Sadie Hits the Road

Well winter is over and spring is on the way. The temperatures is creeped up to over 50 and it is time to see how much damage vegitating over the winter has done to the dogs and I. Sadie just came out of her 3rd heat cycle and I need to see what kind of shape she is in. With this goal in mind I got out the bike and hit the road. I decided to take the dogs one at a time on this first outing of the season just to evaluate their condition. I took Storm first simply because he makes the most fuss if I go biking without him so I figured if I tired him out first he will be calmer when I take the other dogs. All my dogs do well with the bike and love the exercise. Each one has its own issues but none of them are serious.

As expected Storm immediately went into his flying trot. Those of you that have seen him in the ring know that I am not bragging when I say he moves like a dream. Once we start moving he is totally focused on the run. His head is always straight ahead and never varies even if a dog should come after us. He is oblivious to the world around him. However, if you remember, I said that each dog has issues and Storm did not fail to disappoint. No matter how long it has been since he went to the bathroom about a mile into the run he has to go again. He is so focused on the run that he does not miss a step. He just goes like a horse plop plop plop. As a matter of act I did not even know that he did it until I gave Sadie her turn on the same course and I noticed the large pellets that he left behind. He completed the run of about 2 miles without missing a step and was not panting very hard so I will increase the distance for him tomorrow.



Sadie was next. She is more interested in what is going on around her then Storm is but stays in position without fail. She does not have the trot down yet and still starts out with what I can only describe as a collie hop. Part of my goal with Sadie is to get her into the grove and improve her trot. Since she is the youngest we did about 2.5 miles. She did not get near tired enough. It took her until the last 1/2 mile to relax and slip into the flying trot but she will get there. Her issue is loss of concentration. For example on one leg of the course we have to do a 1/4 of a mile on a fairly busy street, I feel much more comfortable when that leg is over because I worry about the traffic not giving us the right of way. Just as I made the turn onto the busy street a Doberman came out of no where, ran out into the street with the owner yelling and running after him. Like I said Sadie is easily distracted and immediately turned toward the dog with her hair up all the way down her back, so I had to stop in the middle of traffic. I did not have a training collar on her so I did not want to take a chance correcting her while riding the bike so I stopped and let the Dob catch up. I gave a simple "Ah" and made her stand her gound. The dob came up to her and they did the mine smells better than yours dance and by the time they were finished greeting each other the owner caught up with us. He apologized and said that the dog bolted out of the house before he could do anything. I told him it was no problem, gave him one of my cards, hint, hint and we went on our way. Sadie was not near tired enough when we got back so I will definitely increase her distance tomorrow.

Next I took Pepper my Border Collie. Pepper is the oldest and the most over weight so I keep her run down to a couple of miles at a very slow pace. Pepper does not know how to pace herself so when we first start out she runs so fast that it is hard for me to keep up with her on the bike but, this only lasts for about the first 1/4 mile befor she wears herself out. She also notices everything and has something to say about it so I have to watch her the whole time and catch her attitude change before it escalates into a all out chase after what ever catches her attention. Last year she caught me off guard once and ran down the road after 2 Doberman's and a lab. I did not see it coming until she was ahead of me. I hit the brakes on the bike but the rear brake failed and the front one caught. For those of you that ride bikes with hand brakes you can guess what happened. The only thing that stopped was the front wheel and i ended up on top of pepper surrounded by 3 other dogs and their owners wondering what had happened. Fortunately the only damage was to my ego for doing this in front of my neighbors and their dogs. I know they were thinking what kind of dog trainer is this. In any case I have learned to pay a little more attention to her than the other dogs. When we got home she was exhausted. She was going so slow that I had trouble keeping my balance on the bike.

Finally it was Lizzy's turn. Lizzy is a Collie/Shepherd Mix and about a year younger than Pepper. I took her on the same 2 mile course as Pepper and it fit her like a glove. She was winded when we got back but not excessively. I will work her up to longer distances gradually. Lizzy has long since gotten over her issues. She had a bad case of separation anxiety when I rescued her from along the road. It was so bad that when I first picked her up and tended to her wounds she went thru a 2x4 wall to be with me. This has long since been cured and she can now be left alone all day, if necessary, without worry.

