Might as well do one blog post as I was a bit slack and didn't do an update from the weekend.
Saturday miss Kenzie went duck herding at the canine grounds. I will get around to uploading some video of the weekend eventually however she wasn't entirely sure what to think of the duckies. She shows interest in wanting to do something with them but was quickly moved out of the HT/HIC area into the PT area when she wanted to keep further off her stock. Once in the PT area she would almost get to the heads but didn't quite have enough confidence to go all the way. Never mind hopefully we will get back on some sheep and then try ducks again at another training day. Was a good day out though and she does enjoy her herding.
Tonight we had training at CBS as per usual for a Monday night. Another night of CGC award exercises. I have to say I think both Deb and I were very surprised at how far she had come tonight with all of the exercises.
I am especially proud of her with the walking through a crowd drill. They had a class with dogs, so lots of strangers that she had never met, other strange people walking past, calling out, laughing etc. Deb asked if I wanted to even attempt it and she said if Kenzie started getting too stressed she would stop it. Well I went in with a lets just see attitude and OMG I am so proud of my little girl. Sure I ended up feeding her nearly constantly but she was eating the food, not freezing up, continuing to walk and barely acknowledging the people, she even had a slight prance in her gait. This is the same little girl who would normally freeze up and try and pull me as far away from activity as she can get. The lead didn't go tight at all the entire time and she was able to focus on me and function. Yee Har :). Her obedience trialling career might not be totally without question.
Her stays were a bit questionable tonight she wasn't relaxed and seemed perched ready for a release command.
She managed the vet exam without to many hassles. Not happy but she stands there and lets them do what they need to. Deb was also able to hold her lead and me disappear out of sight and she wasn't unduely stressed.
The only thing that was bothering me tonight was she was a bit resource guardy towards other dogs who encroached on our space while she was working or paying attention to me. I put that down to the fact she was a bit stressed with what we were doing and she was trying her hardest to earn her treats.
She did some nice agility jumping for me prior to class as well as a few sendaways to the box. I have discovered if I reward her by throwing the toy then she is less likely to hang off my sleeve and happer driving forward then if I reward her with a tug toy. Will see how that goes on Wednesday night at agility.
A very good night for my little baby girl :). Might be hope for her yet.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
16 Month Agility Update
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.
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.
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
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Gepps Cross Mock Obedience Trial and other weekend news.....
The main reason for this post is to have a bit of a brag about Kenzie's performance in the mock obedience trial today however I thought I would also mention the fact that we trotted off out to the DogsSA show grounds yesterday for a bit more work on socialising Kenzie.
Caught up with Lyndsay and Holly (and Lyndsay's boyfriend James). I thought Kenzie did a great job at the show with not spooking to much. She was entirely happy but she was taking treats from both Lyndsay and her boyfriend without trying to hide behind my legs so we are making slow progress.
Any way off we went to the mock trial today held at Gepps Cross. Kenzie has been to the grounds once before when she was tiny (this time last year when I trialled Ness). I was tossing up between doing CCD and Novice with her but the decision was pretty much made for me when I discovered a huge number of CCD dogs had arrived and not so many Novice dogs. Kenzie was 10th in Novice. As I didn't know I was suppose to take desexing certificates they both had to be vetted and she coped ok with me holding her - again progress. The novice judge today was Neil MacDonald. I wasn't entirely sure how Kenzie would go given her recent freaking episodes out at SAODC training with Keith. She was also a bit spooked and stressy when we first arrived however she met up with with BC buddy Fern and then when she saw Tash her tail started wagging and she seemed to perk up.
Before they started I took Kenzie over to the ring, armed with my clicker, treats and her tuggy lead. I did a lot of C/Ting for having her look at Neil and also look at the stewards. I spent time just playing tug with her outside and chatting to various people. She seemed to be coping really very well. It was good fortune that one of the stewards in our ring was Danielle from SAODC with Holly (and her GSD who's name escapes me right this moment) so at least I didn't have to be too concerned about her spooking at the steward during a figure 8 as it was somebody she knows pretty well.
