Trial Report:: Back to the Field House

First let me say that I love the Fredircksburg field house as a trial location. Indoors, nice turf, places to buy food (and beer), free wi-fi, and air conditioning as well as real bathrooms. What more could you ask for. So before I go into these runs I have to start by specifying that this was a weird trial for me because I had to work the overnight shifts (11pm-8am) for both Thursday and Friday. Which means I had already been up about 18-20 hours during each of these runs. I was a little loopy by the time we ran. Hopefully this explains some of my handling errors

So Friday we had one run Ex. A JWW. Gauis had a great peppy attitude during this run. Which is really the only important thing in the end. He missed the second jump but that was so completely my fault I pushed him right past it. We'll call that a lack of sleep thing. Pretty run after that. He tunnel sucked near the end though. Completely ignored my front cross. But hey, he's a dachshund... who can blame him for liking tunnels. They'd be like them putting sheep on the course for all the border collies. Smooth toward the end until my thertle which obviously confused him causing him to blind me but still get the obstacle. In all honesty I should have just done a front there. I think its hard, because all the people that teach me agility run fast big dogs. I mean, I know the handling system is the same, but sometimes these tricks that get you places faster, just aren't the best options for a little slower dog. I think the more we run the better I'll get on making handling decisions that fit us as a team.

Sat we started with Open. Speedy start but a slow dog walk. I think that's because he's confused about whats expected of him. In class I make him touch but at trials I don't. He was a little distracted by the girl scouts who were working the ring but managed to work past it. Run went really smoothly till the end. I treadled him right out the ring (hmmm guess we need to work treadles to tunnels). I managed to call him back (thank heavens that you are allowed one mistake in open) and got him to finish the run. Then the little bugger tried to dart out for his cookie. Would have served him right if that girl scout had touched him (as he hates being touched by strangers). But he came back and we got our second Open Std Q! He just needs to learn getting his leash on is just as important as the last obstacle.

Sat Ex. A JWW was nerve wracking because they had the walk through while I was running open. There for I had to run it without walking. At that point I was near delisional from sleepiness so I didn't care. Also I don't have high expectations for excellent anyhow. Well we ran it beautifully if slow and ran clean! We were 3 seconds over time but you have 5 seconds of leeway with Ex. A so we Qed! First excellent Q ever I was thrilled.

Sunday we started with JWW Ex. A. No film as alas Sean had to go to work and couldn't be our designated camera man. But the Exc. run was gorgeous. another clean run. And guess what?!?! We weren't over time (granted by the skin of our teeth), but we would have Qed in Ex. B! Which is so reassuring. I really didn't think we had much of a shoot of getting anything above AX and AXJ. Granted we wouldn't have gotten any MACH points but who cares. Now the issue was I was pretty out of breath by the end of the run so that doesn't bode so well. Maybe I need more cardio.

Open was another lovely run. We really ended the weekend well. Unfortunately he dropped the triple (our only fault) but we came in ten seconds under time. Even with him stopping to stare at the dropped bar. Poor guy, he hates dropping bars so much. His ears go back and he always stops to look and then I have to be really positive to build up steam again. It's almost as though he knows that disqualifies us, though the movement and sound probably just scare him. But hey, he's a dachshund. Drop bars are just a fact of life. He's doing something he simply isn't built for, it's not his fault. No hurt feelings on this end. As far as I'm concerned it was as good as a Q in my book. A great run.


Well that's the update. Now for some foster news! Oliver has been adopted! By a lovely older couple in Western Virgina. He has a senior sister so he'll never be alone. The home was perfect for him. And we have a new girl around these parts named Charlotte! More about her in my next post.

Doctors Orders

Couldn't even convince him to get on the steps for the picture

We have a new interior design piece at out house. Last week I bought three sets of little steps to help Gauis on and off furniture with out the gigantic leaps (and sometimes wipe outs) he generally has to do.

This was one thing Dr. Regina Schwabe wanted us to try. She's a DVM, acupuncturist and chiropractor who does a lot of work with agility dogs. She also does a lot of work with dachshunds recovering from back issues. We decided to pay her a visit after a Tracy Sklenar seminar where Tracy said Gauis seemed a little sore by the end of the day and should have his back and knees checked. (I have a lot of footage from that seminar I need to compile for a post. It's on the to do list)

So I trucked him off to P.A.W.S. as soon as I could get an appointment. She's a very busy lady Dr. Schwabe. It was a really nice visit. She has a very cool office that doesn't feel like the vets at all. But Gauis is a sharp cookie and he can smell a DVM from a mile away so there was a lot of barking. But he was defiantly more relaxed than at a regular vet clinic. He still ate the whole time and even played with some of the toys she presented to him. At one point she and I were convinced the barking didn't have to do with him being frightened anymore and had more to do with his attempts to shape us into presenting him with new and better interactive toys and treats. He knows how to make the best of any situation.

So she checked him out. She said there was a little bit of twingyness in his back right where his ribs stop. This is a common place for agility dogs to be sore but it's also a common place for dachshunds to slip disks. After she adjusted him she said she couldn't detect any sourness, which is a good sign. She still wants me to get his back X-rayed (something I've wanted to do for a while). But she recommends every dachshund have its back X-rayed at two years old to look for any calcification that could lead to slipped disks, since the causation is mostly genetic. In good news she said his knees look awesome and she doesn't see any luxating patellae in his future.

