Disc Dog Seminar

Ducky and I had quite the adventure this last weekend.  Just the two of us headed out for a disc dog seminar and since the longish drive was made even longer due to construction I decided to camp there too.  This was the second time Zumi has gone camping, but her first overnight without the other dogs.

I must say it was really nice to not have to worry about any "special" rules like I do with Vito.  I could crate out of the car, I had the freedom to say "Yes!" to going out to dinner (even though we ended up just ordering pizza in) and she was just so relaxed and good.  The only issue was getting Zumi to drink.  I've discovered that she won't always drink much at all when at trials and apparently the heat and duration of stay didn't tempt her much more.  Wouldn't even eat ice cubes and Ducky loves her ice cubes!  So I'll have to look at getting a water supplement or something else to make it taste good enough to drink for her.

And we had a pretty good time at the seminar. Certainly getting me more motivated to actually practice the stuff with her and even more importantly to practice my throwing.  Zumi has done hardly any disc work despite my intentions, but at least she has a solid foundation with biting, tugging, and dropping.  We worked on adding a disc  for the first time into our "dog catch" that had kinda broken after I taught her to rebound off my hip.  

Then added her first time catching a disc after a leg vault vs just taking it from my hand.  That was painful, and extremely colorful reminders were left.  I immediately ordered a leg wrap when I arrived home!

We have a small disc dog event this Sunday with UpDog's Funkey game- a little of agility+disc in a snookerish type format.  

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Zumi Disc Dog!

The majority of our weekend was spent at the disc dog event playing Up Dog games!  Goal was just having fun and getting Zumi more experience with working in front of an audience and around dogs.  But since Up Dog actually allows rollers for anyone who thinks that is the best choice for their dog, Zumi was technically competing in all but the Frizgility game where she had to run as FEO since she's not doing jumps yet.

Zumi waited politely for her turn to take the field each time, did beautiful sit stays for the timer count down, and didn't run off with a disc once!  Usually the first roller had a loopy I'm thinking about running around feel to it, but every other throw brought her immediately back to me.  Considering she still is not even close to being reliable with that at home I was very impressed!  

Zumi played 3 games on Saturday and 4 on Sunday.  And in some crazy world she technically met qualifications to go out to Up Dog's World event!  I find it humorous that due to the allowance of rollers Zumi could compete in a national event without ever catching a flying disc.  Safe to say we will not be going :)

Frizgility

It was fun to get to practice baby agility and reward with a roller!

4 Way Play

Look at the distance drops and easily switching to the new disc!  

I can't wait until the Duck is old enough to start doing real frisbee!  I doubt we will go to any more disc events this summer as the other organizations don't allow rollers.  But next summer hopefully!   

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Camping!

This weekend Adam and I took the dogs down to Rochester for a disc dog weekend and camping!  The original decision to go was due to Adam wanting to take a little break from work and the disc event being offered was Up Dog.  Up Dog is the newest disc dog organization and they allow rollers to be used in competition!  Since Vito's forced early retirement from disc 3 years ago (since I could not get him to safely collect for the disc versus insane launching underneath it) I thought this would be as super fun way to get him back involved.  Disc + Vito = pure happiness.  No worries, no motivation issues.  And then Vito injured himself last weekend so is on exercise restriction.  :(

Ended up deciding to go anyway and let Zumi have fun.  While I'm doing an occasional actual throw in the air for her to catch, 90% of her practice is with rollers.  I wasn't too worried about her focus with playing in front a crowd, and she only did the occasional loopy return on the first throw.

Bonus reason, I got to eat at Fazoli's for 3 days :)  I don't know why the chain isn't present in the Twin Cities!

Vito got some extra drugs for the long-ish ride down and did very well.  And then had a few panic attacks on all other trips.  And Vito got to check off a goal from his bucket list.  Neurotic dog + super loud thunder + tent = anxiety achievement unlocked.  Sigh.  Knew it was just a matter of time before Vito added another issue to his list.

Lance was a good dog like always.  But we noticed a disturbing reversal in his partial nerve paralysis.  His right side of his face has been doing so well and barely noticeable.  This weekend the left side of his face decided to collapse.  Not blinking in his lift eye, drooling lots, ear way down.  Identical to how it first started on the right side.  Not good news at all.  I'm afraid to find out what this means for Lance and if he needs surgery after all.  I don't see how it can't be related to that herniated disc.   Only positive is that it has improved from Friday to Sunday.

Always a happy dog though.  And not seeing any issues at all with his back legs.  

Will post later about Zumi's actual disc runs!

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Disc Dog Foundations!

