setting up a private for Rah...
part of the email as follows:
The main things on my mind I'd like to work on/talk to you about (sorry this will be long):
Food. I don't know when/if to fade some out. It's in my mouth, I rarely have any visible at all. He works well in the ring and at shows without it and I haven't seen him really notice it (indoors at least) not being present - outside is another story, but I don't train him enough outside. But before we go in the ring, I do so many games at this point I'm wondering if they are necessary, but almost superstitious to stop. They get him amped up - maybe it is just what my dog needs? We play a lot of the "ready to go in the ring?" game and I drop cookies and then heel a step and break and release and do a lot of attention games outside the ring.
Inside he's been doing well when I have shown him - his attention has been much better, but as we enter the ring he still gazes around the ring until we set up - as soon as we heel he's looking at me, but the first steps in are not on me. Transitions are much better, though - it is as if once we move, .
I still fear his set ups, because when he is distracted the first thing I lose is his sit - he never sets up, and he looks away from me, stands next to me, and just avoids the entire situation - as if by not looking at me, he can just pretend I am asking him to set up and sit in heel position. It hasn't happened in awhile, but it happened this weekend when we trialled for his BH. I play the "get it get it get it" game and it snaps him out of it and he chases my hand and sets up - but I fear the day when the game doesn't work - and I feel like at this point, on some level my dog should just set up when I tell him to.
His stays - I feel like I have tried almost everything ... a dog that consistently breaks stays is frustrating and scary for both me and other competitors, and rah does it because he feels like it.
ok, enough of the psychology of his training. the mechanics - his crooked sits, fronts, and stands. his forgy heeling actually calms down a bit in trial situations, and we only seem to loose points on crooked sits and crowding in the fig8. of course, this is the novA ring and in the B ring the judge may not be so kind, right?
and of course his jump issues - the refusing, the breaking the wait, his need for counseling. You do have a nice comfy leather chair for us both to lay in to talk, right?
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