Oh excuse me, did I hear you say you had lost something valuable?...and it happens to smell of Birch?
I'm ON it!!!
Saturday, March 23, 2013
My K9 Nose Work Superstar!
Oh excuse me, did I hear you say you had lost something valuable?...and it happens to smell of Birch?
I'm ON it!!!
Monday, March 18, 2013
Allow me to introduce...
Queen Vom Nobelos NW1 "Reyna"
Yay!!!!
The trial was awesome! If you feel like a long read here is our overall experience. If you just want the quick version scroll to the bottom for times/results.
Newberry Nose Work 1 Trial breakdown...
We made the long drive to Jacksonville Florida on Friday. We stayed with a good friend Lisa Mallory who was trialing her doberman Kelly on Saturday too and we spent Friday evening just playing with the dogs and trying to relax. That night I realized I had left my score book 7 hours away in Carrollton, GA. Crap. This was not starting well. It turns out I worried for nothing, apparently you don't have to have our membership card or scorebook with you to trial at all, but I spent that evening and the whole way there the next morning stressing about it for nothing. I wish they would make it more well known that you don't Have to have it.
The next morning Lisa and I headed to the trial site with both dogs. It was two hours away and we made it just in time to check in, find out I had worried for nothing about the scorebook, and get settled into our little "camp" site before the walk through. The site was amazing, plenty of shaded parking, huge potty area, plenty of room for everybody.
Then the walk through started. Our group did the walk brought in reverse order of what we would run. Thanks to this blog post I had a plan in my head for how I would work each area .
Vehicles
There were three vehicles parked at angles facing the main building. I noted that the wind was blowing away from the start line and hoped that wouldn't cause too much trouble. I was thankful we had done a good bit of work in the wind.
Exterior
This time the wind was blowing toward the start line...awesome. But there was a closed shed with a wooden ramp leading up to it as part of the search area. I crossed my fingers and hoped that if the hide was up there that all of our work on decks, stages, and sheds, wold help her push past that. This was also where I started to get nervous. The area wasn't too big, but it had asphalt, gravel, wooden decking, grass, concrete, vertical surfaces, and a bit of clutter. It was a lot to take in.
Interior
Now this was a breath of fresh air. It was like they had copied the gym set up that we practice in. Even the chairs and tables were the same style. Reyna would be totally comfortable in here.
Containers
Another nervous one. So. Many. Boxes! And they were in the shape of a clover. That would make it easy to miss one. I was really going to have to stick with a pattern or risk missing a box.
After the walk though they started running dogs. Each dog would run container and exterior one right after the other and then be done until lunch. Then after lunch we would all run interior and vehicle back to back. I like that much better than the idea of container, break, exterior, break etc.
I was almost dead last. There were 27 dogs running counting an exhibition dog, and I was 25. That made me VERY glad I followed the NKJD blog post and practiced long aging on hides. Reyna does better when the odor has been out for a while actually.
During the down time before our first search I tried to simulate our training environment so about every 45 minutes I would get Reyna out, play a little, run the practice boxes, and then put her away again. The rhythm really helped both of us settle in before the actual searches. I tried to keep Reyna out of the sun, but the on deck locations were pop up tents and Reyna was a bit nervous about the high winds flapping the tents. Turns out she had good reason because one blew over, luckily nobody was there. Other than those short little bursts I tried to just relax in our lawn chairs and enjoy the shade and chat with folks nearby about anything except the specific hides. This was difficult when Lisa came back successful, because I really wanted to ask her how it was, but all we could do is celebrate that her first two hides where over and wait for mine.
I formed my plan for the first two sections, Container I was going to walk Reyna clockwise through the pattern to make sure we didn't miss a box. Exterior I was going to give Reyna 1 minute to do whatever, and then after 1 minute I would do a perimeter walk and then a zig zag to see if we cold pick up odor. I would use the same strategy for the interior and vehicles except that because of the wind on the vehicles, if she hadn't alerted in one minute I would restart her from the opposite side facing the wind.