Today Zumi had her first real introduction to the sport of disc dog!  Zumi has been playing with our general yard fetch toys including Chuck Its foamy frisbee and I have thrown a few rollers for her over the winter.  But today I brought out real plastic discs for the first time!  Initially Zumi was disappointed and, while excited to play with me, she didn't understand that this hard material was an actual toy.  It didn't take too long though to get her to bite it and then to start tugging on it with me.

After awhile we practiced switching back and forth between 2 discs while tugging and then I eventually tried cuing her to bite a disc in my hand as she was running back with the first one.  Much harder!  But being able to easily drop a disc and switch to another one is a very important part of the sport.

At the end of our little 5min session I also introduced some very low takes in the air.  Zumi thought those were fun :)  And also did a few disc lures of left and right spins.

Mission accomplished!
- Bite and tug plastic frisbees
- Rollers!
- Switching discs while tugging
- Switching discs while running back to me
- Baby takes
- Luring with the disc for spins

Next on the agenda is continued work on the above plus adding in the start of around and behind for learning to circle around behind me before a little roller.

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Rollers

Vito may not be doing crazy acrobatics anymore, but he still loves his frisbee.

Rollers for life it is...

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Semi Retired

If you had talked to me this last Saturday about Vito I would have announced his retirement from disc doggin.  His almost disastrous incident the week before really made me question whether I was seeing any light at the end of our jump grid tunnel or was just delaying the inevitable decision with it.

Then close to midnight on Saturday I let Ron Watson of Pawsitive Vybe talk me into continued experimentation.  Although I have to admit it wasn't too hard hard to get me back since Vito is so much in love with the sport.  I agreed to be a guinea pig in fixing the problem of too fast pursues + no collection = dangerous.  Vito's not the only dog out there with this issue, although I would argue that he adds a whole new level of flair to the problem with his mid air contortions.

Sunday morning we headed out to our canceled and then rescheduled lesson while PVybe was in Minnesota.  We did lots of takes, with and without our friend PVC, and zero actual throws.  Creativity abounded, not by me, and at least there was no cringing heard from the audience.

So this summer will continue to be one of disc work.  Vito will be in a stage of semi retirement; one where he gets to play with discs but will be extremely limited in what he gets to do.

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A very close call

On Sunday last week I took the boys to the first disc dog competition of the season.  Since Vito is working on his jumping for discs over our make shift broad jump to encourage a farther take off point, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with him when I got there.

I ultimately decided to enter him in freestyle but to limit ourselves to lots of rollers, some flips, and a few leg vault takes.  I wanted to avoid opportunities where Vito could get decide to leap from directly under the disc.  I also decided to enter him in toss and catch and try my hardest to throw low.  Keeping him safe was goals #1-5.

Freestyle round 1 was a disaster from a judging perspective.  Rollers and takes are not scorable, and I clearly had no plan, nor the looks of someone who was comfortable going with the flow (sorry buddy!).  Vito blew off or was slow to respond to about half the tricks I (lately) cued.  But towards the end of the two minutes I felt comfortable enough to crouch down so I could throw some very low, short tosses and I thought Vito did very well.

Toss and catch round 1 did not go as well.  My first two throws were nice, but Vito managed to get underneath them and do his spectacular acrobatics.  I tried to throw lower and my next two tosses went into the ground, but at least he didn't summersault.  The last toss was long and low and a catch for Vito.  I decided then not to do a second round and risk more craziness.

Freestyle round 2 was short.  I did the same plan but did less rollers and some more crouching, low tosses.  He managed a few crazy leaps in there anyway between nice ones.  And then I did a take from a leg vault.  Vito came up screaming and wouldn't stop. 

Thankfully a few minutes after being carried off the field he would put some weight on his front foot.  After spending all evening passed out next to me, wincing if he had to move, the next morning he bolted off the bed before I could even think of carrying him.  He acted as if the previous day had never happened!  A visit to the chiropractor resulted in some adjustments in his neck that can reveal itself in leg pain and a few more  adjustments in the ribs.  She noted no soft tissue damage and we were even given the all clear to resume activities as normal!

 Thank God!  But now I don't know what to do.  Dogs are capable of getting injured from any dog sport we do or even just from racing around the home.  I don't think that disc is really more dangerous for most dogs than any other sport as long as the throws are placed early enough for the dog to judge their leap from.  Vito's near catastrophe wasn't from a suicidal launch from underneath the disc; he just buckled the landing for no readily apparent reason.  But the truth is that Vito could have easily injured himself on several occasions on Sunday and any other time he has played.  I have been extremely lucky so far in our short disc dog career.

