Stella Trial Updates

Well it has been a busy spring for Stella and I.  Regular viewers might remember how we were robbed of our final conformation point due to an administrative screw up so in February we ventured back into the show ring and the dog-show gods smiled upon us and we got that last point (AGAIN!).    We also needed to take a new picture.  Probably should have had her standing on the ground as the platform makes it hard for her to be comfortable in a real stack so her butt is a bit wacky here but it is still evidence we achieved that goal!

CH Varazs Kedvesem Final Dance, PCD, RA, CGN
CRA-MCL, CRNT

In May we headed out with a friend for a trip to Kelowna to attend a CARO rally trial.  This was the trial that last year ended in tears of frustration when my dog clearly expressed to me that she was not interested in working with me (see blog  Is-that-same-vizsla?).  That marked the start of a year off from trialing to develop a new training plan.  Well what a difference a year makes :).   I was super pleased with how the trial went.  My dog was engaged and we achieved our CARO Rally Advanced title with scores of 191 (my error), 197 and 198.  We also got another leg on our Rally Novice Team and finished up that title this past weekend. The video below is from the Kelowna trial.

I have a very loose goal of heading into the obedience ring to attempt our CKC Novice Obedience title in November.  That will depend on lots of things :).  Stella just turned three so we have lots of time and I am in no rush.  We are actively training the open and utility exercises while we also work on developing lots of ring skills, focus and confidence.   I plan to do lots of matches and attend venues like CARO rally that allow rewards to create lots of good associations with competitive settings.  Stella is not an overly sensitive dog as far as environments but she also is not a "high-drive" dog that loves to work and compete.   It will be a balance to keep her happy and engaged when competing at formal obedience and I want to make sure we are both as ready as possible.

Obedience Stewarding

Recently I volunteered to be a ring steward at a local obedience trial.  I did this for two reasons.  Firstly I believe that we all need to step up and volunteer occasionally to support the sports we love.  Secondly I thought it would be a valuable learning experience.  I am new to competitive obedience and have only done pre-novice with my dogs.  I was set to go into the ring with Riley last spring for his CD but we stopped when his physical problems became apparent.  Stella could probably pass her CD fairly well currently but I have decided that I want to train more precision in her heeling and also get a good start on the Open exercises before going into the ring.  I am going to continue with Rally Obedience for now as it is fun and great ring experience.

I found my volunteering experience to be rewarding and informative.  I ended up being the table steward which meant I got to do the paperwork for all the rounds.  Our judge was wonderful, very fair and honestly wanted every competitor to succeed.  Being an "insider" means I got to see how each round was scored and also to observe the patterns and necessary setup procedures.  I find it fascinating to watch how different dog/handler teams work together and connect.  There was some wonderful working teams in all levels.  I still have a "newbie" eye and  I was working so didn't get to watch every round entirely but I picked up on the following observations:

*  Get that proper footwork on your turns.  The judge observed a lot of very bad about turn footwork.

*  Watch out for anticipating commands.  Competitors sometimes forgot to wait for the judges command and dogs sometimes acted on the judges command before the competitor cued the behaviour.

*  Be aware of your leash handling.  Competitors might not realize how much they use that leash to encourage or control but be aware that the judge does see it and it can be penalized.

*  Know and understand the rules.  Score sheets for each level are available here and have a lot of great information on them.  Understanding what type or combination of cues are permitted  (ie signal and/or command versus signal OR command) can either save or fail some exercises.  Reading the CKC Rule Book including the section on commands and signals is in my future!

*  A change of pace to fast means move it!  Lots of competitors "run" but really they aren't moving any faster than they walk and the dog doesn't shift pace.

*  Match your energy to your dog.  More and more people are using play in their training which is wonderful but realize that sometimes ring stress means your dog would prefer a gentle butt scratch instead of a muzzle push back or other high energy moves.  This is something I will need to be aware of with Stella.

