Ceilidh, Ranger, and Sue's Training blog

Summer Training Update

2011-08-06T12:07:00.000-06:00

Training has been sporadic, but at least I have gotten some in on all three dogs this summer. Even 11-year-old Ceilidh has been taught a new trick, (fetch your bowl). She loves clicker work, or maybe it's food that she loves. In any case, it's fun to watch her enjoying her senior years.

Sue has been doing some remedial open work. She has all the tools, we're just refining and fixing at this point because they're rusty. She's heeling like a dream, her retrieving is great, but we needed to do some recall polishing and now that's coming along too, her statics are perfect, I need to work the broad jump with her, as we've not done that in quite some time.

Ranger and I have been working on just about everything. I think our biggest issue is attention and effort. He's coming along, but slowly. His heeling is getting there, stand for exam is perfect, statics are iffy in that he sometimes lays down on the sit, but the down is perfect, recall is coming along nicely, we've also been working on his trained retrieve. It's coming, just needs for me to focus on really completing the training.

Will it happen this year?

2011-05-28T08:33:00.000-06:00

Once again it's summer, when I should have a little extra time for working with the dogs. (not much, but a little more than usual) Once again my goal is to have Ranger ready for the obedience ring this fall. Once again, all we need to work on is proofing and ring manners. Will we get it done? Maybe, maybe not, but once again we're going to try. If it happens, it happens, if not, I've still got a trained dog who gets a little excited in the performance ring because he spends very little time there due to other important things, like hunting, taking up his weekend time.

On the topic of hunting, I just discovered a great retriever puppy training blog that I wish had been around 10.5 years ago when Ceilidh was a pup. It's really great. I don't have any pups, but I'm thinking of trying some of their stuff as remediation for big dogs.

Training Philosophies

2010-10-08T10:29:00.000-06:00

There are many paths available to reach a goal. Sometimes we get all wrapped up in why one path is better than another and we take our eyes off of the goal. I've always been a person who likes to have multiple tools (methods) to choose from in my training toolbox.

With each dog being different, each requires a different approach to training. Some it seems are almost telepathic while others require much more repetition, work and focus work. It is my belief that no matter what the method or consistency and fairness is the key to success. I ran across a great post poking fun at all training methods on Nanook's blog. Take a look.

Hopefully, Ranger is ready

2010-10-08T09:53:00.000-06:00

Our first foray into Beginner Novice is tomorrow. I took Ranger out Wednesday evening and ran through what I thought would be our problem areas. He held steady for both of the sitting exercises with some pretty tempting distractions.

It seems that as long as I refrain from singing the "Star Spangled Banner" while skipping around the ring, he will hold his Sit-Stay. The Sit for Exam he held steady, even with one of his favorite people in the world and most favorite person to jump up from a sit and greet was the acting judge. Heeling could've been a little better, but it was good enough to pass, I think.

It's make or break time, but I'm hopeful for good results.

Beginner Novice

2010-09-28T11:36:00.003-06:00

Recently, I've decided that it's time to get Ranger into the Obedience ring. He's ready, but I'm not sure that I am.   Since I don't want him learning any bad ring habits while off leash heeling, I decided to enter him in "Beginner Novice" for his first non-conformation, non-rally ring experience. My thinking was that this would be similar to the old Pre Novice class of yesteryear, but clearly, I should've read the rules first.

Beginner Novice, other than the fact that it's mostly on-lead is very different from Pre Novice. It's been designed as sort of a crossover class to lure the Rally Obedience folks into the regular Obedience ring. AKC Beginner Novice class contains the following exercises:

1. Heel on Leash - 40 points
2. Figure Eight -    40 points
3. Sit for Exam -    40 points
4. Sit Stay -          40 points
5. Recall-               40 points
Max Total Score 200 points

Key differences between Beginner Novice and Regular Obedience:

There is one obvious difference, the "Sit for Exam" exercise. Personally, I think it's probably easier for the dog to break a sit for exam, than a stand for exam, but my dog is crossing over from conformation where standing for a more thorough exam involving the judge touching sensitive areas is a key to success. An area to be careful of handler error here is not pulling your dog out of a sit with the leash as you walk facing outward out to the end of the leash.

The not-so-obvious, based upon nomenclature, differences are, "Heel on Leash", and "Sit Stay".
Heel on Leash is performed using Rally signs rather than reacting to commands from the judge. The dog/handler teams are being scored similarly to how they would be scored in rally, with perhaps a little more stringency required and attention paid to lagging, forging, crowding and wide heeling. Another change from Rally is that the handler is only allowed a "One time single phrase of praise or encouragement" Folks making the transition from Rally are going to have to be careful about not going beyond one phrase.

The "Sit Stay" exercise is really diffrent, and perhaps even more difficult than the Novice Sit Stay. It involves sitting the dog, giving the stay command and then walking around the inside perimeter of the ring in a direction indicated by the judge. After completing a full walk around the perimeter, the handler approaches the dog from the front, walks around the back of the dog to heel position. I can see many an unprepared or nervous dog breaking a stay and following the handler around the ring.

Other than these key areas the other exercises are pretty similar to regular obedience exercises. Beginner Novice truly is a blending of Rally and Novice obedience.

Update on canine/feline household relations

2010-08-05T00:13:00.000-06:00

I have an almost thirteen-year-old cat who used to think he was a dog, Cisco, and three prey driven retrievers, who in the past have packed up on the cat. Cisco used to have a cat buddy to hang out with, but unfortunately, that kitty has left this plane of existance and now Cisco is lonely.

Because of the packing activity, the cat has his own segregated living quarters gated off from the rest of the house. This way he can enjoy being a cat without worrying about dealing with the dogs. The cat has the ability to jump the dog barrier and join in household activities if he so chooses, which he normally doesn't. However, since he no longer has his kitty buddy, he's getting bored and lonely in his living area.

I've been trying to broker a peace treaty between the canines and the feline, and things are progressing nicely. The cat is pretty non-reacitve about the dogs, other than yowling when he's unhappy about something. My girls, who both grew up with the cat and used coexist quite nicely with him prior to Ranger joining the pack, have gone back to simply ignoring the cat. Ranger would really love to play with the cat, but he's so exuberant about it that Cisco gets annoyed and wants to remove himself from Ranger's presence. Ranger is not above a good cat chase if the cat is runniing, and if Ranger gives chase the girls are not above joining in on the fun.

