One Year, What A Change

This day last year, I was meeting Dhali for the very first time at a puppy open house.  He was 4 weeks old and adorable :)

I can't believe he was that small!

Fast forward ONE year and Dhali attended his very first seminar.  It was at Loretta's and it was fun :)

We were auditors, so mostly Dhali just hung out in his crate.  But he did a really excellent job of just being.  That is a tough skill!

He didn't make a peep when I left him to walk a course.  He whined a little bit when there were other dogs barking.  He also whined a little bit and barked once (!) at the end of the day.  I know what his problem was though - he needed to go potty!  And he was refusing to go.  Still an issue with the strange location pottying.  

But other than the potty issues he was a rock star.  I don't think he could have handled working in that environment - YET, but I was really itching to try the exercises out :P  

He did a lot of this....

And some of this...

At the very end of the day I brought out his mat and let him play on that.  He did a good job, but his enormously full bladder was distracting him a little bit.  It's frustrating to know that if he just would pee he would feel so much better LOL!!

He was great at looking at and then ignoring the dogs working on course.  He was like "yeah, whatever I have mat, I have cheese and hot dogs - don't care about boring dogs."

I love this picture - wink?

My shoes drying off in front of the fan.  My feet were so wet the entire day.  It rained a lot last night, so we were in the barn for the seminar, but my feet got soaked hauling our stuff from the car to the barn.

I really liked having the seminar in the barn!  It was nice and cool - I was even cold!  The dogs didn't run off too much, because we were in the barn.  The sun didn't blind me and I didn't get a sunburn.  All around I enjoyed this year's seminar much better than last year.  It was so relaxing to have Dhali with me.  Last year was stressful with Tibby.

And I learned a lot too!  I took lots of notes.  I can't wait to play with one jump :)

P.S. I ate a hamburger for the first time in over 15 years.  AND it was grilled by a world agility champion :D LOL!!!!  It was a tasty hamburger.  I couldn't remember what they tasted like, but now I know!

Whole Lotta Stuff

It rained for a long, long, long time....6 days.  I had to make Dhali put on the raincoat.  It actually fit him!  Which is crazy, because it doesn't fit Tibby anymore.  It just goes to show all his height is in his long legs.  Tibby has a longer back and is built differently.  Dhali's bone structure is more delicate.  I can tell this by feeling their heads - Tibby: square and heavy,  Dhali: thin and light (and tiny too).  He has a tiny head.

Anyway.....these pictures were taken on the day he turned ONE!  Then we went shopping.  I forgot to make him wear the raincoat into the store.

Dhali shopping!  Isn't he cute?!?  He loves to go shopping.  I didn't get a very good video of it, but he is rubbing himself on the racks of bones - just like a cat.  He LOVES to rub up on stinky stuff. 

 I took him to a race on Sat.  We watch (and cheered) for my Mom.  After the race we had to stand around FOREVER waiting for the awards.  Dhali did AMAZING.  He sat and stared at me or laid down on the ground and rested.  He was totally relaxed - even though we were surround by tons of people.  My biggest fear was the someone would step on him, because he was being so good and invisible.

Anyway....a man was squatting down in front of us and I wasn't paying attention.  Dhali apparently thought the guy smelled AMAZING and tried to rub the glorious stink on himself.  LOL!  That was his one silly moment.  I don't think the guy realized that he was basically sitting on a dog until Dhali stuck his cold nose into he man's leg LOL!!  I had to laugh at that :)

Oh and P.S.  I didn't have a treat on me and Dhali was still amazing.  

I'm working up to our SUPER AWESOME lesson with Loretta Mueller....so hang in there! 

On Thursday we had a lesson with Loretta at her place.  It was so long ago since our last time up there - 9 months!   A lot happens in 9 months    This was Dhali's First Lesson.

I had forgotten how looooong the trip is.  It takes forever.  The trip wasn't so bad until about 40 mins from Loretta's place I got behind 4 cars that were stuck behind a truck going (at the fastest) 40 mph!!!!  If you can't drive the speed limit - pull over!  I was trying to stay relaxed and calm, so I wouldn't arrive at the lesson all stressed out, but I think I failed :P  

Dhali really liked Loretta's sheep.  I was trying to get him to potty (ha,ha,ha) and Dhali was more interested in the sheep.  "They run away!  Yay!  Let's chase them!"  Um, no.

Dhali was a little nervous for the first 10 mins. inside the barn.  I think that was pretty normal - totally new place with a new person (Loretta) and he did a little sniffing around.  Once he figured out we were there to play - he was great :)  He likes to play!

