And here is the 'flooding' and Scrambled Heeling video I spoke about this morning.

 

An Eventful Morning!

 Roxanne mentioned I should add this morning’s experience to the Retrieve blog, and I still feel pretty wound up about it, so I figured jotting things down now might help me unwind enough that I can hopefully fall asleep.

This morning Niko attacked Boaz at our TS HHPR.

She and Riley had been playing a little rougher than I like, but it finally seemed like they had gotten their wrestles out and were starting to run alongside one another. Roxanne arrived with her three, Riley bolted toward them to say ‘Hi,’ and Niko followed. She was moving pretty fast toward Boaz so I was trying to decide whether to recall just to keep her from approaching so fast. I think I decided because they knew one another from previous HHPR’s, it would be fine, so I waited to recall. Then she attacked him. 

She was completely unprovoked. I still am feeling shocked by it— this was the last thing I expected from her at that moment. Of course the dogs went wild. Roxanne told me to recall and I was already trying. Repeated recalls and steadily turning the remote up, it was above 80 by the time she finally started moving away. 

I’m so grateful Roxanne was there. She made me keep my feet when I didn’t know what to do next. We both worked Niko against Boaz, retrieves and heeling. We worked her against the whole group of dogs. I probably outed her at least 25 times today. 

I know we are going to fall back on the training, and I know we are going to work through this. I am also a little terrified that the next time I think she’s fine, she won’t be, and another dog will be hurt. I’m not sure how to relax around her, now. 

My eyes are getting heavy. I will likely revisit this after some rest. ❤️

Kellie/Piper, RC Final Exam

It has been such a a busy few weeks they've just flown by with what seems like hardly any training.  Yet, there have been amazing HHPR mornings and the once in a lifetime Pigeon Show.  So many great experiences!

I'm almost astounded to see that Piper and I managed our five RoHJ during the show in the midst of WOW losing her mind, but we sure did.  Every time Piper would start to lose focus, she'd bring herself back around.  It was very cool and gratifying to witness.

We had practiced the RoF in the ball park infield before the festivities and she did very well on the dirt.  When I attempted them on the grass at 40' she failed on multiple attempts.  I think it may have been the angle of the light because she kept losing the location of the dumbbell.

This morning we made a second (and successful) attempt at the Joseph ball field.  We were alone but it was pretty windy with lots of smell distractions, as you'll see in the video as her attention shifts sometimes... and the camera falls over toward the end.

I walked out the distance and marked it with my orange beanie.  I used a white towel behind the dumbbell zone to help her eyes retain the location and I placed the dumbbell on a small patch of dirt.  Not sure if those extra measures were even necessary because she gave me six perfect retrieves without any waffling around.  Me on the other hard, really needs to tape my mouth shut to prevent the inevitable wrong words from coming out of it.

Roxanne and Jessi, I can't thank you both enough for all your coaching, cheering, patience, impatience,  and relentless standards.  You gave us a very high bar to aim for and wouldn't accept anything less, so we had no choice but to hit it.  This has been a huge life lesson that will be tapped for the rest of my days.  

Mary, Trina, Kat, Buck and Karen... you have all been the most wonderful training partners I could have possibly hoped for.  Your commitment to excellence, consistent effort and progress and your constant cheering, gave us so much to lean into, I don't know what we would have done without all of you!

And not to be forgotten, the wonderful Wayne, without whose regular coffee rescues I'd have been lost.  Thank you Sir for helping me have at least half the wits to almost keep up with the rest of the crew!

Kat/Riley 10/4/24 RC FINAL Exams!

 Yesterday before the pigeon party, Riley and I were able to complete the RoHJ Final Exam! 

Then I backtied her to one of the poles for the batting cage thing (I only use the more sophisticated language, FYI), an she pulled so hard flipping out about all the other dogs getting to retrieve pigeons that the line was almost molded together by the time I tried to untie her (sorry, Buck). Graydon is my master untangler and he was able to get the line untied, but it may never be the same. 😬

Today I crashed after I got home from work and woke up this afternoon about the time the kids got out of school. Graydon played taxi and I zipped Riley and Niko over for one more exam, and one more jaunt around the park before Buck came to pick up Riley from us. 

