Oh Yeah, You Blend

Alice and I attended Puppy Palooza this past weekend at Follow The Leda in Gansevoort, NY. It was an information-packed, well-run, fun, and very informative weekend!

As with any seminar on any subject, it’s important to stay true to your own training philosophies and beliefs, while keeping your mind open to new ideas that could be useful. You keep what you like and discard what you don’t. I have definitely become a fan of the One Mind Dogs methods, because they really do just work and make sense to me and my dogs, and while I am not a “purist” of any method, I do think OMD is far more natural to me than any other, and since I started Alice with the OMD puppy course, I am working within what I started.

What I liked:

• it really made me conscious of how much reinforcement I am giving away by letting my dogs get it from the environment or each other instead of from me. So I picked up all the toys that could be tug toys, and have already had two tugging sessions this morning. If I want to use tug as a reinforcer, I need to make it valuable, not free. That said, I am not someone who is going to deny my dogs the joy they get from playing with each other. I’m not doing Ruff Love and I’m not aiming for the World Team. I just want to be reasonably successful at my sport and have fun with my dogs, and have my dogs have fun with me.
• Some really good discussion about tug mechanics and ways to get a dog tugging well (Alice had a decent tug drive but I can see already that just changing a few things has improved it even in just two days). Also not giving up, if you start a tug session, you HAVE to get at least a little tug going before you stop.
• Some excellent reminders about not being lazy and getting up and USING training opportunities like mealtimes and high energy times
• I LOVED the motivational posters she has all over the training arena. I usually hate that sort of thing but these were great and actually did make me think.
• The concept of Transitions (Greg Derrett) – starting at the crate, working on connection and building drive with tug or food from the moment you get the dog out, and between exercises or after an error.

What I will be discarding (or at least adapting):

• Tara is a Greg Derrett adherent. I am not. I might have appreciated a heads up that the methods being taught were going to be taught strictly within the Greg Derrett/Anthony Clarke framework, rather than just presenting things as “this is the right way” (as opposed to “this is the right way within the GD/AC  methodology”). This was not a huge deal, but it did chafe a little, especially being told that things that didn’t follow this methodology were “wrong”.  I do mostly OneMind Dogs, their methods aren’t “wrong”, they just differ in some ways to GD/AC methods, and for me they work.
• Reinforcement Zone – I do not want my dog driving to my front, that’s not how I handle. But I will be more conscious of my reward placement.
• The comments about how puppies should not know what a jump is or what weave poles are. My puppy is sequencing with tiny jumps or just standards, she is working the “offering the jump” exercises, she is learning one set of 2 x 2 weaves, she is running through channels. NONE of these things are harmful to her and ALL are beneficial.
• Circle work. I am sure it has benefits. But most of those benefits (learning acceleration/deceleration, learning the handler’s running style, learning to switch between reinforcers, etc) can also be had by running small sequences and doing handling flatwork or handling work with hoops. And running small sequences and handling flatwork are more efficient for me. I feel like for me, circle work is what I did 15 years ago, I no longer really think it has benefits that can’t be equally obtained in other, more efficient ways.

Overall, I am glad I went. Both Tara and Jared were really good instructors, and it was a very fun weekend.

Our dear friend Sherry Jefferson was the judge this weekend. Zhora had a GREAT weekend, earning QQ’s 65 and 66 and qualifying in 5/7 runs. Nina ran wonderfully but we didn’t get a QQ together. She had a great Jumpers Q on Friday and an AWESOME Standard Q today and only knocked one bar that wasn’t entirely her fault.

I was SICK this weekend. I wasn’t feeling great Friday morning and it got worse from there. I would have come home except there was an ice storm here. So I can see in the videos that I wasn’t quite myself, but my awesome dogs came through for me as they always do.

