product review: JW hol-ee roller

I've always wanted to do a product review, and I'm guessing we've spent a couple of hundred dollars trying to source the perfect and most motivational toy for Miss Lu.
Everything from tug ropes including real fur or fleece (extremely against my ethical beliefs as a vegan, but I'm willing to try anything and the fur one is apparently sourced from op-shop fur coats, neato), different balls and plush, or not-plush toys... flying disks, flying rings, and a myriad of others..

I have 2 toys in circulation at the moment that seem to get 'the best' out of Lumen, and I'd like to write a review of the one I'm using the most.

Keep in mind, this post is not sponsored by anybody, I'm just writing this because I think it's a great toy, and anybody trying to get into dog sports needs a toy their dog is super enthusiastic about, and in this case, the toy is super versatile, too. Big plus!

I'd seen Silvia Trkman training with a version of this toy initially, so I thought I'd give it a go.

Hol-ee roller in action. Look at that stretch! Look at that tug!!

I bought the 'medium' size which would be better suited to a border collie I think, as Lumen's lower jaw often gets stuck in the holes already, and she's still meant to get bigger. That being said, she doesn't mind, and just pulls it off with her foot or manages to spit it out.

The best thing about this toy, as I said, is its versatility. You can throw it, tug on it, skitter it around on the ground, all without your fingers or hands being chomped on (Lu likes to tug and tries to play with a traditional tennis ball. Uh, no). This is the toy that Lumen has actually managed to learn to TUG with. She was an average tugger before, but she puts all her strength into tugging this one. I think she can get a great grip with her teeth (ropes she's always found a bit hard to grip- a bit slippery) and because it's rubber, it's sort of bouncy and stretchy, meaning no jarring when she tugs back.

Because it can be thrown, brought back and tugged, this opens up a great amount of possibility for games - if she lets go during the tug, I'll throw it, keeping her prey-drive high.. I can throw it as she comes out of a tunnel, or use it as a target to latch on to after a tight turn.
It seems very sturdy for my girl, though I wouldn't leave a serious chewer alone with it- she'd have no inclination to destroy it - and despite all the full-on tugging we've been doing, I haven't been concerned about it breaking from being over-stretched at all.

Price was pretty reasonable, I guess, given the price of most toys and tug-ropes. If you compare it to a tennis ball, sure, it's going to come out more expensive.

I bought mine from Game on Dogs, who have a huge selection of great toys for motivating your dog. I also got my 'lamb tug' from there too- our other favourite.  Check it out if you're looking for an affordable, versatile toy for motivating your dog!

our homework for the week: practising all over the place!

What's over there?! Never mind!! Ignore the distractions, puppy!

So I was just thinking about how our foundation course with Silvia Trkman is going to start in a month, and how Lumen and my training sessions have become a little 'routineized' in that we go in, every morning and every afternoon (pretty much) to our spare room and we train.
We run through tricks based on what Lumen seems to want to do, and we'll go off on tangents for whatever's fun, unless we have a necessary focus like working on restraints with her collar, which is how we've been warming up...

But we're always in the same place.
For things like tunnels and cik/cap we're either in the backyard, down at the reserve or sometimes at the lake park where we cik/cap around trees.... But we rarely do tricks or trick training in those places.

So, I'm setting myself my own assignment for the next few weeks as it starts to cool down again - get out to different places and do those shaping tricks. Take a bowl for 4-in. Run through equiptmentless tricks we're working on like 'bang' and roll over. Get her used to not focusing ONLY when we're running around playing, but also the time before we get to run around and play, when we're doing hard thinking work.

I think for me, this will mean keeping the sessions short and sharp- asking for a little bit of shaping, or for a trick once or twice to get a good one, then having a really good exciting play. So trick-work and free-shaping has to be fun and focused even in unusual situations. Because if I can get that, agility focus will be simple, since it's more about play and running around, which she loves.

running with wolves... or in this case, dogs.

On Sunday, Husband and I took Lumen to the beach. The beach is a good hours' drive from here but we've found a great off-leash dog one with high cliffs and lots of room to run, swim and play. The water gets a little deep too quickly for Lu who is swimming in a couple of bounds, but not deep enough for us to swim.

While we were there, I'd been romping around with her, as I do. I like to run, especially on the beach where we can charge into the water together, or kick up spray in the shallow bits. Some young women had seen us running, and asked in despair how to get their dog to run with them. Their dog was a young male border-collie, very interested in the ball they had, but completely disinterested in them. High herding instinct, it would circle them like mad... One of the women took off at a run, border flanked her, circled, and demanded the ball be thrown. To me, there didn't seem to be any connection between them and that dog- at least not at that time. The question struck me by surprise. I'd been running with Lu since I got her. I don't mean going for jogs, I mean quick sprints up and down the backyard, which eventually lead into sprints at the park. Didn't everybody run with the dog??

