More Walks

Yesterday I did training walks with the dogs again.  One of the most interesting things about this endeavour has definitely been the distractions and challenges that we have encountered, and the opportunity to work the dogs through those things.

Speedy was first again.  Our "challenge" during his walk was more of a challenge for me than for him.  About halfway through, smoke from a nearby bonfire came blowing over in our direction!  Ugh!  I was thankful that after that point, the wind changed direction and it didn't interfere again.

I kept Speedy on the right for most of his walk.  I am working him on the right on about a 3:1 ratio vs. the left.  He is so strong on the left and he just sails right down the road in heel.  He heels a little ahead of me, but I don't mind that because it looks good and he holds the position well.

I used a lot of food for his right side and I focused on feeding him a little behind.  We're just going to repeat, repeat, repeat.  One thing about Speedy - he doesn't want a break.  He wants to stay engaged with me the whole time.  A couple of times when I released him, he went ahead, but he quickly turned back.  I guess that's a good thing, but I do want him to learn to take a break so his brain doesn't fry when we start to walk greater distances.

Maddie was next.  She did really well.  She is starting to really get the idea of walk in heel (on left or right), then go sniff on release.  I'm happy to see that.  There were a few places where she started to air sniff, but by and large I was glad to see progress.  She's starting to build just a bit of duration with the heeling.

Of course, when Maddie's turn was over, she didn't want to go in.  More, more, more!!  I got Sammie out to give him his non-training walk and as I got him out the door, Maddie dove back out!  I had to put Sammie in the car while I rounded Maddie up to put her in.  While in the car, Sammie found a treasure - a plushy squeaky toy that Speedy got for qualifying at the competition over the weekend.  I let him carry it down to the road, and he was quite pleased.  He shook it as he walked along.  But it did get cumbersome for him.  He was trying to sniff and pee while he had the toy in his mouth.  At the end of our property, I made him leave it on the grass while we took the rest of his walk.  He was very pleased to "find it" again as we returned!

Last, but never ever least, it was Mr. Dean Dog's turn.  I have to say that I enjoy this with Dean the most.  There are so many little training things that we can do out on these walks and Dean seems to be enjoying the whole process.  We did our heeling on both sides and I even threw in some Rally moves.  Since it was morning, there was nobody on the road, so this worked well.  This time I made sure to keep him engaged as we got closer to the driveway.  He understood and that was a good thing.

Afterward, they all got to play in the yard as a reward.  They like that!

This morning training continued at the house!  I realized over the weeked that some of Speedy's CU skills are rusty, so we went back to do some very basic Mat Work and LAT.  Yeah, he needs to rework that!  Dean did the same.  I found at class on Tuesday that he has also lost some of his LAT skill, so we went back to the beginning to review.  Dean also did some Rally stuff - cheifly stands.

Maddie got to have the fun this morning.  We worked with a post to do pole and loop.  Then we did some pole and loop work with leg weaves mixed in.  Maddie liked that!

I'm glad to be back in a training groove with them again!

Barkaritaville Photos

Here are some photos from the competition this past weekend.

Here is our opening pose.  This was on Sunday.

This was at the beginnig of the "twizzle".  I love this picture.  It looks like we're doing a comedy act and he's in "trouble" and is happy about it!!  Actually, we were in motion!

Speedy is so cute in that one that I had to edit him out as a stand-alone!

If it weren't for the door behind us, this would be my favorite.  This was one of the new moves that I added after Hershey - a simple paw pose.

Speedy's "arm" move.  He takes two steps backwards as we do this.

Ending pose!

Maddies by Request!!

A friend asked to see some pictures of Miss Maddie, so here is a Maddie extravaganza!!

From this summer, hanging out in her flower garden.  It was overrun with weeds this year, but she was as happy to sit in the weeds as she is to sit in the flowers!!

Chasing her brother.  Maddie is still a "football player"!!

While definitley not the water dog her Border Collie brothers are, Maddie enjoyed playing in the sound down in North Carolina this year.

Her dandelion picture from two years ago.  This one really captures her sweet side.

Maddie, the Agility dog!!

Ummmmmmmmmm . . . hang on.  Let's try this again.

Maddie, the Agility dog!!

Wait . . . wait . . . wait!!  I said . . .

Maddie, the Agility dog!!

More Fun With Training Walks

Yesterday when I got home I took Speedy, Maddie, and Dean for training walks again.  I actually took Sammie for a walk, too, but his wasn't a training walk.

This time I was equipped with hot dog.

Speedy went first again.  No cows this time.  They were way off on the other side of the pasture and apparently didn't notice us.  So, his focus was a lot better.  We actually got some nice duration going.  His left side heeling is so strong.  There were a few times when we were just heeling along, with great vigor, when he was on the left.  The right is tough.  He sort of has it, but really drifts forward.  I was feeding him slightly behind where he needs to be and I hope that over time (and with the exercises that we will be doing in the coming months), the right side will strengthen.

I had one "moment" when I noticed that the neighbor two doors down had her dogs out.  She lets them run loose and I'm not sure how Speedy would respond if one of them ran right up to him.  They meet at the fence quite often and Speedy does bark at them.  Almost immediately after I noticed them out running, though, she put them in and I was happy about that.

Other than that, Speedy's walk was uneventful and very successful.

Then it was Maddie's turn.  She also did much better this time.  She still tends to sniff more, but she hasn't got the structure really down yet.  The hot dog helped, though.  We got some nice duration, too.  I can see that with Maddie duration is a challenge.  Once Speedy gets into a groove, he could probably heel for a good long while.  Maddie did well, but I could see that she was really stretching mentally a few times.

