Muddy Dogs .... or Dog anyway

We try to be good dog owners and take our dogs for walks three times a day. Morning, lunchtime & evening. The lunchtime walk is more in the manner of a gentle leg-stretch combined with a check of the horses to make sure they're OK and still in the right field. It has to be fitted into a lunch hour so there's not too much slack time to cope with the unexpected ...

Like what happens when your 8 month old collie loses her tennis ball in the stream. Not the clean part of course, the swamp-like part. It's a very good swamp like part, complete with raised duck boards to stop you disappearing up to the arm pits in mud. The sort of swamp where you won't even be mildly surprised if an alligator slithered across the path in front of you and a bit of moss waved at you.

I foolishly watched the tennis ball float down the stream and thought that was that. I turned to go on with the walk and followed our other two dogs (the good ones). Load splash behind me. Dreading what I might see I turned around to be confronted with a collie puppy (?) enthusiastically searching for her ball, whilst chest deep in mud, not water, MUD. Deep. black, smelly mud - the real stuff.

The ball was long gone by this stage having followed the current, but collies are not to be deterred. Eventually, a long eventually with several re-visits, she was persuaded back onto the bridge.

Those paws are supposed to be white!

I'm sure it's down there somewhere ....

Once removed from the swamp the extent of the damage was accessed - was this by some miracle, a quick towel off, or was this going to be a full-blown bath?

Bath, definitely, bath.

So lunchtime went on a little longer than expected and we have a collie who smells of Evening Primrose.

However care will have to be taken on this evening's walk, otherwise she'll be straight back in. Collies have long memories and she knows she lost a tennis ball there. What was lost, can be found .... evening if Daddy is sobbing quietly on the bridge. He'll be happy once I bring the ball back, won't he?

Agility - Ketschker Turns

OK, time to get serious and talk some agility.

Something that cropped up this week - bizarrely from two completely seperate sources (one by email, one in a training session) - was the subject of Ketschker turns. These are more common on the European scene than in the UK, but they are starting to creep into the UK.

Basically, it seems to be a blind cross where your dog is wrapped around behind you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjVO4CJ0nLI

I had a dig around on YouTube and thought it was interesting but debated the value of it.

A blind cross, by the way, is a term in used in agility to described where you cross your dog's path, but because your dog is behind and your facing forwards, you lose sight of your dog for a fraction of a second (and a lot can go wrong ... I mean, can happen, in that fraction of a second).

Blind crosses are a bit like the Marmite of the agility world - they give rise to a lot of controversy and are either loved or hated with equal vehemence. The other major types of cross are: front and rear; so named because they depend on whether you are crossing your dog's path in front or behind of the actual dog ie do you see your dog's face or tail as you cross the dog's path.

Fortunately in this week's Core training session we had a chance to try it out for ourselves. Gemma was taking the class and had us running a course based on a Champ course she'd run.

Between 11 and 13 there is a perfect opportunity to try a Ketschker turn.

The normal run ...

Initially I ran this by pivoting through 360 degrees at the blue cross next to the wing of 12 to pull Kira round. No special handling was needed to start the turn as she'd just come out of the weaves so wasn't moving too fast and she's very responsive to my body language.  Turning my shoulders and body was sufficient to get her to turn at the wing, then as Kira committed to the jump I signalled an Air Brake. An Air Brake is where I raise the hand away from the dog (in this case my left hand) in front of the main controlling hand and raised up above that hand. It's purpose is to signal to her that there is a radical turn coming up after the obstacle and not to accelerate to hard away. Continuing to pivot round draws Kira round and round the wing.  As her nose came past the wing I "drew" her into me to encourage a tight wrap. "Drawing" is where I pull both hands into my chest and signals Kira to come directly towards me. In this context that ensures a very tight wrap on the wing. Finally as we began to exit I completed the turn and moved my right hand out to send Kira onto the jump at 13.

OK, a very detailed explanation of what is quite a simple and, to be honest, very ordinary manoeuvre. What I'm trying to get across here is, that although it's ordinary, a lot of thought and components when into it to get the best possible speed and precision for this test.

The Ketschker turn ...

The positioning was almost identical, with myself at the blue x again next to the wing of 12. Again I pivoted Kira with my shoulders to bring her round to commit to the jump. As she landed on the other side of the jump, I waited until I could see her head through the wing of the jump and then turned back the other way. This is the critical point - for a fraction of second as your head and shoulders are turning you lose sight of your dog. You also have to bring the controlling hand, in this case the right hand, across your body to pick your dog on the other side so your dog also loses sight of it. As soon as I had sight of her again I began to move towards the jump at 13. The rest of the sequence was completely normally.

Results ...

Standard handling: from the end of the weaves to the jump at 14 was 4.4 secs.

Ketschker Turn: from the end of the weaves to the jump at 14 was 3.8 secs.

Analysis ...

The Ketchker turn was faster, and not by an insignificant amount either. We're talking about over 1/2 a second here. In the higher grades that could easily bump you 10 or more places.

Conclusion ...

On talking about it in the class, we think it was because when you pivot and draw, although your dog knows she's to wrap the wing, she has no indication what the next obstacle is, so until you've completed your pivot and started to move to jump 13 she can't accelerate. Using the Ketschker turn you can start moving towards 13 as soon as she's behind the wing so she can really accelerate out of the turn towards 13.

Interestingly everyone thought Kira look very comfortable doing the Ketschker turn. She has been trained with blind crosses before, so she's not uncomfortable working behind me without direct eye contact. A dog that has only been worked in front of a handler might well struggle more with this manoeuvre.

However I would class this as a "high-risk" handling technique. You do lose sight of your dog for a fraction of a second and as I said before, a lot can happen in that fraction.

So am I going to be adding it to my toolbox? You bet! 1/2 a second is a life time on an agility run, and is well worth the risk.

Our local pond...

This is our local pond - it's a very nice pond. It has ducks and fish and is the focus of much attention at the weekends by local families for the traditional activity of feeding the ducks. So much so, that if you come down later in the day, the ducks are so stuffed they can barely waddle in your direction.

Our village pond

The sign in the middle says "Private, No Fishing"- fortunately it doesn't say "No Swimming" ....

We walk the dogs past the pond at least twice a day on the way to check the horses. The previous two and half months have all been relatively uneventful with Enya walking past the pond ... dum, dum .... dum, dum .... dum, dum, dum, dum ["Jaws" theme].

A dog on the edge

As we walked past last night she was sniffing at the edge of the pond as usual ... I looked away for a second and there was a splash and I looked back and there was a small tri-colour head swimming in the pond. What makes this really amusing was that I was on the phone to her breeder at the time giving her an update on puppy progress. I can't remember exactly what I said, but it was along the lines of "Oh good grief, she's fallen in the pond". Fortunately Heather is very understanding and just said that she'd leave me to fish the wayward pup out of the drink.

Actually it turns out she swims very well and even hauled herself out at the edge without any help from the handler. I don't know who was more surprised :-)

A dripping puppy - but the head is dry

Result: a damp but completely unflustered puppy who has knotched up another life experience. She certainly hasn't put herself off water judging by the way she went frolicing through the water in the stream on today's walk.

Which would you rather have?

Now I ask you - which would you prefer to play with?

Upper - a disgusting, quarter tennis ball, found on a walk and proudly carried home.

Lower - expensive, rabbit shaped, furry Kong Wabba bought at great expense.

You have one guess as to which is Enya's current toy of choice.

Play, play, play ...

Collies like to play ... actually collies love to play. But there are a couple of rules. Firstly, bigger is better. Why have a tennis ball when you can have a football!

The second is that playing is good ... but playing with people is better.

To that end Enya will bring you a ball. If she's in the garden and your inside, it'll first be brought to the back door. If that doesn't work, it'll be brought inside the door. Finally if you still ignore it, it'll be brought to your feet. Unfortunately this is very cute and the temptation to throw the ball out of the backdoor is almost irresistible and so the behaviour is rewarded ... for both of us :-)

The current favoured toy is a very dubious half tennis ball that was discovered on a walk and proudly carried home. It's a bit like kids - you buy the expensive toy and they want to play with the cardboard box it came in. You buy the expensive dog toy and they want to play with the half tennis ball found on a walk.

