Swimming Time

Every since my puppy dock diving days I love to jump in the water and swim.  We started out slow with our life vest but after a month mom took it off and well I was a great swimmer and diver.

Swimming Out

There is no pool available and it is pretty hot and humid outside so for my exercise mom takes me to the pond and I get to dive in and swim. 

Swimming Back

Back on shore

Resting after a swim

My first leg in Ring I

Our Trial Decoy, Judge, Mom and me, and another Trial Decoy

 

 

On May 11, 2013 I got my first leg of my Ring I.  We scored a 185.15 out of 200.  This was much more difficult than the Brevet and a lot more parts to learn and remember.  But all in all we did great and our rating was Excellent and again 1st place for the Ring I catagory and 2nd place in the overall trial for that day.  Pretty cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My French Ring Brevet

This is a picture of our big win with my Mom and our Trainer and Decoy Jason Davis

 

I'm sorry it has been such a long time since I've writen on here but Mom got busy with her business and my training and well no time for the blog.

My training must have been going excellent because we went to our first First FRENCH RING TRIAL and I went for my French Ring Brevet.  Both obedience and some bite work.  I won the Brevet trial out of 8 dogs with a score of 99.5 out of 100.  They say if you get a 100 the first time out that is the kiss of death and all after that is only down hill.  No wonder I did not listen to mom when she said down the first time and only listened the 2nd time so lost that 1/2 point.

We havc been training for this day since I was a baby (8 weeks old) and now 20 months old. 

Everybody was nervous except for me and my mom.  We trained so much that it just was like a walk in the part for us.  I love to work with my mom and ofcourse love to bite. 

I am sure it will get more difficult as I am growing up and becoming my own dog so will give mom a little more harder time but  as a team we will do great.

The training adventure up to this point was the best.  We learned so much and I became so correct in my learning.  The touch pads came in handy and I'm glad that I learned them.  I love to jump and touch pads made it so easy for me to learn the routine.  Although the jumps are not in the Brevet we practice them anyway because I love to jump..

Mom watched a clicker Youtube video when teaching me to wear the muzzle.  She never had to pressure me to keep that thing on because it did not bother me.

The French Ring Brevet exercises were Heel on leash, where I walk next to mom and sit when she stops.  Food Refusal, I'm left in a down stay and mom goes out of sight and a piece of food is thrown around where I am laying down.  Heel with a muzzle.  We aced this one because of the clicker training to wear that thing.  Absense, which is a down stay and mom goes out of sight for a minute.

Next is the cool stuff.  Bite work.  The fist exercise is the defence of handler.  Me and mom walk up to a decoy.  They exchange hello and goodbyes and then mom and me keep walking.  The decoy follows behind us.  The cool part here is that I get to go around mom and face the decoy.  I'm walking backwards.  When the decoy gets up close he hits mom on the back and I get to bite him.  When mom says out I have to let go and guard the decoy.  A few seconds later I hear that whistle which means to come back to my mom and stay by her side.  Exercise over.

The next exercise which is the last in the Brevet is called the face attack.  This is where I lost that 1/2 point.  Mom has to tell me down and for some reason I got selective hearing because I wanted to run down that field and bite or she just didn't say it firmly but I did down the second command and waited for her to tell me to attack.  I got to run down the field and bite the decoy who is swinging a clatter stick around me.  How cool is that.  Then I heard that whistle blow and I let go and came right back to mom.  Picture perfect...

And now have our FR Brevet with 99.5 points out of 100...

Hold

I really do know how to hold a pvc pipe in my mouth.  We had to go back a few steps but once we did I did great. Mom put her hands one on top and one on the bottom of my muzzle just saying yes when I was calm and I was and got a treat.

I was not even real hungry but I must have made mom crazy in the house so she took me out to train which to me is play because I just like interaction.

Us dogs are like that especially me at my wild child age.

