Control Unleashed Seminar, Flyball, Agility and Herding

Raygen is going to be a helper dog on Monday. He did really well at the classes and he was asked to help out at the seminar. I am looking forward to it.
Since a few weeks ago he seems to finally understand how to play Flyball. There is a difference in teaching the behaviors and the dogs understanding the behaviors. I swear I heard the switch turn on. He loves it! He has also become more confident in Agility. I would bet that Flyball has helped him with that. He is consistently Qing in Jumpers and even places a few times. I have to insist on contacts and not rush him for speed points. He has not yet been over course time and those DQ's are so needed.
Herding is going well, too. He is trying very hard to understand what I am asking him to do. I am not sure what I am doing either, other then staying clear of those darn sheep. Almost got knocked over, that would hurt.

Herding Lesson

Posted a herding video on youtube. I love this DOG!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYpNuMu7UD0

CU Seminar with Ryddick

Today was our first day at the CU seminar. Since Ryddick knows to relax on his mat, Leslie showed me a few games I can play with Ryddick using it. She showed me how to use it for our "on/off" game. Get him to get all excited, but keep him below threshold and then ask him to go to mat. He did really good and enjoyed working with her. He did a bit of his primal noise and pounced on Leslie. She didn't mind and asked for him to go to the mat and he immediately did. Leslie was trying to figure out where his threshold was and after that was able to work him a bit better. He stayed focused and was able to calm down when he was on the mat.
She also explained to watch his mouth, eyes and nostrils for calmness. When he did show any of the calm signs she would mark it and give him a treat. Off course he may not know what he got a treat for, but I will work with him and it won't be long until he knows what is expected.
Tomorrow we are going to work on parallel games, dog in your face (butt), and added distractions.

PKC Agility 9-26/28

Ryddick is the new owner of a PKC STD 1st place ribbon. This was the first time I had entered him in an AKC trial. He did really great. He got a bit upset when I raced him to much. I will tone it down a bit next time. He got a very nice weave pole entry in JWW, but he ended up knocking a bar after that.I entered him in 16" preferred, but the judge measured him just under 23"? He has been measured just under 22" and just over22", but never that close to 23".He can certainly jump that high, but I was really hoping that he would be able to jump 16", less stress.

GSLDTC September 12th-14th

We had some nice weather at the trial in Framington and Raygen was feeling fine on Friday. First run he actually took off and ran towards the weave poles? Yup, he is officially a weave pole sucker. So much for our Std Q. In jumpers he missed the chute? Yup, he won't suck into the chute anymore. Then he hit his shoulder on the second weave pole and in the middle skipped one. Interesting day. On Saturday he wasn't feeling good at all. He was constipated and I pulled him out of JWW. Poor dude didn't get relief until much later in the afternoon. Sunday was great. he was feeling fine, so fine that in Std he jumped off the dogwalk and missed the contact. Wuzz up? The rest of the course was GREAT!!! He had an amazing run in JWW and placed FIRST!!! This was a first in JWW Exc B for us. Double speed points. I know you all think 12 points isn't much, but for Raygen it is huge!! Last we year missed a JWW run by .59 sec. so yup, "You've come a long way Baby!"Challenges we had at that trial....Parking fee add $10Great Salt Lake Dog Training Club ran out of food for VolunteersBitches in season walking within feet by the ringPeople bringing their lunch and sitting within feet of the ringObedience out of site sits and downs were withing feet of the ringGSLDTC uses a set of 20" weaves and in the other ring a set 21" (or 22") weaves? (that is why he miscalculated the entry and startled himself)Tunnel holders are made out of metalSlooooow judgeAs much a I like staying local I can not competed at this particular trial anymore. To much stress, so not worth it.Two more weeks 'til Pocatello. One of my favorite trial sites, people and not that far.

Box Turn

It has been almost a year since I stopped training Rylie in Flyball. Here is her boxturn at last weeks practice. She loves to play Flyball. So back to regular practice we go.

http://s365.photobucket.com/albums/oo100/utbphotos/box/?action=view&current=rylie2.flv

Stress in the Ring

Ryker has been showing some stress in the ring. I have been listening to some advise of different trainers and it backfired. He has only done the weaves once all weekend. I have to make a plan and see how he does. Go back to where we had "fun" and don't do so much training. I know what is right for him and need to stick with it and don' t listen to much what others say. Play, play, play. Oh, and eat my Wheaties so I can keep up with him.

Flyball

Did some Box training with Raygen . He is getting better every practice. I am going to run him for the first time at the October tournament in St. George. I am going to have a blast!!!

IKC Agility Lynnleigh Farms

We finally earned another DQ, I am 1/4 towards the big MACH.Saturday and Sunday we did not qualified for any runs. Always close, but just not enough. No room for error in the Excellent classes. So tunnel suckers beware, it won't get you any extra points.On another note... he has an infatuation with Golden Retreivers and Labs. What is up with that. If he does not get to say hi to any of them he gets frustrated and does not want to pay attention. So this weekend I used teh Premack and we said hi to all the Goldens and Labs at the trial. There were quite a few. At one point he even ignored a Golden. Sure is nice not to have to worry so much.

PetCharts

I recieved an email from PetCharts.com that my youtube video that featured Raygen , was selected to appear on the PetCharts.com website. I did not submit his video, but if you have a video, photo or story about your cat or dog you can submit it to PetCharts.com