no class last night - as i posted in my private journal, berlin was sick and i stayed home with her, so she and rah missed the last nights of their classes, unfortunately, for the wednesday night session. oh well, berlin feels much better now which is all that matters!
tonight, open and utility. heeling in open was pretty nice - started out on lead, then we moved to off leash, and rah did very nicely. sits were pretty straight - one i would have nicked myself one full point for, but the rest were nice. he was forgey at one point, but i got him back.
after that, we worked on transitions to the retrieve on flat - having the dogs attention on us and getting the db and giving it back - and keeping them focused on us, not the db - which can be very hard for a db crazed dog like rah, but he did VERy well .
then we brought out the broad jump and the high jumps. i just worked on getting him to set up near the high jump, touching the jump, etc and he did well. then, when i was changing the jump height, he decided to jump on his own and took down the entire jump OF COURSE and it almost nailed him. however, i was able to get him to come over and touch the jump quickly and we ended that session on that. moved to ROF and he did about 10 of them just fine under some heavy distraction and I did some hard fronts on him (turning 90 degrees when he returned to make him readjust), did broad jump (2 very very nice ones) and then he came back and did some touches to both of the high jumps and he was fine - I even sent him over. Cannot be upset with that!
(didn't finish this last night, so i did it this morning, and wow, my typing last night at midnight was quite atrocious i was so tired)
took a quick break and then we started utility -
we started with moving stand, and Rah did quite well - he's got the moving stand part down! He was fine with Terry doing a full exam on him, and we haven't put it together with a full call to heel, but I call him partially to my right side and that's where we end it. did a few of those...
moved to articles. i forgot my instructions on week 5, so i had to kinda make things up. but rah did a nice job working articles - kinda did some changes. worked further from the pile than janice says to, took him off leash, and did some restrained ones because terry wanted to see if when i added a lot of speed (all i have to do is hold rah's collar back, he leans in and puts on the afterburners) would he give me frantic grabbing of any article v. actually still sniffing - i was pleased to see actual still sniffing :) i think i will try to bring his articles with me to doggy camp this weekend and work them each day, so i will be able to move to week 6 next week (bad me didnt work articles pretty much at ALL last week!)
then i did modified gloves, again with just cheese. terry says she is working on something that will help rah with his glove shaking issue. if he grabs them and i say hold, he stops shaking, but he still gets one shake in. if i say it too early, he turns to look at me sometimes and doesn't pick them up, so i need to work on timing. i do need to remember not to lean down when i tell him to mark the gloves - my dog is 32 inches tall, fer crissakes - part of the benefit of having a dog that tall is i DONT need to bend to mark him.
moved onto go outs - he did some nice full length go outs, and i came in only about 5 steps to tell him to sit, which he did. very very nice.
directed jumping was an issue this week - not because he was fearful, but because he was being a butthead and didn't want to do his job - and THAT is how he takes out jumps. i had been using his toy to get him over, and he got so involved in the toy that he stopped thinking and paying attention, he was so involved in the toy. when he started blowing me off to run around, i walked away from him and into the office and terry grabbed him and kept him for 10 minutes, then SHE did directed jumping with him :)
finally worked signals, which he did well.
this weekend (starting tonight!!!) we have camp !!!!
http://www.campbarkinghills.com/
i cant wait.
im feeling pretty down about rah's obedience performances tonight and so many mistakes that i have made with him (or for him)... i know i know, hes my novice A dog. but its not fair that such a good dog ends up with me as a novice A dog, when such drive and such is being squandered.
this jumping issue and this stay issue really worry me.
2 comments:
Well, you know there's that Dick Guetzloff quote (in "Remembering to Breathe") about two types of dogs, those who have a stays problem and who WILL have a stays problem. :P You're just getting it out of the way now.
I'm sorry the jumping thing is going so crappy. Maybe it's mechanical? One of the reasons I never did much jumping with Indy (who, I remind you, is a 12.5" corgi) is that he's just not got great mechanics for it- he can clear a 4' fence when he wants to but he can jump flat OR high- he really can't seem to combine them, and I always worry he's going to kill himself.
I can't wait to hear how camp went!!!
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