We did have to start with a dEC, but then she did do a pretty dang good job working against pretty crappy dumbbell throws. 😆 I was really impressed with her! 

I want to note that I never would have been able to make it through the RC exams so quickly in the last ten days without the hours of work I know Buck has invested in Riley already, and I never would have been able to make it through the FC exams I did without the investment all of you made with her! I am so surprised with how 'naturally' she does some things, like 'SWING.' 

I realized sometime in the last 24 hours that I never posted a FC Week 5 Pop Quiz, so we threw one together real quick after we got home. Socks, shoes, toys, Niko... Good Dog, Riley!

Pretty impressive, and the pose only makes it better! 😄

Whether I was cleaning up poop, or loading and unloading the car on a busy road, these two got to practice their STAYs together, a lot. 😌

What a fun, busy 10 days! Thank you, Buck, so much, for trusting me with Riley.  And thank you to the rest of our 'pack' for all of your encouragement and assistance! I am truly blessed to associate with such great fellow dog people!

Kat/Riley 10/3: FC Week 6 TC Exams and 🥳 Pigeon Party!🥳

Great Day today! I got home from work this morning and hit the hay, and the most exercise the dogs got was when they were jumping up and down from the bed, giving me lots of 'good morning!' kisses, and wrestling on top of me as I was trying fall asleep, they did not get much exercise. 🤣

I woke up and we worked FC Week 6 Material. I had some help recording the exams, but I did not review the Exam requirements before we started recorded (whoops) so I did not get the required 2 recalls per exam. It is tricky, too, because she is one smart cookie and would not let me get behind her after she realized it was 'metal bug' season. 

TC Against Social:

TC Against Defense:

TC Against Prey:

Riley and I successfully completed the RoHJ Final for the RC, but I am hoping to get her RoF Final Exam done in the AM and I want to post them tomorrow. 

Now for the Fun Stuff: 🥳 Pigeon Party! 🤩

Roxanne brought some pigeons to introduce Abby to 'get it.' All the dogs that wanted to (except Niko because she's grounded) got to try to retrieve pigeons. Riley did great (her handler needs work 😆)!

Riley's first retrieve:

Riley's second retrieve:

Riley's three-in-a-row:

Spicy meets the pigeon:

Redd's long retrieve:

Kat/Riley 10/2: FC Week 5 Exam 2 and RC Lesson 12 Exam

 Great day today! 

Riley and I had a great run with the pack this morning, and Roxanne recommended I get her through her String Test while she was still a little worn out from that. We stopped for a visit with Roxanne on the way to Central Valley, and then I set up for her test!

A sweet shot Roxanne shared from today's HHPR

It took me two strings and three tries. We did some fast paced heeling with quick starts and 270 degree right-halt/ double left-halt turns, and then started the first try. All of a sudden I had a dog that halted 3 steps in front of me... not sure how I managed to condition her to do that... 🤦‍♀️

Here's what I consider our successful attempt. (I will include the first to takes-bloopers-at the end of this post.) The string slipped between the opening in the snap bolt on the leash twice but did not break. It made for a little confusion but I'm still counting it as a win. 🤣

I have noticed, the past few days, that Riley has a severe case of what I am calling the 'shifty feeties' during her sit-stays. So for a couple minutes after our successful string test I decided to backwash to a 3 ft stay with the collar high and the leash held straight up behind her ears. I have decided I need to do this more (not sure how much more time I will have to do it, though 😬). 

Finally! We did our Week 12 Exam, which Niko bombed miserably a couple weeks ago. We worked against people (I SO WISHED I had started TCs with her, because she lost her marbles around ALL THE FRIENDS!) Even so, check out this AMAZING Week 12 Exam!

Confession: If this had not been an exam, I probably would have (and should have) done a dEC for (2) sloppy pickups and (2) hesitations. 

