I dream of OTCH...

its been so long

2012-01-12T13:17:00.000-08:00

and ive thought about this post for awhile but its been hard to write.

i took a big break from obedience. rah and i went up to nationals with cherry bomb, and rah was terrible. not any fault of his own really, but something was off. he was not performing because something was hurting. we came close to qualifying utility one day, and rah got called on his jump height and had to jump 30 inches and i regret that... but he came back hurt.

ive spent months trying to figure it out but the end result is, and it pains me so much to say this, rah is probably retired from obedience.

i never thought id ever have to retire him. i thought (and i know this is morbid) that he'd be dead before he couldnt work. i simply cannot keep him sound.

he has neck pain, and it manifests in a right front leg lameness. i know, in my heart, theres a good chance this is wobblers. i dont want to get my hopes up beacuse he is sound when hes only hanging out and being a pet - but work makes him lame. i cant keep him in active shape and ready to show because he keeps coming up lame.

so im forced to retire him too. its painful and hurts so much - to lose BOTH my competition dogs in the same year.

once rah got hurt, i didnt have it in me to work. i couldnt go to training, i couldnt show up, i didnt want to be around them. i even pulled cherry from classes - everything she did was a comparison to rah and it just didnt work. to top it off she also got injured and had issues but those seemed to have thankfully cleared up - if it recurs it will be MRI time for her too.

i missed obedience, but it still hurts to this day. i havent brought myself back to class, but ive started working cherry again at home. and i thought long and hard about it, but i got another dog.

introducing: katwalk calm like a bomb

some of you may know, but this is one of the border collies born and raised in my house this year. he was born 11/20 to my trainers bitch, secret, currently working on her OTCH. i had to change breeds - i cant take all the health problems in mine and i need something that will stand a CHANCE at least of being healthy.

so far the puppy currently known as chill is 7.5 weeks and hanging in his crate, we are working on housebreaking but hes also a little genius. is this what happens when your puppies are raised with obedience from the start and the clicker comes out at 5 weeks? he knows sit/down/back/twist/spin/front/get close and tugs like a MANIAC. he's fearless and while his littermates are all still here, he's chilling (haha) in his crate separate because he's a very confident puppy with teeth a mile long and needs to learn some control as well - he was certainly confident enough to be kicked out of the litter early!

so, thats me. hopefully i will be back here for some more regular posting, but its sad that it wont be with rah. i dont know what else to say...

it's finally happened...

2011-09-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

i cant believe its finally time to write the words -
RAH FINISHED HIS UD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not to let that be enough, Rah also managed to qualify in Open for our first UDX leg!

Yesterday I decided to go and show him the way he wants to be shown - instead of trying to control him in the ring and keep him calm, I let him party like he wants to. We had spinning, barking (and on our way to set up for signals he also took a bite!), flying feet, he knocked my number off at one point when his foot got caught in the rubber band - but he had a blast and he q'd and that's what matters. It wasn't pretty, but considering I'm not sure he sat for a front a single time in open or utility, I'l take our 185.5!!!!

So, party boy finally got his UD. and now it's onto the UDX - we're also taking a detour back to CDSP this year as i trial him heavily in the next few months to get 2011 ranking opportunities. Let the party begin!

trauma

2011-08-31T04:14:00.000-07:00

i purposefully havent posted here because it hurts... rah is fine (for now) but berlin is injured, badly. to the point that she's completely retired from all sports right now. its killing me and im reliving all my past failures and shortcomings with all my other dogs, so i have nothing to say here that's inspirational - in fact, i havent even been training my other dogs because quite honestly i have nothing to give them right now.

berlins recurrent neck pain prompted me to take her to the neurologist and have an MRI appointment - the results showed that she has a herniated disk in her neck and early wobblers - stenosis of her spinal canal that is compressing her cord and causing intermittent pain. worse, its progressive to the point of possible paralysis. there are options - both in alternative medicine and traditional, but im not sure how i am going to progress at this point because with rest and light activity she's 100% sound and rarely has episodes of pain. i refuse to stop letting her wrestle with rah - and in fact, she goes CRAZY if i dont take her running with me when i go (she runs around the house frantically getting to each window crying and screaming)... she thrives on the things we did together.

shes the reason i started agility. she's the reason i dropped 75 lbs. she's the reason im becoming a better trainer. and now she's the third fucking doberman in a row that i have that won't be able to accomplish anything she is truly capable of because time just isn't on our side.

so berlin retires Beja's Bombs Away v Bowie, CD BN RN NA NAJ - i may still play around with her in APDT and CDSP rally because she can avoid the jumps, but retrieving hurts. i can go into the symptoms for her later that led to this but right now im just hurt, angry, frustrated and pissed off at the world. and myself.

still no UD

2011-07-27T04:14:00.000-07:00

the trauma of showing blueblurry in open.

and instead all i have to show you are these.

no go

2011-07-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

so obviously rah didnt qualify or there would be words of wonder and praise here... instead he was his class clown self.
and while i love his sense of humor, its getting old, me funding his comedy career.

he's on his own little rough love program right now - he's being pressured, and hard. no more mr. nice guy over here - he's gotta act like a big boy. all the little things he does that i let slip - from trying to take back his articles instead of finishing, staring at gloves instead of me on a front, jumping on me instead of fronting because he's so happy - no more. he needs to settle down and think about his job. he offers a variety of behaviors attempting to get cookies and while i dont reward his obedience behaviors, i am VERY liberal with cookies for cute spins backing up, etc - no more, not right now. he's got 2 weeks that we are trying that and we're attempting to see if ANYTHING calms him down in the ring - because he flies high as a kite and he is so keyed up he gets in his own way. put a lot of pressure on him for everything tonight - dogs all over his article pile, multiple people on the floor for directed jumping, waving arms and running while he did the go outs and while i gave signals to jump and FINALLY got him to pick his own jump and pressure off the right one...

we shall see.

awesome training - are we doomed this weekend?

2011-07-07T06:13:00.000-07:00

the dogs all trained really well last night.
which makes me think im doomed for this weekend.

cherry in puppy class was a superstar. we did moving attention with distraction of a person near us (4-6 feet) and she was awesome. i used her name to remind her but i didn't even need to use come, just saying her name she refocused on me and was right back and ready to do moving watch like a superstar.

she is CRAZY for the db. still hates metal articles. so crazy that like rah, she ran away with the db. i love it. love it love it love it. worked fronts - will have to shape those since she's not understanding straight because she's already too tall to teach like a baby dog :) and her stands and sits are nice, will have to eliminate some signals and go to verbal. and put it in heel position.

berlin was awesome in utility too. did two gloves and she marked them1!!!!!!!!!!! go outs i changed her focal point and she got it -need to bring in the turn and sit now. and directed jumping she rocked. she's solidly in the middle of week two of ATC, by the end of the week i will go to week 3. signals i barely worked but she's good at 4-5feet. not bad for a baby dog.

rah was solid in utility.

so im afraid. now rah's not going to finish his UD this weekend because everyone trained too nicely. damnit.

i fail at this updating thing

2011-07-04T15:03:00.001-07:00

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...

a good weekend so far

2011-06-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

making the sleepings together

berlin rearranging her bed after she got to play in the hose

wait, HOW long until i run?

rah being overstimulated

berlin with her ribbons so far!

running agiity at JAG's new agility site for the trial this weekend - its hot as hell there. the flooring isn't bad, berlin isn't slipping and i love the sprint turf in the one site. virtually no air movement and while its not as hot as it would be outside, its still hot! id definitely still show there again tho and berlin seems to like the venue!!!

yesterday we missed a q in fast when she missed the teeter but nailed everything else.
in open standard i celebrated too soon and she took the last bar (bad handler) - hard course and only three dogs in open qualified, period!
but after 6 months, our drought is over and berlin q'd in jww and was a super star!!!!! it wasnt pretty and she broke her startline stay resulting in a refusal at jump three when she blew past me and we had to circle back to take the jump ... not the prettiest but it was a q!

this morning was day 2 - started out with novice fast, and she aced the run (in 14 seconds ha!) with 58 points to get her second NF leg for what has to be the fastest FAST leg ever. i wasnt going to try to get super points, i wanted in and out and no fancy stuff. we got out points and got out.

JWW - we had another startline problem but we managed to pull out another ugly Q for our TITLE!!! yes, we are forever done with that miserable class and moved up to open jumpers for tomorrow!!!!

open standard - i made two mistakes with her and they were all my own fault (calling her name over the triple so she turned midair and took a bar, i dropped my arm and didn't support a jump and she came in) but other than that she rocked it.

im very proud of her -she's running her heart out, in the heat, hasn't left me once, she's running super fast, she's running with me, she's running like a good girl!!!!!!

still here...

2011-06-13T04:25:00.000-07:00

still here, still training.
cherry starting her puppy class. she was cute, if not utterly distracted. heck, at least she didn't scream through it like rah did his first class :)
berlin started teaching utility :) and she was back at agility - and worked her sunday back at 26 inches and she's been fine - which is good since she's entered this coming weekend.

a lot to write about but not enough time!!!

i leave you with bad blues.

outside?

2011-05-31T04:19:00.000-07:00

this past weekend rah showed (for the first time ever) outside in akc obedience... yeah, nothing like being almost 6 years old before you make your akc obedience debut outside.

the funny thing was, it wasnt that bad. except for the almost 90 degree heat (we were 5th in the ring, so we avoided the high heat and saturday was the nicest day of all of them, had an almost breeze) of course. i kept him and cherry (Who came to socialize and play - two of my favorite judges - betsy baird and phyllis broderick (whom you may recognize from my photo of rah's second leg!) have littermate springer pups that are 5 months old and they came to the show, as well as her fake littermate bc drake and they all got to play - anyway i kept them in the car with the sun shades and they did great, it was nice and cool and much nicer than any crate in the shade would have been! we were out of there by 11, and that included me staying to watch kathy show secret. i was actually done by 9:19 :)

s ironially all rah missed was an article. which isn't surprising, since he had lost all his confidence in articles outside after his craptastic training sessions the week prior - including some very unintentional heavy pressure at the pile including terry's feral cat and many other things. but doing everything else was nice - and just means we can show outside too. not sure i like that...

time to go to work. here's hoping we don't lose power again - which has happened about twice a day for 4-5 hours at a time each day. not so fun.

still here...

2011-05-24T03:53:00.000-07:00

still here, just haven't been doing much.

rah showed last weekend in utility b. he did everything. but on directed jumping, he took the wrong jumps. don't get me wrong. he took them BOTH. so most people didn't realize we had NQ'd but he picked his first jump and picked wrong - i sent him to the left and he went to the right - so on the second jump i sent him over the wrong jump again just to get him to go to the left. which is good because he was so wound that he took off on the go out without me actually, but realized that i hadnt sent him and actually ran backwards back to my side two steps and sat down shaking waiting to run out. i could tell right then that this exercise was going to be an exercise in (lack of?) restraint. and sure enough, he turned, sat, and almost took the jump immediately - he got right up and almost jumped but sat back down and backed up to his go out spot probably because i almost yelled at him in the ring and the look on my face was one of absolute shock!, but he was focused on the wrong jump from the start.

this is becoming very frustrating for me and im starting to lose hope. i dont know, maybe it would be easier if he didnt understand or know what he was doing. i could almost make more excuses for him then, that he doesn't know his job. but its like every trial we are at, there's one little thing that i don't know how to explain, one teeny little thing (sometimes outside of my control). which i know is obedience in some respects - but the dog is so heavily trained and proofed, but im going broke showing the dog and its not coming together. i havent even been to training much these past two weeks because im getting frustrated with him and its not his fault, but im truly just getting pissed off. everyone else and their mother have UD's now on their dogs - and half these dogs are nowhere near as proofed or trained as rah, and DONT understand their job as much as him, but they still get the job done in the ring - but rah wont or cant in the ring. he's trying to do everything so exceptionally fast that he's not slowing it down enough to think about what im ACTUALLY asking him to do, instead of what he thinks he needs to do. he's having fun doing this, but having fun doesn't get UD legs. the judge was laughing at him so much in the ring and i just wanted to ask her to STOP because it just makes it worse for him - all the laughing just makes him put on more of a show and get stupider because it encourages him. and everyone just keeps telling me to stay calm and don't encourage him and i try so hard, i know i need to be a better handler.

he's entered this weekend, but its outside and it's been raining for 40 days and 40 nights - so im not hopeful that i will even get to show because the forecast has thunderstorms that day and i wont show him in a storm. much less jump him at 28 on wet grass.

sorry for the whiney post. i know all this is, is whining.

2011-05-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

rahs one year post-stem cell check was today and all is awesome-sauce. so that is good news. he's currently holtered so we wil have those results soon.

all i want for his 6 year bday next month and my 31st is a UD :)

berlin is resting and today i have a consult with a vet friend of mine who is an acupuncturist/physical rehab person who will look at her and mercury and try to discern the source of their random pains.

hopefully for berlin shes just sore. this past weekend she took a slip on the turf at hatfield and landed pretty much on her shoulder while running. i can see how she's sore - combine that with the balls to the wall approach my entire house has towards playing with each other and i can see that lending itself towards being ouchy.

rah is entered in a show next weekend, and im entering him outside at the end of the month (WHAT??). im pulling berlin from all her trials this month.

some thoughts coming as to showing these beasts coming... lots of stuff formulating in my head. the puppy is good but crazy. and updates once i know what carrie says about whitey and blacky.

2011-05-03T19:35:00.001-07:00

while this should be a happy post, about how berlin had a good weekend at the agility trial - got her first open standard leg, blah blah blah - instead its sad because she's on rest and she's injured somehow and she's being pulled from everything for the next month. where rah bit her last month he hit her patella and there's chronic changes that we're hoping rest will bring down the inflammation (but its mostly just cosmetic in the odd look to her knee at this point, since it doesnt seem to actually bother her, ive just noticed the swelling), but she's also got random pain???? somewhere in the left front and we can't pinpoint it - she had an orthopod and a neurologist check her out, and thursday the physical rehabber will check her out and see where we go from here. it started monday morning and got worse throughout the day. she's drugged up on the couch next to me and ive already started emailing to pull all her entries...

another HS dobe

2011-04-24T12:33:00.000-07:00

but no UD... rah rah missed a sit signal due to some screaming outside the ring (excuses...).. but the rest of the class he worked was lovely, and its all coming together. maybe tomorrow!

but berlin finished her CD with an ok class, took 4th place and was HS doberman in trial today!
berlin isnt too unhappy she didnt win a platter, instead she won a FRISBEE!!!!!!!!

miss dependable qualified all the classes she was entered in this weekend, finished TWO titles, and placed 2 of the four classes she was in! im very proud of her, she is OFFICIALLY done with all novice classes !!! onto open!

dancing in the streets

2011-04-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

mercury went down on his out of sight sits with 14 seconds left berlin got the second leg of her CD with a shitty score and she's getting worse by the day but you know what

WHO CARES BECAUSE RAH RAH GOT

ANOTHER UD LEG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dobe specialty (cherry blossom day one)

2011-04-22T18:48:00.000-07:00

soooo close. soooo very close. i wish one of those ribbons was from utility!!! every class but utility folks, every class.

good day. i feel like crap still. got the show site set everyone up and tried not to die. was back in the hotel by 2 pm and slept until 7:30 (WHOA????since i dont do middle of the day sleeping!) and just grabbed some soup and a frosty for my throat and now im going to take more nyquil and going back to bed - passed out dinner and bully sticks to the dogs and we're done.

so yes, everyone did well. well, its a relative term. the show site is HARD. dobe obedience is on first while everyone is still loading and unloading, and its right by all the doors. excuses, but its hard nonetheless. locationwise, at least.

rah went first. heeling was rough, he was all over the place. i dont think he brought his head up ONCE to look at me, knocked me all over the place. i need to verbally tell him what we are going to be doing more. but he did them!!! lovely.

articles - on the second pivot to the article pile he hit the chair so he didn't sit. but he did both articles - though don thought it had the wrong article???? so he followed him in.

gloves. gloves gloves gloves. argh. we had glove 2. i for some reason pivoted really poorly and rah took glove three. argh.

moving stand was fine.

go outs - first one was lovely. second one he pulled up so i tried to fix it, but it didnt go as planned :) it would have been qualifying but he already NQ'd...

so, just one glove. ONE GLOVE!!!! but he did utility, under a man!!!! and he almost q'd - it was much nicer. he ddnt know for sure where to mark for go outs, but i backed him out and remarked it and it was better. im very pleased. slightly concerned about the pulling up short on the second one, but i can fix that tomorrow (hopefully if its not raining i can set up a ring outside - its raining today so i didnt want to do it).

open B was next - to freak me out, they did open b and a stays together, so i had to find someone to handle rah. rah was a lunatic in open B too. again, the heeling. the heeling. his other exercises weren't bad, except that he raced don on a rethrow to the db because he didnt tell me "exercise finished". enthusiastic as always. going to the right on the fig8 isnt going to work because he wasnt sure what was going on. we lost 8 pts on heeling!!!!!!!!! but he q'd - sue ann took him in for stays. no placement because he sucked.

mercury in open a - outside the ring he cried during warmup but i didnt want to be too into what hurt, he was walking fine. didnt stress the sits tho. and i didnt get a SINGLE SIT on the heeling. in fact, he was so freaked by don, i had to give a second heel command. 15 points on off leash. BUT HE DID EVERY EXERCISE. and he held his sit stay to be the loooone qualifier in open A and even though he had a shit score, its still a second leg!!!!! i knew i had to take him in for stays instead of rah, since he ahd no chance of doing stays for someone else... rah was very confused tho.

berlin for novice. i have to jazz her up more. she wasnt paying attention to me for on leash and we lost 8 points for on leash heeling. ON LEASH! how far can she get? she had swivel head and stared everywhere but me. fig8 was better, sfe fine, and off leash she finally kicked in! she did fine for stays and got her first CD leg and af irst place as well !!!! and she also got first in beginner novice to finish her BN....

so, all in all a very good day. 4/5 and three first places. IM FEELING A UTILITY Q coming this weekend, I JUST KNOW IT.

all my bags are packed

2011-04-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

(well actually they arent)

leaving tonight or sometime for the timonium MD cherry blossum cluster with the big dobes today. im terribly sick - started monday night. huge head cold, neck hurts, draining my brains from my nose, coughing, sore throat, you name it. taking drugs galore.

didnt even train the dogs this week so far - will be interesting. but im confident in the dogs that we can do this. WE CAN.
i dont know what im thinking showing three dogs in three classes (FIVE on friday!) ... eek.

three varikennels
(2 500s, 1 400)
4 soft crates
ring gates/stanchions
full set of jumps for utility
four sets of articles
full training bag with 3 dbs
chuckit with spare tennis balls
four flexis

and now i just have to pack myself up. but first another nap, since i feel like crapola.

