Morgan and I trained in agility today. We haven't done anything since I last wrote --with Thanksgiving and me trying to do the chapter edits on the book getting in the way. Anyway I was a little discombobulated because I didn't have the control for my e-collar and I was sure we would spend our time chasing after the Divine Ms. M. However, I put the e-collar on her anyway and off we went. She ran off twice but came right back when I called her. Yippee!

The first thing we did was the weave poles. She is getting better at it--even ran through a couple of poles that were in line with one another. The next thing we did was a jump sequence that Tom set up and ran it the same way we did the previous set up however it was facing a different direction but Morgan did it brilliantly. Except for the first time when she took the tunnel without going over the jump. I said aahhh and she tried to get away from me by going back through the tunnel. She saw me on the other side and turned around in the tunnel to go the other way and there I was again. It was so funny. She couldn't get away and finally gave up and played my way.

We then decided that we should try a pinwheel. As I remember with other people's dogs, she could do it one way but the opposite direction was a problem. It was at this point that Morgan discovered that Tom was the keeper of the treats. She couldn't get one if she didn't do the sequence right. She gave him perfect fronts, she looked into his eyes longingly, anything to get him to just give her a cookie. Tom stood firm, though. She, again, decided it was better to do it our way.

Morgan discovered something else today on the teeter that I'm not sure she was aware of before. She did an excellent job on the raised teeter that was actually tipping a bit more this time. I tried to call her and she came when I was half way down the teeter but we had to work through me moving further and further away. When I got to the second table and called her, she ran to me and I cheered and patted her on the back and she started jumping up. She made Mommy happy! I don't think she ever cared that she made me happy before but today, she wanted to make me happy again. This is a major breakthrough. If she can actually work up some enthusiasm for making me happy, that is truly half the battle. I've got to get some better treats so I can jackpot her when she tries to make me happy.

Morgan and I trained on Monday for obedience and freestyle and today for agility.

Our Monday session was rather abbreviated because I got up late and had to go into the office. We did some set ups and first steps with attention, fronts, cheese ball game to a front and some jump training. I'm trying to train Morgan not to take off too early. I probably need to put down some cavelletti poles to help with that. For freestyle we just went over a couple of things -- going around me, leaps, backing through my legs and both of us backing up and coming through my legs from behind (her favorite thing). She is really responsive to the food but not as crazy as she has been. I've been using the prong collar on her and it has reduced a lot of pulling and barrelling around.

In agility this morning, I was encouraged. We did the drill on the teeter and she did not really try to leap over the contact areas but made a couple of big steps. I added in an 'easy' and she slowed enough to get to the table w/o leaping. She did that a few times on both sides and I was happy. She didn't do as well with the weave poles today because we added in a couple that were not staggered. I think it is going a little too fast for her so we will back up a bit and start to bring the first six closer together. Gotta order those strips to practice in our own back yard.

What I am most encouraged about is that she did a fabulous job on the jump sequence. We started with the last obstacle, the tunnel, did it a few times and I went back to the first jump. We did jump, jump tunnel. GREAT. Then, jump, jump, tunnel jump. Finally we added another jump that almost closed the circle. She did GREAT. What was really very encouraging was that she didn't try to run off but once, to see a neighboring dog, I gave her a nick with the e-collar and it took a couple of seconds and then she came running back to me and went right back to work. Yippee!

I've still got to do those lesson plans but Ms. M is doing great. I'm very happy with her.

Well no freestyle training yesterday. I just couldn't fit it in with all my meetings and school visits. However, this morning we had a training date with Jake the Border Collie. Tom is working on his handling skills with Jake and I think I helped with that a little.

Because Morgan was a loose cannon on Tuesday, yesterday I put on her e-collar and let her wear it all day. This morning I spent about 10 minutes training her to come with the e-collar. She kinda got it and then we were off to Tom and Jake's. When it was Morgan's turn, she immediately started looking for the kitten that was in the screened porch on Tuesday. I called her and pushed the e-collar control. She hesitated but soon came to me. We tried it a couple of more times and she was really good.

We started with the training plank which she completely ignored. She couldn't seem to keep four paws on it to begin with. It is hard to teach 2o2o when the damn dog won't even keep 4 on. We have to work on that which means that I need to get out our plank, fix it (the feet are on wrong), paint it and practice. It's a beautiful day today, maybe after I put in a couple of hours writing, I will feel motivated to reposition the feet on the plank. As I recall, it takes about 5 minutes. She did it right once and we moved on.

