A Belated Merry Christmas

............. from Ivy. No, I'm not into dressing up my working breed dogs, but if the kelpies can cope with a Christmas themed collar for photos, then Ivy can cope with a bib velcroed around her neck for all 15 seconds while I take a photo. Knew that sit-stay was going to come in handy!


We've had a little break from 'running around type training' as she was spayed a couple of weeks back, but the stitches are due to come out in the next day or so and she is more than ready to go. In the meantime we've had fun doing some shaping stuff with the clicker. Almost have speak on command as our first real trick, others will hopefully follow soon.

I have also taken the past couple of weeks to try and document her training a bit more thoroughly and to try and get a clearer picture in my head of what I want this to look like and how I am going to go about it. So, some of these thoughts to follow......... next year.

Ivy Does Warrnambool

Ivy went to her first 2 day agility trial last weekend - in fact a weekend of 'firsts' as it was also her first stay away from home and her first time at the beach. She took everything in her stride and especially enjoyed the beach, her highlights being ............

........... the water (straight in as soon as the lead came off !)

.......... the impromptu training sessions (especially when she got to chase her ball as a reward)

...... and of course the digging .............

Did I mention how much she liked the digging?

It was a big weekend for her and she coped with it extremely well, confident around the accommodation, walking around the town, on the beach and at the trial grounds. She got to play with a couple of other puppies around the same age, (one just a day older) sat at ringside with me for a bit watching other dogs run and of course got lots of human attention from other triallers.

Warrnambool have a fenced exercise yard which was great for letting her run free with the other puppies. L. also came in with me at the end of each day and we did some restrained recalls, restrained running to a toy, tugging and some circle running. I was delighted with her circles as this was the first time I had done them in an unfamiliar location off lead. There were also a ton of distractions going on outside the yard and her focus was brilliant. I was also impressed with her circles, although we are still only running outside circles at this stage.

I have started training inside circles with her, but still need her on lead for these and we are not going much over walking pace until she has a better understanding of me putting pressure on her line.

Most of the training we have done over the past couple of months has revolved around circle running and crate games - with a bit of rear end awareness thrown in for good measure.

She loves working on the balance disc, will happily jump on and off the wobble board - plus loves to tug on it, and has started perch and ladder work.

At just on 5 months, she has nearly all her 'big' teeth and is really developing a strong tug, which I am very happy with. She is also happy to switch back and forward between a toy and food when working - a quality that I have struggled with before with all my previous dogs, so I hope she continues to prove to be the exception.

I will document her foundation training some more next time, but for now here are some more photos from a couple of weeks back - just because I can !

These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things

Once again, don't be deceived by those eyes and the calm demeanour shown in the photo - most of her favourite things don't currently involve an off switch.

Last week I compiled a list of her favourite motivators at 15 weeks for her training diary. I did the same thing at 9 to 10 weeks and it is interesting to see the changes already in just a 6 week period.

At 9 weeks the things she was crazy about were - her Cuz toy, tugging (with anything) and cheese.

At 15 weeks the list now reads - tugging (still with anything), playing with me with no toys, playing with the soccer ball with L. , playing with her water bowl (so much so that she tries to take it into her crate with her at bedtime - and the reason I spent so much money on toys was..............) running - anywhere, anytime, whether it's just running around the yard with us, doing circle running or even just running around by herself - walking is not a preferred option at the moment. In regard to food it's chicken wings, raw steak and roast chicken scraps.

There are quite a number of things in the next column that I would say she 'likes a lot' such as attention from people, playing with other dogs and kangaroo jerky , but I wouldn't say she is totally over the top crazy about them - which is what I want to focus on right now with the main training emphasis still on building up a strong reinforcement zone.

She still likes cheese too , but is not as crazy about it as earlier on - not when there's steak or chicken to be had during training. As for the Cuz toy, that's moved to the 'Indifferent' section now as she's not really interested in it at all these days.

