Raising a Riot

I’m behind posting for this week.

We’re having so much fun in classes. Contacts and Weaves is getting old. It’s a class I’ve taken probably 10 times with Cisco over the years and always gotten a ton out of, but with Riot, I’m not getting as much out of it as I’d like. His weaves are coming along really nicely outside of class and different environments don’t seem to be effecting his ability to weave. Because of all the additional activity, it’s hard to work entrances which is what we need the most work on. We do need more work on contacts, but I don’t think we’re getting enough time on the equipment in class. He’s weak on the right side of the a frame and is much more likely to pop off than on the left. I really need more than 3-4 times over the a-frame in a class to work on this. He has no fear of the teeter which is great. And he has a really good dog walk.

Handling 2 is becoming the class I love and hate. For being as young and inexperienced as he is, he is doing really, really well. I’m getting much better at timely corrections when he tries to switch sides on me and he’s starting to work better on the right. Serpentines are still our weakness. Looking at his start line stay, you’d think he was part border collie — he’s just raring to go! We’ve got some great looking lead-outs. He’s also teaching me a lot about handling along the way. This weeks sequences were taken from this past weekends steeplechase openings. They were pretty challenging and lots of fun.

Last night we threw bumpers since I got home late and didn’t have time for much else. Riot is doing really well, he’s got great enthusiasm for the game. I finally figured out that if I turn around and run just a few steps then I can turn around and ask him to give me the bumper and I’ll have it delivered to hand. If I stand still, he drops it 5-10 feet in front of me every time. Amazing what a difference a couple of steps can make. I know force fetch should fix this issue, but at the same time, I do want him to get used to the concept of giving them to me and not dropping. We have field training on Saturday. It’s the first one we’ve made since the Gaylan’s reunion in August. I’m hoping he’ll decide to bring a bumper back to me and that he picks up a duck instead of rolling on it.

I took Riot over to ACA with Cisco this afternoon to work on contacts for Cisco — since I was working contacts for one, I might as well work contacts for the other.

We’re lucky enough to train at an indoor facility that we can use year round. It never occurred to me until today that Riot has never done agility outside. I did run him over a mini dogwalk outside when he was about 4 months old, but other than that, all of our training has been inside.

Apparently we need to start training outside. I was considering entering him in a trial at the end of next month just to see how he handles a trial situation and where we are, but it looks like we’re not going to be ready to work outside. It was like he’s never been taught to target.

Either that or we’re hitting some teenage boy defiance stage. Life with Riot this weekend has been trying. He’s still a good boy, but he seems to  be developing some selective hearing. Hopefully class tomorrow night will bring back the Riot I’m used to dealing with.

My friend Kathy at The Animals’ House does this Hounds on the Town class. It’s a really neat concept where a group of dog owners take their dogs someplace in public and work on manners — sitting calmly with their owners, loose leash walking, heeling, and being calm when being petted.

Usually we’ve got something else going on when these classes take place, but we had nothing going on yesterday so we headed out to The Plains, Virginia to practice our heeling though a corn maze. Turns out we need more practice than I thought.

I’m not sure if it was the stimulus of the new dogs, the new environment, or being a teenager, but Riot was wired. We started out in the parking lot and while we were waiting, I was practing heeling and focus. Even “watch me” was incredibly difficult for him it was more of check-in with me and scout out what else is going on type thing and heeling? If you asked him, Riot would have claimed not to have known what that means.

After our class briefing, we entered the court yard to wait for our maze briefing. The courtyard had all sorts of things for kids to play on or with. Including these huge tubes. Well the other students decided they looked like agility equipment and were going to see if their dogs would go through the tubes (since the openings were twice as big as any tunnel I’d ever seen, and they were about 6 feet long, they weren’t an issues for any of the dogs. But now Riot thought he was at an agility class and was acting like he was on crack. He was read to go through those tubes and was barking and carrying on to let me know — he doesn’t bark often, but will when I get him revved up enough around agility equipment and he has to wait his turn.

After the tubes they wanted to see if the dogs would do down the tube slide, it was probably 10 feet high and they had to navigate a pretty steep set of stairs to get up to the top. Riot went down the slide twice. No fear and just some whining because the dogs in front of him were too slow or too chicken. He really is quite the adventurous dog. The only thing that didn’t degrade too much was his sit-stay. I was able to get him to sit and stay for a couple of pictures. Although his head was looking around constantly and it was hard to get him to look at me.

