Video of Bri and Magoo Earning Their Last Legs for Companion Dog

Not perfect runs by far.   Bri had the best run of the two, and a good run for her pinkness.   Magoo was a bit distracted by the horses in the beginning, as you can tell, because he only hits one auto sit (a sure sign that the dog is distracted).   He stayed with me nicely during the heels, though a couple of times on leash there was some tension in the leash mostly in the about turns.

Very proud of them, it's been a hot long summer so far.  Magoo got his three legs in six trials total.   Bri got her two legs in 2008.   I think that took 5 trials then, before she "turned on".   Then this time it took 3 to get her last leg two years later.  I will never ever stop in the middle again.   It took a lot of work to get her back.



What's next?   Well I would like to train and enter my own dog, Boris, into the UKC.   I may take Magoo into Open.   Finally now that I have done a large dogs, I would love to take a toy dog into the ring:)

Next directly is to get my application into the IACP for my CDT:)

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Two Brand Spanking New Companion Dogs

Introducing Magoo CD!!   Magoo earned his third leg at yesterday afternoon at the Penobscott trials in Cumberland Maine.   Magoo is a Great Dane (male one and a half years old) that we borrow from a client to compete with.   Almost no work is done with him at home, but he comes to daycare 5 times a week.   About a half an hour a week day has gone into maintaining his training between trials.   Magoo's first two legs had been earned in May at the Vacationland trials.   Magoo was trained and handled by Robin Rubin of Mannerly Mutts.

Good job big boy!!!

Introducing Bri CD!!   Bri is owned by some friends next door, who allow us to borrow her for competition.   Bri is an American Staffordshire female of six years old.   At home she doubles as sleeping beauty with a lot of couch time, unless there is a pond around.   Bri was almost on the same schedule as Magoo, except she was dropped if time was run out of during the day:(  Even so, we managed to pull it off this weekend.

Robin Rubin of Mannerly Mutts trained and handled Bri at the trials.   Robert Rubin handled Bri during the stay portion of the trial.

Good job teams!!!  Don't see much of either breed in obedience competitions.   It was awesome being out there with these great dogs.

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Training Others' Dogs for the AKC Ring

I have been spreading my wings as a trainer in more than just size differences and temperament differences in dogs trained for the AKC ring, but I have taken on clients and friends dogs to get my experience in the ring.   Some trainers have a large family of dogs, in case things happen where their dogs can no longer accompany them into the ring.   I like for MY dogs to have all my attention when clients dogs are here, and I feel I have only enough energy to keep 2-3 dogs of my own perfectly happy and content.   Some trainers have even been known to train a foster dog to this task, but the problem comes in when you don't want to hold up a perfect home for the dog (or now you can't part with your foster LOL).  Taking on clients dogs is a unique opportunity.  

From the owners, I need access to the dogs during weekdays.   My client brings his dog to daycare due to this, and my friends are at work...so Bri is available to me during the weekdays.   Other factors can influence me on what is best to train on that day.   Today for instance, we have a moment of cold and windy (but sunny weather) that may bring more hardy Mainers out to some outdoor places.   So today might be a great day to bring a dog into distracting areas to do long downs or sit on the dogs.   Last few days were rainy, so we did a lot of group indoor stays with whoever was here and able to do that with Magoo and Bri.  You can make an indoor environment more distracting by bouncing balls, using an untrained puppy named Boris to run around and play through the participants, opening doors, timing it to when vehicles to pick up daycare are coming ET.   While it might not be worth it to go out and find distractions (as they won't be plentiful or probably on rainy days), you can still practice indoors.

I am really trying to make these practices count, and not try to overwork the dogs plus have them be practice sessions that will turn out to bite me in the butt in the ring (not ever literally of course ).   When out walking at a heel and for auto sits, being really sure that my body and foot movements will represent what I do in the ring is very important right now.   This is more about retraining me, BUT I have to make sure I now train the dogs to interpret the difference in the body movements now.   Why don't I just walk as I did in practice before?   Most likely this will cause points off.   There are very specific rules on what the human party in the transaction can and can not do.   I have had quite a few points taken off for having my hand in the wrong place during a command before.   If I have put the work into the dog, I prefer not to point myself out.  Yikes!!   It's a lot to think about, and it's best I think about it now BEFORE going into the ring.

