Going away for the weekend.

David and I are going to IL this weekend. We are taking Siren and Magic. That means Grace will be left home. It will be the first time I am going away since she was diagnosed.  And I am all full of worry. Darryl has to work, so not only will I not be there, but she will be alone for long periods.  I hate having a sick dog, even one who is doing well.

Magic & Grace, TBAD, TG1

Sunday up in Duluth Grace and Magic both earned their TBAD and TG1 titles running teacup agility.    The video is one of the games, Minuet, where the goal is to run the loop as many times as you can.  Magic managed the most of any dog there! And Grace was like 4th overall.  Grace also managed her first intermidiate level Q and she weaved nicely in 2 runs. Small accomplishments to some, but huge for us.  Grace also managed to run 8 times with no health complications.  If you watch the video of Grace she will loudly tell you how much fun she had, she has never barked quite so much as she did up there! Go Gracie!

Magic running Minuet

Grace runs Minuet,too.

Grace Rally Photos

Grace actually can heel pretty nicely when she chooses too. 

Apparently the stand command is not her favorite. Love her expression!

And here she is telling me something. I am sure I did something wrong. If funny through all the pictures, either Graces mouth is going or mine is.  We must chatter nonstop!  All photos from Great Dane Photos.

Teacup Agility

Last weekend Grace, Magic and I tried to run teacup agility. In teacup the equipment is smaller and the courses seem tighter. I chose this as Graces first attempt back to agility since she got sick since I thought the smaller trial, smaller equipment and nice local location would make it easier for her.  Well she was amazing as far as her health and happiness. She never stopped wagging and smiling the whole weekend.  She ran 6 times total, and we actually qualified 3 times, twice in standard and one game. In her second run of the weekend she started to give me serious attitude, so she got pulled off the course, but the rest of the times she was wonderful. We had a few bobbles, heck we are out of practice but overall she was terrific and I was so proud of my pumpkin girl.

Magic only went on Sunday. He ran all 6 classes and qualified 3 times, 2 games and one standard.  His issue was leaping contacts. We really may have to consider changing to a 2 on 2 off. Running is not working with him at all.  On the positive side, while he was a wild man, and we had a few miscommunications overall he tried really hard and I can't fault that. I messed up both dogs a couple of times when I forgot which dog I had and handled wrong.  I need to work on that! But thats OK we have plenty of time to play together!

Mega Esophagus

I haven't been posting much lately. Things around here have been a bit difficult.  But I think I am ready to talk a bit about it.

Tuesday Grace was diagnosed with Mega Esophagus.  This is a condition where the muscles in the esophagus essentially stop working and it gets all stretched out.  Basically she has very little ability to swallow. In adult onset, its often due to another condition called Myasthenia Gravis. We are still waiting on the lab test for this, but her symptoms are very likely.

What this means for us and Grace is that we now have to be much more involved in her eating process. Since she can't swallow, all her food has to sort of flow down her throat. We now have to feed her in a totally vertical position and then continue to hold her up for about a half hour for the food to get all the way down. Otherwise she coughs it back up which can lead to aspiration pneumonia, which the radiologist thinks she was already developing. And she needs 4-5 small meals a day.  She can't drink any water herself either, and must get her fluids from her foods. 

Its been a tough week absorbing all this and starting to change the way we do things here.   We are going to build her a baily chair which is used for feeding, but we havent been able to do that yet. None of us are woodworkers, nor do we have the proper tools, but I am hoping we can figure this out.  I think it will make her life and ours a little easier.

I am going to try to not let this condition take over the blog, but this is a huge part of our lives now, so I will apologise in advance. 

UCD & URO2 Gracie

Gracie and I managed to eek out her UCD last weekend at teh MMBC trial.  It wasn't pretty, but its done! Much prettier was her URO2 run, where she beat Magic and earned a 97 to his 96,  Earning her UCD did qualify her for the unofficial Super Dog designation that UKC has. This is for earning your championship and titles in agility, rally weight pull and obedience.  Now I need to find a nice picture of the princess to send in.

I am rather proud of the red dogs, Magic earned the Ultra Dog and Grace the Super Dog. Go corgis!