When we were down the road a bit two horses and buggies went by.  I was SO glad I had Maddie at that point.  That would have been the end of Speedy's training walk!  It would be nice, at some distant point in the future, if Speedy could heel right by a moving horse and buggy, but that's probably pushing it!!  Maddie was much easier.  I just moved her off the road as they went by.  As soon as they had gone she forgot about them.

Then I took Sammie for his walk.  I could see he really wanted to go and he doesn't know that he's not in training!

After that I took Dean.  He still has the best understanding of heeling and then taking a break to sniff or look around.  On the way down the road, he did really well.  He struggled a bit coming back.  I'm not sure if he heard something and got nervous, or if he was just excited to be walking back toward home.  We will work that a little bit next time.  When we did our Rally trial, he did disconnect and go ahead of me when he thought we were heading out of the ring.  I'd like him to learn that he needs a release to charge on home!!  That will be a really good challenge for him.

To reward all of them for a job well done, we played some ball and the mutts got to have a sniff fest.

Barkaritaville

I had a very nice time at the Barkaritaville competition this weekend.  One of the nicest things about it is that it is cool enough to crate Speedy out of the car, so I could actually spend a good bit of time watching other people's routines.  I can't logistically do that at any of the other competitions that we attend.

So, I saw a lot of great performances and I enjoyed seeing a lot of the Freestyle people.  I even met a few really nice people that I didn't know before.

Speedy was not in a great mood on Saturday.  I had taken him to the chiropractor on Friday night and he was none too pleased.  Usually he doesn't mind, and he actually seems happy to feel better, but this time he was royally ticked at me!!  That carried over a bit into Saturday.  Regardless, he was, as always, happy to go into the ring to dance.

He was a little bit more stimulated than I would have liked, but he was definitley not over the top.  Things started out well, but fell apart a little bit into the routine.  When I had him do his "swing" over into right side heel, he swung reeeaaally wide.  That would have been OK in Freestyle, but in Heelwork the dog is supposed to stay close!  His right side circle was gorgeous, but wide.  The switches fell apart completely, but once he moved in front of me to do our "glide" across the floor, he kicked into gear.  That was the most beautiful "glide" across the floor he has done!  Then his twirl and spin were nice.  He did break his second scallop, but it looked good, so it worked!!  The twizzle was nice, and the lateral into me was super-nice.  That was a good change!  He held his sit as I circled around him, and his new paw pose waws perfect!  Another great change!  His circle around me was lovely and then his "arm" was good and strong.  He didn't back straight, but that was fine.  He did well with the kicks.  On the third one he only lifted his paw instead of putting it on my leg, but it was a good effort.  Finally, he did break heel on our big circle of the ring, but he got it back and moved beautifully for the last part of it.  His cross in front of me toward the judge was really nice.  He wouldn't have right side heel, though, when I tried to switch him!  He literally jumped back over to left heel.  OK, we twirled together and ended.

I will say - his movement in this performance was absolutely lovely!  He didn't hit all of his moves, but for the most part, people wouldn't be able to tell that.

I wasn't sure if it would qualify, but I was pleased that it did.  Not only did it qualify, but the scores were really good.  I was thrilled!

A little later on, Stephanie took her turn with Harley.  He gave the best performance he has ever done!!  Stephanie was thrilled with it, and they qualified, too!

Neither of us wanted to go back on Sunday.  After a great day, it's a little tough to try to live up to it!  But, we did go back.  Another very fun day.

Going in, Speedy seemed to be in a much better mood.  In the warm up ring he really seemed to be back to himself and he was very eagerly doing his warm up.  Once we got out there, we started strong, but we ended up struggling a good bit.  I think he was probably tired, a little sore, and stimulated!  A few things that we had really done well the day before were just not as strong.  But we saw it through.  And we did qualify with it, although not with quite as good scores.  But that's OK.  All you need to qualify in Novice is 8.0 in both technical and artistic.  That's what we had and that's plenty good enough!!

Stephanie didn't fare quite as well.  Harley really was distracted.  Unfortnately, he was largely distracted by me, filming near the gate!!  The day before he knew I was there, but he just glanced at me a few times and went on.  Yesterday, he actually started to run over to me at one point!!  Stephanie managed to save it and finish the routine!!

While they didn't qualify, the did do well.  Their performance on Saturday was exceptional, but Sunday was still better than they had ever done before Saturday!!  They are making really nice progress.

Both of us are really excited for the winter now.  We have so many Freestyle plans.  She plans to continue her work with Harley and strengthen his Novice routine.  She also plans to get Liam going.  He might even be ready to compete next November!

I plan to have a Right Side Heel Boot Camp with Speedy.  I don't mean I'll make it unpleasant for him, of course, but I really plan to get that right side nice and strong for next year!  I have a few strategies in mind for getting that job done.  Once he is strong on the right, I need to go back and work on behind me because next year we are Intermediate-Bound!!  I plan to take this wonderful routine and revamp it to turn it into our Intermediate Freestyle routine.  I also plan to make a brand new Heelwork routine.  I hope to try to do a video entry to try to earn our last leg in Novice Heelwork.  So, I have to find music and go to the drawing board!! 

I also plan to focus on fitness with Speedy.  I am going to try to continue our training walks and do some other fitness stuff.

And I plan to design routines for Maddie and Dean.  I'm not sure how it's all going to work out, but the two of them will be dancing this coming winter!!  I know Maddie is going to enjoy it, and I think Dean will, too.

I wish there were more competitions in our area, but we'll make the best of what we've got and have a great time in the process!

I will have pictures from Barkaritaville to share on here, by the way!  As soon as they are ready, I'll get them on here!!