I then took her back to her crate and crated both her and Ness together for a while. I wasn't too sure about how stressy Kenzie was so I took her off again later and played some 2 toy game with her mini i-squeaks off to one side of the oval. She got pretty heavily involved in that game so I figured I would put her in the ring and see what happened.
Took her over while the dog before was in and we just tugged and played and rough housed. I didn't ask for her to heel into the ring but we tugged our way to the start peg.
I am over the moon with how she performed. It wasn't squeakie technically clean but her errors were genuine "green" dog errors rather than stress related and considering her performance the other Tuesday evening I was soooo happy for her.
Her heelwork was nice. I need to do more work on positions, turns, changes of pace, duration, figure 8s but hey its the longest heel pattern she has done and only the third proper "called" heel pattern we have worked together. I think I was walking a bit to fast and probably could have slowed up a tad with her but I am use to having to walk faster to keep Ness enthused. She did some lovely positions, gave me good attention and if she had crumbled at that point I would have said she had progressed. She was happy to play with her tuggy toy and race after her ball as a reward for her heelwork at the end. I also wasn't having to carry food in my left hand today and was able to have it in my right hand/pocket and reward.
I didn't take my chance by even attempting a stand for exam today so we moved on to a recall. Her halt on the first recall was lovely. She anticipated the command to come but I wasn't to fussed. She had never done one that long before and at least she was keen. I called her to me and rewarded a very nice front. She has a tendency to bounce up at me and throw herself in my lap if she breaks. We went back and tried it again. This time the halt was a bit off and then she went to anticipate coming with me when I left. Took a step back and rewarded the sit before leaving again. This time she waited and came when I called her. Nice present. The judge then said finish your dog and I gave her a command to "heel" with the hand signal. Well duh she hasn't been taught the word heel and I haven't really taught a finish to her yet. She has a flip finish on the command "close" but its not a particularly accurate finish. Reason I haven't taught a around the back finish is because of the GD conflict with agility so I have been undecided about what to do.
Retrieve next. She heeled up and sat nicely. Waited till I threw the DB. Then she got a bit confused. I don't think her brain registered the first time that she was suppose to go and fetch the DB. I gave a second signal she went off after it and returned to a front position with a sit - yee har but then stood up as I took the DB.
The best was yet to come. She did an absolutely gorgeous COP drop. I was worried as Neil left the dog down for what seemed like an enternity before asking the handler to return around behind but Kenzie stayed put. Was a bit distracted but none the less completed the exercise correctly and promptly.
I am so thrilled of my little munchkin's performance. Todays performance gives me hope that I will manage to put an obedience title on her without having her lose the plot in the ring. While we have a long way to go on a stand for exam at least she can hold the rest of the work together, at grounds which she isn't super familiar with and with a strange judge putting us through a pattern. As I said before her errors were just green novice dog errors not stress related errors.
So enough of the chatter - here is the video........
Caught up with Lyndsay and Holly (and Lyndsay's boyfriend James). I thought Kenzie did a great job at the show with not spooking to much. She was entirely happy but she was taking treats from both Lyndsay and her boyfriend without trying to hide behind my legs so we are making slow progress.
Any way off we went to the mock trial today held at Gepps Cross. Kenzie has been to the grounds once before when she was tiny (this time last year when I trialled Ness). I was tossing up between doing CCD and Novice with her but the decision was pretty much made for me when I discovered a huge number of CCD dogs had arrived and not so many Novice dogs. Kenzie was 10th in Novice. As I didn't know I was suppose to take desexing certificates they both had to be vetted and she coped ok with me holding her - again progress. The novice judge today was Neil MacDonald. I wasn't entirely sure how Kenzie would go given her recent freaking episodes out at SAODC training with Keith. She was also a bit spooked and stressy when we first arrived however she met up with with BC buddy Fern and then when she saw Tash her tail started wagging and she seemed to perk up.
