Darian Snow Bear

Rupert's Kennel name is Darian Snow Bear and as you can see he lives up to his name very well, It's very difficult at the moment as we have about 1 foot of snow settled everywhere we go so Rupert rather likes it outside and as a preference will just play and roll about in the snow rather than sit by the comfy fire! Because of the snow there hasn't been any agility training for a couple of weeks but Steve has made me 2 sets of 2x2 weaves so from Friday onwards our indoor weave training starts. I have decided for the first few sessions to really work on the entrance to the first two weaves from any angle and hopefully increase to 2 sets of 2 weaves and so on until we have a full set of 12 but hopefully by the time we get to moving the first two sets closer together we will be back to training outside. (fingers crossed).
Rupert and I would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and New year and hope Santa brings you all you wish for - Rupert is wishing for more snow GGgggrrrrr..

What a Star

I'm so Pleased with Rupert's progress, last night at Clubs Christmas Party was the first ever time he has performed in front of a crowd! and he didn't let me down, he was slightly nervous on the start line, but once I reassured him he was rock solid. I thought I would be nervous with people watching but not at all, I had my mind totally focused on Rupert and never gave the spectators a second thought and he rewarded me with 2 super cross behinds and his first ever pull in! it was a little messy but that was me panicking rather than him and it resulted in a pole down! but what a star he was. I have to say it's all down to Jo and her time and patience which she gives for free!
Rupert will be 12 months old at the end of December and although rather earlier than I had anticipated I have decided to begin his 2x2 weave training during the Christmas break - the reason for this is purely a time issue, I have 11 days off work it's that simple! Ideally I would have left it a few more weeks, but I think he is more than ready to have a go, obviously if I feel its too much I'll just practice the basics but I have a feeling as usual Rupert will set the pace and it will be up to me to keep up. I hope to keep a diary of our progress - good and bad so keep watching, and feel free to add any comments which you feel may help.

Training plans

Unfortunately we haven't been able to get to Jo's for training over the past few weekends but very kindly she has emailed me some training plans to work on, these just include getting him to work on in front, he absolutely adores his space hopper toy and when strategically placed he is working brilliantly, the trouble I have found is that he is fast, and by that I mean very fast! Maisy is a very fast nimble dog but because she is confident at working in front, will take a line untill she hears a command without question, but Rupert obviously has no idea what I really want, he likes me not to crowd wings and will take a line happily but when I get too far back he has a little look over his shoulder taking him wide of the jump (unless his toy is at the end of the line and then he would jut 100 jumps to get there) you would think the obvious answer would be to run faster! obviously this is not the correct answer I am no Linford Christie, so the answer is to slowly build up his confidence so that he too will take the line whilst listening out for a directional command from me. In Jo's email she does state quite clearly that there is no rush for Rupert to perfect the patterns, and I'm sure once there is any height to the jumps this will slow him down to a more comfortable speed. (well thats what I'm hoping)
Yesterday we were at Earls Court for Discover dogs, Amy had entered Rupes in the handling as a practice for Crufts, he took the atmosphere in his stride and although they didn't gain a place Rupert looked the part well and Amy was thrilled with his performance.
No training for Rupes during the week at th moment due to the dark nights so I've gone back to some obedience indoors, we are back at Jo's on Sunday (weather permitting) so I hope she can see some improvements, he sure was pleased to see her at Earls Court yesterday, bless his little furries..

Agility Training begins

So now Rupert is 9 1/2 months old I have started his agility training properly!, On Sunday we went to see Jo and had a really great training session, with him working independantly of me. We used a line of 4 jumps and by the end of session 1 he is now waiting on the line to be released and then taking the jumps overtaking me in the process. He had a really great time, not only because he loves agility but also because he got to see his friend Zippy for a game. On the home front his testosterone has kicked in a bit more now and the poor boy isn't really sure what it's for! he has been scenting over the clean washing which is hung to dry on our clothes airer!! not really naughty as he doesn't understand, but he needs to learn that we can introduce whatever new smells we like into the house and he must accept them, I must do a little more research on this one, but I'll keep you posted what methods we decide to use.

Just for Chris!

Not much to report on the Training front really, the weather has been too awful for outdoor activities so I've just played around with Retrieves!! and I can now say that Rupert really does not like his dumbell!! He will hold it nicely and pick it up by going around it first but it's all in a really cringy manner! so I've stopped using it for the time being and reverted back to his agility toy! I get the feeling he doesn't understand that sometimes you need to pick something up and not play with it, so I will have to work harder to find the right motivator for it before I try again, after all there's no rush.

