Tracking Sunday

Here is Wyatt's track from Sunday. He did pretty well once we got going. I do need to start reading him more and reading the track less. He does tend to go off track and I need to recognize what he does when he goes off the track rather than reading my map or seeing the track itself and stopping to let him get back on. He found once turn very nicely, which I had lost track of. This field is narrow and I forgot to leave a good escape route and he picked up my scent from walking back after laying the track at one point. Wyatt followed the whole track and found all the articles. He seems to really like it because he gets very excited before we start.

Check In

I have been working with Wyatt (and Patriot) but not writing much. No big insights or competitions. We do have a NADAC trial in 2 weeks. I hope to be able to squeeze in an obedience trial or 2 in the fall. I am running out of room in yard to work distance with Wyatt (unless I can think more creatively) and Wyatt's go outs have been fantastic. I should try those outside and add the directed jump part in before he gets to used to coming back directly to me. I am also trying to ramp up my sits and downs training as I have been a little lax lately and I know from experience that we need to always be working on that.

Running Out of Room

I feel like I am running out of room in our yard with Wyatt. My main focus in agility now is distance work for NADAC Elite Chances. He is doing great but I may need to drop in on our local agility classes or rent a ring to get the distance we need.

Vacation

I have been on vacation at the beach for the last week and a half and have done minimal dog training, just a little obedience here and there.

Go Outs

After working on the utility go out command for many years - off and on, Wyatt is really starting to get good at it. It was quite exciting to see him get it finally. I started putting cheese wiz on a gate. That part is no problem. Then I tell him to sit while he is still licking the cheese. Then I go up to him and tell him to sit. After he sits, I go back and tell him to come. So I gradually fade the cheese and the going out to him to tell him to sit and he gets it. He will still sometimes go down instead of sitting. I have no clue why he would do that.

Tough Day!

I was really looking forward to a NADAC agility trial this weekend. I have to really pick and choose my dog weekends now with a 3 year old. Friday night, Patriot was throwing up. He is a master at getting into the trash and compost. Saturday morning, he did not eat so I was wondering if he would be up for running agility. Sure enough, his first run was really bad so I ended early. I scratched him for his next run and he later ran 2 runs. No Q's but we had some good runs. Wyatt and I had some dogwalk issues so did not get our standard (regular) runs, which we need for his NADAC agility championship. We had a great tunnelers run where he did not look back at me at all and we got a Q and a 4th with a speed of 4 yards per second. We also had a great Weavers run. Weavers has tunnels and 3 sets of 12 weave poles. It is really hard to make time at the Elite level. You can't have a single mistake and the weaves have to be fast. We had 3 great weave entries and I sped him up in the weaves as much as I could without pulling him off. We ended up getting a Q and a first place over some really fast dogs. One more Q for our elite weavers title.

I was really looking forward to Sunday but Wyatt came up lame after our first Touch and Go run where we really worked the dog walk. He did great but came off lame. I scratching him and weavers but he was still lame later so we have to scratch 5 runs and I also scratched Patriot's 3 others runs and headed home. I just hate to see Wyatt lame and limping! We rested him up and were ready for bed so I went to let them out around 9:30. As soon as I opened the door, Wyatt left off the top of the back stairs and went barking and running full speed towards the side woods and fence. Patriot followed. We heard some "screams" and ran out as fast as we could with pepper spray and flashlights. There was Patriot with 6 quills in his face and Wyatt with about 30 quilss looking very shell shocked. He was also holding up his injured paw. Pathetic! Dawn removed the 6 quills from Patriot and I drove Wyatt 15 minutes to the emergency 24 hour vet hospital. They had a critical case so I had to wait a long time. They put him under and took out the quills and did not see anything but a slight limp. I got home around 1 to find Aidan wet so I had to change his sheets. He was not too happy to have to wait for his bed.

We are doing better today. Wyatt is very mellow and resting up. I think he will be fine. Quite a day! Wish those porcupines would stay on their side of the fence. We use deer fence so once in a great while they will climb up a fence tree and wander off. Patriot got quilled before but this was Wyatt's first. He is a such a kamikaze!

Wyatt Injured!

Wyatt came up lame after our first run today. He did not get better after some rest so I left the trial. Very disappointing! I could feel a good day coming on. He got all 3 contacts on the first run. Could not see any inflammation so I suspect it will get better quickly. This was my one time this month I could do agility so it's hard to have to leave. Hope he gets well soon. I hate to see him limping.

NADAC Day 1

Only 2 Qs for Wyatt today and none for Patriot. Patriot was vomiting the night before and did not eat Saturday morning so I was wondering if he would want to run. His first run was way off - super slow so I ended early and scratched him for the next run. He was OK in tunnelers but 1 second over time. His last Touch and Go run was a little wild and had a number of off courses. He seems fine this morning (Sunday) so he should be OK today.

Wyatt and I had some dog walk issues all day. He was also stalling on the A Frame above the yellow zone quite a few times where I have to coax him down. Oh, to have the same perfect contacts at trials that we have at home and in class! The A frame we can manage but he had a number of contact faults on the dog walk. He seems to need a number of different supports at trials for a good dog walk and if I forget one of them, all bets are off. I need to slow down, to call him and get his attention, point to the end, and be really smooth and steady walking at the end or he jumps off when I move quickly. This is exacerbated when he is more keyed up like yesterday.

Chances was impossible. Hopefully, today's course will be doable by mere mortals. I used a slingshot start in one of the standard courses which helped me get enough time to cue him for an initial dogwalk/tunnel discrimination challenge. Also got some good distance in standard. Had a great tunnelers run (6 YPS) where he did not look back at all but keep reading me and moving forward at all times. Weavers was also very nice with no entry (and hence reentry issues.) I hope we made time as that was the last run of the day and I did not stay to check.

