Syracuse Dog Shows
Just got back from the Syracuse Dog Shows -- it was a weekend that I think I learned a lot. There were other group members there that did very good -- a certain Dickens of a border terrier got his CD (Sue, we need the details!).

Marcia was there with her minis and I was really impressed by her dogs -- they are AWESOME and so cute. It was
so much fun seeing people!

As for me and Jessie, we had a big break-through, I believe. After our first weekend out competing in Utility where we got our 1st leg, our performances have been going down hill. Thursday and Friday were horrible. I was cheerleading my hardest and Jessie was just not happy in the ring, gave me heck (as the judge pointed out -- barking
at me as if really angry) a few times. I also had a cold, so was getting very tired.

I skipped Saturday and instead met a few friends that were also having a bad weekend at the shows. We set up our own show and trained like crazy. I went in and tried something my instructor kinda mentioned that we needed to work on. I simply corrected any non-movement by Jessie. If I asked him to jump up and touch my hand and he sat and stared at me, I took him gently by the scruff and forced him to do it. When he didn't move from the sit when I asked for a jump, I walked up to him and gentle took his collar and popped him up and forward towards the jump. It went on like that. And just like at a show, no food. His rewards were spins, hand touches, and jumping up on me (yet he wasn't allowed to refuse them like he'd been doing on Thurs and Fri -- I'd cuff him up into them if he refused).

Then I went back on Sunday. He had a great run. It wasn't perfect, and he went and got the wrong glove, but every other exercise was passing. What really thrilled me, though, was that every time I asked him to touch or jump up on me, he did. I feel like I now know what I've been doing wrong in my training (I'm sure something else will happen shortly, but at least I have something concrete to focus on).

Sorry about this long post, but I hope that it will give some of the other people working hard on their UDs some ideas.

Ttouch
Just wanted to share with you something I'm trying with my kerry, Jessie, lately that seems to be working. Jessie has always had slow drops (both signals and DOR). Close up he's better, but as I move farther away he seems agitated and slows his drop way down. He does it -- he has his CD and one UD leg, but it is nerve racking to watch and sometimes looses points. What I noticed was he was wagging his tail really hard as my hand went up to signal, then he'd tentatively bring his front down, then his rear, all the time the tail going a million miles an hour. I don't think he is happy -- I think the tail wag is like a nervous tick.

I've been reading the Tellington Touch book lately and using some of the methods in there to relax Jessie and my other dogs. Well, I got to the part about the rope -- it's just that, a rope you put around the dog, cross it over the back and around the butt (croup area). Nothing fancy. What it's supposed to do is make the dog aware of it's whole body and by doing so make the dog more confident and less aggressive. I thought, wow, that could help my drops!

So I got to practice, and just took my 6 foot lead and draped it around the dog as indicated. Heeled him, stood him, walked away pretty far and dropped him. Perfect drop! Cool thing is that now I can reward him for doing it right, something I could never do from any distance before. I find if I do a bunch of them, both the signal and the DOR, with the rope, after I take it off the effect lasts for the rest of the training session.

Anyone try anything like this? If so, did it work? I like it so much better then using head taps or butt taps or dropping a chain or anything like that. It seems to make him feel confident rather than even more nervous. Do you think I'm just fooling myself that this is working?

adventures in utility A
It was a long weekend for me and my dogs. We arrived Friday afternoon and got settled into our hotel. My friend, Leanne, had already arrived and shown that day, so when I got there we went out to dinner and met up with a couple other friends to go over who had one what on Thursday and Friday.

Saturday morning we got to the show grounds around 7:15 am. The temperatures were in the single digits so the dogs had a hard time walking (their feet would hurt). My shih tzu didn't poop once until Sunday because he didn't want to stand in the cold outside.

Bailey, the shih tzu showed first on Saturday. Unfortunately he found something very interesting to smell on the matt and on off-leash heeling he stayed to sniff while I completed the heeling pattern by myself. Needless to say, the Judge didn't qualify us in Novice B.

Jessie, my kerry blue, showed in Utility A in the afternoon. We had a wonderful run in the ring. His heeling was close to perfect. He had no problems with the scent articles, and his only mistake on the gloves was that he looked away as I signaled him to finish, so we lost a few points on that. Then he did a great moving stand, and it was on to his worst exercise, the dreaded directed jumping. When I gave him the signal to "go-out" (run across the ring), he decided he better wait for more information and stayed sitting next to me. I looked down at him, he looked at me, I told him to go again, and he did, but I could tell he was frazzled by his mistake. He ran out at an angle and ended up in front of the bar jump on my right. Of course the judge asked for the high jump on left. Jessie was panicking because he knew he'd already made a couple mistakes and chose to cut his losses and did the bar jump anyway, then ran to me and jumped up on me to ask if it was ok. I, of course, told him it was fine and he was wonderful. Then he did the 2nd go-out like a pro. So we NQ (not qualified), but it was a really great try.

Saturday night we wisely left the dogs in their crates to rest and went out to eat and drink wine and gossip about the local obedience people in a big group. Lots of fun and gave the dogs a chance to rest.

Sunday morning was slightly warmer so Bailey, the shih tzu, could at last poop. Obviously that was his problem because he went in the ring and showed like a little trooper, getting his 2nd CD leg with a 193.5.

Now it was Jessie's turn to try utility again. I was still nervous but felt the first day proved he could do it. We went in the ring with good spirits. I don't think I breathed once the entire time! His heeling was once again wonderful. His hand singles a little slow, but very nice. Then he started rubbing his head against my legs and I couldn't get him to look at where they were setting up the scent articles. Finally he looked and decided to trot over to say hello the ring steward. I tapped him on the butt and he came back before any damage was done. Then he did both sets of scent articles flawlessly. I was so proud, but getting nervous. Gloves -- got number 2 again! This time he sat and finished nicely. Moving stand -- perfect! And finally the dreaded directed jumping. I set him up, pointed to the end of the ring, and told him "Run". He raced out and did a perfect go-out. I gave him the command to jump the high jump, he flew over it (letting out two barks of joy). I set him up again, he did another wonderful go-out and flew over the bar on command. Then the judge came over and shook my hand and congratulated me. My obedience instructor was actually crying! It was his first utility leg!

But that wasn't the end of the story. I watched the rest of the dogs, and was sure a little papillion who put in a wonderful performance had won. And then they called me back to the ring and said there was a tie and I had to do a run-off. We went back and did our heeling pattern as the run off. The papillion was the other dog in the run off, which I was sure meant we were in first and second place. But the papillion was perfect in her heeling, so I went in at the end waiting for my 2nd place. When the judge called my number as the winner, I had to actually check my arm band to make sure I'd heard right. So we went home with a first place, and ironically a 193.5 just like my shih tzu had gotten earlier.

It was a great weekend! I'm so proud of both my boys!