Not Particularly Photogenic
Nothing extremely new or original in these photos, but there’s a couple of nice shots.
This one is a new fave of Auggie, though:
Look at all those flyaways! Yikes! He’s in need of a good grooming.
The Aug
This weekend was not a very good agility weekend. I am concerned at this point that Auggie is no longer having fun at trials. He was incredibly slow on Saturday, and Sunday he tried to leave the ring during standard. He has never left the ring on me – I think he just wanted to let me know that he was done.
The 16 inch jump heights are too much for him. This trial was also indoor and the unusual mats were giving a lot of dogs problems – I think the combined effect was just too much for Auggie.
We have decided to give him a break. Our agility practices will stop; instead I will start playing around with herding, something I’ve wanted to do anyway. When we go back to agility, we will start running in preferred. The jump heights will go back down to 12 inches at that point. It does mean that I am basically giving up my single NA and single OAJ leg in order to pursue an NJP and NAP. We will still HAVE our NAJ but we need to start over with preferred agility rather than having that grandfather us into Open Preferred.
But it also means that this may bring the joy back to the game for Auggie, which is what is really important.
The good thing about preferred is that you can switch back and forth between preferred and regular agility. If we are ever able to challenge his measurement and get a new height card that puts him at the correct height, we would be able to switch back to regular agility.
So, well… there you have it.
I hopefully will soon post with some herding photos/videos.
Taking a break
Today was a really not-great agility day. It is far better than my worst agility day ever, when I spent half the day in tears, but it wasn’t that great.
Auggie did fantastic, he really did. The problems we had weren’t his fault – they weren’t even really mine.
But his course times were horrible. Ridiculously slow. We finished JWW and my mom said “What time did he have to beat?? He got 60.”
“SIXTY? He had to beat Forty-FOUR.”
Honestly, he was practically walking the courses. I do think it was mostly the matting inside the club (we are indoors – this is only our second indoor trial ever) because he went into a tunnel, and when I saw him coming out the other end he was running like a rocket. He was up on the side of the tunnel he was coming through it so fast. But once he hit the mats again, he was like “oh.” and the switch turned back off.
I sent a very very long e-mail to J because she asked me to e-mail her and tell me how today went. I told her everything that happened and all the possibilities, what I thought went wrong, and what I was wondering and afraid of… that is, that Auggie is no longer enjoying agility. And after some feedback from other agility folks, I asked her if she thought we should maybe take a break or something… just for a while.
Her response is that we have plenty of other things to play in, maybe we will switch to herding for a while… and she thinks we should start running him in preferred. That will drop his jump height down back to where it should be and also give him more time in the SCTs.
And now I agree. In May, when the judge measured us high, I cried all the way home. I didn’t want to drop my dog to preferred. I felt like it was giving up on him. I wanted him to run regular agility. I wanted to MACH him! I knew he could do it, because he has – he got his NAJ, he got that running 16, so he CAN do it! I decided that as long as I still felt that way, dropping him to preferred wasn’t a good idea. I knew that, if it ever became the right thing to do, I would know it, and I wouldn’t feel that hesitation anymore.
Today I no longer have that hesitation… today I know that dropping him into preferred is the right thing to do. I am still very sad at the idea of giving up on MACH Auggie… but, as J reminded me, he is my FIRST agility dog. And he has so many things against him right now.
Sometimes I’m gonna have to lose.
We could still get a PAX. We could still go to nationals (they allow Preferred dogs to run at nationals since last year.) Same goals… just different. This will drop his jump height back down and give us more time if he doesn’t rev up. If he DOES rev up… or if we CAN fix the jump card issue… we can always make the decision later to move him back out of preferred and pick up right where we left off.
In the meantime… looks like for our next trial, we are going to be starting totally fresh in novice. Chasing a NAP and NJP now. Well, I guess when I sat at today’s trial thinking “Golly, I wish I were in Novice Jumpers again! That course looks so EASY!” little did I know.
MANY UPDATES
When did I last update this thing? I have no idea.
What has happened in the meantime:
Next to nothing. We had another agility trial hosted by the same club as the one I previously posted about, and it only solidified my decision to never, ever, ever go to a trial hosted by this club again. It was terrible. I saw things on the Novice Jumpers course that no judge in their right mind should have had in a novice course. It was just terrible. If that were my first trial I would have thought “This s**t is too hard” and quit agility forever. Really. Some challenges are necessary, I agree, but when there are things that make a course flat out DANGEROUS – no matter if it’s Novice, Open, or Excellent – there’s a real problem.
We have received our official jump height card and I am not happy with the measurement. I have heard rumors that you can no longer challenge, but don’t know if this is true. If it’s not true and you can still challenge, you better believe I’m challenging.
Regardless, we have been practicing with jump heights at 16 in the meantime, and we’re doing pretty good. I’m very happy with the clearance Auggie’s been giving me.
I have not been doing a lot more work in the jumping program, because the weather has been disgusting – rain 5-6 days a week, and one sunny day that is usually insufferably hot; that one sunny day we have been taking advantage of to scoot off to Auggie’s breeder’s house for agility practice, so the jumping chute on the same day would be too much for him, IMHO. I am hoping the weather improves, and I think I may actually start the program completely over again using 16 inch jump heights.
Meanwhile, the agility trial I went to also offered rally, so I went ahead and entered rally both days. We didn’t place the first day, and got second the second day (some other guy beat our time by a second or two, and also Auggie kept trying to high-five me instead of down, so I’m pretty sure that is what happened with our score, LOL.)
Regardless of placing, we did Q both days – so Auggie now has his RN. Hurray Auggie!
This coming weekend we are doing a little indoor trial. We are two legs away from our NA and two away from our OAJ, so if he has a stellar weekend… well, I will just pee my pants with joy. I’m hoping to at least come away with one Q each after the weekend is over and done with.
I haven’t been doing our Natural Jumping program. I got thrown off with bad weather, an intense summer course, and a vacation. I’m unsure now if I want to actually start back over at week 1 at 16 inch jump heights and let him work through it, or what I want to do. Being unsure of where to start again is holding us back for sure. I think I will see how this weekend goes, and then maybe get started again next week.