NADAC Agility

Tonight Magic Grace and I went and ran a little agility.  The MN Mixed Breed Club holds a Friday night games trial, just Hoopers, Weavers and Tunnelers.  Other than classes the corgis and I haven't been doing much agility, so I thought this might be fun.  And it was.

We started out with Hoopers. Grace was up first. She was so excited she got the zoomies. She has never done that before at any type of trial - I know I shouldn't say it but it did make me laugh. It wasn't too long, and I got her back and we tried the class.  We had a few issues, and we didn't qualify, but we finished the course, I created a plan and we tried it. Then it was Magic's turn.  I had a different course planned for Magic, but I decided to try him on the one I did with Grace, and he nailed it pretty well, right up until the end when he took the start line hoop and earned an E. It was my fault, I should have run the course I had planned for him, a or I should have realized that he would see that hoop as in line. Oh well.

Next up was Weavers, where Magic and I just were not connected.  I sent him off course on obstacle 5 and then we lost it in the 2nd set of weaves.  These were the off side weaves and well he is not as strong on the right. We need to work that.  We finished the course and his last set of weaves were very nice, so I was happy with that. No weavers for Grace because she doesnt weave.YET

Last was tunnelers. Grace was up first and although she broker her start line, the rest went pretty darn good. It started with 2 straight tunnels to a curved tunnel, and not only did Grace run those tunnels, she RAN them. Lots of speed-more than I get in class.  She handled the turns really well, had no issue with my doing a blind cross, and when I asked her to turn away from me and go she did, really cleanly.  That turn led to the final 2 tunnels heading out and she booked, she ran ahead of me and kept going!  It really felt like a nice run and I was smiling and so was she . 
Last up was Magic's tunnelers run, and it too was very nice, faster than Graces, but not by a huge amount. Both qualified and Magic took first and Grace second.  Made my night. I have always loved playing with Magic, but overall I havent felt as connected to him as I did with Grace in her run. It just felt really good.

Gracie can PLAY!

I chose to take Grace to the seminar because motivation has always been our issue. Grace is not driven by her various drives. Although food is a motivator for her, it’s not always a reliable one. Grace really is a dog who simply eats when she is hungry and doesn’t when she is not. We have had periods in her life where food just isn’t her priority. As in she would eat 6 kibbles if I hand fed her otherwise, no thanks, not now.

I have tried to play with Grace since she was a puppy. As a baby dog, Grace would play with Magic, but not with me. She has never been one to join Magic when we play ball, or want to get in on the wrestle sessions that Magic and I have. I tried to offer her the tug, she saw Magic tug many times, but it had no interest for her. Grace is also a pretty independent dog. She is not one who feels the need to be at my feet, or on me. Across the room where she can supervise, oh yeah, that is her preferred position. She wants her daily face scrubbing, but that was the closest thing I had found to play that she enjoyed. So my goal with this seminar was to find ways to get her excited. I want her to light up for something (other than sheep, I haven’t yet found a way to get one of those in my pocket to surprise her.)

Denise talked a lot about drives in dogs in the seminar In thinking about Gracie, I realized that her favorite game really is to chase. When playing with the other dogs, she wants to chase them, she wants to chase the sheep. Even in agility, her preferred place to run is slightly behind me, not really chasing in this instance, but it’s a behavior closer to chasing than to being chased. Prey Drive. Not kill or fight, but chase. OK we can work with this.

So to teach Grace to play and maybe tug, I needed the right toy. Denise had several different types and styles of toys, from a hard stuffed fire hose toy to linen, cow skin, sheepskin, hard and soft styles. For Grace the toy that caught her interest is a bit of rabbit fur on the end of a four foot handle. According to Denise, the toy needs to simulate a rabbit and not a suicidal one. In other words the toy needs to be on the ground, zipping around front, back and sideways. Rabbits don’t run up in the air and they don’t stop to get caught. And when they are caught they do fight to get away.