I've decided that I need to concentrate on Ranger's behavior and everything else will fall into place. Ranger is both fascinated by and slightly concerned about the presence of the cat in the house. He quietly stands guard at the barrier to the cat room and if I'm holding the cat, he makes sure that he is nearby in case I need saving. At the same time he also likes to sniff the cat all over and he licks his ears, much to Cisco's dismay. I'm working on teaching Ranger to not chase the cat, and to wait until the cat gets out of dog reach before he checks the cat's path of escape.

We started with a brusque "Leave-It" calling Ranger off the chase, and have now built up to just a quiet "Ranger, stay". When the cat is out, Ranger now looks at me for guidance before any interaction with the cat. I don't trust him unsupervised with the cat, but he now has faith in my ability to keep the cat in line and doesn't feel quite so anxious about keeping the cat under guard.

Tonight we had a milestone in Ranger/Cisco relations. Cisco jumped off of the couch, over Ranger's head and slunk back to the safety of his room and Ranger merely watched him go. He waited for Cisco to be back in his room and for me to say "Good Boy" before getting up to go check on the cat.

Baby steps.

101 things to do with a spaghetti pot

2010-08-01T20:39:00.005-06:00

I have a really nice large pot with a pasta insert that I got saving stamps at the grocery store. Since I don't cook much it's been relegated to service as dog training equipment.

This week's project is using the pot to help teach the dogs rear end awareness. This "Pot Training" is a new technique for me, but I found a video similar to this one on YouTube. I upped the difficulty level by trying to teach all three dogs at once. It turned out to be lots of fun for both the dogs and me.

Ranger figured it out first, stomping first one foot and then the other on the upturned spaghetti pot.

Ceilidh was next to figure things out, offering every behavior she could think of except for standing on the pot over and over again, screaming at me as well. Finally, things clicked for her and she figured it out too.

Sue, who I think of as the brightest of my three, took a little longer. Seems that the group shaping/luring session was a little confusing for her, but eventually with some one-on-one time she quickly figured out the game.

Currently, I'm able to sort of push Ceilidh and Ranger around the pot in a counter clockwise direction and Sue is just working on duration on the pot. We're just starting out, but hopefully this spaghetti pot training will prove useful.

Ranger's Charm Wins again

2010-06-17T14:11:00.003-06:00

The visitors came. I gave them the instructions about correcting his overly exuberant greetings; and then they entered my yard, saw the dog and fell completely under his spell. My instructions were ignored completely and they were covered in muddy pawprints from his mugging by the time it was all over. I just can't quite seem to get people to give him much needed corrections. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE PEOPLE! DO NOT ALLOW THIS DOG TO MESMERIZE YOU WITH HIS CHARM. Correct him, when he is being bad.

Ranger's Love of Visitors- a Problem

2010-06-16T10:17:00.003-06:00

I live a quiet life with relatively few visitors. My dogs are well behaved in the house and they are good quiet neighbors, only barking when there really is something needing my attention in the yard. BUT, when someone comes to visit, they all lose their minds. And, Ranger is the most obnoxious of all. It's really quite embarrassing. The girls are bad enough barking their fool heads off. Then there's Bubba. He greets visitors by barking his head off, wagging his tail like crazy, and bouncing off of the visitors bodies like a swim racer doing a turn, pushing off of a wall. If the visitor is elderly, he could do some real damage.

The problem is, that even though he's being obnoxious, he's so charming and enthusiastic in his greeting that the visitors are reluctant to correct him. In public and at dog shows he's a perfect gentleman, but at home...I have visitors coming today who are dog people. They are going to receive instructions about correcting him when he greats them. Sometimes even dog people are reluctant to correct another person's dog without prior permission. If you visit me, please, please, feel free to correct my overly friendly dogs.

Training update

2010-04-11T20:27:00.004-06:00

Sometimes life gets in the way of dog training, and blogging. That has been the case around here for awhile. Luckily, snatching five minutes here or there has helped to keep the dogs from getting too rusty. Mostly, we've just been doing little bits of play training. I haven't had time for much of an organized approach lately.

Ceilidh is, as ever, obsessed with her ball; but, she also wants to work when the treats come out, so I humor her and give her a few repetitions, do some clicker work with her and make sure that she gets lots of treats.

Sue, my little genius girl, is starving for some meaningful work. She gets lost in the shuffle sometimes. I'm trying to get in as much fun clicker work with her as possible, trying to engage her ever churning brain. At some point, I am going to have to really get after getting her ready to do some open work. She's got what it takes, we just need to put everything together.

Ranger is really making progress. The immediate goal at this point is to get a CD on the other end of his name. I put him through a novice obedience run through today, and he really did well. His heeling was pretty good for a guy coming out of the conformation ring, with sits getting to be pretty much automatic now. His recalls are coming along nicely, but still need some polishing. He's finishing well to the left or right with a lure, but isn't ready to do them without incentive yet. We also need to work on his stand stays a little more to get across the need for more steadiness and less judge flirting. His static exercises were excellent! He even held while a man and his daughter were playing ball right behind him. Now that's a distraction. I thought Ranger was going to twist his head right off, trying to watch the fun without breaking his stay.

Learning to hunt by the rules

2009-08-13T20:09:00.003-06:00

Now that Ranger is home we are working on his trained retrieve. I got a good start last weekend at a Connie Cleveland obedience seminar and things are progressing well. Since we normally don't hunt by field test rules, Ranger has had difficulty with the concept of picking up a long-dead, cold bird. To anthropomorphize for him. "It's not going anywhere, let's keep hunting and we'll come back for that one later".

Ranger has only fetched live-shot flyers and he prefers to fetch birds from the water or cripples. I've had problems with him with birds that fall on land. He finds them just fine, but only indicates where they are and waits for me or else my other dog, Sue to pick them up. So now, the long-avoided trained retrieve process is underway for my Bubbadog.

Richmond Dog Fanciers

2009-08-02T07:48:00.005-06:00

Ranger and Mercedes were at it again. On Saturday, August 1, they pulled a Sporting Group 4, under judge Douglas Johnson at the Richmond Dog Fanciers show. This is a large show with nearly 300 dogs entered in the Sporting Group alone.

Sunday, he was stung by a bee and was limping in the ring, so no placement, and then the best news of all, Monday, I picked him up in Arizona and he is now home where, we have a working slot in an obedience seminar this weekend. Hopefully, it will get us off on the right foot for success in that venue.

