Agility!

Last weekend we drove the dogs to Pocatello Idaho for Indi's fourth AKC agility trial. Along the way we stopped at Massacre Rocks state park to let the dogs run. Such a cool spot!

Rye really does not like warm weather. For one thing he doesn't and has never handled the heat very well. For another, it seems the only thing we do when it's hot is throw a toy in the water for that black beast sister of his. He watches. He looks forlorn.
Cool weather makes Rye HAPPY!

 

 He may be 12.5 years old but he has not slowed down at all if it's cold enough to run!                        

Then, on to agility...

Indi has decided FOR SURE that agility is the BEST THING EVER. All summer I have asked her to stay in various places, cementing it into her brain. She knows it very well! At our agility teacher's house she can stay. At the river she can stay. At the park. For dinner. Backyard. When we use the practice jump ringside, she can stay! As soon as we enter the ring, she can't stay anymore. I have turned into one of those handlers who walks slowly away from their dog at the start line, hand up, palm out, repeating No, sit! Stay! Stay! No, sit, stay! and then she goes...
I KNOW that the best thing probably would be to take her off course and waste the run and entry fee when she does that. That maybe it would teach her that she has to stay. The thought of doing that just breaks my heart! I don't think I am strong enough! She loves it so much that all she wants to do is be able to GO and for me to stop her I think would deflate her more than a little. I can't!
Also related to staying, she is not very solid on her two on two off contacts. She can somehow stay on the table!
This weekend was worse than previous on the stay subject but the best we have done so far together!
Indi tried out Novice Fast and got a Q. Got a Q and a first place in her first Open Standard class and another Q and first in Standard on Saturday. We still don't have any Novice Jumpers legs! Friday she was one knocked bar away from qualifying and Saturday, her genius handler sent her over a wrong jump. Both were beautiful runs even so.

She is beyond fun to run with!

Here is a video of our best run, Saturday's Open Standard.

So proud of her!

 

summer in pictures

There has been lots of splashing around in rivers!

leaping into various bodies of water!

camping! Complete with much favored activities of dummy slinging and cow poop rolling.

 

 

napping upside down on the bed!

frisbee!

playing with friends!

and a little dress up

Of course there were other things such as HEELING and AGILITY but we don't have any new pictures of those.
Hope you all are having a wonderful summer!

Claudia Fugazza seminar part two!

I thought I'd write a little bit more about the do as I do seminar I had attended a while back since it was so interesting to me!

I have not done much more with the training other than just here and there to show off for friends and family but it still amazes me.
I recorded a training session a few weeks ago so here it is.

I used canned beef tripe as a reward and that was pretty high value! It was hot and Indi's ball was just not cutting it, amazingly, so I went inside for the canned stuff. Nice and stinky!

This is after enough training sessions that she has connected the word "copy" with my actions and her known verbal commands. Now I don't use the old verbal command at all AND I can add knew actions in to the mix.
She sees what I want pretty well I think. There are a few things that just don't make sense to her like when I tried walking around a cone, that was confusing. I thought it was so cute that she added the jump before putting her paws up on the dog walk, even though that wasn't what I showed her, so then I added the two together. I hadn't thought of putting that chain together until then. After the camera was off I tried one more longer chain: pick up glove, jump, paws up on dog walk, and she did it!
I haven't thought of any real life uses for this type of training yet but I sure think it is COOL!

My thinker.

Indigo's third AKC trial

Three weeks ago we competed in our third trial together. It was hot. 100 degrees and higher. We were indoors in an arena with a giant fan and nothing else. HOT! I hosed my dog down quite often. And myself.
My little girl was awesome. She did not seem to care how hot it was, she ran like she does in practice, fast. I think she has figured out the routine. We walk around a little together, eat some food, focus on each other, and then we enter THE RING. The ring means she gets to run and jump and have a blast. Then we run back to our crate, eat a little something special, get her ball and head outside to play.
On Friday she qualified in Standard for her second Q in Novice Standard. On Saturday we qualified in Standard again for our Novice Standard title! We were not perfect but they were minor errors. I am just so pleased that she is loving it so much! She was so eager to start on a few of our runs that I had to tell her to stay multiple times! I have been working very hard on our startline stays and it is still a challenge.

Here she is leaping the broad jump with a sparkle in her eye. I am in love with her gigantic feet! I call them landing pads.

 Here is the non qualifying Jumpers run that ended our weekend. It was my favorite. We have yet to qualify once in Jumpers! Our qualifying Standard run was just not very pretty, even if it did win us a title! We need to work on commiting to each jump, it seems to be our issue. She did not knock a single bar either day and I had originally thought that would be our "issue".

and here is my Indigo with her title ribbon

I am so in love with her!

Indi's first agility trial

My black dog ran in her first and second agility trials this month. We have lots more to work on but she did very well for her first time out.

Our very first run was perfect, nice and smooth. Though I did cut it a little close on the blind cross after the chute! I'm still not super great at judging when it is safe to use a blind.

We knocked a few bars and went around a few jumps on the next runs so did not qualify.
Last run of the two day trial, I think Indi's brain was tired. She started out well and then wanted to play. She jumped up at me to try and bite my hat strings and just didn't cooperate on a few sections of the course.
 Here is that video. It is entertaining!

Overall I loved her enthusiasm and I know she enjoyed herself, as did I! I haven't worked that hard on making practice JUST like a trial in that her reward comes after we leave the course, after we put the leash back on. So that was new for her. I used a tug toy to warm her up which she actually wasn't crazy into like she is in practice and I used food as a reward at the end. In practice I have been using a combination of ball/tug/food but to be honest, mostly ball since it is her favorite. She has a lot of drive for the obstacles themselves in practice and I think it has transferred fairly well into the trial ring.
 Neither Amber nor Rye would ever accept a tug toy as a reward in a trial environment, it was always food. With Indi's tug drive in practice I thought she would  for sure play with me as a reward but we haven't got to that point quite yet apparently! And a ball tossed to her while she is on leash is just....underwhelming...

 She is so much fun to train. It is a high, running with her.
We have one last show for the summer coming up this weekend, wish us luck!