04.29.07
Viking’s Charlie Brown WAC, CGC, ZTP 1A
Huge congratulations to Lyn and Charlie Brown for earning their second major!!! Both majors were earned while being handled by Lyn who is Charlie’s owner and breeder.
Only three singles left 
Delaware Dog Show
I had a fun and relaxing day with my friend Lyn at the dog show. Here are some photos from the day:
04.25.07
Never a dull moment here…
After recovering from a hellacious Monday, I managed to get out and do some tracking and obedience. The problem is I don’t feel like posting about it. It was a positive experience for both Jingo and Cosmo and I guess that is all that matters. We will be in NJ tomorrow for our home inspection, so won’t get much training done. Oh, well….Here are some photos from today:
More photos can be seen HERE!!
Fun sequence
First, thanks to Amanda for taking pics of us
Second, I didn’t know why everyone was laughing when Jingo came into the blind…. but now I know why!
Third, Jingo had a nice attitude adjustment and thought running the blinds and tracking was a great idea!!
04.20.07
Baggage sucks…
Today was a tracking disaster for Jingo and I. It has to do with his baggage. Those that know us, know his history and our issues in tracking. He has a history of lots of compulsion in the track, but I overcame it by switching to purely positive (in tracking only). It did wonders, he passes tracking without issue, but he scores in the low 80s to high 70s. My TD suggested, I need to re-introduce corrections because he needs to know there is a consequence for going off the track or for a generally lazy tracking attitude. Don’t get me wrong, he can put out some nice tracks, but he is inconsistent. He has no corrections on the track, so if he decides his heart isn’t in to it, than he half-asses the track.
For today, I went to the local park in the morning and placed a 6 leg track with ten articles. The grass was wet and the track could easily be seen. I used this to my advantage and did some surpentines throughout the track. I only let it age for 20 minutes while I did some obedience with Coudai and tracked her.
When I brought Jingo to the track he started out sloppy. He does this from time to time. His first leg is a little rough, but then he seems to get into the mind set and improves as he goes along. Well, today I decided to go there and address this little problem….. *sigh*
I gave a pop on the leash and said “no,” when he went off the track and as soon as he got back on, I said “good boy.” He was fine with that, but decided to go off it again. When he does this, it is only off by a little bit, but this is how we loose our points. I call it lazy tracking. This time when he went off the track, I gave a stonger voice correction and a little stronger pop on the leash. Jingo didn’t like it and platzed. and this is where the fight begins……. I hate going there!
I gave a firm command for him to restart and he did, but was clearly getting stressed. He started crawling down the track and circling. He wasn’t using his nose, but was only thinking about what he thought was going to happen. I stopped him and had him down on the track. I stepped away and let him “cool down.” After a couple minutes, I came back and calmly petted him and gave him the command to re-start. It seemed that he decided “oh, it is ok not to track, she wasn’t serious.” So he started, but back into his lazy fashion. I said no, and firmly popped him on the leash…. At this point Jingo decided he was done tracking and I had to show him he wasn’t done tracking.
I knew that “forcing” him to finish the track was only adding to his baggage, but I need to let him know that not only does he not eat but it isn’t fun to quit. It was one hell of a workout and I only made him go a couple more articles before I ended the track. He was clearly stressed. I put him in a long down and finished picking up the rest of my articles. I didn’t want to release him to play with that horrible performance, so I went directly into obedience. I think the stress from the track made him want to please me, so he was giving me some very nice and correct obedience. I did some motion exercises and ended it with food rewards for his performance. I was glad we could end it on a positive note obedience wise, but our track was awful. The conditions were great, so there was no reason for his performance. He isn’t eating tonight, and I hope tomorrow morning some of the corrections will carry over into his track in a positive light. His “attitude” towards tracking is very similar to the blind search. He blows it off when he doesn’t feel like doing it. In the blind search we are teaching him that isn’t such a great option. It is causing us to go through some ugly times, but we need to get through it….. to get where we need to be.
Coudai: She did ok with her micro track. The main thing is she is starting to associate the flag with food on the ground . I was happy to see her put her nose down and go down the track. At this point her back end was wiggling all over the track, but I am fine with that. I find once I start increasing the length and taking out food, the back end stays in-line with the track.
