Video time!

Even though she totally blows me off a few times, in the video, Kessel is coming along very nicely! Her contacts are more or less solid, and we are now doing 6 weave poles. We used the 2x2 method to introduce her to weaving, and I do feel like that is a great system to teaching the dog the concept of the weave poles. Kessel seems to really enjoy weaving, and is starting to put some serious speed into the set of 6. I can't wait until she graduates to the full 12. I have a feeling she is going to be lightning fast.

I still find it hard, sometimes, to direct and train from a distance, over fences, instead of doing so in the saddle. When she takes off long, jumps flat, or runs out, I often wish I on her back directing her. Learning to train "over fences on foot" is a new experience for me, to say the least, but it's enlightening and I do think that it makes me an even more well-rounded horse person, in terms of the big picture.

She is now doing the dogwalk and A-frame at full height. The teeter has been raised and we're only one "hole" lower than full height. Raising the dogwalk actually slowed and focused her, surprisingly. As you can see, in the video, she often chooses to execute the dogwalk on her own. I think she enjoys the contact obstacles.

I recently took her to an AKC trial just to observe, and felt incredibly ignorant for not remembering that they do not allow "pinch" (prong) collars on competition grounds. It does amuse me that they fully allow "choke chains" but not prongs....apparently, it is acceptable to potentially strangle your dog and possibly cause damage, but not okay to use a collar that actually does offer exceptional control with little to no  harm to the dog. Same equine adage applies, of course - "you can break a jaw with a snaffle or create poetry with a double bridle," I suppose, but I still feel that choke chains are severely antiquated and of zero use, especially when compared to the prong. Personal opinion, of course. So, I ordered a delightfully obnoxious (fluorescent yellow with black, green, and blue weaving) slip lead from the fantastic Ella's Lead and cannot wait for it to arrive. Their leads are super heavy-duty, feel great in the hand, and I was able to order one with a control tab to keep the lead from opening too far. Of course, Kessel wears one of their vegan collars, too, so maybe I'm a little biased to that lovely company. Please check out their website and drool over their incredible products!


Now that we are a real agility team, our trainer has allowed us to purchase a membership to the agility building. It's a great concept and well worth the small monthly fee. We're issued a building code so we may access the building and equipment at any time when there are not classes being held. It reminds me of renting an arena, or cross-country course. A great way to work on sequences and small stuff outside of class.

Obedience is coming along, too. Her emergency down is getting more reliable, and she really is a dream, off leash. With every session, her "watch" command gets stronger and stronger. She is still occasionally overstimulated by watching other dogs run courses, but my trainer assures me that it isn't much to worry about. I still do, though.... :)

A month's progress...

I need to preface this post by saying that I have more or less found the trick to exorcising Kessel's inner Agility demons....

...1-2 hours of Chuckit! ball chasing at the dog park prior to class.

Think I'm exaggerating? I'm not. If neither of her boyfriends (Buck and Rebel, both 100 lb. + GSDs...) are there, then we spend 2 hours. Usually the boys can wear her out in 1 hour, which is nice. This plan of attack has actually worked with exceptional success. We haven't had a zoomies episode since. The worst thing she's done has been taking off mid-course to get a drink of water.

Oh, and also she tried to run through a tunnel while another dog was in it. That wasn't so great. We were warming up, and I had just sent her over a jump. Well, at the same exact time, right in her flight path, another handler was sending his Rottweiler through the tunnel. Before I could call Kessel off, she flew forward and entered the tunnel.

Somehow, she exited the tunnel before the Rottweiler did. Malinois superiority, of course. The only problem was that the Rottweiler was an intact bitch. An intact bitch who does not care for other bitches, and also does not like having her space invaded. What Kessel thought would be a fun game suddenly turned into a nightmare. She sprinted forward several strides, clearly thinking the Rottweiler would chase her, as that's her favourite game. However, as soon as the Rottweiler tried to get a mouthful of her spine, Kessel seemed to realise she made a bad decision. Her stupid, toothy grin morphed into an expression of sheer panic. She was outmaneuvering the Rottweiler (naturally!), but the problem was that if she stopped running she'd be up Shit Creek. Long story short, I took a chance and as soon as the Rottweiler's owner got close, I gave Kessel the down command (from a good 20 feet away, too), and she dropped down fast. I was proud of her for listening, but felt like an ass for letting my dog get away from me. Ironically, Kessel was a superstar for the rest of that class.

