Forced Fetch

I started Morgan's forced fetch three days ago and it was going well. Then she lost some of her enthusiasm for grabbing the DB so I upped the ante. I think I slacked off on the EP a little too soon. I want her grabbing for the DB and she won't do that if I just exert small pressure. I'm going to apply full pressure until she is grabbing from the floor. In for a penny, in for a pound.

The Poodle club specialty obedience trial is coming up next week and I am no further along with Morgan than I was last year at this time. She is entered in Pre-Novice and, like last year, she is still not ready for THAT! I feel so awful, awful, awful.I cannot blame the conformation issues any more. I'm a lousy trainer--lazy and inconsistent and it breaks my heart.

But then it seemed as soon as I got serious about training agility, I tore my rotator cuff. As soon as I got serious about obedience training, I sprained my wrist. Is God trying to tell me something? A friend just lost her 10 year old SP to cancer and we're all devastated. He was multititled and such a dear. Morgan just turned 6 and she has white hairs on her face and butt. I've wasted half her life and I am sick, sick, sick about it. It cannot be that we were not meant to play the doggie games.

I'm determined that 2011 is her year. We need to get agility, obedience, and freestyle titles and she needs to learn to swim so we can play at hunting, too. WE will do it. I just pray that we both stay healthy enough to get it done in 2011.

Merlin needs one more leg for his Freestyle Novice title and I will spend minimal time training him from now on. We have our Hello Dolly routine and it can last us through the next titling phase.

October 23

Sorry, I lost this post and I just can't do it again. It takes too long with one hand to hunt and peck.

Octboer 22

I'm not even going to mention how slack I have been in keeping up with Morgan's blog. After she earned her UKC championship, we have been training pretty regularly but for VERY short periods of time. I have been training Merlin for the freestyle event next month and Morgan gets what's left of me. Merlin has been very frustrating to train because he is wild about the treats and he is totally undisciplined :)

I keep saying I'm going to do the Ruff love stuff but haven't taken the time to implement it. Well, it is T I M E. I've been doing my training the way I've been doing my diet, dabbling in it and I really need to get serious.

About 10 minutes ago, I went over my training plans for Morgan and I am SOOO far behind in agility but I am ALMOST on track for obedience. It is just so much easier to train obedience--almost no equipment needed.

Morgan's heeling is going fabulously. She is paying attention longer and she is taking my cues on LEFT turns now. Yay! She has always taken my cues on halts and right turns. I learned something when I went to train with Sharon and Tony last Friday and that is I'd lost my figure 8. I practiced it this past week and it came right back. She was lagging on the the outside. I've been practicing a quick about turn but I cannot seem to get the drive I want. I can't get the drive I want from he recall either. Last Tuesday, I tried to speed it up and ended up with a wrist sprain. Today it was just a trot into me. I'm not going to do any more formal recalls until I finish the recallers class from Sue Garret.

Gotta quit writing now, my wrist is aching. Hopefully, I'll write more tomorrow. We have agility with Tom and Jake at 9:00.

I forgot to add my new obedience plan.
October 23 – November 30

Control Unleashed behaviors
Perfect the hold needs lots of work
Introduce forced fetch
Teach right about turn and about U-turn. Working on
Teach change of pace
Perfect finishes
Work on attention building --done
Continue focus and attention exercises—Dog Games for attention

Here's the new Agility Plan:

October 23 – November 30
Reliable recall -- Recallers Game 31 days – start again Oct 23 and finish in 31 days
CU training working on -- Keep up distractions with Jake and Merlin
Weave poles – do 12 poles in 6 weeks - Oct 23 – take stick in WP’s
Jump Chutes – Start Oct 23 (24 inches)
Serpentines and threadles Nov. 2
Rear Cross -- November 2
2o2o Start - Oct. 23
A-frame progression - November 2
Teeter
Continue focus work

Ooops!

We had another good training session today. The plan was to do a little heeling, a few step offs, finding heel,and some finishes. Since her recalls were not up to my standards yesterday, I decided to practice some fast recalls.

The heeling was a thing of beauty. She looked right at her focal point and she sat quickly on every halt. The hop to step off was good, too. Her finishes were a little better but I still want to see more sparkle from them. I was re-thinking the idea about comparing her to Merlin. In actuality, I have seen her give me what I want. The trick is getting her to want to give it when I ask for it instead of when she feels like it. Morgan enjoyed the cheeseball find heel game and did a good job. She found heel better when I was standing still. I'll need to stay stationary for a couple of days and then move.

Okay so we get to the ooops of my training session. I had started to pack up and remembered that I didn't do the cheeseball game. So I grabbed some kix cereal and went back to the large ring. The game began. Morgan was so happy and excited to play, that she was coming at me so fast, I had to really hoof it to get somw distance from her. I ran and spun around so fast that i caught my foot on the mat and fell. I put my hand out to break my fall but still bumped my head slightly. The wrist was hurt pretty badly and I literally rolled over and over on the floor. I know, such a drama queen. I got up and played the game a couple of times to let Morgan know Mommy still likes her and the game.

Funny thing. Morgan never came to me when I was hurt. I'm not sure if I screamed but I know I moaned. She was just ff gallivanting around the room. Where did I go wrong with this one. Merlin would have been all over me. There I go comparing but Nimue also would have come to me. I just wonder what this says about our relationship.

New UKC Champion

It has been a while. I wish I were more consistent about my training and about my blogging.

What prompted this entry is that I took Morgan and Merlin to a UKC show this past weekend. I wanted to put a UKC championship on Morgan because I could do it myself. It was great fun. I love going into the ring and showing off my dog. Caroline made Morgan look absolutely stunning. She got a lot of attention at the show from spectators and exhibitors. We got the championship but not without the help of a fellow poodle Lister who put her teenaged bitch in the ring. Unfortunately she shuts down in the ring but that was good for me because Morgan won and was able to finish her championship. One person said that she was probably the most beautiful poodle she has ever seen. That makes me feel proud. Morgan already thinks that about herself :)

The more exciting news, for me is that Merlin earned his first High in Trial. We had the highest score in the Rally trial and it was a wonderful feeling for me. YAY Merlin. He did perform beautifully.

