Anniversary Post

Another of the Poconos series, this was written on June 5, a date that's easy for me to remember!

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Today is Dave and my first anniversary.  That might seem to have little to do with Jonah, but it all feels very connected.  First off, we had already decided that we would get a dog before we had gotten married, but we wanted to wait until we returned from the honeymoon to actually bring one home.  I had already found a five-month puppy who had stolen my heart online.  His name was Nolan, the same name as one of the Duke basketball stars, and he was a precious little (officially ‘medium’ sized) tri-colored guy of clear herding background although you would have trouble pinpointing what sort of herding breed to classify him as.  He must have been a rambunctious little guy, because the description said he would be a great candidate for agility.

As I think about it now, that may have been what got me thinking seriously about the idea of agility.  Since I’d had knee surgery and couldn’t play my normal sports, spending time running around with a new dog could be a good option, and would potentially fill some of the same urges that the horse competitions had done for me growing up.

Anyway, I’d been through all of the screening interviews, paperwork and phone calls necessary to get us approved by the rescue group, but at the end of the process I was told that, even though we sounded like the perfect home, it was policy not to hold puppies.  If Nolan was still available when we got back from the honeymoon, we were first on the list, but if another approved adopter came along while we were away, they had to place the puppy so they could take on a new dog.  Of course, by the time we got back Nolan had found another home.

Another reason why our anniversary is connected to Jonah is that we found a traditional registry useful but also lacking creativity, so we gave people the option to give us puppy money as a wedding gift.  One of our favorite couples actually contacted our vet and found out the exact amount (to the cent!) of neutering surgery and wrote out a check for that, in case we got a new friend who hadn’t yet been fixed.  Others specified that they were contributing to an adoption fee, training classes, vet bills or food costs.  We have great friends.  So, when we finally got Jonah, it really felt like all of our support network of friends and family were with us and that Jonah was a real sign of our new stage in our relationship.  We didn’t want any pre-marital puppies—gosh no!—but it didn’t take nine months after the wedding before our canine child came into the picture.

The Big Splash

Poconos Post #2, and part I of the June 5 story.

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Today we woke up fairly early to go out to the dock before church.  As soon as we got out by the water, Jonah was looking over the edge again.  He would look, then back up and whine.  The looks started to become gazes, and he was leaning out over the edge for a closer view.  Again, he would whine and retract, coming over to check in with us.  We were in no way (at least that I was aware of) telling him to jump in, but it was clearly on his mind.  Next he would reach far enough to get a drink, judging the cool temperature and the distance to the water.  More whines and returns to us for encouragement.  We would tell him he was alright but otherwise we were trying to let him figure this out on his own, and not stress him out if he decided not to.  We didn't want him to think he had let us down.  This was his own idea, after all.  Quickly drinks were not sufficient, and he started taking one paw and stretching it down for a little tap into the lake.  Then whines, backing up and looking for a new angle.  After five minutes of a clearly stressed puppy, he got both front paws down in the water, and then, splash!  I still don't know if it was intentional or not.  He looked surprised at the cold water, and he began to paddle for shore, where he immediately became a hyper excited dog, racing all over the shore and dock with obvious pride.  

It was a really fun thing to watch, although it was clearly stressful for him.  We've seen him get like that before, but it has always been when we're asking him to do something that he's unsure of (for instance, going up or down stairs when we first got him).  This was fascinating because, for some unknown reason, he had convinced himself that he had to do this.  Has he been watching dock diving on TV or something?  Was it a challenge to his doghood or something?  Very strange, but we were all very happy with him because he had obviously overcome a significant mental challenge to splash off the dock.

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For the rest of the week, Jonah only jumped off the dock a handful of other times, but he was never stressed again like he had been.  Somehow he had proved to himself that he was able to do this daring feat, and then he had decided it just was not for him.  He went in the water quite often, but he found that it was much more comfortable to not use the dock at all, go in from shore and swim out wherever he wanted to go.  Not a bad choice, if you ask me.  I've never been one for the big plunge into cold water.  I'm happy to swim if it's cold, but, like Jonah, I'll take my time getting in (although he usually bounded into the water from shore at full speed!).  

