Retrieves on the Flat, jump and A-frame. Check!!

I'm an A-frame pro, mom!

Can I just say how proud I am of my awesome dog??!!!??

As you know, faithful readers, we have been struggling with the dumbbell for quite some time. I wanted so badly to keep this a motivational exercise (as opposed to forced, which DOES work for some people, and I am using in some parts of protection), knowing that it would take us longer to teach it this way. And it did. It's taken probably close to 9 or 10 months to get to this point.

At practice this past weekend, Kane did retrieve on the flat, retrieve over the jump and retrieve over the A-Frame. All with the dumbell. :-)
Now, we've not perfected it yet, but 90% of the work is done. I have to learn to throw the dumbbell (learn how it flies through the air to make it go where I want it to go), we need to up the level on the jump to get it to competition height (one board away), and the A-frame needs to slowly be brought up to the correct height (which is 6ft, I think). Right now, we're at about 4 ft. As far as the 9-10 months go, I'm also not a consistent trainer. I try to work with Kane every day, but sometimes I'm just bone tired after a long day at work, or we do something else etc. So the same method could have worked quicker for someone who has more time.

Nice air in this jump!

On the advice of my friend Julie, we started doing "hold" dumbell exercises at every mealtime. In the beginning, Kane would take it from my hand and hold it. He chewed a lot at first, not liking how it felt in his mouth. Then we would progress to taking it from me at different heights and positions (up, down, left, right), adding more difficulty to the "hold" part (to where I could lean back and he wouldn't let go). If he let go, or did not pick up, we would calmly start over again. He could see his food bowl with all that yummy chicken waiting for him during all this. Boy, did he whine!

"...and then you put your paws together like this"

Finally we got to where he would take it from me, sit where he was while I moved backward, and on command he would bring it to me and hold it. Then he would let go when I said "out."
Julie also recommended I play little keep-away games with him. I would get the dumbbell out and walk around talking to it, throwing it up in the air, and all in all, acting like I had this great toy that he couldn't play with. Then I would throw it and race him to it. If I got to it first, I played with it for a few minutes, and if he got it, he got to keep it for a few minutes before I would run backwards giving a recall command. Worked like a charm. My boy is a jealous player, always wanting to have the best toy....

The last piece of the puzzle was to do some attraction play with the dumbbell while Kane was on leash being restrained by someone else. I would stand just out of reach while running back and forth moving the dumbbell around asking Kane if he wants to play. Then I would throw the dumbbell and say "Bring" while it was still bouncing and the person helping me would let go. Kane loves to chase anything that moves, so this was a good way to have him shoot like a rocket after that dumbbell. Thanks for the tip, Richard!

Retrieve on the flat. Yes, that is me underneath all those clothes. It was cold!

I'm hoping it may be a bit warmer next weekend, and if so, I'll try to shoot some video of the retrieves.
Richard says we're on our way to some high scores, and since he claims he reads my blog, I'm going to hold him to that! At least in obedience! lol.
Thanks to Julie for the awesome photography! :-)

New Sleeve

Back in mid November, Richard tried using a new kind of sleeve with Kane. Well, new to us anyway. It has hard patches on both sides of the (desired) bite area.

The idea being that it will teach the dog to bite in the preferred spot. Kane has a tendency to bite more towards the elbow if he has a choice. We try to not give him that choice, but....kinda hard when your're doing escape bites and the elbow is just "out there" going "Yoo-hoo! Bite me!" And Kane does. The sleeve worked ok, I think.
We also continued on the heeling around in a left hand box with the twist and turn for reward. I'm feeling more confident about taking my time, and only mark/reward the desired behavior. I can also feel myself being more calm, instead of anxious or afraid to do the wrong thing. I'm sure that helps Kane as well. Thanks to my friend An for the fab photography assistance!

An important job

As you can see from this picture, Kane has had a very important job to train for. He didn't get any title, or get judged on his performance, but I will tell you he did wonderful. I couldn't have asked for a better friend to walk me down the aisle. :-)

Nice full grip!

We're back to training regularly now and things are going well:

Tracking: very well, we're up to hot dogs every 15 steps, and he even skips a few of those. He is very dedicated on the track, going footstep to footstep, pulling me along. We are both getting better at corners. Me remembering where they are and him finding them. Sometimes I just have to trust him...lol.

Really, Kane is a sweet dog!

Obedience: Our patience with the dumbbell is paying off. We train before every meal, pick it up off the floor, bringing it to me, taking it from me, holding it hard, outing etc.

The new thing

Protection: Still working on Kane's grip. It'll never be great, but we don't want him to loosen it or shake and growl too much. For protection obedience we heel around the helper in a left hand box. Usually Kane is very forged, but Richard had me try something new: when he does well, grab the tab leash, take a step forward with my left foot and pivot to my right and say "packen" so that Kane has to go around me. Then he will anticipate this (!) and not forge and be read to go around me. :-) It works quite nicely so far!

You laughing at me??? Look at all my nice teeth....who's laughing now???!!!

Back on the Pole

To prepare for the SchH 1 we are back to working on the pole, a stationary metal pole in the ground with a 6ft chain attached. The chain is attached to Kane's harness, and then I hold the chain so that it doesn't hit him. It would be better if I held him on a long leash, but I am really bad at being stationary with an 80 lb mass working against me (i.e. Kane). :-)
The pole work is for working on his grip and the outs for protection. We've had some so-so sessions, but finally things are starting to look better.

