Ice, Snow, and Dogs

The dogs loved the freak snowstorm we had this weekend. Maxwell quickly took to eating snow, and both dogs had fun rooting through the drifts for scents. I love how Maxwell's back becomes speckled with big flakes.

We were lucky: we lost internet Saturday night, but never lost power. My trainers were a bit less lucky, as they were at a trial an hour + away on Saturday. With all the trees down, plus the roads icing over rapidly, it took them over 3 hours to get home. I'm just glad they made it back safely.

They were also kind enough to call me the next morning with road updates. All the excellent dogs ran first, so they hit the road early. I had time to sleep in (8:45 on a trial day!), so the worst of the ice had melted by the time the dogs and I headed out. We made it to the trial site without a problem, and still too early!

T2B was first, dividing the trial into excellent and open/novice halves. My brain died about 1/4 through the course, and I actually ended up trying to call Sadie off the right obstacle! We recovered the course, if not my dignity, and had a super strong finish. Nailing the two serpentines almost makes up for the idiot handler. Check it out here. (Thanks to Mr. Trainer for filming)

Standard was fine, but not great. It took two tries to get through the weaves, with Sadie trying to jam her way into the equipment storage area (barricaded off from the ring by plastic gates). Then she did a fly-off instead of stopping on the table. We Q'ed with the fastest time by 8 seconds, but her two faults bumped her back to third place. Bummer.

Jumpers was a nice, flowing course. Sadie killed it, running 105 yards in 24.4 seconds. Not bad for a goofy Lab. She ran like a maniac, but in control at the same time. I barely felt like I had to guide her. The bad news? She must have nicked a bar with a hind toe. I heard it hit the floor, but didn't see her take it down. Eliminated, but faster than the other 24" dog by about 20 seconds. Ahem...

Sorry, no video of the last two runs.

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 Now, this person really knows how to train animals. I don't think my dogs are this good... And please, watch it all the way through. Definitely worth the time.

Lastly, a happy picture to end this Monday.

Teaser 3

You love to compete with your friends from class, but there are often multiple trials being held under different sanctioning bodies on the same day. It’s a pain to have to coordinate via email, but you’ll never remember to bring your calendar and stack of premiums to class. How can you easily organize trial schedules with your friends?

DogTrials.net

A Quick Update On Yesterday's Trial

We have video!

My camera was acting funny, so the T2B run is toast. Not that the run itself was much better!

Thanks to Mr. Trainer for capturing the Standard run for us.

Thanks to my NRHS friend for capturing the Jumpers run for us on her own camera. (Please ignore the incorrect dog name in the title)

Connection Made: Darby

Of all the random things, Sadie found Maxwell's sibling at the trial yesterday.

Ok, so she body-slammed someone in excitement while I tried to check her in for a run and hang on to two leashes. That person commented on Maxwell, and it came up that he's an ARPH dog. Once I mentioned his rescue name (Stitch), they mentioned Darby! And now I'm in contact with her owner! (Sorry for the wrong pronoun before...)

We're trying to set up a time to meet, and let the siblings say hello. Apparently she's already bigger than Maxwell, and only 7 months old! I can't wait to get a picture of them together.

I can see the family resemblance, too. They both have the lean bodies and long legs of a working line, and the same markings on their legs.

I can't wait!

Darby: Used with her owner's permission

Maxwell, of course

Trials, Ribbons, And Other Successes

I know that I'm really late on my update for last week's trial, and now I've gone and had another already! So without further ado, here's a very quick recap.

Sadie ran wonderfully last weekend. She got her first Novice B 24" Q in standard. Her JWW run was awesome, but she took down a bar or two. T2B was incredibly difficult, with a threadle, so she didn't Q but did me proud! We took home a 1st place ribbon for STD, and a very happy human: Sadie didn't react poorly to anyone, and even ignore a GSD that looked like he wanted to take a piece out of her! Maxwell allowed me to mess with the height wicket, which he is nervous about, and took treats with his head ducked under it.

Jumpers is here. Happy dog with a lead-out!

Standard is here. Nice weaves, not so nice A-frame...

T2B is here. More awesome weaves, and a threadle!


Today was an outdoors trial. It was a bit too much for Sadie at first, and she went completely bonkers during FAST. As in, we finished with all of 4 points, and went over time, so our score came down to -10. Standard ran very nicely, but she missed her dogwalk contact (and I think knocked a bar). But she ran with me, and I was very happy with it. Jumpers she was awesome: driving, focused, and reading the line. She said hello to the judge instead of weaving at first, but we ended clean and under time. Ego boost: three different people complimented by crosses in that run! I may have video to post, but my camera was acting up... I'll see what I can get.

