Lessons Learned

Seeker and I showed at agility matches this past weekend and I learned a lot about my baby girl! Here are the lessons I learned so that I can share them with you and Dreamer before you show:

1. Just like obedience, it is important to practice all the rituals you will use before and after you show. Seeker is doing a MUCH better job about pottying at show sites. We warmed up with a quick run and some stretches and tricks, but I did all of that WAY too early. So what happened is that she was not fired up enough for her first run. So for her 2nd runs both days, I did all the routines closer to her ring time and there was a big difference.
2. Because she is a Novice dog, she is still learning to take all the new sights, smells, and sounds in even while she competes. Because of that, I will need to run more parallel to her in the beginning. When we practice, I try to get upstream as much as possible, but what I found is that I need to support her more especially after the chute and the tunnel. I am fast, so if she takes off happily, I can always do a rear cross. But I need to be closer so she doesn't get distracted by ring crews, etc.
3. I need to keep my mouth shut in the weaves and let her do her job. When she exits, I'll give her a quick "YES" and move on.
4. I might need to play with her a bit in the ring for the first few shows just to keep her happy and relaxed. I won't be able to touch her, but I can sure pretend to do our touch game and fire her up if I see that glazed look come over her face.
5. I have to remember that I am showing all 3 days for 2 runs a day at MSU. This can only work to our advantage if I keep it positive for her because she will settle into the site and become more focused. I saw this in her when I showed in conformation.
6. We are showing first in JWW which will be great practice because she does love to jump even though her jumping style is crazy right now. But that will give me practice staying close to her. Any wrong course in JWW is an NQ. If she does have a wrong course, I must remember to just keep on going and not stress her. Let her jump and have fun.

Ready to Run

I find it amusing that most often when I am fearing the worst, the exact opposite takes place. Lately I have been feeling the crunch about the upcoming agility trials. I am definitely entered at the December 2-4 MSU shows. 3 shows, 2 runs a day, 6 runs total. I also entered 2 days in Cleveland where the vendors are amazing, the Terv crowd is fun, and I have such great memories of conformation, the food, and the fun in the city. Finally, I entered the Great Lakes Belgian Tervuren Club December 30-January 1 where I will get to hang out with Lynn, Eileen, and Scott and other Terv friends from the Chicago area. Fun trips, fun friends, but are we ready? As I continue to immerse myself in agility: books, Clean Run magazine, videos, training alone in my yard and with friends at their houses or the club, group lessons, and finally my private lesson, I wonder: are we ready? We began this journey over a year ago as soon as baby Seeker came home to live with us. Actually, Linda started Seeker on the path to success with her wall walking, climbing, turning on objects, and "paws up" command. Seeker and I worked on the flat and with very low jumps until May when she came into heat, was 13 months old, and her growth plates closed. Then we began training in earnest. Our first private lesson was on June 23rd. Five months of immersion; is it enough? We worked on my footwork for forward sends, lateral sends, acceleration and deceleration. It was all very confusing and awkward for me. Lynn commented that Seeker was just wonderful and would "save my butt" many times when we started showing.

Our private lessons once a month really tested our progress. In July, Seeker was spinning a lot: on the landing side of jumps and after going through the poles on my left side. We worked through those problems. In August, I was still struggling with how to make a front cross. Lynn spelled it all out for me so that I could master the finer techniques. We worked on what to do when I saw the look of overload on Seeker's face. Those first hour long lessons were hard on the baby girl and she could not concentrate that long. September brought work on rear crosses and the baby girl mastered them without spins. Our October lesson was the breakthrough for me. Lynn set up a course, had me work to memorize it, and then we ran it. I was absolutely beaming at the end when I remembered the whole course and Seeker ran clean. And then I did it: I entered the MSU shows with the draw date of October 23rd. Since it was a random draw, I didn't know if we would get in. We received conformation that we were entered and then reality set in followed by panic.

