Practice Practice!

Cinders and Porsche had fun training with David Harris Saturday. Porsche is working on her grips and Cinders and I are working on her Sch2 routine. Depending on how things go this next week, Cinders and I may be traveling to Warrensburg, MO to compete for her Sch 2 at the United Doberman Nationals, May 1.

Cinders bitework has been cleaned up a lot. With David's help she has stopped bothering the helper and is outing more consistently and cleaner. Her call out of the blind looks good. Her grips, as always, are excellent. We are working on her blind search and increasing her barking in the blind. She barks really well, but not always for as long as she needs to. We had a really good session on Thursday working on her blind search with David. She is doing a good job checking in with me. I just need to make sure that I am communicating clearly to her. Her transports are really good and in such a short time. Her stand out of motion looks good. I am working with her on her down stays with distractions and out of sight stays. So far, she is vocal, but doing good.

Porsche did really well on her tug work. She is fearless and will climb all over David when tugging. I think this little jute tug is still a little hard for her, but she did pretty good with it. When we moved to a rag tug , she gripped so hard she wouldn't let go! I let her carry it all the way to the car. She held on to it even when she jumped into her crate. The only way I was able to get it back from her was to go back inside the building and get some treats to "trade" her for the tug!

Thanks to Dale Matthews for these photos!

Tessa Goes to Play at the School

Tessa went to the high school yesterday and today and ran the football field and the rubberized track and also loved to play in some sand, must be the first time she has been in sand and it felt different to her feet she just kept running in circles and rolling in it. She went with just me today in the hummer and she was great, she just sat there, it was only 2 miles away though, it was the first time she wasn't held by either wife or son. She is going to the vet tomorrow for her third shot. She has sit down very well, she will sit with just hand command most of the time and come very well, her stay is coming along pretty well, if I get out of sight she breaks stay, her wait is pretty good also, her down is only close with treat.

- Rick

Working Puppies

Porsche worked her 3rd track today. Yesterdays track was shorter than originally planned. It was basically a scent pad and about 15-20 paces which started to go in a circle. Unfortunately, I had Porsche tied to a down tree as we were in the field across the creek and behind my house. Porsche broke her collar and started working her track before I finished laying it. I let her go ahead and find the food without a leash on. She was very good about finding each piece of food in the footsteps.

Tonight I laid Cinders track first then laid a scent pad then about a 20 foot arch into another scent pad with a jackpot of food. My intent was to make a circle, but I have never been good at circles. Again I just followed behind her and stoked her calmly when she was eating a piece of food. I had turkey in each foot step and allowed her to wander off track and discover on her own that there wasn't any food there. She has a very deep nose and is more intent than ever remembered Cinders being at that age. Considering how good Cinders tracks now, I am VERY please with Porsche. She also seems to take her time on the track. Hopefully we can keep it that way.

The Rain Report from Gail:

"Well, she is stubborn, some what will full, one of the smartest puppies I have ever owned and really really sweet, and gives great Dober kisses! If that isn't a combination I don't know what is.

When she wants something there is no mistaking it. LOL She lets you know in no uncertain terms about what SHE wants.

However on the other hand, she learned sit in 2 very short sessions and will now sit even out side with distractions. We are now working on come. I just started that one today. She is also very good now about walking on leash. I haven't taken her out on the sidewalks yet, traffic here is hellish and I'm not risking it until she is a tiny bit better about heeling on a loose lead.

She is a great fetch player and loves her Kong Wubba toy. She would play fetch for hours if I had the arm to keep throwing the wubba.

My next step with her will be to take the second Wubba toy and put it in my cadaver box to scent the toy, then we will play hunt the Wubba toy to teach her to go look for the scent.

We're going to be at Atterbury all next weekend so she'll get introduced to some of the agility equipment, some "baby" rubble and probably helicopters since they should be flying next weekend. I think she will enjoy that a lot."

-Gail

Tessa Report-
Tessa's ears are doing really well. Tessa is being a little ornery right now and has been biting a lot. Other than that she is doing really well on her house training and obedience.

