Schutzhund Sunday

Schutzhund training today :-) Kastle did several rounds of obedience with me and then went out for a photo shoot, since we are still not doing protection. For our official obedience turn on the field, we set up a mini-BH routine. Kastle and I checked in with the judge (Lisa) and secretary (Bill) alongside Pan and Lies, the way it will be in a real trial - complete with ear tattoo check. Then Lies and Pan went to work on long downs and Kastle and I did some heeling. I was using his new magnet ball and it seemed to work really well. I don't allow him to jump up on his reward word but pull it down to give it to him myself. His heeling was pretty good, I need to work on our halts and my own footwork is sloppy and needs to be cleaned up. We heeled through a group, absolutely no distraction what-so-ever, did some sit and down out of motions (with a lot of handler help) and recalls. He went over the wall and also did several voraus', we are up to a half field now.

After his second informal obedience session with me off-field, I took him out to the tracking fields for some pictures.

 I recently bought him a new trial collar (black fursaver) and leash, so of course he needed to pose with them!

The rest of the photos are HERE.

Dock Jumping Again

Kastle hasn't been able to swim, or been near deep enough water to do so, since last summer when he was a baby puppy. He was willing to go right in so I was really excited. Unfortunately, he bumped himself really hard in the legs a couple of times going off the dock (instead of jumping, he was sliding - which was the problem) and it was really cold after awhile and he was shivering. At the end, he didn't want to go in the water at all. Hopefully next time I bring him out it will be warmer and I'll stop while he's still really excited. Handler error :-(

Walkin' with Midas

Allison came over with Midas to walk with Eden, Kastle and I. Midas was WHOOPED after our walk :-) Kastle did really well. He is really struggling now that all of the childhood ball sports have started (baseball, basketball outside, soccer) and has decided that all children must have a ball on them. Subsequently, he stares hopefully at all that we pass - which, if it doesn't freak the child out, freaks the parents out LOL. He means no harm. We were stopped on the sidewalk so two young kids (4 and 6 years) could pet him and he was marvelous. Very calm and gentle, a lick to the hand, a snuffle on the face and off we went :-) Love him.

Flippin' and Turns

Now that the flip finish is away from the wall, it is looking a lot cleaner (aka, more calm and less hoppy). His left turn is coming along nicely, he almost has the hang of it. It's snappy without being over-the-top. His right flip is soooo close to being on verbal but he still needs a bit of help. That's alright, from the front position he has a LOT of options on where to go when I give a verbal command.

Kastle with a WGSL Play-mate

Willa, a West German Showline puppy, 4 months old, is staying with  us for a bit. She adores Kastle. She tested him at first and apparently decided he was worth following and mimicking, it's really cute. He's very tolerant of her and shares his toys admirably well. She chases him and bites his fluffs LOL

Finn is EVIL!!

For many more photos of Willa and Kastle and Finny being a jerk, go HERE.

Just Kastle

Rest of his pics from today are HERE.

Flip Finish and Left Turn Intro

More work on Kastle's flip finish. I started against the wall but when watching the video, Jason and I think he is using the wall to push off of and create a way too dramatic flip. He jumps up and I want him grounded. So, no more wall work after this. Or enough space between the wall and I that he can't push off of it. I was using the wall as a guide and as a cue so he knew which flip I was asking for but the verbal is strong enough now I see no reason to continue anyway. I started to teach him his left pivot and turn tonight too. That is a little too sloppy for my taste (again with the jumping!), but will keep working on it until it's clean (the end of the video is looking fairly good).

WDC and Flipping

We traveled to OH for the Working Dog Championship this weekend, that was very fun and eye-opening to watch! Kastle (and Eden) came along to keep me company. Kastle is now staying in the hotel room, loose and all night so that's really great. He has a strange obsession with checking the bath tub, over and over and retrieving the bath mat and the little complimentary soaps but otherwise he's a doll. Since there wasn't much exercise to be had (a few ball throwing sessions here and there and potty walks), I worked him for his breakfast and his kibble every day. I'm happy with the results - he has a very pretty flip finish almost nailed and his Stand is on verbal :-) I've also got a few backward heeling steps worked out with him too.

