I'm loving the recent trend I've been seeing of pit bull groups putting on awareness conferences to talk about our dogs and their place in the world today. I just read about an intriguing looking one going on in Portland, Maine on June 14 called Judging the Innocent.
Among the topics to be discussed are: breed history, dog behavior, facts and fallacies about fatal dog attacks, dangerous dog laws, why breed bans don't work, and solutions to the "pit bull dilemma."
At $65 per person including lunch, sounds like a bargain to me. If you're reading this from Portland, Maine, go check it out and let us know how you liked it!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Change can indeed happen
Check out this post on Bad Rap's blog. It's about how the organization and community's concerted efforts to promote owner education, spay/neuter programs, free training classes, and shelter-dog adoptions has actually made a dent in the number of pit bulls showing up in the Berkeley Animal Care Services Shelter.
Amazing.
Good work, Bad Rap, what an inspiring effort!
Amazing.
Good work, Bad Rap, what an inspiring effort!
Sunday, May 04, 2008
He passed!
Well, at long last . . . today the Alexandria Schutzhund Group held a trial, I entered Doc for his BH, and we passed! I can't tell you what a relief it was to see that "Bestanden" (what they write in German to let you know the dog passed) written in his scorebooks!
the odd thing was that usually Doc's heeling is pretty clean and tight, and he's got no problems doing it. It's some of the other stuff he's usually confused on--like the sit in motion (sometimes he'll walk a few steps before he sits or if he's feeling lazy, he might down instead of sit) and the recall (sometimes will crash into me if he's too excited) . . . but today he did all the other exercises perfectly. His heeling sucked, though--He kept looking off at the crowd, glanced a few times at the dog in the long down to see what she was up to, he lagged behind me once or twice and i had to give a little handler help by patting my leg and speeding up to get him to catch up. And the really strange thing is that she said he didn't have enough drive in his heeling, which is also not like him at all. Usually he's a happy, bouncy heeling fool, but not today. So weird!
Someone mentioned that my off-lead heeling looked great, but my on-lead was not great . . . Her best guess is that I was so tense that he felt that tension right down the leash and his performance reflected that.
Considering this is the first thing I've ever done competition-wise, that does make total sense to me.
But in the end it's a pass/fail exercise and the most important thing is that WE PASSED and nothing horrible happened! Though I did have a moment where I wondered if he was gonna fail right out of the gate when he wanted to check out the malinois bitch we were partnered with . . . We went to check in with the judge and all of a sudden he jerked in her direction and I had to pull him back and remind him to fuss. She was a little worked up when she came onto the field, so I think he was intrigued by her energy. lol
the odd thing was that usually Doc's heeling is pretty clean and tight, and he's got no problems doing it. It's some of the other stuff he's usually confused on--like the sit in motion (sometimes he'll walk a few steps before he sits or if he's feeling lazy, he might down instead of sit) and the recall (sometimes will crash into me if he's too excited) . . . but today he did all the other exercises perfectly. His heeling sucked, though--He kept looking off at the crowd, glanced a few times at the dog in the long down to see what she was up to, he lagged behind me once or twice and i had to give a little handler help by patting my leg and speeding up to get him to catch up. And the really strange thing is that she said he didn't have enough drive in his heeling, which is also not like him at all. Usually he's a happy, bouncy heeling fool, but not today. So weird!
Someone mentioned that my off-lead heeling looked great, but my on-lead was not great . . . Her best guess is that I was so tense that he felt that tension right down the leash and his performance reflected that.
Considering this is the first thing I've ever done competition-wise, that does make total sense to me.
But in the end it's a pass/fail exercise and the most important thing is that WE PASSED and nothing horrible happened! Though I did have a moment where I wondered if he was gonna fail right out of the gate when he wanted to check out the malinois bitch we were partnered with . . . We went to check in with the judge and all of a sudden he jerked in her direction and I had to pull him back and remind him to fuss. She was a little worked up when she came onto the field, so I think he was intrigued by her energy. lol
Friday, May 02, 2008
Friday!
Today I decided to try something different . . . sort of. I put Doc's fursaver and prong collar on for his regular walk, and I put him on a light nylon long line rather than his usual leather leash. We walked, and I gave him enough freedom to sniff and enjoy the walk, but every so often I'd throw a command in there and reward with food as quickly as I could manage. I'm trying to speed up his response time on sits and downs, because right now he's rather slow. He will sit and down for me on command but he almost always pauses on the sit like he has to process the command first, and he usually takes a couple of steps or crawls a pace or so before he actually hits the ground on the down.
I thought that maybe keeping him on his toes and getting commands/rewards out of the blue might speed his response time. I'm not sure it helped, but it definitely resulted in him giving me a lot more attention during the walk without me having to ask for it. He kept looking at me to see if I had treats in my hand or whether I might be about to ask for a Fuss or a Platz. Kind of funny. I've done this with Tucker a lot to help keep his attention on me during walks, but never with Doc. I'll have to do this more often, it's kind of a fun exercise.
I have to go to DC tonight for dinner, and a meeting in the morning, so I won't be back till tomorrow afternoon. Which means no training again till Saturday afternoon. Maybe on Saturday we'll try to find a quiet field and run through the whole routine with Tucker as a dummy dog . . . I wish I had the time to do more practicing with heeling through the group though. Not for Doc, so much, but for me. For some reason, I become remarkably awkward when doing figure 8s around the people, and I end up losing track of myself. I've been doing figure 8s in imaginary groups, using a chair or a tree as a stand in for a person, but it's just not the same!
