Repeat

Then on Sunday, the hounds and I did a repeat of Friday and headed back to the horse farm for more free running. This time I brought along Stephen's dogs and I only broke one of them. For the record, it was my sister's greyhound (Go Peanut Go) that ran over Stacker.


Does anyone else find running greyhounds to be as scary as I do? I just hold my breath and hope they don't do anything foolish.... like jump out in front of a stampede of brindle bitches.

Its OK to laugh, Stephen and I can't help it. Stacker seemed ok after it happened, but later an injury popped up. I am not sure if it happened then or later.


Reagan is proving to be very responsive to my calls. She loves to run and takes full advantage of the large pastures, but she checks in regularly and whips herself back to me in 2 seconds if I call. I love that! I feel confident that competing her off leash at an agility trial will be no problem.





On Monday, we did some agility and Reagan was 100% perfect. I set up agility courses for Reagan that are as difficult as I would for Travis with lots of crosses and change of directions. I interupt her frequently with rewards, but she has been able to handle every sequence I throw at her. The rails are staying up. The spread in the weave poles is getting smaller and smaller. I think I had it down to an inch and a half on Tuesday. She is coming from all angles and has been nailing them. Reagan seems to handle a lot like Travis. I am not sure if that is her style or a result of my training, but she works a comfortable distance away. She is not stuck to me like a velcro dog, but she isn't so far away that she is taking the wrong obstacle either. All in all, things are going well.

ASFA National Greyhound Specialty

SEGA hosted the ASFA National Greyhound Specialty for lure coursing. I never allow my greyhounds to see lure coursing and I have been successful thus far. So Katie, Reagan, and Riley remain unaware of the plastic bunny. The reason for this is that there is simply no reason for them to see it. I do not course them. I do not want them that excited especially with no way to release it (no fun for either of us). I enjoy being able to work or play fetch with my greyhounds before and after the trial and at lunchtime. I probably wouldn't be able to if my greyhounds had any idea what happens on those fields :-).

But I like to go occasionally to see other people's greyhounds running. The event is usually held on a huge, beautiful farm in the middle of nowhere.

The farm also had a kennel of foxhounds.

At lunchtime, I competed Reagan in the puppy bitch conformation class. I thought she would get bored of stacking, but she played the show dog part well and placed 3rd out of 4. No doubt those crooked front legs had something to do with that (she toes out). Travis definitely has her beat in that department, but I thought it would be fun to do while she still qualified for the puppy class.
I was able to work both Riley and Reagan (one at a time) on a long line while they fetched. Reagan has had plenty of experience dragging the line and fetching. I would almost dare to say she didn't need the long line, but although fenced it was an enormous field.Riley fetched much better than I expected. A couple of times, the smell of lunch lured her into the wrong direction, but that's the beauty of the long line. I can call her and if ignored, I can make it happen with the leash. Usually when I start them fetching on a long line, I will start by throwing the toy towards a barrier so there is something to naturally slow the dog down, so they do not hit the end of the line. You have to be very careful. The area needs to be free of trees, people, objects, animals, and anything else that a long line can be wrapped around. Its a great way for me to exercise in a unsecure area and to start feeling better about my off leash control for future agility trials. It should not be used for just letting your greyhound with no training run full tilt in all directions. It is a very useful training tool, but it does require some training to be used safely. You also need to build up to a long length over a period of time. I also got to see some greyhound puppies and a monkey. Ok, not a monkey, but a cute greyhound/borzoi/deerhound (I think) . She was adopted from a rescue in CA. All in all, we had a fun time.

The Nose Knows

I have never had a greyhound so distracted by scents. Normally, I have to keep watch for visual distractions, but Riley is also quite drawn to smells.

Last Friday, we headed for Newnan, GA to play on a friend's 60 acre horse farm. It is a great place to test off leash control and to see how well my recalls are working. The farm perimeter is securely fenced and a pasture specifically fenced for the farm's greyhounds is about 12 acres. We started there.






I wanted to see how well Riley would follow along with the rest of us. Riley started off by checking out anything she saw from far away. While she was away, the other hounds and I would head in the opposite direction. She did show a tendency to head back in our direction, but she thought nothing of running ahead and completely out of sight again. She would be easy to lose if we were not in a secure area.


Something I had not seen one of my greyhounds do before is that Riley would suddenly get frenzied about something in the woods behind the fence. It was not something we had seen or heard, so I am assuming it must be an animal scent that has caught her attention. She would drop her nose low to the ground and tune out the world as she cast back and forth along the fence. I knew better than to test a recall at those moments... doing so would have been a waste of breath and bad training. Smells are by far much harder to control than sights simply because I cannot detect them.