Other things can effect what I work on during the day.   Who is here is sometimes a consideration.   Magoo gets along with everybody, and so far everybody likes him (human and canine LOL).   But Bri and Roxy are not so fond of each other.   It's not clearly evident unless they invade the other's space, but I prefer not to have them interact too often.  So since Roxy is coming here today to board, it's a good day to work with Bri off the property in distracting and public areas.   Thankfully, the weather is also cooperating with this plan today.

I have realized by getting my legs in the past, even if something goes a little wrong, I can usually save both of us from pointing out by keeping my body language the same, when I am in the ring.   So the dog can go "oh look at this piece of straw in the ring",   "oops wait where did my handler go, I better catch up."   If I instead look back, as if I am going back to the dog, I have clouded my signals up for my partner.  I am no longer in a leader position, as I have instead indicated that I may go back for them.  This can make an oopsy worse than it needed to be.

In training dogs that are not mine, I have found it quite different than training my own.   At home, I only have to worry about the humans who live here being inconsistent.   I can't control that when Bri and Magoo's owners interact with them.   I can give them clues and tips, but I know they both use the term "come" differently than I do in the ring.   It might have been smart of me to develop a different word for the recall in the ring, but we are a bit too far along to mess with things right at this moment.   I often don't have the opportunity to work them around their owners either, which provides a much different type of distraction in the ring.   As you could see in the video, Bri wasn't looking towards her owner, so she has become used to her owner being with me when in the ring from last year.  Many times, training may not be used in the home of the dog at all!!  So the only time they get practice is with you.  Should I ever wish to become a professional handler for others (a long time from now), it will be imperitive that I have these things sorted out and planned for.   First, I need to get better at my handling skills.   Luckily, I enjoy the art of dog training, and the bonds it creates between me and my canine friends.

Do I want to do this ring style body langauge when just going for a casual walk with my dogs normally?   Of course not...   The better you can prepare your dog for a scenario that may not be usual, in general, the better you can prepare your dog for real life situations.   By training my dogs and others for public as well as private performances, I can provide more opportunities of enjoyment and freedom for mine and others' dogs.

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NOT A Good First 2010 Trial Performance(s) for ME

The Casco Obedience Club Trial did end up being the perfect one for Magoo's first showing ever, my first trial of 2010 since (June 2009 legs earned on both Bri and Jack), and Bri's first trial since the same June 2009 trial. It had very large classes, but was a pretty tame show area. Still, I was far more nervous of this first 2010 event that I wanted to be. After working the dogs that morning, my best bet was that Bri may stand a chance at her last leg, and that Magoo would not stand a chance. Boy was I wrong LOL.

First of all, Bri has done very well before; it was totally my mistake in only acclimating her for a week before the trial. After viewing our tape, I am also quite certain that during the auto sits; I am probably not walking the same when practicing with her as when I was in the ring. My body language seemed to be confusing her, so it's going to be very important that I really pay attention to body position and footwork between now and May 20ths trial. You will note she did every auto sit...somewhere in the ring, it just was not beside me sometimes it was behind me (and I remember wondering where the heck is Bri Bri? I didn't want to mess her up further by looking for her at that point). Sometimes it was behind me; sometimes she walked away a little before doing it. She was paying attention to me well during the leashed heel, but was still farther ahead than I would like, so I need to reposition her for heel AND I also want to move her into a bit more of a six inch distance from me. I also underestimated how excited she would be to be back in the ring. During both the leashed and off leashed fast heeling, you can see her excitement charge ahead. She loves being the center of attention, and that has worked for me in the past. This time though, I was too cocky that we would get sleepy calm Bri in the ring. In fact, she did not light up that day until we stepped into the ring. So Bri and me had no chance in getting our leg during this trial, and that was totally my fault. So here we come Vacationland, and we have a month so this should be very much improved.  In the meantime, enjoy how cute Bri was, while I performed horribly.



