Montgomery County All Terrier working trial 2016.

 This year our dogs went on a road trip to be a part of 

Montgomery County All Terrier working trial 2016.

Above - Chant is "Driving", Roy is "Looking for Directions".

Below: Lusha (left) and Gigi (right)

"Are we there yet?.."

 So what this event is about?

Nothing much. :-) Simply bunch of working terriers and their parents

from all over North America getting together to have some fun

and compete in various disciplines from Obedience and Agility

to Barn Hunt and Lure Coursing.

Full week filled with adventures.

This year we only participated one day and it was only one Rally trial.

But it was 4 dogs, with 4 Qs, 3 placements and two finished Titles.

Not bad for one trial!

 Above: Shazzam's crew at AMSC desk in front

of so called "schnauzer village".

Below - outlook at some of breed "villages" and agility rings.

 It is rather fancy out there...

 Above: Irina with our Rally-O Judge Susanne Babcock.

This wonderful lady came up with the most complicated and fun

Rally maps we ever saw... Never-less,

Lusha (left) managed to get top in the class score of 96
and finished her Rally Excellent Title.
Gigi (left) got her last "leg" and completed her Rally Novice Title.
Chant got first leg in Rally advance with score of 98
and third placement in his division.
Roy was a real trooper to go to the ring first,
and regardless of all destructions, got his first qualifying score
for the Excellent level.
He also got third placement in his class, same like Chant.
We met many old friends, saw many beautiful (and very smart!) dogs
 and came back home feeling accomplished.
On Sunday to the conformation show we go!..
This is "THEE SHOW" of the Year,
what everybody terrier lover looking forward too.
Over 100 miniature schnauzers signed up to compete in 2016
in regular rings and sweepstakes.
Hope to return from there with even more ribbons...
Stay tuned, my friends!

3 more titles!

 This Friday we attended one more Rally trial. 

This time it was at Bella Vista training center.

Our first time at that facility and we LOVED it!

Result - 3 more qualification scores and 3 more finished titles.

Lusha and Roy got their Rally Advance titles,

while Chant finished his Rally-Novice.

 Here they all are together with Irina, who handled 2 out of 3.

 

 Roy (on the left) and Lusha (right)

with their daily bounty - green qualification ribbons,

purple rosettes for new AKC title and placement rosettes.

Roy got second high score in the class( Red Rosette)

and Lusha scored on the third place (Yellow Rosette).

 

Of course now Lusha has it all, as a queen she is!

After we finished with both advanced class dogs, 

Irina took out Enchanter and I took out my camera,

so now we have this video of them two performing...

Beautiful job, Irina-Chant team!

... and this was our last performance trial for the year...

Now we can practice and wait what the spring will bring to us!...

Boys agility training.

Had wonderful full of fun session with our boys in the club.

We are about half-way trough with our training program

before we can think of first trials... Maybe at spring!

Boy did wonderful, unfortunately during the time

 when Chant was working, our "cheer-leading team" (Sammy)

got that vocal and supportive to his performance that

I had to delete sound track.... Dogs!

Never dull moment with them!

Lusha and Roy Rally-O practice.

Last for this season practice session with

Lusha (above) and Roy (below).

They both tried very hard to pass the course and I believe 

tasty rewords have something to do with that.

We had great time during our 7 weeks training session

and want to be back for more of it at spring.

Rally-O is just too much fun to ignore it!

This is a Novice level in training.

Enjoy!

Gettysburg Military Park, trip with schnauzers.

 This morning we went to Gettysburg pick up some of my art work from the show.

It was not much fun, so we decided to spice it up and invited two

furry companions - Lusha and Awwa.

 You clearly can see - they both enjoyed their time with us during this trip.

After we stopped at Art Council and picked up all those paintings,

 we went strait to Gettysburg Military Park for some photoshoot and

to play with our pups a bit.

At the very end of our trip we went to Plum Run, where I painted before 

during Gettysburg Art Fest... Love this place. It is just like going back in time!

Just for fun I'm sharing with You few pictures of painting  

I did at the same location two weeks ago.

We will be back there again... perhaps with dogs.

Perhaps with pastels. Or both!