We got back home last night and today we went to train in the training building. Merlin, who has been over the top lately, behaved so well we were able to do our entire freestyle routine with only minor stops for silliness.

Morgan, too was very very good. We did a warm up and she was ready to heel. I only walked in a circle with her but she kept her attention on my fist the whole time and I was so proud of her. She did the little hop off to get started. I love it. She was also able to do a 360 degree left turn by moving her rear end AND she dig the finish right on verbal commands only. YAY! I was not as happy about her recall. It still is very slow. I tried throwing a toy between my legs but I only had one so couldn't work the cheese ball game. She did do PB&J very well so I think I'm just going to finish up the Sue Garret Course before I do more formal recalls with her. Merlin comes in like such a bat out of hell. I guess I'm just holding her to too high of a standard. However, I do think she can come in faster---hell when she runs around outside or on agility equipment, she's a blur.

That's all we did today but I think I am going to enter her in pre-novice at the poodle club specialty and see if she is any better this year :)

Fall

According to the calendar, it is fall. Since it has been over 90 degrees every day of fall until today, I'm having trouble believing it. Anyway, because fall has started, I figured I needed to start writing again about Ms. Morgan's training. WE have been very busy. Morgan has had two swimming lessons (one in a pool and one in a lake). She has had two obedience lessons with Suzanne. We have been diligently training albeit only a few minutes a day but we're getting better.

The biggest struggle I am having with Morgan is her screaming in her crate. On the first day of school, there was a major thunderstorm and Morgan completed destroying the door to the dog room. As a result, she was running around the house free as a bird when I got home from class. It was then, that she has been relegated to her crate because I just do not trust her to have run of the house. At first she screamed in her crate when I put her in there at night. She stopped doing that so much and now she is screaming at 5:00 in the morning. I don't know which is worse. They both disturb my sleep. Anyway, there were times when I literally wanted to kill her for all the noise she was making. My anger actually scared me if it didn't scare her. Sunday morning, I was so furious at her and nothing was working to shut her up that I rolled her and her crate out onto the porch and I went back to bed.

I always tell my students that if it doesn't work, do something else. So last night, I decided to put her crate in my room and start all over with crate training. She is quiet as a mouse in my room except that she did wake up and move around a lot at 5:00 but she did not whine. Yay! She will sleep in my room while we complete the crate games video. Once we are done with the crate games video and she is loving her crate, I will start to move her out of my room. I sure hope it works. I'm not supposed to have dogs in my room which means that I will probably have to bathe her every other week if she is sleeping in my room.

The other problem we are having is about toy motivation. However it is 11:30 and I'm pretty pooped so I will have to write about that tomorrow.

First private obedience lesson

Sometimes I feel like I'm all over the place with Morgan's training. It doesn't make sense to me so it couldn't make sense to her. We had our first obedience lesson today to try to organize it in my brain a little more. We rode up with a new friend who is new to this obedience stuff and loves what she saw at a dog show a year ago. She saw me show Merlin at the poodles specialty last year. She now has an 8 month old cream standard poodle who is a sweetheart. Unfortunately, like Morgan did at that age, he drooled during the whole ride poor baby.

Anyway, before I get to our lesson, I have to talk about another disappointing experience. I took Morgan to a pet store that focuses on gun dogs. I was excited to take her there because she is a fiendish retriever -- at home, in our own back yard. In the store she barely even chased the bumper and the only thing she was interested in was exploring the place and stealing the doggie treats. SO EMBARRASSING. I went to the lesson with a heavy heart already.

I rallied, however, as I got my stuff together for our lesson. Suzanne asked me to warm Morgan up and I did our usual routine of pushing on her sides and shoulders and having her chase me but her heart wasn't in the game much. She was still too interested in her surroundings to pay much attention to me. More disappointment! I was starting to think that this girl will never be a performance dog--to reactive.

After a few minutes though, she realized that I had food and that did change things. She was able to do a descent heeling circle but the take off was poor. So we worked on the first step. This was also a major disappointment to me be cause we had worked on the first step so hard. We practiced that first step and I have for homework to work on that. We definitely will.

Morgan does outstanding fronts but her finishes suck. We worked some right finishes and we were instructed to do 20 finishes 5 times each day. Whew! But I guess she'll get finishes after that :)

Heeling fronts and finishes those are the key skills that she will need for the rest of her obedience performance life so we may as well get them down as good as gold.

The other thing she asked me to do is to train her in an areas where there are distractions but not distractions that are too close. I know some perfect places to take her. We'll probably start in the backyard LOL :)

I wrote to obedience poodle list that I found out that I was too wishy washy and that is true. My instructions to her were not clear and I was accepting performances that I shouldn't accept. She has made me mindful of how lax I am getting. So I have to be more black and white and I have to correct her when she defies me and do it like I mean it. Morgan responds to this well. She knows exactly what she should be doing and she just pushes the envelope and that is exactly what I do not have the luxury of letting her do.

I keep thinking of Ruff Love. Well, yeah! I have been too lazy and unmotivated (a whole other story) to stick to my guns but play time is over. As I said in my post to poodle obedience, Morgan is in obedience/agility boot camp. I have many plans for us and even though I started out feeling really depressed about Morgan's performance today at Stan's and Suzanne's, as usual the reason she is the way she is is because of me, duh!!! I have GOT TO stop letting her get away with stuff. She has been doing that for almost six years so it will be a rude awakening for her--for both of us. Playtime is over

CU Training

I'm cutting and posting most of what I wrote on the poodle lists here. Just a little more detail.

Morgan and I spent the day at a Control Unleashed seminar. I learned a lot about myself and my dog. I am very glad I went but, in a way discouraged, because it pointed out the holes in my training that I have to conquer before I ever want to show this dog.

Our participation in the seminar started out great. Morgan was relaxed on her mat she was chillin' and looking very calm. She lay flat on her side and was acting so sweet. Only had eyes for me. The first couple of exercises were wonderful-- doggie zen, and jumping with the mat and one other dog in the ring. We have been working from the book pretty diligently for the past three or four weeks and that helped a lot. Morgan looked like the star. I kept telling people, just wait because they all wonder why my dog is in these classes when she seems to be so good.

