Ivy's Journey

Here's Hoping we Love 2012 as much as 2011 !

2012-01-07T03:55:00.000-08:00

Not to say that 2011 was all smooth sailing in regard to training and trialling ... oh no, it certainly wasn't.
But as an introduction to trialling for Ivy, I don't think she could have had any more fun than she did, plus I have learnt more this year than any other year, mainly due to having lots more questions and needing to find lots more answers- many of which I am still looking for.

We had a break from agility training over December and have just started out again last week - as you can see I had a nice relaxing time, but Ivy was less than impressed that the agility area had suddenly become out of bounds.
Anyway, here are some of the things I learnt in 2011.

1. Video editing.
Up until last year, my video analysis went something like this : record it, watch it, be very down on myself at how crap I thought I handled a particular sequence, save it, never watch it again. The fact that this was 'Pre-Flip' and my old video camera recorded to those little tapes and is a pain in the butt to download into the computer may have had something to do with it, but I can't believe I wasted such a great training tool all these years. And is why I am now rabbiting on about my very mediocre video editing skills that most likely make everyone else roll their eyes and think BIG DEAL ! Because it has been a big deal for me.

I enrolled in a few online courses last year - in particular to work on my mental management skills so that I could stop doing things like being down on myself because I thought I handled a particular sequence like crap. I started with Daisy Peel's 'Mental Management', then moved on to John Cullen's 'The Winning Process'. More on those shortly, as I am trying to stay on task with the video editing, LOL.
Anyway, one of the things I learnt in Daisy's course was how to slow down a clip to half speed, and how to split a clip to get rid of the parts you don't want. Pretty basic stuff, but not something I have ever thought of doing before so have never bothered to find out how. Then on John's course, he talked about making a video montage from your trials to motivate you when you watched it and after a couple of other people shared examples of theirs, I decided to have a go with some of the footage that I have from our first few months of trialling as a record of our first (partial) year in the trial ring. So this is the result.

Even though we have a long way to go, it does make me smile to watch this and see just how much she really enjoys running agility. Especially as the number one prerequisite in an agility partner for me is one who enjoys running as much as I do, if not more. Oh, and to see my new found video editing skills too of course, LOL.
Plus I can watch this back and still see places where my handling was not quite spot on (at times I can almost hear my old ballet teacher yelling 'look at those feet' ) - but it doesn't bother me any more, I no longer feel that I am 'crap' and merely see it as information I can now use to improve. So the next thing I have learnt is :

2. Making handling errors is OK and you are not useless just because you do.
Not feeling as emotionally involved when I watch myself run any more - sure there are still some occasions when I handle sequences like crap, but this doesn't bother me anywhere near as much as it used to - thank you Daisy and John !

3. Goal Setting
Another really useful thing I learnt from both courses. Especially now that I am using it not so much as goal setting to achieve particular things, but to develop my training focus around it as well. In the past I have been pretty much a 'putting out fires' type of trainer where I mainly focussed on what I stuffed up at trials. No more. This doesn't mean I don't give that any attention, but it's not my main training focus. And my computer skills are improving as I can now make pretty spreadsheets and tables and stuff - is there a theme developing here?

4. Help is only a 'Paypal' payment away !
2011 has certainly been the year of online agility related courses ..... which can get pretty expensive and can also make a bit of an online junkie out of you and which my bank account says I will be much more conservative and discerning about what I sign up for this year. But for someone who lives in the great agility wasteland of my state - nowhere near the 'fashionable' clubs where all the up to date agility training takes place - these courses have been like letting loose in a candy store. You want help with training, handling, mental skills and have no one to help you in real life ? Never fear, just give us vast quantities of your money and we will help you. Praise the Lord ...... Agility Salvation !

My favourites courses (so far, LOL) for 2011 :

*Daisy Peel and John Cullen - I am listing these as a 'package'. Daisy's course was a lot simpler to understand and gave me the basics, not to mention really got me motivated, so money well spent. (Plus I like Daisy a lot from her 'conversations' and respect her as a trainer, even though she doesn't worship at the temple of GD like I do but is a LM follower... religion doesn't matter to me !) John's course is in a lot more detail and is an excellent follow on to Daisy's as it expands on a lot of the concepts that she introduced so if you want to get into it in more detail, then you can. Also very professional in the way that he presents his information and very generous in what he shares. Big thumbs up from me !

*Greg and Laura Derrett - Ultimate Handling
I wasn't going to sign up for this one initially due to the cost, but boy am I glad I did ! Freaking brilliant - and well worth the money. Really smart sequences that allow you to get to position early enough to get it right from the beginning. (Well, almost right anyway ) Thumbs up and fingers up too ( in a nice way of course)

*Susan Garrett - Puppy Peaks
Apart from the monthly payment option, the thing I have enjoyed most about this is watching Susan deal with 'issues' (or at least potential issues because she is savvy enough to nip them in the bud long before the rest of us even realise they are turning into issues) that arise along the way and to see that she doesn't necessarily start with a 'perfect' puppy and that she also makes errors sometimes and is not 'perfect' either.
Plus apart from getting an awesome 'blueprint' to train a puppy (must not be tempted!) you can really learn a lot from Susan about good training mechanics ..... being prepared, not wasting time, rewarding in the right place from the right hand, etc. Downside is that it makes you wish you had a puppy to start doing all these amazing things with all over again (must not be tempted !)

5. 'Issues' are not problems and are just training opportunities.
We survived the start line issue and the no longer waiting for release on contacts issue. I blew several runs dealing with these things- a number of which would have been clear if I had let the behaviours go, but it was well worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
The current issue is whether or not the 'just one bar' runs (of which there are numerous) is actually an issue or not. That sounds confusing even to me and I wrote it !

The last couple of trials for the year I didn't enter agility, as we finished our AD and I didn't want to start trialling with a full height seesaw (which she can do but I haven't proofed to what I would consider trial standard) when we are changing to the ridiculous 'weesaw' from this year. Let's not even bother with what I think of that rule change ! So we entered Open Jumping for the first few times instead. Ivy is mad for running agility but she is even crazier for jumping and I think the agility runs are actually a bit settling for her when they are mixed in with the jumping runs. I learnt that entering only jumping runs is like crack to an addict and when you team those with a ridiculous amount of big, open flowing courses that are designed to test very little except how fast you can run and how many bars your dog can keep up while you are running like a madwoman, well..........

The results were : 3 Excellent Jumping runs on 'Yeeee- haaaar' courses with just one bar down on each one. (2 were totally my fault and the other I'm not sure) Another Excellent Jumping run with one bar down on a very technical course - not sure why the bar came down. Two Open Jumping runs on yet more 'Yeeeee- haaaar' courses with one bar down each time - one my fault and the other caused by her catching her foot on the distance tape. I knew something NQR had happened on that run, but until I saw the video afterwards wasn't sure what.
Plus one 2nd place NQ in Novice Gamblers where she ran the opening like a dream but unfortunately it was the gamble from hell (that was set up identically for Masters, with just the tape moved further away) and only one Novice dog actually managed to do it, which was pretty impressive actually.

I'm trying not to stress about the bars a great deal. Ivy gets very excited on 'Yeeee- haaaaar' courses and the more excited she gets, the earlier she tends to take off. She is a big jumper (as in distance), puts minimal strides between jumps and there are definitely going to be 'bad bar days' every now and then. I can accept that.

I love the way she is so confident running agility and I definitely don't want to do anything to change that so I will continue to try very hard not to react when the bars come down. I believe there are some bars that will come down that I can't do anything about, but I also think that quite a few that she dropped over the last couple of trials were my fault (head check often equals bar down) so I am certainly going to try and do something about that this year.
The hardest thing about this 'issue or not issue, still not sure what category to put it in' is that I am so not used to running a dog that pulls bars. I could count the number of bars my kelpies have dropped in their entire trialling career on one hand - so this is a totally new experience for me.
Hence the reason that I can't decide whether I should worry about it or not and something else I need to learn.

For the moment I am taking the attitude that if it doesn't particularly worry Ivy then it doesn't particularly worrry me........... and for every bar that came down in the last couple of trials, there were around 16 or so that stayed up!

6. I think I totally hate 'Yeeeee-haaaaar' courses.
(Just wait, once we do finally hit Masters Jumping I will most likely be complaining about how tight and twisty the courses are, LOL)

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T17:59:00.000-08:00

Ivy would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas ! She is now off to play with her new tug toy while she is waiting for a batch of (dog) biscuits to come out of the oven. Such is the life of an agility princess !

Our year in review : Coming soon.....

Family Reunion

2011-10-31T05:55:00.000-07:00

Ivy got a lovely surprise at the Ballarat trial a couple of weeks ago - a chance reunion with her brothers who came all the way from Western Australia.

What a good looking bunch !

That's the very handsome and talented Dan on the left - a full brother to Ivy from an earlier mating. Dan is an awesome agility dog and if Ivy turns out to be half as good I will be over the moon.

That's the gorgeous and very exuberant Quinn on the right - a half brother to Ivy as they share the same father. The first three words that come to mind when watching Quinn run are fast, fast and fast - did I mention he was really fast ??? Definitely a potential superstar in the making there.

It might not seem all that exciting to catch up with relatives for those who do it on a regular basis (yes, I'm talking DOGS - LOL) but for the little girl who moved from one side of this big country to the other it was an out of the ordinary event that we were not expecting to happen so most definitely 'blogworthy'. Hopefully we will meet up again if we end up making the trip to Nationals next June.

We have just returned from a full weekend trialling at Warrnambool - Ivy had a ball and was just as enthusiastic at the end of the second day as she was at the beginning of the first. Wish I could say the same about me ! We finally managed to break the cycle of 'just one little thing and always something different' in Novice Agility when she won the ring on Sunday morning to complete her title. Best thing was that her contacts were great on every run and she didn't self release once - I even chose a run where she had already knocked a bar to run past the end of the dogwalk and continue ahead without releasing her and she stuck her position perfectly.

