Chris Zink Seminar - Education for Greenstone Kennel

Hello Folks

Well, Greenstone Kennel firmly believes that you always! need to keep learning, and about all area's of Dogs, Dog health, Birthing, Raising, Training, you name it and the amount of new information coming out in regards to dogs is wonderful.

Greenstone tries to attend at min two different seminars per year, and has been quite successful at this for over eight years now, I will try and sit down and write out all the different dog related areas of Education or Training Seminars I have attended.

But yesterdays was by Chris Zink and it was wonderful, if you ever get the chance to attend her seminars, I highly recommend that you try and get to one. She is the Auther of a number of different books/Video's and she gives one or two day seminars around North America.

Yesterdays Seminar was broken down into different area's, some lecture and a equal amount hands on.. always a good thing to get to put what you are learning into hands on time..

Importance of structure to performance

Introduction to the musculoskeletal system
How to evaluate your dog’s structure
How conformation showing fits into a performance career
Understanding your dog’s physical advantages and disadvantages for performance

Body size (gigantism vs. dwarfism) and shape
How to evaluate a dog's front and rear angulation
Dewclaws and tails – their use in performance
How you can use your dog’s structure to maximize performance
Locomotion and lameness

Gaits (walk, trot, canter) – what they look like and how they are used in performance
Pacing, crabbing – why they are not ideal gaits and what to do if your paces or crabs
How to train your dog to gait on cue

Videos demonstrating dog gaits and gait transitions
The use of ground poles in conditioning and gait modification
How to determine which leg your dog is lame on and how to help your veterinarian make an accurate diagnosis

Conditioning the performance dog
Organizing a fitness program
Strength and endurance exercises
Intensity, frequency, duration of training
Conditioning for specific muscle groups
Appropriate ages to begin strength and conditioning exercises

As you can imagine it was alot of info, and tons of notes got taken but also what I came away with that were huge for me, I have already been recommending that anyone that wants a performance dog wait to spay/nueter till 14 months, but after this seminar, I want everyone to wait if possable till after 14 months, pets or not.. the amount of new studies that show overall health risks and behavioural issues with spay/nuetered dogs is amazing.. and all the studies have been done in the past six years.. there were 11 new ones, and good ones at that..

Now, I am NOT saying breed your pet dog, I am saying keep it intact long enough to have all its normal growth plates close with full hormones in its body..

The second one that I found wonderful was in regards the Body Mass index for what requirements are the best for the overall natural performance dog, and a well breed ISD to the FCI/CKC standard with the typical breed bone and weight to height, we are ideal!

This is wonderful news, and it does not really surprise me :) after all how many peaple have said over and over again, this breed is still working in the fields and show rings at 13, 14, 15 or even 16 years of age.

In a nut shell, you want a Mesomorphic build, with a Body mass index of under 2, my very sweet and very good performance females range right about 1.5 to 1.6 and my stunning performance males sit just under 2 at 1.9 But my European breed bitch being so heavy for the same height frame as my Iceland breed females, comes in at over 2, and to be fair, we have had to limit her on her choices, that is why she does not do agiltiy, she does tracking, a low impact spot..

(I want to be very clear on this, if you breed to the new AKC Breed Standard, with its change in Leg length rato, the dogs become Endomporphic in build and the fact that many of the US dogs are being breed very heavy for their heights, that when you add the two together, they no long have the same body mass index and builds that the FCI/CKC Dogs do and therefor, they get much poorer results in the scores, so if you are looking for a Performance ISD in the US, ask the breeder what standard they are breeding towards, there are a ton of great US breeders that are breeding for the FCI/CKC standard)

The third thing I learned and I am totally lumping them together is how to use the poles to train trots, and a ton of new conditioning information on how to get and keep your dogs in peek health! That alone took up two hours worth of note taking.. and I can't wait to try it out with my dogs in the very near future.

Barks

One Pet Icealndic SheepdogPuppy is available for Adoption across Canada at this time, Two Show/Breeding Icelandic Sheepdog Puppies are looking for somewhat local homes in Ontario, Quebec..