Raising a Riot

Rock star Riot (aka last week of Handling 2)

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:31:32 -0500

I love running this dog! He’s just so much fun to run and running him feels good — I don’t feel frantic, I’m getting more confidence with him, and he always seems like he’s having fun.

Our last class consisted of a course that had 13 jumps — no tunnels, no contacts. It was a mixture of winged and wingless with a double, I handled it with two front crosses and a rear.

The first time we ran it, it was near perfect. The first front cross I was a tad bit late on and would have liked to have been a little further ahead. On the rear I was a little late and a little ahead and bumped into Riot.

The second time we ran it, it was probably the closest I’ve ever come to perfection running a course. The rear was not as smooth as I’d like it be, but it’s something I know I need to work on with him. I had lots of distance and really didn’t have to move as much as I probably would have running Cisco on the same course.

He’s already become so much fun to run. I can’t wait until we get a few more classes under our belt.

First Full Course and Handling 2 Week 5

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:47:00 -0500

Today Cisco and Riot had a private lesson with Claudia. My plan was to try a full course with Riot (since he’s only seen a JWW course and not a standard course) and then have Claudia tell us what we needed to work on.

I ran Riot first and he rocked the course. He did better than I expected and left me feeling a lot more confident with him. Our first course was 20 obstacles long and started with a tunnel. It was tunnel, jump, dogwalk (which he nailed even with a tunnel underneath). From there was a 90° left turn to 12 poles (which he nailed) to the tire and a front cross to the a-frame (which is nailed). After the a-frame, there was a difficult line of a double, a jump, and the far end of a tunnel to another jump to another tunnel. He took the right end of the tunnel, but I had a hard time finding the right position to get him to take the jump exiting the tunnel. After the second tunnel, I managed to layer the jump, but the rear cross on the flat didn’t work so well.

Overall he did really well. We went back and worked through the sequences that involved rear crosses — I really need to work on my timing of them so that he better understands what I’m asking of him. That course was a lot harder than anything we’re going to see in novice and he did really well.

After running Cisco, I ran another course with Riot. The start of this course was harder with the exiting end of the tunnel closer to jump number two than the end they needed to enter. I started with a two jump lead out, but Riot’s eyes were fixed on the wrong end of the tunnel before he took off for jump number 1. We worked through the leadout and rewarded Riot for the correct position and finally got the leadout. Again, contacts were no problem and his weaves were beautiful — they’re fast enough now I need to jog to keep up with him.

I actually was able to layer the dogwalk to the 180° turn to the double with him. There is no way I would have tried that at a trial with him, but seeing that we could get through it here says that in another 6 months I’ll probably feel comfortable doing that in a trial. (And admittedly this makes me a little giddy for trying out gamblers with him.) The last part we had trouble with on this course was the weave poles to tunnel in a dog walk/tunnel discrimination. The dogwalk/tunnel was about 10 feet beyond the weave poles and at a right angle. He wanted to cut behind me and take the dog walk. But we worked through it.

We ended the lesson with a review of the broad jump which Riot hadn’t seen since his Foundation classes (and apparently completely forgot how to do).

Then tonight he had handling II. The first sequence was really nice. We did it twice once with a front cross and once without. The second sequence was jump, u-tunnel, jump, … I was not expecting him to swing wide out of the tunnel, but he did and started to make a bee-line for the other half of the class that was migrating over to his side. I yelled, “Ri come!” and he stopped looked them and then laid down facing them? I’m very pleased he didn’t go and visit and create a ruckus, but puzzled as to why he laid down instead of coming. That got a chuckle from the class. The next attempt I started calling his name and we had no issues.

For the second side we had a very nice first run. I had a nearly 3 jump lead out and a nice send to a tunnel and then managed to run way ahead of him on the line and he took all the jumps. Our second sequence was jump 180° jump to tunnel. I set him up and stood between the jumps and released him. He stood up, stopped, and stared. There was someone carrying their little dog across the other side of the course and he didn’t like that very much. I set him up again and he didn’t read the turn taking the jump 10-15 feet ahead of the first jump instead of wrapping. Set him up one more time and he did the sequence perfectly.

Overall, it was a pretty good day.

Contacts

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:10:56 -0500

Worked some contacts today. They weren’t half bad. He’s not driving to the end as much as I’d like, but for the most part has a pretty solid 2 on 2 off. He does stop short on occasion, especially if I’m behind or not moving. I’ve got a ton of distance on him which is really nice.

Handling 2 Week 4

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:30:00 -0500

Riot and I had a pretty decent night in class. We had some pretty amazing leadouts tonight and I got some decent distance on him too. He was very driven and worked well for his tug.

For our first sequence (white squares), I tried two different leadouts. First the blue blob facing towards him. He swung wide and didn’t read the turn very well with that one. The second one I tried was the purple blob facing jump 2. I took maybe a step forward with a front cross to 3. He read that one very well and handled the distance beautifully.

The next sequence I tried the lead out push from the orange blob. First attempt he went around jump number one and took jump number 2. Tried again, releasing him with “bar” instead of “okay” and he took jumps 1 and 2. My front cross between 4 and 5 was up too far and drove him wide which made 5 to 6 awkward and had me further ahead of him than I wanted to be so I added a poorly executed FC between 6 and 7. Even if I had timed it, better I still would have preferred to be on the other side of 7.

Elsie had me do the second sequence again with the way I had planned the ending so I decided to try a more difficult lead out and started at the green blob facing jump 3. I moved right and again had a very drive-y front cross between 4 and 5 that ended up pushing him over 6. Elsie had me do it again and it was much better. I still traveled with my front cross (I always do), but it was better and Riot took a much better line. Both times the leadout was great. I’m loving the distance I’m getting on this dog and the lead outs I’m able to do with him.

* all blobs are approximations

Practicing Weaves

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:05:00 -0500

I realized that since Riot has learned his weaves and we dropped the contact and weaves class we haven’t done a lot of weave pole training. Since the last thing I want to do is have to relearn the weaves, we worked on them in short sessions all weekend.

I’ve only worked him maybe twice outside of class since we learned them and what I observed the last time was he was having issues with collection once there was a jump placed in front of the poles. I had planned on working on this with him this weekend, but we seemed to be having other problems. We’re having completion problems, but it’s not the same problem every time. I think a lot of it had to do with the poles not being staked down and moving on him. And that the base of our poles is the old style with the T on both end and not the new akc style. I think of lot of what was throwing him off was hitting that base today.

I moved the weave poles a few feet at one point today in hoping to find flatter ground with hopefully less wobble. When I moved them, the first set was overlapping the second by a good inch (that was all Riot’s doing). I think with more repetition, he’ll get more consistent. At this point I don’t want to do anything to discourage him because I like the speed I’m getting out of him.

We need to practice more, but I think I’m going to have to start staking down the poles (ugh) and may even need to consider getting another set of weaves. Chris is gonna love both those things.

Our First Rally Advanced Trial

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:33:37 -0500

Riot competed in the advanced rally class for the first time today. We drove up to PA this morning to the Dauphin Dog Training Club for their Rally Trial.

I’ve been working a lot of hours so we haven’t been practicing as much as we should have been so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I pulled Riot out really early. So we could practice some before hand and get his focus on me. Riot can be a crazy spaz when I first get him out, but once he understands we’re working he settles down quite nicely. I also start working him away from distractions and gradually move him closer and closer. So we started warming up outside and eventually moved inside. Once we got inside he was doing a really nice job focusing on me for the most part. since we had been in there a while and they were still on the B class, we went for a nice little walk. Then we came back in and did some more warming up. I had him in a down-stay while they presented ribbons for the B class. I worked him a little bit more and then asked if he was ready. His eyes lit up and he barked at me. Whoops… fortunately no one was in the ring.

I think this was my first mistake. We were dog number 10 in the ring in the A class and after that, he was ready. I alternated warming him up and leaving him in a down while we waited. We moved over near the start gate 3 dogs before our turn. He was doing really well until the dog ahead of him walked over and then he was all over sniffing.

He was so excited by the time we got into the ring. I just love his attitude. But I knew because he had such a hard time sitting next to me at the startline, we were going to be in for a wild ride.

I was off at the first sign and started to do a 360° Right instead of Left. From that point on, I was a bit frazzled and I think Riot picked up on that. He had some great heeling and some really bad heeling throughout the course.