It is funny to see Reagan follow Riley around and then finally figure out that it was fruitless and rejoin Katie and I. Katie does not fall for such things anymore.


It is obvious that Riley will need a lot of work. Her wreckless nature reminds me a little of Travis. He too was once driven by inappropriate things. With time and lots of work, maybe Riley will shine too. We continued to hike the rest of the property and the other pasture fencelines, but with Riley on leash. The larger area is just too much space for now.





Part of me says to let her zone out if there is little chance of her finding something. With time, the behavior may extinguish itself simply because she is not rewarded for it. But part of me thinks that the behavior alone might be rewarding. I will have to think more about it. Hopefully she will eventually learn that working with me is her best bet for getting what she wants.

Never Make It

Since we are on the subject of names, I thought I would explain Jessie's "Never" name. Jessie's NGA racing name was "Never Make It". Its the only racing name I have kept for competing later with. I thought it was funny and ironic.


At one point, I actually spoke to her prior owner and breeder. He seemed to remember her and said that she went after the lure hard, but then would back off. She had some issues with the starting box, but she showed a lot of late speed. He did not think she would make it as a racer and therefore named her as such. She was sent to Birmingham and washed out after a few schooling races. I adopted her just before her 2nd birthday.

When I adopted Katie, someone suggested having a kennel name that was derived from Jessie's "Never Make It" name. "Never Say Never Greyhounds" grew from that and it fits us so well.


Unfortunately, it was too late to rename Teresa. She was already competing in agility with the name Teresa, a name she had been called since she was rescued as a puppy at 4 months with a broken leg. She was adopted and later returned at the age of 4. We adopted her at that time. She is still very much a "Never" greyhound though.


When Jes passed away, I said "She is not my most famous hound, not the highest titled, and never made a top 10 list. But she was my screw-up dog. The screw-up dog is the one you train and retrain over and over. The one who endures all of your mistakes, hard lessons, and your what-NOT-to-do moments. The screw-up dog is the one that helps you to make your future dogs be all they can be. I'm so grateful for everything she taught me, for getting me hooked on dog sports, for making me learn about clicker training, and for all the great times we had."


The photo below is beautifully framed and hangs in our living room. The brass plaque attached to the frame reads:

Never Make It FCh CD NA NAJ aka Jes

Made It!

Never Had Braces??

People wonder what's up with this name - Never Had Braces. Katie has an overbite and a cross bite. In fact, her right canine tooth on the bottom jaw fits into the roof of her mouth instead of scissoring. The upper canine tooth seems to hang much lower than normal as well. So as you can see, she really needs an orthodontist........... thus the name Never Had Braces. I am not sure when I came up with it or even why I liked it at the time

And while we are looking at Katie's mouth, I thought I'd brag about those decade old teeth and gums. Her teeth aren't as white as Reagan's and Riley's, but I'm quite happy considering her age. Katie has never needed a tooth pulled and they have not been cleaned since she was adopted at age 2. Her gums are pink and healthy. Yeah, for chicken backs and occasional tooth brushing! If you do feed kibble, I can't recommend brushing teeth enough. Do it everyday! It only takes 30 seconds. You only have to brush the outside of the teeth.

Fate?

This might be silly, but I love thinking that Riley is apart of "the plan" or that she was meant to be. I already told you that her last race was the same day that Travis passed away, but it also occurred to me that she was sent to Southeastern Greyhound Adoption soon after her race career ended.


How was that possible? Generally, there is a backlog of non-cat-safe greyhounds at the Jefferson County Kennel Club adoption kennel and I wondered how she got to the front of the line without being cat safe. Adoption groups have a high demand for cat safe greyhounds, so those with low prey drives tend to move through the adoption pipeline faster than their high prey drive cousins.




Fortunately, Riley was somehow mislabeled cat safe, so she earned a first class ticket on the next boat to adoption. Well, I don't look at cat safe greyhounds (I know its sad that I don't give those poor dogs a chance.... sorry, Jules, just joking with you :-), so I did not give her even a first look. At the time, I was working with Robin anyway. When Robin left, I rechecked the SEGA website for greyhounds that were not cat safe. By then, Riley had showed her true colors and her cat safe status had been changed. She had been retested and failed. Now I was interested.


So was it fate that brought her to me? I don't know. I was playing with the word "fate" and had narrowed down to the name "Never Doubt Fate". When Toni mentioned "Never A Doubt" in a blog comment, I fell in love with the sound of that. So Riley is also known as "Never A Doubt".

