Trick Title Update: Ring Drop

Guest photographer Sean and his cell phone camera! Because my camera has decided not to talk to my computer any longer.

Well this trick took long enough to teach. Jeeze. Usually to 'teach' a new trick its about a week, a few sessions a day. Then of course I have to refine my criteria and make it reliable and that takes much longer. As proofing things isn't my favorite activity in dog training. I always feel like I'm setting him up to fail and therefore its a bit more stressful a process for both Gaius and me. I'd much rather just teach something new, as watching him learn something is a creative process where I get to watch his brain work, where proofing is more of a consistency excersize Do what I say and don't think too hard about it. Much less fun.

But this trick took, shesh, like months to get right. As mentioned in the original trick title post, he just isn't a delicate or detail oriented dog. It took five sessions to convince him that slamming the rings as hard as he could into the post was not what I wanted. He's also very short (dachshund) and therefore has to lift his head up to put the ring on the post. Which I'm pretty sure made the process much more difficult. But we got there! YAY! Shesh, I have to re-look at my list to see what to do next.... hmmm.



NEWS FLASH I know several of my current readers own dachshunds, so this is for you! I am going to a practice for a dog sport this weekend, which requires little to no training, is designed specifically for dachshunds and ....... wait for it ..... not just encourages, but requires barking. Its an awesome activity for any dachshund and their person and I HIGHLY encourage it as an introduction to doggy sports :) But more on that next week. For now I leave you in suspense.

Mystery Solved

Gauis looks much larger in this picture than he usually does :P

No the mystery is not how Gauis became a boxer. That is Lisa and Lacey. The mystery we solved was whether Gaius hates agility outside, or if he hates running on mulch. Turns out it's the mulch! YAY. That's really great because a large portion of agility trails are outside on grass. So now I can sign up for those without fear. We learned this at the Agility Show and Go out in Belroi Virgina.

Now Linda (One of my agility instructors) say that Gauis doesn't hate mulch, he just is more enthusastic in a 'trail situation'. Which I'm sure is partially right. But in practice he's only pookey outside, not when we're inside. Even when its really hot (there is no air conditioning in the indoor facility). So it has to be more than just trail excitement I think. I think he doesn't like mulch....

This is Sassy, she is Gauis' girlfriend.
He loves her. She is cranky, neurotic, shy and snaps at him sometimes. So you know, a normal girlfriend. :)

I learned some other things at the practice trail. One of which is that Gauis really has a proublem barking at judges. Ugh, I don't think I'm ever going to escape this issue. He particularly seems to hate it when the judge raises his hand to call a refusal. Which gives the appearance of him arguing with a referee about a bad call when he flips. It makes everyone in the audience laugh. When he did it in his first run, I just grabbed him and jerked him off the course. Crate time! If you can't play nice you can't play at all. That didn't really work. Linda says that only really works when dogs REALLY love agility. I mean Gauis likes agility fine, but he doesn't care enough that being taken off the course is that much of a punishment.

The next run I just called him off the judge. That took a moment, but he finally got back to work and finshed his run spunky and happy. So I guess that's what matters. Linda says this is a better strategy for trails. And a lot more socialization with strange men. Which I hate. I mean you try walking up to people and saying "Hey, my potentially aggressive neurotic dog hates you. Do you mind feeding him a treat?" People aren't really chomping at the bit to help you. I'm lucky he's small and cute.

On our last dog scout hike we were moving along and these two female hikers came in the other direction. Gauis decided to go bark at them and I went to call him off. Of course, they thought he was adorable. I don't think its adorable. But anyway apperently they have a dachshund at home they wanted to tell me all about. Then the strangest thing happened. The shorter woman goes "He's so well behaved. How did you teach him not to bark at people. I mean we can't get ours to stop." I gave her the strangest look. I mean my dog was barking at them. Like that moment, while she asked the question. Screaming his head off. I gave her the only answer I could think of. "I have absolutely no idea." People are weird.

This is Juneau and his mommy Jennifer. She is the lady talking while holding the camera in the video.

Compared to that big issue all the other mistakes he made were cake. He screwed up his weave poles again. I don't understand how he can be so stellar at those in practice but not at trials. I think he's not used to doing them so fast. He's not collecting or something. Something to work on. He refused the A-frame again, but he hasn't been on one in a while so that doesn't really bother me. He slide off the table which got a big laugh from the crowd. That was just because he was trucking. How mad can you get when the mistake is speed? Even if he screw up his entire run he's a crowd pleaser.

So here's the video:

This is Digby. He is our trial buddy.

Oh I also made one of Gauis friend Digby's run. Digby is a norwich terrier and very feisty. So you can watch this video too if you like



P.S. Things I did not know i would learn while writing this blog. How to use basic video editing software. I have moved on from i-movie to edius.

Can you do it in a box?

A picture from Gaius' monthly hike with the dog scouts

Well if you have been reading Susan Garrett's blog this week you'll see that she's been talking about distractions and the environment and how they relate to cue understanding. Basically, there may be things you think your dog understands, but in the presence of something new they may not understand their cue. For example, your dog might know what the word sit means when you are standing in front of him, but what if you are running? Or standing behind him? What if you're lying down? What if he's at the dog park? Or in the woods?

She calls it can you do it in a box training. Like from Dr. Sues.
Can you do it in a bow?
Can you do it with a fox?
Can you do it here or there?
Can you do it everywhere?

