Last Few Days

Last weekend me and the whole family went to a cabin we've been to many times before. We were hoping to get some sun and mild weather but spring in Iceland has been aborted so we got rain, lots of wind and cold weather.

In general it was a good excuse to be lazy. I did lay one track for her and it was excellent, except I jumped the gun a bit and forgot to give her plenty enough time to pee before putting the harness on. Once the harness was on she was just running around trying to find the start of the scent and when she found it she got her moment of zen and decided to pee on it. Pure handler mistake there!

I really need to start working on teaching her to mark objects when tracking. I am just torn between whether to teach her to  pick it up -which I just recently knew was allowed- or sit/lay down. I had started teaching her to sit down when doing the peppermint detection training but haven't gone very far with it as I had to throw my idea of using balls into the ocean. She's not toy driven. at. all. It had turned into her seeing the ball go down, then instead of trying to get the ball and sniff where the scent was she just stood back and stared at me, except she sometimes sat down because she knew that had something to do with it. Stalemate!



On Monday I crashed something awful, I barely got out of bed without getting ridiculously dizzy and whatnot. It took me two more days to snap out of it and yesterday I was next to normal, just in time to watch an Obedience competition. It offered Bronze grading and Obedience I. I am aiming to do a tracking test next fall and have been considering if I should give the Bronze obedience test a try. I spoke to a trainer there (and a Border Terrier owner!) and she was encouraging me to give it a go.
What cripples me the most is the fear of Bella running away from me during testing. Memories of me chasing her around the agility arena still haunt me. Since I'm on maternity leave this summer that it's an excellent opportunity for me to train her in areas with distractions and see where it gets us. I know she can do this, we just need to work hard.

Even Pirate Dogs Have Weaknesses

Winter continues here in Iceland and the snow has returned. I am continuously sick and it is getting more than a little annoying. During the snow free days this week with perfect weather and me doing alright I had planned on going out for the first bike ride with Bella this year. To my disappointment, the tyre tube exploded and I had no extras. Argh!


Bella is getting the hang of the hind leg pivoting to the point that she has offered the behaviour a few times on her own with no prompting and no object on the floor. She is offering it pretty consistently with a book although she uses it less and less. It is rewarding seeing the work pay off.


At home, Bella is usually calm and quiet. There is however one or two actions here that really get her riled up, I was playing around with the camera around one of the transitions tonight. Below is a picture of Bella right outside the kitchen, watching what is going on there in the hope of getting something edible thrown at her.

Less than a minute later, the signs of distress are clear and she has moved to the living rooms, what's going on Bella...?

"I don't feel so good right now, what do you want with me?"

....

Ding! Ding! Ding! My fiancé cooking with the frying pan. Without a fail, it makes Bella go into hiding. I think it must be the noise or smell that makes her so upset. There was a time where I would try to coax her into being nearby but she still felt really bad so now I just leave her be. She comes back as soon as we stop using it and start eating. She does the same as soon as we start cutting onion. That one I understand well enough.

Finally, one picture of me, my horse and stepdaughter who participated in a costume competition. We found this ridiculously big sword that we just had to buy and she rode like a true skeleton knight.

Obedience Test

Last Thursday marked the final Clicker-Obedience class. Me and Bella were unfortunate enough to miss three out of six, due to work, Berlin and me being sick. The last class was a series of a few tests and I was doubtful I should show up. I knew I wasn't fully prepared and wouldn't pass all of the tests but this is just for fun so I wasn't going to bail out with a bad excuse.

Bella was really quite good. We passed most of the tests and it was fun. Perhaps the biggest test we are starting to pass most of the time now is the "let's not bark at other dogs all the time if they come close" test. It wasn't a part of this little trial except in the sense that Bella's attention is on me rather than the other scary dogs.

It was a fun night and a nice pressure to do some small exercises as a part of a test to create a better motivation to pass. I'm very pleased with the course and am going to continue with most of the exercises at home. I also want to finish the hind end awareness exercise. I think that's one exercise that will be very useful if we master it. I am getting there slowly, I have been stuck with getting her to realise what the hell she is supposed to do while on the box but during the test she has a small breakthrough and I am working on continuing from there now.