Next we went to the teeter trainer. Today, she actually showed signs of wanting to hop over the yellow parts. I had to treat her just before the place where she started to hop (easily discernible because of her paw prints on the teeter) to slow her down. It worked like a charm. However, to prove that lessons learned are not transferable, when we tried it in the opposite direction, she tried to hop the yellow parts again. ARRGG! By the forth or fifth try, she was getting it pretty well. We have to limit reps with Morgan as she loses interest REALLY fast.

After that we went to the weave poles. Tom had set up the staggered weave poles open about a foot wide. Morgan tried to cheat to the target a couple of times and then realized she wasn't getting the treat until she did it my way, finally ran through all six poles, no problem. We'll move them close together on Tuesday.

Last we tried the sequence that she just didn't seem to get last Tuesday. However, we started the back chaining from the tunnel (last obstacle) rather than the jump (next to last obstacle). Duh! She did the tunnel 3 times, then jump tunnel twice, then jump, jump, tunnel twice. Finally we added a jump after the tunnel. I had her go over the last jump a couple of times but then went back to the very first jump so the sequence was jump, jump, tunnel, jump. She did it! Twice! I was very happy with that and quit on that note.

What I was even more happy about was that she stopped trying to run off after she went through the tunnel. She came to me for a treat. In fact, she finally showed Tom what a smart dog she is--not always ballistic. I was very proud of her behavior toward the end of our session. I hope I get more of that because it reinforces my belief that she is trainable.

I took Morgan with me to my class a little early this evening. One of my new students was already there working her Aussie. When I took Morgan out of the car, I put on her prong collar. She made a couple of feeble attempts at pulling on the lead but remembered the collar and decided not to. We played a couple of attention games. Did a tiny bit of healing. We played tug and I tossed around the tug toy. She went after it and brought it back once. After that she wouldn't bring it back if I tossed it.



Here's the funny thing. At home, she annoys me continuously by bringing me a toy to throw for her. I suppose that she is just like her biological mother who only wants to do things when SHE wants to do it. However, I don't think that is the case so much with Morgan. I truly think that she doesn't understand the game. I'm hoping this problem will be solved when I finish teaching the fetch. I really need to get to it, though. I've been dragging and dragging my feet on this one. That's because I still don't have a plan for her training and I really need to sit down and do that. I have a few days off next week when I can probably spend a couple of hours really mapping out her training plan.



I do want to brag. In my novice class, my students encouraged me to get Morgan out and see if she could do a Novice routine. I told them how horrible she was in Pre-Novice. But I did take her out and put on her prong collar and took out her string cheese and we went into the ring. She did some AMAZING heeling both on and off leash. Of course, her stand for exam was perfect and even her recall was fabulous. So she made a liar out of me. But we all laughed when I pointed out the I had food AND a prong collar on her.

Morgan had the last laugh, however. While I took off her prong collar, I failed to take off her leash before putting her into her crate in the car. When I got home (15 minutes later) the entire handle had been chewed off her leash.

We made it to the building at 7:03 this morning and I started searching my training bag for a prong collar. I started both Merlin and Nimue on training collars very early. Nimue at 7 months and Merlin as 22 months (when his show clip was shaved down). Morgan is 5 years old and I want to tell you, she was none too happy about that collar. She looked very resentful and didn't want to move. The weirdest thing was she couldn't make herself sit straight on her front. Too funny. I'm sure she will get used to it. I use the prong collar as a self correcting tool. If she pulls on it she feels it, if she doesn't pull, everything is honky dory.



Anyway, we worked on fronts and heeling. I see that I have to get that focal point going a little better because it is what killed me at the trial last week. Well, one of the things. I realize that I am taking Morgan way too fast for everything. It is so hard not to do this when I am so eager to get her in the ring and she has so much to learn.



Last night, one of the things that I did to slow myself down was to reconfigure my goals. My new goals for Morgan are to debut her in Obedience at the Lumberton trials in April and hope to finish a pre-novice title at home at GCOC. I will show her in obedience until June and then start to show her in agility. She will make her agility debut in June at the poodle club trials. Those are our goals. Now I just have to make some solid lesson plans to get us there.

Today Morgan and I met a fellow club member to practice agility. I spent the first part of the training time helping with his dog and letting him tell me some of the agility practice he was doing. Then we brought out the wild child. I told him we had to start from the very beginning with her because I have done nothing for over a year--more like 2 years. Anyway, we started with the trainer he set up for teaching bottom on the teeeter. He and I have the same problem with a dog who likes to fly up the teeter and not worry if it comes down before flying off. We're following a plan he found on Clean Run. She took to it very nicely. There is a table at either end of the teeter with a little give (about 1 inch) on the downside of the teeter that is resting on the table. The dog is to travel down the teeter to the table and rewarded on the table. I think the next step is to create a little more space on the bottom end and start teaching them to bang the teeter. But for now Morgan is eagerly walking the teeter and getting to the table for her treat.

