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Over the last few weeks I’ve been taking Able along to my club’s agility training on Wednesday nights. I train my older dog Rik in the 7:30 class, but I try to arrive before 7 so that I can get Able out and do some things with him before then. It’s important to train a youngster in lots of different environments, so I try to get him out and do something with him wherever I go.

Earlier in the spring we were training on the margins of the main agility field, as we needed to be under lights. This was a great opportunity for Able to practise his basic skills – sit stays, retrieves, agility handling on the flat, jumping lanes – in a more stimulating environment, with other dogs running a course ten metres away. There was a noticeable deterioration at first, but by the third week he had his little halo on and didn’t put a paw wrong all night.

And then daylight savings started and I moved to a different space behind the clubrooms, where we had more room to get moving and chuck some toys around. I decided this was the ideal time to start on Able’s more formal handling education, and I started coming to club each week with an agenda of sexy stuff I was going to work on.

Things Go A Bit Pear-Shaped

Continue reading “When Training Sessions Go Wrong”

Last week was, of course, Guy Fawkes Night. The one magical night a year when people let off fireworks to celebrate some political intrigue I don’t quite understand that happened 400 years ago in another country.

I say “magical” because Guy Fawkes Night defies the normal laws of time, in which a Night is shorter than a Week, and much shorter than a Month. In fact, any random moment of time can be Guy Fawkes Night, if somebody just wishes it to be so (and blows up the dodgy parallel imported fireworks they’ve been storing next to a petrol can in the shed for the last few months).

I am very lucky with Rik that she does not mind loud bangs like fireworks or thunderstorms. I am now doubly lucky with Able. When the first firework went off he sat up, looked around the room for 30 seconds, glanced over at Rik, and flompfed back onto the floor to resume his nap. By the end of the first week of Guy Fawkes Night, he wasn’t even opening his eyes when another fire hazard went zooming off above our heads.

Puppy’s First Cone Wrap

This week I tackled something I’ve been meaning to do for a month or so, and taught Able to wrap around a cone. This is a skill that a lot of people teach to their puppies while they’re quite young, but I worry a bit about the impact on the shoulders of repeated wraps, especially for a fairly large puppy like Able.

Continue reading “Guy Fawkes and Fun with Cones”

There’s one exercise that has come up and over and over again in my ongoing agility learning this year. It was featured heavily in multiple presentations in the 2021 Lemonade Conference, and I’ve seen it pop up elsewhere too. It’s not something I’ve ever put much effort into training before, but I guess that’s about to change.

It apparently improves your dog’s balance, his strength, his movement and his endurance. It’s low-impact and you can do it anywhere, even in your living room during a Level 4 lockdown.

I’ll reveal what that exercise is soon, but first it’s story time. I took Able for a walk last week, and we were accosted by a stray dog. I am used to this being a stressful situation, as my older dog gets very wound up about other dogs in her personal space. However, Able was absolutely delighted to make a new friend, and soon they were happily play-bowing at each other while I tried to move Able along. It soon became clear that his new friend was going to follow us, so we went home for the dogs to have a play-date in the back yard.

Well … I brought home a bitch in season for my intact male ten-month-old puppy to play with. They had a delightful time playing chasie around the back yard before I realised – and fortunately the penny never dropped for Able. I guess he isn’t quite all grown up yet, but it’s a very important lesson for me in the perils of owning an intact male dog. I was worried about whether I would be able to fence him in securely – not about bitches throwing themselves on him as we walk down the street!

Now, back to that magical exercise that will turn your dog into a super athlete. What could it possibly be?

Continue reading “2021’s Hottest Dog Fitness Trend, and Able’s New Friend”

When I last described our foundation contact training, Able was taking a short step towards his upside-down bucket, then stepping onto and over it and stopping in his 2o2o position. I was then feeding him on his ice cream lid target.

I had grand plans about transferring this training to a plank as soon as daylight saving started, but I still haven’t found the right object to prop it up to the height I want. In the meantime I’m making plenty of progress with my trusty mop bucket anyway.

Susan Garrett’s DASH

Training the actual 2o2o stop position at the end of the plank is only a small part of stopped contact training. The much bigger and more important part is proofing – making sure that the dog is confident to go to that position at speed no matter what.

Susan Garrett has an acronym for which elements of your training you should focus on in which order – DASH (short for Desire, he finds that Accuracy, Speed, Habituation).

Continue reading “Stopped Contacts, Part 2 and DASH”

I bought a few things from Kmart recently, including new dog beds. I thought Rik might appreciate an upgrade from her slightly-too-small bed which has lost a fair amount of stuffing to Able, but she was most indignant and refused to go anywhere near the new beds. After two weeks of watching her sleep on the floor, I caved yesterday and restored her old bed to its place of honour.

Able outgrew his crate recently so he scored a new bed to fit the gigantic second-hand crate I got off TradeMe, and a couple of cheap toys. The toys did not last long but he enjoyed them!

Which Side Now?

I’ve been working on our outside circles recently. Most of agility is outside circles/ovals, especially if your dog is faster than you. Watch these handlers at Crufts 2020 – they are all on the outside all the way after the weave poles at #6, although they choose different places to cross on the straighter segments.

