April 15, 2007   Cynder earned her first leg towards her Junior Hunter.  She's quite eager to go out and get the birds.  Also realizes the birds are coming from different directions and to listen to the call of the bird and the shot.   She was very good on Saturday also except when it came to the water retrieves.  One test was set up in such a way that the dog actually had an option to go straight thru the water to the bird or to run along the bank.  Well I guess Cynder did a quick review of the situation and decided it was much more efficient to run the bank.  She did not hesitate to go get the bird and bring it back to hand, but really didn't go in the water.

February 25, 2007   YAHOOOO...Cynder earned her SATCHC  (Specials Agility Trial Champion of Canada) title at the Leaps N Bounds trial.  She completed her final Snooker and gamblers masters runs.   All this before she turned 3.  What a girl.

October 28th, 2006   Cynder achieved her SMADC.  (Specials Masters Agility Dog Of Canada) Title.  Bandit also got his BRONZE award of Merit.

Sept 9, 10, 2006  Participated in her first Junior Hunt Test with the BCLab club.   Saturday was another case of great dog too bad about the handler.  Cynder did both her 2 land retrieves and her 2 water retrieves wonderfully.  She has figured out that the two birds come from different directions and to listen for the gun. Unfortunately I asked her to release the last bird a little too early and it hit the ground before I could catch it. Immediate fail.  Sunday, great handler too bad about the dog.  Cynder passed the first 2 land retrieves without a problem.  When it came to the water, well, I guess she needed some exercise or something since she went on a wild goose chase.  She started off heading straight for the bird, but for some unknown reason changed her direction and ended up swimming all over the place for quite a long time.  She just couldn't get her bearings again.  Or she was just blowing me off (most likely).  Took a lot of calling etc to get her to come back to me (without a bird).  We tried the next bird which was a much easier retrieve.  Again she went straight out to the bird and was within a couple of feet of it when she realized it's wings were sticking up (they had been tied) and she got a little spooked and wouldn't take it.  Terry was the gunner and was close by, so between him and me we were able to convince her to finally take the bird.  We had her just give it to him and then swim back to me.  We were defiantly the entertainment for the day.   We will be trying to get lots more practice time in before the spring.  We learned some valuable things again - how to release the dog from its leash without getting it tangled or the dog backing out of it and don't touch your dog until you have the leash back on and have left the line.  Oh yeah, and don't tell your dog its a good dog when it isn't bringing back the bird.

August 26,27, 2006   Paws Ahead held their first sanctioned AAC agility trial at Burnaby Lake.  Great weather.  Cynder got another Master Standard Q.  She only needs one more to get her SMADC.  (Specials Masters Agility Dog of Canada).  Still no luck in getting that elusive advanced jumpers leg.

August 17-20, 2006  Both Cynder and Bandit competed in the AAC Nationals held at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby.  Bandit injured himself playing with Cynder on Friday and by the end of day on Saturday was showing signs of injury so he was pulled from the competition.  Cynder was great.  She placed 5th in her division on Friday in the Steeplechase run which put her in the finals (money round) on Sunday.  She ran awesome - all out.  We had an off course and a dropped bar so our placing wasn't very good, but she was still awesome.  She did everything asked of her.  She placed 14th out of 30 dogs in her division in the overall standings at the Nationals.  Not bad for a 29 month old pup.  I wasn't sure how she'd do with the heat, but we managed to keep her cool and she kept her enthusiasm throughout the competition.  Bandit and Cynder were the only Flat Coats running.