It's humorous to read my  last post where our "course" was simply a sequence of 3 obstacles. Let's see...our first course, last night, was: jump, tunnel, same jump, table, dogwalk, jump, a-frame, jump-front cross-jump. Whew! Kessel did very well. She understands the command "easy!" in relation to the contact obstacles, and she's getting better at slowing down when I say that. Contacts are getting more consistent - not perfect, by any means, but she's doing them. The only reason she broke course last night was to run to the water bowl....not sure why she was so water-obsessed, last night, but she was.

Overall, she's a different dog than a month ago. Her off-leash heeling is coming along beautifully, as we're now able to work on it under heavy distraction at class, and in public. "Watch" is getting better and better, and she's holding that under heavy distraction, too. Still need to work on engagement, as it's easy to lose her on small exercises that she doesn't think are all that exciting.

She's doing the teeter, now, although not at competition height. None of the contact obstacles are at competition height, actually. I think she could handle the A-Frame at regulation height, but I don't want her on the dogwalk yet. She still gets a little too speedy and I worry that she'll go flying off of it. The teeter - same thing. She's a little too spastic and I could see her losing her balance.

Another thing she has no trouble with is the chute/closed tunnel. I REALLY expected that to be a gigantic problem, but it hasn't been. She has no problem with it, although she does like to run at an angle, through it. Still, that's better than being scared of it.

You're going to love it....someday!

Well, it's been two weeks since our last session. Not only was I out of town for a week, but The Boss was out of town for one session, as well. No big deal, right? Not entirely...

Kessel was pretty ramped up as soon as we walked in the door. The Boss told us to run through the tunnels and over the dogwalk a few times just to get re-acquainted with them. Since Kessel was being so sketchy, I opted to reward with her tug instead of with food. First, because I was low on treats (whoops!) and wanted to save food for introducing new behaviours. Kessel has been doing tunnels for months now, even before we started the class, so I have no problem putting her on the tug as a reward for that. It was actually working really well...until Kessel decided to put on a one-dog stampede. This time, she had the tug in her mouth and was barking non-stop.

Now, keep in mind I'm functioning on about 3 hours of sleep at this point. There was a big part of me that saw the cuteness in how delighted Kessel was with her decision to behave like a rogue. There wasn't any naughtiness involved, really. She was just in a good mood and that was her way of expressing it. The problem was that it wasn't playtime. It was time to work.

I hid in another room again, which worked. Still frustrating, but she didn't do it a second time, which I was thankful for.

We introduced them to the A-Frame, and Kessel and Gin got to play on the teeter with even more of a motion and more noise. Neither of them cared about it, at all, which was awesome! I seriously thought Kessel would have an issue with that obstacle, but she is still totally unperturbed by it.

The A-Frame is a lot easier for her than the dogwalk and teeter, in terms of contact. She's so long-legged that it's less work for her to just blow past the contact, or only keep one hind paw on it, on the narrow obstacles. The A-Frame is so huge that it's practically impossible for her to not have two paws on the thing. Hooray.

We ended with off-leash A-Frame to the curved tunnel, to the dogwalk. Pretty good, really. The Boss keeps telling me I'll love her drive in the future....hahaha...

Don’t chase a Herding Breed, because it only makes things worse.

I’m breaking a one of my most serious household rules, as I type this post: the Malinois is on the bed, next to me.

I’ve never been a fan of having dogs on furniture. I don’t appreciate being covered in dog hair all of the time, and my non-canine oriented guests don’t enjoy sitting in a sea of blown coat. There is one thing I make an exception for, though, and that is a dog recovering from anesthesia.

Kessel went in for her OHE this morning, so now you know why she’s crashed out next to me, wrapped in a few fleece blankets. It was a pain in the ass to lift her 55 lb. self onto the bed, but it was worth it. Since she has no body fat, she was having trouble keeping warm, and I couldn’t handle looking at her curled up on the floor. So, onto the bed it was.

Her drug-induced demeanor is radically different from her undomesticated mindset at class, last night. Sure, it started out great. We blasted around the jump circle with only one bobble, and I was once again blown away by her speed. The horse person in me cringes at her delight in leaving out multiple strides, but I’m not sure if grids and placing poles work for dogs.  Can’t really do transitions. Maybe modify some George Morris and drop her to a down a few strides off a fence? Worth thinking about, at least.

