So we went out on a limb and entered a CGC test. We had been working a lot on her arousal levels with being petted and going to the dog park to practice not going up to the fence to greet the dogs.
Our first ever CGC we bombed...I mean epically totally failed.
So we went back to basics, and really focused on arousal levels. Anybody who knows Reyna or has followed this blog knows that Reyna does not have issues learning or performing behaviors, she has MAJOR gaps in her self control training.
So three months later we retook the test and missed two exercises, greeting a neutral dog and being pet by a friendly stranger, and honestly she should have failed the grooming for all the frantic wiggling but they gave it to her anyway.
We spent the next year primarily focused on Nosework and competition obedience behaviors. We got her NW2 which was really exciting! Then I found out I was pregnant and we already had a deposit on a Golden Retriever litter due in May (they are two weeks old now). With a baby and a puppy on the way and no NW3 trials in the foreseeable future in our area I switched my focus back to the CGC test. Inadvertently we had made drastic improvements in many of the areas through the obedience training and just by being a whole year older.
So I signed her up for a local CGC test and crossed my fingers.
She did amazing!!! She didn't just barely pass most everything she aced all of it....except for the dog one.
She didn't react though, and she wasn't over the top, but she definitely didn't pass. here are some things I learned though. I will probably not try again for the CGC, she doesn't like it. She did everything I asked because I asked it, but she did not like being thoroughly petted and groomed by a stranger. By half way through the test she was asking me to please just let her go back to her crate.
We stopped trying to teach her to be calm with guests in the house awhile ago, she is soooo much happier in our bedroom in the crate. I could probably spend a ton of time and energy helping her cope with that environment better but why? She loves her crate and if she was loose in the house what would I want her doing? Laying around calmly, which she gets to do in the crate.
There are things she loves, like being outside with guests, going on hikes and walks with guests. She loves being my pseudo service dog and running errands (at dog friendly locations) with a vest on so people won't bother her. handing me my wallet and keys at the checkout, picking things up when I drop them, helping me up when I'm sitting down. She helps me up and down stairs as I get more pregnant. She just beams the whole time. She is joy to walk even in crowded areas, I never worry about her reacting but also give other dogs their space when we pass because why not!
She is everything to me and what she told me at that CGC test was that she would do anything I asked, but that she did not like the test at all....so on the way home I was a little bummed that we missed just one exercise, but the fact that she passed all her treats and toys just to crawl into her crate when we finished the test told me this wasn't the right thing for her, and really what's the point?
I'm so proud of how our relationship has evolved, especially over the last year or so. Leslie McDevitt taught me how to respect Reyna's emotional state how to rewire her brain without forgetting who she is. Over the last year we have been able to take it farther and through Denise Fenzi, Sylvia Trkman and Hannah Branigan I have learned to play with my dog, to have joy in our training and just in being. I don't need a CGC title to show me that so until Reyna tells me she wants to do it again we have put that back on the back burner
Coming up...
How to: Q in your first rally trial
How to: Poison a cue in three easy steps
How to: Recover a lost retrieve
Friday, May 16, 2014
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Metronome Heeling
This our first attempt and for a first try I thought it went well. I have a metronome tapping out 132 on my iPhone while heeling. This is supposed to help me keep a steady rhythm for Reyna to follow and mimic the way my face/body language would look if I was listening for a judges cues.
The good,
Reyna still has up ears and tail, she isn't forging like she normally does. She put in extra effort to keep up on the outside post, you can see her head drop a bit as she puts more effort into moving forward and less into staying up, ideally I'd want her to be able to do both, but we have a ways to go.
The bad,
Since concentrating on the time I stop moving my left arm, I need to remember that. I lean forward a good bit and have a more "marching" step. I lose track of where we are on the figureight and I wish I had rewarded while moving instead of dealing with that sloppy sit. We still have a lot of precision work to do for her wide swinging butt and the sit at halt, but I like her attitude!
In other news her Retrieve on Flat with the dumbbell made MAJOR leaps forward this weekend! I'll try and get a video tomorrow if the weather is nice!