She gave us some warm up tips (I'll make a whole post on warm ups later) and a few other things to do. She sent him off with a clean bill of health and ants to see him for maintenance every six months. She would like to see him drop about half a pound, he's 10.2 pounds right now, 9.5 ish would be better for an agility dog. His weight is fine for a pet dog but with all his extra activity he needs to be super slim. Actually his regular vet says he's the slimist dachshund she sees (so many pet dachshunds are so fat :( ). But he's a performance dogs so the rules are a bit different.

She also wanted us to get these steps so he doesn't jump up and down and up onto furniture all day every day. She asked me, "How many jumps does your do do in a week?" I said hmmmm.... "Gauis goes to two agility classes a week, we get 4 or 5 turns a class, with about 10 jumps each...... so between 80 - 100" then she told me to add the number of times he jumps on and off of furniture in a week. Lets just say that's a significant increase in the number. So we're trying to reduce the number.


Gauis is not really into cooperating with this plan. He was really excited about the stairs when I got them out of the box, but once he was told they were not giant stuffed animals we bought him to grab, shake, drag around, and play with he lost interest. He'll go up them when lured but he's certainly not offering the behavior. In fact even when lured he looks resigned. We're working on it. He certanly thinks jumping on furniture is a great deal more reinforcing.

Oliver on the other hand is quite enjoying his new found ability to get onto furniture. So maybe even if I can't convince Gauis that stairs are where it's at, future fosters will appreciate them. Speaking of Oliver it's about time I gave you all an update.


Oliver is a giant sweetheart. Not a mean bone in his body. I took him to stoney point and he loved meeting all the new people and kids. He even gave one little girl kisses. We've been taking him on dog scout hikes to get him a little more exposure. He gets along great with the larger dogs and any weakness he had in his back end has virtually disappeared.

He's still very hesitant about stairs but I think that's more of a lack of experience with them then any physical problem. He's still good with the cat though he does try to mess with her more than my other fosters. I get the impression that he was a cat chaser at a young age and has since decided that it isn't worth it. Doesn't mean he's not VERY interested when she walks into a room.


The marking hasn't really improved BLECH. We need to buy stock in diapers. Sean and I used to have this inside joke when we lived with roommates. We'd walk down the aisle of a grocery store with the baby products and I'd always ask "Do we need to buy diapers for the baby?" We'd then laugh and make some disparaging comment about our roommates maturity level or cleanliness (All in love and jest). Well the habit stuck and I still say it even though we don't have roommates. Last the words slipped out I realized we actually were almost out of diapers. It was one of those sort of sad silly, and hilarious moments all in one.

In other news his soiling of his crate is much reduced, which is progress. Not 100% eliminated though.

Also remember when I called him very active for an old bugger. I have come to believe all the constant motion is more anxiety than anything else. So we've been doing a lot of rewarding for all four feet being still (To get a treat, get fed, or be let out of his crate). He is not a big fan of the training and is easily frustrated. Poor thing was never taught to think. He barks at me and circles like a herding dog. It's really odd. But I have see a marked decrease in the 'ants in his pants' fidgeting that he came to us with. Now that could be because of the training, or it could be because he's just been here longer and is more comfortable. But whatever the reason it's better.

Watching him interact with Gauis is interesting. Though he has no fear or discomfort around other dogs, you can tell he wasn't socialized much as his doggie social skills aren't the best. He doesn't read doggie body language signals well, and he doesn't know the all important doggie rule that possession t is 9 10ths of the law. or that walking on top of others and lying on them without warning is not really polite. Gauis is very tolerant so Oliver has been lucky. Something I think a new owner should be aware of though.

All in all he's a good boy and we are happy to have him, diapers and all.

Three Day Trial

This is my serious intense jumping face

Shesh it was like three weeks ago now or something.
Since our trial in Fredericksburg.
So some good things happened, some not so good things happened. I did things right, I made mistakes, but this is still a learning process and we're figuring it all out. So let's see:

Saturday:
DQ (Double Q)

Both runs were super fast and fun (Less detail this week on the runs because frankly I don't remember the details). Jumpers run was perfect from what I remember, Standard I took him over the wrong side of the triple (bad mommy) and we almost had a fluke there at the end, but it was still our first Q in open standard. So we left Saturday feeling good with a new title (which I was super happy about. If your in the Virgina area you HAVE to go to the capital cocker club trials. They have the best ribbons.)

All the other dogs don't have to down on the table, why should I?

So that meant our fist leg in Open Standard and or Open Jumpers title! I only have video of one run from this weekend. (Luckily it was one of the good ones) So here we go.



Moving on, Sunday:

Total disaster. I got to the trial like four hours before my first run (bad idea) and realized I might have a conflict (I've never had a conflict before. And I got to freak out because I've never run in excellent before! So I was a big giant stress pot. First day of a trial I've ever not had fun in agility. So I should have just gone home I guess. My runs ended up having to be about 5 minutes apart (GAH!). So I had to walk and remember two courses at the same time (never even done that in class before).

Look at me sit stay like a good boy.

