Category Archives: Schutzhund

Lexi IPO2

Big Sky Working Dogs had their annual Schutzhund / IPO Trial last weekend, and Lexi earned her IPO (Schutzhund) 2 title under USA Judge Al Govednik with scores of 95/90/80p = 265. While the protection showed some weaknesses due to practicing all the exercises with Samie or Anne holding a toy (!), tracking and obedience [...]

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Schutzhund Rusty

We had a Schutzhund helper / decoy come over from Idaho to work with us this weekend. When we were out at tracking this morning, I told him about my troubles with Rusty and the socks this morning. Well, let’s try him with a rag and see what he does! he said. And, Rusty was [...]

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more tracking…

Since Samie had to go get ready for the GotDog agility trial, I got to track Dax this morning along with my girl Lexi. I laid about a 100 pace serpentine in dirt for the boy, and he got all but about 8-10 food drops, worked at a consistent focused pace, and needed only the [...]

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Thursday

Dax should be hungry today, but because I’m a sucker, I decided to use hot dog pieces (cut up very small) instead of his kibble. I do want success! When I got Dax out to get ready to track, he completely ignored several baggies of food and tried to find his ball. Ah oh, probably [...]

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More tracking

Today I laid a serpentine track for Dax of about 80 paces with kibble in each foot step. Some foot steps had only one piece; others had several pieces. I brought Dax up to the start flag and he immediately bounded off the scent pad, going the wrong direction. I brought him back and restarted [...]

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Tracking a dog with no food drive

Went tracking for the third day in a row today, which, for me, is quite an accomplishment! Today was a good teaching day. Lexi and Zappa both did very nicely. Dax, though, presented me with some problems to solve. Dax has very little food drive. He’ll eat if there’s nothing else to do, if there’s [...]

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Highlights from the Joanne Fleming Plumb seminar

I drove to Calgary for a seminar with the Chinook Schutzhund Club. The club was hosting Joanne Fleming-Plumb for two days. I went mostly for tracking ideas, because I sure need the inspiration! I’m still waiting for the tracking endorphins to kick in! Don’t devalue the reward A common thread throughout the seminar was one [...]

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Bridge words

Our Schutzhund club had Michael Ellis again for a three day seminar over Memorial weekend. He’s been coming here for over ten years, yet I always learn something new. One of the things that really hit home this time is the difference between a terminal bridge word that means “yes, that’s exactly what I was [...]

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Tracking thoughts

Let me be perfectly clear. I hate tracking. It’s such a huge production for so little return. It’s time, labour, material and land intensive. You have to gather together everything you need, drive to a field, lay the track, wait for it to age, and finally run the track, all the while hoping nothing is [...]

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San Diego Diensthund Club

The San Diego Diensthund Club hosted a very nice trial on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, I (wisely) decided that Lexi and I weren’t ready to try for our SchH2, so I was just a spectator and photographer.

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