Sonic 8 months and first puppy training day

Sonic and sister Brooke turned 8 months yesterday. Where all these time gone? I know I am bias but they both are such wonderful puppies. Brooke is well and truly loved by Matthew and Rhoda Burdett, she is a little princess and is very clever too. I am so very proud of her. You can catch up with her on her blog. 

Sonic has grown into a handsome young man. He is growing through teenage stage at the moment ... the recall is not 100% but is 99.9%. He started to get distracted by other dogs at training but all under control which is very good. 

He now has two puppy classes to go weekly; Thursday evening indoor school at Leah's and Saturday morning outdoor at Lin's. He absolutely enjoy his training. We are doing puppy foundation at both places and learn all different things from different environment. I think this will do him good. He is very confident and doing very well at home in the garden but at Leah and Lin, he didn't understand the plank on the ground. I am hoping to take him to other places to get used to the plank on the ground. To me, I believe, he SHOULD be able to do plank on the ground at anywhere. Hopefully when the puppies have gone next weekend, we can back to training and start working hard on that.

I didn't get a chance to take some recent photos of him, the puppies have taken all my attention. I feel very sorry that he has been neglected. This photo was taken yesterday after we came back from 3 hours training. You think he should be tired? NOPE! When he got home, he was playing ball for half an hour and then chase the puppies around the garden for an hour ...

 a real daddy's boy, tennis ball mad!

playing with sister Sweep

Sonic went to his first proper puppy training day yesterday at Leah's. It was a 2 hours training day. There were two other shelties there, his sister Brooke and a very handsome tri colour Shark. Brooke and Shark were the great distraction for him. He wasn't too bother by Brooke as I have been training hard to get him to pay attention to me when Brooke is around and it seems to work rather well but Shark, oh Sonic loves little Shark. Shark is such a friendly little sheltie. They have met at the agility show when Shark was really little and Sonic loves puppy. 

I was very glad to be able to watch Brooke work with Matt. I think they make a great Team. Brooke loves her daddy a lot and Oh My, she is so fast and furious! Her wait is fantastic, I am jealous!!! I thought Sonic is pretty good but not after I see Brooke. We are beginners in front of her. 

We did some little exercises, working on control, drive and pre-agility foundations. I have taught Sonic Susan Garrett's "crate game", well, I haven't finish watching the DVD yet so our "crate game" is not up to that standard yet but we are working on it. It works brilliant for us especially when Brooke and Shark were next to him. Although he was so tempted to go and say hello to them but he was really focus on me and stay in his crate until I released him, and he drive to his toy! WooHoo! I am a happy mummy!

We did some ladder work, I've only done the "forward" ladder work with Sonic when he was a puppy puppy and have never try the "reverse" version. It was great to have learn something new with a ladder. He knows the reverse but its always gone sideway when he does his reverse. I am hoping to use the puppy pen to build the narrow lane to teach him to reverse in a straightline but he has to wait until the puppies have gone. For a first timer, I think he did great and I am going to practice that. 

We then get to do the jump-tunnel-jump sequence. As we have done a bit of tunnelling so we get to do from an angle which is great. I am very happy that he beginning to learn to pick up the jump/obstacle in front of him. Also, proofing wait. I have been practising our "set up" routine, he isn't great yet, so I didn't do that a lot at the training day. I think he pick up some tricks quicker than the other and this one isn't the quick one for him. I want to make sure that he is very good at it before I reinforce the routine at training. 

His wait is pretty good but not as good as Brooke. We will practice a lot of that, especially crossing behind him. He really dislike me walking around, so he either move or stand up to look what I am doing. Look like we have some homework to do.

One thing he amazed me was the "send on" exercise at the end of the training day. I know his "send on" is pretty poor at Lin's. He is not a human-friendly dog, he is reluctant when there is someone there chucking his toy for him or recall him. At home or at walk, we have been practising the "send on" and he is good but soon if there is someone out there, he will not go for it.

here is the compilation of some clips at training day:

 

 

Soon we finished at the Training Day, we have to rush to our Saturday puppy class at Lin's. I thought Sonic would be tired after the 2 hours training but he was still full of bean. He still going at full speed at Lin's. Then, when we got home, he was playing ball for half an hour and then chase the puppy for another half hour. He did sleep very well last night though :)