A frustrating class and a plan of action

Saturday rain meant no flyball  practice again.

Agility class on Saturday was a lesson in frustration. I know we have a lot of work ahead of us to get Sophie comfortable on the teeter and dog walk. Armed with treats, tug toy and clicker, we got to class early  and worked on rewarding any interest she showed in the teeter. She did fine, even offered a two on two off (on the non moving side of the teeter.)

Then class started...some of the dogs have built up speed on the teeter so they were making lots of noise as they run across it. Most classes she refuses to go on the teeter but will continue to work as others worked on it. Class is indoor and the teeter is now moving with more force and she dislikes the sound intensely.

Sophie completely shut down. She refused to work on jumps, weaves or tunnel. She even refused her tug which is unheard of. I was frustrated/worried that she was so freaked out. We took a walk outside and then sat in the corner working on the wobble board. Lots of praises and treats for willingly going on the board. After 30mins she was back to normal and doing jumps. It helped that the teeter work was over.

The instructor said we may want to consider switching classes to the center's outdoor site. Unfortunately that does not fit into our schedule. So we agreed to give it to the end of this session (5 weeks). If she continues to shut down because of the noise then we will have to re-evaluate.

When I got home, I was upset. I didn't like seeing her shut down. I was happy that we were able to work through it but sad that the noise so freaked her out. I jumped online, learned how to make a wobble board of our own. Then today we got to work.

Lots of treats and praise whenever she makes the board hit the ground. By the end of a 8min training session, I saw some progress. Tail wagging, relaxed body and offering the slamming behavior on her own. So far we are still working with the wobble board on the rug. As she builds confidence I will move it to the hard wood flooring.

I do agility because so far it has been fun. I won't continue if it is stressful for her. So we shall see how the next few weeks go with some more work at home. Wish us luck!

Leash reactive or why Sophie used to lunge on leash

I am a member of a Lab board forum and a recent post about leash re-activeness got me thinking about Sophie. The poster was worried that her 2 year old, soon to be certified therapy dog was having some problems on leash. It brought me back to the day when it first became apparent Sophie was leash reactive. Off leash she was a dream, great social skills and your typical happy go luck lab. On leash she was Cujo.

At 13 months, at the end of a class, one of her usual playmates came up to her, both dogs on leash and Sophie lunged at him while growling. I immediately pulled her back and the Golden’s owner walked him away. I was stunned. What happened?


 To say I was horrified was putting it mildly. I had socialized Sophie like crazy since we got her from the shelter at 8ish weeks. She went to puppy socials, puppy preschool, obedience classes. Later on she went to daycare and the dog park. She did great off leash  and I had not had a problem with her before. Then out of seemingly nowhere I had a barking, lunging, upset dog at the end of the leash.

It was like a switch went off from one day to the next and Sophie just lost it when on leash. She was still her normal, playful self when she was off leash. Her daycare saw no change in her personality. I was nervous to take her out on leash which just made her more anxious.

I became that owner you look at and shake your head at because they can't control their dog. We became the dog and owner, you crossed the street to avoid.

I was scared and embarrassed. I saw my plans for dog sports, obedience titles, fun trips and hanging out at coffee shops with my canine pal go out the window.

And so began our long and at times frustrating journey to teach Sophie to relax on leash, to not fear other dogs and to focus (more on that later).

We have made great progress and I look forward to writing about our progress in a later post. But I just wanted to get this out there, for others like the poster on the lab board. You can work with your dog and get a handle on the situation. Leash reactiveness does not have to be the end of all your plans/goals/activities!

The rain cancelled our flyball practice for today.

But we did make it to agility this morning. We had an opportunity to work on front crossing and jumps which Sophie did well on. Also got to do some work on weaves. Weaves are so far one of her favorite things.

Then we tried the dog walk for the first time. Well, dog walk needs to be added to list of things Sophie dislikes which include the teeter. Lots of work ahead to get her comfortable on both of them!

Two weeks until our next flyball tournament! If we have a very good weekend, Sophie may earn her FDCH-G. If not this tournament then likely next :-)

Then of course there is Sophie’s view of flyball

courtesy of Cafe Press

What in the world is flyball

That is usually the response I get when I tell people that Sophie competes in flyball.

So here is the short to the point version I tell people when they ask:

Flyball is a dog relay race. The racing lane has a start line, four hurdles spread out over 51 feet and a flyball box. A flyball ring has two of these lanes side by side with racing lights in between. 2 teams compete in head to head racing. There are 4 dogs on each team. The dogs must jump the hurdles, trigger the box, catch a tennis ball and come back over the hurdles so the next dog may go. The incoming dog cannot pass the start line before the returning dog. The first team to send all four dogs with no errors wins that heat.  (whee that is a long spiel)

I will have to locate a video later today to add.

A happy Soph after her walk.

In memory of Shasta

Shasta was my first dog. She was a wonderful Lab Mix. She was incredibly mellow but loved to go for her walks.

At the age of 9 we lost her to cancer. It was fast and lethal. She started losing weight and we took her to the vet. They ran a myriad of blood tests with nothing coming back out of the ordinary. About 2 weeks after that we felt the tumor. It was a large mass in her stomach. The vet said that we could try to remove the tumor but there was evidence the cancer had spread. He told us we had 2 months with her and to enjoy our time.
2 weeks later we lost Shasta. She passed away around midnight as we rushed her to the emergency vet. My mom and I spent the rest of the night talking and re-telling our favorite memories.
A year to the day after we lost her, we adopted Sophie. She was so different from Shasta that we joked that Sophie was Shasta’s little joke and gift to us. Sophie’s registered name is Shasta’s Funny Wisdom (Sophie means wisdom in greek).
In honor of my Shasta, I will be buying this collar from Dublin Dog Co. for Sophie and my sister’s puppy. 30% of the proceeds from sales of collars in the Courage Collection will go to the Chase Away K9 Cancer Foundation.

Photo courtesy of Dublin Dog Company.