We're "Legal" :)

Tomorrow Potion turns 15 months and becomes "legal" to participate in AKC trials. She's still very much a baby dog, I'm still figuring out how to best handle things with her, and we're definitely still sorting out our teamwork - but that's part of the fun! :) We'll attend our first agility trial together next weekend, and I'm feeling relatively comfortable and excited about that prospect.

I have no actual expectations for the trial - while she certainly has the skills the qualify, she's still very much a baby dog and there are a lot of things we've yet to experience and figure out together. My goal for the weekend is simply to have a good time with her, to generalize our skills to another new location, and see how our behaviors hold up in that setting. We have a bit of "zero tolerance" criteria (primarily start lines, and any deliberate bailing of a contact obstacle once on it), but for the most part I plan to have fairly forgiving criteria because of the completely new setting.

Since we started agility training she's done agility in 8+ different locations, on 4 different surfaces. She's encountered both AKC and USDAA tires, rubberized and non-rubberized contacts, and I think some variation in weave pole spacing (but I believe all have been at least 22" spacing). We've trained in a variety of circumstances including multiple dogs working at once, class/seminar formats, and agility demonstrations in a crowded park. We've hung out at a few agility trials just to experience them, an obedience show & go, and participated in several dog shows. In almost every case I've been incredibly impressed with her ability to generalize behaviors to new situations and equipment. :)

I made a video of highlights since we started agility training in October through last month. We'll have up to 2 more agility classes before the trial on Saturday - tomorrow we're dropping in on a class at Pawsitive Partners, and then Monday we're attending a class at MOTC if the weather permits. I doubt we'll have video from either, but I do hope to have video from the trial. :) Until then!

A quick update

A quick video update on some of what Potion and I have been up to recently. Hard to believe Potion turns 10 months tomorrow! :)

Yup, Still Alive!

We're still alive! :) Potion and I have been insanely busy recently - not only in making progress in the behaviors we're working on, but also as my demo puppy for many of my classes. :) It's hard to believe she's going to be 8 months in just a week, but in some respects it feels she's been here for much longer. I hope to do a video soon of what Potion's been up to as a more visual summary - maybe for her 8 month birthday? :)

In the meantime, here's an updated list taken from the previous post -

Long time no post, I know, I know. I don't really have the brain power to catch the blog up on a detail of each training session I've had since my last post re: training, so I'll summarize where everything currently is starting with the stuff I mentioned in my "to do" list.

• Nose-to-hand touch
• Pretty much finished. :)
• Positions (on verbal cue + building duration [stand especially])
• Very nice so far, but haven't spent much time building up duration. Excellent with distractions.
• Front and Heel positions
• Need to spend some time fine-tuning each but coming along well.
• Finishes
• Pretty good - will save the refining for after front and heel positions are finished.
• Crate Games
• Finished. :)
• Wobble board work
• Very comfortable with this, as well as jungle gym on a low teeter.
• Perch work
• Haven't focused on it as much recently - need to go back to it.
• Handstand?
• Still haven't tried it yet.
• Back up
• Needs more refined and independence. 

• Tunnel
• Certifiable tunnel addict. ;)
• Chute
• See above.
• Jump standards
• Still working on improving her seeking out jump standards when my motion supports them and wrapping appropriately when indicated.
• Lead out
• Stays in the position I asked for, where I asked for it, until verbally released. Can easily get 2.5 jumps ahead. Refuses to break prematurely even with her best buddy behind her, begging to play. :)
• Crosses/Turns on flat
• Needs a bit more time spent on it but she's picking it up very well :)
• Pause table
• Have only had her on it a few times, want to build drive to the table, a send to the table, and ability to stick on it even when I continue past (all with auto down).
• Heel
• Very pleased so far! :) Main goals at this point are to increase her understanding on exactly where it is, and then build duration.
• Gaiting
• Excellent - she very rarely argues with me ;)
• Free stack
• Good most of the time - need to refine foot placement.
• Drop on recall
• Excellent - just need to clarify that I only want a drop when I ask for one (smart little BC wants to add them into a normal recall ;))
• Herding
• Going well! Our instructor doesn't want us back more than once every month or two til she's close to a year, so we maintain exposure to stock but don't get into bad habits before we're ready for more serious work. :)

 We've been working on more than just this list - but I have to run to class so I'm afraid I'll have to add additional things we've done later :)

We're alive (and busy)!

Long time no post, I know, I know. I don't really have the brain power to catch the blog up on a detail of each training session I've had since my last post re: training, so I'll summarize where everything currently is starting with the stuff I mentioned in my "to do" list.

• Nose-to-hand touch
• Relatively OK, needs a bit more work and a cue.
• Positions (on verbal cue + building duration [stand especially])
• MUCH more progress on these. Verbal "sit" cue needs work and "stand" is still a bit iffy, but distance and duration are coming along very nicely!
• Front and Heel positions
• Haven't worked on these since the last time I posted about them, so they still need work.
• Finishes
• Same as above.
• Crate Games
• Keep meaning to do these, more to build more value in her home crate than to improve self control. Her self control is coming along very nicely (see further down the list).
• Wobble board work
• She's comfortable with it and has had a couple sessions but we haven't spent much time on it yet.
• Perch work
• We're at a partial pivot clockwise in one session, need to work on it some more. :)
• Handstand?
• Haven't tried it yet.
• Back up
• Haven't done much with it yet.

 Now for the other stuff we've been working on ...