August 5, 2006  Took Bandit and Cynder over to the Island for a one day agility trial.  Bandit got his final Gamble leg to get his VATCHC.  Was hoping to get Cynders last advanced jumpers leg so she would move up to masters jumpers but no such luck. One dropped bar from getting that last advanced leg.   She didn't get any "Q"'s

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July 2006 - Took both Cynder and Bandit to the 2006 Flat Coat Specialty in Lethbridge.  Very hot.  Had a great time seeing all those great flat coats.  First off, Klute, Cynders dad took Best In Show on the Friday then took Best in Specialty on the Saturday and then went on to take Best of Breed and Best in Sporting Group on the Sunday.  Wow...what a great dog.  Not bad for an 8 year old.   I had entered Cynder and Bandit in Obedience and Cynder in altered female conformation and WC (working Certificate - hunt).  Cynder was a little brat her first time in the obedience ring.  It was outdoors so all she wanted to do was sniff.  She got 0 on all her healing and recalls, but she got full marks for her stand for exam and sit & downs stays.  Not enough to get a leg.  Bandit on the other hand took top Flat Coat in the trial and won some goodies. I worked Bandit in the healing/recalls etc, Terry took him in for the sits and downs.  The second trial Cynder was a bit better, still laggy and sniffy but she at least followed me this time, again great stand for exam and sit/down stays.  She and Bandit both tied for top Flat Coats in the trial and both got a leg.  Bandit would have got higher if Terry hadn't stepped on his tail and touched him to stable himeself.  note: Bandit did not get up.  Cynder was awesome in her hunt test - to bad about the handler.  We had to do 2 land and 2 water retrieves.  Her first retrieve was done very well.  She even brought the bird to hand (which wasn't a requirement).  When I tried to send her to the 2nd bird which was 90 degrees from the last, she just kept focusing on where the first bird was.  I thought I had her set and had them release the next bird and just at that time she turned her head towards the last mark and away she went in the wrong direction.  I was able to get her back, but I had to handle her a lot at the start line to get her focused on the next bird.  We did eventually get organized and they threw another bird for her and she went right after it.  She was taking a while to pick it up, when people noticed that she already had one bird and she was trying to pick up the one that had been thrown earlier.  I eventually was able to call her back with just one bird.  Again, she brought it to hand.  The judge was kind enough to let us be the test dog for the water retrieves.  Cynder did very well.  When she first went out for the bird, it was turned upwards showing a white belly and the wings were quite high in the water and she was totally startled and jumped back.  I was able to direct her to pick up the bird in the water and again she brought it back to me.  The 2nd water retrieve went very well.  We learned some valuable things from this test.  We need to work more with 2 people throwing from different places, not always from one direction and we need to get our hands on different types/colors of birds.

June 2006  Competed in our first CKC agility trial.  Cynder got 2 Novice legs.  One in Standard and one in jumpers with weaves. 

May 2006 -  Competed in the AAC BC/Yukon agility regionals.  It was a great time.  Cynder did extremely well.  Both Bandit and Cynder have qualified to compete in this years National event being held at Swangard Stadium in August.   Have decided to put Cynder into specials jumping 22".  Now that she has matured and her chest etc have filled out she has been showing signs of having problems jumping 26".  We want to have a very long agility life so the decision was made. 

April 2006 - We have been extremely busy so haven't had a chance to update Cynder's page.  As of today she is  competing in Masters level in all AAC events except Jumpers.  She has 1 leg of her Advanced jumpers.  We are having a small problem with the spread jump, so will do some work on that.  She also has her first Steeplechase "Q".  She had a few clean runs but was over time from either 1 - 3 seconds.  She's a little slow on her A-Frame contact.  She has great contacts but comes down the A-frame too slowly.  Both Cynder and Bandit are entered in this years AAC BC/Yukon Regional Competition in May

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September 10, 2005 - Cynder was entered in her first AAC agility trial.  We had been working on our jumping for the last few weeks and her weave poles so I was hoping that it would go ok.  My plan was to use this  only as a practice in a live atmosphere and see where we had to do some more work.   We entered in Starters team and 2 standard courses.   Well...... Cynder was awesome - we qualified in all three events.  She is now in Advanced team and needs one more standard to move up to advanced.  I've never seen her so excited about agility before.  She was having a great time.  Whenever she finished a run people would come up and praise her and she would get lots of treats.  This was a great experience for her.  We now have to start working a little more on our front/rear crosses and our distance work.  She is entered in the upcoming trial at the end of the month.

