Summer!!

Jasper and I have been back home in Glen Allen for about a month now and we are getting back into the the training swing of things. We are giving flyball a try and trying to just have fun training. Hopefully I will be able to get some more recent pictures up and maybe update more often!

Snow!

Jasper had a good time today playing in the snow. We got around 6 inches or so. Unfortunately, it is melting pretty quickly as the temperature is hovering at around 33 degrees.



Ruff Love has been difficult to keep up with. I think I'm doing pretty well so far though. Letting him run off leash in the snow today probably was not the best idea, but I did do several recall practices with him. I also have not been keeping up with his journal. Life just gets in the way sometimes. It will take some time to make all of these "new rules" into habits.

Journal

I have now started a Jasper training journal on paper for my own private use! I do update stuff on him in the blog, but you don't want to read about his 60% success rate on this and that. I also took him for a couple short walks today. He was getting treats every 5-15 seconds. VERY high rate of reinforcement for now. I have really just taken him back to square one in terms of loose leash walking.

Ruff Love will hopefully start this coming Sunday or Monday. I have started to implement a couple of little things, but we will take the plunge at the end of the weekend. Wish the boy luck!

AKC Nationals!

I think that I'm going to AKC Agility Nationals in Concord, North Carolina (not to compete obviously)! I have been trying to work out the kinks about getting there with my dad these past couple of weeks and it appears that all systems are go! I am super excited to experience the craziness and excitement of a national dog event! I think I may have gone to Schutzhund nationals one year, but I was too young to remember it. I will probably bring Jasper along, but he will stay in the car most of the time and maybe make a couple trips around the grounds. I also just figured out that the AKC Agility Invitational was broadcast on Animal Planet on Valentines day and I missed it! They really need to show it again.

Training with J went well today. In the past, I had been working on shaping Jasper to put all four feet in a medium sized red container, but he never really caught on despite a couple months of working on it. It was likely due to the fact that I wasn't too experienced with shaping and wasn't clicking at the correct times. Well, today I took it out again just for kicks and he caught on right away! After two sessions today I had him with all four feet in the box. After he gets really proficient at that sized box, I will have to move to a smaller size. It is very cute to watch him trying to fit himself in it.

I also worked with developing his tug drive even more and he really does get super pumped whenever he sees the tug now. I'm not sure if I can get him to tranfer that drive to distracting environments yet, but that will be the next step. It would be excellent if I could get him to tug after doing runs in agility outside at All Dog!

Another thing I am trying to use more is the clicker. I think that applying the clicker to more of our training sessions will really help to clarify to Jasper what I want from him.

Ruff Love!

So, I breezed through Susan Garrett's book Ruff Love. It was a super quick read, barely 1oo pages. I've decided that the four step program in the book is exactly what Jasper needs. The program basically instructs you to remove all self-rewarding activities from a dog's surroundings and teach him that all things good come from you. It is definitely going to be a challenge to institute and follow through with all of the requirements, but I am determined to make Jasper a happy, well-adjusted, and well-trained dog. We will be cruising through the agility courses and having a blast in no time!

Short and Sweet

I'm trying to keep everything more short and sweet with the J man. It is important to just have fun and be successful. I have been overestimating his ability to focus for any given length of time and I am now taking a few steps back. If I get frustrated it is just hurting the special relationship I have with him. This morning we went for a short walk, all on leash. Later today we played a short fetch session and did some tugging. He kept very good focus for the tugging and fetching. I think I'm going to try to switch his rewards over to a more tug approach vs food after reading Susan Garrett's blog post yesterday. I didn't realize how helpful having a strong tug drive could be. I'm also allowing him to do his smelling on lead and rewarding him for turning to me when I say his name. Lately he has been losing the rapid response that I've always relied on when saying his name or "here".

My Clean Run order came today! I got a rabbit fur tug and two Susan Garrett books. One is titled Shaping Success, and the other is, Ruff Love. I will let you know how they are once I get to them. I'm particularly excited about Ruff Love, because I can see it being something Jasper may need in the coming months. I'm just about finished with the If a Dog's Prayers Were Answered, Bones Would Rain from the Sky. I highly recommend it, as it really makes you examine how you interact with your dog. It is actually my second time reading it, but the last time was around two and half years ago.

