The Blog of the Frog

Following on from my last post – Solei continued to improve…the week prior to the obedience show I had him out in the garden every day at least once, often twice, practicing heelwork in the correct chair on bumpy grass. Rewarding very frequently! The slight problem being when I discovered on Wednesday that we no longer had a retrieve!! He’s back to being not very happy about picking up the dumbbell, but I can no longer use the toys I was using before – now he’s used to the dumbbell he mouths them too badly and messes around. His heelwork did steadily improve as the week went on, though I wasn’t sure if his confidence was building in general or just in the garden…figured I’d find out at the weekend LOL

So, Saturday dawned and off we went to Solei’s second ever open obedience show. Arrived nice and early so I could calm myself and him down, as we had a running order (RO) – in UK obedience you turn up to work your dog whenever you like, but they always randomly draw the first 10 dogs, to avoid the situation where nobody wants to be first!

He was entered in two classes – the first class (drawn 5th) was Pre-Beginners Dog or Bitch (HOL, HF, Recall, Sit Stay, Down Stay), and the second class (drawn 10th) was YKC Graduate (same as above + retrieve).

The first class Solei worked probably better than ever. Certainly as good as his best ever….I came out with a stupid big grin on my face! Didn’t matter how he’d scored, I was over the moon with his performance…especially off the back of the issues we’ve been having the last few weeks.

Then when I went to get him out for the stays he was let out before I was ready and he hurt himself jumping up on me. Not sure if that was what started it or whether he’d had enough anyway, but he went really stupid again – “world is out to get me”. He did stays (clear) and then I put him away for as long as possible, hoping he’d recover. Problem with that was I then had to take him in for classs #2 without warming up (didn’t like to warm him up either cos he was being stupid) and he wasn’t as bad as I’d thought, but he was still pretty horrendous…his attention wasn’t with me, but it’s so hard to find the balance with Solei – if he’s too focused on me he’s too aware of the chair and every bump, if he’s not focused enough on me he’s better about the chair and bumps but his attention drifts and he doesn’t concentrate properly, especially on turns.

Oh and retrieve, in case you’re wondering – he didn’t run off lol but he dropped it halfway back, half lay down and mouthed it badly before bringing it the rest of the way back. I’ve now ordered him a custom made smaller, lighter one so hopefully that’ll help – I know he does find the existing one a bit heavy.

He almost got us into big trouble as well….in the first class his marks reflected the performance I felt he’d given 😀 and he went into the lead, he led the class almost all day…and it was the class I reeaaaally didn’t want him to win 😆 Thankfully the fourth dog from the end beat him, so he ended up 2nd which was a superb result. Round one over!
 
On to Sunday, and round two. I really didn’t know what to expect…I had a feeling Solei would be much more aware of bumps and much jumpier, which he was. Much less confident…and he had a lousy handler!

Once again he was in two classes, Pre-Beginners again the same as Saturday, and also the Pre-Beginner Stakes. Once again he had a RO – 6th in the Stakes, thankfully not drawn in the other.

Which is where the lousy handling came in! Solei usually has clear recalls. On Saturday he lost 1 on his recall, which is unusual for him (but for which I was very grateful as it put him 2nd rather than joint 1st!). I put it down to one of those things…..until he did exactly the same on his recall in the Stakes, which put him out of the running – he wouldn’t have won, but with a clear recall he’d have placed. It took it happening both days for me to realise it was me, so then I paid particular attention to where I had my hands and feet when he did his recall in the second class!! Which was subsequently clear, which proves it was me…just a shame I didn’t realise before I ruined his chances 🙁

In the second class he was ok, lost almost all of the marks he lost on lagging and working wide (chair complex strikes again!)…I say almost because midway through heel free he suddenly had a massive itch which he had to stop dead, spin round and attend to!! LOL He finished 8th and they were placing to 6th, but he got the judge’s special award which the judge is given to award to whomever they wish.

So overall we had some lovely results 🙂 and I’m still flying from seeing him do what I know he’s capable of.

Next chapter of the Solei saga 😛

On Sunday evening he was eager for food as usual….so I got their food ready and I did a couple of steps of heelwork, good…a recall, fine, couple more steps of heelwork…no problem! Called it a day on a good note, and started hand feeding him. He took 5 or 6 mouthfuls perfectly happily, no problems at all and I thought he’d turned the corner….then totally out of the blue the next mouthful he started flinching again, even though it was exactly like the previous mouthfuls…and then we were no better off than we were the day before.

I hoped it was just a little blip, but yesterday he was back to how he was; flinching and reluctant…absolutely no progress made at all 🙁 I carried on doing what I’d been doing; what feels right for Solei. There’s a very fine line to tread with him, and what would be right for another dog isn’t right for him…I know he’s being silly, but for him it really is best to pander to him for now and try and avoid things which cause him stress, rather than “make” him confront it.

Today I’ve been really careful with him, but I’m ecstatic to say that he’s seemed normal 😀 He’s been taking food from my hand without flinching, and I’ve been able to interact with him in a more normal (if very limited) way….so fingers crossed he’s over “it” now and it’s onwards and upwards 🙂 Still early days….not going to count my chickens before they’re hatched….

