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...

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

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 ...

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

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

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!!!!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!