08.31.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:17 by Administrator
I missed tracking last week because I was stuck in traffic thanks to an accident blocking all lanes. Knowing it is a holiday weekend, I opted to leave even earlier to avoid any problems.
Tracking: I arrived at training before most, it was misting ever so lightly, and the grass was very damp. I was able to pick a nice area to lay my track. I made a five leg track in the shape of a square (three right turns and one left) with one left turn to the fifth leg. There was very little food and 1-2 articles in each leg. I let the track age for about 30 minutes and brought Cosmo out. It was nice because I had Butch walking along side us, with a group of people behind for a distraction. To start the track, I did something different. I approached the start flag from the left, so Cosmo would need to use her nose to realize it doesn’t go straight ahead like we normally do. She went up to the flag tried to go straight for a couple of steps and realized there was no track. She pivoted back to the scent pack sniffed a little and went down the first leg. Good girl Cosmo!! I can’t complain, because her overall intensity, drive for the track, and turns were great. Her only issue was that she was getting a little sloppy on the articles. The first article she wanted to platz a ways back, the next couple she was platzing but very wiggly, and then she attempted to walk an article. NO!!! I gave her a firm correction, maybe a little harsh, but wanted her to know walking articles was not an option. We went through this once before. After my correction, she indicated each article nicely and finished the track at her food. She was inhaling her food with such gusto, I had to take it away. This dog refuses to chew!! I haven’t been able to track for a couple of weeks and I think her intensity was awesome, but her lack of tracking made her so excited to track that she was getting silly about the articles. My reminder that articles are a must seemed to do the trick.
Obedience: Lyn and I went to the main field to work on the retrieves, send out, and some basic healing. I used the electric on Cosmo’s first retrieve to remind her to be fast and to put a little stress on her. She was fast and brought it back, but was getting sloppy about her front. That is fine. At this point I want to work on speed, because I feel like the last couple times out she was has started getting a little too comfortable with the retrieve and not going as fast as I would like. I tossed it one more time on the ground and then over the wall. She did each retrieve nicely, so I ended on that. For the send out, we put the toy at the end of the field and sent her down a couple times without issue. Again, all I wanted to see was speed… no corrections for being silly or bouncy. And my final problem I have started working on, is the lagging on the right turns. It isn’t horrible, but enough to irk me. I am used to a dog that forges and I am always fighting them back, but this is my first lagging issue… I have come to a decision on how to fix this. There was one thing I always did with Jingo that would make Butch so mad!! He would yell that I am encouraging the dog to forge. I have since broke the habit, but after some thought I decided to try it out on Cosmo and guess what?!? It helped pull her forward on my right turns 
Protection: I took Cosmo for 1 mile jog between Obedience and Protection, so had to keep her time on the field short and broke it into two sessions. The first time out we ran the blinds. She ran them without issue and didn’t attempt to short change me, but it was apparent that she was tired. I put her up and cranked the AC to have her cool down for a bit. I brought her out the second time and worked her in the shade and focused on her grips and bark n’ hold. She did some very nice close and intense bark n’ holds and bit with excellent grips. Good job girl… I guess I won’t sell you 
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08.28.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 19:41 by Administrator
Ok guys, I have been HORRIBLE about training updates, but I have been very busy lately. Between expecting a litter, dog training, family stuff, and looming major career stuff…. it has been difficult to stay on top of updates 
I am going to try and get pics of Baccara up tomorrow. She is getting bigger before my eyes. Apparently no vet in Southern Jersey does ultra sounds, so waiting to hear from the repro vet if we can get in tomorrow.
Visited dog food man today. It is always fun to visit him He gave me the low down on the latest and greatest on the dog food front. I have had Cosmo on Evo Red Meat. She is doing great, but he convinced me to try Merrick’s new line of Before Grain. He said that he thought Evo Red Meat was an over all better food, but there is a lot of debate on how much protein a dog should get. He said Before Grain was still a grain free food, but not as high of protein as Evo. So, we opted to give it a whirl and bought a bag of the Salmon Before Grain dog food. I promise to let everyone know how she does.
