Running Contacts

I have put a lot of thought into contacts this past year. Risk and I would always go head to head at a trial for her 2o2o contacts. It was making trialing her not very fun. I also have several young dogs coming up and I needed to think on how I was going to train them. I did a lot of research, reading, watching videos and talking to people.

I have come to the conclusion that I will always teach a running A-Frame to any dog I train. I think this will help out with shoulder and back problems in the long run. I also like the striding a lot better than a 2o2o. Now, I know that I won't teach a running dogwalk to everydog as I don't feel it is meant for every dog. Some of my dogs are doing Silvia Trkman's method and some are going to do a 2o2o contact. I took this last year off to figure out what I wanted to do with Risk's dogwalk. I have been doing Silvia's method with her and I am really loving it, with her, so far. I started with Singe and I am very happy that he was taught to just run the plank as I think it will help him in the long run. I have decided to do a 2o2o with him because of his stride and style of running. The verdict is still out on Fusion. She like Singe is very bouncy, so it makes it frustrating.

Here is Risk's A-Frame. It is at 5'2" in this video. I am going to raise it up to 5'6" and take the stride regulator away today.

Singe's A-Frame is coming along nicely. I had to add a stride regulator on the descent because he was not extending coming over the apex.

This video shows the first time I took Risk off of the plank and put her on a baby height dogwalk. I was backchaining in this session.

Risk was then allowed to do the entire dogwalk at baby height. I have learned that 6 or 7 full dogwalks is all that Risk can take mentally and physically at this time. She starts to get tired after that. She is the type of dog that puts everything into her training and tugging add that to thinking about what she is learning. She starts to slow down and revert back to a partial 2o2o stride when she gets tired.

Havoc x Singe puppies 4 Weeks Old

The Havoc x Singe puppies are 4 weeks old now. OK, they are a few days over 4 weeks, but the video was taken at 4 weeks of age.

The puppies love to tug now. You can see this in the first video. They a have been taking a hold of their dog beds and "killing" them.

Colt is a very determined puppy. He had been working on escaping for quite some time and let us know all about it. He escaped this one time and then I put the board up a little. Well I found out that that wasn't going to work because the bugger got out in the middle of the night and started roaming the house in the dark. I put a taller board up there now.

Risk and Fusion's Running Dogwalk Training

I decided last fall that I would retrain Risk's contacts from 2o2o to a running. Unfortunately our winters are not conducive to training agility outside, so I had to wait for good weather. I have started training the dogs again. I also decided that I was going to train Fusion, Risk's grand daughter, on running contacts.

I have played around with a couple of our other dogs and found out it is not for every dog.

Fusion is just starting out on plank work. She tends to come off of the sides at times, so I decided I would put up x-pens on either side. I move them away from the plank more and more in each session. I am just working on her running, not pouncing, as she is doing the plank. What I am looking for is that her back feet are separated when they push off of the plank each time. I am very happy with it and will quickly fade out the x-pens so that I can raise the plank.

I am very happy with Risk's progress. I knew she would progress faster than Fusion because she has many years of dogwalk training. She also did "see wood run" as a young dog. I was able to raise her plank up to about 8 inches after warming up with it on the ground.

Time To Blog Again

Wow, I looked at my blog and the last time I wrote in it was the middle of November. So much has gone on over the winter. Murray's mom passed away right after Christmas, so that took a lot out of us. Connor (now 4 1/2 years old) has been taking up most of my time. He is a very active boy and very strong headed too. We have also been doing some remodeling of our house along with painting.

My goal is to write in the blog at least 3 times a week. I will update on our training etc along with puppy pictures of Havoc x Singe puppies.

The winter weather makes me so uninspired to train as there seems to be very little daytime hours to get out and train. I am feeling more inspired to train dogs in both agility and herding now that the days are longer and the bad weather "seems" to be behind us.

Went and worked Fusion, Skarlet and Brew at my good friend Karen's place. I hadn't worked Skarlet all winter and the break seems to have done her some good. She is releasing pressure better and squaring up on her flanks. This was Fusion's 2nd time on sheep and she is more than ready for me to start her training. And Mr. Brew had his first time on sheep at 7 months old. We liked what we saw. Brew is out of my Skarlet and Karen Child's Rock.

I was very pleased to see that Skarlet is not coming up tight behind her sheep now. She only had one major slice leaving for her outrun and was quickly stopped and brought back to retry.

Fusion is very natural and should be easy to train up. She should be running sometime in 2010.

Who knows, she may train up to be a nice Nursery dog.

It was so nice to see what Brew had to show us. He is only 7 months old, so he will go to sheep about once a month until he is around a year. If he is able to handle the pressure I will start him then. My hopes is that he will be my my Nursery dog.

A Night In The Life Of Brew And Fusion

Hi aren't we so cute just laying on the dog bed. We love to cuddle.

Help I fear my life and I am only 4 months old.

Hey, those are the family jewels you are touching.

I may be 4 months old, but I am EVIL!!

Paybacks are a BITCH!

UNCLE....YOU WIN

Abbey and Ale

Here are some videos of Abbey and Ale doing restrained recalls and tugging. They are 8 1/2 weeks old and are still looking for performance homes.

See their information on our website, under Rumor x Singe, www.hillcrestbordercollies.com

Brew aka Brewster Rooster

Here are some recent pictures of Brew. He is the boy I kept from my Skarlet x Rock litter. I absolutely adore this boy. He totally gets it when it comes to dog language and manners. This allows him to hang out with the group. He has potty trained himself. When he is running loose in the house, he will take himself out the doggie door and into the backyard if he needs to go potty and then back in he comes. He is only 4 months old.

Brew was doing good on his recalls until today. I think he has hit the adolescent stage and now is dragging a long line when out in the field.

I can not wait to see what he is like on sheep. I am hoping that he will be ready to train next year and I can maybe think about running him in Nursery. Time will tell though.