Congratulations Merlot!

Merlot earned her first leg in Excellent Standard on Sunday. Helen Marie had kept her out of Standard for a year to work on the "Two C's" - confidence and contacts. Looks like it paid off!

Congratulations Chudleigh!

A Blue Ribbon

for

First Novice Jumpers leg

Weekend Wishes

Good wishes to those heading to Dixon this weekend.

May Your Skies Be Blue,

Your Ribbons Green

But Above All

Have Fun!

Belated Birthday Girl!

Happy 2nd Birthday (plus 1 month) to Lea on Wednesday!

Saturday Class Cancelled

Next class will be March 13. Check the blog, we may give you some training ideas. Session 2 dates are revised above.

Birthday Boy!

It's hard to believe Inc will be 5 on Saturday.

The puppies started arriving about the time

The Incredibles won the Oscar for best Animated Film!

I think Donna singled him out from the start!

Happy Birthday!

Beginning Class Exercise and Susan Salo

Beginning Class - Last week we started working on stays using either a toy or your bait bag. The attached video shows you a progression to work on. We hope to see improvements from last week on your stays. See you Saturday!!

Susan Salo - we would like to see if there is enough interest for us to try to bring Susan Salo in for a seminar. We can't give you a cost until we speak to her, but it is roughly $100.00 (+) each day. If you are interested would you attend a one day seminar or a two day seminar. Please give it thought, as we don't want to invite her if there is not enough interest. Thanks for responding.

1st Title!

Helen Marie reports that baby boy Striker passed the 10 exercises required to earn the AKC Canine Good Citizen Certificate. At 5 months old it looks like he has a long career ahead of him! Congratulations to Striker and his owner/trainer!

For a description of the 10 exercises check out: http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/training_testing.cfm

Oh My! ANOTHER Puppy!

Her name is Tess.

What breed do you think she is????

Guess who she belongs to??

She's a liver colored Brittany and she belongs to Sue and Mark Ingalls!

More puppy breath with a wiggle butt and stubby tail.

How wonderful!

Congratulations!

Birthday Boy!

Can you believe that Ube is one year old! His class had fun.

Let us know your dog's birthday so we can honor them on the blog. If you have a favorite photo send that as well. If not, we'll try to take photos in class.

For those of you who did not take the last quiz, Donna posted the answers in the comment section.

Check out the next session schedule at the end of the header above.

Saturday's Class

Class #2 should arrive by 10 in order to work a short exercise prior to the start of your 10:15 class.

This week it is tire to the weaves. If there are several of you waiting, rotate through so that you practice this approach three times.

Another Little Quiz

Don't be bashful, give it a try and take the quiz. Just email your answers to Donna and Sydney and we'll tell you how you did. Come on now, it's fun!!!

1. You have just left your dog in a stay and lead out. Your dog stands up. You go back to your dog, tell them to sit and give a cookie for doing this. Is this:
A. good to do ---------- B. Bad to do

2. Same as above except yo go back to your dog have then do a touch, then treat. Tell the dog to sit and lead out again.
A. Good to do ---------- B. Bad to do

3. You have just left your dog in a stay and you want to reward them for staying. You can throw a toy or bait bag back to the dog to reward the stay. Should the dog stay in position until release or is the thrown object a release.
A. stay until released ---------- B. The throw is the release

4. In the above scenario, when you throw the toy/bait bag to the dog does it matter where it lands.
A. Yes ---------- B. No

5. How many repetitions does it take for a dog to learn something?
A. 100 ---------- B. 250 ---------- C. 500 ---------- D. 50

Congratulations Chudleigh!

We received the following news from Christy:

Saturday Chudleigh competed in agility for the very first time at the Vizsla trial up in Santa Rosa. He took an off course in jumpers, but managed a 95 and a first place in standard! There were 6 dogs in 24" novice B, and Chuds was the only qualifier. He had a great attitude and actually listened to me, unlike what Zorro tends to do.

Blue Sky & Matching Quiz

Looks like more rain in the forecast, so here's a photo of blue sky to remind you what it looks like.

Seems like no one but Helen Marie read the blog this past week! She was the only one that took a stab at the mix and match quiz that Donna posted. The quiz made you think and HM took up the challenge. The three of us had a good exchange of e-mails. Helen Marie will be rewarded for her effort. She should enjoy the visual prize!

