Spring is here!

Spring has been a mix of wet and cold with a little bit of sunshine here in the Inland Northwest. I'm eager for it to warm up so we can get to work planting. Last month was the first anniversary of Meg's "gotchya day"! She has been with us for one year now. Looking back, we've come a long way from the shy girl who knew very little and hid in the corner. I'm looking forward to watching her grow even more as we continue our training.

Last week Meg and I started two classes: Agility II with Penney Morse and Loose Leash Walking with Pat Moberly and Judy Campbell of Diamonds in The Ruff. This is our first class with Diamonds in the Ruff and so far its been fantastic. DITR offers many focused classes to work on specific things. I'm really looking forward to taking more classes with them in the future. We're signed up for another leash walking class at area parks next month. Here's hoping the weather improves.

Our Loose Leash Walking class has been great and we've learned many new steps towards calm walking on the leash without the pulling and walking all over the place. Meg does fantastic on our exercises in class and at home in the yard, but once we start walking on the road...everything is forgotten. We'll get there eventually. I think the exercise that has helped the most is Silky Leash, borrowed from Ahimsa Dog training. Basically, it teaches the dog to respond to slight pressure on the leash by turning towards the direction of the leash, relieving the pressure.

We're also working on some thing we already know, like hand targeting and 'leave it'. It's been great to review. Our 'leave it' seems to be a bit rusty so we'll make that one of our main focuses this week at home.

There are a number of other dogs in our Loose Leash class. Some of the younger dogs have tried to greet Meg by sniffing her face, which results in her snarling at them. I need to work on redirecting her towards me so the other dogs don't have a chance to get in her face.

Our Agility II class last week was a lot of fun. We've been working on a makeshift teeter at home (a board on top of a 6-inch block). Meg has been doing great with that and I was eager to see if our training would transfer over to the real teeter in class. It did! She did fantastic, even pulling ahead of me to find the tipping point on the big teeter. She showed no sign of being nervous about the equipment at all.

She was a bit nervous about all the other dogs and their people in class though. Up to this point, her agility classes have been small, with just one or two other dogs. Our current class has 5-6 dogs in it. This is a great opportunity for Meg to get used being around more dogs and people.

One of our main focuses last week in agility was teaching the dogs to stop and wait at the bottom of the dog walk. We've been practicing this at home on a board for about a month. Meg did great in class on her first two tries, but 'forgot' on tries 3 and 4 when I sped up a bit. We spent the past week working on it some more at home with me working on both sides of her at different speeds. I think she's really got it down now. I'm looking forward to seeing how she does in class tonight.

Meg continues to go to Ruff'n It Dog Day Camp once a week. I'm able to bring my laptop to work and watch her on the webcams. She seems to love running wide circles around the other dogs and running through the bottom of the kiddie slide like its an agility tunnel. She also loves to play fetch with Dan, the human. She plays with some of the other dogs, but is pretty picky about her friends. I guess I can't blame her because I am too.

We have managed to enjoy a few days of sunshine here and there. Here are a few pictures from one of our walks. As you can see, both Meg and Bear put on a little weight over the winter. They've already begun to slim down a bit with more frequent off-leash walks through the fields.

Teeters are not so bad...

For the months of March and April, we re-took Agility 1 with Penney Morse of Sunara Dog Training and we took and Advanced Class with Lisa Lucas of Northern Tails Dog Training.

Our class with Lisa was great. Meg REALLY like Lisa's partner Dharma, the Belgian Sheepdog. Two dogs from day camp were also in our class. We learned more about shaping and backchaining and had a lot of fun. Meg now knows paw targeting, crawl, and "you're on fire" (roll over). We also put together a little routine of tricks for the Headstart Class.

Agility with Penney was also great. Things were a little bumpy starting out. Meg still does not like/trust Penney, but Penney has been great about not pushing the issue and slowly trying to regain Meg's trust. Meg was much more confident on the equipment this time around. The A-Frame is the greatest and when you aren't sure what the human wants, run through the weave poles...lol.

We worked on the dreaded teeter a couple times in the last sessions of the class. Penney had some new ideas on how to help Meg become more confident about it. First, with the teeter lowered to nearly to the ground and an x-pen blocking her from jumping off one side, I walked her across it holding her collar. Penney held the end of the teeter to prevent the 'bang'. This helped boost Meg's confidence. She was still unsure about the whole thing, but she wasn't terrified of it. By the third time across, she was doing the leading; I was just guiding her to stay on. The next session, we had the teeter at full height, but put a table underneath one end so the down side only had to come down half-way. (And Penney put a rug on it to silence the bang, though there was still a 'bang' when it reset.) The first couple of runs, I slowed the teeter as it moved so it didn't scare Meg. Meg did fantastic. By the third run, it was all her and she actually enjoyed it a bit.

Yesterday, I made a make-shift teeter for practice at home with the center point only about 6" high. Meg went over it like it was nothing. We did it about four times. When I reset the board so it wouldn't move (so we could work on other things) Meg walked on it and seemed disappointed that it wasn't moving anymore.

Meg is REALLY starting to enjoy every aspect of agility now. I can't wait until we start Agility II in a couple weeks and start putting things together more.

Next weekend we start a 4-week class with Diomonds in the RUff that focuses only on Loose Leash Walking, something we really need to work on. Then in June we take another 4-week class to work on loose leash walking in the 'real world'. I'm looking forward to this one as we get to meet at area parks and enjoy summer evening walks. Here's hoping it stops snowing by then...lol.

Meg and Kids

We've had a few visitors staying at the house for the past week, my nephew 21-month-old Jeremiah and niece 6 1/2-year-old Kira. Meg met them for the first time in July, but she was still settling in then. This time, Meg was a bit shy towards them initially. Kira was a bit too loud and excited and moved around too much for Meg. Jeremiah....well, Meg didn't quite know what to make of the little person at first. It didn't help that Bear is not kid friendly and was not setting a good example for Meg.

After the first few days though, Meg was playing fetch and doing tricks with Kira and taking treats from and giving kisses to Jeremiah. She quickly learned to associate the kids with food and play and would seek them out to say hello when she entered the room they were in, though she still was a bit unsure about them when they were loud and hyper. All in all it was a good experience for both Meg and the kids.

In other news, Meg is still enjoying day camp once a week. She's made quite a few friends. She has the most fun playing with other herding breeds and a couple of labs.

Bear injured his shoulder and cost a few hundred dollars at the vet. He'll be fine, but with the timing of his injury combined with my work schedule and the (great) visit we had with my sister and her kids there was too much going on so I decided to hold off on agility classes with Meg until March. We're also looking forward to taking an Advanced class with Lisa Lucas starting in March. I'm sure Meg will be glad to get back to a busy training schedule. She's been bored this past month.

We need to brush up on everything before classes start. I've been slacking. We did work on stay tonight (with me leaving the room and shutting the door). Meg did great!

Day Camp!

Last week, Meg started going to Ruff'n It Dog Day Camp. With the snow, ice, short days and no classes to go to, Meg has been getting a bit bored. I hoped Day Camp would give her exercise, socialization and help her gain more confidence.

On Tuesday, I went in to drop off her paperwork and I brought Meg so she could meet Dan (who runs the place) and sniff around a bit. Dan seems to really understand dogs and Border Collies. Meg sniffed him and then ignored him and he knew enough to take that as her acceptance of him and not try to pet her any further (which would have made Meg nervous).

On Wednesday morning, I dropped Meg off for her first day at camp. Dan said she did great and got along with all the other dogs. I watched her on the web cams from home. She quickly made friends with a boxer and a collie and hung out with them for most of the day.



When I picked her up in the afternoon, Dan gave me a set of pictures to commemorate her first day. So cute!



She went again for a half day on Thursday, where she made more friends and played with Jace, the German Shepherd who lives down the street from us.





She went back this week and met even more dogs. Dan said she spent a lot of time playing. She even met her 'mini me', a dog about half her size with similar markings. They followed each other around and played together for most of the day.

SNOW!!

Our last agility class did not go well. Meg has decided she does not like Penney anymore (the evil one who brings out the teeter) and barked at her straight off. So we spent a good portion of class working on that. Penney insisted we try her on the teeter again with it nearly flat. I reluctantly gave in. Meg still hated it. Then we worked on weaves a bit and that was all.

The next agility classes starts up in January. I'm not sure if we'll go. We may take some time off and work on things at home and try again in the spring. Partly because the last few classes have not been fun for Meg and partly because a deer rearranged the front end of my sister's car and we've been sharing mine to get to and from work. On top of that, the roads are covered in snow and I don't want to drive any more than necessary.

