2011

Dada, 13 years old

 It's already December. 2012 is quite near to us.

Talking about canine freetsyle activities of mine this year I entered to two fun meetings and two major competitions. I did several demos at some big events. Also there will be a demo performance with live piano music in this month, which I'm really looking forward to.

Actually there were many canine freestyle activities in Japan this year, fun meetings and competitions and seminars. At one fun meeting in February I was invited as a part of judges which I enjoyed a lot.  I'm sure canine freestylers have had difficulties in choosing which events they should join.

dance with Dono

Three years ago we held the event with Kath and Karen from UK. They came to Japan as judges for the competition and the presenters of the seminar. That event was the first one after the event with Attila(also from UK) in 2006

So I can say Japanese canine freestyle is really flourishing now.


It's pity that I cannot say 2011 has been a good year.

We had that cruel disaster on 11th March. The earthquake itself was bad enough and the tsunami was awful but I believe we can rise again out of them as many of our ancestors had done before.

doggies,
you are only watching balls in my hands

What made me uneasy and restless is the Fukushima NPP accidents. It's still in the serious condition and it will be for a long time. I still cannot see how it is to end.

This winter we all have to work to save electricity as there will be the shortage of the supply everywhere. But that's fine with me. I in Tokyo can put up with it. All I want is those people in Tohoku can have warm and cosy days in this coming winter.


We learnt when this disaster happened that there are friends all over the world.  Of course I'd known there were friends everywhere but this time I really felt it.


I hope, I really hope 2012 will be better.
I hope it will be a good one without any fear.

learning

Why is it so difficult to get full attention from the dog while performing the routine in the rings of either the demonstrations or the competitions when the handlers successfully trained their dogs to learn many moves and tricks.

(short meeting before the performance with Dada)

Nowadays many people train their dogs with the reward based methods. And I think this plus rewards methods based on the learning theory proved itself as effective and right in this freestyle world more than any other dog sports activities.

In caninefreestyle dogs should have happy attitude towards the activity when there is only the handler withe the dog and also have to have rather flexible mentality so that they can learn various moves. 

With applying the learning theory to dog training and using click&treats many handlers can teach dogs various "moves and tricks".

But I see many handlers cannot keep the dogs' attention and happy attitude once they are in the competition ring.

Why is it?

I just feel "attention and happy attitude" might not be what dogs "learn".

Demo at the Interpets

Well, many things've happened today.

I got to the venue well before the demo time. Parked my car at the parking as arranged by JAPDT.

Ristue came to help me to carry bags and props and dogs and I could settle every thing nicely at the doggies space next to the ring. There were enough time for me to look around and I put Dono in his crate and took Dada for shopping.

Then I could have a time to get dogs into the ring so that Dono would know about the ring. As exactly the information paper given to us said the ring floor was rubber carpeted and the size was a bit more than 8m x 10m with the fences around.

When Rue Ogiso and her dog Terra arrived the casual meeting was held as to how and when we the performers step into the ring and how WE the performers should give the cue to start the music and so on ....

Then we were told that the ring was not the one in front of us but it was on the stage at the far end of the venue. Rue and I looked at each other and hurried to the stage.

It was the raised stage about 80cm higher than the floor and three sides were open to the audience. It had no fence around and the floor was rather slippery matting. But the worst was it was a very small stage about 5m x 8m. That WAS small.

The demo was from 12:45 and at 12:40 we were told that we could get into the stage before the demo and Rue and I with dogs hurried to the backstage.  Dono peeped in to the stage thru the curtain and I was about to get into the stage I realized that there was still a lady talking to the audience so I stopped suddenly and stepped back a bit. My weight was about on my right heel when I felt something below my heel and Terra made a big scream.

No, No, I did not step onto Terras paw. Maybe I touched it and she screamed, I soon lifted my right leg and, I had a fall. It was not a fall on the floor as  we were on the small staircase to the stage. I fell into the small gap between the staircase and the desk next to it.

We were lucky and Terra and I were both OK. And the MC lady started our demo. We had to go!

Now, my prop the bench was on the stage and I had to adjust it where it should be with thinking how to move in this small stage without letting Dono fall out of the stage. I decided where and gave a cue to Dono to sit behind the the bench. It was when I was about to sit on the bench the music started without waiting for my cue. Embarrassing....

Things would never go as planned. 

The performance was not a good one. As I reflect back I made many mistakes. I could not pay enough attention to Dono when I had a fall. I was not kind enough when I changed the choreograph because the stage was too small to move. Then I should not have started if I was not ready anyway.

Dono's music is "Life is a cabaret". Certainly it is.

