"CHAIR" - Gemma's latest cue for today's shaping exercise. This was VERY hard - took about 60 seconds! She is sooooooooooooo smart!

Yesterday she joined me at an agility trial in Ontario, where she got to wrestle with littermate Groove a bit, and watch the dogs run agility. She is really excellent in the crate at events - very quiet.

Today we focused our training on her retrieve, which had started to really suck. It finally dawned on me why our absolutely brilliant retrieve had deteriorated into virtually no retrieve with other dogs as a distraction - her reward had been downgraded to simple kibble, which I kept in a container on the patio. Today I nixed that and went first with sardines, and then with Roll Up. Voila! Problem fixed! She had 100% on her recalls today - yahoo! I also feel like we've made progress in our relationship. She chose to play tug with me today, even though Daisy was spinning around her, and easy temptation to chase sister instead. In the house, she's stayed near me when out of her crate, even laying down on my feet. What a good girl!!!

Gemma - 15 weeks!

Hooray! Gemma is finished with her vaccines, and is now out and about! Last weekend she went to San Diego with sister Daisy, Ed and I and did GREAT! I was sooooooooo proud of her! Then Sunday she went to Stacy's shaping seminar in Murrieta, where we learned how to shape a retrieve. We continued working on the exercises that afternoon, and by evening had a reliable retrieve! Woo Hooooooooooo! Video below was taken yesterday and today. She will now go retrieve objects on the floor with a "get" command. My girl is brilliant!

Meanwhile, I'm making progress re-establishing my relationship with Daisy, who has felt put out with the new pup. Daisy joined us last weekend, and then went with us to the agility trial in City of Industry yesterday. It's resulted in her getting back to her normal, happy self, initiating play with me. I think we'll be ready to start working on our boxwork and handling skills again soon. (Haven't even been down to the agility yard in weeks as she's just not been even willing to play, much less jump....)

My name is Gemma - gimme a cookie!

Here's Gemma - enjoying the bed! No, she's not sleeping with us. She has her crate at bedside, and is doing well with that. We've started to allow her a bit more freedom out of the crate and x-pen, as she's been so good with her recalls. Since she's amidst the pack of dogs more often, when I call Gemma and give her a cookie to reward, I must also give the other dogs one as well. Now I call Gemma and the entire pack comes racing to me, lol!

We're making progress in nearly every area. Yesterday she started to retrieve. We've got a good down/stay, sit/stay, and we're learning to stand. Stacy said we're ready to start on contact training, but I'd rather give it a few more days to perfect some of these other skills first. I'm sooooo enjoying these days, and Gemma is fitting into the household beautifully. What an absolute Gem she is!

Video from Sunday, 8/16

Here's video from Gemma's training a week ago yesterday....8/16/09, 12 weeks old.

11 1/2 weeks! :-)

At 11 1/2 weeks, my girl is doing GREAT! Stacy has been over the last three Saturday's with Groove, so she's had time with her sister, running and playing, and working on recalls with distractions. Here's a video of some of the other pieces we've been training, including the table, which we just started today.

Two weeks and one day later....

Gemma's been home two weeks and one day, and we've learned SO MUCH! She is like a little sponge, picking up things so quickly. I swear that sometimes she can read my mind! So far she's learned sit, out (release the toy), tuggy (will tug on nearly anything with this cue!), get da cookie, nose taps, and is making great progress with her shadow handling, crate games, hot object game and pivoting on her perch. This evening we started side/close. Needless to say, I'm proud of my little girl! Her potential will only be limited by my novice training/handling skills. However, Daisy has certainly taught me plenty, and has given me a head start in the training arena! I'm still working with my big Poodle, and my ongoing challenges with Miss Daisy are only helping me to improve my own skills. I'm also learning patience - things don't happen overnight - and optimism - when I'm feeling discouraged, a new approach to a training problem occurs to me and we manage to progress along our agility journey. Here are pics of Gemma from today and last weekend when sister Groove came to visit and swim. The video below is from last Saturday, 7/25/09.

Introducing.....GEMMA!

She's here! We drove up to Oregon last week, and got home with our new Border Collie pup, Gemma, on Friday. I'd had originally hoped for a rough coated female, but Gemma (smooth coat) was the one that stole my heart. She affectionate and snuggly, confident, bold, happy, and quite a little pistol! And we're having a blast with our training. She's a wonderful little tugger, loves to play chase, and is completely unnerved by things that freak out my Poodles - like the rocker board trainer that is sitting on my patio for practicing with Daisy. (Walking on it was Gemma's idea, not mine, lol.) I've spent months and months desensitizing Daisy to things moving under her feet, and she's still not wild about it. Gemma, OTOH, couldn't care less what's beneath her!

Below is a video of our Crate Games training, only our third session. Initially she wouldn't come OUT of the crate after getting her yummy cookies inside, so I'd given her low value kibble upon exiting the kennel. She's now figured out the OUT part, and we've phased out the kibble and are only rewarding the drive back inside the kennel.