Seven of them walked past my office window this morning so I snuck out quietly and stood behind the redwood tree to snap a few photos. They blend into the surroundings so well, they are perfectly camouflaged. The dogs fuss at them from behind the fence sometimes but they don’t seem to care. Occasionally when the dogs are all put up for a meal or hanging in the house, the turkeys fly into the dog yard to investigate the dogs’ refuge. Our local wildlife are very used to the dogs and cats being safely tucked behind the fences and they meander within a few feet of the dogs totally confident that the wire will keep them separated. We don’t see the turkeys everyday, and it is such a coincidence that they came for a visit today as last night I watched a great Nature show on TV called My Life as a Turkey. If you see it on the tube,
don’t miss this really interesting program about imprinting and living with a flock of wild turkeys.

I got home last night from the 3 day AKC Show at Rancho Murietta.  Ace and I had a good time hanging with friends and running in the trial. Ace got three doubles and a triple, AKC lingo for qualifying in agility, jumping and FAST all on the same day. Our only error all weekend was not qualifying in one of the FAST classes offered. I put too much power and speed on the send and overshot a tunnel. Totally fine, I really only do FAST classes to get on the contacts if they have them as I show so seldom I like to take advantage of the opportunity to train them in a ring setting. “The dark arts”  as I call the skill required to be competitive in gamblers and FAST classes is not really my forte, that is my husbands specialty! Jim and I like to joke that he teaches them to send, then I teach them all to get reeled back in.

Hmmm… that sounds like job security!

I found a cute pic of Scoop from exactly one year ago, happily holding of one his favorite toys.

Scoop stayed home with Jim, I didn’t want to be tempted to take him for a hike or get him revved up watching agility and not be able to do anything with that pent up energy. We are headed back to the neurologist and orthopedist offices this week on the continuing search for a specific diagnosis for his discomfort. In the meantime he is just hanging out in the house bored unless we play calm clicker training games.

I was helping a friend this week to clicker train a retrieve on her sheltie. Have I mentioned that I think all dogs should have a manufactured retrieve? There are some skills that are so important to making agility training easier, and a good retrieve is one of them. If you can train a dog, you can train a retrieve, I see absolutely no reason for anyone to have the excuse that their dog won’t play with toys so they obviously can’t retrieve. And I would ask, what does toy play or tugging have to do with the perfect retrieve of any item you designate?

Well???

I hope you have as great retrieve on your youngster as I do on mine, and if you don’t, well get on it!

Nancy

Scoop and I have been busy busy busy. I drove the RV to Los Angeles last weekend to teach a seminar for Wendy Vogelgesang and of course took Scoop and Ace with me. I am not really wild about the driving part of owning an RV, and being away from home for 4 or 5 days to teach a three day seminar, but I love having my dogs with me while I am teaching. I like to have a dog to demonstrate exercises or handling techniques, and always feel a bit handicapped if I don’t. That is a really good part of traveling withyour dogs to teach. And I love the hang out relaxing time before and after the seminar with dogs and friends. It has been great for my dogs. Instead of rushing off to a hotel room after a show or seminar day is done, the dogs can hang out, exercise, get trained, meet new people, and I can really take the time to introduce the new and different environment to my puppy. I just never realized that great aspect of having an RV.

The first morning before the seminar I was up early and walking the dogs at 6 AM. Scoop was on leash and Ace was loose. We walked down the street of a gated community with private drives. No chance of meeting any cars, but apparently lots of chance of meeting coyotes in this beautiful rural setting. As I turned to head back to the RV after a short walk, we came face to face with a huge coyote who essentially blocked the road by sitting in the middle of it staring at us from about 50 feet away. My dogs did not even bark, just looked at him with curiosity. Rather exciting, something intimidating, definitely not on my list of critters that I wanted Scoop to meet on this trip. I called Ace in and made him share the opposite end of the leash with Scoop and then after a few minutes staring contest with Mr. Coyote I decided to just move forward with intent  to see if he would scare off. He let us approach a short distance and then sauntered away in hunt of breakfast. Just glad we were not part of the menu.