This week she has graduated to spending some time alone in her own little section of the dog run with the other dogs loose in the yard. As I am on holidays at the moment, I can supervise them all, so the plan is to gradually increase the time that she spends in there until that takes over as her designated spot during the day when we are not home.

This has been a big hit with her (just ignore the sad 'I'm behind bars, how could they do this to me? ' look in the photo- proof that the camera does sometimes lie) especially as she gets a bone to chew on and has some other new attractions to entertain her..............


....... like a little swimming pool and a new sand pit for digging. This has been a huge hit with her. She loves to jump from one to the other until she is totally filthy and there's more sand and water on the ground at the moment than in the shells - but a good time is had by Miss Ivy and that's the main thing.

Cruz's old kennel is a bit of a star attraction too - she likes having a little place to hide away if the others hang around the fence too much in search of her bone - their own being finished in record time of course.

I plan on doing puppy class at the Obedience club once she is 4 months old. It's a bit 'industrial strength' for my liking but the kelpies did it from 4 to 6 months and it was good for socialisation and working with distractions. At this stage I am not planning to spend the whole hour in class (heaven forbid!) and will make sure I go in and out of class and combine her work with lots of play sessions. Unfortunately it coincides with the season of country trials in Victoria and I really want to make up for lost time since the car accident with the kelpies, so she probably won't get all that many sessions. However the idea of actually heeling at my side at a walking pace is not really all that appealing to her right now so I don't think she is going to mind all that much. We currently work on very short 'heeling' sessions where she is expected to walk - now if we are 'agility heeling' at a run - she would be happy to do that all day !

Once she is 6 months old, she can join Foundation class at the agility club. She has had lots of exposure coming down on Friday evenings so far and enjoys running around and playing with me outside the rings. Unfortunately she will turn 6 months old on the last training session for the year so will have to wait until next year to join class. Hopefully we will have done loads of foundation work here by then so she will be well and truly ready.

12 Weeks Old.... And Growing !

This little girl sure has a way of working herself very firmly into your heart - I enjoyed working with both the kelpies as puppies (as I still do) and I am really enjoying working with her at the moment too.

My biggest concern is that I have not been able to put as much time into training her so far as I had planned on doing due to having a car accident on the way home from work a few weeks ago and as a result now juggling one car - I spend a lot of time on the road these days picking up L. from work, which is just under a two hour trip. Ivy comes with me in her crate and is certainly now an excellent traveller as a result. The kelpies jump around in the back of the ute (inside the canopy of course) while she has the comfort of the cabin and a good time is had by all - none of them seem to mind that they only stay in the car and don't actually get to come out most evenings.
We play as much as time permits and with a variety of toys - she is happy to tug with anything I offer, plus she also enjoys chasing balls, kongs and also playing with just me and no toys.

She will also work for food rewards (raw steak is probably now beginning to win out marginally over the cheese) but doesn't have quite the same desire for food as she does for a toy. This is fine by me, providing I can still use food on occasion - especially when we are training our end contact behaviour. We have been working on shaping a nose touch to the palm of my hand with food rewards. I am now waiting for harder nose touches to reward and will begin to ask for multiple touches shortly.

We have worked a little on crate games and I am using this approach to release her from the laundry, where she is contained when we are at work. She now sits automatically when my hand touches the release on the baby gate and once I open the gate, will remain in a sit until I give a verbal release. Then she comes blasting out. She does the same thing in her crate, although I haven't shaped the sit at the back of the crate that Susan Garrett uses. Although I understand the rationale for this, I am pretty pleased with her wait for release toward the front of the crate, so at the moment I haven't decided if I will introduce the criteria of sitting at the back of the crate or not.

We have a verbal cue on her sit, have shaped a reasonable drop and I am delighted with her stay so far. I can move up to around ten metres away at the moment and have also added some mild distractions, such as moving my body and showing a toy. This evening I had a work friend visiting and she was happy to provide a distraction for us - Ivy had no problems remaining in her stay until released and also recalled away from playing with my friend whenever I called her.

