Baby Dog Training

With all this talk about Zoe, I figured it was about time to highlight Breeze. Tonight was Breeze's first successful attempt at maneuvering 6 weave poles. I know this may sound silly, but it is a proud moment for an agility trainer. Now that Breeze is about a year old, I started weave training with her a couple of weeks ago. In class, we have been working entries, but not the weaving motion. I trained Zoe with weave-o-matics, which are basically poles that are angled, making a weave-like path. Since then, I've heard a lot about 2 by 2 training, which is setting up two poles and letting the dog learn the correct entry. The key to this method is shaping, where you let the dog decide and reward for the correct behavior. This teaches them a) how to enter correctly and b) instills drive for the weaves since it is their choice to perform the behavior.

So with Breeze, I started with two poles and as she quickly got the entry, I added two more. We practiced with four poles for 2 or 3 sessions and then tonight I added 2 more. I initially planned on angling the poles, but she seemed to get it just fine with them straight up. So now we'll just work on speed and accuracy and eventually adding more poles.

Breeze has proven to be a pretty die hard worker. When I have treats, her focus is 110%. Even with a toy it is fairly good. When people say border collies need a job to do, they are exactly right about her. She lives to work and sometimes it is difficult to find her a job to do. Zoe, on the other hand, would happily spend her time lounging on the couch. As much of a pain it can be, it's kind of nice having both kinds of personalities. It has really challenged me as a trainer because I need to handle both dogs very differently. Zoe needs a lot of motivation, and I need to emphasize control with Breeze.

We are going on about three months of agility with Breeze. She's sequencing about 5 or 6 obstacles now and seems to have no fear of the teeter. Her contacts are getting pretty solid and is starting to jump with a little height. I've been determined to take things slow with her because I know she will need some extra time to mature. Currently, she has two modes: overdrive and park. She's not a problem around other dogs, it's just that any little bit of praise excites her and she goes into hyper mode. This is where black eyes become a danger, lol. I also need to learn how to give her a break from working. Some dogs like to play in between and others just need a quiet mental break in the crate. If we learn how to work best as a team now, it will pay off later in the ring.

Now, here is Breeze weaving...look at her go!

Holy Snow!!

They say lightning doesn't strike twice...well how about three times??  Three times it has now snowed significantly right before a trial.  As I mentioned in the last post, it snowed the morning of a trial that was taking place in La Crosse and I was unable to get out of the cities.  I decided that the next time I would travel the night before if things looked ominous.  Sure enough, Michelle and I were traveling to another trial in La Crosse on Saturday, December 4th.  We knew what was coming, so towards the end of the week we decided to play it safe and go the night before.  Well the snow came on in full force.  By the time we left at 4pm Friday, a few inches had already fallen.  The first half of the drive wasn't too bad, but after leaving Rochester, the roads started to get caked with snow and it got very dark.  To add to it, Zoe wasn't feeling the greatest and we ended up with both vomit and diarrhea in the car.  Let's just say it was a tough remaining 60 miles to La Crosse.  We got there safely and were able to get to the trial site the next day.  Both teams ended up doing well and we went 4/5 despite Zoe not feeling the greatest.

If that wasn't enough, snow was in the forecast yet again for a local trial in St. Paul the very next weekend.  I figured it wouldn't be so bad because I only had to travel 20 miles.  Boy was I dead wrong.  When I got up Saturday morning, we had a little snow already, but it had stopped snowing so I went anyway.  As the day went on, the blizzard arrived.  It got so bad that the trial got canceled halfway through the day so that people could get home while it was still light out.  We spent about 1-2 hrs digging cars out of the parking lot and even then, it was questionable as to whether people could get beyond the parking lot.  It was a grim outlook, but everyone was in good spirits - even the judge from CA was shoveling and singing xmas carols.  When it appeared that it would potentially unsafe to drive home, Michelle and I again camped out at the hotel.  For a second, we doubted even getting that far and entertained the thought of staying the night at Leatherdale - as a few ultimately did.  We ended up getting out with my little Toyota Yaris and made it safely to the hotel.  It was definitely a weekend to remember!  Never had I thought I would get stranded 20 miles from home.  But better safe than sorry I guess.  

So I am done with snow for a while - at least snow that gets in the way of agility.  We don't have another trial until NADAC on New Years eve/day and I will enjoy the break.  It will be a nice change from all the CPE we have been doing lately.  Next month, we'll be at the new On the Run Canine Center in Ham Lake again for CPE.  It is a wonderful facility and Zoe seems to like running there.  After that, we may be going down to La Crosse again for CPE in February.  Happy holidays!!!