It’s been a Mouthful

This past weekend I have had to notch up my Doberman-related Injuries and other Casualties list by TWO. It would have been a lovely weekend in all other regards, expect for the fact that my mouth has been in its own world of PAIN.

(Warning: Graphic descriptions ahead, ye who are easily queasy, be forewarned!)

I didn’t write about this (since the blog is a “dog blog” after all), but the last 10 days or so I have been slowly recovering from a pretty bad canker on the inside of my left cheek. It was positioned in such a way that whenever I moved my lips to speak or eat, it brought me a world of hurt just the way the surface of the canker brushed against my teeth – OUCH would be a severe understatement here.

Anyways, fast forward to this past Saturday. The canker had stopped hurting for over a day, and I could finally stop mumbling and chewing like I had only one jaw. That put me in quite a good mood for the day so I was horsing around with Dante and Atia in play and mock wrestling more than usual. Well, during one of our horsing around sessions I hopped on to the bed for a brief respite, thinking that Dante and Atia was about to launch into another one of their little wrestle sessions for a good minute or two. Unexpectedly, Atia (probably all wired up and super-hyper at that point) leapt straight up onto the bed at the same instant that I did, came up to the bed from right under me, her hard-as-a-rock Doberman head whacking me from right under the chin, resulting in my lower lip and upper row of teeth being CRUNCHED together HARD.

It happened in a flash, I didn’t even have time to cry out. By the time I realized what had happened (after recovering from the initial burst of pain) my lower lip was streaming blood and upon further inspection in the mirror there was now a nice little nick on my swollen lower lip.

So, ironically after my canker had healed, I now have a busted lower lip to contend with.

I actually chalked the whole thing up to a freak accident, and one of those probable hazards of Doberman/puppy ownership. I mean, really, there was nothing to do about it – it certainly wasn’t something deliberate on Atia’s part. Just bad luck!

All was fine and dandy (well, as fine as dandy as can be walking around looking like I just survived a boxing match haha), until Sunday evening.

We had came home from a day of Christmas shopping (ok, FAILED Christmas shopping, since we ended up getting stuff for the house and dogs instead), and I had presented Dante and Atia with a nice new jute ring tug toy that I had snagged at a store for 60% off its regular price. Dante and Atia were absolutely WILD over this new toy, they had a lot of fun tossing and tugging on it, and of course, I had to join in the merriment.

In the middle of a particularly robust tugging session with the jute ring, Dante suddenly released his grip on the toy. I, of course, was tugging hard at the other end of the toy, at an angle, since standing up Dante was shorter than I was. Of course, with the force of Dante’s sudden release the jagged end of the toy flew right up towards me and right at my mouth – well, at the front of my upper row of teeth, to be exact.

This time upon impact I HOWLED in pain. I ran to the washroom to peer into the mirror, and all I saw was BLOOD covering my two front teeth. My initial thought was: “Oh no, I’m going to lose a tooth/my teeth!!!” and was TERRIFIED. I started wiping and rinsing away all the blood, which just seem to keep flowing out in a steady stream. After a while, I cleared it up enough to see that it wasn’t my teeth bleeding, it was my gums. Apparently the toy had hit me squarely in the upper area of my gums right under my upper lip and that was where all the blood was coming from. To be absolutely certain, I tried wiggling each of my two front teeth – no looseness or pain, phew! I dodged a bullet there! I was so glad that I wasn’t going to be singing “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” next week! Pun fully intended, haha, and it sounds funny now, but not when I was staring in my bloody mouth :p

So, of course, my poor battered gums ACHED wickedly. I had to go to the Sunday family dinner with my gums stinging away. Since the sore area was tucked right under the lips, nobody could tell the wiser, but I knew all about it because it was throbbing in pain all evening. I actually woke up in the middle of the night last night, yawned (having forgotten about the bruised gums), and was treated to a good, long dose of PAIN … agh!!!

This morning it felt a little better and not as painful, but still hurting. Between my busted lower lip and grazed upper gums, I think I can count on walking around with a mouthful of hurt for the next few days.

Yep, definitely add these two to my List of Doberman-Related Injuries.

His and Hers

This past week I purchased Atia her own fursaver collar -- I figured she was "big girl" enough for it now ;)

Once upon a time I used to have an assortment of flat, buckle and cloth/martingale collars for Dante. Ever since I discovered the fursaver collar though, I’ve never turned back! It has turned out to be, for me, the most versatile collar for my purposes to date, and it still looks smoking hot on a Doberman!

Nowadays I have the fursaver on Dante for any occasion besides training and long walks. It’s not as “menacing” looking as the prong to the average person, but still projects a look of understated uhm … “power”, for lack of a better word. It’s better for everyday multi-purpose use because the links are broader and not as fine as a slip collar, but it still offers me a heck lot more control compared to just a flat or martingale collar. And, being true to its namesake, it does not rub off or thin any hairs or fur on the neck! It’s the best combination of form and function in a collar for me right now, and oh, did I mention that it looks absolutely COOL on a Doberman? ;)

So here they are, Dante and Atia with their His and Hers fursavers:


Look at how much my little girl has grown! Obviously she’s still way shorter than Dante, but I was kind of surprised to discover that her fursaver size is just one link less than what Dante wears! As you can see from the photo, her neck is almost or (seemingly) just as broad as Dante’s! Her chest, will, in time be broader than Dante’s, simply because in terms of conformation she is more well-put together than he is, in the sense that her front assembly is more correct and not too far forward like Dante’s. Already you can see the difference between the two of them. Notice too, how her feet are tighter than Dante’s? Anyways, regardless of how they both stack up against each other, they are still the loves of my life, and I adore them to bits! :)

Atia is just so serious though in every way, even when taking photos (being a girl and all I suppose haha), while there’s no missing the goof and glint of mischief in Dante ;)

And just because I can, here’s a close up of the two of them for more gushing over:


And a sort of side profile shot:


Gosh, they both take my breath away :)

Slippery little head

It was a nice 6C today, sunny too, except for the fact that there were winds gusting up to 60km/h, bringing the windchill up to a freezing 17C -- BRRRRR!!!