Ranger's Canadian Vacation

2009-07-29T09:19:00.004-06:00

-photo by Linda Fitzmaurice

Ranger spent the last two weekends in Canada, where he finished his Canadian championship in three straight shows, and took a Sporting group three in only his 4th Canadian show. He's having a pretty good summer in the show ring.

Ranger& Sadie Take it up a Notch -Best in Show

2009-06-28T23:21:00.009-06:00

Today, I got some wonderful news from Oregon. Ranger, AKA Bubbalicious, AKA Ch Javahill's Backwoods Boy, RN along with his Jr. Handler, Mercedes Messer, got a Best in Show at the Mt. Bachelor Kennel Club show. The news made me so proud! He is such a special dog!

I never even dreamed of this moment, and here it is and I wasn't there to see it or take pictures. He's been away for a month now. I miss him like crazy. He's more than just a pretty boy. He's my best bud, my hunting partner, and a huge presence in my life outside of the show ring. Just watching him run around the yard sometimes takes my breath away.

Can a dog have a sense of humor? If they can then Ranger definitely does. I often find myself anthropomorphizing what I imagine his thoughts might be. When I get home from work in the evening, he greets me at the door, woo wooing his joy that I'm finally home. He loves just hanging out with me on the couch or doing anything, as long as he's getting attention. When I heard he got the group, I told a friend that he was in for a long day. Her response was, "Don't worry, he'll be fine. It's all about him and he loves that."

When I'm training him it's hard to really be serious, because he gets a twinkle in his eye that seems to say, "Come on! look at me! you know I don't need to do that!" On the other hand, he learns things really quickly and if I have trouble communicating what I want from him and then we finally get it he gets a look that says "Well, why didn't you say that in the first place?" He's happy to do just about anything you ask him...as long as it makes sense to him, that is. He is a Toller after all.

Paper Girls

2009-06-09T22:10:00.004-06:00

There's a new morning routine at our house, paper fetching. I trained Ceilidh to do this for me years ago, then stopped my subscription to the paper. That meant no paper fetching for a few years.

Recently, I decided to subscribe to the "local" paper again as a reaction to newspapers closing their doors in a few cities this year. I don't really have time to read a paper, nor do I particularly like this particular paper over any others, but it's just about as local as you can get around here, and I'd like for it to continue to be available in print form for a few more years.

Now, both Sue and Ceilidh want to fetch the paper in the morning. I've resorted to having them take turns every other morning. One dog runs out and gets the paper, hands it off to the other dog in the house, who then delivers it to hand. Both dogs then get a cookie for their hard work, with the dog who didn't get to do the outrun getting the first treat, since waiting is the hardest job of all. The girls are learning to enjoy the new routine and I'm actually getting to read the paper every other day or so and it also gives me fuel for the charcoal starter chimney.

It's Official! Ranger got his RN!

2009-06-09T20:42:00.001-06:00

No, he's not a nurse! He's not even here at the house right now, he's away at summer camp in California. I hear he's having a pretty good time lounging in the pool and hanging out with puppies and pretty girls.

Last month, on Mother's Day in fact, he completed the requirements for his AKC Rally Novice title. It was a while between his first leg and his last, but he did it in three straight tries. He didn't waste a single entry fee. That's my boy! The certificate came in the mail on Monday. His official name is now Ch Javahill's Backwoods Boy RN.

Ranger hasn't gotten out to the shows much this year, but when he has, it's been pretty good.

George and Gracie

2009-06-02T19:53:00.003-06:00

Ranger is at camp Javahill for a few weeks this summer. To fill the void left by his absence I've added a couple of new pets to the household. Since the color scheme around here is red and white, I stuck with the theme. George is red with white spots and Gracie is white with red spots; or more accurately in both cases orange rather than red. They're goldfish, and they live in a whiskey barrel fountain/habitat in the back yard.

I'm even thinking about trying to train them. At least to get them to react in some Skinnerian way to sounds indicating dinner time. We'll see how that goes.

One of the first things that Gracie did upon her release into the habitat was to lay eggs which it looked like George tried fertilizing. Maybe I could be a fish breeder. I wonder if it's less heartbreaking than breeding dogs?

Ranger Back to Back Group Placements

2009-05-26T21:16:00.006-06:00

My Bubbalicious boy, Ranger, and I took a very quick trip out to California for two days of the Mission Circuit of dog shows, Sunday and Monday. He made the trip worth it by taking a Sporting Group 3 on Sunday and a Group 4 on Monday. I was so proud of him! He really turned on the charm in the ring this weekend. If he keeps this up I may never be able to convince him that there is a benefit to doing more than being a pretty boy.

Time to train dogs

2009-04-16T17:14:00.004-06:00

Lately, it seems as though I'm living at work. Such is the nature of springtime and my work, hectic, hectic, hectic. It leaves very little time for any sort of formal training for the dogs, so I've resorted to doing "Drive-by-training" sessions.

The dogs are just happy to get some attention, as they rarely even get to see me at all when I'm not asleep. The really cool part is that I'm dealing with some very eager workers. They don't really care what we are doing as long as they're getting some attention from me. The drive-by sessions are basically the first five to ten minutes after I walk in the door at night where we do something with treats, training, praise. Sometimes the clicker is involved, other times it's just random.

Results:
Ranger-off lead heeling is coming along nicely and getting pretty good with touch and leave-it
Sue-heeling, sits, formal retrieves, scent work- all going well
Ceilidh- heels like a pro and now will pick up Ranger's food bowl on command, working on confidence building

Ranger/Sue working on retrieves

2009-03-02T06:18:00.002-07:00

The average layperson wouldn't think that you'd need to work with retrievers on retrieving, but actually, if you want them to have more than a prey-driven instinctual retrieve some training is beneficial.

I've been working with Sue on scent articles, and Ranger has been begging for me to train him, so I sort of combined two training sessions into one. Sue got to work on scent discrimination, while Ranger worked on retrieving something that wasn't moving and hadn't been either thrown or shot for him.

Sue is coming along nicely. I wish I had more time at home to work with her. We'll just continue using the time we have and we'll get there when we get there. Ranger on the other hand had a great AHA moment.

Up to this point he's been great with "hold" and "take it" from my hand, but only in a passive way. My goal was for him to start actively going after the retrieving article, and he, for the first time, got it! Yeah! He even warned Sue away from his turn to fetch. Sue does like to steal all of the work around here, especially if the paycheck is food.