• Tunnel
• Straight and curved tunnels at full length, working on finding the entry and speed.
• Chute
• Full length, working on finding the entry and driving out straight til out of the fabric.
• Jump standards
• Seeking out jump standards when my motion supports them and wrapping appropriately when indicated.
• Lead out
• Stays in the position I asked for, where I asked for it, until verbally released. Can easily get 2.5 jumps ahead.
• Crosses/Turns on flat
• Haven't spent much time on it, going well so far. Haven't introduced rear cross yet.
• Pause table
• Have only had her on it a few times, want to build drive to the table, a send to the table, and ability to stick on it even when I continue past (all with auto down).
• Heel
• Started with Fanny Gott's method today... pleased so far, we'll see how it goes.
• Gaiting
• Her patterns are going much better - she's not arguing with me about where we're going :) and she's learning to do her go-round out in front :)
• Free stack
• It's coming along... I'm starting to get picky about foot placement and also building up distance and duration on a loose lead.
• Drop on recall
• Totally surprised me - but then again all my dogs have in their understanding of cue = cue NOW. I was using the DOR to test Potion's understanding of down and was pleasantly surprised to have a dog who bolted to me and slid into a drop on a single verbal cue. Since we don't have a front I break off the exercise at the drop (but would anyway since I want to reinforce a fast drop).
• Herding
• We had our second stock exposure and I was very pleased with how she's doing so far. We intend to keep going  back whenever time permits, since it's a bit over an hour away and have lessons on weekends and Wednesday mornings.

Additionally, we tentatively have the following shows planned. :) We may be attending some agility or obedience trials as well - haven't decided yet.

• September 18-19 - Lebanon, IN
• September 25-26 - Columbus, IN
• October 2-3 - Monroe, MI
• October 30-31 - Delaware, OH
• November 3-7 - Ft. Wayne, IN
• November 18-21 - Columbus, OH
• December 4-5 - East Lansing, MI
• December 16-19 - Cleveland, OH

Toys

Part of my adventure with Potion has been a learning curve of dealing with a very skilled toy murderer. While all my puppies have gone through teething periods and had their share of inappropriate chewings, the only murdered toys were soft toys - and all stopped after teething.

Since we're getting an education in toys able to withstand (or not) Potion's teeth of doom, I decided to share our experiences with different toys. I'll post reviews of the toys we've tried so far over the next few days. :) If you know of a toy that we should test, please let us know!

Finishes, and Heel position in general

So this morning we worked on  finishes and heel position in general for Potion's breakfast. She got quite annoyed at me at one point (this is our first time shaping something relative to me vs another object or just herself) and barked at me - she was about as unimpressed with my reaction as I was to being barked at. ;)

My main goal for the breakfast session was to get her to realize the behavior I want may be in relation to me, rather than teaching competition-quality any of the above in a single session. In the beginning I had to move a little bit in order to get her to move around and would c/t anything remotely close to my left side. The criteria got gradually more specific until I was requiring she be facing the same way as me and fairly close to me. What I found quite interesting is because of the treat delivery (in this session I tended to toss treats away in front of me to reset for another attempt) she began offering both finishes on her return to heel position. She had a slight favoritism towards the around finish over the swing finish but I rewarded either. The favoritism may be based on my response - the around finish is easier to get a nice response so probably got small jackpots more frequently than the swing finishes where I was weighing if it was good enough to c/t that.

As you may have noticed, I don't necessarily work on a single behavior straight through in consecutive sessions - I'll probably do the stand / down again for dinner tonight but prefer to change things up. I've yet to see a reason not to in the training sessions thus far (both with Potion and other dogs) so may as well. ;) I find myself more prone to getting frustrated (and/or raise criteria too quickly from session to session) if I do multiple sessions in a row on the same behavior. Easier to have more realistic expectations when "we haven't worked on it in a while." :)

Going to be quite scarce for the next few days - a friend of mine and I (Angie of Humble Schnauzers and a Sam) are going to NC to pick up her new Samoyed puppy from Brandy (of Agility Laughs). He's making his trek from his breeder, Donna of Wintersong Samoyeds, to Brandy's in NC where we'll pick him up on Monday. Lots of pictures to follow of this handsome boy I'm sure!

Today's dinner session

I'm going to try to do better about blogging about particular sessions, at least most of the time. I try to train with at least one meal per day on average - kibble is high enough value to Potion to work with enthusiasm (especially at meal times) and it keeps my more "interesting" reward options much more special when they're available.

Today we worked on stand and down on verbal cue up on a grooming table (not necessarily a specific reason for the table, other than it minimized movement and made it a bit easier to see more clearly what she was doing). I picked these two to start since she has some issues trying to throw in sit between stand repetitions. I've left it alone for a while and worked on other things - I prefer to leave things alone for a bit when I run into a problem that is going to take some thought to solve, and come back to it once I feel I have a different approach that may be more successful. Beating away at it session after session isn't going to make progress.

Interestingly enough, I did not observe Potion throwing in a single sit in the table sessions. I think we'll need another session or two on verbal discriminations between stand and down (as well as building duration in each) and I will probably move from the table to the floor in 1-1.5 sessions. Since the table seems to have made a difference in her throwing in sits, I see no reason to mess with what's working ;) and is apparently encouraging her to not rehearse the behavior. I will probably wait until stand and down are very strong behaviors before adding in sit into the discrimination, to hopefully alleviate the issue of tossing it in at random.

I have to say I'm going to have to get quite creative to keep her occupied with mostly non-agility stuff for at least the next 6 months. I really want to hold off til she's at least 10 months before beginning any "serious" agility, since the methods I intend to use (Linda Mecklenburg's Developing Jumping Skills and Susan Garrett's 2x2 Weaves) progress fairly quickly to full height/difficulty. Both recommend waiting until the dog is ready for the full height/difficulty work before starting due to that. Potion's certainly not making that easy with how quickly she powers through things though ;)