When it was our turn on deck we paced and played and paced some more
Container:
We walked in and Reyna was focused on the boxes. I held her about two feet behind the start line to make sure she didn't cross early. I gave her the cue and we started. She was NOT interested in checking every box. I had to insist she check a couple. We may have wasted time but I would rather waste time checking empty boxes than miss the right one. I shouldn't have worried because about halfway around she got very focused and started pulling faster until she skidded to a stop and did her very clear chin target and paw touch for the box. I called alert and got the YES! We had passed our first NW1 element and actually got a Pronounced!
Time: 38.05 seconds. Place: 10th
Exterior:
Reyna caught odor on the way to the start line thanks to the wind, I held her for a second more to focus myself and remind myself of the plan. She shot off the start line and went straight for the wooden ramp. My heart sank a bit and I just crossed my fingers that if it was there she would work through it. She hopped off the side of the ramp though and started detailing the ground. She gave a double nose tap and froze on the seam where the ramp meets the concrete. I called it and waited that painful millisecond before we got a YES! We whooped it up and practically ran back to the car. We were halfway there so now I just needed to try and relax until after lunch.
Time: 21.81 seconds Place: 10th
During lunch we all celebrated and lamented and got to talk about the searches since the whole group was done. Lisa and Kelly did awesome on the containers. They got it in 12 seconds and the exterior in 29! If I wasn't nervous before (which I was) now I was really nervous! We only had two more to go.
For the second half I pottied Reyna and played a little bit and then gave her a bowl of kibble and some water. I knew she didn't eat much for breakfast and I wanted to make sure she could make it through the day. She wolfed down her kibble and drank a good bit of water and then settled back into her crate. I decided I didn't want to follow the morning pattern of getting her out repeatedly for fear of wearing her out. She was resting really well in her crate so I just put a frozen blanket over the top of the crate to help keep her cool and let her nap. I was very glad to see her relaxing even when dogs and people walked up to chat. I had been worried that she would wear herself out getting excited every time somebody came by.
I really tried to stay relaxed and not think about the fact that when this was all over it was 20 hours of driving and two vacation days from work and it would really be a bummer to miss the last hide. Lisa went first again and was gone for what seamed like forever. She came around the corner with a thumbs up....she had her title!!! I am glad she went first because she warned me there was a long wait between the two searches and suggested I take some water for Reyna which I did and was very thankful for!
Interior:
There were three holding stations before we got to the interior so I tried to keep a healthy balance of engaging Reyna and then letting her just wander on her line and sniff fence poles etc. When we finally got called in the threshold was at the doorway. I held her back to let her get her bearing and then sent her on. Honestly I was sure it would probably be on the tables or chairs, but Reyna went straight into the middle of the room, between the tables, turned back and hit the far left perimeter and followed it around to the right until we hit a little alcove with a dustpan. She detailed the area for a second and then hit and stuck on the inside of the dustpan. Alert.....YES!!! We were only one away from a title and we received a Pronounced on this hide as well!
Time: 32.84 seconds Place: 12th
Vehicles:
There was a long wait before the vehicle and I was glad I had water, I was glad Reyna had a cued relax, and honestly she was so calm, happy and focused during the wait period that all nerves about the vehicle vanished. I felt calm, and connected. She shot off the start line and I started my internal timer. Just the fact that I felt present and relaxed into to count off seconds in my head while maintaining focused on Reyna told me we were in a good place as a team. In a stroke of luck she ran past the vehicles towards the building and I stopped her. She turned to face me and was looking right into the wind. She immediately caught odor and went halfway back towards the start line in between two cars. As she got halfway down the vehicles she whipped back to the right and started detailing the front wheel well and tire. She stuck her nose into one hole in the hub cap, I gave her harness a little tug to see if she would back up or lean forward. She backed up a step and slammed her nose into the next hole over. I called alert and they said "where?". Holding my breath I pointed to the second hole and got a YES!!!!! We threw a party!!!! Reyna almost took my hand off snatching the ball she was so excited. The judge said he like her head snap into odor. I don't remember if I said thank you or just nodded, but this time we ran all the way back to the car. There were cheers and hugs and laughter. We had our NW1 Title and we received a third Pronounced for this search.
Time: 21.90 seconds Place: 4th
Not only was I absolutely thrilled to have the title, I was very pleased with her consistency. We didn't place on any of the elements but she was extremely consistent. We got a lot of great comments from the judges about her drive, attitude, my ability to read her, and our teamwork.
