, but most of his reactiveness is
when he's chewing the treat these days. When I hold the
cookie, he has his attention on me. Certainly worth doing more
of. The rest of the walk went well.
Thu Jul 28
Went over to the park and worked with Trek on Beginner Novice
skills. I can now sit her and say stay and walk around her
(either direction) and back to her and she'll watch me but doesn't
shift positions. I think she's ready.
Yoshi walk fine.
Wed Jul 27
Basic dog walks. I'm under the weather and crashed early.
Tue Jul 26
Yoshi noon walk - fine - he's offering heeling and doing well at it.
Trek agility class. She split it with Thyme the BC. The
only problem is that she doesn't get a lot of runs this way as she
only got 2 and Thyme got 2.5. It's tempting to pay a drop in
fee a couple of times to get them each more runs.
Oh dear Clicker Expo is going to be in Portland Jan 27-29,
2012.
http://clickertraining.com/clickerexpo/?loaditem=schedule. I
don't particularly have a driving need to go but it would be cool to
keep up with current knowledge, and I could bring Trek.
I've been watching Susan Garrett's Puppy Peaks, and I'm inspired to
get the dog's toy drive back so Yoshi and I went into the living
room for 5-10 minutes and brought out the frog that he use to love
to tug and the octopus. I never quite got him to tug, but
better yet is that I got him to take and hold the toy (could to 3
and reward). If he'll hold the toy he'll eventually tug and
honestly it's more useful for me to get him to take a toy and hold
it. Heck maybe I can get him to bring the toys back in that he
takes out. Right now I nag Trek to bring them in.
Did a similar session with Trek. She'll tug more, but always
has an eye on the treats and wants to quit easily but I can insist
that she at least pick the toy up.
Mon Jul 25
Trek walk. Worked a little on heel. She's still is
forging but is responding to my saying "yes" when she got into
position. She seems to be getting it.
Yoshi walk. 2 dogs walking together sort of. Each with
his own person. They crossed the street and we waited for them
to cross. Yoshi did mostly ok but barked and did one short
lunge though when he his the end of the short leash he immediately
redirected to me and was able to sit and focus on me and earn
treats. The rest of the walk was uneventful, save for saying
hello to one small child and her mom.
Sun Jul 24
Yoshi walk. One odd moment happened when I was chatting with
Renee and Annabelle. Frank (the owner) walked up and Yoshi
snarled at him. It was weird and I insisted that Yoshi greet
him nicely but now that i look at it it was pretty classic as we're
all in one space and this guy who Yoshi doesn't really know, just
walks right up. He's usually not people reactive but men
approaching in restricted spaces can set him off. I probably
should have backed Yoshi off and then let him approach. Frank
who has had some snotty dogs of his own is very much whatever but I
asked that Frank come back so we could work on it a little.
Not sure if it made any difference at all.
Did see one dog across the street but the dog was mostly hidden so
no reaction at all.
Trek walk. Did Broadway again. She's not happy about
walking past one place that has a reactive dog who surprises
her. Today she seemed more sensitive to the metal clanging a
the playground. It could be that it just hasn't been long
enough since we got back from Whitney. Though in general she
did ok with the traffic noise of Broadway.
Worked on her heeling and she's forging, but it was on the way
home. Though she does tend to forge because even though I
always reward her at my side the food is often in my right hand
which is a little forward. Need to do some where I'm just
pulling from my left pocket.
In the driveway did some sit stay and I walk around. This is
an exercise in Beginner Novice. She'll probably do ok in it,
but might shift some.
I need to catch up to Puppy Peaks. I only bought a month.
Fri Jul 22
Yoshi walk. Less treats this time
Once dog. Pull on the collar, he looks at me. Good
boy. He looks back. Leave it. Pull on the
leash. He looks at me. Good dog. I didn't give him
any treats until later.
Trek walk to Broadway and back.
Thu Jul 21
Yoshi walk 3 dogs and I'm having to beg some for his attention -
this is going to change
Trek walk fine.
Wed Jul 20
Picked up the dogs. Trek is telling me a sob story and roll
with it Yoshi is fine.
forgot to mention that they both eat a cheese stick a day for
training treats though I gave them plenty of other treats.
Both dogs lost weight though. Bad owner. Though it might have been
muscle.
Thu Jul 14
Dropped Trek off at Mark and Jan's
Dropped Yoshi off at Park Center
We headed south for Lone Pine
Gone till the 20th. I summited Mt Whitney on Sunday the 17th
ending a decade long obsession.
Wed Jul 13
Final walks before us leaving tomorrow.
Advantage arrived so they go that and the Interceptor.
Tue Jul 12
Did dog nails.
Advantage is on order from KV Vet and I hope it comes in before we
leave.
Been prepping for Mt. Whitney and dogs have been getting less
attention, but surprisingly they are very attentive, both coming
when I call and both asking to work (did a little on Monday.
Class for Trek. I explained to Sharon that Trek wanted to take
the summer off from competing in agility, so she let me run Thyme
some and says that if I want to compete with her I could. I
said I'd be very interested in that. So I ran one dog one run
and other other the next. Trek did well. I'm still
learning how to best work with Thyme but once we got going it would
mostly sort of work. Of course she's a larger dog and a border
collie so my timing is all off for now.
Watching Susan Garrett's free webinars - pretty basic, but it's nice
to see her lay the foundation out so nicely.