2011-04-16T04:21:00.000-07:00

ahhh... shows coming up and on wednesday both boys couldnt remember how to do everything. mercury broke broad jump (wait, we've never finished after the jump), rah broke articles (i dont know what you want me to do and i know there's 40 articles out there i will bring you back all leather la la la la la la la la NO none have your scent what are you talking about here's another leather!) both were just dumb. nothing like seeing in front of your eyes 300 dollars of entries being flushed...

thursday was better, both boys did their jobs and it was significantly improved. berlin was steady and good both days.

my trainers have said there is nothing else to do for rah :) im not sure that makes me happy or sad, ha! they said they have proofed this dog past the proofing of any other dog, he's proofed as far as any OTCH dog. the problem is me, and him. he doesn't think in the ring - the ring simply isn't hard enough, so he's not paying atention- he can let his mind wander because no one challenges him - he gets into the thought of "oh isn't this easy" and he stops thinking. and then i get frantic and make it worse.

think i can ask the judge to walk in his path for go outs, or touch him on signals? maybe push him on moving stand or talk to him on articles?

im leaving the baby home (aka, rah's minime) and just taking the big dobes - rah needs all his faculties with him and its hard enough having mercury, one dog he hates, there. but cherrybomb is really so much like rah its almost eerie sometime. she is picking up his mannerisms and she's sooooo much like him its adorable. i love her and i hope she turns out to be the dog i want her to be.

can't believe im even writing this...

2011-04-10T08:29:00.001-07:00

but its good news!!! there's a new dog in the house :)

wasn't supposed to be. there was no puppy for me in kathy's litter. no dog at all. i was resigned that this wasn't the right time.

then a week and a half ago i got the message on facebook (OF ALL PLACES) from sophia (the vet who cropped berlin, OF ALL PEOPLE) - that there was a couple of all natural blue puppies that needed a home asap, did i want one?

um, do you have to ask me twice?

see, two weeks ago all of a sudden people were throwing dobermans at me left and right. people were throwing older fawn females in shelters on LI at me. people were throwing me 1 year old twitchy red females in rescues (i did look at her). a litter of blues born in rescue 2 weeks ago (offered me a pup from this litter too). a breeder even emailed me asking me if she bred a litter, did i want one because she would have the potential to make blues, it would be a CH/Sch I male bred to an almost MACH female. all of a sudden i had options...

then i went and saw this little female.
now, this little one isn't a definite. if for some reason she doesnt work out, im willing to rehome her if the need be, but honestly i dont see how it wont work. she's crazy. she's a spitfire. she's rah 2.0 (this upgrade seems to be the same, just includes tail but comes without a penis). she loves food. loves to tug. loves people. huge sense of humor. but for now im taking her, seeing how it works.

her "breeder" wanted to experience the miracle of life with his kids so he bred blue to blue to make... you guessed it, blues. and surprise surprise there isn't a huge demand for all natural blue puppies so all of a sudden at 8 weeks old there wasnt a lot to do with 4 remaining all natural blue bitches. his parents took 2 of the females and when i drove up they were on the deck in the rain :(

she's handled everything in stride - except the crate. she is drama with a capital D with the crate, though she is getting better. most of her training has involved that, since its non-negotiable that she go in the crate here. she is super-respectful of rah which is how she survives since he took a hit out on her from first site (he is not so fond of puppies. or dogs. or, well, anything, mr crankypants) and with a flick of his lip can levitate her from 3 feet away though he has never actually laid any tooth upon her blue blue hide. we have no blue on blue action here, though berlin is perplexed why she will not play with her (probably because berlin is psychotic and moves way too fast).

her name is cherrybomb. and she will be ILP'd as...
Bowie's Here Comes the Boom
(wait, i guess that means i kinda plan on keeping her... ?????) no it means if i DO keep her i just happen to have a name.
and about 120000 nicknames already.
she is learning crate games and impulse control. and she learned to wave. and today she will learn to spin and pivot and speak i think.

she's a goddamned pistol and im pretty sure she's staying, because im pretty sure this is the competition dog ive been looking for. im going to grow her out until 6 months old, but she's unflappable. she has been to puppy class, an obedience match, to work, to strangers houses, to the vet, you name it - NOTHING phases her. (except rah).

AND YES SHE"S KEEPING HER EARS AND TAIL FOREVER AND EVER.
(unless i shut her tail in a door).

and the name of this pity party shall be

2011-03-27T05:32:00.000-07:00

i suck.

everyone else got UD's this weekend but me (shut up, i know rah wasn't even entered in obedience, yes there are 6 trials but i was shut out of 2 trials for living with a judge who was judging, 1 trial had a shitty judge, and then sat/sun had 3 trials and i opted to show in agility...)

and then yesterday i totally fucked up berlin and she could have qualified but it was all my fault and i dont know how to handle her any better. every time something goes wrong she still takes her stress trot away from me to go visit and I HATE THAT. i dont know the rules (clearly) for the four paw rule because i thought berlin did it because she bailed off the teeter because she approached it sideways and actually jumped it and then put herself cutely on it the WRONG way and nailed a 2o/2o ha ha ha and because she did it twice i walked her off... the judge said later because she did it herself and i never told her that she wasnt going to call it. but we had already NQ'd at that point with an off course double. lydia said i got the benefit of the doubt with the four paw rule because we were in novice. oh well.

in jumpers we were q'ing up until she visited the corner sign and backjumped to get to me :( damnit STOP VISITING.

i guess i just feel really frustrated because everyone else has what appears to be worse trained dogs than me, but their dogs get the job done. and here i am with doberdorks 1 and 2, who cant get a leg between the two of them to save their lives.

AM I JUST A CRAPPY HANDLER?

and now im overanalyzing berlins issues ...

2011-03-19T12:44:00.000-07:00

just a little frustrated.

i know i still need to post about a lot of stuff, including berlins CD and another UD leg for rah.

last night after work my trainers invited me to do some training with them when they worked their own dogs. we just did our own thing - the arcade in our shopping center is having a donkey kong tournament because its the 30th anniversary and there are tons of gamers there, so its actually a good distraction, rah was all over the place.

and he couldnt do go outs. im so disappointed - he was in his own building, to a wall he trains to, and for 2 of the go outs he couldnt get his mark. i was so frustrated and it makes me feel like hes never going to get this darned UD.

ARGH.

they kept reminding me hes a baby dog and these are baby dog mistakes, these are things green dogs make and i can absolutely see that what happens is rah starts to think about things outside the ring then because he knows hes not focusing, he overfocuses and he confuses himself about what his job is - he overthinks and forgets.

ugh.

agility private

2011-03-12T14:31:00.000-08:00

a lot to post about - obedience training for wed and thurs, the agility private, and the trials from the weekend.

but im going to start with the agility private.

here are the courses i ran - this isn't the best copy of what i ran - my drawing isnt wonderful, my photo isnt clear...

this was all us, all hour. it was rough and after 50 minutes we were definitely tired!

sherrie had a lot of good input for us - both on technical stuff and skills, and relationship stuff. she said use food less and tugs more, since berlin is so toy and motion oriented. i had berlin hold her in between when i walked since she cries and doesnt like the crates there - and she wont hold a down stay sometimes. also, when im not working her if she walks or gets sniffy if she gets away from me she wants me to get a tug toy and just run straight away from her - no big to do, no calling her - literally just go and hide, all the fun disappears. berlin was likE WTF ARE YOU DOING MOM. her attitude totally changed. i stopped using toys with rah because getting them out of his mouth was a battle and a half - so we worked that this weekend at the show too, so we reintroduced that as well...

running was ok - i need to not be so frantic and slow down - running faster isnt going to get me ahead of her and get her cues in faster, it just hypes her up and because im running so fast and trying to outrace her, it shoots her past where she needs to be.

the other thing i keep doing is staring at her and watching her, instead of giving her cues and verbalizing to her what needs to be done. watching her and waiting and seeing if she's going to come in and come to me, instead of saying to her "over" or whatever... of course, without instruction as to what comes next im leaving her in a vaccuum...

bad handler!!!!

even more belated

2011-03-08T18:37:00.001-08:00

i have to update with all the details but --
RAH RAH got another UD leg with a first place and a 195 sunday morning, and berlin finished her asca CD with 4th place, winning a run off!!!!!

so proud of them both!!!!

2011-03-05T17:34:00.000-08:00

im exhausted and dont have much time to post since i want to go to bed soon (but banana bread is baking!) but while i dont have wonderful news to post about rah, who NQ'd twice today in utility - my superstar BERLIN got two CD legs today with a 194.5 and a 196.5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

no puppy for kim

2011-02-27T05:09:00.001-08:00

well, secret had the litter. if you can call your singleton litter a litter :) kathy moved her clan into my house last weekend, and we've been doing very well here (my dog number is INSANELY HIGH right now, but you'd really never know it thank you for training - the worst is sometimes we get barking when one dog makes some noise and its actually less than normal because rah is on his best behavior) - rah is in trauma mode because kathy is here and she makes him work for everything! you should see the sad eyes he gives sometimes - is she STILL here mom?

thursday was the start of the due date, secret had no signs of labor. same with friday. i had cautioned kathy that there may be no way she would have the litter - we knew there was only one puppy and he was large and even if secret could pass him vaginally, theres a really good chance that one puppy doesn't stimulate enough labor to make it happen. friday we monitored fetal heart rate and it was stable, but saturday it started to drop and he was nearing distress, so we went to c-section. one little puppy was born at 11:30 or so and he's doing well. we brought him home about 2 pm and secret's been... an ok mom :) lets him nurse but still not so sure she wants to clean this baby.

then yesterday afternoon my friends dobe litter (literally 4 min down the road) and she stopped at 4-5 babies - we knew there were more in there, so at 6:30 i went and gave some oxytocin - 2 more came out. and then more. and more! ive never been so wrong on an xray before... it was amazing. 10 babies - and we decided that since brandy as a young first time momma with a huge litter, and secret as a first time momma with a small litter, both the mothers and the babies would be benefitted to have the litter of dobes split up so i took 3 dobe babies back to my house...

they are nursing well this morning. secret still doesnt want to clean them much so thats our job for now. hopefully she kicks in soon. yesterday she was still a little dopey from the csection, today she is much more herself.

im mixed emotions about there being no baby bc for me. part of me is sad that there isnt one - this was the litter i was waiting for, and seeing the xray hurt a little bit - so many plans for this little baby. so many accomplishments, going out into the ring and wowing the people. all the little training things i was going to do, all the changes i was going to make and do differently from my other dogs, fix all the mistakes. so many hopes and aspirations. i had second pick out of this litter, it would have been born in my house, my trainer would hand pick and hand raise this pup with me. multiple OTCH trainer, no less. we had our weekends of travelling up to terri arnold already planned for puppy lessons!

but part of me is relieved. for selfish and not so selfish reasons. first and foremost, i dont need another dog, not really. i mean,i know something could happen to rah at any time and then what... but i dont need to replace him. i have two dogs i can actively train and show right now. they are more than enough, one is showing and training in two sports. i have two dogs i can barely afford to campaign, ha! financially i can afford the dog, but it would be tight no doubt because of all the sports and training and showing - i can cut back LESS now that theres no pup coming. and part of me still felt guilty about not getting a dobe - because they will forever be my favorite, my heart breed. they will the breed i want the most, the breed that catches me and makes me yearn to own them. they are also going to be th ehardest one to train and work probably, and the hardest to find the type of dog i want, but ill get there.

so i guess ill just wait for now - wait and see how things play out. the right dog is going to find me in the future. i checked out 3 dobes in the past year and none of them were the right one. clearly this litter of bcs wasnt going to give me the right one. two people have already told me now that there's no puppy that they didnt think this was the right time anyway and i needed to focus on berlin and rah, and they are right - we're on the cusp of a UD with noodle and berlin is JUST coming into her own right now and we're just setting into our relationship with the princess.

but i will tell you now that i have dobe babies in the house it may be hard to turn one of them away, haha! its why i took reds!!!!!!

a wednesday night revisit

2011-02-24T04:26:00.000-08:00

well, stayed home for part of last night because kathy was nervous that secret would whelp her litter - i knew she wasnt going to , but to make kathy feel better i hung back for a bit. as a result, i only took rah to class (he's the only one officially entered anyway) for utility and left every other dog home. i felt bad leaving berlin "home alone" as i said it, since i took rah - then lydia scoffed because with kathy currently here we had 6 dogs (and one unborn), and 4 cats here with her when i took rah - hardly alone :)

the puppy is a sad story - it looks like secret only has one pup. a gigantic one, that may need a csection but only one. we keep hoping against hope there is a hidden one in there for me, but i dont think thats really likely. of course, having any puppy at all is amazing since the timing and obstacles to this breeding were immense and ridiculous, any puppy is a miracle. still its sad. if no pup, ill likely hold off and not get anything this year since i dont NEED anything this year i can focus on trialing the two dogs i already cant afford to show as much as i would like :)

speaking of, need to enter both dogs in trials coming up - rah needs his next batch of obedience, and i just sent in some more entries for berlin.

i got closed out of dauphins thursday trial (what?) - actually waitlisted, but im not holding my breath.
i got wait listed for sat 3/26, but into sundays trial 3/27 at dream park.
just sent an entry in for keystone on 4/8 and 4/9 --- hopefully i get in since i forgot and mailed them this morning.
i hate that good trials close out so early...

im going to enter rah in the first day of timonium since its a dobe specialty - i just cant decide if i should stay down for additional days of obedience. the judges there are a GREAT panel for him, so i think i should suck it up and spend the money for a hotel and just show him. im hesitant only because ill have both boy dogs and berlin with me - while i can HANDLE all three dobes just fine, i hate having to bring mercury into a hotel room alone since he is legitimately going to spend the entire time in a crate he's at this show. maybe ill bring him an expen so he can have half the hotel room, or something. lydia isnt coming to this show as far as i know...

class last night was ok. kathy was understandably a little distracted so we kept it quick. started with articles - and rah nailed them ON THE OLD ARTICLES. apparently he cannot, cannot CANNOT scent his new articles which means its not a me problem or a him problem, these articles, despite after airing for a week, being washed twice, and me scenting multiple times, are still stinky. i love them but i cant use them!!!!! so back to washing daily and scenting daily - scenting HEAVILY - until he can do them. its not his fault, clearly hes smelling something odd out there - but on the old articles he's nailing them quickly and working the pile. the newer articles he fakes working the pile...

moving stand was lovely - he even added in a cute little hop, but he locked in. very very nice.

go outs - very nice go outs - crooked on one, he straightened himself on the other. i gave him his ball and he pulled up short (halfway) on the other because i had just stopped him tugging, had his ball still in my hand, and he was crazed in "ball la la land" - he was staring waiting for it. i took him, popped him out and reminded him what i wanted. next one pulled up short again (but pulled up at gait, instead of driving until i turned him) - i popped him and he beat the pop going out the last few feet.

the last go out? a thing of BEAUTY. he ran - RAN - out there - and was running his heart out and showed no signs of slowing and i turned and sat him and we had a PARTY!!! as kathy said - THAT is what a go out looks like.

