Growing puppies

If you read my last post (Sonic at 8 months), you might remember that I wrote about Sonic's floppy sit. "I think the biggest issue  is that she is very cow-hocked right now, and I think she just can't physically hold a non-flopped over sit for too long. I just have to be patient with her and wait for more maturity."

I wrote that on an airplane bound for California on a Saturday. When I next tried a sit stay - I think it was 3 days later? - she could suddenly sit with her back feet more widely spaced, which means she could and can hold a longer non-flopping sit stay. While she is still "hocky"(her back toes point out and her hocks point in vs. the typically more desireable, at least for the conformation ring, toes forward, hocks backward), she is less dramatically so. So I'm reasonably confident that continuing patience on my part and physical maturity on her part will take care of the problem. Well, some work on building strength through training will also help.

This has reminded me once again that she is, after all, still a puppy, and will go through a lot more growing before she's done. It's just not the dramatic, "wow, she looks different every day" growth.

I am in Maryland, leaving soon to start Day 1 of my "On Beyond Novice" seminar. I haven't done this one in a while, so it should be fun. I was in Austin, TX last weekend (no dogs) also for a seminar. All this travel has meant frustratingly little training time for my dogs. I did have Sonic out during Week 6 in my Maneuvers classes. I have everyone do a checkup of how many steps or turns can they do of each maneuver without food in their hand. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Sonic is doing on all except side-step left, which was her least understood directional. She has very nice understanding and control of her body, which you can see her starting on YouTube (sorry, I can't seem to add links easily on my iPad).