So I started with Grace on the floor with the toy close to my hand, I tried making it wiggle, jump and slide along and although she looked at it, it wasn’t quite right. But when I got up and the rabbit made big runs across the floor, zipping this way and that , she was interested. Very quickly she was chasing that rabbit and occasionally even catching it. I learned quickly that if she does catch it I can’t stop moving it. Once it dies, she drops it. So Graces rabbit needs to be a wiggler, always in motion. Grace does play WOOHOO!

Denise also asked us to play with our dogs without the toy. Taking what I learned with the toy, I realized that if I gently tag her and run away she will chase me, She has always loved having her face scrubbed, where I vigorously rub her cheeks and ears, so I incorporated that rubbing her face, pushing her away and dashing off. She loved that. I can now sort of tap the sides of her muzzle and push away and she comes back for more. And I can use that while heeling to get her fired up. I love it, she seems to love it.

By Sunday night, Grace visibly brightens when she sees her rabbit tug. David was eating dinner and Grace was begging-laying next to him on the couch with her head in his lap. I pulled out her tug and she actual left him for a moment for it. He's a soft touch though, so she did go back, but it does show some attention to the toy. Last night at agility class I decided to try to reward her agility practice with the tug. She seemed to enjoy it. She does not yet have a big hold and tug reaction, but if she is happy and excited by the catching and chasing aspect, then chase she will get.

My girlie can PLAY!

Whew, hot and Humid in MN

Yesterday it sucked in MN. The actual temp was in anywhere from 93 to 98 depending on the thermometer you read. The humidity was something like 73% so it was sauna like causing an official heat index of something like 104. And of course it was a busy day for us.

First off Magic had a photo shoot. Now I can’t talk much about it, but I can say that I felt bad for the boy and I don’t think he gave his best performance. First off our car does not have air. So he was hot when he got there. The building was air conditioned of course, but he was still hot and panting when it was time to shoot, and he had to wear a sweater under those lights. Poor boy. To make things worse we asked him to hold something and you know you can’t hold something and pant at the same time. He was a really good boy and he tried, but it won’t surprise me if they don’t use these shots at all.

Then we hopped back into the car to go up to Hugo, MN for our obedience lesson. Magic mostly gets to sit out the obedience lessons as really Nancy is teaching me, so I can more effectively work with Magic. We are so lucky in Minneapolis since we have so many incredible people to take lessons from. Lets just hope I can learn and actually put some of these skills to work. After the lesson, we ran to the meat market and gas station and ran home. Did I mention this was rush hour traffic? And its hot, with no air? I think I did.

So we got home in time for me to change to my tennis shoes and grab Grace to run off to agility class. It was cooler in the building, but once you started running, well let’s just say I was a bit damp. Grace was a stinker too. I am sure she had everyone doubting me when I said how well we did in MI as you sure couldn’t see it last night! Oh well gracie is Gracie and I although she can be a stinker, she is a fun girlie.

Then we ran home I swapped Grace for Dave and Rin and we went back for Rinnie’s nosework class. Siren did pretty well with her searches. We were inside for the first time in a while and although it was cool in the building, there were several big fans going and the air was moving making searches a bit more challenging. It was good a good practice though and even though some of the dogs were having some difficulty finding the scent it was wonderful to see that they were not giving up. They continued to search until they were successful. Which really is what you want.

By the time we were done it was 9, and still hotter than hades. So even thought I had the brats I picked up at the meat market, I had no energy to cook them. Instead I picked up dinner at Popeye’s on the way home. All in all a very good day, if you don’t mind sweat that is.

UKC Premier

I had a wonderful time this last week.  I could write a novel about it all but I doubt you want to read all that, so I will just give the basics.

