This Weekend - Obedience - Saturday Only

Wyatt and I are in Open A again this weekend. WIsh is luck! I also have Patriot entered in Novice B to get ready for the National. Mainly just worked with him on lagging at home.

Practice Last Night - Brace, Novice, and Open

Wyatt and Patriot did so well last night as a brace team! They were super cute too. I MUST get our brace videotaped at the Whippet National. I did pick up a few things such as putting Patriot on the inside when heeling since he lags more. But they did great and it really seems easy if you have 2 well trained dogs to put them together. Hard to get them both to sit straight but I don't think I will be able to fix that completely.

Wyatt did fine with his drop on recall. I had the teacher really crowd him but he took off on "Wyatt, come" everytime. Even though it cost up two CDX legs, I am not sure there is much more I can do besides proofing it in different settings. Hopefully, they were flukes and not a habit. We'll see next weekend.

So Close!

Wyatt did great in Open A yesterday but we missed one thing, enough to NQ. But heeling was very good. I was told he was right with me. I tried really hard to keep my eyes ahead and did pretty well with that but it's hard not being able to see him. Sits were straight with good fronts too. On the drop, I had to call him twice. I thought he may have been looking over in the other ring on the first command. Someone else said a dog barking right then. The judge said she could hear my command though so Wyatt must have. The rest - retrives and broad jump was picture perfect. I think we would have got about a 190. The sits and downs were perfect too. So close! Next time! I may try to proof the drop a little more - the initial come command. The judge raising her hand above his head may be making him nervous. He certainly never does not come at home or in class.

Here's a comment I got from a friend who was watching...

Hi John...

Just wanted to let you know you guys really did a nice job today......keep at it and it'll happen! The more confidence you exude, the less he will lag. My Skyler went from being a lagger to a forger the more we showed. Don't keep looking back at him....just keep going.....he's with you.

His stays were rock solid.....he didn't even fidget. I think he liked watching the Utility going on in the next ring....his ears were forward and his head was moving with the movement in the other ring all during the sit-stay. You guys are sooooo close!


Good luck in your next show!

Open A Tomorrow

Wyatt and I are in Open A first thing tomorrow morning. I am feeling pretty good going in. The only slight worry is a cold floor and not going down all the way for drop on recall or the long down.

Heeling Work

I have been working with Wyatt and Patriot both separately and together as a brace team on heeling. For Wyatt, I am fine tuning and trying to address the places where I lose a few points for lagging, which tends to be on outside turns (either about turns) or a 360 and on "fast." With Patriot, I am working with him everywhere. The technique I am using is the same though. As I am in the turn, quickly get a treat and have it ready at heel position when the turn is completed.

Wyatt's Check Up

Good news. Wyatt got checked out today by our sports vet Julie Roos, DVM and she thought he was doing really well and could go back to agility. She does want me to still reduce his jogging time with me. That was great news. It does seem like he needs a big rest time every winter. I may greatly reduce his jumpers runs and also run his at 16 now that he is a veteran.

NADAC Agility Brag

Wyatt was the #1 NADAC agility whippet last year, getting #1 in 3 classes. You get 10 points for every qualifying run at the elite (like AKC excellent) level and you need at least 30 points to be even on the list. Here are the complete whippet results.

Whippet Jumpers 80 1 Wyatt John Heffernan
Whippet Jumpers 40 2 Hugo Kiely Grundahl
Whippet Jumpers 30 3 Patriot Dawn Heffernan

Whippet Regular Agility 30 1 Wyatt John Heffernan

Whippet Tunnelers 140 1 Wyatt John Heffernan

Lagging

Looking at our recent run thru scores for open obedience, we lost 6 1/2 on heeling, 1/2 on drop on recall, 1/2 on retrieve on flat, 1/2 on retrieve over jump, and 1 on broad jump. So I have been trying to reduce lagging on the heeling. I have been luring with cheese on all the different kind of outside turns to try to get him speeded up on those turns. That's where we lose most of our points. He also seems to lag on "fast" at run thrus and trials. My thought is to try and get speed on the turn and get that into his muscle memory.

Very Good Run Thru

Wyatt and I had a great run thru Thursday night. We qualified with a score of 190.5. We lost 6-7 points in heeling for lagging and a few 1/2 points off for fronts and finishes here and there. Sits and stays were perfect. It was one of the coldest days of the year so I did use a little mat for the long down. This gives me a lot of confidence going into our 3 upcoming trials.

Barking Before Gloves

I am getting tons of barking at the start of the Utility Directed Retrieve (aka Gloves) exercise. I can't quite figure out why. I have a feeling this will not be a problem in trials but I would still like to work on it. My guess is that the gloves are his favorite article to to retrieve due to the fact that they can be a moving white object (I frequently throw them low on the mats to get him pumped up.) Anyway, I think the frustration of having to sit twice before the retreive may be frustrating for Wyatt. Not sure how to work on this yet. I tried waiting until he stops to start and using his oops word but that did not seem to do much, at least in the short run. Any ideas appreciated!

