Camping Firsts

Riley, Seven, and I camped in my tent at the Harriman agility trial.  This was my first time back to tent camping since May 2008, before Travis died.  It was the first time for Riley and Seven.  It was the first time during winter.... luckily indoors.

Although indoors, is was not without hardships.  For one, the building is not heated at night.  It certainly was not as bitter as the snowy, windy, cold conditions outside, but the fleeces, long sleeves, space heater, and electric blanket were necessities.  It was also very dusty with the stirred up dirt hanging in the air long after everyone had left. 

One other brave soul camped as well and he was an excellent neighbor and knew everything you need to know about camping at Harriman.  Camping is definitely a money saver, but it is labor intensive.  I especially hate having to use the bath house facilities, but its almost free, so I get over it.

The girls did really well with camping.  Recall that Riley has some issues with hotel rooms and tends to have a meltdown on day 2 just outside the room.  However, she did really well with camping.  Sometimes she was very alert to our neighbor outside of our tent.  I sometimes asked him to say hi to the girls and hearing his voice would settle her down.  I am hoping she outgrows her weirdness all together.  Seven could care less about it all. 

But Seven does care about being by my side 24/7 and continues to voice her opinion on the manner.  The trial was a really good experience for her.  She had to see me come in and out of sight over and over.  Sometimes it was her turn to come out and sometimes it was Riley's turn.  She was never alone as there are lots of other people and dogs at the trial coming and going at all times.

Focus will certainly not be a problem for Seven.  While Riley snoozes and recharges her batteries, Seven is on high alert at all times.  I was surprised that she was not exhausted each night, but really she was not.

The Harriman trial is situated next door to a college that has a nice walking path and a field for the girls to play fetch in.  We go for long walks each day.

Riley was nice to carry the wet, slimy fetch toy back to... well, of course, until I took a picture of her doing it and she promptly dropped it and made me carry it the rest of the way. 

All in all, we had a lot of fun and despite the approaching snow storm and nail in my tire, we made it home safe and sound.

Happy Halloween!

How cool is my Jack-O-Lantern? I think I did a pretty good job!
This Halloween decoration in a parking lot struck fear into Riley's heart a couple of weeks ago. Scrambled eggs helped her overcome it and they became fast friends. Occasionally, Riley surprises me with being so startled by something.Riley says not to make fun of her.Thank you for all of the name suggestions. So many good ones. I will make my final decision today.

Motel Maddness

All in all, Riley is doing great, but there is still one issue that has me totally confused. There are times when she will completely freak out. Sometimes the fear seems triggered by sound and other times I wonder if it could be a scent. Either way, both have been very difficult to predict. Luckily, nothing as bad as this episode (click here) has occurred again, but it still is very perplexing.

For example, at the recent agility trial we came in and out of the building many times throughout the day. Riley had no problems with these short walks and potty breaks.... until about 6 PM. Suddenly, her tail was tucked, she was nervous and ready to bolt, and I have no idea why. The scene was a little different with less vehicles, people, and dogs in the parking lot, but the quiet environment was hardly a reason to turn inside out. Unfortunately, these episodes continue and often carry over to the next location. In this case, we loaded into the van and headed to a local park with shady walking paths. It took Riley some time to settle down, take an interest in her surroundings, and return her tail to a normal position.

There is one situation that has consistently produced terror in Riley's heart every time... the outside of hotel rooms. We have now stayed in four different hotels and she always has issues with just outside the door. Due to my past experience, I had a plan of action.

I brought rawhide chips and bully sticks. My plan was to rush Riley in and out of the hotel room so she would not have a chance to have a meltdown. Once inside the room, she would get to enjoy one of her special treats. Her meals were spiked with canned dog food and I planned to feed them right outside the door as we were coming and going so she would start to associate the area with something positive.

This worked for the first day or two, but I had to abandon my strategy as she would not eat outside the room anymore.

The rest of the weekend, I made her stay behind me on her potty walks outside the hotel or any other time she showed problems. When she is fearful, she is usually trying to drag me away from the situation so when she was unstable, I made her stay behind me so I was clearly leading the way. I think it helped. So far it has not interfered with competition, thankfully.

Hotel Weirdness

Riley handled the agility trial venue like a pro, but she had issues with the hotel. The Knights Inn is not quite as nice as the Westin that Travis and I stayed in when we traveled to California for the Agility Invitational, but he and Katie stayed in a lot of cheap hotels. We have seen broken out car windows, a drug bust, prostitutes, and tons of feral cats! Comparatively, this Knights Inn was pretty nice.

About when Riley should have settled in, she became hyper alert with her nose and ears. She seems really offended by certain smells. At times she was shaking. I thought sleeping on the bed would be a special treat. I am not sure if she liked it or would have preferred a crate. I took her for a nice walk Saturday night and it took a long time for her to calm down and just be a dog. She is a strange little greyhound. Thankfully, it never interfered with our agility trial.

Dealing with fear and phobias is definitely something I wish to avoid. I was truly spoiled with Travis and Katie. I could take them anywhere. I never gave it a second thought and didn't have to. They traveled great. They shared hotel rooms well with others. They had no separation anxiety about being left in a hotel room. I always appreciated that about Katie and Travis, but now more than ever.

Agility Trial

Reagan competed in her third agility trial last weekend. She earned 2 Open Standard legs with a 2nd and a 3rd. Both had flaws... allowable flaws in the Open level..., but flaws nonetheless that would not be allowed in Excellent. So we have some homework to do. Here are her 2 runs from the first day:

I thought the Jumpers run (1st one) was awesome. The opening sequence was once again very difficult. Much more difficult than the Excellent level course the same day. The course started with 2 jumps in a straight line and then a left turn into the blue tunnel. Well, the correct tunnel entrance was facing away from the dog, but jump #4 was an obvious choice, but not correct one. Great run otherwise.

In her Standard course (2nd one), Reagan assumed the teeter was the dogwalk and surprised herself when she ran to the end and it dropped out from under her. I believe this is why she then ducked out of the A-Frame. Neither of these disqualified the run and she placed third.

On Sunday, she ducked out of the teeter, but then came back and teetered smartly. She qualified in that run with a 2nd. However, Reagan also scraped her head.I have no idea how this could have happened on course. I checked the tunnels and the chute and found nothing that would have scraped her head. :-/

We now have 2 months to work on our issues. I am not happy with the A-frame performance. She seems unclear about what to do on the downside and is wasting time by stopping mid way. I also need to work on differentiating the teeter and dog walk, so she does not get surprised on the teeter anymore. Lastly, we need to work more on collection so we can handle those tricky openings.

Riley did great this weekend. She was mostly herself and worked on heeling and fronts ring side.... at least until we saw this on Sunday afternoon:Again, I kind of think it is the smell because she will be walking along and suddenly stops in her tracks at seemingly nothing. Wierd! We will keep working.

Improvement

I am thankful to report that Riley did better at the agility trial last weekend than the one prior. She had some issues on Saturday, but was perfect on Sunday. As you know, Riley is not competing yet, but I still have goals for her when we attend an event.On Saturday morning, Riley walked happily around the entire facility hunting squirrels unsuccessfully on a four foot leash. She was fine at the agility trial and worked on obedience exercises next to the rings. However, when I took Riley outside of the arena to potty walk, it is as if she suddenly sees the event from a distance and is afraid of it. Again, there is no connecting with Riley when she is like this.

My fear is that Riley would bolt and run away if she were to slip a collar or to be purposely off leash for competition when something scary happens. I have always had very good success teaching recalls to my greyhounds and have felt very confident with them off leash when competing. I have never felt out of control or that one might run away....... except Riley. I do not trust her.However, Riley was perfect on Sunday. She worked well ringside. She was able to walk outside of the event and then return to it with no problems. She played with me and visited with people. She was happy and curious. Improvement!Of course, the boy still hopes that Riley will bomb and one day she will be his trail dog.

Disappointment

So there was one disappointment to our otherwise perfect agility trial last weekend. Her name is Riley. Riley is typically distracted and always seeking reinforcement from her environment. She has been difficult to bond with. I think she would easily trade me for the next person to walk through the door. She makes me work hard for her focus and that is fine.
Although Riley was not competing, I still had a couple of goals for her. I wanted her to rest well in her crate, desensitize to all of the stimulation, train a little near the rings, work on that illusive focus, and to have fun. Well.... I can say that Riley did rest well in her crate.
On Saturday afternoon, there was a festival setting up near by. I was walking Riley around when some of the musicians began tuning up their instruments. I am not a fan of loud music, so I can tell you that this was not loud and obnoxious in anyway. Just a few random notes being played here and there. Riley turned inside out. She was not just scared, she was totally flipping out. I had never seen this side of Riley before. She was inconsolable and was just trying to get a away. Her Saturday was ruined....

....And so was her Sunday.

I took the girls for a walk along the path that travels around the park and facility. Riley had a great walk the prior morning, but on Sunday morning I noticed she was not herself and very nervous. She was very suspicious of every person we passed (normally she is very friendly with strangers).

Throughout the day, she continued to do worse. Back at the trial, she was still afraid of people and half the time would not take food. Her tail was tucked the entire time (see below). Despite a trial setting being very loud with a lot of background noise, Riley was hypersensitive to noises I never would have noticed.

On Sunday afternoon, I was trying to give Riley a chance to potty. Some distance away, you could hear an announcer for another sporting event. Again Riley flipped out, but this time her whole body was shaking. It was so bizarre and very sad to see this happy-go-lucky dog be so miserable.

Since then, Riley has been normal. It will be interesting to see how she behaves at the next agility trial at the same facility. I hope Riley does not have a repeat performance.