Porsche Starts Working

I took Porsche with me to train yesterday. First I laid Cinders bigger track then I laid a 2x2 scent pad then a 6 foot track followed by another 2x2 scent pad. There were lots of treats and of course treats in each foot step. When starting a young pup on tracking its important not to put any pressure on the pup. The idea is that she learns that when she is on the track she finds food and there is nothing outside of the track. The pup learns that on their own and at this age you do not guide or direct or influence the the dog in any way. Once the pup lost interest, I took her off the track and put her in her crates. Then I got Cinders out to work with her.
After I finished working Cinders, I got Porsche out of the car and took her on a walk in the woods. I took her up hills, over logs and across a creek. She stayed with me the whole time and was unfazed by the different terrains. I gave her a treat anytime she happened to be in heel position. I forgot my clicker or I would have clicked and treated anytime she was in heel. I trained Cinders this way when she was very young. Its a good way to teach heel position in a very positive way. I then tied a small branch to the end of her leash and ran away and called her. Dragging the leash simulated a puppy runaway and also provided some noise through the crunchy leaves.
Overall it was a nice lesson.

Back to Work!!!

Cinders and I started tracking again yesterday. Cinders is so excited about working again. She loves to do work. Taking 4 months off for the pups has been hard on her. I think that's why she was so obsessive about taking care of her babies. Looking back at last year, I am amazed at what Cinders and I accomplished. Finishing her Sch1 and then her WD1 at the DPCA Nationals with such good scores, Completing her BH, her WAC, and her AKC CD were great accomplishments. Ultimately, its her awesome work ethic that saw us through a year of pitfalls and illnesses. When I think of all the things that happened last year its amazing that we did what we did.
Here's is a recap: Around February Cinders broke her Canine tooth on her crate. Because of her age etc, they did a vital pulpotamy on her tooth. That's a pretty major surgery, very similar to a root canal. I remember that she had her operation on a Thursday and Friday, Sat and Sunday we had a 3 day training weekend. I skipped training Friday, but took her Saturday to do tracking and obedience (no bite work for 1 month). We were training with Mo then and I remember finishing her tracking lesson Sat and someone saying something about her tooth. Mo apparently didn't know she had an operation and he was shocked that I had worked her so soon. The thing is , despite being on pain meds and having a mouth full of stitches, Cinders still wanted to work and she still did a good job. Then about a week after her BH in March , Cinders got really sick throwing up. I took her to the vet and she stayed there for 4 days. Ultimately, they kept telling me that they were not sure if she would make it. They thought she had an obstruction so they opened her up and milked her intestines. Nothing. So they sowed her up , put her on meds and sent her home. No work for 3 weeks ( I think we snuck in some tracking). Then in May, I took her back to check on her tooth. The procedure had failed and she had an infection. Now she had to get a root canal (no bite work for 1 month). Then in June she started having some breathing difficulties. She had a lung infection. The vet put her on antibiotics and said she could work if she wanted but to pull her if she fatigued. She was on antibiotics for over two months trying to kick the infection. I believe she had it for a while and it was related to her abscessed canine tooth. During this time we worked on obedience and tracked 7 days a week. In September she was finally off antibiotics and we trialed. She got a 265! Then we went to the DPCA Nationals. On the way to the Nationals, Cinders came into season. Despite the long trip, being in season, and not getting the opportunity to work on the helper before the trial, Cinders did very well.

So now after 4 mos maternity leave, we are back to work! 2 weeks ago Cinders got a 192 in Novice B and she also earned the first leg of her Rally novice title. We have started doing obedience every day and yesterday we started tracking again. Cinders is VERY happy.

Rain in her New Home

Here is part of an email I recieved about Rain:

Rain is doing fine. She is learning fast, we're playing fetch and she is sitting for a treat - not bad for just a couple of days. She is sleeping well through the night and only had one accident in her crate (on my first work day I was gone for about 4 1/2hours). She is eating well and likes the new food but is still getting a mix of old and new.
I get the biggest kick out of her. She howls when she thinks she isn't getting enough attention and sounds like a baby werewolf. It's hard to not laugh at her and keep a straight face and tell her no.
She is bonding well and watches everything I do. Very alert and very smart!

Gail

I am so happy she is doing well- I miss the little brat!

Happy St Patrick's Day!!! Rain goes home

The little Checker pup went to her new home today. Her name is now Rain and she is going to be trained as a Search and Rescue Human remains detection dog! Hopefully she will be a good worker. I am going to miss the ornery little girl. It seems like she and Cinders were always arguing about something!

Tessa (Pink- in the picture)is doing good to. I think she has a head start on everyone in the ears department. As you can see her ears are already starting to stand some. It also sounds like she is ahead of us al lon her obedience and has been practicing her stays already.

Porsche (Red) went to dog class with me tonight and we worked a little on her obedience and a did some tug work. Mostly she just got to socialize. Really thats the most important thing we can do with our puppies until the turn 16 weeks. I think she is going to miss Rain. They were always together.

I hope to get some blog entries from the puppy owners soon!