Some miscellaneous things for a Friday…

A few weeks ago I wrote about Storm having her hips x-rayed so they could be sent in to the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals to be graded.  Her grade came back “Excellent” which is the highest grade OFA gives for hips.  She just needs her eyes cerfed before she is bred.  The eye cerf will happen at the beginning of April just before she goes back to the trainer for additional training in preparation for running Master Hunt tests.

Having Storm’s eyes cerfed should be a real adventure because they have to put drops in her eyes to dilate them and then a Veterinary Ophthalmologist examines her eyes for heritable eye diseases.  Just  a hunch, but I suspect Storm will not be a fan of having drops put in her eyes and having a vet look into them.  Last year we took Thunder to this same cerf clinic.  You can read about that here.

Storm has had more encounters with vets in the last month than she would like.  She is not a fan of the vet.  She will go, but it is clear she would rather be some place else.  In addition to having her hips x-rayed last month, we also took her to the vet last week to have her Spring check up done.  This included a Bordetella vaccine, (since she will be boarded for training).  She also had her annual heart worm check, (which was negative).  We also spent some time talking to our vet about the best heart worm preventative and flea and tick control for Storm based on what she will be doing this summer.  We decided to stick with what we have been using: Heartguard Plus for heart worm and Frontline Plus for flea and tick control.  Hunt test grounds can be tick heaven, so she needs regular control through the summer.

And now for a bit of follow-up.  Hsin-Yi of Honey the Great Dane commented on this post that she wanted to teach Honey remote sit.  Honey already knows a remote down at a run, but has never done sit.  Hsin-Yi also commented:

Although I don’t know how Storm & Thunder keep up the enthusiasm for a recall when they are stopped in the middle – I find with Honey that if I start dropping her in a run, she starts recalling slower & slower…coz she is anticipating being dropped any minute, which is really frustrating!!

If Honey already knows down on a run, it should be easy to teach sit  once you figure out what command or whistle you want to use for sit.  As for maintaining enthusiasm, it is perfectly normal that a dog will anticipate being stopped once you have done it a time or two.  Thunder and Storm have done the remote sit hundreds of times and at first they would sit very tentatively or recall very slowly or even “pop”.  A “pop” happens when you send the dog and they stop and look back at their handler for direction.  It is all because they anticipate being stopped or are confused.  All of those things should go away with experience.

I am no expert, but one way we kept up the enthusiasm when the dogs were learning was to not stop them very often when recalling.  We just used it now and again and we used a ton of praise when the dog was started again.  We have retrievers so we have taught remote sit in conjunction with retrieving which may have made it just a bit easier.  The dog was sent for a bumper or directed to a bumper, so once they understood the game, they moved quicker because it meant quicker to the prize=bumper.

This is a video of Thunder from last April.  Both he and his handler were just learning handling.  You can see that Thunder slows down on his recall a few different times.  The first time he is looking the field over to see exactly where the piles of bumpers have been placed.  😆  He also slows down when he is recalled to be recast.  That is normal for a dog just learning.  Thunder had a habit of not sitting facing his handler, so sometimes he got a recall whistle just to square him up and sometimes he was actually recalled.  There are times when he is not sure what his handler wants and other times he has his own idea of where he wants to go so not only is he anticipating a whistle, but he is also trying to work his own program.  Eventually he understands.  Also, toward the end, he is handled with the bumper in his mouth.  This was something suggested to us to try to keep his enthusiasm up.  He doesn’t have to worry about coming back without a bumper and he is not anticipating picking one up.  It is one way to keep up the enthusiasm.  We will also throw a fun bumper in between just to help the dog maintain enthusiasm.  As I said, with a retriever it can be a bit easier because they are driven to retrieve.

Short general disclaimer about the video:  Thunder has trained in this park since he was a puppy.  He trained for his JH here.  He has done hundreds of retrieves here.  He knows the boundaries.  The bumpers are not as close to the road as they appear when I zoomed my camera.  Plus Thunder has a solid recall and is wearing an e-collar.  This would not be a good place to train unless you are very sure of your dog.

If the video doesn’t work, try here.

This post is long and I would still like to follow-up on a couple of things.  Next week:  A post on dog show basics and on the different colors of Chessies, (there were many comments about this).

Have a great weekend and happy training!