Since the Jenny Lunn Seminars Sketch has been a little “flat” … I haven’t pushed him for a lot of training, mainly “couch potato time” with lots of cuddles and playing with the toys in the toy box. Sketch loves to get into the toy box … and the toy at the bottom is always the one he wants, stretching his neck to the limit trying to reach to the very bottom! When that toy is out of the toy box there’s always another one at the very bottom to be caught … until all the toys are sprawled all over the lounge room couch and floor and the toy box is empty.
Sketch did come along to training last week, before the Agility Trial on Saturday 24 November. He was happy to run a couple of sequences and happy to return to the car to relax in his bed. At the trial on Saturday night he was quite happy, very relaxed and actually, not really perturbed about running a course. He did well in Novice Agility, lovely contacts, beautiful land in a drop on the table, perfect weaves but very laid back and casual about the whole thing. We missed one bar jump so did not Qualify, however still managed to place third in that class!
His Excellent Jumping run started off with a burst of enthusiasm off the start line which gradually diminished to a slow and steady run. Again, he did everything perfectly, apart from a run past the collapsible tunnel. No “Q” but a nice steady run and happy note for him to finish on for the night.
Still seeming a little flat Sketch has ‘rested’ most of this week, with no formal training and just lazing around the house with the rest of the pack. He is entered in the trial tomorrow night so hopefully he’ll be well rested and raring to go!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Tickets Travels - To the Start Line ...
I needed to be Ticket’s leader, rather than her friend. I had to change my whole attitude: instead of fluffing around and trying to make Ticket feel safe … I had to become stronger and more assertive, less tolerant of her panicky behavior and straight to the point. I was allowing Ticket to practice her panicky behavior and subsequently, she was getting better at it all the time! Her fears will never disappear however we could learn to deal with them better …
I changed our whole routine … rather than giving her time to check everything out before running at a trial or training I would take her directly from the car and walk right THROUGH all the people to get to our ring or course. If she pulled away and started to panic I would say “c’mon, don’t be silly” and keep walking … and she did! This felt like a milestone all on its own. I had been fighting her all the time by trying to be nice to her … now she was accepting the challenge and trusting my judgment.
This laid the foundation for a whole new approach to my relationship with Ticket and I applied it to many other situations that challenged us.
Her start lines were another hurdle – if she was in her start position (down) at the start line and the steward walked directly at us to collect the lead, she would bolt the other direction. I have since managed to either stand between her and the approaching steward (which doesn’t always work so I often have hold of her collar) or I toss the lead to the steward before he/she gets too close. We’ve had a few moments where I’ve dropped my guard and Ticket has certainly reminded me that those scary monsters are still out there!
It’s hard to change your default (as we know in training) and I am learning to live with keeping these monsters at bay by consistently being on the lookout to provide Ticket with the almighty leader that she needs to source her strength from. As the human part of this team when things are going well, I do sometimes forget about the ‘monsters’ and default to my “mate” relationship with Ticket, however she always manages to snap me out of any illusion of comfort and bring me back to her world and my “Leader” position.
So, now we can actually get past the start line and think about running the courses … oh my goodness! Ticket has another gear, faster than her training mode … now I need to learn to handle and think on the run, before she makes her own decisions and course!
This realisation has opened up so many new doors for me … I now have the opportunity to train and work with a dog with abilities that many of us would only dream about, I am learning how to help and communicate with this type of dog and I can also give Ticket a serious shot at being a “real” agility dog!
I changed our whole routine … rather than giving her time to check everything out before running at a trial or training I would take her directly from the car and walk right THROUGH all the people to get to our ring or course. If she pulled away and started to panic I would say “c’mon, don’t be silly” and keep walking … and she did! This felt like a milestone all on its own. I had been fighting her all the time by trying to be nice to her … now she was accepting the challenge and trusting my judgment.
This laid the foundation for a whole new approach to my relationship with Ticket and I applied it to many other situations that challenged us.
Her start lines were another hurdle – if she was in her start position (down) at the start line and the steward walked directly at us to collect the lead, she would bolt the other direction. I have since managed to either stand between her and the approaching steward (which doesn’t always work so I often have hold of her collar) or I toss the lead to the steward before he/she gets too close. We’ve had a few moments where I’ve dropped my guard and Ticket has certainly reminded me that those scary monsters are still out there!
It’s hard to change your default (as we know in training) and I am learning to live with keeping these monsters at bay by consistently being on the lookout to provide Ticket with the almighty leader that she needs to source her strength from. As the human part of this team when things are going well, I do sometimes forget about the ‘monsters’ and default to my “mate” relationship with Ticket, however she always manages to snap me out of any illusion of comfort and bring me back to her world and my “Leader” position.
So, now we can actually get past the start line and think about running the courses … oh my goodness! Ticket has another gear, faster than her training mode … now I need to learn to handle and think on the run, before she makes her own decisions and course!
This realisation has opened up so many new doors for me … I now have the opportunity to train and work with a dog with abilities that many of us would only dream about, I am learning how to help and communicate with this type of dog and I can also give Ticket a serious shot at being a “real” agility dog!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Tickets Travels - The Beginning ...
For some time before Ticket started trialling she would come along to trials with us so she got used to the environment. She was comfortable and quite happy, so long as nobody tried to get near her, and we would sneak in a little training on the practice jumps when nobody else was warming up. She seemed to enjoy herself and still as keen as ever to jump and play.
