The dogs have been doing alot more than just barking in the car or Candy's garage for the last week or so. It's just that we've been very busy and that means less time to write.
Tor is making tremendous progress in just about every facet of his training. Pretty much the only area that I am not very pleased with him in is his weight - he is as thin as a rail. You should not be able to see ribs through the coat of a Terv, even a Terv with a light coat. He is almost embarrassingly thin. You'd think I don't feed him but he is growing so fast and is extremely active and intense and he just burns it all off. I've added more variety to his diet and am giving him extra canned venison or beaver tripe with pretty much every meal and am putting more oatmeal (carbohydrates) in the meat mix. I'm considering adding some sweet potato or a high quality puppy kibble as well. He looks totally healthy and seems fine. He is just too thin for my tastes.
Everything else is going well. His "Out" is really pretty nice at this point and is solid on me, Dave and a couple of other helpers, too. His heeling work is going well although it probably doesn't look like much yet. I decided to go essentially 1-step at a time going for perfect position before we move on. He's heeling mostly for food - a head-up heeling position, but I occasionally use a tug for his reward. It's painful to work food with him because he really does try to gnaw it out of your hand. Working on that, too, but forget about it sometimes and that usually results in a painful reminder. His tracking is also going well. Again nothing fancy, just really solid work on pretty basic puppy tracks. Working a modified Dildei method in tracking. I don't agree with him on tracking straight lines so much but like the idea of using food to build hunt drive. So there is still food in every footstep but he is already doing multiple turns. He's like Gata in that way, turns help to slow and settle him down if he is working too fast.
His focus is really great. He's like Gata in that way, too. I worked just a little OB with him on the field on Friday while there was about 5 other dogs out. He was a little distracted at first but quickly focused on me. Did lots of rewarding for attention with a tug or ball. Also worked a little on baby judge stuff. Had him hanging out on the field around a group of guys that were talking and pointing but didn't have them touch or examine him, just had him sitting or standing and watching me. Also working on building duration on all of his basic positions.
The one thing about Tor that is a challenge is that he is very single-minded in his focus. If he is heading out to track - he wants to track. He doesn't want to sit and give me attention before starting, as in reporting in to the judge. He's the same way with protection work. So it is going to be really important to build in those things as part of the "start routine". In protection I think almost all of his bites will be coming through me. I suspect that he will need very few repetitions with the helper initiating the activity for him to understand those triggers.
Gata is doing great. She is learning some basic agility skills - distance work and obstacle focus away from me. We are working 2-on/2-off contacts much of the time with Derede but I'm not sure that we won't also have to work running contacts with her. It is unlikely that she will ever hit any of her up contacts unless we train them with her soon. I should probably spend some time learning more about training running contacts but really don't have the time/energy for it.
Her OB is going really well. Her heeling position is better than it has ever been - forging is almost gone. Her out of motions are getting pretty solid for her and her send out is awesome. Need to check on her retrieves again soon but need to rearrange the car first ;-) Really need to get back on the long down under distractions. Not saying that these issues have been fixed just that they are all improving dramatically. Too bad I didn't teach them right the first time. It would have been much less trouble to maintain them.
Finally, got Tor's new crate situated in the car. It's a little bit of a squeeze for him to get in the door - weird angle. But he is fine with it. He looks so much more comfortable in it. It was getting pretty bad in the old crate with his back up against the top and hair sticking out of it from all angles. Will try to finish the rearrangement of the car next weekend and get both crates strapped in. Then we'll be good to go :-)
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