It was definitely a day better spent curling up on the couch and drinking hot chocolate, but the dogs NEEDED their exercise, so i dragged out their winter garb and prepped them to go out for a quick walk.

All winter last year, i have used a pair of leg warmers as Dante's snood in addition to his Chillydogs coat and Muttluk boots. They work just fine and keep his ears nice and toasty on those extra cold or windy winter days. Doberman ears are very thin and fine, and can easily get frostbitten within mere minutes of exposure to sub-zero temperatures. So, although i'm sure Dante silently protests looking like a dork with a leg warmer on his head, there's no doing without it when we go out for winter walks.

Today the biting wind warranted the snood's debut, so i pulled one leg warmer over Dante's head, and pulled the other one over Atia's head.

Poor Atia, at first she tried to paw at it to get it off, eventually realizing it was an exercise in futility. I don't remember Dante fussing with it so much when he had it on for the first time last year -- but then again, Atia is a girl haha ...

The walk didn't go as well as i would have liked it, simply because i had such a hard time making sure the leg warmer stayed put on Atia's head. Every few steps or so it would slip off and expose her ears. Of course, it didn't help that Atia kept shaking and shaking and shaking trying to get it off. The fact is though, while the leg warmer fitted Dante's head like a glove, on Atia's much smaller head it very easily slips off with all her movement. I have gotten used to Dante's big head, i never even thought of Atia's head being too small!

So now the leg warmer definitely isn't going to work well as a snood for Atia, and she absolutely needs something to cover her head and her ears. I might have to pay a trip to Walmart this weekend and start getting creative. Perhaps a pair of extra large men's warm/woolen socks, with on end cut off? Extra thick and warm women's tights? The ends of a really small pair of long john's??? Hmmm ....

How to Sweat in the Winter

… or: Why I Laugh at The Husband’s Suggestion that I Should Join a Gym.

Step 1: Pile on layers of winter apparel from head to toe in preparation for braving the ice, wind, slush and snow that awaits out the door.

Step 2: Repeat Step 1, but on two wiggly and over-enthused dogs determined to play “Catch Me If You Can” and shooting dirty “Put that snood on me over my dead body!” looks for as long as they can get away with.

Step 3: Bend knees, hold leashes in death grip and brace for inevitable RUSH out of the opened door so that no one gets run over by a chugging snow plow in the middle of the road.

Step 4: Clod around in gargantuan steps in stiff winter boots to avoid sinking into deep puddles of ice slush while attempting to coordinate dogs’ zig-zagging movements all over the place.

Step 5: Totter around deadly sheets of nasty slippery ice scattered around sidewalks as you nervously watch 4 pairs of legs slip-slide all over the place with oblivious abandon.

Step 6: Perform daring leaps over towering snow banks while polishing your evasive maneuvers over suspicious-looking snowdrifts in a futile attempt to keep up with the astonishing pace of the four-legged Winter Olympic hopefuls.

Step 7: Huff, puff and shuffle through 3 feet of packed and ice and snow as you attempt to trail closely behind your happily frolicking pooches and wonder how they glide and sprint around with such ease.

Step 8: Stumble back to the house like a drunk after an invigorating walk, having drawn on the resources of muscles you never knew even existed, immediately bracing yourself for the inevitable stampede back into the house again.

Step 9: Hope you don’t have to wrestle two very muscular dogs to ensure that they sit and STAY to allow their slush covered booties to be stripped away before being let loose into the house for major post-winter-walk Zoomies.

Step 10: Use every last ounce of energy to peel off sticky, sweaty layers of winter apparel from head to toe.

Step 11: Repeat Step 10, but on two miraculously STILL energectic and bubbly dogs looking forward to racing around the house the second they are released.

Step 12: Flop over the couch and plead mercy when said dogs plant themselves in front of you with wagging nubs and bright eyes saying: “Mom! Mom! What are we doing next?! Come on Mom, LET’S GO!”

Winter is here!

Winter officially arrived yesterday with our very first dusting of snow for the season. Even though I am finding myself sputtering “Bah Humbug!” ever so often in the last little while, yesterday while walking the dogs amidst all the freshly fallen snow, I found myself cheerfully humming Christmas tunes, remembering to shush a little whenever we passed someone by ;) I’m not a big fan of winter, but after all these years there is still something magical and a “fresh” kind of beauty to be found in the first snowfall of every winter.

This is Atia’s first winter as well, while Dante is already an old pro adjusting to the changing seasons. The dogs had their coats on yesterday for their walk in the evening, but I spared them the booties. Both Dante and Atia have gotten brand new pairs of Muttluk boots for the winter – hopefully they don’t wear out as fast as they have in previous years!

Dante has his trusty Chillydogs winter coat to keep him warm and toasty while we are out and about. Atia is making do with a couple of Dante’s old sweaters for now. I will eventually get her a nice, tailored Chillydogs winter coat as well, but I want to wait until she is over a year old so that she won’t grow out of an expensive winter coat pretty much instantly! I might get her a cheaper coat to go along with Dante’s old sweater for now though.