Wyatt and Patriot Stacked

New Photos

Wyatt was in the woods with me hanging out and I shot these photos of him. I was on the ground taking photos of something else at the time so they are shot in an upwards direction, giving some interesting angles and looks.

Chances Class

Wyatt got a tuneup yesterday from Dr Julie Roos and was primed to run! He did great on a hard chances course. I did have to step over the line a little bit to get him out to a distant tunnel. Will have to practice that. We had a problem Sunday with an otherwise great chances run with a A-Frame to a jump with the line (you can't cross) perpendicular to the A-Frame. We tried something similar last night with a dog walk and figured out the problem. I have a persistent tendancy to swing my arm way back before a send out arm motion. This has the effect of pulling Wyatt back instead of pushing him forward. He is following the line I am drawing. So I have to work very hard at starting my arm motion from my leg and not cocking my arm backwards. So I am glad I am doing 3 followup Chances classes. I think I have the techniques but still need someone to observe me and fix the things I am doing wrong.

Article on Wyatt

http://www.recorder.com/story.cfm?id_no=6410560

It's only partial and only has one of the photos but...

I'll try and post the full text and other photo soon.

On the Fly

I believe I am getting much better at reacting and adjusting on the fly in agility. This has taken me a long time. I have tended to have a plan and found it difficult to adjust as things happen, speeds are different than expected, etc. Part of it is being more relaxing and part is working together for 5-6 years. I must say, it makes a huge difference in saving runs and generally fixing things on the fly. I believe this is a super important skill but one rarely talking about or discussed. This has been especially key in contacts where I really have to stay in contact and adjust as needed depending on what I am seeing. For a long time, I tried to just do what I do at home and see what happened. Now, I can adjust my pace, position, words on the fly depending on what I am seeing.

Great Weekend

Tracking

Wyatt did pretty well tracking on Wednesday. He whined to start and clearly enjoys the game. The track started out in really tall grass so the scent was easy to follow and he loved bounding through the tall grass. I had to really move to keep up with him. When he loses the track, he looks to me for direction. I need to help/encourage him to get back on track myself. Sometimes, if I can see or otherwise know where the track is, I can inadvertently point in that direction, which is no good for tracking. Unlike most of our other dog sports, he is in charge here.

Top 10 Training Tips

See this link for an article I wrote for an online whippet magazine...

Top 10 Whippet Training Tips

Agility

Only 2 Q for each dog this weekend at a NADAC trial. Lots of good runs Saturday but off by one thing or the other. I felt out of synch with Wyatt Sunday but we did redeem ourselves and got 2 nice jumpers Qs, one for each dog, at the end of the day. Wyatt and I had a few small stumbles with Weavers Sunday but still were only 2 seconds over so I think there is hope for some elite Weavers Qs. I am working on not overhandling the weave entrances and trusting more. I picked the wrong test for hoopers for both dogs and passed the plane but did not stop and redo. In tunnelers with Wyatt, I stopped my flow/movement and stopped him and got an off course. Chances Saturday was next to impossible. Sunday was doable but had a problem with one part of the course. Had the same problem Monday at class (we did the same course). I set something up at home and made some progress tonight. Wyatt is doing great on tunnel/contact discrimination though I had a problem Sunday where I handled the same and he took the outer obstacle. Will have to study the video. He may need a stronger cue in the trial setting. Off with Aidan for a few days - no dogs so they get a break. Will do obedience tomorrow. I think my work with sit and down stays rewarding for shorter periods and for going away and out of sight is working.

Novice B Today

We had a good day. I scratched Wyatt in Open A for today figuring I need his sits and downs in Novice B to be solid before going back to Open A. Novice has a 1 minute in sight sit and a 3 minute in sight down. Open has the much harder 3 minute out of sight sit and the 5 minute out of sight down. Wyatt did fine in the sits and downs today (in sight.) Yesterday, he "froze" on the initial "come" command of the recalls. Today, he was fine and did a very nice recall with only 1 point off. His heeling was pretty good but he did not do the automatic sit part of the heeling. When you come to a halt, the dog is supposed to sit in heel position. He did not do a single one! This is typically a sign of stress or a busy location. We ended up with a 186, which is a very good score. He seemed a lot less stressed today and I also felt more relaxed. The judge was also very nice and mellow. This gives me more confidence to get back to Open though I need to continue some of the retraining I am doing for sits and downs. More on that later.

Obedience Results

Well, the good part was that a lot went right despite the location of the Big E Better Living Center, which is a very hard place to show since it is very noisy with breed going on all around and lots of traffic. Heeling was not as good as usual (not a single sit in Novice B) but other than that and sits and downs and recalls, all was good. His Open A retrieves and broad jump were very nice with few, if any, points off. He did have problems with sits and downs and also froze on the first recall command in both novice B and Open A. He was fine on the second command. The Novice B sit was good. He started to move his front paw down at the end but held the sit. He got up on the down and followed me and stayed in a perfect stand for the 3 minutes. In Open A, he repositioned and resat for the sit. The judge said he went down and sat up but I think she must have been referring to the repositioning. For the long down, out of sight, he stood up just as we were going out the door and again, stayed in a perfect stand until I returned. I have some thoughts about what happened but save that until my next blog entry.

Dog Memory

Walking around the Big E today, I noticed that Patriot had stopped to sniff someone and was wagging his tail and seemed very happy. When I looked up at the face, I saw it was his first owner, who had him until he was 2. He is now 8. We very rarely see this person but it was really clear that he remember on his own since I did not see the person and go up to her. Anyway, she petted him and goofed around with him and it was clear that he made the connection.