Wilco turns one year old today. He is still such a puppy. He hasn’t even started to lift his leg to pee. He is long legged and bouncy. I haven’t done a lot of training with him, there are many things that I want him more physically and mentally mature before starting. I know puppies his age with full height running dogwalks, but Wilco hasn’t started any running yet. I think he’d be too bouncy and immature for that at the moment. We have started to play a little with two low jumps and some tunnels. He jumps nicely and learns quickly, but needs short sessions to be at his best.
What I love most about Wilco is that he is so kind to everybody. He gets along with all dogs and all people. I hope he keeps that attitude. He travelled with me when I was teaching a seminar a couple of weeks ago, and he could stay tied to the wall of the indoor arena all day and just be friendly to any dog coming up to him. I also really like that he relaxes well when other dogs are running, playing or working. Just like his father, he can be perfectly relaxed by an agility ring. I’m also very happy that I can ask him to lie down and watch quietly as I run agility with the other two dogs. Having three dogs that you can train without having to put them away between sessions just makes everything much easier.
We don’t train as much as I would like at the moment. Thomas is in Norway three days a week, and I have a lot to do with all the puppies and dogs. And we have way too much snow. Wilco enjoys running in the snow with his friends, so he’s not too sad about it. I really look forward to spring! But first, we’re preparing tonights birthday party for him and his brother.
After an okay December, the end of January has hit us hard with the loss of another beloved young dog. We’ve also gotten a lot of snow and I really, really look forward to spring. A year ago I was driving south through Italy, crying some tears of joy as the warm sun hit my face when I got out of the car. After Win suddenly died, I decided to stay at home this February, which was a good choice considering recent tragic events. But I really, really don’t like the snow and the cold. My dogs are enjoying it (although I’m sure they’d prefer training, just like me), and this video from today brings a smile to my face. In the video is Squid, Epic, Wilco, and the two older puppies – Leet and Volt, on a walk with me. The second part of the video features our 6 week old puppies by Epic having some fun in the snow.
I promise to get back soon with some more uplifting training videos!
We’re happy to repeat some popular online classes this year! If you’ve been in our Foundation Class, there is Advanced Obedience Skills, where you can progress and learn even more fun behaviors, while perfecting the ones you’ve already learned. If you haven’t been in our Foundation Class, we’ll offer a new round of it, as well as a new round of Relationship Building Class.
Check our classes out here, and let us know if you have any questions. You can send us an e-mail, or just comment below. Also, let us know if there are other classes that you’d like us to offer this spring.
Here’s a video of Wilco learning to spin yesterday. Sometimes, targeting is very useful!
And here’s a funny video of Epic trying to focus on running contact with some puppy distractions 😀
It’s been a very intense and tough period since I got home from the U.S. One of the motherless puppies broke his jaw, and required a lot of attention. Three of the puppies moved out at 8 weeks, two weeks ago. Two of them are still with us, and will stay here at least for a while. We also got a slightly older (3 months) puppy from England two weeks ago. Her name is Leet, and she’ll hopefully be a good herding dog and contribute to our breeding.
Volt, 8 weeks
Four days ago, our second litter for the year was born. Mother is Thomas’ Fay, and father is my Epic. She had four boys and two girls. Everything went well, and they seem content with life. Since they were born, we’ve had a few calm days at home. First celebrating Christmas with my family, and then just spending time at home. It’s nice to have some home time before we start off the year with a busy January. Yesterday, I took some pictures of the dogs. Wilco is 10 months old now, and is quite handsome.
We’re finally back home in Sweden after three weeks in the U.S. We’ve had a great time, but it has also been difficult being away from home. Thomas lost his wonderful border collie Win, mother of five young puppies, to eclampsia two weeks ago. It was a great shock for us, and it was hard being away from home. The five boys are now five weeks old and are doing great. We have many dogs at home that are happy to help raise them, and Thomas has done a great job with them. We all miss Win so much though. Win was Epic’s sister, and the first dog born in our breeding. She’s been an amazing herding dog with great character.
Epic and I had fun teaching in Columbus, Ohio. We stayed four days after the seminar and did more training with friends, before driving to Washington, D.C to visit my brother. My friend Kristen and her golden retriever Griffin went with us on our road trip. Our dogs were very excited tourists, and really enjoyed our walks around the city. We walked around the National Mall, and also did some obedience training with a lot of distractions.
From Washington, we drove north and spent a night north of Philadelphia after stopping in Baltimore for the National Cryptologic Museum and a walk in Leakin Park. On Tuesday, we spend the afternoon in New York City, mostly walking the dogs in Central Park. It was very windy and cold, but we had a good time. Wednesday was spent in New Jersey, where we found an amazing state park to walk the dogs in. Weather was perfect and the view from top of Ramapo Mountain was breathtaking. Look closely at the horizon on the picture, and you’ll see the Manhattan skyline.