I still remember my very first winter as a first time dog owner with Dante. The main thing that stands out for me was that I FRETTED so much about EVERYTHING, haha. Fretted about how to get Dante enough exercise, fretted about keeping Dante warm, fretted about Dante pottying properly out in the snow laden yard, fretted about appropriate outdoor activities in bad weather … fret fret fret fret fret!

Now, I’m definitely more “seasoned”, haha. Snowing? Fun with fluffy snow! High winds? Pack on the layers! Freezing rain? Avoid iced-over sidewalks and tromp around the snowbanks and snow-covered grass! Full-out winter blizzards? Bring it on! Or just cosy up on the couch if I’m feeling particularly wimpy that day ;)

In my opinion, there are certainly some advantages to it being winter … well, definitely ONE, it being that with less people and dogs out and about because of the weather and temperatures, there are less chances of running into stupid/rude/clueless/obnoxious dog owners and their unruly dogs. That is definitely a big PLUS in my mind.

Of course, winter isn’t dreaded for nothing. I’ve definitely become pretty acclimatized now to Canadian winters, and the temperatures and other assortment of winter conditions don’t really faze me much anymore. But still, there are those pesky winter storms with pelting ice and high winds, when your only option is just to stay INSIDE and forget about being outside.

Today we had our first big winter storm – High-speed winds thrashing around wet snow and ice. Fortunately though the temperature was hovering around the above zero mark so it wasn’t as unpleasant as it could be.

Atia woke up like she does every morning and bounced out of her crate, hippity-hopped downstairs and zipped along to the backyard door jumping around to get outside. I slide open the door and WHAM, she is greeted by a strong wintry blast. The expression on her face was PRICELESS, haha. It was her first initiation to pottying outdoors in inclement winter weather. She ran out (half pushed my me) and hopped and pranced around in the snow and wind, not quite sure what to do with herself. I reminded her encouragingly that she had to “go pee and go doo-doo!” and she looked back at me with an expression that said: “You want me to do WHAT in THIS?!?!?!?!”

Dante being the old pro he already is at record pee-ing and pooping in the winter storm, took a little uhm … “persuading” to hoof it out to the backyard, but the minute he stepped out he went straight to business: Pee. Poop. Done – MOM LET ME BACK IN!!! Little wonder, because ever since he was a puppy the training/message drilled into him was: If you don’t pee AND poop, you are not coming back in no matter what.

Now it’s time for Atia to learn this same exact lesson – she peed, but as of leaving the house this morning she hadn’t pooped yet. So I left strict instructions with The Husband (who leaves for work later than me) to ensure that she gets led out into the backyard and to get visual evidence that she pooped before leaving for work. Hopefully he followed instructions, I wouldn’t be happy coming home to an early Christmas Gift waiting for me in her crate.

Of course with the storm billowing outside neither Dante nor Atia got their walk this morning. I can definitely count on going home to two hyper dogs at the end of the day, and hopefully the weather would have smoothed out by then so that I can get them out and get some kind of exercise! And there you have, one of the major downfalls of winter. Oh, and did I mention that Agility today was cancelled because of the weather? Sigh …

I have to say though that I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Subaru (pretty sure I’ve said this before multiple times now, haha) – it felt so solid and secure driving to work in the blizzard this morning. With my previous little Nissan, it would be revving and spinning and all over the place in the storm. Now I can feel better and safer going training at various places with the dogs throughout the winter with this vehicle.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful …

Not Alone

This past Sunday I was happy that our Open/Utility instructor scheduled a training session. Never mind that it was immediately after a two-hour long hike in the woods with both Dante and Atia (I made it there, but barely haha) – I was just happy to get out and train and spend some time among like-minded competitive obedience enthusiasts.

One interesting thing to note that despite a two-hour long hike in the woods with lots of non-stop sprinting, playing and wrestling throughout the entire two hours, Dante and Atia were both no worse for wear when we got to training. In fact, I guess after taking a quick 30 minutes power nap in the car (we practically headed straight from the hike to training), they were all refreshed, “powered up” and ready to go! No wonder I feel so tired most of the time, I’m having a heck of a time tiring THEM out! ;)

Anyways, apparently having been on their feet for two hours did not affect their attention/focus and energy one bit. The training session was good: Dante put in good work, except for the fact that he was wrestling with a pile of rabbit poop and two dishes of bird seed on the premises as mighty tantalizing distractions as we worked through each exercise. Really, I don’t know why he has to see everything as food to be swallowed down the hatch!

Atia did a really phenomenal job! Her heeling was beautiful, so were her Figure 8s. This time round I started her off practicing with people as posts and she breezed through it with no problems. Her SFE is really good now, no movement whatsoever, and she’s catching on the go outs game in a different outdoors environment. This girl has such a fantastic work ethic!

After the training session myself, the instructor and another handler training there got to taking a break and having a chat (AFTER all the work has been done!). Apparently a little birdie somewhere (who is a great friend and wonderful mentor – you know who you are!) who continues to read Dante’s blog told this other handler about my “poop-on-car” incident at the obedience club two weeks ago. She asked me about it and I related to her what happened – basically everything that I wrote in that particular update post.

Both the instructor and the other handler expressed concerned at what happened. They asked if I reported it to the Club President and whether the Club President was bothered by what transpired. I said yes, I did notify the Club President, but it was my impression that the Club President wasn’t the least bothered by it – this bothered the instructor and the other handler, for reasons that was obviously clear to me. They also brought up another important point that somehow didn’t even occur to me: Sure, it could be a freak incident, but what if it was the targeted work of someone who held a grudge towards the club members and their dogs, or someone who just didn’t like dogs in general for whatever reason? How often have we read in the news about dogs being poisoned because of tainted food deliberately left out for them in places that dogs and their owners frequent? Who’s to say that that’s something that would not occur???

