Multi-sport weekly recap.

Saturday:
Nosework class. We worked outside, along a wall. Did great. Our homework is to go to new interior locations.

Monday:
Went to OSH to practice Nosework. Each hide was in a different aisle, and he didn't get a chance to check out the aisle before we started. Really happy with how focused he was. When we practice in other places, he sometimes stops working and starts just sniffing around and checking things out if he's confused or can't get a whiff of the odor. This time that only occured once.

There was a weird lady who saw him sniffing the merchandise and putting his front feet on a low shelf and started saying, "You can't do that. That's not allowed." I thought that she was upset that he would get the merchandise dirty, which was a fair concern, although this IS a hardware store where no one would expect the items to be germ-free. But then she continued on to say, "This isn't a place for animals." I smiled and I replied, "Dogs are allowed!" She shook her head and said, "That's not right. You shouldn't do that. He shouldn't be here." I decided to ignore her and moved on with my dog as she kept mumbling at us. Later we walked by her, Dragon being perfectly behaved (didn't even try to approach her to sniff), and she again started up, "This isn't a place for animals. You shouldn't do that. You should have him a short leash in here." (He was on a six foot leash, which I was shortening when we passed by people.) "I know you're ignoring me..." We just kept walking. I guess she's afraid of dogs or something. All of the employees we passed smiled at Dragon and said hello and one of them crouched down and pet him.

I finished work early and was able to attend the weekly private agility practice session at Metro Dog. This was my first time being able to join them, since usually I'm working until after they're done. The other students are all much more advanced than me. One of them suggested a few basic exercises for me to work on. We did lateral distance at a lead out of two jumps. Then we did a lead out that either sent him straight ahead or included a front cross. I kept cuing the front cross late. The other student also gave me one of her old tug toys, which Dragon had pulled out of her bag and enjoyed playing with.

Wednesday:
Practiced our contacts at home. Dragon was really reved up and did GREAT on the teeter. The high end was about 6 inches off the ground and he was running across quickly and slamming it down. PERFECT! I used tugging, wrestling, running back and forth, and cuing other fun tricks like his hand target and spinning in order to keep his arousal up.

Then I moved the teeter board onto a set of three stairs leading to the street and practiced running contacts. At first I threw his food toy, but after two throws my tug toy fell out of my pocket and Dragon stopped and stared at it. I invited him to tug and we had a great session using just tugging as his reward for running. This felt wonderful. I tried tugging with him like we used to when he was younger, and before his eye injury. I kneel on the ground and pull him up onto my legs/stomach/chest with the tug, so he uses my body to brace himself backwards. After a few tries, I was able to let him win the tug and then jump back up onto my stomach to bring it back to my hands for more tugging. I like doing this because it gives him an easy way to leverage his weight against the toy, and makes it an intimate game.

After my evening rally class I took him through the course, using wrestling with my hands as the only reward. He was still really high and my hands ended up pock-marked and red. That means it was a good session!

Finally, before bedtime, we did yet another training session for Nosework. I'm glad that Miki told me that I need to stay back and give him more room to work. I'm seeing his search patterns and body language more clearly than before. When he starts the search he tends to run a couple of fast circles around the perimeter of the room, hoping to catch a quick whiff of the odor. If he doesn't, his circles start to slow down and be more careful. He'll go farther into corners and underneath furniture. Then he starts checking higher surfaces, such as chairs, the couch, and the bed, as well as places he's learned from experience that the odor tends to pool in.

As I was getting ready for bed he played with Jasper. Somehow he was still energized!

Thursday:
Did a nosework session with my car. He was a bit distracted and wanted to wander off. There was a high wind so it was a harder session.

In agility class my goal was to tug more, since he'd been so into it all week. Sure enough, he was more exuberant about tugging in class than he'd been before. I was able to use the tug as the sole reward on a couple of easier exercised, and a couple of times when I tossed his food toy as a reward, he wanted to keep tugging on it longer than usual. So happy!