I knew that this summer might be our last one playing disc if I couldn't fix his jumping style.  Now I'm thinking that spending effort on our little jump grid is just delaying the inevitable.  We were supposed to have a private lesson when Pawsitive Vybe comes back into town this coming weekend.  I'm not sure if that is worth pursuing or not.

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Jump Work for Discs

Vito and I have been working on his jumping style for discs since the PVybe seminar.  With Ron's advice, we went to using a broad jump to force his take off point to be further out. 

The first time I tried using a broad jump Vito was super confused and either just jumped the broad without trying to get the disc, or if he tried to get the disc he would use the broad jump as a platform.  I managed to solve the riddle by putting a standard jump right after the broad jump.

Since I only have access to a broad jump once a week, I'm just using our PVC jumps as a double or triple, depending on how many we can carry out there :)

Here's the results of our last 2 sessions:

I don't think it matters that he's knocking the bars??  I'm also not quite sure how far he should be set up and how far I should be pushing his take off point with the jumps.
At the very least he's getting some success with leaping for a disc without being underneath it.  I tried doing a take without the jumps and Vito was immediately jumping under it again, so clearly we will need a LOT of work in fixing his jump style before trying that again.

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Pvybe Seminar: Discs + PVC

The dogs and I just got back from an awesome 4 day disc dog camp by Pawsitive Vybe!  This was our second year going and just like last year I learned a lot.

I was proud to show off my dog who (mostly) did not scream at me, did not punch me, and was capable of making eye contact.  A huge difference from last year where getting those things were my main homework.  Of course I am still using a lot of management by walking on to the field tugging with a disc or making Vito carry a disc out, and either putting him into a down stay or dropping all the discs at any break in action.

This year my main goal was to find a way to help Vito stop over-pursing discs and doing crazy, mistimed, and dangerous leaps from directly underneath them.  Lucky for me, Ron and Apryl are very willing to think outside the box and come up with creative suggestions.  Unfortunately, Vito is so ramped up and running so fast after the disc that it is not going to be an easy fix.  Keeping him safe is obviously my number one priority and there were many times over the weekend where I was thinking that this would be his last weekend participating in the sport.  But by Sunday we saw glimpses of hope and times where Vito would slow down and think.  With a lot of work it might be possible to keep him safe.

It's funny how Vito has the complete opposite problems between agility and disc.  In agility he collects very nicely and has a hard time accelerating back out from turns.  In disc he over accelerates and collection doesn't seem to be in his book at all.  It's amazing how much the presence of a target can change the jumping styles of a dog.

The plan for the toller involves much usage of PVC! 
1.  Set point drills- Just like the agility version, but with a disc held high over the bar.  Because the dog's have to look UP in disc in order to catch, it completely changes their jumping style and Vito needs to learn how to collect for a catch.

2. Bent cavalettis- Another agility thing, using pvc pipe as stride regulators to help him collect and leap on the run.  Just sending him out around a chair/cone is supposed to set up collection and interception and make it likely for the dog to jump well, but Vito accelerated out of the turn (just like I want that red dog to do in agility!) and it didn't help.  So putting down PVC pipe for him to stride over on the out should help.

3. Throwing high and curving right- No throwing nice floaters for now.  By tossing a disc that goes high in the air and curves Vito will have to run out with his head up.  This is going to try and eliminate that head down sprint he currently does.

4. Overs, with dropping his head- I'm to present the disc for an over and then swipe it down to the floor as he jumps for it.  This should lower his head and bring up his rear.  I can also do this on the set point drill.

Photo by Sean Silvernail

5. Flatwork- Vito is really responsive to our agility front and rear crosses and can do them calmly on the field without me tossing a disc.  Especially after a rear cross it essentially sets him up as in the set point drill and I should be able to throw a very short toss or even a flip immediately after he does one.

6. Oppositional Feeding- Asking for a drop and throwing behind Vito as soon as he drops will help to slow down his running back to me and will also create more of a zig zag pattern that can help set up interceptions of the disc.

7. Dismissal- Continued work on Vito being calm and in thinking mode on the field with all the crap I've been doing with eye contact and manners.  But currently he doesn't have much of a "take a break" type cue, especially not if I'm still holding a disc.  I'm to add this in, along with trying to change his conditioned response to the presence of the disc bag and the field.  Lots of getting ready and not actually playing, or arriving and doing obedience/trick work instead.

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2012 Disc Dog Season Begins!

The disc dog season started yesterday with the annual fun match!  Vito and I haven't practiced any disc in several weeks but we did get to work quite a bit this last fall and "winter" due to the crazy nice weather.  We had been continuing to work on eye contact and not screaming at me in an effort to get Vito to think a bit more on the field.