The conversation eventually drifted towards the subject of training at the club. The instructor was saying how she feels the club is no longer a viable venue for SERIOUS handlers who want to train in competitive obedience with other like-minded people. It’s not that the club members are not good people and make great friends, it is just no longer the type of environment that a handler dedicated to training competitively feels is conducive for further advanced work.

I had mentioned before in a previous update post on how I’ve been feeling kind of uncomfortable and awkward during the weekly training sessions of late. I always make a point of trying my best to be charitable and diplomatic, and always to look on the bright side of things and take people for their best, but it was interesting, to say the least, in hearing that the instructor herself shared similar sentiments.

The instructor related an “anecdote” about how, when the other handler arrived at the same “crossroads” as myself, and started to drift away from her original training group because she was looking for something “more” in terms of training competitively. The handler was made fun of (her words, not mine) by the original training group, treated to snarky comments about how she was being “too serious” and (dare I say it) subtly ridiculed in various ways for trying out new approaches and taking on new/different training principles that helped her to advance her skills and knowledge.

The point of sharing this “anecdote” with me was to empathize with me, commiserate with me on a level and let me know that they know and understand what I’m going through right now in terms of my pursuit of a training approach and group that works for me and my aspirations.

I have to admit that even though I do not wish something like this on anybody, I felt “vindicated”, in the sense that my feelings and concerns are valid, and not just me being overly sensitive or petty in any way. At the same time, it felt good to know that I was not alone, and there are those who share my views, goals and aspirations, and who are very supportive and care about my trials and tribulations as I take on every new challenge and hurdle that come by my way. They have “been there done that”, and they have obviously risen above and excelled in their chosen sport simply because of their unwavering dedication and vision to their goals. These are the people that you can COUNT ON to be challenging training partners, wonderful mentors and steadfast friends when in need.

I am so glad that there ARE such people around. I am so glad that I am “not alone” where I stand in this.

Sunday was one exhausting day – two hour hike, two+ hours of driving here and there, two hours of training, and then 3-4 hours of running errands and shopping with The Husband. At the end of the day I was completely worn out, having been on my feet for close to 7 hour straight all day.

Yet it was a very good day, because now, I don’t feel so alone in my training journey. I can tell myself with conviction, that whatever else gets thrown in my way, there will always be a way and I will prevail and succeed. Others have gone down this road and risen to the top, and so will I.

I am not alone!

“Tree-hunting is hard work, Mom!”

This past Saturday was designated by The Husband as our annual Christmas Tree Shopping Day. Last year was the first year we had gotten a real live Christmas/fir tree since moving into our current house – it went better than expected in the sense there were no incidents of chewed off tree branches, collapsed tree and decorations because of aspiring Kitty tree-scalers or pee puddles on the tree skirt. So, this year The Husband decided that we should do it all over again and get another real tree for our Christmas tree.

Last year Dante got to tag along to the tree farm and had a grand old time. So, this year the plan was to bring both Dante and Atia along for the trip, a nice “family” outing. However, we were not returning to the tree farm we went to last year, since The Husband wasn’t too happy with their selection of firs (that’s probably why it took him almost HALF A DAY just to pick out a tree he was happy with!). The Husband’s brother’s family was coming along with us to pick a tree as well, so they picked the tree farm and I just made sure to stress that the place they picked had to allow dogs to come along as well.

The morning started off with a quick run in the fields for Dante and Atia – I didn’t want them to be crazy-hyper when we did get to the tree farm. After that, time for a quick breakfast and then it was off to my parents-in-law’s place to meet up with everyone else who was heading out to the tree farm.

We didn’t leave at the time planned (everybody takes their time in The Husband’s family, to put it lightly, ha), so Dante and Atia spent some time at Grandpa and Grandma’s making the rounds soliciting pets from everyone and begging for breakfast/brunch scraps from those holding a cup, plate or bowl. Well, Dante did the active pets-and-cuddles-seeking and had a jolly time moving from one lap to another getting his head stroked and his ears scratched. Before you wonder, he plopped his big head on the available laps, and not his whole gigantic self … wouldn’t fit anyway ;) Atia, being her aloof self, was simply happy to wander around the house sniffing and checking everything out, and then coming back to Mom for another round of cuddles every now and then. The Husband’s brother just got together with a new partner this year along with her two kids from previous relationships – for the first time I was actually not grousing over how ill-behaved kids were as these two (now my new niece and nephew) actually followed my directions on how to interact and approach Dante and Atia. Nice kids!

One and a half hours later from our originally planned time everyone finally got ready and left for the tree farm. It was close by on a major highway, so it only took us about 10 minutes drive to get there.

When we arrived I had no idea what to expect – I wanted to let Dante and Atia off leash so they could just romp about while we went about tree shopping, but wanted to err on the side of caution and not let them off until I was absolutely sure it was safe to do so. So we headed into the entrance from the parking lot with both of them on leash and VERY excited. The place was already bustling with lots of other families shopping for their trees.

As we made our way to the entrance I spotted a big black Labrador – undoubtedly the resident farm dog – sauntering our way. Out of habit I grew wary and wondered if it was a friendly dog, since I know that Dante does not react favourably to strange dogs (especially males) just running up right into his face. Sure enough, the lab bounded right up to us and started to initiate the whole sniff-greeting ritual, but backed off quickly after Dante gave it a withering look. It ran off into an outdoor shed, and then came running back out with a ball and a couple of toys in its mouth! Everything about its body language said that it wanted to PLAY PLAY PLAY, so, after asking permission from the farm owners (who were standing at the entrance) to let Dante and Atia off to run and play with their lab, I unhooked their leashes and off the three of them went zipping by everyone like the wind!