Ceilidh got in a couple of good scent articles reps as well. I don't like to leave her out. She likes to get the attention connected with training, even if she'd rather be fetching her ball.

Interesting Wolf Terminology Article

2009-02-15T17:17:00.003-07:00

This article from the International Wolf Center talks about a change in terminology with reference to the term "Alpha" concerning wolf pack order. The article explains that the dynamic among wolves is more a case of natural familial roles rather than a case of alpha's dominating the pack. The article points out the shift in terminology away from using the term "alpha" in scientific articles of late.

Doggy Kegger Held in Owner's Absence

2009-02-04T16:17:00.009-07:00

I've been putting in some really long hours lately. Three days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I am away at work for over 12 hours. This leaves the dogs alone unsupervised in the house and yard for that time. Tollers with too much time on their hands have been known to get creative on occasion. Mine are no exception.

I should've seen the signals warning me of the party plans. Last week, when I got home at a reasonable hour, I found one of my shoes, the right one, it's always the right one, in the yard. My right shoes often make their way into the yard. I now buy most of my shoes at WalMart because of this phenomenon. It cuts to the core to find an expensive right shoe in the yard. Friday, I found another right shoe, from another pair of shoes under the couch. I try to be careful with my shoes, but sometimes they just come off and then get appropriated.

The keg party did not involve shoes however; it involved blankets. Like many dog owners my living room furniture is covered with slipcovers and blankets to catch dog dirt and hair. On Monday, I came home to find not only the doggy pacifier blanket, but also the blanket which covers the cushion on the living room dog bed in the yard. Not a problem, these are old ratty blankets, which belong to the dogs. I shook them out and returned them to their places of honor in the living room.

Three separate times I ignored the signs that my dogs were getting bored and a doggy kegger was imminent. Tuesday, after twelve and half hours away from home, I came home to the remnants of a party still in progress. I pulled into the carport, tired from the long day and noticed that the dogs did not come out to the yard to greet my arrival.

Hmmm...I wondered if I had forgotten to open the doggy door before leaving for work. I quickly went through a list of the things I had done that morning prior to leaving. When I got to the part where I was searching the yard for my missing right shoe, finally, Ranger came through the doggy door to greet me and I heard whining from inside the house. This brought mixed emotions. OK, I hadn't left them cooped up in the house all day, but why weren't they all coming out to greet the car? This was not a good sign, but at least, I hoped, the problem would not involve shampooing the carpet. I quickly unlocked the door and entered the house.

It was dark, so I didn't immediately see what had happened. I felt Ranger and Honey jumping on me. It's sort of like being hit by a couple of medicine balls, one on each side at the same time. I put down my laptop case and camera case which I had been using as an ineffectual shield against the greeting committee and turned on the lights.

There were down feathers all over the living room, the two blankets from Monday were missing and probably back in the yard. Ceilidh was on the couch chewing on her tennis ball through the slipcover on the people couch, feathers decorating her oh so innocent face. Couldn't I see there was a ball emergency and she needed my help? Sue, also covered in feathers, turned out to be the source of the whining. After all, it was two hours past her normal dinner hour and she was alerting me to her near starved condition from having to wait.

The living room looked like there had been a blizzard indoors. I immediately flashed back to a pillow fight episode of some random 70s sitcom, probably The Brady Bunch. The down throw from the back of the other people couch had been sacrificed at the altar of Bacchus. I really liked that throw...Thank goodness I bought it at Walmart, so I could just pitch the remains instead of patching the shell with Gorilla tape, like I did with the Eddie Bauer comforter the last time there was a dog party at the house.

I can't say they didn't warn me.

Sue and Ceilidh starting to get "Scent Articles"

2009-01-29T17:10:00.002-07:00

Scent Article training is going pretty well. Little miss automatic, Sue, is going to town. We're really making progress with the metal articles. Ceilidh is cooperating reluctantly, but really would rather be fetching her tennis ball. I really need to work on building her confidence levels.

Hopefully, if I can get more time to work on this I'll really see some progress with both girls. However, putting in 60 hour weeks at work is not doing much for my dog training schedule.

Honey the Toller rescue-update

2009-01-28T06:23:00.009-07:00

Things are going well with Honey. All of our work with calming and conditioning is starting to pay off. If I had to describe her today, the only negative issue I would bring up would be that she's a bit of a recreational barker still. This is easily managed with a QUALITY bark collar. In fact, I've been slowly reducing the level of correction she is receiving as her behavior improves.

Another thing we've been working on, now that she has calmed down considerably, is deliberately getting her revved up and then working on controlling her excitement levels and teaching her to calm herself back down again. A problem has been that when things get exciting she has to share the excitement by jumping on and play biting the nearest dog, regardless of that particular dog's inclination to play. This has caused much offense with the pack and they have had to teach Honey more appropriate, respectful play behaviors.

She is much more polite with the other pack members now, and the pack behavior has changed from pretending she doesn't exist to reluctant acceptance of her as a member. They have taken on the task of teaching her how to interact with other dogs politely, without committing infractions against the doggy code of conduct. She is now much less of an in-your-face kind of dog and more of a well mannered family dog.

This is a dog that will worship its forever owner. The sun will not rise until the owner gets out of bed in the morning and the sun will set in the evening when the owner goes to bed.

Honey update

2009-01-04T23:23:00.003-07:00

Honey is still living with us. She's calmed down a bunch but is still a mystery.

Today I took her out for a solo hike to see if she'd come back without the pack. She did. Yeah! She does come when called. She also ran all over the place, running trails and marking. I noticed that she did keep an eye on me from a great distance, however. She did come to the whistle, but she mostly preferred running circles around me from a distance of about 150 yards away.

She's got an extremely high prey drive. At the house we have to be very careful to keep things calm and non-stimulating or she'll exhibit domination behaviors with the other girls and that can escalate. She also doesn't take to new people right away. She's a sweet dog, very smart, but needs a special quite home with a regular routines. Tomorrow I'm going to try playing a doggy calming album while I'm at work to see if that has any effect on the separation anxiety.

I worked with her a bit with the clicker today and she learns pretty quickly. She's very food motivated, and loves to play the training game. We'll play around with this a bit more while she's here.

Starting to work on scent articles

2008-12-29T08:33:00.003-07:00

The winter project for this year is scent discrimination. I'm going to work on it with all three of my permanent dogs and maybe, if she stays long enough, with Honey the foster dog as well. Honey already quite nicely earns her keep by picking up all of the metal feeding bowls for me when it's feeding time.

