Isaac got a bath today (despite the ground being covered with slush). I finally have a system that is working and the latest addition is key.

I took a normal squirt bottle and filled it with Shampoo and Water and was able to spray/mist him once he was wet. It was far easier and used less shampoo to get decent coverage on the stinky beast. Was far far more effective at getting good coverage and penetration all over his body.

So I’m not sure if it’s common knowledge or some strange groomers voodo trick, but it was an idea I had and it works great. The only issue is that after the brushing, bathing, and then blowing his undercoat out he went hog wild in the wet slushy yard.

Isaac and I attended the Turner Junction Affiliation Trial today. The precipitation held off, but the cold didn’t. The trial was held in West Chicago, IL and the turn out was pretty good.

Bill, Jen, and Gordy showed up to represent the North Central Region and there were a number of ICSC members there to observe and show their support. Isaac stayed warm in the car while I froze my feet off.

Tomorrow’s training should be interesting if we really get the 6 inches of snow they are predicting.

Just playing with my new favorite plugin…it’s a galler plugin

Random Shots

35 Photos

 

I’m working from home today and Isaac is out in his kennel. It sounded like it was raining so I went to bring him in and noticed before I opened the door he’s curled up in his K9-Condo…..

Couldn’t get a good picture without disturbing him, hear is a weak attempt

For reference purposes, Isaac is about 83 lbs at 12 months and seems to fit fine in the 55 gallon drum design. I was concerned it wouldn’t be big enough for him as he grew, today proves he must not mind. It’s barely raining and there are days when he’ll just sit in the rain so it’s not as if he is all about escaping the weather at any cost.

For club members you’ll get the joke, for the rest of you…Isaac is awesome in the protection work. Very strong in the barking! (sense the sarcasm?)

Ran a track with an arc turn in it. Started 14 paces to the south and made an arc to the west. Was 14 paces to the South and 26 paces total length (meassured after he ran it so they were full paces not the smaller steps in the track). Wind was coming from the South West. Jackpot at the end and a little extra after the corner.

He kept his head down and made the corner. Probably could still go longer, just don’t want to go too long so I’ll slowly increase the length. Still placing food in every footstep though he is skipping most of it. Was aged about 10 minutes or so. He skipped the food at the sent pad, though he did sniff it.

Was 1:00 PM and the grass was dry.

Will be doing no playing or OB work with Isaac until further notice. Will be saving it up for protection to see if Marmaduke will get involved. I will be tracking and today was the first track of the season and it went well, it was nice to have some success. He sure does like to use that nose of his (oh and he likes food).

Hoping that we can squeeze enough prey drive out of him to have a go at the protection phase otherwise he’ll be a two phase dog (that or I’ll teach him to mow the lawn).

Today was the first day since winter that I’ve tracked Isaac and it went well. Just did a straight track (didn’t count paces) and put a jackpot at the end, I think the track was a little too short. I’m used to last season when he was still short and it took far more steps to cover one of my steps. As I was laying it I was thinking I didn’t want to make it too long, I should have been thinking Isaac is now longer and can cover more ground with each step.

I need to bury my last post so here it is.

While Noah was at soccer I ran to Home depot and for 12 bucks purchased the parts to build contraption to attach Isaac to the bike (was cheaper than the fancy ones you can buy online for 50 bucks).

Just a piece of 1/2 inch galvonized gas pipe, a PVC T connector a couple of U bolts and some rope. I know I’m not supposed to be running Isaac on the treadmill or anything (bottle it up), but I did take a little test ride around the block with him and it worked like a charm. I’ll post pictures of the project later, just needed something to hide my earlier post.

Not wound enough! I’ll keep plugging away with Isaac and see what happens, Noah won’t sell him and Kerry won’t go for a third dog in the house so it will just be a learning experience for me I suppose.

I think my assessment was accurate and confirmed today, not a lot of prey drive and he’s soft. Also confirmed that the only other thing I can bring to the table is more excitement to potentially squeeze every ounce of drive out of him.

He’s a great pet and I won’t be beating him or making him live in the garage, but it is frustrating. Maybe Kerry will let me spend 10K on a green dog, go big or go home right.

That’s the latest update, will continue to hope for ‘respectable’, but have come to terms with the fact he may wash out. Goof-ball dog!

