Aging

Chance at an agility demo in 2002

Apparently I missed that yesterday was a Dog Agility Blog Event Day and the topic was aging.  This is a topic very close to my heart and one I think about regularly.  Chance was my first dog as an adult, and my first performance dog.  I started doing agility with him when he was about 2.5.  At first it was just for fun, but we both enjoyed it so much, I started competing with him and he was pretty darn good and I got hooked. Chance is 14.5" tall and his lean weight is 32lbs. His structure is actually quite good but he's basically a mack truck!  For comparison sake, Rave is 19.5" tall and 35lbs!!

During those early years of doing agility with him, Chance went for walks a few times a week and played TONS of ball.  He was a retrieving maniac and I had a chuck it and indulged him for hours.  He was also about 35lbs at the time.  I never did body awareness exercises, strength training or endurance work with him.  I just ran him in agility and played ball and took a few short walks in a field every week.

Chance 2005

Chance 2005

When Chance was 6, he had a injury to his biceps tendon which sidelined him for about six months.  And when Chance was 8, I was out in my agility field working him in the early morning and as he came over the A frame and ran off it, I threw his ball.  As soon as he hit the wet grass, he cried and came up on three legs. The boy had ruptured his cruciate.  He had surgery done by a specialist in the hopes he could return to agility.  I was super diligent about his therapy and that's when I learned so much about conditioning and all the things I should have been doing with him from the start.  

Chance did return to agility for a brief while, but it was clear that he was just not sound.  After having his entire body xrayed, he was diagnosed with horrible elbow and back arthritis.  His hips still looked good, but he was also already developing arthritis in his repaired knee.  So I made the decision to end his agility career and we focused on rally and tricks instead, since he was a workaholic in his younger days.

Chance post cruciate repair 2007

Chance is 15 years and 4 months now (when you get to this age, months count!!!).  He's horribly arthritic, moves very slow and lives in a pretty constant state of pain.  He has liver issues, so cannot take NSAIDS so our options are limited.  He still goes for walks 3 or 4 times a week though at the farm, and while he moves slow, I do think the exercise helps him.  If I go too many days without a walk, he seems much stiffer.  Chance's parents lived to be 17 and 18.  I have no idea if his body can hold him for that long, but I am doing my best to keep him going with Adequan, tons of supplements, massage (he hates it!), and limited tramadol for pain.  He hates acupuncture and chiro work even more, so we don't do that.

But I live with tremendous guilt.  He's in the state he is, because I didn't know how best to take care of my canine athlete.  I would never through the ball like that for my dogs now, all that pounding into the ground really took it's toll on him.  And the poor little tank jumped 16" his whole career.  And I practiced with him at 16" as well, and we practiced a lot back then.  I just had no idea....

My mixed breed Sammy suffered from my ignorance as well.  She is 13 now, so I still had not been enlightened when I started doing agility with her.  She's pretty straight in her structure, but much lighter framed than Chance. She's 17" tall and I made the decision to run her in the Performance program in USDAA for her whole career, as I didn't see the need to jump her at 22".  So she only jumped 16" but I did way too much agility with her without keeping her body properly conditioned for it.  I had to retire her from full time competition in 2007 after she hurt her back at a trial.  Until this past May, she still came out for the occasional veterans jumpers run, but her eyesight isn't great anymore.  Her brain would still like to do more though! Her back is often sore, but it is soft tissue based.  She was xrayed about 1.5 years ago and there was no evidence of arthritis anywhere in her body, which I am so thankful for.

Sammy at Fair Hill 2006

Sammy at Fair Hill 2006

Life is a journey, and hopefully we learn with each experience.  All of my dogs, competing or not, are very fit now and I try to keep them all at a lean body weight.  And my competition dogs are super fit.  Tying into my last post, it's all about balance.  I don't jump them too much, once they are trained.  I am careful not to do tons of A frames (and I always teach a running A frame now).  And I don't over train weave poles.  All of their tricks also work in proprioception, strength training, stretching and balance.  I don't let them retrieve too much and when I do throw a ball, I tried hard to make it so they catch it on the bounce. Or catch a frisbee while striding on the ground.  I am so glad they like to swim too, as that's probably the best exercise for their bodies.  So I try to keep them physically and mentally balanced.  And I also make sure they get enough rest too.  The dogs would love to stuff every day, but sometimes they need to let their bodies just rest and recover, just like we do.

