Flirt Pole

I thought that Porter would be a wild child. I envisioned never being able to sit on the couch and peacefully watch tv but instead playing fetch and going on walks at all hours of the day and night. Thankfully this is not the case! But there are times Porter gets his panties in a bunch and I need an outlet for his energy. I can't always rush him outside for a walk and despite being a retriever he prefers to play keep away with the ball (we're working on this).

The good thing about having a terrier for a big sister is that Indigo has taught Porter how awesome the flirt pole is. In the beginning she would play with the flirt pole and he would attempt to chase her. This usually resulted in him just lying in the middle of the grass watching her and occasionally darting toward her when she came near. As he grew and gained speed and coordination he was able to keep up with Indi and she decided to let him have his fun (lest she get trampled).

So now she watches on the sidelines and occasionally darts in for the chase. But for the most part, it's all Porter's game now. I have to watch the sharp turns since I don't want any injuries to his growing body and if I snap the end too high he'll leap up into the air, which looks awesome, but could easily result in injury on impact with the ground.

I keep forgetting to get a video so after a very tiring flirt pole session today I remembered to grab the gear and have a second round. Porter is already tuckered out here so you can multiply his efforts times 10 or more and you'll get the normal picture.

We are still working on how to end the game. If he's still wired and ready to go he'll leap at the end I am holding. It seems to help if I keep my body between him and the prize but sometimes I become the punching bag. Our starts are much better. I can usually get him to sit and wait and not attack until I am all ready. Walking from the shed to the grass was tricky at first but it's coming along.

Another point of weakness is what happens when he actually gets ahold of the bag. This is his crowning moment of glory and he milks it for all he's worth. He trots along the yard looking as happy as a clam. His favorite part is the tug but as he's grown it's been much harder for me to hold my ground and not hurt my hands. I have not found a reliable treat for him to release the bag consistently. He'd rather play keep away and tug and clamp his mouth shut with all his might. When there's time, I let him play this game and we might be at it for 10-15 minutes. He eventually gets sloppy and tries to readjust his bite too much and I can whip the end out of his reach and start a new game.

Here's the video I took today. I didn't realize how far away it was but you'll get the picture. I try to reverse directions often or I get dizzy. You can see him anticipate it, sometimes incorrectly.

Big Bear Trip

I was hoping that Porter would have his first romp in the snow this last weekend, but the weather was not cooperating. He did get to play in some slush and ice though.

The new car crate worked out well. He has a lot more room, but or cargo space is suffering. The towel on top so I can have the crate as far to the left as possible but not scratch up the door frame when I close it. If this crate were an inch longer it wouldn't have fit front to back.

Indi had her usual spot and was actually settling in and looking comfortable...until we hit the winding mountain roads.

Both dogs were great at the cabin. It was mostly carpeted (and no doggie door of course) so I wasn't sure if Porter's house training would have a hiccup. I took him out frequently at first just in case, but after a day didn't need to stress about it.

Indi loved having an infant in the house again and Baby Devon was equally thrilled with Indi. I don't know who was more pleased when Devon would toss bits of her toast at Indi but both thought the arrangement was perfect.

Porter was not as obsessed with the infant or toddler as I thought he would be and I am thankful for that since it would have made for a very long weekend trying to keep him tied up and away from the kids. Unfortunately, because of his size I think, anytime Porter sniffed or even walked by the toddler, Jason would have a melt down.

I kept the doors to the bedrooms closed as much as I could and the kids kept their toys in their rooms. But even when a door was left open or socks and shoes were in the hallway, Porter didn't rush to grab at things that were not his.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the cabin has a fully fenced backyard. I was fully expecting to have to keep both dogs on leash for all potty breaks, so it was great to let them sniff and explore and chase balls and pine cones off leash. This really helped to tire Porter out.

One afternoon we walked a block to the lake with the kids and Porter. I thought there would be snow everywhere and a walk would be out of the question so I didn't bring his harness. With all the amazing mountain smells and the slush and ice along the side of the road, Porter was bound and determined to get here and there and nowhere as fast as he could. He was obsessed with the ice and I had to be careful to make sure I was standing on very dry land or he would cause me to slide and slip on the ice and mud.


At one point Porter was pulling like a sled dog and I stood my ground holding him back with all my strength. He suddenly stopped pulling and sat straight up. He has the odd sit where he's almost leaning back with his head and neck. I look to see why he was so still but also alert and I see that several ducks had come out of the lake and on to the land. He was doing a great job keeping an eye on them but not rushing over and scaring them away. Although I'm sure if he was off leash that's what he would have done. Normally he's not that interested in birds...maybe his instincts are starting to kick in.

