Training Challenge #10 and Recalls to Heel

This week we went back to the site of training challenge #1 - Antrim Lake. We couldn't believe that it had already been two months since we were there. We had been meaning to repeat this challenge much sooner. And we should have - I was a B-A-D dog! I did much better the last time we were there. This time I lunged and barked and whined at cars. I told mom what could she expect - I had been resting my back for two weeks and I needed to release some of that pent up energy! So I pulled and barked my way along the path near the highway. Then when we got to the backside of the lake and I was allowed to drag my leash, I did a little better. We went down on the footpath in the woods that parallels the main path (that's where the wordless Wednesday photos came from) and I wanted back up on the main path so badly - every time there was an access, I either ran half-way up it or looked pleadingly at mom - when it finally came time to get back up there, I flew up and scared the poop out of a jogger! Mom apologized and felt bad for the girl. See - I had absolutely no manners out there.

We know we need to repeat all of the training challenges we have done this summer. It was good to get out there and try new things each week but one time didn't solve any of my issues.

Any way, how do all of you who are participating in the training challenge feel about ending the challenge for now and picking it up again in the Spring? We are really impressed by everyone's results this summer! I think we all got out there and got out of our comfort zones and learned a lot! We appreciate all of your support and encouragement! I feel like the training challenge was a huge success thanks to all of you!

I am slowly getting back into agility. Mom has been very careful with me this week. We have been doing warm-up exercises like the ones in Clean Run this month. And we are doing the stretching exercises shown in this Agility Nerd post. I have also been doing a little ball work. I have been jumping one jump and occasionally two and then yesterday I got to do 6 weaves twice! While I was injured we worked on recalls to heel on the flat. Now we are adding a jump. I think I am looking pretty good but mom still wishes I would blast off the startline. She is happy that I seem to be more focused and happy to be working. We made a video - nothing very exciting. First foundation RTH. Then extension RTH. Then backy-uppy RTH. These are the ones we were doing on the flat. The foundation one is the most important one, I think.

My class starts up again on Tuesday. We'll see how I do. I have one day of a trial scheduled for Friday and mom is not sure she wants me to go. That is my last trial until New Year's Day. So either we go and try it or we cancel and give me two more months off from trialing. If I look good in my class, maybe we'll go?

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Training Challenge #9 (hard to really call this a training challenge but we're going to instead of just not posting one this week)

Many of you have already been faced with this training challenge or are also facing it right now the same as us. The challenge - no training! And dealing with baby gates and stairs! LOL! We live in a split level house - it's upstairs to the bedrooms and downstairs to the lower level, the garage and the backyard. I usually go up and down these stairs 500 million times a day. Since I am not allowed to do stairs for 14 days (10 more to go - we started counting over when I got the Deramaxx), mom carries me up and down and up and down while moving the baby gates from top to bottom and back.

The no training part of the challenge is really difficult for us! We miss it so much! I jumped my last jump a week ago. (I feel for all of you who have been in rehab for so long - like Miley). We try to work on tricks, etc. but it's hard to keep me from boinging (reminds me of Oreo when he was going through his 3+ months of rest and rehab). Mom started to teach me some crate games - we don't have the official Susan Garrett DVD but we watched this video to get an idea of how to start:

We are also still working on recalls to heel on the flat but just in the house and over a very small distance. I am driving toward mom better now - of course because I am dying to do something!!

One thing is for sure - this week's training challenge definitely meets the criteria of "out of our comfort zone"!

Gotta zoom (I wish)!

Ricky

Training Challenge #8

We got home from cousin Wilson's house around lunchtime and after lunch we did my training challenge for this week. Nothing too strenuous or demanding today but something that mom does not do enough of - she and I walked my neighborhood walk with dad! I bet you can't believe this is a challenge but it is! I behave totally differently when I do stuff with mom and dad together. Dad's presence gets me really excited so it's harder for me to control myself. We hadn't even tried to walk all together for months and months. I am happy to say I did a good job today! One time I spun once (but did not bark) when a car went by and other than that, I sat and watched each car and then looked to mom for a treat just like I do when it is only me and mom. We all felt good about the challenge and are planning to try it again soon.

I am taking a break from agility for awhile and resting my right back leg. Mom got some conflicting advice over the weekend that upset her but now we have a plan (thanks to Diana who is so good at analyzing video and seeing what is happening) and we're going to rest and see if I get better. Mom is not going to panic or anything. The only thing I seem to be having any trouble doing is pushing off my hind legs to jump - I am acting completely normal where everything else is concerned - so if it is a tight muscle in my thigh then not jumping and using some heat and resting should help. Paws/fingers crossed. I guess it is lucky we have the three-week break from class and if I need to miss the trial on this Sunday, I will. We will wait and see how I am this week. Thank you for everyone's concerned comments from yesterday! We truly appreciate you all!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Training Challenge #7

I am posting about my training challenge for this week early so that the weekend can be all about my trial! Mom decided I needed a fun challenge this time since I am busy with a trial the next couple of days. And she wanted to increase the odds that I would do the chute tomorrow so we spent part of the afternoon driving to different places and just doing it! (Sara and Oreo did this same thing awhile back - sorry for copying!)

