Is That a Chicken Back in Your Pocket or.........

I have been feeding my dogs raw food for about 10 years now. I love it and the dogs love it. Greyhounds are notorious for bad teeth and giant piles of crap. Raw food is great for reducing both of these issues among other benefits. However, the problem is that raw food is tough to train with. You can't exactly put a chicken back in your pocket and pull it out as a timely reward. Its messy and not exactly safe for humans to handle. Katie and Travis have always been extremely food motivated making them very easy to train and reinforce correct behaviors. They have never refused a treat that I have offered and have never needed any additional incentives to eat.



Reagan is also an eager eater, but she would sometimes rather do something else than to have to perform a behavior for a piece of food..... she is happy to eat the food, but doesn't want to work for it at that moment. I would like to increase her food drive and intensity a few notches, but herein lies the problem..... she receives the highest value food at the beginning of each day and for free (our dogs eat once a day). Ideally, she should work for her meals or at least be fed after she trains.



With kibble, this is so easy. You can throw 5 kibbles into a bowl and ask the dog to sit for it. Its not exactly a fulfilling meal, but at least you can forgo the stress the dog feels about skipping a meal all together and then save the rest for training later. The other benefit to kibble is that its boring, so training with it can easily be jazzed up with some hot dogs, cheese, or roasted chicken mixed in. With raw meaty bones, its difficult to get much jazzier than that.






So I was on a mission to somehow incorporate raw food into the training program and to have Reagan earn it. And to also train her when she is hungry. Each morning over the last few days, I have measured out her food and given her just a small bite and I have saved the rest, generally, 2 chicken backs for later. Then as luck would have it, the local Kroger finally started stocking the "Pollo Fresco" packs again which are mostly chicken necks and several backs. The necks can be cut in half with kitchen shears..... (I know you guys just love to read about this). OK, so now what? I remembered that I had a stuff toy with a Velcro opening that you could stuff with food, squeakers, etc. So I put some chicken neck bites in a little Ziploc bag and stuffed it into the little pouch and **WA LA**! I now had a fuzzy, stuffy, squirrel with editable insides. Well, Reagan liked this new toy very much and chased it with more intensity. It was much easier to throw further now that the squirrel had some meat on its bones. Reagan fetched her prey like a champion courser and brought it straight back to my hands each time after she realized that she needed my help. So while this was messy and inconvenient, it was a successful way to use raw food in training, increase her food and toy drive, and to make her earn that meal.

So now you know for certain that I am weird.

"Like" Is a Strong Word

When people meet Reagan, the often ask "how is she coming along, do you like her?" Well, "like" is a strong word when you are referring to a fiery-redheaded-sassy-bratty-obnoxious-monster puppy. Its nothing alarming. I have disliked them all from time to time, but this week is definitely one of those times for Reagan. Overall, she is just being a brat which is fine because I didn't want an easy, push over of a dog, but she is showing more fear lately. Fortunately, we have always ended on a good note, but she has had some strange episodes this week. I returned to one of the old training haunts. It is a fenced in field with agility equipment that members of my agility club are allowed to use. My personal set up is in my old horse arena at my parents' house in Cartersville. It is spacious, the footing is perfect, and my equipment is in good shape. Plus I don't have to share unless I invite someone over. For the last several years, most of Travis' agility training and practice happens here because he does not need anymore proofing. He does not need to see other fields, new people, different equipment, etc. He is a super star running every course as if he were at home. But during early training, it is important to seek out all the different places you can. Everywhere you go is an opportunity for training. The more places you go and the more people, dogs, and animals the dog sees, the more the dog will begin to generalize all situations. A dog that generalizes well is one that you do not find yourself saying "well.... he does it at home."

So back to Reagan and the new (but old) agility field. She started out fine, but then she looked up and noticed the tree tops blowing. She couldn't do anything at that point, so I brought out Katie. I had Katie do some little jumps. Katie was completely obnoxious. You just can't give her a treat for doing something simple anymore. She can do an entire agility course, but give her a treat for jumping one 12 inch jump and she suddenly knocking them all over because she is so frantic for her next treat. I love her food motivation, but I do wish I could tone it done just a smidge for her retirement. Otherwise, Katie did a find job of demonstrating that she was having a good time and wasn't scared. Reagan started to join in and forget about the trees.

The next day, we came back. The wind was not blowing, so the trees remained unnoticed, but there was a strange sounding bird in the woods behind the agility field. It freaked Reagan out and she could not concentrate anymore. I put her away and worked with the Katie and Travis. She was then eager to come back out and play fetch.

