Monthly Archives: October 2016

Voodoo did great in the “Prep for Novice Competition” class! He did his first stand for exam (with me feeding him treats) and his first stay line up. While the instructor was talking or working one on one with folks, we practiced his stays, auto sit, and stand for exam with me doing the touch. The hardest part of class for him is waiting or doing nothing, so we work on something through the entire class. He’s fine with working on stays, but not just standing around at the end of the leash with no particular behavior expected of him.

I’m so thankful to have an instructor for this class who promotes positive obedience training!  Voodoo and I are doing some of the things a bit differently than what she is teaching, but she is advocating for the dogs and saying things like “If the dog breaks the stay, it’s the human’s fault for pushing for too much too fast” and reminding people to praise and reward their dogs for a job well done. Such a nice change from “pop your dog” and “don’t let him get away with that” when the dog doesn’t even understand what the handler wants yet!

One last title added while Voodoo is still 6 mo. old (turns 7 mo. tomorrow) 🙂 Today he earned his Barn Hunt Novice title, first place and high in class! Video: https://vimeo.com/188725036

Over the winter, we will be focusing on Barn Hunt, Nose Work and upper level Tricks titles and preparing him for the Novice Obedience class. He will need to wait till he’s a bit older to do more Rally since the Advanced class has a jump. I updated his page of titles, scores and video links here: Voodoos-titles-and-Qs Eight titles in one month in six different sports/activities, with very good scores! A pretty good start!

Beginner Nov: https://vimeo.com/188455141

Two more qualifying runs today at the Rally and Obedience trials. Voodoo got 3rd place in Rally Novice. He got a 92, but would have been a 97 if the Judge had seen us when we did the sidestep right. Oh well, sometimes you get a gift, sometimes you lose points you shouldn’t have. Video: https://vimeo.com/188354787

Beginner Novice wasn’t as smooth, but he did Q. I left the ribbons attached to his crate at the trial so I’m going from memory, but I think it was a 182.5 or 187.5

For some reason, his “sitter” was broken during heeling. Whenever I stopped, he would take a step or two back and stand there wagging his tail as though that was perfectly correct. 🙂 We stopped off at QC to do some practice on the auto sit while heeling. Hopefully he has it back for tomorrow. Video: https://vimeo.com/188357636

Decided to start Voodoo on the treadmill. I’m not using it for aerobic exercise though. Instead, I’m going to use it to teach him the mechanics of moving with his head up and straight in a way that I can SEE him and reward correct position. It’s also a good low impact, low speed exercise that will help condition his muscles and balance for the heads up heeling as we work in short sessions. This is just the beginning steps and we just start to touch on the goal at the end of the montage of clips. https://vimeo.com/188100194

Today I tried to recreate the photo I took of Dazzle and Voodoo when Voodoo was just 9 weeks old. It wasn’t easy to do considering I couldn’t see my phone screen in the sun, but it’s the best I could do. I think it clearly shows how much he has grown! I’m hoping he will add another couple of inches in height before he stops growing up and works on filling out. 🙂

And Voodoo and Dazzle are still doing GREAT together! As you can see in this photo of Voodoo flopped across Dazzle’s head during play.

This evening Voodoo was tested for the Canine Good Citizen title and passed the testing! So he adds CGC after his name. No video or photos, sorry. He will get a certificate in the mail once I mail in the paperwork.

Voodoo got his Barn Hunt Instinct title today! He also had an 8 second Novice run! Yesterday’s Novice run was 26 seconds (they get 2 min. to complete the course). But on what should have been the run that earned him his Novice title, I messed up and I thought he had climbed when he hadn’t. 😦 So no Novice title, but HE totally should have gotten it (if not for his handler messing up!) He didn’t know I messed up and he still had a blast and a fast run. No doubt about when he finds a hiding rat 🙂

He did make me work for the Instinct title though. He was confused by the tubes being out in the open and he hit on each one, but then finally gave a good sniff on one before hitting it so I was able to tell it had a rat. So he can add RATI after his name. He definitely likes this sport!

Ready for the next Trick Dog title! Intermediate level video: https://vimeo.com/185888952 We had fun with this today and I tossed in a blooper at the end 🙂 He thought his way through the ladder was much faster!

Our tricks for this level are:

• Teeter totter
• Balance and catch a treat
• Balance ball
• Tug on cue
• Go to your mat
• Ladder (proprioception exercise)
• Heeling with auto sits
• Finish right
• Finish Left
• Retrieve to hand
• Hold object for 5 seconds
• Barrels

My sincere apologies to the folks who subscribed to get emails whenever a post is made to this blog.  I had planned to make the older posts public a few at a time so as not to flood your inboxes.  But I kept forgetting to do that.  So I did them all at once and I’m now all caught up on making the previously private posts public. So we return to our previously scheduled postings that are much more random in frequency!