Wednesday's Work

January 11, 2014

Nickel City Cluster

AKC
Beginner Novice

Obedience Title

The blizzard that hit parts of Buffalo ended on Tuesday and the roads were cleared on Wednesday (there had been a driving ban) so we headed out first thing Thursday morning. Wow, we crossed the border into a sea of white. Route 5 runs along Lake Erie and as far as the eye could see the lake was ice and snow! 

Shortly after we arrived at the Nickel City Cluster, I passed my very first attempt at Beginner Novice Obedience (BN) with a score of 187.5/200. Several hours later, I earned my second Rally-O leg with a score of 93/100 (my first and only other AKC Rally-O run was way back in April 2012).  

Since the weather was co-operative, we drove home Thursday night and returned Friday morning (a very slushy drive). Very shortly after arriving at the venue, I earned my second BN leg with a score of 187. After more than 6 hours of waiting around, it was Rally-O time. Or NOT! Yep, my Achilles heel got the better of me, again. Two-thirds through the run came the "Sit-Down" station and I gave into temptation BIG TIME!!! Although, I started to "down",  it was my tongue that hit the floor and not my elbows. Up until then, it was a passing run. From that station on, it was a dismal fail. Oh, well.

The Saturday morning drive was a bit slow with slippery conditions here and there. Once over the border, we encountered a road closure on Route 5 due to flooding and had to take a detour which nearly made us late for my BN run. In spite of our hurried entrance into the building, I earned my third BN leg with a score of 191 and my first AKC Obedience title.

Had we known it was going to be a 7 hour wait until our Rally-O run, we would have gone home at noon. As we entered the ring, it was apparent that my focus was more on the mats than on the work, so Mom made the decision to keep the leash short and taut so as to not allow me to reach the mats with my nose or tongue! This decision caused us to NQ. Oh, well. Better an NQ with my head in the air than an NQ due to a repeat performance of "lick the mats". 

It's safe to say that most, if not all, of the marks lost were due to the lure of the mats. That being said, in my defence, I have not been in a group class of any kind since last March, only managed to squeeze in a couple of private lessons in the summer and only one drop-in Rally-O class in December. So, all in all, I did a spectacular job of working in the midst of the distractions of the crowd, the other dogs outside the ring and the activities in the other ring. If only the mats had not been so intoxicatingly calling my name...

Not quite the "clean sweep" I had in the conformation ring at last year's Nickel City Cluster BUT a very successful outing nonetheless. Everyone is very proud of my earning my Beginner Novice title in 3 straight runs.

 

The snow was piled so high that I could almost see the
racehorses practicing on the other side of the high fence.

Thanks to Judges Ted Leslie and Catherine Thompson and all the volunteers of the Kennel Club of Niagara Falls and the Kennel Club of Buffalo.

Wednesday's Work

For a variety of reasons, we have not attended any classes for several months. Where has the time gone? We did, however, manage a few private obedience lessons in the summer. Here are two videos from my introduction to the broad jump.

My first session learning the obedience broad jump sequence

 

Being an introductory lesson, the broad jump is set about half its trial length (which will be 46"). To avoid a diagonal jump landing in front position, the plunger is used to encourage a straight jump landing followed by a turn then a front. This is the type of exercise where we employ the earlier foundation exercise of going out to and around cones (for example, go-outs). As shown in the above video, we ended each attempt with a front and a fun reward delivery rather than a formal finish (finishes will be added much later).

The following weekend

  
If I am counting correctly, there are 6 steps to a broad jump:
1.  wait in a sit position
2.  jump straight over the boards
3.  land straight
4.  turn to the right
5.  front (sit in front of handler as straight as possible)
6.  finish (either by swinging to the left or by going behind the handler then
     sitting in the space between the boards and the handler)

Wednesday's Work

 Bionic Bodi, the Self-Employed Vizsla, takes a trip to Sarnia

CKC Rally Novice title!

Napping with my new toy on Sunday afternoon
We were inadvertently given an Obedience rosette (wishful thinking).

