01.28.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 18:35 by Administrator
After having a rough couple of days in training, dealing with frustration, and constructive criticism; days like today and yesterday are Godsend.
It is currently snowing outside, fire going, lounging with kids/dogs, and Coudai is sitting on the couch eating my popcorn. WTF?!?! ***Must confiscate my popcorn from the dogs***
Yesterday was GREAT training and I think/pray/hope that I have found the key to bust Jingo from being trial wise. No more e-collar, prong, or leash for him!!
Jingo: We started out with tracking. I focused on endurance tracking with both dogs. The grass was crispy, sparse, and far from luxurious. The weather was in the 50s which caused me to bust a serious sweat laying tracks since I was WAY overdressed. I let it age for about 45 minutes and started his track. The first leg sucked. He was on the track, off, pausing, looking around, and working on my last nerve. I gave a firm command to remind him of his work. I was a little perplexed on why he was struggling and glanced down and noticed he was frothing and foaming at the mouth. I had walked heat hound about 5 feet to the left this leg and didn’t think Jingo would be so distracted. Oh, well… great obstacle to work through. He finished the track nicely, but of course could always be better! I did obedience and for the first time in a long time, did the entire Schutzhund three routine. I had club members around the field acting as spectators, someone being the judge, and even practiced showing his tattoo. I only had his fur savor and e-collar. I didn’t have to hit him once, really nice focus, some crowding, but took care of that with my knee. Wonderful retrieves, fast, but a little bit of mouthing. His long down was beautiful. He didn’t try to get up, was very comfortable/relaxed while I left the field to return some equipment to my truck. No issues at all on the field and THAT is my problem. Only on trial day does he act a fool. I expressed my concerns to the TDs and I was given a suggestion. It was very simple, but oh so effective. I brought him out for protection with nothing but his fur savor. I walked him through the crowd of spectators and let him get silly. He was jumping on people saying hi and everyone was petting him up getting Jingo’s mind unfocused. I gathered him up and asked him to heel onto the field. He was heeling, but not focused and seriously forging. At this point I used the advice I was given very quickly and swiftly, and Jingo was a new man for the rest of the routine. It was the BEST focus I ever had during the back transport!! He even ran all six blinds for me on my first attempt!! He hadn’t ran blinds in almost a year. All I can say, is that I am thrilled. His bites were nice, bark and hold clean, and he remained sensitive to my commands. I hope this is the key to breaking him from being trial wise, but that is the thing. I won’t know until trial day.
Cosmo: Her track was a six leg endurance track as well. She did really well and indicated all the articles without reminder. For obedience, she did AWESOME without distractions. She had some really nice focus, great position, and did the BH routine without issue. I did the hold with the dumbbell for the first time without a back tie and she did this without issue. I needed a day like this 
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01.25.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 15:18 by Administrator
Why is it that somedays the dogs frustrate the hell out of me!!!
Or maybe I frustrate the hell out of them
Between puppy, bitch in heat, male wanting female in heat, and other bitch ready to go into heat, cordinating a breeding, and me trying to teach heat hound the retrieve and go out…. Somewhere in there I have started to loose my mind!!!!
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01.20.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 20:57 by Administrator
It was a cold, windy, and miserable day, but I refused to let it get in the way of training. I suited my children up in snow suits, scarves, hats, mittens and headed off to training with three dogs piled in the truck.
I started out with tracking, but laid two incredibly short tracks with three articles. It wasn’t for the dogs, but me. I was too freaking cold to stay out there any longer. The grass was dry, shin height, with lots of old cut grass laying piled about. Both the dogs tracked very nicely and Cosmo even indicated all the articles without reminder. I think the key with her is; if I don’t track her consistently she gets lazy about the articles. I was glad despite the high winds and dismal conditions, both the dogs did great. Of course, when I was beaming with pride; my TD reminded me that my tracks should be 2 to 3 times the length of what I just did. I admitted that I purposely made them short because I was FREEZING!!!
