I have quite a busy week this week doing agility stuff. Sizzle was a bit "switch off" on Tuesday, he looked tired and lost his attention easily. I blamed Samber for tiring him out! Also, I have got a few important things to work on him as well. As a young puppy, I taught him to chase bird, my idea was to get him going and I want him to power on for speed but I now realised it is very "dangerous". He has a very strong eyes for bird, any birds! This happened on Tuesday at training, I didn't see a pigeon got his attention and I tried very hard to get him to focus our "jump tunnel jump" sequence. The minute I let go of him, off he shot into a different direction then only I knew he was chasing the pigeon! I guess I have a good job in getting him NOT to chase a bird when we work. On Thursday, I trained Sing and Saturn. Sing was very good, I still put him in the beginner class to do some simple stuff to encourage him to upgrade a gear. Saturn was a mixture of good and bad. When he was so hyper, he was very fast and lost control, he just wanted to take any obstacles in front of him. Eleanor told me this is not the first time he did that and I need to crack this bad habit. So, I have something to work on Saturn too. After the agility on Thursday, we normally go for a walk at Oxshott Common then heading to Greygriars for our fitness swim. Sizzle is becoming so confident that he don't actually need a life jacket anymore but I insisted to put it on for the first 15 minutes. Saturn is a nutter when comes to swimming pool. He is always so excited and bark and dive into the pool every single time. I was trying to chuck the ball for him to dive in first, then Sing, then Sizzle but I think my timing was wrong, in the end he always dive into Sizzle who came back with a ball in his mouth! I need to be more careful next time. Yesterday, we went to train at Bernadette. I really enjoy going to her. Again, Sizzle wasn't really focus, he just wanted to sniff most of the time and he went off his toys! That really surprised me! Sizzle is a very toy motivated dog but I just can't get him to play with the toys. We also discover we have more problems and I need to fix them! We also did some agility with Saturn. He jumped a little funny (keeping his back legs), I have noticed that sometimes he stretch out nicely but sometime he tucks his two back legs. I really don't know what is the problem there. Before the biopsy operation last July, he was a great jumper. I just hope my vet didn't ruin him! Not just because I want to do agility with him but I want a healthy happy Saturn! Saturn at Lee's TD, watching and hopefully learning This afternoon, I took Saturn to Lee Windeatt's training day at Sue's sand school. I have never been to Lee's TD and I was really looking forward to it. Lee is a very nice guy and he gave me a good tip to try Saturn on the A Frame, hopefully that will speed him up. I had tried to apply that (that is: as soon as Saturn's two front legs hit the ground, priase him like Crazy) towards the end of the training and it worked! Hopefully that is not a one off from him! We did some short sequences to look at things and I think Lee likes "turning away" (or flipping) method. I am terrible at that. My arms and hands are not co-ordinate enough to give Saturn the body language he wants, I just messed everything up. At one of the sequences, Lee put a jump half way in between the weave (figure below):
We need to handle the dog on the right hand side, send and flip him into the weave entry (handler is not allow to pass the jump). Other than the smashing and amazing Bernadette & Zen did it correctly, I don't recall any of us could do that. I know if I were to handle him from the left hand side, he will find the entry. I have never done this flipping away thing but it is good that I know my weakness and I will practise more! We also did a recall over A Frame and See-Saw. Saturn was very good at stopping at the contact until I released him eventhough he still kinda creeping down the plank. Overall, I don't think Saturn was working very well today, he was not in his full speed and I also notcied that sometimes he jumped with two back legs tuck in and sometimes stretching out. Also, at Sue's sand school, she has very close neighbours, so we are not allow our dogs to bark, so winding him up before his run is prohibited! here are a few sequences we were doing this afternoon: 
It was a three hours long training, I asked Colin to take Sizzle in to watch for 10 minutes. He was so excited and started to bark when he saw some fast dogs goign around, poor little man has to go back to the car.
I've got a bit stressed with Samber's house trained this week. She was very clean the first four days, eventhough she wasn't keen to go to the garden to do her toilet but she was clean indoor. She started to poo and wee indoor since last Friday. She is very clever that she didn't messed on the carpet, she will go to the kitchen and bathroom on the tile flooring to wee and poo. I don't really want that to happen, so I took her out every hour but everytime she went into the garden, all she wants is PLAY. At the end, I have to keep her in and let the boys out, then let the boys in and take her out. I have even tried to stay in the garden with her for more than an hour but still she is not doing anything. I started to crate her at night (before, she was sleeping on our bed with the boys); when I let her out in the morning, she did her toilet and I priased her but she was very nervous. We go out everyday for a walk, sometimes she did her toilet but sometimes she don't. Basically, she kinda hold her toilet until the next morning!