I like to run particularly with agility in mind- I throw in front crosses, get her to stay on the side my hand is out on, circle, rear-cross if she gets far enough ahead. I think that the majority of the 'stuff' you do in agility isn't contacts, or weaves, or even jumps, it's all that running inbetween. It's your dog, chasing you, being chased by you, turning and changing direction, and responding to certain cues. 

The aim of those early games was to teach being on one side. For Lumen, chasing is one of the best games. As a puppy, she'd get so caught up in trying to catch me and bite my ankles that a tough little growl would come out of her. Then she'd pull my pant-legs. Yeah, training her out of that was great fun. But because the game itself was so rewarding, the way for me to teach her to stay on the correct side, was to stop running if she made her own decision to cut behind me. Game over. Try again!

Sometimes, I'll run with her and have her target to a toy in my hand. This helped her learn that the side with the arm out is the fun side. Now I just have to remember that she's not experienced like Mallei and still needs that cue- he would just run along beside and take tunnels and jumps as I told him to. 

We also did a lot of nose to hand targeting when she was young, which comes in handy for about a hundred other things, but you can work it into your running by moving the target (your hand) once the dog is confident in targeting it while stationary in any position. Then you can move your hand and they should follow it to hit it with their nose- just make sure they can!!

Interestingly, I hadn't realised until I got Husband to film us running at the beach, that she's a sneaky little herding dog. Because she's not currently driving forward to the next jump or obstacle, and I can't possibly run as fast as her, she's looking up at me and coming around in front- meaning I either throw in a circle (she gets what she wants - herding dog!), stop (again, herding dog!), or trample her (not great either). So obviously we still have work to do.

There's even more benefits to running with your dogs than just all this though...

For one, I was puffed by the end- running in sand is hard!

Second, apart from a quick glance at the golden retriever running towards us, Lu is focused on me- despite all the other dogs and people around, smelly things in the sand, Nic somewhere else (filming), I am the centre of the game. This is invaluable for agility, where other dogs will be running in nearby rings, or playing tug, and I need her focus to be on me and where we're going.

Third, in the video you can see I throw the rope/ball forward- this is helping teach her a 'go on!' or 'go!' cue, very useful for home straights in agility, as well as diverting focus from you, to ahead (which in turn leads to obstacle drive and focus).

Do you run with your dog?? And if not, why not? It's one of the easiest ways to get some foundation skills in your agility dog, and all you need is a toy and your runners (or sneakers). 

Happy running!

picture of the week: profile

trick of the week: 4-in

Hello, welcome to trick of the week.

I've recently had a couple of people ask me to set them 'assignments' to help with training their dog, so hopefully it will make me more diligent about updating the blog, about filming our training, and about thinking of new tricks.
Feel free to share this around for anybody else who might enjoy it.

I think first and foremost, before trying any of this, your dog needs to have a pretty solid understanding of what the clicker is, and what a click means.... That being said, this was one of the very very first tricks that I was teaching Lumen as an 8 week old pup, so it's definitely do-able, even if it looks complicated!!

This is one of my favourite tricks for a number of reasons: it helps your dog's balance and strength, teaches then amazing rear-end awareness (absolutely necessary for agility training), looks freaking cool,  and really requires them to think about what their job is.

4-in.

You'll need:
A LARGE bowl, box, or plastic tub - I used those see-through plastic storage tubs for puppy Lumen, made her job easier.
A smaller bowl, box or saucepan (see photo above, Lu at probably 12 weeks, so keep in mind that the saucepan is relative to her size (e.g.. still pretty big. You might want to use a large tupperware container or slightly smaller box than the first).
An even smaller bowl - I use a plastic tupperware bowl which you'll see on the video above. The edges are a bit sharper than I'd like so you can use whatever you have lying around, or get a small metal dog water bowl from the pet-store. I've been meaning to do this, but I've been slack.
The idea is to step it down gradually- if that takes 4 sizes, then it takes 4 sizes! Set your dog up to succeed, don't make it so impossible that they (and you) get frustrated. 

How to do it:
First, shape your dog to get in the largest box. This doesn't usually take long, though for some, getting their back legs in takes longer than their front. Click for one front leg, the other, then any movement of the back-legs - this will start them thinking about their rear-end, and eventually they'll lift them up and get them in the box. Jackpot for all 4 feet in the box.
Great. When you've done this step (and most dogs should find this relatively straightforward especially if the box is big enough to fit them), get your next smallest item. Repeat the process as above. This time they might struggle with the back-feet, so it'll take longer. Again, click and reward back-feet movement, especially movement that suggests they're trying to work their feet toward the bowl/box/saucepan. Don't be surprised if this step takes a while - sometimes it's worth jackpotting three legs in the bowl, just so they get the idea that their hind legs are really important and exciting. 
Last step, you guessed it, small bowl. Start all the way from the start, but because of your pre-work, it should be pretty easy. 
Then you want to start extending duration but keep in mind that to balance in this position is quite tricky for dogs- I haven't got much duration at all with Lumen (and I haven't really been working on it since she 'got' the trick). 
Cues? The bowl is the cue. I don't tell Lumen to 'get in' or do anything, she just sees the bowl and knows her job (after a little trial and error sometimes).

Troubleshooting:

Dog doesn't put hind-feet in, ever. 
Ok, so you need to back up and train more tricks. A great one for rear end awareness is circling on top of the saucepan. I'll post this one next week. Once you have that, the dog should have more understanding of its hind-feet and give that a try.

My dog got in the big box with all legs, but won't get in the next smaller box.
I'd either alternate between the big box/bowl and the littler box/bowl and try and help them generalize between one and the other, or get a less small box as the 2nd one, to help them 'step down' in size. I know this is really frustrating because Mallei (my older boy) wouldn't get in the smaller one even though he understood getting in the bigger one. 

My dog only touches its 4th foot in for a second then gets out.
That's ok, I think your dog just doesn't have enough strength to hold the position for a while yet. Keep working on the trick and also do other tricks for strength and balance (watch this space) and conditioning your dog through hill walks, running through the forest, over roots, etc, tugging and playing. Possibly your smallest bowl is too small- I know Lumen finds it tricky to stay in position because her feet are standing on her feet... Possibly if I used a slightly bigger bowl she could build strength and balance, which she could transfer to the smaller bowl. 


Let me know how you get on! Post your videos in the comments, or ask me if you're having any other problems and I'll add it to the trouble-shooting section.

Good luck, happy training!

Next week's trick: circling an object keeping front paws still.

tunnel mad

Love those ears...

As part of our foundation training, I've gotten out my el-cheapo $37 tunnel, set it up straight, and have been working on drive and speed with Lu, then throwing in a little cik/cap at the ends.

She certainly runs through and considering this is the 2nd session we've done it, I can already see her driving to the tunnel more. The first session she'd do it once, wrap, and then run alongside the tunnel. I also did a couple of wrap & chase around the bollard but she wasn't really into those today. I don't yet have a lot of drive into a wrap from a standstill so I need to work on that I suppose. All questions I can pose once the Foundations course starts in April. In the meantime I'm getting extra practise in, which is great.

I think she's going to be a great little dog to run - she seems to really enjoy the game, mostly. It's been so hot here, and even this morning when we were filming the video it was already creeping up to 27 degrees, hot and humid. I make sure she has a couple of swims as this seems to renew her energy but she was still pretty lackluster compared to normal - bring back the cool weather and my fast, driven, energetic dog! At least if she'll run in this heat, she'll run in the cool.

I think I'll keep working with the straight tunnel for a while, and using it to really get her racing to, and looking for the cik/cap or the Go! at the end... then I might start curving it and see if I get the same drive forward into the tunnel as I've been getting.

I also want to work on, if you do a trick your reward is play/a toy, to really solidify that idea so she knows when we play out here, that that's the reward. Also going to keep working on collar resistance- ST said in a reply to a comment I left on her blog that she just needs to resist, not necessarily pull forward. Problem is sometimes she'll just stand there and look at the toy bouncing around, and if I pull back, she goes backwards. In the video you'll see she's much more interested, even getting lifted up. Hey, if that's what she wants to do, we can do that.

restrain yourself

I began watching the Foundations Fun DVD last night from Silvia Trkman. She suggests the first thing you need is a really good restraint, to get the dog to drive forward, first to a toy being waved in the dog's face, then to a rolling ball, then to a stationary toy... Eventually this translates to driving forward through the tunnel, getting extra speed, etc. 

Well... I started working on this more with Lumen last night. I figured she already had a good 'ready' response, knowing something was about to happen, but hadn't done a lot of restraining her. 

For context- it's been about 30-degrees more or less for the last month or more, with one day dropping down to mid-twenties. So... it's hot. It's been hot for a long time. We're all sick of the heat. Our house is hot. Playing with her makes us both hot... so, it's probably fair enough that she isn't that into the game right now because we're all too hot...

But... Now, being the obsessive paranoid that I am, I'm worried that I've kind of trained her out of 'pulling' to get what she wants... and now I have to go against that training to try and get her to pull in order to get to a toy... And she's interested, and she wants it, but she just watches it... and she'll pounce on it when I let her go but she won't pull back and get crazy excited... In fact, I still don't know what the 'thing' is that makes her super excited... maybe there isn't a one thing, I don't know. 

So... I'll keep trying, and when it gets cooler maybe I'll have more luck.