As always the girls impress me when day after day i ask so much of them! Just a short video clip of last weekends fun time after of course a day of work. More updates to follow!
Tag Archives: obedience
St Pattys day parade
Binghamton had a huge st pattys day parade a few weeks ago on the 7th and Kara and i took the girls down to experience the mayham. The girls did wonderful, stayed focused on us through all the people, kids, other dogs, drunks, cars and floats and things being thrown in the air! It was great to see such level headed focused canines in such a high intensity environment. It was a true testament to all the de sensitizing work i’ve done in town and in stores.
Focus is the key
Eme did great with working with Kara while her mother was right behind her. She is such a flexible dog and that is a great quality if its ever necessary someone else works her or takes care of her. She was un-fazed by anything that went by and listened well to kara’s commands.
Having hard working, high drive search dogs are great, but the key is also teaching them how to “turn off” inside and how to be calm, front brained, and focused in public.
Not spring thats for sure
Woke up at 6am this morning (got to sleep in whooo hoooo) to a whoping 2 feet of snow. I couldn’t even open the back door, had to slip out and shovel off the back porch so the door could open and dogs could get out. Most didn’t want to go it was over their head but the shepherds couldn’t wait and took off clearing paths for the smaller dogs. Poor Fugly got lost in the snow banks!
With a state of emergeny in Broome County plans of in town training was demolished. Instead we played in the backyard, went on a short but tiring hike and did some small scent problems. The girls were still happy.
All in all not a bad hang around the house snow day. Man and we could see green grass yesterday…………..
Bark the same language
Speaking the language of another species is not easy, far from it. We were born with a spoken language why would we use something else? What people fail to see is we were also born with a body, and that demands much more respect than words.
TUG
Every interaction you have with a dog you use your body, either good or bad. In order to have the best communication and best relationship with your dog you have to understand what your body means and how to use it.
Words and tones make up some of our canine communication but save it for special times, times you need the dog to really listen or acknowledge you and your existence. When you work obedience or have a training session make sure your upbeat and have a happy high pitch voice, this is what dogs like and believe me their is a huge difference in the dogs behavior depending on your tone!
Remember trained dogs are happy dogs and make happy owners.
DOGS ARE ONLY AS GOOD AS THEIR OWNERS TRAIN THEM TO BE!!!! So be proud of your dogs!!!!!
Family time
Waking up to half a foot of snow at 5:45am i was torn to whether it was going to be a good day or a bad day. My focus this morning was getting some work done around the house, updating some logs, trying to stay off my sore knee and then taking to the backyard for some pictures of the pups. What may be our last big snow fall was enjoyed thoroughly by my canine companions.
snow!
crazy
We really do love winter, the snow is great, the lack of mud is even better, and its a different experience to get out there and train your dog in the winter. The chihuahua’s could do without the cold weather and the snow up past their little heads but the big dogs are pretty good at giving them worn down paths all around the back yard. We spend just as much time outside in the winter as we do in the summer and the change of seasons is always a relief. Thank you 2011 for a fun winter experience, here is to a nice dry mild temperature summer!!!!!
Strike a pose
A little of this a little of that
The weekend was busy and the girls didn’t get work everyday like they are used to. Snoopy had surgery on friday and came through it like a champ. He is recovering and doing well. This old man won’t have to worry about any more surgery for a LONG time to come.
Saturday kendal and I headed down to work with a few clients and to get her service dog “test” completed. She passed with flying colors and is just a true testament to what a rescue dog can turn into. She also spent the weekend as Life Long Tails donation dog raising money and raising awareness to what it is we do for helpless animals!!
YAY Kendal!!!
Sunday the girls finally got there day. Kara and Mika jumped in the car and we headed down to the school for some work for the girls and some good dog teaching for the kids. The kids had built a snow cave last week and we were able to get Mika and Eme on the first snow cave ever! Eme did amazing, worked the scent out great, stayed committed, and crawled all the way into the cave to find her subject. We worked on her recall, indication and refind with the snow cave as it gave a different scent picture and environment which always challenges the puppies!
