Updates

Li's weave poles are going great! He is weaving 6 poles that are almost together. His contacts are nice as well. We are still on 36" high. I sequenced a little with Flick and Li today and worked on jumping commands. A little bit of everything, haha. Flick has a hilarious sliding table. I will probably train a sliding down unto the table as a default behaviour and ask for a sit if that is what the judge wants. Or just have two different commands for the table...I don't know yet. Flick is weaving 4 poles that are spaced quite a bit apart.

My goal over the next few weeks with Li is to remove all the emotional charge of looking at the donkey, horses, and people. I want him to ignore everything and everyone unless he is told to say hi...then he should go up and touch their hand with his nose. He does that on command with people he somewhat knows but now with strangers yet. I also want him to have a better recall when we are at home. He seems to have a good recall in public...probably because he is insecure.

I have to decided to build an A-Frame soon because they dog walk training is coming along so well. I have started working with my Sibe again! We are going to learn agility even though she is 5 years old. We worked on cik and cap tonight. I'll be training a good recall soon...that might take all winter. I hope we don't get heavy snow this year...that sucks for agility.

Pyres

I know I just posted on this subject but I posted this on a forum and I'm going to paste it here so I can refer back to it whenever needed. Thank goodness for copy and paste!
In my opinion almost all of the owners and breders talk them up way too much. I only met well behaved ones and talked to people that only gave me the pros so I was honestly shocked when I got mine, lol. If not for my experience with tough breeds [Siberian Husky for example] it would have been a disaster.
Let's see...
Pros
-Crazy- they can always cheer you up with their antics
-Fast- they have the potential to be great agility dogs
-Small- They range from 14"-22" and 15-25 pounds
-Low/Non shedding and minimal grooming

Cons
-Hyperactive- they are literally impossible to tire out, if you aren't home a majority of the day, they will bark and chew like crazy
-Shy- even with extensive socialization, they can be shy. Mine barks at visitors and other animals a lot.
-Barky- Whether they are working or playing they will talk your ear off. Mine barks out of boredom, barks at people, barks at animals, barks when excited, barks when intent on a task, etc.
-Soft- This is why they are hard to train. They often misbehave during training- so much it almost seems as if they are doing it on purpose. If you say no or express disappointment in any way, they will shut down. My boy will run off whenever he thinks he is not being appreciated enough.
-Bratty- They are in love with themselves and they think that everyone else should be as well. They ignore everyone and expect them to bow down from a distance.

OMG, I felt like I just described my Siberian Husky! They are more like Huskies than Border Collies. In fact, that is probably why I get along so well with my boy- I like stubborn dogs that think for themselves, not pleasers that want you to think for them. xD

So yeah. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone that doesn't have a lot of time and patience. Oh, and tolerance for barks and chewing. My boy chewed my mp3 players apart, a bunch of my favourite books, papers and drawings. If I leave him crated in my room for more than 20 minutes without me, he barks his head off. When I leave him uncrated for more than 20 minutes, he will pull everything off my desk and pull all off my clothes out of my closet and inspect their pockets for treats.

Ahh!

I know I'm updating a lot recently but that's because my dogs are being so amazing!
Li and I did a little agility today. The plan was just to do tricks and cik/cap a little with lots of rewards while playing the "Give me a break" game. Well, whenever I gave him a break he would start jumping on me so I used his enthusiasm to practice some agility. His distance work was fantastic! And the best part.....he ran his first dog walk! I usually put him in the middle and have him run down because we have running contacts and are back training the obstacle. Well, he ran up the contact, past the middle, and down the other side and hit both contacts with perfect stride! I am ecstatic! I wasn't planning on asking for an entire dog walk for a while yet. I'm so happy with my boy, he didn't even look at the donkey today. Starting out with heavy rewards and making him ask -me- to train with him worked awesome.

I took Flick and Li for a 3 mile walk today in pouring rain, lol.

I am on an emotional high still because of what Li did!

Edit:

I sequenced with Flick as well and she did great with distance work. =]

I am going to read Control Unleashed. "When Pigs Fly" and "From the Ground Up" are also on my list. CU mostly for Li's focus. I'm reading "When Pigs Fly" for more info for future reference. Aaand I am working through "From the Ground Up" as well as Anthony Clarke's foundation books for Flick. =D

It is my birthday!

I'm happy! and it's my birthday!

Great videos, lol. We had a small party here yesterday for the relatives. Then we took all 4 dogs up to the woods for a long walk! That was great. I got some money- I can start to pay off dad for Flick. lol I found out that mom is paying for my dog walk...I argued that one a bit but she said that it is part of my extracurricular/sports thing. I agreed when she put it like that. After all, she used to dish out 110 a month for gymnastics so...

