Obedience

It was a quick night at the NEC. Willie DeSilva came to watch with a breeder he deals with from NB Canada. Ann brought Basco, and Jojo brought Gunner.

We worked some heeling and voraus, long downs etc etc....

A bit of a demo for the conformation show people. A couple hold & barks, a couple escape bites it was a good short evening.

Protection

It was a good afternoon of work given that it was a holiday weekend. Families were flying kites on the school field and we all worked together well, and put on a good show for the neighbourhood. Ann brought Basco, Jojo had Gunner, Jermaine brought Capone, William brought Errol and Kiara, Charles and Dean brought the GSD puppy, and Margaret brought her puppy. Lisa came to watch with Wendy and Andrew.

I worked Aron on up to 4 blinds. The control is coming well, but he did start to skip from 2 to 4 once. I will need to emphasise the return to me next session. We worked some targeting. All in all a good training day.

I did helper work again with Basco, Capone and Errol.

Tracking and Protection

Tracking at Southside
Ann brought Basco and Kay brought out Loki for Easter morning tracking. Kay even hid hotdog in plastic eggs for Loki to find on her 1000yd AKC style track.

Aron ran his well although the strong wind had him 1ft to the side for about 20 ft of the 400pace track. He indicated the 3 articles very well, missed one corner but turned to other 3 well.

Protection at Happy Valley Park
Ann went to cook for the Family lunch, Kay and I made the trek to Smiler's. Jojo brought Gunner and Nitro(pit), Smiler worked the Red and his Chocolate puppy. Jermaine came and help work the dogs.

I returned to running a couple blinds with the tug in my hands and Aron was fast and came directly to me and on the third repetition I sent him to the next blind when he was still 10' away and he charged into a beautiful hold and bark. I worked him again on some targeting excercises.

Obedience

A good thursday night at the NEC on Vesey St. Ann brought Basco, Jojo worked Gunner. Lisa was visitng from Halifax and stopped by to watch with Wendy.

I worked Aron and Madison in heeling, in-motion excercises and the Voraus. Aron is coming along well. I need to think through the trial excercises and make sure I have all the pieces covered.

Protection

Well I wasnt much for training this morning but I went along without dogs. The arm is a little sore, the bruising is developing etc etc. It was a good morning, bright sun, loquats on the tree were ripe. Ann worked Basco, Frank brought his puppy, Smiler worked the new puppy and Big Red and Jojo did the helper work.

Protection & Real Bites

It was a beautiful afternoon up at Port Royal School. Jojo had Gunner, Ann worked Basco, Jermaine brought Capone, William had Errol and Charles brought the puppy.

We started with an obedience session. I worked them in heeling, recalls, in motion excercises and voraus. The session wasnt too long, the heat was kicking in and I wanted some energy for protection.

Aron worked the blinds, hold and bark, call out, sit from hold and bark and escorts. I also did a couple of 2 stride attack bites from a down to help his targeting on the courage test.

I worked the second round of dogs doing the helper work. It felt really good and fluid today. The only issue was when working Errol for William. He is primarily a personal protection dog, so the work has a different focus. I was working in close, threatening, applying pressure and he managed to pull an extra foot of line from William and grab my right arm, sans sleeve. He eased the grip immediately so I pulled out and gave the inside of the sleeve. He switched over and held firm while I applied much more pressure and fight. After a couple more bites and a back up attack I stopped to check my arm.

Obedience

It was a good training night at the NEC. Daylight Savings has kicked in so we were able to train to 8:00 without needing the lights. Ann btought Basco and Jojo came with Gunner.

I worked both Aron & Madison in heeling, sits, downs, stands, sit in front, and voraus. It was a good time.

Tracking and Protection

We had a good morning tracking at Southside. Ann brought Basco and Kay had Loki.

Aron and Madison ran one track each, not too long with no food on the track. Aron had 2 articles. I was quite pleased with both tracks particularly with 3 weeks off.

After tracking Ann and I headed to Happy Valley Park to meet up with Jojo to work the dogs. Smiler brought out his chocolate puppy(pit) and Big Red (pit) and Johnny had his pit.

I repeated the excercises from Saturday with Aron and Madison. Aron was not a clean running the blinds as usual. He stopped enroute to blind 4 on command and returned to me to run 2 but he hasnt missed a blind like that for a while. Even on Saturday with Jojo cracking the whip before he reached 1 and again before he got to 2 he was clean. Escorts were good, again he was forging on the back transport but never more than 8-12".

Protection

This Saturday's protection session was a good one up at Port Royal School. Jojo brought Gunner and Star(Ingrid's puppy) Ann had Basco, Jermaine had Capone and a new Rott bitch, Mark Monk had Ceasar & Nancy, William brought Errol, and Charles stopped by with his puppy.

Aron did 2 sessions, running the blinds and doing the back transport and side transport for the first time. He forged on the back transport as is to be expected, reacted well to light popping on the prong, kept his eye on the helper, hit hard on the attack and outed into a clean hold and bark. His side transport was really good, maintained eye contact with Jojo, was clean on the transport and hit with a solid strike when given the bite at the end of the transport.

Madison came out was great energy. She ran 2 blinds with a confident hold and bark, managed to hold her grip through the drive (a huge acheivement for her). A second attempt with a run out of blind 2 gave her the confidence to chase Jojo down quickly and hit with a strong bite.

Jumpers

Ali took the Horses down to the Jumper show at the NEC today.

Desi (Hannovarian mare) came third in the 3' jumpers with a clear round putting her into the jump off where a second clear earned her third on time.

Isabella (Belgian Warmblood mare) won the 3'3 speed class. This is a single round class and Issy went clear and won by 5 seconds.

Obedience

After a week of playing and doing some basic bits and pieces around the house, Thursday was a good training night under the lights at the NEC.