The good,
Reyna still has up ears and tail, she isn't forging like she normally does. She put in extra effort to keep up on the outside post, you can see her head drop a bit as she puts more effort into moving forward and less into staying up, ideally I'd want her to be able to do both, but we have a ways to go.
The bad,
Since concentrating on the time I stop moving my left arm, I need to remember that. I lean forward a good bit and have a more "marching" step. I lose track of where we are on the figureight and I wish I had rewarded while moving instead of dealing with that sloppy sit. We still have a lot of precision work to do for her wide swinging butt and the sit at halt, but I like her attitude!
In other news her Retrieve on Flat with the dumbbell made MAJOR leaps forward this weekend! I'll try and get a video tomorrow if the weather is nice!
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Ack I'm a Slacker!!
It's been almost two months since I last posted! So what have we been up to since?
No Nosework that's for sure! I haven't pulled out my tins since the trial in February. I did the same thing last year, work for nine months, compete, take three months off...oh well it's worked for us thus far.
I was toying around with tracking for a bit and I still plan to get into that, I think Reyna would love it and take to it well, she enjoyed the couple of sessions we did a lot, but I just don't have the mental bandwidth for a whole new sport right now.....since I'm PREGNANT!!!! Yep that's right Baby smith #3 is due for debut late September! So things have been a bit crazy around here!
Given that news we are back into Obedience and really enjoying it. Reyna is 4 already and not yet ready for Novice A so I don't know how far we'll get, but we are having a blast training! Her heeling needs more duration and distraction proofing, but she has turns, speed changes etc. She tends to forge but I've that's much easier to fix than lagging. I just really need to take it on the road. Her stand for exam is great...when I examine her that is...again we need to get other people involved. Recall no problems, except she comes in too close on her fronts, and her finishes need some cleaning up for consistency, we just haven't really worked on it.
Her business retrieve is coming along, we were having trouble with playing with the dumbbell, so we took the dumbbell out of the picture and bought a field dummy like they use to train retrievers, I started using toys to reward for quiet pick up and carry of the dummy and it worked great. Now I have brought the dumbbell back into the picture and I'm not having the pawing and chewing issues I was before.
Retrieve over High foundation is going well she jumps 1/2 height to a piece of food and comes back over for a piece of chicken. Just yesterday I started tossing a toy and sending her over, if she came back over the jump we played tug, if she went around I just told her good try and reset...she got it VERY quickly...still lots of "around the clock" proofing to do.
Broad jump was a piece of cake to get her to jump it, and we seperately have Hannah Branigan's pole wrap foundation down, so now we just have to put the two together!
Go outs we just started yesterday, but she has a lot of experience working at a distance, so we are up to a ten foot go out to a paw target where she turns and faces....need distance and distraction.
Group stays will need TONS of work.
That's what we're up to right now, I'm hoping to be ready for a mock trial this summer, it just all comes down to can we get the behaviors on the road for distraction training! I'm not in a hurry, I just like to have goals :)
No Nosework that's for sure! I haven't pulled out my tins since the trial in February. I did the same thing last year, work for nine months, compete, take three months off...oh well it's worked for us thus far.
I was toying around with tracking for a bit and I still plan to get into that, I think Reyna would love it and take to it well, she enjoyed the couple of sessions we did a lot, but I just don't have the mental bandwidth for a whole new sport right now.....since I'm PREGNANT!!!! Yep that's right Baby smith #3 is due for debut late September! So things have been a bit crazy around here!
Given that news we are back into Obedience and really enjoying it. Reyna is 4 already and not yet ready for Novice A so I don't know how far we'll get, but we are having a blast training! Her heeling needs more duration and distraction proofing, but she has turns, speed changes etc. She tends to forge but I've that's much easier to fix than lagging. I just really need to take it on the road. Her stand for exam is great...when I examine her that is...again we need to get other people involved. Recall no problems, except she comes in too close on her fronts, and her finishes need some cleaning up for consistency, we just haven't really worked on it.
