A Mish-Mash

I know... I haven't posted in over a week.  So here I am with a variety of tidbits.

Maxwell seems to be hitting the 'angst-y teenager' stage. He had started grumping at random dogs when he was crated, both at trials and in the club. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason, since he only growled at maybe 1 in 10 dogs. The only consistency has been growling at a little saluki puppy in the class after Sade's. Yesterday he went a step further.

I've started doing Control Unleashed exercises with him in class. I had him on his mat, getting treats for looking at the dogs running the course. One of the shelties (a super friendly dog) ran off-course to say hello to Maxwell. My little man surprised everyone by not only not wanting to play, but by force barking and giving a warning lunge! He did it a few times, in fact, since the sheltie kept trying to say hi. Chatting with some of my agility friends, we've decided that he has entered the snippy phase, where he will begin to establish his playmate preferences and own his personal space. So he should grow out of it in another few months. In the meantime, management and more training are in order.

The little guy had two amazing runs yesterday. The course was a large figure-eight, made up of five jumps and a tunnel on each end. I put him on the start line, and then practically ran him from the center jump! He was fast, focused, and accurate. All I had to do was tell him when to rear cross and when to stop! I was thrilled. On the next course (a variation of the figure-eight) he started to do his own thing and nearly went zooming. I got him back and settled, then tried again. We got less than half way, and off he went in huge circles around the room. He was in a flat-out sprint over jumps, through tunnels, breezing past me... I threw his squeaky toy to see if it would distract him. He grabbed it and kept running. Mrs. Trainer finally stopped him, I'm not sure how.

The decision is to give him frequent breaks. I'll probably take him outside a few times every class.

Sadie is now jumping 24 inches! She was running very cleanly at 22, and that isn't a valid AKC jump height, so we tried her at 24 yesterday. Her jumping is still clean, and she moves like she doesn't even notice the change. I think she needs to be left home on the Saturday morning runs, though. She just doesn't show the energy that I want. He runs were slow, methodical, and mostly accurate, but there was no joy from her. Well, except for the cheese at the end!

I'm also finding the transition between dogs a little tough. With Maxwell, I can be a quiet handler physically and verbally. His drive keeps him on task and happy. With Sadie, I need to stay closer, give lots more feedback, be extremely clear in my cues. After Maxwell's brilliant runs, I accidentally tried to cue Sadie into a tunnel from about 10 feet away. Needless to say, that didn't work with her as it had with him. I need to mentally change dogs and handling styles.

Another milestone - Maxwell spent all day Friday loose in the apartment. We had tried that at the end of last summer, and by the end of a week he had chewed the bottoms off our vertical blinds. Now that he's older, and getting runs most mornings, I decided to try again. Against the wishes of my boyfriend, but too bad! We got home to two wagging, happy dogs and no destruction. Not even a chewed kleenex I credit the 3.5 mile run that morning and the Bitter Yuck that was sprayed in each wastepaper basket. I think we'll keep this up, but only on long run mornings.

I'll leave you with a question. Who in their right mind, even the most hard-core old-school obedience trainer, thinks that it's acceptable to intentionally cause a dog real pain? I'm not talking about a little leash correction. I mean the kind of thing that has the trainer saying this: He needs to think his life is coming to an end. He needs to learn that every time he snaps he is in mortal danger. If you read the whole Q&A (first question on the page), it sure sounds like a young dog who was never taught bite inhibition, thinks that nipping running children is fun, and doesn't understand that his humans don't like it. Don't yank the dogs around - tell the kids to stop encouraging him! If the kids make it a game, they could teach the pup not to nip. In fact, Mrs. Trainer call this game "Go Wild, Now Freeze." It teaches the dog self-control.

Happy training, all!