Will be heading to Bill and Jen’s tomorrow to see what we (probably more they) can do with Isaac, hoping for the best (or at least above average). The pooch has been barking around the house a little more (not just on command) when things seem a little off to him, so maybe that’s promising. He’s also had very limited activity since Sunday (no training, working, treadmill, or play) so the Marmaduke should be about as wound as he’s going to get.

11:23 PM and I just got back from consuming a few Guinness’. Let mister mellow out of the kennel and he was wound for sound, so maybe he’ll have bottled enough up for Thursday or Friday. If not I suppose there is always the therapy dog angle. Thanks for being patient!

Isaac, Iso, Ink, Irko (aka, Kestrel) are all one year old today and were all at the club this past Sunday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the I litter…..

Training with Isaac has been a challenge and I’m in the process of determining/evaluating what percentage each of the following play into the struggles we’re having

• What he got in terms of genetics
  • He’s open and social and probably on the soft side. He hasn’t shown a tremendous amount of ball drive (that could be me), but has high food drive. At the end of last year was doing well with tracking. Can’t and won’t comment on protection because I’m not qualified other than he’s a goof.
• What I’m doing or have done wrong
  • It took awhile for me to learn how to play with him, around here he’s average at the club he’s a tard. I plan to keep plugging away until I figure out what works for both of us. Hoping he doesn’t wash out, but realize he may just not have what it takes.
• Is part of it because he’s still not too mature
  • He’s coming out a little, yesterday when Rick came over he barked at him (big time) and headed towards him. He’s starting to get a little more territorial instead of just being Marmaduke. He is also starting to ‘push’ me for things.
• How much was squished because he’s also a ‘pet’ though he is crated/kenneled way more than the average pet
  • To the rest of the pet owners I know he’s a kenneled and crate dog. To some Schutzhund people he’s probably a house dog. He’s crated at night and all day. He comes out at 3:30 to see the kids when they are home from school and then again around 7 until about 9:30 while the kids and Kerry go to bed. Otherwise he’s out only when he’s working/exercising/or going somewhere with me. I do 95% of the day to day interaction, the only times someone else feeds him or lets him out is if I’m not here. So it’s a balance between house dog and kennel dog depending on what end of the spectrum your on will depend on how you classify it. He also has NO toys other than my toys we play with, just a bone to chew on when he’s laying around at night.

Only time will tell, planning to do a little work in protection later this week to see if it opens him up a little (this wasn’t my idea so I don’t get credit for it). Hoping that he’ll come into his own, Noah vetoed the selling him and starting over option. Not sure a dog with more drive would fit with Noah anyway, if Noah were a GSD he’d be competing at the World level.

Isaac, Iso, Ink, Irko (aka, Kestrel) are all one year old today and were all at the club this past Sunday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the I litter…..

Training with Isaac has been a challenge and I’m in the process of determining/evaluating what percentage each of the following play into the struggles we’re having

• What he got in terms of genetics
  • He’s open and social and probably on the soft side. He hasn’t shown a tremendous amount of ball drive (that could be me), but has high food drive. At the end of last year was doing well with tracking. Can’t and won’t comment on protection because I’m not qualified other than he’s a goof.
• What I’m doing or have done wrong
  • It took awhile for me to learn how to play with him, around here he’s average at the club he’s a tard. I plan to keep plugging away until I figure out what works for both of us. Hoping he doesn’t wash out, but realize he may just not have what it takes.
• Is part of it because he’s still not too mature
  • He’s coming out a little, yesterday when Rick came over he barked at him (big time) and headed towards him. He’s starting to get a little more territorial instead of just being Marmaduke. He is also starting to ‘push’ me for things.
• How much was squished because he’s also a ‘pet’ though he is crated/kenneled way more than the average pet
  • To the rest of the pet owners I know he’s a kenneled and crate dog. To some Schutzhund people he’s probably a house dog. He’s crated at night and all day. He comes out at 3:30 to see the kids when they are home from school and then again around 7 until about 9:30 while the kids and Kerry go to bed. Otherwise he’s out only when he’s working/exercising/or going somewhere with me. I do 95% of the day to day interaction, the only times someone else feeds him or lets him out is if I’m not here. So it’s a balance between house dog and kennel dog depending on what end of the spectrum your on will depend on how you classify it. He also has NO toys other than my toys we play with, just a bone to chew on when he’s laying around at night.