It was a long day but I enjoyed it and will do it again.  It confirmed to me that my decision to wait a bit is a good one.  It also was another "brick over the head" that I need to do more video in my training sessions so I can hopefully prevent myself from some of these errors.

Conformation picture

Here is the picture from our conformation show.  It would have been better if the collar was adjusted and her tail up more but I am still proud of my girl.   She looks so grown up (waaaaahhhh, where is my adorable puppy?).  No worries she is still a crazy puppy girl on the inside!

 

 

Conformation

Stella and I attempted our second conformation trial recently and were rewarded for our efforts with her first points.  She took best of winners against three other dogs (two points) on saturday and then we came up empty on sunday.  We had a fun experience as all the other vizsla people were very friendly.  I am a total rookie in this sport but things went well and the ring steward was very nice and helpful to me.  Stella really liked the saturday judge and I think she might have actually been flirting with him :).  We were much better prepared for this show compared to our first last minute attempt.  We still have quite a bit of fine-tuning to do for the perfect stacking positions but thankfully she seems to have figured out the difference between stopping/sitting at heel position and the conformation stuff.  She also thinks that gaiting is kinda fun and roo-rooed at me part of the way to see if I was interested in playing with her.  I'm sure she is supposed to be more serious but honestly I would rather see that then one of the other dogs that was a bit fearful of the whole situation. 

I remain conflicted on conformation showing.  It seems very subjective to me.  A dog can go in the ring one day and be the winner and the next day against the same group of dogs under a different judge would get nothing.  When I go into the obedience or rally ring I know what needs to be done and if we do our job right then we pass.  That is clear and understandable to me.  Judges can vary on how hard they may mark but we all start with the same points and generally a judge is consistant with marking methods through all participants.   You also get feedback from the judges via your score sheets.  Conformation judging depends so much on individual tastes of a judge and perhaps the influences of where the judge is from.   Showing is expensive and time-consuming so I'm not sure how much further I will pursue this.  Part of me does like the idea of those CH letters in front of my dog's registered name but on the other hand I have no interest in breeding her.  I did have a picture taken to mark the occasion but it was a large show (800+ dogs) so I am still waiting for it to arrive.  

It was an interesting weekend even if it was waaaaayyyy to early in the morning (first in ring at 8 am) for them to expect me to be presentable in nice, clean clothes and makeup.  Thank dawg Stella didn't need any fancy grooming!  I had to laugh when I opened her crate door saturday morning and she just looked at me like I was nuts for being up at 6 am and jumped into bed with hubby to cuddle back to sleep.   Once she figured I was serious she was game and away we went.  We wandered a lot of the trade show booths over the weekend and Stella made lots of fans who wanted to meet her and ask about her breed.  I was proud to have such a friendly, easy-going dog that was comfortable in all the chaos.

Defining Success

This past weekend was a road trip with Stella and a friend with her dog to attend a CARO rally obedience trial in Kelowna.  We had successfully completed three rounds of novice at a trial a month ago but need to trial under a second judge to get our novice title.  I decided to enter Stella in two novice rounds and two advanced rounds.  

Saturday morning was our first novice round and Stella did very well scoring a 190/200 and successfully completing her novice title.   This was a new ring for her and a dirt floor so she was interested in the smells but otherwise was good and I was pleased.   When we had received our trial confirmation information I was informed that the facility is not heated.   Luckily CARO permits dogs to wear coats but I was still worried that she wasn't going to complete any "down" stations but she did them!

Saturday afternoon was the first advanced round.  I had minimal expectations of passing this but figured since we were there to try the rounds for the training experience.  Advanced is off leash which we have not done in competition and it has harder stations such as sending over a jump from a distance, stand for exam, moving down, recall front while running away etc.  A failed station in CARO will NQ the entire round.  I have just begun training the jump but we have not worked up to any distance.  The handler sends the dog from 10 feet in front and must stay six feet to the side of the jump.  The facility was very cold and we had quite a long wait prior to the second class so I took Stella out for a lot of running around and playing tug before our round to make sure she was physically warmed up and comfortable in the cold.  When we went into the ring I was blown away by the wonderful attention and attitude Stella had.  We NQ'd on the jump as expected but otherwise would have had a 195/200.  

