Tanner earned his CD!

I am very proud to announce that Tanner is now Ch Aragon Silver Oak RN BN JC CD!

He earned his 3rd leg on his 4th attempt at the Mt Bachelor Kennel Club Show in Redmond, OR on June 27.

We scored 189.5 out of 200 and placed 3rd in our class.  We lost 5 points on the heel on leash, 4.5 points on the heel free and 1 on the recall (crooked sit).  I was so happy with how happy and peppy he was.  I can't really complain!  

I love the video because it shows me the areas where we need to do more work.  For example, there are a couple places in here where I don't give the right cues to Tanner (the halts where he doesn't sit, for example), I need to work on that!  Tanner, needs to work on driving around the about turns.  It also shows us what we did right. Tanner did a beautiful job getting himself back into the correct position after the no sit before the about turn on the heel free.


Afterwards, Tanner was treated to a hamburger from the drive through of a local fast food place. He thought it was pretty yummy!  Then we went back to the hotel to rest.  We still had two more days to show!

I was particularly proud of Tanner because he showed well all three days at the show. Originally, I was unsure whether it was wise to enter all three days.  Some dogs can't handle three days of showing.  Particularly one that requires traveling and staying in a hotel.  In the past, this has negatively affected Tanner's attitude.


I think part of what helped Tanner be successful was that we traveled to the show with our training partners, Ellen and her hounds. Tanner was comfortable hanging out with them.

On top of that, most of the people and dogs that we train with at proofing group each week were there. As far as Tanner could tell, his entire of village of people and dogs had picked up and moved.  I think it helped me to have the village there as well and am grateful for the help we received from all of them.  It was a fun weekend with friends and dogs.

Now, on to open and the CDX title!

Working with Distractions

It is important for my dogs to learn to respond to cues even when in the presence of distractions. I try to carefully and deliberately add distractions in a way that ensure my dog will be successful. I don't start adding distractions until I am certain that my dog is fluent in the behavior in a particular setting.  The distraction starts out as something small and easily controlled by me (for example, a piece of cheese off to the side).  Once my dog is able to handle this small distraction, I will gradually increase the amount of distraction.  When I do change the setting and ask for the behavior in a new environment, I start with no additional distractions.  Once the behavior is fluent in the new setting, I add distraction.

The caveat is the way I use food in this video.  Sometimes Tanner finds the environment more distracting than I had anticipated. In this case, I can put a piece of food on the ground and ask him to work around it. The food is a very close distraction that he is familiar with. He will focus on this distraction (as opposed to the environment) and work willingly around it as he does in this video. You can see that he knows the food is there and he wants to eat it but chooses not to. He is not ready to take this behavior with this amount of distraction to a new setting.  

The other advantage of using food as a distraction like this is that it mimics finding food on the ground when we are out and about.  When he sees a piece of food on the ground he gives me attention as a way of asking for the food rather than just lunging after it.  

Here is a video where I add some pieces of cheese on the ground and ask Tanner to work over them.

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Introducing Tanner RN!

This past weekend, Tanner finished his RN title in fine style.  The trial was held in a horse riding arena at a local fairground.  This was a new environment for Tanner and he handled it well.  Fortunately, we showed late in the day.  That gave him lots of time to acclimate to the new surroundings.

My main goal was to make his first several ring performances fun and low key.  I wanted him to have good experiences to build off of.  

He had a bit of a brain fart on the first sign so we had to repeat that station.  Otherwise, I was pretty pleased with how well he did. I love his nice focused heeling!  Towards the end, he started to get tired of having to stop and do stuff. I think he would prefer the longer heeling patterns in traditional obedience.  We are going to tackle Beginner Novice next.

The best part is that even though we had to repeat a station (our final score was a 96), we earned 4th place!

Tanner's Rally Debut

This weekend, Tanner had his debut in AKC rally obedience.  It was a very small trial with a limited entry held in a building that Tanner is very familiar with.  These factors all added up to create good supportive atmosphere for the two of us to enter our first trial.

On Saturday, I was pretty nervous.  A training buddy came down to help cheer us on and she reminded me to smile at Tanner and to keep my posture upright.  These are the little things that tend to slip when I (and most people) get nervous.  When it was our turn, we did pretty well.  But, we could have done better.

Well, let me rephrase that, I could have done better.  We had to repeat a station because we were out of sync.  A couple times, when he lagged a little in heel,  I turned my head to look back at him.  This made me drop my shoulder back as well which is a signal to him to drop back.  You can see where this is going.  I pushed him back out of position.  As a handler, it is important to keep your body pointed forward, even when you are turning right and your dog drifts out of your peripheral vision.  Looking back at your dog makes the dog lag.

Anyway, you can see the video here:

But, the good part is we still scored a 93 out of 100 which is a respectable score.  The best part is, he earned his first leg towards his Rally Novice title!  Our judge was Sue Cox.  She is a really nice judge.  Her pencil doesn't miss much but she is fair and kind.

On Sunday, we did do better!  I kept myself calm, I remembered to breathe and smile.  I didn't look back and just trusted that he would be where he needed to be.  There were a lot of right turns on this course!  I still had to repeat a station because I sent him to finish to the right instead of the to the left.  Nonetheless, he responded well to his smiling handler and earned lots of compliments.

Here is the video:

We earned a score of 95.  Our  judge, Marsha Carroll Dandridge, was very complimentary on his heeling abilities.  She literally gushed over how wonderful he worked for me and what a great dog he is! Of course, this made me very happy!  I love my boy and it's nice when everyone else loves him too!  We enjoyed showing under Marsha.  Her pencil was sharp as well but she was fair and good to her exhibitors.

We just need one more novice rally leg in order to be able to add RN after his name!  He will be the 4th one in his litter to add a performance title! 

Checking Our Progress

Last week during our obedience class, Tanner and I did a run through of a Beginner Novice routine.  The purpose was to see how well Tanner would work through an entire routine with no primary reinforcement.  We videoed the exercise for later analysis.

I can see that I need to remember to ease into the changes of pace (rather than taking off like a rocket).  I also need to plan my figure 8 better.  You can see that Tanner does not respond to my first recall cue.  Another place for more work.

All in all, I am quite proud of my boy.  I love his attitude and beautiful heeling. He doesn't fade during the routine and seems nonplussed by the lack of primary reinforcement.  Once we were done, we ran over to the side of the ring where I had hidden a jackpot of treats.

 

Isn't he awesome?