Soggy training day

So training yesterday at Dutch East was fun, if soggy. Although this part of Virginia didn't get a ton of rain on Friday, it got enough to keep the ground soaking wet and muddy.

Geoffrey (spelling?) came with his two bouviers: Gaucho and Tulipan. Gaucho's focus and heeling are really great - he only has eyes for Geoffrey. He must also have great food drive; Geoffrey had gloves, for good reason; Gaucho was nailing the hot dog! The two of them are working on their BH routine right now. I didn't make it in time to see the puppy's (Tulipan's) obedience, but she is definitely getting the hang of the bitework.

Michelle also came with her puppy Xena, who all of a sudden starts to love the bitework. She went crazy for the burlap, jumping and biting and just overall enjoying herself.

I brought Tikki out for the obedience, but skipped bitework. The obedience left much to be desired, but that had a lot to do with me, since I was struggling to walk properly in the mud. overall, she is progressing. We did a little bit of dumbell work on the flat, and then jumped over the hurdle (with the boards set very low). Xen came out for his retrieve. He needed to repeat the flat (too slow) but the hurdle and a-frame were fast and correct. Overall, a good training day.

And we had a ton of fun with Carla after training was winding down. She is thinking of putting Gypsy in the conformation ring at NAWBA. Gypsy's a very good looking dog, but she is fundamentally a working bouvier, so the conformation doesn't come easy - Carla had a heck of a time trying to keep her still. Gypsy would spin every time Carla tried to touch her, and she had no intention of being stacked. And when Carla finally got the ball out for a reward, Gypsy really started to have fun. She has incredible ball drive, and she doesn't much like to out. So when she wasn't shaking Carla all over the field with the ball, she was bouncing off of Carla with her front paws trying to get her to play. The two of them made a very funny picture - Carla will have her hands full!

Starting up again!

It's been years since I updated this training blog, but since the 2010 bouvier Championships are coming up, hosted at Dutch East, I figured I would re-start the training blog too.

This weekend was a great training weekend. We only trained on Saturday, since it was raining on Sunday. (At least that's true for most of us!) It was like a mini-reunion, from the A-Team that used to train years ago, which is to say that the bouviers actually out-numbered the other breeds! Michelle and Brian came down from Pennsylvania, and Rod made the even longer trip from Michigan. Geoff Hire (I will have to check that spelling) came down from DC, and we had the local bouviers as well. I was out there with Tikki and Xen, Mike came out with Max, and Michelle came out with her puppy.

We are all excited for Rod - he just picked up his new puppy this weekend, Ecko. It's a repeat of the little that produced Kodacracker, which is Pennsynlvania-Michelle's young dog, from Bebee and Dre'. Kodacracker is the precocious puppy biting onthe sleeve in the picture.

So it was really fun getting everybody together. Training went well - all the dogs looked good in obedience and protection, with a really great catch by Mike for Rod's Uno on the courage test. I would have to say that was probably the bite of the day; Uno came fast and hard, and just launched into the sleeve. After training, we sat around in the clubhouse and heard a few of the old stories. Rod told about when he bought his Karl in Michigan, and was told explicitly not to let go of the leash for the first few weeks. You can guess what came next.