So as I drove down to Grand Blanc yesterday for our private lesson followed by our class, I had an hour plus to mull things over in my mind. I wondered if I wasn't rushing things. I had read many articles in Clean Run written by instructors who bemoan the fact that their students jump the gun and enter too soon. Was I one of those clueless people?

Arriving at Highest Hopes Dog Sports, Lynn cheerily greeted me and instructed me to walk the course. It was long and hard: 20 obstacles with tricky twists and turns. How could I possibly remember it? And then Lynn had me do the most amazing thing. After I had walked it several times, we had analyzed the best way to handle it, and taken a break to bring Seeker in, Lynn had me stand in one spot and "handle" the course complete with hand signals and verbals with my eyes closed!! It was magic! I had that course in my head and I didn't even know it! And when we ran, and Seeker ran fast and clean, I almost cried. And at the end, when Lynn said, "THAT was a hard course and the reason Seeker could handle it was because of your handling", I could hardly believe my ears.

Surely if we can run a course of that complexity, we can handle a novice course. And that is what Lynn believes also. She is excited that she will be at the MSU shows and we can analyze the course together. She believes in us as a team. That was all I needed to hear and I will keep that thought in mind.

The rest of our lesson was fun, fun, fun. We worked on a series of jumps where you keep changing the last jump to keep the dog alert and not second guessing. Some called for a front cross, some for a rear cross, some for just straight line jumping where you run all out (Seeker LOVES those). We talked about staying "upstream" from the dog as much as possible so that she will know where we are going next. This used to scare the crap out of me, but now that I have more control over my own body and Seeker, I see the value of front crosses over rear crosses. At home and at our club, I have worked very hard on distractions and calling Seeker off a distraction or a wrong course. I saw the fruits of my labor at least 5 times last night in my private and in our group lesson. In fact, the assistant instructor died laughing when she said, "I wish you could have seen Seeker's face when you called her to that jump instead of the dogwalk. She was like, 'really, Mom, are you sure that's where you want me to go? This dogwalk is right in front of me.' "

At our last private in October, Lynn said she wanted me to try Rachel Sander's Running A-frame method. She said she trusted me to follow the program and do it correctly. She feels it is the wave of the future and much easier on the joints of the dogs. She was so impressed when she saw what we had accomplished in 2 weeks. I had ordered the video, done all the groundwork, tested it, and was ready to move the box to the A-frame. Lynn was just beaming about all of this. We were absolutely thrilled to see Seeker transfer the groundwork to the A-frame. Lynn said that on one of the runs, her stride was a bit off and she could see Seeker work very hard to get all 4 paws in the box. That's my Tacara girl:-)

Insert: loud, proud sigh.

I'm still nervous but now I trust myself and my wonderful dog. We have put in the time. We belong. We are ready to run. And no matter what happens, I am proud of myself for making this leap forward.

The new shoes can't hurt either:-)

I Can See Clearly Now, the Food Is Gone

After our lesson with Karen on Sunday, we removed food from the heeling exercise. Now I can really see what Dreamer is made of. I'm not surprised to report that her willingness to work is still there. I'm cheating a little bit, though. After a few turns, halts, and maybe a change of pace, I tend to slip Dreamer a reward. My plan is to give her less and less of the food before our next lesson. As much as I trust Karen, I just don't think it's fair to suddenly halt all food. Maybe I'm just prolonging the inevitable low morale that comes with withdrawal of the food, but I don't think so. I figure we've taken it slow as molasses with baby steps this long. Why stop now with a big Hail Mary?

Dreamer and I are working on the broad jump and various pieces of Open and Utility. Thank goodness because I would die of boredom if heeling was all we had to look forward to. Last week, Karen said she wants me to start practicing dumbbell holds with Dreamer on recalls as well as the high jump! Dreamer is becoming very good with the holds but isn't at the retrieving step yet. She doesn't even pick it up off the ground yet. We haven't learned that piece of the puzzle. I like how we're learning, though, and I trust that all the steps are coming at the right time. I hope to post videos and/or photos soon of the things we're learning. I think you'll find them interesting. Until then, happy training!