Auggie has started DOGGIE DAYCARE as of last Wednesday. He’s doing really well. Hopefully I will be able to get some pics in the coming weeks and post some cute Auggie-playing-with-other-dogs photos. =>
Uhhhh I think that’s it. I’ll try to remember to update this thing more often.
Proving Me Wrong
I got in trouble with Auggie, because I went outside with him and planned to take some photos, but he wasn’t doing anything fascinating. “I guess when you’ve had a dog for three and a half years, everything he does ceases to be cute and new, so you don’t really take as many pictures…” I said to Auggie.
“Excuse me? What??” Auggie said.
“I can still do cute things.”
“Like this! See? Put me in a wagon and I’m instantly adorable.”
“OMG what just happened??” I keep telling him he’s fat.
I told Auggie he looked like he was up to something. “I’m ALWAYS up to something,” he says.
“Yeeeees, I know I’m still cute.”
“Bring you the ball and sit?”
“Okaaaay!”
“What’s that you say? Oh, you think that’s cute?”
“Is this cuter?”
“Yes? Cute? You liked that one? Good.”
The moral of the story: Don’t tell Auggie he is no longer cute unless you’re prepared to deal with the consequences.
Finally… finally!
I am very happy to say that, as of yesterday, I was finally able to change the sidebar to read that we only need TWO legs towards our NA title…
Yes, finally, finally, after ten tries, Auggie qualified in Novice Standard. SCT was 74 and Auggie’s time was 74.42; he ran up to the table and then stopped to just stare at it so got a refusal, so our score was 95.
I am SO PROUD of my little guy. Saturday we had a pretty rough day at the trial… the surface was TERRIBLY muddy, full of potholes, and the grass was that nasty, stiff stuff that you sit down on and it feels like you might as well be sitting on nails. Not to mention we got measured into 16 again because he stood on the measuring table so terrified he was trembling. Sigh.
But he made up for it on Sunday with a really great performance in JWW (NQ) and his fabulous qualifying run in Standard, proving once again that he can take just about everything in stride and bust it out, to boot.
We drove home blasting “Bad to the Bone.” I also was singing “baaad to the bone… baaad to the bone… b-b-b-b-bad… b-b-b-b-bad…” to him while holding him at the start line for standard while the bar setters were finishing raising the height on the table. I’m pretty sure the volunteer sitting near the start line could hear me and she must have thought I was nuts, but hey… it seems to have worked!
And would you believe it – I completely forgot to put his target out and practice with it before we went in the ring, but he STILL performed every one of those contacts excellently.
April 25th & 26th Trial
I have jumping videos still to edit and post, but this weekend we had our first agility trial of the season, so I thought I’d go ahead and update what happened.
First, I will say that I was excited to see the weather was going to be WARM this weekend. Last April, we were huddled up under blankets and still freezing, so this was going to be a nice change. Unfortunately, this spring has been VERY windy, and this weekend was no different, with winds 25-35 MPH both days.
On Saturday, we got our first leg in Open Jumpers! We had a hiccup at the weave poles which cost me a refusal and some time, so I got a score of 93 and second place. I don’t own my own set of 12 weave poles, so the only change Auggie has had to practice them is out at J’s house, and thus he wasn’t exactly used to powering through 12. He popped out at pole 10, and I had to put him back through the last two (I chose NOT to go back to the beginning because that would cost us even MORE time – right decision, as I was only two seconds over this way.) So it’s not really his fault. Plus FIRST LEG IN OPEN JUMPERS!!
Still no legs in standard and it’s almost entirely my fault. There were three jumps, then a tempting off-course dog walk… but the correct obstacle in the sequence was the a-frame. I SAW that dog walk and thought “golly, Auggie may want to take that.” I SHOULD have front-crossed after the third jump and put him up the a-frame.
But I ignored the little voice in my head. I thought “But he LOVES the a-frame!!”
Sure enough, Auggie went up that dog walk. I ran to the end and tried to pull him forward enough that he wouldn’t get stuck in his endless loop of dog walk THIS way, dog walk THAT way (SO FUN FOR AUGGIE… not fun for me) and failed. He turned around and took the dog walk back, and about halfway across the plank… the wind gusted up and my little dog got blown off the dog walk.
I grabbed him and waved at the judge, who told me I should put him through the tunnel at least to make it a good experience for him, so I put him through the tunnel and then celebrated like we just had the best run ever, and got the heck off that course.
So it was my fault he off-coursed onto the dog walk. But I can’t do a damn thing about those 35 MPH winds. Auggie was not the only dog blown off the dog walk, and for all we know he might have been blown off when he was SUPPOSED to be on the dog walk anyway.
He is okay; running, playing, jumping around as usual that night, but sure scared the crap out of me. We’re going to see a canine chiropractor hopefully sometime this week to have him checked out to make sure he didn’t twist anything, but he’s acting fine.
On Sunday, we actually got to run the full standard course – and Auggie only took the dog walk once (!!!) Also major breakthrough in that he did EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of his contacts with no problems. No off-courses, but a run out on Jump 2 (my fault) and a refusal on the tire – he was sniffing something interesting on the ground – and a refusal on the table, because I don’t tihnk he’s had to actually jump UP onto a table since… well, last trial in September, I guess? I really need to get my table built.
Anyway, the faults plus the time faults screwing around try to get him moving again/get him on the table put us waaay over. So here we are… four trials, eight runs in, and not a single Q in standard. There’s nothing else to do but laugh about it. I think I’ll fall to the ground sobbing with joy when we finally get a standard Q!
Open Jumpers Sunday was pretty good. I had a refusal on his weave entry – not totally sure what happened there, I’ll have to watch the video and see if it was my fault – and he popped out of the weaves again (adding “set of 12 weaves” to my list of stuff to build and work with.) I didn’t succeed in calling him off an off-course jump. I’m going to blame that on the again 25-35 MPH gusting winds and that he couldn’t hear me, because I THINK he heard me… but it was too late; I think he turned an eye over to me RIGHT before he was about to take the jump – like as he was already in motion to jump, he suddenly heard me and realized I wasn’t right beside him. Ah well. So again, faults plus some time fiddling around getting him through those weaves put us too far over to Q. We would have been SO GOLDEN except for those darn weaves! My fault entirely.
