a little detour...

figure we could use a picture post...

first, one of rah's crimmus gifts... from his auntie tamena!



rah is suspicious that despite my promises, his sit stay will NOT be rewarded with my dinner.



meanwhile, his sister is apparently acting a little... slow... tonight and is trying to eat raw spaghetti off the floor. it's not easy.






and the big event of the weekend - their matching jackets FINALLY CAME!
berlin says they even taste good

but not as good as snow

or apparently my deck.

ALL THE SNOW IZ MINE



pick on roo time

she tells mercury to back off

NO REALLY BACK THE !@#!@# off


little miss has a big mouth.

who did you say was eating snow?



and finally, as my spaghetti cooks, we played db games.
rah says, you really want me to let HER touch it?


i can has sketti now?


please please no more pics

the delay is inevitable

better late than never again, but here's thursdays recap.

got to class - berlin was up first. we started with heeling and berlin did pretty well - her attention is getting much better and im much more pleased with her head position - i dont feel that she's lagging. i do think her left turns could be tighter (more rah-like) because i want to see her snap her butt around like rah, so im going to have to keep working her on that. she sees my cue, but she's small enough that she can just stop moving and that way she doesn't hit me. i actively want her maintaining heel position and driving backwards if she needs to.

we moved to figure 8's - her hind end was a lot tighter there, even though i was going very slowly. much better than the CDSP trial (ha). worked set ups and breaking o ut while terry talked and if the stewards weren't ready.

moved to the SFE. Terry did it in the new way the judges are supposed to and it shocked berlin into scooting her butt outta there the first time, but she was fine the second time. she's still doing a kickback and kick MEGA out to the side stand, so i need to work on that because it will bite me in the ass for utility. transitioned that over to the heel free.

worked fronts - she was much better this time, less paying attention to other dogs and came in fairly straight - she's so nice and tight when she does get to front!
did stays and she was good. then while open worked, i did db work with her - again backchaining her and she was great for 10-15 minutes, im very pleased with how that is working. except i need someone else's hands (lydia) to go to the next level because my arms are only so long :)

the open class was working fronts and finishes, so i popped rah into that and worked them - i didnt do off center, but i worked straight ones each time

went into utility - we started with signals and heeling - first as a group, then we each did an individual run. was was almost perfect for signals (we're at a distance of about 10-12 feet right now) and im happy with that - terry was making fun of him quivering in anticipation of getting to do something he was so eager.

the downside was his heeling - hes not forging now, but his new habit is he's using my hand as a head rest and he's pushing right up against my hand - and when he does it he sidewinds really bad - terry can tell exactly when he does it. my hand is soaked in spit when we're done heeling (since he froths at the mouth when we train- yes, i know he's a dobe). so have to fix that now. he's also started popping up and down during the change of paces - when he knows we're going to get a normal, he starts hopping up in place. argh. he's too smart. when we approcah a ring gate and he knows were going to need to do an about turn, he starts it before its called, too. WHY DOES HE KNOW ALL THIS WITHOUT ME.

articles next, which were terrible - we were working with distraction (rah had objects in his pile) and he didnt work the pile at all, just poked and grabbed and ran. im going to back him up to week 6 or 7 this week and start him over with distraction - he was too stressed and he wasnt working at all. i should have seen this coming a few weeks ago when he was getting too cocky and stopped working the entire pile.

gloves were next. we worked pivots for 10-15 minutes first - probably his best exercise. ironic because i left pivot him for all gloves, which i dont see most people doing - but he has better butt control with left pivots than right ones, and i stand a better chance of him being straight ( and thus losing less points) by left-ing him for glove 1 and 2 as well as 3. then we put it together with the gloves - he marked and retrieved beautifully, shook a bit on the return, but then he blew the fronts. get him jazzed up and NOT THINKING and he cant find front if it had a big fucking arrow pointing it out.

moving stand - nothing to write home about. put it together with a call to heel for the first time, he got that just fine.

