Almost Christmas Time

The big boy is currently weighing in at 73lbs. He's learned almost all the exercises he needs to pass his BH this spring, and we're back to working on tracking. This weekend I have a meeting with the local Search and Rescue group to see about getting involved with them.

We're currently enjoying the dubious pleasure of his teenage years... but even so, he continues to be an incredibly intelligent and sweet dog. Even when he's deaf as a post.

Happy Halloween!

From Ruff and Shakespeare!

Birthday Fun!

Happy Birthday Ruff!!!

Almost There!!

Ruff will be 1 year old on Saturday!! I can't believe it went so fast.

In celebration of his birthday, Ruff saw fit to pass his AKC Canine Good Citizen test on the first try!

As always, his progress is beyond amazing, and hopefully our *next* Shepherd will be just as incredible... ;-)

September 12, 2011

10 1/2 months, around 72-73lbs. His birthday is fast approaching!

August 9, 2011

Ruff had a fantastic trip to Canada! He swam, he dove, he kayaked, he hiked, and he loved every minute of it. I think he's sad to be home!

July 9, 2011

8.5 months, roughly, and 66lbs.

20 days until we leave for our Canada adventure. Ruff will be the only one accompanying us this year. He's getting much better at swimming, but we're still bringing a life jacket for him. Still trying to figure out the food, it looks like we're going with dehydrated, but it's going to be expensive. May bring a few pounds of raw and organ to mix in with it, and of course we'll already have eggs and meat scraps as we cook.

Such a big boy...

June 23, 2011

64lbs!

Not much new news- still progressing well in all his training. Will post some pics this weekend when his buddy Xander visits!

June 7, 2011

7 months and 1 week old.

I'm hoping to get some new training videos soon. Ruff has been tracking 3 times now, and he's officially started learning the obedience routines. We're working on the heel, and we're going to start on the hold and bark soon. He continues to be absolutely incredible and I can't wait to see him trial.

He's also beginning to transition from puppy to adult in terms of mentality. We babysat for a friend's new 12 week old puppy this weekend, and he showed some adult behaviors as far as correcting the puppy for trying to take toys/bones out of his mouth, crowd him at the water bowl, and so forth. It was cute, if not a little sad... our big boy is growing up. I don't have a recent weight on him, but after trying to heft him into the bathtub today, I'm betting we're nearing 70lbs. He certainly looks like a grownup, until he starts bunny-hopping across the yard.

I did a slideshow movie of his growth-comparison photos. I wish I was better at editing, but it's okay.

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

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. :-)

April 8, 2011

Happy Birthday Ruff!

He's officially 6 months old today. :-)

He has most of his adult teeth in, and the rest are well on the way.

His training is going well. He's off this weekend, the trainers are at a trial in Kentucky. We're going to try to go Wednesday night instead.

His hair is changing- the coarser hair has taken over pretty much everywhere, and he's starting to develop a ruff around his neck.

He's getting really courageous at the park, he runs and wrestles more every day.

Overall he's a big, beautiful, wonderful boy. :-) Happy birthday Ruff!

March 31, 2011

Today was the first time I bathed big Ruff and felt like I was bathing a dog instead of a puppy. :*(

22 weeks old tomorrow... we'll get a current weight on him soon.

March 30, 2011

Ruff's sheep herding instinct test was both successful and adorable! He went absolutely CRAZY over the sheep, and immediately started chasing them in circles, turning them, barking, and just being adorably crazy. The trainer said he'd do very well with herding if we wanted to pursue it. I may look into it later this summer, but for now I prefer Schutzhund. He had his second day, and he did much better with prey drive. He chased, tugged, barked, and was suitably driven to chase his toy around. Our next assignment is to transition him from his stuffed animals to an actual Schutzhund training tug. To teach the bite work, they start the dog on a little stuffed tube toy on a rope, that's covered in the same material as the outside of the bite sleeve. From there, they transition to a pillow, to teach them to grab it with a full mouth. Then they go to a wedge, to help them make sure they're biting all the way to the back of their teeth. Then they go to a soft "puppy" sleeve, then the full reinforced sleeve. We've been working him with pieces of burlap to help him learn the feel of the material, so the next step is the tug. I need to ask about the tracking training, but we don't start the formal obedience until he's older. The big part of getting a puppy into this sport is teaching them to be driven and excited while they're working. It has to be a fun game for them, with lots of satisfaction and rewards. If they don't really want to do it, they won't do well.

His next training is on Sunday- 58 degrees and sunshine, best weather we'll have had for this so far!

We haven't gotten a weight lately- probably upwards of 55lbs. New photos soon.

