Practice

A hallmark of talent is loving to practice. - Penelope Trunk, Brazen Careerist

An amateur practices until they get it right. A professional practices until they don't get it wrong. - Richard Crittenden (D.C. Opera Workshop)

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice. - Anton Chekhov

I've been thinking about practice lately. A lot. Field trial trainer Bill Hillman talks quite a bit about practice on his DVD "Retriever Training Fundamentals: Part 1 Land". He argues that most trainers just don't practice enough with their dogs. They teach something a time or two, think the dog understands, and then move on to something else. Bill stresses continuing to practice the fundamental skills throughout a dog's lifetime. 

Most of my training energy these days is centered on field work with Sonic and Little. Who would have thought that young(er) woman who disliked guns and dead birds and only got Working Certificates on Tramp and Treasure to get them into the FCRSA Hall of Fame would develop such a passion for field work? I love being outside, seeing the dogs do something they have a huge passion for, helping them to learn how to be the best teammate they can be. It all comes down to training. And practice.

I have always loved puzzles and problem-solving. Maybe it is why I liked math and computer programming so much when I was in school. I still love programming. I just love training dogs and people even more. To me, dog training is one giant puzzle. Whether I am training for blind retrieves in the field or teaching my dog to heel with animation and precision for the obedience ring, it is critical to have a road map of training steps to follow. I have always believed that if one book or video on a topic is good, having six is better. I like getting a lot of different view points on something. I guess it helps me to study the road maps that other trainers travel and find success with. I like to see what they consider crucial foundation steps, and how they put them together into more complicated behaviors. If foundation is weak, the later steps built on them will be weak.

While it matters a lot that you have a goal, a vision and an arc to get there, it matters even more that you don't skip the preliminary steps in your hurry to get to the future. Early steps might bore you, but miss even one and you might not get the chance to execute on the later ones. - Seth Godin, blog post 11/7/12

I love putting in the daily practice with the girls. Given their enthusiasm to "load up" and go train, I think they love the opportunity to practice with me. I love discussing training with other trainers, traveling their road map some to find out what little side paths helped them.

It helps a lot to have an experienced instructor to help guide you along the road, especially when you are a new trainer and have never traveled any training road before. Sometimes that instructor is someone with whom you can take weekly classes. Sometimes it is someone who has written a book or produced a video on the topic.  Sometimes it is a classmate who helps motivate you to train on a day when you are tired. But you still have to practice. No matter how great the instructor or book or DVD, if you don't practice the skills with your dog, you won't find success, whatever your definition of success is, whether it is to have a well-behaved companion in the home or a trial-winning obedience dog, a hunting companion or a Master Hunter.

What are you going to practice today?

Transition training in the field

Since getting home from our very successful spring field training trip (eventually, I'll get that post written) to Tennessee and south Georgia, followed up with 8 days of the FCRSA National Specialty, I have been blessed to have returned to beautiful spring weather (finally) and time to train "the girls" (Sonic and Little) a lot. They are now both in the Transition stage of their field work, which essentially means they are transitioning into being able to run "cold blinds", which are retrieves where they don't see the bird or bumper thrown.

When I was in Florida, I had a chance to watch Gamekeeper's head trainer Mitch White working two client dogs on their whistle sits in the water. It gave me a new appreciation for the standard I wanted to strive for. We had only one chance to work on their water sits when we were in Tennessee. It was interesting to see how much better Little was treading water than she had been when we left Florida in early March, even though we hadn't worked on them back home in frigid Michigan. But she was not stopping and looking at me unless I hollered sit, sometimes multiple times. Sonic was faster at stopping, turning, and looking at me, but her ability to tread water was so far poor.

I got some advice from a friend on-line to improve Little's focus by tossing a bumper between us and then blowing the whistle. Last Tuesday when I first tried that, I tossed her a bumper 3 out 4 times I sent her. When I tried one without, and counted to see how fast she was doing it, I only got to "1000-1, 1000-2" and she was staring at me, treading water beautifully! Here is a little video I made of her on Friday morning, when she was really doing well:

This morning, I trained with Helen and Corinne, two of my most frequent training partners. We set up 3 stick men in a line at 50, 100, and 150 yards across the face of a hill. I put a white blind stake out at a 45 degree angle from the stickmen up the hill to the left, about as far out as the middle stick man. Here is a quick little diagram I drew.