Right after lunch, Meagan really upped the ante. They set up a little circular course sequence in the box --two jumps, tunnel, two jumps tunnel. Then we were asked to find a place around the box. We started out fine with each person finding a new spot for themselves and their dogs and we did it one by one but had to pass by other people's set-ups to get there. Morgan did great. Then, I sat on the floor with Morgan, got her all settled and laying on her side seeming very relaxed. I didn't know how unfortunate my choice of a spot was until dogs started running courses. We were away from other dogs but right behind the tunnel. Bad idea.

The first dog ran the sequence, not a problem. The second dog caused Morgan to look over at the course. Good, we played the look-at-that game and she did okay. The third dog was an exuberant border collie who whooshed through the tunnel with amazing thunder. Morgan was up and barking immediately. I was able to get her to focus on me and the cookies after a few seconds but now everyone was aware of our challenges. I stayed in the same position for the next dog and now that Morgan was alerted that dogs were actually doing agility in there, she perked up but stayed under control. However, when another fast and big dog went into the ring, Morgan was up and off, snatched the lead right out of my bad hand and when I went to grab her with my good hand I hit it against the dog walk and boy did that smart. To her credit when I gathered my wits enough to call her to me she came running back. YAY!
Needless to say we moved further from the tunnel after that and I was able to keep her focus a lot better. Talk about embarrassed! She was the only dog to have such a major reaction. Meagan didn't ask us to move but I figured I should because she was being so bad.

Morgan's ballistic reaction to dogs playing is why we are doing CU work.
After today's seminar, I'm encouraged that we have come as far as we have but discouraged that it seems that we have so much further to go. I need to add a few things to her training plan. If we have puppies in September, her training plan will need to be altered anyway. I think I will wait to change the training plan until we know for sure she is having puppies.

C U Training

Morgan and I go to CU training tomorrow and I am excited about what we are going to learn. We have been working on a lot of the skills in the book but we haven't gotten as far as I would have liked us to be at this point. We've got the leave it and go to the mat but her focus on me is still shaky. But, hey, we paid $90 for this so it is what it is right now. We'll see how we do. Gotta go cook liver and bacon and hot dogs :)

First Homework From Sue Garrett Class

I signed up for the Brilliant Recall e-course with Sue Garret. It cost a pretty penny so I am forced to actually do the homework. The class doesn't even start until August 1 but we have homework already. Today, I have to make a Master List of Distractions.
Step 1 -- List
Other dogs moving and playing
toys
people

My list is short but that's all I could come up with right now because the list is VERY General. Susan has a much more detailed list which was the second part of the homework, look at her list and add to mine. So here is my revised list (using her suggestions). I added more detail and I added some that would have 0 value for Morgan as that is what the next directions called for. Now I'm going to rate them from 0 to 10.

5 Park with kids on climbers, playing soccer or just running
0 Sheep, birds, horses
9 Door bell ringing
8 Balls being thrown/rolled
8 Good smells on the ground
10 Dogs running loose near by
10 Dogs doing flyball near by
10 Toys all over the floor
6 Food in containers on a chair
7 Food in containers on the floor
3 Nail clipping time
9 Food scattered all over the floor
10 Another family pet out playing
7 A thrown toy like a flying disc in mid-air
4 Obstacles in the way between handler and dog
6 Squealing children (no need to hurt the children in order to set this one up)
9 New environment—different training building, friend’s back yard
10 A cat running by
8 A delivery man (or mail man) walking by
8 Full dinner bowl on the floor
3 Opening of the front door
10 Stuffed things, I love stuffed things
2 Dogs in crates near by
7 Dogs on leash near by
2 Squirrels running in a park
3 Squirrels running in your yard
1 Obstacles in the way between handler and dog
1 Empty dinner bowl on the floor
0 Hose, sprinkler, running water
1 You standing still, not moving at all, when you are calling and waiting
0 Sheep, birds, rats, horses
4 Other family pet being petted
0 Me on the computer
1 Me on the phone
0 Me eating dinner or drinking a beverage
4 Other dogs barking

Now I have to make a chart with 11 columns and fill these in. I may juggle a few while I do this. I need to do it quick before I go out for the evening.

Scary

I just tried to get on this blog through the url and it was blocked. I had to come in through google. That was wierd and scary.

Plodding along

I cannot believe that I didn't post at all in the last nine days. I actually did train but obviously am really bad at keeping track of it. It has been horrendously hot so we haven't made much progress on the agility end of things but we have been plodding along in obedience. The heeling is getting much, much better. Today we started change of pace. I started with the fast this morning because that is easiest for her as a conformation dog. I was able to improve her right turns because my training buddy pointed out that my slew foot gait was getting in her way. When I turned my left foot in, she was excellent at the right turn. On the left, she is bumping me a little so we have to work on that. That was about it for our obedience training this morning. I did get her to do a few freestyle moves which she does remember. I will be doing a heel to music routine with her in the November show and wanted to add some stuff to our routine.
I have been bad, bad, bad about the dumbbell but we WILL get it. The same is to be said of the Control Unleashed stuff. I hope to attend some seminars this summer but it looks like Morgan may be coming in season soon so we may need to forgo one of them. I'm holding off on my registration until Thursday to see what is cooking, if anything.

I went back to the cookie in my hand and Morgan did great. She is really getting better at the turns but both can use a lot more work. I am committed to completing the perch training we started MONTHS ago and that will help with bumping on the left turn and may work well for the right turn and about turn as well. We also are going to only work against a wall to help with the crabbing. I was told to fade the lure quickly and shorten the duration of the heeling. That I can do in the house. The training building is getting increasingly hot and once the humidity gets really going, it probably won't be possible to work in there at all. That means starting earlier and setting up a ring outside. I don't look forward to it :)

As far as agility is concerned, I have worked the A-frame grid a little but it is hard with a yapping dog in the next yard breaking Morgan's concentration. Amazingly, when I had food, that almost never happened :)

I have been intermittently working on the controlled unleashed stuff. I just need to get more organized about what I am doing in training. I feel so scattered. I KNOW intermittent doesn't work. I need to do it every day for it to stick. I used my shoulder as an excuse not to do much before, now I'm using the heat :)

One more day and Morgan isn't in season and I'm supposed to be siezing these precious moments to prepare her for her competition career. I REALLY need to get on the ball or I won't have a dog to show next year as well.