Maxwell got to help a very shy Aussie socialize. She was in love with him by the time we parted ways, and he wanted to play with her so badly! It was nice to help a fellow dog-lover. Even better? The shy dog warmed up to me gradually, and deigned to allow chin and chest rubs. Yay!

Several agility friends from the club ran today as well. There were lots of beautiful runs, though not all were the Q's people hoped for. It's so much fun to watch Shelties, Italian greyhounds, Aussies, pitti-hounds, and all other manner of dogs running so happily with my friends. Truly a good day.

If You Don't Like This Video, You Have No Soul...

...And I don't know you.

Splash's Revenge

(I could totally teach my dogs to do all that. I just don't feel like it...)

Success

An agility friend and I were chatting the other day about training as we watched our classmates run. I mentioned how using this blog as a training journal has helped me focus on my real issues (and strengths), and how writing about things helps me think them through more thoroughly. She responded that reading my blog had made her think about some aspects of training differently than before.

And you know what? I'd say that makes my blog a success.

I know I don't have a huge following (yet!) and that the people who do read me regularly also see me every week. So to have someone tell me that I changed the way they think, even once, is incredibly reinforcing.

So to my friend: Thanks for the click/treat!

What's In A Name?

When I started this blog, Sadie and I had just started trialing. I had never competed with a dog before, and of course she had never titled. Thus the name 'Novice A' seemed rather appropriate.

I started Sadie in the preferred class, both because she was only jumping 20" at the time, and because neither of us was particularly confident yet. In the past few weeks she earned her NJP and then her NAP, with two legs towards her NFP. Today she ran her first trial at 24". That means starting over, but in Novice B.

It turns out that I will never, in fact, run a dog in Novice A. Since I've titled Sadie, even Maxwell will run in either preferred or B. Still, I feel that the name of this blog was (is) appropriate. New handler, new dog, new sport, new discoveries. Sadie and I have come a long, looong way as a team. From hyper-vigilant and reactive, to enthusiastic and focused, Sadie has become a different dog.

As they say, life is about the journey, and we're having quite a trip.

Missed Connection: Darby

A few days ago I received a comment from someone in CT who has a younger brother of Maxwell. Although she did leave her name, the comment was posted anonymously. That means I have no way of contacting her outside of this blog.

If you are Darby's owner, or know her, please email me at NoviceABlog@gmail.com. I'd love to swap Aussie tales!

Into The Wild

We spent Columbus Day weekend in the Adirondacks, enjoying perfect weather and beautiful foliage. The dogs were enthralled with myriad scents and were overjoyed to have room to run. It's bow-hunting season, so the pups had to wear reflective gear while loose. Sadie has a neon orange skid plate, which she wears on her back. (I couldn't find an actual vest) Maxwell borrowed an orange harness from an agility friend. That actually turned out to be perfect, as I much preferred him to wear his drag-line on the harness than on his collar.

Sadie has been good off-leash, even in the woods, for years. She had her zoomies, and definitely ran many times farther than we walked on each hike, but always checked in. Maxwell improves with every walk, but still takes off. It worries me when he gets beyond even hearing distance (of his tags jangling), but he always finds us again eventually. His energy levels are off the charts, and he must have gone several times the distance even Sadie ran.

Despite the cold lake, the pups went swimming to cool off each day. Even little Maxwell, who had to get a life jacket to learn, went far off shore after a toy. Without his life jacket. We humans were chicken, and just dipped our fingers in the water.

I had a great time playing with my camera. The dogs are my favorite subject, and they were happy to oblige. Here are some of my favorite shots!

That's one happy grin!

Standing tall on the dock

No dogs were harmed in the making of this photo

Too much vacation...?

Perfection

Note To Self: Rear Crosses Through Tire

Had a good class with Sadie tonight, but she clearly needs work on rear crosses through the tire jump. She did 360 spins on the landing side each time, rather than the smooth arc away from me I get over bar jumps. Good information for training sessions.

Drive | Control

Since there were no Saturday classes on the first, I rented the room for a couple of hours. The first hour and a half we had the place to ourselves, and a friend came with her two dogs for the final half hour.

I started with a simple jump grid. Maxwell has recently shown some reluctance to take spread jumps in a grid, running around just that last obstacle, so I included a double as the final jump. We practiced call-throughs, sends, and lateral sends. Sadie won’t allow as much distance on the lateral work, but was okay with sends to the Ready Treat (and food!). Maxwell patterned very quickly, and would let me send or call from nearly anywhere, even 10+ feet away laterally.

To increase the challenge, I introduced a turn between two of the jumps. I had set the line up with a 1 – 2 – 1 stride pattern, so the larger gap was a perfect place to pull the dog out of the sequence. Sadie quickly got the picture. So well, in fact, that I could wrap her around the second standard and back over the first jump from the other direction! Maxwell, on the other hand, charged right on through the line. Over. And Over. And Over. I learned to stop my forward motion next to the first jump and exaggerate the turn, clicking the instant he moved away from the line.