The fun match just had 2 rounds of Toss and Catch so I was eager to see if Vito could remember our work of walking onto the field politely.  He did!  I've learned to pre-place a disc near the field a dog or two before we go as this allows me to walk around with him and wait quietly.  Round 1 I let Vito grab the disc with me and I transferred him to the start line as such.  I quickly gave the thumbs up and Vito didn't do any screaming during the 3 seconds the disc was removed from his mouth and the count down began :)   In Round 2 I decided to try Vito carrying the disc to the start line himself.  This is my eventual goal with him but currently it is still hard if I have other discs in my hand.  Since there is only 1 disc used in Toss and Catch Vito did a nice job!  And once again there was no screaming during the 3 second delay.  His dropping of the disc was also very fast the second round and we were able to get in a 5th throw.

And the best part of the day was that Vito relaxed enough to eat a stuffed Kong while sitting under the tent.  We were about 15ft from the field!  

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Run!

Best winter ever. 

Obnoxious Lab.

New victim

Break for family photo

Finally brought out a toy!

 I had to have a few discussions with Fi about proper playing behavior.  1.  Don't yank the disc out of Vito's mouth if he caught it.  2. Bring it back all the way to me, don't rely on the Toller to finish your work.

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Disc Dog Playdate and Goals

Yesterday I took Vito and Fiona to a disc dog playdate.  My goal this year with Vito is to try and fix 2 issues that I think are feeding off each other:

1. His tendency to not collect for the leap, but over pursue and jump when he is right underneath the disc.
2. His huge head-down outrun each time I send him around.  Unfortunately I've also been rewarding that by doing a lot of long and low throws.  Vito is more likely to not do #1 if the disc is far enough ahead of him and not floating.

Being motivated by all the Pawsitive Vybe videos available to everyone, I came up with a plan.
my plan yesterday was to send him around and only do short 10 yard floaters.  I fully expected him to catch zero discs as I visualized him being 20 yards out before even noticing the disc was behind him, or tipping the disc if he did manage to see where the disc was.

Instead, Vito shocked me by collecting with ease and having the highest catch ratio he has ever had.  Not once did Vito take off sprinting and multiple times he even looked back at me to see where the disc would be.  My best guess is that training indoors helped him by the pressure of the walls and the slightly slippery floor.  Now I just need to find a place to train inside in order to make collecting a habit!

As an added bonus, Vito remembered his eye contact games and only did 1 punch and scream!

Since Vito was doing so well I was able to play with some fun stuff as well.  I finally trust myself on disc placement and timing to let Vito work on vaults.  Thanks to Chris Simmons for the pictures!

 

Vito has also nailed the reverse chest vault, without a disc.  Working on takes with the disc makes it weird so I guess I better practice the throw before I let Vito.

I also took Fiona out to play for a little bit in the basement.  She would be one awesome disc dog!  Fi already has a great switch between discs and a decent drop it.  I worked on teaching her the around and started doing tiny little overs.   She is one intense little lab!

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Disc in December!

This has been the best winter ever!  With no snow on the ground I've been able to continue playing disc with Vito.  We take a nice walk down to the park and then he gets to play. Throws long and low reduce risk of spaztastic jumps.  Sometimes I even take Fi and Lance along to run.  Fiona is showing a strong interest in the frisbee and even Lance is having fun chasing after rollers.  If I'm lucky he will even bring one back :)

Vito playing some disc.  No plan just having fun:

 

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Vito in 2011

Same long and heavily edited video as in Lance's post:

A look back at Vito's year.

Anxiety
In February I decided to see our vet about starting Vito on drugs for his separation anxiety and general anxiety.  The behavioral modification that we had done with Vito had helped but Vito could still not be left for more than 2 hours and he had never once slept while left alone.  His anxiety was starting to increase to the point that Vito would again start howling when we were gone.  In public his anxiety was also increasing as Vito was starting to get worried about people watching him while working and overstimulated in any new place.

Vito started with Clomipramine but was only on it for 25 days before I took him off.  Maybe it was too early to tell, but it seemed as though Vito's reactivity was increasing and he was becoming more anxious in his crate at trials.  His appetite decreased a lot on medication and remained decreased for most of this year.  He then started Fluoxetine (Prozac) and after 6wks Vito slept for his very first time in his life when left alone!
The Prozac initially made him very flat so I quit training him and pulled him from his obedience trials.  While Vito was much more relaxed when left alone on Prozac he would often be restless; wanting to sleep but constantly adjusting position every few minutes.  Combined with his general anxiety still getting worse we increased the dosage in July.  After 6wks the increase dosage helped his seperation anxiety immensely.  Vito can be left for 5.5hrs (and likely longer but not tested) and I don't worry about him!  It is a huge relief to be able to get out of the house without worrying about my dog!

