Last Training of the Year 2009

Well 2009 is done and its been a busy day!
Fencing, mowing and even got some training in.
Stu videoed Ash's training today so here are a couple of snippets of where she's up to.
The first one shows her dogwalk performance and the second link is her 3rd session on 6 poles of her 2x2 weave training.
Roll on 2010 and new challenges for us all...........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbrtMjxp4kg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS7GTM6WKTc

Kindle's Swimming Rehab

Well we have another use for our training seesaw. It is now Kindle's entry ramp for swimming. We need it as the entry to the river at our place is quite steep.

She adores swimming but gets really cranky when her time is up for the day. With her it would be very easy to overdo things so we are being very careful. Its going to take a long time to build her muscle back up but we've got to start somewhere!

Other than that things are coming along and at least she's growing some coat back on her shaved leg so not looking quite so scrawny any more.

The Obligatory Xmas Photo

Well here tis! Don't they just look thrilled.

L to R: Ash, Fya, Zip, Flame, Kindle

The Olides Come to Visit

Today Flame's litter brother and sister came to visit.

They will be 14 next Saturday so was a great chance to get some photos of them all together.

They are pretty impressive for their age and definately showing the family likeness..

They are l to r: Kelso, Aimee and Flame.

Two week check & Stitch Removal

Kin went back to Steve this morning to have her stitches removed.
The wounds both look really good and he is pleased with them.
He is generally happy with the way she is moving and has given me a couple of stretches to keep the hips mobile until she's using it fully again.
The next 4 weeks will see us gradually increasing her on-lead walking and starting very short swimming sessions. Yahoo for head halters as on=lead calm walking is not Kin's strong suit.
She will get her next check up at 6 weeks post surgery.
So all good so far.......

Wound Comparison

Here are a few photos of Kin's wounds both inside and outside of her stifle. They are coming along well!


Inside stifle 1 day post surgery



Inside stifle 1 week post surgery

Outside stifle 1 day post surgery

Outside stifle 1 week post surgery

1 Week Post Surgery

Well its been a week and Kin's wounds are looking really good.
They seem to be healing nicely and its just a few days til her stitches come out.
She is weight bearing when she's walking slowly (which isn't very often) and keeping her quiet is getting increasingly difficult.
She is being very good and its a great chance to get some more weight on her as she's a bit light in condition at present.
The weather's not helping too much as its very windy and extremely hot which makes her being inside a bit trying but she's not happy in the runs yet so inside it has to be................

Day 1 Post Surgery

Kin's home and still a bit dopey.

She was very quiet today and VERY reluctant to use the leg at all.

Steve wants her to start using it in the next few days so we will have to think of a way to get her to start putting weight on it over the next little while.

So here's the girlie one day on!

DISASTER!

Well on Tuesday night Ash and Kindle were having a disagreement on the deck and fell over (all of two feet or so). Kin landed awkwardly and came up on 3 legs.
Even allowing for the "woosy" Terv factor, it didn't look good.
A quick call to Charlotte and I had Steve McGill's phone number and an appointment for Wed morning to get a diagnosis. Wed morning she was still not bearing any weight on her left hind leg and Steve diagnosed a couple of co-lateral ligament tear and a chipped tibia.
Kin was booked for surgery on Thursday and came home with us overnight.

Thursday was a long day awaiting news of the op but finally at 7.30pm Steve called to say she was out of surgery but would be staying in overnight.

I was very proud of my girlie though - such a great ambassador for the breed. She was so well behaved with Steve.
We picked her up on the Friday morning and she was finally back home to begin the next phase.

A Busy Last Few Months

Well the move finally happened and we're all settled in.
Ross McBeth came and built our dog runs (currently occupied mostly by Gimli the goat kid), I have my stable and my little Quarterhorse and it really feels like home.
The week after we moved we had team trials for NDTA teams and Amanda and I both made the team for Dunedin so yahoo!
The Nationals was really good - with Kindle going Best of Breed and picking up a place in Starters and Amanda qualified for the Novice final with Zip.
Then to NDTA and some 2400km over 9 days. Great show - lots of fun and wonderfully well run.
Both of the dogs ran really well and came home with some ribbons. A shoddy ferry ride home and a few dramas with a blown tyre and we finally got home - very tired but having had a great time!

We're On The Move

Well we're finally on the move!

Our house sale in now unconditional and we're off to Rotorua mid-August.

Here's a photo of our new place - can't wait!!!

Results in Agility

Wow - a great weekend of fun agility here.
Kindle scored her first win in Starters and Amanda and Zip had a win in Novice!
Kin had an 'almost' run in that same Novice too.
Below are links to the runs from the weekend - indoors at DAWG (NZ Kennel Centre)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNv6V0rWLd4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTYqMmZl1QI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXWlxvJMp3Q

Ash Finally has her own Body Dome

It arrived today!

Having had a session on Charlotte's one it was neat to get one of my own.

Its great for core strength and balance and a fun thing to play with on those rapidly approaching cold winter nights.

