Online K9 Dogs, Training, Joys, Frustration and Life

So, I’m taking an online class on VIN on the topic of Mindfulness Meditation. The idea is that if you can be mindful, and in the minute, your mind is clear to make better decisions. For DVM’s the concept is better diagnosis by being present, and totally attentive and aware with a patient. We spend so much time doing partial attention to many tasks, that we don’t bring our mental best to the game.

I was thinking about this, and part of the reason I enjoy training my dogs so much is its the dog and me, and once i get focused we are having fun together, giving each other 100%. I’d like to do this in more areas of my life, like my work, or my competition.  A lot of my work, I have to really pay attention and make sure everything is edited perfectly… me I tend to get snowblind and not see the errors.

One assignment for this week was to try doing a simple task, like eating or taking a shower in a mindful way. Shower! I can do that, its not complicated, I can totally focus. Ha!

Yes, feel the water, its nice and hot, and I wonder how that afghan would look knit up in the Kuryeon in the basement, oh a thought, supposed to ignore it, don’t judge it… back to the shower, or maybe I could start that scarf while I watch a video, oops…. back to mindful.. and I have to remember to send that kid an email, and I wonder if the MSPCA would like the dog’s old collars they’re still in good shape, oops.. mindfulness. This mindfulness will be so good for me, like when we’re in the ring, and I really should work articles today with Merlin, and I have to remember to pack the rally signs, oops…..  I feel like Dug the dog in Up!, thinking along then “Squirrel!”…

This mindfulness is going to take some practice……

Hawke has been retired, and un-retired so many times I can’t keep track… but this weekend she did me proud and now is retired from one thing.

She only does APDT Veterans anymore, no regular rally, no UKC, no AKC.. No obedience but CDSP which she loves

This weekend Hawke earned her ARCHEX – APDT rally champion extraordinaire… 10 double q’s , qualifying in both level 2 and 3 at the same trial, score over 195, 10 times.. this has taken 2 1/2 years to achieve.  Mostly because the 4 minute limit , for Hawke, in level 3 is hard.  As is drop on recall, signals, and backing up be it at my side or in front of me.  But on September 16th, she did it, finished her ARCHEX with a 204 and a 204, good scores, not squeekers!!

I am so proud, so pleased, as I said when she got her CD, “I could not ask for more” -   She’s never been an obedience dog, she’s like Sinatra “I did it my way”, all the time, but what a good dog, what a willing to please dog she has been.  “Ok, my mom likes this rally game, and really , the treats are pretty good”, ” i guess i could do it for mom”

Well thank you Hawke, Miss LadyHawke, Burri’s LOFTY LadyHawke, URO-1, ARCHEX ,CD,BN, RE,THD, CD-CCH,TDIRVA,RLVX12,RL1X4,RL2X5,RL3X,CSL-1,CSL3-F CGC,CC

She is a pretty amazing labrador…. the titles don’t tell it all, ask any kid who has read to her… ask any of her repeat readers….

or just ask me, I can go on and on and on about her all day… My Hawker Blocker..

This will be interesting.  APDT Rally is going to USDAA.   World Cynosport APDT Rally for a transitional name.  An interesting mix, as USDAA has the highest level of agility competition, and some competitors who to my mind take it all waaaaay too seriously.  APDT rally is in my opinion the higher form of rally, not that its more competitive, but there are longer behavior chains involved, and trickier tasks to accomplish. Anyone who knows me, knows its my favorite flavor of Rally Obedience.

There are concerns already in cyberland, that USDAA is uber competitive and they’ll ruin APDT Rally.  “THEY” can’t ruin “it” because “It” is US!.  Much of what APDT rally is, is the camaraderie and spirit of the rally competitors.  Some folks worry that Rally will be competitive.  For some of us it is already.  I love having the top Veteran in the country, I’m proud of her.  Am I disappointed when we don’t succeed? only if it was my fault, that I missed a sign, or I cued her wrong.  Its never her fault.  Even when she stops to bow and stretch before sitting.  That’s who she is.

Competition is not a bad word – if we didn’t care at all about competition, we wouldn’t enter dog shows and try and earn titles. Period.

But there is  a line, where it becomes all about competition, being the best, and being self involved in success rather than cheering everyone along that can be worrisome, and that might be the worry behind this announcement.  There is the ubercompetition perception of USDAA.  I don’t believe that the APDT rally world will become that way.  WE are rally, we aren’t going to wake up half way through the transition and stop being the happy bunch of rally competitors we’ve always been.  We’re still going to encourage the 1A folks, and cheer for the juniors and pre-juniors and have a heart smile watching those veterans.