Our last few trials Stella has done well and qualified with good scores but she has also been distracted by the surroundings and the smells.  I knew she was capable of a much better performance and felt we weren't connecting as well as I hoped in the ring.  I was super excited to have her connect with me on this round especially as she was off leash.

Sunday morning was even colder!  I did the same warm up routine for her and we went into our second novice round of the weekend.  Stella was fabulous and had the same wonderful attitude from the previous round.  I was an idiot handler and side stepped on the pivot so NQ'd us but otherwise we were headed to an almost perfect score.  Live and learn but honestly I was still so happy I almost bounced out of the ring.  At this point it had become fairly obvious to me that the warm-up routine of playing lots of silly tugging and running around was working for us :). 

Our final round was another advanced round and the first half went very well.  Unfortunately half way through our round we had a major visual distraction that Stella was pretty sure everyone in the building needed to be told about.  I did get her back but when we headed back towards that same line I opted to excuse us and end on a mostly good note.  The total at the end of the weekend was one qualifying round for four total attempts. A lot of people would count that as a failure but I left the weekend absolutely THRILLED with my dog.  Success for me was that connection in the ring that I wanted and feel that now I can just build on that.  This dog sport stuff is supposed to be fun and I had a wonderful time with my dog and she really enjoyed working with me. 

CARO Rally Trial

Last weekend Stella and I participated in our first Canadian Association of Rally Obedience (CARO)  trial.   CARO is an option to CKC and trials are open to all dogs.  The judging requirements tend to be much stricter and there are time limits.  If a dog NQ on an individual station it will automatically NQ for the entire round.  Food is allowed but under strict guidelines (no luring!) and can only be used at the end of a stationery position.   There are some minor differences in the stations although not much at the novice level.  I find the advanced and beyond levels of CARO very interesting and think they would be a very good challenge compared to the advanced and excellent CKC rally.  A qualifying score in CARO is 170 out of a possible 200.  Unfortunately CARO trials are not very easy to find in our area but there are one or two per year that are within travel distance.

This was my very first time competing in CARO.  We entered in three novice trials and we did very well with three qualifying rounds.  The trials were all under the same judge so we weren't able to qualify for our novice title.  Trial one was a score of 197.   My pace should have been a touch faster to help prevent any sniffing opportunities but Stella did great!

Trial 2 was a score of 187.   We lost ten points on the sit, down, sit station because Stella did a "vizsla - don't want my belly to touch the ground" down.  I did notice that she hadn't gone all the way but from my angle it looked closer.   I should have done a re-do of the station.  When I viewed the video it was quite obvious and obviously the judge agreed :).   I probably should have asked for a down on the hip versus a sphinx drop down as that would have been more reliable.

Trial 3 was a score of 183.  In hindsight I should have only entered for two trials.   I was a little surprised when the judging schedule was released and the three novice rounds went one right after another.  I had expected more time for breaks in the schedule for the other levels to compete.  Stella is still very young (15 months) so by the third trial she was quite distracted.  This round had two stations with a down position which she wasn't thrilled with so we had two re-dos and one double command.   There was also a baby making some noises close to the ring gates which she found very distracting.

Overall I was very happy with our performance.  She had some beautiful positions in her fronts, sits at heel, left turns and pivots.  There was also some nice moments in heel work but that is a work in progress.  The trial showed me some areas I need to work.   I need to work on duration both in heel and holding positions before rewards.  I could see when watching the video moments when she seemed to expect rewards and then started to lose focus when she didn't get it.   I need to transition from working individual positions with rapid reinforcement to more incorporating those positions with other things and lengthening the reward schedule.  That should also improve with time and maturity.