July 1, 2005 - Cynder competed in an agility fun match in Squamish.  I ran her at 26".  Her first run of the day you would have thought that she had never seen a jump before.  Wouldn't take any of the jumps without lots of persuasion from me.  Her contacts were pretty good.  I lowered down to 22" and she did the same thing.  I them took her over to the practice jumps and she wouldn't jump them at first.  Them I took one of the bars off (I usually train with only 1 bar up) and she jumped it with no problem.  Go figure).  Her next run I ran her at 16", she did a bit better, but still not sure.  The last run of the day, she was playing with a stick outside the ring, so I decided to become involved with her play and then I took the stick into the ring with us and she jumped every jump with no problem.  I believe she was really distracted for the first few runs and was just being a stubborn flatcoat for a few hours.  She does not appear to have anything physical wrong with her, but I will keep an eye out. 

May 12, 2005 - 14 months old - weighs 52.9 lbs and stands 23.5" at the withers.  Still waiting for her coat to come in.  We were at the lake again today and boy is she ever getting good at retrieving bumpers in the water.  We did quite a long retrieve today.  She swam very fast all the way out, but ran out of umph on the way back and headed for the beach closest to her.  I was glad she was smart enough to do that.  She still found her way back to me on land.  I wasn't really that far away, but I was out of her sight for a bit.

May 6, 2005 - We went to work in the field again today.  Cynder retrieved 3 bumpers from the pond then we tried on land.  And yahoo....she was very focused on getting them and she brought all of them back.  I have been working with her on taking different things into her mouth.  We are using the clicker method.

                                                        Cynder's first Agility Fun Match (bit out of focus)

April 30, 2005  Cynder has had a very busy week.  Tuesday we went out to a barn to practice her agility and get used to different smells and equipment.  Thursday we went to Buntzen Lake with her buddy Timmy, to practice swimming and retrieving bumpers.  She was a little unsure entering the water at first, but it didn't take her long before she was retrieving like a pro.  Friday we went back to the fields to practice our field work.  I put her on a long line and she had a great time retrieving her wings on land, but still had a problem with bumpers so I attached a wing to the bumper and she brought it back, but was trying to get the wing off.  We then went to work in the pond (the more shallow one) and she was wonderful.  She would retrieve the bumper and bring it to land.  Not to my hand yet, but we are working at this.  We threw the bumper into the middle of the pond which was quite a ways away and she had no problem retrieving it.  We then let her play with Beck, Anna's new 7 month old puppy, and they both romped through the grasses and would run into the pond and swim.  Cynder would go into the water and just swim around.    Saturday was her big debut into the agility world.  Her first fun match.  She was wonderful.  Did her two on two off contacts like a pro, listened quite well - only wondered once to go visit the ring crew.  She dropped one bar in each run.  Her weaves were pretty good considering we've only been working on them for a couple of months, and we have just taken the guides off.  We have to work on her running and trying to sniff the ground at the same time.  I believe this will get better as she matures and starts to have more fun.  One of our biggest  accomplishments was when I put her in a sit/stay at the start line and lead out to the third jump without turning back, she stayed even with other dogs fussing behind her, and didn't move until I called her.

Cy                                      nder waiting her turn to go fetch.

April 22, 2005  -  We joined in some field fun today.  Got a chance to watch some very experienced dogs practice their stuff -  then it was Cynders turn.  She had no problem retrieving a bird wing on or off a bumper.  She wouldn't just bring a plain bumper back without the wing unless it was thrown into the pond.  She would go in and get it from the pond and would bring just passed the edge before dropping it.  She had a really big problem with the deep pond.  It dropped off very suddenly and the first time she went to go in, her head went in first and went under water and another pup came along and jumped on her so she couldn't get up.  Well of course this caused her to have a fear of this pond.  She really wanted to go in the water after the bumper, she would paw at the water but wouldn't go in.    So, hopefully we can find a place to work on this problem.  We have our work cut out for us.  She has to learn how to dive and keep her head up.  We also need to work on her fetching and holding items.

