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.