DIARY
Sunday 4.10.2009
Yesterday our clan lacking a bit coat participated in the Annual Specialty Show of the Retriever Club in Finland at Hyvinkää. There were altogether 49 tollers and our gang received nice results:- Toivo was second best male puppy with good critics
- Daughter Mindy was second in the female puppy class
- Son Lenny received Excellent, fifth best male with reserve CAC!
- Son Jedi received Excellent and won the working class
- Dad Onni was 3rd Best Male even if he was totally out of coat
- Daughter Geri received Excellent and was fourth in Intermediate Class for females
Son Jedi being judged
Especially the results of the boys were awesome. Judge would have appreciated more coat both for Toivo, son Jedi and dad Onni who was totally out of underwool. After the Best Male class was over the judge came to us and said the dad Onni represents his favourite type of tollers, but today's result was due to lack of underwool which also caused the coat to be open.
Also Onni's brother Jami received Excellent and was second in the Open Class.
Friday 02.10.2009
Fall has arrived to Finland and the dogs are fully enjoying it. Video below has been shot in the capital city area of Finland, outdoor recreation area called Vaakkoi.Tuesday 15.09.2009
Last week Toivo and sister Mindy had their first lesson of Retriever Test training course. This course is organized by the capital city area of the Toller Club in Finland. So we have real toller experts as our trainers! Most of them are also training buddies of mistress Tiina and dad Onni. ;) We have four sessions in the autumn and four lessons in the spring. Then we are going to the Retriever Test around summer 2010. Toivo is still so, so crazy for game as a puppy can be - close to having a heart attack or something.. It was the same with dad Onni (even if Toivo is even worse) so mommy had few months break from training with game. We are about to do the same thing with Toivo. Mindy likes also game and can carry it in a nice way. So she can continue seeing game regularly. We usually use crows in early training as game as that's what you need to fetch also in the Retriever Test.Already two of the YES kids have passed the Retriever Test. Couple of them will attend to it in the end of this autumn and the rest are planning to do it probably next year. Hope all of them can make at least one attempt. Thanks for the owners for being so active! We also participated in two hunting tests with Onni but had some problems in co-operation so we won't try again this year. We are aiming to improve co-operation by obedience training and demanding more discipline in everyday life. Mommy made few big mistakes with Onni when he was younger which has caused several repeating problems along the way. With Toivo mommy has tried to be wiser and focused on creating good relationship and leadership, trained lots of contact and come in every possible situation and made lots of patience training under disturbance. We haven't trained actual retrieving that much, focused on the basics of it: passivity, contact, stay, come, heel, carrying and delivery (returning).
We got a Canadian Goose! Onni would die for holding it few more seconds.. Please mommy, let me..
Few weeks ago we were hunting by the Gulf of Finland at son Jedi's owners' cottage. We couldn't drop any mallards but got a nice Canadian Goose in addition to lots of seagulls shot to be used as game in training. Onni got several blind retrieves to the sea of which one was quite far away, around 80 meters. There were also few marked retrieves but we try to avoid letting Onni see and fetch them immediately as he tends to heaten up. So we focus on training patience and reward him with blind retrieves which also strengthen co-operation. We are going hunting again in few weeks, let's try to get some mallards then! Several puppies in the YES litter have also been hunting this autumn: Jedi and Lenny mallards and Pipsa pigeons.
Both dad Onni and Toivo also began obedience course yesterday. Toivo is on Puppy Course for puppies aiming at obedience tests and dad Onni is on course for Competing dogs. Onni is training for Winner's class and our aim is to receive a prize from that class during next winter. There are lots of difficult tasks in that class but we like challenges, and more importantly, like to do something together, other than just lay on sofa or go to dog shows. Tollers are clever dogs so they need to be able to use their brains. :)
We hope to receive e-mails from the owners of the rest of the puppies in the litter soon. Eagerly waiting for new pictures and to hear how sister and brothers are doing. Greetings to you all there!
Thursday 03.09.2009
Results from Toller Show 2009 in Finland:
Onni moving.