Our Summer project (after she has a break for a few weeks) is to really work on proofing those contacts and improve her confidence in driving to the end position that I want. I was so despondent about her contacts after Sale at the beginning of the month, but a couple of weeks of 'extreme consistency' in regard to criteria really appears to be making a big difference to her performance. Now that I have stopped obsessing about speed over the contacts at all costs and am more concerned about the consistency of her performance, her 'slow-ish' (in relation to the end picture that I have in my head) contact performance is suddenly speeding up anyway. Another lesson learned the hard way. I still intend to teach a running A Frame down the track, but I don't think I'm quite ready to take a walk on the wild side just yet.

The 'just one little thing' saga now seems to have taken up residence in Excellent Jumping. We had some lovely runs over the weekend in jumping but just couldn't seem to manage a pass. But very happy with her startlines, serpentines and response to my cues when I actually got to the right position, which sadly didn't quite happen as often as it should. My favourite run for the weekend was probably the most difficult jumping course of them all, where we managed to get a fairly difficult lead out pivot into the tunnel, pulled off a fairly difficult diagonal line front cross, followed by a tight tunnel discrimination and by then I was on such a high that I totally forgot the course and just made up my own - but tragically I had made up quite a bit of it before I realised it wasn't right and the judge yelling out 'go straight ahead' brought me back to reality. Well it felt right to me and obviously felt right to Ivy too as she was having a ball running my course instead of the judge's one which we both felt was far superior, LOL.

Just a couple more trials to go before the 2011 season is done and dusted and we look forward to them both as well as tackling the 'training list' over January and February. Bring it on !

Getting Connected

2011-10-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

We've had a month off trialling over September, which is something that I do with all my dogs every year. With the amount of trials cancelled this year and the small number that we've entered, I probably didn't really need to do it, but I'm a creature of habit in regard to what trials I like to run. Plus Ivy and I are still feeling our way as a team which is to be expected.

As a quick summary, Excellent Jumping is very much all over the place, largely due to me either getting where I need to be or, well ........ not. (Sorry Ives) We either have a brilliant run or it's a total train wreck - there doesn't seem to be too much in between at the moment. Novice Agility is usually a pretty good run, with the curse of just 'one little thing' still plaguing us. Lovely run for 1st place at Hastings at our last trial with just one bar down. It feels as if we are going for the record of the most 1st places in Novice Agility ever without actually qualifying, LOL.  Patience, we will get there when we get there and I am in no hurry.

It was good to take the month off to look carefully at our runs and then to pinpoint what we need to work on- sometimes if I keep entering trials it all starts to blur into one which I don't want to happen. The lessons from our mistakes are the most valuable ones and I want to act on them, not just ignore them because I don't have time and then find I keep on making the same mistakes over and over.

Plus it gives me time to get some updated photos of Miss Feral - beautiful as ever, in my eyes anyway. Oops - photo overload ahead.   Warning !

One day we might get a photo where her mouth is closed, but that day hasn't happened yet !

Taking time off has also meant that I can lock myself away inside over the holidays, be lazy, read a book, make some more tug toys and enjoy listening to the rain ........ with 4 wet dogs. Today is good as there have been brief periods of sunshine where they actually got to have a walk. (Although I suspect it won't be 'today' any longer by the time I actually get around to finishing this post. ) Yesterday was scary with torrential rain, defeaning thunder and the sky lit up with lightning for a few hours. One almost deaf Cattledog who really didn't notice, one Border Collie who couldn't give a toss and two Kelpies both trying to sit on my knee. I usually don't mind storms but it was a bit freaky at times. The Royal Show was closed down for the afternoon and I don't think that has ever happened before.

In regard to agility, I signed up to do Daisy Peel's Mental Management and Goal Setting course online - this is definitely an area I want to learn more about. So far it hasn't disappointed and it's really forcing me to move outside my comfort zone and think about training and competing in different ways.

One of the exercises that we did related to startlines - when we had our 'twisting episodes' earlier this year, I thought a lot about the criteria I wanted for Ivy's startline and even developed a POA for how I could deal with the sideways movement I was getting. Although we have made excellent progress in training through this issue and I am pretty happy with her startline in general, I have never really given much thought to what I actually do when I enter the ring, set her up, and then leave her.

Most of us work pretty hard to get connected with our dogs before we go into the ring, but how do we keep connected once we set them up at the startline and walk off? What about actually entering the ring and getting to the set up point? I have to admit I am jealous of the set up in the US where it is permissable to take your lead off and throw it on the ground, rather than have a person come and hover over you waiting for your lead. Although I don't think Ivy even notices, there are some dogs that are put off by this - my kelpies included- and it would be nice if it was one part of the startline procedure that didn't have to happen. Then we have this ridiculously formal procedure where we have to wait for the judge to ask if we are ready, indicate we are and from this point on you cannot touch your dog. Then most of us do the 'sit-stay-march away' thing without looking at our dogs - so in between getting connected with your dog outside the ring to leading out and turning back to our dog ......... are we still connected to the same degree or has the startline procedure killed all the work we've done outside the ring? Something I will be thinking about over the next few trials and experimenting with a couple of different things. My goals for October - apart from staying connected on the startline - are testing out all the things we've been working on over the past few weeks - to trust our training, to get to where I need to be, to give information to Ivy on time and to run like hell !
Wish us luck.

Girl's Road Trip

2011-08-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

Holidays from work plus lots of agility trials cancelled in Victoria due to ground conditions equals the perfect opportunity to go on an interstate trip. So a couple of weeks back I left the hubby and the boy dogs behind (much to the dog's disgust, although I suspect L. likes the peace and quiet sometimes) and headed off to South Australia to meet up with a friend from agility and her two girl dogs. So now we have girls' big weekend away and we all had such a good time that we intend to do it again at some stage in the near future.

The motel where we stayed - very nice digs !

One thing that I loved about South Australia is how much more dog friendly it is compared to Victoria. We stayed at a motel in Glenelg, right on the beach, and for an extra fee, the dogs were allowed to sleep inside. That's what I call dog friendly, not some place that advertises itself as dog friendly and then doesn't allow dogs to come inside and there are a ton of those around.

We had our own little unit with the courtyard you can see on the side.

View from the motel, which was right opposite the marina.

The beach was just down the road - literally. Our dogs had a great time running on the beach together and we got lots of long walks in as well.

Ivy waits not so patiently for the ball.

Ivy's buddy Zee who puts up with Ivy's pushy behaviour - sorry Zee !

The beach had the strangest foam I have ever seen - it resembled snowballs, or at least balls of suds from a giant washing machine. Very weird ! I don't think the dogs could quite figure them out.

As well as having a great time at the beach, the girls also had a great time trialling - lovely courses all day which was very refreshing after some of the crap we get here. We both came away with passes - and some oh so close runs too. Ivy finally managed to crack the Novice agility ring with a pass in 1st place, and we got our first pass in Excellent jumping, also finishing in 1st place.

We managed to follow that up with another pass and 1st place in Excellent jumping back in Melbourne the following week - and a lovely Novice agility run where we were clear right up until the end, a fast run home with obstacles in a straight line and she moved well ahead of me when told to 'go on' - then pulled up after the broad and ran to her lead, which would have been fine apart from the small sized (just legal) lollypop tyre that was the last obstacle that she didn't even look at. (Yes, we do get a lot of courses here with the broad jump as the last obstacle - LOL)
So yet another 'one little thing' agility run - but we will iron those little things out sooner or later and are still having a lot of fun in the meantime.

And a big thumbs up for our SA agility experience and hopefully another one to come soon. Girl's road trip rocks according to Ivy. Long walks on the beach, chasing balls on the beach, lunch at outdoor cafes, shopping strip walks, pigs ears, good friends to play with and of course agility .....what more could a girl want?

Expectations Kill

2011-07-03T02:19:00.000-07:00

Not my words but a quote from Silvia Trkman which I happen to most definitely agree with. So why do we often talk about our expectations on our agility journeys ? We have high expectations, lower our expectations, meet our expectations, exceed our expectations, live up to expectations and may even have great expectations at times. And why is it so hard to find a balance in what we expect? If our expectations are too high then it's a one way ticket on the disappointment express eventually but if they are not high enough then it becomes easy to accept sub standard performances as the norm and not bother too much about improving these. Why is it so hard to find the balance at times?

It seems to me that often it is all to easy to confuse expectations with goals or is there just such a fine line between the two that it is easy to think of them as the same thing if you are not careful.

So far in our training and trialling, I try very hard not to confuse the two, focus on performance goals rather than outcome goals, and see the big picture of where I would like us to be as a team in a few years time. But every now and then those expectations come back to haunt me and make me lose sight of what I think is important right now and I don't like it one bit.

Take Novice Agility for example. I would have to say that Ivy is pretty much where I would like her to be at this stage on our journey. Even though we have a long way to go, I am happy with the work we are doing and have definite ideas about what we need to improve on to form the basis of our training over the next few months. Plus I can see improvement from a few months back. But we cannot seem to crack it for a pass in Novice Agility which in the big scheme of things is not all that important at this stage - she has only been running agility for a couple of months - but all my other dogs raced through Novice agility so quickly that I guess I have been fooled into unconsciously having 'expectations' that we will do the same.

We had a first place at the Scottish Breeds trial last month but it wasn't a qualifying score. She does look very cute with her tartan rosette though.

Thanks to Sal Robinson for the photo

For some reason Novice Agility has seen one little thing each time, and always something different to boot. On her first couple of runs, she decided that unfamiliar dogwalks were to be avoided at all costs, completing everything else beautifully. Then she got over that, but we had a couple of 'just one bar' runs.

Then she suddenly started twisting sideways on her startline to watch me walk out, subsequently running past the first obstacle on release, but of course completing the rest of the course perfectly. After developing an action plan for her startline, changing a couple of things, and pulling her from trialling for a couple of weeks to work on it, she hasn't had a reoccurrence of that behaviour, but then on to Scottish Breeds and the weave pole entry from hell that threw many Masters dogs and got left in for the Novice course. Ivy's entries are pretty good and I actually expected her to make this one (those expectations again) but we did not and scored a fault there.

