goals, video and this week

ive spent a ridiculous amt of time with my new iphone today... need to update on a variety of things.

to start with our goals. berlins im really thinking on, because im considering where i am going with her - ive got a PSA club i am speaking, we've got agility trainers i am talking and working with who think she can have a MACH quickly, but obedience is my first love. and lydia says she DOESNT hate it, she just needs something different from me than what rah needs... we have hope!!!

Rah
- ASCA UD
- AKC UD
- UKC CD and CDX
- CDSP CDX-H
- CDSP UD-H
- AKC RE
- APDT ARCHEX?
- start preparing for UDX legs at matches
- continue working fronts for fluency
- work on calm and control in the ring
- retrain heel position?
- finish an agility title (any agility title!)
- decrease the amount of vortex behaviors we experience when we get stuck in behavior loops
- work on the moving feet on signals, moving stand, and all behaviors that involve a wait
- earn 1 score above 195 from a B class
- compete at AllStars in August - finish in the top 10
- win the db relay!!!
- continue working on obedience outside - attention and repetition
- continue working on male judge issues
- to not feed into his franticness when he's soaring higher and higher - remain calm and collected myself and be a rock to his wild ship in the sea
- work on the glove shaking

Berlin
- ASCA CD
- AKC CD
- ATT (UDC)
- UKC CD
- AKC RA
- APDT RL2
- AKC RE?
- APDT RL3?
- continue training for open and perfect that
- start training for utility further
- complete health testing
- UDC Breed Survey if she's able to?
- NADAC Jumpers and Tunnelers titles
- work on attention at start lines - both getting solid stays and attention nonstop on me while rah is barking in the crate
- work on pet dog behaviors including never leaving your mother, even if you see your best friend in the world nearby
- compete in AllStars in Aug - finish in the top 10
- scent articles!
- work on appropriate times to protect the mom v. inappropriate
- to not let her push my buttons - the world does not have room for our bitch-fights.
- increase fluency for fronts

training this week has been rough because starting sunday i was sick again. wed in agility i was coughing up a lung and by the time i ran the second sequence with roo i swear to god i was literally seeing things, i got stuck in my own circle and i forgot the course (even though i had ran it SUCCESSFULLY with rah just 4 minutes prior!) and we were all sorts of confused...) but we did some nice tunnel discrimination when it worked out. i had my camera, but i didnt tape anything and im glad for that, because like i said, it was NOT pretty. we worked on the dogwalk again - im bringing out berlins target again because she shoots across and forgets her 2o/2o at the end, just flies - and call me friggin amazed that rah would EVER do a contact obstacle again after his accident 2 years ago, but he is going over the dog walk (even though sometimes his back legs slide off, evidenced by his dog walk rash on the inner thighs) but he's doing it without a thought at all - debbie is SO GOOD!!!!!!!! he weaves!!! he runs the wood!!!! and he stops at the end and does 2o/2o, what a silly boy.

anyway, 12ooooo hours later to utility (ha) - next session we are back to open and utility split up again. we did some retrieve work and working hard to hit fronts - having the dogs going out and back at speed, but having to hit fronts that were 45 degrees off of where they left with no handler help. rah was great without a db in his mouth, but once the db in his mouth surprise surprise he couldnt think. heard this song and dance before? :) not a front issue, a brain issue, an "i dont wanna!!!!!" issue. got out jumps and had people working go outs, high jump and broad jump, and in between those we worked DOR, articles, and ROF. so it was a LOT of distraction for the dogs which was really nice - caused a lot of things to crop up.

it was nice too, since lydia is bringing mercury into utility!! its been almost a year, but mercury finally gets to come back to class! :)

DOR - had two dogs on my right - one doing articles within a foot of me, literally his pile was right next to my feet, and another dog that was doing directed jumping just to that dogs right. and to rah's left we had another dog doing ROH - so close that rah got hit with the db twice :) it was a lot of distraction, which led us to "i will watch the db come while you tell me to drop and take one extra step" which game me the chance to remind him, despite the fact that i had no voice and a very sore arm, that mom means drop immediately when she says drop.

worked articles next - in the same situation. got very tight when we had a db land in his pile, but we worked through it! dogs doing directed jumping INTO his pile also almost made him bail from the pile, but lucky for him he found the right article and got out of there. i need to work on him picking up the wrong article (even if for just a moment) while he is still searching the pile. he's clearly not commiting to it, and it's almost an afterthought, but i'll still be hit half a point for him just absentminded picking it up while he is still searching. he's definitely not even considering bringing it back, but he picks it up and immediately drops it... time for a tie down?

ROH i actually didn't work that day mainly because like i said - i was feeling really ill and too tired to get up and work it. worked the broad jump - and worked on rah's new "wait" signal since we changed it at the match. (which i forgot at the show, by the way). he cut the bj, but he still hit a nice front... just did a few...

waited a long time, did a few glove pivots which weren't very good, but i wasn't feeling very up to it either (so i cannot lay the blame on him), he had his butt out a LOT, we mainly worked on you keep your head up when you pivot and look at ME not at any glove you THINK you're going to get... then we got to do directed jumping...

(see, we went in small to tall order, so clearly rah was last in the class...)

so... we worked go outs and DJ. lacking in a voice for the most part, his focus on the spot is so great now that i am having a problem turning him off the spot and getting a straight sit - he's only turning half way . picking battles for the night since i wasnt feeling good, we left it. focused on the DJ - and proofed his fronts. im not moving for the fronts, forcing him to work them - and we were able to recreate rah's stress in the fronts by kathy stomping,skipping, and doing just in general odd things behind him while he was fronting - a few times he just tried to skip the front period, a few times he tried to avoid her jump period and take the other one, and others he tried to give me the worlds worst front. so we worked through it and tried to get him to maintain a calm collected front, even though he was clearly very worried about the judge behind him. (similar to the show the prior weekend - when he's too wrapped up in thinking about what is coming behind him, he cannot focus on his job). we got a perfect one and ended it on that.

thursday was berlin - i was hurting in the breathing section, and really only had 2-3 minutes of TRUE heeling in me - i pushed as much as i could, but past that i was heeling without real heart in it -- i gave it another 10 minutes but i wasn't all there, so it showed. but she did well. fig 8's we worked on it and when i do my job she's PERFECT - but i need to drive out of the inner post and not lean over her and she PUSHES right there - i cannot under any circumstance handler her like i handle rah on that exercise.

on the bj, i need to make sure i transmit a lot of energy into her signal so that she puts it into her jump - 48 inches is NOTHING for her to jump, so i have to add the energy in there for her to put the effort and make it bigger, otherwise she just tries to pop it and its ugly.

worked drops and she's so cute... part of me just wants to finish a CD so we can just work these damned DORS formally! retrieves were nice... i have better speed on the return than going out. she's still working on lining up a perfect front but she's doing a nice job all things considered!!!

need to keep working on getting her utility foundation - i've lapsed recently. worked on some marking.... need to go back to go outs and articles! her pivots are pretty nice. honestly probably better than rahs! her moving stand is PERFECT. and her signals are pretty good! she does pop forward for the sit instead of backwards - i'd like to work on that.

and lastly, i leave you with videos. i dont think i ever posted the videos from our runs at the trial last weekend.

rah's crazy open leg:

rah's novice leg, where he takes high scoring rescue and almost HIT