My butts sticking out of the cave!!
She worked a total of almost an hour and still had to play ball all the way back to the truck with the boys. We got our excercise in walking in snow shoes the whole time!!! It was better then falling 2 feet deep into the snow drifts though!
Off to work we go!
Of course Raina needs her time too and she wow’d us all with how well she works!!! She knows her job and she knows when its about to start. I just introduced her vest in and she gets so excited to get dressed.
back talk to mom!
Raina has been lucky enough to get the perfect flawless training method where mom makes no mistakes (yet) and she has yet to have a big hang up. I know its coming, shes only 4 months old, but her nose work is natural and amazing, and her refind and indication to me is phenomenal. Of course shes pretty crazy too!!
mom mom mom i know where he is!!! mom mom mom!!!
The day was a good one. Mr felix blue the newest shepherd that we took in was introduced to cadaver and we did a few short runaways with him as well. He loves food, and loves to play ball, and loves to search!!!
Hello working world!!!
Weekend wonderland
Snow, cold temperature, and wind………..it’s defiantly still winter!! The girls didn’t care they were just happy to have some good training days ahead of them. Friday we headed to Hancock to work with the dog corp boys and get both girls some quick working problems.
My girls
Eme did great, the snow was over my knees but she plowed through like a champ and got her subject. It would have been a good refind too if mom hadn’t walked into a pricker bush and poked her eye!!! Ohhh well it was still great!
Finally done working
Saturday we moved on to building training in Vestal at an hold veterinary hospital. The girls both did amazing especially after the day down at kingston getting in building work. Eme’s most challenging problem was Kara up in the attic. She had never done an up high building before and it was great for her to learn the scent picture.
Working the person in the attick
Raina got some good problems in and her recall and indication is perfect right now. She is so smart and so drivey she just wants to work 24/7
We also added felix blue to the group on saturday and have already begun his training. Felix is a wonderful stable nerved german shepherd. You can see him and Eme at Kara’s house hanging out!!
Felix blue!!
Is this really my life?
Sometimes i stop and think, wow am i living a dream or is this really my life? Everyday is a new experience, a new lesson, a new opportunity to learn more about how best to communicate and live with dogs and exercise that every second of every day. I really do live a dream, and this weekend was a great one!
Friday was a fun day at home depot with kara and mika training and working obedience. Rainas SAR training is progressing so fast, now that i finally have a kink free method of back and forward chaining and a smooth way to teach nose work, recall, and refind, while also working her indication for a bark outside of the search work. I realize how quick she will be up and going now that i know how to do it perfectly for these shepherds.
Raina loves to tug
Eme is also doing great and while working two dogs this close in age is tough its worth every second.
Eme after her SAR problem
Saturday brought a training session with a client which was powerful and successful. It is always the best when i get to see another pack of dogs improve because of what i am teaching. It helps remind me that my understanding of canines is correct, and my communication and my foundation that i lay prior to working with a dog is what really gets them started on the right track. I’m happiest when i get to teach someone else how to have a canine co-pilot for life!
Saturday was another pack visit day, we worked on some Life Long Tails grants and got the website updated and looking pretty. We also went out and did a short problem with both girls so the other members of the rescue were able to see how it all works. April was nice enough to hide and flank me and nick did the same even though he couldn’t feel his feet!
Ok whats next?
It was another good successful find with both eme and raina getting some practice with new subjects.
Getting ready to start
Sunday came quick and 6am found the girls and I, kara and mika, and stacey in the truck headed to an old IBM builing at Tech City in Kingston. We had access to 3 floors of empty building to work some SAR problems. This was Eme and Raina’s first time doing any building work and i was BLOWN AWAY.
Eme was quick to catch on and we did a few short run aways to get her into the scent picture of a building. Air flows VERY differently in buildings especially when there was some heat and duct airflow. Eme blew through problems and delivered a perfect refind, bark indication as long as i asked, and show me back to the subject. There was NO light what so ever and the dogs were asked to work in PITCH BLACK. Eme would body slam the doors to open them and clear the room as soon as i asked her to “check” She took direction perfectly but also worked independently on her own. We worked some longer problems with her and she stayed frustration free, giving me no false indications, only pin pointing the subject, coming back to me to tell me and bringing me right back.
and....... SEARCH!