Ann came with Basco, Jojo brought Gunner and Katrina had Samson(pit).

I worked Aron on faster more accurate heeling, faster sits and downs, accurate positioning. It has been working really well when after a reward I go into the pressing green. It has calmed and strengthened his grips on the tugs or dumbells and made his outs much calmer. He did well on the long downs, near a group of people, in the middle of the the other dogs working. At the end of the second trip out I worked on Voraus for the first time in months. The first couple where at 15' then I went back to full length and longer and finished with Ann hanging the tug while I worked some heeling and after a couple minutes sending him for a straight fast send away.

Madison worked well. The combination of prong and food works wonders for her speed and attention.

Great Trip - Good to be Home

Well kids it wsa a great trip for 2 weeks of vacation. That hasnt happened in a long while.

My wife and I went to London for a couple days, then headed down to Hampshire for 3 days, up to Yorkshire for a wedding then flew to Dusseldorf for 5 days in Dortmund, and then back through London to Bermuda. Really good relaxing trip.

Club Class on BA with the lay flat seats.
5 Maddox St.
The Producers at Drury Lane Royal Theater.
The Spa at Chewton Glen.
Lesley & Howard, Simon
Walking to the top of Winchester Hill.
The crazy hotel in Wakefield with dried blood on the outside of the windows (from birds).
Victoria & Stuart's wedding
Driving the rental Range Rover with the integrated GPS and all sorts of neat features.
Germany - First time in a country that doesnt speak English.
Nadina and Burkhard very cool folks to hang out with.
Pedestrian Downtown Dortmund.
German Markets.
Dortmund Philharmonic at the Dortmund Koncerthaus
Germany vs USA World Cup Friendly at the Borussia Dortmund Stadium.
Castles, Palaces, Cathedrals, Museums.

Good to be home...

Some pictures from the game - 64,500 chanting Germans

Voraus

Voraus the boat....

World Cat 320ec

Protection

Afternoon at Port Royal School.
Jojo & Gunner, Ann & Basco, William & Kiara & Errol, Mike & Guiness.

Jermaine, Jojo and I all suited up and I started to get back into the swing of helper work after a long hiatus from my shoulder surgery. It was a good day but man do I feel fat and out of shape, blowing hard after one dog, so by the end of the session I was finished.

Madison worked well, she ran 2 blinds did a convincing bark & hold and held firm full grip through the drive.

With Aron we continued to work the switching from Prey(green) to hold & bark(grey) to the bite(green) with the excercises(green) and the out both into blue and grey. I also worked his heeling (active blue) on the field.

Obedience & Protection

Jojo brought Gunner and Ann brought Basco and Jermaine came by to the NEC.

We started out with obedience. Aron did some really nice fus work, we worked on his attention and heeling between the other dogs. Madison came out strong, she was really wound up and it translated into some good looking work.

Aron came out the second time ready for action, he pulled me onto the field and took a full grip from open, calmly held it standing, through the sit and the down, Jojo went back in the sleeve and the fight continued. The out on the ground was calm and fairly quick. We worked the hold and bark using Helmut's method. It helped to settle him into a good rythmn and keep him from jumping so high to bark down on the Jojo's head.

Tracking

It was a good morning down at Southside, a bit of a breeze. Ann brought Basco, Kay had Loki out.

I wanted to move forward with Aron's tracking so I did two shorter tracks with a 135deg corner. I also tried using the counter rythmn to modulate his speed with the leash on the fursaver under his shoulder. Both worked quite well. He worked thoroughly and came to a stop on the corner, sat for a second on the first attempt, searched for the track with his nose and turned the corner and continued along to the end. There were only two sections with 4 peices of food on the whole track and some at the end.

Madison ran a long track with 2 90deg corners, She also only had 2 sections of 4 pieces of food. She got a bit frantic without the food, but settled and worked through it after a "No" ... "Such".

Protection

A beautiful afternoon at Port Royal School. Jojo brought Gunner, Ann had Basco, Mike was visiting again with his mixer pup, and William brought Kiara and his new GSD Errol.

We worked on a few of the excercises learned at the seminar, particularly with Aron. It was pretty cool that he responded so well to the pressing green, the three green exercises and the out to Blue, the open to grey, and the green to grey.

Madison had a much harder time, as she is very vocal even in prey (she is mixing grey and green) She had a harder time settling in green without letting go of the sleeve. In the end it was good for her as she became a little more settled and confident. I think she may improve her overall performance if I am able to clear her green in this way.

Obedience (Rain and Seminar Talk)

It was a wet and raining night at NEC. Ann, Kay, Jojo and myself spent most of the evening discussing and reviewing the information from the Raiser Seminar and how much of it can fit within our current training.

The highlight of the evening was Madison's mad dash for a rat while out for a stroll around the grounds. Her prey drive was in high gear and she got it. She thoroughly enjoyed playing with it and tossing it around.

Raiser Seminar

WOW, what else can I say. Wallace and Rhonda did a great job with all the logistics. The classrom work was phenomenal, the overheads helped crystalize the information. The practical training showed his techniques. A good time was had by all. I cant understand why anyone would have missed it.

Couple of pictures are posted here:

A group shot at the end.
Phil & Cherie Behun, Yener Yüksel, Wallance Payne, Gaby Raiser.
Oliver Neubrand, Dennis (yes me), JoJo, Rhonda Southern and Dr Raiser.

Atlanta - Raiser Seminar

JoJo and I are in Atlanta for the Dr Raiser Seminar at South Metro Atlanta Schutzhund Club. So far we have gone tracking with Wallace Payne and had a couple club training nights, with another one tonight.

With the little explainations that I have heard so far I am really looking forward to his seminar.