AND....are you ready for this???? Even though we didn't place on a single element her consistency paid off with a FIRST PLACE OVERALL TIME!!!!!
Ahhhhhh!!!!!!! WE WON THE TRIAL!!!!!! I cannot believe that! Our total time for the trial was 1:54.60, averaging less than 30 seconds a hide....Way to go my formerly reactive crazy baby! She also got several comments about her focused and happy attitude. I am so proud of her and us as a team. We have come so far to get here and have so many people to thank for their help, guidance and inspiration.
Thank you all!!!!
Yay!!!!
The trial was awesome! If you feel like a long read here is our overall experience. If you just want the quick version scroll to the bottom for times/results.
Newberry Nose Work 1 Trial breakdown...
We made the long drive to Jacksonville Florida on Friday. We stayed with a good friend Lisa Mallory who was trialing her doberman Kelly on Saturday too and we spent Friday evening just playing with the dogs and trying to relax. That night I realized I had left my score book 7 hours away in Carrollton, GA. Crap. This was not starting well. It turns out I worried for nothing, apparently you don't have to have our membership card or scorebook with you to trial at all, but I spent that evening and the whole way there the next morning stressing about it for nothing. I wish they would make it more well known that you don't Have to have it.
The next morning Lisa and I headed to the trial site with both dogs. It was two hours away and we made it just in time to check in, find out I had worried for nothing about the scorebook, and get settled into our little "camp" site before the walk through. The site was amazing, plenty of shaded parking, huge potty area, plenty of room for everybody.
Then the walk through started. Our group did the walk brought in reverse order of what we would run. Thanks to this blog post I had a plan in my head for how I would work each area .
Vehicles
There were three vehicles parked at angles facing the main building. I noted that the wind was blowing away from the start line and hoped that wouldn't cause too much trouble. I was thankful we had done a good bit of work in the wind.
Exterior
This time the wind was blowing toward the start line...awesome. But there was a closed shed with a wooden ramp leading up to it as part of the search area. I crossed my fingers and hoped that if the hide was up there that all of our work on decks, stages, and sheds, wold help her push past that. This was also where I started to get nervous. The area wasn't too big, but it had asphalt, gravel, wooden decking, grass, concrete, vertical surfaces, and a bit of clutter. It was a lot to take in.
Interior
Now this was a breath of fresh air. It was like they had copied the gym set up that we practice in. Even the chairs and tables were the same style. Reyna would be totally comfortable in here.
Containers
Another nervous one. So. Many. Boxes! And they were in the shape of a clover. That would make it easy to miss one. I was really going to have to stick with a pattern or risk missing a box.
After the walk though they started running dogs. Each dog would run container and exterior one right after the other and then be done until lunch. Then after lunch we would all run interior and vehicle back to back. I like that much better than the idea of container, break, exterior, break etc.
I was almost dead last. There were 27 dogs running counting an exhibition dog, and I was 25. That made me VERY glad I followed the NKJD blog post and practiced long aging on hides. Reyna does better when the odor has been out for a while actually.
During the down time before our first search I tried to simulate our training environment so about every 45 minutes I would get Reyna out, play a little, run the practice boxes, and then put her away again. The rhythm really helped both of us settle in before the actual searches. I tried to keep Reyna out of the sun, but the on deck locations were pop up tents and Reyna was a bit nervous about the high winds flapping the tents. Turns out she had good reason because one blew over, luckily nobody was there. Other than those short little bursts I tried to just relax in our lawn chairs and enjoy the shade and chat with folks nearby about anything except the specific hides. This was difficult when Lisa came back successful, because I really wanted to ask her how it was, but all we could do is celebrate that her first two hides where over and wait for mine.
I formed my plan for the first two sections, Container I was going to walk Reyna clockwise through the pattern to make sure we didn't miss a box. Exterior I was going to give Reyna 1 minute to do whatever, and then after 1 minute I would do a perimeter walk and then a zig zag to see if we cold pick up odor. I would use the same strategy for the interior and vehicles except that because of the wind on the vehicles, if she hadn't alerted in one minute I would restart her from the opposite side facing the wind.
