Starting with a new group in Intermediate Agility

Well, next week is the last class in the current cycle of Intermediate Agility. I think this is our 2nd or 3rd cycle. The Advanced Beginners are going to be moving up to Intermediate in the next cycle, which will be a huge change, since all the dogs in the class are really big. There are 4 Bernese Mountain Dogs and a Great Dane. They all seem pretty young and rambunctious too, so Shelby might need to be back on a leash during class, or else she'll be running all over trying to play with everyone. I think I will be the most advanced in the class, which will be weird, but I think it will be ok.

I hope I don't see this guy again...

A couple months ago I pulled into the driveway and there was this guy, just hangin' out, enjoying the sunny day... he was in no rush to go anywhere, so I had to wait to get the dogs out of the car, because I knew they would want to go after Mr. Gopher.
Then I saw this video on YouTube. I won't embed it here, since it is pretty graphic, but don't worry, no blood.
Click here to watch it.
This is why I can never have a cat, ferret, bunny, etc. The prey drive in Jack Russells is very strong. At least with Earthdog they never actually get the rat, but a couple people have suggested maybe buying a mouse from the pet store to get Shelby worked up and then let it loose to see if she will catch it. I don't think I could do that.

Upgrades at Willards Woods

Willards Woods is a 100-acre conservation area in Lexington widely known as a place to take your dog where they can be off leash. There were problems earlier in the year because some residents were complaining about the amount on traffic and cars parked on their street. Visitors really had no other choice because the parking lot was always closed. Well, the Conservation Commission decided to open up the parking lot to see if it helped the situation. It did, but the dirt parking area became a muddy mess almost always and had a few dangerous rocks that could damage the undercarriage of your car if you weren't careful.
Happily, I went to WW last week and the parking area had been upgraded! They filled in all the huge puddles and covered up the rocks. Much better!
Here are a before and after pic:
Before

After

Bay Colony Dog Show

This Saturday, Holly and I went to the Bay Colony Dog show held the the Bayside Expo Center in Boston. This was my first dog show and it was pretty low key. There were lots of dogs there and a lot going on, but everyone was pretty relaxed and things seemed to run well. We went to see the agility competition. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the novice standard class. They start that class at 6am (!) before the doors open to the public so that the dogs and handlers are less stressed. We got there around 8:30 and saw the 20 inch standard class. It was interesting. The course was pretty easy I thought, except for a tough discrimination between the tunnel and dog walk. A few people got caught by that. Then later we came back and watched the novice jumpers with weaves. It's similar to the standard class, but there are no contact obstacles. I took a few vidoes. One dog was so stressed that it peed in the ring. That's an automatic disqualification unfortunately.





I was hoping these videos would be clearer, since I used the high resolution setting. Oh well.

OMG!

If you are ever in need a slice of cutie pie visit www.dailypuppy.com.

It's out of control over there!

Regulation height teeter and serpentines

Last night at agility class, we put the see saw up to the correct height. Up until now, we've had it low so Shelby could get comfortable with the concept. To ease her into it, we put the table under one end, and held the see saw down for her to get on. Then she could walk across and make it move all the way down to the floor. At first she was like "what am I doing?" but then she caught on. At one point she didn't even wait for me, she just jumped on it.

We also worked on serpentine jumps. Basically, you have 2 or more jumps lined up in a straight line, and you have to send the dog away over one jump, then bring them back over another jump. If the dog is on your left, you use your left arm to send them over jump 1, then as you approach jump 2, you drop the left arm, and switch to the right arm to pull them back towards you and over the jump.
Here is a visual for you.



The last one shows how NOT to do it-if you keep your arm out there, the dog misses the jump. You want to try and make the dog's path as flat as possible, not really the big curves shown here. Keeping the path flatter saves time on course.

Flyball disappointment

Well, I dragged myself out of bed at 7 am again last Sunday to go to flyball. Again, it was a disappointing day. It seems lately, the team never has all the equipment with them, etc. It used to be we had two lanes set up, so the experienced dogs could practice on one, and the new dogs on the other. Lately, we've only had one lane and one box. One time, we had one box and only 2 jumps. So Spot and Shelby each only got one turn on Sunday, which is really not worth my time of getting up early, driving 25 minutes there, then being there for 2 hours, not really doing much, then packing up and driving 25 minutes home. I know they are hosting a tournament next weekend, so they are probably wrapped up in that, but it's really not fair to me, when I'm paying them for lessons. If this continues, I'm going to have to contact another team to see if I can learn from them.

Everything but weaves

Well, Shelby is doing really well in agility class. I can work with Shelby off lead now and she will not be distracted too much by the other dogs. I finally found the treat that will motivate her-ham and cheese!

