Two Different Agility Practices

I started doing a little agility work with Wyatt outside again after a long break. We have been going to class but not working at home due to the snow, ice, and later mud.

First practice was later in the day, hot out, using standard soft venison treats. Wyatt was OK but still doing some avoidance and needing coaxing to come down and play.

Second day, I showed him the cheese and took him out on leash, took leash off, and started. This practice was much, much better. Still having problems with repeating or taking contacts when I have not signaled them but this second practice was much better and we did work on the "contact suck" issue.

I beleive the cheese, temp, and time of day were factors...

Rally Results

I was very happy with Wyatt and had a lot of fun with Rally this weekend. Wyatt got 2 double Q's (our first 2 RAE legs) with scores ranging from 93 to 97 and one fourth place in Excellent B today (not easy to place in Rally B anymore)...

He did great on backup 3 steps and many other hard stations. Hardest stations (which I will work on) were stations that go from sit to stand (Wyatt needs multiple commands to stand typically - I taught this for Novice Obedience by moving forward) and the stationery call forwards where he does not always sit straight in front.

Too Motivated?

I noticed that Wyatt can get sloppy (most noticable in rally and obedience) if he is too excited about the treats he is getting. For Wyatt, this means cheese. He will tend to sit crooked - more in front - in his excitement to get the cheese. Should I use a lower value treat or work with it? Save the cheese for trials?

Tracking Workshop

Wyatt and I took a tracking workshop this weekend. I liked the technique. It was to use multiple drops (with food in each). We did 2 straight tracks Saturday with 6 drops on each. One was our scent, one was with a different tracklayer. Wyatt did really well on both. I found I needed to figure out what my criterion was for letting him stray. But he was motivated and found all the articles and seemed to really like the game. The instructors seemed to think he was one of the dogs that was doing the best. (I have done some work with him in the past). There are so many techniques; I am going to stick with this one. It seems to work the best for Wyatt.

On Sunday, in the blizzard, Wyatt did a turn and did fine. His biggest distraction was another dog from obedience class walking by (this dog is agressive and has come after him a few times - we just waited until the dog passed by). I realized I really had to know exactly where the turn was.

The best part is that this group practices once a week and is a half hour from my house. This sport and utility scent discrimination really give you a glimpse into how dogs see the world - through their noses.

AKC Stats

I was looking through the last 4-5 years of AKC event statistics and I made a graph of number of entries by year from 2002-2006. Of course, this only covers AKC events. I was amazed at how much rally and agility are growing especially if you consider that there are now 7-8 agility venues.

Wyatt of Dodge City, RE

Here is a photo of me and Wyatt after we earned our Rally Excellent title.

Wyatt at the Window

I am at the Whippet National Specialty Show in Kansas City. I came without any dogs just for the weekend. That is very unusual for me and it feels strange to be without a dog in the bed. Though they sleep on the floor (on dog beds of course) at home, we let them sleep with us when we are on the road. It feels strange. I may have to look for a spare whippet around here (and there are plenty) for some nightime company!

Calling home, my wife reports that Wyatt is looking out the window a lot and waiting for my return! That is so touching...

Run Thrus

I took the baby and went to some run thrus in Vermont on Sunday. Wyatt did pretty well. He wanted to run; I actually struggled to keep up with him and cue him fast enough. This may be because he has had some time off and/or because I had cheese - his favorite treat. We are still not back to 100% though. He is still prefering contacts to running my course at times. I am not sure if I should go with him and finish the contact or keep running. My sense is that I should do the latter, then loop back and try again. We did have one really good run with no problems. It seems that I have to handle better and cue earlier and more right now also until this problem is corrected. If I "get lost" or even hestiate he will make a choice or "spin"...

Wyatt Back to Normal?

My wife and I have both noticed that Wyatt seems back to his usual, crazy self, for better or worse! He is making huge jumps onto couches, constantly trying to get extra food, and generally being the wacky Wyatt we know and love. I am entering him in some CPE trials. We will see how he goes but I am hoping he will be back to normal there too (or close to it)...

Long Retrieves

I have been trying to make retrieves even more fun that they are for Wyatt already.

One thing I noticed is that if I throw close to the ground, it increases his prey drive and enthusiam.

I also mix it up and do not always ask for a front or a stay before.

Last night in agility class, I brought the dumbell and threw it all the way across the bard - about 50 yards. He loved the long run to the dumbbell and all the way back to me.

Anyway, he really seems happy retrieving lately with these changes. He always liked to retreive but I beleive this will help when trialing and stress is higher.

Wyatt of Dodge City, RE

I am very proud of Whippet Wyatt of Dodge City, CD, RE, SC, NA, NAJ, OAC, EJC, OCC, TN-O, TG-N, WV-N, CL4, CL5-SF, CGC who earned his Rally Excellent title today with a score of 93. We have been practicing a lot including some of the really hard stations like back 3 steps, offset figure 8, and pivot left. I made a 3-point error so Wyatt only lost 4 points.

We were a little nervous starting and we had trouble with the initial stand in station #1 Halt, Stand, Sit but I was eventually able to get him to stand. I am very proud of this little guy who was (and is) such very nervous dog who we rescued 4 years ago. His off leash heeling yesterday in Novice B was just great and he only lost 4 points. Many whippets tend to be in a different time zone from the handler in off leash heeling and Wyatt certainly has done that too. But I made sure we had a good connection before we told the judge we were ready, made if clear to him that his favorite treat was in the offing, and kept him really upbeat with my heel commands and between exercises. At home, I have made off leash heeling a fun game: to keep up with me no matter what crazy things I do.

Since he has been injured (he had a back injury from agility that caused him to not want to play agility), I have learned an important lesson. The most important thing is to have fun with your dog. Titles and placements are nice but not THE THING. It was a real change for me yesterday to NQ and be so happy anyway. It has actually helped my performance too since I am less nervous when I am not so worried about qualifying, getting the next title, et cetera.

These dogs have a lot to teach us and. and so far, every really important lesson for me, has been when something "goes wrong".

Odedience Results

We trialed in Novice B obedience today. I was very pleased with Wyatt's heeling, especially his off lead heeling where he only lost 4 points. The other 2 whippets today had a really tough time with their off lead heeling. He was right with me. What a nice feeling. We did have some tight leases on lead but he sat every time and basically stayed with me. I actually think I kepy eye contact more with the off lead and that worked better. People always tell you not to look at your dog but I think it's OK as long as you don't turn your shoulder. He moved quite a bit on the stand for exam but the judge was kind. I think she approcahed him quickly (which he SHOULD be able to deal with). Need to proof that more. We have not been to class in months. We had a Q going into the stays but he went down on his sit after about 15 seconds. The long down was fine.

Rally tomorrow!

Rocking Practice

Wyatt and I had a rocking agility practice Wednesday night. He was great and back to his old self. During the second half of the course, I don't think there was a single problem. He was very fast and motivated. Being on home court seems to help.

Also, the worst problems I have seen are where we run 2 days in a row...

Wyatt - There Is Hope

We did a private agility lesson Saturday and it gave me hope for Wyatt. Wyatt did all the very worst case behaviors I have been seeing since his injury: freezing, running out of the ring instead of starting, going totally in the opposite direction of me back to contacts.

The instructor thought it was all stress and suggested that I just keep running with an imaginary dog (or not). Sure enough, he did come out to play if I kept it up! Anyway, Lynn thought he would be fine and the stress would fade over time. It was very good to know that Wyatt would run if I kept going. This is so different for him since, before the injury, he was SO enthusiastic.

She also showed me a way to help him to learn not to jump too early by using jumps spaced very closely together. Of course, if they were too close together, he jumped over both sets!

Coming Up

We have run thrus this week - Friday night - AKC style in Springfield. Weekend after that is obedience and rally. I have been doing novice run thru's with Wyatt with no treat until the end. He seems to be OK with that but is very eager to run over to the treat area when done (or when he thinks we are done). Still doing rally as well and open and utility practice. Not much agility lately - class has been cancelled due to cold again. We are doing a private Saturday to work on that weird tunnel thing we saw last weekend.

Mixed Results at Run Thru

After a really good agility class last week, Wyatt has some mixed results yesterday at some run thrus in Vermont. This was a new facility for both of us. The good news is that he ran and did not shut down and run out of the ring. He did show reluctance to run on his third run but I coaxed him into running. He definately was not his usual self though. His weaves, jumps, and A Frame were good. He jumped off his first teeter but it did bounce funny when he got on. We had a real problem with a dog walk though. There was a tunnel on one side of it and another tunnel quite a bit away. He was very reluctant to come off the dogwalk into the far tunnel (good contact though). He kept running back up the dog walk instead of heading with me to the far tunnel. I had to bribe him and/or direct him strongly with me to get that tunnel. Not sure what was going on. I am going to try and get back up for a private to work with that specific equipment and placement...

All in all, I should be happy but I have to realize he is still not 100% and I have to be patient.

I also forgot to warm him up which I am supposed to do for his back! He were running a little late setting up for the baby but I have to remember NO MATTER WHAT...

