Having a go at Rally-O

In the weekend Brody and I had our first proper go at a Rally-O Competition. It was a ribbon trial at the Ardmore Exhibition Centre.

Rally-O is a new sport that has only recently been recognized by the NZKC as an official sport, that you can gain titles in. It consists of a course of heel work, and many other activities such as turns, sits, downs, weaving through cones, recalls etc. The course is set out with signs that you walk around before your round.

I was a bit nervous, because I have given Brody a BIHG break from obedience due to his epilepsy, and how anxious he was getting in the ring when doing obedience competition.

When it was our turn to go in the ring I tried really hard to be positive and happy even though I was a little scared about getting lost or doing the signs wrong. I also aimed for speed.... because you are placed based on your time, and I thought it might be better to keep Brody focused if I was moving fast!

I was SSSOOOO happy with how Brody worked in the ring. He was happy with a wagging tail, and enthusiasm. He tried really hard the whole round, and did everything properally. The picture above shows him 3/4 through the course doing his slow pace.

Our round had no deductions, so we got 100 points, and then it went on our time for the placing. And we won!

Now I'm looking ahead to the upcoming champ shows so that I can work towards getting some Rally-O titles for Brody.

Chace progress...

Obedience Seminar - Kamal Fernandez

Last weekend I went to an Obedience seminar - Training course with Kamal Fernandez.

• You Tube Video of Kamal at Crufts

Brody and I were lucky enough to get one of 10 handling spot, where I could take Brody and work with him during the seminar.

Saturday started with a FREEZING cold start at Ardmore.

The four reasons that you are not getting what you want from a dog

1. Lack of understanding - the dog does not actually understand the task you are asking it to do properly
2. Lack of motivation - the dog is not motivated to do it
3. Lack of Respect - the dog does not respect you
4. Relationship problem - a handler issue.... eg. the dog is a rebound dog, or trying to live up to a previous dog.

I think that Brody definately has a lack of understanding of the things I am asking him to do, and needs more motivation.

The basic ideas were that in training a dog, to get a really motivated excellent dog you should:

• Positive reinforcement (LOTS)
• Clicker training - allow the dog to learn what you want by offering behavior, rather than being lured. A clicker could be an actual click, or clicker word.
• Teaching to dog to be focused on the handler, almost WILLING the handler to notice that it is doing what the handler wants so it can be rewarded.
• The dog should learn to hold a strong heel position, despite distractions or the handler looking away, talking, or doing strange body posture
• The handler should not lead behaviors or nag to heel, or look at the dog... instead reward with a high motivation reward when the dog is doing it well
• Lots of training in the ring is really important e.g. 4:1 training:competition. So your dog isint sure when a reward is coming. The dog thinks the ring is just an awesome place to be, as it gets all these rewards there! Choose what you want to reinforce and have your rewards ready.
• Overtrain what you need in the ring - do 150% more heelwork then you need in the ring, or three retrieve's when you only need one.
• Randomizing where the reward is coming from, and teaching that the dog must do the behavior to get the reward, rather than be lured to follow the treat.
• Reinforcement zone - using where you reward a dog to build importance for that area e.g. the left side for heel work
• Plumbline - the position your dog should hold during heelwork - like a piece of string from you hip down to the ground
• Using lots of hands on tactile work with your dog, to build your relationship and value for interacting with the handler, and desensitize to handlers touch / movements
• Being a 'lumper or a splitter' e.g. breaking an exercise down to lots of very small pieces
• Hierarchy of reinforcement - having a range of rewards, and understanding the importance / value of each for your dog, and using them appropriately.
• NOT naming a behavior / task till you get exactly what you want. Kamal used noises to gain attention rather than asking for things, and rarely used to dogs name. Also just click / reward for a long time until you get your 'finished product' that you can start adding the cue / command to.
• Reward NOT lure. Train the dog that yes. there is a treat in my hand but you only get it for looking at me, not following / nosing the treat. The dog learns that to get the treat / reward he must give the correct behavior.
• Don't 'cheerlead' your dog. If you cant get the attention / work you want in the ring you need to do more training. Your dog should WANT to be in heel, looking at you because you might just look and see him working really hard, and reward him!
• Not all dogs are toy motivated, but you can build this drive. By making the toy more rabbit like (not a half dead three legged rabbit - be exciting and realistic!), putting onto a rope, flicking around etc. Trying different types of toy, incorporating treat into toys to build interest. Even playing with other dogs in-front of your dog. Work over many sessions to build up the interest / drive.
• Food circles - to reward, build drive and interest. Throw a treat out, and encourage the dog back, pull the dog around you and throw another treat out.... You can change so the dogs runs around you, through your legs etc.
• Targeting - teach a dog to hold a nose touch to hand, to use in heel work and maintaining head position.
• Transfer of value - making a little boring thing totally exciting and the best thing ever for your dog because of the rewards / high value you build for it.