She can do all the obstacles, except the weave poles. Right now we only have 4 poles set up, and they are further apart than usual, so she goes through them, but only has to weave a little bit. We will start setting them up closer and closer together so it's more like weaving soon.

We had a pretty good run through on Tues, but I think Shelby had to pee and was a little distracted, because I lost her once.
The set up was 3 jumps, then a quick front cross to a tunnel, which we handled no problem. :-) Then another set of jumps where we tried to send the dog out away from us a bit, which Shelby did, but then I kind of lost her attention for a second and fudged the next jump. From there, we did the A frame with no hesitation, to the tire and then a curved tunnel, which we bobbled a little. I think because my hand was pointing to the left entrance, but my feet were pointing towards the right entrance, so Shelby wasn't sure what I really wanted, but I adjusted and she took it correctly. From there, it was on to the dog walk, which I messed up by running too close and pushing Shelby away from the entrance by mistake. We recovered and went from the dog walk to the table, which Shelby did well on. The problem with the table is they have to stay in a down position, and Shelby does that, but then the instructor has us feed for the stay, but when I do that, Shelby thinks the down stay is over, and sits up. So then I have to put her in a down again before we can get off the table. After the table was another tunnel, which was no problem, then 2 more jumps to finish. I thought I had a lot of bobbles, but I was first so I couldn't tell how the others would do. I actually did the best out of the class, which was nice. Everyone else in class had problems with the opening jumps and front cross to the tunnel. I think I have good innate handling skills, just because I get fewer corrections, and they tend to be on refinements like when to say the command rather than body positioning. Maybe Shelby is just a better body language-reader!

The funniest thing I've seen in a while

I saw this today when I went out at lunch. This was the first time I've seen this. It was a Subaru wagon with antlers and a red nose on the grille. I think it's a great idea. Way better than putting a wreath on the front of your car.

http://www.cargetups.com./
Apparently they have bunny ears for Easter and bat wings for Halloween. This is a silly idea that is going to make someone a lot of money. How come I didn't think of it?

Petedge, how I love you...

Thank god for the Petedge outlet in Woburn. They have really good prices in their catalog, but at the outlet, the prices go way down. And you all know how I love a bargain! Today I got 10 of these Halloween themed toys for $4, total. They were $.40 each! They cost $1.89 each in the catalog. Amazing. I've learned my lesson and try to get toys without a lot of stuffing, because that is the first to go. Spot and Shelby like toys they can play tug with, and these stretch in the middle.


Also I got 2 packages of pressed rawhide bones for $1.29 each. There's 4 bones in each pack, so those were only $.32 each! The pressed bones last a lot longer than the rawhide pieces, and there's less chance that they would bite off a big hunk and get an intestinal blockage or something.

Wow-this is cool

Maybe someday I can get Spot or Shelby to do this! I wouldn't even know where to start.
This is impressive because most dogs have very little idea what their back feet are doing, so this would be a real challenge.

Agility Class Videos!

Holly came to class last Tuesday, so I asked her to take some videos.
Here are 3 videos of our run through at the end of class.

In the first part, I get Shelby set up to take the chute, but she misses it, so we try again. Then there is a jump and a tunnel.



In the second part, we come out of the tunnel, then we have 2 jumps, and the tire, which is a rear cross. After the tire there is another jump which requires another rear cross, but we don't do it correctly so we have to try again.





In the third part, we have another tunnel, but Shelby doesn't want to go in because there is a wet spot on the floor in front of the entrance where another dog peed or someting in an earlier class. Then I lose her for a second and have to get her attention to take the last jump.



This was really helpful to me because I feel like Shelby is lagging behind and I have to slow down for her, but really she is right behind me, so I should try and go as fast as I can.

Some videos to entertain you

Here are some videos I took with my camera phone earlier this summer. Just basically playing in the yard.

Here's Shelby trying to get Cara to play with her. She basically jumps at Cara's face until Cara tries to smush her with her huge paw.

A trip to a new groomer

On Saturday, Spot and Shelby went to get groomed. Thankfully, since they are terriers, this is more for my convenience than anything they "need", so they only go every 6 months or so. When I wash them at home, I just can't get them as deep down clean as a groomer can. And the clean dog smell lasts a lot longer than when I wash them too.
Unfortunately, our wonderful groomer in Arlington closed, so I had to find a new place. I wasn't all that impressed with the new groomer. First, she mentioned shaving. Now, with a wire coated dog, you don't shave them, you strip the hair. I mean, my two are not show dogs, so I'm not all that into their appearance, but it's not like a poodle or an arctic breed that might need shaving in the summer to stay cool. Also, I didn't like that I couldn't actually see the grooming area. I liked the other groomer because you could see everything. Third, they trimmed the dogs' nails, and they trimmed Spot's nails too short and he started bleeding when we got home. This never happened before.
So, I think I might look for a different groomer next time.

