dogsI went to the Pet Expo at the Orange County fair grounds this past weekend and was lucky enough to speak with the German Wirehaired Pointer breeder from Norco. We talked for a long time, and she even offered me a potentially great 12 month old bitch. I just about melted but knew I needed to obey my mom's orders for the house. I told her my interest, and how sorry I was that I couldn't take it, but left rather disappointed. I have brought it up countless times around the house and plan to still do it. Now that I am almost set on a breed, I have decided to be absolutaly sure.
I created this list of dogs I potentially can look into, but I think I might be just about decided, for the time being.
I'll first start off with the breed I am most used to:
Shetland Sheepdog:
Pros:
Cons:
Today was a good day for agility. Not necessarily for Missy, but more so for me. Missy started off at a nice pace, though she didn’t seem to be too focused on me. We taught her first off the correct way to come off of an Aframe and taught her that speed would be the only thing getting her over it. To teach this, we used a target. I taught target long ago for correct touches at the bottom of the frame, but it seemed like bringing back the target, but placing it further off of the frame opened her eyes once again. Now food was at the end and she had a reason to speed up to use the Aframe in the first place.
By the second time, her feet were pressing once on the blue and once on the yellow before running off of her contact to retrieve her beloved treat. Every time after that, her focus would shift and her speed would increase as we took the white jump and I called out, "go frame."
Of course, then the sun came out for a bit and Missy's game was turning off. Her hatred for the sun caught up to her and her panting was increasing. Water breaks were no longer doing her any good and she finally began refusing to even trott, pacing at a walk the entire course as she knocked bar after bar.
Krystal had us finish, regardless of her behavior and asked if we had ever tried setting her out and making her jealous. I thought, "for a dog who honestly doesn’t care too much for Agility, how will she be jealous?" Apparently, we found a way.
Rodeo is Krystal’s Australian Shepherd agility star. His top speed and jumps that sails far over Missy’s stride were nothing I had seen from her 'star' until today. One time watching him run with Krystal and I thought, "wow, he must be fun to handle!" ....he was.
Missy’s now new "boyfriend" Rodeo was soon trotting at my side to the starting line, eagerly waiting for me to send him over something fun. First step, he was sailing over a standard jump and climbing the Aframe. Unfortunately, it was jump, tunnel, jump, jump, weave, jump Aframe, all in a large circle. So I took him back again, and started over, angling him and giving him the, "out, tunnel" command before he could even think about the Aframe. Instantly, he flew in and I created a circle of two jumps and weave poles, back to the beginning jump and up the Aframe. I could not believe how little I had to baby sit him at each jump, yet how quick and sure my shoulders needed to be pointing to get him perfectly where he needed to be.
Crosses were a joy to do because while he was sailing over jumps in front of me, I was crossing behind, calling as he went. I’d never ran another dog in agility, yet the run I got was one of the greatest thrills I’d experienced in dog sports. The style and execusion behind each movement was so much different than those I used with Missy. I actually sprinted and found myself quite winded after completing the course. I think rather than Missy being the jealous one, I was jealous of Krystal and her dog that was so into the sport.
I returned to Missy and she was standing, looking back and forth between me and Roe. It was obvious that jealousy had also come across her mind and she was ready to be back with her mama. I unleashed her and trotted her back to the middle of the course and right away, her speed and attention was all on me. Within another ten minutes thoguh, her thought was elsewhere and she was back on a leach watching me and Rodeo sail through half the course again.
Apparently, we have found a new motivation factor for Missy. Not only does Krystal like the techinque for Missy’s motivation, she also thinks it is good practice for me. She wants me to have a fast dog. Badly. She constantly tells me that I deserve a fast dog and need to learn what it is like to work and train one. So we now have a way to do it. Though my motivation lies high in the conformation ring right now, since that seems to be the place that I can work around most, my plans for a potential dog in the future now have highlighted not only on conformation and type... but also performance.
Another great part of my day was Krystal’s question for me: judging the 4H Youth Expo showmanship class. What wonderful practice and experience it will be to be IN a showring once again and actually judging the handling of these kids. I am SO excited and SO thrilled that I have been asked to do this. The results of that day will be coming in a future notebook entry.
P.S. -- For future referrance, these are the dogs that I am talking about when I am in class:
Rodeo: Krystal's Agility star who is 8 years old.
Really fast, really motivated and loves food. Nick
names are Roe and Cow Cow, apparently.
Gittalong: Krystal's first Aussie who she started
Agility with. He is not the fastest or smartest at Agility,
but he is a real goofball. Nickname is Gitty.
