Still not much training lately, still catching up from vacation. And we were in Fargo this last weekend, with Kris and Kiva getting their MACH2. Tonight was mostly yard work but I got a little training in.
I set up the figure 8 exercise for Shasta that I loved doing with Sonic. I'll post a video somewhat soon of it. I am doing jumps at 8 inches. The theory is that I want her to understand the difference of going between uprights and around uprights. I also want to teach her responsibility for keeping the bar up early without yet "learning to jump" and obviously stressing her body.
It's clear, though, that I am going to have to work on getting her not to look at me over the jumps. Hardly a new issue with berners yet not one that I have a good plan or program for. I'll have to think about what I want to do for it. Doing the Mecklenburg jump program will help when I get to that point but I'd like to address it now some how.
I moved the table from 8 to 16 inches on our "puppy dogwalk". As you can see from the picture, first time on it she must have instinctively knew she should run harder since it was higher and she didn't quite know how to handle the middle section. But she figured it out on the next one without slowing down.
Her two-on-two-off work continues to be outstanding. She gets it and she gets the proofing. The release is improving ever so slightly, we still have work to do there.
I feel bad for Shasta right now. It's a tough stretch for me as vacations are really just shuffling of work that needs to get done. At least I get to enjoy the vacation, the reality for a puppy is that a specialty trip typically means a lot of crate time. And now that we are home, it's not extra crate time, but not much attention from me as I try to catch up on work, yard work, house work, Animal Inn work.
This week, because of the temps, it's Shasta's first time being in at home in the pen while both Kris and I are at work all day long. We do have the network cameras and she has been doing fine, sleeping and lying contently. At least until the last hour or so when she starts to get a little restless.
I did get a chance to do a little "official" training tonight. On the agility equipment in the backyard. She certainly didn't forget anything, it all went quite well.
One thing became apparent that I need to start to address. Like most of my dogs, so it's a training weakness of mine, she is not good at the "break" command from her contact bottom. She holds it when I say break or breaks but comes to me hesitantly. It's not clear to her that it's not proofing. I've never gotten very good speed off of contacts (Sonic the exception) and I've had similar issues with Pearle and Roxy getting speed off the start line. I need to come up with a plan for trying to do better on this with Shasta.
It's been a rather boring week for Shasta. First there were the five days of all-breed agility. We had Shasta into both environments, she handled them fine, no issues.
Next, on to our specialty in Gettysburg. Again, pretty boring for her. I tried to get her around some but as it seems to happen with specialties, we don't do much but somehow the clock goes quickly not doing much.
Shasta did great meeting every0ne happily with her tail wagging. She is definitely hit and miss with other puppies and dogs. She continues to react opposite of how they react. If they are pushy, she backs away. If they back away, she pushes into them. And if they are neutral, she is neutral. Maybe more berners are pushy but it seemed like she was backing up from most dogs this week.
I took her to the conformation area and encountered our first time of not being confident in a new place. First it was the huge generator trailer outside the building, she did not care for that noise. Then I brought her in the door by all the grooming and her ears were back a little and she was a little flinchy. I took a seat on the floor with her somewhat near the door, started doing all of her mini-tricks and she got much better before we left. I also did the "wait for her to look at me" and give her a treat game and that did wonders for her as well. Bad me, I never made it back again. But next conformation show for Sonic we'll have to bring Shasta and get her used to it.
We've spend the past two days traveling to Pennsylvania. Shasta is proving again that she is an excellent rider. She settles in, nothing bothers her, she entertains herself with toys when she is awake and sleeps comfortably the rest of the time.
It was a very rough ride out as well. The Interstate had constant construction and it needed it. The lanes we drove in were awful. Extremely rutted. Or.... maybe not. Turns out, we arrive at our destination here in Edinboro, turn into the parking lot and -- crash -- one of our front shocks falls to the ground. Hmm, did the awful road cause our shock to fall off or did the soon to fall off shock cause the rough ride? We may never know. But I guess we proofed Shasta extra on this ride. ;-) She seemed not to notice the difference though.
Shasta did go on her first official leash walks around a campground last night and this morning. She did great, wasn't obnoxious on the leash at all. Trotted along fine.
She's has seemed a little mellow tonight. Kris took a look at her mouth and said Shasta has good reason to be a little off tonight, poor girl is teething big-time right now. She has been for a while but Kris said she is at her worst right now.
Too hot to do much once we got here. Hopefully it cools down soon.
