Equal Time for Tor

Back to my dogs after all that writing about the clinic, this will be much easier! So, the title of this post is equal time for Tor, but he probably still won't be equal since my concerns around Gata are so significant. But, Tor is doing marvelously well. He is growing up and looks absolutely fantastic. He is definitely a handsome dog! He doesn't have lots of coat yet but definitely has the tail and feathering of a Terv.

He is a delightfully goofy and intense dog. It's almost like he is doing everything within his power to become that once in a lifetime kind of dog. The funny thing is that all of my dogs have been that. He is so affectionate and pushy and playful and just downright goofy that he constantly makes me laugh just before he forgets and rakes his teeth across my arm raising a bruised welt the entire way. I feel almost schizophrenic as we transition almost instantaneously between good/no so fast it makes my head spin. He is, by FAR, the quickest dog that I have ever worked - both physically and mentally. He learns thinks freakishly fast and when you think it is time to generalize a behavior he just goes out and does it like he has been doing it for years and it makes perfect sense to do it under these circumstances as well.

He continues to be a very stable dog and Gata's influence just reinforces that. However, between the move, his age, and his inherent aggression he has become somewhat more protective of me than I like. He is absolutely fine if we are working or even just going for a walk. He notices things and you can see he is evaluating whether or not they pose a threat if we are just on our neighborhood walk but he generally doesn't do anything more than that. However, if I am just standing around talking to my neighbor he doesn't have enough structure to know what to do and will tend to make the decision to try to drive them away from me. So I am working on that.

His training has suffered a little as a result of what is going on with Gata, the weather, my transition into a new job, etc. He hasn't gotten any bite work outside of the seminar. But, in all honesty, I think that is all right at this point. He is one of those "biting monsters" so building the relationship and other skills that I plan to use to gain the necessary control and accuracy are probably even more important at this point in his progression.

His obedience is coming along very well. I'm not exactly sure what his heeling looks like, it has a much different feel to it than Gata's does, but his position is perhaps even better than hers. I started him very differently and it is definitely paying off in terms of his certainty about where he belongs. And that confidence definitely shows and his energy and general happiness to work also show through. So I think I have succeeded in what I was trying to do with him and have avoided the "stalking heel" that I thought might be most natural for him. I plan to set up the video camera one of these days to see just exactly what he is looking like. He feels very bouncy beside me :-)

He is also learning the basics to many of the more advanced OB exercises. His retrieve is coming along beautifully. I am pattern training the actual retrieve portion as described by the Germany team that I spent so much time writing about. The hold work is also going very well. That I am doing in a manner that combines the Michael Ellis approach, starting with something definitely not a dumbbell and including lots of different items and textures, and the approach of the German team in terms of attention to detail with respect to position of dog and handler and so many other things. It is going well but I plan to work on it a lot more over the winter when we won't be able to do so much outside.

His out of motions are also coming along, in general, I have done a great job on his down, but need to spend more time on his sit and stand positions. They are good but not excellent. Something else we will be spending a lot of time on this winter when we will be spending more time training in the garage.

He is also learning the send out. It is also going well. He is adding in more and more speed as his confidence in what he is doing increases. He occasionally looks back over his shoulder but that is diminishing with his increasing confidence. Given the excellent down that he has, I think he will have a very beautiful send out someday :-)

He definitely needs more work on his jumping. When he is unsure of what he is doing, for any reason, he jumps like an Ox. I'm not really sure what to do about that, partly because I'm not exactly sure what his future looks like. Like Gata, he could compete ia variety of sports quite easily. And I don't want to limit his potential in Agility by focusing exclusively on SchH jumping. But, realistically, he has the potential to be a PHENOMENAL SchH dog and I don't want to jeopardize that either. So, for now, I procrastinate and try to decide how to proceed.

Anyway, that is pretty accurate update on where things stand with Tor. I need to get some pix of him but in lieu of that here is a link to one of his early bite work sessions on Dave Deleissegues.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJb6hAiUWmg