Meanwhile the dogs are still doing well.
Tooheys is starting to age a fair bit, but continues to be fit & healthy. As of the start of the year I have retired him 'officially' from agility as he now struggles with full height jumps, but he still gets to do some training over lower jumps. Now that he doesnt get to work as often some of his ratty behaviours that he hasnt done in years, like nipping me as he runs (grrrrr), have returned, but as long as he's enjoying himself the who cares!
Finn is a law unto herself, but I continue to be impressed with how quickly she picks up on anything we train. At the moment I am working through Sylvia Trkmans 'puppy'/tricks class with her - every fortnight we get new tricks to teach, and every fortnight I think this will be really difficult - but then Finn just 'gets it' and is doing tricks I never thought I'd be able to teach.
Her agility training is progressing well, she has sooo much drive and is happy to work at a distance (and fast!) but still very responsive to handling. So now I just have to learn to handle her properly!! We still have our weaves and contacts to polish before I consider competing with her, but her jumping isnt far off being ready. But she is so easily overarroused around other dogs running that I do really worry about how she will cope with doing agility in the show environment. I really must get her to some smaller shows where there are less distractions to give her ring experience. That said, we had a cattle dog agility day a few weekends ago, and despite having 20+ ACDS, rotties & malamutes standing right by the equipment she never even thought about leaving work or lost focus. She even won the most promising agility dog on the day - so proud of my little girl!
And her herding training - well she really knows how to push my buttons, and continues to be a pushy little sod at times, but again things are starting to come together nicely and she is definately starting to settle. She has by far the most natural talent & instincts of the ACDs I've trained, we just need to harness it!
Tooheys is starting to age a fair bit, but continues to be fit & healthy. As of the start of the year I have retired him 'officially' from agility as he now struggles with full height jumps, but he still gets to do some training over lower jumps. Now that he doesnt get to work as often some of his ratty behaviours that he hasnt done in years, like nipping me as he runs (grrrrr), have returned, but as long as he's enjoying himself the who cares!
Finn is a law unto herself, but I continue to be impressed with how quickly she picks up on anything we train. At the moment I am working through Sylvia Trkmans 'puppy'/tricks class with her - every fortnight we get new tricks to teach, and every fortnight I think this will be really difficult - but then Finn just 'gets it' and is doing tricks I never thought I'd be able to teach.
Her agility training is progressing well, she has sooo much drive and is happy to work at a distance (and fast!) but still very responsive to handling. So now I just have to learn to handle her properly!! We still have our weaves and contacts to polish before I consider competing with her, but her jumping isnt far off being ready. But she is so easily overarroused around other dogs running that I do really worry about how she will cope with doing agility in the show environment. I really must get her to some smaller shows where there are less distractions to give her ring experience. That said, we had a cattle dog agility day a few weekends ago, and despite having 20+ ACDS, rotties & malamutes standing right by the equipment she never even thought about leaving work or lost focus. She even won the most promising agility dog on the day - so proud of my little girl!
And her herding training - well she really knows how to push my buttons, and continues to be a pushy little sod at times, but again things are starting to come together nicely and she is definately starting to settle. She has by far the most natural talent & instincts of the ACDs I've trained, we just need to harness it!
2 comments:
It was soooo lovely to see you and catch up - been way too long...
Didn't your dogs just do so well, they both looked to be really enjoying themselves and Finn shows bucketloads of promise :-)
Hope to see you soon xxxx
Thanks Jules. Was wonderful to catch up too. Just a shame the weather wasnt better for it..
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