Wednesday, July 27, 2011

still no UD

the trauma of showing blueblurry in open.












and instead all i have to show you are these.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

no go

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.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

awesome training - are we doomed this weekend?

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.

Monday, July 4, 2011

i fail at this updating thing

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...