Looking for Inspiration

 

Looking for Inspiration

I belong to a trick dog chat group on line.  I periodically browse the emails looking for new and exciting tricks to teach my girls.  Here are 4 links we found today.  The first one reminded me of a friends dog and the best part was the place the dog was working, totally noisy and distracting. Good Dog, Exercise Done!

This next one shows good restraint, I'm thinking of something similar for my 2. Not too sure about this one though there was a disclaimer at the end. I particularly liked the last part of this video, I think the trainer is wearing a helmet cam in the first part, makes it hard to see what their doing.

 

Zoe-Mail

 

Zoe-Mail

While checking our e-mail today I found this link to a 8-month old puppy showing off it's freestyle training.  I was thrilled to see the amount of drive this little pup has. At the end of the video I followed this link to read more.  This fellow is one of the best trainers in the UK and appears regularly at the dog show of the year, Crufts, in the UK.  The rules for our Canadian version of their Heel to Music, which we call Canine Dressage, are slightly different, but the principals are basically the same.  Just look at the attention he gets from his dogs.  Striving to attain that goal myself.

Surf'n Sassy

 

Looking for Inspiration

While looking for some new tricks to teach my girls I came across these 2 videos.  I'm thinking I might get Sassy to do this one and I'm not too sure who would do this one as it involves water.  But you know you can do amazing things with that tool called a clicker.

Happy Valentines

 

Happy Valentines Everyone

Go outside and enjoy the gorgeous day we're having. See you all tomorrow.

Zoe-Mail

 

Zoe chatting with her friends

While checking our e-mail this morning we came across a link that involved a Double Merle Sheltie. Our interest was peeked enough to check out the link here. Apparently this dog belongs to a trainer for an organization here called Canine Partners for Life (CPL) and she is asking us to vote for her dog to earn a reward from Bissel that will be donated to CPL. We signed up and voted. 

Anyway the big interest for us was the genetic information we found concerning the Double Merle gene her dog has.  Here's a link to an interesting article that explains the gene and how you get what and when. 

AIOC and You

 

READING THE RULES

Yesterday I posted an invitation to a Club trial.  Today I thought I'd offer some clarification about who is eligible for entry into these types of trials.  I was able to find a history of the AIOC and thought it might enlighten some of you.  If you are interested in entering this trial but need to be a club member check out my links to the right for a club near you.

Up Coming Events

Club Trial

AIOC 

March 28, 2010

Union Bay Hall

This trial is open to purebred or cross bred dogs.
This is a Club trial and you must be a club member to participate.
Check out this link for more information.

However the CGN (Canine Good Neighbour) test is open to any dog and handler.

I will be at this trial with both my girls. Zoe requires only one more pass to obtain her CD (Companion Dog) title.  Sassy Girl is just embarking on her campaign tour and we're very confident she will get at least 1 pass this weekend if not 2.  We will be competing in the Novice B class.  We're looking forward to seeing lots of entries this year.

Sassy on a Roll Day 2

 

Sassy on a Roll Day 2

As you can see it didn't take Sassy very long to figure out I was looking for the nose touch. I'm hoping to be able to shape this touch into a push from the bottom of the roll in order to get that mat rolled out. She keeps trying other things, almost tripping over herself to offer different behaviours.  She even stands and looks after a click as if to say "Are you sure you just want my nose touch?"  At one point she even goes back and touches again before accepting that's what I want.  I'm hoping the next time we try this she goes right to the nose touch and then I'll be able to really start shaping this trick.

Surf'n Sassy

 

Sassy's Picks

While at class this week we had the opportunity to try new and different ways of training for certain exercises.  One was heeling on a leash through a mini obstacle course, a little scary for Sassy who is sensitive to "things" in her space.  Then we worked on our "go outs" but we used a box of pvc pipes to sit in. After introducing Sassy to the box we had huge success transferring our existing training to the new method. Last we worked on the introduction of the leather glove in the "Seek Back" exercise. Lots of fun here, Sassy's all time favorite thing to do is to retrieve.  I know, she's a terrier not a retriever but she does love the retrieve. 

After class Sassy was wondering about how we are developing such a good working relationship.  We found some very good answers to our questions here where fear and your dog is discussed in great detail.  We found this a very informative blog which led us to this next site hosted by the author of The Other End of the Leash. We found lots of interesting articles, books and ideas on dog training there (definitely have to find a way to buy a book or two here). This led us to this final note on becoming a crossover trainer.  All in all a very good day for surfing!

No Blog Today

 

Sassy says "Take a Break, go smell some flowers, have a lazy day......"

See you all tomorrow.

Sassy on a Roll

 

Day One

So this is the first day that I introduced the mat to Sassy.  The idea is to end up with the dog rolling the mat out with her nose.  Eventually we will have Sassy "roll out the carpet" and maybe Zoe with a cape will approach the throne......

As you can see Sassy is a Clicker savy little dog. I, on the other hand, need practice with my timing! At about the 2:20 mark Sassy finally gives up offering other behaviours and settles for the nose touch. At about the 3:00 mark she figures out she has to enter the carpet from the end and at the 3:42 mark she pointedly makes an effort to enter from the end.

Good Girl, Exercise Done

Walk'n The Dog

This video was from the First Annual Island K9 Freestyle/Dressage Competition way back in 2008.  Zoe and I were a little bit out of sorts for this competition.  We had submitted 2 copies of our music as per the competition rules.  Unfortunately as I was involved in helping to organize this function I didn't take the time to do a sound check. This came back to bite us in the proverbial butt!  After standing in the ring for what seemed like forever and not getting either of my CD's to work I finally had to run out of the ring, downstairs, dig through my training bag and find my practice CD. I'm thankful I actually had the foresight to leave it in my bag.  While I was downstairs madly tossing my bags contents, Zoe was being held by one of our club members at the top of the stairs.  I could hear her yakking up a storm because I had left her behind.  We got back into the ring, did a few laps to calm ourselves and launched into our dressage routine.  Lucky for us this was our Level 1 routine which required Zoe to only maintain the heel position no matter what.  We succeeded and passed but what a production!!  

Lesson Learned

Always do the sound check no matter how busy you are.