Well that's our first outing for the season and my chance to refocus on the dogs. Over the winter I tend to get a little side tracked but this change in the weather is just what I need to get back on track. I have another blog that has pretty much gone dormant due to lack of enthusiasm on my part and I think it is time to wake it up as well. (http://pawpawmikes.blogspot.com/)

The Magic Shirt

Now that my busy season is drawing to a close maybe I can get back to Sadie updates. And, what better way to start but with a little behavior that to spite all my years of observation I have never seen before.

If you have met Sadie in person you may think that she is this sweet little girl, because for the most part when we are out in public she is, but the way Sadie presents herself in public is nothing compared to the way she is at home. At Sadie's ISSR (International Shiloh Shepherd Registry) LER (Litter Evaluation Report) at 8 weeks Tina Barber our breed founder nicknamed her the "Ever Ready Bunny" and believe me she lives up to her name. Every waking minute she is ready to go. Even though she is now 14 months old she acts like a puppy. It is very difficult for me to keep weight on her because she is so active. Even if she settles down enough to eat the least little thing will distract her and she is off to investigate. Even if I take her out for a run with the bike or long walk it does not faze her. When we get back the other dogs are totally exhausted but she is still ready to go. Nothing phases her. Then the magic happened.

My Border Collie, Pepper, developed hot spots on her front leg so I wrapped it, put an old shirt on her so she could not bother the bandages and told her to leave it alone, which she did. I went outside for something and left her and Sadie in the house for a couple of minutes. When I came back into the house I found Pepper laying on the floor and Sadie had pulled up the sleeve on the shirt and was laying next to her working on the tape, which she had half way off of Peppers leg when I got back. I guess she thought she was doing her a favor. I took the shirt off of Pepper so that I could change the bandage and just for the fun of it I put it on Sadie.

Now, I have been studying dog behavior for many years and have never seen anything like this. The second I put the shirt on Sadie her attitude changed. Her ears went back and her tail went down. She came over to me and laid down next to me. I got up and went over to the couch to sit down and observe her. When I did she quietly got up came over to the couch got up next to me and put her head in my lap. When the other dogs walked past her she just ignored them, she would never let one pass her without grabbing them by the neck trying to get them to play with her, but now she just ignored them. This was not the same dog.



I left the shirt on her for the rest of the afternoon and it was like I had a new dog. Her temperament went from hard to soft in seconds. Just to test it I took the shirt off and she immediately returned to her normal over active self. Now ever time I put the Magic Shirt on her she turns into this soft loving dog. I wonder how much I can get for this shirt on eBay? I know a few of my clients that could use it. If you look closely at the pictures you can see the submissive look in her eye. If anyone out there try's this, and I know some of you will, please let me know your results.

Sadie's First Show Part 2 Preparation

Sadie had some socialization and some obedience training but she had never stood for examination so I decided that I would take her to a local club for some confirmation run thru's. Even though she was all right around other people she had never had anyone examine her the way a judge would. I was also concerned that having been taught to sit at my side when I stop she would not hold a stand. Most handlers believe that you should not teach a dog Obedience if you are going to show that dog in confirmation. I however, do not believe that and have always been able to train a dog to do both. With Storm I taught him that if I used the "HERE" command he was to walk or stand next to me but if I used LEFT or RIGHT he was to sit next to me on the appropriate side. I do not use the HEEL command because there are times that I want my dogs to heel on the left and other times I want them to heel on the right so I teach them the difference. It was my intent to do the same thing with Sadie but it was 2 weeks before the show and we had not worked on this.

One evening about a week before the show I took Sadie to a local training club to do some run thru's. It just so happened that the night I choose to go there were about 20 dogs that showed up for the 40 min confirmation class. If you have ever been to a show you know that you can not judge 20 dogs in 40 min fortunately another breeder showed up and we were able to split the group in half giving instructions to the beginners at one end of the building and doing run through's with the others at the other end that way we at least had time to run our dogs through a couple of times. Sadie moved well and had no problems standing for examination. She even allowed the judge to examine her bite and open her mouth without a problem. She did not sit the whole time. I would like to believe that it was because she knew the difference between HERE and LEFT but is more likely that she just had not learned to set consistently when I stopped. Whatever the reason I was very pleased with her performance.

This would be Sadie's first road trip since I brought her home last fall. I take her and Storm with me frequently but never over a half hour at a time. Storm loves to go and will try to knock down the door as soon a I get dressed to go anywhere. Sadie on the other hand will run the other way as soon as she sees me head for the garage. I have yet to figure out what her problem is with traveling. She does not get car sick but does occasionally drool while in the car so this time I decided to give her some Ginger Snaps before we left which I hoped would take the edge off.