Explanation

Below is a comment left on my blog last night. Jules, I am not sure if you will check back and read my response, but you bring up a good point. For every comment, there are 10 people thinking the same thing and I have worried that when I am putting it all out there some of it can be misunderstood. Here is the comment....

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"I am not a fan of being dragged"
"Car sickness is not something I am willing to work on."
"So far I like what I see, but I will take a little more time before I decide."
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Wow. I don't even know how to react to those statements. You claim to be a dog lover but you won't adopt a greyhound who isn't "just right" for you.

Unbelievable. There are so many beautiful, loving greyhounds who need homes but because of people like you they will never have a chance at a forever home because they may be flawed. It seems like you're more concerned about how well they perform in your little games than opening your heart and home to a dog who may really need you. Sad.

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Regarding what I look for when I adopt a greyhound, I can understand how my statements appear picky and perfectionist in my quest to avoid a "flawed" dog, so let me explain. First, I think its important to not label certain traits as flaws. A particular trait for one person is an absolute treasure for another. For example, the perfect dog for me is one that has horrible leash manners, is not cat safe, lunges at small dogs, jumps on people, digs up the yard, chews up the house, and tries to get any food within reach. Such a greyhound, needs training, exercise, and a job to stay out of trouble. I have the time, energy, and the ability to work with difficult hounds and difficult hounds love the activity I am able to provide them. Therefore, when I am taking some time to decide whether a particular greyhound is right for me or not, I am trying to make sure I do not pick something that would be easy for my adoption group to place. It would be laughable for me to adopt a polite, sweet, lazy, car sick greyhound. It would be a misuse of what I have to offer and a missed opportunity to place a really nice dog with a nice family that stays home most of the time.

Jules said "There are so many beautiful, loving greyhounds who need homes but because of people like you they will never have a chance at a forever home because they may be flawed." That is simply not true. The sad thing is that a lot of adoption groups miss out on opportunities to place difficult, hard-to-place dogs. For example, someone who wants to adopt a greyhound to jog with is the perfect home for the occasional high energy greyhound. An adopter who enjoys training and competing is a great match for a greyhound who loves food and isn't cat safe. These are homes where high energy, high drive greyhounds are appreciated and their tendencies are put to good use. Its sad when adoption groups turn these people away due to the lack of understanding and incorrectly categorizing all greyhounds as couch potatoes.

I work with Southeastern Greyhound Adoption and we are big believers in matching the right greyhound with the right home. We want the greyhound to have a wonderful life with someone that enjoys the dog. To me, this is not asking an adopter to accept whatever greyhound we have available. There is nothing noble about someone adopting a greyhound that does not fit into their lifestyle. Occasionally, I suggest that people return their greyhounds. For example, I had someone with a handful of little dogs adopt a greyhound who did not settle in. She was shell shocked and she did not enjoy the activity or the company of the little dogs. It was very hard for these people to return her. They were dog people and they did not return dogs, but they finally were able to understand that their greyhound was not going to be happy. We placed this greyhound in a home with another greyhound. She came out of her shell and is happy as can be now. The people with the little dogs adopted another greyhound who is playful and enjoys the little dogs......... a happy ending for all involved.

I strongly encourage groups to really get to know their adoptables and to profile them. Get to know your adopters. Its silly to pass up on a person because they don't have a fenced yard. That person might walk 5 miles a day and I can guarantee that there are greyhounds who would sign up for that job. A greyhound with a chronic injury should go to a home that is easy to live in..... not one with a 10 acre fenced yard. A car sick greyhound should not be placed with someone like me who likes to drive with their greyhounds on a daily basis. In the same vein, I also believe in holding greyhounds with special traits for special homes. SEGA tries to adopt our cat safe greyhounds to people with cats.... to give our non-cat safe greyhounds a chance. If a greyhound is especially drawn to children, we save that greyhound for a family with small children. If a greyhound is obnoxious, unruly, and out of control.... where can I sign myself up?

Regarding this statement again "There are so many beautiful, loving greyhounds who need homes but because of people like you they will never have a chance at a forever home because they may be flawed." and also "You claim to be a dog lover but you won't adopt a greyhound who isn't "just right" for you."..... I am trying so hard to not be offended, but I admit that I am :-). I have adopted 10 greyhounds. Over time, I have become more knowledgeable and have developed the skills for managing and handling high energy, high prey drive, and extremely food motivated greyhounds and I love them. This is not your average greyhound. This type is a needle nose in the haystack. And yes, I may pass on many greyhounds before finding the right one, but it is because I want to provide a wonderful forever home to a greyhound who many not get that chance because of the high likelihood of training and behavior problems.

