Fergie and Deuce

Pud is now Fergie as we thought Fergie sounded better! Fergie is adapting very well to our home, much to my surprise. She is a very well adjusted dog, probably in large part to the staff and vet at Deer Creek. She potties in the house some but I don't mind as I haven't been paying as much close attention to her when she is in the house as I should. We took all the dogs to the show this weekend and I have to say, they all did really well. The only thing I didn't take into account was the fact that little dogs get cold and I didn't have her any little dog coats. I just wrapped her up in a blanket and she got warm and then put her in the ex-pen with the boys and they all snuggled. I was worried about her pulling out of her harness or her collar but she did great. I am still trying to get the hang of the stupid flexi and will be getting her a nice slip lead as soon as I find one i like. Deuce absolutely loves her and they play alot. They even tug and sometimes Deuce will lift her off of the ground! I am trying to get some good video of them playing together. How come dogs always know when you have the camera and stop? Anyway, I hope to weigh her weekly to see if we are taking the weight off. She is so active, I can't see how she won't loose it.

One great thing about having Fergie is the jealousy factor. If deuce doesn't want to do something, I just turn my back to him and play with her or take her into the training room (aka guest bedroom, only room with a door i can shut the other dogs out of. I love to see the look on his face when he gets ignored! It is almost like, "how dare you, I am the baby!". I will have to take her to agility class and see if this works there too. I haven't done much agility work with her as she is so fat but we could just run around like idiots and have fun when he leaves me. I am also going to try Ami's suggestions of doing all "its yer choice". I kind of started doing this the other night, taking him off leash and asking for a down instead of dragging him around by his leash. I will also go get some really smelly yummy fancy feast or something to have in my pocket so if he leaves and then comes back or makes good choices, he will get a lick. I was also reading a book yesterday about canine adolescence and it was talking about how they do the most baffling things during this period and this would probably be about the time he would go through this fun stage. I worked him a few times in the show over the practice jump and with joc and her pup for distractions and he did great! Great drive, great tugging, great attitude, so still wondering what that piece of the puzzle is that I am missing on thursday nights.

PUD

I know this is called the puppy blog but I thought I would let you in on a new "puppy" that has entered my life. Her name is PUD. She was a stray that a older lady took in and now that lady has had to be put in a nursing home and Pud is homeless. Pud has been living with the local vet at his office since September. It just so happened that I had been recently thinking very hard about getting a smaller dog. My weakness is smaller dogs because I have always had big dogs so I have no clue how to train them really, whether it be for agility or for just everyday. Pud has alot of potential, but she also has alot of belly fat. Pud is going on a diet as is Deuce (vet gave us the official okay to step his calories back) and of course both tony and I so we are hoping to get the weight off of her and our dogs. She is a very busy dog and I look forward to having a new project. Deuce thinks she is wonderful and they slept together with me in the bed, much to tony's chagrin. We now have three dogs and a cat that sleep with us nightly. Tony was grumbling about getting a bigger bed but I don't think you can get anything bigger than a king size can you? So from time to time, you will probably get a Pud update on here too!

another piece of the puzzle

I am really confused now. SO, I teach beginners on monday nights and then after the class is over, we have open practice for anyone who wants to practice. I run miller on those nights and tony runs harley and I also run Deuce with lots of rewards. I take the course that Lori has set up (no numbers) and make up a course for the diehards to do. I try to make it fun and challenging. For example, tonight, Jan was getting ready for a NADAC weekend so we made a fun flowing course that didn't have weaves (but did have table and teeter, whoops). He needed contact practice so I wanted him to have as much contact work as possible. After she ran Mac through a couple of times, I ran Deuce through with stops along they way and rewards for good performances. It was an 18 obstacle course (except I didn't do the a-frame). He ran it with drive and enthusiausm like I only see on monday nights. So what is the difference? One difference is the whippet girls aren't there, which he is just going to have to get over. Another difference is that the other puppies aren't there for me to compare his performance to (yes, I am human and am competitive but should give it up, they are border collies, different ballgame). We aren't doing drill work either, but I am breaking down the courses fairly small, into four or so obstacle blocks with rewards. He did leave twice tonight to go see Harley, but both times when he did, I walked towards the car and he came running. I guess I am very puzzled as to what is going on. Very obviously, I am putting some unknown pressure on him. I have to figure this out, this is driving me crazy! I LOVED his running tonight!!! Great speed on contacts, great speed on jumps, wonderful turns. So what am I missing?

i am a thinker too!

