We have had a very busy year and I am looking forward to 2016 and new adventures.
I always have a list of goals, I hope to accomplish but the overarching goal is always to have fun with the pups. While Sophie is a sports competitor and Swy is in training, they are always first and foremost spoiled family members. I try my best to ensure that they are happy and engaged while we strive to meet our yearly goals. But if they don't have fun or never compete, its not the end of the world and we will just re-evaluate plans and activities as we move forward :-)
Goals for Sophie
- earn her Onyx Flyball title. She needs 3,058 points to achieve this title. We have a very small team with a lot of young dogs close to ready to race. My goal is to get Sophie her Onyx and then move her to part time or back up as needed by the team. I am sure she would keep playing the sport forever if I let her but it is a physically taxing sport and I don't want her to get injured or over do it.
- compete in more barn hunt events and get her RATO title
- compete in Rally Novice event
- Swim more
Goals for Swyatt:
- learn to weave
- full runs in preflight or singles at Ufli event
- try out a USDAA Quarterly event
- try Novice at Barn Hunt event
- more hikes
Wishing everyone a safe and happy New Years Eve and 2016!
Showing posts with label barn hunt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barn hunt. Show all posts
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
RAT 1, RAT 2
We had our final Barn Hunt event of the year and both labbies did great!
Swy debuted in his first official dog sport event. I will admit, I didn't plan for him to try barn hunt this year because in practice he is doing better but still hit or miss on whether he alerts or just runs around. But Sophie could no longer do Instinct after moving up to open and I had already paid for the spot.
My goal was, no peeing in the ring, no reacting in the blind and just having fun. I really didn't expect him to alert to the rat. I knew he would find it but his alert is very light and usually our trainer has to cue me into it.
Well Swy blew me away. He was calm in the blind (eating a whole lot of hot dog and calmly checking in with me). Then he went into the ring, I released him, he ran through the tunnel and did his climb (not required in Instinct but encouraged). Then he ran around the ring, it looked like he was about to raise a leg so I called him. He came running and I reminded him to find the rat. He sniffed all three tubes and lingers on the last so I went with it and called rat.
Voila, please meet Shasta's Braveheart, RATI call name Swyatt!
Sophie also had a great day. Her first open run, she dug at a tube for a few seconds and then moved away but came back and then moved away so I called it. It wasn't her normal indication but sometimes in her first run she isn't as clear. My bad, it was a bedding tube she was just double checking so no Q.
Her second run, she ran around and said hi to everyone but then got to work. She found both rats and received her Q. She took first place in her height and High in Class! So proud of her.
Swy debuted in his first official dog sport event. I will admit, I didn't plan for him to try barn hunt this year because in practice he is doing better but still hit or miss on whether he alerts or just runs around. But Sophie could no longer do Instinct after moving up to open and I had already paid for the spot.
My goal was, no peeing in the ring, no reacting in the blind and just having fun. I really didn't expect him to alert to the rat. I knew he would find it but his alert is very light and usually our trainer has to cue me into it.
Well Swy blew me away. He was calm in the blind (eating a whole lot of hot dog and calmly checking in with me). Then he went into the ring, I released him, he ran through the tunnel and did his climb (not required in Instinct but encouraged). Then he ran around the ring, it looked like he was about to raise a leg so I called him. He came running and I reminded him to find the rat. He sniffed all three tubes and lingers on the last so I went with it and called rat.
Voila, please meet Shasta's Braveheart, RATI call name Swyatt!
Sophie also had a great day. Her first open run, she dug at a tube for a few seconds and then moved away but came back and then moved away so I called it. It wasn't her normal indication but sometimes in her first run she isn't as clear. My bad, it was a bedding tube she was just double checking so no Q.
Her second run, she ran around and said hi to everyone but then got to work. She found both rats and received her Q. She took first place in her height and High in Class! So proud of her.
Monday, November 16, 2015
She found the RAT!
Our last two saturdays were spent at barn hunt events. We did not plan to attend this weekend but my travel plans got cancelled and I was able to get us a spot in Saturdays trial.
Last week, we had two novice runs. The first one, Sophie hit on bedding. The second run, as soon as we walked in her nose was twitching. She refused to go through the tunnel and followed her nose straight to the rat. Then it took a few moments of coaxing for her to complete the tunnel and climb. She took first place in her height division with a 38 second run and our first Q
This past weekend, I signed her up for Instinct and she received her Q. She then went on to Q in both her novice runs earning second place in each run....and her RATN title.
I am so proud of her. I am working on keeping my mouth closed and letting her work. I try to only call her or talk to her when I see her trying to smell outside the ring or trying to engage with the judges and rat wranglers in the ring. Otherwise, I try to let her work and follow her nose.
We are signed up for one more trial in a few weeks where she will try open for the first time. I am hoping to get in a session with our trainer before then but otherwise we will just give it a whirl.
The other news is Sophie had been signed up for Instinct in the upcoming trial but now can not because she is in Open....so little brother Swyatt will be taking a try at Instinct. I am excited to see how he does and get an idea of how much work we have ahead of us before he tries Novice.
Last week, we had two novice runs. The first one, Sophie hit on bedding. The second run, as soon as we walked in her nose was twitching. She refused to go through the tunnel and followed her nose straight to the rat. Then it took a few moments of coaxing for her to complete the tunnel and climb. She took first place in her height division with a 38 second run and our first Q
This past weekend, I signed her up for Instinct and she received her Q. She then went on to Q in both her novice runs earning second place in each run....and her RATN title.
