so ive been delaying, i know. its been awhile since i posted.

havent been doing a lot of intensive training with the dogs - i know i should be working rahs scent articles since his breakdown at training, but i havent - instead im going for the "ignore it and it will fix itself" hope/prayer. in fact, im not even sure if i posted about last training in the blog! utility went well except for articles - we did go outs with a toy and he did perfect turns off the toy. wow!

im very pleased - rah is eligible for a front and finish award of excellence - obedience- gold for his ASCA scores! so he will be sporting FFX-OG at the end of his name now, for the award :) im so proud of him!!!!



i showed them this past weekend in CDSP - attempting to finish Rah's CD-H and i decided to enter berlin in Nov B as well just for the hell of it. that morning i was so sick, regretting entering her. she hasnt done half the exercises in Nov B i was so full of woe!!!

Nov B in CDSP has: heel on leash, fig8 off leash, moving stand for exam, recall over a jump, and an honor down.

berlin was last in the class, so she honored first. did well.
rah went in first - heeling was perfect!!! such a dream. moving stand was amazing - no verbals needed - stock still. fig 8 i had a crooked halt on the last one (1/2 point off). on the recall he came in so fast he jumped up and kicked me before he came in to front (so i lost a point on that) for a total of 198.5!!!!!!

THEN HE GOT UP ON THE HONOR DOWN.

first, we were HIT so far - the last dog in the class ended up with a 199 and ended up beating us (if rah hadnt kicked me on the front we would have been HIT) but the damned dog had to get up on his honor down? its like 40 seconds of his life? WHAT THE HECK?

then we got to berlin - she set up beautifully, heeling was nice. got a small lag on the about turn but not enough to be hit for it. the fig8 was where we lost the most points - she'd never done one off leash (BAD MOM) - inner post wasn't bad, but on the outer post she lagged and she had to catch up for the halt, and i used an extra command to keep her up with me on both outer posts.

her moving stand was nice - she popped out to the side, but she stayed standing (didnt sit when i halted) and i just moved into heel before i left her, and she did a perfect SFE (not bad for a baby dog!). recall over the jump was great - for a 186.5 - add in the 6 points i lost her for extra commands and we were looking at a pretty respectable score!!!

now the pressure was on for rah, since i needed this leg (since his ad already has his title in it! jinxing myself)... he was a lot more crowdy and forgey, but we ended up qualifying with a 197, which was only good enough for 4th place, but we got high scoring rescue dog and he got his CD-H!

berlin had a similar performance - fig8 was a little better, but during the heel free there is someone walking in the ring as a distraction and this time it distracted her a bit and i gave her a second command for the sit - so again, we had a 187.6, 6 points off for double commands - a nice score for the baby dog! the judge was talking to me afterwards and when i told her how old she was, she was damn impressed - said i was smart to take those points and give her a good ring experience and get her to do her job rather than have her be wrong.

she definitely needs work on transitions - since she was off lead and i wasnt dragging her, once she sniffed the wall and twice she scratched in the ring. but she set up nicely each time (WOOHOO) and she was really great. she is the type of dog that can handle a lot more hands on, unlike rah who i have to keep calm and settled down.

so thats our update. i have to go get dressed, we have a private lesson for the two of them today, and then tomorrow is open training at hunterdonk that im taking them both in. i also need to hit up th eliquor store and the foodstore today. i at least need to get off the couch :)

tired and exhausted and just back from my clinic's holiday party.

training last night went well, berlin was much more interactive and happy.
rah totally blew his mind on articles (something has to break each week, right? thats why they call it futility) but we did go outs with a toy and he was AMAZING...

ive been offered an 8 month 0ld all natural girl and all i want to do is go get her. i am trying to make lydia take her. i want her so badly she's perfect.

the local shelters near me also have a litter of 5 all natural fawn and blue pups.

what the hell are they doing to me? ALL NATURAL DOBERMANS NEED TO BE HOME WITH ME FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

i do not need the all natural black girl. i do not need the all natural black girl. i do not need the all natural black girl. i do not need the all natural black girl. i do not need the all natural black girl.

i want the all natural black girl.

say yes!

susan garrett has an awesome post in her own blog (http://susangarrett.wordpress.com/) about baggage on rescue dogs - and she cautions that it is not limited to rescue dogs. kinda a nice tie in to my last post - what holds our dogs back is us. if we're not getting something from our dogs, its really because of something we are doing. i *am* the weak factor in this training relationship!





last night was open - and i came back from class sore sore sore sore sore! i was sore to begin with, and we started with some brief heeling warm up while people chatted (i just doodled around) and then individual exercises. i started with recalls and DOR - rah was nice. i tried slowing down my drop signal for him, but he just drops slower (??) - so i went back to my lightening fast drop signal and he was perfect. ok, i guess he needs fast as lightening signals.

** as a side note - i watched a bunch of people and i noticed that most people dont use signals for a lot of things - they are using verbals to drop dogs verbals to send them over jumps - but i use signals for almost everything - to finish rah, to drop him, to send him over jumps - is this due to his attention? will this bite me if he becomes distracted in the ring? must talk to terry about this - there are only a few exercises in which you can do verbal and signals at the same time - call to heel after moving stand, and directed jumping **

moved to ROH - moved him up to 26 inches too. he did nicely - he has a flat jumping style beacuse hes so eager to get to the db - but hes not taking down jumps, and he has to jump so high anyway (and hes so huge) i dont want him trying to clear the jumps with inches to spare anyway. or at least he looks flat from my side - i dont see what he looks like to the side. i know he doesnt tuck his back feet :) anyway - he did nice retrieves but fronts were only so so .

ROF - i brought the flexi back out and his fronts were better - i just guided him into front. he was eager and very excited. panting and frothing as always.

broad jump - he did nicely, but he's starting to anticipate my sending him over the jump so we had to do a lot of having him wait while i stand next to the jump and DONT send him - i heavily rewarded that. becausei do a signal send, i have to be careful o fthat, especially when the judge will say "send your dog' that he doesnt go on that. will hve to proof that in privates with terry. my dog is just too "quick" at this stuff - he learns what needs to be done and anticipates it all. he could do this entire open routine without me.

didnt do fig8 - took a break for 5 minutes, but he was stlil all worked up for heeling... BUT BUT BUT BUT --

he was so worked up - his heeling was BETTER? he wasnt so pushy, he wasnt making full body contact. he still maintained a good heeling position, he was accurate and happy (and hes starting to do the malinois hop, as i call it - after dune - when we change paces, he pops up in place!!! in anticipation) - but he wasnt making full body contact with me. must research this- kathy said i may want to show him onlky in B hoping that i can get heeling towards the end - or just tire him the hell out before we show him. so did lots of heeling and he was good. and then we moved it into signals and he did AWESOME signals - i did slow those down and made them very clear and he was SO GOOD.

hung out a bit and watched everyone else and rah was a good boy. today i have to make treats to celebrate his ASCA CD and his VC certificate.

we have a trial on the 28th and a private set up on the 31st since i am off that day.
im trying to see if i can afford to put him into BOTh open classes or maybe i shoudl pull him out of utility next session to prep him for showing? i have to get my show schedule together too. someone said i SHOULD enter bayshore, that vicky brown is a good judge... its going to be HELL to park.. .and i cant bring berlin, she will likel ybe in heat. ARGH. ARGH ARGH ARG.

offensive?

last night after a convo in chat, i wanted to bring some things up, and here seemed like a good place.

im not going to use names, so the person does not need to respond if they dont want to, and does not need to even address the issue at all. there were just a few things that i dont feel i was getting across very well, and i didnt want them to come across like i was accusing the person of being a poor trainer.

most people screw up their first dog - this is just a fact of life. very few people can say that their first dog was a godsend, that their first dog was an easy dog and make no mistakes. most people are not born natural trainers and things just come perfectly to them - and very few people have the combos of that perfect first dog and being a wonderful trainer in one situation - so the end result is you end up making lots of mistakes with your first dog - going to bad trainers, deciding which methods you do or do not want to use, scrapping this one for that one, finding out that you wish you hadn't done that 2 years ago as a puppy, wishing you had done this, vowing to do that with your next dog. wishing that your next pup will carry around scent articles as a pup, will start directed jumping, will start puppy scent pads at 7 weeks old, will be doing rag work at 9 weeks old, will be socialized with men at least 3 times a week, etc. its easy to view in hindsight what you could do better to fix your current dog.

without going through and making those mistakes on the other dog, you're missing out on that. if there are things that aren't right with your current dog, its not necessarily because your current dog cant give it - sometimes its because we havent been able to bring them out in the dog. hes a young dog, and he isnt done maturing. if he sometimes gives you flash and drive, then he can give it to you more - you just have to focus on it. being a trainer is being able to bring that out. it may just be me personally, i dont buy being a trainer is trading dogs until you get the best dog out there - being a real trainer is training the dog you have in front of you and learning what you have from what dog you have - because sometimes if you dont learn those lessons there, you may just be doomed to repeat them (yeah, santana). if your next pup only offers you intermittent attention and drive, what then? sometimes our dogs issues come from us - i know a woman who got a new dog because her last one worked with poor attention and focus. guess what, so does this one - she is the common denominator. It's why having good trainers is important, too. im not saying dont get a puppy, not at all - but if competitive obedience is your goal, my advice would be to take your current dog as far as you can before you try it with another dog just to get experience.