Strangely enough, this is the first time I haven’t had major ring nerves before we go out and run, and the first time I’ve really left the ring honestly feeling like “Meh! So we didn’t Q!” I’m not sure why. I kinda like this, though.
Our major goal, besides Auggie’s successful contacts when we actually got into standard (oh wind!), is that Auggie has apparently returned to my awesome little man, not dropping a single bar. That’s my guy. Aw yeah.
I jokingly asked Auggie why I was picturing us in Excellent Jumpers and still in Novice Standard.
Okay, maybe I’m not totally joking.
Natural Jumping Method – Week 8
For week 8, we move up to four oxers. The pattern is vertical, oxer, oxer, oxer, oxer. Jump heights are still set at 10 inches and distances are still 90 inches for Auggie’s two-stride length per the calculations in the book.
He learns a lot faster in this video than he has in previous weeks. By the last jump in day 1 he’s running smooth and fast – save the last jump, which he still stuttersteps up to. On day 2 he drops a few bars, but notably, during jump 5 he actually doesn’t stutterstep up to the last jump! I have no idea what the difference is, because he goes back to doing it in the next jump and during all of day 3. WEIRD DOG.
Hopefully time will even out the issue here. I’m the kind of person who likes to know the “why” behind stuff though so I’d really like to know WHY he is still stutterstepping the final jump and only the final jump. I may never know, but I would LIKE to know, haha.
Auggie and a sheep
Forgive my baby talk. We were having a really good time outside today, just hangin’ out, bonding… enjoying my day off together. (And DANGIT I’m sunburned.)
This is the sheep. It was $5. It’s about the same size as Auggie.
Hmmm…
Auggie isn’t really impressed by it now. When I first brought it home I set it outside his crate and he just sat there, staring at it until I finally gave in and opened the crate to let him out.
Okay now he’s laughing at me.
And the rest of the pics from today (not all that exciting):
BLEEEARGH
Easter Egg Hunt 2009
It was nice and sunny outside, warm enough that I just needed a jacket – so OUTSIDE WE GO for the egg hunt this year! I had the camera but was slightly less inclined to throw myself on the muddy ground for photos the way I can lay on the living room floor and get photos whenever we go the egg hunt indoors, so my angles are a little different than usual.
This egg was hidden inside the gator’s mouth – I didn’t get a shot of him knocking it out of the mouth to pick it up.
Cookie treats inside the eggs!
Ohhhhh egg.
Nosing it over to me so I can open it for him…
…until he decided it was easier to open them himself.
This is the third year we’ve done an egg hunt, and this year he was pretty good at remembering how to open the eggs with just enough to pressure to pop them as opposed to actually chomping down and breaking them. (He broke a couple the first year… oops!)
EGG NOM.
MORE EGG NOM.
All the eggs are in the basket! He wouldn’t sit nicely next to them so I gave up and told him, “Fine – get up and do something cute with the basket.”
Which means he pushed it over with his paw.
Yeah okay, I admit it – that’s pretty cute.
Trying to open them again in case he missed a cookie somehow…
He still wouldn’t sit down nicely next to them. But okay that’s pretty cute too.
He nosed the basket over to knock the rest of the eggs out…
…and resumed opening them to make SURE they were really empty.
You see, he doesn’t trust that when I say “No, the treats are REALLY gone,” that I’m being honest. I don’t know why. I’ve never lied to him.
About all the treats being gone, anyway.
Agility Update
The weather has gotten a little better, and last week we managed to get out to J’s house twice and work outside – practice we desperately needed since our first trial is coming up in a few weeks here.
First, the jumping is going pretty well. His confidence is pretty good and he was taking the 12 inch jumps outside nicely, better judging his take off points. This week in our jumping program we are entering the Problem Solving phase, which may prove pretty challenging. I’m nervous about it, because I don’t want to really shake Auggie’s confidence right before a trial, but I feel like we need to just keep pushing forward and hope for the best. What else can we do?
There will be a VMO present at our trial at the end of this month, and I’m desperately hoping Auggie is thinking short that day… nothing to do but hope for the best.
Second, we got to put the target on the full height a-frame for the first time and it went SPLENDID. He really gets the idea of driving to the bottom now rather than hopping off halfway down. I’m hoping we continue to have success with that in the weeks that come and his bad habits don’t return.
J informed me that this spring we’ll be focusing on obstacle discrimination when it comes to things like a tunnel under an a-frame or dogwalk. “You’ll see that in open,” she tells me, as though she thinks we’ll soon be competing in open standard…
Let’s just get a SINGLE NA leg first, and then I can start worrying about open standard!
Anyway, I have many many many videos to edit and upload, and I will get on that soon, but finals are creeping up and I have been working on some large-ish projects that need to be completed… uh… well, Friday. So until I get a chance to really sit down and edit the videos, then post them all on YouTube, then write about it here… you’ll just have to believe me that Auggie did AMAZING on his last day of the series of five oxers!! Nice, even pacing, sailing over the jumps – just gorgeous!
Natural Jumping Method – Week 7
Week 7 is a series of five jumps with three oxers. The pattern is vertical, oxer, oxer, vertical, oxer.
LOTS of stutter-stepping as he tries to navigate this series. About halfway through day 2 he starts to even out as he figures out how to adjust, though during his fifth run he ends up stutterstepping WAY too close up to the bar and has to pop up over it… and if you pause it at just the right moment he’s making a hilarious face as a result. Day 3 goes pretty well, but I notice that he’s consistently stutterstepping up the last bar. I’m not really sure why that is – if it’s a matter of him not seeing another obstacle beyond the final jump, so he makes some kind of weird adjustment for some reason? I honestly can’t figure out why he would do this. It’s interesting, anyway.
Natural Jumping Method – Week 6
In week 6, you add another oxer. The pattern is jump, jump, oxer, jump, oxer. Since I had the pattern as jump, jump, oxer, jump, jump during week 5, I simple added my second oxer to the end of the chute. Hopefully that means my pattern during week 5 was correct!
