Training good news/venting thread.

stardogs

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I am just so **** proud of my dogs this weekend I have to share!

On Friday, Kestrel and Ziva finished their Rally Advanced titles and were the only dogs in Advanced A to qualify. Ziva had a score of 96 and took 1st, Kestrel had a score of 85 and got 2nd. The judge was pretty strict and judged from a wheelchair, which is new for Kestrel, so that made our scores even sweeter!

Then, Kestrel, Aeri, and Snipe had two days of dockdogs Sat/Sun. This was their haul (with two small placement ribbons from Saturday excluded):


Kestrel set a new personal best in Speed Retrieve by almost a full second, placed 5th overall in said SR and placed 2nd in Masters Finals in Big Air. What a dog!

Aeri was a spazz and forgot her stays in BA and tired out in Extreme Vertical after only a few jumps, BUT she also scored a new personal best in SR, and placed 3rd overall in SR.

Snipe just did BA and tied her personal best as well as taking 5th place in Junior BA Finals. :D

Such awesome puppies!
 

Julee

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My goal for the end of the year is to get one leg in some venue on Emmy.

Bloo is doing really well with meeting new people lately. <3
 

Airn

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I need someone to come train Gwen because she's so smart. I really feel like I'm failing her. So many of you do these awesome things with your dog(s) and I just...don't. We've went lure coursing ONCE.

I forget how quickly she learns new tricks and how much she loves to please me. Until I'm like "Hmm.. I wonder if she'll do this." and she just...does it.

Example: I was trying to find a way to crate both dogs in the bedroom but, for lack of space, wasn't seeing a reasonable option. I decided to stack the crates since I've seen others do it. I asked Gwen to jump up into her crate and after maybe 3 lures with treats, she just jumps in and out 5 times in a row. And she has every time that I've asked her to. Maybe that's just me being easily amazed, but it seemed pretty impressive to me.

How do you find motivation, time, money, all the things? I feel so lost and I just keep putting off doing an obedience class with her. I've tried to find clubs and trainers but a lot of them seem very meh to me. (A lot of it is me. I'm not a very active person and I get easily stressed out.) I know she could do so many awesome things if only I weren't holding her back.

Do I need to move to Minnesota? :lol-sign:
 

FG167

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I am just so **** proud of my dogs this weekend I have to share!
As well you should be - CONGRATS!!! :D

My good news - we brought Steele to IPO this weekend. I am working with him on his heeling so he can go for his BH. He had so much fun, it was adorable. I just love him! We need to get stacked pics so I can AKC register him and get his little title!
 

Sekah

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I figured that I'd take a quick photo/video of Cohen's handstand progression this morning rather than getting ready for work. Because, hey, it's Friday, and I like dogs more than work.

It's become more of a headstand if I ask her to hold it for any length of time. But for a 40 pound dog with no tail to act as ballast, I'm pretty damned proud of her. The video below gives you an idea of the duration she's starting to be able to achieve.

[YOUTUBE]-cLMFYkVDqY[/YOUTUBE]



So happy with this silly dog. I'm starting to be able to get a bit of distance on the behaviour (which was how I was able to snap this photo). I'd ultimately like for her to hold the behaviour on some sort of platform while I move 6 feet away or so and move around her. We're almost there!

We're working on a walking handstand too, but it's kind of messy and haphazard.
 

Dogdragoness

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I need someone to come train Gwen because she's so smart. I really feel like I'm failing her. So many of you do these awesome things with your dog(s) and I just...don't. We've went lure coursing ONCE.

I forget how quickly she learns new tricks and how much she loves to please me. Until I'm like "Hmm.. I wonder if she'll do this." and she just...does it.

Example: I was trying to find a way to crate both dogs in the bedroom but, for lack of space, wasn't seeing a reasonable option. I decided to stack the crates since I've seen others do it. I asked Gwen to jump up into her crate and after maybe 3 lures with treats, she just jumps in and out 5 times in a row. And she has every time that I've asked her to. Maybe that's just me being easily amazed, but it seemed pretty impressive to me.