The good thing about missing an entry is that it motivates me to keep proofing way more difficult entries and not just be satisfied with what I have. The bad thing about it is - on to the following week's country trial with the same judge for Novice agility and lo and behold - he puts down the same course again, with a little bit of 'tweaking of angles' that actually made the course a bit more difficult.

I handled the weaves differently this time and actually got the entry - but then she popped out when I yelled 'yes' as she went in, LOL. One more thing to add to my list of weave proofing.

So here we currently are, Q-less in Novice Agility and while I really don't care about this and would honestly prefer to put the runs on the board for a bit before moving up, I still have to remind myself to stay focussed on what is actually important in our training at this stage - and the almighty Novice agility Q is really not.

I want to spend the next couple of months revisiting a lot of basic skills to fine tune these - especially our double box work and contact and weave proofing - plus I want to consolidate all the training we have done on our startline by pushing her a little bit more and 'testing the value' as Susan Garrett would say.

I also want to work on the mental side of training and competing a lot more, as I know I can improve a ton there. And I intend to start by not letting other people's expectations influence mine. In fact I am going to take the lead from Silvia, repeat 'expectations kill' over and over again.
Anyone for the T Shirt - it would make a good agility mantra.

Ivy Hits the Wall

2011-06-14T17:58:00.000-07:00

Not literally, but she is about to hang on the wall courtesy of this beautiful drawing that was given to us by one of L's clients and drawn by her friend.

I think this is absolutely stunning - the photo doesn't do it justice either - and really captures her personality as well, plus it's the first time I have ever had one of my dog's photos turned into art work and is something that I think I will be doing with all of them after seeing this. A big thank you to the artist plus L's client who arranged it - sorry I don't know your names but I hope he let you know how much we love your work and that we are very grateful for this gift.

So I thought this would be a non-agility related post for a change and I would add some of my favourite photos of Ivy instead - taken to mark her second birthday this month and mostly black and whites as I was inspired by the sketch. You're an awesome model Ivy, sorry my amateur efforts at photography don't do you justice.

Ivy's First Title ..... and Lots to Think About

2011-05-24T18:19:00.000-07:00

Ivy gained her Jumping Dog title over Easter at our club trial. I only entered her on one day as I had promised to steward on the second, and she managed to get 2 Novice Jumping passes, finishing in 1st place on both occasions - with another 'just over 14 seconds run' to prove the first one wasn't a fluke.
We took 'just over 16 seconds' on the other one, but it was a longer course. Still a very green dog, making lots of green dog mistakes (largely due to her handler I'm sure) but boy is she fun to run! And magnificent courses all day, fast and flowing, especially from the Queensland judge who came down.

What beautifully groomed girl decided to jump into her clam shell pool pre-photograph?
Can you guess? The tongue is a nice touch too.

I have also started entering her in Agility. We have had 4 runs so far, managing a 3rd place NQ on the last one - just one bar. She has had an issue with the dogwalk at both trials, refusing it totally on the first run, but having no problems with it whatsoever on the second, not even a hesitation and a good, fast performance. At the second trial where this occurred, I decided to be proactive and to see how many unfamiliar dogwalks I could tee up to 'visit' - my aim was to find 5 - happy to report that I found four clubs (3 country, 1 city) who are willing for me to visit and use their dogwalk, once they approve it at committee level, plus one individual who is willing for me to use hers. And I have another country club that I run classes for once every 2 or 3 months that I know won't have a problem with it. So I will be keeping an eye on this issue with her and even if it resolves itself (which I still suspect it might) I will still be taking them all up on their generous offers.

I think we tend to proof equipment with handler position, environmental distractions and the like, but don't really think about proofing on different equipment - which might look the same to us but doesn't always to the dog. Plus the different locations thing is hard with the dogwalk, mine won't exactly pack up and go in the car to the local oval. Visiting other clubs is something that we really should all be doing with baby dogs (especially in a state that won't even consider 'not for competition, but I won't get into that again) but in some ways we are all so insular and in our own little agility 'communities' that no one even thinks about doing it and then we test things in a trial situation and find that with some dogs, equipment doesn't transfer as well as we thought and obviously forms a different picture for the dog. Weave poles would be a classic example. We haven't had any difficulty with very different sets of weave poles (touch wood!) but there are a number of dogs out there in Novice at the moment who would appear to be having difficulty with this concept (I know some of these weave well on their own equipment) and again would benefit from being able to work in as many different locations, on different sets of weaves as possible. So maybe my 'club hopping' will start a trend - LOL.

Last Saturday I ran Ivy in Excellent Jumping for the first time - once again lovely courses but definitely toward what I would call the 'upper end' at Excellent level, in fact they were more like what I would term 'easier to mid level' Masters courses. Well easier to mid level for the kelpies anyway - with a dog that goes like a bat out of hell they were damn hard - the kind of courses where you have a long straight stretch in the middle of the course that encourages blistering speed, ending up in a tight turn so if you weren't up with your dog (which I wasn't) then it was darn near impossible to handle the next bit. But they were still a lot of fun to run (even for my short legs) and really showed up some things that we need to work on as a team. On the positive side, her startlines were great, tunnel discrimination work was excellent and driving the line was also good - apart from the couple of occasions when I wasn't there, resulting in off courses.

Running a fast dog is very different to running more 'medium paced' dogs that's for sure. So after now competing in a handful of trials, the skills that I really want to have in my toolbox are:
A reliable lead out and a good understanding of positional cues.
Independent obstacle performance.
Good lateral distance to enable me to get into position.
A good send on - especially at the end of a Novice course (LOL)
Tight turns - both with deceleration as a cue and verbally cued at more of a distance. (This one is an experiment at the moment, will let you know how we go) I am especially interested in how Dave Munnings and Silvia Trkman train this skill and intend to base my training around theirs, without compromising my handling system - that's the plan anyway.
Good rear crosses, which are a skill that we are definitely lacking at the moment, so this will also be a focus area over the next few months.
Good problem solving skills when jumping, especially when working the gap between jumps, if that makes sense.
Me - faster.... heaven help me!

I have another trial coming up next week (only 3 runs this time so I can focus on contacts, no jumping) and then I am not entering the following week so I can start writing some action plans for what I need to train and can have a weekend with a long hike for the dogs that I rarely get time for in trialling season.

We have also been doing a lot of shaping which has been fun. I signed up for both Susan Garrett's online Recallers course and Silvia Trkman's online Puppy training - even though Ivy has already been raised on a diet of games and shaping tricks, it has been a good reminder that agility training is not just about training obstacles and handling that's for sure. I do question my sanity though, trying to work through both at the same time. Just as well this type of training is a mindset rather than a recipe and I figure I can fit it all in at my own pace. Which would most likely be a lot faster if Ivy had her way.

That's One Small Step for a Border Collie and One Wild Ride for Me !

2011-03-16T16:46:00.000-07:00

Ivy's first ring experience has now come and gone and I have spent the last 2 days grinning like an idiot I'm sure. To say that she surpassed my expectations on her first time out is definitely an understatement.

I honestly didn't know quite what to expect - even though I am very happy with how she is performing when training, getting out in the trial ring is a totally different ball game and anything can happen. This was a bit of a 'fishing trip' for me - all I really wanted was to see how focussed she was before going into the ring, to test her startline under trial conditions and to actually run a full course without rewarding after every few obstacles as to date we hadn't done that at all.

What did happen was that she ran clear on her very first Novice Jumping run, winning the ring to boot. The judge set a Standard Course time of 35 seconds and Ivy mangaged to get around in just over 14 secs. Her handler took a bit longer, LOL.

Ivy and her first place sash - although she would prefer to be in that tunnel rather than posing beside it.

So proud of my little girl right now. Her second run I was also really happy with - she clipped the back bar of the spread on her lead out in the opening sequence so after that I sent her to the tunnel with a bit more distance so I could try out a 'run-like-hell-to-position' front cross and got an off course when she added an extra jump on her way ......... bad handler ! This course had a longer run home, the first one was a bit twisty-turny- and I was very pleased with her verbal 'go on' that we have done a lot of work with over the past few weeks. Ivy's special galpal Sassy won the second run, so that was very exciting too !

I only entered this trial for the final afternoon but there were some very fast runs at Novice level and I believe that in the morning and on the previous day there were lots more. There are quite a few experienced handlers with new dogs just starting out in Novice at the moment and the standard has certainly skyrocketed since I last run Cruz there. From memory he won the ring every time with a reasonable paced clear, now a run like that would be lucky to finish in the top 5.

This can only be good for the standard of agility though, I believe for a long time we have been lagging behind a lot of the other states, but that appears to be changing (there are some awesome fast dogs in Masters right now) and with a whole new crew on the way up it can only get better.

So I am over the moon that we were able to hold our own against some really promising dogs, but boy are we going to have to work hard - still so many 'green dog' holes in our training that need filling in not to mention the handler ones as well. But I look forward to lots more wild rides in the process. Go Ivy !

Proofing Outside the Square

2011-03-02T22:35:00.000-08:00

We have just reached a big milestone in our agility journey as Ivy has been entered in her very first trial.
Even though at this point I am not exactly certain if she will actually get to run, it was very exciting filling out the entries and seeing her name in print with all the other agility dogs - this is a trial that uses online entries so instant gratification.

Our favourite motivator - anything that includes a ball

I have no doubt that Ivy is capable of running a novice jumping course- that's all we have entered at this stage. But that's not the motivation for entering at the moment. I have reached the point where I now need to put her out in a trial environment to see how she deals with it as this is something that is close to impossible to recreate- especially living in a state that hates the idea of not for competition runs and won't even consider them. Let's not go there with what I think of that attitude.

So I figure that if I choose a sympathetic judge who is at least a little bit open minded about such things - and we do have a handful- then I can create my own not for competition run if I decide to, or at least something resembling it, without anyone being any the wiser.

