That's it! Time to show off what you've learned in the class! Please post your graduation videos here. If you would prefer me to not post it to the website for everybody to see, let me know. Also, let me know which one of the training videos you would like to get as your graduation gift.
Puppy I graduation
 Silvia Trkman is known for bringing every dog, from her first dog on, to the very top of the sport. Her dogs are known for great speed, tight turns, running contacts and long and injury-free careers. Silvia is in agility since 1992 and is– 3x World Champion (with two different dogs)
– 5x European Open winner, with 4 different dogs (Lo, La, Bu, Le)!!!
– National Championships podium and World Team member with every dog she’s ever had – National Champion for 22-times (with 5 different dogs of 3 different breeds) – World Team member for 19-times (mostly with at least two dogs at the time – sometimes four 🙂 ) |
Copyright Silvia Trkman, 2010-2016; All rights reserved
Silvia, I’ve been meaning to say for ages that i love the idea of your dogs completely ignoring the sheep at herding. That is awesome!!
Grace and i haven’t had quite so much luck -- I finally got to try her again yesterday with Kangaroos. Thank goodness i took your advise and had her on lead…the urge to chase is much greater than i ever imagined! I took her 2 favourite toys and my plan was to have a wild play w her whenever we encountered one (as you suggested). Unfortunately, she was soooo overstimulated by the kangaroos she showed absolutely no interest in her toys whatsoever (couldn’t even look at them!). I also realised that the scent of them is equally as exciting to her than actually seeing them so she spent a lot of the bushwalk v excited. We saw about 8 kangaroos (one of them was the biggest i have ever seen -- he was at least 2 metres tall, and was standing about 3 metres away from us. I wished i’d had a camera to take a photo for you)
When they were close there seemed really nothing i could do but wait for her to calm down. She was lunging at the end of the lead and crying to be able to chase them (I’ve never seen her do this bf). Although she wasn’t interested in the toys she wld still take food. We managed to find a couple that were at a small distance (about 15m). I rewarded her w food for sitting calmly, watching but not lunging and jackpoted for looking at me. Was this the right thing to do? She went up in a beg when she was watching them and looked exactly like a kangaroo
I was disappointed about the toys bc that is the only thing i can think of that can make me the fun-guy in the situation rather than the one stopping her from chasing them…
I did so much with her as a pup to meet every animal i cld think of. My previous dog completely ignored wild animals but was obsessed w herding farm animals. So, w grace, i focused almost entirely on farm-like animals (which she is brilliant with) but forgot about wild animals. All of a sudden i seem to have a big problem w kangaroos, rabbits, birds. Silly silly me!!
Any thoughts wld be greatly appreciated 🙂
Wow, that’s a really big kangaroo! It’s good she at least takes the treats and yes, the way you reward is good, but I would definitely try to make it easier at first… Maybe go there when they’re not out? Or somewhere close, so she can smell some, but not see any? Or somewhere where it looks like kangaroos might be there, but they aren’t? Hard to give you a good suggestion as I don’t know much about their habits 🙂 -- but try to make it easier for her to succeed first and then go from there.
Thanks Silvia!! That’s a great idea to make it easier for her. They tend to only come out at dusk and when they are out their movements are completely unpredictable- they just bounce right out in front of you or they might just be sitting in the middle of the track -- i’ll take her earlier in the day. I will even try to see if she will play with me if the roos aren’t around. I actually went for a bushwalk with her yesterday in the early afternoon and didn’t expect to see any. We turned a corner and one was sitting right there on the track -- it bounced off and she tried to chase it. When she got to the end of the lead she just stood on her hind legs and watched it thru the bush (my very own black kangaroo). I think she was able to calm down a bit quicker (even though i noticed a bit of froth around her mouth) and she seemed generally a bit more calm in the bush … Do you think she will get better when she gets more used to them ? We’ll do our best. Thanks so much 🙂
Well, obviously you’re doing the right thing and so it will get better yes. If you’re reacting wrongly, then it only gets worse 🙂
Silvia,
Well, here is Stella’s long awaited graduation video—AT LAST!!!! Hope you like it, we really had a blast and we’re looking forward to your Advanced Puppy Tricks class someday in the future!!! (We are still working on the pick up and hug-a-bottle/hug-a-stuffy trick, but we’ll get it eventually!!!) This video includes our “break-through moment” with the smaller and smaller boxes… you remember how nervous Stella was about getting four feet into smaller things? well, she did it!!!!! She also took a long time to figure out stacking bowls, but that might have been that I offered her confusing bowls with edges that stick out… she got it almost immediately when I found these blue bowls in the video…
Well, enjoy!
Oh, and do we still get to pick out one of your videos????? We already have Tricks for a great Bond and cik&cap but we’d love to also have… Tricks For Better Thinking Skills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank you soooooo much. See you some more in Foundations and Continuing Running Contacts!!!!
--Dinah and Bronagh and Stella
Great job! Stella is doing really great, especially as most of those tricks are way more challenging for bigger dogs as for small ones. That’s a really small box for her already and hey, still no balancing problems at all! Loved the ball rolling!!! And yes, sure, your video and a certificate are in your mail! See you in the other classes 🙂