Merry Christmas!

From Bella!

Bella's New Bling

Bella got new bling for Christmas!

Guess there is always next year...

For months now my dog club has been discussing the idea of participating in the local Christmas Parade this year. The plan was to do drill team type demonstrations for the duration of the 5 mile parade route.

I really wanted to participate with Bella as this would provide a great socialization experience for her to be around so many people. But I felt that it would be pushing it to expect her to not only be around all of those people, but to also do drill team exercises.

I got my hopes up when, at our last meeting, they discussed the situation in more detail and offered that anyone who didn't feel that their dog was ready for the drills, could still participate in the parade by just walking along behind those doing the drill exercises.

At that point I started to get excited thinking that "we can actually do this!" Then they announced the date and time of the parade...

December 4th at 5pm.

Crap.

Where will I be on December 4th at 5pm?

In Long Beach at Eukanuba!

No parade for us this year, dang it.

A Walk in the Park

Yesterday afternoon Bella and I went for a walk at the park. We had just about finished our first lap when a lady with a White Shepherd pup approached us. She said asked how old Bella was, I told her about a year and a half. The lady said that her pup was the same age. She then said that her dog was very dog-shy and asked if we would mind if she would just follow us for a while to try to get her dog comfortable walking near Bella. Of course we were happy to help.

Bella set an awesome example and just kept on walkin' right along with me. She looked back once or twice but I think that was more because of the lady and not the dog. After another lap the lady was able to move up and walk her dog right next to us. She was surprised at how well her dog was behaving. Both dogs behaved beautifully!

It worked out quite well for both of us actually, because the other dog had a positive experience with another dog and Bella had a positive experience with a stranger.

During our walk, the Shepherd Lady kept commenting on how well behaved Bella was, and that she had always loved and admired the "Pitties" but that she didn't feel she could handle one. I commended her for being responsible enough to understand that. "Pitties" are great dogs if they are raised and socialized properly, but like any breed, they are NOT for everyone.

Anyway, Shepherd Lady and I had a good conversation about dogs, training and how they help us be more balanced people. Though the lady was on the right track, I was able to give her a few training tips that might help her and also referred her to Trainer Guy because I'm sure he could really help the few issues she was having with her pup. I hope she goes. LOL Maybe I could get a freebie or a discount for referring her.

After we had finished our laps I left the park with an awesome feeling.It was such a great experience for all of us! Bella behaved beautifully with both the other dog and the strange lady. And we were able to help socialize and educate another dog and owner!

Cuddle Bug

This past Sunday I decided to spend the day resting (recuperating from our birthday party the night before) and catching up on some of my DVR shows. I invited Bella to join me on my bed (since the only DVR in the house is in my bedroom) for some one on one cuddle time.

At first she wanted to play, but once I convinced her that my bed was not the place for that, she settled right down.

I wish I would have had batteries in my camera. She looked so content, with her head on my lap snoring away!

I would have liked to stay like that all day! And apparently so did she, when I tried to take her out for a potty break I had to pick her up to get her off of the bed! She did NOT want to move!

I love my Sadie too but she's just not the cuddling type, neither is Stimpy. But I love my very willing cuddle bug, Bella!

This might work...

When I was browsing on a Rally yahoo group that I belong to, someone linked to a really great dog training website. For fun I decided to take a peek and see what all it had on it. It's quickly turning into my new favorite site!Especially since Bella has been having so much trouble. Her recall is non-existent ever since the "incident" in agility class. I've been trying to figure out a way to start from scratch to re-teach her.

I think this might be the answer to my problems:

http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/Levels/ByLevel/1Level.html

Now if I can just find a volunteer to help me...

Good day

Today Bella and I volunteered to help out at the registration table a the fun match, hosted by my dog club, NABOC. The registration table is a great chance for both of us to meet and greet lots of people and their dogs.