if you want flash, have flash. but there's a reason some dogs have flash and some dogs dont - and dont get a dog and expect that it wil have flash and be disappointed when it doesnt. some dogs are born flashy - goldens and mals just have it - and why? its structure - its the angle of the front and the neck placement. goldens and mals are born flashy heelers. its what they are - its what they give. goldens and mals will give you flashy heeling even in a slow, even on a fig8. all the time. they just will. that doesnt make them better dogs. it makes their front end structure different than a dobes. me? im a short girl, and my dogs simply dont have to move out that much to heel with me - they are never going to have to float that much on their front end to give me that, anyway - id have to be running to get it on any dog over 24 inches, and that's the sad truth. give me a shorter dog and i could get floating flash, but on a dobe i will likely never have it. but its all excess, and excess isn't what is scored in the ring. in fact, it can be a detractor.

last year watching the national obedience invitational, i watched a younger person complain on a board that the winner (who i believe was a two time winner) wasn't flashy and didn't deserve the win. this dog is a multiple OTCH (meaning it has well over the 100 points necessary to deserve that title in the US - the US OTCH is much different than the canadian OTCH), and the dog is nothing if not a steady, steady competitor. flashy isn't always desireable. that dog is perfect, and maybe it doesn't float on it's front end when it heels, but it maintains perfect position and loses almost no points on any exercise and does so repeatably. isn't that what counts???????

maybe its hypocritical of me - i didnt wait long enough for berlin. i wish i had - i didnt go out looking for her, but she found me and i couldnt pass her up- i wasnt WAITING for a puppy, but her breeding took place and it was too good to be true. but ideally i would have her come to me NOW, not last year. i likely wont be getting another dog in this house for 3-4 years from now, unless its a senior rescue - because i need the solid foundation (and i want the foundation to go up through utility) on them.

this isnt even going into whether i think you need european lines to do obedience (i dont). but thats for a different post.

goals for 2009

I was just thinking based on a thread on an email list, about the goals I have for my dogs for 2009, and thought it would be nice if we could share them with each other.


Goals for Rah
-attain an AKC CDX
-attain an ASCA CDX
-attain a UKC CD and CDX
-attain a CDSP CDX-H
-attain his APDT ARCHX
-attain his RL1X
-attain his RL2X
-get better go-outs!
-learn to work better outside and get somewhere near the sort of attention i have when we work indoors
-work on his issue with the SFE and not moving to the judge!
-work on his issue with men in the ring and get him comfortable with a male judge
-work on his fronts - teach him to adjust to find perfect front, and then translate that to with the db in his mouth.
-be matching in utility at least once a month or every other month depending on show schedules
and the very lofty one - be ready for utility by the end of the year!
- work on his food stealing and counter surfing

Goals for Berlin
- earn her CDSP CD-H
- earn her APDT RL1
- maybe earn her RL2?
- lofty goal, but maybe have her ready for Rally Advanced??
-start tracking and maybe back into schutzhund
-keep her interested in her work
- match her at least once a month or every other month in novice
- get her to do a full db retrieve by the end of the year, happily
-work on her barking in the house
-work on her barking while she is in the crate while we show rah.

things that make me very happy... I just got this message...

"Did you enter an obedience/rally trial at Pam Dennison's place... about a week or so ago? She went on and on about a VERY large blue Dobe that was doing some AMAZING heeling. I told her that it might have been you.



We talked about it in class this past Thursday. If she was talking about you, I thought I'd spread the good word. It's always nice when somebody notices our dogs and all the hard work that we put into them!! (I hope it was you... If not, then sorry for the mix up!)"


yes, it's always very nice. So that's my happiness for the nice. Sandi from Golden Rule also came up and said something nice again, so it made my week...month... ahhhh

rah finished his ASCA CD today with another 194- he was nothing if not consistent!
his stays were uneventful. i could get use to doing them first :) heeling - i was a heeling demon today - i was going very fast. he set up nicer today and i had a good ring entrance, but his transitions were spotty - he kept dropping his head. i also lost him for the SFE - he needed a second command (no loss of points on that though). he did again step towards the judge when she let him sniff her hand - argh, thats not how a SFE should be done - but i should also train for that. need to work on that for utility and also for UKC and CDSP, he has two more CD's to finish.

his heeling was nice - very bright and with me. on the fig 8 hedropped his head but he didnt push - but he almost didnt sit until i tightened every muscle i had in me to get those sits!!!! bad boy :) heel free was good too - i was going so fast my feet were cramping! recall was nice, slightly crooked but finish was good.

i lost 3 on heel on lead, 1 for SFE, 1.5 on heel free, and 1/2 on the recall for a total of 194 - that was third place.

so the ASCA CD is done! i opted not to stay for the last trial - the title was obtained, i didnt feel good, and we were all tired - came home and we passed out on the couch!

Rah also obtained his VC from the UDC _ i am waiting for the cert from them, but he got it, woohoo. i dont know if i posted that.

and im getting an ad for him in the upcoming DD - it will be a beautiful ad, i just saw the copy and its stunning, if i do say so myself. of course, hes a beautiful dog and it couldnt be anything but amazing anyway!!! i cant stop staring at it. lydia is also getting one for mercury!!! if i had professional ones of berlin id take one out for her too.

im going to go lay down - i have cramps. i also need to train the dogs - work on fronts, db, and stand for berlin. she has a moving stand next week she needs to perform. also might want to teach her a recall over a jump, since recalls are her weak spot :)

asca, day one

back from the trial- im exhausted!!!!

for those unfamiliar with ASCA - the trial exercises are exactly the same as AKC, except one difference - stays are done BEFORE the individual exercises, which is bizarre. rah was entered in novice B today for the two trials.

first trial - stays done with (phew - i still get stressed). we're the fourth dog in. he had a REALLY nice ring entrance, im really happy with how it went - head up, paying attention, didnt wander at all in the eye department. set up nice, but he wasnt staring at me - he was giving me sideways attention, but it wasnt direct. he did bring his head up though before i backed out of position to get him back up to me, so good for him - but id rather he never stop staring at me! started the heeling and he was good - forgey and bumpy, but not too bad. fig 8 - crooked sit on the last halt, bad!

SFE - rah decided to move his front feet TO the judge (she's the judge who offers her hand first to the dog to sniff, and rah always takes that as an invitation to move to the judge BAD HIM - NEED TO WORK THAT)

Heel free - rah started when the judge said forward and I wasn't ready. He really needs to wait for me, and not move when SHE says forward!

Recall was BEAUTIFUL - perfectly straight, finish was perfect!!!

That trial - 194
lost 2 points on SFE
3 points on Heel on leash
1 point on heel free.

Second trial - stays again uneventful. At this point Rah is in love with the judge, who adores dobermans, and she's already had a love fest with Rah. this spells doom for his SFE which is already spotty from this morning.

Heel on leash - starts out ok - he gets distracted by his own reflection in the mirror (or maybe it was ME that got distracted by me OWN reflection and seeing if he was straight? and rah wasn't sitting - i tightened everything up and bless his soul he sat - and did it just as she said forward - but she gave us the benefit of the doubt! rest of the heel on lead eas goof. his Fig 8 was MUCH better - he was straight for both sits, woohoo!!!

SFE - again, he moved. he loves that judge. she loves him. if he loves her so much why doesnt he marry her? sigh....

heel free - i think here i have a really crooked sit and a poor transition from the slow that i totally missed.
recall - came in crooked on the front, but nice finish.
he dropped his head a few times in this trial, but his ring entrance was once again very good and i was pleased.

total - 193.5
lost 1/2 point on heel on lead (WOW!!!! thats a personal best for us for On lead)
lost 1 on SFE
lost 4 on heel free
lost 1 on recall.

came in second in both trials. in the first trial, came in second to my old trainer (!!!) who ended up going high in trial (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) - had rah held his SFE, we would ahve been in a RUN OFF FOR HIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
all in all, im proud of him. tomorrow we should finish the ASCA CD and im considering moving up to open for the last trial if i am able to.

we shall see. im exhausted. so is rah.

(i also learned and put berlin out in the car when i was showing rah!)

a training we will go

ill try to remember what happened on wednesday before we get to thursday nights classes.

wednesday we did open only - started out with a LOT of heeling. she had the 7 dogs in a very tight bunch and heeled us up and down and left and right - we ended up very tight in bunches and it was nice to work the dogs and have them have to fight through all that distraction! after about 10 minutes of it, rah did get tired and he was less "poppy" on his turns, but he was still staying with me. we did find that every time kathy said "give a gentle pop" rah would pop up in the air, it's hilarious :)

we then went on to individual exercises. i was so sore at this point (since berlin had attempted to break my ankle earlier). we worked fig8's first - each dog got to do one alone while kathy watched. rah wasn't so bad, but his sits were crooked again, so i have to work on tightening those up again. i told kathy hes crooked because his tongue hangs out to the right, so his butt has to go to the left!

