Our Second Rally Trial

This past weekend, Ptera and I attended our second UKC rally trial. This trial had one rally trial per day and one obedience trial per day, so we had two chances at a Level 2 rally Q.

Pretty pretty ribbons

Ptera pretty much just rocks, and despite a few little bobbles, we pulled off two Qs, two first places, and her United Rally Obedience Level 2 title. Two trials, two titles. Apparently that is how we roll. Also, apparently we just really like the number 97, as that was our score both times.

Paleoterrorist No Fly List URO2

We also spur-of-the-moment did a day-of entry in Novice Obedience, which we have never ever practiced for. I haven't read the rule book, and wasn't actually 100% sure what was required when we went in the ring. Not surprisingly, we did not Q, but what was surprising was how well we did do, despite all of this.

Ptera had never done a Stand for Exam until about thirty minutes before we went in the ring, and both days (because I am a glutton for punishment who thought entering both days was an excellent idea) she was rock solid in it, with zero deductions.

Day two went even better than day one. Had she not come up on her Honor Down about ten seconds before the end, we'd have qualified by the skin on our teeth. Downs are our nemesis, and always have been.

Such pretty downs

What this trial showed us is all of the places we are doing really well already, and all of the things we should be working on before our next trial. Top of the list, getting a solid down stay. I would also like to improve the picture of our heeling when moving, as it is easy for me to lose her between stops, turns, etc, both in Obedience and Rally. I need to step back and reward for the picture I want, not just the general idea.

We'll also be working on our Hold in case we decide to try for Open obedience sometime in the future (and for future adorable photos of her holding things).

I have to say I am really enjoying this UKC journey we are on. I don't know if we'll stick with obedience and rally long term, or if this will just be something we do for a little while. For now, at least, we are having fun.

Paleoterrorist No Fly List RATI MBDX FMX TKA URO1

Ptera and I attended our first Rally Obedience trial this past weekend. It was somewhat spur of the moment, as a friend shared the event on Tuesday and I realized they had day-of entries available. It was a UKC trial, which is not something I had considered really, but UKC allows you to get a Temporary Listing number and use that to enter shows, so I sent them $20 and got a TL texted to my phone and away we went.

Bling

No use being secretive or trying to build up suspense, since this photo will be the first thing you see.

Basically, Ptera blew me away. I went to this trial with the expectation that we may or may not Q, but that it would show us where the holes in our training are and what we need to work on for next time. I only even planned on going up on Saturday for the two trials, assuming we wouldn't do well enough that I would want to come back Sunday.

Happy dog!

This is the part where people tell me to trust my dog and our training a little more!

We entered Rally Obedience 1 A for both the morning and afternoon trials on Saturday. Since I have never handled a dog to a Rally or Obedience title of any kind, we are in the A class. B class is for handlers with experience. In UKC, there are three levels of difficulty, 1, 2, and 3. Once you have three qualifying scores in a level, you can move up to the next and you earn a title. Once you earn three Qs in level 3, you get new titles by getting points/double Qs, some complicated formula that I haven't looked at much. In Rally, the score is out of 100, with 100 being a perfect score, and 70 being the minimum passing score.

Ptera is fabulous, and our morning run earned us a 99, followed by a perfect 100 that afternoon! We finished up our URO1 title the following morning (because we had to go back for the second day after that first day!) with a 97. And then rocked her first Rally 2 run with another 97.

I love her smug little "yeah, so?" look here

We did take first place in our class each time, so came home with four Qualifying ribbons and four First place ribbons. The club sadly did not have any New Title ribbons (I think I heard someone say they had run out and would get some eventually, so hopefully at the next trial), but I think we got plenty of swag.

As the final topper to the weekend, while we missed out on High in Trial over the weekend, we did get Highest Aggregate. Which means of the dogs entered in all four trials over the weekend, we had the highest accumulative score. For this, we got a super nifty UKC HIT bracelet that is being added to our ribbon wall!

