Christmas Update

The dogs had a fabulous Christmas! They got to open presents (LOTS) of toys, and got to visit both families. Eli and Nikki got to go to see Dan's family, and Honor and Nike got to visit mine! All four dogs enjoyed their holiday festivities, and Honor especially enjoyed visiting her "cousin" Romy!

Right now, Eli and Nike are training pretty heavily in agility, and Honor is practicing conformation work in preparation for the January shows at For Your Canine. This will be her first set of shows in Licensed Altered, thanks to UKC's new foray into this venue. Hopefully she'll show well and have a great time!

November Update

I haven't written in awhile! Exciting news on the dogs:

Eli received his 3rd Q in UKC rally and received his URO1! I'm so proud of him. We're going to take a break from rally for a while and concentrate on agility, which seems to be his true love. :)


Honor received her first Q in UKC rally Level 2. She took 2nd place!


Honor and Nikki went for their CGC/TDI certifications, and both passed! I'm so proud of them, and I can't wait for them to start therapy work!

New UKC Altered

I find this very pleasing. My only hope is that they do reconsider allowing Altered to qualify for Total Dog!

Pictures!

What are the dogs up to?

Now that Nikki has completed a very smooth transition into the pack, it's time to identify what the dogs should do next! Defining goals helps keep me motivated, and the dogs just love training!

Honor:
- Honor will continue to trial towards her RL1x (Rally Level 1 Championship). This will keep her engaged in Rally, as well as start to solidify for us whether she would enjoy moving on to Level 2. I'm also considering having her begin weight pull training.

Nike:
- Nike is currently in training for Rally and Obedience. Nike will continue training for both, focusing on Recall Over Jump and Stand For Exam.

Eli:
- Eli has one more leg needed to receive his URO1, which he will hopefully Q for at October's show. At this point, he's been showing me a newly found love of heelwork, so at this point I'm leaning toward Obedience for Eli. BUT, I truly believe he will love weight pull, so I'm going forward with that as well. It's time to buy concrete blocks!

Nikki:
- Nikki is definitely focused on one thing...becoming a therapy dog. As soon as she has a reliable recall, heel, and down, Nikki will try her paw at obtaining her CGC/TDI certification.

It's good to keep busy!

Nikki's Here!!!

Nikki's finally home! I'm so glad to have her here! Nikki is Eli's grand dam, and is a bubbly and happy girl! She's merged quite seamlessly into the pack, and Honor is especially fond of her!

Honor's 200 Rally Run Video

RL1x - 4/10!

Honor had an AMAZING rally weekend at Kay-9 Petiquette in Elburn, IL. She qualified on 4/4 trials, and now only needs 6 more Qs to receive her Individual Level Championship in Level 1! She qualified with great scores of 187, 192, 194, and a personal best of 200!!!!

Eli, CGC, TDI!

Eli passed his CGC and TDI tests today! I'm so proud of him, he's such a good boy! He passed with flying colors, and I'm so excited to start therapy visits with him!

Heeling...and leashes...and pictures.

Pictures from yesterday:


















Practiced rally tonight. Am SO pleased with Eli, he's taken to heeling so well. He just looks up at me so unceasingly that I feel as though I'm wearing a raw steak as a hat or something. And all of a sudden, his finishes have *clicked*. He moves smoothly and unerringly right into position, and I'm so proud of him.

And I'm so frustrated at myself where Nike's concerned. He's rally embodied when he's off-leash. On-leash he turns into a wandering, sniffing, uncertain dog, which I know are signs that he's stressed. But I've been trying to make the leash a GOOD thing. He gets treats when it's on, he gets praise and attention. Tonight, I thought I would make it easy, no rally, just me and him walking in circles in the backyard. And he'll focus on me for a little bit, and then check out a little. It's frustrating, because I can't figure out how to make the leash less threatening for him. But I'll keep plugging on, every little bit of leash fun will help.