The other big skill we practiced was A-frame contacts. I got all high-tech, and even brought my video camera and tripod, so I could capture the contacts up close to re-watch. I find timing to be extremely difficult with Sadie's new running contacts, since I have to watch where she steps, click at the right time for the right contact point, and release the Ready Treat all in the space of about 0.01 seconds. Lots of late / bad clicks from me, I'm afraid. We're both learning! I do think she's getting more reliable, though. My goal is at least three feet landing in the bottom two thirds of the contact. I'd ask for all four, but she isn't great with understanding such discriminating criteria. Besides, I think we'll pass the test of "Don't make the judge think."

Maxwell will keep his stopping contacts for the foreseeable future. He's just too darned fast, and needs a checkpoint to keep him from picking his own course. With just the equipment he probably has a 95% reliable 2-on-2-off. To really proof it, I put the Ready Treat out maybe 15 feet from the landing side. My criteria was for him to stop and then either get a treat from my hand or be released to the machine. What actually happened was that he'd run right off the contact, paw at the treat box in frustration, and then allow himself to be called back onto his contact. He improved quickly, running half way before realizing I hadn't released the treats, then running just a few steps off and putting himself back on with no cue from me. I didn't want to fry (or hurt) him with too many repetitions, so I called it a success when he went mere inches past the contact, then felt blindly behind himself for the contact one rear foot at a time, stretching into the 2-on-2-off. One of the coolest things I've ever seen a dog do...

Lots of good work that day, but it definitely highlighted some major differences between the two dogs. Sadie has learned a fair amount of finesse and control. I can put her into tight places and call her right back out with barely an ear flick. Maxwell barrels on through regardless of my cues, but he does it with energy and joy. Maxwell needs to temper his drive. Sadie needs to relax her control.

Somewhere between them is the perfect agility dog.

Thank You!

I found this on my car today after volunteering, and did a double take. I love it! Thank you! You know who you are...

Real Life Applications

Please bear in mind that I wrote this offline nearly a week ago, but kept forgetting to send it to a blog-friendly computer to post.

Having done so much work with my dogs, especially in agility, I can certainly see where sports training and ‘real life’ intersect. We all want our dogs to pay attention to us. We want them to come when called, to be able to work near threshold arousal, and to stay with us on the move. But what about the other stuff?
It’s easy to think of the vast majority of agility training as exactly that: agility training. After all, how often do you need to have your dog walk across a 12-inch-wide surface safely and at speed? Or how about jumping through a hoop? Or wrapping around an object? Never? Thought so.

On our last trip to the Adirondacks, I had the thrill of seeing what happens when normal life and agility coincide. We were taking a hike in the woods, following an old logging road, and Sadie was off-leash. As usual, she was running ahead, then doubling back to make sure we were keeping up.

This road crosses a handful of small streams. The first crossing is an old wooden bridge, well worn but still sturdy. The second has been reduced to a trio of widely spaced rotting logs, the actual surface of the bridge being long-gone. To gain the far bank, Sadie had happily splashed through the creek, taking the opportunity to have a quick drink. She raced ahead, then dashed back to the far side of the crossing perhaps 8 feet away.

The humans in the group felt rain, and decided it was time to turn for home. Sadie started to follow, this time putting a paw on one of the logs. It moved. That log was rotted through, and probably wouldn’t hold her weight. Sadie froze when I made an alarmed noise, staring intently at us. I pushed my hand hard in her direction, palm out, and said “Git!” Then I swept my arm around to one side, indicating a path across the creek. Sadie obediently moved away from me, then charged across the creek to the safety of our bank.

I didn’t realize what I’d done until she had taken off down the path towards home: I had used her agility training to move her away from me and along an indirect path. It was the same cues I would give on course to indicate a push to a jump followed by a gentle curve around the handler.

While I wouldn’t be so melodramatic as to say that agility training saved her life, it certainly made the crossing much safer. So remember, agility training is not done in a vacuum!

Canine Structure

Last week my Tuesday instructor suggested that I get Sadie evaluated. While I haven't yet set up an appointment with anyone, I have done a tiny bit of internet research on books, videos, and general information. What I've found is generally aimed at a specific breed or geared towards conformation people ("show dogs"), I did come across some anatomy and structure book suggestions.

I ordered Structure in Action: Tha Makings of a Durable Dog. It should be here before the weekend, and I look forward to giving it some real attention. Hopefully it won't tell me my dogs are terrible...!

Sadie NAP NJP CGC

Third standard leg yesterday!

More details later.  :)