March 8, 2005  - Cynder is 1 year old today.  Boy, how time flies.

January 18, 2005  Happy New Year everyone.  Well Cynder was in her last conformation show in December.  Terry and I had made a very difficult decision to have her spayed in January - a dog in heat just doesn't work with our busy schedule.  It was hard to make this decision because we had met some great people and had lots of fu;n.    So on January 14 Cynder was spayed.  We also had a lump removed from her hip area and a biopsy done.  Tunred out it was scare tissue from an injury.  We can only assume it was from playing with the other dogs.  I also had her hips x-rayed while she was under, and the Vet said she had great conformation in her hips and her growth plates have closed.  Once she is back to normal I want to carry on with our training.  Time to start our obedience training for the ring and see how she does with her bird wings outside and of course continue with our agility training. 

Nov 18, 2004  I think Cynder has finally slowed down in her growing.  She weighs approx 60 lbs. now.  Still doesn't have much of a coat yet.  We have been working on just playing.  She's just too serious, so I have decided that we will spend time everyday just playing.  I get on the ground with her and get her favorite tug toy and we just play, wrestle for awhile.  She loves to retrieve her bird wings.  We are still practicing in the house.  Whenever I go to the laundry room (which is where I keep the wings) she follows me with her tail going and ready to play find the wing.  I am now able to attach it to a soft bumper.  I will hide the wing somewhere in the house and tell her to fetch up.  She takes off like a flash and searches until she finds it. A couple of times the cat has found it first and its quite funny to see Cynder standing almost like a pointer, patiently waiting for the cat to leave. It's really neat to watch her go into her search & find mode.  She has a very determand manner about her.  I usually remain in the living room while she searches (unless she is taking to long and the cat is the problem) and she brings the wing back to me.  When we have done this a few times, I put the wing away and we just play on the floor for a few minutes.  She seems to really enjoy this.

                 Cynder and her pal Rally.                      They both love to be on the table as soon as its put out.

Oct 29 & 30  Cynder participated in the largest dog show in Canada this week-end.  She was shown against her sister (the pick of the litter).  Her sister- Osland,  is shorter and more compact than Cynder and looks much more mature.  Osland came in first in the puppy breed. Way to go Osland.  Cynder needs to do some more maturing.  No big hurry here.  Good news is, we finely got her to retrieve bird wings.  She seems to really like it.  I'm working her at home indoors for now.  I hide the wing somewhere in the house and she goes and finds it.  She's quite persistent too.  Once I feel she really has the game down, we'll try it outside.  She now weighs 57 lbs and measures in at 23".  Now you know why she's still immature looking.  She's doing very well with her agility.  She can now do 10" jumps - up to 3 in a row.  She is doing a full teeter complete with a 2-on, 2-off contact and has done a 2 foot high A-frame with no problem.  We are currently looking into Competitive Obedience classes.  I think she should do very well at this since she is such a calm puppy.   She is already doing a fairly good sit stay.  Not for too long, but its coming.