March 21, 2011

Sunday Ruff had his first training day for Schutzhund! He did great. We started with some basic temperament exercises- walking over tarps, shaking coins in a bucket, opening umbrellas, walking over the a-frame wall, climbing fallen trees, and standing on a wobble board. He passed everything with flying colors, even outperforming some of the older dogs. He had a few problems with his prey-drive test, it boiled down to him only wanting to play with me, not the tester, and needing too much verbal encouragement to stay excited. So we need to work on getting him to stay excited and interested without a lot of chatter and without necessarily needing me to be involved. But everyone was impressed with him and said for his age he's doing really well and has a great temperament. I think he's going to do really well. He started showing a really strong desire to keep working and keep pleasing people as the day went on, he was always excited to come out of his crate and started looking for ways to make me and the trainers happy. It was very cute. For now we're going to be going every Sunday, eventually I'm going to start trying to make it Wednesday nights too. And Thursday he has a sheep herding instinct test- I just want to see how he does and see if it will be an option for future training. Right now I think we'll only have time for the Schutzhund, but I want to keep our options open in case he decides he's not a big fan of the Schutzhund after all.

March 20, 2011

A few days over 20 weeks / 5 months.

Ruff got his last set of puppy shots, including rabies, so he's now officially permitted to attend training and other events. And, I finally found 2 Schutzhund groups to meet up with- our first evaluation session is tomorrow (well, later today, when it stops being 2am). Weight at the vet was closing in on 44lbs, that was over a week ago, so probably past 45lbs by now. He's slowed to a nice steady pace, 3-5lbs per week, but definitely getting taller. He can get up some good speed now and he's learned to really wrestle and play with the dogs at the park. We've been visiting his cousins Lupa and Panzer more too, and he's learning to hold his own against them as well. Every day his overall training and manners improve. He's gotten very good about not putting teeth on people, even when we play. I'm excited to see how his first session goes tomorrow- Aunt Billie is supposed to be coming along to take some pictures! I'll post a good one if she makes it. :-)

March 6, 2011

Official weight: 40lbs.

I believe we're currently at 18 weeks, but honestly I'm starting to lose track. :-P

Big Ruff had his first "home alone" experience... the little boys are sick this week, so he had to stay alone one day (with 2 walks by the pet sitter, of course). He did very well and didn't appear the least bit concerned, which is reassuring. He's definitely started getting taller again, and he's got adult teeth coming in- the rows of teeth between his canines are all filled in and he's working on a few molars. He's getting much steadier and faster with his running, and much more confident in his playing. We've had some good park trips. We're working on "down", which is still one of his least favorite commands. He has good and bad days with leash manners, although even his bad days aren't horrible- not so much pulling as maintaining constant tension on the leash. I've got feelers out for Schutzhund trainers in the area- there's on in Alexandria I just located that has 3 of cousin Lupa's relatives in it. We're still working through some obstinateness, but overall he's a good pup.

February 24, 2011

We're officially over 4 months! The 16 week mark was last Friday. So I guess he's now pushing 17 weeks. Today we started some clicker training to start working on tightening up his obedience commands in preparation for real training in a few months.

His current weight is somewhere around 35lbs... I haven't tried to measure him for height yet, but I guess we should give that a shot. It looks like his colors are pretty much done. A comparison from his 7.5week shots shows little or no change. He actually brightened up his markings on his chest and throat briefly, and they now seem to be darkening in again. I think his lack of growth in height and weight recently is attributed to his general thickening- his muzzle and legs are becoming noticeably more broad than they were before. We did increase his food from 2 to 2.5lbs per day, plus extra "goodies" every day or two. He's getting more outgoing at the park, although his clumsiness and lack of speed still keep him from being a full player. It's good socialization for him though.

I've been keeping a photo album of his age progression- all but the first one are shots of him on my grooming table at work. It was the only place I could get a good shot on a regular basis.

https://picasaweb.google.com/AJScorpio1184/RuffianGrowthPhotos#

It's amazing how much he's grown already. And still so far to go!

February 14, 2011

Ruff had an exciting weekend.

Saturday he got to see all his cousins. Hamlet and Karma were suitably unimpressed, but he enjoyed Grandma's backyard and played chase with Shakespeare for a while. He was a very good boy all afternoon. Then he got to take a special trip to his aunt's house to play with her GSD Lupa. They played so hard he finally crawled up on the couch behind me and collapsed. He stayed tired all night and all the next morning. Sunday we took a trip to the dog park, and he ran around for an hour or so, and then tried to crawl into my lap to sleep. We went back home, and he chilled out the rest of the night. Today, it's BATH TIME. Someone is a smelly little puppy!!!

February 11, 2011

15 weeks today!!

While filling out the AKC papers I realized I was off a day- Ruff was born on a Friday, so Fridays are his birthdays. :-/ Oops! Anyway, he's 15 weeks exactly today. Tomorrow we're going to get him on a scale at Grandma & Grandpa's for a weight check, and then he gets a play-date with Lupa. Since he's close to half her size now, I think he's ready for a rematch. :-)

So according to the paperwork, Ruff's official name is "Raufbold von der Kleinsmit". :-) Might be a little big for him now, but he'll grow into it, I'm sure. He's not even 4 months yet and he's over 40lbs! (Weight correction: after putting him on a pet scale, we discovered he's actually around 33lbs right as of 15 weeks old.) We're currently working through a bit of a rebellious phase, but he's still fairly obedient when we get serious.