A great big thank you to the most patient of judges:
Diana MacKenzie  and  Del Lunn

Kudos to the judges and all of the Sarnia KC members who worked so hard

in sweltering humidity to keep things moving along at a brisk pace.

 

GIGANTIC SPOILER ALERT !

If you believe me to be perfect and infallible, please do not proceed FORWARD.

HALT

SIT

DOWN

WALK AROUND

(do anything but read further)

270 Right
away from your screen

  if you choose to
360 Left
be prepared to

take

3 STEPS BACKWARD,

SPIRAL
out of control
and
toss your rose-coloured glasses!


Thursday Morning

In the 15 minutes I spent in the man-cave while Mom went to fill up
the vehicle and pick up bags of ice for the cooler this happened!!!

Once again, I was framed by the most evil of evil Bowser beds!!!
You see, I had to go-go and in the name of self-preservation, the evil Bowser bed decided to distract me by unzipping and spilling its contents everywhere!!!



Thursday Evening - Monday

On Friday morning, we needed to be in 3 rings at the same time so the decision was made to scratch my first Rally and Pre-Novice runs. Although they would have held up the Rally and Obedience rings and waited for us to return from the conformation ring, based on Thursday night's correction match, it did not seem fair to make the other people and dogs wait in sweltering 100% humidity for half an hour just to witness a Vizsla hell-bent and determined to perform the best imitation of a Bloodhound in recorded history. (A video clip of such has been submitted to the Academy of Canine Theatrical Arts for consideration in the category of Best Imitation of the Hallmark of Another Breed.)

Evil Bowser bed aside, filthy floors are my arch nemesis!!! My 125 million (or more) turbinates were like magnets to the mats (judging by my stellar imitation, I may actually possess closer to the 500 million turbinates of an actual Bloodhound). For some odd reason, many people suggested that my pair of you-know-whats was to blame - this I do not understand as they are nowhere near my nose (well, most of the time, anyway)!!

You know your run is not going well when you lift your nose off the floor and you hear applause! SIGH! Mea culpa, mea culpa but dang that floor was intoxicating!

On Saturday afternoon, the lightbulb finally turned on and we earned the first Rally leg with a score of 81. I will take credit for losing 9 points and only 9 points. The other 10-point loss sits squarely on the human's shoulders for becoming discombobulated with shock and disbelief when my nose came off the floor at station 5 and she led me off-course toward station 13 (good thing she immediately returned us to station 5 and got us back on course)!

I did it!  I did it!

Many thanks to Michelle Ross for helping to turn on the lightbulb by sneaking up on me and pinching my butt!!!

Perhaps if my one Pre-Novice attempt had been on Monday instead of Sunday I would have passed. As it was, my heeling pattern looked more like tracking but I performed the figure-8 reasonably well, held my sit for exam and passed the group sit (only once did I glance longingly at the floor but my nose did not fall below the level of my belly button). The recall (the only off-leash exercise of the weekend) started off with my signature full-throttle bionic leap in the air but ended up with my nose planted on the ground instead of my butt!!!

Although I know all the Rally exercises through Excellent, it was deemed unwise to move up to Advance for our 2 runs on Monday. It wasn't worth the risk of practicing more bad behaviour as the freedom of being leash-free would have provided the opportunity to explore all the nooks and crannies that were out of reach on a 6' (now 9') leash.

To be fair, on Monday, I was in the conformation ring (outdoors) within 10 minutes of finishing a Rally run ("indoors") and showed beautifully. For a young (male) dog, this, in and of itself, was a stellar accomplishment. My second Rally run of the day (and last of the weekend) was about 2 hours later and I would have had High in Class (with a 91) had I chosen not to sniff the floor during the Halt-Down-Walk Around with my elbows in the air!!!!!  
 
On Sunday and Monday, the lightbulb flickered a little (okay, maybe a lot) but at least I finished the weekend way, way, way better than I started it (and way, way, way better than anyone would have predicted on Thursday evening...Friday...Saturday morning).

Lesson Learned

To overthrow my arch nemesis, I must start training in a barn!!!!!