Wearing her Highest Aggregate prize 

And, even bigger than the ribbons and the scores and the titles, we had a great time. I think Ptera enjoyed herself, and I know I did. This UKC trial was the perfect atmosphere to debut in Rally. I had a friend there who helped even beforehand with all of my questions, and who videoed our runs all weekend (even after she was done running her own dogs for the day). The other competitors were super nice and welcoming, and the judges were great. The feedback about where we lost the points we lost was great, and will help us as we continue with our training. This club puts on three trials a year, with the next one in October, and I am already planning on going to the next one if I can swing it at all.

New title for the tiny dog!

This weekend also represented a long term goal of mine, which was to put an obedience title on a flyball dog. I know there are plenty of flyball dogs out there who compete in all kinds of different sports, including obedience and rally, but so many people outside of flyball look at our amped up dogs and say we have no control, that flyball dogs don't know how to think, etc. When you have a Jack Russell, people make even more comments about lack of control and total craziness. Well, my flyball Jack Russell just earned a Rally title her first weekend out, and earned it in style.

Self Portrait... Kind of (and a how-to)

I find that I have a ton of pictures of my dogs, and very few pictures of me with my dogs. This comes a lot, I think, from the fact that I live alone and so am always the one with the camera.

The other day, I decided to try out using the self timer feature on my camera. I've pretty much never messed with it before. Of course, I forgot my tripod, which made for a very limited use of the timer.

This picture was snapped while I was setting up and focusing the camera, and figuring out how to put it into self timer mode.

A little nervous laying down on brick with me so far away

I was working on putting Koira in a down stay while I set up the camera. This gave me something to focus the camera on as well as eliminating my need to get both myself and my dog into position quickly. Luckily, practicing Rally-O moves such as down and walk around really helped Koira understand that she was supposed to stay in position even as I was moving around.

Here was our first try with me in the picture.

"Hi, Mom!"

At the time, I didn't like that she was looking up at me. Looking at the picture now, though, I adore it. In any case, I decided the next time to try tossing a treat towards the camera to see if I could get Koira to look in that direction.

Down stay? What down stay?

And apparently we need to proof our down stays a little more around food... Regardless, while she did stand up, she stayed with me rather than running off after the treat. I even ended up liking the final picture well enough, even if it wasn't my goal.

One last time, I put Koira in a down stay. (I released her from her stay between every one of these shots, by the way, and showered her with cookies for being awesome.) I set up the camera, dashed towards Koira and stepped into position over her. Then I reminded her to stay, tossed a few cookies toward the camera, got them a bit off center because I can't throw, and just let the camera snap the picture.

There is a cookie over there, and I would like to go grab it

The sun even peaked out for this last picture, after it had been hazy and overcast all day. I'm not actually sure if it was high up cloud cover, or if it was smoke drifting up from the fires to the south. Either way, the haze actually made for awesome lighting for photos, which I was loving.

Want to try this yourself? Some how-to instructions and tips are below!

I think it is a great pose for someone who doesn't really want to be in the picture, but wants a photo of themselves with their dog. Or even just a different kind of photo with your dog, even if you aren't camera shy. If you are doing it alone, like I was, make sure your camera has a self timer setting. Mine gives me the option of a multiple exposure self timer where it snaps 6 consecutive pictures rather than a single photo, which I chose to give me a better chance of capturing the right facial expressions. 

If your dog has a solid down-stay, it will be much easier to do this. Put your dog in a down stay where you want the final photo to be taken. I went to a small rose garden in a local park (the same one with the train engine) and chose a place where we would have rose bushes to the sides and behind us, without any distracting people or cars in the background. Ideally, it will be a place your dog is comfortable laying down in- not on gravel, hot pavement, or cold rocks. Koira is used to laying down on brick or cement, but you might chose a grassy place if your dog is reluctant to lay down or stay.

With the dog in a down-stay, set up the camera and focus. I ended up using a small piece of bark to prop the front of the camera up a little bit to get a better framing. A small tripod like a GorillaPod would work well too, probably. Once the camera is in self timer mode, and focused, hit the shutter button, get up, dash over to your dog, and take your position either standing over your dog (like I am in the above photos) or to the side of your dog. Either way would look nice, I think, and it can take a good amount of training for most dogs to be okay with being stood over like this if you haven't previously worked that skill.

