# Kira's HGH training thread



## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Since Kessy's HGH thread was so popular (http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/herding/155584-hgh-training-progress-videos-start.html), I decided I'd start a new thread for Kira's HGH training.

I co-own Kira (pedigree link: https://www.pedigreedatabase.com/dog.html?id=748736) with her breeder, Lee, and the eventual goal is to title her in both HGH and schutzhund. She's just shy of a year old now.

We've been able to start Kira much earlier than most dogs that do HGH training, due to my experience and also her temperament. She showed lots of instinct and confidence at a young age. We have still been taking it slowly due to her age, but she's been doing wonderfully.

Most of these videos have been posted on their own, but I think this thread will be nice to consolidate everything  

Here she is at 3.5 months. We let her follow behind the flock to build her drive and confidence, and Geary (the trainer) keeps the flock moving with one of his beaucerons. 






We also did a few sessions out in the pasture, with Kira on a leash, letting her push the sheep around. We didn't have to do too much of that - she was very sure of herself around the sheep.
After several sessions of that, it wasn't necessary anymore, so we waited for her to mature a little before we put her behind the netting.

Here, she's about 7 months old. It's her first time behind the netting, unfortunately the sheep didn't cooperate, they left the fenceline. But she was still able to patrol a little, and it does come to her naturally.






A few weeks later, we were able to let her off the line, she gets overexcited at times, but is obviously enjoying herself....LOL





 

I have some video from today uploading, but I don't think it'll finish before I go to bed tonight, so I will post it tomorrow 

If anyone has questions about the training, I am happy to answer them. :thumbup:
Enjoy!

Meghan


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## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

I enjoy watching these two girls so much! 

Can't wait to see her progress!


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## DunRingill (Dec 28, 2007)

Looks great! Looking forward to more video!


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

thanks for sharing - love those dogs ! her theme song should be "I can RUN for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles. Oh yeah" .


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Here is Kira's video from yesterday





She is still on the long line - she did pick up the border very naturally, but we can't trust her off the line yet. She occasionally still wants to come in and chase the sheep around, and she is so quick that it's tough to catch her, even on a long line.

We do need to get her off the line very soon, hopefully in the next lesson or two, so we can introduce the cross border and move on with her training. 

Kira has shown so much instinct, confidence, and intensity from a young age - we have gone very slow with her training, since she's been started so much younger than "normal," we don't want to push her too hard. The training does involve some stress and we want to be sure she can handle it. We have taken some breaks here and there with her and I think we've balanced her age and training well. 

Kessy did not show so much instinct right off the bat - I think she was hindered by her schutzhund training. She thought long line meant tracking and it was tough to get her out of that frame of mine. But the instincts did come out over time and she turned into a great tending dog. She is very biddable - although she will blow me off if she thinks I'm wrong (and if that happens - she is generally right...LOL), but she has always wanted to keep me happy and work WITH me, as a team.

Kira is different, she's not so biddable, although she's shown loads of instinct. I don't feel like it's clicked that she's working WITH me yet. So now that we're introducing more distance, training has been going more slowly. Once she's reliable, we can move on. Hopefully that time will come soon so we can move forward. I am hoping to title her next fall.


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## wolfstraum (May 2, 2003)

Oh goodie! more videos! 

I am not surprised that Kira is a natural.....I was able to do some herding with her grandmother, Kyra v Frolich Haus, locally at a sheep farm whose owners were big into Scottish BCs....the husband of the pair thought that he could beat BCs with her in competition....unfortunately, the wife was killed......

Csabre was tested in BC and Shelly Fritzke spoke well of her natural ability. 

From what I know of the pedigree, there is "old herding" blood in abundance behind Kyra....I would actually like to try Kira's half sister Bengal next summer as I heard there is a (not HGH of course) trainer about 70 miles east of me....

Keep up the diary Meghan!!! And thanks!

Lee


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

great border or boundary instinct .

Once again great pedigree . The herding coming primarily from the dam Csabre Wolfstraum . Yes through Csabre's dam Kyra (Lord and the Pushka haus Himpel) repeated on her dam (Lord) and the great source (Gibsy Alten wassermuhle) AND through Csabre's sire line with the Maineiche collection of Marko Cellerland and Pirol Kirschental plus Busecker Schloss (Seffe - go backward on Petra) (this dog is significant in my own program) .
Through Kira's sire - Perry Beilstein , Marko, then Ugo brings in Harro (Pirol and Seffe) again, Faust Busecker Schloss . Can find Claudius Hain going back to Knolle.

A nice pedigree .


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## DunRingill (Dec 28, 2007)

Great video, lots of fun to watch!!

It sure was a nice day to be out there.....


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Yep it was a beautiful fall day! I heard Bunny did well yesterday too!


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## DunRingill (Dec 28, 2007)

Yeah we had a good day.....The Bunny is growing up! I had her spayed last month and think that will help, her coming in season every 4 months wasn't fun for either of us.


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Kira had another lesson on Saturday. We took her off the long line for the first time.
She did really well - but gradually, as she works, her tail carriage gets higher and higher and she gets more amped up. So I have to make her take occasional breaks, walking over the border to stand with her for a few minutes so she can settle down. Otherwise she will start to get out of control. But for her first time off the long line - she did great!