Obedience was focused on the retrieve. Jingo did his typical fast retrieves, but was a little mouthy when he sat in front of me. When I calmly petted him on the head he had a nice calm grip. My goal this week is to focus on stopping the mouthing. I have done this before by not taking the dumbbell from him in the front position except for trial day. He mouths because he is anticipating the out. Cosmo, held the dumbbell nice and calm, but was a bit distracted with all the people/dogs around. I knew this would be an issue, but I was glad she at least held it nicely. We decided it may be time to introduce electric to clean her up in all of her obedience.
Meanwhile, when I was convinced that I was going to freeze to death; my friend showed up with a farm/snow/industrial suit of some type that was on sale at the local farm store. She said she got some for other club members too. I could have kissed her Anyway, it made the rest of training more survivable. Thanks Lyn!!
Protection with Jingo went really well other than the very start. I had him in a platz behind the truck and was watching the field for our turn. When it was time to go I made the fatal error of saying my release command. That azzhole launched onto me, wrapping his paws around me and about knocking me to the ground. I had the e-collar on and managed to hit him once to remind him that he can’t molest me. Mike (who was sitting in the warm truck) was laughing at the entire scene. I shook my head in disgust. Mike rolled down the window and said, “He is just excited!” Anyway, once we got on the field he ran the blinds with no reminders, did nice bark n’ holds in the blind, did a really nice back transport with only one reminder and that was it!!! Jingo and I are starting to click back together as a team.
Oh, and Cosmo. Did I forget the evil brown bitch? The beast has really earned that title. She did really well too. We back tied her and had lots of people mill around her while we worked. I was happy with her focus.
I call today a success. The kids had lots of outdoor play time, dogs enjoyed their work, and now everyone is tuckered out except for Coudai. Yes, Coudai is running around being a little terror!
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01.15.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 22:27 by Administrator
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Posted in Uncategorized at 12:53 by Administrator
It was a beautiful Saturday, temperatures in the low 70s, slightly overcast, and it felt and smelled like spring. It was nice that my mother was visiting this weekend so I was able to train without the little men in tow for once.
Cosmo: I did a four leg track in dry grass with sparse areas. I put three articles on the track; two of which were in the same leg about 15 feet apart. I did this because I knew since we hadn’t tracked in some time; she was going to attempt to blow off the first article. I let the track age for about a half hour while I waited for the TD to come along for a critique. When I got Cosmo out I took note of the direction of the wind and headed down towards the start flag. We did some heeling, sit out of motions, platz out motions, meet and greet with people (we need work in this area), and then headed to the track. I made a point to free her up prior to the start to prevent her bunny hop starts. She took off down the track nicely, but I was reminded by the TD that I need to get her head down before the flag. I can do this by placing food a few steps before the flag. My bad, he did remind me of this last week and I forgot to work on that!! She showed nice intensity, pivoted beautifully on the turns. No roundness for her, it is a beautiful pivot. She attempted to blow off the first article, but with a verbal reminder she platzed; but turned around to face me. Urghh… it is because I have been blowing off tracking since we are working the retrieve. I used food to correct her into position and continued on. She indicated the rest of the articles with a little bit of help from the leash. She did drift on a couple of the longer legs slightly off the track but it was in the direction of the wind. The TD said he really liked her turns, but I shouldn’t let her get off the track at all. He said, if she steps off the track, I need to stop also I need to walk slower because I am walking too fast allowing her to blaze through at her own pace. All good points that I am going to work on this week. Obedience was a wash since she was in heat and I didn’t want to bring her out. I did do a long down off the field and she attempted to get up once, but I put her back and she was fine. I also did some meet and greets with people to get her more comfortable around crowds. I think since she has gone into heat, she has gotten a little funky. Damn dog, just when I think everything is perfect she does something that makes me wonder about her. During protection we had five people on the field, walking closely around us while decoy darted around throughout the group making her miss the bite. The point was for her to remain focused on the threat and ignore people in the crowd that were milling us. She did great!!! She never once thought about biting anyone but the decoy and remained focused on him the entire time. She did some excellent bark n’ holds, and was biting hard and full. This is great because in the past she did not discriminate on who to bite, if you get in her way during protection she would bite anyone with equipment or no equipment.