She mentioned that Swagger is a singleton puppy. No wonder he
was biting her a lot - he didn't get any lessons from littermates.
I do disagree that dog's don't understand Don't well. Dog's
give other dogs "Don't" all the time in particular Don't bite too
hard and Don't come any closer. It's a basic survival
skill. Don't piss off the lion or the rhino or the gator.
Sun Jul 10
Dog walks.
Sat Jul 9
Watching a Susan Garrett free webinar about maintaining the level of
training It's funning that she thinks dogs over 3 are
older. Maybe they are but I know of a lot of older agility
dogs who are still learning, but even more so it takes a long time
to train a herding dog. Yoshi is going to be 8 on the 28th and
we're still learning a lot.
She's reopening Puppy Peaks again July 12th. So far I've been
turning them down because of the sales tactics (artificial deadlines
and slightly high pressure), but it is tempting to see what she does
to raise Swagger and how she helps her other dogs deal with him.
Fri Jul 8
Yoshi herding ducks
We're getting it - mostly me. The biggest thing is keeping him
outside the ducks and not allowing him to be in between me and the
ducks.
In particular he's learning that he can't be over the top with the
ducks and that they are delicate - I'm still having to scold him
about this sometimes.
Thu Jul 7
Entered Trek in the Watsonville trial.
Wed Jul 6
Trek walk, average but she was volunteering heeling very
nicely. Need to enter her in Watsonville soon.
Yoshi walk
One medium sizes fluffy dog across the street. Yoshi barked
but decided to let the roast beef in a tortilla that I had with me
win his attention. I'm currently experimenting with not
managing him quite as closely to see if he'll choose me/treats over
the other dog.
Met Kim and her son William when we got back. William was
riding his bike and Kim was on foot. Though when we approached
William was on his hands and knees and Yoshi was convinced he was a
strange animal and was barking at him pretty seriously. Y had
been eyeing them suspiciously from afar, so we hurried to catch up
so I could figure it out. Kim and I had a nice chat they have
just moved in just around the corner, and are getting to know the
neighborhood. Yoshi's response to William concerns me because
he was all grumbling "who-are-you?"business until we got to their
house and we had William put the bike down and Kim took his helmet
off (I was explaining Patricia McConnell's theory of dogs don't
understand removable body parts), and as soom as William was turned
into a small boy Yoshi was fine with him and licked his face and let
him pet his side. I also explained that while Yoshi was fine
with it that some dog's don't like how kids like to get their faces
close to dogs and that the most common place that kids are bitten is
on the face. It was nice that William was providing such great
examples.
Tue Jul 5
Yoshi walk - fine. No GL this time. No dogs either just
pulling off the sidewalk to sit and let people pass.
Trek class. It was really hot there and I was concerned that
Trek wasn't going to do anything, but I wet her down and she decided
to cope (hmmmm). Linda was teaching this time (Sharon is out
of town) and was very complementary to Trek and her great
weaves. She would sometimes film runs with her iPad which is a
great idea as you can then review it immediately. It's like as
it the TV suddenly could record also.
Mon Jul 4
Dog walks - don't remember details.
Fireworks where much worse this year. Poor Yoshi was panting
and stressed, Trek didn't care. I put Yoshi in a Thundershirt
but he was too hot so switched to a T-Shirt but he was still unhappy
so i took it off and crated him in the back and he then crashed.
Sun Jul 3
Some training in the yard with Yoshi. It was hot so no walks.
Got the clicker out and suddenly I had a fully engaged
Yosh-dude. Why haven't I been doing this before. I was
using a rolled tortilla with salmon and roast beef in it. Oh
Happy Dog. He would fetch an obedience article. Even
would hold it for a while. Did a jump some and then worked on
down on recall and regular recalls with stays. He did very
well.
Later he was barking and I had just seen Karen Overall talking about
using a Gentle Leader to control door barking. I dug his out
and he instantly settled down. He had already settled down
some when I leashed him but even more so with the GL. I think
the next couple of walks will be with it and also Cathy at the door
just to see if there's a difference. I notice that Susan
Garrett sometimes leaves one on a dog without a leash. I did
that tonight and it seemed to have a calming effect.
Interesting.
Trek Rally trials
I was thinking I could do both dogs at once but I think I'll work on
Trek and Rally Novice first then perhaps Yoshi Rally Novice while
working on a higher level for Trek.
Sat Jul 2
Trek Bay Team Agility Trial
Well.
First it started out ok with Master's Jumpers. She was nervous
about some noise but she got through the course cleanly but over
time (there was a wide turn that put us over time). I now need
to pay more attention about getting my front crosses in the right
place.
Then it heated up some and I had a sulking dog which resulted in
this hilarious stand off about not wanting to do the A-Frame (though
I did get her to do the teeter.)
As a result, she has earned the summer off since I can't arrange for
it to dump a bunch of rain any more for a while.
So she'll be doing Rally. Need to find her some trials in
August.
Fri Jul 1
Yoshi herding. Ducks first then some ground work then
sheep. He's improving with the Ducks but he still really needs
a better stop. He has a good stop with a long line on or in my
backyard, but when there's stock around it degrades and even this
ground work video shows that he isn't that great - he had just
worked ducks so he's still a little jazzed.
This was only his 3rd time on Ducks so he did pretty well
considering. Then I chose for us to do sheep as I wanted to
work on the same stopping issues without worrying about stepping on
a duck. Moments of brilliance. Moments of chasing.
Moments of my yelling at him. The usual.