i kept the ball out - figured if it gets him so amped up that he has trouble thinking, thats exactly the sort of state i need to train him in. did signals and he had a few problems focusing on me and not the ball, and did get corrected once for walking when he was thinking about karin running with simon and not me, but we worked through it and he did nice signals with ears on the top of his head.

gloves were funny as he came closer and saw that his ball was under my chin his ears went higher and he started to shake in anticipation of getting it. im going to make him come in closer to get the glove (and maybe his article though he doesnt come in and sit out that far for them) - i can see him getting further and further with his prize in the ring :)

all in all nothing bad. some ideas...

agility

2011-02-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

had obedience this week - nothing spectacular that i want to post about - both dogs are entered in an ASCA trial in a few weeks (2 maybe?) ...

berlin had another private agility lesson.

the first lesson we worked on basics and foundation - coming to side without crossing my lines, reading my cues. for her its really going to be important to focus on cues and being consistent and clear - if i dont send her or call her over something, she cant take it. and she NEVER gets to do a tunnel unless i tell her :)

things to work on:
1) re-enforce stays where she is in sit and i walk past her, then run past her, then front cross her.
2) take that on the road and add it into a contact - and peel off, get lateral distance.
3) work on her foundation positions again to really focus on her reading the cues quickly and cleanly - coming to side, lateral send, forward sends.
4) impulse control (HA) - sherrie said start playing some crate games with her. neither of my dogs have any impulse control (i could have told her this)
5) shadow handling around tunnels -first on leash, slow, far away - and then increase speed, off leash and closer - and she CANNOT take the tunnels. then introduce her taking some tunnels and not others.
6) we also worked on some desensitization protocols with her reactivity when she's working alone and strangers enter the barn - i see it at trials where a long person will be hanging over a gate. in large groups she doesn't notice or care about the people, but in situations where one person is easily visible and prominent, its much worse. feed feed feed.

obviously this trainer is a positive based trainer, and i will give things a try. berlin already has the foundation of crate games, i just never continued.

afterwards we ran a course that was pretty cool and she did fairly well

i cant make a pic of it on this computer since i dont know what programs i have (i just got a mac!) but heres a facebook photo :)

sherrie said if i didnt need to stay close to 3/4 then i should just send her - and she was right - being too close meant she extended over three and had to curl back in, when i wasnt running so hard towards her she didnt push so hard out and had a much better natural line to the aframe.

here we discovered that while if i babysit her contacts shes golden, if i move on she hits the contact then self releases - oops!
we discussed where i wanted to do the landing side front cross at 5, and she made me think :) and then i did as much of a forward send as i could get to the tunnel at 8 so that i could get my but nearer to 9-10 and call her to me (and away from her love the tunnel she came out facing). we had trouble with the rear cross into the weaves because i personally had trouble walking the fine line of having her drive to the poles but not pop her out, v. hanging back so she doesn't feel my pressure but being too far back so she stopped and looked for me and said, huh?

worked that out (had to remember not to do the front cross after the poles too soon or i pulled her out) and needed to stay closer to the poles so that i could have a nice line from the poles to the far side of the tunnel, then took off and called her through the jumps to the tunnel again.

i picked her up with a blind cross at the end of the tunnel and turned her on my left from there to the far side of the other tunnel, then took off for the dog walk, making sure to have NO motion at all towards the tunnel discrimination.

so thats the course... i wish i had some videos. need to plan another lesson soon - kinda in a stand still since im whelping a litter for my trainer - but sad because it appears that there's only one puppy in there, which will be hers obviously! we will try to have some hope for a miracle :)

i havent forgotten

2011-02-10T05:21:00.001-08:00

that i need to update about this weekend ! i will, i swear!

last night we had training. i worked berlin on the side during novice class, and worked mercury a bit during open (mostly retrieves, speed, and attitude) before rah got to do utility.

berlin we worked a lot on finishes. here is a video of one of the finishes- while she's got the height, i need to eliminate that head down spot because that one little split second she looks away is unacceptable... im glad i got it on video because i can see it now. i experimented with bringing my hand back up to heel but down gets her straighter.

we worked some heeling and some fronts. she's funny because at some point i must have clicked a crooked front and she experiments when we are working them to see if her butt can go just a little to the right (her right) before she straightens it. i will try to use my leg to keep the pressure on that side to eliminate it - she did some nice lateral moving fronts and some nice rotating around the clock - now to bring that accuracy at distance!

here is heeling for her - overall this is heads and tails above where i was with her - lydia said she looks great, her ears are up and i'd say 90% of the time she's got her attention on me :) (i can still see her mentally check out a few places, even if her head and ears are at me - an act that rah has perfected, since he can look like he's paying attention to me, head straight up, but his brain is no where on the exercise at hand). i want to tighten up her about turns (and that is something we work constantly) but this was without practice and reminding, so its nice to see that she CAN do it. im happy with the lefts but i do need to work more on footwork, and i want more movement of her hind end during the left - we worked that later and she did nice (over-corrected even, which i am happy with!).

overally i was happy. she's got some entries in the beginning of march in an asca trial, and i think ill bring her out in april...

rah's utility class - started with moving stands and he moved on the first one and terry had his remote and i said a second "freeze" the exact moment that he got a stim - PERFECT timing and he was solid. he did get corrected for not locking up immediately, but the minute he got it he was like OH you mean DO NOT MOVE? (why can't my dogs do things that involve being still??).

go outs were nice - full 70 feet to the agility equipment, and i got a "long distance" (ok 25-30 foot) "go zoom" (touch the stanchion) on one he was going to pull up on! he marked and he ran and we worked on the ever present rah using the gate to pull up (he's not pulling up at the jumps, but he knows he cant go through the gates so he pulls up a bit to be turned and i constantly battle that...)... jumps and fronts/finishes were nice. we played with remote sends and rah sucked at that :) he needs his mark to know where to go.

articles - we were able to recreate the mistakes from this show - worked them in a line and all articles were in the front. rah nailed the first two, and when we moved to article 3 and 4, he made mistakes on both. his correction (ah ah, no x 3 - straight out of ATC) made him fly back to the pile to get the correct one. he kept grabbing article 5 leather - so i aired them all out at the center today - and on the last send he went to take the wrong article, got 2 steps out of the pile, and went WAIT this isn't right and went back to find the right pile. not exactly how i wanted articles to be done, but at least he understood he made a mistake and corrected himself, and that's a step! when he blows articles, he blows them big and i truly have very little control over the decision he makes there (what exactly goes on at the pile and what he smells isn't me) so i have to give him the confidence that he can be wrong and fix it... i'd take those points if it gives me a run!

signals were funny - again able to distract him into a mistake - he had toys and cookies thrown in front of him while i signalled him and i couldnt get him to come in from the sit - he ran to kathy because he knew he was going to make a wrong choice. i almost peed my pants there and we set it up again and he came in, good boy!

gloves - need to work pivots on my part - and i dont know, im giving up on the glove shaking? just bring them back and give them to me...

had a good chuckle about the people they judged this weekend, discussed more puppy plans (puppies due 24th-26th!) and time to get the whelping box over here, and messed around with puppy names again...

ok i will try to do the show update soon. berlin has an agility private today and class again tonight.

2011-02-08T04:30:00.003-08:00

i need to update the blog - showed 4 times this weekend and no legs - some good things and some bad things.

class tonight... some videos

2011-01-27T18:55:00.001-08:00

tonight was class - the dogs ran outside and did crazy stuff for about 3-4 hours today, and i shoveled for almost 3 - needless to say we were all tired.

this is what my dogs did for half the day it seemed:

so we got to class and were FRIED. but we carried on...
after novice we worked on berlins trick... officially debuted -

PEE LIKE A BOY!

i worked mercury with some fronts and such during open but he is very lame today after playing too hard so i quit after 5-10 minutes.
and by the time we got to utility i was exhausted. small class since only two of us showed up - we talked about go outs and signals - since both of these boys ONLY failed go outs at the last trial they were in, we worked on heavy distraction again.

this is rah doing his hardest go outs so far- with berlin and bunny running loose with lydia chasing the wiggly giggly.

sorry its fuzzy - camera didnt know where to focus, and i couldnt get us all in the frame all the time

he actually is going straight - the center is 2 feet to the right of that stanchion - and he does it perfectly for the most part. he's like rain man...

i love snow but

2011-01-26T14:08:00.000-08:00

i love training too.

and i cant train in the snow :(

no class... hopefully we will have class tomorrow. got entries for next weekend. rah is first in utility A which is first in ring 2, and mercury is 8th in open A with his first in ring 1 (in a separate building). i may ask to move one of them... cant decide which.

lori drouin

2011-01-23T10:28:00.000-08:00

a great post on one of the email lists from lori drouin...

"The trainers I know who are most consistently successful with many dogs
use a lot of motivation through personal interaction and yes, rewards in
their training system; but every one of them also has clear ways to
inform their dogs when the dogs make mistakes that is not based on a
barter system. It holds up in the ring because they don't show their
dogs until the dogs are seasoned enough that corrections are extremely
rare in training because mistakes are not being made very often at all.
The dogs know they are right because correct and incorrect variations
have been clearly and consistently identified, and good habits of
performance have been set. It holds up because these folks match their
dogs and generalize their training locations enough that the dogs no
longer wonder if either the reward or correction contingencies are in
play in new places; they believe that they are. The dogs already know
they are right in the ring, and praise that is allowed in the ring
affirms it, and absence of any of the "you need to fix this" messages
also affirms that they are right. The dogs may well be thinking about
the tug game or the treats they will get when they come out of the ring
with anticipation, but they aren't thinking that the absence of the
treats in the ring means that they are wrong."

obedience and a return to agility

2011-01-21T19:27:00.001-08:00

wednesday obedience class and we worked on go outs for rah - tell me how the dog can do go outs with people chasing him, go outs with people poking and talking to him, go outs with people throwing toys at him and around him - BUT HE CANNOT DO THEM AT A SHOW?

i now why they call this futility. how much harder can this be at training before he does it in a show? :) i shouldn't complain, he does them many times- sometimes he just cant seem to focus. and i saw the video from this past weekend - and i can see exactly why he didn't -= i can't share the video out of respect for the judge though.

thursday berlin had a private with our new possible agility trainer - and we did fairly well for a baby dog thats been out of class for 6 months. she was very friendly (BBERLIN as well as the trainer, ha ha) - and she zoomed and was super fast and the trainer said she had a ton of drive and a nice foundation - i need some handling help obviously! she ironically nailed weaves, nailed all her contacts - and had full of fail start line stays. *shrugs*. i will try to take privates until berlin will be ready for her masters level handling class, which will hopefully be soon. berlin loved her, it was funny.

rah is entered this weekend in an AKC trial - but im not sure we're going. im not feeling it right now, and im not sure i want to drive 2.5 hours one way (without traffic, which im not sure will happen on the LIE?) - and my biggest concern is this venue said NO SOFT CRATES. its an ob only trial - so what am i supposed to put rah in? i cannot and will not carry his wire crate in - its great dane sized. and iw ont let people stack on him. grrrrr.

im tired. and i am teaching berlin to pee like a boy. its cute.

sunday recap

2011-01-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

ok so the show sunday - i felt like poo but i survived! i was so afraid he would mess up articles i refused to take cold meds!!

so we were 10 from the end or so - entered in utility B because i wanted to show to this particular judge. i was nervous and concerned about when i was going to go into the ring because ob was going on at the same time, and they didnt reverse order at all so the same dogs were going into the ring at the same time - i as predicted, i had to go out of order since no one else was available (and that was with nancy taking 2 bathroom breaks!)

once again a huuuuuge thanks has to go out to my trainer - its really something to go to a show and have your awesome trainers there helping, and have your super multiple OTCH trainer warm up up and walk you to the ring - to control your warm up, to talk you through the little things we have to think of (where is the steward taking the gloves once we are done? where will your path be, and will he see his gloves once he is done?) - these are the things that make up the little points...

so we warmed up and i entered the ring - gloves were first. went over to gloves and set him up - it was glove two. nice pivot, he marked the glove immediately instead of waiting for my signal, but he raced out. shook a few times coming in, and then fronted. and then refused to give me the glove. i literally had to rip it out of his mouth and said "around" just as i was getting it from him.

transitioned over to signals - i was so nervous, since he hasn't had successful signals in a SHOW ring since july!!!!! this has been the exercise that i've been working on the most - this exercise has been the single exercise we've failed the most consistently (as in all but 2 trials) and has been the ONLY thing he failed in the last 3 trials.

so we're starting signals - he's of course forging, but not that bad. the pattern is good for him, no fasts into a left and its not an about turn stand your dog - but right before the last leg of the heeling, rah's forging and im too close to the stanchions and he hits three in a row, including the last one right before i turn into the stand - i stand him but hes a little forged and definitely flared since he swung his butt out after hitting the stanchion.

i give him a strong stand signal, and then another stay - and walk. the entire time im taking deep breaths and just thinking to myself "I DONT HEAR FEET I DONT HEAR FEET" because you can hear the pitter patter of rah running... and nothing. i turn and -- RAH IS WHERE I LEFT HIm.

im beaming at this point - i give him the drop, he hits the ground. give the sit and have to use a little added umph to get him up but he pops straight up. call him in and you can see on his face he knew he did it --- because ehe comes flying in and lifts his front and and lands on my chest. he's staring at me, and then he goofs off further and drops into a down. im laughing now, but finish him on a signal and we're done.

RAH DID SIGNALS!!!!

of course, the next exercise was go outs, and we failed that :) wont say much here since the judge was awesome and let me train in the ring :) some of the failure was that i didnt prepare rah enough for the exercise and didn't give him enough verbal heads up...

next is moving stand - he was perfect. didnt lose any points at all. locked in, didnt move a muscle.

last were articles - i was so stressed since not only did he miss articles at wilmington's match but also friday at work. i send him and he works the entire pile, but hasnt checked the center of the pile, directly under where he's standing!!! finally gets in, comes back and one article down.

send him for the second article - finds it quicker, comes back... and again, just like with the glove, rah won't out the article! i fight him for it and get it out of his mouth, finish him..

so that was it - we passed everything but go outs. nancy was super nice and complimented me on how nice he looked and what a good job we were doing.

im sad we didnt get a leg - i feel he knows what he's doing and if i can just get him to THINK, we will be there. im most happy that signals seems to have reached some inner core of him that we're finally getting through.

so, next show sunday. kathy says she has something special for rah's training :)

should change the name

2011-01-17T19:53:00.000-08:00

of this blog to "i dream of UD" because right now both seem as equally unlikely.

perfect MS on sunday. RAH DID SIGNALS. and articles, which broke the entire week before were good (except not wanting to out the article, just like with the glove, AHEM).

no go outs.

= F.

match updates...

2011-01-09T18:02:00.000-08:00

yesterday in the snowstorm lydia and took off with all the dogs.
she took the fuzzard to dream park for agility (USDAA) and i took all the dobermans, including mercury, to delaware for a match. i only drove down because both mercury and rah will be showing at this very site in february and ill do anything i can to get a UD leg...

got there 10 minutes before the show and go started, and waited in line for my runs - i got 2 utility for rah, 2 open for merc, and 1 each of open and novice for berlin. the bad thing was there's two buildings - so of course the dogs were in different buildings. the hill wasnt huge, but in the snow it was slippery enough! set up berlin and merc down hill and then drove up to put rah in the utility building.

berlin was up first - did her novice run. her food bowl was outside the ring and she did a fairly good job. she was a little squirrely off leash and had swivel ears on, trying to see both the judge and the front door to the building, where people were still coming in. she was with me (but on leash!) but not 100% mentally there. did the fig8 - the inner post wasnt bad, the outer ones she was there and driving but she wasnt up far enough and head wasn't up - she was kinda daydreaming and doing it by rote.

SFE - perfect, i threw her frisbee for her instead of finishing it formally since she looked like she wanted nothing to do with the judge, but did it.

her off leash was BETTER than her on - she was jumping and popping up, bumping me, all sorts of cute. loooooved it.

her recall was cute - she tried to bypass me to get the target - NEED TO WORK ON THIS - but the next one was nice.

mercury was next - his first run through was sorta crazy. on thursday at training we had a meltdown with the ROF - he wouldnt bring the db back to me (instead going to his mom) and i had to correct him. hes a marshmallow in color and brain, so this was hard for him. then he came back but wouldnt leave my side... it was a big deal for him. so today, he was funny - he anticipated the retrieves! id much rather see that - i eventually just called him off the db and that seemed to fix it. his drops werent bad - the first time he wouldnt come off the drop, i called him a second time and repeated and he did it. the b iggest thing we need to work with is his fronts - he coems in but doesnt sit, or putzes - just like rah used to do.

rah in utility - argh. signals werent bad, gloves were ridiculous - he would NOT out the glove for me period at the match and twice i had to literally rip it out of his mouth. his moving stands were fine.

articles - ARTICLES. the first run he couldnt find his articles for the life of him. i have no clue what the problem was, since it was the same articles he showed with the last 2 shows, and nothing has changed. i corrected him twice and he finally did them right, and i moved on - the second run through he was pERFECT. go figure. im not going to worry about it, because he hasnt missed an article since august.

go outs were my worry since this is the exact building that in august he couldnt find go out for the life of him - the first one i just sent him on his mark and iw asnt sure he knew where he was going - he ran out and veered off towards glove 3 but went out. i let him go, sat him, and then got him up, moved him closer, and sent him to the right place (he marked it correctly this time). all his other go outs were good - except he started picking his jumps based on what the judge says instead of what i indicate - BUTTHEAD!

so it was a good day. stopped by dream park on the way home and saw lydia and bunny run - no q's for them that day.

rah's entered 4 times in the next month, mercury twice. im still trying to see if i have the money to show berlin in agility. i REALLY want to... but she's been out of class for almost half a year now... i need to get her back in class!!!!