The Dock and the Millpond

This is a post that I originally wrote on Saturday June 4, when I had no internet.  On our drive to the Poconos, we were listening to a book on tape:  Ian Flemming's Moonraker (a James Bond story).  I think it significantly influenced my writing style, but I figured it's good to switch things up from time to time!

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We arrived in the late afternoon but in the few hours of evening there were already signs of Jonah's improved confidence.  While the last time we were here he never stepped onto the docks by himself, today Jonah trotted carelessly down the dock steps, passed us, and jogged down the length of the dock.  Once he has satisfactorily surveyed the area, he began to start looking down over the edge of the dock and into the water.  I turned to Dave and asked, "How long do you think it will take him to jump in?"  Dave laughed, paused for a moment and replied, "I bet he'll be in by Tuesday."

Before it got dark we decided to go over to the millpond across the street.  It's always very quiet there, and there is a lovely, grassy path to the dam.  The path is probably about three quarters of a mile, so not far, but enough distance that you feel like you've at least accomplished a little bit of something.  We crossed the street, walked about fifty yards around the bend so we were out of view of the street and the potentially fascinating vehicles that might stream by at any moment, unhooked Jonah's leash, and we all started for a run down the trail.  Jonah, of course, exploded down the path while we took a more businesslike pace, but we all at least headed off in the same direction.

Dave and I chatted some and spent some of the time enjoying our quiet surroundings as our footfalls grew synchronized and we settled into our respective wheel ruts that had probably not been rolled over with any wheels for weeks if not months.  The trail clearly had not been mowed this spring and the grasses had begun to bend with their own weight.  It was a perfect haven for hundreds of ticks, a fair number of which decided to hitch rides along with us.

Meanwhile, Jonah grinned merrily as he darted this way and that.  He would race ahead of us, disappear momentarily, and then come running back towards us to remind us that we clearly could not keep up a suitable pace.  Inside, thought, he was pleased that he had enough time to take small detours to pounce on a squeaking chipmunk at the side of the trail, spend a few moments thoroughly interpreting numerous fascinating sniffs, and still maintaining a clear lead ahead of his people.  Not a bad life.

Upon reaching the dam, we all slowed to admire the pond.  There is a small, two-board bridge out to the dam.  Dave and I crossed it, and before we knew it we heard a loud splash.  There was Jonah, amidst a cloud of slimy pond vegetation, looking half shocked by the fact that the water had the nerve to splash back into his face when he leapt on it, and half thoroughly pleased with himself that he had conquered it.  Dave and I were similarly split between shocked laughter and impressed parental pride.  The bridge was a good two feet up from the water--much higher than the dock was from the lake back at the house. Of course, here Jonah could stand, but he did also venture out far enough to take a token swimming loop before emerging like a shrunken, furless cat, shaking vigorously so that he appeared to have been electrocuted, running wildly about, and finally coming back to us for leaping, soaking hugs.

After all that excitement, it was time to head back.  Pushing into our steady running pace, Dave and I enjoyed our own meditative footfalls while being constantly entertained by the notably less consistent but assuredly higher-calorie-burning tracks of our slimy, stinky but exuberantly happy canine companion.  His skunk odor always comes out more when he's wet, so add the skunk to the muddy pond scum and your everyday wet dog goodness and you've got some fine doggy scent going on.  But we were all content as could be.  When the sound of car traffic came back into earshot, we slowed to a walk, clipped the leash back onto Jonah's collar, turned to each other and said, "Let's do this every day."

Week in the Poconos

I have been quiet of late because we spent the last week in Pennsylvania doing nothing but relaxing.  It was wonderful and I was well rested when I started back to class last night.  Most of the week would not be especially interesting to this blog, but I wrote out a few posts while I was there which I will now upload here.  We also got some great pictures, so keep reading!