One of our biggest problems was trying to convince people NOT to try and make friends with her and to ignore her. For some reason, when you say to someone, “oh, she’s a little nervous, just ignore her” they insist on trying to befriend, feed, pat, talk to and get closer to her … this is the worst thing anyone could do to win her trust. Any efforts to interact with her were quite unsettling for her and she would reject them without hesitation, usually making them try harder and making her more desperate to get away.
I guess we’re lucky that our community of triallers is fairly small. Most of them know who Ticket is now and don’t even bother to acknowledge her when she is with me. She now accepts being amongst them, occasionally making the approach to interact, very very briefly (like a quick sniff).
The first hurdle was getting Ticket on course. We decided to enter a few trials to give her the experience and see just how she was going to cope or react to the situation. Getting to the ring often meant walking through lots of people and dogs, and very scary for Ticket if one of those people happened to walk directly towards her … you could see her thinking “they’re coming to get me” and she’d bolt off the other way. I always tried to reassure her that everything was OK but it made no difference – she was in her own little “zone”. We struggled with this and I hated it but I thought if we just keep on doing it she will get used to it.
Once we got to the ring we had to deal with the “steward monsters” to get to the start line … well … here in WA the steward normally approaches you once you’ve positioned your dog on the start line and collects the lead from you. Do you think I could convince her that the steward was not going to hurt her? Absolutely not! Ticket’s zone was unbreakable … I would hold her collar after removing the lead (otherwise she would run away) and as the steward approached you could feel her whole body tense and the horror look in her eyes would make anyone think that she had been badly beaten by someone at some stage in her life (even though we knew she hadn't).
Sometimes I was able to partly regain her focus and gather her up again, maybe get her into a down stay in order to get some focus off the start line.
Ticket is very fast and I was continually on the back foot. By trying to be with her and support her at the start line I was then way behind her once she took off. If I tried to get a head start on her and lead out she would break her stay, usually after glancing behind at the people outside the ring and justifying it with the fact that there were monsters out there (that’s also were the steward came from you know!)
This went on for some six months or longer … I became incredibly frustrated and almost decided to ‘give it up’, feeling a little like I was a failure and also disappointed that I wasn’t able to focus this dog and use her natural ability to it’s fullest. I could see the potential in her and I guess that’s what kept me going, as well as the fact that I personally hate to be beaten by something that seems so simple.
We continued to train and I regularly took her to the local Agility Club, trying to expose her to the point where hopefully she would be overwhelmed by it all and forget her fears … this was not to be. Ticket had practiced this behavior for some time now and was getting very good at it.
I talked to many many people … top trainers here in WA, people who had dealt with “problem” dogs, people with other breeds who may have had similar behavioral idiosyncrasies … I’m sure they all got sick of hearing my stories and questions.
In the meantime, I met Amanda Russell. We shared notes on dogs, training, etc. and after discussing Ticket’s issues and sharing my frustration Amanda has been the first person to come back to me with a positive outlook, rather than the usual “give up” type of answer.
Stay turned for the next chapter of Tickets journey …
One of our biggest problems was trying to convince people NOT to try and make friends with her and to ignore her. For some reason, when you say to someone, “oh, she’s a little nervous, just ignore her” they insist on trying to befriend, feed, pat, talk to and get closer to her … this is the worst thing anyone could do to win her trust. Any efforts to interact with her were quite unsettling for her and she would reject them without hesitation, usually making them try harder and making her more desperate to get away.
I guess we’re lucky that our community of triallers is fairly small. Most of them know who Ticket is now and don’t even bother to acknowledge her when she is with me. She now accepts being amongst them, occasionally making the approach to interact, very very briefly (like a quick sniff).
The first hurdle was getting Ticket on course. We decided to enter a few trials to give her the experience and see just how she was going to cope or react to the situation. Getting to the ring often meant walking through lots of people and dogs, and very scary for Ticket if one of those people happened to walk directly towards her … you could see her thinking “they’re coming to get me” and she’d bolt off the other way. I always tried to reassure her that everything was OK but it made no difference – she was in her own little “zone”. We struggled with this and I hated it but I thought if we just keep on doing it she will get used to it.
Once we got to the ring we had to deal with the “steward monsters” to get to the start line … well … here in WA the steward normally approaches you once you’ve positioned your dog on the start line and collects the lead from you. Do you think I could convince her that the steward was not going to hurt her? Absolutely not! Ticket’s zone was unbreakable … I would hold her collar after removing the lead (otherwise she would run away) and as the steward approached you could feel her whole body tense and the horror look in her eyes would make anyone think that she had been badly beaten by someone at some stage in her life (even though we knew she hadn't).
Sometimes I was able to partly regain her focus and gather her up again, maybe get her into a down stay in order to get some focus off the start line.
Ticket is very fast and I was continually on the back foot. By trying to be with her and support her at the start line I was then way behind her once she took off. If I tried to get a head start on her and lead out she would break her stay, usually after glancing behind at the people outside the ring and justifying it with the fact that there were monsters out there (that’s also were the steward came from you know!)
This went on for some six months or longer … I became incredibly frustrated and almost decided to ‘give it up’, feeling a little like I was a failure and also disappointed that I wasn’t able to focus this dog and use her natural ability to it’s fullest. I could see the potential in her and I guess that’s what kept me going, as well as the fact that I personally hate to be beaten by something that seems so simple.
We continued to train and I regularly took her to the local Agility Club, trying to expose her to the point where hopefully she would be overwhelmed by it all and forget her fears … this was not to be. Ticket had practiced this behavior for some time now and was getting very good at it.
