Hellfire English Springer and Sussex Spaniels

Mud Puppy

 It's important to note how much muddier The Maverick is compared to the other dogs. Now I know why the Sussex group has a muddiest Sussex contest!

Rhythm & Blues

Ice went almost undefeated on Saturday with 4 RAE Rally wins, 2 perfect scores and then came up with a huge win over 13 Open dogs earning a super high score. What a day! Ice is now about 75% through the Utility training so I hope we will be showing in that next March.

 The Old Man Toby also did well and qualified for 2013 Rally Nationals with 3 strong Excellent scores. I'll start his RAE in the fall. It takes awhile, will probably be the last title he ever earns, and I'll want to enjoy it with no other event or training disruptions. In the meantime, he has 3 weeks of April agility to prepare for!

Leash Chomper

My weekend excitement included Bones eating a 6' leash and me scrambling to induce vomiting.  Keeping in mind I've had springers my entire life, this was a new one for me.

After the initial dose of 2(HO) the dog says OH(HellNO)^10 and you don't get another easy chance, so I had to shove a dumbbell in his mouth and pour it in. It felt like I was waterboarding my poor dog, but I think I recovered about 4' of it, thankfully in smallish pieces.  Hopeful that all bits will pass and nothing will obstruct. Thanks to all my Facebook friends who offered advice and support. Apparently just about everybody I know has had the pleasure of this slimey experience except for me. 

Oh, the joy of dogs.

Bonesy bits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pigeon Snatcher

Here is crazy Cora snatching pigeons from the loft. She is tiny, just 29# but she's got a huge heart. ;) I have more than enough gun dogs, so I'm just doing agility with her and she will probably be ready to run in Novice this fall, along with Haley. It will be fun to have a team of dogs to run. The agility has also been an excellent crosstrainer for Ice as he gets a little stressed doing obedience all the time, and it gives him some fun focus and control after the high octane field stuff.

 

 

 

 

Backseat Drivers

Maverick and Bones

Newbie

First flush

First trap

First retrieve to hand

Lots of natural talent. Very gentle mouth, tons of drive. He even jumped after a flushing bird! He's only 15 weeks old.  I just love him.

Tomorrow Toby and I start up with the TDX and VST tracking again.

And so the crazy begins...

Shaping the wrap around

 

It took 4 minutes for the puppy to figure it out. I can think of 100 different uses for this behavior...including quartering.

A Dog of the Year

The Tobster in 2012

Yay! Just got the letter that says Toby is ESSFTA Novice A Obedience Dog of the Year! We beat all the show dogs! 

Most people don't have a bloody clue how hard competitive dog obedience is. Even with a talented, naturally biddable, smart dog it's a lot of work, and in the beginning it's not much fun.  At least with field work there is an element of excitement as you watch your puppy flush its first bird. Nothing about obedience is natural. It is boring, repetitive and requires unnatural restraint and self-discipline. And when it all starts to work properly, it's pure magic and so much fun!

Toby is a dog that took 8-9 months to train to heel...and even then he wasn't good at it.  He just wanted to forge ahead and tug my arms out of their socket like dogs do at a field trial. He had horrible obedience and I started at ground zero with him. I certainly never thought he'd win anything. Being a pragmatist, my only goal was just to minimize the embarrassment factor of being seen as the person running after the world's worst obedience dog. Month after month went by and we were getting nowhere. I wore out two clickers, spent $1000 on treats, and still felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall. I almost gave up! Then one day he woke up and decided he was ready to play on my team. His confidence soared.  At his first trial he won, and all the hard work became worth it.

In all fairness, Ice had higher scores and a HIT (High in Trial), but he started in A (the newbie group) and finished his CD title in B (the experienced handler group) so couldn't be considered.

Both boys are running in Open this year. Ice will either be stunning and near perfect or go down in flames. We're still working on getting into the consistent grey mediocre area that Toby enjoys. :)