And of course we’re competitive – just watch the fuss when the National Rankings come out, we love to see our friends in the rankings, we cheer on those top teams in New England, we good naturedly poke ourselves about being one spot higher or lower than a friend.  We just don’t take it all that seriously.  We keep dog competition in perspective.  Its fun we have with our canine best friends, with our human friends, and their canine best friends.

It’s a dog show, its not going to lower the price of gas or bring world peace.

I for one am glad APDT rally has a new home.  It will be the best home that we can make for it.  There is no “they” there is only us.

and WE are Rally!

Waiting on the laser, should be here Tuesday.  Found our van ramp so no more jumping in and out of the Raptor Van.  Took Kestrel heeling Wednesday afternoon.  10 Minutes, she can walk for 10-12 min a day so we heeled instead.  She LOVED it, felt like she was back in the ring, like she was WORKING!!!

working: something for a busy dog to do besides pulling books off the bookshelves and destroying them.

Kestrel feels like she doesn’t get out much (It is true, she hasn’t) so she goes a little nuts when getting out, making chimpanzee noises, grunting and squeaking and greeting everyone.

This week, she got to heel, she went to school to be a “victim” for the first year students to demonstrate restraint for cephalic, jugular , or lateral saphenous venipuncture (no veins were actually punctured) ..  Then on Sunday Kestrel went to a rally trial, heeling is walking and Vets and Level 1 APDT have no jumps, so she did 3 classes, getting safely in and out of the van on her ramp.   Should I trial a dog with an injury???, ordinarily  NOT, but the tasks she had to complete were no more difficult than a PRECISE walk in the park, so we went for it.

No physical harm done, and for miss little “PICK ME’, “PICK ME”, this was an opportunity to be back in the old groove, no physical demands but GREAT mental satisfaction for dog and handler…..

I post with great trepidation, that others might think trialing is OK while healing.  Heeling while healing is often not ok, but if the tasks being asked are no harder than the prescribed activity, why not throw in a bit of a venue be it match, show and go, or venues where there can be modifications for disability… even a small training session WITHIN the bounds of prescribed treatment, can do a lot for a performance dog who is so used to trialing and training.

Keep them safe, but find stimulation for the rest of the dog.

Tough to spell, tough to heal!

It’s a muscle that has it’s origin in the spine and it’s insertion in the Ilium, the hip bone.  It basically attaches a dog’s spine to the femur.  In humans if you hurt this, its called a groin pull.  It is deep, under many other layers of muscle, and hard to heal.

Kestrel had her first iliospoas injury in Aug/Sep 2011.  She was coming back from a TPLO, doing lots of training, working up through progressive jump heights, entered an obedience trial at American K9 Country and refused the jump.   Many times, folks would say, go home and train your dog. proof your dog.  This dog was trained, proofed, loves to work , loves to jump – refusal to jump is an issue.  A physical issue in her.

We saw a veterinary specialist, diagnosis, iliopsoas strain.. we did PT, progressive training.  Went to a match in Jan 2012, she did her 2 jumps and a broad jump for open and couldn’t get back in the van…. could not jump….  sigh… lots of rest , PT, a jan/feb/march of falling down the stairs and getting reinjured… we carpeted the stairs, that helped

In Kestrel, it is subtle, she has a hitch in her gitalong when she gets up from a rest….  after PT sometimes she is 3 legged, quantity 8 of slow 4 inch jumps  in the backyard and she’s lame…. xrays, vet, vet, pt, back to the specialist, ILIOPSOAS… sigh..

talking to a PT, it takes 442 days to heal a human muscle strain (and no I don’t know how they figured that out) and dogs are quicker.. but not 3 or 4 months of rehab.

So Kestrel is on a plan…  home laser treatments for inflammation, (yeah, no Rimadyl)  and then slow strengthening.  There is a great article in Clean Run about these injuries but not a detailed treatment plan.  I am hoping through our successes and mistakes to add to the body of knowledge about these injuries…

Thing 1: we went too fast last time, and she’s reinjured.   Broad jumps, with that collection and explosion are particularly hard on this injury, stairs, jumping in and out of cars, on and off the bed,,,, all bad…

Thing 2: trust your dog…… sometimes when they can’t perform, it is not a training issue, it is a physical issue.  I’m really glad I recognized that pretty soon but I feel bad for the first round, I got her back in the game too soon.

