We got a new puppy! I have been planning to add another whippet
pretty much as soon as Pax came home. I've had a blast with Pax in
everything we've tried together...although I do get tired of his
obsession to be on my lap at all times. We have especially been enjoying
racing and lure coursing. Pax gives it his all and is a solid "B" dog,
but of course my competitive self wants a faster dog. I am really happy
with her so far. She is confident, smart and biddable. The only issue we
are working through at the moment are distractions. She doesn't have
the focus to work through any distractions...some of that will come with
time. She is a natural retriever and she doesn't tug like Pax, but I
have no doubt I can get her there. We FINALLY decided on a name! "SPY"
Pax hasn't made too much
progress since his flyball break started. Retraining a dog is
frustrating. I HIGHLY recommend not debuting a dog until everything is
just how you want it and if you see something wrong, pull the dog right
away. I was so excited and anxious to get him going, I didn't realize
all this. Especially with a whippet. They take longer to train than
border collies usually. I plan to take close to 2 years to train the new
baby unless it takes longer. My goals for Pax are to get 3 strides off
the box to the first jump and a less wide box turn. I'll keep updating
his progress..if there is any!
The yearly big break
from dog sports is coming up so Im planning on doing general obedience
training with everyone and keeping them conditioned with chuck-it and
hikes in the woods.
Remember when I went to CanAm in 2010? That trip was very memorable. The moral of that story was don't take a 5 month old baby most of the way across the country unless you are A) with the other parent of the child or B) able to sit next to the child. I listened to lots of crying that I was unable to do anything about, which was basically torture for me. On the other hand, when Finley wasn't crying, which was actually most of the time...the road trip was awesome. It was relaxing and beautiful and a special treat to go and run Ezri and Indigo with my Canine Mutiny friends!
Ben and I decided to go back this year, but since Ben would basically fail out of veterinary school if he missed Thursday or Monday, he decided to skip it..sort of at the last minute. Joe decided he also wouldn't go, so we canceled our van rental and Sue and I decided to take my small SUV. We did have enough time before CanAm to make sure Dave was comfortable running Indigo and that I could run Goose. Indigo will run for anyone and is easy to pass and Goose is..well..he means well.
Sue and I loaded up Pax, Indigo, Goose, Stingray and Mustang along with crates, flyball gear, food, cooler etc. The car was very full! We left on Tuesday afternoon, so that we would have plenty of time to get there and no long days of driving. The drive there was very uneventful and we got pretty good at unpacking and repacking. We got there on Thursday afternoon and just hung out and took it easy that night. We decided (unlike many of the other teams racing for the CanAm) to run our dogs on Friday. They are in really good physical condition and are used to a lot more running that we had planned for them. I'm really happy we chose to do that because they did not run well on Friday and had that been Saturday (the day that determines if you make it to the CanAm), we wouldn't have made it!
Pax ran pretty well in his very first race on Friday and then not so great for the rest of the weekend. He will be taking a break until the Spring for some retraining and his performance at CanAm shows that he really needs it! So for Indigo and Goose's team we didn't really have a plan going into Saturday. We just ran the best we could and tried to win races, but still push for a good time. We didn't expect to make it into the finals with so many teams running 15.5 and below lately. We were very pleasantly surprised with our times on Saturday. We ran right around 16.0 and below and our 15.7 ended up putting us in the 3rd seed going into the CanAm. So, Canine Mutiny and 7 other teams accepted spots for the CanAm on Sunday.
Our first race was against Rocket Relay's B team. We won that race, but it wasn't easy and ended up being decided by an awesome rerun by Stingray, our height dog! That put us in a position to be racing Rocket Relay's A team for the next elimination. They are the team that won last year, so we knew we would have a hard time beating them. We took them to 4 heats and lost. This put Rocket Relay and Spring Loaded as the two teams racing for first and second place and us and Animal Inn racing for third and forth place.
Eventhough we lost one race, we were still excited to race for third place! The race started out pretty messy. I unfortunately had to rerun Goose in an earlier race against Rocket Relay and between that and all the cheering and yelling, he got a case of the reruns. Stingray needed to rerun and everyone was yelling "GO GO GO". Well of course Goose thought they were talking to him, so he also reran at the same time. She actually would have run clean if she didn't have a big border collie running full speed at her, which made her drop her ball. Ugh GOOSE! By the time we were on the 5th heat that would decide the race, I was fully aware that Goose was out of his mind. We ran that heat clean and as I saw Indigo in 4th come across the finish just barely before the other dog, I knew we won it. At that same moment, my very confused Goose thought again that with all the cheering, he should probably go run again. This time I was prepared and there was not a chance I was going to let him lose this race for us. So clearly the best thing to do was to DIVE for him just as he was fully accelerating away from me. My arm was fully extended as I flew and ended up grabbing him by the tip of his tail and stopping him (he has an appointment at the chiropractor already). We won the race by very little! No one has ever been as excited for third place as we were. I got up and tried to give everyone high-fives, but by arm wouldn't move!
