Sick

Last week, Dawn took Patriot to obedience class. He was very sluggish and unenthusiastic. He felt discouraged and was wondering if she could continue with him and she was even talking about retiring him. I got to thinking about the day and asked her is she fed the dogs when she got home. I usually get home first and feed the dogs. Sure enough, the dogs were double fed. We then noticed that Patriot had diarrhea and was vomited for a few days. Just goes to show you to rule out physical problems first when things seem to be going wrong. Wyatt did great, even double fed. His drive is strong. He did go down on his long sit though at 2 1/2 minutes, which MAY have something to do with a full stomach.

NADAC Results

Wyatt and I had a couple of heartbreakers Sunday. First, we had a great Elite Chances run. It was jump to weaves to start. He missed the weave entry but I was able to send him back. He then went out to a bunch of jump and then a switch to a tunnel. We have been working on sending out to tunnels at home. I was so happy that we got our first Elite Chances Q but later found out we did not Q. The judge said when I sent him back to the weaves, he must have stepped over the line with all 4 paws. We had a great weavers run, the first time with no restarts. Again, I thought we had Qed but were over by 3 seconds. They were not his fastest weaves but I did not say anything to speed him up afraid he would pop out. We also had great contacts in our first regular run (I got ahead of him and was able to control the dogwalk release.) Check out the video which shows the dogwalk issue very well. I can try to get ahead of him but also need a way to control the release when I am behind him.

NATCH-3 V-NATCH

This is my friend David May who earned a NATCH-3 and Versatility NATCH yesterday.  Very impressive.  They are a great team. 

NADAC Today

We had a good day today with the exception of the dogwalk.  Wyatt got 2 Qs in tunnelers and jumpers with 2 second places.  I ran Patriot and got 3 Qs in regular, tunnelers, and jumpers.  I also ran Wyatt in a practice Hoopers run trying out some new things.  Hoping for a better dogwalk tomorrow.  I went back for our first run and walked him off twice after that.  On our last Touch and Go run, we missed a discrimination challenge and missed the dogwalk.  Too bad as we had 2 excellent A frames.  Jumpers and tunnelers rocked.  Our last regular run was great too but we missed the second to last dogwalk.  

Down Idea

I was the only person at Open Class last night and discussed Wyatt's down issues with Tibby Chase.  I was thinking that maybe I should teach a fully rolled over down and I was initially very excited about this idea.  But then thinking about how nervous Wyatt is, I wondered if this would be feasible around other dogs.  Tibby agreed and suggested that I train Wyatt to fold in one paw and sit with one hip rolled over.  This would make it harder to get up that his current very alert sphinx position.  We started working on it with success and I am hopeful that this will be helpful.  To get the hip rolled, you don't roll it but you gently apply pressure to his rear side.  Initially I will do this training on a mat.  I may also have him looked at by a sports vet who has helped us in the past.  I believe that Wyatt wants to do the right thing but has a lousy build that sometimes gets in the way.  

After that, we did a quick run through which Wyatt aced with what would have a scores in the 190s.  I believe if we can fix the sit, that we can make it through Open pretty easily.  His sit is not 100% but is pretty solid at this point.  

Go Ahead

I have been working with Wyatt with agility go ahead.  I believe we are making progress.  I got some really good distance today but pushed it too far and he lost enthusiasm a bit so I broke off.  I am working on go ahead when I am moving and even from a stationary position.  

OB Class Last Night

We had a good class last night.  There was a lot of distraction and discrimination training.  Tibby had us do recalls and drop on recalls with the dumbbell in or close to the dog's path.  Wyatt had no trouble with this and had very good recalls and drops all night.  He had an awesome 3 minute out of sight sit but came up on his down twice.  We have had more trouble with that lately than the sit.  Just can't figure it out.  

Need Agility Class Again?

I am wondering if we need to be in agility class again.  I dropped in last night and we did OK but I saw other dogs had made more progress.  My biggest goal now is to be able to send Wyatt ahead much more so we can get Elite Chances Qs in NADAC.  You need 13 to get a championship. We came very close once but have trouble sending ahead long distances.  Our local class does not focus much on this but I need to work with Wyatt somewhere on this.  I did set up something at home but we are not doing that much agility.  Time to at least work on this at home.  I need to think up or get some ideas for working on this too.  There is a local person who specializes in this.  Maybe time for a private lesson!  

Downs

Wyatt did well on sits and downs last night in class though we could not really get out of sight, we were out of the ring.  He did turn to face me.  This morning though, he kept coming up right away on his down.  I finally got a 3 minute in sight down.  I can kind of predict when this will happen because he goes down very reluctantly.  I wonder if he is tired or sore or tight when this happens.  Of course, I want him to be reliable no matter what (unless there is a serious physical issue).