It ended up being a more complicated version of the Key Relationship Drill* we've run several times recently and of Blind Drills, which work on similar key relationships. I think both girls got a lot out of the drill.

*KRD = one mark at about 50 yards, and two blinds (in the beginning stages we are in), one "outside the mark", i.e., #2 in the diagram below, and #3, "behind the gun". We haven't started adding #4 yet.

This evening, I decided I really wanted to take advantage of the relative quiet of a Sunday evening at the technology park where I do a lot of my water work. I wanted to get the girls started with cold water blinds. I put out 6 small orange bumpers along one side of a 40 yard wide neck of a huge pond. We ran them left to right. Little had a family of very irate geese parents and tiny cute goslings (why do they have to grow up to be such pests?) to contend with. She had some trouble with popping (stopping and looking at me without a whistle from me) - too many whistle sits this week, I'd say. Her sits did deteriorate as we went along, and she wasn't doing very good back casts when beyond 30 yards (that will be something we work on this week) but overall, I was happy with her efforts. 

Sonic did even better than Little, even lining (swimming across to the bumper with no help from me) the 3rd blind.

Sonic will be running in what I hope is her last JH test in two weeks. If we pass on Saturday, I plan to move her up to Senior on Sunday. No, I know she's not thoroughly ready, but if the test is a reasonable one, I'd much rather take a stab at it than to run another Junior test. This means I will be working the girls as often as I can on their handling skills. I am aiming Little for the Ft. Detroit Senior tests in late July, and for Sonic to be well prepared for those tests, too.

Transition is SO much fun!

Sonic's 1st Beginner Novice leg

I showed Sonic yesterday in obedience for the first time. Beginner Novice is an optional titling class, new since I started a new dog in obedience (Ty, back in 2008). Sonic is the fourth dog who I've started in Rally before doing obedience. The Flat-Coated Retriever National Specialty is in April this year, and I wanted to be able to enter her in something besides Rally. BN seemed a good possibility. Early last month, I did a novice run-through at a match at my building and it went so well, I considered also doing  regular novice at the National.

I want to pause to reflect back to last October, when I showed Sonic in Rally Novice for her title. We showed 3 times, earned some nice scores, but it took a lot of verbal help and guidance to get those scores. She was also barely under control outside the ring. I realized it would be a while before she was ready for any off leash work required to go into Advanced Rally. A funny thing happened over the next several months. I focused almost all of my training time on her field basics, doing obedience once a week in class and then doing most of the demos required in my classes through out the week. In December, we ran a fairly complicated Excellent course for class off leash, and I thought, "Hmmm, I think Advanced will be possible soon!" We showed in conformation at the crazy-busy Novi shows in January, then spent some time heeling and training around the crazy-busy obedience ring area. What she showed me there also encouraged me.

She got two Advanced legs in February, doing very nice work. Then on February 20, we headed south for 2.5 blissful weeks of field training. We did a teeny-tiny bit of obedience work, but not much. We got back less than a week before our next rally trials. With classes starting last week, there wasn't a ton of training time, but I fit in what I could. She had a fine finish to her RA title on Friday, earning a perfect 100.

We moved up to Excellent B for her 1st Excellent leg with a 99.

On Saturday, I attended the 1st day of a Connie Cleveland seminar as an auditor. During each 15 minute break, I'd grab Sonic out of my vehicle and we'd do some heeling. If I put in the needed training time, I think she will be a wonderful heeling dog. She still needs quite bit of support from me, but it is getting better.

So Sunday, off we went to the Toledo KC for a try at Beginner Novice. While I've been feeling quite ready for Excellent rally, I knew our heeling isn't nearly as polished as I'd like it to be for obedience.  She's been doing so well on the sit and stand for exams with our class instructor, and quite well with classmates playing judge, that I haven't been good about getting new people to do exams. I got a bunch of people to do sit for exams, and she got better each time we did it.

Yep, I corrected her in the ring - after the first about turn, I think I said, "Hey, WATCH!" which did get her back on track for the rest of the pattern. I used my one legal "phrase of praise" after the next about turn to good effect, I think. I am not happy that she paced the whole first leg, but that is a work in progress. It simply isn't habit yet for her. I also praised (legally) as we headed toward the 1st right circle on the first Figure 8. The sit for exam was excellent, but then Jim Ham doesn't dilly dally around on his exam :-). The small amount of work we did on it during our Florida trip wasn't exactly promising, so I was pleased she pulled it together.