A little birdie has told me that Grandad Chris has been having withdrawal symptoms from his fave grandson so here are a few pictures just for you XX

Bromsgrove update

So this weekend I took Maisy, Summer and Rupert to Bromsgrove agility competition, I always take Rupert along with me to get him used to the sights and sounds of the competition environment, and he is a good hot water bottle for the girls sleeping in the awning!. And I am pleased to say I didn't see any signs of his teritorial behaviour, however he has now started to cock his leg and doesn't seem to care where!! so again a little more training and a few verbal reminders should sort that issue out. On the training front I have continued with his hoop training however he is so excited by it that as soon as I set it out he starts racing back and forward through it!!! Hhmmm I may have overcooked it a little, so now he is only allowed to do it when it is at the end of the contact plank and will only be rewarded for his efforts if I have queued him to do it - this probably makes a lot of sence to most of you! however Rupert is a smart cookie and has taught himself new behaviours without me even knowing about it until I evaluate his knowledge and see the flaws, which luckily up to now have been quickly ironed out. He still has his Mali infatuation which could become a problem (currently it's sweet) whenever he sees a Mali he getsw excited but if by some miracle it has Jo on the end of the lead he just cannot contain his excitement! a couple of times at the weekend he saw them at a distance and just decided to take himself off to say hello! although there was one moment where we were standing by the ringside watching a class, Rupert was getting very excited watching the dogs as the jumped the line of jumps nearest to us, but then Ronny came into the ring and Rupert just sat quietly transfixed by his idol!! lets hope he was taking all the skill in..

Updates

So Rupert is now fast approaching 8 1/2 months old, where has the time gone? over the past few weeks we have minimised training session in obedience and Agility in exchange for a few lifestyle lessons! as he approaches adulthood he has decided to test his boundaries a little, I first noticed it at dashing dogs where he became very territorial in our temporary garden, getting quite aggressive towards any dog who entered, he has also started at our training field to show the same signs, but only with the entire male dogs, Luckily he soon backs down once I tell him this is not appropriate behavior, so hopefully he will grow out of it in the future, apart from that he is turning into a very happy chap, not phased by anything or anyone he meets. Last night we began training with our new invention Le Hoop, this is basically a square shaped hoop that stands on the ground, I began by shaping him through it until he was eagerly running freely backwards and forwards, I then placed it at the end of one of the dog walk planks while it was on the floor, and again he was happily racing along the plank and through the hoop, so this is the basics of running contacts! (all seems a bit easy at the moment) I had also put a small course of jumps out with the poles only one end up on small height 4 jumps in a line with a star at the top, and whilst I can leave him on the start get to jump 4, release him, negotiate the star and an "In" I am unable to run fast enough to get to the last jump where he turns to see where I've got to, thus the need for a "Go On" command and the confidence from him to use it.
I'm really loving training this dog, with every session there is an obvious progression programme that follows, I really can't wait for our winter training to begin with Jo and I promise to get many more pics.

Updates

Well what an exciting few weeks Rupert has had, Amy and Steve took him off bright and early to the breed show at Builth Wells, where they met up with Sheila and Hills who were also showing. Rupes was first in the ring and although he was "flying" his tail managed to qualify for Crufts 2011, Summer and Ruperts Mum Folly were in the ring next and Folly qualified but Summer just missed out by one place! so mother and son had a great day.
On the training front we have been away camping at shows for much of August so not much to write about, his agility training seems to be comming along nicely and I have just started to put one side of the poles up onto the smallest height which hasn't phased him at all, he can string a sequence of jumps with turns and going on into the tunnel quite nicely and his contacts are still very nice although he isn't really sure he likes the big dog walk so I have decided to keep it at medium height for a few more sessions. I still haven't looked at the see saw and A frame as there is plenty of time for that, but Jo and I were teaching him the "Box" whilst at Dashing dogs which we are going to use on the A frame in the future.
Whilst we were away we took 9 dogs to the beach, luckily we had the whole place to ourselves and managed to have a lovely walk, it was funny to watch the two packs playing so nicely together, Rupert slept very well that night.

