First Time Blogging

Kathy here, the fourth member of this group FINALLY contributing to the CCSC dog training blog (after friendly reminders and friendly threats from Robin). I’m teaching several agility classes this session at CCSC – two weave pole classes and a contacts class. I also have 4 dogs of my own that I am training—3 border terriers and 1 whippet. Despite generalizations that are made about the behavior and trainability of breeds, I've always found that each dog I've owned /trained or helped in a class to be an individual, with their own quirks, strengths and weaknesses…

My intent is to use this blog as a report on training my 4 dogs and to bring up things I've been noticing in classes at CCSC. I have been training and showing my dogs in a variety of sports, including agility, tracking, obedience, rally obedience, earthdog, lure coursing and conformation. As for progress in training my dogs, let me introduce them…

KIP: 7 yr old male border terrier –
Kip has become the most accomplished dog I've worked with since I “got into” dog training. He is titled in tracking, agility, earthdog, and obedience. He is enthusiastic, but a bit soft sometimes, and has always been easy to distract. I’ve had to do so much retraining with him over the years to correct stuff that I didn’t quite teach him correctly the first time! (Everyone, it’s mostly our fault how our dog turns out!) However, as a team we’ve accomplished SO much despite my mistakes in training him. Currently, I’m showing him at the EXCELLENT level in AKC agility and I am trying to get him ready for showing in the open level of AKC/UKC obedience (we’ll see how that goes) and doing variable surface tracking (tracking on concrete, asphalt, gravel, around buildings) with him. He’s also a therapy dog with TDI (Therapy Dogs International).

BRIAR(aka Briar Brat): 3 yr old female border terrier—
Briar is a small BT (11 inches at the shoulder) and I’ve been working her in agility, tracking and earthdog. She’s softer than Kip in some ways but tougher in others. She can worry but doesn't act particularly guilty if caught doing something she shouldn't. I think/hope I have made fewer training mistakes with her than I have with Kip. She along with Kip have shown me that most terriers don’t seem to “grow up” until they are about 2.5 – 3 yrs of age. So I’ve taken her training more carefully, trying to build a better foundation, especially in agility, than I did with Kip. I didn’t show her in agility, tracking and earthdog until I thought she had matured enough to handle the stresses associated with showing. She enjoyed her conformation career but putting her in the agility ring caused a lot of angst (for her and me!) early on. However, one trains through all that stuff and as a result in the past year she has earned her novice AKC agility titles (NA-novice agility and NAJ-novice agility jumpers), her TD (tracking dog) and her JE (junior earthdog). Currently, she’s working at the open level ofAKC agility, training toward a TDX in tracking and doing some competitive obedience training. This fall she became a therapy dog through TDI and will get to start visiting places in the new year.

JJ: 17 month old male whippet—
JJ is a whippet from racing lines – in whippets (and some other sighthound breeds) there are amateur straight track and oval track racing competitions. As sighthounds also participate in the sport of lure coursing, where they chase a plastic bag around a field. The dogs really get to RUN, which they love and JJ is FAST. He started agility training this fall, with a focus on weave poles, contacts and jumping. He has been making steady progress on these skills. JJ has been a pleasure to train and VERY different than the terriers (I get into that another time). He also has been tracking since last winter. He also has been tracking since last winter. He certified for the TD test in September and got into a December test, but it was SO cold (<20 F) with snow, that he would not track. So I’ll be looking for tracking tests this spring to enter with him.

ASTRA: 6 month old female border terrier
The puppy is just that! A wild and crazy BT puppy. Outgoing, friendly, exuberant, energetic. She bounces EVERYWHERE! She’s been in “basic training” since she arrived in the household this September—house breaking , crate training, grooming, coming when called (that one needs much more work!). She’s been through a puppy class and a conformation class. Currently, she’s enrolled in one of the CCSC Agility Foundations classes and is having a blast! At her age, everything is kept positive, she’s learning her agility skills—walking on and through weird new stuff, going through tunnels, walking on moving weird stuff--and basic obedience skills—sit, down, stand, attention, walking on a loose leash--with clicker training. She’s also just started to learn tracking over the last two weekends. She was started on hard surfaces for tracking instead of grass (which I have done with my five previous tracking dogs) and has started out great. Since she was the pick of the litter she will be shown in conformation--probably starting this spring.

Enough for now.

Kathy