Important concepts to consider when teaching new tasks

Proofing - testing your dogs understanding, giving controlled chances to fail so the dog learns

Generalizing - transferring the experience + learning to a new environment

Reinforcement - builds behavior

Kamal used lots of games to build motivation for the dog

• Get the party started

Sit in a chair, somewhere quietly with the dog with you. Suddenly jump up and have a big play with your toy, being super fun and exciting for the dog. Alternatively to playing you could do food circuits. This builds interest in you, and the dog is always looking at you to see is a game is going to start.

• Eye Spy

Stand up with the toy / treat in your hand. Stand still until the dog looks at your face, rather than the treat. Click and reward. Progress by increasing the time the dog must look, then increased time and you looking away. Teaches the dog that he wont get a treat by focusing on the reward, instead is rewarding for giving the handler attention. Encourages the dog to be looking at the handlers face all the time just incase they notice and reward.

• Give us a clue

Stand and without giving any other clues / cues (dont' move your body!) move your hand to the left side in the heel position. Click and reward your dog for any movement towards the left side, and each time ask for a little more movement. Reward on the left hand side to build value for the heel position. If your dog dosent notice your hand, do more eye spy games and you can wiggle your fingers a little.

• Chase the rabbit

Basically running around with the tog (tug toy is best) making it super exciting and fun, the dog tugging and playing with the toy. Make it exciting and not predictable, let the dog win sometimes (unless you have a very dominant dog) to encourage drive for the toy.

• Hit the baby

This is an extension of chase the rabbit..... when your dog is playing / tugging with the toy really well, with your hands touch their face and body. You can add in doing the same with your foot. Desensitizes the dog to touch, and also increases contact/importance with the handler.

• Musical chairs

Ask the dog to do something (sit, spin, down, thought legs....) click, run to your chair and reward the dog. Repeat. Then ask for two things, click and reward. Then do the same, but run to another chai you have set up with rewards..... This can be played with lots of people or on your own, and teaches the dog that it dosent know where its reward is coming from.

• Good Cop Bad cop

Ask the dog to do something with handler (like eye spy), then another person tempts them with a box of treats. The dog dosent get treats from the 'bad cop', who says 'oh no too bad' and pulls the treats out of reach. When the dog looks / returns to the handler it gets clicked and rewarded. Teaches the dog to stay focused on the handler and ignore distractions to be rewarded.

• Catch up

Another person holds the dog in the middle by the collar, and the handler walks in a circle around the outside (left circle) with hand in heel position. Dog is released, and when the dog arrives in the heel position with the handler is clicked and rewarded. Ask for a little more heel work each time, and then can change to right hand circles. Teaches the dog to race into the heel position and it will be rewarded, also good for Test A recalls.

• Beat ya

Hold the dog by the collar, and throw the toy out in front. When the dog is pulling against the collar restraint release and race towards the toy, let the dog win! Builds drive for the dog, and also desensitizes against collar touching / handling.

• food circle

A different way to reward with food to help build drive. Throw a piece of food out in front, and encourage the dog to move fast, and come back. With another piece pull the dog in a circle around you, and throw it back out in front, repeat. Can change to the dog going around the handler, through legs etc.

• Simon Says

How well does your dog actually understand its cues / commands?

1. put your hands at the side, and ask your dog to sit

2. Hands on head, ask your dog to sit

3. hands on hips, ask your dog to sit

4. Hands on knees, ask your dog to sit

You can do this for a number of commands and do all sorts of body / hand positions.... what about when you sit down? Will your dog stand etc. This tests your dogs understanding.

• Push me pull me

For building a stronger heel position, where to dog actively maintains the position ('plumbline'). When the dog has a strong static heel position, start testing by pulling the lead so it pulls the dog out from your hip slightly. As soon as the dog resists the pulling to pull the head back into heel, click and reward. Can add in more active pulling, pushing the shoulder away etc.

I hope my summary of the seminar has been helpful, I will keep everyone posted with how our new training regime is going, and hopefully load some pics / video's from the seminar if I can get them.

Whangarei Championship Show

This weekend we drove up to Whangarei for the WDTA obedience and agility championship show.

We drove up on the Friday, and stayed in a cute little cabin at Alpha Holiday park.. which I would definitely recommend, very dog friendly.

I stupidly entered everything I could, which was a bit too much! We entered Special Beginners for obedience, and Novice, Starters, and Jumpers C for Agility.... on both Saturday and Sunday!

So first up was obedience, which was very nerve racking.... as it was only the second ever

Specials we had entered, and we have been working so hard with Jan lately! And he did the best every heelwork he has every done in the ring, his off lead was a bit sloppy, but we havent trained off lead. A good recall, and he stuck his stays! Yay I was so happy that we saw some progress! And Michelle was the steward, which was very cool (she is a great steward!).