Her business retrieve is coming along, we were having trouble with playing with the dumbbell, so we took the dumbbell out of the picture and bought a field dummy like they use to train retrievers, I started using toys to reward for quiet pick up and carry of the dummy and it worked great. Now I have brought the dumbbell back into the picture and I'm not having the pawing and chewing issues I was before.
Retrieve over High foundation is going well she jumps 1/2 height to a piece of food and comes back over for a piece of chicken. Just yesterday I started tossing a toy and sending her over, if she came back over the jump we played tug, if she went around I just told her good try and reset...she got it VERY quickly...still lots of "around the clock" proofing to do.
Broad jump was a piece of cake to get her to jump it, and we seperately have Hannah Branigan's pole wrap foundation down, so now we just have to put the two together!
Go outs we just started yesterday, but she has a lot of experience working at a distance, so we are up to a ten foot go out to a paw target where she turns and faces....need distance and distraction.
Group stays will need TONS of work.
That's what we're up to right now, I'm hoping to be ready for a mock trial this summer, it just all comes down to can we get the behaviors on the road for distraction training! I'm not in a hurry, I just like to have goals :)
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
NW2 - Lessons Learned and Ribbons Earned
This trial was definitely not our strongest performance. 10 out of 31 titled and we were 8th overall. And when I say we got through by the skin our teeth I really mean it! It was a tough day for team Smith, with a lot of stress and a couple longer searches. In the end we got everything but it really felt like we were fighting for every hide.
We were down in Florida again, so we made the long drive down and spent the night with my friend Lisa again. Then we rode over together to trial. We have come along way from the nerves and anxiety of settling in for our NW1. Going to the workshop really helped. Also Reyna is an even less anxious this year than she was last year so she ate all her dinner the night before and all her breakfast the morning of the trial. I still packed a lunch for her, but I was much less concerned about her energy levels this time since she ate well ahead of time.
Also I took very rare steak as a food reward for her along with her standard toy rewards. Sine I was going to use an unusually high value food reward at the trial I made sure to practice with it for the week leading up to the trial. It didn't decrease the value of the reward in any way, and it ensured that Reyna wouldn't get distracted by the reward and behave unexpectedly in a trial.
The reasons I chose food reward for most of the trial searches was...it drained less energy from Reyna on a long day, it was easy to deliver, and it was faster on multiple hides since I didn't have to try and get the toy back. I may change that strategy in the future if I can get better at delivering a toy in a trial environment, but the food worked fine for this one.
On the walk through I sketched out the areas as best as possible so I could work on a strategy later. At first I was trying to draw out the whole area, but it really wasn't practical and I felt like I was missing a lot. So for the couple areas I just wrote out a VERY rough sketch with areas of note.
Vehicles:
Four vehicles close together, running boards on that truck might be productive, next to a building so air current may be weird.
Exteriors:
Reyna may have trouble if it's on the porch, but don't get psyched out. Only half that bench is in. That cluster of trees may be difficult for line handling.
Interior 1:
Welcome mat and fire extinguisher make a threshold likely. It's a cabin so expect less confidence in Reyna's alert. LOTS of bunks and almost no air movement.
Interior 2:
No welcome mat this time but two speakers and a chair with some clutter may be productive search areas. There is a broom and trashcan at the threshold so don't dismiss those.
Containers:
So many containers! That suitcase is against the wall, make we hit it. Don't lose track of all those little coffee thermos things, that colorful suitcase makes a good anchor point to make sure I've covered that. That 5 gallon bucket is an unusual container, remember what Jacy Kelley said about those, COs can put hides ANYWHERE!
My strategy for all the areas was to give Reyna her head for the first minute. After that we would begin a pattern to make sure we covered everything. After one minute my plan for each area varied. For vehicles we would circle each vehicle, for exteriors we would walk the perimeter then zigzag through, for containers we would cover quadrants and for interiors we would crisscross the area from back to front to hopefully get a different scent scenario than when we first entered.