Packen! (Go)

We also practice on heeling in a left-hand box around the helper, to get Kane's heeling under control while he is in protection drive. Then I say packen! when he does well, and off he goes for a bite reward. Can you tell he loves this part?

The thing with being on the pole is that
you always get some interesting photo shots!

Kane giving our trainer some lip....

And Kane always gives me
great photo shots like this one! :-)

After we work the pole for a few minutes, we run blinds (there's only 2 blinds to run in SchH1) with a bark and hold. Kane does very well.

Ready for launch in 3....2....

Mine!

Starting the A-Frame

In Schutzhund obedience there are retrieves for the dumbell to be done over an A-Frame. Competition height of the A-Frame is 1.8 meters, or 71 inches, or just below 6 ft. It's a pretty steep wall, and I want to make sure that Kane learns how to scale it and "de-scale" (!) it correctly so that he doesn't injure himself in any way.

So we started practicing with the A-Frame at a much lower incline. I started out with Kane running over the A-Frame, and then he was rewarded when he made it to the other side, with his back legs still on the A-Frame.

I want him to learn to climb up and down, and not just take a leap of the top. Leaping off the top could mean serious elbow injuries, and we don't want that.

Then we moved on to throwing the ball over the A-Frame and having him retrieve it. The first few times, he went over the A-Frame to get to the ball, but then he tried to go around it on the way back.

We solved that by me climbing up and slapping my hand on the A-Fram and calling him and then moving backwards when he came the right way, again rewarding when he reached the end.
Finally he did one correctly all by himself!

Now we continue to do the same thing for a while, eventually raising the A-Frame up until it is at trial height. Then we have to add the dumbell to it as well.

Tracking Again

Kane and I have 4 things (plus polishing this and that) that we need to work on learning before the trial in November:

Tracking:

• Get to "the end" and track with no food.
• Articles

Obedience:

• Retrieves (flat, jump and a-frame)
• Send out

Protection:

• Need to polish up a few things such as grip, outs and escape bite.

So we have started tracking seriously again. I have to track in the mornings because it is way to hot in the afternoons/evenings. So I've been tracking with Kane on both Saturdays and Sundays and at least once during the week. It's just hard to get my butt out of bed before 6 am!
We're up to hot dogs every 7 steps and things are going well. I need to get better at remembering where my track is, so I don't confuse him. In my head, I start going "where is my turn? I don't see it! Is this it? or is it over there?) and it's pretty clear that he senses my nervous in-head talking and it rubs off. There won't be any markers at the trial! :-)

BH - done!

Yeay - we passed!

I'd say we passed with flying colors. :-) We missed a few things, but there's a reason the BH is not a scored title - it's either pass or fail. And we passed. (I'm going to keep saying that!)

The trial was at North Beach Schutzhund Club in North Myrtle Beach, SC. Because of the heat we have down here, the trial started at 7pm. The Schutzhund dogs went first in obedience, and we had 6 of those: 2 SchH1, 1 SchH2 and 3 SchH3. From our club, Carrie was trialing Sampson for SchH1, and Andre for SchH3 and Mike was trialing Nick for SchH3.

There were eight dogs entered for the BH, and Julie and I were teamed up for the first team. We got ready as the last SchH team was finishing up. This time I was more prepared for how to prepare - I took Kane out on the prong collar and after walking him for a bit, we did a few steps of heeling with corrections if I felt I did not have his attention. Then we "doodled" - meaning correct heel position, spins, sits, downs etc. Just little things that keep his attention on me and things that I can reward him for.
So we were all ready when they announced a 15 min break..... I feel we lost a little momentum there, but oh well.... :-)
Kane and I walked on the field and checked in with judge Mark Przybylski first, we were told we were doing the obedience part. So we set up for that.
The on-leash heeling went well, although I did not have Kane's attention as I usually do, but it wasn't bad. We did the group with no problems, and then the offleash heeling. In the motion exercises he downed on the sit out of motion (which he had started doing the night before, so not a huge surprise, I think it was nerves), but he did the down and recall perfectly.
We finished the obedience exercise and heeled over to the long down position on leash.
When I stopped, Kane layed down on his own, which he is not supposed to. I was supposed to take the leash off in the sit position, then tell him down. Then walk away.
Kane was perfect during the long down, as much as I obsessed about that. :-) I will stop obsessing now!

The traffic portion went very well also. No problem with the car, jogger or bicycles. They made me put him in a sit and a down in a group of people walking around and talking while I was out of sight. No problems there either. The tie-out was done with all dogs and then a puppy and an adult dog were walked by. No problems there either. :-)

All eight of the BHs passed which was very exciting - Kudos to my friends at Metrolina Schutzhund who also passed - Jenny, Jeff and Robbie - nice job!
In fact, all of the Schutzhund trial dogs also passed, making for a perfect trial - which is rare!

Now - on to the next thing. My club has a trial in late November, and we are shooting for getting our Schutzhund 1 title done at that time. Lots to do before then!

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures - it was dark and this was the best we could do! :-)