Today, she spooked at an overturned bucket that she moved across the driveway when she pulled her leash tight against it. This was at least a situation I could manage. I tossed treats on top of the bucket and slid it across the driveway while Reagan and I followed it. I clicked when she would take a treat from it or move towards it. I picked it up and showed her the inside of it and she got over it. If anyone has any ingenious ideas about how to work with tree tops or strange sounding birds.... let me know :-).

Crone's Blazing Sunshine

Well, Kathy got her new greyhound puppy home. What a cutie! Good color too! :-) I will let her tell you about Blaze, the future agility greyhound super star.


Kathy's email:

I picked him up last night from CCGA (Crone’s Creatures Greyhound Adoptions) Director, Kay Compton’s house last night in Ocala , Florida . He seemed to warm up to me right away and is incredibly friendly for an 11 week old pup—I haven’t seen much in the way of him being scared per se which makes me very happy. He and I spent the night at LaQuinta in Ocala . I put his crate on the bed next to me. He was NOT happy about staying in the crate and whined and cried. I talked and sang to him to get him to go to sleep. Although LaQuinta hotels are very pet friendly—they do have you to sign a waiver saying that your pet will not destroy their place or disturb the other guests.

He would fall asleep—then me being a light sleeper, I’d hear him fidget and move around. So I would get up and take him outside to potty. He was actually very good about that. When he would do his business outside, I would praise him—which he really seems to like. We’d go back to the room and I would crate him. Then the crying and whining would start again until I talked/sang him to sleep. We did this like 4 or 5 times throughout last night. At home, it’ll be better because he can cry and whine and I won’t have to worry about being thrown out –unless my husband gets fed up ;)

Anyway, he also does NOT seem to be noise sensitive. At 8am this morning, the fire alarm system had a glitch and went off. It was incredibly loud. After checking the hallway to make sure there really was no fire, we waited out the couple of minutes it took them to turn it off. I was very happy to see he didn’t seem the slightest bit fazed. He cocked his head and looked at me but that was about it.

We drove back home today and just got home a little bit ago. We did the introductions to Vegas & Rio. I knew Vegas would be fine. I was a little worried about Rio because she does NOT like puppies since they get right on her face (which is what she does to other dogs—she can dish it out but can’t take it). Rio actually did better than I expected. She did and continues to do some snarling when he gets in her face. And she did NOT like it when he tried to take her stick. The 3 of them played together. He was egging them on and got rolled and stepped on at one point. He was more subdued in playing with them after that for a bit. Then later was running and wanting to play full throttle with them again.

Here’s his link on Greyhound Data:

http://www.greyhound-data.com/d?d=crones+blazing+sunshine&sex=&color=&birthyear=&birthland

Kathy

P's and Q's

The redheads and I enjoyed another 3-day weekend of agility at Wills Park. Travis ran beautifully and earned 2 more double Qs with at least 1 first, 2 seconds, and a third. I honestly can't remember his placement from Jumpers yesterday..... whoops. His only non-qualifying run was Jumpers on Friday. He missed his weave pole entrance and skipped the first pole. Otherwise, he is running very consistently and smooth. It feels so good to guide him around a course. Some people feel really rushed and look really out of sorts out there. Some handlers sound really desperate or harsh with verbal commands even if they don't mean to. Others just can't put it together. So its nice when you and your dog finally put it together and run clean more often than not... when the run looks as smooth as it feels... when you are so in sync that your dog knows where he is going and you aren't constantly pulling him from incorrect obstacles. Travis is just such a super star.

Today everyone saw him in his penguin PJs because I was short on time..... so he got made fun of :-). But that's ok, he still ran clean :-).

Reagan earned a triple P on Saturday and a double P today. It was like she finally understood that she should take this opportunity to potty. She is working really well amongst all of the distractions. My best friend, Anna Rhodes from California, would like to predict that Reagan is going to my best greyhound yet......in fact her exact words are "I think she just might turn out to be your best dog in terms of winning a ton of different titles. I predict it NOW". So there you have it, Anna. Its in writing. I think it will be neat to look back ten years from now and read Reagan's blog with some young obnoxious greyhound (red, of course) at my feet. I will be wondering how this new dog will ever compare to my wonderful Reagan :-)...... dare to dream :-). Now if I could just get her to stop chewing on the old bed sheet's elastic, not stand over and stare face to face with Travis while he is resting (thanks for not killing her, Travis), and to not make a nest on top of Katie......... she might just see her first birthday.....stay tuned.

Katie looked good this weekend. We did some obedience work and she got to hunt squirrels at the end of a 4 foot leash. No catches, but it does make her strike a pretty pose.

