The Good, The Bad and the Strange

The good! My new video camera is on its way. Actually according to the tracking it is already at the post office, but our local post office seems to be understaffed since it normally takes them two or three days after something has been scanned to actually get it in the mailbox. So by the end of the week I should have Vivre Videos up and running. Basically the first few videos will just be of her running and playing. I need to go get a tripod for training vids and we are having a new web site done for the ridge so I will be getting videos of the wolves for the new site.

The Bad! Yesterday Vivre and Yoda (my GSD mix) started cussing at each other. My aunts dogs starting snarking at Vivre, Vivre started snarking back and in classic GSD fashion Yoda went in to take control and make everybody behave. Usually Vivre gives him a quick snark and goes on. Not this time, they circled around the yard snarking and cussing and growling at each other. They didn't really touch each other, but they didn't stop when I yelled for them to cut it out either. Yoda is twice the size of Vivre. He may be ancient, but he can stick kick ass if he needs to.

The Strange! (but good) I came in the other day to get some water and when I went back out to finish working I forgot that Vivre had followed me in the house. She spent about an hour and a half loose in the house unattended and nothing was destroyed! I also took a nap with her loose yesterday and she just stayed in bed and slept. Usually she gets up and harasses the cats to entertain herself. Aww, my little girl is growing up!

Give me a little distance.

I will be the first to admit that my training is a little strange. I started working on distance downs today and largely Vivre did well. I finally got the meadow in front of the house mowed and we were walking along to the creek when I figured what the heck she has finally seemed to really get the verbal cue. Lets try it at a distance. I wish I had thought to take a clicker because I think that would have made it a little clearer to her, but she did very well once she realized what I was asking for. She tend to not want to go all the way down, but keep floating elbows even in the house so I had to watch for that and a couple of times she sat or just stood, but by the time we headed back toward the house she was downing pretty far away. I am not good with distances, but may 75 or 100 feet away. Not on the first cue, but she was doing it. I had some cut up hot dogs I dragged out of the car, so I could toss her a bite. She is wonderful at catching so I could reinforce her at a distance, even with the food.

This is going to sound really bad and I am almost afraid to admit it, Vivre doesn't know "Sit," We train downs, heeling, go outs, marking, recalls, I could go on and on, but I just find sit boring. But Vivre has had a few sit sessions, and has been reinforced for sitting, but I haven't even tried to perfect the behavior and get it on cue. It has hit me though that I need to do that. I think that might help clear up what exactly sitting is for and keep her from offering it when we are working on distance. She is a year old any way. It is time for her to know how to sit. Plus I need to put it in the heeling.

I also need to work on slow heeling. She loves to heel and is great at normal speed and at a jog, but she just leaves when we start slowing down. I think she thinks we are done working. I'm allowed to cue at the speed changes for competition so if I have to remind her that we are still working I can, but I would prefer for her adjust her speed with out the added reminder. Just a personal preference.

I am going to start introducing her to jumping too. She had one session when she was 10 weeks where I had her stepping over a target stick held about an inch off the ground. I also have had her step through a hula hoop so this won't be totally new.

I really (REALLY) am going to have to start tracking. I wish Ring Sport was more common.

What I Didn't Know

When I first made the decision to get a working bred dog I started to do my research so that I had an idea of what I was getting in to. I was on email lists where people discussed their working and sport bred dogs. I read articles, web pages and blogs where people people discussed raising and training working bred dogs. But I find there is a gaping hole. Something nobody ever mentioned. Nobody tells you how hard it is to clean around these dogs. They don't warn you that when the broom comes out the dog attacks. When Vivre was a baby she would just latch on to the broom and would pick up the dirt I missed with her coat. She still tries to attack the broom so I sweep when she is outside. But now I am spring cleaning and every time I try to clean she gets right up in my way. She gets between me and the bookcase I am trying to organize, she noses around in my garbage bags. She is just pesty.

Of course I have never bothered to train her to ignore the broom, because it is usually easier to put her out for a little while. But since she has been in heat I... well I was going to fib a little and say I crated her. And I did for spot cleaning, but basically I just haven't given the house a good sweeping. So we have company coming and I am running out of time and it is raining and going to keep raining. So I can't crate her while I clean because I have too much work to do and won't leave her up that long and it is raining so I can't put her outside to play with the other dogs so I am trying to clean around her. (Did I mention it keeps raining!?)

So in the interest of correcting this glaring oversight when trying to clean around a Spritepup have a babysitting plan for the puppy.

Free At Last! Free At Last!