On the back door step ...

Getting closer ...

And finally by the feet ...

Oh well, time to throw a ball! :-)

Labradors and Collies

Eight weeks down the line and we're being to surface again. It's been a very busy time. Puppies are hard work! Fun & rewarding no doubt, but hard work. You hear stories of people getting rid of an old dog and replacing it with a puppy ... WHY???

Old dogs are like old shoes. They are comfortable, warm, moulded to you, and fit with your life-style. Puppies are chaos. Fun but you have no idea what will happen next, what will be chewed or pee'd on next :-)

Speaking of chewing, Enya will shortly be teething, so we have lots of chews around and this has highlighted a difference between Labradors and Collies.

Labradors regard chews as food. See a chew, eat it.

Collies regard chews as multi-functional, first you chew it, then you play with it, finally you place it at a human's feet in the hope that they will throw it for you to chase. Repeat ad infinitum.

Throw it, go on, throw it, you know you want to ....

Four weeks later ....

... we've kinda settled into the swing of having a puppy again, but boy, are they hard work. Young Enya is very curious ... and very quick. In her first week here she managed break out of her puppy pen by scaling it's 3 foot walls. Her breeder's reaction to this - well you wanted an agility dog :-) So the pen now has a roof on it. That and other learning curves means we've been very busy here, hence the lack of updates.

However there was a comment that the first pictures posted here were of a sleeping dog - so this update is of an awake puppy, a very awake puppy :-)

Less than 12 weeks old and she already has that collie intensity. I know most of the pictures are of her still, but that's only because as soon as you pick up a ball she flows off, stops, half turns and looks at you.

We can't take her out for a walk yet, she's still completing her vaccinations, but she has been coming with us ...

Though some times she does doze off

And life isn't all walks and play, sometimes you get bathed - yuk

But you do get to play with the Labrador ...

And snooze with the Collie ...

She's here....

The newest edition to our family has arrived.

This is Enya ...

It's been a hard day !

If in doubt, find a foot and sit on it.

 She's very people orientated, and if she starts to get unsure or worried will find a foot to sit on. She also likes going to sleep on feet, probably because you can't sneak off.

Meeting the residents ...

Enya with Kira

Enya with Becky

She's has been sniffed and growled at. Mostly when trying to stand on top of Becky and when she tried to nibble Kira's foot. However all went well as she is quite respectful of large dogs when they growl. Heather's excellent pack socialisation is showing through and stopping problems already.

The Caged Beast

It a tuggy ... but I need my beauty sleep ...

She's survived the first night and so did we :-) She went to sleep after 10mins howling, but woke up at 6:30 literally as I was putting on my trousers to go down and check on her. 'Cos she started howling  I couldn't go downstairs and say "Hi" - you have to wait until their quiet so they don't associate the noise with your return.

She's met our vet who thought she was lovely, and was very complimentary about her human socialisation. No nasty jabs this time, they like them to have a week to settle in before they do anything, this was just a physical which she passed with flying colours :-)

She's snoozing in her crate at the moment, hence I've been able to write this, but I'm expecting she'll explode out of the crate any minute. The door's not closed so she can wake up, romp out and not feel frustrated :-)

Only 5 more sleeps ....

... until the newest member of the family arrives.

 This is Enya (Kilnhurst Cadhla) and she's a Border Collie.

She's been breed by a very good friend of ours. We haven't actually met her yet, as unfortunately she's several hundred miles away and a few snow drifts away at the moment, but we've known the mother, the grandmother and the rest of the Kilnhurst clan for a very long time. We're looking forward to a very entertaining and fast time :-)

The will be our second puppy (and third dog in the household). I guess it's a bit like a second kid, having been through the process once already, there's a lot less unknowns and of course you won't make the same mistakes you made the first time .... this time it'll be different! This time we'll make a whole bunch of new mistakes :-)

As the saying goes - watch this space ...

Recovery Stress (Part 2 of Christmas Crashes)

Recovery of the AV File Server took longer than expected (click here for part 1 of this saga) - to start with it took 6 days to get the replacement motherboard which was pretty good considering it was Christmas and it shipped and delivered in the 3 working days between then and New Year.

