Wagmore Daily: Uncle Denzil Spends the Day!

My parents had to go out of town for the day and didn't want to leave their boy home alone, so we had a special guest - Denzil!  Those who've been following the blog since its inception will remember that Denzil was an original member of the Trio of Trouble (along with Maggie and Ziggy).  You can learn more about Denzil on his page.

The Humans and Ziggy love to have Denzil around.  Blossom the c*t spent the day upstairs (that's where the food, cat tree, and litter are, so don't feel bad for her).  I wasn't sure how Rip would do - but he was very accommodating.

Here's how the day went:

We started the day with coffee on the porch.  

Denzil hung out with me.

Then Denz joined the boys in some wandering and sniffing.

When we came inside, Ziggy & Rip thought some bitey play was in order.

Denzil sat in front of me, keeping a close eye on things.

Then Denz remembered he was the Party Police.

So he moved in to break things up.

I love Rip's expression here - very contrite.

He had this expression each time Denz reprimanded him.

Good boy.

The Party Policeman succeeded in his goal.

And later in the afternoon, Zzzz all around:

Another great day at Wagmore.

Wagmore Daily: Rip Tastes Freedom

Yesterday Rip had an exciting day in the country.  Too exciting for our liking.

It all began here:

You may remember this picture from a couple days ago.  

Rip gazing out down the drive.

Combine this with Rip's LOVE of sniffing.  

And the fact that our neighbors have chickens, turkeys, sheep, and cows….

And what do you get?  

A missing dog!

Yes, Rip escaped under the gates yesterday.  He found a low spot near the drive, and shoved his way under the gates.  Thankfully we were outside, and noticed quickly that the only dog in the yard was Ziggy.  Then I noticed the neighbor's cows running around their pasture bucking.  I have no proof that this was Rip, as it would take some squeezing to get into the field with the cows, but the crazy cow frolicking punctuated to us that Rip was indeed missing.

So we walked around using the dog whistle and calling Rip.

The Husband was panicked.  The Small Human was VERY UPSET (who knew he liked Rip so much).  I was hoping that Rip wasn't getting himself into something he couldn't get out of.

After about 20 minutes that seemed like 3 hours, we finally found Rip.  The Small Human and I drove around our area, calling his name and blowing the dog whistle.  On the way back down a dead-end road, about 500 yards from our house, we saw him.  He was gleefully trotting along the road, peeing on mailboxes and recycling bins.

Thank doG we found our boy.

After his great escape, Rip was only taken out on a flexi.  The rest of the time he spent inside, by our front door, barking and pawing at the side light.  Freedom was calling and we were in the way!

So today The Husband Rip-proofed the gate area.  It doesn't look fantastic, but it works.  And let me assure you that Rip has put it to the test. :)

Stakes and chicken wire to fill in the swale under the gate.

Chicken wire all the way up the fence on the side of the gate.

Mesh hanging down on the other gate 

to cover up a very small (but perhaps corg-possible) gap.

And the finished  product.

Sorry, Rip.  Wait, no, I'm not really sorry.  Too bad, Rip.

Wagmore Summer days 1-3: Happy dogs!

To say that the Cardi boys like it here at Wagmore is an understatement.  Ziggy in particular seems a much happier dog here than he is Iowa.  He seems to have more energy.  He's playing more, he's more active, and as a result he's lost some weight.

The C*ts love it here, too.  More places to explore, more projects to hamper.

Here are some happy pack pictures.

Gloria finds the afternoon sun

Blossom "helps" to build The Small Human's new bed

 A yard with no plantings is great for frapping!

Basking in the sun is nice, too

Then a corgi needs to come in and rest using a human pillow

When The Cat Ruins Months of Training

Question of the Day:

What does THIS

Sweet, sweet Blossom in a dog crate

And THIS

Sweet, sweet Rip eating his dinner in a tunnel

Have in common?

Let me explain using badly drawn pictures, and a photo or two.

For Christmas, I was lucky enough to get something that had been on my wish list for a long time:

A heavy-duty chute!  From my favorite dog training store J and J Dog.

What more could a girl want?

Rip has already worked on the chute during agility class, but I wanted one at home so I could get a more solid, quick performance on this obstacle.  

I had the chute upstairs to practice in the living room on a daily basis.  The first days went really well - Rip liked the chute and I was able to send him to the obstacle from many different angles and distances.  He seemed happy.

Then, one day, Blossom saw us practicing.  