go outs. worked him full distance for the first one - he looked, got to his toy, and stole it and ran. bastard dog. went half distance, followed himout, and told him to sit. when he does, he spits out his go out toy, so i reward him with his other toy. this week we didnt work calling him off the toy at all so as not to confuse him. but he was so bad he got no jumping again. i dont think he got to work direction in like 2 months (and it showed at open training on new years day). terry said to work it completely separate from his go outs for now.

ill say it again. utility is hard hard hard.

rah's first open show is in less than a month.

open class last night

last night was open - got there early and brought mercury, who was just happy to get out of the house i think :) (lydia comes home tomorrow)

we started with stays - he was fine, but he sat up after the out of sight down when i was in heel position waiting for her to say exercise finished. if he blows our Q for doing that i will strangle him!!!!!!!!!!!

we started with retrieve on the flat, and we used boards to get straight fronts. restrained retrieves first, and he was so jazzed up i had him lifted off the ground he was so keyed up. we had a breakthrough on how he was sitting crooked even though hes coming in straight - hes putting his right front foot more forward than his left after he sits, so its making him crooked overall and we're working on that. then we did some formal retrieves and that was nice. good fronts.

moved to drops - regular fronts mixed with DOR's and he was shaking he was so excited. i have to make sure when he drops that he goes all the way to the ground - sometimes he's so anticipating the call from the drop that he is hovering over the ground - and while other dogs that have hair can get away with it, he's got no hair to hide it ;)

brought out the jumps and the broad jump - his broad jump was LOVELY and he came in perfectly straight so i only did 2-3 of them. very pleased with that. i had one guide on top, one cone at the tip of the guide, and one cone to the right of where he would come in for front to prevent him from rotating.

his ROH was rought - he focused in lovely, he went over the jump each time and even did it when it was a really tough retrieve both times - one was very tight (when he landed he was pretty much on top - the other was a throw where it landed right in front of the crates and he had to go up to the dogs in their crates to get it. but him coming back and getting into front in that short of space isrough rough rough. i had forgotten his front box at work - i need to do all these on flexi's too.

then we did heeling - he's not cutting me off nearly as much, but now he's pressing his face into my hand. but the heeling wasn't bad.

im tired and going to nap before class tonight. had to shop for curtains this morning and also traded cars with my dad, so i have the suburban tonight.

is it winter outside?

worked the dogs outside today- figured i cannot possibly give up both outdoor trials AND trials to men right now - so rah has to work on one of them. its much easier to train outside than it is to find males that know the sport of obedience or are willing to work and not do weird things around a 100 lb doberman, so outside it is.

anyway, it was only 40 outside, so i spent 20 minutes lugging out all the jumps, the ring gates, etc and setting up a combined open and utility ring. it took forever it seems, and i wish i had a place where i could leave out all my stuff safely - but even in this weather, i wouldnt...

so i end up doing it in the yard as always - and its annoying because i have to do it with all the neighbors watching, interrupting, and walking by. and of course the insane amount of bikers that bike by...

worked on heeling first - he wasnt bad. clicked for attention and hes much forgier outside, but eventually he got back into position within 1-2 minutes and was working nicely - especially considering i didnt warm him up at all (bad mom). then we worked some fronts and he still has no real idea of this whole front box thing and i really dont know any other way to convey this to him. then we did retrieves over the flat, and he did nicely on those - actually came in straight (but he was on flexi, im not going to let him be wrong any more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). the neighbors dog came out at this point 20 feet away and started lunging and barking at rah - he was distracted for 10-20 seconds, but i just set him back up in heel and rewarded him paying attention to me and within a minute he was zoned back on me and ignoring that damned beagle. worked broad jump but without all the dohickeys i need to get that right (i left some in the house) he was cutting the corner. i need his jump stick to make sure he doesnt cut that corner too much.

then we went onto utility and worked his go outs. THEN THE SQUIRREL CAME OUT. rah couldnt think with the squirrel nearby. he was so focused on the squirrel we just stopped training for 2-3 minutes and he needed some major leave it focus on mom work. back to go outs - hes still not fully grasping this whole go ALL the way out and turn when i say turn - sometimes before the toy, sometimes after. hopefully it will click in soon. then did directed jumping and he tried to pick his jumps again.