We ended up with a score of 194 and 3rd place, all 6 points lost on the heeling pattern. I'm glad I made the choice I did to fix her as I did, since she really seemed to get her head together after that.

We show again in Rally Excellent next Friday and BN on Saturday. My goal is to have two legs on each title going into the National in late April. We'll be showing somewhere she hasn't ever been before, which will be good experience for her.

While I'm a trifle disappointed in the heeling pattern, I am also realistic about why it went as it did. Lack of experience. Time and effort will fix that.

2013 Winter Odyssey Part II

On Wednesday and Thursday (Feb 27/28), I joined Mitch White's training group. On Wednesday, training consisted of 3 singles on land for each girl: medium, short, long. We did a mind-blowing Influential lining drill (18 buckets - 8 is the most I've used).

I did a final water-force session with Sonic (well, I hope it's the final one :-)). Then swim-by work with Little, whistle sits in water with both (Sonic hasn't figured out how to tread water yet, but she is turning and focusing on me pretty promptly). Ended the day with 3 water marks for each. First was across about 40 yds of water, up over a sizable dike into another small bit of water. There were cheating possibilities, but neither fell for them. Second one was out near a bunch of posts in the water. I did the 3rd one from up a hillside with a long log at the water's edge, which they both handled a bit clumsily but without trying to cheat around it.
Thursday's training: 2 land marks up hill, the left one behind or just in front of a long log, the right one with several patches of brushy cover to go through (or dodge around as several dogs did). We also attempted - and succeeded at - a land blind for which they had to go through some more of that brushy cover. A cold blind for each of them! I had to move up, but I was quite pleased, given their lack of exposure to casting into cover. Did the marks as a taught double with both girls. Neither did very well. Reran later and both did well on the rerun. Moved to water and did a taught in-line double. Long mark was beyond a whole string of fence posts that are in the water. Both girls did that well. Closer in mark was from a launcher behind them. Little stood and jumped forward when that went off. She visited various decoys when I sent her for the memory mark (which she'd ignored when she ran it as a single the first time), but got herself out to the mark. Cheryl Knapp and I then went over to the Horseshoe Pond and worked whistle sits in the water with Sonic and Gem-E, then I did some swim-by work with Little. We finished up letting the girls run and play together, something I haven't had/taken the time for. They had a lot of fun dashing about and going in and out of the pond numerous times. I guess the day's work hadn't exhausted them.

On Friday, after a slow start, we started with 3 cold land blinds ("cold blind" means one the dogs haven't seen me put bumpers out nor does it have a nice attractive white bucket for them to focus on). They were about 120 yds each. Little's first one was poor - she did NOT believe me when I sent her, but we kept plugging and when she spotted the orange stake, woo hoo!, she zeroed in on it and dashed in for the retrieve. The 2nd was better, third about the same. Sonic did very well on the 1st one, poorly on the 2nd (there was a log to go over), and very well on the 3rd. Next, I did swim-by work for Little that didn't go very well. I was feeling like *such* a swim-by training failure (I never really felt either Gryffin or Ty really 'got it'). While there are some parts that were much better than when we arrived, we weren't as far along as I'd hoped to be. It seems to be my Holy Grail. Then I got Sonic out with the goal to start teaching her how to take over casts (going left or right) in the water, something we'd barely touched on earlier in the week. She proceeded to do so well that she was doing better than Little had. It just seems to make sense to her. That bouyed my spirits a lot. That got me thinking that what I need to do a lot more of with Little is land disciplined casting, which I CAN do when I return to the cold north. I also played with teaching Little to circle a bucket for treats, which she thought was splendid (food=splendid in Little's world). I did this because it was something I did with Sonic, and I thought it might benefit Little. Later in the afternoon, Mitch coached me on improving Sonic's whistle sits in water and more swim-by with Little. She was actually much better in the bigger pond than the one we've worked on since Tuesday. Cheryl and I did a 200 or so yard Postman marking Y-drill (back and forth) to give Sonic a chance to stretch out some.

After checking out of the motel, I started Saturday morning with Swim-by work and Little did the best she's done. Being in the somewhat bigger pond makes a big difference for her. Sonic didn't do quite as well as she did in the smaller pond on Friday, but still was doing quite well on the early stages. Then we did 3 new land blinds. Unlike yesterday, when Little was mystified about what we were doing on the first blind, she took off like a rocket on her first blind today. Not quite in the right direction, but at least she had momentum :-). It was very windy that day.