Now, Katie's leopard PJs have special meaning. They belonged to Kate Crawford's Mandoid from Marz. Mandoid was the pioneer greyhound of agility and Kate's super diva. Katie later surpassed Mandoid's accomplishments and when Mandoid passed away, Kate wanted Katie to have her coat. So it is a very special coat and keeps Katie snugly warm in the van on cold days.

We also met a lady named, Kathy. She is adopting an 11 week old greyhound this week. This will be her first greyhound and she hopes to do agility and obedience with him. He is coming from a farm that was shut down due to a bad situation. He is supposedly the trouble maker and most outgoing of the litter. She hasn't seen him yet, but he is red (at least she got the right color :-). I told her she must email me pictures and updates. She lives in Gainesville, GA.

Bad Feeling

Do you ever just have a bad feeling that something is wrong, but you can't really pin point it? I feel that Katie isn't quite right, but I am not sure what it is. About a week ago, she briefly cried out 2 or 3 nights in a row while laying on her bed for the night. I have no idea why or what she had done other than pick up her head. I think that the weakness in the left hind leg has been worse over the last couple of weeks. She is crooked when she should be traveling straight and if she does anything quickly, her rear end swings wildly to the left.... more so than before. Then while fetching a stuffy toy the other day she cried out and came to a halt. Again, I couldn't find anything wrong with her and haven't seen anything since. She has an old broken toe with a huge knuckle on the right hind leg. It has never cause a problem until recently. For one, the knuckle is much larger than before and there is some additional swelling. It now rubs against the other middle toe and has a blister on it. Katie, of course, never complains. I think that when her left hind leg was paralyzed, her right hind compensated and aggravated the gnarly toe. (Katie is 2 years old and still wearing SEGA blue in upper left picture)

I still find myself grieving about her retirement. It probably sounds kind of silly, but work/play/train is what we did. I hope that I can preserve forever how it felt to walk into a ring with her. She did everything quickly, smartly, and happily. She never quit. When Katie earned her first CDX leg in Open obedience, she did so with a very good score. Later, a man with a Golden Retriever (a popular breed for obedience) was very complimentary and asked who I trained with. I explained that I wasn't working with a trainer at the time, but that I clicker trained. He was like "Clicker what?". I smiled. Clicker training wasn't very popular for competition obedience a few years ago.

I am becoming more afraid that I am going to hurt Pumpkin (yeah, that's her nickname) if I allow her to be too active. I try to do more hanging out, snuggling, walks, and so on with Katie. I hate to whine about it, but its almost kind of insulting. She needs something a little more mentally stimulating than that. I have thought about teaching her some silly tricks since that would allow me to shape a behavior with a clicker. If you can think of a creative trick, please let me know. (Katie is 9 years old in the lower right picture)

My friend, Anne Jones, lost her very special Ridgeback yesterday. Beckett was the only Ridgeback to have earned a Utility Dog Title and the Master Excellent titles in agility. He was also a conformation champion and the sire to many other champions in both conformation, agility, and obedience. As I look down at Reagan at my feet, I can't help but think "Katie and Travis, don't leave me alone with her!" That poor little brat has a lot to live up to.

Anyways, I'm being sentimental and that is my complaint for the day.

Brat

Well, the little brat (Reagan) decided to test me today. Test really isn't the right word. I'm certain that she is not doing this on purpose, but it is frustrating nonetheless. I haven't been able to get her to tinkle on any of our hikes so this time I filled her up with canned dog food flavored water (hmmmm... my favorite too). We went for a nice long hike. Katie and Travis demonstrated their abilities to eliminate during hikes numerous times, but nada for Reagan. So when it was time to leave, I circled her around on the grass just trying to do something boring, so she could focus on going pee. I finally loaded Katie and Travis into the van and walked Reagan around the van over and over again. I think I spent an extra 30 minutes just trying to get her to pee. Finally, it was time to leave. I went to the gym while the dogs slept in the van. By the time we arrived home, it had been about 3 hours since she drank her flavored water, so she had to go by now and we had already had multiple successes with going potty in the front yard so I thought that this would be a piece of cake. Nope. So I put her in her crate. I tried again after 30 minutes. Nada again. I was very tempted to just put her in the backyard because I knew she would pee as soon as she stepped off the patio, but I was determined to win this. Finally at 7:55 (her last chance before Survivor) we have success. I cheered, praised, and gave her some cheese. She was obviously pleased with herself and now she was allowed free time in the house.

Later on, she was sleeping on her bed when I decided to pester her to test out her reaction. She was hard to wake up, but when she did come to, she looked at me and gave me a "leave-me-alone-I'm-resting" growl. So I verbally scolded her and slipped the bed out from under her and she suddenly found herself lying on the hardwood floor. "Its my bed and I just happen to let you sleep on it, Ms. Reagan." I think she got the point.

