so its been awhile since i updated...
berlin finished her NAJ at the trial - did i post that? im very happy with how she's working so far this year. we have come far, still have a lot to do but in about 6-8 weeks she's finished her BN, CD, NA and NAJ. she's made her debut in open standard and open jumpers, and later this month she will likely make her open obedience debut whether we are ready or not :) she will have fun, that's for sure!
training cherry continues to be frustratingly fun. she's a good dog, but just like all my other dogs i sat in that period of "i dont know what to do with her so i will do nothing" until my agility trainer kicked me in the butt. she's on her "ruff love" program right now since she has an unhealthy obsession with all the dobermans save rah (who has an unhealthy obsession with trying to bite her in her soft spots). this has proportionally increased her crate vocalization, but also her focus and willingness to work with me :) she's so smart and just a blast, i sometimes forget she's a baby dog. she's in her "super puppy" class, working on her sits and downs, baby heeling, im also incorporating her shadow handling for agility, baby contacts, front and rear crosses, baby go outs and marks. she LOVES her db like her big brother rah - in fact, she is almost a carbon of him but tempered - she can control herself, has some impulse control, a better awareness of her body, and just toned a bit. i dont want to lay all my hopes and dreams on her, but sometimes i get a glimpse that she could be everything i hoped rah could, but failed in his training and foundation.
rah shows in utility this month. in fact, he shows twice - im hoping that this will be the month that he finishes his UD. we're also for the first time in a long time, also going to be showing in open for a chance at UDX legs (when i entered these trials months ago, i had hoped to be finished already). he's doing well at training but again his articles are depending on what set he is using (???). i changed his glove 3 pivot footwork and words to remind him to slow himself down and it seems to be working, but his signals just went on autopilot and he just does them on his own. please god, wait for me. we shall see. im trying not to stress but ARE YOU THERE GOD ITS ME KIM ALL I WANT IS A UD ON THIS DOG PLEASE LET ME HAVE IT. ONCE WE GET THE UD LEG WE WILL RENEGOTIATE FOR FURTHER LEGS BUT IM DUE.
berlin is a pip. we got into the masters handling agility class - so for the first time in a year she's back in agility. we ran a baby course and she did a nice job but i did a shitty job handling her - we will get there. she didnt once leave me even though there were 3 new people and dogs there and i screwed up major a few times. im very happy with her. in obedience our heeling continues to have motivational issues - but with almost 2 months out, and now focusing on teaching utility i need to bring back her jackpot to heeling since it's been almost 3 months since she showed and had heavy work with it. her articles are coming along nicely - she's solidly in the midst of week 2 of ATC. signals and moving stand are nice for a baby. gloves... i dont know why my dog can't mark. why can't she stare? i took the glove out of the picture and brought in food and a white target and for the past two weeks we just worked on that and it's much better. go outs --- for a baby dog we're ok, but its frustrating because rah is so advanced sometimes its hard to remember he ever sucked. its berlin staring - she's not sure what to mark so sometimes she wanders and i think its a conflict of me telling her to look away and STARE when for so long i get on her case for doing just that - she's not allowed to look away from me and stare/lock onto other things, because that gets her flank pinches and tapped from me. its baby dog/confidence. we will get there. her open is coming along though, she's very cute and flashy when she's on!
mercury will forever be a work in progress. his fronts have been better but i stopped training him for 2 months and just brought him back out in the past few days, his drop and broad jump have been ok as well. just going to reward him like mad for staying with me on heeling and hope he holds out for one trial. and hope we only need one trial!!!!
and if you notice, yes, im training 4 dobermans. the training sessions are taking me 2-3 hours, and im not even getting everything i need in them done - its hard to do open AND utility and puppy dog stuff. i also worked some jump grids these past two days on berlin, as well as having her work the triple from a stand still (since she took the triple down in the last trial three times) to get those feeties up. its a lot to train 4 dogs at 4 different levels with 4 different temperaments...
2 comments:
....who is this again?
Just kidding, I know it's a pain in the ass to remember to blog when there's so much life to do.
Good luck at all your upcoming trials!
And I still don't know what Mercury is in relation to you - your actual dog, foster, etc.
mercury is my co-own. he is lydia's (my best friend, with the aussie) dog and she lives with me - i co-own him with her, she adopted him from dobe rescue as her first dog and she put a CD on him and some rally titles and his first CDX leg but doesn't train him much because they both stress in the ring, so ive taken over showing and training! he's a hard dog to train and show, especially since like every dobe he has major mommy-itis. he severed his achilles tendon a few years ago in a freak accident, so he doesn't do any agility anymore, which was his primary venue.
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