AKC Trial 20081010-1012: Sarah/Denver Runs

 Denver, Results, Video  No Responses »
Nov 042008
 

This week’s trail was in Crosby, Tx and it was our first trial since the Astrohall trial in July!!! There were a few out of town shows during August – but I was out of the country picking up Gitta. Then hurricane Ike hit in September causing 3 trials we had entered to be cancelled.

Also – I had not been doing any jump work with Denver in that time. I figured I would start that training back up in the fall (like now!) once it wasn’t so hellishly hot. Denver was the only dog I ran on Friday (Rook was entered as well – but run by a friend), with Gypsy and Sammie joining the crew on Saturday and Sunday.

Oct 10th: Standard
Course Map
This trial was Gitta’s first and I couldn’t help feeling like she was the main reason I was there :-) I enjoyed walking her around, showing her off, and socializing her. When it came time to run Denver, it was very low key as I had been concentrating on Gitta! At any rate, he looked good! He did enter at the second pole (a suprising mistake for him) in the weaves and knocked the triple, but otherwise ran very nicely.

Oct 10th: Jumpers
Course Map, Denver’s Run
This jumpers course was a bear. Very VERY few dogs qualified. The trouble spot for everyone was the same, jumps 10-13. People lost their dogs to the tunnel after 10, other people made it over 11, but lost their dogs to the tunnel before 12! The placement of the weavepoles cause many people who pulled to get their dogs over 11 to then have to push into the dog as they ran around the poles shooting them into the off course tunnel. I actually fell into that category, however, I really cranked my shoulders and called even as I had to push into him a little and he stayed with me with just a slight slowing up. With so few dogs qualifying – he earned 1st place!

Oct 11th: Standard
Course Map, Denver’s Run
I felt that Denver and I just nailed this course! The 3 to 4 tunnel-tunnel was a tad crunchy, but his contacts were just beautiful. Especially the see-saw; I think that might have been his fastest, most solid see-saw ever! I was extremely pleased with my handling choice for 11-15 and it worked out perfectly. Quite a few folks got the near end of the tunnel (at obstacle 15), and quite a few of the folks that didn’t get the near end over managed and didn’t get a tight line from 14 to 15.

He really slowed up on the cross behind at 17, but did make it and ended up in 2nd place. He’s never driven very well with rear crosses and that’s something I definately want to improve with my next dog.

Oct 11th: Jumpers
Course Map, Denver’s Run
Not much to say here. The run was really nice (especially the opening) – but he had one dropped bar. In fact – it’s been a really REALLY long time since we had an off course – we just seem to be clicking so perfectly! Now he just needs to keep those bars up.

Oct 12th: Standard
Course Map, Denver’s Run
I was extremely pleased with how I handled 1-4. I believe I was the only person to lead out and run on the left of the Aframe. However, I thought this gave me a tighter turn from the chute to the double. But more importantly – I thought it gave a beautiful run right into the correct end of the tunnel after the Aframe. Now, I don’t think handling it the other way (right side of the Aframe) was all that risky, but for almost everybody, one of two things happened. 1) They did a front cross at the end of the Aframe and sortof sling-shot their dogs into the correct end. For most people this cause a slightly wider turn around thier bodies. Or 2) They stayed on the right, pulled their dog and then shoved them in the tunnel. Most people hold that pull too long not willing to risk an off course to just say ‘tunnel’. By being on the left of the Aframe – I was able to run him straight into the correct end. The rest of the run was nice as well – though his contacts were much sloppier than previous days. The final cross between 17 and 18 worked out nicely and Denver ended up with a 1st place!

Oct 12th: Jumpers
Course Map
Hmmm – doesn’t this look familiar! This jumpers course was roughly the reverse of the Friday JWW that ate up all the competitors. Luckily – it was not nearly so difficult this direction!!! Sadly – the kid needed attention and Esteban wasn’t able to tape my run – which was – FIRST PLACE!!! If you’re following along at home – that gave him a double q for the day. In fact – it gave him a double 1st place! One of my friends and competitors at the 16″ class is a gal named Elizabeth. I love competing with her because she runs every run like it’s the finals, is sincere in her congratulations, but also brings an element of trash talking to agility :-) She told me I was very annoying today and that it’s just rude to get 1st place in both rings ;-)

 Posted by at 3:33 am

What I’m working on: Speak and Down

 Clicker, Gitta, Training, Video  No Responses »
Nov 032008
 

Here’s a few videos of our training sessions today.

Speak

Gitta is actually my first dog to speak on command! We went with Judy’s method (our instructor at Dogwood) of giving the cue word, showing a treat and waiting for them to bark out of frustration. With other behaviors I’ve been trying to add the cue after the behavior is well established (the more typical clicker approach), but in this case I think having the cue from the beginning works because it lets the dog know early that no treats are available for barking unless the cue has been given. I don’t want her ‘offering’ barking all the time while I work to establish the cue!!! She has alot of superstitious behavior, but we’ll select that out of there eventually. It’s already much less pronounced than in our first few sessions. Superstitious behavior one: she often barks while downing. So I try and jackpot barks from a sit (or stand). Superstitious behavior two: she does alot of head jerking. I attribute that to our first shaping session for spinning. It started with a head turn and when she doesn’t know what to do – she often goes back to jerking her head around :-)

Down

We’ve been working on this one for awhile, but I’m still working on better response to the cue and generalization. We started by luring (treat down between the front paws) to get a nice sphinx (or lion) down. I got rid of the lure as fast as I could, but the side effect of the lure is that I was down low (so I could treat), so she has a hard time responding to the down when I’m standing. She usually will revert to a spin at that point (which I taught primarily standing up!). My thighs are aching from holding a squat as I try to slowly slowly give the command for a more and more upright position :-) Also – our criteria is that the click ends the behavior, so there’s nothing wrong with her jumping up as soon as I click. When I start adding duration – I’ll simply withold the click for a minute.

 Posted by at 2:54 pm

Serendipity

 Gitta  1 Response »
Nov 022008
 

On returning from Finland, Esteban and I were excited and inspired to make a closer connection to working rottweilers. We always considered ourselves ‘working dog’ sort of people with our high level of Agility competition with our rottie Sammie. She certainly has the drive, and a build that would allow for working. But of course – we’ve never done any Schutzhund with her – only Agility.

Now – having a pup from actual Schutzhund lines, we decided to join the USRC – United States Rottweiler Club. The ‘other’ U.S. club, the one not affiliated with the AKC, but the one that promotes the Rottweiler as a working breed.

This week – we got our first issue of the USRC Magazine. And imagine our surprise when we flipped through it and discovered a full page for a Manouman dog – followed by an article about the Finnish Working Rottweiler Club!!! The article is by Tina Finn – who owns an uncle of Gitta’s. It’s a strange feeling having just been there, having met Mikko (who’s featured in the article), and even having just watched Anu’s videos of her dog undergoing the ‘working qualities’ test that this article describes.

 
 
 

Footnote: I went to wikipedia to make sure the title of this post meant what I thought it meant. It does seem to fit and I thought I would share a bit here. I found it amusing that it’s suppose to be so hard to translate since this post will probably have a larger global audience :-)

Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. The word has been voted as one of the ten English words that were hardest to translate in June 2004 by a British translation company.[citation needed] However, due to its sociological use, the word has been imported into many other languages (Portuguese serendipicidade or serendipidade; French sérendipicité or sérendipité but also heureux hasard, “fortunate chance”; Italian serendipità; Dutch serendipiteit; German Serendipität; Swedish, Danish and Norwegian serendipitet; Romanian serendipitate; Spanish serendipia ).

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