Thank-you Dazzle!

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I can't help but wake up with a smile on my face each morning thanks to Dazzle.  His joy in the start of a new day is contagious. Each morning is the start of a new and fun adventure for him and he can't wait for me to get out of bed to join him. 
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He HAS learned that trying to wake me up before I'm ready, however, is a bad idea.  So he waits patiently to hear me stir and if Mike gets up first, he will often skip breakfast to wait in the bedroom for me to get up.  This morning was that situation. 
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I was laying on my side and before I moved, I opened my eyes.  What I saw was a smiling Dazzle face about 3" from my nose and as soon as my eyes opened his whole body started to wiggle because his tail was wagging so fast.  He held that position for about 2 seconds, big grin on his face, then stuck his nose into my eye (which thankfully I had closed) and held it there for another 2 seconds, like he was marking the behavior he liked :-) "YES mom!  That's what I wanted to see!"
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Then he jumped up and gave me a full body hug by laying lengthwise on top of me and nuzzling his nose into my neck, tail going a mile a minute.  His joy that I was awake and the day would be starting was clear, as it is every morning.  Even on days when I wake up hurting I can't help but smile at his joy and devotion. He stays in the bedroom with me till I am ready to face the day and we walk out together.
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So thank-you Dazzle for helping to make me want to get out of bed, and doing so with a smile on my face. Even on cold, windy, snowy mornings when prior to his arrival I would likely have just wanted to stay in bed and only reluctantly and grudgingly gotten out of bed to have a bad day.
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Show Results- Sunday

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Today's performances were MUCH better!  I left him in the van till just a few minutes before I knew we were due in the ring and that greatly helped his focus and willingness to work. I covered his crate in the van with a quilt to keep him a bit warmer, but I think by afternoon it might have been a bit warmer than I intended. Thankfully not hot enough that he was panting.  But once he was out for our second time in the ring, I didn't put him back since we were done showing.
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Our first go in the ring was looking really good.  Till we got to the group sit stays.  As we were setting the dog's up, the person in the next ring tossed the dumbell and I could see Dazzle was really interested.  In hindsight, I should have said we weren't ready and taken a bit more time to "set-up" so that the person's second throw would have been complete before I had to leave him.  But hindsight is 20/20.  I did actually consider doing that at the time, but didn't know if it was allowed given that he was actually sitting and looked ready when the judge asked if anyone wasn't ready.  And I didn't want to hold up the other people.  I won't make that mistake again.  :-)
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After I walked across the ring, the person in the next ring tossed the dumbell the second time.  Dazzle started to move, then stopped and remained sitting, looking between me and the other ring.  I thought there might be a chance he would see it as a proofing exercise and actually stay put, but the dog went for his dumbell with great joy and animation and even veered around the jump to get close to the fence to "show off" his prize to the dogs in the next ring and that was just TOO much for Dazzle's brain.  I'm sure it didn't help that there was only one dog between him and the fencing between the rings, putting him close to that fun/temptation.  He charged off after the dog/dumbell wanting to join in the fun.  Thank God he didn't jump the ring gate!  I was able to grab him and held him with me till the judge had everyone back with their dogs on the other side of the ring.  After Dazzle left the line, the dog that was next to him broke position to go greeting another dog in line which got that dog up.  Bad chain reaction and I felt so bad.  Thankfully the other compeditors were understanding and not mad at us.
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We would have had a 190.5! (if he hadn't broken the stay)  I was really dissapointed in myself for not taking the extra 30 seconds, especially after I found out I could have!  Oh well, live and learn.  Dazzle went back in the van till it was time for his second run.
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This run also was going well and other than some minor issues during heeling and having to touch his butt to get him to actually sit for the sit stay, he did it all without an NQ!  So we got our second leg (of 3 needed) and even got 1st place with a 186 (which surprized me because I thought the other dog that qualified did really well.)
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So if I had taken that extra time, we likely would have gotten his title, but now we have to wait for one more round.  It will give us extra time to practice anyway.  There's another UKC show the end of Feb in Columbus we may attend to try for that elusive last leg :-)
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Here's some photos...
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Playing with his blanket because I wouldn't give him the ball :-)

A few photos from the heeling pattern:

Figure 8 pattern around 2 people acting as "posts":

"Honor dog" (dog on a down stay) can be seen in the background:

Set-up for "stand for exam".  I'm just leaving and the judge is moving in to touch Dazzle's head, shoulders and rump. Dazzle's giving a stress yawn, but his tail is still fairly high.