The hesitations came because the dumbbell landed so close to people, and the second time it landed behind her good friend Jürgen, so I was just overjoyed she completed the retrieve at all! I love watching her make good choices! Great job, Riley!

----BLOOPER REEL----

I remember taking at least ten takes on this with Niko. Working through it relatively fast with Riley has me curious to see if Niko would pass it with fewer takes, now, too. 

Maybe after she is done with her heat. 

Kat/Riley 10/1 Update/Exams

 Morning! I got home and knocked right out. 🤣 

Today we started with the retrieves in the hour or so before I needed to go to one of my boys’ school programs. The RoHJ was a little rocky, but interspersed between a few ‘No Birds’ I feel like we got five good retrieves. I let Riley get a little sloppy by the end so we did do a solid dEC and then I tried to finish on a high note. 

RoF is where I feel the real magic happened. This time I was a little quicker with my ‘hand-over-hand’ and the dEC from the beginning. The third and fourth pickups were (from my perspective) SOLID. She grabbed the dumbbell by a bell on the last pickup but when I adjusted it when she got back to me she was lightening making sure that thing did not hit the ground. (Note the handler’s happy dance after that first really good pickup 😂)

I couldn’t work where I wanted to during school, and after school Graydon and I had a dinner date with some of his extended family, so I zipped over with her around 6 pm to try out the Vickster’s test. We did LL until I could tell her ‘work switch’ had flipped, then some fast paced heeling before I hit ‘record.’ 

I feel like she did… okay. I’m having some trouble with lagging and heeling wide, and her stays struggled a bit, but I’m… meh…  confident there is a pass in there somewhere. 

I’ve decided that since this is somewhat of a condensed program I want everyone to see how I am correcting/guiding Riley, so I can be corrected/guided as necessary. 

One last thought: I was thinking as I was writing this about how odd it is that Riley struggles with our evening sessions, like she is worn out at the end of the day. Then as I added that last video I started considering some (or many of) my sloppy mechanics during the session. Lightbulb moment: Riley may or may not be worn out by the end of the day, but this handler certainly is. And as her handler’s mechanics get sloppier, so does the she. It is almost like she takes my sloppy mechanics as permission to be sloppier, herself.

💡💡💡💡💡😄

Final exam. Trina and Zoey

 End of the week this week is going to be pretty busy so I decided to try and get these done sooner rather than later. I was pretty happy with both tests considering I never thought she would be able to do more than a few feet on the retrieves. Anyway, here are the 5 RoF. I still can’t figure out why sometimes she retrieves and comes back into a  great SSIF and other times she retrieves and doesn’t come back and do a SSIF. 

And then for the RoHJ.  We had an unexpected visitor. It was driving her crazy to say the least. Maybe on the last retrieve it came a little too close 😝, but she patiently waited for the intruder to move so she could do her final jump into SSIF. What a good girl. 

Kat/Riley 9/30: FC Week 4 and RC Lesson 10 Exams

 We were able to get all our FC Exams completed in the AM- many thanks to ‘Stranger’ Mike for his help with the ‘Sit for Exam’ Exam! ☺️

I have been so impressed with Riley with this obedience work. I remember when she was a puppy, watching Jessi, Mary, Trina, and Roxanne work her, and she has grown and matured so much since then. 

I was sure our retrieve exams would be a piece of cake- and boy was I mistaken! I had my boys and husband play catch while we did the Lesson 10 Pop Quiz, and between the boys and the baseballs, she had met her kryptonite. 

I am disappointed to admit that my handling started to fray after a few EC’s and about 5 takes for the pop quiz. 🫣 But I think we made it. 

The chair test was its own ordeal. For some reason I could not get Riley to pick up the dumbbell off the top of Graydon’s knees. I meant to crop the first attempt out of this video but I forgot, so you get to see all the challenges from the get-go.

At the end, I decided to finish with the one retrieve she struggled with, and there was a woman walking with a stroller, and I completely lost her. AND I didn’t EC her to complete the retrieve, I just gave up and started over. 🫣🫣 Whoops. 

So, I’m not sure these are passes- I am going to move forward after my work training today unless I hear otherwise, though.