Never Fails to Disappoint....

(all ready to go!)

I am so fortunate to have found a dog like Dieter. I have had such a great year with the little guy training in the sport of schutzhund. I have been to numerous seminars since the new year and each one I have attended, Dieter comes out always does his best and I have yet to be disappointed in his performance.

This past weekend we attended our first tracking only seminar being held just outside of Hamilton, Ontario - hosted by the Scentrail Ontario Trackers. It was a mixed group of CKC/AKC competitors and schutzhund competitors. There was a great variation of dogs ranging from GSDs, Labs, a Berner and even a Coton de Tulear - and last but definitely not the least, 2 Dobermans! Dieter and another red male. There was also an auditor present who recently imported a young dobe from California with the hopes of getting into schutzhund with her new pup.

At the scent pad

Mid-section of a serpentine track

Working well with the loose line (no more opposition reflex!)

Receiving our critique/recommendations

Anyways, the weekend was filled with great food, interesting people and great tips from Joanne on her methods of tracking. I was a bit nervous bringing Dieter out especially with how frustrated I have been with him the past couple of months, however his tracking was pretty good. He is still a novice and I did use bait on the track - however Joanne only had positive things to say after each one of his tracks. The only negative was my method of training of articles was not as effective as I thought :-S Soooo I am going to try her method. Now after only two sessions using her method off the track - there is already a marked improvement!

Waiting to do articles Off the Track

Initially standing at his side, rewarding him with food for looking at the article

Eventually standing over him dropping food

A few tips to share from the weekend:

- In training she never brings the dog straight up to the scent pad, usually on an angle to force them to figure out track directionality.

- Harness vs. Collar? Shouldn't matter, however less equipment is ideal (therefore collar).

- A focused tracking dog is calm and contained.

- No bad emotions on track - Just be NEUTRAL (easier said then done).

- Always vary where you hold your line and during which portion of the track.

- Always work young dogs with serpentine tracks - Not straight lines.

- Introduce different terrains early.

- Use low scent food in small pieces (freezing or low moisture foods help prevent ant swarms).

- Your dog will not starve - build food drive by missing a few meals or two

- Leaving the track and choosing to go to something more interesting is a "correctable offense".

(i.e. ground hog hole or if you have a male, going to pee on some brush).

- NEVER make assumptions

(Special thanks to Dianne for taking all my photos!!)

What is worse then Gulls Stealing Food from a Track?!

Being attacked while running the track by June Bugs!

As temperatures reached into the mid-30s during the days this weekend, I elected to track in the evening.

Since finding prime tracking locations in the city of Oakville can be challenging to say the least, I was excited to find a new prime location to track in a couple days ago.

This evening at dusk Dieter was half starved, and me with my ziplock full of food, drove out to the new field. I lay the track and the grass was plush and pretty good conditions for having such a hot dry day just past. I was pretty thrilled with the find because no one was around - again, unusual for a busy city with a fairly 'outdoorsy' population.

Aged the track only 10 minutes and pulled Dieter out of the car to run the track. We were only about 50 paces in and I suddenly heard the buzzing of these hideous critters. Hoping they were in the distance was over quite quickly - they ended up swarming us.

They stick in your hair, your clothes and anywhere they can cling on. HOWEVER - the good news is that Dieter despite this onslaught, kept tracking!! Really well I might add. I was about 10 feet behind him dancing around in desperate and futile attempts to fend off these nasty little beetles. Only once did he look back at me, like "what the heck are you doing?" The passerby's must have thought I was having a seizure or something.

We finally reached the end (which seemed like an eternity) - Dieter platzed - I dumped his sardines on the grass and sprinted to the car. He lay calmly eating his reward and came trotting up after finishing. I was yanking off layers of gear. After I yanked off my t-shirt, I was thrilled to count about 10 june bugs in my shirt, 8 still in my hair and an unknown number crawling around my training vest. Thankfully the little guys don't bite!!

Then getting home to research them on Wikipedia - I find that there is only a morsel of information....

Overdue Photos from UDC Nationals - April 2010

Not too interested in conformation showing at this point (maybe one day) - however went for the working seminar with John Soares (who won the 2010 AWDF IPO championships) and Butch Henderson. Unfortunately the seminar was Tuesday and Wednesday and the IPO trial was not until Saturday, so I wasn't able to stay and watch Dieter's dam compete.

Here are a few photos from the trip/seminar -

Dieter loves hotels apparently - sleeping on a bed is WAY better then in a crate!

With John Soares giving some OB advice/instruction

More heeling exercises under John's supervision

Dieter is a bit wild in protection (not to mention I can barely hang onto him when he is on a harness)...note beet red face and bracing stance :-S

On a bite pillow with John

First time in a year that Dieter's breeder (Jason) and his TD have seen him. I think he passed his inspection ;-)

A little bite work with Jason before the long drive home

Who knows perhaps we will compete in the IPO trial one day!

Tracking Tribulations

Since acquiring a full time job, (which I might state, I am very grateful to have) however it has cut into my desire to track early in the morning each day, as I was doing last summer. My sleep has become slightly more higher value and although I do consider myself "a morning person" by nature - fatigue does unfortunately factor in and thus Dieter's tracking has taken a bit of a hit.

Since the start of May, I have been trying to be faithful about at least tracking 2-3 times per week. It has been manageable, however I found that Dieter somewhat forgot how to track over the winter. Not really obviously, however all the work we did seems to have been for naught.