Finally we got our briefing to go into the maze. He did a very good job of staying down at my feet during the briefing. Our heeling though the maze could have used a lot of working, but we were following other dogs, there were a ton of new smells (rabbit and deer had obviously spent some time in the maze), and it was a bit chaotic. I kept him on a very short leash and praised him whenever there was any slack (is treats were no match for the excitement of the environment).

We ended the day with a hay-less hayride which he again took in stride. Overall the day was a good experience of us (if not a bit humbling). We have a lot of work to do.

We also want to send a special congrats out to Riot’s sister Rue who qualified in her first two agility runs yesterday!

First, this dog is awesome! Two hours of classes and he was full of drive the entire time. Now he’s snuggled up on the couch next to me.

Contact and Weaves was first and we tackled the teeter and weaves first. Our teeter was much better than last week even though I haven’t resurfaced ours yet so he didn’t get any practice at home. I put the target out and that helped him drive down to the bottom much better.

Our weaves are really coming along We did a few sets of 6s and then some 6x6s. I think they were probably still about 4 feet apart. He’s doing really well. We were doing 6, 6, tunnel, 6, 6 and he was hitting those entrances every time. I really could not be happier.

Next we did jump grids. He ticked the bars a couple of times, but he’s doing very well judging distances and adjusting his stride. I need to set up some grids in the backyard on occasion and work them outside of class.

Finally onto our dog walk and a-frame. He understand the concept of hitting his position, but he always forgets to slow down the first time and nearly ends up tail over head. The second time is always better after he’s had the reminder. He still insists upon picking up the target every time. I laugh at him every time. I know I shouldn’t, but I also really am at a loss as to what to do.

The next hour was handing 2. The first two sequences went fairly well. Actually the first one he was on fire and he nailed it. The next was the opening sequence from the Advanced Jumpers course this weekend (which a lot of the dogs had trouble with). He nailed the opening and we struggled with the second half. It was more handler than dog though. I asked if he wasn’t understanding the concepts yet and way told, he was doing exactly what he was supposed and was watching my body language. Guess he’s going to make me a better handler yet.

Our next two sequences we had more issues with. We were working on collection from a two jump lead out and the first time I was in a bad position so we had to re-do it. Next time we did really well, but I stopped and rewarded. When I took him back to the line the third time, I got a bark and he jumped up and licked my face. He apparently was not happy about having to repeat it again. After that things started to fall apart a bit, my handling wasn’t very good, he saw the toy in my pocket and was focused on it, and he kept going behind me to get to the left side. The second sequence was better as I kept the toy hidden but he again was trying to go behind me, I think repeating it started to stress him out as he started sniffing the ground at little bit.

Overall it was a really good night. He’s so much fun to run

We only got one session in but I managed to video it.

I ran away from him, crossed behind him, slowed down, ran with him, called him through, but I forgot to get ahead of him. I also put out the second set of six and started him with that. We ended the session with the two sets about 4 feet apart.

Riot had his annual checkup today. He had blood drawn again for titers and another CBC panel to check his red blood cell count. We had re-run his heart worm test when he was sick, so that doesn’t need to be done again until June (which we’ll probably go ahead and switch his annual exam next year to June so everything can get done at once).

Riot weighed in today at 45 pounds and was deemed healthy, if still a bit underweight. No shots today. We just need to go back for our rabies in November.

He of course was a very good boy.

(yes, we skipped yesterday. I decided to give him the day off.)

I think we’re at a cross roads. He’s got a wicked set of six weaves with some decent distance and very independent of my movement. I can rear cross them, I can be in front of him, behind him, running away from him and he’s still doing them. But some of the more difficult entrances have eroded. He’s getting bored or frustrated with the entrance drills on 6 poles. I get maybe 4 reps before things start degrading — he stops moving forward on “go,” he starts eating grass, and he starts trying to take his toy back to the house.

I think I’m going to see if we can move on to Step 6 (aka 6x6s) and see if I can get him to 12 poles. At the same time, I think I’m going to give him a break from entrance drills and slowly add them back in so we get a better balance of drills and fun. Maybe go to once or twice a week working entrances on 2 and then 4 poles?

I’m absolutely thrilled with his progress. And I think he could probably hit 65-75% of the entrances we seen on excellent level courses right now. I really don’t think he’ll have a problem with 12. We’ll see though…

Today’s session went a lot like yesterdays. There were some moments of brilliance, and then there were times he wouldn’t budge. Initially I was going to stick with “weave” since that’s what I use with Cisco, but I think this is causing some confusion on his part. (Maybe it sounds too much like “leave?”)