At first Bella was really nervous, with her tail tucked tight, at all of the activity of the set up. But once we got our spot situated at the table she started to settle. At first one of the ladies suggested I tether her to the table but it wasn't a heavy table, if I had and she bolted it could have been ugly. I ended up tieing her leash around my waste so I had my hands free but also so she couldn't bolt if anything did startle her. Actually it's a good thing that I didn't tie her to the table because shortly after I tied her to me, a pup wandered by and hit the trash can next to the table making a scary noise, Bella jumped and tried to run. Other than that though there were no further surprises and she did quite well.

We shared our cashier/registrar duties with another really nice couple from the club. They are great with Bella, as they have a Springer Spaniel who also has fear issues. After we had been sitting there for a while Bella let both of them pet her, especially the husband. Once I felt she was comfortable I even handed the leash over long enough to leave her with them so that I could hit the restroom. They said she watched for me the whole time, but didn't panic even when I was out of site. When I returned I gave her lots of praise and treats for being such a good girl.

We met lots of great people and beautiful dogs today, there was a really good turn out; I'm anxious to hear how much money the club made from the event. There were a wide variety of dogs there everything from the usual Aussies', Labs, Goldens, to some others like a Bull Dog, two other Pitties, a few Rough Collies, a Ridge Back, and even two African Boerbel's, a breed which I'd never met in person before. They are large, beautiful dogs, but not quite as large as I had imagined them, the were neat to see.

Anyway as the day grew on and the registrations became more sporadic I decided to take a break and go ahead and try Bella in the Rally ring. While waiting we ran into a few friends from some of our other classes and chatted a bit, which made the wait time go by quick. Before I knew it we were up. Bella did OK, not great, but OK. I didn't expect too much since I have not done much real training with her lately. We pretty much had the same problems we did last time in the ring. She was really distracted and would rather sniff the ground than pay attention to me, despite the hot dogs in my hands trying to bait her. We slowly and sloppily made our way through the course. The one GREAT thing though was that I didn't have to touch her to make her sit, she sat quickly and reliably each time she needed to, at least I can say that was an improvement over last time. :)

After the rally ring we returned to to the table to help hand out lunch tickets. We hung out for a little while longer and then decided that we had enough for one day so we said our good byes' and headed to the parking lot.

Though we didn't blow anyone away in the ring Bella did really well with her socialization, and I really think that if I keep working on that and get her more comfortable in that type of environment our troubles in the ring will solve themselves. As long as I take my time with her I think that eventually she could earn at least her novice titles.

Overall it was a good day. :)

What's that smell?

I really wish my poor little Bella would get past this extreme fear and shyness she has. She still cowers at anyone new trying to approach her and any loud noise startles the crap out of her literally! Just a bit ago hubby accidentally tripped over a cord and made a loud noise as it knocked something off of my coffee table. Bella jumped out of her skin like usual, but then I could smell it. That familiar but sickening smell... she scared herself so bad that she expressed her anal gland fluid again. This is about the 4th or 5th time she's done this now. My carpet cleaner is out of commission so thankfully it was only her bed that she got, that can be washed.

I have socialized, trained and worked with her since the day I got her, now about 7 months ago.Some days she seems to be improving, but then others she seems as bad as the day I got her home. I just don't know what else I can do to help her.

Progress

Despite the fact that I’m trying to recover from a nasty cold, Bella and I participated in our last Agility class for this session. She did very well, I’m so proud of her.

Luckily for me, since I wasn’t feeling 100%, it was a laid back class; Trainer Guy wasn’t there, so Mrs. Trainer Guy and Trainer Guys’ Step-Dad ran the class instead. It also seemed as though we were missing some people; normally we have to move fairly quickly through the course to be sure that everyone gets enough time but due to the smaller class we didn’t have to worry so much about that one.

The set up was pretty simple, we started with the teeter, went to the A-Frame, Chute (we skipped that one again), two jumps, pause table, three more jumps, tunnel (we skipped until a few times at the end of class- I’ll explain that later), dog walk and then finished with the weave poles.