Grace and I ran UKC agility together for the first time.  She did wonderfully.  For thiose unfamiliar, UKC agility is scored similarly to obedience where you start with a 200 and are marked points off for any issues that may occur such as off courses, or not entering or exiting an obstacle straight.  Grace and I ran 5 times over the 4 days, earning qualifying runs all 5 times. We earned the following scores 200,195,184,200,193.  A couple of issues we had that got points taken off were overshooting the table and falling off, then re-entering on the wrong side, bouncing off the side of the teeter instead of exiting straight off,  and once she got caught in the chute so she backed out then barrelled through it.  It was quite funny because you could tell she was mad that she got stuck, and in typical Grace fashion after she was out of the chute she turned back to bark at it for slowing her down.
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On Friday Grace also ran one run of Level 1 rally where she also qualified.  I had entered this because I was really hoping that Grace could maybe earn a total dog award, and when I sent my entries, I was not confident in our ability to run in agility.  To do that a dog has to qualify in a performance event and do well in the conformation ring. Since I couldn't handle both Grace and Peace, Grace got to play with a new friend Mike who she showed her beautifully.  So Grace got to be in the total dog parade of qualifiers and compete for the best total dog award.

Peace also did wonderfully this weekend.  She placed 2nd in weight pull on Friday for her performance event so also was able to do the total dog parade and conformation contest. She did not ultimately place, but she did make the cut in the herding group for that.  The steward told me afterward that the judge commented that he really had liked her. Peace also won BOB at the Top Ten invitational Thursday (I cried) as well as earning 2 wins towards a grand and BOB on both Friday and Saturday.  Sunday she did not win, but that did not dim our excitement at all.  3 BOB's over a 4 day weekend was incredible.

There were so many people there from MN, WI and IA that it seemed like I was constantly running into people. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I met some new people, made some new dog friends and want to do it again. Soon. I know Grace does, she wants to play with Ryan Newman (Dwysans Hot Wheels) again. I have never seen her flirt with another cardi in quite the same way. She was smitten!  Anyone else already thinking about Gateway?

Not so Obedient, Gracie

Well Grace and I tried obedience last weekend.  We failed.  I am having a really hard time keeping Grace's focus with me-in the ring.   She is so interested in checking out every little noise and movement outside the ring, she loses her focus on what we are doing.  Our off leash heeling was almost non existant. Anytime someone moved outside the ring she had to stop to see what they are doing. Oh well. There were good points too, thoguh.  Her stand for exam was perfect.  She only barked once, and that was during the sit stay, when the wind rattled the building awning rather loudly. Her down stay was good too.  So we will continue to work on focus, and heeling, and hopefully someday it will come together. In the meantime, she is certainly doing her part in trying to keep the wonderfulness of the corgis a secret. I do have to say, no matter the end result, I love the little pooper.

On the other hand, she showed in conformation and had a blast earning another Select point.  I really dont have a plan to try to earn her Grand Championship, but occasionally just for fun becasue she loves it, why not.

Agility in the pouring rain

The other week I decided that I needed to enter Grace in an agility trial before we get to Michigan next month.  I thought she might need some experience at an actual trial. So I entered Grace in one round of tunnelers at a local NADAC trial. But gosh, if I am going, it seems so silly to just go for one run doesnt it, so I also entered Magic in all 3 of the available runs on Friday night. Hoopers, Tunnelers and Weavers. The closer we got to the actual trial the more nervous I became. I worried about Grace running off, I worried about Magic not remembering what to do, I worried about whether I could actually run a whole course. I worried.

Friday the day of the trial it was rainy. Really rainy too, not just a nice light sprinkle. But thankfully it was a warm rain, so although I chill so easily, I thought I would be able to handle getting a little wet.  Well, a little wet certainly was not going to happen, as it was pouring at the trial site. Not the whole time, but often enough.   Since we were only entered for the one day, I could not see bringing the easy up, so we just set the dog crates up and covered them with a tarp. For the most part they were dry, unless they were out running.

Magic was up first with a hoopers run.  Hoopers is not offered at every trial and our last hoopers Q was 3-15-2008, and we really hadnt run any NADAC since 2009, and had only run one CPE trial in 2010.  So I was pretty sure that we were just going to go out and have fun and not worry about how we did, or how badly we looked. We were just going to do our best, play and have a great time together.    Hoopers, for those of you who don't do agility is a course where you sort of make up your own plan.  There are 5 tests on the course set by the judge and a line of hoops in the middle that are non test hoops.  For novice you have to do 3 non test hoops, successfully complete a test, do 2 non test hoops and then complete another test, then get the heck out of there. 