Scoops breeder Stephanie Spyr was at the seminar and we let our pups have some fun romps and we did some training together as well. Stephanie suggested testing our retrieves on the pups by sending them for their toys side by side at the same time. This could have been a small disaster but as it turned out it was fun and I am still a bit surprised Scoop could do it. Steph sent her pup for a toy and after Keeper picked up her toy and turned back to Steph, I threw my toy and sent Scoop. Voila! They passed each other like little flyball dogs, what fun. Then we tried back to back retrieves. Steph and I had our back to each other and threw the opposite direction at the same time. They would be running towards each other and us on the return, no colisions, just solid retrieves and they ignored each other totally. Steph and I have both worked hard on our retrieves. We have straight line fast sends to toys, clean pickups withthe pups grabbing a toy and turning immediately back to us and pretty much deliver the toy to our hands. I worked each part of those skills with Scoop, and while I think he has natural ability and desire to retrieve, the shape of the retrieve has been taught and encouraged.

Scoop’s retrieve started with just throwing the toy and letting him run for it at the same time I tossed it. (read about it on my May 20^thblog) I sat on the floor and encouraged him back by patting the floor or my leg to get him to return to me. That changed into me holding onto his collar, throwing the toy, waiting for it to land, and if he was looking forward to the toy, I would send him with the command “get it”. This worked well on short retrieves in the house with me on the floor. Once I went outside and was standing up I wasn’t getting as much speed back to me on the retrieve.   I added a second toy to the game. It all goes like this: I am standing up, I have his collar in hand, I throw the toy at least 25 feet, I say “get it” and release him to the toy. I take a step forward with him as I release him and sometimes I run with him  towards the toy. As he does the pickup, he spins to me, I call his name then take a couple running steps backwards, (facing him) and just as he is getting close to me I dangle a tug toy on the ground in front of me. He drops his toy and grabs the tug and we have a short tug game. Then I put him on my opposite side and started over again. You can see Scoop in action in the photos below. These were from a few weeks ago, he is much bigger now:)

Some of the retrieving basics are:

• Move towards the toy or at least take one step and “bowl” Scoop towards the toy.
• I don’t release and send Scoop unless he is looking forward at the toy.
• I move backwards away from him after the pickup and encourage him to return fast and straight.
• I have faded out the need for a second toy by just holding out my hand and encouraging him to come to it. I would like him to have the attitude that he should push the toy at me and ask me to engage more in retrieving or tugging with him.

Enough talking about retrieving. Scoop has been patiently waiting all morning for me to finish teaching and writing, it is his turn now to have my attention.

I hope to write more about Scoop this weekend, maybe I will get brave and measure him again. He was19+ inches tall last weekend and not quite 5 months old. I am still praying he will stop growing soon! I hope you have as much fun this weekend with your pup as I am planning on having with mine!

NJG

Today I wanted to take photos of puppy retrieves. Of course, the place we do this best is the kitchen, sitting on the floor. Photog Marcy Mantell said no-go on the indoor photos with flying pup. Speed and no light does not mix. So out to the yard we went where we sometimes have good retrieves and sometimes we have lots of chase- no- come- back- with- toy. Still, the photos were cute and I have a record now of both good and bad retrieving at 9 weeks.  Yeah, I should have spent more time outside, but it was 100 degrees last weekend, and we played inside. Should have trained that more before Iwanted him to retrieve in front of the camera outdoors!

We wasted most of the today’s food alottment working on walking beside me without attacking my feet. I wasn’t going to waste so much time on moving ground work at this early age, but clicking and treating walking beside me is what works to keep him thinking about the position and not thinking about killing my tender toes. I can also carry a dangling toy or leash and get him to tug while walking. The attention is on killing toys not my shoes. It is working. I could not walk 10 feet with him on leash a few days ago without the shoe shark coming in for blood. Another method that works is that I can totally stop moving when he comes in for a nibble, nothing interesting happening when I am standing still, and he will stop. I think this annoying behavior will be gone in a couple more days of lots of treats, patience and toy work.