Hey, check it out! My new fencing is up!
Let me explain exactly what is occurring during day one – the jumps are secondary to the other lesson that is going on here. Earlier that day, I learned some bad news and ended up having an anxiety attack (in the middle of work, to boot!) I came home that evening practically in pieces, stressed out, not sure how to deal with the situation I’d been handed.
I didn’t think about this when we went out to do our jumps.
Auggie completely and totally picked up on me being an emotional mess, and did not want to disconnect and go jump out away from me. I had to make a change in my emotional state to get him to go ahead (it helped that it was pretty funny that he pulled off the jumps like that to come back to me…) Clothier has you do two sets of three jumps with a fifteen minute break in the middle, so after the first three jumps and out break, I basically had to pull myself together and knock it off, or it was going to affect my dog and his performance.
This video really shows something about the relationship we have with our dogs, and how they can pick up on things and it changes their demeanor, their performance. Imagine if this were at an agility trial and we were working on a full course instead of just through a jump chute… he would NOT have been a happy Auggie if I were trying to put any kind of distance between us!
I ran out of SD card space on day 3 again so another clip is missing. During day 2 and 3, we have what looks like a serious setback here, because Auggie’s back to stutterstepping – a LOT. But at this point in my working relationship with Auggie, I know what’s going on here: the rules have changed so he has to figure it out again, and when the rules change, Auggie decides it’s better to resort to stutterstepping. That’s how we got to this problem in the first place.
I’m running with him or constantly moving in just about all of these runs because I’m watching his footing really closely. If you watch the day 2 video, you can see how his jumping changes even within the one video, within six runs. It’s kind of impressive, but again, I’m really hoping this is just a part of the learning process rather than being something where he’s not going to actually have confidence when it actually comes to an agility course where all you have is one shot to get it right. This is only week 6, we still have lots to learn, so no sense worrying about it yet.
(Oh yeah, and check out all my newly striped jumps in the day 3 video! I spent all Saturday afternoon with several rolls of multi-coloured tape, striping my standards and jump bars.)
Week 7 is three oxers. Ai yi!
Naturally Jumping Method – Week 5
Week 5 is the first week with oxers. An oxer is as wide as it is tall – in Auggie’s case, since we are still using 10 inch jump heights, this means I have two 10 inch jumps that span 10 inches. The book doesn’t tell you where to put the first oxer, so I guessed and put it as the third jump. All of the jumps are still spaced 90 inches apart; in this instance, jump 2 is 90 inches to the first bar for jump 3, there’s the 10 inch spacing between jump 3’s bars, and then from the second bar of jump 3 to jump 4 it’s another 90 inches. For the oxer stage of the program, that 90 inch spacing will stay constant.
It’s a bit hard for him to nagivate that oxer at first. I started putting our broad jump/spread jump word to it (“big jump”) after the first crash into it and he did better after that. This might be cheating because it requires me to be there cueing him to adjust for a larger jump, so he’s not really learning to look at the jump and just adjust on his own. But it makes sense for agility to me – competitors I know all use a word like “big jump” or “go big” for spread jumps, doubles, and triples to cue the dog “There’s a longer than usual jump coming up – adjust!”
During the second day, he crashes into the oxer the first time, but on jumps 2-6 he doesn’t make the same mistake again.
I don’t have day 3 videos because I screwed up with the camera. As the video says, the day went pretty much the same as the other two videos here, though.
Target Training Update
I’ve been pretty busy with the Naturally Jumping program, but we have been playing with target training still! Auggie got the concept very quickly, and I started playing around with throwing the frisbee (his target) across the room or down the stairs and making him “go touch” away from me. Last week, we were able to put the target on a piece of contact equipment for the first time… the teeter, which (luckily) is Auggie’s best piece of contact equipment anyway! As long as he can slow down (which usually requires me to be paying attention and tell him “EASY” if he gets to excited) he does just fine. It went really well, except for a lot of hilarity involving him looking across the room at the target and trying to go touch it before he was told. *facepalm* At one point he was in a sit, looked over at the teeter, licked his lips, and took off through the sequence – leaving me standing at the start, because if he breaks his stay and goes ahead of me I just stand there until he comes back to me – until he got to the teeter. Which resulted in me standing at the start, and him standing on the teeter doing his touch, looking rather expectantly at me.
It will probably be a little while until I’m able to put the target on the a-frame, which is fine by me. I want to have plenty of time to get the touch behaviour reinforced before I have to put it on the one piece of equipment that gives us trouble. If the weather does a solid warm-up and stays that way, I can get the mini a-frame out in the backyard and start with that before we go out to his breeder’s house for practice on the real a-frame out there. I’m anxious, and yet not… I don’t want to rush it, but I want to get on with solving this problem at the same time.
We’ll see. So far, so good – that’s all I can say!
Naturally Jumping Method – Week 4
Week 4 went pretty good! Moving the jump heights up to 10 inches didn’t seem to throw Auggie off much at all, so I’m glad. All of the jumps are still set at 90 inches apart.
During day 1, I ran with him on all of the jumps. Every now and then he does knock a bar… but Clothier says not to worry about dropped bars. She says it is a natural part of the process of re-learning how to jump and that every time they knock a bar it helps them think stuff over. I’m not sure why I don’t have all 6 jumps recorded – I must have had another issue with my memory card.
Day 2 was REALLY windy – apologies for my camera wrist strap blowing into the shot during one jump! I was worried the wind might throw Auggie off a little, but he did fine.
For day three… there is a reason I only have five jumps shown here and it’s not a memory card problem. But I’ll talk about the video itself first! My mom was operating the camera and she made a few observations. Auggie still stutter-steps up to the very first jump before he gets into the rhythm of the last four jumps. The first jump is the bar he usually knocks, as well – probably because of the inefficient jumping.
I tried a few other things with these jumps, including sending him ahead (wasn’t sure if he’d do that, but he did!) and standing right at the end to call him through. Usually when I call him through I’m standing back several feet and sometimes even run backwards as he approaches to build up his drive, so that was a little different for him – but he’s pretty much unphased by it, which is great!