I’ve left the weaves poles up in the yard and we’ve gone out there twice and done 2-3 reps and called it done. This seems to be met with more enthusiasm than the repetitiveness of our 7 minute sessions.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

(Day 14 was class last night.) Tonight’s session was… interesting. This was this first time he’s used our set of six poles and they’re the old style with the T base on both ends. Like these:

Riot did pretty well initially going straight on. We started working the left side of the clock face (6 o’clock back to 1 o’clock). When we got to 3 he started stepping on the base as he was wrapping and since the backyard isn’t level, they’d move. Sometimes he’d continue, sometimes he’d stop, and a couple of times he ate grass. The more we worked, the more I’d have to tell him go to get him to move. He barked at me once which is usually reserved for anything I’m making him do too much of — it’s pretty much “I get it already, let’s move on.”

We did manage to hit all entrances from about 2 o’clock to 7 o’clock. We really do need to continue to work on entrances around the clock, but I think I’m going to have to start mixing it up with some movement and other equipment. I’m not in a hurry to get to 12 as I want these entrances to be more solid than they are now — not that they’re bad now.

Classes started today. This is the first time Riot has been in class since he was sick.

This dog continues to amaze me. His enthusiasm is contagious and seems to know how to do things I never remember teaching him.

First up was Contacts and Weaves. First we tackled the a-frame and dog walk. We need to work on rocking back better on the a-frame. It didn’t seem to be as much of a problem on the dog walk. I also need to find a better/different target to use. When he’s released, he picks up the target and takes off with it. We were doing tunnels to the a-frame and dog walk and he was having a blast.

Next we worked jump grids and he did really well with him.

Finally we moved to teeter and weaves. Did I mention he’s doing 6 weave poles? He’s picking up speed going through them. We worked a few different clock faces and then I sent him from a tunnel into the weaves. He did a really nice job collecting himself. We followed this up with the teeter. I think our teeter at home is too slick and he’s gotten used to sliding down it. He’s laying down about halfway down the down side. I think it’s kind of funny, but obviously not what I want. We need to re-coat the teeter at home and go back to working the bang game.

Riot was ready to go whenever it was his turn, but I still managed to have him on down stays while he was waiting his turn despite the excitement and chaos going on around him. We did have issues with tugging. I couldn’t get any tugging from him with the teeter and a-frame part. The jump grids I got a little bit out of (switching tugs) and for the weaves and teeter, I brought out the big guns — the flying squirrel.

Next class was Handling 2. I was really nervous about this class because we did okay in Handling 1, but we did have a lot of issues and was unsure we should even move up. Turns out I didn’t have that much to worry about. He did really, really well. I was able to send him over jumps and handle him better than I thought I could. He’s very enthusiastic and very fast. He responds to very subtle movements so I need to make sure I following through. He’s going to be a lot of fun!

And we have six poles! We started out the morning with a few reps at 4. He always seems to miss the first time or two since we started on multiple sets — he gets the entry but isn’t expecting to have to continue. I’m sure that’ll work itself out and adding two more poles isn’t going to make that any worse. So after a few reps at 4 we added two more in front and worked bringing them in. We’ll probably be here for a while proofing entries, gaining confidence, his brain you can still see working at times and he does on occasion run into a pole. But I think I can say he’s weaving!

Second session started at 6. We had some misses, some hesitations, and some pretty decent ones. Need a lot of practice around the clock. Especially those positions less than 5 o’clock.

We got in one more session tonight and it wasn’t as good as this afternoon. Chris and Cisco had come out to enjoy the weather so I think they threw us off. We’re also still having a lot of problems on the left side. I think he knows he starts off going between the poles, but hasn’t figured out it has to be that first set. I let him make too many mistakes tonight as he was getting more and more hesitant. I need to get better about setting him up for success more ofter and faster when he makes a mistake.

I love days with no plans where I can work him more than once.

We started late this morning right where we left off last night — the two sets, approximately 4 feet apart. We had some hesitations and some misses, but got through it and managed to get the pole sets about 6 inches closer together. Not a bad morning.

We got a second session in late afternoon starting where we had left off this morning. Slowly but surely we inched the poles closer and closer together. There were misses about half the time when the poles got closer together, but I never had to open them up to fix a problem. We varried positions between 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock as they were closing and finished the session at 6 o’clock with 4 POLES TOGETHER! That’s right. We closed that gap! Hopefully next session will be clock positions with the 4 together and we won’t have to open them back up.

