When I trained Goose I knew a little bit more and he was a little more work. We got him at 1.5 years and he had lived with a pack of dogs. He never tugged. Luckily he had plenty of drive, willingness to work and good structure. Ben got him in June and he ran in his first tournament by December of that same year.
Pax came to us at 5 months old and was a tugging machine. I think he is the craziest tugger on our team. He has been a bit more of a challenge. He doesn't chase and he is an honest dog/tries hard, but his striding has been off and he hesitates going down to the box. He has run anywhere from 3.72 to 4.2 depending on his striding and box turn.
Here are Indigo, Deco (mini aussie) and Pax. I'm trying to bring down Pax's "jump-box-jump" time by adding gutters. Getting them in the right places has been a challenge. I finally figured out that he needs one on the way in so that he doesn't slide and one on the way back so he takes 3 strides. He clears the jumps much better and is faster this way!
I've also been working on putting him him the lineup. He still will go around the jumps if I pass him too tightly (again worried about running full speed into another dog).
The one good thing about his training challenges is that it's keeping me from getting another dog (for a little while). I've already started looking! Working with him does give me something to do at least.
Goose did not live with a pack of dogs. He was raised in the house by Kathleen. He came back to be trained and was trained as started dog on sheep. He also had a good foundation on him.
ReplyDeleteHe played ball with his mom and she got the ball all the time, hence he was not used to bringing the ball back.
I just saw this comment. I meant that at the farm when he wasn't herding sheep or in the barn, he ran around with the other dogs. It was easy for us to teach him to tug and play with a ball, but most of his experience was with not getting the ball because someone else always got it.
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