We did a great teeter exercise. A helper stood by the higher end of a lowered teeter with high-value treats. The owner had the dog on leash and allowed him to approach and step on the teeter (however he was comfortable doing so) and eat a bunch of treats from the helper. After a few treats the owner used the leash to pull the dog away before he was done eating. Immediately the dog was allowed to return to the teeter for more treats. Repeat. The teeter was about a foot in the air. The first three times Dragon put his front feet on a bit hesitantly, but by the end he was sailing onto it to get to the treats faster.

The instructor started the class on the weave poles. She's using channel weaves with an x-pen around them. I'm doing to teach Dragon 2x2 weaves, so we skipped this exercise. I'll start with those after his contacts are solid, so I can focus on one category of exercises at a time. I've been neglecting our jump and sequences training while working on the contacts. I just don't have time to do it all.

Dumbbell game

Dragon used to have a problem with picking up the dumbbell crooked in his mouth. We've been playing with burying his dumbbell in a blanket to teach him to drive down and really think about how he's picking it up. We've finally made progress!

Another barometer

Dragon and Jasper just played for the first time since immediately after his eye injury in mid-October! I am over the moon! I've said it before but now it feels more true than ever: I have my puppy back!

Agility Foundations, week 2-2 recap

We had a new instructor today, Wendy. We spent the hour doing jumping and contacts review and then a short jumps-and-tunnel sequence so that she could assess where each team was with their handling and training. Her emphasis was on getting the dogs more reved up before their work, and on going back to reward stays frequently. The reminder about reving up was good for me. I tend to get too focused on the "how" and "why" of an exercise and forget to add that extra enthusiasm for Dragon. His performance is of course much better when I am able to get him more excited!

At home, we've done a couple of sessions of plank work on stairs, and it is building his confidence nicely. Here, too, it greatly helps if I jump around, run him in a circle, wrestle with him, and send him straight to the board instead of doing a lead out. In the meantime I think that I will not put him on the dog walk at all in class, not even to backchain it.

Agility and nosework class summaries

Thursday's agility class was nothing new. We need to work on lateral distance more. Otherwise it's continuing on the same skills as the last two weeks.

On Saturday we started an Intro to Odor (nosework) class. This was our first nosework class in almost a year! We've been practicing at home, and with Miki's guidance I've already started him on birch and exteriors and vehicles. However during the past six months I've barely practiced nosework with him in favor of agility and obedience. I was happy to find the appropriate level class for us starting again at a time I could make it.

There is only one spot where we can put crates where the active dog won't see them, and the other two dogs in class are reactive. They were crated in the car and I brought in Dragon's soft crate so that he could get more experience chilling in it. I let him chew on a bully stick for most of class and toward the end I switched to giving him treats for just lying inside.

He did very well in class -- I was quite proud of him! He had never been to that building before, and he was excited to see Miki, but as soon as I gave the cue "searching!" he was off like a rocket, nose to the ground. We did two sets of four hides. I got critiqued on my body language. I usually follow him around the whole time, thinking that that way, he won't know if he's close or not (because I'm not moving in when he is getting close), and I can watch his body language. Miki pointed out that my constant movement may be causing him to be also moving so much that he has trouble slowing down enough to pinpoint the location of the odor. Also I can actually see his body language better if I'm farther away. Yesterday we practiced in the lobby after work and I made sure to stay out of his way. I was definitely able to see more easily how he was reading the wind currents.

On Sunday we hiked five miles with my sister, whom he adores, and a dog she borrowed for the hike. We completed the hike in just under three hours. We had never been to Sunol before, and it was his first time seeing cows. He started to approach with great caution, until one of the cows mooed at him and stood up and we quickly called the dogs farther away. He also allowed four riders on horseback to pass us while beautifully playing the Look at That game. Proud moment!