I somehow managed to put Indigo and Goose away in their xpen and go to watch the Spring Loaded vs Rocket Relay race. And then the pain set in. It was, by far the most excrutiating pain I've ever experienced. It was like being eletrocuted with every slight motion of my arm. I was so freaked out that I couldn't move it and in so much pain that I lost it. My amazing teammates and flyball friends helped me with everything and I went to the emergency room. I got xrays, which probably sounded like I was being tortured because I was literally screaming as I was forced to put my arm in the most incredibly painful positions. Anyway, nothing was broken so they gave me some pain meds and sent me on my way. I managed to make it home because of my awesome teammates, especially Sue. It turns out I have a rotater cuff injury and have just started a minimum of 6 weeks of physical therapy. Oh yeah and Goose bit me in the face on Saturday at some point as well.
My second CanAm was certainly an experience I will always remember. It was so much fun and exciting and so very painful. Although, I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to go back!
Pax and I had an awesome day yesterday. We went to a one day Sprint race meet hosted by the NEWC (new england whippet club). After our first meet, I almost gave up on Spring racing with him. His high drive can only get him so far. He just doesn't have the muscle or stride length to keep up with some of these whippets. Seriously the thigh muscles on some of these dogs are amazing.
There is still plenty of competition here in New England, but I think Pax does well enough to make it worth while and wow does he LOVE IT! He is crazy for flyball, but out of his mind for racing. At the last two meets he was 7th and 6th place, which I am very happy with. I think his stamina and again huge amount of drive actually help. He seems to do better than some of the other dogs in the 3rd and 4th programs.
Racing is much slower moving than flyball and especially with just one whippet.. but the locations cannot be beat. Yesterday we were in Western Mass on a gorgeous piece of property. I love being outside all day surrounded by this amazing scenery, watching the incredible speed of the dogs. Pax has a lure coursing trial in a few weeks and it would be very convenient if he would get 1st place..that isn't too much to ask right?
Unfortunately for Pax, he is my practice dog for training striding. His natural flyball striding isn't great, as I may have mentioned many times. Had I started him differently, I have no doubt that I wouldn't be having this much trouble now.
The only way I can get the striding I want ( 3 strides in and 3 strides out between the box and last jump) is by putting gutters at 5' and 10' from the box. I wonder if a dog that has already run for a year or more can change their striding with gutters? It hasn't had any sort of permanent effect on Pax.
Last weekend I tried something a little bit different. I slowly moved the last jump away from the box slowly and kept sending him and videoing his striding. At 15.5' he still took 2 steps in and 2 steps out, same at 16'. At 16.5-17.5 he took two big strides and one little stutter step and still mostly 2 strides out. Then I moved it to 18', which is the limit for where I would be willing to move it. And that's where he took 3 strides in and 3 out. This seems a little bit ridiculous because dogs much bigger than him easily take 3 strides in 15' and I believe that with more space Pax stretched out even more. I figure his striding can't get much worse than it already is, so my plan is to leave the jump at 18' and than very slowly over time move it back in and hopefully taking 3 steps will be so ingrained by then that I won't need gutters.
To do this training, I really can't also be running him in tournaments. So Pax, is getting the big "P-WORD"...PULLED after Canam, which we already committed to. It may not help, but I would always regret not trying and I still have my Indigo to run.
I feel like Pax has been the main topic of my posting lately. He's just such a project! Indigo is a finished product in my opinion for flyball. She is cured of ball spitting and she is consistently running to her potential, considering her training. She is running on the A team in flyball. and possibly the most consistent dog on that team. Goose is still spitting his ball, but thats because his trainer sometimes slacks on working with him. Otherwise he he running really well too!
Ben has stopped doing agility with Indigo and Pax, which is sad considering the amount of training that she had. He just isn't the type to go out and practice a few times a week and so agility really isn't the best sport for Ben. Also with starting Vet school, time is an issue as well.
With everything that is going on in our lives outside of dog sports, we've decided to focus on flyball and whippet racing/lure coursing for now. When things calm down I'd love to find a place to take Goose herding just because he loves it so much.