I talked to many many people … top trainers here in WA, people who had dealt with “problem” dogs, people with other breeds who may have had similar behavioral idiosyncrasies … I’m sure they all got sick of hearing my stories and questions.
In the meantime, I met Amanda Russell. We shared notes on dogs, training, etc. and after discussing Ticket’s issues and sharing my frustration Amanda has been the first person to come back to me with a positive outlook, rather than the usual “give up” type of answer.
Stay turned for the next chapter of Tickets journey …
Monday, November 19, 2007
Obedience Seminar - Jenny Lunn UK
Wow … my head is spinning! We’ve just finished a two day obedience seminar with Jenny Lunn from the UK. Thanks to Jill & Amanda Houston who arranged for Jenny to be here for the first time in Australia … we are very lucky!
Jenny is an inspirational teacher. She makes most of us look pretty boring in our training ways and she is quite amazing in her varied approaches, with many different ideas on solving problems, etc.
We seem to forget to be unpredictable in our training and Jenny highlighted this with her ability to “think outside the square” with a very practical but interesting approach to problem solving.
We tend to train our dogs for a specific exercise, and just that. Jenny showed us how to break down exercises and teach the ingredients of them within fun activities that kept the dogs focused and interested, rather than teaching in a formal manner.
Jenny is very sensitive to the dogs’ feelings and well tuned in to quickly read their expressions and reactions, always careful not to “insult” the dog with her actions. She is very clear about what she communicates to them and easily relates to each individual dog and handler.
There is so much information to process and I am sure what I have learnt will benefit me in many ways, not only in my obedience training, but also in my approach to the other disciplines of dog training.
Thank You Jill & Amanda for this great opportunity!
Jenny is an inspirational teacher. She makes most of us look pretty boring in our training ways and she is quite amazing in her varied approaches, with many different ideas on solving problems, etc.
We seem to forget to be unpredictable in our training and Jenny highlighted this with her ability to “think outside the square” with a very practical but interesting approach to problem solving.
We tend to train our dogs for a specific exercise, and just that. Jenny showed us how to break down exercises and teach the ingredients of them within fun activities that kept the dogs focused and interested, rather than teaching in a formal manner.
Jenny is very sensitive to the dogs’ feelings and well tuned in to quickly read their expressions and reactions, always careful not to “insult” the dog with her actions. She is very clear about what she communicates to them and easily relates to each individual dog and handler.
There is so much information to process and I am sure what I have learnt will benefit me in many ways, not only in my obedience training, but also in my approach to the other disciplines of dog training.
Thank You Jill & Amanda for this great opportunity!
Friday, November 16, 2007
Tickets Travels - History
This is Ticket’s story ... about what agility has done for a dog that many people shook their heads at … some recommended re-homing her, some recommended destroying her and others advised us to return her to her breeder ... well, anybody who knows us, knows that any dog that comes into our home stays. So here’s some history on Tick.
Maghera Fan The Fire aka “Ticket”
My journey with Ticket started when she decided she was definitely NOT going to allow show judges to come anywhere near her. From around six months old she developed total fear of any human other than us (the family she lives with). She would wet herself and would not go within 5-10 meters of any stranger. If cornered in her own yard she would wet herself and in public open space she would bolt without looking back!
When Ticket arrived with us at 8 weeks old, directly from her breeder in Victoria, she was happy, outgoing and quite sociable.
She did have few small incidences (small to us) that happened during her first few months, and we could pin the blame on them. However, we can not be sure how/why she developed this fear that has stuck with her to this day. There was no way we could show her in the conformation ring with this behavior – a judge could not even examine her. We gave her some time to see if it was a “stage” she was going through, unfortunately it “stuck”. She would not take food from people and if they tried to make friends she would become more suspicious of them, retreating behind us very quickly to the end of her lead. After about 12 months of trying to socialize Ticket, with little success, I started to teach her agility … thinking it is a sport where she does not have to have any contact with people and she could still be in control of her situation without being forced.
So the journey began ……
Ticket LOVED running and jumping … she burned up the ground as she played on all the jumps and tires. I allowed her to get away with all sorts of things, after all she was having fun and showing some confidence. I didn’t really take her training seriously … I never dreamt that she would make it to the trial ring!
So we never really did any foundation training. I never taught her contacts (bad move!) and we never did any sort of jump training. Ticket’s priorities started with RUN FAST at the top of the list, and anything that slowed her down was not allowed in the equation, even me! We had some serious training to do in order to make things a little safer … the first thing I had to teach her was not to run across in front of me (especially when I was running flat out!)
Ticket blossomed with this training. She didn’t overcome her “people problems” but she had come ahead in leaps and bounds … she learnt that it was OK to stand closer to people. She would stand within a couple of meters of a group of people now, still a little nervous, but she thoroughly enjoyed the training. I realized that I had to invest some serious time with her and started to look at our training a little more constructively …
Stay tuned for the next chapter on Ticket’s history.
Maghera Fan The Fire aka “Ticket”
My journey with Ticket started when she decided she was definitely NOT going to allow show judges to come anywhere near her. From around six months old she developed total fear of any human other than us (the family she lives with). She would wet herself and would not go within 5-10 meters of any stranger. If cornered in her own yard she would wet herself and in public open space she would bolt without looking back!
When Ticket arrived with us at 8 weeks old, directly from her breeder in Victoria, she was happy, outgoing and quite sociable.
