Busy, Busy, Busy

So, can you tell school has started back up. Not just school for the kids, but also my graduate course work. Both training and blogging about training have suffered. However, I'm going to try and post at least once a week. Rumi's running A-frame is okay, even with sporadic training we've had. Time to start sequencing I think :) His splat is coming along nicely, although not consistently enough I would want to remove the barrier. But his flop is becoming even more solid as the differences are becoming clearer. Or Practice. Or something. :) I continue to doodle with his fronts and finishes and play fun scent games when there is time.

I know this is Rumi's blog, but he said it was okay if I gave Thai a few minutes :) I was working the broad jump with her and she was cutting the corner. I thought about my recent lesson with Kristen and Sheik and decided that was my corner, not hers. Jumped on the corner to claim it once or twice (no lead rope) but with the intention that that was my corner. Had a nice response. We'll see if it holds up with her as well as it did with Sheik when he tried to take some of my space. But it is a different way of looking at that corner so thought I'd experiment with it a little.

Downs

To think there was a time in my life when I thought down just meant the dog was lying down on the ground. Now I worry about all these little details: are the elbows all the way down on the floor, which goes down first, elbows or butt, how fast is the dog going down, does he flop on his butt...

So I managed to totally un-teach Rumi the down. When I went to meet Laura for lessons she pointed out I had totally let my drop criteria go out the window (although she was much nicer about it!) I should probably back up and say I had already started re-doing his long down. He had the bad habit (which I obviously had let develop) of whining and flopping back and forth on his hip. I was getting pretty convinced sooner or later a judge would NQ us. So I had taught him to flop over on one hip and stay there. At the same time I had decided no sound would be allowed on a flop. It was coming along nicely. So I was using "Down" as a settle command. Just go lie down while I'm talking, setting jumps, whatever and I don't care if you creep, whine, if you break it I just tell you to down again and ignore it....a throw away command. So I hand't thought about where that left his drop/fold back down.

So I went home deciding I needed yet another command for yet another down...3 down commands...really? So out comes the clicker and I start to re-shape the down using a barrier (a broad jump board). But Rumi was dropping so fast that from the front I couldn't really tell how he was dropping so I was more careful what I clicked, which was elbows down first. However, having a dog that is easy to shape has it's draw backs if you are only an average shaper. In no time I had a perfectly shaped bow...sigh...

So I have caved a little. My new criteria...go down fast and without paws touching the board. how you get there is up to you. I just can't see what is going on with his body when standing in front and with his speed. I'm thinking my new word will be Splat, because that's kind of what he's doing with his body. Video soon :) And yes, that dang bow creeps in every once in a while. How come the wrong behaviors are sooo hard to extinguish :)

Resolutions

New Year almost here, and I think I need to write down my dog resolutions.

Thai:
Earn her ASCA and AKC CDX,
Get AKC TD (she has her ASCA TD)
Match her Utility and maybe show in ASCA
Open Sheep and Ducks

Rumi:
Earn his NA/NAJ
ASCA/AKC CD
work on TDX/VST
Rally Excellent

We'll see :)

Happy New Years :)

Broad Jump

Rumi had a few months where he couldn't do the broad jump at Bill and Belinda's. He could do it outside at my house (obviously we are talking summer and early fall here) but had problems else where. I tried putting the target out. I tried some gentle compulsion. I tried many things. And I was frustrated. He had had the behavior very solid over last winter and spring. And now it was gone...which was not a big deal...but I couldn't easily get it back which was confusing and frustrating. Until I started doing agility again this winter. And I had my DUH moment. I had trained Rumi's broad jump totally different than any of my other dogs. I had taught him to jump using Linda M.'s jumping method. And that included the broad jump. So I went back and reshaped the broad jump in, oh, like 2 minutes. Rumi offered me 17 kajillion behaviors in like 10 seconds and then jumped the boards and his light bulb went on and he hasn't missed one since. Including at the match Tuesday.

He'd never done a broad jump with a target or any of those other things I had tried, so they didn't help at all.

Below is the video of his match Tuesday in novice and open. I have the annoying music in the background because the wonderful strangers who video taped for me (thank you all a ton!!!!) were talking and I don't want to accidentally embarrass them with something unintentionally caught on my tape!

Scent Articles Part 2

So, I took a little break from blogging for Christmas, but now I'm back at it. I thought I would follow up my scent article post with some video. This was only the third time Rumi has done scent articles, and the first time he has done them away from home. Because I taught scent where he had to search for an object in a room, I am not worried about the time he sniffs the leash (I'm actually a little surprised he didn't bring it back to me) or the time he wandered around the room for a minute. I also didn't mind him mugging Laura (the camera operator) since having someone kneel on the floor while doing scent work is a new distraction for him :) Not sure how Laura felt about it :) :) The heat was also on full blast. I was hot and not wearing a fur coat. But the air blowing down did not seem to hinder his ability to find the correct article. Enjoy the video.

Don't Teach Scent Articles this way ;)

I enjoy doing a lot of scent work with my dogs. Rumi especially did a lot of scent training as a pup and has his TD. So training scent articles with him wasn't anything I really worried about. We had played find it a million times with different articles: metal, plastic, and anything in between. So Monday I pulled out 3 metal and 3 leather articles and put them out. Grabbed a metal one and scented it and put it in the pile. Told Rumi to find it. He tried to grab all the dumbbells in his mouth. He managed 3. I told him oops and sent him back again. He picked up each one (one at a time this time) until he grabbed the one that was scented and his little mind went "OH" and he brought it back. I tried it again and he did the same thing: picked up every article until he found the scented one and then brought the right one back. I'm standing there thinking...this is not a behavior I want him to learn and I really don't want to un-train it. So I took my big milk crate of old mismatched scent articles: some double bar, some triple, some single most the size a lab would retrieve and dumped them in a pile. Then I grabbed one metal one, scented it, and put it in the pile. I turned Rumi around to look at the pile and his eyes got really big (seriously...it was hilarious) and his little brain started spinning as he thought "I can't pick all these up". I sent him and he sniffed, found the right one and brought it back. Three more times, three more perfect finds.

Yesterday I dumped the same pile out, did the same thing once (see I don't always skip over ALL the steps) and he found it perfectly. So then I put the scented one UNDER a few un-scented one. I was right, I got more amusement. Rumi found the right one immediately, but he thought he was playing pick up sticks and VERY CAREFULLY touched only the scented one and brought it back. Did this two more times; I really should have recorded it. Maybe I'll try tomorrow. Maybe we'll have to go to a more traditional set soon.

I do not suggest training scent articles this way, but so far, for Rumi and I, it is working. I have definitely done more traditional training with all my other dogs. LOL

Contacts Day 3

Thank goodness I remembered my video camera. All the words get boring to look at without media to spice them up. Rumi is doing well. Teeter is about half height and he is having fun banging it. Dogwalk and A-Frame are coming along well. But I hate the stutter steps at the end. Am I going to regret not sticking with the running contact Lisa had me start training this summer? I'm beginning to think maybe...especially on the A-Frame. But it's only day 3 so hopefully once he KNOWS his job it will smooth out. Love his jumping and following my body language on the jumping. He's going to make me be a more honest handler. Where I tell him to go, he will go.

I also like his weave poles. They were slightly bent to help him with his off side weaves. But he looks the same with them bent or straight on the "obedience side".

All in all...a very good boy for such spotty training! I'll tell you my scent article story tomorrow :)