Bella and I were the third team to go on the course. She is still very afraid on the teeter, as you can see by the complete tail tuck in the teeter video. But believe it or not she showed some great improvement by the end of class (when the camera wasn’t on of course) she was able to walk on and balance herself to lower the teeter without having someone else lower it for her.



Most of the other obstacles are no problem for her. We still skipped the chute; I don’t think she’s ready for that one yet. The first few times through the course we also skipped the tunnel; I didn’t want to hold everyone else up if she decided to hide in the middle again. By the end of class though, I decided to give it a try. With Hubby at one end so she couldn’t back out the wrong way, I sent her through. The first time she paused in the middle as usual but by the second and third time she was slowly crawling through, faster and faster. After everyone started to leave Mrs. Trainer Guy shortened the tunnel for us and took the curve out for Bella to practice that way. She had no problem with that and was going through the shorter straight tunnel very quickly. We definitely made some progress there!

As for the rest of it I’ll let the pictures speak for us. Overall it was a good experience and I look forward to trying it again later this spring when Trainer Guy has the next Agility class.


A Frame


Dog Walk


Pause Table


Weave Poles


We survived!

All things considered...

...last nights Agility class went very well!

We started class by warming up on the jumps. Bella is really improving on her jumping technique and she is also learning to watch me for direction. The jumps were staggered so that you had to move to the right or left to hit each jump; by the end of the night Bella was on a loose leash and watching me as I pointed to the jump I wanted her to take. It was really awesome!

While we worked on the jumps, the others took turns on the rest of the course and Trainer Guy worked with each team individually on the teeter. After about 15 minutes on the jumps, Bella and I were called over for our turn. I took a deep breath try and calm myself, I knew that it was imperative that I remain calm. I walked her up to it, she was a little unsure at first but with a little coaxing I got her on and about half way up. There Trainer Guy instructed me to calmly pet her and talk to her for reassurance. Initially he stood on the opposite side of me to help keep her on the board, but she was more nervous with him there so he backed off and I was on my own. Again I took a deep breath, and relaxed my posture. He told me to ask her to take a step with her front foot, then another and another, each time pausing to calmly praise and pet her. Once she hit the balance point he moved in and slowly lifted the back half of the teeter so that it tilted downward. She tensed up but as soon as it was down I asked her to move forward and she did. She did amazingly well! We repeated again the same way, Trainer Guy said “look she’s nervous, her whole back end is shaking but she is trusting you, she’s moving forward”. This gave me a bit of a confidence boost.

On our third attempt he backed away completely and said that he wanted her to move it on her own. I stayed close and gently held her in place, she did panic a little right before the balance point because she knew that it when she moved so would the board underneath her feet. But again with some calm praise she took that extra step and the board slowly moved to the ground and off she walked! Trainer Guy said that we should end right there on a good note. I took her to the other corner of the yard and played with and praised her. Actually out of all the dogs in the class she was one of the best ones on that particular obstacle. Some of the others went off the sides several times and took many more attempts to get over it. I was very proud of her!

The rest of the class was spent working on some of the items in the rest of the course. We skipped the tunnel, chute and unfortunately the weave poles, as he had the guide wires on them and Bella refused to go through those scary looking things. But she did very well on the Dog Walk, A Frame and jumps. She seemed very comfortable going over each of these.

Next week is “graduation”. Sadly Trainer Guy is going out of state so class will be run by someone else, but I’m looking forward to it. I'm hoping that I can get my grama or DH or someone to go and take some pictures of us. After that Agility class will begin again at the end of June. I’m considering taking it again then to continue to expose Bella to the obstacles and environment. Hopefully next time we will get through all obstacles, including the chute and tunnel, once we can get through those we will be in great shape!!!

Onward and upward!!!

