Suppose I should Update

Well, considering that the snow is over a foot deep outside, I have not sequenced with the dogs since November, haha.
Working on 2x2 weaves with the herding dogs inside every day lately. I should really start with Libby. Some tricks but ehh...nothing else really. Maybe dad will snow blow out the dog run so we can work on contacts.

As is characteristic of me, I have many things to rant about. However, I will spare you today as the guests for our party are basically coming through the door. Don't think you are safe later. I'm sure there will be more things that I need to state an opinion on soon. haha

Rant on Dogs 101

This time about Dogs 101. Seriously, how can people just sum up an entire breed under a rigid list of pros and cons. For example, for the Dachshund one they tell you that they are "stubborn" but then they show clips through the entire video of a dog doing a bunch of fun tricks like waving, rolling over, and heeling. People are going to look at that and think, "Wow, look at that dog! I want a Dachsund so it can do tricks like that. Guess what people! My Siberian Husky can do all those tricks and more and even the general public knows that they aren't "easy to train" for pet people. The people that trained that Dachshund are "sport" people who understand what motivates a dog. Also, they put them down as easy keepers including the wire! If any wire breeder tells you that the coat is easy to care for, then they are just so used to it that it doesn't bother them at all. You either have to clip it or more preferably pull it down ever 3-6 months. It is a lot of work or a lot of money. Also, they are labeled as being good with household animals but not children....what the heck?! They must be basing this study on puppy mill dogs or something because every single dachshund I've met was great with kids but hated cats even if they were raised with them.

Anyway....I won't comment on the others because I honestly don't feel like watching them.

Teeter and the Rush

We are going to have a competition sized metal teeter soon! :D

It has been cold and snowy so we haven't done a whole lot of training.

I am just wondering what the point of doing agility with puppies is. Why the hurry? Just because you are allowed to start competing with pups around 18 months of age doesn't mean you have to. I personally don't like seeing people put their 10 month old puppy on a full sized teeter. The same goes for people who are running 12 week old puppies across a board. If you do all the foundation needed, then you shouldn't have to start obstacles early. Lay your foundation correctly and the obstacles will come very quickly once your dog is ready for them. Also, why work weaves [even entries!] before the dog is a year? The 2x2 method usually takes under a month to train so if you start at 15 months you will have decent weaves at the age of 16 months...isn't that good enough? Sometimes I wonder why people originally got their puppy...to do agility or because they wanted a dog to bond with and love. Because not letting puppies be puppies and have fun is seriously contradicting of people who claim the latter.

Li is old enough to compete in February and Flick is already old enough. But I will wait for Summer for Li and at least March for Flick. For many of the people [especially novice/intermediate people] who want to trial as soon as possible, it makes it seem like they are excited for themselves, not for the dogs. I also don't really understand planning goals like "Go to nationals" or "make the world team" before you compete with your dog. Some people even set these goals before they get a dog! I am not talking about specific people. I have just run into some people with this thought process and have slapped my little sister on the side of the head for saying such things, haha.

Goals for December/January/February

Flick
-Stand stay
-Left and Right
-Cik/Cap/Out
-Running contacts at 2 feet high
-6 weaves with entries
-Default down on the table
-Away and Swing
-Solid recall

Li
-Left and Right
-Better Cik/Cap/Out
-Contacts at 3 feet high
-6 weaves with entries
-Default down on table
-Solid Recall
-Away and Swing
-Better behaviour around people and animals

Libby
-Left and Right
-Cik/Cap/Out
-Contacts at table height
-4 weaves
-Default down on table
-Away and swing
-Solid recall: Big one for us!

Shadow
-4oTF contacts on Dog Walk and A-Frame
-6 weaves
-Cik/Cap/Out
-Default down on table
-Solid recall
-Away and Swing

Winter

And with the first snow, winter is officially here. Karyn and I packed up some agility stuff today: the PVC channel weaves, a jump, a tire, the chute, the pipe tunnels, etc. I got my winter training set up! In the garage I have a jump and 1 sets of 2x2 weaves for entry work. On the big back porch I have a jump and 2 2x2 sets for weave work. We have a fenced in area I was using as a contact training area. Well, it is so big that now I have some equipment down there to train Libby. She can't work outside that pen because she will take off....it's a husky thing, don't judge us. haha So now we can work on her sliding table and cik/cap/out using a winged jump. I also have an 8' plank and a 12' plank down there for dog walk running contact training. I also have an 8' long, 3 foot wide thing to work on A-Frame contacts with when we get to that point. The dog walk is the only thing left in the original field, haha. It has no up-plank though....we are just using it for Shadow's 4 on the floor training.

The dogs are doing good and I'll be training all 4 later today.

December

It is almost December an November was honestly disappointing. We didn't train much but I have to admit that they were pretty good when we did get a chance to test their skills. This month I'm working on the basics since we can't do much in the snow that will be coming so soon. I want to work inside to get better weaves with moe distractions. I also want to teach all three dogs verbal only cik and cap commands. [verbal override- no body language is taken into consideration when I say cik or cap] Lastly, we will continue with runing contacts but my only goal is to get them all up to 1 foot high.

-Ria

Training...or lack thereof?

Sorry to update again today but it isn't like anyone reads this anyway. I'm too scared to give out the link because I'm pretty opinionated on PyreSheps and don't like to get chewed out. xD

I worked with Li and Flick today. I took Lib down to the contact training field and she didn't really want to work today so we didn't train, we just ran around and played, lol. It is really muddy and wet out.
Li had some awesome running contacts. I'm just running him on Libby's flat board because I am too lazy to constantly prop it up then take it down. It wouldn't hurt him to take it slow at Libby's pace anyway. We aren't competing until at least next Spring so we have tones of time to take it slow and get it perfect.
I worked mainly sequencing with Flick. She was very good! She needs to read my body language a little better but once she has her verbal directionals down body language won't matter as much anyway. I'm one to teach a verbal command for every behaviour and then practice them until they are under stimulus control rather than be silent throughout the course and rely on mostly body language and wonder why my dog took the wrong obstacle when my foot was out of place or something, lol.
I'm not setting specific goals currently, I'm just going with the flow. I am thinking I will try to start trialing Li early next year, Flick in the middle of next year, and Libby at the end of next year/2011. Li is going to be easy to prepare. Flick will be easy once we get to know each other better. And Libby might take a while to learn everything I want her to. Sure, I could forget cik&cap, running contacts, left and right, etc but then it isn't very fun in the long run for her or me, lol.

-Ria