Phoenix Graduated from Treibball!

Phoenix graduated from her first training class!

When I got this dog, we had no idea if we would ever be able to do much with her. She had to learn how to learn, she couldn't be touched or lured. She was scared of absolutely everything. I honestly can't believe that 3.5 years later she's on her way to knowing more stuff than Zoe. I never thought that would happen! She is so much fun and she really enjoyed learning Treibball. I'm really hoping that they offer the next level class soon! 

All the extra trick training that we've done the past few years really paid off for Treibball. She picked it up so quickly and I'm pretty excited about it. I don't know if we'll ever end up competing but it's been a lot fun and I really want to continue with it. 

I will get a video of her poking the giant ball for you guys soon!

La Vie En Rose

Training & Treibball Updates! Getting Out Of Our Comfort Zone!

This past week we started our new class, Impulse Control and we also had our Treibball Class with Phoenix. Impulse Control was on Friday and Treibball was on Monday.

On Friday I was having a lot of anxiety and I was an all-around basket case before class. We got to my work very early. Whenever I take my dogs to work, I try to show up before the office staff leaves and locks me out because I don't have a key yet. It gives me a chance to let the girls run around and have some fun so that they associate the building with good things. They help me set up for class and I throw them some toys and we have treats and practice some tricks. Zoe gets weird about new places and she's not loving their flooring so it's really important that the training building becomes a normal thing for her and a fun place.

Friday's class was a brand new class for us with new dogs, completely unknown dogs and owners. I was freaking out. I set myself up two barriers, one blocking the dog beside us and one directly in front of us. Basically, I was afraid someone would accidentally drop their leash and the dog would end up in Phoenix's face and that bad things would happen. We have a young puppy in the class and the last thing I want is for my dog to traumatize a baby puppy. I am really trying to set Phoenix up for success and I don't want another incident. So we were behind the barriers for the whole class, I would let Phoenix peek out from them and feed her for looking at dogs, then we'd go back and work on the exercises for class. After class, my trainer told me she wants me to stop hiding behind barriers.

Sigh... I want to trust my trainer and I want trust Phoenix but I don't trust Phoenix. It was only two weeks ago that she went after this trainer's dogs and I'm not over it. It's hard for me to be objective about the behavior that's happening right now when we just had that incident. I also think that because Phoenix is not explosive in her reactivity, she doesn't bark at every dog in sight and she doesn't flip out until it's too late that people tend to misread her a little bit. I do it all the time (and I'm constantly staring at her trying to figure out warning signals) so it's not hard to assume that someone who doesn't know her will misread her too. I misjudged her two weeks ago when she went after my trainer's dogs! She is usually fine with dogs her size and smaller. Usually.... Until she decided she wasn't fine.

On Saturday, we did another trick demo for our Basic Manners class and Phoenix got to stunt double for Zoe. Zoe does not like the flooring at my work and she refused to do her back stall. Phoenix was able to come out into the room that was full of dogs (some were barking) and she was able to do the trick. She was off leash but 100% focused on me. So there's that and I probably should trust her more than I do. I think the difference is that I am much more confident with tricks than any other sort of training, so my mindset was "Phoenix will come out, do this back stall and it's going to be perfect then she's going to go away" and that's exactly how it went. I don't even remember her looking around the room. She just came out, I told her to wait, we did the trick and she nailed it and then I put her right back in the lock out with a jackpot of treats and brought Zoe back out. It was awesome and both dogs did a great job showing off their tricks. The class loved them and many of them had lots of questions that I was able to answer. It was a great confidence booster for me and also good practice speaking in front of a group.

So the Monday Treibball class came and because I had already been in class with everyone for 4 weeks, I decided that I kind of knew what to expect with this set of dogs and handlers and I didn't put up any barriers. Only one dog from our class showed up. It was a success. Phoenix was nervous when the other dog was moving around but she handled herself pretty well. The other dog stayed on his side of the room and we stayed on ours. I was able to do quite a bit of counter conditioning with her watching him and it worked out really well.

Phoenix is advancing in her Treibball lessons and she's doing a good job. We've been practicing our homework every day! Right now we are working on directional cues, so she's learning which way I want her to go around the ball. She's also starting to learn to push the ball a teensy bit. She really shouldn't be pushing the ball yet but she's pretty good at all the other foundation skills that we went ahead started her on the ball. Who knew all the other training I've done with her would come in handy for Treibball? :) At some point, I will try and get a video for everyone so you guys can see how she's doing!

The goal for tomorrow's Impulse Control Class is to get down to only one barrier to block the dog next to me. Instead of having two of them. I'm going to try but it's definitely out of my comfort zone. The one good thing about being set up in the corner of the room is that I'm stationed right next to the holder for the barriers so if I absolutely have to, I can pull another one down. I've been talking to one of the other trainer's that I work with, she used to teach a lot of reactive dog classes and she definitely thinks I need to push Phoenix more. I can't advance with her training if I hide behind every barrier and around every corner. I will make sure to keep everyone updated with how it goes!