June 17

I didn't submit this to my blog but I copied it from the entry on Obedience Poodle list.

I just want to kick myself when I do something dumb in my training and have to back up and fix it. Here's the story. I have been training heeling with Morgan and would keep my treats in this little apron thingy that I won at a trial with cute poodles on it. I taught her to focus on my left hand by putting the hot dog in my fist and luring her with it. It worked great. She was heeling straight and happy. Gradually I faded the cookie so that she could not see it but it was there and when she was especially good, I'd reward her with it.

Here is the bad part, ya'll. I decided to go with nothing in my hand and I discarded the apron (a good thing?) BUT I put the cookie in my mouth where it is when I do most of my teaching in obedience. (You know what's coming.) We have been working on left, right and about turns for the past few days and I noticed that when I exaggerated my cue for the right turn (turn my head and shoulder looking down and to the right), Morgan would lose all focus and get out of position. It happened several times and I couldn't understand what was going on. I finally went to the mirror to see what was going on and I found out two things 1) she was crabbing and I hadn't noticed and 2) when I looked in the mirror she lost focus and moved out of position.
Damn it, SHE WAS LOOKING AT MY FACE as her new focal point. When I turned my face away from her, she lost her focal point and didn't know what to do. I had been stupidly taking the food out of my mouth to reward her-no wonder she was looking there.

Now, I have to go back and re-train the focal point AND get rid of the crabbing. What was I thinking?!!! I wasn't, obviously. I do NOT want another crabbing dog (Merlin crabbed because he is so little and wanted to look in my face) so I have to get her focal point back to my hand where she was in a good position. I'm hoping that it won't take long to re-train because we haven't been doing the 'no cookie' in hand routine long-two weeks tops. I probably have to go back to the beginning with the focal point and name it. What do you think?

There was one good thing. I found that after all that practice, if I just moved my eyes and shoulders, she finally got the right turn w/o lagging. She kinda reminds me of myself in 5th grade when the teacher was trying to get us to do long division and wanted us to show all the steps. I would invariably skip a bunch of steps because I didn't need them. My teacher was outraged that I had done that and couldn't conceive of how I got the answers without going through the steps. And she was teaching a gifted class???!!!
Anyway, I'm thinking Morgan in some cases may not need all the tiny little steps but we will take them and speed through them if she seems to 'get it'
more quickly. OTOH, she needs teensy, eensy, weensy steps in retrieving-I'll ask ya'll about that next.

Steamy Monday

Took the pups to the training building this morning. Peggy had opened it up and had started a couple of fans but it was already 83 degrees when we got there. I had a physical therapy appointment so I knew our training time would be short so I opted for working in the building.

Morgan's heeling is coming along. Today, I started out with a lure and quickly faded to a treat on the turns only. She is doing great on the left turns. The first time, I she bumped into me. I have exaggerated my cues to let her know that I am about to turn. I think she was catching on. We'll keep working on it. Her right turns are 3/4 of the time correct. She has been lagging but I have encouraged her, thrown a cookie (bad idea, she just keeps looking on the floor for a cookie), and finally went to only treating her when she was where I wanted her to be (DUH!--Clicker training). That worked like a charm.

I have to give a name to the right side heeling. I have a name I use with Merlin ---'heel' (left side is 'strut') I use Place instead of close but those words may sound too much alike. Maybe I should use 'Right'

A side note -- I CANNOT train Merlin to sit in heel position on my right side. I think it has to do with his vision in his left eye. he will heel on the right side --about a foot away. I'm only training for freestyle so it does not matter how far away he is. I'll work it into the routine.

Morgan's recall is getting to be very reliable. Today, she didn't even try to break her stay. He recall was not as fast as I would like (but. hey, it was 85 degrees by then). When it gets cooler, we'll work on speed.

I've been avoiding the dumbbell but I need to get to it. I can train the dumbbell in the house under air conditioning. I'm just so bad--been procrastinating on a million things I don't want to do.

Obedience Training

Today went well with Morgan's obedience training. We got there about a half hour AFTER I had planned to go. As I have written before, I decided that she doesn't go outside off lead any more and it really puts a kink in my schedule. I had to get up, take her outside, let her go potty, scoop the poop, go back in and let Merlin out to do his business. When they are out together, she is too wild so I'm doing it one at a time for a while. Then I showered and got ready to leave.

I had 1.5 hot dogs for treats for both dogs today and I decided not to get any more. When I ran out I ran out. I just had to see how far I could stretch it.

Morgan and I did a warm up with a tug and palm touches. She also did a couple of weaves and then we went straight into heeling. She is fabulous in a circle so today we tried a straight line and turns again. She was much better with the left turns. She did bump me a couple of times and that is something I will need to work on but I was pleased with her left turns. Today, the only time she got a treat was on the turns. She didn't lag as much on the right turns and quickly got used to me not making eye contact to make the turn. I'm hoping as I fade out the big move (turning my whole head) that she will continue to respond well.

We worked on recalls again-- this time we didn't have distractions. She did the first recall just fine. The second time she anticipated the command. Ooops. I put her back and said we'd try that again. That time she waited until I called. Did I mention that her fronts were to die for? She is doing VERY well with formal recalls. Now if I could just get that in agility :)

We did some heeling on the right but not a lot. We worked on some CU stuff. I am trying to get her to orient toward me when she comes out of the crate. She has got it in her mind that she has to do a front. Fine. I just have to remember to get her to do straight fronts every time so we don't lose that gorgeous precision. We also had to do a little leash disconnecting work. She usually does not get overly happy when the leash comes off but she does tend to wander away after a minute or two. Therefore, I have tried to get her to give me eye contact when the leash comes off and release her or give her a command. I need to read back in the CU book about what I should be doing when the taking off the leash. I know it is not supposed to be a big party.

Last night we did some 'leave it' work. The CU 'leave it' is different from what we learned in puppy class but I like it so we will build up to doing what was recommended there. We'll work on it more tonight.

I don't know what is holding me up with the retrieve training. I'm suffering from major procrastination. That usually means that I'm avoiding something that is going to be hard. It is probably more about her soft mouth and not knowing how to fix it than it is about not knowing how to teach the hold. I know that she will do it; she is such a natural retriever. It's one more thing I have to force myself to do -- and soon.

