STITCH

the weBlog of a Service Dog, Pet Dog, Show Dog, and Sport Dog In Training

On the road again...

Level Three Handling - eliminate on cue.

We start on our trip. I expect Stitch will whine most of the way and I'll probably strangle her before we get to the border. Scuba of course will be no trouble at all. And she DOES whine, the first four minutes. I'm driving a half-ton truck pulling a fifth wheel trailer, so no room for crates. I've got harnesses for each dog that buckle into the seatbelt slot in the back seat. This is new for her. If she's ever been out of a crate in the car, she's been on the floor in the back seat. She's happy to be able to watch the scenery (more like she's watching the road in case I do something stupid), and alternates between sitting up staring forward between the seats with her ears perked and sleeping in the same place with her butt on the seat, her chin on the console, and her front legs hanging down between.

This first day she has some trouble remembering how to pee on leash and on cue. I was afraid I'd only be able to drive three or four hours a day, but I'm managing sever without difficulty, so I resent having to stop every hour so she can stand in gas-station grass staring at me. Nevertheless, this IS a priority. I can't spend the next month hoping she'll pee, so I DO stop every hour, giving her 2 minutes each stop. Scuba rolls her eyes and gives me three drops of urine at each stop.

I have a folding crate set up in the trailer with a dogbed in it. Because Stitch didn't pee during the day, she has an accident at night - on the dogbed. I have no facilities for washing it, and none for storing it in it's present condition, so I toss it out. The first casualty.

One, two, three - PEE!

A few more points of discussion

Open doors are not open invitations.

Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

Does my face look like a dog park to you?

The second day she starts to get the hang of it again. THIS is the way I want to travel - stopping only to fill up on gas and Diet Coke, water the dogs, 30 seconds for elimination, 60 seconds for a sniff break, and we're back on the road.

When we're safely ensconced in the campground, we discover a few minor things that will have to change if we're to survive a month in such close quarters.

First, she's going to have to understand in her SOUL, not just in her brain, that an open door is not an invitation. She knows this at home, of course, but a trailer door may not be the same thing. To this end, I open the trailer door while standing in the doorway, and trap her several times between my leg and the cupboard, only releasing her when she's backing up. That takes a bit of the stuffing out of her enthusiasm for instant escape. Then I walk out, turn around, and give her a treat for NOT escaping. After this night, she'll only make one other door-mistake the entire trip.

Second, we're going to have to have a discussion about where *I* am going to walk and where SHE is going to stand or lie. This was never a problem with Scuba, who had to be taught to stay so I could walk around her without her leaping aside. I get a bit of a headstart on this unfortunately by stepping on Stitch and tripping over her. After that I make a point of NOT trying to walk around her, but poking her with my toe to make her move if she's in my way.

Finally, she's going to have to give my face a little more respect. At home, I guess, I'm usually sitting up or standing when I'm around her. Now, I'm either driving or walking or lying on the bed in the trailer, giving her freedom to lick my face, walk on my face, lie on my face, and play tug over my face. I start by feeding her her meals from my hand while she's lying calmly on the bed, and progress to the bitch-solution - a snarl, a bark, a lifted lip. Mission accomplished.

Waiting

We go across Lake Michigan on the carferry. It was a holiday weekend, and I didn't call ahead in time to get the day ferry, so we spend eight hours in the parking lot waiting for the midnight sailing. Lots of time for both dogs to wrestle with toys and each other in the trailer. Stitch has a stuffed dog (Leroy) nearly as big as she is that she's had since she was a baby. She flings Leroy around the small space - if she flings him high enough, it's an excuse to get on the table or the counter to rescue him. I don't know why Leroy has lasted for nearly a year when all around him toys are spilling their fluffy guts out on the carpet. Scuba doesn't play with Leroy at all, which might explain it, save that Stitch is a champion toy-disembowler.

When we're tired of being cooped up, we take a walk (lovely to walk two dogs on loose leashes!) and then check out the "beach" - a short stretch of sand covered with seagulls, ducks, and bird droppings. I spend several minutes with Stitch on leash discussing the merits of bird poop - a combination of NO! and clicking her for not eating it - then I let them off leash and start throwing sticks. Again, Stitch swims if she's following Scuba, but not even the ducks can lure her in far enough to swim on her own.

