Saturday, August 1, 2015

Skyler, the Doberman is Learning Agility...

...and the handler, which is me, as well!

We had a fun dog training class with our rescue Doberman today in the morning. It was the first time that Skylar and I were trying us at agility jumps. Looks like I need more training than he does!

We have Skylar now for about seven months and he is doing great, admittedly after some initial hick-ups with mouthing and jumping, but some minor problems are to be expected when you take in a young rescue dog.

Unlike the vicious reputation of the Doberman Pinscher, Skylar doesn't seem to have a mean bone in his body and has never shown any aggression towards human beings or other dogs. As a matter of fact, he is a very sweet dog, with a temperament that is a little more on the anxious side. My husband and I really love him. Can you imagine that he could have been one of the estimated three to four million dogs and cats that are euthanized in American shelters each year according to the Humane Society of the United States?

Hope you enjoy the video done by my husband!





By the way, if you are looking for a great dog trainer in the San Diego area, I can highly recommend ours to you. Her name is Alexandra Gant (resultswithbehave). We are doing our dog training group classes with her and besides that she has helped us so much with any initial issues that we had with Skylar. For us as first time dog owners her advice was/is invaluable and the training classes with her are always fun for Skylar and for us.

Wishing everyone a nice rest of the weekend.

Christina



14 comments:

  1. This is a lovely recording to have, and amazing how Skylar went from trying to sneak round without jumping to doing it perfectly.

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  2. I enjoyed this video so much and you two made so much progress in only a short time. I did agility classes with Snarf only....he did not like it. As a border collie he learned very quickly and then he got bored and refused to jumb, when climbing over the wall he stopped on top just hanging there, On the catwalk he stopped in the middle looking around and so on. Then the exam was there, the trainer did not interfere anymore and it was our turn. I was very nervous for he always refused somewhere, and for this time he was speedy, my instructions to him were only with my eyes and pointing with my fingers. We did it, 14 obstacles without failures on top speed. He won by far from the others. You understand I was euphorically and I thought we will go on.
    But no, it only remained by one time, when we were there he always looked at the gate and wanted back to the car. So I stopped at last and when we came home he was so glad running and jumping and juggling with flowerpots he found near the compostheap. From that time on we stick to hiking every morning for more than an hour and playing with balls, sticks and toys, that´s what he loves all day playing just with me and sometimes with F. or eldest daughter but they are second choice.
    Wish you a lot of success with Skylar agility can be fun.

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    1. Janneke, thank you so much, I am glad that you enjoyed the video. I am very surprised that Snarf didn't like the agility, since Border Collies are the champions in this sport, because they are so smart and fast on top of it. But dogs truly have their own personality and just as humans like and dislike things. To me it is most important that Skylar and my husband and I have fun while we are doing activities together. That's all that matters!

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  3. Excuse me, jumb should be jump. My English fails sometimes.

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  4. What a happy little video! It was fun to see Skylar become good at jumping over the bar. Your husband did a good job with the video too and I loved 'seeing you' with Skylar.

    Have a lovely Sunday ~ FlowerLady

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  5. That was wonderful! Thanks for sharing. Love the little sound effects. It's so kind of you to take on a rescue dog. Someday, I hope to have a dog, but with two senior, temperamental cats, I'm having to wait awhile. Enjoy your sweet Skylar!

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  6. Enjoyed the video Christina, and great progress!

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  7. Great video! I'm glad Skylar is settling in and it's going well.

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  8. Skylar is adorable. I think he was very clever to see that he could walk around the hurdle more easily than jumping it. But he's a good boy to follow through with what his human wants.

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  9. Love to hear you visited great dixter too. And indeed. The Dierama was in the dunken garden. Did you sit beside the plant on the stairs as wel? Groetjes, Hetty

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  10. I loved this! I smiled all the way through that video. And I think Skylar was smiling, too. He seemed to be enjoying himself, though he never could get the slow human to understand how easy it would be to go around the obstacle!

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  11. Dear Christina, I smiled through the whole video too! Dogs are so clever and learn so fast because they want to learn and want to please their owners. I have a 14 year old cat and he does…..exactly what he wants, nothing more, nothing less – no pleasing the master there! But he is quite good on recall, I have taught him that if he comes when I call him he will get a really good cuddle every time, so he usually comes when I call him. And he understands quite a few words and short sentences – in Norwegian of course :-) Good luck with training Skylar, and good luck to Skylar training his owners!

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  12. Muito bom o vídeo.

    Como ela é inteligente e aprende rápido.

    Amo os animaizinhos.

    Parabéns pelo treinamento.

    beijinhos, tenha uma boa noite,

    Lígia e =^.^=

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