Training odds and ends

My 2x2 weaves arrived last week and I've set up one pair to start teaching Swing  the correct way to enter weaves.  The first two sessions were in the kitchen where there is just enough room to work (boy would I kill for a hallway or walkway like Howard has at his place!).  I went to a workshop a few months ago and the woman teaching it had a modified method taken from Susan Garrett.  I liked her thought process so I'm going to use that as the foundation for Swing's training.  I'm also going to re-train Dodge a bit since he generally does not "look" for the entrance (in a trial I do my best to line him up for the optimal entrance which slows us down a tad).

I started seriously training Dodge in agility just over 2 years ago to get him ready for Nationals.  He was introduced to weaves using the channel method and I really liked how it taught him how to drive through the weaves versus popping back and forth.  What I failed to do was spend time teaching him how to find the entrance so now I'm going back to that with him while starting it with Swing.  I'm standing at the 6 o'clock position (weave pole is the 12 o'clock), facing the weaves and with her on my right I start out holding her and then I let go of her collar and all she needs to do is find the correct entrance.  I'm close to the pole so that she doesn't cut in front of me and as soon as she enters the weaves I pitch a treat out and to the left to get her to drive forward in preparation for when the next pair of weaves is there.  Once she is going well with me facing the weaves I'll turn 90 degrees and have her wrap around me to the entrance.  Then I'll start to move "around the clock" so that no matter where I am she will find that entrance.  I'll add the second set of 2x2's but have them spaced 6 feet away so that it looks like another entrance.  When you get to this point you can start to walk along the weaves which now adds the moving component.  This first part however is where I need to spend time so that I'm not redoing it in the future.

Sessions one and two lasted no more than 10 minutes with two dogs working the entrance (that can be challenging as both of them want to do what the other one is doing and unlike me, neither of them has a lot of patience about waiting for their turn!).  I do plan on using the channel weaves to get the forward driving motion that I like, but that part won't start until the entrance is engrained in her muscle memory.

On Saturday we paid a visit to Amy and Michael and met their new addition.  Fala arrived last weekend from Poland and oh my, what a sweetie!  After bowling him over a few times, Swing enjoyed playing with him and once he got over her boisterous play style, he engaged her and they looked like they were having fun.  Dodge was very good with him as well, normally he can be a little verbal with youngsters but he wasn't that way with Fala (Swing probably distracted the pup from pestering Dodge).  For those of you that didn't get to see his picture on FB, here is a shot from a practice session he had with Michael...

Fala

And the trip wouldn't be complete if Michael didn't stack Swing for Amy and I to look at (BTW, this shot was taken after Swing had settled down a bit.  Amy asked me at one point if she is always this "active".  She said Swing made Rosey look like a slug!  I told her that Rosey was about this energetic when I had her - I'm not sure Amy believed me).

Swing (13 months)

Another reason for the trip was to see how she is coming along and talk about future shows and if she is ready.  Amy was pleased with how she looks so we will be showing in breed next weekend and the following weekend.  After that we'll see where she is at and what shows to hit.  Conformation training, which isn't high on my priority list, is important for a future show dog which means this week I should put the show lead on and do some stacking and gaiting.  Swing understands the basics, now it is time to start upping the ante and asking her to set up on her own and immediately break in to a trot on her down and back.

I hope to have a report on Ella soon and I'll see if Howard can bring us up to speed on what Beau has been doing lately.  Perhaps one or both of them will see the conformation ring this summer (hint, hint!).  And if we can tear brother Milo away from the storks...

Milo - 1, storks - 0

While on a recent trip to FL, Milo encountered some interesting feathered fowl.  In this video Milo the Magnificent is the victor while the storks, well they had to temporarily vacant the premises until the wayward weim was captured (and note that we do not see that part on the video, hee hee).

Hey Art, give a bird dog permission to "get it" and what do expect?  :-)

There is a second video of poor Milo behind the window being teased by the group of storks who are enjoying hotdogs (yes, who would have thought that they would like hotdogs?).  Anyway, it came through upside down so once I can flip it over I'll post it.