Mixed Results at Run Thru

After a really good agility class last week, Wyatt has some mixed results yesterday at some run thrus in Vermont. This was a new facility for both of us. The good news is that he ran and did not shut down and run out of the ring. He did show reluctance to run on his third run but I coaxed him into running. He definately was not his usual self though. His weaves, jumps, and A Frame were good. He jumped off his first teeter but it did bounce funny when he got on. We had a real problem with a dog walk though. There was a tunnel on one side of it and another tunnel quite a bit away. He was very reluctant to come off the dogwalk into the far tunnel (good contact though). He kept running back up the dog walk instead of heading with me to the far tunnel. I had to bribe him and/or direct him strongly with me to get that tunnel. Not sure what was going on. I am going to try and get back up for a private to work with that specific equipment and placement...

All in all, I should be happy but I have to realize he is still not 100% and I have to be patient.

I also forgot to warm him up which I am supposed to do for his back! He were running a little late setting up for the baby but I have to remember NO MATTER WHAT...

Barking to Start Scent Discrimination

Gotta love Wyatt. The other day, he was barking to get started on scent discrimination. There are probably not too many dogs that do that. He does not do this all the time but it does appear to be one of his favorites. I have been using string cheese too, which is a high value treat for him. I doubt he would do this in a trial setting but to honest, I would not care if I got points off for being overly enthusiastic...

Wyatt Cleared But...

Wyatt was cleared yesterday for agility. The vet determined that he was not in pain and had improved his tense back muscles and his flexibility but still needs more work on the latter.

He ran great at practice last night; the best dog in advanced class but was showing some avoidance behaviors especially on the last run. Whether this is physological from before, whether there is still pain, or whether he was just cold and tired (we did do a couple of hour long runs this week; one on the same day as practice), I can't say. With the snow and cold, he will get more time off. I will try and get to a run through ASAP so we can see where he is at in a trial setting.

Breeding an Agility Whippet

We have been thinking about breeding our next generation of whippets for versatility. We want to breed Patriot who has great conformation and is good at agility, obedience, and coursing. We might look for a bit more drive and natural retrieve. However, we got him at 2 and he was only trained for the ring so who knows how he might be different if we raised him from a puppy. Wyatt does seem to have more retrieve and drive, but again, we got him at 1, so I am not sure how much his first owners did. {I do know they played with him in frisbee and took him to obedience classes.]

I guess it can't hurt to pick your best breeding and temperment test the puppies. But, of course, there are no guarantees!

Proofing Yesterday

We went to the Hartford shows to see 2 of Patriot's puppies show in conformation. Major went RWD. I thought he should have won - he was just stunning. Dashielle, the other puppy, looked great too. But the best thing is that Dashielle is in a great home. The owner just loves him and will do all kinds of activities with him.

I did a little obedience and rally proofing with Wyatt in a very busy ringside area. He did pretty well but I did use a lot of treats to keep the focus.

We did heeling and a few retrives.

Wyatt has an appointment this week to check on his back. I am hoping for a lot of progress of course but need to remind myself to be patient. He does seem a lot better though. He is jumping like a kamikaze around the house. This typically takes the form of a running jump onto a couch, sometimes right over Patriot.

Reflections of Time Off

My attitude towards competing has been changing since Wyatt has been injured. I beleive that I was pushing jim too hard, not picking up on clues that something was wrong, and too focused on my own goals. It is easy to get caught up in the push for titles and ribbons and forget the other half of the team. The break from competing and even practicing agility has been a good one. I can't help wonder if all dogs (and handlers) need some time off now and again.

Ob/Rally Update

We have obedience (Novice B - just for practice - we have our CD) and Rally Excellent B (need one more leg for RE) in March so I am trying to get Wyatt used to less treats. I am also now using cheese, which he really loves. The good part is he performs well and clearly knows we go somewhere else at the end to get the cheese. But he loves cheese so much he will whine and also run to it when he thinks we are done. I have been doing complete novice routines. It seems so easy now that we have been training open and utility for a while! I have also been putting together longer sequences of rally exercises. That also seems easy now that we have worked on backup 3 steps and left pivots and have them down. Of course, who knows what will happen in the actual ring!

Patriot C-ATCH

Patriot and Dawn earned their CPE agility championship yesterday! Way to go! Wyatt is still out of competition but I hope to have him back this spring and summer. He is close to his C-ATCH too.

dog and boy

Cheese

I noticed a big change last night doing agility/rally with Wyatt at home when I used string cheese instead of the usual Charlie Bears. Lots more speed and enthusiasm.

We have agility tonight and I am going to try moving him up to 12 inches. We have not been doing any agility to speak of outside of class. It's cold and I think the time off it better for him anyway. He seems to be better around the house. Yesterday he came charging to one of our coaches and jumped over our other whippet Patriot and onto the couch. He is quite the kamakaze (for better of worse) when he is feeling good. Hestition in jumping on things was one of the many signs I missed or ignored over the last few months. More on that later and also how your goals and priorities change when your dog get hurt.

Last Night

Wyatt did really well last night. We wanted to do agility and had some good runs. We are having a major contact suck issue right now with contact/tunnel combos but I was just happy that he was happy. I had him jump 8 inches to start. The weather is cold right now so we won't do agility in the yard (which seems to have a negative association for him anyway) but I will try running him at 12 inches next week.

Back to Agility

Well, our week off of agility is up. It has been too cold to try much outside. I will probably go to class tonight and try some light jumping (low jump heights) and short sequences. We will see what happens! Hopefully, he will want to play and his back will be OK. I need to remember the warm up and cool down procedures...

What We Are Working On

While we are on our agility timeout, I have been working with Wyatt on obedience and rally. We have been perfecting our rally excellent moves including left pivot, 3 steps back, side step, and some others. He is doing real well, at least at home, and we should be able to get our last RE leg as long as he wants to play. In tradional obedience, I am really trying to finish up open and utility training. The hardest items are go outs, drop on recall, and group sits. I have working on go outs by baiting a target with cheese wiz and putting the target on a ring gate. I command "go out" and he has really been running out at a good clip. I then (sometimes) ask him to sit. I have been using a low board to prevent creeping. I have also started using 3 different gloves on occasion. Everything else is pretty much in place (at least at home) includingt scent discrimination and retrieves. I need to check the heeling part of utility and check signals. I beleieve all the pieces are in place including a moving stand but need to try putting it all together.

Of course, the proof is in the proofing!

X-RAY Results

Wyatt's X-Rays were clean so that was a relief. It rules out arthritis. Regular Vet said we could try anti-inflammatories. I am going to check in with the specialist I have been using - Julie Roos - on next steps.

My computer is down so I will write more next week when I get back...

X Rays This Week

Our regular vet happened to see Wyatt last week for a shot and also saw the back pain. So I scheduled X-Rays for Wednesday. She mentioned that he might have some arthritis but that could be treatable with anti-inflammatory drugs. Meanwhile, Wyatt seems better to me in terms of his energy and back pain.

Time Off

As I expected, the time off from agility with Wyatt is harder for me than for him. He is enjoying a rest and seems to have more bounce and high spirits. I definately miss practicing with him. Due to the weather, we usually slow down in the winter especially with practice at home. This year's mild winter allowed practicing in Novemeber, December, and January during a time when Wyatt (who does not like the cold) usually hibernates.

He seems to be enjoying the massage he gets everyday. Still a week and half to go on the time off...

Diagnosis

I took Wyatt to Julie Roos, who is a vet and does PT and chiropractic. Basically, she found that has back pain caused by too many years of agilty without proper streching, warming up, and cooling down. This probably caused our current problems in combination with all the trauma and spills of this year along with the additional stress of the baby and overpracticing him. So he gets 2 weeks off and lots of massage. Meanwhile, he are having fun, running in the woods, and still doing rally and obedience.

Wyatt Status

I am getting a full evaluation of Wyatt next week from Julie Roos down at Clean Run. She is a vet, does acupuncture, and chiropractic and has lots of experience with agility dogs.

I am running him at home very lightly and easily and keeping it fun just to keep him in the game. Still thinking of taking o complete break. The crash into the tire set him back quite a ways in terms of motivation and the contact and discrimination skills we have been working on - no doubt, due to increased stress.

DANG!

I ran Wyatt yesterday and he did great. Very motivated. Did not have to bribe him to play. On the way back to the house, I sent him through one more jump combo and he knocked over the tire jump and had a minor scrape. But he seems to be back to being totally spooked about practicing. I am taking a week off from agility with him even though I am anxious to work with him to get comfortable again. It really is showing me I need to focus more on my dog being happy and less on the various skills, titles, and goals I have. What a hard lesson to learn...

I am thinking of getting a full physical and eye exam for him too to rule out a physical problem.

SHUT DOWN!

I have had a lot of ups and downs with Wyatt in agility and this weekend was no exception. Wyatt is about 10 Q’s away from his CPE agility championship. During the competition this weekend, he did not want to run; something I have never experienced before at a trial. He has typically been a very high drive, high motivation dog especially for a whippet. He has always been a fearful dog but his desire to work with me and to jump has seemed to overcome his fear. He tends to be a bit of a kamikaze and I worked with him for years to get a good 2 on, 2 off contact.