Magoo despite his puppy antics earlier in the morning was more focused. There is one instant during the off leash heel where he walks over to the fence, but he returns when I am told to halt. So we would not have pointed out for that. However, at the last part of the tape, you will see that I seem confused during the recall. I thought the judge asked me to move my dog. I said "stay, and what move my dog?" She said no leave your dog, and I said "stay" again. At which point she said, you can't say stay again, you must leave your dog. I effectively disqualified us. The judge did allow us to do the recall, which was good as practice for Magoo. His heel was good, but most of his sits were crooked or in front of me. He did a really great figure eight, but missed one of the sits. And during the recall he sat crooked for front, and almost did a front for finish.

My entire fault, totally. Magoo is my first client dog in the ring, though I am doing all the training for free as practice. He is also the youngest dog (1 and a half) that I have brought into the ring. Not happy with my performance, but happy with both of the dogs, Bri and Magoo. As a team we will all show much better in May. Just dusting off the cobwebs now. One thing that was good is both tapes didn't look as bad as the performance actually felt. I am the worst at this, but the worst thing one can do is let their nerves get to them if it does not start out stellar. As much as I know this, I always know that I need to practice in that setting as well as the dogs, in order for me to get accustomed to it again.



Am I going to stop showing because I had a bad performance? Heck no, it's all about improving skills and seeing what your errors are when training. Then you can move that advice on to your clients (as best as possible) in their training. You can never expect your clients to do as well as you do, BUT if you are not more advanced and haven't investigated what is needed in order to succeed at those advanced levels, then you will be passing on even more mediocre training suggestions to your clients. Then they do not know how to improve their partnership with their dog, or even that it can be done.

That performance shows not such a great partnership between those dogs and me. They did have fun, and they enjoyed being out there with us. Now the smart thing one might think for a trainer to do is bury this, and only mention the accomplishments by simply pretending this day never happened. However, I like to show the journey it takes to do this. So many people are intimidated to do obedience, they worry about what others will think, the mistakes they will make, or can my dog do it. Obedience is really not that intimidating, and if things go wrong you fix them for next time. For a trainer, it is important to branch out form just doing your dogs to doing many types and breeds of dogs. This is what I am doing for free right now with dogs that I do have access to. I will take the lumps when I do bad, and move on by experimenting with the ways that I do things. Not many people have three perfect trials in a row from beginning to end. While that would be wonderful, know that about four other people that followed me had things happen like the dog going for the gate (on the other side of the ring) during a recall after a pretty solid performance otherwise. So you try to practice in situations later that give you time to fix the problem. It can also be a one time only problem, one never knows. Finally, the human part of the equation cannot get better without being committed to taking their lumps when mistakes happen for the better good of creating a strong partnership between dog and owner. If I just threw up my hands and said "wow that was so embarrassing, obedience is so stupid and not natural", then I would not be growing the way that I think I should. The reason I like the obedience as it always was is it really creates a strong bond with your dog that allows you to move onto the more exciting aspects of training (retrieve, selection, tracking).

So if a client can do this 60%, then they can at least have an increased partnership with their dog even if they choose not to compete. However, if you don't polish up your skills in these areas, you are not experiencing exactly how this works, and therefore a client cannot experience exactly how this works.

I do not have the kind of grace that other dog owners have out there on the ring. My body position has improved leaps and bounds though (as sad as that is LOL). I was never a good dancer, and I got easily confused during aerobics. So experiencing how body position works so much better with my improvements (that are not stellar) really hits home as to how these details make it clearer to the dog, and therefore they can follow your lead much better. I still have a lot of work to do, and I am putting my nose to the grindstone so that I can hopefully accomplish Magoo's three legs in May, and Bri's last leg that is left towards her Companion Dog title.

If I can be okay with embarrassing myself publically, anyone can be okay with it.   I hope that the May tapes of the progress can inspire people how much fun this is.   And I hope my willingless to show warts as well as accomplishments can show that the world does not end if you have a bad day.  I have always had stage fright, but have managed to muddle my way through corporate presentations and now dog trials.  I have only gotten five legs (three with Jackie CD and two with Bri) in my career as a professional dog trainer.  I also know that in order to advance to Open, I have to start getting scores in the high one nineties in Novice, and I am not there yet.   I can qualify right now, but have not ironed out the kinks in my body work and in the training program to get to the optimum performance that I want.   How will I get there?   Try and try again AND practice practice practice!!

