.Dazzle turned 1 year old today and had a GREAT birthday!
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We started the day by going to the other side of town (a little over an hour away) to work on his herding. He had GREAT fun chasing the sheep, but as a result I have pulled his entries for a herding test coming up in 2 weeks. I agree with the instructor that he's not ready yet. It seems the more often he gets in with sheep, the less control he seems to have. :-( He needs to see sheep often enough that they are "no big deal" instead of being an exciting and novel activity.
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I don't think I can afford to have him around sheep that often right now, so I think his herding will be going on hold till I can either get our own sheep or somewhere closer becomes available with sheep that are pretty "sticky" for him to learn on. It's not like we don't have enough other venues to pursue! :-)
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VIDEO: Herding part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRvNNXkhZMI
(Part 1 is just his intro to the sheep till I went to get a ball. Not very exciting)
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VIDEO: Herding part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52bn8FAES-U
(Part 2 actually has some herding and some chasing)
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VIDEO: Herding part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab1EVQsoxMg
(More chasing and herding)
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After herding, we went to their neighbor's pond to do dock diving! They have a regulation dock and even a set-up for "Extreme Vertical". This is a new segment of Dock diving in which the dog tries to go more for height and not as much for distance. The bumper (toy) is held in place on a rig that holds it about 8' off the end of the dock and is adjustable in height. A Malinois holds the World Record height of 8' (because that's as high as the equipment would go!)
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We started on land and had Dazzle jump up to get the toy - no problems there. Then we held the toy just out of reach off the end of the dock- lots more hesitation with that :-) But he did do it several times! Then I tried to do too much and have him get it from the competition rig. No dice :-) So we went back to distance throws. I'm sure that with practice, he will do the Extreme Vertical too, but we were just there for fun and the EV was stressing him out a bit.
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VIDEO: Dock Practice and fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=payJKyJVw3U
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By the end of our day, you would think he would have been tired! But no, he kept going out on the dock as I was packing up to leave and I had to catch him to get him back in the van. :-) He was having SO much fun I hated to leave, but it was getting late.
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By the time we got back home (almost 2 hours later since I stopped for my food and a bag of dog food), he was ready to play more!
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Here's to many many more active years together!