Monday morning was my second private agility lesson with Susanne Cohen to work on our contacts. There is a noticeable improvement in his comfort level running down the boards, and now we need to work on driving up. My teeter board is the longest one I have (6'8"). Since it's not on its base right now (just pivoting on the metal pipe attached to the bottom), my homework is to put it on the front steps and work on running up and down. As he gets more comfortable I'll put the top edge higher up on the stairs. It will teach him to really drive up the a-frame and dog walk and teeter, as well as help his running contacts. We also practiced the lowered teeter, and with that I'm continuing as before. Slooowly make it more tippy, keeping the exercise high-drive and fun above all else.

Contacts - private agility lesson with Susanne #1

On Monday morning I had a 30 minute private agility lesson with Susanne Cohen, our current class instructor. (Unfortunately the class is changing instructors a second time due to scheduling issues. A shame, because I really liked learning from Susanne!) My goal was to make progress on our contacts, since I didn't have much confidence in teaching them on my own.

We started off with the teeter. Dragon will have running contacts on the dog walk and a-frame, but on the teeter I am using a target at the end, feeding on the target, and giving him a release. The advantage is that it gives him a clear spot to drive into right at the end of the teeter. I am focusing all my training efforts on teaching him to drive to the end rather than slowing down or stopping midway across the board, and many under-confident dogs do.

In my practice at home, we went through a short period of him slowing down as the mini-teeter tipped. However I have licked that problem by putting the board back directly on the ground, pivoting only on the 1.5" pipe attached to the middle, and putting towels underneath the ends of the board to break down the motion into even smaller increments. This morning I took it outside and practiced changing my position (as Susanne says, "ahead, behind, and to the side") as Dragon drove forward to the target. There was a brick lifting the near end of the teeter where he jumped on but the far end was pivoting down a couple of inches as he ran across, and he did great.

The wonderful tip that Susanne gave me during our lesson was to break down the teeter behavior even further between having him bang it to make noise (have already done LOTS with that), having him run across and feel the tip (slooowly integrating this more now), and separately teaching him to run UP a stationary teeter and drive all the way to the end. She shoved a jump pole between the ground and the top edge of the teeter and held in it place as he ran up to his target. He had no problem with this -- he would even stop with his foot fur slightly hanging over the edge. We will practice this more and then start securing the up end slightly lower, so that it moves down a teensy bit as he runs to the end. This is much, much harder for Dragon. He doesn't know how far it will drop down, unlike the lowered teeter that will definitely stop when it hits the ground. Eventually the two methods will meet in the middle.

For the dog walk, we are simply backchaining the boards. I placed him on the down ramp, told him "go!" and then rewarded him with a toy thrown forward. I have to remember to release him when he's looking straight ahead. I click for his paws hitting the lower end of the contact zone. I don't think we'll have any problem with this obstacle at all.

The final contact obstacle is the a-frame. Susanne said that we are not ready to train the a-frame yet. Sure, in class she had people practice their 2o2o at the base, and I had been putting Dragon on it and having him run down. However she was not planning on teaching the actual obstacle any time soon, and we don't expect the new instructor to do so, either.

We have a couple of options for it. We could backchain it, same as the dog walk. We could use a guide wire or box to keep him from jumping off. She said that some people like to use a big, obvious guide and some people taper it down over time so that the dog doesn't see it until they're right at it. The third method was to use a PVC box as a target. I forgot who she said it was that developed that technique. You build a rectangle with the same dimensions as the contact zone and teach the dog to stand in it with all four feet, facing straight forward. Then you teach them to run into and out of the box with all four feet. Then you add jumps in front as stride regulators. Finally you put the box onto the contact zone of the a-frame and reward the dog for hitting his feet in the box. Susanne said that this method is very thorough and she's seen good results from it. I am a little bit reluctant to commit to all those props. I honestly can't see Dragon being a dog who would jump off the a-frame and miss the contact zone. He is too careful when going down stuff. However maybe that is naive -- after all, I am working hard to increase his speed and drive. As of right now I'm not sure which method I will use.

I bought a package with two more lessons, spread one week apart. My bank account is not happy, but damn, this sport is addictive and I want to be competitive.

