What a difference a year makes! Sept 27 tracks with River and Caden

At this time last year I was concerned about River's tracking here, with a drier climate and higher altitude. In many ways she acted as if she had never tracked before, and was flustered - I was flustered too! There have been some very trying times, but I have plugged away, because I know she loves to track and I love to track with her! She turned nine in March and is no spring chicken, but awhile ago, I decided to retrain her starts. Last Saturday I laid a track for her at Red Deer College near the soccer field. It was deserted when I laid the track. However, to be safe, I did not go too far onto the field. I then went to track with the other dogs - everyone did a track last Saturday.

Sure enough, as I was doing a short track with Caden, a big bus pulled up full of students dressed in soccer clothes. ARGH! I watched as a few started to do leg stretches and situps right near my start flag. Another bunch started to job in groups RIGHT OVER RIVER'S 4TH LEG! At this point her track was about 2 hours old. I decided I had better run it before a soccer game started.

River did so well ON VEG that I actually think she buckled down more because of all of the fresh scent from the runners and athletes crossing her track. It was a dry, cool, cloudy day. After I finished tracking with all of the dogs, there was a terrible thunderstorm. I don't know if that created more moisture in the air, but she sure impressed me.

In the above video you can see I am restraining her but she is being very dedicated to finding her treats and searching the primary track. This is despite the fact that runners had been all over her track about 15 minutes before.


In the above video, River is shown approaching the first turn, which is AT the curb, to the right. I walked with one foot up and one down along this leg.
She had another turn just past the trees and headed for the parking lot, but I decided to turn left to follow the curbe again! I think she saw the parking lot ahead and started to cast in circles and to me, she was not really tracking, she was worrying. I decided to lie her down (above photo), which is a SchH idea. I patted her and had her calm down. Once she was calm, she decided on her own to get up and go.

Here she is on the hard surface portion. There are two left turns. You can see her dip her nose, which is what I watch for. She also finds little pieces of dried liver in places. End of the track. It is feeling like old times with River, now that she is more confident in this new climate.
I've also been working hard on Caden's SchH style tracking. At this time last year he was still such a baby. I was renting a house in Ponoka and was simply proud of all of the dogs for making the transition (and proud of myself too).

He has so much drive and is very strong. This is OK, as long as he has his nose down and is checking the footsteps. I am still trying three tracks, two straight ones, and one with a turn. Last Saturday I decided that on his third track I would do two turns. As you can see, he did a nice job, but was still a bit too fast.

Ted and Jet did short tracks too, but I was rushing because of the soccer players and got no photos!

Border Collie Walk and ball update

My friend Penny and I walked the Border Collies at Three Mile Bend last Sunday and I got some great shots!

Three Mile Bend is a phenomenal dog park...huge, with tons of places to swim. Penny has the boomerang, and the dogs are "staring" and waiting for her to throw it! From left to right are Duncan, Jet, Brock, Ted (foreground) and Ruby. Jet and Ted are mine. And yes, we can tell them apart. My little "Otter" Jet brings it back while everyone waits to pounce on shore, including someone's Bernese puppy. I didn't get a photo but Penny's boy Brock has so much style, he could be a dock-jumping dog! However, he was wooing Jet on the whole walk, so in gentlemanly fashion, "let" her retrieve the toy. Here is Brock flirting with an unreceptive Jet. He thought it was the best walk ever! Jet thinks he is an idiot (that is what Jet thinks of everyone, nothing personal).
"Lie Down! Autumn Pathway. We can't resist practicing our herding commands and they are handy on the walk. Remember in "Border Collie language" it can mean to stand or lie down, but does mean stop. It's all in the tone. "Buddy" the Great Dane stops by. He looks like one of the Moose I hear frequent the Bend in the mornings and evenings! But, a friendly guy. Notice Jet looking away. She thinks he is an idiot.

My dogs have Balls!!! Back home - ball update. I now am the proud owner of four dogs and four Giggle Balls. Ladies' sizes and boy - size. I just can't believe how River plays with her own ball. In nine years I have not seen her so enchanted with a toy! I might even bring it tracking!

Scott Glen and Don win 2009 USBCHA Nursery Championship!

Please go to Jenny Glen's blog to see PHOTOS and read this exciting news. The finals are in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Jenny took a great photo of the pen, after Scott and Don completed the course. I get choked up just looking at it. You can read more about Alta-Pete Stockdogs here.

Don is also the Canadian Nursery Champion. What a year! His mother Star is handled by Alasdair MacRae. I've seen Star in trials and she is a beautiful dog to watch. She has WON the USBCHA Open championship twice. The time I saw her in Wisconsin was a week before the National. She is owned by Eileen Steinman. His sire is Don, and Irish import.