I’ll be keeping all toys away from him for at least the next few days! As well as continuing what I’m doing slowly slowly, and be very careful about how I interact with him. We still have 10 days to go, so hopefully he’ll be raring to go and put in a good performance then 🙂

Why does a high always have to be followed with a low?! 🙁

I’m about ready to rehome Solei….except before you all panic I could never do that 😛 but he seems to be almost permanently stressing me so much. I honestly do sometimes wonder whether he’d be happier as an only dog – or with just one other older/calmer/quieter dog – with an older or disabled person who just wants a lap dog…

As I mentioned in my last post I did some practice with him at the show last weekend and he worked absolutely superbly. Sunday (I think) he was acting a little “the world is out to get me”, can’t even remember now (it’s so not unusual for Solei I don’t even take it in as being odd :P), later in the day I called him over and went to stroke him a little more enthusiastically than usual (Solei HATES any kind of rough praise or OTTnes) and he screamed at me….now I haven’t been convinced that he’s 100% ok for some time so I went to do it again to see if I could figure out where/what was wrong, and he screamed again….but nothing seemed particularly odd so moved on (the screaming isn’t unusual for Solei, if you do anything remotely rough with him or even try and pick him up in the wrong way he screams at you – he’s a very unconfident, sensitive and dramatic dog!)

I took him to obedience Monday night and he was being really stupid, his heelwork was awful (laggyand very much keeping his distance from the chair) and when I waved the toy gently near him (a long thin tuggy toy) he was backing away actually SCARED of it.

Tuesday night he came to ringcraft to watch and he was perfectly normal, but he’s in one of this “omg the world is out to get me” modes and I can’t remember him ever being this bad before….he actually won’t come to me if I call him, if I insist he kinda inches nearer slowly and then stops a couple feet away.

I have no idea what’s up with him….if he goes out he seems normal, when it comes to food time he seems normal (unless I get the toy out or put my hands near him :P), though I’ve pretty much been giving him a break from any training so that is to say he barks when he knows I’m getting up to feed, then bounces round me whilst I go over to the kitchen and then eats enthusiastically

I have no idea whether it’s physical, mental or a combination….he even spooks/flinches at the lead when I hold it in a certain way, which is definitely mental because it’s not putting any pressure on him in any way….he’s seeing it out of the corner of his eye and flinching at it. Eye sight is fine – he was eye tested by an ophthalmologist last November, and he’s been doing that since before then.

It’s always upsetting/frustrating but this time the fact he won’t even happily come up to me is horrid 🙁 And I haven’t got a clue what to do with him.

I wrote that three days ago….I think things may be improving slightly. I usually do a training session with half his meal before feeding him, I haven’t done that for a few weeks (thought he’d been doing quite a lot and there wasn’t anything specific we needed to work on, so was giving him a break), and after he started this behaviour I was intending to just leave him alone totally for a few weeks and hope he’d “get over it”.

But then he seemed so normal when it came to food time, I tried doing a couple of things with him – a bit of heelwork, a couple of spins…and he actually worked almost as normal. He’ll even recall pretty well. So I decided it might actually be more theraputic for him to do some obedience, thus we’ve been doing a *very* small amount before meals – possibly just a few steps of heelwork up the room. I’ve also been handfeeding him some of his food, to try and break the association that my hands = BAD!

I have him entered in an obedience show on the 24th and 25th of this month, and three of the four classes aren’t too bad (one is a special class that shouldn’t be too difficult, two are heel on lead, heel free, recall with finish, sit stay and down stay, the third is the same as the two but slightly longer stays and with a retrieve), so although initially I thought I wouldn’t take him, I’ll see what he’s like nearer the time, and as he seems to be ok doing the obedience at home I think I’ll take him and see what he’s like once he’s there – luckily it’s only approx half an hour, so I can afford to do that!

Obviously I only want what’s best for him, it’s just often so difficult to know what that is 🙁 I really hope he gets over this soon 🙁

All is good at the moment 🙂

We went to a companion show today, no obedience but whenever we go anywhere like that I always take my stuff – good opportunity to give Solei a quick practice in a strange environment.

The weather was gorgeous and there were quite a few of my friends there, so we had a super afternoon sitting chatting! I handled a friends Clumber, who did NOT want to do anything! He was in a very much “I can’t be bothered” mood and was very hard work…in his first class it felt like I was moving a sack of potatoes 😆  but he still got a 4th. Plus a 2nd in Best Mover (he’d woken up a bit by then!) and another 4th in Most Handsome Dog. I knew the judge was aware of Phalenes, so I’d opted not to show Darwin but put Elton in instead. On his new lead! I was going to have an expensive leather show lead for Elton, but whilst waiting for him to finish growing I’d discovered he really isn’t keen on chains (they’re half-check/martingale style), so instead I’d been showing him on a show lead I had with no chain, and so for my birthday I had a lovely white silk show lead for him 🙂 This was the first time he’d worn it!

It is thereby dubbed “the lucky lead”, for my gorgeous little boy absolutely showed his socks off, won his class and then went on to BEST IN SHOW!! So, so proud of him…and he’s still only thirteen months old 🙂 He won a bottle of wine, which mum appreciated 😆

Vale had a 2nd in Best Veteran (unfortunately she was rather hampered by the fact her classes (Waggiest Tail & Best Veteran) were the last two classes I was showing in, so I’d already won too much 😆

Once I’d finished I got my bag out to do some work with Solei. I  I kept him on a long line cos I didn’t want to risk anything (there were ponies about), but he did some nice heelwork (on lead, not on the line), and two perfect retrieves 🙂 Didn’t mess about once! Then I tried a couple of sendaways. First one he went just past the target but I happened to have the line at that length so he got to the end and then realised what he was meant to be doing, then he did a couple of beautiful ones after that. I stopped there….I thought 3/4 sendaways and 2/2 retrieves + 100% nice heelwork was an excellent place to stop 😀

So yes, super day!