Crates from Heaven

A couple of months ago, just as I was thinking I needed to buy larger crates for Porter (he is using Indi's 30 in. crates in the car and bedroom) I was given a free 42 inch crate. It's perfect for the bedroom. There's a ton of room for him to sprawl out at night.

I still needed to upgrade the car crate and have been hemming and hawing about which size to get. I finally decided on a 36 in. crate and was waiting for a good coupon through Pet Edge. I kept procrastinating and missing the 10% off sales, and luckily, too, since this afternoon my neighbor gave me a free 36 in. crate! As luck would have it, it fits in the car just barely front to back like I was hoping.

It was a fluke we were outside speaking with the neighbor in the first place.  Porter and I were on the couch watching tv when he looked out the window and spied the neighbor working in his garage. For some reason this upset Porter and he sat up, growled and began alarm barking while staring outside. I quickly gathered him up, grabbed some cheese, and headed outside to counter condition him to whatever he saw that upset him.

Once outside he was fine, but I still stood in front of my neighbor's driveway and fed Porter cheese. Which led to chatting with the neighbor and then being given the crate they were going to put in their garage sale.

I still don't know what alarmed Porter. Normally he can't see out that window since I keep it covered so Indi doesn't bark at things going by. So maybe he just wasn't used to seeing people out front while he's inside. It's something I need to work on since one small dog barking her fool head off at the window is plenty! I don't need a huge dog adding to the noise.

Oh Crap Plus Odor (But Not Connected)

Crap. That's right. My perfect puppy has picked up a disgusting habit. Some time in the last couple of weeks he's decided that some dog poop tastes amazing. It's not all the time, and it's only his or Indi's, but it's foul and I want it to stop. I have resorted to management and trying to rush out there with the dogs any time they go in the backyard so I can scoop anything up before it looks appetizing. I'm not that great at it yet and they are in the yard unsupervised here and there. When that happens I and thankful when I go out and there's poop to pick up.

On a happier and less gross note, I introduced Porter to the birch odor today in our K9 Nose Work session. I also did harder hides and he rocked it! Some of the hides were just one tiny piece of food perched on top of the odor tin and he had no trouble locating the source. Again, I wish I video taped this session since it was amazing to see him to an abrupt u-turn when he caught the scent and then slowly zeroed in on it. I really need to remember my camera. After 5-6 hides Porter was ready for a long nap.

Training with Distraction & K9 Nose Work

This weekend Porter and I meet up with two other dog friends to do some training together. I used Google maps to pick a grassy location between our homes. Little did I know that this spot is an unofficial off-leash dog park for the neighborhood. Thankfully I had Porter with me and not my reactive terrier. Our plan was to work on a rally course and some obedience exercises. I was hoping to also do some CGC work.

I previously mentioned how I was trying to keep play and training areas separate to help with Porter's focus. Well this had to be thrown out the window on Sunday since the off leash dogs were not going to leave us alone. So I let Porter go run amok off leash and much to my surprise he still very much wanted to work!! He did play, but quickly came back when I called and did pretty well on his heeling and some rally moves. Very impressive for a 6 month old pup to be able to focus like that when there are young off leash dogs frolicking next to us.

Once the park settled down and we were mostly alone I set up a rally course to work on. By the time it was ready Porter was pooped. I still took him through it and he did ok, but he lagged quite a bit. Bad trainer! I should have just scrapped the idea or only done one or two signs with enthusiasm and end it on a good note. I don't think it will slow his training down but I should know better and no matter what I had planned or how much work setting the course is I need to respect what I am reading form Porter. He still had fun, but I don't want to encourage slow responses or make him think rally is tiring.

This was also his first time off leash in an area that is not fenced in. The Fiesta Island dog park is mostly fenced. There are a two gaps where the surf meets the turf but those can easily be avoided. At first I wasn't sure about letting Porter off leash at this new park, but it's pretty isolated and I felt he would stick near his friend, Mira. He never went far at all, so I had nothing to worry about (this time?). I will keep working on his recall so he can enjoy more experiences like this but I won't just willy nilly let him off leash. Having one reactive dog I fully understand the damage a "friendly" off leash dog can do when he comes galloping up to a reactive dog on leash.