I thought that maybe keeping him on his toes and getting commands/rewards out of the blue might speed his response time. I'm not sure it helped, but it definitely resulted in him giving me a lot more attention during the walk without me having to ask for it. He kept looking at me to see if I had treats in my hand or whether I might be about to ask for a Fuss or a Platz. Kind of funny. I've done this with Tucker a lot to help keep his attention on me during walks, but never with Doc. I'll have to do this more often, it's kind of a fun exercise.
I have to go to DC tonight for dinner, and a meeting in the morning, so I won't be back till tomorrow afternoon. Which means no training again till Saturday afternoon. Maybe on Saturday we'll try to find a quiet field and run through the whole routine with Tucker as a dummy dog . . . I wish I had the time to do more practicing with heeling through the group though. Not for Doc, so much, but for me. For some reason, I become remarkably awkward when doing figure 8s around the people, and I end up losing track of myself. I've been doing figure 8s in imaginary groups, using a chair or a tree as a stand in for a person, but it's just not the same!
Thursday, May 01, 2008
How Can It Be Thursday Already?!
Man, this week is going by too fast. I got up today and realized I have today, tomorrow, and Saturday and that's it. And Saturday I have to be in Washington, D.C. for a meeting most of the day, so I'm not sure it's going to be a very useful training day. Yikes.
This morning I realized that I have just started to really understand my dog. I've been living with him for two years now--two years! wow!--and working with him in basic schutzhund training for a little more than a year. I always knew how to get him interested in working and that he likes some things more than others, but I never really understood why we sometimes work so incredibly well together, while at others it seems like our whole routine falls apart, the dog lacks focus, or the drive just isn't there.
Butch has been telling me for months that I need to learn to reward the dog more, praise him more, encourage him more. And I've done that, but I'm starting to see that I never built proper patterns for this dog that create any sense of suspense or excitement or expectation. This week, since I've stopped being such a slave to practicing the routine and have been focusing instead on drive building and short exercises, Doc and I have reconnected and he's starting to get that at any moment looking up at my face and staying at my side could result in me whipping the ball out of my pocket and chucking it across the yard for him. Or that staying in a down 30 feet away from me isn't boring or inconvenient or frustrating--it's a rule in the game we're playing that will ultimately result in the best thing ever at any moment. At any moment! How exciting for him--all he's got to do is play by the rules!
He's suddenly remarkably cooperative and I'm feeling like I understand now why all those prong collar corrections I was giving last week when he was refusing to pay attention were not having the right effect--I really hadn't connected the reward to the action in a way that really motivated the dog. Sure he was motivated before because he knew sit meant sit and that he might get a treat for it--but he wasn't Motivated with a capital M because he didn't understand that the rules of this game meant that sit could also mean YEEEEEEHAAAAAAA, fight, tug, bite, chase!
He's starting to make that connection better now. We did some really nice bursts of heeling in between ball and tug, and every once in a while, rather than just heel, reward, heel, reward, we did heel, rewardrewardrewardreward, then heel some more, then rewardrewardreward, take a break, do something else, then some spontaneous heeling, downing, sitting, recalls, rewardrewardrewardrewardreward . . . and I abruptly brought the whole session to an end while he still wanted to play so he could have something to think about while he laid on his bed in the kitchen. And something to look forward to later.
Three more days.
This morning I realized that I have just started to really understand my dog. I've been living with him for two years now--two years! wow!--and working with him in basic schutzhund training for a little more than a year. I always knew how to get him interested in working and that he likes some things more than others, but I never really understood why we sometimes work so incredibly well together, while at others it seems like our whole routine falls apart, the dog lacks focus, or the drive just isn't there.
Butch has been telling me for months that I need to learn to reward the dog more, praise him more, encourage him more. And I've done that, but I'm starting to see that I never built proper patterns for this dog that create any sense of suspense or excitement or expectation. This week, since I've stopped being such a slave to practicing the routine and have been focusing instead on drive building and short exercises, Doc and I have reconnected and he's starting to get that at any moment looking up at my face and staying at my side could result in me whipping the ball out of my pocket and chucking it across the yard for him. Or that staying in a down 30 feet away from me isn't boring or inconvenient or frustrating--it's a rule in the game we're playing that will ultimately result in the best thing ever at any moment. At any moment! How exciting for him--all he's got to do is play by the rules!
He's suddenly remarkably cooperative and I'm feeling like I understand now why all those prong collar corrections I was giving last week when he was refusing to pay attention were not having the right effect--I really hadn't connected the reward to the action in a way that really motivated the dog. Sure he was motivated before because he knew sit meant sit and that he might get a treat for it--but he wasn't Motivated with a capital M because he didn't understand that the rules of this game meant that sit could also mean YEEEEEEHAAAAAAA, fight, tug, bite, chase!
He's starting to make that connection better now. We did some really nice bursts of heeling in between ball and tug, and every once in a while, rather than just heel, reward, heel, reward, we did heel, rewardrewardrewardreward, then heel some more, then rewardrewardreward, take a break, do something else, then some spontaneous heeling, downing, sitting, recalls, rewardrewardrewardrewardreward . . . and I abruptly brought the whole session to an end while he still wanted to play so he could have something to think about while he laid on his bed in the kitchen. And something to look forward to later.
Three more days.
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