We started with open standard. Gauis had a mistake right in the beginning of the run and I fell apart. Totally unable to recover. I'm sure my handling was atrocious from there on out and I was pumping stress hormones from every pore in my body. About three obstacles from the end Gauis said 'F*** this' and stopped running to sniff. I gave him a few chances by calling him but he ignored me completely. Now I don't care how bad I'm stressing out or how poor my handling is, that's just not acceptable. My stress is just another distraction, he's allowed to be slow but he has to keep trying. So I took him by his collar and walked him off the course.

As I was leaving the judge says 'Be careful!' in a warning voice. -Sigh- little dogs are treated with such kit gloves. All I could picture was my friend's dog Preacher (a 65 pound golden) getting dragged off the course practically off his hind legs for blowing a contact in front of the same judge earlier in the afternoon. He didn't say anything to her and I wasn't being anywhere near as rough with Gauis. Half wasy out the ring crew asked me why I didn't pick him up. I said 'Being picked up is a reward'. Besides Tracy Sklenar and Laura Derrett always say 'If you can't do it while training a saint Bernard, don't do it while training your small dog'


Anyhow, after that we had to race over to the Exc JWW run to try it again with only 5 minutes in between. We ran clean but it took us 52 SECONDS! OMG like pulling teeth. So obviously NQ. That seems to be the fallout of dragging him off course. His next few runs are REALLY slow. I think he's just making sure not to make any mistakes. But if he keeps trying that's fine, it's worth it.

Look at this weird ugly jumping form

The next day we started with Exc JWW. We made it around the course nicely we only dropped the triple (got a good picture of him knocking that bar too. Look at the picture below and you can see his back legs were hitting it). He was defiantly slow but much faster than Saturday. We were only two seconds over time. So since we're in Exc A (where you can have a time fault), that would have been a Q if he had kept the triple up.

I am so taking this jump down mom

The Standard Open run started off slow and steady, thought we were going to Q. Weave poles were like the 6th obstacle. Gauis started his usual slow and steady weave poles. Then about halfway through he picked up speed and I got all excited. I started saying "Yay! good boy! Great!" I thought hey we've got something here! He got to the end and suddenly squated and took a gaint dump. EMBARRASSING. Well that's an automatic NQ. He was picked up and carried out of the ring (Gah kill me now)

This picture was taken four weave poles before his 'grand finale'

Pretty humiliating but everyone was really nice about it. Apparently ever ones dog has done it once or twice. Hey, who says we don't end agility weekends with a bang :)

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures from last weekend I thought I'd throw up here for you all to see.

If he thinks happy thoughts maybe he can fly with those ears.

Is it just me? Or dose he look like he's about to slip in this photo.

He's flying here. It's nice to see a jumping picture where he's not a whisker away from taking down the bar.

Another strange ear picture. That's sort of the comb-over look.

The slowest weave poles in the West. A leisurely walk one might say.

Not a very flattering tunnel picture. He could caught bugs like that.

Well, we've got a three day trial this weekend and then Tracy is coming and then a trick demo. Busy busy busy. And I have an interview today at an emergency vet clinic to work as a vet assistant. Wish me luck.

Weekend Update

We had a two day trial at the GKC this weekend. I think it went really well actually. A lot of enthusiastic fast runs. Some were disastrous, some were quite pretty. Only one huge catastrophic run which was like 50% my fault.

The theme of this trial was trying to find a good pre-run routine for Gauis and I before stepping into the ring. Something that will make him excited and ready to run but at the same time keep him focused and concentrating on me. So he'll want to run hard but not be so over the top that he ignores me and goes nuts once we get out there. We used to do tricks before going into the ring followed by lots of treats. But I felt this made him concentrate on the food too much. He knew exactly when I didn't have anymore and it didn't get him excited enough to make him fast. So this trial we tugged using a tug it.

I really need to do a whole post on tug drive as it's been something we're working really hard on right now. But I'll save that till later. Basically the tug it has food on the inside. When Gauis really latched on and we got a good game of tug going I'd ask him to drop the toy and open it, then let him shove his head inside and get some food. I'm trying to transfer the value he has for food on to tug (more on transferring value, and how I'm puzzled by it, later). We tugged before every run this weekend and I do think it made him faster. With one disastrous exception.

So let's do our weekly run break down. But first here's the video tape!



JWW Sat: Beautiful run. By far the prettiest run all weekend, with the exception of that front cross right at the start. In Gauis' defense it was a pretty ambiguously poorly timed cross. In my defence that still didn't give him the right to blind cross me. But except for that little mishap gorgeous run. Look at how fast those weaves are. Much more like the ones we have in class. And I was the only one to see that serpentine when we walked the course. And he read it beautifully.

STD Sat: Was a mess. He ran off to star at the ring crew after the first jump but didn't bark and eventually came back. Then everything we relatively well until the weaves. There was a little kid stationed right by the entrance that he was obviously concerned about. It took us three tries to get it right be he eventually managed to do them and with no barking. Improvement defiantly. Then we ran into the wrong end of the tunnel (again my bad I wasn't 100% clear. I think he needed an arm there). All and all an enthusiastic and fast run.

I wet Gauis down with water a lot during the trial to keep him cool. It was very hot. I think this is our last outdoor trial until fall. Even if he can take the humidity down here in VA I certainly can't.