We next tried a 2-jump sequence on lead. She did quite well with that. He suggested that we take her lead off to see how she would do (the bars kept falling off with the lead on). The minute she knew she was loose, she was off like a bat out of hell. He has a kitten that was on the screened porch and she went bonkers over it. Not a good idea. She wouldn't come when called and I had to chase her down. Not fun. This actually happened a couple of more times when he or I let loose the leash. ARRRGG! We absolutely must start working on the recall. I'm warming up the e-collar as I am blogging :-)

The next sequence we tried was to add the tunnel to the two jumps. She didn't do the tunnel the first time but got it the second time. I tried the sequence a third time and she wouldn't go into the tunnel. Finally I tried back chanining it--one jump, then the tunnel. Bingo! Twice more and then I tried adding the second jump. No tunnel. Back chain again -- good. Second jump, no tunnel. I didn't understand why she wasn't getting it. (Now in between she has run off a couple of times--what a nuisance). Then a light bulb went on. I tried to keep up with her going over the jumps and when she approached the tunnel I veered toward it and tada she went into the tunnel -- Yay!

I learned something about Morgan that pleasantly surprised me. She is actually paying attention to where I am because the reason she was missing the tunnel was becuase she was pulling toward me instead of the tunnel but when I stepped toward the tunnel so did she. Hmmm. Handling her may not be as hard as I thought.

The plan for our next training session. Do more of the teeter training. Straighten out the jump tunnel sequence. Get her to focus on the obstacle more and start doing a turn to the right and to the left on jumps. Work on weave poles.

It was fun getting out and training Morgan although it was so hard leaving Merlin in the car the whole time. I feel like I am punishing him for getting older.

Okay, so I haven't been much better. Just wanted to post about Morgan's performance in Pre-Novice at the poodle club specialty. She actually did a lot better 1.5 years ago than she did on Thursday. It was dismal. How dismal was it you ask? She got a 97 out of 200, that's how dismal. She acted as if I weren't even in the ring most of the time. All she could do was look out of the ring to see what everyone else was doing. Needless to say we need a LOT of help on focus and attention. I think if I had been able to focus her, she would have done a decent job heeling.

My new goals for her, since I never made any progress on the old ones, are to get her ready to show in Novice (probably Wild Card) by our May trial and for agility by our Poodle club trial in June. With these goals in mind, I need to do some SERIOUS training. I'm going to continue to train Merlin but will start with the UKC utility exercises because I will try to get his UKC-UD and if his eyesight and brains hold out, maybe a UKC UDX just because he can jump at the veteran's height in UKC. His training, however, will be much reduced and Morgan's, much increased. Sooo, I shall be blogging quite a bit more on her. That said, I need to go to bed early tonight so I can start bright and early in the morning implementing my plans.

Okay, it has been months since I wrote last and at least two people have called me on it so here it is, Morgan's latest training notes. I have been working on a freestyle routine for her because we are having a freestyle competition next weekend in our own training building. Morgan was supposed to be entered but I sent her entry to the wrong e-mail address. ARRGGG! She will show at the match and do a demo during the competition--maybe.

Anyway she has learned most of the tricks for the routine in the last month. I'll describe her routine. Our music is "What a Feelin'" from the first FAME movie. On the slow part, she heels (kinda) in a circle to the left and changes sides and heels in a circle to the right. She has gotten right side heeling down pretty well but I have to have treats for her to do anything so far. She is still learning how to stand on her hind legs and spin in a circle. She does it better turning to the left than she does turning to the right. I think I will skip doing the right spin for the match this weekend and start working on it after the competition. Then, we do the rally 1, step, 2 step, 3 steps front and she does a right finish just as the faster music starts. I skip around in a circle, stop and then she circles around me as I turn in the opposite direction. Then she weaves through my legs. We have had to work on getting her to put her head down. If she lifts it up, she can knock me down--not good. I tell her 'head down' and she knows that from the grooming table :-) After the weaves, I skip in the opposite direction, go down on one knee and she cicles around me. I struggle up and bring her toward me and she leaps over my left leg and then my right leg--she does that twice, finally she does a half spin to the right (on all fours) and backs up between my legs and then we back up together. She does a half finish and comes in through my legs from the back and stops--I throw my hands in the air--times up!

This has been a great routine to train but I'm still luring her half the time. I have NOT taught this dog to offer behaviors and I do need to back up and have her learn that becuase the cookies are all too important to her. She learns and REALLY fast but we are both dependent on treats and I HATE that. I just have to stop it.

Okay, more later. I have a really early morning tomorrow at a conference and I have no idea what I'm going to wear.