The horse person in me also appreciated how sensitive my dog is to body language.  The minute I close it, she decreases the size of her circle and wants to cut in to me. Gee, that sounds familiar. Standing in the middle of that jump circle felt like the middle of a longe circle. Keep your leading arm and hand out as a directional cue for your dog? Oh, it’s a longe whip. Roger that.

Then we moved on to the curved tunnel, and we all got to do our very first front cross. When The Boss asked us to walk the pattern first, without our dogs, I instinctively morphed into my Stride Counting Walk. It felt good, though. Bit nostalgic. It certainly didn’t faze Kessel, and with a lifetime of being creative at leading idiot horses without getting trampled, the footwork just felt natural to me.

Our contact work was a little better than last week. Not awesome, but better.  Doing the dogwalk on leash? Things started to get hairy. Kessel wants to attack it with her usual force, building momentum as she goes. Problem – the faster her legs move,  the further her brain shrinks. Still, she didn’t fly off of it in the middle. So, we tried her off leash….

I could see the feral dog rising in her with each inch that took her closer to the end of the dogwalk. I expected her to zero in on Gin and initiate a crazy play session. But, no. She bounded off the ramp and just took the hell off. She ran up the Greyhound’s ass. She flew in the Rottie’s face. She body-slammed Gin on the way past, but then just kept going. I didn’t run after her, because experience has taught me that only fuels her fire. Still, I wanted to chuck a shoe at her head. I got within a few feet of her and she playbowed, shot a few tremendous and flippant barks at me, and wheeled around like a top-class Reining horse. Thankfully, J managed to snag a handful of her left flank, which gave me enough time to seize her.

She went on timeout in a crate, which I suspect she understood fully, because she flopped right down like some angel who knew she was being punished for her misdeed, no matter how glorious that misdeed was. I took her out and she played me like a sheep…her focus was fantastic, her eyes were trained on mine like nothing had ever happened. I felt encouraged.

We worked on the teeter, which also doesn’t seem to bother her whatsoever. She even got to walk down the entire thing, although the upper end was propped on the pause table. Nonetheless, she was a champ.

At the end of class, we finished with the curved tunnel and then a front cross to the dogwalk. Naturally, the tunnel and front cross were stupendous.  She hit the dogwalk and I could see the steam building. It was practically billowing out of her ears. She flew off of it, pleased as punch, and went on another tour of the room  - without me. The Boss told me to hide in a room, out of sight, and it did seem to work…after about a minute of tearing around, Kessel realized I was nowhere to be found, and she started to panic. It wasn’t the easiest thing to reward her for finding me, but I did it anyway.

The rest of the night went better…I’m sure going to miss her psychotic self when I go away for work, next week, but she’ll be staying with J and Gin, so I’m sure she’ll have the time of her life…

Contacts - don't those go in your eyes?

So, we've only been at this Agility thing for a few weeks, now. For me, though, the desire to partake in this truly epic sport started two decades ago, when I was in elementary school. It's taken me 20 years to find the perfect partner, but it was worth the wait. 

Enter Kessel - a 15-month-old Belgian Malinois that got unceremoniously dumped in Night Drop at the humane society when she was only 10 weeks old. Night Drop? A bank of empty kennels that the general public has access to after hours. Ideally, it's for well-meaning people to place stray animals into. In reality, the majority of animals shoved in those kennels are dogs and cats that people are tired of owning. Considering Kessel was inside one wearing a little pink collar and a black leash, I suspect she was dumped by a relatively sane person that honestly thought they had inherited Satan's spawn when they brought her home as an adorable black-and-tan bundle of joy.

No, really. She was a complete psychopath. I couldn't pet her until she was about 6 months old. Why? Because she couldn't handle the physical stimulation. A flat hand against her skin sent her into a wild, demonic rage, in which she started biting whatever was closest to her face, flailing into the air and then throwing herself onto the ground to imitate an Alligator Death Roll. If you sat on the ground, she would charge over and seize your hair, then attempt to scalp you, or try to remove your lips from your face. She wasn't mean-spirited, she was just a lot of dog. 

However, she had one thing going for her: she took to obedience training like a champ. She loved to work, and I discovered I could teach her new behaviours and fade the lure out in one session. I was thrilled to have such a high-drive dog. 