The second sign was a halt. Call Dog Front Finish Right Halt. One of the exercises we haven’t practiced much. He did a really nice job. His front wasn’t as straight as I’d have liked, but not bad.

Obstacle number three was a 90° pivot. I always forget that exercise is in advanced. He did a pretty decent job.

The next 6 obstacles were really nice. A Left Turn. A Halt Fast Forward From Sit. Normal Pace. Right Turn. 270° Left (this was a little messy). And a Call Front Finish Right Forward.

Then came the Halt Stand Walk Around Dog. Riot does not have a good stand. We work on it in spurts, but he’s not reliable with it. He’s been doing it since he was 6 months too. The first two times we attempted this exercise, he did a down — I get a down or a stand and then an immediate sit about half the time we practice, but he had been doing really well this past week. Finally the third time, we got the stand.

We followed this with a Left Turn and a Sit.

Then came the 270° Right. Which we did pretty well, until I got confused thinking it was supposed to be 360° so around we went again.

The last two were the jump and a Moving Side Step Right which were fine.

Then the steward holding the leash decided that she needed to body block the energetic golden to keep him from leaving the ring which excited him. She kept telling me to hurry up and leash him while grasping my leash with both hands. It was way more chaotic than it needed to be. He motions were getting Riot all excited. I finally got him in a down and my leash from her so I could get him leashed. If I wasn’t already frazzled enough….

We ended up with a 76. The lowest score of the 5 dogs who didn’t NQ. I think my mental mistakes probably cost us as many if not more points that Riot’s antics.

Overall I really can’t complain. We were in the ring off leash with plenty of distractions around. Considering the hours I’ve been working (I wasn’t sure at 11 o’clock the night before if I was going to be able to go or if I was going to have to skip out and work), I was not prepared as well mentally as I needed to be. I also didn’t walk the course as many times as I usually do or with as much attention — this was the largest rally walkthrough we’ve had.

Handling 2 Week 2

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:05:27 -0500

Have I mentioned I love this dog? Right now he’s curled up next to me on the couch but earlier tonight he was a rock star in his agility class.

He’s a young male and I think he acts that way, but despite that, he’s really coming along nicely. His jumping was complemented tonight. Both for good form and for being a quiet jumper.

We’re still having lots of distractions, but he always comes back to me. His leash is a HUGE distraction. Diann ended up holding his leash so we could get through the sequences. She did give us some good tips for curing this leash issue.

All of the sequences tonight were grid exercises which in a lot of ways I find more challenging than other sequences. We did front and rear crosses, a two jump lead out push, a 270° turn with a tunnel distraction in the middle, a few pinwheels, and a few 180s.

Tonight was very distracting for Riot. I usually put him in a down stay between his turns on the far side of the building. Tonight we were on the far side of the building second and it seems like the more courses he does, the more amped he tends to get. He was holding his down stays, but barely for the first sequence on the far side. For the second, we were behind the tunnel and Riot kept sitting up when I was walking the sequence and setting bars. He was okay for the border collie, but waiting for the other two goldens to have their turn was torture. He was whining and kept sitting up. I’m thinking the sitting was to see over the tunnel and see what was going on. By the time it was his last turn he was so ready. I asked if he was ready and he barked at me.

We’ve been working weaves and teeter all week too. He needs to learn collection on the weaves. He was missing between poles 2 and 3 maybe 20-30% of the time.

"holy crap"

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:59:00 -0500

Riot had his first class of this session tonight. He’s taking handling 2 again. I probably could have moved him up to handling 3, but I think the sequences in handling 2 are still plenty challenging (usually taken from AKC Open or USDAA Advanced courses) and we can still learn a lot — heck, even Cisco has taken this class again on occasion to work on handling.

We have one border collie in our group this time. There is also one terrier, and then 3 goldens and a poodle. Riot at the BC we competing to see who could move the tunnel the most.

We had 4 runs tonight. The first one went pretty well until he noticed the other group working on the other side and then he stopped right in front of a jump and watched them. He was very interested in what was going on, but I easily got his attention and he worked really well for me from there on out. The first sequence he finished with an extra tunnel and jump. The second sequence was picture perfect and I called him off the tunnel he was getting ready to take after we were finished. Normally I’d let him take the tunnel, but I wanted to see if he’d call off and sure enough, he did. On our way back to get his leash, he tackled the weave poles along the wall.