ROF was fine - he went out nice and quick. over the high, the first time he couldnt see the db beacuse it went all the way out to the wall - i will have to proof him for that, because his answer was to come back over the jump and run over to simon and steal HIS db. smart boy, bad move - he knows i want him to bring me a db back, so he just decided to steal someones.
his DOR was nice, but i also worked regular fronts as well since he's showing this weekend as well. his broad jump was nice, and we provided some distraction for luna on her retrieve :)

his out of sights were fine - no moving - but he does this weird thing where he shakes now as tie goes by with the stays. i cant decide if its because hes conflicted (kathy was tossing cheese andplaying the 1.2.3 game, etc) or if hes just nervous. but hes hilarious, his entire body shakes.

watched some utility and came home.

yesterday night was novice. started with heeling again - berlin was having an "off" night - she was sorta very distracted in the beginning - she would absolutely maintain perfect heel position, but her head was swivelling a bit, and she was not pushing me as much as she normally does. i brought out the clicker and we worked on head position and i clicked her for more push out of her. we worked transitions into the SFE and she did fine for that. we worked some fronts and set ups, and i clicked that as well, getting a lot more pop out of them and having her fly through the air to get to the positions - i dont want her to think there's any other way for this to go but balls to the wall! we played a lot of recall games and berlin was totally into them - she loved it.

we sat out open this evening and i kept berlin out and clicked her - first i did positions (isolated sit - for some reason during positions she has a problem sometimes getting back into sit) then played a modified get it get it game into front. then miss THANG had a breakthrough and i brought out the db - and she repeatedly took it and held it from my hands!!! WOOHOOOO!!!!!!!! what a smart smart smart smart girl!

worked utility with rah - started with signals. im trying to slow down my signals because when i go so fast im increasing the likelihood that he's going to miss something. but in doing so i changed my signals - so he got confused. when i did them all normal-like, he was fine :) then we did go outs. i swear to god, these will be the death of me. he now turns and sits slower than any animal on earth, i swear to god. hed prefer to just stand there and wait, since he knows a jump is coming. BACKSLIDE ANYONE? and last night he was a smartass again about the jumps - he has no fear of them now, but he just wants to pick which one he gets, so hes a butthead. very frustrating.

articles were nice - he did 4, and he was spot on (save for a screwup i caused when he missed the turn and sit, so i grabbed his loin and he was so confused by that). did gloves - he did really nice for those too, and he didnt shake two of them at all! his moving stand we didnt do - i actually just did a regular SFE because he's showing this weekend.


i talked to terry after class about a bunch of stuff - namely about what to be doing with both of them. she thinks rah will be more than ready for open in march and we talked about what judges are going to be around and which ones i should show to and which ones i should stay away from. also, i have to figure out what i need to fine tune for us to get where we need to be. then i discussed berlin with her - and how she seemed a bit flat tonight. she liked that i just got the clicker out, and im bringing food back out for heeling for the next few weeks to redirect her focus a bit. we shall see. she commented that no matter what, she is never going to be a rah - she's not insane, she's a bitch, and she's much more serious than him.

i have so much to do today - must get cracking! starting out, i have to dust, cause there is toooooo much dust in this place.

time to wubba destruction: 1 hour, 15 minutes

i prefer to call it a rescue mission.

whose bright idea was it to put a TENNIS BALL as the top of a snugga wubba? yeah, it took rah about 4 seconds to figure that out. once they were let in the house and really started playing with it, and he successfully took it from berlin, that toy was DEAD.

it never stood a chance.

tagged!

tagged by the corgis over at daybreake, Rah and berlin have been asked to tell everyone 6 things they really like... so here goes nothing :)

1) wrestling with each other. the louder the better. full body slams, teeth gnashing, snarling, legs flailing, bitey faced wrestling. its ear piercing, its fun.

2) food. wide definition here. besides your typical take on food, we can also define food as what once was food, what could be considered food in other countries, what will be food in the future, what was food prior to being eaten and pooped out by another animal... like i said, no accounting for taste. also see # 3 - berlin believes tennis balls are also edible.

3) tennis balls. rah especially, but berlin has a little flair for the green fuzzies as well. rah would love nothing more than to hold them in his mouth all day long, giving a good chomp, bringing it over to you so you can touch it but NO YOU CANNOT HAVE IT, then when you stop paying attention to it he gently drops it - and then the moment you try to get it he PICKS IT BACK UP. it's rah's constant game of keep away and no one enjoys this game more than rah. berlin prefers the precise game of "pull all the fuzz off the ball to ingest (see #2)", but still - the green round orbs of holiness are held up as uber-special around these parts.

4) noise. we're not a quiet household. ive never been quiet, and my dogs arent. they like to hear themselves talk. they bark at each other. they bark at me. they bark at other animals. they bark out the window. any excuse they can use to bark, they will take it - they arent senseless barkers - its not loud highpitched constant - but if they can possibly find something out of line to alarm bark at, they will most certainly find it and make sure they let the entire world (or at least the neighborhood) know they are around. and see #1 - when in doubt, bark at your playmate, it gets the game up a notch. also see #3 - if someone has the last tennis ball, barking in their face often helps get that ball back in your possession.

5) pets. the dogs are lovewhores. rah more so than berlin, but even the uber-bitch has a few people that she goes all retarda-pup for, hits the ground and shakes that behind for, licking all over and just wants them to touch her anywhere they can - my father, pat the tech i work with, etc. both of them do it for tamena, my friend - they LOVE her massages - they will crawl into her lap and stay there for hours if they let her. cant really blame them.

6) tugging. all the good toys can be involved in a tug game. clothes can be tugged on, leashes can be tugged, the good tennis balls can be tugged because mom bought 2000000 versions of the cool toy so we have backups - no matter where we are, what we are doing, both dogs will tug at the drop of a hat without any prompting. tug is heaven. its a godsend, its a stress release, and its just about the best thing on earth. in fact, rah has been known to self-release himself when he thinks hes done a good job and tug on something. smart ass self-rewards.



so, with that being said, i tag:

tab and red
melissa and dante
leanne and lexx
and anyone else that wants to do it :) im too tired to know if anyone else reads my blog reliably that hasn't already been tagged!

home from the trial today - it was huge, 90 runs today and 90 tomorrow (but its snowing, so we shall see how many people show up tomorrow - i have to go because i left my crates there!)

got up at the buttcrack of dawn this morning to get there because i thought it would you know, go quickly :) i was sorely mistaken - i was there by 7:45 and i wasnt on until 11:30.

we were 20th in the ring for level 2, and we ended up with a 210 (perfect score!) and we ended up taking 3rd place based on time. very nice job.

we then pinned the class, and broke for lunch. i was exhausted, so i fell asleep. and linda sperco ended up coming over and waking me up so i could do the walk through for level 1 - i was the 30th in that class to go - i think i went at 3:30 or so. would have been hilarious if i slept through it... or something like that :)

finally got into level 1 and berlin started screaming again, bad bad bad bad bad girl. rah did well but i gave my wait signal too fast and it looked like a weird stand signal so he popped up - i had to quick pop him back into a sit so i lost a point for that, so we ended up with a 209, and got 4th place.

so thats the first QQ we need for our ARCHX - 4 more to go. wish us luck tomorrow!

(im ignoring training on thursday, it all sucked and my dogs were all bad and we had no communication going on)

crisis time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ugh, i dont know what to do i dont know what to do, i dont know what to DOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

rescue contacted ME, they contacted ME, about a litter of bluuuuuuueeeeeeeee puppieeeeessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss



focus kim focus focus focus.

last night rah had open only.

rah was acting very ... special... prior to class. lydia had him all sorts of worked up (that took oh all of about 2 seconds) when she knocked his chuckit down from its throne on the wall and waved it around and rah instantly went ballistic (no pun intended) - YES I HAVE A CHUCKIT THAT LIVES ATTACHED TO THE WALL JUST LIKE I HAVE A DUMBELL PROUDLY DISPLAYED HIGHER THAN RAH CAN REACH IN THE LIVING ROOM - then i took them all outside. and i think rah thought we were going to play in the field and he was torn. he had his e-collar on, he saw the chuck it, lydia had teased him with it - but i was asking him to get in the car. you know those patterns of action - i had done everything we normally do that involves GOING INTO THE FIELD TO PLAY, but then ... just not completed the actions that he loves so much. you could see he was so conflicted - he was coming towards the car, giving me the look, but then kept running back into the yard and wanting to go to the OTHER gate that leads to the field. so i kept calling him back and he got the prancy "i understand what you are asking of me, but i simply cannot comply with your request" feet - rah had a crisis of convictions.

rah's alliances simply lie with the chuckit, not with me.

le sigh.

he would get all the way to the crate door, but just wouldnt jump in. he just looked so forlorn. so yes, i had to pick him up and PUT his front feet in the car, at which time i think he heaved the saddest sigh a blue doberman has ever heaved, and accepted that were not, in fact, going to be playing chuck it IN THE DARK, IN THE FREEZING COLD, (may i repeat, in the pitch black dark?), and heaved his balding blue ass into the car.

so we get to class, and rah then decides that once again, we dont want to enter that crate either. now, unlike berlin who used to have to squish into a 300 crate (before you call the humane society on me, i have upgraded her to a bigger better crate there - and the 300 is now inhabited by leo the alien french bulldog at class!), rah has a gigantor crate at training class that is his, all his. it has always been his. its huge. it smells like him. it has a nice comfy bed in it. no one else uses this crate - it is a somjen crate, like berlins - we are priveledged to be able to leave our crates there as permanent testaments to the fact that i spend the equivalent to half a mortgage payment there a month, or something like that.

but no - tonight that was not a crate. it was a doberman eating MONSTER THAT RAH WOULD NOT GO IN. clearly rah must have grown and he would not fit. he would go up to it stand near it sniff it, but could not pass the door. he would melt, he would die.

my dog. has. lost. his. mind.

with a sigh, i platz him, put the GOOD DOG IN HER CRATE (she enters willingly like the wonderfully trained little girl she is, turns around and plops down, waiting for me to do something fun so she can scream her head off) and turn to address BBD (bad blue dawg).

we commence 2 quick minutes of somjen crate games (an adulterated rip off version of susan garrett's crate games in which rah goes in, gets cookies and immediately runs out and then back in because as we all know rah knows no duration to anything unless repeatedly told to wait and will repeat any behavior ad nauseum if there are cookies present).

in the end i think it was truly all just a method to get me to feed him more cookies before we actually started class. im somehow left feeling like im the one that didn't learn something here...


anyway... class... yeah. out of sight sits and downs were informal since were were looking at pictures and gabbing about work (kathy who does wed classes is a vet tech at one of my competitor clinics HA down the road so we gab about clients and shit) but rah id perfectly.

we didn't do official heeling but we worked on set ups, heeling, fronts and finishes all on our own for about 15 minutes while kathy and other people tried to distract us - set ups while she walked right up to us, heeling directly past someone else 1 foot away etc. did retrieves and she RAN UP to rah to offer him cheese and he gladly complied the first time but realized quickly that it was set up.

we realized that rah is simply too fast for flexi's - thats why i am so bad at them - he runs faster than they retract, so i cant use them effectively. so im off to buy ANOTHER one - and i cant use the ones meant for his size because they are unweidly - hes too big. but his fronts were better. ive also been using a few other methods and combining them all -a nd today im also going to break out pivot books and click that for straightness.

brought out the jumps, etc and worked. she did an exercises with the db where she did the judge and we had to give up and get the db and keep the dogs attention on us heel away, and come back without loosing the dog. rah did well. worked his ROF and ROH on the flexis to bring him in, and it enabled me to cut out all the extra commands and keep him straighter and hopefully eliminated some of the stress he feels that causes the mouthing now at the very end.