We have started circle running and so far she is doing pretty good outside circles on both sides. Her speed is really starting to increase and she pushes me to run faster if I'm not quick enough. At first we were jogging the circles, but now I am finding that I am close to running full speed - and at not quite 3 months old ...... I won't be keeping up for much longer. Looks like it's more training for me !

She has been on the wobble board at agility and also on mine and shows no hesitation with either one. She will also sit, drop and tug on the board. Next week I will start her on my balance disc and perch.

She has met some friendly dogs at agility training and loves meeting new people. Last week we went into 'town' a couple of times and walked down the main street. This was really valuable - she had been before but stayed in my arms and the experience from 'street level' was very different for her. She was a bit unsure of a motorised wheelchair at first, but the next day we happened to meet the same lady in the chair again and this time she almost dragged me up to it looking for yet another pat.

On the coming weekend we plan on giving her a bath for the first time - yes, it's long overdue. Then it's back to the vet next week for her final vaccination. So despite the time constraints, I am happy with what we have done together so far and can't wait to build on this over the next few weeks.

Settling In

Ivy is now 10 weeks old and has settled into her new life very well. She has taken all new experiences in her stride and loves to explore her 'back yard'. When I reflect on her first week by filling in her training diary, I am surprised at the amount of training we have actually done - all under the 'umbrella of play.' And so a quick update in photos.

She has caught on very quickly to the idea that sitting with eye contact will get you what you want - within reason of course. (Pity it doesn't work for me in staff meetings!) We also have the beginnings of a stay and wait for release. (Very handy for taking photos, what beautiful girl doesn't love to pose for the camera- although I need to be quick as we're not pushing this stay thing just yet!)She has been to agility training and passed around from person to person before class. She has also been to the Obedience Club - where I have been 'absent' for about 2 years. It was good to see that many of the same instructors are still there as I guess we will be starting Puppy class shortly. She hasn't been near any of my agility equipment yet and probably won't for at least some time. (That fence in the background is very handy!) She has run up and down the ramp in the dog run though - and very confidently at that.

Play has been the main feature of the week. She loves to tug and even tugged with me on the stainless steel table at the vets. She also has the 'kelpie like quality' of being attracted to toys that won't fit in my pocket - the basketball is a new favourite.

And don't let the innocent look fool you - this one knows what she wants and intends to get it one way or another.

Steak and cheese are definitely the favourites in the food department - she was a bit slow coming the first time I called her away from the kelpies until she realised that there was actually cheese involved. Cheese is now the mainstay of her recall under distraction - she would just about sell her soul for a tiny piece of cheese.

Tomorrow night she has a 'playdate' with Zee after the kelpie's agility training - so those recalls will be getting a good workout.

I am so worried about doing the right thing with her training and not messing her up - but this 'paralysis by analysis' is not helpful so I figure that many times I just need to go with the flow. If the emphasis is on play then I can't mess up - can I???

Watching Ivy Grow

She's finally here ! After almost a year of 'seriously considering it' and quite a few months of trying to find a litter that rang all the right bells for me - I have my very own beautiful Border Collie girl.

So meet Ivy - she flew all the way from Western Australia to Victoria on Tuesday to start her new life and to begin training in the hope of one day joining her big kelpie brothers in the agility ring. I guess I am now officially flirting with the 'dark side' - a couple of years ago I would have sworn that I was only ever going to have kelpies and certainly not a Border Collie. But as Yasser rapidly approaches 15, I started to think of all the Border Collie qualities that I love in him (although he's not a full blood BC) and the idea of my next dog being a BC really began to make a lot of sense.

I am looking forward to discovering the differences between training kelpies and BC's first hand as our training journey progresses. And Atilla and Cruz love her so far, which I did worry about in the beginning.

So expect lots of photos - once she keeps still - and hopefully some progress reports on our foundation training. At the moment I am just enjoying playing with her and watching her settle in.