My favorite parts were when Loretta was handling him - he did so good with her.  He gets it - I'm the one who needs the work!  It was really beautiful to see him running.  Wish I had a video!  

I got a lot of good information to work on and Loretta said I've done a good job with him (Yay!).  After his little nervous bit at the beginning he worked for the entire hour - really hard too.  We were both out of breath most of the time :P  

It was so worth the long drive!

P.S.  Dhali ate like a pound of meat treats at the lesson and then came home and ate his dinner - he also wasn't tired.  I was though!

Working on some of the sends Loretta taught us.  I need to look at the jump and not cute little Dhali!

And this is Dhali's channel work.  This is his 3rd time on the channel and his first time outside with it.  I think he is doing really well.  He's fast.

Chute!

 Dhali does the chute for the first time ever!! Yay! First Tibby shows him how it's done. What do you know, Loretta Mueller was right YET AGAIN. Jealousy is a powerful motivator.

 So funny that Tibby was totally into doing this to get her ball. Zero treats were involved in the making of this video. She's like, "Mouth off, little punk! That ball is MINE. No share."

 And Dhali coming out of the chute for the first time. Adorable. Like a little muskrat peeking out of is burrow.  Oh, what?  You guys didn't think muskrat?  LOL!

I think Tibby has made the ball a valuable reinforcer for Dhali.  It's so great when they train each other!  :)   I have been working with Dhali since he came home to fetch and play with a ball.  Seeing Tibby go crazy  (as crazy as Tibby gets - mild wild) over the ball made it SO much MORE EXCITING!!  After the chute playing we went downstairs and he 'fetched' the ball for a while.  Sometimes he even brought it back!  Actually he does pretty good at bringing it back.  I don't want to use treats (the way I taught Tibby to fetch), but rather I want the next throw to be the reward.

The reason we were playing inside?  Well, it was hot outside.  And my neighbor was out in his yard.  He's like that Wilson guy on Home Improvement, but without the talking.  Just the fence, big floppy hat and peeking over the fence.  Yeah......so not playing outside with peeking people.

Dhali's First Lesson, Hiking! and First Agility Trial!

Wow we  have done so much in a short amount of time!  And I don't have pictures of ANY of it :(  Oh, well. 

Yesterday we went to Loretta's and Dhali had his first lesson!  He did a really, really good job.  He had a few moments when he wanted to do his own thing, but those moments were very few.  I think he thought it was too hot, because when we went in the shade he did better at staying by me, but considering how many new things he was introduced to - I think he did GREAT! :)
This is the list of things Loretta gave us to work on.  It's a lot, but I think Dhali will be able to do it. 
And me.  I'm the one that has trouble!

Minimum 80 recalls---no dining and dashing.

Playing----no playing and dashing. When doing recalls with toys, stop and play for 30 seconds.

Sits, downs and waits on a mat.

Agility trials---MAIN FOCUS IN SOCIALIZATION, get to as many as u can.

Kibble for treats.

Teach a jump on the ground, work up to a pinwheel. Start FC, RC.

Tunnels, chute (end opened) and start get on board, and reward on board.

RUN AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Work food to toy to food transitions. Of having issues give breaks between transitions.

Playing with dogs 1 to 5 ratio. For every 1 min with dogs, 5 mins with you. INVOLVE IN THE PLAY! Recall out of play on leash. Reward heavily.

If you cannot MAKE HIM come to you, don't call him.

Reward and name potty times. On leash.

Once jump trained, start lateral and forward sends.

PLAY PLAY PLAY ALL THE TIME.

Jealousy is a good thing :-)

Loretta

I can see that I'm going to have a hard time with the 80 recalls a day.  That's a LOT!!  But I will try my best to get close to that number.  I'm also going to have a hard time with the 1 min. play time with Tibby for 5 mins. play time with me.  It makes Tibby happy to play with Dhali, but I know that the results in the future will be worth a little work now.
During Dhali's lesson Tibby waited and barked a lot.  I wanted to do something fun for Tibby, so on the way home we stopped at a state park and went hiking.  Tibby was very happy!  It was a nice hilly hike and we only saw 4 people and 2 of them were (female) park rangers.  So very nice hike for Tibby - no scary things or people.  It really shouldn't be a surprise to me that Tibby is happiest hiking, after all that's what we did every day for the first 3 months she was with me.  It was the only way I could keep her from keeping me up all night long - very long off leash hikes.  She would run and run and come home tired, but still happy to keep me up at night.  Yeah.....I was pretty sleep deprived for a long time.  Crate training, people....do it!