On the topic of snow, just last weekend we we had gorgeous golden brown leaves on the ground.



Now one week later we have two feet of snow on the ground.





Meg and Bear love it (as long as they don't have to stay outside too long). Here is a video of Meg and Bear and I playing in the snow for the first time:

Roll Over Beethoven...

Meg is learning to play the piano! I thought the noise might bother her but she seems to enjoy it. She isn't much of a composer, but its a cute trick to show off for visitors and another confidence booster for Meg. I'll post a video once she's had a bit more practice.

This week agility went a bit smoother as we did not attempt the teeter. Meg was hesitant on the dog walk the first time but once she was sure it wasn't a teeter in disguise she enthusiastically jogged the length of it three times with a very nice bottom-stay on the ending contact each time. On a tunnel-jump sequence, she wanted to go around the jump not over. We used some extra jump wings to block her and she happily went over the jump. The tire gave her some trouble at first too. I'm not sure why...she wanted to go through the gap between the tire and the support, not something she's done in the past. She was brilliant on the table. We've only worked on a table-down 3-4 times in class and not at all at home, but she knew what she was supposed to do. Later, in our handling practice, Meg has a very nice out and wrap, but I need to work on my hand signals still. I keep giving the same hand signal for 'out' when I'm asking for a 'switch' and Meg isn't sure what I want so I/we have some practice to do.

I'm sad to say today was our last class for Prep School. We had a play session before class and Meg was confident enough to run the perimeter of the yard for the first time (she usually sticks pretty close to me). She and Dahrma went for a run until the lab arrived. Meg did better with the lab in the yard than she ever has though. She ran around with her for a bit before deciding she had enough and coming back to me. When the German brothers arrived, they were pretty wired and a bit more than Meg could handle at the same time, but she still did ok.

When class started, Meg got to show off her new tricks ('pretty', wave, and roll over). Then she also showed off her down stay. She does very good as long as she can see me. If I leave her sight, she stands up to look for me (though she still stays in the same spot). Then she got to be the distraction for the other dogs, which was nice because we worked on loose leash walking through a maze of dogs. Meg played with Dahrma for a bit while everyone else got some pointers on stay. Then all the dogs practiced being calm and quiet while us people talked. Meg was so calm she fell asleep...lol. It was a great class, and we're looking forward to taking the Advanced Class with Lisa in January!

Let's Play!

This week in agility class, Meg once again let us know how much she dislikes the teeter. I think maybe we'll just skip the teeter for now since she is so adamant about not liking it. Most of the local competitions are NADAC anyway (no teeter). Meg also did not want to go through the chute with the cloth, though I think with a little practice, she'll get over that one quickly. We introduced Meg to the weave poles...she did well. This week we've been working with a triangle of buckets and practicing our outs, switches, and wraps. Meg does better than I do...my hand signals are inconsistent but she's training me and I'm improving (slowly).

On Saturday in our Prep School class, Meg did great in the pre-class play session. All the dogs were in the yard together and Meg wasn't the slightest bit nervous, even when the crazy lab was flying all over the place and Dahrma had to tackle her to remind her to get control of herself. Meg the workaholic just took it as an opportunity to come sit-lay-stand in front of me in an effort to coerce some treats from me.

During class, Meg kept trying to get everyone to play with her. She bowed, nudged, pounced, rolled, and wiggled for all five of the other dogs in class. A few took her up on her offer to play, but the German Shepherd pups got a bit too enthusiastic so we had to step in before things got out of hand.

We worked on impulse control exercises in class. Meg did great! We also worked on getting the dogs to do the basics (sit, down, stand, stay) regardless of what position we were in. Meg has trouble with this. She feels the need to be able to see my face at all times. So that's our homework for the week...getting her to understand she does not need to see my face when I ask her to do something.

In addition to training for her classes, we've also been working on a few new tricks. Meg already knows shake (right paw), paw (left paw), and crawl. She recently learned to wave. We've also been working on 'pretty' (sit up) and roll over. She doesn't quite have the balance for 'pretty' yet, but she's improving. I've tried to teach her to roll over a few times over the past few months, but she wasn't comfortable with it. We've been working on it for the past week with the clicker and have made progress; she'll at least go on to her side. This morning however, she had a bit of a break through and rolled completely over three times!