Back to the Hold

Since Eden is now retrieving joyfully, I am going back to work on her hold. She wasn't able to deal with any pressure when we first started the retrieve, so I skipped it. But, now I am going to reintroduce the idea of a calm, firm hold...if I can. LOL I encourage her to tug a little to firm up her grip, we'll see how that goes. Her grip was instantly better going from the slippery, plastic AKC dumbbell to a wooden dowel - now we have to tone down the excited head-tossing. Silly girl! I did a few sit, stay and recall to front to see where we were with that since I haven't done them in months - she did wonderful! A few teardrop/flip finishes and we called it a day - what a girl!

Eden's Retrieve Continues to Improve

Title says it all. She is now retrieving the entire length of the basement training room. She's attempting to sit on her own when she comes back (sans cue). I've started to ask for a sit before I send her (which is more or less, me pinning her down until I let her bust out LOL). She even loosed a crazy, excited bark on the return LOL She's chomping the dumbbell like crazy when she sits so I used a wooden SchH I dumbbell with strings to tug to see if the opposition would help her hold. It really did. Now she's growling at me over the dumbbell and tugging and her hold is firm and steady. Now we need to make that a habit!

Merry Christmas!

Eden's first Christmas with me - a new tradition! She got her very own present to unwrap and seemed thrilled :-)

I received a small, pink shirt for Christmas that I was positive would look adorable on Eden - and it did!

Who does not smile back at this cutest of all cute faces???

Sweet Corgi Faces

The first snow of the season meant I had to take some photos of Eden looking adorable :-)

Workin' the recall :-D

White Christmas....Eve

Oddly enough, it's the end of December, in Michigan, and there has been no snow. Well, Christmas Eve there was. A tiny amount and it was sunny and beautiful so it didn't stay long but long enough to get the dogs out to run and have fun in the wonderful weather!

It might look like everyone is racing to retrieve the toy - but Eden is not. She is actually chasing, she has no interest in getting their first but loves to "drive" everyone there. Hehe

 

She also likes to badger Dottie when Dottie wins the toy first, in attempt to be chased herself :-)

 

And it wouldn't be an outdoor excursion if Eden didn't roll in something nasty at some point...

Retrieve Work

Working more on Eden's retrieve tonight proved that she is definitely loading off the dumbbell - she was even more out of control when I brought it out this time. She loves it! Her fast, clean and sliding pickup is the envy of our household Schutzhund dog ;-) I added asking for the sit on return and taking the dumbbell from her then, that went pretty well considering her butt was wiggling all over the place hehe. She also decided to use her imagination and combine the dumbbell retrieve with a flyball box turn...ah, Eden, you silly little thing!

First time attempting to get a picture of Ike, Kastle, Dottie and Eden all together, in the same pose, next to each other = disaster. Ike was out. of. control. He was way too hyper, way too happy and way too disobedient. We started the photo session with this:

Yeah...he fell down...and got stuck on his head. Only Ikie LOL It was hard to top that one but between Ike racing off and sitting on Kastle, Kastle barking and trying to bite me, Dottie wandering off to smell smells and Eden insisting that she must lay in front of everyone with her legs sprawled like some playboy hussy...it was utter chaos. It was a miracle we got any photos of all four together in any way, shape or form.

My Two Perk-Eared Pups

Love my two dogs, they both suit me to the ground :-)

And my absolute favorite :-D

Here I am trying to get them to pose...Eden is being overly cooperative with her posing and Kastle is under-cooperating as usual LOL

Finally!

We have a retrieve!!!