Jingo: I did six leg track with three articles in the same crispy grass. I let his track age for about an hour and pulled him out. I noticed he looked as if he might need to go potty, but after walking for so long with no results, I decided to start. The conditions weren’t the best, but he stayed on the track, but managed to cut two corners. He did some drifting, over stepping corners, but indicated the articles wonderfully!!! It was a lot of the typical Jingo tracking mistakes and again, I chalk that up to not tracking as often as I should. My goal is to work on tracking this week. For obedience I focused on the long down with six other dogs on the field being worked. He was my superstar and never budged or even indicated that he was thinking of getting up. I kept him out for about 15 minutes and then walked around and over him, and walked back away. After a couple minutes, I went back and rewarded him with food and did some heeling. His focus wasn’t the best, but he did the sit, platz, and stand out motion without issue. The recalls were nice as well. I decided to end obedience with this. The main problem is I would like to go back to positions and teach him to pivot with me and to go backwards. He doesn’t do this and I think it would help. For protection we did the tie out and worked with on and off. He did great, and had no problem firing up and with command stopping. After some work on the tie out, I unhooked him and heeled him around and released him for a bite when the focus was good. Ron was following us and acting suspicious and jumping around while we heeled. It took Jingo a number of corrections with the e-collar until he decided it would be best to stay focused and wait to be released. After a couple of rounds of this, Ron went into the blind and had me send Jingo around blind five and into six. It is the first time we have done blinds together in some time, but Jingo did it on the first try. YEAH JINGO!!! We ended it the session on that note….
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01.11.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 22:11 by Administrator
Ok, so who is being trained here!?! Last night during my private lesson, we discussed the importance of doing a good foundation. If the foundation is done correctly than you don’t have to keep going back and fixing things. The dog gets confused because it was ok at one point, but not ok now. It is much more difficult to fix things than to take the time and teach it right the first time.
Half way into the lesson, I was getting corrected for my body position, commands I was using, blah, blah, blah… Butch said, “You are like that dog we discussed, bad foundation and need to go back and fix things.” He had an excellent point that what was taught as “correct” to me for handling isn’t correct, but I couldn’t help but think “was I just compared to a dog?” It reminded me of my introduction to the Army when my boss reported to the BN commander “she is definitely trainable!” Hmmm…
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Posted in Uncategorized at 21:15 by Administrator
Coudai continues to impress me with her cute puppy antics. She has monkey like capabilities when it comes to climbing fences, yet the force to blow threw baby gates as well!! She has monster puppy grips, but does so well with my children. I have to laugh when I sneak into the living room to see H and Coudai sitting on the couch, cuddled up, and watching TV together. I think she understands that the kids are a great resource to have on her side!!!
Watching her play with toys, tugs, and the dogs; I can see her sire in her. The way she grips and grabs with her front paws to hold on. She has tons of personality and is a sassy little thing. I really think her and Mike will work well together.
I took her ears down yesterday and they have been standing nicely for the last 24 hours, but I am going to put them back up. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are done with a couple more tapings. Jingo’s ears were done with only a month of taping!!! Fingers crossed for that luck again, Cosmo took almost a year…
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01.08.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 20:07 by Administrator
Normally I don’t do a “forced retrieve” and didn’t think Cosmo would require one. She retrieves naturally to include the wooden dumbbell. She will even carry the dumbbell all over, but I need her to understand when I say “bring,” she is to put the dumbbell in her mouth and come directly to me. Snips required a forced retrieve because she had no retrieving instinct at all. Oddly enough, she LOVES retrieving now and does it for fun. I guess she needed to learn the rules of the game. I suppose I might question why someone would want me to bring something only for them to throw it again?!?!
