House Guests

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Here's a few photos I took of Dazzle and his visiting harem: Lilly and Gracie :-)  Photo quality isn't great because I was shooting through the window screen.  I knew if he saw me inside, away from my desk, he would have run in to see if I'd come out to play :-)
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He does love hanging out with and playing with the ladies...

Gracie was actually stretching after just having gotten up, even though it looks like she was running past. Dazzle and Lilly love to run, wrestle and "face fight" while Gracie supervises.

They spent hours outside together while the girls were here.

C-Wags competition

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Dazzle and I went to the C-Wags competition yesterday and Saturday at Kuliga in Cincinnati.  We originally only entered the Level 2 obedience on Saturday.  There was only one level 2 class offered during the weekend and I was hoping to get the first of the 4 Q's (Qualifying runs) needed for the title.  But Dazzle had other plans :-)

SATURDAY:
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We did GREAT with the obedience portion, which includes (in any order except where noted):

• On-leash heeling pattern (always the first exercise)
• Off-leash figure 8 around two people
• Recall over a jump to front then finish
• Call to heel (handler leaves dog on stay, walks 6' away and calls dog into heel position without turning around)
• Position changes at distance (handler leaves dog on stand stay, walks 6' away and cues dog to down then sit, then handler returns to the dog)
• Stand Stay- exam (handler leaves dog on stand-stay, walks 6' away, returns and runs hand along dog's back, lifts a foot and touches the pads, and shows the dog's teeth to the judge)
• Leave dog for leash -always the last exercise for obedience part (handler places dog in stay in position/place indicated by judge, walks away to get the dog's leash and clips it on before the dog is allowed to move.)

 He would have gotten a 95 out of 100 on the above, but was not able to complete the final exercise called "honor".  The dog needs to stay in the place/position indicated by the judge while the next dog does it's on-leash heel pattern.  It was my mistake, because I thought the "honor" was always done with the handler sitting and the dog in a down.  So that's what we practiced. This judge had the honor dog sit stay in heel position.  I think Dazzle thought he was doing something wrong because we weren't moving.  He tried laying down, which meant the entire run was an NQ (Non-Qualifying) run. :-(  
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I wasn't too dissapointed because when I found out what the honor position was, I had a feeling he would blow it.  I was VERY happy with how well he did on the obedience part. The stay will be easy enough to practice :-)
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Later that day, they had an ARF class.  After watching it, I decided to enter Dazzle in ARF on Sunday.
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SUNDAY:
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ARF is a combination of Freestyle dance, Agility and Pro level Rally.  It looked like fun!  So I signed us up at the start of day 2.  It was offered twice on Sunday, but we only did it once :-) I think we'll be doing more of this in the future! The course was not easy and was made extra difficult because the ring was 10 feet smaller than it was supposed to be. As the judge said, if some of the signs could have been just outside the back wall of the building, the flow would have been much better :-) She also had to work around a pole in the center of the course. 
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This was definitely not our prettiest run, but it's only his THIRD time in a ring competing off-leash and the second time was the day prior in obedience!  So I'm thrilled with how well he did, especially since his favorite agility obstacles were involved. :-) I had the run videotaped, which should help save me a lot of typing trying to explain it. :-)
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I have on the video that only 1 other person qualified, but I don't think that was right.  I was working as the ring steward all day both days, and I think I'm getting the number of Q's from the ARF run on Saturday mixed up with our run on Sunday and the other ARF run on Sunday.  I know several people tried the course we ran, but I don't recall for sure now how many actually Q'd on it.  I know Candy and Ted were trying for their 4th Q and got it!  But our score was highest, so Dazzle got first place! That I'm sure of because of the ribbon :-)  I was very surprized and proud of him!
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VIDEO: C-wags ARF (1st place)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5VnPJJ1oyA
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weekend

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Our weekend was good, but very long days with early mornings.  I'm posting this because I promised a few people I would report on how we did, but I'm exhausted.  So I'll do the report and post the video tomorrow.
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:-)

Indy Pet Expo

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Today, Dazzle and I went to Indianapolis to help advertise Dog Scouts.  A big Pet Expo was being held at the state fairgrounds in a big indoor exhibition hall.  Lots of booths, LOTS of people and lots of dogs, since pet dogs were welcome.  I only heard a little barking and saw one dog snap at another who was being too sniffy, but other than that, the dogs all seemed to be getting along just fine and handling the tight spaces, crowds and booming loud speakers quite well! 

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Dazzle was very excited when we arrived and wasn't the best rep of DSA as he did a lot of pulling on the leash.  Then I saw the pen of "petting zoo" farm animals and I think he could smell them as soon as he walked in the door!  They had sheep, ducks, chickens, goats, piglets, a donkey and calf and some of the biggest rabbits I have ever seen!  I think he thought we were there for herding practice.  He was very intent on that pen and especially any animal moving faster than an amble.  By the time we left, he was doing MUCH better at not straining toward them when the pen came into view.  But I think it's a distraction we'll have to work on.  Maybe the intro to herding he's had wasn't such a good idea.