 daddy's girl
SIZZLEI had a few "complain" from friends saying that I haven't posted any of Sizzle's training videos for a while. Well, the weather have been wet after the snow, so we kinda stuck indoor doing some refresh on our tricks and the balance work. As we have already started our puppy agility class at Pachesham, so I am not worry or in no rush to do more training at home. Tuesday agility + swimming and Saturday flyball are a lot for a little guy. I didn't get any flyball training video last Saturday as we were doing the basic things, such as static retrieve, run back on 8 jumps to teach the dog to stride properly and recall. I am hoping we will get to do more box work next week. We can't practise this at home. Yesterday was cloudy but dry, so I thought I will ask Colin to do some filming for us. A friend of mine was asking me how I train Sizzle on a few things, so I thought I would send her this little video: His running contacts are so much better! The A Frame is still on the puppy height, I would not raise it until he is much older. Before yesterday, I still have the plank down for his Dog Walk training. I have ordered a pair of puppy trestle two weeks ago and it just arrived today but he had tried to do a full Dog Walk at Pachesham two weeks ago and he was no problem at all. I thought I will be braved to let him walk on a full DW at home to see if he is confidence and as you can see, NO PROBELM for this little man. This means, I have a brand new puppy trestle for sale! We still have a lot of things to work on, especially the rear across and turning away from me. I have not touch any weaving yet. I have watched Susan Garett's 2x2 weave a few times but I think I prefer the Channel/V Weave training. I would not do the weave training on my own as I know I will be terrible at it. I must email my guru to give us some lessons!
Here is another video taken today. I thought him the TYRE today, which he tried to go around it most of the time. I thought I will do a longer sequence with him involving two contacts then reward him at the end:
I love my little guy, he is so much fun and I enjoy training with him.
SATURN Saturn's coat is finally growing! I have noticed that on the weekend and I can see the fur by his neck (his white collar) is filling up. I am so happy! He looks like a puppy now but a bit shaggy, you can see he has a very long outer coat and the new inner coat and his colour has becomes lighter. I like his dark shaded sable coat, he is such a handsome boy, hopefully by the end of the year he will have a full coat and his dark shaded is back. this is my SOUL when he was 9 weeks old, cute eh? this picture was taken last May, he had such a lovely silky coat and I like his dark shaded sable
SAMBER Samber continues to "bully" the Tris. She just loved to play. She likes outdoor and she is so eager to go out. She would not let the boys stay quiet, she just want to non stop playing! I bought her a pink lead+collar set, hopefully to make her look more like a girl. Colin said he would not take her out because of her new pink lead, he said that is too girlie! I think I need to find her another not pink lead just incase Colin needs to take her out sometimes! Oh dear! What's wrong with man? 
Samber's pink lead 
There weren't any flyball training last Saturday so I was really looking forward to today's training. We normally get there half and hour early so the boys could have a quick walk + toilet before they start training. We took all the dogs with us, can you imagine seven shelties dashing around? Well, Samber would not leave Sizzle alone, she kept pouncing on him to tease him to play, so the two of them were running like a lunatic for at least good 15 minutes. I had to put them back to the car as I do not want Sizzle to get too tired for training. Well, Sizzle didn't do too well at training today, he got very tired after 25 minutes of training, bad Samber definitely had tired him out, so I need to make sure she is not allow to play with him before training. For the last 10 minutes, I have to take Saturn out to replace him. Saturn was very happy to work with me and he did some very nice run backs. Colin was holding Samber while we trained, I want to make sure she is happy with the new environment. Poor Samber probably has never seen so many barky dogs before and she actually got into panic. She is a very quiet dog herself, she does not like other dog bark, so when Saturn barks at home, she normally run away. Guess we need to take her out more to some dog shows or training places.  this is Sizzle doing his static retrieve 
this tuggy I bought from Clean Run is really helpful. Sizzle loves it and he will tug when I show him this toy. 
this is Saturn doing his run back, as he being quite a biggish sheltie, he has longer legs long enough to do the single stride  I still have problem to get Sing to run back to me FASTER after he gets the ball. He is always very nice running up to fetch the ball, single stride up the 4 jumps and no problem on the box.I have tried to use the tuggy to get him to come back faster but it just not working! Ideas please!!!!!!!!
After we came back from flyball, we took the all the dogs to walk in the Common. It was such a lovely day today, sunny and dry and I only need a thin fleece on. The dogs enjoyed their walks and the little ones (Sizzle, Titan and Samber) were running chasing each so much that I cannot stop them at all! Mad shelties!    pretty tomboy Samber
What can I say about this little girl we have? The more time we spent with her, the more we love her. She is fun, a real character, loves outdoor and walkies and she has everlasting energy! And yes, she is a stinker too! She is with me for 6 days now and she has 3 full baths! We went out walking this morning, to a different part of Mitcham Common, a part that she hasn't explore before. She is no different to the boys, she will do the same amount of sniffing as the boys or maybe more. The only different is ... she does not cock her legs like the boys and I find it difficult to encourage her to go toilet!