Stinker

Well, the little Stinker (Reagan) is starting to grow on me. She is showing signs that she is going to be a good little worker. She is offering sits when we are standing around. She is retrieving stuffy toys fairly well and is just about dropping the toy at my feet for a treat. I started her on the plastic dumbell a few days ago and she is readily taking it into her mouth for a brief second. She is offering to pick up the stuffy toy and then I click & treat when I take it with my other hand because I want her to learn to put it in my hand. When I try to let her wander around, so I can practice recalls.... I can't get her to leave me alone. She is very interested in what I am doing and where I am going........ which is a good thing when you are training a dog. I have her stepping or hopping over 8 inch jumps. Sit and down stays are coming along, but I'm trying not to be too rigid since it is hard for her to sit still. Even when we get home, she is still ready to go and full of energy. At least now with the fetching and the recalls, I can get her running a little more than before. She is such a handful though. The other day she almost knocked over a bookshelf because she noticed something sitting on top of it (who looks up there?). Today, she started to eat the carpet and a button she found. I literally cannot let her out of sight. Overall, I am really happy with her progress over the last 3 1/2 weeks. I can't believe its only been that long. She seems to be learning so fast. I am in no rush, but I don't want her to get bored doing the same thing over and over again, so that is why I keep repetitions to a minimum and introducing something new.

The Agility Trial Must Go On!

Rain, sleet, and snow can't stop the agility competitor in pursuit of a Q. Yesterday, started out with pouring rain and I had to get to Wills Park an hour early to secure a highly prized parking spot under the arena cover. Once the rain stopped, we enjoyed rather comfortable temperatures. Travis went on to win both of his agility classes earning double Q (qualifying score) #32.

Reagan took in all of the sights, sounds, and smells. I brought her out early while it was still quiet and folks were just getting set up. She handled all of the new stuff perfectly, was patient with ill mannered puppies, enjoyed meeting new people, and even peed once (remember that is still an important accomplishment). One thing that is really funny and enjoyable about Reagan is that when she is excited about something and can't contain herself, she literally leaps with all 4 legs off the ground. Its very silly.

Today, I started the day by putting on my long johns, lined pants, snow pants, 2 long sleeve T-shirts, a fleece, a sweat shirt, coat, gloves, and wool socks..... yes, all at the same time. Over the years I have learned to dress for standing around in the wind and in the shade at agility trials. It was raining when we left the house this morning. The three red-hounds were dressed in their finest fleeces and were tucked into the crates in the van. Katie is the most affected by the cold, so she was snuggly warm in her Seseme Street belly warmer fleece and her leapard print fleece coat.

As we drove to the trial, the rain turned to sleet and eventually the sleet turned to snow. I just couldn't believe it was snowing at an Atlanta agility trial in March. It was so ridiculously cold and the wind is always twice as strong at the Wills Park wind tunnel (aka covered arena). Travis' first class was the standard class (has the climbing obstacles) as usual. I was glad that he was required to do a sit on the table instead of a down today. The dogs have to run naked and most run without collars, Travis included. Since it was snowing pretty hard and blowing into the ring, I didn't want him to wear his fleece PJs outside of the van and get them soaked. Plus, in all honesty, the PJs are pretty silly looking and I prefer that we limit the number of people that see him in his penguin suit. I tucked his blue fleece lined coat under my sweat shirt to warm it up and when it was time, I was able to switch his coats inside of the van. After a quick potty break, I jogged, jumped, and stretched him until it was his turn. I wanted him to be nice and warm and didn't remove the coat until the very last second. Travis ran perfectly... another first place run in 42.26 seconds.

Later on, my friend Carol with the 2 fittest looking labs on the planet (greyhound-like wastelines and even a hint of ribs at the right angle) came up to me and explained that Brisk had knocked the first bar and so Carol stopped her immediately and pulled her out of the ring. Brisk loves agility, but she can also be careless. If she won't keep the bars up, she isn't allowed to continue. As Carol was leaving the ring, she noticed that the bars were set at 26" instead of 24"..... the ring crew had not adjusted the height prior to Carol's run. Ultimately, it is the agility handler's responsibility to make sure the jumps are the right height, so Carol was not going to say anything. The judge was very nice, so I decided to say something and the judge agreed to let Carol run again, this time with 24" jumps. Well, Brisk ran clean and knocked me out of first place with a run that was 0.04 seconds faster! Can you believe that? You would think after getting her another chance to run that she would have at least stopped her dog on a contact obstacle or kept her on the table an extra second...... just kidding :-).

