Obedience training videos

We were at the club practicing for a while today and I managed to get a short video clip of heeling and a video clip of finding one of the articles in the scent discrimination exercise. He's getting pretty good at going to the article pile, working the pile and finding the correct article quickly - however, the pace going out and coming back is really, really slow. Something we will work on later, after we are successful with finding the correct articles under stress and with distractions. Right now I'm working on building confidence by reducing the size of the pile - only five instead of the full set of eight articles - and making sure he goes right to work. He has a tendency to circle the pile and not wanting to put his head down and pick up the article when he is stressed and/or there are more distractions. Today there weren't many distractions at the club - just one other person working their dog - so working the pile was not a problem.

Practice at the club today

Well, the spring-like weather we had last week did not hold, so it was back to the club today for practice. We had a really good practice session today. We were the only ones training at the club so there were not many distractions. Two of the rings had been combined into one really big ring so that was somewhat different for him. The large ring though really helped with his speed I think. At least it gives him more room to get moving, and speed is one of the things we're working on now.

We started out with a few restrained recalls to get him going. I've been doing this lately to help get his speed up, and it really seems to be working. Plus, I'm trying to be more upbeat, less formal, and keeping things moving at a faster pace. We then did some heeling and signals. He was focused and the signals were good today.

We're sticking with the plan of only putting five articles out. Working on getting him to go out and go right to work. He did that today and was good on all articles, however, he was slow going out and coming back. I think I'll wait and work on speed with articles once he is more confident in working the articles under stress.

The go-outs for directed jumping were much improved. They were straight and he had a pretty brisk pace going out, and the sits were fairly quick. I set the jumps at 16 inches because I'm still concerned about the lameness issues, however, he wasn't showing signs of limping today and seemed to be moving much better. Hmmmm, maybe the acupuncture treatment is helping, or maybe it's the Dasuquin. I started him on Dasuquin, a joint supplement, this week, which may also be helping.

We finished up with the glove exercise and another set of signals, both of which went well.

Overall, I think the upbeat, shorter sessions are more productive, so I'm going to try keeping the sessions shorter for awhile.

Spring Training

We're taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather this week and visiting one of our favorite neighborhood training places - the cemetery. Training outdoors provides all kinds of new distractions - smells and sounds of outdoors, some traffic, an occasional jogger, bicyclist or dog walker, birds, etc. The cemetery we train at has several undeveloped (meaning no grave sites yet) open grassy areas for training and free play.

We spend a brief time working on the scent discrimination (articles) exercise, plus a little heeling and pivots. Then it's free time, which he uses to wander around checking out all the new sites and smells. I'm trying to increase the ratio of time spent playing and exploring outdoors with him vs. formal training. Maybe we both need to 'lighten up' : )

Between trips to the cemetery, we also stopped in our regular vet's office today to leave a blood sample. I decided to go ahead and have a complete thyroid panel done on him to rule out any thyroid problems. He just seems a lot less energetic lately. It could be some pain with the lameness issues that's slowing him down, or maybe something else is going on.

I took the camera along to try to capture some pictures of our outdoor training, but alas, the battery was dead. Maybe next time - if we get another warm day soon!

Holistic Vet appointment

Jackson had his first visit to the holistic healthcare vet today. Since Jackson has had recurring lameness issues and we have been unable to diagnose the cause, we decided to try the holistic approach. Have never been to a holistic vet, so I was not sure what to expect. I know several people at the obedience club where we train use this approach and have found it to be really helpful, so I thought, "why not?"

I could tell it was different from the regular vet's office when we walked in. It was like someone's house - well, in fact the office is in a house. Jackson usually gets very stressed in the vet's office, but today he was much more relaxed I thought. After weighing him (164 lbs) and taking his history, she had me walk him up and down the sidewalk outside the office so she could see how he was moving. She thought the way he moved his right front leg/foot was off - although he wasn't noticeably limping.

We then went back in her office and she went over him with her hands - checking his joints and leg movements - and then took his pulse. She thought it was faster than normal for a large dog, but everything else looked okay. She does spinal manipulation therapy so she manipulated his spine and said he had a neck vertebrae out of place, but that was not unusual. She then proceeded to give him an acupuncture treatment. First, she placed an acupuncture needle in the center of his forehead. She said that usually helps relax the dog. She then placed several acupuncture needles along both sides of his neck and shoulder, front legs and one in each foot. I must say he was an excellent patient. He just layed on the floor and watched her put these needles in. The needles stayed in for 15 minutes, then she took them out and the treatment was over.

As I understand it, the acupuncture gets the energy flowing in the body and this helps the body heal itself. In other words, it activates the nervous system, relieves pain, and stimulates circulation and the immune systems. It also decreases inflammation and promotes healing. At the risk of sounding like a skeptic, I asked her if focusing on the healing was overlooking the cause. But since we don't know the cause, treating the symptoms is a good way to approach it.

We have a second visit scheduled in two weeks. I am really going to be watching him closely to see if I can see improvement. Hopefully, this will help and we can proceed with training at full speed. We are continuing with regular training - just not jumping for now.