I was first up in Group B and we started vehicles while group A did exteriors. Here is the hide by hide report:
Vehicles - 2 hides - 3:30min
I sent Reyna in to search and immediately my heart sank. She was not focused, she kept wandering from the vehicles. For better or worse I deviated from our plan and asked her to pattern search the vehicles. We search the first two, nothing...time was ticking away and I realized we were going to time out on the first search of the day. Suddenly she showed interest in the left front corner of the third vehicle. She stuck her head high and to the right in the wheel well but seemed to still be working the plume. She started to walk off, to find an easier one, but I remember what I learned in the seminar and held my ground, I knew it was here and she needed to finish this one. She came in from the left this time and tucked her head behind the wheel, based on her earlier interest in the top right I figured it was on the bottom left so we called it...yes! Okay find more...she quickly ruled out the rest of the vehicle and we moved to the fourth and final one, the truck with the running boards. Sure enough there was a hide on the outside running board that she nailed confidently to end the search!
Time: 2:25 Place: 15th
Lessons: I was glad I made her stick with the first hide. I wish I had stuck with my plan of letting her go for the first minute, we might not have wasted so much time on the first two vehicles.
Exterior - 1 Hide - 3min
Reyna was in odor from the start on this one. She went over to the front of the cabin and showed interest on the porch but didn't go up. I couldn't tell if she didn't go up because she doesn't like wooden decks, or because there was no odor. I made a decision and asked her to search it. She did and came back down, nothing there. Then she went back to work and tracked the odor over to the benches where she quickly made a decision on the leg of one. Alert...yes! Two elements down.
Time: 41.89sec Place: 20th
Lessons: I need to work more on decks and porches (and any other areas where she lacks confidence) so I don't waste time asking her to search nonproductive areas. This was a very easy, very competitive element and we probably spent at least 20 seconds with the porch thing.
Container - 1 Hide - 2:30min
There is not much to say about this one. Reyna was ready to rock from back at the on deck spot and I had to turn a circle To keep her from crossing the start line before I was ready. I sent her over the start line. She passed three or four containers in her intense drive straight for the 5 gallon bucket. She alerted on the handle and we got the yes!
Time: 8.71sec Place: 1st Pronounced
Lessons: Trust your dog, and train containers other than suitcases. This was also affirmation that giving her the lead at first is the way to go.
Interior 1 - 1 Hide - 2:30min
We came in slow instead of letting her blast in. She caught odor as she entered the room and turned around back to the threshold. It took her a couple seconds of detailing to make a decision, but she decided it was behind the fire extinguisher. Yes.
Time: 16sec
Lessons: Work more thresholds so she doesn't have to hit the end of the cone to turn around and hold at the threshold and watch her for a couple seconds before sending instead of just walking slow across it.
Interior 2 - 2 Hides - 3:00min
This one was tough. We came through and she went right for the speakers but was sort of all over that area. We moved away and came back, but she still couldn't make a decision. I knew we were burning a lot of time so I asked her to find the other one. I knew that one was there so we would come back and finish it later. She quickly nailed the floor hide and I sent her back to the speaker area. She was all over the top up onto the windowsill, down on the left along the baseboard and all along the right where the chair was, and on the front where the actual speakers were. She would not commit to any one spot though and I was starting to panic. They called 30 second warning. I was running out of time and the title was fading quickly from my grasp. I remembered the seminar and the advice on Nosework math. She had paid attention to all the areas around the speaker, even the front, but if had been inside the speaker directly behind one of the panels she would have alerted on that so it is probably behind the speaker with only small amounts of odor coming through the front. She also hit all three sides which also meant it was probably behind the speaker. But where behind? Her strongest behaviors were on the left side so probably there. I knew we were running out of time and I had to get her back there to call it so I used a little body pressure to push her back into that alcove and as soon as she sniffed at the left side again I called alert....... YES! I almost cried that was so close, I had no idea how close until later.
Time: 2:57 (that's right, we had three seconds left!
