Raising a Riot

Novice Obedience Week 5

Besides the usual getting a ton of tips to help us improve, Karen said two things that left me on cloud 9 tonight:

We’d be able to qualify in the ring — our score wouldn’t be great, but we could get in the 180s. I told her I wanted to wait until we could get in the 190s and she said that was a good idea because he certainly is capable of it.
She said if he had an OTCH handler, he’d be well on his way to an OTCH by now. It’s nice to know that the potential is there, now if only I could learn how to handle :)

Tuesday was week 4 of our obedience class. Riot continues to improve every week. I love that Karen always has tips for us on how to improve and as we improve the tips get more and more refined so we’ve never felt overwhelmed with everything we’ve needed to know, but we keep tweaking and refining as we get better.

The highlight of the class was probably how well he did his figure 8. It was very nice and he paid very good attention to me. Our stand is getting more and more solid without only one slight foot movement.

We’ve finally gotten to the point where Karen asked if I had a goal for when I wanted to have him in the ring by and suggested this fall. I told her I was hoping by the end of the year. But it was nice to know she finally thinks there is hope for us to get into the ring.

A Busy Week

I still have a few things to catch up on, but we’ll skip over that now to get to this week.

Riot had obedience on Tuesday night and he’s constantly improving. His attention is getting much better and he’s getting better at every exercise. I’m picking up a ton of tips for working on things, so we’re learning a lot.

This week, Karen decided to work backwards and had us do stays first. Typically when we work stays it’s the end of class and a lot of the dogs are more tired. We also did stays down where there was more agility action so that made them even harder. Riot did well through he stays even if he was craning his neck as much as possible to see the dogs running agility in the next ring. He sat through the dog next to him getting up and having to be put back, and downed through it too. There was a little sniffing, during the down, but he’s getting much better about that too.

I had him on a down while waiting our turn for another exercise later in the class and another dog came over and sniffed him and he didn’t get up or act like he was going to play with her. Which is a huge step for him too.

He’s getting much better about his stand for exam. I just need to learn not to lean into him upon returning. Karen said he’s even got drive for the stand. Which he does pop up almost instantly — much like his down.

Most of the heeling work was done towards the end of class this week and I typically start to lose his attention towards the end of class. He works really well for about 40-45 minutes and then I think he’s ready to be done. But even though his heeling wasn’t as good as I’ve seen, he did watch me throughout the exercises.

I had asked him at the end of class if he was getting tired and one of the other handlers asked me if he ever got tired. I said yeah, that he was actually a really easy dog to live with and had a great off switch. I think that really surprised her because he is a lot of dog and a bundle of energy in class :)

Wednesday night we crashed an agility class and Riot ran really well. He knocked a couple of bars on the first run and seemed to jump kind of funny on the last jump — which was not that far from a barrier so that might have had something to do with it. We re-ran the sequence and ran it perfectly. The second sequence had a two really difficult weave entrances and he hit both of them. He actually he all of his weave entrances all night. Not bad for a dog that’s been off from agility for nearly a month :)

This weekend we’re finally making it out to a field training session. I’m looking forward to seeing how our work in the backyard over the last couple of months translates into the field.

And Sunday, I think we’re going to hit a rally show-n-go to work on heeling with distractions in a new environment more than anything else.

First Mini with Paulena

Riot got to attend a mini session with Paulena Hope tonight. He was on fire tonight — probably the most drive-y I’ve seen him. We did four courses over the two hours and he really did well on all of them.

This is the first time Riot had seen the viaduct and he didn’t miss a beat.

Our first course started out with a big loop that started with the tunnel to a couple of jumps, then the viaduct, and then the weave poles. He did miss that weave pole entrance but that was the only one he missed all night. He had so much speed built up from the loop, I was pretty sure we’d miss that entrance.

The courses weren’t easy and for being the youngest dog in the session, I think he did really well. Paulena really liked him. She was very impressed with his speed and drive.

I did get two barks from him on the second course. One as he was entering the weaves and another as we were leaving the dog walk. He was quiet on the remainder of the courses, but I find the barking fascinating. I’ve never had a dog that has barked on course.

By the fourth course things were starting to become unhinged for the both of us. I think both our brains were a little fried at that point, but we still had some nice moments.

Novice Obedience - Week 6

Riot has really made great strides in this session. He’s gotten a lot better at paying attention to me during class. His heeling is getting so much better. He still had a great recall and his front is getting better at the end. We’ve gotten so many tips on how to improve things and he even let someone examine him on stand for exam.

The last exercise of the night was the class made two lines facing each other and we had our dogs sitting next to us paying attention to us while we each took a turn recalling our dogs through the channel created by the lines of dogs. Riot did really well. He did occasionally look at the person as they called the dogs name, but he immediately looked back to me. And his recall through the lines of dogs was really nice. The sit at the end was a bit crooked, but hey, he went by six dogs without stopping to visit. What more could I ask for?

