DJR
11-12-2011, 03:23 PM
Today was a stellar day for Ocean, my 4 yr old, rescued, deaf harlequin Great Dane girl.
Quick background (skip this for those who know her story): I adopted her in April 2009 at approximately 18 months of age (give or take) after she was rescued from a situation of neglect in January 2009 weighing only 71 lbs. Her healthy weight is around 110 lbs. Here she is shortly after rescue (and after already gaining back some of the weight):
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q203/DJRimages/My%20Dogs%202009/2009Jan22Ocean71lbs.jpg
(photo credit: BHRR)
As you can imagine, agility is hard enough with a Great Dane (especially a rescue that missed the foundation work as a puppy). Add in deafness to the mix and it makes for slow going. Nevertheless, we persisted.
After several classes and clinics, Ocean was entered in her first-ever agility trial in January 2011. She did well but distraction was always a problem. At each trial, though, I saw that she was catching on more and more. First we had trouble with tunnels in that she just didn't understand the cue yet. It was a HUGE breakthrough the day in class that we (my trainer and I) saw the lights go on and she DOVE into the tunnel from 6' away! The next problem we faced was distractability while going down a line or when I was trying to pull her (using signals) around/through a corner ... she'd often wander off on her own line, get distracted by a scent or a sight, and then I'd be trying to get her attention back (which is hard to do when she's heading in the opposite direction!).
Today, I saw the lights go on with respect to her focus & her understanding of my "pulling" or "collecting" hand. I use the closest hand/arm to indicate to her the path I want her to take, and then my far hand/arm are used to draw her closer if I want to "pull" her towards an obstacle. She TOTALLY GOT IT today!!!!
After less than a year of trialing, this superb sweetheart of a dog Q'd in BOTH classes (Starters Snooker & Starters Jumper) that I entered her in!!! It is nothing but joyful to see her catch on and LOVE the work even more than she did before! (For non-agility people, "Q" = Qualifying Score, which means that the dog ran the course cleanly, without penalties, and within the time allowed, and Q runs count towards agility titles.)
Of course, Murphy's Law dictates that I had no video or pictures from today (ugh)! However, I did get some video from a similar trial two weeks ago in which she put in very good performances in Starters Jumpers and Starters Standard (she was whistle clean in Standard, but was overtime, nevertheless as you can see in the video I was over-the-moon happy with her effort!).
The following are the two videos followed by some awesome still photos taken from the vid. I've broken them up over several posts due to DOL's maximum photo rule per post, so please continue until you reach the post where I write "THE END" after the pictures.
ENJOY!!!
Starters Jumpers:
Ocean - Starters Jumpers - Morningstar Hawkridge AAC Agility Trial (Oct. 29/11) - YouTube
Starters Standard:
Ocean - Starters Standard - Morningstar Hawkridge AAC Agility Trial (Oct. 29/11) - YouTube
(... continued next post ...)
Quick background (skip this for those who know her story): I adopted her in April 2009 at approximately 18 months of age (give or take) after she was rescued from a situation of neglect in January 2009 weighing only 71 lbs. Her healthy weight is around 110 lbs. Here she is shortly after rescue (and after already gaining back some of the weight):
http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q203/DJRimages/My%20Dogs%202009/2009Jan22Ocean71lbs.jpg
(photo credit: BHRR)
As you can imagine, agility is hard enough with a Great Dane (especially a rescue that missed the foundation work as a puppy). Add in deafness to the mix and it makes for slow going. Nevertheless, we persisted.
After several classes and clinics, Ocean was entered in her first-ever agility trial in January 2011. She did well but distraction was always a problem. At each trial, though, I saw that she was catching on more and more. First we had trouble with tunnels in that she just didn't understand the cue yet. It was a HUGE breakthrough the day in class that we (my trainer and I) saw the lights go on and she DOVE into the tunnel from 6' away! The next problem we faced was distractability while going down a line or when I was trying to pull her (using signals) around/through a corner ... she'd often wander off on her own line, get distracted by a scent or a sight, and then I'd be trying to get her attention back (which is hard to do when she's heading in the opposite direction!).
Today, I saw the lights go on with respect to her focus & her understanding of my "pulling" or "collecting" hand. I use the closest hand/arm to indicate to her the path I want her to take, and then my far hand/arm are used to draw her closer if I want to "pull" her towards an obstacle. She TOTALLY GOT IT today!!!!
After less than a year of trialing, this superb sweetheart of a dog Q'd in BOTH classes (Starters Snooker & Starters Jumper) that I entered her in!!! It is nothing but joyful to see her catch on and LOVE the work even more than she did before! (For non-agility people, "Q" = Qualifying Score, which means that the dog ran the course cleanly, without penalties, and within the time allowed, and Q runs count towards agility titles.)
Of course, Murphy's Law dictates that I had no video or pictures from today (ugh)! However, I did get some video from a similar trial two weeks ago in which she put in very good performances in Starters Jumpers and Starters Standard (she was whistle clean in Standard, but was overtime, nevertheless as you can see in the video I was over-the-moon happy with her effort!).
The following are the two videos followed by some awesome still photos taken from the vid. I've broken them up over several posts due to DOL's maximum photo rule per post, so please continue until you reach the post where I write "THE END" after the pictures.
ENJOY!!!
Starters Jumpers:
Ocean - Starters Jumpers - Morningstar Hawkridge AAC Agility Trial (Oct. 29/11) - YouTube
Starters Standard:
Ocean - Starters Standard - Morningstar Hawkridge AAC Agility Trial (Oct. 29/11) - YouTube
(... continued next post ...)