Travis is my best example of this. He was virtually unadoptable and I have yet to see a greyhound that could match his energy level or prey drive. He was a liability for Joe Average Adopter, so I decided I was the best person for managing his behavior and I did so without any competition aspirations. But I lucked out and for me his characteristics were wonderful and useful talents. Please go back and watch Travis' agility videos (there are a bunch at the end of 2007 and the half of 2008). His undesirable traits for a pet home made him a star in many other avenues and he loved every minute of the "little games". Jules, I so wish I could introduce you to Travis, so you could see how wrong and hurtful your statement is. The "little games" may seem trivial to you, but they were important to us. Travis got his chance because I passed on dogs that did not need what I could provide.

Well, I am sure that was a much longer response than it needed it to be. I am hoping the comment provided an opportunity to educate. I am so passionate about matching the right dog with the right person including myself. I could go on and on about it.

A Right of Passage

At our house, every good greyhound must counter surf.... in order to learn not to counter surf. This is Riley's second attempt at counter surfing and I was able to video the incident. Unfortunately, I thought I had filmed more of the aftermath (Riley running away and some additional verbal scolding), but I accidentally shut it off. Poor Reagan was in the line of fire, but next time she sees someone eyeing the counter, she will think twice about checking it out too.

To describe what is happening above, I like to place something appealing on the counter attached to an empty coke can with a handful of rocks in it. The bait is placed right on the edge of the counter. When pulled down by a nosey hound, the rattling can comes flying down on top of the dog. Generally, this is enough to scare a hound when counter surfing for the first time. I usually will follow up with a little scolding just so they know I am not happy about it either. I cannot stress how much I recommend doing this with a new hound. Setting a booby trap allows you to make sure something bad happens. If you wait until your hound tries it and something good happens or worse..... you wait until it happens several times, you will have to work much harder than if you had just set a few booby traps right away. Generally, I find that they need to set the booby trap 2 or 3 times to get the message. But again, if you allow for any successful counter surfing incidents prior to setting the traps, you will only increase the amount of work you have to do.

One other tip, the bait must be something difficult to eat. You do not want it to be something that can swallowed quickly. I usually use something with a tempting smell, but that is big and still in a wrapper. In this case, I used a sample sized bag of Nutro dog food that I had rubbed with a salmon treat just to give it a more noticeable scent.

Lastly, most kitchens have slick floors. Since it is likely that your dog will be startled and bolt from the scene of the crime, you may want to put a rubber runner or a bath mat down, so the dog has some traction to turn tail and get out of there without slipping or getting hurt.

"With a Knick-Knack, Patty Whack"

"Give the bored dogs some bones"............
That's the one thing I hate about rainy days.... its greeting those young, fit greyhounds who have been resting in crates all day. I just want to come home, watch a little TV, and stay warm and dry. But Trouble 1 and Trouble 2 have different ideas.
So its beef ribs to the rescue! Just something to keep them busy for a few hours. $10 well spent.

Closet Space

Just Stacker and Katie sharing some closet space. One of these days I will introduce "his" dogs to you. I just find myself with too much to write about my own. Stephen and I do not have any "our" dogs. Just "his" and "hers".

Just Mean!

Its hell training dogs. Look what Reagan did to me. She was excited and exploded, clawing my leg in the process. I guess I will have to turn down that swimsuit modeling gig. Dang, I bruise easy!

Shelf Dogs

This is one of those weeks when I wish I could put the dogs up on a shelf. I have a cold, so I don't particularly want to train, work, or play with the dogs. I just want to be lazy and get my rest. Peace and quiet. But when your hounds are in the habit of training, working, and playing everyday... they don't accept my request for a few days off. So I am damned if I do and damned if I don't. If I don't get my rest and take the dogs out as usual, this cold will probably last longer than it needs to. If I sit home, the 2 brats will make me miserable.



Katie used to be a brat (pictured above), but she can be pacified with some fetching in the backyard now. I would keep Katie around and put the beast and the midget on the shelf for a few days.

Agility Progress Report

Here is Reagan's video from last Tuesday. She's doing awesome. I don't think I could be happier. This is a really long sequence/course interupted with lots of treats. The weave poles are open about 3 inches, but she is starting to understand that they can be in the middle of a course and you approach from different angles.

I am sure that everything else will be ready once I can close the weave poles completely. Closing the weaves from 12 to 3 inches is a few steps, but closing them from 3 to 0 inches is a mile. So we still have a lot of work to do... But she still is only 18 months old!

