Steeplechase Video

Here is the video of Maggie's weekend Steeplechase run. She was very slow and careful in the weaves but rocked the rest of the course. This dog makes me laugh when I watch her videos.

Weekend News

We had a busy weekend. Saturday, we went to Calgary for a one day agility trial. It was a nice, small trial and we were done by 3:30.

Maggie had an awesome day. She Q'd in Steeplechase! I couldn't even believe it when I looked at the results. She even knocked a bar, but since Steeplechase is a time plus faults event, her time was fast enough to make up the 5 faults. She is never fast enough to make Steeplechase time, never mind to make up time for faults. Yay Maggie! Maggie also got a Masters Snooker Q with 43 points. I did 4 reds in the opening so that we only needed to finish #3 in the closing to qualify, but Maggie was speedy and we finished all the way to #5 in the closing. Maggie also had a 32 second Jumpers run, but because she was faster than I expected, I couldn't get a front cross in where I planned, so I caused her to drop a bar, so no Q on that run but she was fast!

Bosley had a not so good day. He was Mr.SniffyNose all day and I had to work hard to keep him with me. Arrggg! Just when I was saying how good he did at our last trial. He did get an Advanced Snooker Q with 40 points despite making me think on my feet when he dropped a red bar and I had to scramble to find another red to finish the opening.

Today we went to Cowley for some training. I took Bosley and his cart and we did a run through of the basic cart control exercises. We did some weaving around pylons and lots of backing up. Bosley did very well. I was especially happy with his verbal directionals - he did them without hesitating. Judi gave us lots of good tips and some great ideas to get started on our DDX work.
Both Maggie and Bosley did some heeling and they both were very focused even with all the new dogs practicing around them. There were a couple other Berners there and before we went home, Maggie got a chance to visit and play with them a bit. It was a good day.

Dogs Should Not Eat Chocolate . . .

. . . But I Should!   

Yesterday I saw this chocolate bar at the store and thought it seemed interesting, so I bought it.  Oh My!  It is delicious!  Really, really delicious.  Dark chocolate that melts in mouth and then gives you a little spicy kick.  Mmmm Mmmm!

I had to go out and buy more today before everyone else discovers how good this is.  I don't want to run out.

Productive Day

It was a beautiful spring day today.  The snow is mostly all melted from the big dump that we had on Wednesday.  Bosley and I went to the park to practice carting.  We started with some off-leash heeling and a stand-stay. Both went well, even with the distractions of other dogs nearby.  I then got out the cart, put Bosley in a stand stay with the cart and harness about 20 feet behind him (like it would be in a draft test).  He moved when I left to get the harness.  I put him back, harnessed him then went back and got the cart.  He hitched without moving at all - good boy!  The rest of the carting session was great.  His halts were very good and his slow was good too (we sometimes have trouble with that).  I was really impressed with his "gee" and "haw".  We have been working these commands lots without the cart but I wasn't sure how much he would generalize them.  He is stronger with the "gee" (right) command, but by the end of our session you could really see the "haw" (left) light bulb come on.  I was very happy with how Bosley worked today.

I finally got Maggie out to do some tracking today.  I wanted to do 3 small tracks with her, but I didn't take enough treats so we only did 2 small tracks.  I am using the footstep method AKA "The Hansel and Gretel" method.  On the first track, I had to point out the treats for about half the track and then she actively started sniffing for them.  I had a glove at the end with a big pile of treats on it.  The second track, I only pointed out the first treat and she started searching for the rest.  She didn't always search in the right direction, but I just let her try to figure it out, I would just hold her leash so she couldn't move too far off the track.  I think that in a couple more sessions she should have the "game" figured out and I can start spacing out the treats more and making the tracks longer.

As well as doing some fun training with the dogs, I also got some much needed housework done and even fit in a little afternoon nap.  A productive day indeed.

Snowballs

We had a huge spring storm pass through our area that left lots of heavy, wet snow. It is the perfect type of snow for making snowballs. I was tossing some snowballs at Bosley and he tried his hardest to catch them.

Get Ready . . . Here it Comes . . .

