Milestone Bog Days 1 & 2

On our third and fourth days in Nantucket, we harnessed the dogs into their WalkyDog bike attachments and took them out to Milestone Bog.

As it turned out, there's actually a much faster and easier way to get to Milestone Bog than biking to the long-way-around entrance that we took on those two trips, but I didn't realize that at the time. So we went the long way, and Dog Mob got to meet a hilarious little dog who was also biking with its person, but via bike-drawn baby stroller instead of running on its own four feet. (To be fair, it's unlikely that a small dog could have kept up on the Milestone Bike Path for long. Our guys are pretty big and always got completely pooped in less than a mile on the bike path.)

And then we arrived, and it was hiking time!

...and also mosquito time. The pesky little bloodsuckers were out something fierce on that trip, so we quickly aborted the hike and vowed to return the next day with bug spray. Which we did.

Pongu off leash, taunting Crookytail who is still on leash and therefore unable to do more than stick his head through the fence and look on sadly as Pongu sticks his tongue out and rolls gleefully in the grass:

On the trail:

The Serengeti and Tom Nevers Beach

On the first day in Nantucket, we went out to the "Serengeti," which I chose for our initial walk because Crookytail had been struggling with some recall and dog bullying issues. This particular walk doesn't see a lot of canine traffic and has relatively little wildlife, so I figured it would be a safe re-introduction to off-leash hiking with Crooky.

It was a pleasant, short walk. We'd barely done a mile and a half or so, maaaybe two miles, before Crookytail pooped out. He's so out of shape, poor guy. Because of the aforementioned dog bullying issues, he hasn't been to the dog park much recently, and because he's washed out of all our dog sports I haven't kept up with his physical conditioning, and boy howdy did that ever show.

Pongu had no such problems. He's in considerably better shape, since he's actively in competition, and the walk was quite easy for him.

 

(Pongu's in a Down-Stay for that one, but Crooky is just flopped out on his own, too tired to keep going.)

As soon as we got home, Dog Mob went to their self-appointed sleeping places in the cottage and fell over.

The next day, we went to Tom Nevers Beach. Crookytail chased (and ate) some sand hoppers, Pongu did some cliff climbing and dug a HUGE hole next to my backpack when I asked him to remember where I'd left it, and it was good times for all.

Dog Mob Returns to Nantucket

The merry crew of miscreants is back in Nantucket for two brief weeks of summer fun. Since not much else is likely to be going on with us for a bit, now we will begin the Our Vacation Slideshow episodes of this blog.

One major improvement on this year's trip over last year's is that Dog Mob has gotten a few more trips under their (nonexistent) belts and so they're much better behaved and -- bonus! -- easier to pose for pictures. Not that either of these things was particularly difficult the first time around, honestly, but now it's downright easy.

So here they are loading up in the parking garage one bright early morning in Philly:

Crookytail hears "Sloop John B" come on the radio. This song opens all playlists for major vacation trips. I would be surprised if Crooky actually recognizes it yet -- he hasn't been on that many trips -- but it could just be he's a Beach Boys fan. Or he likes car rides. Who knows.

Dog Mob awaits their lunch of chicken nuggets outside the Hyannis Port KFC. (I feel obliged to mention for the record that I do not regularly feed my crew junk food... but I do let them indulge on semi-annual road trips and sometimes when Pongu wins big things. Before this, I think the last time they'd gotten fast food was on the drive back from my parents' place in Alabama at Christmas.)

On the ferry. I couldn't keep Crooky from partly blocking the aisle, which kept me self-conscious throughout the ride, but other than that Dog Mob was very well-behaved. Quiet, (reasonably) unobtrusive, never budged when people walked past or over them. Crooky even made friends with a nice family behind us. They'd left their own dog behind on vacation and the kids missed her, so they really enjoyed getting to pet and cuddle Crookytail on the ferry.

Pongu made no friends but at least he didn't freak out at anyone, which I will count as a win for him.

And then, at last, we arrived in Nantucket. Tired and stressy as they were, Dog Mob humored their crazy person for a posed picture on a side street. I love the hydrangeas that bloom on every street here. Nantucket is a paradise for flowers of all sorts.

Of course, being on vacation doesn't mean Pongu is exempt from staying in competition shape! I brought along our practice stuff and he will keep practicing as much as I can manage.

And that was our first day on this trip.

ARCHX TDCH Pongu the Insane, RL1X2, RL2X

Meanwhile, Pongu's Rally career proceeds on a bumpy but generally upward trajectory.

