07.25.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:49 by Administrator
Due to work, this was the first time I have tracked Cosmo in about a week. We tracked up by the school, conditions were dry, and it was around 1930. I placed a three leg schutzhund one track with an article in each leg. I also randomly distributed food throughout the track and at each article. For the second time ever, I tried the method of wrapping the tracking line around her belly to help with the pulling. As Cosmo attempted to drag me to the track, she was having a fit about the leash around her belly. I never saw dog look so much like a horse. She jumping high into the air and bucking like a mad man. She continued to do this, so I reeled her in and walked her to the track by the collar. Once I gave her the such command she was all business and could care less about the band around her belly. She maintained a nice steady pace with minimal tension on the line. When she came to the first article, she needed to be reminded to platz. She nailed the first right turn and continued down the track nicely and attempted to indicate the second article, but decided she would rather eat the reward before platzing. She started wonderfully after the second article, maintained a nice pace, and over stepped the left turn but quickly realized her error and came back to make the turn. She continued with nice intensity and this time sat when she saw the article. I was glad she didn’t go ahead and eat the reward and was showing me that she understood that she needed to do something, but hadn’t really figured it out. I reminded her with a verbal command and she platzed to eat her reward. She started again without issue and made her way to the jackpot. I was very happy with the end results.
Her obedience was great too. She was doing some wonderful, wonderful, wonderful focus. I worked on turns and took a couple of steps. She maintained position well and continued to give great focus. I also worked on sitz and platz and she maintained position under distraction without problems. After that, I gave her the release command and would just walk around playing and then give her the platz command and she would drop very nicely on command. From there we did a couple of re-calls and she came in nicely and sat in the front position without issue. I was very happy with this since for awhile I had to give her a double command for her to come. I believe this was because I had worked so hard at maintaining positions that she felt she couldn’t break them. To counter this I went back to basics and stood very close and used food to guide her up to the correct position. After a couple of sessions of this, she understood what I was asking.
Yeah Cosmo!!!
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07.24.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 14:49 by Administrator
After Green Guy decided to devour his last spawn with Melon Girl, I decided to re-try Meadow Monster with Melon Girl. To my delight the spawn went well and hatched on 14 July 2006.
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07.18.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 18:22 by Administrator
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07.16.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 16:00 by Administrator
Learning to paint with Photoshop!! Just getting started, but thought I would share my progress.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 12:47 by Administrator
Cosmo: I tracked Cosmo at the Roseryville Park and the conditions were ideal. It had just started to rain, but stopped when I laid the track. The grass was thick, green, damp, and had been mowed several days earlier. I did three legs with an article in each leg. Cosmo took off with nice intensity and partial platzed at the first article and I gave her verbal command with a small pop to remind her to completely platz. She re-started the track without issue, nailed the turn and platzed without issue on the second article. At this point I was given some suggestions to stop her from pulling, by wrapping the leash around her waist so when she pulled it would tighten. I went ahead and put the leash around her and re-started the track. Cosmo was a little hesitant at first because she was concerned about the leash, but then started back into the track without problems. She nailed the turn and went down the final leg and indicated with a reminder on the final article. I think she needed a reminder because she was still trying to figure out why she something around her waist. We will practice this at home and see how she progresses. Did I mention it was HOT, HOT, HOT outside? Since it was incredibly hot, I passed on obedience (and because I had only 6 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours). I brought Cosmo out for protection and was VERY happy with her. She had not been worked in two weeks because I was sick the week before, but she showed great focus. I was a little worried at first when I brought her out, because she did her typical looking for a fight routine. She seems to have yet to figure out the guy with the equipment is who she is going to bite. When I bring her to the field for protection, she tends to bark at all the people looking for the fight. Once the decoy cracks the whip, she focuses on him and forgets about the surrounding people. She bit full and hard every time, aused on command, and did a great steady bark n’ hold. We introduced the bark n’ hold in the blind without issue and ended with a small courage test bite. She ran like freak and hit hard. I was very happy with her. She isn’t perfect, but what dog is? I love her for what she is.
Jingo: Mike laid an incredibly long track for Jingo with minimal food. He wanted to work on endurance. His track went up down a steep incline, through a ditch, and a turn at the base of a hill. It was the BEST track I have seen from Jingo in some time. He kept a slow and steady pace with his nose deep in the track. He did have a small hesitation with the turn at the base of the hill. He nailed the turn, but then went back almost to re-check if he was correct. I don’t know why, but Jingo does this from time to time. He will make a perfect turn, only to turn around and go back to the turn and re-track the turn. It is almost like he turns and then doubts himself and goes back to double check. Either way, he did great but did have one little mess up, when Cosmo started barking at people walking by the truck. He lifted his head to see what was going and seemed to loose the track for a minute. Mike repeated the command to track and he continued on without problem. I was fine with this mistake, since Jingo was alerting to Cosmo’s bark. Due to the heat and lack of e-collar, Mike passed on obedience as well. Mike did parts of the Schutzhund III protection routine with Jingo and he did okay. He ran the blinds, but the first time he missed one; but on his second try did fine. He bit hard and full and did some nice bark n’ holds, but I could tell the heat was getting him to him. He wasn’t as fired up as usual and every time the sleeve was slipped he ran to the shade. So we kept the routine short and returned him to the truck and cranked up the AC for him. Overall, I was pleased with both of the dogs training.
The Bouvier puppies were at training again this week and they were SO cute!! I WANT one!! 
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07.09.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:01 by Administrator
uhhh…. sorry not many updates since I have recently been afflicted with a nasty viral infection that has lasted for five days. Please check back next week for my training updates 
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07.02.06
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:13 by Administrator
Cosmo: I am thrilled to report that Cosmo seems to have grasped what is being asked of her. She is showing a lot of promise in obedience and is very eager to please me. Today there was a dog on the side of the field who was barking at her and Cosmo did a great job ignoring the distraction. In protection she outed and continued her bark n’ hold with no reminders. I was very happy with this. She is finally settling in and applying what she has been taught. On a negative note, introducing articles has been more difficult than I had anticipated. I first trained her to platz at the site of an article which she has done without issue. Today I introduced several of them in the track and she platzed but a distance away. I used to the prong to encourage her forward to the article and her reward of hot dogs. She just was not grasping what I was asking and started doing obedience. She stopped tracking and jumped to the fuss position. It is like she forgot we were even tracking. Mike suggested I put a flag on the track to get her to track again. I placed a flag where we left off and sure enough, she put her head down and started tracking again. When we came to each article she resisted platzing. Urgh!!! Jingo was never this difficult!! Plus, I was worried if she resisted too much she would start resisting tracking. Sigh…. I think I am going to do a fun track with her and then again approach the topic of articles.
Jingo: That asshole!!! That is all I have to say about him! Today was the first time in forever that I seen him attempt to urinate on the track. So mike removed him immediately with a correction and he was returned to the truck. He won’t track today nor be fed. Tomorrow he will be given another opportunity to track and if he chooses not to, we can start all over the tracking for food.
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