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.