2011 goals...

2010-12-30T05:08:00.000-08:00

ok, so here are my goals for 2011...

awesome goals you guys!

personal goals
continue weight loss. i started in august, and as of today im down 40 lbs. i have so much more to lose, but im feeling healthier and it gives me a lot of hope. and i wont lie, the reason i started the weight loss was to be able to run my dogs in agility. and already, its so much better!

be financially more responsible. which unfortunately may involve less training and showing... but times are tough!

rah
rah's first goal is to live another year. i know it sounds terrible, but truly the main thing i want from him is going to be another year. id trade every title and every leg, to have more moments with him, on the couch next to me like he is right now.

that being said, rah's second goal is GET AN AKC UD. i want a UD, badly. rah deserves a UD. he's a terrific amazing working dog, and he deserves for the rest of the world to know how awesome he is.

other goals:
ASCA UD
one UDX leg
one lonely OTCH point - that's all i want!

work on the moving stand and signals - no moving feet!
clarify go outs even further - longer, straighter, faster!
calm down heeling - focus on better footwork, calmer signals.
reintro some open work - we've been focusing on utility so long!

berlin

here's where the big stuff comes in - i've held her back in training so long with my own issues - i need to learn to trust her! i need to be the handler she needs - and remember to not handle her like rah, but like her own dog. in the beginning that may mean that she doesn't get shown at the same show as rah, and that rah gets handled like berlin so i dont have to handle two dogs two different ways. i need to be confident in her abilities, i need to feel secure that she will be there, and she can do it - and she can, so she will.

this mainly applies to our heeling - i get so tentative because she's such a different heeler that it makes her insecure - when we're in sync its the best heeling i've got. working bridget carlsen's methods have made this SO MUCH BETTEr - so i want to keep this up. just last night we were able to backchain an entire novice routine to her jackpot/reward and i want to keep going from there!

mainly in obedience, attitude and motivation. she has the fundamentals for all of novice, open and utility - but i want more out of her, so we have to bring it to the table. there are bits and pieces that need work (fronts, for example - at least i fail both dogs in the same place consistently!) but she knows her job if i can just explain to her what i want in a fair manner.

in agility, i want to finish all her novice titles and move onto open.
we need to clarify contacts (as in, she needs to do them ) and in doing so, i need to clarify my release and reward for the contact behavior.
i need to work weave entrances - she needs to learn to collect herself better and nail her entrances.
obstacle discrimination and in doing so, STOP THE TUNNEL SUCKING. when stressed or confused, or sometimes just because, berlin sucks into the tunnel. any side.

all in all, i just need to be a better handler for her. i am spoiled by rah who for the most part does his job no matter what i do (or do not) do - berlin is not that dog and the slightest shoulder movement, the faintest flick - she's going to read that - and worse, she gets pissed off at me for screwing up

mercury
not my dog, but im showing him this coming year - and i am going to put a CDX on that dog come hell or high water!!!! like rah, he deserves the title!!!!

is three dogs enough for goals, or do i need a fourth to show? hmmmmm........time will tell

couldnt be prouder...

2010-12-29T19:10:00.001-08:00

i just casually looked at the CDSP rankings that came out yesterday and found out that rah is ranked, TWICE! for 2010...

this is the third year in a row rah has achieved national rankings - in 2008 he ranked in APDT and CDSP (berlin also front and finish ranked in rally this year), in 2009 he ranked through front and finish for OPen A, and for 2010 he ranked in CDSP ...

#17 in novice C
and tied for #9 in open A !

I'm so proud of him!

last week, and the goals - looking backward and forward

2010-12-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

there isn't any class this week because of the inbtw holiday-ness. class last week was not so memorable. berlin was maintaining position but head position was totally off. she was very into multi-tasking, and i certainly didnt have her undivided attention. rah was better but had his issues too - we mainly worked go outs and signals (surprised?). wed night i was the only person in utility because everyone else was sick so i did a straight run through of a B class and we saw exactly where rah loses it - because he gets soooooo hyped up that he isn't able to focus. and we noticed the whole mouth thing again (i think i posted about that before - he cant think with his mouth open!)...

so before we get into the goals for 2011, lets look at what happened with 2010 goals...

Rah
- ASCA UD
we have one leg! and wow, is utility heartbreaking

- AKC UD
- we have one leg!
- UKC CD and CDX
- we haven't shown in UKC at all this year
- CDSP CDX-H
done!

- CDSP UD-H
we haven't shown in CDSP since we finished our CDX-H - in part due to time, and in part due to finances

- AKC RE
done!

- APDT ARCHEX?
2 legs towards this, but we haven't shown in APDT in over half a year...

- start preparing for UDX legs at matches
i have to work on this more - doing utility first seems to blow rah's mind for open...

- continue working fronts for fluency
always a work in progress

- work on calm and control in the ring
getting better, he's learning to think!

- retrain heel position?
good luck. ha.

- finish an agility title (any agility title!)
since our diagnosis of cardio in february, rah hasn't shown in any agility. im still debating on if i will ever let him...

- decrease the amount of vortex behaviors we experience when we get stuck in behavior loops
yes, this has been decreased a bit - through calm control, some key corrections, and more clarity as to what his job is.

- work on the moving feet on signals, moving stand, and all behaviors that involve a wait
its getting there. this has been the most frustrating thing, as this alone has kept me from getting multiple UD legs...

- earn 1 score above 195 from a B class
sadly, no - rah wasn't shown much in open B this year.

compete at AllStars in August - finish in the top 10
rah did compete in TWO venues - and placed 15th in one, 7th in the other! he was placing in open as well until the last round, with the fateful high jump crash... no need to relive.

- win the db relay!!!
well, i won it - with THE OTHER DOG berlin was on the winning team

- continue working on obedience outside - attention and repetition
i think im giving up on him here

- continue working on male judge issues
he successfully has shown to a few men this year, and i will continue to show him and as he understands his job and focus is there, he seems to be less concerned except when scary things like ring gates fall!

- 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
this will always be my bugaboo - not matching his frantic hectic behavior with my own.

- work on the glove shaking
heaven help us...

Berlin

- ASCA CD
berlin hasn't shown in asca since early this year, where stays kept us from earning our first leg. i have started to completely retrain her obedience as i was not happy with her attitude...

- AKC CD
see above - she did get two BN legs but i never entered her in akc novice.

- ATT (UDC)
done!

- UKC CD
no UKC shows this year

- AKC RA
not yet - i held her back to show her in all star in novice

- APDT RL2
2 legs! again held her from finishing for all star

- AKC RE?
- nope

- APDT RL3?
nope! no apdt in a looong time

- continue training for open and perfect that
she's working open and working nicely - but took a step back (as i said above) to retrain some basics and motivation/drive stuff.

- start training for utility further
yes, she's getting there! cute go outs, pivots are nice, the glove will also be an issue for her.

- complete health testing
done! but...

- UDC Breed Survey if she's able to?
i ended up spaying her before she could do this!

- NADAC Jumpers and Tunnelers titles
no NADAC shows this year- HOWEVER we have shown in AKC in the past month and have 1 NAJ, 2 NA and 1 NF legs!

- work on attention at start lines - both getting solid stays and attention nonstop on me while rah is barking in the crate
this has been a work in progress but things have been looking wonderful!

- work on pet dog behaviors including never leaving your mother, even if you see your best friend in the world nearby
this is getting much much better.

- compete in AllStars in Aug - finish in the top 10
yes, she did! however, a stupid mistake on MY part knocked her out of top 10

- scent articles!
yes, we're starting and she's oh so cute!

- work on appropriate times to protect the mom v. inappropriate
SO MUCH BETTER

- to not let her push my buttons - the world does not have room for our bitch-fights.
i truly truly think this has been our biggest change...

- increase fluency for fronts
working that as we speak...

so next, our goals for 2011....

class and match

2010-12-23T06:57:00.000-08:00

so, i still have to post about last years goals and the new ones...

but we will focus on the past few days first :) sunday i had planned to stay home with the dogs, but one of my friends got sick and gave me her match entries. i brought berlin planning on just working her outside the ring, but when we got there i was able to get her two spots as well.

berlin went first - i had her kibble outside the ring and worked the entire thing a la bridget - and it went awesome, if i do say so. i really like matching when both my trainers are there by the way - its very helpful for me to have them there and they can see how things work out...

i intended to do a straight run through of novice - i dont always treat a match like a show, but i wanted to see where we were. berlin did fairly well, if i do say so myself - no food on me at all. she daydreamed a bit during heeling and didn't always get my cues for halts, but she was THERE and WITH ME - not the head position iw anted and i didnt always have attention. but she was there!! and i did off leash heeling - this is big because she hasnt been off leash in 2 years almost, except for last week! and she did LOVELY. and she did stays!!!! so i was very pleased.

rah had 2 utility entries - and he was predictably crazy. articles were perfect, gloves we of course had the "i pick the glove i dont need to look at you" issue, but we worked through it. signals we worked a lot of rewarding the stand - go outs were broken. i didnt do a good enough job telling him what we were doing and he had problems marking and focusing - the second run we did just go outs and signals and worked through it. he needs to understand and follow through with when i say go out, i mean GO RUN AWAY.

kathy did notice something very important for me though - aside from the fact that i give my signal for the stand funny that encourages forward motion - rah stops panting when he marks go out. so i need to watch that - when he knows where he is going, he closes his mouth and stares out - if hes panting, he isn't sure where he's going. not panting stress wise - rah pants the entire time he's in the ring, he pants from start to finish through training, he always has. if he's moving, he's panting - its just how he is. so its not that he's stressed, but i have always joked that rah's ability to focus on his job is directly correlated to how far his tongue is out of his mouth - and apparently i was right!!!!!

class will come in the next post..

disjointed much?

2010-12-17T15:20:00.000-08:00

this is going to be all out of order, since i have so much to post!

i still have to go over berlins total agility weekend - i have courses and videos!
i also have to re-evaluate last years goals and make new goals for the upcoming year...

i tried to enter rah in the last obedience trial this coming weekend, but we got closed out. maybe its for the best, i think i need some time to decompress. ive had some major concerns (none that are necessarily gone, but i am tearing myself up about them) and worries in my life right now. mainly, i have to cut back on the training and showing of the dogs right now because the thousands i am dropping are coming back to haunt me. which totally sucks and im looking into how i am going to do this, because i am addicted!!! :)

class this week was good for everyone. berlin had a private lesson last friday and we went over my footwork for her- turns out i need to not heel her like rah because shes actually paying attention and is much more sensitive to my movements, so shes more offended when i "manhandle" the footwork. rah i have to do a lot more pressuring and body movement because he's always pushy and forgey - berlin gets weirded out by it (because it IS weird!). and we worked on some head pressure to help find fronts - because surprise surprise she's another dobe with no idea where her butt is!

wednesday we just played around but thursday was class for her - and she was awesome! im still working jackpots and cue words (a la bridget) and i do see this as being the key to getting her in the ring - she worked the entire class without a single cookie on my body. and whats more, is that we worked together on consecutively piecing together the entire novice routine. first just heeling/fig8, then added in that plus a stand, then added in the heel free, and finally did the entire routine through the recall.

again, she did this without any food present, no lures, no rewards except for at the end. we had some rough moments, but terry turned to me and said = contrary to my original thought, DO NOT break her out in between exercises - she takes her release from working as a sign that she can do her own thing. keep her heeling and talk to her, pet her, but no breaking out for games. and i did that, and voila she was there. she read all my cues, my footwork wasn't half bad, and SHE DID TWO ROUNDS OF OFF LEASH HEELING! i used my cue words before the off lead, and she did very well and nicely - in fact, in the last one i was able to get her so jazzed that she was barking and bit me! i love it.

her stays were also solid - only two butt movments but she's holding the position. i DID start to use the electronic collar on her for stays, just like rah - somehow i seem to be a failure at teaching this as a true YOU MUST STAY NO MATTER WHAT - berlin would constantly move around and reposition her butt, scoot forward /sideways. no more.

rah had utility on wed and thursday. he is wearing the e-collar the entire class, but we're using it for foot movement on the signal stand and MS - he seems to be understanding that for real, no matter what - you do not move those feet. not if i run, not if i drop food, not if i start petting or training another dog - i said stay, and i really do mean DO NOT MOVE. (trend - my dogs dont hold still well). as a backlash its only natural that he is sometimes sitting instead of reading my stand signal, but ill help him out - he's trying very hard to not be wrong.

gloves have been ok - hes actually sometimes thinking and not shaking! articles are spot on - the week prior he had some bobbles because he had two people surrounding hispile and apparently when someone pets him, he forgets what he is doing and settles in for a good scratch :) this week he did 70 foot long articles and he LOVED it - really got to move :)

go outs - we've really been working go outs, and it seems to finally click with him that when i say GO OUT i mean run in a straight line until i stop you. since i no longer have anything out there for him to go to, i want him to have a "job" out there so ive introduced hitting the stanchion as part of his job. i think i might have to put the ball out there one more time though here and there, just to remind him what hes marking. but the fact is, he's hit a dead straight 70 foot go out to a blank wall with no mark, so he SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO GO OUTS.

should.

thus, futility.

our next show will probably be 1/16, and then 1/23 and 2/4-5
i entered all his before my financial whirlpool ;) oh well, need to finish the UD!
and both dogs are entered in a trial indoors in july - berlin has a novice entry!
more posts coming...

2010-12-04T19:35:00.000-08:00

had a good training session thursday - did a lot of bridget carlsen work and got multiple 30-40 step parts of heeling with no food on my body and good attitude from berlin!

today we showed in agility.

JWW was first - rear cross from 10-11 i pushed too hard and we got caught up. so she shot over 11 to 16... called her back and at 14 i wasn't turned enough and my shoulders send her to the weaves - called her back and we finished up. MOMS FAULT. should have hung back further on the RC and let her get out ahead of me.

STD - berlin took the wrong end of the tunnel each time. im not sure if she was patterning (since thats the end she took in FAST?) or if i pushed too hard and didnt wait long enough on each rear cross and she was pressured to the other end. would have been fine except i rushed her weaves EACH TIME since i managed to fix our wrong end of the tunnels. BAD MOM. we had three shots. i didnt fix myself either time. BAD BAD MOM.

our FAST plan -
after the chute she actually i think took the 3rd jump in my lead out but whatev!! she was so cute and it timed to exactly 32 seconds! good job lydia :)which is our first NF leg -- and we took second place to amy and the ever-adorable layla, the worlds best malamute!!!!!!

tomorrow is another day. berlin was AWESOME at the trial - i was skeptical at the location, but she was mooching off people, hanging out, ASKED to be pet, and didnt make a single peep or react at anyone. VERY NICE. im so proud of her behavior more than anything!!! !

2010-12-03T05:57:00.001-08:00

Does this work
Now ???

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

negligent

2010-12-01T20:19:00.000-08:00

i feel really bad that i havent updated this more. life seems to have gotten in the way - ive got my finger in too many pies, and worse than that - so many of the people im associating with are never happy it seems and it frustrates me to no end.

classes are screwed up - i am still without an agility class and i dont know what to do. attempts to get my old trainer back seem to not be working. and my attempt to get a new trainer in was remarkably full of fail as it imploded 2 weeks before we were set to start class.

so im still looking for a class. the problem being that my first priority is rah's UD, so i need to schedule class around when he's in class. and i work insane hours. and i cant travel that far because of those two things. and im picky and want a certain type of trainer - im not looking for run throughs, i want someone that will FORCE me to be a better trainer. i want to be a good handler- not just a "q" handler.

so, berlin is still out of class - great time to start trialing your dog, right? she has one NA leg from the williamsport trial, and this past weekend we showed one day at dream park.

it was a nice site and i will definitely be showing there again - and it was great to meet amy and layla and her brother - nice to see other familiar faces too!

unfortunately all the niceness doesn't mean we got any Q's -

our first run was FAST - our first time ever in the class and i still dont know the rules. in fact (as later reports will show) i dont really seem to know the rules period in some instances so i cost us Q's. ha ha. not.

so FAST - berlin did well. blazingly fast, she ran the course in 19 seconds. and that speed involved not a single contact, at all. she kinda hesitated at the aframe but decided to just blast ahead. and then the send - the fateful teeter. berlin ran and ran and ran right off the teeter. UNSAFE TEETER EXIT. fail. she swears she touched the yellow, it just happened to be in the air. split second decision i opted to not mark the teeter failure and the truth is, we were both trucking - she had a head of steam and well, im a fat girl running as fast as she can so inertia was simply carrying us over those last two jumps :)

standard was next - it was a close quarters run for a dog that moves. it was broad jump right into weaves and she blew past the poles - circled her and she went in, we moved and she hit all her contacts, and even did a nice sloooow teeter (she's like, wait last time you said bang it the world fell out from under me)... and then i was so concerned about her getting the right end of the tunnel (We all know she's a huge tunnel suck) i was pushing so hard i pushed her right around the tire (obstacle before the tunnel. she went past and went through the tunnel and i decided to just run the rest of the class and she nailed everything else.

apparently the heartbreak is that had i brought her back and gotten her through the tire and continued on, we would have q'd. good thing to know, huh?

