Agility Class #4

As we started class, Kathy informed us that a friend of hers might be coming to watch.  Okay, that's something Thor and I can handle!  BUT, as it turned out, he brought his little dog with him!  Not only did he bring a dog, but instead of just watching, he brought his dog out into the ring.  While I was working Thor on bottom behavior (2 on-2 off) on a plank, this man and his dog came up very close behind Thor.  I said, "Would you please move back just a bit?  My dog isn't always reliable."  Dog and man didn't move.  Luckily, Kathy was paying attention.  She came over and explained that Thor is very distractible and needed more space to be able to focus on his task.  At that point, dog and man moved back just a bit.  I realized then that visitors to classes need to be prepped in advance as to appropriate spectator behavior.  I don't think visitors should bring their dog.  I think they should be limited to a spectator area outside the ring.  Watch and learn, not get in the way!  The purpose of visiting a class should be to assess whether or not it's something you might like to do with your own dog.  To see if an instructor and his/her methods fit with the way you want to train.  No reason to disrupt the class!

Agility Class #3

Interestingly, a new dog once again joined our class.  This was able to happen because the handler has previously trained another dog and had already started this one.  But it certainly is disruptive!  The handler, who I know from trials, is someone who does not supervise her dogs closely and does not put their best interests first.  I say this because she chooses to set up her dogs very close to the agility rings at a trial and then complains when her dogs bark!  Several people have spoken to her about this and at the last trial she finally parked further away.  So maybe she is learning.

At the beginning of class, I was sitting on the sidelines doing attention work with Thor.  The A-frame was set near the spectator area and could, of course, been taken from either side.  If I were choosing to do it, I'd have sent my dog so he was moving away from other dogs.  But this handler chose to put her dog over the A-frame coming right at Thor.  At the bottom, her dog was not 3 feet from us.  Naturally, the dogs reacted.  I just kept feeding Thor and got his attention back quickly.  Throughout the first half of class, I was trying to move around enough to keep Thor away from the oblivious handler.  That's really hard for me these days with my impaired mobility.

I've been using forearm crutches in most areas of my life.  I don't yet use them with Thor because I really need two hands to control him.  But it means that I spend part of each class sitting on the ground!  I don't mind that, but would it be asking to much to expect others to steer clear of us?  Linda, who is training GSD Vasso, has the dog that interests Thor the most.  Yet Linda is very knowledgeable and very aware of her dog and their surroundings.  She has done a great job helping me by keeping her distance and asking from time to time if she is in a good place.  My friend who has a sheltie, Lucy, is less aware but since Thor has little interest in Lucy that has not been a problem.  But this new handler and dog... tough stuff.

About halfway through class, we were working on ramp bottom behavior.  Dogwalk planks were placed across a low table with a target at the end.  Thor raced to the end but was more interested in Kathy who was standing there than the food on the target.  When Kathy stepped in to point out and reposition the food treat, Thor leapt into her face to greet her.  This happened several times and I was unable to stop it.  I was afraid that Kathy was getting hurt.  So I left, put Thor in his crate in the car, and sat in the car to give myself a break.

When Kathy came out, I shared my frustration with trying to control Thor and my frustration with the new handler not keeping better distance between her dog and the others.  We talked for a few minutes, and I sent Kathy back to class but not before she suggested I bring Thor in after class to play with him alone.  Good idea. 

Alone in the building, Thor was a different dog.  I was able to send him into tunnels from all angles and work rear crosses with two jumps.  Kathy commented on Thor's distance skills!  So, we ended on a good/positive note, thanks to Kathy.  I think Thor needs more exercise prior to class...

Agility Class # 2

There was a new dog in class (he'd been getting neutered the week before).  Junior is a Brittany who took an extreme interest in Thor.  Thor was equally interested, and the two kept trying to get closer to each other.  I sat out several exercises in order to work on attention on the sidelines with Thor.  He responded well to this, and I will plan to do it again. 

After we rejoined the class, Junior managed to get away from his (two) handlers and came right to Thor.  Junior growled, Thor play bowed.  It was a little bit scary because of the growl.  After Junior was corraled, Kathy used the opportunity to explain why a dog should never be corrected for growling.  Corrections may remove the growling and you are left with a dog who gives no warning.  This can be a very dangerous dog.  This is something I understand well.  No doubt my Vada was punished for growling.  Her attacks (of other dogs) came with no indication of how she was feeling.  Eventually, Vada became a home dog and I no longer took her places because of her unpredictability.  She was much happier after that.

I told Junior's owners that I saw nothing really alarming in his behavior and that Kathy was right.  However, they decided not to return to class.  They emailed Kathy and explained that they had moved and it was simply too far to come.  I suspect they were surprised at how much difficulty they had controlling Junior and that that played at least some part in their decision.  Anyway, I'm glad they won't be back.

Circles

Thor and I went to Shatford Park, New Lebanon, New York this morning; many agility trials are held there.  This morning there was one other car but the park was empty of people and other dogs.  Perfect!  I let Thor out of the car, no leash.  He sniffed, peed, ran around.  I started clicking and treating any time he approached me.  Sometimes I called if he started roaming too far.  He always came back. 