I am so proud of her. I am working on keeping my mouth closed and letting her work. I try to only call her or talk to her when I see her trying to smell outside the ring or trying to engage with the judges and rat wranglers in the ring. Otherwise, I try to let her work and follow her nose.
We are signed up for one more trial in a few weeks where she will try open for the first time. I am hoping to get in a session with our trainer before then but otherwise we will just give it a whirl.
The other news is Sophie had been signed up for Instinct in the upcoming trial but now can not because she is in Open....so little brother Swyatt will be taking a try at Instinct. I am excited to see how he does and get an idea of how much work we have ahead of us before he tries Novice.
Monday, October 19, 2015
Sophie is 8!
My Sophie turned 8 this past weekend! I can't believe how fast these last 8 years have flown by.
She is the first pup I have owned as an adult and I couldn't have asked for a better companion. She has her quirks and keeps me on my toes but I wouldn't have it any other way.
We spent her birthday at her first barn hunt. Unfortunately no Qs but we had a lot of fun and she was very energetic to work. More training ahead but I think we just need to build our confidence and will be good to go :-)
I of course had to make the labs pose for photos complete with props LOL.
It helps that Swy has learned to sit stay for photos :-)
Though he isn't always the happiest of participants LOL!
She is the first pup I have owned as an adult and I couldn't have asked for a better companion. She has her quirks and keeps me on my toes but I wouldn't have it any other way.
We spent her birthday at her first barn hunt. Unfortunately no Qs but we had a lot of fun and she was very energetic to work. More training ahead but I think we just need to build our confidence and will be good to go :-)
I of course had to make the labs pose for photos complete with props LOL.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
I haven't updated in forever but I will keep this update to just Swyatt's progress.
My boy is 50lbs of lab puppy. He is approximately 3 years old and still very much a spastic puppy. He is very loveable and funny but oh my can he be frustrating.
We have some great days, when it all seems to come together in his head. Then we have days where I am pretty sure his goal in life is to drive me crazy. LOL
Agility: Some days are great, we can do numerous obstacles in a row and he reads my body language perfectly. Then we have days, like last night, where he is so fixated on my hands (hoping there are treats) that he skips all jumps. He also had a hard time working off leash without wanting to do zoomies which in a class with 5 other dogs is a no no.
Working with our instructor, we decided to move to a beginner class so we could work on his focus without the pressure of learning new handling and obstacles. Two classes in and he has worked off leash with 5 other dogs and been engaged with me. So far the change to the beginner class seems to be going very well!
Flyball: down and backs over four jumps with a dead ball retrieve are going really well. We have transitioned to a compression ball instead of the chuck it rubber ball (I was envisioning having to buy about 20 of those for racing purposes and cringing at the price).
We have decent wall work going (again when he chooses to focus...otherwise he just slams into me to say hi). Now its time to transition to the box. We need to start adding a dog in the other lane which is a bit of a challenge. Most of our dogs are either older and not going to take kindly to a youngster chasing them or skittish and going to be traumatized at being chased (exaggerating a little but you get the point). We have a demo coming up and will be testing his ability to focus in a new setting. Fingers crossed!
Barn Hunt: He understands what he is supposed to find, but doesn't indicate very clearly. He will slightly nose and then move on (or try to pee on it). It is too easy to miss his indication, so we are trying to engage him and make the indication even clearer.
He is a work in progress for sure. These last few weeks have been good to us and I have seen some great progress from him. I have always said and stand by this, that we will keep working on all these classes and skills but that if he seems stressed or unhappy then I won't push him to compete. We will just have fun taking classes and building our bond.
Photos courtesy of Smilin Dog. Both labs go off leash hiking with this awesome daycare. They have helped build his recall and learning doggy manners :)
My boy is 50lbs of lab puppy. He is approximately 3 years old and still very much a spastic puppy. He is very loveable and funny but oh my can he be frustrating.
We have some great days, when it all seems to come together in his head. Then we have days where I am pretty sure his goal in life is to drive me crazy. LOL
Agility: Some days are great, we can do numerous obstacles in a row and he reads my body language perfectly. Then we have days, like last night, where he is so fixated on my hands (hoping there are treats) that he skips all jumps. He also had a hard time working off leash without wanting to do zoomies which in a class with 5 other dogs is a no no.
Working with our instructor, we decided to move to a beginner class so we could work on his focus without the pressure of learning new handling and obstacles. Two classes in and he has worked off leash with 5 other dogs and been engaged with me. So far the change to the beginner class seems to be going very well!
Flyball: down and backs over four jumps with a dead ball retrieve are going really well. We have transitioned to a compression ball instead of the chuck it rubber ball (I was envisioning having to buy about 20 of those for racing purposes and cringing at the price).
We have decent wall work going (again when he chooses to focus...otherwise he just slams into me to say hi). Now its time to transition to the box. We need to start adding a dog in the other lane which is a bit of a challenge. Most of our dogs are either older and not going to take kindly to a youngster chasing them or skittish and going to be traumatized at being chased (exaggerating a little but you get the point). We have a demo coming up and will be testing his ability to focus in a new setting. Fingers crossed!
Barn Hunt: He understands what he is supposed to find, but doesn't indicate very clearly. He will slightly nose and then move on (or try to pee on it). It is too easy to miss his indication, so we are trying to engage him and make the indication even clearer.
He is a work in progress for sure. These last few weeks have been good to us and I have seen some great progress from him. I have always said and stand by this, that we will keep working on all these classes and skills but that if he seems stressed or unhappy then I won't push him to compete. We will just have fun taking classes and building our bond.
Photos courtesy of Smilin Dog. Both labs go off leash hiking with this awesome daycare. They have helped build his recall and learning doggy manners :)
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