Tricks showcase for November 2011

I made another big montage of nearly all the tricks we've been working on! It's always a fun project for me, because I think about how far Dragon has come. When I made the last tricks showcase in April, he was still learning heel position by pivoting around on a bowl. Now he's doing full heeling in a semi-distracting environment, and I'm working on fixing up some of my footwork. In April I had just gotten him to retrieve a teeny little leash tab, and now he'll retrieve his harness, toys, dumbbell, metal canning rings, leather rings, pens, plastic bottles... (I love teaching retrieving!) This month also shows him at his best on the wobble board -- on a pivot eight inches off the ground, with my foot kicking the board up and down.



My favorite moments:
The pivoting right at the beginning
Stacking bowls at 1:21 (that's such a cool trick)
Trying to find the platform with his back feet at 3:44
I walk away from the wobble board and he's still tipping it at 5:00

So proud of my puppy!

pet insurance update

Just got e-mails from Trupanion about the first four claims I've submitted to them, to get reimbursed for diagnostics and medications. (They don't reimburse for exam fees.) They are sending me $402.30. Since February I have paid them about $330, so buying pet insurance has saved me money. Of course, in a few months that won't be the case any longer. However if Dragon had needed surgery, or expensive medication (like the Cosopt) for the rest of his life, they would cover that also. The peace of mind is worth it for me.

expensive medication

I picked up another bottle of Cosopt, the glaucoma medication Dragon is on to keep the pressure in his left eye low. It was $45 for a teeny little bottle! I'm still waiting for Trupanion to process all of my claims going back to the date of his injury. There was a hold-up with obtaining records from the first vet he went to as a puppy, since those records are under a different dog and owner name.

agility dog needs agility lead

The collar part is a 1 inch nylon strap with a ribbon sewn on top. The part that tightens is a small braid of yellow and red fleece. The leash part is a four-strand braid of light yellow, bright yellow, red, and black/orange spotty fleece. I can't figure out how to braid fleece without it twisting up so much. Other than that, I'm quite happy with it.







Love how this picture came out. It's the first time that I was able to hand him an object and have him take it and hold it and just stay there long enough for me to take a picture!!

Focus and Motivation agility class, week 3

We worked on restrained recalls, restrained recall through a tunnel, circle work, nose targets, and sending the dog forward to a toy.

Dragon won't play with toys right now. I had to go through the whole explanation of, "No, he does have toy drive, and I know how to build toy drive, he just won't play right now because of his eye injury" with both the instructor and the assistant. But I was really happy with the instructor's response of, "Well the border collie people all think that your dog has to tug, but my previous dog never tugged a day in her life. I just used toys with food inside to get her to drive ahead toward something." So I'm turning one of Dragon's old torn-up plush toys into a food pouch that I can toss ahead. That should be good for building drive to run ahead because the prednisone makes him SUPER HUNGRY. Still, I want my playful, tuggy dog back!!

He was much better about staying on his mat during downtime, and a bit more focused as we walked around the yard between exercises. I don't allow him to do his own thing on the field. He's either doing an exercise, walking next to me with attention instead of sniffing at the end of the leash, or he's resting and free to look around while in my arms or on his mat. We also practiced a bit of obedience heeling and I brought his dumbbell and liver treats to practice after class.

During most of the time that the instructor is talking to the class, it's super basic stuff and I'm a little bored, but occassionally I'll notice a hole in our foundation. I need to work more on Dragon driving to his nose target independent of my movement, and especially while I keep running ahead. While we don't get many reps in front of the instructor (we only did two recalls and two runs through the tunnel), the biggest upside of doing a group class is that she sees us week after week, and so we're getting steady advice throughout the training process. When I was doing privates with Moe, it was nice to have her undivided attention, but I can end up training the wrong thing or leaving big holes when I'm left to train mostly on my own.

Scent discrimination with metal articles

Look what Dragon can do!



This is the foundation for a competition obedience exercise in which the dog has to retrieve one metal article among five identical ones. The correct one is the one with the owner's fresh scent on it. We are using metal canning rings. Dragon will bring back the correct one nearly 100% of the time. The "tasting" and picking up of the incorrect articles is quickly fading as he figures out the fastest way to identify the correct one.

This is my first time teaching this exercise and it's thrilling to see him do it so happily and reliably!

Focus and Motivation class, week 2

I've finally managed to find an introductory, competition-focused agility class that fits into my schedule! It is with Jump'n Java Agility and taught by Dorothy Fukushima. The location is an outdoor field covered with woodchips. Unfortunately this time of year it is cold and dark, despite the small stadium-style lights.

We missed the first week because I had a scheduling conflict, but that didn't matter because Dragon is already ahead of the game thanks to our start in private lessons. The point of this class is getting our dogs to be able to focus among distractions rather than about agility itself, though we did do circle work and decell cues. We also did restrained recalls and sit-stays.

Dragon wanted to just walk around and explore rather than really focusing on me during circle work. I think my rate of reinforcement was too low for that part. But he shone during the stays (I even had him do stand-stays) and the recall.

During our downtime I had him on my lap or lying on his mat. He tried to wander off to explore here and there when he was bored but he didn't try to leave the mat due to activity from the other dogs or people. Next week I will try bringing a bully stick for him to chew on. Under normal circumstances I don't think that he would be interested but the prednisone is making him super hungry so hopefully it will work.