How did those 2013 resolutions work out?

Well, one of my 2014 resolutions will be to post to this blog more often.  Only 5 posts total in 2013!  However, before I get to 2014, there is taking stock of 2013.  How did those resolutions stack up against reality?

For Alder, the poodle boy

I’ve noticed a trend of becoming more cautious in my goals.  Both Alder and Maple have contributed to that caution, but Alder gets most of the credit.  I was so optimistic about Alder when we first began showing in Open. I remember during one of our first few runs, when I was standing with my fellow handlers commiserating while waiting to be called back during the groups.  One of the handlers was bemoaning how her dog didn’t yet have a leg and it was her 11^th run.  “Cripes,” I thought to myself, “No way will it take us that many runs to get a first leg.”  Glad I didn’t say that out loud.

When Alder and I got our FIRST leg after FIFTEEN runs, I was REALLY glad I hadn’t said that out loud.  When we got our third leg after nearly 2 years of showing and 25 runs, I wasn’t thinking UD.  Any and all UD training had fizzled out long ago as the CDX was looking like a climb up Mt. Everest.  I walked around on cloud 9 for about a week after we finished the CDX in spring 2012, putzing around a little with Rally, thinking about an RAE (and also about how much I dislike Rally), and then I started working on Utility exercises.  At first, it was just a few sends to a paper plate with a treat.  I was training Maple for Utility and Open, so it was no big deal to work on Utility with Alder, too. 

By the beginning of 2013, after about 7 months of training, we had all the exercises more or less roughed out.  My goal in January 2013 was NOT to GET a UD; I am way too cautious for that kind of confidence anymore.  It was to TRY to get closer to a UD.  In my 2013 resolutions, I planned to make Alder’s UD debut in spring 2013.  I backed off that goal and didn’t show him until fall, and not until he had done surprisingly well (to me) in a Grad Open class.  Not a Q, but he’d given me enough confidence to dip a toe into the real thing in fall 2013. 

Alder got his first UD Q at a show in Wenatchee on a sweltering hot day when I expected him to wilt, on only his 3^rd run in Utility.  No one was more astonished than I.  We ran two more times before the end of the fall show season.  We didn’t get another Q, but that first Q made me think Alder, the poodle boy, might be able to pull off that UD after all.

For Maple, the Golden girl

Hard to believe Maple is 4.5 years old.  Maple, Maple, Maple, my brilliant, eager girl with the fatal flaws of hating to ride in a vehicle and be away from home.  She is so smart and so loves training, but only if she doesn’t have to leave home. 

By the beginning of 2013, my hopes of Maple becoming the OTCH dog I’ve wanted for so long had mostly faded away.  She had finished a CD and RE.  I had continued to show in Novice B for a while, trying to tackle her travel anxiety and raise her heeling scores.  That strategy was failing miserably, so I decided to try a few runs in Grad Novice and Open, while focusing mostly on hunt testing and training. 

I showed her only once in spring 2013, for an NQ in Open (for refusing all jumps on mats) and a Q in Grad Novice, which was outside on grass. She jumps on grass, but not on mats.  (We virtually never have the chance to train on mats.)  We worked on the jumping, but also aimed for outdoor trials in fall.  She ended the year with two Qs in Open (both outdoors on grass) and blew the Q in the last trial of the year on her most reliable exercise, the Drop on Recall.  She had an attack of sniffing and totally forgot what she doing, standing up and intently sniffing while I was waiting for the judge to give the recall signal.  Oh, well, I knew the sniffing in the ring was becoming an issue and it was a kick in the pants reminder that I needed to deal with it.

But the weirdest thing?  At the fall obedience shows, Maple was a whole lot less stressed than she had ever been.  I had changed a couple of things about our warm-up routine.  I quit giving any treats before we entered the ring and I quietly played tug with her before we went in, instead of doing heel exercises.  But, while those changes seemed to help her attitude in the ring, I don’t think they were responsible for her better attitude about traveling.  It was more like she finally crossed some mental line.  Maturity?  Better attitude towards traveling because of the hunt training? 

I don’t know, but the dying ashes of OTCH hope have gotten a little puff of oxygen again.  Her Open scores weren’t OTCH scores, but I can deal with training issues better than anxiety issues.  So, with some slightly revived glimmer of hope, we shall see how things go in 2014.

Hunt training was the other part of the 2013 Maple goals.  I wanted to finish her beginning hunt titles (the NAHRA SR title and the AKC JH title) in 2013, which we did.  I thought she might be capable of finishing the mid-level titles as well.  I was overly optimistic with that goal.  With a more experienced trainer, I believe she could easily be at the Master level (highest hunt test level), but we are both in the learning process with hunt training.

Maple brings back her duck at a hunt test in Carnation, Washington in August

 

For myself and both dogs

·        2013 Resolution 1:  Make time to play during training, especially when the exercise is difficult, and especially with Alder, who responds well to playing.

Result: I’d give myself about a B grade on this resolution.  I slacked off on the play towards the end of the year as the days got colder and darker and I rushed to get through training.  Playing takes more time than feeding a treat.  Alder showed increasingly less enthusiasm.  I recognized the error of my ways and started making the time to play.  He perked up.

·        2013 Resolution 2: Work on the things we need to work on, not the things that make me feel good because the dog already knows them.

Result: About a B+ on this.  I’m getting better, but could still be more inventive in pushing the dogs a little instead of being lazy and zipping through a few easy things when I’m tired.

·        2013 Resolution 3: When in doubt, simplify.

Result: About a C+.  When I think I’m getting better, I backslide and throw something too advanced at the dog, and then, instead of immediately scaling back, keep persevering until my dog is too stressed.  Kind of the opposite of the prior Resolution, and more likely to be a issue in hunt training, where I’m less experienced at knowing what to expect my dog to be able to do.

·        2013 Resolution 4: Make the effort to take the dogs into town to train in different places more often.

Result: About a C.  I just find myself too busy on the weekends to load training equipment and go into town.  Saved myself from a D by showing up at a few group sessions with fellow training group members. 

·        2013 Resolution 5: When training with a group, TRAIN, don’t test.

Result: I give myself an A on this goal.  I rarely let myself fall into the testing mode anymore in a group.  (Yeah!  One personal goal accomplished.)

 

And now….On to 2014.