Along with our success in July, Vito's car anxiety started.  It came out of the blue and was full blown panic attacks.  Vito restarted Xanax which helped control it but his reaction to the drug seemed to fluctuate.  Some days Vito would act very sedated and other days he seemed fine.  On lower doses the Xanax had no noticeable effect on him.  I discontinued Xanax in September because I hated it and of course his full panic attacks resumed.

In November I finally went to see the behaviorist at the University.  Vito started Clonidine to help with his car anxiety and general anxiety and we are slowly increasing the dosage.  It is still too early to say if we will stick with it or not but so far it seems to be helping.  We also have recently lowered his Prozac since Vito is doing so well on it. Hopefully we can lower his Prozac to a more reasonable dosage.


Agility:
We didn't do a ton of trials this year so despite Vito competing for 1.5yrs he hasn't actually done much.  Vito's been slow to start showing the world what he's capable of.  This year Vito still did a lot of happy bouncing around versus truly running.  While agility trials don't give him the time to worry that obedience trials do,  there are still times where he will start stressing and chooses to fixate on a person.  The leash runner, judge, or even Daddy have all been targets for Vito fixating on and then going up to say "hi" when the course brings him there.  There has been no rhyme or reason to when he's going to do it but I can always tell when I walk up to the line.  Thankfully it's not too often!

Our last trial, in October, has been the first time that I felt we were really connected.  Vito was excited, he actually ran with some speed, and walking up to the startline he kept his focus on the job at hand.  It was also the first time I switched our waiting in line plan (1-2 dogs away from our turn).  I didn't keep tugging, didn't offer treats, and didn't have him do any tricks.  All we did was crouch down and let him look at the ring.  The last week of December is our next trial so I'm hoping we can get the same results despite it being so long since the last trial.

This year his running contacts have been doing fabulous.  There were several months this summer that I spent trying to get turns off the dogwalk and I felt like we were starting to make progress.  But then I stopped going to practice after we moved further away.  Vito's doing a really nice job of listening to me and turning on the flat and I'm happy with not messing with driving all the way down.  I don't think he missed a single dogwalk or aframe in (his limited number of) competitions this year!!!

Obedience:
Because of Vito's increased anxiety this year and the effects of the medications, Vito has done very little obedience or rally this year.  January and February Vito was still doing pretty well and wasn't on drugs yet and during those months he earned his last leg for his AKC Rally Novice title, two legs towards Rally Advanced, and his first two legs towards CDSP Novice Obedience.  After that time, any trials entered were done as tests to see where he was at and I only entered one run or ended up pulling him from other runs because of his flatness.  During those test runs, Vito did earn his last legs towards his Rally Advanced, CDSP Novice, and APDT Lv2 titles.

Most trials Vito has been very laggy and flat.  Now that the drugs are sitting better with him the flatness is gone, but he still has some anxiety about the ring.  I believe it's the pressure of a crowd watching him as he does better in less crowded areas and tends to be worse the closer he is to the entrance/stewards.  I've taken him to 2 run throughs the last month and Vito is doing a much better job of working through the pressure.  We will be entering a CDSP trial next week where I can give treats in the ring.  My hope is to have a happy dog!

Disc:

Vito still loves it but I don't think he's any better at catching discs!  The dog is just so intense and won't actually collect to jump nicely.  The result is lots and lots of late jumps and tipped discs.  I've been learning to throw long and low and Vito can do pretty well as long as that disc stays out ahead of him.

We've also been working on eye contact and impulse control ever since the Pawsitive Vybe Seminar in May.  While he is much better about not screaming or punching me after a few throws, Vito can now even give me eye contact when asking for that first disc!  Walking onto the field is much improved but still not consistent.  I think this self control work  has come a long way towards Vito being able to think and do his tricks when I have a disc in my hand.  Still VERY hard but it's now possible!

This year I pushed myself and we did our first few freestyle routines.  I didn't actually have a set routine in any way but figured it was about time we do it.  Vito has placed first in the novice division.

Tricks:
We didn't work on too many tricks this last year.  Vito hasn't been too excited about his food ever since he started medication and my usual training time is with their dinner.  We did get duration on his paw over his nose (finally!), taught light switches on a lowered switch, and recently learned to drum.  I also played around with getting Vito to hug a toy while begging, but most of that work was Vito thumping his legs towards his chest!

Goals for 2012
1. Obedience: My number 1 goal is to have a happy dog.  I would love it if Vito could get back in the obedience ring next year but I won't do it if I think it's going to stress him out.