I recommend trying this a few times, releasing and rewarding the dog in between each session. You will get various positions and expressions, or even get something like the sun finally peaking out like I did in my last set. 

*Dog posing tip- if possible, get a photo of your dog looking up at you as well as one with your dog looking toward the camera. I ended up loving both of those photos, and they give it a very different feel.

*Human posing tip- don't lock your knees backward! Stand with your knees slightly bent to prevent your legs from looking strange or your pants from bunching weirdly. Stand solidly on both feet so you look balanced.

After taking these photos, I did edit them using Lightroom. Various edits can do a lot to change the quality and feel of a final photo, so make sure you spend time editing as well as photographing if you are wanting the best possible end result. 

Good luck! If you try this, I would LOVE to see your results!

*Would anyone be interested in a technical post about editing photos? I could do one with some of my favorite before and afters, as well as share some of my favorite Lightroom presets to use for dog photos.

2013 Breed Challenge: Puli Obedience

I went up to the Rose City Classic dog show in Portland, OR on Friday. I have never been before and really wanted to go, and it was the only day off I had during the show. I thought the biggest dog show cluster in the PNW would be a good place to get started on my 2013 breed photography challenge.

I took a lot of pictures at the show, though no where near as many as I should have. Here is my favorite set of photos. This Puli and their owner were warming up outside the obedience ring and I snapped off a few photos of their warm up routine.

Smile!

Down

Come front

I am also trying out Lightroom 4 for the first time. I resist change a lot, even when I know change is good. So, I am forcing myself to use Lightroom by simply shooting only in RAW, because then, I have to use either Lightroom or Photoshop to edit the pictures, I don't have any other choice! I did do a bit of a cheat, though, and downloaded some free presets from the web. For the most part, I am using the presets to edit with, and then tweaking them a bit here and there to get the look I want. I am waiting eagerly for the Lightroom 4 book I put a hold on at the library to become available, so that I can hopefully step forward and master this program!

If you are doing the 2013 Breed Photography Challenge, how is the challenge going for you? Have you taken any good pictures of unique breeds yet? Are you planning to take any trips to some dog shows to get in those funky never-see-around-town breeds?

Koira earned her CGC!

I had the day off from work today and took the time to go support a friend of mine at the local dog show. It was her first ever time competing in Novice Obedience with her dog Maverick, who is an 11 year old Belgian Tervuren and was retired last fall from our flyball team. 

We spent a LONG time waiting around, but took the opportunity to walk around to see all the booths. I watched the Ibizans show and saw Wilbur again. (He was the adorable wire Ibizan puppy I spent so much time taking pictures of last month at the show.)

Koira thought the dog show was boring. But, I enjoyed the shopping around at the booths. Finally, after hours of waiting and a lunch break for the judge, Mav got his turn in the ring. And together they pulled off a Q and third place for the day. I was very impressed and very proud. We have been practicing a ton after flyball class every week for just this day. Very proud of the Mavvy boy.

I also decided I should go ahead and finally enter Koira for her CGC. They offered it in the afternoon after Best of Show (won by the little Maltese). Koira was on her super best behavior, right up until we entered the ring. Unfortunately the ring chosen for the CGC testing was the same one all the groups had shown in as well as Best of Show, which meant that there was bait (treats, cookies, awesome bits of food) all over. Not in the ring, they swept it before we went in, but all along the edges. And Koira wanted every single little bit of it.

In the end, we did pass. The greeting from the evaluator went just fine, as did the brushing, ear touch, and foot pick up.Then the disaster started when we did the "out for a walk" part of the exercise, because Koira had spotted the cookies galore on just the other side of the ring gates, and she WANTED THEM. When I say cookies, I mean there were pieces over there from thumbnail size on up to the size of my thumb. I redirected Koira about three times and managed to complete the exercise, though certainly not in the best graces. The through the crowd was just as bad, done in the same location, and Koira wanted nothing more than to go snag those treats over there.

