Yoshi & Trek Training Diary

Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - June 2012

By Ellen Clary (Copyright 2004-2012)
(reverse date order)
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Sat Jun 30
Walked both dogs at once:

Facebook post
Walking both dogs is fortunately getting less high comedy these days. They don't get much training that way, but sometimes I have to do it out of timing necessity. Yoshi actually did see a couple of dogs and did not lose his mind defending us. He was how he usually is when he sees a dog. I'm less maneuverable which is a disadvantage, but we can cope ok which is nice.

He saw one dog on the other side of Central while I was picking up poop. He barked several times but I go a hold of him and he quieted down. He also saw one on Gibbons but I was prepared and we stopped and backed up a little and seeing how the dog was moving slowly we then walked on by and Yoshi was perfect.

Fri Jun 29
Both dogs duck herding. they have both improved and they are both not ready so we're going to do the best we can next week. On Wednesday I'll take them to Vacaville to practice. Both dogs had trouble getting the dogs off the fence as they don't know how to jam themselves up against the fence to get the ducks to move off of it. Trek is better about stopping which sometimes can give me time to lure the ducks off the fence.

Linda and I talked about what to do if the ducks don't come off the fence. She said that while it was points off you can take the dogs down the fence essentially doing the course backwards until you get past the cone and then back off and the draw should pull the ducks off the fence. then the project is to get the ducks turned and going through the Y chute. Yoshi can do this but I don't know about Trek. Of course Trek will be easier to call off so it will balance out and will be really interesting to compare the two of them.

Thu Jun 28
Yoshi morning walk. Mostly letting him sniff, but on Central we say a runner and his Aussie approaching from a side street. Cool. I stopped about 1/2 a house width to the street and let Yoshi see them - they are not approaching directly, but they are running. i have tension on the leash. He barked once and we turned around and walked away about another house width and I praised him and fed him a treat and he relaxed. By the time we had turned back around they had gone by. If we had the room to do this type of thing I could take him anywhere.

Wed Jun 27
I have something I want to try for herding on Friday. Though this is the last training session until the trial. I've decided to not practice at Vacaville the week before because I don't want to do the hour drive at night if I don't have to and Yoshi is a perma-Novice Started dog anyway. It's all just expensive practice sessions actually.

Cindy was suggesting with the ducks in the expen get the outrun distance correct, then open the front size and have the dog practice walking up which is a nice fetch practice. Her ducks don't fetch naturally (neither do the Vacaville Runner Ducks, though Linda's usually do although for my dogs these days they just go to the fence which can make the initial fetch down the center a challenge.

Yoshi noon walk. He saw two dogs both medium sized and this time I kept significant tension on the leash and he was golden both times.

Facebook post:

Don't believe everything you read or hear about tight leashes being bad when you're walking your dog. Some dogs like my nervous boy Yoshi find it reassuring. All that stuff you hear about telegraphing your nervousness down the leash? Well it's taken me a few years to realize that you can telegraph confidence and reassurance just as easily. I been experimenting with this for months and it consistently works with Yoshi. Tension on the leash tells him that I'm there and with him and in control of the situation.

Trek walk. She's ready to start competing in Novice Obedience again, save for some more stay training. For several times I have been practicing not speaking to her that much and she's doing pretty well with it. I do sometimes signal with my left hand and I'll have to watch that in the ring. I need to find a show for her as I'd like her to go into Nationals needing one Q to get her CD (like Yoshi needs one Q for his Rally Novice.)

Tue Jun 26
Trek agility class.
She's still willing to do the teeter on the lower field even though it's back against a wall. In between runs I put her in the car so she didn't have to be around the banging though only one run had a teeter. In general she wasn't very fast today yet she was responsive to what I asked for.

	Green Course Bit of a hustle to get from jump 11 to broad jump 12 then down the field have to cross all the way back over again.
	Orange Course jump 7 bending back around to jump 8 was a challenge and then you had to turn to the fence but then pull back to DW 9. But you're not done as you have to beat feet down the DW to make some sort of pull back to jump 10 (I think I RC'd it.) and then back to the tunnel and back around again. Very challenging but a lot of fun.
	Blue Course Mostly just a whole lot of running, but then right at the end after the DW you have to pull to the far end of the tunnel.

