Harper officially has Teenager ADHD

And boundless energy, to the point where I'm not exactly sure what COULD tire her out, except for maybe a herd of sheep.

We've started a new Advanced Beginner obedience class, and honestly it has way too many people in it. There is another corgi (Pembroke), several retrievers, a spaniel or two, an affenpinscer, a rottweiler, and an extremely dog aggressive doberman pincer that scares me. We learned the usual stuff- heal, sit, stay, lay down and we worked on holding the stay. We also worked on U-turns and finishes and come-fores.

Harper was sooooo distracted by all the scents and the smells and it probably didn't help that her "sister" Abby is also in our class.

She picks up on the concepts pretty quickly when she allows herself to learn.

Maybe next class will be better!

Harper is maturing

I don't know if I mentioned in my last post, but I pulled Harper from the last Advanced Beginner obedience class we were in, and we're starting a new Advanced Beginner's class this coming Tuesday. It's with a new trainer, and I'm anticipating that we'll have a better chance at actually learning something. I really didn't like the other trainer's method and I felt like he was sucking the fun out of the training process, so I chose to stop going. He forbade us using positive reinforcement and I don't want Harper thinking that training is a thankless chore.

Harper and I didn't get to go to the herding clinic because it was cancelled. Ah well! Perhaps next time. Sometime this week Nancy will hopefully cut Harper's toe nails and we'll try to fluff up her white parts. We leave out for Michigan on Friday night.

Harper did something super cool this Saturday while we were "park hopping" and I am really excited about it: she's teaching herself scent discrimination.

I''ve always known Harper was bright, but this takes the cake for me.

We were in the park and playing fetch with a stick I found that was just perfect! Not to heavy, not too small, not too big, not too short and not too long! ;-)

One of the times I accidentally threw the stick near an area where there were many sticks.

I expected her to just grab any old stick and bring it back, not thinking that she would actually use her nose to find the exact stick we were using. But, she did!

The reason I know that is that the stick we used I had found originally in another park, and its of a different kind of wood then trees at that park. It's a less dense kind of wood and the bark is peeling off of it.

Thinking that maybe that was just a fluke, I did the same thing again, but threw the stick in a different area that was equally populated with sticks, and low and behold she did it again!

I would really like to start encouraging this behavior in her. It will be tough to do that inside the house, because my scent is everywhere. I wonder if I can somehow get her to recognize a scent and then try to find it.

Perhaps I can get a stinky piece of cheese and let her smell it, then hide it somewhere in the house with out her watching me. That way I can make the behavior self-enforcing. 

Right now things are pretty laid back in my neck of the woods, all in all. It's a lazy, Sunday evening and everyone is sleeping. Harper and I went on a short walk, but it started raining so we had to cut it short and run home. 

My personal life has been very interesting, with a trip to D.C for Rosh Hashanah and a decision to start taking classes on Judaism. 

I wish that the BF would get rid of his rescue dog, mainly because I don't feel like we are a good fit for her and he's gone quite a bit and doesn't spend the amount of time with her necessary to make her a more normal dog. The good thing about Abby is that owning her has given me a good idea about what bad temperament is and has cemented in me its importance in a breeding program. Abby can't help what she is and what she's been through and I wish that I was a more patient person who could appreciate what is good about her more then what I do. 

I decided to remove Harper from obedience work for a while. She's going through this stage where I just don't think it's a good idea to push her. She doesn't have the focus to work like she did last month and I don't want training to be something horrible for her. If she doesn't want to work, then we won't work. We have a fairly strong foundation as suggestion in "Schutzhund Obedience." It could be that Harper is getting ready to start her first heat, which would be really cool. 

We're going to be showing on October 3, 2010 in Monroe, Michigan and then again on November 11, 2010 in Fort Wayne, IN. I'm really hoping to get a point on Harper before she turns a year, but I don't think that will happen. However, you never know unless you try and she has "bodied up" quite a bit in the past couple of months. She is a lovely girl, and hopefully we can get her finished. 

Kathy is still waiting for Celeste to come in heat, but hopefully it will be sooner then later. Tigger's litter with Abby (the cardigan) turned out with round rib cages and longer legs then is typically desired. I have a feeling that he will produce better with Celeste (at least, I hope so!!). Kathy knows that if I don't see anything that appeals to me in this litter that I won't be taking home a puppy. 

Training and the like

Here for the past week, Harper and I have been taking a break on training and excercising because 1) She hurt herself earlier this week and I wanted to put her on cage rest until the limping stopped 2) She hasn't wanted to work and her focus is crap and 3) I have not felt particularly well this week

I've been working with her pretty much every day. She doesn't want to listen or work and she has all of this crazy energy. I know that giving up isn't the right thing to do right now, so I've just changed my expectations and the length and difficulty of our training sessions. We're working on obedience and conformation, both of which are really important.

I'm also reading "Schutzhund Obedience" and it's helping me train her. Some what the book teaches is to avoid expecting too much too early. It just basically says first build the bond and work on making training fun, then work on the more difficult aspects of obedience, such as off lead healing and the like.

Harper and I were taking an obedience class with Nick Nichols at CATC. After three sessions, I realized that Mr. Nichols wasn't the kind of trainer who was going to get us to where I want to be with Harper. He did not believe in training with positive reinforcement, and Harper isn't mature enough to want to work for a pat on the back.  It ends up being a really negative experience for both me and the Corgi girl, and I don't want training to be a chore for either one of us.

The Schutzhund book focuses on making training fun, because the whole idea is to bring the dog out of its shell so that it WANTS to work. It's basically impossible to build drive if the dog doesn't enjoy its training. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if I wanted a mindlessly obedient dog, I would have gotten a golden retriever or a border collie. I like that Harper can think for herself. It makes being in our team of two a more enjoyable experience for me.

After having a brief waffling experience, I'm still looking forward to getting a puppy from Kathy Carlson. We've been waiting somewhat impatiently for Celeste to come into heat. I heard from a friend that  people everywhere planning an October 2010 litter are experiencing the same delay. Jared and I have picked out a name for her, but I haven 't told anyone yet about doing that. I don't want them to think that I'm too excited about it. But, we've decided on "Hedwig."

It's a good, celtic name. I just can't get on board with the Welsh names. Some other names I've thought about are, "Crowe," "Scottie," and one other name I can't think of right now.

Harper is going to be shown on a limited basis for the rest of 2010, and one of the shows is in Monroe, Michigan, and Nancy and I will be visiting Kathy Carlson.