Nested Rally Courses – May 28, 2012

The following Courses are nested which means that the course changes between courses or levels are minimal and the trial can move along quickly. This is especially important at large trials or when a person is running multiple classes . The following courses from a trial on April 15, 2012 are nested in the order they are listed.

1. T12-017 Excellent 1
2. T12-017 Excellent 2
3. T12-017 Advanced 1
4. T12-017 Advanced 2
5. T12-017 Novice 1
6. T12-017 Novice 2

If you would like to have your course featured as a course of the week, just email it to me (prairiedogdaycare@yahoo.ca) and I’ll happily give you credit and provide your personal or business contact info and link.

Iliopsoas: Part 2

Here is the follow-up post to my post about Bear’s iliopspas injury way back in April.

Day 6 – Thursday

Today Bear seemed much improved. He is getting into the car by himself slowly, and he is walking upstairs on his own without having to put two hind feet on each step. He is also moving around a lot more when he has some time to stretch his legs at work. and, he is back to lifting a leg to pee in the yard and it seems like he’s using both legs equally for this purpose. These are all things he wasn’t doing at the beginning of the week. I have been continuing range of motion stretches after he’s been up and moving around a bit and he is significantly more stiff on the left side but his muscles seem more twitchy on the right. I’m certain this is a result of favoring one leg and over using the other do I have also been trying some light massage before the icing.

Day 10 – Monday

After a weekend of walking, tracking, stretching and alternating hot and cold packs, Bear appears to be feeling better. In fact, I know this because as I was reading in bed, I heard a growl downstairs the kind of growl that mean’s “it’s ON!” and that is usually followed by wild, puppy-like shenanigans. Sure enough the growl was followed by thump, thump, thump, up the stairs and thump thump thump down the hall then thump THUMP onto the bed!

And then back downstairs again to Sean who came upstairs and asked, “did you get the dog wound up?” in an accusatory voice (I gave strict instructions upon Sean’s return home that there was to be none of the typical play between of them.)

My answer was “No, but I think he’s feeling better”.

Day 11 – Tuesday

Warning! The following is not meant to be a substitute for veterinary care or work with a qualified Canine Rehab Therapist. If your dog is injured – SEE A PROFESSIONAL!

We started our rehab work today. Basically the injury is more or less healed and I am not seeing or hearing any indication of pain. Now the job is to keep Bear strong and flexible. Aside from stretching, our exercises will include:

• Beg
• Beg & Jump Up
• Paws up (say your prayers)
• Walking with a theraband around his one back leg for resistance.
• Side steps (both ways)
• Front paws on balance disc/exercise ball
• Back Paws on balance disc/exercise ball

This is gonna be fun!

Day 12-17

This week was fairly boring, mostly kept up with our walking stretching and exercises as listed above. Bear seems way more comfortable but his stretching is limited and he is much worse on the left rear leg than the right.

We are staying away from rally and agility for now as I have a feeling that too much running and jumping  on a leg with such restricted movement might cause some other injury.

Day 18

Today we (and by we I mean Bear) had a massage with Carolyn of Backstretch Equine & Canine Massage. Bear was the calmest he has ever been for Carolyn which says to me that the massage felt quite nice to him.  Carolyn said he was actually in very good condition with the exception of the obvious stiffness and a few tender points along the front of his rear leg (In a human I think this would be in the quadriceps and calf area – not sure). Post massage, Bear seemed to be sore but if you have ever had a massage post-injury, you know that sometimes the day of the massage your muscles may be sore but there’s a lot of relief the day after.

By Monday Bear was moving very nicely and was much more flexible during stretches – clearly massage is helping and we told Carolyn we’d like to see her again soon.

Day 19-24

I have been gradually increasing activity – some fetch after tracking or after we do some walking/heeling. and Bear seems very comfortable. not 100% but his flexibility is getting better.

Day 25

Today we returned to Agility class which happens to be a fun run. The advice from the rehab therapist was to go slow but to increase the type of exercises we do gradually, pay close attention to Bear’s body and see what happens. My plan was to do a good warm up, some stretching and then try a course to see how things went. The courses set were jumpers courses which was perfect. Jumpers courses do not include contact obstacles or weave poles. If Bear is ok after this course then we will try something more complex next week. If he seems sore, we’ll dial it back.

We did our warm up stretches and two runs (at a very short jump height of 10”) followed by some more stretches. Bear seemed to handle it well. I have a recording of our second run and Bear’s gait seems off but to be honest, I rarely get to see him running from a spectators viewpoint so I have nothing to compare it to.  Later in the evening we did some more stretches and all seemed well.

Day 26

Today we did some heeling and some stretching which all went well. Bear also has been wrestling for short periods with his friend Bella who is here for a weekend sleepover.

