More updates

Here's a picture of Cedar at 8.5 months:



She's doing pretty well. I ordered a tracking harness and line; unfortunately I got the wrong size harness so I need to get a bigger one. Once I get that I'll start her in tracking.

New stacked pix, post bath :)

Cedar after her bath today at 7.5 months :)

Tracking photos

Here's a few pix from tracking this evening:


First track...



Second track...





Cedar did pretty well, though I am going to try and start spacing out the treats because she's going too fast. Hmm...

Catching up

Well I haven't written in awhile, and a lot has happened with Miss Cedar :)



A few weekends ago we took a seminar with Mary Hunter called "Focus on Focus." As anyone who has met Cedar knows, she is VERY distracted. I was hoping that this seminar would help us to become a better team, and help Cedar to focus better on me and the job at hand.

I'm happy to say that the seminar was a success! We learned a lot of things that have helped bring us closer as a team, and also things that help to deal with her obsessive and nervous behaviors. When we first started working at the seminar, she was so nervous and wound up that she was shaking. After about 10 minutes on the mat, however, she was doing great. I am so excited to continue to train her in agility, obedience, tracking, and rally. She really is an awesome dog and I am so thankful to have her in my life.



We start our next set of agility classes this saturday the 23rd- I'm really stoked! I am intrigued to see how she does w/ other obstacles and am excited to work on things like contacts and obstacle commitment. I know I definitely need to work on MY handling skills :).

Some of the things Cedar and I need/would like to improve on:


Agility

• Front and rear crosses- I get so tangled up in my own feet! I would like to be able to do both without having to think through every step. So far, I have to count my steps and do everything deliberately.
  
• Weave poles- Now that Cedar is over 6 months I'd like to start training her on weave entries and general (easy) weave poles. I need to get my "stick in ground" poles from my mom's house
• Recall- Cedar still isn't too good about coming when called, though she IS getting better. Again, this is a focus issue I think, and I am hoping that the more I work with her, the better it will get.
• Jumping- Yeah, I know she's still too young for much serious jumping but I plan on continuing with my jump style-shaping training. I hope to get a youtube video together soon to show my method. Coming from horses, it makes a lot of sense, and so far it seems to be working pretty well with getting Cedar to jump in the proper bascule.

Obedience/Rally

• Heeling- I would like to show Cedar in Rally this summer, so I need to get my butt in gear and start training attention heeling. She is done teething so it's okay now. She is not the best at walking on a leash, I'll admit.... so we need a lot of work on this.
  
• Front/Finish- I would like to have her reliably coming to front, finishing right and left, and doing a schutzhund "about turn" by May.
  

Tracking

• I'd like Cedar to be able to complete a 50-pace track by April, and a 100-pace track by June, as well as start to fade the food rewards by mid-May. Not sure when I'll introduce articles...

Here's a few pix of her that I think are pretty cute..... 7 months:

Night tracks are fun!

Only the second time we've tracked after a 2 month break... and in the dark to boot!

She did really well, even though she missed some of the hot dogs I was quite pleased with how well she was using her nose

Starting off strong... she put her nose right to the ground when I said "track"...


Midway through the track:


Nearing the finish...


The end is in sight!


I think I'm turning into a tracking freak! It's so much fun, and so low stress for the dog :). I am really pleased with how well Cedar is doing. She is such a blast to train. I still need to do some problem solving and figure out how to show her how to track slower. I think doing it in the dark was helpful because she couldn't see the hot dogs on the ground as well. Maybe I'll have to do that more!

first track in 2 months

I was bored and decided to lay a 23 pace track in the front yard for Cedar tonight. She did pretty well, but was kind of distracted and missed a lot of the hot dogs. I think she needs to learn to use her nose more, although she was sniffing pretty well. I wanted to get pix but forgot the memory card for my camera :)

I might go and lay another track tonight and go in the dark, just for kicks.

Yesterday, I went to Lauries and worked Cedar in her husband's shop. It's big and echo-y and full of distractions, so it was great for her. She was nervous at first but calmed down enough for me to get some decent work in. Worked on heel, sit, down, and conformation training.

Updates

So I have been bad and haven't updated in awhile....



Cedar is 6 months old!



Cedar's doing very well with her training. We're taking an agility class and she is amazing everyone. We found out yesterday that she loves tunnels! She is going to be a great agility dog, I'm sure. And my first competition dog! She will be old enough to compete in AKC in July, and NADAC/USDAA in January 2009. I am hoping that I will have enough motivation to keep training her to get her ready for it! It would be a shame not to.

I haven't worked tracking in a long time, but I think I'll go out and do some today. My goal is to get a TD on her this year, but that depends on how many trials I can find, etc.

Another goal for this year is to get an RN on her; Rally Novice. I really need to work more on heeling and focus; she is very distracted and not terribly food motivated which I'm not familiar with. Maybe I'll try with a toy and see how she does. She definitely is an interesting dog to work with.

I am also thinking about trying to get a BH (Schutzhund obedience) title on her at some point, as well as an FH (Schutzhund tracking) and AD (Schutzhund endurance) title at some point. For the AD, the dog has to trot for 12 miles next to a bike. Once she is old enough, I'd love to try for it. She could do it no problem, I'm sure.

I really need to get my butt in gear and start training more!