September 27  Cynder and I have been very busy with preparing for her first couple of conformation showings.  Her first time in the ring was on Sept 10.  She was a little nervous I think.  A new handler (Anna) and all.  The second day, she was much better, more relaxed.  She now knew Anna. We came home with lots of ribbons - I still don't know what they all mean.   Her next conformation event was this last Friday.  She was very happy to see Anna and she showed much better.   The one thing I really noticed, when she went up against all the other sporting dog puppies was that she was the only dog in the ring that actually looked like a puppy.  Gangly legs and all.  A lot of the other puppies were much older than she was and it really showed.  But it was a good experience for her.  I think she is starting to get it and realize it's not a bad thing, she gets treats.  Her next show will be October 8,9,10th.  It'll be a busier week-end for her.  Cynder now weighs 53 lbs and stands 21 1/2 inches at the withers.  So she'll be jumping 26" in agility.  Speaking of agility - she's doing the tunnels quickly now on command.  We have been working her contacts/targets on the stairs and have transferred what she has learned over to the down side of the teeter.   We use a table to keep the teeter from dropping back to the floor on the entry side so she only has to worry about it coming down.  She does her touch/target pretty darn good.

Cynder in Puppy Breed w/ Anna    Cynder competing against a full grown dog     Cynder in puppy group     Cynder on 2nd day w/ Andrew 

              Showing off her ribbons                           Cynder's daddy Klute

September 1  Cynder now weighs 51 lbs.   Whew, she's finally slowed down in her growing.  We have been working with her on her conformation stand and prance.  She's standing nicely, back feet still need a little work.  She prances really nice.  Looks good.  We are also working on her retrieve.  She brings the bumper back as far as maybe 1 - 2 feet in front of me, then drops it.  So I am putting her on a long lead and trying to treat her if she goes all the way to my side with it in her mouth.  I am also teaching her to sit with the whistle for field work down the road.  She has been bringing new and exciting things from outside on a regular basis.  Yesterday, she was kind enough to bring me an apple off the tree.  Today though, she ever so gently brought me a dead mouse.  It was quite a large white mouse.  At first I thought it was part of a toy that she has and I went to take it from her mouth, but it felt wet and well, not quite right.  I had her release it and low and behold there lie a dead mouse on my floor.  She was quite proud.  I tried to praise her for brining it so gently to me, but between the yuks I was saying, it was hard to praise.  Reminder to myself.  Check what is in the mouth before you ask for it to hand.  Ealier this week Cynder was alone in the living room for a short period of time (unknown to me) and she had a great time chewing on my glasses.  Darn good think I had just ordered a new pair.  Has to try out those new teeth of hers.   A new day a new adventure.

August 14  Cynder's first practice stack with Anna.  Such a proud moment.

August 13   Cynder has now taken to bringing in pieces of Gutter along with grass, rocks, wood, fencing.   (I keep telling myself)  What a good little retriever.  What a good little retriever.   She now weighs 49 lbs.

August 5  Cynder now weighs 47 lbs and loves to take everything away from Bandit.  Here she is taking Bandits ball away when hers is right next to her.   This was taken on our vacation at Timothy Lake.

Look how big she's getting.  Almost as big as Boo.

July 14 - Cynder is 41 lbs and 19 1/2" tall.  She's looking like a dog now, not just a puppy.  She attended her first agility camp last week-end with her big bro Bandit and sis Ginger.  She participated for the first morning, small bits at a time.  We tested her on her nose touch to the target and she got 100% accuracy on her third try.   Both Cynder and Ginger were patient for the whole 4 days while Bandit was off participating in the camp.    It was a long drive to and from Quesnel but all the dogs settled in nicely for the trip.  I have started her on stair work for her contacts and she just loves doing the wobble board.    Yesterday she brought me a foot long piece of my lattice fencing from my yard.  Later she brought me a smaller piece.  She's not brining in as much dirt & grass as she used to, but we just never know what will be next.  I'm hoping to get her started on retrieving for field soon.  It looks like she'll be in her first confirmation in September.