Rival has mild hip dysplasia and to this day (at age 5.5), he's yet to take an off step.  I attribute much of that to how lean and fit I keep him.  Hopefully his career will be long and he stays sounds well into his golden years. My young dogs have Chance to thank for their good care and bodies.  Aside from being just an incredible dog, Chance has been my teacher in so many ways, I am so grateful for all he's brought into my life.  Every day I get with him now is such a gift, and I will do my best to make sure his days are as comfortable and happy as possible.  

Chance 2011

Balance

For me, life and dog training are all about balance.  I was thinking about this quite a bit this past weekend when Rob made the observation that Gypsy seemed to be getting very herdy with the other dogs.  And she is--she eyes, stalks and chases them.  But she is a border collie pup!!  I don't think it's unexpected, especially given Rave's herding tendencies, that Gyps likes to herd the other dogs.  That said, I've only allowed her to continue doing it because I am still completely in the picture.  Gyps will look at me, respond to me and even play with me during these games.  I know that right now, she'd still rather tug or play with me than chase them.  I test it regularly to make sure.  But I also see value in letting her run with the big dogs, she's gained tons of speed, muscle and proprioception from playing these herdy games.  I love what I see her doing with her body.  But I never let her overdo it, of course.

I made sure this weekend on the beach to balance out letting her herd Rival and Rave with playing recall and retrieving games with her.  And I got the best possible outcome, I watched her pretty dismal retrieve turn into an incredible one in just a few days!!!  Gyps became entranced every time I picked up the ball, hoping that maybe it was her turn for a throw.  I loved seeing that enthusiasm, and I matched mine to hers.  In no time, she was bringing the ball back to me in the hopes that it would be her turn again.  Which it was a lot, much to Rival's dismay, because I really wanted to reinforce it.  She also loves retrieving in the water as well, though I am very careful around the surf as she's still so small.  But she just loved retrieving in the sound.  And digging very big holes in the sand to bury, then find, the ball!

I am struggling with some thing new this week.  She doesn't seem to have an off switch all of a sudden.  She's always been high energy/drive, but it seems to have gone off the charts the last week or so.  I didn't do much formal training with her for 5 days, so maybe she needs more of that.  But she does need to learn to just chill out when nothing is going on.  She's still been confined to the kitchen/dining room when we are home, but I am going to have to start working hard on crate training during times when we are home to work on the off switch.  One thing I've always appreciated about Rave is that she has boundless energy and could go all day long, but she has an amazing off switch that I didn't need to teach her.  

Gyps just doesn't get that into chewies, bones or kongs for very long, so she's hard to appease when bored. Rave and Stash do a nice job of playing with her so she has that outlet along with all that I do with her.  But she wants more!!  I need to reel her in before she thinks we are supposed to go, go go, all the time. She should have been exhausted at the beach, but after a power nap she was ready for more action!!!  

And at 13 weeks, Gypsy remains fearless.  She jumped right on the paddleboard and enjoyed going for a ride.  She especially enjoyed trying to bark at and bite the paddle as I moved us around!  She had me laughing so hard I could barely keep us afloat.  Like a smart pup, she figured out quickly that falling off and getting back on were no big deal.  We also took her kiteboarding with us one day and she was just awesome at the campground where we kited.  She was great off leash, was able to play and retrieve with lots going on around her and wasn't afraid of the big giant kites.  She's just such a cool pup.   And she totally fits right in with our lifestyle.

Nature vs. Nurture

So we went to my sister Mary's house in New Jersey last weekend to visit her, her boyfriend Robert and meet their new addition, Java.  Java is Rave's sister from the repeat breeding that was done in 2011.  Mary and Robert adopted her in early July from her original owner.

Java and Rave share a lot of similar characteristics, but it was clear that Java's upbringing was very different that Rave's.  It was really interesting to see the similarities and difference in the sisters.  Physically, Rave is about 3 inches longer and maybe 1-2 inches taller.  Java is much more compact.  They weigh about the same though.  And right now, Java has a much nicer coat, but motherhood has wreaked havoc on Rave's coat.  She's totally naked and only has this coarse weird hair left and it's all sunbleached--she looks like a hyena!  So Java looks much more beautiful than Rave at the moment!

I think their innate personalities are pretty similar but it's a really good example of nature vs. nurture.  Rave was raised with a lot of training, relationship building and tons of socialization.  Rave is super confident, very outgoing, super biddable and has a very light, happy spirit about her.  Java was raised with very little direct human interaction, training or socialization.  Basically she was just part of a pack of dogs.  She had no rules, the only thing she appears to know is sit, and has very little motivation to work with people, choosing to self reinforce instead.  And clearly in her previous home, she got much of her confidence from being in a pack of dogs.  Being alone has allowed some fears to come out.  So now Java is having to learn how to navigate the world without any of her own species around.

One one hand that sounds almost unfair.  But when presented with other dogs, Java completely tunes out humans.  It's her mission in life to herd other dogs.  And when she saw Rival, Rave and Gyps playing fetch, she turned into an obsessive border collie!!!  Nothing else existed in the world but herding them.

Now when Rave was a pup, she was super herdy, and to some extent still is.  But I intervened at an early age and put rules on the herding and made Rave defer to me before getting to herd Rival when he retrieved.  So she basically had to be able to do a down stay while he retrieved and maybe I'd let her go chase him.  I also made sure that she could also retrieve on her own while Rival was out---instead of obsessing about him.  She still enjoys herding him, but it's not even remotely obsessive.  And Gyps appears the same way, and I will put rules for this situation in place for her as well.

But Java spent the first 18 months of her life basically "working" the other dogs in her home.  So that's all she knows.  She won't engage in play with humans, though Mary is working on it very hard and we saw some great things by the end of the weekend.  She won't tug, retrieve and really likes to play keep away!!!

But she doesn't know any better! So Mary and Robert have a challenge on their hands, but they just adore Java and are willing to do what they need to do to make her as happy and joyful as possible.  She's a lovely dog, and just needs time to really understand how fun and reinforcing people can be!!  They are doing all the right things, Java just needs time to let her confident, beautiful self come out.

I think Java learned a lot from Rival, Rave and Gyps.  All three of them are super confident and it rubbed off on her.  They also taught Java how to swim and retrieve sticks!  Java loved Gypsy and they were so cute together, but Rave was a bit protective of her young 'un!

I love puppies!

I love training puppies. I love how quickly they learn, such little sponges just absorbing tons of information.  I love how light hearted and silly they are, always viewing everything as one big game.  My hope is that with  Gypsy, I guide her in such a way that she seems life as a big game, albeit one with some rules, forever.  She's such a happy spirit, I never want to squish her joie de vivre.

Gyps has been so much fun to train this past week.  She's finally got some food motivation, though still not nearly as much as for toys.  But enough to work with a bit.  I've been doing tons of shaping with her and she's learned to offer new behaviors and try old ones.  We've worked a ton on body awareness: backing up, 4 feet in a box (that is getting progressively smaller), wobble board work, left and rights, perch work, dyna disc work and the start of weaving between my legs.  Everything comes so quick for her, which is good since I am keeping sessions super short.  There's a lot more playing during our shaping sessions than actual training and that works well to keep her enthusiasm up.

One thing I am struggling with a bit is retrieving.  Gyps loves to take the toy and run off by herself.  It's funny because when she brings it back, I always tug like a fiend with her and she loves it.  But she hasn't associated retrieving the toy to me and tugging.  She goes after the toy, takes it to a good spot, drops it and comes back to me without it!  So I am only working on retrieving in small spaces and I'll have to put a toy on a leash eventually.  Rave was such a natural retriever as a pup that this surprises me a bit.  But we'll get it eventually!!