bits and bobs

So we spent last weekend at the KCI agility festival, the weather was very WET and muddy (Ruperts Favourite) Rupert really enjoyed trotting around the rings saying hello to his public but was a little put out to find himself in the companion ring with all the other puppies, especially when a strange man didn't even ask before checking him over!! "How Rude" but just like everyone else he obviously couldn't resist his cute face as out of 20 puppies Rupes was pulled in 5th even with a very muddy tummy!! good job Nanny Fols wasn't there to see it ;-))
It's been a bit quiet on the training front again with us just pottering about with what we already know, I need to put more effort into his on the move heelwork as although we do have it he is lagging a little, I'm sure this is just confidence and once he knows how brilliant he is he'll be prancing with the best of them. Once again we are off in the caravan to Dashing dogs a week long agility show next week, we get the Monday off as a rest day so Jo, Amy & I are taking all 10 dogs to the beach, I promise to get some photo's of Rupes with his Mali mates. Have a great weekend everyone see ya soon..

7 Months already

So Rupert is now 7 months old! where has the time gone? he has had a bit of a rest over the past few days as I've been trying to prepare Maisy for the Agility festival and Dashing dogs which is 9 days of agility over a 14 day period, I've still been giving him 5 minutes twice a day, he now has a full understanding of the left command without any visual aids and offers a very speedy walk back over a good distance however he gets quite vocal at the sheer excitement of it all, come to think of it his Uncle Smartie can be quite a vocal dog at times so I must keep a lid on it as much as possible without stemming his enthusiasm. As far as heelwork goes, I'm really pleased with his progress, we now have forward movement and lovely turns, I have lost a little of the leg commitment I have in statics but taking a side step and clicking the re-join is working to tighten it up - I don't want the "Lean on" style heelwork, I suppose all I really want is a dog who can happily understand and maintain the position without being nagged to death! (been there, done that and in fact got the T-shirt!) and so far so VERY good. Tonight it's back to some agility training, I'm going to put his directional commands into practice setting out a box with poles on the floor and perhaps if time try some send aways into the tunnel - maybe a few pictures will follow if I can only find the memory card!

Moving On or should I say Off

So to follow on from my last post.... last night Rupert and I trained in the paddock, there were quite a few distractions but he remained committed the whole time and really felt like we had made some great progress, I now have lovely committed forward heelwork!! Hoooraaayyy, He really seems to be getting a buzz out of it to which really suprises me, who would have thought he could get excited about heelwork? so I'm guessing my aim to keep the pressure off is working a treat. Now on to my next problem! Keeping Rupert motivated and happy in his work is easy, especially if I have a treat in my left hand, but as soon as I ask for the postion without a treat he plays ignorance, looks away really anything other than getting into postion - I could at this stage have a word in his ear just to remind him he is supposed to do it because I've asked him, not just becase he can smell the treat! but I have decided for now to backtrack and retrain him in a slightly different way, so today I have started to stand with my hand flat against my hip request the "Close" postion and click when he offers it throwing the treat forward with my other hand - I'm sure to some of you this would have been an obvious way to start with, but Rupert is my first mainly clicker trained dog so I am still using a mixture of my old motivational style techniques together with the clicker which I am only now seeing some flaws with, I may have got away with it with another dog, but Rupert and I are learning together what works for us as a team. So this morning after only 3 or 4 attempts he was eagerly offering the position while the treat was in the other hand, I am hoping to progress this over the next few sessions with the aim having the treats in the pot on the table rather than actually carrying them at all, once I have reached this stage he can have a week off and enjoy a bit more agility training.

Stuck on Statics

So after a few weeks off I have now re-started Ruperts obedience training, he really has got the hang of "Walk Back" but always only offers the very shortest of backward movement the first time just to check how much work he needs to do to get the click! Is that a boy thing? I don't know, but as soon as he realises he needs to put in a bit more effort the clicks start coming thick and fast. I wanted to improve on his commitment to my leg so I have been concentrating on statics, forward one step, two side steps clicking for his attempt to re-join my leg, this has really worked well, however I now find myself "Stuck on statics" I have always been hopeless at forward movement in heelwork, all of my dogs have a fantastic understanding of the position in all directions but forward!! not a lot of use in the obedience ring. so today I made a concerted effort to motivate the first few steps, I started off in the usual still position but had my right leg forward and wound Rupert up like I do in recalls and stays "Ready Steady close" and swiftly walked forward clicking his attempts to keep up, I'm doing this all off lead as the temptation to use the lead to bring him forward as in the old style motivational!! method might be too much and I really want him to believe all of this training is fun, fun, fun, it does seem to be working but his trained heelwork position is on my leg not in front wrapped around like Dylan and Maisy's are, so it sometimes feels like he's lagging when he isn't so I have asked Amy to spare me 20 minutes one evening this week to cast her eye over us. I'll try to get her to take a short video too and then all I'll have to do is work out how to ulpoad it onto here!