So I chose an open minded judge who has the Novice ring in the afternoon and then entered Atilla in Masters for the morning and Ivy in Novice jumping for the afternoon - but now Atilla has injured his leg and joined Cruz on the sidelines. I'm not sure if he will be ready to run by the weekend of the trial plus with his past history I tend to err on the side of caution and will most likely wait longer than I need to anyway. Whether or not I think it's worthwhile driving 3 hours for Ivy's very brief debut I am still contemplating - especially when I can wait a couple of weeks and then have a whole month full of trials to choose from. I am in no hurry to get her out - this becoming all too common attitude of 'my dog is only 2 and has Masters titles' doesn't really impress me one bit - but the little voice inside my head keeps telling me how valuable it would be to have that first hand knowledge of how she reacts to the trial environment in my toolbox..... and it's very tempting.
Decisions, decisions !

The feral one showing her jumping style - accidentally captured when L. was meant to be shooting video.

For a brief moment a week or so back, I almost had 3 broken dogs ....... Ivy had a fall from the top of the dogwalk which she was negotiating like a formula one racing car in her usual style. She has fallen from the top at home once before where she landed on her feet, then raced back to the start to get on again, but this time she squealed and held up her rear paw when she came down and scared me to bits.
By the time I had her lead back on and walked back toward the ring entry she was walking normally and showed no effect whatsoever. We had a walk around for a bit, then played tug for a bit and when I was pretty sure that she was OK we did a couple of jumps and the dogwalk again, which she had no trouble with. And no sign of anything wrong since thank goodness.

The whole experience really scared me and has made me back up a few steps and think about how I can do some more proofing on the dogwalk, especially as I was told that she turned her head and looked at me before she came off, which she does not usually do. When I think about working the dogwalk at home, I am usually working it as a recall to try and tempt her off the end, or we are running together, where she is usually so fast that she well and truly gets to the end before me and completes the middle ramp ahead of me.
Friday was the first time she has completed the dogwalk in a sequence and as I was ahead of her when she got on, I was actually running right beside her when she came off. I am wondering if this might have been the first time that I have ever been in this position, so now need to proof it.

I have lowered my dogwalk and have been running right beside her as fast as I can but no matter what I do I can't seem to make her look at me, which I am actually pretty pleased about.
So far I have tried :
*Running alongside really fast - well as fast as my short legs will allow me to anyway.
*Pumping my arms in a very exaggerated fashion as I run.
*Running in a flapping coat and hat.
*Running with me on one side and L running on the other side.
*L. standing still really close to the middle ramp and then calling her name as she came over.
*Waving a tug toy around as I run.

Nothing takes her focus from the end so currently I am leaning toward some sort of a shadow going across the dogwalk that distracted her as we train under lights and this was the first time she has done the full height dogwalk at night. The experience has given me some things to think about though and made me realise just how many things we take for granted and don't proof. It's also made me a bit more aware of actually looking for where my shadow might be when we run at night, especially if it's falling across contact obstacles. I don't want her to react to people very near contacts as it's common for a couple of judges here to run very close to the dogwalk as the dog is completing it, not something that I particularly like but something that I may very well have to deal with occasionally and I don't want to be worrying about her safety.

Another area needing proofing has also just surfaced - her A Frame has been really solid up until now and I have done lots of proofing involving me being in different positions, but we ran a few reps today and I had dragged the tunnel really close while I was moving equipment around and hadn't put it back. When she came over the A Frame and saw the tunnel entry directly in front and very close, she was so excited that she didn't stick her end position and leapt off before being released. Even though she was well and truly in the colour, this is not the behaviour that I want to encourage so I now need to do some equipment proofing as well. Again, I have done this with the end of the weaves but it never occurred to me to do it with the contacts as well. The list keeps getting longer and longer.

Last Friday we ran the Masters Jumping course at training as I was instructing in the same hour as the Novice/Excellent class that she normally works in. I broke the course up into 3 sections and rewarded in between and she had no trouble with it, providing I was able to stay ahead on the tricky sections.

The only area of her training that I really feel is way behind where I would like it to be would be the seesaw, mainly because I totally shelved this after I had my accident last year. Last month we went back to working the seesaw between 2 tables in the shed, then removed one table and worked the bang game, and now I have moved the adjustable seesaw out to the back of the agility area and we are working on the whole thing at the lowest height. Hopefully I will be able to raise it at least one link by the weekend but I don't want to rush it and I am unsure how long it will take realistically to get to full height. She is confident but I am very conscious of how easy it is to have a setback on this obstacle and really want to avoid this if possible. Plus her position at the end at the moment is kind of awkward and I'm not sure if this will disappear as she gets more confident or whether I need to look at a different behaviour for the end of the seesaw.

I certainly don't remember having such a long list of things to work on with Atilla when he was younger, but as your training knowledge increases so does the training list ! Guess it's all part of the journey and she will be ready when she is ready and there is no time limit on this apart from my own impatience.

How To Get Two For The Price of One

2011-01-06T03:22:00.000-08:00

Take a perfectly good agility tunnel. Add a Border Collie (see illustration above for appropriate model.)

Now mix the two together at warp speed - or something that feels very much like that when you are trying to get into position for a front cross anyway.

Goodbye stitching ! Hello daylight !

Now take hold of each end and apply a little pressure (thankfully I now have two arms that work again so I can actually do this bit) and ............. tah dah !......... you have 2 tunnels, or at least you will have after a bit of renovation involving some sharp scissors and a pair of wire cutters.

That sure was fun, can we do it again ? Can we ? Can we ?

To be fair, the tunnel(s) in question has been sitting outside for the past seven years so I can't really blame the Border Collie, however I'm sure she played at least some part in helping it on its way.

The kelpies are totally miffed with her as they know that the tunnel is the best hiding place for those days when you don't feel like bringing the toy back and will be lost without it.

I always did mean to pack that tunnel up and put it away but somehow or other I never ever got around to it. Seven years though? That works out at around $30 a year for loads of tunnel fun - quite a bargain when you look at it that way and Ivy is dog number 5 to enjoy it.

Oh well, looks like another belated Christmas present is on the cards in our household.

When Things Don't Go To Plan

2010-11-30T16:30:00.000-08:00

Pretty crap video quality as it's just from my digital camera, (hopefully a Flip is on Santa's pressie list) but it shows the type of one armed training we have been doing for the past month.

Ever since Ivy arrived, I have been writing a list of the things I want to focus on with her each month and putting it on the fridge as a reminder but thanks to my own stupidity resulting in an accident involving a broken window, jagged glass and severing muscles and a nerve in my arm, the November list certainly hasn't gone to plan.

It could have been a lot worse and I am truly thankful that I am still around to blog about it, but I figure that almost 6 weeks of splinting, huge discomfort, feeling helpless and the ugliest scar out at least gives me some credibility in having a little pity party - but on the scale of things I promise it's very little indeed.

Training related, the things that I am most pissed about are:

-Missing the Susan Garrett seminar, especially after I had paid for both the seminar and accommodation.

-Missing my favourite trial, Warrnambool, with the kelpies. At least Ivy got to go along for a beach holiday and some more trial socialisation and focus work outside the rings.

-Having to put an enforced halt on a lot of the work we were doing, espcecially when she was making such good progress. We were just about to start alphabet drills and double box work, but these have been put on the back burner - hopefully for not too much longer. Seesaw training has also been put off for a bit as I really feel I need 2 arms to train it safely the way I want.

My long hair has also gone as I couldn't manage it with one hand, so I now have a new much shorter haircut to get used to which will also take me some time.

Luckily there are a lot of positives to come out of our revised training plan for the past month. Not being able to do so much has meant that I have probably looked a lot more closely at what we have done, rather than just thinking 'that's ok' and moving on. So our focus has been:

-more crate games, and trying to invent some creative ways of using crates. We have been using two crates to teach a verbal left and right cue. I don't know that I will ever use this on course, but she is totally nailing it and we have had a lot of fun with it. I have also been recalling from the crate with a high value ball on the ground in various positions where she has to come to me and tug first before I release her to the ball.

-lots of startline work and lead outs, as you can see on the video. I have been trying to vary the angle and distance of the jumps to really get her to think about her jumping.

-revisiting 'jump around the clock' type work with one jump, varying how close I set her up to it. She generally finds her take off point a lot better when I set her way back compared to when I set her up close so this is something that I need to be aware of and may need to use a stride regulator at some stage.

-set point exercise using the spread jump in loads of different configurations.

-recalling through the weaves, which is something that I always focused on when teaching channels but haven't done so much with 2X2's.

-continuing with lowered contacts, the A Frame is almost at full height now and I am planning on the dogwalk going up next week, once I can get back to adding some run bys to the recalls and sends.

-some straight line work involving a tunnel, 2 jumps and a table. (Thanks Trish)

Last week my splint was shortened so I now have 2 good hands at least, and the splint is a lot lighter so I don't need the sling any more. Yesterday I was able to start on push through threadles with her which she had no problems with. I have to say this whole experience has also made me realise how much more important good positioning and shoulder movement is rather than sticking your arm out and pointing, so another positive thing to come out of it and a lesson I need to remember. Plus I already have a training list ready and waiting for me for the next couple of months when this splint finally comes off.

So I am grateful that I am still here to spend time with my amazing Ivy and that she loves me unconditionally - no matter how many arms I have and what my hair looks like and how cranky I feel sometimes. Fingers crossed for getting back to normal training soon.

Coming and Going

2010-10-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

Love working with this girl so much......... Love trying to work with Photoshop so much and once I get around to reading the 'dummies' book that has been sitting on my desk for the past 3 months I may love it even more......... if I ever get this layer thing figured out that is.

I really enjoy reading Nancy Gye's blog on training her new dog (see the link on my Blog List) and a few weeks back she had a great post where she compared her training to Greg Derrett's '3 point system' relating to which way to turn your dog around a jump. I thought it might be helpful to do the same thing with Ivy's training at the moment so being a bit of a compulsive 'list chick' I am going to steal the idea and look at 'where we are coming from' and 'where we are going to'.

