Sunday 14 October 2007
Tracking, Obedience
Now I'm finally home again! ;) We have been training the whole day, tracking and obedience. As fast as my mum parked the car I went away to prepare the tracking. The tracking was about 500-600 metres and it had 5 angles and 6 objects. We were tracking on a field so I could mark the ancles 'naturally', I could turn the side of the wet kind of corn thats been left. She did the tracking with a very good tempo and she kept her nose down in the ground. We used two leashed in the practise, so I had the chance to slow her down (or she will run through the whole tracking :) ). She didn't care and kept doing a very great job.
She did five angles of 90 degrees, and she only misses one a little because a old track kept going forward. She was intensive and did a really great and clean job! The only thing that wasn't perfect was her lyings, she didn't lie down as straight as she is supposed to. But why bother? She did a really great job and I'm glad for that. If the tracking we did last week was about 80 pts of 100 so was this about 94 pts! So it's looking great, and I just can't wait until the spring when we're going to compete! And when she was tracking, she was almost exactly there where I went with my feets. Great! I've been waiting a long time for this moment! Finally!
We did even practise obedience. And she did the obedience and fetching real great! But she has to practise a bit more with the jumping. She is hesitating a bit, but not on the A. Except that everything's looking great! A great practise day, and I have to thank the cook of the day, the food tasted real great! Please, look at the pictures below, it't from todays practise:
Saturday 13 October 2007
Practise makes perfect!
It was a while since I wrote the last time but I'll try to write more about the practises when I have time. We have started practising 2-3 times/week and practise makes perfect!
The obedince is going great and I think that is the element we don't have to practise so much. And the element where she's running forward is one of the favourites, and it's going great there too! ;) And she gets the fetch with no problems. :) These results depends of that I've change the way to practise, and it seems to work! I'm trying to use the ball as little as I can, except some elements like fast lyings and running forward. I've started to use more dog-candy instead, then she won't be 'blocked' in the obedience. We have started tracking too, and it's looking better than it did in the summer. But everythings looking better, especially the fetch. So it is decided that we are going to compete in the spring!
Hope you're having a good time and keep reading in this blog! It will be updated so often as I have the time to write. PS! Please look at the video below, it's the best IPO-practise we had ever done! The practise is in Loviisa, Finland under the midsummer camp. Enjoy!
Tuesday 18 September 2007
UNHCR exercise
If you want the pictures in a bigger size or want more pictures, please feel free to contact me by the e-mail: bacteroides.nira@hotmail.com
Monday 30 July 2007
IPO Practise in Loviisa (last day)
After meeting the puppies, we went back where we lived in Loviisa. There we took the opportunity to practise IPO one more time before we were going back home again. Nalle was the helper, and that practise was the best of them all! She did everything that she was supposed to do, and in the end of the practise I'd released her from the lead that was around the tree, and put her on my own leash. I took a steady grip of the leash and I had to use my own power to hold her back when Nalle was working with Nira. When Nalle said that it looked great I released Nira so she could jump and take the bite. And then it was just to run to the car. And after that practise we saw that we had succeed with our goal for the weekend. To get a cleaner and better changeover, better aggression, a better bite and more speed when she's jumping in to the bite sleeve.
When I've put the pictures from the camp up on my web gallery, so can you see the whole last IPO practise on a video!
Hope you enjoyed reading this!
IPO Practise in Loviisa (second day)
The second day started real good for the helper (baitor) Jusa. The dog that you can see on the picture is very powerful and here he crushes a bite sleeve! Jusa can't get loose and he had to lay down about 10 minutes before be dog finally released the bite sleeve on the handlers command! And everyone who was watching could not do anything but laughing! :) Under the weekend the dog crushed two bite sleeves, both time on Jusa!
Better luck next time Jusa! ;)
Anyway, I and Nira had to wait a long time before it was our turn. We practised with the helper Nalle today too, like we did the whole weekend. The advantage with practising with Nalle is that he lives in Vaasa, on the west coast of Finland. And there they speak both finnish and swedish. So we could go through the practise on swedish. And I think that's very important when you're practising IPO/Defence.
The last practise for the day was the best so far. I didn't say anything to Nira when it was our turn. I'd just walked to the tree, putting her on the lead. The lead that she was put on was around the tree, so the helper could on a easier way practise with her. I command her to "lie down" and she had to look in my eyes before I command her to start. I didn't have to praise her so much like earlier, cause now she knew what she was doing right in the changeovers. When she got the bite I command her to sit so she could relax, having the bite sleeve in her mouth. And when she was doing a real great job I released her from the lead, and with full speed she jumped in to the bite sleeve! It was a perfect bite and after that we ran to the car. I've never seen her jumping with that speed in to the bite sleeve! So she got a lof of praise after the practise!
After dinner I and my sister Ann-cathrine had a freestyle-show, something that both we and the spectator enjoyed! Nira showed how fast and good she was at going "slalom" between my legs! She did also spin around, biting me on the fingers when she got the opportunity! (I had her favourite ball in that hand) She jumpes over my legs and in the end me and my sister created an"eight", having my left foot next to her right foot. And Nira ran between our legs like an eight! So it was fun, even if Nira didn't understand everything! ;)After the show we practised a bit obedience, and that was the best obedience practise we ever done! It seems like I had get better contact with Nira after giving her a lot of praise under the weekend! She did everything that I wanted her to do! And after the obedience practise I played with her. It was such a surprise for me, that the practise was going that great! I'd never thought that she was going to surprise me like that!
After that lucky practise day she got a well-earned rest, food and water. And after a while I went to Niras mothers owner. I got the opportunity to meet her, play with her and take some pictures. The owner promised me that he would send me some pictures and information about Yang. Please, look at the pictures below on Yang! :
IPO Practise in Loviisa (first day)
The first day started with an assembly 8 o'clock in the morning. Breakfast was 7 o'clock. There were about 200 persons that camed to the assembly. They called out all the handlers name and race of the dog, and in which practise group they were going to be with. The group that me and my sister were in had to go 30 kilometres towards Kotka, to a football ground. That because the original area wasn't enough for all the handlers, dogs and helpers/baitor. Our group included about 30 handlers and helpers. All the helpers in our group had experiences from the WC. The helpers were very calm and certain about what they were doing. It was fun watching how the handlers that had been in the WC practised their dogs. During the practise the helpers children played with their equipment. The next generation of dog handlers and helpers, maybe??