The Show

Jasper and I had a great time at the agility trial yesterday. Jasper was totally at ease in the crazy trial setting. I really didn't have any concerns about him being intimidated, but I was a little worried about him getting overstimulated. He was excited by the atmosphere, but I was able to keep his attention for a good amount of the time. I think the garlic steak helped!


I wondered if the trial had filled up or not. It didn't seem to be all that busy. I recognized some people there, but this trial was quite further southwest than most of the trials I attended around Richmond. I only saw one person that trained at All Dog Playskool there.

Felicia Mazur, a longtime friend who runs cockers, was there trialing a couple of her dogs. I got to meet her pups, who were all grown up, and talk with her a bit. It's nice to see a friendly face!

Today, however, was not a good day for Jasper and I. I was irritable today for no apparent reason and I took it out of Jasper who was being particularly "bad". He stopped mid-fetch to smell something interesting and then mark it. I was so mad! I can just see him someday stopping mid-run in agility and marking something. I'm going to attempt to keep him on leash more now and not give him as much free reign to run around marking everything. It is really frustrating to have him on a leash though too. He still (after months of work) pulls on the leash when walking and I have to spend nearly half the walk taking him back a few steps every time he pulls. Not an enjoyable walk at all. I'm just hoping that he grows out of all of this in the coming months. He is still really just a teenager with some attitude.


Whenever I get frustrated with him, I just need to remind myself that he really is an awesome dog. It just takes time and patience to get everything in synch. We will get there someday!

Blast from the Past

Just thought that I would post some puppy pictures and videos of Jasper. He is exactly 10 months old today (his birthday is April 13th).

These are a couple videos of J swimming in the James River when he was a little over three months old. He loved water from the get go!



I spent the three weeks before I got him in California visiting family and friends. If I had been in Virginia during that time I probably would have gone to visit him at least once more before I went to pick him up. I first met/picked him out when he was about four weeks old. I went with the intention of picking a lightly marked pup because I liked that "look" better. I ended up with J though and he was one of the most heavily marked puppies in the litter! He just had that something special and I wasn't going to let his markings stop me.

The following is a video of him at four weeks old when I first met him. What a cutie!

Above is Jasper at 8 weeks with the breeder's granddaughter. They are both adorable!

Getting Ready for the Show

I'm super pumped for the Star City Canine Training Club agility/obedience/rally trial this weekend! I'm not even competing and here I am getting all prepared with what to bring. I have not been to a trial since July of 2008 when Libby and I competed last and Jasper was about three months old.

I cooked up some thin round steak with garlic powder for J's treats at the trial. He will work for kibble, but I wanted to bring something extra special to the table in an attempt to keep his attention in the crazy trial atmosphere. As of now, I don't know anyone else who is attending the trial. I thought that one of my teachers from Richmond, Cindy, might be going, but it turns out that she is not. Hopefully I will be able to take some pictures and video at the trial and post them on here.

I think I will start paying attention to the border collies competing at trials. I need to start asking around for good breeders as I'm thinking about getting a border collie as my next dog. Jasper is an all around awesome dog though, so I may want to get another springer somewhere down the line.

Introducing the Art in Progress

This blog is mainly going to detail all of the fun stuff and training that I do with my dog. I am currently a sophomore in college and aspire to earn a degree in economics and public policy. I do not have the time, money, or mobility to compete with my dog as of now, but in a couple of years, we will be burnin' up the agility courses.

This is Jasper...He is a field-bred English Springer Spaniel. His AKC registered name is Fast Track's Burn It Up and he was bred by a very nice lady by the name of Billie K Edwards. You can take a look at Jasper's parents at: http://www.fasttrackspringers.com.

Jasper is nearly 10 months old now and everything I wanted in a dog. He has high drive and from what I can figure is the closest I can get to border collie in a spaniel package. Jasper loves to tug and fetch tennis balls launched from his Chuck It ball launcher. I live in an apartment and it is excellent that he has very good off-leash control. It gives him a lot more freedom than he would have gotten due to the lack of yard.

This Saturday we are attending an obedience/rally/agility show about an hour away from us to expose Jasper to the hustle and bustle of a trial. Plus, I haven't been to a show since this summer and the dog competition addiction withdrawal has been setting in in strength lately. Plus, looking at all of the vendors is always a lot of fun!