The trial was in Nanaimo so we attended with our friend and her dog and went over the night before.  This was Stella's first experience in a hotel room complete with her first elevator ride.  She did hear something at 4 a.m. which needed her muffled barking from her cozy position underneath the covers on my bed but otherwise she handled things like a seasoned pro. 

Stella's aunt Shandy also completed a leg of her excellent title at this trial.  One of her cousins also had a very nice effort in Novice. Way to go to the relatives!   It it so nice to attend trials with friends and get/give friendly support.

Life With Riley & Stella has a page on facebook for anyone who is interested.  Please follow the link to like us Facebook - LifeWithRileyStella.

Here's my crazy puppy a year ago playing with her toy.

Gotcha Day & New Title

Today is the one year anniversay of our wonderful little girl coming home with me.  I love this dog and she has brought lots of fun and new experiences to our family.

We "celebrated" by competing at a show in Victoria.  Stella successfully passed her remaining two legs of her pre-novice obedience title so now can add P.C.D. to her name.   Next up will be training towards the Rally Advanced (RA) and Novice Obedience (CD) titles .  She did a pretty good job today although her heel work wasn't nearly what she is capable.  My fault for not working it very much lately plus I also entered her in our first confirmation class at this same show so have been cramming in last-minute training for that this week.  It has confused her to go from a heel with attention and automatic sit (obedience) to focus forward and stand/stack when stopped (confirmation).  I'm sure we could easily sort that out with some more time but it made things interesting today.  Luckily she is pretty easy going and adaptable.

The confirmation actually went pretty well and I didn't fall flat on my face or embarass my lovely dog :o).   We competed with some local Vizsla friends so things were very relaxed and friendly.  We didn't come away with any points but it was an interesting experience.  I am still evaluating if this is something I am interested in pursuing further.  I have no plans to breed and showing gets pretty expensive especially when there is any travel.  A lot will depend on how things progress with Riley over the next month or so when we meet with the surgeon to see if we will do hip surgery.  If that happens then the show and training budgets are going to be pretty tight for a while.

Here are a few pics from her first day home with us and then today at the confirmation show.

Already showing signs of her love of shoes

Sneaky cuddler

Smile

CKC Rally Novice Title

Today Stella completed her third and final leg of her CKC rally novice title.  It was her second trial and also my very first outdoor trial.  The conditions were terrible!  We arrived and within minutes the pouring rain started and it didn't stop.  We had thunder, the ring had puddles and I was soaked.  There was also a nearby blueberry farm shooting off a bird cannon consistantly through the day.  I was very grateful that those noises don't bother her.

We were registered for two rally novice classes and the first didn't go so well.  We were scheduled to be third in the ring but the first dog cancelled last minute and the next had a ring conflict so we basically got thrown right into the ring without a proper warmup.  My happy bouncing bean girl was not amused with the wet conditions and didn't want to do any downs so we NQ'd on that round.  I can't say I disagreed with her thoughts and I probably wasn't the best handler for her either on that round.

Our second round went much better.  The rain had dropped from a downpour to more of a light rain and we had warmed up properly.  She did awesome and we scored a 93 which was high in class.  Very proud of my girl!  She was distracted with all the activity and smells of the outdoors but still worked well for me. 

We also completed our first leg of pre-novice obedience.  This class is marked as a pass or fail and is an introductory class leading up to novice obedience.  It is a great way to get some ring experience for both of us and she was very good.   During the heelwork she was a bit distracted by some birds flying by but settled down more as the class progressed and we finished up very strong and passed.  I was especially pleased with how well she is starting to work for some happy praise and hand claps.

Outdoor trials are not very common on the west coast as most people prefer to trial indoors.  This was a good (although very wet) experience for both of us and I would do an outdoor trial again but hopefully be a little better prepared for bad weather.  We had had some lovely sun this week and the forecast I saw was for possible showers.  I really should know better being a good west coast camping girl but lessons learned.  We met another pretty Vizsla girl there today and the rain actually seemed to bond the participants in shared misery so there was some fun and laughter. 