So the go forward training plan is largely this:

· Magoo Plan 1: Find as many distracting packed with dogs’ events (craft shows, charity walks, matches,) to continue to accustom Mr. Magoo to the fact that checking out other dogs is not allowed. This just means making it ho hum for him. We usually use Petco and the beach, but he is pretty acclimated to those areas, so he just needs more strange and distracting areas.

· Magoo Plan 2: Doing attention training to keep his focus if another dog is at the fence line again.

· Magoo Plan 3: Straighten out the auto sits which includes being very focused on my body language while training, and how that is going to manifest itself in the ring. I have a feeling that when I am practicing, I am probably turning my shoulder instead of staying straight. I may also be cueing them (which I can't do in the ring, to sit where I want).

· Magoo Plan 4: Work on front and finish. We worked on this quite a bit, but again I think in the distracting setting is the key. It's hard to find off leash places where one is allowed to do some off leash training (under distractions) like this. First though, I need to make sure the position stands up in the non-distracting setting of my home, and I am not throwing out cues by mistake. I really need to be sure I am moving exactly as I will in the ring, while I am practicing.

· Magoo Plan 5: Devote every other day to practicing whole routine, and videoing it for progress. Want to see this done in different areas.

· Bri Plan 1: Basically work with her consistently between now and May 20th, especially in distracting situations.

· Bri Plan 2: Be more exacting on Bri's heel position.

· Bri Plan 3: Practice more running heels with Bri in situations that would make her very excited.

· Bri Plan 4: Still need to work on her closeness during the figure eight outside circle. She was a bit wide at least once.

· Bri Plan 5: Similar to Magoo, auto sits need to be straightened out, with most of the emphasis on what my body is doing during practice.

· Bri Plan 6: Every other day practice total routine, video it, and change up location.

· Me Plan 1: Pay attention to body position for practice to become body position for ring!!!

· Me Plan 2: Particular attention to be paid to what my body is doing during auto sits.

· Me Plan 3: Get cue cards so assistants can order me around as if I was at a trial.

· Me Plan 4: Come up with alternative distracting areas for the dogs rather than the same old ones.

.Me Plan 5:  Get ahold of an arm band holder, so I don't find myself in the uncomfortable position of needing to fiddle with the rubber band during the trial.   Man!!


Looking forward to sharing the improvements during the May trials. I may find time to download some practices, but I have older technology so downloading, importing, and then transferring take a large amount of time.



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Trialling Two Dogs

On this Sunday, the big day for trialling Magoo and Bri comes around.   Their pictures will tell you these are two different breeds of dog.   There are more differents than that obvious one, and even the difference in their size, which affects a number of things as well.

Bri likes to sleep late into the morning.   Yup, just like me as a lazy tween and teen.   She is not a morning person.   So exercising her before the trial is not such a great idea.   She has also gotten a bit out of shape, so doing too much with her so that she gets tired will backfire big time.   Bri almost always has to go to the bathroom (number 2) about 11am when we have gone to trials before.   So I really need to make sure that she potties before we go into the ring if it's anywhere around that time.  In general, it's a really good idea to make sure you dog has done everything they need to do, as this could make them uncomfortable in the ring...and they may just NEED to go right then.  Bri has always managed to get the higher scores that I have made when we trialed before.   I personally think her pink cuteness blinds the judges to her flaws, but they see so many dogs that I know this must not be true.

Magoo on the other hand, is still a young Great Dane puppy of 165 pounds.   The size factor has meant being sure to get him used to not using his size and strength in public, and hopefully this holds over to the very exciting atmosphere of this trial.   This trial is in a middle school, and there are likely to be baked goods and children running around with baked goods asking to pet your dog.   Not to mentioned in a crowded gym area with three rings set up, and spectators.   It's not the most chaotic scenario that I have had for a trial, but it is close.   Magoo will be exercised before we go.  

