Catching up on my blogging

I have been terrible with my blogging lately, it's been a full month since I've posted anything.  I have been busy training my dogs, organising three trials for 2013, forming a nose work class and trying to form goals for myself for 2013.  So there hasn't been much time for this site.

So what's new with the Shelties? Well for starters we have been diving into the sport of Canine Nose Work.  I am loving it!  In fact when I should be out training agility or obedience with the dogs, I find myself placing "hides" for them instead.  The dogs think this is a great game too.  As soon as they see the containers they get straight to work searching the area.  At the moment the biggest things we are working on is finding the correct container (the shelties are going through a phase were they think nose touching any container is acceptable), and then when they find the correct container stay committed to it until I call them off it.  I am really enjoying the proofing portion of the commitment training.  Things like "can you stay committed if I walk past you?"  "What if I kick the other containers around?"  "What if I throw food on the ground?"   It's really no different than proofing for any other obedience behaviour and since my dogs have been exposed to a lot of proofing in the past, they are catching on quickly to this step.  So we will keep training in this sport eventually working up to having "hides" indoors, outdoors and on vehicles. Below is a video of Spryte during a training session. Strider is doing it too, but so far I haven't had time to upload his video (takes like an hour and half for 3 mins of video).

What else have we been up to?  Well Spryte and I continue to work on our open exercises.  I am really happy with everything except her dumbbell retrieves, she continues to mouth them despite all my efforts to teach her otherwise.  Some days she's great with very little mouthing, other days I feel like I'm back to square one.  This battle will not be won this year, in fact it could take several years.  So we will just keep training until that day comes.  I won't wait until its perfect to show her, but I won't give up on trying to fix it either.

 

 So lastly I'm trying to figure out what to do with the dogs this year.  I like having a goal in mind to work towards.  First Strider is only three standard Q's away from his CKC agility championship, so I have to make that a priority.  Second the AAC agility nationals are in Alberta for 2013, so I really want to qualify to go with both dogs and do well. So looks like a lot of my time will be spent training and showing in agility.  Third, Spryte only needs two more points for her CKC conformation championship, so I better hit some shows too.  Oh and I would like to breed Spryte in the summer/fall.  So it's not looking like I will have time for showing in obedience this year.  If I can make it work I will, but when I really sit down and think about it I know that it is just unrealistic to add obedience to this year's goals too.

 

Pictures are from a play date that Snap and Quinn had about a week ago. Puppies are now 5 months old!  All the puppies are doing really well. 3 of them are in classes with me doing pre-agility training and rally obedience. They are catching on quickly to all their new skills and having a great time while learning! 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  

 

 

Fed Ex delivery

Who doesn't love a delivery from Fed Ex?! If that big brown truck is showing up at my house it's because something fun was ordered and is now arriving on my doorstep.  Today's little cardboard box contained three bottles of liquid.  Specifically the three scents you need for Canine Nosework. It wasn't supposed to arrive until after Christmas, so I was pretty ecstatic when I saw the truck pull up today.  I have wanted to do Canine Nosework for a while now, ever since I heard about the fun new sport taking over the U.S.  The problem was always that I couldn't get the scents up here in Canada.  Well last week I looked into it again and this time they had a Canadian dealer listed, so I went ahead and placed my order.

What prompted my recent Fed Ex delivery was the news that Denise Fenzi is offering a Canine NoseWork course through Agility University starting in January.  And unlike other training schools that start your dog finding food first, her plan is to teach the dog how to find and indicate to the three scents right from the very beginning.  That makes much more sense to me and I had to sign up!  I would love to offer NoseWork classes in the new year, so I'm pretty excited to get started with my own dogs.  And I'm happy to have something new to teach Strider.  It will challenge his mind to learn a new skill and keep him young without adding physical stress to his body. It is a great sport for young and old dogs alike!  Now the only problem is I have to wait until January to get started :(

I have also been doing a lot of obedience work with Spryte lately.  I find it gives us a nice break from agility.  I really need to work multiple sports with my dogs or I get burnt out.  And since the ground is covered in snow, it's time to move inside and work on Open and Utility.  Both are going well and we have mini breakthroughs each week.  I know we are improving because I have started adding distractions into our training. Things like heeling while I am swinging a rope toy around and throwing stuff , or fronts while I am squeaking a toy, or toys laid out with the utility articles and other similar types of distractions.  Generally when I add the distraction for the first time Spryte will struggle a bit and make a mistake. I always let her work through it and then we reach success and she is more confident in the exercise and what her job is.   I need to consciously remember to keep adding new challenges and distractions to each session, and not fall into the trap of being lazy and doing the same old routine. It is the only way she will improve and learn to work through anything that I set up for her.  Seeing her overcome a new challenge is one of the best parts of training in any sport.  It keeps it fun and exciting for both of us.

