It's funny what they'll do for the simplest things! I see Elara has the giggly sides like my boy used to have. We didn't get rid of the giggles until putting him on a partial raw diet, but all through his kibble/canned food days he was plagued with the giggly sides like Elara has. Looks cute on her though! lol My goodness she's such a good follower, my boy would have lost interest after a few seconds!

she is so cute!!! is that your set up or are you at a course? can't wait to hear how she does! good luck!!!!

Huskyluv wrote:

It's funny what they'll do for the simplest things! I see Elara has the giggly sides like my boy used to have. We didn't get rid of the giggles until putting him on a partial raw diet, but all through his kibble/canned food days he was plagued with the giggly sides like Elara has. Looks cute on her though! lol My goodness she's such a good follower, my boy would have lost interest after a few seconds!

Giggles? Yeah, she's getting so good at heeling and free stacking.

jbealer wrote:

she is so cute!!! is that your set up or are you at a course? can't wait to hear how she does! good luck!!!!

Thanks! That's my parent's place. My mom is big into agility, so she has most of the equipment.

She's so cute!
She looks so soft, I want to use her as a pillow!

Awwww she's so big and ADORABLE! She must be so cuddly!

SaraB wrote:

Giggles? Yeah, she's getting so good at heeling and free stacking.

She's doing very well it looks like. Yeah the giggles, watch her flanks and her tummy tuck as she moves and you'll see they "jiggle" when as she moves along. My boy used to have it too before he leaned up from eating more raw, it used to drive me crazy when he was on kibble. LOL I guess since it always caught my eye and bothered me on Dakota I couldn't help but notice on Elara. I don't mean it in a bad way, just thought it was funny!

Oh! I really had no clue what you were talking about. lol. Yeah, that's my bad. I've been feeding her too much, mainly because she's a puppy. But she's on a diet now. And I think her coat makes her look a bit fatter. Her undercoat is a bit long. She's sooo fluffy!

She is fun to cuddle with IF you can get her to hold still for any amount of time!

How do you embed youtube videos? I copy and pasted the embed url and it didn't work.

[youtube] insert youtube line here [/youtube]

Thank you!

Went to the Iabca shows this weekend. 4 shows in 2 days and each judge gives you a written critique. She was the only sibe there, so won breed each time and got SG1's each time giving her a national and international title. And in the third show she got 3rd place in group! Out of 10 dogs! I was so proud of her! Uploading pics now and videos later.

Congrats, Sara and Elara! Woo woo!

2nd show




2nd show group


3rd show. She loved this judge and I think it paid off cause he gave her 3rd in group!


Waiting as the judge writes the critique.










Group where she won 3rd!








Found out she works best when I bring a toy into the ring.


Pretty free stack


4th show in group






That dang huge cane corso kept winning group. Won 2 of the 4 and placed 2nd and 3rd in the two he didn't win. The dog was nice, but I didn't like the professional handler showing him. She did some things that were a bit annoying to make the judge look at her dog and no one elses. Felt bad for whom ever was behind her, cause she kept getting in their way when they did down and backs.

Congrats!!!!! She looks awesome.

Congratulations Sara and Elara!

Just curious, how old is Elara? And how much time do you spend working/training her?

Congrats on the show! It is really impressive how closely she watches you. She is gorgeous. My seven month old has an identical coat and it is so thick it makes her look stocky but she really isn't. I have a large fenced yard and have started to purchase agility obstacles for the doggies to have fun with. Started with two single jumps and they should be delivered any day. Do you use a toy as reward for the obstacles? And what kind if you do? How long do you stick with an obstacle before you introduce another? Is one a month too soon? Again, congrats and keep up the good work!!!

Koda wrote:

Congrats, Sara and Elara! Woo woo!

Dee&Frankie wrote:

Congrats!!!!! She looks awesome.

Thanks!

cmanding wrote:

Congratulations Sara and Elara!

Just curious, how old is Elara? And how much time do you spend working/training her?

She's 6 1/2 months old. I've been training her off and on since I got her. At frist I took her to puppy class and then conformation class. That conformation class (once a week) was outside and it started getting too hot to go. So I took a break for a bit and still worked on stuff at home about 2 to 3 times a week (should train more, but I get lazy and don't want to). Two weeks ago I started another conformation class (this one inside thank goodness) on Tuesdays (later tonight!). I start training every day for about a week just before a show or match. She gaits really well next to me and free stacks nicely. I need to get batter about hand stacking her and getting her to stay put. And I need to get her more used to strangers touching her. A lady was trying to show me how I should stack and hold her head. She tried to do it for me and Elara just freaked out! She's definitely not a "hand off" dog. I'll have to get her used to other people handling her, at least for the judge's inspection.

beck3465 wrote:

Congrats on the show! It is really impressive how closely she watches you. She is gorgeous. My seven month old has an identical coat and it is so thick it makes her look stocky but she really isn't. I have a large fenced yard and have started to purchase agility obstacles for the doggies to have fun with. Started with two single jumps and they should be delivered any day. Do you use a toy as reward for the obstacles? And what kind if you do? How long do you stick with an obstacle before you introduce another? Is one a month too soon? Again, congrats and keep up the good work!!!

Thanks! I usually use treats for agility, but if your dog is toy motivated more than treat motivated then use any toy you'd like. For training use whatever works best. While at an agility trial, though, you are not allowed to use treats or toys while in the ring. Those are only allowed in conformation and that's if the judge allows it, which they usually do.

First off, keep everything low i.e. no jumping higher than say 4" until your pup is at least 9 months old. Though you can add in a higher jump every now and then, but mostly just jump low ones. Start off by teaching your dog how to jump correctly with her head down. To do this set up the jump inside (works best on carpet, but short cut grass works too). Sit at one end of the jump and have your dog jump back and forth in front of you by putting a treat low on the other side. You want the dog to keep its head low and looking for the treat. This skill is helpful later on, because it helps them turn quicker when they land.

Also you want your dog to think that jumping is the best thing in the world. You want her to jump any jump you walk by. There are different ways to train, but I like this way best. You want your dog to jump any jump that YOU cross the plane of. If you don't, you don't want your dog too unless you tell it to. It's kind of hard to explain in words. You'd need to see it in action. Maybe I'll make a video of it sometime. But the main idea is that you want your dog to go over jumps and not around them.

As for introducing new obsticles, add them as quickly or slowly as you see fit. With my girls, I had them do the tunnel, jumps, table, and a low contact right from the start. I hold off on weave polls (cause they are a bit harder to teach) and the seesaw (want to teach them the other contacts first). For the contacts, the main thing you want to teach is "spot" where the dog stops at the end with its back feet still on the contact and its front feet on the ground (you can also have your dog down at the bottom of the contact, but I like 2 on 2 off better). This is to make sure your dog hits the contact. If they don't and jump over it without touching it, it's a fault.

Also teach "watch me" and "stay" and have a good recall. You also want them to look at you whenever you said their name. To teach this, say her name and if she looks at you give her a treat or praise. If she doesn't, don't repeat her name just tap her on the back until she looks at you and then praise her, but don't give a treat. Do that about 20 times a day for a few weeks and you'll have the best recall ever, but it is hard to keep doing that every day! I need to still. My girls, mainly Elara, usually ignore me when I call them.

There's so much to learn about agility. See if you can find a local agility club and take classes. If you can't find one, let me know and you can call me sometime and I'll explain what I can. I'll try making some agility training videos too, but don't hold me to that! lol. At least not any time soon expecially with how hot it's been here lately.

That's great, Sara! Elara is a beautiful girl...and really looks like she's having FUN!!

Thanks Sara!! Good info. Not planning on showing, just want to play with the dogs and the agility equipment looks like so much fun!!! Right now will use it with my 15 month old male Husky and 2 year old Pit/Lab. Skyla is still too young but later she can do it too. Thanks againI I have a begiinner agility book to use as a reference. Your dogs look like they are having a blast with agility.... Hope mine like it.

Their never to young to start, just keep things low. I started both my girls when they were only 3 1/2 months old! Just kept the bars on the ground and went over contacts that were on the ground (a seesaw without the thing in the middle, just the board on the ground). I do think exposing dogs to the equipment early does help. I didn't try Siku on a seesaw until she was about 1 and she's terrified of it. I didn't want that to happen to Elara, so I brought home my mom's seesaw and just put a PVC pipe under it to rock on and practiced Elara and Siku on it (Siku was even afraid of that!). Now Elara will go over a full height seesaw on her own! And when I saw on her own, I mean we are on the other side of the yard and look up to see Elara merrily going up and down the seesaw! I was shocked! lol. It was pretty funny. She's the only dog I've seen do the seesaw on their own.
Elara's 6 months now and she's already pretty good at the seesaw, A-frame, low jumps, table (though needs to work on her downing and staying), tunnel, and chute. Just haven't tried her on the dog walk or tire yet.

Good advice about starting young. Will try Skyla with things low to the ground. Thanks.

Finally got Elara's show pic.

Great picture

beautiful pic!

Torturing Siku with one of our foster kittens! She wants to mouth them so bad, but we don't let her. Look at the intense stare she gives him. lol.







The kitten has no fear!

Wow! Siku is really good at restraining herself!