Fast forward to 2011, when I found out a co-worker (henceforth referred to as J) had acquired a rescued Malinois (henceforth referred to as Gin), as well. Naturally, we hit it off immediately, and it wasn't long until we decided to plunge into Agility together. J found a trainer (henceforth referred to as The Boss), who ironically owned Tervs, and we knew it was meant to be.


Which brings us to last night's class. On the whole, it was a good night. Kessel didn't go tearing across the room to assault her Gin with a loving, affectionate, full-body check. She didn't have a tantrum and decide to forget what assis or coucher meant. She flew through her first curved tunnel like an old pro, banking hard off the sides and exiting it faster than she entered. She handled her first sequence (vertical, table, vertical) with great focus and speed - while off-leash, with Gin nearby, and all sorts of other dogs all over the place. 

Then we started to work on Contacts. I'm, of course, thinking "oh, this is going to be easy. Kessel will climb on anything she's told to." 


Oh, no. How wrong I was.

The problem isn't in the climbing on the dogwalk or the teeter, the problem is hind-end proprioception. Well, that makes my dog sound like she has a neurological issue. She doesn't. She just has trouble understanding why it's so damn important to keep both hind feet on a narrow board. I think, to her, it's a waste of time better spent traveling at warp speed. I tried to explain it to her, but she just glared at me and leapt completely over the descending portion of the dogwalk in a flippant example of what she thinks this obstacle should be all about.


I tried to make her watch Gin do it, because Gin clearly comprehends that there will be a judge watching, and both of her adorable white-tipped rear paws need to be firmly placed against the glaring yellow contact zone so that, when she finishes her run, the judge will stand and salute her for being such a fine example of Malinois superiority. 

But, we soldiered on. The Boss pointed out that it was my body language that was pushing Kessel's outside hind leg off the contact. I mopped some sweat off my forehead (did I mention how bloody hot it was? Kessel liked it, because it reminded her of her spawning ground [and by that, I mean Hell]) and tried my best to tailor my movements to cater to my dog's sensitive personal bubble. Progress was made. I think, once, I managed to mark and reward at the appropriate time. I was encouraged that she showed no fear of banging down the bottom of the teeter with her forepaws. I think that obstacle suits her obnoxious personality. 


At the end of class, we got to let our dogs run the whole dogwalk (that was, of course, lowered to about 2'). I'm feeling confident about this, especially because the first few dogs were quite insecure about the entire thing. Gin is ahead of us, and happily bounces her away up, across, and down, demonstrating to all of us the proper technique for two-on/two-off contact zones. As Kessel is lunging against her collar in full-on idiot mode, I briefly think of how proud I am to be Gin's "Auntie" and hope that some of her awesomesauce will dribble onto my dog. 


A quick word about Kessel - although she loves me and J, there are two people in her life that she goes completely bonkers for. We call it her Whore Mode. Both of these individuals are males, one is J's fiance, and one is one of my roommates. Kessel sincerely thinks these two men exist solely for her flirt with, rub her body against, and fawn over. We'll call them D and M, respectively. 


Before Kessel got her shot at the dogwalk, D came in and took a chair against the back wall of the room. I frantically tried to keep Kessel engaged, and I thought I had her attention. 


Alas, I did not. 


We hit the base of the dogwalk with poise and confidence; she raced up it and got quite far ahead of me (I didn't expect her to attack a new obstacle with such intensity) and then caught sight of D. Halfway across the thing, Kessel launches off the dogwalk and books it across the room. You can imagine me, drenched in sweat and frustration, dejectedly trudging across the floor to physically remove her from D's lap. 


We repeated the exercise several times, each time with Kessel reaching the dead centre of the dogwalk and deciding that "this shit is for the birds" and bailing off. I think she made it across one time, following a treat trail laid down by The Boss. Unfortunately, I can't say I don't understand where she's coming from. Kessel's world is one big ball of stimulation that she creates for herself. She makes everything more exciting that it has to be. Tunnels have to be attacked and slammed into to create the maximum amount of noise. The tire needs to be taken from two strides away, just for fun. The table has to be pounced onto with all four paws, just because. There isn't much she can do to make the dogwalk interesting, other than fly off of it.


Speaking of the Queen Bitch, she's got her muzzle shoved under my armpit in a rare moment of Cuddle Solicitation. I should go seize this fleeting chance for normal human-canine bonding....