Badger did "Big Hup" Today!

Badger has had a year off since losing his eye to adjust to being a dog again. Since that time, he's lounged around the house or the kennel, taking brief walks on a leash, adjusting to walking in a straight line. Walking in a straight line has actually taken a lot of effort on his part, as his instinct was to drift in the direction that he could see or away from things by which he felt threatened. Heeling was a thing of the past. He either lagged behind me so that he could see me or ended up nearly to the end of his leash, several feet from my left leg because he brushed against me unexpectedly.

Worst of all, he had somehow grown "smaller" during that year. Badger has been afraid of almost anything. A blade of grass touched him wrong. Cower. A sound came from his right side. Shy away. A car came down the road. RUN and hit the end of the leash. I was not used to this behavior from him at all. My little 10-inch dog had the heart of a lion. He stood the size of a Great Dane (at least in his mind). He was BADGER, emphasis on the BAD. It was the beginning of winter. He's ten. Cool to cold weather was a good excuse to put him up for a time. He returned to being a couch potato. I'll be honest. My love for him never wavered, but I'll be honest. I had a hard time looking at him. Holding him. Talking to him. The guilt that I felt over that rooster encounter, of skipping that inspection of his pen that day, still lingered. All I could think about was "what might have been."

Thankfully, this month has been extraordinarily good in terms of winter weather. After another couple of months, he seemed, well, readier, than he had been. I took him out for a couple of walks, pleased to see that he had started to walk straighter. After that, I brought a little cheese or hotdogs on our walks, encouraging him to work on heel position, to sit a bit straighter, to come in more centered when called to front. I decided that, after the Jackson show, he would get FIT Dog walks--four a week--during which we'd do a little training. These slightly longer, slightly modified training walks would focus less on behaviors and more on, well, just getting fit while walking. Even with the winter storm that blew in, Badger got his FIT Dog walks. He started looking forward to them, getting excited when he saw his leash come out.

After the first week, we started introducing a few of the Rally behaviors that he had once done reflexively:

• Heel-Halt: 1, 2, and 3 Steps Forward (Sign 25)
• Slow Pace (Sign 17) NB: The handler's posture is a bit crouched and her footsteps are shortened, but both are still within the limits of "natural," as required. In Rally, these "extra commands" are acceptable, although they would not be in traditional obedience.
• Fast Pace (Sign 18)
• Call Front-Finish Left-Forward (Sign 14)

I added a new command, "Pay attention." I put my flat hand down in front of his face as a guide and asked him to follow it for his 270-degree Left (Sign 10) and Right (Sign 9) turns, his 360-degree Left (Sign 12) and Right (Sign 11) turns. He'd learned to "touch" when he was younger. He got it. We're fading the hand, because "pay attention works. He looks up at me.

We started to add some new exercises. Right Turn-Dog Circles Owner (Sign 119). Halt-Step in Front-Finish Left-Forward (Sign 122). Halt-Leave Two Steps-Call to Heel-Forward (Sign 118). Advanced stuff, toward his off-leash Rally Advanced title. For the first time, I stopped thinking about how I failed my dog and began to think of how I could make things better for him. I thought that maybe, just maybe, we could try to get his Rally Virtual title, if he wasn't up to going to trials. As his confidence grows, I wonder if that wouldn't be cheating him. We'll see. He has started to "turn on." He gets a bit ahead of me now when we're just walking and not training.

This experience has reminded me that Badger is a thinking dog. He's happiest when he thinks and learns and does new things. These new behaviors have gotten him using his mind again. He still gets startled by cars and by noises, but little by little, he's strutting a bit more and slinking a bit less. If he can't take on a lion, he might be able to, I don't know, tackle a baby gazelle or something (please don't, Badger, you still need to have one eye to compete). Today, he seemed a little chuffed with himself, so after our walk I took him into the training ring, where I have some jumps, the baby teeter, and the tunnel set up.

We'll start slow, I thought. Something stationary. Something he could adjust to if he needed to do so. I walked him up to the teeter and he trotted over it like it was nothing. I set a bar jump at 4 inches and he sailed over it. I trotted him over to the UKC-style log hurdle and gave his command, "Big Hup!" He didn't even pause but flew over the top. Then we moved on to the tunnel. He had one false start because it was curved and couldn't see to the end. The second time he cantered through as if he hadn't a care in the world. He's always loved tunnels. Tunnels are home to him.

I use a modified "Peter Principle" in training. I push until the dog "fails;" that is, he gets confused or fails to perform correctly. Nothing is ever "bad." Rather, it's just not rewarded. Then I step it down a notch and jackpot a correct performance. The step before that one is where we begin next time. Always end on a success. Alway, "Perfect, Badger!" and a reward.

Why is that important? Because, I thought, I'm going to have him chain two obstacles together. I was confident that he'd be unable to do it, not the first time back after losing his eye. I brought him to the tunnel entrance.

"Badger, tunnel!"

He flew through the tunnel as if he hadn't had a year off of training. I barely made it to the end before he emerged. I "picked him up" on his left side, the side with the eye.

"Badger, go hup!"

Over the bar jump he flew.

"Badger, here!"

He came to me, trotting with pride that I hadn't seen since the rooster incident.

He got his jackpot. We walked a little more and we went inside. He's resting now, a little tired, a little challenged, his tummy full of good hotdog. I have plans, not just to try for Rally Advanced, but also for his Agility Course Test (ACT I/II). It's just a minor title, barely an "Intro to Agility" kind of thing. With this dog, I'm learning, I can never know exactly how far that we can go.

I wonder if he'd be interested in trying tracking or Fast CAT next?