Take a Seat...

Roxy takes the best seat in the house. Not only is it on the couch but it's right next to Dad!
For those of you not familiar with Great Dane traits and behaviors, this is very common. We joke about telling them to sit and they have to back up to find the nearest chair, sofa or lap. The sitting and leaning are two things about Danes that I find so endearing. Roxy looks like she's falling asleep in this photo!

GDCA National 2008

This past Saturday was the start of the Great Dane Club of America National Specialty. It's all happening at the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center in Lousiville, Kentucky. You can see the program HERE and hopefully photos will be up soon.
Over the weekend they had Obedience, Rally and Agility. Today they started judging Futurity and regular classes will continue throughout the week. I've never been to Nationals but I have promised myself I'll go one year. It must be so exciting seeing so many Danes in one place, and all of them Champions or future champions. Pure bliss!

Friends

1friend
Pronunciation:
\ˈfrend\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Middle English frend, from Old English frēond; akin to Old High German friunt friend, Old English frēon to love, frēo free
Date:
before 12th century

1 a: one attached to another by affection or esteem b: acquaintance2 a: one that is not hostile b: one that is of the same nation, party, or group3: one that favors or promotes something (as a charity)4: a favored companion


We all have friends and we expect our dogs to have friends too. We organize play dates for them like children. I love to get together my "dog" friends so the pooches can run around and play and we can chat about our babies. Non dog owners tend to bored by these discussions rather quickly! That's why I like to get together at least once a week with my dog friends.
Yesterday, Beatriz and Hermann came over, as well as Selena who's missing Huey bigtime! She needed a dog fix. Hermann is a Great Dane(of course) and a Certified Therapy Dog. He's the most mellow, cool, casual, hunk o' burnin' love you ever met. He's definitely a good influence on my dogs too! So without further ado, a few more pics of us hanging at my house after the beach.

Halti's

We've resurrected the Halti from the bottom drawer of my desk and I'm happy to say we're having some success. The Halti looks like a halter for a horse and is designed for the handler to be able to redirect the dogs head, hence reestablishing focus on the handler.
You can read about the Halti here:Halti info It's a UK site but gives an in depth explanation. You can purchase them in many pet shops.
Anyway, I bought it ages ago and never really worked much with it. She did actually get used to it by wearing it around the house for a few days. Acclimating the dog to the Halti is important, otherwise you'll spend the majority of your training session trying to stop the dog from rubbing it off. Roxy hated it at first!

We're dealing with some leash aggression and I'm always needing to get Roxy's attention when another dog is approaching. She tends to tune me out and either stand stock still scoping out the other dog OR wanting to haul me over there. NOT acceptable.
My inspiration came from watching some podcasts HERE I was directed to by a fellow Dane lover. Now these podcasts seem like a plug for the Gentle Leader to me, but overlook that and look at the method and how the handler redirects the dog.
I'm very excited by Roxy's progress. Of course we're going through treats like there's no tomorrow but we'll start phasing those out when the reaction is more consistent.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

We won!

It was not in the Advanced Class!

It was NOT pretty!

The second day of the Tropical Treat Cluster went better than the first but again I had to pull her out of the Advanced class. Half way through, the brain shut off. The frustration of repeating a command while Roxy was looking to see what that Whippet over there was doing proved too much for me. I hate to watch people dragging their dogs around any class and I certainly didn't want to be one of those people you see who's voice escalates with each wrong move by the dog. Back to work we go!!
We won the Novice B class but it was NOT a pretty round. We had one retry and she never really was totally focused on me until the end of the course. She scored an 84 which is a qualifying score but I know she can, and has done better.
I've realized we need a lot more ring time AND it's definitely a handler error in the ring. Outside the ring, and I mean right next to the ring she did everything perfectly. Sam is my witness and even he couldn't believe it. Back to work in class and around town with all sorts of distractions.
Since I always believe in finishing on a positive note, even while blogging, I'll just let you know that we have also started agility training. This is proving to be fun for both of us and also gives us another venue to practice with lots of dogs and people around. I think this will give both of us some more confidence and help us in the long run.