Clik here to view.
6 months 26 days
Ladies and gentlemen, I have a water dog.Summary: I taught Syn to retrieve and come using the Training Levels. We worked halfway through Level 2 in everything. Last week we worked a bit specifically on...
View Article6 months 27 days
With NO idea what to expect, we go to the beach again. Will Syn have had nightmares about plowing along underwater with her chin in the sand and water over her eyes? Will Stitch have remembered how to...
View Article6 months 28 days
Syn's excited again today, but more willing to stay with me on land (wow, good pup!). I put our gear down just before we start and she's grabbing things up and trying to hand them to me, eager to get...
View Article6 months 29 days
Today I got smacked in the face with preconceptions: a) my pup now has 60' retrieves; b) my pup joyfully wades in the water and starts swimming; c) so does Stitch.Yeah, well.Those things DO happen - if...
View Article7 months 7 days
7 months, 7 days. Time for reflection. What an amazing "little" dog. She's suddenly half an inch taller than Stitch, and she's lost none of her élan. A couple of days ago I was driving the Gator past...
View Article7 months 15 days
Syn, Stitch and I spent the weekend at a water trial - daring stuff for September in Alberta. There was a practise scheduled for Friday, but when we woke up it was 5 degrees above zero with the...
View Article8 months 5 days
I've been SO looking forward to getting home and STAYING home for a bit. Not only do I have a lot of work-related stuff to clean up and a house that needs me, but Syn hasn't been worked in...
View Article8 months 6 days
There are 150 pieces of kibble in ⅔ of a cup of Syn's breakfast. That got us through all of Level 1 and Level 2 Zen. The good news is that she was In The Game, eager to work - I might even say thrilled...
View ArticleClik here to view.
8 months 7 days
One thing Syn learned very well while she was alone with my husband - counter surfing, that time-honoured talent of Portuguese Water Dogs everywhere. So hubby and I decided last night that Miss...
View ArticleClik here to view.
8 months 8 days
I put a piece of string across each entry to the kitchen about 8 inches off the floor and did some string Zen. That seems to have done the trick. The only people who have been caught by this trap today...
View ArticleClik here to view.
8 months 9 days
Six times today Syn and I worked on the dog room. I started sitting in the room playing with Stitch, tossing treats around the room, while Syn sat on the stairs and wished she was with us. Then I'd get...
View ArticleClik here to view.
8 months 13 days
We've been working on nothing much but staying out of the kitchen and stays for a few days. Neither going brilliantly but some progress being made. She can stay FAIRLY well when she's not In The Game...
View Article8 months 15 days
Thomas Brezinski, my nephew, is here from Toronto making a documentary about our family. This has included following me and Syn to the lake, to the water trial, to class, and today, out to a park near...
View ArticleClik here to view.
8 months 16 days
Now that Thomas has completed the filming part of his documentary and is heading home to begin the REAL work, the "post" part - editing, fixing, arranging, etc, I thought I would show you a couple of...
View Article8 months 17 days
We had a very good time today, though it didn't turn out as planned.We went to a drop-in conformation class. I was surprised that it wasn't cancelled, being it's the day before Thanksgiving, a major...
View Article8 months 19 days
Agility class again this evening. Syn is getting higher and higher each week. I'm constantly astonished that she's able to control herself so well and then explode into leaping, running and...
View Article8 months 20 days
We had a grand time this morning. I'm getting bored with working 3 seconds at a time trying to get Syn to sit without tap dancing, so we moved on and worked on her stays when we were nearly done. That...
View Article8 months 22 days
I sat down yesterday to jump through the rest of the behaviours in Level 2. HA HA HA HA HASyn was eager eager to work, so I decided to leave L2 Relax until the end of the session. When we finally got...
View Article8 months 25 days
We spent almost the whole session yesterday working on that trick. Having had good luck shaping her front feet onto the stool, I switched to shaping her to touch my feet with her front feet....
View ArticleClik here to view.
9 months 2 days
Day before yesterday I went to watch a friend of mine at an obedience trial. She has a new dog and the dog was entered in Pre-Novice. I was minding my own business, enjoying her success, when I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
9 months 8 days
Two items of interest this week. First, the cart/harness thing. Syn has worn her harness for hours at a time several days. She's completely at ease with it, with me putting it on and taking it off her,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
9 months 14 days
Syn's not afraid of the dryer any more, and comfortable with her dish again, but she's decided she needs to sit/crouch when I'm putting her cart harness on. What a strange little person she is right...
View Article9 months 17 days
As it turns out, we WERE in the middle of a blizzard the next day, so didn't get any carting done.I hope I can convey the real extent of what happened in the Rally trial that second day, though.Syn was...
View Article9 months 19 days
I'm still basking in what a brilliant day we had at the Rally trial. Stitch, Syn and I are now getting ready to go off for the weekend to do a seminar - it'll be Syn's first (at least her first as dog...
View Article9 months 23 days
Whoof, LOOOONG weekend! Syn was (mostly grand), eager to work, great at demonstrating things. PRO: She had a grand time. She wasn't afraid of any of the dogs. She was excited and interested and not at...
