Good neighbor? We say scary neighbor.

So Lola and I attended The Canine Good Neighbor workshop today and Lola did not pass the evaluation given at the end of class. I'd almost like to say that she failed for biting the instructor and then pooping on the floor (that's cause I'm all about GOING DOWN IN A BIG WAY) but no, she suddenly developed a weird shyness around the evaluator and wouldn't let the lady brush her.
Normally I would question if maybe she has given signs of shyness in the past that I might have missed, but everyone that knows her is very surprised. She excelled in the obedience sections and failed the social sections.
Was it the training facility that we were in? Was it the evaluator herself? I don't know. I also don't think that it bothers me too much anyway. Lola has a personality and I love her for showing it. I hate it when parents try to force their kids to sit on Santa's lap (he's an old freaky bearded man!) so how can I be upset that she didn't want a stranger brushing her for no good reason?

She also failed the 'being alone with a stranger' test and that one I'm actually all distraught about. Don't get me wrong, I'm not distraught because she didn't want to be alone in a room with someone she doesn't know holding her leash for 3 minutes. I'm actually torn because I don't really want to teach her that this situation is ok. Had she just dealt with it on her own instead of barking twice, I would never have to worry about it. But now, if I want to get her certified, I actually have to condition her that leaving me to be with a stranger is a good thing. I don't know if I want to do that.
"Lola, go sit on Santa's lap and then take candy from a stranger! Bad girl, get away from mommy!"

DANGER DANGER. I've decided that is what she must have meant by barking twice and in my opinion, that is being the best neighbor of all.

Dog Day Afternoon

It's been too long since my last entry but I am blaming it on real life as opposed to laziness. I had absolutely no time for the dogs this week and I feel guilty about it.
But boy did I make it up for it today. We didn't work our minds but we destroyed our bodies by taking two, not one, big hikes.



First we went on a two hour hike by the conservation area and I shouldn't say that we didn't work our minds exactly as the number of people presented me with quite a few training opportunities. I had the dogs sit and stay until I released them whenever people on bikes, rollerblades, or joggers went by. We also worked on recall like we always do and Lola actually had to go on leash for a little bit because she lollygaggied (get it?) her way back to me. She didn't like that horrible punishment and returned quickly when called for the rest of the day.



But for the most part they ran and ran and ran...




Later, I took the dogs to play with their friends, Ripley and Abby and Owen, the terriers. Before they had even had a chance to fully nap from the morning's activities, they found themselves on a 3 KM excursion in Darlington Park. It was so much fun that we are going to do that as much as possible for the rest of the summer.
At first I worried that JC might have a problem with Ripley as both boys are intact. A few hackles went up, tails were raised, growls were heard, but they are both too easy going and the thought of running and playing was more overpowering to them than having to settle their differences with a real fight. So like a couple of teenage boys on a football field they acted like real jocks the rest of the walk, being so competitive with their running bursts of speed and daring each other to go down embankments, that we had to laugh at their true border collie nature. As usual, Lola hung back from the dog pack insanity and did her own thing enjoying the day in her own nerdy way.
Shona took lots of pictures ...

the pack (minus Lola)




the boys



the borders




As I sit here typing, both dogs are P A S S E D O U T and I couldn't feel less guilty about it.

Canine Good Neighbor week

Next Sunday Lola will be taking the Canine Good neighbor course so this is what we'll be working on for most of the week.
I started tonight by taking her to a fairly busy grocery store where she sat nicely on the sidewalk while people walked by with carts and bags and baby strollers. Eventually I'd like her to get certified to be a therapy dog so that is something we will always be working towards as well.
I just need to get my hands on a wheelchair and maybe even an old person.

The Canadian Canine Good Neighbour Test™ must take place in a busy public area such as a shopping mall, hotel or community centre lobby, NOT a regular dog training hall. Vaccination certificate, license, grooming tool, plastic bag and leash with a plain buckle collar are required for this test. A dog straining on its lead, or touching anyone with teeth or feet is unacceptable, and therefore a failure.





• Accepting a friendly stranger: a key in good neighbour relations with adults and children. Owner shakes hand with a friendly stranger
• Patiently sitting for petting: a test for shyness and resentment
• Appearance & grooming: owner's care & sense of responsibility show in how he keeps his dog
• Out for a walk: illustrates handler's control of the dog
• Walking through a crowd: shows that the dog moves around in a crowd without being unduly distressed and is under handler control
• Commands: sit, down, stay, come: this illustrates that the dog has been trained and responds well to its handler/owner
• Praise/interactions: shows the dog's relationship with its owner and that it can be calmed down easily
• Reaction to passing dogs: this test demonstrates that the dog behaves politely around other dogs
• Distractions: shows that the dog is confident when faced with common distractions
  
• Supervised isolation: this test shows that the dog can be left with someone other than
  its usual handler & will maintain its training & good manner

Cowboys are totally cool

Today was an amazing dog day. Spent the day with Elvin Kopp from That'll Do Ranch http://www.thatlldoranch.com/ learning some really strong foundations that are useful for all working dogs, not just stockdogs.
This man (Rancher?Cowboy??) is such a down to earth, confident, natural dog person that I was drawn to him immediately. He spoke about eliminating mechanical training and challenging our dogs and the human stamp that people have put on them as pets. Of course that's everything my fellow canine aficionados and I discuss all the time, so I nodded wisely during this lecture and took lots of notes.