We head out today for two weeks of fun and recreation camping in Oregon.  I'm looking forward to minimal communications with the outside world and lots of relaxation.  I leave you with a pics of a previous Oregon trip with a year old Riley. 

A trial and bad news

Last weekend the dogs and I headed over to Victoria for a dog trial.  This was Stella's very first trial.  I had originally planned to just take her along to introduce her to the environment and see how comfortable she was with the crating, noises and other dogs.  Last minute as I was submitting the entries I decided what the heck I would enter Stella in one round of rally novice each day.  Once I entered her there was a few mild moments of panic when I checked the exercises and realized I had a few things I had to teach quickly.

Riley has been injured the past month or so and had aggravated that injury the weekend before so he also had basically no training or work in the time leading up to the trial.  Needless to say I didn't hold high hopes for our success. We headed over on friday night in time for the "correction" matches and to set up all of our gear.  During the practice with Riley he slipped on the floor and again seemed quite sore.  I was all set to scratch him for the weekend but after a nights rest he seemed more comfortable.  He wasn't quite his normal self and his sits were slow but we did manage to finish off his pre-novice title and his final two rounds of Rally Excellent title so I was very proud of my handsome dog.  We moved up for a round of novice obedience which didn't go so well but considering he wasn't feeling great and there was a lot of distractions I wasn't that disappointed.  That same weekend there was a confirmation show and a horse show on the same grounds as our trial.  The trial was indoors but it was hot so all the doors were open and we shared some areas with the outdoor confirmation show.

Stella was wonderful in her two classes.  Her first round was a 96 and won her first place in the class.  She would have had a 99 but I screwed up and mishandled a turn.  I even managed to screw it up again on the redo!  Riley reads my body language better so I didn't provide the extra information she needed for the about turn.    Her second class also went very well and we scored a 95 and second place.  I was very proud of my happy, bouncy bean because even though she was a little distracted she was happy, comfortable and worked well in the ring with me.  I am even starting to see a few moments of lovely attention heeling with her which I have only just begun to start working.  She also seems quite at ease in all the chaos and other dogs which makes me very happy!

Here is the video of our first rally round.


It was a nice weekend away and on our return home we were all exhausted.  This week I took Riley in for his xrays and received the horrible news that his left hip is quite dysplasic.  I am still trying to digest that information and process all that means for the future.  I'm generally a pretty accepting person but when my furries are hurt I get all knotted up. I've had quite a few crying moments while this has been happening but will post later this week with more information.  Please keep my wonderful big dog in your thoughts.

Show Observations

When I competed with Riley a few weeks ago it was a very long day for us.   My morning trials were early up in the rotations and the afternoon trials were last up in rotations so there was about 3-4 hours in the middle to just hang around.  We did have a nice walk and then I put him in the car to relax as he will settle there much better than in his crate. 

That left me with lots of time to watch and hopefully learn.  I am still quite new to this dog competition thing and especially to formal obedience competition.   I observed a variety of obedience levels from novice through utility plus a few rally obedience rounds.  The actual exercises were interesting to watch but what really caught my attention was watching how handlers interacted with their dogs.

I was dismayed to see how much of a disconnect so many people had.  I am not nieve enough to think that everyone trains purely positive and really can't point fingers considering I used some not great techniques in my not so distant past.  This blog post isn't about the training techniques or whether or not I agree with them.  Dog trials are pretty stressful environments and I think it is important to not leave my dog coping without my support.    I hear so much talk about ring stress or being nervous but those same people complete one exercise and then move to the next without giving any thought to the dog.  I know that reward options are limited in the ring but we can still praise or "play" calmly with our dogs as we move to the next exercise.   It seems to me that most people just go into robot mode and that leaves their dogs hanging with no feedback.   How on earth are our dogs supposed to enjoy competing with us when we do things like that to them?  