How do you find motivation, time, money, all the things? I feel so lost and I just keep putting off doing an obedience class with her. I've tried to find clubs and trainers but a lot of them seem very meh to me. (A lot of it is me. I'm not a very active person and I get easily stressed out.) I know she could do so many awesome things if only I weren't holding her back.

Do I need to move to Minnesota? :lol-sign:
I don't compete anymore either, I used to travel all over the state of texas when I was younger showing dogs, but life and responsibilities got in the way. :(

Now I just do tricks in my back yard LOL, "Ghetto agility" LOL, I make jumps and obstacles out of scrap piping and fencing (as long as its safe) in order to keep Josefina challenged LOL. Maybe you could do something like that until you find the time or the money for organized classes?
 
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I'm taking a nosework class with Squash, and I was practicing on the car today. We haven't really had any "homework" but I wanted to work on my handling skills a little bit.

At first he was confused while we were hanging around the car until he caught the scent and then I could practically see a little light bulb go on in his head. "We can... we can do this ANYWHERE?!" Aheheh.
 

Sekah

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Cohen is AWESOME!!

Robin has learned a loaded box turn and Limit is doing a decent turn off my push board. I'm happy.
Thanks Falon. :) It's sad, but my dog is so many, many times more buff than I am.

Can't wait to see Robin's progress. Kastle seemed to learn really fast.
 

FG167

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Thanks Falon. :) It's sad, but my dog is so many, many times more buff than I am.

Can't wait to see Robin's progress. Kastle seemed to learn really fast.
LOL I may be a little overweight but I take pride in my dogs' muscle tone and lean stature! haha :)

I need to video! Our basement training room has such poor lighting I haven't bothered but I'll give it a whirl next week.

Kastle does learn really fast, provided it's something I can move/lure him into easily. If it's something where he has to THINK it through, there is a lot of barking, biting, spinning, slamming into things LOL He is not a dog that enjoys free shaping - at all! :)
 
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So Squash got his CGC today.

I know it's sort of the red-headed stepchild of titles around here, but I'm very proud of him. And with a big bully-looking dog, I want a paper trail a mile long of how "good" he is and how "responsible" we are as owners.

We had taken a short CGC prep course and most of the dogs there were in the class, but there were also a couple of dogs he didn't know there today just to take the test and that is really hard for him. He's so nosy that stuff like that can be distracting enough to make his brain leak out his ears but he really held it together today and did an awesome job, my sweet boy.

So, a good day. :)
 

Fran101

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I honestly think Merlin KNEW it was his birthday party today.
I have no other way of explaining his behavior.

Everything I have taught him, everything he KNOWS not to do.. right out the window.

He ate 12 doggy cupcakes, he GOT one, stole the others (from the table, from the mouth of other dogs, from the cabinets)
jumped on the display table during his party and ate more treats than I could count, including an entire cod skin. When caught he grabbed a mouthful of a few more and jumped off the table with GLEE towards his playmates.

He played HARD with the dogs at the store. I mean full throttle running, jumping, barking, chasing..

I had to put him in TIME OUT 3 times! 3 TIMES!

when released from time out he went just as nuts.

He saw a kid and stole his carrot sticks right out of his hand! FROM A CHILD!

He has been in the store before, been around treats before, been around that many other dogs but jesus he has NEVER been like this! He was like a dog gone mad!!
Maybe it was the sugar from the cupcakes? I don't know..

we are back to store training basics. Behind the counter, on leash.

*sigh* at least he had a fun birthday party
 

stardogs

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Snipe debuted in flyball today and now has her FD title! In a large, exceptionally loud, tournament setting, too. :D

[YOUTUBE]dFleQW7Siic[/YOUTUBE]
 

CaliTerp07

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So Squash got his CGC today.
YAY SQUASH! Don't downplay the accomplishment! A CGC is something Lucy will likely never be capable of getting. We cannot calmly greet other dogs (it's yanking at the end of the leash to say hi (or sometimes snark) unless I have cheese in my hand). You should be super proud of him!
 