BAD HANDLER.

JWW - this class will be our nemesis because its built for speed. im not sure i have enough handling control over her for this speed :) the problem started with my failure to execute an effective lead out pivot because berlin failed to hold a start line stay :) so extra bonus tunnel! get her back through the jumps and we needed a second time through the weaves to hit the entrance again (off sides, too much speed, we need to work collection) and i EVEN MANAGED TO PULL HER OFF THE TUNNEL. but no go because of that damned off course tunnel.

so, it was good - no q's but im happy. she is fast. too fast for me. if i can get her pointed in the right direction she easily runs over 5 yps at her slowest. but we need more attention to details and she's very sensitive to certain things (and not to others, thanksverymuchberlin i definitely said STAY)

anyway, rahs doing utility still - in salisbury MD (ill make a post about that since i have lots of videos) we failed go outs in pretty much every trial. i was frustrated and told my trainer i wasnt sure he was marking his stanchion. she turned and said at his level, he shouldnt need to see a stanchion - while he is given a verbal mark, he should know to run away. so she had to illustrate that point to my dubious mind...

80 foot go outs to nothing but a blank white wall? yeah, rah did it, and did it perfectly. 80 foot go outs to all the agility equipment but again, no stanchion? yeah again perfectly. STRAIGHT< sat on a time dead center and was fast.

so the end result is my dog is a dick.

his other bugaboo is still his signals - i need to get him to stop moving. period. he's now got his electronic collar on for this exercise. he needed the collar to clarify that when i leave you for sits/downs that a stay is a stay is a stay - so we are using it similarly for signals. just STOP MOVING RAH ITS BEING STILL FOR 10 SECONDS.

utility will be the death of me.

berlin is showing again this weekend in NY (ill see layla there too, with her handler amy!) and then we're done until january i think - i may enter rah in utility at one trial, and he's entered the first weekend of feb as well in DE. i need to look at what trials to put berlin in and dream park has about 12123123123 in feb.

i was going to take mercury out in open for lydia, but hes out of commission (obviously) for about 2 months - then we will be back in open and finishing his CDX! i told lydia she has to show berlin in agility then!

so thats me. i will try to get more videos and more posts.

2010-11-18T20:22:00.001-08:00

i was supposed to show rah in utility A today out in oaks, but i woke with such a bad migraine that there was no chance. class last night was tough for him - we really forced him to think. evidence of him needing to think is in the videos from this past weekend that i will try to post tomorrow maybe. in retribution for failed go outs, rah had to do go outs to a blank wall with nothing there :)

berlin has agility next weekend - i will likely be going down to see lydia show at dream park this weekend to have her acclimate to the site.

bed now.

salisbury MD update

2010-11-14T13:39:00.001-08:00

well, salisbury was enlightening - the end result is rah still has no more utility legs. had some good things and bad but again had signal issues, and go out issues.

berlin got two BN legs with a 190.5 and a 195.5 taking third.
bunny got her RN with all placements (two 4ths and a 3rd) and mercury GOT A CDX LEG!!!

videos to follow.

almost but not quite

2010-11-11T08:03:00.000-08:00

almost but not quite

rah in utility B at back mountain this past weekend.

2010-11-01T08:32:00.001-07:00

still so out of date with the posting. sorry :(

2010-10-26T04:07:00.001-07:00

so so negligent on my part :)

last week was the second week in a row that i ended up skipping thursday utility because i was exhausted. wednesday we had a private lesson with chris parker in agility, and berlin did well - some things to work on (Will i ever have the time??) especially in regards to her weave pole entrances and collecting herself. wed utility with rah was more of the same - i know where we need to work on things! thurs i just did berlin in novice - we are still working the basics of bridget stuff right now and charging her "words" but she's doing a nice job.

sunday we matched and rah was too creative in utility (WHO taught him words for the directed jumping and why didnt he need me?) open was a battle of wills (YOU GO WHEN I TELL YOU not when the judge says it), berlin did a nice job in novice tho!!!

checked out a rescue dog and long story short, she wasn't for me.

sending in entries for berlin and rah... so tired!

2010-10-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

im still here. still not posting what i need to be posting. but there's so much bridget stuff to post its crazy (and i need to re-read my notes!) but the dogs like the methods right now - they are back at baby dog stuff.

and i cant talk about berlins leg because i havent taken a pic of the course yet!!!!

argh.
dogs hiked for an hour today and no one got hurt!!!!

2010-10-14T17:47:00.001-07:00

this is actually pretty accurate -- and very telling for the dogs and their issues. the volhard canine temperament test results:

Prey = 80
Pack = 45
Fight = 35
Flight = 10
rah

berlin
Prey = 50
Pack = 75
Fight = 65
Flight = 10

mercury
Prey = 70
Pack = 40
Fight = 10
Flight = 35

bunny
Prey = 20
Pack = 65
Fight = 5
Flight = 20

2010-10-13T04:45:00.001-07:00

things i still havent posted about:

1) the bridget seminar and what i learned (so much).

2) berlins first NA leg!!!!!! we showed last weekend and almost qualified in JWW but did get a standard leg!!!! damn the off course tunnels in JWW :)

but right now im at a conference, so ill do it later!

home from the seminar

2010-10-03T19:18:00.001-07:00

just got back from the bridget carlsen seminar and had a BLAST - so much information and so much of it really makes sense, especially to MY dogs - already incorporating it and my trainers are trying to figure out how to put some of it into class.

exhausted and its been a long weekend, but i will definitely write more later.

training last night

2010-09-30T07:09:00.000-07:00

so rah was supposed to be back in training last night from his foot injury, but he missed all but 10 minutes of utility...

i had a ring rental for berlin to work on agility stuff - hard weave entrances off sides and sticking the table and ignoring the tunnel. she still has a LOT of trouble sticking the table. she doesn't avoid it, but she's not staying on!!!!! worked some exercises to get her to rock back the minute she gets on and collect herself.. .we shall see.

then lydia and i took bunny and berlin over to a new training facility to check it out to see if we want to take classes there for agility, since we still have no agility trainer.

berlin did pretty well - considering she was in a brand new facility (that reeked of variety of smells from vomit to rats), did half the class outside (we don't train outside, ha!) on slippery grass, and new people both tried to touch her and talk to her... not bad at all! im still not sure we will train there for a variety of reasons because i really want to be picked apart as a trainer, not just encouraged - tell me exactly what is wrong! but...

first course was inside - they split the dogs up small to tall and berlin was the biggest there (ha ha ha).

we ran the closing from the excellent standard class this past weekend... main issue was getting the aframe and how we did it. experimented with front crosses, rear crosses, and pulling onto the frame.

of course the ever present block of wrong end of tunnel was fine - she popped off her contacts twice (once teeter, once frame)- i was actually able to pull her (which i didn't think she would) and the front cross worked great. the rear worked, but she slowed down considerably and watched me as i crossed behind her. jeff didn't think the front cross would be really feasible unless you got out of the way- there was a jump past 5 in line with it that i wanted to block though. jeff doesn't like blocking. :)

the next part of class, big dogs went outside and little ones in.
the course outside:

worked some start line issues - did a lead out to 3 - and then the tunnel suck-age came. it took four tries for berlin to come to hand (and here is where i wasnt so happy with the training) - she's a fast dog and she's not picking up the cues (that im not giving?? ha ha) AND she's a tunnel suck. but the trainers weren't helping me work things out, just having me do the same thing over and over and over again until she got it - but what i ended up with was a stressed berlin not understanding why she had to do the same thing repeatedly because she just WANTED TO DO THE TUNNEL. OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

i walked the course with a front cross right before the triple (landing side of 8) but instead i chose to run out and do a landing side front cross after 7 - worked much better IMO and berlin nailed her weave entry EVERY SINGLE TIME even though i didnt babysit the line of jumps, i sent her on a "go".

all in all its a nice facility because its full size, it has outdoor training, and full equipment (multiple sets). essentially we could become members for a nice deal - but i wasnt impressed and im not sure how driven i will be there. they liked berlin and commented that she was a VERY fast dog - and her jumping style. which is another problem - all those dogs were VERY bad jumpers.

i dont want to become a worse handler - i want to become better. im so picky. just want my old agility class :(

forever and a day

2010-09-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

so its been about forever and a day since i posted - training has been off and on. we still don't have agility class right now (which is killing us, since berlins finally showing), and rah is out of obedience since he sliced his foot open. berlin is still in novice and this coming weekend we are going to the bridget carlsen seminar, and berlin will be working it and im SOOO excited.

this past weekend berlin made her AKC agility debut - no q's, but some big strides made. it ended up being almost 90 degrees and full sun - VERY hot for a black dog. and considering berlin doesn't train outside and has been out of class for 6+ weeks, im not disappointed in the least.

first up was standard - she did really well. the mess ups were MOSTLY mine -

i did a lead out to the tire and she ran it nicely, and i left her in 2o/2o at the dog walk to get a one jump lead out (GOOD STAY and GOOD SLS here!) - unfortunately, when i was releasing her i didnt pay enough attention to the angle that jump 6 was after 5, and when i turned i almost took the jump down - clearly since *i* was running at 6, i pushed berlin right off the jump. called her back and sent her over but she was out of position for the weaves so we had to start that over. then, her big momentum caused her to fall right off the table - got her back on, and did a lead out to the Aframe. this is where i should have stuck with my original plan - i was going to go to the RIGHT of the frame and physically block her off course to the tunnel, but instead i decided to front cross her at the base. however, berlin was a bat out of hell and came down, did not hold her contacts and chose to ignore me repeatedly to go into the wrong end :) i got her in the right end, ran to the chute, and here kim made mistake 123123123 - i was going to try to pull her onto the teeter, but last minute chose to front cross in front of it - and doing that i blocked her path and she didnt see it - and put feet on it but came off (never even attempting it) - but AKC rules meant she had attempted it and that was it, we had to move on. finished the rest of the course no problem. no running, no zooming, no going after ring crew :)

jww -

i did a three jump lead out and berlin held it - YAY!!! my lead out pivot was for naught though, berlin blew right past 2 (it was a little further to the left on the course than it is on the map - just kept going, but she was distracted by a dog screaming at the other end of the ring - missed weave entrance, got it on the second try. i didnt do a tight enough pull and she missed 7 because i was pushing her too far out - but she drove the line to the tunnel and came out beautifully and we finished the course with just one glance towards ring crew :)

so, we learned a lot on what i still need to work on, but she survived her first trial. so did i!!!

2010-09-14T04:14:00.001-07:00

i know ive been a negligent poster here - life has been hectic.

we havent had agility in weeks because of scheduling conflicts.

rah sliced his foot open so he hasnt been in obedience. so its just berlin in novice.

of course, berlin has an agility trial this weekend which very well may suck since she hasnt been really training under the tutelage of anyone for awhile.

timing. sucks.

blown away

2010-09-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

im just blown away by these people and their heart.

http://www.para-agility.nl/COMPETITORS%20PAWC.htm

and the youtube channel with runs from 2008:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baWiaL5gGbw&feature=related

someone else always says it better

2010-09-05T21:15:00.001-07:00

care of lori drouin -

Personally, I think you get the most out of this sport if it helps you
> really get to know the dog you have, and appreciate his or her strengths
> and understand his or her weaknesses. The challenge is to maximize the
> former and do your best to overcome the latter. In the process, you
> discover stuff about yourself. You learn to be patient, to plan, to
> observe, to experiment and then do it all again. You find out that
> embarrassment doesn't actually kill you. If you look around, you find
> that a LOT of people and dogs face the same problems that you have. You
> meet interesting and amusing people if you take the time. There is a lot
> to be gained from any sport aside from competition results. You compete
> against your past results with THIS dog, and look for improvement and
> progress. For some dogs that will never be enough to win a class or get
> an OTCh, but it will be progress that YOU achieved.
>
> And sometimes, you discover the limits of a dog's ability to tolerate
> social pressure and the rigors of the competition setting, in spite of
> your efforts. You sometimes have to switch gears from training the
> exercise to focusing on desensitization and counter conditioning a dog's
> responses to noises, other dogs, etc.. If you put the effort in the
> right direction, you may see improvement in the exercises in the ring,
> but it might not ever be a total turn around. The dog is still improved
> from where you started, but if YOUR focus is on being better than other
> competitors in the ring, no, you may not get what you need from the
> sport while working with THAT dog. But you can't blame the dog for not
> fulfilling YOUR desire to be better than other PEOPLE. And that
> frustration can really affect a handler's ability to make the ring as
> pleasant a place as possible for the dog, which leads to a downward
> spiral of attitude on both ends of the leash. That is what I think has
> to be faced. Instructors don't want to see people blame their dogs for a
> human issue.
>

this coming weekend

2010-08-25T13:16:00.001-07:00

we got into a trial this sunday thats often very hard to get into - its very small and limited and indoors and air conditioned (yay) - i entered five months ago!!!!

berlin AND rah got in - im not going to show berlin i dont think. and i forgot i entered rah in open B - i dont remember what rah was entered in, but they have him in u tility B. im going to see if i can get him moved to utility A because i think it might be an error, though i could have entered him in b to see if i could get an UDX leg if it was going for our last leg.

so im nervous. trying not to be.

mynx's 21 gun salute...

2010-08-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

no agility this week, we're all missing miss mynx. from mynx's "grandmom" -

It is with a heavy heart that I share that retired Military Working Dog Mynx, CA71, is now an angel. She has left our country a safer place while also making it a happier and loving place.

Mynx, a Belgian Malinois, retired from our armed forces to Debbie's home.

Mynx came into Debbie's house full of vigor and life, even though she had seen bad things and outlived her handler, Rick. Her body showed signs of her working career. And even though the stress of military life is hard on humans and canines, Her heart stayed strong no matter what.

Mynx quickly learned Dog Agility -- leaving her Bomb sniffing days behind -- and was very happy with her new life. And she loved her Mom Debbie with a passion. While we used to joke about it, Mynx still wanted to scan new places like hotels for bombs. The joke being that if Mynx sat, you better run!

In Agility, Mynx quickly got to the AKC Excellent level and USDAA Advanced and Masters. She showed and qualified in agility even after she lost sight in one of her eyes. Debbie and Mynx were looking forward to showing at USDAA nationals this year.

But Mynx's biggest role in her retired life was that of counselor. She was the lifeline Debbie and Rick's family needed after his death. Nothing can express or replace the importance of that role.

Sadly, Mynx's body gave out suddenly this week. There is no doubt the rigors of her service to our country were a factor.

So please give all you dogs a hug tonight. And in your heart, as you pet your dogs, please give a 21 Gun Salute to Mynx, who gave so much of her being to help keep us safe.

God Speed Mynx.

too good not to post this here too

2010-08-17T19:34:00.001-07:00

rah's holter results are in- brandon called me today and i almost died because he did call right as i was about to step into surgery- i thought immediately something was wrong, he's NEVER called before, almost always emails!!! but the phone call was GOOD! we're down to only 89 vpc's!!!! he had 2 bigeminal beats, no trigeminy, everything else was gravy!! 6 months ago this dog had 5000 vpc's in a 24 hour period and now he's at this - and unbelievably it's still going down (this is 10 less than last time - only 10 less, but it's still less and i believe he did have one trigeminal beat)

so we're off the hook for three more months... and his heart is stable. it's almost good. better at least. he ate a plate of brownies tonight and had to have vomiting induced, it's never a dull moment...

videos from all star

2010-08-14T07:38:00.001-07:00

here are some videos from all star:

round 1, diane obrien - rah's most "controlled" round. we lost 6.5 points -

i was really pleased with both db fronts in this round!!!!

round 2 - don levinson. the first thing in the ring is where don almost knocks a ring gate over and scares the crap out of rah. takes me about 30 seconds or more to get him back into set up.

then before the fig8, don talks to me about rahs illegal collar. then of course, the infamous shitty ROH, where i have a short throw and rah has a crappy pick up - combined we get a "no chance" return. rah is definitely nervous in this round. but WE RECOVERED!!!!!

round 3. fred buroff. THE CRASH.
rah blows the DOR - not because he doesn't see my drop, but because he's running not to me but away from the judge. he's crazed. not thinking. should have given him a verbal (as both my trainers observe on the video). then... the high jump. but we recover.

im so bad

2010-08-13T15:54:00.001-07:00

i have so much to update-
i have to do a play by play of the runs at all star (i now have video!)
i have to go through agility two weeks ago (i at least have the courses)
i have to go through training this week
i also have video from the training session at top dog.

training this week was good. we're still out of agility, and next week is regionals (or maybe the week after? so we don't start until the 1st. i have to schedule some privates until then, and start working back in the yard once the heat breaks. did open and u tility with rah - started cracking down on his crazed heeling. his retrieves were better, and on monday kathy invited me to do some training with her and i worked some jump grids with him to get him more comfortable with jumping again. his fronts are kicking butt and we did some DOR work to proof him, some nice pivot work (great attention). go outs have been kicking butt, no matter what the distraction. signals will be the death of me.

berlin was very cute at training yesterday - very animated heeling and we worked on playing right into heeling and back to playing, rinse lather and repeat. her fronts and recalls were very nice, SFE perfect as were her stays. ill show her one of these days. im toying around with a few things in my mind for both of them.

maybe ill share some of the videos tonight...

wow, i missed a lot!