Tricky Tuesday

"Do More with Your Dog"
Trick Dog Champion
Audition Videos

1.  Coordination

Push a Skateboard

 
2.  Mouth Target

2.1  Retrieve Object to Hand from 12' Away
(white tape on the floor measures 12' from the wall)

 
2.2  Pull a Rope

3.  Paw Target

Ground Target - Tap Light

 
4.  Nose Target

Hand Target

5.  Scent

Nose-Work Box Search

6.  Distance

6.1  Go to a Pedestal 20' Away

6.2  6 Cued Behaviours on a Pedestal from 12' Away
(sit, stand, drop)

(drop, head down, bark, drop, head down, sit, bark)

 (sit, wave)

7.  Signals

6 Silent Cues
(heel, about turn, sit, wait, front, swing finish, heel, spin counter-clockwise,
wrap around legs, spin c-c, bow)

8.  Behaviour Chain

Push a Truck 6' then Tip the Bin
(trick shown from 2 different angles) 

9.  Expert Tricks

9.1  ETD List:  Fishing

9.2  OTHER:  2 Jumps:  one cue - from a distance

9.3  ETD List:  Pick Pocket

9.4  OTHER:  Yawn

9.5  OTHER:  Brief Rally Routine
(heel, 360 L, U-turn R, sit-down-stand, heel, U-turn R,
send to jump, call to heel, sit)

Fingers and paws crossed, waiting to hear if we have qualified!

Stay Tuned!

Wednesday's Work

Back in the good 'ole days of summer when I was learning to "retrieve over a jump."

I know, I know, must hold the dumbbell by the bar not the bell !

Wednesday's Work

The Tire Jump

I was sent to the jump by the camera hound who was
standing 20' feet away facing the side of the jump

These photos and videos are from my Introduction to the Tire Jump. Or, should I say, the "tired" jump!  (The camera hound is not moving very well in these videos as she overdid some yardwork earlier in the day. Part of that work was freeing the tire jump from its job as a support for the temporary fencing.)

Here's my Introduction to Directed Jumping using the tire jump ("jump") and the bar jump ("over").  An arm signal accompanied the verbal signals (which you would have been able to see had the camera been better positioned...sigh).

The tire jump is LOTS OF FUN but it really does need a little sprucing up with fresh tape (not photoshop)!.

Wednesday's Work

This may look like proprioception work but I was actually doing my obedience class homework:  "stand stays" in various positions.  I held each of these "stands" for approximately one minute.

Wednesday's Work

3 "mainstays" of obedience

Last week: verbal cues
This week: hand signals only

Wednesday's Work

Bodi: "stand"             Diva: "drop"              Miska: "sit"

We begin and end every day with a mini training session.  Here I am practicing the 3 "mainstays" - sit, stand, drop - of obedience with verbal cues.  In this session, I promptly and accurately respond to a dozen cues in a minute. Would have been a much shorter video were it not for the time required to chew the very crunchy Charlie Bears!

(Notice that I respond to the cue "table" with an immediate drop - a touch of agility training in the middle of an obedience session.)

11 Months of Age

11 weeks

11 months

at 3 months (with same bumper)

Since there is a jump (12") in Rally Advanced, Mom set up the obedience jump at 8" the other day to introduce me to the concept of "jumping in heel position." In AKC, CKC and UKC, the team heels up to the jump and resumes heeling as soon as the dog lands the jump (in CARO, the jump is a distance exercise where the handler sends the dog ahead to the jump and cannot move past the line until the dog is in mid-air). After a few jumps while in heel position, it was decided that I should be introduced to the formal UKC Novice Recall exercise. So, here I am performing the UKC Novice Recall exercise for the very first time. As you can see, this exercise requires 3 distinct actions: wait in a sit + jump + sit in front position.

(In a trial setting, this exercise would end with a formal "finish." I get lots of opportunity to practice formal "finishes" while training for rally. In this video, I have been released from the exercise to retrieve a tossed treat rather than a formal finish as it is best to learn new exercises in discrete components. Eventually, a formal finish will be added to the exercise on a random basis.)