Seeing as how I haven't been able to exercise my dogs for days and they have been absolutely driving me up the wall (not sure if the pointed, pathetic expressions or the hyperactive spasms are worse), I promised them I'd do SOMETHING, ANYTHING with them today. So, I put Dare behind the baby gate in the kitchen and started with Braggie. First we just did some boring conditioning stuff (sideline situps, downs into stands, core stuff, etc), then moved into some work with rights and lefts (thought maybe I'd give training directionals a go in case I want to rule the world at Gamblers in the future) and spinning into heal position from whereever he is (he LOVES those and does them so freakin' cute) and finally I brought him to the staircase with the intent to do 2o/2o training. I did a couple bottoms with him but then I decided I'd use the split, carpeted staircase to do some funs stuff like making him go away from me, run up the stairs, backing up while he was up there, doing sits and downs and catching treats from a far distance. I realized Brag is awesome at backing up at a distance which I thought was cool and I also realized he doesn't really understand how to do a sit from a down at distance. It also occured to me that I use the exact same word to mean line up at heal and back up away from me (well - they are a little different...I use 'get back' to mean line up at heal and 'back it up' to mean go in reverse) and that could be sort of confusing. I think my dogs have more history with me saying 'get back' to I should come up with something new for backing in reverse...anyone have any ideas?
Anyway, while I was working with him it was so much FUN! I didn't want to stop and kept coming up with different things to do. Of course he thought it was the best shit ever too. I hope it has inspired me to do stupid little pet tricks much more often instead of just taking them for a boring run or walk everyday.
After Brag and I were done I brought Dare out. She is sooooo much better at Brag at sitting up (I guess some people call it sitting pretty). I need to get a picture of her because she is so freaking cute and always holds up her feet for balance and if she is losing her balance just moves her front paws around until she regains the balance. The other cool thing she does is go into a stand from the sit pretty and then spin around like a circus pony. I really don't know where she comes up with some of this stuff. She woudl be such an amazing dog for someone that was really into tricks and really into Obedience...too bad she is stuck with me. :) On the other hand, Dare is so much worse at lining up at heal...she doesn't really get it and when Dare doesn't get something she starts spinning around trying new things and then the barking will start and everything gets very chaotic. Brag gets all worked up behind the gate and jumps over and it is just a f*ckery. Anway, we sort of worked through that and did right and lefts as well. Interestingly she is very good at the right spins but not nearly as good at the left spins. I find that peculiar since Brag is equal on both. We then moved onto the staircase maneuvers and she was pretty decent at sits and downs at a distance from me but still comes forward on her down to hang her paws over the first step and likewise on the sit will come forward and sort of do a 2o/2o on the first step. She seems to understand sit from down more than Brag. We only received one uninvited visit from Brag during our staircase games.
To end the session I got out the clicker and more little treats and sat down on the couch to see what Dare would do with herself. She started engaging the little ottoman which was no surprise because last winter we did some stupid pet tricks with the ottoman. I was quite impressed that she remembered and what she was doing because somehow she managed to roll it around doing positions on it the entire way. She also took off the top and did stuff with that by itself. She is just so freaking 'operant' (risking being that annoying person by using that word but it is true).
Dare just cracks me up. I think I've been so beyond frustrated with her in agility that I really needed this session to remind me what an absolutely cool, funny and scary smart dog she is. It has been rolling around in my head for a little while that I just might not have the dedication and patience to get her past her reactive behaviors enough to ever have a successful agility dog. The fact that she is absolutely a spectacular agility dog when she is in a location where she can focus totally on me doesn't do us much good when we can't trial in those locations. Additionally, she has proven to me that I cannot even train her in a class setting. So I guess what I've been considering is sort of throwing in the towel with trialing for good. That seems so brash and like such a cop out and such a lame thing for me to do I can't quite think through the issue. Dare appears to be so young but she will be 6 years old in four short months. Now that is not at all old in my book but it is old considering we have no teamwork together and there doesn't seem to be much hope that she will just 'grow out of it.' I think either I commit to a ton of work with some extreme behavior modification or I give it up. I just hate admitting that I might not have the stuff to pull this off but then again is there anything wrong with that?
This also brings to mind that Brag is 8 1/2 years old and I hope to run him for a good many years yet, but if I do decide not to pursue trialing with Dare I could find myself without a dog to trial if I don't think about getting a puppy in the near future. I feel sooooo not ready for a puppy in my life though. The 2 dog thing is absolutely wonderful and they get along well and fit in my vehicles and so on. A very big part of me doesn't want to bring a puppy into our life until Brag is retired. I don't think I'm alone in the thought that I 'want to do it right' with my next puppy. With Brag I had no clue what I was doing and with Dare she wasn't 'mine' until she was over a year old I believe. I also had no idea what I was dealing with when she first started her reactive behavior. I thought it was cute how excited she got by Border Collies! Never again will I be that stupid again but past is past and I can't dwell on should haves.
Arg I've gone off on a tangent when all I wanted to say is how much fun I had playing with my dogs today and I hope we do it again very soon!