I plan to work on obedience in different environments, hitting as many run throughs as I can
Working on entering the ring behavior, finding a way to get him ready to work immediately rather than having him do a wakeup routine first.
Work on out of out of sight stays around the house and in other areas.

2. Agility:  My hope is that Vito starts to shine this year.  He's been happy and now I hope that happiness turns into actual running :) 

Work as many trials I can so I can enter more trials this year.
Start doing USDAA with him and see if I like it.  Continue doing NADAC because I like distance work and I'm hoping that the flowiness helps Vito to be confident to run fast.

3. Disc:  Keep Vito safe!

Practice throwing more so I am more confident in my abilities
Develop an actual routine or at least several sequences I can draw from to combine.
Keep working on impulse control and develop a way to walk out onto the field consistently without Vito screaming and punching me.

4. Increased exercise: This last summer I started running with him and I shocked myself by not hating it too much.  Of course I quit as soon as it got a little cold.  But Vito really needs more exercise so I want to make it a goal for me to find a way to exercise him more in the winter and then hopefully start running again next spring.

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Disc Dog State Championship

This past weekend the boys and I went camping for the MN Disc Dog State Championship.  Vito and I did our very first freestyle routine and some how managed to win the novice division. I'm not sure how since it was very evident that we had no actual routine planned and Vito didn't actually catch much of anything besides a few flips.  Of course he always has a blast.  I felt like an idiot.

We had a lot of these

 And a few of these

Vito got minimal points in T&C and Longshot was a complete bust.  I just wasn't able to get the disc out far enough ahead of him for Vito to catch it.  Instead he did his typical out running of the disc and leaping at it when he's underneath it.

We have one catch picture!!!

Pairs Catch-22 seemed to be our game though!  Adam, Vito, and I were a team and took turns tossing disc in opposite directions.  It was perfect for Vito since we were able to throw the next disc as he was running back and thus the disc was way out in front of him to actually judge take off. 

Lance escaped from his spot and ran over to us during the pairs award (3rd).  Adam figured he could stay since he's like a little mascot.

Thanks to Adam, JG, Emily, and Larry for the pictures!

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The Weekend Events

Saturday- MN Disc Dog Star Jam
Vito's going to ruin me for any future disc dogs!  I am learning to throw low so Vito has no crazy thought of doing a spectacular somersault for the disc and still missing.  And it worked.  Only 1 spill and he caught most of the discs, although in a very boring but safe way.

Sunday- CPE Trial
Our first agility trial since April.  Lance was entered in 3 runs and Vito in 1.  I picked the games for Lance so he wouldn't have to do the dogwalk or aframe during our wreck of training running contacts.  Unfortunately in Colors I had the choice of doing the course with the dogwalk and then flip to a tunnel, or a straight exit off the dogwalk and then the aframe later.  I chose the flip and planned to turn him late.  I am happy to say that Lance hit the contact without any spectacular leap and even turned away from me... into a different tunnel.  And then besides our usual stuttering issues, jumpers and full house went well.

Vito was entered in jumpers.  I wasn't holding out much promise for our run since Vito was once again obsessed with the astro turf at the arena.  It took him a long time to focus on me and take his toy or treats during our warm up.  All Vito wanted to do was roll on that sweet grass.  It shocks me every time since Vito doesn't roll around on normal grass/dirt/smelly things ever!  I feel like the run started really well and Vito was actually running instead of jogging like he sometimes does at trials. But then I lost him for half a second to sniff the grass.  He connected with me right away again but lost his speed.

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Pawsitive Vybe Seminar

The boys and I just returned from a 4 day Pawsitive Vybe disc dog seminar!  By far the best seminar I've been to.  Ron and Apryl are the most patient teachers and are great at breaking things down for both canine and humans.

I feel like I actually have a handle on how to throw a disc now which wasn't an easy task. I have always had a really hard time mirroring people or even simply imitating a grip.  Ron didn't make me feel like an idiot when he had to physically move my hands and body for me, over and over again, and even had a ton of innovative ideas on how to get my body to feel the right movements.  And while it only happened once and may never happen again, I even did a body roll of the disc across my arms.

As for Vito, Ron and Apryl really challenged my expectations and set the bar high.  Apparently through management and microshaping I don't have to play Vito's reindeer games on the field.  Anyone who has seen Vito on the field knows that he screams constantly until a disc is thrown, repeatedly punches you as you walk out on the field, can't keep his feet still, and is just all over you until the disc is his.  His brain has splatted and there is no thinking at all.  Words of endearment towards Vito this week were monster, dangerous, a polite-rude, bastard, jumping idiot, pushy, and obnoxious.  Of course they also called him awesome and Ron offered to steal him as he loves Tollers.