The last 2 nights Dhali has been so tired that he doesn't make a peep in his crate for 8 solid hours of sleep.  sweet, sweet sleep - ahhhh I love it.  Before that I had my construction ear muffs.  Pop those on and I can't hear anything.  Yes weird, but it works.  I tried those orange ear plugs, but they weren't strong enough.  Dhali's voice can pierce through brick walls.  I even tried ear plugs + ear muffs.  Well, any way he's doing better and it's so much easier having a puppy in a crate at night.

So we had fun hiking, then we came home and I gave both pups a bath and then they had after bath zoomies, I played tug with Dhali and then I was tired!  Dhali was still ready to go, go, go.  Lesson, hike, bath, play - more!  He doesn't sleep in the car very much either.  I don't remember if it took Tibby a long time to start relaxing in the car?  He watches me, chews his bully stick and barks.  Today he slept, but he was very tired.

So today!  We went to an agility trial in St. Cloud.  Just Dhali and me.  It was fun.  Dhali was awesome again.  My only complaint is the benches were super uncomfortable.  I need a chair with a back!  Otherwise it was great.  Fun to watch everyone and see some great dogs and handlers.  Dhali tugged on his toys, chilled and watched everything and watched me to get treats.  Mostly he just relaxed and watched everyone.  I DID notice where his comfort level for tugging was.  He was a crazy fiend in the parking lot - jumping and tugging really hard in the parking lot and on the walk to the trial site.  When we went around the side of the building and he could see people/dogs his tugging went down a lot.  He would still play, but he wasn't jumping as much. 

Although at the end of the day he did really fierce tugging right by the ring with dogs all around and people sitting around next to us.  People even stepped over him and he was still tugging and playing.  I think he did great.  We were there for a long time - almost 4 hours?  I think.  And he was focused on me really, really well.

So different from the first trial I took Tibby to.  She barked the ENTIRE time and she lunged at anyone/dog that came within her vision line.  We didn't stay very long, because she was acting so crazy and BARKING like a crazy.

Thank you Loretta for kicking me in the rear and getting me to take Dhali to agility trials.  I will try!!!

One thing that we need to work on - Dhali wouldn't pee!  He held it the entire time we were away from home!  He pooped, but NO PEE.  Silly pup.  So that was what?  We left at 12pm and got home at 7:30pm.  That was a long time to hold it!  Poor little tiny bladder.  He also wants to go really, really far away to poop.  Which is nice, but also a pain.  Gotta work on the potty on leash!

So after the trial we stopped at Petsmart and the best happy making me thing happened.  When we were checking out the Petsmart employee said, "I was watching you while you were picking out a collar and he just sat there and watched you the whole time!  It was so cute!"  Yes, he was a good boy!  We were working on focus and Dhali was a very good boy.  He doesn't try to jump on everyone he sees, but rather sticks with me and walks along or sits and watches me.  It looks like I actually train him or something LOL!!

Whew, so we made it home and Tibby missed me SO much.  She had to sit in my lap for a while until she calmed down and she followed me around to make sure I didn't try to escape again.

Very tired now.

When we got home Dhali was like, "Let's do something!  Play with me!  Toys!  Run around! Fun!"  and I was like no you are tired.  I know you are tired.  Dhali was like, "Put me in coach!  I'm ready!"  But yeah, 5 mins. in the x-pen he was sleeping.  He WAS tired!      

Agility Seminar At Loretta Mueller's

Tibby and I went to an agility seminar at Loretta's place.  It was fun!  I got to see a lot of agility, meet some nice people and see smart dogs.

Tibby was not impressed with being left in the crate when I went out to walk the courses (I was auditing).  She serenaded everyone with her full repertoire of barks, howls and whines.  If it wasn't annoying it would have been funny.  She makes quite interesting noises.

She eventually calmed down enough to take a nap in the afternoon.

It was really hot in the sun, but there were lots of fans and nice shade covers to sit underneath.  I was only hot when we were standing in the sun, but otherwise it was a really nice day.  I made Tibby get in the baby pool to cool off.  That's why she looks like a drowned rat!  She doesn't like water, but too bad!  Better water than overheating. 

Being in the pool and having a fan on her, she didn't even pant......except when she was 'singing' at the top of her lungs.

I took a bunch of pictures.  I had over 200, but whittled them down to just over 100.  You can see the full album here Flickr Loretta Seminar Album.  These below were my favorite.

