Louise end her agility competition carrier

Only one week to go before Freya comes to our life. So we did a final competition weekend with old team. Louise did her last competitions in maxi-class. She has had some problems in her wrists so decided stop competing with her. Louise will still have fun in training some times but there I can chose jumping heights that are better for her. Louise was as good as always in the competition. Here a memory video of our journey in agility world:



Pixie and I did yet again 3 DQ. I did mistakes and I was late but Pixie also took off too early from the starts. So we need some serious work in both sides. We went to do some zero course training. This mean that every time you make mistake or dog drops bar etc. you have to start from the beginning. I can tell it took all energy from us. We both did different mistakes. But even though we were totally tired I wanted to make us work together and something happened. Pixie started to fight and so did I. We made super run in the end!! This kind of work we really need. Few hard words, sweat and forced concentration. This starts to make miracles to our attitudes. It felt I like winning for the first time in a long long time!!!!

Here are some best parts from competitions from February 2014:



I have also started a training notebook for Freya. I want to make record in our training in different hobbies and really be critical what our training aims for and what goes wrong and right. My first note were our goal for the first week. Just really simple things. Recall work, teaching her name, cue for going for potty, meeting different people and playing in different places. All these things will be done in different places. I have few days of so we will be going to a big city to use elevators, stairs and see trains etc. Freya will also have time play with her new family members and hopefully with some other dogs. I can't wait!!!

That's all for now... Soon there will be a lot of puppy pics!!

MPLF

Training OB and visit to Denmark

I have started to train OB with Pixie again. Pixie has done some heal work and distance control. My goal has been to improve her drive in heal work and stop her from pushing me when she is in high drive. So I went to back to basics: short lengths and lots of rewarding. It was pretty easy to get the drive up but hard to get Pixie leaning against my leg. It took few times to get it right. In distance control brake had done miracles. Pixie had learned to walk back with her front legs when she goes from down to up. This helps her keep her weight to the rear end which help going from up to sit position. So good from us!!!!

Louise has been working all the OB4 tasks and she has done so super. Healing work has become better and more accurate when I made her do it in a little bit lower drive. Distance control has improved a lot. I have done some technique work with her with doggy zen and it has worked super!

On the 13.2.2014 I flied to Denmark to see Freya. I was just so sold! All the pups were really nice. Breeder Jane had done so much good work with them. Even started to do some clicker training so puppies will be built to start learning new stuff. All of them played really hard so tools for training are already there. So happy to get one of the girls to my home. Pixie will have a perfect playmate. It's only two weeks and I will have a new sport dog in the house. Time will tell what kind of things we will do with her. First few weeks are full of socialization work.

Training with Jaakko

We had so super training with Jaakko! We work my foot work to improve my movement after stand stills. It really helped again to make my movement to be come more fluent. And the other thing did you know that humans tend to run faster when they go forward?? xD I seem to think I go faster going backwards. Oh well maybe I will learn this one day. My movement has be come better. I still have work with my rhythm.

Then we had a very interesting sequence in the course. I was sure that I had to make flip turn to make Pixie go past a tunnel but yet again I learned more about lines and movement. We could go just past the tunnel and I could do forced front cross to next jump. It was a cool feeling to see it all work together and some that seemed almost impossible be coming a easy task. So much learn perspectives learned again. I have to learn to see line even better to see what is possible and what is not. Here's a piece of the course I'm talking about:

I had so much fun and I learned so many new things about us as a team. I think we made the best runs ever in Jaakkos training. The feeling that everything goes smoothly is just priceless. I'm a slow learner but I'm getting there. In theory I know a lot but to make it happen in high speed is a different story. I love agility and love challenge. This has not been a easy route but I might learn more because its not easy.

Clicker training

Louise has done some distance control work. I have tried improve her technique and stimulus control. Louise can be too hot to control herself and wait for commands. So I have done some doggy-zen exercises with her. I have moved my arms and try to lure her to changes positions. Louise has done super job and it has made her distance control chances better and better.

Pixie has done trick where she goes around a chair. Now I have stimuli control to "round" command when she goes around chair in clockwise direction. Today I started to use "ruu" command to counterclockwise direction. I think we will get this trick  ready in few tries. I need to take to different places to make work in any situation. I will have to filmed to you when she does it well from distance. So cool trick!

That's all for know!

MPL (F) 

Little memories from puppiehood

4 weeks to go until Freya will come home. I have think a lot about the things I have done right and wrong with both girls and it has been cute watch old of them. So here is growing pics of both of them.

 Pixie 6 weeks (Heidi Mustonen)

 Louise 6 weeks

 Pixie 6 week (Heidi Mustonen)

This is where is all begins. In the house of the breeder. There your puppy gets the most import tools for life because it spends lots of critical socialization weeks in the breeders care. I have been lucky to have very good breeders that have stimulated the pups a lot and give them plenty of social contacts. All the hard work that breeder does for the puppies are like gold to the puppy buyers. When you look for breeder remember to ask for the activities that she/he will provide for the pups. This can be a big advantage for pup to become a super competing dog and a easygoing dog for life.

And then come the days when you get precious home. It's time when your hard work begun. Time to take puppy to see the new world in a save way. Meet new people and dog friends. Play and relax in different places so that it will have the tools to become balanced competitions dog. Here pics of my dogs from the first weeks at home:

Pixie relaxed when I'm training Louise.
Such a cute pics. So many super memories and so colorful journey. :D








Time has washed away memories of the work that will be ahead when Freya comes. So many things to do and see before she is adult and so call seen it all. It will fun, exciting journey that only time will tell where it's going to take us. I can wait to see her. Only a week and I will go to Denmark to see Freya for the first time. It will be so exciting... Next time I will write about Pixies and Louises first year. They were built little different and so much I have learned from their journey to adulthood.

Wonderful week for everyone!!!

MPL (F)

OB with Louise

I had such perfect training with Louise. We started with square. Louise had a little problem of going to the left side. I showed her the right place few times and then she did it with to well! Louise hasn't done square for long long time. So I was really pleased with her work today. In the end we did the whole movement.

Second thing we did was the Z-walk. I made her work harder by throwing a toy every time I gave a cue. My goal was to make Louise concentrate better to my cues and stand harder distractions. This exercise worked out perfectly. Louise started make super positions and really make super effort to listen to me well. I did this same with long distance control. Louise started to really make better and better repeats.  Really nice doggy-zen exercise!!!!

Lastly we work on recall and controlled retrieve. In recall work Louise made first very slow coming and started to make early stops. I just took it again few times and the early stops went a way and Louise started to work again really nicely. When you have a dog that really knows what to do, you can try few times to get right response. This is not a way to train a newbie or puppy. This is just a way make to dog think and understand the task that is at hand but this task must be a super good normally. Controlled retrieve was just perfect.

Pixie did some agility. We did simple work with A-frame. I rewarded every nicely done A-frame and we did different approaches and different movement after the A-frame. Pixie had some trouble coming to the end when we did some tight turns. In the end she did really nice work. A-frame seems to become a projects that never ends but I'm going to make it happen. I hope to learned a lot and be better with Freya.  I also worked on tight turns on the jumps after different obstacles. After few repeats she really got the idea and started making super turns.