The Book of Ramblings

Dahlia is off to the groomer's today. Poor girl apparently looked like she was being tortured as they took her away from David. Of course, once she gets back there she'll become super flirt and make the rounds saying hi to all the doggies. Her "tortured" act doesn't fool me one teensy tinsy bit! The folks from the place tell us she's an incredible flirt with all the other dogs. They all adore her there and one older lab named Chester follows her around like she's the cat's meow (and Chester is almost always there as he belongs to one of the workers). He has a thing for black fluffy dogs.

So nice try girl, really, but I'm not stupid! lol

It's hard to believe we're almost done with this class! Next week, I think, is our last class. And then the following week is something marked "graduation." So we're almost done. I'll be sad when it's over. I enjoy these classes with Dahlia, but as I need to get a new car sometime in the nearish future, I don't think I can spend another $100 on a class for a time. Ah well.

Last night we started with the teeter. Dahlia still hates that thing, but the instructor managed to get her onto it (basically by lifting up feet and placing her on it). She was relaxed enough to eat the treats placed in front of her. Eventually we bobbled it a little bit and I held her on it and petted her. And then when we did it again she jumped off. It's better than she's been with it!

While we were going around from dog to dog allowing them up on it, I decided to see what I could do with the tunnel. This time they had attached the chute part of it, which makes it more of a challenge. For those who don't know much about agility, there are two kinds of tunnels: an open tunnel (and since we're using one that's short the dog can see right through it) and a closed tunnel. The latter is more challenging for the dogs since they have to go through the chute part and can't see the end. This is ESPECIALLY challenging for Dahlia as she seems to hate dark, enclosed spaces. David told me she'd NEVER go through it.

I started off by tossing treats into the tunnel and letting her go in and out of it. I was surprised at how easily she did it. She tromped right in. She wouldn't go through it, but she did go in and come back out the same side several times. I started throwing treats further back in and she went after them and came back out. Finally I tossed three treats in, the furthest halfway through the chute part. I got up, ran to the other side and started calling her to me. And she came right through the chute! I was so proud of her! We did it several times. One time I thought she got caught in the chute, but it turned out she was looking for one of the treats she missed. Food hound. LOL. I guess she was pretty comfortable. Even the instructor was impressed that my chicken dog went right through it!

She did ok on the weaves. The instructor brought them closer together so they had to really weave through and it confused her a bit, but she eventually got it pretty well. Not as fast as before, but we'll get there.

We did several combos after that and except for really bad handler errors on my part, we did ok. It was really hard getting her to go over jumps to my right side. She wanted to be on my left. I wanted her on my left. Eventually we did manage to get her over the jumps on the opposite side of me from usual and from there things went well.

One of the combos was going over the jumps in quick succession. Just a step or two in between them. I wasn't sure how Dahlia would do but she did great! Especially the second time over them. She seems to really enjoy the jumping part. The instructor set things a bit higher so she had to leap a bit instead of just step over them and she sailed right over and through the tire jump. I'm SERIOUSLY proud of her and how well she's doing. After class was over, I set the tire jump higher than it's been before and got her to go through it a few times. She sailed right through with a big grin on her face.

Yep. Jumping. That's what she's there for I think. She loves 'em. I figured she would since she loved leaping over snow banks this winter.

On a side note, I got laughing SO HARD at Samson (the pit bull) during one of his run throughs. He managed to destroy everything in the room: took apart the weaves, knocked one jump bar off, knocked the other off and steps on it so it came apart into two pieces, knocked over the tire jump, and ripped the chute off the tunnel. He cracks me up.

I can't believe this was already our 4th class! Wow. Time flies. I think there are just two more and then "graduation" (whatever that is exactly).

Now, you might recall that Dahlia was a complete chickenshit last week. She didn't even want to go through the tunnel, even though she had done so many times. It was almost like starting over and I wasn't quite sure what the issue was. I'm thinking now that maybe it was too much stimulation and uncertainty that day. We had taken her in for grooming so she spent quite some time at Blueprints that morning (from about 8:30am until 2pm or so). So it might have been an all around bad day for her.