So new motherboard arrives, an Intel D510MO Fanless Dual Core Atom Mini-ITX. At this point it should just be a matter of dropping it into the AV File Server, connecting it up original disk, firing it up and letting Plug'n'Play sort out the drivers. Looking forward to everything being sorted in an hour or two. Ho, ho, ho.

The new motherboard won't talk to the existing disk. It goes through POST but then hangs. The disk has been working perfectly in another machine so the disk is OK.

OK, it's a mini-ITX board so perhaps the PSU isn't delivering enough power for this particular motherboard and disk combination.

"Borrow" a PSU from another machine to test that theory - nope it's not the PSU, the motherboard still doesn't like the disk.

OK, try a couple of other disks. Yep, the new motherboard likes all of those, so it just this particular combination that's causing the problem.

Right, next thought, clone the existing disk on to a new hard drive that we know the motherboard likes. We do have a spare 1TB disk but at the moment it's in the Drobo waiting to be upgraded. OK, replace the 1TB drive in the Drobo with a new, larger 2TB drive. Wait for the Drobo to rebuild it's array. Don't want to use the 1TB drive we've taken out just in case the rebuild goes pear shaped and we have to put the original drive back into the Drobo. The rebuild takes 24 hours, but is successful - hooray, something is going our way at least.

Hook the 1TB drive up to a machine with the existing disk from the AV File Server and kick off the cloning process. It hangs part way through. Doh! Try again.... nope, it hangs again in the same place. Fiddlesticks and other such words. New motherboard doesn't like the original disk and apparently we can't clone the data onto a new drive.

OK, decided to just bite the bullet and re-install the O/S on the AV File Server using the new 1TB drive. Start the Windows 2003 Server installation process, all goes well until the second reboot when it's trying to install the drivers for the devices it detects. It hangs. Rats. Try again, same result. OK, it's an original installation disk so it might be a lack of device drivers or out of date ones. Download SP2 for W2003 and slipstream that and the motherboard's device driver into a new installation disk. Try again. Nope, same problem.

OK, the new motherboard is not certified for W2003, perhaps for good reason given the problems we're having.

Right we already have the same type of motherboard, an Intel D510MO, running Windows 7 on a different machine. Decide to clone the drive from that machine onto the new 1TB drive and try that. Also decide at this point as we're going with a new motherboard, new disk, new O/S, we might as well go the whole hog and get a new case/PSU. That way it'll be a completely new machine. Fortunately one of the local shops has a suitable mini-ITX case that'll fit in the rack.

Clone the Windows 7 drive ..... finally, success, it clones, hooray.

Assemble the new AV File Server, with it's new motherboard, new disk, new case/PSU and press the power button. HOORAY, it boots. On the home stretch now. Just need to update the serial number of the O/S to a new license, load the software it needs, and attach the Drobo. All of which takes another day of course :-(

Finally we have a running AV File Server again .... total time: 9 days. While I very happy that it's all working again, I could scream - nothing huge went wrong, and we didn't lose a single byte of data, but nothing about the recovery went smoothly and it chewed up a huge amount of time over Christmas. Not to mention the frustration. Could we have made it any quicker - probably not, the only way I can think of, would have been to start building a new machine immediately and I really didn't want that expense just after Christmas.

Anyway Happy New Year to everyone !!

A New Year and A New Arrival ...

A New Year and we have a new arrival :-)

Her name is Ausdan Amber Angel and she's a 6 month old Norwegian Fjord Horse

She arrived on New Year's Eve from Wales ... fashionably late. She was supposed to be here before Christmas, but several feet of snow and then a good thick coating of ice delayed her departure. So she finally arrived the day before yesterday, a little bewildered and very unsure about her new home. However a new field of fresh grass, a bale of hay, and especially a large grey Welsh Cob/Arab mare for company (and to hid behind) she seems to be settling in. After sticking like glue to Becky (the aforementioned Welsh Cob/Arab) she's now starting to investigate fields and people and started doing little foal canters round the field. We're confidentially looking forward to her becoming a little madam .... I mean charmer :-)