Articles and More Articles

Short, straight, very simple track with very little food and several articles. He is starting to rush a tad to the articles and while I assisted the first two (without even waiting to see if he would do it on his own), he nailed the last ones on his own. It's time to make him "really" track :-)

11 Months Old!

Kastle is 11 months old and a whopping 57.4 lbs today! Love my pupper! I posted these same photos on a couple of forums that I frequent and the guesses on Kastle's weight ranged from 67 lbs to 80 lbs! LOL No one was even close....

The obligatory stacked pics :-)



His head shots - he is starting to get a nice frontal shape, but I am hoping for a stronger profile as he ages.

With me:

The rest of the photos I took that day are HERE.

Racing Nikon

Flyball tonight was really fun! Kastle is consistently running the whole sequence now. He raced Nikon tonight and did well. We had a couple of rubber-necking incidents that resulted in some wild and crazy non-box-turns but overall he did great. For his age. LOL He's competitive that is for sure! Tonight I also had a volunteer to hold the mattress to catch him against. That was really nice - he didn't mind at all, and hit it properly, with his sides and it reduced the strain on my shoulder/arm and his neck!

He killed the tennis ball on his tug :-(

Now it's not as good of a reward because he'd rather chase the loose tennis balls. Unfortunately (for him), I don't care and made him be satisfied with the rope and no ball. I am looking into ways to make it better (Gappay Ball? Orbee balls?) for the future but for now, he'll just have to feel rewarded with the rope and tugging.

Leg Weave Accomplished!

After Kastle was done with conformation, I threw the ball for him a bit to run around and then we played on the field. I worked on his leg weaving, which it appears he now has down-pat. No verbal command, just body cues to get him going and he'll go for awhile now. I need to work on being lighter/quicker on my feet and less concerned about him knocking me down. I also had him run around one blind a few times. Pan joined in and chased him around the last time. It was fun! :-)

VP1 Kastle van het Basjes Huis STAR

Today was really fun. I've never been to an SV conformation show before. It was really fun watching all the puppies, little bitty puppies, "run" around the ring and get critiqued. I paid someone else to handle Kastle in the ring (hold his leash and stack him at the right time) so that I could double-handle (run ahead of Kastle to get him pulling into his fursaver and looking powerful - gaiting). The judge did the testicle check and thought he was a girl, had to go back and check again (at my urging), and laughingly told me that his were positioned very high and tight...awkward but funny :-) He also told me to go ahead and send all my paperwork for his mouth/teeth in to UScA and get it cleared so then I only have to flash one piece of paper when I show from now on. That bodes well for no issues in the future. I was really happy.

Some gaiting pics:

Being stacked by a very tall, strange man :-)

Gaiting around the ring, video:

He was the only dog in his class (Long Coat 9-12 months male puppies) so he got an automatic first place but he also got the highest rating possible for his age, VP which is Very Promising.

He got a really lovely critique, I'm very happy with it and excited to show him the next time!

Judge's critique:"It's a upper medium size male of great colors. Good head. Nice dark mask. High Wither. Strong back. Croup is somewhat short. The upper arms could be a little bit longer. He has good rear angulation. He is a little bit loose in the elbows but he shows good movement. Congratulation, very promising."

Hairless!

Lies warned me to brush Kastle out really well this morning before we left for the SV show in Kentucky. We had a vet appointment first (to get his tattoo verification paperwork filled out) so I woke bright and early thinking 10-15 minutes of brushing should be fine...boy, was I wrong! He shed out another entire GSD, I swear! It's a good thing Lies warned me about the amount of hair to expect (which still did not prepare me!), or I would have thought he had a reaction to the shampoo at Chow Hound and was going bald! The amount that came off was insane, I brushed him for 45 minutes and then had to give up or be late. The birds are in a nest collecting frenzy with the soft, soft, fluffs that came out. I hope he will look ok for his show, he lost so much undercoat!

Bath Crazies

Kastle had his very first bath at Chow Hound today. It was really neat...for me. I liked the raised tub where I could tie him from different sides so he wouldn't move (I only used one clip on his collar, no noose-tie needed), the extra-moisturizing shampoo and the crazy blow dryer. Kastle wasn't too enthusiastic however, he pouted with his ears down the whole time. He was really good with the dryer though, I just had to cover his face/ears when I did his neck and he held still. No issues what-so-ever :-) He came out so fluffy and soft and he looked huge! LOL

Almost Flyball Tourney Ready!!!

