Bing Blog #20
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"Growing Up" --
July 4, 2006 HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE!!!! My little puppy is growing up! It’s pretty obvious that this pup has been a handful. As Pat Miller said to me last fall, “This isn’t what you signed up for.” Yes, that’s exactly how I felt. Bing has been one frustration after another. Yet, at the same time, I realize that he is here in my life to teach me a whole slew of things that my other dogs haven’t yet taught me. Remember, this is the pup who followed me to the car the day I went to pick him up. No leash, no beckoning…he just walked behind me to the car, waved his little puppy paw good bye to his littermates and breeder-mom, and laid there quietly for the three hour ride home. Wow. That feels like forever ago! Now, a year later (less two weeks), he has shown some of what he’s GOING to be like…soon! A few days ago, I finally had the opportunity to put up all of my dogs’ ribbons. I’m very proud of each and every one of the ribbons, as they show the amount of time and energy and fun we have put in to our work. Acacia has 107 ribbons. Montana has 14 (but she only STARTED her career at age 13!). Bing? ZERO!!! Uh-oh!!! |
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Bing at 14 months of age |
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| However, last Saturday, we agreed to do a Rally demo for a local pet food store. They were doing a doggy-wash as a fundraiser for a local shelter, and the manager and I thought it’d be fun to show off some of our stuff. Several of us ran our dogs through the course I designed. I ran Bing through the course three times. It was hot, it was midday, it was on blacktop, and the shelter placed their adoption dogs and cats RIGHT NEXT to the ring. Some of them barked nonstop. Many of the visiting dogs used our ring gates as peeing posts. It was an incredibly distracting environment for any dog, and this was no exception for Bing. |
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| His first run was horrendous. I almost couldn’t keep his attention on me, even with food lures (which I hate to use, but under the circumstances I knew would be necessary). Some of the signs weren’t completely familiar to him, either. It was clear that I needed to do some more ‘heel’ work with him, too. But by the third run, he was really stunning to watch! I almost couldn’t get his attention off of me, and I wasn’t even luring him anymore! Sure, I was still using a very high rate of reinforcement (I’d have been a fool not to), and my bait bag was visible, and I was still using my clicker, but his fronts were better, his left and right turns are perfect and crisp, his pace changes were smooth, and all that shoulder work we’ve done in agility have really paid off for the spiral work. WOW!This demo really got me excited to start working with him more often…I realized, while looking at his empty trophy case (each dog has his/her own trophy case in my lobby), that I have no idea what I’m waiting for!!! At last I have training space for him! I have time, now that I’m unpacked, and he is going to be a real jaw dropper when we’re ready to go! Meanwhile, Pete suggested that I take Bing through my own Foundations course, now that Sue is teaching it. JEEZ! It hadn’t even occurred to me! I can take my dog to training class in my own back yard….and I am not even teaching it! It was really hard for me to teach last summer while Pete handled Bing through the Puppy Manners and Foundations classes, and I’m sure that this contributed to his frenetic tendency in group classes, which overflowed into the agility classes we took. Now, I can spend time repeating the basics class, with both of us as students! We started on Monday night…and we had a great time! I was really surprised by his ability to just sit and pay attention to me. This class is a ‘sit around and teach the dog’ class, not a ‘march around the room at heel’ class. It is a calm environment, and that allowed him to relax a little. He offered me downs and relaxed postures, did sit-stays and down-stays when I asked him to….one of those times, I went to hand another student a frozen Kong for their dog. Bing got up when he saw the Kong (talk about distractions!) but when I asked him to stay again he did it perfectly. I walked about 20 feet away and he didn’t budge, even when I petted the other dog. Again, I almost couldn’t get him to look elsewhere; his focus is wonderful. His stand needs some help, so we worked on that, and he sat for clicks and treats from the other students in the class. He even was fine with two people who petted him on the head! (He also did this today for extended periods of time with my mom and my dad…yay!) So, before this gets too long, I guess I just want to brag about “The Bingle AKA Schmingle” growing up! We are going to get ready for some Rally trials! Ali |
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Run-through #1 (above) -- very distracted |
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Run-through #3 (below) -- a focused Belgian |
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