- Toivo performed well received nice critics from baby class (4-6 months) but was too puppyish for this judge, so no placement this time
- Dad Onni Excellent and Fourth in Champion Males Class (13 champion males enrolled)
- Son Jedi Excellent and Second in Junior Males Class (15 dogs enrolled)
- Son Lenny Excellent and Third in Intermediate Males Class (11 dogs enrolled)
- Onni's brother Jami Excellent and Second in Open Males Class (11 dogs enrolled)
- Onni's dad Jimi Excellent and Second in Veteran Males Class (3 dogs enrolled)
- Dad Jimi's Progeny Group BIS Progeny Group out of 5 groups enrolled! :)))
Dad Jimi's Progeny Group was Best in Show for the second time in Toller Show in Finland!
Onni and brother Jami have been members of his group both times.
Monday 27.07.2009
Dad Onni has participated in two cold game tests during this summer. He received 3rd prize from both. Thanks to lots and lots of positive training for gaining more patience he has been more and more in control in these situations. :) Last year we were using negative methods for preventing beeping and extra eagerness but that ruined our co-operation and produced nothing but zeroes and lots of disappointments. That's what you sometimes get when you're training with WT-oriented labrador owners.. So now we have avoided too much disturbance (no training in group with other dogs!) and demanded a little bit of patience in the beginning of the exercise after which he has been allowed to conduct some retrieving. We've also practised blind retrieves a lot. Those things have improved co-operation in the field. Now we still need to work with game and courage the game-oriented boy to deliver also the best ones to mommy fluently. And practice some free search which we have totally neglected. It has always been one of Onni's strong areas, but due to focusing on dummy training it hasn't been that efficient in the last two tests. We have few weeks left to train for next cold game test. We also plan to participate in 1-2 dummy tests (WT) this autumn and couple more cold game tests if everything goes according to plans.Little Toivo has grown a lot and has now dropped almost all of his baby teeth. He has participated in his second puppy course. There we have practised not only competitive obedience, but also how to train patience with a toller puppy and retrieving. Toivo also managed to participate in puppy and basic field training lesson few weeks ago when we were in annual summer camp organized by the Finnish Retriever Club. He still is crazy for game but mommy has managed to practise some game handling. He now can deliver a crow mommy escaping to opposite direction and fetch a seagull from a lake. :) He learnt very quickly to go to deep water by himself after we threw a wing of seagull there. It was about 2 seconds, no hesitation if it's game that is in question. ;)
Last weekend Jedi and Hilma from the YES litter participated in Finnish retriever test. It is a natural instinct test conducted using cold game. There are three parts in it:
1. Working in water
2. Free search on land
3. Track
First of all the handler brings the dog to the shore. It can be kept in leash. One seagull is being thrown to water from land and dog needs to fetch it. Next there is a gunshot from land and another seagull is being thrown from a boat to water. Distance is longer, around 30-40 meters. If this part goes well enough the dog is allowed to continue to the second part. There are five crows hidden in the woods on land. Distance to the crow most far away is at least 50 meters. Then a gunshot is triggered and one crow more is thrown to the area. Then handler is allowed to send the dog to conduct free search on the area. Depending on the level of working a dog usually needs to return around 4-5 birds. Last part is a tracking task. There has been made a track using a rabbit to the woods that is around 70 meters long. Dog needs to independently track the rabbit and deliver it to the handler. To pass this test the dog needs to pass all of these three parts. This test is also required for the title of Finnish Champion as for retrievers.
Both of the youngsters made really good work and made it to the track. Unfortunately Hilma's performance with rabbit wasn't this time good enough so she didn't pass the test. But handsome son Jedi did pass it! He now needs to receive one more CAC from dog show AFTER turning two years old and then he will become Finnish Champion. Congratulations Mia and Jedi!