I noticed on Vivre's first birthday that she was starting her first heat cycle. I have never had an un-spayed female before. Heck I have only had one female before. So I am not exactly sure when caution crosses in to paranoia. We have no loose dogs up here, though our neighbor a mile away has a loose male. He never did try and come up here. Regardless today is the first time that I have let Vivre out of the fence to really run and she was excited. I picked up a stick and just tossed it for her. I let her run in to the tall grass to retrieve it and she would bound over the grass like a deer. I need to get it on film. I have a camera here that belonged to my uncle, but I don't have a firewire port on my computer. Denise has given me camera envy though so I am going to order a Flip.

She downed on the verbal very well when we were out there. I am not good at fading the visual cues and I need to work on that, but she was really doing well with the verbals today even with out me bending my shoulders.

I usually release her as soon as I start to throw the stick because I haven't worked on her staying with that kind of temptation, which means I need to pull my copy of CU back out and work through the program. It is well past time anyway. A couple of times I faked her out, pretending to throw the stick and release, after about the third time she came flying back at me and launched her self at my hand (which held the stick). I swear I can't play with sticks with out getting bit. I hate to throw a toy though, because I don't want to lose it in the tall grass. Maybe after I get it mowed down.

Good news though, Brydon has scheduled a seminar with Denise this fall that we are signed up for. So as long as she gets enough working spots (which I don't imagine will be a problem) we will have that to look forward to this fall. It will be great.

Happy Birthday!

Vivre is one year old today! Not that there is really any evidence of growing up. She hasn't gotten to go a lot of places this winter so today I loaded her up and took her with me. We headed first to the feed store. She get so excited because there are MEN at the feed store (little floozy). She is welcome inside and usually enjoys it, and did today too until she wrapped her leash around a rolling chair and it started to chase her. Yes, there are chairs in the feed store. After all farmers have to have someplace to sit while they gossip... excuse me, catch up on the news. That is far more dignified.

We stopped at a drive in for lunch while waiting to meet my mom. Vivre got a little hamburger (and half my sandwich as well.) After that she got to body tackle...um visit, with my mom. She loves my parents. After that she got to visit with my aunt until I finally had to get to take advantage of the sun and get some outdoor work done. I didn't get any birthday pictures, but will take some tomorrow and get them posted.

I have had a bad week and a virus on top of everything else, so I am going to keep this short and beg that everybody ignore the typos that I missed. Since I have already corrected myself about 8... um, make that 10 times in this short post I am certain that I missed something.

Too Tired to Tug?

The weather here has just been horrible. We have important visitors coming to the Ridge in March and need to have some decent weather so we can repair some of the damage we have sustained from too much snow and ice this winter. Despite the mountains of work we need to get done while we (finally) have some nice weather. I took the opportunity to take Vivre for a hike up the mountain.

She is turning in to quite a wonderful hiking companion. If she gets too far ahead of me she usually comes straight back if not she always comes back when I call. I think that she would always come back except for the slight difference between what she thinks is too far and what I think is too far. She waits if I have to try and find a way around a fallen tree she could just go under and even when she takes off off the trail like she is after something she comes straight back. Of course I always reinforce recalls while we are walking sometimes with food and others with the tug. Big efforts, such as leaving something interesting always get reinforced with the tug.

I think I took the wrong path when we were walking, because instead of getting to the area I was looking for I ended up heading toward the very top of the mountain. So we did a lot of walking up hill. Well I walked, Vivre ran, loped and trotted. Once I finally had to admit I should have taken the other path and we headed back.

About 2/3 of the way home I called her off something she was smelling and offered her the tug She started to grab it and then just stopped and decided she would rather have food. A first in Vivre history. Of course after we stopped for a minute at the picnic tables in the meadow near the house she was ready to go again. So yes, a spritepup can be worn, down. They just don't stay that way.

I'm Mean People

The one good thing about having seven inches of snow on the ground is it makes wearing Vivre down a little easier. (Seriously seven inches! When did I move to Canada?) It is more difficult for her to race in snow than it is over flat ground. And after hiking up the hill to feed the wolfdogs yesterday I can understand. It is like trying to walk through the ocean.

The other fun thing is Snow Balls! I can make snow balls and through them and Vivre chases them like tennis balls. The really mean part though is that I can't help but laugh when she goes to where they land and can't find anything but snow. She did also enjoy catching the snow balls. She has certainly outgrown being prissy about the wet.


Vivre jumps a lot, but this is the first time I have ever seen her do a vertical jump. Luckily I had the camera handy. You can't really tell it there, but she got pretty high. Not that that is all that surprising.