ended with some heeling which he was ridiculously keyed up for and so crazy that he was jumping up and almost biting me but very happy, and then signals.

utility is goddamned HARD.

then brought out the baby girl - and while rah is a battle to work outside, i do believe this dog was meant to be outside? her heeling was BETTER outside than it was inside - she was positively floating, she was launching herself into heel position, she was so cute, she would get distracted and then be like NO WE WERE HEELING and she would look at me and JUMP back into heel and wag her tail at me like "i remembered!" not bad for my baby girl. she barely took her eyes off of me. her set ups were beautiful, and she had the pizazz that ive seen lacking sometimes at class when she gets bored doing the same thing over and over again.

so looks like ive got a lot more training outside to deal with - one because its his achilles heel, one because she loves it :)

im exhausted now.

in one of the LJ groups, some people were talking about exercises to teach heel. and i realized i needed to work on berlin's left turns, so i recorded some of our working 2-3 weeks ago...

working the baby girl -
she's trying to figure out what i want in this tiny space :) she tucks nicely at the end of this video, good hind end movement.


the end result - some nice butt tucking for the lefts -





and working the noodle man.


here is his left box - working left turns repeatedly and incorporating backing up into each turn.


more left/heel work.



and we turn in circles until i get dizzy.

a recap of the new year day

it seems all i do is run late here...

new years day was open training at hunterdonk and i took both dogs and pretty much was there for 4 hours. i brought my homemade monkey bread (which was a huge hit!) and it was nice - i was able to train for 10-15 minutes then sit down, hang out for a bit, and then train again.

started with rah - i set the entire ring up, and then worked on ring entrances with rah, taking the leash off, and heeling him over to a set part to start the heeling. did that for 10 minutes or so, then worked fronts, DOR, ROF, and ROH. his fronts are still so so. qualifiable but not perfect. im going to lose most of my points there.

put him away and brought out the baby girl - worked her mostly on heeling - she had nice attention but she was a little distracted by the new dogs at first. i did some moving attention, some cooperation, and she settled in nicely. im working on moving her position forward a tad (i know, terry will KILL ME) and keeping her active and attentive.

break time, then brought rah out. worked fronts with rah again, then i started heeling practice with him, left pivots, etc. then we started go outs - turning him off the toy. then we did directed jumping and he was a total screw up. elsie said the distraction of new dogs, and having a 4 foot wide jump was oto much for him.

put him away, brought berlin out and moved the jumps closer - worked her on some baby directed jumping. she did well there.

brought rah out, worked on retrieves and did scent articles. he nailed them.

called it a day.

im sure there was a lot more, but i just cant remember it. i know i did signals, i did set ups, etc. but... just cant remember too tired...

a little privacy

had the private lesson yesterday - went well.

started with berlin - she took the db happily for about 10 minutes, but we were trying to get her to move with it - she was clearly confused. we tried a bunch of things. first, getting her to move with the db in her mouth with food, then luring her with a second db. tried restrained recalls with the db - in the end we ended up using a second leash to put under her chin and i just grabbed her flat collar and we trotted around the room - the faster she moves, the less she thinks about the db. her problem is the minute you reward her at all, she thinks its time to out the db! shes clearly confused, so we used as little force as possible (though after awhile she stopped taking it, so i did place the db into her mouth) - we didnt have to do a forced retrieve.

then we went to rah - and we worked his broad jump and his fronts together. hes been anticipating his signal on the broad jump because he loves it so much, so if i just hang out next to the jump and dont send him, he eventually just takes the jump - we worked that out (i was afraid the judge being there saying "send your dog" would just make it worse), then we worked on his route after the jump and to get to front. i have his front box made, so we spent an hour doing that. bless his soul he will do that repeatedly over and over again - and he was so silly! she was setting up cones for him to have a barrier on the side to prevent a wide turn, and he decided that they were to be gone around as well. he did well with the front box a few times, but when he gets jazzed up or is moving fast thats when he cant be bothered with the box.

i ended up working them for about 2 hours, and we have open training later today for new years day. im exhausted and didnt sleep well last night... a lot more details went down in the class, but im too tired and lazy to write them all down.