Only time will tell, planning to do a little work in protection later this week to see if it opens him up a little (this wasn’t my idea so I don’t get credit for it). Hoping that he’ll come into his own, Noah vetoed the selling him and starting over option. Not sure a dog with more drive would fit with Noah anyway, if Noah were a GSD he’d be competing at the World level.

I’ve been busy lately selling a Subaru and looking for a replacement used car. Have been working with Isaac daily, but haven’t been updated the blog with progress or lack of.

Made a trip to Indian Creek Schutzhund Club this weekend and got a nice sunburn. Isaac’s performance was less than stellar. At home he’ll work for food and will play at the club nothing. He also has been barking at home and only one bark at the club. We’ll see if it’s me, the dog, or just that he’s still isn’t mature.

Food and stool has been fine, had loose stool on Saturday, but didn’t turn into a giant issue. Have been feeding him 5 cups of Fromms a day.

He still runs on the treadmill 3 times a week and I’m going to start biking with him.

It was wet nasty and miserable outside today, squishy, humid, windy, mucky, and just plain horrible. This weather need to improve soon…… You in the south have no idea how lucky you are.

Did some shitty work in the afternoon. Was up to my ankles in squishy wet ground, he wasn’t driven at all for the food, I wasn’t terribly happy so I quit  after two minutes and just did a little play. Neither of us were in the game (mostly me).

Put him in the crate after some play and will try again later maybe, we’ll see.

Isaac had a trip to Wet Nose to get some more Fromm Surf & Turf. While there he met a couple kids and got tossed on the scale (81.2 lbs).

Then it was off to petsmart to get a couple new clickers (different than what I’ve been using, just the normal boxes). They were sold out, but Isaac got to sniff a Golden Retriever and a Bull Dog.

Had to stop at Cold Stone on the way to PetSmart to bribe Noah into the trip, he wanted to go home and play with Jack. Saw a dude that looked like he was playing for the other team at Wet Nose. I noticed his car in the parking lot and he had I love my pit bull stickers all over it….definitely gay (I know I’m evil).

Wet Nose is a boutique pet food store totally uppity, by their price on the Fromms is competative and if you checkout their website the song that plays on the main page is awesome. I’m guessing there are some copyright issues, but it’s a good tune so I’m not going to turn them in.

Isaac had a stick (Magic stick) 15 of 30

Did some clicker platz & he started to offer the FUSS while there was some down time and I was walking around, so I clicked and rewarded. Did some pivots & short straight lines. (used the new clicker)

Got some very good play out of him with the stick, really into it. I banged on his side. Bill suggested a ball but I wonder about hoses or jute (doens’t like the gappy rolls). With the ball he tends to grab the string or webbing. It seems to be more the struggle he like as long as it’s something he comfortable in his mouth.

Need to start using Fuss –> Look –> Yes –> Click –> food –> Free  (use a stiiit for no, try again ..under breath)

Also need to get correction –> back to drive idea/timing before I need to start using is (keep that in my noodle).

PM Session was good! Really had his attention and got some good play out of him with the KONG, he was way into it. Did Platz and Giblaut with sitting at attention thrown it.

Feed him 1/2 his daily food in the basement from hand for barking and platz.

Trip to ICSC

OB with hot dogs (Jen said god full attention, Bill says I don’t have his attention 100% and some other comments Documented offline)

• Wouldn’t play at all, even Jen seemed to have a hard time getting him going. Prey drive still & issue.
• Kept his attention through pivot (feeding in the middle) 14th of 30
• Jen suggested I change clickers, easier to manage with leash and food
• Jen said I could mix in sitz and platz while working on fuss
• Fuss – Look – yes – Click Free (add a stiiit)

Protection

• Hesitant @ first again (no barking) Bill doesn’t want to pressure him, he is maturing slow (Bill might use another description)
• He does the hold & carry, but I noticed he drops it as soon as he face the helper. After he gets his grip and slip on the toy he seems to go back to the helper
• Carried to car & held on even while Denise was there at her car

Need to get as much of the play as I can out of him. Milk as much as possible since he seems low in ball drive.

Overall he is is doing better in the OB and seems to slowly be getting a tad more used to the helper, though still not completely sure until Bill really trys to engage him.