wed training - agility first, we ran the openings to some excellent courses that debbie had this past weekend - some of the tunnel discriminations were really hard (especially for tunnel sucks like mine) so i had to do elaborate yardage-wasting crosses to ensure that my dogs would avoid one end of the tunnel (the close end) and go out to the other end... but both did fairly well all things considering.
utility - rah did really well!!! go outs were AMAZING like at the match - the minute i told him to mark it, he was focused on his stanchion and didn't pull off at all. one time he did turn back and steal the toy, but he dropped it when i told him :)
articles not bad - he had a lot of pressure at the pile, including lydia standing on top of the pile, mulder in a down next to her, annette behind them doing stuff, and terry had bess in a down and was working pickups right next to the pile - he took some time to work through it, but he was able to work the pile and get the right articles with only one grab and pick.
i didnt do full signals - i just worked on firming up the stand with the clicker like i had been doing earlier in the week, and he did pretty well considering we were doing it in between all different people doing multiple things (anne paul working dune on go outs, terry working bess on the broad jump and me just wandering standing rah all different places).
with gloves he wasnt that bad - pivots are much nicer, but we're going to have to work on the finishes since i wont do lefts with him and i want to keep the glove in my right hand (in the left he targets it for the finish and he wont complete the finish, darned long neck!) - so i will probably have to do it with a verbal.
thats pretty much all we did - not bad, and im pleased with how it went - some definite improvement in some areas and i hope the go outs stay as solid as they have been.
berlin was a superstar on thursday - her attitude was spot on, she was in my face and awesome. the best fig8's she's ever done, she was pushing on the outside every time, she was paying attention on the inner post with her head up, and we were just in sync. heeling was really nice too, i have to remember not to slow down on the turns but she was right in position, head up, prancing along. i was clicking her for exceptionally good parts and she liked it!
worked on some recall games - sometime she still forgets and offers me a drop instead of the front, but we will get through it (even though she's never done a formal drop!). also played some db games - first with two others throwing and her doing attention work - she did AWESOME and at one point charlene threw the db and it HIT berlin and she glanced and then came right back up to my face with perfect attention - what a GOOD girl!!!!! then we played db games while they did attention - and berlin was awesome - GREAT speed, very enthusiastic. in fact, she tried to steal eco's db a few times, too.
brought out the bj and had to work on her really putting effort into jumping v. just popping over, its not big enough to require much out of her. also worked rah a few times to get him slowing down and working his parts, he's thinking a lot more about what his job is there and it's nice.
some very nice ROH for her too, i have to reinforce the wait because she anticipates and just takes off, but im fine with it for now. that i can train through!
had a weave seminar friday night - both dogs kicked ass, but rah tired to kill himself and we found that he will never ever ever do channels with guide wires again - ive never seen metal based poles fly through the air. unfortunately, i think he hurt himself when he crashed them and he's just off a bit in his gait (no one can put their finger on it) so i pulled him from his trial sat am (which would have finished his RE).
but both dogs did awesome at the seminar - berlin had a ton of speed on her weaves and i was getting some mad lateral distance from her as well, and we started introducing off side weaves with her. i have some work to do with finding entrances when i am all over the place - but again, we havent done a lot of offside work, so it will come. rah needs more babysitting right now, but considering he's in about 5 poles at once, he showed some good rhythm in the poles and did quite a few full sets of 12 with me about 2 feet away, he's understanding the point now!
we experimented with a bunch of different methods, WAMs, channel, guides, etc - and i think both my dogs do best on just the plain set of poles and the behavior just shaped - better speed and clear understanding of the job.
today we have a private lesson - ill probably just work berlin since im not sure what is up with rah...
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