Author: admin

Able is now 5 months old. Over the last couple of months, I have put a lot of work into encouraging him to walk on a loose lead. A lot of agility people don’t put much effort into this, but I have set myself a goal – I want Able and I to walk up to the start line together on a loose lead before his first agility run.

I have a few reasons for this:

• I have two off-lead walking areas near my house, and I walk to them several times a week (although mostly with just Rik at the moment). I want to be able to walk both dogs to the park, and to enjoy that experience, because I’ll walk my dogs more often if it’s not a frustrating battle of wills.
• If we find ourselves in another covid lockdown, those local walking spots will be our only options, and I’ll have to walk Able on lead every day. And he’ll probably be more excited than usual since he won’t have other fun outings in his life. Again, I want to be able to enjoy walking him on lead, so that it doesn’t get put in the Too Hard Basket if I’m in a grumpy mood.
• Constantly pulling on the lead is bad for a dog’s neck and trachea, even on a flat collar. Constantly pulling on a front-clip harness pulls the dog’s spine out of alignment. Pulling in a headcollar is not great for the dog’s neck either. I want our walks to be enjoyable for my dog too, without increasing his risk of injury.
• I want to enjoy stress-free warm-ups and cool-downs. Agility dogs should be walked around for several minutes before and after they run. I haven’t consistently done this with either of my last two dogs, because they were/are inclined to pull on lead when they can see agility happening. Again, if walking my dog on lead is unpleasant, I’m going to do it less often.

This is moderately high up in my priority list (if I don’t have a lot of success at some point I’ll drop it so I can put more time into agility training), but I think it’s worth investing the effort while he’s young to try and get nice loose lead walking.

Today I’m going to share some of the things I’ve been doing with Able to help develop this skill. If this isn’t something you care about with your dog, you may not find the rest of this post very interesting – so here’s a picture of a cute puppy before you leave.

Continue reading “Adventures in Loose Lead Walking”

Agility training has changed a lot since I last had a puppy in 2001. “Teaching a puppy to jump” back then meant teaching it to run over a low pole between two uprights … and then suddenly raising that pole up to competition height during the last 3 or 4 months before he hit the ring. And it worked well enough – most dogs figured out how to get over the jumps with some degree of accuracy, although not always in the most efficient way.

Since then most people have begun to use jumping grids to actually teach their dog the skills that go into jumping – identifying the correct spot to take off from, estimating the size of the gap between them and that spot, and adjusting their stride so that they can arrive there with their legs organised and their weight in their rear end, ready for takeoff. This concept came from the horse world (where it’s too dangerous to let the animal just “figure it out” through trial and error on full-height jumps) and has become popular in agility circles through a series of DVDs published by Susan Salo.

I’ve watched Susan’s Puppy Jumping DVD a couple of times, and last week I finally had the chance to try it out with my puppy for the first time. I don’t have any jump bumps at home yet, but I’m lucky that we have a set at my club so I got them out after rally-o training for Able’s first gridwork session.

Before Jump Bumps

This turned out be a learning experience, rather than an actual gridwork session, because he didn’t actually go over many of the bumps. Here’s some things I need to work on or remember for next time:

Continue reading “Before Jump Bumps, and Agility Practice On a Walk”

This weekend my club had a rally-o show. Able went along to watch, and enjoyed meeting some more people and dogs. He was fairly well-behaved on the whole – and I was so impressed when he Sat and lay Down because he heard another competitor giving cues to her dog!

After the show on Saturday we went to Knottingley for a walk. There was a cricket match in progress and Able completely lost the plot once we got close enough to the cricket oval to see the action. When he’s spooked by something he likes to let everybody know with some Extremely Loud alarm barking.

As I’ve already written, it’s important to keep socialisation up throughout the first year. That doesn’t mean forcing the puppy to interact with things that frighten him, though. It just means going out and seeing lots of different things, and giving him time to get used to something at his own pace.

So we sat down on a log at a not-quite-alarm-barky distance, and we watched the cricket horror movie while Rik hunted sheep poo in the long grass. There was a lot of snorting and Wuffing at first, but after twenty minutes cricket was fairly boring. He could even take his eyes off it sometimes to look at me and play a game of tug. I would have liked to stay a bit longer, but alas cricket was over. We met a couple of the cricket players – who turned out to be normal people and not ogres – and went home.

We didn’t quite watch enough cricket for Able to get bored of it, so I’d really like to get him out to watch some more soon. Unfortunately at this time of year I suspect there won’t be a lot of opportunity, so it may have to wait until the spring.

A Pivoting Breakthrough

A few weeks ago I started a new body awareness exercise with Able – teaching him to stand with his front paws on one low platform (shoebox sized but sturdier) and his back paws on another one. He cottoned onto the concept fairly easily, but he couldn’t get himself onto the platforms very efficiently from some angles.

Continue reading “Pivoting Success, and a Cricket Horror Movie”

I was playing tug with Able the other day, and I suddenly noticed that the toy was covered with blood. He’s already lost most of his front teeth, but I guess another one came out. He clearly enjoys his tugging enough that he doesn’t mind if his mouth hurts – but your puppy might not. If you notice any sudden changes in play habits or in your retrieve behaviour, don’t panic. Just try again a couple of days later, and maybe things will be back to normal.

On Thursday night Able had his first week of puppy class at my agility/obedience club. He was the youngest puppy in the group (we don’t take them prior to 4 months) and he spent the entire class trying to bounce on all of the other small breed puppies. He was particularly besotted with a Cairn Terrier, which was bouncing around doing play-bows at him as well.

Do You Need to Go to Obedience Class?

Last year my landlord sent a tradie round to install some underfloor insulation. He saw all the agility gear on my lawn and told me that he’d tried to take his own dog to agility class but “I just couldn’t get her to do anything with all the other dogs running around”.

Continue reading “Bleeding Gums and Puppy Class”

This weekend Able accompanied me to an agility show in Dunedin. He hadn’t been to an agility show since he was about 11 or 12 weeks old, so I was interested to see how he would take it all in.

He was a super well-behaved puppy. He enjoyed meeting lots of new people – and playing with lots of new dogs. He walked off-lead in the exercise area without chasing other people’s dogs (I did keep him quite a distance away) and he was even able to focus on some impromptu training sessions with lots of distractions around him.

On the down side, he also spewed all over his bed as we drove through Herbert.

Fake Relaxing

The thing I was most pleased about was that he never got frantic about watching other dogs doing agility. We kept a good distance away from the rings, but we were sometimes quite close to the practice area. He watched a couple of dogs doing their warmups but he stayed quiet and the lead stayed loose.

He spent a lot of time lying on his hip and looking calmly at me. He got lots of bikkies for this behaviour when I first took him up to agility club, just because it was the first thing he did that wasn’t obnoxious. It now seems to be his default behaviour that he offers whenever we’re out in a busy environment and I’m sitting quietly. He looks semi-relaxed, but I don’t think he is truly relaxed – he’s a Border Collie in working mode and he’s offering “fake relaxing” because that’s what I’ve been rewarding him for. Nonetheless, it’s a much nicer behaviour than many others he could do, so I’ll keep paying him for it.

The Relaxed Beaver

Speaking of relaxing … last week Able lay down for a nap outside of his ex-pen for the first time. This is something that’s been worrying me. My other dog can only tolerate him in very short doses, so he spends a lot of time in his ex-pen. I get him out several times a day, but usually only for half an hour or so at a time.

Continue reading “Agility Show Weekend: Paw Waves and Quiet Watching”

Able is now 17 weeks old. Last week he went for his “real” off-lead walk, with no long line.

We’ve been “walking” at Knottingley for several weeks now. These are not really “walks” in the exercise sense of the word – at this age he can get all the exercise he needs in the back yard. They are chances for the puppy to explore new things, and for me to work on his recall in new, very distracting locations. We don’t go very far on these walks – under a kilometre – and after every 60-90 seconds of exploration, I call Able and we play together. We usually do our first little bit of walking alone, and then I get my older dog Rik out of the car to join us.

The first time I called Able while he was eating sheep poo, he ignored me so I walked up to him, took him by the collar and removed him from the sheep poo. I got him to do a hand target, then I let him go back to his sheep poo.

The second time I called Able while he was eating sheep poo, he tried to trot off with it in his mouth. I stopped him (gently) with the lead after one stride. The poo fell out of his mouth and he couldn’t reach it. I waited calmly and quietly through a little puppy meltdown, until he decided to come to me so we could have a game.

The third time I called Able while he was eating sheep poo … I was running out of daylight and the zen-ness required to train a puppy, but he didn’t want to get back in the car. I picked him up and popped him into his crate and we drove off.

Continue reading “Able’s First Off-Lead Adventure”

Last weekend was the Waimate Big Easy. This is our equivalent of a Round the Bays run: a mountain-bike race/fun run/fun walk which attracts hundreds of people. The finish line and prizegiving ceremony were held in our local park, which is also a dog exercise area, so I was able to take Able along.

Most dog owners know that socialisation is crucial during the puppy’s first 3-4 months. This is true, but it doesn’t stop there. You need to keep taking your puppy out and finding new things for him to see and hear and explore regularly throughout his first year of life, or you may still end up with a dog that is nervous in strange situations.

The biggest event on the agility calendar is the NZ Dog Agility Championship (NZDAC), held at Labour Weekend every year. Over the years the NZDAC has grown larger and the atmosphere is now a bit offputting to some dogs. In particular, there’s usually a loud, echoey sound system (think racecourse) and there might be somebody talking on that right before your dog runs. There might also be lots of people applauding, which some dogs don’t like.

Continue reading “Sounds Scary”

Since he was 9 or 10 weeks old, Able has had to sit and wait every time I open his ex-pen door to let him out. If he doesn’t wait, no problem – I just shut the door and wait for him to remember his manners. He is only allowed to move when I give his release cue “OK” (see previous discussion of release cues).

At 11 or 12 weeks, I started doing more formal Crate Games with him, and the learning from the ex-pen transferred over almost instantly.

One of my training focuses last week was on holding a sit stay while I throw a toy for him to retrieve. I started this in a crate, with one hand on the door so I could shut it, and the other hand putting a toy down on the floor. He was OK with this, but it was a real struggle for him the first time I actually threw it a short distance.

He cottoned on very quickly. I only had to shut the crate door a couple of times during the first session. The next night I couldn’t get him to do it wrong it all, so I parked him on the ground just in front of his crate, and he was still perfect. Good puppy!

A reliable sit stay in the face of temptation is an important agility skill, vital if your dog can run faster than you. 99.5% of my agility runs start with my dog holding a sit stay while I move out towards the second or third obstacle. This is called a lead-out and it is a behaviour that commonly breaks down in competition because the dog is more excited. It’s important that you always wait until your dog is sitting still with his bum on the ground whenever you are training anything that starts from a sit position, or you are likely to run into trouble with this down the road.

“but he Does It at Home” Syndrome

Also last week, I tried to get my puppy to sit and stay in everyday life for the first time. I just wanted him to stay put while I moved some hedge trimming from one side of the gate to the other side. He wouldn’t do it. He could sit, but as soon as I took a single step he was off again. Eventually I just shut the gate a bit so that he couldn’t escape while I put the clippings in the bin, and captured the super-cute photo above.

What Able had was a case of the very common dog training complaint: “But he does it at home!” This cry of despair is heard almost weekly in every obedience or foundation agility class in the world.

Continue reading “Sit Stays, In Captivity and In the Wild”

Able still spends most of his time in his ex-pen or out in the garden. One of the benefits of this is that he hasn’t been able to get into and chew up any of my stuff.

Until last week. Turns out he is getting very clever at moving his crate around on the floor by pushing at the bottom of it with his nose. And also very clever at somehow hooking stray objects through the bars -usually a dog toy or the ever-present roll of paper towels (this puppy pees with truly astonishing frequency) … but this time he found a new victim. A victim that I dumped in the corner of the office when I was unpacking some boxes, because it’s 2021 and I don’t actually need an alarm clock any more.

The Importance of Nail Trimming

Long toenails increase the risk of arthritis in the toes, and also of the toenail getting caught in something and ripped. Keeping your dog’s nails short is one of the simplest things you can do to help them enjoy a sound, injury-free agility career. Once the quick of the nails grows longer it’s quite difficult to make it recede again, so it’s best to start with frequent nail trimming while your puppy is very young.

Continue reading “The Alarm Clock Assassin and Daily Torture Sessions”

Able is now 13 weeks old. Things are going pretty well in some regards. My other Rik has accepted his arrival much better than I thought she would. He’s learned how to sit and down on cue, he loves to play with me, and he’s getting better at his baby body awareness exercises.

But there is a double-edged sword that comes with being a smart cookie.

Our First Knottingley Park Adventures

I take Able to a local park 2 or 3 times a week. There’s long grass and gravel and uneven terrain and logs and sheep poo and all sorts of other things to explore. It’s important to get your pup out to explore new places and to give him new challenges to his balance and coordination, although at this age fifteen minutes is plenty.

Continue reading “But I Don’t Wanna Get Back in the Car, Plus Agility-Style Recalls”