Below is a picture I took of Alasdair and Star getting the shed in Wisconsin (Jefferson)...Don's mother.

Scott was the first Canadian to WIN the USBCHA, and with Pleat who he bred (Ted's sire). He also won reserve that year. Last year, Ian Zoerb from Alberta won the National. All I can say is I AM SO PROUD AND HAPPY! and GO ALBERTA!! WHOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel so blessed to be associated in a small way with such a great trainer, and nice person who truly deserves this win. For those who don't know, the Nursery is like the Kentucky Derby, where the best up and coming young dogs under three compete in tough conditions.

The Open finals continue tomorrow. How I would love to be there. Thank heavens for some good blogging by those involved to keep us up to date!

Teaching an old dog new tracking tricks

I am proud to say that River has been learning some new ways to track, at nine years young! I had always let her cast too much, in part because I was a greenhorn at urban tracking, and in part because I thought it was her style. But it is a waste of energy - especially in dry conditions and at her age. So I have been spending the past month working on a strong scent pad and start using footstep style tracking methods. River is UTDX-ready but I want to improve her veg starts...there is no end to training and her hard surface work is much better than her veg now, which can happen if you don't keep up your veg work in tracking. In the video below you can see she is getting it at the beginning. I've spent the past month doing ONLY veg with her, and lots of scent pads and starts. She liked this because it meant lots of cookies. This was her first hard surface track since early August. You can see how hard she is working at the start to keep her nose down! I am so proud of her. We were tracking in the evening and by the time we ran it, it was pitch black at 8:30 PM.

She starts out good on non-veg, but I can see that she is slightly stressed about how I am keeping her on track by using a tighter line. When she began to make small circles, I said no once, but she is not used to verbal corrections. I decided I would keep a tighter line and restrict the size of her circles with a tight line. She did this Open Box shaped track to the glove, and despite some circling on hard surface I was very happy. I stopped video -taping to help her and handle the line better. There were enough treats that she got going again and it was a positive experience. But, it was the START I was working on. Sometimes when we train, we have to realize that when you try to fix one problem, another one can pop out. Bob Vest, a herding clinician, compared this to a bucket of water. When you plug one hole, another one can pop out, draining your bucket. With work, you plug the holes so your bucket (the dog) can carry all of the water.
I headed out around 7 PM but by the time I laid tracks and ran dogs, it was after 8 PM and pitch black. I went to a Church that has a big field and nice parking lot. The grass was very sparse, but it let me see where I placed my treats to ensure the dogs stayed on track. I wanted to focus on handling, but did snap a few pictures of the other dogs.
Caden did three tracks much like we did two weekends ago. By the time we did his last track it was pitch black and I could not see my landmarks, but he did he turn dead-on making me feel very confident in this training approach.

I did a short L - track with Jet as well. She did an awesome job of following the painted line after her non-veg turn. Ted did a scent pad and start only, as he needs to calm down to get going. As usual, I drove home on a tracking high! Even though the season is changing, it is still great to get out.

Pray Drive - Bed time with the Beasts

In the sidebar menu of my blog, if you scroll down to the bottom, you will see a picture of River saying her night-time prayers. Every night that is how I give her a bed-time cookie. She has done it since she was a puppy. Caden has started to copy her. Being Good Shepherds, they say thank you God, for another good day.

Ted joins in for the cookie but not the prayer. Oh, he has pray drive too, but being a Border Collie, he is a Presbyterian Scot and is not so flagrant in his daily meditations. I think Ted prays every night to have the bed to himself...Every night Ted tries to claim this spot by the pillow but he gets bumped out by Caden. Ted has started jumping up here earlier and earlier in the evenings. Its why he looks worried in the top photo - he knows he is about to lose his spot!Jet skips prayer. She has PREY drive, not pray drive. Although she dreams of bigger bones and her own flock of sheep, and perhaps an owner who is not such an idiot. Here she is on the couch, wiped out after a busy day (that will be a separate post!)

Schutzhund Tracking - Training Day for Caden, Siegfried and Jet

Today my tracking friend Gail Klinger and I both went out with Dan Waters for a mini-clinic on footstep tracking. Gail's dog Siegfried (above) is a beautiful and very powerful dog who loves to work! Dan gave both of us some drills then coached us along on our tracks. Afterwards, he did a track with Bronte who is in training, and then ran a THREE HOUR OLD track with his dog Ali vom Daeschael SchH III. Ali nailed the track, laid at 9 AM and run just after 12 Noon - in wind and very hot, dry conditions. Bronte also did a well-aged track in dry conditions and really did well. This sure shows us what we are aiming for when we teach footstep tracking. Great inspiration! Gail videotaped me with Caden, and I videotaped her dog. When I see this, I see that I am hunched over and tense because Caden pulls so hard, and I am not that sure of this style of tracking. I need to straighten up and loosen up!

