Posted by: David Harris
Video by: Cindy Jacobs
May 10, 2008 was a picture perfect day in the Bluegrass of Kentucky. Tracking conditions were perfect with a light dew on the grass, calm winds and 15 degrees Celsius, 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Beautiful sunny skies, but we were just coming off of several days of heavy rain. So, the ground was soft, loamy and full of scent.
The subject of the this post is a seven month old Malinois named Diesel. Diesel takes to tracking like a pig to slop. He loves it! He displays a deep nose and very high drive. Some work needs to be done to calm and steady him on the track, but his is very willing and is developing very quickly.
The previous post about Diesel only showed his upcoming obedience skills. Search the keyword Superstar to read that post and see the associated video of Diesel at four months of age.
This post has a video link that shows some of his development in obedience and a look into his Schutzhund protection training. Diesel is advanced. Don’t try this at home. Very few dogs have the drive and willingness that this young Malinois shows. He is an extremely hard biting dog, yet due to the early, early development in obedience, he has outstanding understanding and control in protection. Therefore I was able to start him on the blinds, teach him to out off the sleeve and hold at bay in very, very short order.
This article and video is more entertaining than education in that sense. Most dogs take much more time and development to reach this dogs skill level. So, don’t judge your dogs progress by this dog. Like a lot of Malinois, he is a freak of nature. But, to our credit he is well bred, well raised and very well trained. That is a combination that is almost always likely to lead to success.
Enjoy the video and as always please feel free to make comments or ask questions. There is a lot to be learned by discussing this dogs drive and development. I will continue to post progress video’s of him as he matures. He will get his BH at fifteen months and SchH 1 at eighteen months. If he does not it will be a failure of his handlers and not in his ability. They don’t come any better than this guy and I want to thank his owner Lee Waldron for allowing me the pleasure of coming along for the ride.
Video of Diesel at seven months of age.
David Harris
5 responses so far ↓
1 David Harris // May 12, 2008 at 11:41 am
Well if I have to say so myself I will
WOW! That’s sum dog.
2 Gregariousred // May 16, 2008 at 11:21 am
It’s pretty amazing watching Diesel do all the big dog schutzhund stuff. He makes it look easy, like he’s been doing it forever. I can’t wait to see what Lee does with his talented dog!
3 Jerol // Aug 21, 2008 at 10:32 am
That was at 8 months, got anything more recent?
4 David Harris // Aug 21, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Jerol,
Diesel is eleven months old now. He is competing next weekend for his CD and I will be fairly surprised if he doesn’t come away with multiple blue ribbons. He has beautiful heads up heeling, very correct, flashy military lefts and a blazing fast correct recall, front, and flip finish. I completed his retrive work about a month ago since we were getting bored so he will be getting his CDX directly after completing his CD. He only lacks the broad jump. He knows the rest of the routine. In Schutzhund he is ready for a Schutzhund 1. Just a little more work on article indication and were off to the races. Obedience and protection have been in the polishing phases for over a month. He just has to wait for six more months to compete for his BH. So, we will knock out the AKC titles while we wait. I will try to get you some updated video soon. I actually took my camera out Wednesday, but he is so fun to work that I forgot to do any taping.
5 David Harris // Sep 15, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Follow up: The Lexington Bluegrass Classic has came and gone and as I predicted Diesel was a super star. At eleven months he was by far the youngest dog in his class, but easily came away each day with a Blue ribbon for first place. He completed three days in a row and improved his scores each day. On day two he came away with the coveted High Scoring Dog in Trial (HIT) award in addition to his first place win in Novice. It is very uncomman for a Novice A dog to win highest scoring dog in trial, but for Diesel it is all in a days work. Needless to say we are very proud of his accomplishments. I predicted his success in this show and I predict many more good days ahead for this young superstar.
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