We've been drilling harder lately, and with greater focus. It's starting to pay off. Our Q rate in Level 3 has improved from 0% to 50% in the last couple of trials, and when we do Q, we've been getting good scores -- 207 on our first successful run, 206 on our second try. We're still battling broken Stays and some reluctance around unfamiliar jumps, and the Recall Over Jump is a particular bugaboo because it combines both of those things into a single exercise, but I'm seeing definite improvement and I'm beginning to believe that we may be nearing the end of this particular plateau.

The Saturday before last, we did a double trial at the Positive Motivation Training Center in Washington, New Jersey.

This was a pretty big trial (almost 50 teams entered) with some excellent teams creating stiff competition for placements. Pongu earned Qs in 4 of his 6 entered runs (NQ'ed once each in Level 2 and Level 3 on, you guessed it!, a broken Stay and a jump runout) and took home two placement ribbons. It was an unfamiliar venue, and we got there so late that they were breaking down the Level 1 course when we arrived (the judge graciously put it on hold long enough for us to bumble through the course blind and cold -- we scored a not-so-stellar 198, but I'm just grateful we got to run that course at all!), which contributed to Pongu's uncertainty and wobbly performances early on.

But he recovered and gave me some good runs with happy start-line smiles, and earned his first-ever Level 3 Q at this event, so I'm more than satisfied with our performance overall.

Then last Friday we went back to the Bella Vista Training Club for another shot at ARCHX. This time, we got it -- along with Pongu's RL1X2 and RL2X level championships, another Level 3 Q (and first place!), and a perfect score of 210 (and first place again!) in his last Level 1 run of the night. We did NQ one of the Level 3 runs on (yep) a broken Stay during the Recall Over Jump, but whatever, I can't get too upset about that when Pongu did everything else so well that night.

Fewer than 100 mixed-breed dogs worldwide have earned the ARCHX. Pongu is muttpuppy #97 to do it. And yeah, I'll admit, I was secretly hoping we would squeeze in there before the hundredth dog did, and it was close enough to make me worry!

But earn it he did. And despite the venue being hot and filled with distracting bugs (including a big slow bumblebee that Pongu chomped right out of the air when we were waiting to begin our first run) and loud scary fans, he held it together well enough to pull a string of good scores on all his qualifying runs: 204, 205, 206, 208, 210.

I am so, so proud of my little crazypants. Anxious scaredybutt Pongu is out there competing, and sometimes winning!, like a Real Dog. He's on equal terms with everyone else now, even if he is a bonafide basketcase nutjob.

The next goal on our list is the ARCHEX. To earn that title, Pongu must get 10 QQs of 195 or higher in Levels 2B and 3B. We're not even in Level 3B yet, and we struggle with earning consistent Qs in both Level 2 and Level 3, so QQs at the higher levels may elude us for a while. I'm not really worried about the scores; when Pongu qualifies at all, he generally does so with plenty of room to spare score-wise. But NQs continue to be a problem, so I would be surprised if we get the ARCHEX this year. More likely, we'll earn it sometime in early 2014.

But that's okay. Eventually we'll get it. I'm in no hurry. As far as I'm concerned, Pongu has vaulted himself into the elite ranks of Rally, and I'm inclined to enjoy the rest of our journey for as long as we can. We've worked through the toughest part of the road; we've done the heavy lifting of convincing an anxious dog that the ring can be an enjoyable place sometimes. Pongu can do the exercises, and he likes the game. That was the hard part, and now it's (mostly) behind us.

While I imagine we'll have plenty of challenges and setbacks ahead, I'm still inclined to say that after this point, we're in the fun part of Pongu's Rally career. He's got the skill and, more often than not, he can muster up the courage. Now it's about chasing perfection.

Serenity

For the past couple of weeks, we have been playing host to a little mystery mutt from Robeson County. Her shelter name was Serendipity, which I'll confess played a small role in my decision to pull her; with a name like that, how could I not grant her the serendipity of a chance at a new life?

More important, of course, was that she was small and sweet and soft-eyed and female. But there are lots of dogs meeting that description at the shelter, and all else being equal -- as it was for several of them this time around -- the name made a tiny, crucial difference for this one.

So Serendipity got the golden ticket and came up to Philadelphia.

She turned out to be a charming, funny, adorable houseguest. And she quickly drew an adoption offer from a wonderful person seeking a first dog -- a role that Serendipity, soon renamed Serenity, was and is perfectly suited to fill. This little pup is a near-perfect companion dog, and it's no surprise that she picked up a great home in no time.

