I do not any more understqand the world. Although I'm consistently trying, I will never achieve this. simply don't have the skills. where steel?

Ian,

I got a tour of MES yesterday; hoped I'd get a chance to meet you and say hi, but I guess you were enjoying your day off. But I got to see Henry tucked away in his spot :-)

Hope you're having a great time out here. Looking forward to an update on your classes.

omg , you were here ? sorry i missed you . . . what time were you around ?

who toured you ?

i was out riding my road bike and craziest of all things happened . i was riding by myself and hooked up with another group of roadies , two husband and wife couples . at one stop , one of the guys asks where i'm from . . i say " whistler " . he asks what i do . . . i say " ski patrol " . he asks if i handle a dog . . . i say " yup a border collie " .

he says , i shot you in a photo shoot two winters ago . turns out it was albert lewis , the guy who did the photo book on sled dogs and is currently working on one all about SAR dogs . you can check out his stuff at seespotrun.com

sadly , the light at the end of the tunnel is significantly brighter with only two weeks to go . this past week was protection theory , and the last two we're actually gonna get in the suits and experience the business end of the dogs . . . really looking forward to it . as i've probably mentioned before , i don't see much future for me ( definitely not henry lol ) as far as training a protection dog , but it will open up the possibility of taking some bites if the opportunity presents itself when i get home .

henry and i continue to work hard outside of class time . he has adopted the french commands quite well , and i have got most of the commands on verbal cue , but still need to be diligent about maintaining the criteria for proper mechanics so i still use physical " help " occasionally . as well , i have adjusted the reward schedule to only reward proper reps , and will soon taper that to just the best reps .

his " play " retrieve has always been good , but i have undertaken to learn a proper formal retrieve . he likes the basic activity so that helps , but his hold was a little loose and chompy so we are working on that with some good progress .

jump pattern is good , but i've learned that for henry ( who apparently is a good jumper ) and i , the activity should be approached as another opportunity for engagement . like a lot of border collies , he is motivated by movement and chasing things we do a lot of toy/food chase between jumps to keep him focused on me .

next post . . . all about bruises lol

It looks like so much fun to don those suits and get chased down! I saw it on that show fear factor a million years ago and wanted to try it. Apparently some people's worst fear is dogs! Makes more sense than spiders I suppose like my irrational self!
Have fun!
Let us know what it's like.

I got there about 11:30 on Saturday; I'm good friends with Ericka so she gave me the unofficial tour. I was sorry to miss you but she said you were probably out riding your bike :-) But I did get a chance to say hi to Michael as he was jumping his dogs. Next time I'm up there it sounds like you will be wrapped up with classes and heading back home, I hope it was well worth the expense and time away from home.

first bites today . . . proud to say i took bites on the sleeve from the legendary " Pi " .

he may be a bit slower as he ages but man he can put a lot of pressure on .

i'm a million miles away from any kind of proficiency being a rank beginner , but at least i can actually " see " the dog coming at me now .

when we first " caught " some dogs on a bite wedge a few weeks ago , all i remember was a blur of brown fur and teeth coming towards me , so i'm a little past that point . . . . baby steps .

and working with michael and his dogs is the BEST possible introduction to this work . expert eye , with solid expert dogs for as safe as environment as possible .

"i was out riding my road bike and craziest of all things happened . i was riding by myself and hooked up with another group of roadies , two husband and wife couples . at one stop , one of the guys asks where i'm from . . i say " whistler " . he asks what i do . . . i say " ski patrol " . he asks if i handle a dog . . . i say " yup a border collie " .
he says , i shot you in a photo shoot two winters ago . turns out it was albert lewis , the guy who did the photo book on sled dogs and is currently working on one all about SAR dogs . you can check out his stuff at seespotrun.com"

That's amazing. It truly is a small world sometimes. My wonderful father-in-law, may he rest in peace, was one of those people who could be hundreds or thousands of miles from home and he would run into someone he once knew or who knew someone he knew, etc. It was uncanny.