I spent Saturday night with a college friend in Clearwater, who I hadn't seen since her wedding 23 years ago. After keeping somewhat up to date on each other's life through annual holiday letters, we had a lovely time catching up with each other.

It was a boring couple of days for Sonic and Little after 9 straight days of swimming/field work. I taught 6 obedience lessons Sunday and Monday, so they had a lot of crate time. It was great to catch up with so many of my Lakeland friends.

Monday evening, I drove to Betsy Reiney's in Palatka, where Sonic swam for the first time outdoors last spring. We had a nearly perfect weather day for field work on Tuesday. I joined Betsy's Tuesday morning group for land work - some marks with ducks from launchers, as well as a site blind (which they both lined on their first try, which I did before running the marks), and then did swim-by with both girls back at Betsy's - quite successfully - that afternoon. The land blinds we did weren't quite so successful.

We had another full day of training on Wednesday. There were some very good things from both girls, some not so good things. They have different strengths and weaknesses. We started with Bill Hillman's Star Drill. Sonic did quite well, while Little had a lot of trouble. We did a marking Y-drill and reran the blinds from the day before, with much better results. In the afternoon, I did some water whistle sits and swim-by work.

On Thursday, I did the Star Drill again with Little (better than Wednesday, but lots of room for improvement), and then we set up an 8-bucket Influential Lining Drill, which went pretty well. We did 3 new land blinds. Sonic 3 or 4 whistled the first one at 150 yds - I was thrilled with that! The other 2 went almost as well. Little had a ton of trouble on the long one, so we repeated it after running the right one. We worked more water whistle sits, but decided not to work on swim-by. I was ready for a break from it! After lunch, Betsy threw 3 long water marks for each girl.

And with that, our training for this wonderful voyage was over. I am so grateful for the generosity of all my hosts and the use of their training grounds. We had an uneventful drive home, stopping again on the way home to stay with Bonnie. Altogether, I put over 3000 miles on the Burb. And it was worth every mile!

2013 Winter Odyssey Part I

I returned last Saturday from a 2.5 week trip to North Central Florida. What a fabulous trip it was!

We (Sonic, Little, and I) left Ann Arbor on February 20, with a stop that night in Maryville, TN to stay with my friend Bonnie Hornfisher. We got back on the road at 9 AM the next morning, and after a somewhat interminable day of driving, arrived at the Red Roof Inn in Ocoee, FL.

On Friday, I met my friend Cheryl Knapp to train with her group at Wayne Gey's ranch, the mecca of field training in North Central Florida.

They had all started with some pattern blinds. I taught one of them to both girls, with mediocre results. The group was doing work that my girls weren't ready for, so I did some brief water pile work across the short leg of the Horseshoe pond. Then I joined the group on the Big Pond, and the girls got to do 2 water marks. The 2nd was probably the longest either had ever done, which was probably not the smartest thing I could do during their first swim of the year, but they both did fine.

The next two days were spent attending Mitch White's Water Workshop. I worked on Water Force both days with Sonic. Mitch has changed how he does it, using a peninsula, so it was great timing, since it was the next logical step for Sonic.

On her way.

I'm on the end of the peninsula doing an early send.

Back at the base line, racing down the peninsula.

I did a bit of training after the seminar, since Little hadn't done anything all day, and Sonic not much.
The next morning, Little started off with Mitch's Casting Over into Water drill, which she did very nicely. I love the photo below - the intensity, the rippling muscles of her shoulders, and how nicely she is leaving from under my still hand.

Little launching towards a pile of bumpers.

Little also did some swim-by work, which went remarkably well, since we'd done almost none of it when in Tennessee last November.

On Monday, I did a brief session of disciplined casting - Sonic did well, Little lousy. Then I worked o water force with Sonic at a different pond, and water whistle sit work for both. Little's are looking very nice. She's getting the idea of treading water and gives me nice focus. Sonic hasn't done very many before, but I'm pleased with what she gave me that day.

I spent lunchtime at a nearby Chevy dealer, getting the strut for the back hatch of the Burb replaced. It had failed on Friday, fortunately in a somewhat gradual way. I was glad that my crates have doors on both ends, so I could get the girls out the front instead of chancing having the hatch slam done on the dogs or me.

