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I've made the leap and integrated all of Lucy and Walter's blogs into one single blog. So from now on, updates on Lucy's rally-o fun will be at www.muttsandaklutz.blogspot.com. Hope to see you there.

Krazy Kanines fun match: Cold, hot, then cold again!

A neat bonus of this fun match is that there was an actual CARO judge and we received the scoresheet afterwards. It was held at our main agility practice field, so I thought keeping her attention wouldn't be too difficult since she already knows the place.

Not so!

Her first run was ultra-distracted and sniffy, right from the start. We lost points all over the place.

For her second run I brought out some dried liver instead of her usual kibble since her allergy diet went kaputski recently. She was spot on and scored a 199!

Her third run, despite using liver again, was just as sniffy as the first, no connection at all.

I can't figure Lucy out but when she's into the game she's REALLY into it and is sharp as a stick.

Oh well, if everything came easy it would be boring wouldn't it?

Lucy's first rally trial

Lucy and I participated in our first rally trial today, outside at Guides Canins. She was entered in two novice runs. For the first run, it was a real struggle to get and keep her attention, even though she was getting food. I got a ton of deductions for tight leash. Had I not completely forgotten to do one of the stations, she would have Q'd, but only just barely.

Her second run was somewhat better attention-wise, but she was still slow and lacking her usual rally spark even though I was again giving plenty of food on course. Watching the video, most of it doesn't look too bad, but I felt like I had to cheerlead all the way through. She scored a 192 with her first rally Q.

I'm shocked that we got through two courses with neither of us knocking anything over! ;-)

Although it's like watching paint dry, here's the video of her first run:



And her second run:

Hmmmm

Took Lucy to a field we don't go to very often, to practice some rally. I set out four margarine tub lids to act as cones for some weaving...

... And discovered that a huge gap in our training is getting her used to the presence of objects on the ground and ignoring them. Ok, maybe not so much a discovery as a reminder, since she's always been interested in checking out the rally signs. Hoo boy will we have our work cut out if we ever make it to the offset figure 8 in Advanced! Heh.

With our first trial coming up soon (which I realized with a start just a few days ago), I'm going to bring her out a few more times and just practice heeling past various miscellaneous objects on the ground.

Nothing like an upcoming trial to get one back into training mode, though I wish I had gotten back into it a bit sooner!

Heeling? What's that?

Stopped by Petsmart for a few minutes to work on rally in a distracting environment.

She did fine with the "stations", but holy mackerel just getting a nice attention heel was practically impossible! She wanted to inspect and sniff everything on the shelves. And we didn't even go down the rawhide aisle!

Will try this again with more of a focus on the heeling part since the stations were fine, and bringing lots more kibble next time!

Fun match

Lucy and Jasmine took a road trip to Guides Canins on this bright sunny day to participate in a rally-o fun match. We ran two different novice courses.

In the first course, I totally didn't have Lucy's attention for the first twenty or so seconds; it was reminiscent of the la-la land we started visiting all too often at agility trials. She was forging ahead, sniffing, and looking around, not tuned in and definitely not in rally mode. Interestingly enough, the moment I pulled a treat out of my pocket (half way through the figure 8), she magically snapped back into begging focus mode! Once we got our connection back, the rest was much better, and the problem didn't repeat in our second run. Certainly more work is needed with distractions: There were a few attention lapses including one at a corner where a dog was barking and bouncing on the other side of a door. Still, it was a lot of fun and Lucy did great!

Here's our first run:


And our second run:


Lessons learned / things to work on:

• Use her name in the first few seconds to keep focus
  
• Get a slightly shorter leash that's just the right length so it doesn't need all kinds of looping but at the same time isn't too short
  
• In the interest of avoiding an annoying five faults, don't crowd her around the cones
  
• Practice in distracting, unfamiliar environments (a few field trips are on Lucy's calendar for this)
  
• Her left 270s/360s are coming along but I'd like to get the circle smaller with her maintaining a stronger heel position.
  
• I could/should spend some time to get her to trot instead of pace, but oh well.
  
• Good job, Lucy!

Fun match

Our first rally fun match! One run on a CKC novice course.
It was held at the place where we train, so we had homeground advantage.