Before they started I took Kenzie over to the ring, armed with my clicker, treats and her tuggy lead. I did a lot of C/Ting for having her look at Neil and also look at the stewards. I spent time just playing tug with her outside and chatting to various people. She seemed to be coping really very well. It was good fortune that one of the stewards in our ring was Danielle from SAODC with Holly (and her GSD who's name escapes me right this moment) so at least I didn't have to be too concerned about her spooking at the steward during a figure 8 as it was somebody she knows pretty well.
I then took her back to her crate and crated both her and Ness together for a while. I wasn't too sure about how stressy Kenzie was so I took her off again later and played some 2 toy game with her mini i-squeaks off to one side of the oval. She got pretty heavily involved in that game so I figured I would put her in the ring and see what happened.
Took her over while the dog before was in and we just tugged and played and rough housed. I didn't ask for her to heel into the ring but we tugged our way to the start peg.
I am over the moon with how she performed. It wasn't squeakie technically clean but her errors were genuine "green" dog errors rather than stress related and considering her performance the other Tuesday evening I was soooo happy for her.
Her heelwork was nice. I need to do more work on positions, turns, changes of pace, duration, figure 8s but hey its the longest heel pattern she has done and only the third proper "called" heel pattern we have worked together. I think I was walking a bit to fast and probably could have slowed up a tad with her but I am use to having to walk faster to keep Ness enthused. She did some lovely positions, gave me good attention and if she had crumbled at that point I would have said she had progressed. She was happy to play with her tuggy toy and race after her ball as a reward for her heelwork at the end. I also wasn't having to carry food in my left hand today and was able to have it in my right hand/pocket and reward.
I didn't take my chance by even attempting a stand for exam today so we moved on to a recall. Her halt on the first recall was lovely. She anticipated the command to come but I wasn't to fussed. She had never done one that long before and at least she was keen. I called her to me and rewarded a very nice front. She has a tendency to bounce up at me and throw herself in my lap if she breaks. We went back and tried it again. This time the halt was a bit off and then she went to anticipate coming with me when I left. Took a step back and rewarded the sit before leaving again. This time she waited and came when I called her. Nice present. The judge then said finish your dog and I gave her a command to "heel" with the hand signal. Well duh she hasn't been taught the word heel and I haven't really taught a finish to her yet. She has a flip finish on the command "close" but its not a particularly accurate finish. Reason I haven't taught a around the back finish is because of the GD conflict with agility so I have been undecided about what to do.
Retrieve next. She heeled up and sat nicely. Waited till I threw the DB. Then she got a bit confused. I don't think her brain registered the first time that she was suppose to go and fetch the DB. I gave a second signal she went off after it and returned to a front position with a sit - yee har but then stood up as I took the DB.
The best was yet to come. She did an absolutely gorgeous COP drop. I was worried as Neil left the dog down for what seemed like an enternity before asking the handler to return around behind but Kenzie stayed put. Was a bit distracted but none the less completed the exercise correctly and promptly.
I am so thrilled of my little munchkin's performance. Todays performance gives me hope that I will manage to put an obedience title on her without having her lose the plot in the ring. While we have a long way to go on a stand for exam at least she can hold the rest of the work together, at grounds which she isn't super familiar with and with a strange judge putting us through a pattern. As I said before her errors were just green novice dog errors not stress related errors.
So enough of the chatter - here is the video........
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Busy Busy Busy
Well lets see its been a while since I have had a chance to post. What with agility training, obedience training and now herding training to fit in I just don't know where to start.
Agility first.
Lets see her progress with her weaving has been out of this world. Tonight she was comfortably and with a high degree of reliability nailing 12 club base plated weavers as well as doing 12 stick in the ground weavers with both left and right side entries. I am so pleased with her progress and even Ness trying to get in the way tonight didn't phase her one little bit. She was funny as I was standing around at a fair distance to the weavers and thought I would see what she would do - well she ran under the jump but continued on and nailed the weavers driving hard right through to the end. Very pleased. She did a bit of work on a low scramble and also the end of the dogwalk but I do need to actually do more concentrated effort then just mucking around mostly with Ness at the same time. Her jump grid work when we have done it has been good. She seems to read her jumps well and adjusts her stride a lot better than Ness does.