Another thing I’ve been noticing is that he hugs the standard pretty tight. Clothier wants the dogs to run and jump in the middle of the jump, but because Auggie has done agility training for so long he has learned how to hug the standards and try to make things a little more efficient when it comes to turning, crossing, and so on. When I run with him or am behind him, he always takes the last jump right over the middle because he’s in the process of turning to me – if I’m right ahead of him, he doesn’t make that change and stays to the side, hugging the standard. I’m not exactly sure if I should be concerned with this or not. My instinct is to not be worried about it…
NOW… why there are only five jumps shown in the third day. My mom was working the camera for me that day because it was raining – just a light drizzle, but still raining, so I asked her if she would come out and stand over the camera with an umbrella so my camera wouldn’t get wet.
Right before we did our sixth jump, it started POURING down rain. I’m standing there going “Oh holy crap – hurry Auggie, hurry, go through the jumps!” I’m flailing around with training treats in my hand, trying to get him back into the channel to run through the chute, and for a split second Auggie stands there, tries to blink the rain out of his eyes… gives me a Look, and proceeds to run back to the house – leaving me standing out in the pouring (did I mention it was COLD RAIN?!) rain, yelling “YOU GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BRAT AND DO THOSE JUMPS!!!”
Thus, there are only five jumps in the video… because Auggie was standing up on the deck wanting to go inside and refused to come out and jump one last time.
Here, have a picture of my dog, after I came in and toweled off my hair and had to change my clothes because I was soaked through.
Look how proud he is of himself. Brat brat brat BRAT! He later asked to go outside, and when I opened the door and informed him it was still raining, he proceeded to go out in the still pouring rain and prance around going “La la la, I’m playing in the rain, la la la~” BRAAAAAAT!
Oh yeah – I bought a ton of PVC and spent a good portion of Saturday afternoon in the garage, listening to it thunderstorm outside and cutting pipes down. The two jumps at the beginning are my “Junior AKC” jumps from Toys R Us, and are now four feet wide, so they match the rest of my jumps (finally!) and I am now all set to add additional bar jumps to create an oxer for the coming weeks of the jumping series. I need to break out my coloured tape and start striping stuff again!
Sadly, it is quite cold again today. The beautiful spring weather has been replaced by… well, icky spring weather.
Blaze Comes To Play
How did I not post these? A few weeks ago, Blaze came over to play. Blaze belongs to Auggie’s breeder, and we “borrowed” him. It was FREEZING so we ran inside and outside over and over again – outside playplayplayplay inside so I can warm up outside playplayplayplay inside so I can warm up, repeat.
Blaze says “Oh hai. You’re the cookie lady. You have cookies in your pocket.”
OH BOY LET’S PLAY.
Auggie’s favourite game of chase. These pictures are really hilarious, because Auggie was running at top speed, and Blaze was kind of just loping along behind, like “La la la I chaaaase yooooou~” and Auggie’s going “OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG WHEEEEEEE!” the whole time.
Blaze is all SERIOUS BUSINESS and Auggie’s like “I LIEK TO PLAY BALL.”
Wheeee!
Poking around the yard by himself. Auggie was off that way somewhere. *waves hand*
Blaze was gonna get the ball…
…but it tastes like Auggie-breath. Ewwww.
So Auggie has to carry the ball back to me.
Thinking about getting it again – BLEH TASTES LIKE THAT DOG.
Running with a ball or a toy in his mouth is rather Default Mode for Auggie anyway…
Having a blast.
OMG WHAT’S THAT OVER THERE QUICK LET’S GO SEE
More running around having a blast, Auggie still running around with the ball in his mouth because he’s a tennis-ball obsessed dork.
“Do you want the ball Blaze? You want the ball? YOU WANT THE BALL?” He says “OMG YES I WANT THE BALL *sproing sproing sproing*”
I GET THE BALL wait it still tastes like Auggie-breath.
Auggie is so darn happy to have another dog to play with it causes him to levitate.
They were both very interested in gobbling up snow.
Mmmm snows.
THE END.
Naturally Jumping Method – Week 3
We’re into week 3 now, which leaves the jump heights the same, so we’re still at 8 inch jump heights.
He does VERY well the first day! Jump 5 is gorgeous! I’m starting to see real improvement. During day 2, I realized I forgot to put my memory card in, so I didn’t catch every jump we did. I also decided to try running with him to see what that did… I’m running funny because I’m in my snow boots and they aren’t exactly the best thing to run in, so it seemed to throw him off just slightly at the beginning. Then he kind of decided to ignore me and focus on the jump, and he did a lot better! During day 3, I started just running with him to watch his strides more than really running to run with him, so I’m getting a really good look at just how his strides are. Runs 5 and 6 are really great!
During Week 4, we will move the jump heights up. My jump cups for the two jumps I built (the final two you see in the chute) only go every two inches, so I’m going to have to move up to 10 inches instead of gradually moving to 9, then 10… I hope it’s not going to throw things off too much.
Next week is also the final week in our 8-week long agility classes, and I think I will stop for just a bit… give Auggie a few weeks to work on his jumping and nothing else. Once he starts to improve and the weather warms up, we’ll pick up again, probably going to private lessons back out at his breeder’s place! Gotta work on those contacts, too.
Natural Jumping Method – Round 1
I meant to start last week but things kept coming up. So as of yesterday we are in week 2. Week 1 is getting dogs used to jumps/jumping multiple jumps; Clothier gives people who have dogs used to that sort of thing, IE flyball, permission to go straight to week 2. We don’t do flyball but Auggie IS used to jumping a ton of jumps in a row, so I went ahead and skipped to week 2.
Please forgive my very ghetto jump chute… I am in the process of trying to decide on some kind of fencing to build the other side, and until then I’m using my two ex-pens and the plastic playpen I’ve had since Auggie was a wee puppy. Also please forgive some of the camera angles… I know it’s hard to see a lot of the jumps. I was still trying to figure out the best way to shoot the videos.
