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Online classes

Foundation Class Countdown

Just four days left before we start the second round of our new and improved Foundation Class online. We’ve been very happy with the class, and the feedback we get from our students shows that they are too. Here are some comments that we got from our American student Sara Pisani, who now has gone on to take our preparing for trials obedience class:

“I loved the Foundation class and if I was not so busy working with you on the next class I would take it again. What I most liked and what really changed work for Finn was the station for breaks during work. It really increased his drive. I also really loved the switch command. His retrieves are so much faster! Of course, the backwards heeling has really helped as well. Your feedback – both of you – has been spot on and greatly appreciated. Thanks so much and looking forward to continue to work with both of you!”

There’s still room for more people in our Foundation Class. Read more and sign up here

Here is a picture from yesterday. As you can see, we still have very mild weather – no snow or ice. I love it! One of my goals for 2014 is to get my dogs out more in civilization. We mostly hang out on the farm or in the forest, and they really need to get to see more of the world. I guess our Italian tour will help too.

Squid and Epic

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It’s going to be a good one, I hope. I’m finally starting to see the end of the rest and rehab tunnel that both my dogs have been in for the past months. I really, really hope that they will be able to get started with some serious agility training when we spend February in Italy. I am also waiting for my new puppy to come into this world. If all goes as planned, puppies by Epic will be born in a month from now.

I also look forward to going abroad to teach this spring. First out is a seminar in Wrocław, Poland in January. It’s my first time in Poland, and I really look forward to it. When I get back from Poland, I will pack my dogs in the car and start the long drive to Italy. In Italy, I will teach at least two seminars (one in Onigo and one in Rome) and try to get a lot of training done with my own dogs in between.

Italy Seminars

When I get back from Italy in the beginning of March, I hope to have dogs that are ready to compete again. My eyes are set on agility try-outs for EO and World Championship in the beginning of May. Please keep your fingers crossed for my amazing dogs. All I want is for them to be healthy and strong this year. The rest is easy! In the beginning of April, I hope to welcome my new puppy to our home. After the try outs, I will go back to the U.S. and PosiDog in Ohio for another 10 days of seminars with some of my favorite people!

PosiDog Seminar

Thomas will also have a hectic spring, where he is training Paxa (german pointer) for mountain hunting trials in the beginning of spring, commuting to Norway to finish his masters degree in ethology, training border collies for herding trials and helping 40-50 lambs into this world.

On top of this, we always strive to bring our online students quick and helpful feedback. Every day. Next online class is our Foundation Class, starting on Wednesday January 8th. This class is good for anybody that wants to know more about our way of training. Here is a video made by one of our students from this fall – Lise Pavard with aussie Lulla:

We’re also at lesson 2 with our class “Obedience – Preparing for trials“. It’s so much fun! You can still join us if you want to give your dog a boost before the trial season begins.

New Online Classes

We will offer a few different classes this winter. We asked you what theme you wanted to work on for a month, and many people wanted to do heelwork, so we will offer a month of all aspects of heeling for those of you that want to focus on that. Class starts on November 18th and you can post as many videos as you like for us to comment on during a month.

We are also offering a brand new class, that will help you prepare for obedience trials. Obedience trials are about so much more than just teaching the dog to perform exercises. Teaching the behaviors and exercises is approximately half the job. This class covers how to prepare for trials. You don’t need to have all exercises trained to perfection to enter this class – it’s great training even for young dogs. Class starts on December 9th.

Our new Foundation Class was a huge success and a lot of people have asked us to do it again. The new Foundation Class includes more skills and cover some aspects that the first version of the class didn’t. We really love teaching it and look forward to helping new students teach their dogs great skills. There is also an option for old students to repeat the class at a discounted price. Class starts on January 8th.

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Help us decide!

We consider setting up a new one-theme online class in November-December. Last year we did heelwork in October and November, and retrieving in January. In our one-theme classes, we present a lot of material and different games that will help you teach a certain exercise or behavior. Then you have a month to train, where you can submit as many videos and questions as you like in the classroom. You can also join as an observer, and have access to all videos and all discussions without posting videos of yourself.

Now for the question: What theme(s) would you like us to focus on this winter?

You can answer in the comment section below, or on our Facebook page

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Field Trial and hunting capercaillie

Working cocker Kat has been to her first field trials. First she passed the retrieving test on water which is required for spaniels to enter field trials. In this trial the spaniel has to show steadiness to the shot and a thrown retrieve on water. The dog should be able to see the game in the air, but it should fall into reed so the dog cannot mark exactly where it lands.
Little Kat (<10kg) picked the duck up by its wing, but delivered perfectly to hand.

