i should probably train in a bubble... or go to the ER afterwards, either would be effective.

novice went well with berlin, after i handed over the worlds largest check (*cry*) to pay for classes this session. started with some attention work and set up games for getting into heel position - berlin did well because she considers the front set up game just the multiple front game, and we've done some of the games before. need to work on the side pass game with her, she needs more hind end awareness (which is what some of the book/box work was for - need to work on that!)

then we went to fig8's - terry said i need to remember to drive through on this, it really makes a difference for berlin. its very different heeling berlin and rah - i dont have to drive through for him because he's driving HER and i have to be slower and methodical and be in control - but for her it's a different story because she's not pushing me and controlling the situation like he does. but she's good, she's there - i need to be there for her.

we moved onto SFE - need to really work on her popping out to the side!!! up against barriers for her... ive made halfhearted attempts, but i have to work on it more. linda sperco did her exam today and she moved her front feet - right now she's apparently like rah - linda let her sniff her hands and she moved her front feet for the exam. its the whole sniffing thing - when they have to sniff someone, they lose their attention on me and it just completely blows their mind that this is happening- berlins eyes got all wide and she shifted her front feet. her transitions were awesome though.

then we did some heeling in two groups, short spurts of fasts, slows, turns and halts, trading off between the groups- also had chances to work the transitions to and from. she did really well, though the fast - normal - about turn- halt got a butt out sit! she's not perfect! but her about turns were dead on.

did recalls with heavy distraction - four of us in corners, toys all over the floor, and they had to recall through them. she heavily avoided all toys, and still hit a perfect front (go figure?). then we did across the room recalls and berlin blew her wait (bad girl!) and terry thinks she had too much tension on her prong so we moved to her flat collar since i had her on a flexi to make sure she didn't break again.

did stays with both dogs - rah on his own and berlin with me. they both did perfectly. woohoo.

went to open with the dogs. some heeling, rah was very forgey and his normal self- i really need to work on that again, ive let his heeling slip. his halts have been much better, but i need to get his heeling back where it needs to be. im going to have to retrain that if we will be going for an OTCH or UDX legs.

then we played DOR games- but the night before, rah started REALLY anticipating the drop and slinking in on his recall, dropping when he thought he should - so he didnt get a drop at all. instead we did recall games and i did straight recalls with him and heavily rewarded those - he doesn't get to call the shots! then we played recall games where we threw the db's and half the class worked really hard to distract the dog to get them to not pick it up or not come back - lydia actually stood on rah's db and he still went out and took it! good boy (but he missed front all the time!).
we worked fig8's and rah wasn't bad - but i need to work on his inner post - he is doing something weird with his head on the inner post and pushing my arm up. lydia said he makes it look like such hard work :)

then we broke down to individual high jumps and broad jumps, and he did well. wed night he wasn't watching and he fell flat onto the broad jump but tonight he showed no lasting problems from that, so that was good. his broad jumps were nice, butim working on the distance i am from the jump to get his best front. his highs were nice, i did a few off to the right and reminded him to go back over the jump and he did well. his last retrieve had the dancing hamster out there and he ran right past it and ignored it to get his db, so that was nice.

futility... ugh, where to start.
DJ - his first one was nice, his second one he ignored my signal and went for the same jump again. i dont know if i missed him ignoring me or if he saw my signal and them blew me off. he got the next signal perfectly.
he wouldnt mark the go out spot for the life of me, so i had to take him out, but once he would look at it, he did wonderful go outs and lovely turn and sits. but clearly he doesn't fully comprehend the "go straight out and go until i tell you to stop going" - i need to work on this outside of the concept of the stanchion.

moving stand was terrible because his stands were nonexistent - he kept moving and he decided to come straight to heel when terry said it, instead of when i said it - i forgot to work on it from last week, BAD ME. i got the clicker out and it seemed better within a few minutes, but i DO need to work on this - getting him to lock in IMMEDIATELY. i also need to work on which signal/verbal im going to use for this, i dont think im being consistent - stay/stand/wait? which hand? thats probably why he cant do it (notice a trend here? ME!!! im screwing him up).

gloves were a distaster - i pivoted badly, gave bad marks, and rah was all over the place. thats all i want to say about that.

articles - not bad! he missed one, but we had heavy distraction and he worked th epile and everyone thought it was the right one - but it was last weeks article :) but he did three others right after that (i think - maybe 2) - and he had a toy in the pile. good job for him. his sniffies are back! he's working the full pile, too.

signals... terry noticed my wait/stay signal sucks and we changed it - and it really helped his moving front feet/taking steps issue he's had. but he kept missing the sit signal and instead was going straight into the front. i didnt call him in at all - and at one point i dropped his clicker and said "shit" and he sat :) i fell on the floor laughing... terry commented his heeling was forgey. only rah forges still 2.5 hours into class after all that...

so what you've all been waiting for:
the injury tally. rah jumped up with the db and hit me in the chin
rah gave me leash burn with the slip lead
rah jumped up and knocked the wind out of me when i was laughing
and when he said when i said "shit" i fell to the floor laughing and hurt my already hurt right knee.

the chin is what really hurts the most right now- i hope i dont get a bruise!!!

i really need to put more daily effort into the training for utility, it's showing. ive been focusing so much on open...