I didn't edit them at all - some could use cropping at least, but I'm too tired!  Left the house at 5:30am and got home at 7:30pm plus outside all day....Tibby has the right idea!  Time for bed. 

Videos From Thrusday's Lesson

Two videos from our lesson on Thursday with Loretta. Lots of fun :) I like how happy Tibby looks playing on the dogwalk. She loves RC training. I was so happy to see that she did understand what we wanted and she would try hard to hit the contact, if she missed it the first time.

Manipulation

We had a really good lesson with Loretta today.  Usually I spend the 2 hour drive home thinking about all the different things I wish I had said or done differently.  But this time I didn't even think about it.  It was a good lesson and I wouldn't change anything.

Tibby worked hard for a long time.  She had a few moments when she needed a time out in the crate, but then she would come back ready to work.

There was one funny moment when she decided to try hiding out in the black (previously) 'scary' tunnel to avoid working in the newly 'scary' corner of the building.  Hence the title of this post.  She isn't actually scared of these things, but boy have I taught her well that acting 'scared' gets you lots of treats and you can avoid doing whatever I want.  You would have to be there and work with Tibby for a little while to understand this.  Even Loretta didn't believe me when I first told her that I felt like Tibby was 'playing me'.  I think she believes me now :P

She was SO tired by the end of the hour, but she kept trying for me and did what I asked her to do.

I've said it before, but my favorite part of lessons is having someone watch what we are doing and tell me/explain to me/translate what is going on.  It's also nice to have someone to talk through things and tell you what you're doing is OK! 

Loretta is a really great teacher!

I learned today that Tibby actually does understand the criteria of running contacts.  I've been thinking that she doesn't get it - it seems like I'm rewarding everything, so how could she figure it out.

Really neat to see her thinking and trying different things out.

When she missed leapt and didn't get rewarded, she would come back and run through the contact the next time. 

Good girl!

Agility Lesson April Spring

Tibby did very good at our lesson with Loretta today.  She was a really good girl.  I have a lot to work on though! 

I really like how Loretta can see what I'm doing and then explain it to me.  Now if I could just remember to do what she says!  I'm pretty sure she must get sick of telling me the same thing over and over again - and think that I don't get it!  I get it, but my body just doesn't want to connect with my brain! 

I really, really, really have to stop getting into Tibby's space.  It's so tempting though!  She hates it.  So I have to stop.  If I could stop doing that then maybe her speed would even out and that would help me quit decelerating and then Tibby wouldn't get de-motivated.

Tibby did a great job though!

 She likes extension and thinks collection is stupid.  I have to agree with her.  Less thinking with extension - which is good for me :)

"We go now?"

My right thumb is so beat up from Tibby biting it.  It hurt all afternoon, but it's fine now.  I give her tiny little bites and let her nibble on my thumb to get the pieces.  Good except I have 2 holes in my thumb now! 

At the end of our lesson Tibby played with a toy!  It was so much fun!  Back a couple months ago (maybe Dec. or Jan. ?)  I offered her the toy and she was not interested at all.  Today she was ALL OVER IT!!!  Running around chasing, tugging and then running off when she 'won' it.  She figured out really, really quickly - give toy back, get treat.  Although I still chased her a little when she had the toy, because that's her favorite part. 

I think she wasn't feeling well last week.  I don't like to make excuses for us, because there are always excuses for why something is wrong.  But last week, the day of our lesson, Tibby threw up twice in the early morning.  This is gross, but I think she ate a hair ball that Catty threw up outside.  There were pieces of grass and cat hair, ect.  Yuck.  She was also acting all scared of everything and now she is much, much better.  She has started sitting outside on the grass - by herself!  It's one of her favorite things to do, but she has been too scared for the last couple weeks to do it.  It's nice to see that she is feeling all relaxed again.

"I tired."

It really helped to tie Tibby to the door when we weren't running.  We would do an exercise, run back to her leash and then Loretta and I would talk about what we had done.  I think that made a big difference in her motivation.  At first she didn't get it, but by the end of the hour - when I let her off she was running with me.  It really helps to have Loretta talking me through everything.  It's hard to see, objectively, what is going on.  I like lessons!

I also liked running Tibby to her leash at the end, because I have been teaching Tibby to target her leash.  I figure there is a pretty good chance that, if we ever trial, and I don't teach her to target her leash, she will run out of the ring when we finish running.  So this will be a good training step.  I'm going to do it at home too, when we are training.  I just have to make sure that I remember to reward her when we get to the leash, so she doesn't think she is being punished or that she did something wrong.

She is such a good dog.