(Scottsdale/Phoenix, AZ) After our morning romp in the polo field, Mike took Sparkie, Boogie, and Slugger on a nice long hike. Wazzu stayed home with me to rest as she didn't seem quite right this morning. She just kind of plodded along - except when Sparkie would get near her. Then she would attack Sparkie big time. Sparkie was shocked as she hadn't done a thing and she could tell Wazzu meant business. There were times when Sparkie was just walking along looking at Mike and Wazzu would curl her lips up - fortunately we were now aware of a problem and kept a close eye on Wazzu and made her stop before the attack was going to happen.
This is very concerning to us as Wazzu has always been very mild mannered. And she and Sparkie have been best buds forever. Our guess is that Wazzu doesn't feel well. But why would she just pick on Sparkie? We'll have to watch this closely.
The reason Mike took the others on a nice long hike this morning was because he found a museum that he really wanted to go to. He always feels better if the dogs are tired before he leaves them with me. After our debacle with the park where we wanted to hike last week, Mike made sure to go to the cash machine on his way to the Pueblo Grande Museum.
Mike was excited for his afternoon alone at a museum he was really interested in. He walked up to the window to pay and they said it would be $2.00. So he handed them the $20 bill he'd gotten out of the cash machine. Get this....they wouldn't take it! They said you had to have exact change. He was furious. First people wouldn't take his park pass, then they wouldn't take his credit card, and now they wouldn't take his cash!
So he drove all the way back to the RV (close to an hours drive each way) and proceeded to do some chores around the RV to work off his frustration. He got a lot done which was good but I felt really sorry for him.
This evening it was time to try to Puppy Class again. Tonight there actually was class. It is held in someones backyard. It is lighted and totally fenced. When we first walked in there was a small fenced area with eight sheep in it. I later figured out that they are just in that small cage area during class. The rest of the time they must be loose in the backyard.
I was excited to see how Boogie would do in a class environment as he'd never had that opportunity before. There were six puppies in class so they divided us into two groups. One group had the larger size puppies and the other had the smaller puppies. Boogie was in the small puppy group along with a Westie and the smallest Yorkie I've ever seen. She may have been small but she was FAST!!
The first exercise they had us do was run through four hoops then onto a table where they would get a treat off a target plate. Boogie had never seen a hoop before and he has never sequenced. The other puppies had obviously done this in class before as they did it perfectly. But Boogie did every other one. He was trying - he just didn't know the game. The instructor grabbed the treat off the plate before Boogie could get it since he hadn't done the exercise correctly. We had to go back and try again. Finally on our third try Boogie did it right. I thought that was very good for his first time trying anything like this.
We did this exercise a couple more times with each puppy. But while we were waiting for our next turn Boogie got very interested in the grass. Nothing else in the world existed but the grass. Here I was concerned about how he'd do in class with other dogs - but our distraction was the grass. Fortunately when it was our turn it just took a couple calls to get his attention. But the second we were done with our turn he was right back to the grass.
The next exercise was the tunnel. That was no problem (once I got his attention) as Boogie knows the tunnel. I had a problem with how they were teaching this though. The two other people in our group had never done agility with any dog before. So at this point the focus should be on getting the puppy to do the obstacle and then immediately praising them. For some reason, after having the puppies do a straight tunnel twice they then put the tunnel in a U-shape. But instead of concentrating on getting the puppy to do the tunnel they also had the people do a front cross. The instructor didn't explain why you'd do this and they didn't have the people practice it without the dog. They just had the dog do a curved tunnel and had the people doing a front cross at the same time. So what happened was that the dog would do the tunnel correctly but of course the people did the front cross totally wrong. So the instructor would be yelling (literally) at the people who of course would be listening to what they did wrong and would totally leave the dog standing there having no idea what was going on. The people should have been rewarding the dog big time - no listening to someone yell at them for not doing the front cross correctly. (I of course did a beautiful front cross and rewarded my dog immediately!)
Then we moved on to the chute. Boogie had never done that so we had to hold the chute open for him just a little bit. He never did do it closed but I'm not so worried about that as we have lots of time and the chute is currently not used in any trials we've attended for quite some time.
Our next obstacle was the teeter. I am so mad at myself. The second I saw how they were teaching the teeter I was worried as I knew this would scare the dogs. I should have just declined to take a turn. But even though I knew better, I took a turn. Sure enough all three puppies eagerly went on the teeter their first turn - but got frightened when suddenly the teeter dropped down and made a noise. All three puppies jumped off. Then none of them would even put one paw on the teeter. I won't go into the process they made us do then but I'm not going to have Boogie go near a teeter for a long time as I'm hoping he'll forget this horrible experience and we can start anew later.
Our last exercise was to do a figure eight around two gates. One thing I haven't mentioned is that every exercise is done with the dog dragging the leash. Doing a figure eight around gates with a leash can be done - I did it just fine and treated Boogie at the correct time. But the instructor yelled at me (again literally) for having the leash in the wrong hand. What! Who cares where the leash is. My body position was correct at all times, I treated at the appropriate time, and treated with the correct hand. Isn't that what's important?!
I was very proud of Boogie on how well he did with other dogs around - but I can now see that my bigger problem is going to be how to keep his nose off the ground! No one with a terrier has ever had that problem!!
Debbie
10/17/07
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