I Think I Got It

Here Comes Another One . . . This One Looks HUGE

. . . Open Wide . . .

BBB and The Homecoming Queen

We had a great weekend in Balzac at an agility trial. The trial was very relaxed, moved quickly and was lots of fun. The dogs both had a good weekend too.

Bosley, affectionately known as BBB - Bad Boy Bosley - had to change his name this weekend to BBB - Best Boy Bosley. In January, I trialled Bosley at this same arena and I was so frustrated. He was so busy looking around, sniffing things and being a very Bad Boy. This weekend, he was wonderful! He didn't gawk around at all and I could actually just run the course and not have to keep on him every second. I am not sure why the difference - I have been getting him exciting on the start line by asking him to bark (he likes that), so maybe that helped. Or maybe the brain fairy finally paid him a visit :) Hopefully the focus and enthusiasm is here to stay.

Advanced Standard 1 - Bosley was having a beautiful run but for some reason ran past the teeter after I did a rear cross, so we had a refusal.

Advanced Standard 2 - Another really nice run. I sent Bosley to the table and instead of going straight to it, he ran all the way around before getting on. I thought we had a refusal, but the judge didn't call one. The rest of the run was clean. When I went to check the results later I was disappointed to see we had time faults. 0.47 seconds over time! What a bummer. The table run around wasted about 3 seconds.

Starters Gamblers - Nice, nice, nice. Not a huge amount of points in the opening (26) but we were in the perfect place for the final gamble. The main gamble was chute - tunnel -jump in a curved formation. Bosley did it easily and without any hesitation. "Q". This was also the last Q Bosley needed to finish his Starters Game Dog Title.

Advanced Jumpers - The last class Saturday and Bosley was a bit slower than normal. He ran nice the entire course until the last obstacle. It was an "S" curved tunnel and when I rear crossed it, he jumped over the end instead of going through. Silly dog - I shouldn't have rear crossed there I guess. He would have been over time anyway.

Advanced Standard 3 - Bosley was running so nice and I messed him up because I put a front cross (for some reason I don't know) in the wrong place and not how I walked it at all, so instead of sending him to the table, I sent him out to the teeter.

Advanced Snooker - I had to do a bit of pushing and pulling and needed to use my verbal "turn cue" a couple times but Bosley had a nice opening. Unfortunately, he missed his weave entrance in the closing and we got tweeted off at #5 (needed to finish #6 to Q).

Maggie - The Homecoming Queen. Jolayne nicknamed her this because of Maggie's severe Going Home Syndrome. Maggie usually runs the beginning of the course in a trot and then as soon as she knows we are in the homestretch, she takes off like a rocket. This weekend was no different.

Advanced Standard 1 - Maggie was running great in the first part of the course (even faster than a trot). We got to the weaves and she refused them, I reset her and she refused again. Maggie then went a bit wild. She ran away from me play bowing and bucking and trying to get me to chase her. I finally got her to the next obstacle and she ran the rest of the course at top speed, bucking and jumping the entire way. It was hysterical! The judge was laughing, I was laughing and anyone watching couldn't help but laugh at her. I love to see Maggie enjoying herself like that.

Advanced Standard 2 - Not as wild as her first run and we fought about the table. Maggie refused the weaves again but I got her going through them (slowly). She finished in her usually Homecoming Queen style.

Advanced Gamblers - Maggie had a nice opening with 24 points. We were in a perfect spot when the whistle blew for the main gamble. I knew if she went out to the tunnel I could get her back to the #3 jump but I wasn't sure she would send out to the #4 jump. She nailed the final gamble for a "Q". This was the last Advanced Gamble Q she needed and now she moves to Masters.

Steeplechase - Maggie was pokey at the start and then when I went to send her in a tunnel, she went way out of her way to take the A-frame instead. So instead of finishing the course, I just did a big loop with her and ran off.

Standard 3 - Maggie started out slow and when she got to the weaves she got the entry but I could see she wasn't going to finish them. I did something that I really hate - I put my hands in the poles and lured her back. She finished the poles and had a nice finish. To my surprise, she made time (by 3 seconds) and Q'd!