First up - FLATWORK
Coming From : A ton of foundation here, especially Circle Running and incorporating Crate Games. This is one area where I think I have done a much better job than with any of my other dogs, but as knowledge of its importance increases I guess it is pretty much a no-brainer that its training improves with each dog. I am a bit of a foundation junkie and have done a few seminars with different presenters, but I would have to say that last year's seminar with Laura Derrett was a big turning point for me - for the first time I actually saw how each exercise, no matter how trivial it might seem, forms the basis for something very specific in the Derrett system down the track.
Going To : Continuing Circle Running for life ! (I have been slack over Winter in this area and need to get back to it, especially those inside circles) Adding lots and lots of distractions using Crate Games and my start line procedure. Beginning change of arm = change of line foundation on the flat.

SHAPING
Coming From : Most of our proprioception exercises were taught with a clicker and also some simple 'tricks' like going to a mat, backing up, getting into a basket and things like that. I am using a verbal bridge more often as the sight of the clicker sends her nuts and she immediately goes into a frenzy of offering behaviours.
Going To: Using the clicker more often without it sending her nuts! Documenting trick training more regularly than I do. At the moment we are working on speak on command and standing on my shoes between my legs, kinda 'doggy dancing' style.

WEAVES
Coming From : 12 Poles taught with 2X2's. Speed and footwork developing plus some good independent entries. Can front cross at the end and rear cross the beginning.
Going To : Different environments, different sets of poles and lots of distractions. Proofing staying in the poles whatever I do. Consolidating speed and footwork.

CONTACTS
Coming From : Lowered dogwalk and A Frame - recalls, sends and run-bys. Working on sticking that end position no matter what I do and understanding of release cue. Beginning 'bang' game on lowered seesaw.
Going To : Adding more distractions and further proofing of holding end position. Working up to full height obstacles. Deciding on which method I will use to train the seesaw so we can build on working the end behaviour - leaning toward 2 table method at the moment.

Something funny that came out of her contact training has been trying to get her to tug on the end of the contact. She thinks I am offering her the tug as an 'it's your choice moment' and absolutely refuses to take it. Ideally I would like her to tug while maintaining her position on the end but there is no convincing her that this is OK to do so. She literally clamps her teeth together, turns her head away from me if I try to insist and then gives me this look that says, ' you can't trick me, I know I'm not allowed to take it until I finish my job and you release me.' Then when I do release her she lunges at it and tugs like crazy.

Another funny habit she has is if I make her stay for what she considers to be too long a period of time on the startline, she gives this little growl as she takes off, sort of like a war cry. That one cracks me up and I confess that every now and then I really drag out leaving her and releasing her just to hear it.

JUMPING - A whole entry in itself ! And I'm way too tired for now so this will have to be for another instalment.

There She Weaves by Night and Day

2010-07-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Ivy at 13 months - all grown up now. Her puppy days seem to have gone in a flash.

When I first downloaded the photos for this post, Ivy had started her 2 X2 weave training a few days earlier and had clocked up 8 very short sessions.

3 weeks later (yep, that's dial up for you- LOL) she is weaving 2 sets of 6 poles with a short gap between them which I plan on starting to close up at our next training session.

Ivy is the first dog that I have actually taught to weave from start to finish using this method, although I did use it with Cruz to train his entries after I taught him to weave on channels.

Although not quite '12 poles in 12 days' (which I certainly wasn't aiming for) I am still blown away by just how fast this method actually is. It's the first thing everyone says about it and you hear this over and over, but I think you have to experience it yourself before it really sinks in.

Same thing with the entries - they are truly mind-blowing at times and although a lot more proofing will need to take place over the next few months, I can't believe what this baby dog can do. Currently she is making entries that my Masters level dog would struggle with - after around 4 weeks of training.

It hasn't been all smooth sailing though - some people write about training this method and make it sound like it was all too easy from start to finish. It's easy to watch the DVD too and think that it's not that difficult to get results. Not even considering the fact that Susan Garrett is a highly experienced world class trainer, it does say on the DVD that what you see is a 'compilation' over a number of training sessions so even though we get to see some of the 'failed attempts' we don't get to see how many of them there actually were which makes the training process appear that it's really going fast.

One thing that I would have liked included with the DVD would be to see the success rate percentage from each of the sessions that the demo dog had. From my experience with Ivy, there were a couple of what I would call critical points where her success rate plummeted for a bit before coming back up again. I have a friend also currently training this method with her young BC and when we discussed our results we found that we both experienced this at around the same points in our training. This is not something that I found with teaching channel weaves, where the success rate percentage climbed slowly but steadily at each session, or maybe it's just a training kelpies V BC thing ?

So would I use this method again ? Absolutely, especially now that I have worked through it and have had the chance to use some 'problem solving' along the way. Would I recommend it to everyone ? Yes, but with some cautions.

Firstly, as SG says also in the beginning, you really need a dog that is comfortable with the shaping process and understands offering behaviours. Although I have trained Ivy with shaping right from the beginning, there were still occasional times when we ran into a stumbling block and I got all the associated stress behaviours of barking, spinning, doing zoomies, etc. Dealing with this, or with a dog that lies down and refuses to offer any behaviour at all, is hard and I think at these points you have to know your dog well enough to make a judgement call about how to continue. Plus it was also a first for me having a dog that defintiely 'stresses up' rather than down and was not easy to deal with at first, hopefully I have a bit more of a handle on it now.

For an inexperienced trainer, I would think that you need someone to actually demonstrate each stage along the way - I have seen a number of people training it from the DVD only who are not necessarily doing it 'right'- even though the DVD is very comprehensive it's still a lot to take in. After watching it 3 times now, I'm still getting little bits and pieces out of it that I missed the first couple of times. And people are very impatient. (Including me at times !) You only have to look on You Tube to see some of the liberties people have taken with this method, and to me this is not a method that lends itself well to 'a little bit of this and a lot of my own spin.' I am using it in one of my classes with a small group of students at the moment. Although I am pleased with their progress, it has taken a lot longer for them to work through and there have been a lot of misconceptions along the way, despite handouts and demonstrations given to them in most sessions. (The reward line concept appears to be one thing that is confusing to them for some reason)

Even as a more experienced trainer, I was glad to be able to compare notes with my friend - and there were times for both of us (no matter how brief they were) where we questioned whether this was going to be the best method for us when working alone. It was a big help when we shared our experience and discovered we had both faced similar things. This is the downside when you use a method that is not currently being taught at most clubs and many people have heard of it and watched the DVD but never actually tried it, or worse, watched it once and then believe they are an expert.

I also think you need to have the confidence to be able to work through any problems that arise. SG has really good troubleshooting tips available - and luckily for me the majority of problems Ivy had were covered. But there were a couple of times (those previously mentioned critical points) where her accuracy went right down and I had to deal with this, plus any stress signs she showed. An understanding of latent learning is helpful at these times, plus record keeping where you look for signs of stress, not always as obvious as that exhibited by a crazy BC but very important to be aware of and to understand how far you can actually 'push'.

Just for the record, my main critical point was:

-with 2 sets of 2X2's, the first rotation after the poles were already at 1 o'clock and 7 o'clock - this obviously changed the picture for her a lot more than it seemed to as this session clocked up 30% accuracy compared to the 90% recorded in the session before. All of a sudden she got totally stuck at going in the wrong side of the poles on the right although she had never done that before.

There were also a couple of 'lesser' ones along the way which I won't go into as this post is probably already boring enough for anyone not training weaving with their dog, and maybe even boring for those who are. (Yes, it's all about me - LOL)

My highlights along the way are :

-watching her weave 6 poles on video for the first time.

-adding a jump (and then a tunnel) before the poles and seeing her run a jump-tunnel-jump-poles sequence ....... I can't believe that the first sequence I have ever run with this dog actually included weave poles.

-and the big one for me........... weaving 6 poles outside the ring at club training last week while her 'bestest gal pal Sassy' tugged with her mum right alongside the poles. (We 'repaid' the favour when Sassy had her go !)

So a big vote in favour of 2 X 2's and everything that training them has taught me along the way. I would love to hear from anyone else who has trained them and what their experiences were rather than just the stock standard forum comments implying that it was easy to get the dog weaving using this method, but then the follow up that they 'tweaked' the method a bit.

Hopefully I will have just as favourable things to report about her contact training in a few weeks time, which has also begun to transfer from her travel board to lowered contact equipment. We will see how that pans out - so far 4 out of 4 dogs with sucky A Frames (except for Cruz on the occasions he gets his striding right and nails it ) - can I finally train one that I actually like with Ivy ? Watch this space I guess. My beautiful 'ball girl' relaxing between training sessions - and one 'up close and personal.'

A Border Collie in Kelpie Town

2010-06-16T03:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Ivy became an honorary kelpie and tagged along with her 'big brothers' to the Casterton Kelpie Muster. She obviously felt that having Atilla and Cruz there gave her some legitimate kelpie street cred as she bounced around full of confidence all day, almost like a furry balloon on a string when things excited her .... like the street parade complete with very loud bagpipes, the pens of sheep, a whole bunch of people to kiss up to looking for a pat and of course all those kelpies. Did I mention that it doesn't really take all that much to excite her ?

Sitting pretty with L down by the old railway yards ...... now where did all the kelpies go ?

Posing at Island Park where all the bales of hay give some atmosphere to the auction held on the following day.

She really has her 'big girl' face now and at 510mm at the shoulder (or thereabouts as she looks absolutely identical to Atilla in height) I think she is pretty close to fully grown - hopefully anyway. This week she has a new 'big girl' collar, a new 'big girl' bowl and we are phasing out the puppy food for 'big girl' food. So I guess my baby is a baby no longer. This time between 12 and 14 months is a real transition time for me in her training. All the foundation work we have done will hopefully pay dividends when I apply it to equipment, which she is almost ready for, but it's so important not to rush things before she is totally ready. These couple of months are the danger time for me in that respect where it is so tempting to start start stringing things together but I know it's still better to wait and to really consolidate her foundation work.

And her favourite thing from Casterton after all the kelpies ? Toss up between the pens of sheep, the indian runner ducks and all the wonderful smells along the main street.