More Brain Training

I can't believe nearly a whole month has gone by since my last post! - Rupert is now 6 1/2 months old and he has had a break from his daily obedience training routine in favour of some outdoor activities, I have taught him to stop on the contact points on the agility equipment, the dog walk is only on the very lowest height and he is only doing the A frame by marking the point from the bottom, it's all been very easy to do using the clicker, and he has really suprised me with how solid the action has become in such a short space of time. Last night I wanted to try something esle so I decided to get 2 weave poles out set about 30" appart and was shaping him to run through them from different angles, it was a slow start as I had the clicker and the treat but wanted him to run away from me, with a little showing he was soon racing through them and running on to a treat I had thrown out for him. I'm in no rush to have him weaving and won't really start until he is 14 months old but if he has an idea of whats to come it should only make it easier when the time finally arrives.
Obedience wise I have laid off the heelwork training for a few weeks, he has plenty of time to perfect it, so this week I have started with "Walk Back" funnily enough when Amy did this with Summer she just seemed to know the command and would happily trot backwards at any given opportunity! Rupert was a little slower to begin with and by the end of the first go, and we are only talking about 2 minutes at a time, he was shuffling his bottom from one sit backwards into another sit! so he was beginning to get the idea that his bottom had to move in order to get the click. Then Amy was helping me and said just to keep quiet and wait a bit longer to see what he did, after a couple of false starts where I was a bit clicker happy he was soon working out that the faster and futher he went backwards the quicker he got the click - clever boy.. it's great to have a training partner who can sometimes point out the obvious to you. I have also found that his downs have also become much quicker as these were quite frankly a little lazy to say the least.
Amy and I are off to the KC Agility Festival followed by a week long Agility show in August all the dogs will be camoing with us but as we now have a new caravan none of them will be allowed inside! poor things - Rupert is very much an outdoors dog, always choosing to sleep on the patio rather than the carpet so he will be quite happy but we might pine for some of his special Rupert cuddles after a long days agility!!

The Yellow Peril!

Rupert is one of those dogs who is happy with whatever you do or wherever you go! really laid back, he loves camping and last weekend he was allowed to sleep in the caravan with me (spoilt or what?) I woke up in the middle of the night just to check he hadn't chewed anything to find him lying belly up stretched out on the bed next to me.

His training is coming along very nicely although I haven't really done much to move on just lots of basics, I can trust him off the lead with distractions now and he can tell the change in the tone of my voice from a first asking command to a I meant it the first time sort of command, where he looks at me as if to say"oh, I didn't realise you were speaking to me."

Amy has told me she is taking him and Summer on her course with Mary Ray next week, she will concentrate on Summer for the Agility and try Rupert in the obedience, so either he will come back the star of the show or Amy will bring him back complaining that I now have 2 dogs who take the micky out of her! lets hope for the former to be true..

This afternoon we are all off to Golden Valley agility show in the caravan for the weekend, but this time he will be sleeping in the awning with the girls, but he won't mind, he will be exhausted from playing with all his friends, it's a hard life being so popular.

Rupert Meets Richard Curtis

We arrived at the venue for 10am to be met by the man himself, Richard caught my eye a few years ago when Amy and I saw him at Earls Court, he works his dogs in a very quiet way totally in tune with their behavior and incredibly motivational so I thought the opportunity to spend a day learning some of his techniques would be beneficial to Rupert's ongoing training, not because I want to go on to compete in HTM but because I love the learning opportunities different handlers and disciplines can offer. In preparation for the day I had taught Rupert to turn left and right with the help of a treat, and as it happened it was one of the techniques we used in the mornings session. We were split into two groups of eight so the session worked 10 minutes of training followed by 10 minutes of rest, during the morning this worked well for Rupes, but I could tell he was getting tired by the lunchtime break, he then had 2 hours of rest as immediately after lunch we looked at music and accents and changes in the track to make the most out of the interpretation. Rupert did struggle a little in the remainder of the afternoon so I just sat on the floor with him playing little games instead of asking him to try anything new, making the most of our 10 minutes off by writing plenty of notes for the future. Actually Rupert worked incredibly well, I haven't done as much offside work as I had planned and this already showed in his ability to work on my right, but only after a couple of goes he was trotting along in a nice position quite happily, we mainly worked off lead and for a 5 month old puppy in a room of 16 dogs all working for treats or squeaky toys! his focus was really amazing, their wasn't a single occasion when he thought anyone else was more interesting than me, so we both came home very tired and very happy.

