Orion the Crested

This weekend and agility?

Orion, Tara and I were in MA this weekend for a Kathy Sdao seminar. I think we all had a good time. Orion can't handle being stationary around so many other dogs, so much of his weekend was spent crated. I did walk him through the seminar space once and walked him around outside with lots of dogs milling about. He only had one real "outburst" when we were inside gemini and I paused near some friends. There wasn't even a dog he was looking at, it was weird. There were definitely dogs around, but there were none in his line of sight when he had his little meltdown. He's a spaz. We avoided outbursts outdoors though, and he cried to greet any smallish dog. He's so funny. He grinned at all different people, he assumes that everyone is there for him I think. He got lots of compliments on how cute he is. He knows it. : ) Anyway, he was actually quite good at performing some obedience with me in the parking lot. His sits have gotten super-fast, his left finish is fantastic (something he used to hate doing when we were in L2 those 3 times!), his right finish is better, and when we walk he is more focused on me than he's ever been. I'm very impressed with his progress.

I've been watching a lot of crested agility on youtube and feel really sad that we aren't actively doing agility at this point. We took classes for 1.5yrs+ while we were in MA, but have done little agility training since moving to ME. That is going to change. I busted out the weaves today and Orion remembered the drill and was eager to participate. For once I ended on a high note, after an excellent brief training session. Orion was basically begging for more training when I was done. Yay! Hopefully he'll have fun weaving for his dinner as well, cause that's the plan from now on! That and other agility skills. He's really come a long way. It'd be nice to try to really get something accomplished with him. He's so speedy and takes direction so much better than he used to. I don't think I want to do group classes with him though, as he's still quite reactive in a training setting. He's not especially reactive at shows. I feel like I can work with him one-on-one primarily and make much better progress with him. We'll see how it goes. I would love to compete with him, but I will respect his limitations. I'm really hoping its something we can work up to. He also needs a lot of work on the teeter. I'm going to have my friend Mitch build me one shortly, so we can start working on that out in the yard.

Labels: agility, crested

Orion brag

I know it's not a competition brag or anything, but I can tell you its been a long time coming. : ) Orion has always kind of had an issue with his nails being trimmed. I could always do it, but he wasn't happy about it. I believe he has always been afraid. Well, I can proudly say those days are over. After almost 2 yrs of work, I got out the nail clippers and treats today, like I always do every week or so, and he came and sat right in front of me, eager to earn his treats. : ) This is the first time he has come to me for a nail trim, I always have to go to him. What a breakthrough. It's nice to not worry about him pulling away while I'm trimming or having him stress out. He's happy and eager to have the process start now. I'm so proud. : ) What a good boy!

Orion and cardboard

Orion videos

Labels: chinese crested, clicker training, rough collie

Orion competing?

I've started working with Orion again after a long-ish break. I'm planning on entering him in the APDT rally trial at Gemini the end of Oct. Now THAT should be interesting. Orion competing, it's such a joke. : ) We'll give it a go though, I've just got to convince him that it's fun to do rally, lol. Really it is! He's not so into the repetition of things and I'm sad to say that after over 2yrs of living with me he still can't walk well on a loose-lead unless we're 15mins or so into a walk, and all bets are off if something he deems interesting should appear. I can call Tara off deer, I couldn't call orion off anything if i tried. Which is why he's ALWAYS on leash. He's not trust-worthy with distractions at all. Oh well, we'll have the smart, ribbon-winning title-achieving Tara, and then we'll have Orion. At least we'll make people smile! He loves to put on a show. He's such a goof-ball. Anyway, I'm going out in the yard to play with the dogs, and enjoy the day.