In the afternoon, I did the cast over into water drill with Sonic and swim-by work with Little, then hauled all 4 launchers out to see which would work (last time I tried, not all worked). The #1 remote is at home, since it wouldn't take a charge. All the launchers did fire, but took some swapping around of remotes. I also worked mannerly walking with me to the holding blind (I had the Burb parked out near the launchers) and some holding blind control with launchers honking. Little is much more willing to heel with me when cookies are a possibility.

Tuesday: It was a rainy morning, but given we were training water, the girls didn't mind. Started with land disciplined casting again. Little isn't as good at it as Sonic, but it was much better than Monday. Swim-by work with Little in the horse shoe pond (a bit smaller than the one we used yesterday) - that went quite well - she seems to get that after picking up a side bumper, she will be getting back in - and a fine, hard-charging water force/pile session for Sonic. Then I did some 'Send Back' marks. I left the dog at the line, walked out and threw a mark, released her from out there, had her deliver to me, then sent her back to the line (marked with a bucket and two white stakes) and blew a whistle sit when she got there. Then I'd walk to a new location and repeat. While neither girl simply lined back to the base-line in one try, it did go better than the last time I tried it. I finally used the starter pistol for the first time that I got back in December. It added some extra excitement. I finished the morning with 6 white bucket site blinds, the 1st 3 with slots through trees, the last 3 longer blinds. We headed back to the motel and worked on my website and escaped the rain.

Goals

It's that time of year... Time to reflect on the year just finished and plan for the new one just begun.

My 2012 dog goals were:

Joker - 10 years old

Having accomplished my Lifetime goals for him in 2011, he is now the resident retired dog in the family.
- Joker loves to cuddle and still enjoys playing with the big black dogs.

Gryffin - 8 years old

Keep exercising him with the hope of running several Master tests in 2012.
- Did series 1 & 2 in one in May, but he pulled something stepping in a hole, so I scratched him from the last series.
Had an aMAZing National, getting 1st runner-up in the Steady Singles field competition out of a field of 70+ dog. making the final cut in the Veterans 9-11 Sweepstake class, and winning the Veterans Novice class with a 198.5. Each thing we did brought me so much joy that week...
Then about 3 weeks later he was gone very suddenly to cancer... Still miss him every day... But what a ride we had!

Ty - 7 years old

• Finish her OM1.
• Earn her OTCh. There, I said it! We'll see how it goes.
• Earn her UDX. I actually think this will be the toughest one of the 3.
• Earn her OM2. Haven't had one before.
• Qualify in a regliar class at the FCRSA National. Haven't managed that with her since her HIT Novice B debut.
• Qualify for and attended the AKC NOI (National Obedience Invitational) next December in Orlando.
• Field goals are vague. My pursuit of Master with her will depend on Gryff's soundness. I like having 2 dogs to train in field, but 3 is unwieldy.

Ty had a good year - finished both the OM1, OM2, and her UDX. Showed a lot in the spring, just two weekends in the fall. Once we reached the goals in October, I essentially stopped training her. I gave up on an OTCh quite early in the year. Having earned just 2 more OTCh points in 2012, it was a wise decision. I don't like training Ty anywhere near enough to want to spend the necessary time.
We Qed in Open B with a 3rd place at the National - I realized this fall I hadn't passed Open at the National since Treasure's days, and she's been gone since 2006 :-). Gryff never managed it.
We did not qualify for the NOI, which was just as well, because I didn't really want to be training obedience at the end of 2012.
Retired her from field. She did a bit in the summer, but mostly, she is now retired, period, other than demoing in class

Sonic - 4.5 months

She is such a dream to train! I haven't started a puppy so young for field, since I knew next to nothing about it when I started Gryff, so I have no sense of how good she's likely to be in the field. She shows great promise for obedience.

• Show her in conformation.
• Have her ready to match in Novice by the end of the year.
• Lay foundation for scent discrimination done so she understands how to use her nose before completing her field basics.
• Get her through field basics.
• WC
• JH
• RN

