The State of Obedience, Part 2: The Problems

This post has been moved to my other blog, TheMovingStand.

Downs and ups

This weekend’s show in Walla Walla was the first obedience trial of this year for Alder.  We were trying for his last Open leg, on his 23^rd run.  The high jump is a bit dicey for him, especially coming back over with a dumbbell, which seems to throw him off a bit, so I’d held off entering him until we had a trial outdoors on grass.  The catch-22 is that he has a harder time staying awake outside in the sunshine on the long sit.  Maple was entered in Novice B and Rally Excellent, primarily to work on improving her attitude at trials.  Aft last weekends woeful runs in Rally, I was not optimistic.

I have not been to Walla Walla in many years.  It’s about a 2.5 hour drive southwest from Pullman and across the Snake River.  The high steppe of the Palouse is lush green for only 2 or 3 months in spring, which is now.  It made for a scenic drive.  I had not realized, however, how curvy Hwy 127 is dropping down into the Snake River canyon and coming up again.  Poor Maple, who is prone to car-sickness, did not enjoy it.  She was panting heavily by the time we had passed the astonishing forest of wind turbines on the south ridge above the Snake River.  I stopped in Dayton and asked if there was a good park for walking dogs.  I was directed to the park along the Touchet River, which had a wonderful paved path along the top of the dike, an unexpected amenity in a town as small as Dayton.  The dogs and I enjoyed the break.

I arrived in Walla Walla about noon.  My first stop was Bennington Lake, a couple miles east of town.  The lake (actually more of large pond) is a recreational area with fishing and a trail that goes all the way around the lake.  I had the two dogs on flexis for the first 30 minutes, until I ran across a sign giving the dog regulations and realized that, except for a small area on the north side of the lake, the park was an off-leash area.  Woo-howdy, did the dogs ever enjoy that.  Alder bounded around and Maple begged me to throw something in the water for her to retrieve. 

While Alder was occupied looking for squirrels or rabbits, or some other cute furry creature, I worked on water exits with Maple.  I’m trying to teach her to keep holding the bumper all the way until she is in heel position.  She usually drops the bumper at the water’s edge, shakes, picks it up, and then returns.  Ideally, a water retriever should come straight to heel, give up the bird or bumper on command, then shake on command.  I haven’t had many opportunities to work with water since last summer.  I started at the lake edge, encouraging a hold and a hurry up to heel by keeping her on a flexi and tossing the bumper no further than the reach of the flexi.  With each success, I stepped further back, then worked without the flexi, but held a visible treat in my left hand.  If she dropped the bumper and shook before she was in heel position, the treat disappeared.  By the end of the session, she was coming out of the water and into heel position about 5 yards from shore, with no treat reminder.  It was a good session.  By then, Alder was wanting attention and, to my surprise, was eager to swim.  So, I let him try to get the bumper from a short distance.  He swam to it, but batted it under with a paw, lost his courage and came back.  Oh, well, I was encouraged by his willingness to enter the water with little coaxing.  Maybe I can eventually enter him into a hunt test after all.

Walla Walla was absolutely gorgeous with flowering trees and shrubs in bloom all over town.  I had a hotel in an older, mostly residential section of town.  (Gotta love Google Maps for those overhead views.  I always check out the area around hotels with Google Map before I make reservations.)  I was exhausted when I took the dogs out for their evening walk, but the neighborhood was so pleasant to walk through, I walked much further than I planned.  It was a neighborhood with alleys.  I love alleys. I don’t know why they went out of fashion.

Hmm.  Wasn’t this post about something other than a southeastern Washington travel log?  Oh, yeah, there was an obedience trial.  Well, the less said the better.  Alder passed all the moving exercises and fell asleep 2 minutes into the sit.  For the umpteenth time. Maple was even worse than last weekend.  She had a 181 in Novice (and second place; it was a small show). In Rally Excellent, she bypassed one of the jumps and made a score of 87.  I couldn’t believe she IP’ed the jump and only lost 3 points on the other exercises.  The judge was very generous. Maple was terrible.

After every show, no matter what happens, I always write three things that went well for each dog. I had to ponder for a couple of days to come up with my three things for this show.  Here they are:

Alder:

1. After Alder’s Open run, 4 or 5 people came up to rave about what a great dog he was in the ring and how smart (!) he was.  In truth, his heeling was pretty good (for him), but he was slow on the drop and went straight to heel after the drop; he had to go give a brief hello to the judge after the broad jump, and he did his usual pounce and play with the dumbbell.  What got him all those compliments was that he looked so happy in the ring.  He loves to go to shows.  And he can look forward to getting all rested up with a nap during the long sit.
2. There were two pre-teen kids helping with the stewarding, including taking the leash.  Alder is usually afraid of kids, but he took these kids in stride. Good boy.
3. He had a great time on the trip, getting to run around the lake, swimming, etc.  Okay, it’s not directly related to his OB run, but the trip is part of the trial experience.

Maple

1. This was the first trial I’ve taken Maple to when I felt like I wasn’t constantly battling her impulses to lunge at everything exciting and jump all over anyone who came near. She is growing up and becoming a much more pleasant traveling companion.  In retrospect, I think bringing her to shows when she was young and wild has played a huge role in her bad attitude towards shows.  (I think she learned to associate shows with Mom being grumpy all the time.)
2. However badly, she finished her last RE leg and has another title.
3. She was completely awake, alert, and rock solid on the Novice sit.  I’ve become very sensitive to any sign that she might develop Alder’s trait of falling asleep in the sun.

After the trial, we went to Bennington Lake again for more water retrieving and general racing around.  And, guess what?  As soon as Maple was off-leash, she wanted to do some heeling. Yes, Maple, who could not hold eye contact for 2 seconds in the ring, trotted alongside looking up eagerly with no prompting in perfect heel position.  I did a few abouts, some changes of pace, halts, said Good Girl, did a few more abouts, all with no treat in sight and she was fabulous. 

One day, I will figure out where and why the Maple I see in practice (with NO TREATS) disappears in the ring. 

She will make me a better trainer.