Looking back, I see that there were signs that we might be in trouble as team; signs I minimized or ignored. It is a terrible feeling to see your teammate not want to play with you. I do have faith this will be one of the many things I have worked through with Wyatt. However, one always fears the worst case – that his career could be over.

THE WEEKEND

We went up early for run throughs Friday night to a new beautiful new facility near Saratoga Springs, New York. I wanted to do everything I could to make Wyatt feel comfortable in a new place. Our first run was a little tentative but not bad. On the second run, he started to show some signs of stress and slowed down and may have stopped before a jump until I coaxed him over. On the third run, I really increased my praise after every jump and obstacle and we had a much better run. He used to be a dog I could run very quietly with. So it seems like he needs more praise and encouragement right now.

For the first run on Saturday, he hesitated going into the ring and I gave a little leash correction to get him moving. This has been something I have also been seeing in class. Typically, I can both take pressure off the lead and encourage him to come with me or give a little tug and encouragement at the same time to get him going in class. This is a new behavior though and one I was worried about. I believe it started early fall of 2006.

In any case, he started running out of the ring when I took off the leash or would refuse to jump over the first jump and would run back out when I turned around and/or started moving back towards him. I ran out and grabbed him and kind of tossed him over the first jump but he still ran back. On the next run changed to For Exhibition Only (FEO) and ran him on leash and was very positive when he went over a few jumps. I kept it short.

We also tried having Dawn run him on Saturday and she experienced the same behaviors of running out of the ring.

I then tried taking his leash off partway through the run but he would not go over a jump off leash. On another run, I got him over the first jump but he stalled on the A-Frame and I could not get him off. When I moved towards him, he headed back over the A-Frame. Heading outside on Saturday, he even ran away from the practice jump and I had difficulty coaxing him over the practice jump. I could get him going eventually by leading him close to the jump on leash and then using treats. I also did a bunch of deconditioning around the ring entrance where the biggest stress seemed to be occurring. But I am wondering if my picking him up and tugging his leash may have exacerbated the problem on Saturday. I also wonder if I may have forgotten to release him. I have worked with Wyatt on not releasing until he hears the specific word OK. I will occasionally forgot and expect him to go, which I am sure confuses him. And then having me really stress out and carry him into the ring may have made the problem much worse.

On Sunday, I was hoping that he would be OK but had the same issue. Though he seems fine warming up, he again stressed out when crossing into the ring. So I changed him to FEO and did a couple jumps, tunnels, and obstacles on leash and left on a positive note. After the run, he did not show signs of stress on the practice jump, which was encouraging. On the next run I did the same thing but tried to get him to run off leash again without luck. On the next run, I though I would get him away from the start and take him off leash at the end of ring heading back. Sure enough that worked, and he has nice obstacles and jumps off leash on the way back. We got a big cheer since folks knew I was struggling all weekend especially friends that have seen Wyatt “smoke” many a course. I was still seeing stalling on contacts, which clearly is a sign of stress as I have done a lot of retraining of contacts at home.

THE WARNING SIGNS

Wyatt crashed into a triple jump at the National Whippet Specialty April of last year. He limped off but appeared fine for jumpers when I tried him on the practice jump. He crashed into it again in jumpers. He tends to take off early and will very occasionally knock a bar especially on a triple jump. I bought an AKC style triple for home which he has been fine on. I added the word “big” before “jump” to indicate a double or triple jump.

We adopted a baby boy in June. Wyatt seems to adjust fine. We still practice obedience, rally, and agility every day.

At a summer trial, I remember having a stressful weekend with the baby and having a tough weekend especially on the first day. Wyatt crashed into a jump when I was wrapping him around it tightly during a snookers run.

This summer, Dawn dropped a hardcover book on Wyatt. He was sleeping under a blanket on his dog bed at the side of our bed at the time. He panicked and ended up stepping on Patriot on an adjacent dog bed. The exact details are unknown but they ended up in a fight resulting in 5 stitches for Wyatt. Wyatt was upset for quite a while though seems fine with Patriot now. He took off a week or more of agility but seemed OK after that.

Sometime in the fall, I started seeing him resisting starting agility. I remember this starting before he fell off the dog walk in November. However troubling, I could easily get him going with a little rug, relaxing the lead, and/or doing a little cheerleading/moving forward. I have noticed him heading towards the exit on occasion during class especially if I am stressed about something.

At the Conway CPE trial (our home ring) in mid October, he has a great weekend with 6/8 qualifying runs and lots of high placements but I did recall that seeing the resistance to going into the ring. At a trial a few weeks later, he did stop running at one point during jumpers (I was shocked because he loves jumpers so much) but attributed it to a very late run in a dark, damp barn. I did coax him over the jump he stopped in front of. All in all, we had a pretty good weekend as I recall. I do remember feeling stressed with the baby on Saturday.

In November, he fell off the dog walk during a routine practice. We shook it off and ran the dog walk again but it was a good fall. After that, there was a definite resistance to going to the yard to practice. He has previously shown some resistance to the front yard after a Frisbee fall he appeared to work through that. I started to have to bribe him to play. I developed a “find it” game where I throw a treat for him to find. Typically once I get him down to the first field (jumpers and weaves), he is fine and wants to do agility. I would also lure him down to the field with a treat sometimes but this did not work as well. I am wondering now if I inadvertently was reinforcing his fears. Did I train him to not work without a specific bribe of the “find it” game first? I did notice initially even more resistance to going down to the lower contact field. Gradually, I worked with him so that less and less of a bribe was required to get him to do agility so I was pretty confident going into this weekend’s trials. I was did a lot of contact work so that stalling on the A-Frame was down to a very occasional occurrence. I also worked a lot of tunnel/contact discrimination. He was getting really drawn to contacts probably due to all the contact work we have been doing. This too was very much improved in the last few weeks.

One side note is that I have resorted to blocking him from going up contacts a few times in the last few months (once especially in class on a particular start). This seemed to really cause some stress. He seems to stall right away when he see I am not moving towards him. I have been unsure of what to do in this case; I have sometimes had to bribe him down with by showing a treat. I have tried not to treat him for being off course and have improved with this but used to sometimes treat him by mistake when he went up an unwanted contact. I also have realized recently that have inadvertently trained him to go right back up over a contact. When training him to drive to the end of contacts, I used to rapidly switch directions and head right back over. I did use his release word but he got very used to going up and down and was heading right back over contacts if my body started turning anywhere backwards towards the contact again.

In early December, we went to some run throughs at a new facility in Connecticut. His first run was tentative and he crashed the final triple jump. I took him back over it but his next run; he did not want to run. I recall using treats to get him started again on the second and third runs but seeing the jump refusals. I attributed his initial tentativeness to the lack of gates on the side of the ring and some barking dogs close to ringside. Now I wonder if there was more going on.

I also recall during November that Wyatt had trouble starting a rally run. He would not sit and then would not initially start heeling with me at the start.

At runs throughs during class last week, I don’t recall any special issues or problems.




QUESTIONS

• Should we take a complete break from agility? If so, for how long?
• Should I take him to class this week and see how he is? I probably will.
• What should I do if he resists starting his run?
• If I trial with him (FEO), what should I do if he runs out of the ring?
• Should I not use treats during warms up and only reward after a run?
• I wonder if the extra stress of trialing with the baby is increasing my stress enough to affect Wyatt’s stress level? Ironically, he seems less nervous at trials than he used to be but the stress may be showing up in the ring and not on the sidelines.
• I have been, at home, class, and at trials, been “making” Wyatt go all the way to the end of the contact since he tends to start stopping higher and higher up especially at trials. However, this seems to be a stressor so I am wondering the best way to handle it and if I should relax this criterion (for now) at trials.
• Should I crate him at class? This would be just like a trial and would bypass some of the avoidance behavior I see when I walk courses with him at class.


TENTATIVE PLAN

• Cut back on agility practice, classes, and trials and/or take a complete break from agility for a while.
• Put a jump close to the cellar door and only treat after he as gone over the jump. Just work with that one jump for a while. Be very positive for coming out to play without a bribe. Set up gates in the yard and make sure he is OK going through the gates to a faux start line without having to treat him.
• Make sure he is warmly dressed before doing agility in the winter.
• No more “find it” game with treats to get him to play agility.
• Cut back on obedience until he is into agility again and/or only do obedience after agility.
• Do as many run throughs and possible. Do trials FEO until enthusiasm is restored. Use the leash to start him and try to wean off the leash until he can start again without it.
• Eliminate or cut down on warm up treats especially at trials. Increase value of treats. For Wyatt, cheese and steak are the highest value treats.
• Consider using toys more. Use the rabbit skin on a string as a reward instead of food sometimes.
• Play with Wyatt in the yard around the equipment. This consists of throwing toys, which he chases, takes a victory lap around with, and retrieves. I have been doing on this on occasion but could do more.
• No triples at runs throughs or trials unless I can practice it first or lower the bars.
• Continue to practice the triple at home.
• Always warm up with the practice jump before a run.
• Try trialing him without the baby.
• Do not run when I am stressed.
• Change my goal from a C-ATCH (or whatever) do my dog having a good time.
• Reward releasing more strongly in obedience and agility.

