Training Project

I've decided I'd like to take on an ambitious training project for the spring. I'm going to teach 7 a running contact. For the (agility) uninitiated readers this means that instead of having 7 come to a full stop at the end of contact equipment (dog-walk, A-frame) excluding the teeter for obvious reasons :D I will have him continue running flat out.

There is a painted "zone" (often yellow) at the bottome of these pieces of equipment that the dogs feet must touch. This is a very difficult thing to train simply because it's ambiguous. Dogs HATE ambiguity. Running to the bottom of a long board and stopping when your front feet touch dirt is black and white. It's an easy concept to understand and there are definete criteria that you can teach
seperately before putting it all together. The running contact is basically taught- (through my preferred method) Continue striding accross the board and make sure your feet hit somewhere in the bottom third of the down ramp. Simple, right? Not so much. It combines a LOT of muscle memory as well as some seriously whip-fast timing with the clicker or marker word when the dog makes their last stride and it hits inside the yellow zone and roughly where you'd like to see it. For example, you might not reward the dog for getting a paw in the yellow zone that is too high up and thus dangerously close to not hitting at all. Conversely, you don't want the dog too careful and adjusting his stride awkwardly to make the very bottom of the plank.

I'm planning to just teach the dog-walk first as it's the more difficult piece and if that goes well, we'll see if his skills transfer to the A-frame.


You may be wondering why I would even bother teaching this new concept to 7. I mean, he already has super reliable contacts that have (so far) held up in a trial situation, so why try something else. There are several reasons...foremost; all the coolest agility people are doing it...and I'm nothing if not a sheeple. But, it also intrigues me as a challenge and I don't think that, even if we end up failing miserably, it will mess up our current contacts. If anything, it should make them faster. I will be sure to name it differently and continue cueing "touch!" when I want a stopped contact.


I've decided I'd like to try Silvia Trkman's method as I've been able to find a lot of (free!) information on it and most of it's directly from the source. Here is a video of several dogs trained using this method...



Here is another trainer I love who has trained the Trkman running contact as well as a stopped 2 on 2 off contact (with nose touch)

Quick Tip:

When hiking a bunch of dogs in the mountain, in the rain, you must remember a few things. If you are suddenly overcome with feelings of doggy love and general wellbeing you may feel inclined to break into song. This is normal. BUT, and this is important...first remove your hood. While a hood provides wonderful protection from icky, wet rain and has surprisingly good acoustics, making your rendition of "You light up my life" sound absolutely fantastic! It also unfortunately creates a cone of silence.
You will not, for instance, hear the man walking directly behind you. That is until, he clears his throat LOUDLY. You see, he will have been trying to get past the weird (but vocally gifted) girl walking with her giant herd of dogs for quite some time. However, you are wearing brand new boots which make you feel a bit unbalanced. Smartly, you will be walking with wide, swingy, balancey arms on a narrow trail, making casual passing impossible. When his LOUD, painful sounding throat noises finally get through your soundproof hood, try not to startle too violently. Those new boots will be unable to keep you upright and you will fall sideways into a puddle. Noisy throat man will then take his opportunity to jog past you, because, who in their right mind would help up a girl who is getting her face washed by numerous dogs while laughing hysterically.

...You're welcome.

Awesome Dog is Awesome.

I'm a little late with this post as it's about something that happened over 2 weeks ago but, whadayagonnado?
So, 7 went 7 out of 8 in his first agility trial ever...*pauses a suitable length of time to allow mouths a chance to return to normal, closed positions*
Needless to say I'm a little proud of the baby dog! The first day, Saturday, was one of the best days in agility I've ever had. It wasn't so much that we Q'd in all four runs (that's super nerdy agility talk for "we had four perfect, fault-free runs) but that 7 maintained awesome drive and focus throughout the day and still remembered all his extra boring criteria like where to enter weave poles and how to stop at the end of each contact 'till mom says "break!" He is a dog who really likes to grab life by the cojones and a super exciting, loud, stressful trial environment is just the sort of place I could expect him to lose his mind completely until all his brain can manage is "look at that!" "Ohmydog is this dirt!?" "Are those WALLS?" "I can't believe the AIR I'm breathing right now!!!"
I was very happy with his ability to keep it together. Sunday was a little more exciting as that was the day Jesus Christ decided to visit us at the barn. Also known as Ryan...7's personal saviour.



I mean, look at him! How do you expect 7 to keep his focus when THIS angelic creature is in the vicinity? I can barely keep my composure with Ryan around!