Anyways, we both went on and qualified again in Jumpers, but this time the greyhound finished on top. Brisk can knock a lot of bars, so the double Qs are coming slowly.... so I was glad I could help her get 1 more..... I think she owes me dinner or something :-). Travis now has 33 double Qs. He needs 7 more to be the first MACH2 Greyhound.

As for Reagan, she learned about disappointment today by waiting in the van most of the day. I got her out once and she did very well with all the noise and movement caused by the wind and oddly dressed people. She did a few airs above ground.

Glimmers of Hope

Little Reagan is offering glimmers of hope and is making some good progress. Frequent, but short training sessions are working well and she has been a little more motivated and is a tad more studious. I am so spoiled that Katie and Travis will just keep going and going with as much gusto as they start with. I am used to working with them for about 20 or more minutes at a time. When I work with them, I simply accomplish what I set out to do. With Reagan, I am limiting myself by only grabbing 10 treats and when I run out, I'm done. Or I throw the toy 2 or 3 times and then put it away while she is still geared up.

So as of now, Reagan will usually quickly sit and down from hand signals without being lured by food (she still gets a treat though). She is learning that I want her to step and stand on a dogwalk board. She appears to know her name when she is listening (that is the key :-). She comes when called. And she is offering to pick up the stuffy toy more frequently.... she even sort of retrieves.... sometimes.... might be just an accident :-). Today, I popped her over some little jumps and lured her through a chute without the fabric (very short, hard plastic tunnel). She also seems to be getting more comfortable with off-the-premises peeing. I've been loading her up on watery canned dog food broth before we go places so she really has no choice, but to finally go.

So I would say she has earned a couple of days.

How Many Days?

Katie is so wonderful that she has earned at least another 100 years that I'm willing to keep her....... this continues to multiply since she continues to be wonderful. Travis is probably set for life even if he never has another good day. It was a rough start for Travis and we took it day by day, but eventually he started to earn some weeks, months, and years.

Reagan was kind of good today. Not so loud. Nice to all new dogs she met. She was willing to work and pleasant to be around..... at least part of the time :-). So I am going to keep her another day. If I can get her to pee in the front yard (instead of the back yard) tonight, I'll make it 2 days for the Munchkin.

She Really Is a Useful Utility Dog!

OK, I know that my blog post titled "Useful Utility Dog" was contrived and a bit fabricated, but Katie really proved herself today. I have towels laying at the back door to minimize the dirt that the dogs track into the house. I had gathered them up and was standing on the patio shaking off the towels. Reagan and Travis thought it would be fun to get involved and to tug on the towels. Well, Travis ended up taking one of the towels out into the yard and didn't bother to bring it back. I was barefoot and didn't really want to walk through the pott yard to get it, so I asked Katie to get it for me and she did! It was clumsy because she kept stepping on it and then Reagan thought she should get involved. Katie didn't appreciate that. But my super duper utility greyhound brought that towel to me. I quickly ushered her into the house for a food reward. Since it was so cute and I was so proud of her, I recreated the situation and threw the towel back into the yard so I could video her. So here it is, my very useful utility greyhound.

When Did That Happen?

Ok, so when did Travis start to go grey? Maybe it is this baby face running around that suddenly makes him look a little aged...... or maybe she is giving us all a little grey hair. It seems like the little white hairs just started to sprout on the bridge of his nose and under his eyes just overnight. I suppose he is way over due being that he is well over 9 years old now.

Brat

Reagan has gone from Munchkin to Brat. The honeymoon is over, I think :-). She is having to learn to be patient and to wait........... something that racing greyhounds have lots of experience doing. Think about it, racing greyhounds spend 20 hours a day in a crate and no one responds to any crying about it. The racing greyhounds learn to handle the boredom by sleeping it off. Reagan cries when she is frustrated and not getting her way. Now that she has tasted freedom and fun, she wants to be doing what she wants all day. I am doing lots of putting her in her crate and taking her out when she is quiet and settled. In the last day or 2, that can take quite awhile. I also want her to learn that I am the source of all the fun stuff. I have all the food and toys. I have put the house toys away because I don't want her to play by herself anymore.... I want her to play with me. Katie and Travis have me incrediably spoiled. They are so high drive. They can work at something for a very long time. They always want to play with toys. I always end the game simply because I think they'd just keep fetching a toy until death. With Reagan, I have to get better at leaving her wanting more. I'm in the habit of training/playing for too long. With her, I literally need to play or work with her for just a minute or 2 and stop it before she is ready to stop.