Another nap and a drying-out period, and I take each dog in turn out on the pavement and do a 20-minute training session. Stitch's heeling is remarkably good for being in a parking lot surrounded by semi trucks, RVs, and rowdy college kids, close to the lake and the birds, and with a large boat honking at us from time to time. Stays, recalls, stand for exam, sidesteps, backward heeling all nice. Retrieves are a little distracted.

Alone all night

Finally getting the hang of the whole "swimming" thing

Another half day and we arrive in the mddle of Michigan at Stitch's breeder's new house. Wonderful basement with nothing in it but some agility equipment and a grooming nook. We have four days to play here. Paula, partner of Stitch's aunt, the wonderful Hunter's Hertie Gertie (add billions and billions of titles here), lives next door and has a private POND with no swimmer's itch in it, a lovely beach, and a raft with ladders AND a ramp. The weather is hot, hot, hot (over 30 degrees every day) so we're all eager to use the pond, usually twice a day. The first session, I just let Stitch and Scuba play while I tossed toys. The second session, Scuba stayed in the beach chair while I tried to persuade Stitch to go in. No go. Finally, I waded in and Stitch came after me. We did some quick, happy retrieves just short of swimming depth with me sitting in the water, lots of wieners, and some of Elaine's wonderful venison (a breeder knows the way to a puppy's heart!). Then we swam out to the raft and just played around with it for a while, Stitch climbing up the ramp, climbing down the ramp, doing stays on the ramp, coming off the ramp to me when I called her, etc. She began to get comfortable with swimming.

Stitch is a funny little girl. Bold as brass, tough as nails, soft as a feather. She loves the teeter so much she does it on her own in the yard. She's perfectly comfortable snagging apples from the coffee maker under the upper kitchen cabinets. But she's not entirely sure she can safely make the one step up into the trailer, she complained for two weeks before she got comfortable with the air conditioner on in the car, and it's taken her two dozen times in the water to start feeling confident. By contrast, Elaine has a 12 week old puppy who walked down to the water and, following Elaine, waded right in and swam, not appearing to notice any difference between swimming and walking. The good thing about Stitch is that once she's comfortable, she'll be supremely confident.

By the third day, she's doing consistent 40' retrieves of her bumper, and 30' retrieves of her buoy rope, SOME 50' bumper retrieves, and an occasional 60' retrieve. I was using Scuba to fetch the ones that went to far, until I noticed Stitch take a step toward one, stop, and look at Scuba, like - hey, YOU get this one. After that Stitch and I go out together to get the far ones.

Today Scuba and Stitch go off into the surrounding forest for a second - and come back covered with a wonderful, stinky, liquid cow pat. Fortunately Paula had the foresight to keep a bottle of shampoo at the pond!

The fourth day, she's consistent at 50', and over 50% on 60' retrieves. Her underwater retrieve is about 80%. Swim With Handler is excellent - I've always considered this a loose-leash-walking exercise, only not walking and no leash, and she's translated it nicely. We've been working on the boat platform using Scuba's cart, and we solidify it on Paula's boat.

We have a nasty glimpse of what an obedience trial will look like.

Portuguese Water Dogs in Draft Dog Trials!

Day before the Specialty starts

Another couple of days' travel, and we arrive at the Specialty site. We're a couple of days early, so we have time to walk around the area and play in the water. What a magnificent place for a Specialty! The beach is white sand. The water deepens nicely but 60' out is still walkable. Stitch and I go swimming with no expectations, and she's coming along very well. She may actually do the 60' retrieve! Over the last week, she's started to forget about feeling insecure about the water and has started getting really excited about retrieving her bumper. If she fails, she may fail on over-enthusiasm, but I'll be a lot happier with that than if she wasn't interested.

I should also be practising obedience, but I'm hot, and I'm tired, and I just don't bother.

Water trial - Stitch passes, I don't

Today's the day. She's going to pass! Well, actually, no WAY she can pass this. Unless she passes. I'm a basket case. I'm trying to be calm but I have no idea what she's going to do and I still can't focus.