I'm at home now and the dogs are deep asleep. Thinking back what happened, still it was nice to meet Ristre and Rue and Terra and Rue's sister and her husband, and many many others. 

play with your dog

When I first was interested in dog training I was introduced to choke chain. It was on my first BC Divo who was just one year old then that I needed to train. He was a great puller as all young BCs are and I'd had difficulties to go out with him on leash.

Dono

I fitted them on his neck properly as instructed and started to walk with him on heel position. With the choke chain on him he started to walk as usual and he suddenly stopped before he made the second step forward. Yes, the choke chain worked as I'd been told.

I was told that they did not hurt dogs. But then why my Divo stopped? The effect shocked and horrified me. I was in love with Divo at first sight and could not bear to think of hurting him.

The choke chain could be the very useful tool  because the dogs trained with them I knew were all nice dogs. But I thought I needed the skill to use them without hurting the dog. I was sure that Divo would be grown up before I got the skill to use them.

from left: Oribe, Dada, dono, Pepper, Jody

So I chucked them away. I lurked around. I needed someway to tell him what "heel" meant but could not find it for about six months.

Meanwhile because I was in love with him I needed to please him. I played frisbee with him. I started Agility. Divo was really good in both of them. But still I could not teach him how to heel.

One day I found an article in an English dog magazine. It was about how to teach competition heelwark. It was with a ball to play with dog as rewards but there was no mentioning of pulling leash. It just said not to let the dog make a mistake. That gave me the idea how. When I tried it with him I saw Divo's eyes said, "Ya, now you are talking. I've got it."

That was seventeen years ago. Just around that time the reward base dog training with the learning theory was started to be introduced to Japanese dog owners. Now many people knows how to teach dogs with rewards, mainly food.


In freestyle we teach our dogs many "tricks". When I saw the Crufts International these top freestylers performed many "tricks" one after another.  I would say that with these punishment base training with choke chains seventeen years ago it would have been very difficult to teach these tricks to dogs even for the professional dog trainers.

But now at my next freestyle lesson of the Cruft International there were two dogs who were taught to step on the handlers feet with their front paws, the popular trick of this year. That trick could be taught ( if not proofed) by family pet dog owners with using clicker/treats in rather short time.

They all came to me but does not mean
they would dance with me happily

So why and how there could be so many freestyle dogs who cannot simply perform two min. routine without losing the animation, attitude and attention?

Why and how there could be so many freestyle handlers who cannot keep their dogs' animation, attitude and attention for just two min?

Food rewards are very effective to teach dogs behaviors. But that doesn't mean we can cultivate co-operative working spirit in dogs. 

I tell people in my class to play with their dogs without treats in their hands for two min. with the music on. If they cannot keep the dog's attention then, then how could they expect the dog to perform the routine without treats in thehandler's hands in public?

Hot days

Hot days!

Usually we are in the rainy season at this time of the year in Tokyo. But the last few days it have been like the middle of the summer, crazy hot.

In such days I'm busy before going out for a walk with dogs early in the morning.

It starts the day before.

I put two 500ml water bottles which are filled up to one third with water to the freezer. The next morning the water in the bottles are frozen. I fill water over the ice and during the walk dogs can drink cool water. They would be in my bag.

I put the wet cool dog t-shirt to a plastic bag then pack them to my bag. These t-shirts are for dogs to wear on the way back home as the sunshine would be too much for the black dogs. The water would be evaporated from the t-shirt and they would keep dogs black coat temperature low.

(This is the cool t-shirt that I made from pillowcase cover. The material is said to  well absorb and evaporate water.)

I have to apply anti bugs spray to dogs. This is my original with tea tree oil and seder wood vinegar (with patchouli -- this is my favorite scent).

I apply sunscreen to myself and I apply bugs spray myself as well.

Of course I need to carry poo bags. I need balls as the training aid and towels to clean the balls, and I carry some treats as well. The foldable bowl should go to the bag so that the dogs can drink water from it. These are not especially for summer. Everytime I go out with dogs I carry them.

The problem is that the dogs are always excited when going out. They hurry me up with following me here and there when I'm getting ready with these too many items.

Then I forget something. Yesterday it was t-shirts. I put them to the plastic bag but forgot to pack it to my bag. The other day I forgot the foldable bowl.

Maybe I have to train them to sit or down quiet to wait for me. I know, yes, I know.

Maybe tomorrow, or sometime I will.

But it's tooooooooooo..... hot to do such training!

Cherry blossoms

Although there were that mega quakes and the tsunami disaster on 311 at the northern part of Japan and the following FNPP1 accidents, I am lucky enough to enjoy the daily morning walk with my dogs.