We continue to work on her recall.  It's great without distractions, but with distractions is another story.  I am sure this will be an ongoing process for my little girl.

Her socialization is picture perfect at this  point.  She loves all people---any color, race, gender, or size.  She's not afraid of moving things---bikes, cars, garbage cans, whatever.  She's not afraid of things moving under her, happily going in the elevator and walking on odd surfaces.  She's not sound sensitive or motion reactive.  She's perfect in her greetings with new dogs.  She loves going new places and being a little explorer.  Since we travel a lot, it's important for me to have a dog that we can take anywhere and put in different situations without any concern.  She's already been on two big road trips and handled them like a champ.  I absolutely LOVE who she is.

The one area that I am not happy about is her tolerance for having her nails trimmed.  Oh boy is she bad!  You'd think I was amputating her leg!!!  I find it so interesting since I worked so hard on that while the pups were growing here.  But clearly she's forgotten all of that already!  Rave was pretty bad as a pup, and is still my wiggliest dog for nail trims, but Gyps takes it to a whole new level.  And since her food motivation isn't great, it's hard to work on it.  I even took out raw tripe last week for her nails and she wouldn't touch it.

But as it goes with dogs, there's always something to work on and if doing her nails is the least of my concerns, then we're golden!

12 weeks!

It's hard to believe the pups are 12 weeks old now.  Time sure does fly!  I am so happy that I get regular updates from all the puppy homes and they all look like they are doing wonderful.  Thank goodness I get to smooch on Ripp regularly!!!

Gypsy is finally starting to grow and has really sprouted some legs this week.  She is such an amazing little girl.  She's a super fun puppy, she makes me laugh and brings me so much joy.  And she just "gets" things and fits right into our lifestyle.

Gyps finally has some pretty decent food motivation.  She's still not crazy excited about treats or her meals, but this morning she got pretty animated during our training session. We've been working on body awareness skills, some self control and lots of recalls, though we need more work there.  While she's quite biddable, she's also got an independent streak to her.  She's a willful little mighty mite!

We spent the weekend in NJ at my sister's house and Gyps was an awesome traveler and houseguest.  Meaning no potty accidents or chewing of inappropriate objects!  But she was pretty exhausted much of the time as we wore all the dogs out.  Mary has Rave's sister Java (from the repeat breeding) now, and they all just had a blast.  We went for a few hikes, swimming in the river and did lots of playing in the backyard.  

Java's favorite toy is the cheap plastic watering can.  And guess who else decided it's her favorite toy now too?  Funny girls!  Rave thought it was silly and preferred the ball or frisbee.

Auntie Java!

Swimming in the Raritan River

Gypsy!

I love this girlie!  She is SO much fun.  She's fun to train, she's fun to play with, she's fun to watch with the other dogs and she's just plain fun to be around.  She is very intelligent and picks up on things so quickly, it's a big scary!  

I am still trying to find her food motivation.  Right now, she's far more motivated by play and toys.  And that's okay, since I'd rather build food drive than toy drive.  But it makes it hard to do so shaping exercises when she doesn't want treats.  But we'll get there, Rival was the same way and now he loves his cookies.

I am auditing the Max Pup class at Agility U and also signed up for Silvia Trkman's puppy foundation class which starts on the 26th.  I am so excited about that one!  We've had lots of homework for the Max Pup class so far.  We've been working on:

1. Restrained recalls- she's a wild banshee and always wants to race and run with me now

2. Races to the toy - she only lost once and now is always faster than me

3. Shaping all sorts of different behaviors

4. Crate games (still working on driving into the crate)

5.  It's Yer Choice - pretty easy right now since she's not super food motivated

6. Collar grabs

7. Tug-sit-tug

8. Downs

9. Switching between toys

10.  Basic housetraining and manners

Gypsy still lives in the gate community in the kitchen/dining room.  She's in the pen when I am at work but when we are home she gets the full area.  And she travels from room to room with me, but only with certain other dogs.  I still don't trust that she'll have only positive experiences with some of the other dogs in the house, so I am being ultra careful.  I have given her a few minutes a day with some of the "puppy unfriendly" dogs and I can see she's pretty smart already.  She gives Bliss a wide berth!!!  But until I know that she can handle things emotionally and has passed fear periods, it's my job to protect her.  I want her to have really great social skills as an adult.  

