Friday, January 15, 2010

Practicing

We have already received several entries for my Train Your Dog Photo Contest. I know that others of you have said that you are practicing and trying to get the perfect photo to enter. Remember that entries close at midnight EST on January 31.

While Ambrose and I will not be entering, since we are judging, Ambrose has been practicing his training regularly. He is working on his attention while Barbara holds treats out to distract him. If he can do this exercise, anyone can. So I encourage you all to get to work on whatever skills you enjoy doing with you people and get those photos in. You and you person can win great prizes.



Last Saturday Barbara and I attended a great, fun workshop given by Carol Maupin and her dog Topper. They have such terrific teamwork and watching them was very inspiring. Carol taught us some heeling exercises that involved lots of playing with toys and eating treats! It was excellent fun and I learned a lot.




The people had to learn to walk in straight lines with their eyes closed!!! They were not that great at it. If they can't walk straight it is hard for them to expect us to walk in heel at their sides.





Trotter practiced precise left turns by heeling around dog crates.




I can not tell you how many hot dogs and bits of cheese I got but it was alot and I enjoyed every minute of the workshop although I was quite tired when it was over. Unfortunately Barbara forgot to give her camera to someone to take pictures of us working together. Bummer.

Here is a picture of me out in the sun today.



So practice your training and send me a photo for the contest. Don't forget to enter Mango Minster and also Biggie Z's Dog Pile Contest. I am going to see how many items that I can stack on Ambrose!

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post. I was going to write something similar. Will check this blog more often I think.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Molly the Airedale said...

Mom says that today is the day that we have to take our training pictures for you! We hope we're not too distracted!

Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch

Tama-Chan, Benny, Vidock, Violette, Ollie, Heloise, Momo, Ryu said...

I am always so impressed by your training exercises, Niamh! Yo are so talented. And it's good that Ambrose is learning too!

Woofs,
Tommy

PS: You look gorgeous in that last photo, Niamh!

Arran, Arthur and Mum said...

I hasn't forgot! I will nudge Mum about our photos!

Clive said...

Well done on the training exercises, Niamh.

take care
Clive

Lorenza said...

Hi, Niamh!
Walking with eyes closed sure is something my mom is not able to do!
I know how much you love practicing!
I am sure Ambrose is doing it great too!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza

Unknown said...

Ooh, what a great workshop you went to, Niamh! I wish you had managed to get some photos of you working with Barbara - I always love to see you in action! Video would be even better! :-)

That is a great exercise that Ambrose is practising - I have never done that so my human might try that with me too!

Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane

Dexter said...

I am practicing for sure! Now I just have to train Master to use the flashy box so that we can get a nice photo with both me AND momma.

Slobbers,
Mango

Gus, Louie and Callie said...

You 2 are doing so good at your training.. Now training humans that must really be hard.. They tend not to listen and get distracted easily...

Big Sloppy Kisses
Gus, Louie and Callie

Golden Samantha said...

Hi Ambrose!!! Great post - we'd love to enter - and have also scrolled through your blog a bit and would love to follow you - would you like ONE picture or a video or? for a training routine? So many fun contests!!! If you could let us know at samanthae17@gmail.com would be furry appreciative! Going to blog to add you to blogroll! Looks like you had a furry interesting time there!
Hugs xo
Sammie

Unknown said...

Hello Niamh and family. This is Twinkie the tiny Chi. I can't enter your contest myself, because I pretend I'm untrainable, but I have a younger annoying baby sis who's gone to school, and I'm thinking of entering her. As you understand Biggie's competition is going to be challenging for tiny me, but I'm going to do it no matter what it takes.
Twink!

Chef said...

Great contest, Niahmh!

Now that I'm fully obedience- trained (still practice often in case I get stubborn), I'm now into tricks that I can have fun with my parents doing. My newest one is popping a ball off my head that they throw at me. Actually, I'm training them to do it. But it takes a lot of focus and determination on my part to get them to do it right! So do I qualify?

xo
Chef

Chef said...

OOooops. Misspelled your name, Niamh. Sorry. xo

Juno said...

Hello Niamh, do you think we can submit the photo how we train our humans? They really need to be trained and we're trying very hard!!

Momo & Pinot

Agatha and Archie said...

DID YOU KNOW MAGGIE AND MITCH GET MINI MARSHMELLOWS WITH THEIR TRAINING??? Think about that one...Love A+A PS PL2 is going to try again this week for another shot,,and she says to tell your Mom that Archie was found in the bomb shelter sleeping with me...I can tell you that was a TOTAL mistake...I was so exhausted I didn't know what was happening.And it only happened once... she has been locking us out of there the other times..WHY DO I HAVE TO GET LOCKED OUT?? Think about that as well....

Life With Dogs said...

I would not stand a chance. ;)

Chula said...

Hi Niamh! Love the blog. I've wanted a Gorden Setter since I was a little girl but somehow ended up with 2 chis and various large breed mixes. I like all the spotlight on training. It's so important to have good doggie manners so that others can enjoy our kids! Plus the tricks are fun.

Wags,
Tracey, Chula, Poncho, Kenz, Boomer and the rest of the gang...

Samantha ~ Holly and Zac ~ said...

Hi Niamh and Ambrose,

We think your train your dog competition sounds very cool. We will try and get something to enter with before the 31st. :-)

Have a great weekend. :-)