My plan is to work using ideas from both Connie Cleveland's video and Shirley Chong's Video. I'll probably end up doing something in the middle. For now, I have a nice new 1/2 sheet of peg board courtesy of my training buddy Charla and her husband Jr. and my training articles which I found at a reasonable price from Custom Canine. I tied down two metal articles with zip strips leaving one metal article loose.

Both Ceilidh and Bronco Sue have a good trained retrieve firmly in place and Ranger is at the "hold" stage of his trained retrieve. He'll pretty much hang on to anything I put in his mouth until I give him the release command, but he's not great at getting stuff unless his prey drive is engaged by motion, i.e. throwing something. I started him out with a fuzzy paint roller and we moved on to PVC dowels, and metal kitchen utensils. He'll get there, just not quickly. Frankly, as long as he's bringing in the game birds, I'm not in a hurry about anything else, other than perhaps a good directed retrieve with him, as he's my primary hunting dog.

Ranger Flys Solo

2008-12-06T18:05:00.003-07:00

Ranger got to be the only dog on the duck hunt today, and he was a all the dog we needed. He fetched four widgeon,(one a cripple) a gadwall, and a green wing teal. I got to fetch a mallard. All the birds were drakes. He was great in the water and along the shore of our little stick pond. If he saw it fall, he brought it back.

Our only issue was a land fall at a distance across the pond from us and up a burm. Ranger is a bit of a velcro dog and I couldn't send him out far enough. When I went across the pond to find the bird he came with me, but since it was on land and I was on the way he didn't see the need to do any more than indicate to me where it was. Obviously, he's not force-fetched.

My dilemma is this. Since he is working well enough to handle most situations we encounter under hunting conditions, is a force fetch really necessary? He's a common sense dog. He's quiet and patient in the blind. He brings cripples to hand and stacks the fully dead birds in a pile on the bank. That's where I'd have to put them if he brought them to me, so he's saving me a step. He's not munching these birds and he's not running off with them. Is putting that WC or JH at the end of his name really that important to me? I would like to be able to send him a distance after a blind, though. In the mean time, I know that the way we hunt is bad for his field test and hunt test performance, but I like how he works. I'm in a quandary.

Honey the rescue foster

2008-11-05T10:09:00.005-07:00

A new addition has arrived at our house, Honey.

Honey was found four years ago as a stray. She has been returned to Toller Rescue for rehoming, and we're fostering her until she finds a forever home. She's a goofy little girl with some quirks that made it impossible for her remain in her first adoptive home.

So far, I at least, am enjoying her. The jury is still out with the rest of the pack. They are all being quite tolerant, but I think that Ranger is disappointed that Honey is not a Mastiff or Dane. The girls are trying to pretend Honey doesn't exist for now.

Honey is being very socially appropriate with my guys, deferring to their status as long-term pack members. She's been inviting them to play, but so far only Ranger is accepting, and he loses interest quickly. Undaunted, Honey amuses herself by throwing balls for herself and then chasing them down and throwing them again.

Even though she is at least five, she still sometimes does the puppy froggy down. She has a big cataract in one eye, and has to have the longest tail I've ever seen on a retriever. It's so long that when she chases it, she has no trouble catching it. She gets wound up pretty easily, so will need an active, yet laid back household, where controlled quiet play is encouraged. She doesn't seem to require lots of exercise, and is perfectly content to sack out on the floor, as long as we're in the room with her. However, she hates to be left alone and likes the sound of her own voice quite a bit, which is why she ended up back in rescue.

This weekend we will be experimenting with a couple of different types of bark collars to see how much help she is going to need to stay quiet. Her previous owners used a shock collar on her, but I'm going to try out a citronella spray collar and see if that will be enough incentive for her to stay quiet. In the meantime, indoor crating during the day seems to be managing the situation quite nicely. I'm also going to try a friend's suggestion and put some of her obsessive behaviors on cue in order to manage them.

Hunting vs Hunt Tests & Field Tests

2008-10-14T08:39:00.004-06:00

On Sunday, October 5th, Ranger entered his first field test. It was the NSDTRC(USA) Basic Retrieving and Tolling test. This test is supposed to be an instinct test for a young dog. Despite having two years of actual successful hunting experience, Ranger failed the test. This brings to mind for me a question, Why?

I actually was neither surprised that he failed the test, nor did I feel that the test was in any way unfair. I knew the rules and conditions going in and I was pretty sure that we weren't going to pass. That is why I entered this test instead of the higher level Working Certificate test, which cost $15 more.

The test consists of two very short land retrieves a short tolling session and two very short water retrieves. We didn't make it past the land retrieves. The question again, why? Here are my thoughts on the matter:

First and foremost, Ranger has not been force fetched. Most people who compete at the higher levels if Hunt and Field work will tell you that a forced retrieve is a must, but this test was supposed to be an instinct test, so the forced retrieve should not have been a factor here. However, had he been force fetched, I'm sure that he would have passed the test.

Next, we don't hunt by the rules. I live in the desert southwest. Duck hunting here is unlike the traditional duck hunting with which most people who live in places which actually have water are familiar. Our water is shallower, and narrower and harder to find. Duck hunting here is, well, different. A blind consists of an overhanging cottonwood or a stand of trees, but nothing more developed than that. If I had to describe our duck hunting I'd say it's sort of a hybrid of upland and traditional duck hunting and upland work. We do use decoys, but we often just jump ducks on ponds or flush them from the decoys towards a waiting hunter upstream. Our birds are almost always hit at close range, and no, every shot does not necessarily bring down a bird.

When I first took my girls hunting, their only experience with birds had been under field test conditions. They were quite shocked and felt cheated when every shot fired did not bring a bird to retrieve. This caused lots of complaining, chastisement and whining on their parts. I clearly remember a conversation between my Bronco Sue and my friend Junior, where the human was explaining to the dog that her whining was not bringing the birds in. He couldn't just manufacture them out of thin air and besides, she hadn't exactly been stellar about finding that last bird anyway. I was quite amused to watch a grown man trying to carry on a conversation with a dog.