Ready to repeat the heeling pattern off-leash:

Getting set-up for the recall to "front" over the jump.  The ring stewards remain standing next to the jump as I go around them to the opposite side and call Dazzle.

He was rather distracted getting set-up for the sit stay exercise and I had to touch his butt to get him to sit. 

But he HELD it and Qualified! and even took 1st place!

Show Results for Saturday

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Well our very first UKC Obedience show (actually 2 shows today) included a placement ribbon and an NQ.  The first round wasn't pretty, but out of 200 points and a required 170, we squeaked by with a 173.  Only one other dog qualified in Novice A, so we ended up with a 2nd place ribbon :-) This was the first Q out of 3 that we need to get the title. Most of the points off were for extra cues I gave him along with some poor heeling (lagging, forging, wide as he looked around the ring and watched the dog in the other ring).
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The second run was downright ugly (my fault of course)!  I had gotten Dazzle out way to early to warm up because I didn't know that this time they would put the Novice B and C dogs through first.  So I tried putting him back in the crate while I sat and waited for our turn.  When it was our turn, the judge took some time recording the previous dog's scores, so again we had to wait.  Dazzle does best with very little warm-up, so the waiting really drives him nuts. By the time we got in the ring, Dazzle was completely frustrated.
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During the first part- heel on leash, he grabbed the leash and started playing tug (stress/frustration relief).  I managed to get the leash back and get him under control to finish the pattern, but because I had to stop to do that it was considered not following the judges commands and NQ'd us.  He did let us continue (he could have excused us for that), and the figure 8 & off-leash heeling was much better. However, just as I cued the recall over the jump, a person in the next ring gave a loud, excited command to her dog that got Dazzle's attention.  I had to cue the recall again, which he did beautifully, but that would also be an NQ for failure to respond the first time.  His stand for exam was good, we've been working on that.
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When we came back in the ring for the honor (down stay while another dog works), after yet another delay while the judge wrote up our critique, Dazzle barked in frustration at me several times and I had to cue the down twice because he was eyeing the leash again, but he did a really nice stay and even relaxed and rested his head on the floor.  When we went in for the group sits, I didn't hold out much hope that he would maintain the sit.  I had to cue it several times after I removed the leash right away.  About 30 seconds into the 1 minute sit, he slid into the down, which also would have been an NQ. 
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Lesson learned- Run him after the ball for awhile to get out some of his pent up energy (which I did try, just not for long enough because I was very cold) and DON'T get him out of the crate till right before our run!
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We have 2 more shots at it tomorrow.  I'm going to try leaving him in the van with a blanket over his crate (he likes the cold, but hopefully he won't get TOO cold) and I'll take the chuck-it and hat and gloves so we can do more exercising and I'll wait to get him out for our time in the ring.  Hopefully that will do the trick and we can get 2 more Q's tomorrow for the title :-)  That's the plan anyway :-)
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I'm still very happy with how he did.  I have to keep reminding myself that he's only a puppy (16 months) and obedience is HARD and very different from Rally, freestyle and other venues we have done. I'm sure that with maturity and more training, he will be getting high scores.
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Latest updates

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I haven't been taking many photos since I last posted, but I did during the past few days.  The one above that I just took today may get used at the Malinois booth at the Eukaneuba Dog Show along with a few other photos of Dazzle. The booth organizer wants to show how versatile Malinois can be by showing them in many different roles, jobs and activities. So Dazzle will be representing Malinois that have their Dog Scout title and some badges. 

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Buster and Dazzle have been playing more often, taking turns throwing each other to the ground and biting each others back legs and necks.  We just have to be sure the "fun police" (Coyote) doesn't try to break up the play.  Dazzle and Coyote are doing MUCH better together now and the only time they get separated is if there's rough play between Dazzle and the other dogs or if Dazzle is in the house when I get home so they don't all crowd by the door getting over-excited. There has only been one fight (knock on wood) since Dazzle got neutered and we were able to stop it quickly.  So the neuter definitely worked!