Mon Jun 25
Trek morning walk - mostly a sniff walk, some Rally work but not much.

Yoshi evening walk. Saw two dogs. One I didn't see ahead of time - a lab across Court. Yoshi started to bark and I bent down and quietly, firmly said Stop. He did but it was probably because of the cheese that I just happened to having in my hand when I bent down. Also later saw a yellow lab and he was perfect. We heeled right by the dog.

Sun Jun 24
Yoshi Deep Peninsula DTC AKC Rally trial in Hayward Judge Larry Andrus.
The stars aligned, he got a 98/100. No ring drama, Jennifer ran some interference for us and asked someone with a dog to wait till we had finished in the ring. I was concerned earlier in the day as we were off to the side and Yoshi started barking at something mysterious in the building we were standing beside. What's weird is he wouldn't stop barking until we were way, way far off - all the way across the field. He then settled down and I thought we were ok, but then the Collie ahead of us started barking at the exact same place and I was trying not to be concerned. Fortunately my concern was unfounded as he was able to focus and work.

Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdy-RFHbw0k&feature=youtu.be

Ironically we tied with a Malamute and there was a timer malfunction on our run. I was given the option of rerunning for a new time and score and I chose to keep the 98, because I knew that the Malamute was faster as I tend to run slower and more carefully and not many would risk giving up a 98 anyway.

This is his second Q and I think he's not going to do any more AKC Rally until the Pembroke Nationals in Portland. While he obviously does great work when he can focus, he was barking at passing dogs even though his crate was completely covered. So while he can do it I don't think either of us had that good of time. I like it because I can show the world that he is able to do it, but it's somewhat stressful to him and kind of a pain for me.

And yet if I back off from the other dogs around 50' then he seems happy and offers work for cheese, but he's happiest in the herding environment.

Sat Jun 23
Both dogs walked without much incident. Yoshi is a ready as he is going to get for tomorrow. Trek was offering some very nice heeling work and I no longer have to talk to her that much.

Fri Jun 22
Herding ducks both dogs.
Did more of what I was working on last week of turning the ducks by stepping in front on the dog and sending them out to the other side (see last week's diagram). It worked very well through I don't know how I'm going to get the ducks off the fence. They did a couple of times with Trek but I'm still not fast enough to keep the dog in position to keep them from going right back.

At the start of each session I put the ducks in an Xpen and sent each dog around on Flanks and Aways. They both did well. Sometimes I would have doggy down when there were on the other side, but that's probably not going to be that necessary except in penning.

Speaking of penning Trek managed to pen the ducks in a free standing pen almost all by herself. When we got done those watching were asking if she also was entered at Vacaville. I said yes and they said good because she's looking very nice.

Thu Jun 21
Trek noon walk - very short as I had to get back to work. We actually walked past the Labradoodle who was in his front yard barking excitedly. He's friendly but a goof. Trek wasn't thrilled but coped.

Evening Yoshi walk. Went a bit longer this time. No dogs, but did a fair bit of work. It was brisk so he was way distracted. I have no idea how Sunday Rally at Hayward is going to go. He'll probably be fine. It's a nice small trial.

Wed Jun 20
Yoshi morning walk
Wanted to work so we worked on 1 step sit, 2 steps sit, then 3 steps. His front vary from perfect to crooked. He still gets distracted sometimes on the left finish. Worked a little on "out" and "out flank" which he doesn't completely get. If I send him to the end of the leash and tell him to stop, if i then say sit he'll down which is herding is ok. If I then signal and say sit then he sits.

On Central small dog approaching. It's a Silky Terrier I think. We crossed Central which is a wide street and sat and watched the dog pass by. The dog is paying no attention to us. Yoshi is alert and excited making very small sounds in his throat, but every time I tighten the leash he looks to me for cheese and I give it to him. Eventually he stops looking at the dog at all and I don't have to keep tightening the leash. Good boy.

Tue Jun 19
Yoshi noon walk
2 dog encounters. One highly successful, one very much not so.
All small dogs, both situations on Gibbons. 2 small dogs turned the corner and started approaching. We U-turned with Yoshi looking over his shoulder but came along tine. Then we turned down Johnson went just under a house length and successfully watched them cross the street behind us.