Meanwhile, dog food man gave me a free bottle of shampoo to try. He knows I am a Shampoo freak when it comes to my dogs, so I was glad to take him up on his offering. He also has some very nice new high end shampoo’s and creams for dogs being offered along with Orbee toys at his place. Seriously this guy is the best! If you live in Southern Jersey, you need to visit Hot Diggity Dog! Speaking of that, I need to add him to my links I luff him!!
Other than that, nothing really exciting to report. Well… um, damn it.. here it comes again.. New Jersey isn’t so bad. Seriously, after proclaiming my hate for the state over the past year, I must retract my statements. I owe a HUGE thank you to the local authorities for bailing my ass out of a little pinch You guys are great!! Ok, enough of that positive NJ talk… hopefully I will have some pics to post soon.
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08.22.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 19:12 by Administrator
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08.18.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 17:21 by Administrator
This is not normal for Baccara, but she did get like this during her last pregnancy. She has went from piglet to not wanting breakfast. So for dinner, I mixed in canned Merrick Puppy Plate with her Canidae/Solid Gold Kibble. I have been giving her hard boiled eggs along with my home cooked rice, chicken, and vegetable mixture.
The Merrick Puppy Plate was a hit with her! She about took me out trying to get to her bowl and ate with her normal gusto. Once she is confirmed pregnant, I will start adding K9 Puppy Gold to her food as well!! I can’t wait to see what she produces.
For those that don’t know, I have had issues with tail docking in the past. With my first litter I lost half my puppies. It was a horrible and a traumatizing event for all involved. I spent tons of hours, emotion, and money trying to save those puppies… but couldn’t. With my B-litter, I lost one puppy who was 100% healthy prior to docking. So I am scared to death about this litter. If I continue to loose puppies, I don’t know if I will dock in the future. With all this in mind, I have talked with several breeders who have experienced this and everyone one of them blame it on infection. So to counter this, I have found a local tail docker. He is from Russia and docks (and cropped in his country) all his dogs. I told him what happened in my previous litters and he is willing to come to my house for the docking. I will have him scrub down before entering and make sure everything is sterile prior to docking. Hopefully all turns out well.
Also, I think Baccara has earned her trip to the beach. Hmmm… look forward to beach photos either this Friday or early next week!!
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08.17.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:45 by Administrator
Photos of Baccara at 3.5 weeks along. I have not changed her food or amount of food yet. She appears to be packing on the pounds, but not sure if that is from lack of running or being pregnant. Hopefully I can get her in for an ultrasound this week.
Photo from this spring (non-pregnant):
Photo of her 4 weeks pregnant with the A-litter:
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08.14.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 19:57 by Administrator
I think Cosmo is looking great on Evo Red Meat. She had a few thin areas on her flanks and noticed since she has been on Evo it is filling in. Her coat shines nicely, her muscles are looking great, but I think I am going to increase her feed a bit. I swear this dog can go from fat to skinny over night. Literally I wake up one morning and she is fat and vice versa!! It is more than likely that I had decreased the number of cups she eats with Evo versus Solid Gold and now she is picking up Baccara’s slack and running with me more than ever. Sandro was commenting last night that she looked to be at a great weight and in shape…. but today running I thought she looked a little to lean.
