AG

• Hurdles, two ahead and one on the side (left and right). Firstly we took two ahead hurdles with calling back like previous AG class. Secondly all three hurdles. Result was good. Ruudi knows what to do. I have to practice a bit the steps. Ruudi still lacks fixedness in the start.
• Seesaw. We practiced just running to the top of the still seesaw. On the top there was a treat for the dog. At first Ruudi wanted to jump on the seesaw from the side but once I put him straight everything was fine. Speed was good.
• Slalom with the crossed sticks. Good. Ruudi kept his head as low as expected.

In general the contact was good, less nosing around.

While other dogs were practicing, I tried to do some stay down exercises with Ruudi and some "8"-s between the hurdles ("tik-tik" and "tak-tak").

Spot The Snowman

(click on the photo to see the full album)

SK

• Staying down (1,5 minutes with treats). Good.
• Heelwork (with turnings to the left and to the right). Just perfect! We are able to do the 360 degrees as well.
• Going down in the middle of the heelwork. From perfect to not satisfactory (my fault!!!)... I did this exercise too many times and I made a mistake in one attempt by giving wrong signals to Ruudi. After that Ruudi was not sure if he has to go down every time or not. However, finally we managed to correct this exercise.
• Stop in the middle of the heelwork. At home I could not figure out how to teach it, because every time I stop Ruudi sits, which is right behavior in the heelwork in general but not in this exercise. I asked our trainer Piret how to make it clear to Ruudi. She said that it is better not to ruin the correct behavior and I should not stop in the middle of the heelwork and when giving the command I have to throw a toy behind me - so Ruudi will learn to put his breaks on to go after the toy.
• Again one stay down exercise (1,5 minutes with treats). Very good.
• Recall. Very good.

AG: tantsud tähtedega

• We learned three different ways of calling back the dog if sent him over a hurdle. In addition to the right steps and turnings you have to remember to call the dog right away he has pushed himself to the jump. You cannot be late in that. Everything sounds very-very easy but if you begin to try it, then the result is failure at first :) Ruudi was of course fine but I have to practice it so that I do not have to think about how to turn myself correctly and call the dog in the right time. One of the way is known as waltzing. While it was others turn to practice it with the dog, I was waltzing with myself like lunatic - "dry training" you know ;)
  
• Running the slalom if the sticks are really low. Ruudi likes slalom. In a bit lighter version Ruudi performed 100% OK, but in the harder one he sometimes came out before the end of the slalom.

If it goes like planned then next week we already have two AG classes in a week!

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However, it is stormy outside but Ruudi absolutely loves fresh snow. It makes him crazy! He is just running around and is so happy about it. Imagine, you can eat it, you can play with it and there is so much fun about the slippery ground!
Returning form the evening pee was of course with the snowball!
Remains of the ball:

Now he is searching for that ball he just has eaten :)

Little taste of the real life

This weekend, during the hunt, we managed to wound one male red deer. Our country boys are really stupid and went searching for it right away with three Laikas and one Labrador. They totally ruined the track. But.... there was one part of the track untouched. So I took Ruudi and tried the "real thing" the next day because I thought I knew exactly where it ends - on the field crossing the path. The rest of the track was already ruined.

But the real life is different. It was raining (has been raining the whole night) and the track was 20 h old. Ruudi is too confident and he started running fast - I just don't know the method to slow him down - I tried but.... he made he's first mistake after about 200 m (look on the map) and even didn't notice it. I felt that something is wrong (becasue I wasn't sure even myself where the track is) because I didn't see any footprints. So I went back to the place I was sure the track is and we continued from that place. And the track WENT ACTUALLY THAT OTHER WAY!

It used to be a lot of blood visibe on the ground the day before but this day I didn't see anything and Ruudi also passed the resting place (so we missed it). All in all it went totally wrong and I cotinued the path just so, to see how Ruudi behaves.

It wasn't difficult for him to find the second resting place. Maybe it was because it had a lot of blood or because we went along this the day before. At the second resting place it was me who found the track because Ruudi was totally confused (because the track was already ruined the day before). But.... Ruudi started going along that and again made a mistake after a while because it was visible that there were no footprints. So I went back to the last footprint and we continued.

The last part of the tracking was already unclear to me. I didn't see any evident footprints and Ruudi was following something.... yes, it was a footprint but was it this deer, I don't know. Our forests are full of animals and therefore footprints. It is so difficult to differentiate. And blood was not anymore on the track at the end. Specially when it has been raining the whole time.

To conclude, I hope Ruudi didn't get any permanent damage because of that. The weather was absolutely awful, the track was 20 hours old and ruined buy other dogs and humans, and it was HALF IN WATER. Ruudi had to manage tracking in the water like this:


Water was freezing but Ruudi somehow didn't mind.

The map: 4,4 km, 2 hours and 30 minutes.

• First mistake - because Ruudi(me) was too fast and stupid.
  
• Second mistake - I can forgive this because the track was already ruined.
  
• Epic fail - the track was already ruined but Ruudi didn't smell the ground enough.

