Summer...

My temporary foster, Mal.

The collies playing in the yard.

Summertime in Texas is not a pretty thing. Basically all you do is stay cool, swim, hid in the AC. Even the dogs hunker down under their shade or sit in their water.

I've been fostering a Tri smooth male for the past few weeks. Mal's original home didn't work out and so I manged to get him back and am holding him until his breeder can get to this area to pick him back up.

Charm is packing a heavy veteran coat, and even with brushing she's making a mess of herself. She's always into burs or stickers, and she's a sloppy drinker. So I've made the decision to shave her down to just few inches. It will be easier on all of us.

Tess and Chase are doing nicely. Right now they are working on learning a solid foundation for their futures as performance dogs. There are some basic things they need to know, or the "basic 7". They are:

• Sit (nice fast tuck sit)
• Down (good sphinx down)
• Come (drop everything and come right now - no front yet)
• Stand (kick back stand)
• Leave it (no matter what it is, food, other dog, anything - leave it)
• Find heel (starting heel work. Good heeling takes months or more to learn)
• Stay (stay put until you are released)

Then I like to also teach:

• Attention, Eye Contact and Focus
• Start front work
  
• Start Finish work
• Dumbbell (if you want to go into Open or higher, might as well get an early start)
• Start playing go out games and teach the beginnings of mark (for the gloves in Utility)
• Backing up & rear end work (you need it for Rally and pivots, etc)
• Side steps, etc. Needed for rally, as well as adjusting during heeling.
• Jump work (you need it for Rally, Obedience and Agility - wait until your dog is old enough!)
• Motivational collar pops (Linda Koutsky teaches these and they are excellent!)
  

One of the hardest things for me to learn with these two dogs is to find their motivators, and how to keep training fun fun fun. Something I didn't learn when doing the early training of my first dog. I was orginally taught to do a lot of jerking and pulling and correcting, etc. but not really how to make it motivating for the dog. I can't take treats or toys into the ring, so I'm also trying to learn how to "be the cookie for my dogs". But we are learning.

We really, really want to get into Agility. I can't get all of the equipment, but I know people who have it, and I have some awesome Susan Garrett DVDs (her success with one jump is amazing!) and so we are going to give it a try.

I'm still on the waiting list for an Irish Setter puppy. I'm so excited. This pup will compete in conformation, rally, obedience, agility, field, tracking and hopefully some therapy work.

I lied...

about the dogs getting the day off yesterday. :-) It was so cool that around dusk I did grab both of them and we headed out for some training fun.

I'm having to get used to having two dogs at the very beginning in their training. The jump from Dickon, who was ready for his RE/RAE and getting close to ready for his CDX, and now these two wild ones who are still learning the foundations. But that's okay, this will be fun.

We didn't do much, just find heel work, sits, downs, stands, DB work. They like their DB and are coming along nicely. But they had fun and carried their training bag back to the house very proudly.

Day off

Monday is usually the official 'lazy day' here, and today was so lazy that even the dogs got the day off. :-) Which is fine with them, they are out playing and enjoying the cooler weather. Their smooth buddy, Mal, is here for a visit while his owner goes out of state, so Tess and Chase are thrilled.

Even though the heat in TX is pretty bad, I'm hoping we can get back into the training swing of things. I'd like to have them ready to step into the Rally ring by January. I'm sure they could go in early, but I want them to be really ready. No "scholping" through Rally runs around here.

Charm is starting to blow. Going to put her up on the table tonight and try to work on her some. I'm toying with the idea of shaving her down. She's 9 and is packing such a coat. Guess I'll see how much I can get out of her before I make up my mind.

I need to start dusting off the Rally signs and equipment and getting things ready. Chase and Tess will be ready to run courses in the near future.