Snips and Frodo have developed the runs since our ocean visit. I think they all took on a little too much water swimming. That is one thing I forgot to mention. I am not a fan of swimming in the ocean, but couldn’t resist seeing what Frodo thought of swimming. At first he was like “heck no!” He didn’t like the waves, but couldn’t resist my calls when I went in waste deep and kept yelling for him. I could tell he was disgusted by the ordeal, but tossed it to the side to come see what I wanted Of course when he got to me, he managed to claw me to death as he kept paddling and swimming into me. I finally just held him so he could rest and catch his breath. Snips didn’t need any luring and faithfully swam to wherever I went. I could tell the waves were a bit much for her, so I didn’t push it and went back to the shore. Poor girl, her eyes were blood shot afterwards!! At least we didn’t get eaten by any sharks…
I moved a couch into our computer room and put a bunch of blankets over it. It is nice so people can sit in her, but more importantly the dogs are enjoying sleeping behind me while I type up their training updates. Well… I don’t think they are sleeping, they are actually reading over my shoulder as I type; soaking in what I really think of them.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 8:59 by Administrator
After our trip to the beach and feeling much better after some fresh air, Cosmo and I did some obedience.
Tuesday I worked the retrieve with her and she showed more speed and precision than ever getting the dumb bell. I think I figured out how to make her faster. I did so by putting a little more pressure on her than normal and was very pleased with how she responded. Along with pressure, she had much better grip on the dumb bell, no mouthing. I also did some heeling with her and didn’t have any of the “flatness” problems that I had this weekend. I figured it was either because she was less stressed at my place OR because it was much cooler temperatures.
Yesterday, I took her to Sandro’s and did some obedience there. Talk about working with TONS of distractions. People all over talking, smoking, dogs barking, and my children bolting all around me. Cosmo was better than yesterday!! Tons of focus and LOTS of drive. I was doing pivots, figure eights, and circles to the right. I had no issue with lagging. When I was heeling long straight stretches my boys were running along on either side. Cosmo remained focused only on me. I had to laugh because H yells out, “Why won’t she look at us!” I just laughed and said because mommy trained her to only look at me Sandro even commented on how calm and focused she looked throughout our obedience.
For protection we focused on the “attack on handler.” After some discussion, Sandro decided we should allow Cosmo to do upper body bites versus legs. It wasn’t that Cosmo had with issues with the legs, but since I am going to continue training in Schutzhund; he felt for everyone’s safety we should keep her on the upper body. He said he has seen crossed trained dogs go for the legs in Schutzhund trials which resulted in a DQ. I agree, I really don’t need Cosmo taking any cheap shots and costing us a title. After our decision, he put on the full suit for the first time and presented her with several different upper body bites. It was fun. I was trying not to laugh, but it really is funny to watch Cosmo realize she can bite anywhere!!
For the actual “attack on handler” Cosmo learned quickly and it was exciting for me to see what she would do. Sandro had us stand there while he came up and shook hands. He circled around us with lots of eye contact walking slowly. It took several corrections, to get Cosmo to sit and watch only. She didn’t like it and wanted to bite at first. After she realized I didn’t want her to bite, she watched intently, craning her neck in every direction he walked. After a bit Sandro came up right up behind us and raised his hands over my head. Again, Cosmo wanted to bite at this point. Honestly, I couldn’t blame her… but did correct her. I would hope she would bite anyone who stands that closely to me with their hands over my head. But for the sport, she can only bite once contact is made. So we walked through the exercise again, and Cosmo attacked when he came up behind me, raised his hands up, and hit me on my shoulders!! The Mighty Mo was like “Ok, jerk you just hit my mom!!” Her bites were full and very hard. Sandro tried slipping her the top to reward her for the bite, but he couldn’t get his arm out of the sleeve. It was a lot of fun and I was trying not to laugh at her.
The interesting thing to me was to see her search for the arm to bite. I asked Sandro why she was so reliant on the arms and was his thoughts were on this. Of course he said because her entire life she has been told to bite the arm and she is relying on her foundation. I was surprised that she didn’t even think to bite the leg. Of course once she realized she could bite anywhere she was being dirty as all heck in other exercises.
The final thing I got to work on, which is what Cosmo was messing up this weekend was the call out of the blind. While there isn’t a blind in Mondio, I was able to stand 4 feet back from her, out her, and call her back to me. This worked well, because it was calling her out of a bark n’ hold. She did it every time without issue. Not sure what to make of Saturday other than she was just not listening and think the heat may have had something to do with it. Who knows….
If anyone is located in Southern NJ and interested in training in Mondio, feel free to contact me for more information. We are finally getting our club started and of course the more people the merrier.
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08.13.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 21:59 by Administrator
Nothing like showing up to the beach and realizing I forgot the battery to my camera. Thanks to Mickeila, I was able to borrow her 4 year old point and click Nikon. Actually, I was very impressed with the quality of the photos for such a tiny camera. The only bad thing was, everything was in korean on it. Everytime I clicked on the menu or tried to do anything the text was all korean?!?! Oh, well… enjoy!
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08.10.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:18 by Administrator
Cosmo tracking:
Frodo tracking. This is after he already ran the track, but kept running back to it!
Cosmo obedience:
Cosmo Protection:
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Posted in Uncategorized at 10:49 by Administrator
Lesson of the week, don’t say anything about making progress or your dog will make a fool out of you!! LOL, ok not that bad; but we hit a few frustrating moments with obedience today. Nothing major, but it is hard not be frustrated when your dog is giving you the finger.
Tracking: Nothing to complain about here. I laid a very long track with food scattered about. The morning was cool, grass was damp, and thought this would be a great opportunity for an endurance track. I didn’t intend on letting it age too long, but waiting for my turn to track allowed it to age for around an hour. By time we got back to my track, it was dry and the hot dogs were covered with ants. Cosmo started out nicely, and paused when she encountered her first ant filled hot dog. She curled up her lips and spit it back out. On she went with great intensity, maybe a little too fast, so I walked slowly and didn’t allow her to drag me forward. She handled this fine. Cosmo nailed all her turns and indicated each article without issue. I could tell towards the end of the track she was getting tired, but this is good! She needs to know that tracks can be very long. My critique was: she has a great nose, but looks too happy. I told Butch I can live with that Although, I knew what he meant.
Frodo did an awesome little puppy track!! I think he has finally realized what the heck this is all about. I have done a limited number of tracks with him. Each time I was not that thrilled with his intensity, so I put him up and didn’t address it. I figured he would finally put it together and yesterday he did. He had his nose deep in the track and followed it the entire way. He enjoyed it so much, I couldn’t keep him away from it!! When I let him out for his play date, he kept bolting over to the track running up and down it.
Obedience: Cosmo did the retrieve over the wall without issue. On her first attempt, she did try to go around the wall, but I fixed that!!! Her long down was rock solid, and she was very relaxed. But when it came to healing, I felt like she was flat. I didn’t help by getting frustrated. Looking back I should have brought a toy out to “pick her up” but instead, I corrected her. I struggled with her flatness for a bit and then decided to put her up. Once I started heading off the field she immediately perked up and did an excellent fuss to the truck. It was then that I realized my over all attitude was not doing her any favors. Lyn pointed out my body language had completely changed when I got frustrated to when I was heading off the field. She said I was dropping my shoulder back looking at her, which was in turn driving her back. I didn’t even realize I was doing that! I also think I have been working to much on left turns and circling left to prevent forging. Butch recommended to start working on circling right and bringing her forwarded a bit and moving at a faster pace.
Protection: Errr.. and obedience reared its ugly little head here too! We did the blind search and it took two sends to get her around blind 5. She was trying to short change me, but in her defense the blinds were very far apart and we hadn’t done this in some time. She went into blind six, did a nice bark n’ hold, and a nice call out of the blind. And then we did it again, but this time Cosmo did not want to be called out of the blind!! I had to put a line on and correct her back to me. As Butch said, “we need to work on this.” Her Escape bite was excellent, back transport good, transport to the judge ok, and courage test phenomenal! All her issues were lack of control/obedience stuff. Seriously, it was ticking me off that she was blowing me off… but it provided me with some great training opportunities. I guess it is better she do this in training versus saving if for trial day!
I will be uploading our training photos!
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