Zhora Friday Standard (NQ, really tough weave entry for the little dogs):

Nina Friday Standard (NQ, weaves again):

Zhora Friday Jumpers (third place, 14 points):

Nina Friday Jumpers (first place, 19 points):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (third place, QQ #65, 13 points):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Standard (first place, QQ #65, 28 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (NQ, I mishandled the 180 to the weaves):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (fourth place, 17 points, QQ #66, this was a FUN course!):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ, first jump since she broke her stay and we weren’t connected, really nice run otherwise):

Zhora Sunday Standard (third place, 31 points, QQ #66, also a super fun course):

Nina Sunday Standard (first place, 33 points):

While most of our peeps were in Reno at the National Agility Championship, we played agility with judge Mary Mullen instead!

These were kind of “abducted by aliens pod Mary Mullen” courses, quite tricky and with some pretty low Q rates. One of our worst weekends in terms of Q’s in a while, but some lovely runs anyway, and some really awesome, connected runs with Zhora.

Nina Friday Standard (NQ):

Zhora Friday Standard (part 1 of QQ # 64, first place, 27 points):

Nina Friday Jumpers (Q, first place, 22 points):

Zhora Friday Jumpers (part 2 of QQ # 64, second place, 19 points):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q, first place, 18 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Standard (NQ):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q, third place, 20 points):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (NQ, I didn’t connect at the start, but what a nice connected run after that!):

Nina Sunday Standard (NQ but nice run):

Zhora Sunday Standard (Q, first place, 29 points, only 8″ dog to Q):

Zhora followed last weekend’s perfect weekend with another QQ (#63), and then today, as I was walking the jumpers course, said to myself “Myself, be careful where you put your front cross at the end of the weaves or you’ll pull her off that second last jump”….so of course, I pulled her off the second last jump. She got standard today and won the class.

Nina had a lovely jumpers Q yesterday and then had a perfect standard run…except she felt judge Susan Stephon’s table count was too slow, and that a three count was plenty. Oh Nina….she’ll be 11 in May, she can do what she wants, apparently I’m not the boss of her.

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ # 63, third place, 17 points, just a second behind Nina!):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (first place, 18 points):

Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ # 63, first place, 25 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (pesky table!):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (NQ…watch where you put your front cross I said….):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ, nice weaves):

Zhora Sunday Standard (first place, 26 points):

Nina Sunday Standard (yowza…I like how she takes the jump she missed near the beginning, as she comes back halfway through):

Zhora followed up her MACH3 last Sunday with a PERFECT WEEKEND! Earning QQ’s #61 and 62 towards MACH4.

Not to be outdone, Nina earned QQ #23 toward MACH2 yesterday, giving us a double double Q Saturday. I made an error in our standard run today that cost us a QQ, but she qualified in Jumpers this morning for a 3/4 weekend, which is awesome for her!

One of our favorite judges Oksana Syrkin, gave us her usual fast, fun courses and generous wheel. There’s a reason we love showing to her!

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #61, third place, 19 points):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #23, second place, 20 points):

Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #61, second place, 31 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #23, first place, 34 points):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #62, sixth place, 16 points):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q, second place, 19 points):

Zhora Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ #62, second place, 32 points):

She earned her first MACH at the HABOC trial, and she earned her third there too!

Judge Laura English designed some tough courses, the Q rates on some were very low, but they were challenging in a good way and as I remind myself – it’s MASTERS, it’s SUPPOSED to be tough!

Jumpers today was quite demotivating at the start, and Zhora was extremely poky. She liked Standard much better and was happy to take a quick victory lap too! She got SPOILED afterwards, and her Aunt Sherry even shared her lunch with her.

She came into the weekend needing two, Friday I messed her up by talking while she jumped and cost us a double. But she was perfect after that. Our friend Zap (Saturday/Sunday videographer) multitasked and brought the ribbon to us while videoing, which looks like a “To Catch A Predator” sting on reality TV, which is hilarious.

Nina was wonderful, earning two very nice Standard Q’s. She will be 11 in May…I can’t believe it. And she still as fast as ever and loves agility more than anything.

