Olive-group training June 9

Things we worked on today.1. Swimming out and go around people
2. Getting on a rowboat-very first time

1. I asked two of my friends to stand in water (swimming depth for Olive, just a few strokes).  She is a very social puppy and loves to visit anyone.  My concern at this point is she tends to turn in front of a person and starts coming back to shore (does not go around the person).  At the NCA water test, a drowning steward must be able to reach a dog/a line a dog is holding.  I want to make sure Olive gets close enough to the steward. Sometimes it's hard for judges/spectators on beach to tell what's happening in water.  I do not want to give any doubt to anyone if my dog reached to the steward or not.  Going around the steward definitely shows Olive reached to the steward.  It does not matter if she goes around from left or from right.  But most of the stewards are used to have a dog coming from their right side and going around to their left.  Right now Olive goes to the person's right side, but turns away (opposite from going around).  Today we worked on going around by luring with treats.  In obedience, she does "around" finish from my right side to left, so she should be able to figure out it is the same in water.  The important things were: Be consistent to make her go around.  Work in very short distance because today I was teaching go around which is a small part of an exercise, such as Take a Line or Take a Lifering at tests.  No need to swim out more.  Just needed to focus on one block at a time (Building blocks to teach one exercise !!!).
Video: Go around1


2. Today I realized she is not as fearless as I thought.  She was not sure about getting on a rowboat.  In the video, you can see she did NOT jump up on the platform.  I needed to lure and encourage her a lot to get on it.  Yes, it is exciting to see a dog who naturally jumps up on the boat like he/she has been doing this for many years, but this is a good chance for me to show Olive every little step, so she will be very solid to getting on a boat under my command in the future.  Under the newly revised NCA water test regulation, once a dog gets on the boat, he/she is not allowed to step down on beach.  It does not matter if you are still under the time limit or not (30 sec. to get on the boat before rowing out).  This means the dog must be under GOOD control.  The dog should not get up on the boat by himself since there is more chance he also gets off the boat by himself.  So, I want Olive to be solid for wait, get up on the boat, turn (around) and sit on the boat.  Today I made her get on the boat, go around, sit, wait while boat is moving, then jump off.  After I reviewed this video, I realized we worked on too many components all at once.  She did not jump up on the boat immediately, took for a while to just move her feet to go around on the boat (you can see she was leaning against me for comfort and safety), and wanted to get off the boat as soon as she managed to turn (At the very last moment in the video, you can see she got off before I told her to do so).  I unintentionally made her learning stage more challenging.  At next practice, I need to make sure she first becomes comfortable to 'Up", then move onto next part.
Video: Up on boat1

Olive- swimming out

   Olive swims out for a bumper/person without problem right now, but I still need to teach her the command "go out".  First I take Olive to the point just before her swimming depth.  From there, I take one step forward, so she takes her first stroke to follow me.  When she takes the first stroke, I click and reward her.  I repeat this process many times and put "go out" command as she gets used to.  Next step is to tell her to "go out" a few strokes by herself while I'm staying at the starting point (just before her swimming depth).  I do not need anyone calling her or throw a bumper to retrieve.  I want her to understand "go out" means she swims and goes away from me.  (I use same "go out" command in obedience.  Doing Open and Utility obedience really helps my dogs to build confidence to work in distance.)
   The other thing she needs to learn for swimming out is to go out when she carries something in her mouth.  I basically repeat the same process of teaching "go out".  Just put a bumper or a line in her mouth, then tell her to go out.  When she takes the first stroke, I praise her.  If she needs me to help her to hold into her mouth, I just gently support her chin as she swims out.  If she is solid for "hold" command, I use the word, too.  I've seen so many dogs just drop a line or a bumper after their handlers send them out to rescue a person or a boat at water tests.  It is very disappointing to see the dogs are willing to go out, but fail because they are not solid to swim out with something in their mouth.
    Eventually, I will drop a line or a bumper (with a line attached) in water.  Then I tell her to pick it up, then go out.  After she masters this level, I will start backing out her toward beach.  After she can reliably go out from beach, I make her work a little bit harder.  I step on her line while she is on the way to a calling steward or a boat.  If she drops the line, she must pick it up, then keep going out.  If she shows me that level, then I feel she is a little bit closer to take a test : )  When she is ready to do WRDX in the future, I will use this technique in the delivering a line to shore.  It is just in opposite direction.

Olive-water training started

I think it's time to teach Olive basic skills of water training.  She swam several times so far since I got her last Sep.  Now I know she can at least swim and swims for fun.

Today I took her and Louie, my 9 year old veteran swimmer who obtained WRDX a few years ago (WRDX is the highest level of NCA Water Work), to swim.  I put her on a lifejacket since my friends and I noticed dogs who started with lifejackets seem to learn "leveled" swimming.  There are two kinds of swimmers.  One who swims leveled to surface (hindend floats) and the other who swim unleveled (hindend under water).  I want my dogs to swim leveled because it is more efficient and energy saving.  And I know it will help her to do "Capsized boat rescue" in WRDX in the future.  Both Louie and Maya (who also has WRDX) are not leveled swimmer.  The Capsized boat rescue was the most challenging exercise for them.  Today Olive kept swimming and swimming endlessly to retrieve her bumper.  I'm sure the lifejacket saved her energy, so she could keep going.

I was watching her carefully.  I wanted to know what she naturally does in water.  She seems to be ok to dunk her face into water (which is advantage for Underwater Retrieve in the senior level test).  She comes out to me without hesitation, but kept turning left in front of me ("left" from her point of view), so did not go around me before turning back to shore.  I need to start making her go around me EVERYTIME since I want to make sure she gets to a drowning victim who needs to be able to touch and grab her in order to be rescued.  She also tried jumping off a dock today.  Not a natural jumper.  But I'm sure she will do it if I can make it fun.  First time I ran with her and she jumped in with me.  But she also realized it's a little bit scary (she dunked her head completely).  Since she doesn't mind to wet her face, I'm sure she will get over it and learn not to sink herself completely (she's been putting her muzzle into a water bucket in our house...that's her own play).  I think I don't worry about her water skills, but today's biggest finding was she LOVES to munch grass while she is on beach.  I need to be clear that is not acceptable from now since I don't want her to keep munching whatever on beach and not to work (play with me in water).  I want her to think playing in water is much more fun than staying on beach.

2012 Newf National in Carlisle, PA.  Louie's placements. 3rd in 9 yrs and over at Regional on Monday. 2nd. in 9 yrs and over at Veteran Sweeps on Wed. (1st. was Lincoln who won BOB 3 times at National, so I was very excited to place in 2nd.  It's like winning the class !!!)  4th. in VN class among younger boys on Thurs.  It was a very long week for my old buddy, but he and I enjoyed very much.

 Emmy enjoyed her first trip to National (and her new Frog toy).

Teaching scent discrimination exercise in utility

Yesterday I started teaching Olive one of the utility exercise. She is very excited to learn the new game !

Olive

New addition to our family. Olive from Kilyka Newfoundlands.

My first AKC Utility Dog !

Daisy got her last leg for UD yesterday ! She also qualified again today for a bumper leg. Now we go for UDX !!!