December 2009Monthly Archives

Jet and the Feetz Box

I’ve been doing lots of training with Jet… I guess I should post more about it. I’ve been posting up little video clips on my YouTube account.

Here is one thing we are working on. I call it the Feetz Box. I am not calling it a perch box because I have two other type boxes that I consider perch boxes.

So this teaches him a lot of rear-end awareness. Dogs don’t really know they have a rear end… and it’s so good to teach them that they do, and to be aware of it! Being aware of their whole bodies is great for obedience and agility.

I’m using clicker training quite a bit with him. I have to remember the Always on Cue, Only on Cue thing, though, because my dogs tend to start offering so much that I have a hard time focusing on any one thing. So I’m going to teach him when it’s okay to offer, and when it’s not.

This will help Jet learn to heel, too, for obedience. And to move In with me on the left turns. And it’ll help for Rally, too. It’s just an all around good exercise and Jet loves it to! He learned to get his Feetz up there fast, and he is really learning to turn!

Cynthia

December 29, 2009

Jet, Obedience

1 comment

Jet, Obedience, Training

Taking Things From Dogs

Collie and Danish Swedish Farmdog Playing

Jet and Tatum - Buddies

I try never to take things from my dogs. It can really make them play keep-away and hide-the-bones and other things that we don’t really want with the dogs. Instead of taking anything from my dogs I will trade them. For another toy, or a treat, or a game of tug or play or something. Anything so they don’t think I’m just taking things from them left and right and if they have anything at all they need to run with it so I don’t take it away.

I made the mistake of taking a dead mouse out of Jet’s mouse a while back and now he is really reluctant for me to get near him when he has anything that valuable, and icky! But if he has one now, I will go inside and get a liver treat and then trade him for the dead mouse. Hoping that he doesn’t swallow it before I get back. So far, so good. He seems to like to play with the things instead of swallowing. :p Though how a liver can be worth trading for a dead mouse I don’t know!

Sometimes I will take a shoe or something if I don’t have anything to trade and if I’m in a hurry. But that’s few and far between. I want to make sure that the dogs will not steal things and keep them away from me or my husband. You never know when the dogs might get into something dangerous that they really need to give up. Plus, for obedience training the dogs have to bring back dumbbells and articles and things, and so bringing has to be fun!

This picture is cute isn’t it? It’s of Tatum and Jet going out to play. They are best buddies and I’m so glad they are. I love it when my dogs are attached to each other and not just me. Dogs are dogs, after all, and I want them to have dog time. After Tatum plays, she always seems so satisfied that she needs a cigar or a cigarette. LOL she’s such a goof!

Cynthia

December 28, 2009

Daily Posts, Training

5 comments

Training

Plans for the World Dog Show 2010

Jet being Goofy in his Coat

So I contacted a Travel Agent today to see about going to Denmark to the World Dog Show in June 2010. I have been wondering why we don’t see information about the World Dog Show here in the USA. We see Crufts and Westminster and the big AKC show. But I have never heard of the World Dog Show. Is it because, at least in Denmark, they don’t allow docking or cropping? I wonder. They probably don’t allow dental implants Plano either… which I am glad for!

Anyway, I really want to go. Jet’s breeder will be there and I want to finally met her, as well as some other folk from Sweden and Denmark I have been chatting with. I want someone to come with me, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen. Maybe. We’ll have to see how much it costs.

So I really don’t have the money to go. But my friend here at work has an awesome travel agent and I sent her an email. So hopefully she’ll get back to me soon. And if I can’t borrow the money from my Mom and Dad, then I might see about getting a signature loan. I just need to hire my friend Marie as my personal assistant so she can come too! If we just paid off the mortgage, then I’d be able to afford it. But that’s about six months away… darnit! So close, yet so far.

But I don’t think Jet’s breeder will go to France in 2011, or Austria in 2012…. so this is the best chance I have to go and meet her and some other new friends. So, I’m crossing my fingers and hoping for credit. Maybe there’s some stimulus money somewhere I can get a hold of… I’d be stimulating the economy! Well, the Danish economy anyway! LOL

My Goal with Jet – No Retraining Obstacles!

Cute Boy Jet

One of the things I don’t have any faith in whatsoever in agility is retraining contacts.

I realize that sometimes you start training them one way and it doesn’t really work out for that dog, so you think maybe it’d be better to train another way. Or else maybe you start out with a Four on the Floor for the A-Frame and your dog learns to leap the yellow and hit the ground without touching the yellow at all, so you want a 2 on 2 off instead. Or maybe the dog isn’t getting the weaves very well so you want to retrain using the 2×2 method instead of channels or something…

Well, one thing I learned in agility from Day One was that the first thing you teach your dog, that is what they are going to do when they are in high drive or when they are stressed. And it’s so true.

