one step forward, two steps back

wednesday i got home from work in time to let the dogs potty, toss the stuff i needed in the car, and speed off to TD.

started with agility - rah did fairly well. we started with chute, which rah loves. then she added in a couple of tunnels after the chute, and rah was not only the only dog that was able to do the full sequence without any balking or refusing, but he actually ran them at full speed, like a good boy who actually knows what he is doing.

then we split the class up and worked on "hit it" on the teeter, which rah likes. then rotated through and did some weaves, which rah doesn't like. then we moved to doing some ground work and foundations - learned to work around the wings of the standards, putting the dog in a bunch of different positions around the standard and having them come AROUND the standard and run in between the wing and you, on both sides of you. then she showed us some drills for rear end awareness, and what she wants us to work on at home. then we worked on "outs" (im calling them "away" though, since rah already has a go out) - having the dog go away from you and run around an obstacle and then come back to you, on both sides. then onto aframe, and rah didn't do the last thing (walking the teeter on the ground) since i had to get berlin out and warm her up.

berlin's class was good - she's SO SERIOUS! i try to get her to play and she's like NO MOM WE ARE WORKING NOT NO TIME FOR PLAYING. did attention, stationary and moving, in front position and in heel. worked on some release games, worked on some head position, she did well. she wants a more fast paced class though she's so silly. i dont think she's ready for novice next session, i think i am going to try to put her into attention at Hk9 maybe while rah does flyball...

then i worked mercury for his class. working mercury is so different from my dogs - he wouldnt play with me at all, but he was more than happy to eat my food. we did some heeling, and i cannot for the life of me remember what words lydia uses for heeling, so i had to make that up. did some squares of heeling, he did ok. did some set ups, worked attention. practiced stands with a clicker. did a few fronts, tried to do some DOR's in between exercises. did a fig8 and he did really well with that. stays were fine.

then rah's class - we started out working fasts and we pretty much did everything in fast the entire night - i was like, do we have to work fasts the night that i have already worked three dogs in three classes and im on my fourth class and nearing hour FIVE of classes? did drifting, which he adores - i need to remember to NOT RACE HIM, which just gets him going faster and faster and faster. and linda probably thinks that i am just a terrible handler because we fall apart. then we worked the short end of the room and did fasts into about turns at the wall while in the fast.

broke into small groups and worked figure 8's and rah wasn't too terrible. i cant for the life of me remember what we did for the rest of class, but its safe to say that we ended with staysand i was exhausted and barely made it home.

thursday berlin and rah got to meet their new dober-friend, cinny, and rah for over 2 hours at the ball field, and they were exhausted. probably not the best idea for pre-class, but he had fun :)

started with open heeling, rah did pretty good - our signals were clear, rah did a nice job, he was doing well and was giving me good attention. worked broad jumps and rah did well with that, worked ROF and he was fine, DOR was fine. however, when i went to do his ROH he kept popping out of his sit when i tossed the db so we tried to fix that and he got freaked outand hit the jump which scared him. rah and his jump phobias... i just left the jump and came back to it later and he was fine.

onto open - worked signals first - did pretty well, but i am going to have to work that stand up against a wall too, since he wants to swing his butt out when i give him the stand from heeling. his downs and his sit from the down were nice though. she had us heeling a pattern into the stand too, so it was nice.

then we did articles, and rah moved onto week 4 of ATC - and terry said he was working th epile nicely and really using his nose! woohoo! this week cheese is on the underside of the bar on half his retrieves.

worked his gloves and he has a solid hold on the glove and i can tug on it and he wont shake his head, which was nice. we did the mark with three pieces of cheese where the gloves would be (he has not yet earned the right to have his gloves back out there yet because he shakes them) but i have to remember not to lean over him when i mark the gloves, because i give him conflicting signals.

then we did go outs and rah loves loves loves loves him some go outs - he loves the "look" command!

then the disastrous directed jumping. im sad that class ended like this - i decided not to do his moving stand, but really he was so emotionally drained after this, there was nothing left from him. he had started not wanting to set up in front of the high jump with the whole ROH issue prior that night after i corrected him for not staying in his sit for the toss ofo the db - he doesn't do it on the flat, ONLY over the jump, so i didnt even let him retrieve it - i only tossed and brougt it back and tossed again, rinse lather, repeat. so when we got to the dj, he wouldnt set up. we set him up the jump chute since i assumed he would avoid the jumps like last week - and he ran out of it and OVER TO TERRY (what?!?!?!?!?!?!) to avoid them. terry held him and i called him over and he went over the bar jump twice, and we ended that jump.

he did the high jump in both directions (giving me a chance to work both the right arm and left arm directionals) without any issue, but that specific bark jump is so frustrating - he hates THAT JUMP in THAT CLASS.


i worked DJ at home tonight, and he had no issue going over. he still needs to pay attention more and i have to remember not to move him too fast - if i get him too far from the jump too fast he still runs straight to me instead of going over the jump, but thats not avoiding the jump and running away from it, thats just coming to me to get his reward.

im wondering - when i work DJ at home, i use a tennis ball in my hand - i wonder if i used it in class, how that would work for him? something to consider.