Camping Adventures

So I entered a trial in early July that's out in New York.  This is the trial farthest away from home that we've done (close to 3 hours.  I know, lots of people probably routinely have to go a lot farther, but I don't like road trips).  I entered it because it's an outdoor trial, a good weekend for our schedule, it's good to try a change of pace, and ... camping.

I was enchanted by the people who camped at Muddy Paws last weekend.  They were right there, didn't have to wake up early in the morning, and had everything they needed.  Of course, the weather was also great, but hopefully it will be in July, too.

This trial site is located within close driving distance of the Catskills, Adirondacks, Green Mountains and loads of other parks.  I figured it could be fun to do a one day trial and then spend Sunday hiking in new territory.  As great as the big parks sound, we're planning a trip to the Adirondacks with my family in October and the Green Mountain park is close to our place in Vermont.  The Catskills have great potential, but I found it challenging to navigate the websites about them.  Thus, I selected a smaller park which is on the way back towards home in Massachusetts:  Mount Greylock.  Apparently it's the tallest peak in MA, which means it's barely a real mountain at just under 4k feet.  I guess you can drive to the summit, but the camping seems pretty remote.  There are 5 first-come-first-serve lean to's in the park which will be our goal, but I went ahead and booked a spot in the campsite in case we're late getting there and/or the lean-to's are taken.  Even the established campsite requires a 1.3 mile hike to get there, so hopefully it won't be loud party type people or especially small children.  I'm sure we'll have a good time no matter what.

Yesterday Dave and I took a trip to REI and looked at tents.  They didn't have exactly the ones we were interested, but we were able to see what the dimensions of tents really felt like.  They had 1, 2 and 4 person tents set up already, and it was clear that the 2 was doable for us plus gear plus Jonah, but it was far from roomy.  The four person tent was unreasonably large and heavy, so we knew a 3-person was just the thing.  We set up a 3-person that they had there for comparison even though it was outside our price range, but it gave us a good idea of what we'd be getting.  Then, when we got home, we ordered our new home away from home:  the Big Agnes Fairview 3.  We found it at a good price ($180) at the REI Outlet.  Unfortunately that means we won't have it for our trip this coming week, but we'll have it in plenty of time to try it out before the big trial.

Our other purchase last night was a pack for Jonah!  Obviously we don't want to put too much stress on him, but I've been reading that dogs over 25 lbs can carry about a third of their body weight.  We'll start light and see how things go, but Jonah could at least carry his own food.  We tried the pack on him last night.  At first he was hesitant to move around with it, but soon he was chasing us around the yard happily.  I think it will take a little getting used to but in the end I hope it's a good purchase.  I'll try to take a picture of Jonah with it on, but for now here's the ad picture.  The product is the Ruff Wear Approach Pack.  We generally consider him to be a Medium size dog, but we got the Small pack and it's the right size for him.

And a shot with it on a dog:

So, this whole backpacking and camping will be a bit of a new adventure for us, but I think it has great potential.

Second Lesson Back

Yesterday we had another great lesson at DogStar.  Our opening 'warm-up' course was pretty basic--mostly just a big spiral.  Jonah's energy was good but I didn't support him enough on a push to an off-set jump, which he ran right past.  We tried running that line a few ways.  I'd initially pushed and pulled all from one side, and my second attempt at the same handling worked fine.  What actually worked better, though, was to handle from the other side and rear-cross the last jump.  It was nice that he was moving along enough that the rear was not de-motivating.  I think he actually liked it.

The second course brought out a few more issues:
1.  I tried a lead out on an angle.  He held the stay fine but ran right around the jump, and didn't have any energy.  Apparently running with him is still the best option when it's possible.

2.  We had some table issues.  Twice he approached the table with so much speed he couldn't stick a landing and had to jump off the other side.  A couple other times I had to ask for a down verbally--he didn't do it automatically.  Apparently we need some more table practice.