He did get to try out a "Jog-a-Dog" treadmill and loved it!  He got right on it and the person started him out slowly.  Dazzle didn't seem to mind that the ground was moving under him.  At first he thought he was supposed to get to the end of the belt, but the person sitting there just blocked his path and he settled into a nice walk as he relaxed and even looked around at the by-standers and me.  He got up to a pretty decent trot and was still relaxed.  The operator said he was one of the very few dogs she has seen be so comfortable with it the first time on.  Most of the other dogs I saw trying it out held their heads really low with their noses almost on the belt, were very tense or kept trying to get off the end.  If the dog seemed at all scared, the operator was quick to stop and let the dog off. Some dogs got to try again, others she wouldn't let try it again.  Later I saw there wasn't anyone waiting to use it, so I had Dazzle try it again.  He was eager to get on it and had a Malinois grin on his face.  In the photo, he had his ears back, but mostly he had his ears forward, head up and was looking around casually at all the folks going by. It looks like I'm holding him up, but the leash wasn't tight.
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We entered the "ultimate stay contest" and while it started with maybe 20 dogs who withstood a good deal of distractions before the first ones moved, there were only 4 other dogs remaining when Dazzle got up.  He stayed while kids came by bouncing tennis balls, tossing treats, one close enough for him to eat (though he just played with it) and 2 kids were running around and back and forth.  The crowd was encouraged to "make some noise" and so there were whistles, clapping and other crowd noises along with some very loud speakers pumping out the bass. 
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As difficulty increased, they had the owners increase distance from the dogs,  stop talking to the dogs and stopped all signals/cues from the owners, then they had us turn our backs (all while the toy and treat tossing continued). I was very proud of him!  He only had a little bit of stress at first when he wasn't sure what was going on, but then he relaxed and settled in and I thought we might have a shot.  When the helper adult tossed a piece of hotdog just barely out of his reach, he moved to check it out and was knocked out of the runnning. 
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For the remaining dogs, they were stepping over the dogs who were all lying down, then they had the kids crawling on hands and knees around the dogs making barking noises, then they had the owners go out of sight behind a curtain and the ball bouncing/throwing increased. The adult helper even stood straddling each dog and tossed a treat right beside the dog's face out in front of the dog and eventually all but one labrador had moved!  I was very surprized the lab could stay with all the treats and toys being tossed.  They had even started using some salmon treats along with the hotdogs and other highly scented treats. The lab that won just took all the craziness in stride and looked like he could have laid there all day :-) He won a year's worth of organic dog food (12 bags of food) and 12 free dog washes!

I had to take a photo of this guy because I thought he had quite the set-up!  Chair, internet, fan, food/drinks, etc.  I thought it was funny that they put shredded newspaper in the bottom of the crate :-) He was staying in the crate until a certain number of adoption and spay/neuter pledges were signed and he was only allowed out for a potty break after 10 new pledges had been signed. 
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I handed out several DSA brochures and talked to lots of people about DSA, so the Indy troop may be getting some new members!

Weave pole training

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It's been kind of cold the past few days, but yesterday I set-up a new set of home made weave poles and today Dazzle went through them for the first time (video below).  I used flexible fiberglass driveway marker poles that pound into the ground.  I slipped pieces of PVC pipe over them to make it look more like regular weave poles.  I then taped bird netting to the poles and looped it around other driveway stakes to create a "channel" or "guide" so that he can't do the poles incorrectly.  Well, he can, but he goes through the netting and it's not as fun as getting it right.  He only blasted through the netting twice before he started doing them correctly.  Using nearly invisible bird net means that when the guides are removed later, it won't look very different from what he's used to seeing.  The zig-zag lines on the diagram below show how the netting is arranged:
(The center line of darker dots represents the 12 weave poles)

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This is the method I used to teach Coyote to do weave poles and he is rock solid on them.  He even did a 60 pole challenge at camp and aced it, even though he had not even SEEN weave poles for a few years and have never done 60 poles in a row! :-)  I'm hoping Dazzle does just as well with this.
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It works on the principle of muscle memory training.  He can't really do them wrong very easily, so he gets lots of correct practice and he can go as fast as he wants. While practicing, he is learning how to manuver his body, feet and nose to most efficiently get through them as fast as possible.  Thanks to the video, I can see he's still struggling with getting his feet to go in the right direction and pattern.  At one point, he is actully crossing his front feet to clear the poles!  But he got himself back on track so that the pole is at his shoulder and the foot closest to the pole is brushing past and around each pole.
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He is going to be wicked fast!  I'm making sure I name each agility obstacle so I can mostly just call out the course to him.  No way I'll be able to keep up with him!  But courses are still a ways off. I'm looking forward to a book that is going to come out early next year by the people that are teaching agility at the ClickerExpo.  I'm only dinking around with the agility training till I read that book.  Mostly I'm working on the foundation training like targeting and self-control.  Right now, his stays are really solid. I'm hoping it stays that way! :-)
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Here's the video of his weave pole training thus far including some video taken when he was 13 weeks old and video of todays session, plus slo-motion of one of his passes through the poles toward the camera.
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VIDEO: Weave pole training
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOmLic_3CnE
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Once he can hit the entrance from any angle and he is smooth and consistent with his feet, I'll start removing the guides from the center and work toward removing the ones at the ends.
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I also did a training session with Coyote, playing around with teaching him to shake his head "no" just by using the clicker (freeshaping).  He did great with it!  I got it on video and tried to upload it, but YouTube didn't like the music choice even though it's a song from the 60's (It's been over 40 years since it was released!)  So open two browser windows, one for the video below and one to listen to this music:
MUSIC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxtJoGdujYo
VIDEO: Coyote learns to say no
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnUn5io_-7U

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