The sit, down, stay, and recall all went well. The recall wasn't as nice as I normally see, I think the long line attached to her made her hesitate a little. The walk by greet a stranger with a dog went smoothly, mostly because Koira had spotted a huge (as in the size of my cell phone) piece of what looked like dried lamb lung on the other side of the ring, straight past the person and dog. So she zeroed in on that, waited for me to greet the person without breaking concentration on that treat, then made a beeline for it straight past the distraction person who had a walker and was banging metal bowls together. Not even an eye flicker. 

When I left her with a stranger (the strangest part of the test to me, because seriously, when am I ever going to leave my dog with someone we don't know?), she spent the time cleaning up the ample supply of treats fallen below the table they stood next to, and only noticed I was gone when I was within about three feet of returning to her. 

The evaluator passed us. She saw the huge pieces of bait that Koira was going for, and while she said we technically had a tight leash too often, she thought the distraction of the bait left over from conformation was more than should be expected for the CGC, especially since we did really well on the other parts of it. I think she also had seen Koira doing perfect heeling up and down outside of the ring while we waited for our turn. 

So, we passed. Not the way I wanted to do it, really, but we passed. I'm a good bit more worried about what will happen when we enter the obedience or rally ring for the first time. But, hopefully there won't be treats scattered all over the floor in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. And we will now be working on walking past such distractions. 

Some obedience work

On Sunday I had the day off from work, so I decided it was a great day to put together my indoor dog therapy pool that I had been planning for a while. (For details, check out my blog post about it at Crazy Dog Projects, my new blog.)

Koira in her new indoor swimming pool

I went to Home Depot to pick up the materials, and used it as an opportunity to do some training with Koira. Home Depot has a policy of allowing leashed dogs in the store. We saw two other dogs in the time that we were there, along with many, many people, children, and shopping carts and trollies of all sizes and shapes.

I spent some time just getting Koira to give me some of her attention, just by rewarding her when she did look at me. Once she was giving me her attention readily, we did some heeling practice up and down the aisle, weaving in and out and around people and objects. We also practiced halts, fronts, finishes, and both sit-walk-arounds and down-walk-arounds. No stay practice because I only had my four foot leash with me and want to make sure to follow the on-leash rule to the letter. Next time I'll bring my 10 foot long line and do some stay practice on the less busy aisles.

Koira was a bit afraid of the large carts used for hauling lumber around, so I did some treating on the cart until she was comfortable enough to even ride on it for a while. We got some strange looks from people, but most of the comments were about how adorable she was.


Koira riding on the shopping cart. (I was told a dog in a cart counts as being on leash)


Overall, Koira did great with her obedience practice. She was paying good attention to me (though I did have treats along) and seemed happy and eager to work, even with all the distractions of being in a new, different, and busy place.

How do you know?

So, question for all of you who compete with your dogs in any sport: how do you decide if you are ready to enter the ring?

After the awesome performance Koira gave me with the Rally course at the fun run, I am debating if it would be worth our time to enter in Novice rally at the Rose City Classic, which is in mid January. If I did, I would only do Sunday (I work the other days it is happening).

Reasons not to:
With a $29 entry fee, parking fees, and gas to get there (two hour drive), it wouldn't exactly be a cheap day.
Koira is no where near perfect with any of her exercises, except in the giving me 100% attention and focus; her fronts are sometimes a bit far away, her butt swings out to the side when we halt (she has no automatic sit, but in Rally, I can tell her to sit), occasionally she forges or lags a bit on the heel
Rose City is a huge show, with a ton of stuff happening. It might easily be overwhelming to me or my dog, especially for our first time in the ring.

Reasons to:
It would be a great chance to see what we need to work on to be show ready. The fun match was supposed to do that, and did a little bit, but with no major issues in the ring, it seems more that it showed we might be ready instead of we need a ton more work.
If I go into it expecting mistakes, but just working with my dog to have fun, it could be a really fun time. I don't need titles to have fun with my dog.
The next show after that is an additional month away, and only a dollar cheaper on entry fees. If we do RCC and do good, we could then enter the next show. If we don't do RCC, we would have another month of practicing before going into the ring.
I don't think the environment, as insane as it might be, can possibly be more stimulating to Koira than a flyball tournament- it is bound to be quieter, at the very least.