And Dazzle thinks that the completely dog hair covered blanket in the office is a great toy to play with and wrap himself inside, then toss off to do it again. :-) I just have to stop whatever I'm doing to watch him when he does this because it's clear he is having a LOT of fun and that makes me smile and laugh.  So I got some photos of that. I wanted to get some video, but when I went to get the video cam, he stopped playing to follow me :-)

Yesterday evening we attended the "Jingle Star Fling", a holiday party for freestylers in the area.  Some of the people, myself included, did a routine to holiday music.  Our routine was completely ad lib and since I wasn't sure what we were doing, Dazzle was less focused on me.  But it was still fine and we had a lot of fun (even though I can barely walk today).  There were several great routines and the cookies were delicious!  We even snuck in a bit of practice for the UKC Obedience show this weekend (sit/down stays and the stand for exam).  The photos below were taken at the party, but my flash is pretty weak so they had to really be lightened up, which makes them grainey. But you get the idea. :-) Thank-you Pam for taking them!

He even laid down and took a short nap as I was watching the other routines!

I'll post about the UKC obedience show results after this weekend. Send us thoughts and prayers for Q's! (qualifying runs) :-)
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House Guests

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Here's a few photos I took of Dazzle and his visiting harem: Lilly and Gracie :-)  Photo quality isn't great because I was shooting through the window screen.  I knew if he saw me inside, away from my desk, he would have run in to see if I'd come out to play :-)
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He does love hanging out with and playing with the ladies...

Gracie was actually stretching after just having gotten up, even though it looks like she was running past. Dazzle and Lilly love to run, wrestle and "face fight" while Gracie supervises.

They spent hours outside together while the girls were here.

C-Wags competition

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Dazzle and I went to the C-Wags competition yesterday and Saturday at Kuliga in Cincinnati.  We originally only entered the Level 2 obedience on Saturday.  There was only one level 2 class offered during the weekend and I was hoping to get the first of the 4 Q's (Qualifying runs) needed for the title.  But Dazzle had other plans :-)

SATURDAY:
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We did GREAT with the obedience portion, which includes (in any order except where noted):

• On-leash heeling pattern (always the first exercise)
• Off-leash figure 8 around two people
• Recall over a jump to front then finish
• Call to heel (handler leaves dog on stay, walks 6' away and calls dog into heel position without turning around)
• Position changes at distance (handler leaves dog on stand stay, walks 6' away and cues dog to down then sit, then handler returns to the dog)
• Stand Stay- exam (handler leaves dog on stand-stay, walks 6' away, returns and runs hand along dog's back, lifts a foot and touches the pads, and shows the dog's teeth to the judge)
• Leave dog for leash -always the last exercise for obedience part (handler places dog in stay in position/place indicated by judge, walks away to get the dog's leash and clips it on before the dog is allowed to move.)

 He would have gotten a 95 out of 100 on the above, but was not able to complete the final exercise called "honor".  The dog needs to stay in the place/position indicated by the judge while the next dog does it's on-leash heel pattern.  It was my mistake, because I thought the "honor" was always done with the handler sitting and the dog in a down.  So that's what we practiced. This judge had the honor dog sit stay in heel position.  I think Dazzle thought he was doing something wrong because we weren't moving.  He tried laying down, which meant the entire run was an NQ (Non-Qualifying) run. :-(  
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I wasn't too dissapointed because when I found out what the honor position was, I had a feeling he would blow it.  I was VERY happy with how well he did on the obedience part. The stay will be easy enough to practice :-)
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Later that day, they had an ARF class.  After watching it, I decided to enter Dazzle in ARF on Sunday.
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SUNDAY:
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ARF is a combination of Freestyle dance, Agility and Pro level Rally.  It looked like fun!  So I signed us up at the start of day 2.  It was offered twice on Sunday, but we only did it once :-) I think we'll be doing more of this in the future! The course was not easy and was made extra difficult because the ring was 10 feet smaller than it was supposed to be. As the judge said, if some of the signs could have been just outside the back wall of the building, the flow would have been much better :-) She also had to work around a pole in the center of the course. 
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This was definitely not our prettiest run, but it's only his THIRD time in a ring competing off-leash and the second time was the day prior in obedience!  So I'm thrilled with how well he did, especially since his favorite agility obstacles were involved. :-) I had the run videotaped, which should help save me a lot of typing trying to explain it. :-)
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I have on the video that only 1 other person qualified, but I don't think that was right.  I was working as the ring steward all day both days, and I think I'm getting the number of Q's from the ARF run on Saturday mixed up with our run on Sunday and the other ARF run on Sunday.  I know several people tried the course we ran, but I don't recall for sure now how many actually Q'd on it.  I know Candy and Ted were trying for their 4th Q and got it!  But our score was highest, so Dazzle got first place! That I'm sure of because of the ribbon :-)  I was very surprized and proud of him!
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VIDEO: C-wags ARF (1st place)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5VnPJJ1oyA
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weekend