Eden can retrieve! This dog has changed so much she is almost unrecognizable from the sweet, shy little girl I picked up at the airport 7 months ago. That girl has disappeared into a demanding, pushy, energetic and incredibly quick little dog that I am enjoying more than I could ever dream. When I started to teach the retrieve, we had an ok time with the dowel but Eden despised holding the little plastic AKC dumbbell in her mouth. If I pushed it, she would shut down. *sigh* In comes "Evil E" and we have one decent retrieve started! She is barking, nipping, lunging to be sent after the dumbbell and even challenges the out command a little. :-D Wee, I love it! She dropped it a couple of times on the way back but she's starting to realize she needs to bring it to hand and her pick up is marvelous - quick and clean. Love her!

Doubles!

We have made amazing strides with Eden in flyball. The push board has done wonders for her box turn. It was a little iffy at the beginning of training but then we added a couple of props for clarification and she "remembered" right away. Tonight we added another dog in her lane. At first he was just barking alongside, in the position he would be in if they were running on a team. When that didn't phase her, we let that dog run after her, as the second dog in the run. She gave way on the lane beautifully so he could make the first jump. We did that a few times and then swapped and had her run second after him. She was so good, faster and showed a lot of drive. I can't believe how much she's changed since I got her - what an amazing little dog!!! And of course, since it is Eden, there are a couple of bloopers also included in the video hehe.

I am running another dog because her handler is injured. This is what Eden will hopefully look like someday.

Basement Box Work w/ Ball

We tried velcro-ing our Flyball ball onto the push board for Eden tonight. Her drool is extra strength or something because the velcro could not hold up to it and the ball ended up coming off. She did well otherwise though. I even added a jump, then two for her to go over, hit the board, and come back over. She is loving this and the more muscle memory I can build, the more confidence and enthusiasm, the better she will be next time we go to Flyball training. :-)

Rally Class

Tonight was Eden's last Rally class and one of her best classes as well. She is soooo good with focus in heeling position compared to what I started with. She did really well staying with me with all the halts and pivots on this course. Overall, just thrilled with this little dog and absolutely adore her!

Retrieve Success!

Eden made huge strides between last night and tonight with her retrieve. Now she will go out and bring the dumbbell back. The last rep she actually brought it to my hand - and I had to ask for an out she was holding it so firm! What a smart girlie!!

Retrieve Training

Eden's retrieve has been put on the back burner as we worked on other, more fun and interesting (to her) things. But, now that she's becoming more and more demanding and willing in training, I thought it might be a good time to bring the dumbbell back out and give it a whirl. It was! She is doing so much better now :-) She is willing to try more and more with me and takes my negative marker in stride (where before it would shut her down no matter how lightly I gave it) and is utilizing it to her advantage (to learn!). Love it!

She despises the feel of the AKC dumbbell in her mouth so I built a little drive by teasing her with it and then setting her loose. She would rather grab the end of the dumbbell than the bar so we worked on that too. I am really pleased with how far she progressed in this one short lesson!

Trick Training

Eden is the ideal trick training dog for me. She offers hilarious and adorable behavior and is so dang cute when she does it - makes it fun and interesting to train her. An ever evolving situation! Tonight we worked on her ball-balancing skills, her flyball box turns, rear-end awareness with putting just her back feet on the perch and getting inside the perch.

Thanksgiving Gobble Wobble

Eden ran her very first race today around Reed's Lake. Accompanied by Ike, Jason and I. She did incredible! I don't know if I could be any more proud of her. There were several hundred people there, along with dogs, kids, strollers, bikes etc etc all moving together in one huge mass to the same place. I do not like atmospheres like that, I get people claustrophobic. I don't like being surrounded...and then trying to run. It is hard. For me. Eden took it like an old pro. She was wonderful. She ran out in front of me like I encourage her and she used her little herding instincts to divide and conquer :-) She would spot an opening and make for it, bringing me with her. Always plenty of space, never cutting anyone off. She ignored everyone too. Dogs lunging, people singing and bells jingling and bikes whizzing by. Eden was on a mission. Did I mention how proud I was? I am. Incredibly. The race was 4.0 miles and our average pace was 9:43min/mile. Not too bad considering all of the dodging around people we had to do! At the end, we took some pics and made to walk back to the car - and Eden had to poop. She ran the whole race having to potty! Love this little trooper!!!