Well, we didn't do agility because it was hot and I was lazy. I know I don't have to be completely well before we do agility but I guess I'm using that as an excuse not to work as well.

I am so impatient. I wish she were already trained so that all I have to do is show her. There is so much work that goes into getting them ready to show YKKK!

That's all for now.

June 10

It has been hot and getting hotter. We had a great time at the WC/WCX but it has taken time for me to get back in the groove. I've been taking long naps--a true sign of avoidance behavior :) Anyway, last night I set up the A-frame grid--finally. I will set up some jumps and weave poles as well and actually start doing what I planned on doing for a month now.

I have actually started work on the control unleashed. Gave both dogs a massage last night (or what goes for a massage in my book). Neither one relaxed enough to close their eyes but I stroked them for about 20 minutes each and they were very relaxed. I think when I do this every day, they will get used to it and start to relax enough to close their eyes.

At the hunt test, I learned how reactive she is to other dogs. I learned more about her today that convinces me that she gets aroused when other dogs are out having fun. She seems to be okay if other dogs are present but when they are happy and the adrenaline is pumping, she loses it. Today, I taught my Novice ring ready class and had Morgan do an off lead recall with the other dogs heeling in the same ring with her. She never took her eyes off me, she did not break her stay and she did a perfect front. Whose dog was that?!! She was awesome! I saw in her eyes, she understood that this was a set-up.

We also did some dumbbell work. We have long way to go with 'hold.' She still does not get the concept and I'm not sure what I need to do to teach it to her. She was doing great, we took a week off and it is as if we never did this before. She will walk around holding it loosely in her mouth, will even trot like that. But she will not bite down. I am going to tie a string around it to see if that will help We'll keep plodding along but I cannot move ahead in the retrieve training until she understands 'hold.'

Her heeling is very good. Today, I got a little lagging when I introduced the right turn. What I did was take my eyes off her and glance to the right. As soon as I wasn't watching, she lagged. Her focal point is my hand but I'm sure she sees my face in her peripheral vision. It took a couple of tries but I was able to get her into position by verbal encouragement and as soon as she was in position while we turned, I clicked and treated. We did that a couple of more times and quit (as you know Ms. Morgan doesn't do high reps). I think she was getting it.

I put her on the pedestal to help her move her rear end to prepare for the left turn. She loves this game but we didn't play long. We only got halfway around before she started getting sloppy so we quit and went back to it later and that time I only asked for a quarter of the way around and we were successful.

In all, not a bad day. Hopefully, it won't be too hot this evening and I will get in a few reps on agility. I probably should do it before we go for our walk. Something tells me she won't be any good AFTER the walk.

June 7

Over the weekend, we were at the WC/WCX test where Morgan went into water up to her elbows but wouldn't swim, even for a duck. We went to the building to train today for just a little while. We worked on heeling in a circle and stopping. We did figure 8's (big ones) and 270 degrees. We even did some tiny Rally style 270s and 360s. We worked on her stay for the recall. We worked on a fast recall. We also worked on the drop. Not bad for 15 minutes. I left my training bag in Caroline's motor home so we couldn't do anything with the dumbbell. I think I have some larger articles I can work with here at home.

Tomorrow, I start to fade the treats in heeling while I work on turns. The plan is to stop luring and give her a cookie at every sit and every turn. My physical therapy is progressing so that I am working on raising my are on my own. Maybe I will be able to actually do some things in agility and obedience by next week.

June 2 training

Well, I put Morgan's June schedule together yesterday and we worked on it today. She did some beautiful heeling in a circle and we did a 270 degree turn. She tried to sit in some places and I realize that I had been sitting her in the same place each time. I guess I need to vary that :) Had some good work chasing after the dumbbell but she had gotten a really soft mouth with it. I'm going to put a string on it and see if that works to get her to hold it better. Had her do some standing on her hind legs (works for free style and agility).

If it doesn't thunderstorm tonight, I'll set up some agility jumps and get her to play a bit.

Best Laid Plans

Well all my training plans were put on H O L D for the month of May. I had my shoulder surgery on April 30 and I had no idea how debilitating it would be. I also taught a class every night during May and that coupled with being totally preoccupied with my shoulder and my sling (not to mention the GCOC Obedience trial)there was nothing left for Ms. Morgan.

However, I have tried to rectify these past transgressions already. I am out of the sling as of yesterday and that really helps but I still do not have full function (in any way shape or form) of both arms. Last weekend we started her on her swimming lessons and we went again yesterday to work on that. She is less afraid of the water which is great but still will only go in up to her shoulders.

Today, we did obedience for the first time. I spent 15 minutes and we did a little heeling in a circle, some recall exercises and sit and down stay. The recall continues to be an issue with anticipation. I think she has settled the difference between the sit exercise and recall but she just won't stay until I call her and if she does, she is soooo slow. So we have to work on that.

I will set up some jumps and the A-frame grid tonight and hope to practice agility a little tomorrow morning. If it is cool enough tonight, we'll do a little tonight. Anyway, I intend to back up my plan by one month and get started on my plans right now. I have 11 weeks to work on stuff this summer and I intend to get the most out of it.

Agility Training Plan

I found doing the agility training plan to be a little more difficult. I really don't know how quickly Morgan is going to learn the agility skills. I know I have more time to devote to training in the summer but it is hot as can be and she really wilts in the heat. We'll see what we can get done. However, I still have her competing for titles this year. I hope I am not being overly optimistic :). But we learned today that plans need to be flexible. I need to be flexible because of puppies as well.

I want to get as much foundation stuff done as I can before I bring a new puppy into the mix. I will be getting a puppy next spring or summer so I would like to have my working relationship with Morgan solidified by then. Well, here is the Agility Plan.