But, I need to decide soon. The show is soon, which means the closing date is a week away. So- what would you do? How do you decide if your dog is ready for the ring? Is it totally insane to try an actual rally competition after only three months of regular training?

On the first day after Christmas

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. We had some fun, especially Koira, who loves ripping open packages. 

Today, the Gym where we have flyball practice was hosting an obedience/rally fun match. Along with two others from flyball, I decided to take my dogs and try it out.

I did a Beginner Novice run with Pallo. He had no brain. I pretty much just had to reward him for giving me attention and not worry about anything other than that. He has a much better Stand for Exam than Sit for Exam, and a better Sit-stay and Down-stay if I don't walk around the edges of the ring during it. I think Beginner Novice is not for us, and that we need to do a lot of work on heeling and attention before we even try venturing into an actual competition ring.

Koira was a whole different story. Originally I was just going to do a single Rally run with her, but ended up doing the Beginner Novice for fun first. She did pretty good, a bit jumpy starting out on the heeling. Her biggest issue was with the stays, which didn't have at all. 

Rally came around and was a blast! I walked the course twice, then me and Koira were the third pair into the ring. The only real issues we had with anything was the left turn to slow pace, which was pretty close together. Koira seemed to think that the combination of turning then slowing down meant I wanted her to heel on the right instead of the left. The "judge" for Rally told us at the end of the run that we would have gotten a very high score for the run.

Of course, I was holding treats in my hand... But, I gave in to the temptation and did a second run through of the Rally course, this time with no treats in my hand (though they were in my pocket). Koira did just about the same, maybe a little farther away on her fronts in the 1-2-3 steps back, call front, but really good with everything else. She did have the same issue with the left turn to slow pace change though, wanting to switch over to the right side, so I'll have to figure out what I'm doing to cause that.

The long and short of it is, though, that I think I am ready to try out a real Rally trial with her. The next one in the area is at the Rose City Classic in Portland, which is happening in late January and closes on the 4th, so I'll have to make a decision soon.

Flyball and obedience

Every time I hear people say flyball dogs are out of control, it makes me want to put obedience titles on my dogs.

In any case, we had flyball practice tonight, then a few of us stayed late after flyball to work some obedience with our dogs.

First off, flyball. We are still on the quest to fix Koira's turns. You can see in the video of her first session of practice that we were trying different props a few times trying to fix her double hitting. But, a low single bump was making her drop her butt too low, so we put in the triple. The next time we came out and practiced with her, which I didn't get video of, we used the triple with an additional PVC jump over it, about another 2 inches taller. I'm not really sure if it's helping or not.




For the obedience afterwards, I decided to just take out one dog, and picked Pallo for no particular reason. We worked a bit on attention, since he was still in flyball mode a bit. It took some rewarding for looking at me a few times before he started paying attention to me, but then we did some decent practice with heeling for a step, doing fronts, sits/downs/stands, etc.

 Then the group did some group down stays and sit stays. I've never really done a lot of stay practice with my dogs (they "wait" much more often). Pallo did awesome though. He snapped into position immediately when I told him to, didn't budge an inch as I walked away from him, stared intently at me the whole time until I returned (I think we did about 20 seconds or so). He did both the sit stay and and down stay awesome like.

Then, for kicks and giggles, we decided to practice stand for exam with a friend. She showed me what to do first (I've never taken an actual obedience class, so am super new to all of this). I practiced with Pallo, having him stand, stay, walking away, then walking back, feeling along his back, returning to position, and releasing him. He took a single step while I did the touching his back part. Then my friend helped out and I had Pallo stand, stay, then I walked about five feet away while my friend approached him, felt his back, walked around behind him, came back over to me, then I walked to him, around him, and released. He took one step, when I returned and walked behind him. Pretty darn good, I thought, for his first ever time practicing it.

I'm thinking the key to obedience is to play a few hours of flyball first...