Then we tried to go back down Gibbons and another small dog did the exact same thing. This time we crossed Gibbons and waited for the dog to pass. It was going ok but I think the other dog made some rude gesture and Yoshi suddenly lunged screaming. I grabbed him hard and he cried and thrashed and i held on to him mostly calmly telling "Quiet, that's enough." He finally settled down and I notice the other dog is still across the street but further down still looking a little challengingly at us. I'm not entirely sure what was different besides the attitude of the other dog. The distance was about the same and the latter one had a street between us and the first one didn't. The first dogs didn't even notice us.

Trek agility class.

Sharon thinks that if we miss and obstacle to just keep going and wind back around rather than correct as Trek thinks it's her doing something wrong rather than my mishandling it. I think that's a good idea save for the weave pole entrances as that I feel obligated to fix (she missed the entrance a couple of times on the lower field.

	Lower Field The Teeter was in the center of the lower field (so it wasn't echoing off of anything like a wall or a bush) and she was able to tolerate it well enough and she was able to be around it some and do it in class. I had her do it before class too. This was divided into 1-11 and 11-21. On the serpentine to tunnel 7 we went right by it as it's really easy to miss. I have to rotate my shoulders more, and then she did the 9 teeter without any issue at all. Hooray. Several of us had trouble with 12 to tunnel 13. Most successful was a FC after jump 12. Again no issue on teeter 15, we did have some trouble with hitting the weave pole entrance - I had to kick her out a little more to get it to work. The rest of the course was fine. No freaky Trek tonight. It was a nice change.
	Upper Field Orange there was a lot of running here but it was much fun and had some critical handling areas. 4 required a pull-through and a dog on the right run through 5 and 6 and then back around to tunnel 7. After the A-Fram we may have taken the wrong jump due to a mistake of mine but we just swung roung again and did 12 to 13 and I was surprised that she pushed out wide enough for me to do a landing side cross after 14, then send over 15 turning left and then pulling over to the dogwalk (no discrimination issue) and then out
	Upper Field Blue The opening on this one was a little odd with its traversing of the course but it worked. I was able to send her over 7 and do a FC in front of 8 and kept her on my right through 14. I don't remember what I did for 15 to 16 it implies a rear cross but I'm not sure. the turn to the dogwalk worked great.

Mon Jun 18
Yoshi morning walk. went smoothly and he wasn't as worried about his surroundings when doing Finishes. He has a Stand and I don't remember working that much on it with him save for herding. His back up is a little rocky right now but I'm not sure I care.

Trek Noon walk. Her Stand we have been working on and it's looking very nice and I feel it's mostly reliable especially the moving Stand. The one from a sit if i sink my hand down too far she thinks I want a down and if I don't go far enough down she'll just sit but if I get it right she does too.
Her heeling without me talking to her much is starting to look very nice (been doing a fair amount of it), so when we're in the Rally ring i have to stop babbling so much and it will make the transition to obedience easier.

Just heard that the next APDT Trial is Aug 11th which is the day that Terri (and maybe me) come back from the Sierra's, so I said thank you but declined.

Trek is now ready to go back to Beginner Novice (skipping it was a bad idea), but this next trial on the Sunday the 24th in Hayward is for Yoshi only since life is much easier if I'm just working with him.

Sun Jun 17
Trek walk. Talking to her less when doing heeling and she appears to be coping with it fine in the low stress world of our walks. Her stands are doing very nicely also.

Sat Jun 16
Yoshi Bike-Run
At Bay Farm it was warm so he got tired. Best part was that a reactive Malenois was barking at him and we crossed the (big wide Harbor Bay Parkway) street and went down the other side without incident twice. Good boy.

Trek obedience work in the park. She did very well. Did some figure 8's around a lightpole and a tree. Spent some time working on the turn where she is on the outside and she's usually lagging (or even on the wrong side if something outside the ring spooks her.) No lagging at all this time I had a bouncy happy dog right there with me. Then we worked on recalls and she was nailing them from the start, then I kept going and she was in front of my leg, worked on that and she was right in front of me again without me using extra signals or body language.

Woked on Stand. In motion is working at long as I keep it simple. Just right fist Stop and then Stay.
From a sit I use right fist lowered in front of her nose and then open my hand I say Stand.

Then did Stays. A 2 minute Sit was fine. I praised and petted her and then went right to a Down so she doesn't expect a treat then. 1 minute into the down she stood up. "No Trek Down." (I add a hand signal.) "Oops sorry" lays back down. Despite a bird bouncing around behind her she got through the full 3 minutes and she was richly rewarded for it.

Fri Jun 15
Trek Ob Class with Lori
This was her first time in Open class (herding was scheduled later in the day so I could go to the open class).
She did pretty well in heeling was not her usual freaky girl except for one area near the door but she mostly coped with that ok Lori adding Rally stuff in helped her focus. then we did figure 8's and she's not lagging as much (she's usually terrible at them in this setting.) Lori then went over a drop on recall exercise where the target is slightly behind the dog. Dog is sitting you are in front, down the dog and they send them back for the treat. Then she introduced an intro to signalling exercise where the target is a little off to the side of the dog's rib cage. Dog is standing and we signaled down - with Trek i still have to add "Down" then release to the target. Then we did Down and then Sit and release.

Did a dumbbell retrieve which she did nicely and also a recall which was fine but I do need to stop with all the body language.

Then they set up for a jump exercise and I took her out of the room since she doesn't like the booming of the jumps being set up and then carried her back in just to watch. she just laid down beside me and I kept a hand on her side.

Both dogs herding ducks
Yoshi's first run was just completely frustrating as he kept putting too much pressure on them and they would just take off down the fence.
I finally put him in a sit and would go get the ducks. It was hard for him to stay put while the ducks were coming right at him. The idea was for me to get the ducks off the fence and then release him. His stay is a lot better than in was but it's not that good.

Trek's run was much better since she listens more, but even she was going too fast and I would have to stop her from time to time. Especially because the ducks would jam themselves in a corner and I would have to get them out myself and she kept wanting to help.

We put Yoshi in for another run and this time we just worked on my changing the direction of the ducks by cutting in and sending him out the other direction. This worked surprisingly well. Here's a diagram D means Duck.

Thu Jun 14
Noon Trek walk. Her Stand are now pretty much rockin' I do have to move my fist to the front of her nose but I think that's ok. Stop-Stay is working very well. Rest of the walk was mostly sniffy with some heeling here and there. I don't have to talk to her nearly as much.

Evening Yoshi walk. went over to the Park to do some more specific training and to look for dogs. First just let him mostly sniff around, then did some basic heeling and fronts and finishes. He was still a swivel head but improved with the application of cheese. Then we walked down the middle of the park and when we go to the back 2 pairs of dogs were approaching. 2 sets of Scotties, one Cairn Terrrier and a slightly larger golden colored dog. I went over to the small parking area in the back so they would be approaching us but we'd be behind a fence. Sure enough as they approached Yoshi started barking, we backed off some but he still was barking though not seriously.

After they passed we then followed them the rest of the way to the front of the park which worked out pretty nicely.

Wed Jun 13
Noon: Had both dogs out in the yard doing go around a cone herding work. I had added some black 5-gal flower pots, but it took a while for them to see them as another cone. I probably should just get some more cones (2-3). Trek understands Out Flank and Out Away although I can probably just use Away and it would be less confusing. Yoshi is getting it too though he's not as far along.

Evening Yoshi walk. The more calm I am, the calmer he is. Yelling at him just seems to ratchet him up. We stopped and watched Mark and Corgi Shelby walk by and he did very well. Maybe this weekend I can take him over to Bay Farm for more looking at leashed dogs on walks. I don't know if it's easier for him to be working or just relaxing and eating cheese. I suspect the later, so we'll start with that.

Tue Jun 12
Trek agility class. It was breezy and she had a great time and we worked very well together. I loved all of the courses.

	Orange Course I can't remember if I managed to get in that FC after the A-Frame - it was optional.
	Blue Course You really had to hustle after the DW but I am usually as fast as Trek (it's really fun when I'm not) and we really moved well through this part. I liked the serp at the end but I always like serps.
	Green Course We were really sync'ed on this course and the timing was great.

Mon Jun 11
Trek Noon Walk She's offering some nice Rally work even after a long break. Her stand from a sit is working as long as my hand/fist goes all the way down in front of her nose. If I don't bring it all the way down to her nose, then she sits again. But she consistently stands now from a sit if I signal it.