Last Handling 3 Class

For our final class we had two short courses. One was 11 obstacles and the other was 10.

The first course was a little tricky, it was tight and Riot was a little high and was jumping long. I ran him at 24 inches since there were no other 20 inch dogs in class — Since we introduced him to 26” jumps, I’ve been jumping him in class based on what he’ll see at a trial the following weekend. Since we’re doing obedience this weekend, I hesitated on what to do with him in class. He is a bit slower at 24/26 than he is at 20 and this is something I need to be aware of. I was further ahead of him that I expected a couple of times, one of which nearly resulted in a collision :-S

So the first course, the first time I pushed up too far on the rear cross and he swung wide missing the next jump. Hanging back more resulted in a much tighter turn. I really did have enough time to front, but we do need additional work on rear crosses. It was a really touch weave entrance that included a surface change and we never did get a solid entrance at the speeds he was going. He was very focused on course.

The second course had a tire at 90° to the next jump. I led out laterally until I was close to even with jump number two, took one step forward and said tire and took off running. This course was essentially a big loop and I used “Ri” once to make sure he was turning over one jump and a go to get him to drive ahead to take the triple. Other than that I did not speak to him on course. He nailed the sequence and he understood what was expected of him on the lead out perfectly — we did a lot of practice with lateral lead-outs as a pup, but before class tonight, I probably would have been hesitant.

I’ve had a hard time getting Riot to tug on his “tug leash.” Before the trial last weekend, I took his favorite tug that he was given as a puppy and braided it around the meat of his leash. The tug did need some TLC and at least a re-braiding. This seems to have helped some as after every run at the trial he did run up to the leash his chair was on and put his mouth around it. I didn’t get a whole lot of tugging there. But by the end of the day I was starting to get some. Last night in class, I only used his tug wrapped leash as his tug reward after his runs and he did seem to be tugging with it more. I’ll probably leave it like this for a few more weeks and work on tugging with him, but I’ll either need to re-braid it or consider replacing the lead part with a new braided tug — maybe I’ll braid his tug in with a new piece of fleece or two. I am definitely getting more interest than I got before I added his tug.

Novice Obedience - Week 4

We actually had a very good obedience class. Our heeling is getting better — still has a long way to go, but there was a lot less forging tonight.

In our group practices of changing of speeds, he actually stayed with me instead of racing to catch the dog in front of him. There was no real attention to me and he was a bit ahead, but it was a great improvement over weeks past. We heeled past 3 groups of distractions and while he glanced at them, he stayed with me. As soon as I released him at the end of the exercise, he made a bee-line for the last stuffed toy and picked it up. But hey, he had been released. That got a nice chuckle from the class.

We did some really nice figure 8s with “air cookies” I was having a hard time getting his attention before that, but air cookies seemed to do the trick. I also picked up my speed which helped a bunch.

Our heeling pattern left a bit to be desired. The instructor was too busy chuckling that she forget to give us the slow. She said he is so driven and it was like he was on a mission. He did a VERY nice job staying with me through the exercise and even the fast part. Put his head was focused straight ahead. He had somewhere to go.

Our stays, he’s still on high alert. During the long down I turned to the person next to me and asked if we could drug them before the exercise. Seriously if I could get him to relax just a bit, it would be awesome.

Overall, much improvement over two weeks ago. We still have a long way to go, but we’re having a ton of fun.

I asked what we should take next session — whether we should repeat novice obedience or go back and take attention for obedience again. Karen said he’s so high drive that going back to attention for obedience was probably beneath him and wouldn’t do much for him. But I needed to work the concepts of that class into our novice class. She says he’s going to be a lot of work, just cause he has so much go. But he’s still young.

We did have a complete breakdown about 40 minutes into class where he completely lost focus and was watching agility. It took about 5 minute for me to get him back and he started working for me again after that. Kind of the same thing that happened during our last sequence in agility the night before. So he may just need a little bit of a break before class is over.

Handling 3 Week 4

Riot was on his best behavior in class tonight. He had gorgeous down stays while I walked the sequences and he was just happy to be working.

Once I put him in a down, I rolled his back end over onto one hip and that seemed to keep his down a lot more relaxed. He wasn’t nearly on edge and I didn’t have to worry as much about those elbows popping up. I’ll have to try this during stay practice in obedience class tomorrow and if it works, give the rolling onto a hip a command and teach that to him.

We did all of tonight’s sequences at 26” in preparation for his big USDAA debut at the Mid-Atlantic Agility Showcase this weekend.

Our first sequence was a two jump lead out to a serpentine with a significant distance between jump one and two. Our first time through started out really nicely, but the dog working on the other side decided to come visit. I put Riot into a down as soon as he cleared the last jump in the serpentine and he stayed there until the other dog was corralled. Our second attempt started even nicer than the first as Riot read the need for collection nicely and added an extra stride before jump two. The serpentine was very nice and tight too (remember this is at 26”) and the send into the tunnel was nice. I didn’t cue any deceleration coming out of the tunnel so he jumped the second to last jump a lot bigger than ideal and we didn’t get a tight line to the last jump.