First of all, a gratuitous photo of me - hard to believe there is ever water here but some times there is:

First stop:

Back in the car to go to the next stop:

Second stop (looks a lot like the first but it isn't):

Third stop (ditto what I said about the second):

Fourth stop - Pet People store! I am a bit of a celebrity at Pet People and they were nice enough to let us bring in the chute!

Fifth and last stop:

I am happy to report that I had no trouble whatsoever doing the chute - I did it everywhere! So, ok, agility trial, here I come!!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Training Challenge #5

Our training challenge for the past week was 5 DAYS OF TOTAL SEPARATION!!! Talk about outside of our comfort zone! Since mom got me, we had not spent a night apart - I came to live with mom and dad on April 7, 2007 and mom left me on September 1, 2010. Can you believe it? Mom and I are huge homebodies and we love being there and being in our own routine and everything. But dad's parents live in San Diego and mom hadn't seen them in four years so this year she flew out there with dad. She was a nervous wreck - worried about me, worried about the plane trip, worried about leaving our house - I mean the list goes on and on.

I went and lived with grandma and grandpa for five days. I love them but when I first got there, I wondered where mom was and when she would come in the door. I laid around a lot the first day. But after that, I settled into a new routine with grandma and grandpa and I had a good time. I got lots of treats, I did recalls in the backyard from grandma to grandpa and back, I watched cars go by at the end of their driveway and some dogs too. Apparently I was a very, very well-behaved house guest! I want to thank them so much for taking such good care of me!

Mom had a good time on her trip. She got to see lots of stuff and go lots of places. They went to the desert, the mountains and the beach all in one day! She went to the zoo and also went walking in the chaparral. And my dad's parents have three dogs - mom played a lot with the two Border Collies (Kyle and Kellan - we blogged about Kyle and my grandma Catherine before and they are going back to the NOI for a 4th time this December. Kyle is 7 years old I think and just got his OGM Obedience Grand Master title and he is a UDX17 dog!) - and while she was there, they got a new BC puppy (unexpected timing) - so she even got to play with him! She says she missed me a lot, but I have my doubts! :)

Here are some photos from my stay at grandma's and from mom and dad's trip:

La Jolla:
Sea lions at La Jolla (dad thinks they should be called sea dogs because they bark all the time):

Mom and dad at Point Loma:

A view from Cabrillo (the marine layer was over the ocean each time they went to the beach no matter what time of day it was):

While they were taking in the beach, I was hanging out:

One day they got up very early (4:00AM) and drove to the Anza Borrego Desert - the park is actually closed most of the time from June to October because it is just too hot there. That's why they had to go so early. Even at 7:00AM, it was already super hot. Mom had never been to a desert before - look at this jackrabbit:

In the spring, the entire area is covered in wildflowers and the park is crawling with people. No one was there the other day and everything is dry. Cactuses are about the only plant around:

The mountains look like this:

Dad was enamored with trying for panoramic shots - here is one that looks like a postcard:

Mom got to watch part of my grandma Catherine's lesson that she was giving and here is mom helping to proof sit/stays - she pulled on the collar of the dog and said, "Let's go!" and unfortunately the dog broke his stay!

Dad took some amazing underwater photos in a tide pool - they should be in National Geographic magazine! This is a sea slug:

And a sea anemone:

Meanwhile I was in grandma's kitchen hoping for something tasty to come my way:

This was the beach at Torrey Pines at 4:00 in the afternoon - see all the marine layer? When mom and dad left grandma Catherine's it was 102 degrees. When they got to the beach 45 minutes later it was 67!

Mom sure doesn't look too sad or like she misses me here playing with Dax the new puppy!

He flew by himself all the way from Sioux Falls, SD!

Me again - waiting to go outside:

So we survived our biggest training challenge ever! Mom got back late last night and we spent all day together doing a few little tricks and going for a nice walk at my park and getting back into our routine again. Tomorrow we have class! I haven't done any agility since last week's class. We tried to keep up with reading everyone's blogs but we're sorry if we missed some. We'll get back to normal soon though. Hope everyone had a good long weekend!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Training Challenge #4

We did another walk along a busy-ish street for my training challenge again this week. A lot of parks around here are big grassy areas for athletic events and they have walking/jogging/bike paths around them and through them which parallel streets. So usually when we go to these parks, we walk only in the grass and on the interior paths. Today of course we tackled a section of the path near the street. Mom was armed with her experience from last week and with some ground turkey!

We parked the car and the minute we got out, I could hear the cars passing by. We headed out on this path and turned right. I was excited and not exactly loose-leash walking but definitely not over the top.

Mom had me sit on the path each time a car came by - surprisingly a lot of cars for this area! As long as I sat, I was able to stay under control and watch the car and then turn to look at mom for my turkey treat. I seem to be able to handle cars going by if I am not moving myself (after some sits, we tried it with me standing still). But if I am moving and the cars are moving, I get too excited.

We were careful not to push too hard this time - we walked a ways up the path and then turned around to go back towards our car. We took a little break in the shade and watched the cars.

Mom asked me to do some tricks and stuff this close to the street (on leash of course - don't worry!). Here I am doing a down - not super relaxed, but I did it. I did down, stand, cross paws, turn right. I even did some hand touches (we've been working on that game Kathy and her BCs are doing). At first I wouldn't touch mom's hand with my nose - I would go close but not touch. But then I started doing it! Cool! I can actually think a little bit when cars are going by!

Here is the part of the path where we were working on my tricks - over there near the bench and you can see the street to the left.

After the challenge we went back to our car and got our flexi leash and just went for a fun walk away from the streets in the park. It was so pretty outside - sunny and 75. Look at the drinking fountains they have here - a dog level one - but I am too finicky to drink from it.

We're on an interior path and the street is way over by those trees. I didn't realize how brown our grass is getting around here until I saw this picture.

The path back to the parking lot.

So this training challenge was more of a success than last week. Working on my self control when cars are around is not a very glamorous challenge, but it is one that continues to put us way out of our comfort zone - that's for sure. Mom still dreams of being able to walk with me ANY WHERE so we'll just have to keep working on it. The bury-your-head-in-the-sand method of dealing with my issues isn't ever going to resolve them and that is why we need the training challenge!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Training Challenge #3

We have a trial this weekend so I am going to go ahead and post about this week's training challenge today. It was a doozy!

Facing my car chasing mania is probably the hardest challenge we have and mom hates to work on it and prefers to live in our little bubble world where we go only to places far from moving vehicles. But when mom envisioned having a dog, she assumed she would be able to walk anywhere with her dog. Then she got me and realized it wouldn't be that easy.

So in the spirit of the training challenge, she took me out to a nearby park that we go to from time to time but we always stay on paths on the interior and well away from the neighborhood streets (which are surprisingly busy - cars at least every 30 seconds and often in clumps). We got out of our car and walked towards the street. We took the path all the way to the sidewalk. So far, so good - I sat and watched a little:

This was the path that lead to my street-side spot:

Then we walked on the sidewalk along the street. Mom had me do my usual sit where I can quietly watch as the car goes by then I reorient to her and look at her and get a treat.

I was doing pretty well so mom upped the ante and decided to see if I could keep walking when a car went by (since there were so many) and then as I was walking, look up to her and then get my treat. Well, I lost it! I quickly escalated over my threshold and spun and barked like a lunatic! Mom had me sit and then moved me farther from the road. I did calm down quite a bit but was not able to keep from wanting to pull ahead. Mom felt really bad that she had pushed me too far but she wanted to know what would happen. Even when we got farther from the road, I was still on the alert:

My tongue was hanging out and I was tired from the mental work-out:

We took a break and ran together in the grass a little and played some games. I started taking treats again (I would barely take one when I flipped out). We casually strolled around and got our act together and then mom headed down a path towards the street again. In the end, we had to stay about this far away:

I was super tired when we got back to our car. Mom was super discouraged and mad at herself for putting me through all that. But we know I will never learn that I can walk quietly while cars pass by if we never work on it. We need to try again and the next time make it a shorter trip and keep me below my threshold and try to end on a good note and build on that. I have gotten much better about watching cars pass by when I walk in my own neighborhood so we think I am capable of doing it! Getting out there to confront this problem is way out of our comfort zone and we thank all of you fellow training challengers for motivating us to do it!

Looking forward to hearing what everyone else did this week! Wish me luck at my trial - it's at the soccer venue very close to my house - the one where people play basketball right next to the rings. Our goals for this weekend - run happy and connected (and do the chute)!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Training Challenge #2

We went out and got our training challenge done on Monday of this past week because we knew the weather was going to get hotter and hotter as the week went on. Mom took me to a part of my favorite park that we never go to - it was at the end of the library parking lot and across from ball fields and the tennis courts. She brought a jump, a tunnel and my 2X2 weaves.