She felt a bit distracted, but from watching the video she had pretty good focus overall. I was thinking too much, was late in giving several cues, and didn't praise her up as much or as cheerfully as I would have liked, especially at the end. Oh and in the spiral I practically force her to step into the pilons. Thank goodness for learning from video :)

Inspired by a recent post at Agility Nerd, here are three positive things about the run: she had a lovely straight sit at the halt-sit-down; I remembered to give her treats; I didn't get lost on course.

Our friend Jasmine was there too. They ran both the novice and advanced course.

Perhaps the most exciting part of our night was the chain of mishaps that started with Lucy knocking over Jasmine's thermos of water (pssst Lucy: I'm supposed to be the klutz, not you). Lyne then went to get the mop (thanks Lyne) and in doing so knocked down the ring barrier next to the mop. Which in turn pulled down the next ring barrier. And the next, and the next, in a lovely domino effect until all of the ring barriers were on the ground and Lyne just stood there trying to become invisible. :-)

Our instructor was there and ran her dogs in the Advanced course. Their runs were lovely to watch. Her hands do a subtle, graceful dance throughout, providing her dogs with clear and consistent information. Quite beautiful!

Beginner class #5

Today we learned the last of the novice-level signs (some of which are advanced in CARO, but novice in CKC):

• Moving side step right
  
• Halt - 1, 2, 3 steps forward
  
• Moving down - Forward (CARO advanced)
  
• Call front - 1, 2, 3 steps backward (CARO advanced)
  
• Halt - Fast forward from sit (CARO advanced)

Lucy was flat today, not her usual perky self, slow and lagging on some of the turns and overall not as engaged as she has been in the previous rally classes. After class we went to the dog park and she didn't even flirt with a tall, handsome, intact male german shepherd which is exactly the type of dog she would normally go head over heels for. And on Valentine's Day no less! What's up with poor Lucy!

At the end of the walk she shook her head in that ear infection way I've come to know so well, so I took a look and sure enough, her left ear seems to be infected, though only mildly at this point. In an effort to find out if food allergies might be the cause of her recurring ear infections and foot-licking, she's eaten nothing but a particular brand of hypoallergenic kibble since December 1st (with a few minor "OOPS" moments along the way). The vet said to give her three months on the new kibble and see if her symptoms cease. Well, we're now almost at the end of the three months, and this current ear infection is the second one she's had while on this kibble, plus she still licks at her feet. So, time to try something else. A couple of friends with allergic dogs have had success with different types of kibble so we'll give one of those a try. Ear infections are no fun, and she gets them bad, poor dog. :-(

Oh, how can I forget, Lucy gave us all a good laugh in class today! We were doing a course and arrived at a station which had us directly facing the row of chairs on which I had put my coat and extra treats (kibble). After completing the station, I asked her to heel and all of a sudden she charged forward and dragged me to the chair. Caught me TOTALLY off guard, a humbling moment. :-)

Beginner class #4

Today we learned these signs:

• Halt - 90 degree pivot right
  
• Halt - 90 degree pivot left
  
• Halt - Turn right - 1 step - Halt
  
• Spiral right (dog outside)
  
• Spiral left (dog inside)
  
• German about turn (can't remember what it's called in CARO) (novice in CKC but advanced in CARO)

and did a couple of courses. Lucy continues to think she's supposed to sit during our left turns (anything more than a 90 degree turn) so I'll have to think about how to better explain myself to her. Hmmm...

Beginner class #3

Lots of left turns this week. Hmmm, we seem to have spent too much time this past week on left pivots and not enough on turning left as part of a heeling pattern as poor Lucy thinks she's supposed to sit halfway through our left turns!

Today we were introduced to the right around finish and the left swing finish. Lucy learned these a while back in obedience class so they weren't too much trouble, although her front definitely needs work and her finishes could be a lot crisper.

So, these are the signs we learned this week:

• Left turn
  
• About "U" turn
  
• 270 left
  
• 360 left
  
• Call front - Forward right
  
• Call front - Forward left
  
• Call front - Finish right
  
• Call front - Finish left

Finished off with a loooong course that incorporated pretty much all the signs we've learned so far. It's going to take me some time to get used to walking rally courses, keeping the signs on the... right? or is it left? and not causing myself or my dog to bump into them, argh! Oh and I can't wait (sarcasm) to read my first rally-o course map. A friend showed me one a while back and it was truly all Greek to me; Agility course maps ain't got NOTHIN' on rally-o course maps! :-D

Homework: More left turns; fronts; swing finish

P.S. Roxanne: thanks for your me-turn, you-turn memory tip; I get it now :)