So we actually won Special Beginners, which means that we are now officially out of Elementary for Paws n Music AND obedience! Two out of three, I only need to get out of elementary for agility now, and I will have achieved all of my goals for dog training for the year.

Agility was good, he is still making progress... two of the runs he was great, and I made a handling mistake which meant we didnt get a clear round, and the other rounds he was tired and played up. But it was a big weekend.

Then to top it off, 5 minutes before I was about to drive off, they drew the raffle, and I won a huge Christmas ham!

Wow, so a great weekend all around . I am rather tired though, and so is Brody!

Weekend doggy events

This weekend we had two interesting doggy events. On Saturday night we performed a demonstration with other Choredography dogs at a Ceroc Dance party, that was fundraising for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The dance was being held in

Edgewater College, in the school hall... which unfortunately meant slippery wooden floors. And also swarms of people sitting around the edge of the hall. This was really NOT ideal for dancing dogs!!

Although some dogs (i.e. Brody) coped better that others, it was fair to say that the performance was not great! They all slipped everywhere, Moss was freaked out by the loud microphone noise, and Honey just could NOT figure out what that weird slippery floor thing was!

For a bit of entertainment, take a look at the video that Hsin-Yi made of the night.

On Sunday Brody and I ventured, yet again to Ardmore in the ongoing battle I like to call obedience. We went out with Debbie and her dogs Bailey and Tia, and for once Brody actually behaved relatively well in the ring!! It was the Manakau Obedience Championship show, and we entered Elementary. I'm very proud to say, that Brody got second!! Yay, progress!! My goal is for him to graduate out of Elementary this year, only one win to go!

I will post a pic of him soon with his pretty ribbon :-)

August.... baths, vets, competitions, and basketball

Hey Everyone,

So the last few weeks, as per normal I have been far too busy!!

At school I have almost finished with basketball, which will be great as it takes up a lot of time. The season went well, lots of new girls,

and lots of fun. My top U17 team is playing in the final for their grade tonight, and hav

e qualified for the Greater Auckland Secondary schools tournament, which is next Wednesday.

Also my Tutor class (kind of like a

form class) has just completed our entry for the Fair Go secondary school ad competition, which looks awesome! The competition was to create a 30 second ad that promotes, or tries to sell an unpopular school subject. My students did a great job, and I cant wait to see the results! It was a bit of a rush in the end, with the final edit burning onto disk approximately 30m yesterday, rushed to the courier, as entries were due by 5pm today!!

I will post the video as soon as the judging is complete, I'm so proud!!

Brody's allergies have been playing up again (itchy skin and ears, lethargic and sad, upset tummy) so he has been back to the vet, his diet re-adjusted, and some more tablets! Poor boy, it has been affecting his competitions, as he is a bit down in the ring, and has to stop shake his head or scratch!!

We have had a couple of competitions in the last few weeks, with some success.....

We had the second Paws 'N Music competition at Ardmore, which was really good because heaps of my students from NSDTC (the new tricks class) came and had a go in the busking section, and Brody and I performed our routine to a much better standard, even though he has still a bit sick! But unfortunately the judge thought that we were placed in the wrong section (there are two grades) and marked us down heaps. So we placed third, which is good, but first would have been nice :-) It was also cool because we might be shown in the filming of a kids TV show that was doing a piece on Honey the Great Dane and her owner Hsin-Yi. I was jumping around in the background with Brody with their interview, trying to keep him under control!

Then on Sunday we did Elementary obedience at the Ardmore Benefit Show. We have been having some 'issues' with heelwork in the ring (its not as exciting as tricks or agility!!), so I tried to trick him into thinking it was tricks, by setting him up with some tricks before heelwork. It worked a treat, his heelwork was great!! Then he broke his sit stay... tried to go and say hi to a German Shepherd.

So the judge gave me my points at the end with the comment "That was a pity, you would have won if he didnt break the sit stay"!!! One day it will happen. Hopefully. I dont want to be in Elementary for ever!!!

Catch up on what's happened in 2009...

This is a bit of what's been happening this year for me:

• I'm back at Glenfield College teaching in a permanent full time position. Teaching Senior Biology, junior science, and some junior maths (aahh!!)

• Still coaching the school girls basketball teams (they are doing well this year!), and also assisting in the coaching of the North Harbour U17 Rep team. We went to nationals and came third.

• Matt and I broke up. Very sad, but we are both happier now.

• Still doing HEAPS of doggy stuff with Brody and at club - still plugging away at obedience, doing better at agility (we have just been upgraded to the 8pm competitive class at club! And I'm instructing a new tricks class at club, and we are about to enter our first Heel work to music competition! See the video on the right for a look at us practising the routine.

• Brody, Max and I have recently moved into a cute little 1 bedroom flat in Torbay - pics coming as soon as its looking neat and tidy and how I want it to look!