Okay so I have been thinking about Deuce's performance alot here lately. I am a big thinker too and i have been really trying to dissect what I can do better to improve his drive and performance. One of the things I am going to try which was suggested by my friend Cheryl who is also a dog trainer, is to hide when he disengages or get in my car and drive off. As long as there is someone to watch over him, next time he disengages from me, I am going to do this rather than call for him or hunt him down and drag him back to where we are working. Let's see how important the momma truly is to him! The other thing I am going to do is really reward alot, really break down performances. I was just listening to Susan Garrett's 2 of 30 podcast and it made so much sense to me! I do train alot but I do very short sessions so I am trying to make these short sessions even shorter. Today for example, I did weave channels in the morning with maybe 8 runs through them total (two just driving straight through, 2 with rears, two with lateral movement away from the poles, and two with fronts). All had him driving to the target with lots of cookies and lots of praise. We quit while we were ahead and did another set of 8 tonight. I also did some go overs with a very low jump and target and then took up the target and did a couple of go overs and turns. Again, I quit while I was ahead. For the most part, today I saw drive and enthusiasm, especially the last set of channel weaves we did. I have really been revving him up with restrained recalls and lots of ready, ready, ready instead of putting him into a position and then releasing him. I did have to put him into position to do the front crosses and he was a little slower. I thought I had been rewarding his position at the start but maybe not enough?

Another thing I am worried about right now is the amount of calories Deuce is taking in. We do alot of target work and lots of clicker work in a day so he is getting lots of extra kibble. I have not cut him back at feeding time as I wanted to let him grow until at least a year but I also don't want him too heavy. He hasn't gained any weight in 2 or so months, but I feel like he is getting so much food right now. I have tried incorporating tug into his training but I can tell he doesn't like it as much as food and with the issues I have been having with drive, would be afraid that would make it worse. I have been using his kibble as food since his stomach is so sensitive but I wonder if he needs something more yummy. This would probably be more calories though! I need to take him to my vet to see if he is ready to be cut back, if he is done growing. I can add in green beans or other low calorie foods if he isn't growing anymore. So much to think about!

A thinker

Well, last night in class was to say the least, well, interesting. Deuce is a huge thinker, probably alot because I do tons of clicker work and shaping with him. It is starting to really show in our agility class as Lori ups the anty and he is starting to run slower and slower, trying to think through things instead of just do. While I like the fact that he is body aware and does not go balls to the wall, I hope we are not looking at a dog that is going to trot around the course thinking about every little detail. I don't think i can be a cheerleader and that was what I was doing all night last night. In his defense, the wind was blowing 100 mph and his favorite three dogs in the whole world were present but they are there every week, doing the open practice while we run our pups through their paces. I don't mind him looking at them, but I want him to not disengage from me and go see them, which he sometimes does. Last night we did more running a-frame work, channel weaves open very far out, and jump tunnel work. I love class because it gives me so much to work on. Previously all of my running a-frames were with me being behind him, either sending him or letting him get ahead of me to focus on the target. Last night we ran with and he was very confused. He also has been using a plastic target to target to and all I had last night was his treat bag. You wouldn't think it would make a difference but he would drive to the bag and just look at the cookies on the bag, like "what I am suppose to do with this?". I will be incorporating different elements for him to target to in our target work from now on!

We also did some channel work and I hope that doesn't screw anything up with the 2 x 2 method. To me it is a very different picture, but I may need to ask my 2 x 2 friends. The channel was spread way apart so that the dogs are just having a good time running through, absolutely no weaving involved at all. I don't want any weaving going on until his growth plates are closed, especially since he is so big. I have seen too many dogs come up lame or have signs of dysplasia or OCD before they even reached two because their owners were in too big of a hurry to weave. Weave takes muscle skill but it also takes brains, so I am in no hurry to start doing anything with the weaves other than running through channels.