When it was our turn on deck we paced and played and paced some more
Container:
We walked in and Reyna was focused on the boxes. I held her about two feet behind the start line to make sure she didn't cross early. I gave her the cue and we started. She was NOT interested in checking every box. I had to insist she check a couple. We may have wasted time but I would rather waste time checking empty boxes than miss the right one. I shouldn't have worried because about halfway around she got very focused and started pulling faster until she skidded to a stop and did her very clear chin target and paw touch for the box. I called alert and got the YES! We had passed our first NW1 element and actually got a Pronounced!
Time: 38.05 seconds. Place: 10th
Exterior:
Reyna caught odor on the way to the start line thanks to the wind, I held her for a second more to focus myself and remind myself of the plan. She shot off the start line and went straight for the wooden ramp. My heart sank a bit and I just crossed my fingers that if it was there she would work through it. She hopped off the side of the ramp though and started detailing the ground. She gave a double nose tap and froze on the seam where the ramp meets the concrete. I called it and waited that painful millisecond before we got a YES! We whooped it up and practically ran back to the car. We were halfway there so now I just needed to try and relax until after lunch.
Time: 21.81 seconds Place: 10th
During lunch we all celebrated and lamented and got to talk about the searches since the whole group was done. Lisa and Kelly did awesome on the containers. They got it in 12 seconds and the exterior in 29! If I wasn't nervous before (which I was) now I was really nervous! We only had two more to go.
For the second half I pottied Reyna and played a little bit and then gave her a bowl of kibble and some water. I knew she didn't eat much for breakfast and I wanted to make sure she could make it through the day. She wolfed down her kibble and drank a good bit of water and then settled back into her crate. I decided I didn't want to follow the morning pattern of getting her out repeatedly for fear of wearing her out. She was resting really well in her crate so I just put a frozen blanket over the top of the crate to help keep her cool and let her nap. I was very glad to see her relaxing even when dogs and people walked up to chat. I had been worried that she would wear herself out getting excited every time somebody came by.
I really tried to stay relaxed and not think about the fact that when this was all over it was 20 hours of driving and two vacation days from work and it would really be a bummer to miss the last hide. Lisa went first again and was gone for what seamed like forever. She came around the corner with a thumbs up....she had her title!!! I am glad she went first because she warned me there was a long wait between the two searches and suggested I take some water for Reyna which I did and was very thankful for!
Interior:
There were three holding stations before we got to the interior so I tried to keep a healthy balance of engaging Reyna and then letting her just wander on her line and sniff fence poles etc. When we finally got called in the threshold was at the doorway. I held her back to let her get her bearing and then sent her on. Honestly I was sure it would probably be on the tables or chairs, but Reyna went straight into the middle of the room, between the tables, turned back and hit the far left perimeter and followed it around to the right until we hit a little alcove with a dustpan. She detailed the area for a second and then hit and stuck on the inside of the dustpan. Alert.....YES!!! We were only one away from a title and we received a Pronounced on this hide as well!
Time: 32.84 seconds Place: 12th
Vehicles:
There was a long wait before the vehicle and I was glad I had water, I was glad Reyna had a cued relax, and honestly she was so calm, happy and focused during the wait period that all nerves about the vehicle vanished. I felt calm, and connected. She shot off the start line and I started my internal timer. Just the fact that I felt present and relaxed into to count off seconds in my head while maintaining focused on Reyna told me we were in a good place as a team. In a stroke of luck she ran past the vehicles towards the building and I stopped her. She turned to face me and was looking right into the wind. She immediately caught odor and went halfway back towards the start line in between two cars. As she got halfway down the vehicles she whipped back to the right and started detailing the front wheel well and tire. She stuck her nose into one hole in the hub cap, I gave her harness a little tug to see if she would back up or lean forward. She backed up a step and slammed her nose into the next hole over. I called alert and they said "where?". Holding my breath I pointed to the second hole and got a YES!!!!! We threw a party!!!! Reyna almost took my hand off snatching the ball she was so excited. The judge said he like her head snap into odor. I don't remember if I said thank you or just nodded, but this time we ran all the way back to the car. There were cheers and hugs and laughter. We had our NW1 Title and we received a third Pronounced for this search.
Time: 21.90 seconds Place: 4th
Not only was I absolutely thrilled to have the title, I was very pleased with her consistency. We didn't place on any of the elements but she was extremely consistent. We got a lot of great comments from the judges about her drive, attitude, my ability to read her, and our teamwork.
