New Titles

So finally a blog update - I do have many excuses for not keeping things current. Ranging from house renos to how busy work has been. However at the end of the day - sometimes there is just not enough time to do all the things one might like to do in the course of a day.

This past weekend our schutzhund club hosted a small trial judged by Canadian judge Jim Chrisp. There were 6 BH entries, 6 schtuzhund dogs and one tracking only entry. Dieter and I were paired up with a Dutch Shepherd for the BH, and there was a Malinois and Rottweiler entered as well for their schutzhund titles. The rest were GSDs.

Our spring here in southern Ontario has been very cool and very rainy. Saturday was one of our first days that it has been quite warm and with very strong sun. Most dogs find the transitional weather to heat a bit much because they are used to the cooler temperatures. In the morning I was a bit worried about how Diets would hold up. Especially too as it seems that when it gets really warm, he just seems to melt.

So there are several places in the routine that can use some improvement and polishing. Namely the long down with distraction. I also made a few silly handler errors, however for the most part, I am very happy with his focus, his positioning and how well he showed last weekend.

Anyways he did very well with only a couple weeks of actual trial prep and I am very thrilled with my little red monster.

Here is our photo getting our title certificate from Jim after the trial....

The handsome boy with his certificate ....

Here is the Youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rks691S63zo

The following day we successfully completed our AD endurance test as well. I was a bit concerned because I had not conditioned Diets for this and he does not have a natural, ground covering trot. He is more of a pacer.

His bicycle experience consists of running back and forth to the local park at a fast lope/canter. Anyways - turns out I had nothing to be worried about.

We ran on an approxmiately 1 km oval shaped track at a local police facility with the bike on pavement and the dogs feet on grass (or so it would have been ideal - Diets just kinda did what he wanted). I peddled my bike perhaps a grand total of 10 times during the entire exam. The rules state "Overly fast running is to be avoided. Slight pulling or forging is not faulty, but continually falling behind is faulty." Thank goodness! In order to keep him at a conservative speed, rather then a full out gallop - I held the front brake the majority of the time and gave him quick leash checks when I thought the judge was hopefully not watching ;-). We may have provided entertainment for those spectating the event...

At each rest period, while all the dogs were laying in the grass panting, Diets was up, sniffing trees and marking them. I still can not believe it. Finally for the last 5-6 km he finally seemed to settle in. Anyways - it was a good experience and his feet held up well. He slept like a rock on the ride home however seems to have recovered nicely and is pestering me for a walk.

A quick photo of Dieter and I right after the 20 km run - You can tell from the photo how exhausted he is....(please note sarcastic tone). I think he actually was noticing some form of wildlife in the distance and wanting to chase it.

So Dieter has now acquired his BH and AD titles. If bitework continues to proceed at the rate it has, perhaps we may have our first schutzhund title this fall. Once the video is sent to me, I will try to post it on here as well for those who might be interested.