Open Obedience Class or The Good and The Bad.

I had an Open Obedience class start last night (open as in Open class with retrieves, etc). The only dog I have that's even close to ready for Open is Quinn, so I decided to take him, have him demo. the exercises and then send him home with my sister.

When we arrived he barked at a couple of dogs he saw in the parking lot, but I moved out to the street and got him calmed down. When we had a little space, I took him into the building and right into a ring. He did great--no barking. We started working in the big ring practicing Open stuff. Another trainer brought her very calm GSD in the ring to practice with us. Quinn looked at other dog and then absolutely ignored him. At one point, we both set up the dogs (about 25' away from each other) and walked to the other side of the ring. I called Quinn first, then she called her dog. Quinn did nothing, he didn't even look at her or her dog!

That was the good.

I then had the students for the class line up outside the ring and watch us do a routine. Quinn did great, until we got to the retrieve on the flat. There was a lady with a Malinois standing just outside the ring gate right opposite us. I threw the dumbbell short and Quinn hesitated to get it. I knew why, the Mal was intense and he wasn't comfortable. I suggested we go to the other end of the ring and try it again. I should have asked the woman to move her dog.

When we got to the other side Quinn didn't want to go to heel, (again, I should have listened to him). He went behind me and ran up to the ring gate barking and growling. I told him to knock it off and called him back. He did (yay!) and I did get him to retrieve on the flat, he wasn't really focused on the retrieve over the jump, but had gotten back into the swing of things as we did the Broad jump exercise.

When my sister took him out of the building he barked quite a bit, but I just told her to leave and not mess around. I probably pushed him too far, too fast. but overall I'm really proud of his behavior. I obviously need to really focus on what he's telling me, he knew the situations he couldn't handle and he let me know. Now I just need to not push him.

Playing Catch Up!

March 2009

Training is continuing for Quinn, but I haven't worked with Missy in a while.

Danny was diagnosed with Insulinoma, it's a type of pancreatic cancer that causes him to have chronically low blood sugar.The vet has given him 2 weeks to 8 months to live. I'm spending a lot of time with him and also have switched him to a low carb, raw diet. I'm hoping it will stabilize his blood sugar a little. He's now on Pred and Phenobarbital. I'm preparing to take Quinn into Rally Advanced this spring. He's doing very nicely.

May 2009

Quinn and I competed in RA at the Seward County Kennel Club Show at the end of April. We earned our first two legs with a 90 on Saturday and a 97 on Sunday. Sunday we earned first place. We've been practicing the jump, but I got a little nervous and instead of telling him to 'look' at the jump. I said 'Watch' which he did, as he ran right into it.The judge said later, he's never seen a dog run into a jump before, evidently he's never seen a dog who had good attention and trusted his handler. Quinn did the jump on the second try. I've been working a little with Missy in Agility and we went to an outdoor Agility trial in Omaha the first weekend in May. She left the ring all four times. I was afraid she might jump the very low ring gates, but she found little holes to run through. She didn't really quit working (though the judge whistled us off) she was just too full of energy.

I now have another Aussie named Ketch. He was returned to his breeder, because he was unable to herd cattle. He was then given to a family, who decided they didn't have time for him. He's about 18 month old, and looks like a Border Collie mix, though I have his AKC papers. He's never really been in a house. He's learned stairs and house training. The one major issue is he chases cats. I'm working with him, still not sure if I'm going to keep him or place him.

June 2009

I had planned on taking all the Aussies to Vermillion for the SVKC show and then camping afterwards, but I've been diagnosed with a stress fracture in my foot. So no hiking, I've sent my entries in so I'm going to go ahead and compete in Vermillion. On Saturday 6-20 Danny was having serious trouble standing, and he was vomiting pretty badly. I took him to the vet pretty sure that this was the end. They gave me hope and said it might be just a bacterial infection. Sunday morning he was still breathing, but unresponsive, I think he just had a series of small seizures all night and it was too much for him.

Rest In Peace, Danny!

Eatinrocks Sunshine Dancer RN CGC

2000-2009

July 2009

I took my sister, her Aussie, Ketch, Quinn and a friends Border Collie to the SVKC show in South Dakota. Quinn earned his final leg for his RA on Saturday 6-27 with a 95 and Second Place. He earned an insurance leg on Sunday with a 94 and Second place again.

My sister and her dog Lacey, earned their final two legs for their RA as well.

Overall it was a bittersweet weekend. I missed Danny very much.

Where has time gone? July Trials in Omaha

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted last!
Quinn earned his RN title at the Qwest Center in July. It was a huge show and he didn't do as well as he has in the past.
He was very upset when he saw Bazz, a Siberian Husky and a Doberman playing together before we went into the ring. He barked at them in an attempt to get them to stop. He was frightened of the row of small dogs in the grooming area barking every time a dog walked by their crates and I was caught unaware and didn't spend much time warming him up or getting his attention. We got a 93 because he spent the first 5 obstacles settling down and focusing on me.
Overall it could have been much worse. When we went into the ring with all the other qualifiers, he was NOT upset by the clapping or the other dogs in the ring. Back at Seward he was very upset by the 'uncontrolled' dogs in the ring with him.
I also entered Missy in Agility and handled my sister's Siberian in conformation and Papillon in Agility.
Missy went into the Novice Jumpers ring and because of poor handling on my part we got a wrong course.
When we went into the Novice Standard ring she did very well until we reached the chute. She ran in then came back out, I sent her in and she got to the fabric then backed out. I sent her again (3rd Refusal) and stood over the end calling her until she came out. The only thing I can figure is they were using small sandbags in the chute and she's never seen them before. Another thing to train for.
After she came out of the chute she basically had lost her mind and was not quite to zoomies, but certainly was not listening to me. When she blew past a jump and hit the A-frame in a wrong course I called her and we left the ring. For much of the rest of the weekend, she did better in Jumpers than Standard. Though she never left the ring, and she came to me when I called her. Obviously we weren't quite ready to compete.