Training Pupdate

I haven’t had any updates for a while on what the pups are doing, so thought I’d give a quick update on our training.

Life’s been pretty busy so I feel like I’ve been slacking on the training front. Riggs is in a disc dog class, we’ve done quite a few rounds of this series at High Tails Pet Resort with Kara and Shawn. Riggs is doing super! I really couldn’t be more pleased with how he’s coming along.

We are working lots on control, so slowing him down a bit so he doesn’t take me out at the knees! And to give me some time to set up the throws so they are more safe for him, and so he stands a better chance of catching them. But he’s doing some tricks, catching well and having lots of fun. I really love training him in this class, his joy and enthusiasm is contagious! With lots of tips from Shawn my throws are even improving 🙂

Tess has tagged along to a few of the disc classes, she did one a few years ago and never really got into it. But she is showing a little more interest now. I doubt she’ll ever have Riggs’ love for it, but she does like to come out for her 90 second turn and chase the rollers around. Last week she even caught her first flying disc. So she’s warming up to it.

I also have Riggs entered in a dog powered sports class, a few years ago I really wanted to get into skijoring with Tess. But had sort of talked myself out of it. My cross country skiing skills need a lot of work, and I’m not sure I’ll ever have the confidence to strap a dog onto me while doing it. But I’ve been wanting to try to get Riggs out with me on my bike. So when I saw Monika was going to be teaching a class at High Tails I thought I better give it a try with him. He’s taken a little while to warm up to it – he pulls like a son-of-a-gun when I don’t want him too, but as soon as he’s allowed/encouraged it’s “no thanks”. While he’s a pretty confident fellow it did take a few sessions to get him over worrying about pulling something (he didn’t like it “chasing” him). I wouldn’t say we’re 100% over it, but he’s much less concerned about it and I think we’re almost there.

We’re about half way through our series now, and he has improved a fair bit in that time. Our biggest challenge is going straight, pulling in a particular direction. Not stopping to sniff and pee on things. I haven’t practiced enough, so I think that’s mainly my fault. But again it feels like we’re on the cusp of getting it. So I guess that’s my mission this week before class. It’s ironic, before class started I never would have thought I’d want to go jogging or cani-cross with him, but I’m already finding myself thinking about it 🙂

I’ve done a little dry work with Tess outside of class – I didn’t sign her up. With her health issues I don’t think she’ll be able to run with us on a bike trip or anything, but I hate to leave her out. So I’ve had her pull around our small weight to get used to it. I haven’t tried hooking her up to me yet, but I saw a bit of a spark in her when she was pulling the weight so I think once we get some nicer weather I’ll give it a go. Maybe she can get into weight pull or something if she likes it. She surprised me though, of the two I would have thought she’d be the one worried about dragging the weight, and she could have cared less about it! So there ya go!

I’ve wanted to get both dogs back in agility, but just haven’t had time. I really want to get Tess’ starters standard and jumpers titles. We’ve worked so hard at it and come such a long way it seems a shame not to have anything to “prove it” to ourselves. So I hope I can get them both at it in the next couple months. I’m not sure how long Tess will be well enough to compete so I’m starting to feel the pressure to get it done while we can.

Sort of the same story with nose work, I’d really like to get them back to Kayenna Kennels for nose work classes, but not enough days in the week. So it’s on hold for the time being.

No Rats Barn Hunt

(Above: Tess on the hunt)

I had both dogs signed up for the No Rats Barn Hunt Fun Match that ran on Sunday, it was freezing outside but nice and toasty in the barn for our dogs to run in. I ran both dogs in the Senior class, Tess has one more open leg she needs before her Open title so we were practicing up a class for her; and Riggs needs one more Novice leg for his title, so up two classes for him. Both have been practicing Senior runs though and doing well, so I wanted to give it a go.

Riggs was up first, he’s been acting a little out of sorts on our last few drives and I’m not sure what’s up. He’s been shaking when we pull up to the training hall, and the barn on Sunday. The car was toasty when we pulled in to park, so I’m thinking it might be nerves. So that’s a little worrying, because he seems fine when we train. Anyway, after helping set up the ring and watching the first few blinds I went back to the car to get him ready. Both dogs were shaking. It wasn’t that cold in the car, so I’m not sure what that’s about. Maybe they were just cold, or maybe he was still upset about something and Tess was picking up on it.

Riggs was pretty focused in his search for the gerbils, he indicated near one but I couldn’t see it (it was under a leaner and he was indicating at the top of the bale). After he moved on I called a false indication, we went back to the rat we “missed” and he was so proud that we found it under the leaner. He must have given me a hug and kissed me for 30 seconds while doing a happy dance to tell me what a good boy he was 🙂 He’s such a cutie!

Tess had a decent run, it seems to take her a warm up run to get her confidence up. She found (and I called) her first two gerbils using about half our run time. She found her third gerbil really quickly after the second and stomped on the tube. She didn’t seem too interested in it though so I didn’t call it. I thought I’d take her back and see if she’d indicate again. We ended up timing out as I noticed the last rat tube 😦 So I have some things to improve on my handling, but I was pretty pleased with how she did for a first run of the day.

I paid for an afternoon run with Tess in Open, but decided to scratch. They both seemed cold in the car so I think that was the right choice for them.

Thanks to all the organizers at No Rats Barn Hunt, they always put on an excellent trial (or fun match); such a positive environment and we always have a good day – no matter what our runs look like! Thanks ladies!