"first bites today . . . proud to say i took bites on the sleeve from the legendary " Pi " ."

That would be an honor, indeed!

Also when they are supervised, they bark. When guests come for example. One person is already enough. Ok, they calm down after a while, but after long long while. Especially two of them are behaving like that.The Lab-Mix is the worst, then one of my Pits. The other Pit, the one who sometimes is dog aggressive remains more or less quiet.
I've learnd in Marks RG course the exercise "Speak and Quiet". I have trained and am training it a lot and it always works well. During the session.
I've tried it then with distraction, as I said - with one for them wellknown person. I can give the command "quiet" and it works for very few seconds,I mark and reward. But very soon it starts again. I would need a bag with a lb of treats, what I of course don't want to do. If they don't calm down, e.g. when we have more guests, then I have to put them on the other side of the house.

We live near the rainforest. There are always some animals around, perhaps also dogs, strays. Our great barkers then start with the concert like mad, but normally we (husband and I) cannot see or hear anything. (We are not deaf, but the dogs simply hear, see or smell much better.)

I'm always working on this. I know, that I must be doing something wrong. But what? Could it be the inconsistency, as a correction (verbal) can not each time be given, e.g. when we are away or sleeping or not sleeping but too lazy to get up everytime they restart.

bruises , bruises , bruises everyone is showing off their bruises .

i think i might have the best though .

right thigh from a dog that kept going after my right leg despite my best efforts to give him my left . . . turns out the dog just likes right legs . broken skin in a couple of places too .

it's funny though , you stand on the sideline waiting your turn and can't wait to get back out there even though you now there will be some pain inflicted by the dog . and the dogs look so happy in their work .

yesterday we learned some stick work . that was really fun to have a dog on your leg for some time while you get to tap him on the back with the split bamboo .

we also did " hidden sleeve " where you have no visible equipment for the dog to see . wearing a comparatively thin leather sleeve under a jersey , you can really feel the dogs biting strength . got a nice hematoma developing on my left forearm from those three bites . these are intended to be more " real life " scenarios as opposed to " sport " bites so i got to do my best drug dealer impersonation while i got taken down : i thought weed was legal in california lol .

as well , we got to " drive " a dog . that's where you have a dog in front of you on a rigid schutzhund ( IPO ) sleeve and you move into him , pressuring the dog . . . very challenging keeping the dog in front of you in the " pocket " , your hips square moving forward , waving a stick in the air with your other arm , while the dog wants to take you sideways .

today we review all the bites we have taken thus far . . . should be pretty beaten up by tonight . good times though , worth every penny .

 Quote: ian bunbury

bruises , bruises , bruises everyone is showing off their bruises .

i think i might have the best though .

right thigh from a dog that kept going after my right leg despite my best efforts to give him my left . . . turns out the dog just likes right legs . broken skin in a couple of places too .

it's funny though , you stand on the sideline waiting your turn and can't wait to get back out there even though you now there will be some pain inflicted by the dog . and the dogs look so happy in their work .

yesterday we learned some stick work . that was really fun to have a dog on your leg for some time while you get to tap him on the back with the split bamboo .

we also did " hidden sleeve " where you have no visible equipment for the dog to see . wearing a comparatively thin leather sleeve under a jersey , you can really feel the dogs biting strength . got a nice hematoma developing on my left forearm from those three bites . these are intended to be more " real life " scenarios as opposed to " sport " bites so i got to do my best drug dealer impersonation while i got taken down : i thought weed was legal in california lol .

as well , we got to " drive " a dog . that's where you have a dog in front of you on a rigid schutzhund ( IPO ) sleeve and you move into him , pressuring the dog . . . very challenging keeping the dog in front of you in the " pocket " , your hips square moving forward , waving a stick in the air with your other arm , while the dog wants to take you sideways .

today we review all the bites we have taken thus far . . . should be pretty beaten up by tonight . good times though , worth every penny .

LOL, now you know how a Hockey Enforcer looks & feels every night after work