FOOTNOTE

I placed a jump close to the cellar door yesterday and Wyatt went right over and it the agility fields without a need for a bribe, game, or treat. He then ran very enthusiastically even though the weather was cold and wet.

Patriot Video

Here is one of Patriot and Dawn's run from this weekend. Patriot needs only one more Q for his CPE agility championship.

Video

Wyatt really shut down this weekend ;-( More on that later.

Patriot Standard - December 31 2006
53 sec - Jan 1, 2007
Description: Whippet AWC Triathlon Winner Ch Seaspell’s Concord Point, CD, SC, OA, OAJ, CR, OTR, NJC, TG-N, CL4, CL5-HSF, CGC “Patriot” CPE Level 5 standard run

If you're having trouble watching the video, try copying the following URL into your browser:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4381967641192632224&pr=goog-sl

Inadvertant Training

I had some big insights into some inadvertant agility training I have been doing. You know what I mean, I think. You train one things but end up with an inadvertant side effect. More later...

Happy Holidays!

Timeouts

One has to be super careful before using negative punishment (timeouts). It is so easy to think the dog knows its job but find that you really have not training what you thought you trained.

Especially with contacts, I have found that I giving different body language at trials. A careful study of videotapes showed that instead of Wyatt knowing an independent 2 on, 2 off - which I thought he did - that he was relying on my body “jerking” forward as his release. Since I was running faster and much more “jerkily” at trials, I was pulling him off. Someone recommended timeouts which I tried but I ended up punishing him for doing what he thought his job was which just added to his (and my) trial stress.

I went back and also found that he was releasing on any command (and not just his release word) so I went back and proofed and retrained that. I also made jerky movements and made sure he stayed put as well as being in all kinds of different positions relative to him and the contact.

A lot times, we think the dog is doing X because of our Y cue, but in reality, they are doing X because of a cue Z that we are not aware of. And then we go and alter cue Z at a trial and wonder why they did not do what we said or even punish them.

The approach I have taken now has a couple of components. One was to do a lot of NADAC so I could redo the contact if need be without using punishment. Second was to really proof all aspects of the behavior including commands, position, and body movements. If not at NADAC and I have a contact issue, I may just pause long enough so I am at least not rewarded him for blowing a contact and then trying again at the next contact. A full timeout just seemed to bewilder and demotivate him. Plus, how sure I am that I was not the problem or part of the problem?

This has worked well for us. Now, I am having a different problem with not releasing but that is another story.

I think the biggest mistake we make is to trial too early. And unless you do NADAC, our very intelligent whippets (and other sighthounds) learn that the rules are different at a trial. I wish other venues allowed the limited training you can do in NADAC. It is SO good for trial issues. So we start seeing all our carefully trained behavior fall apart at trials.

Anyway, before you use timeouts, you have to be really sure the dog (and you) really knows the job under all kinds of conditions.

-- John Heffernan

Whippet Wyatt of Dodge City, CD, RA, SC, NA, NAJ, OAC, EJC, OCC, TN-O, TG-N, WV-N, CL4, CL5-SF, CGC “Wyatt”
Whippet AWC Triathlon Winner Ch Seaspell’s Concord Point, CD, SC, OA, OAJ, CR, OTR, NJC, TG-N, CL4, CL5-HSF, CGC “Patriot”

Whippet Heeling

Someone asked my advice recently about whippet heeling and I thought I would also share it here...

Hi, I'm on the SHAgility list and have noticed your great achievements with your Whippets. I was wondering if you can give me any pointers on how to teach a Whippet to heel. My boy is so disinterested, unless I have food. He just wonders off or lags behind. Maybe all I need is more practice, but I'm also open for new ideas. Thanks!


Well, I would use the food initially to get his interest. You can fade it later. I definitely use food all the time to practice heeling. I would start with very short stretches in a quiet, comfortable place with your dog. One thing I learned (the hard way) was to really break it down. Start with one step! If you can really have your dog starting with you on the first step, that’s helps so much. So I would just lure that first step for a while and click if they keep up with you for one step. Then you can build up to 2, 3, 4 steps et cetera adding a sit at some point. The biggest thing I have learned recently with heeling is to make it a game. The game is to keep up with you! That is a fun game for a whippet. One I basically have my dog following me, I start trying to teach heel position. So I click when they are in heel position. Then they learn that that is what you want and that is game. Rally has helped our heeling a lot too because there are so many cool variations of heeling that you can add to make it interesting. So mix it up; make it unpredictable and keep it positive and fun!

From what you wrote, I would recommend 2 5 minute session a day. Good luck and let me know how it goes.

Pals Again

Wyatt and Patriot seem to be true pals again. You may recall that they had a little incident a few months ago when Wyatt stepped on Patriot by accident when he was under a blanket.

Wow! Go Outs With Cheese Wiz

What a difference in go outs using cheese wiz on the target. Wyatt no drives out very fast to the target and goes all the way without all the turning around to see if he has one far enough stuff. Now, how will it work when I start to fade the treat every time?

Stickiness

I am still having a stickiness issue with Wyatt where either he does not release and/or stays up very high on the contacts. I was thinking that it will be a good thing to work on this winter. I have a contact board I can bring inside and have him drive to he end, gradually fading out the target, so he really understands and does 2 on 2 off position on contacts. I will also, of course, vary my position so he is not dependant on me to know where 2 on, 2 off position is. I am not sure how this problem came about as he was driving to the end previously.

In a related issue, I am working on utility go outs. I have been using a target on a piece of ring gate but I have to keep cheer leading him to go all the way to the target/gate. I am going to start baiting the target with cheese wiz to really get him to drive to the target.

Wyatt is Back

Wyatt seems to be almost back to his old self in terms of agility motivation especially at home where he fell off the dog walk some time ago. It is good to see him fast and motivated again. The weather has just turned cold so we will see how much we can do at home though.

He is still "sticking" to his contacts sometimes though (not releasing) and not going all the way to the bottom so we will continue to work on that.

Still One More RE Leg

Well, we had our first ever NQ in rally on Saturday. I was rushed to the start line - it moved faster than I thought - and I could not find Wyatt's collar for a while. It was another hard course with a backup 3 steps, a halt, pivot left, halt, and 3 semi-tricky stations right near the honor station. I did not keep enough contact with Wyatt and I lost him a few times. One of these was near the jump and he wanted to go over it. He also hit the jump after we finished which was cute. The jump was on the way back to the gate. But I was very happy with his performance. I beleive I had 3 retries which is an NQ but I did not get back in time ot check our scoresheet. He did an awesome halt, left privot, halt with a perfect "side" after pivot. Learning this station has really "forced" me to learn a really good left finish. Live and learn!

Patriot and Son

Here is a photo of Patriot and his son - Major.

Major looks to be very promising in the show ring. He got 4 reserver winner's dog in his first 4 outings and won a 5 point major today at a supported entry.

One More Leg

We did get one more Rally Excellent leg today with a score of 75. We lost 10 on back 3 steps and 10 on moving stand. I thought we may have gotten some of the back 3 steps (he went back 2 steps I thought) but it was just marked -10. Wyatt stopped beautifully for the moving stand but moved towards the end. I did not (but should have retried).

The course was very hard!!! She put in every single difficult station possible that we struggle with (offset figure 8, back 3 steps, left pivot) and a lot the harder ones (halt, stand, down, moving down). I was happy to qualify. I was sure glad we practised last month. I was very happy Wyatt went backwards at all - we have just started to get that.

He is still off. Even in rally, he would not sit at the start (I asked the judge if you had to and she said no so we just went from a stand but he stalled there. I had to go back and start with him again. Darned thing. He is also nto releasing on his agility contacts. Seems like some kind of stress but I have not been able to figure it out.

Another try tomorrow - the course can't be any harder!!!

Rally This Weekend and Mixing It Up

Wyatt and I are entered in rally excellent Friday and Saturday at the Big E in West Springfield, Massachusetts. I have been enjoying really learning all the advanced and excellent stations. I have found some of the stations will really help our traditional obedience especially a left finish and back to help adjust Wyatt into heel position and generally increase his awareness of heel position. It is also fun to mix up so many different little "doodles". I have been really trying to keep him guessing. It is so easy to fall into the trap of doing the same thing all the time and then we wonder why they are bored or anticipate a command.

Rally

Sorry to have been lax about posting this past week...

Wyatt seems to be getting back to his old self in agility at home and seems to be recovering from his dog walk spill. He is more eager to come play agility, faster, and not sticking as much on contacts. Hopefully, he will be back to 100% soon.

I am having lots of fun training for Rally Excellent and we are making progress on heeling backwards (not easy!), and all the stations that require the dog to scoot in his butt (left pivot, side step right from a halt). We are also working on the offset figure 8 (another toughie). I believe these will help a lot in regular obedience - especially scotting in and moving backwards - in terms of adjusting into heel position.

John

Confidence Issue

I am fairly certain now that Wyatt is having a confidence issue after his dogwalk fall. He did pretty well in class but was slower and more tentative than usual. I am continuing our week off from agility at home. He checked out at the vet/chiropracter yesterday. I have had an ankle sprain too and Wyatt does better if I am moving faster (especially on contacts) so this week off shoudl help me get back to 100% also.

Week Off

I decided to take a week off from agility with Wyatt at home. He is still avoiding practice without a lot of bribes and is generally slow and stressed out. I see a lot of stuck contacts and a general lack of enthusiasm which is unusual for him. I am planning of still going to class since he still seems very motivated there. I believe this issue is due to his falling off the dog walk a few weeks ago. I am also taking him to the chiropractor/vet to make sure there is no problem there.

Practice Rally

I am actually practising Rally for a a change. Not that this is good but I usually go to the show, walk the course, and learn the stations I don't know right there. Wyatt and I have 2 more Excellent legs for our RE so I thought I would go through and really practice everything. We are enjoying it and I think I will be much more comfortable going down to compete.

Unstuck

I was starting to think that maybe Wyatt had injured himself when he fell off the dog walk a few weeks ago but he really rocked in class last night. I am still seeing a lot of sticky contacts and avoidance of agility (very new and rare for him at home). I think he is adverse to the place where the bad experience (fall) occured. I have seen this in the past. I told my wife we have to move because it takes him a long time to disassociate the emotion with the place!

I am going to ramp up his treats and see what happens. He went (annoyingly) wild for cheese in class tonight so I will try that.

Sticky Contacts

We had a pretty good weekend at a CPE trial even though we only qualified twice out of 8 attempts. Lots of almost Q's. We did get first in colors Saturday for a level 5 Q and first in jackpot Sunday with a first and a great run where lots of people came up to me afterwards and said that was the way to do it. Biggest problem Sunday was sticky contacts. We did his "2 on 2 off" right at the edge of the yellow zone and I had a hard time getting him to move down the contact. I obviously did not want to release him but time really got chewed up trying to get him to release. I believe that he really does not understand to go to the bottom of the contact and I have not been consistent in trials about "making" him go to the bottom. One of my instructors says to go back to using targets so we will try that.

The barn was small and I needed to adjust my style more than I did. I did have some back jumps which were unusual. One of these was right on the #5 snooker obstacle that I need to get enough points. It was a 2 jump combo and he went around the second jump! We had one off course on a very, very difficult standard course Saturday so I was pretty happy even though our Q rate was low. I think the small barn and the fact that the judge has dachshunds contributed to courses that were not that great for long striding dogs.

Place (Again)

Wyatt is balking at going out to play agility. I believe this is because we fell off the dog walk last week. I have noticed this in the past too. He is reluctant to go to a place where an injury has occured. I have been bribing him by throwing treats out and having him "find it", a popular game. Once he gets there, he plays agility as usual. But it does, once again, show how dogs are very specific to place...

John

Good Equiment

Our teeter collapses recently as Patriot was going over it. It was an inexpensive PVC based teeter. I have found out - the hard way - that it does not pay to go cheap and I have gradually replaced a lot of our cheap or home made agility equipment with MAX200 stuff.

Proofing Place

Since running Wyatt on our "home court" last weekend (where he did very well), I have concluded that Wyatt's proofing issues are probably not dog related but place related. How does one work on this? Take him to a lot of different places;do run throughs as much as possible; trial at familiar places. I think this is slowly improving over time as he becomes a more confident dog. Though I felt calm and comfortable myself last weekend, I also chaired the trial and have a new baby so I tend to think my state is not such a big factor (though bad handling will cause problems certainly). I think my experience does disprove my original theory that Wyatt's nerves were related to other dogs. Since there tons of new dogs last weekend, I don't think that is a factor.

Stalling on Contacts

Wyatt did a stall last night on his first contact just like the first class last weekend. My teacher suggested going back to using contacts for now (at least sometimes). So that is what I am going to do. Better than jumping off but still not ideal. I think he is afraid of making a mistake.

Wyatt and the 190.5

This article, first appearing here, was picked up by Front and Finish magazine. Wyatt's photo even appeared on the table of contents page. Thanks to Brenna Fender for picking up the article and using it for her excellent Sighthounds Sound Off column.



[This article and photo appeared in the November 2006 issue of Front and Finish magazine.]


The Story of Whippet Wyatt and the 190.5
by
John Heffernan


We rescued Whippet Wyatt when he was one year old. My wife insisted we get a dog even though I did not want one. Wyatt had many problems including separation anxiety. He is a very sensitive and anxious dog and has fear issues with other dogs. I am 47 years old and he is my first dog. I knew zero about dogs, Whippets, or dog training when we got him.

We went to a dog B&B when he was a year-and-half-old and had our first agility lesson. We took agility up when he was two. When he was two-and-a-half we started formal obedience training. He has come a long way since our first local obedience lesson when he would nervously and continuously jump up on
us or hide between our legs.

By using positive methods I read about and a lot of trial and error, we entered our first obedience match and managed to squeak by with a 173. We trained twice a day for about 15 minutes per session and went to an hour long class once a week.

At our next few attempts he started to go down during the long sit. He generally needed more proofing. I did not want going down on the sit to become a habit so I stopped competing and retrained it using cones. I was not sure I would ever be able to get past this problem and resigned myself that we might never get a CD. We kept working on Novice and I also discovered that he really enjoyed Utility and Open work, especially retrieving, jumping, and scent discrimination, so we added that for fun.

We started to compete again and we missed just one thing for a few trials. But I knew we would do pretty well if we put it all together because we would have been scoring in the 180s if we had qualified.

We went to a really nice obedience-only trial in the Worcester, Massachusetts, area. We were the first dog in the first class and it was a nice quiet area. I knew taking off that Wyatt was really paying attention. We got through all the exercises beautifully and the judge told me we had qualified so far. Wyatt had stayed with me well with minimal lagging. We got 0 points off on the stand for exam and the recall. I started to think we might even place if we could only make it through the group sits and downs.

He made it through the sit in what was the longest minute of my life. The three minute down seemed like an hour but he stayed down even though he looked around nervously and kept changing his head position. I knew we had Qed, but had we placed? I saw a couple of other really good Novice A dogs. The judge announced fourth place, and then, with a score of 190.5, Wyatt of Dodge City for our second CD leg and third place!

The high from the Q and the score lasted for quite some time. I was so proud of him and happy that he had done so well. Wyatt loves to work hard and play hard. He is the kind of dog who diverts his path going out to pee in order to go over an agility jump. He whines to start scent discrimination exercises.

Wyatt now has 16 different titles in obedience, rally, lure coursing, and agility. I still tell my wife I am just making the best of a bad situation, but she knows better.

Agony to Ecstasy

After a disasterous outing at our last trial (0 for 5) and a crash into a jump, I was unsure what would happen this weekend. However, we were on our home court. Hilltown Hounds hosted our first ever (CPE) agility trial in the horse barn where we practice.

On our first fullhouse run, Wyatt got all his contacts but stalled on the A Frame and we did not get enough points. Standard was next with a very challenging course with lots of off course potential. Wyatt smoked it with a clean run and a first. This also completed our level 4 standard and was the last Q needed for level 4.

Wildcard was next and Wyatt again ran the course fast and perfect taking second place and picked up a needed level 5 Q. Snooker was next which is one of our best games. Wyatt again ran perfecting picking up first and a level C Q. It sure is a nice feeling to run fast and perfect on almost ever run. I could get used to it!

Sunday was similar where we picked up our first level 5 standard Q (2nd place), a needed level 5 colors Q (first place), and our final level 5 jackpot Q (third place). We had a good jumpers run but one off course. I think I was tired at this point being trial chair and having the baby with us all weekend. It seemed to really help Wyatt to be on his home court. The only difference I noticed was that he was not coming all the way down to the end on his contacts (which he usually does at home and at practice so I have to work on that).

Less Is More

My wife and I are both finding that less training has been better in both agility and obedience. The baby has forced us to cut back a bit but it actually seems to be helping. The have been more enthusiastic and motivated...

John

Tips

I got some good tips last week at our very good open obedience class. One was to always treat your dog from heel position (or front position) when working obedience. So simple but how often do I pull him out of heel position to treat him?

Group sits will be the death of me in open and, again, my teacher gave me some ideas (and hope). Wyatt has been shifting around a lot at home (but does not go down - in class and at trials, he will often go down pretty quickly). Anyway, my new technique is going to first, help him into a really good sit (we will have to work on him doing that himself later), stay close to him and reposition his front (or rear) legs when he shifts. The idea is that this will help him know what his job is. So I have moved up much closer and doing this. I used to let the shifts go and figure at least he wasn't going down but then he would often go down in class and about 50% of the time at trials.

Ecstasy to Agony

We took the baby and 2 dogs to a local CPE trial last weekend. The day before, the baby had a stroller accident which scared us but he is fine. But I have been sick and Dawn has been doing night duty so we were both pretty tired and stressed going into the weekend.

On Saturday, Wyatt got a standard level 4 Q with a real nice run on a very challenging course. He knocked a bar but still got first place in a class of 15-20 dogs since he was the only 20" dog to qualify. I thought we got out of level 4 with that Q but since it was not clean, we still need one more level 4 standard Q to finish level 4. We also qualified in level 5 wildcard with a real nice run and another first place. In snookers, he broke the start line and went off course for an NQ. On the second standard run, we had some contact issues. I have been finding the last run of the day can be hard for us. All in all, I was pretty with Saturday.

Sunday was another story. I guess you and your dog can just have bad days. This was one of them.

I did baby duty so I was pretty exhausted. I think that Wyatt is so sensitve to me that when I am off I must send him the wrong (of at least different cues). I think dogs can also just have bad days too. But we had contact issues all day - even teeter flyoffs - which I rarely see. After 3 bad runs, I thought we might rally for our 2 strongest games - snooker and jumper. We had a good snooker run going but I gave him a strong and early wrap signal and he totally crashed into the jump and landed on his back. He limped off the course.

For jumpers Wyatt seemed fine so I ran him. He actually had a great run but I did not signal him strongly enough for a tunnel right near the end the of course and I just kept running instead of correcting.

We ended up going 0 for 5! I wonder how much my stress and exhaustion affect him and how much is his own stuff. Well, in any case, I realized that I need to be at my best (or at least half decent) to run him. We ended up with 2 firsts and 7 NQ's for the weekend!

NADAC Results

I have been remiss in reporting our NADAC trial last weekend. Wyatt and I attending a NADAC trial on Saturday only.

First up was elite jumpers where Wyatt had an off course. A beginning jump sequence turned in a semi-circle. Instead of turning Wyatt went way out to another jump in a straight line. I needed to turn him sooner I think. It was also our first run and he seemed to really want that jump but I need to really see these possible off courses during the walk throughs.

In our first elite regular (standard) run, Wyatt jumped off the end of the dogwalk. I took him back and he did it again so I took him back for the third time and he did a nice 2 on, 2 off so we left the course with a lot of praise. The course had a distance weave pole challenge (which we never got to) so I did not have a lot of confidence we would qualify. We have been working on weaves at a distance but it looked like it would be hard for us.

For the next elite standard run, I thought it was very doable. We have not yet got our first elite standard Q after 5 tries, so I thought this might be the one. Sure enough, we have great 12 weaves at the start and got all 3 contacts but, again, I assumed that he would go up the dog walk (there was a tunnel on the far side of the dogwalk), and he needed more cuing. It was still a great run though and I was very happy.

We qualified in open tunnellers finishing that title with a really nice, fast run. I tried to give him more distance but still need to trust him more to work far away from me in tunnelers. He had one wide turn that cost us sometime.

We also qualified in open chances with another dogwalk tunnel discrimination challenge, this time going for the outside tunnel. There were 2 points in this course that I knew would be hard. The cool part was that at both points, he looked back at me for more information where there was a choice to make and I was able to signal him to the correct obstacle.

Duh!

I have been having trouble with a very common obstacle discrimination problem - a dog walk and tunnel right beside it. I was using an opposite arm signal which tends to turn my body out. But it did not always work. I tried some experiments at home. If I use our already existing out command AND the opposite arm, that seems to work every time. If I say "walk it" and run parallel to the dogwalk without any special OUT command or arm movement, he goes right up the A-Frame. Adding the "out" really seemed to make it clear for Wyatt what I wanted. Sometimes it is so obvious but takes us so long to figure it out.

Heeling Improvements

I have not been to obedience class in a while. Since the last class, I have been working a lot on attitude and crispness. I have kept thing short and fun. I have rewarded Wyatt for being in heel position. I have been trying to make it a game - Keep Up With Me If You Can.


He did great in class. Usually I see a degradation in performance in class. I used lots of treats and voice. I used to expect all the work at home to carry over and I would see a degradation when I went to class and used less treats, and less voice, AND there were all the other dogs around. So now I am trying to get him to the same level I see at home before facing voice and treats. I may try to fade voice and treats at home. I tend to treat once for every performance and need to get on a variable schedule.

I did notice degradations when the teacher was close when heeling and also very clearly with the dumbbell when other dogs were close by. There is one dog in particular that is aggressive that he if afraid up. So I tried to really keep the dumbbell fun at class even though not as much is needed at home. To do this, I use a lot of voice, skip the finish and start from heel position frequently and throw it low to the ground after revving him up.

The teacher taught us a good exercise for drop on recall. (I have been having trouble with creeping). You start the dog coming to you. When you say "Down" run to the dog as fast as you can to stop then cold and make sure they can't fail in their down. This teacher always says, "Make it so your dog has to be right."

Steeper Better?

Wyatt has some great A-Frames last night - the best the teacher had ever seen. That was after we raised the A-Frame to USDAA height (or close to it). I am wondering if steeper is better. I will try it at home. Getting rid of our "slider" A-frame with a slippery surface could also be helping....

New A Frame

I set up our new A Frame from MAX 200 and I love it. Wyatt does too. He goes much faster without sliding down. Our old one is too slick. He loves it so much though, that I have to overdrive him if I want him to take a different obstacle. He tends to want to take contacts if there is a choice. I was getting really frustrated with that the other - call offs were doing nothing - but when I shut up and overdirected him with my shoulders he took the series of serpentine jumps in the middle of the course rather than the dog walk and A frame on the outsides.

Babies and Agility

My wife was on a businness trip Saturday but I decided to drive about an hour to catch some agility run thrus. I was a little hesitant because I was not sure I would be able to have someone watch Aidan when I ran. Aidan has a lot of agility aunties but I was not sure if any of his regular aunties would be there. I threw caution to the wind, packed up all the baby and dog stuff (yes, we have a new minivan) and headed on down.

Luckily, there is, believe it or not, another baby named Aidan, who was there with his mom and dad. Sue watched Aidan when I ran and got a portable crib out of her car for us to use. What luck! Actually, there are 2 other couples that do CPE agility that also have new babies. We got to visit and compare notes and also run our dogs. What a great day.

Wyatt ran well besides the usual first A-frame missed contacts. There were snooker, standard, steeplechase, and jumpers courses with some nice challenges. The trick now seems to be running great the first time (just like a trial). There typically will be some challenge I did not anticipate that results in an off course or some other issue. So now I need to be able to get it right the first time. And this is an issue for me and not Wyatt...

Hope you had a great weekend too...

Steeple Chase

We tried our first ever agility steeplechase last night at class. Steeplechase is a USDAA special tournament class. It has jumps, tunnels, weaves, and an A frame and is designed for speed! The course was one designed by our instructor who used it in a at a trial she was judging the week before.

What a blast! You had to do the weaves twice and they were 12 weave poles. There were 2 pinwheels, a tricky lead out, a tunnel A-frame discrimination challenge, and a triple jump at the end. There were also a number of places where you pretty much had to layer jumps. Lots of off course potential near the A-frame and some of the layered jumps.

Wyatt seemed very happy to get back to agility. He still has his sutures but he seems completely heeled and he is no longer trying to scratch them. We had a few problems on our first run. I did not continue forward enough after my lead out pivot and has an awkward tunnel entrance. There was a tunnel (under an A-frame) into a pinwheel and I was stopped dead waiting for him at the pinwheel entrance. But all in all, we had a good, fast run with 1 off-course on one of the layered jumps.

The second run was awesome. No faults and a really fast time! It was exciting to do so well after our injury break. He, by far, has the best run out there including a really good BC with a 15 year veteran handler.

Wyatt the Conehead

Have you seen these e-collars dogs have to wear on their heads so they can't scratch or lick wounds and sutures? It is a clear cone that tapers towards the base, which goes on the dog's neck.

It has been interesting to see Wyatt learn how to cope with his e-collar. At first, he was a real spaz, knocking his head into everything. Stairs were especially difficult. But he quickly learned to slow down and lift his head going up stairs and to also lift his head before jumping on the couch.

Wyatt is getting his stitches off Saturday. I can't wait and neither can he!

Wyatt Seems Off

Wyatt seems off when I try to do a little obedience with him. I think his sutures are itchy. I am going to give him some time off or just quit right away when I see he is not 100% into it.

A Little Training

We mananged to do a little obedience training tonight. Wyatt tried to scratch his stiches when I took his e-collar off so I hjad to put him on leash for a little heeling. We did some dumbbell retrives off leash because they are so high interest I did not have to worry. He really does well after a little time off - very happy, tail wagging, etc...

Can't wait to get the stiches out. I am skipping the agility trial and not even going. I don't know if Wyatt or I would have the bigger problem sitting there watching and not competing! My wife will run our other dog Patriot and I will stay home and watch the baby.

Dog Fight!

Wyatt and Patriot got into and inadvertent dog fight last night. My wife accidentally dropped a book on Wyatt. [They sleep on separate dog beds next to our bed.] He yelped, stood up, and got tangled in his blanket. My wife tried to untangle him and he ended up stepping on Patriot. One or both them must have thought they were under attack and they went after each other. Wyatt got the worst of it (all of it, actually) and sustained a bad cut under his right eye. The vet said he would heal faster and better with stitches so she stitched him up using an injectable anesthetic. One always worried with sighthound and anesthetics but he came out fine. Those e-collars are terrible but we either watch him or have him wear it when we can't watch him. He was very fearful and freaked out yesterday. I just hope he bounces back quickly emotionally and makes up with his "brother". They seem pretty OK with each other but Wyatt is more reserved than usual with Patriot. What a terrible thing to see your beloved pet suffering.

