I took my German Shepherd Bianca to Camp Dogwood for one day over the weekend. It is normally a 4-day camp but they have an option of just coming for the day. I wasn't sure how Bianca would do around so many dogs so I decided to just go on Sunday and see how she did. We have been working on her behavior around other dogs and she has improved a lot but sometimes she still reacts (barking/lunging) when we see other dogs on walks, or growls if a dog tries to sniff her face so I was not sure how she would be. She actually did great. They have a special "orange bandana" program; for dogs who "need space" they have them wear an orange bandana so I did that with Bianca. She only barked at other dogs a few times and at least two of those were when the other dog started barking at her first, and each time I was able to stop her before she got riled up so she only gave one or two barks. She did growl a few times when another dog sniffed her but she didn't go any further than that and she did allow several dogs to sniff her with no reaction. At one point I let her and another dog sniff and they seemed to be doing well, but then the other dog started snarling/barking and I think snapped at her, and Bianca's reaction was to back off-- she didn't even bark back!
Well, I discovered why Shepherds are called the most versatile breed! I used to know someone online who would always say, "GSD, the dog that can do it all" and they were definitely right!
These are the activities we went to:
-Herding
-Tracking
-Lure Coursing
-Preparing for the Therapy Dog Test
-Agility
-Carting
The first thing we did was herding. This was a herding instinct test, we had to drive from camp to Magic's Legacy which is at the Wisconsin border for this. The tester did two demos first with two of her own dogs, a young dog and a senior. It was really neat to watch them herding a bunch of lambs. The older dog was 12 and still going strong! There were three dogs in the testing: a Sheltie, a BC, and Bianca. They all passed. The other two needed some encouragement from their owners but Bianca was all over it so I didn't have to get in the pen. Several of the other owners there commented on what a nice looking dog she was and one of them complimented her level topline (she has the appropriate slope but not extreme.) One of them said they just couldn't take their eyes off her.
Here are the videos I took of her herding:
http://www.dogster.com/video/936930/bianca_herdinghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzCO0rCCh0wThe next activity we did was lure coursing. I think this was Bianca's first time trying it, and at first she wasn't sure about chasing the lure, she kept chasing and then stopping. However the guy running it switched it to a furry lure and as soon as Bianca saw that one she was off! When they stopped it she grabbed the lure and tried to take it with her.
The next thing we did was tracking. This was "beginner's" tracking. Bianca has done some tracking training in her previous home but I don't know how much and I've never done any tracking. They had the owners taking turns laying a straight track with an item at the beginning and a glove with food at the end, and then hiding near the end (with the dog turned around so they couldn't see where the owner went) while another owner worked the dog. The woman who was working with Bianca was amazed at how good Bianca was. The instructor said we should definitely do the "tracking level 2" activity which was the next day, but unfortunately I was just there for the day so I couldn't go to that. The person who was handling Bianca had a Chinese Crested powderpuff and I got to talk to her about them because I've been thinking of getting one. We talked for a while and she told me she has a Podengo (the small type) also and she said she would recommend them over the Crested. She said hers is the only Podengo in Illinois.
After lunch, we did was "Preparing for the Therapy Dog Test" which was a talk given by a trainer in one of the buildings, and then some practice of therapy dog test sections. Bianca actually behaved really well at lunch too, I had to leave her (they have a special area for dogs to wait) to go inside and get food and she didn't bark even though there were other dogs nearby who were barking a lot because their owners also went inside.
The trainer for the therapy dog stuff was one I have taken classes with before so she knew me but she was surprised to see Bianca (she actually said "Lizzi and Ginger" when referring to me because she had assumed I was with my Golden, then she looked closer and realized it was a different dog with me.) Bianca did very well in the more close quarters, the rest of our activities so far at camp had been outdoors. The segments of the therapy dog test we practiced were from the Delta Society test because that is what the trainer is experience in. I was very interested in trying these out because I actually got Bianca with the intent to have her be a therapy dog like my Golden but we had to sort of put that on the back burner while we worked on her dog interactions. Several people had just taken the CGC at camp so they focused on the test segments which are not in the CGC and we basically went through them the way they would during the test. The segments the trainers did were: Clumsy Petting, Restraining Hug, Staggering/Gesturing, Angry Yelling, Bumped from Behind, Crowded and Petted by Several People (two, since they only had two trainers there), Leave It (with toys) and Offer Treat. They also used a wheelchair and a walker to see the dog's reaction to a person using those and also to the items on their own.