Dogs need behaviors to be generalized in order to do them consistently. There are creatures that understand patterns, but because they are so good at it, it's easy for them to trick us into thinking they understand.

For Example a likely scenario in a household might be: 'Mommy always makes me sit before dinner. So when I see he reach for my food bowl I sit. The fact that she says the word is inconsequential. In fact I don't know what that word means at all' Because of this, we need to be unpredictable. Test your dogs understanding at home. You might be surprised what they do and do not actually know!

So in Susan's blog post she asked people to come up with tests to check there dogs understanding of basic cues like sit down and stand.

So here's what I came up with. Enjoy! (watch Susan's video too. It's really good)



i do not like them in a box.
i do not like them with a fox.
i do not like them in a house.
i do not like them with a mouse.
i do not like them here or there.
i do not like them anywhere.
i do not like green eggs and ham.
i do not like them, sam-i-am.

Practice Makes Perfect

Gaius and I just got back from a trip, which I'll talk about in the next post. Before we left we went down to the doggy dude ranch and participated in a little practice run through for obedience. It was a good way of seeing where we were and what we needed to work on.

I was very pleased with Gaius. He held both his stays and did a beautiful recall. Stand for examination did go well. But I wasn't expecting it to. That's going to take a long time. He's still not comfortable being touched by strangers. He may never be comfortable. I just need to go to more of these to get him practice. Of course his stand for examination with people he knows is lovely. And he knows everyone in our obedience class. What can you do?

Now heeling is a a whole issue in and of itself. It was really better than I thought it was going to be to be honest. Though he still lagged a bit. But that is mostly because I can't seem to STAND UP FREAKIN' STRAIGHT! So his lagging is mostly my fault. but I have a a dilemma when it comes to this.

You see when I stand up straight and walk with Gaius in a heel position.... I can't see him over (...gah this next noun is sort of embarrassing) my boobs. He resides in my blind spot, like I'm an SUV on the highway. Shesh, only with dachshund would someone have this issue. So when I stand up straight I have to just 'trust' that Gaius is where he is suppose to be. Trust is not necessarily something I'm great with. I mean come on, I spend my free time telling another creature what to do. It's a hobby that attracts the control freak. Now on a leash this isn't such a big deal, if he's really not where he's suppose to be I'll feel tension in the leash. But off lead he could be ten yards back, peeing on the judge and I'd never know (Well aside from expletives I'm guessing the judge would make in that situation). Gaius and I need to do trust exercises like in those office retreats. Maybe we could do a zip line or I could fall backwards and he could catch me... or maybe not.

And as if not being able to see him weren't bad enough, having to bend all the way over to fed him when he's doing it right is back breaking. Anyhow, I can't wait to train a big dog to heel. What a breeze in comparision. Think about it. A big dog needs to target your side to stay in heel position. Its head should stay in that position. A dog Gaius' height's visual marker is my ankle. Now think which moves more erratically when you walk. Linda said the best thing would be for me to move out of novice as quickly as possible. There is much less heeling in the upper levels. But we have to get though stand for examination first.

So now to the video tape. It boring (As obedience is pretty boring) so I added Queen. Sean being bored half way through the down stay cracks me up.

Trick Title Update: I'm not feeling so good.....

Wow, its been a while. Sorry about that. Life happens as you know and I've been very busy with work stuff which has kept me away from the blog for a while. Not from training of course... Never from that :P Anyhow I'm back and I have a new trick to show you all. I actually completed this one before I left on my long hiatus. But better late then never right?

So this trick took an evening to learn.... and maybe six or so sessions? I guess. It was a while ago. Very easy to get him to retrieve the tissue. The throw away part took some time. Mostly with me figuring out the logistics. Leaning the trash can against the cupboard worked. If it wasn't held up he'd put his front feet up and topple the thing over. Which freaked him out a bit so our progress was momentarily slowed.

P.S. My voice is especially irritating in this one. Sorry about that :) Turn the volume down.

Trick Title Update: Read Me a Bed Time Story?

Well now that the trail is over it's back to perfecting Gaius' tricks for his trick titles. I had a little set back yesterday teaching Gaius to run through a rolling hoop (not technically required for his trick titles but a cute thing to teach). You see the hoop fell on him mid jump and scared him. Which caused him to shriek and run away. The hoop got tangled in his feet and he dragged it across the apartment with him at full speed until it tripped him on the tile in my front hall and he skidded head first into the wall. Suffice it to say he decided he no longer likes the hula hoop.

In fact the next time I pulled one out to practice he whined and hid under the couch. I pulled him out and tried to do some counter conditioning but ended up moving a bit to fast and he ran into the bathroom and spent the next three hours cowering in the bathtub. I felt too guilt to move him again. So let's just say we are currently working on gaining confidence around hula hoops. So in the mean time here is a trick that Gaius already knew but had to be perfected in order to qualify for the trick title (I had to add the head down at the end).



This actually took some time to teach. At first I couldn't get him to roll over with anything in his mouth. I started with his obediance dumbbell. Can you roll over while holding something fimilar in your mouth? When he had that down I moved on to a wash cloth folded into four. When he could do that I slowly unfolded the wash cloth. We ran into a bit of a snag when it got large enough to catch under him when he rolled. The pressure caused by his body cause him to drop it. But we went slow and he got over that we moved on to something actually dachshund blanket sized. Teaching him to pick up the corner by himself didn't take much time at all and tada!

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 :)