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.