Back At The Contacts!

Debbie's brother-in-law died so they left for a GSD show and then on to the funeral. I picked up their mail and newspapers yesterday and stored them safely. It was so cute when I got there: Seeker was thrilled to see where we were since she hadn't been there in almost 3 weeks due to her kennel cough quarantine. She ran around the yard and deck looking for Debbie and her dogs. She seemed quite confused that no one was home, but once we started running, she was totally focused. I only did the contacts because I didn't want to have to set up any jumps or a course. And it's the contacts she hasn't been on in 3 weeks. I was thrilled to see that she hadn't lost a step. She made 2 mistakes: the teeter was at a strange angle in the yard and I sent her to it from a 90 degree angle. She jumped on sideways and then realized she couldn't keep her balance and jumped off. So for the time being, I'll be sure to give her a good entry to the teeter and then work on strange angles after I show her. She also missed the contact on the A-frame once. This is my biggest fear at the shows. I wonder if she will get so excited that she will launch herself. It happens when she is really running fast. I certainly don't want to slow her down, I just want her to think about the bottom section. So we went back to her target work where she keeps her head down and scoots down fast with a lot of little steps. Other than that, she was fast and happy. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she did all 12 weave poles even though at home I have them set up as two separate set of 6 poles. I'm doing that because I want to practice the entries from all angles and that gives her more practice at that. Plus, in Novice, she only be running 6 poles. I want to keep her fast at 6. I found that when I was doing 12 all the time, when she saw 6, she would slow down. I also have noticed that now that I have my poles increased to 24 inches, she has found a rhythm and muscle memory has taken over. For awhile there, she got tired by the end of 12 poles when they were at 24 inches because it was a different feel for her than her 22 inch poles at home. The best part was I proofed her to see if I could "save" her at the shows. It used to be that once she would see an obstacle or jump in line ahead of her, she would just assume that was where she was going. She still does that and I like it, because she will gladly move out on her own and is both obstacle and handler focused. But now, I can call her off the wrong obstacle and she moves toward me in a split second. So last night, I had her running on my right where the next obstacle in line was the A-frame, but I called her over toward the table as I ran toward it. She did great! But I just realized that I only tested this with a "pull". She is much better at pulls than pushes. So when I go back to Debbie's on Wednesday to train, I will test it with a "push".

I'm also finding that I am able to process things much faster than I used to. I am better able to see the course and the dog at the same time. You are going to have so much fun in your new Thursday night class when you get to do all this fun stuff. I can't wait to hear all about it.

Getting Our Bruise On

The conformation bruises are healing, and Dreamer and I are busy getting our bruise on with agility and obedience. Time heals all wounds, but heeling takes many forms. Speaking of heeling, Dreamer is looking better and better in her heeling patterns. We are starting to wean off the food now, and it's really too early to say if our methods are working. Karen wants me to play this "now you see it, now you don't" game with Dreamer and the belt. The food starts out on the stick, and we complete the exercise. Dreamer gets her reward from the stick. Then I tell her to get her reward again. At first, she bought it and jumped up to find an empty stick. Then I'd put another treat on the stick and tell her to get it, and she'd get it.

Well, she's a little too smart for that game now. Or maybe I'm just doing it wrong. My training notes tend to suck, and I'll miss a step. So we've stopped the "now you see it" game until our lesson on Sunday, when I'll either get corrections to my notes or confirmation that we need to try something else because Dreamer is too smart. In any case, I've trained Dreamer every day (except Friday, when I had to get my happy hour on) since our last lesson, and she's so much fun!

We didn't have agility class this week because our teacher is out of town, but I've set up our new channel weaves. I weaved Dreamer at home for the first time tonight, and she was fast! She had slowed down in class the two previous weeks, and I had become concerned. When I talked to my friend Pat about it, she said that the dogs always slow down when you narrow the weaves, and had we just done that? Well, as a matter of fact, yes. We had just narrowed the channel. Tonight, the channel was a little wider than our latest setting at class, and sure enough, Dreamer's speed was back! I'll gradually close the channel, but I'm relieved that she's being a normal dog and isn't doing some weird slow dog thing. That would drive me nuts! I think we'll start to make a lot of progress on weaves now that I have my own set to use at home.