She did have few small incidences (small to us) that happened during her first few months, and we could pin the blame on them. However, we can not be sure how/why she developed this fear that has stuck with her to this day. There was no way we could show her in the conformation ring with this behavior – a judge could not even examine her. We gave her some time to see if it was a “stage” she was going through, unfortunately it “stuck”. She would not take food from people and if they tried to make friends she would become more suspicious of them, retreating behind us very quickly to the end of her lead. After about 12 months of trying to socialize Ticket, with little success, I started to teach her agility … thinking it is a sport where she does not have to have any contact with people and she could still be in control of her situation without being forced.
So the journey began ……
Ticket LOVED running and jumping … she burned up the ground as she played on all the jumps and tires. I allowed her to get away with all sorts of things, after all she was having fun and showing some confidence. I didn’t really take her training seriously … I never dreamt that she would make it to the trial ring!
So we never really did any foundation training. I never taught her contacts (bad move!) and we never did any sort of jump training. Ticket’s priorities started with RUN FAST at the top of the list, and anything that slowed her down was not allowed in the equation, even me! We had some serious training to do in order to make things a little safer … the first thing I had to teach her was not to run across in front of me (especially when I was running flat out!)
Ticket blossomed with this training. She didn’t overcome her “people problems” but she had come ahead in leaps and bounds … she learnt that it was OK to stand closer to people. She would stand within a couple of meters of a group of people now, still a little nervous, but she thoroughly enjoyed the training. I realized that I had to invest some serious time with her and started to look at our training a little more constructively …
Stay tuned for the next chapter on Ticket’s history.
The Mysteries of Sketch ... First Agility Trials
Sketch’s very first agility trial was at the German Shepherd Dog Club of WA grounds. He was entered in Novice Agility and Novice Jumping. I didn’t have great expectations for Sketch and we were both quite calm and relaxed. Sketch’s start lines are still not rock solid so I run with him from the start line (he’s not that fast either) … his first run was in Agility. I didn’t have any worries about his weaving or contacts – they are very reliable – the only things that could go wrong with Sketch would be he would run around a jump or an obstacle because he’s not sure … well we had a refusal on the A-Frame. It was a white bottomed A-Frame with outdoor carpet at the top which he had never seen before and on our second attempt he took it but very unsure. The rest of his agility run was good and we celebrated at the end to make sure he knew everything was OK.
His second run was Novice Jumping and he casually negotiated the course with me without a hiccup … he Qualified and also placed 2nd.
The following day was the Rockingham Dog Club Trial. Sketch competed in both Novice classes again. This time he ran Novice Jumping first and did a lovely, casual round … no stress, no rush! … just a nice, calm run. Sketch won 1st Place this time!
His second run, later that day, in Novice Agility was the total opposite … he was really excited at the start line. The second obstacle was the weave poles. After weaving he came out of the poles a little disoriented … he had 4 bar jumps following that and he knocked each of them down – he appeared to fall onto the bars somehow, taking off with great gusto and landing short. I picked him up after the 4th jump, brushed him off and gave him a cuddle. He wanted to keep running so I allowed him to continue the rest of the course … he did so, but quite clumsily.
I’m not sure what happened there but it certainly wasn’t pretty! Regardless, we ended on a positive with big hug at the end.
Our third trial was just last weekend, Saturday 10 November. Fortunately Sketch ran Novice Jumping first and did a nice, calm and steady round – Clear and Qualified to finish his Jumping Dog Title!
Our Agility round was another NQ. We missed a couple of jumps after the weave poles, however his contacts were lovely. He finished the course happily, still trying hard for me.
In the back of my mind, I have a feeling that Sketch really really want’s to run and play agility with all his might. He gets really wound up waiting at the start, watching the other dogs finish and by the time he’s on the start line he’s quite revved up. Then he takes off and it feels like the effort he puts in doesn’t seem to come out!
We are still taking him to Tracy, Bowen Therapist, for regular maintenance visits and at present all seems OK. He is a happy, affectionate little dog and loves everyone and everything he meets.
We will continue to train/trial agility and jumping for now and see how things go.
we're looking forward to the Jenny Lunn (UK) obedience seminar this weekend at Brynbank Training Centre. She will be covering some interesting topics very relative to Sketch's obedience work.
Stay tuned for updates …
His second run was Novice Jumping and he casually negotiated the course with me without a hiccup … he Qualified and also placed 2nd.
The following day was the Rockingham Dog Club Trial. Sketch competed in both Novice classes again. This time he ran Novice Jumping first and did a lovely, casual round … no stress, no rush! … just a nice, calm run. Sketch won 1st Place this time!
His second run, later that day, in Novice Agility was the total opposite … he was really excited at the start line. The second obstacle was the weave poles. After weaving he came out of the poles a little disoriented … he had 4 bar jumps following that and he knocked each of them down – he appeared to fall onto the bars somehow, taking off with great gusto and landing short. I picked him up after the 4th jump, brushed him off and gave him a cuddle. He wanted to keep running so I allowed him to continue the rest of the course … he did so, but quite clumsily.
I’m not sure what happened there but it certainly wasn’t pretty! Regardless, we ended on a positive with big hug at the end.
Our third trial was just last weekend, Saturday 10 November. Fortunately Sketch ran Novice Jumping first and did a nice, calm and steady round – Clear and Qualified to finish his Jumping Dog Title!
Our Agility round was another NQ. We missed a couple of jumps after the weave poles, however his contacts were lovely. He finished the course happily, still trying hard for me.