From here on in…

I think we will be ok if I stick with the rehab exercises and with the stretching. I find that our stretching routine is something that Bear just lays down and enjoys now – before he would be cooperative but I would have said he was only tolerating it. I also need to remember good warm up and cool down routines to keep him limber.

To be honest, I don’t see anyone around us do stretching, warm up and cool downs with your dogs – no wonder it was never part of my agility routine. I see people do “warm ups” but they seem to be more “focus” warm ups than body warm ups. I also see dogs in very expensive dog gear including coats to keep them warm and therapeutic coats – I don’t discount the value in keeping dogs warm between runs with regular or therapeutic coats but I doubt they actually replace a proper warm up and stretching.

Thoughts on Tracking for 2012

Is Bear tracking or faking it? Right now only he really knows!

Spring sprung many weeks ago here in Manitoba and it’s high time to start thinking about preparing for the fall tracking tests.

I pulled out of the last tracking test we entered because I wasn’t certain we would pass. Actually I wasn’t certain of anything – I followed “the plan” but things did not seem to be coming together for us and, being new to the sport, I am still not sure what to do about it.

What I do know is how to teach many other behaviors and I figure that if I can teach a dog to skateboard, sit pretty and hide his eyes in ‘shame’ – surely I can use the knowledge gained through that experience to teach tracking which is far, far more natural to Bear than any trick he knows.

Typically, when things deteriorate in other training venues, I sit down and think of reasons why  training has not been effective. This is my list for why our tracking training may not have resulted in the performance I wanted.

• The rewards were not all that fabulous to Bear.
• I was convinced Bear was tracking and he wasn’t.
• Bear was tracking and I assumed he was goofing off and ‘corrected’ him but holding on tight to the line and not allowing him to do the job I wanted him to.
• Food was faded before he understood the behavior.
• Food drops were used for so long that he assumed that if he didn’t find food within a certain time period or distance, the game was over.
• The food drops on the track were very rewarding but the final food drop/reward was not because either a) he was full or b) it was the same as he got on the track and not something ‘special’ enough.
• We progressed through the plan too fast – That is to say we moved on to more difficult work before Bear fully understood the foundation work.

So, either the reward for tracking was not ‘awesome’ enough, I need better skills at observing tracking behavior versus other sniffing behavior or I moved too far too fast.

Now what?

I was hoping to either host or attend a tracking seminar this spring but that does not look like it will come to pass, unless I am able to drive to Saskatchewan or Alberta, and that looks unlikely with my summer schedule.

In the absence of that I am going to have to try an problem solve myself and try to get out to track with some more experienced folks in Winnipeg who might be better able to help me figure things out. At home my plan is to:

• Start the training plans from scratch.
• Keep records as I did last year but remember to include notes on Bear’s behavior as it applies to wind direction.
• Resist temptation to proceed with the plan (increase age, distance etc.) unless I am 100% satisfied with the previous day’s performance.
• Use flags for a long time so I know where the track is and can (hopefully) start learning to distinguish better between tracking behaviour and non-tracking behaviour.
• Make the reward for the article on the track huge. I think Bear is a highly food motivated dog so my plan is to use some ‘exotic’ foods and to make sure they are only ever used for tracking, much like I have used tuna loaf exclusively for rally trials. I think I’ll use tuna (out of the can), sardines, liver loaf.

Notes: Handling Clinic with Melanie Hart May 5-6, 2012

I spent this weekend at an agility handling clinic. I had paid for a working spot however due to Bear’s recent injury we gave our spot up and attended as an auditor. The purpose of the clinic was to work on the  Greg Derrett handling system buy working on a number of sequences.

Saturday was the novice dog day ( the one we were supposed to run in). Sunday was for advanced dogs. Both days began with some review of the Greg Derrett video and then proceeded with a series of sequences that provided an opportunity to work on the concepts discussed.

In many ways, not having to worry about a dog was nice, it meant I could really spend 100% of the time watching dogs and handlers. The downside is that I have no idea how Bear would work through sequences so I may start working sequences and then get stuck if he does something no other dog at the clinic did. That being said, a few common things emerged over the weekend that I plan on working on with Bear.