Both dogs will be warmed up for about 10 minutes or so before the trial (starting outside and going to inside).   Luckily I have some help coming with me (Bri's owner).   I hope to get some good video of both in their individual exercises.   Bri's owner will be helping handle Bri during the long stays.  

Bri only needs to get one leg to accomplish her companion dog.   This is Magoo's first trial and so he needs all three legs.   In the past, Bri has tended to lie down during the sit stay for one minute.   This has been the reason in the past for some lost opportunities for a leg.   After a year, this has been the only week that I have worked with Bri reminding her of what she knows.   Surprisingly, she is showing the most trouble on the stand.   Occaisionally she also lagged a bit on the off leash heeling, but that has not cost us a leg.

For Magoo, last time he was really taken with the crowd looking at him (at a match).   I have been working a lot with him in Portsmouth and on the beach with interested on lookers (sometimes a bit too interested and insistent on saying hi to the dogs while in the middle of a session).   Magoo has been doing really well there, so hopefully that will transfer to the ring as well.

When trialling two dogs, it is important to realize a couple of things.   One if they like each other, they can be a major distraction to each other.   When I used to bring Bri and Jack together, at the beginning you could hear one crying in the crate, and it was obvious that the other dog heard it too.   So you need to try and prepare for that.   I am not bringing a crate for Magoo, but you do want to prepare a dog if they will be crated at the trial.  Also if both dogs are in the same class, you need a handler for the second dog during the long  stays.

Once you get used to it, trialing is a really fun activity to do with your dogs.   Both Magoo and Bri love the attention that they get:)  

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Planning My Day

I am training three dogs simultaneously for competition next year. Two are being trained for Open, and One is being trained for Novice (but he is a Thai Ridgeback, so he's a bit difficult in the trust/stranger department). So it's a lot of time and energy right now.

The days tend to fly by with either only one dog being trained, or a crucial thing being forgotten (like Jack's last five fetch reps yesterday). I don't want to be scrambling in February to be ready, and as it is, it looks like it might be wise to delay it to March. However, if I press my nose to the grindstone right now, I may be able to pull it off. There is no room for delay. So to remind myself, what I actually need to do is have a timeline and daily plan not just for training but for my whole day.

So today is Friday, and that means no daycare, but I have two client's dogs to take care of around the 12-2 Pm area. I figure that I will require at least a half hour per dog of training time (followed by 20 minutes of quiet time with me. Additionally, I want to practice stays with all three of them today, and this should be, at least, an every other day kind of a thing. Both Jack and Bri need 10 reps (split into two sessions of 5) of fetch work. Bri is on week 1, and Jack is on week 3. Devon needs to be reminded of all the basics again, so I am basically going on the 8 week Koehler plan for this. Stand for EXAM will be the hardest thing to achieve with him. Next will be stays with possibly moving judges. So a lot of public work needs to be done with Devon, but not right away and only until he is performing the basics reliably in non-distracting less stranger filled environments.

This is why poor Bri always gets the short end of the training stick, as she is more reliable than either Jack or Devon in the personality and stable tempermented department!! The worst that she will do is lag during the heel or sink into a down from a sit or walk directly to me out of a stay. The more reason why would should do well as a team and score high though. So I am going to try and not short end Bri for this next Spring of 2009.

So it's about 12 PM now. That means I am leaving soon to walk my little charge, Manny. I can bring my dogs, Leon and Jack, with me so they get their exercise as well. If I really wanted to push it, I could walk all of them over to Roxy and Harley's house, and have them all out on the beach with me. It's pretty exhausting to have five off leash dogs at the beach with you. So if it's low tide, that's probably what I will do, and I will get my and my dog's exercise out of the way at the same time (I have been jogging sporadically on my walks while it's not icy). So that, and going to the post office will probably bring me to 2 pm.

I could put Jack up then for his two hour pre training nap. Bri and Devon are already situated as such in their house already. At 4 pm, I could start the training sessions. I could even take Bri and Devon out for their own play sessions, work Jack first, and by the time I went and got them, then their two hours would be up.