AND....are you ready for this???? Even though we didn't place on a single element her consistency paid off with a FIRST PLACE OVERALL TIME!!!!!
Ahhhhhh!!!!!!! WE WON THE TRIAL!!!!!! I cannot believe that! Our total time for the trial was 1:54.60, averaging less than 30 seconds a hide....Way to go my formerly reactive crazy baby! She also got several comments about her focused and happy attitude. I am so proud of her and us as a team. We have come so far to get here and have so many people to thank for their help, guidance and inspiration.
Thank you all!!!!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Nose Work Trial Prep
We will return to our regularly scheduled updates and training note shortly. But for now it is all about Nose Work. Our trial is this weekend and I don't think I would do anything differently in preparation for it.
Reyna is now searching for birch on decks with a happy fluffy tail. The stage still gives her the creeps, but she will search it and alert. We have practiced on leash, off leash, high, low, accessible, inaccesible, windy, rainy, short waits in between, long waits in between, totally blind, timed, box refreshers, hides with people walking through the search area, even had a stranger handle her on a couple hides, cars, trucks, forklifts, brand new odor, old odor, 4-6 hour old hides, tiny room, expansive gyms, playground equipment....I even took her to a nose work tournament this past weekend where I was volunteering and had her just wait in the car for 4 hours while I worked it with dogs and people wandering by the car and then brought her out for two quick hides and then left.
To support our Nosework training we have been working on confidence on weird surfaces, focus in extreme situations (heeling off leash near a stray cat feeding station), long working days where we do non Nosework stuff off and on all day, self control on leash and off, drive building with tug and fetch and more tug, relationship building through play, confidence strength and balance through tricks...
I can't lie, if we don't title I will be disappointed, but I don't think we could have prepared better, and I have enjoyed the last couple months of training and relationship building sooooo much, I wouldn't do a thing differently.
Here's to Saturday!
Reyna is now searching for birch on decks with a happy fluffy tail. The stage still gives her the creeps, but she will search it and alert. We have practiced on leash, off leash, high, low, accessible, inaccesible, windy, rainy, short waits in between, long waits in between, totally blind, timed, box refreshers, hides with people walking through the search area, even had a stranger handle her on a couple hides, cars, trucks, forklifts, brand new odor, old odor, 4-6 hour old hides, tiny room, expansive gyms, playground equipment....I even took her to a nose work tournament this past weekend where I was volunteering and had her just wait in the car for 4 hours while I worked it with dogs and people wandering by the car and then brought her out for two quick hides and then left.
To support our Nosework training we have been working on confidence on weird surfaces, focus in extreme situations (heeling off leash near a stray cat feeding station), long working days where we do non Nosework stuff off and on all day, self control on leash and off, drive building with tug and fetch and more tug, relationship building through play, confidence strength and balance through tricks...
I can't lie, if we don't title I will be disappointed, but I don't think we could have prepared better, and I have enjoyed the last couple months of training and relationship building sooooo much, I wouldn't do a thing differently.
Here's to Saturday!
Monday, March 4, 2013
Fenzi Dog Sports Academy...
http://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/
Wow...just wow!!!! I can't wait for this to get up and going...Denise Fenzi herself, Hannah Branigan, and my personal hero Sue Ailsby are on the list of instructors WAY cool!!!!!
Also I received the greatest compliment the other day while doing some work in a distracting environment. Somebody said "she is just SO into you". I can't imagine a greater comment!
Week and a half 'til the NW1 trial...
Wow...just wow!!!! I can't wait for this to get up and going...Denise Fenzi herself, Hannah Branigan, and my personal hero Sue Ailsby are on the list of instructors WAY cool!!!!!
Also I received the greatest compliment the other day while doing some work in a distracting environment. Somebody said "she is just SO into you". I can't imagine a greater comment!
Week and a half 'til the NW1 trial...
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Adventures with Samantha
Okay I FINALLY have our Reyna and Sam video uploaded. We worked on Relax a lot. I looked back at our old video from last march and its amazing our far we have come even though we haven't been working on it very much.
Some other things that Sam learned were, to not go into the playroom no matter how tasty the toddler looks, that "mealtime" means no dogs allowed in the dining room until somebody says "floor patrol!" at which point it's a free for all and Penelope's chair is usually the best place to start.
