Favorite Visit

Laurel and her family have come to visit. We've all been having a lot of fun, and it's especially sweet to see the dogs and kids together. Cyrus has some new friends.

Introductions

Oscar and Sarah were abandoned by their owner along with three other siblings and their mother. Fortunately, they lived near a kind-hearted lady who also works for the library and she fed them, made sure they were immunized and altered and found what homes she could. Oscar and Sarah were the last of the bunch and serendipity matched their need for a home with our need for feline company for Moira.

They didn't settle in immediately, since they had been outside kitties and Moira was surprisingly, well, catty. But soon they became part of the crew.

Moira teaches Oscar the fine art of begging in the kitchen (important - never from the counter!)

Sarah investigates the plush surroundings.

So does her brother.

Cyrus and Sasha warn them to behave with their dog-pod laser-eyes.

The cutest thing was Mya's concern for Moira. At the first confirmation that there were strange cats in our house, Mya ran to find her buddy and check her all over, very carefully, to make sure Moira was ok and safe with these strangers.

Harvest Moon Dog Show

We just finished up 4 days of showing (the cluster runs through tomorrow, but 4 days is definitely enough for us). Cyrus is doing much better in the ring, more at ease, less worried about being touched in the face by strangers (judges). We do have some things to work on, of course. I, for one, have no clue where to put his feet. I do okay if he walks calmly into a nice stand, but if he's nervous or wants to sit down, then I'm less sure where his feet ought to go.

We did get some lovely gaiting, as you see in the picture. Cyrus managed to get in the ribbons on Thursday, which is the day the Swedish handler flew into the States to put the final couple points on his dog to qualify for Westminster. Just so you know what we were up against. :)

All in all, fabulous work, Cyrus. Your handler could use some improvement, though.

Professional Photographs

These shots were taken by Gary Ellis at the SCGSF lure coursing practice we went to last month. Don't I wish I was a professional photographer with a really nice camera? Yes, I do. Sighthounds are always pretty, but these shots are great.

The five shots of Cyrus are a perfect encapsulation of his experience that day. Except without the peeing (because photographers have class).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/noburbs/5013427423/in/set-72157625014094652/#

One visit, hold the title

This last weekend we had the pleasure of visiting Mike and Georgette, and Cyrus' sister, Layla. Layla had the biggest personality of all the puppies in the litter when we used to visit them as tiny things and she's grown up to be a lovely dog, still sweet and spunky. On Sunday, she earned her Junior Courser title, since she is mad for the lure! In the meantime, our hosts shared with us some prime dog-walking spots, since they have so many at their disposal.

Incidentally, Cyrus declined the lure in favor of peeing on some handy bushes. If only there was a title for that.

Cyrus is very jealous of all the lovely dog-walk scenery.

This is in Golden Gate Park, only a short walk from the house. Aren't you jealous, too?

Before we met up with Mike and Georgette, we checked out the Embarcadero and the wharves. Cyrus was a champ, even when a huge Great Dane barked at him (obviously not in this shot).

Many people stopped to ooh and aah over such lovely dogs.

Here, Georgette is talking to a lady who pulled her car over on the street and jumped out to meet our dogs. Perhaps this has something to do with her work for STOLA, the Saluki Tree of Life Association, the saluki breed rescue. She was very nice, but Layla stopped listening when she stopped talking about parti's.

At San Francisco's single fenced dog park, also within walking distance of the house (did I say jealous?), I met a lovely, sweet Dalmatian who reminded me of Emily. His name is Duke and he would come up oh-so-politely and sit by you for petting.

Run, Layla, run!

Run, Cyrus and white dog, run!

Overlooking the ocean, but the dogs were more interested in watching a poodle retrieve along the path.

Cyrus doesn't really understand the purpose of stepping stones. Then again, it was a nice day for getting your feet wet.

Cyrus struts his stuff with the Pacific Ocean in the background.

So does Layla.

Much fun was had by all.

Goals and sucesses

Unfortunately, I have no photos for this post. It's hard to hold clicker, treats, and leash, let alone a camera. I'll try to come up with something in the future...

There is an SCGSF (Saluki Club of Greater San Francisco) specialty in October. For my non-fancy friends, this means lots of salukis all in one place. This specialty will offer obedience trials as well as conformation, which means that the judge will only be scoring salukis.

I read over the Novice requirements - heeling patterns, stand for examination, long sit and long down, a recall. I thought these were all things Cyrus is capable of, and at a specialty, he will not have the misfortune of trialing right after the judge watches some flawless border collie. They will all be salukis. So I decide I will try this out.

Even better luck - SCGSF is having a fun match in September with conformation as well as Canine Good Citizen tests. This test is the AKC's bridge between pethood and obedience trial dog, and includes many of the same basic behaviors but easier. In the heeling pattern, for instance, the dog just has to have a loose leash, not strict heeling position, and the handler can talk to the dog all she likes.