Raina was baby steps but by the end of the day she was doing short blind problems with her recall back to me. We started out by placing subject in the door to the dark room and making her bark to get in and get her reward. Then we moved to short run aways like that, then to longer run aways where she had to actually search a few rooms. Then we would place a subject and give her 3 rooms to search to find him. It was so great to see a young dog take to working scent in a difficult environment. You could hear her stack her breaths when in scent and you could watch her follow the scent cone into the subject!
Focused and ready
The holy day of the week
My girls
Sundays are another good training day with the co pilot pack. This weekend we headed down to ritas with the girls all in tow to work some of the regular obedience, socialization, and of course SAR.
hanging at the school
Raina spent some time at the school, in the gym working on recall obedience then just hanging out with the kids. We practiced her commands with a lot more distractions present and upped the requirements a little. We also did her short problems with a refind back to mom. Raina has A LOT of subject loyalty and while her indication (a bark and hold to mom) is coming along great we need to stop the game at mom for awhile to get the fast bounce back for refind.
With my ball after the find
We set up a short problem for Eme to see how her refind and indication would hold up. It turned into a bit of a mess but she found the subject, came back, indicated upon asking, and did a good show me! We solidified it with a few more short drills and let her take her prize to the top of the mountain of snow!
Both girls did great and enjoyed playing with Mika and Tank who is Raina’s brother. Another wonderful training with my good friends.
The heart swells with pride
When owning dogs you have good days and bad days, especially when you have a large pack to manage and most are working dogs that are on the path to certification. Today was a great day, a day that makes me realize that all the time, effort, love, and discipline i put into my dogs everyday is worth it. A day that makes me realize that what i do, what i teach, and what i know really is amazing.
Emeline and Raina and i started the morning out meeting Amigo SAR dog team members at Cole park. I worked eme first on a short snow burial, her first ever with a nice quick refind to remind her what we have been practicing the last few months. Then i took the plunge, i knew the last few weeks she was getting the whole concept of refind and it had been forever since the girl had a LONG problem where she had to work out scent. She was first up with an off trail problem over a mile long. As we were working she stayed close and checked back at me often, sometimes with bits of frustration, probably wondering why all of a sudden she was working so long to find her toy!
I was not sure where the subject was and only had man tracking to try to tell me when we were getting close. I wanted to make sure Eme had a successful find since it had been so long but i was worried her refind and indication would drop out like it had been a few months back. Through the first 1/2 mile i had head pops across the water towards the subject so i knew she was working good. Once we got about 250 feet down the trail prior to the subject i noticed a body language change and a pep in her step! I was about to comment i thought we were close when she head popped right and took off up the hill, after working the cone back in to the subject so got him perfect, turned around came back to me as i gave her words of encouragement, sat in front of me barked and with a “show me” we were off to the subject! PERFECT!!! We ended the problem with a 20 minute play session on the way back to the truck. We tugged, we fetched, we lost the toy a few times and found it again. It was a great mesh of working dog and working handler. I love it when all the work pays off!
We worked Raina on some small short problems and now that she knows the game we are incorporating a refind back to me starting now. Her loyalty to the subject is already unwavering so bringing it back to mom now will help any hesitation later on in training.
Pull mom PULL
After training we hit the town and made rounds to Gander Mountain, the pet store and home depot for some in store work and out of store work. My emphasis with Raina is focus in public places and work on obedience commands with distractions. She is great at tuning out any noise but kids playing in the snow was just to much so we distanced ourselves and worked our obedience at Home Depot.
FOCUS
The girls all did great and Emeline and Raina shared their truck so nicely with Bonsai and Mika during the trip. All 4 girls worked obedience for a few hours and even made some new friends and impressed some complete strangers with their obedience!
Elite Instinct K9 Training 