On the other hand, Caden had a few small transgressions off track but with a verbal "no" came back to it. I put too big of a jackpot at the end of the track, so just before the jackpot you can see him suddenly reef both ways as he smells the dried liver. Next time - smaller jackpot!

Siegfried is a great tracking dog. He has all the drive you want to shape him into a dog you could be confident to follow. He practically crawled for each treat, as he learned to find the treats in the footsteps. As the treats went from every footstep to every 3-5 steps, he continued to show a very nice dedication to the track.


We each ran three tracks, two straight ones and the last one with a gentle turn. As Caden is always over-excited when he starts, this worked really well. We alternated so each dog had a chance to sit and think for 10 minutes after each track. By his third track, Caden was settled enough to focus. Of course, for both of us, learning to be a better handler was the big thing. It seems that when Dan takes the dogs, they do better. It helps to watch his handling and then try to emulate that. Funny afer all these years of tracking to be learning something new and feel like such a beginner.


I did a short track with Jet, who is re-learning to track in the footstep style. I am embarrassed to say that I over-estimated how much to space the treats, and then, forgot where her corner was. SHE had to pull me to the second leg...good girl Jet...bad girl Donna! But doesn't my outfit match Jet nicely? I mean, that is what counts, right?I jumped ahead too soon and learned I should not rush the re-training to be sure Jet understands what I want her to do. Well, I can't beat myself up too much. Just have to remember next training session! And with RIVER, I simply did two scent pads, as I am workng on her start routine.

It was a great training session! Thanks to Dan for taking so much time today with two greenhorns!
Of course, there is always a play session AFTER tracking is finished...Caden above and Siegfried below. Dan has the best throwing arm so he was voted in as the playmeister. Dogs naturally love Dan. The only other person I have seen with the same attraction for dogs is Scott Glen who is one of the top Border Collie trainers and handlers - and who I got Jet and Ted from. I think that dogs sense the confidence and clarity these top level trainers bring to everything and dogs like that. Just ask Cesar Milan!

Jet and Ted. Poor Ted was the only guy not to track today! But he still enjoyed the running afterwards.

River enjoying yet another ball...she is looking great for a nine-year-old, I love her so.

...and a bit of obedience was thrown in too!

What a great way to spend the day, and THANKS to Dan's wife Susan for a delicious lunch and nice hospitality afterwards.

Daily Greeting after work

This is what greets me every day when I come home. Everyone runs and plays with a ball. Yesterday I brought home a new lime green "Giggle Ball" which Caden immediately took because it squeaks louder. So coming home today was even more fun, watching the dogs work a new ball into their routine.
River is so happy to have the old yellow one, and she was so cute, trying to make it squeak. She has never been one to play much with toys, so I had to get a camera and capture the action. Jet and Ted have a Kong blue ball that is hollow, it is Jet's favourite. This is what it looks like when I come home and let everyone out of their pens (where they spend the day).


I am always so proud of how everyone gets along! No matter what the day is like at work it is a blessing to come home to this joy, every day. I got this statue of St. Francis of Assisi, Patron Saint of Animals, for my backyard. They say that in his presence, even a wolf acted like a tame young puppy...I love that story. My statue is holding a bunny which I love because my old yard at home had wild bunnies that showed up on the lawn. I have bunny statues in my yard and house, they mean a lot to me and remind me of home and another time.

Below is another video of my dogs playing when I come home from work. Caden uses his ball like a hammer, but Jet hangs on and gets into a game of tug. She is so good at the tug game, I think I will make her my next Schutzhund Dog! By the way, when I say out to Jet, Caden knows it is not for him. I put ALL the dogs away to do separate stuff with him, because there is no way he would OUT his ball when everyone is competing like this!

This is River, still smiling with the Giggle Ball. I think she and Caden switched, now she has the green one. What a Princess! "The Princess of Penhold..."
Jet usually wins, and Ted seems happy with running in circles around everyone. Sometimes I toss the ball right to Ted, and he runs under the picnic table to possess it for a minute. Jet emerges with it - I think he just gives it up.

I took this picture of River long after the play and greeting session was over, still making the ball squeak!

Hornets and Hot Weather! Help!!