-Ria

Training Updates

Training today was great...Li has good running contacts. The 12' plank is set at 36" high. I am working on getting complete running contacts on a full sized dog walk, getting him to weave 6 poles, and teaching him left&right&go on before December. We have already made so much progress that it seems like we will reach these goals by November! haha

Flick is coming along slowly but surely. Her running contacts are crap because she, like Li used to, hops off the side of the board whether it is propped up or flat. My brother and I are back training her so she learns to run straight, lol. Our main goal for the rest of autumn is running contacts on a full sized dog walk and left&right&go on. She is doing better than Li so far in the directional commands aspect. They each have their own area of expertise- flick's is thinking and Li's is doing! xD

Li has a few new tricks. I really need to get a camcorder! He snaps at the air, sits with his paws in the air, sits while moving his front paws up and down in the air [we call that one "Stallion"]. He also invented a new one when we were free shaping. He turns so his rear is facing me, then looks at me, bending his head straight over his back to view me upside down. He is such a dork! haha I love my dogs!

-Ria

October Agility Training

Things are going well in general.

I tried some Ketschkers with Li and he was flawless. I will definitely be using these in competition. They are so fun!
Click here to view a video of them
Li is just working on these and different directional commands. We are also working on distance.

Flick is running the same courses as Li which is amazing! But I am emphasizing Cik and Cap as she doesn't have those down perfect. Also, she is learning to follow my hand because it gets annoying when I have my right arm out and she suddenly appears on my left, haha.

I was drilling tunnel entries with both. I think we did well all in all. If it not windy in the next week or so, Flick will be learning the Chute. I was doing channel weaves with them but I'm almost tempted to give it a rest fot the Winter. I am not competing until April probably so I don't have to train weaves until March. There are only 6 weaves in the first level of AKC so I'm not concerned. Knowing my dogs, they will pick up the weaves in a couple of weeks.

I am going to make my dog walk when the kit arrives. I won't make an A-Frame until November or December. My teeter base plan is in the "shop" but when my uncle gets around to it, it is as good as done. Anyway, the talk of Contact equipment reminds me that I should be working on running contacts as well, haha.

That's all for now. My birthday is in a week- I'll be 15. Only one more year until I can drive and I'll really be hitting the Agility rings! Thank goodness for a family that is into the car business...my mom assured me the other day that I don't have to buy my own car. That means I can focus on paying off all my agility equipment. xD

-Ria

PyreShep Rant

I am honestly so worried about the future of my breed. Dx

PyreSheps are in a delicate place currently as far as temperament and drive goes and I'm afraid that if more people get into the breed that only want to show, it will be a mess. A few breeders [I wont name names] don't even screen potential homes! And they talk up the breed like it is perfect! These things are naughty! And crazy, and hyper, and stubborn and an armful and a half!

Everytime I hear someone say "I really want a PyreShep" I just cringe. I don't know why...I love the breed. I just feel so overly protective of it. At least one breeder I know of [again, not naming names] has at -least 3-5 litters PER YEAR. What the hell?

It makes me so sad to imagine my boy in a home where he doesn't get constant attention. In my opinion, not everyone is suited for a PyreShep...in fact barely anyone is. I'm not calling myself special...I just have a lot of time, willpower, and experience training stubborn dogs. Coming from a Siberian, my boy seems really obedient and "easy" but if I was coming from say, a BC or Aussie, he would seem like an impossible demon.

People love them because they are "fast and obedient" but what Pyres have you seen? Oh right! The -trained- ones at the agility trials. You didn't fall in love with the sense of humour, the charm, the crazy "try anything" attitude....you fell in love with the "pretty outline" or the fast run times. You hear that they need tons of socialization. You think "every breed claims that, of course every breed needs socialization..." but they are over the top. You hear that they need exercise but you think "So do all dogs..." but they are over the top. This breed is not for everyone. You may think "Borders and Huskies claim that as well..." but they are OVER THE TOP. Honestly, most people would hate my Pyre...and they do. Everyone that meets him either loves him or hates him...the latter being the majority.

They aren't like Borders. They aren't like Labs. They aren't like Aussies.

People let the insanely amazing "Pros" overshadow the insanely terrible "Cons". Sure, they barely shed, are fast, are a perfect size, and can be trained to do amazing things. But they bark excessively, their coat holds a ton of water and dirt and mud that they bring into the house, they dig like crazy, they get very dirty on purpose, they are bossy with other dogs, they chase cats, can be hard to housetrain, they take the wrong obstacle in a second when you run agility, and so on. Yep, people claim that most this stuff can be trained out. It can. But they of course don't tell you how hard it is. My boy is now a year old. And after battling accidents in the house, dirty pawprints on the carpet and my clothes, him constantly jumping the 4 foot fence into the goat pen, him chasing the horses and eating horse "apples", chasing the cats, purposely provoking other dogs, him barking and growling at every visitor and sometimes even members of the family that come home, and him ignoring my recalls, I am starting to see results. The past few months have been horrible- I didn't want to admit to anyone that my perfect puppy turned into a disobedient nervous wreck. I socialized him, did everything right and he turned out wrong. He is now comes when he is called most of the time, leaves cats alone, only barks a little when people come over, and doesn't have accidents inside anymore. But it was hard and the only reason it happened was because I started to do online schooling so I could be with him 24/7 to fix his problems. He still is reactive to people out in public, and even goes after our horses still.
If you can't commit to being with your dog at least most of the time-especially during the first year or two of life-then don't get a PyreShep.
Nothing prepared me for this experience, not research on the computer or meeting them in real life. Everyone I met talked them up like crazy and I only met well behaved dogs. Remember this post before considering one, please!