Happy First Birthday

2010-06-03T04:51:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how quickly Ivy's first birthday has come around. It seems like only yesterday that she looked like this ...........

And all of a sudden the puppy has morphed into this ............

I decided on a very feminine theme for her birthday cakes, after all with hobbies that include excavating, gardening, swimming, ball chasing and sheep stalking through the fence, she is such a beautifully groomed 'girlie dog'.

This was part of her cupcake tree - unfortunately some doggie taste testing had already taken place before I thought about photographing it. But if you squint a bit and tilt your head you won't notice that there are actually a few cakes missing.

She didn't get to eat the icing, as Border Collies and sugar are not really that good a mix, but it didn't effect how quickly her cake disappeared anyway.

Looking back on her training I am very happy with where she is at 12 months. My main goal was to have what GD calls 'really brilliant circles' by now - I'm not sure if I would describe them as brilliant just yet especially by his standards, but they are pretty close.

Her toy drive is outstanding - she will tug with absolutely anything I present, any time and anywhere, which was also pretty high on the goal list. She has a very solid stay, thanks to crate games and also what I would call a good 'off/on switch.' We have done a few Susan Salo jump bump grids, although not to excess, and I am also very pleased with her work on these. At the moment I am working on her end position for contacts on a travel board and on the end of an extremely lowered A Frame (the wonders of a long length of chain !) and next month I will start weave training with her.

I love working with this gorgeous girl so much and I am so very grateful that her breeder decided to take a chance on sending her so far away to me. So Happy Birthday sweet Ivy and may you stay just as driven to work as you are right now for the next 12 months ! I have lots of new things in store for you over the next few months.

Ivy Out and About

2010-05-09T18:42:00.000-07:00

One thing that I really neglected when training my other dogs was getting the 'show on the road' and proofing behaviours in lots of different locations. Not that I didn't do it, but I wasn't very creative when choosing where to train and ended up going to local ovals and streets where they always had a similar level of noise and distractions to deal with.

As I am now paying for this big time with Cruz, I have been trying very hard not to make the same mistake with Ivy and so I am aiming to fill a list with 50 different (read the more unusual the better) locations where she will tug with me regardless of what is going on around her.

So far we have clocked up the car park at the local market, right on the automatic doors at the supermarket, inside the container at training while all the equipment is being wheeled out and banged around (luckily they forgive my little eccentricities at training!), directly under the flight path at Bulla (literally the last place the planes are still in the sky before they land at Melbourne airport), at the local skateboard park when it's full of kids on bikes and scooters, on the beach, right beside my neighbour's fence with his sheep directly on the other side (big points for that one), at the Airey's Inlet lighthouse and beside the local tennis courts with kiddy coaching going on. Probably not all that creative compared to what some other people do in terms of adding distractions when tugging, but way more than I did with the other dogs, so at least it's a start.

And she was more than happy to tug with me in every one of these locations, no matter what was going on around her.

Lately she's not as obsessive over the kelpies as she was, but she does love running with them when she gets the chance, usually at the beach.

Our new favourite is Anglesea, easy 2 hour drive so not as far as Warrnambool and nowhere near as crowded as it is over Summer. Plus around the middle of the day the tide is out so you can walk across the mouth of the river which doubles the size of the beach.

On this day it was so deserted everywhere we went that they even got to run on the beach at Lorne as well, usually way too touristy to even consider off lead running on the beach.

The lighthouse at Airey's Inlet aka tugging location #15. I would have even considered doing some circle running around it if there hadn't been a crowd waiting to go inside on a tour - the only place that we visited that actually wasn't deserted. I'm sure I looked a big enough nutter as it was tugging all around it, especially given some people's reaction to tugging. When we started obedience with Yasser years ago, we were told that tugging was the devil's tool and I believed it until I got into agility. Now I know better, blind crosses are the devil's tool.
Ivy on the beach at Lorne. Complete with her autograph in the sand, sort of like a canine Hollywood stars boulevard - and a split second before she couldn't wait any longer and had to hit the water.

That's more like it - throw the ball ! Not her prettiest look when she's all wet, but she loves it.

Wonder how my contact training travel board is going to fare on the beach next time - just kidding, although it's definitely a thought .............

Might As Well Face it.... You're Addicted To Circle Running

2010-03-24T06:16:00.000-07:00

My beautiful girl is now 9 and a half months old ...... where did the time go - it only seems like yesterday that I was picking her up and bringing her home.

Two weeks holidays are coming up and all I am thinking about at the moment is how many mornings I will get up at 7am (or earlier once daylight saving time is finished) and drive to the local oval or the showgrounds so we can do some serious circle running. My non-agility friends at work are horrified when I mention this plan so it's got me thinking that maybe I am just the tiniest bit obsessed with running around in circles.......

When Greg Derrett was here earlier last year he was adamant that to succeed in running his system you need to have brilliant circle running with your dog. Although I ran circles with the kelpies during their foundation training (and plan to revisit them with both shortly) it wasn't my top priority with either of them as I was too busy training other things - like obsessive nose touches with Cruz for example.
Derrett's comment should have been a no brainer but was a big lightbulb moment for me. At the time I struggled with whether I should even write it down, let alone live it and breathe it. After all, who wants to spend so much time running around in circles - or running in any shape or form if I am honest about it.

Well, I bit the proverbial bullet, dedicated a page in my training journal to Circle Running (which has now turned into 2 pages and will shortly hit page number 3) and set a goal to focus on having brilliant circles by the time Ivy was 12 months old - well very good ones at least !

After a couple of months of training circles, I found I was actually enjoying running them and looked forward to doing them again. Which makes me think that I may be just a little bit addicted- especially now that I am planning getting up early on my holidays to run them in as many different locations as I can.
But there is something truly addictive about circle running with a dog that really enjoys it and actually tries to follow your body and match your pace. Not to mention the crazed tugging in between. As compared to 2 kelpies where number one runs great circles- about 5 metres away from your side and just about has a melt down if you ask him to come in closer to your leg. (Yes, he is a good Gamblers dog ) And number 2 is like a big sooky la-la lagging about a metre behind you because he only wants to do dogwalks with aforementioned obsessive nose touches, not run around with you. (Think we'll be revisiting motivation and reinforcement with kelpies as well.)

We have trained other things and not just circle running - honest ! I even have the videos (which I still don't seem to be able to post) and photos to prove it.
Here's Ivy playing 'It's Your Choice' with a toy - which is way harder for her than with food.
Her stays are really coming along well and she has been used quite a bit lately as 'demo dog' at club on Friday nights when instructors are teaching stays with distractions. I am very proud of her work but realise that we still have a lot further to go as although she is fine with everyone standing around watching, running dogs are still a big distraction for her - especially in the first 5 minutes of class before the tugging obsession really takes over.

And here she is posing in front of a jump bump grid - she loves these exercises and we are about to start some bend work plus some further 'problem solving' by dressing up the jump standards with streamers, pot plants, wings and anything else I can find in the shed/man cave.

But Circle Running still remains our top priority and I find that I am finally nodding my head and agreeing with GD when he talks about its importance, rather than screwing up my face and thinking that I really don't want to do this.

So why do I believe it's so important? It's teaching Ivy to respond to my body movement, plus building an understanding of the concepts of Blind Cross Body Line, Reinforcement Zone, Acceleration and Deceleration - all of which are vital to the Derrett system. The key is to build value for her being in the Reinforcement Zone (a concept that I didn't quite 'get' with the kelpies) so we have incorporated lots of play and reinforcement into the early training and still continue to do so even now when we can run larger and faster circles.

My ideal picture of Ivy's circle work - from my training diary- is:
Ivy runs at my side with no lagging, no forging ahead, no pushing on my line, no shaping of the circle itself, no crossing in front of me, no crossing behind me. Ivy also matches my pace when I accelerate and decelerate. Ivy can run both outside and inside circles of different sizes and can change sides on outside circles when I incorporate a front cross on the flat.

Our weaknesses would be :
Occasionally forging ahead on inside circles, although we are improving at this. Plus occasionally trying to dictate the size of the circle if she doesn't think I am running fast enough for her.

And my reminders to myself when running circles are:
Play often, carry the toy in both hands as well as in my pocket, make sure I am using the toy as a reward and not as a lure, reward quickly, mix in some straight line running with the circles if I feel she is dictating the size of the circle or forging ahead, run in as many locations as possible and add distractions when she is ready for them - which is probably now.

If there are any other circle running addicts out there - please make contact. We can form a support group if necessary and share circle running tips ...... which will make me feel better about what a tragic I am becoming when that alarm goes off next week at 6am !

Playing With Fireworks

2010-02-06T03:29:00.001-08:00

8 months old and here's her monthly portrait straight out of the camera. She's looking a lot more grown up these days and gets lots of compliments about how pretty she is - no thanks to my spectacular lack of grooming skills I might add. A good brush is definitely in order for those ears.

This week I've been playing a CD of various noises when we tug inside. Not that she shows any signs of being noise sensitive in any way, even when I turn it up pretty loud, but I figure it can't hurt. So far we've gotten through 4 tracks of fireworks - which almost scared the crap out of me until I got used to it as it sounded like a full blown missile attack ..... or what I imagine one would sound like. On Friday evening we got some real life practice in when some moron on a motorbike decided to ride around the oval while we were at agility training. I am happy to report that she kept on tugging happily and didn't even look at him. Next week we have the delights of 'crow scarer' (whatever that is) , shotgun and light aircraft to look forward to. However this time I intend to preview them first so they don't scare me!

Training priorities are still circle running , circle running and more circle running - plus a whole load of playing with as many different toys as I can find. Adding distractions is also progressing well - I have been playing an 'off switch/on switch' game where I jump around like a mad woman and really get her revved up, then while she is leaping around and barking I ask her to sit. Then I start the jumping around, making silly noises, arm flapping stuff again and she is not allowed to join in until she hears her release word. She loves this game just as much as she loves tugging and would play for ages if I let her. (Way too tiring for me though!)