I don't want to worry about his performance, but I am human so i am a little worried. We put so much hopes and dreams into our next dogs and we place our previous criteria from other past dogs on our babies. Again, we are human and we are going to do this. We are use to things being a certain way so when performance is different, we tend to worry or doubt. You know, even if deuce never did agility again, there are so many other avenues that we could pursue or he could just be a big lap dog for all i care. I think I could use his thinking ability for tracking and obedience, and of course, who wouldn't love to do herding, but what is important is i LOVE this dog and would be content to just snuggle with him for the rest of his life! I am going to keep that in the front of my mind so that I don't put any unnecessary pressure on my baby.

a horse is a horse of course of course

Had a great weekend in KC at the GKCDTC show! Deuce as always was up at 4 am ready to go so am glad I am bringing my little red crate to put him in, otherwise I wouldn't be getting enough sleep for sure. Deuce got to see his brother for the first time in a long time and boy did they play! So cute to see them play with the same style of play. So many dogs won't play with deuce because he is all feet and wrestling. Deuce also got to go to his first horse show this weekend. He was not a good boy! He thought horses were very scary, even though I am pretty sure he has seen horses out at Lori's house. He was very nervous and barky around them so I had to go up to the top of the arena and work on quiet with him. He was finally allowed to watch them go around the ring as long as he kept his mouth shut. He was also very nervous about the horse statue in front of Kemper arena. No clue why so we did lots of behaviors near and on the statue and lots of cookies on the statue in the rain no less. Will have to work on this one more out at Lori's house where I can get near horses and not have to worry about him spooking a horse and throwing off a small kid. Of course when we went over to watch, they were doing all the kid's classes and I really wanted to work through this behavior but not have a kid get dumped. He was barking under his breath so thank goodness it wasn't loud but it was enough!

Looking forward to class this week. We need to really work on his a-frame for sure!

Deucey-doo

Well, I have been very slack about updating my blogs but this is the time of year when I am outside the most! I am a huge lover of the outdoors and will go pick up sticks in the yard just to be outside if the weather is nice. I love yard work and love working in the flower bed or garden. This year, since we had deuce and he seems to have a fetish for the garden plants, we had to put up a fence. Makes it a pain for us to get in and out of the little garden but i was tired of replacing plants that he decided were tasty. Apparently pepper plants taste the best as he has eaten three pepper plants and one okra plant. This morning he was such a cuddle bunny though! It was raining when i got up for the second time to let them out so they could have their morning outside time, so I let him out of his crate and he got in bed with harley and miller and i and cuddled up and we all snoozed. I swear I think I could have stayed there all day! Tomorrow is going to be hell though as I need to pack for KC this weekend and I know the dogs will be amped and ready to go. Miller will probably have me up at 4:00 am rearing to go, even though we aren't heading out till friday night.

We have had two puppy classes now and I am pleased with deuce's progress. He seemed alot less distracted last week even though two dogs were doing the open practice. I did loose him once to go see Barb's whippet who was zooming around (can't blame him) and once to Addie, a very cute scotty that was working on the table. We mainly worked on his running a-frame and him driving ahead of me to targets. I will try and post some video tonight if I think about it, since i will be in the house due to the rain. The pouncing behavior is getting better but of course we are having to use a hoop to try and regulate his stride and break this behavior. We also have been working on some jump/tunnel sequencing with all kinds of crosses before and after the tunnel and he is picking it up rather well. He wasn't driving as much as I like last week but it was the first real hot day we have had and he has a ton of hair so I think he was just hot. Guess I need to get him his on cool coat soon! Thank goodness he is water dog as he loves to get in the kiddie pool, even got it in monday when it was cool outside. I have been taking him to the open practices since his big brothers are there anyway practicing. I usually just take the big course that we run with the other dogs and break it down to small three or so obstacle sequences with lots of rewards. I even let tony run him on a particularly nasty course I made up and he did so well! Tony paid me lots of complements on my training of deuce but of course, this is my fourth agility dog I am training and of course I am going to change all the other things that I didn't like about my other dogs!