I had watched most of the others run the course and very few of the people chose the tests that I thought we were going to try.  I started to worry thinking that those very experienced folks were so much smarter than I was maybe I should change my plan.  But in the end I decided to do the course that I planned anyways.  Magic was super excited as we stepped up to wait our turn.  He made it perfectly clear that he loves to play these games with me.  I did not ask him for a huge lead out, as it wasnt necessary for the course, but he did wait for his release.  He shot off the line and raced down the line of non test hoops, taking the first 4.  He was headed for a test at the end of the line, but I called him to me and sent him through the first hoop and out to 2nd in the test.  This was the harder hoop to get, because there were 2 side by side and the dog needed to take the further one from the handler, I pushed him out, he adjusted and took the right hoop, headed back to me took the last hoop of the test and I sent him on to the next 2 non test hoops. So far great!  The second non test hoop was a bit beyond the next test I wanted to try, so I called him back and sent him through the first hoop of the test.  This test was a 4 hoop test, one hoop centered in front and 2 behind it sided by side so the test was to take the front hoop, take either of the back hoops, wrap and come right back through the hoop next door and take the first hoop again.   Magic did really well, his wrap/turn from the 2nd hoop to the 3rd one could have been tighter, but he did it very well in my opinion. Back to the last hoop of the test and out to the finish.  WOOHOO success!  I had no idea is we made time or if we really had done it right, but it felt so good. It felt like teamwork, it felt like it was just the 2 of us and the rest of the world didn't even exist.  It makes me smile thinking about it. 

I wont go into the blow by blow of the other 2 runs, but they were pretty awesome too.  We did mess up in weavers when someone forget his start line stay and then missed a hoop. But the rest of the weavers run was really good. It felt good, he remembered how to weave and did all 3 sets on the first try.  Tunnelers also went well, the course was great, and I loved it.  I love that Magic is such a good partner. Now I have the bug again and really want to do more agility.

Grace had a hard time being patient and waiting for tunnelers.  Whenever I had Magic out, she screamed her fool head off, so that means I have some work to do with her. But, she was eager and when it was her turn she was excited, she was happy and she was fun.  OK, she didnt do the course and she kind of made her own, but for a dog that has not been a tunnel sucker she did take every tunnel she saw and she did so with speed and a wagging tail.    I was worried about her taking off on me and I guess that is not going to be an issue-at least not in the sense that she would leave the agility field.  She was so eager to run, she took every tunnel opening she was, but 2 times I was able to redirect her and I was able to call her off in the middle of the course and end our run.  She seemed to have a great time!  I am now less worried about the running off than I am about her creating her own path.  I know we are not quite ready yet, and she will never be the same as Magic, but I had fun with her just the same.

We were wet, wet to the skin and beyond, but I went home smiling. Magic Q'd in 2 of the 3 runs taking first place in all. Grace stayed on the agility field, she worked with me somewhat and she was happy.  I was too.

Grace and APDT

Wow. I have to eat humble pie tonight.  Grace really surprised me today.  She did terrific, I was really so happy with my little monster princess.  First a couple of things about Grace.  Really she has been given the short shift having me as her partner.  Grace had some obedience, some beginner classes, but other than that really she has been stuck with what I have taught her. And I have not been good about working with her, but we have played around some. I have been saying forever, I "should" get her to some classes and I havent.  BAD Partner!

Grace is quite opinionated and we have been working on trying to not express ourselves in the ring. And I think we are making progress. Today in her level 1 run she earned a 205. She lost 4 points for barking, but that is much much better than at the last UKC trial. WOO HOO.   That also means the rest of the run was really pretty good. 

Then in her Level 2 run, I figured I would lose her during the heeling parts at least once, but nope she was pretty good, with just a few small bobbles. I thought for sure she would NQ on the moving down. I have never taught her that, but she fooled me on that and althought it wasnt perfect, she tried and she downed.  Good girl.  I  knew the bonus exercise was not going to be good. It was a leave your dog turn and down them. Grace has a hard time with the leaving part, but that was OK.  She had no clue on the down, and althought sh ethought she had to come to me to down, she did down.  Good girl! What surprised me the most though was I thought she wouldnt have any issue witht he jump, after all we have been doing agility lately and I thought she would take that easily, but nope, she heeled right past without even a glance.  Silly me, I never even thought that would happen.  Bad handler. So no Q, but many really good moments and best of all, althought there were a few woofs, and a bit of quiet grumbling, she was a lot quieter than I expected.  LOVED that. 