Flash forward to October 5th and my newest dog Ranger. Ranger's experience with birds has all occurred under hunting conditions. He waits patiently for the birds to fall and then gets them when they do. His birds have often still been flapping, many have been cripples and they've all been warm, freshly shot flyers. Ranger sits at my side quietly and patiently scans the sky for birds. He doesn't whine or complain when shots are fired and the birds don't fall. He looks alertly at where they should fall and when they don't he goes back to scanning for the next target. Under the test conditions, where the bird was well and truly dead, barely thawed, to get anthropomorphic for Ranger, there is no immediate need for picking it up. It's not going anywhere. We can get it later. Besides, there's a whole bucket of birds right besides the person who threw this bird. Obviously, this bird must be flawed since the person threw it away.

For Ranger to pass this "instinct" test, I'm going to have to put him through force-fetch training. He's going to need to learn to work for me rather than with me. It's going to be sad for me to see the dynamics of our team changed by imposing rules, but on the other hand, maybe forcing him to do something that doesn't make sense, just because I want him to do it will improve our communication and teamwork.

Using a Match to guage our training

2008-08-25T14:12:00.002-06:00

I love going to doggy events. What I don't like is paying trial entry fees for a trial only to learn that I shouldn't have entered quite yet, because I still have some things to work on. This is where matches come in handy.

Matches are a place where for a little more than what it would normally cost me to enter one dog in one event, I can enter all three of my guys in two events each. Then I can evaluate their performance under ring conditions without the ring expense.

Recently, all of my guys tried their paws at Rally and formal Obedience with mixed results. I came away with some much needed information, which will help to guide my training for the next few weeks.

Ranger, for the first time in his life, had to be more than just a pretty boy in the ring. He qualified in Pre-novice obedience and had a respectable qualification of 80 points in Rally Novice B.

Ceilidh and Sue placed third and fourth , respectively, in Rally Excellent. Both NQ'd in Open obedience. Despite the NQ's I was really happy with them. Ceilidh was much more relaxed in the obedience ring than I have seen her in a long time and overall did very well. Sue looked pretty good and other than and expected muff on the broad jump and lying down on the long sit, she did everything that I asked of her and maybe a little more.

Trained Retrieve Update

2008-07-30T20:51:00.004-06:00

We're still working on Ranger's trained retrieve. Things are starting to really CLICK for him. We've been working on his obedience and that's going really well as well. It's amazing how well things are going now that I've removed the pressure of a deadline from our training. Now that we are back to training being more about fun instead of work, Ranger is becoming more and more enthusiastic about the work.

He's started actively reaching for and picking up retrieving objects, and his sits and downs are really cleaning up nicely. The trick was to introduce competition from the girls and really good treats along with the clicker. Now, instead of trying to sneak out of the area when he realizes that we are going to train, he runs over to our training spot excitedly.

The girls are loving it too. Sue especially, is demanding her share of the training sessions. She's tired of being the odd dog out when it comes to training and has started to really offer some great behaviors while we are training. Ceilidh, while not as confident as the other two dogs, is joining in enthusiastically as well.

On a side note. Today Ranger caught and killed a sparrow and presented me with this wonderful gift. I watched him first point, then stalk the bird, which was on the ground. The poor thing didn't survive the capture. After checking to see what he had caught, I let him keep it. He then paraded his prize before the girls and sort of waited expecting me to take it away. I didn't. I went into the house instead. After a bit, he followed, bird in mouth and gifted me with his prize. He got extra treats for being such a good bird dog.

Starting the Trained Retrieve

2008-07-13T22:41:00.002-06:00

Ranger and I are starting down the path to the trained retrieve together. He's such a good boy that I constantly have to remind myself that I haven't formally trained him, and I shouldn't just jump to the finish line without teaching him the skills needed along the way.

This all started when my young huntin' dawg, refused to pick up either a dokken training dummy or a well and truly dead bird in a training session. Apparently in his mind appropriate fetching objects are live shot flyers, and tennis balls, nothing else. Anyway, we're going back to basics and working on heel, sit, here, and lots of hold its. When he's steady on the walking hold we'll move to the next step.

I've never really done a force fetch before, so I'm now armed with Evan Graham's "Smart Fetch" DVD and Book and I've called Web Parton in Arizona who kindly talked with me for a long time and offered some great advice as well. I'm buying his book to add to my collection. I've also consulted friends who are familiar with the process for their advice. Hopefully, if I can just follow directions, Ranger and I will make it through this.

In the mean time the girls are both jealous of all of the attention that Ranger has been getting and are both begging to be trained as well. I'm hoping that their work in Open Obedience will improve with this new motivation to work.

Finally working dogs again

2008-07-03T22:16:00.003-06:00

Things are getting a little less hectic, and finally I'm getting a little time to work with the dogs again. As for Sue, Ranger and Ceilidh, they all appreciated the extra attention. Sue and Ceilidh did some really nice work on Open obedience exercises and Ranger worked on his heeling, sits and stays.

Ranger had a great time just being out and watching me work with the girls. Then, when it was his turn, he was eager to work. I was pleased with all three of the dogs, and am hoping to get more training time in for the next month or so while things are calmer.

Great News!- HRC May come to Las Cruces

2008-05-24T08:12:00.002-06:00

A friend sent me news of a meeting to form a new hunting retriever club in Las Cruces next weekend. Finally, the possibility of a training group within a two hour drive of here. Since I'll be in the area anyway next Sunday, I think I'll try and take Ranger with me and see if we can encourage these folks to go forward.

Tolling Ducks - TIME

2008-03-13T21:40:00.004-06:00

Here's a link to a really cool article from TIME Magazine in 1951. It's a really concise explanation of what tolling ducks using a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever is all about. This article is from six years after Tollers were recognized as an official breed in Canada. It's a real account of the breed heritage from history.

Obedience Yard Work

2008-03-11T06:13:00.002-06:00

I worked with Ceilidh and Sue on some Open obedience work this evening. I'm hoping to have at least one of them ready by October. Both are working well. I'm hoping to have them comfortable enough with everything so that the stress of the exercises doesn't throw them. Going to El Paso for a lesson every other weekend is keeping me on track.

Got Me a Duck Dawg!

2007-12-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

I’ve been taking Ranger out hunting pretty steadily this year. He’s been great on doves, and quail and we’ve gone duck hunting, but until today, I was despairing of Ranger ever picking up a duck. He marked them well, and would even run to them and poke them with his nose a bunch, but he wouldn’t pick them up, let alone retrieve them. Up to this point my hunting buddy's GSP has been retrieving most of the ducks with a little help from Sue.