Lessons: The reason this was so difficult for us was because the odor was actually smack in the middle behind the speaker so it was coming out pretty equally everywhere. Reyna has done a lot of inaccessible, but there is always a point of strongest odor. In this case there wasn't so she was all over the speaker but couldn't decide where to commit. I need to get better at reading those hides and also teach her how to communicate when we are in a situation like that. I am glad I had her go find that second one so we could focus on the hard one. I wish I had done some deduction a little earlier so we weren't so close to the wire. I should maybe take a stopwatch into searches...not really sure how to work that, but I need to be able to keep better track of my time.
Total Interior Time: 3:13
Place: 25th aka last place out of everybody who got that element
All I knew as I left the cabin though was that we had titled...holy freakin birch oil, we had titled!!! It wasn't pretty and it wasn't flashy, but we did it! The vehicle search was exhausting and stressful, the interiors just about gave me a heart attack. We have a lot to learn before trying for NW3, that was very VERY close.
Total trial time: 6:29
Place: 8th overall
I am looking forward to being able to take what I have learned from this experience and apply it to our NW3 prep. I have a lot to learn about reading my dog and managing search areas. Especially with an unknown number of hides. Good thing there will probably not be an NW3 in the southeast for at least a year...it's going to take at least that long to even begin to be ready for the next level!
We were down in Florida again, so we made the long drive down and spent the night with my friend Lisa again. Then we rode over together to trial. We have come along way from the nerves and anxiety of settling in for our NW1. Going to the workshop really helped. Also Reyna is an even less anxious this year than she was last year so she ate all her dinner the night before and all her breakfast the morning of the trial. I still packed a lunch for her, but I was much less concerned about her energy levels this time since she ate well ahead of time.
Also I took very rare steak as a food reward for her along with her standard toy rewards. Sine I was going to use an unusually high value food reward at the trial I made sure to practice with it for the week leading up to the trial. It didn't decrease the value of the reward in any way, and it ensured that Reyna wouldn't get distracted by the reward and behave unexpectedly in a trial.
The reasons I chose food reward for most of the trial searches was...it drained less energy from Reyna on a long day, it was easy to deliver, and it was faster on multiple hides since I didn't have to try and get the toy back. I may change that strategy in the future if I can get better at delivering a toy in a trial environment, but the food worked fine for this one.
On the walk through I sketched out the areas as best as possible so I could work on a strategy later. At first I was trying to draw out the whole area, but it really wasn't practical and I felt like I was missing a lot. So for the couple areas I just wrote out a VERY rough sketch with areas of note.
Vehicles:
Four vehicles close together, running boards on that truck might be productive, next to a building so air current may be weird.
Exteriors:
Reyna may have trouble if it's on the porch, but don't get psyched out. Only half that bench is in. That cluster of trees may be difficult for line handling.
Interior 1:
Welcome mat and fire extinguisher make a threshold likely. It's a cabin so expect less confidence in Reyna's alert. LOTS of bunks and almost no air movement.
Interior 2:
No welcome mat this time but two speakers and a chair with some clutter may be productive search areas. There is a broom and trashcan at the threshold so don't dismiss those.
Containers:
So many containers! That suitcase is against the wall, make we hit it. Don't lose track of all those little coffee thermos things, that colorful suitcase makes a good anchor point to make sure I've covered that. That 5 gallon bucket is an unusual container, remember what Jacy Kelley said about those, COs can put hides ANYWHERE!
My strategy for all the areas was to give Reyna her head for the first minute. After that we would begin a pattern to make sure we covered everything. After one minute my plan for each area varied. For vehicles we would circle each vehicle, for exteriors we would walk the perimeter then zigzag through, for containers we would cover quadrants and for interiors we would crisscross the area from back to front to hopefully get a different scent scenario than when we first entered.