She got a cheeseburger today.

Agility and Grace

Grace has really change in so many ways since we started agility.  She has always been an interesting girl, but since starting agility I have seen several changes.  Fisrt off, she is much more interested in working with me than she used to be. Yet, at the same time she has gotten more vocal about doing things her way than she used to be.  Vocal to the point that she is constantly barking instructions to me-and its carrying over to the obedience ring. I need to find a way to stop it.  I may start pulling her off course when she barks, but I don't know if that is a good way of dealing with it.

  I need suggestions if anyone has any.

When we started agility, she was moving, but more slowly, now, she is showing speed.  Now I need to speed up, but that is a whole 'nuther issue!   Grace has never been interested in toys, and although she will not tug yet, she is starting to at least chase the tug for a minute or so.  Her stays in obeience and home situations have improved significantly, but her start line stays in agility are horrible. She will stay in a down so far, but not in a sit, so I have given in and am using a down.  And although overall she is just as independent as she has always been, she is also more cooperative. I know it sounds like those two things wouldn't happen at the same time, but she makes it work. Thngs like she hasn't really played the you can't catch me game in quite a while. Of course now that I mention it, it will probably happen.

The most interesting change, though, I can't quite figure out if its related to agility or not is her relationship with David.  She has always been very independent.  If she looked to anyone for anything, going out, tummy rubs or begging, it was always me.  Lately, since David started riding along to agility class (his class with Siren is after our class, so we go together) she has suddenly started looking to David for thngs. She now will ask him to take her outside, or go to him for tunny rubs.  Last night I asked her where's David and she ran right to him.  She is 5 and has lived with David for her whole life so I really find this interesting,  I am glad though, because it means if I am busy she will ask someone else to go outside.

I am really enjoying doing agility with Grace, and I am really looking forward to starting our herding lessons too.  Which is something I never expected to think 5 years ago when this really tough puppy had me in tears more often than not.  She is my girl.

Home from Des Moines

Well I made it home from Des Moines, but it sure wasnt a fun drive.  6.5 hours for what is a 3.5-4 hour drive normally. But not the worst ever, that was a few years ago coming back from Des Moines.  I like the Des Moines shows, but dang they almost always bring bad weather. Then again this year we are just having way too much bad weather.

In any event the weeknd was pretty good, despite my being sick.  I was feeling a little better on Friday, but then by Saturday afternoon, I crashed again, this time with a fever-But a long borning afternoon and night in the hotel room, watching TV and napping and today I felt tolerable.  I really hope no one I was with gets sick now.  Sadly I didnt get to go to the Chili party at Mummes, but I figured they all did not need to be infected.  I was hoping to squeeze puppies though.

As far as the show goes, that was very good.  Lani from http://wagsnwoofs.blogspot.com/ came over to Des Moines to play with us on Saturday.  She a a darling young pup that she will be showing soon, but had never done the conformation thing, so I offered to let her play with Grace. That way she could go and get a feel for the whole show thing without having to worry about the dog part of the team.  Those of you that know Grace, you know how easily she can be bought, so a few peices of prime rib and they were a team.  They did great-Grace and Lani got BOS!  Graces first grand champion points.

Peace had an OK weekend too, taking select (they were the only girl specials) and today she was the only girl special, so today she took BOS to Sully.    All in all a good weekend. 

Grace, an agility dog-who knew?

Grace was SO GOOD at agility last night.  There was only one time she made a mistake and I am not sure my feet weren't directing her there. Every sequence we ran she did well.  Yes we re-ran a couple so I could do a better job, but my girlie did SO GOOD. My naughty girlie.