 

I never blog much about the ones that don't need homes, and Serenity was claimed within a few hours of being pulled, so she was already spoken for by the time she arrived in Philly.

 

But eventually she finished up her (very) basic training here (less thorough than usual, I'm sad to say; most of my attention lately has been absorbed with working Pongu through some competition problems) and it was time to book a plane ticket to Minneapolis.

She departed this morning and arrived, after some delays due to inclement weather, this afternoon -- maybe not all that happy with her epic journey (particularly as she's prone to motion sickness in her crate), but safe.

Here's hoping for a wonderful life.

The Birthday Box Trick

It's been a while since I taught Dog Mob a new trick.

We've been working mostly on Rally stuff, because Pongu's still struggling to integrate the Level 3 exercises into his repertoire (he's doing very well in practice, but still falls apart easily in the trial environment, and is/has been temporarily regressing on the lower levels while he stresses over the Level 3 work), and I wanted to focus on shoring those up before our next trial. So that's where most of our effort has been going.

Also, until a couple of days ago, I didn't have any good ideas for a trick I really wanted to do.

But then!, inspiration struck, and we did the Birthday Box Trick as a quick little interlude.

This took three days to train. Pongu grasped the concept immediately, since he already understood receptacle drops from the Easter Egg trick, but he needed a few sessions to develop the mechanical skill of picking the box lid up by its ribbon and dropping it on the box. This was by far the most difficult part of the trick and the one that we spent the most time practicing.

But once we had that, we had the trick. So: three days and done.

sigh.

Not much new to report here. I don't have a foster dog in the house -- and probably won't through May, since I'm on deadline with a couple of book projects and, tempting as it is, I reeeaaally don't think I should be adding another foster right now for my general health and sanity. If something cute and exceedingly adoptable comes along and I think I can get it turned around and placed in a couple of weeks, I might relent on that resolution... but I'm trying very hard not to get suckered into that just yet.

Pongu and I are still trialing every couple of weeks in Rally. He's doing well; his Level 1 and 2 scores are steadily climbing and his general happiness and confidence in the ring are improving. We pulled double NQs in our last attempt at Level 3, but that's okay, it's about what I expected. Other than the mistakes that earned us the NQs, Pongu did quite well, so even though those entries will show up as big fat zeroes on our scoresheet, I know they represent improvement.

We do still have a lot of trouble with the retrieve bonus exercise. Pongu has always been weak on the retrieve (fetching is not fun for him and it is a purely shaped behavior that he has never especially enjoyed) and it falls to pieces immediately when he's stressed. He's always stressed in the trial ring, so it will probably be months before I get a half-decent retrieve out of him. That's not such a big deal this year -- he can still earn his Level 3 AoE and ARCHEX QQs without the bonus, if he doesn't make too many other mistakes -- but next year, if and when we take a serious run at the national rankings, it will be imperative to have a good solid retrieve.

So we'll work on it, and maybe in a few months I'll start to get it more-or-less reliably and more-or-less completely even under moderate stress. I'm starting to see some (very small) improvement during our proofing sessions, so I have hope.

Meanwhile Crookytail is re-retired after being cute but hopeless (and I mean hopeless) at last Friday's trial. He's just a nice, easygoing, average-intelligence dog without a competitive bone in his body... and that would be okay if he didn't keep giving me tantalizing flashes of brilliance and persistent focus. It drives me BANANAS because I am of course the hyperdriven overachiever type myself, and so's Pongu (despite his crazy), and then... then there's just poor amiable Crooky, trying his hardest, and mostly not getting it except for glimmers that show just enough promise to make me keep trying even when it's really not good for either of us.

Currently we're working on a "birthday party" trick. It's only half-formed in my head, which is okay because Crooky is doing the first step and that means I'll have probably about a month to even figure out where I want to take the rest of it.

He's supposed to open a birthday-present box by whapping it on the lid until the lid falls off. This is a very easy thing to do, particularly for a dog who already knows object targeting with a paw. We have been working ONLY on the box-opening action for two solid weeks. Meanwhile, Pongu has had no involvement with the birthday party trick, other than watching me get annoyed with Crooky's slow progress; his job is just to hold a Stay on the mat until it's his turn to work again.

This is what happened when Crooky finally began to get almost-reliable enough for me to attempt making a Step 1 video.

sigh, indeed.