Sonic is a dream come true. I simply adore this dog. Having her already woven into my heart made Gryff's sudden death much more bearable.
I showed her in conformation just a few times. Since she's mostly looked like a field lab, I figure I ought to wait until she has grown up. We are entered one day at the big January shows, since she has been growing hair and I'm finally getting a bit of meat on her skinny bones. It is my excuse to get out to a dog show :-).
We did a few matches in Beginner Novice and sort of Novice. My obedience training definitely took a back seat to field most of the year, but one of my long-time students has been teaching a class at my place so that I can take it, and though we don't do a ton of obedience work in between Tuesday mornings, Sonic has continued making progress. I think she is going to be a lovely heeling dog, if I ever really commit to making it a priority.
I did something in the spring I've never done before: I did Around the Clock Scent Discrimination every day for 30-some days straight, and by the end of that, she was working a random pile. We did it a few more times, then I didn't try it again until fall. She seemed to remember it just fine. Very cool to get through it that efficiently - though I think it was on day 2 of the first week that I wrote some friends that I might have to shoot myself from boredom :-).
Field basics... we are building up to Double T, have been much of the fall. Now with 6" of snow on the ground and 10 degree temps, I'm not quite as motivated to get out there. She is a complete blast to work in the field and if I stay patient and don't let her start driving the bus as often as she would like to, I think she is going to be very, very good at it. She sure does love it and we love doing it together.
She earned 2 JH legs in mid-September after completely failing one in July (almost totally out of control getting to the line, never retrieved the 1st duck, so was out right away - I'm still mystified by that lack of finding a bird that day), earned her WC the next weekend.
Earned her RN in October at 2 local trials. That experience made me appreciate how well trained Ty is :-). I used every bit of my handling skill to get Sonic through the courses, and she had fine scores (97, 100, 99), but I also knew we were far from ready for Advanced. I am aiming to do Advanced with her at an upcoming trial in early February, since I'll have some students showing in rally for the 1st time.

Little

Little, who I trained in field from June-early October of 2011, came back for more field training in June 2012 and pretty much stayed until just a few days ago, other than a stretch in July/August. She got as far as doing Pattern Blinds and Blind drills on land, well beyond finishing Double T as I'd hoped. We didn't get as far in water as I'd hoped (wanted to have Swim-by done, apparently the Holy Grail of field work for me and my dogs), due to cold weather. She and Sonic have a lot of fun together - I've never had two FCRs in the house so close in age who play so much together. Ty and Gryff were just 18 months apart, but Ty does not engage in something as demeaning as bitey-face :-).

Myself

I didn't actually write down any goals for myself at the end of 2012, but I did a lot of field training education efforts throughout the year. I audited Mike Lardy's Basics and Transition workshop in Georgia in March, something of a Bucket List (which I don't really have) goal; I audited Carol Cassity's workshop in June; I had a working spot in Mitch White's 4-day workshop in July; and went to Tennessee to Clint and Sherie Catledge's marvelous property for a heavenly vacation week in November.

Adele's 2013 Goals

I am feeling surprisingly lost about goals to set for the coming year, much more so than I can remember feeling for a lot of years. Maybe it is having only one dog of my own for whom to set goals? Maybe it is that I haven't done field with enough dogs to feel confident about how long it will take me to advance?
Joker – 11 years and going strong
Goal is to keep him that way.
Ty – 8 years old.
I've accomplished what I hoped to with her – Ch UDX OM2 SH WCX, and applied for the FCRSA HOF. She needs a job, but I don't know what it ought to be.
Little – 2 years old
I've just sent her back to Helen's for a while, since I'm finding training both her and Sonic in the snow tiresome. I'd like to have her ready for the WCX at the National and for Senior by fall. Helen may do Novice with her at the National if she has Little enough to train her regularly, and maybe rally.
Sonic – 16 months old

• Get to do water in the Derby at the April National, which means doing land well enough to move on to water. In my dreams, we place. But being realistic, getting to water would be a grand achievement. I just have to hope that there are enough entries to hold it - the Derby was canceled in 2012 due to entries being too low.
• Finish her JH.
• Get her running cold blinds, land and water.
• Earn her WCX
• Run Senior with her in the fall. While I'd love to earn her SH, that is a pretty tall order - I think.
• Earn her RA and RE.
• I've been completely focused on field work with her lately, and plan to continue that as much as possible this winter, so I don't know if I'll devote the time to obedience titles or not. If I do, we might do Novice in the fall. Or BN. Or GN. Or none.

Myself

• Update the NDT website! It has been on my list for at least a year, and other things keep getting in the way.
• Continue with my field training education – to that end, I'm already signed up for two seminars with Mitch White and plan to sign up for the Carol Cassity one that Marshbanks will be sponsoring in Jliy, and maybe one with Bill Hillman in June.
• Keep honing my Getting Things Done chops.
• Blog more regularly again.
• Get back to some form of aerobic exercise. Aim for 100 workouts.
• Work on some multimedia product. I have some half-baked ideas. Website first, though.

