Basil and Sybil

Sybil, Secret & Basil

Sybil

Sybil

Basil

Basil
(All photo's by Sam Weaver)

Basil and Sybil are growing up on the farm and both are doing well. Basil is learning to be a sheep dog and Sybil is just enjoying life. Unfortunately Sybil has a problem with her heart so there is no pressure on her to do anything but have a fun time while she is in good health.

Basil is the furry one of the family with by far the longest coat of all the pups. I really like Basil, I think he is a really nice looking dog. Perhaps at some stage Sam will do some agility with him too, when she decides she'd like another Novice dog to compete with!

Keep a Secret

(All photo's by Sam Weaver)

Time to see how Sonic's big sister is going. Secret was born first, Sonic last and when they were puppies she was almost double his size. But you wouldn't know it now. Secret is a diminutive little thing but manages to make up for it with a larger than life personalilty. She certainly doesn't let you forget that you are in her presence!

Young Secret is down on the farm in Kojanup at the moment with Sam and Richard so Sam has very kindly sent some brilliant photo's of the crazy little lass while she's there - thanks Sam :-).

Unfortunately Kriszty and I don't train at the same grounds so I haven't had the opportunity to see Secret in action at training. Secret is such a feisty little miss and I have no doubt that she will be really exciting and will rock big time when she eventually hits the agility world.

It is planned that Secret and Sonic are going to be Strategic Pairs partners in the future and I have visions of utter chaos on the course! I have no doubt it will be a lot of fun though...

Billy Boy

Gillian has been kind enough to send me some photo's of Billy to post on Sonic's blog. The last photo's of Sonic's siblings were back when they were really little so it is lovely to get some of them as almost grown ups. They all look so alike you could never think that they weren't related! Billy is a little taller than Sonic but they both have legs that go on for miles and a "butter wouldn't melt in their mouths" expression (Gillian and I know the real truth)! I have no doubt that Gillian is getting as much joy from having Billy as I am from Sonic. When I do have the oppurtunity to see Gillian working with Billy I can see that he loves to work and even at this age is totally focused and loving his training. I'm so looking forward to seeing him develop into an amazing agility dog.

Chasing bubbles

Come over here little bubble...

and gotcha

My two boys :-)

I dug out my forgotten bubble machine and some peanut butter flavoured bubble solution this afternoon for some bubble fun for Sonic. He totally loved it and was avidly catching bubbles until the solution ran out. Naturally I had to get my camera out to catch the action.

So next time it's pouring with rain outside I'll know how to entertain my energetic puppy!

Winter holidays

Sonic modelling his new winter rain jacket.

Sonic's big blue bunny - pre bashing

Big blue bunny - post bashing...

It is a hideous, horrible wet day today so seemed like a good day to blog. Not that I don’t like the rain, it’s just that it hasn’t let up since it started at 7am this morning and it means a boring day stuck inside the house.
Mind you the dogs seem more than happy curled up on their beds in the house. My partner and I just returned from six glorious days down at Margaret River, which focused on drinking, eating and sight seeing (in that order…). That meant that the dogs had to go to the kennels for the week. From what Judith told me when I collected them yesterday, they all conducted themselves extremely well (even Sonic!) and other than Riot having a ripped toenail (with much sooky facial expressions and sighing when I cleaned and bandaged it up yesterday) they seem none the worse for wear. I dare say that the quietness in the house today would be due to kennel recovery time!
I took Riot and Sonic to Simon Leanings last Saturday to have some fun. Sonic only had a very brief go on the sheep. He was much more animated this time and spent a bit of time charging around and barking at the sheep. In between the silly stuff he showed some nice work. I did quite a bit with Riot and although he started off a bit rough he was really working well at the end of the morning. When one of the younger more inexperienced dogs lost the sheep out the back paddock Riot and I were able to go and get them and bring them back quickly and quietly which was really fun.
I’ve been working hard on Sonic’s 2o2o on the end of the dog walk bringing my rate of reinforcement up very high. He seems to be getting more confident but I will hold off any back chaining until I’m really happy with his understanding of the position. I’m even getting some nice nose touches without the target on the ground. We’ve also been mucking around with the flexi tunnel. It was initially a bit crazy but I’ve incorporated start lines in front of the tunnel as well so some semblance of control is introduced! With all the groundwork I’ve been doing with him I have to say I’m very happy with his understanding of my body position. Even working on the tunnel you can see that depending on where I’m standing when he comes out of the tunnel he knows exactly where he needs to be.
I love doing recalls with him and his start lines are great. If I add a front cross into his recall mix he gives me an excited growl when he turns. I’ve started doing post turns as well. I’m glad I did as initially he kept trying to turn in behind me so I think it’s important that he understands those too before doing any formal jumping grids.
I did another quick measure of Sonic this morning and I got him at just under 53.5cm. I’ve found in the past that when formal measuring is done they tend to be about 1cm taller than what I get so even taking that into account he should comfortabley come in to the 500 height class. I’m happy for him to be on the higher side, as hopefully it will help to make him more competitive.

