Little Ladd headed home today.  Though he was an exceptionally good puppy, and very easy as puppies go, it still feels way too easy not to have those constant thoughts about what he might need and what he might be getting into.  My dogs don't require much thought at all!

It was really, REALLY novel to have a puppy that just wants to cuddle up next to you, even if he was just playing with a toy, he'd come bring it over so he could lay on your lap and play.  Cuddly dogs - it's a whole different world!  Of course, London has been trying his best to be 'cuddly' this week, which is really funny because first he has no concept of RELAXING and then he growls (not in an aggressive way, but an uncomfortable way).  So he gets up onto our laps and looks awkward and stiff and grumbles and growls and tries to act like he's enjoying himself - it's very funny.  He tries though.

The dogs are pretty happy puppy is gone - not big puppy lovers.  It was good to see Ladd adjust to my cantankerous crew, by the end Ladd would still obsessively fawn and lick London, still hop on and hump Brisbee, but for the most part he fit in pretty well and was mostly polite without being a pushover.  I was not worried about him and the other dogs at all.

So, 4 dogs, really easy - 4 dogs and a puppy, well, it's more of a challenge.  Puppies grow up, and quite fast - new puppy won't be a puppy for long.  It is easy to forget how many behaviors I take for granted with my dogs, there is a lot to teach a new puppy.  I think I need a list so I don't forget anything important because I was spending all my time teaching cute tricks (which is SO much fun!).  For some reason I had the hardest time calling Ladd by his name, my new name for all puppies is "Puptart".


Ladd waves goodbye!

So, no more cute puppy to play with and cuddle ... for now.  I'll miss Ladd, he was a great puppy, so easy to live with and very fun.  I can only hope our puppy is both as easy and as cool!


Ladd demos his 'sad dog' (he's a natural at that soulful look!)

With no puppy around to distract me I finally got around to watching the Advanced Jumping video by Susan Salo today.  I was somewhat prepared for this video after the last, it might be three discs, but the amount of information can really could have been condensed into one.  Still, I think it's a better investment than actually going to a seminar, where I would have been REALLY frustrated by the pace of it all.  This video could have cut out SO MUCH.  No, we don't need to see people walk all the way out to a line of jumps to set out a target and then walk all the way back to set their dog up and then lead out to release their dog - OVER AND OVER AGAIN.  And I think this was actually somewhat better edited than the last video, which also made me want to tear my hair out with the amount of crap they didn't edit out.

Still, it's interesting to me to watch the different dogs and jumping styles over the same exercise, I appreciate how they often had like 6-9 different demo dogs for each.  I just didn't need to watch all 9 dogs set their targets out or move the jumps.  And the weird part is, sometimes they would edit that part out - AND SOMETIMES THEY WOULDN'T.  It was like they were taunting you.  Anyway, so, 3 discs, 5 exercises - you do the math.  I would have liked to have seen more content, but hey.  

When it comes to jumping, I don't think there is one magical 'system' that will teach every dog how to jump perfectly.  I do think there are dogs that are better natural jumpers than others, I have my reservations about how much any jumping program is actually influencing how a dog would jump no matter what.  I do think that all dogs benefit from being given approrpriate and variable jumping challenges, the more experience and confidence a dog has with jumping, the better jumper they will be.  Dogs need practice and exposure to learn how to take off appropriately depending on the situation.  So I like the SS stuff as another type of challenge to present to the dog and see how confident they are.  It is helpful to see many types and sizes of dogs negotiate the same challenge and react differently.

I have never been to a SS seminar, I don't know if I would go (I am, perhaps, a tad bit impatient with lecture format seminars).  I don't see much harm in playing with the exercises she presents.  I do like that in this video she is very aware that the exercises should be handled with appropriate handler position and movement.  I rather like a lot of the SS foundation grids for beginning classes -  I'm not a huge targeting fan in agility, but when backed up with appropriate handler cues, it's nice to be able to teach a green dog to drive forward with intent when the handler drives forward.  Targets do make this very easy to teach!  It's certainly not the only way I would be introducing jumping to a dog, but I have learned to rather like the concept of a target for the jumping grids.  Personally, my dogs also find them terribly fun, which is rather amusing.

So, the execises presented in the advanced video were interesting, I will play with them with the dogs.  It was helpful to see how some of the foundation exercises could help in a more advanced jumping exercise.  It was interesting to see on the video and in my experience how some dogs really don't understand basic jumping concepts, even with very short jumps and 'easy' exercises.

Overall, the video is the same quality and set-up as the foundation video - so if you liked that, and are interested in the SS stuff, then this video is an obvious accompaniment.  The exercises are well explained, illustrated with many different types and sizes of dogs and the exact measurements and exercise notes are all available to print from the DVD to practice.  While it definitely could have been much shorter, I found the videos informative and interesting.