Thinking it through

When you are training a young dog, unless you have one trainer whom you totally trust, and you ignore all the advice which is offered freely by well meaning friends and aquainances! a lot of trial and error comes into play. With Ruperts training I wanted to "get it right" an expression I hear a lot when someone gets a new dog to train. Is there such a thing as "Getting it right"? which is where thinking it through has come into play quite a lot recently, The See Saw for example, and now the weaves, I was determined to train the 2x2 Susan Garett method, I purchased the DVD, watched it over and over, made notes and even had Steve make me some very nice 2x2 sets, but in reality it didn't seem right for Rupert and I, and we have now gone on to Swivel channel weaves and are making great progress, we are still at the widest setting and are currently working our war around the clock face, and have decided to use a wing wrap at the start, my only problem is that at the beginning I used the command GO to send him through the channel to his toy, I now want to change that for Weave which will be the command I use in the future but this seems to have confused him a little so tomorrow I will use GO Weave and then eventually drop the GO word.

Last thursday Ruperts Breeder Sheila and I took him to have his Hips X-rayed, when the plate came back the vet seemed very happy with the reult so now we just have to wait for the BVA to send the score back, fingers crossed we should be getting very good one.

Clever Puppy

Our first Puppy class was good fun, it was very basic as Sarah wanted to see at what level everyone was working, Rupert behaved well appart from getting a little over excited waiting for his turn, but settled down as the evening went on. He maintained all his waits and executed both left and right turns nicely so I was very pleased with his progress.

On Saturday we met Toni Dawkins, there are some trainers who just inspire you without really even having to say much, and Toni is one of those people. Again this was a foundation course and we learnt some good tips, we also did the dogwalk which we haven't really done away from home but Rupert didn't faulter, he ran all the way to his 2 on 2 off position while I ran wide not moving until I gave him his release command, I was well Chuffed!

Yesterday we had our weekly session with Jo, these sessions are getting more like a workout with the SAS every week!! only joking Jo LOL!!! what can I say, Rupert was brilliant, I sometimes think the agility fairies have been training Rupert while I sleep!! he did start off by knocking poles, and thinking about it at both Puppy classes he was jumping small which must be quite confusing so from now on I'm going to ask for him to be on medium.

Today my legs are aching!

This week Rupert is having his hips X-rayed for his hip score, this will determin if he will be acceptable to go to Stud, although I have no plans to put him to stud, if the opportunity arose with an approved bitch at lease we would be ready. So fingers crossed for a good outcome.

Mud Glorious Mud

I hate this mud! Rupert had a lovely groom last night but after his walk this morning looks like a mud monster again!

On the training front things are progressing really well, I gave the see saw problem some thought and decided that I would release him over a jump and throw his toy gaining some distance between him and the noise of the bang, this has worked a treat, we started at Jo's on Sunday and I held his collar for the tip and let him find the contact which worked well, then at this mornings session I held his collar for the first attempt and then let him have a go on his own from both sides - result, he didn't give it a 2nd thought, happily working the tip on his own and confidently finding the contact (still without command) I released him onto a jump and threw his toy - Excellent. So the plan is just to let him have a go each time I visit the paddock to keep it in his mind.

Our homework this week has been flick flacks and pull ins. the flick flack training is going ok, only faulting with his enthusiasm with me trying to race to get into position, however he actually works much better when I drive from behind, and I must make sure I work on both directions which I am very lazy at! Pull ins on the other hand are a little more difficult, especially as I am doing them straight after a flick flack! maybe on Friday I'll do the pull ins first. He is getting the first two, but then his speed takes him over the jump rather than through the gap, still plenty of time to perfect them, and its a lot for him to take in all at once.

Tomorrow night is his first night at Club, I'm really looking forward to working him in a group, although I know he will be over the top to begin with, having to work on patience will be a good thing.

Happy Birthday Rupert

So on 30th December 2010 Darian Snow Bear (Rupert) became a year old. Where has the time gone? My sister Sara collected her puppy on 29th December who is Ruperts half brother (same Mum) his name is Teaser and is such a cutie, but I don't remember Rupert ever being that small!?!
I started Ruperts weave training and am very pleased with the progress so far, however letting him set that pace may have been a mistake! he just wants to learn more and more which although a good thing in many respects is a bit of a problem when I'm still getting my head round whats the best way to progress! so I've only done the basics until I next see Jo on Sunday.
Before Christmas Rupert was only doing the dog walk on small height as he wasn's sure when I raised the planks, but this week he wasn't bothered at all by the height and was zooming over it into his 2 on 2 off position, I also introduced the A frame and in only one session he is confidently running a lovely A frame into his contact position, the See Saw on the other hand is a different matter! I have only done it holding his collar and managing the tip for him, but he gets spooked by the noise it makes after he has been released so I plan to use something to muffle the sound for a week or so, but I'll keep you posted how that goes.
We have booked ourselves onto a Toni Dawkins training day on 15th January so we are really excited about that.