Obedience Skool (part two)

Hi. Today was a HUGE day at Skool!! Prepare yourselves, a HUGE day means a HUGE post......He he

First we did all the normal stuff that we do at Obedience Skool........ and me and Bailey could have graduated into Grade 2 today..... but, uummm, are still in Grade 1...... coz we didn't pass all the things we had to do to get into Grade 2.   ( It's called pacing oneself!!  I think Bailey is too!) Why do you have a pained look on your face ma??!

Here is my mate Bailey and me...... after we flunked paced ourselves.

We mucked around a bit.....

Bailey getting excited and trying to roll on me.... he's pretty heavy you know!

He has his "distinguished" moments......

And sometimes we just press noses..... we go way back you know!

Then we were able to watch an "agility display" by advanced doggies..... they were good.... but they didn't do stuff perfect! Even the advanced make errors apparently. Whew!!! (that takes the pressure off!)

These doggies were showing us their superior "waiting" and "staying" abilities. They stayed in their dropped positions for hours at least 10 minutes until their handlers came back to them. I would've started chewin' the grass or hassling the doggie next to me WAY before then!!

Halfway through the agility course - you can still see the dropped doggies in the background.

Hey - here is my other mini schnauzer mate Jazper, we are waiting to get some sausage from the BBQ the humans were cooking after the demonstrations. Ha ha, Jazzy had a bath and a haircut this week!!

Meet Maggie, oh, and my bum bum, sorry. Maggie is doin really well at Skool and agility, and she only has been here 3 times!! Maggie is currently being looked after by a foster mum, and she is looking for a permanent home. I hope she finds one soon.

We were doin' lots of playing and bitey face while waiting for the BBQ. (what IS taking so long!!)

Then we had to take to the field and do our showing off agility moves. Here I am rocking these jumps...

And Maggie is fully in the air too!!!!

Jazper runnin' through the tunnel.....

and me runnin' through the tunnel - my dad would like to point out his great level of camera mastery in capturing these shots.... we are so fast through that we are only a blur....but he got us....even kinda in focus! Well done dad!!!!!!!!

Hey..... who is this with me....?????????

This is my mate Merlin. Merlin is a mini schnauzer like me.  (Great pose Merlin!) He's 10 and a half years old, and his sister, Asta, is 4. Asta and her mum compete in high level obedience (she's in level gazillion!). I don't think I'll ever be that good. Merlin is lovely.... even though he has a nubbin and no tail!! I'm not sure if he lost it in a horrible accident or what. It might be a sensitive issue, so I haven't "grilled" him about it yet.

Here is Jazzy and me supervising the humans packing away our agility equipment.

But we got NEWS for ya..... we ain't moving until we get a sausage from that BBQ!!!!

It was a great day - but long and tiring! I think I will have a chilled afternoon now.  PS: (guess who scored from the BBQ!!!!!!!)   High 5!

Bye for now!

Puppy Agility Training

As you guys know, I'm enrolled at Obedience Skool where the trainers attempt to train my mum into doing the right things with me. It's slow going.... but she's gettin' there!!

The GREAT thing about being enrolled at Obedience Skool is that we get to do "Puppy Agility". We have to be under 12 months of age for this bit. Today I want to show you the kinda stuff we get up to.

First things first..... we do two laps of our course to warm up our humans.....they get sore legs and stretched groins and so forth....... (rolling schnauzer eyes heavenwards)

These are the "cantalever jumps" - four little jumps in a cross pattern, we jump over each, then reverse direction and jump them again.....if I do it right....I get a food treat!

Here's my mate Jazper doin' it too - you can see all four of the jumps in this photo. We rock this.

This rampy thing is called the "scramble up" - we have to get up it (note ear positions) - and then go down it in a controlled manner, and do a "drop" at the bottom once we hit "terra firma".

I'm about to control myself - you are not supposed to jump off any of the down ramp.

And here is Jazper at the "peak" of the "scramble up".

We get to do each piece of equipment two or three times. Some doggies need this to get it right.... I just get to perfect my technique! 

This is FUN - I get to run thru the tunnel - the official command is "tunnel through" - we race our humans to see who reaches the end first - we doggies ALWAYS win! Humans are so slow!!!

I loves this photo - It's an action shot of Bailey going for it - the tunnel that is..... and his mum tryin' hard to control/keep up with him..... see Bailey almost pullin' her over!! He's pretty strong!

This tunnel can be made to have a curve or bend in it.... that's fun too!

This exercise is called "jump training". We have to "heel" and "sit" by our mums and then we are told to "wait". They walk to the other side of the jump and we wait till we are called - I wait to hear "Okay...Over!" I'm really good at this one too.

This photo shows Jazper, me and Bailey..... all doin' the same task - teachin' our mums!

Here I am doin' the "walk on". Again we are supposed to be fairly controlled and on a loose lead...and not run but just walk in a controlled manner. Boy - it's tempting to run!

This is a mid-way action shot - the trainer is watching me closely, and mum is unable to catch up with me when I'm off-lead! (see her arm).......(sigh) She's so slow!

This is "tyre-up" - where we jump thru a tyre.... it's another action shot... I'm flyin'!!

This is called "table-up" - we run up to the table - jump on -  get told to "wait" and must then wait for a release word to move off - my word is "okay"! I'm very good at "wait" - see how I am watching mum closely for the command.

This is Bailey having a baby lie down while waiting for his release word! He's showing off again!

So I think that's most of the things we do at Agility Training. I can't show you a picture of us doin' "the weavers" coz my dad didn't get a picture of that. It's essentially sticks that we weave in and out of.... and they are bound by lots of yellow plastic so it's a kind of a tunnel. When we go into the next level, we won't have the plastic anymore. 

I love Agility, and I love to catch up with my friends, Jazper and Bailey - my close buds. We have to work on the fitness of our mums though....there is a lot of puffing and weezin' goin' on!!

Obedience Skool (Part One)

Hi everyone. Right after puppy skool at the vets, mum and dad took me to "Big Skool" - I know some of you wanted to know what we do here in Adelaide - and I am only just beginning to work it out myself. So here goes:

This is me and my mate Bailey. We go way back. We met at the vet's Puppy Skool. He was a lot smaller then, look how huge he is now!!

This is my other fav friend (fellow mini schnauzer) Jazper. She and I met here. Her mum adopted her when she was already 5 months old - but she was very smart - and picked up this Skool business real quick. Kinda showed me up!! (our mum's are working on Jazzie coming to some "Play-Days" at my place with my cousins - I'm sure we will all have fun!)

We do this on a local primary school oval - where our Doggie Club has "Clubrooms" and a shed down one end of the oval.

We start off in "puppies", then go to "beginners" then into "intermediate". I'm now in "intermediate" level.

We sometimes have to sit "at heel" by our owners.

This is good.

This is what they call "unfocussed" (I'm very good at that!)

This is me walking "at heel" position - I'm good at this.

This is Jazper and me doing our "stands" - we need to work on these - I'm too far forward and she is too far back - our shoulders are supposed to be in line with our mum's leg. At least I'm not sitting. I like to sit- especially when I've been told to "stand"!.

Bailey is showing off in Grade 1 - I'll be there soon! Look how he's focussed on the "treat hand"!

Jazzie is showing us how to do a "come" to her mum. I'm waiting patiently for my turn.

So that is all I can show you for this post - we have to wait for more and better photos from dad who is in charge of the flashy box at Skool.

Tomorrow night we do "Puppy Agility" and that is way more fun than Obedience Skool. We have equipments to use and can do jumping, balancing and stuff.

Fingers crossed for good photos!!