Dutch Shepherd Forum

It's been way too quiet around here...

So, what are you all working on with your DSs?

Geyser, now 11 months old, continues with K9Nosework. We're taking our second class in the series. We're working at outside locations, and try to go to a different/new place every time. That alone presents a challenge for me, figuring out where to take her to train.

We continue with agility and obedience foundation work and have started lengthening the durations of various stays (sit/stand/down).

I became aware this week that she is a bit mistaken about her release word, which is Ya! It is not "OK," or "alright" or anything else, tho I do use those words often (which is exactly whey they are not her release word ). So, we have been having a little work on that every day, too.

What are you all up to?

Sounds good Leigh!

Thalie is up to her usual stuff, being a dog. She is happy to be out running on the weekends with me mountain biking, and some hikes during the week with Sadie. Sadie is doing well with her obedience. Sit is pretty well done, her down is doing very well as is her stay and recalls . She found that Bats are pretty cool to chase and talking to the Coyote is pretty cool too. I am interested in doing scent work with both of them, I just have to get my butt in gear and find someone. Sadie is really coming into her own now at 7.5 months, she is becoming a sweet very good girl.

Gwen and I are working on a focus heel.... with a tug as a reward. We are also working on building toy drive. she is very handler sensitive but is getting on better being handled by others ( i.e. Cory) when I am present. She still wants to be a mommas girl and I suppose to some extent will always be. I also discovered this spring that Gwen is not overly fond of men, so we will be going to Club meetings on Sundays to help socialize her and work on our focus heeling etc...

I want to do some scent work and was thinking about getting some PVC tubes to work with... we live in BFE as far as dog training is concerned so I ll have to figure it out for myself...

Bishop is doing well on his basics obedience sit, platz, hier, lass es, fuss bring and aus ( english being sit, down, come, leave it, heel and out) We just started trying to teach gib laut (bark) and packen(bite) when working with his tug.
Working on his reactivity towards other dogs however has been somewhat of an uphill battle, he seems unsure so I want to expose him to as many good interactions but I also want to avoid bad ones. I have been walking him with my brother and his very stable low energy low key golden and he has been doing well with her and has even started doing play bows towards her and trying to initiate play.
On the downside we had a bad interaction with an off leash dog that caught me off guard while out walking who came around a corner growling at us, thankfully I had my walking stick and chased the dog off only to be yelled at by the dogs owner. Telling me not to hurt her dog, he just wanted to play with my dog. I tried told her that she needed to keep her dog on as a leash as this park was not an off leash dog park and that she could be fined for having her dog off leash. We promptly left as she continued to yell and carry on. I am hoping this doesn't set us back on the progress that I had made with him on ignoring other dogs.

It's good to hear what everyone is working on...

Gabriel, I hear you about the loose dog thing. The bane of our existence, too.

We also have ongoing socialization things we're working thru...Geyser is wonderful in more crowded situations, but becomes very defensive when on a trail or anywhere more quiet if someone suddenly appears (with or without a dog). So, like you, we continue to work on this one.

I took a couple of classes with her specifically to work with this dog issue thing...well, she's now fine with other dogs in classes , but as dogs don't generalize so well, that doesn't mean she improved in other situations .

It's a work in progress, of course

Obedience - Retrieves, pretty much got it on the flat.
Just moved up to the full height jump , and the wall is 3/4 plus way up to full height. Still using a toy with those as I want to be sure he has it before adding the dumbbell.
Send out is in progress and ( fingers crossed ) seems to be going well ....... of course he always has liked to run away from me but putting it on command has been intresting.

Tracking - we're working on increased focus and slowing him down.