DOR was perfect, he loves it. fig8 was nice, rachael the little girl that belongs to mulder the lab likes to be posts and help out so we worked with that. need to straighten him out again hes getting a little sloppy. but he absolutely doesn't care if al ittle kid is a post, which is nice since pat scully did use a child as a post at the tappen zee trial.

broad jump - RAH BROKE THE BROAD JUMP. yes rah is breaker of wooden broad jumps. (he also broke the weave poles in the back yard).

i think thats mostly it.
tonight we have novice (berlin) and utility (rah) and i think im working mercury in open since lydia has to work today for someone else and wont be able to make it to class. should be fun and very tiring. hopefully mercury wont pee on me.

rah - destroyer of worlds.

the match show

both dogs were entered in the match show today as was mercury (at up front farms)

it was our first time there so for all intents and purposes i treated it like a show for them. i was surprised by all dogs in good and bad ways.
berlin had two novice entries and rah had two open entries (mercury also had two open entries).

when we got there the novice ring was running early the open ring was running really late - so i had to switch up my plan (rah was supposed to be on 45 minutes before her).

ran back put rah in the car and got berlin - brought her in, warmed her up - but it was really cramped in there! got some nice moving attention but there was a sheltie that kept hitting her and she kept popping all over the place out of her platz (i keep her in a platz right before we go into the ring and kinda power heel her into the ring).

brought her into the ring and set her up and started off - she was all sorts of swivel head -s he kept with me, but it wasnt pretty. then someone took down a jump in the ring next to her and she wasn't able to focus on me through that - again stayin with me, but it wasnt pretty. we worked through it and i brought out a cookie, brought her into heel position for the fig8, and she got better - she nailed the SFE and for the off leash ironically she was much better. i did a short recall (not full length) and then since we had extra time i asked to do another on lead part and she was much better.

got to rah - rah was on! great attention setting up - he dropped his head when we were heeling a few times but he came right back (his heeling has been spotty - i wonder if it would be better to have him in the B classes and maybe have DOR, ROF, ROH first before we heel to jazz him up?) up to my face immediately despite the fact that i almost fell - i had no footwork! i was too worried.

his DOR was perfect - he loves to drop its amazingly cute! ROF was nice - he zooms out and gets it, but his fronts weren't great - much better than wednesday night but needed repositioning.

went to the high jump and he anticipated the first one - i ignored it (i wont correct him not with all his past issues with the high jump). just took it when he came back and set him back up, threw it and promptly watched it go out of the ring :) platzed him, stood in front of him, and waited for the judge to bring it back. finally got it right and he did nicely.

broad jump was good, and we were done! oops - no we werent, judge forgot the fig8 and we went back and did it :) not amazing, but not bad!

i was proud - we went back for out of sight sits/downs and rah ROCKED THEM. overall im VERY happy how he did at this match considering this was his first time at a new place, first time matching in open!

berlin's second run was MUCH better - much better attention (still not perfect though) she was much better on all accounts still rocked the SFE, off lesah better than on (notice a trend with my dogs?), did a longer recall.

she was tired at this point so i opted not to do stays with her, since rah's second ring time was coming up. my friend judy was our judge and she's TOUGH so i was prepping him for that.

got him in the ring, he was ON ON ON ready for the heeling. he was doing ok, but he dropped his head on the slow i reached down to pop him and missed her calling me to normal so i didnt transition that. on the final halt i also had poor footwork and almost fell!

fig8 - he was forgey a bit and crooked on the halts.

his DOR was perfect and he was so cute and quick that he slides with his front feet out and she was laughing. lydia said hes so eager to get things going that his finish is SO FAST - i wish i had it on tape! i can see him quivering he cant wait to GO GO GO.

ROF - he went out quick as a whip and brought it back- crooked front, nice finish.

ROH - broke it down. first throw out of the ring, i platzed him. second throw i was too close to the jump and he couldnt get back to me so he landed too close to me and couldnt find front. third try was better, but judy noticed that i pull the db from his mouth rather than having him truly out it and then we worked his fronts in the ring. worked them so long we didnt get to do BJ.

i opted not to do a second set of stays for rah, since he had ACED his first set, why chance it?

overall im pleased - berlin worked very well for a 14 month old puppy at her first match, considering im not bringing her out for easily a year or so in AKC, if not longer. rah im VERY happy with how he did - he trains pretty much as he shows pretty much as he matches, which is nice for a dog - whats broken in training is broken in showing is broken in matching.

i think lydia had a breakthrough with mercury took, with his ring stress - she was pleased.

happy thanksgiving

no class tonight (obviously) because its thanksgiving...
happy turkey day!

on a side note, am i the only one that cant get DT to load? im having DT withdrawal!

trained last night with rah. i actually went an hour early because i was bored and my house was cold, so i played with berlin for a bit. we're having db issues again, and so i worked on moving stand (we failed) and go outs, then fronts and drop on recall. she rocks at drop on recall, my dogs just get this. who knows why.

did stays with rah - i forgot his collar, but he held them without it and he was so good, what gooooooood boy. such high level of distraction, kathy was telling them to down and he was like uh uh not going to do it!

did some heeling. rah was weird and didnt want to heel near the wall? every time we went on that side of the room he kept pressing his entire body up against me. and i accidentally poked him in the eye with my watch when we went into a fast my poor baby. heeling was all over the place :)

worked some DOR - the get it get it game gets him overworked he loves it so much! but his DOR is nice and quick.

his broad jump was nice - hes coming in for straighter fronts but its hard - hes fronting a bit to my right leg. i think its just hard for him to get around. i need to keep his guides up so he doesnt cut the corner. maybe having a bigger broad jump - i dont think it was his full length last night.

ROF was nice, but we're having some bad issues with his fronts - also transitioned to ROH. hes stressed so he starts mouthing and doesnt want to come into front, he is slow, he inches, he comes in crooked.

its potentially a few things and likely a combo of BOTH of them

1) the db is so rewarding to him (i dont reward him necessarily for retrieves because he loves them so much - the retrieve itself is so fun for him, he loves it and the db IS his reward) that he doesnt want to give it up

2) he's SO in drive that he cannot even think about what is asked of him - hes focused so much on what is in his mouth, he really cant think about what else i am asking of him. plain and simple, ive overloaded him.


there were a few other things we considered, but i think these are the two most likely - especially considering how long we had to work to get him to bring me the db back, period. his real want is to just take it and run. he loves his db so much its all he desires. if there was a class that was all db work, he'd win it every time. last night in fact, he tried to make up a new exercise - DOROF - drop on retrieve on flat. i was dropping him for the recall, but he retrieved someones db while he did it.

so its back on flexi for us. GRRRRR. gotta work this to get him ready for open. who would have thought his best exercise would be his worst. clean up his fronts and i think we're ready for open.

a little work never hurt anyone

training classes wed and thurs...

wed night rah had open. heeling was nice - he was attentive but not too pushy - almost floaty. very nice for him. i was sore from all of it by the end, but it was nice.

worked on straight fronts off the ROF and ROH - he did a fairly nice job of it, but i still need to build him his front box - thats on the menu for today. i bought PVC in 1/2 and 3/4 inch, we shall see! he went out for the DB every time enthusiastically though. his broad jump was nice, we played maint. games for it.

didnt do any drop, because i wasnt sure if i was going to be showing him or not. i ended up skipping the shows yesterday and today, but oh well. i talked to kathy last night and i think i want to move him up to open and get him ready for it. i think he wants to go go go go go !

his fig8's were nice, he's moving out of my way, it looks much better. finally after 2 years!

stays were perfect, out of sight, im very proud of him!

last night, berlin worked novice. her heeling was nice, she was working nice attention. she's starting to set up a little crooked so i am working on that - she's getting her butt straight, but her front feet are just the slightest bit off center, so im working on keeping that straight. we worked on heeling with distractions - then we did recalls and she did nicely, but she gets so exciting coming into me, that she always forgets the front!
her SFE - she didnt want to do the stands, i reminded her and she did them, but shes still popping out to the side, must work against a barrier . she's broken! broken broken broken!

stays were uneventful. took open off last night, and then rah worked utility.

signals were nice - except the one i did like the moving stand :) oops!
articles were PERFECT - im very proud of him!!!!
we worked go outs - hes still very confused by me trying to call him off the food without him getting it, they think i should try to put a toy out there and call him off the toy instead, because the food is just overloading him. of course my ineffecient timing wasnt helping, either. his DJ was good though -but he cant think he can control where i send him! so every time he thought he knew where he was going, i sent him to the other jump.

we thought we could do agility yesterday morning but the lesson was cancelled, so he ran around and we just played with some jumps. hes so goddamned fast....