I did finally figure some things out about her though. She does not want constant direction. She wants me to shut up and just show her what I want not to tell her.  Last night when I didnt give her any commands beyond the GO to get started or a go on to keep going she didn't complain and bark at me.  She ran the dogwalk, she did really fast weaves. She stayed with me and was such a good girl.

Or, is she is setting me up for a big Gracie joke?

Edit-I just read this and now all I can think of is the KFC commercials with the "so good" jingle. Gracie, she is s o g double o d good!

2011 - The year of Grace!

I am thinking 2011 will be Grace's year.  This is probably being optimistic, but I would like to start trialing Grace in both agility and obedience next year. Am I crazy?  Probably. If her attitude at agility class was any indication if I am not crazy now, I will be by 2012.

Monday Night Focus

I am so happy with the progress Grace is making in our focus class.  Its always been a challenge keeping Graces attention. Little things like other dogs near her caused her to want to turn away and look at the other dogs.  (Probably due to the time she was jumped from behind when entering the conformation ring, it seems like she doesn't like to turn her back on other dogs)

Last night in class we were working on her mat, keeping focused attention, while other dogs were moving around. A little cocker actual stepped on Graces tail and she never took her eyes away from me, the most reaction she gave was an ear flick!  Good girl.

Now, the barking and conversing with me may never stop....she always has something to say!

Grace and Focus

Grace is not what I would call a reactive dog, but she is a very non focused/attention deficit dog.  In other words while she doesn't worry about or snark at  other dogs, she also wants to know what everyone else is doing/going/saying but also she wants everyone to  know what she thinks about stuff too.. So a few weeks ago we started a focus and attention class with our agility instructor.

Last night in class we worked on stays, recalls and toys/food distractions.  Grace was none to happy about the stays, breaking her stay fairly frequently. She was also not too happy about the recalls. or maybe it was the corrections for breaking her stay. When she breaks, her stays though, it does not appear that she is breaking because of the other dogs or distractions. So I think its more of a training issue than a focus one.  At one point after breaking her stay immediately twice, I of course returned after 5 steps or so and rewarded that she hadnt broke. Then I asked her to stay again and went about 10 feet, turned and called her. Grace in typical Grace fashion, came, but got 3 feet away stopped and started complaining. Silly girl.

She did fairly well though with moving through the toys and treats on the floor, only lunging occassionally. The funny thing is with Grace its not that she wants the toy or the food, like some of the other dogs. She just wants to know what it is, then she if fine leaving it. Just gotta get that sniff. 

On the plus side, she is getting much better about laying on her mat and not caring what the other dogs are doing when its not her turn.  Last night she never left her mat once due to other dogs/people going by her. She only left her mat to jump on me and beg.  Good girl.

FOCUS! and last nights class

Focus seems to be an issue in my training lately.  Not only am I having a hard time focusing on what to train, I am having a hard time getting my dogs to focus as well. I am sure that the 2 are related, but I really need a training kick in the pants lately.  So this week I took steps to work on this.

Sunday Magic and I are going to a Michele Pouliot seminar on improving performance for any performance sport.  I am really excited and hope I can get a lot of helpful hints from this one. When asked in the registration what I hoped to accomplish I said that I really wanted to work on attention, focus and attitude. With Magic this is primarily a heeling issue, but with the girls this is an ALL the time issue.  I am taking Magic as I think I will get more out of the seminar if I have a semi cooperative dog.

Then, I also signed Grace up for a 6 week class with Annelise on focus and attention. Now, I think this will be geared more toward agility, but hopefully it will carry over to the other things I would like to do with her.

I do want to say that last night at agility class Grace was much better than the week before. Even with a new dog in class she was much more willing to pay attention to me. AND, for the first time ever, we were able to be successful on everything we did in class the first time through (except 2o2o on the dogwalk which she hasnt learned yet).  We are starting to run a bit longer jump sequences and Annelise usually puts in a fairly tough cross in there.  And even though I almost ran into the jump, I got Grace through them all the first time-table at 16, no bars down, no off courses, even a little bit more distance.   And unlike last week, she had no issues with taking the dogwalk at all, and even starting a running A frame went well.  I was really pleased with my princess last night.