Morgan’s Agility Training Plan

May

Focus:
Reliable recall
CU training
Weave poles – do 12 poles in 6 weeks 
Jump Chutes
Rear Cross
2o2o
A-frame
Watch Salo video
Read CU again June

Focus:
2o2o
Teeter
Weave poles-12
Jump chutes
A-frame progression
Work on attention building
Exercise with Morgan
Continue focus work
Read Clothier book

July

Focus:
2o2o
Serpentine
Threadles
Continue attention and control exercises
A-frame progression
Stay exercises
Watch Garrett jump video
Continue exercise w and w/o Morgan

August
Focus:
2o2o
Weave poles
Sequences with rear crosses
Stay exercises
Work on ring nerves
Watch Garrett –go the distance video

September
Focus:
Go to show n goes, if not,
do some JWW’s in GCOC’s fall trial.
Do More distance work
Continue A-frame, DW, Teeter
Training -- proofing

October
Focus:
Go to two show n goes
Enter JWW in Charlotte’s trial (another trial run )
Continue A-frame, DW, Teeter Training -- proofing

November
Focus:
Enter first real competition in JWW
Continue training and maintaining A-frame, DW, Teeter
Show n goes if possible

December
Focus:
Continue competing in JWW
Continue training and maintaining A-frame, DW
Show n goes if possible

January
Focus:
Continue competing in JWW
Continue training and maintaining A-frame, DW,
Show n goes

February
Focus:
Begin competing in FAST and JWW

March
Continue competing in FAST and JWW
Continue training and maintaining A-frame, DW
Show n goes if possible April
Continue competing in FAST and JWW
Continue training and maintaining A-frame, DW
Show n goes if possible

I went to the training plans seminar given by one of our club members and I came away psyched. I worked on my obedience training plan at the seminar because it is the one that I have truly neglected. I'm posting it here just to remind myself. I'm feeling very confident about what I will be able to do with Miss Thing. I went to my garage and tried out a few things with her (fronts, heel position, finishes) and she was very good at it. I feel so much more confident about her training -- even with the layoff she will have when the puppies come (if there are puppies) I want to finish her first AKC novice title in April next year, the Open title in May and the Utility title by the end of next year. I think it is doable.

Morgan’s Obedience Training Plan

May
Focus:
Teach heel position while moving
Teach turns in heeling
Work on relationship
Focus
Control Unleashed behavior
Perfect the hold
Me: Lose weight, practice visualization
Read Jane Savoi

June

Focus:
Introduce forced fetch
Teach right about turn and about U-turn.
Teach change of pace
Perfect finishes
Work on fronts
Work on attention building
Exercise with Morgan
Continue focus and attention exercises—Dog Games for attention

July
Focus:
Teach pivots
Fronts with more distance
Teach back up in front
Teach back up in heel position
Perfect finishes
Continue attention and control exercises
Continue retrieve exercises
Stay exercises
Continue exercise w and w/o Morgan

August
Focus:
Formal obedience recall with front.
Proofing for heeling, fronts and finishes
Continue retrieve exercises with proofing
Stay exercises
Teach Go Out
Maintain attention and control unleashed.
Work on ring nerves

September
Focus:
Attend at least two show n goes
Continue proofing all exercises
Go out with full distance
Proof exercises from May June and July in different places

October
Focus:
Teach directed retrieve
Proofing for go outs
Maintenance exercises for heel, front, finish.
Teach directed jumping
Teach broad jump
Teach DOR
Enter trials for wild card Novice
Go to two show n goes

November
Focus:
Proofing for directed retrieve, broad jump, and directed jumping and DOR.
Maintenance of heeling, fronts, finishes, and retrieves
Enter Wild card Novice and Beginner Novice if available

December
Focus:
Maintenance on all Novice exercises!
Proofing for all other exercises in a variety of different places
Enter wild card Novice and Beginner Novice if available
Teach scent discrimination

January
Focus:
Proofing on all Novice exercises –aim to complete the beginner novice title.
Proof open exercises – retrieve.
Proof go out, gloves, and directed jumping
Continue working on scent discrimination

February
Focus:
Complete beginner Novice title.
Enter Wild Card Novice
Proof all Novice and Open exercises
Attend at least two Show n goes (or UKC trials)
Continue work on utility exercises

March
Focus:
Complete UKC Novice title
Show n goes for Open and Utility exercises

April
Focus:
Complete AKC Novice title

April 5. A lot has happened since March 25 but I don't have the time or inclination to catch up right now. I have bought a ton of videos and have had bunches of lessons and I think I need to just sit down and think about Morgan's training a little bit. It feels like it is spiraling out of control and I don't know where I am. I feel like I need to go back to foundation work with her. Actually, I feel like I need to be training her 24/7. We have a seminar planned for putting together a training plan but I don't think I can wait. I need to do something about Ms. Thing ASAP. I am feeling more pressure, too because it has already started getting too hot to work during the day and I thought I would have at least until mid May. To put it in a nutshell, we have recall problems, we have toy problems, we have knocking bar problems and we have attention problems. It's very frustrating.

I truly amaze myself that I haven't written in almost a month. But I have been training and I have been sharing some stuff on the poodle agility list. Next month I will be going to a session planning out my dog's training program. I have so much in mind to do and have so little time and/or motivation to get it done. I'm thinking this planning session will go a long way toward improving that.

I've spent a bundle on lessons and we are improving but every improvement we make, the more I see that we have to learn. Also, it is getting warmer and I know that our training days are limited. I'm hoping it will get too hot before Morgan comes into season. If it is too hot when she comes in, I won't mind missing the training. I have to get busy, though, for the next 6 weeks and do as much as I can because, I'm pretty sure she will come in season by the end of May.

I will catch up later.

Good training

Morgan and I have had some good training sessions. We worked the Monday after our lesson at Tom's, we worked again at home on Tuesday, Thursday, and today.

Morgan has had some trouble with the 12ft. jump chute. She either runs around the first jump or she breaks her stay and takes all the jumps knocking several down on the way. I tried to fix the first problem by moving up closer (in front of the last jump). That worked fine until I moved behind the last jump. Same problem. Then I did a kind of reverse back chain where I stood in front of the second jump, then in front of the third jump, then in front of the fourth jump, and finally behind the fourth jump and it worked like a charm. I asked her to sit so I could send her in the opposite direction and before I could get halfway there, she had broken her stay. Now she was raring to go. So I worked on the stay problem by coming back and treating her for staying as I walked away and when I turned and faced her. I finally got two lines of 4 12ft jumps with a start-line stay AND all four jumps. We quit after that.