some work at the house...

well, syracuse is over and done with. i ended up not staying for sunday - rah was off his game in a big way, and his skin was worse than ever. came home and started meds - he's on steroids, chloramphenicol (antibiotics), and im going to start atopica again on friday after the show. he cant live like this, my poor man. the good news is, even with just two of the three, he's feeling much more comfortable and can lay down now without chewing himself raw. and he's not bleeding all over the place now!

monday we took the day off and just took a nice long hike (i never post pics here, im so bad, so here is one!) and the dogs had a blast.

we're back in classes tonight, it's been TWO WEEKS that we havent had class on wed, and three i think on thurs since i missed all last week - HOW WEIRD!!! i still haven't decided if im showing rah tomorrow morning, but...

yesterday i started berlin off on some utility stuff. she learned some basic go outs, and she thinks they are hilarious - in fact, later on i tried to do some pivots and heeling, and i walked her up to my gate and she tried to touch the stanchion for a cookie :) GOOD GIRL - now to understand that its not just get the cookie, its go out STRAIGHT until i tell you stop :)

also worked some marking of cookies - specifically i put multiples down and had her mark only one, and that was the one she was allowed to go get. she did well!

if only she had a good solid retrieve, i would be able to start scent articles - i think i may have a way to start some basics for her without a good retrieve though - doesnt involve retrieving, she can indicate without it. but we DO have to work on this whole retrieve thing.

then i brought rah out -worked on his go out with a turn and sit - BEFORE he gets to the stanchion. he seemed to understand it - its very tight timing though on BOTH our parts.

today im going to take them outside and work on some directed jumping - berlin will learn it, rah will proof it. berlin has really nice jumping form though, so it shouldnt be an issue.



i just dont know about showing rah tomorrow... but id hate to end his novice career on such a crappy note. wouldnt be so bad if i didnt have to leave th ehouse at 5:30-6 each morning to show. POO.

well, i think our syracuse trip is over!

berlin did well today too - i ROBBED her of first place and her 99 by having to redo a station because i forgot to tell her front!!! she was standing in front of me and since i didnt say front, she just went back to heel - ARGH! would have been nice to have three blue ribbons - as is, we didnt place at all in this class, but thats ok - we ended up with a 96. so her scores were 99 - 94 - 96 in this cluster - her attention wasnt as good, but i can tell she's getting tired. but two first places, and a new RN :) WOOHOO BERLIN!

rah is a mess. i dont know if i posted it, but i cultured his skin prior to leaving last week, and it came back - as some nasty stuff. he has MRSI -- methicillin resistant staph intermedius. which is bad bad bad bad bad - MRSA (methicillan resistant staph aureus) is the nosocomial infection you worry about getting when you are in the hospital, and rah has a similar one. he's sensitive to TWO antibiotics right now - one that can harm his kidneys and the other that can hurt ME by causing aplastic anemia...

anyway, i didnt start him on anything, since i got the results monday, figuring i would do it when we got back (true to form, i picked the drug, chloramphenicol, that would hurt ME _ cant risk rah's kidneys!) - but his skin is getting worse with all the rain up here, he's a big red raw pustule. he's so itchy, i had to start him back on steroids last night.

my poor baby- once we get home tomorrow im starting him on antibiotics and im going to start atopica again - i just need to get metoclopramide to stop him from yacking, and i need to freeze the atopica. his skin is getting out of control.

anyway, they cancelled the match at the show today - combined with my feelings of doom and rah's just general blah-ness, i think im not going to show him tomorrow. we will stay in the hotel because, lets face it - we all seem to like hotels and i already paid for today anyway, but tomorrow morning im going to pack up and just come home i think, rather than show him. his class doesnt start until noon, and we wouldnt be able to leave until 1-2 pm, putting me home at 6-7 pm or so. rather, i think ill leave at 10 am and get home at 2-3 pm so the dogs can hang out at home and i can do some cleaning around the house. get some stuff done. laundry. probably clean the rabbit.

im still angry that i broke rah this week, but i feel like we can overcome it. i wish we had the match to do some work, but im going to approach training this week like always and see how we do. it sucks that were on first thing at both shows this coming week in reading - we shall see if terry things i should show him or not. ill talk to kathy and terry wed night.

a new day

well, todays a new day in syracuse. berlin isn't on until 1:15, so we have awhile until we need to leave for the show. im not showing rah today because its a male judge, but i will hopefully get them both into the match this evening. and i want to take a trip to the big building to shop with them both!!! berlin deserves a toy for her title :) maybe a monkey stick like rah got?

im trying to be more optimistic about rah - hes an awesome dog and he can be fixed. this stress in the ring can be worked through.

i will fix it. i will fix it. i will fix it.

syracuse updates

well, here they are.

im happy and sad and frustrated. rah is sucked and not performing as well as he should be, and its my fault for making dumb decisions for him. i DID show him yesterday because he warmed up so well, but i worked him too much and he did a great SFE but everything else fell apart in the ring. today berlin barked her fool head off while we were working and he had a lot of trouble working through her screams, but we were qualifying(not pretty, i think we had a 180?) but apparently he repositioned during the long down and NQ'd us while i was walking away. however, every dog except him and the dog next to him broke and started running around the ring and HE HELD HIS DOWN SO THAT IN MY MIND WAS A HUGE BIG MOTHERFUCKING STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

tomorrow they have a match i think and i am going to enter him in it, i think. and work him through this crap. crap i CAUSED.

berlin, on the other hand, is a supa-star. she took first in NovB both days (rally) and finished her RN WOOHOO and beat like 15-20 dogs each day. she's been a super good girl except for her barking while rah is working. poor rah.

i regret showing him monday. UGH rah deserves better than me.

pulling rah

I think I've made the decision to pull rah from two of the shows in Syracuse - the two i am showing to men. practiced some SFE's to men, and he's not up to where I want him to be - and rather than risk him 1) having a bad experience in the ring 2) learning he can get away with it in the ring or 3) god forbid, someone views him as a dobe acting aggressively (even though hes a weenie) - i cant risk it - so terry and i think its safest to just pull from those runs.

which sucks - i had hoped he would be able to handle it, but i dont want to have BAD runs... terry said i could just skip all of syracuse - but thats a lot of entry fees (almost 200 bucks) -- but i would save myself like... over 340 bucks in hotel fees, gas, and food? but berlin should finish her RN this weekend... i SHOULD go. i SHOULD.

i shouldnt let rah's pulling from half the trial taint the rest of what we can do up there.

im sending my computer to the computer gen-yus to be fixed since it has trojan viruses all over... and hopefully he can fix it.

anyway, class last night - did novice with berlin (and yes, she's moving up to next week!) for half of the class, then my lungs gave out and lydia worked her. then i did a drop in of open with rah, with not a lot of heeling (again, my lungs).

berlins heeling was pretty - she has moved up (which is slightly forgey, but pleases me because it reminds me more of rah) - her sit cues are there, she's sitting straight, but i have to watch she doesn't get too loose an interpretation of heel. im toying with getting more animation from her. she was so nice though to heel. did attention games and she did well there, too.

lydia did her fig8 and SFE and they were nice from what i saw. i still need to practice with her not popping out to the side - she has a lovely kickback stand from heel position (so when you tell her to stand, shepops her back feet out from behind her but doesnt move her front feet at all) but she does so sideways!

lydia then did fronts and finishes and they werent bad. stays were iffy for her - lydia handled her and i handled rah, and the honest truth is, she's not ready for me to do that (she kept staring at me)- especially because

RAH DID HIS FIRST OUT OF SIGHT STAYS AND DID SO PERFECTLY. even with lydia and kathy throwing cheese right in front of the dogs for the stay :) rah was quivering by the end, seriously, visibly shaking... he wanted that cheese so bad.

woohoo rah :)

rah heeled a bit and it wasnt anything to write home about - not ugly until
kathy threw cheese RIGHT in front of rahs face and he turned his head to get it. then i caught him by a collar and yelled :)

then we did exercises. its so nice to have a dog that finds the actual work so rewarding - he gets drooly mouth he's so into it (he froths) and he jumps 5 feet in the air. the minute i tell him to wait with the db, he stares out and shakes anticipating where i am going to throw it. on the drop on recall, he shakes when i drop him, just waiting for me to call him back into me.

i love this dog. LOVE him. love him to death. we may not be perfect (yet!) but no dog can match his enthusiasm for everything- he will do this all day long for the pure joy of the sport because there is nothing more fun for him than work. what did i do to deserve him???? and then to get berlin, a rah in the making? (if only she would think the db was just as much fun as he does... we will get there, we will get there...)

i love my dogs.

im still coughing.

a no show

i have caught the plague, and had to skip the show today. alas, rah has spent the day lounging about, chewing on himself, and berlin has spent the day driving us all crazy.

me, ive been coughing up a lung to the point that my head is pounding and i think i broke a rib.

so im thinking im not going to be showing tomorrow, either. ive finally got something in my system to suppress coughing and im going to attempt sleep soon. my dogs all have had the past two days off from training. maybe tomorrow i can scrounge the energy to leave the house and take them for a run somewhere.

rah doing a novice run through. ironically, this was the exact heeling pattern we had this weekend at the show. sorry you dont get the far corner - you can watch me in the mirror :)

short bit of berlin heeling with a rally front left finish/forward thrown in...


a short burst of heeling :)



and because someone wanted to know -
here is us working finishes both the big blue, and the little one.

berlins class tonight -

TONS of heeling. TONS. heeled my LEGS off. berlin was awesome though - great attention, lovely position. lydia said i have to stop making her do come up sits though, because i am actually making her WRONG - that when she sets up, she's right the first time :) oops, im too fat to see :)

my friend molly that i met at dog camp and at berlins handling class was there, she's starting class there soon so that will be fun :) she has shibas... and she has a blog or two that she NEVER updates!!!! (so she will never see this...)

my shoulder is killing me (side note)

then we worked recalls and fronts - the get it get it game, and then formal fronts on flexis - berlin was MUCH better and had the front click back in. dont know what her issue was for the last week, but it seems to be gone for now...

did a SFE, she was fine and DIDNT pop out, so woohoo for that.

stays were bad this week, but i was distracted too.

im exhausted. next post will be videos.

training session from hell

i should have just ignored the desire to train my dogs tonight. i dont know why i would think starting at 11 pm was a good idea... yeah, it never is.

first, i worked fronts with rah. or tried to. i thought maybe his go out guides would be a good one to try - since we have a lot of work to do from our classes on thursday and the run throughs on sat (did i even post about any of those?).

yeah - ha. he eventually came in, but he wont go near them on slippery floors because he doesnt want to hit them, so he was avoiding them majorly - then i tried to put the broom down behind him to give him something to sit in front and allllll shit hit the fan - i forgot he has some random fear of the broom falling on him (probably because it has multiple times) so he ran, the broom DID fall on him, and everything just ended up a mess.

so i tried to work berlin - but she's evil and decided that like the run through, front means lay down on the ground, bark at mom, and try to chew on her guides.

so, glutton for punishment, i get out the db.