Quick Update

After having a perfect day Saturday after little sleep and going 0 for 6 NADAC agility Q's, we had a good day Sunday getting the long sought last Elite Regular Q for Wyatt's Elite Regular title.  He also earned his Elite Tunnelers Outstanding title (10 Q's)  and also picked up his 11th Elite Jumpers Q. Patriot picked up one AKC LC point today, which qualifies him for the American Whippet Club CAVX title - Champion Award of Versatility Excellent, which is earned about once every 4 years by a dog.  

Same thing?

I had the same thing happen with out of sight downs with Wyatt the last few days where it seemed to fall apart just as Drop on Recall did a few days ago.  Seems to be back again.  Interesting.  I can't explain it.

We have a NADAC agility trial Saturday and Sunday where we can camp with the family and some lure coursing Monday for Patriot.  

Drop on Recall BacK?

Wyatt did a great drop on recall on the first attempt this morning.  Hopefully, that is fixed.  Funny how things can fall apart and come back together.  

Drop Fell Apart

For some reason, Wyatt's Drop on Recall has fallen apart.  He seems confused.  He is not dropping, especially the first time, not starting the recall, and/or anticipating the drop.  I am going back to basics and lots of treats for each part, and using my hand and/or moving in for the (first especially) drop.  No worry but he was doing so well before this.  

Offline

I will be mostly offline for about a week.  Have a great week with your training!

New Titles and A Thrill Ride of a Lifetime

We have some new titles to report. Seven year old Patriot received his WRA CRX title last weekend. He worked hard on that and was always a solid C racer and one of the fastest bench champions around here. We remarked last weekend that we would love to see more bench champions doing WRA and NOTRA racing in New England. It tends to be the same 4 of us. It was kind of sad to see what may be his last race. He also finished a bunch of NADAC agility titles this weekend earning his Novice Hoopers, Open Regular, and Elite Jumpers Skilled titles.

Wyatt earned a very difficult title yesterday. It was the NADAC Elite Jumpers Outstanding title. This takes ten qualifying runs at the Elite level. NADAC elite times are very difficult to make. This is roughly equivalent to the AKC MJX title.

Yesterday, I had one of the biggest thrills of my life with him in tunnelers. He got very excited seeing the IG Gabe running tunnelers before him and he was super fast, even faster than usual. He had a blazing fast time, perfect clean run, and worked great at a distance going at top speed and checking in quickly at the end of each tunnels for my command for the next tunnel to take. He reached 6.67 yards per second, which is a national level time for any breed. It was quite a ride. Thanks Wyatt and Patriot.

Their full names are now:

Patriot - C-ATCH Ch Seaspell's Concord Point, CAV, RA, SC, OA, OAJ, CD, OAC, EJS, OCC, TG-N, TN-N, WV-N, HP-N, CRX, OTR, CGC

Wyatt - C-ATCH Wyatt of Dodge City, AV CD, RAE, SC, NA, NAJ, OAC, EJC-O, OCC, TG-N, TN-E, WV-O, HP-N, CGC


See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPOBkVQVZ0I for some tunnelers runs for Wyatt. Too bad I did not tape yesterdays tunnelers run.



John and Dawn Heffernan

Plugging Away

I am plugging away with Wyatt's obedience training and we are doing sit and downs at least on alternate days.  Occasional mistakes but overall pretty good.  We did a little agility last night in preparation for a NADAC trial this weekend.  Patriot finished his Companion Racer Excellent title last weekend. 

Broad Jump - Left Side

We hear that the AKC is likely to allow the judge to specify that the handler stand on the left (new) or right (old) side of the broad jump.  We tried it in class for the first time.  Wyatt seemed confused and walked over the boards the first few times.  I practiced at home and now he seems fine.   It is interesting how a different visual picture will be very different to our dogs even though logically to us, it is the same thing.  

Tracking Sunday

Wyatt did a pretty hard track Sunday of 400-500 yards with 4-5 turns.  In other words, it was a regulation TD track.  I did use 4-5 articles though.  I tried treating out of my pouch but he got distracted with that.  I am going to go back to putting treats in the articles.  I see no advantage to treating from the pouch anyway.  Seems better to just reduce the number of (baited) articles slowly and/or leave some unbaited and just praise him.  I am getting better at reading him and am working of trusting him more even if he appears to be drifting off.  He seems to drift back.  I can tell by his head movements if he is on the track.  Corners are harder to read.  That is the next task.  

Training Log

I have started to keep a log for sits and downs.  I am hoping to see some patterns.  Wyatt has been pretty good lately with an occasional failure.  Right now, I am doing 1 minute out of sight sits and 3 minutes out of sight downs successfully.  

The Next Generation