First Rally Trial

Well...um...we survived. It didn't go as well as I would have hoped though. There are some things that I guess I will have to learn as I go, like how early to arrive and how much to practice/warm up before entering the ring. I think two hours was too early, and apparently I practiced what was a fairly easy course, too much. By the time we went into the ring Bella seemed burnt out and unfocused. I panicked when I couldn't get her attention and, without thinking I reached out and touched her. Bad, bad, bad me I know! I do know better than that. I guess the nerves just got me.

Anyway once I had done it the first time I knew we were screwed but I wanted her to finish the course and I did touch her a few more times to get through it. Oh well at least now I know what we need to work on. I'm going to start taking her to the park and Pet Co more and work on her focus there. Also arriving less time prior to our group, and less of a warm up should be better as well.

On the bright side, it was a great socialization experience for her. She seems to be getting much better at meeting new people. Several nice people were able to approach and pet her. We just need more time and lots of practice we'll be ready to try again in a month or two.

Here is the video that my firend took. Definately eye opening, a good example of what not to do! The next one will be better!

Moving On

As we drove to class the butterflies in my stomach started fluttering. I practiced a few breathing exercises to get them under control. I did feel better by the time I got there. Also, to my great relief when I walked up I noticed that the only obstacle which required letting go of the leash was the tunnel. I had decided prior to class that, after the previous nights poor recall performance, I was not comfortable letting go of Bella’s leash. I didn’t want her to make a habit of taking off running around the yard during classes.

The set up last night worked pretty well. There were four stations, the first was a series of 7 different jumps, the second station was the weave poles, the third the Dog Walk (the new obstacle), the final station was a series which included the pause table, A frame and tunnel. Trainer guy broke the class up into small groups and sent each group to a different station.

Bella and I were sent over to the jumps with another man who had two Aussies there that he was working. Despite the fact the jump is what actually “attacked” Bella she doesn’t seem to mind the jumps. She went over them without any major problems. She did get a little frightened when she knocked a bar down and it made noise behind her but she recovered quickly and we moved on.

After about 10-15 minutes we rotated stations, the next one we got to do was the dog walk. Bella balked just a little at first but after a bit of coaxing and a few bits of steak (I decided to up the ante with the treats a bit and switched from the usual hot dog s to steak) she made it up and over with relative ease. It was funny because she would go over it just fine a couple of times and then all of the sudden she would stop and have a momentary panic like “wait what the heck am I doing!?” but each time I calmly but firmly coaxed her on and by the end you could tell her comfort level was increasing because she started walking a little taller (instead of creeping in a half crouched position) and a little faster.

The third station had the dreaded tunnel. I told Trainer Guy how I felt about letting her go but he said that he didn’t think she would run; instead he thought she would go into the tunnel and hide since that’s what she did the night of the “incident” the tunnel became her safe place for a few moments. He asked me to try it just once and he would help me catch her as she came out so she didn’t get loose. I took a few steps back and a deep breath and sent her through. Just as he predicted, half way in she froze and didn’t want to come out. It took a few minutes of calling and coaxing before she crawled out the way she went in. He laughed said “yep that’s what I thought” he told me not to worry about it, we would have to work on it and it will take some time but she will come around. The rest of that station went well though, she has the idea of the pause table and the A frame. She did both like a pro.

The last station we were sent to was the weave poles. I can definitely see some improvement on these with her. Her speed is slowly increasing and she needs less guidance from the leash as she maneuvers through them. It’s pretty cool to watch. Now and again she would get jumpy at the noises of the other dogs running the courses around us but again I calmly but firmly encouraged her on and each time she recovered fairly quickly. I think by the end of class her tail had un-tucked itself and I saw a hint of the “pittie smile” on her face again.

Before we left I got a few words of encouragement and tips from Trainer Guy, for this weekend. He said we should do just fine. I just need to not be nervous, take my time and do the signs. He asked that I call or email to let him know how it goes.

Overall I’m very pleased with how things went last night. We both gained back some of the confidence lost at the last class. I have hope again that we will be able to recover and move past it. Maybe next year we will even be ready for the Agility ring!