Did a stop stand and that's working great. Heeling and then I asked her to Stop Stay and she stopped standing and I could continue walking.

Her heeling is looking good too. I'm practicing not talking to her as much and doing less whacky heeling and she seems to be getting it though things are nice and calm unlike an actual trial.

Yoshi Evening Walk
He's also doing good heeling work though he he mostly wanted to walk and sniff. His fronts and pretty good but his finish lefts and rights he gets distracted looking out behind me. This won't happen at the APDT trials but easily could in the upcoming AKC trial in July at Hayward (Deep Penn DTC).

Over on Gibbons we say a Labrador on Santa Clara across the street. Yoshi barked once and I pulled him back steadily and we turned around and he calmed down. This always surprises me but it's nice to see.

Rest of the Week
[I was off to Mt Shasta this week.]

Mon Jun 4
Yoshi evening walk - pretty straightforward

Trek fetch in yard.

Sun Jun 3
I am the weak link dept. Both dogs did well at the APDT rally trial today, but today especially they both were near perfect, but I did some of the exercises like you would do them in AKC and there was a difference that I didn't know about.
Apparently in "call to heel" bonus exercise, you're not supposed to look at the dog. I won't take that risk with Yoshi anyway (it was stressful enough with me looking at him), but Trek could have done it. What you do is the dog sits at your side. You tell them to wait and go to the next sign and then call them to again sit beside you. Part of the way through he paused f ro a heart pausing moment and then continued on to me with me talking to him.

I also NQ'd Trek because I pulled up on her belly some in a Stand and you're not allowed to do that.

But there were no other deductions today on the scoresheet.

Yoshi definitely should stay at level 1 and it's good for Trek too as what she needs is mileage and on or off leash doesn't matter as much as what she needs is heeling work and it doesn't have to be very fancy since the obedience heeling is very basic.

Sat Jun 2
Both dogs at APDT.
Yoshi was one of the first dogs in the ring so he didn't have a lot of time to settle and I think it made a difference. Though the biggest deduction was that he had just enough time to sit and it was a forward and not a finish. I should have repeated it (3 points off), but thought I had him moving in time. Nope. So he got 5 points off for adding a sit (in AKC it would have been an IP which is 10 points off.) At the end, the on-deck dog lept into a chair making a fair bit of noise which completely distracted Yoshi. I got his attention back and we completed the exercise anyway. It turned out that the judge noted the distraction and gave us 9 of the 10 points. He also has a 1 point crooked sit on one of the 1-2-3 sit exercises and paused before going into a halt-sit-stand which got him a 1 point lag ding.


Scoresheet (click for larger)	Scoresheet Top	Scoresheet Total

Trek did pretty well on her run save for a moment where she decided she just had to sniff the wall. That got her a ding for the sniff and another for the tight leash. Since we weren't in the middle of doing anything specific that wasn't a second command deduction, so she got a 208/210 which put her in a 3-day tie for second and at level A (where all dogs have to start) that means a run-off (Level B uses time). The run-off is the first 6 obstacles and we completely bolluxed it up. I had put drops in her eye but she still started rubbing at it twice and I gave her a second command, so she got 4th place which given that this is all about mileage for her that's completely fine.


Scoresheet	Scoresheet Closeup	Scoresheet Total The lag and second command deductions are from the run-off.

Fri Jun 1
Yoshi Walk - Saw three dogs
Nearly ran into a black Tibetan Terrier as we approached a corner. We became a walking BAT example as we immediately u-turned and calmly walked away. Good boy. Of course I could just let this opportunity go by so we crossed the street and walked by them as they approached. Yoshi did less well here and was barking though I quickly got his attention.

Then we stopped to let a Dachshund walk by on Central and then later we dashed down a side street avoiding a larger dog and nearly ran into the TT again, but Yoshi didn't react. I don't know if he saw the TT or not.

Dogs duck herding.
Trek did very well though really wanted to herd them herself too.
Yoshi actually listened to me and did ok too. We still have trouble getting him to stop so they'll come off the fence.
Spent quite a bit of time with handling them when they come off the fence. If I want to keep them from U-turning I have to move out to the center and immediately switch him to an Away. He's actually not as fast getting out and around stock but it's better than when he would charge into the middle of them.