Scary Blue "THAT" by Shazzam Of Oz video production.

This is a good demonstration video about how to  introduce Your puppy

to new things, what may look for him scary at beginning. 

Do not force You young dog, just show - there is nothing to be afraid of.

Make a little fun game out of it.

Your puppy will follow You, just let him do it on his own pass.

Starring:

"Gigi", the schnauzer, as  "Shy puppy with one ear down"

"Sasha", the Fox Terrier, as  "Evil Villain who wants that Toy".

Just another morning...

Everybody is asking to see little guys playing, interacting etc.

Trust me - it is not that easy, how you may think.

Big part of the day they still eating and sleeping,

but we starting having those outbursts of jolly madness and puppy games.

Mostly it happens at morning hours when it is not that hot

and we can take them all outside to enjoy frolicking in big fenced area or kennel playground.

This video was recorded this very morning and you can see Momma Yana

with her litter of 6 weeks old B/S puppies,

3 black 9 weeks old puppies from Leila

and two of our older (5 month old) youngsters -

Tobby, thee griffon 

and Chant - thee schnauzer (son of Teddy and Sammy).

They all having good time and 6 weeks old learning how to interact and respect the older ones.

The older ones (5 month old) learning how to control their horse-games

around little ones. Everybody is happy and having a blast!

Who is training whom?...

 Dogs are amazing trainers. Believe my word, based on many years of living together with our dogs and observing just how good they are with training of their humans. And schnauzers are brilliant in that, so carefully watching us, collecting evidence of our weaknesses , learning our push -buttons and using them to get a pleasant for them,schnauzers, response . Probably,all our puppies families remember me mentioned that "push-button" theory when you got your puppy, don't you,guys? :-)  

One of the most successful way to make humane to do what dog want is to use " I-am - going -to - starve -to-death" tactic. Not a lot of people can stand their dog missing a meal. Often it starts very innocent way - morning, you have to go to job, million things need to be done before you leave . Familiar with this? I am. :-)
And here he is - Thee Dog. And his bowl with food, what , for some of his own reason, dog did not touch.
In human mind ( well, no offend, in woman's mind for sure ) all kind of scary thoughts start immediately run onto each other "is my doggy sick? I have to stay home...I can't stay home,not today... what if he is really sick, his eyes are so sad...why he did not eat? ". When we short in time , brain have tendency not to think long-term programs, but offer us most quick and seems to be logical at the moment solution. Here , bowl with food already picked up ,food topped with cheese . And - moment later it's gone. Dog is not going to die from starvation. You are not going to run whole day thinking only "what if he is sick'. It did the trick.
You got a peace of mind. Dog got food.And cheese. And - perfect lesson how to make human to give him cheese on a top of it.

Next time he will try to push you a bit more. Some more of a struggle look on his sweet face , few more minutes /hours of not touching his food. What would be your breaking point be?
And,like I said, schnauzers are masters in manipulating of their humans. We have a dog in the family, who,probably, deserved a professor in human study title. Lots of you remember our black Quincy. She belong to our daughter , and when our girl moved out of nestle, Quincy moved with her. This is when the fun begun. :-) At first, everything was all right. Then little Quincy start slowly pulling small tests on Veronica ,refusing to eat dry food...then the other kind of dry food...super-holistic food...canned food. The funny part is - while the little poor doggy was visiting us to stay for day or two, as our daughter was working weird hours job, Quincy was just her usual self - "vacuum-cleaner like" food gulping dog , same very food she totally refused to eat an hour ago at home.

Veronica decided to switch the dog on home-cooked meals only ( we usually are using half-and-a half ration for our dogs ). It was a huge relieve. Dog and humans were happy and world was perfect. For a while.
But last evening I had a phone call from our daughter. In the morning Quincy refused chicken. In the evening bowl with rice and beef dinner was left untouched. Quincy with sadness and straggle imprinted in eyes was pulling a" hungry dog guilt" trick on her family from the pillow. I clearly start to feel a notes of stress in my child voice .

I do not know how far this dog can bring this game. But look like grilled hamburger what our son-in-law presented her did not meet any objections. :-)

Aren't you agree schnauzers are great trainers? :-)