Here is a recent picture of Quinn (HyperHounds the Mighty Quinn) that was taken last week at a Christmas photo shoot. I had to share, he looks so handsome. Puppies are now 4 months old.  The other puppies are all doing really well too, I just don't have any recent pictures of them to share.

Dumbbell work

So I didn't end up entering the Cal K9 obedience trial. I really really wanted to, but the more I practised, the more I realised I need to work on Spryte's dumbbell mouthing first.  When holding a dumbbell she tosses her head back, rolls the dumbbell to her molars and chews and throws her head around at the same time.  Sometimes she just flat out drops in on the floor. It's ugly and I want to fix it.

So it's back to the drawing board for our dumbbell work.  I have started tying a string to it and teaching her to keep holding the dumbbell or I'll pull it out of her mouth.  And she knows that the only way you get a cookie is to have the dumbbell between her teeth when I say "yes".  When I first started this exercise any little bit of pressure with the string and the dumbbell would come rocketing out of her mouth. Basically she wasn't really holding it at all.  Once she realised that if she didn't hold it, the dumbbell would leave and all chances of getting  a cookie left too, she began to hold tighter and resist my pressure forward.  Now I can pull really hard and she clamps down on the dumbbell and doesn't let go.  I am excited about this progress, if she is holding it tight she can't roll it back in her mouth or drop it on the floor.

Next step is getting her moving with it and still maintaining the same hold.  I started this yesterday and it's going pretty well.  First I put her in a sit a few feet away from me. Then gave her the dumbbell with the string attached.  I backed up a few steps, start applying pressure and then called her to front.  Just as I expected the first few times I did this the dumbbell came hurling towards me as she relaxed her mouth while moving into front position.  She didn't know how to keep holding tight while in motion.  Again several repetitions later she realised what she needed to do and was able to move towards me and not drop the dumbbell.  Lots of cookies for Spryte!

It will probably take us a long time before her dumbbell holding is improved to a point that I can show her.  But at least we are making progress.  I wish I had of done more foundation skills initially with the dumbbell and holding tight.   But my last two obedience dogs understood quickly how to hold a dumbbell without any special training, and I assumed Spryte would be the same.  It has been a good reminder to me not to skip steps along the way and that every dog is an individual. I'll do it different with the next dog. <grin>  how many times have we all muttered those words!.

All the pictures in this post are from todays walk (Spryte is still very naked after having puppies!).

 

 

 

 

 

A Great Success!

Our first weekend back at agility competitions and it was a great success! I guess I had nothing to worry about, Spryte is back to her old self again.  Well actually I think she is even more wound up at a trial than before.  Standing at the start line I always have my dogs sit in heal position before leading out.  Well Spryte would bounce and bark at me 4 or 5 times in a row before finally placing her bum on the ground.  She was just so excited to be back in the game.  From the way her line up behaviours started, I figured her rounds would be wild and out of control.  But the training stuck and every round she was attentive, her handling was bang on and she didn't blow a contact all weekend.  I was so thrilled.  Both Shelties Q'd 6/8 runs.  Spryte had a masters jumpers run that was 6.17 yards per second.  She was smokin!  The courses were really nice and they all flowed well.  Strider also earned his expert jumpers bronze and expert snooker bronze titles.

I have no videos to post. I have gotten a little superstitious about videoing my rounds. It seems when I video they don't go as planned, but when I don't video we Q more than we NQ.  So for now I will probably have no videos to post for a while, until I get over my little superstitious behaviour.

Something new for us

I am going to try Novice Intermediate (CDI) with Spryte.  I have never done it before, always going straight from Novice into Open. Problem was with Alaska and Strider it took two to three years before I was ready for Open after completing Novice.  That is a long time to be away from the obedience ring!

This time with Spryte I did it a little different.  From day one we have been working on all the exercises in obedience from novice through to utility.  They are all in various stages of completion.  With some exercises (directed jumping) looking very good and some that leave a lot to be desired (drop on recall!).  My plan with teaching everything from the beginning was to avoid big breaks between competition. It is working well, but we still have many months ahead of us before we are ready for Open.

I was a little disappointed looking at the upcoming trials, especially the Cal-K9 trial, thinking we are not ready for Open and I don't see the point in entering Novice again.  There was nothing for us to do.  Then it hit me, Novice Intermediate!  What a great idea to have a transitional class that works on Open exercises in smaller parts.  Things like a moving down in heal position, and a recall on the flat and over a jump with the dumbbell.  Looking at the rules I realised Spryte was ready for most of the exercises.  So I thought "what the hell, lets give it a try!".  So I have entered her in both the cal-K9's trials and the CKOC trials.  I'm excited to try something new, and happy we can come out and play while continuing to train for Open!

I had to share  this recent picture of Snap, she looks like she is really loving all this snow! 

wow it's cold out!

My thermometer says its only -1 outside.  So I bundled up to take the dogs for a run. Wow how wrong the thermometer was! It is way colder with the wind chill, so our run was a little shorter than planned. But I did get some pics of the dogs having fun in the snow.