(see? i told you i was STUPID)

we had some flashes of brilliance, and some resistance, as always. first time it came out - she came right over, took it, held it, and outed it. WOOHOO. then she was like, i did it, don't want to play. were i a smart handler, i would have ended there. but i didnt... i did end up using rah as jealousy and treated him heavily for take its and holds. she ended up giving me a few other willing takes, and i did put it in her mouth a few other times.

slow going.

ill update about the show this weekend later when i get home from work. i have to go enter berlin in rally right now so we dont get closed out :)

DPCTZ

a short update before i pass out:

rah took second with a 191.5 - he had the best heeling he's ever had.
judge was kinda a nutball :)

berlin got her first rally leg! with a third place!
she also took second in both sweeps and breed (out of two, ha!) and showed with gus and blackjack in the progeny class.

rah also had his parade of rescues :)

im exhausted and going to sleeeeeeeeeeeeep

training and matches

today was the match at Hk9 - i got there at about 1, and had three entries.

first, i took rah through. barely had time to warm up, gave him about 15 seconds of a warm up and then went into the ring with kathy for novice. he was ON - too on. it was nice to see it in the ring, kathy could help me. by the fast, he was popping up and all over me, kathy had me high kneeing him. the fig8 was nice, but by off leash he was all over me, so we stopped him with an abrupt turn into his face and started over, and she had me convince him that i had my own space, and told me to try that outside the ring tomorrow before we get in the ring so he remembers :)

SFE was great, fig8 was really nice (WOOHOO), and his recall - she said i should stop leaning back and instead lean forward a bit so that he wont punch me - he did it again! his finish was nice though - but he was very up for the performance :)

took a 5 minute break, then brought the baby girl in. warmed her up for 2 minutes, did some LLW and leave its, and then i brought her in, set her up, and we were off.

her on leash heeling was VERY nice- she was tight, with me the entire time, head up, beautiful. figure 8 was nice for the first pass, good sit. second time she got distracted on the outer post so we did it a third time and that was much better. SFE was perfect (whose dog IS this??), then we transitioned to off leash heeling. she pretty good she glanced away on the right turn and i reached down for her collar and gave her a quick pop and she looked right back and me, she was nice and tight on all her turns (And Terry brought me VERY close to the walls - like, RIGHT UP to the walls/gate). then we got to front - and she fell apart. she couldnt/wouldnt come in straight, kept trying to go straight to heel, so we stopped that. we're going back to basics for her there, because she didnt understand last night too - but she definitely not only up until then had a qualifying run, but it was a NICE score!!

Rah had an open run next (i used his utility run for berlin's novice run), and his heeling was great, his fig8 was LOVELY. his ROF was great out, nice pickup, but we're having issues that once he gets the DB< he cant seem to THINK - all he can focus on is the db. he comes back to front, but he cant seem to think about being straight. same for his ROH. his broad jump wasnt bad - and i didnt drop him. not with a show tomorrow!

im exhausted and still need to wrap up all the stuff for tomorrows raffle and prepare for the show!! wish us luck...

oops

well, i tried to post about rah's training on thursday last night, but my computer froze and i lost the post.

and i got up before my alarm this morning (weird, huh?) and tried to upload some videos of training from LAST night (trained a bit before we set up Hk9 for the match today) and gmail/google keeps freezing.

so, alas, - you all get nothing right now.


im off to work.

school with the baby dobe

last night berlin was back in class - and what a class she had :)

we started with heeling, and she was marvelous - best heeling ive had from her. her position was great, attention was lovely, great set ups. i had no visible food for her at all, treated her very rarely. we worked mostly turns - abouts, lefts, and rights - and signaling those, and she did great. she ignored most of the dogs, worked in the group (a lot of distraction for her, which is hard), and i was so pleased. she was straight, tight, and with me for most of the time - which is good for the baby of the class. i was really pleased.

we then moved to the SFE - and she was good. she does a great kick back, but she still pops out to the side - i need to practice her up against a barrier so she cant do it - but she did her SFE without any tension or a leash, perfectly, i came back, and broke her out and heeled her over to a distant spot (just like i would in the ring) and she was lovely. only dog in the class to do it. i love her!

then we did fronts, and she sucked for that. she kept trying to go all the way to heel without fronting - oh well. time to bring out guides for that - no clue what she was looking at, but she was not working those well!!!

stays were perfect, she's an angel for those.

all in all, im pleased with her - she showed a lot of maturity at class, and did wonderfully!!!!!

training two dogs at once

the video edition -

berlin was way too up in this pic - i had a piece of food hidden in my hand and i never gave it to her for setting up because she never gave me a good one - i wouldnt put it in my mouth because its a gross dog treat, not cheese - so in my hand it remained. so she was a freak for it, all forgey.

i love that rah comes back and tries to heel with us - and gives me a straight sit at the end with her.




much better heeling from her, much more controlled.


at least in this video i tihnk i see why she got lost - i think besides my poor cues, that rah got in her way so she had to stop. or she stopped to look at him.



funniest part of course being right at the end, when i ask her to do a come-up, and she bolts and instead rah comes in for the finish. im smooth and get him to come into heel :) before he does the come up. at least i think he did...


straight rah heeling:

videos

ive got a bunch of videos i took of training tonight, so maybe ill post them. ive been feeling very industrious so ive been working the dogs a lot.

here's rah doing some sniffies :)

blue blue cake...

i baked a cake for rah tonight to celebrate his titles, and brought it to class - blue cake, blue icing, it was awesome! i got some pics, ill have to upload them later.

ive been working with berlin and her db - its frustrating, and i feel like we're backsliding. i have to remember that she's not rah, and stop comparing her. she won't do play retrieves anymore, but i got the clicker out and she will go up to it and give me a good solid mouth grab be it on the floor, my lap or in my hands, sometimes even picking it up briefly.

if i put it in her mouth (she hates that part), she will hold it as long as i tell her to. she looks so cute with it in her mouth.

i want this to be fun for her, and she wont let it be fun. berlin, just take it. this can be SO MUCH FUN!!!

took rah to novice, we all had cake during open and no one trained :), and did utility.

started novice with practicing fronts - the rest of the class used bj boards, i just used some of the guides for him, he didn't do half bad. but towards the end he was getting lazy and he was sitting just a hair crooked, and he would sit on the guides. thats not the purpose, buddy!

then we worked SFE and transitions to off lead heeling - he nailed this - but i need to remember to get him out and have men do more of his sFE's this weekend.

did group heeling and rah actually did REALLY well, im happy - we were both spot on, i had good body control, good footwork, and he was nailing his sits, nice and straight.

went to fig8 and he was nice except that he kept popping out to sit crooked - im going to have to work on that. his other sits are getting so good. i need to anticipate that this is going to be crooked and not let him even get in there anythingless than straight!

stays - rah went down!! eek! first break in 4-5 months i think. he got a correction and then didnt move - he ended up doing a 5 minute sit too. he was very serious about that :)

utility -
started with articles. he worked the pile very nicely - now terry says i need to start really demanding he come in much closer on his fronts and stop reaching for them - start upping what i am asking from him, and not reach out for them at all, period. he got all of his retrieves happily and correctly. i was pleased with that!

did gloves - extended my close fronts (didnt worry about so straight right now) to this as well. ive been doing my signal to go get the glove wrong this entire time, and thats going to be a hard habit to break. i really need to work on that. rah did well, i added in pivots for the first time today. but he sometimes goes for 2 when i send him for 3. need to work on that.

go outs were nice and straight. for the next week my homework is to start weaning him off of his prize on the gate. his DJ has gotten great and he was too smart -figured out that after he does high, the bar comes next and did it on his own. bastard. we spent the rest of the time trying to trick him :)

moving stand ok - signals rah got distracted and missed his. BAD rah!!!

i am so tired...

berlin didnt have class last night because kathy is at nationals with secret and blake.

im feeling rather stressed right now - i know we all go through these periods, but im trying to figure out what is going on with rah and why we're hitting a barrier. why our scores are going down in the ring (is it a true score reflection? i know at MHDTC part of that was a function of being at top dog, where he is always over the top and we lost points for that in the ring) - but am i just making excuses? am i the trainer that makes excuses for their dogs poor performances? i mean, they aren't even poor performances - they are good ones. good enough - but not good enough at the same time.

im just trying to figure out if my aspirations for him this year are attainable - or if im spending this insane amount of money (ok thats where most of the stress is coming from - how much this is costing, in an economy that is less than ideal, im taking on more debt to do this, that makes me feel a little uneasy) and we're not going to get near where i want to be.

im proud of him no matter what - he's an awesome dog, and he works so well. but we're just a step from where i wish we could be, and i just dont know what to do to get there. i dont know if there's anything i can do? maybe we're there and i just haven't seen it? i mean, its two shows and just because i didnt get 195's do i have a right to be so down on myself, when NO ONE really did well? i mean - in both shows, even in the B classes, dogs didnt do better than a 195. my TRAINER only got a 195. in the other show, half the dogs NQ'd.

i dont know - i just dont know. maybe we will get to the right shows and he will floor me.


ugh, no one wants to read this whining.
sorry. i just want more for HIM - i want people to look at him and go wow, like they did at the one show - when people came up to me and said he was amazing and that his work took their breath away. i dont care what i look like, i dont care about my half of the equation at all. i want everyone to know what i know - that he's such an awesome dog.


