My little midget dog is officially 16 months next Tuesday were has the time gone. She is growing up oh so quickly. In just over 2 months she could conceivably enter her first agility trial!!!!
Any way just back in from agility training and since I have neglected to do any agility related updates for a while to my blog I thought I would give a run down on what we have been up to.
Her weavers are fantastic. She really drives hard and is pretty good at nailing her 12 poles. She can do both the base plated weavers and the stick in the ground type poles although she is still having issues with the stick in the ground ones. Her right hand side poles are lovely but I need to put in more work with her left hand side as she tends to skip poles in the middle. Has no problems nailing entries 90% of the time.
Tonight I set up Susan Salo's Circle of Death exercise since Sue guru suggested I give it a shot. Kenzie did it easily in both directions as did her bigger sister Ness. So much for my thoughts which were nah she couldn't do that.
We spent some time shaping a down on the table. She will now offer going up and laying down and the best bit is all the down maintain work with no additional commands I have done for obedience translated nicely across to a very solid down on the table. She would only jump off if given her release command. Yee Har clever Kenzie.
I did some figure 8's around a tyre and a bar as well as a simple table, bar, bar, tunnel, bar exercise. She let me do a lead out to the tunnel while she stayed in a drop on the table.
She is a bundle of fun and very driven. I have to watch that she doesn't get frustrated though as she is a bit opinionated and likes to vocalise her way around the sequences, the consequence of this is she stops listening and focusing on the task and just focuses on biting me.
Any way she is doing wonderfully. Now I just need to get stuck into teaching contacts which at the moment are the only thing she hasn't really started.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
CBS Training 27 July 09 - CGC Class
Went to training at CBS as per are normal Monday night training. I have been a bit lazy with putting Kenzie into class recently and since our usual IMPROV class is no long running we had the choice of attending either Deb's CGC Award class or Ilona's Freestyle. Not particularly keen on freestyle so I decided I would join the CGC Award class with Kenzie. Thought there were lots of benefits for her even though its not quite so formal.
The CGC exercises consist of a series of 10 separate exercises and we worked through each of the exercises in turn. These exercises including accepting a friendly stranger, sitting politely for petting, apperance and grooming, out for a walk, walking through a crowd, sit and drop on request/staying in place, coming when called, reaction to another dog, reaction to distractions and finally supervised separation.
First up we did the out for a out for a walk exercise where we had to walk with a pretend shopping bag having the dogs on loose leads and then wait at a gate until we were ready to let them out. Kenzie didn't do to badly with this exercise considering her sled dog tendencies on normal walks at the moment. No pulling at all. Need to work on more control at the gate though as my criteria isn't definite enough which is inconsistent of me as she has definite gate/door/crate criteria at home and when we are out.
Second exercise we did was the appearance and grooming. I was feeding her heaps but she let Deb examine her, check teeth, pick up her paw without stressing too much.
We worked on accepting a friendly stranger and sitting politely for petting. Kenzie was pretty good with the approach and she allowed the stranger to touch her all the while I was feeding treats. Lots of LAT game with her from the CU book and I think its paying off
We did a controlled walk with having the dog stop at a pretend street curb then cross under control then left turn, a 360 around the post and then back to a drop. Not bad.
Next up we did a bit of walking through a crowd with the other class members being the crowd. Deb pushed a trolley through. We were under the verandah so Kenzie was a bit spooky with the sounds however she was doing ok and not totally losing the plot.
The rest of the class then did reaction to a distraction with a cardboard box being dropped on the ground 1m behind the dog. I didn't do it with Kenzie as Deb thought it would be to much but I still paid her when she heard the sound of the box drop.
Off over to Bev's class for walking through a crowd. The rest of the class had the handlers waving, calling out but for Kenzie Deb just got them to move around. She was a bit spooky but taking treats and recovering pretty well with more LAT game. She was ok to look at the person and then it was back to me for a treat. Nice recovery time and at no time did she stop taking treats from me.
We also did coming when called (although Kenzie wouldn't leave me alone) and then revving the dog up and leaving them in a stay, walking away and returning.
I need to do plenty more stay work with her at the moment as she has decided she needs to heel with me or follow rather than stay put.
Kenzie did ok with the supervised separation exercise. Deb said she was a bit unsure but when offered a treat ate it and went back to waiting for me.
Any way it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and there is a lot of benefit for Kenzie participating and it was great to see that she has improved to the level she has. Fun class.
The CGC exercises consist of a series of 10 separate exercises and we worked through each of the exercises in turn. These exercises including accepting a friendly stranger, sitting politely for petting, apperance and grooming, out for a walk, walking through a crowd, sit and drop on request/staying in place, coming when called, reaction to another dog, reaction to distractions and finally supervised separation.