Today I taught another session of Nose Work and I almost left Porter at home. As I mentioned before, while being crated in the lobby with the other two dogs he's been whining and barking. I think it is in part due to the fact that the other dogs make a fuss, but also because he can hear me talking and praising the working dog but he can't see me. Instead of leaving him behind I decided to crate him in another room we sometimes have access to. This set up worked much better! He did bark a few times but over all he was pretty quiet.

He was able to do a few searches during class and when my clients left he did a couple more. I have to say he really has a nose on him.

One hide was on a couch but behind a throw pillow. He instantly narrowed down the search area to that corner of the room but he couldn't quite find it. I think the scent was moving up over the pillow and couch since as he would get closer he would lift his head and nose as high into the air as he could. He continued to search back and forth, going a little farther away and quickly u-turning when he realized he was getting farther away from the source. You could see his brain and nose working. In the end he found it and it was fascinating to watch. I wish I had this search on video.

The rest of the searches went well, too. He's not just sticking his head in boxes or other items anymore but really scenting the area and honing in on the source. As our training went on you could see how tiring this sport is. ow at home, Porter is completely wiped out.

It's really fun to watch him hunt and you can tell he loves it! He prances and darts around the room. Today he even began drooling during this first search!

I think it's time to make things harder with him, either add exterior searches or begin odor indoors. I can't decide which to do first and either way is acceptable from what I understand.

6 Months Old!

Porter turned 6 months old right before Christmas. I'm amazed how much he has grown and how fast the time as flown. It seemed like ages when I was waiting for him to be born and then old enough to come home. My husband remarked the other day how Porter is exactly what we were expecting and hoping for, based on the things we heard about the breed.

I also realized that he is now old enough to compete in Rally (or traditional obedience) but he's no where ready! This gave me a wake up call. I should have been working him more on rally. Not that I expected us to enter a ring this early, but he should be closer to being ready than he is. My main focus is on agility, but dogs cannot compete until 18 months, so I shouldn't put rally on hold in the meantime. Plus I can easily throw in a few rally moves here and there in the house whenever I want and it won't get in the way of his agility training time.

I started working with more of a purpose on his rally moves and was pleasantly surprised at how well he did. He's still in the very early stages and I am rewarding him quite a bit, but he readily completely the moves and stays focused on me. I think all my heeling work as paid off.

So my goal this year for Porter is to get him ready to trial in rally. We will also be working on Nose Work and working towards getting him on birch so we can do his ORT. He needs to be a year old at least, IRRC, so we have some time.

I love the shadow of his tail here with all the feathering

Another goal that has recently come up is to get Porter in the show ring. His overshot is almost gone and I am hoping that by the end of February his teeth will be perfect and he can compete in the Silver Bay Kennel Club show here in San Diego. I don't feel comfortable handling him myself. Who really wants both parts of the team green? Yikes! Right now the plan that we are working on is for his breeder to handle him on Saturday and another local breeder/handler to show him on Sunday. We'll be practicing with his breeder next week since I really haven't worked with him on her stacking or gaiting.

Since the weather has really warmed up in San Diego this week we hit the beach a few times. During our first trip Porter finally swam! He didn't mean to but ended up a little farther than expected while retrieving a stick. He turned around and realized he could touch so he swam back to shore. After that he was smart/stubborn and refused to go past a certain spot and would just level the stick out in the water. Some retriever! :) In this picture he is turning back and was about 2 feet shy of the stick. You can see the tiny ripple the stick is making just past him but he wasn't having any of it. He still happily ran in the water the rest of the trip...just not too deep.

 
On a fun note, Ian surprised me with  a Gopro Hero HD camera which is used to take videos of sports from the first person perspective. You can mount the camera on a helmet, your chest, your surfboard, etc. I *love* gadgets. I love dogs even more and when the two collide I'm in hog heaven. Yesterday I mounted the camera to Porter's collar and we headed to Fiesta Island Dog Beach. Here are two quick clips of his day.


This first video just shows him fetching a stick we found.






This clip show off his recall. It's still in the works, but I was very happy that he left the large group of new dogs and came to be from so far away.






Be prepared for many more videos! My vision is to video tape him doing agility :) I need to monkey with the mount a little since parts of the video (like when he was running full force) are too bouncy and hard to watch. I'd like the camera to be more steady so we'll see what I can come up with.

Christmas and Agility

For Christmas we traveled to my in-laws for a few days with Porter in tow. Indi stayed at doggie Disneyland (her BFF Theo's house) because my two brother-in-laws were bringing their young bouncy dogs and I knew it would be too stressful for me and Indi.