Leia pildilt koer, tüdruk ja telekapult

From Blogi pildid

SK

Beginning of the class was not so good but in general it was OK.

• Sit stay in the line. Did not go as I had expected. Ruudi tried to propose other things after sitting awhile: he went down,  then up, moved himself in the sitting position. He was really restless... Oh... I was not in the mood anymore.
• Recall. Ruudi's speed was good but the finishing position was too much to the right (viewed from my side). Have to practice it!
• Heelwork in pairs. Although we have practiced it at home, it was not so smooth. Ruudi had a good contact with me but still he oscillated a bit when heeling.
• Heelwork with turning around myself. This went quite good.
• Heelwork with left and right turns. At home we have tried right turns but not the left one because I did not know which leg I have to use to take the first step. It cleared out that there is no difference, just use the one that suits for the dog best. Ruudi reacts to the right leg better than to the left (he goes too far from me if using the left leg). Turnings were satisfactory. Practice the closeness to the knee (Ruudi sometimes tends to stay a bit behind in turns and sometimes a bit far too)!
• Class ended with some fun aglity exercises. These excited Ruudi so much! Although other dogs were all around (we tried these elements all together), I still could release him from the leash. I had very good contact with him and Ruudi did the elements as guided not letting himself disturb by the other dogs at all. Well done, Ruudi!

AG

In this class we were dealing with stablity in the start. Although Ruudi in normal situation does not have big problems to stay in the position if told but in AG class it is quite challenge for him because the excitement. At first I just set him sit but as I had took few steps toward my starting position, Ruudi's bottom was up from the ground and this kind of position was certainly not a sitting one anymore! So I had to go and set him to the correct position again and again... However, couple of times Ruudi was able to stay in the position and we could run the track which contains jump, tunnel and jump in one line. As Ruudi proposed rather going down in the start so I decide to take advice from the trainer and set Ruudi down in the start instead of sitting. That worked and we run the track which now finished with the jump once right, once left side of the tunnel.
That was all for this time.

Almost 11 months old

SK

Heelwork, heelwork, heelwork. That was the name of the SK (obedience) class today. Different exercises were done as regards heelwork.

Firstly, just plain heelwork along the aglity tunnel with sending the dog back through the tunnel. Tunnel was the real enticement for Ruudi. Fortunately he was interested in it only two times of several ones. Contact was quite good. Command is "kõrval" ("heel").




Secondly, running with dog while there were hurtles between the dog and me, dog-side hand was extended to the side to direct the dog. I assumed that Ruudi is coming to me between the hurtles but fortunately this did not happen! Ruudi realised what to do.


Thirdly, going down in the middle of heelwork while you keep going on. That was just perfect! I was very happy about that.
Then we did more heelwork passing by different obstructions (AG equipment) to distract the dog.
Another exercise was sending the dog around the hurtle and hurtle posts. A new thing for Ruudi was that sometimes if I tell him and show him so, he has to go around both of the hurtle post (command "ringi" ("around"), but sometimes he just has to take them one by one (commands "tik-tik-tik" and "tak-tak-tak"). Ruudi understood the difference so quickly and I understood how important is your body language to the dog!
Finally, staying down in the group for 1 minute twice. Ruudi had continuous contact with me. But 1 minute (it was actually a bit longer time for Ruudi) is too much for him right now. For 45-50 seconds he is really-really fine, but then he believes that perhaps he is doing something wrong and comes up or sits instead of staying down.
Class was finished by running through tunnels so the dog would be happy about the lesson :)


Homework:

• Stopping the dog in the middle of the heelwork so the dog should just stop (no sitting, no lying down is  accepted).
• Left and right turns in heelwork.

Use clicker while exercising.

AG

In today's class there were 2 big dogs more than usually. So, it was more disturbing situation for Ruudi.

What we did:

• Slalom with crossed sticks. Ruudi is always exited to pass through the sticks! I use command "kepid" ("sticks"). Sticks are crossed as lower as possible. For Ruudi it is still no problem.
  
  
• Dogwalk contacts. Same exercise as last time. On real dogwalk Ruudi did fine! I was happy. For bigger dogs there was a thing constructed like the end of the dogwalk : it was a bit lower and those big female dogs had left their smelly trace there, so it was harder for Ruudi. He was quite disconcerted and just kept his nose down. Hello Ruudi! Nose has to be down when doing the blood track, not here in AG hall.
  
  
• Practice a jumping technique. 5-6 hurdles placed straight ahead with certain distances as the dog has to learn the correct jumping technique. Our trainer told if the technique was right you would not even hear the sound of jumping. We did this exercise for the first time. At the beginning Ruudi took last 2 hurtles at once. Then we put the toy into the basket so that it would not be so tempting for him and placed it more near to the last hurtle. That worked. Ruudi took the hurtles one by one. Command "edasi" was used. That means passing through all the obstruction straight ahead.
  
  
• Sending dog around obstructions. Circles and "8"s. Today we used two hurtles and sent the dog around them using the commands "tik-tik-tik" and "tak-tak-tak". This exercise went very well.