3.  There was one incident of dogwalk suck.  He came out of a tunnel facing the dogwalk and, instead of finding me and curling around to a jump, he took the dogwalk.  The next time we did the same question all I needed was a verbal 'here' to pull him off.  Jonah's been very good about not taking off courses lately, so I don't think much about them when I'm walking a course.  I should be a little bit more heads up about dogwalks in particular.

4.  Jonah's contacts were good all day.  He did fall off one dogwalk contact (He was running so fast he didn't get the stop while his back feet were still on the board.  He did stop, it was just a step past the contact zone), but otherwise we had no problems.  Grace said we'd done a really good job with them and in general I have to agree.  I think he's quite reliable with his dogwalk contacts.

5.  We played with two ways of wrapping, and I think it was a valuable exercise.  The course came out of a tunnel, turned right, wrapped a jump and then went back in the opposite direction.  When I first walked it I was thinking I would wrap to the left with a front cross.  Grace suggested a wrap to the right with a post turn.  I asked her what the benefits were either way, and she said that it often slowed dogs down to have to change leads (which the wrap to the left required).  I'd never thought about that before, so it's another consideration to add to my toolbox when walking courses.  The first time I ran the course I followed Grace's suggestion and post-turned to the right.  It was effective.  The next time I wrapped left with a front cross, and Grace and I both thought he seemed happier that way.  We didn't have a watch on it to time the difference, but a happier dog is a good enough reason for me.  My guess would be that it was faster, too.  So, conclusions I could draw from this are:  a) Maybe Jonah changes leads quickly.  b)  Maybe Jonah prefers a path with less back-tracking.  c)  Maybe front crosses are tighter than post turns.  d)  I should still continue to play with handling lots of ways so I have lots of possible options that I am confident Jonah will do well.

6.  The one other challenge of the course was an offset line of jumps.  First I handled it all on one side, and it worked.  I had to be careful with my footwork, as I had to wait for him to approach the first jump out of a tunnel, then I drove and pushed to a tire, and then I had to hold up and have him come back towards me to get a tough angle on a third jumps.  It felt like I was playing stutter step, but we got it done and his path was actually pretty fluid.  Next Grace wanted me to get a front between the tire and the third jump.  The first time I didn't get there in time because I waited too long for the first jump.  Then I tried three more times, and Jonah was so speedy that I just could never get there in time!  I knew I was late, so I never even put the cross in, because I knew it would jam him and I want to always be rewarding him when he kicks it into such high gear.  Thus, we gave up on the front cross :).  Instead, I did a double rear cross.  After we'd had so much success with the single rear cross, it seemed like a good idea.  The first worked great, and he got the approach to the jump fine (but maybe wider than ideal?), but then he needed to just drive straight to a tunnel, and instead he tended to curl back around to find me.  It only took a step or two for him to pick up on the new direction, but it was still an awkward, inefficient couple steps.  Even when I used a verbal 'tunnel' cue, Jonah's footwork wasn't perfect.  The rear cross works well for us when it's a bit of a wrap, but our straight rears need work.  Anyway, the last time running the course I went back to the one-sided handling, which was a little more awkward for me but he ran smoothly.

Overall, it was a very good lesson.  I think Grace wants us to go ahead and get into either USDAA or AKC.  We'll have to see.  I'm still wavering day by day as to which one.  Grace seems to prefer USDAA.  Anyway, we've got a good summer schedule lined up with CPE and I still want Jonah to get his CATCH, so we need CPE trials.  Plus, the pressure is low and it's lots of fun!

Muddy Paws Trial

Happy belated Memorial Day!  I hope you had as good a weekend as we did.  We had good (although hot) weather, time with family and a great day at our first trial in over a month.

The setup at Muddy Paws Canine Center suited us very well.

The ring was in an indoor arena on dirt.  The dirt was harder packed than I had anticipated, but it felt fine underfoot for both me and Jonah.  The space was not especially big -- 60 x 100ft -- and it always felt like we were approaching a wall.  The obstacles were close together and there wasn't much room for getting going at full speed, but none of that seemed to bother Jonah.

