We cohost the Sepia Saturday Blog Hop alongside Ruckus The Eskie. Please join us!
Saturday 27 February 2016
Friday 26 February 2016
Training Tales - Practice, Practice, Practice - By Linda
Welcome to the first ever edition of Training Tales at Earl's World! Over a month ago, we gave you all the opportunity to email us with a small piece about your dog training experience with your dogs. You can find our initial Training Tales introduction on THIS POST if you scroll down to the end.
Today, Linda from the brilliant 2 Brown Dawgs Blog - a blog following the escapes of her two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers - will be guest posting with her Training Tales on our blog.
Thunder, Storm and Freighter are Chesapeake Bay Retrievers. They are hunting dogs and when hunting season is over, they participate in AKC Retriever Hunt Tests. These tests stimulate hunting situations and test all of the skills that a trained hunting dog should possess, such as: being steady to shot, marking multiple falls of birds in a field or a pond or a combination of a field and a pond, retrieving birds to hand, following their handler's signals to a bird they did not see fall (called a 'blind retrieve'), and honouring another hunting dog by sitting patiently while the other dog is sent to retrieve.
Training for these types of tests takes a lot of patience and a lot of practice. Training for the higher level tests requires years of training. Dogs start out doing simple one bird retrieves, but as their training progresses, they will retrieve multiple birds in combination with multiple blind retrieves. Difficulty is often increased using the available terrain such as hills, water or crops.
Retriever hunt tests can be very challenging because there is no way to set up every single scenario that a dog may encounter at a test. Just when you think you may have exposed your dog to every type of set-up, an imaginative judge will set up a test scenario that you never thought of trying. Or the weather may not cooperate. Perhaps it is raining so hard the dog is not able to see the birds fall. Or perhaps the wind is pulling the dog off course to another bird while you are trying to direct it to a blind retrieve 150 yards away. There are so many things that can affect how well or how poorly a dog performs on test day.
When your dog does not perform as well as you hoped, it is very easy to become frustrated. Novice handlers can be particularly down trodden after an unsuccessful test, but the better way to look at it is that you and your dog need more practice. We received this piece of advice from a professional field trail trainer during a seminar we attended. He stressed that a failure at a test does not mean there is something wrong with your dog or your training. It just means that you have not practiced enough and you should go back and practice, practice, practice.
Today, Linda from the brilliant 2 Brown Dawgs Blog - a blog following the escapes of her two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers - will be guest posting with her Training Tales on our blog.
Practice, Practice, Practice - By Linda
Training for these types of tests takes a lot of patience and a lot of practice. Training for the higher level tests requires years of training. Dogs start out doing simple one bird retrieves, but as their training progresses, they will retrieve multiple birds in combination with multiple blind retrieves. Difficulty is often increased using the available terrain such as hills, water or crops.
Retriever hunt tests can be very challenging because there is no way to set up every single scenario that a dog may encounter at a test. Just when you think you may have exposed your dog to every type of set-up, an imaginative judge will set up a test scenario that you never thought of trying. Or the weather may not cooperate. Perhaps it is raining so hard the dog is not able to see the birds fall. Or perhaps the wind is pulling the dog off course to another bird while you are trying to direct it to a blind retrieve 150 yards away. There are so many things that can affect how well or how poorly a dog performs on test day.
When your dog does not perform as well as you hoped, it is very easy to become frustrated. Novice handlers can be particularly down trodden after an unsuccessful test, but the better way to look at it is that you and your dog need more practice. We received this piece of advice from a professional field trail trainer during a seminar we attended. He stressed that a failure at a test does not mean there is something wrong with your dog or your training. It just means that you have not practiced enough and you should go back and practice, practice, practice.
Linda from 2 Brown Dawgs Blog has given us permission to publish her photographs on our blog.
Thank you for writing in, Linda! We loved your article.
Have you been through an exciting and/or interesting time and can produce a short piece about a training journey you and your dog have been through? Have you experienced any learning curves and come out with an impressive result and success, or are you in the process of achieving your goals? Do you and your dog participate in competitions? What activity/sport do you participate in? Highs and lows happen; how have you coped in your situation? Your experience could really help other dog and owner combinations. Email us at borderterriersruleOK@gmail.com with your short piece and a couple of relevant photographs, putting 'Training Tales' as the subject of the email. We can't wait to hear your Training Tales! All Training Tales will be published on our blog, and an online badge will be available as a souvenir of your piece being published!
By emailing us your piece and photographs, you grant us permission to publish them on our blog, unless, if you specifically do not want your content published here, state this on your email and your content will not be published. It will be clearly stated on the post whom the piece and photographs belong to.
We are joining SlimDoggy, To Dog With Love and My GBGV Life in the FitDog Friday Blog Hop. Thank you!
Wednesday 24 February 2016
Monday 22 February 2016
Ethel's First Win At Dog Vegas 20/02/16
Wow, wow, wow Ethel! At Dog Vegas 20/02/16, little Ethel got her first ever win at a competition! Winning Grade 3 (Graded 1-4) Jumping, she would even have won if the class was combined, beating the times of all the other competitors in the other grades! I'm so proud of her and am simply over the moon with glee!
