Rally Class, Day Two

Okay, so we aren’t going to win any awards. For a while, at least.

We started class with introductions this time. And we were supposed to say what we liked most and least about our dogs. Most for Parker? He’s a quintessential Poodle. Least? He’s not nearly as shy as he used to be and he’s making up for it by acting the clown. It’s a period I loved the most about raising children. Those terrible twos when they started developing personalities, learning that they didn’t have to do and say what Mom and Dad asked for. Not sure why I loved it so much in children and find it so distasteful in a dog, but there you are.

Then we put the dogs in crates and walked the course. Parker either whined or barked the entire time. A definite first for him. I suppose some of those dirty looks were deserved, but I ignored him. I didn’t want to go back to the kennel to correct him, mostly because getting me to come back was what he wanted, and trying to yell at a barking dog is just saying, “I hear you, can you hear me?”

There were several new signs, and we were able to do the course twice, as well as a second course, which was much more advanced, with about five new signs.

When we started, the first sign was a “Halt, down, stay, walk around the dog, sit it, and take off.” Parker did the down just fine, but kept popping up as I walked around him. The instructor walking next to me told me to (1) keep my hand on his head and (2) keep saying “stay.” I did the former but not the latter. I’m a firm believer in not repeating myself. It kills me to listen to folks saying, “Stay. Stay. Stay.” All that does is teach the dog that it has to stay as long as you keep repeating yourself. Problem with keeping my hand on his head (which worked a treat, by the way) was that, by the time I got back around him, I was dizzy and fell over on top of him. He forgave me.

He was much better on the front thing (one step, two steps, three steps backwards) because we’ve been working on it very hard this past week, although sitting straight isn’t in his repertoire yet. And he did as well as could be expected on the pivot signs, considering how off balance *I* was doing them.

On the second course, there was a jump. When the instructor started telling us what to do, I said that Parker had never seen a jump before so if he showed any hesitation, I was just going to walk on by. Which I did the first time. The second time he was approaching the jump straight on and when I said, “Hup,” he lifted himself right over, no problem.

All in all, a good day.

Parker Does Rally

Our first Rally class was today. Since Parker has done both Basic 1 and Basic 2 and since in both classes I was complemented on how good he was, I rather expected him to do well. Mike also told me that, when they are out for their walks, they do fronts and Parker does them well.

Ha!

We class members walked the course with our dogs in crates. Parker hopped right into one when asked and never made a peep while I was gone, although I could see he had his eye on me the whole time. Then we got numbers and took turns on the course. It was a fairly basic one with right angled turns, 270 turns, 360 turns, a moving down (the dog isn’t supposed to sit before doing the down), couple of weaving patterns, stops with finishes to the left, and the dreaded fronts -- call the dog to the front, step back one, two, three steps, with the dog hopping up and following in front and sitting.

When it was our turn, Parker started out in a good sit next to me. That was about the only good thing he did. I had chicken and he knew it. He did almost the entire course walking backward, nosing my chicken hand. When it was time for the fronts, he sat everywhere but in front, usually doing a 360 spin between them. Several times he grabbed the leash in his mouth and shook it, as if to remind me that he needed more chicken.

The second time we went through the course, I kept the chicken in my pocket and he did better. Not well, but better.

The instructor who was walking by me on the second go round said we had a lot to work on over the next week.

The really scary part is that they said for the first four weeks of the class, we’d be doing novice to advanced courses, and for the second four weeks, we’d have advanced to excellent courses.

Yikes!

Retrieve (3)

Counted this time. Twenty treats/clicks; hallway bathroom. Only clicked for touches on the middle part, where he will eventually have to take the dumbbell.

Twenty in a row, no problem!

W00t!

Teaching the retrieve (2)

Okay, I’m impressed. At first, any interaction with the dumbbell is clickable. Even pawing, although the goal would be to fade that one.

We just did a session where Parker touched the bar of the dumbbell every freaking time, either with his nose or with his mouth.

Woo who!!

(approx twenty treats, in the bedroom -- last time was in my office)

Teaching the Retrieve

Shirley says, “keep a training log,” so here’s Day One.

About twenty-five cubes of chicken, a clicker and a tennis ball style dumbbell. The idea was to bring the dumbbell out from behind with a flourish (I kept saying, “Ta Da!” which felt really stupid, but I kept thinking ‘flourish’ and couldn’t help myself). He would get clicked for anything resembling noticing the dumbbell; looking, pawing, nosing. Well, he nosed it every time. In fact, the only time he didn’t was right after he had a piece of chicken and was too busy throwing other behaviors at me.

So I’d call this training session a success.

Forgot to mention

Parker passed both the CGC and the therapy evaluation just fine, with no mishaps or need to repeat an exercise.

Yay!

Face it; Dogs are just funny

Parker is a sprawler. When he goes to sleep, he starts by lying on his side, but as his sleep deepens, he will slowly roll over onto his back and end up with four legs going in four directions.

When riding in the car, he likes to sit up on a car and look our the (closed) window. (For those who remember my harness problems of a while back, yes, he has learned to hop up onto the seat when I ask so I can fasten his harness.)

Those two characteristics resulted in a bit of silliness yesterday. He had a day at a boarding kennel I've been considering for him. A friend boards her Golden there and recommended it. Missy, the Golden, and Parker have had several play dates and meet regularly when I would take Parker to observe Missy's rally classes. So my friend offered to take Missy to the kennel yesterday so Parker's first visit would involve interaction with a friend. We paid a bit extra so they could have a field trip (a romp in a multi-acre, fenced area of both open field and slightly wooded area). We dropped them off together. Parker seemed hesitant to go with the kennel guy, but when he agreed to take both together, he followed Missy without a qualm. Then my friend and I went off for a day of window shopping and yummy cheesecake (*my* reward for leaving Parker).

When we returned six hours later, Parker was happy to see me, but his tail was up and wagging before he caught sight of me, which was good. I got him into the car and he hopped up onto h is seat, got buckled in, and fell asleep before we left the parking lot. On the ride home, he fell off the seat three times, starting his sprawl, he was just that pooped. Each time he'd get back up onto the seat and slowly fall asleep again and fall off.

I will take him back to that place again in a couple of weeks for an overnight as Mike and I have a trip planned. I have to make sure that they mark his records better, though. When I picked him up and asked how he did, the kennel guy said he was very well behaved except he didn't come when called to get out of the field. Then ended up sending Missy back for him. She brought him back in. I was about to explain that he's still rather shy when the kennel guy said, "I called, 'Tyler! Tyler! Tyler! But he wouldn't even look at me.'" That's when I had to explain that Tyler is *my* name, not his.