Water, brooms, rakes and cuddles

So intense...

Is there any wonder my back is buggered!

He is about to hit double figures, a whole 10 months of age! I thought I'd write down some of the quirky things he does that makes up who he is at this stage of his little life.
Sonic loves water. If there is a puddle or pool of water anywhere in the vicinity he has to jump in it. If he gets hot the paws go in the water bucket and he submerges his head under while drinking. Not a day goes by that I don't have to change his water bucket and I'm sure I don't need to mention that chasing water from the hose is very high on the list of fun.
He is still totally obsessed with me sweeping or raking. Should I attempt to do either I have to deal with much puppy screaming and herding of said rake or broom. We have come to a compromise these days in that as long as he lets me sweep or rake as soon as I've finished he is allowed to kill the broom to his hearts desire. The compromise seems to be working fairly successfully at this point. I like to think of it as control training...I don't know if anyone watching would agree.
He is pretty cuddly really which is a bit unexpected. If my partner and I are sitting on the lounge together he is very likely to curl up between us for a cuddle. I remember Kriszty telling me that Sally was a bit like that and loved to curl up on the lounge with you. He has this thing too where he loves to sniff your face. It's quite bizarre to watch but he is totally fascinated by it. Strangely enough I think that Kriszty and Gillian mentioned that Secret and Billy do it too.
Training is good. He's in love with the collapsible tunnel, doesn't fall off the puppy dog walk nearly as much as what he did to begin with and has the bend grid down pat. His two on two off on the dog walk is sometimes good but then he'll drop his bundle and get all flustered about it. I think I just need to do more of it with him and up the reinforcement.
I think he's about Riot's height now but I haven't gotten around to measuring him again. Because he's so slight he doesn't look that big but when he's walking alongside Riot he realise just how tall he is. Just as long as he doesn't go over 54.6cm all will be well!

Nine months

It’s hard to believe that 12 months have passed since the National Agility Trial last year in Adelaide. Winning the Novice Jumping final with Lexi feels like it could have been a million years ago! It was just before the Nationals that Kriszty and I drove out to Narembeen to collect Mick before delivering him to Sam to take down to the farm. That was when the wait began in earnest for Sally to come in season and the mating to take place. Even harder to believe is that young Sonic is now nine months old.

He still hasn’t grown much more in height although I think he has filled out a bit. I’m still confident that he will be a nice 52cm – 53cm at the shoulder come measuring time. Leggy would be a great description for him although he is surprisingly coordinated considering. There is an interesting game that he plays by himself which involves him lying on his back playing with a toy, but unlike my other dogs who would use only front feet to control the toy, he uses his back “thumper” feet as well. I guess if it works, why not. I get the impression that anything that he does will be unique….

Training still involves copious amounts of stay work with the proofing exercises getting harder and harder. He shows great control to be able to sit there like a statue when I throw a toy right next to him, as he loves his toys with a passion! The only time I can get him to break is by doing a “ready, steady” and then running forward without a release cue. Even then he normally only takes one stride before stopping and looking at me with a “oh crap” expression on his face. I can never get him a second time though.

Circle work is improving and he is far less inclined to blast off. It is always safer to build up speed wise though as flat out straight off is normally more than he can handle and he’ll charge off like a banshee. I’ve started incorporating bend work with his straight-line jump bumps. There was a recent article in Clean Run by Susan Salo that recommended doing bend work with pups early, which makes sense. So I dutifully started him on it a couple of weeks ago. First night was crap and he had no idea what to do. All the other exercises I do with him he is getting so good at now and he is so full of confidence that it was funny watching him trying to figure it out. Anyway, last week we tried again and he was great so I think this week I will put the full bend grid out and see how he handles it.

I was looking at him the other day and wondering if I’m not doing enough with him. I have quite a bit of puppy equipment at home so it would be easy for me to set things up in the backyard. But then I look at some of the people that I train with and I see 14 to 18 month old dogs doing masters sequences already. I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with that but I know that I’m not interested in pushing Sonic that fast. I would rather watch him be the total larrikin that he is and enjoy being a puppy for as long as possible. He has got plenty of time to be a serious agility dog and many years of competition in front of him. The two evenings I do train him now is plenty and the rest of the time he can enjoy trips to the beach, out to the bush, terrorising the cat or just running amuck with his buddies.