Session 3 was shortly before dinner. We were able to keep the 4 poles together and start working clock faces. Initially when I went back to standing next to him (vs being between the two sets of poles), it caused some confusion, but we worked through that. We’ll probably spend a session or two where we are working different clock positions and working on confidence. I’m itching to add another set of poles (and we’d probably be okay if I did), but I’d rather be going too slow than rushing things.

Session 4(!) just wrapped up. 4 poles? no problem. we worked on clock entrances. 3-4 o’clock is still a bit of an issue which I’m sure will work itself out tomorrow. For the last minute, I put a jump in front of the 4 and had no issues. I need to get sandbags for the tunnel so that we can work that too.

We’re having so much fun and he is so toy motivated, it’s great. I made three new tugs we’ve been alternating between. He seems to love all three and they’re holding up much better than any I’ve made in the past.

So of course today was better than yesterday. I started the sets of poles further apart than yesterday (about 8-10 feet) and we hit them all. Slowly I moved them in and got through 4 feet with no problems.

When we went to three feet we again missed the first set and went to the second. The second time we tried at three feet, I think I said “no” when he missed the first set a little too sternly.

I moved them back to about 4 feet after the two misses. He was a little hesitant on the next few reps and kept looking at me to make sure he was doing it right before he committed. He was getting the confidence back just about as the buzzer went off.

Over all not a bad session.

We finished up with a few bumper throws. I love his enthusiasm for the game. We just need to work on the bringing them back to me without dropping them ;-)

We got through figures 10 and 11 this evening. No issues. We added a few positions, including me standing about 4 feet directly behind him. Onto adding a second set of 2!

We got in a second practice tonight and I added a second set. Nothing went as expected. Apparently the first set is meant to run by and the second set is supposed to be completed. Who knew.

We went back and forth between running by the first set to do the second set, me removing the second set and doing a few reps on the single set, adding the second set back in about 3 times. Obviously that wasn’t working, so it was time for plan B or C or D. Eventually I started standing between the sets completely blocking the second set. Calling him through the first, rewarding him, and then setting him up for the second set. I would slowly inch to the side and eventually got him doing both sets of poles. This would last a maximum of two reps before he’d start skipping the first set again.

In typical Riot fashion, tomorrow will probably be tons better. Lets hope so.

AKA: This dog continues to amaze me.

We’ve sort of have a routine going when we go out to train weaves. I let Riot out to pee and then I have him do a down stay on the patio while I get everything ready. Tonight he was standing in the yard looking at me expectantly and I gave him a very casual come’ere. He immediately came forward took 3 steps onto the patio and gave me a very pretty down.

Tonight we went on to step 4 and did all the positions in figures 8 and 9 in the article. We had two misses. One with me at 1 o’clock and him at 3 o’clock — I think the way I was standing and how I held the toy threw him off since when I released him, he went directly to the toy. The other with me at 11 o’clock and him at 9 o’clock — I threw the toy before he committed and he went for the toy. Whoops.

Tomorrow, we’ll aim for figures 10 and 11. I almost feel like we could skip them and move on to Step 5 (adding 2 poles).

We’re on to Step 4!

My goal for our session tonight was to get that 2 o’clock position. And we nailed it and 1 o’clock no problems! We bounced around to different clock positions increasing the distance between us and the poles (probably 5-7 feet back by the end). Since he was nailing every position, I started leaving him at 6 o’clock and moving myself around to the different clock positions. He nailed every entrance.

In step 4, you’re not supposed to put them in any position that requires you to handle them to get the entrance and since I didn’t have the article with me, I didn’t want to try anything other than the 6 o’clock position. Since he was nailing every entry at 6 o’clock and I didn’t want to move him, for the last minute, I added a jump in front of the poles (probably about 10 feet back) and did 3 reps. One with me between the jump and the poles on each side about 4-5 feet away from the line, and one with me at the end. No problem there.

I should have quit while I was ahead, but I decided to try 2 o’clock again. This resulted in our first misses of the evening. He missed, I moved him back to 3 - fine, moved him back to two - missed again, moved him closer at two - he succeeded, and then we quit.

I think I need to work some more on 2 o’clock and 1 o’clock, but I think I can work them at the start of a session, but start Step 4 and the different positions tomorrow.