Agility is challenging

I thought by now, we'd be breezing through agility like champs. Instead, it seems we're regressing. I just can't find the right way to motivate Shelby to pay attention. I bring a variety of treats, and I make sure she doesn't eat before class, but she still always is looking around for treats left on the floor. In her defense, there were tons of treats from the Halloween thing all around. At this point, I'm not sure filet mignon would get her attention.


We did well with all the obstacles, but when it was our turn for a run through, it turned into a nightmare. For some reason, she didn't want to do the tire-she's had no problem with the tire at all before this. So that will need some attention next week. Also, we need to work on the table, I think. Again, she ignored me at a couple points and went off on her own, so I had to either run around to get her to chase me, or run and hide, so she had to find me. I was sweating by the time I was done!



This was a challenging course because it required all rear-crosses, as opposed to front crosses, which we have been doing. A front cross is when you send your dog to a jump, then when they are landing, you cross in front of them to redirect them to the next obstacle. For a rear cross, you send the dog to the jump before you, but then cross behind them to direct them to the next obstacle. So, the body language and positioning is much more important, because you're not physically creating a barrier in front of the dog to tell them which way to go. They have to figure out from your body language where they're going next, and sometimes that means they go the wrong way. With Shelby, because she is small, she tends to look more at the direction my feet are going, so if I change my foot direction at the wrong time, it gives her incorrect signals and she doesn't take the obstacle I intended her to. It's really challenging to think about the info your dog is getting and the info you are unconsciously giving.


Here are some diagrams. You can see the dog, and the other icon is an arm, representing the arm you have out directing the dog where to go.


Here is a front cross:






It's a little hard to tell, but what's happening here is that the dog is on your right going over the first jump, then before the second jump, you cross in front of the dog and pivot so that now the dog is on your left to direct them to the second jump.

Here is a rear cross:

Here the dog is on your right going over the first jump, then you send him to the second jump and as he's jumping, you cross behind the jump, and switch hands so the dog is now on your left going to the third jump. This doesn't really show the rest of the body, but the shoulders and feet would already be going in the direction of the third jump, as you're pointing at the second jump with your left arm. You need to use your shoulders and feet as your going towards the second jump to tell the dog he's going to be going to the right and taking that third jump, because in a competition, there may be another obstacle to the left or in front of the second jump, and the dog might take that by mistake.

Simple, right? ;-)

Here is a homemade video. It is slow at first, but picks up. It is kind of long, but at around the 37 second mark, she does a front cross after the first jump, then does rear crosses for the other 2. Also notice that in the first couple sequences, at the last rear cross, the dog spins back toward the jump, which is wrong, but catches on and turns in the right direction after a few repetitions.

Happy Howl-o-ween

On Sunday, Gemini Dogs had a Halloween open house and I took Shelby. She was dressed as a pumpkin. Holly came and brought Cara, who was dressed as a bunny. Cara was a big hit-everyone wanted to say hello to her. There were a lot of dogs there, so it was a little bit stressful for them, I think.

We showed off our agility training and did a short course. Holly and Cara did some obedience games, and Cara did well considering she only really had puppy training. Unfortunately we had to leave before the search and rescue dog demonstration, but we all had a great time. I took some pictures, but I'm having a problem loading my camera software on my new work computer. Hopefully I'll get to post them.
Here are some pictures of some of the other attendees:

maybe intermediate agility doesn't rock quite so much...

Well, last night was disappointing. I keep having a problem where Shelby is more interested in seeing what treats are lying around on the floor than taking the treats I have for her. It's not like I don't have good stuff. I have lunch meat, and cheese, and organic chicken treats, etc. I don't think she's so hungry when we get to class that all she can think about is food. I have to figure out how to be the most interesting thing in the room I guess.

On a positive note, we did start doing the whole A-frame, which means we get to run up and over the top!

But Shelby did have a strange issue with the tunnel. I was trying to send her to the tunnel, but she kept wanting to sit between my feet in the "ready" position. She usually loves the tunnel...

Oh well. Maybe she picked up on my vibes of not really being that into it this week.

Onward and upward!

We're having a sleepover...

Our friends Tanya and Jeremy, who were so great to watch Spot and Shelby while I went to Las Vegas, are going to Buffalo to see the NE Patriots this weekend, so their dog Halle is staying with us.

Halle is an English Cocker Spaniel. She is black and white. She is a little bit bigger than my guys, but not much. She loves to swim and has a great howl when she is excited.

Shelby loves to play with Halle, but Halle sometimes needs a little time to warm up, and is a little sensitive to Shelby getting in her space, especially when treats or attention are involved.