Continue reading “New Beds and Side Change Confusion”

Our favourite off-lead dog walking park is grazed by sheep for part of the year. Yes, that’s right – a council-owned off-lead dog walking park filled with sheep. No warning signs either; it gave me quite a surprise the first time I took Rik for a walk there!

The sheep returned a couple of weeks ago, with fairly young lambs at foot. I saw them long before Able did and got him on lead. He had a bit of a freak out and let fly with some incredibly loud alarm barking. The next two walks we were able to get a bit closer to them before the barking started, but he was still in rather a flap about them.

And then … today this happened.

We were walking along happily, well away from where the sheep usually hang out. Able was wandering in and out of a stand of trees. I called him – and at that moment half a dozen sheep came charging out from behind the trees, with an intrepid Border Collie puppy hot on their heels.

Continue reading “SHEEEEEP and Buckets”

Last weekend Able and I went to an obedience seminar. It was the first chance we’ve had to take part in a class with other dogs and people since lockdown, and I was mostly pleased with how well he behaved. He did get a bit over-excited and make a leap at my nose at one point though!

I used to compete in obedience a long time ago, when the training methods were still very traditional. I haven’t kept up with the new advances over the last decade, and this was a great chance to catch up on what I’ve missed. I took pages and pages of notes and I’m looking forward to applying what I learned with Able a year or so down the road, once he’s started his agility career.

I was particularly interested in the new method I learned for training heelwork. Regardless of the sport, good dog training is about splitting behaviour into pieces. I taught my last obedience dog to heel by just rewarding him for being right next to my leg and hoping for the best … but now I know how to split this up into different skills (like driving forward from the rear so that the dog can use his body well, and knowing exactly where heel position is during the different parts of the handler’s stride).

The Maimed Finger Incident

I was walking the dogs a couple of days before the seminar when Able and I had a very painful misunderstanding.

Continue reading “The Tug Toy Rules”

Today Able is nine months old. This is his “halfway to agility” birthday, as he can start competing from eighteen months of age.

At the moment it’s very hard to imagine that we will ever be ready to run an agility course. He is not very mature, physically or mentally, and I have lost a bit of motivation for our training over winter. With daylight saving starting this week and the weather warming up, I’m hoping to find my agility training mojo soon.

Our Three Biggest Strengths

I am so pleased with my puppy’s recall. He is way better at coming when he’s called than my previous dogs were at this age (or some of them ever were) – even at high speed

Similarly, an awesome retrieve.

But best of all, I’ve managed to get him to this age without any major traumatic incidents in his life. This is partly good luck and partly good management, I suspect. It helps that he has a “grumpy big sister” at home who only tolerates him in small doses before she gets snarly with him. When he did get snapped at by a strange dog for the first time in his life, he got out of that dog’s face and carried on with his day as if nothing had happened.

Our Three Biggest Struggles

Continue reading “Able at Nine Months”

In theory I’m waiting for daylight savings before I do any contact training outside on planks. But well … last weekend my scungiest rotten 20+-year-old crossover plank made its way into my living room.

Able’s contact behaviour isn’t quite ready to transfer to a plank yet, but I’ve decided I also want to do some body awareness work with him on a low plank that’s parallel with the ground. He is much bigger than any of my previous dogs, and I think he may need some practice to actually learn how to walk along a 300mm wide plank and keep all of his feet on it.

Learning to Walk the Plank

I’ve been racking my brain for the last couple of weeks, trying to figure out what I have round the house that I can use to elevate both ends of the plank to around hock height. I only have one amazing perfectly sized mop bucket/kitty litter tray (although it came from The Warehouse so I could buy another) and none of my other dog training props will support a 25kg puppy and a ramp.

And then I had the brilliant idea to use couch cushions.

Continue reading “Walking the Wobbly Plank”

Last weekend we went to an agility show in Dunedin. It was surreal after three weeks of lockdown to be able to go to another town and hang out with all my agility friends. The actual agility side of things didn’t go so well – Rik and I are both a bit rusty as I haven’t been doing very much with her over the winter – but we had fun anyway.

During lockdown, Able made the exciting discovery that he could lift his leg and pee on things, instead of just standing in the middle of the lawn and lifting it on nothing. As with any cool new trick, he’s eager to try out his ninja peeing-on-things ability whenever he gets the chance. Until this point bushes and lampposts were his go-tos … but at the agility show he decided to add cars to his repertoire.

I do not want my puppy to pee on cars. While I don’t really mind other dogs peeing on my car, other people do mind so for the sake of courtesy he needs to leave cars alone. I also don’t want him peeing on jump wings, deck chairs, call steward boards, or myriad other vertical surfaces in the agility environment. And I don’t want him to pee on buildings either – the outside but especially when he’s inside an indoor agility venue.

This means that I need to be proactive about interrupting him before he pees on something inappropriate. For the next few months I’ll need to pay close attention to my puppy whenever I have him out at an agility show, and move him away from things that he appears to be lining himself up with. And I may need to keep him on a shorter lead in car parks …

Never Saying “No” …

I suppose Able’s leg-lifting predilection is a good introduction to the topic of whether one should or should not use the word “No” to their dog.

Continue reading “Saying No Versus Doing No, and Leg Lift Etiquette”