We live in a flat

Updated 9 March 2018 – Crufts is here again! If Crufts is unfamiliar to you, it is the world’s largest dog show, held annually in March in the UK.

There’s dog agility, flyball competitions and of course, my favourite part of the show – Freestyle Heelwork to Music – or dog dancing, at least that’s just how I describe it to people. :P But, nothing beats seeing it. So here are the winners!!

All videos shared are from Crufts Youtube channel here. I don’t own the rights to them, but I just wanted to share my interest in it with you.

Winning Dog Dancing Routines at Crufts 2018 Freestyle Heelwork to Music Competition

This is Lucy Creek with her dog Skiffle King. They are the UK winner of Crufts 2018 Freestyle Heelwork to Music Competition.

Lucy Creek and Skiffle King (UK)

The International Category has taken place already. You can see it as part of the Day 3 livestream here. Lucy and Skiffle King placed third in the International Category with the same routine.

In second place was Sandra Roth and Lizzy. Sandra was described has having ballet background by the commentator. Her dog Lizzy is 8 years old.

Sandra Roth and Lizzy Vom Ettikogarten (Germany)

And Japan’s Lucie Plevova and her dog Power Jump Aibara came in first at the International Freestyle Heelwork To Music Competition at Crufts 2018. They were also last year’s champion. Here is their performance video.

Lucie Plevova and Power Jump Aibara (Japan)

Not to be missed, this absolutely magical performance by veteran Mary Ray in 2017. Mary retires this year and her final performance at Crufts can be viewed here.

If you would like to see more of Lucy Creek, Lucie Plevova and other talented dog trainers, I’ve got the 2017 winning videos below.

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Toy poodle, Junior, is staying with us for about two weeks. A really short time. I’m not too comfortable with leaving him at home when I want to go out. So it seemed to me a better idea to train him to be comfortable staying in a pet carrier bag, which will enable to bring him out with me.

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Sometimes, I take Donna out with me to buy my takeaway lunch. Hawker centers are not pet-friendly, so she can’t exactly come with me.

That’s where Stay comes in handy. I usually set her up in a shady spot. See if you can spot her in the photo below.

Of course, it took time to work on her stay before I could actually leave her sitting by herself in public areas, with me still in her line of sight. i.e. Not achievable in days (at least not for me) so don’t get impatient when training your dog to stay. ;)

She really is very good at her stays now, despite people walking by, a lady opening up an umbrella about 5metre away from her, etc.

Do I worry about somebody taking her away? I always make sure that I can see her and I only leave her in her sit-stay when I can buy from shops with an open storefront. This distance is about the furthest I leave her when buying food. And I never leave her alone when there’s high traffic that can possibly obstruct my line of sight or if there are dubious drunks or characters in the vicinity.

And the thing is, with most people being cautious around bigger dogs, nobody has voluntarily approached her before, with the exception of a lady wheeling her own aged dog in a trolley. That is a story for another day.

So anyway, of course she gets lots of yummy cookies when I got back. I usually give her very meaty treats but I wanted to use up her Halloween cookies within 3 days when they are freshest.  So the many cookies she got made up for the meat treats I guess. – – (Not to mention these yummy cookies are from @chocbanaa and Cotton the Maltese)

One very satisfied Donna.

So satisfied she didn’t want to leave her throne when I tell her to come off it. – –

Waved her paw in the air – I still want more cookies.

What is rear end awareness?

Based on what I’ve been reading, I’ve come to understand that Rear end awareness is used to describe dog’s consciousness of his hind leg movement so that he is able to control his hind leg movements on command or as part of an action he is executing, for example when running and jumping though an agility course.

 

Why practice rear end awareness?

Being able to walk backwards may seem pretty useless to some, but I’m thinking dog dancing seems pretty fun and rear end awareness is pretty key of much of the dog dancing routines we have seen. I know 1stworlddog used to be pretty focused on rear end awareness because Bodhi kept dropping bars during his agility runs as well. So depending on your individual goals and objectives, rear end awareness may not seem such a pointless exercise after all.

