vikingdobermans.com Blog

Deepdene Visitor

Last weekend brought an old friend to town and Zelda and Charlie Brown helped me form the welcoming committee.  John had been around Zelda many times during previous visits and had only met Charlie when he was just a little tyke, so the first meeting was to reintroduce him to the dogs.  Once the introductions were done, John was golden to come and go as he liked. 

John’s visits are always totally laid-back and free of the need to plan and/or entertain.  John does his own thing, I do mine and sometime during the visit we find time to share a meal and catch up.  This visit was no exception.  I also found time to sit and listen to John play his hammer dulcimer… he plays/practices and if I’m around, I get to enjoy!  I think Charlie Brown discovered he really likes Irish music!    If you like good music, check out John’s website at www.johnyankee.com

Saturday is our training day so we were up by 7am and on the road before 9am.  That put us on the tracking field by 10am.  I laid a track with four turns and many articles on each leg.  Food in most of the footsteps (no food right after an article and no food in the two footsteps before the turns).  Charlie did well, but… Butch wanted articles instead of food, not both… so on Sunday we are to lay a straight track with lots of articles, no turns and food at start pad and as a reward when he downs on the articles.

Obedience we worked on the A-frame with a toy.  We are using a standard A-frame, at regulation height.  Charlie did very well and on command returned back over the A-frame with the toy in his mouth.  We worked on the retrieve with the Schutzhund I dumbbell over the high jump (one board short of regulation height) and he jumped clean and quickly–very athletic.  On the flat, he is not returning quick enough and Butch said to build his drive and don’t worry as much about the mouthing.  We can come back and clean it up, but we need more enthusiasm and speed returning.

 Protection we worked on cutting the corner on the blind search by having Mark (the helper) stand behind me.  I sent Charlie around the blind and called him as he hit the back side and his reward for cutting the corner tight was Mark giving him a bite!  He liked that.  His escape bite and his courage test bites were full and he actually went up for the sleeve, rather than being lazy and shallow in his bite.  I still think working on targeting the sleeve will help him jump up for the sleeve and get better grips.  When time and $ permit, I’d love to visit John Soares for a little work on targeting.

Long, cold day, but well worth it.  Every once in a while, you need a day that feels good on all fronts.  Today was pretty darn close!

Happy Birthday to my boy!

Red Bones

THANKS FOR THE WONDERFUL PHOTOS TORI!

Time change last weekend–whoooo hoooooo!

March 9th, in the wee dark hours of the morning, the time sprang forward an hour and talk of Spring and warmer times have dominated the lunch time chatter at work this week.  Training can actually occur in the light when I get home from work!  I LOVE IT!!!!

I’ve gotten a few tracks in after work this week and Charlie’s training is getting a big boost.  I love the longer daylight in the evenings and I really love the warmer temperatures.  Today (March 14th) it might rain and if it does, tracking tomorrow morning should be good… temps in the high 60’s today and low 60’s tomorrow.  This is my kind of Spring….

CWDC Spring Trial March 8th and 9th, 2008

March has to be the worst month of the year to plan an outdoor event–you either have fantastic weather or awful weather… nothing in between.  We missed the fantastic weather by a few days and had to settle for rain on Saturday (thank goodness it was not cold) and cold windy weather for Sunday.  For those tracking, Saturday was actually good.  Ground was damp and the wind was low.  No complaints from the tracking group!  Obedience was rain on and off and Lisa Little (our judge) was a great sport about judging while trying to keep her judges book dry. 

We had some great performances, a wonderful bbq for lunch and dinner with club members and the judge was relaxed and DRY! 

Sunday was the “mop up” day and the final BH dogs and SchII dog finished up early enough for club training to begin by mid-day. 

I was home and in bed before most seven year olds would be sent ‘a packin’ and off to bed.

I learned alot by watching and helping out where I could and Charlie was a dummy dog which gave us the opportunity to do some heeling on the field in a trial like setting… we have work to do…  me to learn to swing my arms naturally, find the right pace for me and Charlie and fix my left about turn footwork.  Charlie to remember to be a tad more focused throughout… I’m glad we had the field time!

Charlie also got to spend some quality time with Tori and he fell head over heels in love with her.  Tried to sit in her lap.  Tried to get in bed with her!  However, when Jingo came in, Charlie was back in bed with me and Zellie and I’m sure Tori had some explaining to do to Jingo about the other man in her bed…

March comes in like a lion–Tracking March 1, 2008

Wind, wind and more wind… a challenge for Charlie’s tracking training.  Butch said to lay a track that was not too long, only a couple of turns and food in all footsteps, front and rear part of footstep…

 I laid a three leg, two turn track for Charlie… first leg into the wind.  He put his head down and did the entire track with concentration–very good considering he has not tracked in wind this fierce before.  I was happy with his performance!  Still under fifty tracks, but getting two or three tracks a week, so we are trucking along.  I think it is time to introduce serpentine turns into the equation and see how he handles them…  will be harder on me since I can’t always see the track.  I’ll have to be very aware of where the track is and do my best to find ideal tracking which will allow me to see where the track goes. 

I have been lucky so far because a few times I was unsure of exactly where a turn was and Charlie has nailed it…  I am still doing curving turns, not 90 degrees and until he shows me he is ready, we will stay with the less severe turns.

Weather seems to be getting warmer, although March is often the most volatile month with swings that would make Tiger Woods jealous.  This weekend, my club trial, Saturday it is calling for wind, rain, sleet, snow, cold, and damp. Sunday it should be sunny, warmer, dry weather…  unfortunately for those trialing, Saturday will probably be when most, if not all, the dogs trial. 

Charlie is not ready, so I will be there to help out and will suffer the weather, but not suffer the stress of trialing.  Can’t say I’m sorry to be on the sidelines for this trial.