So in the video, behind the camera is the parking lot (not many cars moving around on that end - that's why mom hoped it was safe enough - but there were park workers who were emptying trash cans), to the left of us were tennis courts and kids at a tennis camp, and behind us were girls at lacrosse practice. None of this bothered me - I just did my agility!!

We were invaded by ants this week - little, itty bitty ants every where! Mom discovered them last Saturday under the carpet at the back door. She cleaned them up and then a couple days later, they were in the food cabinet in the kitchen! Then a few mornings ago, they were in the toaster - for crying out loud! Mom has been beside herself and finally had to call a bug guy. She was trying vinegar and then baby powder and she kept seeing them coming into the house from the patio, so the bug guy came and mom had strict instructions for him on how much (or really how little) he was allowed to spray because she really didn't want him to spray at all. He did the perimeter of the house and very little inside. That was Friday and she is still finding a few ants in the kitchen and yesterday morning she was shocked to see a big trail of ants marching to and from the house across the patio and right through the area where the spray was!! If the situation doesn't improve, she'll have to call the bug guy again tomorrow. I hope those ants stop coming in because I am tired of hearing her whine about it! Funny, last summer we barely saw one ant in the yard. The bug guy said that all the snow we had last winter (remember in February when the ground was covered for the entire month?) insulated the bugs in the ground. Great.

I love the posts about this week's training challenges that I have seen so far! Can't wait to see what other dogs did! We are loving the TC - it's so nice to be motivated by such supportive friends!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Ricky

Training Challenge #1

It's Sunday and time to post about my training challenge for this week! I have already read some terrific posts by Kathy, Sara, Dawn, and Marie and so I know that you all have gotten out there and done some great training this week! Congratulations - and I'm looking forward to reading all about what the other participants did this week too.

Mom and I went to a nearby park this morning - before mom got me, she used to bike to this park and then walk around the lake and dream of walking there with her very own dog. Then she got me and tried to take me there but the park is right next to a busy, busy state route and the park is full of bikers and joggers. I have been to this park several times before but the beginning of the walk always put me way over my excitement threshold. So mom hates to take me there even though she ultimately wants us to be able to do it. To go there is definitely a challenge!

Here is a map of the lake - it was a quarry lake and was partially filled in when the city decided to make it into a park. Apparently the lake is 30 feet deep in places and the water is crystal clear and full of fish. You park your car in the lot to the left of the highway and the lake and then have to walk under the highway to get to the park. The bikepath runs parallel to the highway, and when you start out on the jogger/walker path that goes all the way around the lake, you walk right next to the bikepath and the highway. We always go toward the lake and turn left and go around clockwise. On the right side of the lake it is really nice - you are away from the highway and there are some woods and also a river. (I hope the map will bigify).
We knew it would be busy on Sunday morning but it was so busy the parking lot was full and cars were parked on the road too. When we first got there, I could hardly look at mom.

The sun was not cooperating for photos but here is the way you go under the highway.

There is a really nice deck where people feed ducks, warm up for their runs, or do a little fishing - see the highway behind me?

Here are the paths at the start - I am on the gravel path at the bottom of the photo, then is the bikepath and then the highway. I pulled a little on my leash but I did not bark and I kept looking at the cars/bikes/joggers and then looking back to mom for a treat! (this is where I would always totally lose it in previous attempts to walk here).

The lake is really pretty but I have to keep an eye out for moving people (this is the top of the lake on the map).

Now we are walking on the side farthest from the highway - you can see the deck and the highway in the background if you bigify. Some times I can walk off-leash on the path over here but today was just too busy for that.

There is a footpath in the woods that runs parallel to the jogging/walking path. The river is on our left. We went down there so that I could have a little off-leash time. I behaved very well and waited for mom and checked in with her every time I went in front of her.

After we got to the bottom of the lake (according to the map) we came back out onto the regular path and as you go around to come back towards the entrance, you are close to the bikepath and the highway again.

I was much more relaxed by this time and could look at mom even sitting so close to the bikepath.

Lots of dogs swim here - sometimes there will be 10 - 15 dogs in the water at the same time.

Getting worn out from this challenge!

We finally made it back to the car! I hate to brag but I am the best car-riding dog ever! I lie down on my towel the minute mom puts me in the car and I don't get off that towel until she takes me back out of the car!

There you have it! We survived the challenge - actually we did better than that. I did not bark once the entire time I was there. I got very excited a few times but did not lose it at all. I even did a few tricks for mom when we got back to the parking lot. Mom even had a smile on her face - that hasn't been the case when we have left this place before! This is a challenge that will definitely bear repeating though so mom and I can finally feel comfortable enough to add this park to the list of places we frequent.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky