Retired dogs

So recently I retired Chace from agility. This was for a number of reasons, the main being that she was just to stressed in the ring environment with the dog's in close proximity. I'm very proud of what she has achieved in her competing career - Agility Champion, Flygility Champion, and numerous Jumpers challenges, and agility challenges.

Photo by Caitlin Frater (https://www.facebook.com/betelgeusephotography17/)

But with Chace being retired, this does not mean that she's not still training, playing, and doing awesome stuff! It just means that our focus has changed. We're continuing to train the things that are hard for her (cooperative care and vet work), and hard for me (confidence that we can deal with off lead walking in public places where there might be dog's). Around the time that she retired from agility she also gained her Trick Dog Champion title, through video submission.

Photo by Caitlin Frater (https://www.facebook.com/betelgeusephotography17/)

Many of you know that I'm a training geek. Most of my lessons's at Hybrid Training are used to fund my professional development and learning about dog training. Much of this I do through the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. This online training provider uses positive, best practice modern training practices. I've done everything from fitness, scentwork, disc, tricks, and much more.

Chace's next new adventure (and mine) is going back to something Chace has great foundations in - obedience. It's something that I was really put off in Chace's early training days, because the environment (stays etc.) was too difficult with a reactive dog.

So now we are working on our Fenzi TEAM titles. It's about working up to complex obedience behaviors in sequential steps, or levels.

Here's the video of Chace where she gains her TEAM 1 title!