If I only practiced walking on leash when I really needed to get somewhere it would be totally frustrating. I learned 35 years ago when I strated training horses that you never wait to train something till you need the behavior NOW. Like you don’t wait to teach the stallion colt to wear a halter and load in the trailer until he cuts his leg and you have to load a couple hundred pound monster who is in panic into the trailer NOW. When they hit the ground the halter goes on and you feed them from the back of the trailer until they think it is fun jumping in and out.

This one training detail has always been at the forefront of my training plans. I don’t train walking on leash when I need to get to the field right NOW with the pup, I train it when I have no need to go anywhere other than up and down the yard to teach leash manners. I don’t teach “wait at the door skills’ when I really need to go in or out the door. I train it when I definitely don’t need to pass through the door and when I have the time to put in the effort and energy and reinforce all the skills I need long before I really need them.

In a couple days we head out of town for our first weekend of shows, Ace and the nnp (no name puppy) and me in the new RV. I am looking forward to the adventure and spending lots of play time with a pup I hope has a name before I get back home on Monday.

Here’s a couple more cute shots Marcy took of the angel puppy.
I love training pups!!!

NJG

Puppies are a lot of work! This one feels like a full time job. Most of the projects I had planned for the weekend at home have fallen by the wayside. Ok, we bonded. Now I can’t leave the room.

Crate training is going  well, it is a clicker game after all. Get in, get a cookie. Get out, get to play. Get left in there, another story. Angel or Demon? He is wild, biting, frantic, throwing his bones in the air to hear them hit the hardwood floor in my office. Oh great, he just tipped the metal garbage can over to get the paper. Then he crashes.

Pups need a lot of sleep. He hits the sack at 9 PM, will sleep till I get up, even if it is 9 hours later. Steven Pressfield wrote in his incredible book The WAR of ART, that no one is born as tabula rosa, a blank slate. Each of us ‘come into this world with a distinct and unique personality, an identity so set that you can fling stardust and great balls of fire at it and not morph it by one micro dot’.

So puppy, what are you? Angel or Demon? Ankle biter, or lover that will sleep in my lap for as long as I stay sitting.

First things first. He needs a name. A cute name that I will enjoy speaking for the next decade and a half. A short one that works as a recall on the agility course, and one I don’t have to explain the meaning of, or tell gate stewards how to pronounce.

Short list today. Jeep, Cabbie, DJ, Beckham, Sport, Saint, Pepsi, and Jute.

 This weeks’ training assignment.

•  Stop biting my feet and shoes
• Handle his body without biting my hands
• Walk on leash
• Grooming- soft brush on body
• Nails- Drommel introduction
• Name game
• Release word
• House training
• Crate lessons
• Retrieving
• Tugging
• Reminders for this week: Walk on pavement, grass, gravel, wood, linoleum, tile. Walk up and down steps of all kinds. Low water container for him to get into, especially if it is warm and he can cool himself.
• Don’t carry him anywhere, let him walk, use the leash. Control my environment.

We are having great fun retrieving. Maybe he is talented, maybe I am a good trainer. I dunno. But here is what we do. I sit on the kitchen floor, I turn him around and face him away from me, holding him in my lap on the floor in front of me. I bang the floor in front of him with a toy, then throw it  and off he goes. As soon as he picks it up I bang the floor with my hands and in he comes, hitting me in the gut, toy and all. We cuddle, I tell him he is a perfect puppy, and I keep my hands off the toy. In a while he gets a little into me and a little not into the toy and drops it. I take it and start the game again. He likes all kinds of toys. I have a stack at my side. Sometimes I throw a different one each time, sometimes the same one. If he forgets to bring the toy back on the recall (when I am banging the ground and saying nonsence words), I just throw another toy from the pile the next time.

Then he ges tired which is a very good thing! Now I can work at my desk till the devil wakes and takes over my weekend.  NJG

Sweet