Well, this week she rocked the agility equipment. I was so proud of her!

We started with the teeter. She was still nervous around it, but we managed to actually coax her up onto it, all 4 feet. The instructor let it rock forward a bit and Dahlia immediately jumped off when it moved, but it was a start. She's still more nervous around it than some of the other dogs, but she's much better than she was last class. When the class moved onto jumps (which Dahlia has been doing fine), the instructor took the teeter off the base and put it on the ground (so it only moved slightly when you touched it) and suggested I work with it really low like that. I managed to get her to put paws on it while it moved around a bit. She was still nervous, but definitely much improved. I got her to stand and it on it a couple times.

We moved onto jump sequences after that. The jumps were set side by side. We had to make the dog go over the first jump and then call them to and over the second one. Dahlia did great! I think she's ready to move the jump up a bit. She mostly steps over it, sometimes slightly leaps over it. I'd like to see it a little higher for her at this point, so we'll see if the instructor wants to move it up. Of course, little Cesar (the Bichon Frise) can't have it much higher. I think he might be jumping at close to conformation height for a dog of his size already.

Then it was back to the weave poles. We started with them pretty far apart and Dahlia went through fine. Then she moved them closer together, almost so they were completely straight on (each pole was moved maybe a couple inches out from the center). I wasn't sure how Dahlia would do with that, really. I thought for sure she'd avoid going through. Imagine my surprise when she went right through them like she'd been weaving her whole life! The only problem is starting her into it. Sometimes she goes the wrong way, but once I get her in the correct way, she just weaves right through without my having to guide her. Go Dahlia! I was so incredibly proud of her. She would come out of the weaves with this look of "wow that was fun mom" on her face.

We then moved onto combinations, which I find hardest as the handler because I just can't quite figure out how to get her to them smoothly. I suppose that comes with time. I especially have difficulty because I'm moving VERY fast and over excitedly to try to get her pumped up. I can't quite recall the first combo right now, but the second combo was pause box, teeter (at least just walking over and putting a foot on it), jump, tire jump, tunnel, weaves, jump, tire jump. Quite the combo! She did well on it, though I had some difficulty getting her set up for one of the jumps. She's going through the tire jump and over the regular jumps like a real pro. She doesn't even try to avoid them anymore -- she just heads right for them.

At the end of class, I directed her back through the weaves (in both directions) and she did awesome again. And then when I headed to get her leash she raced after me looking all excited. I think she's starting to get more into it!

The really nice thing about class last night? There were only four dogs there: Cesar (the Bichon), Ellie (the only other female dog, who is also a little more hesitant about things), and Samson (the pit bull). Samson is HILARIOUS. I don't think he's quite aware of where his feet are at every moment. He runs toward things with his feet going every which way and just barrels through things. He knocked the bars off both jumps (because he doesn't jump -- he just goes through it most of the time), knocked over the tire jump, and yanked the weaves apart. I don't think his owner is helping much because she gets him all hyped up to do it. I HAVE to do that with Dahlia or else I end up with a dog who wanders over to the obstacles. But with Samson I think I'd want to keep it all incredibly low-key. She managed to start doing that on the weaves and he went through at a much more sedate pace.

On a side note, I ordered a basic agility jump (yay!) so I can do some jumping with Dahlia at home. Our next door neighbor (with the GSD puppy) is interested in the jump as well. She won't set it high or anything, but just having him go over a low jump will be fun. Now I wish I could afford other equipment, especially the weave poles!

From wet water dog to soft fuzzbut.

( Dahlia gets groomed again )

Awwww....

Last night was our first agility class at Blue Prints Dog Studio. The nice thing about this location? They're less than 3/4 of a mile away from our house. I could walk there if I wanted to, but since this is agility class I wanted Dahlia to have more energy so I opted to drive the short distance.