When I walk the dogs, I like to walk and then stop for a little while to play ball with them. As we were playing this morning on the walk, this little MADam wander off to sniff around, I know she isn't far but when I turned around, I saw her rolling on the grass, my first instinct was "shit! Not on the fox poo!". I called her but she turned deaf ears on me and roll even more! I tried to call her again, eventhough I can see her looking at me but she didn't want to come back and I don't want to go and get her, so I decided I will walk off with the boys and call her, she finally ran and join us but gosh! She stinked! I do not want anymore rolling on the fox poo, so I pop her on the lead and she wasn't happy at all.
We continue walking, as the weather was nice so I took the boys to the hilly bit of the Common so Sing can have another swim. The water level in the pond is overfill at the moment. We were there yesterday and Sizzle had a go swimming in the open water and he seems to enjoy it. I tried to encourage him to swim again today and he did. As Samber was so smelly and dirty, I decided I will push her into the pond to wash off the fox poo. She is a funny girl, when I gently push her in, she swam away from me, she ended up in the island in the middle of the pond! I have to say, she swims really well and fast! Now, how can I get her back to me? I called and called but she just wouldn't come. I sent Sing in, hopefully she will follow him back to me but Sing only has his eyes on the tennis ball! The water is too deep for me to go in. I thought I will go around to the other side of the pond, closer to her, maybe she will come back. As me and the boys were walking off, I heard her jumping into the water and swam a long way back to chase after me. How sweet is that? I think this is a very good experience for her because she now joined the boys swimming! YEAH! all Lian's shelties can swim!
She really loves outdoor, she likes to go out walkies and paly in the garden all day. I thought Sizzle is full of energy but Samber never stops! The minute you let her out in the garden, she will play and play and play. With all the rain we have, the garden is very muddy so she is always covers in mud!  Samber is a great jumper, she can easily jump up to anything. It is not surprised to find her on the dinning table but one good thing, she is not a greedy dog, she will not steal any food. She may want to sniff them but she nevers pinch them. She is very much like Sing. Can you believe how lucky I am to have TWO non greedy shelties? Maybe Paula breed non greedy shelties!! Colin quite like her prick ears and said she looks like a fox but not me, so I have a go to FIX her ears!  Isn't she looks prettier with her proper ears? I managed to use my mobile to captured Sizzle and Samber swimming in the open air:
Samber is settling in very well with the boys, I don't think she acts like a girl at all. She loves to play with all the boys and when she plays, she is always the rough one! And Boy! She has everlasting energy!!! Sing didn't seems to like her that much, he just treated her like any other in the pack. If she is getting too much in his way, he will show his teeth to tell her to "back off". They rarely play but when they play, Sing is always so gentle with her. the love birds When we first got her back, she was absolutely fine with other people and other dogs, she will ran to people when we went out walking for a fuss and she will say hello to all dogs she met in the walks. Unfortunately, something spook her on Tuesday and things have changed. I took her to Pachesham on Tuesday when I went training with Sizzle. We were walking pass a horse box and she was on the lead, I don't know why but the horse decided he will blow into her face and neigh! You guess it, she was so frightened and she wouldn't let anyone touch her since and when she met another dog, she will turn away and run! I still trust her by letting her go off lead when we go out walking. I have learned the more I trust a dog, the easier I will get my training and this seems to work well on her. We went to Wimbledon Common yesterday for a good long walk and she was chased by a couple of big dogs that she was unsure about. She actually ran away from me but when I tried to call her back, she did responsed. She took a detour but her eyes were on me so she did came running back to me through the bushes! Poor Samber has never associate with toys before, when I first shown her a few toys, she was shocked and ran away when it squeak! A big thank you to my little star Sizzle, he had taught her how to play in the last few days. She now loves to pick up a toy and shake them, very cute.  here is Samber playing with Sizzle's favourite bird toy A few friends were asking me if I am going to do agility with her ... emmm ... definitely NOT at the moment. Sizzle's training is coming along very nicely and I would like to concentrate with him, I really enjoy training him and we work more and more like a team now. Samber maybe a "potential" for agility but I know I am going to breed her to Sing, so when she is in season and whelping, that will take a few months off from training, so, maybe not a good idea after all. When she gets used to all the new surroundings, I would love to clicker train her to do some basic stuff. this is a boring video of dogs playing but they are so sweet and happy together:
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Isn't she looks prettier with her proper ears?