I was first up in Group B and we started vehicles while group A did exteriors. Here is the hide by hide report:
Vehicles - 2 hides - 3:30min
I sent Reyna in to search and immediately my heart sank. She was not focused, she kept wandering from the vehicles. For better or worse I deviated from our plan and asked her to pattern search the vehicles. We search the first two, nothing...time was ticking away and I realized we were going to time out on the first search of the day. Suddenly she showed interest in the left front corner of the third vehicle. She stuck her head high and to the right in the wheel well but seemed to still be working the plume. She started to walk off, to find an easier one, but I remember what I learned in the seminar and held my ground, I knew it was here and she needed to finish this one. She came in from the left this time and tucked her head behind the wheel, based on her earlier interest in the top right I figured it was on the bottom left so we called it...yes! Okay find more...she quickly ruled out the rest of the vehicle and we moved to the fourth and final one, the truck with the running boards. Sure enough there was a hide on the outside running board that she nailed confidently to end the search!
Time: 2:25 Place: 15th
Lessons: I was glad I made her stick with the first hide. I wish I had stuck with my plan of letting her go for the first minute, we might not have wasted so much time on the first two vehicles.
Exterior - 1 Hide - 3min
Reyna was in odor from the start on this one. She went over to the front of the cabin and showed interest on the porch but didn't go up. I couldn't tell if she didn't go up because she doesn't like wooden decks, or because there was no odor. I made a decision and asked her to search it. She did and came back down, nothing there. Then she went back to work and tracked the odor over to the benches where she quickly made a decision on the leg of one. Alert...yes! Two elements down.
Time: 41.89sec Place: 20th
Lessons: I need to work more on decks and porches (and any other areas where she lacks confidence) so I don't waste time asking her to search nonproductive areas. This was a very easy, very competitive element and we probably spent at least 20 seconds with the porch thing.
Container - 1 Hide - 2:30min
There is not much to say about this one. Reyna was ready to rock from back at the on deck spot and I had to turn a circle To keep her from crossing the start line before I was ready. I sent her over the start line. She passed three or four containers in her intense drive straight for the 5 gallon bucket. She alerted on the handle and we got the yes!
Time: 8.71sec Place: 1st Pronounced
Lessons: Trust your dog, and train containers other than suitcases. This was also affirmation that giving her the lead at first is the way to go.
Interior 1 - 1 Hide - 2:30min
We came in slow instead of letting her blast in. She caught odor as she entered the room and turned around back to the threshold. It took her a couple seconds of detailing to make a decision, but she decided it was behind the fire extinguisher. Yes.
Time: 16sec
Lessons: Work more thresholds so she doesn't have to hit the end of the cone to turn around and hold at the threshold and watch her for a couple seconds before sending instead of just walking slow across it.
Interior 2 - 2 Hides - 3:00min
This one was tough. We came through and she went right for the speakers but was sort of all over that area. We moved away and came back, but she still couldn't make a decision. I knew we were burning a lot of time so I asked her to find the other one. I knew that one was there so we would come back and finish it later. She quickly nailed the floor hide and I sent her back to the speaker area. She was all over the top up onto the windowsill, down on the left along the baseboard and all along the right where the chair was, and on the front where the actual speakers were. She would not commit to any one spot though and I was starting to panic. They called 30 second warning. I was running out of time and the title was fading quickly from my grasp. I remembered the seminar and the advice on Nosework math. She had paid attention to all the areas around the speaker, even the front, but if had been inside the speaker directly behind one of the panels she would have alerted on that so it is probably behind the speaker with only small amounts of odor coming through the front. She also hit all three sides which also meant it was probably behind the speaker. But where behind? Her strongest behaviors were on the left side so probably there. I knew we were running out of time and I had to get her back there to call it so I used a little body pressure to push her back into that alcove and as soon as she sniffed at the left side again I called alert....... YES! I almost cried that was so close, I had no idea how close until later.
Time: 2:57 (that's right, we had three seconds left!
Lessons: The reason this was so difficult for us was because the odor was actually smack in the middle behind the speaker so it was coming out pretty equally everywhere. Reyna has done a lot of inaccessible, but there is always a point of strongest odor. In this case there wasn't so she was all over the speaker but couldn't decide where to commit. I need to get better at reading those hides and also teach her how to communicate when we are in a situation like that. I am glad I had her go find that second one so we could focus on the hard one. I wish I had done some deduction a little earlier so we weren't so close to the wire. I should maybe take a stopwatch into searches...not really sure how to work that, but I need to be able to keep better track of my time.