Training Update - Riley

First, a cute story... Riley has learned to sit and down. The other night we were all standing at the back door. Stephen and I were putting muzzles on everyone. Reagan had a boo boo I had to take care of, so I had a treat in my hand to give her after I had messed with it. Riley had smelled it, so she plopped herself into a down in the middle of everyone hoping for a treat. It was very cute. I love to see the wheels turning in their heads.





On Tuesday, Stephen was kind enough to come video some training sessions. So this is Riley at just over 2 weeks of training.





This video is of Riley working on sits and downs. Riley responds to a sit and down hand signal without food in my hand and she is learning to maintain the position while I move around and to wait for my release word. I stress this in my classes, but it is very important to reward hand signals with food you then have to reach for (pocket/pouch/container/etc). Otherwise you train the dog to respond only if the food is under his nose.

This is Riley working on eye contact and name recognition. I stop her from sitting because I do not want her to think that is what we are working on. I am mostly just waiting for eye contact, saying her name, and clicking & treating for it. Occasionally, I say her name and click & treat for the head turn towards me.

This is Riley working on recalls. Its important to start recall training on leash so you can make it happen. A week ago, I had to use the leash to show her what to do. Now the leash is there as back up if she ignores me which is bound to happen at some point. Since we are in a safe area, I do drop the leash a couple of times, but again it is there if I have to correct her. I also want her to know that I will grab her collar, so I put my hand on her collar each time she comes in for the treat.

Stephen also helped me start her on tunnels. She was very easy and very willing to give it a try. I have also started her on jumps.

Butterfly

Just a beautiful butterfly sitting on a pile of dog poop. I couldn't resist taking a picture of it.

Slimmest Waist

Can you believe this greyhound won "Slimmest Waist" at Greyfest on Saturday? Reagan probably would not have won the contest on the day she looked like that (above pic). This was a picture of Reagan at the farm in February. They fasted these pups on Sunday and this was the after picture of her Monday morning gorge. Fasting them one day a week keeps them sharp and eating well when its hot during the summer. Now she is a full grown, fit and trim, 46 pounds.

All in all, the demonstrations went well. I even used Riley for a brief demo on early training.

Reagan was perfect. This was her first public performance and she ran like she always does.

And Katie showed how young and fit 10 years old can look. She really is in fantastic shape.

Positive Reinforcement

An important part of training is reinforcement. The old saying about a dog wanting to please his master... well, in my opinion, when the master is pleased, good stuff happens to the dog, and in the end the dog is ultimately pleased. Some breeds, by design, are built for following directions better than others and are easier to reinforce, but in the end I think dogs probably want to do what works for them.



When you compete with a dog, nothing is more enjoyable than having a canine partner that loves to work and joyfully responds to your requests. I used to ride horses and I never got the impression that any of my horses were glad I climbed aboard. They weren't excited about getting onto a horse trailer and heading to a local horse show. Horses will often pine for each other, but not so much for a person. I know there are exceptions to every rule. (I did actually know a horse who loved to go places in his trailer and his mom had to keep it out of sight if she was trailering another horse and leaving him behind.) But my greyhounds love to hop in the van and head for a new place, choose me over other dogs, and enjoy their jobs. I love that.






My first greyhound, Jessie, had to endure all of my bad training. At the time, I did not know about clicker training and so I took Jes to a compulsive, choke chain training class. I rewarded with food, but training was forced and mistakes were corrected. Jes was sensitive and submissive. She hated training. When we would go outside to practice, she would head back for the house like a barn sour horse. It saddened me. Training was suppose to be something we did together.... for fun and it wasn't. And then I discovered clicker training. I purchased a little Karen Pryor booklet and the first thing I did was to teach Jes to touch a cup with her nose. She loved it! Finally she was being allowed to think and to offer behaviors without the fear of making a mistake. Mistakes were ignore. Correct actions were marked with a click and rewarded with a treat. Training was fun!







When training dogs, think about the environment you work best in. Two years ago, I left a company with a horrible boss. He had a bad temper and would yell at me in front of the whole office. I was held accountable for things that were simply out of my hands. I was under paid and unappreciated. I was paranoid about making a mistake and feared the consequences. The stress affected my health. By the time I left, I was literally sick to my stomach with fear and nerves day and night.




For the last 2 years, I have worked for the most fantastic small company. The partners are super nice, fair, reasonable, and provide lots of positive reinforcement. They don't get bent out of shape over a mistake. I feel appreciated. The pay and the raises have been good. I could not have dreamed of a better situation. They understand that keeping me happy is in their best interest and in the end we all benefit. I want my greyhounds to feel the same way about their jobs.