One year ago today I took a huge leap of faith and dropped Riley off for his major surgery. I was scared to death that I wasn't making a good decision but equally terrified that if I didn't do it his quality of life would continue to deteriorate. Some readers might not know that Riley had a hemilaminectomy procedure to remove a cyst pressing on your spinal cord. Today Riley still has some lingering after effects of his condition (mild ataxia) and a bit of a wonky hip but for the most part he is healthy, happy and pain free. I am forever thankful that the surgery and recovery went well. Past blogs on the subject can be found here. It is also the USA thanksgiving and because I missed the Canadian version in blogging I also want to share some other things I am grateful for. - my wonderful husband for supporting me on my crazy dog adventures - my dogs for bringing much laughter, fun and challenges to my life - my cats for all the cuddles. They are the finishing touch to make a house a home. - my friends who are always there for me. - my mother, brothers, sister and various niece, nephews, aunts and uncles. - health for myself and all those (human and animal) I love and care about. There is so much tragedy and challenges all around us that sometimes it is important to count the good stuff.
Oh my dawg, where have the last two months gone! Life has been very busy as we have just downsized my mother to a smaller house from the huge house that I grew up in. Thankfully that it almost done now so life can get back to a more normal.
I have also been having great fun recently with dog training. Stella and I have been enjoying more on-line courses with the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy plus I got to attend the APDT conference which was five days full of all sorts of wonderful dog trainers (Ken Rameriz, Denise Fenzi, Nicole Wilde, Ian Dunbar etc.). It has been lots of stuff to learn that I now need to blog about :).
First up was the fact that we participated in August/September as a online working spot (video submissions) for Ob-ility with Denise Fenzi. This is from the course description:
"But...what IS Ob-ility? In the teaching phases, Ob-ility is simply a way of breaking the exercises down so that the movement parts of the exercises are separated from the other parts - this makes the work a lot more fun and "flowing" for the dog. "
Stella is not a "high-drive" dog. She might be different if we were working in agility or field stuff but overall she is not one of those dogs that just loves to work. She does however find movement and play reinforcing so this type of training helps me to put some fun for both of us into traditional obedience. It has a great side benefit of helping build duration to training periods without needing to use a lot of regular rewards.
The basics of ob-ility (fly, thru) build into the higher level obedience exercises. Fly is used to eliminate stay positions which keeps up energy and allows lots of repetition in short time frames. Recalls, go-outs, drop on recall, broad jump, directed jumping can all be modified to be done "ob-ility style".
I have seen good carry over so far with added in the finishing parts needed to compete in the ring. We are still a long way from competing in formal obedience but it feels good to get some of these foundations in such a fun way.
Here is video of Stella and I training for some of the ob-ility course lessons:
We are currently a working spot for "Bridging the Gap" at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy and so far that course has been amazing. I am officially now a fan of online dog training courses. A new session starts in December and there are many great instructors and courses I am considering for audit spots. I still love working with my real-life instructor but I am enjoying viewing all the different teaching styles and absorbing all this great information.
This is my 100th blog post and so I am taking a few moments to reflect on my dog training journey to date.
I did some basic puppy stuff with Lucy but it wasn't until Riley began to develop some issues as a two year old dog that I began to get interested in training. We had already done the basics but registered with a trainer to address the problems we were having. We "fixed" the issues in what I thought was a positive way but with my knowledge today I regret some of the choices. I am lucky that he is your typical hard-headed labrador with high tolerance and a very forgiving personality. I try not to dwell on past mistakes and I am thankful that this was the start of wanting to learn more about behaviour and training.
My first step was purchasing a few books to read. Lucky for me I picked two from authors that I still think are amazing. Patricia McConnell "Other End of The Leash" and Suzanne Clothier "Bones Would Rain from the Sky". I have now seen both those authors at seminars and they are just as wonderful as the books they have written. I also stumbled upon Susan Garrett and her very first online Recallers Course and she introduced me to a new approach to joyful training.
Lots more reading followed and I decided I wanted to do some more training with Riley. The dog gods led me to working with a local Karen Pryor Academy trainer who introduced me to rally obedience and encouraged me to try competing. I really enjoying the work with Riley and could feel how different our connection was with these methods. My trainer has now become a good friend and we often travel together to seminars and competitions. A strange twist on "small world" is when I discussed getting a vizsla puppy and the breeders I was considering it turned out she knew Stella's breeder and agreed to vouch for me.
My conversion really kicked in when my trainer dragged me to my first Clicker Expo. I was now fully hooked on learning about dogs and how to apply all this wonderful positive knowledge to both Riley and puppy Stella. I jokingly said to my trainer/friend the other day that I must be driving her crazy because I should be taking better advantage of all her knowledge on how to train our way to obedience titles but because of the world she helped me see I really want to explore things in my own way. With Riley I was happy to follow instructions on how to train the exercises but I want to inject more of my own "style" with Stella. I'm still figuring out that "style" so I'm not totally stupid and will take advantage of her knowledge and experience but will also have fun figuring things out. Thankfully I know she is there to help fix my mistakes!
I will not pursue more obedience stuff with Riley as it is to hard for his body but there are other roads we will travel. Stella is only two and we have a long way to go and will enjoy the journey getting there.
Here are a few pics from our most recent camping trip. All this training stuff is great but really just enjoying life with these wonderful dogs is what is important.
I have been participating in some online courses with Denise Fenzi's online Dog Sports Academywith Stella. I recently completed Heeling Games at an audit (silver) level. I am really enjoying these courses and feel that they are helping me to figure out my training path. I want to pursue positive training by building relationship and utilizing play and energy as that is my ideal perfect "picture" I hope to have someday in the ring.
I blogged in may about atrial that had not gone well. I posted "We need to start to build duration, reduce the reinforcement schedule and be a lot stronger about maintaining criteria. I also need to figure out how to do all that while keeping things fun and reinforcing for both of us".
Further reflection led me to believe I needed to adjust my expectations. The connection and relationship is where I need to put my energy. The precision fine tuning and reduced reinforcement schedule will need to come much later in this process. This is a reply from Denise Fenzi to a frustrated session I had with Stella. "Play. A tiny bit of work. Play. Work. etc. If she can stay engaged and playful in public, then she can work. And you will find that is just as hard to get five minutes of continuous play as it is to get five minutes of continuous work. That's because they are both forms of engagement, and engagement (which excludes the environment) is a big deal".
That was a HUGE lightbulb moment for me and all of a sudden I just let stuff go and got back to enjoying working my dog. Stella also finished her season which helped a lot and I have seen a wonderful, steady improvement in our working relationship over the past few months. She has just turned two and we have lots of time ahead to enjoy our journey.
Heeling games has been great for us. We have always enjoyed playing together but now we have learned to use that play and movement to create energy and reduce pressure. Various "games" help keep things fun and interesting. We are creating joy for working together as well as developing muscle memory for that happy healing position. The course describes heeling as"an intense, exciting dance between engaged partners requiring absolute concentration and energy to be performed well. When heeling is practiced as a series of specific behaviors – left turns, right turns, change of pace, etc, the dance is lost. This class will teach you how to practice heeling as a game – with the end result that your performance will be sharper, more interesting, and with much improved focus and endurance".
Here is a video I have done showing Stella and I working on some our our heeling games while camping last month. Sorry the lighting is a bit dark but it was stinking hot so I had to wait until after the sun went down to do any work.
There are lots of great online courses being offered at the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy on a wide range of dog sports. I am currently doing our first working spot in Ob-ility and also auditing the Ring Preparation course. I feel these courses are a great compliment to training with my wonderful "real-life" instructor.