Sun STD: Was a disaster but I know exactly what went wrong. We were the first in the ring. I had just got Gauis tugging and we got called to go in. I wasn't ready and wrenched the toy out of his mouth and threw it a few feet away without him getting a treat. Now we do this at home all the time. Tug tug tug mom takes the toy and throws it. And it always means the same thing. Now it's time to race for the toy. When he gets to the toy we trow a big party play more tug and there are cookies. But now I was dragging him away from his tug toy into the ring. So basically he spent this whole run doing a few obstacles and then desperately trying to run out of the ring and find his toy. I can't be too angry at him. I've trained this behavior. (Though he should still run with me). Lesson learned. hand the toy to someone don't throw it onto the ground before heading into he ring. We're still figuring this whole trialing thing out. Anyway I left the course with him. No cookies for that run. Too naughty.

Sun JWW: Was a lovely run. Slower than his Sat runs but really pretty. Slower weaves then I would have liked but he came off the start line fast out of his stay which was really good when I look back at the footage from other trials. Read my body language, well seemed actually trained. He nicked the triple and I was sure he'd brought down the bar but some unforeseen force kept it up which was great. :P And it was a 1st place and our second leg in jumpers too so you can't complain about that :) One more leg and we enter the scary world that is excellent. I don't think we're ready for that.

Obligatory Ribbon Picture:

I may get more pics of this weekend. I'll post them if they come in. Three day trial this weekend.

All pictures from Club Creek Runs

We Take the Bad With The Good

Gallery: OP Std 08 inch-B0511

Well we had an agility trail this weekend. We just did Sunday so that means two runs. This was our first trail after our three day extravaganza where we taught Gauis not to bark at judges... or ring crew... or helpless bystanders. And the verdict is, the lesson stuck! We had no barking this weekend. He did run off from me in Standard and sniffed the leash runner but then came right back and completed the course. So huge progress!

Now on the subject of our actual runs.... well they were sort of a disaster. But a fast happy enthusiastic disaster. Which is really sort of the best kind of disaster I guess. Here they are in all of their embarrassing glory.


Sorry it's really hard to see. Sean was far away for parts of it.


Sometimes I wonder if I should put my bad runs up here. But then I think, what would I learn if I only kept the good runs. The pretty runs. This blog is suppose to be all about record keeping. If I want to make progress I need an accurate account of where I am so I can know where I'm going. Besides Sean is a journalist and would never let me give you all biased reporting. So you get it all, the good the bad and the ugly.

Speaking of ugly look at this very unflattering picture of Gaius charging off the end of the teeter.


Gallery: OP Std 08 inch-B0511

So here's the breakdown.

Standard: Started off VERY enthusiastically. Gaius loves the teeter so having it early on is good for him. I was a little unclear about which jump to go to next which caused him to dart off (and sniff the leash runner as mentioned before). But no barking and he came right back. I think table after the A-Frame is hard for him because he's just going so fast and he slid right off of it but then hopped right back on. Next was the tunnel, which he refused to go through. But it had standing water in it so he was just being a prissy purse dog who didn't want to get his little footsie wootsie's wet, which I can tease him for but can't really get upset about. After that lovely weaves!

Gallery: OP Std 08 inch-B0511

Actually we had lovely weaves in both runs. Can you tell we've been working on that? Sometimes I feel like agility is a bucket with a bunch of holes in it. Once you plug one hole another shows up. But maybe that's what makes it fun. There is always something to work on. Well after pretty weaves he missed his dogwalk contact. Something he has NEVER done before, not even in class. I've known for a while that he needs work on his dogwalk contact so I'm not super surprised. I know how to fix that. His teeter was pretty too looking back at it, look how close to the end he got and let it drop out from under him. He dose love that teeter.

Gallery: OP Std 08 inch-B0511


All an all it was a disaster of a run, but a really fun disaster. I'd rather run him when he's having a blast and running his heart out, than get a Q with a run that had mediocre enuthsiasum where I have to cheer-lead the whole thing, and it's like I"m pulling teeth. He really liked that run.

Jumpers: Jumpers was less enthusiastic. It was a bit hotter, and it did start with weaves not his favorite. Then he refused a jump which confused me. Then my handling got wonky so I don't really blame him for that. I think he spent most of the run thinking "Mom, what the heck are you doing?" I count that one was my bad, being that every time I was being clear he sped up and looked like he was having a good time. My brain just wasn't in it. So we had I think one more refusal and were a bit over time. I sort of lost my place too somewhere in there. That's a bad mommy, no cookie for her!

His ears really do have a mind of their own during agility don't they?

Gallery: OP JWW 08 inch-B0511

Gallery: OP Std 08 inch-B0511

No Qs this weekend but a good time had by all. We have a two day trail next weekend in the same location and then the weekend after that it's a three day trail indoors. Then after that a Tracy Skelnar seminar. An agility filled month. I'll keep you all informed.

Lost Video

So in the interest of full disclosure. And to not be accused of only putting my good runs up here. I have this video. Turns out I found the missing standard run from my second day at Belroi.

You know, the one where he was so pumped up he screamed at the starting line then almost broke his stay, then took the wrong end of the tunnel. When he finally seemed to pull himself together, I forgot the course and everything pretty much falls apart from there.