Here is Ash on her body dome for the first time

Once she has got having four feet on it sorted and has gained her balance really well it will be time to add behaviours - eg waving, begging etc which I will obviously teach on the floor first.

Ash's Training Update

Hi all

Finally got round to getting Stuart to take some photos of Ash doing some of her foundation training in the paddock today.

First there are some of her learning her jump bumps. I start with a single bumb (which is a 1m long section of plastic spouting with coloured tape on it) and getting drive to her toy.

Over time we add a second and then add hurdle uprights to change the look. The side rails in the photos help keep the pup straight.

I tend to alternate between sending her to her toy at the end and doing a leadout and going to the toy and releasing her.

She is starting to really drive through the lane of bumbs now and we will simply consolidate this and once she is confident, we will start doing some bend work with the jumpbumps to teach her how to balance on the turn. Important though that she has good drive with the straight ones first!

We are also working on her targetting and have this week progressed to teaching her end position on a ramp and have her give the target behaviour. She gets on from the side of the ramp and assumes her end position, is rewarded for front feet on the ground and rear on the ramp, then I add the target and reward the nose touches.

As you can see, Ash chooses to lie down if I ask for multiple touches. This is no problem - Kindle did this as well. Again, lots of work will be done consolidating this end position.

The next progression will be to ask her to get on the ramp higher up and drive into position. This will be interspersed with tugging with her while she is in the end position - this will add more value to the position. We want the end position on the ramp to carry a high value to her so that it is always her goal from the moment she steps onto a piece of contact gear.

Kindle's end position has stayed rock solid so far and I'm thrilled with that even when she is in high drive at a show. More soon................................

Amanda & Zip

Amanda and Zip had a great show at Eastern Bay of Plenty last weekend.

Below is a photo of her in 1st place lineup. They also had a 3rd and a 6th.

Not bad for her 3rd show!!

Kindle's First Agility Champ Show

Well we ventured to Eastern Bay of Plenty last weekend and Kin had her first official Champ starts.
I was thrilled with her - she was so relaxed all weekend and the basics were all great.

She had a couple of 5f rounds in Starters with new gear - one refusal and she dropped one rail due to inexperience - nothing wrong with that! She did however pick up a 4th place in the other starters so that was pretty special.

Her novice rounds were pretty good too the best of which was a 9th place ribbon!

So a good start and with her getting faster with each run I couldn't have been happier :-)

Kindle's Next Step

OK - so after a couple of Jumpers classes, I ventured out with Kin into an agility Ribbon Trial in order to test our contact behaviour in the ring.
I was thrilled with her - her Aframe was slower than at home or training but her behaviour was perfect.
She even recognised the weavepoles and was pretty confident all day.
Huge improvements from our first efforts in Jumpers and a great step forward.
This weekend we have another jumpers comp then our first agility champ show toward the end of the month.
The next few months will produce huge learning curves for both of us I am sure but we're on the right track now..........
Fiona

Ladder Work

Today we taught Ash to walk through a ladder.

This assists with rear end awareness and teaches concentration on an obstacle and doing a behaviour prior to gaining a reward.

The first step is to walk backwards through the ladder slowly and reward any paws within the confines of the ladder. Doesn't matter at the beginning if not all the feet are in there - just reward for any attempt.

Other photos show the end of session one with ash offering the whole ladder with all four feet.

This was the product of just one session of a total of 4 reps.

Shes' such a clever girl.

See Ash stretch!!!!

No actually this was Ash trying to reach for a moth on the wall but its a cool photo.

And lastly the sad Tervs - waiting for mum to come back up from the paddock.

Are you sure its not our turn????

Ash's Foundation Training Starts

Well its about time I did something with her but I've finally got started with Ash's beginner training. Along with heaps of outings to improve her socialisation, we've started her "waits", downs, and perchwork. We also regularly strengthen her tugging as well as practicing our restrained recalls and other motivation exercises.

She is such a dude and loves to do things.

Yesterday a friend was here with her 60cm balance cushion and we shaped Ash to put her feet on it. The front ones were easy as she has done perchwork but it took a little longer to get the rear feet on. I was so surprised how quickly she got it though and within a couple of minutes she had all 4 feet on the cushion and was happily working to stay on and enjoying the challenge of it.

Long long way to go but I couldn't be happier to have what we have already.

My main concentration for the next few weeks will be to get her leadout skills happening so that in a couple of months we are ready to start introducing her to jump bump work.

In the meantime we are also working hard on hand touches with other people with heaps of rewards in order to get her super confident with strangers. The improvement there is huge and I'm pleased with that too. I am looking forward to being able to show her once she is ready.

Here's hoping

Fiona

Musings on Weave Training

Having now trained 6 of my own dogs to weave I have been thinking really hard about the methods I have used and my own views on the benefits and drawbacks of each. Below is a precis of the methods I've used with each dog.


Nero - 1989 - full upright set - lured with hand. A good if not lightning fast weave - left hand only.