1. Start Line Stays.I’ll need to write a a whole separate blog post about them. Suffice it to say that the challenge with the start line stay is the dog understanding his job and being confident enough to stay while the handler walks away.
2. Acceleration/Deceleration to signify change of direction. This is new to me but it makes sense as a great way to indicate changes of direction to dogs.  With a large dog that has a long stride, I’m going to need to make sure this is a concept he understands. I think he does, but I’m not sure.
3. Lead Out Pivots.  This is a great way to gain ground. Most importantly  though, I learned the position of the handler during the LOP is critical to communicating deceleration and a change of direction to the dog. With a large dog that moves quickly, communication is critical – I’m going to need this skill and I’m going to need a good lead out on various obstacles from various distances and not always in a perfectly straight line.
4. Tunnel Calls– Again this is a way to communicate turns out of tunnels with any dog but fast moving ones in particular. A call in the tunnel with let the dog know where the handler is so that he can collect himself and exit on the correct side.
5. Independent 180 and 270 turns.when dogs that do not need handlers to babysit these obstacles handlers have less running to do. I’m all about running less.
6. Rear Crosses.I can’t say we’ve ever worked on these. The good thing about this is that we don’t have any bad habits to fix. The bad part is, we’re starting from scratch.
7. Goal Setting. We also spent a few minutes discussing training plans and goals and the importance of not confusing goals (staying connected with your dog throughout the course) with outcomes (earning a title). This is a really important distinction and something that I understand, likely because I have experience teaching and planning how to teach for dog training classes. The challenge for novice handlers in any sport is being able to know what you are doing wrong, what you need to do to fix it and how you are going to go about doing it.

The fortunate thing about all of these items is that, with the exception of Goal Setting, they are about teaching and learning) communication skills, they can be done on the flat (without the jumps) or using jump standards with a bar on the ground between them.

I am really looking forward to Bear’s return to agility so we can work on some of these things!

Iliopsoas! Say that ten times fast!

Do you know what the heck an iliopsoas is? I didn’t until this week.

This past Saturday at Rally class, Bear didn’t seem quite right. His pivots weren’t as enthusiastic as usual and while he was excited to work he was slow and lagging behind a bit. This was uncharacteristic behavior for him. Wondering if he just needed a break, we stopped and did some of the tricks he likes to do like spin, turn , hide your eyes and sit pretty and even those did not perk him up. If I was a more traditional trainer I might have assumed he was “blowing me off” but knowing Bear, I knew something was wrong. We tried a jump (he loooooooves jumping) and on his way out he was not moving quickly and his gait was off. I decided to limit our participation for the rest of class to heeling and sits, which didn’t seem to cause any trouble.

Sigh.

He could barely climb into the car after class to get home and then he was equally slow climbing the 5 steps to the house. Once inside, he tried to get up onto his favorite couch spot but got half way, whimpered and then went to his kennel and lay down.

Crap.

Once I was able to coax him out of the kennel, I poked and prodded to see if I could feel and swelling, any heat, bleeding or any foreign objects.

Nothing.

Taking a wild guess, I applied some ice packs to his inner thighs, he lay there quietly and I took this as a sign that maybe the cold was providing some comfort. That night the stairs were a no go and, since I did not want to sleep on the couch, I carried Bear up – not as easy as I imagined.

Day 2 – Sunday

Sunday morning Bear managed to walk downstairs but he spent most of the morning on the floor or in his kennel which is highly unusual. When we are at home he is usually following me around, taking my spot on the sofa if I get up, waiting for me outside the bathroom door, trying to sneak into the kitchen if I’m in there making lunch, supervising when I load the dishwasher, etc.

Since he appeared to be in more pain than he day before, I gave him a buffered aspirin, one of the safer human anti-inflammatories for dogs. The only anti-inflammatory Bear has received in his life was given immediately after his neuter surgery so I went with a low dose for a dog his size and continued to ice the area that seemed sore.

I went online and consulted with Dr. Google, DVM. She said he likely had hip dysplasia, or tore his ACL or had a neurogical condition.

Wonderful.

Day 3 – Monday

Since I had myself convinced of the worst, I had to get in to see the vet, Dr. Radcliffe, so she could either to put my mind at rest or to confirm Dr. Google’s diagnosis. I called, and luckily she was in and had appointments available. She watched him moving then she poked, prodded and stretched Bear’s legs in every conceivable direction (at least to me) and he seemed ok. Then, she finally extended this leg ALL the way back and rotated it inwards. This elicited a squeal on both sides and she said she suspected it was a muscle injury. She consulted with her notes and decided it was likely iliopsoas injury.  She did an infrared treatment and suggested rest, light exercise (walking), massage, stretches to maintain range of motion, icing and, perhaps later on, some more infrared treatments or even acupuncture. She also sent me a one page info sheet from a veterinary surgeon about this kind of injury.

According to my research, the iliopsoas is a hip flexor and is used during jumping, tight turns etc. to keep the dog stable.

Sigh. (Of relief)

My crude ‘artists rendering’ of where this pesky little muscle is – actually there are 2 of them – one on each side.

I am a little disappointed – we were just getting back into agility and had a seminar this weekend, we also were making plans to begin herding but alas, it looks like our plans will be postponed. Fortunately, having played nearly 15 years of rugby and run 2 half marathons, I understand the consequences of pushing through pain and with a 7 year old dog (or any dog) it’s just not worth it.