The next two sequences were a little more difficult. We started with slicing a jump and the angles of all the jumps were skewed. Our first time through I was not far enough ahead of Riot and wasn’t able to push him out to the middle jump in the pinwheel. Our second attempt, I thought I was prepared, but he took off even faster than the first time. So my reaction besides having to speed up myself was to exclaim “holy crap.” Yeah, that dog can move. Despite being caught off guard with the speed, we did the sequence quite well.

Our last sequence of the night was the toughest. The opening was the same, but varied after the first two obstacles. A slight hesitation on my part resulted in Riot taking obstacles 3 and 4 from the previous sequence. I think it’s going to be very easy to get off courses with Riot — if I don’t make the next obstacle clear, he’s taking whatever is in front of him (which saved me earlier in the evening when I was lost). Our second attempt at the sequence was near perfect.

Right now our problem is I’m still babying him. We’re in this place where I think he knows more than I think he does, but not as much as I think he does. The more we work the better it’ll get. I’m having so much fun running him.

Oh and I got what I’d consider an awesome compliment from Elsie. She said she’d like to pair Robber and Riot in USDAA pairs.

22"

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:34:40 -0500

Riot got measured this weekend at the HVGRC agility trial. He now has his temporary height card saying he’s 22” tall. Yay for just barely being able to jump 20”

Contacts Practice

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:00:00 -0400

Our contacts are coming along. I took the boys over to ACA to work contacts for a little while this afternoon. Riot nailed all of his contacts in his first working session.

After I worked Cisco, and brought Riot out for his second session, he was a bit more amped. I wrapped him around a jump and he took the dog walk without me giving him a command. He completely blew off the contact. I’m not sure if it was him being amped or the fact I didn’t say “walk-it” that caused him to blow it off. The next time around, he again stopped a little short of the bottom. Over compensation of before? Other than that he hit all his contacts the second session. I also upped the jump to 22 and 24 inches on him and he didn’t have any problems with that either.

Like always, eventually things seem to come together with Riot. It’s not necessarily that I need to fix things with him. It’s more I think he needs to understand and sort it out in his own head.

I’m looking forward to seeing how he does on a standard course. There are a few run throughs in November I’m going to try and take him to to get him used in running different environments.

Last Night of Classes

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:43:32 -0400

Last night was Riot’s last Contacts & Weaves and Handling 2 Classes.

Contacts and Weaves

In contacts and weaves we practiced measuring since I (along with a few others) requested practice. Fortunately Riot should probably measure under 22 inches. We were getting between 21.5” and 22.25” depending on how wiggly and relaxed he was. He is taller than I thought he was going to be, but not as tall as I feared he was last week.

He had some nice grid work. And his weaves were pretty good. Elsie had us doing a set of 10 followed by a set of 6 and vice versa. We didn’t get a chance to do any teeter work, but we’ve been working the newly resurfaced teeter in the basement some this week.

As for his contacts, they’re getting better. They’re actually looking really nice when I’m on the left. He’s still not driving into position from the right that has everyone scratching their heads.

Handling 2

For handling 2, we did a novice jww course last night. It was the first full course Riot has seen. Riot didn’t do too bad. We had some issues with the lead out (I think more handler than dog related). And Riot broke his start line stay for the first time. I’m pretty please with the way he did.

We’re taking Handling 2 again next session. It’s a really fun class and we get to work on some pretty challenging sequences.

Class Week 5

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:20:12 -0400

In Contacts and Weaves we spent a lot of time dissecting his contacts problem. He’s got a great dog walk and teeter when he’s on the left, but on the right, he’s stopping a few feet short of the bottom. Eventually we got him driving to the bottom. The a-frame he was more hesitant on than usual. He was pausing at the top and driving towards the edges on his way down. Overall I was very happy with our progress tonight. We also did some practice on our weaves. I layered a second set of weaves between the poles he was working and myself and he stayed in. We also did a bunch of practice on the tire while we were waiting our turn. I was getting some very nice distance on that too.