Plus, I really want to make sure that she bonds more to me than the other dogs.  She already thinks that Rival, Rave and Stash are great fun and has a strong bond with them.  But I need to ensure that her desire to play with the other dogs doesn't ever supercede her desire to play with me.

She got to watch Rival and Rave do some agility yesterday, and I can already see that I am going to have to work hard to keep her quiet while watching the other dogs work.  She was going crazy, screaming and trying to break out of the expen.  Actually I started out with her baby gated on the front deck and she squeezed herself under the railing and jump off!

Gypsy also very much enjoyed her first trip to the beach.  She jumped right in the waves and didn't care at all that she was getting hit by them.  In fact, on Sunday I threw a ball for the big dogs and she tried to dive right in and go out with them---but I called her back as the surf was too rough for a little munchkin.  She and Stash played major chase games on the beach and had so much fun.  Gypsy also played chase games with me and was more than happy to tug on a leash when I forgot to bring a toy.  She was a rockstar in the trailer and had no potty accidents.  And she traveled in the car like a champ.

She's finally sleeping through the night!  And this morning was the very first time she told me that she needed to go outside to potty!  Such a good girlie.  

Yup, love my baby girl!!!

Reflections

Well, clearly I did not do a good job of blogging while the pups were growing!  I guess with the Facebook group (and lack of time!), I didn't really feel the need to but now I am kind of disappointed I didn't because I would have had more details.  It would have been good to go back and read it periodically.  It's weird since I can hardly remember things from early on, maybe because there was just so much happening over a short period of time.

I can honestly say that raising this litter was one of the best experiences of my life.  It was also one of the most challenging.  I am absolutely thrilled with how the pups turned out and I am so excited to watch them grow.  And I know that they are all in the most perfect home for each of them and that just elates me.  It was so hard saying goodbye to each of them, but I can see how very happy their are in their new homes.   My personality is such that I tend to want to control things, and sending these pups out into the world sure made me feel helpless.  But that's where trust comes in.  Trusting I made the right decisions on the homes, trusting that everyone will do their best by their pups and trusting that everything is working out exactly as it should.  I sure do hope I get to see all of them periodically over time as I love all those pups so very much, and they all took a piece of my heart with them when they left.

From all report, everyone absolutely adores their puppies!  And I am excited that everyone is indulging me regularly with pictures and videos.  I warned everyone from the start that they were part of the family now!!!

As for things at home, Gypsy is just incredible!!!  I adore her and she is truly my dream pup.  Gypsy is everything I had hope we would get from this cross and then some.  She reminds me so incredibly much of my sweet Jive.  The fearlessness, intense connection with me, high drive, fun loving attitude and sweet nature. And that crazy blue left eye! Some times if you are patient, amazing things come back to you....

And Rave is doing incredible.  She's back to her athletic self, though still needs to tighten up those abs!  She is also completely naked and needs to grow some hair back.  I started doing some agility with her yesterday (for the first time in about 5 months!) and she was so crazy excited to be playing again.  I am so thrilled with how she handled motherhood--physically and mentally.  She was a wonderful mother!  Though I still think it's a bit weird that she fed her pups until they were 9 weeks old!

Rave absolutely LOVES her baby!!!  They play and play and it's the cutest thing ever!!  And Rival continues to be a great big brother and enjoys their wrestling matches.  Stash loves Gypsy, but only outside when they can play big chase games!  The rest of the pack is getting used to her presence, but I am being ultra careful so Gypsy doesn't have  bad experiences.  She won't be allowed to be loose with the rest of the gang for a long time.  Plus, I need to ensure that she bonds more strongly to me than any of the dogs.  I don't see it being a problem now, but I am going to stay on top of it.

Going forward, I thought I'd focus the blog on puppy training and all of Gypsy's adventures.  And also share those of the other pups as well.

It's so hard to believe that the little mighty mite was once this tiny!!!