                                                       One of Cynders not so nice habits is digging

June 24 - Cynder is 32 lbs.  She attended the AAC Regionals this last week-end with her big brother Bandit.  Bandit placed 7th in his division, much improved over his last years trial.  She was a very well behaved little puppy all week-end.  I took her to the puppy wading pool and she just had a blast going after the pictures on the bottom of the pool.  It really made me laugh out loud.  Nice stress reliever.  When all the trialing was done we took all the dogs to the lake for a quick swim.  By the time I got all the leashes off and got myself organized, Cynder was already in the water retrieving balls and bumpers.  Her first few attempts at swimming were your typical funny dog paddle splash, but she soon was swimming like a pro.  You could say she took to it like a duck to water.  She just followed all the other dogs in and just did it.  She has no fear.  I have been thinking about showing her in conformation as a puppy.  Will have to work on her stand and trotting.  I'm also considering field work with her.  I'd like to have her involved in more than one dog sport.  She's such a smart little girl, I'm sure she will be able to do well at what ever we attempt.  Hopefully, we will get back to our training routine soon.  The house is now being repaired/painted etc and now that the regionals are over, maybe we can get back to having some fun practicing.

June 15 -  Cynder is growing, growing, growing.  Last week she weighed 28 lbs and I am guessing she is now 30 at least.  Her training is coming along.   We have not had the opportunity to train each day since our break-in.  Lots to do to fix up the house etc.  Her downs are doing better and so are her lefts.  She is now touching the target with her nose 80% of the time.  We worked on sit-ups one day and every time I asked her to sit she would bring her front paws up slightly.  So I have stopped working sit ups for now and will resume them again when I am able to spend more time on it and give it it's own name.   I have introduced her to the ladder and now the wobble (Buja) board.  She has no fear on the buja board.  Neither the movement, nor the sound bother her.    I had one day when I actually saw her flat coat personality come out while we were in a training session.  My first thoughts were, OH boy, is she going to be a handful when she gets a little bigger.  A good hand full though.  Lots of spunk.  She attended an agility trial with the family this week-end and she behaved wonderfully.  She stayed in the pen with the other dogs without any fussing.  This coming week-end she will be attending the AAC Agility Regionals being held in Victoria.  Her big brother Bandit will be competing.  Bandit and Cynder are now playing.  Lots of tug.  Ginger and her are best of buds.  One big happy family.  She is now allowed to sleep outside her crate at night along with the other dogs in the kitchen.  She is much quieter and she wakes up around 5:30 mostly because that's when Bandit wakes up.  She has not had a mistake in the house for a few weeks now.  She is retrieving everything she can get into her mouth.   Sunday I heard her hitting her paw against the doggy door to get in, but she wasn't coming through the door, so I went to see what the problem was and she had a long stick in her mouth, lengthwise, that wouldn't fit through the door.  It was hilarious.  Once I was at the door, she decided it was OK to drop the stick and come it

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June 3 - Having some fun at the daycare.  Cynder loves to play tug.

May 27   - Cynder was in to have her second shots today.  She weighed in at 23.5 lbs.   She has now doubled her body weight.  She is getting along very well now with our other dogs.  Ginger and her play together frequently throughout the day.  Bandit will play with her for short periods of time.  Mostly he tolerates her pulling at his ears and neck.  She still follows him around.  We have been working on watch and a target plate.  She has picked both these up quite quickly.  She has learned to look at me instead of where the treat is in order to get the treat.  Her targeting is doing very well.  We are almost at a nose touch to the target.  Sometimes there is still the "lets just pounce on the target, it's much more fun".  But all in all she is doing great. We have dropped the target stick and are now doing sides without it.   We need to go back and work on her "here's" some more - she seems to have forgotten that one already.  She is beginning to show quite the playful little attitude.  Starting to play "catch me if you can" game when she thinks she's in trouble.  Her leave it command is pretty good.  Even though everything that she comes in contact with ends up in her mouth, usually when I tell her to leave it, she will.  Except if it is my shoes.  She just loves shoes.  Her housetraining is better.  Some days its wonderful, others well, not so wonderful.   She has been at daycare a few times now and has no problem with the other dogs, big or small.     We have worked/played a lot of tug.  I want her to really like tugging when she starts agility.  Here she is playing tug with Radar and Echo - she won.