Some details: per the measurements and formula in the book, our distance between jumps is 90 inches. I had a lot of trouble deciding on what height to start working at, and ultimately I decided to start at 10 inches (Auggie normally jumps 12), and if it seemed that was too high to move down to 8. The jump heights were all set at 10 inches during day 1. During day 2, I went ahead and moved the jump heights down to 8 inches after the third jump. They will remain at 8 inches for a while.
During day one, he basically stutter-steps the ENTIRE length of the chute. I apologize for not having all six jumps filmed, but my mom was helping me and by “helping” I mean she was putting her terrible camerawork to use. Only four of the videos she shot were any good, so those are the four jumps I show.
By the sixth jump on day 2, he actually appears to run the length between the jumps (it’s supposed to be two stride lengths) instead of stutter-stepping the entire length between jumps. He’s still not taking normal stride-lengths; he still stutter-stepped just about the whole length of the chute. But he is smoothing out a little.
Day 3 gives us some better results and he really begins to smooth out more. There were multiple times that I could count the two strides between jumps. Day three was encouraging to start seeing progress already!
The Mud
It’s too early for this. It’s only February. The SIXTH of February! Why is all the snow melting? Why is the backyard suddenly a big mud puddle?
I gave up and deposited One Whole Auggie into the bathtub – which caused him to think I was about to commit murder or something – and then immediately after I got his paws rinsed off I lifted him out onto a Doggy Towel, and he got the wiggles and giggles, the post-bath zoomies, the friskies… whatever you want to call it.
Note: wrestling with your dog in a towel after his bath is potentially teaching him Bad Things. Because he tried to wrestle with me while all I wanted to do was wipe his paws off, and he’s squirming and wiggling in my arms, trying to get away, trying to grab the towel in his mouth, tail wagging, happily panting… I took the towel over to the door and scrubbed down the mudprints he made on the carpet (he’s a fast one, that little guy – like all bad little dogs he makes an immediate beeline for the carpet when he has mud all over his paws) and he again tried to grab the towel and wrestle with me. From BEHIND he tried to grab the towel, and I wasn’t looking, so in my scrubbing motion with the towel and his forward lunge to grab said towel, I ended up clocking him in the head with my elbow. Apparently, he was unphased by this, and leapt around to dance in front of me and again try to grab the towel to wrestle.
Sigh.
Agility Goals
I’m revising our agility goals.
1) Work with Auggie so he becomes a smart jumper. Jane Simmons-Moake briefly talks about using a ground bar to help flat jumpers learn how to adjust their takeoff. Auggie stutter-steps up to the bar almost as much as he jumps flat, so I’m not positive if that method will work. Instead, I ordered myself a copy of Suzanne Clothier’s book “The Clothier Natural Jumping Method.” Once the snow melts (SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER) I’ll be outside with Auggie working my way through her book. I think I have enough room if I run the entire length of the back fence to set up a jump chute, and I think I have enough jumps. If not, well – I’ve got some more PVC layin’ around here, and it’s like $5 to make a brand new jump even if I had to go get all-new pipe and fittings.
2) Target training. I started this last week when I was home sick from work one day. Funny enough, I had basically lost my voice, so I trained the entire thing essentially mute. I took out one of those little plastic can covers, held it, and got Auggie to paw it. Moved it down to the floor – reward for paw touch. Moved it away from me, reward for a “go touch.” This weekend I purchased one of the big puppy Kong frisbees to use as a bigger target, because when he would get a distance away from me I had trouble seeing if he actually got his paw on the little can cover.
So far this is working out great. He’ll go touch with no problems. I’m starting to use it on other things, like putting it up on the steps and having him get up on something to touch it. I have a big flat plank that I bought to make into a teeter and am currently running him across that and having him 2o2o at the end. It’s got a coating on it that I need to sand down, then paint it with some of that gripping texture stuff I used on my mini a-frame before I can start doing any sort of lifting it to simulate a dogwalk. (Believe me, I tried. It was pretty funny because Auggie basically slid straight down it like a slide, with me holding him so he didn’t fall, to 2o2o at the bottom. Yet more proof that this dog trusts me absolutely – he lets me put him on, in effect, a slide.)
Anyway, if I can remember to do so I’ll update here as our training advances. I think I’ll definitely be doing updates when we start the jumping method training, because there are “lessons” to advance through so I should be able to remember to update along with each lesson.
On the plus side, our rear crossing seems to be going wonderfully.
More Snow Pics
I meant to post these last week; right after I accepted that we wouldn’t be getting any decent snow, we got decent snow. We got more yesterday, even, and will get more tomorrow. Of course, it does me little good when I’m sick. Now that I think of it, standing outside in the snow taking photos of your dog is probably not the best way to get better, either. Oops.
Anyway, here we go!
This was the night we got the snow. I left work, raced home, let Auggie out immediately… but still didn’t really have enough light to get good photos. The few that turned out are pretty cute since he plunged his whole face right into the snow.
Sound effect: PLOOMPH.
These were taken Saturday afternoon, once I got out of my all-day class. It was about 4PM so the sun was starting to go down, but I still had some sunlight. This is how Auggie plays best. He will fetch, yes, and wrestle and tug… but he loves, loves, LOVES to run.
Specifically he likes being chased. He gets a kick out of me going “AAAH’M GONNA GETCHA” and starting towards him. He’s like a little kid, going “Eeeee hee hee!!” and running away squealing or something.
I’d like to make Auggie a slot car and race him on a track. Wheeeee!
The next day, Sunday. I stood out there, feeling sick, nose dripping with snot, hollering “RUN, AUGGIE! RUN RUN RUN!” And he ran.
He ran so far away.
This photo reminds me that I should live every day with Auggie’s mentality. That is… “WHEEEEEEEEEE!!”
Okay, to me, in this one he looks like he’s going “Huff… huff… can I stop running now? Huff… you’re right, Mom, I did get fat… huff… oh God I’m out of shape, huff… why… why…” I later found out that my dad, who thought he was doing everybody a favour by feeding Auggie breakfast the two weeks he was off work for Christmas, had been over feeding him. I KNEW IT. I knew he was fat. See, I wasn’t just being mean – he was being overfed and he really DID get fat.