We got to work with him twice in between talks. The first time, in the enclosure with no sheep was all about the basic relationship between dog and handler. How to properly give corrections that match the undesired behavior, not applying too much pressure and causing submissive behavior but also how to properly follow through with correction when your dog challenges you. JC was focused and intent on working as usual, but he did provide me with ample opportunity to correct him which I was able to do easily with as little as a soft 'hey'. I was especially proud of him as he seemed to be one of the better behaved dogs while working in the training enclosure. Of course when tied to the fence he was teh only dog that whined the entire time until I had to get up and bring him back to my chair to sit with me so, it all balanced out in the end.



Because I was only attending the first day of the three day clinic, Elvin wanted to work my dog on sheep before ending the session. That was a real learning experience for me. I felt for the first time like I was able to control the situation between dog and sheep and keep it balanced and even more so, control my relationship with my dog while we are both working. I used gentle but firm voice corrections to bend JC out further when he got too close to the stock and released pressure by stepping away from him when he did bend out. We finished by having JC come to me rather than go to the sheep when I released him from a lie down command. THAT took more than a couple of tries.

One of the suggestions Elvin made about training was to record daily what you have accomplished and what you plan to work on next; approaching each training session knowing where you are and what you want to do.
I hope that's what I'm doing.

Body language

Great training session with our coaches last night! It was nice to get some one on one time as opposed to always being in a class. We are finally done with the smelly barn! Outdoor summer sessions here we come!


Here Lola is running past the yellow jump because I was turning my shoulder inwards too soon.





After figuring out how to make her run to the yellow jump and a lot of sticking my chest out, we finally got it!

Paying attention

When I watched the videos from our last herding session, one of the things that I noticed about myself was how aggressive I was actually being. My body language and my voice were very overpowering when there was little need for that. I guess I'm used to working a dog like Lola after so many months and JC is just so much more , well, biddable. So today I paid particular attention to that and used a softer tone in my voice and much less hand signals (such as pointing like an angry schoolteacher). We had a great lesson and worked mostly our 'Lie down' and 'Walk up' commands. He's good with the lie down but doesn't seem to understand yet what I want from him when I ask him to walk up. He wants to walk towards me and leaves his sheep to do so. By the end of our lesson he actually walked the sheep to me, so I think he'll get it by next week. I stopped making eye contact with him and that seemed to help.


Friday we're attending an all day clinic with Elvin Kopp and we are very much looking forward to that.

Some of Elvin's accomplishments are:

• World Sheep Dog champion 1987
• Five time “Alberta Open International” winner
• Five times A.S.D.A. “Cow Dog and Sheep Dog of the Year” in succession
• “National Nursery Cow Dog” champion
• Won many other competitions too numerous to mention
• Trained 13 dogs to win major open competitions in both sheep and cattle
• Judged all the biggest sheep dog competitions in North America
• Instructs Stock Dog training seminars in North America and has taught over 5000 handler dog combinations through his clinics

Last night, Lola had a great agility training session. We ran some simple courses and again, as usual, our biggest challenge is me.
This time I paid attention to my cheerleading; there's no need to call her a good girl after every obstacle, and how much I actually call out her name. Lola, Lola, Lola. Totally not necessary and actually hinders our run as she turns to look at me each time and we both lose focus.





My dogs are doing great. I can only improve. Right?

A gorgeous day off

It's a gorgeous day today and I wouldn't feel right if I wasn't taking advantage of it.

We worked on weaves this morning in the backyard but I was frustrated because JC kept howling in the house so I finally had to put him in his cage and I could hear him barking the entire time. I want to have more one on one time with Lola but it's very difficult.

I have no idea what Andrea will think of Lola's weaves but I'm going to assume that I'm doing something wrong. That's usually a safe bet.




an afternoon hike is good for the soul.

Happy Easter!

Tried to get her to hold the basket in her mouth but she wouldn't do it. That might have to be the next trick we work on.

New Blog!

Ok I'm not much of a blogger or journal keeper and I get bored easily so lets see how long I can actually keep this up.
As I'm typing this the dogs are harassing me to play with them. This is after they took an hour long hike this afternoon, went on separate bike rides tonight, Lola worked on weaving 6 poles and then I took them for a second long walk in the park and 2 crazy games of far throwing, high flying disc.
Yes, these dogs are driving me crazy and yes it's not too far of a drive.

the dogs:
Lola


































and JohnnyCash: