von Moeller Hof Dobermans

Would you like to see something I think is quite remarkable?  This is Miss Quinna doing the retrieve with me trying to tape her at the same time.  I started out using Michael Ellis’s techniques of teaching the hold with PVC pipe when she was about 6 months old.  I then had an instructor at a local kennel club show me a technique which teaching the ‘get it’ and turn around to me really quick part.  This is all coming together pretty well, I think you’ll agree.

http://www.vimeo.com/1611100

When in the house, Quinna likes to find things to carry around to irritate the humans.  Shoes, kids’ stuffed animals, mini-containers of chocolate milk the kids left out, etc, etc.  Lately, she’s been in to books and magazines.  This morning, while I read email, Quinna brought me no less than 5 different pieces of reading material.  When she was carrying around piece #3, I decided to get my camera.

Well, the good news is that Quinna has really turned into a ball-driven girl.  I don’t even need the chuck-it anymore.  The bad news is that once I send the ball a few times, her brain is like on overload or something and she can’t think anymore.

Scenario: heeling for food out around the house on the parking pad, front walkway.  On a scale of 1 to 10 for drive, she’s about a 7 at this point.  Good, not great.  Then, I produce the ball.  The drive goes to a 9 at the mere sight of it.  If I send the ball one time, she is about ready to burst (drive level 9.5) so I end up sending the ball again when she’s heeling pretty nicely as a reward, and then THAT’S IT.  Drive = 10.  We’re done.  I have no more concentration from her.   Her tongue is hanging to the ground, she’s glossy eyed about the ball, and sort of incoherent – just wants to run again.  (she runs like a bullet to go after the ball)

So, note to self:  try using the ball with the tug FIRST and see if that gets her pumped to a drive level of maybe 8 or 8.5 and see if we can keep that level going a bit longer.

One interesting note – I had on a large oversized white t-shirt this morning while training.  When I did try to get her back in heeling position (which by the way, turns into pacing at drive level greater than 9), she was staring intensely at my armpit even though I had the ball in my left hand.  A couple of times she did this!  I was thinking, what is it about my armpit?  Then I decided that was great.  Bonus!  Maybe it will keep happening if I wear big white tee shirts!

On Saturday, I tracked Quinna over at our neighbors.  They have sort of a golf course type front yard.  I don’t know how many acres we’re talking about — it’s got to be at least 5 acres in each of the 3 neighbor’s front yards.  When the dew is out, and the grass is right before they mow it, it’s awesome tracking.  The grass is all level, you can see your footsteps, and it’s practically virgin b/c nobody but me ever really walks on it.  I trained Arras to track on rougher stuff - typical ‘pasture’ type land.  End result was that when we had to go somewhere where the tracking was really short (i.e., sod farms), he was terrible.  So, I thought - hey! I’ll train Quinna on the short stuff and then move to the long stuff.  Well, guess what?  she sorta sucks in the long stuff.  You can’t win.

So, anyway, I tracked her next door yesterday on the short stuff.  (more…)

Beuty v. Alten Adel (aka ‘Baccara’) VPG I, BH, AD, RHT, FHT, StPr 2, FPr 3.  Beuty is owned by Tori Gaskill of von Schlottke Dobermans.  You can see info about Baccara on Tori’s website at:

http://www.vonschlottke.com

Tori talks about the breeding in her blog at:

http://www.vonschlottke.com/Blog/..

This should be a great working litter!  Contact Tori for more info!

Finally got to go to dog training yesterday.  It’s been probably 6 weeks since I’ve been out there due to vacations and guests and what-not.  I dragged along some guests anyway — just for obed and protection.  In obedience, I wanted someone to watch for Quinna ‘pacing’.  Pacing is something that happens instead of a trot — their legs move in unison from side to side, instead of on a diagonal.  Think about a camel moving fast.  They move their right feet, then their left feet.  A trot as we know it, would have the right front and the left hing leg moving forward, and then the left front and right hind moving forward.  Keltie noticed that in my training with Quinna, she was pacing.  Pacing is not very pretty and it’s a bad habit for them to get into.  So, I’ve been doing a lot of fast heeling in circles to keep her trotting.  She will occasionally hop with her right front foot and I’m convinced that that’s the way she can go back and forth from trotting to pacing.  I think this is working, although I feel nauseous from trying to watch her front feet hit the ground.  I need to get better about telling from her head and neck if she’s trotting or pacing. (more…)

In the mail today — OFA has deemed Quinna’s hips OFA Excellent!  (just prelims, since she’s not yet 2 years old)  YEAH!

all right, 2 in one day.  Is there a limit to how much someone can blog?  like, is it obnoxious if you blog more than 1/day?  is there blogging etiquette?

Arras’ second litter was born last Sunday….7 pups, all black, 4 girls, 3 boys.  They are in Virginia.  This is a repeat breeding and the pups from that litter are now about 20 months old, and just fabulous temperament and drive.

Arras has a few girlfriends lined up for the summer.  One has come into heat already… The owner of the dam hasn’t announced it yet, so I’m not either … But, if you’re looking for a really nice working pup with solid, stable, clear thinking temperament, with a working pedigree to match, maybe this litter would be for you.

The other girlfriend is a repeat breeding to Danni.  Her info can be found on www.swiftrundobermans.com.  Danni hasn’t come into heat yet, but it should be soon.  No live pups came from the last breeding due to what we think was a toxic exposure.  We were so excited about that breeding, we’re trying it again.

I have found myself checking people’s blogs and wondering how they did them so easily - I mean, everyday? Isn’t it a pain to upload these things everyday? So, I finally took a few minutes to look into this WordPress and I’m pretty impressed! I can upload pics really easily, and post really easily, so hey! let’s give it a go, shall we?

With regards to dog training, I have been working a lot with Quinna in obedience and tracking. Not so much in protection - I haven’t been able to make it out to the club hardly at all since May, and we don’t always have helpers available. I worked her with Michael Ellis when we had him the first of June (Geez, it was so HOT those days — 100 degrees each day!), but nothing since… Here’s a pic of her that Paige took probably around the first of May… Isn’t she a cutie?

This picture was taken before she lost a few inches off of her tail. What a nightmare that has been! She wagged it SO hard against every hard surface in our house when she was young, and I guess it never healed. Right before Michael Ellis came, the tip of her tail fell right off! I then had to have a few inches surgically removed, and we had to get THAT to heal. For WEEKs, I wrapped it with every imaginable idea that came to mind. We would get her to leave the bandage alone for a few days, just to unwrap it and find it to be all gooey and nasty. I knew it needed air to heal, but that meant her tongue could get to it.

Finally, THE CURE: Preparation H!!!!

Yes, hemorrhoid cream! Put some on the end of that tail, kept her mouth off of it for 15 mins, and within HOURS of the first application, the healing was in process! I couldn’t believe it! So, there’s no hair on the end of her tail, but at least it’s not bleeding!
Quinna’s tracking is really good - she’s very much into it. My goal with her will be to keep her calm and steady and to not micro-manage her. I think too many trainers get in the way too much. Let the dog TRACK! just keep them under control. They miss a corner - let em work it out for a second, calmly. Don’t start freaking out - and getting in the way… just don’t let them get too far away from where the corner is and stay calm.

ok, back to dog training…My big goal is to have really beautiful, drivey, heeling. I dream about the picture-perfect heeling. The heeling that takes your breath away. That’s what I want. Why can’t I have it? It has eluded me with the last 3 dogs (of course, with the first dog, I had no idea what that was, anyway). I can teach the moving exercises and the retrieves just fine– I just want to freaking HEEL with STYLE, darnit!!!! I think I want it so bad that I’m probably messing up. I sent a video of my heeling to my friend Keltie, who has 2 of my ‘A’ litter pups. She is probably the most achieved person in the obedience world that I know. She gets perfect scores a LOT. She has put bunches of utility titles on her dogs - again, with perfect scores! (with dobermans, occasionally, but usually with goldens, but we won’t go there ) She has gone HIT so many times, that I’m sure the people who see her show up at shows are bummed out. Well, there goes THAT opportunity for HIT! Keltie gave me some GREAT feedback and I’m working hard so that I can send her another video that shows some improvement.

I’m going to sign off for now and see if I can actually incorporate this onto my website!