Anyway, that was a month ago and I’m pretty sure Auggie is back down to his regular weight now. He got a bath last week and his body shape under all his fluffy fur looked correct to me, so I think we’re good.
Okay, I got some cute Auggie + snow pictures. My Midwestern winter for 2007-2008 is now complete.
Contact Obstacles
Alternatively, “count your blessings.”
I’ve been sick for over a week at this point and am rather doped up on cold meds, so please forgive anything random, weird, or horribly misspelled in this post.
Contact obstacles have always presented a challenge. Not for Auggie, oh no. For me. Auggie, you see, just loves contact obstacles. He loves jumps too, and tunnels, but there is little else in this world so rewarding to him as charging up an a-frame, the teeter, or the dogwalk. When it comes to the a-frame, there is also little else so rewarding as springing OFF it about halfway down the other side, completely blowing the contact area. This has never been as much of a problem with the dogwalk or the teeter. They are thin enough that he is usually watching his step and moving at just enough speed that his brain can catch up and remind him that there is a behaviour he needs to do to correctly complete this obstacle down at the bottom.
The a-frame, however, is so big and wide, and he gets SUCH a kick out of it, that his brain apparently flies out the window. Have you ever seen those dogs that LEAP over the top of the a-frame like it’s a jump or something? It’s pretty scary, right? Yeah, Auggie likes to do that sometimes. Scares the crap out of me. See, on the a-frame, all he cares about is the “WHEEEEE!” of running up it full speed, hopping over the top, and flying off it as soon as he thinks he can safely land on the ground and less about the “whee” involved with scooting his little butt down to the bottom of the a-frame and doing the obstacle correctly.
Now, I will reiterate here that Auggie is not the best judge of what is safe for him. This is the dog who ate a poisonous amaryllis bulb; the dog who ate a poisonous mushroom with gusto, and then, as I was trying to keep him away from it while I scooped up the remaining mushrooms, tried to gobble the rest as though I had spilled dog treats all over the floor and he was trying to thief them before I could pick them all up. OBVIOUSLY he is no judge of “what is safe for Auggie” and “what can kill Auggie.” Similarly, he is not the best judge of “what is safe for Auggie to leap from” and “what can break Auggie.” This has always been a big pain for me as I’m SURE he is going to hurt himself, or at least will suffer joint pain later in life from the constant shock he MUST be feeling when he jumps off that a-frame completely clear of the 42″ long contact zone.
So it is for two reasons that it is agonizing that Auggie enjoys blowing is a-frame contact. It’s agonizing because we’ve never Q’d in standard because of it and sometimes I think we never will, hahaha. But it’s also terrible to think of him hurting himself.
We had a fun run yesterday, and given Auggie hasn’t been on a full-height a-frame since October or so he was like “OMG YAAAAAY!” and off-courses onto it (it was actually set up right behind the first jump we took, and he broke his sit-stay to go check out the a-frame before we even got started – snot!). Since it was a fun run and we were allowed to re-do things if we wanted, I ended up putting him over it about five times (when it was ACTUALLY time to do it) before he remembered what I was expecting while I was screaming “YOU TOUCH YOU TOUCH YOU TOUCH” at him, and it still was a less than perfect 2o2o. By that I mean I stationed myself right at the bottom of the a-frame and screamed “TOUCH TOUCH” at him and he pretty much crashed into me because I was body-blocking him. *facepalm*
To his credit, in the next course he managed a FAR better 2o2o… that is, I still body-blocked him but he didn’t crash into me, he hit the brakes early enough.
I can hardly call this entirely his fault. He got out there and was like “OMG OMG OMG THIS IS AWESOME” because we’ve been working indoors for ages and don’t have nearly the amount of space the club has, so not as much stuff set up. Not to mention I’ve been sick for a week so we haven’t even been able to play together much. This was the most exciting thing in the world for Auggie and part of why I dragged myself out to the run, despite being sick.
So obviously, training a target command and re-working his contacts are still on our Agility Goals list.
Now, you might remember that I said this could be alternatively titled “count your blessings.” I say that because I know a lot of people who have other real issues with contact obstacles… dogs that won’t go up them, dogs that don’t pick up enough speed to make it over the a-frame, dogs that are fearful on the teeter, dogs that bail on the UPside of the frame, so on and so forth. Besides one time that Auggie got teeter buggies for no apparent reason (and then got OVER his teeter buggies for no apparent reason… go figure) we have never had a problem getting him to take any obstacle at all. He loves them and has never been afraid of them. Yes, this love and sheer joy he gets out of performing them is the same that leads him to blow contacts with gusto – but I think I will still count it a blessing.
Oh yes, and the other major occurance in the fun run… we haven’t worked a heck of a lot on obstacle discrimination, particularly when it comes to the tunnel under the a-frame (or dog walk, even.) Given the choice, Auggie will want to take the contact obstacle 99% of the time. Well, in the second course they placed the tunnel under the a-frame. “Crapmuffins!” I thought. There is no problem getting him up the a-frame when it’s time for that, but getting him to take the TUNNEL rather than the frame is the challenge. There was a horseshoe of jumps set up before we got to the tunnel, and I decided my only hope was if I started to scream “TUNNEL TUNNEL TUNNEL TUNNEL” as SOON as he was in the air over that jump, in a desperate attempt to get him to really hear me and look for the tunnel. I kid you not, while walking the course I fiddled with that multiple times to try and remind myself to frantically start screaming “tunnel” with the proper timing. The other issue was that I wanted to be on the side of the a-frame, to try and physically block him if I had to, so I would need to rear cross. We have come leaps and bounds with our rear crosses into tunnels this winter, which was a big goal for me, but we’re certainly not perfect with them, so it was a toss up if he’d even allow the rear cross.
So let me walk you through what I went through. Auggie comes off the table, goes over jump 1, jump 2, here comes jump 3, okay he’s in the air TUNNEL TUNNEL TUNNEL TUNNEL!!!!
He looked at the tunnel. He saw it. Would he take it? Would he stay in once he realized I was rear crossing him, or go “HEY WAIT!!” and pop back out on me?
He went into the tunnel.