But I have one problem with Ruudi. It has been so for a while but it just grows bigger. I just cannot satisfy him anymore. Today we went to the AG class and also took a walk with training elements in the park (the weather was very-very bad: windy and rainy) and still... he just comes to me and looks at me with a ball or a toy in his teeth. His eyes are shouting at me: go ahead and play with me, throw the ball so I can bring it to you again or play with me some pulling game! Come on, let's do it NOW! Moreover, he is so persistent while doing that!
If I blog, Ruudi looks very disappointed:









I asked for additional AG class from our AG trainer to have a training twice in a week but unfortunately she does not have anything to offer as regards suitable time and our AG level... :(

Laupäeva pärastlõuna Vääna-Jõesuus

There is no hunting in this weekend because we stayed in Tallinn. It is so-so hard now to tire out the dog!
Saturday started with easy walking on Vääna-Jõesuu beach.


(click on the photo to see the full album)

ED (obedience) lesson in the new place

From now on our ED (obedience) lessons are held in TAKO hall. There we can use much more space than so far. Today we had 7 dogs in the class, 3 of them were completely strangers for us. Before the class started, our aglity trainer saw us (her AG class was next to our training site) and gave us a waring that in the ED class there are 2 very big and dangerous dogs (fortunately one of them was "disqualified" because there had been a attack last time or something like that). This made me careful, I did not know what to expect. But it was not so horrible at all as there is enough space for every dog. Besides, Ruudi had a very good contact with me today.

What we did during the class:

• Heelwork. Although Ruudi did quite well a short distance, we HAVE TO practice it MORE! He just goes too ahead from me.
• Recalling the dog while other dogs sitting in a group in both sides of the way. Ruudi was very good in it. In both roles: in sitting (good contact) and specially in recalling part. Although I think that he should have been more near me when he finished.
• Dumbbell. We practiced holding on the dumbbell. The purpose is that the dog should hold on the dumbbell very-very strongly, never drop it down. We did it like the following. Put the dumbbell in front of the dog (3-4 meters) and if the dog is looking at it, give the command "võta" ("take"). Dog takes it and should bring it to you. Then you play a drawing game with him using the dumbbell. Next step should be: dog should be holding the dumbbell during the heelwork and should not let go of it. Ruudi likes the dumbbell but when getting it, he would like to run with it a bit and after a while he brings it to me. The next step is a bit too big for us right now.
• Sending the dog around the obstruction. This exercise is similar to the exercise in AG, so I use the command "tik-tik-tik" to send dog from right side and command "tak-tak-tak" to send the dog from left side of the obstruction. Piece of cake for Ruudi, BUT somehow he likes to bark during this activity :S We have to get rid of this behaviour! Also I should try to take longer distance to send dog around the obstruction.
• Tunnel. Then we did some AG elements, like running through the tunnel. Ruudi likes tunnel very-very much and he gets so excited then. 
• We finished the class with a little jolly competition: running through the straight tunnel, sending dog around the pillar, then again the tunnel and then finish. Who was the best? Ruudi was :). He did not care about other dogs, although we were running in pairs. He just wanted to run and be as fast as he can ;) His contact with me was good - I'm happy about it!

I very much like the new spacious training site! 

AG

Today's training contained 3 elements:

• Sending dog around the cones making "8"-s:

Send the dog from the right side of the cone to take the turn around it. Show the way with your dog-side arm (right). Use command "tik-tik-tik". Then immediately meet the dog at the left side of the cone and guide him to the next cone using your dog-side arm (left) and command "tak-tak-tak" so that the dog is doing the turn from the left side of the cone. Repeat this by sending dog around multiple cones.

• Learning dogwalk contacts:

Put the dog on the dogwalk and let him to go at the end of it. All the time you are moving with him and at the end of the dogwalk you stop. Let him to understand that the right finishing position is if his front legs are on the ground and his hind legs are on the dogwalk. If the position is correct, praise and caress him by saying: "Tubli, see on poom!" ("Good, this is a dogwalk!"). In the future the command "poom" ("dogwalk") will be used. Then give him a treat and dismiss him. Repeat the exercise guiding your dog from both sides of the dogwalk.

• Tire:

Put  the dog on hold (for example using command "istu" ("sit")) in front of the tire. At first, go to the other side of the tire and call the dog to jump through the tire and throw to him a toy. Then repeat the exercise running with your dog from the beginning showing the way to the dog using your dog-side arm. At the end throw a toy to him. Command "rõngas" ("tire") or "hopp" ("jump") is used in ths exercise. Repeat the exercise guiding your dog from both sides of the tire.



Ruudi performed quite well but as we weren't able to do these exercises enough during the lesson (short of time and many dogs), we practiced them during our evening walk after the lesson in the Snelli Park (actually it is Dome Park (Toompark) as I read it from the sign in the park :D) and in the dog garden (there are tire and dogwalk, additionally A-frame as well). We finished our day by taking a trolley bus for two stops :).