Smooth Collies, Border Collies, Danish-Swedish Farmdog

My Dream Job

Well, what else would my dream job be? :) I love working with dogs. And I would love to do it full time. working with the people would be harder, I’m sure, than the dogs. But I hope I can develop the observational skills I know are so critical.

I made this little video.. and I wanted to video Levi doing his dumbbell work anyway! He is such a good boy.

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And dangit, ignore that he popped the last weave poll. I haven’t been weaving him because he has a pulled muscle in his right rear leg… so this was just a test!

Cynthia
August 2, 2008
Info, Obedience
9 Comments
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  • http://www.itsthedogslife.com Saint Lover

    You’d be a great trainer!!! I certainly would pay you to teach Apollo weave… I have had NO luck on my own!

    Saint Lovers last blog post..Bark Park #9

    • http://www.tiptail.com Cynthia Blue

      LOL Lora weaving is really hard to train. I use the 2×2 method and I love it! ;)

  • http://blog.johannthedog.com Johann

    You two are so good together!!! Great camera head butt! Woofs, Johann

    Johanns last blog post..Human agility!

    • http://www.tiptail.com Cynthia Blue

      Thanks Johann! LOL I thought the nose pushing over the camera was very cute too!

  • http://riverflower.blogspot.com Rachael

    great video. Loved the head butt at the end. Can I ask, how you trained him to pick up the dumbell? Moxie and I are starting our Open training and we have no clue. I can’t seem to find classes around here that train anything higher than CD level stuff.

    Rachaels last blog post..A brand new title!

    • http://www.tiptail.com Cynthia Blue

      Oh Racheal… the dumbbell is so fun to clicker train! Lucy has an awesome dumbbell and I clicker trained her. Check out this page, it is what I did.. for the most part, though I modified it for my dogs.
      http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/retrieve.html

      I used this for Levi and Chase, too. Though Levi is not as solid as Lucy because I haven’t worked him as much. But he is getting better as the video shows!

      Basically I clicked and treated at first for them just looking at the dumbbell. Then nose touching it. Then I put peanut butter on it so they would open their mouth for it. And on from there. :) I refused to ear pinch my dogs, or use any of the old style retrieve techniques. I love clicker training the dumbbell! Let me know if this helps!

  • http://www.myspoileddogs.blogspot.com Christy

    Ahh Levi is doing so well!! Training dogs all day would be my dream job too! Training people would suck though. HAHAHA Wish I could do one without the other!!

    Christys last blog post..We have a new friend…

    • http://www.tiptail.com Cynthia Blue

      Yeah Christy me too.. the people would be hard, the dogs would be fun!

  • http://www.thatmutt.com Lindsay

    You should be a professional dog trainer. Just start doing it part time. I know you’d be great. You sounded so enthusiastic in your video. That is what I need to work on. No wonder Ace gets bored with me.

    Lindsays last blog post..Dogs with fixations (part 2)