proud momma

Dontcha just love it when you have a training breakthrough or something that really shows a dogs understanding?

At our last pre agility lesson we worked the puppies accross a plank on the floor. Baby D went from being nervous to go near it, to offering to walk along the entire plank and pulling me towards it. All this within about a minute and a half, with no luring or help from the lead. He built value into it within seconds and developed his own confidence. I was such a proud Momma!

Lets here it for shaping :)

Physiotherapy

Boo has started seeing the physio now. We had an hour appointment today and I was pleased. She gave him a general good bill of health but did remind me he IS classed as an veteran now.

She worked on his carpals as theere wasnt the expected flexibility, he also has a sore toe. He got a great, full massage including abdominals. We talked warm up/ cool down and training plans and I came away with a fresh and more thoughtful view with Boo's agility for the year.

* I think trying to avoid reps on contacts will help, the speed and velocity at which he hits them worries me and Donna agrees. In training I will avoid doing lots of reps, the odd contact will be fine but I am quite happy to just work on his FP instead.

* I am not going to enter Agility classes unless they are teams/ qualifiers or the odd UKA training round.

* Keep a focus on grids and jumping work to keep him flexible and muscled.

* Take extra time to warm up/ cool down and keep using his back on track coat to aid this.

As far as working on him at home goes, Donna has asked I dont work on him this week so she can see if any of the small issues she found get better/ worse etc. Next week is Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy :)

Training Giggles

I am so enjoying shaping BabyD, he keeps making me giggle. I have been working on his reverse and one session I somehow accidently shaped him to bow (a trick I have never taught) it made me laugh and really respect how dogs learn and how key timing of reward is :) I have read something simular on another blog before, but what tricks have you acidentally trained with your dogs?

I am constantly stepping up his distractions during waits at home, we were throwing treats towards him and holding them centimeters from his nose and I can see him peering up at me from under his eyebrows as if to say ' you cant fool me momma...' he knows that if he breaks he gets nothing but if he resists my teasing he gets tons of food and play- it's such good fun, I have never enjoyed teaching waits before always trying to stop the dog failing so I can reward the good, it's great to be trying to make him fail- he sees the fun in it too!

Sportsmanship and Jelousy

ne of the things that has always niggled me at agility is the nastiness that appears so often. I read a website from a 'top handler' recently talking of the WCs last year. The comment was made that the top medium dogs were over the allowed height and that it was about how big a dog dared be entered. It hit a chord with me for various reasons, of course my own Hoaxey is right on the limit of medium height (not that I am planning on the WCs) and our own Tash Wise won the WCs with medium Diz. Unless the handler measured each dog personally how can a statement like that be made? I am sure it caused offence to anyone concerned as to me it read an accusal of cheating. Not only that but why make a public statement like that? Is that really a show of good sportsmanship? Imagine if one of our Winter Olympians posted something like that on their blog, there would be uproar!

I hear this kind of thing so often, usually from people 'lower in food chain' than those that are the target. We all like a good gossip every now and again but often you hear people saying really libellous and deeply hurtful things. Next time you choose to impart a snippet of gossip about how **** starts training their young dog at five months old five times a week make sure you KNOW all the information and think how much you might hurt that person if they caught wind of it.

Ok off my soapbox now... :) x

Smoketrail Puppies

Just a note to mention how pleased I am that I found such fantastic homes for each of my Smoketrail puppies.

I am so proud of them all, Buzz passed his bronze good citizen test at just six months old, Ajaxs has been invited to be part of a KC Good Citizen scheme display at Crufts 2010 and Munch has passed his KC Puppy Foundation Cert and is on his way to his bronze!!

I get updates, photos and cuddles (from the pups lol) and most importantly I know how much those babies are loved. Thanks Yvette/ Don, Tracy/ Sue and Kim/ Dan. You guys are the best x

Now here are some gratuitous photos of them all...

DETOUR

MUNCH

BUZZ

AJAXS