I found this class a little odd right off the bat. The instructor didn't introduce herself to us. I think most of the folks there are daycare dogs and so she knows them and their people. She knows Dahlia because she goes there for grooming, but I have no clue who SHE is. Odd. She was a nice woman though and was very positive with all of the dogs.

Our class has 4 other dogs: A pit-bull/lab/something mix named Ellie(She's adorable with cute spotty toes and adorable ears. She's also a really nice dog. She met Dahlia with no problem, came over and licked my hand, and was generally very attentive to her owner.); a pit bull whose name I have no forgotten (He's a nice dog, but a bit over-excited and seemed REALLY interested in Dahlia); a Bichon named Cesar (cute little dog, very alert and not barky at all...she brings him in his own little carrying case...lol); and a Labradoodle named Chauncey (biggest dog in the class...he's a nice dog too).

We immediately started in with doing some of the obstacles. The first one we did was the weaves. They had them set up so the dog simply walked through them, so it was more like a little path at first than actual weaves. I've heard of this method of teaching them: start with them far apart and slowly bring them closer together. Dahlia went easily through them, which I didn't expect! We moved them closer together and she still had no trouble. So then we started working off leash. We had to bring the dog to the beginning of them, unleash her, and then bring her through. Then we were supposed to leash them back up. The instructor decided that as long as the dog was staying with you, there was no need to leash them back up, so Dahlia did some great off leash heel work and sticking with me. She was bright and happy through most of the class!

Then we moved onto the jumps. Ahhh...poor Miss Dahlia did NOT like them at first. We were to lead the dogs up to it, throw a treat over it and give them a hand signal and the jump command to go over. Dahlia went around. And then around again. Then she finally sat down and look at me. She just didn't seem to get that she could go over it. It was like this HUGE barrier to her and she was definitely nervous to step over it. Finally *I* stepped over it and showed her "look it's ok!" and she managed to walk over it. We had a huge freaking party. lol She pretty much struggled with this all class, but we did get her over it a few times and even once was more like a jump than simply stepping over it.

The last thing we did was a pause box that was made out of PVC piping and laid on the ground. the goal was to get your dog inside the box and have her sit down and pause (I think it's 5 seconds in competitions). You'd think this would be easy. But, alas, Dahlia did NOT want to step over the PVC piping onto the floor in the middle. I finally stepped into it and then she immediately did as well. I guess she needs Mommy to show her its safe. Once in, getting her to sit and wait was easy enough. I was glad to see that Ellie also did not want to step over the PVC piping and would try to lean over it to get the treat they threw in the middle.

At that point we combined the three elements. Get the dog in the pause box, stop, lead the dog to the "weaves," go through, then go over two jumps. She did this ok...certainly she has the following me part ok and she goes through the "weaves" just fine at this point (no clue how she'll do when we try to get to actually weave!). It always took a bit to get her over the jumps, but she would eventually do it. Especially for the freeze-dried chicken liver treats the instructor had (we are SO buying some of those).

When class ended I decided to take her over the jumps again and finally, at the very end of class, she went over them without really hesitating. We did it twice in a row and both times she went over. She keeps her head down while doing it, though. I think she feels she needs to watch the jumps in case something scary happens. lol

I think my poor girl needs more confidence in herself with these things. She was nervous to try just about everything. I'm thinking about getting some sort of practice jump I can take down to the park with me and work on it with her. This one site has "duffle jumps" which you can take apart and stick in a duffle bag for carrying. That might be an option.

I got home around 4:30pm to find David outside with both Dahlia and Teri. The dogs, of course, went NUTS when I pulled up and got out of the car. So cute! And Dahlia looks fabulous. Even better than the last time. They just trimmed up some of her hair, especially around the ears and toes, and gave her a good bath. She smells nice too, though I'd imagine she wouldn't agree.

So here are some pics I took this evening.

( Dahlia pics ahead! )