It's our turn. We go into the ring area for our 3-minute warmup. I'm not focused, and neither is Stitch. Three minutes isn't going to cut it. "Let's just do it" I say to the judge, and that's the last bit of thinking I do. Whatever the judge says to me, I respond by giggling. My fingers are numb. This is ridiculous.

The first exercise is the Underwater Retrieve. I have to ask her three times, but she pulls herself together and gets the article. One down.

The second exercise is the 60' bumper retrieve. I know she's going to anticipate, so I tell her twice to stay, pretend I'm throwing it to make sure, tell her again to stay, and throw it. Nice throw, 60' out. I tell her to get it, she does! She walks calmly out, launches herself, goes the whole distance, grabs the bumper, and brings it... 57' back. Three feet away from me, just as she comes out of the water, she suddenly drops the bumper, looks to her right, drops her butt, and takes off like a bat out of hell. Out of the ring, along the beach, up the grassy slope, up the mountain, up the mountain, up the mountain... I call her once, then just shut up and watch. In my heart I know she's not going anywhere - she's just not heeling. She'll be back. And sure enough, at the last instance before she disappears forever into the Appalachian forest, she spins and runs back just as fast.

The judge kindly says she thinks someone made a noise nearby, which caused her to drop the bumper and go, and since I only called her once, she'll give us another chance. Well, OK, thanks, if you'll buy that, I will. Personally I think she was OK until she got totally wet, and then two weeks of too little exercise caught up with her and she just had to RUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN.

Now, having had Stitch do something totally unexpected, seeing her escaping into the wilds of Maryland, having her come back, and being given another chance, I'm totally gibbered. I ask her to stay once and pitch the bumper again, and, jet-propelled, she races out and retrieves it.

Non-qualifying, but, as I hoped, she failed through too much enthusiasm, not too little, and I knew she wasn't ready for this. I'm happy with her. I'm less than pleased with myself. I have to give myself a good talking-to tomorrow or I might as well go home.

Stitch's first seminar

We watch more of the water trial the next morning. I work a bit on my speech for the afternoon, which helps me settle down. I make a decision to pull Stitch from Obedience later in the week, which settles me down more.

In the afternoon we do a four-hour clinic. This is the first time Stitch has done anything like this. She's very good when she's working. When Scuba's working, Stitch demonstrates her poor ability to handle being ignored. I REALLY need to work on this.

Her first Agility trial.

The first day of Agility trials. Scuba and Stitch are both entered in Novice Jumpers With Weaves and Novice Standard. Scuba got one AKC leg in Standard eight years ago, and this is now well below her level of expertise. It's still hot. She goes in JWW and does her usual competent but fairly uninspired job. Qualifies. I have no idea what Stitch is going to do. She loves agility but she's never run a full course before. Between my talking-to, my clinic, deciding to pull her from Obedience, and running Scuba, I seem to have arrived at the Agility field ready to run my dog, though. She'll do what she'll do and she'll have a good time doing it. All I have to do is stay on course and stay ahead of her, and with any luck she won't head for the hills again.

And she doesn't. In fact, she does a lovely stay at the start line while I lead out, hits every obstacle, hits them fast and accurately, slows to stay with me for the weave poles (which she doesn't know how to do on her own yet), and ends up under course time, Qualified, with a 2nd in class.

Scuba Qs again in Standard, which includes jumps and weave poles as well as all the contact obstacles - teeter, dogwalk, and A-frame, and gets 4th in class. I'm even calmer now, as Stitch obviously isn't going to fail every single thing she's entered in all week. She CAN do this. I'm thinking of staying ahead of her, and remembering the course. She stays, I lead out, I send her, she takes off and runs the course at top speed. She hits every contact on every obstacle. One small problem. I neglected to tell her that one of the ramps was a teeter. She ran it and went off it about five feet in the air. A lovely run, Non-Qualifying for the dangerous dismount.

By golly, I think my little girl is going to like Agility!

Oh! THAT'S what Agility should feel like!

The second day of Agility. We start with JWW again. Apparently I'm not quite awake. I take Scuba in and, in the middle of the course, ask her to go five different directions at once. She manages to hit every one of the jumps I ask her to, but since only one of them was the correct one, we NQ. I'm able to settle down, though, and think of this as amusing, so it serves to settle me down rather than wiring me up. Stitch gives me another amazing run and another Q. Wow!

