Molly wanted to help me with some training this morning😃
A lot of the time I just let Molly do what she wants to do. I was very impressed that she was able to teach him Green & Orange🤣🤣
If you listen carefully, Molly says "He is a good boy, that is why I am giving him all the food"
Even at 3 and a half years old, Molly understands that we need to reward our dogs if we want them to learn❤️
Delta and I have been competing today. Our last chance to practice before a big week next week😃
We had 4 nearly perfect runs. 2 wins and a second place. A pole cost us a win, but I couldn't have asked for any more from today🍾
We have a big few days at the kc International agility Festival where we will be going up against the best in the country.
We are going to enjoy ourselves and see what we can do😃
5 years ago, Cooper and I were competing and winning rosettes😃
Although Cooper has retired, he does have a play every now and then😃
Moments like this are always special for me, and hopefully Cooper. He is possibly about 12 years old so he spends a lot of his time resting, but when he tells me he has some extra energy, we try to roll back the years🤣🤣❤️
Loads of fun on Tuesday evening. It was a night of skills work due to it being hot, but thankfully being inside made it a bit cooler😃
I adjusted the sequence slightly for each dog so that we could get the best out of both dog and handler👍
None of the people in this video have any aspirations to compete, but it doesn't stop them all being amazing 😃
I found this video on my phone😄 we had just given over the lead and toy and were on the startline in the champ final when we had to wait.
There was something wrong with the timer, although it only took about 20 seconds to sort out, I wanted to move Delta away from the ring so that she didn't get too excited and make a mistake on the first jump😄
Experience helped me in this moment as well as having a really strong relationship with Delta.
By moving away and playing together I kept the focus on me and also reduced my nerves. If I had just stood there, I would have lost a bit of focus.
We are a team and any mistakes we make, we do it together. They will normally be my fault because I am the one who has trained Delta😄
I do see a lot of people from G1 to G7 shouting at their dog for something at agility competitions, but it will never be the dogs fault because they are only doing what we have taught them.
Delta and I have been competing at Tuffley championship show this weekend.
It was a practice day on Saturday because it had been a month since our last competition.
Today (Sunday) was the day of champ for us. We had a fast agility run, but with faults I felt that we wouldn't make it to the final.
We went for it in the jumping and finished 2nd, and this meant we made it to the final🎉🎉
I never thought that we would be getting to grade 7 when Delta was starting, but this girl is absolutely amazing and we have now made it to two finals and I am so happy.
Thank you Delta for being the best dog❤️
I set this little tunnel challenge for my students last week, so I thought I would give it a go with Rocket😃
I was not expecting him to do this, but the boy had other ideas🎉
Rocket works so hard already and I haven't actually done much work on any equipment yet. We will start working on speed over the next few months, but I don't see that being difficult 😄
I have added a new agility 1-2-1 package to the website. Get in touch to discuss further: [email protected]
I spent some time working on Rocket's recall in a new location with many hiding places 😃
One of the games I like to play when teaching recall is hide n seek😄
It helps teach your puppy to keep an eye on you out on a walk. This is something that needs to be taught too by simply acknowledging your when puppy when they look at you at home or on a walk.
I walked off when Rocket was very busy sniffing around, but you will want to make it easier than this if you have a very young puppy.
When I called Rocket I only said his name once and I was loud and clear. The hardest thing is not to repeat the name call, so if you need to do this, go back a few steps and try it at home with less distractions 😉
If you need help with your dogs recall get in touch. [email protected]
When can I start agility training?
I am often asked this, and the answer is as soon as possible.
When Rocket was 10 weeks old we started our training. We didn't use any equipment, but we did learn to play with a toy together, start to build a strong relationship and took the first steps to a good recall😃
Yesterday, I did a bit of work on forward focus. Rocket will watch me all the time which is great in a walk, but we need some independence for agility 😄
Retrieving a toy and start line waits are progressing and Rocket is beginning to understand a lot more🎉
All the pieces are beginning to come together now😃
Rocket can lie down and wait, he can ignore a toy flying through the air😄 and he can retrieve a toy to my hand (still needs a bit of work, but he still ran around with it last week🙈).
With all of his new skills we can begin to put them in to our agility training and teach forward focus and driving forward too😃
I am planning to run some puppy agility workshops soon, so if you are interested please get in touch. [email protected]
I needed to do some more bed training because it had gone backwards a bit, so Molly helped (did it for me)😃
I talked Molly through how to teach it and then she did it all by herself👌
I kept it easy for Molly by telling her to give Rocket two treats on the bed, but I would give a lot more for higher value if doing this myself😉
I was so impressed watching Molly work it out and give reward on the bed, as well as a release word and bed when he walked back to it❤️
Molly keeps telling me that Rocket is her agility dog (not sure I agree🤣🤣). However, if she wants to do agility, Rocket will have to get used to Molly.
Thankfully, Rocket does listen to her and it is lovely to watch them together ❤️
Molly also wanted to do something with Cooper & Delta, but they only listen to me😄😄
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about Rocket being very interested in the sound of a see-saw, so I had a little helper with me today to help desensitise Rocket to the noise😃
Molly is helping Rocket stayed calm by rewarding him as I bang the see-saw on the floor. As you can see, Rocket was not worried 🍾
Obviously this is only the first step, I will need to do more of this and also add in a dog (Delta) going over the see-saw to up the distraction.
When I do this, Rocket will be a lot further away to help him, but I know that Molly will be happy to help her little Rocket❤️
I spent a bit of time on lead walking with Rocket this afternoon. He is very good, but does get distracted by some things.
I used a toy because that is very high value to him. I also added some extra difficulty by playing with the toy at the beginning of the session to keep it exciting 😄
Distance from a distraction is so important, if a dog finds it difficult, move away.
The first time we walked past the toy it was as far away as I could make it, but Rocket would have found it slightly easier with a bit more distance.
He did do amazingly, and other than one time trying to get the toy, it was a great attempt from Rocket😀
As we got closer I did take it a bit slower to help Rocket give me the correct answer and you see him look, but he looked back at me and had a lot of reward and praise🍾
I didn't need to have the lead tight, I want Rocket to work out the answer to the problem😀
Get in touch if you need help with lead walking. [email protected]
Rocket is starting to get a good retrieve now😀
It isn't perfect yet, so I kept him on a longline to make sure he didn't run off with the toy🙈 thankfully, he was more interested in me😀
It was the first time I have tried this in a public field. We had three young lads playing football near us, three dogs running around in the field and a few people going for a walk, but Rocket stayed with me🍾
Play is such an important thing to do with our dogs. Retrieving a toy will help with recall, self control and agility to name a few things. It will also strengthen our relationship too.
I don't throw balls for my dogs, but I will throw a toy to bring back and play tug or use it to teach other skills😀
It was the local carnival today, so I took Rocket out to give him some more socialisation.
He took it all in his stride and stayed really calm with so many big distractions near him😀
In this video, he had a spinning ride that he had never seen before, with a generator making a loud noise next to us. He had dogs, people, children running around, as well as different smells and it was really windy and that makes it even more difficult.
Rocket was calm, listened to me and could relax throughout the visit. He did have a lot of food to reward him, so that will always help😄
I have to remind myself that he is not 5 months old yet, and a breed of dog that wants to herd moving objects is doing really well❤️