04.19.07
More dirt tracking…
I am still recovering from the last couple months of intense training, but decided I need to get going for the upcoming May trial I entered Jingo in (and Cosmo if her scorebook arrives from Germany in time!).
The farmer plowed the fields while I was at the AWDFs and the conditions were perfect. We have had some rain over the past couple of weeks, leaving the fields moist, supple, but not mucky. I could lay a track and see exactly where it was. This is what my TD has been after me to work on. My dogs have only tracked in dirt a handful of times, so this was great for many reasons. It was a new surface to work on AND I could lay some unconventional tracks and not worry about marking them.
Coudai: I have only tracked her once and that was several weeks ago. Since we have started protection, I decided to get serious about her tracking foundation. I am not a huge fan of spending lots of time on scent pads. I usually teach them to associate the start flag with food on crushed grass and quickly move from there to short tracks that are heavily baited. For today, I put a medium sized scent pad with food and a small track leading out of it. When I approached the track with Coudai, I am not sure why; but she started pulling like a freight train to the start flag. I find it hard to believe that she remembers our last track from three weeks ago. I tried getting her collected before we approached the flag, but she started flipping around and landed in the middle of the track. My bad!! It turned out well though, because she tracked down the track the wrong way and once she ran into me at the start flag; she turned around and tracked in the correct direction and found the jackpot. I was pleasently surprised and she is reminding me a lot of Cosmo at this age. If only I can be so lucky to have three excellent tracking dogs! Although, it wouldn’t surprise me since her mother has an FH and Agir is an excellent tracking dog as well. Cross my fingers, but time will tell if this was a fluke or not.
Cosmo: I did an endurance track which consisted of 6 legs, 6 articles, and some of the legs surpentined. One of the articles was from Jingo’s track at the AWDFs. These articles were SMALL and I was curious to see how Cosmo would handle it. I have been using oversized articles with her in the past for training purposes, but she has been consistently indicating them and is ready for the next step. Yeah, I know…. Why go from jumbo articles to micro articles?!?! I actually used a mix of large articles and medium articles, but just wanted to see what she would do with the little article.
When I brought Cosmo out, she was normal crazy self. I did a quick long down while I got all my training equipment together. I also made a point to go in the house, take care of some stuff, come out and fire a couple of blank rounds. I was happy she never once thought of getting up. I led her to the track and let her walk right into the track with no command. It doesn’t really matter with her. I tell you, days like today just make me want to cry with joy. She was on as usual and worked the track better than ever. Areas of her track did get mucky, and she blazed through without issue. Her tail was wagging a 100 mph and when she indicated articles, she would look at me with mud up to her eyes from keeping her nose so deep into the track. The best part was when she indicated the tiny article!!! I had forgot what leg I put it in and was surpised when I saw her suddenly drop down into a platz. When I walked up, sure enough the little piece of leather was sitting at the tips of her toes. I was so proud of her!! She had no issues with the surpentines either. After that performance, she got lots of praise and was done for the day.
Jingo: His track was a SUPER endurance track, if there is such a thing. I let it age for a hour and placed 11 articles in it. I no longer put food in the track and only reward at the articles. Again, since this was a dirt track, it would a be a surface we normally don’t work on; and I was able to do lots of fun stuff with it. Since Jingo can be inconsistent, I didn’t know how this would turn out.
When Jingo came out, I did some obedience with him and then prepared him for the track. Once we got on the track, he took off without issue. Again, I was very happy with his track. He was showing nice intensity, indicated all articles, and didn’t circle on any of the corners. Jingo did step off the track a couple times and I was able to immediately correct him for this. This is why my TD has been urging me to work him in dirt. It is difficult to tell on grass if they are a little off the track. I think this was a good training session for the both of us.
Took Cosmo to the vet
I took Cosmo to the vet today because she seems to have developed a hot spot on her shoulder. He did a skin scraping and a series of other tests. We couldn’t find anything wrong, so I suggested we send in a Thyroid level to cover all basis. He didn’t think it was the Thyroid, but went ahead and sent a sample to MSU. We will have the results next week.
We got some meds to put on the wound and will see if that helps.