For anyone that has not been to a show I would suggest that you make a check list of the items you will need to take with you. The following is the list I use for Dog shows.

Dog Crate
Exercise Pen
Show collars
Show leads
Grooming Supplies
Win Sheets
Towels
Dog food
Camera
Dogs Papers
Business Cards
Shiloh Tri-folds
Training Tri-folds
Trash/dog waste bags
Dog dishes
Bottled water
Umbrella

This was also the first road trip we took in the new car that I bought for just this purpose. I liked my Avalanche and it worked great with just Storm and I but with the addition of Sadie it was not very practical, it just did not have enough interior space or headroom for 2 dogs. Since I do not see myself as a minivan person so I compromised with a Buick Randovoz. (What we do for our dogs) By removing the rear seats there was more than enough room for 2 dogs and all the equipment I needed. It also had the added advantage of getting better mileage than the avalanche. The car also came equipped with a navigation system which turned out to be invaluable. Whenever I get a new client I give a free evaluation which I prefer to do at the clients home so that I can evaluate the dog in its own environment. Because of this I have to find a lot of addresses over a large area and with the navigation system all I have to do is enter the address and it directs me right to their home. The same is true with shows I just entered the address and off we went.

Next Sadie's First Show Part 3 the Show

Sadie Becomes a Lady

I had to interrupt the Story about Sadie's first show for this important announcement. No, Sadie has not started a new workout routine. She has become a lady. Since necessity is the mother of invention and I did not have anything to put on her during her heat; I took a pair of my underpants, put them on her backwards, and put her tail thru the fly hole. She does leave them on but when she walks she lifts her back legs like she is walking on hot coals. Regardless, the guys are after her!

Next time back to her first show part 2

Ok dad if we are going to a show you had better get this food off of my nose!

Sadie's First Show
Part 1 Confirmation

When you first get a puppy they are a bundle of joy, you feed them, love them, train them and in Sadie's case prepare them for what you hope will be your contribution to the foundation of an extraordinary breed. No matter how much care you take in planning and selecting the foundation dogs for your kennel you always second guess yourself and those that help you along the way.

In my case I left the this choice up to the breed founder Tina Barber. No one else knows more about these dogs than she does. I got to know her well enough that she understood my training techniques, personality and what I was looking for in a bitch. Even then I did not leave this very important decision of up to her without having some sort of track record with me. Having already matched Storm with me I had confidence that she would make the correct choice again.

Having said that no matter how good a match you think you have you are never sure about the quality of your dog until you get what hopefully is an unbiased 3rd parties opinion, in this case that of a judge.

The other reason I choose to show my dogs is quite frankly monetary. Noting increases the value or demand for a puppy more than being the prodigy of titled parents. Storm should have his championship, although that has not yet been confirmed, and if I can get Sadie titled and I get the blessing of the breed warden to breed them prospective buyers would not have to rely on my opinion of these dogs but that of numerous judges.

Even though I do not like the politics that seem to accompany confirmation shows for the reasons listed above it is a necessary evil. I would much prefer to compete in intellectually based competitions such as Rally, Schuthund, Obedience, Agility, Tracking or whatever because it is much harder to show favorites when the judge has to go by a finite set of rules and not just his opinion of the way your dog looks. However, prospective buyers are much less impressed with training titles than with beauty pageants. To me the dogs intelligence is more important than how the dog looks. It is what I us to select a dog and what I intend to breed for.

Unfortunately the number of opportunities to show our dogs in confirmation are few and far between so when one presents itself within a reasonable distance from me I am there. All of Storms shows were in excess of a 4 hour drive so when I became aware of a Rare Breed Show in Columbus (a 2 hour drive) I was all over it. Sadie had just turned 8 mo old and I was anxious to see if others would be as impressed by her as I was. Since I was going anyway I figured I might as well enter Storm as well since most of the time at a show is spent sitting around and waiting he would give me something else to do. There were to be 5 shows 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. This meant that I would have to be in the ring a minimum of 10 times and if either of them win I would have to go in even more. Since it had been 7 months since I had been in the ring and Sadie had never been in the ring I decided a little preparation was in order.