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Our weekend was good, but very long days with early mornings.  I'm posting this because I promised a few people I would report on how we did, but I'm exhausted.  So I'll do the report and post the video tomorrow.
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Indy Pet Expo

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Today, Dazzle and I went to Indianapolis to help advertise Dog Scouts.  A big Pet Expo was being held at the state fairgrounds in a big indoor exhibition hall.  Lots of booths, LOTS of people and lots of dogs, since pet dogs were welcome.  I only heard a little barking and saw one dog snap at another who was being too sniffy, but other than that, the dogs all seemed to be getting along just fine and handling the tight spaces, crowds and booming loud speakers quite well! 

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Dazzle was very excited when we arrived and wasn't the best rep of DSA as he did a lot of pulling on the leash.  Then I saw the pen of "petting zoo" farm animals and I think he could smell them as soon as he walked in the door!  They had sheep, ducks, chickens, goats, piglets, a donkey and calf and some of the biggest rabbits I have ever seen!  I think he thought we were there for herding practice.  He was very intent on that pen and especially any animal moving faster than an amble.  By the time we left, he was doing MUCH better at not straining toward them when the pen came into view.  But I think it's a distraction we'll have to work on.  Maybe the intro to herding he's had wasn't such a good idea.

He did get to try out a "Jog-a-Dog" treadmill and loved it!  He got right on it and the person started him out slowly.  Dazzle didn't seem to mind that the ground was moving under him.  At first he thought he was supposed to get to the end of the belt, but the person sitting there just blocked his path and he settled into a nice walk as he relaxed and even looked around at the by-standers and me.  He got up to a pretty decent trot and was still relaxed.  The operator said he was one of the very few dogs she has seen be so comfortable with it the first time on.  Most of the other dogs I saw trying it out held their heads really low with their noses almost on the belt, were very tense or kept trying to get off the end.  If the dog seemed at all scared, the operator was quick to stop and let the dog off. Some dogs got to try again, others she wouldn't let try it again.  Later I saw there wasn't anyone waiting to use it, so I had Dazzle try it again.  He was eager to get on it and had a Malinois grin on his face.  In the photo, he had his ears back, but mostly he had his ears forward, head up and was looking around casually at all the folks going by. It looks like I'm holding him up, but the leash wasn't tight.
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We entered the "ultimate stay contest" and while it started with maybe 20 dogs who withstood a good deal of distractions before the first ones moved, there were only 4 other dogs remaining when Dazzle got up.  He stayed while kids came by bouncing tennis balls, tossing treats, one close enough for him to eat (though he just played with it) and 2 kids were running around and back and forth.  The crowd was encouraged to "make some noise" and so there were whistles, clapping and other crowd noises along with some very loud speakers pumping out the bass. 
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As difficulty increased, they had the owners increase distance from the dogs,  stop talking to the dogs and stopped all signals/cues from the owners, then they had us turn our backs (all while the toy and treat tossing continued). I was very proud of him!  He only had a little bit of stress at first when he wasn't sure what was going on, but then he relaxed and settled in and I thought we might have a shot.  When the helper adult tossed a piece of hotdog just barely out of his reach, he moved to check it out and was knocked out of the runnning. 
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For the remaining dogs, they were stepping over the dogs who were all lying down, then they had the kids crawling on hands and knees around the dogs making barking noises, then they had the owners go out of sight behind a curtain and the ball bouncing/throwing increased. The adult helper even stood straddling each dog and tossed a treat right beside the dog's face out in front of the dog and eventually all but one labrador had moved!  I was very surprized the lab could stay with all the treats and toys being tossed.  They had even started using some salmon treats along with the hotdogs and other highly scented treats. The lab that won just took all the craziness in stride and looked like he could have laid there all day :-) He won a year's worth of organic dog food (12 bags of food) and 12 free dog washes!

I had to take a photo of this guy because I thought he had quite the set-up!  Chair, internet, fan, food/drinks, etc.  I thought it was funny that they put shredded newspaper in the bottom of the crate :-) He was staying in the crate until a certain number of adoption and spay/neuter pledges were signed and he was only allowed out for a potty break after 10 new pledges had been signed. 
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I handed out several DSA brochures and talked to lots of people about DSA, so the Indy troop may be getting some new members!