I am really really lucky that I had a good foundation trainer for Chase’s weaves and contacts and his are pretty darn good if I do say so myself. Though he’s been known to pop weaves or blow a contact to hit a tunnel… that’s a training issue and not an obstacle issue.

I trained Levi all wrong on the weaves, incorporated a lot of stress in that training, and his whole career he had rotten weaves and it kept us from having a higher Q rate than we did.

So with Jet, my main number one primo ultimate goal is to train the obstacles the right way the first time so we don’t have to redo anything in the future.

So we are doing 2o2o (Two On Two Off) on the contacts, which I love, know how to train, and think is very black and white to me and the dog. We are doing good consistent weaves. And we need to do shadow handling and ground work too and forward focus and distance work.

Rule #1 of Agility: Do It Right The First Time.

Goes for Obedience and flyball too!

Cynthia

December 17, 2009

Agility, Flyball, Jet, Training

1 comment

Agility, Jet, Training

All That Really Matters

Tatum in her Bed

Whenever we get a new dog in our house, and usually when he’s a bit insecure and worried about his new place like Titus is, I always go back to realizing what is most important in life.

It’s not things of any kind, or cross country movers, or houses or money or toys or glasses or floors or anything. It’s how we feel. It’s being loved and loving.

So I snuggle my dogs and try not to worry about money or the dog sports. I just want them to be happy and safe and loved. This picture is of Tatum on the dog shelf on the dog bed on the dog shelf (because the 4″ foam isn’t nearly comfy enough, you need a dog bed on top) and I a just so glad she is happy now. She even got her CGC recently. She’s come a long way from the scared dog she used to be. I just adore her still, and always will. And I want her, and all our dogs, to know they will never be alone or unsafe.

I just can’t imagine anyone putting their dogs outside and never letting them be in and part of their family. My dogs would probably just die out there alone. They need the family to survive. And I need the family to survive, too.

I Swore No More Fosters

Titus and Jet

Yeah yeah, I swore no more fosters. And I’m really sticking to that except in very special circumstances.

This is Titus. He is the son of Sonny, a smooth sable collie boy who lives around here locally and I just adore him. Poor Titus’ Mom in California, his Human Mom, passed away recently and he was going to go back to his breeder. Which is good… except his breeder is having problems of her own. Her Mom has had to move in with her and needs 24/7 care, and so she doesn’t really have the resources to take care of Titus either.

So he’s with us now. And, yes, we already love him. He is very sweet and a bit shy and needs some confidence building. And in California they didn’t have any stairs so he doesn’t know stairs, but we are working on that. He might actually go to another foster home, a friend of mine, which would be good for us because we will just fall in love with him too fast! Though we might have him at least through the end of December.

Titus is a smooth tricolored collie boy. I didn’t really like the tris as much as the other colors… but the more I see him and spend time with him, I think I like the tris just as much. He is so fancy and handsome in his suit. And now we have one of each color of collie except the white…. we have the blue merles, the sables, and the tricolor…. and well, we have been joking that Jet is a color-headed white. LOL.. he’s a mini-smooth-collie tri-headed white! Hehe okay okay he’s a Danish Swedish Farmdog but it’s kinda funny.

So for nowwe sit under the ceiling fan and try to get this guy a good home. I think he’ll be easy to find a home for. He’s so sweet and gorgeous and people love collies.

Jet and 2o2o Work

I’ve been working on a touch board, teaching Jet the Two On Two Off for agility contacts. He is doing very well. This video spans about five days of short training sessions. It’s about 10 minutes long so you don’t have to watch it all… or at all, if you don’t want. But I like to record our progress.

I’m happy with how he is doing, though I need to include more movement and reward him for staying on the board until I release him. He’s doing well though! And putting the board on the ceramic tiles made it a bit slippery, so I put matting underneath it and that seemed to help.

Agility, Jet, Training

A Good Open A Run

Well Chase didn’t qualify, though we kinda thought he should…. the judge NQd him because he whined for a minute on his five minute out of sight down stay. Which really isn’t failing half the exercise. But oh well. He did really well anyway. And it was a hard place for him because agility was going on and that is where he loves to do agility. So his heeling is sloppy. But his jumps are great and so is his drop on recall.

We are still training open and we’ll get the title. This is ASCA. There are a lot of ASCA Obedience shows around here so I’m not worried about it. On the first day he went down on his sit stay… he just had to smell something in the dirt! But otherwise he did good then too.

Now I need to find the opposite of the best hair loss products for Chase, since he’s loosing coat this winter again. Hopefully it’ll come back in the spring!