We flew home on Wednesday night and landed in Stockholm on Thursday morning. Flying Epic with SAS has been a good experience. No problems with anything at the airports, happy and relaxed dog and good service. It was almost too easy! I’m glad that I have another dog (Shejpa was the first) that doesn’t mind flying and that is happy to join me on long trips. I don’t regret bringing Epic at all. We’ve both had a great time! In just a few hours, I have to leave home and drive to the airport again, for a seminar in Norway this weekend. I’ll get back late Sunday night, and look forward to five days at home with Thomas, my dogs and the puppies.
Big thank you to Kristen who drove us all the way and joined us in all adventures!
Epic and I are at Posidog in Columbus, Ohio, teaching obedience, problem solving and trial prep. It’s the first time I’ve brought a dog here (and my fourth time teaching here), and I’m very glad that I did. I chose to bring Epic because I know he doesn’t have any problems with flying. Squid doesn’t really like it, so she doesn’t have t, and Wilco is so young that I have no idea how he would react. I will try some shorter flights before bringing him on a long trip like this.
Epic was happy to get in his crate both before and after the long flight to Chicago. He was glad to see me, but seemed calm and happy when I took him out. I chose to fly to Chicago to get a direct flight from Stockholm. My friend Kristen picked us up and drove us to Ohio. We had a few days off before the seminar started, so we went on nice walks and had good training sessions. I feel that traveling with a dog really deepens the relationship. Being alone with Epic helps too, but I think the traveling is a big part of it.
We haven’t done much obedience before, but this past week has really been a boost to our obedience training. With both my obedience dogs at home, Epic has to step up and learn new skills. And he has! We’ve made lots of progress on heeling, retrieving, stimulus control and distant control. We’ve also played around with some bite work, as our friends here are into mondioring. Epic loved it the first days, but I think we did too much and made him a bit sore. He’s had a few days off and now we’ll try again. He loves tugging, but had trouble with the transition from leg sleeves to bite pants. The concept of clothing and tug toy in one blew his mind.
We have four more days of teaching, and really look forward to it. Then more training and a road trip before we go home.
When training your dog with reward based methods, making the dog thoughtful by coercion is not an option. There are better ways to train your dog to use his brain, really listen for what you’re saying, and to avoid anticipation and keep the level of arousal just right.
Varying what you ask your dog to do in an unpredictable manner makes you keep the initiative.
Therefore I teach my dogs several different reward markers. It’s not only practical in training that the dog knows which kind of reward to expect when, but it’s also allows me to develop a great working relationship where my dog turns to me to ask for guidance. Another advantage is that it is great stimulus control training.
When the dog knows the different cues and reward markers, I test the dog’s understanding by giving the cue the dog doesn’t expect. It’s important that my cues start and end the different behaviors. Anticipating or guessing should not pay off.
Examples of cues in the video (translated):
“Get it” – Bowl of food
“Break” – Release from controlled position
“Ja” – take the toy from my hand
“Out” – drop the toy
“Fetch” – take the toy on the ground
“Back” – take the toy on the ground 180 degrees behind you
Switching between behaviors and a lot other tips on how to develop your relationship in training and everyday life will be covered in the new online class Relationship building starting Nov 1st.
Wilco and I had a fun day yesterday, with a lot of obedience training. Since Squid is in heat, I decided to focus on Wilco in every session with our training group. He is really starting to mature. He was able to focus for the entire day, and he’s got more power and speed than before.
We started experimenting with adding distractions when he is sitting by my side and looking up. I’ve been feeding him in position before, but I’ve never interrupted him for looking away, only for moving. I don’t think he’s been mature enough for this before, but now I really felt that I got exactly the result I wanted. The important thing here is not how he performs the behavior, but rather how he is handling being interrupted and having to try again. I want my dog to be engaged in the interruption, and very eager to try again. It should matter to them when they miss out on a reward, but I don’t want to see any displacement behaviors or avoidance. I want the dog to bounce back immediately and work hard to get it right the next time.
Wilco gets quite intense when I interrupt him, but he is doing a great job in going back to calm and focus quickly. With a dog that struggles more with this, I’d probably be moving all the time, and work on focus in motion (walking backwards or with the dog at heel). Remember that this is a process, and with some dogs, you really have to reward them just for trying again. It could be rewarding the over-aroused dog right away for sitting down after the interruption, shaping the response that you want. Or it could be rewarding the more cautious dog for engaging in the no-reward routine, without asking for anything more than that they don’t give up. When Squid was young, I taught her to steal the toy away from me when I did my “haha”-routine. I worked only on the routine, until I got the right emotional response to it.