Every morning I take my dogs to the park nearby and do a bit of training with them for about twenty min.

Last month many events were cancelled all over Japan. To mourn those who lost their lives, to give our thoughts to people who lost their family members, friends, houses and everything.

But most of all I think we did not feel like it. Many of us were smashed flat with the site of the wreckage of the tsunami.

We were horrified with the aftershocks and the bad news from the FNPP1. Invisible threat of the radioactive contaminate were devastating. At least the fact the radioactive level of Tokyo and most of Japan are much much lower than that of most of Europe is some relief to us.


It is not still over. There are one hundred thirty thousand people still at the shelters, many lost their houses and others without electricity or water supply or as such.



Nevertheless cherry blossoms for this year came to us. Now they are gone and the new green leaves are coming.

My younger BC Dono can come to the new position with only verbal cue which he could not before 311. What's more he even can keep it. Good boy.

Dada is almost 13 years old and still very fit and her new moves are getting better and better (though her talking during performance is not going away,, stubborn!).


Things are certainly moving.

I should not be left out. I've got to think better transition of Dono's new position and Dada's routine should be properly choreographed so that their effort could be rewarded with what they deserve.

10 days

It's been ten days since the earthquake.

Today it's equinox and it is national holiday. It's Japanese custom to go to family cemetery to say hello to those who are there. Usually I either follow the national custom or go to mountain house to enjoy the end of snow season with my dogs.

This year I'm staying at home. My dogs are fine, my house is OK, my office is OK, my family is OK, but so many so much bad news.

The number of tsunami casualties are increasing everyday and this Nuclear plants problem is devastating and outrageous. People are horrified.

Twitter was a very good media for us to get the information soon after the earthquake happened. Twitter is now the place to get the information and not the place to exchange casual silly comments with friends. Many friends are rather quiet for this last few days. How I hope they come back to say "want to eat donuts" or "a dog did some silly thing".

For the last several days I have been trying to write to tell my gratitude to those friends who wrote me since this earthquake happened.

But I couldn't. Because whenever I tried to write I could not help crying.

It is soooo encouraging to know that there are many friends all over the world who are thinking of us in Japan. Some of them I know in person and many I never met. That's made me cry. Thank you all.

There was a good news yesterday. 80 years old lady and her grandson were rescued after nine days trapped under the wrecked house.  They were in the kitchen of the house which was swept away by the tsunami but the house was not wrecked to pieces but gave them some space. This space and the fridge helped them to  survive. The boy looked after his grandmother.

The earthquake on 11 March

I was going to Mr donuts to get some sweets for afternoon tea. It was when I was waiting for the traffic signal to change to green, I felt the ground move. It wasn't wild shake or big shock but something like a gentle swing.

I looked around me and could not find anything out of ordinary. I thought I was day dreaming.

Then I felt another swing and this time bigger and wider. The guy waiting next to me looked at me when I looked at him.

He said to me, "Earthquake?"

"Yes, isn't it?" I said.

We Tokyoites are so used to earthquakes that usually we carry on what we've been doing even when we know there is an earthquake happening. But this time it was different.

Because the next shake was too big and too long. It was not a swing or a shock but I felt the earth MOVE.

I ran. Out of my breath I got to the office and I found my colleague kept the dogs with him under his desk. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The office was OK without any damage at all, lucky us as it was the huge one of mag. 8.8, hypocenter 500Km north of Tokyo but very shallow of about 10km below the sea.

Now four and half hours after the first shock, we still have aftershocks and they are not getting small yet. Outside the office people are walking home as NO public transportation is working.

My colleague left the office about an hour ago. He also would have to walk about one and a half hour to get home.

For me and my dogs it's only ten min walk to home so it is not a hard one. I hope nothing serious is happening at home.

There are the Tsunami warnings to the world around the Pacific.

Fingers crossed and touch woods for everybody and for us!

Welcome

About two months ago I started to choreograph Dono's new routine.

How do fellow freestylers choreograph I wonder.

I usually start with some set pattern sequences which I've had in my mind when deciding the music. Well that should be the structure of the routine. Then I will be putting this here and putting that there so that the routine become comfortable and enjoyable for both us and the audience.  It's just like the work I do for living, Architectural design.

Now the new routine, I simply could not decide what to do at the point from where it would get into the ending. This is actually the part of the structure and I cannot go anywhere without this part missing.

I had been fiddling around with doing bits and pieces with Dono. So far nothing worked OK, either Dono was not ready for that or I did not like it.

That put me off from the-early-getting-up-and-do-the-training-before-the-work.

This morning finally one idea has come to me.

Welcome!