They are all so different!

I'm having loads of fun teaching Chaos things, he learns really quickly and just has bags of character. I decided long before I got him that I wanted to do shaping with him, I have done little bits of it with the others but it wasn't their main method of training. I read loads of books, watched DVDs etc and then he arrived, I shaped a sit and a down and then that was it. For a few weeks we only really worked on those things and I did think about not continuing with it but we got back on track and we now have a nose touch on the floor when lying down (not on command) we are working on left and right and over the past two days we have been working on going around a cone. I'm glad I decided to pick it up again with him, he does seem to learn things quicker that way.

Anyway yesterday he had 2 short sessions with the cone, today was session 3 and he is now going round the cone and coming back, im so pleased with the clever little man. He is quite sensitive and really thinks things through before doing them and he has to make sure he has eaten all crumbs before trying again! The clip below is from our session today, its not great but its hard to watch the puppy, hold the phone, click and reward but you get the idea!

After training Chaos so successfully I thought id give it a go with the others, it never hurts them to learn new things. They are all so different though in how they learn and things they offer. Brenda has done no shaping at all, she didn't even acknowledge that there was a cone in front of her she just sat and stared at me, I then tried releasing her from the sit with an OK and she then went over and sniffed the cone. Obviously she got a click but we have yet to progress from a nose touch on it.

Heidi as you can imagine is wild when she does any sort of training, she sprinted out to it laid down next to it at first but within less than 20 seconds she was running out and around it and back to me.

Kody at first tried his routine of lie down, nose touch the floor, cross his legs and sit but then did sniff and paw at it, again no further than that.

Brian...he has never got the idea of shaping, he thinks he has to knock over any object we use so he ran out knocked over the cone and ran back.

Probably not the most interesting post really but im really enjoying learning a new training method and hopefully Chaos will continue to as well so just thought id share our training :)

Bank Holiday Beach Fun

We decided we would take the dogs to the beach over the weekend, we didnt think Brenda had been before and obviously Chaos hadn't either. After checking the weather forcast it looked like Friday was going to be the better day so off we went.

Brian, Heidi and Kody get so excited when you pull up on the car park and if someone else is getting excited about something Brenda gets excited too as it must be good! So 4 very excited big dogs and Chaos who thinks life is great anyway were a bit of a handful to walk from the car park to the beach, even with two of us!

Brian did his usual bomburst to the sea, he was just like a black dot in the distance. Heidi, Kody and Brenda had a good sprint around on the sand and I had Chaos on a flexi lead (didn't want him floating away to sea!)

Well Brenda and Chaos loved the beach, the both got straight in the sea with the other 3. I was amazed at how Heidi and Kody are so much more confident in water now, they were both at times as far out as Brian. Brenda loves a swim, so she joined Brian in the deeper bits quite a lot. Chaos just got straight in there, hoping over the little waves and sitting down in the water (no problems for hydro there then!)

We had a good walk along the edge of the water and headed back to the van, all 5 were shattered on the way back and walked really nicely! It has taken pretty much until today for Brian to recover, where he has absolutely no self control he just runs until he is shattered but his legs cant cope with it so he has been a bit stiff, he has just had a few short trips around the paddock to keep him mobile. He seems back to normal today though.

Back to work tomorrow :( ...

Time Flies

Chaos is 12 weeks old today, I can't believe where the time has gone! He is such a good puppy, (although he does have an obsession with my shoes!), he sleeps through the night now without any fuss, his toilet training has been going very well and he has mastered sit and down. We are working on a few other bits too. He had has his second injection now so can go out and about and I weighed him this morning and he is 7.30kg. Chaos and Brenda are the best of friends, they just want to play all of the time. It is like having 2 puppies in the house, they are very entertaining and have certainly livened things up around here!

Brian and Heidi seem ok with Chaos now, in small doses anyway, Kody is getting a bit better, Chaos really want to play with Kody, he does a little bark and runs away but Kody isn't quite sure yet. Im sure he will get used to him.

I have got 2 weeks off work at the moment, well Im coming to the end of it now, I go back on Tuesday. We were meant to be off to TAG followed by Adams show but had to change our plans. My car has been broken for a good few weeks now and we had hoped it would be fixed this week so we stayed home (it's not). I did go to TAG on Saturday though last week and the plan was for us to still go to Adams this weekend. It looks like Heidi is going to come into season any day now and id rather not get all the way there and it then to happen so we have decided to just spend the bank holiday here.