Next Sadie's First Show Part 2 Preparation

First Rough Terrain

I held off on this post because I wanted to add some pictures to it but the weather has not cooperated and we have not had any more snow so I figured I had better post it while it was at least close to winter. Besides, I want to write about Sadie's first show so I had better get busy and post it now.

This was my first trip that went beyond a fairly straight predefined path. Up to this point the only commands I needed were "GO" and "WHOA" the path was defined and relatively flat. However it is difficult to teach the dogs "HAW" (left turn) and "GEE" (right turn) in that situation. A friend of mine has a plot of land not far from me that has woods, corn fields, streams, hills valleys etc. An ideal place for this type of training. He uses the land to hunt and run 4 wheelers so there are some roughly defined trails. The perfect place for what I want to accomplish.

The trip started out like normal. I know that this blog is supposed to be about training Sadie but since most of her trips were rather uneventful I thought I would convey this one. It was Lizzy's turn to go with Storm so I hooked up the harnesses, put on the ski's, grabbed my poles and we were off. The route I choose started off up the side of a hill. The hill was in a corn filed and was steep enough that the dogs could not pull me up but not so steep that a tractor would tip over when cultivating the corn. After much effort on both our parts we reached the top. As I soon found out going up was the easy part. Coming down the other side was another story. Now I have no problem with downhill skiing but doing it with cross county ski's in a corn field with the stubble of last seasons corn stocks sticking up in rows like columns of little toy solders is another matter all together. To complicate matters I could now see that there was a line of trees at the bottom of the hill and by the time that I realized this I was over the crest of the hill and on my way down the other side. I could not turn because I was skiing parallel to the corn stubble and if I turned hitting the stubble I would surly fall so I decided to ride it out and hopefully be able to stop at the bottom. About halfway down the hill I realized that I was catching up with the dogs. I yelled "GEE OVER" which I had only used a couple of times with with the dogs but to my amazement Storm moved to the right pushing Lizzy over as well. I went flying past them and now I was leading them. Granted I could have stopped at any time but were is the fun in that. I reached the bottom of the hill, exited the corn field and stopped just before the woods. The dogs caught up just as I stopped so we had a group hug and savored the moment. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of a very memorable trip. I gave the command to "GO" and off we went into the woods.

As we left the corn filed and entered the woods I could see a heard of about 5 deer off in the distance but fortunately they spotted us before the dogs saw them and ran off in the other direction. We continued thru the woods on a rut fill path that had been carved out by 4 wheelers. It was a little tough for me to keep my footing but the dogs had no problem at all. We soon reached a creek that was about 30 foot wide with a crud bridge. It was mostly snow covered and the dogs had no trouble going across and did not even hesitate. The planks on the bridge were spaced about the same distance apart as my ski's which could have been a real problem but as it turned out I was able to traverse it and avoid the gaps. We continued around the edge of the property with the dogs running in the path pulling with me off to the left trying to avoid the ruts. We are now about a half hour out which is the point that I like to start heading back in the general direction of the car. The dogs are new at this and I do not want them to get too tired or over do it to the point that they stop enjoying it. Having been a Land Surveyor years ago I learned to love the outdoors and acquired a very good sense of direction. So we headed off in what I determined would be a rather obstacle free course back.

We were following a tree line when I saw a path off to the right just wide enough for me and the dogs. About 10 yards before reaching the path I yelled "GEE". Now I am not convinced that my dogs know these commands well enough at this point to be what I would consider dependable. In my mind it is more likely that they saw the path and would rather go off into the woods than to just continue along the edge. Whatever the case they turned to the right and took this narrow trail. Right after they made the turn they went over a little mound. This mound looked like it was about 5 foot wide and about 2 feet high. Since it was right in the middle of the trail the only thing I could think of was that someone had dumped a pile of dirt here to make a little jump for a trail bike since the path was not wide enough for a 4 wheeler. In any case by the time I saw the mound it was too late to stop the dogs since they were already over it and I was too close to stop before hitting it so this was going to be my first ski jump. This would not have been too bad but just as I hit the top of the mound I spotted the dogs on the other side jumping a small stream that was obscured from my view. Just as they hit the other bank of the stream I hit the top of the mound the line when taught jerking my belt with the combined weight of 2 dogs totaling over 160 pounds. Needless to say I flew thru the air and landed on my but in the middle of the creek. The dogs stopped turned around and looked at me and I could swear they were laughing at me sitting there in the water. I landed on one of my ski poles breaking it in half but other than the fact that I was soaking wet, a mile away from the car, and it was about 20 degrees I was fine. Needless to say it was a cold trip back to the car but fortunately the dogs seemed as anxious to get back as I was and they pulled the remainder of the way with me trying to balance myself behind them with one ski pole. I would like to think that they pulled harder than they had all day because they knew I was uncomfortable for me but it was more likely that it was because they were tired and just anxious to go home.