After a while, he was tuned in enough to do some flat work.  Flat work is foundation work for agility.  No obstacles are used, but the dog learns to follow the handler's body language.  We worked in circles about 15 feet in diameter; Thor's circles were bigger.  I changed direction so he was on both sides but always on the outside.  Eventually, he will learn to slow down enough to be on the inside but not yet.  In my flat work book, the dog is working in heel position (both sides) right next to the handler.  Thor was not right next to me.  Since I cannot go faster than a walk, he is obviously much faster.  And I want distance in agility, so I allowed Thor to work about 15 feet away from me.  He remained focused at that distance and I was very happy.  I interrupted each set of circles with free run time to give Thor's brain a break.  Thor was off leash throughout.  We still need to do some leash work so he learns to walk nicely when leashed.  But that's not as much fun!

Agility!

Thor and I have been playing agility in the backyard for months.  On August 7, we attended a pre-novice agility seminar with Abbie Tamber.  I was so proud of Thor who showed off some good beginning skills!  I learned that he has good impulse control with food (something we had worked on) and very poor impulse control with toys (which we had NOT worked on). So we have been working with toys which has turned out to be much harder.  Thor will now sit in the presence of a toy, even if I wave it.  He will take it and release it on cue.  Hooray!  I was very pleased with how well Thor paid attention in the presence of other dogs/distractions.

Yesterday, we had our first formal agility class.  It was in the building so the other dogs were closer than they had been outside at the seminar.  This was hard for Thor who really wanted to play!  In his exuberance, he pulled me to the ground (but only once!).  He displayed his love of tunnels and exhibited a bit of zoominess but came back to me very quickly.  He had trouble walking straight through the ladder, probably because we have only played 101 Things to Do With a Ladder, where Thor is rewarded for anything he does; there is no criteria.  In class, we were asked to walk our dogs from one end to the other.  Hard!

After class, our instructor Kathy emailed me with this comment:  "You and Thorry did great yesterday, he is a LOT of dog but sooooo responsive to you - great job!!" 

I was delighted that Kathy read Thor so well!  She is a gifted instructor, and we are lucky to be in her class.

Birddog

Thor likes anything that flies.  Balls, birds, moths.  His favorite time of day, I think, is nighttime when my outdoor floodlight attracts all the moths.  Thor loves trying to catch them and is surprisingly successful!  The other night, he saw lightning for the first time.  It was so much fun to watch him leap in the air trying to catch it!

Prejudice & Pride

What an exciting weekend!  New England Border Collie Rescue held their annual reunion for adopters and volunteers.  Since I have volunteered at their Dog Daze fundraiser for the last several years, I decided to take Thor for some fun border collie socialization.  I expected it to be hard.  I had anticipated that my next dog would be a petite female BC mix.  Instead, I have Thor.

Over 130 dogs attended the reunion!  Early in the day, no one was using the agility rings so I took Thor into the ring to play.  He went through a tunnel, curved under the dogwalk, twice successfully.  He also went in and backed out a few times.  That's okay; I am excited that he did anything in an unfamiliar environment!  We then went to each of the down contacts (2 on A-frame, 2 on dogwalk, 1 on seesaw) and shaped for 1RTO.  Beautiful!  At one point, a dog was being walked very close to the ring.  Thor went over to check it out.  No barking.  Cool!  And he came back!

Later in the day, we went into a large fenced area with a pond.  There were probably a dozen border collies running, playing, swimming.  Thor ran around having a good time and behaving very appropriately!  He ran with the dogs a bit but with an air of aloofness.  He seemed to be more interested in saying hello to the people.  And he never jumped up!  Even better, he periodically returned to me to check in!  Good boy!

At one point, I walked over to the pond with Thor who had shown no interest in it.  I was hoping I might be able to clicker train him to walk into the water.  No luck.  With his usual enthusiasm, Thor leapt into the water landing about chest deep.  He was startled and could not be lured to go near it again.

There were a few puppies from a litter that had been born into rescue.  A few days earlier, I had expressed to a friend of mine who is adopting one of the BC pups that that's what I should have had instead of Thor.  But on this day, watching the puppies romp and play, I felt no draw to them.  Phew!


On Sunday, I went to an agility trial to volunteer and introduce Thor to the environment.  I have been working on having him stay in the crate so that I can put on his harness and he doesn't have to wear it for travel.  Success!  Not easy, but I managed it.  With a bit more training, it should become a piece of cake.  Thor was somewhat overwhelmed by the crowd and all the activity.  I gave him a stuffed toy to carry (his security blanket).  Each time he dropped it, I told him "Get your toy" and he did!  He politely greeted several of my friends.  One commented how nice it is that he doesn't jump!  One of the vets who had agreed that I should wait to neuter him was also there.  She said that she was glad to see that he was an appropriate size (~25 inches at the shoulder).  She told me that she has been seeing lots of oversized weims (28/29"--the breed standard for adult males is 25-27) in her practice. 

My friend Kathy had her puppy there, too.  Jasper is about the same age as Thor.  An aussie mix, he is adorable and reminds me of Peabody.  I had had an opportuniy to adopt Jasper's brother a couple of months prior to the arrival of Thunder Thor.  At the time, I saw pictures and had to agree they were cute.  But I wanted something smaller than an Aussie and without the heavy coat.  I also expressed reservations about a docked tail.  Kathy told me that these pups had tails!  I was tempted.  But I was still holding on to I-can't-have-a-puppy-as-long-as-Vada-is-alive. 

So Thor came into my life. Turns out, Jasper is much smaller than expected and his coat is medium-length and not thick.  But I was so proud of Thor's good behavior and attention to me that I wasn't envious at all!  I hope this is the beginning of falling in love with Thor.  He deserves that, and he really is so very good.  Especially when I think back to the TORNADO that he was!!