So Jack and Bri, I need two separate sessions for retrieves. It is also reliant upon getting a Novice heeling exercise going perfectly before I can start the retrieve work. That might mean Bri doesn't start her retrieve work today, but instead gets a little heeling 101 refresher. We will see how it goes. Jack for sure needs a 4 pm work up with retrieve first five following. The first session should end around five thirty or a little thereafter for all three dogs to be worked separately. Then later in the evening, like at around 7 pm, perhaps another retrieve refresher.

So Fridays should be somewhat easy, especially if I make it a point to get going earlier in the morning .

The tricky thing is going to be the other days, and picking my two indoor and four outdoor locations to do this, and then changing the locations for increasing the distractions. The better you can do this, the better trained your dog will be.

Match Tomorrow/Training Schedule Today

Jack, Brie, and I are getting ready for a match tomorrow. This whole week has been basically firming up these basic skill sets. Devon is on vaca until we go to Trial basically (Feb 29th).

****Note to self, do a lot of food training (that is to refuse food, not to treat) with Jack tonight. Treating at these things is obnoxious, even though you can't bring them into the ring, and it will take an unprepared dog and make them a total spaz.

****Should also remember to see if husband can fix portable crate for Jack somehow.

Jack first half (a bit tired so I am going to do some more later on tonight or early am tomorrow):

Finish, did about 50 reps with e-collar instead of treats or chain collar. Didn't do bad, was sometimes crooked because he was staring at Brie and wanting to go play.

Worked a lot on myself walking with Jack and not walking into him when stopping for an autosit. Jack did pretty good sits at the end, now that he is beginning to believe that he doesn't have to worry about me flying into him. Also practiced off leash with hand on belly (left) and right hand swinging by my sid. He did really excellent as I practiced my T step for about turns. Left, he sometimes still crowds me a bit.

Brie's Schedule:

Still teaching finish, hopes she starts doing it today right from heel, so I don't need to make any movements (that would NQ me in the Trial).

Practice sit and down stay.

Practice heel on and off leash. See if it can feasible be done without any corrections or much coercion. No treats for practice today.

Bri Run Thru 2/4/2008

Here is Brie's run thru 2/4/2008. We have done a couple more since then, and she has improved greatly. Good girl, Brie.

Training Logs

have added Devon dog to the training line up for this spring. Brie, Jack, and Devon are all being trained for Companion Dog competition. Jack and Brie's first competition will be February 29th (God help me).

Devon will be a little later. Here are training notes for today:

Brie Training Schedule:

Did about ten reps of stand stays (walking out in front of her).

Did 15 minutes of heeling and auto sits in parking lot.

***This week working on getting her to the point of decent OFF LEASH heeling (we are still on leash), attention during distractions or time she thinks she wants to play, stand stays, and finish (don't know if we will get to this this week). Also, figure eights should be a priority. Stand stay portion is good, but Brie needs to start getting up on her own on command.

Devon Training Schedule:

Did 10 reps of stand stays.

15 minutes of heeling in the parking lot.

Devon's heeling has deteriorated a bit, but he looks very confident and happy in distracting situations. Got a little prey drive over leaves blowing around the parking lot. Need to work on those type of distractions. Auto sits need to be worked on. Both front and finish need to be worked on, but probably not until next week. Devon is doing pretty good on staying in stand, but also needs work on performing stand when command is given and without physical prompting.

Jacky Traiing:

30 Minutes of heeling on lead on the beach. The reason for the on lead heeling being that Jacky has taken to trying to go after lone dogs. If the beach is busy with dogs, he is more in tune with being a good boy, but he gets a bit protective if it's the occaisional dog on the beach that approaches. He has made great strides in coming to understand at home, that he MUST tolerate any dog in the house, and that I will be sure that he is not bothered but he is not to take matters into his own hands. Now I have these kind of situations to get JAck to adapt to. In the ring, he has not had a problem being obedient around other strange dogs (knock on wood). I want to be sure that I touch every area on this. A big golden did run up to us, and Jack did not reacte until the other dog jumped towards him. And he was on leash, so he didn't get to dart after like he would like to. Attention and auto sits are getting better and better. Still room for improvement.

On my end, I need to be sure I am walking and turning without leaving my "line" or walking towards Jack when I stop. Overall, a very good session today.