I cancelled him for agility this weekend - a trial I really wanted to do but it is for the best.

Run Thrus

We went to some agility run thrus yesterday. It was tough because we had a busy weekend and had the baby on top on that we went and had a good time. It IS harder to run when you are tired.

Wyatt missed dogwalk and teeter contacts on the first 2 run thrus. The dogwalk and teeter were very low and I think that was the problem. In the third run through, I gave him more verbal and body language support and he was fine. In class and at home, I don't say "Spot and Tip It" anymore and don't give him the finger up (hold it) command. But I think he needs it at trials and in a new setting. That was a good lesson! Another explanation is that he was wired for the first 2 run. But I think it was the former especially since it is very rare that he flies off teeters anymore.

He did great A-frames all day with perfect 2 on, 2 offs. We had some problem with a sharp onside weave entry all day - something to work on. Off side is always much better.

Flip Into Tunnel

I have been working on a "flip" into a tunnel from a contact with Wyatt. His tendancy is to go back up the contact unless I really move towards the tunnel. I was making some progress but getting a lot of "errors" still. One idea I had was to move the tunnel away from the contact until it is more solid. Eventually I want to have a command for this. Right now, I am using body language and the "tunnel" command. To be honest, it seems like "tunnel" does not mean a lot to him at this time.

Balance

I have been thinking about balance in relatonship to our dogs. It is very easy to start trialing every weekend especially, if, like us, you do multiple dog sports. But I have found it is easy to get out of balance - tired, broke, and burned out. I also tend to not pay attention to other areas of my life if I do too much - family, house, money, spiritual, and other non-dog interests.

After Vacation

I was curious how Wyatt would be after taking a week off from obedience. I thought perhaps that he would not be much different since he is pretty enthusiastic overall. Well, he was really super charged and enthused for obedience. So sometime off really did seem to be a good thing. I am going to try and keep him really up by keeping things short and fun and varied.

Vacation

I am on vacation this week but will resume writing next week. We are taking a break from training and just having fun in the Adirondacks...

See you next week...

John and Wyatt

Trust Your Dog (But Not With Dead Mice)

My goal for a recent NADAC trial was to trust my whippet Wyatt to work away from me more. At a trial, when anxiety is higher (for both of us) and when I am looking to qualify, I tend to run him closer to me than I would at home or in our weekly class. As I drove to the trial I wondered what would happen if I have him more space. Would be ran around jumps and tires? Would be break his stay at the start line? Would he blow his contacts?

NADAC has a lot of distance challenges built into their regular (standard) and chances classes. Wyatt did great on his first run of the weekend, which was chances and got the distance challenge fine. In the regular runs Saturday, he got the first distance challenge (a jump and teeter combination) but missed a weave pole distance challenge. We have not, up to now, practiced this much. I seemed to pull him out of the weaves with my verbal admonition to “go weaves”. Looks like I should trust him to do the weaves on his own.

Now I noticed that dogs had been distracted by something in this ring at day. After we missed the weaves and were running the rest of the course, Wyatt suddenly veered away from me and became obsessed with something on the ground. I could not get him to “leave it” and also could not catch him since I did not have his leash. I finally ran back to the finish line to get his leash. As I headed back to him, I saw him urinating in the ring, something he never does. I saw something furry on the ground when I returned and called for the cleanup crew to get the dead mouse off the course. You have to admire his determination on claiming that mouse; sometimes dogs are just dogs. Quite a few people thanked me for finding the distraction.

On Sunday, there was a great opportunity to test my ability to give him space in the tunnelers class, which is a course made up of all tunnels. Many people send a dog through one tunnel and stay at that end as their dog comes out and they direct them to an adjacent tunnel. I wondered if Wyatt would enter the second tunnel if I was way down the other end. This course happened to be a double shot, which means you can do the course a second time, right after you do it the first time, for (hopefully) a second qualifying run.

On the first go around, I gave him some distance, but not as much as I could have. On the second run, feeling confident, I gave him much more space. He did fine without me being close. Even though it was second run he was over a second faster the second time. That definitely showed that I will get faster run if I trust him to work farther way from me.

The last run of the weekend was jumpers, one of our best classes. We needed one more qualifying run to get our elite jumpers title. NADAC has really tightened up the times especially at the elite level. I knew that in jumpers he was really ready to work more at a distance. Sure enough, he did great, and he got his EJC title. So I really learned an important lesson this weekend: trust your dog (but not with dead mice!)

Directed Retrieve (Finally Got It)

It took me a long time to figure out how to signal the correct one of three gloves to retrieve. In this exercise, three gloves are places across the ring in the left corner, middle, and right corner of the back of the ring. You heel your dog to the face the glove the judge specifies (verbally), and send your dog to get the glove. The dog has to retrieve the glove and return to the front of the handler, sit while the glove is taken, and then finish to the handler's side. Anyway, I just could not figure out the best way to tell Wyatt which glove to get. I finally figured out that, for him, I need to put my hand next to the side of his head, and move my hand straight out in the direction of the glove. Sounds simple but it took at least 6 months to get the exact position and movement right.

Teaser

Lots to write about from last weekend but for now just a teaser. The title will be Trusting Your Dog but Not With a Dead Mouse.

Stay tuned.

Distance Challenge

I realized last night that I am still not taking advantage of Wyatt's ability to work at a distance. I can definately have more options working farther away from him. I need to trust that we can do it especially at trials. I have NADAC this weekend and hope to work on it together. I am also planning on doing some good obedience proofing at the trial.

More on Proofing

The other thing I am thinking is that working on attention and motivaton will be a direct benefit to proofing. But I don't think it is enough. Still have to proof.

Practizing heeling today, I must say it is difficult to remove treats and voice at the same time...

The Third Aspect of Proofing

The other aspect of proofing (for traditional obedience) is (not) talking to your dog and being limited by voice and body commands and cues. So, we have three things to proof for:

1) No treats
2) No voice or body extra commands
3) Other dogs/new environment

What I am struggling with is which to do first? Also, if I don't use treats, should I use my voice more? That is my tendency but I think it may not work well.

My plan if to do short stretches with no voice and no treats and slowly increase the times without these reinforcing. Also, during trials, I really need to reinforce between exercises as allowed.

Proofing

I decided to really proof for no food at home and for other dogs at obedience class. Seems like that is more important that exercises right now since he knows most of the them up to and including utility (some, like directed jumping still need work) but has trouble performinh what he knows at trials.

Saturday Rally Excellent

We got our first Rally Excellent leg Saturday but it was not our best permformance. Wyatt seemed really nervous and preoccupied and was doing the world's slowest sits after multiple commands! We also missed the halt, pivot left, halt which has always been a hard one for us. But he did it and besides the one 10 pointer, he did everything. I scratched him in novice B because it seemed like it would be less than fun for both of us. This was our first time in Rally Excellent. I had to remember not to tap my leg which is not allowed in Rally Excellent. I do use that a lot to encourage Wyatt to stay in heel position. The experience reinforces that I have to proof him much more for no treats and for the trial atmosphere. I thought his might be a good location because the obedience and rally was off from the breed show but there was still a lot going on. I can tell Wyatt is stressed when he does the slow (or no) sits and starts looking around. You can just tell that his brain is only 50% available for obedience. Dawn and I also are wondering if Wyatt and Patriot would do better together. I just took Wyatt Saturday for rally and Patriot came later.

Today

We compete in Novice B obedience today and also in our first Rally Excellent class. I hope the judge does not do backup 3 steps! I will have to remember not to pat my leg or clap my hands. You can't do that in Rally Excellent. The trial is small and quiet away from the breed show but is outside. Should be interesting.

I say practicing yesterday that I really needed to cheerlead and act very up between exercises if there were no treats. Even then I saw a degradation in performance (mostly in lagging). Definitely need to work on that.

Treats & Other Dogs

I have been realizing what a bad job I have been doing proofing Wyatt. At class, he gets nervous with the other dogs. Recently, I found I need to lure him with food as we start heeling to really start without a lag. So, without food, our performance suffers. Around other dogs and lots of noise, our performance suffers. I can use food to help with the enviroment but not at a trial. For some reason, the excitement and movement of agility obviates the need for food at trials.

I am going to really work on not using food at home (at least sometimes). For example, when prepping for novice trials, I need to try and get the same performance without food. I do try and wean off before trials somewhat but I have not focused on this enough. And at class, I really need to work on getting his full attention even around other dogs. I need to start with food but try and wean off that over time. It is that or only enter very small, quiet, one ring obedience only trials...

190.5 (Version 2)

This article will be appearing in Front and Finish magazine (I hope).

The Story of Whippet Wyatt and the 190.5

We rescued whippet Wyatt when he was one year old. My wife insisted we get a dog even though I did not want a dog. He had many issues including separation anxiety. He is a very sensitive and anxious dog and has fear issues with other dogs. I am 47 years old and he is my first dog. I knew zero about dogs, whippets, or dog training when we got him.