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The next day she entered her first field trial (on pheasants). This trial was a beginners trial where no birds are shot, which I think is a nice introduction to trials for young spaniels. Kat was the first dog out. We started in quite rough cover for a young dog and I helped her a little with discrete hand signals to go into cover in the beginning. But soon she got going and she hunted along nice and tight with great speed and true cocker style with hardly any whistling from my part.

There were no game in this piece of ground, but after a short break we got into the “hot area”. She got a little sticky on some fresh scent, but soon added even more speed to her hunting and I needed to turn her on the whistle a few times. She flushed two pheasants and was steady to wing and shot when I blew my whistle. To play it safe, I walked up close to her when a third pheasant flushed.

The last part of the trial was two thrown retrieves which she did perfectly.

Kat got the following scores (on a scale from 1 to 5 where is best):

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Hunting drive 4, Hunting pattern 4, Speed and style 4, “Will to please” 5, Steadiness 3 (whistle and body language), Reaction to shot 4, Marking ability 5, Will to retrieve 4,  Grip 5 (soft and balanced), Overall impression 5.

The week after the trial I spent in the forrest hunting capercaillie and black grouse with the german pointers and cockers. We had a wonderful week.

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There are still some working spots available in the Field Trial Foundations Class.
We have just started on lesson one, so join us now.

 

Retrieving trial for pointing gundogs

Thomas’ young German wirehaired pointer Paxa participated at a Norwegian retrieving trial for pointing dogs last week.

She did very well and got a first price both days. Day 2 you got full score both on land and on water and the judge wrote:

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“Paxa does a perfect retrieve on water” and “Paxa does a perfect retrieve on land”.

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The retrieve is essential not only in trials, but also to get all shot game back, even runners. It’s also great fun to train. A well trained retrieve opens up a lot of new possibilities for you to use the retrieve as a reward in steadiness training.

Steadiness, retrieving and a lot more is covered in the online class
Field Trial Foundations starting September 2nd.

New and Improved Foundation Class!

After two years of foundation classes online, we’ve found that we want to make some improvements for our next class. Mostly, we just found a lot of things that we wanted to add. Instead of having one theme per lesson, we’ll try to cover more behaviors and mix from different themes in every lesson. This makes this class much more than a Foundation Class. It’s the perfect opportunity to learn how to teach the behaviors that make our training fun and unique, like:

  • Getting your dog to love tugging
  • The “switch”-game with two toys
  • Picking up objects fast
  • Shaping skills
  • Holding positions until release
  • Reversed luring
  • Send to station and wait
  • Turn around and run to reward
  • Backwards walking to teach heeling
  • Rear end awareness
  • Around the pole game
  • Nose touch to hand
  • Nose freeze to hand
  • Jumping stand
  • Foundations for retrieving
  • Go outs
  • Stand to down to stand with paws still
  • Adding cues and stimulus control

Class starts on August 7th. Read more and sign up here.

The Switch Game – Great Foundation Skills!

Chris and 12 month old GSD Devante have been working with us since this fall. Chris and Devante are training for IPO and I’m sure they’ll be superstars one day. I met them in Ohio in November and we started to work on tugging and some great games that will improve self control and lay a great foundation for retrieving and other exercises.

Just look at how beautifully they master switching between two toys and how Devante is listening to Chris to understand if he’s supposed to run and get the toy on the ground or keep working with the one in the hand. This is a great foundation for IPO and obedience. Games like these also create a dog that is open minded, listening to his handler and engages in whatever his handler tells him to do.

Chris and Devante are participating in our online retrieve month, and I’m very excited to work on a more formal retrieve with a dog that has this great foundation.

Retrieving with Paxa

Paxa is a 8 month old german wirehaired pointer. She is going to be Thomas new pointing dog and is right now working on some foundations for her retrieve. The text in this video is in Norwegian, but I’m sure you’ll get a good idea of what they’re doing anyway.

If you want to work intensely on retrieving for a month, I recommend that you check our retrieving workshop out. Regardless of if you want to work on retrieving for obedience, hunting, tricks or service dog work, we’ll help you out where you need it.

We’re working on some really cool extra material for this workshop that we haven’t published before. We’re also working on making the workshop easier to follow than the heeling workshop (that was a lot of fun because of all the activity, but sometimes was hard to follow because of it). You don’t want to miss this!

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