First up we did the out for a out for a walk exercise where we had to walk with a pretend shopping bag having the dogs on loose leads and then wait at a gate until we were ready to let them out. Kenzie didn't do to badly with this exercise considering her sled dog tendencies on normal walks at the moment. No pulling at all. Need to work on more control at the gate though as my criteria isn't definite enough which is inconsistent of me as she has definite gate/door/crate criteria at home and when we are out.
Second exercise we did was the appearance and grooming. I was feeding her heaps but she let Deb examine her, check teeth, pick up her paw without stressing too much.
We worked on accepting a friendly stranger and sitting politely for petting. Kenzie was pretty good with the approach and she allowed the stranger to touch her all the while I was feeding treats. Lots of LAT game with her from the CU book and I think its paying off
We did a controlled walk with having the dog stop at a pretend street curb then cross under control then left turn, a 360 around the post and then back to a drop. Not bad.
Next up we did a bit of walking through a crowd with the other class members being the crowd. Deb pushed a trolley through. We were under the verandah so Kenzie was a bit spooky with the sounds however she was doing ok and not totally losing the plot.
The rest of the class then did reaction to a distraction with a cardboard box being dropped on the ground 1m behind the dog. I didn't do it with Kenzie as Deb thought it would be to much but I still paid her when she heard the sound of the box drop.
Off over to Bev's class for walking through a crowd. The rest of the class had the handlers waving, calling out but for Kenzie Deb just got them to move around. She was a bit spooky but taking treats and recovering pretty well with more LAT game. She was ok to look at the person and then it was back to me for a treat. Nice recovery time and at no time did she stop taking treats from me.
We also did coming when called (although Kenzie wouldn't leave me alone) and then revving the dog up and leaving them in a stay, walking away and returning.
I need to do plenty more stay work with her at the moment as she has decided she needs to heel with me or follow rather than stay put.
Kenzie did ok with the supervised separation exercise. Deb said she was a bit unsure but when offered a treat ate it and went back to waiting for me.
Any way it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and there is a lot of benefit for Kenzie participating and it was great to see that she has improved to the level she has. Fun class.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
A Trip to the River
Only the second time in Kenzie's life that she has gone to the property and the first time she has stayed overnight. Had an absolute ball running around, chasing the bees, going exploring, racing around the place. Any way here are a few photos from the weekend.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Kenzie's Herding Instinct Test
Well we have had a busy weekend with Ness trialling in Obedience and Agility at Gawler today but since this blog is about Kenzie I will focus on her efforts at yesterdays herding trial.
Yesterday we headed out the DogsSA grounds so that Kenzie could have a go on sheep. She did two instinct tests - one under Tull from Tassie and Kristen. She was just wonderful in both. She showed nice sustained interest in the stock. The only problem was with the recall because she decided to switch on a bit too much and the stock were way more interesting then mum. Tull commented on my sheet that she hoped I continued with herding with her :).
I will hopefully get a chance to upload the videos sometime this week.
It was much better then her first time and there was certainly no lacking in confidence. Kristen said she passed in the first 20 seconds of being in the pen when she was judging.
Best part of the day was she was going up to people for pats and even allowed a strange person to pat her while she was standing. Might be hope for our obedience yet.
Today Kenzie just tagged along and did some socialising. I also got the opportunity to get an unofficial height measure on her and she presently measures 430 so I think we can safely say she will end up jumping 400 for agility :). She was a bit unsure today and spent most of the morning in her crate. Having said that she did have fun playing her cone games and doing some practice jumps outside the rings at the trial.
ETA. The videos :)
Test 1: Judge Tull Luttrell (Tassie)
Test 2: Judge Kristen Mack
Yesterday we headed out the DogsSA grounds so that Kenzie could have a go on sheep. She did two instinct tests - one under Tull from Tassie and Kristen. She was just wonderful in both. She showed nice sustained interest in the stock. The only problem was with the recall because she decided to switch on a bit too much and the stock were way more interesting then mum. Tull commented on my sheet that she hoped I continued with herding with her :).
I will hopefully get a chance to upload the videos sometime this week.
It was much better then her first time and there was certainly no lacking in confidence. Kristen said she passed in the first 20 seconds of being in the pen when she was judging.
Best part of the day was she was going up to people for pats and even allowed a strange person to pat her while she was standing. Might be hope for our obedience yet.
Today Kenzie just tagged along and did some socialising. I also got the opportunity to get an unofficial height measure on her and she presently measures 430 so I think we can safely say she will end up jumping 400 for agility :). She was a bit unsure today and spent most of the morning in her crate. Having said that she did have fun playing her cone games and doing some practice jumps outside the rings at the trial.
ETA. The videos :)
Test 1: Judge Tull Luttrell (Tassie)
Test 2: Judge Kristen Mack
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