always late

i had planned on updating more, but again life gets in the way.

i had hopes of bringing rah out of retirement - his favorite shows are coming up and the judging panel is amazing for him.
but whatever is going on with his elbow is still there - hes mostly sound, but he wont drop - for signals or the DOR.
so i guess his retirement is for real. i started crying when i emptied his stuff out of my training bag but its time to make way.

cherry is doing really well. she's a good girl and tries so hard - she has a lot of rahs good qualities and less of his bad ones. shes still learning focus, and her response to commands is ... well... blue : ) but she tries hard. she's softer and more sensitive than him, but she's got lots of drive and she's more biddable. she's very willing to offer me behaviors and she's super cute with a great sense of humor.

chill is a butthead. he's a tough dog and i love him - his class starts next week. he's very funny and VERY cuddly - and he's a lot like my dobermans. i can see border collies becoming fixtures in this house. i was so nervous about adding something else to the house, but he's an awesome dog. the surprising thing is how cuddly he is - just as much as my dobes. and hes much more self-controlled at a young age than ANY of my dobes. he comes out of his crate and rolls over for me to rub his belly. if i sit on the ground he runs over and jumps in my lap and collapses for cuddles.

he also loves the girl dobes - he wont ever be meeting rah for obvious reasons - but the girl dobes love him. and he LOVES people - he sees them and he starts wagging furiously and his ears go back and he licks licks licks. he's going to be interesting to train but he's wickedly smart.

so, im toying with changing the name of the blog... or maybe the description. this isn't rah anymore, this isn't my novice A dogs. or should i start a new one?

its been so long

and ive thought about this post for awhile but its been hard to write.

i took a big break from obedience. rah and i went up to nationals with cherry bomb, and rah was terrible. not any fault of his own really, but something was off. he was not performing because something was hurting. we came close to qualifying utility one day, and rah got called on his jump height and had to jump 30 inches and i regret that... but he came back hurt.

ive spent months trying to figure it out but the end result is, and it pains me so much to say this, rah is probably retired from obedience.

i never thought id ever have to retire him. i thought (and i know this is morbid) that he'd be dead before he couldnt work. i simply cannot keep him sound.

he has neck pain, and it manifests in a right front leg lameness. i know, in my heart, theres a good chance this is wobblers. i dont want to get my hopes up beacuse he is sound when hes only hanging out and being a pet - but work makes him lame. i cant keep him in active shape and ready to show because he keeps coming up lame.

so im forced to retire him too. its painful and hurts so much - to lose BOTH my competition dogs in the same year.

once rah got hurt, i didnt have it in me to work. i couldnt go to training, i couldnt show up, i didnt want to be around them. i even pulled cherry from classes - everything she did was a comparison to rah and it just didnt work. to top it off she also got injured and had issues but those seemed to have thankfully cleared up - if it recurs it will be MRI time for her too.

i missed obedience, but it still hurts to this day. i havent brought myself back to class, but ive started working cherry again at home. and i thought long and hard about it, but i got another dog.

introducing: katwalk calm like a bomb


some of you may know, but this is one of the border collies born and raised in my house this year. he was born 11/20 to my trainers bitch, secret, currently working on her OTCH. i had to change breeds - i cant take all the health problems in mine and i need something that will stand a CHANCE at least of being healthy.

so far the puppy currently known as chill is 7.5 weeks and hanging in his crate, we are working on housebreaking but hes also a little genius. is this what happens when your puppies are raised with obedience from the start and the clicker comes out at 5 weeks? he knows sit/down/back/twist/spin/front/get close and tugs like a MANIAC. he's fearless and while his littermates are all still here, he's chilling (haha) in his crate separate because he's a very confident puppy with teeth a mile long and needs to learn some control as well - he was certainly confident enough to be kicked out of the litter early!

so, thats me. hopefully i will be back here for some more regular posting, but its sad that it wont be with rah. i dont know what else to say...

it's finally happened...

i cant believe its finally time to write the words -
RAH FINISHED HIS UD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not to let that be enough, Rah also managed to qualify in Open for our first UDX leg!


