Where is my puppy going? She’s 17 weeks next Monday and she’s huge, and looks all grown up, and can run off lead around the woods and not harass Kim and recall when she’s told and do waits. What’s happening?!
I tried to get some stacked shots to show how big she is now, but I failed. Stacking puppies is hard, especially when you have no-one else to use the camera so it’s on a 12s timer. I can safely say this does not work, don’t bother trying.
Rio’s first visit to a flyball competition!
That is the most important thing that happened all day, of course. Dylan ran very well, not as well as he could have done simply because he was running with unfamiliar dogs, and so was I. Our changeovers were not consistent! He ran steady 4.8s over 11″. I have to admit this was a bit disappointing as I feel like he has been running his heart out at training, and I definitely did not have that feeling from him at Gap Farm. On the other hand, his boxturn was reasonably good, he was running into the first hurdle without flinching on his changes, and he swapped for his tuggy 95% of the time (he’s 100% at training but it tends to drop in competition; like any retrain, it doesn’t always hold up under a competitive atmosphere!).
Both the older girls stayed at home in the warm, and I sadly did not get to pick up Kim’s Ice Blue Moon as apparently they weren’t posted or something. Hmph.
I was really impressed with my crazy puppy. She took the atmosphere, the noise, the hundreds of dogs and people, the Christmas costumes/tinsel/hats into her stride. She was polite with every dog she met, and we ticked lots of boxes, meeting hairy dogs (Bearded Collies), big scary looking dogs (Dobermans), tall pointy aloof dogs (Madeleine the Saluki), noisy small dogs (JRTs), some lovely lovely Staffies (Roxy and a big brindle gentleman), plus all the collies/crossbreeds/others. She played with Lolly, who is the least likely puppy lover ever, and she also played with Diva. She and Diva are going to be a pair of troublemakers, it’s clear already! Almost all the dogs she met were polite but disinterested, barring a few over-friendly Spaniels who she said hi to and then walked away from, and grumpy Ella, who gave her very clear “go away” signals which she obeyed. Very pleased with those responses.
She met all the people without any bother, not demanding attention but happy to go say hi if they asked her to. Not bothered about the hats/costumes/reflective jackets etc etc, which I was very pleased about. She made me laugh by noticeably favouring the people who had fed her, but she does recognise Emma and Claire now anyway. Also wasn’t bothered by the people carrying boxes or other weird items, or prams/wheeled objects.
I wasn’t sure whether to let her offlead or not, but we hit the enclosed exercise area with Roxy, George, and Lolly and it was empty apart from one other dog on the other side of the arena. I’d already done some recall-rewards with her there earlier, so I let her off for a mooch around. She was very well behaved, explored confidently but knew her limits, played with Lolly and did a few mad laps, and then came back when called. I like puppies to have plenty of freedom as early as possible, otherwise being off-lead becomes a massive adrenelin rush and all the training falls out of the window. So far this is working, let’s hope it holds up!
She freaked out a bit at the very loud and static-y tannoy, but it kept making me jump as well so I don’t blame her. She also wasn’t very happy about the unpredicable 7yr old girl doing weird things, but I know we need a bit more socialisation with children. I don’t know anyone with dog-friendly kids, so that needs thinking about.
She also didn’t much care for the flyball, which is fine by me! She was relaxed and maybe a bit bored when we sat watching the rings, not interested in the noise or the action at all. She is a tugging fiend however, she stole or tried to steal every passing tuggy so I bought her one of her own and she turned into a fierce little tuggy monster. There is no doubting her tug drive, it overrides even tasty food.
Everyone we met mistook her for a Collie, I lost count.
Or Tell Me Weekend, whatever. This was a surprise TMT.
1. What are your plans for the holiday season?
Nothing! A little shopping, a little eating, a little visiting, some dog walking. No training, just chilling for 2 weeks.
2. Do you decorate? If so, what have you done so far?
We do, but not yet. Maybe the week before Christmas.
3. a. Favorite recent dog photo? b. Photo that shows your mood today (or one word)?
Recent Favourite is Rio in a Box.
Photo that shows my mood today is definitely this one. Although maybe it’s better to say that this photo makes me feel all kinds of peaceful and snuggley and in love with my little dog, which today seems a good mood to cultivate.
4. There’s been a discussion on the BC Boards about “don’t train for the novice classes… just train for open and the rest will fall into place.” What are your thoughts on this?
I’m going to class Novice as Grade 3 and Open as Grade 4+, in agility terms. In which case, I think there are different challenges in Grade 3 to Grade 6, and if you go out with a dog who is able to do all the tight turns and pull throughs and difficult weave entries, but can’t run down a line of 5 jumps, you’re going to struggle. On the other hand, if you do the right foundation and have the basic tools then you should be just fine. I don’t much see the point of running Grade 6 courses with my baby dogs though; a Grade 6 course is testing the handler as much as the dog, and if I’m running a baby dog I want to be able to focus entirely on the dog, not so much on where the course goes or whether I should attempt that front/rear/blind cross just there.
For flyball, I guess Novice would be Starters? In which case, I would never run my dog in Starters if they couldn’t do full runs. Starters should be a stepping stone to Open, to check that everything is working as it should be. It’s not a place to fix problems, and I hate seeing dogs in Starters that are not even close to being ready.
5. What are your top five cannot-do-without-them dog items?
Tuggy, clicker, kibble. I can’t actually think of anything else we absolutely need. Weatherbeeta coats for the old ladies, harnesses for flyball? Torch?
Having a quiet day today.
Rio had a very busy day yesterday, lots of socialisation boxes ticked. We drove over to Langsett Barn to see lovely Buzz, her fellow Aussie and still a big puppy at 8 months. They got on very well, and would have loved a run around together but Rio just isn’t big enough to go running around the forest with the big dogs yet. She also met several strange people, an adorable Labrador puppy, and a little Jack Russell. She’s very polite meeting other dogs, and getting increasingly good at meeting new people as well (it’s always been her weak point).
We had a quick stroll around the wood before we headed home, she was a little startled by a weird log but we clicker shaped it and she bounced all over it in minutes so I was very pleased with that.
She also visited agility training for the first time! Our agility arena is on a livery yard/smallholding, so lots of new experiences for her. We didn’t see any horses but she met the cows, plus a whole group of people and dogs of all sizes and attitudes. She was polite, took the hints where necessary, and really wanted to play with Diva.
Dylan worked very well at training, we did some weave exercises and then worked on some in/out box sequences. They were hard on me, I had to get my timing exactly right otherwise I’d send him off in the wrong direction. Much harder than it was with Kim!
