Raising a Riot

Living Up To His Name - PVGRC Speciality 2010

Riot and I had a wild ride this morning. It was the PVGRC speciality and I had him entered in Rally Advanced A and Wildcard Novice. Nothing counting towards any titles because I knew being outside on grass was going to be enough pressure for us. 

I knew going in the grass was going to be a challenge, but I didn’t realize exactly how big of a challenge it was going to be! 

Riot warmed up pretty nicely. He had a few minutes of excellent attention and the rest was not great, but adequate. He was really doing a great job even with all the distractions around and being on grass. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I completely lost his attention about 30-45 seconds before the judge called our number. We got to the entrance to the gate and I was continually having to pull his nose off the ground. The judge warned me that when we got into the ring I couldn’t do that or she’d take points off. I didn’t realize they could take points off before you actually started, so I guess that’s good to know. 

We got to the start line somehow and he sat with me with probably some of the best attention I’ve had from him at the start line. He was actually doing a very nice job watching me. 

The judge told us we could start, and I said heel and proceeded to walk forward. Riot sat there and looked at me. I said “heel” he continued to look at me. I said “heel” and he finally got up. I don’t know if I had told him to “stay” or “wait” at the start line while I was taking off the leash or what happened. Usually I don’t use any sort of word that means stay with a sit or down command since it’s redundant for him (his sit and down mean stay until I release or give you another command) and it does tend to confuse him when I give him a stay and then another command — he give you this look like, it that a trick?

He caught up to me (nose mostely on the ground) and somehow we got the sit at the first obstacle, which was a sit to a fast. Well the fast turned into a yee-haw lets run around the ring smelling everything. The judge yelled “block the gates.” I got him back around the normal sign, did a really messy left turn and then had a beautiful call front, finish left, halt. The next two signs he mostly kind of stayed with me, nose on the ground though, and then he had the jump, which he ran ahead of me, nose on the ground after. The next two obstacles were pretty much a mess.

And then we got excused. 

Ugh. She said she didn’t think Riot was ready for this. I knew it was going to be a challenge for us, but never in a million years did I think we’d get excused. 

Of course as soon as we leave the ring, he goes lunging for the closest dog to go visit. I gave him a good tug on the leash, and a pretty serious “no.” Which got me pulled aside and warned that I could get written up and reported for that on show grounds. Whoops. So I guess no correcting for inappropriate behavior at shows. 

I put him back in his crate and sat there for a while while he pulled himself together. He was being such a goof in his crate. Once he settled, I opened the door and we sat there calmly watching to other dogs pass. He was doing pretty good, but was trembling every once in a while. I’m not sure if it was excitement, nervousness, or if he was possibly a little cold. We sat there for a while with me debating whether or not we’d stick around for wildcard novice. 

I was really torn, because I wanted to see how he’d do. I did consider opting out of the off leash healing part and just doing the rest, but ultimately, I decided I was going to be too paranoid after his performance in rally and that I didn’t want him in the ring again if I couldn’t correct him for the nose on the ground or the lack of attention. 

I had so many people come up to me and say he sure was entertaining to watch and he was named quite appropriately. And I really can’t be mad at him. A little frustrated, yes — especially after seeing so much improvement in our obedience class over the last 6 weeks. 

On the way home we stopped off at the dog park and worked on our attention from the opposite side of the parking lot. He was doing a bit of avoidance initially where he’d kind of look at me and kind of not, but he got better as we worked more. We’ve got all summer to work on our attention in new places, so I think we’re going to take advantage of that. 

PVSSC Rally Trial - Sunday - Riot RA!

You know it’s been a wild ride when the judge hands you your leash at the end of the run and says “Yee-haw!”

Riot qualified today and came in 4th with a 93! A 13 point improvement over yesterday and all 7 points off were for heeling.

Riot warmed up really nicely today — both outside and when I brought him in the building. His heeling was tighter, his focus was better, and he just overall seemed more eager to please. 