Jingo was cake, he always wanted to retrieve and always enjoyed carrying the dumbbell around. Anytime I would put the dumbbell in his mouth he would take it and bring it to me. I increased his drive for the dumbbell by tying both ends with a string and playing tug. No force was involved and many people complement his retrieves. Hell, it is one of the few things he does right during the obedience phase at a trial.
Now Cosmo, that little bitch! She was following nicely in Jingo’s foot steps and I thought the retrieve would be simple. Well it isn’t. She will run quickly to get the dumbbell, but carry it around and check out things before heading back to me. I tried using the tug method, but it didn’t do anything to increase the speed and accuracy of her natural retrieve. I tried using a combination of a little force and reward, but it seemed to annoy her and decrease her drive to get the dumbbell. I tried a multitude of other things and came to the decision force will be needed.
I didn’t know how difficult this was going to be as I have trained it once myself and have sat through it with other dogs many times. I am not a fan of it, but depending on the dog it can be quick or a long drawn out process. Cosmo is extremely smart, but can be stubborn about stuff as well so I had no idea how she would react. I was going to wait to address this at club training, but decided to give it a whirl myself and see how she progresses. I back tied her using the dead ring of her fur savor and had her prong attached to the lead. I wanted to use the least invasive method possible. Cosmo is very handler sensitive and not a dog that requires heavy corrections. Repeating the command “bring” I offered her the dumbbell while tightening up the lead. At first she was busy trying to figure out what I wanted, but as soon as she put the dumbbell in her mouth I rewarded her and released the pressure. She immediately dropped the dumbbell. Again, I started the process over and again she took the dumbbell and I immediately released the pressure and rewarded her only for her to drop the dumbbell. And again, I repeated the same process, but this time she started reaching for the dumbbell. Good girl!!! She knew what I wanted and as soon she took the dumbbell I released the pressure. This time she sat calmly holding the dumbbell. I did lots of calm petting, praising, and then I hit the dumbbell to test her grip. She let it fall out of her mouth to the ground. Around we go again!! This time she reached for the dumbbell and had a much firmer grip. When I hit the dumbbell it was rock solid. Although, this time she didn’t want to out. I am fine with that!!! I used food reward for her to out the dumbbell and repeated the process a couple more times with same results of taking, holding, and outing. I ended the session on that positive note. I think we will continue to do the same for the next week so until she fully understands what I want. Thank god she learns quickly, although this is only the beginning….
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01.07.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 23:23 by Administrator
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01.04.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 23:13 by Administrator
Last night was our private lesson. We were working on focus during the bite work with Cosmo. It was a great lesson for the nasty brown girl. Butch did the helper work and had other club members mill around her while she worked. Anytime she would so much as glance at the other people and away from the decoy, Butch would immediately make her miss a bite and run away building frustration. She began to catch on quickly and it was very funny to watch her fight the urge to glance at the other people. She new exactly what was going on and she would try to discreetly sneak peaks. She wouldn’t even move her head, but I could see her eyes roll to the side to glance at others as she maintained her bark and hold. Afterwards we discussed her training and said she needs to be continuously worked in protection and obedience like this. She must learn to focus only on the handler and decoy. The same is true for her obedience.
Over the holidays, with family and visitors; I learned a lot about Cosmo’s temperament. She is the most loving goof ball with family and ONLY family. Her love does not extend to anyone else, and I doubt it ever will. Shy is not shy or nervy, but for the most part does not like other people. Tolerates them, but doesn’t like them. I would describe her as aloof with strangers and more than willing to bite first and ask questions later. I guess one could describe her as sharp, yet very confident. She is different from my other dogs in that aspect, but I am learning to love it. Who would guess that my brown snuzzle bug, would grow up to be such a nasty girl
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