We came up with a management plan of keeping discs in my bag until the last second.  Vito will walk nicely on a leash over many but starts screaming as soon as I go for my bag zipper.  Then I must give Vito a disc right away and either tug with him to the middle of the field or let him carry it.  This still results in some screaming but it's muffled by the disc :)  When I'm taking a break I can try telling him "all done" and immediately drop the discs to the ground.  If they're on the floor he doesn't scream at me and 80% of the pushing me stops.  I can just let him pick up and grab as many discs as he wants; just ignore him.  During game play but during a low to just gather discs or think  I need to just chuck discs out there for him to run after.

The training portion of a more controlled Vito is doing a ton of waits during play and having that become a secondary reinforcer.  Shaping eye contact is going to be another huge priority and likely the most important one.  Vito can do the eye contact game with food and with tug toys but has an insanely hard time with a ball or disc.  Ron suggested starting with going outside, putting a disc on the ground, and just working with food.  He won't eat the food at first, but perhaps after a few sessions he should settle in and eat once he learns discs do not always equal play.  I can slowly work my way up and ask for eye contact during a game of disc.

Besides throwing better and getting a more domesticated Vito, I got a few suggestions on improving our catch ratio.  Vito currently overruns the disc and it can be quite dangerous as he then has to fling his body.  I can create a more thinking Vito by having him do rear and front crosses to change his line of travel and get him collecting.  Ron thinks I can even mark the collection and put a cue on it.  I am to avoid doing the standard send around and throw forward right now as that creates the barreling Vito, and instead set it up so he's intercepting the disc.

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Vito in 2010

Same video as in Lance's, just posted again :)

Vito's accomplishments in 2010

Rally:
Vito's first experience in a trial was doing APDT in August.  I was extremely proud of how focused he was and he quickly got his RL1 and his first leg in level 2.  He has done two days of AKC rally starting in September and it won't be long before he gets his RN.

Obedience:
Vito's debut was the toller specialty.  I wasn't planning on showing him yet but decided I had to since the specialty was here in Minnesota!  I am glad I did as while he had some baby dog moments Vito has done extremely well in every trial and earned his CD this year.  I am debating about what to do with him next but don't plan on doing Open for awhile yet.

Vito hasn't been in a regular obedience class yet this year except for a handful of drop in classes.  My goal for next year is to find him one!  This year 90% of our work was on heeling.  The other time was spent on trying to get rid of him stepping on my foot for the left finish and on the front.  I mostly succeeded on the finish but we are still struggling with the bounce off me on fronts when he is coming from a distance.  Another issues I will tackle next year are halts- not bumping into me.

Vito currently has a decent start to all of the open and utility exercises.  Retrieves need work on a straighter closer front but so far he has no problem with knowing to take the jump both directions from extreme angles.  Broad jump I have gotten rid of the target but are still tossing a treat as he jumps.  The drop on recall has been recently started and I am still using both verbal and hand signal to down him.

He has good signals and strong scent work.  Vito still needs work on building distance for his go out, and has not seen directed jumping yet.  Pivoting and marking is still done with targets, I have not added in the actual gloves yet.

Agility:
Vito had his first experience in a trial in May doing tunnelers and jumpers.  But I knew we weren't really ready so I consider his first real trial to be in July.  He bounced a lot more than he ran for his first several trials and just now do I feel he is truly starting to get it and run.  He did mainly CPE and managed to qualify for CPE nationals next year held here in Minnesota by finishing up his level 2 titles.

We struggled a ton with his running contacts, with a meltdown occurring in February.  It got better and then we had another one in June.  Fixed the last one with the toy set out again really close to the end this time and was able to move it further away again until I could take it away.  So far all but 2 of his dogwalks in a trial have been good although we don't always get the next obstacle unless it's a jump straightish ahead.  We are still slowly working on turns and I'm afraid we will be forever training it as I don't get down to practice that much.

His teeter was changed from 4ft on to a 2o2o as he started to hesitate at the pivot point a little too much.  Too kamikaze for a running teeter and then too uncertain about the criteria of just stopping on it!  I am much happier with his teeter now!  In his first few trials he would stop and sniff and then switch back and forth between 2o2o and 4on.  He will occasionally still do that to me in a trial.

Tricks:
Also worked on the paw vs nose touch discrimination with Lance in January.  I will never do that again!  Other tricks learned this year were sidestepping on my right, sticky target, pray, limping, penguin (needs lots of help still), hug, ostrich (another work in progress), and jump through my arms.  I also worked on the sidestepping stuff I did with Lance, but struggled a bit more with Vito in learning to walk perpendicular towards me and also with facing out and sidestepping.

