the wrap up

so the classes -

the agility class first - started with of course a review of last week - and im ok to start naming berlins target and sending her to it, and she showed me how to reward at the target since berlin was so OCD with targeting that she would run out and back to me as soon as she touched it/got the click.

worked front crosses straight and with a turn, and then started rear crosses. berlin is rough turning to the left for some reason, but is great to the right. will have to work on that - im teaching her to spin as well, should help with that. showed our wraps and our front crosses around the stanchion and she was great with it -- then we started some contact obstacle work. for starters, its taking the board and working front feet on it - berlin got that in two clicks, so we aimed for all feet on there - by next class i should have her on the box, doing stationaries on it.

we also have homework to work on teaching them to back up, something i never bothered to teach her. rah had learned how to back up in heel at one point (though he's since forgotten) - but he backs up in front of me. so today at work got the clicker out and in 5 clicks she's backing up - she's so wickedly smart with that clicker.

open with rah - heeling killed me. rah's heeling is forgey mcforgerston again, and im killing myself. it was left boxes for me nonstop and he's still all over me. heads up doesnt mean up my ass! need to work on that, work HARD. worked individuals - put the "bite your butt" game into the broad jump and he was like WHOA, worked the drop with some heavy distraction - so heavy in fact, that karin threw a db and hit him while i left him in the wait and he just sat there and held that wait (WHAT A GOOD BOY).

during the ROH i threw the db and it was too close to the jump, so i platzed him and went out to get the db (practicing for screwed up throws in the ring) - apparently when i was out there i dropped my clicker as well. so i opted to leave it out there for distraction, and sent him for the db on the second throw. then, being lazy, i sent him after the clicker - and of course, being the good boy, he retrieved it. what good is an obedience dog if they cant retrieve .

not much else in that class - moving to thursday. dogs were tired and clean since i had to bathe them after their jaunt in the lake during their hike.

berlins class was first. we played some games working on left and right finishes and getting fast snappy starts into the positions. also worked some heeling - she was good for the most part, but she gets tired fast when shes tired (wow what a statement)- we had the metronome going and it helped when we heeled in smaller groups, playing first and going straight into fast short stretches of power heeling.

then we went to mega-fig8's - 4-5 posts and we had to go around them all and cirlce them all. she still lags a big on the outer post - i verbally psyched her up and she did really well for it - but i want to work that more on that. maybe give her some sort of other body cue its coming.

did a quick recall and she was awesomely straight on the front, woohoo! i didnt do stays with her, i opted to do rah instead, because we had things going on behind him and need to practice for next week.

rahs open class - heeling - terry says to start double leashing him again because he's just becoming a butthead. played individual games again, and worked attention games with the db and handing it off to people, having the judge come up and take it, hand it back, and walk around us while they are retrieving it and holding it in front. rah was good for it, even though my judge was lydia and she was standing on top of him. rest of class uneventful.

utility - started with go outs - rah did awesome go outs again - we had toys all over the floor. if he looked down at them, i told him to leave it, focus back on me, and remark the go out spot. he went straight out and did 6-7 turn and sits - at one point, he hit his butt on the stanchion but still sat - on the next one he didnt want to go all the way out, but i just popped him out there and the next time he did go out. and MIRACLE OF MIRACLES he did two directed jumps perfectly WITH the go outs!!! woohoo!

did circle of gloves while others worked go outs - i just tossed gloves and heeled him around them to work on his attention while his beloved glovies were on the floor, reinforcing that despite the fact that he knows he needs to retrieve them he still needs to look at me. i just sent him for random ones, but his marking was spot on and he retrieved well.

signals - the stand is killing us because he's moving his front feet - we put a bar out and i worked hard on reminding him of his moving feet, and we seemed to make some progress. i may try to rename this and capture it while doing some opposition work... i havent decided. his actual signals once we got to them were nice - i need to stop calling him to me though. didnt work moving stand because of his stand issue.

articles - did 4 , with heavy distraction. he got 3 of the 4 - two were easy picks, he got them right off some how, barely had to work the pile. on the first leather, he was working the pile really well and there was a band and he looked up, and then when he looked down he just grabbed the one under him, like he forgot what he was doing. the second leather article we did he worked the entire pile and found it. even with a large monkey stick (3 feet long1) 4 inches from the pile!!!!

i think thats it. i need to figure out some show schedules for the upcoming months. i also need to start thinking about what i am going to be showing in at nationals...


which reminds me - tonight i want to work on those front exercises that neversaynever had on her blog...
and work berlins right cirlces.