A Hard Day's Knight

Long day for me, and for Mr. Knight too :) He's currently out cold in my lap. I had him outside in his ex-pen the majority of the morning while Lil chilled in the grass and I got to work with some PVC pipe and scraps.

I made a small teeter with the old teeter board. It's older and curving, but it gets the basic idea down, it's like a full length tippy board :D Along with that I build two small puppy jumps that are about 2" off the ground. And took my two adjustable jumps down to about an inch off the ground. So now Knight has quite a few things in his mini course. I'm being very careful with the jumping. Not pushing it since he obviously won't need training to teach him to jump lol.

He's fast as a bullet, he's gonna give me a run for my money haha. I'm thinking Charlie and Knight will probably get into Dog Sports Fundamentals before I head out for OWLES. Maybe starting in May? then a break from Mid June through Mid July and pick up with Foundations 1 when I get back. Then he'll be 9 months in Foundation 1 and 10 months when the start to introduce the weave poles in Foundations 2.

This week I'm getting him back into Show Handling Classes hopefully lol. Mandy is coming home but that shouldn't affect our Class at all. Gotta work some more on our heeling, along with sits, downs, waits, and nose touches this week :)

Here's The Video of March 2010 Agility Training (Both Lil and Knight)

Lilly and Knight- Agility March 2010 from Grey Hound on Vimeo.

Petite Pooches- Level 1- Week 3

Another good week at class. This weeks main focus was farther foundation on the recalls, loose lead heeling, foundation for leave it, and "wait at the gate".

Knight got distracted by the fuzzballs during the second recall, but he was pretty good with the first. Everything else he did with ease. His waits are getting pretty solid along with his release. And I'm very happy with the progress on his sits, downs, and rise. Need to work on the transition from down to sit. and from down to rise before I'm ready to drop the reinforcement rate.

Today I also introduced him to the tippy board, I actually need to slow him down a bit on that haha. By the time he gets to the tipping point he's really to bound right off. Much different to the dancing around I had to do with Lilly. This boy is confident and thinks flying around is much more suitable than walking. So I'll be sanding that up that weekend, once I get two more rollers and have it just like a mini teeter.

His stand for exam is shaping up nicely, Currently I've been doing up to three pats before I treat. I'm going to start working on building up having one of the sibling come over and do the petting.

I'll be sure to snap some pictures this weekend :)

Petite Pooch- Level 1- Week 2

Knight is still the star of the class :) The little goof-ball haha. This week we showed off our progress on the sits, downs, and the name game. Then she introduced the start of recalls, loose lead walking, and hand touches.

Knight is still a bit skiddish with the barking and seems to be... very submissive I guess with other people. Flopping around on the floor a bit and dashing back to me after he got treats. It looks like I need to get him out and about a bit more. Next week I'll be starting up show handling again so that should help.

I let Knight play in the tunnel again today and did some go-outs with a pole in the ground. I need to remember that Knight is not Lilly. Just because he did the tunnel once does not mean that he knows it. So I really gotta keep that reinforcement rate high. I'll start setting out a target for him and sending him out to the tunnel this coming week.

So, things we need to work on.
-Stand for exam
-loose lead heeling
-nose touches (pretty solid, but more work never kills anyone)
-RECALLS
-Straight tunnel. Different entries, keep it short, fast, and fun.
-Grooming (As tasty as they may look, brushes are not for eating)
-More Crate Games
-Laying quiet gets you out of your ex-pen/crate
-Informal retrieves
-Rollover (started it this past week)
-Back up

Pawsabilities 2010

As far as first matches go, I couldn't of asked for a better one. This one was very small, only two dogs in the toy group and maybe 20 dogs there total. Very low stress for Mr. DK. He was a bit distracted by the echoes of barks from different parts of the building and wanted to climb all over the judge instead of stand still but overall I'm very pleased with the days turn of events.

I need to crack down on his table work a bit, standing still while people touch him and getting more comfortable with me stacking him. We have a good 4 weeks till our next match which is more than enough time to shapen up a bit.

Tomorrow we're off to a playdate with Charles, I'll be sure to snap some pictures and get some video this time around.

Level 1 Class: Week 1

So, We worked on our marker word, their name, sits, and downs. Everything Mr. DK already knows, but it was a good chance to work on our focus in a new place with new distractions.

Knight currently reacts to other dogs barking. He gets nervous and tries to get up in my lap away from the noise, or runs behind me. At show handling last week he was also very wary of the Irish Water Spaniel behind us.

So We've got alot of work to do there... just getting him more comfortable around other dogs that actually want to see him. Since Lilly aka "Casey" (mom's nickname for her, from the show Chuck) does everything to avoid confrontation with him. Then just stiffens up and growls and he wacks her in the face with his paws x_x

I've been working on informal retrieving, tossing out a ball, then trading the ball for a treat when he comes running back. Started to introduce the heel posistion, and now I really need to get to work on his crate behavior more.

I'm going to start cracking down on outside potty work this coming week. With me he's been great with using his litter box, now it's time to work on the outdoor stuff, as I really don't want to drag a litter box with me everywhere lol.

His crate manners need some MAJOR work, as he was horrible at agility class last week, now he's prety good with his ex-pen manners, time to shape up that crate.

His Conformation Match is tomorrow! So Booger boy needs a bath today, I'm a little nervous, but also very excited. :)

And it takes my breath away, what you do so naturally