The next thing we did was mom put her hands back around my muzzle and pulled me forward by pulling on my collar a little (it was a flat collar), and she moved me to come forward with her hands around the muzzle. I did. And yes and treat. Then she put her hands around my muzzle and pushed back a little and I went into a sit. Yes and treat.

We did this a few times and then the pvc pipe. She just put it in my mouth with her hand under my muzzle and petted my nose. I like being petted. Then yes and treat. Next time a little petting and yes and treat.

Then we played hose fetch. I love to get it and come back and play keep away or tug hard with mom, but today I came back and let go more easy cause I know I get to run and chase it cause she throws it out for me.

Today we did a little different, she held my collar and threw it into the high grass. I pretty much saw the area it went so just sniffed a little and found it. I tried to watch where it landed but then she held me she waived her hand in front of me so I got distracted and threw my hose toy (which by the way I made from chewing up the entire hose). She let me see it go but did not let me see where it landed. Of course I checked the closest places first and where it had been the last few times but nope it was not there. I searched and searched and mom said not one thing of encouragement so I didn’t know if I was close or not but I was not giving up and kept searching till I found it. Yippeeeee,,, and I came running back to mom. The next time she threw it even though she held my collar she let me see where it landed but the grass was high so I used my nose too and thought this game is the best…

Fetch

This is my sock and these are the little strings mom trys to move me with.  Was not working for us.

Each week mom asks the trainer Jason Davis from Karma k9 one thing to improve on.  It was the hold because we missed some steps and Jason thought we were farther along.  That is why pulling on those strings on my socks made me crazy to shake my head and play like with the tug.  It was supposed to be gradual.

So I heard a dvd today with someone talking about it.  Mom must have pulled out the Michele Ellis Retreive training or something.

We worked with Jason a bit and all is clear what we are to do so I am sure we will this week.

Before Jason came over to us we played with the muzzle but I got a little confused because I only learned click treat.

She put the muzzle on me but when she said yes instead of the clicker I was surprised because we only trained the muzzle with click treat.  Today it was "Yes" treat.  But that didn't take me long to realize Yes treat..

I did a down stay and some good some bad so we will work on that I am sure all times.

For our bite work exercises we started out with the defence of handler.  I am getting it better and better each time and we are making strides.  Mom still is not sure when it is time for me to bite but heck I do cause I am facing the decoy following us. 

Im not sure what you call these just yet but I run loose and chase the decoy and he trys to get away from me.  I was not as fast today because I am starting to think to get to that bite and when and where. 

When I get to that part that I don't have to think and just do it watch out decoys cause Ima catch ya....  French Ring and I would think with Mondio is the dogs need to think more.  In Schutzhund they just bite on the middle of a sleeve.  In knpv they show the dogs were to bite.  In these ring sports where you bite is where you bite and it can always be different.

I have to run farther to mom for the whistle now and one time I came fast for the tug bite after biting on the suit that mom was surprised and did not have a hand on the leash.  Once I realized this I droped the tug and ran back to bite on the bite suit.  Mom said, nope and the decoy kinda said no also so I did not bite him and proceeded onto some victory laps.  Finally after many Cali Comes, I came back to mom and I know she was a little mad but she was happy to see me come back to her.

I felt a few nudges when she called me but did not understand them.  Well no fun running on my own so I came back.



So off to the start we went again.  I love to chase the decoy...

Training

I love my training.  We train every day.....  Can not wait until tomorrow to train with Jason Davis from Karma K-9 cause he has lots of great ideas ...

It is funny because there is no one way.  Mom watched Michale Ellis dvds and really likes them.  We went back to them now....

I go crazy with those strings on my sock.  It is like play a way and I tug and i pull but missing the entire exercise because of it. 

Now I learn the way hold no matter what it is.

My Sock

This is my sock that I have to bring back to mom.  She put these little yarn braids on them and now I have to sit with it in my mouth.  I am confused.

She saw the trainer do it and it was a much differnt picture than mom and me. 

I was taught "Hold" early in life but for some reason can't get the 2 words together.  sit and hold.  and then when holding go from a sit to moving with still holding.............  omggggggggg