Online K9 Dogs, Training, Joys, Frustration and Life

2012 was a pretty good year now that it is in the rearview mirror. Hawke, at 12 1/2 has partially retired. She started the year with a partial cruciate tear, but due to her willingness to rest and rehab – dodged the surgeon’s knife. She came back quickly to complete her RLVX10, RLVX11, RLVX12, RLVX13! in APDT rally. In September she finished her APDT Rally ARCHEX! In CDSP (Companion Dog Sports Program) Obedience she earned her Novice championship TWICE, CD-CCH, CD-CCH2. She took a little time off at year’s end to recover from some minor surgery.

Kestrel had some accomplishments in 2012 despite spending much of the year laid up with an iliopsoas injury, another cruciate tear, more iliopsoas, and a bout of year end lameness. She was pulled from more trials than those in which she competed. She had a great November, taking a perfect 210, taking High Combined in a CDSP trial. She got halfway to a CD-CCH this year, and earned a CDX-C leg. 2013 promises to be a better year for Kes.

Merlin earned his CD-C and his 7th RAE leg. He completed his CDX-C. He’s been plagued by an inability to wait – but that’s been a benefit in his agility career.

2013 plans:
Hawke RLVX14 or 15, CD-CCH3, lots more libraries! lots more walks
Kestrel: BN, some good Nov B runs, and finish that ARCHMX3..
Merlin: CDX, CD-CCH, CDX-CCH, close in on his CPE agility CT-ATCH, and finish that ARCHMX.

Tall order…. but its fun , and the training is as much fun as the competing.

Hawke is the most dog appropriate dog I know….

case in point, yesterday we went to visit a friend with a fairly new rescue dog.  He has possibly a history of growing at other dogs, and got into a tiff at the dog park.  My friend really wants him to be well adjusted and to have dog friends.  We came in, he LEAPED the baby gate.. not a high energy dog, he’s a very large dog, this was a surprise.  Hawke and he sniffed a bit, then he growled… we put more space between them and moved to the kitchen.

Hawke curved, and submitted and gave all the good calm reassuring dog body language she could.  She’s great at that.  The part I never realized she was truely great at, making sure she doesn’t get backed into a corner, she wiggled and lept to reposition herself with at least 2 exits.  Nice to know my dog is not a dope, happy to help but not going to be the sacrificial lamb.  My friend and I had tea and lunch, and the dogs gradually moved closer to each other. 

After a bit, we went out to the wading pool as new dog doesn’t know what to do with a pool (or much else, he’s pretty socially inept, not his fault, just his upbringing)  Hawke jumped in and out of the pool, jump in , swirl around, lie down, jump out shake.  Her new buddy watched with great intensity.  He put a foot in, she put a foot in , a second foot, he followed, she jumped in and swirled, he jumped in and sat!  WOW! who says dogs don’t learn by observation.  They had great fun going in and out of the pool, no growling, no issues.  I think he is just afraid, and getting big and growling gets EVERYTHING out of his face. 

Hawke had a great day, made a new friend, and is planning more dates for the future.

I’m glad and honored to have a therapy dog who can also be the very appropriate dog in a behavior situation.  What a great girl she is, yeah Hawke!

Really, its all tricks. Obedience, heeling, jumps, rally, agility, loose leash walking. I don’t know why I have to be reminded of this so frequently
I’m doing the Wag It Tricks Challenge, an online class with Wag It dog training center from Lincolnville, ME. Tricks, we know tricks. Lots of tricks, or so I think. Hawke can do paw, other, sit, down, whisper. Kestrel does those and a crawl. Merlin does What do you say? , merlin get a toy, sit, down, chin, cheek, and get close. And they all do all the performance competition stuff…. really those are tricks too. In the Wag it challenge, we’re doing more… challenge 1, move something with the paw. I’m going to teach Merlin to close doors. He opens doors all the time with his head, so I figure I’ll teach him to close doors. While I’m at it, maybe I’ll teach him to wave, or high 5.

I often tell my classes to teach some tricks, sometimes we’ll have a trick competition, by the end of the class, prepare a trick to share. Do I follow my own advice? not often.

A few weeks ago, I was attending the Dogs of Course ITC, Instructor Training Class in Consulting and Problem Solving. We talked a lot about play, do I play with my dogs? not much. New rule, teach them to tug. Teach them to play, then play with them darn it.

Why tricks? they are fun, but even better there are many advantages

• they are a light hearted way to teach the dog to learn
• its cool to show off with your dog
• both you and the dog feel clever
• and most important they are great for your relationship with the dog

Sometimes, well maybe all too often, I get too serious in my training.  Tricks are a great way for me to break that habit, and just have enjoyment.  And well planned tricks can enhance the fine tuning needed for Rally or Obedience.

and you know what?  the dogs like doing tricks…..

a lot

My wonderful 10 year old labrador did me proud today. A little background (some which I have mentioned here before) she is my first dog, and a very good dog. Stubborn, willful, known to “drop anchor” if she thinks she shouldn’t be going somewhere. To this day, if my husband is on a trip, Hawke won’t let me walk out of the neighborhood, she will lie down and not move and if I make her get up, she just drops anchor in front of me until I agree to walk back home. Its always been her job to keep us safe, she sleeps on the landing every night so no one can get up the stairs who shouldn’t.

She’s an awesome therapy dog, great with kids, great with old people. She’s very empathetic, and takes on the pain and sorrow of others, and tries to soothe their hurt. She encourages kids to read, and happily wags while they fill her head with stories of Biscuit and Fancy Nancy and Sam I Am.