Robbie - 1990 - full upright set - lured with hand. Robbie could only ever weave happily on the left and through experience had fairly good entries by the end of his career. It was an ok weave but not quick enough by today's standards.

Flame - 1996 - Channel with wires. Good bilateral weave with brilliant right hand entries - shallow left entries were never flash and required remedial handling.

Jafa - 1999 - Channel without wires - ok weave nothing too flash.

Fya - 2002 - 3-pole clicker trained weave. Good fast weave with excellent right hand entries. Left hand shallow entries not perfect but all around I am happy with her weave.

Kindle - 2008 - two-pole entry work followed by working through the weave-o-matic or V-weave method. Once I got to approx 4" at the top of the poles, it was evident that Kin's head position was not what I wanted. As the poles came in, her head followed the gap in the poles upward. At this time after much thought, I switched her to the channel weaves and within a couple of repitions her head position was much improved. We have been working through the method and are nearly finished.

In the meantime, my daughter's dog Zip has been working through learning the weave via the 3-pole cliker method. While I have been watching I have been struck by the difference in the understanding of these two dogs. Zip has learnt what the poles represent and how to negotiate them at any speed. Due to Amanda's diligence, Zip understands his entries brilliantly and his speed is increasing each day.
Kindle understands how to run very fast through a channel albeit an extremely narrow one. She single steps at good speed though the set with excellent reliability. However, I do not believe that she has a true understanding of what the poles are and if she approaches at a speed which means she can not automatically single step them, she is a bit lost.

In the middle of all of this, i have just watched Susan Garrett's 2 by 2 DVD. I am now convinced that this is the method I will use for Ash when I start her weave. It is that basic understanding which is missing from Kin's performance and I know it will come back and bite me at some stage.
Watch this space for updates!!!

FOR KATE

It is with huge sadness that I write this post.
One of my very best friends is about to lose her battle with Cystic Fibrosis.
For nearly 20 years, her friendship has been so valuable to me in so many ways.

She has taught me so many life lessons. Some were lessons about life (and death) in general, wonderful insights which have taught me much about myself.
Then there were the lessons about dog training. Kate always had a way of working through those little roadblocks in training with the most positive of outcomes.

I feel a huge measure of sadness about losing Kate. Sad for her - for the dreams which now will not come true, sad for her partner who has shared her life for these years and not least of all, sad for myself, for the loss of a much loved friend. There is no doubt that my life will be so much the poorer without her input.

Be proud my friend
You will leave a lot of very sad people – what more in life could you be proud of?
Love Always
Fiona H

Ash's First Champ Breed Show

Kapi-Mana saw Ash's first time in the breed ring at Champ level.

she had already been to a Ribbon Parade and was great so I was a little surprised when she was a little wary of the judge at Kapi-mana.

She moved very nicely and stood well was a just a little over-awed when the judge approached so we will be doine a lot of de-sensitising with her over the next few weeks.

She has always been such an outgoing wee girl so we didn't think she'd be a little nervous but it is all a learning curve for her.

I am really looking forward to getting her confidence up a bit as she is so nice and seemed to really enjoy being in the ring otherwise.

Here's a photo of Ash in the ring :-)

Training Update

Well here we are in the second full week of the year and I've been a very good girl - training the dogs every single day!
Kin is doing some double-box work learning to understand why we did all the circle work in the early days. Thats coming along quite nicely. We are still working on our weaves as well. Im now working harder entries with just 2 poles along with the channel now at approx. 2" and with great drive. We've had our moments but she seems to be really driving well through now with her head low.
So now its just getting fluency and engraining the rhythm so its about habitualising the movement and gradually moving them fully upright.

Ash is entered in her first Champ breed show on Saturday so we've been working on shaping her to stand still and pay attention which has been going really well - she learns very quickly! I've also been working her trotting beside me offlead and clicking for nice steady happy trot. We took her into the paddock yesterday and she roared out of the bushes with a cone and zoomed around with it. We even threw it for her and she was bringing it back - she is so funny. She looks great at present - was a little tubby a week or so ago but is about right now so I'm looking forward to seeing what the judges think of her.
Hopefully a report on that next week - maybe with a photo!!
Fiona

Kin's First Agility Comp

Well we survived our first effort in the agility arena.

The pretty cool thing was that her first outing was at the first ever official Jumpers Event run in NZ.

The pomp and ceremony was great (except that it was all a bit much for Kin who wondered what the people had done to our grounds!!!). She wasn't real happy with the atmosphere so we only had one good result and did lots of learning.

However her first run resulted in a clear round which was very unexpected and a nice start.

I am confident that her boogies were limited to that one day and strange things being at her normally quiet showgrounds - but we'll see.

Her next outing will be at DAWG at the end of Jan. I will only start her if she's calm around the rings which I expect her to be as she's been to those grounds heaps in the past as a spectator.

Thanks to Nevenka who provided the photo of Kin's first effort!!!