/end mopey training post.

a woohoo sorta month

well, i officially introduce you to:
ARCH Bowie's Semper Fidelis v DRU CD RN RL3 ATT WAC TT CGC

Rah had a banner weekend - 11 runs, 11 Q's, 10 placements!

he was definitely tired by the end of today, but he did well, i was proud of him. ill have to use this as a workout for him to see how he does later on when he's showing in UDX classes - easily a year or two away but something like this gets his stamina up already.

This morning started off well. Level 2 was a heartbreaker - I blew a perfect score by going too close to the jump for the judge's taste. Level 1 was unremarkable in my mind. Level 3 was good, but once again I screwed him up twice and cost him some points.

level 1b - 209?????? - 4th
level 2b - 207 - 2nd
level 3a - 204 - 3rd

this afternoon he was definitely a lot more distracted.

level 1b - 209 (stupid pop up that he corrected immediately on his own without me on a down blew a perfect score again) - 3rd place
level 2b - 206?????? - 4th
level 3a - 194 - 3rd


im exhausted.

interestingly, when rah gets more tired, his heeling becomes less "frantic" to some degree - he stops bumping me as much and he becomes a lot more controllable. funny how that works. it takes 11 classes to get that...

a month ago when we entered the OTCH trial, rah had his RL1 and and one leg of his RL2. in two weekends (8 trials), he's shown in 19 classes and obtained his RL2, RL3 and ARCH . I'm exceptionally proud of him - he was incredibly consistent this weekend, worked hard even when i decided last minute to enter him in level 3 without any preparation on my part!

rah rah, you are amazing. i love you!

APDT wrap up, day 1

well, as of today Rah is:
Bowie's Semper Fidelis v DRU, CD RN RL2 ATT WAC TT CGC
and has:
2/3 CD-H, 1/3 D-CD, 1/3 RL3, 3/5 ARCH, 4/10 RL1X, 3/10 RL2X

so no new titles today, but if all goes well tomorrow, maybe, maybe just maybe???? 2????

trial 1 - level 1 - he got a 208, 3rd place (tied for second lost on time).
trial 1 - level 2 - 209, 3rd place - same thing, tied for second, lost on time.
(second QQ towards his ARCH!)

at this point, since they still had openings at the trial, i decided to enter him for the next three trials in level 3, despite not knowing any of the signs. he'd been working pretty well, paying me nice attention, doing nice things. so what the hell?

trial 2 - level 3 - 194, first place. lost all bonus points because for SOME REASON he decided he couldn't back up in the ring??? which was hilarious. and we had to retry the first station, which was (ironically) the backup three steps. everything else was tiny - the directed jump-like thing was fine, moving stand, call to heel, etc.
trial 2- level 2 - 203 - no placement. got almost no points on the bonus because i screwed up and said "good boy" after he downed and he popped back up. stupid mom :)
trial 1 - level 1 - 209, second place. very very good work.
(third QQ towards his ARCH!)

so we got two more QQ's - two more tomorrow and he finishes his ARCH. and if he qualifies in level 3 tomorrow as well, he could finish his RL3 as well, which would make this a very productive weekend for us.
he's working very well, and im pleased as punch. at some point, i need to sign berlin up with APDT and get her showing here as well. ugh, if only i had unlimited funds for all of this, to show them both all over the place!!! this is SPENDY!!!

on a side note, this hotel room is NICE.... nice nice nice. very comfy beds, featherbed tops. has a fridge and microwave. full cable tv (all stations). im in heaven. could stay here forever.

hate MD drivers though.

thanks to manymuddypaws for this fun-ness...




at wordle.net


WAY too much fun!

i wonder if its just me, but i am having trouble viewing anyone else's blog right now. i edited my own blog, and now everyone else's looks all retarded...

maybe an update later

i have to get to packing - i need to leave sometime in the next few hours for MD, where rah is entered all weekend in the APDT trials in a vain attempt to finish his ARCH this weekend.

rah's classes last night, for a summary to remind me:

heeling - work on slows.
db games - no tight turn, mouthing when stressed. good drive.
bj - good! nice straight fronts.
roh - at 28!!! not 30!!!! phew! did a few hard ones... all nice. work on straight fronts.
fig8 - pain in the ass. constant uturns.

utilitime -
articles - 2 perfect lydia cant touch them.
go outs - brain fart. DJ - nice.
glove pivots - lovely.
signals - nice. cute.
moving stand - nice.

is there anybody out there?

wednesday night berlin had class - there's no class for her next week, so we will spend some time just working. maybe. im such a lazy trainer, my dogs would be so much better if i worked them more.

anyway, we started with some heeling - worked in a group. then, kathy had us taken them off leash!!! we still worked in a group, but we heeled for about 20 minutes - it was more heeling than berlin has ever done. she was doing well, and she was one of the few that didn't get put back on leash for leaving me - but we were both tired by 20 minutes in, and she was even panting !!!!!!!! poor gal. kathy had us stop periodically and work on 20 seconds of keeping our dogs with us while we were just "hanging" and then setting them back up into heel position.

berlins push definitely suffered by the end - i dont know if it was just feeding off of me (i was definitely a lot flatter by the end), or if it was that she wasnt used to that much heeling, if its just her method of heeling (i have to stop comparing her to rah - i have to remember, as others point out - part of rahs drive is that he teeters so close to the point of lack of control that we really are dangerous), or what... but its very different than rah. the more tired rah gets, the MORE he pushes. the more tired berlin gets, the less she is there. its odd. shes a normal dog? im not used to normal dogs. rah just digs deeper. maybe it will come with berlin.

im going to bring berlins toy out for her heeling to try to get more flash with her heeling. im a hypocrite because i want precision more than anything, but i also think she has the ability to give me flash AND precision, so i want to see if i can get it. i get flash from her about 70% of the time right now. i also have to work on her position and have terry watch her (maybe the next private, ill have it split) - because when the food goes away from my hand to my mouth, she goes wider to see it. also mental note- when she was tired, she stopped sitting.

we immediately went from the heeling to an off leash SFE - and berlin was awesome. she totally gets stand now without any extra cues, but she pops out almost perpendicular to me. i have to start working her on a barrier to stop it, but she has a really cute pop, she FINALLY gets the stand after literally a year of working it! she was also one of the few dogs that did a perfect SFE, not moving an inch. then after that, we returned to our dogs and heeled them over to a set up for the heel off leash, like we would in the ring.

we got to take a break for a few minutes (phew) while the class was split in half to work on fronts. berlins fronts werent half bad - she's fast, but she has a tendency to come in, when i go past 10-15 feet, slightly arked (a little to my left all the time) before she hits a straight front. odd, right? im going to break out the clicker and work on defining her perfectly straight front - shes coming in very straight, right up and touching me, so its nice. have to work on defining her pop up left finish as well.

also - mental note - if im going to show her in rally in 2 weeks (she is entered at tappan zee, im a goner!) i need to teach her a right finish!).

then we did stays, and she was perfect.

all in all, not bad for a baby girl. i think im going to do some rally with her, definitely some APDT, and then enter her in CDSP and UKC obedience and see how she does early next year. I'd like to get rah out of novice in both of these orgs so that i dont have to show them in the same classes, though. hmmm...

there are some internetz people who are driving me crazy lately. im just going to have to learn to keep my mouth shut...

i get there eventually

ok so the trial :) 0
so we get to the trial- i entered because it was indoors. but there's a catch - its in the armory gym (gross floors, ugh!) and they have the huge service garage door wide open and its literally 5 feet from the novice ring! and there were windows all over the room, with light shining in onto the floor. needless to say, for the girl whose dog chases lights something fierce, i was having a heart attack.

i lug all the crates in, walk rah around the room and get him aquainted, do some with me's, and put him away. watch some of the B class, and then get him out to work.

eventually it becomes my turn.

i got him in the ring ok, but i lost him right before the set up - head fell, he looked out the door. i got him back and set him up and he was good as we took off heeling - but the first halt was right past the blinding light, and when i halted, rah stopped but was staring outside at the dogs warming up. i stared at him, and he looked back at me and slowly sat (crooked likely). so instead of a no sit i got a slow/crooked sit. took back off, finished off the heeling pattern without any majorly bad things.

hard to set up for the fig8 because she had us so close to the ring gate, rah and i were literally almost on top of them. not a big issue for those small dogs, but rah and i were really cramped. not too bad until the last halt, where i lost my balance and stepped right into him, and i pushed him really far out for a crooked sit.