We went to dog B&B when he was a year and half and had our first agility lesson and took that up when he was two. At two and a half, we started formal obedience training. He has come a long way since our first local obedience lesson when he would nervously and continuously jump up on us or hide between our legs.

By using positive methods I read about and a lot of trial and error, we entered our first obedience match and managed to squeak by with a 173. We trained twice a day for about 15 minutes per session and went to an hour-long class once a week.

At our next few attempts, he started to go down during the long sit and generally needing more proofing. I did not want going down on the sit to become a habit so I stopped competing and retrained it using cones. I was not sure I would ever be able to get past this problem and resigned myself that we might never get a CD. We kept working on novice and I also discovered that he REALLY enjoyed utility and open work especially retrieving, jumping, and scent discrimination so we added that for fun.

We started to compete again and we missed just one thing for a few trials. But I knew we would do pretty well if we put it all together because we were scoring in the 180's if we had qualified.

We went to a really nice obedience only trial in the Worcester, Massachusetts area. We were in the first class, first dog and it was a nice quiet area. I knew taking off that he was really paying attention. We got through all the exercises beautifully and the judge told me we had Q'ed so far. He had stayed with me well with minimal lagging. We got 0 points off on the stand for exam and the recall. I started to think we might even place if we could only make it through the group sits and downs.

He made it through the sit in what was the longest minute of my life. The three-minute down seemed like an hour but he stayed down even though he looked around nervously and kept changing his head position. I knew we had Q'ed but had we placed? I saw a couple of other REALLY good novice A dogs. The judge announced 4th place, then with a score of 190.5, Wyatt of Dodge City for our second CD leg and third place.

The high from the Q and the score lasted for quite some time. I was so proud of him and happy that he had done so well. Wyatt loves to work hard and play hard. He is the kind of dog who diverts his path going out to pee in order to go over an agility jump. He whines to start scent discrimination exercises.

Wyatt now has 16 different titles in obedience, lure coursing, and agility. Not too bad for the rescue dog I did not want. I still tell my wife I am just making the best of a bad situation but she knows better. I love my “190.5” as we call him now.

Exciting, Breakthrough Weekend

We had a breakthrough weekend at a CPE agility trial in Vermont this weekend. Wyatt did not miss a single contact and received 7 out of 8 Q's, placing in each run. On Saturday, we stopped and waited to be released on every contact except one dog walk (he released early from my body motion but was in the yellow zone). Our one NQ was an off course. There were 2 side by side tunnels and he got too far ahead of me to direct him to the correct one. Saturday's snooker had an A-Frame for the number 7 (most valuable obstacle). As I usual do, I tried to avoid the A-Frame but the #6 tire did not have good flow. Since we have finished getting Q's for our championship in Snooker, I decided to go for it and do 3 A-Frames in the opening for the max points and get the final A-Frame on the closing sequence. Wyatt did all 4 A-Frames perfectly (stopping and waiting to be released). One thing he could have done better was drive all the way to the end of the contact so I vowed to work on that Sunday.

Saturday's performance gave me so much confidence that I was able to really work the contacts just like I do in class and at home on Sunday and he really did them just like at class. I am especially happy that he has now gotten 3 standard, level 4 Q's in a row. They have all been clean runs. We used to have a 25% Q rate in standard. The 2 standard courses this weekend were very tough and there were not many Q's. What a confidence boost to feel we can do any standard course! In wildcard (where you make obstacle choices 3 times, I choose the A-Frame and he delivered). I would never have chosen the A-Frame in the past if I could help it.

What a thrill to see those great contacts *finally* at a trial. I have worked on this problem for at least 2 years! I think many people would have given up and I did have moments when I thought of getting another dog. But I persisted, did a lot of NADAC and did a lot retraining. Wyatt is laying at my feet right and I am so proud of him my eyes are starting to water up.

Water Whippet

I never thought Wyatt liked swimming. I used to have to basically drag/throw him in and he did not like that. Yesterday, it was in the upper 90's and I jumped in the river and he came running in after me. I guess it just has to be hot enough.

Driving Into Tunnels

There was an interesting Jackpot (Gamblers) course we did this weekend. There were 3 gambles, one was just a pin wheel and 2 were distance gambles. In both, you had to drive into a tunnel. The first was from a tire, the second straight from a teeter. Even though Wyatt is generally good at distance, we missed both. I think the reason is that he is good at more lateral distance work with jumps and tunnels. This was more going straight ahead, not parallel to the handler. So I set up some courses at home to work on this. We ended up with a Q anyway because there was a lot of time to get points but, in general, every NQ is an chance to work on something that needs work.

CPE Trial

We had a good CPE trial this weekend. Wyatt got 4 of 7 Q's including our first (clean) level 4 standard Q. As we get into level 5 with some level 4, it feels good to be closing in on our C-ATCH (championship). Wyatt finished up his level 5 Snooker so he has 3 games completed with 3 more games to finish and lots of standard Q's. I don't think he has a missed contact all weekend although he is still not performing them as well as he does at home and in class. I had some weave entry troubles with weekend as well as some handling error caused by sleep deprivation from our new baby boy. Aidan was a big hit at the trial. We were very grateful to all those who held him while we ran.

Weaves at a Distance

We recently hit a distance challenge in NADAC that involved weaves, which is something I had not trained. So I set up a little racetrack with jumps on the sides and weaves at each end. If you go one way, you get on side entries and if you go the other way, you get off side entries. Wyatt has always been better off site but he has been progressing on doing weaves on site with this setup. As he gets better, I stay closer and closer to the middle of the course. It was been neat to see the distance and correct entries progress. By the way, he tended to enter between poles 2 and 3 onside previously if I was too far away.

Training Blahs

I have trained Wyatt to open/utility and to the highest levels of agility. I am not sure what to train next. His biggest issue is proofing so I guess that is the answer. That is the hardest thing to train though. I am working on fine tuning a few things: weaves entries at a distance on-side, driving to the 2 on 2 off position. In obedience, I am still working on long sits and drop on recall. How do you keep motivated at home when you have pretty much covered everything?

Wyatt in Rally and Obedience

We went down to the Big E today for rally and obedience. There were a lot of scrathes in OB (Novice B) so I kind of rushed in. Wyatt was pretty distracted. As usual, they put novice next to the aisle in the worst possible place. We did everything OK but was lagging quite a bit and missed some sits. He also anticipated the finish in the recall. We ended up with a 175 not counting the group exercises. He went down pretty quickly on the sit. I then had trouble getting to sit long enough for the down but the judge gave it to us. He seems to want to go down when he is nervous. Kind of funny too. He was on the end during the down and a little bit on the cement and scootched over enough during the long down to get onto the mat. Too bad there are no cuteness points. I felt discouraged but when I saw our score I felt better. We would have Q'ed if not for the sit. I don't think I should show there anymore though; it is just too hard of a place for him.

One ring over in Rally, he did much better. Being able to talk to him makes a huge difference. He got a 91 and his final Rally Advanced leg. I made one handler error that cost us 3 points so he only got 6 points off for some slow/crooked sits.

NADAC Day 3

We ended up having a very good weekend in NADAC. Wyatt completed all his NADAC novice titles as well as Open Regular with a total of 10 qualifying runs. He also received his first Elite Jumpers leg. He placed in every class that he qualified in and received 5 blue ribbons including 3 in regular. His contacts are still not as good as I see at home and in class and he pretty consistent would blow a contact on the first run of the day. That is way NADAC is very good for him right now. I can repeat the contact. Hopefully, he will not always need this first practice run at some point.

I am pretty proud of him. As a dog we rescued 3 years ago as my first dog I have ever trained who has his shares of "issues", he has done quite well...

Wyatt is now:

Whippet Wyatt of Dodge City, CD, RN, SC, NA, NAJ, OAC, OJC, NGC, TN-N, TG-N, WV-N, CL3, CL4-S, CL5-F, CGC “Wyatt”

NADAC Day 2

We had another good day picking up 3 Q's with a placement in each (2 firsts and a third). Wyatt earned his novice weavers title. He Q'ed twice in weavers and once in regular (standard). He missed a contact (A frame) in chances but got the gamble. He missed the a frame again in his first regular run and also the weaves, which were part of the gamble part of regular. We don't practice weaves at a distance much (I will now!) so I was pleased that he actually got through about 7 before pulling out. His last regular run was real good with 2 very good contacts. His A Frame is still not where I want it; he went for 2 on 2 off but still released a tad early. Tomorrow we have 2 touch and go's and 2 regulars so that will be 4 runs to practice our contacts.


Wyatt is now: Wyatt of Dodge City, CD, RN, SC, NA, NAJ, NAC, NGC, OJC, TN-N, WV-N, CL3, CL4-S, CL5-F, CGC

I bought a cool photo of him jumping but I can't scan it on the road but will post it later.

I hope everyone is having a great 4th of July.

Wyatt's Titles

Wyatt earned another title today - Novice NADAC Tunnelers. His titles are now:

Wyatt - Wyatt of Dodge City, CD, SC, NA, NAJ, NAC, OJC, NGC, TN-N, CL3, CL4-S, CL5-F, CGC