Reyna got to work on self control around another dog and progressed very quickly. Much better than I would have thought. At the start of the weekend we couldn't pet Same without Reyna coming in to push her out of the way. So we working on of few of theses games:
Sam gets pets, Reyna gets chicken
Both dogs stay, then both dogs come to front and get chicken
Both dogs stay and only Sam comes - Reyna gets chicken for holding her stay
Reyna Stay while mommy bounces around and makes crazy noises with Sam - Reyna gets chicken
Reyna plays tug with mommy while Sam tries her best to distract her - Reyna gets chicken
As you can guess after just a day Reyna decided there was an awful lot of value for her in letting Sam get some attention. The joint recall was actually probably hardest because they are both moving together but must remain focused on me and not each other. Very difficult for two playmates. But they did wonderfully. Such good girls!!!!
Sam is Reyna's best friend, she goes out of her mind whenever she sees her, so to have both dogs off leash in the house would be pretty much impossible I thought. My plan for the weekend was just to go back to my old protocol of on leash or in a crate for both dogs.
Once Sam got here though I decided I owed it to both of them to do some training. They rough housed like crazy and started slamming into furniture...what I had we gotten ourselves into???
But instead of crating them I decided to work on thir default behaviors. At the time they had never done anything together that involved much self control at all. So I got out their dinner, each dog with her own bowl and sat on the couch. Sam has a Level 1 foundation so her zen pretty darn good. It took her a few minutes to realize that I was paying for downs, but once she worked it out the two did awesome! And Reyna got to work on her Level 3 relax which is to relax in sight of other dogs playing...might as well start with another dog not playing to break down the behavior!
By the end of the weekend, both dogs had developed a default calm for indoors and we only crated them at night!
Which brings me to the next fun thing we needed to work on, Reyna totally losing control whenever I let them out of their crates. It didn't matter what order I let them out, it became a scream fest each time. So again, it was time to implement a protocol. Reyna was doing much better by the end of the weekend, but really could have used Sam there for another week or so to get herself really under control.
Forgive the angle of this video and just keep your eyes on the dogs haha!
Reyna got to work on self control around another dog and progressed very quickly. Much better than I would have thought. At the start of the weekend we couldn't pet Same without Reyna coming in to push her out of the way. So we working on of few of theses games:
Sam gets pets, Reyna gets chicken
Both dogs stay, then both dogs come to front and get chicken
Both dogs stay and only Sam comes - Reyna gets chicken for holding her stay
Reyna Stay while mommy bounces around and makes crazy noises with Sam - Reyna gets chicken
Reyna plays tug with mommy while Sam tries her best to distract her - Reyna gets chicken
As you can guess after just a day Reyna decided there was an awful lot of value for her in letting Sam get some attention. The joint recall was actually probably hardest because they are both moving together but must remain focused on me and not each other. Very difficult for two playmates. But they did wonderfully. Such good girls!!!!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Nosework news and other stuff
Well I was really hoping everybody else was slacking off on their 1,000 treat challenge so I would feel better about having only trained a few sessions, but nooooo Eileen has to be out there making progress...fine....I'll get back to work
Reyna is doing well in the very few sessions we have had. We have a college student working with us now so she is going to help with some of those comeafters in the levels we had to skip because we didn't have anybody to work with her. I'm really excited about it.
On her CGC stuff we have been practicing a lot of self control like crate games, and also spacing out reinforcement more as well as working basic behaviors in more distracting situations like around the feral cat feeding stations. I need to start translating her crate games into mat work games to improve her understanding. Even though its not directly a CGC requirement, the skills she is learning in crate games is really helping. When we went to the campus today three people stopped and petted her and she held her sit cold each time!
We are exercising a lot more these days. Having Sam here really showed me how much better Reyna does when she gets a 2-4 mile walk each day, I do great for a little while and then slack off again and forget how important it is to her baseline behavior.