Next time Sadie's first Show

Winter Arrives

After working with the dogs on pulling for a couple of months I could not wait for the first snow so that I could try out what they had learned. The snow finally came and I was ready to go Skijoring. For anyone that does not know what Skijoring is when you attach one or two dogs to your waist, put on cross county ski's and have a good old time. You have to understand that I have done downhill skiing many times but cross county is a different story. You can count on one hand the number of times that I have been on cross county ski's let alone attached too two dogs.
Storm always goes with me to help teach the other dogs but I alternate the second dog each time I go. The above pictures show Storm and Sadie on one of our later outing but the first time I went I decided to take Pepper since this was our first time on the snow and even though she is about half the size of storm she will pull more than her share and next to Storm knows the commands the best. Our first trip would be to the Ohio-Erie Canal Towpath which is less than a mile from my house. We arrived in the parking lot a few minutes later and the dogs were rearing to go. There is a new stretch of the path that heads north for about a mile and a half to a dead end. Once you reach the end you have to turn around and come back the same way. I figured that this would be a good location for our first trip in the snow because the lack of tracks in the snow indicated that there was no one else on the path and for our first outing the less distractions the better. As I stood at the entrance the dogs were anxiously pulling on the 15 foot rope that I had attached to their harnesses, the other end of which was attached to a belt around my waist. I put the dogs in a SIT/STAY put on my ski's and we were ready to go. The path is fairly flat and runs along a 5 foot wire fence that separates the towpath form the PPG lime lakes. On the other side of the fence is about 10 to 20 yards of brush and then the Tuscarawas River. The Tuscarawas is a river in name only you can take a canoe trip down the River for a short period in the Spring but most of the year it is too shallow. We started along the path with the dogs pulling about half the time and me doing about half of the work.

We had just gotten started and were about a quarter of a mile in when all of a sudden I felt a tug on my waist and off I went as fast as the dogs could run. I regained my balance and was being swept down the path with the dogs in a full run. You would never know that they were dragging a xxx pound man. I looked to the right and there between the fence and the River I saw a white tail popping up and down in the underbrush. What the dogs saw long before I did was the south end of a northbound deer doing all it could to separate its self from us. The deer was going the same direction that we were but at a much faster pace. The dogs didn't care that they had no chance of catching it, especially pulling the extra weight, they were just enjoying the chase. I immediately had a flash back to may first down hill skiing experience. My brother-in-law was showing me how to ski. He took me down the beginner hill one time and said that's it, lets take the trail thru the woods, like a fool I listened to him only to find myself exiting the other side of the woods in the woods into the middle of a Black Diamond hill. There was no where to go except straight down and down I went. I started to get scared that I was going to fall so I squatted down. Big mistake, this just made me go faster. By the time I reached the bottom I was going faster than I had ever gone without a car under me. Just as the bottom of the hill came in site so did about a hundred yards of moguls. I hit the moguls and it was all over, I went head over heals, broke the ski's and the poles went flying. To this day I think he did this to me on purpose in any case I stood up which surprised everyone including me and walked back to the lodge, oh to be young again. I was hoping that this would not turn out the same way. It took about a half mile for the deer to outdistance the dogs to the point that they could no longer see it. The way I train them to pull is to praise them when ever they pull without my help, well needless to say I am flying down the trail telling them what a good job they are doing, trying to watch the deer and trying not to think about what would happen if I fell.

What a rush. This went on for about a half of mile before the deer got out of sight and they lost interest. This experience gave me quit a glimpse of what these dogs are capable of and what I had to look forward to. I would recommend Skijoring to anyone that has a Shiloh and lives where it snows. It's inexpensive, good for the dogs and a heck of a lot of fun. The only word of caution I have is to make sure that the dogs know at least 2 of the commands, "WHOA" and "GO", before you try it on skies. The turning commands can come later, "HAW" and "GEE", but you must be able to get the dogs started and be able to stop them under any circumstances.

Next time turn it up a notch.