Saturday, February 19, 2011

What Cool Dogs :-)

Went out to club last night.  It was pouring down rain but Dave had prepared a feast and I had promised to bring homemade bread to go with it.  So had to go :-)

The field was essentially one giant puddle with a few islands of muddy ground.  The water was so deep in a few places that we couldn't even find the holes to set up the blinds!  But since the base is pretty hard and gravel packed it's sloppy but not very slippery.  I decided to just play around with Gata.  We don't have any trial plans so no real need to take any chances with either her or the helpers.

So I took her for a walk in a downpour and then went on the field to play around with some OB.  She is just so cool.  She couldn't care less about puddles or downpours or anything else.  If I want to play she is totally up for it!  She poured every ounce of her considerable focus and intensity into the silly games that we were playing and had an absolute blast.  I'm sure that the people there think I am absolutely crazy sometimes but it is really hard not to get into the game when your dog is that into it for you.  We didn't do anything in particular - just silly little heeling games, some out of motions that landed her squarely in puddles, and a couple of short send outs.  But everything got rewarded with big throws into even bigger puddles.  She had an absolute gas and I did, too! 

Then it was Tor's turn.  This was the first real rain that he has been out in.  Previously, he has only seen light rain showers and has mostly avoided puddles.  So I was really curious about what his reaction would be.  I wasn't too concerned - there would be plenty of opportunities for him to get over any dislike of rain that he might exhibit.  However, once he got out onto the field and realized how much fun he was about to have he didn't care about the rain or puddles either :-)  I had switched to the ball on a rope since everything was just so wet and sloppy and I wanted to give them some real throws.  So he had to have a few reminders about playing with that particular toy.  He is great with a regular ball but put it on a rope and it is something else to him.  He preferentially grabs it by the rope and doesn't want to out it.  But he did fine.  I was thrilled to see him splashing through the puddles to get to the ball and bringing it back with his signature leap into me :-)  Didn't really do anything serious with him either. mostly just about having fun in the rain.

Not surprisingly there were only about 10-12 of us there last night, including helpers.  I had planned for it to be an "off" week for my dogs but Dave wanted to work Tor so we did.  We did a little bit of barking work with him.  He's definitely getting the hang of that.  Dave and Dino played the 2 helpers throwing the sleeve around game with him and he was quite willing to focus on whoever had the sleeve and bark.  Then we moved on to outing from various different positions with him.  Normal position (me behind him while he is on the sleeve with Dave), dead sleeve position (from a cradle position), and having just stepped away from cradling him.  I never did any of this sort of thing with Gata and you can tell since she basically won't out the dead sleeve for me (or just smacks me up side the head with it!).  I like it for that reason, but it really just addresses the fundamental issue with so many SchH dogs - "Out" means out.  So, I am more than happy to spend numerous sessions reinforcing that concept with a dog that is very possessive and LOVES to bite.  Dave made sure that Tor had plenty of opportunities to bite the sleeve and own it, too.  He is very aware that we want to make sure that Tor's drives are satisfied by the work, too.

I have to add an editorial comment here.  I hear so many people talking about training their dogs their way and only being willing to work with helpers that will do things their way.  I did some of it when I first started getting into the protection sports with Gata, too.  And, Dave is by no means a positive trainer.  But after about a year and a half, I can honestly say that I have developed so much respect for him and his understanding of dogs and insights into training that I have absolutely no qualms about working with him.  And, though he occasionally thinks I'm nuts, he has always been willing to try to do things my way with Gata.  I am so glad that I overcame my reservations and, truthfully fears about working with someone that had been so successful when I was such a newbie, and started to train with him.  I have learned so much from him in the last year and a half.  And I'm looking forward to learning even more from him as we work Tor.  And, I'm pretty sure that he will learn some from me during that process, too.  It has turned into a real partnership, albeit one in which he contributes more on the field than me.  But the work that I do away from the field is equally important.

By the time the evening ended both dogs were a wet, sloppy mess.  The car is totally trashed from dogs jumping in and out in the midst of mud puddles.  I had rain gear on but totally swamped my shoes.  Need to, at the very least, groom both dogs today and should consider bathing them but there's nothing but rain in the forecast.  Lots of clothes and equipment to clean today but we all had a GREAT time :-)

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