some work at the house...

well, syracuse is over and done with. i ended up not staying for sunday - rah was off his game in a big way, and his skin was worse than ever. came home and started meds - he's on steroids, chloramphenicol (antibiotics), and im going to start atopica again on friday after the show. he cant live like this, my poor man. the good news is, even with just two of the three, he's feeling much more comfortable and can lay down now without chewing himself raw. and he's not bleeding all over the place now!

monday we took the day off and just took a nice long hike (i never post pics here, im so bad, so here is one!) and the dogs had a blast.

we're back in classes tonight, it's been TWO WEEKS that we havent had class on wed, and three i think on thurs since i missed all last week - HOW WEIRD!!! i still haven't decided if im showing rah tomorrow morning, but...

yesterday i started berlin off on some utility stuff. she learned some basic go outs, and she thinks they are hilarious - in fact, later on i tried to do some pivots and heeling, and i walked her up to my gate and she tried to touch the stanchion for a cookie :) GOOD GIRL - now to understand that its not just get the cookie, its go out STRAIGHT until i tell you stop :)

also worked some marking of cookies - specifically i put multiples down and had her mark only one, and that was the one she was allowed to go get. she did well!

if only she had a good solid retrieve, i would be able to start scent articles - i think i may have a way to start some basics for her without a good retrieve though - doesnt involve retrieving, she can indicate without it. but we DO have to work on this whole retrieve thing.

then i brought rah out -worked on his go out with a turn and sit - BEFORE he gets to the stanchion. he seemed to understand it - its very tight timing though on BOTH our parts.

today im going to take them outside and work on some directed jumping - berlin will learn it, rah will proof it. berlin has really nice jumping form though, so it shouldnt be an issue.



i just dont know about showing rah tomorrow... but id hate to end his novice career on such a crappy note. wouldnt be so bad if i didnt have to leave th ehouse at 5:30-6 each morning to show. POO.

well, i think our syracuse trip is over!

berlin did well today too - i ROBBED her of first place and her 99 by having to redo a station because i forgot to tell her front!!! she was standing in front of me and since i didnt say front, she just went back to heel - ARGH! would have been nice to have three blue ribbons - as is, we didnt place at all in this class, but thats ok - we ended up with a 96. so her scores were 99 - 94 - 96 in this cluster - her attention wasnt as good, but i can tell she's getting tired. but two first places, and a new RN :) WOOHOO BERLIN!

rah is a mess. i dont know if i posted it, but i cultured his skin prior to leaving last week, and it came back - as some nasty stuff. he has MRSI -- methicillin resistant staph intermedius. which is bad bad bad bad bad - MRSA (methicillan resistant staph aureus) is the nosocomial infection you worry about getting when you are in the hospital, and rah has a similar one. he's sensitive to TWO antibiotics right now - one that can harm his kidneys and the other that can hurt ME by causing aplastic anemia...

anyway, i didnt start him on anything, since i got the results monday, figuring i would do it when we got back (true to form, i picked the drug, chloramphenicol, that would hurt ME _ cant risk rah's kidneys!) - but his skin is getting worse with all the rain up here, he's a big red raw pustule. he's so itchy, i had to start him back on steroids last night.

my poor baby- once we get home tomorrow im starting him on antibiotics and im going to start atopica again - i just need to get metoclopramide to stop him from yacking, and i need to freeze the atopica. his skin is getting out of control.

anyway, they cancelled the match at the show today - combined with my feelings of doom and rah's just general blah-ness, i think im not going to show him tomorrow. we will stay in the hotel because, lets face it - we all seem to like hotels and i already paid for today anyway, but tomorrow morning im going to pack up and just come home i think, rather than show him. his class doesnt start until noon, and we wouldnt be able to leave until 1-2 pm, putting me home at 6-7 pm or so. rather, i think ill leave at 10 am and get home at 2-3 pm so the dogs can hang out at home and i can do some cleaning around the house. get some stuff done. laundry. probably clean the rabbit.

im still angry that i broke rah this week, but i feel like we can overcome it. i wish we had the match to do some work, but im going to approach training this week like always and see how we do. it sucks that were on first thing at both shows this coming week in reading - we shall see if terry things i should show him or not. ill talk to kathy and terry wed night.

a new day

well, todays a new day in syracuse. berlin isn't on until 1:15, so we have awhile until we need to leave for the show. im not showing rah today because its a male judge, but i will hopefully get them both into the match this evening. and i want to take a trip to the big building to shop with them both!!! berlin deserves a toy for her title :) maybe a monkey stick like rah got?

im trying to be more optimistic about rah - hes an awesome dog and he can be fixed. this stress in the ring can be worked through.