So this is what it looks like when everything goes wrong. But he ran fast, he had fun, and all of his barking was excited not upset. So what more can you ask for.



In other news! I have a new theory on our weave pole mishaps. I think I'm babysitting him to much at trails. If I take a deep breath and just trust him, he'll do them like he does in class. Georgie said that her and Popeye (Remember Popeye, the brown dachshund from the earthdog post?) had the same issue for a while. Only instead of running off to scream at gate stewards Popeye just missed his entries (Because he is better behaved in every way than Gaius). So that's my goal for wood bridge. Trust my dog. Yikes what a tall order.

As an extra, here's a video of our friend (And head trainer at the dog school I go to) Cindy Briggs' dog Jody and some of her tricks. Video by yours truly.

Introducing Gauis Baltar NA!

These darn things are bigger than me.

Exciting news!

So we've been to two trials since you last heard from me. The first of which was Belroi and

the second of which was in Fredricksburg.

Geeze Belroi seems so long ago let's see what I can remember. Our first day at Belroi (Saturaday) we started with Jumpers with weaves... What can I say about this run. It was perfect (two tries at the weaves but what can you do?). He was fast and followed all of my positional cues. A perfect run. Next was standard, which he did very well in. Our only hairy moment was a strangely placed front cross on my end because I ran out too far with him to make sure he made the broad jump. Instead of waiting for me to exsicute said front cross he decied to simple blind cross me (a big Greg Derrett's handling system no no) and take the A-frame. Luckily the A-frame was the obstacle we were suppose to be headed for. Gaius suddenly behind me frazzled me enough to say "Hey! you blind crossed me" to him while he was at the top of the A-frame. The judge heard me and laughed. She then shouted "He knows where he's going as we headed to the table. The only other mishap in standard was Gaius deciding to run and visit his daddy instead of doing weave poles.

I've noticed Gaius always seems to do something funny at the weave poles. Like that's where he decides to bark, or go visit Sean or wonder off. I think it's because he finds them stressful. They are still tricky from him, which means he'll probably get them wrong and have to do them again. Which means they are less fun than other obstacles. So he gets there and goes "Aww man, not weave poles. Why don't I find something more reinforcing to do" and that's where I get my barking fits. There is another time I get barking fits, but that is another story I'll talk about in a minute.

Video of Day 1 at Belroi (A double Q!)

Belroi Agility Day 1 from Sean Van Damme on Vimeo.

Second Day at Belroi didn't go so well. In Standard he was a nut! Crazy fast but he didn't take any of the right obstacles. He was just crazy. Way to excited. I don't have video for this one for some reason. I'll go through the flip and try to find it again.... so expect an edit here with Gaius' manic crazy, there are bees in my brain run. The start of the jumpers run was much better. He was actually in control and taking the right things. Then we say the photographer and Gauis lost it. I don't think he's ever seen a camera that big. Well then we sort of had a barking meltdown. My main goal after that was just to get him back on track and finish the run happy and fast. Which he did, but by that point we'd missed an obstacle and made too many mistakes to Q.

Here's the first 25 seconds of his jumpers run monstrosity. The camera died mysteriously right when the run started to go south:




That leads us into Fredricksburg . Day one was Standard first out of the gate. It was a disaster Gaius' barking was so bad I had to pull him from the ring. Not because I was trying to teach him a lesson, just because we were going to get whistled off for taking to long. This totally bummed me out. And a spent my time until Jumpers wondering if Gauis and trialling was really something I wanted to keep doing if he was just going to bark. The Jumpers run still had barking but was much improved. It lifted my spirits enough to come back the next day and I'm sure lucky I did.

We have no footage of this day due to some wonky flip camera stuff. My poor dad. Though I'm kind of digging the mysterious lack of footage on all of our bad runs. All coincidence I assure you. No conspiracy here.

Saturday was awesome. There was still barking.... lord was there barking, but we managed to Q in both jumpers and standard. Which means Gauis got is Novice Agility Title! And he only has one more leg for his jumpers with weaves title!

Here is the Standard Run:



Again a weave pole meltdown. But I'm beginning to think that's more about weave poles and less about people. Other than that a lovely run. I did let him blow his dog walk contact. But there was a big GIANT guy with a hat on as a steward RIGHT next to the dog walk. And I figured if I kept him running he wouldn't notice. And it worked. So I was rewarded for bad behavior.

His Jumpers run saw another weave meltdown. See a pattern here? There was another meltdown after a jump. I have a theory there too. I think the other time he stresses then goes over threshold is when I make a handling error. I gave him a wonkey rear cross in the wrong place right before then and I think it threw him off. He also doesn't seem to be barking at anyone there.... he's just..... barking. But with only one refusal we still got our Q! See for yourself:



When I got off the course I wasn't sure if I had Qed. I asked the AKC representative and he said he had. Then he said "And he gets extra points for cursing at you."

I said "He's not cursing at me, he's cursing at the whole world"

The judge shock his head and replied firmly, "No, he's cursing at you."

And maybe he is. Maybe what he's saying is 'mom, we haven't practiced weaves enough and you make mistakes sometimes. When I get to weaves or you mess up, screw agility. I'm going to find another way to entertain myself. Like barking at that woman in the freaky sun hat.'

So new homework, weave poles and no more making mistakes (shesh!)
I don't really get the whole ribbon thing... but if you like them mom... whatever.

My First Agility Trial

What is this stupid thing around my neck and why are you so happy about it?

Well Gaius and I are back from our first agility trial ever! And a really couldn't be happier with him. So lets get down to business and talk about the check list:

Goal 2: I want Gaius to stay with me the whole time (No darting off to bark at judges or sniff, or do whatever else comes into his little dachshund brain)

With the exception of the last run he stayed with me the entire time :)

Goal 3: I want him to move at faster than a walking pace for the majority of his time on the field. None of this slow poke bull he does outside.

Even when he had his little meltdown he ran fast! Which I couldn't be happier about. He had his slow poky moments but all in all he ran his heart out. Who could ask for more?

Goal 1: I do not want Gaius to bark at the judges when we are running. (He can bark at them when they measure him, that's understandable)

Ok, we fell apart a bit our last run but Gaius made it through three whole runs without paying either male judge any attention. So all and all a success.

I now take you to the video tape!



Let's break it down by run:

Saturday JWW: Wonderful gorgeous run. Nothing bad to say about it. He read my front cross gorgeously. The only thing that kept us from the Q was him knocking the bar. After reviewing the tape I'm pretty sure that wasn't my fault (As in he didn't miss it due to a handling error. He just needs some foundation jumping stuff.) And obviously we need to work on weave pole entires being that he's missed every entry this trail but that's not SUPER important in novice as he gets as many chances as he needs. I'd say this was his 2nd best run.

Saturday STD: This is the one that didn't make the video tape. But I'll break it down, at least what a remember. He was a little pokier on the run. It was the end of a long day for him I think. It also was probably the worst weave poles. I had to send him through three times which ate seconds. He also refused the A-frame which I had a sneaking suspicion he would do. He ran right past it and it took me a moment to pull him back around to try again. I have to give him a lot of lead up on the A-frame to get him over it because he has such small legs. But he took it the second time which was good. But all of this added seconds and we ended up going over time. I was convinced we hadn't Qed.

But this totally sweet woman with a beagle told me to stick around for the ribbons just in case, because she had a sneaking suspicion that you could have a time fault in Novice. So I did hang out for basically another hour (my parents were a bit miffed) and it turns out we did Q! And with the stiff competition of Gaius being the only Novice A 8" dog we got a blue ribbon in the bargain! I'd say this was his 3rd best run of the weekend.

Sunday STD: Near perfect run. No complaints. Again he missed the weave entry and the only thing that kept him from Qing was stepping on the broad jump but it was a rough entry for a long backed dog. And did you see him read that rear cross at the end?!? I had to do a rear cross! He's never going fast enough in class for me to do a rear cross! Awesome! I walked out of the ring feeling on top of the world. Awesome! I couldn't wait to do it again. This was by far his best run of the weekend :) 1st place in my eyes.

Sunday JWW: We were the second to last dog running at the trail and we were both out of it. This run went down hill quickly. I made two handling mistakes very quickly and you can see Gaius get frustrated with me. I think the judge having to raise his arms so much (calling our faults) made Gaius take notice and he decided to take action to remove him from the field. He left me three times to bark at the judge but at least I was able to get his focus back each time.

General Trial Conclusions: I think something that really contributed to Gaius' little last run meltdown was the fact that I volunteered in other rings for most of the day meaning that I was away from him for long periods of time. Also all the leash running and bar setting tried me out and by the time I got to running my course I was sloppy and forgetful causing me to make many handling errors. So lesson learned. Less volunteering, more worrying about my pup.

Gaius was beautifully beautifully behaved during the trail. He only barked at one man who was legitimating doing something weird near his crate but other than that not a peep. He slept in his crate and waited patiently for his turn.

Things I've Learned:
1) Don't volunteer for a million things and wear yourself out.
2) I need to work with Gaius on his weave pole entries
3) The scoring of Novice runs is way more complicated than I thought it was. I need to read the rules again.
4) Gaius was ready to do this inside... lets try outside. I just signed up for an outdoor trial in two months. We'll see what happens.

Agility trials mean a lot of crate time. Gaius does not like crate time.
P.S. First time adding music in imovie. I'm getting better at this :)

I'm a Mean Mean Mommy

No, you can't do this to me!

Well we knew this day was coming. I put it off as long as I could. I thought, 'hey, when I get a new puppy they can both start on the program together. It will be a shock, but good for them.' But its gotten to the point where its the best option I have. All the toys are going away.

I know! I know! It sounds so harsh. How could she? How can a dachshund that has lived its entire life with the ability to squeak a squeaker whenever he pleased live without that sacred privilege? Well if I have to watch Gaius stubbornly stare at one more agility obstacle, and then freeze like some disinterested statue, until little pigeons come nest on his head cooing lightly, while I wait a few feet ahead doing a silly looking fake run, I'm going to tear my hair out. So this act of aggression signals the start of the war on Gaius' lack of Drive.

