# wow



## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

My dog is insane. Or else he's high.

I might have the bruises tomorrow to prove it.


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## Titan1 (Jan 19, 2010)

What do you mean??


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## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*What?*

What?

Explain.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Teaching Flip jumps reminded him of something he was bad about as a puppy...totally skipping front position and leaping straight for my chest. Only he's bigger now so it's even scarier! 

He also decided a nice addition to finishes would be to jump up and grab a mouthful of my hair before he goes around.

We went back and did 10 minutes of bumper work just so he would settle down some before we attempted any more obedience.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

I understand what Celeste Meade meant now. I took Flip to her for a private as a three month old pup and she told me

"You realize these Sunfire dogs aren't like regular goldens don't you? They're not even like Tanbark goldens. They're like Tanbark goldens on drugs!" 

He must have found a dealer today :


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## Oaklys Dad (Dec 28, 2005)

LOL sounds like something my boys would do.


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

OMG! That reminds me when my sheltie was younger and I first started training her. She was by no means high energy like Flip--but she was a herding breed and I got nipped many times in the butt and legs while teaching her agility in her younger years. These were 'I am a really excited and happy herding dog' nips.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

All my dogs went through a phase initially where they slammed into me on a recall. I can even vaguely remember Conner going through a hair nipping phase when he would get really excited when he was younger. 

But this is the first one that will take a flying leap five feet before he gets to me. He's high enough in the air that we would be eye to eye, except my eyes are closed and my arms are held out front to decrease the force of impact.

So far the only thing that seems to help is doing lots and lots of short, mini recalls before doing a longer one. Anyone have any other ideas?


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Have you tried having him run through your legs on the recall? If he has to hunker down and run through your legs maybe that will discourage the body slamming...


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## sammydog (Aug 23, 2008)

We so need some video!!!!

:worthless


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## Titan1 (Jan 19, 2010)

Yes we definitely need videos... I need to see to help.. (okay maybe to smile a whole bunch too!) It sounds fantastic.. if your not the one training..


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

Loisiana said:


> "You realize these Sunfire dogs aren't like regular goldens don't you? They're not even like Tanbark goldens. They're like Tanbark goldens on drugs!"
> 
> :


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

Loisiana said:


> All my dogs went through a phase initially where they slammed into me on a recall. I can even vaguely remember Conner going through a hair nipping phase when he would get really excited when he was younger.
> 
> But this is the first one that will take a flying leap five feet before he gets to me. He's high enough in the air that we would be eye to eye, except my eyes are closed and my arms are held out front to decrease the force of impact.
> 
> So far the only thing that seems to help is doing lots and lots of short, mini recalls before doing a longer one. Anyone have any other ideas?


What if for recall to front, you had a visible treat held centered at your body, arms down, like crotch-level, and as soon as he's almost at front, start to bring the treat up your body to about belly-button level as you remind him to sit? Kinda hard to describe, but hopefully that makes sense.

For hair-grabbing finishes, can you direct him to jump outward a bit more so he's not quite so vertical and close to your hair?

Don't forget that they get faster as they get older... so to some extent, while we love all the drive and flash in obedience, impulse control is important too! ;-)


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Oh my!! I think I might forget about a spin finish for now and (re)train a front using both hands below waist level with treats ..

BTW: Faelan and a sibling or two (closely related to Sunfire) also seem to love the fronting thing - but aim for either the mouth or hair on the way up .. too cute but impulse control and a bit of maturity help


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## kgiff (Jul 21, 2008)

We've been doing a lot of work on impulse control and obedience and it's helped a lot. For obedience I give lots of quite encouragement and I don't do anything but put a calming hand on his back before an exercise -- no petting, no revving him up. I still have a lot of dog to work with in obedience, but he's getting a lot more focus and the exercises are coming together nicely. 

As for the recalls, I've used Stephanie's technique and with time and practice I have a dog that actually starts to slow himself down and collect more than an foot in front of me (he never launched at me, but he used to put the breaks on too late and slide into me).

For the hair grabbing, I started always pulling my hair back when working. I also haven't taught him the flashy jump finish, so usually the hair grabbing was in part of the excitement when being released from an exercise. So typically I release him from an exercise and give him a high hand target so he still gets to jump, but focuses his enthusiasm somewhere other than my head.


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## BearValley (Nov 30, 2008)

Loisiana said:


> So far the only thing that seems to help is doing lots and lots of short, mini recalls before doing a longer one. Anyone have any other ideas?


Airbags and side impact beams?

C'mon, you know the rules and its no fair to tease us like this!

VIDEO OR IT NEVER HAPPENED!


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Loisiana said:


> I understand what Celeste Meade meant now. I took Flip to her for a private as a three month old pup and she told me
> 
> "You realize these Sunfire dogs aren't like regular goldens don't you? They're not even like Tanbark goldens. They're like Tanbark goldens on drugs!"
> 
> He must have found a dealer today :


Welcome to my world.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

tippykayak said:


> Welcome to my world.


Okay - this is just too funny  
How high can they go? (Faelan and Towhee) 
Hair? yummm,yumm (Faelan) 
I totally agree with kgiff in you don't want to rev these dogs up before working them - or lean foward while waiting for front!!

I've also been known to side step when it looks like they might launch - then they can't front so don't get rewarded and I have fewer bruises (they are much better now so there is a bunch of hope)


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

FlyingQuizini said:


> so to some extent, while we love all the drive and flash in obedience, impulse control is important too! ;-)


Oh trust me, impulse control is something we work on daily. Actually, going back to when I went to Celeste Meade, she told me that while with all her other privates that day were focusing on fun games to get the dog up, she knew these dogs too well and knew we needed to focus solely on impulse control with her.

Flip's been doing well these last several months, but it's like something went out in his brain when we started learning jumps and he totally couldn't focus. I guess jumps are his drugs of choice . But I think if I do them regularly he will calm down about it.

Interestingly enough I didn't teach him to jump into his finishes. I knew FLIP would live up to his name and add it in himself, and I was right!


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Good news. We just went outside and did some recalls over a jump and he gave me some nice calm fronts.


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