Genetics of coat colors

I've been reading about the genetics of coat coloration in dogs recently. Not all of it is known, and there are some different interpretations out there. However I went by what was written on this papillon site and looked at Dragon's phenotype (the physical characteristics we can observe and measure) to have a guess at his genotype (the underlying genes which determine his coat colors).

(Least flattering photo ever. It looks like his eyes are pointing in different directions.)

Ahem. Locus S, determining the amount of white (non-pigmented) hair on the body: PIEBALD: The s^p or piebald allele is responsible for producing a coat which is about 50% white and 50% color. Papillons are affected by the s^p allele for piebald. Normally, the white areas are found on the chest, neck, legs, belly, around the loin area, and the tip of the tail. However, due to modifier genes, there is a lot of variation in the amount of white that an individual Papillon can have.

Locus A, determining the placement of eumalin (black pigment) in hair and restricting it to allow pheomelanin (red pigment) to show. Dragon is a tricolor. TRICOLOR: The fourth allele, a^t, is responsible for the tricolor. A tricolor has solid black body spots and gold markings which are more commonly referred to as "tan" points. The tan points are located over the eyes, a little on each cheek, some in the ears, and under the tail. The tan points range from shades of pale cream to deep red... A different variation of the hound tricolor is where the face retains the classic tricolor’s tan points, but gold or tan hairs are produced at the back of the head.

If tri-colored dogs have pigment underneath their tail, it will be brown and not black.

Dragon is mostly white underneath his tail, but there is a handful of brown hairs.

Locus S, which can dilute the pheomelanin (red) to a light cream or lemon shade. Dragon does not express the diluting genes. FULL PHEOMELANIN:  The [C-] genotype is the most common allele combination at the C locus. It allows for full pheomelanin (gold) pigment in the phenotype. Most Papillons are [CC] (a.k.a. [C-]) and therefore show regular gold coloring in their coat.

Locus E, which can create a mask, an all-red/yellow dog with no eumelanin (black), or have no effect. (The site listed above also says that this gene can create brindle, but other sites I've read (example here) say that that has been disproven since it was originally hypothesized.) EXTENTION: The E allele does occur in Papillons and is relatively simple to explain. If a Papillon is [E-], it will be whatever color the other genes express. The allele E does not produce any color of its own; it just allows the coat colors from the other series to show. It seems that regular E is recessive to E^m (which creates a mask), and masks are very common in papillons, but Dragon does not have one.

Locus G: The G locus is responsible for graying or frosting in Papillons. A dog who is [gg] at the G locus shows normal coloring throughout its life. It may grow some gray hairs when it is old, but this has nothing to do with the G series. In dogs who are [GG] or [Gg] some of the dark hairs are replaced by non-colored, or white, hairs. These new interspersed white hairs cause the coat to appear faded. This lightening may start immediately after birth or after several months, and it may stop after the dog has grown its adult coat or it may continue throughout the dog’s life. There is also great variability in how much graying will occur. So far it looks like Dragon does not have the graying gene.

Locus K: A dog who has at least one K allele will be black in color regardless of what other alleles the dog has on other loci. Clearly Dragon is kk: A who is homozygous recessive [kk] will not be black. His color will be affected by all the other alleles.

Locus T, for ticking. It is hard to photograph, but Dragon has black ticking all over the white portions of his back, brown ticking down his legs, and even a couple of brown spots on his muzzle. The T locus is responsible for ticking or freckling. The dominant allele, T, is responsible for producing spots of color on a white background. The amount of ticking varies greatly. On Papillons it usually occurs on the legs or muzzle. However, there have been Papillons who have exhibited ticking over all the white regions of their coat. Interestingly, ticking is not visible at birth. It usually demonstrates itself when the puppy several weeks of age.

I am continuing my education about the genetics of coat colors and am excited to compare what I've learned with the dogs that I see every day at work. Some are very easy to figure out (like Labrador Retrievers) while others still mystify me.