Hornets! Caden was bitten on the face two nights ago. What do you do to keep them out of your yard? I would love some advice. They seem to be everywhere this fall because it is dry and hot. He looked like a Manatee, the poor guy. The sketch above is from Florida Technology Institute's website. Here is a real Florida Manatee. Yup, that's kinda what poor Caden looked like with swollen eyes and muzzle. I gave him Benadryl that night and the next morning. I left him inside as he was pretty drowsy anyway, and checked on him at noon. Thankfully I live close to work! He was getting much better. Last night, I went out tracking and played ball with him and gave everyone a good run in the field.

After going to bed, I heard him gagging and jumped up to see him doing that scary inverse sneezing thing, but in a very serious way and he looked so scared! I think he had a scary reaction to his hornet stings and I spent the next couple of hours sitting on the couch watching weird late night shows, and it did happen a few more times and he was nauseated too, which I read is common when being stung or bitten by one of these horrible things. Every time I depressed his tongue, he was fine and would wag his tail and run for a cookie. So he was OK/Not OK.

By the morning he seemed fine but I couldn't bear leaving him to go to work, so took him to the emergency vet first thing to be safe. He checks out fine but she said he probably had some swelling causing the epiglottis to be trapped on his tongue, so when I pushed the tongue it went back the right way. She thinks that one day and one more Benadryl will take care of it.

What a surprise, when I pulled up to the vet’s and my training guru Dan was there (he owns a construction company and was working on a job). Caden took it in stride - he just thinks that everywhere we go, Dan is there, LOL. Small world! Sort of nice serendipity for me to be able to babble to someone who understands how important the dogs are to me!
We had record breaking heat today – over 90 degrees. The picture above is a screen shot from the CTV Calgary website showing CURRENT conditions for 7:30 PM. This is crazy hot! So the dogs were all in with me - it was literally too hot to be outside. Caden was fine all day but drowsy again from more Benadryl. I will give him one more Benadryl tonight just to be safe. I got compliments from the vet for how well-behaved he was!! Such a good boy and so friendly.

I Googled Hornets and found this story from the Edmonton Journal on July 31 2009... The story is about chemical - free pest control: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/oped/Edmonton+business+latest+buzz+pest+control/1847589/story.html

By late summer there are about 20 queens in a nest and the wasps will be very protective and aggressive, going out of their way to bite you, Dalman said. He would know. Last year, he and his colleagues removed 327 nests from city-owned property. So far, this year has been quiet wasp-wise, but that could change, Dalman said. "Considering the amount of queens out last year, it could be bad if we have a lot of hot weather."

So, it is hot, and it is late summer, and the hornets are AGGRESSIVE. I can't even drink a cup of coffee on my back deck without them showing up. Help!

Well, that is my little story for the day. If you have any tips on keeping hornets away, let me know!

I suppose curtailing the dogs from "hunting" for hornets would probably be a good start.

Schutzhund Seminar and Practice in Edmonton

Look at that happy face! Caden has not done protection for nearly two months while I focused on his obedience and control and let him mature a bit. At the Edmonton club on Sunday, following a helper's seminar, we were able to work dogs and it was time to get him back into his protection work. Boy, has he grown up in two months! He was so much more serious about barking at that guy with the tug. It is all a great game - loads of barking "at the bad guy" so that they get to play with their favourite toy. The "bad guy" (the helper) jumps around and teases them to really get them going so that they really begin to bark seriously. And at that moment...

The tug swings around for them to catch it! Relief! There is nothing like a fun game of tug for Caden. It is truly one of his favourite things. I have to hide his tugs at home (in the car).

Caden has a deep, full grip too. A highly desired thing, so I have learned. Tugging like this for Caden is so rewarding. He just loves it. After a good tug, the helper lets him "win" and he gets to carry it around and we all tell him how wonderful he is.

These are the helpers-in-training, working towards their certification by the GSD Schutzhund Club of Canada. Wade Waters (facing the camera) was an excellent instructor. He is the one who works with Caden (in the photos above) and his wife Melissa beside him took these photos. Wade has a GSD, but Melissa trains really nice Rotties.

Caden's favourite person in the world (next to me) is Dan Waters, who helps us with our training as he also lives in Red Deer. Dan is president of the Calgary GSD SchH Club and with his dog Ali was in the top 5 in SchH at the Canadian Nationals. Here Dan and Ali vom Daeschael SchH 3 are helping at the seminar. The "pretend bad guy" has to put on an act and the dogs are trained to leap for the sleeve which becomes a huge reward. This is where things go - from Caden's tug, to the full sleeve which is really just a bigger toy. Ali is so proud to have WON the sleeve! Some day Caden will progress to this level. In the meantime I am really lucky to have such great people around to help with his training (and MINE).

It is really something to see German Shepherds and other breeds demonstrating their abilities in the three phases of Schutzhund - TRACKING, OBEDIENCE and PROTECTION.

Hmmm.....maybe they need to add HERDING!