Bianca did very well on all the segments. She was a little unsure about the hugging and the wheelchair but she quickly got over it. While we were practicing one of the other dogs took exception to Bianca who was not even really looking at the dog at the time and was about 8 feet away, and started barking at her. Bianca barked back once but when I told her "leave it" and got her attention off the dog she stopped immediately.
I was surprised at how Bianca was doing the whole day, and during lunch she really seemed to want to get up and go rather than take a break and relax. I guess maybe it's because I am still used to having senior dogs but it surprised me that she didn't tire out at all. Since she was still raring to go we did agility next. Bianca enjoyed it and especially took to the a-frame, she didn't really need the trainers' help on any of the obstacles. There was a camp photographer taking photos at agility, they make the photos available to purchase for a couple dollars so I am going to have to check their website to see if they put any of Bianca up.
After agility they had a "socialization time" in several fields, one for small dogs and two main groups. Bianca had a lot of fun playing with the other dogs. My vet was at camp too with her dog Zeke who Bianca knew already so she was happy to play with him. There was also a puppy who looked like a Dutchie to me and who Bianca was very interested in (she seems to like puppies a lot.) At one point another dog got snappy with Bianca but she didn't retaliate. She also did great with recalls, there was a dog who she really wanted to chase but his tail was down and he didn't seem comfortable so as she was chasing him I called her to me, and she came running immediately. Funnily enough the dog she'd been chasing came up as I was praising her and seemed to be wondering why the game had stopped, so I guess he wasn't too upset about it after all. She got several compliments on her recall and on her good behavior in general (I think the behavior was because she had the "orange bandana" although I explained to people that she is generally fine off leash.)
There was supposed to be a break at that point but I had talked to the guy running lure coursing earlier as the schedule said he was the person to see about having a "mini session" on carting. I hadn't noticed that listed until halfway through the day but luckily he was able to fit us in during the break. I wasn't sure if it would just be sort of explaining carting basics or what. I know the basics already as I taught my Golden to pull a cart and I'd been to a drafting education day before. However when I got there he had a cart out already. He first had me walk Bianca next to the cart to get her used to it. She was kinda nervous about it at first but I encouraged her and she got over it quickly. Once she was comfortable with that he actually hooked her up with a carting harness and hitched her to the cart! I was surprised since the instructions I had used for teaching my Golden had us pulling jugs behind her and things for quite a while before actually getting to the cart itself. He held on to the harness at first and we walked around with her hitched to the cart with me encouraging her the whole way and giving her the start and stop commands. We did a few turns and then she was doing so well that he let her go without him holding the harness (with her walking in between us, and me holding her leash.) She actually pulled the cart all by herself with no problem! There was a slight incline and a gravel driveway that circled around a grassy area. We went partway down it about 30 feet, did a gentle turn on the grass and came back up the hill twice with her pulling on her own. The instructor commented that she was very strong and on how good she was doing-- she had no trouble when we did the turn off the driveway onto grass, had no problem pulling the cart up the incline at all and was able to start it moving when we stopped at the bottom of the incline without help. When we stopped he was explaining how the next steps would be to teach the turns and to teach the dog to be comfortable with sitting and lying down while in harness. As he was explaining that Bianca was still hitched to the cart and she decided to sit down on her own. \:D He said that he thought we could probably have it all down in about a week if we practiced every day and that he thought she could be ready for a drafting test in a month.
So we had a really fun day at camp and Bianca got to try a lot of new things, and show just how versatile a Shepherd can be! She got a lot of compliments which was nice, and I also got a lot of compliments on her "fancy" Halti. I got to see quite a few people I knew although I didn't have time to talk to everyone. I knew some people from other events and classes and things, and I had also been to several of the "winter" weekend camps that they used to hold (those were at hotels, which was nice.) It was somewhat bittersweet though because quite a few people asked me where Ginger or Pooch were (my two senior dogs who passed away last year.) Especially Ginger since most people knew her since she was usually with me everywhere I went. I saw a few people who Ginger and I used to do animal assisted therapy with as well, and I got to see one of the dogs we were in a program with, who is 15 now. I also got to talk to her owners, one of whom has a dog radio show (Steve Dale) and did a little mini-interview with me for the show. I'm not sure if he's going to air it though because I mentioned feeding Bianca raw bones and he said something about bones being bad for dogs.
We also did some "arts and crafts" which included making a plaster-cast sand pawprint and a memorial candle holder. They had a pet memorial service in the evening but I had to leave before that because it was getting late and I live an hour away. I would've liked to have stayed for that but as it was we had a 10 hour day.
Here are a few photos I took. I didn't get many because we were too busy running around!
Lure Coursing
Herding