As for Earl, although he didn't have his usual focussed head on, he did have some really nice parts of his runs. At this stage in our Agility career, my brilliant trainer and I believe that cutting him some slack in his Agility career would have a positive impact on him. He has done incredibly well, and all have our 'off days' sometimes.
It was such a brilliant and successful show surrounded by wonderful people and dogs!
As for Earl, although he didn't have his usual focussed head on, he did have some really nice parts of his runs. At this stage in our Agility career, my brilliant trainer and I believe that cutting him some slack in his Agility career would have a positive impact on him. He has done incredibly well, and all have our 'off days' sometimes.
It was such a brilliant and successful show surrounded by wonderful people and dogs!
Saturday 20 February 2016
SS - Flop
Sometimes, all you want to do is...
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| Earl |
FLOP!
We cohost the Sepia Saturday Blog Hop alongside Ruckus The Eskie. Please join us!
Friday 19 February 2016
Exploring New Places
In the company of one another, exploring new places is a favourite pastime for both dog and owner.
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| Earl |
We are joining SlimDoggy, To Dog With Love and My GBGV Life in the FitDog Friday Blog Hop. Thank you!
Wednesday 17 February 2016
Valentine's Day Presents For The Dogs
Earl and Ethel enjoyed receiving their own Valentine's presents on Valentine's Day!
Spoilt pooches! The loves of my life really do have four legs and a wiggling bum!
P.S. The chocolates seen on the right hand side of the photograph are strictly mine, and certainly haven't been reachable by the dogs prior to my consumption!
We are joining BlogPaws in the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop. Thank you!
Tuesday 16 February 2016
Agility Nuts 14/02/16
We spent Valentine's Day doing what we love! My fabulous duo did me proud once again at Agility Nuts. Ethel, especially, is really showing what she is made of. She feels amazing to run!
My reliable boy went Clear in all of his classes once again. Earl really is my experienced Agility dude! As for Ethel, she shone once again, coming 2nd out of a whooping 23 dogs in one of her Jumping classes! She really is an incredible dog with a promising Agility future! And, of course, we had heaps of fun as always!
My reliable boy went Clear in all of his classes once again. Earl really is my experienced Agility dude! As for Ethel, she shone once again, coming 2nd out of a whooping 23 dogs in one of her Jumping classes! She really is an incredible dog with a promising Agility future! And, of course, we had heaps of fun as always!
Monday 15 February 2016
Earl's 6th Birthday Celebrations
A lot went on on Earl's 6th Birthday on Thursday. He had a brilliant time and received a huge amount of love from his beloved family and friends, never mind what he received in the form of presents! His face simply lit up when he realised what was going on!
Birthdays aren't Birthdays without present unwrapping! On the morning of his Birthday, all of his presents were placed on the ground for him to help himself into.
Of course, he received some help from Ethel!
Soon enough, THIS...
Was magically transformed into THIS...
When we all thought we had done with the opening, we found another present awaiting!
Earl was delighted with such a wonderful and delicious surprise!
Then it was time to unveil Earl's homemade whole BabyBelle and Misfit Birthday cake!
After singing him Happy Birthday, we cut it up for him and Ethel to share!
Then it was time for fun and games!
He really did have a wonderful and memorable 6th Birthday!
Birthdays aren't Birthdays without present unwrapping! On the morning of his Birthday, all of his presents were placed on the ground for him to help himself into.
Of course, he received some help from Ethel!
Soon enough, THIS...
Was magically transformed into THIS...
When we all thought we had done with the opening, we found another present awaiting!
Earl was delighted with such a wonderful and delicious surprise!
Then it was time to unveil Earl's homemade whole BabyBelle and Misfit Birthday cake!
After singing him Happy Birthday, we cut it up for him and Ethel to share!
Then it was time for fun and games!
He really did have a wonderful and memorable 6th Birthday!
Sunday 14 February 2016
Happy Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine's Day!
The unconditional love and unbreakable bond that I am privileged enough to share with my dogs is all that I could ever wish for on Valentine's Day.
Who said your Valentine has to be human?
The unconditional love and unbreakable bond that I am privileged enough to share with my dogs is all that I could ever wish for on Valentine's Day.
We are joining Dachshund Nola and Sugar The Golden Retriever in the Black And White Sunday Blog Hop. Thank you!
Saturday 13 February 2016
Friday 12 February 2016
HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY EARL!
Happy 6th Birthday, Earl! I'm in awe that my special man is six. I love him so much, and he means so much. He is one amazing and impressive dog.
I have no doubt that he had had a wonderful Birthday once again!
Come back on Monday and see what went on on Earl's 6th Birthday!
Come back on Monday and see what went on on Earl's 6th Birthday!
We are joining Rascal And Rocco, Bionic Basil, Barking From The Bayou and Love Is Being Owned By A Husky in The Pet Parade Blog Hop. Thank you!
Wednesday 10 February 2016
Saturday 6 February 2016
SS - She Can Climb Up...
... But she cannot climb down!
She might need a ladder...
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| Ethel |
She might need a ladder...
We cohost the Sepia Saturday Blog Hop alongside Ruckus The Eskie. Please join us!
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