Last saturday at TAG Chaos got to meet up with his brother Basil. They had a good play and they were really funny, Basil is a confident little man too, it was nice to see them together. Chaos met quite a few dogs and was more than happy to say hello and took treats off loads of strangers, including 2 little girls whose knees he ended up sitting on!

Heidi had 2 very wild runs and one very good 'nearly' run, her naughty mummy told her right not left so she went in the wrong end of the tunnel!!! Kody only ran in 1 class, all 3 he was entered in were very difficult, lots of crazy sharp entries to contacts and lots of people complaining so we just picked the best of the 3 and did that, it didn't go great!

We don't have any more shows booked now, I had taken September off as I knew Heidi was due in season then but we plan this year to keep doing shows over the winter rather than take a total break, it will be good to keep Chaos used to a show environment.

Ive added a few new photos at the bottom of the doggies, taken over the last couple of weeks.

Adams Agility Show

We arrived late on Thursday afternoon at the show, was given our pitch number and then  we got stuck and had to be towed on as the ground was very wet underneath. Not a great start. We did have a very good ringside pitch though.

The show was a lovely relaxed show, the dogs only ran on Friday and Sunday as I was judging on Saturday.

Heidi has been terrible all weekend, not sure what has got into her,  especially as she ran so well the week before at Scunthorpe. I don't actually think she got to complete a course all weekend!

After last weekends madness, Kody was a very good boy this weekend with only the odd mistake here and there. He had a pole in jumping on Friday and in his agility class took the DW not the tunnel (lots of dogs had done that) and yesterday just a refusal in jumping.

Why is it one week one is good and one mad and the next week they swap over! Cant they both be good at the same time?! (Not mad at the same time though please!)

On saturday I shared my judging with Jackie. I had veteran jumping and Medium and Large 1-4 jumping. It was an interesting experience, the veteran class ran very well and it was so nice to see the older dogs having a great time. I set the same course for the Med and Large dogs but spread the jumps out a little more for the large ones so that they could have a really good run. I didn't think I had set a particularly difficult course and I thought Id have had more clears than there were, it was also interesting to see that the bulk of the clears that I did get that were in the placings were ABC dogs. I guess that when you plan a course you think of what you would like to do and set something that suits your own dogs, in my case Mali's. I enjoyed watching Natalie and Reno run my course as they ran it how I imagined it in my head!

After lunch Jackie took over judging but the show was so short of helpers me and Conor went back over to the ring and helped for the afternoon along with a few people who had helped all morning. We were very grateful to those that helped on our ring.

Below are my two courses:

Chaos is growing rapidly and really coming out of his shell, he is so much more confident and is starting to recognise people now, he gets very excited to see Jackie! Yesterday he got to play with a little Bulldog puppy and they really seemed to like each other, playing chase and wrestling, they were very entertaining to watch!

Happy 5th Birthday Kody Bear!!!!

Scunthorpe Show

Even though it is only about 16 miles from home we decided to camp at Scunthorpe show, mainly to give Chaos a better socialising experience.  He was a very good boy, he is quite confident. He remembered Jackie and met lots of other new people and dogs and was more than happy to say hello which was good.

Kody was very naughty this weekend with his runs, he was back to the crazy barking. In 2 classes yesterday he didn't even get past the 3rd obstacle before having to be taken out as he just kept barking. Today he was a little better but did start barking, we managed to compete the run but he really wasn't concentrating at all on what he was meant to be doing. I really don't know what to do with him as he has been so good for the past few shows.

Heidi was a very good girl this weekend. It was the first time her and Conor had run together since March, they haven't really done done any training either. There were hardly any poles down all in any of her classes. Today she had a really good run in Lucy Osborne's Comb 3-5 agility class, just coming out of her weaves (which is becoming an issue that needs some work) and having a naughty DW contact but all the poles were UP! She did well in the Adams Derby too but naughty daddy got lost and got her eliminated. Lots of positives to bring away from the weekend and things to work on this week as we actually plan to do some training!

We also want to say well done to Lucy and Stig who won G3 Agility yesterday! Well done!!!