Day 4 – Tuesday

I contacted Bear’s Canine Massage Therapist (don’t laugh!) about the injury. She is planning on visiting soon (she lives about 2.5 hours away from us) but I wanted to let her know sooner would be better than later. She basically said that massage is good for keeping everything else in that area but that this was was a difficult muscle to reach. In my crude drawing it’s there and obvious but it is covered with lots of muscle. She suggested an appointment with someone who specializes in canine rehab might help best with the specific injury.

So after trading a few more phone calls with the vet clinic (I know their number by heart now – how bad is that) I learned that someone in Brandon, who I know, has completed her canine rehab course. I’m not telling you who yet because I’m sure once word is out, she will be flooded with calls and right now, she’s not officially taking clients.

Day 5 – Wednesday

When the Canine Rehab Therapist came to see Bear and we did more walking, trotting and she did some manipulation etc, she said she was certain he would recover quite well if I can stick with the program. According to her the program will consist of icing then ice followed by heat, stretches, and eventually rehab exercises. She said the thing Bear has going for him is that he allows touch and heat/ice packs and he is very responsive to training so teaching the rehab exercises will be easy. The program also entails keeping him from jumping until he is healed – jumping off things, onto things or doing other crazy jumping dog things – this is going to be the hard part. She’s going to put the plan on paper and until we get the plan we’re going to use our ice packs, our hot pads and maybe our tracking harness since walking (with his nose) is about the only activity he can do right now. Fortunately water is a tracker’s best friend and there is lots of rain in the forecast for this weekend!

I’ll follow up with an update at the end of the week – Our rehab plan should be interesting!

Rally is not always about the Q’s

The reason I fell in love with rally, and became a judge, is because rally is about having fun and working together with your dog. Teams of all ages and abilities are welcome to participate and corrections in any form are heavily penalized. I also love CARO rally in particular because the trial environments I have encountered have been more relaxed, more encouraging and less stressful than other venues I have competed in.

I have been judging since 2010 and have had the opportunity to watch some really great teams at work, however, because rally obedience is a sport complete with rules, point deductions, passing and failing, some of these teams have not qualified and more often than not, it breaks my heart.

Sometimes great runs are non qualifying because a team completely misses a station, a human mistake.

Sometimes the dog does exactly what he or she was asked to do but the handler asks for the wrong behavior.

Sometimes a dog is incredibly unfocused to start but is able to refocus and finish the course.

Sometimes a dog is struggling with his or her own fears and anxiety and the handler just decides to stop competing, take out a toy or cookie, and make sure their dog has a good time.

Sometimes a handler is working very hard to keep a dog “in the game” but for whatever reason, the dog just can’t do it.

During my judges briefings, I always try to tell competitors that it is unlikely that anything that happens in the ring will surprise me because Bear and I have not qualified many, many times for many, many reasons. I share this because I want them to know that I am aware of the time, effort and training that goes into preparing a dog for trials, how much courage it takes to perform in front of an audience and how much composure it takes to be happy and positive with your dog no matter what happens in the ring. I also share this because I want competitors to know that I have been where they are and I understand all of the stress, anxiety and emotions that crop up when things do not go as we had hoped.  But more than anything I share this because I want competitors, especially new ones, to understand that not qualifying does not mean that you have a bad dog or that you are a bad trainer, it just means that you had a bad run. The best thing to do about it is to learn what you can from the experience and use that knowledge to improve on the next run.

Unfortunately, aside from my judges briefings, time to seek people out to give them a quiet word of encouragement is limited and time to draw attention to great non-qualifying work is almost non-existent because it is a trial, not a class or a seminar: there are scorecards and ribbons to hand out, courses to set, questions to answer and trial records to sign.

After thinking about all of this for some time, I decided to start recognizing great work (qualifying or not) at a time when everyone is gathered and attentive – when it is time to hand out ribbons and scorecards. I give scorecards and ribbons to qualifiers and then, while everyone is present, I highlight the great work being done by dogs and their owners by giving out Judge’s Choice Awards. These awards are given to teams that I think exemplify team work, enthusiasm, or great work ethic, regardless of their score. I have also given them to teams and individuals that have made a drastic improvement throughout the trial or to handlers who remind me through their actions that rally is all about having fun with our dogs.

I have also decided to highlight these teams on their very own page of the Rotten Dog Blog. Check out my new Judge’s Choice Awards page to read about the great teams, the great dogs and the great handlers I have had the privilege to judge.

CARO Trial Results: April 15, 2012

Reblogged from Prairie Dog Blog:

Below you will find the complete results for the CARO trial held last Sunday at Prairie Dog Daycare and Two Brown Dogs. Our next trial will take place June 16-17, 2012 and you can find the premium list and entry form here!

New Titles

Andy & Atom – Rally Novice

Awards

High Scoring Visitor – Patricia & Snippy (190)

Read more… 105 more words