Watching as teams left the ring was also eye opening.  Lots of  people walked directly to a crate and put the dog away.  Sometimes they gave a cookie but rarely did you see many people seem to take much joy in competing with their partner.   If a round hadn't gone well you could see some people reacting to their frustrations with bad body language or perhaps jerking on their leash if their dog was pulling towards friends or its crate.  Sure we all have bad days but again I think what are they teaching the dog?  The dog isn't going to associate the poor ring performance with it's owner's bad temper or a jerk five minutes later.  I think that type of reaction just teaches our dogs that going to dog trials really isn't a very fun thing to do because it just stresses their owners out and makes them unpredictable.

I'm not saying we need to be micro-managing every moment of the day.  Crates are wonderful things and are a good way for both handler and dog to chill out.  Riley hasn't spent much time in a crate since his puppy years so I chose to put Riley in my car when I had a long time period available because he is very comfortable and relaxed there but doesn't relax quite that way in his crate.  When he was out with me I tried to be aware of him.  I watched lots of others totally ignoring their dog unless it was to correct it for sniffing or other "wrong" behaviours.   I am lucky that Riley is a fairly confident dog but this isn't his regular environment and he wasn't super relaxed.  If I am watching something or talking to someone he often leans his head against me if he is mildly stressed.  I just gently stroke his ears while watching or talking and that seems to be what he needs.   I hope I don't sound like a know-it-all but we need to remember to reward the quiet, good behaviours offered!

I should also note that there were also wonderful teams to watch.  Those teams showed great joy in being together.  They didn't always have perfect rounds but you can tell that they were enjoying the process.  That is what I hope to achieve!  Dog sports should be fun or else why the heck would we want to do them?  Yes, they can be humbling, disappointing and even embarassing sometimes but we are making the choice to do them for both us and our partner dog.  In my opinion we owe it to them to support them through the good parts and the bad.



 

Pass, Pass, Pass, Fail

Riley and I competed at a trial last sunday.  We were registered for two rounds of CKC Rally Excellent and two rounds of Pre-Novice obedience.  He did awesome in both his pre-novice rounds and we passed (they are no score just pass or fail).  This felt great because when I tried last year he broke his sit stay which was only 30 seconds but he really wasn't comfortable in the line with other dogs.  I had taken the stay for granted because he normally had a great stay in our outdoor classes but that didn't generalize well to the indoor trial environment.  This time he was very solid and seemed like he should be fine with the increased novice times when we trial that in the next few months.  He also did very well with the required honor stays in our Rally rounds.

Our morning Rally Excellent round wasn't our best round.  One of the stations is an offset figure eight and there was a ball on one side and food on the other.  Riley tweeked on that ball being there the moment we walked in the ring.  He didn't touch it but his focus was not great.  We managed to get through the round and we were one of only two rounds to qualify. 

The afternoon RE round was basically a disaster.  It had been a very long day and the afternoon course also had an offset figure eight but this time there was a big, squeeky stuffy toy on one side and basically poor Riley's head exploded and he could not focus.  The dog LOVES a stuffy toy!  He couldn't care less about the food temptation but toys are a whole other story.  He didn't take the toy but oooooohhhhh was he tempted!  He watched that toy the entire round and made sure in every station that he was positioned so he could keep it in sight.  BRAT!  Anyway, it is really my fault because I obviously have not trained that enough.  When I work at home with him he will ignore stuff and work but something new just sitting out there is way to big a distraction.   The plan will now be to get some new toys and train this in lots of different environments until we can work through it.

When all this happened I basically just laughed at him and moved on when we left the ring.  I could have been mad or frustrated but I wasn't.  He can do every one of those stations beautifully so this obviously wasn't the outcome I had hoped for.  It wasn't great but it did give me great feedback on what we need to work on just like how those broken stays on the last trial gave me good information. 

Stella was registered to do her Canine Good Neighbour test at that same trial but she is in her first heat so we elected to defer that for now.  We might try for that in may if the scheduling works out.