Treibball & Training Tuesday!

It's Treibball Tuesday! Phoenix had her 3rd Treibball class last night and I'm so happy. It went so much better than last week. I got there super early as usual to walk Phoenix around the neighborhood and so she could get a chance to play in the building before everyone else arrived. This is working out so well. Phoenix is starting to think going to work is fun. She even started pulling me towards the gate to get in. I don't really want her pulling so I didn't encourage it too much and I did work on it immediately as it was happening. 

I took this while we were on our walk before going into my work.

Last night before class, Phoenix met Adam who works at my work and she actually let him pet her. He is only the 3rd man she's ever let touch her. Vince (my husband), a Petco Worker and now Adam. She also did some of her tricks for him and got lots of snacks for being so brave. He's a really nice guy and I appreciate that he's so gentle and patient with my nervous dog.

After meeting Adam, Phoenix and I went into the play room (where all the classes are taught) to set up class and I played frisbee with Phoenix until it was time for me to actually work. She had a lot of fun and she was pretty happy the whole time.

The way Monday works is that I help with the first class then after that class is our Treibball class that we participate in. So Phoenix generally hangs out in the office during our first class. This week we got about half way through the class and Phoenix got to come out to do a quick demonstration on what a finished "heel" looks like. After her demo, I didn't really have time to stick her back in the office she I ended up sticking her in the lockout area, which is basically just a fenced in area that they have between the doors to the boarding area. I was pretty proud of Phoenix for how well behaved she was in the lockout. She couldn't see any dogs but she could definitely hear them all. She didn't whine or bark or anything. Every once in a while, I would drop treats down for her to reward her for being so good and quiet. 

Our Treibball class went really well. We are still learning the foundation for this game and I'm not allowing Phoenix to do any pushing of the ball. Right now we are learning how to get into position behind the ball and directions. We also did some nose targeting on the ball, too and we had the dogs learning to unroll a yoga mat because it helps teach the dogs to push things with their nose. Phoenix got to demo the yoga mat for the class and she did a great job. I'm proud of her for being able to do demos!

I'm starting to come down with a cold and I wasn't really feeling that well so we didn't participate a whole lot during class. We practiced the exercises a few times, then I worked on reactive dog stuff. We played a lot of "look at that" with the other dogs in class. Every time the other dogs moved, Phoenix got cream cheese for watching them and then looking back at me. She didn't freeze or fixate on any dogs at all during this class and I was really proud of her for how well she did. We even had one of the more enthusiastic dogs try to run over and say hi (he didn't make it, his mom called him back) and she handled that really well. It just goes to show you how much being trigger stacked really matters. 

Last week was a tough week, bad things happened and I set her up to fail. This week good things happened and we set her up to win. Having a bandanna on her that says "NO DOGS" has been very helpful, too. People see the bandanna and keep their dogs away. It also helps to remind me to set her up to be successful. 

I was really happy with last night's progress and I am excited to see what next week brings! 

Do you participate in any classes or sports with your dogs?

Phoenix's First Treibball Class!

So I work at an awesome dog training facility and they had an opening in their Treibball class and I took it! We've never done Treibball before and I literally did not know anything about the sport until last week. We got there early so I could try to take a few pictures and to walk her around the block a little. The training building has a beautiful mural painted on it and I thought it would make a pretty background. I helped with the first training class of the night which was a basic manners class so Phoenix got to hang out in the office and wait for me while I worked the class. She was so good! I didn't hear her barking at all!

Sorry this photo is really blurry. I was trying to get it quickly so we could continue with the lesson and I didn't want to be too disruptive. Phoenix is learning to line up with me behind an object. The whole point of Treibball is that the dog learns to gather and drive balls toward a goal. You can learn more about it by going here: http://www.nationaltreibball.com/

A video posted by Lauren Miller (@zoepheedogs) on Mar 15, 2016 at 12:26am PDT

Phoenix was SO good in class. She was a little nervous at first and was whining a bit but she did not react at a single dog. We had her behind some barriers and my trainer says she doesn't even think we need the barriers next week! At one point Phoenix did decide that the box was for jumping on which sent the box flying and created a bit of a disturbance but it was pretty funny. We've been playing too many shaping games with boxes! Next we have to get her measured and figure out what size ball to buy her!

I am really excited at how well she did at class and I'm so happy that I get the opportunity to take her! I'm looking forward to all of our future classes! We have more Treibball and she's going to an Impulse Control Class, too!

Does your dog(s) go to training class? What classes are you taking?