wow, im terrible right now!

i just cannot manage to get an update in at all right now!!!
no agility this week, debbie was sick.

rah is preparing for the all star tournament (berlin is too, but she's only in rally so her prep is minimal really since she's had that down for awhile... lest i speak to soon i will be practicing!) so he's in open and utility right now.

heeling - he's still a maniac. that's never going to change.
DOR - i need to work out his confusion - he's starting to drop on his own if i dont give him the drop so im doing a lot of straight recalls now. its because before he wasn't dropping fast enough so now he's anticipating. just something to work through.

ROf/ROH - need to work those fronts again. he's going out nice and quick, pretty good turns for a dog his size, but when he gets right back to the front he's rocking back and pulling his stevie wonder routine. really need to put more effort into working on pushing the db into me.

broad - was looking good, the one thing :)

utility - working go outs with lots of distractions - had toys, bags of treats, etc. because now rah is going to be corrected for not going out - its sorta like a forced go out. he knows where he needs to go, but he'll get distracted by things on the ground etc - and if a leave it isn't enough for him to put his focus back on the go out location, then he will be corrected for that and then sent back with some force.

signals - really want to smack him upside the head. STOP MOVING YOUR FEET WHEN I LEAVE YOU.

moving stand, articles were pretty good.

gloves - his pivots are much better when i tell him "up" before the pivot - he's going out nicely and pretty much comes back ok - still thinks about not bringing it back though. when he's looking at one he sometimes gets to 2 though... STOP PICKING A GLOVE.

thursday we had berlin in novice and rah in utility.
berlin did a very nice job - worked recalls with distraction and she was so fast that she bounced off me - but nice and straight!
heeling looking great too. also worked on stands and she let a strange man touch her!!!!! we're taking her out of the line for stays and working them separately so she gains more confidence and learns her job before she has to do it with insecure dogs.
her fig 8 was ok, but she dropped her head a bit on the outer post at first.

rah's utility was much of the same as the day before - working distractions and making this as hard as possible.

saturday we had a match show - rah had two pretty much qualifying runs in utility!!!!!!! in the second match all that would have nq'd him would have been his picking the wrong glove, but karen told me that i had my elbow out too much and sure enough when i tightened up, he got 1. MUST REMEMBER THAT. articles he worked very nicely and go outs were spot on. all his finishes are butt out - need to work on that.

signals remain our bugaboo. STOP WALKING.

berlin had one run through in novice - she had a second, but she rocked so hard on the first one i didnt bring her back in. heeling was GREAT and i only messed her up a few times :) SFE perfect, recall adorably cute but finishes need work because i reward her just as much for far ones as close ones. fig8 - i need to remember to PUSH PUSH PUSH and she comes right up and kicks ass if i do say so myself.

rah had open runs but i was late since i had to (surprise) work so we sold one, and in the other i just worked retrieves and anticipation.

today we had a special training session for those of us going to the tournament - we rented out another training building, set up one utility ring and one open ring and had about 10 dogs working - had severe distractions because multiple people were using the ring at the same time - doing go outs to retrieves right at you, retrieving into dogs heeling.

did a full run through of utility with rah and all of a sudden, as predicted he couldnt find go out - when he's not thinking or he's high as a kite, he wont' look. fixed that right quick - brought him up halfway, then he found it. but kathy also noticed that when i have him totally straight that he looks to the left - but when he's set up a TAD crooked with his front end to me, he goes right out. so i set him up like that and he rocked. then turned and sent him in the other direction and lo and behold, he was golden.

worked retrieves and jumps with better fronts. took berlin and did some heeling with her while luna was doing go outs and she did nicely - worked her nemesis of a forward left turn fast and she nailed it.

between her and jack crated they were loud enough for the whole show to be recreated :)

we then practiced longest straightest go out, which rah will not be entered him because he gives up at 75-85 feet :) bad dog!!!!

then we practiced the db relay - and rah WILL NOT GIVE ME THE DB BACK. runs out, gets it, but then avoids me like the plague. BAD DOG>

however, surprise of the day? berlin is a friggin superstar at it. she was out like a bullet, got the db and FLIES back to me - she's awesome!!!!! so rah is being sidelined from the team for bad behavior and berlin will be our superstar :)

took the dogs to my dads house and let them swim and run around and now everyone is passed out.