Spring, yea!

I spotted these daffodils so had to jump out for a quick pic. I sure hope the owners weren't home watching us tip toe through their flower beds or at least that they understood our trespass was a compliment to the bright and cheery flowers.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Articles

Tristan did articles today. I messed up a bit by forgetting his regular Natural Balance treats. Of course I did - because I had taken extra care to properly dice them into the appropriately precise size last night and so left them in the refrigerator. Luckily I keep other treats in the vehicle so all was not lost. It's just that Tristan prefers Natural Balance and I would like to use the most positive reinforcement possible plus I would like to keep all other things the same when introducing something new at training.

I laid seven articles articles in a straight track 10 to 15 paces apart. Tristan did just okay and not great. He hasn't really figured it out. The process is to have Tristan follow the track and then platz at the article. If he doesn't go down, he's given the platz command. He stays down and gets lots of treats individually placed on the article. Then when he's focused on the track again and his nose is down, he's given the command to track again. Tristan had to be given the platz command at each article. I'm going to work hard with him this week and try to get him up to speed for next week.

Tristan was a lot better at obedience this week. It was his week to be calmer since he alternates weeks between being calm and overexcited. He really enjoyed the dumbbell work. The trainer has gotten Tristan to really want the dumbbell and he looks amazing. At one point though Tristan dropped the dumbbell. The trainer had me take Tristan off the field and, boy, was Tristan ever sorry he dropped it. He was a handful trying to get him back to the car and the kennel. He kept trying to head back to the dumbbell and was very determined to get at it. Great learning for him.

Protection work was great. We've been practicing at a different field since our club field is too soggy and for the last month have only used one portable blind. This week there were two so Tristan did a blind search. I was pleased that he immediately did the search correctly even though the set up was a lot different.

Tristan's cousin Thurber

My dear friend Brad's dog won Best of Breed for Clumber Spaniels at the 2008 Rose City Classic. He's a champion now too. Isn't he handsome?

Brad suggested Tristan's name and he did right by Thurber too. His registered name is Casmir Creswick Sgt. Pepper and he was initially called Sargeant but Brad renamed him to Thurber. It's a much friendlier name and I think fits this gorgeous, cuddly guy much better.

Thurber will be on Animal Planet's national airing of the show March 3 at 7:00 PM. He's in the Sporting Group. Thurber's a star!

3/6/08 Update: Thurber is the No. 5 Clumber Spaniel in the U.S. Isn' t that terrific?

Bad dogs get tummy aches

Tristan got my dinner again last night and it is revisiting us today. Just as I started to prepare dinner my cell rang with a call I needed to take. Bad move and bad dog. I was only away a few minutes but Tristan had removed the cooked roast from the pan on the counter and was half way through eating it.

He's paying for being naughty today. I am too as I follow him around on the mop up patrol. Too bad dogs can't use air sickness bags. Tristan gives a tiny little whimper to let me know he needs to go outside to upchuck and I hop to it but sometimes it comes on too fast. Tristan looks so embarrassed every time.

Somehow I don't think he'll remember the misery the next time a tempting entree is available for pilfering.

Training mantra

Anything you let a dog do, you are training it to do.

This is now my training mantra. I was given advice by an experienced club member that I needed to make things black or white for Tristan. It's excellent advice which I try to follow but I don't think I fully grasped its meaning until I recently spotted the above maxim. I've applied it to the follow through of requiring Tristan to obey a command once given. I've always tried to do that. I've been less mindful of behavior when I haven't given a command or if the execution is less than perfect. Unless the behavior is really bad, my practice has probably been more to ignore it if I didn't want to reinforce it. What I failed to understand is that allowing the behavior is reinforcement. In addition, I've been too easily satisfied if the command is obeyed but the execution of it is off.

I think the saying clarifies to me the meaning of black and white in Schutzhund training. 100% obedience doesn't just mean obeying a command but rather doing the command 100% perfectly.

Training articles

Tristan is starting to learn articles in tracking. Scented articles (small pieces of leather, fabric, or wood) are placed on the track and the dog is to indicate he or she has found the article by lying down or other method.

I haven't worked with Tristan on articles because I can't kneel down beside him so that I can reinforce him with praise and treats. But it's time to start so yesterday I decided I would have to give it a try in my own way. While I can't kneel I can still give lots of praise and bend over to give the treats. It's not optimum but Tristan is happy to get treats anyway he can. The first step is to get the dog to platz on an article. It only took several times before he would come upon the article and lay down with it between his paws. It was a short session but I was pleased that Tristan got the idea.

That was yesterday. Today I put an article on the track but Tristan was oblivious to it when he came upon it. It really was expecting too much that Tristan would get that the article on the track was the same as what we did at the park yesterday. Still it was a good learning experience and he was rewarded with a lot of treats when he platzed by command on the article. Next week I'm to have about 10 articles on the track and lots of treats on hand.

Now about those articles. The articles need to have human scent on them and the trail layer usually carries the articles around next to one's skin for at least 30 minutes before putting them on the track. I'm just picturing tucking in 10 pieces of carpeting on my person. That must be what training bras are for! (Groans are allowed)

Tristan was too wired again in obedience. It seems like he alternates Sundays between being good and being too excited. It really stresses me when he's hyper because it seems like I'm having to correct him about everything. I get frustrated and tense when we should be enjoying working on the field. He did great though when the trainer worked with him on the dumbbell. It's amazing to see how he gets Tristan to really want the dumbbell while learning to hold it solidly.

Protection was great as always. The guy's a natural.