Along the same lines as crate games helping her CGC stuff, we have not been training Nosework specifically,because she knows how to find birch. What she can't do is walk on weird surfaces like decks, stages, bridges to find birch...way too stressful (btw- she grew up running around on decks and bridges so I don't know where or why this fear cropped up). So we have been taking the time we would normally spend on hides, to find every bridge, stage, or deck possible. I did not want the fear linked with Nosework at all, so just like when she was afraid of boxes and I played fetch with her ball near, around, and eventually in, a pile of boxes, this time we are just going for walks and "oh lookie there, a deck how cool, let's check it out....oh wow where did all these treats come from, they are EVERYWHERE! Okay let's go now." I kept that up and then having Sam here really helped her make some big leaps in her confidence levels.
Yesterday I took her to Home Depot with some hamburger, left her in the car and hid treat pieces in the sheds. Some very close to the doors some all the way in the back. Then I got her out of the car just on her regular collar and we walked down the row of sheds when we came across a shed with treats in she would find it, eat it, and then I would put her back in the car just like in a search environment. Then I'd get her back out and we'd walk down the line again. I never gave her a cue, or encouraged her to go into the sheds. At first she was a little hesitant, but by the end she was practically dragging me over to the sheds.
All these forces combined until tonight....drumroll please....Reyna searched for birch confidently on a low outdoor stage she has never been to before!!! AMAZING!!!! I am beyond proud of her, and I am so glad I didn't push anything! We will continue to work on her confidence outside of Nosework and just throw some hides out from time to time to keep her nose sharp, but I just cannot tell you the joy I had in watching her search that stage...if we don't title in march I have already won. Just like the CGC "failure", this is a benchmark of where she is and how far she has come!
Coming soon I promise....videos of Reyna and Sam.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Canicross Fun!
Just in case you thought we didn't do enough different things with Reyna!
We really enjoy canicross, which was a major factor in deciding which harness to pick for her Nosework. We wanted something that would work for everything, and we ended up going with the Nordkyn Skijor harness. We absolutely love it, and in addition to being great for Nosework, it suitable for Canicross, scootering, bikejoring, etc. We have been training her to pull in her harness off and on for a few months now and this weekend has been a total blast!!!
We have Reyna's friend Sam staying with us for the weekend (videos and pics to follow). I have taken them out for two walk/jogs so far and Sam is picking up on driving cues quickly, plus Reyna works a lot harder when she has Sam trotting next to her. She leaned into the harness as soon as we headed out, and didn't slack off for the whole 4 miles! What a good girl!!! She absolutely loves it and clearly differentiates between pulling in the harness and walking on her flat collar.
It was so much fun to have both of them out in front responding to the verbal cues to turn, speed up, slow down, or screech to a halt. And let me tell you, with two shepherds on the line there is no hill too steep for me :)
Another plus is that Reyna is much more confident when Sam is with her, so I have been running the girls up onto decks, ramps, staircases, and even the infamous stage in the gym that Reyna thinks will eat her. She hesitates for a second, but with Sam leading the way she overcomes her fears and quickly gains the confidence to run on and off by herself. Now whether that experience carries over when Reyna is by herself remains to be seen. But for right now I am just trying to get them onto any crazy surface I can think of!
We really enjoy canicross, which was a major factor in deciding which harness to pick for her Nosework. We wanted something that would work for everything, and we ended up going with the Nordkyn Skijor harness. We absolutely love it, and in addition to being great for Nosework, it suitable for Canicross, scootering, bikejoring, etc. We have been training her to pull in her harness off and on for a few months now and this weekend has been a total blast!!!
We have Reyna's friend Sam staying with us for the weekend (videos and pics to follow). I have taken them out for two walk/jogs so far and Sam is picking up on driving cues quickly, plus Reyna works a lot harder when she has Sam trotting next to her. She leaned into the harness as soon as we headed out, and didn't slack off for the whole 4 miles! What a good girl!!! She absolutely loves it and clearly differentiates between pulling in the harness and walking on her flat collar.
It was so much fun to have both of them out in front responding to the verbal cues to turn, speed up, slow down, or screech to a halt. And let me tell you, with two shepherds on the line there is no hill too steep for me :)
Another plus is that Reyna is much more confident when Sam is with her, so I have been running the girls up onto decks, ramps, staircases, and even the infamous stage in the gym that Reyna thinks will eat her. She hesitates for a second, but with Sam leading the way she overcomes her fears and quickly gains the confidence to run on and off by herself. Now whether that experience carries over when Reyna is by herself remains to be seen. But for right now I am just trying to get them onto any crazy surface I can think of!
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