One of the nice things about the setup was that dogs got to wait outside of the building.  This meant there was plenty of space and Jonah never felt trapped against a wall while other dogs were going in and out.  It made my life a lot less stressful, too.  I think he only barked at one dog all day, and it just waltzed up to us while we were in the practice area, which was not separated off in any way.  Oh well.  Anyway, reactivity was never a significant problem at this trial, and it was great not to have to worry about it.

Dave picked out a nice small shade tent for us on Friday night, and it worked great.  There were large designated camping spots where we could park our car and set up our tent.  We got to spend the day sitting in our folding chairs in the shade, reading and just enjoying the lovely weather.

As I mentioned, it was hot.  A lot of the dogs were slowing down and looking generally unenthused.  I decided to shorten our usual warmup routine, cut out the running, and just have Jonah pop over the warmup jump a few times.  It seemed to work very well.  Each time I got him up, he was perky and ready to run.

As for the agility itself, it went great, too!

Round 1:  Jackpot Level 3
     I had anticipated that this could be a difficult challenge for us, and I was right.   We had a lovely opening where Jonah was a little bit aware of his surroundings but generally happy.  I think we had 51 points in the opening?  It was a lot, anyway.  We were in a good spot when the whistle blew, but the jackpot proved too difficult.  It was a far-side tunnel entry to a line of jumps.  Jonah really just didn't understand why he should go all the way to the far side of the tunnel.  We tried a couple times, and then I just headed for the jumps.  He did the jumps at distance spectacularly.  That helped me be really positive with him even though it was an NQ.  That last line of jumps was fast, confident and generally perfectly textbook.  We'll have to work on tunnel entries, but I knew I hadn't put in the work to expect him to get it.  Overall, it was a good first run where Jonah was happy to run, did all the obstacles confidently, and he did a beautiful line of jumps at distance, even if he didn't qualify.  The Q rate was less than 10%, so we weren't the only ones, and we still got a nice red ribbon.

Round 2:  Standard Level 2
     I think this was one of the best rounds we've ever had.  It wasn't a hard course, but Jonah was focused and confident the whole time.  His A-frame could have been a little faster, but otherwise I don't have much to critique.  I was pleased with his weaves, as I thought it was a tough entry to have a fast line of jumps to a sharp turn with not a lot of room.  He didn't blink an eye.  Jonah was the fastest dog on the course, good boy.  Rather than write about it, I'll just let you look at the round yourself.  Blogger isn't letting me upload directly, so I'll just link you to YouTube.  Thanks to Dave for filming!

Jonah Standard Level 2

Round 3:  Snooker Level 3

     I thought I picked a reasonably flowing course, but there was still a fair amount of tight turning, and he got a little distracted going into the yellow tunnel the third time.  After that, though, he picked things back up.  The course was 1-3 (yellow tunnel), 1-6 (purple tunnel), 1-7 (jump to yellow tunnel).  I was pleased with his far side tunnel in the closing, after our incident in Jackpot.  Overall it was not our most motivated course, but we got 46 points, which was enough for 1st and a Q.  Only two dogs in level C got more points.  One person got 51, and I wish I had seen it, because it was not a friendly course for such a goal!  Here's the link:

Jonah Snooker Level 3

Round 4:  Colors Level 2

     I was worried Jonah wouldn't have much gas left at the end of a long, hot day, but this course was nice and smooth.  It was pretty easy, but that's fine.  Our 12 second time was good enough for 1st and Q.  There was one other 12 second run, but the dog dropped a bar.  There wasn't electronic timing at this trial, which was a first for us.  I guess it was never really an issue, though.

Jonah Colors Level 2

Now we just need one more Standard Level 2 run to get our level 2 title.  We're starting to make some progress on our Level 3 Q's, too.  It's so much fun to run Jonah when he's happy and fast.  I think we're going to have a lot of great trials ahead of us.  We have three weekends off and then we'll be at Bo-Gee for two days.  I can't wait!