Yes, less than 5 miles form our house is a real castle!
The castle has a long, strange history. Until a few years ago, no one really knew what lay beyond the walls. There were stories from people who had snuck in, but it was never open to the public.
I remember telling my brother that William Shatner lived there! There were also rumors that Lee Majors had owned it.
It's still not open to the public except for special events. But the gates were open, and another car pulled in, so I just followed them up the driveway a little ways...
So the Brew Crew were my incentive to try to get a little closer. I just can't resist a photo op :)
Stout turned 8 months old on July 17th, so I decided I better start training more than tricks!
He travels with me every Monday night out to Goose Creek Dog Sports to hang out while I teach my 2 agility classes. This allows us to spend some 1-on-1 time together, and he gets to practice being quiet in a crate (which is the reason why Porter does not come! He cannot chill quietly in a crate while I teach...)
Before class, between classes, and after class, I work with Stout a little bit. Thus far we've kept it light & fun, usually practicing our trick training for our online class with Silvia Trkman. But now that the class has ended, we've slowly began transitioning to more foundational skills for agility.
And by "foundational skills," I mean I've mostly been playing with toys with him :) Yep, a bulk of my training time has been spent tugging, fetching, & chasing.
Why? Well, because everyone says it's important :) And because Porter could not care less about toys. There have been times when training Porter that some things would have been much easier if he had been toy-motivated (like 2x2 weaves) or if he could fetch (like our distance work for NADAC).
So that's why I'm nurturing Stout's interest in toys. I just want to have every tool available to me in the future.
In the video I'm using one of those mesh shower pouf / sponge things (or what is left of one anyway) and a microfiber duster thing on a leash. Yeah, Stout loves my Dollar Store dog toys :) I encourage everone to think outside the box when it comes to toys!
We did the wrapping poles in our online class, but I'm now looking for some speed & enthusiasm. And maybe a little more of an attention span... Make sure you watch the end to see him get the cone stuck on his snout. I may be dragging one of those around on a leash next week for his toy! :)
You'll notice in the video too how he does his "alligator roll" when I go to reach for his collar. It's his way of also twisting the toy out of my grip. I'm ok with this for now. We work on release work & impulse control in different exercises. At this point I wanted him having as much fun as possible. If he had grabbed my hand though, we would have stopped all play for a time-out.
Besides the exercise above, I've also practiced sending him into a tunnel & having him chase me & the toy as he comes out. We've also worked on the wobble board & done some shadow handling. I am not in a rush, he's still just a baby :)
Porter & I had another good weekend in
agility! Are we finally turning a corner in our trialing journey? I don’t know,
and frankly, I’m not going to worry about it! All I know is that we are having
fun, he’s running fast, & most of all, he’s doing his weaves! He ran like a
well-oiled little corgi machine.
After struggling for so long with his weaving issues, it
feels good to run a course fluently & smoothly. There’s no retreating to
redo the weaves. No more of my hands thrown up in the air as he skips a pole.
No more “Oh Porter” from my friends as he dribbles out of the poles. But… I
know from past experience that we could revert right back to that.
And that’s why I’m reluctant to say more than we’ve “turned
a corner.” I can still see the corner in my rear-view mirror. The dust hasn’t
settled, I can still read the sign. Who knows, we may just be taking a quick
drive around the block only to end up right back at the same corner!
So I’m simply enjoying this new trialing experience. I’m
living one class at a time, 12 poles at a time…
But this all makes me sound a little too zen, because I am
really f’n thrilled that we scored 2 QQ’s over the weekend! And it was under a
Cardigan judge!
Stout followed Maizee & Miles in the first time as they went out to swim. He paddled back to shore. But then he did it again & again, without chasing them out there. I think he really enjoyed it! But as you can see on the video, I think John was a little nervous... :)
