Meanwhile, Breeze has been keeping my on my toes. She loves using her words and wants to chase anything that moves. I am almost positive that she'd be a dog who may have been returned with the wrong owner. Luckily, she has some very good qualities that help keep these things under control. First, she LOVES to work. She is a very good listener and catches on really fast. She is also very food and toy driven, so when she is around something moving (e.g. car, biker, jogger, etc), I can distract her very easily. The key here is consistency. It is hard work to get her to focus 20 times during a walk, but I am confident that consistency will pay off later. We also need to work on not chasing the cats! Though she may be exhausting, I love that she is challenging me to be a better trainer. Zoe is my easy dog - she just goes with the flow and is not too demanding. Breeze, on the other hand, is a total sass and thrives on having a job to do. By the way, her disc training is coming along very nicely. I try not to make her jump too much, but boy, she is having sooo much fun with her frisbee. Check out the video I made last week:
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Training Update and Preparing for Fall Trialing
Summer sure is going by fast, but I feel like I've made the most of it. We've had a bit of a lull in terms of trials, but we've got two scheduled in August and two full weekends in September. Zoe has exceeded my expectations in most of our training sessions lately - her enthusiasm and motivation is really improving. My handling is also improving, so I am sure that helps her motivation as well. Clarity = more fun.
Meanwhile, Breeze has been keeping my on my toes. She loves using her words and wants to chase anything that moves. I am almost positive that she'd be a dog who may have been returned with the wrong owner. Luckily, she has some very good qualities that help keep these things under control. First, she LOVES to work. She is a very good listener and catches on really fast. She is also very food and toy driven, so when she is around something moving (e.g. car, biker, jogger, etc), I can distract her very easily. The key here is consistency. It is hard work to get her to focus 20 times during a walk, but I am confident that consistency will pay off later. We also need to work on not chasing the cats! Though she may be exhausting, I love that she is challenging me to be a better trainer. Zoe is my easy dog - she just goes with the flow and is not too demanding. Breeze, on the other hand, is a total sass and thrives on having a job to do. By the way, her disc training is coming along very nicely. I try not to make her jump too much, but boy, she is having sooo much fun with her frisbee. Check out the video I made last week:
Meanwhile, Breeze has been keeping my on my toes. She loves using her words and wants to chase anything that moves. I am almost positive that she'd be a dog who may have been returned with the wrong owner. Luckily, she has some very good qualities that help keep these things under control. First, she LOVES to work. She is a very good listener and catches on really fast. She is also very food and toy driven, so when she is around something moving (e.g. car, biker, jogger, etc), I can distract her very easily. The key here is consistency. It is hard work to get her to focus 20 times during a walk, but I am confident that consistency will pay off later. We also need to work on not chasing the cats! Though she may be exhausting, I love that she is challenging me to be a better trainer. Zoe is my easy dog - she just goes with the flow and is not too demanding. Breeze, on the other hand, is a total sass and thrives on having a job to do. By the way, her disc training is coming along very nicely. I try not to make her jump too much, but boy, she is having sooo much fun with her frisbee. Check out the video I made last week:
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
My Novice Champion
We had a great weekend trialing in NADAC this weekend. Zoe finished the last of her novice legs and is now an open-level dog!! When we didn't Q this weekend, most of the runs looked really good. We had some trouble with the dog walk/tunnel discrimination and getting distracted. But better handling can solve those problems easily. The great thing about Zoe is that she is a really attentive and honest dog. She listens well and rarely takes an off course. The main issue is keeping her motivated and she is definitely coming along. We got one out of the two chances courses this weekend. In the one we didn't get, I lost Zoe part way when she got distracted. But once I got her back, she did the rest of the distance challenge perfectly. She actually has pretty good distance - when she is motivated. Last night I worked with her a bit in the back yard and she did great jumping and weaving at a distance, but I had a good toy to motivate her with. I really think she's got potential to do well in future chances courses - I just have to keep making things fun for her.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
NADAC Trial this weekend!
It's been a long month, but our wait is finally over. This will be our first full weekend of NADAC fun. We'll be plenty close to home in Burnsville, so that will be really nice. Practices have been going great and Zoe has been really motivated lately. She is done with her antibiotics from Lyme's, so hopefully she is feeling much better. We've got a few novice runs to finish up, so hopefully we'll earn some more titles this weekend. If not, it should be fun anyway :)
Breeze is still doing pretty well, although we are working a lot of impulse control. She is a bit excitable and her herding drive is really starting to emerge. I've introduced her to clicker training and the clicker has been our friend on walks. She's an incredibly focused and biddable dog - I can get her to do almost anything. So hopefully we'll nip these behavior issues in the bud. We've also been working on sending to a mat and sending over jumps, which has been very successful. I've also raised the teeter a bit and she isn't scared in the slightest! This girl has no fear! Maybe I'll get some videos up soon of her playing disc and agility training.
Breeze is still doing pretty well, although we are working a lot of impulse control. She is a bit excitable and her herding drive is really starting to emerge. I've introduced her to clicker training and the clicker has been our friend on walks. She's an incredibly focused and biddable dog - I can get her to do almost anything. So hopefully we'll nip these behavior issues in the bud. We've also been working on sending to a mat and sending over jumps, which has been very successful. I've also raised the teeter a bit and she isn't scared in the slightest! This girl has no fear! Maybe I'll get some videos up soon of her playing disc and agility training.
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