Halle loves to hang out with Spot, but he really couldn't care one way or the other. He will sometimes run around in the yard if everyone else is too. He likes to bark at Shelby and Halle when they are roughhousing.

Intermediate agility rocks!

I am really enjoying the intermediate class. We get to "do" so much more now that we have the concepts down. The first 30 minutes is practice on individual obstacles, but we only spend 4 minutes on each one and then we switch, so there's not a lot of time to get bored. Then the last half of the class we get to do practice runs and the teacher gives us pointers. That's the best part! Shelby was pretty slow I thought, but she did all the obstacles correctly. I did everything I was supposed to do too. ;-)
The teacher says it's good that Shelby takes her time and really looks at each obstacle-it will pay off later as we get more experience.

Flyball again

Well, this Sunday flyball was not so great.

Spot regressed and didn't do the turns all that well. But he is still very enthusiastic. When we first started, he would get all revved up, but not really understand how to channel it into running and getting the ball. He would get all jumpy when I would try and handle him. Now he gets it and sometimes I barely get a chance to set up before he's off on his own.

Shelby was distracted by all the other dogs. The way it is set up, they have two runs next to each other. The beginner run has fencing around it, but the other one doesn't. Shelby is small enough to jump through the holes in the fencing, which she did while a Yorkie was practicing on the other run. She actually got aggressive and was growling at the other dog, which Shelby has only done once before. It does happen every once in a while at flyball practice, so no one freaked out or anything. But Shelby couldn't really recover, so we only practiced the recall, having her chase me, which she is really good at. ;-)

We have no practice for 2 weeks, so I should be able to get in some training with retrieving the tennis ball.

Advanced Beginner Agility-Done

Tuesday was the last night of our 6 week advanced beginner agility class. We started at the beginner level and over the past 3 months have learned a lot. These classes are as much about me learning the best way to communicate verbally and with my body language, where I want Shelby to go, as they are about teaching Shelby how to negotiate the different obstacles.
We've learned to jump through a tire, go over single jumps, through a tunnel and the chute, which is a tunnel with fabric on one end that they have to push through, the pause table, the weave poles, the teeter totter, and the A frame. We'll definitely be working more on the weave poles and the teeter and the A frame in the intermediate class starting next week. Sometimes I feel like we are going too slow, with the backchaining method used by the instructor, but in the end I think that method does work well. Backchaining means you learn the end of the sequence first, so that when you add a new part onto the beginning, you always know the next step.

The last thing we did on Tues was a run through of a full course with 8 obstacles. We were the last to go. Everything was going great-we started with the tire, then a tunnel, then another tunnel, then 3 jumps in a row and another tunnel-and then that's where things went out of control. We had 1 last obstacle, the table. As Shelby exited the tunnel, instead of coming to the table, she ran off, up the stairs and totally ignored me! Then she came back, but she was going around the ring to where another dog was sitting. Now this dog is very reactive and doesn't like other dogs too much, so I was worried. The instructor had me run in the opposite direction all the way to the other end of the ring. That got Shelby's attention! She came tearing over and we were able to run to the table and finally complete the course, providing much amusement for my classmates.

Flyball!!!

Yesterday Shelby had her first flyball class. Unfortunately it was at 8am. Ugh. Who would have ever thought I would get up that early for my dogs? It seems like all the trials and things start around 8 am and are usually about an hour away. Thankfully this class is only about 20 minutes away at that time in the morning.

The Weston Whirlwinds, a local flyball club, offer 6 weeks of lessons held at the same training center where I take Shelby for obedience and agility. (www.geminidogs.com) I think she was a little surprised when we got there and the agility equipment wasn't set up!

I took Spot to flyball classes last winter, and he loves it, so I figured I might as well give Shelby a shot too. Shelby did very well running and jumping over the hurdles. She wasn't super interested in chasing the ball-well she chased it a bit, but didn't pick it up and bring it to me, so we'll be working on that this week.

Spot was super excited to be there. We haven't been at all this summer because the team has tournaments and we've been at Earthdog trials, but he didn't forget anything he learned before. He picked up right where we left off. He even got his swimmers turn a little better-he was actually jumping on the box with all 4 feet, which is great!

I'll see if I can get someone to take some pictures next week.
Here is a really good video from a tournament in TX, where you can really see all the elements involved.

I love snow!

Snow is the best. Here I am playing during the last snowstorm we had.

Welcome to our blog!

Thanks for checking out our page.
To get you up to speed here are a few pictures of Shelby over the last year or so.

Here I am at my breeder's house. I was about 5 weeks old.

Here I am my first day home sleeping after a long day. Spot is sleeping too.

I learned where the toys were pretty quickly.

Here I am at 9 months-my hair is growing!

And here is my 1 year old birthday-of course I had to have a cake.

And ice cream!