Beginner class #3

Lots of left turns this week. Hmmm, we seem to have spent too much time this past week on left pivots and not enough on turning left as part of a heeling pattern as poor Lucy thinks she's supposed to sit halfway through our left turns!

Today we were introduced to the right around finish and the left swing finish. Lucy learned these a while back in obedience class so they weren't too much trouble, although her front definitely needs work and her finishes could be a lot crisper.

So, these are the signs we learned this week:

• Left turn
  
• About "U" turn
  
• 270 left
  
• 360 left
  
• Call front - Forward right
  
• Call front - Forward left
  
• Call front - Finish right
  
• Call front - Finish left

Finished off with a loooong course that incorporated pretty much all the signs we've learned so far. It's going to take me some time to get used to walking rally courses, keeping the signs on the... right? or is it left? and not causing myself or my dog to bump into them, argh! Oh and I can't wait (sarcasm) to read my first rally-o course map. A friend showed me one a while back and it was truly all Greek to me; Agility course maps ain't got NOTHIN' on rally-o course maps! :-D

Homework: More left turns; fronts; swing finish

P.S. Roxanne: thanks for your me-turn, you-turn memory tip; I get it now :)

Practicing pivots left

Here's where we're at with turning left in place and getting Lucy to maintain heel position. Walter makes an appearance too. I'm pretty happy with Lucy's progress so far! But, after watching the video, I think I should start soon with fading the leash; I wouldn't be surprised if her cue for this movement has become the pressure of the collar on her neck rather than my body cue.

Made use of You Tube's library of free music for this one!

Sorry for the video quality which couldn't decide whether it preferred to be tinged seasick green or puke orange.

Beginner class #2

Today was a particularly fun class for me as we learned how to teach something I've wanted to do for a while but never had any clue how to do.

But first, these are the signs we covered today:

• Right turn
  
• About turn - right
  
• 270 degree right
  
• 360 degree right
  
• Straight figure 8

Lucy didn't have any trouble with these, doing nice tight turns. What a good dog.

We ran a couple of little mini courses practicing the signs we've learned so far. The instructor complemented Lucy's near-constant eye contact. I always think it's funny when someone complements Lucy's focus on me because really, it's only because she knows I might give her a kibble at any moment. She just happens to be good at begging in motion. :-)

In running these mini courses, I find I'm going to need to get used to spacing things so as not to run myself or my dog into the signs. Lucy will also need to get used to the signs as she gave some of them a look. "Oh what's that, is it edible? No? Darn." Oh boy, can't wait until we get to the advanced signs of heeling off-leash past food! heh.

Oh yeah so the thing I've really wanted to learn is how to teach a dog to "tuck in". For example, if your dog sits or stands too far from you, you can cue them to tuck themselves into heel position and they'll scooch in with their back end. The skill was introduced today as a foundation exercise for left turns, which will be covered next week.

About a zillion different ways to teach this were described/demo'd with the instructor's beautiful Leonberger (who does a lovely job of demonstrating all of the new skills in class). So I don't forget them, here they are in shorthand: (1) lure; (2) leash around knees; (3) around chair; (4) backup/wall; (5) turning in tight circle; (6) darn, I think sure there were a a few more, but I've since forgotten them.

First I tried the lure method, using the outside hand to lure her head away from me, the idea being once she moves her rear end, C&T. Well, this method wasn't quite working for us as this is pretty much the same cue/lure I do for stretching. Lucy did a lovely job of curving her body around to her hip without moving her back feet an inch. Ok, so what were those other methods again?

So, the instructor suggested we try the leash behind the knees method. What do you know, within a few minutes we were starting to figure it out. Very cool! This is definitely what we'll focus on this week.

Homework: "Tuck in" using leash behind knees

Beginner class #1

Today, after a warmup round of heeling, we learned the following signs:

• Halt - Sit - Stand
  
• Halt - Sit - Down
  
• Halt - Sit - Down - Sit
  
• Halt - Sit - Walk around
  
• Halt - Sit - Down - Walk around
  
• Normal pace
  
• Fast pace
  
• Slow pace
  
• Weave once

Lucy pretty much knew them already from her previous courses. However, her big problem has always been sitting at a wide angle and even though it's not a big deduction I'd still like to get her straighter.

We were reminded of the importance of body language in obedience, such as leaning forward when about to start from a stop, and choosing a specific footwork pattern when about to come to a stop.

Lucy's on a restricted diet right now as we try to figure out if she has food allergies, so all she gets for treats is her kibble. For all the trouble Lucy The Walking Stomach gets herself into, there's one good thing about having a chowhound: she's almost as happy to work for kibble as for any other treat. :-)

Homework: Straight sits; refresh her Stand.

Welcome to Lucy's rally-o blog

Finally got around to signing up for a rally-o session. I've wanted to get started with Lucy in rally for a while now, seeing as she greatly enjoyed previous obedience courses. It seems that in her mind, obedience class is a one-hour-long treat extravaganza. :)

So yeah, Lucy's done a bit of basic obedience stuff before. The graduation test of one of her previous obedience courses was the Canine Good Neighbour test. She easily handled all of the CGN exercises except for the supervised isolation test, which was in the form of a three-minute out-of-sight stay. I was watching her through a one-way window and halfway through she stood up. Gasp... Fortunately though she remained in place, standing, for the last minute and a half. So she got her first ever title, and the first ever title for any of my dogs: CGN, in the spring of 2007.

Though she hasn't taken any obedience classes since then, she has been keeping busy with flyball, agility, and skijoring.

Being a purebred mutt and proud of it, she will hopefully start competing at CARO at some point, provided she continues to enjoy it.