Keeshond Obedience Brace

[bradl]

I had to share this video of two lovely Keeshonden doing brace obedience for the first time. Their owner decided to enter them in brace class more or less as a lark, and oh my were they fantastic. The judge said it was the best brace she personally had ever judged. 

 

[Min D]

Cute dogs.....I had 3 of them over my lifetime- really loved them - sweet personalities. They are a bit easier to train than a cairn.....

I can’t imagine life without a cairn even if they are harder to train, they are a big dog in a small body who are fun and more kid like.

 Keeshonds just want to be with you and are definitely a bit more serious, but kind. Most people always thought they were huskies.

[bradl]

You described my limited observed experience of the Kees perfectly. When Stella was working on Open and starting Utility we trained at the same class as the owner. Super nice gal who's supported our Cairn club at all of our obedience show-n-go matches. I enjoy doing "stand for exam" with her dogs … their coats are so big and fluffy compared to our harsh Cairns! I couldn't manage coat care on a Kees but the owner runs a dog wash so hers are always nicely groomed.

[Kathryn]

OMG. I could not get that kind of performance from one dog (those figure eights would have done Oban in -- he would have had to say hello...).  Have you ever seen a brace of cairns, Brad? Have any videos?

[bradl]

Sure  

Figure 8

Heel Free

 

[hheldorfer]

There's a lot more tail-wagging in the Cairn brace.  😄

[sanford]

Gives a new meaning to the term, "Velcro dogs"!😀

[JoJo]

Wow!  Is there anything cuter than those two cairns? 

[Min D]

10 hours ago, JoJo said:

Wow!  Is there anything cuter than those two cairns? 

No, I completely agree .........oh yea, but we are on a cairn terrier fan club forum, we all feel the same way when we see them.

Having had 3 keeshonds though, I still have an affinity for them , they’re special in their own way.

[JoJo]

LOL with Cairns, cuteness is a survival skill.  You just can’t get too made at them cause they are too cute.  Pepper relies on this frequently....

[kjwarnold]

Phinney’s breeder kept his brother and sister and they’re doing well showing in conformation.  She’s starting to work with them as a brace and her reports are comical!  

[Dogcoat lady]

Thank you for adding laughter to my early morning.  I do love the unison sit and the wagging tails.  How great is that?

[Sam I Am]

Watching these videos I am sure those Cairns are robotics Cairns , the newest AI from Japan. Sam would be careening around the arena and probably as he is a better jumper than some of my past horses, would leap (in the best form possible) over the arena fences! A bit like an earlier video of Elroy doing zoomies in Brads house.

[bradl]

A little respect for a lot of hard work, please.

That said, many Cairn handlers have been left standing helplessly by while zoomies in the obedience ring were entertaining witnesses.

One memorable  instance was team obedience (four, count 'em FOUR Cairns and their handlers in theoretical synchrony) when Barley split off from Peggy and the group during Heel Free to do a hot lap around the ring and rejoined the phalanx at the last second in time to sit down in line with everyone else, as if nothing had happened. I'll  note that Haggis stayed with me  

Even with Barley's walkabout we outscored the Newfoundlands  

 

[Sam I Am]

Edited October 10, 2021 by Sam I Am

[Dogcoat lady]

Absolutely stellar efforts and patience overwhelming, hats off to those that go into that ring.  Any terrier, anytime.  I still am charmed by the wagging tails and unison sits.

[bradl]

I'm not offended *personally*  but I feel sometimes we owe it to the intelligence and "happy warrior" nature of the breed to express and advocate for higher expectations of what they can do. I know very well what they are like to live with  but I think we excuse too much sometimes and write it off as "terriers, amirite?!"

[CamilleatGaelforce]

You are quite right, Brad, we don't give our terriers enough credit and make excuses.  My first Scottie, Maggie, was trained up through Utility exercises, including scent discrimination and directed retrieving over jumps.  In fact, there was a Keeshond in our first obedience classes Maggie and I took together, taught by a Westie breeder, so watching those Kees' working brought back some very happy memories.   I tried to do some obedience with Johnny a couple of years ago, but he was so insane over the food rewards he could think of nothing else, and was bouncing all over the place.   Positive reinforcement may not be the panacea to training terriers after all, <sigh>.

[Kathryn]

Watching both the keeshond and the cairn braces, I have to say that it is the lovely cairn personality that shows through and gets to me...wags! Enthusiasm! If I could see closer, I bet they are smiling.

One of the regrets I have about covid isolation is that it cut short my early agility training with Angus, who is a very enthusiastic, high energy dog.  We had gone through puppy, beginning and intermediate obedience training, and Angus was definitely not the class star in any of those classes.  (If someone dropped a treat by mistake across the floor, he always saw that and tried to get over there before the other dogs to eat it...) We did try a few of the agility moves in the intermediate class, though, and he seemed to show an interest.  And indeed he did -- those initial agility classes were so much fun! Once, when we had started to put some of the jumps and moves together in a sequence, we were instructed to put our dogs through the tunnel, two jumps and a ramp and then stop.  The instructor, who always carried very high-value treats and was a real dog whisperer anyway, waited across the floor.  I let Angus start -- and he went through the entire sequence, waaaay past where we were supposed to go.  Then he planted his butt right in front of the instructor at the end and looked up at her for a treat...She called him an "overachiever..." 

I have become acquainted with Shell Lewis through Cairn Rescue USA, and her cairn Skippy was an absolutely amazing agility dog, and won title after title during his long life (I think he lived to about 18!).  And, just like the cairns above, always did it was a wagging tail...

[bradl]

I hear you Kathryn. I am having trouble getting my mind around things ever returning to "normal" but I still have high hopes that someday it will and doing things with the dogs will be just plain fun again, rather than a risk/reward calculation. 

It was a beginning agility class with Haggis and Barley that sent us back to basic obedience in the first place .  

I would like to apologize for being a bit harsh up-thread with the respect comment. I didn't even manage to say what I actually meant.  Sheesh.

[Dogcoat lady]

Thank you.

[Dogcoat lady]

Not War and Peace, but a good read…..Born to Bark by Stanley Coren

[bradl]

I need to sit down with something that isn't a screen!

 

[Dogcoat lady]

I have purchased many, several, lots of copies of this book.  Each time I buy one for me, I seem to find another person to enjoy it….so I give it away.

So many nuggets and insights.
passages that make me laugh, and those that make me cry.

[Eliz222]

I need to look that book up! House training has left me frustrated and puzzled. I could use a goo laugh!