There were very few 8″ dogs there this weekend and I only had about four dogs between them, which is quite unfair to the dogs, since you barely have time to stuff a few treats in their faces before you have to put them away and get the next one out, and the second dog doesn’t get anything like their usual warmup. I try to warm them up somewhat before we start running, but still…they cope very well with this stuff.

I am very very fortunate.

Zhora Friday Standard (NQ thanks to my big mouth):

Nina Friday Standard (NQ):

Zhora Friday Jumpers (Q, second place, 15 points):

Nina Friday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #59, second place, 15 points):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #59, third place, 27 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (Q, first place, 30 points):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of MACH3!! She hated this course’s opening, super poky, third place, 11 points):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ, the bar down came down so late she was almost over the following jump!):

Zhora Sunday Standard (MACH3!!!! Third place, 27 points, the top three dogs were within like a second and a half of each other!):

Nina Sunday Standard (Q, second place, 28 points):

This puppy….holy moly. The last time we practiced (three days ago), Alice still didn’t quite “get” tunnels, she’d go in with encouragement but she was still climbing on top and not quite seeing the point of them. And then yesterday (her next training session) she became a tunnel suck! In fact, she was SO enthusiastic about tunnels I had to do a quick couple of sessions of rewarding NOT going into the tunnel. I cannot believe how quickly she learns, how few repetitions it takes of most things before she really seems to understand them, and how much focus and working drive and enthusiasm she has at just five months of age.

She is jumping 4″ bars. She steps on bumps so I elected to stop using them, 4″ is well below her hocks, and we actually do jumping very rarely. The OneMind Dogs “offering the jump” exercise is extremely effective. And Puppy Culture is amazing.

To say I am pleased would be an immense understatement. I am absolutely thrilled. She is amazing. I feel very lucky. So far she is EXACTLY what I was hoping to get out of this breeding.

Some really challenging and trappy courses from Candy Nettles! I accelerated in the wrong spot and caused a bar down for Nina, costing her a Jumpers Q. She had a lovely Standard Q though. Zhora doubled for QQ # 58 (2 more to MACH3!!).

Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (QQ #58):

Nina Saturday Standard (Q):

Zhora Saturday Standard (QQ #58):

Judge Michele Fletcher designed some fun, fast and subtly technical courses.

The dogs and I are out of shape thanks to the weather we’ve had lately, we will all be hitting the treadmill.

Poor Nina had a pancreatitis flare on Friday night, and she was still feeling a bit icky on Saturday morning. I was ready to scratch her, she didn’t even want to do the practice jump, but then her meds and her love for agility kicked in, she dragged me to the ring, and off we went for a nice Jumpers Q. A bit slower than her usual, and I was more than ready to just stop and go off if she seemed off, but other than being a bit slow, she was fine. By the time Standard came up, she was back to normal, broke her startline stay, argued with me on the table, sassy. Love that dog so much.

Zhora was slow and clingy (hormonal methinks) and pulled off the LAST jump in Jumpers Saturday. Qualified in Standard. And then earned QQ # 57 today! 3 more to MACH3! Love her!

Nina Saturday Jumpers (third place, 15 points):

Zhora Saturday Standard (second place, 25 points):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (fourth place, 16 points, QQ #57):

Nina Sunday Standard (second place, 30 points, had to jam some front crosses in, ugly but a Q’s a Q):

Zhora Sunday Standard (fifth place, 24 points, QQ #57):

Holy crap. I can’t believe how well this little 4 month old is doing! Huge thanks to Sue! We were using bumps but she was stepping on them. Per the OneMind Dogs folks, you’re OK to use jumps below hock level, so that’s what I’m doing. She’s doing very little jumping anyway but I needed something for her to go over rather than step on.

Today we went to a Barn Hunt workshop and found some rats! Very fun to get out of my comfort zone and learn about a dog sport I know nothing about! She did great. Awesome focus and working drive on this puppy.