View Article9 months 26 days
I haven't got my suitcase unpacked from the weekend yet, and my bills aren't paid, but I'm almost caught up on sleep so this morning Syn and I started work on all the stuff we lost last weekend. I...
View Article9 months 25 days
We started our new advanced agility class this evening. At the seminar last weekend, they had some really yummy "doggy crack" - Kibbles and Bits, cut up cheese strings, wieners, dry cat food,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
9 months 27 days
We got up to 2 sessions today. We started the morning workout with eye contact. Yep, it was gone. She immediately began looking around the room for misplaced treats. She's got excellent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
9 months 28 days
Tonight we got Down To Business and tested a large number of Level 2 behaviours. She has an Open obedience class coming up, and they're going to be practising 1-minute sit and down stays, and she...
View ArticleClik here to view.
9 months 29 days
We tested out Level 2 Communication this morning, which is the last of Level 2 except the trick. Syn did the full retrieve, including bring and hold, of the bucket with her kibble in it, and did it...
View Article10 months 1 day
Ten months old, and Little Miss moved on to Level 3 with a bang. Starting at the beginning, we zipped right through L3 Zen (dog doesn't dash through open door, waits 30 seconds with door open, waits 1...
View ArticleClik here to view.
10 months 8 days
I've been away for a week. Tonight we got back into Level 3 (Level 3!). L3 Focus Step 4 - Dog holds eye contact for 10 seconds with you not looking at the dog. That was fun, and pleasantly surprising....
View Article10 months 9 days
For breakfast we worked a little more on the distraction of kibble on the rug. She's not ready to wander over the food as if it isn't there, but she's getting closer. Her panting this morning is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
10 months 11 days
Syn had a her first Open obedience class this afternoon. I was worried that she wouldn't be able to keep up with the class - well, worried isn't the right word, since I would work her at her own level...
View Article10 months 14 days
Boy, howdy.My name is Sue Eh and I'm a lumper. Chartered member of Lumpers Anonymous. A couple of weeks ago I worked a bit on getting Syn to retrieve a dog bucket with her dinner in it. I got her to...
View Article10 months 16 days
Well, we got past the scary-bucket problem pretty quickly. I just sat back and shaped her from the beginning - look at the bucket, look again, take a step toward it, take another. I started with the...
View Article10 months 20 days
Wow, this dog training stuff is TOO much fun, especially when I get such marvellous proof of how well it works! My vacuum is in the shop - and appears to be settling in nicely, planning on staying...
View Article10 months 25 days
Tonight I'm in a depressed funk. Not because of Syn - she's grand. This afternoon we went to our Open obedience class. It's chock full of dogs getting yelled at, people with very crabby voices, and me...
View Article10 months 26 days
Alright, I'm feeling a bit more myself today. Syn, of course, feels… Synful. Full of herself, as always. Or, another way of starting today's blog would be:Now that I've gotten over other people trying...
View Article11 months 13 days
The holiday season is over and life is getting back to normal. I've been feeling like I was rushing the entry into Level 3 before the holidays, so I retested a few of the duration behaviours from L2...
View Article11 months 14 days
Syn and I went to the vet today. She had a wonderful time while she was there. She kept offering to hop up on the very high examining table while I was talking to the vet and I had to keep putting my...
View Article11 months 15 days
This morning I "hid" the two dog buckets (big scary one and little unscary one) in the next room, started robo-vac, put Stitch on a down stay nearby, and asked Syn if she was hungry. I'll take that as...
View Article11 months 16 days
The good, the bad, and the ugly - but mostly the good.The good: we went to an obedience fun match last night. Everything was aMAZing. First, *I* was amazing. I remembered why I was there (unlike my...
View Article11 months 20 days
We had a fun session this morning, based on ongoing fear (hers) and frustration (mine).I thought we had the scary-bucket thing ironed out, but I keep sort of fixing it and then leaving it alone. When I...
View Article11 months 21 days
We worked the bucket retrieve again last night and it went almost exactly as it did in the morning. Syn couldn't pick one up at first, so we shaped interaction with the cardboard box until she was...
View Article11 months 22 days
This morning we worked the buckets again, but this time I tossed out about a dozen items, including clickers, 5 buckets, a rubber shoe, a pen, a tennis ball so big Syn can barely get it in her mouth, a...
View Article11 months 28 days
First birthday coming up!Last weekend Stitch and I did a 2-day seminar, with lots of help from Syn. Nonbelievers, I'm sure, would have looked at Syn and thought "What an obnoxious puppy! Always jumping...
View ArticleClik here to view.
13 months
I thought I was going to stop writing Syn's blog when she turned a year, but apparently she has fans, so here's a monthly update.We've been working diligently on her obnoxiousness. Now that I'm...
View Article13 months still
We went to the airport for some training this morning, and ran into several small glitches. First, she needs practise in doing nothing for longer periods of time. I tried standing in line to wend our...
View ArticleClik here to view.
13 months and rising
We haven't done any more work on duration yet, but we've been really giving that chair problem what-for. We spent several sessions just reminding Syn of how much fun a swing finish really is, and how...
View Article
