Thursday, April 8, 2010

Ups and Downs.....


Tonight at our Scent Hurdle practice Kort blew me away!
Today has been a day of mixed emotions regarding Kort, let me explain......
This morning started out rather badly when I had to cut our walk short due to Kort refusing to stop barking. We had gotten about 10-15 min. into our walk when a couple of dogs walked by in the distance with their owner. For some reason today I could not get Kort back in control, & the barking & whining escalated into howling!, so, I turned around & went home, end of walk....this stayed on my mind all day, wondering if I was doing everything I could do to help Kort become the well behaved dog I know he can be.
Then tonight happens......to fully appreciate this I need to mention that Kort has "just" started to hold & pick up his dumbbell, like maybe 2 months, no more. So at Scent Hurdle practice tonight we worked on retrieving the dumbbell over 2, then 4 jumps, & bringing it back over the jumps. Kort had no problem, I put him in a stay, ran up to the end of the 4 jumps, placed his dumbbell on the box, returned & told him "take it"....he flew over the 4 jumps, grabbed his dumbbell & returned back over the 4 jumps with it in his mouth !!!! It wasn't just a fluke either, he did this about 4 times!! WOW!!... seriously !!! WOW!!
Then we worked on scent discrimination. Kort retrieved his own dumbbell each time. The final time it was his dumbbell, plus 2 others. He ran up, sniffed each dumbbell, grabbed his & returned back with it. He made me very very proud tonight....I love this dog, really really love him, I just wish he didn't mess with my emotions so much!

5 comments:

Dianne SS said...

Oh I hear you! So so much the same for me. Here's my little emerging thought--both Kort and Duffy are extremely smart dogs and need challenges. The scent hurdle is obviously giving Kort a great challenge and he's meeting your expectations and then some. Walks--not so challenging, it seems. Dave takes Duffy out with the bike or the trike and that really seems to give Duffy a good workout, tires him out, and is more focusing and he therefore behaves better. Just my thoughts...

manymuddypaws said...

you are doing everything right jo. he is not an easy dog, and you are doing the best you can with him.

as for scenthurdle Kort loves the game- and is going to seriously kick ass!

onecollie said...

you are so right Dianne.....I think I need a dummer dog ! LOL!

Dianne SS said...

You and me both! Hahahaha!

Squishy said...

Wow Kort!! I think you have a very difficult dog to tame, but I have heard in the long run when you do, he will be most amazing. I've heard the same thing with horses, though I am more of a wimp with them. They just seem too dangerous to tame. I like them quiet and mellow. Keep doing what you're doing Jolene and he will come around more and more until those outbursts will be a thing of the past.