In my previous post, I listed my yearly goals for my pack of dogs. I did leave one of the dogs out, though. Maggie is a great little dog, but will be very hard to train for her CGC, since she does not like to come when called. This might be due to her past, since I adopted her at age 5. Or, it just might be that she would rather visit everyone in the room before coming back to me. She is a people gregarious dog and is very good with Possum, my blind and deaf sheltie. I would like to get her her CGC title next year, since it will take me a long time to get her to come reliably.
Nail trimming:
Possum is really the only one that doesn't mind having her nails trimmed. Mostly because she is more interested in eating the peanut butter and can not see the nail clippers coming. She is also the easiest to trim because her nails are clear. Bear is the same way. But, for everyone else, they see the clippers and pull and pull, so I am going to work with them on accepting the clipping. Then we will work on other grooming stuff.
Housetraining & Possum:
Possum came to me last July. Now, she is about a year old and completely deaf and 99% blind. When she is crated, for even a very short amount of time, she completely flips out and would do herself harm if left in a crate for any amount of time. The same goes for when she is left in a room by herself. So, housetraining is going to be a very long process with her. When placed outside, she will now go to the bathroom automatically, but doesn't hold it while inside. And, she does not indicate that she needs to go out. But, we have had some breakthroughs this past weekend: she will now go out the door - on her own - and go to the bathroom when I hold the door open for the others to go outside. And, she rarely has an accident when I am at home. Getting her housetrained and to go up and down the 4 deck stairs that I have will be an amazing accomplishment. I might have to cheat a little on the stairs and make her a ramp, but either way, I want her to be able to leave the deck area herself so she can sniff around and play with the other dogs (in the fenced in area).
Ella:
Ella and I took a one hour introduction to agility class last year and joined a few of our friends at a trial. It seems like a lot of fun and just practicing the jumping has made her much more confident. She will now even jump from the couch arm to one of the stairs when really excited! So, for her, I would like to have her take a few classes, get used to the equipment and go to a trial in the fall.
Ella has also earned her CGC title, but the tester never sent the paperwork to the AKC, so I have to have her retested. She did really well at the outdoors test, so I have no doubt that she will pass elsewhere. Woofstock, which happens in August each year, has a TDI tester come and I want to have her ready for that test.
And, since she also earned her Rally Novice title last year, I want to train her so that we can get her Rally Advanced title. We will have to work hard on her heeling off leash and my ring nerves, but I have no doubt that she can easily pass.
Robbie:
Robbie has some issues that we need to work on before I can comfortably take him to class. First, he barks, which doesn't bother me. Second, he is hyper-vigilant and that needs to stop. In other words, he spends all his time constantly scanning his environment for things that might frighten him, so he can not focus on me very well. I am going to take him to a private trainer who can work with us and get him ready for a class.
Once he is able to take a class, then he is going to be a spitfire in agility. He is tiny and runs very fast and I have no doubt that he would do well. We might not be able to compete, since he is missing that hip joint (struck by a car before I adopted him) but we are going to try, since his vet said that he should be OK.
Bear:
Bear is completely deaf and so cross-eyed that I really don't know how much he sees. He always tries to take a treat out of my hand about 5 inches to the side of my hand, so we are going to have to work on treat delivery before he can learn down. Why? Because he spends all his time worrying about where the treat is rather than focusing on me to learn the cue. Once I get him to be more confident with that, then I might switch to using toys and play fetch to teach him. That is a much better reward for him and he prefers it.
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