Next was our handling 2 class and the sequences were from last weekend’s open or excellent jumpers run. Riot did really well. I made a handling mistake on the end of our first sequence and then he was not trilled about repeating and things kind of fell apart. Our second sequence I had thrown the leash in a place that I thought would be out of the way, but Riot did the first two jumps and decided to bring me the leash. He was fixated on the jump with the rest of our attempts with that sequence.

The next one we did fairly well, he lost focus between two of the jumps, but I called his name and got him right back on track. I got extra tickets for doing a good job of keeping my eye on the dog and keeping moving.

Our last sequence we nailed. We did it as a distance exercise and Riot had no problems with it.

Tonight there was a double and a triple in our sequences. This was the first time he had seen either and there weren’t any problems with them.

Our Weekend Off

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:11:15 -0400

We had no dog events this weekend and nothing planned.

It was mostly a low key weekend, but we worked the teeter and did some board work on Saturday and today we threw some bumpers. For a dog that doesn’t always want to bring them back, he sure does have a love for the game.

Up until now I’ve thrown only three bumpers and quit with Riot as not to overdo it. Tonight, since he was so wired and amped up for the game, we did 7 (and he’d probably have done more if I let him). He brought back all 7 much closer than he usually does and even hand delivered 3!

Riot also is responsible for recycling our plastic bottles. We’ll hand them to him and he’ll happily cary them into the kitchen for us. I need to get him some place to put them, but for now we take them back from him. Today, I decided to see what would happen if I told him to sit. He’d immediately spit out the bottle and sat.

I’m looking forward to force fetching him… well, maybe not the process, but the result.

Week 4

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:26:21 -0400

Highlights of contacts and weaves: rockin’ 12 weave poles, fabulous grid work, and awesome table, decent dog walk. Low lights: we still need lots of work on contacts. tunnel under dog walk == scary. Introduction to the broad jump — needs some work.

Handling 2 I thought was going to be easy in comparison to past weeks. All the exercises were box exercises, but we had our fair share of issues. But we also had some moments of brilliance. This is the first week we’ve jumped 20 inches in class and he did fine with that.

Favorite moment: Elsie telling me I need to get out of the habit of using 2 commands because I’m not going to have time. He’s going to be fast. :-D

Making a Liar Out of Me

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:33:55 -0400

I’ve mentioned before that a lot of times if we have trouble with something, we go back to it another day and Riot has it figured out. Well we had trouble with serpentines in handling 1, we had trouble with them when I tried to fix them in our backyard, and we had trouble with them when we saw them in handling 2. If you had seen us today, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you we were having problems with them. First of all, they were beautiful and second of all, all but one were handled from the right side. They felt good too. Not as good as Cisco’s who has had a beautiful serpentine for years, but like from a dog far more experienced that Riot is.

I had taken the boys over to ACA to work contacts outdoors and someone was nice enough to have left a beautiful serpentine out among the contacts. We did work contacts and did a pretty good job. We still need some more work with driving into position. I probably didn’t do as much work as I should have, but I was having so much fun with the serpentines.

Riot is turning into such a teenager. I’ve never had a dog who wants to pee on everything before. And he’s very distracted by things outside. The shelties across the driveway barking at him provided a good distraction — too good at times.

He did much better today outside than last week outside. So I have have hope we can regain out focus.

Field Training

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:26:00 -0400

Today was the PVGRC’s field training. Riot actually brought back a bumper on land!!!! This is the first time he’s brought back a bumper at a field training day.

He brought the first bumper back on a short mark which we made shorter. The second mark was longer. I probably should have shortened it up more, but I didn’t. He ran out to the bumpers multiple times, but failed to bring it back.

On water, he seemed timid. He did eventually bring back three bumpers, but on the longer swims he’d go out a little ways and look confused and start heading back.

Overall I really can’t complain. I think he’s getting the concepts, he brought back some bumpers and once I force fetch him, I think we’ll have something happening.

I always find it interesting how excited he gets for all this until he gets out to the bumper and then he’s like, eh… it’s not big deal.

We have seen progress at every field training day, so I really can’t complain. We’ve got one more day next month. So hopefully we’ll continue to see improvement there.

Classes Week 3

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:31:02 -0400

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.

What do you mean I have to do agility outside?

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:40:29 -0400

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.

Obedience in the Corn Maze

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:10:58 -0400

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!

Handling 2 and Contacts & Weaves: Week 2

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:19:37 -0400

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