Southpaw

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So Squash got his CGC today.

I know it's sort of the red-headed stepchild of titles around here, but I'm very proud of him. And with a big bully-looking dog, I want a paper trail a mile long of how "good" he is and how "responsible" we are as owners.

We had taken a short CGC prep course and most of the dogs there were in the class, but there were also a couple of dogs he didn't know there today just to take the test and that is really hard for him. He's so nosy that stuff like that can be distracting enough to make his brain leak out his ears but he really held it together today and did an awesome job, my sweet boy.

So, a good day. :)
That's awesome! Makes me a little sad when people "poo poo" the CGC like there's something wrong with you and your dog if you can't pass the test - took Juno THREE TRIES to pass hers, I was pretty freaking proud when she finally passed. For a lot of dogs it's just not that easy!
 
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That's awesome! Makes me a little sad when people "poo poo" the CGC like there's something wrong with you and your dog if you can't pass the test - took Juno THREE TRIES to pass hers, I was pretty freaking proud when she finally passed. For a lot of dogs it's just not that easy!
Well, I very much doubt either Maisy or Pip could pass it. Neither one of them would want strangers handling their feet, etc. and if I ever saw Maisy be polite instead of a huge butt-wiggly tornado for a greeting I'd eat a shoe. But I don't think there's anything wrong with them. Not exactly. :p

It's kind of a weird test, it's like... not easy, several of the skills are really pretty hard for a lot of dogs. But at the same time, it's not exactly an accurate measure of whether a dog is truly a "good citizen" (whatever that means anyway).

In any case, I didn't mean to sound like I wasn't proud. I really am, I had not prepared nearly as much as I should have but he really held it together and came through. Going into it I was pretty sure he'd flunk the friendly greeting because he doesn't really consider sitting still to be a friendly greeting. :p But I have mixed feelings about it because at the same time for me it is kind of like a hoop to jump through to add to that "good dog" paper trail rather than a huge personal training goal. If he were smaller or a less potentially "suspicious" looking breed I might not have even bothered.
 

Dizzy

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Just been pacing round and round the yard with Fred trying to work on his show gait, as he likes to pace.

He can gait nicely very well, but has this habit ever since he had the crate rest. Drives me NUTS!!! Well I'm paranoid we have THE big show in a couple of months and it's not raining (finally) so we had a session.

I used the gaiting PDF that someone linked here, and modified it slightly!! SUPER helpful.

Walking around with my arm out straight and him trotting next to me, and me looking slightly behind at his legs and clicking whenever he gaits nice!!! I hope no one was watching as I was navigating my yard with my peripheral vision lol!!

And he GOT IT!!! Well, is getting it. He usually sets out pacing (interestingly he's never paced at a show), and I persisted till his gait changed to a stride and CLICK! Throw treat ahead of him. This is all off lead.

Over and over till he was consistently and more quickly changing to a nice striding pace :D it's so funny, he's clearly starting to think about how he's moving his legs and does a little hoppy jump to change stride :D

I reckon if I do this a few times, and work in the cue 'gait' to the nice stride, then move to commanding gait as or just before we set off we should get a nice movement each time!

That's the plan........... And we are working on a more perky looking stand, instead of a omg mum this is so boring stop torturing me stand.

He doesn't show his character when he shows, he thinks it's boring. Need to bring out his inner star!
 

Dogdragoness

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Training brag:
The other day my mom called me, all excited (buddy and Josefina are staying at the ranch while I am at the track) she said she wen outside to see buddy chewing on a goat skull (I don't know where he found it ... Ugh!) so ... Like I showed her, she went inside and grabbed a treat and went back outside. She called him to her and he actually BROUGHT THE SCULL TO HER for a "trade up"!

She also mentioned that Josefina did the same thing with a dead mole! Only she used her fave toy and played a short game of fetch as a reward.

Yay for training :D
 

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