2010-08-09T11:25:00.001-07:00

well, we've been on a whirlwind these past few weeks - as a follow up to our trial my club hosted in july where rah earned his first utility leg, the following weekend we traveled down to NC where the working dobermans of the carolinas had their UDC show - rah finished his D-CD with typical rah antics such as trying to bite the leash and being just silly in the ring (a 193 and 193.5 - consistent and have i mentioned i hate novice??)- berlin also got her ATT with flying colors, alerting the minute the aggressor came out from the van (did we have any doubt?) - maybe a bit too early but nothing is too early for berlin! berlin also took best altered (ha ha) in a field of one. a show dog she is not, thank you to the crowd for double handling!

this past few days we've been in PA for the all star tournament - ill give the play by play for each run and hopefully have video soon.

it was such a thrill to be there - truly an honor to have qualified, a great few days doing what i love best, and so much fun hanging out with my friends, my trainers (whom i am blessed to have as friends!) and other dog people. it's a surreal experience - 6 huge rings, people all over the place, running from one ring to the next (in rally i was in three rings at once!), great shopping, tons of fun events!

we had ups and downs - i did a total of 12 runs that weekend and we were ALL tired - rah was ranked for the first two rounds of open, but he had a few mishaps - truly not mistakes on his part, but he showed a tremendous amount of recovery and that meant more to me than anything - he has a fear of male judges and he showed to not one, but TWO male judges, and worked his butt off in both classes even though the first male judge almost knocked a ring gate on him during our first set up. rah freaked, but recovered enough to work the class, but had a heartbreaker of a db throw by me over the high where it landed at just 8 feet - when he went to pick it up, he dropped it and it fell next to the jump - when he picked it up, he truly had no way to get over the jump safely and he came around.

the last run in open, we had something that almost broke MY heart - again with the high jump (guess who will be doing jump grids???) - rah took off from 12 feet back and didn't clear the jump. thank god for breakaway high jumps, but he crashed INTO the jump, took out the first two boards, and landed on the other side of the jump on his chest and his face - however, true to form he never looked at anything else and got up, picked up his DB and came back over the jump to me with it!!!! and then went to complete the next exercise without blinking an eye, like he hadn't just stopped the entire 6 ring show!!!!!!!!!!!

rah was knocked out of the placings and came in 16th, but the fact that he shook off the two spooky things that happened to him and kept working meant more to me than anything (ok, i would have loved to have been top 10 and he could have been, ill admit that!) - he's a wonderful dog and did everything i asked of him that weekend and i think that while scary things happened, it gave me some more confidence that we CAN do this and he IS a good dog. his fronts with the db were spot on, he never once thought about not coming back with it and he REALLY focused on me and gave it his all (excluding his spook events that were NQ's he worked three open rings and lost a total of 17 points!) and was rock solid on his stays despite the other dogs around him breaking.

rally came up next - what was i thinking! poor berlin got the short end of the stick because she never got the proper warm up she deserved and never got the walk throughs - she ended up in 15th place in rally novice and of the 29 points total she lost, 20 of them were MY fault (i misread the signs in a nested course and in another section i touched her!)- again, i knocked her out of the placings!

rah, here was my super star! after already working open and working his heart out, rah had to show 6 more times in super rally - and came in 7th!!! this was a hard class - many of these dogs were fresh dogs that hadn't done obedience, at least a few of these dogs in all rally levels were OTCH dogs already, and heck some of these dogs actually train in rally but he worked hard (backed up three steps in EVERY TRIAL!!!) and even humored me when i was running back and forth between three rings trying to remember courses at the same time - i ran 9 different rally courses in about 24 hours!!!!

rah's rally "team" placed third in the entire tournament - so that was awesome - it was "mixed nuts" - a frenchie, a corgi, and rah - which one doesn't belong? our obedience team, "loose cannons", didn't place but the other two teammates did (my trainer and her BC secret took second in open and another one of our friends who trains with us took second in super star with her aussie, luna).

then, berlin was on a db relay team and our team (BAZINGA!) won that too! that was tons of fun and berlin tried to chase everyone's db out and i barely managed to restrain her...

shopping was good, im exhausted today and im so pleased with my dogs who did everything i asked of them and more. now to focus back on utility...

2010-08-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

we're at the hotel in york, PA for the all star tournament which starts tomorrow! our crates are dropped off and we're all set up - dogs are passed out on the hotel bed and im ready to pass out with them... ill update tomorrow!

a little play by play

2010-07-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

so this weekend - what a high. im still just so thrilled...

on saturday we had a match and i worked rah in open and utility and berlin in novice. im too tired and have too much to do to go through each run, but berlin did a really nice job for the first one (just need to work on keeping her excitement level up and drive into the set ups and through her heeling).

set up for the show and then went home to my dads house to sleep for a few hours that night.

the next morning bright and early - got rah warmed up briefly doing left turns and slows, since this judge was a stickler for slows and had 30 foot slows in her pattern! put him away and waited for my class to start. it was a blessing showing with my trainer, she was really able to give me a lot of help there and this wouldnt have been possible without her in so many ways. i dont know enough ways to say thank you to her... (or her sister, who is my other trainer)

so we have a plan set up - rah is last in his class and the dog before me is a very slow one - we had plans on when to take him out (After she finished articles) and such - well, that dog got excused after signals and i had not even gotten near rah - i was sitting and watching, rah was still in his crate! my trainer calmed me down and i got rah out, and she trained me up to the ring - heeling, pivots, fronts, finishes, sidesteps... she had it all timed out and she moved out of the way and there i was, in the ring.

started signals - some bumping and forging as is rah's way. got to the stand (always a tenuous part for him) and he held the stand stay - i left him and walked to the end. in a heartbreaking moment i thought he was going to either walk in to me or going to down himself without my signal - he then stood back up, and i dropped him. a second heartattack occurred on the sit signal, where he didn't sit - i gave the signal, he looked at me - NOTHING - but i held the signal and gave a little more and he went up. (in B that would fail me, in A it was questionable if i would pass or not... i wasn't sure but i know in the past ive let my NQ's ruin the rest of the run so i didnt want to here... i just kept going like we were passing). called him in, he came, finished and we were done.

articles next - he found the metal and the leather just fine - fronts were a little off and finishes were crooked. got to gloves, did a good pivot but he picked the glove and dropped his head, but it was the right one - runs out, shakes and comes back - sits far out. and WONT GIVE UP THE GLOVE. i have to rip it out of his mouth - the judge is laughing at this point and he tries to bite it again on the finish!!! she's cracking up im trying to stay calm.

moving stand he locks up, just takes one single foot to move and is of course a bit crooked on the finish.

go outs - at this point im hesitantly hopeful - i give him the lock onto the go out point and he's got it - i send him and heaven help him, HE RUNS OUT. i turn him, he turns, a slightly slow sit - i send him over the jump and i could vomit. front, finish. i lock him onto the second go out. he almost leaves on his own. im praying - he has to have it, right? he wont not go out... i send him and im almost crying. i turn him 5 feet and he spins in place, perfect go out. at this point im almost delirious. i send him over the other jump and i dont even remember what the front or finish looks like because im crying at this point - she says exercise finished and the entire building screams - my trainer is crying, so are the people i train with - im covered with people clapping and hugging me and it was awesome.

so thats rah's utility leg. i have a video, i just cant figure out how to get it online... but he was a superstar. we ended up with a 187 - all front/finish issues! she also wasn't a big fan of rah's heeling :)

2010-07-26T04:33:00.001-07:00

i will post more details later, but RAH GOT HIS FIRST UTILITY LEG WINNING HIS CLASS!!!!!!!!!! im so proud. and thankful to everyone that's helped so far.

i had updates to post

2010-07-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

but all i can say is RIP kheper - another doberman gone too soon lost to DCM.

im just going to sit and hug my dogs and take some time.

wow, im terrible right now!

2010-07-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

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.

a whirlwind

2010-07-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

so havent updated in awhile.

showed both dogs this weekend in ASCA - 4 entries, 4 NQ's...

berlin didn't manage to hold a sit stay at all. she got one down stay. apparently these stays are important in obedience and nonnegotiable.

rah didn't manage to do a single go out, but came damn close otherwise to qualifying - in fact in the second run we had a 195 going into the go outs of doom.

trained last night and rah is finally allowed to retrieve again and he's in love but his mouth started bleeding after retrieving for about 20 minutes. need to whip open into shape really since weve got all star in a month... we need lots of work!

utility seemed broken.

agility was awesome though and berlin was a superstar. rah managed to bite me about 12 times including leaving two bad bruises on my arm.

the courses - berlin ran clean every time except once i needed to restart her offside weaves!!! so proud of her.

2010-06-24T05:24:00.000-07:00

last night was class - unfortunately the power went out and we couldnt do obedience- they had the first two obedience classes (attention and novice) and i had planned on putting berlin in novice, but i went to get dinner and we were late so then i was going to put her in open, but open and utility were cancelled. which rah says is ok since he couldnt train anway!

so all we did was agility - and berlin found her groove again and kicked some butt. though i REALLY need to work on her offside weaves - a lot of the akc nov JWW courses ive been seeing have offside weaves and she's not putting 2 and 2 together - she is so methodical while onside she's just flying through.

i was most proud of her for two things:

1) holding a down stay each and every time i walked the course!!!! even when i had my arms up to practice cuing crosses, etc (she often would come to me for those)

2) in one of the courses, the "out tunnel" she nailed!!!

the map:

first sequence (blue i think?)

started on the table, and just worked a huge serpentine - i chose to stay on the far side of the teeter and not put any crosses into it. the hard part was calling them to you from the table and then sending them into the tire - the dog had to square up to the face of the jump on their own - berlin handled it well. the other issue was jump 4, which was recessed so you really needed to be close where they landed on 3 to push out, and it was a very tight sequence since the jumps were only 4-5 feet apart.

second (black?) - able to lead out to just past the tire, send to the teeter and she nailed her contacts every time and held them - i then did a landing side front cross on 3 (she did SUCH a nice tight wrap!) rather than trying to serpentine all from one side because i needed to be at the weaves for her entrances (OFF SIDE UGH) - then we had to flip them off the entrance of the tunnel at the end of the weaves in front of them but to the entrance to their right. berlin at first needed ... shall we say, a little physical help :)

last sequence (red) - we had two choices, and we had to choose before we ran - we could let our dogs do either end of the tunnel, but still had to get to the weaves. one led to onside weaves (but bitch of a tunnel entry since they had to run past the open end!), one to off side (but easier tunnel entry). but picking my poison, i knew my dog would rock the onside weaves so i had to go for the difficult tunnel entry. i led out to just past the tire, called her through with a lead out pivot, and then pushed her through 3/4 - they really were that close and she bumped those jumps, no stride in between- and did another landing side front cross at 5 so i could block the incorrect entrance - and gave a very firm "OUT TUNNEL" she looked for a split second as she ran by the other entrance but saw immediately where i was sending her, and then i backed up, told her to weave and she flewwwwwwwwwwwwww single striding it, and then soared over the triple (lydia said it looked like she was about 36 inches on that one minimum, and she had her legs so high and tucked.

so she nailed that one. so happy.

now if she only had some heat tolerance for outside :)

the tooth of doom

2010-06-22T18:46:00.001-07:00

the tooth of doom is gone! he was taken in as an emergency to upenn today (they fit us in last minute!) and they weren't able to save the tooth - so they pulled it. it apparently had been dead for awhile but he just fractured it recently.

he's home right now, passed out and drooling on my lap, a little swollen but handled everything perfectly, no VPCs during the procedure and im so happy to be done with this!!

the hardest part will be that he can't have any toys or retrieve for 2 weeks!!!!!!!

TWO WEEKS.

so there goes our trial this weekend.

i dont know how on earth i will keep him quiet.

cant resist

2010-06-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

i cant resist this background, i just cant!

i know ive been remiss in posting updates. berlin is still out of obedience. she came back to agility class this week but it was clear she has NO endurance and we need to work on that - she ran 4 times and by the end of class she was in her crate with her nose pushed against the crate door, snoozing. i was running her tentatively so she was running slower than normal, and we ran her at 20 inches.

this weekend i worked some jump grids, worked weaves, (forgot to work entrances, bad me) and worked wraps, rear crosses. need to work more cues for front crosses too.

this weekend i also dropped the metal base for 6 weave poles on my foot. its not broken, but it sure feels like it.

she comes back to class (obedience) this week, i think.

rah and utility - mixed bag. we've really been putting pressure on him at the signal stay because if this is hard in training, the simplicity of it all in the ring should make it easy on him. hopefully. gloves - WHY CANT YOU LOOK AT ME. need to slow down the article pile. moving stand has been ok. and go outs have been ok this week too...

but my bigger concern is that rah broke a tooth. yes, dog with heart disease, that just had to have anesthesia to get stem cells, broke a friggin tooth. not only that, but i was prepared to ignore it - but now its abscessing and i cant ignore it - he's hesitant to chew on that side.

so now i need to figure out how i am going to get this tooth out. he has entries this weekend, but i may blow them if he has surgery this week, because he may not be able to retrieve. i need to figure out where he carries the db in his mouth... im not sure i ever looked.

i cant believe i have to put my dog under stupid anesthesia AGAIN. i cant decide if i want to try to save this tooth or just pull it. i cant even decide where to have it done...

the play by play

2010-06-15T04:02:00.000-07:00

long story short: NQ :)

the long story itself:

wake up at 4 am, get gas and coffee and im on the road by 5 am... got there faster than predicted and ended up there at 6:30. building opened at 7 and they wouldnt even let me in to use the bathroom early, so i almost peed myself.

was too afraid to do any go out practice because there was only one ring, and the judge was there - and the ring didnt have stanchions anywhere except the go out side. so i had nothing to send him to, even if no one had been there. go outs were to the big door that opens up - so the stanchion was there, but it was up against a wall of 42 (yes i counted) round metal plates on the large door that would open up the warehouse.

rah was last in the class - only one dog qualified. set him up and started signals - his heeling was beautiful. easily predicted pattern, i had the fast into the left turn halt, so i could be prepared for it and he nailed it. left turn into stand your dog. stood him, took a breath to pause. gave him the wait signal, dropped my arm and took a breath, made sure i was NOT taking off too soon. walked away and only focused on counting - i had already worked out that it would be 15 steps by walking the ring - i was on step 14 and rah comes breezing past me - he bolted. FAIL! but the heeling was BEAUTIFUL - actually very good position lovely left turns. judge said he was a LOVELY heeler.

moved onto articles. i always start with metal - did them towards go out, next to the high jump. nailed the first article. sent him for the second one and he is searching and working the pile and he picks --- the leather article right next to the right one. judge even says she doesn't understand what happened as he was close. but he had perfect attention on me while i was scenting and after she took the article and this time he didn't try to leave me to follow his article out :) great pivots too - but drops his head the minute we turn to look at his articles. OH AND HE JUMPED ON ME after i took the metal article. damned dog was like "oh, this is the right one GIVE ME COOKIE!"

hold him back a sec to let them pick up the articles, move to gloves. its glove 2, should be easy, right? we're there for awhile waiting for them to pick up the articles, im reminding him to keep his eye on me. she says glove 2, i pivot him (back pivot, since i didnt want him to see glove one, his favorite) - and it was perfect - i made sure not to stare at him but he FELT like he was in the right position, i dropped my arm and sent him... and the!@#!@# ran to glove three. brings it back, blah blah blah. judge commented that the pivot was PERFECT so it makes me think that rah was lined up for 2... his head was up for the pivot part so he shouldnt have seen 3, but i am fairly certain he picked his own glove. well, i mean, clearly he did.

moving stand - idiot nails it. others did 20-30 foot moving stands!!!!! i double checked rules to make sure it was 10-12 feet and counted that it was 5 steps (2.5 mats) - im not going further than i need to with this dog! tell him to freeze, walk away and he locks up. doesn't even FLINCH when she comes in, doesn't move a muscle, eyes on me. she even pauses after she finishes (longest pause on earth) and says "FINISH!" and i call him in - he nails the finish. YAY WE PASSED SOMETHING.

go outs... i set him up, tell him ball- and he's scanning, can't find his mark. i pull his head back up, drop him down for the mark, and he can't find it again - now he's confused. cannot find his ball. he starts to mark the jumps, looks outside the ring at a dog, i bring his head back up, she asks if we are ready, i say no (hey, we're already NQ'd, im going to try to do this right) drop him again to mark the ball and i think he's got it and then he takes off... for the bar jump. takes the jump on the way out, heads out to go out area and runs back in. we try it again, i think he has the mark, and this time the idiot goes and takes the OTHER jump...

at this point she's laughing at him and calling him a loose cannon - he's flying all over the place. almost took out the steward going after the leash, tried to pick his articles back up.

speaking to another owner with a dobe coming out in utility A that i train with - we came up with the following proposals:

1) dobermans should be able to obtain UD's by qualifying in ONE exercise in the utility class three times.

