Retrieve Party

Very wet Java

You’re probably wondering what happened to my grand plan to become the center of my dog’s universe.

As usual. Life happened. Half of the things I planned to do didn’t get done. Most of them because I didn’t push through inconveniences to make them happen. Some of them because Life made them impossible at the time. But you know what? Some of the things did get done and they made a difference. Actually, I was surprised how big of a difference a half-assed effort can make.

Cik & Cap On Verbal Cue

I can’t believe what just happened. And of course I have no video 😦

The dogs were restless so I decided to train a little to tire their brains and help them settle down (probably not a good idea if you have a working breed, but with whippets it works just fine 🙂 ).

For Ruby the exercise was cik & cap around a cone on verbal only, no help with body or arm cues. Not that this is important to me… the main reason he can’t tell cik from cap is that he has a handler that shouts out the first word that comes to her mind, and it’s usually the wrong one 😉 I thought it would be a good exercise to make him think.

Susan Garrett’s Puppy Peaks Review

Puppy Java

Susan Garrett will be reopening Puppy Peaks soon! But what is this Puppy Peaks thing anyway?

Puppy Peaks is an online subscription program which gives you an unique and interesting peek into one very smart trainer using all her skill to outsmart her Border Collie 🙂

Become The Life Of A Party In Three Easy Steps

In my previous post Confessions Of A Party Pooper I explained how my dog’s behavior on walks deteriorated because I wasn’t using rewards effectively and have become less fun than environment. Now it’s time to make a plan for improvement.

I have a very analytical mind and this post contains my thinking about a problem so continue reading at your own peril. But first here’s another photo taken by my wonderful sis 🙂

(c) Stisnprtisn!

Confessions Of A Party Pooper

For some time now I knew I had to do something about it, it couldn’t go on like this anymore. But I was lazy. I was afraid that it will take a lot of work. I was afraid that I have fallen out of favor and could never get the old times back. I was afraid that what I would try wouldn’t work and I would be disappointed. Yes, it was mostly Fear. I don’t actually believe that Laziness exists, but let’s leave that for another conversation.

Environment holds many rewards

The Drama Of Running Contacts

For some of us there is something addictive about watching a dog run full speed over a dog walk and hit the contact with ease like they were born knowing how to do it. It looks so effortless and so “right”.

Training it, however, can be a different story. It often resembles living a soap opera: Julia gets engaged to be married, Julia gets hit by a car, Julia is in a coma, Julia wakes up, but then her heart stops, Julia makes miraculous recovery, Julia gets out of the hospital, finds out that Ramone has been cheating on her and tries to commit suicide…

Full of DRAMA! If you always wanted to know how manic depression feels try training running contacts, it will get you pretty close 😉

What Java Learned In Agility Foundations

Silvia’s Agility Foundations class was a lot of fun and as expected we have learned a lot. Java learned to love agility and I learned a lot about Java along the way. I hope my review two days ago didn’t come across as negative because I love Agility Foundations and would take it again in a heartbeat. It just seemed some people had wrong expectations about it.

As I knew this was going to be a fast paced class I planned to start basic training a couple of months earlier. I knew Java needed time to get really comfortable with curved tunnels and I didn’t want to push that. Oh she loved straight tunnels, she just wasn’t sure about curved ones. Also restrains were not her favorite thing and wraps take a while to build properly so we had our work cut out for us.

Ruby’s Running Contacts – 2 Years Later

I know I promised to tell you what Java learned in Agility Foundations class, but I’m so excited, this just couldn’t wait!

Silvia Trkman’s Agility Foundations Class Review

Unrelated, but cute

I wrote a longish post about our experience with Silvia Trkman’s Agility Foundations class, but then figured it would be easier to read if I split it into two parts as I was really writing about two things. Today you can read a review of the class and next time I’ll tell you a bit about what we learned in it.

For those who don’t know, Silvia Trkman is a two-time FCI World Agility Champion and currently competes with four very successful dogs, so she obviously knows what she is doing when it comes to training dogs for agility. Agility Foundations is her online class which you attend by getting homework (instructions + video) and then sending in videos of your progress every week so Silvia can give you feedback. There are two ways to attend: Participant (sends videos and asks questions) and Auditor (can ask questions and see other people’s videos, but can’t post their own videos). This class is offered twice a year and lasts 4 months.