I have a feeling I’m taking this too slow. Not that there is anything wrong with that. There are still some hesitations and misses so I’m not sure about moving him on. I guess he’ll gain more confidence throughout the process so maybe I don’t need to be so concerned.

I managed to video our morning session complete with the neighbor kids being out and being a distraction. He’s looking good. It’s nice seeing from a video perspective. He looks more confident on video than I thought he looked in person.

Our second session of the day was shortly before dinner and in the rain. I don’t think Riot was thrilled with it as after his 3rd rep, he took his toy and went to the door. I coaxed him back out and we finished the session. I decided to tackle the left side of the clock (from 6 o’clock to 1 o’clock) first thing. Everything went fine until we hit 2 o’clock. At two o’clock, he started wrapping the pole and treating it like 8 o’clock. We ping-ponged back and forth between 3 and 2 for a little while and when he wasn’t getting it, I just starting mixing all the positions he knew (3 -11) and occasionally threw 2 in the mix. We did not hit a single two, but everything else looked really nice. Next session (when we’re not getting soaked), we’ll have to go back and work 2 some more.

We missed yesterday because Chris and I had a wedding to go to. We only got in one session today, but it was a good one.

Again 7 minutes. We worked around the clock with the dog on the right from 6 o’clock to 11 o’clock. The first time at 11, we missed. I moved him back to 10 for a couple reps and then back to 11. He hit the first time back at 11, but 11 was spotty with about a 50% success rate. Once we did that side of the clock, I ping-ponged from the various positions back to 11. Overall it was a very good session with the only misses at 11. He did think about it every time as he often paused before committing at 11 o’clock. A couple of times he just stopped when he tried going between the two poles the wrong way from 11.

Tomorrow I hope to get in two sessions with him. The first one we’ll repeat tonight working on that 11 o’clock position more. And the second it would be nice to get around the other half of the clock.

I love the speed, enthusiasm, and drive I was getting out of him tonight :-D

We almost didn’t get a session in tonight (and honestly I really didn’t feel like working him). But we did and it was a good one. We’re on step 3 now and I’m deviating slightly from the plan. I’m not working sequentially around the clock, but we started jumping around a bit — I don’t think he’s ready for some of the harder entrances so I wanted to set him up for success.

Tonight, as always, we started at 6 o’clock for a couple reps. We then proceeded to do a couple reps at 7 and then a couple at 8. Then I put him back at 6 and then did 5 and 4, moved him through 7, 8, and 9. then back to 4 and then 3. From 3 we went to 8, then back to 4 where I ended the session at 6 minutes since we had done a bunch of good reps.

The first time he saw 9, it was a bit of a problem. He started running directly between the polls (which is how we started), but you could see the light bulb go on and saw him question that decision and he stopped short of the poles. I love having a thinking dog. I did bounce him back to 8 for one rep and then repeated 9 with better success. There was always some hesitation around the 9 o’clock position, but I think he’ll be more confident with it tomorrow.

We’re still working at a good success rate: 2 misses tonight.

We only got one session in tonight. I set the timer for 7 minutes, which I think is a much better length of time for a session for Riot.

We started out with a review of step 2 for about 4 minutes and then started step 3. For step 3 we started again at 6 o’clock. We then did 7 o’clock and then went back to 5 o’clock. He did very well. We had about 3 misses, but I never had to reset to and easier position.

We finished the night with a quick game of find the bumper in the dark — which I’m glad he found them because I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to if he didn’t bring them back.

We got two sessions in tonight. Both sessions we went back and concentrated on Step 2.

The early evening session I got on video. We had a few misses and I think I worked him too long (I set the timer for 10 minutes, but really I think I need to limit it to 7 or 8). I think he’s understanding, but isn’t fully comprehending it yet.

The later evening session was much better, we were able to rotate the entire 90 degrees and had two misses total. The session was also shorter and he was more energetic.

Tomorrow I think we’ll do Step 2 again maybe increasing the distance just a bit and maybe try Step 3 again.

We finished off the night with some bumper tosses — in the dark. He managed to line one of them and the other he was off, but must have used his nose because he hunted for about 3 seconds before bee-lining to it.

Today didn’t go as well as yesterday. I think I’m moving him too far away from the poles and need to keep closer to the poles.

We got in two training sessions today. Both times when we were further away from the poles we’d mess up each time I rotated them.

He’s also looking back as he’s going through looking for the thrown toy so I need to work on that too.

Tomorrow’s strategy is stick closer to the poles and repeat Step 2 at a closer distance.