since i neglected to post the dog camp narrative here, you can have the copy.pasted version from my LJ :) and tonight hopefully i will update about how training went on wed and thursday!
the original post:
my god is doggie camp hilariously fun.
katie, for future reference, your dogs would be fine there, even if you brought two of them. MANY of the dogs there are reactive, they are VERY conscientious about red bandana dogs, and make an effort to make sure in classes, etc that reactive dogs are kept away from each other, etc. of course there are certain people that are retarded, but they are everywhere - most people are very good about all of it. we have red bandana goldens, shih tzus, terriers, you name it. they are also VERY positive oriented (you can use prongs on your dogs for controlling, but all the classes use either verbal markers or clickers as the basis for teaching) so you would definitely have a blast here in the future.
my dogs and i are exhausted.
started off with super stays - its a progressive class, and this was the first of three. gave me some interesting things to think about, and some stuff to work with. i will say in the 45 minutes of class working ONLy stays, rah didnt break a single one?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? go figure. and he was totally fresh, not tired at all. tomorrow will be outside.
then to recalls - i worked berlin in this (Was going to do rah, but figured berlin needed it more). was inside, and we started with restrained recalls, and then added in distractions including toys, another class behind us and people clapping, then someone running behind the dog and with the dog while the recall was taking place. berlin rocked this class, and ran like the little rocket she is.
lunch break, then berlin did the first session of her inducive retrieve. its an interesting concept, but i will say that rather than training a retrieve for the ring (which is what rah has), susan trains a retrieve of ANYTHING - her dog will retrieve anything she tells it to. to be honest, rah will not? (ETA: actually, rah will retrieve anything I tell him to except candles, so I am happy with that!) so i will see how this works - its pure positive, but it has a definite method. berlin is doing very well and loves it so far :)
FLYBALL for rah! it was geared towards dogs that had never done flyball before, which rah has, but it was still fun. we just did jumps today, but rah got to do jumps off leash and had fun. then after class, dawn the instructor played with him and had him do some boxwork, and said she would help me find a team and ask some of her contacts to get him onto a team, and then she tugged with him for 10 straight minutes and he was in HEAVEN.
then, heaven changed. because my dogs. FELL. IN. LOVE.
my dogs coursed.
LURE COURSING IS HEAVEN ON EARTH. rah is a lure coursing fool. berlin is a little lure coursing fool. they loved it. they were marvelous at it. rah barks his head off. rah shredded his soft crate in my truck when i put him away and let berlin run, he was so pissed off and wanted to run again.
i cannot express to you how amazing my dogs found lure coursing.
hopefully the photographer got some good pictures of them :) she also said she wanted to do a session with them for her photos - she does shots for calendars, magazines (AKC gazette, family dog, etc) and for personal stuff, so any of her shoots for you also are for those things - and she wanted my dogs :) so we did that, and then i hung out for an hour waiting for the "olympics" where rah, the bottomless pit, helped his team come in third for eating almost everything in the eating challenge except the pickle (his team blew away the competition by eating olives, marshmallows, pineapple and such) and then killed the competition by being the only dog that would attack the bubbles in the bubble popping competition :)
now we are home and they are sleeping and we can go back tomorrow and first on the agenda is MORE LURE COURSING YAY.
and day 2:
oh my god, dog camp is fun.
coursed again this morning and rah broke it when he caught the lure :) woohoo.
superstar rah has done 1.5 hours of stays including some off leash outside (45 minutes) and has only broken ONE!! ONE!!!!! im really pleased with this - i know duration wise we have only gone up to a minute or so, but even in class, by 10 seconds he's typically fidgeting, he's broken within that time period, etc - and he's NOT doing that here. the time he broke during this was when we went too far - part of his issue is when i talk to others. i put him in a stay, walked away, and started talking to all the other people. he waited 45 seconds and then popped into a down. when i walked towards him he immediately went back into his sit. trainer said we moved too fast. she's given me a LOT to think about and pointed out one big thing to me that i really see could be causing rah to not "get it" for me. i hope this works.
tracking - fun, but very pet oriented. berlin still did a REALLY nice job sniffing, but the trainer was kinda confused, since i did it schutzhund style (the only way i know how) and didnt follow her method.
recalls with berlin - off leash and outside (she did drag the 40 footer one time) and she did SO AWESOME - first was past a person, then past toys, then we did a hidden one, and she turned so fast she dug up grass :) super baby girl!!!!!!!!!!!!
induced retrieve class was good, i have to work on that tonight - she is giving me full teeth on the bar, but i have to get her to hold it tonight (not verbally telling her to, she has to offer it to me herself).
rah's flyball class was good - we worked on trying to get rah to get all 4 feet on the box :)
berlin had her CGC prep class and she did pretty much everything great and she wowed everyone with her heeling and they were astounded and her prancy feet :)
then we had an informal troubleshooting session where people got to ask questions of all the trainers and they gave me some good ideas for rah's countersurfing issues.
im telling you, i will definitely be going back next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
now, dinner and tv!!
day 3 update:
rah continued his wowness with superstays, rah once again caught the lure, we had a private flyball session and another good flyball class, berlin ALMOST passed the CGC and we came home with some good loot and awards.
well rested, very happy and relaxed, and planning on going again FOR SURE.
anyone in the area that can get to it, should definitely go:
www.campbarkinghills.com
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