A good game of chase!

When I have a puppy around the house it causes me to remember to go back and play games with my other dogs. Sometimes it is just plain FUN to kick back and play a good game of chase!

I took Tangle for a walk this morning. He woke up feeling full of energy and therefor full of piss and vinegar. Tangle is 11 weeks today and he got his first taste of what it is going to be like jogging with me. (Nobody worry, I am not about to take an 11 week old for an hour run!) We went less than 1/2 mile and it was mostly "READY", I would take off running, 10 seconds later we would stop and be sniffing something new and different. Tangle really began to enjoy the running and chancing!

Just a fun, fun, fun morning romp with the pup :)

Greatful for an excellent practice

Today I took Tip and Split over to the house for a practice. We worked on some short courses authored by Kathy Keats (on the Cleanrun site) and some jump grids.

First I worked Split prepared that we might have to scrape the course work and go back to circle drills (he was a little wild yesterday). Split was 100 percent in the game and ran the courses exactly like I asked! It was a great course because we had an opportunity for me to work on my timing with him. I am trying to better hone when I can cue and good and when I need to wait and be patient! In general I need to wait when I need collection--working on being better about that.

Tip did an AWESOME job on the same course. Very tight, not straight forward and she ran it clean. Man she still amazes me how far she has come. She watches me so close now!

We need worked on jump grids. I went back to the tunnel, three collected jumps and an extended jump. I felt that I had more to learn in terms of timing with the dogs. It was very fun to play with this. Split needs me to be slightly more patient with him on the collected jumps. Tip, she gets the cue and then I can go. In some ways Split is way more sensitive to my lack of motion that Tip.

I will throw in here a word about Tangle's practice last night. First we worked on recall. Boy do I need to shake this up. When he sees the treat bag he is ON IT and knows the game. It is probably time to up the distraction a little and see how he does. Maybe a park this weekend. Next we worked on sit, tug (from Susan Garrett's book). He got really good at this one as well. My goal is to get a really fast sit with him which he is well on his way to achieving! We are also playing the ready, set, OK game with tug. As soon as he hears "ready" his butt is down waiting for the next round to begin! Such a bright boy. Tangle has been getting daily walks with a little running in there (not much). He sees horses, goats, skid streer's, dogs, people, birds, etc.. We make it a little further every day.

Training Update

Well, I have been training, but haven't been updating my blog.

First Tangle - He has been doing awesome. We have been working on skills every day. Still most of the skills that just make him a good household member and pack dog. The items that we have been focusing on are: socialization, new experiences, sit, stay, lie down, come, and tugging. Tang is doing REALLY well. Yesterday he got to go to the soccer game and we played games while watching soccer. His attention span is improving and the distractions proved to be no problem at all! Very proud of the little boy.

Tip and Split-I have mostly been working on my timing with them, both on courses and with jump grids. It has been hard for me to run Tip and Split since their timing is so different. Split has been the one that has suffered the most. So, this fall I am focusing on getting his/my timing down better.

Tip and jump grids - if you have been following this blog you will know that Tip had a sprained hock last year. The vet expected that the problem would always plague us and the PT wasn't sure how long she would be able to compete. Well, Tip had started to drop a LOT of bars over the last six months. I was really worried that this was a sign that it was time to retire her. I was doing jump grids with Split and decided to include Tip in that work as well. Keeping in mind that I made the work easier on her. Well six weeks later the progress has been amazing and just what she needed. Yes, her hind end was getting weak and the jump grids have helped that problem. Interesting, I did a three day trial which 4 months ago she would have been stiff by the second day. This past weekend we did 2 days and I didn't see a single sign of a problem. Just like new she was. Amazing!!

Today's training (4)

All three dogs got to go over to the agility field today. We were going to meet Carol and Tangle's half sister Dash.

Mostly we were helping Carol out with her APHS jump exercises. I decided to use this time to train Tangle on recalls. When we had breaks from working Dash, Tangle would get his recall exercised. He did really well!! He has the basic desire to be with me so when I call, his recall is probably 80 percent. Fairly good for having the pup three days!

I am hoping to hit the field again tonight so I will leave this short.

Day 3

Today I was back to work and had kind of a busy day. Tangle got to be included in some of the activities.

Sam stayed home with him this morning. He had a walk with the big dogs. I understand it was a little better than yesterday's leash walk. Then Tangle got to go to an office party (outdoor BBQ). He got to experience balloons, things blowing in the wind, plastic bottles (the BIG hit), and games where people were throwing things. He was a champ and only a poped balloon scared him a little!! He slept about half the time in the cool grass and then visited the other half.

I did train the big dogs this morning, but Tangle was left at home. The dogs needed to jog some and Tangle is still too little for that.

Day 2 - Over the travel hangover

I would like to blog most days so I will keep these short most of the time.

Troop woke up a different man this morning. Full of life! This is the first day he got to train with the big dogs at the agility field. Big dogs worked on jump grids and turns before/after the broadjump. With Tangle we worked on priming the pump activities. I worked on learning how to train three dogs in our morning sessions and cleaning up my body language on jump grids.

This morning I rotated the dog that was working, each getting about 5 minutes of my time. The ones that were not working got treated sporadically for being good.

Tangle worked on click-n-treat, just getting us ready for shaping. He worked on recalls (a skill I don't do well without), and a little bit of shaping "look at me". Also last night Sam helped me with restrained recalls which he LOVED. Interestingly, he was more out of control when I was calling him then Sam.

Misc work around the house was tug: He is better than he was yesterday and has thrown in a little growl and rooing for entertainment value!

Day 1 - Introducing Tangle

Introducing our newest little one Tangle (Cedar Rem X Cadet).

Today we are spending the day just getting to know each other and getting him settled in. We are beginning with activities that prime the pump. I am teaching Troop that I am the funnest person on the planet. Lots of his food will be coming from me, I always have toys and play with him and when I call him there is ALWAYS a huge awesome reward waiting for him!

All these activities will help lay the foundation for his journey to be an awesome member of our household and an excellent agility partner.

BTW, I changed the color of the blog to red in honor of the new color I added to the pack!