Thursday 04.06.2009
Lately we have focused on retrieving training and to Working Tests with Onni. Our major problem in retrieving has been lack of control and co-operation. Onni has been far too eager to retrieve and far too eager after game! And mommy hasn't have enough experience to train a tough and independent dog with lots of interest after game and loads of catching instinct. Onni would be a perfect retriever in case dog could work for himself only. ;) He has excellent free search and marking ability. Only co-operation and trust to handler is what it's been needed. But, you live you learn. :)It has become clear that Onni must not receive any extra attention or any and he also needs very strict limits. It's mommy who takes care of protecting the family and no protective barking is no more allowed. A competitor of mommy's attention has as well improved the situation. Like nights spent in a cage have as well. ;)
A little ago we participated in our first official Working Test (C-test, a test where dummies are being used instead of cold game and obedience is being emphasized in grading the performance). First one was a total failure due to too much of excitement but after that we made a good second attempt. Only one task failed. We had +29 celcius degrees there and mommy had kept Onni in sunshine.. well, there was a nice ditch between the dummy and mommy. ;) Onni did return the dummy to hand after one extra visit to the ditch and so he did with the blind dummy, but it didn't help. Zero points. ;) Due to very strict grading in WT tests also the result was 0 prize even if all the score from the other tasks were in the level of first prize. ;)
Sunday 24.05.2009
There have been lots of activities for little Toivo during the first month in his new home. In addition to LOTS of socialization we have attended to a puppy course that's intended for puppies aiming to compete in obedience. The teacher can't stop wondering how quick this boy is to learn! He is also very playful and greedy, so it's easy to train him. :)In the puppy course we have trained following things:
- Focusing on mommy instead of other dogs and people
- Playing with toys and balls
- Come
- Coming to handler's left side
- Heel (few steps only)
- Going down
We have also participated on two field training weekend camps. There daddy and son have slept in common cage. During the first one Toivo focused on wondering what's going on. There were lots of people and other dogs and all the dogs had to spend lot of time in the cage. Soon little Toivo learned that it is not end of the world to be alone inside of own cage in strange environment while dad Onni was outside training with mommy. During the second one Toivo was also able to train a bit himself. We trained waiting in a group, carrying puppy dummy and he saw different kind of game. No matter what game it is, this boy goes totally crazy! Raven, crow, seagull, pheasant.. he took everything without any sign of hesitation, quite the opposite. :) He is even more eager for game than his dad is, which makes him a bit TOO eager. ;) That's why we show it quite rarely to avoid situations in which he could start eating the bird! As our mentor at the training camp, an experienced judge said: as long as the puppy is interested in game, you can train retrieving with dummies. Of course the puppy should be shown game once in a while. In Finland we use mainly crows and seagulls in cold game tests. For a puppy it is enough to show a crow once in a while.
As for retrieving training at home, we have training returning a puppy dummy indoors. Mommy sits on a floor and teases Toivo a bit first. Then she throws the puppy dummy to 1-2 meters distance. Once Toivo comes back with the dummy mommy waits for him with her arms spread and hugs the whole package. Remember to greet the whole puppy and ignore the thing in its mouth! After praising and hugging for a while you can either throw it once again or change it to another toy or tiny piece of cheese/dogs' candy. So that the puppy won't feel that the owner steels the thing in his/hers mouth! Whistle signal for COME is the most effective command for COME and that's why it is being used very rarely, to maintain its efficiency. For that he receives his mealcup.
We have also trained a lot everyday obedience: biting is forbidden, command "NO", sitting and waiting permission to get outside of door, sitting and waiting for mommy's permission to go to mealcup and what's most important: COME in all kinds of situations. We use his own name for COME command and praise him a lot when he comes. In case he is not coming, we go and grab him instead of repeating the command.
Sunday 19.4.2009
Toivo has settled really well. What an adorable puppy! We ignored the extra beeping he had in the very first day or two and now he is really quiet indoors. He's getting more and more brave, energetic and playful every day. Everyday we go to some new place with him. So far he has visited a pet store, obedience test, forest area, new people, few kids and a few airports. On Friday evening breeder Gea brought his sister Mindy to Finland for her new owner Hanne. We were there with brother Toivo to welcome sister to Finland.We have also started training just a bit. Everytime Toivo receives his meal we use the dog whistle to associate the COME whistle to the food. You can practise that this way:
1. Prepare puppy's meal ready to kitchen so that s/he can smell it
2. Leave puppy to assisting person to another room
3. Whistle *BEEP* *BEEP* (two short whistles)
4. Assistant sets the puppy immediately free after you start whisting
5. Puppy comes to you, wait for him/her with your hands spread on your both sides and praise him/her a lot.
6. Reward the COME with the meal.