The creator of Dog Scouts and originator of IMPROV was there, so it was really cool to get to meet her and that she told me she remembered putting Sky's picture on her Dog Scout ID badge. What was even more cool was that she had two dogs entered in the Standard level IMPROV trial. One of her dogs was a jumpy bitey boxer mix and the other one was a high energy, happy go lucky, saluki mix. The saluki mix's name was Panda. Short for Pandamonium, and she lived up to that name pretty well. She reminded me a lot of Sky. Cheerful, high energy, eager to please, and all over the place.
Everytime she entered the ring she started throwing out behaviours. She would target the ring barricades, knocking them down in the process. One of the exercises she had to do involved taking laundry from a pile and putting it into a laundry basket. She also put herself into the laundry basket, and also fetched the laundry basket. It was so cool to be around a bunch of people that take their dogs as they are and try to have fun with them and encourage them to think and try new things all in a positive manner. It was really encouraging to me that I'm not a failure as a novice dog owner with two hard to handle dogs.Then kind of the icing on the cake was that Sky did manage to get a score high enough to qualify and earn her first leg towards her IMPROV title. One of the activities Sky had to do was place checkers on a checkerboard. I was concerned about the size of the checkers so opted for the second option which was a crocheted small frisbee type of thing. Well, Sky really whouldn't have anything to do with the frisbee thing. But, as one is allowed one useful item with them in the ring and my useful item for Sky was a tennis ball on a rope, I was able to attach the frisbee thing to the useful item and then eventually realized that an adaptation of fetch and drop it worked to get her to then take the item and place it on the checker board. When she finished the dog scout originator stood up and commeneted excitedly on how Sky had figured out and learned how to play the game as the task unfolded. Which was true, as the exercise progressed (it was timed the goal was 10 "checkers" onto the board in the time limit.) she would pick up the item and immediately return to the checkerboard and drop it more and more quickly. But, it is also about the owner adapting to how the dog functions. I had to figure out how to get her to take the item in the first place so that she could then complete the task.
So here I am 2 and a half hours away from this very active Dog Scout troop and in September they are holding an IMPROV workshop and fun matches that I had pretty well dismissed as too far to go/to much gas money for a long trip too soon after the last long trip, but....
I'm really giving it serious consideration now and thinking about taking Sirius as well. Kind of more as a test of dealing with the two dogs by myself in such a situation as I am thinking about joining this troop even though it is a rather long drive. Sirius doesn't fetch for anything, and a lot of the activities are fetch kind of activities. About all I can think of to take as a useful item for her is her backpack that I can then stuff whatever into for her to carry to the destination.
Another big cheer goes out to my son who entertained Sirius while I was away with Sky. He took her for a walk at the battlefield as I had recommended. The battlefield has nice wide open spaces and wooded areas for shade. He had asked for her backpack so she could carry water. I had given him a few tips and pointers like take some of the smoked chicken bits for distraction from things that upset her. He often lets my tips and pointers go in one ear and out of the other.
I got a text from him stating that Sirius was stupid, she was panting like crazy but refused to drink any water. I suggested that she was too stressed to drink and might do better when away from people or would likely drink when back inside the safety of the van. Well, he was quite a ways away from the van and had only seen one other person along the trail. I then suggested that she might be more likely to drink water as it was flowing out of the bottle rather than straight from the bowl. He responded that he had placed a piece of chicken in the bowl and she had then consumed the water. I was very proud of him using his brain in a constructive manner to solve the problem of getting the dog to drink. It also told me that he had listened to my advice to take the chicken bits.
Maybe I should try to get him into IMPROV...... 