Sunday, February 19, 2012

What the dogs learned this week....

The training students aren't the only ones who learned stuff this week!

STEEL
Steel learned that tracks can occur on asphalt and concrete. Having completed the TDX our next big goal is the VST test. He did some VST training last summer but with the moving and other training we have not been back to it in a while. He is okay on hard surface but if he is in scent and grass is nearby he wants very badly to go to the grass. This makes sense because quite a bit recently the place to get scent/reinforcement has been the grass. Those two things must come together in order to get reinforced. So my first goal is to shape tracking behavior on asphalt or concrete and show him, through my track laying, that scent/reinforcement can be had in other places.

AMBER
Amber learned that she likes the smell of marijuana. Seriously. My little shrinking violet discovered that she can be a bad ass drug dog and give that tennis ball one heck of a fight when it is offered in the presence of the odor of marijuana. I am so proud of my girl since a few months ago she was afraid of her shadow, had no idea how to play and didn't care in the least for a tennis ball. However you can't fight genetics and she comes out of her timid shell more and more every day.

Amber working the scent boxes...

JILL
Jill discovered that a person and a Rottweiler CAN fit into one living room chair. Especially if the person sits on the front of the chair working on their computer and the rottweiler lies behind her with her head on the arm. However she also learned that when she pushes on the person with her paws it is not well received....

CALIX

Calix got to do the teaching. Retirement and old age has its privileges after all, The students got to work with him on drug detection training. Only after I explained to them however that if he is getting angry they are doing it wrong! Remember those kind patient supportive teachers we might have had in school, music or sports? Calix is the exact opposite of one of those....



 

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

My Weekend

My apologies to those of you who have already seen this on facebook etc!

This weekend Steel and I traveled to TN and I was very pleased that he passed his TDX test Sunday morning with a wonderful track. It was sunny and COLD and we drew the first track of the day. There were 6 TDX tracks total and 2 of us passed. He was also the only Rottweiler there and he was the youngest dog to compete.

I would like to take some credit but I seriously did nothing except follow behind Steel and watch him work. Really. I sent him towards the start article and he dropped into a down on it, gave it a good sniffing and it was off to the races. He was fast and drively on the easy sections and slowed himself down and worked carefully and methodically through the the hard sections. He dropped perfectly on each article and just BEAMED at me each time.

I will be interested in seeing the map because it seemed like we made about 20 turns but I am sure it was less! I didnt know if I was coming or going. At one point a leg ran parallel to a large strip of dry tall grass. We came up to what turned out to be the intersection of a cross track coming out of that tall grass. There was nothing but very short grass to the front and left of me and an ALLEYWAY of a track in the tall grass to the right. Steel worked the intersection, got sucked into that alleyway and started down it with me following. He got a short distance down it, slammed on the brakes and spun around and raced past me back to the intersection, worked the area some more and headed in a new direction. I remember thinking in the back of my head, as I blindly followed him, "I wonder how far along they will let me get before they blow the whistle" LOL.

Then the end of the track came out of a field, into a patch of dirt, across a narrow dirt road, through another patch of dirt and into an area of tall grass. Steel came trucking through the field up to the road, got halfway across the road and realized that all the spectators are a VERY short distance up the road. Anyone who has ever met Steel knows what a challenge that is. Fortunately the wind was not coming from the people and he was content with a few smiles and waves to his adoring fans before getting back to work. However being out in the middle of all that dirt made that a challenge, he did it though and then as we got into the tall grass he caught the scent from the final glove and found it and then did his traditional "yngo roll" at the end of the track - in the mud. Then the photographer came running up and offered to take a pic.

To say I am pleased with my sweet boy is an understatement - he was seriously sick for quite a bit of January and it has taken a while to get his stamina back. When we got to the third article yesterday I let him rest and gave him some water and kissed him on the head and whispered in his ear that I couldnt be any happier with him than I was right then,regardless of how the last section went.

Here is a pic of the muddy happy boy (along with me wearing my 15 layers of clothing) - think he doesnt look proud of himself?!

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Things like this dont happen to non-dog people...

I am staying a hotel outside of Nashville TN tonight. Too far outside of Nashville to travel that far for dinner so I opted for "Pizza Done Right" which is next door to my motel. I received a baffled stare when I asked if they had broccoli as a pizza topping option. The pizza came too doughy with too much cheese and not enough vegetables but that is beside the point.

I am of course traveling with 4 dogs. Getting them all into the room requires a small amount of logistics. It works something like this : setup Steel's softcrate, bring him in the room and crate him. Bring Calix in and turn him loose in room. Move Amber into Calix's crate in van and bring Amber's vari kennel into room. Bring Amber into room and put her in varikennel. Bring Jill in and turn her loose in room.

But before all that happens I bring the pizza in and leave it in bathroom with door closed. It is an important step (especially to be done before the Calix step happens). So the dogs are all fed, walked and inside and I am set to sit down for my pizza. Except some genius in the room before me had depressed the lock on the open bathroom door. So when I closed the bathroom door I effectively locked my pizza in for some privacy and solitude. Crap! Sure I could call the front desk but being a Sat night who exactly are they gonna send? Plus I would have to repeat the above steps all in reverse because who is going to want to come in to fix my door with 2 rottweilers, a german shepherd and a malinois in the room? And then I have to explain to some likely non-dog person why the heck I put a pizza in the bathroom and closed the door?  At this point the thought of putting the dogs all back into the van made me want to kick my way through the bathroom door and worry about it in the morning. I tried to slip something into the tiny hole in the knob. Nope. Same thing for the little hole in the side. Still no luck. No outside hinges on the door. Finally I was able to push hard on the top corner of the door, creating a gap big enough to slip a piece of plastic in and then I slid the plastic down to the knob and the door popped open.

However I will probably need to explain why my room key looks like this when I check out tomorrow:


Sunday, February 5, 2012

People hate change...

Over the weekend I watched the movie "Moneyball" with Brad Pitt. It was an excellent movie. At first I wasn't sure about the ending. But then when I found out what the main character had done ultimately led to the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series I was totally okay with it! Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, the general manager for the Oakland A's baseball team. Not to get sidetracked with a long description of the premise of the movie but Pitt's character goes out on a limb and comes up what turns out to be a radical AND highly successful way to create success for the A's. Due to his success he is offered a high paying job as GM for the Boston Red Sox. He points out to the owner of the Red Sox that everyone pretty much hated him in Oakland. He is then told the following:

"The first guy through the wall - he always gets bloody. Always. This is threatening not just a way of doing business but in their minds it is threatening the game. But really what it is threatening is their livelihoods, their jobs. It is threatening the way they do things. Every time that happens, whether it is a government, a way of doing business, whatever, the people holding the reins, have their hand on the switch - they go batshit crazy."

What a perfect quote. It can apply to so many things, not the least of which being dog training!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Dog Diversity...

We are in Week Four of an 8 week Professional Trainers Course. After spending all day teaching dog training skills to students I am pretty useless at the end of the day. I eat dinner, watch 30 minutes of TV and go to bed. If I had a few more brain cells I would try to write something profound on the blog. Instead I will share a few pics of some of the dogs who are here this month for training.

These two crack me up:10 pounds meets 127 pounds...


Wolf Hybrid - those eyes look right through you....you can see the wolf



In this guy - not so much....