Wednesday, December 3, 2008

What A Nice Couple Of Days

As you can see by these photos our sunsets have been gorgeous here in Central Oregon.  I was out feeding the sheep tonight with Connor and as we were walking back to the house I noticed the beautiful sunset.  At the time Connor was in the wheel barrel  and thought it was cool when I started pushing it faster and faster.  I got to the driveway and plopped him on the ground as I ran in for my camera.  He then thought it was funny that we were running back towards the sheep with 8 Border Collies also thinking it was cool that we were playing chase.  I was able to snap these pictures right before the sun set.  I even got one with our Alpacas in it.





I have had a great week training dogs.  Today was the only day that I did not train any of the adults.  It doesn't hurt to have a day off.  :-)  I concentrated on the puppies here.  I video taped Nan and Rosie's sessions.  All of the girls are working on different things, so it is really fun.  Both Nan and Rosie are looking for homes.  

Rosie is working on backing up and I also started showing her heel position.  She started offering me back up yesterday, so today I decided I would video it.  She is up to about 5 steps back.  


This is Nan's session with down.  She offered me a very nice folding down in our session this morning, so I went with that and marked it each time she offered it.  By this afternoon the was continuously offering me a nice down.  I did click once for a down that started with her butt first.  It was the only time and I said ooops, more for my own mental negative marker.


Our other handling skill we are working on is the beginning of rear crosses.



I really hope the good, dry, weather stays around as it really keeps me in the mood to train the dogs.  It is really hard to drag a 3 year old out to the sheep or agility field when it is freezing or raining.  Connor is at the age where it is really starting to interest him.  He ha even taken to training Kate now and asks to train her.  We are working on downs with her.  I am trying to get her to pay attention to his commands and not wait for me to tell her a command.  I am also working on Connor's delivery of the treat.  Kate loves food, so sometimes she is a little too excited to get the treat.  I will have to get some video of him training her as it is really cute.  I am hoping that he will be able to run her in Juniors next spring and summer.  Kate is 10 1/2 years old now, but is still going strong.  Connor is 3 years old and I want him to start with a dog like Kate as she is SOOOOO biddable and LOVES to work.

Till Later