In the back of my mind, I have a feeling that Sketch really really want’s to run and play agility with all his might. He gets really wound up waiting at the start, watching the other dogs finish and by the time he’s on the start line he’s quite revved up. Then he takes off and it feels like the effort he puts in doesn’t seem to come out!
We are still taking him to Tracy, Bowen Therapist, for regular maintenance visits and at present all seems OK. He is a happy, affectionate little dog and loves everyone and everything he meets.
We will continue to train/trial agility and jumping for now and see how things go.
we're looking forward to the Jenny Lunn (UK) obedience seminar this weekend at Brynbank Training Centre. She will be covering some interesting topics very relative to Sketch's obedience work.
Stay tuned for updates …
Thursday, November 15, 2007
The Mysteries of Sketch
I am going to share with you some history on "Sketch" (Westurn Solitary Man). Sketch has been quite a 'different' dog through his growing up and learning from an early age. Here I will take you from his very beginning on this earth to just recently ... including the good and not so good bits in this journey ...
Westurn Solitary Man aka "Sketch"
Born June 2005 by cesarean section. The first delivered was a little black and white boy, who was decidedly “blue” due to lack of oxygen. Ticket, the mother had been in labor for several hours and given up. Fortunately we elected to do the Caesar just in time, Otherwise Sketch would never have survived.
There were another two boys and one girl delivered and Sketch was still not breathing … eventually we managed to revive him and he survived, to be one of the sweetest, yet most frustrating and challenging dogs I have ever trained!
The mother was "Ticket" (Maghera Fan the Fire) and the father "Denver" (Borderfame Heart and Soul).
Ticket decidedly did not want to be a mother … she ignored the puppies from day one. We had to wake her and them every few hours and put them on her for a feed. After a few days they went on to bottle feeding as Ticket had no interest in caring for them whatsoever. She wouldn’t even clean them - basically dis-owned them. Therefore, they were handled an awful lot and we took it in shifts to feed and toilet them as they grew into strong, healthy puppies.
As a litter, these puppies did not seem to interact, either with each other or with people. Looking at them at six weeks old I didn’t really “like” any of them … none of them “grabbed” me. Of course, they were gorgeous little cuddly puppies but on a personal level, they were just another litter of puppies! Sounds cold and calculated doesn’t it? But that’s how it felt. We kept two of them … “Kota” and “Sketch”.
Sketch began his foundation training for agility and obedience almost immediately. Once he was old enough, and once we knew that the other boy, Kota, had both his testicles and his hip/elbow scores were OK we would sterilize Sketch.
We began our journey …
Having previously had great success with clicker training and free-shaping behaviors for agility performance I started Sketch off with the clicker. He seemed to be a happy, content little puppy … not “over the top” but a happy little trainer and he appeared to enjoy the training.
He was more interested in food than toys. We still played with toys to maybe develop some interest however, Sketch preferred to play with toys on his own, not sharing with or bringing them back to me. So they became a permanent part of my reward, only when with me, he was not allowed to have them without me being part of it. His interest in toys never really changed. He still prefers to play with them on his own!
When he was 3 months old we had the Agility Nationals 2005 in Perth. We also had the pleasure of an international guest, Jo Sermon from the UK, conducting agility seminars here at the time. Jo spent some time with us and also some time showing me how to teach a quick response with accurate clicker and timely rewards. Jo demonstrated this by teaching Sketch a very quick “down” … he basically goes “splat” on the ground when you ask him to “down”. We worked this for a number of other behaviors and Sketch enjoyed learning tricks and short duration behaviors … we were still getting to know each other.
Sketch learnt all the necessities of sit, down, stand, short bits of heeling (on both left and right). He could run through ladders with ease, contact behaviors were accurate and fast, he quickly learnt the difference between the see-saw and dog-walk. He learnt to “scoot” – where he would lay down in front of me and shuffle backwards in a down – very cute! He could even jump from the ground up into my arms … he was so agile in many ways and I enjoyed teaching him … I was looking forward to our future together.
As time went on we started jump training – a fairly structured program based on Linda Mecklenburg’s articles in Clean Run magazine. Sketch was almost 12 months old and we progressed to full height, single jumps fairly quickly. Single jump training lasted a couple of months and Sketch seemed happy with it all, progressing nicely, and developing his own “style”.
We free-shaped the weave poles. It took him a long time to work it out on his own but we got there eventually, not too many repetitions but regular sessions slowly adding the number of poles to the line. He struggled with speed thru the poles, he tried, but seemed to get all tangled up … it was like he really had to think about where his feet were going and where his body was going next. He looked like he was trying to weave poles that were too close together but he is no way too long to weave with speed … I assumed he was just a little un-coordinated and, given time, he’ll work it out himself. After all, his ladder work was brilliant!
We progressed the jump training to introducing lead-outs, turns after a jump and additional jumps over the next few months. I probably didn’t proof the start line stay enough and Sketch wasn’t real happy being left as I lead out to a jump. Looking back now, I should have known better and proofed stays much better first – but it was fixable.
At this point, Sketch started to slow down in a way that he was very cautious jumping and not keen to jump. I stopped jumping him totally at this point and concentrated more on other fun things we could do in obedience.
His heelwork was never intense … he heeled, and that was it. He was always checking out the surrounds as he heeled, his eyes flicking back and forth, and he was easily distracted. We did minimal heeling, just perfecting 100% attention for 1 step, 2 steps, 1 step, 3 steps, and so on. Progress was slow.