Mucky Pup

This is the problem with having a Border Collie Puppy masquerading as a golden retriever!! after the refreshing rain yesterday afternoon the corn field was rather wet, our farmers are brilliant at creating a nice pathway for walkers so our trouser bottoms don't get too soaked but sadly Rupert and Dylan thought it might be fun to see if there was anything hiding in the corn!! both of them came out very wet and rather muddy! but with very large grins on their faces.
I'm on the countdown to our training day with Richard Curtis and thought I had better do a bit of training so we have at least got a small repetoir to show him, so I have begun to use left and right spins in his heelwork, not only can this be used to remind him to race back to the correct heelwork position but it will also be very useful on the agility field in the future.

What lies ahead

Rupert has had a great weekend (as always) I have now started walking him with one other dog, usually either Ben or Summer, I was expecting him to try pulling on the lead to get in front or just to the other one, but he has been really good and hasn't had a tight lead once. I have also been letting him off the lead, only in areas where I have complete confidence he is safe, and his recalls from distractions are again coming on very well, there are a few times when I have to ask 2 or even 3 times but once he realises that I really mean it and there might be a tasty treat in store he soon comes trotting back.
Yesterday I took him for a walk to the training field where there is a large pond being the home of some very large expensive fish!! this pond is surrounded by a low electric fence to stop the Herons from poaching, Rupert's curiosity got the better of him and found out he does not like electric fences! the poor baby was not happy, but later in the day when he was out walking with Ben he didn't give it a 2nd look so maybe he wasn't scarred after all.
This Saturday I have booked Rupert and I onto a day course with Richard Curtis, I am not planning on doing any heelwork to music competitions but I am interested in his training methods and so Rupert and I armed with our clicker and plenty of tasty treats will hopefully come home with a few new tricks up our sleeve.

Let's start from the beginning

Darian Snow Bear arrived home on Wednesday 17th February 2010 as a 7 week old border collie puppy, he was bred by Mrs Sheila Gay in Stratford, home of the Darian Border collies and where we also got Summer my daughter Amy's dog from back in 2007. Rupert is a rare colour being a dilute red meaning he often gets mistaken for a golden retriever puppy! He was one of 7 puppies 5 of which were the traditional black and white and 1 little ee red bitch. For me it was love at first sight, I wasn't due to get another dog for a couple of years but once this little fella had his little paws on me there was no going back. He was totally unexpected so I have no aspirations for him, he will be whatever he will be and I will just enjoy the ride.
I began his training from day one, with all the very basics and now at nearly 5 months he is very proficient at many things, he attends all the dog shows we go to happily sleeping in his crate alongside our bitches in the awning when we camp so his social skills are very good, however he has decided that he does NOT like the vet!
I love to compete in Agility and Obedience and have based most of my training with that in mind, I have worked specifically on his back end awareness using several techniques which I'll go into more detail with in a later blog. I have adapted a couple of training methods to suit us both, Rupert is equally focused for a treat reward or a game of tuggy so it made good sense to use the clicker and motivational training in equal measure, so nothing new, but it is new to me. I like to teach new things with the clicker but very quickly move them onto motivational as I am useless and keep forgetting which jacket I've left it in so end up trying to train without the props (not a good idea) so having also established the motivational method it's not a problem and i can carry on so long as I have my lead or his tuggy.
I have read many books, watched DVD's gone to seminars etc etc and have sometimes been inspired and sometimes been disappointed. Earlier this year I was inspired which was a brilliant feeling and has completely changed my attitude towards my dogs and their abilities which I think when we are so focused on competition week in week out it's easy to blame other factors including our dogs being naughty or having an off day, so now I never blame my dog for being naughty, sometimes they are a little over enthusiastic but never naughty, I feel if I have put the time and basic training in I will reap the rewards, and both Maisy my competition dog and now Rupert are proving this point on a daily basis.