The second sequence allowed the opportunity to introduce Riot to the concept of layering. It took us a few times to get the timing right, but we successfully layered a jump (which is the grand scheme of things was actually a pretty hard jump to layer). Again I had problems cuing deceleration coming out of the tunnel that started the sequence that added to the confusion. Riot is really good at picking up even small cues, so I’m having to learn how to become a better handler.

Our third sequence provided us with some challenges. We haven’t worked a lot of push-throughs and this seemed to be a source of confusion with us. We really need to go back and work some one jump work.

By our last sequence things were starting to fall apart. I’m not real sure where Riot’s head went, but it seemed to have left for a while. We started with a tunnel and I released him and he went to the area where the last dog left the course? Next attempt he took the tunnel and then next jump and just kept going not paying any attention to me? Next attempt we got through the sequence, but it wasn’t pretty. Next attempt again was through the tunnel and straight over the jump without paying any attention to me? Then we went through the tunnel and went back and peaked over the tunnel? Finally we had a pretty decent go at the sequence with one check over the barrier to see who was leaving between the last two jumps. No one could figure out why he was acting the way he was. Not sure if he was stressed from repeating so many times or it was just the end of a long class. The two times through we had the most success with, I really riled him up before hand.

I’m looking forward to this weekend. He has 13 runs over 3 days and I’m a bit worried that’s a bit too much for him. It’s going to be a LONG weekend so we’ll have to see how he holds up.

Handling 3 - Week 3

I didn’t get this updated right after class and now I don’t remember a lot of the specifics.

The first two sequences of the night we ran at 24 inches. The first sequence Riot nailed. If I remember it was some sort of box configuration with a figure 8 pattern with one front cross required. Riot read everything beautifully and it was near textbook perfect. Elsie asked if I wanted to run it again and I decided not to since Riot does seem to start to question himself when we re-run things.

The next sequence was a bit harder, but we still did a good job on it. Elsie had us re-run it because I wasn’t doing a good job queuing collection and Riot wasn’t doing a good job reading it. We ended up repeating quite a few times the one part, but in the end ended up with a much tighter turn and a much nicer line.

Then we moved on to work with Diann and the ugly serpentine with a tunnel infront of it. I knew Riot was going to beeline for that tunnel since he could see if from the start line and despite my lateral motion with no forward movement, he was taking that damn tunnel. I also decided to up the jumps on him the this sequence and introduce him to 26 inch jumps for the first time. Riot handled the 26” jumps like a pro (Diann said she thought he looked better at 26 than at 24) and we did eventually work through our serpentine with the tunnel suck issues (please, please, please don’t let there be anything like that on any upcoming corses).

Our last sequence was similar to the one before but heading the other direction. Our first attempt, I pulled him off the jump before the tunnel as I was a hair too early. But he came to me so he got a big reward for not taking that tunnel and listening. Then we were back to the tunnel suck. Diann distracted me and changed the subject and then had me run it again. And we did fine. She laughed and said sometimes you just need to get me thinking about something else and a little less focused and I do so much better — must be why Cisco and I Q when I don’t walk the courses and don’t have time to obsess :-P

Overall, it was a really good class. Elsie told me I’ve done a really good job with him. To which I replied “he’s almost been too easy.”

She replied “There is no such thing as too easy.”

After I thought about it, she’s right. He’s done really well at picking up most of the concepts in agility, but teaching him a serpentine was a painful, multi-week process. And lets not forget about the 8 months it took to teach him to retrieve ;-)

Novice Obedience - Week 2

Tonight was quite the challenge. Riot is still having issues focusing, but I think he’s getting better. I also think I need to bring yummier treats or find a way to work toys in as rewards better — I’ve never been good with toy rewards in obedience classes and Cisco and Berkley would always work for their kibble. Riot was not that thrilled with the pumpkin treats he had last week.

We’re still having trouble with our circle work and need to practice. Hopefully Sunday will be nice enough that we can go work outside. I’m planning on taking him to the local dog park and working in the grassy area outside of the park — starting at the far end away from the park and working closer to where the dogs are.

I got lots and lots of tips this week for fixing things — crooked sits and fronts, his sphinx downs where his elbows are on the verge of coming up, etc. And getting him to slow down on approach for his recall. Right now, it’s pitter-patter, pitter-patter, slide, halt. I’m glad he’s so enthusiastic, but the slide into the front is a bit much.

Our stand for exam needs some work too. He’s doing some foot shifting I need to fix and someone other than me touching him? Oh it’s way to exciting. The instructor was able to walk around him with me six feet away. The actual exam part we’re going to have to work up to.

Obedience class is far more frustrating for me than agility. It’s harder because I don’t know a lot of the rules and there is a precision that is expected of you that isn’t there in agility or rally. But it’s a great learning experience for us both.