Interestingly, my low rep dog has turned into a high rep dog when it comes to jumping. She loves it.

We are working on doing the weave poles from both sides with a jump. She is having trouble with the off side weave entry. After about a gazillion reps (which she didn't seem to mind) she was doing the correct entry and the jump without hesitation.

We also worked on the jump, jump, box (running contact stuff). Today, she was doing it like a real champ. She acted as if she knew she was supposed to get four feet in the box. I think we will practice just the box tomorrow to reinforce that all four feet should go in there.

The last thing we worked on today was the threadle and serpentine just to see if I could still remember how to do them :-)

Tomorrow, no jumping --more weave poles, some more plank work, practice on front and rear crosses w/o equipment. Won't have much time between the conference and the bb game but we will get some time in before we have to go to our lesson on Sunday. I'm encouraged with her progress.

Today's Lesson

Morgan and I went for our first lesson in 17 days. I decided to skip a week to have extra time to practice and then we had this monster snow storm last weekend in South Carolina, no less, and I didn't get any extra training in any way. I had planned to go to our lesson on Thursday anyway but it was cancelled because our instructor was sick. Luckily we were able to make up our lesson today. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and it would have been fun to have our lesson outside.

Anyway, we had a good lesson and Meagan is great, she just takes us from where we are. Today we started out with having Morgan do a jump chute with 5 jumps, 12 feet apart. Of course we backchain everything. The trick is that Meagan put the jumps at full height so Morgan had to jump 26 inches. I don't think I have ever asked her to jump 26 inches. We did the last jump first. She refused to jump. I put her further back behind the jump and I went further away on the other side of the jump facing her. I called her over the jump again, she came but she knocked a bar. Progress but no cigar. The third time was the charm. Then, she did the last two jumps without a problem. I set her up for three jumps, went beyond the last jump to call her and she ran around the jumps to get to me. This happened twice. So I came in closer and stood in front of the last jump and had her try the second and third jumps. She still refused the same jump. Finally we just had her do the jump she kept refusing and she got it. We did the backchaining sequence with the three jumps one more time and she got it again and we quit there. She was obviously unhappy with having me so far away from her to do the jumps. We'll work on it this week.

Next we did the weave poles. She is still in the two weave poles and I am trying to not beat myself up for seeming like a retarded trainer. Everyone else seems to learn so quickly about how to train 2X2 weave poles. I guess I should have bought the videotape because I don't seem to be getting it. Morgan, however, is doing what I ask :-) Today we were supposed to do front crosses in front of the tunnel going in both directions (on the left and on the right). Morgan did beautifully entering from the right, but we had a problem with entering from the left. Meagan said that with the 2X2 method that dogs have the opposite problem dogs trained the traditional way have in that right entries are breeze, left entries are more problematic. So our task is to work on left entries 3X as often as we do right entries.

We went from there to running contact which Morgan is pretty much getting. I didn't have much opportunity to work the 2-jump - box grid with her in the past week and a half but she did quite well with it at our lesson today. I just have to get better at throwing the food :-). Meagan says that I can delay food if I have to think about whether or not she actually put 4 feet in the box. Morgan REALLY likes this game. I hope that she will love her box so much that we can stick to a running contact and not have to go to a 2o2o.

Finally, we looked at her progress on the down side of the dog walk. She is definitely reaching back with her rear feet to touch the bottom. However, still having trouble with the width of the boards. She wants to get both back feet on but she won't bring her legs together enough (hussy) to get them both on at the same time. We will continue to work on that. Meagan also wants me to get her to put all four feet on the board and bring her forward for the 2o2o position.

It was a good lesson and we will be going back next Sunday. I hope the weather stays pretty nice so we can do some work outside. Gotta go, Merlin and Morgan are asking to come back inside. I don't know why, it is so gorgeous out there (70 degrees). I actually saw a dandelion. We had 8 inches of snow last week! Amazing!

January 28

I need to catch up big time with Morgan's training log. We've done quite a bit of training since our lesson last week and then we had our third lesson today. So I will take it chronologically. After our lesson, I really didn't train at all on Friday but on Saturday, I set up the 2 weave poles and we practice doing them with me rotating 180 degrees around the poles. She was able to dive through the middle no matter where I was standing and as long as there were cookies involved she was happy going after them. We did the jump chute with me NOT dropping my hand and she did it well. We also started doing it with me moving and I was able to get all the way to jump 3. She did great. We did it on both sides and then quit.

On Monday, we went to Tom's house again to practice and he had us drive by the house and Jake was a very good boy and didn't even look up at us. We drove by 3 times. Good boy! After that I took Morgan in and we practiced the teeter. She is way past that part of the training but we still don't have the 2o2o to proceed. we did the weave poles and I tried to use the kix which were kinda yellow but they kept getting lost in the grass anyway. I'm going to need big pieces of something for her to really see the cookies I throw in the grass. That didn't work as well as I had hoped.

We did the pinwheel jumps. Tom says that I wasn't back chaining, but front chaining and I get what he meant. I was doing the first jump over and over. I'm not sure that is what she really wanted me to do but it's what I remember but maybe it got jumbled up inside somehow. To back chain is what we did with the jump chute. We did the last jump first so I think I was really doing it backwards. But, hey, it worked. She was jumping through that pinwheel, bouncing away. I didn't try to get much distance but that is what I'll try to work on this week. I'm not supposed to jump her again tomorrow but on Saturday I'm going to try to back chain it for real. Meagan had us do something completely weird and different today (she called it the devil jumps) but I'll get to that when I write my 'lesson blog.'

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we practiced backing her up on the steps, helping her get in touch with her back feet. I forgot to practice with a ladder but will do that this week. We also have the platform we can use. On Wednesday she was really beginning to 'get it' Tomorrow we'll work those props with her as well as the 2o2o travel plank. The last thing we worked on is 'side' I am trying to teach her to go to my right side. She was beginning to come to the right side when I pointed to it but the left is her default side.

2nd Lesson

Morgan and I had our second lesson on Thursday. It was a rainy ikky day but the lesson is inside in a beautiful building so no problem! Anyway, we didn't practice but one time since the previous lesson so we didn't make much progress. We may have the same problem next week. I had more edits on my book yesterday and today and I have a grant proposal that is due on Monday. Anyhoo, here is the scoop.