I brought him over to the rally ring about two and half dogs before it was his turn and it was even tighter than it was yesterday. The best I could do warming up ringside was to work on “watch” and keep an eye out for wandering dogs invading his space all while blocking someone else’s view. 

Riot was very interested in the judge and I was half convinced he was going to go visit him when he came to take his leash from me. 

Overall the first half of the course was really nice. His heeling wasn’t as nice as I would have liked but it was much better than yesterday. The jump was so much better than yesterday, he actually returned to heel afterwards, didn’t back jump, and didn’t bark.

The second half of the course was a lot more open and all movement with no stopping exercies (other than the last) and two speed changes. This was going to be more of a challenge for us regardless and then the clapping started. In the obedience ring next to us (which we were facing at the time), they were awarding placements and clapping. This was a bit much for Riot to handle as he was convinced they had to be clapping for him and ran over to see what was going on. I told him to heel and he came right back to me. But from then on out it was a battle to keep him with me as things were just way too exciting.

We need to work on longer heeling patterns and more time between rewards when training. The 14 obstacles on course seems a bit hard on him and I think he would be better focused if he could be rewarded a few times throughout.

PVSSC Rally Trial - Saturday

We had a wild time at today’s Rally trial. I have so much fun with this dog, but he does keep things interesting.

This is the first time we’ve done rally since we started trialing in agility and I wasn’t sure what that was going to do to us. 

I brought him into the building right as dogs started running in his class (there were 7 dogs competing in advanced A). We worked in a separate room with very few distractions and I was able to quickly get him to focus. We found a quiet area in the main room and worked some more and he was doing really well. There was no real room to work close to the rings and we needed to pass by the regular obedience ring to get to the rally ring. We arrived ring side with 2 dogs to go and practiced some sits, some downs, and some very small heeling patterns. I had relaxed a bit as we headed in the ring.

I made the mistake of asking “Are you ready?” right before we headed in and he gave one loud definitive bark. We headed in and he sat very nicely at the start line — even with my fumbling to get his leash off. The first three exercises were okay. They weren’t as precise as I’d like and he was a bit ahead on his heeling, but we made it through. The 4th exercise I stopped mid step to remind him to stay before finishing my step and calling him to heel. The 5th exercise was the serpentine and he was so far ahead of me by the third cone I had to call him back into heel position. Our 90° right pivot was very nice and then came the jump. Oh boy.

He did a very good job staying with me until I said jump when he took off, did the jump and continued forward to the ring gate where he decided to sniff. I had to call him to come back. He came back, back jumped the panel jump, and then as I told him to heel came back to me giving me one loud disapproving bark (apparently one jump wasn’t enough for him?). Of course I’m trying not to laugh at this point.

We actually pulled it together pretty nicely after that. His heeling still wasn’t where I wanted it to be (he was a foot or two further from me than he should have been), but the right spiral was pretty nice and the remainder of the exercises were completed decently.

We got done the judge handed me the leash and said we qualified. I think I just stared at her. She said we had an 80. I stared harder — my eyes might have been popping out of my head. Then she told me to put the leash on my dog.

We finished in 5th place. The judge asked as she was handing us our green ribbon if the golden was obedience bred. I sheepishly relied “yes” thinking about all the OTCHs in his pedigree and his fabulous brothers and sisters. She said that we were going to do fine. I guess she recognized some potential in my spirited youngster ;-)

On our way out someone stopped me and said that he was “full of life.” He’s full of something for sure. 

There were a lot of positive things about today. First of all his behavior was so much better than at the Blue Ridge agility trial a couple of weekends ago. I was able to quickly get his attention and focus outside of the ring. Inside the ring, there was still a lot of stimulation and it was harder for him to focus, but overall he did well (we need more opportunities to work on off leash healing in new environments). He really is spirited and energetic, but that’s exactly what I wanted. And he keeps me laughing, I can’t help, but laugh at his antics. Guess that’s what you get when you name a dog “Riot.”

Our First Rally Advanced Trial

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.