Weave pole training

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It's been kind of cold the past few days, but yesterday I set-up a new set of home made weave poles and today Dazzle went through them for the first time (video below).  I used flexible fiberglass driveway marker poles that pound into the ground.  I slipped pieces of PVC pipe over them to make it look more like regular weave poles.  I then taped bird netting to the poles and looped it around other driveway stakes to create a "channel" or "guide" so that he can't do the poles incorrectly.  Well, he can, but he goes through the netting and it's not as fun as getting it right.  He only blasted through the netting twice before he started doing them correctly.  Using nearly invisible bird net means that when the guides are removed later, it won't look very different from what he's used to seeing.  The zig-zag lines on the diagram below show how the netting is arranged:
(The center line of darker dots represents the 12 weave poles)

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This is the method I used to teach Coyote to do weave poles and he is rock solid on them.  He even did a 60 pole challenge at camp and aced it, even though he had not even SEEN weave poles for a few years and have never done 60 poles in a row! :-)  I'm hoping Dazzle does just as well with this.
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It works on the principle of muscle memory training.  He can't really do them wrong very easily, so he gets lots of correct practice and he can go as fast as he wants. While practicing, he is learning how to manuver his body, feet and nose to most efficiently get through them as fast as possible.  Thanks to the video, I can see he's still struggling with getting his feet to go in the right direction and pattern.  At one point, he is actully crossing his front feet to clear the poles!  But he got himself back on track so that the pole is at his shoulder and the foot closest to the pole is brushing past and around each pole.
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He is going to be wicked fast!  I'm making sure I name each agility obstacle so I can mostly just call out the course to him.  No way I'll be able to keep up with him!  But courses are still a ways off. I'm looking forward to a book that is going to come out early next year by the people that are teaching agility at the ClickerExpo.  I'm only dinking around with the agility training till I read that book.  Mostly I'm working on the foundation training like targeting and self-control.  Right now, his stays are really solid. I'm hoping it stays that way! :-)
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Here's the video of his weave pole training thus far including some video taken when he was 13 weeks old and video of todays session, plus slo-motion of one of his passes through the poles toward the camera.
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VIDEO: Weave pole training
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOmLic_3CnE
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Once he can hit the entrance from any angle and he is smooth and consistent with his feet, I'll start removing the guides from the center and work toward removing the ones at the ends.
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I also did a training session with Coyote, playing around with teaching him to shake his head "no" just by using the clicker (freeshaping).  He did great with it!  I got it on video and tried to upload it, but YouTube didn't like the music choice even though it's a song from the 60's (It's been over 40 years since it was released!)  So open two browser windows, one for the video below and one to listen to this music:
MUSIC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxtJoGdujYo
VIDEO: Coyote learns to say no
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnUn5io_-7U

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It's been a year! (+ 1 month)

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I have a note on my calendar that today is the one year anniversary of the day I brought Dazzle home at just 9 weeks old. But in looking at the dates on the photos, it was actually the 29th of last month. Oops!  So 1 year + 1 month :-) It's hard to believe how much we have done, how much he has learned and how many thousands of miles we have travelled in just one year!  I look forward to MANY MANY more with him!
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Stroll down memory lane...
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Stalking corn leaves blowing around the yard the first day home:

"I found some burrs mom"

Road trip to NY (he went to NY state with me twice and we drove to TX and back all before he was 15 weeks old!):

Hard to believe he was SO tiny!

He could fit easily on my lap!

Such big paws you have!

Photo collage of his growth:

What a face :-)

Practicing for the Dog Scout test at the TX mini camp:

Not fitting in my lap as easily anymore:

I have always loved his seemingly effortless and fluid trot!

He LOVES snow!  This was near Cleveland OH

Losing his puppy teeth! Some of his adult teeth were already in.

Another age progression collage:

His first title and ribbons/medals from IABCA (conformation):

Still trying to fit into his puppy bed :-) He really loved this bed!

His next title and ribbons earned were for AKC Rally Novice at 6 mo. old

He is SO fast!  He insists on a run (chasing the ball thrown with the chuck-it) every day, sometimes multiple times a day!

We tried our hand at herding and he did well, but I don't have the money for the number of lessons a herding title would take.

3rd place in the Amateur Division finals at a Dock Dogs competition- who knew! His longest jump was 17 feet 9 inches (measured at the spot where the base of the tail hits the water.)

He has certainly grown up to be a very handsome boy!