What are your goals?

This Fall's Competitions

I've had a very productive fall of various competitions - field, obedience, and rally. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Ty finishing her UDX, and Sonic earning her WC, a couple of Junior Hunter passes and her 1st rally novice leg.

This past weekend were the annual Marshbanks Golden Retriever Club's obedience and rally trials held in my training building. Assuming all my arithmetic is correct, Ty finished her OM2 title, earning 12 points for her 2 Utility B Qs. Earning a UDX and OM2 were my top level title goals for her, so anything else she does in the future will be a bonus. Her heeling is simply not up to snuff enough to pursue an OTCh., especially in my very competitive area.

Sonic earned legs 2 & 3 on her RN (rally novice), making this her 1st AKC title. Her performance on Saturday was the best of the three legs.

I gave her 2 runs before showing her, 1 first thing in the morning and another about an hour before we showed. I'd run her through rally and beginner novice on Friday at the match that Northfield Dog Training sponsored. She had a lot of trouble concentrating for any length of time outside the ring, but once we entered to run the course, she was quite good. This gave me some confidence on Saturday before I showed her.

She earned a perfect 100 and 2nd place. I never did look at the times of my run and the 1st place exhibitor, but since we moved through the course pretty quickly, I have to assume I paused longer on the walk around exercises.

On Sunday, she had a lot more trouble concentrating, plus the course was quite jammed in together, so almost as soon as you'd finish one sign, you'd be at the next one. I kept her with me mainly because I talked to her almost non-stop and was very proactive about giving her extra help when she needed it.

We earned a 99 and 1st place to complete her RN, her 1st AKC title.

Little is still staying with my family, since I'm still having good weather and time enough to train her. Plus, she's hit a really fun and exciting stage of training called 'Transition', where it seems like she makes progress every day. She learned a set of pattern blinds last week easy as pie. Essentially, you teach the dog 3 new blinds over several days, adding a new blind when they've mastered the previous one(s). If you hold 3 fingers up and spread them wide, that is kind of the directions of the blinds. I don't remember having so little problems when I did pattern blinds with Gryffin and Ty, but maybe it's a case of amnesia. Whatever the case, she did them so well, I asked Helen to help me get started with Blind Drills, where you add a gunner and marks to the pattern blind field. The 1st day we did them (last Friday), I had Helen positioned to the right of the right blind, throwing to the right. It went so smoothly that on the 2nd day, I positioned her between the middle and right blinds, throwing an angle back mark to the left. This produced several chances to work on casting Little away from distractions, as she really wanted to veer to where the mark was thrown. Since this is exactly what the drill is intended to teach, I felt it was a successful venture. I'm not sure when I'll be able to have someone throw again, but hopefully soon.

I'm working on whistle sits with Sonic, using a PVC baby gate parallel to and to the right of the line she's running, because she has been tending to loop at least 6-8 feet to her right AND come creeping in before she sits. Neither of these is what I want, so borrowing from my obedience fixes for go-out sits, I'm using a barrier. I had tried using my 4 foot PVC broad jump boards a month or so ago, but they weren't big enough to work well. She seems to only need the gate to the right, so that's all I'm using. I saw some nice results with it yesterday. I'd really love to have her either started on Double T or ready to start it when we get to the Catledges in Tennessee, because I've heard wonderful things about their Double T field. We are also working on baseball casting where I put her on the (imaginary) pitcher's mound and 'cast' her (give hand signals and voice commands) to send her to 1st, 2nd or 3rd base to retrieve a bumper.

I've also been shaking the bushes looking for some local hay fields in which to work on marking, and I've got a few lined up. Now I just need time!

What is next? My next two weekends will be spent flying to Minnesota and Lakeland, FL to present seminars. The following weekend, Marshbanks is hosting a CCA (Certificate of Conformation Assessment), an event for Golden Retrievers at my building, and I'm co-chairing the eye clinic that same day. The next afternoon, I'm driving to Tennessee with Sonic and Little to train field. For a whole week!!! When I made the final arrangements, I felt like a kid on Christmas, I was so excited. I hope, hope, hope that it is still warm enough for water work, because that is the biggest reason I'm going. I am leaving T3 behind since the place I'm going has a trailer I can stay in. It also means I can travel a lot faster.

I'll probably enter Ty in the Toledo KC trials Thanksgiving weekend. She really likes showing there, and therefore, so do I.