Sketch was favoring one of his front legs, with a slight limp and this came and went over a couple of weeks. It was the same leg he had hurt at around 6 months old when playing rough with another puppy (at that time it only lasted a day). We took him to visit Liz Franks, Trigger Point Therapist, who worked on him over a period of two months. He improved and seemed OK, actually he seemed a little happier.
By this time I feared that I had somehow “broken” him … Did I over work him/ask too much of him? Did I miss something important, that I shouldn’t have? Did I do something wrong??? Have I ruined his chances for a performance future? I don’t know the answers but I do know I was feeling quite to blame at this point … maybe I should have read this dog better and known that he couldn’t or wasn’t coping? I am so self-centered? … Should have I known my dog better!?
In January 2006 we were lucky enough to have Stacy Peardot-Goudy visit for agility seminars and I asked her advice on Sketch’s jumping issues and why it had changed so quickly. I explained the history. By this time Sketch was 18 months old.
Her first suggestion was to go back to very basic single jumps and build it up again slowly … so we did.
I stopped training obedience for a while, to ensure he was not under too much pressure, plus he didn’t seem to enjoy it anyway.
He didn’t seem to enjoy the jumping much either … he would do what I ask him twice, maybe three times then he would run to the back door of the house or run over to the side of the yard and eat the grass. This was becoming more regular and I wondered if he was in some sort of pain.
We took him to see Tracy Hockley, Bowen Therapist. The muscles around the shoulder he had hurt earlier were quite sore, and the thoracic part of his spine and opposite back leg also needed some work. We had a follow up visit with Tracy who felt at that time he should be OK now. He was happy and looked comfortable in himself.
Sketch slept in my bedroom in a crate, although he never had freedom in my room. At around 20 months old I went into my room to let him outside … he seemed to be in a daze, I called his name a second time and he lifted his head, got up, stepped outside the crate and fell to the floor on his side. He seemed to be having a fit or seizure of some kind … his eyes rolled and his breath was short. His legs moved slightly like he was running … I called Rene to come quickly and help. By the time she got there he had stopped and slowly lifted his head and looked at us as if to say “what are you all staring at?” … I don’t think he even knew that anything had happened.
For a while there I also thought he had a sensitive stomach and he often had vomited or had diarrhea for no obvious reason … this came and went and at present is OK. After checking with vet’s we still don’t know what caused/causes it.
Sketch had a break from any serious training … I didn’t know what to do and I certainly wasn’t going to “make” him do things just to make me happy … we just played around with things that didn’t matter …
At times I would explain him as depressed. I’m not sure dogs can get depressed but he seemed sad a lot of the time. Otherwise, he seemed healthy … eating well, coat looked good, good muscle tone, and socially calm around the rest of his pack. He did not display any dominance towards other dogs and mixed well when meeting other/strange dogs, usually offering a play bow or such.
Sketch learnt to retrieve a Frisbee. This was quite an accomplishment, seeing that he preferred to take toys away and play with them on his own … so we traded treats for the Frisbee and he soon learnt that bringing it back earned a reward. When I threw the Frisbee he would only trot after it, wait till it landed and pick it up but he would run back to me with it. Obviously chasing it was not very exciting to him but he liked the reward. Sketch still can’t catch the Frisbee … he tries to – snapping at the air nowhere near it and then it lands on the ground where he doesn’t expect it to land. It’s a game and he seems to enjoy it in his own, laid-back way.
We introduced the dumb-bell … thinking this was more of a “trick” to him than “work”. Taking Shirley Chong’s method of the shaped retrieve we started from the beginning. I managed to shape a nice “pick up the dumbbell and roll it around in your mouth” behavior. Closely following this was the tossing the dumbbell up in the air and flicking his head backwards! Very funny but definitely not the behavior we wanted!!! I was unable to get a solid “hold” on the dumbbell – either my clicking was too slow or Sketch didn’t know how to hold something without mouthing it. We stopped training this exercise until I could work out how to fix the problem!
I talked to lots and lots of people, still feeling like it was my fault, and feeling like a failure that I couldn’t train this dog. After talking with Jill & Amanda Houston about Sketch they asked me to bring him to the next trial to see if they could help me with his obedience.
Amanda has been most encouraging and always seems to find the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. She showed me how to change my approach and put a whole new light on heel-work. Sketch showed some signs of enthusiasm and actually looked like he was enjoying himself … almost like he was saying, “why didn’t you tell me what you wanted?”
We started practicing some agility again, with multiple jumps but simple lines, nothing too hard. He was still not overly keen to jump, almost like he had to think really hard for each jump, and he often slipped over when trying to turn after jumping. I tried to keep turns at a minimum.
We were enjoying our obedience training and he was gradually improving. He learnt slowly, and I had to keep it interesting without showing my disappointment if he didn’t do what I wanted him to do. All we worked on was large, right about circles … lots of them!
Whenever I could I would take him along to the agility trials and Amanda always took the time to check out what we were doing and where we were at, and regularly offering advice to help us progress. Sketch seemed happy and his duration heeling was growing.
In this time he had also learnt to weave thru my legs, in a figure 8 while I stood still.
We slowly built up our duration of heeling with focus, and slowly it was. In the meantime we added some returns, worked on our stays and recalls and just easy, simple stuff.
Sketch seemed to be enjoying his obedience work so we started to do some agility again … he knew all the skills so we just did novice sequences, and not too often … just once or twice in each session and we stopped before he stopped enjoying it.