She has always been hard to train, she suffered the learning curve of me learning to be consistient. I had to learn to ask clearly and cleanly what I need the dog to do, and it took her years to train me to be more consistient. Her younger siblings Kestrel and Merlin had the advantage of Hawke’s training, and zoomed past her in agility, rally, and obedience titles.

We first met Hawke 10 years ago, the weekend after the 4th of July when we went to visit a litter of labs in Kingston NH. I wanted the middle of the pack dog, not too shy, not too pushy, and the little black lab with the star on her chest was just perfect. Two weeks later, we brought her home, and I started to learn how to train a dog.

Five years ago, at the Kennelworth KC show in West Springfield MA, Hawke brought home our first real title , RN, Rally Novice. But over and over she made it clear she wasn’t going to do any obedience where I can’t talk to her. Kestrel and Merlin went on to get higher rally titles, but Hawke drew the line at obedience. From the first days she was ours, I really wanted to put a CD on Hawke. Last year, we went back to the AKC rally ring and finished her RA, and I promised she didn’t have to do any more AKC rally. She enjoys APDT rally and has amazed me by finishing her ARCHX! and she still has more in her. But that ever elusive obedience….. We worked a lot this year, trying to find a way that I can make obedience, which is mostly silent, fun and upbeat enough for Hawke. Her stand is fine, her recall is good (ok she’s lazy and sees no reason to stop in front, just save time, go right to heel), her onlead heeling not so dreadful, but off lead…ugh. But we got that first leg in April, and we’ve worked and trained and today…. it all came true.

She qualified on Wednesday 7/7 and that left one more leg to go. Would today be the day? It was, she qualified, and was the high scoring labrador in the Novice classes. Hawke got her CD, her offlead heeling was actually better than her onlead heeling. During the long sit, she worried me, she shifted onto her hip and looked like she was going to start a friendly conversation with the golden next door. During the long down, she looked around, and air scented, and I closed my eyes and tried to count to 180 in my head Finally, back to your dogs! and then the judge said the best words ever “you’ve all qualified”. We did it!!! as we were leaving the ring, one of the stewards said, “did you breathe at all during that down, you looked like you had stopped breathing”, I had, I was too busy counting and trusting my Hawke would stay put.

like the words from a Sara Evans song “and I could not ask for more”……

Is Hawke retired? from AKC obedience, YES. We may try St Huberts… or not. She’ll still do APDT rally, and nosework her favorites of course, and just a little agility as long as she is sound. And of course, all her work at the libraries – so many children – so many books yet to hear.

I could not ask for more than this time together
Could not ask for more than this time with you
And Every prayer has been answered,
Every dream I’ve had’s come true
I’ve found all I’ve waited for,
And I could not ask for more.
(words by Diane Warren)

I had planned an APDT Rally weekend for Hawke and I in Connecticut.  We’ve been working on training her towards her CD as well, and although my instructor thought perhaps we weren’t ready, I decided to enter her in Springfield that Friday on our way to CT.  I’ve never been one to listen to everything I am told, and it turned out to be a great move.

Hawke is a dog who doesn’t like obedience, or so I thought.  She likes working with me, she likes APDT rally, she loves agility.  I always thought its because agility involves running around and APDT rally includes food.  Both are true, but there is a bit more.  Agility is fun because we move out, as long as I keep moving and make it clear to her what the task is, we both have fun.  APDT Rally, yes we can use treats, but its not like you lure them all over the ring.  The treats however change my mindset, I know I can reward her and thereby keep her interest, so I don’t get too nervous in the ring.  I think in retrospect, Hawke was a dog who didn’t like obedience because her handler was slow, hesitant, unsure, and nervous. hmmmm

In preparing for this Springfield trial, we had lots of quick short training sessions, and I found out two very important lessons.  1) MOVE OUT – if I move like I have somewhere to go and a reason to do so, Hawke comes with me; even if only out of curiosity.  2) TRUST YOUR DOG – Hawke has been my companion for nearly 10 years, we’ve been through everything together, she’s very well trained, very experienced in competition and as a therapy/reading dog.  She’s bombproof in most situations: 13 toddlers crawing all over her, no problem; a dozen elderly coming up quick in their walkers to pet her, no problem.  Why have I thought all these years that she would mope and wander and run around like a nut in the obedience ring?  Oh yeah, cause she does that in AKC rally once the leash is off. 

I changed my paradigm.  I decided, and convinced myself that if I could move out, trust my dog, look like I’m having fun, my canine partner would reciprocate.  Friday morning April 9th, we found that to be true.  Hawke and I entered the ring, her on lead heeling was pretty good, her figure 8 decent, stand for exam, perfect.  The moment of truth, off lead heeling.  She sat on something that made her jump up on the first halt and the judge giggled at us, we continued, I didn’t lose her in the turn, or the slow, or even on the about, she stayed pretty close on the fast, and I only lost her on the last about — time for that 3 point extra command “HAWKE! HEEL!” and I heard her trot up next to me.  Halt, Exercise finished – whew we were into the home stretch.  Recall, no problem although the front left a LOT to be desired, she finished.  We went back in for groups feeling pretty good about all this.  She sat, for the long sit, and we had to do it twice. She stayed put for the long down.  And I heard the sweetest words in the English language, “The Lab has qualified”.  Hawke did it, and with an acceptable score, not one of those squeaking through pity scores.  There is no danger of us taking High in Trial from Novice B, but it was great.

The only question is: which old dog learned the new tricks? me or Hawke?