For the remainder of our time there Dante and Atia had a great time playing chase, get-that-stick and wrestling with the lab all over the acres and acres of farmed trees. Sorry, no photos :( Before when it was just Dante it still was manageable lugging around a good camera along with handling Dante and keeping an eye on everything else. Now, with two very active dogs, it just wasn’t smart or practical to cart around a camera, a ton of other stuff and still be able to be the responsible owner and keep a close eye on everything the two of them did. So, I was kicking myself everytime I saw photo-perfect moments of the three of them playing like old buddies … but, what are you going to do?

In the meantime, the humans were busy tromping around searching for that perfect tree. Well, except for myself since I had enough fun just watching Dante and Atia up to their various antics :) My niece and nephew enjoyed watching the dogs romp around too, and kept commenting over and over again: “Wow, Dante and Atia are such good dogs!”, which put a smile on my face. Indeed, Dante and Atia were both on their best behaviour that morning at the tree farm. They came when called without fail every single time, followed direction to go here or there and avoid certain areas, kept their distance from other families searching for their own trees and were friendly with everyone who approached them and wanted to give them a pet. I was a proud Dober-Momma that day!

The selection of trees at this new farm were much better I guess, since it only took The Husband about 30 minutes or so this time to pick out THE tree, compared to hours upon hours last year. Happy that the deed was done, we cut down the tree, paid for it and dragged it to the car to be tied to the roof and transported home.

The Husband was still spirited enough to want to go out shopping when we got home, but I was already ready to call it a day! I don’t know why but I was feeling really tired, and all I wanted to do was just to catch up on some sleep! Dante and Atia must have had quite a workout too because they were more than happy to pile onto the bed with me and snooze away the rest of the afternoon while the Husband went out for a quick shopping trip for some Christmas décor items.

And here are my three Black (Sleeping) Beauties:


Freya, the resident Bedroom Cat hopped on a little too late only to find her usual snuggle spots being unceremoniously usurped:


So, she was definitely NOT a happy camper. However, it’s first come first serve for highly coveted snuggle and cuddle spots in this house, so, you snooze you loose!

One miffed orange fluff-ball:


Of course, Dante, Atia and Pixie were very good at playing oblivious to her discontent:


Then the clicking sounds of the camera and The Husband’s heavy-footed movements around the room stirred them:


Making sleepy faces … too cute!

Training Update #56

Alright, i'm going to dive right in the updates before i get all rambling and digressing again!

DANTE

Attention/Focus:
Hard to tell this week if there has been any progression or regression in any way -- perhaps it will be "status quo" for a while? Anyways, the fact that i don't have any grouses in this regard is a good sign, i suppose :)

Heeling:
Same as attention/focus ... maybe we've hit another plateau, as part of the natural progression of things. Well, as long as we keep moving forward (even if we make a few stops along the way, so to speak) and not paddle backwards, i can't complain!

Figure 8s:
Dante's Figure 8s continue to improve. Again, repetition and positive rewards for desired behaviour/performance is key!

DOR:
I think we had a "lightbulb moment" for the DOR this week. It was just in the last practice session, but i noticed that Dante has stopped shuffling when i give the drop command and plopped right down to the ground at lightning fast speed. Maybe he has worked out something in his head and FINALLY realized that when asked to drop i don't want to see any shuffling, even if he is legitimately slowing down. Hopefully i see the same thing the next time we do our drops -- i've been coveting razor CLEAN drops for a while now!

ROF:
Dante did very nice retrieves this week. Haven't run into an issue with breaking down due to repeated retrieves again, hopefully that's the last we'll see of that problem. Another nice thing is that i have to remind him less and less often to come in closer to me when he comes front with the dumbbell. Progress!

ROJ:
Dante has been consistently clearing 28" the last few times we did this exercise. Again, his retrieves were very nice this week, especially when he gets all excited and super wired up after i throw the dumbbell and waiting for me to give the command. I love seeing enthusiasm while he's working! Now the goal is consistency and making sure this is what i get from him EVERY TIME.

Broad Jump:
I reintroduced the target briefly this week, but worked on tightening up his come front to me after clearing the jump. I figured that if i am going to clean this exercise up, it would be better to work on one issue at a time. I see no harm in continuing to stress nice straight jumps with the target for a little while longer; while on the other hand, i don't want him to get too comfortable and overly dependant on a second command to come front from me. Oh, and we are consistently using all four boards now, even though they have still not been spread to the full 60" that he must clear. I think we're at at least 48" now, so i'll just gradually increase the length until we reach the required distance.

Moving Stand:
Still not as clean as i want it to be -- Dante has a habit of moving a single paw or shuffling slightly forward as i give the stand command and leave him. Need to keep working at this.

Stays:
Haven't done any formal stays this week, since i stopped going to club night and our Open/Utility instructor was away at a trial this past weekend so we didn't get the chance to get together and train. His stays at agility though were absolutely atrocious, though, that could be due to forgivable circumstances (see Agility update section below).

Signals:
Since i've been noticing issues of confusion, i have started breaking down the signals and practising them one at a time, instead of in a series like i've been doing. I don't want to inadvertently teach him something confusing or "wrong" by maintaining the same approach i've been using, since it's obviously not working very well. Will use this new approach for a couple of weeks or so and see if there's any change in his comprehension and performance.

Glove retrieve:
Only managed to do one glove retrieve game this past week -- no problems! I'm going to start formalizing this exercise soon.

Go outs:
I've been improvising indoors and doing lots of go out games with Dante this past week. He's really getting excited now every time we "play" the "game". It has also finally "clicked" in his mind that he must IMMEDIATELY turn around and sit once he has reached the target go out point. I like not having to give a second command to remind him to sit! Next goal will be to phase out the "go touch" command and only give the go out command before increasing the distance that he is sent out.