Matching - have fun

Greg Derrett is the system we use in class, can you match these up?? Send us am email with your answers and we'll let you know how you did. Don't be chicken give it a try.


Derrett System Matching


1. Flick

2. Front Cross

3. arm-change

4. Send (deceleration)

5. primary cue

6. Rear Cross



A. Inside arm until commitment then outside arm.

B. Cue always means to turn towards the handler

C. Inside Arm

D. Arm-change

E. dog turning away from reinforcement zone

Who Is That Little Guy? - Girl!

Saturday Weather

It's hard to say what the weather will do for the 10:15 class. You can call Sydney's house if you are in doubt.

Saturday Class Exercise

If in doubt about the weather, you can check this blog or call the house. A decision will be made by 7 a.m. Rain during the night won't be an issue because the field has been draining nicely.

1st Exercise:

There will be a "set jump" at the barn under the trees. It is the same exercise that we did last class but using a double. Please review the description that was posted the 5th. The double should be ascending (first bar lower than the back one). Don't worry if the jump bar is not level because of the slope.

When pottying your dog, be courteous of those working on the set jump. Come up by way of the driveway.

New Title!

Helen Marie had a late day at the Santa Rosa trial but it was worth it. Merlot earned her Open Standard Title with a CLEAN RUN for a beautiful blue ribbon plus toy. HM reports that Merlot earned those three legs in a row with placements. CONGRATULATIONS on a job well done! Welcome to Excellent!

This Weekend

Good Luck to those attending the trials in Santa Rosa this weekend. If you find a particularly tricky sequence bring us the course map. Stay warm and dry and have fun with your dogs.

New Puppy - Guess Whose!

10 week old Zelda

Class January 9th

This weeks focus will be on getting the dogs back to jumping. We will be doing Susan Salo jump grids. When you get to class, please start by warming your dog up with a set jump exercise. We have done this many times in class so you should be able to do it on your own. But here is a reminder and also a video of what you should to:
1. Know your dog's jump height; place your target on the ground. Remember the target should be slightly raised.
2. Rep. 1 - Set the jump ar 4 inches below the dog's jump height, dog does jump
3. Rep. 2 - Raise the bar two inches, dog does jump
4. Rep. 3 - Reais the bar two inches, should be at the dogs jump height now, dog does jump.
5. Rep. 4 lower the bar to the height you started with, dog does jump
6. Done

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Thanks to Donna's creative design, we start the year with a fresh new look to the blog!

New Year's Eve

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Moon and Sizzle look like they are dressing up for

New Year's Eve.

Coffee and Ube

Looking forward to the New Year.

Cricket & Pei

sister & brother

Pei, Cricket, Echo, Holly, Jet

2004

Kiwi and Zuni

Zuni and the Bears

1995

She was Donna's very Special Girl

Ube in the Tree!

Echo under the tree!

1993 - Kelly A Fetching Yellow Rose CDX

Christy's 1st Obedience dog

Derby & Zuni

Andy & Mollie (Jennifer's) with Caly (Stephanie's)

Spending Christmas at the Rainbow Bridge

with many of our own dogs who live on

in memories.

E.J. and Kiwi

1994

Striker

Puppy Joy!

Cricket

1999

Indy

He lit up everything he was around!

Chichi

one of Sydney's Shar-Pei

Kerry's

First Christmas!

Cricket 2004

Moon, Sizzle

& Gem

with Santa

2007

E.J. & Kiwi

1992

Merlot

&

Magnum

Santa's Helpers

Derby, Cricket, Zuni

Indy

In The Hat!

Rose, Pei & Grizzli

Santa

&

Lea

Tripper was Mike Golemon's camping buddy.

Maddy, Niska, Moon

Yes,

they were all mine.

Zuni

&

Kiwi

Our first agility dogs.

This photo is real!

Zuni jumped through the wreath AND over Kiwi AND Kiwi didn't move!

Peanut and Sue attended their first agility trial over the weekend. Sue found out she had a social butterfly at her feet! Peanut visited the pole setter, workers at the table and the dogs in line. She completed all 4 tunnels correctly! Unfortunately the clock ran out before she got to the last three obstacles. Peanut obviously enjoyed her self and it sounds like Sue did to.