 

Two rear-end awareness exercises

We started rear end awareness exercises and wrote about it here in April and May, and then October. Unfortunately, I didn’t stay consistent with it so if you see the videos below that I’ve just filmed today. It would seem like we hadn’t really made much progress. :P *Ooops*

Walking backwards practice

Teach your dog to walk backwards – video tutorial at Eileen and Dogs

Pivoting practice

Teach your dog to pivot – video tutorial at Kikopup Youtube

Blogging about it helps me track our *ahem* lack of progress and keeps me honest at least! :P

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

So we’re going to work harder on these more consistently.

 

More rear end awareness exercises to try out

Mr N has a list of Five rear end awareness exercises to try out:

1. Stepping through a ladder without touching the rungs – we’ve never tried it
2. Pivoting – yes, working on it!
3. Targeting with back paws – not tried that yet
4. Walking backwards – yes, working on it!
5. Standing/sitting on tiny objects – sort of working on it as part of doggy parkour :P

We’ve only started on three out of five, so there’s a lot more for Donna and I to explore for sure!

 How do you stay motivated to master rear end awareness? What are your goals at the end of the day from working on these exercises with your dog?

 

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The Positive Pet Training Blog Hop occurs on the first Monday of every month. November’s theme is Rear End Awareness but any positive reinforcement training posts are always welcome. You can join the hop here.

 

Something is off with Donna…

Something seemed awfully off one morning, when the human woke up to find Donna looking very suspicious!

There’s nothing here, human. Move on please!

And then what’s this! The human found tell tale packets of treats from the Halloween Insta-meet in Donna’s crate all torn up and empty.

Somebody surely was having a not-so secret midnight feast of her own!

Hmmmm….

You know how this is the moment where you grab that camera, hang a sign on the dog that says “I stole and ate all the treats” for that #dogshaming photo?

Yah well, we don’t have those.

 

Punishment for the thieving dog!

The weliveinaflat-brand of punishment is more torturous than that! TRUST ME!

Referencing the most awesome historical references for the following creative dog torture Instagram accounts:

The so-near-yet-so-far, can-see-cannot-touch Leave It torture!!

1st attempt… wonky kibble text hahahaha

Donna is not impressed. Yah well…

Some dogs will tell you this is easy. Harmony the Golden Retriever and Cocker Spaniel mix from Minnesota says – just don’t look at the food.

I will not look at the food.

Honestly, if it were that easy, then you wouldn’t need to not look at the food.

Some like Sunny would even laugh at the challenge in the face.

Hahahahahaha! – Sunny the Golden Retriever and Border Collie mix 

Hehehehehe! – Santo the Golden Retriever

But the wise will tell you this challenge is nothing to laugh about.

We are all very serious here, says Whitaka the German Sheperd Dog from Pennsylvania.

Very serious! – Odie the Shihtzu

Because there is nothing worse than water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.

How long do I have to keep still please? These are my Halloween treats you know, human. – Donna, mongrel

Come on now, human! – Pepper the Miniature Pinscher, with her name spelled in dog biscuits.

 

Not really punishment

Of course, the human’s perspective is different from the dogs.

I’ve been playing around with dog food art more as a “leave it” training exercise and a huge lesson in patience with a camera, dogs and dog treats for me.
– Wendy Claypool

And you know what, for every good job with the Leave it’s and the Sit-stay’s, Donna gets a reward.

Sometimes, the rewards are hefty as an elephant! :P

I want!

Gimme!

It’s mine!

SO GOOD!

 

Teach a dog to Leave it
– http://youtu.be/EVJiwa9LHiw
– http://youtu.be/MHVRg98tBuk 

 

Much thanks to the named IG accounts who have given us permission to use their photos on this blog!

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And you know what, humans need encouragement sometimes too!

Little treat from @ Beaniebeenboo for the humans. Yay! Humans can haz treats too!! Thank you! #notforyouDonnanehnehnehbooboo :P