In the afternoon, Scuba Qs one more time with a 3rd in class, and that's her first AKC title.

I need to remember to tell Stitch about the teeter. As everyone else sweats and grows sleepy in the heat, I can feel her revving her engines. I better remember to tell her about ALL the contacts, while I'm at it.

I lead out, and then I ask her to run. She takes off like she did in the water trial. She's flying. I can see wings sprouting from her shoulderblades. It's like riding a racehorse, like throwing a lariat on a train. She's in control - barely. I'm waiting for her to lose it and take off, but she doesn't. I'm holding on by my toenails. I manage to keep my cues mostly ahead of her, and remember to remind her to hit the contacts and slow for the teeter. She does. My fingers are tingling. Wow! What fun we're going to have next year! She's going to teach me a whole new level of handling! Another Q, and the end of a fantastic two days. Six Qs in 8 runs. Stitch needs a lot of work in Agility. Her times don't reflect her speed, because she's sloppy and wide on all her turns, yadda yadda yadda, but suddenly I'm talking about a Competitor. A whole new level. My baby needs a pilot's license!

A very long, hot day in which I should have been paying more attention to my dogs and less attention to getting through the day.

The next day is VERY hot and VERY, VERY long. Thank goodness I pulled Stitch from Obedience. Scuba qualifies in Novice. I didn't get her score, it's perfectly adequate but not inspiring. Today she's looking like a 9-year-old dog.

My first Rally trial. Scuba does it again. I blow right by a sign, but remember it from the walk-through before I get to the next one, so we're OK. Take Stitch in and forget my brain again. I'm thinking about getting through the course, not about getting the dog through the course, but I guess she made a stab at each exercise because she Qs as well.

Then we run over to the hotel for the Canine Good Citizen test. Brain still not engaged. She gently sniffs at one of the distraction dogs and instead of asking her calmly to mind her own business, I'm chanting "Stitch, Stitch, Stitch" and giggling again. I can hear every student I ever had screaming "STITCH WHAT? **TELL** HER SOMETHING, DON'T JUST NAG!" When I leave her alone with a tester for three minutes, from out in the hall I can hear her whining and yipping through the whole thing. When I get back in the room, though, I discover it was one of the distraction dogs, not her, and she passes! Stitch CGC, her first title (or award, or whatever AKC want to call it).

And from there, Scuba goes to the conformation ring. She looks awful. She's so tired her head is down, and she doesn't lift her tail once. Why didn't I pull her? Duh. I need a keeper. Well, she's done now, she can sleep for two weeks now.

And then we go to the beach for a swim, and from there directly back to the trailer. They each get a little massage, a good dinner, a cuddle, and we're in bed by supper time.

Oh thank goodness, it's nearly over

Vacation

One more day of conformation. We can't leave because the trailer's boxed in - not that I want to. We wander around the grounds, sleep, watch a bit of the show, sleep, swim, sleep. Scuba's feeling better. Paula and Gert win Superdog - an excellent role model and a deserving team.

Stitch gets some Service Dog practise

Recumbent tricycle

An ignominious end

Scuba: A, as usual. For the first time I see that she's getting old. She's NOT old, she's a very young 9, but I need to start remembering that she isn't young any more.

Sue: D+, barely a passing grade. I paid FAR too little attention to helping the dogs get through the hard week. Did a good job of getting mySELF through it - slept almost enough, ate properly, stayed cool as well as possible. There's an agility handling seminar next month, I need to sign up and start thinking seriously about what I'm doing instead of fussing about what the dogs might be doing.

Stitch: A, a surprise. In general, I was right about some things she wasn't ready for (obedience, water trial), but overall she was ready to rip in several areas I hadn't given her credit for. She showed amazing talent and desire in Agility. She gave me more than I deserved in Rally and CGC, and she really shone in her Service training. Besides that, the month of enforced closeness, no TV, no bills to pay, no telephone to answer, no computer online, really helped us focus on each other. I appreciate her more than I ever have, and she - well, she has discovered me as a source of fun. Now if I could just get her to stop dropping all her toys in my lap...

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