Morgan was knocking down bars when she made the turn towards me at the end of the jump chute. I couldn't figure out why but according to Meagan, I was dropping my hand and, of course, Morgan's nose went down with my hand. Duh! When I remembered to keep my hand up, she didn't knock a bar. (It's usually the handler, right?).

I was doing the 2X2 thing wrong too. She was supposed to go through the poles and then I was to throw the food, not being lured by the food by throwing it first. Got it!

Morgan has the worst time on the dogwalk. This was not a problem in the past, that I recall, but now she has absolutely no idea where her hind legs are or that they exist. As a result, it is very difficult to teach her to put just her hind legs on the dogwalk plank. So I'm supposed to put her through her paces with a ladder and her pedestal so that she has more rear awareness. I did that long ago but obviously the lesson did not stick :-) I never was consistent in training this dog. I feel so bad about that.

One thing we did that was successful was the pinwheel with four jumps. Meagan back chains everything so we did the pinwheel with a back chain and Morgan caught on quickly. Once I stopped being so frantic about getting her to look ahead, she actually did it -- "Chill, Mom!"

I've got to teach Morgan to come to my right side. I think I'm going to call it something besides 'place' because it sounds way too much like 'close' which is what I use for heel position. Maybe I'll call it side. It sounds like right so if I teach her directions she won't be that confused :-)

The last thing we did was the A-frame box thingy. Morgan is supposed to pounce in the middle. She is supposed to get in there and then I drop the food for her and then throw it off the front. The idea is for her to pounce in the box and then bounce out. Silly girl spends all her time looking for the cookie. I think I am going to get some of those big cheese balls and see how they work--especially since we're working on grass. I KNOW she can see those things.

Well that's the scoop. I might try to get a little training in before it gets too dark tomorrow after the poodle club meeting.

New Program New Instructor-kinda

Well, I began to fulfill one of my new year's resolutions. That is that Morgan and I had our first agility lesson last week. Yippee! We started everything over from scratch. We won't be doing most of that stuff we've been practicing for the past five weeks but I think that those weeks were worthwhile because it got Morgan to work with me. Today she even gave up trying to get the cat.

Now we are doing 2X2 weave poles. Since we are only working with 2 poles to begin with, she said it is okay to do it with my stick in the ground weave poles. I think this might just be fun for Ms. M.

In jumping we are doing the jump chute but with me standing to the side of the last jump. This worked great at the building but I must have been doing something wrong today because Morgan kept knocking the last jump. I'm not supposed to jump her tomorrow but I want to try one more thing before I give up. Only a couple of jumps in the afternoon.

We are also going to learn running A-frame contacts. It is something she likes to teach and it is something that I wanted to do with my standard poodle. I just think the 2o2o position is too hard on their bodies as long legged as standard poodles are. Anyway, we ARE doing 2020 for the dog walk. Meagan's idea is that you get a little extra time to catch up on the A-frame but not so much on the dog walk. You end up running along side the dog on the dogwalk and they can definitely beat you to the end. She has this cool box that Morgan is supposed to pounce into.

I haven't had any time to practice since our lesson. On Friday I had work stuff to do and then there was the trial set-up and Saturday and Sunday was the obedience trial of which I am chair. So no time for agility. Morgan didn't even go to the obedience trial because she hadn't been groomed and I didn't want to embarrass us :-)

I'm hoping to work a little with her tomorrow and Wednesday so we won't be total screw ups for our lesson on Thursday.

Kathy

Lazy Sunday

I didn't plan on training today but when I decided not to take Morgan for a walk in the park, I needed to do something to compensate. I decided that putting up her stick in the ground weave poles was an appropriate compensation. My hip was KILLING me from lugging all the Christmas stuff back to the garage but I worked through it. I put in two lines of stakes, just about 3 inches apart to simulate channel weaves. When I tried Morgan on them, she just ignored the poles and wouldn't weave through them. I decided that I had the poles too close together since she did them so well yesterday. So I opened the channel one inch. What a difference it made. She whizzed right through them. The problem is that NOW I have to buy one of those little manners minders thingys so that she doesn't get the treat without doing the weaves properly. I don't think she is even aware of the weaves--just the target, right now.

I tried her on the new set up jumps according to Susan Salo method and she did outrageous bounces. I'm very proud of her. Now I have to go back a read about when I can move on to the next stage.

I was tempted to do more on the weave poles but w/o help in guarding the treats, I decided to quit while I was ahead :-)

BTW, it was amazing that once I started training Morgan, the hip pain went away. Now I know the cure for sciatica.

First agility training of the year

I bought several DVD's as a Christmas present to myself and Morgan. One is Dream Weaves with Ann Croft and the other is a 4-DVD set on jumping with Susan Salo. Morgan and I had our first agility training session of the year so I could try out what I learned.

We had been doing our weave backwards -- at least according to the Ann Croft DVD. We should teach the dog to drive from the last pole to the toy or treat and back up from there. Morgan was amazing. She just got faster and faster and didn't pop out of the poles once. We are going to have to move them closer and closer very quickly. These are the channel weaves. Croft next wants us to go to the weavomatic with the slanted poles. Those are hard to do with our stick in the ground weave poles but for now, we will work on just the channel weaves.

On the jumping, according to Susan Salo's program, we had skipped the first step which is to help the dog figure out its footing. So we went to two jumps, the first with practically no height at all and the second with just 16 inches. I think we had the jumps a little too far apart because Morgan was taking an extra step. I will probably move the jumps close together when we practice in our own back yard tomorrow.

Morgan is doing okay on the teeter training but we have GOT to start the 2o2o training. She is all over the little travel board and really does not understand it. I need to hurry up and fix mine (tomorrow's project) and start training on it.

I am very happy with her progress and because we have switched to doing only two repetitions of any exercise, she is more engaged and happy and doesn't turn off. Worked like a charm. We just did circuit training --did two reps on each exercise moved on to the next. After we went through everything, we started from the beginning and repeated each one with two reps. Done. Happy Happy poodle and we go home.

Tom has been very patient with Morgan as we all try to figure this stuff out.