2 a UDX should be attainable by a doberman by qualifying in open 10 times, but the entire utility class once on any one of those given days (alternatively, 10 times in open and on those 10 tries, qualify one of the utility exercises for a total of each exercise needs to be qualified at least once).

3) doberman owners should be allowed to have handicapped license plates because of our dogs.

2010-06-12T19:40:00.001-07:00

for those that wanted to know, while we show tomorrow (as i mentioned in the last post), and i havent updated the training blog aspect in a week or two, we did have REALLY good news on the cardio side of things....

http://doberheartbeats.blogspot.com/2010/06/waiting-on-holter.html

2010-06-12T19:36:00.003-07:00

hugely nervous because we have our next utility showing tomorrow - which would be our second time in the AKC utility ring - this is our first time in an all breed trial, since our first time was a dobe specialty...

eeek.

mish mash

2010-05-30T05:20:00.000-07:00

this will be a mish mash sorta update!!!

first, now that berlin is off 100% crate rest she will need a refresher on what it means to listen to mom and not bark all the time :) bad bad girl! shes still not allowed to be a normal somjen dog, so shes separated from the rest of the household most of the time and isn't allowed to jump or wrestle yet...

last night she worked the full article pile!!!!! yay good for her!!! which means i guess that i have to do full ATC now and work this daily with her for the next 9 weeks or whatever it is - but she made the right decisions in ignoring the leather articles when the one i had scented/cheesed was a metal. what a very brave and smart girl. whats that, 9 or 10 finds the first week????

we had agility class this wednesday - clearly berlin is not allowed to be doing agility yet, and ive already paid for this class so i ended up running a modified course for rah since i wont put him over this dog walk.

rah was crazy but awesome - super fast, read all the crosses extremely well and gave it his all - managed to not bite me even ONCE!!! now if i could only teach this dog to weave on anything smaller than 24 inch weaves we'd be set :) it just takes him 2-3 tries to get his body into the weaves before he gets it... and if i could decide if i want to trial him or not with his heart disease... i think i might trial him in NADAC and only indoors... low jump heights, very low key, and i can train in the ring, and he already has a jumpers leg, and he can do that beloved tunnelers course. he was so crazy that he was jumping the 36 inch wing jump standards on the rear crosses with room to spare - this dog is amazing and crazy at the same time - but handled like a dream. he was so excited to be back at agility...

hung out for a long time wednesday for his utility class. don't think we did signals that day - we did do them on thursday though and he was pretty good. had a lot of distraction that day (th) including terry stomping her feet next to him, kris behind me giving my signals as well, and gene next to him waving his hands around. rah handled it well but he wasnt sure what to do with the stomping feet so he froze halfway up on the sit, so i verbally told him yes, he was doing it right and we kept going. all in all it was good.

moving stand - both days he didn't do such a bad job but i need to keep remembering that i need to really focus on maintaining his eyes drilling into me - he's not moving but hes not maintaining 100% focus on me, he's staring at the judge as they approach. at least he didnt anticipate the forward there :) i think im going to use a signal for that forward too.

articles - on wednesday there was a glove out in between him and the article pile - he kept going to the glove first, but once he got past that (with a little help from me, ha) his article pile was set within one square foot and on top of each other - but he managed to find his just fine!! on thursday we had no problems with the articles and he even ran in for a straight front!!!! nice job!!!!

go outs - we're still tweaking things because rah now feels that he has theright to go out and check out his go out toy no matter what (on the "ill get to you in a minute" plan) - so i followed him out and butt pinched him to remind him that when i say his name, he needs to turn immediately and ignore the toy behind him (whether or not its there) and sit immediately. the next night kathy had me turn and sit him very early and call him off at 20 feet or so and he did nicely. of course, then on directed jumping rah ran chest first into the jump - we got him over it and he was stutter jumping a bit but had he been paying attention instead of staring at the gloves that were on the ground by the jump he wouldnt have had such a problem :)

gloves gloves gloves - really need to work on these pivots with him keeping his head up and looking at me and not staring at the glove instead. which is going to be his downfall. i also need to make sure i dont keep pushing him backwards by staring at him.

ugh. time to work on these things. our next trial is 2 weeks from today.

2010-05-26T04:03:00.000-07:00

id really like to find outdoor agility classes for berlin.

thats provided she ever heals enough to do agility again. we've got at least 2-4 more weeks off i believe :(

(you know you're a dog sports dork when you write "she ever heels" and you have to look at that and wonder what you did wrong)

household stats

2010-05-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

someone else started, ill continue...

Ears: 1 cropped and standing, 1 cropped with one floppy, and 2 natural button ears
Tails: nubs!!!
Dewclaws: no rear dews, 2 sets of front dews.
Colors: black, white, blue, and blue tri merle
Coats: smooth and one fuzzy
Breeds: dobermans and one aussie

Sizes: 1 that is 38 lbs, 1 that is 55 lbs, and the boys are 75-85 lbs
Ages: 2, 2.5, 5 and 6.5
Testicles: none
Ovaries: none
Barkers: all to some degree. berlin MOST OF ALL.

utilitime

2010-05-21T05:08:00.000-07:00

so wednesday - no agility.

decided to put rah in open and utility because 1) he's been ridiculous since he has no playmate and 2) open broke at the match too thanks to stupid decisions on my part and poor run through procedure

we didnt do heeling in open (on hindsight) just the individuals... his fig8 wasnt bad at all - a little pushy, but he was with me and never took his eyes off me. we worked this more last night too, so ill bring it up there...

worked broad jump - did a pretty nice job. heads up working his fronts hard core even though he was sliding away from me, did a nice job so i didnt make him do more than 3 - just played some set up games and attention games there.

worked ROF, ROH and DOR - worked his trying to take the jump during the DOR when the DOR was done close to the jump, hopefully got that out of his system (for now) - clarified that. when he's within 3-4 feet of the jump he just thinks he needs to take it :) he was hitting nice fronts on the ROH and we were working some on the flat. all in all a nice class...

utility -

go outs is what we started with - rah because he's biggest. had gloves and toys out in the ring, someone doing heeling/signals in the ring with him on the side and behind him, and someone doing articles behind the ring gates that he was doing go outs to. rah handled it just fine, but he kept touching the stanchion and trying to get his ball - but he went out straight and sat when i told him to (After trying to get The Go Out Toy Of Wonder - hereby referred to as TGOTOW). Took the right jumps when i indicated them, even when simon and karin were heeling behind me and had perfectly straight fronts. last week terry had me using a calm voice for go outs and it makes a difference for him (instead of yelling the command to him) and it really has him in a smoother frame of mind.

moved to articles - he brought back the cheese article (his teaching article) - somehow it made it into the pile- ignored it, and he found the other two just fine. ill just ignore that one for now. went to signals and the slight anticipation i saw last week on the come, which turned into straight anticipation at the match now resulted in no come at all wed night. worked that - it was clearly me because he did it just fine for kathy, the person in the world he is most intimidated by because she is THE ENFORCER!!! so it was me that was the problem. tried to work through it (probably made it worse) and then just decided to ignore it...

gloves - he's NOT allowed to get his glove unless he looks at me. his pivots are still ugly. im at a loss. i give up. but he's bringing them back, albeit sometimes slow. kathy said that still looks like a dog trying to figure out what i want. i thought it looked like a dog not wanting to come near me.

fast forward to thursday -

started with heeling, he was crazy. signals- much better - did them with heavy distraction - he was able to do all the parts and even came when i signaled him to come. NICE JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

worked the moving stand- not anticipating the stand on the judges command to stand (or in rahs case, not anticipating the FORWARD on the judges command to move!) and then the stand itself. rah did a nice job.

articles - nice job on his part - even though he almost killed himself by tripping on the pile. on articles he did a better job. need to work fronts with his distraction of things he loves next to him.

go outs - worked on him trying to get his ball before he turns - started pinching his butt and now he turns on his name :) he needs to run out with an ear on me waiting for him to turn, not run out ignoring me!!!!

all in all much better...

i havent posted yet about last night

2010-05-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

i will though... but it brings up some interesting thoughts i have, especially after reading some posts from some of the email lists, and some posts from other peoples blogs...

how much responsibility do you take for your dogs reactions to things, and how he acts?

if your dog blows you off, do you say - oh that was my fault! or do you go after the dog and say "should have known better!"... does it depend on the dog? level of training? where you are? the situation? do you always give the dog the benefit of the doubt? do you always blame the handler? are there certain exercises where you always give the handler the blame? are there certain things you know you do poorly and are your fault? are there certain times where you thought it was the dog, and it ended up being you and you felt badly?

examples:

dog is called for the DOR, but takes the jump on its way to you at a match. you stop him, set him up and next time you call him, he flinches and starts, but wont come at all. now what? what happened? whose fault?

you're running a course in agility and all of a sudden your dog goes off course and takes a few extra jumps. what happens now?

a dog refuses to retrieve a db thrown - will go out to where it is, sees it, but will not pick it up.

a dog does a go out, but after the turn and sit isn't taking any jump, despite repeated signals...

after an agility run, the dog wanders away, sniffing...

the dog, seasoned at scent articles, comes back with the wrong article. lets say the dog was taught using around the clock and it brought back your cheese article. lets say the dog brought back the entirely wrong article.

during an agility course (this would be better if i had a course map) a dog repeatedly misses a push out to the tire... runs around the tire, but doesn't take it (goes PAST the tire)...

whats going on here? what do you do to evaluate whats going on? whose fault is it here? do you blame the dog? do you punish the dog? what does it depend on?

2010-05-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

no agility today - debbie got called into trial unexpectedly. which is ok, because i technically have no dog to take to agility anyway- i havent decided if im putting rah back in class yet.

so ill probably nap until i get to obedience class.

but lets discuss one thing --

ALL BREED LURE COURSING???????????????????

http://www.ukcdogs.com/WebSite.nsf/News/UKCAnnouncestheAdditionof05192010102704AM

risk of heart attack or not, rah may have to do this.

the match show

2010-05-16T17:50:00.001-07:00

had a match today... didn't go as well as i would have wanted it to go, for a variety of reasons.

rah and i weren't communicating well, and he got hectic - we worked through a lot of it, but it was frustrating. combined with him biting me about 1126092349 times, i wasnt pleased with that.

dont know if its worth getting into...

2010-05-16T06:08:00.001-07:00

berlin says dog jail killing her.

stealing this...

2010-05-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

from lori drouin ---

the end of a very lovely message -

The lesson for me is that none of our training tools should be used
without conscious choice and pointed intention. Physical corrections
cannot be exaggerated in force and used for the purpose of expressing
anger about a technical point. Food should not be used to apologize for
a lack of information, nor to distract the dog from the point of a
corrective interaction. If either a correction or a reward is to be
useful for progress, the dog has to be clear on what it was applied to,
and allowed to discover what he needs to repeat or to stop doing to get
the trainer's approval. Too much focus on "behaviors" and "exercises"
can blind us to the importance of teamwork development and two-way
communication.

2010-05-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

updating both blogs right now... ive been remiss with both of them. had lots of time to think about both of them in the past week or so :)

berlin is currently at animerge getting her spay and gatropexy on :) actually, she's already out of surgery and recovering- i already saw her post-op and she did fine, already standing and drooling her head off.

the recovery is going to be KILLER - she's on FOUR WEEKS of rest. four weeks because my dogs are friggin psychos and too active for the normal beast so it will need to be twice as long as the average dog to make sure she heals well (the pexy, not the spay) to make sure it takes. the surgeon was very glad i was pexying her because she said her chest was very deep for her petite size, so i was right to be concerned for bloat - especially for her activity :)

rah is doing great - more about that in his cardio blog. no adverse side effects right now from the stem cells, he's chipper and as annoying as ever.

training training training....

agility last night was our first time back at class in 2 weeks or so. ive done some work outside working serpentines, weaves and weave entrances (ignoring off sides since its been a problem for us lately - my new theory - ignore it if its not working!) and outs. she did awesome!!!! and i was really happy, but entrances need some work - so i spoke to my trainer and she made that something we worked on in class.

class this week we first started with entrances and shaping them - gave it a new word (i used "get in" for my memorys sake - but i can change this to "weave" i think since technically i tell her "go weave" and then have her continue with a "go go go go go " ... think that over kim) and the biggest change was i put three poles up instead of two, to make it clear she was to continue forward instead of curling back to me once she got the click and that worked like a charm to continue her forward momentum. VERY clear for her - then we had a short sequence with a jumptunnel to JUST a weave entrance - did onside and off side and she was very nice - NAILED off side!!!!!

then we did sequences - the one i remember is where i did a lead out pivot past two, then sent her through the tunnel and after the tunnel i did a nice rear cross over 4, sent her to the weaves - it worked well. she never thought about going into the weaves past two, or going straight to the jump instead of into the weaves after 4. i was also afraid she would miss the first tire since she actually was staring at me NOT through the tire because of where i had to be for the pivot... but it worked perfectly. very nice.

she did awesome - read the lead out pivot perfectly, read the rear cross just right and nailed the weaves great and was fast and accurate - i need to stop waiting and watching her though!!! and RUN PAST THE LAST JUMP!!!!!!!!!

worked her in open too since she will be out of class for so long - did some heeling and she was nice, but then i got tired - and then the cough came (bronchitis is cleared but i had a rattle come back by the end - im so out of shape!) and when i stop pushing she stops giving) - but its me, not her) but she tried and i do understand that if she's not going to bring it, i need to be the one to bring it. i really do. i just need to be the one to be able to bring it.

did some work with the broad jump, and then we broke...
started retrieves, and the db landed near annette's kids. and berlin said no. and i said yes. and she said no. and i said yes.

and then my trained came over and said YES. so berlin learned an ear pinch last night. and she got what we meant immediately - she clearly understands what a retrieve is, and i understand she doesn't love kids - but they were no threat and i wasnt putting her in danger, i wasnt asking of her anything she doesn't understand or wasn't physically capable of. i was asking her to pick up a db from within 3 feet of a child that she's MET before. and she said no. that, to me, is unacceptable. so she is now going to be force fetched to make it clear that this isn't an option, to say no to me.

rah - worked on his SFE and moving stand - he also did the SFE in novice class :) ha ha just popped him in there. never did signals with him because he did go outs so long. nothing spectacular nothing hugely wrong. gloves showing small steady progress. brought his stand back to basics - staying close, rewarding basic attention on me and not looking at the judge - had all the kids, lydia, ellen, hope, and many others touch him and rewarded STARING at me (allowed a tiny bit of foot motion) and want his eyes drilled into me - the more he looks at me, the less he will ever notice the judge coming up.

he's entered in a match this weekend - has two utility entries in june.

berlin is on four weeks of rest - this will kill me.