What is Drive you might ask. Well that's the little fires under our butts that make us want to do something. Not just to do it, but to do it quickly, precisely and enthusiastically. What creates drive? (Well other than being that one in a million High Drive dog that just dose everything absolutely the best it can do no matter what... these dogs are not commonly dachshunds) REINFORCEMENT! That's right reinforcement creates drive. And lets face it things are more reinforcing when they are special.

So Gaius struck the first blow in the war on drive. He decided working (at a reasonable speed, aka faster than one inch every ten million years) to play with toys outside was only for lame-o dogs (like border collies and golden retrievers) and not for super cool dachshunds. Nope, dachshunds only work for food, and in their own due time, thank you very much. Which makes sense. I mean why work your butt off for a tennis ball when after class you can go home, and causally walk over to your toy box and fish one out. Why run a sequence for a tug toy when you can go home, pull out a tug and shove it in daddy's face and have free tug all night long. It's like asking someone to work an eight hour shift for high fives and hand shakes.

Since toys are a much more effective than food to create speed in agility dogs (More on this later, also Gaius isn't that much faster for food and he already gets that on a ' you work for it or no yum yums ' basis) I was left with no other recourse than to usurp this land of milk and honey and enact a strict NO TOYS WITHOUT WORK program. That's right, he is allowed something to chew on during the day (The last picture shows Gaius with his consolation prize) but that's it all day until I come home. Then I will decide when we play. I will decide what toy he plays with. I will decide what he has to do to earn being played with. I will decide how long he gets to play with any particular toy (never over 15 seconds between new cued behaviors) and I will decide when we are done playing. Look how many Is are in those last sentences. Who's in control now?

That way toys will be worth a lot more in his tiny puppy world and he will have more fun playing with them. It's mean, it's harsh, but its the only way. And this way when I pull a coveted squeaky toy out of my pocket at agility class, I will get a response of unbridled enthusiasm, instead of a blank stare and sarcastic yawning (I'm not sure if other dogs are capable of sarcasm but dachshunds certainly are).

Now before all of you concerned Dachshund owners call your local animal rescue organization to save my poor deprived dapple buddy from the jaws of owner tyranny, let me reassure you. Gaius will still get plenty of toy time a day, and he'll probably like it more because it will be with mommy and totally more exciting then lazily squeaking a loofa dog under the couch by himself. And he will continue to be spoiled in many other ways. I'm guessing you can tell by now that he is well loved, happy, safe and privileged in all the ways he should be. It's just tough times call for tough mommies.

Anyhow I came to this decision after a private lesson with Cindy this morning to work on the big five letter word DRIVE. This is when she sternly told me to cease and desist with the unlimited access to toys. Ok, it wasn't so firm it was more like,

Elizabeth: -sheepishly- "Do you think I should pick his toys up and only let him have them while we are working?"

Cindy: "Oh, yes defiantly. That will really help."

Elizabeth- -Sigh- "Ok. I'll do that I guess..."

Actually that was pretty much the existent of which we talked about it. It wasn't really a huge part of the lesson for her, just a big blow/ wake up call for me and my little one. She gave me a bunch of other stuff relating to building drive and that's what the rest of the post is about (I have to write down all this stuff now before I forget it).

This is madness, madness I tell you!

Race Ya!

There are many times in dog agility when you want to send your dog out in front of you, or encourage your dog to run faster than you are running. This is an important skill because, since most dogs are faster than us (My dog certainly is even with one inch long legs) and the sport is timed, we don't want them milling about waiting for us to catch up. So to encourage Gaius to run ahead of me I'm suppose to play this racing game with him. I'm to play it at least three, no more than five times a day plus meal times (it sounds like a medical prescription). Anyhow the gist of the game is a put Gaius in a sit stay then walk a few paces away (not too far at first). There I will place something desirable (his food bowl hence with meals, a toy...ect). Then I'm to walk back and place my hand firmly on his chest. Then I will give the 'get excited cue' (more on that later). Next I will shove him backwards, say his release word and run as fast as I can to the object (Since when did agility mean I had to get exercise?). If I beat him, I scoop up the object and throw a big party for myself which doesn't involve Gaius (play with the toy by myself, pretend to eat the food...ect). If he gets there first, he gets the reward. I'm also to race him to anywhere I'm sending him (ie. the crate, the bed, the couch)


Ready Steady Go! : A Cue for Excitement

Cindy wants me to put excitement on a cue. Its sort of a weird concept but it makes sense. It's like if someone says to you, "Hey a think there are donuts in the conference room" (I'm a grad student, we think in free food). Just hearing that makes you excited, even if you can't see or smell the donuts (man I skipped lunch, I'm starving). Well Gaius needs a word that means 'dude get excited, something totally awesome is about to happen'. So the racing game above is one way to build that as a cue. I'm going to use "You Ready, You Steady?". I like it cause a lot of cool agility kids use it. Oh peer pressure. But building this as a cue means it HAS to go BEFORE the reward (more on pavlov and associated theories later). That means I have to be tricky. After he's got the racing game down pat. I have to start sneaking toys into my pocket. Then I'll but him in the sit stay, say his cue of excitement, then push him back and take off running. (This next part requires dexterity) I'm to watch him to make sure he's running full tilt. If he dose just one stride at a dead out run, I'm to dig into my pocket and throw the surprise toy! And I have to keep running (I'm going to fall, I know I am). this way he doesn't have to see the reward to go fast, he just assumes its going to be there. So I can say it at the start line of an agility course and have a totally pumped dog even if I don't have food or toys.