Now nearly 2½ years old I thought it time we had a go at entering a trial so we entered our first agility and jumping trials (Sketch’s first time, not mine!) I thought it might give him a bit of confidence and maybe help him grow up a little more … no pressure on him, just the chance to expose him to the formalities of a trial and give us both a sense of achievement (I can find an achievement in every agility run – regardless of the end result) … so it would be good for both of us.
Westurn Solitary Man aka "Sketch"
Born June 2005 by cesarean section. The first delivered was a little black and white boy, who was decidedly “blue” due to lack of oxygen. Ticket, the mother had been in labor for several hours and given up. Fortunately we elected to do the Caesar just in time, Otherwise Sketch would never have survived.
There were another two boys and one girl delivered and Sketch was still not breathing … eventually we managed to revive him and he survived, to be one of the sweetest, yet most frustrating and challenging dogs I have ever trained!
The mother was "Ticket" (Maghera Fan the Fire) and the father "Denver" (Borderfame Heart and Soul).
Ticket decidedly did not want to be a mother … she ignored the puppies from day one. We had to wake her and them every few hours and put them on her for a feed. After a few days they went on to bottle feeding as Ticket had no interest in caring for them whatsoever. She wouldn’t even clean them - basically dis-owned them. Therefore, they were handled an awful lot and we took it in shifts to feed and toilet them as they grew into strong, healthy puppies.
As a litter, these puppies did not seem to interact, either with each other or with people. Looking at them at six weeks old I didn’t really “like” any of them … none of them “grabbed” me. Of course, they were gorgeous little cuddly puppies but on a personal level, they were just another litter of puppies! Sounds cold and calculated doesn’t it? But that’s how it felt. We kept two of them … “Kota” and “Sketch”.
Sketch began his foundation training for agility and obedience almost immediately. Once he was old enough, and once we knew that the other boy, Kota, had both his testicles and his hip/elbow scores were OK we would sterilize Sketch.
We began our journey …
Having previously had great success with clicker training and free-shaping behaviors for agility performance I started Sketch off with the clicker. He seemed to be a happy, content little puppy … not “over the top” but a happy little trainer and he appeared to enjoy the training.
He was more interested in food than toys. We still played with toys to maybe develop some interest however, Sketch preferred to play with toys on his own, not sharing with or bringing them back to me. So they became a permanent part of my reward, only when with me, he was not allowed to have them without me being part of it. His interest in toys never really changed. He still prefers to play with them on his own!
When he was 3 months old we had the Agility Nationals 2005 in Perth. We also had the pleasure of an international guest, Jo Sermon from the UK, conducting agility seminars here at the time. Jo spent some time with us and also some time showing me how to teach a quick response with accurate clicker and timely rewards. Jo demonstrated this by teaching Sketch a very quick “down” … he basically goes “splat” on the ground when you ask him to “down”. We worked this for a number of other behaviors and Sketch enjoyed learning tricks and short duration behaviors … we were still getting to know each other.
Sketch learnt all the necessities of sit, down, stand, short bits of heeling (on both left and right). He could run through ladders with ease, contact behaviors were accurate and fast, he quickly learnt the difference between the see-saw and dog-walk. He learnt to “scoot” – where he would lay down in front of me and shuffle backwards in a down – very cute! He could even jump from the ground up into my arms … he was so agile in many ways and I enjoyed teaching him … I was looking forward to our future together.
As time went on we started jump training – a fairly structured program based on Linda Mecklenburg’s articles in Clean Run magazine. Sketch was almost 12 months old and we progressed to full height, single jumps fairly quickly. Single jump training lasted a couple of months and Sketch seemed happy with it all, progressing nicely, and developing his own “style”.
We free-shaped the weave poles. It took him a long time to work it out on his own but we got there eventually, not too many repetitions but regular sessions slowly adding the number of poles to the line. He struggled with speed thru the poles, he tried, but seemed to get all tangled up … it was like he really had to think about where his feet were going and where his body was going next. He looked like he was trying to weave poles that were too close together but he is no way too long to weave with speed … I assumed he was just a little un-coordinated and, given time, he’ll work it out himself. After all, his ladder work was brilliant!
We progressed the jump training to introducing lead-outs, turns after a jump and additional jumps over the next few months. I probably didn’t proof the start line stay enough and Sketch wasn’t real happy being left as I lead out to a jump. Looking back now, I should have known better and proofed stays much better first – but it was fixable.
At this point, Sketch started to slow down in a way that he was very cautious jumping and not keen to jump. I stopped jumping him totally at this point and concentrated more on other fun things we could do in obedience.
His heelwork was never intense … he heeled, and that was it. He was always checking out the surrounds as he heeled, his eyes flicking back and forth, and he was easily distracted. We did minimal heeling, just perfecting 100% attention for 1 step, 2 steps, 1 step, 3 steps, and so on. Progress was slow.
Sketch was favoring one of his front legs, with a slight limp and this came and went over a couple of weeks. It was the same leg he had hurt at around 6 months old when playing rough with another puppy (at that time it only lasted a day). We took him to visit Liz Franks, Trigger Point Therapist, who worked on him over a period of two months. He improved and seemed OK, actually he seemed a little happier.
By this time I feared that I had somehow “broken” him … Did I over work him/ask too much of him? Did I miss something important, that I shouldn’t have? Did I do something wrong??? Have I ruined his chances for a performance future? I don’t know the answers but I do know I was feeling quite to blame at this point … maybe I should have read this dog better and known that he couldn’t or wasn’t coping? I am so self-centered? … Should have I known my dog better!?
