Nothing special since the last post. We had discovered a huge vacant lot in a park to play fetch in/chase the geese/explore water and possibly, maybe, hopefully one day actually swim. But the river that River is named for is flooding and the roads are all closed off to the park. She's been patient with indoor play dates and limited indoor training.

Ryuk and I worked on heeling, and he rocked it, no forging, no rearing, no excessive prancing (prancing is cute, crazy dressage dog who can't shorten his gait to brisk walking pace is not) turning right with eye contact finally clicked. He was completely on the ball I wish I'd thought to bring the camera out for him. I'm also on day 4 of his "if you don't eat in the running car you don't eat" experiment to break him of this strange combination of dislike and anxiety he exhibits for riding in the car (stress panting but no raise in heart rate, complete obedience and willingness to load but clear dislike of the car) and it only took him 5 minutes. He was noticeably calmer as well

Gambit got worked into the ground yesterday so he just had a fun day to just blow out some steam so he got frisbee, some basic heeling and position work, then canine freestyle for frisbee throws. His heeling was okay and his turns are improving (eye contact isn't a problem, we're working on some body awareness as when you turn him sharply in heel his feet don't always turn with the rest of him). Overall he did well other than sinking his teeth into my ankle by accident (he punched holes right through my nice work shoe ) while locked on his frisbee target....got that on video lol

 Quote: Jamie Craig

Ryuk and I worked on heeling, and he rocked it, no forging, no rearing, no excessive prancing (prancing is cute, crazy dressage dog who can't shorten his gait to brisk walking pace is not) turning right with eye contact finally clicked. He was completely on the ball I wish I'd thought to bring the camera out for him. I'm also on day 4 of his "if you don't eat in the running car you don't eat" experiment to break him of this strange combination of dislike and anxiety he exhibits for riding in the car (stress panting but no raise in heart rate, complete obedience and willingness to load but clear dislike of the car) and it only took him 5 minutes. He was noticeably calmer as well

Gambit got worked into the ground yesterday so he just had a fun day to just blow out some steam so he got frisbee, some basic heeling and position work, then canine freestyle for frisbee throws. His heeling was okay and his turns are improving (eye contact isn't a problem, we're working on some body awareness as when you turn him sharply in heel his feet don't always turn with the rest of him). Overall he did well other than sinking his teeth into my ankle by accident (he punched holes right through my nice work shoe ) while locked on his frisbee target....got that on video lol

Good stuff, Jamie (all but the ankle-eating)!

Tracking, OB, and dumbbell.

Took Sadie to a new field. Laid a 250m track, regualtion except for the last leg, with a right turn, a left turn, and four articles. The first article was 50m into the secondleg. The third leg was shorter and unbaited, with three articles; one was 10 paces in, the next was 15 paces, and the end article was 25 paces out. The track was laid over grass and clover of various length, with some bare spots. The ground was damp, with a few puddles, which I did not avoid. I did use bait patches on some of the terrain changes and wet spots to help her stay focused.

I took her out on an empty stomach, and I repeated the pre-track routine from last weekend by not letting her critter or get distracted. I let her empty on-leash, then crated her while I laid the track. Sadie was better than me. She was focused and committed, checked every footstep deeply and surely, and her pace was quick but steady. I missed both turns, and pulled her off to the side at one point, but she corrected me each time by being persistent and staying on the track (TD would have given me the boot and reminded me that the nose knows). She hesitated on the first article, so I helped her. She nailed the second. I pulled her to the side of the third and commanded her to find it, which she did, and indicated. She found but hesitated on the end article, pbly because I screwed her up on the previous one.
All in all, I was displeased with my performance, but thoroughly pleaqsed with Sadie's. She is starting to show a seriousness about tracking, but still seems to enjoy it as much as ever.

Afterwards, I let her run and did a few random downs, trying to add distance. We then did a couple of short dumbbell retrieves and quit while she was having fun. We finished with a BH pattern and multiple downs out of motion. She was rusty, due to the recent lack of training. We struggled. I finally got a good one to end on a high note, but she was clearly ready to be done with training for the day. I have been working a lot lately, and we really needed a good, long session to restore the focus we previously had. It was harder work than we normally have to do, but a good reminder to keep at it.

Went back to our regular tracking field and duplicated yesterday's track on a more consistent, and drier, surface. I was much sharper, and Sadie more solid than yesterday, though she hesitated on two of the articles.

We did some dumbell retrieves and a short OB session, but I kept it brief and fun.

Spring is here finally! That means a lot of yard work.

Still got to go agility class and doing well. Crosses are getting there. His weaves were crazy fast!

Dexter loves the sun and I need to drag him to get him to do anything, yet at night he is more playfull, so this is when we work.

Yesterday we had to pick up some firewood, dogs got to practice long down with flying log/stick and some kids playing near by.
Harley tryed to help but there was no room for him in the bed so he did some nice position changes from the roof of the cab. Dexter does not enjoy to ride the pickup truck. He find it hard to jump on the back seat.

So for the next week or so the dogs will still have to hang around and be out of the way (long down)

Delete duplicate

 Quote: Ariane Gauthier

Spring is here finally! That means a lot of yard work.

Still got to go agility class and doing well. Crosses are getting there. His weaves were crazy fast!

Dexter loves the sun and I need to drag him to get him to do anything, yet at night he is more playfull, so this is when we work.

Yesterday we had to pick up some firewood, dogs got to practice long down with flying log/stick and some kids playing near by.
Harley tryed to help but there was no room for him in the bed so he did some nice position changes from the roof of the cab. Dexter does not enjoy to ride the pickup truck. He find it hard to jump on the back seat.

So for the next week or so the dogs will still have to hang around and be out of the way (long down)

How is that long down going?

Last agility class was bad! Temperature went up from cold for the season to too hot for the season. The class was still inside their AC was broken and it must have been near 30oC. HArley was not playing, his favorit obstacle was the table, that is new for him to want to stop. Their water was out too as the town is doing work on the line so I ran out of water to cool him off.

On the good side there was a very nice direct line from the dog walk to a tunnel which we were not to do and go to a different obstacle. Harley was totally ignoring me, so I called a down right as he got off the dog walk, he did down. The look on his face was worth a lot. Then called him to that place were he had to be, worked just fine and stunt the coach too.

Connie, today I think that I could get a few hours of long down in the shade, even I would not mind it too much

At least I love the heat and will get use to it very soon unlike the cold.

I will be able to start tracking, and doing nose work outside in the next few day, as soon as I cut move some trees that have fallen during the winter.

Also I will dig Harley's pool out so he can cool off all he want.

Today we tracked for the first time since last fall.

Dexter got to work a 30' track with bait in every step. There was some bag that landed on the area where I laid the track after I was done and I had to stop Dexter a remove the monster. Dexter was concerned by the "thing".

He did ok, very slow/unsure as the bag freaked him a bit but he went through.

Harly got a 3 leg track with a turn in each direction. He was so happy to track!

I had to place him in a down just so he would calm some before going. First leg was a solid 100' then the 2 others were a bit shorter 60/75'.
I place just 6 baits total. I can tell that he found them but not eat them. He did indicate on one bait as it was an article. That I don't know what to do about.

Todays bait was tuna, Dexter loves that and Harley will so a clear physical response as get goes over the bait, even pose a bit.