How will I live without them?

Reinforcement in Strange Places

The last part of my private lesson was all about reinforcements. And you thought I made that list yesterday for nothing! I knew she'd want a list. See, I do homework before its even assigned to me (Wish that was true for school). Well guess what I'll be bringing to class on Thursday? Balloons... that's right, because running a dachshund in agility didn't look silly enough anyway. While we are building drive for regular toys I'm to use something that sends him over the top in the mean time. So we pulled out some balloons and blew one up and wouldn't you know it, he took a jump tunnel sequence tunnel quicker than I've EVER seen him move outdoors. Who can argue with those results in an hour! But the toy thing should get easier with time, so looking silly is only temporary (hopefully).

Taking Education into my Own Hands

Another thing we talked about was more something she gave me permission to do. Which means if a sequence in class isn't going to help Gaius with his issues, just tell the teacher that I'm going to take my turn doing something else. For example, yesterday we did lead out piviets in Linda's class. That means leaving Gaius in a sit stay, moving far away, and then waiting for him to take the jump while I'm not moving. It was like molasses, the worst thing he could have done at that point. I've seen other students make there own curriculum and the teacher always look really irritated. And I understand, they spent time thinking about what to teach us that night and what we needed to learn. So I always did what I was told. I mean come on, I'm a novice here. But Cindy owns the place so if she says I'm allowed to do my own thing I guess it must be true.

A Tuga Tuga

The last thing we talked about was tug. Now Gaius LOVES tug... when he's at home. He likes it well enough inside in other places. He doesn't acknowledge its existence outside. This should get better a bit on its own now that toys are limited (See why I needed to go to extremes, look at all the things this will help fix). But Cindy says Gaius needs to learn that tug is not a choice. To help fix this she recommends making Gaius tug while I hold food in the other hand (Yikes!). If he can tug effectively inside doing that, he can probably tug outdoors... so yeah... I'll work on that. No doubt hilarious videos to come involving tugging (or not tugging) in the presence of food.

Well now to head home and see if Gaius has scratched and pried the lid off of his toy box in my absence.

I guess I will except this consolation prize...

P.S. More videos to come! I should be getting a flip camera soon!

Introductions

Before getting a dachshund I was told a lot of things about them. They were nippy, loud, overly attached to their owners, prissy, and impossible to house break. Now that I own one, I have found that some of these things are true some of them aren't. But the one thing I was told above all others was that dachshunds were untrainable...

Wow what a challenge!

My name is Elizabeth and I'm a first time dog owner (sounds like I'm in AA). That's right, I grew up in a house full of cats (the injustice!) and two and a half years ago, after much soul searching, I decided to get my first dog... alright not that much soul searching. I finally moved into an apartment that allowed dogs. I'd been biting at the bit to own since I was about four.

Everyone thought this was a terrible idea. My parents, most of my friends, my ex-roommates. In fact the only person on my side was my boyfriend Sean. But he had one condition. It had to be a dachshund. UGH!

I warned him, citing all the reasons above as to why a dachshund was not the right fit for us. (I wanted a caviler king charles spaniel, well maybe next time) But he was insistent so we got a little long haired dapple dachshund in the summer of 2008. We named him Gaius Baltar after the womanizing, egotistical, scaredy cat character from Battelstar Galactica. Did I mention we were geeks?

But this little pup had a lot to live up to! Remember everyone thought he was a bad idea. So as soon as I was able I enrolled him in obedience classes. And after few classes I realized he was good at this.... I mean really good! Untrainable my butt! I mean he was the star pupil of his petsmart training class! Well, except for the lab that was training to be a service dog but that doesn't count right?

I was hooked, the classes were the highlight of my week. He made it through all three levels at breakneck speed. Except for one small issue (Well not so small but I'll leave that for another post). After graduation (see picture below) I was sad to see the training go. My petsmart instructor had a solution. He pointed me in the direction of a local dog training school were I could start taking other classes.

Its an addiction really, an unstoppable illness that becomes life consuming. Well Gaius is now two years old and currently enrolled in a Competition Obedience Class and a Level Seven Agility Class.

But now down to business. What is the purpose of this blog?

First things First, to keep track of my training and record keep. This will allow me to become a better trainer and see more clearly what I need to work on and where I've made mistakes.

Secondly, it is a place to put all of my trailing information now that Gaius' skills are getting to the point where he can soon enter competitions (Nerve wracking, I know!). He has yet to enter either an obedience or agility competition yet because there are some rough edges that need to be ironed out. (Aka being slow as dirt in agility when its hot outside, and lagging durning his offleash heeling) But the time will swiftly be upon us. He has been to two earth dog trails but they don't really count as all the training they involve is "Look tunnel, go bark at the rat" Your dog is either into rats or isn't. Gaius is into rats... and anything that involves barking. But I'll talk about earth dog here too.

Lastly this blog is a place to discuss dog training/dogs in general. To get advice from those more experienced in the dog training world then I am and to maybe help those with suggestions who might want them. So please feel free to comment!! Everyone is welcome here.

It also may be a place to coo over adorable dachshunds.... :)

It's the money shoot!