Working on the best possible emotional response to different interruptive routines is important! We put a lot of work into creating a great emotional response to our different kinds of rewards, but this is just as important if you want to be able to mark incorrect performances (for example in a behavior chain or when working on duration) and by that increase the likelihood that the dog will try again with great attitude. I mostly use this kind of cheerful interruption (term stolen from Denise Fenzi) in well planned sessions, where the choice is an easy yes/no, and if I use distractions I like them to be planned. I think that the rituals would lose a lot of power if I used them all the time to get the dog to try harder. Most of the time in training, just withholding the reward and waiting for them to try again is the best way to handle wrong responses.
Here is a video of Wilco’s training today (second session on this):
Wilco turned 8 months last week. That means that he’s lived with us for over half a year. Wilco is a very nice little dog. He’s got many traits that I really like. First of all, he’s kind and social with everybody. Meeting new dogs always means that he wags his tail and hopes to start a new friendship. He likes people, but is calm and balanced when greeting them. Although he is happy and friendly, it’s hard to get him to lose focus in training. He is not triggered by other dogs moving fast or playing, so there’s never a problem with training him close to other teams. He is also very good at waiting for his turn when others train (although I have to admit he could be better at waiting for his turn when I train the other dogs). He easily relaxes when nothing happens, bot outdoors and indoors. I also think that he has a very nice build and a balanced structure that he uses well. He’ll probably end up a bit taller than Squid and Epic. He’s got tall legs and a short and strong back. I like these traits a lot in a border collie. I feel very lucky!
Wilco waiting for his turn
I read a Swedish blog by Maria Brandel last week, on how every dog is different and how it’s not dangerous to be ready for competition early, but also how you shouldn’t be stressed out if your dog needs more time. I totally agree, of course. It’s not a bad idea to wait if you feel like your puppy isn’t ready for what you want to teach. Wilco learns quickly and has good focus, but there are still things that I don’t think he is ready for. He is stilla puppy, and he doesn’t have the power and strength of an adult dog.
Wilco’s father Epic was another type when he was young – he matured early and has always been very powerful. I’ve always compared Epic to at typical “jock”. Physically capable, strong, hardy and with a lot of confidence. I don’t think he’s grown out of that role yet. Squid was a very different young dog. She was clever and learned a lot of behaviors, but she had a lot of trouble with other things. She couldn’t do anything with power and speed. She stopped working if anything went wrong. I couldn’t do much duration work or trial prep, because she’s get very worried if anything went wrong. When she was about 14 months old, I took her to the vet to make sure that she was healthy. She was, but we had to let obedience wait for quite a long time, while we did other things. Agility was easier, but it took some time before she really got excited about doing it, and I had to build her confidence in jumping very slowly.
Wilco is somewhere between his father Epic and his aunt Squid. He isn’t as sensitive and slow as Squid, but also doesn’t have the power and confidence of his father. He is mature in some ways, but still a puppy in other aspects. With Squid’s journey fresh in my memory, I’m not worried that I won’t get speed and confidence in Wilco. I just enjoy developing the things that I feel that he’s ready to do. A balance between games for speed, physical conditioning, shaping and skills for obedience and agility. There are things that I haven’t felt like there is much point in working on yet – for example a formal retrieve or send to box. When I started with Squid, I planned to teach her send to square early. It took me an extra year before I felt she was ready. When I started training, it took me 9 minutes to get her to find the box with her eyes and run there in full speed without any prompts. I don’t regret waiting!
At the same time, I constantly feel like I should be training Wilco more. It’s not that I compare our journey to others. Not much anyway. It’s just that we have so few years to spend with out dogs, and I want to make the most out of them. There are things that I think that Wilco should wait before he learns, but also a lot of things that we should be doing more of right now…
Squid has finally started her career in elite obedience (highest level in FCI). I’m very happy to be competing in obedience again and look forward to many years of perfecting our performance. Our first competitions were two weeks ago. I was brave and entered us in the international, world team tryout trial, indoors in Kungsör. We had some really good exercises, but also some mistakes and bad luck. On Saturday, we failed the send to box because Squid slipped on the floor when I cued “stand” in the box. She fell into a down, and then sat up in confusion as I started to walk towards her. On Sunday, I think she was very unfortunate when she kicked one of the scent articles, and happened to get it in her mouth as she went for the correct one. It fell out after a short while, but the exercise is still failed. Here are some highlights from the competitions. Unfortunately, my camera was out of memory for the last part, so I didn’t get the very good recall and send to square on film:
Last weekend, we went to a regular elite competition, and had a good run. 293,5 points and our first “excellent” score towards the championship title. I’d planned for three more competitions this month, but Squid just came into heat and we have to cancel those trials.
If you’re interested in the way we’re training obedience, you should check out our Foundation Class Online. We’re still on the first lesson, so you can join us and easily catch up if you want to learn more.