I crossed behind, and while crossing I could see his little butt vanishing away into the tunnel, unphased and undeterred by the fact that I had rear crossed him.
I pumped my fist and hissed “YESSSSSS!” to myself. If I had video I bet it would have looked hilarious, the victory celebrating I was having mid-course as I hustled to the other end of that tunnel.
But if I had dropped dead at that very second, I guarantee you that I would have died the happiest, proudest dog owner in the world.
Which is saying something since all the screaming basically destroyed my voice, and right after the fun run, I immediately went to the doctor to discover I had bronchitis. Whoop whoop!
A little on grooming – brushes
For those of you who own cordless/battery powered nail grinders (I personally use the Dremel MiniMite) – recharge your battery after EVERY session. Seriously. After every single one. There’s no harm in it. Your battery won’t be overcharged or anything. Yeah, you have to unplug the battery from the grinder, plonk it into the charger, and find somewhere for that rather large charger to plug into an outlet. But seriously. It’s a good idea.
Poor Auggie is lop-sided as he currently has freshly dremelled front paws, three nails on his back right paw dremelled and the one remaining nail about 80% dremelled… and one paw that I didn’t get to before my dremel died.
Poor, poor Auggie. All because I didn’t plug the stupid battery in after our last session (I’m lying. LAST THREE OR FOUR SESSIONS.) to charge it up.
Anyway, the subject of brushes came up on a group I belong to; usually it starts with somebody asking about the Furminator and people start chiming in what they like to use instead. I thought it would be interesting to put down here for my lovely readers what brushes I use on Auggie. I have quite a selection, you see. All links are to the exact product I own from the exact place I purchased it from; you can probably find the same or similar products other places.
First, I own a pin brush that I always start with. Everybody should have a basic pin brush, IMO, for simple day-to-day brushing. It’s good for grabbing a lot of the already loose hair and getting some of the other dead hair to loosen up, but not a heck of a lot else on a double-coated breed. A good pin brush won’t pull or scratch, so even if it doesn’t do a lot for the actual fur managing, it’s great for getting your dog used to sitting for some gentle grooming… making grooming a pleasant experience! For Auggie, it’s the warm up brush, the relaxing brush. Sometimes I finish a grooming session with this brush, too.
Second, I purchased a Master Grooming Tools Ultimate Coarse Comb from a local groomer who was placing an order with PetEdge (it’s VERY expensive to order from them if you aren’t buying a lot of stuff.) and I love love LOVE it. I actually have two and one stays in my car with the other dog gear that I haul around. With this, I continue in long, gentle brush strokes. This is REALLY great for getting out dead hair from Auggie’s pants, which are a different texture than the rest of his fur; for the rest, it just pulls out more of the undercoat.
For the more stubborn hair – that is, for our serious grooming sessions – I have other brushes I continue with. I have a shedding brush that was recommended to me by a guy at the dog park when Auggie was a wee little guy; he demonstrated how great it worked on his own double-coated dog because Auggie had no loose coat at the time. I went to PetSmart and got two of them a few days later – one for me and one for my sister’s two shelties. They unfortunately don’t carry it anymore which is a REAL shame… it really does work wonders on removing undercoat, and I especially like to use this on places that have shorter, tougher-to-remove fur, like his armpits and his thighs. I do find that during heavy shedding seasons, this can pull a little bit when it gets “clogged” with fur, so you have to make sure you remove the already brushed out fur from it fairly often. I find this brush to be a lot gentler than many other brushes and combs I’ve used in the past; I think it has to do with the varying length and the slightly wider spacing of the teeth.
This is the ONLY brush in my tool bag that I would say there’s no replacement for, no buying from another store. I haven’t found anything quite like it anywhere else. This brush is just fan-freaking-tastic. It’s a tragedy they don’t carry it, or anything even remotely like it, at PetSmart anymore.
Next, I have a fine-tooth comb that I purchased at Target before we brought Auggie home. I don’t have a link for this one because I don’t think they sell it anymore; but a fine-tooth comb is pretty much a fine-tooth comb as long as it lasts. Mine has held up through the three years (the first pin brush I bought for Auggie from Target bit the dust after about a year; pins were falling out.) The fine-tooth comb I use mainly for brushing behind Auggie’s ears, trying to get rid of the crimpy dreadlock look. (I also use a pair of thinning shears on the hair behind his ears, which also helps; the comb then is great for going through and getting out all the hair that has been thinned.) This kind of brush CAN be used on those sheds-a-lot parts as a de-shedding tool, but it also tends to pull far more than the above tool, so I really hate to use it for that purpose.
I also have a slicker brush (I think in the medium size) that I use during shedding seasons. The other brushes do a really good job any other time of the year, but this is really helpful to use on longer fur, like down his back, when he’s blowing coat. I find this does a great job of picking up undercoat more than really helping to loosen and remove it, so I guess that’s why I like to really only use it during shedding season, when the fur is already lose. I also don’t brush very hard with this, so that might be why… I’m hesitant to apply pressure with it.
Last but not least, I own a Zoom Groom that I use during bath time. It’s wonderful to get him all lathered up and to start working the dead hair lose in the tubby.
Finally, yes, I do own a Furminator. I got it for a fairly good deal, which is good since I hardly use it. I don’t like what it does to the texture of Auggie’s fur. I don’t believe it breaks the fur like a lot of people do… but it definitely does something odd, something not pleasant. The only places I will use it is on the SUPER short hair on the top of Auggie’s head, his muzzle, and on his paws… those are the only places where it doesn’t seem to have a weird affect on his fur nor cause him discomfort. I’m not sure if it pulls or scratches his skin; all I know is that he is not comfortable with it and therefore I am not either.
So, when it comes to the Furminator… if you have a pal who owns one, see if you can borrow it to try it on your pet first. Observe your individual pet’s reaction before you make a decision. I definitely don’t believe the Furminator is a tool for every pet out there, it needs to be judged on a case-by-case reaction from your particular pet. If you can’t borrow one, make sure that, if you don’t like how it works for your pet, you can return it to whatever place you purchase from – be it PetSmart, Target, or an online shop.
And there you have it… my brush collection!