Disc:
In May I went to a introduction put on by the MN Disc Dog Club and was hooked.  At that time Vito had little interest in his disc, only wanting his beloved tennis ball.  I picked up all the toys outside so he had no other options and it wasn't long before Vito became just as obsessed about the disc as his ball.  I created a monster!  In toss and catch competitions we seemed to get worse every trial.  Vito would be so frantic trying to get to it that he would jump too early and while he would always make contact with it, he would rarely catch it.  Many times he will twist himself in weird contortions trying way too hard.

We did make progress at home with teaching a back stall, overs, flipping both directions, and sometimes a vault off my leg (with a grab to the still disc).  Vito is also starting to be able to do his tricks when a disc is out such as backward circles and weaving.


Other Stuff:
Vito's separation anxiety issues have gotten worse.  He is doing fabulous if crated at a trial with people around, and is even doing ok when at work with me.  But he is doing a little bit of howling when left home alone for periods over an hour.  When I analyze the video tape it doesn't look like he is that anxious but he won't eat any of his many bones and just howls.  I'm pretty sure I won't be able to afford it next year, but if a miracle happens I want to take Vito in to see a specialist at the U of MN.

Goals for 2011:
Have a solid running dogwalk WITH turns!
Enter open obedience at our club's October trial.
Prepare a novice freestyle routine for disc.

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MN Disc Dog State Championships!

The boys and I drove down on Saturday for the final disc dog competition of the year.  It was a two day event so we decided to camp out!


Saturday Vito competed in catch-22 with both me and Adam, and also did his first novice freestyle routine!  Vito needs to learn how to conserve energy as he always flings his body into the air to try and catch when he could just wait a second longer and actually catch the damn disc much easier.  He looks like a complete spazz and we have a lot of misses.  At least Vito is very much enjoying himself out there!


During freestyle Vito actually did quite well and caught most of them.  I on the other hand was not planning on entering so didn't have any routine planned or even a sequence.  I took 4 discs on the field which is double the amount I had ever practiced with at one time.  I clearly remember thinking at one point, "huh, I'm all out of discs, now what?" and then quickly realizing I had to move and collect some of them again!  While I really felt I wasn't ready at all to enter freestyle, I learned a lot from that 1minute and feel much more confident now.  I need to remember to do some of the few simple tricks he can do when the disc is out such as spins and turns and weaving.  And of course remembering to move while he is running out to catch and gather some discs would be good too.

Sunday was a longshot, a distance competition and then 15sec freestyle.  Vito actually started out really well for me and was catching my throws instead of just bouncing them off his nose!  We made it to the 4th round at 25yds before getting our last strike and eliminated.  15 second freestyle was both a wreck and a huge highlight.  On the positive side, Vito did his first complete backward circle with the disc being out!  He got sick of waiting for me to throw and offered more then one of them!!!  Then he actually tried to do his backward weaving, was half way successful and threw in another offered circle and caught his flip throw!  Then I had no clue what to do, panicked at still having time left and bumbled for the last few seconds.

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Vito Hastings Disc Dog Comp

Yesterday we went to our 3rd disc dog competition!  It was extremely hot out but Vito didn't seem to mind too much.  My throws weren't quite as good this time and Vito only caught 1 of the 5.  The other 3 he all came in contact with in the air but for some reason bounced them off his mouth, and the last one was just a horrible throw.  In round #2 I had his daddy throw and both did very well, catching 4 of the 5 throws!  My plan is to slowly get Adam to become Vito's disc handler.  I think it would be great for him to do something with the dogs and he sadly has no interest in obedience or agility.

I got first?

Lance and Chuck want to point out that they were there too

At home we are progressing to vaulting off my thigh with me standing up, as opposed to kneeling on the ground.  There are still some times he decides to jump over my knee instead of actually putting his paws on me.  I'm actually quite impressed he can jump that high without vaulting!  And then there are other times where he seems to just barrel right through me.  I am still holding the disc at this point but soon I hope to learn how to float it for him.

He is also getting better about dropping the first disc while running when I cue him to.  Before he would drop a disc when standing near me to get a 2nd disc, but had a really hard time doing so when running back to me.  He does prefer his older blue Jawz disc to the newer green Jawz disc though.

And in my most proudest news, Vito can now do 1 full backward circle counterclockwise when the disc is in my hands!!! It's been so difficult for Vito to be able to do any of his tricks when he gets over aroused, which is basically anytime I have a ball or frisbee in my hand.  He much prefers to stomp his feet and shriek at me :) I still have a long ways to go but his small list of tricks when a disc is out are now:
sit, down, left spin, right spin, leg weaves, and 1 backward circle!

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