We still managed to pull 3 q's out of the 4 runs on Sunday mostly due to the fact that these were starters courses so there was some leeway given when 7 would be running furiously down a line of jumps and then all of a sudden get a wiff or eau de Ryan or hear what could be a "I'm in trouble and only a Vizsla can save me!" bark, and veer off course for a bit to check it out.

Our only faulted run of the trial occured when the trial organizers in their infinite wisdom scheduled Ryan to run right before me in the Snooker run! I mean, come on! Everyone knows 7 needs at least a half a day to recuperate after watching Ryan fly whimsically through a course, while singing operatic criticisms and congratulations at his mom's chosen handling path. I knew we were about to break our streak when I had to hold 7 by the scruff of the neck at the start line while he sat craning his neck around me trying to catch a glimpse of Ryan sailing out the out gate.
I didn't mind not Q'ing Snooker as it's my least favourite class and I don't mind staying at the starters level a little longer just to avoid the more difficult courses facing us at the higher levels. As for the rest of the weekend, we moved up in Standard as well as Gamblers. We also technically would have moved up in jumpers but you have to get 2 Q's under 2 different judges and unfortunately we had the same judge for both jumpers classes.
Here's a pic of 7 with his ADC ribbon which he got under judge (and super awesome auntie!) Julia.



Here's a video of Saturday's runs.

Long time...

No post!

On Remembrance day, a group of us dog nerds threw our dogs (and some tag-alongs) in our cars and headed up Cypress Mountain for a little doggy free-for-all in the fresh snow. It was miserable rainy at the bottome of the mountain but snowing big, beautiful white flakes up top.



That night was 7's agility class that runs Masters level courses. Not bad for the 18 month old Baby Dog!

As promised...

Here are some very sad pictures of 7 when he got home from his surgery. Being a dog with zero body fat, the drugs really hit him hard and he took quite a long time to recover.

Jazz sat near 7's crate for quite a while, it was pretty cute although I'm fairly sure he just wanted in the big comfy crate and didn't know why 7 should get all the attention.



At one point I heard some heavy breathing and snorting sounds coming from 7's recovery ward and saw this terribly pathetic but also too funny sight.

I actually had to opend the crate door and reposition his head to allow for more air flow.

The surgery got rescheduled for thursday (yesterday) as they had an emergency in the clinic on Wednesday morning that took precedence.
Today, I've been giving 7 some filled kongs to persuade him to stay *quietly* in his crate. This is apparently extremely unfair says Jazz and foster dog Reese. They believe they should be allowed stuffed kongs too, just for having to put up with their whiney brother!

I'm very happy with the job my vet did, I was able to be with 7 right up until he was fully under and they were about to put the tube down his throat. I had to leave for a hike with some client dogs otherwise I could have stayed for the whole procedure. His incision site is miniscule and so clean looking. There are no stitches to be seen as they are all under the skin and dissolvable. 7's empty "coin purse" is a pretty funny site flopping in the breeze and I do hope it goes away with time!

"Adios Amigos!"

My poor wee puppy is finally getting the big "snip snip." He's going in tomorrow and while I'm happy to be finally doing it, I'm also being a super worried wussie mummy about it. I just can't stand the thought of my big baby in surgery!
Wish him luck!


Of course, post surgery, super sad 7 pictures to come! (I can be so cruel!)

Dog Nerd Beach Party

So, with the stressful Super Dogs audition week over (with a few flyball lessons, 7 will be ready for the team next year!) we decided to take the whole gang down to Spanish Banks dog beach for a doggy beach party. We started out with 13 dogs, which dwindled to 10 when someone got too cold and had to go home (Love you Loic!)


This was our attempt at a group photo...

Unfortunately I think puppy Kepler *just* walked out of the shot as this was taken but, trust me, this is the best one I got!


We went at super low tide which makes it look like you can walk all the way back home.



Cooper was in heaven checking out all the tide pools (and there were a LOT)



Besides the usual suspects a couple new(ish) faces joined our party.

This is Angel, a senior German Shepherd and a complete sweety...


Here's...oh crap! I forgot his name! He's awfully cute though, his permanent wink is terribly endearing.


Beezer: "Yep, I'm surrounded..."


Kepler needed a couple pit stops along the way. Life is tiring when you're a baby!


Finally we found the real ocean...Ryan and 7 were overjoyed...




However, 7's joy quickly turned to sorrow when he realized..."ooh mommy, it's cold!"


The dogs who swam did so with gusto and were retrieving ball after ball until our arms got sore...




While everyone had a great time, I think it was the "Four Musketeers" who really squeezed every last drop of fun out of the adventure. I swear, every time we get these four together, they immediately take off on their own version of tag that will last for hours if we let it!