Rip was happy.

Tail up and wagging.

Ears and head up.

Looking forward to the obstacle.

Blossom watched.

Rip entered the chute, thinking happy thoughts.

Then, like a cat on a mission, Blossom ran to the chute, too.

And then…

Just when Rip was pushing his way through the closed part of the chute…

Blossom pounced on him from behind.

He ran through the rest of the chute,

but would go near it no more.

Head down, ears back, and tail tucked,

 Rip wanted nothing to do with the chute.

Blossom seemed pleased.

I was not pleased.  I now have a dog who, after months of training, REFUSES to go near the chute.  Not just go INTO the chute.  He won't enter the room if the chute is set up.  

I tried clicker training him to get close.  This worked to get him in the room, but didn't work to get him near the chute.  And he still looked unhappy.

So I removed the closed/fabric part of the chute, and started feeding Rip in the open tunnel portion of the obstacle. At first he was even wary of that, but his comfort level is growing. Once he's comfortable with this, I'll add the fabric back and continue to feed him until he's comfortable again.  Then we'll try re-training the obstacle from scratch the very beginning.

Meanwhile, whenever I train Rip now, I put Blossom in the dog crate.  Why?  Not just because of the chute, but because she started to ambush Rip on dumbbell retrieves, and taunt him while we were working on stays.  Don't feel bad for Blossom, though, I only train for 10-15 minutes at a time, and she can watch most of our work from the crate.

So that's what this...

…and this have in common.

Project Stay: Duration Check-in

Rip and I are now on day 5 of Duration stay work.  I must admit that I've only made my goal of twice-a-day training sessions one day so far.  But I have been working on stays every day, which is progress!

I've been increasing at 30 second increments each session - expect for 2 sessions at 2 minutes long.  He broke at around 1.5 minutes the first time we did 2 minutes, so we did not add time for the next session.  I'm not adding time unless he's successful.

We are now up to 3 minute stays in both the down and the sit.


What I've noticed:

• I need to stay a bit closer to him than I thought I would.  Most of the time I'm 3' to 4' away.  I can tell he's just learning what I want (stay in the same position, in the same place), so I find staying closer to him seems to make him more sure of what he's doing.
• Watching him closely pays off.  This way I can tell if he's making little shifts that might lead to a break in position.  When I see this, I step a little closer in to give him support.  I'm not rushing in to correct him (which would make him even more confused) - it's just a quiet step in his direction, reinforcing the position.

Something I'm trying with Rip that I didn't do with my other dogs is differentiating his downs.

For the downs needed in the non-stay exercises, I've trained Rip to do a quick "sphinx" down -- folding back into the down position.  For stays I'm training him the command "hip" (I'm saying this instead of down) and asking him to rest on his left hip in the down.

Why am I doing this?  First, this is the sort of down my dogs tend to do when they're resting on their own, so I'm assuming it's more comfortable for a longer period of time.  Second, I want him to know that with the "hip" type of down, he's going to be there for a while.  With the "down" down, I'm likely to ask him to do something else pretty quickly (e.g., recall, stand, sit).

I'm not sure if it will work, but it's something I've been considering for a while, so Rip gets to be my test dog ;)

Rip demonstrates the "hip" down 

that we're using for our stays

Compared to

The "down" (aka sphinx) down

that we use for the other exercises

Project Stay - Yes, I'm Finally Training the Wild Dog to Stay...

Stay is boring!  Rip likes to run!

Ok, I'm a little ashamed that I have a nearly-3-year-old dog who really does not  understand the concept of "Stay."  Since I want to get Rip into the Rally & Obedience rings in the near future, this is a *bit* of a problem.

So, finally, I've decided to really work on "Stay" with Rip.

Coincidently last week I was in a managerial effectiveness class, and we had to work with another person and coach them through developing a plan to tackle a non-work project.  I chose to think through training the stay.  After helping me through the plan, my work colleague said, "and that is why I don't train my dogs."  Fair enough.


The goal:
At the end of Project Stay Rip will be able to hold a 5 minute sit stay and a 7 minute down stay in "public" with me 40' away.


The plan:
Take on the 3 "D's" of the Stay.  Duration, Distraction & Distance.  I've chosen to break it down this way based on what I learned from a Laura Romanik seminar I attended a couple years ago.


I'm taking on Duration first:

• This work will be done at home, or outside in our yard - places that Rip is really comfortable with.
• We will start with 1 minute sit and 1 minute down.
• We will work up to 7 minutes in sit, and 7 minutes in down.
• I will stay within 6' of Rip at all times.
• Plan to work on duration for 7-10 days.  2 sessions per day.

Next is Distraction:

• I'm breaking distraction down into "new places" and "what is mom doing?"
• Rip and I will go to at least 4 new places to work on stays.  The distraction part is all the new stuff that will be going on around us.
• We'll also work with distractions at home.  I'll introduce new things and use things that normally distract Rip to test his resolve.  We'll do at least 9 sessions of these "what is mom doing" distractions.
• All distraction work will be on leash, with me no more than 6' away from Rip.
• Plan to work on distraction for 7-10 days.  2 sessions per day.

Then we'll get to Distance: 

• Work will be done mainly at home, and at the club building where we normally train.
• Work at home will be off-leash.  Work away from home will be on-leash.
• Every session I'll move 1-2' feet further away.
• Goal is to be able to do out-of-sight stays at home.
• I'll work on distance for 7-10 days.  2 sessions per day.

Finally, we'll put it all together:

• In reality, this will continue as long as Rip is doing obedience, but we'll continue the stay focus for a final 7 days.
• We'll go to 4 new places and work on distance (on a long line).  
• The goal here is to get 50' away from Rip, and be able to hold the sit stay for 5 minutes, and the down stay for 7 minutes.

To keep myself honest, I'll post quick updates on the blog at least twice a week, and a summary of each phase as we graduate to the next.

Well, I had a plan

About a month ago, I finally decided to get plans together for Rip's obedience and Rally debuts.  Two of my favorite trials take place here on consecutive weekends in late March/early April.  One of the trials offers the "regular" obedience and rally classes; the other trial offers those plus the optional titling classes.

My plan was to do 2 days of Novice B Rally at the first trial, then 3 days of Rally and 3 days of Beginning Novice obedience at the second trial.  Hopefully, and ok, maybe a little optimistically, this would gain us two titles in two weekends.

In order to meet this goal, I started taking Rip to Rally practice once a week (when I was home), and I signed him up for a CGC class as well.  He really needs work around distractions (too much practice at home!) and work on his "stay."

All was going well (or well-ish, depending on how wild Rip was on a given day), then about a week and a half ago I messed up my knee by slipping and falling on some ice while taking Rip for a walk.  Not Rip's fault at all -- he wasn't pulling or being naughty -- I just hit some ice hidden under snow.

So now I'm doctor-imposed rest, ice, brace, etc.  I'm hoping to find out early next week what I can expect for recovery time and activity levels.  At this point, though, it seems that my goals for Rip's first titles might have to be postponed.

I'm trying to do a bit of training each day, but since I can't move much or quickly, my options are limited.  Any ideas for tricks I can train while seated with my knee elevated?

In the meantime, Rip is going on snowy, woodland adventures with The Husband and The Small Human.

Scouting the woodland for small creatures

Channeling his friend, Irie the Adventure Corgi

(Rip says she's lucky that she gets to hike so much!)

Working on natural agility

Rip's Training Diary - Maybe we need to get out more?

Last week I took Rip to Rally run-throughs for practice.  We had an interesting (and fun) evening.

Our fun started as we entered the club building.  Lately, our trips to the building have been to use the agility equipment - just us in the building, no others around.  Rip must love the building, because he started barking and pulling me to the agility room as soon as we entered the door.

While I love the enthusiasm, it is a little embarrassing ("doesn't she train her dog?!?"), so I made him stop barking, sit, and look at me (rewarded with a click and a treat) before we moved forward.  It took us about 5 minutes to make it the 20' from the door to the training room.

Upon entering the training room, Rip's excitement (and random barking) continued.  I had to gently hold on to his collar to keep him from greeting every human and canine who walked by.  

Here's what Rip was like almost the entire hour: 

A happy, leaping, wagging, naughty blur!

The good part?  He was AWESOME in our run-throughs.  After our last run-through, the instructor, who is a friend from the club, asked me why I hadn't taken Rip to a trial yet.  Did he miss the first 30 minutes of class, when my dog was barking, leaping, and licking everything he could?

Yes, Rip has the skills to do really well at Rally Novice, but what I learned from Thursday is that my wild black dog needs to get out more.  

It's funny, because Ziggy and Maggie needed to get out because they were shy or nervous and needed to build confidence.  This is not the case with Rip.  He has plenty of confidence.  He needs to get out more so he's not a whirling dervish every time we go somewhere.  

So that's my near-term goal:  take Rip somewhere every week - even if all we do is work long enough for him to calm down and settle in.

I'll let you know when it finally works :)

Rip: The Host with The Most

It's the holiday season and many people are traveling, or preparing to travel.  Hospitality is of utmost importance, so I would like to share with you why Rip makes visiting our home so truly special.

 He is The Host with The Most!

Before you arrive, he will prepare your suite.

He will greet you at the door.

He will warm up a place for you to sit.

He will call you to the sofa when the movie starts.

Depending on how the night goes,

he will party with you...

...or snuggle down to keep you warm.

He's a great drinking buddy.  No drinking alone with Rip around!

(p.s.- lest you think I'm a bad dog owner, Rip did not drink this glass of wine,

but he will stick his tongue in your glass if you're not watching)

He will ensure that your socks are properly aired.

No need to bring an alarm clock!  

He will wake you up with a leap and a lick!

He will even bring you Starbucks!

Well, sort of.

Wanna read the paper after breakfast?

No problem, he's "saving" it for you.

And after you've gone, he'll clean up anything you've left out.

And THAT, my friends is why Rip is The Host with The Most!

Rip's Training Diary #4

I realize that I haven't posted lately about what Rip & I doing with our training time.  My work duties (travel! projects!) continue to be onerous, so my training time is a bit sparse.  We are making progress, though!

Right now we're working on:

• Go out games - including hitting the stanchion, taking cheese off the stanchion, and running to a pvc box, turning towards me & sitting in the box.
• Retrieving - Rip loves retrieving!  We're working with wood, plastic, metal, and leather dumbbells.  Rip now reliably retrieves when I throw the dumbbell (though I still have to hold his collar to keep him in place while I'm throwing).  We're not doing any fronts - I'm just having Rip bring it back to me and drop it when I release him to the treat I've thrown.  
• A better dumbbell hold.  Naughty Rip likes to play with the dumbbell when returning to me - mouthing it instead of holding it politely.  No surprise there - why just hold a dumbbell when you can hold it, run, AND chomp on it?!
• Side-passing (horse people will know this term) - I'm training Rip to walk sideways when facing me - moving to stay perpendicular to me as I move back & forth.  Prep for fronts.
• Heeling!  We love to heel!  Now we're adding in automatic sits and slow pace.  
• A new trick that I really hope we can pull off.  I'll record it and post it on YouTube if I can pull it off.  So far Rip hasn't had an "I get it!" moment, so we'll see.

What we should be working on but aren't:

• Agility (sigh. where does the time go?)
• Stays.  Must start seriously working stays.  I know it's bad of me not be working on these more often.  I'm just so thrilled to have a dog who loves to play that I hate to "waste" our precious training time on the stay.

Since I don't have a training picture, I'll end with a picture that shows what happens when Rip is bored due to lack of training.  Naughty dog.  Or maybe he just wants to play MarioCart on the Wii.

Rip goes away

The Husband and I have decided that it's best for everyone if Rip goes away for a while.

WHY?

Is it because that nearly every day he steals my makeup brushes from the cupboard and tries to consume them?  

Why are they sending me away?  

I'm such a well-behaved dog!

Is it because no pair of socks in the house is safe from being stolen and carried around?

But mom, you keep working on my dumbbell hold.

I'm just practicing on socks!

Or perhaps one of the other naughty things I've documented on this blog?

Like mutilating a mouse  or  Consuming candles  or  

Destroying many pairs of shoes  or 

Ripping up various paper products  or  Ruining my clothes 

or  Many.  Other.  Things.

Nope.  It's because Rip gets to go do this again:

Rip is going away to be a show dog

I have finally recognized that, with my work travel schedule and family commitments, me taking Rip to dog shows just isn't going to happen any time soon.

So I found a handler who lives nearby and will take Rip with her on the weekends she shows.  This allows Rip to live at home with us the vast majority of the time so I can keep going with his performance training, but still get going in the conformation ring.

This weekend is going to be his first weekend out.

Even though I'm on a work trip, I miss him already.  Who will snuggle with me on the sofa at night?  Who will pester me to play whenever I try to sit down during the day?

The Husband is not-so-secretly looking forward to a (MUCH) calmer house with only 2 dogs - one geriatric, and one a lazy rehab patient.

Hopefully Rip will have fun on his new adventure!