SFE he was distracted and he needed a second command, but he did fine, so no points off.
transition to off leash was ok again until we got to actual setting up - then he dropped his head at the last minute, but i got him back and he was there, we played a set up game. took off and he was ok and much better than on leash. however, i was WORSE for the slow, and i didnt slow enough and then i didnt come out of the slow FAST enough... bad handler.

on the recall, i left him, he was focused on me, i called him - and he came barrelling at me and hit me in the stomach with a foot before a straight front. then a nice finish.

sits were fine, but he was very uncomfortable with the down (gross floor - concrete!). but he held it.

we took the class and HS dobe, HS working dog - im not sure how i lost my points on off leash, as no one could find any substantials??????? but oh well... so that was our CD . bad bad handling, but had i known we would have had the essentially outdoor experience right next to the ring, i would have ixnayed it!



we ended up staying all day to get our awards at the end - but karen and chris (chris owns raisin!) came and i hung out with them, had dinner, and karen was judging rally and wanted me to be her honor dog extra and we ran the excellent course. he did really well :)

finally

8 hours later, but i told you there would be a second post coming :) it just wasn't immediate!!

so, rah finished his CD this weekend! but, im a tease - details to come... :)

first things first

ok this will be the first post, trying to address classes this week, then i will do a second updated post on rah's showing this weekend.

i missed classes on wednesday because i was so sick - couldnt get off the couch sick, much less train the dogs. so i opted to do all three classes on thursday instead.

started with rah in novice - the details are fuzzy as to all the little things we did.
i know we worked stands, and i had ashler's dad do his SFE instead - he still took 2 steps towards him. im not sure what his issue is with men, but i definitely need to work it - especially since we're going to be showing to men in november. we've got 2-3 weeks to get this taken care of! eek!

worked recalls with multiple dogs in the group going at the same time - rah was good and didn't come when another dog was called, and i also worked some ring situations, like having the judge wait a bit before giving me the finish, which happened last time which is why he repositioned in his front - whats worse is im afraid one day he will do an auto finish!

heeling wasnt bad. ive taken care of some of his forgey-ness, but hes still glued to me, physically attached. and his fig8's, i dont know what my issue is with them, but they aren't getting any better and its been months, no years, that we've been working on them. and he's still up my ass like a stick - its really frustrating knowing that THAT is the reason we are losing most of our points on leash, all the bumping/crowding on the fig8. im going to have to ask terry where to go from here, because i need more help.

stays were fine.

i put him away for open and brought out berlin. we skipped the group heeling, since all the distraction was too much for her, just did some of the single heeling. not bad for a baby dog. then we broke up to work the jumps, etc. spent 10 minutes with the db out and worked on shaping a "take it" - she gives me good full mouth grips but always stops right before the point of pulling it out of my hands, which is frustrating. so i went to terry, and terry said we may need to use force with her. i had always wanted to avoid it, but im not sure where else to go. i took the db out and just placed it in her mouth (she fought that!) and then rewarded her for a nice calm hold. i havent worked that in days (bad bad me), but ill have to keep doing that and work her to get the nice hold. she's certainly not the retrieving fool for the db that rah is - i have to stop comparing them.

then we did some broad jump and high jump. worked cookie marks over the high jump, i only had her at 8 inches, but she did well, she likes that game :) automatically wants to come back to front, which is nice. nice close fronts, too. broad jump she hadn't seen ever before, so we had to intro that, but she got it quickly too and she was all about it.

dont remember much else, then it was time for utility.
started with articles for rah. he had 2-3 perfect retrieves, and then his last, we totally lost it. he picks up the article right NEXT to the right one - and then when i resent him to the pile (looking back, after showing him that he was wrong, i should have gone back out to the pile to show him the correct article rather than letting him just guess multiple times), he just grabbed any article he could see first, without even smelling them. ugh.

his go outs, on the other hand, were marvelous. BEAUTIFUL. full length, awesome turn and sits. and we did jumps from the center, and i had rah going to the jumps just on a flick of an eye - not an arm, not a verbal - me simply looking at the jump (not even turning my head), WOOHOO for paying attention.

rather than working normal gloves, we worked a modified seekback exercise and that was fun- elsie said rah has very nice pivots.

signals were ok - rah gets them at about 15 feet, past that right now and he sometimes gets confused. moving stand was nice too.

so it was a mixed bag for me. i know i need to work them more every single day - i need to get healthy and then i will make that happen. my dogs would be so much better if i worked them as much as they deserve.

oops....

no class tonight. i couldnt possibly get off the couch. i am just so unbelievably tired and ugh-feeling. the dogs did me the favor of sleeping most of the afternoon until about 9 pm at which point they became REALLY ANNOYING (tm).

since the blog needs a little refocus, lets use this time where i am too drugged up and too tired to even move, as a time to self-reflect and set some goals, etc. :)

things rah needs to work on -
1) straight sits and fronts are always an issue. now that we are cleaning them up, we need to start preparing for open and getting straight fronts with the db. i admit to not working these much, need to get on that.

2) our fig8 needs constant work. most of it is my bodywork and footwork.

3) not letting him overpower me - he brings so much drive and power to the ring, i need to make sure i dont just let him get more crazed by feeding into it and losing control. i need to remain calm and in control in the ring.

4) utility - back up a step with articles and get him more comfortable with them again. start teaching a turn and sit without the cookie for go outs.

5) continue to proof his stays. knock on wood, they have been perfect since his BH (woohoo), but im not doing ANY out of sight until november. ill talk to terry about when to start introducing this.

6) work on a SFE with men!!!!!!!!


plans for rah -
rah is currently entered
oct 4th - nov a in cherry hill, NJ
oct 11th/12th - 4 rally trials in frederick MD (ill be down there starting fri night)
oct 26th - spring valley, NY - nov a
nov 1/2 - back mountain in bloomsburg PA - nov a
nov 13/14/15/16 - leatherstocking cluster in syracuse NY - nov a
dec 6/7 - 2 rally trials in NJ at pam dennison's

entries i still need to send in:
nov 20/21 - reading PA - nov a
dec 14 - lehigh valley KC show - nov a
im wondering if i can get down to MD on nov 9th (is that too much? showing EVERY weekend???) for the regional obedience qualifier...


goals for rah -
finish his CD, and then continue showing him to attain some good ring experience, and hopefully along the way some good enough scores to get him into the TT for this quarter.
potentially have him ready to bring him out in open for the jan/feb clusters? im not sure i will be financially recovered from these shows by then :) but id like to have him ready for utility by nationals in october of next year...



things berlin needs to work on -
1) keeping her straight sits and fronts (woohoo)
2) maintaining heel position while i move the cookie to my mouth without her bumping forward
3) SFE
4) teach her a formal retrieve!

plans for berlin -
considering entering her in rally? but i think i want to bring her out in APDT before i bring her out in AKC, i dont know ! i cant decide im really considering bringing her out in the leatherstocking cluster...

goals for berlin -
have her ready for her novice debut at nationals next year!

terrible!

i know its been so long!

we didnt have classes at Hk9 last week, because everyone was at the wine circuit.
so instead, i chose to take rah and berlin to drop in lessons at one of the facilities i used to take classes at, but no longer do.

im happy to say i feel they have both made progress beyond that of their classmates, but i am not sad i dont train there anymore. the trainers are great and nice, but its just too many people in those classes and i am not getting from them what i need. i need more individual attention, more hands on, more input from the trainers.

i kept berlin back in novice 1 (though she likely could have gone all the way up to the more advanced half of novice 2). first we worked on set ups, which she nailed (her fave), then we worked on sit for exam (while she already has a SFE). then we used flexis and worked straight fronts - and she NAILED these, i was very pleased with them.

we then worked footwork for turns (right, left and about) with nice attention and she did them all spectacularly. played some recall games and then we ended with a 3 minute sit and a 5 minute down.

went to rah's class, and rah has come a long way too - while he was ON ON ON, he also had a lot more control and it showed (barely). his fig 8's suffered, but he was a lot... more ... well, controlled.

im sick and very tired. and rattley in my chest.

we have class back at Hk9 tonight, and rah shows for his last CD leg on saturday, wish us luck. ive sent entries in for his many shows....

while you wait

for something of substance from me (maybe tonight!) you get this...

Dog Show Terminology!!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Noted Judge ...............................He put up our dog

Respected Judge .......................He put up our dog twice
Esteemed Judge ........................He puts up anything that crawls

Shown Sparingly .........................Only when we had it in the bag
Show Prospect ....................He has 4 legs, 2 eyes, 2 ears, 1 tail

Finished in 5 shows..............And 89 where he failed to win a ribbon
He has good points.....................But his head is shaped like a carrot
Won in heavy competition.........The others were revoltingly overweight
Multiple group winner...................At 2 puppy matches
Specialist Judge .....................Puts up anything that looks like his own breeding
Well Balanced .............................Straight as a stick in front and rear.
Quiet gentle natured ...................After 4 Valiums
Excels in type and style...............However, moves like a spider on speed
Personality Plus...........................Wakes up if you put liver up his nose.
Large boned.................................Looks like a Clydesdale
Good bite ............................Missed the judge, got the Steward
Lovely head............................2 eyes, 2 ears, 1 mouth, 1 nose
Excels in movement ..............If he gets loose, put on running shoes
Handled brilliantly by..................Nobody else can get near him
Won in stiff competition.............Beat 4 puppies and a 9 year novice dog
At stud to 'approved' bitches.......Those bitches whose owner's Cheque´s are approved by our bank.
Linebred from famous champions.....Ch Whoozitz appears twice in 6th generation
Good Obedience prospect...........Smart enough to come in from the rain But he's UGGGLEEE
Terrific brood bitch...........Her conformation is the pits, but she throws big litters.
Loves children..........................For breakfast, lunch and dinner
Wins another Best In Show........His second, under the same judge, our Uncle