Swing and I thought of our little sister Gracie Dot this past week when the temps were so high, hopefully the spitfire and her family are doing well.  Even Ella has had to endure some pretty high temps up there in the Rochester area!  I bet Ann and the crew are wishing things were more like the temps we had when Swing and Hank visited back in May!

Stay cool everyone.  Next weekend we are going to try to take a trip to GraytSky to meet the newest member of the family.  I'll get some pictures of the little fella and introduce him in a future post.  I hope he knows English by the time I get there, I may need to brush up on my French (or does he speak Polish???).  STAY TUNED!

Strong's 15 pts to go

As promised, but not quite on time, info from the Greg Strong handling seminar the crew and I went to in mid-June.  It was a long week for the dogs and myself, they spent the week in the kennel while I was in Virginia Beach helping my mom.  I had decided to skip the seminar since I wasn't sure when I would be back from moms.  But the club contact insisted that I come to the seminar even if it was only for the second day.  So after thinking about it for a few days I decided to miss most of Saturday morning and drive to NJ instead of springing the dogs from the kennel late Friday afternoon and immediately driving another 3.5 hours (that would have been over 11 hours on the road and I knew that there would be no way ANY of us would get a good nights sleep).  So I picked the dogs up Friday afternoon, we all took some time to decompress and the gypsies hit the road bright and early on Saturday.

I arrived at the fairgrounds (these are the same fairgrounds the club uses for their shows, I remember going their once with my Welsh Springer friends) and the participants were in the ring outside working on stand stay.  Ok, Swing has started learning that for obedience... guess I could use it in breed stuff!  Duh!  I opted to watch this particular exercise and join in once lunch was over.  Greg took everyone inside to do a little more talking before we took a lunch break.  In the afternoon we were outside doing some stacking and with 23 participants that took a while.  He showed each of us how to relax/connect with our dogs and show off features and improve our presentation so that the "essence of the breed" came through.  Swing acted like she was bothered by some gnats so by the time our turn came she was a bit stiff and hunched up.  Greg gave me some instructions on what to do and she relaxed enough to present herself well (ok, what did I do?  I stroked her from head to tail and I reached under her crotch and stroked upward to her tail).  We finished the afternoon with some more lecture and some stories and before we broke up Greg asked that I bring Swing out one more time to show some slight tweaks you can do to really show off neck and shoulder.

Day two built on what was discussed on day one (using your "magic wands", aka your fingers, to sooth and manipulate your dog, etc.).  He covered gaiting, courtesy turns (when and why you should do them) and he also talked about what speed is natural and right for your dog.  We went outside to work on these thing and the last part of the day he talked about showing, how many times you should show to a judge before you write them off, good sportsmanship, being gracious, and if you intend to stick with showing how you should establish credibility.  He touched on conditioning, both for the dog and the handler (mental conditioning for the handler) and the use of bait.  The day ended with some free baiting and presentation.  We did not stay for the competition portion since I wanted to be home in time to get a good nights sleep.

A lot more could have been covered but as Greg said, you would need a few days just to concentrate on gaiting and presentation alone (and conditioning would take at least a day).  He had some good stories and I thoroughly enjoyed watching him put his hands on dogs.  It is the main reason why I wanted to go to a seminar of his.  Swing was mentally exhausted by the end of the weekend and she ended up in a bit of a mood which is another reason that I opted out of the competition.  If she isn't going to present herself (and I will admit that I do need to actually train her a little more) then there was no point in participating.  I am sure that Amy would concur.

Next on the agenda, an obedience seminar with Bridget Carlsen.  I will probably have a TON of notes from that one as I'm auditing versus having a working spot.  My trainer Nancy raved about her the first time that she saw her and I've only heard good things about her methods.  If I have any tips I'll gladly pass them along.

Until next time, get out there and train in whatever discipline you love.  Me, I'll be working on breed/obedience/agility/tracking (if/when the weather breaks) with my M&M pup!