We've also started some brief rear cross foundation in front of the TV of an evening. This is one I am going to have to watch carefully as after the first couple of times she really started to anticipate and move her head before I had actually crossed behind her. As I don't want to create a flick away I will need to work at refining this.

We've also been working stays at home with distractions in as many different outdoor places as I can think of - I can throw toys in front of her and drop food beside her and she won't move. Last night I got her to sit on my small table in the agility area and ran off a couple of times then went back to reward if she didn't move. At one stage when I returned she was sitting in the strangest position with her head down and when I got back to the table I realised she had dropped her food on the ground and was trying to reach it without moving from her sit.

She is also loving plank work with the middle section of my dogwalk on the ground. At first I was taking her dinner outside and clicking and rewarding any interaction with the plank - she was super confident with this and it didn't take long before she was sitting, dropping and turning around on it. Then I used some stick in the ground poles (visualise the markers on a broad jump) on either side of each end of the plank to give it some more definition and started backchaining her running across the plank to a toy. Now she is flying across the plank and loves this game. If I was able to post video, you would see her speeding across with me running along (way) behind and the title ' Why I don't intend to teach a running dogwalk.' And the sub title 'When rewarding away from you your throwing skills need much work'. And the reminder 'Do not position plank near trees.'

Over the next few weeks I will be thinking about how I will train her contacts as I still haven't decided. We have been nose touching to my hand almost since she arrived - I am going to use this to line her up at the start line- plus I have started introducing a target disc in my hand and almost have it to the floor. I know I want a stopped dogwalk, but am still not sure if I am actually going to train a nose touch as I did with Cruz. Although there are a lot of things I like about the nose touch there are also a few things that 'the jury is still out on.' Looking forward to auditing the Lynda Orton-Hill seminar in a few weeks time to see what she does with training nose touches before I make my decision. At least the target disc will be a good party trick if I decide not to go with it.

Girl's Day Out

2010-01-21T00:44:00.000-08:00

This is Ivy's new 'gal pal' Sassy, a 10 month old BC owned by a fellow agility competitor. For anyone who reads my 'Agility Kelpies' blog, Sassy is the star of the Greg Derrett DVD watching post made last year.

She has turned into a rather stunning girl, don't you think ? Plus she has brains as well as beauty, her only 'fault' is that she appears to think that she might be a mountain goat rather than a BC and has a whole list of 'objects successfully scaled from a great height' to prove it.

Last weekend we met up, along with another trialler who has an 8 month old pup and had our own puppy workshop. We did circle running, crate work, the puppy set point exercise from Susan Salo's 'Puppy Jumping' DVD, some stay and release work and of course play, play, play and more play. Very exciting for Ivy who hasn't done much training around other dogs - apart from ours. This was the first time she has done off lead work in a strange environment with some high level distractions and I was very pleased with the results.

No, she wasn't perfect and we had a couple of run offs to visit the other puppies, but all up I was happy with her focus, especially when she was working with me. She stayed with me 100% when working and gave me really good focus, plus she never broke a single stay, whether waiting to be released from her crate while I ran off or working stays around the others. Mostly the 'run offs' occurred once when I threw a toy for her to retrieve and on the way back to me she spied her mates, and a couple of times when we had finished and were returning offlead to her crate.

It was a very valuable session in that it showed up several holes in my training that I still need to fix - and without 'trying her out' offlead I wouldn't have gotten that information. Although I don't want her rehearsing 'unwanted' behaviours, I believe there comes a time when you have to put what you have to the test rather than always controlling and manipulating the environment that you train in. In the words of Susan Garrett, ' You should always set the dog up for success, yet at the same time he should experience enough environmental challenge and freedom that he does occasionally fail. This approach allows the dog to learn the boundaries of correct and incorrect responses.'

I believe this is something I did wrong with the kelpies as I didn't let them fail enough.

All the puppies did very well and there were 3 happy owners at the end of the session - still with 'lists' to work on I'm sure. Mine reads :

*Circle running - watch for forging ahead in different environment, she doesn't tend to do this at home.

*Continue to build value for motivators.

*Recall - still needs work. (Don't bother when she is running around with other puppies having a ball, although after they had run for about 30 seconds to a minute they did recall no problems, so maybe still working on recalling first time, every time, which would also relate directly to the value of the motivator.)

*More sessions like this one to continue to work on high level distractions.

It's hot today so we've been working on crate games under the trees. I need to find some higher level distractions for this as she has a rock solid stay in the crate and won't come out no matter what I do without being released. At our puppy session I even led out so she had to run directly past other puppies to get to me and she didn't even look at them.

In between the 'photo session' we worked on sending to the crate from every single extreme angle I could find and recalling for a game of tug incorporating lead out pivots on the flat, acceleration and deceleration. We can recall out of the crate from around the 20 metre mark and send in from around the same distance, so I'm pretty happy with that plus I'm also happy with the speed she is driving in and out of the crate.

Now I need to start a list of potential distractions, might be a good time to review the Crate Games DVD I guess. Any further ideas also gratefully received.

Show Me The Money

2010-01-03T19:31:00.000-08:00

Ivy at seven months old today. She still hasn't really had the sudden growth spurt that both the kelpies had around 6 months but when I look back on photos from a few weeks ago, I realise that her change of height is gradually sneaking up on me.

I have been thinking hard about reinforcement and motivation lately and reading the post about reinforcement in this blog really struck a chord with me, so much so that I have printed it out for my training diary as a reminder of just how important building value for a motivator is.
And - wonder of wonders - once you actually have that high value, things like proofing for distractions become a lot easier. This is something that should be glaringly obvious but it's not something that I ever thought about until I read that post, strangely enough.

Since we have been lucky enough to have overseas trainers of the calibre of Susan Garrett and Greg & Laura Derrett visit these shores most of us who have been to their seminars have thought a lot more about reinforcement - and learnt that we are all extremely stingy when it comes to using it effectively. Ivy's training log has 'Building Reinforcement Zone' as one of the first pages, but when I looked back through Cruz's I couldn't find too many references to 'rate of reinforcement' and certainly none relating to RZ. In fact in most cases all I did was document what I actually used.

But after reading Justine's blog, I am now thinking reinforcement through one step further. It's not enough to have an extremely high rate of reinforcement, nor is it enough to have a dog that tugs and takes food willingly - although those things are highly desirable and a big step in the right direction. To go that extra distance you need a motivator that your dog is absolutely wild for - and this can be built up as part of your training process.

Ivy is the first dog I have had that is crazy about tugging and I think this has made me take this behaviour for granted in some ways. But there are many other things in her environment that she is also crazy about, so the first thing I have started to do is to test the value of her tug against other things.

My list so far, in order of (easiest first) my predicted difficulty :
1. Continue tugging with me when L. comes in the front door as she usually runs to greet him.
2. Continue tugging with me when L. comes outside and stands in the agility area.
3. Continue tugging with me when the 2 old dogs are walking outside agility area.
4.Continue tugging with me when L. runs around outside agility area, kicking ball.
5. Same behaviour but inside agility area.
6. Continue tugging with me when L. is running around outside agility area with kelpies.

So far we have passed numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 with flying colours. Have tried number 5 and she ran after the ball once but came straight back and tugged when I called, so this will now be our 'starting point' for distractions and also shows me that I can still build more value for the tug at home before I start to test it out in other environments.

I would have to say that the ball would have equal if not higher value at the moment - but I don't want another dog who is crazy about things that won't fit in my pocket, already have 2 of those! I know that a lot of trainers won't let their agility dogs play with balls at all, but at the end of the day, she is not an 'agility machine' and is still my pet so I don't really like the idea of taking away something that she absolutely adores and has fun playing with - at least the soccer ball is interactive. And depending on how I go building more value for the tug, I can still use the ball to transfer value if I have to.

So I'm off to add some more pages to my training diary - a further page to follow on from my RZ section that focuses on continuing to build value for reinforcers (rather than taking them for granted because your dog willingly 'does' them) and another page to focus on a list of ideas for more formal 'proofing' of behaviours that I am happy with so far - of which there are many, she's a great little girl. And one day, when I know I have that 'golden' motivator that kicks butt with all others, any time and anywhere, I will let you know !

A Belated Merry Christmas

2009-12-31T02:22:00.000-08:00

............. from Ivy. No, I'm not into dressing up my working breed dogs, but if the kelpies can cope with a Christmas themed collar for photos, then Ivy can cope with a bib velcroed around her neck for all 15 seconds while I take a photo. Knew that sit-stay was going to come in handy!

We've had a little break from 'running around type training' as she was spayed a couple of weeks back, but the stitches are due to come out in the next day or so and she is more than ready to go. In the meantime we've had fun doing some shaping stuff with the clicker. Almost have speak on command as our first real trick, others will hopefully follow soon.

I have also taken the past couple of weeks to try and document her training a bit more thoroughly and to try and get a clearer picture in my head of what I want this to look like and how I am going to go about it. So, some of these thoughts to follow......... next year.

Ivy Does Warrnambool

2009-11-02T01:47:00.000-08:00

Ivy went to her first 2 day agility trial last weekend - in fact a weekend of 'firsts' as it was also her first stay away from home and her first time at the beach. She took everything in her stride and especially enjoyed the beach, her highlights being ............

........... the water (straight in as soon as the lead came off !)

.......... the impromptu training sessions (especially when she got to chase her ball as a reward)

...... and of course the digging .............

Did I mention how much she liked the digging?

It was a big weekend for her and she coped with it extremely well, confident around the accommodation, walking around the town, on the beach and at the trial grounds. She got to play with a couple of other puppies around the same age, (one just a day older) sat at ringside with me for a bit watching other dogs run and of course got lots of human attention from other triallers.

Warrnambool have a fenced exercise yard which was great for letting her run free with the other puppies. L. also came in with me at the end of each day and we did some restrained recalls, restrained running to a toy, tugging and some circle running. I was delighted with her circles as this was the first time I had done them in an unfamiliar location off lead. There were also a ton of distractions going on outside the yard and her focus was brilliant. I was also impressed with her circles, although we are still only running outside circles at this stage.