I am really hoping Kastle will be ready for singles by the June tournament which is in nearby Hastings. He has only been doing the whole sequence a few times at training and rarely against another dog. This time, he raced consistently against Pan and did fairly well. He rubbernecks a bit, which is annoying and caused some...interesting side effects. Since I work him at home on an elevated push board he accidentally cleared the box at training tonight twice because he wasn't looking where he was going and used his muscle memory. This is good and bad all at once. I will remind him the size of the box he's to work on by doing some boxturns only at the start of practice from now on.

I'm REALLY excited because his turns are really cleaning up overall, the sequence is getting clearer, we have started to make him move over in his lane for passing and, most importantly, he's wicked fast! He's almost as fast as Pan and he's not even 11 months old yet! :-D Pan is the record setting GSD in U-Fli - Kastle now has a goal hehe ;-)

More Playtime Training

Kastle's teenage stage as mentioned previously, still going on, so this is another session on flipping left and right, moving fronts and I've also added backing up next to me on left and right. The difference is, I've now taken the perch out of the picture. He's doing very well. He's nimble and athletic. He's finally learned to control his chompers so he doesn't hurt me when I food lure him and I can also do very energetic hand lures (with no food) and get the same results, plus no blood. :-) That's good!

Article Indication on Track

Kastle's off-track article indication is good. His end of track indication is iffy. Now we've gone back to lots of articles on a straight, easy track to just work on the indication only. This track was his best so far (the 2nd time we've done this), he was actually tracking (too fast but footstep to footstep all the same) and while I assisted the first couple of articles, he downed on the last two on his own. I can tell he's starting to "get it". Fun session.

Basement Flyball

Still working on the pushboard and getting Kastle to jump high on the box. I made a jumbo push board that is much higher (so that Becky does not have to hold one in the air for him at training) to help Kastle's height on the box.

I have been throwing his reward (kibble) to encourage fast push/drive off the "box" and I've also started to send him to the "box" the length of the room. He's got his lineup cue nailed but refuses to do it at training so we work on that every time too. Cameo appearance by Eden the Corgi when she does a boxturn off the jumbo pushboard - no way she can make it over! LOL

Backtracking Obedience

Well, Kastle is an adolescent. A teenager. Annoying. Irritating. Demanding. Stubborn. LOL We're going through an obnoxious stage. He's being way overly friendly, running up to strangers and strange dogs with all the enthusiasm of a 10 week old puppy, instead of a 10 month old GSD (he has *never* done this before!). It's weird to get used to. I have never had to keep him on a long line or a leash when out and about because his recall has *always* been 100%. No more. Now he is a jerk and therefore chained to me against his will Muhahahaha. Anyway, part of this stage also includes a constant battle over which of us is right and which is in charge of our training sessions. He tends to think he knows everything and therefore can demand, argue and fight over what he's doing and when he's rewarded. I am willing to prove to him that he is wrong every time but it gets old and since I think it's just a stage, instead I am switching gears. We are going back to primarily food luring/training/rewarding. I am also going back to basics and re-teaching or reinforcing, or even newly introducing off old things he knows. Like the perch. He knows perch but he doesn't remember  how to spin into position, definitely not on voice command. We're working on that now instead. I am going to teach him to turn left and right and pivot tight to my leg. Then we can go back to heeling later. So, lots of fun and games and engagement to remind him how awesome it is to be with Mom :-) Annoying little jerk! LOL Here's a video of my reminding him  his perch work and spins.

Starting to Sequence (Flyball)

I've been working really hard with Kastle at home on the elevated push board with a jump board in front. I want to build the muscle memory to jump high, with all four feet on the box. Tonight at training, I finally started to see the pay off of doing this. We worked on having Becky hold up a double jump board for his high box turn, bringing the tennis ball all the way back and then he did his first full run against another dog (Pan). There was some rubbernecking on Kastle's part but he's pretty quick. He might be able to get as fast as Pan with some more work :-)

Flyball Website

The team's website is being updated so I needed some pictures of my dogs in their harnesses...Here is Kastle :-)