Look how much he's grown!

Unfortunately I came down with the flu shortly after we arrived so my husband was in charge of Porter almost the entire time. As you know, he's a pretty easy pup, but due to his size and my in-laws not being dog people, he had to be tethered and watched closely every moment.

Here he is getting settled in his spot.

 
His cousin dog, Guinness, the Boston Terrier/Pug, had free reign (with a drag leash) and used it to his advantage. Guinness loved taunting Porter by grabbing a toy and zooming past Porter. When they played bitey face, Guinness camped himself under the coffee table for protection and surged forward to attack only to retreat out of Porter's reach. He looked like a Moray Eel. Porter adapted to Guinness's sneaky tactics of staying out of reach by grabbing the leash Guinness was dragging and yanking him back into the fray.

There's no escape for Guinness

On Christmas, his other cousin arrived, Zeus, the Pug/Beagle. The three dogs got along well and did a great job tiring each other out.

Despite being tethered a majority of the time, Porter was very well behaved and pretty calm. He got frequent walks to the park where he played with a Great Dane in addition to all the wrestling he did wit his cousins.

We barely got everything to fit in our car with Porter's crate in the back and he's ready to move up to the next size. I love my SUV but I'm surprised how little cargo room I have. It's fine if there's no crate, but that's not an option.

Porter's snuggle techniques are being fine tuned every week. He is now using QM as a pillow, which she adores.

 

If Porter hears me running a bath for QM he now darts upstairs and bobs for her bath toys. He'd happily jump in but I'd rather not have a wet sopping dog running through the house.

At bedtime, Porter is learning to snuggle on her bed while we read bedtime stories. Sometimes he still gets stir crazy and wants to play or chew something but he's getting better about it every day. On those days he's just too amped up I close him out of the room and he lies down outside the door and waits for me to finish. Any time I'm in a room and he can't come in he sets up a vigil just outside. He'll lie there for hours waiting for me to emerge even though the rest of the family is downstairs and more than happy to keep him company.

Coveting Kylie's wood plank.

 Due to some appointments Porter is missing two agility classes. I worked on his issue of sticking to my left side like glue and missing the jump, but of course he didn't do it in the backyard at all. We are making progress with his contact behavior. It's still not even close to being done, but we have worked out the issue of Porter twisting towards me and bringing his back end off the ramp. I found that he was so focused on getting to the target plate that he came off the board. He wasn't paying any attention to his body. So instead of using a target I just did some free shaping. He's more focused this way instead of flailing all over the place. I think part of the problem is he can smell all the treats on the ground others have used so he's obsessed with sniffing all over the place to get a free morsel.  Apparently I'm starving him even though I have a huge bait bag full of amazing treats that I provide in ample supply.

Last class I tried something new. Because Porter was so obsessed with sniffing the ground any chance he got I decided to try a technique by Swedish agility trainers Eva Bertilsson and Emelie Johnson Vegh. While you are training the dog is either actively working or put away and on a break. To get from one spot to another you use a transport, which can be tugging with the dog and moving to your spot, carrying your dog, a cookie magnet, or holding the collar. But you are controlling the situation and keeping the dog from getting distracted or doing his own thing. He knows it's time to work and not just wander around.

Not quite swimming, but getting closer!

So in class Porter was either in his soft crate (door flap still open and lots of treats), actively working with me, or on his mat. This was a challenge to keep up in class since we are constantly moving to another part of the field to work and while there need to listen to the instruction and then wait our turn. I can't be that far away from Porter while he's in the soft crate yet, since I don't want him to learn he could rip out of it if he really wanted to. So I carried his mat everywhere and worked on him relaxing until it was his turn, then right after it was either back on his mat or into the crate.

Comfort is highly valued on our household

I found this to be exhausted for both of us. I think it will be better when his mat and soft crate behavior are more solid, but right now he still needs treats every now and then so he's not truly relaxing but still anticipating being rewarded. 45 minutes into class I could tell his brain just wanted to turn off and we were unable to do one of the exercised.

On the plus side, I found this method did prevent a lot of his sniffing behavior and while his brain was still fresh he was a lot more focused on each exercise.

I will continue trying this method and see what come of it. I also am not allowing him to greet or play with any dogs when at a training facility. I noticed last week that he seemed less amped up and trying to play  because of this.

Apparently this is comfortable for him. I call it his "Broken Puppy" position.