Monthly Archives: July 2007

Dylan – More Training

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As the weather has finally cheered up, I’ve been able to do a bit more training out and about with Dylan. I can carry a couple of jumps across the road into the woods, which isn’t perfect but it has lots of distractions and the ground is nice, so it’s good for training. Unfortunately there isn’t much room (due to all those trees!), and although I could probably fit three or four jumps, at the moment I’m taking two and setting them fairly widely spaced.

We didn’t get much done on Friday because I went out at around 3pm, and of course I attracted a bit of an audience from the local kids. We only had chance to do a couple of exercises before we became the entertainment, and so I gave up pretty much straight away with Dylan. He doesn’t get the opportunity to be around small children very often (most of the lads were around 9 or 10, I think) and he finds them a bit scary. From past experience I also know that some of the children will try and join in, or throw sticks or toys for the dog I’m with, which obviously isn’t ideal for me trying to train poor Dyl. I did let him go around and meet people though, and after a couple of run-away moments he let a few of them pet him. After that I swapped him for Kim and she showed them how it should be done, and then we went home.

Today it was a bit quieter, being a Sunday, and we got some exercises done in relative peace. We did some left and right turns onto different angled jumps, and I have to admit I was really pleased. Dylan was really picking up on what the next obstacle was going to be, and on the odd occasion when he knocked a pole, he was still running through the wings (and occasionally jumping when he hadn’t realised the pole had gone down, which (apart from being quite funny), just goes to show he understands what he supposed to do!). He’s also a lot more confident now, and just from what we did today I know I’m going to have to work on rear-crosses as he’s constantly watching for me, and that will be where the poles come down,

Hopefully on either this week or the week after Dylan will be starting to do some basic chase training for flyball, along with Biba the Beardie babe and SuperChip the lunatic Lurcher. I already know he’s ball-obsessed so at least that won’t be a problem!

Finally, Dylan would like to send some big kisses to his many girlfriends – Jet, for becoming an official BFA Flyball Dog, and to his new girl Meg for winning into Grade 3 under KC rules with her third jumping win.

Dylan’s First Competition

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Well, I might be completely mad but I’ve entered Dylan in his first proper agility competition today. I didn’t really want to be entering this early but it is the competition I’d always said I’d like to do as his first. EMDAC do a Winter Series of Limited shows, indoor and lovely, and unfortunately they’re filling up so fast that if I do want to do the January one with Dylan and Kim, I’ve got to enter now.

January is quite a long way off though, and if I don’t think he’s ready I just won’t bother running him. eep!

Dylan’s Blog – EMDAC

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We had a lovely, long 4 days at EMDAC last week, and Kim was a superstar and won another agility class and got a handful of placings in some others, I was thrilled to bits! She’s now top of the Agility League, the Jumping League and the Intro Medium DOTY League. She also managed to knock 2 seconds off her CleverDogs time, isn’t she fab?!

Dylan was introduced to the A-Frame and did really well. With a little help from Katie (and Jet!) we did a little backtraining to his 4off contact, which he did nicely. I also let him run the whole thing, once, right at the end, mainly because I was interested in seeing how his long stride would carry him over. He got his contact and a bit play afterwards, and so I was pleased. I wish I had a full-sized AFrame to play with, because I’d definitely look into using stride regulators and teaching him a running contact instead, but unfortunately access is limited and so I think this is the best way forward.

I had planned to do 4off on the dogwalk too, but after I walked him over it a few times, Dylan seems more naturally suited to the 2on/2off, especially since the angle isn’t as steep and that long stride may mean he misses the contact all together if I do go for a 4off. Luckily, me changing my mind at this stage doesn’t mean re-teaching anything, since we haven’t done enough of the contact equipment for Dylan to have learnt how to do it anyway. I have had to rethink using a target — obviously his target command requires him to down on a nose touch, which isn’t want I want for the 2o/2o. I think instead I’m going to use a kind of contact board, and teach Dylan to stand with his back paws on the board and stop in a stand-wait. We’re going to start today (with the new clicker I finally bought!)

We have a half-size DogWalk to play on now, which will certainly be helpful too. Kim loves it!

Dylan’s Blog – Grown Up!

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This isn’t really a training post but I couldn’t resist posting this pic. (Click for larger version).

12 weeks/14 months

I can’t believe how much he’s grown from looking at these pics. His ears have changed to be all stuck-up, those naughty spots have appeared on his nose (!) and look at the stumpy little puppy-legs he had!

I can only hope by now he’s stopped growing.

May/June

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June: June was an amazing month for Kim. We’ve never been got a top-3 placing before and then suddenly she went and got 6! Her total haul of trophies and rosettes was fantastic, and eventually totalled 1x1st, 1x2nd, 4x3rd, and all her other clear runs got her a top-10 placing. (We did a total of 12 runs (one a Lucky Dip Pair) and came away with a rosette in 11 of those runs).

May: Wow, what a weekend! Sometimes I don’t appreciate how much of a truly multi-talented dog Kim is, but she certainly reminded me! We were at EMDAC on Saturday where she came 7th in Power and Speed, and 11th in Jumping (both at Introductory level) in very competitive classes – and she hasn’t been training for three weeks! On Sunday we were at Sutton Fields flyballing, where our team came home with a 2nd place and Kim and Poppy won the ABC Pairs! We also collected our FDA (Flyball Dog Advanced) award, finally, and Kim gained plenty of points towards the next one!

P.S. Thank you to the people at all the EMDAC’s who either commented on my website (I had no idea so many people visited!) or commented on how much Kim looked to be enjoying herself. It’s so nice to hear!