Gripwork - just introduced him to drivework and stick pressure. Continued emphasis on staying calm. ( very hard work for him )

Getting ready for our SchH1 in a couple of months so I'm trying to work on my nerves.
Just thinking about it makes me about pass out !!!

uhm, we are "in between jobs"

I'm shopping around for a new club since the last one has slowly turned into something that is no longer what I am looking for. Due to Ivil's constant hormonal switches I have given up on training SchH and want to go on to tracking (FH-1) Since Dingo likes tracking I will drag him along too This sunday we will visit another club nearby (the 2nd) to see if we "fit" in there

So right now our main thing is biking, cathcing ball/frisbee and snoozing on the couch

Cino's job anymore is to be my best friend.

He has the work ethics and when I was going to Schutzhund training they were always surprised how such a little Dutch Shepherd could pack such a punch....

The lack of continuing training is all me...

Its been nice weather lately, so enjoying the outdoors much more...been able to go biking with Sugar running along beside.

The latest tricks she has learned are “speak”, “crawl” and “play dead”. The last one is still a work in progress...she gets it but there is a delay between my command and her dropping her head down to the ground. Have to figure a way to get her to respond faster with this one!

Also, with the spring weather, she is gobbling up the fresh long green grass, with the aftermath of it coming back up later...all over the carpet : (

Sugars Mom wrote:
Also, with the spring weather, she is gobbling up the fresh long green grass, with the aftermath of it coming back up later...all over the carpet : (

hahahaha, sorry, just broke out laughing, I shouldnt though because Sadie will probably do the same

Waiting for the rain to stop!!!!! My dogs and I are going crazy here in NY. We waited for all the snow to leave and now nothing but torrential rain & black flies in swarms (I'm very allergic to them).
I hope she remembers all the stuff she was taught. I'll let you know when I finish building the ark.

I hope we pass the rumlbe test for KNPV certification end of this month. Arris already has 3 KNPV certificates.

bayca wrote:I hope we pass the rumlbe test for KNPV certification end of this month. Arris already has 3 KNPV certificates.

Wow - congrats and good luck!!
Would you mind starting an additional thread in the Protection Sports Section telling us a little about the different certificates and what is required for them?

Also - we would greatly appreciate it if you could visit the User Control Panel and create a signature with your name. That way you don't need to sign your posts, but we (OK - I'm the forgetful one) can remember who is who.

Tracking: We've gone back to puppy tracks, straight, long, with food in every step. I've GOT to slow him down somehow.
OB: Getting about turns as tight (ok fine... crowded) as the rest of our heeling. We also need lots of work on stand, both in and out of motion. Down in motion is coming along wonderfully though! We've got the beginnings of a send out, and a nice retrieve with the jump at full height 1-3 times weekly, the rest lower. HOLD the dumbbell, not chew it, or roll it you beast. (That one we work on while I watch TV. )
Protection: We've just started the blinds! What fun! Koenig will now run 2, and then the decoy will go straight into an escape bite. We're working on cleaning up our Bark and Hold. He's recently been introduced to a right handed sleeve, which threw him off for about .5 seconds.

We're hoping for our BH and SchH1 this year, so lots of work...

And our latest hobby- Herding!!!! We're just having fun. I have no idea what the timeline, or immediate goals are here. I'm leaving that all up to the stockman who's got 30 years of experience training herding dogs.

Jetson and I are fine tuning his basic work, tightening his get in's (left and right sided on command) and inbetweens (sit beside and inbetween my legs) weaves, heel, inbetween leg heel, backwards direction on previous two, walking with downstay, starting to teach going around objects, ignore the bee's (this seems to be the hardest for the little guy to grasp)

My mom is working on Jazzy, mostly trying to break her of her very painful habit of jumping and bear hugging your legs with her nails. She's getting better but very VERY slowly as she believes it to be a wonderful game. She is also working on not eating my older long coat ibizan Lonnie who is not the brightest crayon in the box and will stand sad and goatlike while Jazzy attempts to body slam, gnaw on and pluck her of every last hair. To be polite I call her a scamp. She (Jazzy not my mom) is getting very good at heeling, sits, downs and especially loves to jump on and over anything both when she is asked and not asked to do so. Her best job right now is getting my mom to laugh.