Its been a while

More than a month since my last post. Sorry! Lets go over how things are:

Wyatt
Wyatt’s bite work has gotten better. He looks very strong now and has more than enough drive. We’re going to start working on the SchH1 routine with the hope of getting 1 or SchH A in October. His heeling is better and he’s retrieving the dumbbell pretty solid right now. I need to start introducing the A frame. So much stuff and so little time. I need to track. I haven’t freaking tracked in 2 months. That’s bad news.

Kid

Here and there. Still not as much prey drive as I’d like but he’s got enough. He’s going to be a tough little guy I think. He is still possessive over his stuff and he even growled at me over a chicken leg when he was 10 weeks old (I made sure he doesn’t do it again but I like the effort). I haven’t done much obedience with him except for some sits, downs and touch. He still has crazy food drive and I decided today to make the switch to totally feeding him raw food. Also his ears are starting to become symmetrical. It was driving me crazy for a while there.

Me

I have been working most of the dogs at the club (under Steve’s watchful eye). I’ve gotten a lot better I think. Right now its all about mastering the mechanics..sleeve presentation, safe catches, etc. I still drive dogs like a girl but slow and steady as Steve says.

I tried to add pictures to this post but my computer wouldn’t let me. Suck. Next time.

I got bit (in a suit)!

Steve and his dad have been teaching me helper work and I finally got some good pics. The suit is so freaking hot. I thought I was going to die. At one point I had Rex between my legs and John outed him. I have never been more terrified of being bit before in my life. But Rex is a fun dog and relatively clean.

Wyatt’s still doing relatively well. He keeps getting stronger in the bitework and his obedience has been coming along. If you’ve read about our experience during the BH then you know of his love of traffic cones. I’ve harnessed this power for good. I’ll heel him away from a cone and if he’s doing well I’ll release him and allow him to go bite it for a bit. I just need to make sure there are no cones on the field during trial day!

Kid’s still off and on. He’s a great puppy and is a lot of fun. He has amazing food drive. I mean off the wall, extreme food drive. That and his solid nerves and sociability is what gives me some relief. His prey drives tends to be hit or miss but I feel his ups are higher than his up were last week. He tends to be a bit possessive of his toys and I like that. We’ll see…

And for my WDF friends. Yes, they actually let me work dogs!

Lazy, lazy, lazy

It’s been forever since my last post and a few thing s have changed.Last week was the busiest duty week I’ve been on yet. Between searching for drug dealers on a cruise ship and riding out to Ambrose (15 miles from the coast) at 4am I’ve had little time to post or even train. I haven’t tracked for almost two weeks before today. So here we are…

Wyatt

Wyatt’s  training has actually been going exceptionally well. He is really picking up the retrieve. I took him out yesterday and did flat retrieves outside. He’s is picking up the dumbbell, running back and holding it tight. Tracking went fairly well today. He finished the track well but lacked intensity (no surprise there).  The only issue is that by the time he got to the last steps ants were covering the bait and he didn’t want to eat them. I might start doing some article tracks and only reward when he gets to the article.

Kid

I have gotten more and more excited about kid. His prey drive has really increased over the last week. He actively chases his favorite toy, a mini tug and rag. He has great nerves. When he is biting the prey object he is unshakable. He doesn’t show any aversion to the clatter stick, the whip, hands over his face etc. His food drive is intense. He will do anything for some kibble but when he smells the good stuff (treat rolls, pepperoni, summer sausage) he goes crazy. His obedience is coming along but I have plenty of time! He also has a bit of an attitude.  I like that. The one warning sign is he is no natural retriever. He gets his object and bolts.

I’ll try and get another video up by next post. Thanks for reading!

God I’m boring

Just watched the vid below again. Man I need to be more exciting during training.

Puppy love!

Kid has really come out of his shell over the last few days. His crate training has been coming along well (except for two accidents today) and he seems to be bonding pretty quickly. I was pretty worried after the first two days because he was sooo calm. Not what I was looking for. Now he”s really coming along. His prey drive is still lower than I was hoping for but I’m not especially concerned yet. He’s only 7.5 weeks old, hes in a brand new environment, and he’s an American Bulldog not a Malinois. I’ve been doing some training with him.

This vid is mostly some attention training with a few sits and downs.

More pictures

What a trip

I’m sore.  I’m tired.  in the last 24 hours I drove 14 of it. I just got back from Richmond, Virginia where I was picking up my new schutzhund prospect.  I got to Barry Walton’s place out in Dinwiddie about 8 o’clock this morning. I spent two awesome hours there picking out a puppy and working every bulldog he owns. What an awesome experience! The puppy’s father hits like a sack of bricks. Comes staight in and trys to put you on your butt. The dam was unshakable.  Great drive and nerves and I get the feeling that she’d be just as happy biting the arm without the sleeve.

I can’t say enough good things about Barry and Nova Uniao Kennels. He’s a class act, has some great dogs and seems to be breeding some great dogs.

The new puppy was one of two that stood out from the rest. He had great prey drive, showed no fear of loud noises and was very social.  He laid on Jenna’s lap the whole way home and perked right up when he got in the apartment. I’m pretty excited and I feel like this puppy has what it takes to do big things. The rest is up to me.

Here’s the sire Levi:

The dam Connie:

And without further ado here’s Billy the Kid of Nova Uniao :