Happy birthday!

Danni is 2 years old today!

BEST day!

Today was by far the best training day I have ever had with Danni. Her heeling was great without an ecollar, even in the dark (though I did find a park with some lighting, so it was better than our usual darkness.) Normally she loses focus really easily in the dark, and she did in the darker places, but for the most part her heeling was really nice.

I can now do a sit in motion and walk away not facing her. Her sit is slow as it was in the beginning when I walked away facing her, but tonight was the first night she would sit instead of stand. I could walk the 6ft leash length away and she would sit without moving forward.

Her recalls are amazing. Even with the bum yelling some very disturbing things at a fairly alarming volume (I didn't expect this, he started when I had already downed her and walked away, I wouldn't normally trust her to not approach him.) They are LIGHTNING fast. I love her recalls. With beautifully straight fronts at the perfect distance from me 99% of the time.

A note on the bum, I didn't expect Danni to keep her focus heeling while he was yelling but she did a lot better than expected.

Her tracking this morning was very good too.

I'm just SO PROUD OF HER!!

Good day today

Started off with some obedience and Danni was really on point. Even without the ecollar she stayed pretty focused and her out of motion sitz was excellent. Her hier is really nice too. Tracking afterwards was decent too. Other than that today's training was getting her nails trimmed and a bath. I took her to a groomer for a nail trim because I don't have clippers and she did really well. She was better than I thought she would be. She's always pretty good for a bath, which I did in the backyard. She even let me clean her ears. To dry her off we went to the park and played some fetch. She seemed to have a good time. Here's a picture of her a year ago playing fetch:

Now she's just hanging out while I do some laundry and get some Christmas presents together. It's been a nice relaxing day.

Not much training today...

I decided to give Danni the day off, partly. We still did some flirt pole work in the backyard. But for the rest I'm going to wait until tomorrow. I'm tired and the house is a mess so I'm just going to get up extra early for sure tomorrow and at least track her, if not do more obedience.

Tonight we'll play some fetch :)

Today's Training

Today's training went very well. Danni has pretty low prey drive, so we're trying to really get her going with a flirt pole. We made our own today and I will be doing it with her daily for a few weeks. The goal is to get her barking for the tug, and not at the helper/holder of the pole. She's always concerned with what the helper is doing and it gives her teeeeerrrrrible targeting. Right now we want her barking to make the tug move when I say "revier" so we can eventually establish it into a nice bark and hold in the blind for the helper. This tug work has already taught her to hold on tight to the tug (or whatever she is biting) and will transfer to the sleeve, it will build her drive for toys to use in obedience, and so much more. I'm really excited about it. Now I just need to get out and DO IT.

Obedience was also nice. We used the ecollar for the first time today and she responded really well to it. She was lagging a little when it got stressful but there were a good amount of times she had really nice obedience. She doesn't respect me with just a pinch collar (or any other collar) because she's a hard dog and my corrections aren't strong enough for her. She just brushes me off. I am learning to use my hands and the ecollar in my training to really get to her. I know it sounds kinda mean, but I really need to hurt her feelings, so to speak, to get her to pay attention.

It was a stressful day for her. She isn't used to having any correction she actually has (or wants) to listen to. But there was a lot of learning involved.

She was crated to relax when we got home and is now happily chewing away at a beef marrow bone. I'm going to my parent's for dinner so when I get back we'll have a fun fetch game and continue training tomorrow.

No tracking today, because I felt she had had enough training for the day. I'll likely get up early tomorrow and do some.

Tata for now :)

Update

Tracking went okay. Not as good as I would have liked, she lost the track twice but found it very quickly without circling around (at least the second time.) It was about 55 paces long, pretty short. I always end my tracks with a few steps with no food in them and she seemed to follow those steps really well today. I haven't tracked in about a week, so I need to stay on top of it or she starts losing her ability. I think a few more weeks of this and we can start taking food off the track and introducing articles.

Obedience today was subpar. It could have been a lot better. Right now I am not strong enough to give her a correction she respects, so I'm acclimating her to an ecollar. It's my friend and helper's Dogtra 1200NCP. I should be able to start using it within the next week or so. Her out of motion sit was better today but only when I give her a little pop reminder when I say "sitz." I need to phase that out. Hopefully with the ecollar things will really start to shape up.

I got bit by a cat at work yesterday on my finger that I use a lot when I give corrections so my corrections are extra weak today. Bleh.

Her "hier" is coming along nicely.

Tracking

Every Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday I track Danni. Today we won't be able to go until later this afternoon. Tomorrow will be the same. We're also doing protection tomorrow. Tracking is something Danni is good at and it's something that I think clears both of our heads. It's a lot of fun to see my dog do something so intently. If only her obedience was the same way!

New Blog - Better Training

I'm not good at starting off blogs by any means, but my name is Katie, and I am the proud owner of a nice working line German Shepherd female named Danni. This blog is to update on our training progress, mostly for myself, as I tend to blab on and on about things that don't make a lot of sense to anyone else. Here's a photo of the two of us:

Anyway, right now Danni is almost two years old; she'll be two on Christmas Eve. We started training Schutzhund in February and I'm hoping to get our BH in spring of 2012. This blog will be our journey from 0 to Schutzhund III. Right now we're working on spicing up our heeling, doing our out-of-motion exercises and tightening up our recall. I'm also trying my hardest to get her out to track three times a week. We do protection twice a week. It's a fun ordeal, and I'm having a blast and learning so much along the way. She's taught me SO MUCH about dogs and about Schutzhund.