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.
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