Monday, January 2, 2012

Dante earns his first Coursing Ability Test leg

Dante (12 months) with Taylor

We took Dante and Firenze to the Desert Fun Bunch's lure coursing event in early December.  Dante loves chasing things, and had a blast running top speed after the lure (the ability test is 1/3 mile in length, in a roughly rectangular shape.)  Firenze decided visiting the other event attendees was more fun then chasing the lure... can't fault a samoyed for loving people :-)

more pictures and updates on facebook:

Happy New Year!!!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Puppies!

Hawkwind's Golden Amber Onyx
OFA Hips - Excellent
Elbow, Thyroid, Cardiac clearances
CERF 2009, 2010
AKC pointed


Amber's first litter is here!  More info to come, but for puppy inquiries, you can contact us at DesertRoseSamoyeds@gmail.com

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Hawkwind Daystar Firenze Quarry - 8 months

Herding this morning - Firenze's 4th lesson

Sometimes you need to establish if the dog/puppy has the instinct to herd (some dogs need to be exposed to stock a few times for the 'lightbulb' to come on - especially if they've been discouraged from chasing things in the past) Firenze has a strong instinct to herd.  He enjoys working sheep very much, and has also shown an interest in cattle and ducks.  He is currently working on learning how 'get out'  which means getting far enough outside of the sheep (in a pen) to keep them together.  If the dog gets too close and too far in, the group of sheep will split.  The dog also needs to learn how to 'balance' - to find the right distance that will keep the sheep moving to the handler without pushing the sheep past the handler.  We also are working on having him switch directions in circling the sheep - this will eventually lead to him moving back and forth behind the group of sheep as needed to keep them together. 

Once herding was done, dogs and people socialized a bit.  Then we set up some agility equipment and got to see some very nice work done by a couple of the trained agility dogs.  Firenze went through the tunnel a few times, and over the (very low) jumps.  He then flew down the field chasing a butterfly with joyous abandon.. overall, I'd say it was a very good morning for him :-)