First track of the season was a track in damp grass, aged only 10-15 minutes, dog was hungry and only about 200 paces. One article on the second leg and the second article at the end. (Easy by last summers standards) He overshot every corner because he was going to quickly, he was distracted as anything (even stopped and looked up at some elderly couple walking about a mile away), missed half the food and might as well as forgot to platz at the articles. I was heart broken. However with my type A personality, I took it as a personal challenge to repair what seemingly has broken. It is currently a work in progress and he is improving - however we are still not back to where we left off last fall.

I do hear mixed opinions on tracking in anything other then ideal conditions and some people stop tracking their sport dogs as soon as the grass starts to go dormant for the winter months. I definitely tracked past that time as he was doing well. Perhaps I was greedy?

Last summer we had done tracks successfully over grass (both groomed and longish), sparse vegetation, dirt and hardtop (ie. pavement). This summer I feel fortunate if he can focus just over wet grass.

I don't know perhaps if his food drive is waning a bit, however as it is one of the easiest drives to artificially build with him, he has only been eating during his tracking and it seems to have helped. However I find that there is a fine line: Between having a starving (eat whatever he can) dog that looks too scrawny, to having a good track. I am currently working on an equilibrium. :-)

Yesterday morning I tried something new. As Dieter is 100% clicker trained - In his brain "click"=treat/perfect. I use it for telling him when he is doing something 100% the way I want. It comes in extremely useful when a 3rd party watches and clicks when positioning is correct and then I just have to worry about rewarding and what I am doing.

AnYways - with my current situation, my goal for yesterday morning was to clearly communicate to him that I want him to platz on articles with his front legs on either side of it and it kinda in a line below his nose. Which I think/thought he knew- however, what a difference after a few clicks with the clicker. The track I laid had approximately 8 articles on it. After the first two articles, he seemed to have a light bulb moment - I almost shed tears of joy!

I have also have been trying to teach a command to "show me" (ie. put your chin on it). Well, after this one same session, he seems to be getting that as well. For instance, the last article of the track - I had a speedy platz, I clicked, he looks back, then starts kinda doing a subtle head bob over this piece of leather. Basically "showing me" the article.

I realize this may only be a temporary high, as I plan to track again tomorrow morning and not sure what that will bring. I hope to test out this whole clicker business again and see what happens.

I am also thrilled to be attending one of Joanne Fleming-Plemb's tracking seminars the last weekend of June. I look forward to showing her what we have done, where we are at and getting her expert advice. Here is her website link - http://www.fleming-plumb.ca/index.html

DoberGoat?!

So over the past few years of being involved with the Doberman breed, I have on numerous occasions heard them termed as 'dobergoats'......I have never really paid too much attention to that fact until recently.

Goats (according to Wikipedia) are thought to "consume just about anything, except cardboard and tin cans". Some dobes may also think along the same terms - including mine.

Despite my most diligent habits, over the course of his relatively short life, Dieter has managed to consume approximately 6 otherwise known to be inedible objects:

1. Leg from Teddy Bear (Vomited up several hours later)

2. My underwear (Vomited up during rounds with colleagues my first week at a new job)

2. My fathers work sock (Vomited up 2 days later)

3. My underwear (Wasn't himself for a week - X-ray'd him 2 days later and induced vomiting)

4. A sock (Vomited up after several days of acting sick)

5. My underwear (Vomited up after unknown amount of time)

6. My headband (Induced vomiting after noticing it was missing)

He has also consummed many other question items that it is impossible to remember or list everything here - however they are not so memorable in my mind at this point...

To be honest - I have been extremely fortunate he has not required foreign body surgery to remove anything YET. However I feel as though if I did not work in the field I do, I would be completely broke.

I am fortunate in that if I have any concerns, I do bring him to work with me, make him vomit or give him some barium and do x-rays. This is one of the perks of the job.

We have also tightened up security at home barricading him from bedrooms, bathrooms or anywhere other then kitchen or living room areas. Baby gates are fabulous inventions. I have also recently purchased a basket muzzle for him. I cannot decide if I will use it or not, however it would allow him to drink/pant and hopefully cause less worry of him eating junk he should not. Aside from being in his crate all the time, I feel as though apparently I cannot give him the supervision when out that he so badly warrants.

This training continues to be a work in progress for both of us - I have my fingers crossed that he will outgrow this frustrating and dangerous habit!

Schutzhund Training - Phases II and III

Dieter & I have been training now for a couple months with Niagara Hundesport. Things have been progressing nicely and we are having a lot of fun! Here are a few shots snapped by a club member who has a good eye and a natural talent for photography!

Obedience -

Doing a bit of resistance training with him in the heel position. Good focus buddy!

More focus -

Protection -

Due to the fact we have recently started doing bite work, we have been working on the basics -

Good Guard Diets!

Up!

That is it for now - will try to keep things updated as the season progresses!

Good old BBC...

"The Secret Life of the Dog - 6 Part Series"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgL3uQvLNEs

Very interesting video documentary looking at dogs and their relationships not only with humans, however also with regards to wolves....in conclusion - dogs are not wolves and subsequently process information received from us very differently then wolves.

My deduction - training dogs while subscribing to age old adage, that dogs should be trained using pack theory and dominance is outdated. We need to realize that training methods based on outdated perceptions of dominance theory are unfortunate, and scientifically based guidelines of positive reinforcement, operant conditioning, classical conditioning, desensitization, and counter conditioning are far more effective training tools.

A few links worth checking out -

http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/

http://www.dogstardaily.com/blogs/science-based-dog-training-feeling