Directed Jumping:
We did directed jumping in our own backyard and it was a nice change because interestinly enough he was paying attention, so he didn't miss any directed cues with regards to which jumps to take. I just need to increase the distance between the jumps beyond 15 feet the next time i get out to the instructor's place (she has a bigger yard!), and then start increasing the distance that i am standing away from him. Eventually, i will phase in the fronts and then put the go out and directed jumping portions together to complete the exercise. Time and practice is all we need!

Articles:
Dante is getting better at discriminating the leather and wood articles. It's getting to be less of a challenge to him now. Since we started teaching articles with metal, he is just lightning fast in picking out and retrieving metal articles. I am tempted to place an extra article to the pile this week, though, maybe i should be thinking of working all three different articles at one go. Hmmmm. A good question to ask the instructor the next time i see her.

Agility:

We had our agility lesson this morning. After two "agility-less" week, Dante was SO EXCITED when we arrived. He was so happy to see all the familiar equipment all set up, and i could tell that he wanted to "hurry up Mom let's do some courses!" because he zoned in on me right away without even going through his ritual of greeting the instructor for pets and trying to sniff out every little corner at the door. Still, he was so excited that all he wanted to do was take one obstacle after another, so having him do stays while i walked a course or had a quick discussion with the instructor proved to be quite the challenge today! I would put him in a sit/down stay and 30 seconds later he would either be whining loudly, fidgeting around or just left his stay position and wander among the obstacles by himself. Frustrating, but i guess the colder (1C today during the day!) weather didn't help either and it was probably partially a case of him trying to get warmer by moving about. Still, this tells me that agility SHOULD be a weekly affair, since he spent a good 10-15 minutes of the lesson just trying to calm down!

We are at the point now, i think, that i'm starting to feel like i'm hampering my dog's progress because i'm not as good a handler as i should be! The main points of discussion and critique throughout today's lesson was focused on my handling skills, the way i give him verbal and physical cues and my timing. So many things to keep in mind!!!

One biggie which was pointed out to me was how i was confusing him by giving him both verbal AND physical cues for the release command at the same time, especially when he is doing his contacts. According to the instructor dogs naturally gravitate towards following body language and while this is a good thing, me chaining the physical act of moving or a hand gesture with the verbal release command in agility is causing him to prematurely break his contacts because when he sees me moving (so that i canget ahead of him to run the next portion of the course) he thinks it's ok for him to break and move as well. So, this is our #1 homework for the week, to work on clarifying my signals to him and work on the proper way to release him.

The instructor also mentioned that we should start "formally" practicing rear crosses, since now that we are getting into more complex and challenging courses and Dante is just so freaking fast, i can't always keep up or be one step ahead of him so i have to learn to strategically utilize rear crosses for certain course setups.

Dante is doing so well with his weaves -- we have him doing the full set of 12 poles in a row now with just a fraction of spacing out between each pole. The cramped distance between each pole is really hard for such a large dog like him to navigate and he really has to pay full attention when he is weaving to do it properly and fast at the same time. He is showing us he tries so hard though, like when he missed the entrance a few times and we decided to just move on to the next obstacle because we didn't want to unncessarily stress him out and make it an "unpleasant" obstacle for him, he kept going back to the poles on his own until he did it right! Now that's a rare glimpse of work ethic for me ;) Usually he's just happy being the goof!

It's funny how things work out -- i informed our agility instructor that i'm no longer doing club nights on Wednesdays, and she said that if that's the case, she has an ongoing puppy class that Atia could fit right in, and she would even fit Dante in for a lesson with one other handler as well right after the puppy class. This means that i will potentially be able to do agility weekly again, instead of just trying to fit in her schedule whenever i have a day off -- woohoo! I think too that it'll be good experience for Atia to start working with other dogs around her in agility. Same with Dante, although, with just ONE other dog and handler at the same time. I actually prefer that than to dump him into a full group class right away. It will do him good to be working agility with other dogs and handlers around, since our goal is to be ready for competition in the Spring :)

A quick digressing note: I did some poking around the last few days, and have been able to ensure that i get access to a nice facility for formal obedience training at least once a month or more. I have a place lined up for weekdays, and i also know of an available place for weekends. So, i am feeling a little better already about taking a break from club nights :)


On to ATIA

Attention/focus:
I'm seeing gradual improvement, especially when i starting working attention with her in public places and out of "formal" training environments. Her attention is just lovely for a young dog under a year old! We're plugging away!

Heeling:
I'm seeing progress, and have started to lengthen the heeling patterns that we do, icorporating more halts and about turns. Still have to work away at the left and right turns, as she misses my cues sometimes. She's giving me nice snappy setups and focus for launching right into "work" :)

Figure 8s:
I think she's finally "got it" and truly understand what the whole Figure 8 exercise is about! No forging, lagging or bumping when we did our practice Figure 8s this week -- very nice!

Stand for Examination:
Haven't had a chance to practice with strangers, but her stand stays are getting more solid :) I think it helps too that she shows in conformation and have gotten used to having judges come over her to examine her.

Recall:
Nice formal recalls so far, just have to straighten up her fronts! She just comes blazing at me so fast when i call her that she (probably) unconsciouly swing around in order to slow down and not plow right through me, so her come fronts have been a little crooked. I'm going to work on that and straigten her up.

Finishes:
Nice finishes still :)

Agility:

We are keeping agility sessions animated but brief for her now. Want to teach her good habits in terms of maintaining focus on me and taking obstacles as directed, and not because she gets so excited she takes every on in sight -- in this way she's just like Dante haha. I have to learn to run the course closer and tighter to her, as the instructor pointed out i'm so used to running Dante and giving him a wide berth for his space, that now with petite little Atia i'm giving her TOO MUCH distance and space and thus confusing her with my directions to take obstacles. I have to keep reminding myself that Dante and Atia are just so different! We are still just doing tunnels and low jumps right now for Atia, and the chute, which she isn't too crazy about haha.

All in all, i'm just trying to keep the momentum going, especially over the Christmas holidays!

A few hours later

So.

Last night I ended up NOT going to the regular weekly club training session.

The hours flew by and by the time it came for me to make that final “go, no go” decision, I was still feeling uneasy about the whole matter, so, I decided to just not go for this week.

I still haven’t decided that I will not return EVER. I want to see if this uneasy feeling passes. One thing is for sure though, the days of attending these weekly sessions like clockwork every week is now over. I have a feeling I’ll end up making it more of a monthly affair, treating the sessions as mini-matches in my own mind instead of regular training sessions. I cannot deny the value of attending these sessions, at the same time, I don’t want to be spending my time regularly at a place where I no longer feel comfortable in various ways. Judging from the reaction I received, I’m sure I WON’T be missed any way.

So, no firm decision yet, but I’m getting closer to one. It’s not like it’s a critical, the-world-is-ending kind of decision to be made anyways … it’s a relatively minor matter in the grand scheme of things.

So instead of driving to the club in the rain last evening and hauling along two dogs and their training paraphernalia, I decided it was still going to be a training evening, just at my own house.

It was actually nice for a change not to have to rush to get somewhere after the initial post-work scramble to exercise the dogs, feed the dogs, take a shower, grab a bite of dinner and then whizzing off to training. I took my time with going for a run with the dogs, took my time with feeding them, took my time with my shower and took my time enjoying a dinner that I had time to properly make. The Husband popped back home for dinner, and then headed out again for a band rehearsal, so it was just me and the dogs for the rest of the night and I had the whole house to myself – perfect for training!

It was still pouring outside, and besides, the sun starts setting at around 4.30pm nowadays anyway, so training outdoors is out of the question on week days.

I moved some furniture around and push them all up against the wall in the living room, making some decent space for training. Add that to the nice long-ish strip in the main hallway, it actually made decent training space – it was not wide enough to do nice sharp turns in heeling or set up go outs, but it was of a good enough length that I could set up the high jump, broad jump, and still have enough distance clearance to do good DORs, retrieves and jumps. It’s not the first time I’ve “converted” the living room and hallway into training space, but since reorganizing the furniture layout in the living areas after our repainting, it’s actually easier to move things around and more “training-friendly”.


So I had Dante and Atia crated separately when it was the other’s turn to actively train with me. I worked through all the various things that I would have worked on if I was at the training session (details in the next upcoming Training Update post), spending approximately the same amount of time I would have spent if I was away somewhere else training. I actually got pretty good mileage out of the evening and we covered and worked on quite a few things – I wasn’t unhappy!

The only downside of course to training on your own is the lack of valuable distractions and the experience of working your dogs around/amongst other dogs.

I think I might just focus on the “learning” aspect of training for the next little while. Distractions are a fantastic tool in training, but sometimes I think I err in introducing distractions too much too soon before adequately cementing the lessons I want Dante and Atia to learn. I think back to several times when I would be working at training sessions among other people, and I would get flustered or frustrated working on a particular exercise because I was trying to work on/refine some aspect of the exercise (eg. tight turns, snappy retrieves, instant drops etc.) while battling to teach the importance of maintaining focus at the same time. One of the golden rules of training is to TRAIN ONE THING AT A TIME. So, of course, when that doesn’t happen nothing gets taught/learnt properly, and you take twice as long to teach and refine a behavior/command compared to if you had just worked on one thing at a time.

So, that perhaps may be my best approach right now. After all, one of my main goals over the winter was to “pump up” the reliability of Dante performing no each and every exercise so that we can be well-prepared for active trialing for the Spring. I think the best approach to this might be just to build up “the game” and clock successful repetitions of that ideal way to carry out each exercise, while at the same time introduce appropriate distractions in moderate doses within controlled environments; as opposed to bombarding Dante with as many distractions in as many different environments as possible and leaving it up to him to “sink or swim” and properly utilize what he has been taught – I guess the latter approach more closely resembles the approach I’ve been taking of late. Perhaps it’s time for a change.

So, whether this “dilemma” was a blessing in disguise, a wake up call or some understated disaster, it sure has introduced a lot of reflections and questions with regards to our training regiment. To me, being honest with one’s self is always a good thing, and constant, continuous learning and improvement is never a bad thing.

So, that’s how I’ll approach it for now and we’ll see if I feel any different as the weeks go by. Flexibility is my friend!

On another note, we have an agility session scheduled for tomorrow morning – WOOHOO!!!!! I so need my agility fix!

Dilemma – turning point?

Last week, after the weekly obedience club session, there was an “incident”.

Well, ok, not really an incident, but something unpleasant transpired.

Dante and I had finished working on what we wanted to work on for the night, so I walked out of the building with Dante (Atia had already left with her breeder for her show weekend this past week) and headed to the parking lot. When I reached my vehicle, I discovered that someone had smeared a mixture of what I believe was dog excrement and dirt all over my windshield and front hood. Lovely.

Interestingly enough, my initial immediate reaction wasn’t rage or shock or dismay. I believed the very first thought that entered my mind upon discovery was “hmmm”. I took a quick glance around and ascertained that this has happened to only my vehicle. Then, I calmly placed Dante into the car, and then extracted the paper towel roll that I always have stashed away in the car (an essential when you have dogs in the car!). It came in really handy because in about 5 minutes time I had cleared up the whole sordid mess and was ready to go.

All this while there were people and other vehicles coming and going in the parking lot in preparation for the next upcoming class/hour/session. The parking lot was dark, and the only lit area was right at the entrance door to the building. I wondered if anybody knew/noticed what had happened to my vehicle – if anyone did, nobody said a word and just went about their way.

I got home, and made a closer inspection of my vehicle. Apart from the cleaned-up mess, there were no other visible signs of damage or vandalism. I took some time to clean the front of my vehicle a little better with some cleaning liquid and more paper towels, and then it was good as new.

I thought about the incident for the rest of the night. At one point, I was feeling really bothered by it. The actual mess didn’t bother me as much – it’s easily cleaned up after all and there were no serious/additional damage – as wondering about the Who and Why. Of course, it was a futile exercise since I was not there to witness what happened first hand, nor did anyone else step up offering any information.

There really was no way to ascertain who did it and for what reason. The neighbourhood in which the training building is located is in a “rough” part of town, not exactly a “nice” neighbourhood, if you know what I mean. It is not inconceivable that it was the handiwork of some delinquent kids out to get a cheap thrill by stirring up trouble, and I just happened to be the “lucky” recipient of their “extra-curricular activities”. Hey, crap happens (pun intended, in this case) and sometimes people are just unlucky and there’s nothing to be done about that. That could have very well been the case that night.

Still, there was this disturbing, niggling kernel of doubtful wondering in my mind: What if it wasn’t random? What if it was targeted in some way? If it was indeed a random incident, why was it only MY vehicle and not anybody else’s? I mean, I really can’t posit any firm reason why I would think that way, but let’s just call it a Gut Feeling of sorts. And if it’s something that I’ve learnt over the years, it is that sometimes you have to heed your Gut Feelings, however irrational or silly it may seem at the time.

Again, dirt and poo are easily cleaned up, but what if there’s a next time and the next time involves a slashed tire, scratched car or a broken windshield? Then it’s no longer a matter for just shrugging off and relegating it to “just bad luck”.

That same night I sent off an email to the President of the club and described, in plain language and a neutral tone, what had happened, and also to say that I most likely will not be returning be returning to the venue for weekly sessions. It wasn’t meant to be a complaint, nor was it meant to be a “demand” of any sort for “action”. I merely wanted to inform someone about what had happened. End of story.

I hadn’t made a firm decision about whether to return or not. The plan was to sleep on it and give it more thought.

The reply back to my email was just as expected: very matter-of-factly and “well, too bad, bad luck”. Which was fine. Now, email is a very poor form of communication since it does not encapsulate nuances such as intonation and other non-verbal expressions, but (and again, this was my gut feelings piping up again) I felt that there was a quite a hint of annoyance in the response, as if indirectly saying: “Well, what do you want me to do about it? Too bad, too sad, there is no point complaining and if you don’t want to come anymore that’s your business”.

I asked an additional question of whether something like this had ever happened before. The response was that in the two years they have been training there, nothing like that had ever happened, but it wasn’t a huge improbability simply because of the neighbourhood it’s located in.

Of course, I may have simply just misinterpreted the whole thing. Who knows. I just knew that I felt really uneasy about it all.

So now it’s “club night” once again, tonight. I’ve slept and sat on it, and haven’t really made a concrete decision yet about whether to continue going to the building or not.

I could just write the whole thing off as one of those freak-bad-luck incidents that strike without warning, and continue to attend the weekly sessions there the way I’ve done for over a year now. After all, I’ve never come across any problems aside from difficulties in finding a parking spot on a few really busy nights throughout the year. It really is a very convenient and invaluable location for working formally with Dante and Atia once a week, almost irreplaceable in some ways.

Yet, I am concerned that IF it wasn’t just some random incident, that myself or my vehicle will be targeted again in some way, in an escalated manner. SAFETY has to be my paramount concern. And really, I can do without this sort of drama in my life, thank you very much – I have enough of Life’s matter to deal with as it is.

At the same time, some petty part of me (don’t get all snotty, we all have one!) is feeling a tad bit miffed and “unvalued” by the response I got back from my email. I don’t expect anyone to do anything (really, there’s nothing to be done or can be done), but, it would have been nice if the President had offered to ask around to see if anyone that night noticed anything unusual, or asked a little more about the details of what happened and how I was doing. A gesture, nothing more, but would have made me feel a whole lot better. So, I find myself wondering that if nobody really cares whether I’m there or not and I’m of such little value to the club, should I even bother to spend so much time deliberating over whether to return or not?

If I choose to no longer go there for weekly sessions, that main, most important consequence/outcome of such a decision is that I am giving up an available, regular venue for working my dogs formally on a weekly basis. For someone who’s so active in the competitive arena, that’s A LOT to give up. Finding suitable training venues in a group setting (especially during winter with the bad weather) is extremely difficult where I am, and, where everybody else is too, I suspect. There are alternatives, of course, but none that I know of right now that is as accessible and affordable as this current venue. This is the main consideration holding me back from just saying: “Oh screw it … I can just go somewhere else!”

So, I’m still wrestling with this dilemma. I am still trying to come up with other alternatives in terms of an appropriate venue, but accessibility and cost issues really stand out.

If I subscribe to the theory that things always happen for a reason, perhaps this “incident” has brought about a turning point in my current training regiment, a sign that I need to rethink the way I do things and how I train/work with my dogs. Perhaps we have become too rooted in the same routines and familiar structures. A blessing in disguise? Hard to say.

Well, I guess I’ll see how I feel about this in a few hours’ time.