Total Interior Time: 3:13
Place: 25th aka last place out of everybody who got that element
All I knew as I left the cabin though was that we had titled...holy freakin birch oil, we had titled!!! It wasn't pretty and it wasn't flashy, but we did it! The vehicle search was exhausting and stressful, the interiors just about gave me a heart attack. We have a lot to learn before trying for NW3, that was very VERY close.
Total trial time: 6:29
Place: 8th overall
I am looking forward to being able to take what I have learned from this experience and apply it to our NW3 prep. I have a lot to learn about reading my dog and managing search areas. Especially with an unknown number of hides. Good thing there will probably not be an NW3 in the southeast for at least a year...it's going to take at least that long to even begin to be ready for the next level!
Queen vom Nobelos NW2
Hurray!!!!!! Details and photos later, but suffice to say I am proud and exhausted!
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
NW2 prep - Drive building phase
We have our trial in Florida in about a week and a half.
We are now in the "taper" as they call it in endurance sports. It's where you have done all the training you can do and you need to give your body a chance to rest and rejuvenate before the big day. The bigger the race the longer the taper. For Nosework I think two weeks works well. We have built up all the skills we could, we have practiced all the distractors and challenging hides we could think of. The foundation we have at two weeks out is what we will take into the trial with us. At this point it's time to stop thinking about skills and handling techniques, because what we have is what we have.
Now what I am concerned with is drive building. Short easy hides, just a couple each day, I may even skip a day or two. Very few back to back searches mostly just one and done. I have pulled clove out of the mix for this phase, I want to REALLY focus on Anise and Birch. It's time to let up and just have a blast, do a quick search and get rewarded with her entire dinner, or the kids left overs, or a ten minute romp in the yard.
I have to trust that I have done everything I can, and that we are prepared. I don't trim my dog's nails within four days of a trial or event because the quick would need time to heal if I hit it, and I don't throw out "brain drainer" hides (as my friend Lisa calls them) in the two weeks before a trial because I can't guarantee I would have time to fix anything that I accidentally broke!
I will be doing lots of easy thresholds, easy corners, maybe a couple VERY easy inaccessible ones. And rewarding, rewarding, rewarding! Over the top, super jackpot, awesome rewards!!!
Just for fun here is a snow search from today, I forgot about it so it sat out for almost 20 hrs. Also I am following Jacy Kelleys advice and not taking her ball away in between hides, it makes for a much smoother search.
We are now in the "taper" as they call it in endurance sports. It's where you have done all the training you can do and you need to give your body a chance to rest and rejuvenate before the big day. The bigger the race the longer the taper. For Nosework I think two weeks works well. We have built up all the skills we could, we have practiced all the distractors and challenging hides we could think of. The foundation we have at two weeks out is what we will take into the trial with us. At this point it's time to stop thinking about skills and handling techniques, because what we have is what we have.
Now what I am concerned with is drive building. Short easy hides, just a couple each day, I may even skip a day or two. Very few back to back searches mostly just one and done. I have pulled clove out of the mix for this phase, I want to REALLY focus on Anise and Birch. It's time to let up and just have a blast, do a quick search and get rewarded with her entire dinner, or the kids left overs, or a ten minute romp in the yard.
I have to trust that I have done everything I can, and that we are prepared. I don't trim my dog's nails within four days of a trial or event because the quick would need time to heal if I hit it, and I don't throw out "brain drainer" hides (as my friend Lisa calls them) in the two weeks before a trial because I can't guarantee I would have time to fix anything that I accidentally broke!
I will be doing lots of easy thresholds, easy corners, maybe a couple VERY easy inaccessible ones. And rewarding, rewarding, rewarding! Over the top, super jackpot, awesome rewards!!!