Speaking of lots of craziness in our lives right now, the last thing we need is for our dogs to get Skunked. So of course one day last week just as we were about to go to bed, we let the dogs out one more time and sure enough our entire house starting smelling like the nastiest onion smell. We step outside and Pax puked and couldn't open his eyes after getting sprayed in the face. Goose got it all over and Indigo even managed to pick some up too. After consulting with the internet and our facebook friends, Ben ran out to the store to pick up Hydrogen Peroxide and we make a mixture with that, baking soda and dish soap. We applied it to the dogs without water and let it sit on them for 30 minutes. Then we washed them off. By this point it was 1 am and Finley was fully asleep. The stuff worked really well. We put them in their crates and aired out the house all night long. The next day I took everyone to the groomer for a deskunk treatment. Luckily, everything we did helped a lot and now only Pax's neck stinks.
We had a tournament this past weekend and tried Pax running full time on the A team. He's our fastest dog in theory, but his times are very inconsistent because of his striding. I got a few 3.8s out of him in last, but mostly 3.9s -4.0. His box turn was consistently wide despite the extra work I've been doing with him.
I know it just hasn't been enough time and he's been rewarded many times by going wide. I also know that the root of the problem is not just the turn itself, but the way he approaches the box. His approach doesn't allow him to collect himself to make a tight turn. However, I know he CAN do a tight turn with his striding into the box because when I put a prop there, his turn is lovely. While I continue to work on his striding, I'm also focusing on getting him to bend more (I posted about this last week) and rotate better. His wall work has been nice, so I've advanced him to getting the ball off the wall.
I started this last night and this morning. I thought it looked pretty good for his first time getting the ball off the ball. I'll do a lot more of this and then start working the actual box.
Here is a question from a reader about training a 4 month old border collie:
Question:.........I'm pretty sure he's going to be a spitter, as he very
much prefers the tug over the ball (which is good), but how can I work
with him down the road in bringing the ball? Ive started doing exchanges
from ball to tug because i did that in the past, and he spits as soon as
he sees the tug. he knows the 2 toy game as well. Or is it too early to
worry about that? Anyways, any suggestions you have for me would be
wonderful.
Answer:
First of all, I wouldn't worry too much about a future in ball spitting at 4 months. At 4 months the things I focus on are:
1. TUG DRIVE especially with distractions (balls, other dogs, people running etc)
2. flat recalls against lots of different types of dogs
3. opposing recalls or introduction to passing through the stanchions
4. introduction to box work - "over & back" over a gutter or low jump
5. body awareness exercises or introduction to gutters if you plan to use them
6. introduction to clicker training and being handled by people if that's an issue
7. toy exchange
8. basic retrieve to the hand, not necessarily a ball and not a big focus.
9. Impulse control games
Between 5-7 months is when I would suggest revisiting the ball work. Here is a combination of the steps I did with Pax and Indigo. With Pax to prevent ball spitting and with Indigo to fix it. This is in addition to playing tug with the ball and using the tennis ball as a reward in everyday life.
1. Clicker train to put the ball in my hand. In a small space with the dog on leash (if needed), toss the ball a very short distance. Shape him putting it in your hand. Start with a click for picking up the ball then for bringing it toward you and then eventually click the second the ball makes contact with your hand. Practice this a lot!
2. Throw a ball further in a large space with no leash and have him bring it to my hand, building up to him bringing it while I'm running away with my hand out. There is no tug involved yet.
3. Same as # 2 but with dead ball. If he does 4 in a row correctly, take out the tug play a short exciting game of tug with him.
4. With a tug in hand, throw a ball and then turn and run with the tug hidden in front of you as you are running. Look back to see if the dog has the ball as he approaches you. If he has it and is within 2 feet of you, give him the tug. If he spit it, ask him to go get it and bring it to you and then give him the tug. If he spits it no where near you, you need to move back a few steps. Ideally you will be able to send him to a dead ball run away with a hidden tug and then when he presents you the ball, give him the tug.
5. Using a low value tug at first and eventually moving to his favorite tug, try #4, but drag the tug instead of hiding it. It's important that you look back to see when the dog drops the ball. If it's early (more than 2 feet from you), immediately pull up the tug. Ask the dog to go get the ball and bring it to you and then give him the tug. Again, if it's too hard make it easier and slowly raise the criteria.
The mistakes I made in 5 years of training Indigo to hold her ball: hiding the tug as a permanent solution, facing her instead of running away, and most importantly rewarding her in tournaments when she didn't carry it within 2 feet of me, but did carry it barely over the line.
Here is a video of Indigo from a few days ago. I am just getting to the point of dragging the tug. The first few I was still hiding it and then I tried dragging it. On the last two she made me laugh because she tried to get the tug while the ball was still in her mouth!
