Beeken Belgians Patt

Tracking:
The summer of 2011 was perfect for morning tracking. Somehow, it almost never rained and we went out tracking almost every morning before I had to go to work. Tracking is such a pure sport -- when the dog is successful, you know you set the problem up properly. When he isn't, you know you pushed too much: too much age, too much length, cover too difficult or some other such thing. Patt took to tracking immediately and has shown a lot of drive and talent. He is very easy to read: when he is on the track he pulls like a maniac; when he has lost it, he throws his head up and starts casting about.

At 6 months and 5 days, he earned his TD at the Ft. Wayne trial. The field was like tall grass with lots and lots of "tracks", as if someone had been driving around it. Patt's track was one of those: sometimes visible and sometimes impossible to tell what was going on. Happily, I didn't have to know, only Patt did. There was some hesitation on the third leg when he looked back and saw the 3 people following. As the track layer commented later, it was originally the two judges with her further behind. When Patt stopped to stare at them, the judges had her join them. Then, all was good, the following flock was together and off we went. I'm really, really glad we had been working on Patt's article indication. The article was a brown and yellow camouflage glove and pretty darn hard for the handler to see. But Patt showed it to me and the TD was ours!

I had thought to "put tracking away" with the TD but then reconsidered: maybe Patt would have an opinion. So I laid two three-hour old tracks (one two turns left and one two turns right). I was really surprised to see essentially no difference in his work based on the age. So we're playing around with TDX type work. There's no hurry.

The Next Things...

Conformation
We are looking forward to playing in the conformation ring. The Tuesday night drop-in conformation class is fun and there is lots of "free" food. There are also many very interesting looking dogs to admire and get used to.

Obedience
Well, I doubt we will ever see the inside of an AKC obedience ring but training can be lots of fun. We're signed up for a no-pressure, high reinforcement rate class and expect to enjoy it immensely.

Agility
Well, this is the real deal. Everything else is leading up to agility and filling time until Patt's body is ready for the challenge. We have done the puppy things: travel plank for balance; wobble board; crate games and recall games. There are also tunnel games and 8 inch jump games. I don't expect to do serious training in agility until Patt is over 12 months; maybe 18 months depending on how quickly/slowly he grows. But that's where we're headed with every early indication that it will be tons of fun. In fact, a Party All The Time!

First up is the "Book Trick": Any trick that included a book. Since I didn't want my dog turning pages with his nose (a common choice), I tried the balancing trick.

Once he understood it was a "feet" trick, we got started.	Push them together.	Almost there...	Ta da! The book, by the way, is Le Berger Belge
The second trick was the "Chair Trick". I taught Patt to duck under the chair and return. Video on Youtube: Patt's Chair Trick
Next came the "Balancing Trick". Although Patt had seen and played with a skate board before, this was the first time he actually balanced on it with all four feet -- good job for a seven month old puppy. I'm not sure how this progresses to pushing along... Patt's Balancing Trick This is the practice run -- Patt manages to stay balanced even though looking over at Ken the videographer: Try 1