Too Smart

I've been trying leaving the cellar door open so the dogs can hang out in front of the wood stove when we are out instead of being stuck in the basement which is colder. We have a baby gate in front of the pantry. The pantry can be a mischief area. Wyatt has been known to find goodies in there, like flour, which be enjoys taking to the living room rug and tearing apart. I secured the cabinets under the kitchen sink with a rubber band. That is where we keep the trash. Well, the dog walker arrived to find the trash all over the kitchen floor. He called me and suggested that we secure the door. I guess he did not see the broken elastic dangling from the cabinet knobs. Wyatt is just too smart. I am sure he saw this as an interesting challenge.

Barking To Be Let In

Wyatt, as far I can remember, has also barked to be let in the house. He is quite quick to bark when he is ready to come in, especially in the winter, when he must set records for quickest to do his business. Patriot, on the other hand used to never barked to be let in. Finally, at the age of 7, he has learned to bark to be let in the house. I am not sure if he finally learned it from Wyatt or if comes from the time I forgot him for about an hour in the cold weather and he started to try different things. He now will bark after a while - though not immediately like Wyatt - to be let in. I guess a old dog can learn some new tricks!

Fine Tuning

I have been fine tuning some things with heeling and with the drop on recall (DOR.) I am trying hard to get the really good DOR the first time. I am also trying to get better speed. Wyatt really anticipates the drop if I only practice DOR. So I have been trying to do a regular recall without a drop most of the time and only do a DOR maybe 25% of the time. It seems to be helping. I have been having trouble getting a full down in the colder weather at times. I probably should not even try on the colder days.

I am trying to look ahead more heeling and use my periperal vision. I found that I do need to look back to get a straight halt but I am trying to not look back until the "judge" says "halt." I have a bad habit of looking back on the "fast", which I am trying to break. I also spent a lot of time doing retrieve on flat and retrieve over jump side by side. I use a different command for each one. There is a danger of him taking the jump if the ROF throw is off or not taking the jump if is the ROJ throw is off. I'll continue trying to work on it but the best thing will be to have straight throws, which I usually do.

Brace

I had blast trying brace for the first time tonight and hope to compete in it at the American Whippet Club National although there is a potential conflict between agility and obedience. The heeling and halts need work. Patriot lags behind Wyatt heeling and they sit funny but they basically could do everything fine the first time. I love the recall. Wyatt gets right off the line and jerks Patriot into starting! What a riot. I'll have to video it sometime. I hope I can compete someday.

Heeling - Eye Contact Versus Painting a Line

I did not in the video a few things. Some folks also pointed them out to me in email. One thing I am thinking about is how much to go for eye contact and how much to "paint a line" for the dog by looking straight ahead. It can cause lagging when you look back at your dog. Typically, I will look back when doing an inside turn and when coming to a halt. I believe it actually helps on the inside turn because I want my dog to slow down. I look at my dog's rear end, basically. I do have the bad habit of looking back on fast too. I am trying to look about 2 feet ahead and to not look at Wyatt on the halt until we have actually halted. So far, these changes do seem to help though he forges a bit on the halt now since I am not slowing him down by looking back.

Open A Match Video

This is from yesterday. Best part was Wyatt nailed his sits and downs again! I was very happy with this overall. I will proof throws that are off a bit more. Not sure about the initial jump when heeling. I could not even get him to look at the jump at home last night even when heeling inches away. I probably needed better contact initially at the start line. We also do better if I have eye contact initially.

Whippets Howling and Wyatt Listening to Aidan

Wyatt's Checkout

We visited Julie Roos, DVM yesterday. Julie specializes in Sports Medicine for dogs. She found some problems in Wyatt's back and especially pelvis. Last time, it was more of a back issue. So he is on rest for 2 weeks and partial rest after that. She also recommended glucosamine and massage. Last time, rest meant no agility and jumping, but she thinks this is more due to the daily runs and the long sits so those are out for a while. He can get a daily walk of 10-15. Wyatt hates the cold anyway so it should not be too hard. We go back in early February to see where he is at. She said I caught it early this time, which is a good thing.

Scent Discrimination

We have been socked in with snow and cold. Wyatt does not like to go out in the cold much so I have been doing 3 training sessions a day instead of the usual 2 t keep him with something to do. Lots of run thrus and classes have been cancelled too.

Something interesting I noticed with scent discrimination. On the first article, he seems to sniff all all of them, including the correct one without any indication on the correct one. He then makes a second pass and gets the correct one. It would seem that he is making sure he has the correct one. For the second article, he only makes one pass and stops on the correct one and retrieves it,

I am thinking of starting to train brace for our national specialty. I need to buy one of the those coupler collars. It should be a hoot!

Dogs Off

The dogs seem off due to the ice storm and lack of power. They also had a fight over a huge hunk of cheese they somehow got the other day. Wyatt cut a small cut right above his eye, which is too close for comfort. I should have anticipated the issue as I did see Patriot digging up the cheese and flaunting his ownership of it by running around "proudly" with it in his mouth with Wyatt watching. I was not sure what it was initially and thought it was something out of the compost. I am trying to get back into our usual routines with them, which should help. I am sure they are picking up our increased stress levels as well.