Just for fun here is a snow search from today, I forgot about it so it sat out for almost 20 hrs. Also I am following Jacy Kelleys advice and not taking her ball away in between hides, it makes for a much smoother search.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
ORTs - Know your dog, change your plan
Reyna passed her Anise and Clove ORTs over the Jacy Kelley workshop weekend. It was a very long weekend for both of us. We had long waits in the car some easy searches, some hard searches. I couldn't use the van so Reyna was curled up behind the passenger seat in our little ranger which means I also had to get her out repeatedly to stretch and warm up so she wouldn't be stiff.
She did awesome all weekend, no reactivity issues at all even when reactive dogs barked at her. She was calm, relaxed, and happy...it felt awesome!!!!!
So we had a LONG working day Saturday followed by me volunteering for the Birch ORT. Then we had a LOOONG working day Sunday and as I loaded Reyna up for the last time at the workshop to head to the Anise/Clove ORT I asked her for just two more, give me two more sweet girl and we're done!
The ORT was very well run so our waits were not long. I was thinking about switching to a food reward since Reyna was tired from two long searching days, but Reyna still really wanted to play with her ball outside, so I figured okay let's go with it. When we ran the Anise boxes her alert was half hearted and again I thought I should probably use food, but she's a "toy dog" so I didn't. So we went in with her ball, approached the start line and I told her to find.
She was not as focused as I would have liked, on the first pass around she showed strong interest in one box and I was 90% sure that was it but she didn't alert, we had time so I turned her around and we went back up the row, she nosed at the same box again and now I knew that was the box, but for whatever stubborn crazy reason I didn't call it and she didn't alert. She saw the boxes that were set up for clove and she REALLY wanted to go search all of those before she made a formal decision.
So now I had to think of a way to have her approach the box from a different angle. This time we walked down the middle of the row and she veered over and gave a formal alert. Yes! She got the ball and we trotted out 59 seconds...a lifetime in an ORT as far as I'm concerned.
So for Clove I listened to my gut and my dog, and borrowed some chicken from a friend. We did the practice boxes and gave a sort of alert and got chicken, she immediately perked up so when we shuffled the boxes and I re-cued she hit right on it and stuck!!! Hurray we were back in business!
Our name was called, we crossed the line and she nailed the right box the first time around in 16 seconds!
Just goes to show if you listen to your dog and stay flexible with your plan it will always work better than forcing a plan that may no longer apply to the current situation.
Happy Hunting!
She did awesome all weekend, no reactivity issues at all even when reactive dogs barked at her. She was calm, relaxed, and happy...it felt awesome!!!!!
So we had a LONG working day Saturday followed by me volunteering for the Birch ORT. Then we had a LOOONG working day Sunday and as I loaded Reyna up for the last time at the workshop to head to the Anise/Clove ORT I asked her for just two more, give me two more sweet girl and we're done!
The ORT was very well run so our waits were not long. I was thinking about switching to a food reward since Reyna was tired from two long searching days, but Reyna still really wanted to play with her ball outside, so I figured okay let's go with it. When we ran the Anise boxes her alert was half hearted and again I thought I should probably use food, but she's a "toy dog" so I didn't. So we went in with her ball, approached the start line and I told her to find.
She was not as focused as I would have liked, on the first pass around she showed strong interest in one box and I was 90% sure that was it but she didn't alert, we had time so I turned her around and we went back up the row, she nosed at the same box again and now I knew that was the box, but for whatever stubborn crazy reason I didn't call it and she didn't alert. She saw the boxes that were set up for clove and she REALLY wanted to go search all of those before she made a formal decision.
So now I had to think of a way to have her approach the box from a different angle. This time we walked down the middle of the row and she veered over and gave a formal alert. Yes! She got the ball and we trotted out 59 seconds...a lifetime in an ORT as far as I'm concerned.
So for Clove I listened to my gut and my dog, and borrowed some chicken from a friend. We did the practice boxes and gave a sort of alert and got chicken, she immediately perked up so when we shuffled the boxes and I re-cued she hit right on it and stuck!!! Hurray we were back in business!
Our name was called, we crossed the line and she nailed the right box the first time around in 16 seconds!
Just goes to show if you listen to your dog and stay flexible with your plan it will always work better than forcing a plan that may no longer apply to the current situation.
Happy Hunting!
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