We 3 trained and trained today...but were you playing hookey?

Three of the 'Applewoods Team' showed up today to work, but the chance was offered to go work elsewhere so we jumped on it and away we went. There are several dogs, Cabot (the small black one) and Sugar (BIG yellow dog) who needed practice for entering the ring. Cabot is on a countdown for his next ring entry in less than 30 days...so new places to train is always a treat. Sugar isn't yet scheduled to enter the ring yet this year, but he will sometime late spring or mid-Summer. Caruso (the BIG black one) already has his 2nd AKC Obedience Title, a CDX (Companion Dog Excellent), but he came anyway and did some practice as well doing run thrus (a practice ring situation). Red (lying down in the background is Sugar's mother) also had a chance to do a Novice run-thru and practice her steadily increasing Retrieve skills

However, the most fun today was doing the scent discrimination work using articles. While Cabot, Caruso and Sugar are all at various stages with various amounts of articles...the training principles remain the same.

What a good time we 3 all had today. Where was everyone else? Playing hookey in the balmy spring weather:)

Roxanne, Pam & Elice -today's photographer

Happy Valentine's Day! Not so today at Applewoods

Hum....it's supposed to be Valentine's Day? Why there's nothing, nada, zero, zip, zilch going on much today at Applewoods. These 3 yellow dogs played so hard with themselves....they just gave it all up in the late afternoon and settled into a quiet, restful, snooze on the ramp. It's been really quiet here today, but hey, while the sun was shining this afternoon the air felt like spring and so these 3 dogs played the Place game on tree stumps with Roxanne and practiced their gate/door/ manners as well. Sugar had time to practice the Broad Jump, the Retrieve on the Flat and the Retrieve over the High Jump.....all in the soft mud. Now that was fun, but oh what a mess it made!

All in all....it was a very quiet day today at Applewoods:)

Roxanne

Tis a yellow February doggone day at Applewoods

Today was truly a "yellow doggone day" at Applewoods. Here we have Melissa (in yellow) working Holly, a yellow lab while to Melissa's right is Sandy, a yellow Golden Retriever. In front of Sandy, is Murphy, a yellow lab...visiting again here at Applewoods for a couple of days, then standing is my dog, Sugar, a yellow lab and in the front seat is his mother, Red dog, another yellow dog. Had to laugh as while we were working these 'yellow' dogs, another student came to stay a couple of days with us....Ben, another yellow Golden Retriever! What a yellow day it was today at Applewoods! FYI...all the dogs here are on Place tables and they stayed there while we worked one and sometimes two dogs around and around and around the dogs on Place command...then we'd rotate a dog, or two, and do it all over again!

Murphy wasn't quite used to this level of mental intensity as he really had to work HARD to keep himself on the Place table AND I worked him for over 20 straight minutes doing Figure 8's, weaving in/around the other place tables, focusing on him maintaining a correct heel position and giving me straight, tight sits each and every time. Then I send him to the bed and told him to "Place" which he did with complete delight. He was relieved that I was done working him! I laughed out loud and so did Melissa as within 4 minutes, Murphy gave a big sigh, closed his eyes and was snoring SO LOUD we all heard him. I guess today being a 'yellow doggone day' at Applewoods just plain tucked him out. Happy dreams, Murphy. See ya tomorrow:)

Roxanne

Birthday Party

Last night was Brandy's birthday so we could not resist taking a little time from our (very productive) Continued Education class to celebrate with her! She was nice enough to bring birthday hats for everyone to wear so we got them all dressed and assembled them for a group shot.



The little dogs had some trouble keeping their hats on since they didn't have enough of a head to fill them with! Cabot decided after the 100th time Ellie's hat fell that he should just help her take it off instead of fixing it again and again.



Rugby couldn't figure out why he spent so much time helping Ellie with her hat when clearly, HE was the one who could not see!



The hats stayed on the big dogs much better than the little dogs, although they didn't all enjoy them quite as much as Caruso did!



Happy Birthday, Brandy! Thanks for celebrating with us!

Mud Heaven

Amazing what a few extra degrees can do to a pile of frozen snow! Why instead of a mountain of snow and slippery ice.....we had a miny lake for the dogs to romp, paw, splash and twirl about excitedly.

What fun today was for the BIG dogs, but hey, what about the little dogs like Brisbane? Poor Brisbane was completly calm as he waded through the lake (up to his elbows in the water) searching high'n'low for a place to do his business. We were laughing so hard watching him there was no time to grab a picture of him. But the BIG dogs were happy to provide photo opportunities.

OH MY WORD.......you should see how muddy they all were! Now we ALL understand why Margot named her book, Mud Heaven, as today at Applewoods really is a mud heaven!

Roxanne

February Apple Pile

This month's edition of the Apple Pile newsletter is now available.  If you aren't already on our mailing list, just give a shout via email (shire@erols.com) and we will be happy to add you to the list.

As a teaser:



Who are these people and dogs, why are they standing in line with big smiles on their faces?  Find out by reading the Apple Pile.

Distractions are training friends:)

Monday the weather was shifting and getting colder. The dogs had romped'n'played for some time in the snow, so were brought inside to get warm and rest. I wanted to work Sugar doing scent discrimination on his articles as well as working on Figure 8's.

However, there was no one available to help or be my posts....but hey I thought...we have lots of well trained dogs here at Applewoods. I decided to get creative by combining dogs, commands, and training into a great training opportunity for all the dogs in the picture.

While Sugar did indeed get his opportunity to work on articles, Sandy stared longingly at 'whatever those things were on the ground in front of my nose' and hoped she'd be invited to play with them. She wasn't invited, but she did hold her Stay position on the Place table while I worked articles and then did Figure 8's with Sugar.

Then it was time to trade places and put Sugar on command on the Place table as I worked Pete, off-leash doing Figure 8's. Finally, Sandy had watched and seen how her two 'yard mates' did this new Figure 8 game and she was ready for her turn. Pete was put on the Place table as I worked Sandy around the two watching dogs.

It was an outstanding moment for ALL the dogs involved as the 'peer pressure' enabled Sandy to see what was being done and how to do it correctly. Who needs humans to help you train when there are other training distractions like this? Distractions sure are great for training, arent' they?

Roxanne