So I decide I shall enter Cyrus in this as well.

In the meantime, I have read Karen Pryor's new book "Reaching the Animal Mind". In it, she recounts, among other things, her experience training six wild-caught spinner dolphins and one spotted dolphin to jump on cue. She only had one whistle to mark the behavior - dolphins who were jumping when they heard the toot got fish, those who weren't, didn't.

This is exactly the thing I worry about: one clicker, three dogs. Clearly, it works for Karen Pryor and I need to stop being a wimp.

I wimped out, and on Friday, while prepping chicken, I worked on the dogs' downs. They know to stand quietly and patiently in hopes of getting scraps, but if none are forthcoming, they get bored and lay down. When any of the dogs did so, I tossed them a treat. Over the course of dinner prep, Sasha did ok. Mya already knows this game, so she did fine. Cyrus was getting the idea toward the end, but the big dogs weren't exhibiting the "I know this will work" attitude that marks learning in a clicker dog.

Today, I brought out the clicker. If more than one dog was laying down when I clicked, then more than one dog got a treat, if anyone was standing, they lost out. Within 10 minutes or so, the big dogs were laying down as soon as they'd gotten up and fetched their treats. Cyrus was even scooting himself around on the floor to reach the goodie, if it was close enough (I tried to throw them far enough away to make the dog get up, which gives it another chance to choose to lay down, without being so far that another dog could steal it).

Power to the clicker.

Second success:

Sasha is half-husky. It is enough husky that she is determined to be a sled dog. When we got her, putting a leash on meant Sasha would be at the end of it, pulling. If you stop so that she cannot go farther forward, she would just pull in a circle around you. I tried with the clicker and treats, but she had no interest in treats when the leash was on.

What does she want more than treats? To go forward. So, the "treat" became going forward. She pulls, I stop. She stops and eventually eases back just a bit. I click and take one step forward. Repeat. Eventually, I would ask her to turn and look at me, then step toward me, then come to stand in front of me, before moving again. This worked, to an extent. We learned ping-pong. Sasha pulls, we stop, she leaps back toward me, I click and step, she jumps to the end of the leash.

I realize, I have taught this jump-forward, jump-back: she can't release the leash unless it's taut. So I try clicking the moment between the first click and when she hits the end of the leash, for "loose leash", however short it lasts. By this method (which we practiced for 2 blocks tonight, only), gets us from one loose-leash step to about 4. For the second of those two blocks, I can't get any farther. There's no way to reward her for keeping the leash loose for any length of time, since she is already walking, which is the reinforcement. "Loose leash" in this case, means that Sasha is still bouncing around like a pinball, but managing to confine it to the "loose leash" area around me for a limited time.

I get frustrated and decide to turn home. I have an empty water bottle by this time, and decide to put it in my pocket for the walk back. In my pocket are treats, which Cyrus refused to eat on his frustrating attempt at a walk. I hadn't even offered them to Sasha, because she doesn't eat treats on walks.

Sasha hears the crinkle of the plastic bag and gets excited. I offer a treat and she eats it, happy to wait for more. Hmm... I take a couple of steps, she pads along beside me, keeping her eye on me. Click for that, and we walk a bit more as she eats her treat. For the first half-block, I click her every time her mouth is empty, since she is making no effort to drift outside the magic zone of close-enough-to-feed. Then I wait until she begins to think treat time is over and looks around her. Click for walking close, loose-leash, while looking straight ahead. When she is looking ahead reliably, I wait a beat more. She expects me to click, so she looks back to see why I don't. Click for checking back in with me as we walk. By the time we're near home, she is walking close, checking in frequently, and keeping control of herself.

Interesting things I noticed... She needed the earlier training to teach her enough self-control to accept the later training with treats. An unexpected bonus to the ping-pong-ball lesson was that a tight leash is now a signal for Sasha to turn back toward me. In the last stages of our walk, as I was letting her sniff around, she would occasionally follow a scent to the end of her leash. When she hit the end, instead of straining, she immediately turn around and checked in with me.

Karen Pryor is my hero.

Half of a Junior Courser

Early this morning, we drove up to Dixon for a lure coursing trial courtesy of the Northern California Whippet Fanciers' Association. It was worth the drive and the early rise, since Cyrus had a great time. We entered him for a Junior Coursing test, somewhat optimistically. He had never run on a lure before, although he had seen a trial as a puppy. Even so, he had a good instinct to chase and took off right away when it was his turn. 800 yards was a bit long for him, but he finished pretty gamely (a bird swooped right in front of him in the last 50 yards or so, but he found the lure again).

All he needs now is one more successful completion to get his Junior Coursing title.

He slept soundly on the way home.