Clyde pulls a National Heist
Clyde is proudly showing his First Place Ribbon. He won the Amateur Stake at the GRCA National Speciality Field Trial held in Georiga, September 2011. Clyde also earned a Jam in the Open Stake.
Chris (Clyde’s owner) talks about the specialty win. “The specialty was very challenging. It had all the ingredients that a solid trial should have. Really Clyde ran the best that I have seen him run to date. Both open and amateur were tough tests with 2 retired on land and water. The blinds were tough both water and land. No tricks here. Just very challenging blinds that tested both dog and handler. Clyde was a real team player and ran beautifully throughout the entire trial.He handled on the very last bird he picked up of the entire trial in the open. Other than that he was pretty much clean through the whole weekend. Ended with the Amateur win and an Open jam. What a ride.”
Clyde is a stylish dark red golden with lots of intelligence, drive and desire. Totally amateur trained and trialed. He was purchased out of a litter from NY bred by Lester Freer. Ida Reds Eclectic Ebby*** to John and Janice Gunn’s legendary FTCH AFTCH Cedarponds RV. He made the National Derby List in 8 trials. Qualified all age at 26 Months and became a Master Hunter at 5 years in limited testing.He is a great house dog and a top notch hunting dog.
Our own TNT’s Stanley Steamer is also a National Speciality winner, winning both an Amateur and Open Stake. RV set the pace for winning the Open stake in WA at a Speciality. Way to go boys!
Another Trip to the Dark Side
Gunner son, Carson was featured a while ago but has some new wins to report. After the two fourth places wins already described on the website, Carson won the Open at the Western Montana Field Trial May 29, 2011. Carson then won the Open at the Mission Valley Field Trial September 4, 2011. This win earned his FC title (now he is FC Sorol’s Green River Indian Scout) and qualified him for the National Retriever Championship this year.
The pictures show Carson with Karl Gunzer at the Mission Valley Trial, and the other is returning with a pheasant during training.
Carson is owned and loved by Chuck Wheeler
TNT’s Golden Girls take more HITS
Kind of sounds like abuse but… really its a good thing. Billie and Raisin each earn a High in Trial.
Janice and the girls had a great weekend at the Portland, Oregon obedience trials on July 23 & 24, 2011. On Saturday Raisin was High Combined and High in Trial with a 199 out of the Utility class and completed her UDX title. On Sunday, Billie won High in Trial out of the Open B class with a 199.5
An American Utility Dog Excellent (UDX) is earned the dog has received qualifying scores in both Open B and Utility B at 10 separate licensed or member obedience trials.
Raisin earns her Canadian MOTCH title
MOTCH Am. OTCH TNT’s Run Raisin, SH, WCX, OM2 “Raisin” – completed her Canadian MOTCH title in only five trials, with the final leg being earned at the Richmond Dog Fanciers Obedience trial on June 25th, 2011.
A Canadian Master Obedience Trial Champion (MOTCh) title is earned by accumulating 40 points after the dog has already earned an Obedience Trial Champion Title. Points are earned for scores of 190 and above from the Open class or 185 and above from Utility. At least 15 points must be earned from both the Open and Utility classes.
MOTCH Point Schedule
| Open | Utility | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 190-191.5 | 1 point | 185-187.5 | 1 point |
| 192-193.5 | 2 points | 188-190.5 | 2 points |
| 194-195.5 | 3 points | 191-193.5 | 3 points |
| 196-197.5 | 4 points | 194-195.5 | 4 points |
| 198-199.5 | 5 points | 196-198.5 | 5 points |
| 200 | 6 points | 199 – 200 | 6 points |
Puppy Training Part One
In this month’s video clip you will see me training my 10 week old Labrador puppy, Mighty. Next month, you will see part 2 which will include even more foundation skills I teach my young puppies. I will break down into segments each skill you see me demo with Mighty and I will explain why I am teaching him these skills. My plan for future articles is to then show you how I use utilize these early foundation skills for the adult dog’s training through out his competition obedience career.
I start the video demo off with spin and twist. I teach spin with my right hand and turn his head to the outside to do the spin. I teach twist with my left hand and again turning his head to the outside. My hand has a treat in it to encourage the movement from the puppy. Later, these hand movements will become signals to cue Mighty to spin and twist. I teach spin and twist so that my puppy becomes aware of his body, and how to use it going to the right and to the left. It is also a fun game for the puppy to learn, and adult dogs love it as well. I use it as a stress reliever at competitions, something my dog can do that does not require precision.
Next you will see me starting to teach Mighty a hand target. This is an exercise that I shape. I hold multi-small treats in my right hand, and put my left hand down near the puppies face. Most puppies will then touch your left hand in curiosity, and I quickly mark that with either a yes, or a click and reward from my right hand. I still have my left hand out and the puppy touches it again, and I mark the behaviour. Make sure that you look at your left hand, what you want your puppy to touch, and do not look at your puppies eyes as that will distract him from concentrating on touching your hand. At each training session, I raise my hand so the puppy now has to exhibit effort to jump up and touch, and I also move my hand around my body in different areas so that they understand when they see my hand come out in a flat position held up, they are to jump up and touch it. I later put a word to this, “get ready” and cue my dog to jump into heel position to get set up to go work.
Next I am teaching my puppy how to walk thru my legs. This is a fun game to teach and again another stress reliever when at competitions. You will see in a future article, how I utilize “thru” for recalls and fronts.
I start teaching thru by encouraging my puppy thru my legs with a treat. Just start one leg at a time, and then eventually add in a slow walk forward movement while encouraging the puppy thru your legs with a treat. I use both hands as you will see in the video demo. I slowly move the treat further up and away from the puppy, until I fade the treat away fully.
After that, you will see me teaching spin from the side. Again this is great for body awareness. Later I will use it in ways such as, spin my dog from the side and all of a sudden go heeling. Or during heeling, all of a sudden do a spin from the side. This is one way to add some fun into your heeling and how to be “unpredictable” in your training.
Next I am showing how I start my puppy heeling. He is learning how to do heads up heeling both forwards and backwards.
Next, I am teaching Mighty how to shake hands. This is just a fun trick to teach and a nice stress reliever for competition day.
Next I am doing my stand, down, sit sequence. I start by having the puppy stand quietly and simply look at the treat without fussing , demanding it, and moving around. I start by having them look at the treat for only a nano-second, and then slowly build up the time as they become successful at just standing and looking. I quickly reward the puppy and mark the calm standing and looking behaviour, and then I push the treat towards the dog and into his chest to create a fold back down. I reward, then ask for a “look” without popping up out of the down, then I bring my hand down to the puppies face (with a treat in it) and bring my hand straight up, and ask for a stand, then a stand and “look”, then I encourage the puppy slightly forward into an “up sit”. If I want to repeat the sequence then I lead the puppy back around infront of me while he is looking up at the treat and walking into position. This movement simulates heads up heeling. I never move my position, the puppy is one that moves.
To finish my training session you will see me bringing out Mighty’s prey drive instinct. I like to make the toy look like something he will want to chase, so I either put a toy on a string and pull it about, or as you see in the demo a toy attached to a long riding crop. I play tug with Mighty, but when I ask for an “out” release of the toy, he must do so immediately. Once I get the out, I release him right back to play. I think one mistake that many people make is every time they ask for a release, they take the toy away and in turn, the puppy or dog becomes toy obsessive and does not want to give it up because the play session will now be over.
I hope you have enjoyed this article on puppy training part one, and I look forward to showing you even more puppy foundation skills in part 2 next month.