Masters Snooker - Maggie had an OK opening although she kept thinking it was time to "run home". We needed to get to the end of #5 in the closing, which were the weaves. She refused the weaves again so we got tweeted.

I really think Maggie's back was sore this weekend. She was jumping well but it is not like her to refuse every set of weaves. It is probably time for another chiropractic adjustment.

I had one other run this weekend. Sarah asked if I would run Gyp for her in Masters Jumpers. Gyp is such a fun dog to run - she is very well trained, responsive and fast, fast, fast. I had a blast and we got a "Q" and had the second fastest time out of all the Masters dogs. Thanks for letting me run her Sarah!

Goofy Maggie

A quick video I took the other day while playing with Maggie.

Spring Updates

I have really been neglecting my blog lately so I thought I better do some updates.

We have moved all the agility equipment back outside for the spring. No classes now until May, but we are entered in a couple agility trials this month.

I have started Maggie on a joint supplement (Recovery SA). She has seemed stiff in the rear lately and sometimes has a bit of trouble getting up off of slippery floors. A lot of dogs seem to have nice improvements on Recovery and I have noticed that Maggie seems to be a lot more energetic the past week or so since starting the supplement. She has even got the "zoomies" a couple times. I hope this will help keep her moving - she is such a happy, active dog so I hate the thought of her slowing down because of soreness. I will see if I see any improvement at the next agility trial - I should notice it in her jumping and her weaves.

If the wind ever stops blowing, I want to try to get Maggie out tracking this spring. I think she will like it. I have also been thinking about entering her in a rally trial. I will need to find a nice, quiet trial for her.

Here is Maggie, enjoying the spring sun that is shining through the skylight. Maggie loves laying in the sun that shines in the house - I find this very odd because she is the first dog to run for cooler cover when it is warm outside.

Bosley and I are slowly getting ready for his next draft test. I have only had the cart out a few times, but I have been doing lots of flatwork with him. Mostly directionals, the slow command and the halt command. His directionals are coming along nicely - he is about 90% on his "gee" and "haw" on the flat with verbal commands only. I will see how well this transfers over to when he is in the cart. I want to be really solid on the carting basics before the test. His backup is awesome! We still need to work on getting tighter turns and some control (Bosley should not think carting is a race). Harnessing and hitching is always a work in progress too.

I am still doing bits of Open Obedience practice with Bosley. I am mostly practicing on my own as our obedience classes are done now to make way for the busy summer agility classes. I have been super happy with his "drop on recall". Amanda pointed out to me that when I say his name before I say "down", Bosley seems confused. That makes so much sense, as calling his name should always mean "come here" or "pay attention". As soon as I stopped using his name, he no longer seems confused and I am getting nice, fast drops. Yay! Thanks Amanda. Now I just need to work on precision with everything else. I wanted to get him in the Open ring this spring, but that is not going to happen - so maybe the fall if he is ready.

A picture of Bosley's big, fuzzy feet. He really needs a toe trim.

One Year Later

It was one year ago today that I received the results of Maggie's pathology report diagnosing her with Mast Cell Cancer. A year ago I was afraid she wouldn't see her fifth birthday. One year later and she is still as wild and goofy as ever. Thank goodness for an early diagnosis and treatment.

No Nonscents

No Nonscents is the name of the Scent Hurdle team that a group of us are trying to get off the ground. Amanda at manymuddypaws has been talking about forming a Scent Hurdle team for a couple years now. She got a few of us interested too and today we had our second practice. The first few times Amanda mentioned Scent Hurdle to me, I just kind of brushed it off, thinking that my dogs could not do "that". But it is a lot of fun and it is fun working as a part of a team.

Scent Hurdle is similar to Flyball (Scent Hurdle actually is a much older sport than Flyball) but instead of a flyball box at the end, there is a box with dumbbells. The dog must pick their own dumbbell out of the box (by scent) and race back over the hurdles so the next team member can go.

Today we started with scent discrimination work and all the dogs are doing great. I thought it would be really hard to teach the scent stuff, but all the dogs are catching on so quick - it is really amazing to watch.

I am training Bosley to be on the team. Poor Maggie just gets to watch from the sidelines. Maggie's idea of retrieving is to get the dumbbell and run away trying to get someone to chase her. I am sure during an actually race, she would be trying to entice all the other dogs to engage her in a game of keep-a-away. Bosley takes things, like retrieving, a little more serious.

Maggie can be our team cheerleader (that is more her style anyway)!

Here is Maggie at practice today, hanging out on the couch with Gyp. Maggie looks pretty content with her job as "cheerleader", don't you think?

Back In The Saddle - umm . . . I Mean Cart!

The ground has finally dried up enough that we can get out in the cart again without having the wheels caked in mud. Bosley says that we need to practice hard over the next couple months to get ready for our next draft test.

I was playing around with the editing options in photoshop and turned one of my photos into this:
I thought it looked like one of the old pictures you see of the traditional working dogs in Switzerland.

Maggie In Rally Class

The other night was the last night of our latest session of Rally Obedience. Amanda set up a tough Novice course and we had a mock trial. I was super happy with Maggie - she was upbeat with no signs of stress.

She has been doing so well in class and is finally happy doing obedience again. I would love to take her back in the ring again. She only needs one more leg for her Rally Advanced title and 2 more legs for her CD, but I am worried that if I take her in the "real ring" she will shut down again. I worked hard to get her happy to do obedience again and would hate to ruin all that work. I will try to do a few more fun matches at new places and see how it goes and decide from there.

An "Excellent" Weekend

This weekend I had Bosley entered in a CKC Agility trial near Edmonton. The drive was long (6 hours) but the hotel was decent (yay) and the trial was fun although it seemed to move slow. Overall, I was pleased with Bosley this weekend. He was a bit gawky on Saturday, but never left to sniff anything. This weekend was the first time he ever saw the 24" spacing on the weave poles. His weaving is much smoother with the wider poles although he popped the last pole on 3 runs - not sure if this had anything to do with the different rhythm in the poles or if it was because of something else. He usually doesn't pop poles.

I was generally happy with my handling this weekend. I pulled Bosley off a couple jumps because I started moving laterally away before he was fully committed to the jump, so I will need to be more aware of that. I also popped him out of the weave poles because my hair was in my face and when I moved my hand to get the hair out of my eyes, Bosley popped. I pulled my hair back under a hat for the rest of the weekend. There were 3 courses that had a turn away into a tunnel off the A-frame. Bosley nailed the first 2 (perfect) but on the third one, I was too late with my "turn" cue and he was already looking towards the next obstacle and missed the turn.

Now to the videos:

This is Bosley's first run of the weekend. He started to sniff and when I called him back he was too close to the double jump and he knocked a bar. Too bad - otherwise it was a nice run. This was also the first time he saw the wider weave poles spacing.

This video is Bosley's Excellent Jumper With Weaves run on Saturday. You can't tell in the video, but I was planning on doing a lead out pivot, but Bad Boy Bosley broke his start line so I just had to start running. It worked out in the end - Bosley got a 'Q'.

This next run Bosley got stuck coming out of the first tunnel and was a bit slow going into the weaves. This run was a bit slow and Bosley missed my turn cue into the tunnel but he ran fault free for an Excellent Standard 'Q'.

This next JWW was a fun course. Bosley had been popping the last pole, so I gave him a little extra support on this run. Too bad he dropped a bar.

This next video was our last run of the weekend. You can tell Bosley was getting a bit tired. He managed to earn a 'Q' though (1 second over time for 3 faults) and I even did some rear crosses on this run. This run also finished Bosley's Excellent Jumpers With Weaves Title!

Overall it was a good weekend. I have decided I really need to get a GPS for my car. I got lost a couple times and if it wasn't for Amanda navigating and reading the map, I might still be trying to find my way to the trial :) Amanda was also my offical videographer for the weekend - so I kept her busy.

Baker

I recently found out that Bosley's sire, SwissKiss Fabulous Baker Boy aka "Baker", passed away a couple weeks ago. I never had the opportunity to meet Baker, as he is from a breeder on Vancouver Island, but from everything I have heard he was a wonderful dog and a great representative of the Bernese breed. He had some wonderful accomplishments in his life including a BIS win and National Specialty Awards of Merits. Sadly, he left this world too soon at the age of 9.5 years, diagnosed with the aggressive cancer Malignant Histiocytosis.

My condolences go out to his owners Madeline and Geoff.

Birthday Agility 'Q'

Yesterday was Maggie's 5th birthday! She got to celebrate by dropping to the Veterans class in agility at a Calgary trial. I have been waiting a long time to drop her to Veterans - the 22" jumps were just too hard on her.

I only entered her in 2 runs - Masters Snooker and Advanced Standard. Her Snooker run was a bit choppy in places but we finished to the end of #6 in the closing for 40 points and a 'Q'. This is Maggie's first Masters 'Q' too, so that was exciting. I was also very happy with Maggie's Standard run. She had some speed, didn't argue with me about the table and got all her contacts! She wouldn't go near the weaves however. At this particular arena, there is something in the back area that many dogs do not like - Maggie included. We have had problems at previous trials too, where she has refused to do obstacles that are in the back of this arena. So, we had a non-completion on the weaves, but the rest of the run was great. I was very happy and Maggie was loving the lower height jumps. She can really get some speed going now that she doesn't need to struggle over the jumps.

Here is a video of Maggie's Snooker run:

Bosley did not run in the trial this weekend. Wednesday he was a bit lame on his rear leg so I pulled him from the trial. I think he slipped on the icy deck and pulled a muscle. He was still limping a teeny bit on the weekend, but seems to be good today.

C-BARQ

C-BARQ, (which stands for Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire) is an online dog behavior test that assesses your dog and lets you know where any behavioral problems may lie. Now, most people should already know if their dog has behavior problems, but I thought this test would be interesting to do as it is developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Center For the Interaction of Animals and Society Department.

The test compares your dog to other dogs of the same breed as well as all other breeds. The test questions are based largely on fear, aggression, energy, attachment and trainability.

Maggie's Results:

Maggie got 1 red flag in the main test (a red flag is a less favorable score than at least 75% of the dogs in the comparison sample). She got a red flag for Chasing (89th percentile) compared to other Bernese. Compared to all the dogs her chasing was in the 64th percentile - so not that bad.

Maggie also got 3 red flags in the miscellaneous categories (less reliable scores and subjective categories). She had a red flag for Coprophagia - bad Maggie likes horse and deer poop. She also had a red flag for Food Stealing (counter surfing when no one watches). A final red flag for Barking - she likes to hear herself bark.

Bosley's Results:

Bosley had 3 red flags in the main test area! He was in the 79th percentile for Familiar Dog Aggression in the Bernese comparison. I am not too sure about this one - it was because he growls at Maggie when she approaches him when he is eating his meal or a yummy treat. In the all breed comparison there was no red flag as he was in the 55th percentile - so an average dog.

His second red flag is for Attachment/Attention Seeking. He was in the 89th Bernese percentile and 84th all breed percentile because he is very attached to me and follows me from room to room.

His 3rd red flag was for Energy. He scored in the 12th percentile for both same breed and all breed comparisons. OK, Bosley is a fairly calm dog, but is not really that low energy. He is good at conserving energy but I don't think that he should have scored that low.

Bosley also had 2 red flags in the Miscellaneous items. One was for Coprophagia (stupid horse poo) and one was for Begging (yup). We are working on the begging - really we are.

Are you up for the test? It is quick to do - just sign up and answer 101 questions and you get your results immediately.

C-BARQ Test

Agility Seminar

The dogs and I have spent the past 2 days at a Terry Simons Seminar. This is the second seminar I have done with Terry, and I again came away with lots of good, useful information.

Yesterday we worked 270s and Serpentines - so basically cueing our dogs to take the back side of a jump. I thought I was decent at handling serps, but I learned a lot this weekend about how to make them more efficient and exactly where to put the serp cue. Don't stop moving, run the line and don't ever walk backwards.

Today we did lots of serpentine work - including finding serps that may not be obvious. We also worked threadles and push throughs. The threadle footwork we learned was great - it totally made sense to me and I wasn't tripping over my own feet like I usually am when I am doing a threadle. I will need to practice it a lot more to be able to do it without thinking about every step and it is a slightly different body cue for my dogs, so they will need to get used to it too.

We also did some tough weave entrances today including serping into the weaves. Very challenging and fun. Bosley rocked the tough entrances - even the serp entrance. I ran Maggie sparingly this weekend - she has been feeling really good and I didn't want to push it with her. She was fast and responsive when I did run her, which was great! She is loving jumping 16".

Well, the dogs just ate their supper and are passed out at my feet - they are tired from all the thinking they had to do this weekend.

Flickr Project - Week 4

This is my Week 4 submission for Flickr's 52 Weeks For Dogs. It was hard to get nice lighting with the bright snow reflecting in the window but I liked how this shot turned out.

Click Here To View Large

Pet Friendly???

Why, oh why is it so difficult to find decent pet friendly hotel rooms?

I have been searching for a hotel room in Edmonton but Edmonton just does not seem to be very pet friendly. There is a shortage of hotels that will accommodate dogs and the ones that do allow dogs are are often in neighborhoods that do not seem very safe or the hotels are older and not well kept up.

Don't even get me started on the "small dog only" rule that many hotels have. How stupid is that policy?

In my recent hotel search, I found one "pet friendly" hotel that seemed nice but there was a $75 pet charge! $75 - how is that "pet friendly"!?! Ridiculous.

(Bosley, Amy and Maggie relaxing on a pet friendly hotel bed)

I did book a room in Edmonton. Well, a in city just outside Edmonton to be exact. It is very close to the trial and not too expensive. The Yellow Pages ad said the rooms are "clean" so that is a bonus :o

A Dork and A Star

This morning we drove out to Cowley where SAWDA was hosting an Obedience and Rally fun match. I went out for the Obedience portion because I wanted to try Bosley in Open. We have never done a complete run through of Open so I really wanted to see where he is at. I almost left Maggie at home, but then I decided to bring her - I figured she could try novice - I would just need to keep it fun for her and take her out of the ring if she started to stress and shut down.

Bosley is a Dork. That is a Dork with a capital "D". We really need to work on distractions and we need to get out and train in new places. I don't know if it is stress that causes his gawky-ness or if we just need to do more proofing (or a combination). I can't wait until the weather gets better and we can train at the park. Anyway, Bosley was so busy looking at things and not focusing on me that I was a bit frustrated. His heeling was laggy, especially on the outside turn of the figure 8. When heeling, I like my dogs to be looking up at me and when they just plod along beside me, I get a bit stressed. It took Bosley about half the heeling pattern before he actually looked at me. On a positive note, his retrieving was good - we have done little retrieving in new places, so I was pleased. He NQd the broad jump - he ran up to it and stopped like he didn't know what to do next. I took him back and ran with him once and then reset him and he did it fine. The out of sights stays were perfect - this is the first time we have practiced out of sights in a new place so I was pleased. So I was a bit frustrated - I know Bosley has the skills and working ability to do well in Open, but his easily distracted boy brain seems to cause us some problems.

Maggie was a Star today. That is a Star with a capital "S"! She was up, up, up for her whole novice routine. Her heeling was perfect - happy, totally focused, tail wagging, tight turns - perfect! (The heeling pattern was long too - and with 4 halts.) She did an auto finish on the recall, but everything else was bang on. She finished with a score of 196 and second place. Yay for Maggie! No signs of stress in the ring and when we were leaving to go home, she tried to run back to the ring area (hopefully that is a good sign).

(Thanks to Maureen for the great pictures!)

There is another fun match next weekend - so we will go try this all over again. If I can keep Maggie happy in the ring, I will be happy. If I can get Bosley to focus a bit more, I will be happy. Isn't dog training fun!?!