Today, the lights went on and Bubba was home! Of the seven ducks we hit, Ranger fetched four of them. Sue fetched one, and my hunting buddy fetched two with assistance from his GSP. I’ve been going over in my mind what was different today, and the only thing that I can come up with is that this morning most of the ducks fell in the water instead of on the bank. I could see the click in his brain. He saw the bird hit the water, and remembered fetching doves from a different pond. That’s when the light went on. He jumped in swam to the the first bird and brought it back.

It was cold enough with the wind to have icicles hanging off of the dogs’ bodies and splashed drops of water froze to the stock of my 870.

Then, it was off the pond by the river and on to the desert in search of quail, where Sue demonstrated her upland prowess while the GSP decided to be self-employed, and Ranger decided to hang at heel with me instead of wasting his energy quartering for non-existent coveys. The quail were pretty spooky and we only managed to find three coveys that just wouldn't hold together, and only got six birds despite walking for what seemed like endless miles up and down hills and washes near watering holes. All in all it was a great day’s huntin’!

Ranger growing as a bird dog

2007-09-01T22:34:00.000-06:00

This is picture of Ranger's very first live shot water retrieve. He actually outswam Sue to the bird and then swam as fast as he could to bring it to me before Sue could take it away.

He's growing more and more confident and is now the fastest sprinter either in water or on land of the three dogs. I was really happy with his work on the opening day of dove season this year. I'm hoping to build his confidence on the doves so that live shot ducks won't be so intimidating when he encounters them.

Ranger Group 4

2007-05-20T06:19:00.000-06:00

Ranger makes the Paper

2007-02-26T16:19:00.001-07:00

I took my baby to El Paso for an AKC sanctioned A/OA match. He did pretty well and we even made the paper.

El Paso Times - Canines welcome dozens to credited dog show

July Shows in Houston 7/20-7/23 2006

2006-08-19T19:06:00.000-06:00

Houston was a trial run for everyone. It was Ranger's conformation debut, Ceilidh's first try at Open level Agility and Sue's very first Agility trial. Mostly, we were just entered to see where we needed to adjust our training. I found that out and more.

The girls NQed in both their standard and jumpers runs on the 20th, but I was very pleased overall with their performances and now can see that we are almost there. Ceilidh's biggest problem was me, her handler. Sue needs to work on some attention and teamwork, before she's really ready, but I was very pleased with her runs as she became visibly more confident throughout the course of each run.

The 21st 22nd and 23rd wer reserved for Ranger in conformation. I did worry a little about debuting him at such a large venue, but he didn't bat an eye. In fact it seemed as though he thought the whole show was a party thrown just for him...We got off to a very rough start on the 21st. Ranger was so excited that he just couldn't hold himself still long enough for the judge to get a good look at him. After our ringtime I made a concerted effort to walk him all over the showsite so that it would become blasé for him. My main concern was just getting him to keep all four feet on the ground while the judges were going over him... The work paid off and on the 22nd and 23rd he showed much better and took winners each of those days.

Coming home, I know where we are and what we need to work on and that's what we were there for.

Ranger's first match

2006-04-02T17:32:00.000-06:00

My new baby, Javahill's Backwoods Boy, AKA Ranger got his feet wet in the conformation ring at a match in Alamogordo, New Mexico. At 3 1/2 months old, my only goal for him was that he have a good experience and get a taste for what is expected of him in the show ring.

On the other end of his leash was my good friend and Toller supporter, Jinnie, who had volunteered to puppysit while the girls and I went out to California for Ceilidh's WC test. Jinnie was able to work him with dogs in front of and behind. He was gone over by a judge for the first time and generally had a party in the ring. This boy is going to be fun to take around the ring.

Ceilidh Fails her WC...Happily

2006-04-02T08:54:00.000-06:00

Ceilidh and I failed our WC test at the SoCal DuckDog Daze, but happily. She did it with enthusiasm and style and not a speck of fear. Yeah! We had the problem I was expecting,which was going out, getting the bird, and not returning directly to me.I didn’t have time to get it fixed before the trial.

On the land birds she nailed her marks, then ran out, got the pigeons, came about half-way back to me before veering off to her left to her cache pile. No amount of begging on my part would motivate her to go back there, get the birds and bring them to me. On the first water bird, she again nailed the mark swam straight out, got the duck, then left the pond on the opposite bank and ran all the way around the bank to proudly bring me the duck. On the second water bird, she again nailed her mark, got the duck, left the pond and started going around the pond again, but took the long way which had her intersecting with the first bird boy, where she dropped the duck and decided to swim across the pond back to me.

It’s just a training issue and I’m sure she’ll pass sometime in the future. I'm just so pleased with her "badness" as it's such a pleasant change from the paralyzing fear she displayed at the 2002 BYC. I really hadn't planned on entering her in a field test ever again after that, but she's come such a long way that I couldn't let the opportunity pass us by. Ceilidh was great! This time she didn’t jump in the judge’s van trying to get away from the big scary gun noises.

The Girls' First Real Duck Hunt

2005-12-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

This morning the girls and I got to go on our first real duck hunt...I've worked really hard to correct a gunshyness problem with Ceilidh and finally all of that training got tested in a real hunting situation. After some hesitation about the flapping of the birds, Ceilidh did really well on the shot flyers and even chased down a wounded bird. Sue worked pretty well also and had a blast out there although after the first bird she decided to avoid the cold water and help with retrieving from shore.

The guys who graciously allowed us to tag along on their hunt seemed to think the girls didn't do too badly for their first real hunt. They pinned their marks, didn't shy away from the guns, and worked pretty well for novices.

Ceilidh Finishes her AKC Novice Agility Titles

2005-12-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

Ceilidh and I just got back from El Paso and can now add two more titles to her name. She finished both her Novice Agility and her Novice Jumpers With Weaves titles in AKC agility. It was done in typical Ceilidh style of one leg/day. On Saturday we got the JWW done by the skin of our teeth. She had one refusal and seven time faults which left us sitting with 88 points. We needed to have 85 to get the leg so we had three seconds to spare. On the Saturday standard course we would’ve Q’ed as she had an excellent run well under course time, but she knocked one bar so we had to try again for that one on Sunday.