I have a Band-Aid on my thumb, as I got it caught in one of the pole stakes during assembly. But this is the type of bruise I can handle. Dreamer and I are having a great time -- a rewarding time -- and it's worth the wounds.

Monday, Monday

Seeker and I came back from a 3 day show in Marshall with bruised egos. The judging panel was poor and we only earned 3 points total by taking Best of Opposite each day. I wouldn't mind that if the competition was worthy, but seriously! We lost to males that I have no respect for: Gamer, Uie, and Quest. None of them can hold a candle to Seeker. The only consolation I had in Gamer winning was that I was handling him and the win earned him a 3 point major.

We did have a fun time in Marshall though. I met Kila Allred and Cozi, had some great meals in restaurants, and practiced a lot for Seeker's upcoming TDI test. The hotel manager was very impressed with Seeker's ability to hold a down stay in the lobby each morning as I got my coffee after our run. He also found it amazing that she lay at my feet quietly while I worked on the computer. I noticed a huge change in her as we walked around the grounds and past other dogs and handlers. The baby girl is growing up.

So Monday morning we put conformation behind us and headed toward our private obedience lesson. The instructor asked what we wanted to work on because she forgot her sheet from last time. I told her that we have been working mostly on agility, but I thought Seeker was ready for automatic sits. She looked at me like, "Yeah, right!" Moe Foley told me that Laura does not move her students ahead very quickly and for that reason many of them leave her. I told Moe that wouldn't happen with me because I would push ahead if Seeker was ready.

So Laura asked us to do straight line heeling and I could tell that she was very surprised by Seeker. I then showed her the turns we had been working on and again: surprised.

Sure enough, I got my way and she showed me how to start Seeker out with the automatic sit. I like her method.

She also said we were ready to move our hand to the actual heeling position for a step and then two. I think she was blown away by the fact that it didn't bother Seeker. What she didn't know is that I have already been doing this:-) At this point, she is probably thinking that Seeker is a genius! Well, she has to know they are smarter than Shelties! Or does she?

We did the stand for exam and again she was surprised. I wonder if many of her clients just don't do their homework?

So at the end of the lesson, she handed me my sheet and I said, "OK, we'll have all this mastered by next month." And she said, "I'm sure you will". No doubt in my mind!

We left the club and went on to more fun things: Agility at Debbie's! I helped Debbie with Charlie and Cadee and their 2X2s. We also did some sequencing with them. They are making progress, but are far behind where Seeker is. It's a darn good thing Debbie is an experienced handler or her decision to enter them in the upcoming National would be a disaster!

Debbie gave me a 17 obstacle course to try. We weren't perfect, but we got most of it. She missed the first entry into the weave poles, but then did all 12 perfectly and from her "harder" side. I felt so exhilarated when I left there. I actually feel that Seeker will be ready for the Nov./Dec. trials!!

Bruised

Dreamer and I have gone through a rough patch of bad luck -- not just with conformation, but with the unpredictable setbacks of life. Dreamer broke her tail a month ago, so we've had to sit out of obedience and agility. Dreamer just came into season, so now we're going to have a prolonged absence from agility.

So it's been hard to blog because I've been immersed in the setbacks. I feel bruised, especially coming off a weekend of losing to lesser dogs at an outdoor conformation event in Wisconsin. In hindsight, Dreamer probably acted like a squirrel on the exam the first day because she was coming into season. I'll never know, but it's possible. And there's nothing I could have done to change that. She did not want that judge touching her. The next day, she stood like a statue for a judge who tugged at and shook her tail!

All I can do is look ahead and set new goals, but it's hard. Bruises need time to heal. So I'll stop the Debbie Downer blogging here because I want to -- and have to -- regroup and move forward. My dog deserves nothing less from me.