I have started training inside circles with her, but still need her on lead for these and we are not going much over walking pace until she has a better understanding of me putting pressure on her line.

Most of the training we have done over the past couple of months has revolved around circle running and crate games - with a bit of rear end awareness thrown in for good measure.

She loves working on the balance disc, will happily jump on and off the wobble board - plus loves to tug on it, and has started perch and ladder work.

At just on 5 months, she has nearly all her 'big' teeth and is really developing a strong tug, which I am very happy with. She is also happy to switch back and forward between a toy and food when working - a quality that I have struggled with before with all my previous dogs, so I hope she continues to prove to be the exception.

I will document her foundation training some more next time, but for now here are some more photos from a couple of weeks back - just because I can !

These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things

2009-09-22T17:16:00.001-07:00

Once again, don't be deceived by those eyes and the calm demeanour shown in the photo - most of her favourite things don't currently involve an off switch.

Last week I compiled a list of her favourite motivators at 15 weeks for her training diary. I did the same thing at 9 to 10 weeks and it is interesting to see the changes already in just a 6 week period.

At 9 weeks the things she was crazy about were - her Cuz toy, tugging (with anything) and cheese.

At 15 weeks the list now reads - tugging (still with anything), playing with me with no toys, playing with the soccer ball with L. , playing with her water bowl (so much so that she tries to take it into her crate with her at bedtime - and the reason I spent so much money on toys was..............) running - anywhere, anytime, whether it's just running around the yard with us, doing circle running or even just running around by herself - walking is not a preferred option at the moment. In regard to food it's chicken wings, raw steak and roast chicken scraps.

There are quite a number of things in the next column that I would say she 'likes a lot' such as attention from people, playing with other dogs and kangaroo jerky , but I wouldn't say she is totally over the top crazy about them - which is what I want to focus on right now with the main training emphasis still on building up a strong reinforcement zone.

She still likes cheese too , but is not as crazy about it as earlier on - not when there's steak or chicken to be had during training. As for the Cuz toy, that's moved to the 'Indifferent' section now as she's not really interested in it at all these days.

This week she has graduated to spending some time alone in her own little section of the dog run with the other dogs loose in the yard. As I am on holidays at the moment, I can supervise them all, so the plan is to gradually increase the time that she spends in there until that takes over as her designated spot during the day when we are not home.

This has been a big hit with her (just ignore the sad 'I'm behind bars, how could they do this to me? ' look in the photo- proof that the camera does sometimes lie) especially as she gets a bone to chew on and has some other new attractions to entertain her..............

....... like a little swimming pool and a new sand pit for digging. This has been a huge hit with her. She loves to jump from one to the other until she is totally filthy and there's more sand and water on the ground at the moment than in the shells - but a good time is had by Miss Ivy and that's the main thing.

Cruz's old kennel is a bit of a star attraction too - she likes having a little place to hide away if the others hang around the fence too much in search of her bone - their own being finished in record time of course.

I plan on doing puppy class at the Obedience club once she is 4 months old. It's a bit 'industrial strength' for my liking but the kelpies did it from 4 to 6 months and it was good for socialisation and working with distractions. At this stage I am not planning to spend the whole hour in class (heaven forbid!) and will make sure I go in and out of class and combine her work with lots of play sessions. Unfortunately it coincides with the season of country trials in Victoria and I really want to make up for lost time since the car accident with the kelpies, so she probably won't get all that many sessions. However the idea of actually heeling at my side at a walking pace is not really all that appealing to her right now so I don't think she is going to mind all that much. We currently work on very short 'heeling' sessions where she is expected to walk - now if we are 'agility heeling' at a run - she would be happy to do that all day !

Once she is 6 months old, she can join Foundation class at the agility club. She has had lots of exposure coming down on Friday evenings so far and enjoys running around and playing with me outside the rings. Unfortunately she will turn 6 months old on the last training session for the year so will have to wait until next year to join class. Hopefully we will have done loads of foundation work here by then so she will be well and truly ready.

12 Weeks Old.... And Growing !

2009-08-31T06:31:00.000-07:00

This little girl sure has a way of working herself very firmly into your heart - I enjoyed working with both the kelpies as puppies (as I still do) and I am really enjoying working with her at the moment too.

My biggest concern is that I have not been able to put as much time into training her so far as I had planned on doing due to having a car accident on the way home from work a few weeks ago and as a result now juggling one car - I spend a lot of time on the road these days picking up L. from work, which is just under a two hour trip. Ivy comes with me in her crate and is certainly now an excellent traveller as a result. The kelpies jump around in the back of the ute (inside the canopy of course) while she has the comfort of the cabin and a good time is had by all - none of them seem to mind that they only stay in the car and don't actually get to come out most evenings.
We play as much as time permits and with a variety of toys - she is happy to tug with anything I offer, plus she also enjoys chasing balls, kongs and also playing with just me and no toys.

She will also work for food rewards (raw steak is probably now beginning to win out marginally over the cheese) but doesn't have quite the same desire for food as she does for a toy. This is fine by me, providing I can still use food on occasion - especially when we are training our end contact behaviour. We have been working on shaping a nose touch to the palm of my hand with food rewards. I am now waiting for harder nose touches to reward and will begin to ask for multiple touches shortly.

We have worked a little on crate games and I am using this approach to release her from the laundry, where she is contained when we are at work. She now sits automatically when my hand touches the release on the baby gate and once I open the gate, will remain in a sit until I give a verbal release. Then she comes blasting out. She does the same thing in her crate, although I haven't shaped the sit at the back of the crate that Susan Garrett uses. Although I understand the rationale for this, I am pretty pleased with her wait for release toward the front of the crate, so at the moment I haven't decided if I will introduce the criteria of sitting at the back of the crate or not.

We have a verbal cue on her sit, have shaped a reasonable drop and I am delighted with her stay so far. I can move up to around ten metres away at the moment and have also added some mild distractions, such as moving my body and showing a toy. This evening I had a work friend visiting and she was happy to provide a distraction for us - Ivy had no problems remaining in her stay until released and also recalled away from playing with my friend whenever I called her.

We have started circle running and so far she is doing pretty good outside circles on both sides. Her speed is really starting to increase and she pushes me to run faster if I'm not quick enough. At first we were jogging the circles, but now I am finding that I am close to running full speed - and at not quite 3 months old ...... I won't be keeping up for much longer. Looks like it's more training for me !

She has been on the wobble board at agility and also on mine and shows no hesitation with either one. She will also sit, drop and tug on the board. Next week I will start her on my balance disc and perch.

She has met some friendly dogs at agility training and loves meeting new people. Last week we went into 'town' a couple of times and walked down the main street. This was really valuable - she had been before but stayed in my arms and the experience from 'street level' was very different for her. She was a bit unsure of a motorised wheelchair at first, but the next day we happened to meet the same lady in the chair again and this time she almost dragged me up to it looking for yet another pat.

On the coming weekend we plan on giving her a bath for the first time - yes, it's long overdue. Then it's back to the vet next week for her final vaccination. So despite the time constraints, I am happy with what we have done together so far and can't wait to build on this over the next few weeks.

Settling In

2009-08-13T05:49:00.000-07:00

Ivy is now 10 weeks old and has settled into her new life very well. She has taken all new experiences in her stride and loves to explore her 'back yard'. When I reflect on her first week by filling in her training diary, I am surprised at the amount of training we have actually done - all under the 'umbrella of play.' And so a quick update in photos.

She has caught on very quickly to the idea that sitting with eye contact will get you what you want - within reason of course. (Pity it doesn't work for me in staff meetings!) We also have the beginnings of a stay and wait for release. (Very handy for taking photos, what beautiful girl doesn't love to pose for the camera- although I need to be quick as we're not pushing this stay thing just yet!)She has been to agility training and passed around from person to person before class. She has also been to the Obedience Club - where I have been 'absent' for about 2 years. It was good to see that many of the same instructors are still there as I guess we will be starting Puppy class shortly. She hasn't been near any of my agility equipment yet and probably won't for at least some time. (That fence in the background is very handy!) She has run up and down the ramp in the dog run though - and very confidently at that.

Play has been the main feature of the week. She loves to tug and even tugged with me on the stainless steel table at the vets. She also has the 'kelpie like quality' of being attracted to toys that won't fit in my pocket - the basketball is a new favourite.

And don't let the innocent look fool you - this one knows what she wants and intends to get it one way or another.

Steak and cheese are definitely the favourites in the food department - she was a bit slow coming the first time I called her away from the kelpies until she realised that there was actually cheese involved. Cheese is now the mainstay of her recall under distraction - she would just about sell her soul for a tiny piece of cheese.

Tomorrow night she has a 'playdate' with Zee after the kelpie's agility training - so those recalls will be getting a good workout.

I am so worried about doing the right thing with her training and not messing her up - but this 'paralysis by analysis' is not helpful so I figure that many times I just need to go with the flow. If the emphasis is on play then I can't mess up - can I???

Watching Ivy Grow

2009-08-05T19:17:00.001-07:00

She's finally here ! After almost a year of 'seriously considering it' and quite a few months of trying to find a litter that rang all the right bells for me - I have my very own beautiful Border Collie girl.

So meet Ivy - she flew all the way from Western Australia to Victoria on Tuesday to start her new life and to begin training in the hope of one day joining her big kelpie brothers in the agility ring. I guess I am now officially flirting with the 'dark side' - a couple of years ago I would have sworn that I was only ever going to have kelpies and certainly not a Border Collie. But as Yasser rapidly approaches 15, I started to think of all the Border Collie qualities that I love in him (although he's not a full blood BC) and the idea of my next dog being a BC really began to make a lot of sense.

I am looking forward to discovering the differences between training kelpies and BC's first hand as our training journey progresses. And Atilla and Cruz love her so far, which I did worry about in the beginning.

So expect lots of photos - once she keeps still - and hopefully some progress reports on our foundation training. At the moment I am just enjoying playing with her and watching her settle in.