Spring Zoomies!

The dogs are testing out their speed...

UKC Premier

Honor and Eli will be showing in the Best of Breed-Altered class at the AKK Specialty that's held in conjunction with Premier! I'm so excited about it, and can't wait for it to be June!

Spring is almost here...

And the dogs have decided to help me dig holes for gardening...every time they come inside, they are muddy muddy MUDDY! And there are holes everywhere, lol. I think they're trying to tell me something.

Right now, we're preparing for the UKC Premier in June. Honor and Eli will be trialing both days at Premier, and we'll be trialing in APDT the weekend before that. It's nerve-wracking having both AKK trialing at Premier, because many AKK breeders and fanciers have said they'll stop by to watch them which makes me feel honored and nervous at the same time. I hope both do well! If Honor Qs on both runs, she'll have her URO1, and Eli's going for his first two legs of the title. Eli has the chance of getting his APDT RL1 the weekend prior, and Honor has the chance of getting 4 legs toward her Level 1 Championship (RL1x).

I'm considering having Nike trial the APDT weekend with the Klee Kai, I just want to make sure he's comfortable first. He still gets nervous around people he doesn't know, and I'm hoping to get him into a match before the trial to see how he does. He'll also be eligible to receive his RL1 that weekend.

I'll try to post some training videos later!

New Videos!

New videos! I had fun playing with my camera.

Nike Rally Practice:



Eli Rally Practice:



Honor Window Fun:

First leg to UKC Rally title...check!

Woohoo! One leg down, two to go! Honor is now the proud recipient of her first qualifying score (86) in UKC Rally. URO1, here she comes!

UKC Rally Tomorrow...

Honor and I have our first UKC Rally trial tomorrow. For some reason, I'm a little nervous. And I know that I'm Honor's biggest detriment in the ring. When I get nervous, she picks up on it, and ends out focusing on other things rather than Rally. I keep trying to tell myself that she Q'd in this exact same venue on a longer APDT Rally course, so there's nothing to worry about. Hopefully tomorrow will bring Honor her first two legs toward URO1!

In anticipation of the trial, we've been practicing. Yesterday we did outside work, and here's how it went:

Tug A Jug Fun

Honor's new favorite toy, the Tug a Jug! She played with it for 90 minutes straight!

Dog Park Fun

On an unseasonably warm day last week, the dogs and I decided a trip to the dog park was in order. They left the park quite satisfied, and extremely muddy. Enjoy!

Chicagoland Shetland Sheepdog Specialty

Went to the Specialty with Nike today. It was a great opportunity to get him some socialization, as well as to watch AKC Obedience and Rally trials. I'll be showing Nike in AKC Rally before APDT, so this was a good opportunity to take note of the differences. As well as the fact that a bunch of exhibitors were REALLY nice, and helped Nike feel more comfortable.

Honor's Rally Runs

I finally got around to uploading the videos of Honor's second and third qualifying legs of her Rally title. Enjoy!

Rabbit Fun

So, Nike has seemed pretty calm when the rabbits are bouncing around, so I decided to bring him out into the living room when the buns were out and about. He was leashed initially, but I eventually dropped it when it became obvious that he was NOT interested in eating the rabbits. I'm so proud of him! He was such a good boy.





And then we practiced Rally for a bit...



And took pictures of the rabbits...





Lots of fun!

Trick List

Tricks I want to teach the dogs in the future:

Honor
- Handstand
- Weave through legs
- Back vault
- Back stall (pretty much complete)
- Jump into arms
- Jump over arms

Nike
- Weave through legs
- To roll over in both directions
- Stand (how could I have forgotten this one so far?)
- Take it
- Jump over arms

Eli
(note: Eli needs a lot of foundation work right now)
- Handstand
- Jump over arms
- Roll over
- Drop it
- Various assorted basic obedience commands

And synchronized roll overs for the three of them. I'll try to post videos and/or updates of how we do!