Yesterday I decided to go and show him the way he wants to be shown - instead of trying to control him in the ring and keep him calm, I let him party like he wants to. We had spinning, barking (and on our way to set up for signals he also took a bite!), flying feet, he knocked my number off at one point when his foot got caught in the rubber band - but he had a blast and he q'd and that's what matters. It wasn't pretty, but considering I'm not sure he sat for a front a single time in open or utility, I'l take our 185.5!!!!

So, party boy finally got his UD. and now it's onto the UDX - we're also taking a detour back to CDSP this year as i trial him heavily in the next few months to get 2011 ranking opportunities. Let the party begin!

trauma

i purposefully havent posted here because it hurts... rah is fine (for now) but berlin is injured, badly. to the point that she's completely retired from all sports right now. its killing me and im reliving all my past failures and shortcomings with all my other dogs, so i have nothing to say here that's inspirational - in fact, i havent even been training my other dogs because quite honestly i have nothing to give them right now.

berlins recurrent neck pain prompted me to take her to the neurologist and have an MRI appointment - the results showed that she has a herniated disk in her neck and early wobblers - stenosis of her spinal canal that is compressing her cord and causing intermittent pain. worse, its progressive to the point of possible paralysis. there are options - both in alternative medicine and traditional, but im not sure how i am going to progress at this point because with rest and light activity she's 100% sound and rarely has episodes of pain. i refuse to stop letting her wrestle with rah - and in fact, she goes CRAZY if i dont take her running with me when i go (she runs around the house frantically getting to each window crying and screaming)... she thrives on the things we did together.

shes the reason i started agility. she's the reason i dropped 75 lbs. she's the reason im becoming a better trainer. and now she's the third fucking doberman in a row that i have that won't be able to accomplish anything she is truly capable of because time just isn't on our side.

so berlin retires Beja's Bombs Away v Bowie, CD BN RN NA NAJ - i may still play around with her in APDT and CDSP rally because she can avoid the jumps, but retrieving hurts. i can go into the symptoms for her later that led to this but right now im just hurt, angry, frustrated and pissed off at the world. and myself.

still no UD

the trauma of showing blueblurry in open.












and instead all i have to show you are these.

no go

so obviously rah didnt qualify or there would be words of wonder and praise here... instead he was his class clown self.
and while i love his sense of humor, its getting old, me funding his comedy career.

he's on his own little rough love program right now - he's being pressured, and hard. no more mr. nice guy over here - he's gotta act like a big boy. all the little things he does that i let slip - from trying to take back his articles instead of finishing, staring at gloves instead of me on a front, jumping on me instead of fronting because he's so happy - no more. he needs to settle down and think about his job. he offers a variety of behaviors attempting to get cookies and while i dont reward his obedience behaviors, i am VERY liberal with cookies for cute spins backing up, etc - no more, not right now. he's got 2 weeks that we are trying that and we're attempting to see if ANYTHING calms him down in the ring - because he flies high as a kite and he is so keyed up he gets in his own way. put a lot of pressure on him for everything tonight - dogs all over his article pile, multiple people on the floor for directed jumping, waving arms and running while he did the go outs and while i gave signals to jump and FINALLY got him to pick his own jump and pressure off the right one...

we shall see.

awesome training - are we doomed this weekend?

the dogs all trained really well last night.
which makes me think im doomed for this weekend.

cherry in puppy class was a superstar. we did moving attention with distraction of a person near us (4-6 feet) and she was awesome. i used her name to remind her but i didn't even need to use come, just saying her name she refocused on me and was right back and ready to do moving watch like a superstar.

she is CRAZY for the db. still hates metal articles. so crazy that like rah, she ran away with the db. i love it. love it love it love it. worked fronts - will have to shape those since she's not understanding straight because she's already too tall to teach like a baby dog :) and her stands and sits are nice, will have to eliminate some signals and go to verbal. and put it in heel position.

berlin was awesome in utility too. did two gloves and she marked them1!!!!!!!!!!! go outs i changed her focal point and she got it -need to bring in the turn and sit now. and directed jumping she rocked. she's solidly in the middle of week two of ATC, by the end of the week i will go to week 3. signals i barely worked but she's good at 4-5feet. not bad for a baby dog.

rah was solid in utility.

so im afraid. now rah's not going to finish his UD this weekend because everyone trained too nicely. damnit.