i will fix it. i will fix it. i will fix it.

syracuse updates

well, here they are.

im happy and sad and frustrated. rah is sucked and not performing as well as he should be, and its my fault for making dumb decisions for him. i DID show him yesterday because he warmed up so well, but i worked him too much and he did a great SFE but everything else fell apart in the ring. today berlin barked her fool head off while we were working and he had a lot of trouble working through her screams, but we were qualifying(not pretty, i think we had a 180?) but apparently he repositioned during the long down and NQ'd us while i was walking away. however, every dog except him and the dog next to him broke and started running around the ring and HE HELD HIS DOWN SO THAT IN MY MIND WAS A HUGE BIG MOTHERFUCKING STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

tomorrow they have a match i think and i am going to enter him in it, i think. and work him through this crap. crap i CAUSED.

berlin, on the other hand, is a supa-star. she took first in NovB both days (rally) and finished her RN WOOHOO and beat like 15-20 dogs each day. she's been a super good girl except for her barking while rah is working. poor rah.

i regret showing him monday. UGH rah deserves better than me.

pulling rah

I think I've made the decision to pull rah from two of the shows in Syracuse - the two i am showing to men. practiced some SFE's to men, and he's not up to where I want him to be - and rather than risk him 1) having a bad experience in the ring 2) learning he can get away with it in the ring or 3) god forbid, someone views him as a dobe acting aggressively (even though hes a weenie) - i cant risk it - so terry and i think its safest to just pull from those runs.

which sucks - i had hoped he would be able to handle it, but i dont want to have BAD runs... terry said i could just skip all of syracuse - but thats a lot of entry fees (almost 200 bucks) -- but i would save myself like... over 340 bucks in hotel fees, gas, and food? but berlin should finish her RN this weekend... i SHOULD go. i SHOULD.

i shouldnt let rah's pulling from half the trial taint the rest of what we can do up there.

im sending my computer to the computer gen-yus to be fixed since it has trojan viruses all over... and hopefully he can fix it.

anyway, class last night - did novice with berlin (and yes, she's moving up to next week!) for half of the class, then my lungs gave out and lydia worked her. then i did a drop in of open with rah, with not a lot of heeling (again, my lungs).

berlins heeling was pretty - she has moved up (which is slightly forgey, but pleases me because it reminds me more of rah) - her sit cues are there, she's sitting straight, but i have to watch she doesn't get too loose an interpretation of heel. im toying with getting more animation from her. she was so nice though to heel. did attention games and she did well there, too.

lydia did her fig8 and SFE and they were nice from what i saw. i still need to practice with her not popping out to the side - she has a lovely kickback stand from heel position (so when you tell her to stand, shepops her back feet out from behind her but doesnt move her front feet at all) but she does so sideways!

lydia then did fronts and finishes and they werent bad. stays were iffy for her - lydia handled her and i handled rah, and the honest truth is, she's not ready for me to do that (she kept staring at me)- especially because

RAH DID HIS FIRST OUT OF SIGHT STAYS AND DID SO PERFECTLY. even with lydia and kathy throwing cheese right in front of the dogs for the stay :) rah was quivering by the end, seriously, visibly shaking... he wanted that cheese so bad.

woohoo rah :)

rah heeled a bit and it wasnt anything to write home about - not ugly until
kathy threw cheese RIGHT in front of rahs face and he turned his head to get it. then i caught him by a collar and yelled :)

then we did exercises. its so nice to have a dog that finds the actual work so rewarding - he gets drooly mouth he's so into it (he froths) and he jumps 5 feet in the air. the minute i tell him to wait with the db, he stares out and shakes anticipating where i am going to throw it. on the drop on recall, he shakes when i drop him, just waiting for me to call him back into me.

i love this dog. LOVE him. love him to death. we may not be perfect (yet!) but no dog can match his enthusiasm for everything- he will do this all day long for the pure joy of the sport because there is nothing more fun for him than work. what did i do to deserve him???? and then to get berlin, a rah in the making? (if only she would think the db was just as much fun as he does... we will get there, we will get there...)

i love my dogs.

im still coughing.

a no show

i have caught the plague, and had to skip the show today. alas, rah has spent the day lounging about, chewing on himself, and berlin has spent the day driving us all crazy.

me, ive been coughing up a lung to the point that my head is pounding and i think i broke a rib.

so im thinking im not going to be showing tomorrow, either. ive finally got something in my system to suppress coughing and im going to attempt sleep soon. my dogs all have had the past two days off from training. maybe tomorrow i can scrounge the energy to leave the house and take them for a run somewhere.