Push Board!

Lies built us this amazingly awesome Push Board for really cheap ($31!).

The purpose is to have it at home to work on proper box turns, aka swimmer's turns. Eden has lost hers and struggles between Flyball practices to remember. My goal is to have it so ingrained in her muscle memory that she never forgets, doesn't even have to think about it. This is made exceedingly simple by putting this board in Eden's all-time favorite training place - the basement. She loves to go to the basement and train. She gets so, so excited and frequently I end up with her offering crazy new behaviors or catching onto something incredibly quickly that we were before struggling with. This is a perfect example, she is nailing her turns now! :-)

Eden Kicks a Soccer Ball

Eden is learning how to balance on a soft soccer ball. She gets frustrated and bites it occasionally - it's actually pretty funny! My favorite though, is when she is trying to find it with one leg while keeping eye contact with me. She does this awkward three-legged hop-hop with one leg extended and reaching out for the missing ball that should be "right there". LOL It's great.

Flyball Box Reminder

We tried running Eden properly a few times - those were utter fails. She is slamming into the box with her shoulders straight out - bad for the joints. At one point there was no ball loaded so she went and plucked one out of the box for herself LOL. We went back and practiced the swimmer's turn separately and she seems to be tying it together fairly well. Ideally I want to get a push board so we can work on this at home...

Rally Class

Eden had a weird few moments at Rally tonight - a light was glancing off one of the fans, into the mirror and into her eyes - she flinches a couple of times when we are going around the cones but recovers fine. It was strange. Otherwise we had a fantastic time and her left finish is getting quite good - I love her prance-y heel!! :-)

Remember Your Rear!

Need to remind Eden that she has a rear-end, where it is and how to use it. Back to perch training. Starting with front feet, then all four and then just the rear feet on there. Flipped it over and taught her how to get in it as well. Hoping this will all help in Flyball!

She offered a hop over the perch at one point and it was so adorable that I marked it and now that's a new trick in the making as well! She's become so athletic and demanding in the basement! haha

Flyball Practice

Eden is so funny, she throws behaviors out that I have never seen before and it just cracks me up. At the beginning of this video she does what we have deemed the "Corgi Twist". Essentially, she flings herself in a giant circle while being restrained until she is released to run to me. LOL It is funny.

Eden was paired with Dottie this week so that Dottie could get more used to another dog running in the lane next to her's without thinking she could attack them (which she has, unfortunately, done). She does come over into Eden's space but Eden blows past her like she can't see her.

We started doing full runs with Eden tonight too - from me over the jumps to the box, get the ball, down the jumps and back to me. We really need to figure something out to work on her box turn at home!! It's totally gone once we try to tie things together. Lies takes pity on Eden's inability to get the ball a couple of times (once it was stolen by the other dog in the neighboring lane!) and hands her the ball, Eden happily brings it back. She's a love.

UKC Registered

Took forever but Eden's paperwork is finally in! She is (with the UKC only) now known as Falon Gray's Sweet Eden-Pie :-)

Eden Forgets Flyball

Flyball training tonight was less than what I had hoped for from Eden. She seemingly forgot all of her boxwork practice, tripped and fell twice - once over the jumps, pretty bad (not that it phased or slowed her down) and once right into the box with her face. Her runbacks were excellent however.

Moo!

I frequently get questions about my dogs, my photography, my training etc etc so I made these Moo cards to hand out with the pertinent information. I love how they turned out! :-)

Stamina

Eden's stamina is outstanding. She is so fit and athletic! We went on the longest run we've gone on in training so far and she was out front, pulling the entire time. She even had the excess energy to go absolutely insane when a squirrel was dumb enough to cross right in front of her face. I could not be more pleased with what a trooper she is, and wow, she is in amazing shape!!!