John Heffernan

I am retiring Wyatt from Jumpers.  This was once his best class.  However, he is consistently avoiding jumps.  I have to think that too much jumping, even at 12 inches, is causing some pain for him.  He seems fine with the limited jumps in the rest of the NADAC classes.  It’s a little hard to give up Jumpers but I have to trust what he is telling me.

I felt really rusty with Wyatt most of the weekend but not with Patriot, who had one his best weekends every going 7 for 9 with 6 firsts.  He looked great and you would never guess he is almost ten.  He was running as fast as I have ever seen him run.  I was really in synch with him and did not plan his runs at all, just adapting my plan for Wyatt on the fly.  That usually means throwing in some front crosses that I could not get to in time for Wyatt.

I was out of synch with Wyatt.  I was worried that he would refuse the dogwalk since we had some a bad fall in January and then refused one he slips on a little bit at a local agility facility.  But after a few initial tunnels with a tunnel dogwalk discrimination, he went up and was fine.  The next run, I could not push him out for a tunnel, expecting a tunnel suck!  Never assume!

We finally got more in synch today with 2 regular Qs and a tunnelers Q.  I am beating myself up for missing 2 easy Chances courses this weekend though.  Totally pulled him off course by pulling up abruptly.  ;-(

It was interesting how I could be so on with one dog and so off with the other.  Wyatt is much more sensitive to handling errors but I would not expect such a difference if my handling was totally off.  Maybe Wyatt was rusty too.  Glad we pulled it together for the end of the day!

I have been working with Wyatt on his sits in a different way.  For a long time, I did not worry about fidgeting and just focused on not going down.  But now, I am working on the fidgeting, especially the rear legs.  So I am rewarding for increasingly longer intervals of complete stillness.  Seems to be helping but not too confident it will cross over to the trial setting.

I am working with Patriot on out of sight sits, again, working up to longer and longer out of sight times.   I am also working to increase his motivation on retrieve on flat, which was our main problem in both open attempts.  I have been holding him back and saying, “Ready, ready, ready?” and I can feel the pressure of him wanted to go out and get the dumbbell.  I also back up when he is coming towards me and praising during the retrieve, which all seems to be increasing his motivation.  Trying to find a free weekend to enter him in Open again, not sure how many local indoor trials I can find easily.  May have to wait until summer.  But I really think he is close to being able to qualify.

I was very happy with Patriot’s performance in Obedience Open A Saturday.  His heeling was great.  He did every sit and stayed with me well.  We lost a total of 7 points.  He drop on recall was excellent too and he dropped faster than usual. We only lost 1 point.  I had a bad throw – too close – for the Retrieve on Flat.  My next throw went way far into a corner and Patriot did not go get it.  I should have broken his sit and set him up again and, of course, not thrown it so far.  He did his retrieve over jump and also, his broad jump, losing only a point or so on each.  He was walking the broad jump at trials, so that was great new.  He did go down on his sit but did the down.  We were working on a 189.  All in all, I am encouraged.  Will continue to work on the long sit and the retrieves, especially retrieve on flat.

Wyatt was very nervous Saturday with a very tall male judge.  However, he did do his recall, which typically is what we NQ on.  He also did his novice sits and stays.  Not sure I am going to continue to trial him, maybe just for fun.

Wyatt is entered in Open A and Novice B Saturday.  I can enter him in Novice B since he has no CDX legs yet (not for lack of trying!)  Patriot is entered in Open A.  He can’t compete in Novice anymore since he received a high in trial (HIT.)  I have been working Patriot quite a bit especially on his weak areas (retrieves, broad jump, and long sit.)  We’ll see.  Wyatt can totally do all of Open but his nerves and separation anxiety get in the way at trials but maybe we’ll get lucky.

Wyatt fell off a dogwalk at a trial on New Years and I had hoped to get him more comfortable with the dogwalk last weekend by renting some ring time.  He went right up the dogwalk, which was great.  But later on, he slipped and refused to go on again.  He has also had some issues with our old dogwalk at home.  I had tried to resurface that one but still found it to be unsafe.  I really am seeing how important rubber contacts are and/or really good surfaces and stability in dogwalks.

Trying to get him back on right after really backfires.  Sometimes, well meaning judges will urge you to carry your dog back onto the dogwalk after a fall.  That does not work with Wyatt.  I need to trust him to know what is safe for him though some encouragement in the form of treats and rewards may be needed initially after some time passes.

The owner of this dogwalk had reported that other dogs had fallen off and a friend had the same experience. When I suggested it was not safe, I was told it must be because NADAC dogs are used to rubber contacts.  The surfaces were definitely slippery.  Hope other dogs don’t have issues.

I am looking into a rubber dogwalk for home and will not use a wooden surface for Wyatt again.  We never had much luck at Chances with courses with dogwalks so I don’t think it will affect our quest for a NADAC championship much though I had hoped we could actually get better at Chances courses with dogwalks.  We’ll see how Wyatt reacts in our first trial in early April.  May have to take a break from Regular and Touch and Go until we get a new dogwalk at home and play with it for a while.