She will also now go through a chute tunnel and we have been doing some work on the tyre. She will sequence a tunnel and the table together but I would like a down on the table so will need to work on that. Jumping as part of a sequence is still a work in progress as she tends to want to turn and spin back at me or run past the jump.
Obedience.
Hmmm well she can work very nicely. She is quite happy doing the novice exercises and can do them well apart from her issue with people. She is technically very precise and an absolute joy. She has a lovely recall, good retrieve, nice COP drop. Need to do some more work on duration heelwork and also positions and turns.
Now to the lastest activity - Herding!!!!
We trekked down to Meadows to attend a herding clinic run by Cass Robertson as a part of a Dogs SA herding session.
Kenzie (and Ness) had an absolute ball. Any way Kenzie's first shot she wasn't sure what to do. I had to grab the sheep and run backwards with them and play with the sheep. Man I got a good fitness work out running backwards with a sheep uphill. Towards the end of the turn she started switching on though so I figured I would stay around until they did the second turns after lunch.
The video of her first turn in the pen is posted below:
On her second turn, whenever she looked like switching off all I had to do was take a couple of steps towards the sheep and she would circle behind them. So much less having to play with the sheep.
I have no clue what I am suppose to be doing which probably doesn't help anything however she was doing really well at bringing the sheep to me.
The trainer thought if she did that she would quite happily pass an instinct test and thought she definitely had a lot of potential and it was worth putting the time and money into her if I wanted to go down that path.
So now I am trying to make a decision about entering the instinct test Saturday week. Think I will probably enter and see what happens. We would have passed the first time so I would assume she should be ok now but guess time will tell.
Agility first.
Lets see her progress with her weaving has been out of this world. Tonight she was comfortably and with a high degree of reliability nailing 12 club base plated weavers as well as doing 12 stick in the ground weavers with both left and right side entries. I am so pleased with her progress and even Ness trying to get in the way tonight didn't phase her one little bit. She was funny as I was standing around at a fair distance to the weavers and thought I would see what she would do - well she ran under the jump but continued on and nailed the weavers driving hard right through to the end. Very pleased. She did a bit of work on a low scramble and also the end of the dogwalk but I do need to actually do more concentrated effort then just mucking around mostly with Ness at the same time. Her jump grid work when we have done it has been good. She seems to read her jumps well and adjusts her stride a lot better than Ness does.
She will also now go through a chute tunnel and we have been doing some work on the tyre. She will sequence a tunnel and the table together but I would like a down on the table so will need to work on that. Jumping as part of a sequence is still a work in progress as she tends to want to turn and spin back at me or run past the jump.
Obedience.
Hmmm well she can work very nicely. She is quite happy doing the novice exercises and can do them well apart from her issue with people. She is technically very precise and an absolute joy. She has a lovely recall, good retrieve, nice COP drop. Need to do some more work on duration heelwork and also positions and turns.
Now to the lastest activity - Herding!!!!
We trekked down to Meadows to attend a herding clinic run by Cass Robertson as a part of a Dogs SA herding session.
Kenzie (and Ness) had an absolute ball. Any way Kenzie's first shot she wasn't sure what to do. I had to grab the sheep and run backwards with them and play with the sheep. Man I got a good fitness work out running backwards with a sheep uphill. Towards the end of the turn she started switching on though so I figured I would stay around until they did the second turns after lunch.
The video of her first turn in the pen is posted below:
On her second turn, whenever she looked like switching off all I had to do was take a couple of steps towards the sheep and she would circle behind them. So much less having to play with the sheep.
I have no clue what I am suppose to be doing which probably doesn't help anything however she was doing really well at bringing the sheep to me.
The trainer thought if she did that she would quite happily pass an instinct test and thought she definitely had a lot of potential and it was worth putting the time and money into her if I wanted to go down that path.
So now I am trying to make a decision about entering the instinct test Saturday week. Think I will probably enter and see what happens. We would have passed the first time so I would assume she should be ok now but guess time will tell.
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