She's definitely not your "typical" 12 month old. Ever since she was little, she's been super confident (I would really call it cocky), and has no problem handling the stresses that come with training. It's allowed us to start her younger than usual - but it's making her quite a handful. But that's the style of dog I like - confident, drivey, powerful. After all the excitement with Kessy, I think I'd be bored if training wasn't a real challenge!


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## cliffson1 (Sep 2, 2006)

Carmen, I agree that the dam line has great herding resources and I also really like the balance of the pedigree of this dog. I think these videos show a super dog with very nice temperament and typical of what the breed should reflect.


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## wolfstraum (May 2, 2003)

Thank you Cliff and Carmen - three of the other pups are working in IPO and look very promising as well....one of the owners and I were talking last night about how prepotent Csabre is - both this litter and the Ufo grandget are very "csabre-like'....in looks, behaviors and personality...

Lee


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

I got some video of Kira's session yesterday. She's progressed a lot since our last video.

She's now working all 4 borders. She's been in a few different grazes and is doing really nicely on the border. She occasionally gets a little distracted, but it's most likely due to her age. She's only 13 months old, most dogs don't get started til now! If she starts to get distracted we just call her and remind her what she should be doing. That should fade away with age.
She has her moments where she looks to me for direction - so that is a bit of a balancing act. She needs to work independently, so if I help her too much that might not develop. But she is young and she does need some support. 

Kira herding at 13 months - 12/8/12 - YouTube

We also started to move the flock yesterday, for the first time. We didn't get any video of that, but she came in when called and did a couple of passes along the flock when she was sent. It probably doesn't sound like much but it's a big change and baby steps are all that are expected in the beginning.


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## wolfstraum (May 2, 2003)

I just watched the video and am amazed at what she is doing at 13 months old!!!!!!!! She really seems to be a natural!

Thanks for posting it!

Lee


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## Questforfire (Apr 18, 2012)

Fantastic videos of Kira - what a little star she is! :wub:

I enjoyed following the progress of Kessy through your videos, and will equally enjoy Kira's progress.

Thanks for sharing.


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## Questforfire (Apr 18, 2012)

Oops double post.

I liked the videos so much, I had to praise them twice


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## Questforfire (Apr 18, 2012)

Fantastic videos of Kira - what a little star she is! :wub:

I enjoyed following the progress of Kessy through your videos, and will equally enjoy Kira's progress.

Thanks for sharing.


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

Well it's been a while since I've updated this thread - but we did take some time off this winter due to weather. 
I took Kira herding three times this week, she's doing GREAT.

She's reliable in the graze - patrols all 4 borders, although she still needs some support here and there, but that's normal at this stage of training. In the last lesson or two she's started pushing back against the sheep, so that's a good thing! Before she was not quite confident enough to do that. But she's growing up!

Here's some video of her tending the graze this evening...

Kira March 2013 - YouTube

We've started to move the flock - she's doing very well with that. She has a strong and a weak side, on her weak side she doesn't want to go back along the flock, but it's improved a lot in just a few sessions. She's very easy to control, and comes back instantly when I call, and she has a pretty good feel for the flock. She's not pushing them - yet - but that's fine at this point! 

We've also started having her in a stand, while the flock moves by. It's something I've worked on at home (without sheep) for quite a while, and she is reliable, but it didn't transfer over to the farm right away. The first two sessions with the flock moving by, she didn't want to stand at all. I can't blame her - it's very hard to stand still while the whole flock moves by! But today we were able to set up two stands for her, and I think it clicked. She did try to lay down - but I just called her up a few steps and put her back into a stand, and she held it until I released her. So that's coming along really well.

She also had her first experience with the truck going by - which is an important part of the trial. You can see that in the video above. First the dogs need to get used to the truck, just sitting along the border. Then they are exposed to the moving truck while they're working the border, then they move onto a moving truck while they're moving the flock. But by that point they've seen the truck on the border so much that it's no big deal.

I've also started teaching her to jump the netting - for the trial, she'll need to jump into the pen with the sheep. But we start out without sheep, and just teach her to hop back and forth. The first session she really wanted to just run through the netting but I did get her to hop back and forth if I held it down halfway. We did another quick session tonight, and she did pretty well. She was able to hop over a few times without me holding the netting down at all. She did crash a couple of times - the netting is high, and hard to see - but I just don't make a big deal over it, and get her to do it again. 

So, everything is coming along well with Kira.


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

I love reading and watching Kira. Stosh and I have been herding for a while now but due to lack of available trainers we're herding border collie style- A and B course rather than tending. He's amazingly good at fetching, gathering and moving around the course, although I can see such a natural desire to drive and tend. He's gotten an Ht and Pt and we're working the started A course but I feel bad that he can't do what he's really meant to do. But on the other hand, at least he's out there working! Kira looks exceptional, especially for her age.


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## wolfstraum (May 2, 2003)

I know nothing about this...but she looks very happy patrolling the sheep...and doesn't seem to care about the truck at all

Lee


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