In other news, my horse is coming tomorrow! Yes, I have a horse and he has now had over a year and a half off due to my pregnancy. I am very excited by this, it will be very interesting to see how Bella reacts to him. I probably should be more worried about how my horse reacts to her, he learnt a few years ago how to scare and beat up dogs after striking an ankle biting Border Collie. For a while I was certain he must have broken the dog's jaw, the noise was awful and the dog ran away like lightning. After I tracked it down there was some blood but he was unbroken. The dog didn't go near my horse after that. Smart Border Collie because after that my horse chased all the dogs that were near. The nice Border Collie cross included that wouldn't harm or harass anyone.
It's a good thing Bella is not a herding dog and she is not the type to harass and attempt to chase someone who is much bigger and heavier than she is. I think the two of them might get along. One thing is for sure, I will find out soon enough!

Sick Sick Sick

My household has been down with all kinds of pests since last Wednesday. I thought I was getting better but no, I had to stay at home from work today due to a really bad sore throat that cropped up yesterday. My son had it the worst, his sore throat turned into an infection and on top of that infection he got an ear infection.

I feel really bad for Bella. She's being a good sport but now she's starting to need her exercise. Yesterday I used the opportunity while giftwrapping two Christmas presents (I'm early this year!) and made her help me clean up in the living room. She's actually really good at it. I really ought to find out how to make her drop items into a container. I confess I haven't done it before because I can't decide what kind of a container I want to use for the training. Maybe it's an excuse to be lazy?

On Thursday we missed Obedience class and today we will miss Agility. I'm gutted! I really looked forward to both.

I have a big change coming up at work this month. I have been asked to be in the school unit from December until March to begin with. That means I will drop the shifts during that timeframe. Weekends off and more family friendly work hours.

On Top. Next?

Me and Bella are making progress with our rear end awareness program. As the photo below shows, she is now able to stand on the box and stay. I need to do a bit more refining to make her stay long enough to be able to focus on pivoting but so far so good. It's all going according to plan and even quicker than I expected or hoped for. 



 Here's another photo, this time to display how colour coordinated we are as a family. Bella matches our floor perfectly! She's performing a very devoted LIE-STAY there. She's also able to SIT-STAY a bit now without lying down. Things are going really well now, I also feel that a big part of it is that I am more motivated and commited to the training than I have been for a long time. 

Clicker Obedience

Me and Bella started our new dog training class tonight. There are four other dogs taking this class, a Pomeranian, Labrador, Cavalier and a Schnauzer.

I am really proud of my dog, she was so well behaved coming into this class. After the initial excitement which was very mellow for her she didn't make a sound and was more than eager to do tricks for clicks (and treats). I did have to keep her attention almost continuously so she wouldn't start trying to pull at the leash and go for the other dogs (mainly the Pomeranian who incidentally is the smallest dog). I tend to keep her with me by by keeping on the move, walking in small circles or back and forth. It works.

The more I do with her and for her the better I see how much she enjoys working. The clicker was no problem for her tonight. I'm the one who has to stay more focused, one time I had given her the food before I realised I hadn't clicked so my brain told me to click. Argh! Well, more food for Bella at least.

Tonight was an intro into heel position training and staying. The heel position training looks very promising. Waiting is a bit of a muddle at the moment but I think the clicker can help me this time around. During agility when I started training STAY again after avoiding it for a while, Bella started lying down if I say the command. Normally I wouldn't mind but when one agility obstacle can be to SIT-STAY or LIE-STAY it's rather awkward if all she ever does is lie. That's something I need to break down.

Like a proper school, me and Bella now have homework. I'm enthusastic about it. I see a lot of potential in my dog. Next up is the dog walk on Saturday and then Agility on Sunday. Tomorrow is Friday and I've got the weekend off, whoopee!