Thing 3: injuries are not often dramatic.  Sure, the 3 legged dog from a torn cruciate, its obvious.  But some subtle gait changes, some folks wouldn’t notice them, but I knew my dog is off.. watch for the hitch in a git along…..

I will keep you posted on how she does and what we do to get there

This year had many accomplishments for the raptorz.

Hawke, at age 11 1/2 earned her BN Beginner Novice, THD AKC therapy dog, CD-C Companion Dog Sport CD, URO1 UKC rally level 1, and a level 3 strategy title from CPE agility,   She also earned her RLVX5-9 (5th through 9th Veterans Championship in APDT Rally, and an RL2X3 and 4 and an RL3X.  Hawke also passed her ORT on birch. She would like to work on more veteran titles in 2012, and do some obedience, maybe a UKC CD if it pays well enough, and a little agility and some more nosework.  She also wants to keep going to libraries as  Hawke the Reading Dog, her favorite job !  She earned her 250 visit recognition TDIRVA, but she wants to keep on listening!

Kestrel now 8 1/2 Earned her APDT Rally ARCHMX, and ARCHMX2, RLV, CD-C and her UKC URO2.  A few championship levels in APDT as well; RL1X 3, 4,5; RL2X4,5,6; and RL3X2,3,4  She did a lot of Rally this year, not bad for a dog that sat out a good portion of the year with a knee strain and an iliospoas strain.  She’s ready for Open Obedience in 2012 and will hopefully get CDX titles in multiple venues in 2012.  Kestrel says LET’S WORK!!!!

Baby Merlin, hardly the baby, now 6, earned his APDT ARCHEX, his CPE CTL-2, level 2 agility title and level 3 for fun and strategy titles, his UKC URO1, and his WC! at the Lab Nationals.  He won the 2011 LRCGB Triple Crown.  He earned is RL1X3,4, RL2X3,4, and his RL3X3.  Merlin would like more agility and MORE DUCKS! in 2012 – so much as hunt tests are not my favorite thing, we’ll work on that.  It makes him so happy, I can handle a dirty duck or two.

It was a good year.  I cleaned up my handling a lot, I learned a lot more about training more effectively.  Little bits often instead of a lot all at once works well for all of us here.  I learned the value of videotaping training to see where things went well or not.  I got brave and entered a hunt test, all in all it was fun.  I got brave and became a judge in UKC rally, and CDSP obedience, that has turned out to be fun as well.  I took a great training class on Problem Solving with Pia Silvani, through Dogs of Course; I went to a Connie Cleveland seminar, I took another nosework seminar, these helped me meet my goal of learning more about dog training.

All in all 2011 was a good year – 2012 promises to be even better – a new beginning.

Legislation to affect Dog Training Facilities

A Massachusetts legislative committee is scheduled to consider House Bill 1023 on July 19 – a bill that would significantly change the definition of kennel to encompass training facilities or any dog event with more than 12 dogs. All those meeting the new criteria would be required to comply with all state and local licensing and other regulations currently reserved just for large kennels.

This would mean that any daytime activity where more than twelve dogs are present (including supervised playtime, dog shows, training facilities, companion events, etc.) would now be considered a kennel and required to comply with all state and local kennel licensing and regulations.

It is essential that the committee members hear from responsible dog owners, exhibitors, trainers, and breeders who either reside in the Commonwealth or participate in Massachusetts dog events.

* Attend the committee hearing on Tuesday, July 19.*

The meeting information is as follows:

Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure

/Date: /July 19, 2011

/Time:/ 1:00 p.m.

/Location:/ Massachusetts State House, Room A-2

**If you plan to attend, please contact the Massachusetts Federation of Dog Clubs and Responsible Dog Owners so they can know how many plan to testify and can provide you with any last-minute information:

Here is their contact info:

Virginia Rowland -blackslate@aol.com or Julie Rembrandt Seeley – jrembrandtseeley@charter.net

You may also contact the committee members in writing or by phone and express your concerns with House Bill 1023.

View the committee member names and contact information here.

View a sample letter to personalize here.

View a sample phone script here.

Thanks… back to dog training, hopefully we won’t need a kennel license to run rally trials or lab specialties!!!

Ok, I am primarily a performance/companion dog person. We work on agility, rally, obedience, therapy work. Conformation? not so much. There was the brief while, when Merlin was a pup, that I did some time in the breed ring, and went in for Best of Breed at a few all breed shows. And Merlin did win Best of Breed at the UKC Connecticut Classic but that was a while ago and he was in with a very great junior handler.

Thursday June 16th, Hawke was in the ring at the Greater Boston Lab specialty for Best of Breed. She won her Veteran Bitch 11+ class, and while Hawke’s not typey, the rules don’t say only typey dogs can play, any dog that wins their class can go in. So there we were! The winner’s dog, the winner’s bitch, the specials, all the veteran winners, including us. I kept my wits about me, rolled up my leash just so, “held the coffee cup” (a way of running with the dog that you hold your hand still so you don’t spill the imaginary coffee), and Hawke ran with me, no slow once around for this old dog, she was into it, and looked good. What a moment, our friends hooted and hollared, and everyone claps for the Veterans…. Yeah for Hawke – who every would have thought?

But , then again, if the Bruins could win the Stanley Cup for the first time in 39 years the night before, on any given day, in any ring, some dog has to win.

And some days, its not about winning, its about the privilege of just being there, sharing that moment of glory with your canine friend.

You would think I would have learned this by now.  And sometimes because I don’t remember this rule, I eat some crow.  And sometimes crossing the never say never line makes me face my demons.  Ok – that’s all way too vague to make sense.  There is a judge in our dog sport for whom I don’t care, said judge can be mean sometimes, and in my early experiences in the performance ring, made me uncomfortable.  I vowed I would never spend money to support that individual’s efforts.

Time passes, and yes, I am the sort who spent most of my younger years with my back to the wall and my fist in the air…. but I don’t have to act like that now.  I’m a grown up, I can find forgiveness and move on.  So I decided to show to said mean judge again.  I wasn’t halfway to the trial when I got a set of nerves and butterflies that were just astonishing.  I’ve had some ring nerves before but these flew in out of nowhere. 

Of course, because I was facing a perceived nemesis.  Deep breathing, get a grip Barb.  Think forgiveness, and peace, and see what you can do in the face of the dragon.  I’m a judge now myself, and I always try to conduct myself so that people will feel they were treated nicely and fairly.  They may not always qualify, but I want to be sure they got my best opinion of them on that given day.   I strive to put attention into my judging , and the customer service side of judging, that they are treated fairly, and nicely.  They have paid for my opinion, and I try and deliver that in a nice manner, with courtesy and respect.  I’m not there to flunk them, I want to see teams succeed.  And why wouldn’t every other judge have that same goal?

So I did some deep breathing, and pulled myself together and showed, and after a few times in the ring (2 dogs, back to back trials)  the butterflies had flown away.  We didn’t qualify, but I didn’t even really care.  I had made that step to stop being a baby and complaining about a judge and saying I would never show to them and stepping up and showing my dogs to the best of my and their ability.  The judge is there to offer an opinion , they aren’t my enemy, they aren’t my nemesis.  The judge is the individual the club has hired to offer an opinion on entrant’s performances… nothing more… nothing less.

Merlin’s been down lately.  How is a dog feeling down? he mopes, he’s not as bright and cheery as usual, he trots behind me head down which is not his typical style.  He’s usually a bouncy dog.  Perhaps it is this winter, long, snowy, cold, never ending dark and snow cover.  He probably feels just like lots of people do this winter in New England.

Or it could be his meds, Merlin is allergic to human dander so winter is his worst time, and some of his allergy meds do have side effects that can include behavior changes.  I talk to him a lot and haven’t found an answer.  So I turned to two sources of answers that have often worked for me in the past, an animal communicator and a Reiki master.  Animal communicator sees him in a fog, some from the medication, some just flat affect, he remembers being lighthearted but can not tap into it, he’s lost the joy.  Hmmm

Reiki master checks in, and Merlin is feeling “stupid” and like he “Just can’t do it”, as I think about it, that could also be a reflection of being flat, and losing his joy.  He’s sad and frustrated.

I approached our trial this past weekend differently.  I told him, “I’ve got your back, you aren’t stupid, you have some drugs that make you foggy but don’t worry about it”. I let him know, I was there to make him look good, and I wanted him to have some fun, he should just enjoy it and not worry so much.  The night before we had done some training that really seemed to brighten him up.

He came through fine, and finished the 10th double Q of his APDT Rally ARCHEX!  I was very proud of him for being so willing to try.  He’s a good dog, he always tries, and he succeeded.  I wonder did I take enough pressure off of him to feel like he could do it?

He seems a little brighter this week, actually everyone does, we’ve had some sun, and some warmer temps and maybe just maybe that ground hog was right and we’ll be out of this winter of discontent soon.