May 18, 2011

62lbs at 6.5 months (plus a few days).

Ruff has officially started work on the bite sleeve and has been doing excellent. He had his first day of tracking and did very well with that too. Right now Juergen is handling him for tracking, since we're both beginners and tracking is difficult to teach correctly. Right now, he's only doing very short, straight tracks, 50 footsteps or less. By the time he reaches Schh3, he'll be doing 800 foot tracks that cross each other, and passively indicate 3 lost articles along the way. We have homework to start with some basic heelwork, but his formal obedience doesn't start for a few more weeks.

In the meantime, we're gearing up for Canada! We've started putting together their first aid kit, Shakespeare has his life jacket already but I still need to order Ruff's. I think the boys are going to love it!

And one more video: Day 2 of the bite sleeve!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eve0qU8fLxY

May 10, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enBOt4D21B4

I finally got a video of Ruff at Schutzhund. :-)

His trainer says he's ready to start tracking, so we'll be going out Sunday morning for that. And in a couple weeks, he gets to start transitioning to the puppy bite sleeve, and also start formal obedience work. By the first week of June, he should be doing a normal training routine with the other dogs, not just the puppy work he's been doing so far. I'm so proud of him! He looks amazing out there, he's come such a long way in just a few months from the puppy who wouldn't even play tug of war with the trainers on his first day. I think he's going to be an awesome dog, and I fully expect to get him all the way to Schh3.

He's doing great all around... we go on hikes and play dates with Lupa every week, and he's getting almost impossible to tire out. He's still between 55 and 60lbs. I need to get him to the vet for a weight check soon. He started getting knuckle bones to chew on when we're busy, and he can strip them down to almost nothing, although he still leaves the thickest, hardest parts of the bone behind. He's slowly starting to fill out and look more like a real dog and less like a mismatched goofy puppy with a bobblehead. :-)