In January 2006 we were lucky enough to have Stacy Peardot-Goudy visit for agility seminars and I asked her advice on Sketch’s jumping issues and why it had changed so quickly. I explained the history. By this time Sketch was 18 months old.
Her first suggestion was to go back to very basic single jumps and build it up again slowly … so we did.
I stopped training obedience for a while, to ensure he was not under too much pressure, plus he didn’t seem to enjoy it anyway.
He didn’t seem to enjoy the jumping much either … he would do what I ask him twice, maybe three times then he would run to the back door of the house or run over to the side of the yard and eat the grass. This was becoming more regular and I wondered if he was in some sort of pain.
We took him to see Tracy Hockley, Bowen Therapist. The muscles around the shoulder he had hurt earlier were quite sore, and the thoracic part of his spine and opposite back leg also needed some work. We had a follow up visit with Tracy who felt at that time he should be OK now. He was happy and looked comfortable in himself.
Sketch slept in my bedroom in a crate, although he never had freedom in my room. At around 20 months old I went into my room to let him outside … he seemed to be in a daze, I called his name a second time and he lifted his head, got up, stepped outside the crate and fell to the floor on his side. He seemed to be having a fit or seizure of some kind … his eyes rolled and his breath was short. His legs moved slightly like he was running … I called Rene to come quickly and help. By the time she got there he had stopped and slowly lifted his head and looked at us as if to say “what are you all staring at?” … I don’t think he even knew that anything had happened.
For a while there I also thought he had a sensitive stomach and he often had vomited or had diarrhea for no obvious reason … this came and went and at present is OK. After checking with vet’s we still don’t know what caused/causes it.
Sketch had a break from any serious training … I didn’t know what to do and I certainly wasn’t going to “make” him do things just to make me happy … we just played around with things that didn’t matter …
At times I would explain him as depressed. I’m not sure dogs can get depressed but he seemed sad a lot of the time. Otherwise, he seemed healthy … eating well, coat looked good, good muscle tone, and socially calm around the rest of his pack. He did not display any dominance towards other dogs and mixed well when meeting other/strange dogs, usually offering a play bow or such.
Sketch learnt to retrieve a Frisbee. This was quite an accomplishment, seeing that he preferred to take toys away and play with them on his own … so we traded treats for the Frisbee and he soon learnt that bringing it back earned a reward. When I threw the Frisbee he would only trot after it, wait till it landed and pick it up but he would run back to me with it. Obviously chasing it was not very exciting to him but he liked the reward. Sketch still can’t catch the Frisbee … he tries to – snapping at the air nowhere near it and then it lands on the ground where he doesn’t expect it to land. It’s a game and he seems to enjoy it in his own, laid-back way.
We introduced the dumb-bell … thinking this was more of a “trick” to him than “work”. Taking Shirley Chong’s method of the shaped retrieve we started from the beginning. I managed to shape a nice “pick up the dumbbell and roll it around in your mouth” behavior. Closely following this was the tossing the dumbbell up in the air and flicking his head backwards! Very funny but definitely not the behavior we wanted!!! I was unable to get a solid “hold” on the dumbbell – either my clicking was too slow or Sketch didn’t know how to hold something without mouthing it. We stopped training this exercise until I could work out how to fix the problem!
I talked to lots and lots of people, still feeling like it was my fault, and feeling like a failure that I couldn’t train this dog. After talking with Jill & Amanda Houston about Sketch they asked me to bring him to the next trial to see if they could help me with his obedience.
Amanda has been most encouraging and always seems to find the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. She showed me how to change my approach and put a whole new light on heel-work. Sketch showed some signs of enthusiasm and actually looked like he was enjoying himself … almost like he was saying, “why didn’t you tell me what you wanted?”
We started practicing some agility again, with multiple jumps but simple lines, nothing too hard. He was still not overly keen to jump, almost like he had to think really hard for each jump, and he often slipped over when trying to turn after jumping. I tried to keep turns at a minimum.
We were enjoying our obedience training and he was gradually improving. He learnt slowly, and I had to keep it interesting without showing my disappointment if he didn’t do what I wanted him to do. All we worked on was large, right about circles … lots of them!
Whenever I could I would take him along to the agility trials and Amanda always took the time to check out what we were doing and where we were at, and regularly offering advice to help us progress. Sketch seemed happy and his duration heeling was growing.
In this time he had also learnt to weave thru my legs, in a figure 8 while I stood still.
We slowly built up our duration of heeling with focus, and slowly it was. In the meantime we added some returns, worked on our stays and recalls and just easy, simple stuff.
Sketch seemed to be enjoying his obedience work so we started to do some agility again … he knew all the skills so we just did novice sequences, and not too often … just once or twice in each session and we stopped before he stopped enjoying it.
Now nearly 2½ years old I thought it time we had a go at entering a trial so we entered our first agility and jumping trials (Sketch’s first time, not mine!) I thought it might give him a bit of confidence and maybe help him grow up a little more … no pressure on him, just the chance to expose him to the formalities of a trial and give us both a sense of achievement (I can find an achievement in every agility run – regardless of the end result) … so it would be good for both of us.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Welcome ...
This is blog is complimentary to the Westurn Performance Dogs website News & Updates Page where we post all of our acheivements, successes and results. Here I will expand on our training and trialling adventures. I will share with you my experiences and challenges along the way. For more information about us please visit our website (link below). To follow my trialling and training experiences ... stay tuned!
Helen
Helen
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