On Sunday, they ran Standard first so we went in and tried our best not to knock any bars. I thought it was going to be all over for us when after the first jump she went over to visit the judge. I was able to call her off and since she hadn’t broken the plane of the second jump there was no penalty. She completed the rest of the course with the only excitement being some editorial comments from Ceilidh on the table. We finished with a clean run and 10 seconds under time for her final leg in Standard. The weather was miserable and we were tired, so I scratched her Sunday Jumpers entry since we didn’t need the run. We got home in time to unload the car in the daylight.

Ceilidh finishes her Championship!

2005-11-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

Today, Ceilidh finished her AKC Championship. She picked up her second major and final three points by taking Best of Winners at the Sporting Dog Fanciers of New Mexico's inaugural show cluster. Ceilidh was really on in the ring. She and handler/friend Jinnie Strickland were really connected in the ring and Ceilidh really turned on the sparkle in there.

Now, she can start really concentrating on her obedience and agility work, without worrying about all of this beauty contest stuff.

Sue gets her WC! and a Rally leg too!

2005-10-04T20:59:00.000-06:00

On Sunday, October 2nd, under the careful handling of Jerry Forster, Sue passed her WC at a test held in Jefferson, Oregon for the US Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever Club's National Specialty. Jerry did a wonderful job motivating the little punk into doing her job on land and in the water. I can't begin to describe how proud I was of both of them. Their hard work paid off beautifully.

Surprisingly, we also earned a leg in Rally Novice B with a 4th place finish. We met with Helix Fairweather who put us through a few runs prior to our entry time. This helped me to relax once I saw that Sue might actually be able to do the job and gave Sue some much needed practice close to entry time. With Helix's help we were able to get in the ring and have a great time.

Sue's field work

2005-08-15T11:21:00.000-06:00

I'm missing my little outlaw, Bronco Sue, terribly. I left her up in Colorado with my sister so that she could get some work in with my friend Jerry, who will be driving her to the US Toller club's national specialty in Oregon this September. Jerry runs Sue in the field tests for me. Last year my little water baby decided that she didn't want to go into the water for him, so this year I'm hoping that they will have a little more time to work together and she won't be so unsure of herself when working for Jerry.

I just got a report in that she worked beautifully for him yesterday. We are both overjoyed that she did her water retreives without any hesitation at all. Jerry has also learned that Sue will return the bird to hand as long as he doesn't make her sit first. He says that this is typical behavior for dogs that haven't been force fetched. They have time to work out this glitch this year as Sue is going to be in Colorado for about six weeks before they leave for Oregon. I'm hoping to work with her on a trained retrieve using clicker methods once she is back home.

Ceilidh's Cyber Agility Progress

2005-08-13T17:57:00.000-06:00

Now that we're back off the road Ceilidh and I have been able to concentrate more fully on her Cyber Agility exercises. Currently we're concentrating on "Get It", "Love that Glove" and "Come Touch My Hand". The road trip put us a little behind on our training but now I feel like we are getting back on track.

"Get It" is finally coming together and we're just about ready to move from luring to reinforcing tosses. I'm really happy with the effect that this exercise has had on Ceilidh's off-leash heeling. I've only been tossing the treats when she is actually in heal position and looking forward. I keep walking while she rounds up the treat and she really hustles to get back into heel position so she can get another toss. She's at 92% on getting the treats now. I think one more walk at this level and I'll try switching to the reinforcing toss. I probably should be working on this with her on my right side as well, but I'd really like to double up on the training benefit of this for obedience so that we can finally get back into the Open ring. I'm trying really hard not to push her too much, so that she will find working at obedience a relaxing, fun activity and not a stressful chore.

"Love that Glove" is going really well. We are working our way through the steps. She is able to do up through step 9 with 100% accuracy, I just would like to get our times down a little, which will involve many more repetitions. I think most of our time problems are connected to my coordination and not Ceilidh's responses.

"Come Touch My Hand" We're up through step 5 on this one and will be working more on it as we go along. It doesn't seem like it's going to be much of a problem for us other than finding time to concentrate on this. I'm sure that we'll be much further along now that I'm not having to concentrate so much on catching up with "Get It".

One thing that has been helping us this week is the fact that Sue is in Colorado, so now Ceilidh gets to train without as many distractions or competition for training time from her daughter.

Field Training in Colorado

2005-08-07T23:39:00.000-06:00

This week we took our training on the road and drove up to Colorado to do some real Toller retriever field training with friends Betty and Jerry and their dogs. Up to this point I have only been able to work my girls on field stuff by myself using a variety of tools and methods. I'd like for Sue, at least, to pass the WC. It would be nice if Ceilidh could as well, but since these things are few and far between I have to concentrate on one dog.

The training took place at a private hunting preserve along the South Platte river in eastern Colorado. We worked dogs both on land, and water retrieves in a nice training pond. I was pleased with the work of both girls, especially since Ceilidh had had problems with gunshyness in the past. Of the two, who are both at the beginning stages of this training, I felt that Sue was steadier and performed slightly better than her mother.

Ceilidh's drive seemed to get in the way of her focus. She got so excited about the work, a good thing, that she was screaming her fool head off, a bad thing, and she failed to make some marks that she should have. I'm very pleased to see her so excited and not afraid of the guns. Now, I just have to figure out how to tone down her drive so she can better focus on the task at hand.

Sue is progressing along steadily as she seems to do in all things. I worked her and then let Jerry work her so that she got used to going into the water for him. That was a problem last year when she tried for her BRT. She worked well for both Jerry and me and I was happy to see that. Maybe this year she will do better at the specialty.

Ceilidh and Sue's status

2005-07-30T23:23:00.000-06:00

At the moment Philmac's Bronco Sue, who is two, is mainly working on Conformation and Field events. I don't feel like I've given her enough of my time for formal training, but she is such a sponge for learning that she has picked up lots of training by just observing the training I have been doing with her mother. Lately, she has been competing with her mother, Ceilidh, for my attention and training time. She has completed level one of Sue Ailsby's training levels program The Book of Training Levels and is five behaviors away from completing level two. We are really loving this training program. It's so logical in it's progression.

Rideau's Copper Ceilidh, CD, CGC, who is Sue's mother, earned her obedience title at the age of two. During that time I had also been working her in Agility, Conformation and Field training. She is one leg away from two Agility titles and one major away from her conformation championship. So many different performance venues started to interfere with each other so I backed down to doing just Agility and Conformation for now. This has helped my little Canadian wonder dog to relax and enjoy working much more than she used to. I've also switched her completely to clicker/operant training methods. At the moment we are working our way through Cyber Agility