2010-04-29T09:48:00.000-07:00

ill post more in the cardio blog... and i should update about rah's and berlin's runs at the maryland trial -- but today is rah's 4 year got day.

im on the verge of tears and so stressed and worried about the procedure.

im trying to stay positive. really i am.

a trip to maryland... part 1 (rah's utility debut)

2010-04-26T20:38:00.001-07:00

so i said i would post about maryland - im exhausted so i might not get to the entire show but ...

the show was a lot bigger and busier than i had imagined it would be -i thought it would have been a quieter venue for rah's utility debut. i almost died when i realized go outs wouldbe towards a walkway and not a WALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the stanchions were WHITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and we were next to a freight door entrance to the ring....

i was so nervous for rah's utility debut - haven't been that nervous with him in awhile, and it showed - because i really screwed us up!!! i am solely to blame for the most part!!!! as soon as we set up for heeling/signals, she says forward and i... go FUSS! (DAMNIT!) i didn't realize that it wasn't an NQ though, because i was kicking myself and thought the entire run was gone at this point - which is another problem because at this point i should have just kept working the class and go from there, but i "gave up" and screwed him - because the verbal at the start was apparently just handler error and points off. but i didnt give him the right wait signal after the stand and he walked in on me... no signals, NQ for real.

articles - beautiful on the first article, 1 point off. second article (leather) he went out, searched the pile and smelled the right article but did the thing where he sniffed the right one and picked up the one next to it. not sure what happened - he sniffs with an open mouth and im not sure if its because sometimes he goes too fast and isn't paying attention? but other times he can separate two articles that are stuck together... the GOOD news is that 1) his fronts were VERY NICE here and 2) his pivots were MUCH better - i did a normal right pivot for article one and mixed him up with a left pivot for article two and i got two sits out of him. i had no attention on either pivot - that is bad. of course, getting the wrong article on #2 is also NQ.

gloves - walked him over across the ring, we had glove one. set him up and he was bright and happy, asked him if he was hungry for gloves :) i pivot him to glove one and its right into the freight door. but it didnt matter because he didn't have his head up on the pivot (notice a theme?) and he had already picked his glove - but it was glove 2! i looked at him and he raised his head to me, so i dropped my hand and indicated glove one - he drops his head and looks at one, so i send him - he goes halfway to one, then veers off back to two - bad dog! i stay put and he comes to front, doesn't want to give me the glove back. but he DID bring the glove back!!!!!!!!!!!!! and it was a perfect front. so that was a nice change - he at least did the pivot, did the retrieve and did bring it back. need to definitely work these pivots.

moving stand - happened very oddly because the judge was kinda in the middle of the ring waiting for us? and she had me stand rah where she was, so she was the "Target" and rah just couldnt resist walking towards her - we've never trained that, and when she saw he was going to step in towards her, she backed up - except rah kept walking as she backed up so he couldnt "freeze". NQ!!!!!!! bad blue dog - she was joking its because she has a blue border collie :) i asked if she wanted to trade, since my blue dobe loved her. huge training issue here. at least he wasn't afraid of the judge. not really an exam, he got major pets in the ring since he ended up leaning on her. not exactly what i wanted him to get from that!

lastly, go outs. please god, lets do something right! i have him mark his go out spot and he's locked on... the judge asks me if he's ready and he almost takes off... she says send your dog and again he almost takes off. i send him and he goes out... gets to his turn spot 1-2 feet from the gate and starts to hesitate but DIDNT turn, just slowed - we're in the ring (but NQing... i wasnt sure if i should have turned him?) so i opted to turn him there - he would have turned on his own had i not done it - but it was a PERFECT STRAIGHT GO OUT! she says bar and i almost send him over the high - the crowd gasped when he jumped because he's such an over-achiever. over and time for the last go out - set him up and now he KNOWS where we're going... send him and he's even faster the second time, turn him because he's on a mission and he SPINS and its perfect and he's directly in front of me. send him over the other jump and he's flying, perfect front and finish! lost 1 point on the directed jumping total!

so, all in all - utility was a bust but we had some really good things. definitely things to work on though!

coming soon -
rah in open (heartbreak) berlin in prenovice (superstar) and rally (too long of a day, but rah's first RAE leg)

a return to APDT rally

2010-04-25T16:40:00.001-07:00

we haven't done APDT rally in pretty much exactly a year - one year ago last weekend rah finished his ARCHX at the k9crazy trial in NY! so this was our return :)

ill post more details later from maryland still, i know i owe you guys that -- right now i have to go do some laundry and rest a bit.
11 runs, 8 placements, 4 first places (they ran out of blue ribbons, so we're missing 3!), 2 seconds and 2 fourths, and one NQ. finished one title - mercury's RL1.

Berlin got two RL2 legs, one RL1X leg
Mercury finished his RL1 and got one RL2 leg
Rah got one RL1X2 leg, 2 legs towards his ARCHEX and 2 legs each towards his RL2X2 and RL3X

not bad!

maryland update

2010-04-23T19:07:00.001-07:00

home from the dobe specialty. good things happened and not so good things. im disappointed in myself for how i handled things most of all, not in the dogs themselves because the dogs really did try hard for the most part. we really only walked away with rah's first RAE leg with a QQ in rally Adv/Ex B. ill update fully tomorrow when im not exhausted and feeling better but right now im beyond phelgmy and congested (showing 6 times in a building called the cow palace, all within 4 hours of each other, is probably not the best for your bronchitis and by the last 2-3 runs - all of which were within 10 minutes of each other, i had a REAL hard time breathing and i was coughing up stuff which was gross). conveniently i had 4 hours in the car on the ride home to let my lungs rest.

now i sleep. tomorrow i work, then birthday dinner 1.5 months early with the family and sunday we show. hopefully i will be better for the dogs.

2010-04-22T05:35:00.000-07:00

all we really have to say about last night was that it would have been a qualifying utility run.

and at this time tomorrow morning we will be in timonium MD preparing to enter the ring for the first AKC utility ring time of our lives. ever.

argh! what am i doing?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!??

our new glove method seems to be working. taking the only thing rah loves more than gloves and retrieving :)

2010-04-19T19:54:00.001-07:00

dear rah pretend you've been trained in utility and retrieve a glove and bring it back to me ok?

vids, wednesday class, and holter

2010-04-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

rah's wearing his holter monitor now and tried to go swimming!
last night -

started with agility - we did some skills - worked teeter and me fixing berlin flying off, then weaves and i worked berlins off side weaves (which i thought went well... until... ) and then we did sequences. since i have bronchitis and lydia will be running berlin in the USDAA trial coming up when i will be in NYC with ma mere, lydia ran berlin.

it went REALLY well except for the weaves - berlin had a lot of speed and confidence - but she entered on the wrong side of the poles both times. very odd, since it was ON SIDE weaves - and she's NEVER done that before. which leads me to wonder - in the off side weaves, when i clicked her for the entrance, did she start to think the goal was not necessarily "enter with pole on left" but instead, just nail the entrance opposite mom/handler? everything else looked really nice, including a nice serpentine INTO a threadle that she did jumping directly INTO me that she stayed WITH lydia and ignored me!!!!! so if she can handle like that at the trial (IGNORING THE STUPID WEAVE ISSUE) she hopefully will q :)

no other class until utility -

started with signals - mostly good. had some issue with people crossing in rah's path while i left him which makes him very uncomfortable with doing the signal - he freezes. but we worked through it. the funniest part was when i did the signals with my back to the door and the puppy that he really really hates outside the door and he really really really had a hard time doing them but he DID!! and then when he had ot do them with the piece of bread he really really really wanted to eat 10 feet to my left - he kept eye flicking over to it, but he did his job! (he did get the bread eventually at the end of the night!)

moving stand next, and he mostly did a nice job. earlier i was working on the finish from the stand - i had decided to try a left finish from the stand since all of a sudden rah has decided he can do one - but he was funny because he would act like he would go left and at the last minute tightly circle around to the right.

then we moved on to individual things. rah started with go outs, which really wowed me. there were toys scattered on the floor, and i just walked him in, set him up, and sent him to go out - he ignored all the toys. next go out, as he was going out, kathy threw a db right in his path - in fact she almost hit him with it !!! (we ALL know rah's deep love affair with the db!) - he didn't even flinch or look at it - stayed on his course and ran straight out to go out and turned when i told him, never looking at the db. sent him over a jump (i was also afraid he would get the db on the send to the jump) and he was great. on the next one, i sent him and she threw the db again, but then said " GET IT GET IT GET IT" telling him to go after it - still no movement from him towards the db! good boy!!! on the last one, as i sent him, kathy (who is the ONLY person on earth rah respects!!!) halfway started to tell him to sit - and told him repeatedly SITSIT SIT and he ignored her command, but turned and sat the minute i said "sit!" - GOOD BOY!!!! so i was VERY pleased with that performance from him - he ignored her and listened to me! (though to be honest, i wouldnt have been surprised if he HAD listened to her after all, she's done some of his training!)

moved to articles and he did a nice job there - his fronts could be closer and he was weird with the number 2 leather and wanted to carry that one even though it was DEFINITELY the wrong article - i did it over the weekend and he still insisted on indicating that one. must have really scented it, but he is taught on hot scent, so its wrong! but he did find the right ones. and he sat on all the pivots!!!!! but i can see where our pivot problems for gloves starts on the articles, because he sits so far back on the article pivots...

came to gloves. worked independent pivots first, and he did nicely. then got out gloves and worked those - im using mercury's smaller gloves and he did a nice job with them - if i use smaller stiffer gloves, rah can't shake them and they aren't fun and he doesn't seem to forget to come to front!! so that will be the plan for right now.

i was really happy with the utility run he had. it was solid and i couldnt have asked for more right now - there are definitely pieces that need work still though!

tagged, im it...

2010-04-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

i was tagged in the photo game...

1) open your first picture folder
2) find the tenth picture
3) post it
4) explain the story

the irony is, the picture isn't even of my dog, its of lydias :)
this is lydia trying to stack bunny - she had just groomed her and she was trying to get an indoor stacked shot of her almost a year ago to see how she was growing and to send it to the breeder.

this past weekend we had the match on saturday - i worked the entire match in the utility ring, mostly as judge (even with my bronchitis!)

rah had 2 utility runs, 2 open runs and berlin had 2 novice runs.

berlins novice run (the first one) was great. she was almost wonderfully perfect. slightly back on her straight straight sits, but nice. great heeling - slight lag (like, cm lag?) for a split second on the outer post of the fig 8 but she pushed up and fixed it on her own. perfect SFE. funny fronts and we need to fix that. heel free was marvelous. i was so happy with it all, i just played with her later.

rah's utility was disaster. not really, but i feel very not hopeful right now. signals and articles were fine. moving stand not bad, neither was go outs. but god, gloves are broken.

open wasn't bad, just maintenances pieces.

gloves. ugh. ugh .ugh.

class tonight

2010-04-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

got to class early tonight, had some dinner, coughed up a lung, and then got to working some gloves with rah.

worked on pivots with gloves on the ground and just rewarded pivots - we were good.

worked on glove marks, we were good.

put it all together and he was fine with going out - but wouldnt come back with the glove and instead wanted to shake shake shake the glove and kill it and take his time coming back and play around.

put him on flexi and back to our problems. no pivots dont want to mark definitely dont want to go out. PAIN IN MY BUTT ARGH.

played around with fixing in, took him off the flexi again, followed him out and played from there.

went to berlin's class - almost noone showed up so it was just me and terry with law in this class so we worked some heavy distraction.

started with high jump and recalls - berlin doing ROH while law did recalls right next to each other and each dog had to wait and have the other dogs commands called for them. berlin did really well and never anticipated anything! we worked on trying to find her right distance - she's having trouble collecting herself to hit the front - but with all her agility work and grid work she should be able to gauge the distances just fine. we gave her more space and it didnt get better - so its going to be that she just needs to fix her front herself :) we will put down guides and work them again on our own.

switched it up and worked recalls while law was on the ROH - at one point the db came right into our path so berlin ran and retrieved it and came to front, what a silly girl :) she's so cute.

went and worked fig8's - she was PERFECT. did it off leash and she was just ON ON ON. terry said there wasn't a single thing as a judge she would or could have taken off for it. YES!!!!

moved onto ROF and broad jump - berlin did flat first while law putzed around on the broad. again with front issues - now its that she wasnt paying attention and when i reminded her, she over corrected. so that is something we will have to work again - she needs some front work on the flat before we incorporate it with the db i think. like rah, have db in mouth, front goes away :)

her bj was BEAUTIFUL - we did our first real official ones and i eliminated her double commands (SINCE THIS IS HOW I NQd RAH) and just sent her on a verbal. she was setting up like a dream, getting nice air, and had very cute fronts.

terry was commenting that berlins training was REALLY coming together and all the parts that had been causing a problem were really working.

went to heeling and at this point im practically coughing up a lung... the utility class shows up and we do some group heeling and i decided to drop berlins leash and start heeling. we did some pick up into heeling games so the dogs were working at catching up so they could figure out that they COULD be lagging and find their way back into heel. berlin was ON . then we did some heeling patterns on our own. i screwed up a few parts (didnt do a real fast, because i couldnt at this point run after 2 hours of training because my lungs were dead, and threw her out on a right turn) but she was right there with me and i loved it.

so berlin was such a good girl. THAT DOG I CAN TAKE IN THE RING. i have to have this confidence in her and she can do it. we can do it.

rah i have to beat him to get these gloves to work.

2010-04-08T13:06:00.003-07:00

entries sent for berlins first USDAA (agility) trial... lydia will be showing her since i will be in NYC with my mom... and then that night we will be packing up the dogs and leaving for FL!!!! talk about cutting it close :)

2010-04-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

no agility class tonight because debbie was stuck in court... we ended up going to class early because they had air and i havent turned the air on yet (im angry at the thought that 5 days ago, i had the HEAT ON and now its 93 outside and were dying out here!!!!)... didnt do open and im still feeling sick, so just did utility.

started with signals. all the dogs had issues when people were crossing the paths of other dogs/handlers that they would get distracted and miss a signal, or see it and just not move, even rah. so we tried to avoid doing it, and rah and most of the dogs were spot on. he didnt move at all on the stand either, so that was good!!!!

next we did rotating go outs - every dog in the class rotated through and we did one go out like we were in the ring - walked in, set up, did a go out, and then walked out. rah aced every one of them, it was very nice!

moved onto articles - rah was funny and brought back last weeks articles (which were LYDIAS SCENT!) before mine... weird. then he found mine... need to work those fronts. im not going to nit pick him. get the UD and then work the fine points.

moving stand - PERFECT. very nice for him, considering his issue with not wanting to be examined and moving when the judge finishes the exam and when they say call your dog.

gloves we fell apart... so much falling apart. i need to work pivots and dead recalls with gloves and dead retrieves and all the pieces again because he fell apart this week. ugh. of course.

we can do it. we can do it. we can do it.

2010-04-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

if we can ever get past this whole thing with rah being vWD affected rah's stem cells are scheduled for may 4th... nervous. very nervous.

rah is entered in utility april 23rd.

he is also entered in open B, and rally adv b and excellent b that day.

GO HARD OR GO HOME.

(berlin is entered in rally nov b and prenovice as well).

nothing like showing 6 times in one day. mercury was going to be entered as well, but lydia forgot to enter him.

im sick again - so some funny videos

2010-04-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

so i havent done much - thursday i skipped training. wednesday was a small agility class - worked weave entrances in sequences and berlin was AWESOME - then she got sick :( did rah in utility but by then i was so sick i cant remember much of it.

but instead, i leave you with this -
there's a reason why dobermans aren't a grooming intensive breed.
on the bright side, berlin is the only dog in the house that really likes the high powered blow dryer. i mean, really likes it. it's even better than air in a can.

for some reason, lydia considers this less than helpful and has to lock berlin out of the room.

i cant imagine why.

new titles, crash and burn :)

2010-03-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

i never posted about training this week. agility was good and berlin held her contacts for a dogwalk that was incorporated into a course consistently, which was nice!!! maybe she will compete again :) lydia wants to run her in a USDAA trial in may, i think ill enter her. i cant run her that day because i have a date with my mom in NYC ... but lydia can! (berlin is currently doing the "i have no legs" curl on the couch, with her front legs underneath her - its adorable!)

did open with berlin and utility with rah wed night because thurs we skipped class to show!

so this week is a big show weekend here in NJ for the obedience folks - three day cluster of obedience and rally (4 for some breeds) in edison, NJ - a HUGE trial that is VERY noisy and loud at one of the largest venues here, and then a double trial today hosted by an obedience trial.

i entered rah at the specialty obedience on thursday - obedience was limited to nonsporting, but rally was opened to all breeds. i went with a friend who has shibas and she made her debut in novice A with her dog. rah finished up his RE by winning the excellent B class with a 99 and it was great - he didn't care about the noise and worked like a dream - just bumped me on a pivot for one point off. i was very proud of him!

i had him entered the next day in open B under a judge i LOVE... and i promptly NQ him on the first exercise (the broad jump) by giving a verbal and a signal! im not sure what i was thinking, he worked well for the rest of the class save for his fronts but those were also my fault - his heeling was VERY well controlled (the judge even commented so to me as we were setting up for the next exercise after heeling!) and she was joking with me for the entire class -which is why i love showing to nancy!

i seriously had a brain fart - not sure why i did what i did. he did much better with the fig 8 before the heeling in this show and his heeling was VERY controlled (for him) in the ring. i trained through half the exercises and i did screw him up on just about every front, so that was all me and i admit it - he didn't know what was going on there, and i cant get on him for that. i also set him up at the wrong distance for the high jump and he barely took a full stride before he took off and it was a VERY scary jump for me. and since i was so close he almost hit me on the front. i think i rocked a bit on the front on the DOR.

so rah is in the market for a new handler. time to prep for our utility debut in a month... no video of the rally run, but here's the fateful open run

if you turn the sound up all the way you can hear how noisy the venue was - rah was a very good boy!!!! BAD HANDLER.

but still, rah finished his RE with style!

now to figure out when we will be doing stem cells so that i can enter rah in utility :)